Andrew Lipovsky/NBCMeek Mill made a powerful return to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Tuesday night, one year after getting arrested after performing on the late-night show.
In his first interview with Fallon since the arrest, the rapper talked about his efforts to shape prison reform alongside his friend, 76ers owner Michael Rubin.
Mill started by explaining that when he was 19, he was arrested and given 10 years probation.
"If I was to loiter or get a traffic ticket, I could go to jail for years," he explained.
That's what happened last August when police arrested him for riding a dirt bike through the streets of New York City. He was in prison for five months, while the public advocated for his release.
He explained that there is a double standard for black Americans when it comes to probation.
"You got a group of Caucasians kids, they're like us. A lot of them are addicted to opioids," he said. "They go to treatment. We go straight to jail. People like me get the bad end of the stick."
Mill and Rubin are trying to change this with their new organization that aims to cut the population in U.S. prisons in half.
Despite being treated poorly by the justice system, Mill told Fallon that he still feels lucky because of the support system he had throughout this journey.
"And I feel lucky to be able to shed life -- on a show like this -- for people who are trapped behind walls," he said.
Mill closed out the show with a performance of "Dangerous" with Jeremih and PNB Rock.
Having one of the worlds top predators take up residence in the middle of your town may not seem like a welcome surprise. But, when that predator is the worlds fastest bird and provides the chance to capture its behaviour at its nest site, courtesy of a top 4K camera from Hikvision, it proved to be too good an opportunity for the people of Taunton and UK peregrine experts to miss.
The Peregrine Falcon is a large, powerful, and breathtakingly fast bird the fastest animal on the planet. In normal flight it cruises at 40 mph and can reach 65 mph in a chase. But, on the hunt, it can dive towards its prey at more than 200 mph.
The peregrine has little to fear except man, being driven close to extinction in the 1960s due to human persecution and the impact of pesticides in the food chain
Taunton Peregrine Project
A top predator, the peregrine has little to fear except man, being driven close to extinction in the 1960s due to human persecution and the impact of pesticides in the food chain. With the benefit of stronger legislation and listed species protection, these birds have recovered in their natural strongholds and have now expanded into many urban areas.
Just like the urban fox, the peregrine has found our built environment a perfect place to call home, lifelong pairs nesting in their eyries on tall structures and high-rise buildings and feeding predominantly on feral pigeons. St Mary Magdalene Church in Taunton, Somerset, found itself with a pair of peregrine falcons at the top of its 163-foot church tower earlier this year and quickly turned to naturalist and ecologist, Michael Leigh-Mallory, to lead the Taunton Peregrine Project.
Monitor Birds behaviour
Working with Coomber Security Systems, a total of five Hikvision cameras were installed to monitor the birds behaviour, with all the video feeds wirelessly transmitted to a Hikvision NVR and 4K monitor within the church.
Located in the heart of Somersets county town, St Mary Magdalene can trace its history to the early eighth century when Christianity was established in Taunton. Since the 12th century, the church has been built mainly of sandstone and this ancient structure provided the first challenge for the installation team as no drilling or permanent fixing to the listed buildings structure is now allowed.
The second challenge to the team: placing all five cameras at a height of more than 160 feet within the confines of the church tower
Highest point possible
Naturally, the birds chose the highest point possible to establish their perch, providing the second challenge to the team: placing all five cameras at a height of more than 160 feet within the confines of the church tower and in positions that would allow the Peregrine Project to observe the widest possible range of behaviours, including in-flight as they arrived and departed the site.
Finally, the ornithologists were determined that the monitoring activities should not disturb the birds. This meant locating the NVR and 4K monitor at ground level at the opposite end of the church.
Comprehensive coverage
Coomber Security Systems took on the task of designing and installing the bespoke surveillance system, using Hikvision PoE Switches to provide power and data handling for all five IR-equipped cameras that were sited on the tower.
The three 4K Vari-focal bullet cameras were mounted on wooden poles and then strapped to the tower to overcome the prohibition on making any permanent change to the church structure. Between the three feeds, the project team can see the birds in the air arriving at and departing from the tower, together with comprehensive coverage of the nest box that they installed in the hope that the birds would be encouraged to breed in the future.
A Ubiquiti AC Nano wireless bridge was used to create a secure connection between the top of the tower and the far end of the church
Impacting natural behaviour
The Projects observation team also capture video and sound from a 4MP Mini Dome IP camera mounted within the nest box and a small 2MP PTZ camera mounted at the top of the tower to capture all round views, and to ensure the birds are not disturbed, a Ubiquiti AC Nano wireless bridge was used to create a secure connection between the top of the tower and the far end of the church.
This means the video and sound from the cameras can be recorded and monitored 24/7 without impacting the natural behaviour of the falcons.
Providing valuable information
According to Michael Leigh-Mallory, Project Leader of the Taunton Peregrine Project, With two months of operation under its belt, the new system has been providing 24-hour coverage of the falcon pair, including highly-resolved images of the peregrines flying in to the perch with their prey.
Despite the difficult and potentially hazardous installation on the ancient building, and the use of an unorthodox mounting system that puts the cameras in very exposed positions, the 4K video from the IP bullet cameras is of amazing quality both day and night. The Hikvision equipment has recorded ground-breaking images of a wide range of behaviours, including nocturnal hunting, and all in incredible definition. These 4K images are most probably a first for peregrine observation in the UK. Whats more, this unique 4K footage has been providing valuable information to external Peregrine experts, like Ed Drewitt, naturalist, broadcaster and writer of the book Urban Peregrines.
The team plan to raise more money so the views of the birds can be live streamed to the Internet via their web-site
Ground-breaking images
An Open Day was held at the end of March to allow the local community to see for themselves the result of their donations that fund the entire project. In addition, Somerset Ornithological Society and the BBC Springwatch team have shown great interest in the communities efforts and a large following is emerging on social media. Now, the team plan to raise more money so the views of the birds can be live streamed to the Internet via their web-site, which is currently under construction.
Michael Leigh-Mallory, Project Leader of the Taunton Peregrine Project, said, The Hikvision cameras have provided images of incredible definition! We have been able to record ground-breaking images of nocturnal hunting and a wide range of behaviour. The 4K images are probably a first for peregrine observation in the UK and this unique 4K footage has been providing valuable information to Peregrine experts like Ed Drewitt, naturalist, broadcaster and writer of the book Urban Peregrines.
Results
Ground-breaking 4K images of nocturnal hunting and a wide range of behaviour for the first time.
2 months of uninterrupted operation with cameras operating in very exposed positions.
Difficult and potentially hazardous installation on ancient building.
Very satisfied End User.
HIKVISION Equipment
DS-2CD2685FWD-IZS - 8 MP WDR Vari-focal Network Bullet Camera
8MP Ultra HD high resolution
1/2.5" Progressive Scan CMOS
Triple stream - Max. 3840 2160@20fps
2.8-12mm motorized vari-focal lens
Up to 50m IR distance
H.265+ compression
IP67 weatherproof
120dB Wide Dynamic Range
3D Digital Noise Reduction
Supports on board storage (up to 128GB)
DS-2CD2542FWD-IS - 4MP WDR Mini Dome Network Camera
4MP high resolution
Full HD1080p video
Dual stream
2.8mm/4mm/6mm fixed lens
120dB Wide Dynamic Range
3D Digital Noise Reduction
3-axis adjustment
Up to 10m IR range
H.264+ compression
IP67 weather-proof protection
DS-2DE4A220IW-DE - 2MP Network IR mini PTZ Camera
1/2.8" Progressive Scan CMOS
1920 x 1080
20X Optical Zoom
WDR
3D intelligent positioning function
Up to 50m IR range
DS-7616NI-K2/16P NVR Embedded Plug & Play 4K NVR
Third-party network cameras supported
Up to 8 Megapixels resolution recording
Support 1-ch HDMI, 1-ch VGA, HMDI at up to 4K(3840x2160) resolution
8/16-ch network cameras can be connected with 80M/160M incoming bandwidth
Up to 2 SATA interfaces
Plug & Play with up to 16 independent PoE network interfaces
Support dual-OS to ensure high reliability of system running
Support various VCA detection alarm and VCA search
Support H.265/H.264/MPEG4 video formats
4K Monitor
The pharmacy at Tidelands Waccamaw Community Hospital was one of the biggest donors to this year's Stuff the Bus campaign. In this photo, Darrell Willm, pharmacy director, and Kelly Edwards, assistant director, have some fun "driving" supplies collected by the department.
Keithfield Plantation on Black River was purchased by James Heyward Trapier in 1853. In 1860, the plantation produced 315,000 pounds of rice. A Keithfield cabin, formerly the home of slaves, was photographed in 1978.
Georgetown, SC (29440)
Today
Mostly clear early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 47F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph..
Tonight
Mostly clear early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 47F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.
Either priest could apply for work in another diocese, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese said, but they would likely need to present their Chicago employment records. And for other jobs within the Archdiocese of Chicago outside of the priesthood, both men would need to submit to a criminal background check, the spokeswoman said.
An artist's impression of the seven planets of the TRAPPIST-1 system. Most are rich in volatile materials such as water.
The seven planets orbiting the ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 are mostly rocky, with some potentially holding more liquid water than Earth.
New research reveals the density of the worlds within this crowded system to a greater precision than ever before. The findings reveal that some of the planets could have up to 5 percent of their mass in liquid water form, about 250 times as much water as found in Earth's oceans.
"All the TRAPPIST-1 planets are very Earth-like they have a solid core, surrounded by an atmosphere," Simon Grimm, an exoplanet scientist at the University of Bern in Switzerland, told Space.com by email. Working with a team of researchers, Grimm precisely modeled the densities of the seven worlds. [Meet the 7 Earth-Size Exoplanets of TRAPPIST-1]
In addition to narrowing down the composition of the exoplanets, the researchers also found that one of the worlds could boast some familiar characteristics.
"TRAPPIST-1e is the exoplanet which is most similar to Earth in terms of mass, radius and energy received from its star," Grimm said.
A special system
In 2016, astronomers at The Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile identified three planets around the dim star TRAPPIST-1. Less than a year later, NASA announced the discovery of even more worlds, for a total of seven. All of the exoplanets orbit in the habitable zone of their star, the region where water can remain liquid at the surface. The TRAPPIST-1 system boasts the largest number of rocky worlds ever found in a habitable zone of a single star and lies only 40 light-years from Earth. [TRAPPIST-1: How Long Would It Take to Fly to 7-Planet System?]
Intrigued by the system, Grimm and his colleagues decided to measure the system using a technique known as transit-timing variations (TTVs). By observing small variations in the amount of time it takes a world to pass between its star and our viewpoint, called a transit, TTVs allow researchers to make some of the most sensitive observations of planetary masses and densities.
"Using TTVs is currently the only method to determine the masses and therefore the densities of planets like the TRAPPIST-1 system," Grimm said.
Other methods don't work because the planets are too lightweight or the star is too faint, he said. The method allows astronomers to determine the mass of the planets relative to the stellar masses. Combined with the radii measured as the planet transits its star, the technique reveals the densities of each world.
The researchers relied on data captured by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and several of the European Southern Observatory's instruments in Chile to make detailed observations that could reveal the variations in planetary orbits.
If one planet traveled around its star alone, then the only gravitational pull it would feel would come from the star. But when a system holds two or more worlds, the planets interact gravitationally, tugging on one another with a force related to their masses. These shifts depend on the planets' mass, distance and other orbital parameters.
At the same time, crowded systems like TRAPPIST-1 make it more challenging to tease out the effects of individual planets, as each world tugs somewhat at its neighbors. The TRAPPIST-1 planets are easier to measure because they orbit in sync; together, the seven exoplanets form a resonance chain connecting them all together and suggesting a slow, peaceful evolution.
"The TRAPPIST-1 system is special because all the planets are in a resonance condition," Grimm said.
Grimm took a simulation that he had previously used to calculate planetary orbits and adapted it to TTV analysis. Using more than 200 transits, his team modeled the mass and densities of the worlds, simulating the orbits of the planets until their modeled transits matched what was observed.
The researchers found densities of the worlds ranging from 0.6 to 1.0 times Earth's density. The seven worlds are rich in water, with water levels on some reaching as high as 5 percent of the total mass. In comparison, only about 0.02 percent of Earth's mass is contained in water.
TRAPPIST-1b and c, the innermost worlds, are likely to have rocky cores and be surrounded by dense atmospheres thicker than Earth's. Lying close to their star, the hottest worlds probably have thick, steamy atmospheres, while the most distant ones could be covered in ice.
TRAPPIST-1d is the lightest of the seven planets, weighing about 30 percent of Earth's mass. Its low mass could be caused by a large atmosphere, an ocean or a frozen icy layer.
TRAPPIST-1f, g and h lie far enough from their host star that water could be frozen into ice across their surfaces. The thin atmospheres would probably lack the heavier molecules found on Earth.
Then there's TRAPPIST-1e, the most Earth-like of the group. As the only planet slightly denser than Earth, TRAPPIST-1e likely has a denser iron core, and may lack a thick atmosphere, ocean or ice layer.
The researchers cautioned that the new results, which were published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, do not directly say anything about habitability. However, by helping researchers to better understand the conditions involved in the crowded system, the new research helps to make strides in understanding whether the worlds may be capable of supporting life.
Follow Nola Taylor Redd at @NolaTRedd, Facebook, or Google+. Follow us at @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
An artist's illustration of astronaut pioneers on Mars. Building a self-sustaining settlement on the Red Planet will require taking advantage of native Martian resources, exploration advocates stress.
If you know your way around a chemistry lab, you could help humanity set up shop on Mars and make some serious cash in the process.
NASA is challenging people throughout the United States to come up with a new and efficient way to convert carbon dioxide into glucose, a simple sugar. CO2 dominates the thin atmosphere of Mars, and energy-rich glucose is a great fuel for microbe-milking "bioreactors" that could manufacture a variety of items for future settlers of the Red Planet, NASA officials said.
"Enabling sustained human life on another planet will require a great deal of resources, and we cannot possibly bring everything we will need. We have to get creative, said Monsi Roman, program manager of NASA's Centennial Challenges program, which is running the new $1 million "CO2 Conversion Challenge." [8 Cool Mars Destinations Humans Could Explore]
"If we can transform an existing and plentiful resource like carbon dioxide into a variety of useful products, the space and terrestrial applications are endless," Roman said in a NASA statement.
The new competition consists of two phases. During Phase 1, applicants submit a detailed description of their CO2-to-glucose conversion system. Interested parties must register by Jan. 24, 2019 and submit their proposals by Feb. 28, 2019.
In April, NASA will announce the selection of up to five finalists from this initial crop, each of whom will receive $50,000.
Phase 2 will involve the construction and demonstration of a conversion system. Winning this round is worth $750,000, bringing the competition's total purse to $1 million (assuming five finalists are indeed selected from Phase 1).
You don't have to win, or even participate in, Phase 1 to compete in Phase 2. The challenge is open to citizens and permanent residents of the United States; foreign nationals can compete if they're part of a U.S.-based team. To register or learn more, go to the CO2 Conversion Challenge website.
The Centennial Challenges program, which is run by NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, aims to encourage the development of exploration tech by engaging talented and innovative people beyond the traditional aerospace community .
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
Why are black holes so hard to study? As astrophysicist and Space.com columnist Paul Sutter explains, it's because black holes represent the intersection of the mathematics of big objects and the mathematics of very small objects and these two systems of math don't match up.
Sutter explains more about these weird space objects in the most recent installment of his Facebook Watch video series "Ask a Spaceman," produced in partnership with Space.com. And make sure to tune in next week for part two of his look at black holes.
Simply explained, black holes are objects with extreme density. Because black holes have a lot of mass, they have a strong gravitational attraction. That attraction is so strong, in fact, that even light gets trapped when it passes by a black hole. [No Escape: Dive into a Black Hole (Infographic)]
There are different kinds and sizes of black holes. Some are smaller, closer to the mass of stars, and result from the aftermath of a supernova or star explosion, while others are much larger than that and can reach millions or billions of star masses. Scientists are still trying to determine how the largest black holes form. They are also trying to figure out the mathematics in the extreme environments that black holes represent.
"Black holes continue to attract so much theoretical study [because] this strong gravity acts as a laboratory for new kinds of physics," Sutter says in the episode. In other words, he continues, "black holes are regions where our current knowledge of physics break[s] down."
Black holes are spots where scientists can study two different types of physical theories. One is quantum mechanics, or the science of how subatomic particles behave. The science of quantum mechanics is difficult to explain by logic, because it includes weird phenomena, such as particles interacting with one another at extreme distances.
The other realm of physics that black holes let us explore is called general relativity. Again, the physics here is complicated, but you can think of general relativity as the science of the very big, Sutter explains. One aspect is interpreting how gravity behaves; according to Albert Einstein, massive objects distort space-time. A large body in space, like a star, pulls other bodies toward it, for example. To think of it more simply, as an analogy, a bowling bowl on a trampoline would dimple the trampoline. Then, any marbles rolled nearby would fall into the dimple.
Although black holes are very powerful, Sutter says that they may eventually die just like many other things in the universe. He cites the theory of Hawking radiation, or the mathematics that describes how black holes glow and fade over time, as one of the pieces of evidence for their ultimate demise. For more information, you can read a past Space.com column by Sutter here.
The episodes will be released weekly on Wednesdays at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT), so "like" the "Ask a Spaceman" Facebook page or check back later to see more. Sutter responds to reader questions in every episode. Also check out that page to learn more about past topics the show covered, such as the Big Bang and Pluto.
Sutter is a cosmologist at The Ohio State University and chief scientist at the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio. He has a long-running podcast, also called "Ask a Spaceman." You can catch all past episodes here.
Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com .
Image of the Day Archives
NASA, ESA and Orsola De Marco (Macquarie University)
For older Image of the Day pictures, please visit the Image of the Day archives. Pictured: NGC 2467.
Close-Up of Messier 66
Tuesday, May 1, 2018: Bright stars and colorful nebulas glow in one of the galactic arms of Messier 66, an intermediate spiral galaxy located 36 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. Also known as NGC 3627, this galaxy's structure is somewhere between a barred and unbarred spiral galaxy. Citizen scientist Kevin Gill processed this image using data from the Hubble Space Telescope. Hanneke Weitering
Stripes of Bedrock in a Martian Crater
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Wednesday, May 2, 2018: NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this view of eroded bedrock inside an ancient Martian crater using its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. These geologic features can reveal clues about the planet's history, including the presence of water. Hanneke Weitering
The Great Lakes Seen from Space
Thursday, May 3, 2018: NASA astronaut Drew Feustel snapped this photo of the Great Lakes from roughly 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth at the International Space Station. "On Monday, I captured this amazing image of all the places I called home for the first 32 years of my life," he tweeted. "Many of my family and friends are in this photo, somewhere." Hanneke Weitering
'Star Wars' at the Space Station
Mark Vande Hei/NASA/ Twitter
Friday, May 4, 2018: Happy Star Wars Day! During a movie night at the International Space Station, the Expedition 54 crew watched a special zero-g screening of "The Last Jedi" on their projection screen. "Space Station movie night, complete with "bungee cord chairs', drink bags, and a science fiction flick!" Vande Hei wrote on Twitter. Hanneke Weitering
So Long, InSight!
Bill Ingalls/NASA
Monday, May 7, 2018: Flames from a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket rise from Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as NASA's Mars Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations (InSight) mission blasts off on a mission to the Red Planet. InSight launched Saturday morning (May 5) at 7:05 a.m. EDT (1105 GMT, 4:05 a.m. local California time). Hanneke Weitering
Cosmonauts Observe Victory Day in Space
Wednesday, May 9, 2018: Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov (left) and Oleg Artymev peek through a window of the International Space Station's Cupola observatory. Shkaplerov tweeted the photo today in honor of Victory Day, a Russian holiday commemorating the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945. "On Red Square in Moscow and in all major cities parades pass, and we @OlegMKS also decided to make a solemn flight over the planet in our space tank," Shkaplerov tweeted. Hanneke Weitering
Tracking InSight from Australia
Thursday, May 10, 2018: The European Space Agency's 35-meter radio dish in New Norcia, Australia helps NASA track its InSight spacecraft after it launched toward Mars on May 5. This tracking station served as a backup to NASA's own Deep Space Network during the early operations of InSight's journey to the Red Planet, because its location in the southern hemisphere provided "very good visibility of the trajectory to Mars," ESA officials said. Hanneke Weitering
Pacific Storm's a Brewin'
NASA
Friday, May 11, 2018: Storm clouds swirl over the North Pacific Ocean in this photo captured by astronauts at the International Space Station. The crew spotted the storm off the eastern coast of Russia on May 6. Hanneke Weitering
Volcanic Eruption Seen From Space
Monday, May 14, 2018: Astronauts at the International Space Station spotted the smoke plume from the Kilauea volcano, which has been spewing lava on Hawaii's Big Island since May 3. "It is easy to see the activity on Hawaiis #Kilauea Volcano from @Space_Station," NASA astronaut Drew Feustel tweeted on Sunday (May 13). "We hope those in the vicinity of the eruption can stay out of harms way." Hanneke Weitering
Upgraded Falcon 9 Rocket Lifts Off
SpaceX
Tuesday, May 15, 2018: SpaceX's first-ever "Block 5" version of the Falcon 9 rocket soars to space after lifting off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday (May 11). Following a picture-perfect (albeit delayed) liftoff, the rocket delivered the first Bangladeshi communications satellite, Bangabandhu-1, into orbit. Hanneke Weitering
City of Mexico, September 04, 2018 (SPS) - The Saharawi Embassy in Mexico carried out different activities last week, including presentations of Saharawi-themed books and lectures on the current situation of the struggle of the Saharawi people, in particular the situation of human rights in the Occupied Territories of Western Sahara. .
In the first Book Fair Tlahuac 2018, the book presented: "Journey to the wisdom of the desert", by the writer Ahmed Mulay Ali Hamadi, Representative of the Saharawi Republic in the Aztec nation.
The work describes the way in which the Saharawi youth lived in times of colonialism.
In the XXXVII International Book Fair, organized by the National Polytechnic Institute, in Mexico City, the book Los Maktubes del desierto presented by the author Ahmed Mulay Ali Hamadi, The work of historical content describes how the Saharawis lived in times of colonialism, their traditions, idiosyncrasies and proverbs. SPS
125/090/TRA
Occupied Aaiun (Occupied Territories) Sept 05, 2018 (SPS) - The Moroccan occupation forces has violently assaulted Sahrawi demonstrators leaving dozens of the injuries in the capital city of Western Sahara Aaiun on the eve of the upcoming visit of the Foreign Trade Committee of the European Parliament.
The demonstrators protest in response to the appeal launched by the components of the human rights coordination in Western Sahara to demand the Saharawi people's right to self-determination, as well as to put an end to the looting of their natural resources.
The Moroccan authorities intervention against Saharawi demonstrators comes on ahead of visit of the Foreign Trade Committee of the European Parliament to the occupied territories of Western Sahara. SPS
125/090/TRA
STAMFORD An Ecuadorian man on Wednesday gave his heartfelt thanks to a Stamford police officer who saved his life two weeks ago.
On Aug. 20, Pablo Campoverde, 24, had just flown in from Cuenca, Ecuador, and went to stay at an uncles home on Horton Street. He had come to the U.S. on vacation to celebrate getting a job back home as an engineer, and the next day he and his dad planned to take a road trip to Canada to see Niagara Falls.
But in the middle of the night, Campoverde inexplicably stopped breathing. Police officer Michael Costello, a 23-year department veteran, heard the emergency radio call - arrived at the home in less than a minute - and began administering chest compressions to Campoverde.
Two minutes later, firefighters and medics arrived and were able to get Campoverdes heart beating again.
Every paramedic and every doctor told me that if it werent for [Costellos] quick actions... Pablo probably would not be here with us today, Capt. Diedrich Hohn said Wednesday at the home of another Campoverde relative on West North Street, where the family gathered to thank Costello.
Hohn is one of three officers who teaches CPR to his colleagues in the Stamford police department.
We are grateful Michael also because - thank God - you listened to us in class that day, he said.
Sometimes I do listen, Costello quipped.
Costello took a good look at Campoverde and said, Good to see you still here.
When asked how it felt being a hero, Costello said he was just doing his job.
I have five children at home and I would hope someone would be fast enough to help one of mine, Costello said. And he is the same age as one of my sons, and the same birthday, too. When I found out, it really hit me.
I have no words to express myself, Campoverde said through officer Adriana Molina, who was interpreting for the family. I am very, very grateful for what you did for me.
Campoverdes mother Marcia told Costello, God puts angels in our path and you are one of them.
He was headed back home Wednesday night to begin his career as an engineer.
jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com
Editors note: This story was originally published on Sept. 5 at 1:30 p.m. and was updated Sept. 6 at 12:32 p.m. Click here for Entrepreneur's full coverage of PlantLab.
Adam Zucker, CEO of PlantLab, a plant-based culinary school formerly owned by celebrity chef Matthew Kenney, faces 35 felony charges after his Aug. 21 arrest.
The felonies, outlined in a complaint for an arrest warrant filed by the Superior Court of the State of California, were all allegedly committed by Zucker while he was at a previous job: executive vice president of licensing at Artissimo Designs, a ready-to-hang wall art company. Between January 2011 and July 2015, Zucker allegedly embezzled about $2.4 million, and between April 2012 and July 2015, he allegedly laundered close to $1.9 million. He also allegedly filed false personal income tax returns for the years 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015.
"When Artissimo discovered Mr. Zucker's wrongdoing, Artissimo reported the matter to the police," said Roger G. Jones, an attorney representing the company.
The complaint is dated June 13, 2018 -- more than two months before Zuckers arrest -- and signed by both the district attorney and the investigator, Brandon Browning. The court recommended Zuckers bail be set at $790,000.
Meanwhile, the California Department of Consumer Affairs in July opened an investigation into Zucker's company, PlantLab.
Following a consumer complaint, the Bureau became aware that PlantLab was operating an unapproved education institution, said Matt Woodcheke, public information officer at the California Department of Consumer Affairs.
Woodcheke recommended PlantLab students reach out to the Bureaus Office of Student Assistance and Relief to see what options are available to them online or by calling toll-free (888) 370-7589. Those affected students are significant in number: One Facebook group, PlantLab Scam, has 230 members and counting.
On Aug. 29, PlantLab emailed customers to say CEO Adam Zucker -- a former colleague of Kenney and the sole owner of the company -- had been unreachable since Aug. 21, the same day he was arrested. All courses at all locations are canceled until further notice, the company stated, calling Zucker the only person solely responsible for all finances and location payments.
Related: CEO of Culinary School Who 'Disappeared' Appears to Have Spent a Week in Jail
Zucker forwarded an email to Entrepreneur that he said he sent to employees on Wednesday apologizing for his silence -- and explaining why PlantLab completely imploded.
It all seems to boil down to one simple thing: There wasnt enough money, and he wrote that he spent what funds the company did have to bandage problems rather than fix them effectively. He wrote that due to growing financial setbacks such as high weekly expenses and overhead, as well as the need for more capital, he took on soaring debts -- including a number of merchant cash advances (MCA), which offer fast cash in exchange for a percentage of future sales and are typically accompanied by high interest rates. According to Zucker, those debited portions of sales eventually totaled more than $20,000 per day at one point.
Between June and August, Zucker wrote, he took loans from his parents, brother-in-law and friends in New York and Los Angeles totaling $470,000. I have no ability to pay [them] back at this point, he wrote. This is all in addition to the money which was loaned to the company from investors.
But PlantLabs financial woes werent contained within the company. The hundreds of students who paid for plant-based cooking courses such as Raw Desserts and Essentials of Superfoods are now out thousands of dollars with no promise of a refund.
Natalie Golba, an on-site student at PlantLabs Venice location, said she prepaid for three courses and was in the middle of the second when the company emailed students saying courses were discontinued. To get a discount, Golba paid $10,000 in advance for the courses instead of the retail value of $17,000. I paid Adam cash and never got the receipt, which was strange, she said. I wrote to Adam, asked him to give it back but he didnt reply."
Another student, who asked to remain anonymous due to a potential forthcoming lawsuit, said she was a student from the Matthew Kenney Cuisine era and has yet to complete the third course she prepaid for. I was never informed when the company changed ownership, nor were any terms and conditions sent to me about this, she said. Ive tried unsuccessfully to reach PlantLab about setting up my Level III course. I was thinking about a career change [but] the whole experience left both me and a colleague with such a bad impression.
One student-to-be from Croatia, Dijana Sinovcic, said she had booked three courses at PlantLabs Los Angeles location starting in Jan. 2019. She said she invested the majority of her savings in the tuition -- which cost her almost $10,000 -- and transferred her current business to her partner since she had planned to not be in Croatia.
In an interview with Entrepreneur on Thursday, Zucker said not being able to refund students immediately is killing him. I dont have a dollar to my name, he said. Im doing everything possible to make it right by them.
One former employee, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions, worked with Zucker during his entire time at Matthew Kenney Cuisine and a few months after he bought PlantLab. The employee said working under Zucker raised red flags -- such as his emphasis on bringing in money fast and a requirement for employees to be available 24/7, as well as his seeming lack of experience in culinary education -- but since no one seemed aware that Zucker was the sole owner of PlantLab, employees werent concerned at the time.
It just became a very, very chaotic workplace, and now I know its because he was ... worrying that he was going to be locked up, said the employee, who left a few months after Zucker purchased PlantLab.
Former PlantLab employee Shannon Bronson said she resigned from her position Friday after several days of the most stress weve ever felt.
Our CEO, Adam Zucker, seemingly disappeared for a week but was actually in jail for multiple charges of money laundering, embezzlement and tax evasion from previous employers, Bronson wrote on Instagram. You can imagine our shock when suddenly he went missing and none of the rents at our academies had been paid, amongst so, so many other terrifying discoveries. He was the only person in charge of the companys money management, and now we can see why.
On social media, Bronson wrote that employees were forced to stop operating in a matter of days and the company fell apart quickly. She wrote that she could have never imagined Zucker was capable of this behavior.
I have never experienced such a sense of betrayal, manipulation and insanity in my life, she wrote. To all the people hurt in the trail of his mess, Im so very sorry. We are in the same boat and we feel for you.
In his Wednesday email to employees, Zucker wrote that he was searching for a company or person who would take over PlantLab, re-hire employees and cure student issues.
I would not be involved, he wrote.
This story is developing and may be updated.
Related:
CEO of Culinary School PlantLab Charged With Embezzling $2.4 Million
CEO of Culinary School Who 'Disappeared' Appears to Have Spent a Week in Jail
The CEO of a Culinary School Is Missing. Students Are Now on the Hook for Thousands Paid in Tuition.
Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
Laquan McDonald should get justice and will get justice because of people like you, Ramirez-Rosa continued. But lets be clear, this fight goes so far beyond one court case. It goes so far beyond one police officer. This fight is about changing the system. ... We know you can change the skin of the judge, you can change the look of the police officer, you can get a new mayor, but you can still have a racist system.
MEXICO CITY - When Jimmy Morales ran for president of Guatemala three years ago, the former TV comedian's campaign slogan was "Neither corrupt, nor a thief."
One of the reasons Morales had to make honesty a central issue in his campaign was the work of an unusually powerful group of crime fighters known as the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, or CICIG.
In the face of enormous political pressure, this United Nations-backed organization had conducted rigorous investigations of corruption at the highest levels of Guatemala's government for more than a decade. Its work helped inspire a nationwide protest movement in 2015 and led to the arrest of then-President Otto Perez Molina, then-Vice President Roxana Baldetti and many more.
For more than a year, CICIG has been investigating Morales himself, accusing him of accepting about $1 million in illegal campaign donations and earning his ire in return.
Last year, Morales tried to expel the head of CICIG, Colombian prosecutor Ivan Velasquez, but the Supreme Court blocked the move.
Over the past week, the conflict has flared up again. On Friday, Morales said he would not renew CICIG's mandate, which expires next year. The same day, Guatemalan military vehicles stood guard outside CICIG's offices and descended on a central plaza. On Tuesday, Morales ordered that Velasquez, who has led CICIG since 2013, not be allowed back in Guatemala.
"For some time now, there have been efforts to derail anti-corruption efforts in Guatemala and continued attacks against the commission and the commissioner," said Adriana Beltran, a Guatemala expert at the Washington Office on Latin America. Morales's actions, she said, are "his attempt to protect himself, given the continuing probe against him."
While Velasquez remains in the United States, the work of CICIG continues, said a spokesman, Matias Ponce. The organization, which has about 200 staff members, is also waiting for the Guatemalan government to renew work visas of CICIG's foreign staff, he said.
Apart from blocking Velasquez's entrance into Guatemala, the Morales government this year removed 25 police personnel assigned to guard CICIG, cutting its security force in half.
Morales has argued that CICIG, as a foreign body that receives U.S. funding, constitutes a violation of Guatemalan sovereignty and that Guatemala's own judicial institutions should be handling such graft cases.
CICIG works in conjunction with the Guatemalan attorney general's office in building corruption cases.
In a letter to U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres last week, Morales said CICIG has had more than "sufficient" time over the course of its mandate to achieve its goals.
CICIG was set up in 2006 to bolster Guatemala's weak judicial institutions. At the time, impunity was rampant in the country and murders were hardly ever solved. The group, composed of investigators from around the world, used sophisticated investigative techniques, wiretapping and examination of financial records to pursue high-profile crimes. Its work became a model and inspiration in Latin America, where corruption often goes unpunished.
But CICIG has also been polarizing. Critics see it as overzealous and manipulated for political reasons. Earlier this year, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., put on hold $6 million in State Department funding to CICIG, saying he was concerned that Russia had "manipulated" the group into pushing for the prosecution of a Russian family in Guatemala.
CICIG's investigation against Morales had also been gaining steam. Last month, Velasquez, along with Guatemalan Attorney General Maria Consuelo Porras, asked the nation's Congress to strip Morales of his immunity from prosecution. A congressional commission has been formed to weigh the request.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in Pakistan Wednesday afternoon, telling journalists on his plane beforehand that he hoped to "turn the page" and "reset the relationship" with the new government.
Ties between the longtime security allies have been marked by deepening tensions and sharp disagreements over Pakistan's alleged harboring of anti-Afghan militants.
The secretary of state also told reporters that Zalmay Khalilzad, a former U.S. ambassador, was traveling with him and would be joining the Trump administration as a special envoy to Afghanistan, with a focus on pursuing reconciliation and peace talks with the Taliban. It was the first official confirmation of widespread reports that Khalilzad would be named to the position, which has been vacant since Trump took office.
The atmosphere that greeted Pompeo and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as they prepared to meet with civilian and military officials including new Prime Minister Imran Khan, was one of wary skepticism, indignation and defiance.
Ties have been further hit by the Trump administration's decision to cut another $300 million in U.S. military aid just days before the visit.
For the past week, Pakistani officials and commentators have been denouncing the United States as a bully seeking to force Pakistan to do its bidding and failing to appreciate its own efforts to fight Islamist terrorism. Khan and his aides have repeatedly insisted that the bilateral relationship must be based on "mutual respect," and that Pakistan's national interests must come first.
"The antagonism witnessed now is unprecedented," Zahid Hussain, a columnist for Dawn newspaper, wrote Wednesday. "Washington's demand for unquestionable compliance is unacceptable to Pakistan." Although noting that the two "frenemies" cannot afford to break up, he added, U.S. efforts to "punish" Pakistan with aid cuts and belittle it with "humiliating tweets" will only backfire.
Pompeo and Dunford held closed-door meetings with Pakistani officials, during a brief stopover en route to India.
While they were in talks, government spokesman Mohammad Faisal tweeted that the new foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, had told the visitors that the government seeks to improve bilateral ties, but "safeguarding Pakistan's national interests will remain [the] supreme priority." Pakistan's chief national interests include protecting its nuclear arsenal and guarding against aggression by India, its next-door rival.
Pompeo, while expressing hopes for "finding common ground" with the new government in Islamabad, was also cautious in his pre-arrival comments, telling reporters the visit was an opportunity to "walk through the complexity" of the relationship and "hopefully begin to make some progress so that we can get back to a set of common understandings."
He played down the likely impact of the large new military aid cut on efforts at rapprochement, saying the Pakistani government had been told it would happen in advance and knew why. "This wasn't news to the Pakistanis," he said. "The rationale for them not getting the money is very clear. It's that we haven't seen the progress that we need to see from them."
Pompeo was referring to the continued U.S. insistence that Pakistan is sheltering Islamist militants who cross the border to attack Afghanistan. Pakistan has repeatedly denied the charge, but Afghan officials accused Pakistan just last month of sending fighters across the border to attack the city of Ghazni, which was besieged by Taliban forces for four days.
Conservative political commentator Jerome Corsi is set to appear Friday before the grand jury investigating evidence in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign and expects to be questioned about his communications with Roger Stone, a longtime adviser to President Donald Trump.
Corsi's attorney, David Gray, confirmed that Mueller's team served Corsi with a subpoena last week and that Corsi plans to cooperate.
Corsi, who has contributed to the right-wing website Infowars and is known for promoting political conspiracy theories, provided research to Stone during the 2016 campaign.
Gray said the subpoena indicated that Mueller is interested in Corsi's communications during 2016 and 2017. Gray said he believes the special counsel plans to ask about Corsi's contacts with Stone, who has come under intense scrutiny by Mueller's investigators.
Corsi shared research with Stone around the same time that the longtime GOP consultant claimed publicly that he had been in contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and had advance knowledge of WikiLeaks' releases of hacked Democratic emails.
Stone has since denied direct contact with Assange and said he had no specific knowledge of WikiLeaks' material or the group's plans to release it.
Gray said Corsi had no contacts with WikiLeaks. He would not comment on what Corsi's communications indicate about Stone or his interactions with WikiLeaks.
"They show communication," Gray said. "I'm not going to make any comments about what the special counsel's office thinks of Roger Stone's communications."
Gray said he was confident that Corsi has done nothing wrong. "Jerry Corsi made decisions that he would not take actions that would give him criminal liability," he added, declining to elaborate.
Asked if Corsi had opportunities to take such actions, Gray said, "I wouldn't say he was offered those opportunities. I would say he had communications with Roger Stone. We'll supply those communications and be cooperative. My client didn't act further that would give rise to any criminal liability."
Gray said that Corsi plans to bring his laptop and cellphone with him to the grand jury and make them available to investigators. Corsi's subpoena was first reported by the New York Times.
Randy Credico, a New York radio host who Stone has said was his conduit to communications with WikiLeaks, is also set to appear in front of the grand jury Friday.
In response to a request for comment on Corsi's subpoena, Stone said that Corsi "has already addressed these issues in his own voice." He pointed to a March 2017 Infowars column in which Corsi said that he conducted research about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, her campaign chairman, John Podesta, and Russia in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign.
In the column, Corsi speculated that his research might have caused Stone to tweet on Aug. 21, 2016, "Trust me, it will soon [be] Podesta's time in the barrel."
That tweet came about six weeks before WikiLeaks began posting caches of Podesta's hacked emails.
Stone has also said his tweet was spurred in part by Corsi's research, telling the House Intelligence Committee in September that it was "based on a comprehensive, early August opposition research briefing" that Corsi provided him.
Stone has said that he did not know WikiLeaks had Podesta's emails.
Stone also had communicationsin 2016 with Guccifer 2.0, the online persona that prosecutors have said was operated by the Russian intelligence units they said hacked the Democratic Party and Podesta. Stone has said the contacts were innocuous, and denied knowing Guccifer 2.0 was tied to Russian intelligence.
Mueller's team has been scrutinizing Stone for months. This summer,a series of other Stone associates have been interviewed or asked to appear before the grand jury.
One Stone aide, Andrew Miller, has been held in contempt of court for refusing to comply with a grand jury subpoena and is seeking to have Mueller's investigation declared unconstitutional.
---
The Washington Post's Manuel Roig-Franzia contributed to this report.
T he head of one of the UKs biggest food companies on Wednesday raised the prospect of Brexit shortages amid mounting alarm among firms over crashing out of the EU without a deal.
Patrick Coveney, chief executive of Greencore, told a conference in Dublin that it was not inconceivable that shortages could strike as a result of logistical problems following a hard Brexit, as lorries queue up at ports.
Coveney, whose firm makes two thirds of the countrys pre-packed sandwiches, has around 12,000 staff in the UK.
He warned: If you end up with 50-mile tailbacks in Calais and corresponding tailbacks in Dover it wont really matter whether theres a 15% or 20% surcharge on lettuce or fruit or vegetables coming from southern Europe, it will all rot in the container. There is no good answer to that at the moment.
Our lobbying effort is entirely aligned with UK retail and UK supermarket chains, who are really pushing hard on this with the British Government.
The one thing for sure which would create dramatic and immediate political instability post March is two, three or four weeks or months of real food shortages in the UK, which is not inconceivable with the direction of travel, particularly towards a harder Brexit.
He added: British consumers are used to being able to buy fruit and vegetables all year round and frankly absent some very pragmatic interpretations on transition agreement thats going to be a huge problem from next March.
His comments came after former Bank of England Governor, the Brexit-supporting Lord King, said talk of stockpiling food and medicines beggared belief and attacked the incompetence of the Governments preparations.
The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply also warned business optimism among services firms crashed to a five-month low last month.
Chris Williamson, chief business economist at survey compiler IHS Markit, said: Business expectations for the year ahead sank markedly lower, down across all three sectors to one of the lowest levels seen since the EU referendum, largely reflecting increased anxiety over Brexit negotiation.
Services activity is holding up, however, despite waning confidence, Cips added.
I know were in the dying days of the silly season, but does that really excuse the unnecessary fuss over delaying departure of the Governor of the Bank of England?
In case you hadnt been paying attention (for which you can be forgiven), Mark Carney was due to step down a few weeks after Brexit.
Given that this could be the most seismic event to hit our economy and financial system for a generation, the Treasury and Carney are planning to delay his replacement for a bit. The point being, why voluntarily impose additional instability at the top of one of our most critical institutions when so much that we cannot control is buffeting us?
Critics argue that keeping Carney beyond his allotted time makes the institution of the Bank look weak. As if we couldnt attract anyone else decent enough to run it.
Far from it.
Surely it would be weaker if we took an inflexible, box-ticking approach to succession planning that could serve against the wider interests of the country. Why jettison a man with unparalleled international standing at a time Britain needs all the foreign friends it can get, when we dont have to?
Another thing: the best candidate for the Governors job is the capable and experienced head of the Financial Conduct Authority, Andrew Bailey.
Respected and feared in equal measure by the City, he has sound instincts on monetary policy and has proved himself an adept leader.
He may not be as close to the likes of European Central Bank governor Mario Draghi as Carney, but he has strong international connections with his fellow regulators. Hes also British which cant be a bad thing.
Like Carney, hes international, too not only because hes married to an American and has a house in Idaho; hes been working well with his regulatory peers around the world.
But if he were to get the top job just after Brexit, that would mean new leadership at the FCA as well as the Bank.
Besides, who knows? Baileys FCA job might go to Prudential Regulatory Authority boss Sam Woods.
That would mean wed have new management at all three pillars of the Citys regulatory edifice.
Not what we need.
Dont Bank on Shriti for Guv
Though Bailey is the most suitable candidate for the Bank job, the Prime Minister Theresa May has not agreed his appointment yet.
Former deputy governor Dame Minouche Shafik could clearly handle the role and the PM would lose no brownie points for hiring the first woman governor.
O n Friday March 13, 2015, I watched Battersea Arts Centre burn down on Twitter. I was on the train and watched in horror as the arts centre I am artistic director of went up in flames. But as quickly as the flames spread, people were quicker to support.
Some 80 south London firefighters saved Battersea Arts Centre and ensured we could re-open the front of the building just 24 hours later. Then thousands of other Londoners helped to raise cash, rehouse performances and rebuild the back of the building. This week we re-open the Grand Hall.
It marks the final stage of a 12-year renovation of the building, reflecting changes in Londons culture in the past decade. We have created bedrooms for artists in a city which increasingly prices them out, dedicated a large part of the building as flexible co-working space and built a busy play space for under-fives.
When I got the job as artistic director if youd told me that the centre I run would have bedrooms, a co-working space for 150 businesses and a family play room, I might not have believed you. But cultural venues are changing. And they need to change more.
In recent decades, the conventional model of inviting people to engage with culture has been to come and join in with what we are doing. We are a theatre, orchestra or gallery, so come and act, play or paint! But what if people want to be creative in a different way? In their own way?
Ten years ago I met a theatre director in Rio de Janiero from one of the citys favela communities. He was using his theatre-making process to help hundreds of young people build their own businesses. In effect, he offered them a creative process, and they used it to pursue their own passion, and make their own change in the city.
In 2013, we brought The Agency to London and every year since we have been helping young men and women from local housing estates create their own business. The Agency has become one of a number of initiatives we run to find out what excites people and how we can creatively support their ideas.
When the flames rose 100 feet above the Grand Hall in March 2015 we were quickly overwhelmed by an incredible wave of support. Peoples generosity was an illustration that cultural venues are saturated with peoples memories of performances and experiences. I believe it was those memories which led to such an extraordinary response from Londoners.
A mid all the recrimination and residual confusion, one thing is embarrassingly clear: Jeremy Corbyn still doesnt get it. Even as Labours National Executive Committee (NEC) agreed, at last, to adopt in full the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances definition of anti-Semitism , the Labour leader sought to append a 500-word statement that would have significantly undermined that decision, both strategically and in textual detail.
In particular, Corbyn wished to add the following qualification to the IHRA code: Nor should it be regarded as anti-Semitic to describe Israel, its policies or the circumstances around its foundation as racist because of their discriminatory impact, or to support another settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
This would have been like announcing that you are becoming a vegan and then tucking into a Big Mac. It is essential to the IHRAs definition of anti-Semitism that the existence of a state of Israel not be presented as a racist endeavour, and Labours initial attempt to exclude this specific claim was at the heart of the furore that has overwhelmed the party in recent months.
Had Corbyn prevailed, he would have sabotaged the NECs gesture of concession even as it was made. Aware of this peril, his fellow committee members rejected the leaders proposed statement so firmly that he withdrew it before a vote could be held. Instead, the NEC added its own codicil, asserting that its full adoption of the IHRA definition does not in any way undermine the freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of Palestinians.
Though not as inflammatory as Corbyns text, this (unnecessary) addendum undermined the whole purpose of the meeting which had been to provide absolute clarity, and signal to the Jewish community that Labour understood and fully acknowledged its anxieties.
Matthew d'Ancona
Instead, as the Labour MP, Dame Margaret Hodge, said: Two steps forward and one step back. Why dilute the welcome adoption in full of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism with an unnecessary qualification?
This sense of lingering dismay has naturally been compounded by the re-election to the NEC of Peter Willsman in spite of his previous denunciation of the 68 rabbis who had warned of severe and widespread anti-Semitism in the party and of Trump fanatics making up duff information without any evidence at all.
The spectacle of the party wrestling with its anti-Semitic demons has been nothing short of extraordinary. Precisely when it should have been presenting itself as a plausible government-in-waiting, Labour has sacrificed an entire summer to a semantic question that would never have troubled an honestly anti-racist party.
Even as fresh examples of anti-Semitic conduct past and present were disclosed daily this week Scotland Yard undertook to investigate a new dossier of allegations against 45 party members Labour stuck obstinately to its initial modification of the IHRA code and dug itself into a hole from which it is still struggling to escape. Frank Field, the veteran MP for Birkenhead, resigned the party whip on the grounds that Labours leadership [was] becoming a force for anti-Semitism in British politics.
In a statesmanlike intervention on Sunday Gordon Brown declared that the party must adopt the IHRA definition unanimously, unequivocally and immediately.
"Labour has sacrificed the entire summer to a semantic question that would not have troubled an anti-racist party"
In spite of all this pressure and weeks of contentious argument, Corbyn still wanted to weaken the code significantly. Consider, for a moment, his position: he is the Leader of the Opposition, a party leader who performed surprisingly well in last years snap general election and given the instability of the Brexit negotiations and the challenges facing Theresa May needs to be ready for another such contest at any time.
Corbyn ought to be presenting himself to the voters as a prime minister-in-waiting. Instead, he is a terribly diminished figure, his reputation as an anti-racist blighted by a series of disclosures, notably his assertion in 2013 that certain Zionists lacked a sense of English irony despite having lived in Britain all of their lives, which made his claim to be fit for the highest public office more laughable than ever.
Part of the problem is the Soviet-style insistence of Corbyns followers that he is axiomatically incapable of bigotry. But there are deeper and more poisonous roots to this particular fixation.
As David Hirsh shows in his book, Contemporary Left Antisemitism, the ideological faction, of which Corbyn is now leader, regards Israel as fundamentally racist and its defenders in Britain and elsewhere as complicit in its supposed wickedness. To ask if something said or done is anti-Semitic is to risk placing ones own membership of the community of the good under scrutiny, writes Hirsh. Raising the issue becomes a marker of Blairite, Tory or Zionist obfuscation.
In the eyes of Corbynites, therefore, anti-Semitism is detached from other forms of racism. Indeed, it is mostly seen as a charge vexatiously levelled against those who righteously criticise Israel as an apartheid, Nazi or racist state, the epitome of nationalist, imperialist and colonialist criminality. According to this logic, it is the defenders of Israel who are the real racists.
It is worth pausing to reflect upon this, and what it says about the rapid transformation of Labour under Corbyn. The party is not just socialist in the traditional sense that it would raise taxes, renationalise the utilities and redistribute wealth.
Brodskys behavior in one of the cases cited in the complaint resulted earlier this year in a $50,000 fine levied by U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall, who also ordered Brodsky to undergo anger management training. He planned to appeal the fine, which his attorney at the time said might have been the largest in Chicago federal court history payable to the District Court itself.
P RESIDENT Trumps threat to the World Trade Organisation [Its worst trade deal ever made, August 31] should serve as a timely reminder but also an opportunity for those who believe a WTO-terms Brexit is a great opportunity for Global Britain. The WTO has been under strain since the Doha development round of negotiations failed and recently the US has threatened the functioning of its fundamental dispute settlement body. Current WTO rules will not stop EU border checks after we leave the European Union but will prevent discriminatory checks or tariffs compared to other non-members of the EU. However, some believe the WTO, and these rules, will struggle to survive two terms of President Trump.
Paradoxically, the Presidents attitude could be a test of Global Britain in action. Many of those who say the UK can thrive after a WTO-rules Brexit are also advocates of a UK-US trade agreement. They could show the power of independent UK trade policy by making such an agreement conditional on President Trump and the US withdrawing threats to the WTO. It is hard, after all, to see how the UK could thrive globally without established WTO rules and the increased trade these have brought.
Many trade experts believe a WTO-rules, no-deal Brexit will be disastrous for the UK. If we are underestimating the UKs power, now would be a good time for this to be demonstrated.
David Henig
Director, the UK Trade Policy Project
EDITOR'S REPLY
Dear David
Thanks for your novel suggestion, dripping with irony. Of course there is no way Donald Trump would listen to a word of British advice on his boorish threats to withdraw from the World Trade Organisation.
The US President wants to take apart power structures such as the WTO to weaken the smaller nations with which the US trades and make it that much easier for him to push around.
He detests the organisation because it has an independent dispute resolution system that prevents the US always getting its own way (in fact, the US wins more times than it loses but such details do not seem to trouble this particular President).
The same philosophy is behind Trumps support for Brexit: he likes having weaker powers facing him at the negotiating table so that he can ensure the US always gets the best deals. Brexit provides him both with a weaker Britain and a weaker EU. If he destroys the WTO too, hed create a global law of the jungle in which the strongest wins.
Gunboat diplomacy. One way to make America great again.
Jim Armitage, City Editor
Another cause of Crossrail delays
AS A lifelong resident of the borough of Ealing, I have to say that Im not surprised that next autumn is now the new start date for the Elizabeth line [Your first Crossrail train willl be delayed... by a year, August 31]. I believe the reasons stated for the delay but would suggest that there are others too.
Users of the regularly poor service on the line into/from Paddington provided by GWR, TfL Rail and Network Rail will have seen the state of the four stations in the borough. Work started late on upgrading them and is still ongoing months later.
Ealing Broadway, which Id suggest is the most used station west of central London, is still a work in progress. At many times in the evening rush hour the station struggles to accommodate the sheer numbers which will only increase when Crossrail finally starts.
The holidays are over and the chill is setting in.
What better way to fend off the impending gloom than with some seriously chic sartorial investments?
Before you put chip to pin, take a look at our round-up of the key trends to know for autumn/winter 2018.
Invest in any of these sartorial statements and you really cant go wrong.
Get the Gloss
Vinyl, latex, plastic and patent, high-shine and splash-proof is the dominatrix dish du jour this season. Metallics came full-gloss at Chanel, while plaids came patent at Badgley Mischa, and at Miu Miu and Adam Selman red leather was waxed until it shone lyrical. Fendi and Tods meanwhile demonstrated that a high-shine trench could provide a wonderfully glamorous alternative to its gabardine cousin.
Spill-proof and rain-proof, as the weather changes dont lament, laminate people, laminate.
Tods AW18 / AFP/Getty Images
Nicopanda AW18 / Getty Images for Nicopanda
Adam Selman AW18 / Getty Images for New York Fashion Week: The Shows
Miu Miu AW18 / Getty Images
Check Please
Its back to school, and plaid shows no signs of checking out.
In fact, this term the perennially popular print was adopted across the class, from perfectly prim frosty pink plaid maxi dresses at Emilia Wickstead to Clueless-esque clashing yellow and blue kilts and jackets at Versace. For ultimate plaid rad, make like Michael Kors and clash red and yellow tartans with leopard-print trims.
Make like Cher Horowitz and play head-to-toe tartan truant for fall.
Emilia Wickstead AW18 / Getty Images
Mansur Gavriel AW18 / Getty Images
Versace AW18 / Getty Images
Michael Kors AW18 / Getty Images
80s Cocktail Power Hour
Mini skirts, bandage dresses, foil and big shoulders this seasons party wear is all about the 80s va-va-voom. At Saint Laurent exaggerated shoulders on blazers and mini dresses made for perfect dancefloor space makers, while puffball mini skirts at Marques'Almeida were every bit the Material Girl.
Embrace sequins and the miniest of minis and pair with a perm, platforms and the sheerest denier you can find.
Saint Laurent AW18 / Getty Images
Marques'Almeida AW18 / Marques Almeida
Chanel AW18 / Getty Images
Leather dresses
You know those moments in life that demand you look chic, sexy and more than a little bit badass? No? Invest in an autumn runway-approved leather dress and good money says you start experiencing those moments all the time.
Belted and zip-embellished at Sonia Rykiel and Alexander McQueen; ankle-length yet tantalisingly seductive at Loewe; shirt-shaped and smart at Hermes, Tod's, and Givenchy, this season the leather dress will become your saviour when it comes to those difficult-to-dress-for invites. Best invest now.
Tod's AW18 / Tods
Alexander McQueen AW18 (Getty ImagesAlexander McQueen ) / Getty ImagesAlexander McQueen
Grandpa Party
Been saving your grandad jumper for a country walk? Considered pairing it with jeans for the office, perhaps? Think again. For this season Argyle knits were given a party-ready twist. Erdem threw cable knit cardigans over brocade cocktail dresses and paired a silver sequinned skirt with a Fair Isle knit, while Simone Rocha knotted argyle knits around necks over feminine floral dresses. Meanwhile at Preen they were sliced and diced and pinned over shimmering opalescent gowns.
Tory Burch AW18 / Getty Images
Erdem AW18 / Erdem
Preen AW18 / Preen
Cut the slacks
Trouser suits were big news for autumn/winter 2017 and while the popularity of a good pastel suit or a broad lapelled tux looks set to be sustained into this season, the real power players will be swapping their slacks for skirts. At Chanel structural boucle jackets cocooned skimpy minis, while at Louis Vuitton demure pencil skirt suits were given energy with leather tasseling and sporty knitwear.
Chanel AW18 / Getty Images
Taoray Wang AW18 / Getty Images for New York Fashion Week: The Shows
Louis Vuitton AW18 / Getty Images
Priscavera AW18 / Getty Images
Brown is the new Black
There were many very literal takes on '70s fashion on the A/W 18 runways, but the way it will affect your personal style is via the colour brown. Everyone from Sies Marjan, Rochas, Dior and Etro sent tonal, caramel, chocolate and terracotta hues down the runway, while the Chloe show was an ode to the colour in all its myriad hues. The trick to keeping this all-over sepia sexy? Slashed necklines, raised hemlines and seriously sheer shirts and skirts prove that brick, bronze and bister are there to fawn over.
Tod's AW18 / Tods
Chloe AW18
Dion Lee AW18 / Getty Images
Boss Girl Tweed
Last season, every influencer and editor on the front row wore a checked tweed blazer; this season the catwalks firmly confirmed the heritage check's comeback.
Flecked with lilac on boyish belted jumpsuits at Emilia Wickstead, blown into exaggerated eighties' proportions at Marc Jacobs, blurred through boucle at Chanel and given pink and black supersized punkiness at Miu Miu, this seasons tweed is best paired with something unexpected; a slouchy granddad jacket paired with a pretty prairie dress a la Calvin Klein, or a prim tweed pencil skirt paired with sporty intarsia knits a la Louis Vuitton.
More amoral than Balmoral, this seasons tweed is unapologetically punchy.
Marc Jacobs AW18 / Getty Images for Marc Jacobs
Miu Miu AW18 / Getty Images
Emilia Wicksted AW18 / AFP/Getty Images
Chanel AW18 / Getty Images
Animal Magic
Our collective love-in with animal print shows no sign of slowing for autumn/winter, but after the leopard overload we witnessed over the summer, why not keep things fresh with a dash of zebra or a zing of snakeskin?
The runways were awash with pelt and skin prints of all kinds. From neon red, lilac and acid green giraffe prints at Marc Jacobs to seriously sophisticated swooshing snakeskin chiffon at Emilia Wickstead and bold tiger prints seen at Adam Selman and Dolce & Gabanna, this season were on safari.
But could the leopard have lost top spot?
Carolina Herrera AW18 / Getty Images
Dolce & Gabbana AW18 / AFP/Getty Images
Adam Selman AW18 / Getty Images for New York Fashion Week: The Shows
Emilia Wicksted AW18 / AFP/Getty Images
Double Coated
Have two favourite coats? Luckily this winter theres really no need to choose for the runways have decreed that the best outerwear came in twos.
First came Balenciagas brilliantly bonkers double-duvet coat situation, quickly followed by Margiela and Roksanda's equally OTT puffer layering.
Elsewhere Alexander McQueen topped mannish blazers with cropped leather biker jackets and Givenchy layered fur capes over tweed. How to avoid looking like a walking duvet? Cinch your waist with a belted underlayer as demonstrated at Rochas and on sunnier days dont discount trench coats, denim and leather.
Rochas AW18 / Getty Images
Vivienne Tam AW18 / Getty Images for New York Fashion Week: The Shows
Maison Margiela AW18 / Getty Images
Calvin Klein AW18 / Getty Images
Alexander Wang AW18 / Getty Images
Best Western
Lose the suede tasselling and push any oversized flannel shirts to the back of your cupboard, for as the Western trend rides into autumn, summers rough-and-ready rodeo vibes are replaced by an eveningwear-appropriate aesthetic.
Embrace sharply tailored full denim looks, like those seen at Tom Ford, seriously svelte satin shirts and high-glam embellishment.
Raf Simons continued his fresh take on Americana at Calvin Klein with sheer satin Western shirts and fabulous paint-splattered cowboy boots, while at Chloe, pretty prairie tops were paired with tight riding trousers or chic snakeskin minis. At Fendi, silky prairie dresses were paired with colourful croc cowboy boots and at Dolce and Gabbana, diamante-encrusted cowboy boots gave edge to sequinned suiting, proving this look is less rodeo-girl and more Rodeo Drive.
Calvin Klein AW18 / Getty Images
Fendi AW18 / AFP/Getty Images
H e currently runs a theatre with only 260 seats. For the next act of his career Madani Younis will take a key role in running 17 acres of auditoriums, gallery space and a library.
The artistic director who transformed the Bush Theatre in west London is moving to the Southbank Centre.
He is joining after the departure of Jude Kelly who ran the arts institution for more than a decade and oversaw its recent multi-million-pound refurbishment.
During Youniss time at the theatre in Shepherds Bush, capacity tripled, and shows were transferred to the West End and taken abroad for tours.
The Londoner paid tribute to the artists and audiences at the Bush who he said represented the diversity of the city around us.
He added that when he becomes creative director of the Southbank in January, he wants to bring world-class art to audiences old and new.
In his six years at the Bush, former filmmaker Younis put on the Black Lives, Black Words season a response to the Black Lives Matter movement which began in the US as a protest against police violence. He also served as a creative industries adviser to Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Elaine Bedell , Southbank chief executive, said: I know that Madani will bring a new energy and vision to our site and iconic venues.
London's best autumn theatre 1 /21 London's best autumn theatre Twelfth Night October 2 - November 17, Young Vic Measure for Measure September 28 - November 24, Donmar Warehouse Company September 26 - December 22, Gielgud Theatre
Buy tickets with GO London Dan Kennedy Sylvia September 3-22, Old Vic Theatre
Buy tickets with GO London Manuel Harlan I'm Not Running From October 2, National Theatre Pinter at the Pinter From September 6, Harold Pinter Theatre Getty Images The Wild Duck October 15 - December 1, Almeida Theatre PA Hadestown November 2 - January 26, National Theatre The Woods September 5 - October 20, Royal Court Theatre The Village September 7 - October 6, Theatre Royal Stratford East
Buy tickets with GO London Getty Images Wise Children October 8 - November 10, Old Vic Theatre
Buy tickets with GO London Misty September 8 - October 20, Trafalgar Studios
Buy tickets with GO London Helen Murray A Very Very Very Dark Matter October 12 - January 6, Bridge Theatre Dave Benett Heathers September 3 - November 24, Theatre Royal Haymarket
Buy tickets with GO London Pamela Raith Holy Sh!t September 5 - October 6, Kiln Theatre Photo by Mark Douet An Adventure September 6 - October 20, Bush Theatre I and You October 18 - November 24, Hampstead Theatre Caroline, or Change November 20 - February 9, Playhouse Theatre
Buy tickets with GO London Marc Brenner The Malady of Death October 3-6, Barbican Centre I'm a Phoenix, B**** October 3-20, Battersea Arts Centre A Small Place November 8 - December 1, Gate Theatre
We want to provide bold, diverse and ambitious artistic programming here and Madanis arrival signals that we are entering an exciting new era.
Kelly, a former artistic director at the Battersea Arts Centre, has left to dedicate herself to the Women of the World festival which she launched at the Southbank eight years ago.
Since then, WOW has grown into a global movement with 42 separate festivals in 23 countries celebrating the history and potential of women.
Kelly oversaw festivals and big-name appearances from the likes of Hillary Clinton, Motorhead and Yoko Ono, all of whom attracted sell-out audiences.
She also oversaw renovations. The Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Rooms closed in September 2015 to enable the 35 million refurbishment programme, funded by the Lottery, Arts Council and public donations.
A Bush spokesman said it will start its search for Youniss successor today.
T he BFI London Film Festival programme is made up of strands groups of films built around themes to help festivalgoers navigate their way through the less familiar titles.
The Create strand is the one that takes us into unfamiliar territory or, as the LFF programme puts it, channels the electricity of the creative process. Its about artists making art.
The films selected range from a documentary about 1980s pop band Bros after their break-up (When the Screaming Stops); Bergman A Year in the Life, marking the 100th birthday of the late Swedish master; and The Queen of Fear, about an Argentinian actor preparing a one-woman show.
But The White Crow, this years Create Gala, aims for the stars. It is scripted by David Hare, based on the book by Julie Kavanagh Hare will be speaking at an LFF Connects event on October 19. The film is directed by Ralph Fiennes and boasts an extraordinary performance by Ukrainian dancer Oleg Ivenko as the legendary Rudolf Nureyev.
The setting is Paris in the 1960s, when the Soviet cultural authorities decide to send the Kirov Ballet (principal male dancer, one Rudolf Nureyev) on a trip to Paris to show the French how things should really be done.
Five films you have to watch this autumn 1 /5 Five films you have to watch this autumn A Star Is Born In cinemas October 5 First Man In cinemas October 12 Bohemian Rhapsody In cinemas October 24 Peterloo In cinemas November 2 Widows In cinemas November 6
Things start to go wrong when Nureyev sees Parisian artistic life open up before him like a box of chocolates in front of an unruly kid. Instead of boarding the Aeroflot flight back to Moscow, he seeks political asylum. Nureyev, ballet and for that matter Paris would never be the same again.
W hether breathing fresh life into an already lauded play or resurrecting a flop, it could be an intimidating prospect for a director to take on a script with so much history behind it.
We love seeing old favourites - and new favourites for that matter - coming back to London so weve rounded up some of the best theatre revivals coming up in the city.
You can bet that you havent seen the last of any of these fantastic scripts.
Company
Company set the Tony Award record in 1971 with fourteen nominations. Sondheims musical, which revolves around protagonist Bobbys inability to settle down, has been showered with accolades each time it has returned. The most recent iteration is somewhat different: the upcoming production is led by War Horse, Angels in America and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time director Marianne Elliott, who has changed the lead role to Bobbi, played by Rosalie Craig. Sondheim has given his blessing to the gender-switch for the first time.
September 26 to December 22, Gielgud Theatre; gielgudtheatre.co.uk
Follies
Another Sondheim classic is Follies. First gracing Broadway in 1971, Follies was the most costly production seen so far, running for 500 shows and losing all of its investment. It was ultimately worth it though, returning time and again with stellar casts. Imelda Staunton helped bring the National Theatres 2017 to sell out audiences and Olivier Awards. Its storming success means we will see it return to the London stage in 2019 (albeit with different casting).
Opens February 14, National Theatre; nationaltheatre.org.uk
Caroline or Change
In 2004, Caroline, or Change bowled over audiences and critics alike, with Aniki Noni Rose in the lead as Caroline. The story is set loosely on Tony Kushners life and the maid of a family in Louisiana, but with added singing inanimate objects. This revival saw Sharon D Clarke steer the musical to rave reviews (five stars from the Standard) at Chichester and Hampstead Theatre. While its not as old as some of the others, it has just as much history and is sure to inspire just as many reprisals in the future. Clarke returns in the lead role at the Playhouse Theatre this November.
November 20 to February 9, Playhouse Theatre
Summer and Smoke
Written in 1948, Tennessee Williams Summer and Smoke didnt quite generate the same hype as his previous smash A Streetcar Named Desire. But a revival a couple of years later starring a legendary performance from Geraldine Page is credited with starting the Off-Broadway movement. The 2018 revival, starring Patsy Ferran and Matthew Needham, sold out its run in February at the Almeida Theatre, prompting a transfer to the Duke of Yorks Theatre. Ferran and Needham play Alma and John, who meet one summer in Mississippi, but their differing desires and obligations clash.
November 10-January 19, Duke of Yorks Theatre
Summer and Smoke - in pictures 1 /9 Summer and Smoke - in pictures Summer and Smoke - in pictures Marc Brenner Summer and Smoke - in pictures Marc Brenner Summer and Smoke - in pictures Marc Brenner Summer and Smoke - in pictures Marc Brenner Summer and Smoke - in pictures Marc Brenner Summer and Smoke - in pictures Marc Brenner Summer and Smoke - in pictures Marc Brenner Summer and Smoke - in pictures Marc Brenner Summer and Smoke - in pictures Marc Brenner
Twelfth Night
Kwame Kwei-Armah takes on Shakespeare for his first season in charge of the Young Vic. This is Twelfth Night with a twist - its a musical adaptation. Combining jazz and R&B melodies with the Bards gender-bending tale of unrequited love and confusion has music and lyrics by Shaina Taub. Having premiered in the US with Public Theater in 2016, this production will feature a community chorus from Southwark and Lambeth.
October 2 - November 17, Young Vic; youngvic.org
Don Quixote
Helen Maybanks
Originally playing at the RSCs Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to great applause in 2016, this adaptation of Cervantes novel by James Fenton makes a welcome return in its move to London. With David Threlfall in the title role and Rufus Hound playing his long-suffering squire, Angus Jackson directs the production at the Garrick Theatre. Losing his grip on reality, self-styled knight Don Quixote goes off on a farcical adventure with his sidekick Sancho Panza through medieval Spain.
October 27-February 2, Garrick Theatre
I and You
Lauren Gunderson wrote I and You in 2014, winning the American Theatre Critics Association new play award. Last year she was the most produced playwright in America after Shakespeare. Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams makes her stage debut at Hampstead Theatre in this story of how a girl, housebound through illness, with nothing but Instagram for company forms a deep bond with a Walt Whitman-loving teen boy.
October 18 - November 24, Hampstead Theatre; hampsteadtheatre.com
True West
Another Game of Thrones star makes the journey over to stage. Kit Harington isnt new to the West End, but he has been away for a while. Sam Shepards play True West was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1983, and has seen the two leads played by Tommy Lee Jones, John Malkovich, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Mark Rylance. Harington stars across from Johnny Flynn as warring brothers Austin and Lee.
November 23-February 16, Vaudeville Theatre
Antony and Cleopatra
Shakespeares play about one of historys most famous couples has been performed time and again - the RSCs production ran at Barbican at the beginning of this year. Now the National are in on the act with this much anticipated show starring Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo as the fated pair and directed by Simon Godwin. Politics and passion become intertwined when General Mark Antony falls in love with the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra.
September 18-January 19, National Theatre; nationaltheatre.org.uk
Where to watch Shakespeare in London 1 /7 Where to watch Shakespeare in London Hamlet - Young Vic Dean Chalkley Where to watch Shakespeare in London & Juliet - Shaftesbury Theatre Romeo and Juliet - Shakespeare's Globe Getty Images Where to watch Shakespeare in London Upstart Crow - Gielgud Theatre BBC/Colin Hutton Where to watch Shakespeare in London Romeo and Juliet - National Theatre Where to watch Shakespeare in London The Taming of the Shrew - Sam Wanamaker's Playhouse (Johan Perrson) Where to watch Shakespeare in London Romeo and Juliet - Regent's Park Open Air Theatre
Measure for Measure
Another twist on a Shakespearean classic. Measure for Measure at the Donmar Warehouse goes the whole hog with gender-swapping. Hayley Atwell and Jack Lowden will both play Angelo and Isabella, switching halfway through the play. This experimental piece from artistic director Josie Rourke will be a world-first.
L ast week, I launched Taste the Emerald Isle in Selfridges, a celebration of Irish food which is on until October 9. I curated a table of my favourite Irish dishes.
There were mini baked potatoes with creme fraiche and Goatsbridge Trout Farm sustainable trout caviar, Irish dulse seaweed-crusted potato chips with aioli, Glendalough gin and beetroot salmon gravlax and my favourite Irish soul food, beef with parsley sauce (yes, you call it salt beef here in the UK).
As part of the event you can pop into the food hall and meet fabulous Irish producers and sample their delicious food. One of my favourites is a new mix from McCambridges which allows you to make your own soda bread in just a few minutes.
There are lots of fun events too that you can get involved in, such as Irelands Best Culinary Talent dinner hosted by yours truly, a Carlingford oyster and Glendalough gin-tasting evening and a dinner hosted by Ballymaloe Cookery School co-founder Rory OConnell. Full details at selfridges.co.uk.
But one thing you must do is go and pick up a piece of beef and make yourself the most delicious Irish soul food supper along with a glass of Guinness, of course.
Beef with smashed swede and parsley sauce
Clodagh McKenna
Serves: 6
Preparation time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 2 hours 30 mins
Ingredients
1 kg silverside beef
2 carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
For the swede
400g swede, peeled and chopped
50g butter
For the parsley sauce
2 tbsp butter
1 onion, finely diced
2 tbsp plain flour
200ml milk
2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 tsp English mustard
pinch of nutmeg
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Clodagh McKenna
Method
1. Place the beef, carrots and onion into a large saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and skim off the foam that accumulates on the surface. Cover and simmer for about 2 hours, or until the beef is tender. Remove from the liquid, wrap in foil, and set aside. Reserve about 400ml of the cooking liquid.
2. Place the chopped swedes in a saucepan with 200ml of the reserved cooking liquid. Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer and allow to cook for a further 20 minutes or until cooked. Strain and add the butter, season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Smash the swedes roughly using a potato masher.
3. To make the parsley sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Stir in the diced onion and cook for one minute. Next stir in the flour and cook, stirring, for about one minute more.
Add the remaining 200ml of reserved cooking liquid, milk, parsley, mustard, nutmeg, and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Continue to whisk to get a smooth consistency.Cook for another three minutes, whisking constantly, until the sauce thickens.
4. To serve, slice the beef against the grain on to a warmed platter, and place the smashed swedes in a warmed bowl.
Finally, pour the parsley sauce into a warmed jug. And let everyone help themselves.
I ts not every day you walk into a room filled with 200 kilograms of cabbage. But the team behind the British fermented foods business, Eaten Alive, are obsessed with the stuff and talk with passion about the vegetable: how they buy it, shred it, mix it, and store it.
For two years, friends and chefs Pat Bingley and Glyn Gordon have been hellbent on learning how to make their own versions of sauerkraut, the fermented cabbage dish popular in Eastern Europe; kimchi, the fermented cabbage dish eaten across Korea; and a fermented chilli hot sauce. They sell these to London restaurants (such as Tonkotsu, Chick and Sours and Nanban) and delis and, last month, the team celebrated three wins at the Oscars of the artisan food world, The Great Taste Awards.
Our eventual aim of Eaten Alive is to turn our office into a showroom for fermented foods, kind of like a wine tasting room - because so many people have so many questions about our stuff, says Bingley, who quotes their mantra: Inspired by tradition, but not bound to it - because we like to put the traditional element [of something] to one side for a moment and do something like, say, tahini with sunflower seeds. So were creative with the basic parts."
Gordon adds: Were a little divorced from our traditional food culture here so were not really bound by anything and tend to be able to try things out with food. He compares this with France or Italy, which is so bound to tradition and there is such a reverence for it that it can hamper progress.
A former pastry chef at Fera at Claridges, Gordon argues that its the same with pastry or anything that you want to do well your own way. You need to know the basics. People say to us this is the latest thing - but fermentation is the oldest thing! Were doing more of a revival.
After a short tour, during which I hear the thundering sounds of trains passing overhead, we sit down at a table dotted with tiny plastic containers, inside which are Gordons projects - things like an incredible smoked Sriracha sauce, and salt-pressed and fermented apricots and plums that are equally sweet and savoury and bizarrely addictive. There are so many flavours that tasting everything makes me feel light headed. Wackiest of all - to me, anyway - are delicious garlic cloves, finally ready after Gordon buried them in miso paste a year ago. These, says Nicola Swift, who has recently joined the team, are like crack - so easy to just eat lots of!
Here they tell me how they run their business:
Glyn and Pat want you to be as obsessed with fermented foods as they are / Eaten Alive
How did Eaten Alive start?
Pat: Fermented food was an area that we both found really exciting and there wasnt a huge amount of innovation going on. We found that a lot of people we spoke to didnt understand the role that it plays in foods that theyre excited about - from tea and chocolate to bread and wine. It also fits into a lower fat, lower calorie, more nutrition-aware society.
We had thought wed start a restaurant and focus on cultured foods like sourdough, cheeses and so on, and just as we were planning that, a friend asked us if we could develop a vegan kimchi to use in their restaurant. That turned into a food brand that we thought would last a few months, then that turned out to be hugely in-depth! We started everything ourselves with less than 20,000, and after that we raised funds privately for the new space, and are about to take on more for the next stage.
Do you still love to eat your products?
Pat: "Yes, every day! The spicy kimchi is perfect with rice and an egg, Glyn likes adding kimchi or sauerkraut to cheddar and Stilton toasties. The pink kraut is also great on its own with Emmental or feta cheese.
Talk us through the process...
Pat: For our kimchi, once weve chopped and shredded the cabbage and made and mixed in the paste, it sits in containers to ferment. The times change depending on the weather, and we taste it every few days and test the pH so that we have control over it. Both of our kimchis tend to ferment for a week or so, but the sauerkraut has a much longer fermentation of around six weeks depending on the ambiance. There is a higher count of microbes on vegetables in the summertime so its more likely that batches wont turn out right then.
Glyn: Our main focus is on quality and consistency but obviously there is also a certain amount of luck because every time youre putting your faith in the natural processes. As far as traditional recipes go, I dont think you have to be absolutely in keeping with them, but it has to be a good product - and at the very least its important to research what the real recipe is supposed to be. Weve of course done that, and then weve taken things our own way.
Can you describe a week in the life of a fermenter?
Pat and Glyn: We tend to do two production days and two market runs per week. On Mondays we pack and get the orders ready, because produce in a market is not that fresh after a weekend. We rely on things being good [so] its important to keep switching who we buy from. On market days well go at 5am, then bring the cabbages back here. On Tuesday well fill that same van with jars and tubs to send out and then well start production.
Glyn: And in between all of that, we also squeeze in sales, networking, events, payroll, marketing and PR.
Which other London food producers do you admire?
"Lots of fermenters! Andy Harris' Vinegar Shed - he has an absolute obsession with making the best vinegars possible, with lots of interesting varietals and flavours. Kappacasein Dairy makes fantastic cheese and yoghurt produced in Bermondsey. We loved Yeast Bakery in London Fields for their inimitable kouign-amann and malted sourdough bread. And we can't not mention Kanpai London in Peckham which produced brilliant traditionally-brewed sake.
P odcasts have been making something of a comeback recently, and one of our all-time favourites, Serial, is returning for a third season.
Sticking with the same in-depth style of investigative journalism, the latest season will take a broad look at the criminal justice system in the US.
Debuting back in 2014, Serial became the fastest podcast ever to reach five million downloads.
So what twists and turns does this season hold for us? Here's everything you need to know.
When is the new season of Serial released?
The new season will debut on 20 September.
You can listen to Serial by streaming via their official website or downloading on the podcast app for Apple or Google Podcasts, RadioPublic or Stitcher for Android.
What will this season be about?
This season will look at the criminal justice systems in the US, using multiple court cases from Cleveland, Ohio to illustrate its successes and failures.
The series will examine a wide range of cases from the everyday to the more serious crimes such as murder.
The show's host, Sarah Koenig, revealed how she spent a year following individual cases.
She said: "I'd seen a litany of things that shouldn't be allowed. It was like a checklist of things reformers complain about: extra changes loaded on to a case, pressure to plead, shabby police work..."
What were the last two seasons about?
The first season followed the gripping story of Adnan Syed who was convicted in 2000 for murdering his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee.
Using compelling evidence, Sarah takes listeners on a whirlwind journey trying to piece together what happened.
E veryone dreads getting sick while travelling. People often blame the air con on the plane for picking up colds on their travels, but new research suggests you ought to be just as wary travelling through the airport.
The plastic trays at airport security have been found to harbour the highest levels of viruses at airports, according to new research from the University of Nottingham.
The study, which was published in BMC Infectious Diseases, was conducted by pandemic experts from the university and the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare. They swabbed a variety of surfaces which are frequently touched at Helsinki-Vantaa airport in Finland during the winter of 2016 in search of traces of respiratory viruses.
The researchers found evidence of viruses on 10 per cent of the surfaces tested, including rhinovirus, which causes the common cold, but also influenza A virus.
The plastic trays, where passengers are required to put their shoes and carry-on luggage before passing through the x-ray machines at security, were found to be the worst offenders, harbouring the highest levels of viruses.
Meanwhile, none were found on toilet surfaces.
Other places to be wary of are chip and pin machines, staircase rails, passport control counters and childrens play areas, where viruses were also found.
Study authors concluded that hand washing and "careful coughing" are essential to controlling the spread of infections in crowded areas like airports.
Jonathan Van Tam, professor of health protection, at the universitys school of medicine, said: "People can help to minimise contagion by hygienic hand washing and coughing into a handkerchief, tissue or sleeve at all times but especially in public places. These simple precautions can help prevent pandemics and are most important in crowded areas like airports that have a high volume of people travelling to and from many different parts of the world".
Virology expert Niina Ikonen from the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare added: "The presence of microbes in the environment of an airport has not been investigated previously. The new findings support preparedness planning for controlling the spread of serious infectious diseases in airports. The results also provide new ideas for technical improvements in airport design and refurbishment."
They note that the results of this study don't prove that viruses found on surfaces and in the air are alive and cause disease, though previous research has shown that microbes can survive on surfaces for up to several days.
A teenager has been left in a critical condition in hospital after he was stabbed in north London.
The male victim, believed to be 18, was found with stab wounds after an altercation in York Way, near Kings Cross, on Tuesday night.
The Metropolitan Police said officers were called to the scene at 10pm, although a group of suspects had fled.
The victim was rushed to hospital where he remained in a critical condition on Wednesday morning, a Scotland Yard spokesman said.
The incident comes amid a rise in violent crime in London and parts of the UK.
The photos are from a Bank of America surveillance camera at Gateway Plaza, about half a block from where Shane Colombo, 25, was killed around 8:25 p.m. Sunday near Clark Street and Howard Avenue. Police say Colombo was walking toward the Howard "L" station when two men began shooting at each other.
I n a major breakthrough into their investigation, police have said there is no doubt the Novichok poisonings of Dawn Sturgess, Charlie Rowely, Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal are all linked.
Police believe Ms Sturgess and Mr Rowley were not deliberately targeted and were rather innocent, tragic victims who were hurt because of the recklessness in which such a toxic nerve agent was disposed of.
Mother-of- three Ms Sturgess died on July 8 after being exposed to Novichok on June 30, having never gained consciousness again.
Her partner, Charlie Rowley, who was also exposed, became seriously ill but did make a recovery.
Dawn: Mr Rowley described his partner as a 'lovely lady with a big heart' / AFP/Getty Images
The 48-year-old fell ill again more recently, having been rushed to hospital after going temporarily blind.
Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, National Lead for Counter Terrorism Policing said he is confident that all four attacks are linked, because of the nature of the crime and the rareness of Novichok.
In a statement, he said: Over the last six months we have meticulously followed the evidence, working closely with specialist forensic teams and scientists, as we have investigated both the attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, and the poisoning of Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley.
Let me be clear, we have no doubt these two incidents are connected and now form one investigation.
Charlie Rowley fell ill in June following exposure to the nerve agent Novichok / AFP/Getty Images
He added: We have now linked the attack on the Skripals and the events in Amesbury which affected Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley.
It now forms one investigation. We do not believe Dawn and Charlie were deliberately targeted, but became victims as a result of the recklessness in which such a toxic nerve agent was disposed of.
He said one investigation has been formed because the same type of Novichok was used in both cases and is one of the rarest chemical warfare agents in the world.
Its discovery in two very close locations, he added, is beyond a coincidence.
Two Russian nationals were charged with carrying out the Novichok attack in Salisbury on Mr Skripal and his daughter, Yulia.
Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov were charged with the attempted murder of former Russian spy Mr Skripal, his daughter Yulia and police officer Nick Bailey.
T his is the first picture of a young man who was found shot dead in a north London graveyard.
The body of Ismail Tanrikulu, 22, was discovered near the entrance of Tottenham Cemetery just before 8am on Monday. It is understood he was ambushed after a set up.
He had been told to meet an associate at 4.30am and drove to the scene with his cousin.
A friend of Mr Tanrikulu said: Before the shooting Ismails mothers Mercedes was smashed up after a group visited the family home and became violent when they discovered he was not there.
He received a call to meet in the cemetery at 4.30am. He went and was ambushed. His cousin was in the car and heard the shots. We understand he may have been set up by someone.
Ismail Tanrikulu was found dead in a cemetery in Tottenham
The exact reason is not clear, whether it was about money or revenge.
He was pronounced dead at the scene and his family, from the close-knit north London Turkish community, have been supporting each other. Mr Tanrikulu married about a year ago and has a brother and sister.
Friends today paid tribute to the former student of Gladesmore Community School in south Tottenham.
Tanesha Melbourne, 17, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in April, attended the same school
The victim attended the same school as Tanesha Melbourne, 17, who was shot dead in April / PA
A friend of Mr Tanrikulu told the Evening Standard: He was so respectful. He was always caring, he would say, Dont feel shy, if you need help tell me if anyones bothering you, tell me. He was a kind and loving person.
A school friend described him as a solid, fun guy who was very popular. He said: He played in goal at school. He was like a rock and had safe hands. He never got into any real trouble. When I saw him recently he was the same friendly person I knew.
Scotland Yard could not confirm when Mr Tanrikulu was shot or how long he had been lying in the cemetery, which is closed to the public overnight. There have been no arrests.
A rmed police descended on a station in a leafy London suburb after a man was stabbed during rush hour.
Emergency services were called to Whitton railway station, in south-west London, just before 6.30pm on Wednesday.
The victim, whose age is not known, was rushed to hospital after the incident unfolded in front of shocked commuters.
Trains did not stop at the station as police attempted to find the suspect, who was thought to have escaped onto the railway tracks. The suspect was not found.
It is unclear whether the stabbing happened inside the station or just outside.
Witnesses took to social media as scores of vehicles arrived at the scene near Whitton High Street.
Former MP Matthew Gordon Banks said: Something serious happening at Whitton station near Twickenham. Much armed police activity.
A British Transport Police spokesman added: As it was believed that the suspect may have entered the station and gone on to the railway tracks, BTP officers - including armed officers and dog unit - searched the area, along with colleagues from the Metropolitan Police. The suspect was not found.
The male victim has been taken to hospital with what is believed to be non-life threatening injuries.
T he head of the NHS England has hailed a new cancer treatment they will offer to children "game-changing."
The new ground-breaking treatment, called CAR-T, helps patients battling aggressive leukaemia where other drugs may have failed.
NHS England head Simon Stevens said an affordable price had been agreed with Novartis, the treatment's manufacturer and the NHS.
CAR-T currently has a list price of 282,000 per patient.
Hospitals could begin administering the drug to children within a matter of weeks.
But what exactly is CAR-T and how will the NHS be funding it? Here's everything you need to know:
How does CAR-T work?
CAR-T works by taking the patient's own white blood cells, re-engineering them in a lab to create ones that are able to fight cancer cells.
These new cells are then injected into the body, where they multiply.
As well as being used to treat leukaemia, there are also trials looking at CAR-T for myeloma and neuroblastoma, a rare cancer that affects particular nerve cells.
Can CAR-T cure leukaemia?
Leukaemia is an aggressive form of blood cancer caused by a rise in the number of white blood cells in your body.
CAR-T has been known to cure some patients, but it's a relatively new drug so there's no guarantee.
Will CAR-T cause side effects?
Again, because it's a new treatment, the side effects haven't been well documented.
However, according to Cancer Research UK, two possible known side effects include: cytokine release syndrome (fever, dizziness, difficulty breathing) and having no B cells or fewer B cells after treatment with CAR-T cells that target CD19.
How will the NHS fund the treatment?
The NHS has struck a deal with Novartis that means a CAR-T treatment called Kymriah for patients up to 25 years old who have advanced B-cell lymphoblastic leukaemia and has not been helped by other drugs.
This doesn't mean everyone under these circumstances will receive treatment, though.
A n architect whose self-built dream home was nominated one of Britains ugliest buildings said it should not be listed among the worst eyesores.
Chris Moore, 39, was shocked to learn his three-bedroom Streatham eco-home had been shortlisted for the Carbuncle Cup, an annual wooden spoon for architecture.
Staff at Building Design magazine described the orange, three-storey property as an alien blot on the streetscape that looks more like an electricity substation than a home. Editor Thomas Lane said the house had the appearance of a red-faced child.
But Mr Moore, a partner at Pace Jefford Moore Architects who studied at Londons Bartlett School of Architecture, said he was very proud of it.
Architect Chris Moore (ES Local Feed ) / ES Local Feed
He added: Im an architect I know what Im doing. The father of one, who lives in the 800,000 house with fiancee Caroline Ingman, 35, and their 20-month-old daughter, said the nomination called into question the awards validity. My house has no impact on anyone other than the few people living on my road, he added. This is at best a local issue, and shouldnt be compared to the other buildings nominated.
Mr Moore said the prize would be more useful highlighting large abuses of public space. Previous winners include the Walkie Talkie in the City. Other nominees this year included Lewisham Gateway, and Haydn Tower at Nine Elms Point in Vauxhall.
Previous winner: the Walkie Talkie is one of London's most famous skyscrapers / PA
After paying 160,000 for the land in 2013, Mr Moore spent about 280,000 building the home. It is energy-efficient, with solar panels and over a foot of insulation throughout. The shutter-like windows help regulate temperature.The orange, he said, was in keeping with the area. Neighbour Ranjeet Brar said: I like it. Its very cleverly designed.
A n "urban explorer" was detained by police after being spotted by terrified onlookers dangling from a crane near an east London Tube station.
Police were called to the 360 Barking property development, near Barking station, after receiving numerous reports of the man trapped and "hanging" from the crane.
A video shared on Snapchat and later posted on Twitter showed a dark figure appearing to dangle from the crane.
Barking and Dagenham police later revealed he had been taking pictures from the crane.
Police said the 'urban explorer' climbed down / @TellyAddict1/Twitter
A spokesperson told the Standard: "The man says he was an urban explorer up there taking photos. He was detained by police when he climbed down.
Items found on him when he was detained and searched would indicate he is an urban explorer. He will be attending a police station for an interview.
Police were called to the scene on Tuesday evening and were still dealing with the incident in the early hours.
A Met Police spokeswoman told the Standard on Tuesday morning that the incident was stood down and no one was arrested.
Local cops also had to deal with a serious collision outside the station at the same time.
The incidents came days after a man was stabbed in the back outside the station. The man, in his 50s, was taken to hospital but his injuries were not life threatening or life changing.
B rits would vote 59-41 in favour of Remain if a second Brexit referendum was held, according to a new poll.
The opinion poll, revealed on Wednesday, represents the highest recorded support for EU membership in such a survey since the 2016 vote.
The findings were published in an academic-led report on Wednesday by research bodies NatCen and The UK in a Changing Europe, which has been responsible for five such surveys since the referendum.
Some 2,048 subjects were interviewed between June 7 and July 8.
Jeremy Corbyn brings up Thersea May's dancing over Brexit negotiations
The author of the report, polling expert John Curtice, added a note of caution, saying that their panel of interviewees reported they had voted 53 percent in favour of Remain in the original vote a higher proportion than in the actual vote.
On June 23 2016, 52 percent of the voters backed leaving the EU while 48 per cent backed staying. Many opinion polls were wrong about the result.
But he added: "Nevertheless, this still means that there has apparently been a six-point swing from Leave to Remain, larger than that registered by any of our previous rounds of interviewing, and a figure that would seemingly point to a 54 percent (Remain) vote in any second referendum held now.
Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, 2019 but has yet to secure a deal with Brussels to define future relations and manage the economic impact of ending over four decades of integration with the world's largest trading bloc.
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
The government has ruled out holding a second referendum. Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Theresa May reiterated this stance before quoting the World Trade Organisation that a no-deal situation "wouldn't be the end of the world".
The survey does not fully reflect any change in opinion brought about by the publication of Prime Minister Theresa May's negotiating strategy, published in early July.
That negotiating strategy has split the Conservative Party and drawn heavy criticism from both Brexit supporters and those who want to retain close ties to the EU.
Nevertheless, the poll shows voters thought the negotiations were going badly even before the publication of May's so-called Chequers plan.
"Both Remain and Leave supporters have become markedly more critical of how both the UK government, especially, and the EU, somewhat less so, have been handling the negotiations," Mr Curtice said.
"They have also become markedly more pessimistic about how good a deal Britain will get."
F rances Europe minister dealt a hammer blow to Theresa Mays hopes of saving her Chequers plan today, insisting the EU will not change its rules to accommodate post-Brexit Britain.
In an interview with the Evening Standard, Nathalie Loiseau scoffed at British media reports that her boss President Emmanuel Macron was softening to the Prime Ministers proposals.
I read the British press on a daily basis and sometimes I wonder whether we live in the same world, she said.
Ms Loiseau stated firmly that EU law is not subject to negotiation and accused the UK of asking for more rights than full members.
She also backed the tough stance of EU negotiator Michel Barnier, dismissing claims that he might be ordered by the 27 other EU states to make concessions. It is not as if he is a loose cannon from the Commission, she said.
Echoing Mrs Mays own slogan that no deal is better than a bad deal, she said France was preparing its businesses and citizens for the possibility of the UK crashing out without an agreement, adding: This is not what we want but we dont want a bad deal either.
The firm line from Paris came as Mrs May faced a growing backlash at home over her Chequers blueprint.
Scathing assessment: Nathalie Loiseau / AFP/Getty Images
Mervyn King, the former Bank of England governor, branded the Governments Brexit preparations as incompetent. He also told the BBC it beggars belief that a major economy was stockpiling food and medicine.
A poll suggested a shift in UK public opinion against Brexit, with respondents dividing 59 to 41 for Remain in a second referendum. It was overseen by polling expert Professor Sir John Curtice of Strathclyde University.
Mrs May was facing the wrath of Tory Brexiteers determined to attack the Chequers blueprint at the first Prime Ministers Questions since the recess.
In her interview, Ms Loiseau warned: We will not redefine our basic principles because the UK doesnt want to belong to the European Union any more.
"We have described our priorities and they are not subject to negotiation. The Chequers proposals seek smooth trade for goods and food, based on a single set of customs rules, but no specific deal on services. Ms Loiseau insisted that while a future trade deal must be a special one, it cannot divide the single market.
Brexiteers accuse the EU of bringing talks to the brink of collapse with their hardline stance. But Ms Loiseau indicated that for the EUs point of view, the biggest risk was Mrs Mays lack of a majority. We have to consider what the Government proposes and what the British parliament would be ready to ratify, she said. And there, there is an obvious question mark.
On the Irish issue, Ms Loiseau claimed that the backstop deal agreed in December means that there have to be controls in the Irish Sea an outcome that Mrs May has ruled out.
She said a no-deal Brexit looked more likely due to the lack of progress in recent months, adding: I would not have said that six months ago.
She dismissed UK reports that France was punishing Britain by taking a tough line against concessions, and quashed recent claims that Mr Macron had softened. There is nothing true about the French being tougher than others ... indeed, we want a good deal but not at the detriment of the EU27, she said.
On the financial sector, she said: We are not trying to steal any energy from London. But we are encouraging people who want to settle in Paris or elsewhere in France.
F ewer than one in five voters now expect Britain to secure a good Brexit deal as Theresa Mays plans remain under fire, according to damning new research.
The proportion of people expecting a good deal has slumped dramatically from 33 per cent in February last year to just 17 per cent in June 2018, the survey showed.
The data was conducted and shared ahead of the publication of the Prime Ministers heavily criticised Chequers plan for the UKs future relationship with the EU.
Some 57 per cent of voters now predict Britain will end talks with a bad deal, up from 37 per cent since February 2017. Thats according to the survey for NatCen Social Research.
EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier is opposed to key parts of Mrs May's Chequers plan / AFP/Getty Images
Just over 50 per cent now expect the UKs economy to be worse of as a result of Brexit, while just 38 per cent said Britains departure would mean lower immigration.
According to the new figurers, only 13 per cent said the Government had handled negotiations well so far. Thats down from 29 per cent in February last year.
Some 64 per cent said it had handled talks badly.
There was also very little support for the EUs approach to negotiations, with 57 per cent saying Brussels had handled them badly. Only 16 per cent said it had handled them well.
Theresa May: The Prime Minister's Chequers plans are under intense fire / EPA
The report, by polling expert Professor Sir John Curtice of Strathclyde University, found that 59 per cent of members of a NatCen panel now say they would vote Remain in a second referendum.
Just 41 per cent were backing Leave.
However, the researchers cautioned that this apparently comfortable lead for Remain may be skewed by the fact those responding reported voting against Brexit by a margin of 53-47 per cent in the 2016 referendum.
Dominic Raab: Government ready to deliver no-deal Brexit
The survey found that just 81 per cent of 2016 Leave voters would back Brexit now, with 12 per cent saying they had switched to Remain. By contrast, just 6 per cent of Remain voters have changed sides, with 90 per cent sticking by their original decision.
Among those who did not vote in 2016, almost half (49 per cent) said they would now vote against Brexit, compared to 23 per cent who would back Leave in a second referendum.
With permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to update the House on the investigation into the attempted murder of Sergey and Yulia Skripal - and the subsequent poisoning of Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley earlier this year.
This was a sickening and despicable act in which a devastatingly toxic nerve agent - known as Novichok - was used to attack our country. It left four people fighting for their lives and one innocent woman dead. And I know the thoughts of the whole House will be with the family of Dawn Sturgess in particular, following their tragic loss.
In March I set out for the House why the government concluded that the Russian State was culpable for the attempted murder of Mr Skripal and his daughter.
I also said that - while we all share a sense of impatience to bring those responsible to justice as a nation that believes in the rule of law we would give the police the space and time to carry out their investigation properly.
Since then around 250 detectives have trawled through more than 11,000 hours of CCTV and taken more than 1,400 statements.
Working around the clock they have carried out painstaking and methodical work to ascertain exactly which individuals were responsible and the methods they used to carry out this attack.
Mr Speaker, this forensic investigation has now produced sufficient evidence for the independent Director of Public Prosecutions to bring charges against two Russian nationals for:
the conspiracy to murder Sergei Skripal;
the attempted murder of Sergei and Yulia Skripal and Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey;
the use and possession of Novichok; and
causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Yulia Skripal and Nick Bailey.
This morning, the police have set out how the two Russian nationals travelled under the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov names the police believe to be aliases.
They arrived at Gatwick Airport at 3pm on Friday 2nd March, having flown from Moscow on flight SU2588.
They travelled by train to London Victoria, then on to Waterloo before going to the City Stay Hotel in Bow Road East London.
They stayed there on both Friday and Saturday evenings and traces of Novichok were found in their hotel room.
On Saturday 3rd March they visited Salisbury, arriving at approximately 2.25pm and leaving less than two hours later, at 4.10pm. The police are confident this was for reconnaissance of the Salisbury area.
On Sunday 4th March they made the same journey, travelling by underground from Bow to Waterloo station at approximately 8.05am, before continuing by train to Salisbury.
The police have today released CCTV footage of the two men which clearly places them in the immediate vicinity of the Skripals house at 11.58am, which the police say was moments before the attack.
They left Salisbury and returned to Waterloo arriving at approximately 4.45pm and boarded the underground at approximately 6.30pm to Heathrow - from where they returned to Moscow on flight SU2585, departing at 10.30pm.
Mr Speaker, this hard evidence has enabled the independent Crown Prosecution Service to conclude they have a sufficient basis on which to bring charges against these two men for the attack in Salisbury.
The same two men are now also the prime suspects in the case of Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley too.
There is no other line of inquiry beyond this.
And the police have today formally linked the attack on the Skripals and the events in Amesbury such that it now forms one investigation.
There are good reasons for doing so.
Our own analysis, together with yesterdays report from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, has confirmed that the exact same chemical nerve agent was used in both cases.
There is no evidence to suggest that Dawn and Charlie may have been deliberately targeted, but rather were victims of the reckless disposal of this agent.
The police have today released further details of the small glass counterfeit perfume bottle and box discovered in Charlie Rowleys house which was found to contain this nerve agent.
And the manner in which the bottle was modified leaves no doubt it was a cover for smuggling the weapon into the country, and for the delivery method for the attack against the Skripals front door.
Mr Speaker, the police investigation into the poisoning of Dawn and Charlie is ongoing and the police are today appealing for further information. But were these two suspects within our jurisdiction there would be a clear basis in law for their arrest for murder.
Mr Speaker, we repeatedly asked Russia to account for what happened in Salisbury in March, and they have replied with obfuscation and lies.
This has included trying to pass the blame for this attack onto terrorists, onto our international partners, and even onto the future mother-in-law of Yulia Skripal.
They even claimed that I, myself, invented Novichok.
Their attempts to hide the truth by pushing out a deluge of disinformation simply reinforces their culpability.
As we made clear in March, only Russia had the technical means, operational experience and motive to carry out the attack.
Novichok nerve agents were developed by the Soviet Union in the 1980s under a programme codenamed FOLIANT.
Within the past decade Russia has produced and stockpiled small quantities of these agents, long after it signed the Chemical Weapons Convention.
And during the 2000s, Russia commenced a programme to test means of delivering nerve agents including by application to door handles.
We were right to say in March that the Russian State was responsible.
And now we have identified the individuals involved, we can go even further.
Mr Speaker, just as the police investigation has enabled the CPS to bring charges against the two suspects, so the Security and Intelligence Agencies have carried out their own investigations into the organisation behind this attack.
Based on this work, I can today tell the House that, based on a body of intelligence, the Government has concluded that the two individuals named by the police and CPS are officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU.
The GRU is a highly disciplined organisation with a well-established chain of command.
So this was not a rogue operation. It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state.
Mr Speaker, the House will appreciate that I cannot go into details about the work of our security and intelligence agencies. But we will be briefing Opposition leaders and others on Privy Council terms and also giving further detail to the Intelligence and Security Committee.
Let me turn to our response to this appalling attack and the further knowledge we now have about those responsible.
First, with respect to the two individuals, as the Crown Prosecution Service and Police announced earlier today, we have obtained a European Arrest Warrant and will shortly issue an Interpol red notice.
Of course, Russia has repeatedly refused to allow its nationals to stand trial overseas, citing a bar on extradition in its constitution.
So, as we found following the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, any formal extradition request in this case would be futile.
But should either of these individuals ever again travel outside Russia, we will take every possible step to detain them, to extradite them and to bring them to face justice here in the United Kingdom.
Mr Speaker, this chemical weapons attack on our soil was part of a wider pattern of Russian behaviour that persistently seeks to undermine our security and that of our allies around the world.
They have fomented conflict in the Donbas, illegally annexed Crimea, repeatedly violated the national airspace of several European countries and mounted a sustained campaign of cyber espionage and election interference.
They were behind a violent attempted coup in Montenegro. And a Russian-made missile, launched from territory held by Russian-backed separatists, brought down MH17.
We must step up our collective effort to protect ourselves in response to this threat and that is exactly what we have done since the attack in March, both domestically and collectively with our allies.
We have introduced a new power to detain people at the UK border to determine whether they are engaged in hostile state activity.
We have introduced the Magnitsky amendment to the Sanctions and Money Laundering Act in response to the violation of human rights. And we have radically stepped up our activity against illicit finance entering our country.
We also expelled 23 Russian diplomats who had been identified as undeclared Russian intelligence officers, fundamentally degrading Russian intelligence capability in the UK for years to come.
And in collective solidarity and in recognition of the shared threat posed to our allies 28 other countries as well as NATO joined us in expelling a total of over 150 Russian intelligence officers: the largest collective expulsion ever.
Since then, the EU agreed a comprehensive package to tackle hybrid threats.
The G7 agreed a Rapid Response Mechanism to share intelligence on hostile state activity.
NATO has substantially strengthened its collective deterrence, including through a new Cyber Operations Centre.
And the US has announced additional sanctions against Russia for the Salisbury attack.
Mr Speaker, our allies acted in good faith - and the painstaking work of our police and intelligence agencies over the last six months further reinforces that they were right to do so.
Together, we will continue to show that those who attempt to undermine the international rules based system cannot act with impunity.
We will continue to press for all of the measures agreed so far to be fully implemented, including the creation of a new EU Chemical Weapons sanctions regime.
But we will not stop there.
We will also push for new EU sanctions regimes against those responsible for cyber-attacks and gross human rights violations - and for new listings under the existing regime against Russia.
And we will work with our partners to empower the OPCW to attribute chemical weapons attacks to other states beyond Syria.
Most significantly, Mr Speaker, what we have learnt from todays announcement is the specific nature of the threat from the Russian GRU.
We know that the GRU has played a key part in malign Russian activity in recent years.
And today we have exposed their role behind the despicable chemical weapons attack on the streets of Salisbury.
The actions of the GRU are a threat to all our allies and to all our citizens.
And on the basis of what we have learnt in the Salisbury investigation - and what we know about this organisation more broadly - we must now step up our collective efforts, specifically against the GRU.
We are increasing our understanding of what the GRU is doing in our countries, shining a light on their activities, exposing their methods and sharing them with our allies, just as we have done with Salisbury.
And, Mr Speaker, while the House will appreciate that I cannot go into details, together with our allies we will deploy the full range of tools from across our National Security apparatus in order to counter the threat posed by the GRU.
I have said before, and I say again now, that the UK has no quarrel with the Russian people.
And we continue to hold out hope that we will one day once again enjoy a strong partnership with the Government of this great nation.
As a fellow Permanent Member of the UN Security Council, we will continue to engage Russia on topics of international peace and security.
But we will also use these channels of communication to make clear there can be no place in any civilised international order for the kind of barbaric activity which we saw in Salisbury in March.
Finally, Mr Speaker let me pay tribute to the fortitude of the people of Salisbury, Amesbury and the surrounding areas, who have faced such disruption to their daily lives over the past six months.
Let me once again thank the outstanding efforts of the emergency services and National Health Service in responding to these incidents.
And let me thank all those involved in the police and intelligence community for their tireless and painstaking work which has led to todays announcement.
Mr Speaker, back in March, Russia sought to sow doubt and uncertainty about the evidence we presented to this House and some were minded to believe them.
Todays announcement shows that we were right.
We were right to act against the Russian State in the way we did. And we are right now to step up our efforts against the GRU.
We will not tolerate such barbaric acts against our country.
And - together with our allies - this government will continue to do whatever is necessary to keep our people safe.
And I commend this Statement to the House.
Despite Emanuels exit, the McDonald shooting still stands to loom over the 2019 election. The scandal shaped the careers of several contenders, and the mayors exit could draw others who have played some role in the controversy. The announced candidates include Garry McCarthy, the former police superintendent Emanuel fired as the political crisis deepened, and Lori Lightfoot, the former Chicago Police Board president who has played a central role in the administrations police reform efforts.
C olleagues, friends and fans have paid heartbreaking tributes to incredible BBC journalist Rachael Bland following her death from cancer aged 40.
The presenter died on Wednesday following a battle with incurable breast cancer and has been hailed as an inspiration.
The other-of-one died peacefully at home surrounded by her family, with her husband, Steve, saying her death has left a huge hole in his life.
Her devastated husband and father of the couple's son Freddie, three, said: Rachaels death has left a huge hole in our perfect little family that well never be able to fill.
She was an incredibly talented broadcaster as well as a wonderful and much loved daughter, sister, aunt, niece, wife and, most importantly to her, a mother to her precious little Freddie.
Rachael Bland, pictured with husband Steve, has died aged 40 / Rachael Bland/Twitter
We all take such huge comfort and pride from the amazing and tireless work she has done since her diagnosis to reduce the stigma around cancer and prove that it is possible to live life to the fullest even when facing huge challenges on a daily basis.
At the end, even though her body was at its weakest, her voice was at its strongest and most powerful.
Rachael was and will always be an incredible inspiration to everyone she met. To us, she was perfect in every way and we will miss her more than words can say. We just ask that everyone respects our familys privacy as we try and come to terms with losing our beautiful girl.
Jonathan Wall, Controller of BBC Radio 5 live, said: Rachael was part of the fabric of 5 live and today is a very sad day for all of us and so many of our listeners.
She was a very talented broadcaster and a beautiful loyal colleague to so many. More than that, she turned the final year of her life into the finest year of her life delivering the most important broadcasting I have ever heard about living with cancer, and ultimately facing death because of cancer.
She has made a profound difference to so many lives. We are all so proud at what she achieved - a truly heroic broadcaster and lovely wife, daughter and mum.
Tony Livesey, Rachaels colleague and friend, said: 5 lives lost one of its brightest spirits. Im going into cliche territory now so shell be pressing an alarm somewhere, but she was beautiful inside and out. She was such a lovely person.
Rachael Bland - presenter, friend to most of us, inspiration to all. Radio 5 live is broadcasting with a broken heart. We've lost one of our brightest talents.
BBC Director-General Tony Hall said: Rachael was a popular and inspiring journalist. Everyone has been moved by her courage and dignity. She will be hugely missed by her many listeners and by staff across the BBC. Our sympathies go out to her family and many friends at this difficult time.
BBC
Chris Stark, BBC Radio 1 newsreader, said: Rachael Bland is the very best about what the BBC represents. Im so proud to work on the same platform as this incredible woman.
BBC broadcaster and journalist Emma Barnett said the radio family were going to "miss and remember her".
Presenter Zoe Ball said: All the love to Rachael Bland and her family. A brilliantly beautiful inspirational lady.
Radio 5 played previous recordings from Rachaels podcast You, Me and the Big C - presented with Deborah James and Lauren Mahon - about her battle with cancer.
Colleagues paid tribute to the presenter live on air following her death.
Fans also paid tribute to her on Twitter.
Rachael Bland (Instagram ) / Instagram
Karen McGovern wrote: "Heartbreaking news - incredibly courageous women. RIP".
Katy Parkes said: "So very sad RIP beautiful Rachael Bland."
Stuart Matheson added: "A life well lived but stolen away so soon. Love to your family. Freddie should know he has a Mum who made a real difference. Much love, godspeed."
Scott Bryan, a journalist for Buzzfeed, wrote: The 'You, Be and Big C' podcast has helped so many people going through treatment, or have experienced cancer. It also helped those who know someone with cancer.
B icycle sharing app Mobike is shrinking its operational zones in London and has withdrawn its service altogether in Manchester.
The Chinese firm announced that as of September 4, operating areas in the capital will be smaller " to ensure Mobikers can easily find a bike when they need one."
Those found parking bikes outside of the zone will be charged a flat fee of 20.
Users of the service can locate a bike by looking at a map on the app before scanning a QR code to use it.
On its website, the company said: "Mobikers are free to ride outside of this area, but we simply ask that bikes are returned, parked and locked inside this area. Those who park Mobikes outside of this operating zone will be charged 20."
The firm announced that it would be cutting its service in Manchester
"We are committed to extending this area progressively as we deploy more bikes and we are very much aiming to make Mobike available to more and more Londoners in the future."
It comes after the firm announced that it would be cutting its service in Manchester due to an increase in bike losses due to theft and vandalism.
The company launched its Manchester service in July 2017. People in Manchester have taken over 250,000 trips and cycled over 180,000 miles.
However the company has decided to withdraw from the northern city.
Mobike is a dockless app meaning that customers can place the bicycle anywhere in the designated zones
Jan Van der Ven, General Manager of Mobike UK said: "As a private company, we have a duty to ensure our revenues cover our costs since unlike some operators we do not use taxpayer money to help balance our books. Unfortunately the circumstances in Manchester have not made this possible."
The company says it will conduct a full review of its time in Manchester and intends to submit a proposal to the City of Manchester to offer an alternative affordable future model for bikesharing that could be launched in partnership with local authorities.
Last year when Mobike launched in Manchester, 70 out of 1,000 bikes were destroyed by the end of the year.
T wo Russians were today charged with carrying out the Salisbury Novichok poisonings in a dramatic breakthrough in the investigation.
Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov believed to be aliases are accused of the attempted murder of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia and Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey.
Police said they believe the pair flew into Gatwick two days before the attack, when they checked into the City Stay Hotel in Bow, east London. They then travelled to Salisbury to carry out a reconnaissance mission, and the attack itself the following day.
They used a specially adapted counterfeit Nina Ricci perfume bottle to smear the nerve agent on the door of Mr Skripals home, officers said.
Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov have been charged over the Novichok attack in Salisbury / Sky News
No charges have been brought over the death of Dawn Sturgess or the poisoning of Charlie Rowley. This is because police still have to establish how the perfume bottle reached the charity bin where Mr Rowley believes he found it.
The Russians flew back to Moscow out of Heathrow on the night of the poisoning. A series of CCTV images were released showing the men at both London airports, in Bow, and in Salisbury, as counterterrorism officers set out the most conclusive evidence so far of Russian involvement.
Alexander Petrov seen on CCTV at Gatwick airport at 3pm on March 2 / Metropolitan Police
Announcing the breakthrough today, Sue Hemming, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said that no extradition request would be made for the two men because of Mosofcows past refusal to comply with such orders.
However, she said that European Arrest Warrants had been issued to allow for their detention if they travelled again, and that prosecutors were satisfied that there was a realistic prospect of conviction if they could ever be put before a court.
Ruslan Boshirov captured in the same CCTV at Gatwick / Metropolitan Police
Met Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said that both men had travelled on genuine Russian passports and had visited the UK before the trip to poison the Skripals.
He said that detectives had intelligence and leads about the pairs true identity, but said he was making a worldwide appeal to anyone who recognised them to help officers confirm who the pairs true identites.
The perfume bottle recovered by police from Charlie Rowleys address in Amesbury / Metropolitan Police
Mr Basu added the poisoning was a remarkably sophisticated attack and a clear assassination attempt.
The City Stay Hotel in Bow, where the suspects are believed to have stayed before the attack
The poisoning of the Skripals had now been conclusively linked to the later incident in which Ms Sturgess, 44, died and her partner Mr Rowley was injured after inadvertently coming into contact with the nerve agent.
Mr Basu also released a comprehensive timeline of the movements of the Russians compiled after analysis of 11,000 hours of CCTV.
Both suspects on Wilton Road, Salisbury on March 4 / Metropolitan Police
He said the two would-be assassins arrived at Gatwick on a flight from Moscow at 3pm on Friday, March 2, two days before the Skripals were poisoned.
The pair, who are believed to have brought the Novichok with them in the perfume bottle, travelled by train to Victoria and then by public transport to Waterloo.
They spent an hour there before going to the City Stay Hotel, where they stayed for the next two nights.
The suspects seen on CCTV at Salisbury train station / Metropolitan Police
On the Saturday they travelled to Waterloo and from there to Salisbury in an apparent reconnaissance mission.
After returning to London to stay overnight, the following day they went again early in the morning to Salisbury where they were captured several times on CCTV, before boarding a train back to London and then going to Heathrow to catch an Aeroflot flight back to Mosow the same night.
The charges brought today against the two Russians are that they conspired to murder Mr Skripal, 67, and that they attempted to murder him, his daughter Yulia, 33, and Mr Bailey, who fell seriously ill after trying to help the stricken Skripals.
Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia both survived the nerve agent poisoning
The Russians are also charged with causing grievous bodily harm to Ms Skripal and Mr Bailey.
Announcing the charging decisions, Ms Hemming, the CPSs director of legal services, said:
Prosecutors from the CPS Counter Terrorism Division have considered the evidence and have concluded there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction and it is clearly in the public interest to charge Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, who are Russian nationals.
The suspects walk together through the streets of Salisbury / Metropolitan Police
We will not be applying to Russia for the extradition of these men as the Russian constitution does not permit extradition of its own nationals. Russia has made this clear following requests for extradition in other cases. Should this position change then an extradition request would be made.
We have, however, obtained a European Arrest Warrant which means that if either man travels to a country where an EAW is valid, they will be arrested and face extradition on these charges for which there is no statute of limitations.
Dawn Sturgess died after being exposed to the Novichok nerve agent in Amesbury / AFP/Getty Images
Met Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, the countrys most senior counter-terrorism officer, said: Today marks the most significant moment so far in what has been one of the most complex and intensive investigations we have undertaken in Counter Terrorism policing; the charging of two suspects both Russian nationals - in relation to the attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal.
This has been a highly complex investigation for UK policing, which would have been impossible without the great staff and abilities of the UK Intelligence Community and the support of the Government.
Military personnel at the scene in Salisbury after former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was poisoned / PA
My thoughts remain with Dawn Sturgesss family as they come to terms with their loss, the other victims who fell seriously ill after being exposed to a Novichok nerve agent and the people of Salisbury who have shown tremendous resilience throughout.
With regard to the investigation into the later poisonings, detectives are continuing their public appeal for information and hope that todays publication of images of the bottle and its packaging might bring new information that can help to bring additional charges.
Andrew Matthews/PA
On the continuing risk to public safety, police remain concerned about the possibility that some Novichok could still be unaccounted for and are warning the public in the Salisbury area to avoid picking up any unknown items.
In London, Dame Sally Davies, the countrys top public health official, said she was confident that there was no risk to anyone using public transport or the airports, and that those who might have travelled next to the two Russians should similarly not be in any health danger.
Yulia Skripal was poisoned alongside her father Sergei / PA
The room where the pair stayed at the City Stay Hotel has also been declared safe.
A damning book on Donald Trump reveals the drastic measures taken by his aides to stop his potentially dangerous impulses and outbursts.
The controversial book titled "Fear: Trump in the White House" by investigative journalist Bob Woodward draws on background interviews to paint an unflattering picture of Trump's presidency, with some top advisers allegedly believing him to be a threat to national security.
In this latest scandal to hit President Trump, the book offers a glimpse into the dramas, feuds and continuous interventions between Trump and White House staff.
Here's everything you need to know about the book, plus the most telling claims made against President Trump:
"Fear: Trump in the White House" by Bob Woodward offers a startling insight into the day-to-day running of the presidency. / AP
When is the book released?
The 448-page book is due for release on September 11, although many media outlets have already obtained a copy.
Who is the author, Bob Woodward?
Journalist Bob Woodward has released a damning book on President Donald Trump. / AP
World-renowned journalist Bob Woodward has been a reporter at the Washington Post since 1971, where he remains an associate editor.
Mr Woodward is most famous for breaking the Watergate scandal, a story that prompted the resignation of former president Richard Nixon in 1974.
He's also the winner of two Pulitzer prizes, one for the Watergate scandal and another for reporting on the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
What claims does the book make about Trump?
The book narrates a flurry of in-house gossip between Trump's associates - anecdotes which speak volumes to the President's behaviour.
Among the most shocking allegations is that former chief economic adviser Gary Cohn stole documents from the President's desk which would have withdrawn the US from a crucial trade agreement with South Korea - minutes before Trump was about to sign it.
"I stole it off his desk," Mr Cohn told a colleague, "I wouldn't let him see it. He's never going to see that document. Got to protect the country."
In another supposed incident, Woodward describes the President's response to the chemical weapons attack launched by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in April 2018. "Let's f***ing kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f***ing lot of them," Trump is reported to have said.
Woodward also highlights Trump's rocky relationship with Russia, describing a scene in the White House where the President was put through a test to gauge the potential for him to perjure himself should an interview take place with attorney Robert Mueller. Trump reportedly failed the test.
The book also claims that:
Chief of staff John Kelly described Trump as an "idiot" and "unhinged."
Defense Secretary James Mattis described Trump as having the understanding of "a fifth or sixth grader."
Trump's former personal lawyer called the president a "f***ing liar," warning Trump he would end up in an "orange jumpsuit" if he testified in front of Mr Mueller.
Trump referred to Attorney General Jeff Sessions as "mentally retarded" and a "dumb Southerner."
Trump called Barack Obama a "weak d**k" for not acting on Syria.
Trump's aides tried to form a Twitter committee to vet the President's precarious tweeting habits
Former chief strategist Steve Bannon said to Ivanka Trump: "You're nothing but a f***ing staffer! You walk around this place and you act like you're in charge, and you're not. You're on staff!"
When Mr Cohn attempted to resign over the controversy surrounding the protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump accused him of "treason."
How has Trump responded to the claims?
President Donald Trump dismissed the claims made in the book, calling them "nasty stuff." / EPA
Trump described the book as "nasty stuff" and "just another bad book."
The White House dismissed it as "nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the president look bad."
Meanwhile, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly issued a statement denying that "I ever called the President an idiot."
What does the book mean for Donald Trump and the White House?
Unnervingly, Woodward's book shares similarities to claims made in Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury" and Omarosa Manigault-Newman's memoir, all painting a picture of a chaotic and dysfunctional presidency.
Woodward's book describes Trump as being largely incompetent when it comes to matters of national security, and that drama with everyone from staff, to family, to the press accompany him wherever he goes.
With insults being thrown left, right and centre in the book, Woodward's version of Trump has a reputation for getting a kick out of embarrassing others and a tendency to address matters in a violent rage.
Trump will no doubt ride the wave of this media storm like he has every other, and still emerge relatively unscathed.
T he daughter of a British couple who died during a holiday in Egypt has said she fears the cause of their deaths is being covered up.
Kelly Ormerod said she had hoped her parents John and Susan Cooper's bodies would be released by now, adding that more than two weeks later she is still waiting for answers as to why they died.
Tour operator Thomas Cook said on Wednesday that e.coli has been found at the hotel where the couple were staying but that this does not establish the cause of their deaths.
Tests commissioned by the firm on the food and hygiene standards at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada identified a high level of e.coli and staphylococcus bacteria.
Thomas Cook evacuated hundreds of British tourists from the resort of Hurghada / Matzi/Pixabay
But neither the independent specialists who carried out the investigation nor a medical expert "believe that these results shed any light on the still unexplained cause of death of Mr and Mrs Cooper", the company said.
Mrs Ormerod, who had been on a break with the pair, from Burnley, Lancashire, has since questioned the Egyptian authorities' investigation efforts, saying the hotel room was not taped off until 24 hours after the deaths.
She told ITV News: "When we went into the room on the Wednesday, I noticed that the cleaners had been in.
"All the floors had been mopped, all the bedding had been changed and for those 24 hours maintenance were in and out quite often.
"If it happened over here it would have been taped off but the room wasn't taped off until I believe the Thursday so everybody and anybody could go in that room on that Wednesday."
She said she feared there could have been "crucial" evidence in the room which would now be lost.
"There was obviously evidence left over from my Mum and Dad in that room which I think was quite crucial as to why they possibly died," she said.
Mrs Ormerod said she now felt "disappointed" and "disheartened", adding: "I thought I'd have the results today and that Mum and Dad could come home."
F ormer Cosby Show actor Geoffrey Owens has said he was so upset after a woman shamed him for working in a grocery store he decided to quit his job.
Mr Owens was pictured in a Trader Joes, a chain of grocery stores in the US, while he was working there to make ends meet.
The household name said he was devastated during an interview with Good Morning America, saying he had been shamed by media outlets for his latest job.
Amid the criticism he received, however, Mr Owens said he was also sent several messages of support, which helped.
He said: The period of devastation was so short because so shortly after that, the responses my wife and I started to read [from] literally all over the world the shame part didnt last very long.
It hurt, but then, its amazing.
On the Cosby Show, Mr Owens played Elvin Tibideaux, the husband of one of the Huxtable daughters, Sandra.
Since leaving the successful sitcom, Mr Owens admitted he had not had an acting job that lasted longer than ten weeks.
To make ends meet, the actor said he had been working in Trader Joes for 15 months, before photos of him at work appeared on Fox News and the Daily Mail.
He said fans of the show still recognise him, and were usually respectful.
He said: People recognised me every day and they were very, very cool about it.
D onald Trump hit back today at a bombshell book by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward in which the president is accused of calling the US Attorney General Jeff Sessions mentally retarded and a dumb southerner.
In a Twitter tirade, Mr Trump branded the book a con on the public full of lies and phony sources and denied insulting Mr Sessions, Americas top law official.
The US President and some of his Cabinet went on the warpath against the famously well-sourced writer just hours after the Washington Post ran excerpts of his book Fear: Trump in the White House, which paints a chaotic picture of a Crazytown administration in chaos.
The already discredited Woodward book, so many lies and phony sources, has me calling Jeff Sessions mentally retarded and a dumb southerner. I said NEITHER, never used those terms on anyone, including Jeff, and being a southerner is a GREAT thing. He made this up to divide! tweeted Mr Trump.
According to the book, the president launched the attack on Mr Sessions - also allegedly saying he couldnt even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama - because he was angry over the former senators decision to recuse himself from the Russiagate investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
Mr Trump also tweeted statements from White House Chief-of-Staff John Kelly and Defence Secretary James Mattis refuting quotes attributed to them by Mr Woodward.
In the book, Mr Kelly is said to have called the president an idiot and added: Its pointless to try to convince him of anything. Hes gone off the rails. Were in Crazytown. I dont even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job Ive ever had.
In his statement, Mr Kelly called the story a pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from his many successes.
Mr Mattis reportedly compared Mr Trump to a schoolboy fifth or sixth grader - the age of 10 or 11 - after allegedly spelling out the basics of world politics, explaining to him that a US early warning system in Alaska to identify a nuclear attack from North Korea was in order to prevent World War III.
He denied the claim today, saying: The contemptuous words about the President attributed to me in Woodwards book were never uttered by me or in my presence. While I generally enjoy reading fiction, this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility.
In a tweet, Mr Trump wrote: The Woodward book has already been refuted and discredited by General (Secretary of Defense) James Mattis and General (Chief of Staff) John Kelly. Their quotes were made up frauds, a con on the public. Likewise other stories and quotes. Woodward is a Dem operative? Notice timing?
Its just another bad book. Hes had a lot of credibility problems, Mr Trump said of the journalist who, with Carl Bernstein, was credited with breaking the Watergate corruption story that led to President Richard Nixons downfall.
Mr Woodward is one of the most respected journalists in US history and has written books on many other leaders, including George W Bush and Barack Obama.
Mr Woodward quotes Mr Trump as comparing his former Chief-of-Staff Reince Priebus to a little rat, calling his lawyer Rudy Giuliani a baby and saying his former National Security Adviser HR McMaster was like a beer salesman.
Nikki Haley, the US Ambassador to the United Nations also denied a claim in the book that Mr Trump had demanded the assassination of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
According to Mr Woodward, the president called Mr Mattis after Syria launched a chemical attack on its own civilians in April 2017 and said he wanted Mr Assad taken out. Kill him! Lets go in, he is reported as saying.
While the defence chief said he would get right on it, he is said to have ignored the order and organised an air strike that Mr Trump later signed off on.
Ms Haley said people should take stories written about the president with a grain of salt. She added that she had not once ever heard the president talk about assassinating Assad despite being involved in deliberations over a US response to the Syrian chemical attack.
Mr Trumps personal lawyer John Down was said by Mr Woodward to have advised the president not to agree to be interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller about allegations of collusion with Russia, reportedly telling him: Dont testify. Its either that or an orange jumpsuit.
Mr Dowd issued a statement saying he did not make the remark.
The president has also denied a claim in the book that senior aides, including former National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, took papers from his desk and hid them to prevent him from signing them. They supposedly included documents to pull out of NAFTA and a trade deal with South Korea.
D onald Trump has described a bombshell new book about his presidency written by a Watergate reporter as nasty stuff as he denied a string of allegations it makes.
Bob Woodward, who helped bring down Richard Nixon, angered the White House with his latest book that is laden with explosive anecdotes and concerns about Mr Trump.
The Washington Post journalist claims aides to the US leader branded the White House "Crazytown", and that Mr Trump wanted the Syrian president to be assassinated.
His book is the latest to throw the Trump administration into damage-control mode, with White House officials estimating nearly all their colleagues co-operated with the journalist.
Bob Woodward's book makes a series of claims about the US President and his time in office / AFP/Getty Images
The White House dismissed it as "nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the president look bad".
Speaking after the details emerged, the US president described the book as "nasty stuff" and "another bad book".
The book, titled Fear: Trump In The White House, quotes chief of staff John Kelly as having doubts about Mr Trump, declaring during one meeting "we're in Crazytown".
Fear: Trump in the White House, by Bob Woodward / AP
It also claimed he called Mr Trump an "idiot", an account that Mr Kelly denied. "The idea I ever called the president an idiot is not true," he said in a statement.
The book said that Mr Trump's former lawyer in the Russia probe, John Dowd, doubted the president's ability to avoid perjuring himself should he be interviewed in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference and potential co-ordination with Mr Trump's campaign.
Mr Dowd stepped down in January. "Don't testify. It's either that or an orange jumpsuit," he is quoted telling the president.
Mr Dowd, in a statement, said "no so-called 'practice session' or 're-enactment"' took place and denied saying that Mr Trump was likely to end up in an orange jumpsuit.
Trump has denied several claims made in the book / REUTERS
Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis is quoted explaining to Mr Trump why the US maintains troops on the Korean Peninsula to monitor North Korea's missile activities.
"We're doing this in order to prevent World War III," Mr Mattis said, according to the book.
The book recounts that Mr Mattis told "close associates that the president acted like - and had the understanding of - 'a fifth or sixth-grader"'.
Mr Woodward reported that after Syria's Bashar Assad launched a chemical weapons attack on civilians in April 2017, Mr Trump called Mr Mattis and said he wanted the Syrian leader taken out, saying "kill him! Let's go in".
The book comes just months after Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury / Getty Images
Mr Mattis assured Mr Trump he would get right on it but then told a senior aide they would do nothing of the kind, Mr Woodward wrote.
National security advisers instead developed options for the airstrike that Mr Trump ordered.
Mr Woodward also claimed that Gary Cohn, the former director of the National Economic Council, boasted of removing papers from the president's desk to prevent Mr Trump from signing them into law, including efforts to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The book also quotes Mr Trump as mocking his attorney general Jeff Sessions, who has been a target of the president's wrath since excusing himself from the Russia investigation.
"This guy is mentally retarded," Mr Trump said of Mr Sessions, according to the book.
"He couldn't even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama."
Mr Trump did not speak to Mr Woodward until after the book's manuscript was completed.
The Post released audio of Mr Trump expressing surprise about the book in an August conversation with Mr Woodward.
Mr Woodward tells Mr Trump he had contacted multiple officials to attempt to interview him and was rebuffed.
The book follows the January release of author Michael Wolff's Fire And Fury, which led to a rift between Mr Trump and Steve Bannon, his former chief strategist.
Mr Wolff's book attracted attention with its vivid anecdotes but suffered from numerous factual inaccuracies.
Mr Woodward's work also comes weeks after former White House aide and Apprentice contestant Omarosa Manigault Newman published an expose on her time in the West Wing.
This included audio recordings of her firing by Mr Kelly and a follow-up conversation with the president in which he claimed to have been unaware of Mr Kelly's decision.
While White House aides have become increasingly numb to fresh scandals, the book still increased tensions, especially given the intimate details shared and the number of people Mr Woodward appeared to have interviewed.
A ll of the money raised for a homeless veteran after he used his final $20 (15.58) to buy a stranded woman petrol has been spent, according to the man's lawyer.
Kate McClure and Mark D'Amico from New Jersey, decided to raise money on Go Fund Me in order to thank Johnny Bobbitt and give him a new start. The couple managed to raise $400,000 (311,000).
Mr Bobbitt filed a lawsuit against them claiming that they were withholding his money.
His lawyer Christopher Fallon told NJ.com that "there is no money left" and that Mr Bobbitt was left "completely devastated" by the news.
Ms McClure's boyfriend Mark D'Amico (centre) said he controls the money / Kate McClure/GoFundMe
Mr D'Amico and Ms McClure claim that they spent $200,000 (155,000) caring for Mr Bobbitt and last week said that there was over $150,000 left (116,000).
They claimed that Mr Bobbitt had been given some cash however he "spent it on drugs."
Mr Bobbit came to the aid of Ms McClure in November last year using his last $20 to buy her petrol after she ran out of fuel in Philadelphia on her way home.
She decided to pay it forward by setting up a Go Fund Me page for the man.
On the page, Ms McClure wrote: "I am raising money for Johnny. With the money, I would like to get him first and last month's rent at an apartment, a reliable vehicle and 4-6 months worth of expenses. He is very interested in finding a job, and I believe that with a place to be able to clean up every night and get a good night's rest, his life can get back to being normal."
Mr Bobbitt told ABC News: "I hate that it came to this. I didn't want to be pressured into getting a lawyer because I didn't want to appear ungrateful.
He says he spent $75,000 (58,000) on a a truck which was put in the couple's name and later sold.
"I had to ask them for everything. They joked that they were like my parents, but the joke stops being funny after a while.
The couple have been pictured on luxurious trips to Las Vegas and New York and have also bought a new car which they claim was purchased with their own salaries.
H igh levels of E. coli and staphylococcus bacteria have been found at the Egypt hotel where a British couple died, Thomas Cook has said.
However the tour operator said the cause of the sudden deaths of John and Susan Cooper at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic hotel on August 21 is still to be established.
Thomas Cook issued a statement on Wednesday after commissioning tests of food, water and air at the hotel.
It read: It is clear from these results that something went wrong in August at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in Hurghada and that standards fell below what we expect from our hotel partners.
Hundreds of Brits evacuated from Egypt holiday resort
It is likely that the presence of E-coli and staphylococcus would explain the raised level of illness reported among guests at the hotel during this time.
However the company added it does not believe that these results shed any light on the still unexplained cause of death of Mr and Mrs Cooper.
We await the results of the autopsies being conducted by the Egyptian authorities, it said.
Thomas Cook commissioned an independent hygiene specialist and air quality specialist to conduct the series of tests at the hotel. Egyptian authorities did not allow the specialists to have access to the Cooper's hotel room.
The guests were staying at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic hotel in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada / Steigenberger Aqua Magic
Examination of air and water quality "came back clear" and there was no evidence of carbon monoxide, and normal levels of carbon dioxide, in the vicinity of the room.
A typical amount of chlorine was found in the swimming pools, while the food and hygiene tests did not detect the presence of shigella, listeria or salmonella.
Last month Thomas Cook moved 300 guests out of the hotel as a precaution 24 hours after Mr and Mrs Cooper died after becoming aware of an increased number of illnesses.
Chief executive Peter Fankhauser previously confirmed that 13 customers had food poisoning but were not in a serious condition.
Mr Fankhauser flew to Cairo last week to discuss the deaths with prime minister Dr Mostafa Madbouly and minister of tourism Rania Al-Mashat.
Following the meeting, Ms Al-Mashat said "detailed autopsies" were being conducted by a team of forensic pathologists. The process is expected to be concluded this week.
A separate investigation led by Egyptian prosecutor Nabil Sadeq is testing food, water and air conditioning at the hotel.
Pritzker floated the idea in January for a tax based on miles traveled as a potential way to fund a new capital bill to pay for public works including roads and bridges. Pritzker told the Daily Herald the idea was worth exploring but has since said he was open to ideas on how to pay for a capital bill and wasnt wedded to a vehicle mileage tax. (Rick Pearson)
P rotesters shouted traitor and shame at attendees of Nigel Farages maiden speaking engagement in New Zealand.
Those in opposition also expressed their views that the Brexiteer was not welcome in Auckland, according to local reports and reviews.
The former UKIP leader is on a tour of Australia and New Zealand, making his first appearance in NZ yesterday.
A group named Tamaki Anti-Fascist Action stood out Pullman Hotel in Auckland, where Mr Farage was taking to the stage, holding signs and shouting as people entered.
Ahead of the protest, which around 50 people were part of, members said they were showing peaceful opposition to far right speakers.
The group invited people to show your opposition to the politics of hatred and bigotry.
One sign, photographed by Radio NZ, read: You paid $89 to listen to his RACIST BULLS***.
Golriz Ghahraman, a Green MP in New Zealand, told those gathered that Mr Farages views were vile rhetoric.
"When people like Nigel Farage come here, and they want to tell us who gets to have rights here and who gets to be included, I just want to remind him, and I might have to use a dirty old C word, that we've already suffered under the kind of vile rhetoric that politicians like him espouse. That word is colonisation," she was quoted as saying by Radio NZ.
She thanked those who joined in his stance against Mr Farage and said: "It matters to the communities that are under attack from the kind of rhetoric, from the kind of hate, that Nigel Farage profits from, that Donald Trump profits from. It matters to us that you're here for inclusion, equality and love."
The protest group sung a waiata, a traditional song of the maori who are the indigenous people of New Zealand, to end their picket.
Some of those heading into the event waved or even clapped those gathered in opposition.
One reviewer, writing for Right Minds, gave a review of high praise despite the commotion outside the venue.
The writer, Alex Eastwood-Williams, concluded: All in all it was a wonderful evening with any and all attempts to spoil it averted - because as we all know, you cannot barrage the Farage.
They described the protestors actions as vulgarity and abuse.
Mr Farage is speaking in Brisbane today ahead of appearances in Sydney and Melbourne, which will conclude his six day Australia and New Zealand tour.
Protestors at a previous speech in Perth on September 2 chanted Nazi scum off our streets, according to the Guardian.
K ind-hearted paramedics in Australia granted a dying man his request for ice cream on his final journey to hospital.
Terminally ill Ron McCartney, 72, had "barely eaten anything" in days when his wife called an ambulance to help with his final journey to hospital for palliative care.
After being told he had barely eaten, caring paramedics from Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) asked Mr McCartney after initial observations: "If you could eat anything, what would it be?"
Mr McCartney, from Gold Coast, replied a caramel sundae and he was then granted his wish as he made his final journey to hospital.
Writing on Facebook, a spokesperson for QAS said: "We have been left humbled and tinged with sadness after receiving a message of gratitude that underlines an often-unseen aspect of patient care; the caring.
"Last week, Gold Coast resident Sharon called an ambulance for her husband Rons final journey to hospital and palliative care.
"Paramedics Kate and Hanna responded and during their initial observations of Ron, Sharon mentioned that he had barely eaten anything over two days.
"The officers asked Ron, if you could eat anything what would it be? To which Ron replied, a caramel sundae.
"Sharon emphasised the enjoyment Ron received from such a simple action and thanked paramedics for the swift and high level of care and compassion shown to him."
Mr McCartney passed away on Saturday morning, his daughter Danielle Smith said on Facebook as she thanked the paramedics for their actions.
She said: "Thank you so very much to Hannah and Kate, Dad enjoyed this so much and was the last thing he was able to eat by himself.
"Mum and I cannot thank QAS enough for all the help and compassion you have all given towards us each time we have had to call you.
"I remember a couple of months ago, the big tall paramedic guy especially, we couldn't get dad out of bed, and couldn't get the gurney near their bed so you picked him up and carried him out the front onto bed.
T wo friends in Texas were so peeved that there were no Asians pictured in their local McDonald's, that they put up a picture of themselves - and found it was still there 51 days later.
Student Jevh Maravilla, 21, noticed his local branch of the restaurant in Houston was lacking in diversity in the posters that covered the walls, so he concocted a plan with a friend of his to put up their own piece of branded activist art, depicting the two munching fries and a burger as they wandered through high school.
"One day my bud Christian and I were in McDonald's, munching on some snack wraps.
"I look up and I see a blank wall and I tell Christian "what if we put a picture of us on there," said Jevh, a Filipino-American, on his YouTube channel.
"There are literally no Asians in any of these walls. What if we can change that?" he added.
"We decided to be students. We took a picture in front of the neighbourhood event centre because for some reason there was a lot of people in front of the school. That same night we edited the picture."
They were even able to find a McDonald's shirt in a second-hand shop for $7, and wore ia badge saying "Jeff Bergara, Regional Interior Cooprdinator", so he could fit in at the store where he frequently ate.
Asian representation in media is not as prevalent as it should be, the student at University of Houston told local media at KPRC Click2Houston.
What motivated me was Crazy Rich Asians, the movie that came out, that boosted my confidence into thinking maybe one day I could be just like that, and if I take a step and do something small like this, it could make a difference.
Jevh directs his friends to put up their fake McDonald's poster, while dressed in company attire. / YouTube/Jevh M
They documented their daring feat, which showed how they edited the $80 poster to look like the others in the restaurant.
And 52 days after they out up the post in July, it has still gone unnoticed. Now, however, their posts about their own advertising campaign have gone viral, with 688,000 retweets.
A child was killed when a tree fell on a mobile home as Tropical Storm Gordon barrelled into parts of the US.
Police were called to the home in Florida and found the child, whose name and age have not been released, dead at the scene.
Escambia County Sheriff's office said no one else was injured in the incident late on Tuesday local time.
The storm struck the US Gulf Coast on Tuesday before later weakening into a depression, dumping heavy rains across southern US states and causing roads to flood.
A car drives through a road in Dauphin Island, Alabama as it slowly begins to flood / AP
The National Hurricane Centre said it hit the coast at 70mph, just short of hurricane strength.
The remnants of the storm will likely cause flash flooding across parts of seven states and as far north as Iowa in the coming days.
Forecasters said radar spotted possible tornadoes spun off by the storm overnight in southern Alabama and the Florida panhandle, and more are more possible on Wednesday night in Mississippi and western Alabama.
Rain of 100 to 200mm has been predicted in the Florida panhandle and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa and Illinois. Rainfall could be even more intense in isolated places, with up to 300mm expected by early on Saturday.
Residents fill bags with sand as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches Bay St. Louis, Mississippi / REUTERS
The National Weather Service said that the Styx River near Elsanor, Alabama, could reach major flood stage later.
There were no immediate injury or significant damage reports, other than the tree that fell on the mobile home in Pensacola, Florida.
More than 27,000 customers were without power as Gordon began pushing ashore, mostly in coastal Alabama and the western tip of the Florida Panhandle around Pensacola, with a few hundred in south-eastern Mississippi.
Governors in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana all declared states of emergency.
Ken Graham, director of the National Hurricane Centre / AP
Mississippi shut down a dozen Gulf Coast casinos, while workers on at least 54 oil and gas production platforms were evacuated.
Communities along the coast provided sand and bags, and many worked hard to protect their properties.
Gordon is not the only dangerous weather being closely watched by forecasters. Hurricane Florence is some 2,400 miles away from the US, and lining up behind it is another potential storm is likely to form off the coast of Africa.
Hurricane Centre director Ken Graham said: "It's the peak of hurricane season. Now is the time to get your plans all set."
I n July, President Donald Trump chose Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative judge from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy in the Supreme Court.
Having written almost 300 opinions for the D.C. Circuit in 12 years, Mr Kavanaugh is well-connected to Washington with roots in politics stemming from George W. Bush White House.
The 53-year-old Maryland native is a controversial choice for some, his conservative views leaning towards anti-abortion and pro-gun.
At a confirmation hearing this week, Mr Kavanaugh appeared to reject a handshake offered by Fred Guttenberg, whose son was killed in the Parkland school shooting in February.
Here, we take a look at Brett Kavanaugh's career, where he stands on key issues and how likely he is to be appointed to the Supreme Court:
What are Brett Kavanaugh's roots in politics?
Judge Brett Kavanaugh has written almost 300 opinions for the D.C. Circuit in 12 years / AP
Mr Kavanaugh's Supreme Court connections stem back from 1993 when he worked as a clerk for Justice Kennedy, the man he is due to replace.
In 1998, he worked on the Starr report, an investigation of the Clinton administration and the suicide of Clinton aide Kenneth Starr.
He then went on to serve five years in the administration of George W Bush, first as an associate counsel and then as staff secretary until 2006.
It was Mr Bush who appointed Mr Kavanaugh to his current position on the federal bench.
How is a Supreme Court justice appointed?
The President will elect someone who generally serves their political interest.
Then, the nominee will be vetted by the committee before the first hearing, where the committee asks the nominee questions and the nominee is given a chance to respond.
Following that, there's a committee vote. Even if the majority reject the nominee, the tradition is to send the nomination to the full Senate with the recommendation of rejecting.
Finally, there's a debate on the Senate floor before the final vote. A simple 51-vote majority is required.
Donald Trump announces Brett Kavanaugh as Supreme Court nominee
Where does Brett Kavanaugh stand on key issues?
ABORTION
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh meets with U.S. Senator Susan Collins on capitol hill in Washington, U.S., August 21, 2018. / REUTERS
Mr Kavanaugh's views on abortion made headlines in October last year when a 17-year-old undocumented immigrant learned she was pregnant whilst in detention.
She was initially refused an abortion before a full federal appeals court issued a court order, overturning the initial decision from a three-judge panel which included Mr Kavanaugh.
In his dissent, Mr Kavanaugh wrote the Supreme Court has held that "the government has permissible interests in favouring fetal life, protecting the best interests of a minor and refraining from facilitating abortion."
Because of this incident, Mr Kavanaugh's views on abortion are sparking widespread concern about the future of Roe v. Wade, the historic Supreme Court ruling that legalised abortion nationwide.
However, Republican Sen. Susan Collins said that Mr Kavanaugh told her he now considers Roe v. Wade to be "settled law."
GUNS
Protesters hold up signs during a rally near Capitol Hill against the confirmation hearing for Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be an Associate Justice on the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on September 4, 2018. / AFP/Getty Images
In 2011, Mr Kavanaugh favoured against a majority opinion that upheld a ban applied to semiautomatic rifles in the district of Columbia, regarding it "unconstitutional."
Mr Kavanaugh has been backed by the National Rifle Association (NRA), which announced it was to spend $1m on advertising to support the judge's confirmation to the supreme court.
GAY RIGHTS
LGBT groups are concerned about what Kavanaugh's appointment will mean for gay rights (Mercedes Mehling/Unsplash ) / Mercedes Mehling/Unsplash
Mr Kavanaugh's predecessor judge Kennedy expanded the scope of gay rights in the US.
In 2015, Kennedy dismissed all bans on same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges.
Whilst experts say it's unlikely previous laws progressing gay rights will come under threat, some LGBTQ groups are still fearful of what Mr Kavanaugh's appointment might mean for them.
What are his confirmation chances?
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh smiles prior to being sworn in during his U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 4, 2018. / REUTERS
Mr Kavanaugh will be confirmed if all Republican senators, who have a slim majority in the chamber, support him, regardless of Democratic opposition.
And considering no Republicans have announced their opposition, his chances are looking very good.
He's set to face the second of his four days of questioning on Wednesday by an independent judiciary set up by the Senate.
Raab to be grilled over EU exit talks
Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab will be grilled by MPs over progress in exit talks later as the Government's plans face mounting criticism.
It comes after Brexit preparations were branded "incompetent" by former Bank of England governor Mervyn King, who warned the Government had been left without a credible bargaining position.
Mr Raab will appear before the European Scrutiny committee later today.
Thousands charged twice in debit card glitch
Thousands of people in the UK were charged twice for debit card payments due to a glitch last month.
The error occurred due to an issue with a card terminal run by Cardnet, a joint venture between Lloyds Bank and First Data.
Money came out of bank accounts twice but transactions showed up only once on many receipts on August 29.
New book describes Trump's 'Crazytown' White House
Donald Trump has described a new book about his presidency written by a Watergate reporter as nasty stuff.
Bob Woodwards latest book is laden with explosive anecdotes and concerns about the president.
The journalist claims aides to the US leader branded the White House "Crazytown" and that Mr Trump wanted the Syrian president to be assassinated.
The White House has dismissed the claims as "nothing more than fabricated stories.
Less than one in five expect good Brexit deal
Less than one in five voters now expect Britain to secure a good Brexit deal, according to damning new research.
The proportion of people expecting a good deal slumped from 33 per cent in February last year to just 17 per cent in June 2018, the survey showed.
The findings come ahead of the publication of the Theresa Mays heavily criticised Chequers plan for the UKs future relationship with the EU.
Thousands stranded and nine dead after Typhoon in Japan
Thousands of air passengers in Japan have spent the night stranded in an island airport after Typhoon Jebi sparked havoc.
At least nine people have died and dozens more were injured as the severe weather continued.
Evacuation advisories were in place for more than one million people.
First known omnivorous shark discovered
The first known omnivorous shark species has been identified by scientists.
According to US researchers, the bonnethead, a relative of the common hammerhead, is the first variety of shark to be outed as an omnivore.
It has been found to enjoy seagrass, the flowering marine plant that forms subsea meadows in coastal waters.
On this day...
1847: American outlaw Jesse James was born near Kansas City. With his elder brother Frank, he led the first gang to carry out train robberies.
1963: Christine Keeler, one of the women at the centre of the Profumo scandal, was arrested and charged with perjury.
1972: Palestinian terrorists, members of the Black September Group, killed 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games.
1987: No Sex Please, We're British closed after 6,671 performances over 16 years - the longest running theatre comedy in the world.
W hen it comes to investing in our winter wardrobe, we firmly believe that the cosier, the better - and thats where the teddy coat comes in.
Teddy combines the comfort of fleece with the sophistication of shearling and the softness of faux fur for the sartorial equivalent of a giant hug.
As the fashion world takes a collective move away from fur, there has been a rise in the popularity of cosy alternatives, from faux fur, to the humble teddy coat reimagined everywhere from the high street to the high end.
From the catwalk at Miu Miu, to a hugely popular Monki iteration, the failsafe fluffy outerwear has become a reliable, classic coat that you will keep coming back to year after year.
The versatile piece is offered in an extensive array of colourways that range from bubble-gum pinks that will bring a pop of colour to your wardrobe or pared back with neutral hues for a cosy coat you can take from day to play.
Grin and bear the winter weather with a cosy teddy coat.
Samsoe & Samsoe Thyme teddy jacket
Get autumn-ready with this stylish jacket from Samsoe & Somsoe. The label who are renowned for their minimalistic Danish aesthetic will help you get on board with the trend with this all-over teddy design.
Details include a short collar, flap pockets on the front and tortoiseshell buttons. Pair with a cosy knit, flared jeans and boots for an updated 70s feel.
170 | Selfridges | Buy it now
Max Mara Teddy Coat
For a sophisticated take on the trend, look no further than outerwear extraordinaire Max Mara with a sumptuously soft teddy coat made from a mix of alpaca, wool and silk.
The piece is offered in tonal neutrals of plush white and camel as well as this bold electric blue hue. Its oversized proportions make for good snuggling come rain, snow or whatever British winter will throw at us.
1,860 | Matches Fashion | Buy it now
Women Fleece Lined Tailored Coat
Wrap up from the cold in this tailored coat from Uniqlo. The piece will ensure you are AW19-ready in the cosiest way with both a fleece outer and inner.
The warm outerwear is available in brown, black and beige and in an impressive size range, from XXS to XXL.
34.90 | Uniqlo | Buy it now
Faux Shearling Teddy Coat
For your everyday warmth but make it fashion, this faux shearling teddy coat will do the trick. It is offered in a pink hue and also in camel and beige and has a plush feel. Invest in this seriously chic outerwear in time for cooler climes.
135 | & Other Stories | Buy it now
Stand Marina faux-fur teddy jacket
Scandi-chic label Stand may be best known for its range of fluffy bags but the labels outerwear deserves your attention.
With the same super soft feel as its accessories, the coat is designed with a cosy and cocoon-like teddy fabric in a powder pink hue that will transform your monochrome winter wardrobe. Pair with everything from smart trousers, trainers or party dresses
250 | Selfridges | Buy it now
Oversized faux shearling coat
This teddy coat from Monki is available in six highly covetable colourways that you will struggle to choose between.
From forest green, off-white and concrete grey, to khaki brown, black and cream, these coats offer both warmth and style. They are composed of recycled polyester and come in size XXS to XL.
But best of all? Deep pockets.
65 | Monki | Buy it now
Burgundy Teddy Borg Pocket Front Jacket
Cosy up to the trend with this jacket that deserves a place in your seasonal outwear edit. It is available in black, white, brown, lilac, red, mustard and our personal favourite burgundy and has a collared neckline. The coat is available in sizes eight to 18.
29.99 | New Look | Buy it now
Wednesday's Girl teddy coat
For something slightly different than your usual winter coat, this option from Wednesdays Girl is offered in a baby blue hue with a super soft teddy bear texture.
With a baggy, relaxed fit, keep in your outerwear arsenal for a subtle pop of colour. It is available in size eight to 14.
45 | ASOS | Buy it now
Taylor Teddy Coat
Whatever the British winter throw at you, this Taylor coat from Monsoon will help you brave the weather in the most snuggly but stylish way.
The piece has a soft teddy outer with a lined inner and a double-breasted button fastening with a tortoiseshell detail. It is available from size eight to 22.
99 | Monsoon | Buy it now
Faux Fur Double Teddy Coat
This seasonal essential is offered in an array of autumnal hues, including khaki, tan and chocolate brown so you can stock up on some seriously stylish outerwear.
This all-rounder can be worn for both smart and casual occasions with a longline fit and double breasted design. It is available in size six to 18.
89 | Warehouse | Buy it now
Black Borg Jacket
Your new season outerwear should include this versatile jacket from Topshop that will keep you warm without sacrificing on style. Offered in black and burgundy as well as in tall, regular and petite, the cosy coat can be layered on just about anything.
55 | Topshop | Buy it now
Curve Boucle Teddy Coat
Bang on the teddy trend, this teddy coat is one of the cosiest way to stay warm this winter. Offered in a deep green hue, it is as soft as it looks.
90 | Oasis | Buy it now
Powder Pink Double Breasted Teddy Coat
Snuggle up with a different type of teddy in the form of this fashion-forward coat. The piece comes in a powder pink with a double breasted front starring chunky buttons. It is available in size eight to 24.
45 | Tu Clothing | Buy it now
Faux Fur Longline Teddy Coat
The deaths included a man in his 70s who was blown to the ground from his apartment in Osaka prefecture. Police said at least five others died elsewhere in the prefecture after being hit by flying objects or falling from their apartments. In nearby Shiga prefecture, a 71-year-old man died when a storage building collapsed on him, and a man in his 70s died after falling from a roof in Mie, officials said.
Wild said in a letter Tuesday that looking back, he would have handled "certain aspects" of those cases differently than he did then. Wild was president of Marquette University from 1996 to 2011 and from 2013 to 2014.
The most important discrepancy relates to a meeting he had with Comey. Giuliani has said Trump does not recall asking Comey to drop an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn and he does not want the president to be accused of lying about the episode.
Countries & Areas
Search for country or area A Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan B Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burma Burundi C Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Cote dIvoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia D Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic E Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia F Fiji Finland France G Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana H Haiti Holy See Honduras Hungary I Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy J Jamaica Japan Jordan K Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan L Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg M Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique N Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Norway O Oman P Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Q Qatar R Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda S Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria T Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu U Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan V Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Y Yemen Z Zambia Zimbabwe
Most of all, it is time to return to government by the people, not over the people. Several aldermen already use participatory budgeting processes, in which constituents help decide how city money is spent in their wards. We need to expand these types of successful experiments to all 50 wards. When I offered an ordinance to require that in 1978, it was voted down 44-4 in the council. Forty years later, the time is ripe to decide how citizens should participate in shaping the government decisions that most affect our lives.
Kavanaugh may not become the most conservative member of the court, but his background suggests he would be the most partisan. Working for Kenneth Starr in the 1990s, he was involved in the Vincent Foster and Monica Lewinsky probes, proposing an explicit line of questioning for President Bill Clinton with graphic queries about genitalia, masturbation, phone sex and oral sex. And as a young lawyer under George W. Bush, Kavanaugh was involved in Bush v. Gore, as well as the probe of Clinton's pardons and legal decisions about torture.
The Standing Bureau of the Chamber of Deputies rejected on Wednesday, for the second time, the Liberals' request that Prime Minister Viorica Dancila be invited in the plenum of the Chamber to participate in the "Government's Hour" in relation to the protests that occurred on August 10.
The Secretary of the Chamber of Deputies, Georgian Pop, specified that the decision was made after the Deputy Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies, Eugen Nicolicea, explained that the Prime Minister cannot come and talk about a topic that is currently investigated by the Prosecutor's Office.
"Mister Eugen Nicolicea explained the reason: the General Prosecutor's Office is conducting an investigation (...) we are creating a very complicated situation, legally speaking," said Pop.The Liberal parliamentary group has requested for the second time that Prime Minister Viorica Dancila come at the "Government's Hour" on the topic: "Repression actions of the peaceful anti-governmental protest, that took place in Victoriei Square, on August 10".The first request was submitted on Monday, on the first day of the parliamentary session, and the Standing Bureau of the Chamber of Deputies rejected it on the grounds that it does not observe the regulations."
Germany's Embassy in Bucharest strongly condemns "any form of discrimination, defamation or enmity toward the German minority or any other minority in Romania."
The message published on the diplomatic mission's official Facebook page is conveyed in the context of the recent "accusations against the German minority in Romania."
"Numerous politicians, representatives of the minorities, of the business environment, groups of the civil society and individuals have voiced their outrage in the last days regarding the defamatory and offensive statements about the German minority and have assured the German minority of their support. Many of these supportive reactions have been transmitted directly to the embassy," the cited source specifies."We want to take advantage of this opportunity to clearly emphasise: we strongly condemn any form of discrimination, defamation or enmity toward the German minority or any other minority in Romania. Accusations as the ones formulated in the last days are groundless and there is no justification for them. We thank those who have firmly taken position against these accusations," the representatives of the diplomatic mission affirm.
The gov't passed on Wednesday's sitting the "E-cultura: Romania's digital library" kick off, the Executive's spokesman Nelu Barbu announced.
Barbu specified that the project initiated by the Culture Ministry has a 53.242 million lei budget and it is financed from European funds, namely the 2014-2020 Competitiveness Programme, alongside national funds.
"This project has in view to digitize the cultural heritage with help of current IT technology, so that the national cultural legacy be preserved, promoted and transmitted to the future generations," Nelu Barbu asserted."E-cultura: Romania's digital library" sees two components: a first one aims at developing an online IT platform of partitioned catalogue and library, called "Culturalia" and available to all of Romania's cultural institutions and the public; a second one, aims to digitize and exhibit online in the "Digital library of Romania" - "Culturalia" over 550k of digital elements (texts, images, audiograms, videograms, 3D digital objects), added the spokesman.The term library in this context is used in the broad sense meaning the traditional library, museum and archive."As many as 200k cultural resources are to be digitized and provided to europeana.eu, the European Digital Library. The project will be completed within 36 months," Nelu Barbu specified.Barbu mentioned that the project will involve 29 institutions, counting for 19 museums, 5 libraries, the National Films Archive, the Romanian Television Society, the Romanian Radio Broadcaster Society, the National Heritage Institute.
President Klaus Iohannis firmly condemns the adoption of the budget rectification draft project by the Government, without the opinion of Romania's Supreme Council for National Defence (CSAT) and publicly asks the Ombudsman to notify the Constitutional Court in order to verify to what extent the emergency ordinance for the budget rectification fulfills the constitutional requirements for approval.
In the simple motion titled "PSD truncheons hitting Romanian democracy in the face" filed on Wednesday with the Chamber of Deputies, the Liberals call for the immediate resignation of Interior Minister Carmen Dan and of the Gendarmerie leadership.
"From the point of view of the National Liberal Party (PNL), the resignation of IntMin Carmen Dan, who has de facto coordinated the law enforcement intervention on August 10, and of the entire Gendarmerie management, is a national security priority: these people have proven that they are unwilling and unable to secure order and observe the law, including a series of key documents such as the Country's National Defense Strategy - which stresses that ensuring the citizens' safety is a national security interest. Tens of thousands of peaceful protesters have been hit and attacked with tear gas because of a group of provocateurs who couldn't be identified and isolated for hours. And we can also think of premeditation, if we remember that recently Liviu Dragnea and Carmen Dan wanted to vest the Gendarmerie with criminal investigation powers as well as with the guard and protection of the dignitaries. Esteemed colleagues, we cannot allow that our generation too accepts yet another miners' crackdown without holding those to blame responsible. We must never again condone the image of innocent, peaceful Romanians being hit on the heads with rubber truncheons. This is not the country we chose to build at the 1989 Revolution. Each illegal blow dealt on August 10 was actually a blow in the face of Romanian democracy, and the guilty must pay. Carmen Dan must quit today as head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs," the motion reads.
"The law enforcement's blunt force intervention even harmed foreign citizens. Four Israeli tourists were dragged out of the cab and beaten by gendarmes, although they explained that they hadn't participated in the protest whatsoever and also showed their passports. Consequently, the Embassy of Israel in Romania announced they will file criminal complaints against the aggressors. Images and footage from the suppression of the August 10 protests have been shown in international media," the Liberals add.The Liberals argue that the gendarmes took action on August 10 with concealed insignia, which is against the regulations, and resorted to intervention methods that are banned for use against a peaceful majority of protesters.The PNL deputies point out that "the obvious goal of the PSD was to quash all debate around the incidents of August 10 and to promote all those involved in the clampdown.""Physical integrity and every citizen's right to opinion and protest are indisputable principles under the rule of law and are guaranteed by the Constitution, but also by the international human rights treaties Romania is a party to. No Romanian can become victim or collateral victim to violent repression, regardless of the invoked justification," the Liberals conclude.
Prime Minister Viorica Dancila on Wednesday said at the beginning of the gov't sitting that over 200 million lei are available primarily to compensate the ones who incurred losses following the evolution of the African swine fever, but also to purchase disinfectants, lab kits and other stuff necessary to the Sanitary Veterinary and for Food Safety National Authority (ANSVSA).
"We have taken several measures to financially support all of those who have suffered from the African swine fever, and to combat the virus's spread," said the Prime Minister.
The improvement of the medical services is a priority for the gov't, said Viorica Dancila, also at the beginning of the gov't sitting, specifying that several types of ambulances and the related equipment will be purchased from EU funds."Thus, we wish that all the citizens benefit from medical services and equipment capable to enhance the response capacity to emergency situations, in the case of the multiple victims accidents, included. The funds are covered by the 2014-2020 Regional Operational Programme," Dancila stressed.
The Government wants a successful Presidency of the Council of the European Union, that should be prepared very well, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila stated on Tuesday.
According to a release of the Executive sent to AGERPRES, the Interministerial Council for the Preparation and Exercise of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU carried out a working meeting on Tuesday at the Victoria Palace, chaired by PM Dancila.
On this occasion, it was approved the updated schedule of meetings which are to be organised in Romania during the six-month mandate of the Presidency of the EU Council, which includes 239 events in Bucharest and around the country, covering all counties.Thus, Romania enters the final stage of the organisational part of this process for preparing the mandate."It is a very important step. We all want a successful Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which we have to prepare very well, so that, from the moment of taking it over, things go very well, just as we proposed," Dancila stated.Furthermore, during the working meeting also presented were the progresses recorded over the past months, in terms of approaching the European topics, as well as the organisational level for the preparation of this important moment for our country.Equally, it was highlighted the fact that, currently, our country already has the status of "future presidency" in relation to the interlocutors from Brussels and, also, the status of "shadow presidency" in relation to the Austrian partners, which involves additional obligations and responsibilities for Romania, both at political and technical level."Exercising these attribution represent the proof of Romania's commitment in terms of ensuring the continuity of the European agenda, by preparing in advance the transition of the negotiations towards the team of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU," the release mentions.The discussions focused on the files that Romania will manage during its mandate, but they also tackled other topics of interest, such as the Tourism Ministry's Tourist Promotion Plan for the Preparation and Exercise of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU. Briefings regarding the stages were carried out, including in respect to aspects of public communication, needed for a common understanding and a concrete action of all ministries, both in the internal dialogue and coordination, and in the dialogue with the European partners, the release mentions.The Interministerial Council for the Preparation and Exercise of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU is made up of representatives of the Government, Parliament and the Presidential Administration, being established with the purpose of ensuring the technical and political coordination for the moment when our country holds the Presidency of the EU Council.Romania will exercise for six months, as of 1 January 2019, the Presidency of the Council of the EU.
The head of the National Natural Gas Corporation Romgaz, Andrei Bobar, told on Wednesday a press conference that the company will make investments worth 1.6 billion lei in 2018, almost half of the amount being due to be allocated for the construction of a new Thermal Power Plant in Iernut, the Mures County (central Romania).
"Our plan is to reach our investment budget, of approximately one billion and a half - 1.6 billion consolidated, 1.5 billion lei Romgaz individually. In our investment plan, we actually have development directions, a large part of the plan for 2018 refers to the construction of a power plant in Iernut, almost half, around 700 million lei, we are talking about money allocated to the construction of the plant in Iernut, the rest of the amounts being allocated to exploration, development and production and certainly the increase of the storage capacity," Andrei Bobar showed.
According to the data provided to the media by Romgaz, the amount of 653 million lei was invested in the first semester, three times larger than in the same period of last year (which amounted to 222 million lei), the investments being exclusively funded from the company's own sources.The investment plan is budgeted at 1.6 billion lei for 2018 in its entirety, much higher than the one in 2017, when a total of 782 million lei was invested.
The unexpected death of Commissioner Timothy Bradford three days before the Dec. 4 filing deadline left his potential successors insufficient time to collect signatures and submit petitions to run. In a January legal opinion, the office of Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx said that under the circumstances, write-in candidates still could run in this 2018 election cycle for the last two years of Bradfords six-year term. To make the Nov. 6 general election ballot, Davis needed 8,075 primary election Democrats to write in his name. That more than 54,000 Democrats did so is astonishing. Were proud to have strongly endorsed him.
To the long list of potential replacements, I urge you to take heed: We dont want the members of the old guard. Theyve had their chance to lead over the last 30 years, and the result has been a city that leaves too many people behind. A candidate completely removed from the Daley-Emanuel era is essential to deliver the changes we need in education, housing and police accountability. The time has come for big ideas and the courage to implement them. Establishment politics have failed Chicago. Its time for our young visionaries to stand up and be counted.
All of the Balkans, legendary German Reichskanzler (Imperial Chancellor) Otto von Bismarck famously said, were not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier. And Bismarck, a Prussian landowner or junker had nothing but amused contempt for Pomeranian grenadiers who were regarded as a standing joke in the German Army.
In 1890, brash, young new German Emperor Wilhelm II fired Bismarck after 28 years as minister-president of Prussia and then first Imperial Chancellor of Germany. He abandoned the priority policy of maintaining warm ties and close communications with Russia that Bismarck had always followed and scrapped the Dreikaiserbund, the League of Three Emperors that Bismarck had created with the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires.
Over the next 20 years, an increasingly isolated Germany became more and more committed to its one remaining ally weak, unstable and inept Austria-Hungary ruled by the Habsburg Emperor Franz-Josef, after his death long revered but in reality a dim dolt.
In 1914, Wilhelm II performed his most fatal idiocy: He gave the rulers of Austria-Hungary a blank check to send an ultimatum to Serbia over its suspected invovlement in the assassination of the Habsburg Archduke Franz-Ferdinand in Sarajevo that was bound to lead to war.
Afterwards, belatedly realizing what he had done, Wilhelm panicked and tried to pull back from the catastrophe to which he had doomed his country and all of Europe. But it was too late. More than two million young German soldiers died for nothing in that war over the next four years. A needless war fought over allegations of complicity in an assassination cost the bones of a lot more than one, solitary Pomeranian grenadier.
The causes of World War I were compulsarily taught to millions of schoolchildren when I was growing up in Ireland and Britain. Today I doubt one American in half a million could explain them. Yet Congress in Washington and the US media are madly urging on the US government to replicate the castastrophe in what could trigger a global thermonuclear holocaust.
Assassination! Instead of the suspected involvement of the tiny Serbian government which was indeed deeply involved in the plot (but for which no proof at the time was in fact uncovered) we see the US government following the lead of the UK government in blaming Russia without any evidence whatsoever in the alleged assassination of Sergei Skripal.
A reckless stupid commitment! Instead of Wilhelm II giving a "blank check" to the Austro-Hungarian government to start a war with Serbia, provoking reaction by Russia, we see the US Congress pressuring President Donald Trump into imposing ferocious sanctions on Russia. Those sanctions are clearly intended to wreck Russia's 19 years of recovery, prosperity and growth under President Vladimir Putin.
A superpower allowing a weak, unstable and irresponsible minor ally to pull it into a destructive war!
Wilhelm, the emperor of bluster in the end let himself be led as tamely as an obedient poodle by the reckless adventurers and gamblers in Vienna. Today, Trump is allowing US policy be deformed and national survival threatened by his loyalty to a leader he despises, Prime Minister Theresa May of the disintegrating United Kingdom.
Most of all Bismarck knew that tiny squabbling coutnries in the Balkans were not worth the life of a single comic soldier.
Bismarck would not have cared a fig for the internal politics of Macedonia, Montengegro or Georgia. He would have laughed at the idea that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania could or should determine the future of global superpowers and world-spanning alliances.
Instead, Bismarck sought to quarantine off peripheral regions that historically generated violence, ethnic conflict and assassination away from the major powers.
The Iron Chancellor's policies maintained global peace for two generations. Abandoning them brought on the conflagration of 1914 that destroyed European civilization.
Today, the United States and its allies need to remember and relearn the wisdom of Bismarck and abandon the fatally infantile enthusiasms of Wilhelm II.
The survival of humanity depends upon it.
The US Defense Department has made a final decision to cancel $300 million (the Coalition Support Funds) in aid to Pakistan. The official reason is Islamabads failure to take decisive action against the militants who are waging war in Afghanistan: the Haqqani network and the Afghan Taliban. The move is subject to approval by Congress. It was announced mere days before Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is due to visit Pakistan to meet Imran Khan, the countrys new prime minister. It also took place right on the heels of Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarifs visit to Pakistan, where the leadership expressed support for Iran and the nuclear deal the US abandoned. One is reminded of President Trumps Aug. 7 tweet warning that [a]nyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States.
The announced decision is part of a broader suspension that was proclaimed at the beginning of the year. The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, President Trump tweeted on January 1, 2018. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more! The statement was followed by announcement that Secretary Jim Mattis was authorized to grant $300 million in CSF funds over the summer if he saw a change of attitude in Islamabad. He didnt.
The US has started to suspend its training and educational programs for Pakistani officers. No funds have been provided for the coming academic year. US military institutions, including the National Defense University in Washington DC, the US Armys War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the US Naval War College, the Naval Staff College, and other courses they offered, including cybersecurity studies, eliminated the 66 slots they had reserved for cadets from Pakistan. Its rather symbolic that Moscow and Islamabad signed an agreement on August 7 to train Pakistani military personnel in Russia.
With that countrys foreign-exchange reserves plummeting, PM Imran Khan will have to decide whether his government will seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where the United States controls more votes than any other member. The alternative would be to turn to China, Russia, and other friendly nations. After the victory of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in the 2018 general elections, China agreed to grant a $2 billion loan to Islamabad. On July 30, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned that any potential IMF bailout for Pakistans new government must not include funds to pay off the countrys Chinese lenders. Pakistan is pinning its hopes on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.
Russia and Pakistan marked the 70th anniversary of their diplomatic relations on May 1, 2018. That relationship has seen its ups and downs, but today it has risen to a new historic high.
Moscow and Islamabad see eye-to-eye on the prospects for ending the conflict in Afghanistan. Pakistan has endorsed the Russian-brokered peace talks that exclude the United States but include the Taliban. Pakistan strongly supports Russias Syria policy. Islamabads membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) opens up new prospects for cooperation. Russian President Vladimir Putin has put forward a proposal to create a more extensive Eurasian partnership based on the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), which would involve China, India, Pakistan, Iran, and those from the Community of Independent States (CIS) that are willing to join. Islamabad is also interested in signing a free-trade agreement with the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).
Pakistan has shown its interest in buying military hardware from Russia, has participated in Russian war games, and has also attended Army exhibitions. In September 2016, Russia and Pakistan held their first-ever joint military exercise. Its been held yearly ever since. Pakistans Chief of Army Staff General Javed Bajwa paid his first visit to Russia in April of this year. In late July, the two countries signed a naval cooperation agreement during the visit of Pakistan's Vice Chief of the Naval Staff Vice Admiral Kaleem Shaukat to Russia. The Pakistani military plans to purchase Su-35 fighter jets and T-90 tanks from Russia.
Russia is involved in many economic projects, such as the Karachi Steel Mill and Gudhu Power Plants. In 2015, Russia and Pakistan signed a contract to build a 1,100-kilometer gas pipeline from Karachi to Lahore (the North-South pipeline) with a capacity of 12.4 billion cubic meters per annum the largest economic deal ($1.7 billion) between the two countries since the USSR built the Pakistan Steel Mills in the 1970s. Delayed several times because of tariff disputes, it will be set in motion this year by a Russian company called RT Global Resource.
Pakistan has already invited the Russian Federation to join the $1.16 billion Central Asia-South Asia power project or CASA-1000, which will allow for the export of surplus hydroelectricity from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 2017, Pakistans government gave the go-ahead for the initiation of an agreement with Russia to construct a 600MW Natural Gas Combined Cycle (NGCC) power plant in Jamshoro, Sindh.
US-Pakistani relations are evidently at a low ebb but every coin has two sides. This is prompting Islamabad to diversify its foreign relationships. There are other partners with a lot to offer that could make that country stronger and much less vulnerable to outside pressure.
In South America, Brazil is giving tiny neighbor Uruguay (population 3.5 million) 25 retired M41C light tanks. These will replace 17 M24 light tanks Uruguay has had since 1958. The Brazilian military is the largest and most modern in South America but older military equipment still finds uses because there have not been a lot of wars in South America since the 19th century. In fact, the last major war between two South American nations was in the 1930s, between Bolivia and Paraguay. This Great Chaco War was fought over a desert area thought to contain oil deposits but these were never found. The Chaco region is hot, sparsely populated and a popular tourist attraction.
Because of the lack of wars between nations for in South America the military budgets tend to be small and the military, especially the army, is seen as backing for the police. New military equipment is recognized as an unnecessary expense and South American nations have become quite adept at maintaining, often by rebuilding and upgrading, older equipment.
The Uruguayan army has 15,000 personnel and the ancient M24 first entered service in 1944 and were retired by the U.S. Army in 1953 and replaced by the 21 ton M41 which entered service in 1951 and was used by the United States until the late 1960s. Many of the 5,700 built were sold or given to American allies and there are at least six nations still using several hundred of them. Uruguay already has 22 M41s which it has upgraded to include a 90mm gun replacing the 76mm gun all M41s originally had. The 25 Brazilian M41Cs are also upgraded but still have the 76mm gun. Most of the Brazilian M41Cs will be used for spare parts to keep about 40 M41s in service for another decades or so.
The Uruguayan Army has over 400 armored vehicles, most of them wheeled vehicles. While it has fifteen refurbished (by Israel, after capturing them and selling them to Uruguay) Russian T-54 tanks the most frequently used Uruguayan tanks are the M24s and M41s. Because the wheeled armored vehicles are cheaper to maintain and operate they are the most frequently used armored vehicles. Uruguay armored vehicles dont much use besides training. Some Uruguayan troops do have combat experience, but not in Uruguay.
Uruguayan soldiers often serve on peacekeeping missions and the country has not been at war with another nation since War of the Triple Alliance (allied with Brazil and Argentina against neighbor Paraguay) that ended in 1870 with Uruguay losing about 3,000 dead. Paraguay lost much of its territory and over half its population killed. For most of the last 150 years, Uruguay was ruled by elected governments but there was always a strong military, relative to its size, in part because there was one civil wars and major insurrections before elected government became the norm in the 1980s. Nevertheless, the military is more a way to provide jobs than to create a modern military force. That civil service approach tends to work in South America because of the lack of external enemies and the American Monroe Doctrine discouraging nations from outside the Americas from being a threat. The last time there was a war between a South American nation and one from outside the Americas was the 1982 Falklands War when Argentina seized the British Falkland Islands (which Argentina had long claimed) and Britain quickly took them back and that was the end of that. The Americans did not intervene (although they did render some assistance to NATO ally Britain). Uruguay is one of the most prosperous and corruption free nations in South America and, per-capita, the largest contributor of peacekeepers in the world.
Yet the failures that can produce sepsis persist and are widespread in Americas nursing homes, according to data on state inspections kept by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Many of the lawsuits allege that bedsores and other common infections have caused serious harm or death. The outcome of these cases is not clear, because most are settled and the terms kept confidential.
Click the image above to watch the video
In today's forecast we are expecting cloudy periods with the odd shower, especially in the evening. Also southerlies.
It's a two-clothing layer day today with a high of 15 and an overnight low of 6 degrees. Humidity is 69 per cent.
High tide is at 2.20pm and low tide is at 8.30 pm (Tay Street times). There's a sea swell of .7m with a sea temperature of 15 degrees. Sunset tonight is at 5.53pm.
If you're going fishing the next best fish bite time is between 5 and 7pm.
In NZ history on this day in 1939 the Prime Minister declared New Zealands support for Britain. When New Zealand declared war on Germany on September 3 1939, Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage was recovering from an operation for colon cancer. Acting Prime Minister Peter Fraser issued a statement in his place.
In world history on this day in 1666 the Great Fire of London was extinguished after two days. In 1877 the great Sioux warrior Crazy Horse was fatally bayoneted at age 36 by a soldier at Fort Robinson, Nebraska.
In 1910 Marie Curie demonstrated the transformation of radium ore to metal at the Academy of Sciences in France.
In 1977 Voyager 1 space probe was launched. In 1980 the worlds longest tunnel opened; Switzerlands St. Gotthard Tunnel stretches 16.224 km from Goschenen to Airolo. In 1984 the Space Shuttle Discovery landed after its maiden voyage.
Today is the birthday of Louis XIV, The Sun King of France who built the palace at Versailles. Born in 1638, he once said Do not assess the justice of a claim by the vigour with which it is pressed.
To get involved in some of the many activities happening around the Bay, please check out our What's on page.
Have a great day!
Police are investigating after a 10-year-old girl reported a suspicious approach by two men after school.
The girl was walking near the intersection of Pine Avenue and Anthony Crescent, Hamilton, shortly after 3pm when a van pulled up beside her.
The van was described as pitch black with tinted windows, and had a sliding door on the side.
One man was driving the van and a second man opened the sliding door and appeared to lunge towards the girl, says acting Detective Sergeant Mike Handley.
The girl showed great instincts and immediately ran away. The van then sped away down Pine Avenue in the direction of Urlich Avenue.
The girl was unhurt in the incident but is understandably very shaken up.
We know that reports of incidents such as these can cause considerable concern for parents and other members of our community, says Mike.
We would urge everyone to be alert, not alarmed, and to take the opportunity to have conversations with your children about what they should do if they feel unsafe.
Police would like to hear from anyone who saw a black van in the Melville area around the time of this incident, or anyone who has information which could assist our investigation.
Anyone who can help should call Hamilton Police on 07 858 6200.
New mechanised flood gates being installed on State Highway 26 at Paeroa will enable Waikato Regional Council to provide full flood protection to the community faster.
Its expected the gates manufactured in the United Kingdom and being installed adjacent to the Criterion Bridge which crosses the Ohinemuri River will be operational in early-October.
Hauraki Zone manager Karen Botting says the new gates will replace stoplogs, which require 10 staff up to 90 minutes to put in place to provide full flood protection.
Already this year, council staff have been ready to deploy the stoplogs three times, says Karen.
The logs are specially designed pieces of steel that have been in use since 1986. Theyve been very effective, but as a result of this project the community will be protected much faster. It will take two staff just minutes to close the gates.
As part of this $900,000 project, well be putting in footings over the next couple of months to enable the gates to open and shut at the flick of a switch. During power outages, the gates will be opened and closed using a winch, says Karen.
The wider community benefits from the new gates too. Once the gates are installed, well have more field staff available to deploy to other vulnerable locations during a flood.
The project involved a significant amount of site preparation, including modifications to the existing stopbank. But Karen says councils priority throughout the project is making sure the community continues to be protected from flooding.
The work will affect pedestrians particularly staff and students who attend the nearby Paeroa College as well as motorists. Traffic management will be in place, with partial road and footpath closures possible on occasion.
To minimise disruption to pedestrians, an alternative accessway has been constructed along the stopbank, so people can come and go on foot safely without having to pass close to the construction site.
The Kiwifruit Claim group has filed a cross-appeal over the High Court decision which found the Ministry for Primary Industries negligent in letting vine-killing disease Psa-V into New Zealand in 2009, which devastated the kiwifruit industry.
This comes just after the Crown recently appealed the High Court decision that found MPI negligent.
The High Court decision, released on June 29, partially upheld a claim by the Kiwifruit Claim group of 212 growers for damages over the Psa outbreak in 2010 but did not uphold the claim by the groups second plaintiff Seeka, saying post-harvest operators were one step removed from the direct harm suffered by growers so were less closely connected to the consequences of ministry negligence.
Now, the Crown, on behalf of MPI, and the Kiwifruit Claim group which represents the 212 growers as well as Seeka will have to wait until later this year or early-2019 when the Court of Appeal will hear both the Crowns appeal and the Kiwifruit Claim groups cross appeal at the same time.
In a statement, dated July 24, 2018, MPI says: The Crown appeal seeks to clarify the scope for government regulators to be sued in negligence.
MPI also adds it considers the High Court finding has the potential to significantly impact on the Ministrys biosecurity operations.
Now Kiwifruit Claim group chairman John Cameron is calling on the Government to accept the comprehensive High Court decision which found MPI was responsible for the Psa outbreak, saying that growers have been left with no choice but to cross-appeal after the Crown decided to appeal following its loss.
We were gutted with the Governments move to appeal, it was devastating to growers.
We are confident in the High Courts decision, and believe the Government is taking a massive risk in appealing the Judges clear findings.
Enough is enough its time for MPI to accept full responsibility. The Psa incursion caused significant losses to many growers and others and could easily have been avoided if MPI had done their job properly.
John says his groups cross-appeal challenges the decision that the Government did not owe a duty of care to Seeka as a post-harvest operator.
Seeka suffered massive financial losses during the Psa outbreak, and if we are successful liability will escalate considerably, says John.
It will also confirm that MPI was negligent when they failed to inspect the shipment of banned kiwifruit plant material, infected with Psa, when it arrived from China.
MPI told the court that inspection was required under the Biosecurity Act and under their own regulations, and admitted that they failed to inspect the package.
John says his group is unaware of any other instance where MPI has admitted to being responsible for a biosecurity outbreak when they had the opportunity to prevent its entry.
Psa was a known pest and MPI had regulations and protocols in place to ensure it didnt come into the country.
It was proven and admitted by MPI in court, that they had failed to follow their own rules and performed multiple acts of negligence which meant Psa was allowed to be brought into the country.
John says if MPI had been careful and followed their regulations, like the Australian biosecurity agency did, Psa would not have entered NZ.
This is not a case of expecting the biosecurity system to prevent every pest incursion from happening, this is a case of where MPIs actions let a known pest into the country.
They could have stopped it and did not.
John says growers were in tears when the High Court decision came out. Weve had to fight a long and expensive battle to finally get some accountability for what happened.
These growers are not getting any younger, and since the claim was filed in 2014, at least three claimants have died. However, it is our understanding the estates of these claimants will still be pursuing their claim.
And the group remains committed to fighting the Government and MPI for growers to be properly compensated for the losses MPI has caused, says John.
The Government has declined two offers that were made by the Kiwifruit Claim to settle, which would have saved taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and allowed everyone to move on.
Click the image above to watch the video
In today's forecast we are expecting occasional rain until midday then fine spells. Also southerlies.
It's a three-clothing and one-windproof layer day today with a high of 15 and an overnight low of 8 degrees. Humidity is 83 per cent.
Low tide is at 9am and high tide is at 3.20 pm (Tay Street times). There's a sea swell of .7m with a sea temperature of 14 degrees. Sunset tonight is at 5.54pm.
If you're going fishing the next best fish bite time is between 8 and 10pm.
In NZ history on this day in 1948 NZ citizenship was established. The British Nationality and New Zealand Citizenship Act 1948 (the order of the terms showed their relative importance) gave New Zealand citizenship to all current residents who had been either born British subjects or later naturalised. Until this Act came into force, people born in New Zealand were British subjects but not New Zealand citizens.
In world history on this day in 1522 one of the five ships that set out in Ferdinand Magellans trip around the world made it back to Spain. Only 15 of the original 265 men that set out survived. Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines.
One hundred years ago today in 1918 the German Army began a general retreat across the Aisne, with British troops in pursuit.
In 1936 aviator Beryl Markham flew the first east-to-west solo flight by a woman across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1941 Germany announced that all Jews living in the country would have to begin wearing a Star of David.
In 1953 the last American and Korean prisoners were exchanged in Operation Big Switch, the last official act of the Korean War.
In 1972 the world learnt an earlier announcement that all Israeli athletes taken hostage at the Munich Olympics had been rescued was erroneous; all had been killed by their captors from the Black September terrorist group; all but three terrorists also died in the shootout around midnight.
In 1991 the USSR officially recognized independence for the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Also in 1991 Leningrad, the second-largest city in the USSR, was renamed Saint Petersburg, which had been the citys name prior to 1924.
In 1997 the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales took place. Over 1 million people lined Londons streets to honour her and 2.5 billion watched the event on television.
Today is the birthday of John Dalton, the English scientist who developed the atomic theory of matter. Born in 1766 he once wrote When we attempt to conceive the number of particles in an atmosphere, it is somewhat like attempting to conceive the number of stars in the universe; we are confounded with the thought.
For activities and events please check out our Whats On Page.
This mornings video was filmed on Mount Main beach and features a dotterel.
Have a great day!
The Chicago Bears have lost three straight entering Monday nights game against the Steelers in Pittsburgh, and Tuesdays trade deadline came and went without any deals. Brad Biggs lists the reasons for that and answers a host of other questions in his weekly Bears mailbag.
Former "Coyote Ugly" and "Covert Affairs" star Piper Perabo has been arrested for protesting the Supreme Court confirmation hearing of Trump nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Roll Call reports Capitol Police arrested 70 protesters Tuesday at the first day of Kavanaugh's hearing in Washington, D.C. Sixty-one of those people were charged with disorderly conduct after attempting to interrupt the Senate Judiciary Committee's panel in the Hart Office Building room; the other nine were nine people were charged with crowding, obstructing or incommoding during "unlawful demonstration activities" on the second floor of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
Perabo said she was arrested for civil disobedience while attempting to encourage senators to vote "no" on confirming the judge.
"Many citizens before me have fought for the equal rights of women. I can't be silent when someone is nominated to the Supreme Court who would take our equal rights away," the 41-year-old actress said.
I was just arrested for civil disobedience in the Kavanaugh hearings.
Many citizens before me have fought for the equal rights of women. I cant be silent when someone is nominated to the Supreme Court who would take our equal rights away.#StopKavanaghpic.twitter.com/f3SG7gmVam Piper Perabo (@PiperPerabo) September 4, 2018
Kavanaugh has faced criticism from the Women's March and other groups over his stance on abortion, with some fearing his appointment could overturn Roe v. Wade.
ABC reports a group of women silently protested Kavanaugh Tuesday by dressing in "The Handmaid's Tale" costumes, featuring long red dresses and white bonnets. The Hulu series, based on Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel, depicts a world where women are denied basic human rights.
"We are fighting Brett Kavanaugh's nomination because he represents the greatest threat to the right to legal abortion since Roe was decided. Already in America, the right to abortion is under attack, putting access out of reach for far too many women, especially low-income women and women of color. Brett Kavanaugh would take our current reality and make it worse--much worse," Lori Lodes, an advisor with Demand Justice, told ABC. "If the images of women in Handmaids costumes are striking, good, because this is serious. Women's bodies, futures and lives are literally on the line."
Demonstrators protesting against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, wear costumes from the show "The Handmaid's Tale," during his confirmation hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Washington.
Kavanaugh's hearings, expected to take at least four days, has also inspired partisan quarreling thanks to strong Democratic opposition, concerns about the upcoming midterm elections in November, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Trump's 2016 campaign.
According to the Associated Press, several senators tried to block the proceedings, complaining that more than 100,000 pages of Kavanaugh documents had been withheld by the White House. Some 42,000 pages were released on the evening before of the hearing, prompting complaints about a lack of sufficient time to review the documents.
Chairman Chuck Grassley disagreed with the complaints, at times raising his voice over their objections and hitting his gavel as they spoke. Republicans accused Democrats of turning the proceedings into a circus.
FULL LIST: 18 cold cases in Upstate NY that stumped police: Murders, disappearances, mysteries
On November 8, 1972, 52-year-old Rudy Allen Rothberg was found dead in the cab of his truck at a truck stop on I-81 near Syracuse.
Rothberg had been killed with a shotgun, and his wallet was stolen. More than four decades later, Rothberg's killing remains one of dozens of unsolved cold cases that still puzzle investigators across Upstate NY.
New York State police regularly publish updates to cold cases in an effort to generate new leads and help find killers, kidnappers and other unknown criminals.
A new list from NYup.com details the 18 cold cases updated by NYS Police this year, including Rothberg's killing and other mysterious murders and disappearances.
READ MORE: 18 cold cases in Upstate NY that stumped police: Murders, disappearances, mysteries
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Two Syracuse residents have been charged with breaking into two Syracuse University dormitories after they pulled fire alarms, according to the Syracuse Police Department.
Abraham Mestre, 19, and Peter Geremia, 17, were each charged with 15 counts of burglary and two counts of falsely reporting an incident, according to the Syracuse Police Department. Court records say each was also charged with grand larceny.
Rooms in Watson Hall, 405 University Place, and Lawrinson Hall, 303 Stadium Place, were burglarized on Aug. 27 after someone pulled fire alarms and students evacuated, the SU's Department of Public Safety has said.
Mestre and Geremia are not listed as students in Syracuse University's directory.
The court records only detail the burglaries at Lawrinson Hall.
According to court papers, the two pulled a fire alarm at Lawrinson Hall at about 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 27 before burglarizing 10 rooms once the rooms' residents evacuated the building. The two burglarized five rooms on the ninth floor and five on the 10th floor, court records said.
They stole sneakers, sunglasses, headphones, clothing, cameras, miscellaneous jewelry, music speakers, watches and other items, court records said.
Each stole more than $1,000 worth in goods, court records said.
Mestre, of 811 Burnet Ave., dumped some of the stolen property in a wooded area and trash can on Mather Street in the Syracuse, court records said. Mather Street is near Lincoln Park. Both kept some of the stolen property at their residences, court records said.
Geremia, of 443 S. Edwards Ave., is being held at the Onondaga County Justice Center on $15,000 bail and $30,000 bond, and is set to appear in court on Thursday, according to inmate logs. Mestre is no longer listed in the justice center inmate logs.
Police did not release their mugshots "pending additional identification procedures," a police spokesman said.
Police are still investigating the incidents and asked that anyone with information to contact the Syracuse Police Department's criminal investigations division at 315-442-5222. All calls remain confidential. Anonymous tips can also be submitted using the SPD Tips app.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A man found dead Tuesday on Syracuse's North Side shot himself, police say.
A 30-year-old man was found dead at 3:08 a.m. on a patch of grass in the 500 block of Kirkpatrick Street. His death -- initially considered suspicious -- was a suicide, said Sgt. Richard Helterline, of the Syracuse Police Department.
The man was from the New York City area, Helterline said, but had friends near Syracuse. His name was not released.
Where to get help
If you or someone you know is dealing with suicidal thoughts, these services are available:
Former "Hellboy" star Ron Perlman's third movie filmed at the Central New York film hub is getting a release date -- and it's sooner than you think.
Deadline reports Momentum Pictures has acquired the U.S. rights to "Asher," directed by Michael Caton-Jones ("The Jackal") and written by Jay Zaretsky. Perlman, 68, stars as Asher, an aging Mossad-agent-turned-hitman who seeks redemption after his last job goes sideways.
"He must kill the man he was, for a last chance at becoming the man he wants to be," the publication says.
"Asher," also starring Famke Janssen ("X-Men," "Taken"), Peter Facinelli ("Twilight") and Oscar winner Richard Dreyfuss, will be released in theaters Dec. 7. It's unclear if the movie will be in limited theaters or get a nationwide release.
A trailer has not yet been released.
According to Deadline, "Asher" will get a world premiere next month at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain. Perlman will be on hand to present the film and accept a reward.
"Asher" shot in the Syracuse area last year, with scenes in the Sedgwick Farms neighborhood, a mansion on James Street, inside the Hotel Syracuse, at Green Lakes, and at the Central New York Hub for Emerging Nano Industries in DeWitt, N.Y. Perlman and Dreyfuss were both spotted around Syracuse during production.
Perlman produced the film under his company Wing and a Prayer Pictures. It's his third time using the DeWitt nano hub, after "Wooden Lake" in 2015 and "Pottersville" in 2016.
"Pottersville," starring Michael Shannon, Judy Greer and Perlman, was released last year to mixed reviews. Scenes were also shot in
"Wooden Lake," Perlman's forthcoming directorial debut, does not have a release date.
He told Spectrum News last year that he hopes to someday shoot as many as five movies a year in CNY.
"The governor has, as part of his Startup New York initiative, has a film component here with a pretty attractive tax incentive," Perlman told the news station. "We've been working hand in glove with the state to be one of the pioneer companies that uses the incentive and tries to drive traffic up here in hopes of ultimately building the workforce. A qualified, new generation of filmmakers that are local, and then we'll really have something."
The DeWitt film hub, part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's signature Upstate economic development plan, was touted as a way to bring "Hollywood to Onondaga." Instead, it has faced much scrutiny for producing few jobs, a lack of some technical equipment, and several convictions on corruption charges in the bidding process for construction contracts.
The first movie shot at the film hub, "American Dresser," starring Tom Berenger and Keith David, will be released in theaters and on demand Sept. 21.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Common Councilor Chad Ryan returned to work today after a four-month absence, during which he was in Florida to get treatment for an addiction problem.
Speaking with reporters after a council meeting, Ryan opened up about his struggle with addiction and the decision to put his life on hold and seek help.
"I've got to own it. I made mistakes," he said, speaking to reporters after a council meeting Wednesday. "I hope everyone can understand and I'm going to try to make up for it."
Ryan, 33, represents the 2nd council district on the city's west side. He was re-elected last year to a third term. He comes from a politically active family in Syracuse. He works as a funeral director at the family-owned Edward J. Ryan and Son Funeral Home.
Ryan said he had been dealing with addiction for nearly 10 years. He declined to offer specifics on the addiction or any substances he was using.
He said it never affected his role on the council, but the lifestyle he was leading wasn't healthy. Outside the council and his job at his family's funeral home, he was miserable, he said.
"I wasn't in a good mental space. I wasn't in a good physical space," Ryan said. "And I hope everyone can understand that I needed to do this for myself for my long-term health. I'm back and I can honestly say I'm better than ever."
Now that he's home, Ryan said he's moved into a new apartment on Tipperary Hill and plans to seek continuing help for his addiction, including attending meetings and "working the program." And he's excited to get back to work with a new city administration.
As he entered the council chambers Wednesday, city staff and other council regulars mostly greeted him warmly, some welcoming him back with a handshake or a hug.
Council President Helen Hudson embraced him as he spoke with reporters and thanked him. Hudson removed Ryan from his role as chair of the public works committee last month just before the committee weighed a $38 million plan to purchase the city's streetlights from National Grid.
Ryan thanked his fellow councilors who he said took up some of his duties in his absence. And he encouraged anyone else struggling with addiction to seek help, even if it means putting the rest of your life on hold.
"There's a lot of guilt and shame that goes along with addiction. There's a stigma with it," he said. "And a lot of people don't want to get out. I would encourage people to do it [seek help]...I fought it for a long time. I said I can't leave the council, I can't leave the funeral home. While I was gone, I can assure you, the world kept turning. And people were okay. Was it ideal? No. But long-term it was the right decision."
Sacha Baron Cohen, CBS Corp. and Showtime Networks were sued by former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who claims the satirist tricked him into appearing on his "Who Is America?" show and then made him look like a pedophile and sex offender.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in federal court in Washington with claims of defamation and fraud. It seeks $95 million in damages.
Moore says in his complaint that he's "suffered extreme emotional distress" by being "falsely portrayed, mocked and defamed as a sex offender and pedophile."
In "Who Is America?" Baron Cohen adopted personas such as a far-right conspiracy theorist and an ex-convict while interviewing political figures including Vice President Dick Cheney, former presidential candidate Jill Stein and congressman Dana Rohrabacher. Many of the interview subjects later criticized Baron Cohen for misleading them.
Showtime, a CBS unit, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Moore says Cohen and his agents lured him onto the program in February just two months after the Republican judge was narrowly defeated in his race for the U.S. Senate seat in Alabama. He was dogged by allegations in the election that he'd inappropriately touched under-aged girls while he was in his 30s, which he denied.
Moore claims he was told the appearance was sought by an Israeli program called Yerushalayim TV and that during it he'd receive an award for his strong support of Israel, spurring him and his wife to fly to Washington. Yerushalayim TV turned out to be fictional.
Once there, Cohen -- in character as former Israeli anti-terrorism agent Erran Morad -- mocked Moore and even subjected him to scanning with a fake army device meant to detect pedophiles. The program, which aired July 29, was televised over Moore's subsequent protests to CBS once he learned the truth.
Baron Cohen is no stranger to controversy. The British comedian has had his greatest successes inhabiting personas such as wannabe rapper Ali G, Kazakh journalist Borat and the gay Austrian fashionista Bruno. Two college students sued Baron Cohen over his film "Borat," while a charity worker sued him over his film "Bruno."
Moore is represented by conservative political activist Larry Klayman.
The husband of Republican operative Zina Bash denounced the people spreading the theory Tuesday that Bash made a white supremacist gesture as she sat behind Brett Kavanaugh during his hearing on Tuesday.
John Bash, the United States attorney for Western Texas, called the accusations geared toward his wife, a lawyer who has spent years working in Republican politics, "repulsive" in a series of heated tweets.
"Everyone tweeting this vicious conspiracy theory should be ashamed of themselves," John Bash wrote. "We weren't even familiar with the hateful symbol being attributed to her for the random way she rested her hand during a long hearing."
Is this woman Zina Bash throwing a white power hand signal?? It sure looks like one pic.twitter.com/k6pIecZwTn Belhar (@Belhar62) September 4, 2018
Bash, who worked in the Trump White House as a special assistant on regulatory reform and legal and immigration policy, currently works as a senior counsel for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
It was the second sideshow to steal attention from the serious and substantive work of Kavanaugh's hearing after trending on social media. Earlier, videos and images of Kavanaugh declining to shake the hand of Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed at the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, went viral, and Guttenberg later made the rounds on cable news shows.
The controversy over Bash's hand placement started on Twitter in the midst of the hearing. A few liberal-leaning accounts with large followings who do not work for respected news media outlets had noticed that Bash had been making an OK sign with her hand as it rested on her arm as she sat behind Kavanaugh at the hearing. The OK symbol - yes, that everyday hand sign with thumb-forefinger circle and three fingers splayed upward - is not considered a hate symbol by organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, but it has been the subject of a campaign by Internet hoaxsters and trolls to be converted to that use, and inflame the sensibilities of well-meaning people online.
Popular Twitter personalities and accounts such as Amy Siskind, Eugene Gu, and the Palmer Report tweeted that Bash had flashed a "white-power" symbol, drawing a flurry of engagement on the social media service. By the evening, her name was trending on the service. The video Gu tweeted out that focused on Bash's hands, originally published by another Twitter account, had been viewed more than 2 million times.
Siskind continued to sow doubt about Bash's intent into the evening on Twitter.
"Try it for yourself," Siskind wrote of the hand gesture. "If you watch the video you'll see she held it in place for a long time. It's not a natural resting position."
John Bash said the assertions were even more infuriating given his wife's mixed race background.
"Zina is Mexican on her mother's side and Jewish on her father's side. She was born in Mexico," he wrote. "Her grandparents were Holocaust survivors. We of course have nothing to do with hate groups, which aim to terrorize and demean other people - never have and never would."
Mark Pitcavage, a researcher who studies extremism, shared the feelings of many when he dismissed the controversy in a statement on Twitter.
"Out of all the things you should be legitimately concerned about regarding the Senate confirmation hearings in Washington, DC, today for Judge Kavanaugh," he wrote, "handshakes and handsigns ought not be among them. Actual serious constitutional issues are at stake."
ashwinprakas Senior - BHPian
Join Date: Nov 2016 Location: Kollam Posts: 1,987 Thanked: 6,371 Times
Motorcycle Reliability - The elephant in the room
The goal of this topic is to help motorcycle enthusiasts both present and potential candidates make better calculated choices as far as motorcycles go.
So first off, as far as my understanding goes the factors that result in determining reliability as experienced by myself and communicated by fellow enthusiasts are;
1. Issues faced in general.
2. Recurring issues.
3. Quality of A.S.S.
4. Spare availability.
5. Grievance redressal.
6. Spare Pricing v/s Quality conundrum.
Having listed out the major concerns we will go into each point in detail to figure out if the perceived issues are issues in the first place considering that like motorcycles motorcyclists also do come in all forms and factors with varying knowledge and opinions when it comes to motorcycle riding and maintenance. Hence, here we go!
Issues faced in general.
Weve all experienced a hick-up once in a while, some of them are disconcerting and require attention whereas the majority of concerns are baseless and a result of our misinformation, so to clear those here are a few pointers, but before moving on to them you must realize that your motorcycle is a machine with numerous moving components that get affected by numerous factors internal and external, so a blip here and there like the below are no reason for panic;
a. Cold Starting: Weve all heard tales of motorcycles starting in the first go but for the majority of us that is a hit and miss scenario, at times the motorcycle fires up in the first thumb/kick but at times it takes several turns to fire the motorcycle up, which is quite normal as a stock motorcycle is tuned to run fine within a range of atmospheric conditions which as far as India Is concerned is a pretty wide one.
A few misconceptions surrounding this area is the use of the choke and kick-starter. You are expected to only use the choke sparingly due the chances of bore wash happening, a scenario where a richer AF mixture can wash away the cylinder lubrication and result in premature wear and tear, so only use the Choke If the motorcycle is absolutely refusing to start otherwise. Concerns regarding battery load is pointless, because a motorcycle battery should ideally be replaced once every 3 years and within this service limit the battery would have no issues pulling several cranks of the starter before actually facing considerable drains, this has been confirmed with a multi-meter, plus it is common sense to load the battery in the convenience and safety of your garage than to end up stranded in less ideal situations.
Now comes the use of the kicks-starter, some motorcyclists believe that the first start of the day should be done only using the kick-starter, now this is absolute baseless. And as for a matter of fact the kick-starter is just a fail-safe on motorcycles with a self-starter, which is why it should only be used if the self-starter is unable to start the motorcycle, as otherwise it runs the risk of the kicker seal wearing down which makes a good percent of the having a self-starter in the first place pointless, then the next matter of concern is that kicker mechanisms on some modern motorcycles are not made to take on such daily abuse, so on these motorcycles it is just a matter of time before you break the kick-starter and run the risk of it not being functional when you might actually require it.
b. Engine Noise: Unless you hear anything ungodly there is no reason for panic, all components have a predetermined service life and clearance ranges, and as long as replacements and adjustments are made in a timely manner there is no reason to be alarmed over slight changes to engine note, that ideally you wont even notice with a good helmet on.
c. Vibrations: Same follows, especially in the case of single cylinder motorcycles, even with counter-balancers being present. As long as all fasteners are periodically inspected and replaced as per recommended intervals all is fine.
d. Throttle response: Same thing, slight fluctuations are common and more prominent in the case of carburetted motorcycles, and for the record a stock carburettor on a stock motorcycle should not be fiddled with unless it is completely dismantled and overhauled as too much fiddling would cause premature wear. The idle speed should be adjusted when cold so that the revs doesnt drop below the operating range of the auto-decompressor which ideally is below the 1.1k mark, when the temperature goes up it is fine for the idle to go up and in some occasions when extremely hot almost close to the 2k mark which again is normal and adjusting the idle speed on a very hot motorcycle would only result in idling issues when cold, so leave the idle screw alone. Plus it is common-sense to not let a motorcycle idle for long especially air-cooled motorcycles so its engines off when halting for extended periods.
e. Fuel Efficiency: As long as all consumables have been replaced in a timely manner the fuel efficiency of a motorcycle is dependent on the rider and riding conditions, and fiddling with the carburettor would only result in premature wear and component failure. So if youre not satisfied with the fuel efficiency and theres no smoke coming out of the tail pipe then most likely you chose the wrong motorcycle.
f. General Rattling: Again, unless you can hear it while riding with a good helmet on, it is best to ignore it, as panels tend to rattle eventually which is inevitable and measures such as double-sided taping, reassembling fairing etc. would only give you limited peace and is not worth the time, money or effort considering the whole scheme of things.
Now at times in spite of timely maintenance (provided that actually happens), there would still be issues, now these are things that require your undivided attention, if components fail within the warranty period then you can get them changed under warranty and if the motorcycle is out of warranty then better to go for a complete part replacement than make-shift overhauls as the latter is the prime cause for recurring issues. Now an untimely component failure is something that is exceptionally rare these days so if you do face anything it would be best to think back on what you mightve missed which couldve resulted in the failure than jumping the gun to blame the manufacturer, there are exceptions in this case as at times fault can be with the manufacturer and in which case you should reach out via the former channels to ensure redressal all the while ensuring that you maintain a record of all transactions, such issues usually show up within the warranty period especially if the product in question is new, which would ideally mean that the issue would be resolved with the least possible inconvenience to the rider.
All being said and done, do note that minor inconveniences would pop up on brand new motorcycles with odometer readings below the 10,000 kms mark which actually is normal as most motorcycles being mass produced in India it takes some running for some parts to bed-in at times, so dont be worried just because the motorcycles runs rough for the first couple of thousands, which in other words the technician politely tells you that issues would go away as you complete more services when in fact there is no magic going on during regular servicing other than consumables being inspected and replaced. And while were on consumables please be aware that certain consumables may give up any time without warning, hence better to carry spares even in spite of timely replacement, for components such as Control Cables etc, as such components would not be replaced under warranty for obvious reasons.
Recurring issues.
These without saying are the issues that frequently pop-up, they can be further drilled down to;
a. Issues caused by neglect: These are the issues caused by the riders neglect, either by ignoring to follow recommended service intervals clearly mentioned in the ownership manual or by blindly trusting someone else to carry them out for them. The engine oil and air filter is not the only thing that needs to be looked into, every individual component in your motorcycles has a recommended service life/limit after which it has to be replaced, so be proactive to ensure that your motorcycle is not plagued with such issues.
And just to note things have changed a lot in the past few decades in favour of reliability, hence when the service limit of a certain component is up, you are expected to replace the component in question than go for a make-shift tips and tricks that would end up causing more harm than good.
b. Issues that are not issues in the first place: The service life of certain components vary between motorcycles due to their respective configurations, state of tune and the riding conditions to which they are subjected to, which is why it is unfair to compare apples to oranges.
Meaning it is normal for a motorcycle with a single cylinder configuration running a higher compression say at around 12.6:1 to blow a couple of seals or require more frequent clearance adjustments than a lower displacement single cylinder configured motorcycle running a lower compression say 10.7:1, now I know what you might be thinking of next, so hold your horses, with a change in cylinder configuration the service life of components would also change, which is why a parallel twin with more displacement running a 11.5:1 compression would still be more reliable the aforementioned single running a 12.6:1 compression as in the case of the parallel twin, the per cylinder displacement is just half of that of the big displacement single cylinder motorcycle. And it has nothing to do with the big displacement single being made in India or the parallel twin being a CKD or CBU import. I did say from the beginning that I wont be taking names, as the intention is to share information, not opinions, so go figure.
And if youre still displeased with the motorcycle in question then the fact remains that youve made a less informed decision by choosing the wrong product, which again is your fault and not the manufacturers as all specifications were made available before purchase.
Quality of A.S.S.
There are two types of riders when it comes to this;
a. Those who care about their A.S.S.: Now these are the folks entirely depend on the Authorized Service Stations, which is ideally how it is supposed to be but given that we live in India, do your research before making the purchase as the quality of service stations are highly subjective to geographies and related factors and any unfortunate experiences could take the fun away from automotive ownership. Which is why it is always recommended to go through the Owners Manual before operation to ensure that you stay better informed in the event that the worst might happen in which case most users simply blame the manufacturer rather than taking into consideration that they mightve skipped due diligence on their part, which I again stress is due to us living in India, after all, it is always better to be safe than sorry. To make things easy you could just observe how a A.S.S services a motorcycle, whether they cut corners or use appropriate tools, my thumb rule is to ask the main service technician if they use a torque wrench, a feeler gauge or any such precision tools because if not then that would be the last of it.
b. Those who dont care about their A.S.S: These are the people who do their own maintenance, you seldom hear complaints from these people and that too only when the A.S.S. in question fails to stock spares, which is something that would be addressed in detail in the next pointer.
Spare availability.
In an ideal world this is something that should not be an issue but as everyone would have realized by now we do not live in an idea world. Having said that some manufacturers offer better support as far as spares go compared to the rest but that doesnt mean that you should not opt for a motorcycle from one manufacturer over the other because this is not a matter concerning the majority of owners, the ones who are affected are the high mileage users who require spares more frequently and in such cases it helps to opt for a manufacturer or product that has better spare availability because it makes sense. For the rest you may got for any motorcycle your heart desires and if you come across a scenario where there is shortage of parts make sure to put in an expedited order, which is something most owners are not aware of as per my understanding, because when it is placed you would be receiving the spare in question within a matter of days, some say that this is manufacturer dependent but personally I have placed expedited orders for parts from a couple of manufacturers and they all have sourced the said part within a matter of days or a week at best.
All manufacturers are liable to ensure that spares be available for a certain period of time even after a product has been discontinued and in almost all cases they do, it is the A.S.S. at times that becomes a hindrance, so next time they say that a spare is not available make sure to put in an expedited request and collect receipt after making an advance payment if required, and if you do not hear from them within the stipulated time, escalate! As there is no point in deeming a motorcycle or a manufacturer unreliable simply because of the shortcoming of one irresponsible A.S.S. know your rights and act on it making sure to document each and every transaction.
Grievance redressal.
In this day and age you might expect to be treated the way you think it would go about in your head, but as always that is not the case. As far as some manufacturers are concerned if the product sells then thats where customer support ends, dont trust me? Tell me about the last time you sent a query to a market leading manufacturer and got a reply? You did?
Good for you!
For me the experience was mixed, when it came to one Japanese manufacturer that has a reputation of making under tuned (Or as the Indian consumer understands: Reliable) motorcycles neither the official grievance page or contact number worked like literally! The number was non-existent and the link did not work and guess how we ensured they made good on their warranty terms for a product that was barely a few weeks old? We emailed a Japanese dude who ended up making the right calls to get us what was rightfully ours to begin with, the whole ordeal took over a week if I remember correctly.
But does that mean all Japanese brands treat customers alike? Well sadly going by the number of reported issues on the internet a majority seems to be doing so but with another Japanese manufacturer who makes budget friendly enthusiast oriented motorcycles the response was swift when the regional A.S.S messed with us by refusing to change consumables that were paid for, an email with pictures were enough for us to get a call from the A.S.S the very next day, same was the case with another indigenous manufacturer who sells re-branded variants of a Japanese manufacturer, within a day of sending an email Id received a call and the A.S.S owned up to making a near fatal mistake while servicing my brand new motorcycle and rectified the issue shortly after, same was the case with 2 other indigenous manufacturers, swift response with confirmation calls to see if the issue was resolved to my satisfaction or if the requested technical information was provided by the respective A.S.S within a matter of minutes.
So does that mean indigenous brands are better at grievance redressal compared to their Japanese counter parts? Well going by my experience and the number of instances I would have to say yes. But on this front it would be best to form your own opinion after doing your research by collecting information from reliable sources, Team-Bhp ownership forums being an example over other loosely moderated forums but then technical know-how of the user in question might vary so do proceed with a pinch of salt.
Spare Pricing v/s Quality conundrum.
Now this is the really misguided part about first time motorcycle ownership and this doesnt usually end with the first motorcycle because I have close friendly who are motorcycle enthusiasts who still believe that paying more gets you better stuff which may be true when it comes to a lot of things but is not always true when it comes to motorcycle parts mostly the cycle part, mechanicals and some consumables because a bush is a bush and a bearing is a bearing and guess what most likely they are manufactured by the same O.E.M supplier and this is something that I am not making up, I have worked on two motorcycles one from an indigenous manufacturer and one from a Japanese manufacturer and have observed that a good percent of the spares were manufactured by the same O.E.M, you could have a closer look at your carburettor or crankshaft or cylinder kit to confirm that.
This might not always be the case but when youve ridden a motorcycle over a period of time you might encounter scenarios where youd have to source spares from another manufacturers A.S.S due to various reasons and that is when you realize the impact a brand image has on pricing, and I say this because Ive bought the exact same spare made by the same O.E.M and paid ten times more the price at one manufacturers A.S.S compared to another which was no big deal as the article in question was small to begin with and it wasnt a problem considering the urgency of the spare but in hindsight it does make you think, doesnt it?
Now this is right about the time when those still reading would be ready to shoot comparisons of how X manufacturers consumables last more than Y manufacturers consumables well this is true but the reason behind it is not that you get better quality stuff because you paid more but it is due to the fact that state of tune and motorcycle design plays an important part here and as Ive already gone in to the technical aspects I will just add a basic metric for comparison; Tire Wear, you may have used the same tires on two different motorcycles with similar engine configuration and observed that one eats them up whereas on the other they age gracefully, this is what state of tune does and just like how the aggressively tuned motorcycle eats up tires it would eat up all other consumables as well so it is not a matter of price v/s quality but rather that of state of tune.
So all being said and done lets explore how subjectivity has a play in a motorcycles reliability, for which we would have to differentiate the type of users;
a. High mileage user who is attached to his motorcycle:
For this user what matters most is minimal downtime and reasonable pricing, minimal downtime because he cant stand being without a motorcycle for long and reasonable pricing because his spare consumption turnover is high and the real cost of ownership only shows up when youll be swapping more than just consumables which is expected of this user as he is attached to his machine, which would be evident from the several lakhs on his odometer.
b. Low mileage user who is attached to his motorcycle:
These are the kind of riders whove been riding the same motorcycle for decades without considering a change due to emotional attachment and because of considerably lower odometer readings they would not be fazed by the likes of spare pricing and downtime but what they would in turn lean towards is how well they (more than their motorcycles) are handled by the A.S.S.
c. High mileage user who is NOT attached to his motorcycle:
These are the users who do not bother much about long term ownership because it is very unlikely that they would keep their motorcycles past the honeymoon period (ideally 30 ~ 50k kms) for these owners what matters most is resale value of their motorcycles and depending on the kms used they expect to get a guaranteed amount when going for the next motorcycle of their choice, which makes sense as a decent resale for your current motorcycle would mean that youd be spending less that the total amount involved In its long term ownership compared to paying the premium involved in getting a new machine that would run maintenance free for another 30 ~ 50k kms before the cycle repeats.
d. Low mileage user who is NOT attached to his motorcycle:
Now this is the type of user who would get a motorcycle and keep swapping just for the heck of it, this person has no clue regarding ownership costs and consumable replacement intervals, at times even resale value doesnt matter but what does matter is the perceived value of the motorcycle in question meaning if the average Tom, Dick or Harry find it appealing then that is where all further logic ends. Most of time you find a low mileage premium motorcycle on OLX then you should be thanking this guy.
Having listed out all factors involved in a motorcycles perceived reliability in as much detail as I possibly could I hope all upcoming and existing motorcyclists would keep an open and educated mind when going for a motorcycle, having even listed the type of owners out there now I hope potential motorcyclist would not go about seeking advice from just about anyone because you might be in it for the long haul whereas your advisor might unfortunately be someone who rides for the bling factor and after the honeymoon period things can start to get weary if youre riding the wrong motorcycle and trust me when I say that irrespective of public perception, brand image or other insignificant criterion's, riding the right motorcycle for you makes all the difference.
Happy Riding
A.P. This is one of the more subjective areas of motorcycle ownership and since I like everyone else have my own reservations as far as motorcycle brand reliability goes I will take a conscious effort to not let my personal brand preferences dilute the topic at hand, though at times I would be quoting a few examples for the benefit of everyone.The goal of this topic is to help motorcycle enthusiasts both present and potential candidates make better calculated choices as far as motorcycles go.So first off, as far as my understanding goes the factors that result in determining reliability as experienced by myself and communicated by fellow enthusiasts are;Issues faced in general.Recurring issues.Quality of A.S.S.Spare availability.Grievance redressal.Spare Pricing v/s Quality conundrum.Having listed out the major concerns we will go into each point in detail to figure out if the perceived issues are issues in the first place considering that like motorcycles motorcyclists also do come in all forms and factors with varying knowledge and opinions when it comes to motorcycle riding and maintenance. Hence, here we go!Weve all experienced a hick-up once in a while, some of them are disconcerting and require attention whereas the majority of concerns are baseless and a result of our misinformation, so to clear those here are a few pointers, but before moving on to them you must realize that your motorcycle is a machine with numerous moving components that get affected by numerous factors internal and external, so a blip here and there like the below are no reason for panic;Cold Starting: Weve all heard tales of motorcycles starting in the first go but for the majority of us that is a hit and miss scenario, at times the motorcycle fires up in the first thumb/kick but at times it takes several turns to fire the motorcycle up, which is quite normal as a stock motorcycle is tuned to run fine within a range of atmospheric conditions which as far as India Is concerned is a pretty wide one.A few misconceptions surrounding this area is the use of the choke and kick-starter. You are expected to only use the choke sparingly due the chances of bore wash happening, a scenario where a richer AF mixture can wash away the cylinder lubrication and result in premature wear and tear, so only use the Choke If the motorcycle is absolutely refusing to start otherwise. Concerns regarding battery load is pointless, because a motorcycle battery should ideally be replaced once every 3 years and within this service limit the battery would have no issues pulling several cranks of the starter before actually facing considerable drains, this has been confirmed with a multi-meter, plus it is common sense to load the battery in the convenience and safety of your garage than to end up stranded in less ideal situations.Now comes the use of the kicks-starter, some motorcyclists believe that the first start of the day should be done only using the kick-starter, now this is absolute baseless. And as for a matter of fact the kick-starter is just a fail-safe on motorcycles with a self-starter, which is why it should only be used if the self-starter is unable to start the motorcycle, as otherwise it runs the risk of the kicker seal wearing down which makes a good percent of the having a self-starter in the first place pointless, then the next matter of concern is that kicker mechanisms on some modern motorcycles are not made to take on such daily abuse, so on these motorcycles it is just a matter of time before you break the kick-starter and run the risk of it not being functional when you might actually require it.Engine Noise: Unless you hear anything ungodly there is no reason for panic, all components have a predetermined service life and clearance ranges, and as long as replacements and adjustments are made in a timely manner there is no reason to be alarmed over slight changes to engine note, that ideally you wont even notice with a good helmet on.Vibrations: Same follows, especially in the case of single cylinder motorcycles, even with counter-balancers being present. As long as all fasteners are periodically inspected and replaced as per recommended intervals all is fine.Throttle response: Same thing, slight fluctuations are common and more prominent in the case of carburetted motorcycles, and for the record a stock carburettor on a stock motorcycle should not be fiddled with unless it is completely dismantled and overhauled as too much fiddling would cause premature wear. The idle speed should be adjusted when cold so that the revs doesnt drop below the operating range of the auto-decompressor which ideally is below the 1.1k mark, when the temperature goes up it is fine for the idle to go up and in some occasions when extremely hot almost close to the 2k mark which again is normal and adjusting the idle speed on a very hot motorcycle would only result in idling issues when cold, so leave the idle screw alone. Plus it is common-sense to not let a motorcycle idle for long especially air-cooled motorcycles so its engines off when halting for extended periods.Fuel Efficiency: As long as all consumables have been replaced in a timely manner the fuel efficiency of a motorcycle is dependent on the rider and riding conditions, and fiddling with the carburettor would only result in premature wear and component failure. So if youre not satisfied with the fuel efficiency and theres no smoke coming out of the tail pipe then most likely you chose the wrong motorcycle.General Rattling: Again, unless you can hear it while riding with a good helmet on, it is best to ignore it, as panels tend to rattle eventually which is inevitable and measures such as double-sided taping, reassembling fairing etc. would only give you limited peace and is not worth the time, money or effort considering the whole scheme of things.Now at times in spite of timely maintenance (provided that actually happens), there would still be issues, now these are things that require your undivided attention, if components fail within the warranty period then you can get them changed under warranty and if the motorcycle is out of warranty then better to go for a complete part replacement than make-shift overhauls as the latter is the prime cause for recurring issues. Now an untimely component failure is something that is exceptionally rare these days so if you do face anything it would be best to think back on what you mightve missed which couldve resulted in the failure than jumping the gun to blame the manufacturer, there are exceptions in this case as at times fault can be with the manufacturer and in which case you should reach out via the former channels to ensure redressal all the while ensuring that you maintain a record of all transactions, such issues usually show up within the warranty period especially if the product in question is new, which would ideally mean that the issue would be resolved with the least possible inconvenience to the rider.All being said and done, do note that minor inconveniences would pop up on brand new motorcycles with odometer readings below the 10,000 kms mark which actually is normal as most motorcycles being mass produced in India it takes some running for some parts to bed-in at times, so dont be worried just because the motorcycles runs rough for the first couple of thousands, which in other words the technician politely tells you that issues would go away as you complete more services when in fact there is no magic going on during regular servicing other than consumables being inspected and replaced. And while were on consumables please be aware that certain consumables may give up any time without warning, hence better to carry spares even in spite of timely replacement, for components such as Control Cables etc, as such components would not be replaced under warranty for obvious reasons.These without saying are the issues that frequently pop-up, they can be further drilled down to;Issues caused by neglect: These are the issues caused by the riders neglect, either by ignoring to follow recommended service intervals clearly mentioned in the ownership manual or by blindly trusting someone else to carry them out for them. The engine oil and air filter is not the only thing that needs to be looked into, every individual component in your motorcycles has a recommended service life/limit after which it has to be replaced, so be proactive to ensure that your motorcycle is not plagued with such issues.And just to note things have changed a lot in the past few decades in favour of reliability, hence when the service limit of a certain component is up, you are expected to replace the component in question than go for a make-shift tips and tricks that would end up causing more harm than good.Issues that are not issues in the first place: The service life of certain components vary between motorcycles due to their respective configurations, state of tune and the riding conditions to which they are subjected to, which is why it is unfair to compare apples to oranges.Meaning it is normal for a motorcycle with a single cylinder configuration running a higher compression say at around 12.6:1 to blow a couple of seals or require more frequent clearance adjustments than a lower displacement single cylinder configured motorcycle running a lower compression say 10.7:1, now I know what you might be thinking of next, so hold your horses, with a change in cylinder configuration the service life of components would also change, which is why a parallel twin with more displacement running a 11.5:1 compression would still be more reliable the aforementioned single running a 12.6:1 compression as in the case of the parallel twin, the per cylinder displacement is just half of that of the big displacement single cylinder motorcycle. And it has nothing to do with the big displacement single being made in India or the parallel twin being a CKD or CBU import. I did say from the beginning that I wont be taking names, as the intention is to share information, not opinions, so go figure.And if youre still displeased with the motorcycle in question then the fact remains that youve made a less informed decision by choosing the wrong product, which again is your fault and not the manufacturers as all specifications were made available before purchase.There are two types of riders when it comes to this;Those who care about their A.S.S.: Now these are the folks entirely depend on the Authorized Service Stations, which is ideally how it is supposed to be but given that we live in India, do your research before making the purchase as the quality of service stations are highly subjective to geographies and related factors and any unfortunate experiences could take the fun away from automotive ownership. Which is why it is always recommended to go through the Owners Manual before operation to ensure that you stay better informed in the event that the worst might happen in which case most users simply blame the manufacturer rather than taking into consideration that they mightve skipped due diligence on their part, which I again stress is due to us living in India, after all, it is always better to be safe than sorry. To make things easy you could just observe how a A.S.S services a motorcycle, whether they cut corners or use appropriate tools, my thumb rule is to ask the main service technician if they use a torque wrench, a feeler gauge or any such precision tools because if not then that would be the last of it.Those who dont care about their A.S.S: These are the people who do their own maintenance, you seldom hear complaints from these people and that too only when the A.S.S. in question fails to stock spares, which is something that would be addressed in detail in the next pointer.In an ideal world this is something that should not be an issue but as everyone would have realized by now we do not live in an idea world. Having said that some manufacturers offer better support as far as spares go compared to the rest but that doesnt mean that you should not opt for a motorcycle from one manufacturer over the other because this is not a matter concerning the majority of owners, the ones who are affected are the high mileage users who require spares more frequently and in such cases it helps to opt for a manufacturer or product that has better spare availability because it makes sense. For the rest you may got for any motorcycle your heart desires and if you come across a scenario where there is shortage of parts make sure to put in an expedited order, which is something most owners are not aware of as per my understanding, because when it is placed you would be receiving the spare in question within a matter of days, some say that this is manufacturer dependent but personally I have placed expedited orders for parts from a couple of manufacturers and they all have sourced the said part within a matter of days or a week at best.All manufacturers are liable to ensure that spares be available for a certain period of time even after a product has been discontinued and in almost all cases they do, it is the A.S.S. at times that becomes a hindrance, so next time they say that a spare is not available make sure to put in an expedited request and collect receipt after making an advance payment if required, and if you do not hear from them within the stipulated time, escalate! As there is no point in deeming a motorcycle or a manufacturer unreliable simply because of the shortcoming of one irresponsible A.S.S. know your rights and act on it making sure to document each and every transaction.In this day and age you might expect to be treated the way you think it would go about in your head, but as always that is not the case. As far as some manufacturers are concerned if the product sells then thats where customer support ends, dont trust me? Tell me about the last time you sent a query to a market leading manufacturer and got a reply? You did?Good for you!For me the experience was mixed, when it came to one Japanese manufacturer that has a reputation of making under tuned (Or as the Indian consumer understands: Reliable) motorcycles neither the official grievance page or contact number worked like literally! The number was non-existent and the link did not work and guess how we ensured they made good on their warranty terms for a product that was barely a few weeks old? We emailed a Japanese dude who ended up making the right calls to get us what was rightfully ours to begin with, the whole ordeal took over a week if I remember correctly.But does that mean all Japanese brands treat customers alike? Well sadly going by the number of reported issues on the internet a majority seems to be doing so but with another Japanese manufacturer who makes budget friendly enthusiast oriented motorcycles the response was swift when the regional A.S.S messed with us by refusing to change consumables that were paid for, an email with pictures were enough for us to get a call from the A.S.S the very next day, same was the case with another indigenous manufacturer who sells re-branded variants of a Japanese manufacturer, within a day of sending an email Id received a call and the A.S.S owned up to making a near fatal mistake while servicing my brand new motorcycle and rectified the issue shortly after, same was the case with 2 other indigenous manufacturers, swift response with confirmation calls to see if the issue was resolved to my satisfaction or if the requested technical information was provided by the respective A.S.S within a matter of minutes.So does that mean indigenous brands are better at grievance redressal compared to their Japanese counter parts? Well going by my experience and the number of instances I would have to say yes. But on this front it would be best to form your own opinion after doing your research by collecting information from reliable sources, Team-Bhp ownership forums being an example over other loosely moderated forums but then technical know-how of the user in question might vary so do proceed with a pinch of salt.Now this is the really misguided part about first time motorcycle ownership and this doesnt usually end with the first motorcycle because I have close friendly who are motorcycle enthusiasts who still believe that paying more gets you better stuff which may be true when it comes to a lot of things but is not always true when it comes to motorcycle parts mostly the cycle part, mechanicals and some consumables because a bush is a bush and a bearing is a bearing and guess what most likely they are manufactured by the same O.E.M supplier and this is something that I am not making up, I have worked on two motorcycles one from an indigenous manufacturer and one from a Japanese manufacturer and have observed that a good percent of the spares were manufactured by the same O.E.M, you could have a closer look at your carburettor or crankshaft or cylinder kit to confirm that.This might not always be the case but when youve ridden a motorcycle over a period of time you might encounter scenarios where youd have to source spares from another manufacturers A.S.S due to various reasons and that is when you realize the impact a brand image has on pricing, and I say this because Ive bought the exact same spare made by the same O.E.M and paid ten times more the price at one manufacturers A.S.S compared to another which was no big deal as the article in question was small to begin with and it wasnt a problem considering the urgency of the spare but in hindsight it does make you think, doesnt it?Now this is right about the time when those still reading would be ready to shoot comparisons of how X manufacturers consumables last more than Y manufacturers consumables well this is true but the reason behind it is not that you get better quality stuff because you paid more but it is due to the fact that state of tune and motorcycle design plays an important part here and as Ive already gone in to the technical aspects I will just add a basic metric for comparison; Tire Wear, you may have used the same tires on two different motorcycles with similar engine configuration and observed that one eats them up whereas on the other they age gracefully, this is what state of tune does and just like how the aggressively tuned motorcycle eats up tires it would eat up all other consumables as well so it is not a matter of price v/s quality but rather that of state of tune.So all being said and done lets explore how subjectivity has a play in a motorcycles reliability, for which we would have to differentiate the type of users;High mileage user who is attached to his motorcycle:For this user what matters most is minimal downtime and reasonable pricing, minimal downtime because he cant stand being without a motorcycle for long and reasonable pricing because his spare consumption turnover is high and the real cost of ownership only shows up when youll be swapping more than just consumables which is expected of this user as he is attached to his machine, which would be evident from the several lakhs on his odometer.Low mileage user who is attached to his motorcycle:These are the kind of riders whove been riding the same motorcycle for decades without considering a change due to emotional attachment and because of considerably lower odometer readings they would not be fazed by the likes of spare pricing and downtime but what they would in turn lean towards is how well they (more than their motorcycles) are handled by the A.S.S.High mileage user who is NOT attached to his motorcycle:These are the users who do not bother much about long term ownership because it is very unlikely that they would keep their motorcycles past the honeymoon period (ideally 30 ~ 50k kms) for these owners what matters most is resale value of their motorcycles and depending on the kms used they expect to get a guaranteed amount when going for the next motorcycle of their choice, which makes sense as a decent resale for your current motorcycle would mean that youd be spending less that the total amount involved In its long term ownership compared to paying the premium involved in getting a new machine that would run maintenance free for another 30 ~ 50k kms before the cycle repeats.Low mileage user who is NOT attached to his motorcycle:Now this is the type of user who would get a motorcycle and keep swapping just for the heck of it, this person has no clue regarding ownership costs and consumable replacement intervals, at times even resale value doesnt matter but what does matter is the perceived value of the motorcycle in question meaning if the average Tom, Dick or Harry find it appealing then that is where all further logic ends. Most of time you find a low mileage premium motorcycle on OLX then you should be thanking this guy.Having listed out all factors involved in a motorcycles perceived reliability in as much detail as I possibly could I hope all upcoming and existing motorcyclists would keep an open and educated mind when going for a motorcycle, having even listed the type of owners out there now I hope potential motorcyclist would not go about seeking advice from just about anyone because you might be in it for the long haul whereas your advisor might unfortunately be someone who rides for the bling factor and after the honeymoon period things can start to get weary if youre riding the wrong motorcycle and trust me when I say that irrespective of public perception, brand image or other insignificant criterion's, riding the right motorcycle for you makes all the difference.Happy RidingA.P. Last edited by ashwinprakas : 5th September 2018 at 05:30 .
Members of an Arlington Heights church where a former associate pastor was sentenced to prison in 2017 for distributing child pornography are facing another controversy this week after its current pastor was charged Monday in Miami Beach for what police described as his involvement in a public sex act.
Strong encryption can be a threat to law enforcement and national security, the governments of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand said in a statement issued Sunday.
The increasing use and sophistication of certain encryption designs present challenges for nations in combating serious crimes and threats to national and global security, maintained the countries, which are known as the Five Eyes based on an agreement they entered to cooperate on signal intelligence.
Many of the same means of encryption that are being used to protect personal, commercial and government information are also being used by criminals, including child sex offenders, terrorists and organized crime groups to frustrate investigations and avoid detection and prosecution, they added.
The statement sets out three principles the nations agreed to abide by when dealing with encryption within their jurisdictions:
Access to lawfully obtained data shall be a mutual responsibility of all stakeholders government, carriers, device manufacturers and over-the-top service providers.
All governments should ensure that assistance requested from providers is underpinned by the rule of law and due process protections.
Information and communications technology service providers should voluntarily establish lawful access solutions to their products and services.
Do It or Else
Whether compliance with the lawful access demands of the Five Eyes will be voluntary for long remains to be seen, especially in light of the final paragraph in the statement:Should governments continue to encounter impediments to lawful access to information necessary to aid the protection of the citizens of our countries, we may pursue technological, enforcement, legislative or other measures to achieve lawful access solutions. That language reeks of Australia, noted Nate Cardozo, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital privacy advocacy group in San Francisco.
For more than a year, Australia has been mulling over legislation aimed at regulating encryption within its borders.
Australia is looking to lead the charge against security, privacy and technology, Cardozo told TechNewsWorld. It believes itself to be in a security crisis, and since it doesnt have much hope of getting tech investment, its more likely to do something to the tech sector.
Good Guys With Bad Encryption
Forcing companies to provide governments access to encrypted data likely will be a losing proposition, both for the governments and the people theyre trying to protect.
Bad guys will just be chased to places where strong encryption is available, and good citizens wont have the opportunity to use the best possible encryption, argued Balakrishnan Dasarathy, information assurance program chair at the University of Maryland University College in Largo, Maryland.
Good guys will follow the rules and not have all the best technology, he told TechNewsWorld.
Although law enforcement has complained about encryption, the technology has failed to prevent it from getting what it wanted in the past.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Time and time again law enforcement gets what it needs without backdoors, EFFs Cardozo observed.
Backdoors make law enforcements job easier at the cost of all our security, he continued. Encryption is a magic bullet only if you use it absolutely correctly, which literally no one does.
Backdoors Unnecessary
There is no way to expose data to friendly spy agencies without also risking exposure of this data to not-so-friendly entities, maintained Craig Young, a computer security researcher at Tripwire, a cybersecurity threat detection and prevention company in Portland, Oregon.
The truth of the matter is that backdoors simply make the process effortless and can enable bulk data collection without individualized suspicion of wrongdoing, he told TechNewsWorld.
Even without backdoors added into communication protocols, intelligence agencies and law enforcement should generally have other tools at their disposal to gain access to endpoints and thereby circumvent the need to break any encryption, said Young.
Listening devices, hardware key loggers, and malware can all effectively defeat end-to-end encryption for an individual without adding risk to the general public, he explained.
Encryption is either strong or it is broken, without much of any room for middle ground, Young contended.
Encryption Horse Out of Barn
Backdoors create great risk to the security of data, noted Young.
Widespread deployment of any backdoor creates tremendous risk if a third party were ever to gain access either through legal channels or reverse engineering, he pointed out.
Anything you do for the good guys will get into the hands of the bad guys also, said UMUCs Dasarathy. Its only a matter of time. Youre only kidding yourself if you think otherwise.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
The Five Eyes attempt to curb the trend toward encryption may be based on an antiquated notion.
The cat is very much out of the bag on strong encryption, Tripwires Young said. Anyone with an inkling of technology prowess is capable of building their own private communication scheme.
Backdoor keys almost inevitably would fall into the wrong hands, Cardozo suggested. Further they wouldnt enable the good guys to get the bad guys theyre after.
Applications with strong encryption would appear online, be downloaded and sideloaded onto phones, he said.
It takes only the tiniest bit of technical sophistication to install an app, and thats all it will take to get around a backdoor, Cardozo noted.
Whats more, any attacker who is sophisticated enough to recognize a listening device or a physical implant from the NSA is certainly not going to rely on a public communication infrastructure without strong end-to-end encryption, Young noted.
Public Distrust of Government
If the Five Eyes decide to make good on their threat to force the use of backdoors in encrypted products, they may find themselves at odds with a lot of their citizens.
Fewer than half (41 percent) of the 3,000 consumers polled in the U.S., UK and Germany believed laws that provided government access into encrypted personal data would make them safer from terrorists. The survey was conducted last year by Salt Lake City-based Venafi, maker of a platform to protect encryption keys.
Skepticsm of government was high in general, with nearly two-thirds (65 percent) suspecting their governments abused their powers to access the data of citizens. That number was even higher in the United States, where 78 percent of respondents held that belief.
Giving governments access to encryption will not make us safer from terrorism in fact, the opposite is true, said Venafi CEO Jeff Hudson.
Most people dont trust the government to protect data, and they dont believe the government is effective at fighting cybercrime, he added. Its ironic that we believe we would be safer if governments were given more power to access private encrypted data, because this will undermine the security of our entire digital economy.
The 11th edition of JEC Asia, the annual event dedicated to composites in Asia Pacific and focusing on end-user market is set to be held in Seoul, South Korea, from November 14-16, 2018. The event is returning to the capital city of the Republic of Korea with a strong programme, not only on the exhibition floor, but also in the conference sessions.We are very grateful for the support of the industry, government bodies, and academics, regarding the evolution of JEC Asia, which has led to the success of the platform. Indeed, 90 per cent of the show floor is already booked which bodes well for the preparation of the event. Around 45 per cent of the exhibitors are coming from outside Asia. JEC Asia will welcome pavilions from Germany, France, Italy, Japan, China, and Singapore, as well as the major composite clusters in Korea, Christian Strassburger, events director Asia for JEC Group said in a press release.The future of mobility is a hot topic for composite materials and JEC Asia will represent, promote, and provide information about the increasing integration of composites in automotive developments. Numerous programmes will be offered, such as a whole day conference on Composites in Automotive, a Leadership Composites Circle, an Auto Planet, showcasing parts, a B2B meetings program, a JEC Innovation Award category, and Composites tours (site visits of composite-related facilities).Finally, for the second time, JEC Asia will host the International Carbon Festival, organised by KCTECH and the Jeonju region, with top-notch conferences and international speakers. (GK)
Fibre2Fashion News Desk India
The big picture: DNS servers have been helping us get to websites almost effortlessly for decades now, but Google thinks its time for change. It says URLs have become to complicated and unwieldy and are easily exploited by phishing schemes. It wants to introduce something new, but it's not quite ready to reveal just what that is yet.
Google Chrome celebrated its tenth birthday today with a major design overhaul. The browser features a whole new look, better tabs (including customization), and a password manager, among other things. Chrome engineers are far from done though. In addition to considering features and functions it can add to the browser down the road, the team is focusing much effort on finding a way to change URLs.
Uniform Resource Locators, or URLs as they are more commonly known, were created to make web IPs more user-friendly. In other words, instead of having to type 184.173.241.66 to go to a website, we can use a URL like "techspot.com." However, over the years URLs have become more complicated and therefore easier to exploit by hackers.
People have a really hard time understanding URLs, Chrome's Engineering Manager Adrienne Porter Felt told Wired. Theyre hard to read, its hard to know which part of them is supposed to be trusted, and in general I dont think URLs are working as a good way to convey site identity.
Indeed, URLs have become so untrustworthy that I do not even click on links that my bank sends me in its official communications. I will instead visit the banks website from my bookmarks which I know I can trust. Phishing has become sophisticated enough that fake URLs that look authentic are not even hard to create any more.
So we want to move toward a place where web identity is understandable by everyonethey know who theyre talking to when theyre using a website and they can reason about whether they can trust them, said Porter Felt. We want to challenge how URLs should be displayed and question it as were figuring out the right way to convey identity.
This idea is easier said than done. Even within the Chrome team, engineers are divided on how to accomplish this. Porter Felt and Chromes Chief Engineer Justin Schuh claim that they have some ideas on how to approach the problem, but it is too early to reveal anything, especially since they cannot agree on what would work best.
"Its important we do something because everyone is unsatisfied by URLs. They kind of suck."
The focus right now, they say, is on identifying all the ways people use URLs to try to find an alternative that will enhance security and identity integrity on the web while also adding convenience for everyday tasks like sharing links on mobile devices, said Wired.
The Chrome team already knows that whatever they propose will be controversial. Change is almost naturally resisted when something new is suggested. This is especially true for long-established protocols. However, reluctance to change is no excuse to continue using something that is inherently broken.
I do know that whatever we propose is going to be controversial, said Parisa Tabriz, director of engineering at Chrome. Change will be controversial whatever form it takes. But its important we do something because everyone is unsatisfied by URLs. They kind of suck.
Google has considered the problem with URLs before. In 2014 they tested the origin chip, which just showed the name of the website a user was browsing. Clicking the chip would reveal the entire URL. The feature received mixed reviews in the beta period, so they pulled it. The team says it is using the feedback it received back then to inform its current efforts.
There is no timeline for when engineers may implement something, but Porter Felt said that they would be more willing to talk about the details later this fall or next spring.
What just happened? Were used to seeing big tech companies throwing patent infringement lawsuits at each otherApple and Samsung have been doing it for yearsbut BlackBerry and Facebook were two unlikely rivals that headed to the courts last March when the one-time phone giant sued the social network. Now, Facebook is returning the favor with a lawsuit of its own.
In BlackBerrys lawsuit against Facebook and its WhatsApp and Instagram subsidiaries earlier this year, the company claimed they had copied technology and features from its own BlackBerry Messenger service.
According to Bloomberg, Facebook has just filed a 118-page complaint in San Francisco federal court that accuses BlackBerry of infringing on its patented processes, which includes its voice messaging technology. The social network is seeking unspecified damages for infringement of six of its patents.
Other patents that Facebook claims BlackBerry is improperly using includes technology for improving graphics, video, and audio on mobile devices, along with one that centralizes tracking and analysis of GPS data.
With over 40,000 global patents related to technology, BlackBerry has attempted to make other companies pay royalties for using these patentspart of its money-making strategy. Qualcomm agreed to pay it $940 million in royalty refunds last year, and in February 2017, BlackBerry sued Nokia over alleged infringement of its 3G and 4G wireless technology.
BlackBerry licensed its brand to TCL back in 2016; a deal that allows the Chinese electronics giant to design, build, sell, and support all future BlackBerry handsets. A cheaper version of the BlackBerry Key2the Key2 LEwas on show at IFA. Check out our picks from the event here.
Samsung is reportedly planning to unveil its foldable smartphone later this year, which is rightfully met with skepticism considering the long wait for the groundbreaking device.
Samsung has long been experimenting with bendable OLED screens, with a concept video for a foldable smartphone released in 2013. Will the Samsung foldable smartphone finally be unveiled after five years?
Samsung To Unveil Foldable Smartphone In November
Samsung recently reiterated that it wants to be the first manufacturer to roll out a foldable smartphone, especially with rivals such as Huawei also making plans for such a device. The rumor is that the Samsung foldable smartphone will be showcased at CES 2019, before the Galaxy S10.
It looks like Samsung is planning to lift the curtains on its foldable smartphone much earlier. In an interview with CNBC, DJ Koh, the CEO of Samsung's mobile division, said that details of the company's foldable smartphone will be unveiled within the year.
Koh said that "it's time to deliver" on the foldable smartphone after consumer surveys by Samsung revealed that there is interest in such a device. While Koh did not reveal how the folding screen of the smartphone will work, he said that Samsung will ensure that the device will offer a different experience when unfolded compared to using a tablet.
According to Koh, more details of the Samsung foldable smartphone may be released at the Samsung Developer Conference, which will be held in November in San Francisco. Koh said that the development process of the device has been "complicated," but Samsung has "nearly concluded" it.
Samsung Foldable Phone Launch Date Coming Soon?
Koh teased that the Samsung foldable smartphone may be unveiled in November, but he did not state that the device will actually be released this year. In fact, his statements may mean that Samsung will be revealing renders and specifications of the foldable smartphone this year, with a working unit to be shown further down the road.
If that is the case, why would Koh tease the unveiling of a device that may not be released any time soon? The obvious answer is that Samsung is trying to distract customers from the upcoming unveiling of Apple's 2018 iPhone models, which will be in an event on Sept. 12.
Samsung's Galaxy Note 9 will likely not be enough to challenge the upcoming iPhone XS and the budget LCD iPhone X. A Samsung foldable smartphone may turn more heads, but until the device is really unveiled, customers may be looking mostly at Apple's direction for their next mobile phone upgrade.
2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A certain security feature is expected to give Android smartphones an advantage over Apple's iPhones in the near future, including the 2018 iPhone models that will be unveiled on Sept. 12.
While the feature is already available in a handful of Android smartphones, its most high-profile appearance will be on the Galaxy S10, Samsung's upcoming flagship smartphone after the recently released Galaxy Note 9.
The Advantage Of The Android Phone vs iPhone
The security feature that will give Android phones an advantage over iPhones in the near future is the in-display fingerprint sensor.
According to TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, as many as 170 million Android smartphones with in-display fingerprint sensors will be sold in 2019. The analyst wrote in a note that all major Android smartphone makers believe that the fingerprint-on-display feature is the most important feature to differentiate their devices from Apple's iPhones. Companies that are working on fingerprint-on-display technology include Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, Vivo, and Oppo.
One of these devices is expected to be the Samsung Galaxy S10, as the in-display fingerprint sensor was pushed back from the Galaxy Note 9. Samsung will not be the first company to offer the feature, but the company's technology is believed to be superior compared to the in-display fingerprint sensors released by Chinese smartphone manufacturers, such as on the Vivo X21.
No iPhone In-Display Fingerprint Sensor: Why?
Apple and Samsung have long been known to be copying each other when it comes to smartphone features, but the iPhone will apparently not integrate an in-display fingerprint sensor up to at least next year, Kuo said.
According to Kuo, the available in-display fingerprint sensors only have limited support for OLED screens, which Apple will use for the upcoming iPhone XS. In addition, the sensors currently only work for a particular location and not across the entire screen, though that may already happen next year.
In addition, Apple's iPhones might have lesser need for in-display fingerprint sensors as an authentication method, when the company's Face ID is working out well. The system is in place in the iPhone X, which eschews the fingerprint scanner altogether in favor of the facial recognition technology. It is widely expected that Apple will continue banking on Face ID in this year's iPhone X upgrades, with the possibility of bringing back Touch ID down the road if it ever adopts in-display fingerprint scanners.
In-display fingerprint sensors will definitely differentiate Android smartphones from iPhones in the near future, but it remains to be seen whether that will be enough to challenge Apple's upcoming 2018 iPhone models.
2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Claire Wineland, a social media star and cystic fibrosis activist, has passed away after a successful lung transplant. She was 21 years old.
The young woman was taken off of life support on Sunday, Sept. 2, after suffering a massive stroke shortly after her surgery. The news was confirmed by Claire's Place Foundation on Facebook.
"Our inspirational founder passed away," reads the post. "She was not in any pain and the medical staff said it was the most peaceful passing they had ever witnessed."
Her organs were made available for transplant.
Who Was Claire Wineland?
Last year, Wineland started a YouTube channel to talk about her experience, specifically her struggles with cystic fibrosis. Since then, she gained over 250,000 subscribers. However, in 2017, she had to leave the platform because of her health.
Thousands of fans followed her on Twitter and Instagram where she continued to talk about her illness, share life experiences, and advocate for patients with similar diseases.
She founded Claire's Place Foundation when she was 13 after waking up from a medically-induced coma. The foundation gives financial and emotional support to families affected by cystic fibrosis.
She also authored a best-selling book titled Every Breath I Take: Surviving and Thriving with Cystic Fibrosis.
In July 2017, the late social media star did a TEDx Talk called "Don't wait to be healed to start serving humanity," where she discussed in detail her illness and experience with treatment, the life expectancy of patients with cystic fibrosis, and setting up her foundation.
"You can suffer and still make something," she told the audience at the time. "That the quality of your life isn't determined by whether you're healthy or sick or rich or poor, not at all, it's determined by what you make out of your experience as a human being, out of the embarrassing moments and the painful moments. It's what you make and what you give from that place."
What Is Cystic Fibrosis?
Cystic Fibrosis is a progressive, genetic disorder that affects the cells that produce mucus, sweat, and digestive juices. It can cause severe damages to the major organs of the body, including the lungs and the digestive system.
A double lung transplant, the surgery that Wineland had undergone a week before she passed away, could alleviate symptoms and extend a patient's life.
More than 30,000 people in the United States and an additional 70,000 worldwide were diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, according to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Until now, no cure for the illness is available.
2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
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.
Ochsner Health System has finalized an agreement with Christus Health in Lake Charles to create a joint venture in the region, a deal that includes operations of two hospitals, a charitable foundation and other clinics and facilities.
The deal was originally announced last summer, and officials said Wednesday the joint venture took effect Saturday. As part of the deal, Ochsner will become a minority member of Christus Health Southwestern Louisiana.
"There's been a lot of growth in Lake Charles so there's a tremendous demand for services here," Warner Thomas, president and CEO of Ochsner Health System, said in a conference call with reporters.
Christus will manage the hospitals Christus Ochsner St. Patrick and Christus Ochsner Lake Area and Ochsner will manage all physician and clinic operations. Christus said last year it was acquiring the 88-bed Lake Area Medical Center.
Physicians and clinic staff will transfer to Ochsner employment. The 13 clinics in the region will be co-branded to reflect the new partnership. The deal also includes an ambulatory surgery center and imaging centers.
Officials said the partnership well help with physician recruitment, which has been a challenge at small and mid-sized cities throughout the U.S.
"Lake Charles is a smaller community," said Jeffrey Puckett, chief operating officer of Christus Health, noting the difficulties associated with recruiting doctors in similar-sized areas. "The partnership we have with Ochsner will make a big difference at. The scale Ochsner functions at on the physician group side is wildly different than we do in Lake Charles."
Inside info on doing business in Acadiana We'll keep you posted on the Acadiana economy. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up
The health system will be governed jointly, with seats being held by representatives from both Ochsner and Christus, and local members.
The venture also aims to bolster telemedicine operations in one of the state's fastest-growing regions, the health systems said.
Thomas noted the health systems have partnered for several years, including to bring telemedicine and cancer clinical trials to the Lake Charles region.
In 2015, Ochsner launched a health network alongside Christus, St. Tammany Parish Hospital, Lafayette General Health and Terrebone General Medical Center, which gave patients access to 25 medical facilities and more than 3,000 physicians across Louisiana.
The Jefferson Parish-based Ochsner is also in the midst of a $100 million building spree to expand its Baton Rouge-area facilities, including its "western anchor," the High Grove facilities off Interstate 10 near the Mall of Louisiana.
The announcement comes after approval from regulators, a process that included a public hearing in Lake Charles this summer that brought public officials including U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham, R-Alto.
"This is an opportunity to share resources, learn from one another and attract more physicians to the area, so we can expand access to primary and specialty care and better coordinate the delivery of care for patients in southwest Louisiana," said Dr. Dana Smetherman, medical director of Ochsner Lake Charles region.
A 39-year-old Livingston Parish man has been arrested for the second time in two months for stealing timber, according to the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry.
The agency said in a news release that Derma Brent O'Neal, 20976 Nevada St., Livingston, agreed to harvest 20 acres of timber for a woman in Amite but did not pay her the full value.
The investigation showed O'Neal hauled 19 loads of hardwood timber from the landowner's property from December 2017 to June 2018 and sold it to sawmills in southeast Louisiana, the release says.
The timber was worth $7,340, and O'Neal owed the landowner $6,200, according to the release.
In July, he was accused of a similar scheme involving a piece of property in Holden.
O'Neal is being held in the Livingston Parish Detention Center in lieu of $60,000 bond.
Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commission
A former LSU student accused in last September's alcohol-related death of Max Gruver was rebuked by fellow fraternity members for shooting pledges with an airsoft gun less than a week before the fatal hazing, prosecutors say.
"Active members who were present observed the defendant's dangerous behavior, were upset and admonished him to stop shooting pledges," East Baton Rouge Parish Assistant District Attorney Morgan Johnson said in a recent filing meant to show Matthew Alexander Naquin had reckless interactions with pledges before Gruvers death.
The prosecutor also revealed in the court documents that Naquin, 20, of Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas, told a Phi Delta Theta pledge sometime between Aug. 20 and Sept. 13 of 2017 that, "Max is always late, I wish I could cut him because he is always late."
Among new revelations in the court filings was that Naquin allegedly shot incoming Phi Delta Theta members with an airsoft gun in the days before Gruvers death on Sept. 14. Airsoft guns are low-power air guns used in airsoft sports and are designed to shoot non-metallic projectiles.
"Active members who were present observed the defendant's dangerous behavior, were upset and admonished him to stop shooting pledges," Johnson stated in the Aug. 30 filing.
Authorities have said Naquin targeted the 18-year-old Gruver the night he died.
Johnson alleged in a filing earlier this year that Naquin and other active Phi Delta Theta members ordered pledges to drink several bottles of hard alcohol on Sept. 6, 2017, causing one pledge to become ill, vomit and pass out. The prosecutor also stated in the filing that Naquin was told by fellow Phi Delta Theta members just days before the fatal incident to tone down his "extreme and dangerous" interaction with pledges.
Johnson is seeking a state District Judge Beau Higginbothams permission to use the other alleged incidents as evidence at Naquin's trial. A hearing on her request is scheduled for Thursday.
The hearing should show that these alleged prior incidents are irrelevant to the issues at the trial, Naquins attorney, John McLindon, said Wednesday.
But Johnson, in her filing last week, said the information will allow the jury to make a fully informed decision on Naquins innocence or guilt. He does not have a trial date.
+7 LSU hazing prosecutor reveals inconsistencies in witness testimony, deal with cooperating witness The grand jury that indicted a former LSU student on negligent homicide and three others on hazing in the September alcohol-related death of f
The State alleges that the defendants interactions with incoming members of Phi Delta Theta in the weeks and days leading up to Maxwell Gruvers death are integral in establishing a pattern of the defendant deviating from the standard of care expected by active members, Johnson wrote.
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
The fact finder must be made aware of the defendants reckless interactions with incoming members , causing his fellow fraternity members to warn and admonish him, just two days prior to Maxwell Gruvers death, she added.
Johnson stated that Phi Delta Theta student board members met on Sept. 11, 2017, and discussed Naquin's actions with pledges as well as possible punishments for Naquin due to his actions.
"The board decided to warn the defendant at the Chapter-wide meeting immediately following the board meeting on September 11, 2017, and, if he continued to act in an extreme and dangerous manner with incoming members, the board would take further action," the prosecutor wrote.
Johnson said the fraternity's pledge educator also individually addressed Naquin about his conduct with incoming members.
"Only two days after warnings by his peers, the defendant forced incoming members (to) drink grain alcohol at the September 13, 2017,`Bible Study' which ultimately led to Maxwell Gruver's death," she stated.
In the Bible Study initiation ritual, pledges were quizzed about the history of the fraternity and forced to drink alcohol if they gave wrong answers, authorities have said.
+5 Prosecutors want cellphone passcode of ex-LSU student accused of hazing in Max Gruver death In the latest legal skirmish over password-protected smartphones, prosecutors are asking a Baton Rouge judge to order a former LSU student acc
Gruver, of Roswell, Georgia, had a blood alcohol level of 0.495 percent, or more than six times the legal limit to drive in Louisiana, at the time of his death, an autopsy revealed.
Three other former LSU students are charged with misdemeanor hazing in the case: Sean-Paul Gott, 22, of Lafayette; Patrick Andrew Forde, 21, of Westwood, Massachusetts; and Ryan Matthew Isto, 19, Butte, Montana.
+7 In Maxwell Gruver hazing case, four ex-LSU students plead not guilty in Baton Rouge court Four former LSU students pleaded not guilty Friday, one to negligent homicide and the others to misdemeanor hazing, in the alcohol-related dea
Gruvers family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against LSU, Phi Delta Theta, Naquin, Gott, Forde, Isto and others. The federal suit seeks $25 million in damages.
Phi Delta Theta has been banned from LSUs campus until at least 2033.
The grand jury that indicted a former LSU student on negligent homicide and three others on hazing in the September alcohol-related death of freshman fraternity pledge Maxwell Gruver heard inconsistent testimony from witnesses, a prosecutor has disclosed.
The disclosure by East Baton Rouge Parish Assistant District Attorney Robert Savage was unusual for a prosecutor to make in an ongoing criminal court proceeding and one that has implications for the cases defense lawyers are able to mount for their clients.
The issue surfaced in a recent court filing in which Savage asked a judge for permission to reveal testimony before the grand jury. Such testimony is normally kept secret.
In addition to disclosing that the grand jury heard witness testimony that was inconsistent, the prosecutor wants to make it known that an agreement between a cooperating witness and the District Attorneys Office was read into the grand jury record.
The cooperating witness has been identified in other court filings as Sean Andrew Pennison, 21, of Mandeville. He was booked on a misdemeanor hazing count in October, but the East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury that indicted four former LSU students in March did not recommend charges against Pennison.
Matthew Alexander Naquin, 20, of Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas, was indicted on a felony negligent homicide charge. Sean-Paul Gott, 21, of Lafayette; Ryan Matthew Isto, 19, of Ontario, Canada; and Patrick Andrew Forde, 21, of Westwood, Massachusetts, were indicted on misdemeanor hazing.
Each man has pleaded not guilty. The trial of Gott, Isto and Forde is set for Sept. 6. Naquin does not have a trial date.
+7 In Maxwell Gruver hazing case, four ex-LSU students plead not guilty in Baton Rouge court Four former LSU students pleaded not guilty Friday, one to negligent homicide and the others to misdemeanor hazing, in the alcohol-related dea
In the motion he filed May 9, Savage said he is bound by the Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure to keep secret whatever occurs in a grand jury proceeding. However, the prosecutor pointed out, he has an ethical obligation to reveal "all inconsistencies in a witness' testimony and any agreements with any witness."
The motion asks state District Judge Beau Higginbotham, who is presiding over the case, to order prosecutors to divulge any inconsistencies and any agreements made before the grand jury. If they judge agrees, prosecutors wont be in violation of grand jury secrecy rules by disclosing the information.
"We are particularly interested in the inconsistent testimony between witnesses," John McLindon, Naquins attorney, said on Wednesday. "The other pretrial discovery which has been produced by the DA also contains inconsistent witness statements as well as other evidence which shows Matthew Naquin is innocent of these charges."
+4 Grand jury probe into LSU fraternity pledge's alleged hazing death indicts 4 men Six months after his death rocked the LSU campus and spurred some state lawmakers to action, an East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury that invest
Isto's lawyer, Michael Fiser, said his own investigation showed different witnesses recounting different versions of events.
"Inconsistencies involving details such as who arrived when, who knew what when, and what was said and done can be the tipping point between innocence and guilt in a case like this," Fiser said. "The fact that at least one witness was given a deal in exchange for testimony is also significant in that it shows the witness had a motive to shade facts."
Forde's attorney, Kris Perret, said he commends Savage "for fulfilling his ethical and legal obligations to reveal inconsistent statements and any deals cut in order to obtain the indictments."
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
East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III said his office intends to "continue to comply with our obligations."
Gott's attorney, Katherine Guillot, raised what she called another issue of importance in the case.
"These are challenging cases and this matter is particularly difficult because the statute that governs the offense of hazing is vague as it is difficult to ascertain explicitly what conduct is punishable," she said.
Part of the discovery that prosecutors have provided to the defense includes a notification that Pennison's attorney and the state reached an agreement in February that calls for Pennison to "testify truthfully at all appropriate stages of the criminal prosecution."
"To that end, the State declined to institute prosecution against Sean Pennison for any criminal matters arising out of the present case," the state's filing says. "Sean Pennison will be a witness at trial in the present matter and is expected to testify truthfully in response to questioning by the State and defense."
Pennison's attorney, Franz Borghardt, said his client "has always fully and truthfully cooperated from day one" and has always maintained his innocence.
"The District Attorney's Office requested that Sean testify truthfully and honestly, and that is what he has done and will do," Borghardt added.
Even though Pennison's identity as a cooperating witness already has been revealed, Savage is seeking Higginbotham's permission to disclose the agreement that was read into the grand jury record.
The grand jury heard evidence but was unable to reach a consensus on charges involving three other men accused of hazing, as well as others arrested by LSU police in October in the incident.
Gruver, 18, a Phi Delta Theta fraternity pledge from Roswell, Georgia, died Sept. 14 one month into his first year of college at LSU. An autopsy revealed his blood alcohol level was 0.495 percent, or more than six times the legal limit to drive in Louisiana.
Anti-hazing legislation, including Max Gruver Act, heading to Gov. John Bel Edwards Louisiana will likely soon have harsher criminal penalties for those convicted of hazing, following last fall's death of an LSU freshman frate
The East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner's Office said Gruver's death was an accident but could be attributed to alcohol poisoning and also aspiration, meaning he suffocated on his own vomit.
Investigators have said senior Phi Delta Theta members targeted Gruver in a hazing ritual they called "Bible study," in which pledges chugged 190-proof liquor when they gave wrong answers to questions about the fraternity.
Phi Delta Theta's national office pulled the fraternity from LSU's Baton Rouge campus after Gruver died. Less than a year before his death, the fraternity had been temporarily suspended for complaints about hazing and drinking.
Phi Delta Theta has been banned from LSU's campus until at least 2033.
Four former LSU students pleaded not guilty Friday, one to negligent homicide and the others to misdemeanor hazing, in the alcohol-related death of 18-year-old Phi Delta Theta fraternity pledge Maxwell Gruver on the Baton Rouge campus last September.
State District Judge Beau Higginbotham set a Sept. 6 trial date for Sean-Paul Gott, 21, Ryan Matthew Isto, 19, and Patrick Andrew Forde, 21, on the hazing counts. Matthew Alexander Naquin, 20, who is charged with the more serious felony of negligent homicide, will have a motions hearing on that date.
+4 Grand jury probe into LSU fraternity pledge's alleged hazing death indicts 4 men Six months after his death rocked the LSU campus and spurred some state lawmakers to action, an East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury that invest
Naquins attorney, John McLindon, said his client is being singled out.
Naquin, of Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas; Gott, of Lafayette; and Isto, of Ontario, Canada, entered their pleas in person. Forde, of Westwood, Massachusetts, did not attend the arraignments. His attorney pleaded not guilty for him.
The four men were indicted last month by an East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury in the alleged hazing death of Gruver on Sept. 14.
Investigators have said Gruver, of Roswell, Georgia, was targeted by senior members of Phi Delta Theta in a hazing ritual they called "Bible study" that required pledges to chug 190-proof liquor when they gave wrong answers to questions about the fraternity.
Gruver's blood alcohol level was 0.495 percent, or more than six times the legal limit to drive, his autopsy revealed. The coroner's office said his death was an accident but could be attributed to alcohol poisoning and aspiration, which means he suffocated on his own vomit.
'Max Gruver Act' to create harsher penalties for hazing in Louisiana swiftly wins House passage, heads to Senate Louisiana could soon be among the states with the strictest criminal penalties for hazing after the death of an LSU freshman last fall has pro
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
The problem with alcohol on campuses is bigger than just one person, its bigger than Matthew Naquin, McLindon said outside Higginbothams courtroom. I think hes being singled out.
Negligent homicide is punishable by up to five years in prison. Hazing carries up to 30 days in jail.
Istos attorney, Michael Fiser, said Isto pleaded not guilty because he is innocent.
He is terribly sorry for the pain this tragedy has caused the Gruver family, and we look forward to showing Mr. Istos lack of involvement as the case proceeds, Fiser said.
McLindon and Kris Perret, who represents Forde, said they look forward to plowing through the voluminous discovery material in the case and the witness statements.
Phi Delta Theta's national headquarters pulled the fraternity from LSU's campus after Gruver died. Less than a year before his death, the fraternity had been temporarily suspended for complaints about hazing and drinking.
In a recent policy change that LSU President F. King Alexander said will be enforced with zero tolerance, LSU students caught hazing will be expelled and the involved fraternities or other student organizations will be kicked off campus.
The limited video and audio footage from an officer-involved shooting last month that Baton Rouge Police released Wednesday reveals little new information about the early August encounter, but it does seem to support that only one gunshot was fired.
The only footage police have that captured any part of the Aug. 7 traffic stop-turned-shooting came from the cop car's rear camera, which recorded only audio because the camera was facing down, and from a neighbor's surveillance video, which caught no audio, police officials said. The officer's body camera and front dash camera were turned off.
One gunshot can be heard about two minutes into the more than 25-minute audio recording, which later also captures how the officer initially reports the encounter through police radio. Officer Yuseff Hamadeh tells fellow officers the suspect kept running and that he was armed.
A neighbor's surveillance video shared with police officials, which shows the initial traffic stop. Can't see video below? Click here.
The video footage from the neighbor shows the initial traffic stop and then at least one person running from the vehicle.
Both recordings released Wednesday by the Baton Rouge Police Department captured only small portions of the Aug. 7 traffic stop, which escalated until Hamadeh fired his weapon at the fleeing driver, 21-year-old Raheem Howard. Hamadeh conducted the traffic stop over a missing license plate, but once the car stopped, Howard ran from his car. Initial police reports said Hamadeh fired his weapon only after Howard first shot at him; however, officials said Tuesday there is not sufficient evidence to support that claim against Howard.
No one was injured in the shooting.
+4 One shot or two? Witnesses dispute claim that driver fired gun at BR officer after traffic stop On this there's agreement: Raheem Howard fled from the traffic stop conducted by Baton Rouge police officer Yuseff Hamadeh on Aug. 7 about 6:3
"The audio and video released confirms what our client and brave members of the community have maintained to be the truth: That there was only one shot fired," Howard's attorney, Ronald Haley Jr., said in a statement Wednesday. "And given that officer Hamadeh admitted to firing his weapon, the gunfire had to come from him."
Baton Rouge Deputy Police Chief Jonny Dunnam said Wednesday the footage is the entirety of the video and audio evidence police have from the incident, but noted that it only gives a glimpse of the encounter. He said said "other investigative resources" are being used as they continue their probe.
A criminal investigation into the incident and administrative investigation into the officer's actions remain ongoing.
The first nine minutes of the audio footage captured on officer Yuseff Hamadeh's vehicle's rear camera. The camera caught no video because it was facing down, police said. Can't see video below? Click here.
Howard was initially arrested on counts of attempted first-degree murder and illegal use of a weapon, but East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore III filed last week to no longer detain Howard on those accusations. Howard, however, remains in Parish Prison on probation violations from two prior, unrelated misdemeanor cases.
Moore said Tuesday that after reviewing evidence, including the two recordings, he would not proceed with the case against Howard. Moore said there was not sufficient evidence to prove that any other gun beyond the officer's was ever fired. But the district attorney was clear that further evidence could change what happens to this case in the future.
+2 Why DA refuses to proceed with case vs. man accused of firing at Baton Rouge officer A man accused of shooting at a cop following a traffic stop last month wont be prosecuted for the attempted murder of a police officer becaus
Upon his arrest, Howard admitted to fleeing the traffic stop, but was adamant he never had a gun. Neighbors and witnesses also said they heard only one shot. Initial police accounts of the incident say both men fired once.
The police department released this video and audio evidence four weeks after the shooting, along with dash cam video of a recent but unrelated fatal crash involving another officer. Department officials had previously denied a public records request for footage of the shooting, despite a new policy aimed at increasing transparency that allows the police chief to release footage within 12 days of a critical incident. The release of such footage is under the discretion of the chief.
Dunnam said all police units' rear and front dash cameras turn on automatically once lights are activated. Upon activation, the recording picks up the prior 30 seconds, but without sound. Dunnam said police are still investigating why Hamadeh's front dash camera did not turn on during the incident.
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
In the beginning of the 26 minutes of footage from the rear camera of Hamadeh's vehicle, sirens and quiet police radio are heard in the background. About 40 seconds after Hamadeh's lights were activated, the noise increases, a screeching sound is followed by a loud bang and the the video rattles consistent with the narrative that Hamadeh stopped his car to conduct the traffic stop, then got out of his vehicle.
Then for the next 20 seconds there is little noise, until over the radio it sounds like Hamadeh calls for backup, "2024 17th, come on back here." The house where Howard entered while fleeing, then Hamadeh followed, is 2024 15th St., one street over from North 16th Street, where the traffic stop began.
Soon after, the audio captures more calls on the radio, "Where is he?" and then seconds later, "Where you at, bro?"
Two seconds later there's a loud clap, which seems to be the gunshot Hamadeh fired. Right after, the audio recorded more radio chatter from officers: "Yea, Yuseff?" and then moments later: "Yuseff?" Someone answers over the radio that Hamadeh's car is on (North) 16th Street, but it seems they cannot locate him.
Police and witnesses reported the shooting occurred a street over on North 15th Street in the back of a house where Howard first ran.
But then, about two minutes after Hamadeh first activated his lights for the traffic stop, Hamadeh seems to answer the other officers: "F***!," he says, breathing heavily. Another officer answers: "I heard you calling me, where you at?"
Hamadeh seems to answer again: "North 16th. I think he ran to the back to the house. Blue shirt, shorts suspect is armed," can be heard on the audio.
+4 Man who allegedly shot at BRPD officer arrested on attempted first-degree murder, police say Baton Rouge police captured the man who fired a gun at an officer earlier last week and arrested him on attempted first-degree murder, police
Then noise continues to go in and out, mostly catching the hip hop music playing in Hamadeh's vehicle. About 45 seconds later, someone says on the radio that shots were fired. Later someone on the dispatching system says an "officer was shot at" and "they exchanged fire." About 9 minutes later, the radio traffic falls off.
The other video released by BRPD was captured on a neighbor's security camera and shows the beginning of the traffic stop, but has no audio. A black car drives down the street, followed closely by a white car and they stop a few houses down. Soon after, the video shows someone running across the street, into a yard out of view.
About 30 seconds later, two more white cars come down the street and stop near the traffic stop. Little else happens on that recording, as the shooting occurred off of North 15th Street. The surveillance camera is set up on North 16th Street.
Dunnam declined to comment on or confirm what was recorded in either the audio or video clips.
Haley, Howard's attorney, said while he is glad to see the footage released by the police department, he still has many questions.
+3 Attorney says BR officer who shot at driver should explain his actions to a judge A Baton Rouge police officer who shot at a man he had pulled over for a traffic violation Aug. 7 needs to appear in court and explain his acti
"Why didnt the audio pick up the initial interaction between Mr. Howard and officer Hamadeh?" Haley wrote in a statement. "Did he give any verbal commands or was this just chase and shoot? What is troubling is that officer Hamadeh put our clients life in further harm after shooting at him by misrepresenting to the other officers while they were hunting for him that he was armed when in fact he was not."
State Rep. Ted James, D-Baton Rouge, called the progress in the case a move in the right direction, but said the bigger issue is how Hamadeh has been treated, and will be treated, moving forward.
Hamadeh fatally shot another man last year also after a traffic stop. In June 2017, Hamadeh killed Jordan Frazier after police said Frazier pointed a weapon at officers.
Im worried about last year with the Jordan Frazier case, was he (Hamadeh) telling the truth last year? James said. "Mr. Howard lived to tell us he's innocent, Mr. Frazier didnt get to tell his side. I just think theres a lot more we need to see before we can say were turning the page."
One injured in shooting on Webb Drive near Istrouma High School in Baton Rouge, police say
As Tropical Depression Gordon moves over the northeastern tip of Louisiana today and Thursday, the southeastern part of the state will likely see more rain than when the storm made landfall Tuesday night.
Louisiana officials declared a state of emergency and activated the Louisiana National Guard, but much of the Baton Rouge and New Orleans areas ultimately saw sunny skies on Tuesday evening. Both areas will have higher chances of thunderstorms Thursday as a secondary effect of Gordon.
National Weather Service meteorologist Danielle Manning explained that remaining circulation from Gordon is still "drawing in moisture from the Gulf of Mexico," increasing the likelihood of rain.
"As far as Gordon is concerned, we could still see a few showers but it's not any sort of significant impact," Manning said.
For the Baton Rouge area, there is a 10 percent chance of thunderstorms on Wednesday night and a 50 to 70 percent chance on Thursday, Manning said. The likelihood of storms in New Orleans is a bit higher on Wednesday at 30 percent and about the same as Baton Rouge on Thursday at 60 percent.
Can't see video below? Click here.
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
Louisiana should be in the clear from the flash flooding that forecasters anticipate for the area around Gordon's northwestern path. National Weather Service meteorologists anticipate four to eight inches of rain over parts of the Florida Panhandle, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa and Illinois.
Manning, the Slidell-based meteorologist, said Gordon made landfall around 10:15 p.m. Tuesday on the Mississippi side of its border with Alabama, which was inside the forecast cone.
There are two other storm systems in the Atlantic Ocean, but there are no immediate impacts expected for the gulf. Hurricane Florence strengthen into a major hurricane on Wednesday morning as it moves northwest, but Manning said it should not enter the Gulf of Mexico.
Another disturbance is brewing a couple of hundred miles south-southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands with a 50 percent chance of formation int he next 48 hours and a 90 percent chance over the next five days, according to the National Weather Service. Manning said it's too early to tell if that system could affect Louisiana.
LSU is preparing to announce its largest freshman class in history, and I want to celebrate this accomplishment with you, the Baton Rouge community, and the entire state of Louisiana. Because it isn't just a win for our institution it's a win for our state after years of only negativity when it comes to the topic of higher education.
Preliminary numbers indicate we brought in our largest, most diverse freshman class on record, with 5,770 new students, beating our previous record of 5,725. These numbers will be finalized on Friday, but we know that we increased the number of Louisiana students enrolled, keeping true to our mission as the state's flagship university. We also have broken diversity records with this outstanding class of new Tigers. Additionally, we increased the number of out-of-state students we enroll, bringing in new dollars to support the local and state economy. LSU already delivers a $5.1 billion economic impact to Louisiana, and the infusion of new dollars only increases our return to the state to say nothing of the injection of intellectual capital and raw talent we have attracted to the capital region.
But most importantly, we have increased our class size without sacrificing quality or academic rigor. This class has a preliminary mean GPA of 3.5, holding steady from last years class profile. This class has a mean ACT score of nearly 26, also holding steady from last year. In fact, as of today, 18 percent of this class has scored 30 or above on the ACT another university record.
In other words, this record-breaking group of students is as strong academically as they are in number.
There have been some recent rumblings against the holistic admissions approach, despite the fact that it is used by 80 percent of flagship universities as well as all but two of the nations top 50 public universities, including many of our aspirational peers like UNC-Chapel Hill, UT-Austin, UCLA, and the Universities of Virginia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Berkeley.
Group blasts new LSU admissions policy, calls 'holistic' process 'lowering standards' A group headed by a member of the Board of Regents blasted LSU President F. King Alexander on Tuesday for the universitys recent decision to
In short, holistic review doesn't lessen our admission standards. It actually increases the level of scrutiny a potential student receives by introducing more than two data points into their evaluation.
Change is often difficult to accept, but that doesn't make it wrong, especially when it is grounded in extensive research in student achievement and predictors of long-term success. As is the case with most processes, admission standards continue to evolve as experts continue to better understand true indicators of student success. But it cannot be overstated: the modern approach to successful admissions in today's top-tier research university is holistic review.
I hope you'll join me in cheering on our nearly 5,800 new freshmen, just like you root for our Tigers when they take the field. These students are talented, and their potential is limitless. They are invaluable to our campus community and contribute broadly to Baton Rouge and our state. I can't wait to share their accomplishments with you throughout the coming year. And I hope youll also root for LSU as we continue to drive admissions standards in Louisiana forward, just as we did more than 20 years ago, when we were the first university in the state to put admissions standards in place.
Geaux Tigers!
F. King Alexander is president of LSU.
Something I witness every year is the community that comes together to celebrate our culture, he said. I think its really neat that different people from all over Aurora come together for one cause, and that is to remember where they are from either youre from Mexico or you have children and you want to teach them the culture.
Contrary to the recent columns by Dan Fagan, which exhibit many misconceptions and contain many inaccuracies, the Southern Rail Commissions proposal to restore passenger rail service between Baton Rouge and New Orleans is about one thing: promoting a thriving regional economy and the transportation choices that will make it possible.
This is why the SoLA (South Louisiana) Super Region Committee, representing business leadership from more than 20 parishes in southeast Louisiana, supports passenger rail service between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Simply put, passenger rail service will bring our region together and help our economy grow.
A passenger train service between our two largest cities and the vibrant communities connecting them would provide another transportation option for Louisianans tired of sitting in traffic on I-10, losing valuable time that could be better spent. It would also provide a transportation option for many others, from the visiting businessperson whose business takes her west from the Louis Armstrong International Airport, to the New Orleans worker who does not own a car but lands a job at one of the River Region industrial plants, to the Baton Rouge fans who would rather ride the train to the Saints game on Sunday.
Dan Fagan: Baton Rouge and Gonzales spending money on a train route that won't materialize There must be something in the DNA of some politicians giving them an insatiable desire to throw good money after bad. How else would you expl
Passenger rail will undoubtedly help our region's economic development efforts. No longer do job creators look merely for cheap land and state incentives. Business decisions are being driven by the competition for a skilled workforce and the amenities that will attract them, including transportation. Amazon is but one example of the emphasis business places on these factors in its consideration of the location of its next headquarters.
Our proposal to establish passenger rail service between Baton Rouge and New Orleans would not force anyone to give up their car. Furthermore, train service is certainly not obsolete. In fact, trains are more popular than ever, and Amtrak had its highest ridership ever last year. States and communities across the country are making renewed investments in passenger rail, including states that Louisiana competes with economically like North Carolina and Virginia.
Why? Because they realize that a 21st-century economy requires investments in a multitude of transportation options, including passenger rail. Employees, especially millennials, want transportation options other than driving, including passenger rail. Louisiana risks losing out in the 21st-century economy if it doesnt increase the amount and quality of transportation options.
It is also important to keep in mind that no public transportation system in the United States, or in the entire world for that matter, survives without public investment. Airlines rely on the federal government to provide $17 billion dollars in taxpayer assistance every year in the form of security, air traffic control and airport capital improvements. Likewise, the gas tax does not come close to paying for road maintenance and improvements. Billions of dollars every year come from both the federal and state general funds in order to keep our interstate and road systems from collapsing.
Thanks in part to the work of the Gulf Coast congressional delegation, there are now two new federal programs available to help implement new passenger rail initiatives like the proposed Baton Rouge to New Orleans service. The Southern Rail Commission is actively working with Gov. John Bel Edwards, state legislators and local communities between Baton Rouge and New Orleans to take advantage of these federal grant opportunities. I truly believe that we are closer than ever to seeing economically sustainable passenger rail service restored between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
Across Louisiana, citizens support the Southern Rail Commissions vision of passenger rail service between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. In fact, many want the train service to continue to communities north of Baton Rouge. Our fellow Louisianans dont support the train service because of some politician in California telling them they should, or because the train service will solve climate change. Rather, they support the proposal because train service would provide them with a better option than driving, or with a better opportunity to travel if they can't drive, or simply because they understand the economic benefit of having our region better connected through passenger rail service.
Restoring passenger rail service between Baton Rouge and New Orleans would create greater mobility options for Louisianans, reduce traffic congestion on the I-10, and help Louisiana compete in the 21st-century economy. And the federal government is willing to pay for half of the cost. This is a great deal that the state of Louisiana would be foolish not to take advantage of. We once allowed this deal to pass us by, and we cant afford to do so again.
Scott T. Whittaker chairs the SoLA Super Region Committee. He lives in Baton Rouge.
Artifacts are displayed as conservators and Louisiana Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser open a time capsule buried at the base of the P.G.T. Beauregard Statue in New Orleans, La., Friday, Aug. 3, 2018. Buried when the monument was constructed in 1913 and excavated when the pedestal was demolished, the capsule contains both American and Confederate flags, currency, bonds, newspapers, medals and coins.
The obscure position of 1st City Court clerk, whose main job is to process eviction and small-claims paperwork, rarely draws much controversy
Sheets of rain and heavy clouds move into the city ahead of the landfall of Tropical Storm Gordon in New Orleans, La. Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018.
You have permission to edit this article.
Edit Close
Louis Michot of the Lost Bayou Ramblers, left, and his brother, Andre Michot, perform at the Acura Stage during the 2018 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival Saturday, May 5, 2018.
A couple of hours before this weekend's Downriver Festival begins in the French Quarter, Nathan Lott, the director of the Water Collaborative of Greater New Orleans, will lead an interactive walking tour along the Mississippi River waterfront.
During the tour, which starts at 9 a.m. at the New Orleans Jazz Museum gates on Esplanade Avenue, participants will meet some of the landscape architects and urban designers helping to reimagine the area between Crescent and Woldenberg parks, and learn more about plans to transform former wharves into public space.
We'll talk about the role of the river, in terms of the creation of the city, and how the geography and geology of our region has been shaped by the river," said Lott.
The Water Collaborative is a nonprofit whose mission is to promote the wise stewardship of water resources particularly, the ability to manage stormwater with green infrastructure.
Downriver Festival Walking Tour When: 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 8 Where: The New Orleans Jazz Museum gates on Esplanade Avenue, behind the Old U.S. Mint (400 Esplanade Ave., 70116) Admission: Free
The tour begins in Crescent Park, which is part of the French Market District. The 1.4-mile, 20-acre linear park provides a panoramic view of the city and features bike paths, a dog run and pavilions.
As the tour moves upriver and through the French Market, Lott will highlight the commercial history of the riverfront in the French Market area how oceangoing vessels docked alongside oyster boats, and how flat boats sailing from the central portion of the United States delivered goods to the bustling market.
But the most timely tour stop examines the plans for the riverfront area between Crescent Park and Woldenberg Park the vast green space adjacent to the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, and the site of festivals happening throughout the year.
The old industrial wharf sheds that currently block pedestrians from the river, off Gov. Nicholls Street and Esplanade Avenue, will make way for a public park.
When it becomes a park, you'll have sort of a green ribbon that goes all the way from the Bywater up to the CBD, explained Lott.
The Water Collaborative is not directly responsible for the redevelopment of the Esplanade Avenue and Gov. Nicholls Street wharves. Those are now city-owned properties, and the city has entered into an arrangement with the Audubon Nature Institute to manage them, the same way the institute manages Audubon Park and Woldenberg Park.
Although the organization does not have an estimated finish date or preliminary or final plans for the space, it has ruled out the possibility of converting it into a concert venue.
Officials will seek ideas from the public through community input sessions and host a website containing updates. Overall, the goal is to devise a plan that satisfies both local residents and Audubons obligation to maintain and secure the park.
They may have some revenue-generating activities out there to help pay for it. ... there could be some outdoor cafes, Lott speculates. You can ... let your imagination kind of run wild.
During the tour, a speaker from Eskew, Dumez + Ripple, the firm retained by Audubon to assist with planning, will discuss the project. KC Guidry, from the Aquarium of the Americas, has also been invited to participate.
The walking tour ends in Jackson Square, where the Kinfolk Brass Band will lead a second-line to the Old U.S. Mint and kick off the Downriver Festival.
People should leave the tour with a sense of all of the change that's happened on that stretch of riverfront, and an appreciation for how historic that stretch of riverfront is, says Lott. They should also have a sense of what change has yet to come and how they can contribute to it.
***********
Downriver Festival Walking Tour
When: 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 8
Where: The New Orleans Jazz Museum gates on Esplanade Avenue, behind the Old U.S. Mint (400 Esplanade Ave.)
Admission: Free
Narada Mealey entered the New Orleans jail last October accused of missing a court date over $420 in unpaid court costs he owed in Jefferson Parish for marijuana possession.
He left the lockup two days later on his way to the grave, in a coma and suffering from shock, blood sepsis and cardiac arrest.
In between, relatives allege in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, jail deputies and health staffers ignored his cries for help and failed to monitor his vital signs in violation of their own protocols.
The suit, which seeks unspecified financial damages, says the 32-year-old died in yet another tragic, unnecessary and preventable death at the Orleans Parish Sheriffs Office.
It is the latest lawsuit to hit not only Sheriff Marlin Gusman but also the jails health contractor, Correct Care Solutions, a Nashville-based company. Several jail deputies and health care workers are also listed as defendants.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo.
The Sheriff's Office declined to comment. Correct Care has said it does not comment on open lawsuits.
The complaint provides a nearly hour-by-hour account of a litany of official errors which the plaintiffs say caused Mealeys pre-existing health conditions to become fatal.
Mealey was booked into the jail on Oct. 27. Court records show that he was wanted on an outstanding warrant issued by 24th Judicial District Court Judge Scott Schlegel for a missed court date.
Mealey was caught with 1.8 grams of pot, the equivalent of three to six joints, in a Woodmere alley in 2015. He was convicted of simple marijuana possession.
Two years later, the case was still hanging over him in the form of $420 in unpaid court fees. Schlegel issued the warrant after Mealey failed to appear for a hearing on the fees.
Inmate deaths at New Orleans jail highlight grim, ongoing problems under new administrator One New Orleans inmate died last week at age 32 with an ulcer. Another dropped dead Sunday at 27 of "apparent natural causes," according to th
At the time of his arrest, Mealey was suffering from chronic ulcer problems. Relatives say he was also addicted to opioids.
Mealeys first stop at the jail was the Intake Processing Center, where new inmates are held before they are moved into the main jail or transported to other parishes.
The lawsuit says that a day after his arrest, Mealey was still in the intake center. He was never given a place to sleep beyond a chair or the concrete floor, the suit claims.
From the night of Oct. 28 until he lost consciousness the next day, Mealey complained about his health over and over, the suit says. At about 9:45 that night, he told a nurse that he had severe abdominal pain and had been vomiting, the suit says.
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
Around 1 a.m. on Oct. 29, Mealey repeated his complaint. The nurse still took no action, according to the suit.
By 2:30 a.m., Mealey told a nurse that he had been snorting heroin before his arrest and needed to go to the hospital. The nurse told a supervisor, who placed Mealey on the jails opioid withdrawal protocol, the lawsuit says.
Health care workers gave Mealey acetaminophen, an anti-diarrheal medication and anti-nausea medications, the lawsuit says. But the suit claims that nurses failed to monitor his vital signs despite a requirement in the withdrawal protocol that they do so every eight hours.
Employees on the day shift, which started about 7 a.m. Oct. 29, also failed to check his vitals, according to the suit.
A check would have shown that Mr. Mealey was in a medical crisis that required immediate hospitalization. However, these defendants ignored their duties to Mr. Mealey and his repeated pleas for help, according to the lawsuit.
Mealey called relatives, telling them he thought he was going to die. Although they called the jail and visited it in person, nothing was done, the lawsuit says.
Finally, Mealey collapsed on the floor of the processing center and began vomiting violently about 2 p.m. on Oct. 29. The lawsuit says that 40 minutes later, he was taken to the jail's medical unit, where he again collapsed.
At that point the jail sent Mealey to University Medical Center. Doctors there discovered that he had a perforated gastric ulcer that was bleeding, the lawsuit says. He was in a coma and died on Nov. 2.
Mealey was the father of four children, whose mothers, Natasha Tolbert and Bridget Armstrong, are listed in the lawsuit as the plaintiffs acting on behalf of the children.
The women are being represented by attorneys Stephen Haedicke and Gary Bizal, who have squared off against the Sheriffs Office in civil rights claims in the past.
The lawsuit says that Mealeys death was not an isolated error that in case after case the jail and its health care provider have failed to provide adequate medical care due to staffing shortages and shoddy policies.
Mealey was one of six inmates to die at the jail in 2017. Last month the sister of inmate Dennis Edwards filed a lawsuit against the jail alleging that health care workers there failed to send him to the hospital in time to prevent his death from hypertensive cardiovascular disease in December.
Complaints have also come from the federal monitors assigned to oversee the jail's reform agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.
In an Aug. 29 report, those monitors said Correct Care still needs to make "substantial improvement" to its detox response, nearly a year after Mealey's death.
The monitors said that "a focused review of patients monitored for withdrawal from drugs and/or alcohol indicated that most were seen every 12 hours instead of every eight hours."
Just moments before she was scheduled to go on trial Tuesday, a Covington woman accused driving drunk and causing the crash that killed a Mississippi man last year pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide.
Olivia Matte, 28, also pleaded guilty to vehicular negligent injury and careless driving, charges that stemmed from an accident on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway that claimed the life of 37-year-old James Blackmond.
Blackmond, of Foxworth, was killed when Mattes white Honda struck his 2002 Ford Ranger pickup from behind in the early morning hours of March 23, 2017. The impact of the crash caused a railing to drive through Blackmonds front windshield, killing him.
At the time of the accident, Matte who was not hurt registered a blood alcohol content of 0.21, nearly three times the legal limit of 0.08, authorities said. The incident marked Mattes third arrest for driving while intoxicated. At the time of the crash, she was driving on a suspended license.
Prosecutors asked that Mattes bail be revoked while she awaits sentencing. But 24th Judicial District Judge Glenn Ansardi said he did not consider her a flight risk since she has been out on bail since her arrest and has made it to all of her court appearances.
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
In April, Matte pleaded guilty to a first-offense DWI in state court on the north shore and received a six-month suspended sentence and two years of probation. Matte was also arrested for drunken driving in June 2016. In that incident which also took place on the Causeway Matte completed a Jefferson Parish diversion program that is sometimes available to first-time DWI offenders.
Relatives and friends of Blackmond packed the first two rows of the courtroom gallery. They did not give victim impact statements, but prosecutors have noted in previous court appearances that 16 written statements had been submitted over the course of the last year.
Following the hearing, Blackmond's family exited the courtroom quietly, hugging each other while some wiped away tears.
Matte, who will be sentenced on Nov. 15, faces between five and 30 years on the vehicular homicide count. Her attorney, Ralph Whalen, did not immediately return a call for comment.
That wasnt just evident in the Safety Town he helped create with the Naperville Police Department to teach kids about safety procedures. Those who knew him far better than most say he often would reach out to kids truly in need, even bring them home for dinner with wife Pat because thats just simply how big his heart was.
Environmental groups are calling on the Queensland government to rethink measures used to protect beachgoers after releasing images of endangered sharks hanging dead off baited hooks in the Great Barrier Reef.
The images show two scalloped hammerhead sharks dangling lifelessly from hooks used by the Queensland government under its shark control program.
A scalloped hammerhead shark found dead at drumlines set off the coast of Magnetic Island. Credit:HSI/AMCS/N McLachlan
Humane Society International and the Australian Marine Conservation Society say the images, obtained off the coast of Magnetic Island last month and released on Tuesday, are further proof that a new approach is needed to prevent attacks.
Nicola Beynon, head of campaigns at Humane Society International, said hooking sharks was an outdated way to prevent shark attacks.
"But hey, you aren't one to let facts get in the way of profiting from snake oil," Dr Jen Gunter, wrote. "The claim that they can balance hormones is, quite simply, biologically impossible. Pelvic floor exercises can help with incontinence and even give stronger orgasms for some women, but they cannot change hormones. As for female energy? I'm a gynecologist and I don't know what that is!?" Gunter also warned that sleeping with a jade egg in one's vagina could lead to bacterial vaginosis or toxic shock syndrome, and that walking around with one inside was an equally bad idea. "Overenthusiastic Kegel exercises or incorrectly done Kegel exercises are a cause of pelvic pain and pain with sex in my practice," Gunter wrote. "Imagine how your biceps muscle (and then your shoulders and then your back) might feel if you walked around all day flexed holding a barbell? Right, now imagine your pelvic floor muscles doing this." If Paltrow was moved by the professional medical advice, it wasn't reflected on Goop's website last year, which published a follow-up letter to the editor titled "12 (More) Reasons to Start a Jade Egg Practice" that hit back at jade egg critics for "sexually shaming a woman for sharing her personal experience". A year later, the consumer protection lawsuit in California may have finally succeeded in convincing Goop to tone it down. Though the eggs are still available for sale on Goop's website, gone are the claims on the product pages themselves that they will balance hormones or regulate menstrual cycles.
According to California officials, those who purchased the eggs or the flower essence from Goop between January 12 and August 31 of last year are entitled to full refunds by emailing Goop or calling 1-844-WTF-GOOP. (Yes, that is the real phone number.) "The health and money of Santa Clara County residents should never be put at risk by misleading advertising," Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. "We will vigilantly protect consumers against companies that promise health benefits without the support of good science... or any science." Loading But the Q and A with Shiva Rose and the letter to the editor recommending use of the eggs remain on Goop's website. Though not technically part of the product pages, the Q and A and other articles on Goop.com continue to claim that the eggs "cultivate sexual energy, clear chi pathways in the body, intensify femininity, and invigorate our life force. To name a few!" Disclaimers at the bottom of the articles, added before the settlement, states they are for informational purposes only and not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Goop maintained in a statement that the settlement does not indicate any liability but rather an "honest disagreement" that the company wanted to settle "quickly and amicably".
Such preparation can also be invaluable when it comes to what you do (and dont) pack.
Oh, and make sure you have detailed maps of where you want to go. Google Maps can provide an overview, but generally it wont get close to covering the details, nor will a Satnav system.
Folding paper maps are essential at the very least as a backup if digital fails.
Also consider a UHF radio (get one with the maximum 5W output), something that allows easy communication with travelling companions or fellow adventurers.
Tyring stuff
A full-sized spare tyre is the minimum for tackling challenging terrain. Any proper off-roader will have one.
If youre not an expert on changing flat tyres, do a practice run before you back out of the driveway, so you know where the jack and tools are and how to access the spare.
Its also worth packing a solid plank of wood to place under the jack to stop it sinking into soft ground.
Another consideration is an air compressor, which allows you to adjust tyre pressures.
In sand, for example, much lower pressures (typically 18-22psi) are a must, allowing the tyre to mould around the granules rather than cut through them. Over rocks, sometimes lower pressures will make sense, too.
Prepare to get stuck
Even the most capable off-roaders can eventually fail to proceed. Its called getting bogged.
But if you head off from home assuming youll one day get bogged, youll be much better off if the wheels stop spinning.
Your best bet for getting a car out of jam is another car.
Know where your recovery points are (dont use the towbar its not designed to take the lateral stresses) and safely attach good quality equipment to get pulled out.
Even if that other car cant tow you out, at least youll be able to hitch a ride to the nearest town for help.
As a minimum, though, carry some basic recovery gear, such as a snatch strap, which is like a stretchy tow rope designed to spring the car out of a bog.
Know what your car can do
Proper off-roaders are increasingly using technology to go further more confidently.
But it pays to understand what all those buttons and levers do.
Traction control is the most basic system; it brakes spinning wheels to effectively divert drive to those with more chance of going in the direction youre trying to head.
In many off-roaders the traction systems often linked to other parameters such as throttle response can be tailored to the conditions, whether thats mud, sand, snow or gravel.
Its also worth checking when and where you can and should use your four-wheel drive system.
Many utes, for example, arent designed to be driven on-road in four-wheel drive, because you risk major damage to the drivetrain.
Others, particularly larger off-roaders, have permanent four-wheel drive systems with a low-range mode, usually for steep ascents or descents.
Plus, there are some times you want technology to take a back seat.
When driving slowly on soft surfaces, for example, some four-wheel drives may need to have their stability control systems disabled, to allow the car to slide gently through mud or sand without the computer electronically reducing power to the engine.
For those unsure about the ability of the car, consult the owners manual.
Even better, consider a driving course. There are plenty of dedicated four-wheel drive courses, that introduce you to more information about the capabilities and limitations of your car with an expert looking over your shoulder.
Take it easy
Dont expect to be splashing through creeks or blasting over sand dunes straight out of the garage. Four-wheel driving is generally a driving art attempted at low speeds.
In many cases, the slower the better.
While there are exceptions to the rule, wheel placement and the angle you attack certain obstacles are far more important than arriving at high speed.
And dont be afraid to get out of the car to analyse where it is youre about to drive.
Understanding the terrain whether its how deep a water crossing is or how soft the mud is can be crucial.
Go off-road and earn your metal of honour in Jeeps limited edition Wrangler Freedom, inspired by the famed Willys Jeep. With star decals and a Granite Crystal painted grille, youll feel like youre a part of an iconic piece of driving history.
Embrace your sense of freedom with the Jeep There & Back Guarantee including a 5 Year Factory Warranty, 5 Year Capped Scheduled Servicing and Lifetime Roadside Assist with Scheduled Servicing at Jeep.
Explore more at jeep.com.au
Does Victoria have a crime crisis involving African-Australian youths? Everyone seems to have an opinion, including many of our politicians, but what are the facts?
The most recent data from the Crime Statistics Agency on unique offenders by country of birth covers the period from April 2017 to March 2018.
Sudanese people are over-represented in the crime statistics. Credit:Josh Robenstone.
It shows there were 82,520 unique offenders during this time, which means about one in every 72 people in Victoria were involved in one or more crimes.
While most of these unique offenders 58,798 of them were born in Australia, just over 1 per cent of unique offenders (879 in total) were born in Sudan or South Sudan.
Mick Bradley, who is a health patient transportation officer, says there's no way he could have waited until 70 to get the pension and has welcomed the government's backdown.
The 62-year-old fell over at home and is off work, and said the nature of his physical work leaves him pre-disposed to back injury.
My work involves taking patients from hospital to hospital on stretchers and wheelchairs, and to homes that often entails going up and down stairs its very physical work and very tough on the back, he said.
Mick Bradley, 62, has to wait until 66.5 to get the age pension. Credit:Charles Elias
On Wednesday Treasurer Scott Morrison announced the governments decision to drop its policy to increase the age pension age to 70.
The ACT Greens want to increase the notice period tenants have to be given before being kicked out of a rental property.
The Greens housing spokeswoman Caroline Le Couteur said there should be a 12 week notice period for all people who, through no fault of their own, received notices of eviction.
The Greens want to see landlords give tenants 12 weeks' notice to terminate a lease in all situations. Credit:Graham Tidy
Currently, under the The Residential Tenancies Act, tenants can be kicked out anywhere from four weeks - if the landlord or a relative intend to move in - to 12 weeks, depending on the circumstances.
Ms Le Couteur said she had heard troubling stories of "retaliatory evictions", where good tenants requested reasonable repairs or maintenance happen, only to have their landlord terminate their lease with four weeks notice under the auspices of the landlord or a distant relative moving in.
Human remains discovered by a passing motorist west of Townsville last month have been identified as missing woman Julie Hutchinson.
Mrs Hutchinson went missing in 2015, and her husband Michael Geoffrey Hutchinson was convicted of her manslaughter and fraud on March 31, 2017, and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment.
Julie Hutchinson's remains were found west of Townsville in August.
Mrs Hutchinson's remains were first spotted by a passing motorist who was driving along Hervey Range Road, near the Burdekin River about an hour west of Townsville, on August 29.
Noticing what appeared to be a human skull, the driver stopped and went back, discovering the skeletal remains and immediately contacting police.
A major new study suggests healthy people aged over 75 may not get any benefit from taking statins.
The European study, published on Thursday in the prestigious British Medical Journal used data from 46,864 people and the results "do not support the widespread use of statins in old and very old populations".
Statins are the most-prescribed drug in Australia.
But Australian experts have slammed the study as deeply flawed saying few conclusions can be drawn from such "poor research" which "does not add anything at all to the literature".
And the local heart health researchers say that it's vital that patients ignore the study and keep taking their medication.
A paedophile who repeatedly raped a Perth girl who had been pimped out by her own father in the so-called 'Evil 8' child abuse ring is appealing his conviction and sentence.
Alfred John Impicciatore was the final member of the Evil 8 child abuse ring to be sentenced in WA's courts.
Alfred John Impicciatore is appealing his conviction and sentence. Credit:LinkedIn
Impicciatore, 48, chatted with the girl's father online before visiting their home in 2015 where he sexually assaulted the girl four times.
The father also participated in the abuse.
Sapporo, Japan: A magnitude-6.7 earthquake that struck Japan's northern island of Hokkaido early on Thursday left the entire prefecture without any power, forcing all airports and trains to suspend operations and a nuclear power plant to go on a back-up generator.
About 3 million buildings lost power after the quake hit at 3.08am, a spokesman for Hokkaido Electric Power Co said, adding it was uncertain when services would resume.
The quake's epicentre was east of the city of Tomakomai. It also struck Hokkaido's prefectural capital of Sapporo, with a population of 1.9 million.
At least two people have been killed and 32 are missing after the powerful earthquake paralysed the northern island of Hokkaido.
Washington: The Trump administration and its closest intelligence partners have quietly warned technology firms that they will demand "lawful access" to all encrypted emails, text messages and voice communications, threatening to compel compliance if the private companies refuse to voluntarily provide the information to the governments.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook Credit:Bloomberg
The threat was issued last week by the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the so-called Five Eyes nations that broadly share intelligence.
Collectively, they have been frustrated by the spread of encrypted apps on mobile phones and the ability to send encrypted messages through social media and, most prominently, on Apple's iPhones.
The statement said the governments of the nations supported "the role of encryption in protecting" personal rights and privacy.
Washington: If you take seriously the revelations in Bob Woodward's book Fear - and how can you not, given Woodward's nearly half-century of scoops about Washington's elite? - then it's time for President Donald Trump to be removed from office via the 25th Amendment because he is clearly "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office."
That will never happen, because the Cabinet is packed with Trump toadies who compete with each other to deliver the most fawning praise of their supreme leader. But on the merits, it should happen.
Of course, it doesn't take Woodward's revelations to demonstrate Trump's unfitness for office. Trump demonstrates it on a daily basis with his campaign-rally rants and Twitter tirades.
Just in the past day, the president has demanded that the Justice Department drop criminal investigations against his supporters because it could cost Republicans House seats, and suggested that NBC lose its broadcast licence because, in essence, he objects to the criticism he receives on MSNBC.
Many officials inside the White House and around the administration had already expected that Mattis would leave his post sometime over the next few months, completing a respectably long two-year stint at the helm of the Defense Department.
Of course, in light of Woodward's reporting that Mattis told associates Trump "acted like - and had the understanding of - 'a fifth- or sixth-grader,' " internal speculation about Mattis's potential departure has intensified. (Mattis issued a statement Tuesday calling the book "fiction.")
Washington: Well before this week's revelations about President Donald Trump's interactions with Defence Secretary Jim Mattis in Bob Woodward's new book , officials inside the White House have been actively discussing who will replace Mattis at the Pentagon - whenever he might step down.
"The speculation about who replaces Mattis is now more real than ever," said a senior White House official who was not authorised to speak about internal matters. "The president has always respected him. But now he has every reason to wonder what Mattis is saying behind his back. The relationship has nowhere to go but down, fast."
No decisions have been made and a Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment on Mattis's plans. A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. But several administration and congressional officials said that a short list for his successor is already being constructed informally.
US President Donald Trump Credit:Bloomberg
At the top of the list is retired four-star Army General Jack Keane, administration and congressional officials said. Keane retired in 2003 and served as vice chief of staff of the Army. Unlike Mattis, Keane would not need a congressional waiver to serve as defence secretary because he's been out of military service more than seven years. He is widely respected in Congress, inside the administration and by the president himself.
"He has strong relationships across the administration and the president likes his TV profile," the senior White House official said. "He comes across as strong and competent - like a more partisan Mattis."
Washington: White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday pushed back against Bob Woodward's new book on President Donald Trump, denouncing it as "fabricated" without disputing any of the specifics that have been reported in excerpts so far.
"This book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the president look bad," Sanders said in a statement.
Sanders contended that Trump has delivered "unprecedented" success for the country and that, while his approach was unconventional, "he always gets results".
"Democrats and their allies in the media understand the President's policies are working and with success like this, no one can beat him in 2020 - not even close," she said.
Mazda Reports August 2018 Sales Results
IRVINE, Calif. (Sept 4, 2018) Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) today reported total August U.S. sales of 25,816 vehicles, representing a decrease of 0.1 percent versus August of last year. Year-to-date (YTD) sales through August are up 9.9 percent versus last year, with 213,865 vehicles sold. With 27 selling days in August 2018, versus 27 the year prior, the company posted a decrease of 0.1 percent on a Daily Selling Rate (DSR) basis.
Key August sales notes:
Mazda MX-5 had a very strong month, finishing up August with an increase of 29.7 percent month-over-month, with 1,169 vehicles sold.
Sales of Mazda CX-9, Mazdas 3-row crossover SUV finished August with a 26.4 percent increase month-over-month with 2,276 vehicles sold and is up 18.3 percent Year-To-Date.
Mazda CX-5, Mazdas midsized crossover SUV continues with strong sales with 12,970 vehicles sold during the month of August, an increase of 11.5 percent month-over-month. Sales of the Mazda CX-5 are up 36.1 percent YTD.
Sales of Mazdas CX-line remain strong, with CX-3, CX-5 and CX-9 posting increased sales month-over-month in August. Collectively reaching 16,727 vehicles sold in the month of August. This number represents a increase of 12 percent month-over-month, and an increase of 29 percent YTD.
Mazda reported Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) sales of 5,201 vehicles in August, marking an increase of 37.7 percent month-over-month. CPO sales are up 20.2 percent YTD.
Mazda Motor de Mexico (MMdM) reported August sales of 5,041 vehicles, up 10 percentversus August of last year.
Mazda North American Operations is headquartered in Irvine, California, and oversees the sales, marketing, parts and customer service support of Mazda vehicles in the United States and Mexico through nearly 700 dealers. Operations in Mexico are managed by Mazda Motor de Mexico in Mexico City. For more information on Mazda vehicles, including photography and B-roll, please visit the online Mazda media center at InsideMazda.MazdaUSA.com/Newsroom.
Spectacular Docket of Vehicles at Barrett-Jacksons 11th Annual Las Vegas Auction, Including a 71 Elvis Mercedes, Goes Live Online on Proxibid
OMAHA, Neb. Proxibid, the most trusted way to connect buyers and sellers of highly valued items, will provide live online bidding when the 11th Annual Barrett-Jackson Las Vegas Auction kicks off at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino September 27-29. The auction brings together one of the most remarkable collections of American-built classic collector trucks, 15 cars from the John Staluppi Jr. Collection, and a vast array of rare and unique vehicles for three days of excitement for car enthusiasts everywhere.
Collectors from across the globe will line up to bid on a 1971 Mercedes Benz 280SEL (Lot #725), purchased new by Elvis Presley and retained by him through his death. This car went from Presleys garage to a museum, where it was on display for 40 years, and is accompanied by documentation from the purchase, as well as a photograph of the car in front of Graceland. Another beautiful vehicle from the Staluppi Jr. Collection is a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Custom Convertible (Lot #724), which underwent a frame-off rotisserie restoration in 2015. Additional cars of note crossing the block in this auction include:
2017 Chevrolet Camaro Yenko Coupe, one of just 50 limited-edition versions built (Lot #723)
1972 Chevrolet Corvette Custom Convertible Speedvette (Lot #742), a high-end C3 Resto-Mod
1966 Dodge Hemi Charger, a beautiful car meticulously maintained for nearly 5 years, with only three owners since new (Lot #720)
Now in its 11th year, our Las Vegas Auction has become a staple for collector car enthusiasts from around the world, said Craig Jackson, chairman and CEO of Barrett-Jackson. Collecting knows no boundaries, and our partnership with Proxibid makes it possible for bidders located across the globe to participate in our auctions in real-time regardless of their location. Whether you can make it to Las Vegas or plan to bid online, this auction has a tremendous selection of collector cars you wont want to miss.
Also on the docket for the Las Vegas Auction is an expansive collection of collectible trucks, including a 1958 Chevrolet Apache (Lot #678), which was a 2016 Battle of The Builders SEMA truck. Other custom trucks cross thing block in Las Vegas include:
1963 Chevrolet C10 Custom Pickup (Lot #463), which recently underwent a two-year frame-off restoration
1950 Chevrolet 3100 5-Window Custom Pickup (Lot #680), fully restored and ready to roll
1972 GMC C10 Custom Pickup (Lot #682), a fully custom short-bed fleetside pickup truck that recently underwent a ground-up restoration and customization
Online bidders can rest assured, their transactions are secure when they bid live online on Proxibid. All purchases on Proxibid are backed by the companys comprehensive risk management system, designed specifically to manage high-dollar transactions like the collector cars available in this auction. Proxibids robust online bidding platform is powered by enterprise-level technology and infrastructure, and boasts a 99.9+ percent uptime, making it the safest place to buy and sell highly valued items online.
For more information about the Las Vegas Auction, or to register to bid, please visit www.proxibid.com/barrettjackson.
About The Barrett-Jackson Auction Company
Established in 1971 and headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, Barrett-Jackson, The Worlds Greatest Collector Car Auctions, is the leader in collector car auctions and automotive lifestyle events. The company produces auctions in Scottsdale, Arizona; Palm Beach, Florida; at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, and Las Vegas, Nevada. With broadcast partners Velocity and Discovery Channel, Barrett-Jackson will feature live television coverage in 2018, including broadcasts in over 150 countries internationally. Barrett-Jackson also endorses a one-of-a-kind collector car insurance for collector vehicles and other valued belongings. For more information about Barrett-Jackson, visit www.barrett-jackson.com, or call 480-421-6694.
About Proxibid
Proxibid provides auction companies and asset owners with access to the most trusted way to buy and sell highly valued items online. More than $4 billion in inventory passes through Proxibids Marketplace annually via live and timed auctions, and Buy Now and Make Offer capabilities, across 16 categories that include heavy equipment; industrial machinery; real estate; fine art; antiques and collectibles, and more.
Founded in 2001, Proxibid is headquartered in Omaha, NE with offices in London. For more information about Proxibid, please visit www.proxibid.com.
Protester at Brett Kavanaughs confirmation hearing. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Just 30 minutes into the first day of Brett Kavanaughs Senate confirmation hearing, the energy in the room was already chaotic, with Capitol Hill police escorting groups of protesters out of the room. By the end of the morning session, the law enforcement agency announced that it had arrested and charged nearly two dozen demonstrators, the majority of whom were women; by the end of the day, the number of arrests had more than tripled.
Early Tuesday morning, leaders from a number of womens and reproductive rights groups lined up to observe Kavanaughs hearing, as his confirmation would represent a crisis for abortion access, LGBTQ rights, voting rights, and more. Shaunna Thomas, the executive director and co-founder of womens advocacy group UltraViolet, tells the Cut that when she first entered the hearing room with a group of 22 other members of the public, she felt like she was walking in a funeral procession. She described the room as very somber and quiet in a negative way, though the energy quickly shifted after Muslim activist Linda Sarsour became the first protester to get up from her seat, calling to adjourn the hearing.
VIDEO: Protesters arrested in the hearing room for Kavanaughs confirmation hearing asking the hearing to end. pic.twitter.com/ZCTcuwq7qZ Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) September 4, 2018
Following Sarsours move, other protesters including actress Piper Perabo and #VOTEPROCHOICE co-founder Heidi Sieck loudly decried the hearing as a travesty of justice and demanded that Senators cancel Brett Kavanaugh until Capitol Hill police forcibly removed them from the room.
You cannot confirm someone who does not represent the majority opinion, cried another, referencing Kavanaughs historically low approval ratings.
At this moment, Thomas says, she realized nearly everyone in the room who wasnt a member of the press or a Senate staffer was there to protest Kavanaugh. It was a really affirming experience, she told the Cut.
By 11 a.m., Sarsour, Perabo, Sieck, Thomas, and 18 others were arrested and charged with civil disobedience. After she was released, Perabo tweeted, I cant be silent when someone is nominated to the Supreme Court who would take our equal rights away.
I was just arrested for civil disobedience in the Kavanaugh hearings.
Many citizens before me have fought for the equal rights of women. I cant be silent when someone is nominated to the Supreme Court who would take our equal rights away.#StopKavanaghpic.twitter.com/f3SG7gmVam Piper Perabo (@PiperPerabo) September 4, 2018
By 5 p.m., NBC News Congressional reporter Frank Thorp tweeted that 70 people had been arrested during the confirmation hearings, 61 of whom were removed from the committee room in the Hart Senate Office Building, and nine of whom were removed from the Dirksen Senate Office Building. All arrests were related to unlawful demonstration charges.
Update: Capitol Police now say that as of 10:19 a.m., 22 individuals have been arrested at the Kavanaugh hearing. The preliminary charge is D.C. Code 22-1321 - Disorderly conduct. Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) September 4, 2018
In Thomass opinion, this type of action is more necessary than ever. In the 10 to 15 years that she has advocated and organized around womens rights, she adds, she considers this moment to be one with the highest stakes.
The outcome of this will impact our generation and our childrens generation, she told the Cut. [Kavanaugh] is on the wrong side of the American people, and we know that if we put him on court, he will overturn Roe v. Wade, criminalize abortion, gut the Affordable Care Act, roll back LGBTQ rights, end affirmative action, and chip away at voting rights. There is no community who wouldnt be deeply touched in an incredibly dangerous way.
Tomorrow, many of the women who faced charges will be back in the hearing room, prepared to put their bodies on the line again.
We are here to be heard!! @lsarsour @PiperPerabo and myself did just that. We will do whatever it takes to #StopKavanagh no matter how many capital police, no matter the amount of arrest. Roe is more popular than you are Kavanaugh. Face it. #CancelKavanaugh #BrettBye https://t.co/xGnpGidQgS Heidi L. Sieck (@HeidiSpeaks) September 4, 2018
Weve also covered day 2 of the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing.
On the first day of the Senate confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, Capitol police forcibly removed, handcuffed, and handed civil-disobedience charges to 70 people who had traveled to Washington, D.C., to protest Donald Trumps wildly unpopular SCOTUS nominee. Within the first 30 minutes of the hearing, demonstrators were on their feet, demanding the Senate adjourn the hearing and cancel Brett Kavanaugh; on the second day of the hearing, protesters started their disruption just ten minutes in.
Sham president, sham justice, Stop slaughtering our children, and Mother earth, four people yelled including one woman in a wheelchair before police forced them out of the room. The New York Post reports that at least half a dozen protesters have been removed from the hearing room so far (it is unclear whether they too have been charged with civil disobedience).
Even with arrest as a potential deterrent, many leaders of progressive organizations say this type of protest is necessary, especially given the Democratic Establishments disappointing response to Kavanaughs nomination. While ostensibly liberal leaders have failed to vocally condemn the conservative judge who activists say would criminalize abortion, gut the Affordable Care Act and chip away at voting rights protesters have been putting their bodies on the line, long before the confirmation hearings even began.
We had to take this step because what were seeing is that senators arent doing everything that they can to oppose Kavanaugh, so we have to, Shaunna Thomas, the executive director and co-founder of womens advocacy group UltraViolet, told the Cut after she was arrested on Tuesday. People who understand how high the stakes are are stepping up in ways Ive never seen before. This is what we have to do at this point.
3 Charged in Death of Missouri Woman, 68, Who Retired to Belize
Three people have been charged in the death of a 68-year-old woman who was living at a retirement home in Belize.
Two men, who are both 18, as well as a 16-year-old minor face murder charges after the body of Sherris Stringham, of Missouri, was found on Aug. 31, according to The Associated Press in a Sept. 3 report. Her body was found in a river in Pomona, which is around 50 miles from the village of Hopkins where she lived.
Stringham was reported missing Aug. 27, and her vehicle was found abandoned hundreds of miles away in the Orange Walk District of the Central American county.
AP reported that robbery is the suspected motive.
Her family had hired a private investigator to search for her and investigate the case, reported the Kansas City Star, which also reported that she was a native of Blue Springs, Missouri.
Before her death, She hasnt been seen or heard from since Saturday (we usually get texts from her daily), she missed several outings with friends which is unlike her, her house was in disarray (also very unlike her), wallet empty and left behind, car missing, according to a GoFundMe page.
The page said that she retired in Hopkins after decades of working as a school bus driver and working at a grocery store. As of Sept. 5, $15,585 was raised.
Before heading to Belize, the woman had scraped together all she had and bravely struck out and retired to Hopkins, according to the GoFundMe page.
The U.S. Department of States Overseas Security Advisory Council said: According to the current U.S. Department of State Travel Advisory at the date of this reports publication, Belize has been assessed as Level 2: exercise increased caution.
Did you enjoy this article? Continue to read more stories here.
A view of the Milky Way from an area of Puyehue National Park near Osorno City, Chile, May 8, 2008. (Reuters/Ivan Alvarado).
Amazon Eyes Chilean Skies as It Seeks to Datamine the Stars
Amazon.com is in talks with Chile to house and mine massive amounts of data generated by the countrys giant telescopes, which could prove fertile ground for the company to develop new artificial intelligence tools.
The talks, which have been little reported on so far and which were described to Reuters by Chilean officials and an astronomer, are aimed at fuelling growth in Amazon.com Incs cloud computing business in Latin America and boosting its data processing capabilities.
President Sebastian Pineras center-right government, which is seeking to wean Chiles $325 billion economies from reliance on copper mining, announced last week it plans to pool data from all its telescopes onto a virtual observatory stored in the cloud, without giving a timeframe. The government talked of the potential for Astrodata innovation but did not give details.
The government did not comment on companies that might host Astrodata in the computing cloud.
Amazon executives have been holding discussions with the Chilean government for two years about a possible data center to provide infrastructure for local firms and the government to store information on the cloud, an official at InvestChile, the governments investment body, told Reuters.
For at least some of that time, the talks have included discussion about the possibility of Amazon Web Services (AWS), hosting Astrodata, astronomer Chris Smith said, based on email exchanges he was part of between AWS and Chilean Economy Ministry officials over the last six months. Smith was at the time mission head of AURA observatory, which manages three of the U.S. federally-funded telescope projects in Chile.
Jeffrey Kratz, AWSs General Manager for Public Sector for Latin American, Caribbean, and Canada, has visited Chile for talks with Pinera. He confirmed the companys interest in Astrodata but said Amazon had no announcements to make at present.
Chile is a very important country for AWS, he said in an email to Reuters. We kept being amazed about the incredible work on astronomy and the telescopes, as real proof points on innovation and technology working together.
The Chilean telescopes can benefit from the cloud by eliminating the heavy lifting of managing IT, Kratz added.
AWS is a fast-growing part of Amazons overall business. In July it reported second-quarter sales of $6.1 billion, up by 49 percent over the same period a year ago, accounting for 12 percent of Amazons overall sales.
Star-gazing To Shop-lifting
Chile is home to 70 percent of global astronomy investment, thanks to the cloudless skies above its northern Atacama desert, the driest on earth. Within five years, the South American country will host three of the worlds four next-generation, billion-dollar telescopes, according to Smith.
He and Economy Ministry officials leading the Chilean initiative to store Astrodata in the cloud saw potential in more Earth-bound matters.
The particular tools developed for the Astrodata project could be applicable for a wide variety of other uses, such as tracking potential shop-lifters, fare-evaders on public transport and endangered animals, Julio Pertuze, a ministry official, told Reuters at the event announcing Chiles aim to build a virtual observatory on the cloud.
Smith added that the same technology could also be applied to medicine and banking to spot anomalies in large datasets.
Amazon, whose founder and largest shareholder Jeff Bezos is well known for his interest in space, already provides a cloud platform for the Hubble Telescopes data and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Australia.
As Amazon explores the potential in Chiles Astrodata, tech rival Google, owned by Alphabet Inc, is already a member of Chiles Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which will be fully operational in Cerro Pachon in 2022. Google also has a data center established in the country.
Justin Burr, the senior PR associate for AI and Machine learning at Google, declined to comment on any Google plans around Astrodata or its involvement in other telescope projects.
Separately, a Google spokeswoman said last week that the company will announce expansion plans for its Chilean data center on Sept. 12.
Giant Database
Smith said that what the Chileans are calling the Astroinformatics Initiative to harness the potential of Aastrodata could enable Amazon Web Services access to the research that astronomers are doing on projects like the LSST.
We are going to have to go through a huge database of billions of stars to find the three stars that an astronomer wants, Smith said, adding that was not too different from searching a database of billions of people to find the right profile for a targeted advertisement.
So a tool that might get developed in LSST or the astronomical world could be applicable for Amazon in their commercial world.
Since speaking to Reuters, Smith has moved on from his job heading AURA to a new position at the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Amazons role in the Aastrodata project would also give it an entry into a market where it is seeking to expand. Amazon which controls nearly one-third of the global cloud computing business, ahead of rivals Microsoft Corp and Google has struggled to lure public institutions in Latin America, including research facilities, to store their data online instead of on physical machines.
AWS declined to provide any information on the size of its regional business in Latin America.
Economy Minister Jose Ramon Valente said at last weeks announcement, Chile has enormous potential in its pristine skies not only in the observation of the universe but also in the amount of data that observation generates.
By Cassandra Garrison.
Chinese students wait in line for lunch in a classroom at a school in Beijing on December 18, 2015. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
Parents in China Worry About Toxic Formaldehyde as Schools Begin New Term
Parents of school-age children in China are growing concerned about reports that the carcinogen formaldehyde has been found in many nurseries and primary schools.
On Sept. 1, thousands of parents gathered in Leiyang, Hunan Province, to protest a government plan to move elementary-school students into renovated private-school classrooms that had unsafe levels of formaldehyde. On the same day, similar concerns resulted in fifth- and sixth-grade students at a Xian primary school not attending class on schedule.
In Shenzhen, parents of students at the Nanyou Elementary School reported odd smells in the classrooms. Some students said they felt nauseous.
Formaldehyde is a chemical thats used to make building materials such as particleboard, plywood, and fiberboard, as well as many household products, including cleaners, medicines, soaps, and cosmetics. Products that contain formaldehyde release the chemical as a gas or vapor, so people can breathe it in or absorb it through the skin when in liquid form. The toxin can cause cancer and has been linked to an increased risk of asthma and allergies in kids.
A parent surnamed Shao in the city of Hengyang in Hunan Province told The Epoch Times that this kind of thing is common. About two years earlier, formaldehyde was detected in the first- and second-grade classrooms of a school, as the renovations had been finished just one day before the beginning of the school term, Shao said.
Shao said that she visited the local education bureau and government departments, but was ignored.
Later, I printed more than 100 flyers to inform the parents about the risks, she said. I also posted the information on the internet, only then they finally started to do something.
According to Shao, because the primary school is one of the top schools in the area and a difficult place to enroll ones children, many parents kept quiet despite feeling dizzy, after staying in the classrooms for about an hour.
The school and government simply dont care about childrens safety, Shao said. They basically go for profit and think about how to maximize their own interests. Society has no moral bottom line. The Chinese Communist Partys rule is the greatest torment; it is impossible for people to lead happy and healthy lives.
According to mainland Chinese reports, excessive levels of formaldehyde are the primary cause of leukemia in children. A survey found that 90 percent of child leukemia patients had been living in newly renovated homes.
Nationwide Concern
School buildings are typically renovated during summer vacation. To maximize profits, however, construction companies often use unsafe or low-quality materials. Unsafe levels of formaldehyde are commonly found in renovated classrooms.
This summer, reports of dangerous levels of formaldehyde sprung up around the country, including in the cities of Nanjing, Guangzhou, and Chengdu.
In July, parents of students attending the Xiaobei Road Primary School in Guangzhou, in southern China, repeatedly petitioned their school management to express their objection to holding classes in a newly prepared set of classrooms. Many students had reported feeling unwell, and reported symptoms such as nosebleeds and dizziness.
Since May, more than a dozen children going to the Golden Sun International New City Kindergarten in Chengdu, in southwestern China, reported fevers, coughing, vomiting, and nosebleeds. Three auditing agencies found that the formaldehyde level in the classrooms twice exceeded safe levels.
Such incidents have been reported regularly across China in multiple provinces since at least 2013. One report from a kindergarten in Guangzhou dates back to 2002.
The way the incidents were handled can be contrasted with the practice of school administrators in Hong Kong, which is a part of China but enjoys some measure of self-rule.
In 2012, before the students moved into new dormitories at the University of Hong Kong, it was found that six of 16 rules of health and safety assessment were below good levels. The university decided at its own cost to transfer almost 100 students to a hotel, and arrange special transportation to and from classes.
California Legislature Stops Advancing on Voluntary Drinking Water Tax
The bills seeking to create a voluntary drinking water tax on California residents and a mandatory tax on dairy producers and fertilizer manufacturers lost its chance to make it through the state legislature as the Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon announced a stop to pushing the bill forward on Aug. 31.
The Assembly is committed to identifying a sustainable funding source to ensure safe drinking water for all Californians, Rendon said in a statement. But much more needs to be done, and a piecemeal funding approach wont work.
This came as another failure for the California lawmakers, who unsuccessfully pushed a mandatory drinking water tax through the legislature in June this year and later tried again by changing from mandatory to voluntary. The bills proposed to establish a Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund with the revenue, which will be used to provide safe drinking water in vulnerable areas that are threatened by nitrates, lead, arsenic, and other contaminants.
Senate Bill 845 would require that starting from July 1, 2019, a voluntary drinking water tax be automatically added onto California ratepayers bills. Customers would need to opt out via their community water system in order to avoid the tax, which was expected to cost 95 cents for most customers. In addition, Senate Bill 844 proposes a mandatory fee on dairy producers starting in 2021 and fertilizer manufacturers starting in 2019.
Gov. Jerry Brown backed these two bills, which were expected to collect as much as $100 million a year. However, opponents of the bills believe it is unnecessary to add additional burden on ratepayers.
The State should NOT tax or add charges to something that is essential to life, such as water and food. The public does not support the precedent of starting to tax resources that are essential to life. #YourWater #SB845 || Get the REAL Facts: https://t.co/ddQv9nIi2g pic.twitter.com/wx93sqOflZ MWDOC (@MWDOC) August 30, 2018
Given our current $9 billion surplus, there is ample money in the general fund to pay for clean water projects without this new tax, said Assemblyman Jay Obernolte to The Sacramento Bee. What we lack is the political willpower to spend our existing resources on these vital government services rather than imposing new taxes on our citizens.
In the wake of a recent recall of Sen. Josh Newman (D-Fullerton), who voted yes on the $52 billion gas tax, many California lawmakers are not willing to support any new tax or tax increase.
However, the author of the bills, Sen. Bill Monning, expressed his wish to continue working on this issue. I do want to assure you that our fight is not over, he said to The Sacramento Bee. It is not over until we win the support necessary to fulfill the fundamental human right to water for all Californians.
California Officer Kills Wife, Then Himself Outside Nutrition Store
A California Highway Patrol officer killed himself after shooting his wife dead outside of a nutrition store the officer broke into, authorities said.
The deaths took place in Martell in northern California on Monday night, Sept. 3.
Brad Wheat, the officer, was off-duty at the time of the shooting, according to the Amador County Sheriffs Office.
911 Call
Deputies responded to Get Ripped Nutrition around 10:45 p.m. after the stores owner called 911 and said that he and Mary Wheat, Brad Wheats wife, were locked inside the vitamin store while the officer was outside banging on the door.
Deputies rushed over and arrived just minutes later but they heard shots being fired. They found the Wheats dead and the store owner injured, with a gunshot wound to his shoulder, reported the Record Net. The owner is expected to survive.
A witness told deputies that Wheat was unable to get through the door so he fired a gun through the stores front window and gained access.
Once inside, he shot the owner and struggled with the owner and his wife.
The fight moved outside to the parking lot, culminating with Brad Wheat shooting his wife before shooting himself.
The Wheats leave behind four children.
A tragic scene here in Amador County. Officials are investigating an apparent murder-suicide involving an off-duty CHP officer & his wife. They say the man was banging on the locked door last night & eventually fired at the window to get in. https://t.co/A87gT3YCtB @ABC10 pic.twitter.com/wtx9JAT7PF Frances Wang (@FrancesWangTV) September 4, 2018
TONIGHT AT 5: A friend of Mary & Brad Wheat says the entire community is mourning after they were found dead last night. Sheriffs officials say the off-duty CHP officer shot his wife before turning the gun on himself. WATCH @FOX40 for the full story>> https://t.co/3UER8u3UOq pic.twitter.com/l2mv3s5qGp Olivia DeGennaro (@OliviaDeGennaro) September 4, 2018
Investigators Working on Motive
Investigators said theyre still probing a motive for the killings but alluded to a relationship between the business owner and Mary Wheat.
We believe there was a relationship between the victim, the husband, and his wife, sheriffs spokesman Gary Redman told the Los Angeles Times.
Gloria Vallejo, who owns a restaurant near the nutrition store, told CBS that Mary Wheat had been having lunch at her bar on a number of recent days.
Lately, Mary had been coming in to have lunch, to have a drink, shell be at the bar just hanging out, Vallejo said. Vallejo said she saw the Get Ripped Nutrition owner having lunch with Wheat on Friday, Aug. 31, three days before the incident.
Amador Sheriff Martin Ryan told the Record Net that theres been a lot of talk about the nature of the relationship between the three people involved in the shootings but declined to provide details.
There is a lot of speculation on what transpired. We are still working through that, Ryan said. We are concerned about the surviving victim, the children, and the impact on our community. We have few homicides here; this doesnt happen up here with any frequency at all.
From NTD.tv
Campaign to Rename Dixie School District to Be Addressed on September 4
A decades-long attempt to rename the Dixie School District in San Rafael will be revisited on September 4 at the monthly meeting of the school board, proponents of the rename attempt said.
Advocates of the change say the name is a reference to slavery that is out of touch with Marin County values. The campaign to change the name began in 1997 and the last vote on the name change was in 2003. The school board did not pass the proposed change.
Members of the Committee to Change the Name will address the board during the public comment period of the boards meeting on September 4 at 380 Nova Albion Way in San Rafael. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. The subject is not on the formal agenda.
The move to change the name has similarities with current campaigns across the state and the country to remove Confederate monuments and memorials.
The Confederacy does not need an outpost in Northern California, said Marin resident Noah Griffin, who with fellow resident Kerry Pierson has championed the change since 1997. We need to teach our children to have compassion for the pain of others, not to dismiss or trivialize it.
Rather than suggesting an alternative name, Griffin said he would like the public to make suggestions, an approach one school board member said she agreed with.
Dixie is a synonym for the Confederacy. Dixie does not reflect our communitys values. Its time to change the name, said Marnie Dixon, a school board member.
By Janis Mara.
U.S. President Donald Trump is greeted by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on the first day of the G7 Summit in La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada, on June 8, 2018. (Geoff Robins/ AFP/Getty Images)
Canada Must Join Trump Train or Fall Further Behind
Trade standoff an opportunity for introspection, spring cleaning
Fresh research offers ominous news for Canada. An index of labor-market performance across U.S. states and Canadian provinces places all 10 of the latter in the bottom half. Its the economy, Canada!
For example, the four Atlantic provincesNew Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Islandare in the bottom five out of 60. Only struggling West Virginia, in 58th, stopped these provinces from a clean sweep of the ladders bottom rungs.
This comprehensive measure, which includes total employment growth and unemployment rates, draws on 2015-2017 data. You can guarantee that Canada will fare even worse when the 2019 edition is released, and includes data from the tenure of President Donald Trump.
Instead of aligning with Trump and pursuing a growth agenda, however, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is virtue signaling to garner Trump hate votes, as explained by Manny Montenegrino, CEO of Think Sharp in Ottawa.
Such a stance is set to drive more workers and investment away from the Great White North.
Where Trump, Trudeau Part Ways
One form of this anti-Trump virtue signaling comes in the no-compromise position on Canadas dairy and poultry cartels, protected by egregious tariffs and domestic-supply quotas. Trudeau and his opposition counterpart, Andrew Scheer of the Conservative Party, are willing to put the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in jeopardy over 11,000 spoiled, inefficient dairy producers.
Meanwhile, the Mexican president and president-elect have already overcome any rhetorical and personality differences to hammer out a deal with Trump.
The time has come for a reality check before Trudeaus dangerous game of chicken has devastating long-term consequences for the Canadian economy. Retaliatory tariffs from the Trump administration against Canadian-made automobiles threaten 190,000 workers, and that could just be the beginning.
Canadian officials need to recognize that one of their nations greatest economic strengths is also her greatest vulnerability. Canada borders the worlds most dynamic, powerful, and successful economy. The United States is a voracious consumer that buys a whopping 74 percent of Canadas exports.
Compare that with 16 percent of U.S. exports that go to Canada. The United States needs Canada a lot less than the reverse. This places Canada in a vulnerable position that compels humility.
End Supply Management Already
The euphemistically termed supply management is just the start of Canada economic malaise. This cartelization happens to be in the crosshairs of NAFTA, since it blocks out U.S. producers. However, as Martha Hall Findlay of the Canada West Foundation points out, supply management ought to go, not because Trump says so, but because it is in Canadas best interests.
You might realize that, given the fear-mongering from the cartel members. In a blatant example of the broken-window fallacy, they tout the potentially devastating impact on farmers and the negative ripple effect if this Soviet-style system were to go.
What about the positive ripple?
At present, Canadians pay inflated prices on the subject items, including milk, cheese, and eggs. The end of supply management, therefore, would be as good as a tax break on grocery items that most Canadians consider to be pantry staples, as highlighted in a Toronto Sun column by Mark Bonokoski.
The unseen effect here, not talked about by the cartel members and apologists, is the heightened purchasing power of consumers. They will then have more discretionary income available to spend and invest elsewhere, thus expanding the Canadian economy in a productive manner.
There is also a glaring counterexample that supply-management apologists ignore. In 2000, Australia deregulated its dairy industry and abolished the State Marketing Authorities. The results, wrote Jon Berry and Alan Oxley of the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute, have been unambiguously positive. Prices fell to the immediate benefit of consumers, and a more dynamic industryunencumbered by the states middlemenrestructured, responded to demand signals, and learned to compete on the world stage.
Australia now exports half of her dairy output, and that generates $3 billion annually. Berry and Oxley add that this industry is set for even more growth, as producers embrace trade deals as commercial opportunities rather than threats.
Beyond NAFTA, for Canadas Sake
The standoff over supply management is a symptom of much deeper problems in the Canadian economy, as evidenced by the Index of Labour Market Performance. Those who feast on the largess of federal and provincial governments stand in the way of overdue market liberalization.
The level of cronyism across both major parties came to a head last month when prominent Member of Parliament Maxime Bernier elected to depart the Conservative Party. Bernier of Quebec, who narrowly lost the leadership race in 2017, is now building a new party devoted to the free-market conservative philosophy. There will be no supply management where he is going.
The classical liberal, in his resignation statement, wrote that A Conservative party that supports free markets should also advocate the end of corporate welfare. Canadians are tired of paying taxes to bail out Bombardier, Ford, and other businesses.
Whether he uses Trumps vernacular or not, Bernier is a threat to the swamp. He also realizes that Canada must work with the United States and, gasp, compete with her, too.
Beyond Bernier, though, there is a rising awareness that there are structural problems with the Canadian economy. Most notable among them is the vast feel-good redistribution scheme known as equalization, which explicitly takes from successful provinces and rewards have-not provinces. Not surprisingly, this approach keeps the recipient provinces poor and incentivizes residents to remain where employment prospects are bleak.
The current trajectory of inefficiency, if left untouched, will lead Canada further away from international competitiveness. The entire nation will become more depressed like the Atlantic provinces.
Two Areas for Change
NAFTA negotiations offer an opportunity for Canada to reflect on how to better compete and develop a robust economy. Sealing the deal, of course, is an important first step. However, if free trade is the goalknowing it offers win-win exchangestwo notable impediments remain (in addition to equalization reform).
The C.D. Howe Institute, a Toronto-based think tank, recently made the sensible case for further openness and transparency towards foreign direct investment (FDI). Canadas performance in attracting FDI has been lackluster of late, with investment outflows outstripping inflows since 2013.
Capital accumulation is pivotal for economic development. It aids trade based on comparative advantage, and foreign firms offer better-paying employment to Canadians. That is why this trend, with a gap of about $60 billion in 2017, is so troubling, and it hasnt happened by accident.
Even if Canadians pride themselves on being an open nation, a ranking from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development places Canada 32nd out of 35 member nations for openness to FDI (with an index score on par with Russia). Canada can and should rectify this shortcoming by getting rid of the opaque net benefit test for large FDI transactions and open up more sectors that dont have clear national-security risks.
The second problem to dispense with is entirely self-imposed. Not only does Canada have work to do on being more open and hospitable to international trade, the provinces have a myriad of barriers to domestic trade across the country.
This led to the famous free the beer court case, in which a New Brunswick man challenged a $220 fine for bringing 14 cases of beer from Quebec. He lost, and so did Canadians.
Since the Canadian Supreme Court wont defend the liberties of constituents to shop and travel as they see fit, the responsibility lies with provincial premiers. Many declared their support for removing such barriers, as noted by Marco Navarro-Genie and Alex Whalen of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies. However, that talk has come to maybe one small step on alcohola potential raising of cross-border limitsand no leaps at all for liberalization.
They offer a cogent reminder to both Trump and his Canadian counterpart, along with the provincial premiers: With the right disposition, any free-trade deal can be written on the back of a napkin. You remove all restrictions and parties can trade unencumbered.
Fergus Hodgson is the founder and executive editor of Latin American intelligence publication Antigua Report.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Skyworth AI chip at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Asia in Shanghai on June 13, 2018. (AFP/Getty Images)
China Lures Tech Talent from Taiwan with Fat Salaries and Perks
TAIPEIA huge pay raise, eight free trips home a year, and a heavily subsidized apartment. It was a dream job offer that a Taiwanese engineer simply could not refuse.
A veteran engineer of Taiwans top-tier chipmakers, including United Microelectronics Corporation, took up the offer from a Chinese state-backed chipmaker last year and now oversees a small team at a wafer foundry in eastern China.
The engineer joined a growing band of senior Taiwan professionals working in Chinas booming and fast-developing semiconductor industry.
Attracting such talent from Taiwan has become a key part of an effort by China to put the industry into overdrive, and reduce the countrys dependence on overseas firms for the prized chips that power everything from smartphones to military satellites.
That drive, which started in 2014, intensified this year as U.S.-China trade tensions escalated, according to recruiters and industry insiders, exposing what China feels is an over-reliance on foreign-made chips.
China imported $260 billion worth of semiconductors in 2017, more than its imports of crude oil.
Home-made chips made up less than 20 percent of domestic demand in the same year, according to the China Semiconductor Industry Association.
More than 300 senior engineers from Taiwan have moved to Chinese chipmakers so far this year. They joined nearly 1,000 others who have relocated to China since Beijing set up a $22 billion fund to develop the chip industry in 2014, according to estimates from H&L Management Consultants, a Taipei-based recruitment firm.
The battle for skilled engineers has raised concerns in Taiwan that the island could lose a key economic engine to its political foe, China. Analysts say China is still years behind Taiwan in terms of chip design and manufacturing, even as it moves ahead in terms of the production of lower-end chips.
Chinas semiconductor plans accelerated this year after the United States banned sales of chips to the Chinese telecoms firm ZTE, senior Chinese officials told Reuters in April.
Tariffs imposed by Washington on $16 billion worth of Chinas imports have hit Chinese semiconductors, which are now subject to tariff rates of 25 percent.
That will make Chinese chips less competitive compared to those from Taiwan and South Korea, and could disrupt Chinas semiconductor ambitions. Beijings aim is to have local chips comprise at least 40 percent of Chinas semiconductor needs by 2025.
Underscoring the talent crunch, two state-run institutions said in August that about 400,000 professionals were working in Chinas integrated circuit sector at the end of 2017, far short of the estimated 720,000 workers needed by 2020.
While China has also targeted engineers from South Korea and Japan to address that shortage, it has had the most success in Taiwan due to a common language and culture, recruiters say.
Lin Yu-Hsuan, a manager at the recruitment firm H&L, said engineers from Taiwan were lured by high pay, perks, and more senior positions at Chinese chipmakers like Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) that are flush with cash from Chinas multi-billion chip fund.
Many of them said: the money I will earn in China in three years is equivalent to what I could get in Taiwan in 10 years. I could retire earlier, Lin said.
Steve Wang, the vice chairman and president of Novatek Microelectronics, a Taiwanese integrated chip designer, said a small percentage of its employees had left for China over the past two years, and acknowledged that it would be difficult to match offers from Chinese rivals.
The engineer at the wafer foundry, who declined to be named as the details of his contract were not public, said his Chinese employer offered him a new three-bedroom apartment with a 40 percent discount, on the condition that he worked for the company for more than five years, in addition to a 50 percent pay rise. He declined to give the exact figure.
China dares to burn money, whereas Taiwan companies have limited resources, he said.
Counter-Offer
A senior executive at a newly-established chipmaker in northeastern China, Integrated Circuits Company, said about one-third of its recently recruited 120 engineers were from Taiwan.
There is not a lack of money. What we need is talent, said the person, who declined to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
He said the company, led by Richard Chang, the founder of SMIC, Chinas leading chipmaker, offers new hires discounted property and attractive subsidies for bilingual school tuition for their children in the port city of Qingdao.
Taiwanese engineers are most experienced and could help us cultivate local talents, the executive said. The movement will continue to escalate.
Industry watchers said Taiwans widely respected chip design houses and foundries have been among the hardest hit by the outflow of engineers, and have been forced to ramp up spending to lure workers.
The islands leading integrated circuit designers and chipmakers have seen a 35 percent jump in labor costs, including salary and benefits from two years ago, compared with a 21 percent hike in revenue, according to Reuters calculations based on corporate filings from Taiwans 10 largest listed companies by market value.
Trade Secret
Taiwan has been watching the Chinese recruitment efforts with growing anxiety.
It has long barred chipmakers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a key supplier to Apple, from moving their most advanced technology to manufacturing operations in China to keep it from falling into the hands of Chinese rivals.
A former employee of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing was charged with breach of trust and theft of trade secrets, giving them to a Chinese firm, according to an Aug. 30 report by Taiwans the Liberty Times.
Many in Taiwan are also concerned that the rapid development of Chinas chip industry could lead to the sort of oversupply and plunging prices that came with Chinese efforts to develop other key industries like solar panels and liquid crystal displays.
Chinas integrated circuit design firms have already surpassed their Taiwan rivals in terms of revenue, with $31 billion in 2017, compared with Taiwans $22 billion, according to Mark Li, an analyst at the investment research firm Bernstein.
The fears are that the battle for talent will widen that gap further.
In a move to retain top talent, Taiwans cabinet in July pledged to relax tax regulations on employee stock ownership.
The Chinese Communist Party has been poaching our talent, said Chen Mei-ling, minister of Taiwans policy-planning National Development Council. The government has amended regulations to help companies keep talent.
Ho Chan-cheng, legal affairs director at Taiwans Intellectual Property Office, said inappropriate poaching could lead to the leaking of trade secrets and that the government was working to protect the islands core technologynamely the capacity to increase chip yield per wafer.
Taiwan companies are also trying to offer their own incentives.
Antonio Yu, spokesman for the Taiwan-based chip design house Phison Electronics Corporation, said that while the company does not have the capital to play such a money game, it has tried to create a reassuring environment for its employees.
He cited long-standing cash bonuses and programs such as free legal counseling, as well as a monthly town hall meeting with Phisons chairman, Khein-Seng Pua.
We treat our employees like family, he said.
By Yimou Lee
A DJI crop-spraying drone is displayed during the SIMA (Mondial des Fournisseurs de l'Agriculture et de l'Elevage) 2017 at the Parc des Expositions Paris Nord in Villepinte, France, on Feb. 26, 2017. (Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images)
Chinese Drone Maker Turns to US International Trade Commission to Settle Patent Dispute
A Chinese drone maker has turned to a U.S. federal agency in hopes of settling a patent-infringement complaint against a Chinese competitor, in a case that highlights how a drone maker, through Chinese government subsidies, has risen to be a global leader.
DJI, the worlds largest maker of civilian drones, is the target of a complaint filed at the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) by Autel Robotics USA, a U.S. subsidiary of China-based Autel, according to an ITC notice issued on Aug. 30. Both DJI and Autel are based in Shenzhen, a metropolis in southern China that borders Hong Kong.
The complaint alleges that DJI violated Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, a trade law that enforces U.S. intellectual-property rights at the border. If ITC determines that DJI violated Section 337, the import and sale of its drones would be halted and the company would be shut out of the U.S. market.
The dispute centers around drones used for aerial photography, videotaping, and agricultural purposes.
The unmanned devices have many applications, including mapping and surveying, meaning that they can take aerial photos and analyze farms. When equipped with a small canister, they can be used to spray farms with fertilizers and pesticides. DJI is accused of infringing on some of Autels patented drone features, including rotor assembly; a way to switch out battery packs; and how a drone follows a flight path while avoiding obstacles, according to a Bloomberg report.
DJI and Autel have been embroiled in a legal battle in U.S. court for several years. In August 2016, DJI filed a lawsuit against Autel at a federal court in Delaware, saying Autels X-star series of drones infringed on one of its patents, claiming similarities in the drones design compared to the drawing outlines in a DJIs patent. A year later in May, DJI filed another suit against Autel at a federal court for the Western District of Washington.
In April, Autel filed its own lawsuit against DJI at a federal court in New York City. Autel accused DJI of infringing on one of its patents across several lines of drones, including the Mavic, Spark, Phantom, and Inspire series, given the similarities in features such as the intelligent braking system and sensors.
DJI
According to data from market research company Markets and Markets, the international unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) market is expected to grow from $17.82 billion in 2017 to $48.88 billion by 2023.
Currently, the top two drone makers in the world are based in China. According to data from the U.S. think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), DJI held a 72 percent market share in 2017, followed by Yuneec with 5 percent. U.S. drone maker 3D Robotics was No. 3 with 4 percent, followed by French maker Parrot with 2 percent. Autel ranked fifth with 2 percent market share.
DJIs dominance in the global market didnt come solely from its own research and development. The company has received millions of dollars worth in subsidies from the Shenzhen government, where the company is based.
DJI began receiving Shenzhen subsidies beginning in 2014, according to information from Jin Bo Shi Management and Planning Corporation, a private company that helps Chinese companies file for government subsidy programs, obtain national certification, and file for patents. Jin Bo Shi cites data from the Shenzhen government.
In 2015, DJI obtained 2 million yuan ($292,270) in subsidies from the Shenzhen government to develop 3D view technology on drones. The following year, it obtained subsidies of 10 million yuan (about $1.46 million) for research and development purposes.
In 2017, the Shenzhen government gave DJI 5 million yuan ($731,325) for development of the drones navigation system, 10 million yuan ($1.46 million) for research and development, and 1.89 million yuan (about $276,440) for a project on drones lifecycle management.
Agricultural Subsidies
Chinas drone companies also have been boosted by the central governments subsidy program to encourage the use of drones on farms.
In September 2017, Chinas Ministry of Agriculture announced that it would provide subsidy funding of up to 10 million yuan ($1.46 million) for each of the five provincesZhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, and Guangdongand one municipality, Chongqing, to provide local farmers with drones for agricultural purposes including spraying pesticides, according to state-run media Xinhua.
Since then, the governments in these six locales have each enacted their own drone subsidy program. For example, in November 2017, the Chongqing government announced that it would subsidize farmers 29,000 yuan (about $259) for the purchase of a single rotor drone, and 16,000 yuan (about $2,340) for a multi-rotor drone.
Chris Watts Reportedly Under Suicide Watch in Jail
Chris Watts, the Colorado man accused of killing his wife and daughters, is reportedly under suicide watch in prison.
The 33-year-old admitted to killing Shanann Watts, 34, but claimed he only did so after seeing her strangle their two daughters at the family home.
However, prosecutors have charged him with all three murders.
Shanann Watts was 15 weeks pregnant when she was killed, and her death came just days before a planned gender reveal party for the unborn baby.
Suicide Watch
Chris Watts has been placed under a suicide watch protocol, which includes the requirement of a detention officer checking in on him every five to 10 minutes, a jail source told Ashleigh Banfield of HLN.
Read More Shanann Watts Struggled to Conceive, Brother Reveals
Several times each day, an officer personally enters Watts cell to make sure hes still alive and completely searches the cell.
Under the watch, Watts is only allowed out of his cell for one hour per day. He is let into a room where he is the sole occupant.
The watch also requires Watts not be given access to television or any reading material, according to HLN.
Criminologist Assesses Murders
Chris Watts has not entered a plea as of yet but has been charged with five counts of murder, two of which are due to his daughters both being under 12 years of age; unlawful termination of a pregnancy; and three counts of tampering with bodies.
Denise Mowder, a criminologist, said that she assessed the case and believes Watts, who was having an affair, had a plan to start a new life with the other woman.
I think he had a vision of another life with this other womancarefree, no responsibilities, she told The Denver Channel. Two children and another on the way, thats a big responsibility.
Read More Family of Murdered Colorado Mother Shanann Watts Wants Justice
In most situations similar to the Watts murders, Mowder said, the man would kill himself as well. Since Watts didnt, she believes he had plans to start over. A piece of evidence that supports her theory is how Watts went on camera after his family initially disappeared and pleaded for them to return.
This whole facade he put on right after they started looking for themthat was very odd, and it makes me wonder if he wasnt trying to find an out to be with the girlfriend, said Mowder. Somebody else did it. Im the poor grieving father.'
Mowder said Watts claim that his wife strangled the children is false and that she believes some of Watts secrets will be revealed during the trial.
From NTD.tv
FBI More Interested in Getting Trump Than Russians, Court Documents Show
News Analysis
The FBI worked hard to prove that a former campaign adviser to President Donald Trump lied to them about his exchanges with a supposed Russian contact. But the FBI showed little interest in busting the Russian contact itself.
The FBI twice questioned the adviser, George Papadopoulos, and obtained search warrants and subpoenas to get his emails, text messages, internet search history, and other information, which led to his arrest on July 27, 2017.
FBI agents intercepted him right after he deplaned a flight from Munich, before he approached customs at the Dulles Airport outside Washington, Politico reported. He was then further questioned on at least four occasions.
His crime was that he tried to downplay his contacts with Maltese academic Joseph Mifsudthe supposed Russian contact whose machinations were used by the FBI as a reason to start investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
In a January 2017 FBI interview, Papadopoulos said that the Russians had emails of [former State Secretary Hillary] Clinton and claimed that he had learned so in February 2016 from Mifsud before he joined the Trump campaign. In fact, Mifsud had told him about the emails in April 2016, about a month after he joined the campaign, according to the Aug. 17 governments sentencing memo. This was Papadopouloss first lie.
Papadopoulos also called Mifsud a nothing who was just a guy talk[ing] up connections or something. The prosecutors called this a lie as well, since Papadopoulos understood the professor to have substantial connections to high-level Russian government officials.
Similarly, Papadopoulos downplayed his contacts with two Russians that Mifsud introduced him to: a woman he believed had connections to high-level Russian government officials (she didnt) and a man connected to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The special counsel prosecutors demanded up to six months in prison and a fine of $9,500 for Papadopoulos.
But while Papadopoulos has faced the full power of FBI top counterintelligence agents and no less than three prosecutors from the team of special counsel Robert Mueller, Mifsud still walks free and the FBI has shown little effort to capture him.
Mifsud at Large
The FBI actually interviewed Mifsud in February 2017. The prosecutors blamed Papadopoulos lies for their inability to effectively question Mifsud and potentially detain or arrest him.
But Papadopouloss lawyers disagreed.
According to the official FBI narrative, the agents learned about Mifsuds talk about Clinton emails in late July 2016, after Wikileaks started to release emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee (DNC). The agents, apparently conflating Clintons emails with those of the DNC, were so concerned about Mifsuds supposed foreknowledge of the release that they launched a full-on counterintelligence probe.
It was still apparent, despite Georges lie, that Professor Mifsud communicated this information to George prior to the stolen emails being made public, Papadopouloss defense lawyers argued.
The FBI never asked Papadopoulos to try to confront Mifsud, even though he said he was willing to do so.
Moreover, it appears the FBI never tried to reinterview Mifsud, even though he was attending public events and was interviewed by Italian media as late as October 2017.
In that media interview, Mifsud emphatically denied Papadopouloss testimony regarding Clinton.
I strongly deny any discussion of mine about secrets concerning Hillary Clinton, he said. I swear it on my daughter.
If this is to be Mifsuds official testimony, it would appear that he is guilty of lying too, since his account differs from parts of Papadopouloss testimony that the FBI has not disputed.
The key appears to be that Mifsud didnt have particularly high-profile contacts in Russia, as The Epoch Times previously reported, and apparently misled Papadopoulos into believing he did. Instead, he had deep ties to a spy school in Rome frequented by national security and intelligence officials of Western nations, including the United States, the UK, and Italy. He was close with prominent European officials.
Mifsud was instrumental in trying to establish a link between the Trump campaign and Russia, but his indictment would do little damage to Trump.
Supervisory Border Patrol agent Marlene Castro speaks to a group of unaccompanied minors who just crossed the Rio Grande illegally from Mexico into the United States, in Hidalgo County, Texas, on May 26, 2017. (Benjamin Chasteen/The Epoch Times)
Feds Not Doing Enough to Keep Unaccompanied Minors Safe: Report
WASHINGTONUnder the Obama administration, the discovery that unaccompanied children were entering the country, mostly illegally, across the Southwest border, and subsequently being placed with human-trafficking rings, galvanized a Senate subcommittee to investigate.
Three years and many recommendations later, the committee says not enough has changed.
In 2014, during an unprecedented surge of unaccompanied minors crossing the border, the Office of Refugee Resettlement placed eight children into the hands of traffickers, according to a report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, released on Aug. 15.
The traffickers put the children into forced labor on an egg farm in Marion, Ohio, the report states. The children worked for no pay for 12 hours a day, six to seven days a week, and lived in deplorable conditions. The traffickers threatened them and their families with violence if the children did not comply with them.
The traffickers lured the children into the United States over a four-month period, with promises of education and a better life, the report said.
After crossing the border and being apprehended by Border Patrol, unaccompanied minors are transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within 72 hours. The ORR sits within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which operates a network of just over 100 shelters in 17 states.
The ORR is responsible for placing the minor with a sponsor in the United Stateswhich is often a parent who is already in the country illegally, or a relative, or family friend.
In the 2014 case, the human traffickers posed as family members or friends of the family to the eight children, and ORR placed them, without conducting background checks or site visits.
Six of the seven traffickers have subsequently been convicted, with one case still to be decided.
When we last held a hearing on this issue in April, we heard reports of children being placed in homes with people they dont know, who expect them to work to help with living expenses, subcommittee ranking member Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) said at an Aug. 16 hearing.
We heard about children, sometimes due to a need to send money home or to pay debts to smugglers, working all night and unable to stay awake at school during the day.
Committee members said government agencies havent moved fast enough to stop exploitation.
These federal agencies must do more to care for unaccompanied minors and ensure they arent trafficked or abused, said subcommittee Chairman Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio). He said the subcommittee has provided both HHS and the Department of Homeland Security with a road map for how to improve the unaccompanied minor program and protect the children, yet, they have largely ignored those recommendations.
Failing to Appear
The committees bipartisan report says the most significant unaddressed problem is that no agency claims any legal responsibility for the childrens well-being once they are placed with sponsorsincluding sponsors who are not their parents or legal guardiansand no agency makes any effort to ensure minors placed with sponsors appear at their immigration court proceedings.
Although ORR attempts to conduct a courtesy phone call 30 days after placing the child, that is often the full extent of the followup.
HHS said that over a three-month period in 2017, when it made follow-up phone calls, it could not ascertain with certainty the whereabouts of 1,475 unaccompanied minors it had recently placed, and 28 had run away from their sponsors, the committee report states.
With no one responsible, the number of minors who show up for their immigration court hearings is low.
Today, 53 percent of unaccompanied children never show up for their court proceedingsan increase of 12 percent since 2016, said Portman.
In recent years, around 6,000 to 7,000 unaccompanied minors have failed to attend their immigration court hearings, each year, according to James McHenry, director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review. He said more than 80,000 unaccompanied minor cases are pending, which is about 11 percent of the overall pending caseload.
While failing to appear in immigration court automatically places an alien into removal proceedings, almost no unaccompanied minors are ever removed.
The best number we have is that only 3 percent are deported, Portman said.
Foster Care System
By definition, an unaccompanied alien child is under 18 and has no parent or legal guardian in the United States, or no parent or legal guardian in the United States who is available to provide care and physical custody, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Regardless, Homeland Security determined that about 60 percent of the children initially determined to be unaccompanied alien children are released by ORR within an average of 57 days to a parent already living illegally in the United States.
More than 10,000 minor children are currently in the custody of ORR; the vast majority of them are sent alone by their parents, who pay smugglers to bring them across the southwest border.
Around 80 percent hail from the Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Most are aged between 15 and 17.
Thus far in fiscal 2018, approximately 44,000 unaccompanied minors have entered the United States.
Steven Wagner, acting assistant secretary at HHS Administration for Children and Families, said the unaccompanied minor program has grown vastly beyond its original intention.
The [program] was never intended, however, to be a foster-care system, Wagner said on a May 29 media call. He said the program runs at an immediate cost to the federal taxpayer of over $1 billion a year.
Legal Loopholes
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), which was enacted to protect minors, has become a loophole for smugglers and for circumventing proper entry.
The TVPRA has a provision that says a minor from a non-contiguous country cant be turned back to Mexico or flown back to their home countryeven if the individual isnt a victim of trafficking, nor if their age, identity, credible fear status, or criminal background cannot be verified.
The administration wants Congress to amend the TVPRA so that minors who arent genuine trafficking victims can be quickly returned home or removed to safe third countries.
In addition, the Flores Settlement Agreement, a Clinton-era settlement of a class-action lawsuit, puts pressure on the relevant government agencies to release unaccompanied minors quickly.
This practice has not only led to aliens failing to appear for court hearings, and failing to comply with removal orders, but has also incentivized smugglers to place children into the hands of adult strangers so they can pose as families and be released from immigration custody after crossing the border, said Richard Hudson, acting chief of Law Enforcement and Operations Division at Customs and Border Protection.
This creates a safety issue for these children, who have already made an extremely dangerous journey to reach the United States, risking possible trauma, abuse, abandonment, injury, and death along the way.
Crimes
Aside from being at risk of exploitation, many unaccompanied minors have admitted to crimes such as murder, rape, drug smuggling, prostitution, and human trafficking, according to files obtained by Judicial Watch and released in a report on July 10.
During fiscal 2014, more than 68,000 unaccompanied minors were apprehended at the Southwest border and 24,680 significant incident reports were filed by HHS, according to Judicial Watchputting the rate of incidents reported at 36 percent, if one incident represents one unaccompanied minor.
A significant incident includes crimes committed by unaccompanied minors and crimes committed against them. The report details examples of minors who were raped or molested en route to the United States or once in the United States.
The HHS records reveal that one unaccompanied female, once reunited in the United States, told her mother she was pregnant.
When the clients mother asked her who the father of her child is, the client reluctantly replied that she was sexually assaulted by her guide several times, the HHS report states.
The client stated that the first time he sexually assaulted her was the evening of March 30, 2014. She reported that the guide sexually assaulted her every evening between March 30 to April 6. The client stated that the guide became very protective of her and when picked up by immigration, claimed her as his wife. The client stated through fear of retaliation, she did not report the sexual assault to anyone.
Border Patrol agents have said that parents sometimes put their female children on birth control pills prior to the journey north in anticipation that they will be raped along the way.
Congress
Under the Trump administration, more stringent measures have been implemented to ensure the safe placement of unaccompanied minors.
Since June 7, HHS has been required to submit the fingerprints of all potential sponsors to the Department of Homeland Security, which conducts criminal and immigration status checks before a minor is released.
But the loopholes in both the TVPRA and Flores agreement will remain open unless Congress steps in.
France: 147 Evacuated from Plane Over Cholera Scare
A sick child triggered a cholera scare on board a Boeing 737 flight heading from Algeria to southern France on Sept. 5, AFP reported.
The child along with 147 passengers on an ASL Airlines flight were kept on the plane for an hour after it landed, the news agency said. The passengers were let off the plane after disinfecting their hands.
Officials in Frances Pyrenees-Orientales region told AFP that the child was suspected of having cholera and was taken to hospital for tests along with her mother and other relatives.
Algeria has experienced a cholera outbreak in August, the first time in decades, AFP noted. Two people died and dozens were infected, said Algerian officials.
Cholera is transmitted via infected fecal matter and often through contaminated food or water.
An estimated 2.9 million cases and 95,000 deaths occur each year around the world, says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The infection is often mild or without symptoms, but can sometimes be severe. Approximately one in 10 infected persons will have severe disease characterized by profuse watery diarrhea, vomiting, and leg cramps. In these people, rapid loss of body fluids leads to dehydration and shock. Without treatment, death can occur within hours.
In the United States, cholera was commonplace, but with the advent of modern water and sewage treatment, the risk has been mitigated, the CDC says. However, U.S. travelers to areas with epidemic cholera (for example, parts of Africa, Asia, or Latin America) may be exposed to the cholera bacterium. In addition, travelers may bring contaminated seafood back to the U.S.; foodborne outbreaks of cholera have been caused by contaminated seafood brought into the U.S. by travelers, the agency says.
Another Quarantined Plane in NYC
It comes just hours after an Emirates Airlines plane was held at the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City after reports of dozens of sick passengers on board.
As many as 100 passengers complained of illness, including cough, and some with fever, said the CDC, reported USA Today.
Emirates Airlines, however, said that only around 10 people were sickened.
Emirates can confirm that all passengers have disembarked from flight #EK203. All passengers were screened by local health authorities prior to disembarkation. 3 passengers & 7 crew were transferred to the hospital for further medical care and evaluation, it said on Twitter. All other #EK203 passengers were allowed to leave and clear customs. Our crew & on-ground staff extended full cooperation with the authorities during the onboard screenings & the aircraft has now been handed back to Emirates, according to the company.
Eric Phillips, a spokesman for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, said that in all, 19 people got sick.
All the passengers are off and have been evaluated. 19 sick. 10 to hospital and 9 refused medical attention. Health officials are processing tests now to determine the cause. Symptoms still pointing to the flu, he said on Twitter.
Hans-Georg Maassen, head of Germany's domestic intelligence service, at a meeting with interior ministers of German federal states, in Saarbruecken, Germany on Nov. 30, 2016. (Oliver Dietze/dpa/ via AP)
Germany Concerned About Sleeper Cyber Attacks From China and Other Aggressors
BERLINA growing number of countries can hack into private computer networks and install malicious software to sabotage another countrys infrastructure, Germanys domestic spy chief said.
China, Russia, and other countries continued to try to break into German companies computers to steal valuable industrial information, said Hans-Georg Maassen, head of the BfV domestic intelligence agency, at a security conference.
But intelligence officials are increasingly worried about so-called cyber bombs that could be planted in the network of an unsuspecting company and detonated later.
In the case of China, Russia, we clearly see measures like espionage, but it could also be sabotage with the goal of attacking companies in Germanyinfrastructure firms in the widest senseat some future point, Maassen said. That is a scenario that we view with concern.
Cyber experts warn that Germanywith its high level of technology expertiseis a particularly attractive target for cyber attackers of all kinds, including state actors.
A company could be completely oblivious to a cyber attack that had been used to plant malware, also known as a cyber bomb, Maassen said. Then the bomb could shut down power networks, for example, perhaps during a time of geopolitical tension.
He said such attacks could come from a range of countries that have expanded their cyber expertise. In its annual report, the agency cited rapid strides in cyber technology by Iran, although it did not specifically spell out concerns about such sleeper attacks.
Germany is also increasingly concerned that China is seeking to gain dominant positions in key technology sectors by investing in German firms as part of its larger Made in China 2025 drive, Maassen said. The plan, released by Beijing in 2015, lists 10 high-tech sectors for targeted development so China can become a high-tech manufacturing giant by 2025.
That is a political project in which the government is spending a lot of money, not just to invest, but to buy information for its own technical progress, or to gain a position in specific areas that will make it impossible for others to continue developments there, he said.
Maassens remarks come amid a push by Germany and other European Union states to protect sensitive technologies from Chinese takeovers.
In December, the BfV also warned about efforts by China to use fake LinkedIn accounts to recruit German business executives and researchers as spies.
By Andrea Shalal
A woman walks past the logo of Google during an event in New Delhi, India, August 28, 2018. (Reuters/Adnan Abidi).
Google Races to Parry the Rise of Facebook in India
Google retains only a slight lead over Facebook in the competition for digital ad dollars in the crucial India market, sources familiar with the figures say, even though the search giant has been in the country far longer and has avoided the controversies that have dogged its rival.
Facebooks success has shaken Alphabet Incs Google, led by an Indian-born CEO, Sundar Pichai, who has made developing markets a priority.
Google officials in India earlier this year were alarmed to learn that Facebook Inc was likely to generate about $980 million in revenue in the country in 2018, according to one of the sources. Googles India revenues reached $1 billion only in 2017.
Facebook and Google declined to comment on Indian revenue figures or the competition between the two companies.
Google is now pushing back, attempting to lure customers with better ad-buying tools and more localized services. The revamped strategy mirrors initiatives that have succeeded in boosting the time Indian consumers spend with Google services.
The battle in India reflects an epic challenge for Google in developing markets around the world that are crucial to the companys long-term growth many consumers in those countries are gravitating to Facebook and its siblings, Instagram and WhatsApp, at the expense of Google search and YouTube, and advertising dollars are quick to follow.
Facebook is a far more user-friendly platform even though they havent created features specifically for Indian advertisers, said Vikas Chawla, who runs a small ad-buying agency in India.
Facebook ads, compared with those on Google search or YouTube, tend to transcend language barriers more easily because they rely more on visual elements, said Narayan Murthy Ivaturi, vice president at FreakOut Pte Ltd, a Singapore-headquartered digital marketing firm. Pinpointing younger consumers and rural populations are easier with Facebook and its Instagram app, he and other ad buyers said.
And Facebook is succeeding in India, which boasts the fastest-growing digital ad market of any major economy, despite the internal turmoil and political controversy. It has been without a country head for the last year, and has faced a series of incidents in which rumors circulating on Facebook and WhatsApp have prompted mob violence.
Facebook and Google between them took 68 percent of Indias digital ad market last year, according to advertising buyer Magna. Media agency GroupM estimates digital advertising spending will grow 30 percent in India this year.
The Facebook phenomenon is evident close to home for Google. During a recent lunch period, six out of 10 people who walked out of Googles Bangalore offices while looking at their phones told Reuters they were checking WhatsApp. All 10 said they regularly used Whatsapp.
Eight Indian ad buyers interviewed by Reuters were divided on whether Facebook would overtake Google in Indian ad revenue. That such a question would even be debated explains why Pichai, Googles chief executive, has pressed to flip the companys approach to emerging markets.
India is the most important market for the Next Billion Users initiative, Caesar Sengupta, the head of the effort, told Reuters on the sidelines of the annual Google for India event in New Delhi last week.
New Tactics
For many years Google designed its services for early adopters of new technology, which tended to be in Silicon Valley, said Nelson Mattos, who oversaw Googles Europe and Africa operations for several years.
Over time, as you saw the growth of Facebook, the importance of WhatsApp and other tools in these new markets, and not the same adoption of Google, the company started to realize that maybe they had to change that approach, Mattos said.
Shortly after taking the helm three years ago, Pichai mapped a new strategy for places such as India: More services tailored to locals; more marketing on radio, billboards, and TV; more local staff and start-up investment.
Googles India workforce has more than doubled since to more than 4,000 employees, or about eight times Facebooks presence, according to a tally of LinkedIn profiles and company statements.
Its products evolved too, becoming easier to use with low data plans. Smartphone apps such as Files Go and Tez rebranded last week as Google Pay were aimed at Indians.
Theres definitely a sea change, said Asif Baki, a user researcher at Google who oversees two-week immersion trips in developing markets for senior executives and staff.
The efforts are bearing fruit. Indian users during the first half of this year spent more time on Google services than on Facebook services, according to estimates from audience measurement firm Comscore. Over a similar period a year ago, Facebook came out on top.
Extending those gains to the ad business is a work in progress. A handful of Google executives, including leaders for display ads and small business advertisers, traveled to India earlier this year in a previously unreported trip to better understand the needs of Indian clients.
The visit spurred them to consider ideas such as enabling advertisers to reach users only in a particular Indian state, since language and literacy vary greatly around the country, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
At the New Delhi event, Google unveiled a plan to bring Indian newspaper content online, to increase the supply of search results and ads available in regional languages.
Google still has to reckon with other issues. Small businesses in emerging markets are less likely to have websites, a foundation for Google ad campaigns but unnecessary for Facebook.
Executives met with one Indian merchant who recorded product videos on YouTube then messaged the links to potential customers on WhatsApp, said Kim Spalding, the companys general manager and product lead for small business ads.
Facebook, meanwhile, is already on to commercializing such behavior. Just weeks ago, it began charging for text-based marketing features on WhatsApp, with video ads expected to launch next year.
By Paresh Dave and Sankalp Phartiyal.
Illegal Alien Charged in Iowa Students Death Was Known by Alias
IOWA CITY, IowaThe Mexican man charged with abducting and killing an Iowa college student was known for years on the dairy farm where he worked by another name: John Budd.
The alias has emerged as Cristhian Bahena Riveras employer, a cattle operation owned by a prominent Republican family, faces questions over whether its managers were aware of any warning signs that he was in the country illegally.
The name under which Rivera was hired and paid for the last four years was confirmed by three people with knowledge of his employment history. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information during an ongoing criminal investigation. One of the people said Riveras work identity as John Budd appears in official government records.
The employer, Yarrabee Farms, declined to confirm or deny Riveras work identity. Lori Chesser, an immigration employment lawyer advising the farm, said that companies cannot discriminate against workers based on how they look or how their names sound.
Farm officials have said Rivera presented an out-of-state photo identification and a Social Security number when he was hired in 2014, and they believed he was the person depicted in those documents until his arrest last month.
The farm followed legal requirements to examine the documents and determined that they appeared genuine on their face and related to the person presenting them, Chesser said. Questioning a name or other characteristic would violate the anti-discrimination provisions of the law.
During his four years at the farm near the small town of Brooklyn, Iowa, Rivera was called and responded to the name he used in the hiring process, Chesser said. He lived in a trailer owned by the farm as a benefit of his employment, as do about half of its 10 workers.
Related Coverage Trump Says Media Lost Interest in Mollie Tibbetts Case When Illegal Immigrant Was Arrested
The farm did not use the governments voluntary E-Verify system, which allows companies to confirm the identity and eligibility of employees to work in the U.S. Farm manager Dane Lang has apologized for a mistake in falsely claiming to have used E-Verify in an initial statement on Riveras Aug. 21 arrest, hours after he allegedly led police to Mollie Tibbetts body in a nearby cornfield.
Its unclear whether E-Verify would have detected any red flags with Riveras claimed identity, but the farm has said it used a different government service to confirm that the name and Social Security number matched.
Police say Rivera followed and confronted Tibbetts while she was out for a run on July 18 and later stabbed her to death. He has been jailed on $5 million bond while awaiting trial on a first-degree murder charge, which carries a sentence of life in prison. The federal government has also filed an immigration detainer, which means he would be subject to deportation proceedings if acquitted.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to comment on whether the agency is investigating Yarrabee Farms, which has said that it received dozens of angry phone calls after Rivera was arrested.
Tibbetts father, Rob Tibbetts, has urged the public not to bring his daughters death into the divisive racial debate over immigration.
The person who is accused of taking Mollies life is no more a reflection of the Hispanic community as white supremacists are of all white people, he wrote in an opinion piece for the Des Moines Register.
Read More Brother of Mollie Tibbetts Scores 3 Touchdowns for Football Team Honoring Her
Employers typically do not face legal consequences for hiring a worker under false documents as long as they were not involved in obtaining them and had no other obvious reason to suspect they are fraudulent, said Bob Teig, a retired federal prosecutor in Iowa.
Absent unusual circumstances, it would be difficult to show they knew any more than what they were told, Teig said, adding that it would be pretty racist to assume a John Budd could not be Hispanic.
Whether anyone else knew Rivera as John Budd is unclear. The 24-year-old had a Facebook page under his real name, and his account listed many friends from the central Iowa area. He has a girlfriend and a young daughter, his former attorney has said.
Rivera had neither an Iowa-issued identification under any name nor any known criminal history or interactions with police. Its unclear who owned the car that he allegedly used to circle Tibbetts.
Riveras former defense lawyer, Allan Richards, has accused the farm and other employers in the area of turning a blind eye to the reality that many of their workers are in the U.S. illegally and employed under false documents. He has said that Rivera came to the U.S. when he was around 17 and has the equivalent of a middle-school education.
By Ryan J. Foley
In ChinaUS Trade Dispute, Any Concession Is a Loss for Beijing
In late August, a Chinese trade delegation, led by Chinas Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen, headed to the United States for a fourth round of negotiations.
It was generally expected that there wouldnt be any meaningful results. The Chinese stance is presented in the article A Long-Term View of Chinas Historical Changes and the Current SinoU.S. Confrontationa Record of Dialogue With the Delegation of U.S. Congressional Aides (hereafter referred to as Dialogue Record).
The Dialogue Record avoided addressing the disputes over intellectual property rights, showing the outside world that China had no sincere intention to resolve the issue. Meanwhile, the American side was not prepared to make any concessions. On Aug. 20, speaking to Reuters, President Donald Trump said that this round of trade consultations would produce only minimal progress, and that he had long-term plans for resolving the economic conflict between China and the United States.
China Refuses to Admit Its Intellectual Copyright Infringement
Chen Wenling, the Chinese representative in the Dialogue Record, fills multiple positions: chief economist of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, deputy director of the Executive Board of the Council, deputy director of Academic Committee, and former director of the Research Office of the State Council. Her credentials indicate that the tone of this dialogue record represents that of the Chinese government. The documents content concerns three main themes: Chinas reform and opening up, Chinas economic development, and SinoU.S. relations.
The first, reform and opening up, focuses on the achievements made since 1978, particularly areas in which China has surpassed the United States.
For example, the Dialogue Record says that Chinas manufacturing output exceeded that of the United States for the first time in 2010. In 2010, Chinas manufacturing output accounted for 19.8 percent of the worlds total. The United States fell to second place for the first time since World War II, accounting for 19.6 percent of the global manufacturing output. In 2016, Chinas manufacturing output accounted for 25.5 percent of the worlds total.
The second theme concerns Chinas economic development. Notably absent is any attempt to address the United States criticism of Chinese theft of intellectual property as a means of bolstering its competitive strength. Instead, the Dialogue Record accuses the United States of fearing Chinas strength and working to undermine it: For a country striving to maintain its apex position, it is fundamentally wrong to maintain this status by suppressing other countries development.
The Dialogue Record blames the United States for causing Chinas overcapacity. Referring to the 2009 bailout issued by Beijing, it said that Chinas $4 trillion investment stabilized the world economy and alleviated the financial crisis that following the subprime mortgage in the United States.
Third, the Dialogue Record emphasizes Chinas peaceful development and criticizes the United States for its involvement in color revolutions and waging foreign wars.
In summary, the document asserts that China has blameless and all its misfortune is a result of the United States looking to start trouble. Chen Wenling concluded, saying she thought that President Trump now regards China as the main target for attack and containment. This is choosing the wrong era, wrong direction, and the wrong opponent.
During her discussions with the delegation of U.S. Congressional Aides, Chen named the United States imposition of tariffs on China as trade blackmail and a violation of WTO regulation.
Why Xi Is Reluctant to Give Way
China has been taking a firm stance in this SinoU.S. trade war. Some observers believe that Xi Jinping has been led to adopt this mistaken policy by think tanks in both China and the United States.
The article How to read summer grumbles about Chinas swaggering leader, published by The Economist on Aug. 9, states that according to inside sources, while Trump and Xi are quite friendly in private, Xis team listened to the opinions of the wrong Americans.
These wrong Americans include persons with longtime business dealings with mainland China, as well as Trumps assistants and cabinet members, such as U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Various reasons led Xi to believe that as long as he made tactical concessions, he would be able to bribe the businessman-turned-president Trumpthe method mainland China had always used to appease angry foreigners.
In early August, China began to denounce Hu Angang, the teacher of the nation, for misleading the Chinese Communist Party leadership. Hu had claimed that Chinas comprehensive national strength has totally surpassed the United States, and published a report in April 2017 called Comprehensive National Power Assessment, in which he argued that in terms of overall national strength, China had already surpassed the United States, and that by 2020, would be equivalent to 1.75 times that of the United States.
Hus work led to the conclusion that the development of China and the United States was a competition between two different systems, with the Chinese system being far superior to the American model. This conclusion became the subject of a tremendous ideological movement.
Never since the Cultural Revolution was an intellectual elite singled out for such promotion. It came as a surprise to many when the authorities suddenly gave up their crusade, since it was widely seen as a means of finding an enemy for Xi Jinping to fight. Why should the movement be brought to halt?
Only after the Dialogue Record was published was this question partially answered. The authorities actually did not object to Hu Angangs ideas. They indeed believed that China had already overtaken the United States in some respects, and were about to surpass in others.
At the core of the U.S. sanctions against China is the latters large volume of intellectual property thefts, and its production of cheap, counterfeit products to flood American markets. Made in China 2025, which is based on this kind of tactic, has thus been perceived as a threat to U.S. national security. However, China flat-out refuses to admit fault instead it brandishes a propaganda line that is commonly repeated throughout China: the United States is afraid of Chinas strength, and so finds it necessary to try to restrain her.
So long as the issue of intellectual property remains unresolved, it will be difficult for China-U.S. negotiations to make substantial progress.
China Cannot Afford to Yield on Intellectual Copyright Infringement
The United States has two basic demands for China: one, to reduce exports to the United States and two, to immediately commit to stopping its widespread infringement of intellectual property rights. China is able to do neither.
If exports to the United States are reduced, the Chinese governments huge foreign exchange reserves the envy of many countries will shrink precipitously. If China were no longer to infringe on intellectual property rights, it would be tantamount to tearing down the foundation of Made in China 2025. For China, conceding to the United States on either or both of these points would mean utter loss.
In the event that China refuses to give in and put up an obstinate resistance, the United States will add tarrifs, to which the Chinese can let the yuan depreciate. In this way, a small amount of Chinese goods can make it to export; here, the worst-case scenario still results in the evaporation of Chinese foreign exchange earnings.
But there is another advantage to not giving in. Though technology can no longer be stolen from the United States, it can still be extracted from foreign capital in other countries. The Chinese high-speed rail technology (proudly referenced in Dialogue Record) was taken and assembled from Japan, Germany, Canada, and other countries. On Oct. 8, 2010, Great Britains Financial Times noted in the article How China Digests High-Speed Rail Technology that by transferring high-speed rail technology to China, foreign rail companies have in just a few years created multiple low-cost competitors for themselves.
Let us further consider: Chinas intellectual property rights violations affect all countries that possess technology worth stealing. If Beijing were to promise not to infringe on intellectual property rights from the United States in particular, it would be equivalent to telling other countries that this promise is only valid for the United States, and that China will continue to steal from them. It would be a blatant admission that China bullies the weak and fears the strong. Therefore, Chinas choice to not concede in the trade war was the result of a studied calculation. It would be disadvantageous either way to agree to the two U.S. demands. By simply refusing to cooperate, the Chinese regime is trying to minimize the damage to itself.
Beijing Is Counting on the US to Elect Good News in Mid-November
China is still biding its time. In my previous article, Trump Attacks on All Fronts, Intending to Rewrite the Script of Globalization, I talked about Beijings sand table calculations. The Party placed its hopes on three major points. Today, the situation has changed. Some prospects have become bleak, but others have changed for the better, so Beijing is still waiting confidently.
First, China hoped that countries across the world would join forces to contain the United States. Previously, it was hoped that the European Union would check the United States. Today, the EU has made it clear that it will stand on the side of the United States, which has also softened its tariff policy toward the EU. Knowing that it can no longer count on the EU, Beijing has placed its hopes on Turkey and other countries with emerging economies to oppose the United States.
The diplomatic bickering between the United States and Turkey triggered an economic crisis in Turkey, causing the lira to plunge by 40 percent. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan harshly reprimanded the United States, proclaiming a boycott against all U.S. electronic products in retaliation for the economic measures placed against Turkey. He also called for countries not sanctioned by the United States to avoid trading the U.S. dollar and to use their own currencies in settling accounts. This is an attitude that China greatly appreciates. On July 26, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China provided a $3.6 billion loan to the Turkish energy and transport sector.
The second point is the hope that the Republican Party, to which Trump belongs, will lose power in this years November midterm elections. The third point is that other rivals of the United States will continue to create new problems. According to mainstream media reports in the United States, Trump faces obstacles from all sides. More than a thousand chambers of commerce in the United States and Wall Street are vehemently opposed to the trade war. Meanwhile the Democratic Party is riding a blue wave as it has won many supporters in preparation for crushing the Republican Party in the midterm elections. Per such reportage, the Trumpification of the Republican Party has also led to internal division.
Two recent events have given China yet more cause for optimism. First, because President Trump has accused the U.S. media of being fake news, the media is furious over the labeling and perception of it as an public enemy. On Aug. 16, nearly 350 American newspapers (mostly belonging to a handful of major media groups) issued an editorial on the same day opposing President Trumps attack on the media. It is common for media to criticize the president for a common fault, but to take coordinated action to denounce a president is a first in American history.
Second, Trumps former private lawyer, Michael Cohen, filed a case with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and has reached a plea agreement with the federal prosecutor. Cohen admitted that during the 2016 general election, he was responsible for paying a number of hush fees to women who had affairs with Trump. Then, on Aug. 21, the Virginia jury convicted former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort on eight counts of financial fraud. Although the charges in the Manafort indictment are not directly related to Russia Gate, U.S. public opinion generally believes this to be a test of credibility for Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor responsible for the Russia Gate investigation.
Of course, China also takes concrete actions. U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton gave an interview with ABC News on Aug. 18, saying that not only Russia, but also China, Iran and North Korea tried to intervene in the U.S. 2018 midterm elections.
How much longer will this war of attrition continue? Only after the results of the U.S. midterm elections in early November will it be time to make a new assessment.
He Qinglian is a prominent Chinese author and economist. Currently based in the United States, she authored Chinas Pitfalls, which concerns corruption in Chinas economic reform of the 1990s, and The Fog of Censorship: Media Control in China, which addresses the manipulation and restriction of the press. She regularly writes on contemporary Chinese social and economic issues.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Irwin Cotler (L), chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, speaks at a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Aug. 30, 2018. With him is Brandon Silver, the director of policy and projects at the centre. (Limin Zhou/The Epoch Times)
Keep Political Prisoner Cases in the Headlines, Cotler Tells Media
In launching an initiative to help overseas political prisoners, former justice minister Irwin Cotler said he wants to shatter the silence regarding ongoing arrests of human rights defenders under authoritarian regimes.
Now the chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR) based in Montreal, Cotler said its important that cases of political prisoners are constantly in the headlines.
The media becomes crucial because if the media doesnt report on these cases, it is as if it is not there then, it is as if it never happened, he said at an Aug. 30 press conference on Parliament Hill.
So we are here today to effectively sound the alarm with regard to the pain and plight of these political prisoners, to shatter the silence that has been surrounding their imprisonment.
Cotler said the lack of outrage on the part of the international community regarding these waves of imprisonment of iconic human rights heroes is also regrettable.
What we have been witnessing is, on the one hand, enormous courage by the political prisoners, but regrettably the absence of outrage by the international community with respect to their ongoing arrest and imprisonment, he said.
Cotler explained that the international advocacy project launched by RWCHR focuses on pleading cases and causes on behalf of political prisoners whose cases the centre has adopted, and who have a Canadian connection either because they have family in Canada, because their cases have been taken up by the Canadian Parliament, or because they have been represented by Cotler as their legal counsel.
He referred to the case of Biram Dah Abeid, a leader in the anti-slavery movement in Mauritania. Abeid was re-arrested this summer because he was a prospective candidate in the upcoming elections.
He has been arrested again and again, said Cotler, and he has gone unacknowledged.
He also noted the case of Nasrin Sotoudeh, one of Irans most prominent human rights lawyers, who is being held in Tehrans notorious Evin prison on several charges, including espionage. She, too, was re-arrested this summer.
These summer arrests dont surprise Cotler. He said that in the 45 years he has been acting as counsel for political prisoners, he has noticed a pattern: that political prisoners tend to be arrested in the summer.
They are arrested in the summer because that is when governments are on vacation, parliaments are not sitting, so it is the hope of the imprisoning countries that it will go unnoticed or unaddressed, he said.
Vacation time in the West is prison time etc. for elsewhere.
In addition to the cases of Abeid and Sotoudeh, RWCHR is engaged in advocacy on behalf of imprisoned human rights blogger Raif Badawi, whose wife and three children live in Sherbrooke, Que.; democratic opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, imprisoned in Venezuela; pro-democracy activist Dr. Wang Bingzhing, detained in China; Canadian citizen and Falun Gong practitioner Sun Qian, imprisoned in China; Alexei Pichugin, the longest-serving political prisoner in Russia; and Ahmed Mahloof, a champion of democracy and human rights in the Maldives.
Cotler said he met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier that day to discuss a number of issues as well as inform him of the new political prisoner advocacy project and the formation of an international consultative group that is composed of former political prisoners, their families, and lawyers who have been acting on behalf of political prisoners.
Sun Yi holding the SOS letter he wrote, which made its way around the world and back to him. (Courtesy Flying Cloud Productions)
Letter from Masanjia Moves Ottawa Audience to Tears
Documentary tells story of courageous SOS letter-writer exposing horror behind products produced by forced labour in the Chinese prison system
OTTAWAThe award-winning documentary Letter from Masanjia moved viewers to tears at Bytowne Cinema on Sept. 3. A true story that changed history in China, it tells of a mans extraordinary courage and hope despite the unimaginable horror he endured as a prisoner in a Chinese forced labour camp.
What also hit close to home was the films expose of the human suffering behind products produced by forced labour in Chinese prisons that end up on store shelves in countries like Canada and the United States.
This is the most difficult film Ive made so far, Vancouver-based director Leon Lee told the audience after the screening in a Q&A session that drew several rounds of applause and a standing ovation.
Partly because I was unable to return to China due to the previous films I made and, on the other hand, Sun Yi did not know how to use a camera, so we two had to pull this off mainly through Skype. But really it was his courage, his determination, that really made this film possible, Lee explained.
Leon Lee, director of the award-winning documentary Letter from Masanjia, speaks to the audience after the screening of his film at ByTowne Cinema in Ottawa on Sept. 3, 2018. (Jonathan Ren/NTD Television)
Sun Yi, the films protagonist, is a practitioner of the Falun Gong spiritual faith that has been the target of violent persecution and hate propaganda in communist China since 1999.
The documentary highlights a labour camp called Masanjia in northeastern China, where Sun was held for 2.5 years from 2008 to 2010 and where inmates were forced to work 15-hour days seven days a week and suffered torture and abuse by guards.
The Most Notorious Labour Camp in China
The film begins with an SOS letter from Sun being found by an Oregon woman in 2012, hidden inside the packaging of a Halloween decoration she had bought at Kmart.
Sun Yi is reunited with Julie Keith, the woman who found his note in Oregon. (Courtesy Flying Cloud Productions)
When Julie Keith publicized the letter, headlines drew intense worldwide attention to the gross rights violations within Chinas decades-old re-education through labour system, which consisted of over 300 camps where people could be held for up to four years without trial. The flood of criticism led to an announcement by the regime in early 2013 that the system would be abolished by year-end.
Lee, who said he knew Masanjia to be the most notorious labour camp in China, managed to track down Sun after a three-year search. It turned out Sun had seen Lees previous films on human rights issues in China. He trusted Lee and felt that making a film would be an opportunity to tell his full story to expose the evil of Masanjia Labour Camp.
Animated recreation of Sun Yi writing his SOS letter inside the Masanjia Labour Camp. (Courtesy Flying Cloud Productions)
Lee trained Sun, an engineer, over Skype on how to use a video camera so that he could shoot live-action footage secretly in China. Lee also used Suns very skilled sketches as a basis for recreating his experience inside Masanjia, developing them into illustrations and then animation.
Shows How Brave People Can Be
Very moving, very powerful, and shows how brave people can be, said Lorrie Heron, who attended the screening. Its amazing what [Sun Yi] went through and survived, and his dedication in getting the truth out.
What bothers me the most is that hes just one person of many that are suffering like this. Its wrong.
She said she feels very bad that she has decorations at home similar to those Sun Yi was forced to make. A lot of people do, she said. You dont realize where they are coming from.
Sisters Lorrie (L) and Judy Heron attended the screening of Letter from Masanjia at ByTowne Cinema in Ottawa on Sept. 3, 2018. (Jonathan Ren/NTD Television)
I hope other people come to see it, said Jean Good. They will spread the word not enough people know about whats happening in China.
As Canadians, we take a lot for granted, such as our freedoms, said Mike Chen. Its very courageous for Sun Yi to tell his story. He experienced family struggle and a big sacrifice for his belief.
Despite telling a harrowing story, the film portrays Sun Yis calm strength and peaceful determination, as well as his kindness toward others, even his former torturers.
The film also noted that Jiang Tianyong, the lawyer who had defended Sun Yi, was arrested in November 2016. Lee said Jiang was sentenced to two years in prison, and that recent reports indicated he was forced to take unknown medication that caused him to suffer great memory loss.
This is a known tactic used by the Chinese authority, so that the lawyers when they leave the prison, they would be no longer able to continue their work, said Lee.
Seeking Release of Canadian Citizen Sun Qian
Despite ongoing severe rights abuses in China, [the film shows] the united strength of Sun Yi and Julie Keith in helping to bring about the next step in ending the labour camp system, said Lee.
They both persevered in the face of difficulties so that Suns story would be widely told, and they never gave up. So I think the lesson, at least for me, is whatever small action that you could take [when you see injustice], it may lead to a good change that you never imagined.
Sun Qian, a Falun Dafa adherent who has been illegally detained in China since February 2017, in an undated photo. (The Epoch Times/Handout)
Noting the power of a letter, Lee has a campaign on the films website encouraging readers to write to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to urge him to press the Chinese authorities for the release of Canadian citizen and Falun Gong practitioner Sun Qian.
Sun Qian, no relation to Sun Yi, has been held in China since February 2017 for her belief. During her detention, she has been shackled, handcuffed to a steel chair, and pepper-sprayed in the face, among other abuses.
Over the years, I think Falun Gong is the most persecuted group in China now, Lee said.
Former Canadian cabinet minister David Kilgour attended the screening of Letter from Masanjia at ByTowne Cinema in Ottawa on Sept. 3, 2018. (Jonathan Ren/NTD Television)
This kind of film will have a huge impact on people, said former cabinet minister David Kilgour in an interview after the screening. It should be seen by all MPs and senators, he added.
Kilgour, along with Winnipeg-based human rights lawyer David Matas, co-authored several books on their investigation into reports of forced organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience in China. The two Nobel Prize nominees were the subject of Lees film Human Harvest, which won the prestigious Peabody Award.
Lee said he hopes more people can understand the story of the Chinese people by understanding Sun Yis story.
The true Chinese spirit is what we see in Sun Yi, he said.
The film ends with Sun Yis comment that even though millions of people in China are still being persecuted, in the end, justice will prevail over evil.
Following the documentarys four-show run in Ottawa on Sept. 36, locations of upcoming screenings include Los Angeles and New York as well as Calgary, Alberta, and Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
The audience at a Q&A session with Leon Lee, director of the documentary Letter from Masanjia, after the film screening at ByTowne Cinema on Sept. 3, 2018. (Jonathan Ren/NTD Television)
Li Zhanshu, chairman of the Standing Committee of Chinas rubber-stamp legislature, National People's Congress, at a meeting session in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on March 20, 2018. (REUTERS/Damir Sagolj)
Li Zhanshus Upcoming Visit to North Korea May Reflect Chinese Diplomatic Caution
In the evening of Sept. 4, Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-run media announced that by invitation by the North Korean regime, CCP Politburo Standing Committee member and National Peoples Congress chairman Li Zhanshu would visit North Korea on Sept. 8 on behalf of Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The news seems to confirm speculation by South Korean media that Xis plan to visit North Korea in person had been changed.
The news, reported by the Party-controlled Xinhua, didnt mention how long Li Zhanshu would stay in North Korea.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited China three times this year. According to anonymous sources, during his first trip to China at the end of March, Kim invited Xi to visit North Korea, and Xi accepted his invitation. Later, it was rumored that Xi would travel to Pyongyang in September.
On Sept. 3, a day before Xinhua made its report, analysis run by several South Korean media suggested that Xi might not visit North Korea after all, citing a lack of time in Xis schedule, as well as a fear of further antagonizing the United States in the background of ongoing Sino-U.S. trade disputes.
According to the Yonhap News Agency and the Chosun Online, the Chinese regime had remained very quiet about plans for its leaders to visit North Korea, despite the fact that there was less than a week remaining before North Koreas 70th-anniversary National Day celebrations. In the past, Chinese state media would typically publish such news a week in advance of the trip.
The analysis also cited the difficulty of fitting a North Korea visit into Xis schedule, which had mostly recently been updated on Aug. 31. The CCPs Foreign Office released a notice saying that leaders of the African countries of Ghana, Egypt, South Africa, Congo, and others had accepted Xis invitation for them to pay state visits to Beijing between Aug. 31 and Sept. 9.
On Sept. 3 and 4, the China-Africa Cooperation Forum was held in Beijing, after which the African leaders are to have separate meetings with Xi. The CCP has put much effort into organizing the forum, under which circumstances Xi would have little time to make any foreign visits.
Recently, U.S. President Trump suddenly cancelled Secretary of State Mike Pompeos visit to North Korea. Trump blamed the CCP for holding back North Koreas denuclearization progress and encouraging Pyongyang to renege on its commitments.
This has put more diplomatic pressure on Xi, as Sino-U.S. relations have deteriorated since the outbreak of the trade war. According to South Koreas Dong-a-Ilbo, if Xi were to make a high-profile show of friendship with North Korea, which is widely viewed as a pariah state, it would further push the United States to see China as an adversary with a hand behind North Koreas failure to denuclearize.
The analysis said that if Xi were to attend a military parade in Pyongyang, he would likely stand near Kim Jong Un or other North Korean leaders in an apparent gesture of endorsement. This could be compounded if the North Korean regime decided to showcase a new weapon at the parade, as it would indicate Beijings complicity in North Koreas defiance of the United States.
Further, Xis visit to North Korea would, as a matter of courtesy, obligate the CCP to provide Pyongyang with gestures of goodwill such as economic cooperation agreements or other forms of aid. But under the circumstances, with China being a participant in international efforts to denuclearize the Korean peninsula that involve the United States and South Korea, it would be awkward for China to agree to such largess for North Korea, lest it face diplomatic repercussions.
Reporting by Ling Yun
Marriott Issues Statement After 75 Arrested at Labor Day Protest in SF
Seventy-five protesters were arrested on Sept. 3, in San Francisco while demanding improved conditions for hotel workers, police and union officials said.
Nearly 1,000 people turned out for the Labor Day protest on Yerba Buena Lane near the San Francisco Marriott Marquis, according to Unite Here Local 2, which represents hospitality workers in San Francisco and San Mateo counties.
By 11:35 a.m., the arrests had begun.
Police said the 75 taken into custody were arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor failing to obey the lawful command of a peace officer and blocking the roadway.
Protesters shut down Powell Street and blocked cable car lines to call attention to what they say is the low pay they receive.
The protesters gathered to demand Marriott Hotels set an example for other hotel companies because Marriott is the largest and most profitable hotel chain in the world, according to organizers.
One Job Should Be Enough was the slogan associated with the protest, according to Unite Here, which in the United States and Canada represents 270,000 workers in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation, and airport industries.
Protesters said they want to be paid enough at their hotel job so they dont need a second job to make ends meet.
A Marriott spokesperson said on Sept. 4, in response to the protest, that the companys strength is rooted in our core value of putting people first. We celebrate and thank our associates for their contribution on this Labor Day.
The spokesperson said, We also respect our associates right to voice their opinions. Marriott International has longstanding and productive relationships with Unite Here and is negotiating in good faith and in a timely fashion to obtain the best outcomes for our associates and guests.
By Keith Burbank and DM
Maryland Woman, 64, Killed by Newly Adopted Pit Bull: Police
A 64-year-old woman in Maryland was killed by a pit bull that she had adopted, according to local authorities.
Robin Conway, of Columbia, was reportedly mauled to death by a recently adopted pit bull that she got from another state, said the Howard County Police Department in a statement on Sept. 4.
Police in Howard County were called to a residence for a report that a woman was mauled by a dog that she adopted two weeks ago, said Howard County Police.
There, officers found Conways body in the backyard with significant injuries inflicted by the animal.
Her cause of death is still pending. An autopsy is slated by the state medical examiner, according to officials.
A family member contacted the police after finding Conway injured in her yard with the animal standing over her, said the police department. The witness called 911 and tied the animal to a fence.
When police and paramedics arrived on the scene, they found the dog attached to the post. It was barking and lunging on the leash and had to be subdued by animal control officers and ultimately euthanized, the department added.
A necropsy will be performed on the pit bull to see if it had rabies or other medical problems that would cause it to attack.
There were no previous calls to animal control related to this address prior to this incident. Police do not have information about the dogs adoption, except that it came from out-of-state, according to police.
Other details about the incident were not made clear by officials.
Most Abused Dogs on Earth
Animal rights group PETA has said that pit bulls are the most abused dogs on Earth.
Pit bulls are left at shelters in record numbersand since they are difficult to adopt out, reputable shelters (that dont slam the door in the dogs faces) are finding that they must euthanize more pit bulls and pit bull mixes than all other dogs combined, the group said.
Karen Delise, research director for the National Canine Research Council and author of The Pitbull Placebo, has investigated hundreds of dog bite incidents.
She wrote: My study of dog bite-related fatalities occurring over the past five decades has identified the poor ownership/management practices involved in the overwhelming majority of these incidents: owners obtaining dogs, and maintaining them as resident dogs outside of regular, positive human interaction, often for negative functions (i.e. guarding/protection, fighting, intimidation/status); owners failing to humanely contain, control and maintain their dogs (chained dogs, loose roaming dogs, cases of abuse/neglect); owners failing to knowledgably supervise interaction between children and dogs; and owners failing to spay or neuter dogs not used for competition, show, or in a responsible breeding program.
A Microsoft store is pictured in New York City on Aug. 21, 2018. (Reuters/Carlo Allegri)
Microsoft Flags Dangers to EU of Plans to Limit Data Use
Microsoft said on Sept. 5, that EU lawmakers copyright reforms limiting the use of potentially valuable data to non-profit bodies could damage the European Unions digital development.
Companies, research bodies, and organizations such as Wikipedia have stepped up their lobbying ahead of a European Parliament vote next week which will determine its position ahead of talks with member states and the European Commission.
Scientists, researchers, and some firms have questioned lawmakers willingness to beef up the Commissions proposal in favor of the creative industries and non-profit bodies.
The draft proposal on the table could hold back EU attempts to catch up with Japan, Singapore, and China in data science, research and artificial intelligence and have a great number of unintended negative consequences, Microsoft said.
By confining the exception for text and data mining to only a small group of non-profit research organizations, Article 3 cuts off promising research by public and private partnerships and prevent uptake of new technologies by European businesses large and small, it said in a statement.
German drugmaker Bayer, which says mining vast quantities of data is invaluable in its efforts to develop innovative drugs against diseases, is similarly critical.
Excluding private research, start-ups and companies from reaping the full benefits of this technology will undoubtedly reduce Europes competitiveness, it said in a note seen by Reuters which highlighted Chinese and U.S. rivals.
By Foo Yun Chee
Mother of Missing 2-Year-Old Florida Boy Admits to Killing Son, Says Report
Missing boy case triggered statewide AMBER Alert
Charisse Stinson, the mother of a missing 2-year-old Florida boy has allegedly admitted to causing her sons death, police said on Sept. 5.
Stinson, 21, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of 2-year-old Jordan Belliveau, WFTS reported. The boy was found dead in a wooded area in Largo, Florida, on Sept. 4.
An AMBER Alert was activated for the state, and investigators released a composite sketch of an alleged suspect based on Stinsons description.
However, according to an arrest affidavit from Largo police, Stinson said she admitted to causing her sons death.
The report alleged that Stinson was frustrated and struck Jordan in the face with the back of her hand which in turn caused the back of his head to strike an interior wall of her home. After the blow to the head, the victim suffered seizures during the night, which lead to further decline [in his health], resulting in his death, WFTS reported.
The woman didnt go to seek medical help for the boy and instead took him to a wooded area where he died, the report said.
Stinson, meanwhile, was ordered by a judge to be held without bond. She will be appointed a public defender.
Details of the Case
For about a week, several law enforcement agencies were working to try and find the boy.
Stinson said that she and Jordan on the night of Sept. 1 entered the vehicle of a man who was giving them a ride. She said that the man hit her in the face, causing her to lose consciousness, adding that when she woke up on Sept. 2, she could not locate her son.
Jordan, she told police, was last seen with a man she called Antwan, ABC News reported.
On Sept. 2, police said they recovered bloody items from Stinsons apartment, according to the ABC report.
THE AMBER Alert for Jordan Belliveau has been canceled. Sadly, the child has been found deceased, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement later said in a tweet.
In a press conference on Sept. 2, Largo Police Maj. Stephen Slaughter described Stinson as a struggling single mom and said child protective services investigated her in the past, NBC Miami reported.
Slaughter said that she and the boys father, Jordan Belliveau Sr., have a longstanding history of domestic violence.
The uncle of the boy said that the father was distraught.
I cant speak on how my brother feels because I never lost a child. I just know my brother is devoted right now, said Stephon Davis, the childs uncle, WFTS reported. I just want my nephew to be laid in peace and his mama and whoever involved in this, justice.
The Department of Children and Families said that it couldnt release information on the case.
It said, The loss of this child is profoundly saddening. We are actively working with the Pinellas County Sheriffs Office and the Largo Police Department during the course of their criminal investigation. Pinellas County Sheriffs Office conducts all child protective investigations in Pinellas County, not DCF, WFTS reported.
New Mexico Compound Members Seeking Bail Again
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.Five people from a New Mexico compound who are facing federal firearms and conspiracy charges are seeking bail again, a defense lawyer said on Sept. 4, just days after two state judges and prosecutors dismissed child-abuse charges against the defendants on procedural grounds.
The five Muslim defendants made their first appearance in U.S. District Court of New Mexico in Albuquerque on Sept. 4, four days after the FBI charged them with violating weapons and conspiracy laws.
The move comes weeks after a state judge received death threats for granting bail to the group accused of child abuse and planning jihad. Last month, police raided the groups makeshift settlement and found 11 children without food or clean water and a cache of weapons. Three days later, police found the body of a toddler.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Kirtan Khalsa on Sept. 4 said she would seek additional information from probation officers ahead of making a bail decision in the controversial case. She was due to make a ruling on Sep. 5.
It could go either way, it depends a lot on a persons background, federal defense attorney Kari Converse, who is representing three of the defendants, said of the bail decision.
Federal prosecutor George Kraehe, speaking at the hearing on Sep. 4, said the U.S. government would seek their detention without bail.
The FBI arrested the five in Taos, about 95 miles north of Albuquerque, after three of them had state child-abuse charges dismissed and were released from jail, due to a procedural error by prosecutors.
The FBI charged Jany Leveille, a 35-year-old female Haitian national, with being in the United States illegally and unlawfully in possession of firearms. Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40; Hujrah Wahhaj, 37; Subhanah Wahhaj, 35; and Lucas Morton, 40, were charged with aiding and conspiring with her.
In an affidavit, the FBI said a teenage boy among the group, taken into custody at the compound, told agents Ibn Wahhaj was trying to put an army together to conduct jihad against non-believers, according to federal court documents.
The boy told the FBI he watched his mother, Leveille, and her partner Ibn Wahhaj perform a faith healing ritual over the three-year-old boy during which the child choked and his heart stopped, according to the special agents affidavit.
Defense lawyers have said the five adults were exercising their rights to practice their religion and own firearms, and they are being discriminated against for being black and Muslim.
State prosecutors on Aug. 31 dismissed charges against Leveille and Ibn Wahhaj for the death of the toddler. Taos County District Attorney Donald Gallegos said in a statement that he planned to refile the charges, as well as child-abuse charges against the three other defendants to a grand jury on Sept. 27.
By Andrew Hay
New York City Comptroller John Liu attends the annual State of the City Address at City Hall on Feb. 9, 2012, in Manhattan. (Benjamin Chasteen/The Epoch Times)
NY Senate Candidate John Liu Endorsed by Far-Left Radicals and Socialist Islamists
News Analysis
Disgraced former New York City mayoral candidate John Liu is attempting a political comeback, with the support of hard-left radical activists and a progressive organization called the Muslim Democratic Club of New York, founded by socialist Islamist Linda Sarsour.
Liu previously declared himself as a candidate in the 2013 New York City mayoral election, but was dogged by a scandal from his 2011 comptroller election campaign.
Liu served as the 43rd New York City Comptroller from Jan. 1, 2010, to Dec. 31, 2013. While Liu quickly raised more than $1 million dollars in campaign donations in the first half of 2011, suspicions grew as to some of its origin. In an Oct. 11, 2011, front-page story, The New York Times reported that its investigation of Lius donors had uncovered some irregularities.
It stated: Canvassing by The New York Times of nearly 100 homes and workplaces of donors listed on Mr. Lius campaign finance reports raises questions about the source and legitimacy of some donations, as well as whether some of the donors even exist. Some two dozen irregularities were uncovered, including instances in which people listed as having given to Mr. Liu say they never gave, say a boss or other Liu supporter gave for them, or could not be found altogether.
Liu was closely involved with Asian Americans for Equality, a very wealthy New York City community organization that had its roots in the Pro-China Communist Workers Party.
According to sources, it was common practice for New York-based Chinese diplomatic staff to organize fundraising banquets for favored leftist candidates. Since it was illegal for Chinese authorities to donate to American candidates, a work-around was arranged. Hundreds of low-income Chinese-Americans would be invited to lavish dinners and handed packets of money by Chinese government agents. This money then would be passed on to the candidate.
It was strongly suspected in Chinatown that at least some of Lius campaign donation money came from Chinese sources through pro-China business people.
Two Liu staffers were jailed after an FBI sting in which government agents offered to make over-the-limit donations to Lius campaign. Lius staffers took the money and illegally donated it by dividing it into smaller amounts in the names of fictitious individuals.
These revelations dogged Lius mayoral campaign, and a once-top-tier candidate ending up running a disappointing fourth place in the Democratic primary.
In September 2014, Liu lost a Democratic primary race for a state Senate seat to incumbent Tony Avella by just 800 votes. Avella had angered progressive Democrats by joining the renegade Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), which worked closely with Republican state senators.
Bruised and bloodied, Liu rejoined Columbia Universitys School of International and Public Affairs and also began a teaching position at Baruch College.
Working With the Hard Left
But now Liu is back, this time working with the hard left and Islamic socialist Democrats in another attempt to unseat Tony Avella. Progressive Democrats have vowed to unseat the IDC, despite a pledge by the group to rejoin the main body of Senate Democrats and end its alliance with Republicans.
Avella had been the only IDC senator to escape a progressive challenger until activist group True Blue NY recruited Liu at the last minute. One mainstay of True Blue NY is the activist group Rise and Resist, which also endorsed Liu.
Rise and Resist made headlines at a July 4 protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when one of its members, Congolese immigrant Patricia Okoumou, climbed the Statue of Liberty.
Joy Reid of MSNBC interviewed Okoumou and fellow Rise and Resist protester Jay W. Walker after the event. Neither Reid nor any other mainstream media outlet mentioned that both activists were tied to Refuse Fascism, a front group for the Maoist-extremist organization known as the Revolutionary Communist Party.
Liu also has been endorsed by the Muslim Democratic Club of New York. Founded in a Midtown lounge in March 2013, Democratic Socialists of America member Linda Sarsours Muslim Democratic Club of New York has been more leftist than Islamic in outlook.
At the founding, which was attended by then-mayoral candidate Liu, co-founders Ali Najmi (later a prominent Bernie Sanders supporter) and Sarsour gave a PowerPoint presentation on the untapped voting strength of Muslim Democrats in the city, especially in Queens and Brooklyn, where Muslims live in comparatively high numbers.
While the ultimate goal of the club was to build a field operation powerful enough to influence elections throughout New York City, the Muslim Democratic Club of New York also focused on ending NYPD surveillance of Muslim communities, a goal that was accomplished in April this year. Sarsours organization additionally pushed for the inclusion of Muslim holidays on the public-school calendar, which occurred in March 2015.
In March 2013, the Observer reported that Liu was a vociferous critic of the NYPD. It states:
I think more than any other community, the Muslim community has some very severe challenges and important issues the city has to deal with, Liu said. We have ongoing issues of surveillance of people just because of their religious faith- thats not right, we should put an end to that. Kids and families have to choose between going to school and observing important holidays in the Muslim faith- that has to change also.
Muslim Democratic Club leaders have included Murad Awawdeh, an affiliate of the South Brooklyn chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America; Debbie Almontaser, an occasional panelist with the DSA-initiated Left Forum; and at least one affiliate of the Maoist-leaning Revolutionary Student Coordinating Committee.
Liu has learned little from his past defeats and humiliations. He is still working with the hard left, seeking to gain political power.
Possible Reckless Driving Suspect Killed in Freeway Collision
A woman got out of an ambulance on her way to a psychiatric hospital and was killed when a vehicle hit her in the morning of September 3 in Dublin, Pleasanton police said.
The woman, whose name is not being released yet, was being taken to John George Psychiatric Pavilion in San Leandro after Pleasanton police stopped her for possible reckless driving.
Police said officers had placed her on a psychiatric hold after she made it challenging for officers to get her out of her vehicle.
Police became aware of the womans possible reckless driving at about 2 a.m. on September 3 when they received several reports of a driver who struck multiple vehicles and a pedestrian near 5300 Case Ave.
Officers responded and found the vehicle and a woman standing next to it. Police said the woman got back into her vehicle when she saw officers.
So she didnt do any further property damage or cause any other injuries, officers told her to get out of the vehicle, police said.
The woman refused and physically resisted officers when they tried to take her out of the vehicle.
But with a control hold, the officers were able to remove her.
Police said outside of the vehicle she struggled with officers and several times tried to get an officers gun.
Two officers shot her with a stun gun and the officers were able to subdue her. She was taken to ValleyCare Medical Center in Pleasanton for a routine medical clearance and at about 7 a.m. a Norcal Ambulance responded to take her to John George Psychiatric Pavilion.
At about 7:30 a.m. as the ambulance was on the connector ramp from southbound Interstate Highway 680 to westbound Interstate Highway 580 in Dublin, it stopped on the side of the road because of a problem with the woman in the back of the vehicle.
The woman got out and ran into traffic. Police said witnesses told them that the woman tried to run in front of three vehicles. Two avoided hitting her but a third was unable to avoid her.
Police said the woman died where she was struck. The California Highway Patrol, Pleasanton police and the Alameda County coroners bureau are investigating the womans death.
Anyone who witnessed it or has any information about it is asked to call Lt. Brandon Stocking at (925) 931-5100. Reference to case No. 18-34368.
By Keith Burbank and Janis Mara.
This older home at 11 N. White St. in downtown Frankfort will be converted to a future commercial use, as part of a redevelopment plan approved by the board that includes a new restaurant, as well as retail and office space, on White Street. (Susan DeMar Lafferty/Daily Southtown)
A homeless man lays on the ground after passing out as police try to help him, on Columbus Circle, in Manhattan, on July 23, 2014. (Benjamin Chasteen/Epoch Times)
Prosecuting Homeless for Sleeping Outside May Violate US Constitution: Ruling
The U.S. Constitutions prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment bars cities from prosecuting the homeless for sleeping outside on public property when they cannot obtain shelter, a federal appeals court ruled on Sept. 4.
Reversing a lower court ruling in the Boise, Idaho case, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that Robert Anderson and Robert Martin could seek an injunction against enforcement of that citys anti-camping and disorderly conduct ordinances.
Circuit Judge Marsha Berzon said sitting, lying and sleeping on the streets was an unavoidable consequence of homelessness, and that it would be an Eighth Amendment violation for cities to punish that conduct when their shelters had too few beds.
As long as there is no option of sleeping indoors, the government cannot criminalize indigent, homeless people for sleeping outdoors, on public property, on the false premise they had a choice in the matter, Berzon wrote.
Boise, which is Idahos capital, in 2014 barred enforcement of the ordinances when its shelters were full.
But the appeals court said shelters could still turn away homeless people who exceeded their stay limits or refused mandatory religious programs.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs had no immediate comment. The office of Boise City Attorney Robert Luce did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Sept. 4 decision by the Portland, Oregon-based appeals court overturned a September 2015 ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald Bush in Boise, and returned the case to him.
The lawsuit had been brought by Anderson, Martin, Janet Bell, Pamela Hawkes, Basil Humphrey and Lawrence Lee Smith, who were convicted of violating one or both Boise ordinances.
All were sentenced to time served except for Hawkes, who was sentenced twice to one day in jail.
Martin and Hawkes were allowed to pursue damages claims.
Berzon noted that the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had in 2000 upheld a similar anti-camping ordinance from Orlando, Florida, against an Eighth Amendment challenge.
But she said that case was different because Orlandos shelters had never reached capacity.
Circuit Judge John Owens partially dissented from the Sept. 4 decision, saying injunctive relief was not warranted.
By Jonathan Stempel
Richard Hammond and Mindy Hammond with the Maserati Levante SUV on June 10, 2018, in Tetbury, England. (Chris Jackson/Getty Images for Maserati / La Martina)
Richard Hammond and Family Gassed and Robbed in French Villa
A team of burglars stole from The Grand Tour host Richard Hammond, his family, and his guests after being gassed in Southern France.
Richards wife, Mindy, told The Daily Express that she believed everyone was knocked out by anaesthetic gas when their possessions were stolen.
A few hours after they hosted a 1920s-themed cocktail party in a San Tropez villa, Mindy and Richard were late to bed that night when she heard a door downstairs shut.
She went downstairs to the living room door and heard a male voice.
The 53-year-old said, Thought it was another couple staying up and went back to bed.
Actually, it was the burglars, said Mindy.
Had she walked in and checked the living room, the outcome may have been different.
That just makes my blood run cold, she said.
After the Robbery
The day after the robbery, 15-year-old Willow Hammond couldnt find her watch.
They thought it had been misplaced or one of the other children had sleepwalked during the night.
What happened to them didnt become apparent until Richard Hammond called out to everyone and asked, Have you looked in your purses?
When they all checked their purses and wallets, they discovered that all their cash had disappeared. All their other belongings were still there.
Given the events that have occurred so far, Mindy recalled something strange when she woke up that morning. Everyones bedroom doors were open.
Convinced that everyone had been gassed, she said it was because the burglars had the confidence to check every part of house; being quite satisfied that people arent going to wake up.
They also found out that a nearby property was also robbed.
Not long after the realising what happened, they contacted the owner of the villa. The owner and his wife got involved and contacted the police.
On that night, the police were patrolling the area and the Hammonds employed security guards to keep everyone safe for the remainder of the holiday.
The burglars were caught on camera, and were arrested within 48 hours of the incident.
One of them looked quite a lot like Richard! said Mindy.
All that was stolen was Willows watch and everyones cash.
This incident didnt stop anyone from enjoying their vacation, but it did raise a lot of concern for the children and husbands.
It was particularly worrying for the Hammonds as their teenage daughter was unconscious while strangers were searching her room.
The other concern involved their wives worrying that their husbands would stay up all night just to protect their families.
That could have ended up in a very bad situation if there was a confrontation. There would have been too much emotion involved, said Mindy.
Although the Hammonds made an attempt to stay awake to act as lookouts, Richard Hammond started snoring after volunteering for first watch.
Seventy-Five Were Arrested During Protest for Higher Hotel Wages
Seventy-five protesters were arrested on September 3 in San Francisco demanding improved conditions for hotel workers, police and union officials said.
Nearly 1,000 people turned out for the protest, which was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. on Yerba Buena Lane near the San Francisco Marriott Marquis, according to Unite Here Local 2, which represents hospitality workers in San Francisco and San Mateo counties.
By 11:35 a.m. the arrests had begun.
Police said the 75 protestors taken into custody were arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor failing to obey the lawful command of a peace officer and blocking the roadway.
Protesters shut down Powell Street and blocked cable car lines to call attention to the low pay they receive.
The protesters gathered to demand Marriott Hotels set an example for other hotel companies because Marriott is the largest and most profitable hotel chain in the world, according to protest organizers.
One Job Should Be Enough was the slogan associated with the protest, according to Unite Here, which in the U.S. and Canada represents 270,000 workers in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation, and airport industries.
Protesters want to be paid enough at their hotel job so they dont need a second job to make ends meet.
The international president of Unite Here Donald Taylor said, Too often workers welcome guests to Marriott hotels and deliver an unforgettable experience to them, just to leave their shift and go to a second job because working full time for Marriott isnt enough to make ends meet.
Marriott Hotels did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
By Keith Burbank.
Diamondback terrapins in a tank at the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, New Jersey, U.S., on August 29, 2018. (REUTERS/Carlo Allegri)
Shell Game: US Traffickers Smuggle Turtles to China and Beyond to Feed Demand as Food and Pets
STONE HARBOR, N.J.A trial begins next week for a man charged with trafficking thousands of protected turtles captured in New Jerseyan unlikely hotbed of wildlife poaching that supplies China with a culinary delicacy that is hard to find in Asia.
David Sommers, 64, of Levittown, Pennsylvania is accused of plucking some 3,500 diamondback terrapins and their eggs from the coastal marshes of southern New Jersey and selling them in violation of the Lacey Act, a federal statute that prohibits the trafficking of wildlife captured or killed in jurisdictions where it is illegal.
Asia, where native populations of turtles have been depleted, is fueling a surge in turtle poaching across the United States.
Rare species are being stolen from our own backyard for the illegal trade, said Rachel Kramer, manager at World Wildlife Fund.
Capturing or killing many of the species in highest demand is illegal in states where they range.
Many Asian consumers love the taste of turtle meat. But turtles with dramatic-looking shells become pets.
Poaching devastates wild turtle populations because the reptiles are slow to mature to reproductive age, said biologist Brian Williamson of The Wetlands Institute in New Jersey.
Most diamondback terrapins, a particularly prized species, must survive to age 8 before they can lay eggs, which means evading predators including raccoons, skunks, seagulls, and humans.
All kinds of animalsincluding humanslove to eat them. Theyre the potato chip of the salt marsh, Williamson said.
Among the U.S. species in high demand are the spotted turtle, a tiny animal with yellow dots on its shell that sells on the black market in Asia for up to $2,000 each, said Ed Grace, head of law enforcement for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Smugglers also get top dollar for the alligator snapping turtle, an imposing species from the U.S. southeast with spikes on its shell that resemble a dragon, said Collette Adkins, an attorney with the non-profit Center for Biological Diversity.
Diamondback terrapins are prized as pets for their unique markings, which are different for each turtle.
Selling for up to $3,000 each, the creatures are considered particularly healthy to eat because turtles symbolize longevity in some Asian cultures, said Williamson. A diamondback can live more than 30 years.
The institute, built on a marsh about 12 miles north of Cape May, New Jersey, helps return confiscated turtles to the wild, including the 3,500 reptiles that Sommers is accused of snatching.
Sommers, who goes on trial in Philadelphia next week, is also charged with smuggling turtles to Canada in 2014 in a package falsely labeled as a book.
Poaching is a growing problem and Sommers case is not an isolated incident.
Two China Eastern Airlines flight attendants were fined in July in federal court in California for attempting to smuggle dozens of spotted turtles in their luggage from Los Angeles to China.
Five men were indicted in March for trafficking diamondback terrapins and spotted turtles captured in North Carolina waters. They hid the turtles in packages of noodles and candy being shipped to Hong Kong.
The full extent of the underground turtle trade is unknown. But wildlife advocates say buyers in Hong Kong and China accounted for 55 percent of legal exports of U.S. live, wild turtles from 2011 to 2015, according to recent data. That trade was worth $31 million.
Legal exports have declined in recent years as states tighten protections. In August, Texas became the latest to ban commercial turtle hunts, with only six states still allowing unlimited turtle trapping.
By Barbara Goldberg
Small Virginia Town Struggles After Local Restaurant Refused to Serve Trump Press Secretary
A small Virginia town is struggling to remake its reputation after a local restaurant in June refused to serve White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her family.
A regional tourism bureau has decided to use its emergency funds to boost advertising for the area, after the refusal of service at The Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, prompted a backlash from Trump supporters, as well as others who believe the restaurant went too far.
The Rockbridge Regional Tourism, which also represents Buena Vista and Rockbridge counties, met with the Lexington City Council on Aug. 30, and the localities decided to increase digital marketing and spread positive messages of the area in the wake of the Red Hen incident, The Roanoke Times reported.
The tourism bureau is funded through the lodging and meals tax and each year sets aside some $160,000 for emergencies. The bureau has agreed to spend an additional $15,000 through September.
Typically the money is saved. But each locality agreed the region was in desperate need of positive coverage, the local paper wrote.
In June, the owner of the restaurant in Lexington, about a three-hour drive from Washington, refused to serve Sanders.
I was told to leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left, Sanders wrote on Twitter following the incident. Her actions say far more about her than about me. I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so.
The bureau was flooded with thousands of calls and emails after the incident, said Director of Marketing Patty Williams. Some people protested in front of the restaurant with signs, while others left bad reviews online. The restaurant even had to close for a few weeks.
Just recently, a family in Georgia said in a letter to the bureau they would never come back because of what happened.
For a town our size, it was a significant impact, Williams said.
Steve Phillips: Meet the Mega-Wealthy Marxist-Leninist Behind Four Potential Governors in November
News Analysis
Democratic Party power-player Steve Phillips is behind the rise of four potential far-left governors who have already won their primaries.
The San Francisco attorney is a mega-wealthy self-identified student of Marx, Mao, and Lenin directing huge resources into socialist and communist-led groups, with the goal of putting his personal far-left proteges into governors mansions in Maryland, Georgia, Florida, and Arizona.
Phillips and his partners in the highly secretive group Democracy Alliance hope that by electing far-left governors into four currently Republican-led states, the drive to impeach President Donald Trump and destroy his Make America Great Again agenda will be accelerated.
The key element of Phillipss strategy is to push people of color into high office, which will thenso his theory goesenergize minority voters to come out in force.
While George Soros and Tom Steyer have gained notoriety for their dedication to pouring massive resources into far-left causes and candidates, Phillips has managed to escape the level of scrutiny someone of his stature deserves. Make no mistake, Phillips is a highly regarded and extremely influential force in the Democratic Party.
Who Is Steve Phillips?
Originally from Cleveland, Phillips was a student radical at Stanford University in the 1980s, active in the Black Student Union.
Phillips was a regular writer for Unity, the newspaper of the League of Revolutionary Struggle (LRS). The 3,000-member-strong Maoist organization was the largest pro-China group in the United States at the time. The LRS was highly secretive and ordered most members to publicly disavow the organization. The Stanford branch of LRS was led by professor Gordon H. Chang (not to be confused with the anti-communist author Gordon G. Chang), who is now a member of Beijings main U.S. influence operation known as the Committee of 100.
Phillips, then active in Stanford Out of South Africa (SOSA), a group pushing for disinvestment from South Africa, told Unity in May 1985: Some of the people who have played roles in organizing SOSA have been folks whove worked with Unity and take a Marxist-Leninist perspective. Its really exciting to see the principles of Marxism-Leninism being successful and making a difference.
Years later, Phillips co-founded PowerPAC+, a social justice organization dedicated to building a multiracial political coalition. In a December 2012 blog post on the PowerPAC+ website, Phillips confirmed his far-left credentials:
First, let me make clear that I come out of the Left. Ive studied Marx, Mao, and Lenin. In college, I organized solidarity efforts for freedom struggles in South Africa and Nicaragua, and I palled around with folks who considered themselves communists and revolutionaries.
After being accused of LRS membership in Stanfords student newspaper, Stanford Daily, Phillips retorted that he had no knowledge of the Leagues involvement at Stanford and has not recruited for the organization.
In 1990, the LRS split between a small faction called the Socialist Organizing Network and a majority faction called the Unity Organizing Committee. Phillips became a supporter of the latter group, which specifically set out to infiltrate the Democratic Party.
Soon after, Phillips married fellow Stanford graduate Susan Sandler, daughter of far-left billionaires Herb and Marion Sandler, whose $2.4 billion fortune was made through the sale of their company, Golden West Financial Corp., to Wachovia Bank. The Sandlers invested $1.3 million into their Sandler Foundation, which supports mainly leftist causes such as Center for American Progress and ProPublica.
According to New York Times reporter Matt Bai, the Sandlers, along with Progressive Insurance magnate Peter Lewis and leftist financier George Soros, additionally established the organization America Votes to coordinate various get-out-the-vote drives during the 2004 election. The Sandlers also sent their son-in-law Phillips as their representative to the October 2005 meeting of the Democracy Alliance at the Chateau Elan near Atlanta.
Both Phillips and Susan Sandler have played major roles in the Democracy Alliance, in which they were able to interact with the Soros family, Norman Lear of People for the American Way, Democratic Party mega-donor Steyer, and others.
Phillips has been very influential inside the Democracy Alliance because he has brought a unique strategic vision that many of the more money-focused members lacked.
A Modern Remake of Jesse Jacksons Rainbow Coalition Strategy
The League of Revolutionary Struggle joined other communist groups active in Jesse Jacksons Rainbow Coalition in 1984 and 1988. Jackson ran for president twice, with an idea ahead of its time.
The Rainbow Coalition strategy was to unite progressive white voters with leftist black, Latino, Asian-American, Native American, and gay activists into a multi-colored electoral coalition. In 1988, Jackson got 7 million votes with this strategy and won several states. Phillips was a delegate to Jacksons 1984 and 1988 campaigns and took a year off from college to serve as the California student coordinator of his 1988 campaign.
Today, minorities are a much larger proportion of the population, and some, particularly Asian-Americans, have trended even more Democratic since the mid-1990s. Phillips has been working hard to convince leading Democrats and his Democracy Alliance partners to stop wasting money on trying to persuade white swing voters.
Phillips dismisses Trump voters in the Midwest, putting forth the idea that people of color and progressive whites outnumber conservative whites, which he told Democracy Now! are a shrinking sector of the population. Therefore, he claims in a Facebook post, the idea should not be to chase white Trump voters, but to inspire progressives by using the Obama formula:
This notion that we should chase the Trump voters in the Midwest is illogical, Phillips states. That focuses on a shrinking sector of the population. The Obama formulainspire people of color and progressive whites to turn out in large numbersis how you win elections.
To this end, Phillips created PowerPAC+ to fund candidates of color around the United States and Democracy in Color to propagandize his message to a wide audience.
Phillips has also partnered with the hard left to deliver minority votes to the Democratic Party. Phillips and his Democracy Alliance partners have spent millions funding radical voter registration organizations and get out the vote efforts in states with large minority populations. Many of these organizations are led by former members of the disgraced Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) or are supporters of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), a successor to the former League of Revolutionary Struggle.
Phillips and his wealthy leftist colleagues are also working closely with Our Revolution, the nationwide leftist alliance formed out of the Bernie Sanders campaign. Our Revolution is completely dominated by the largest Marxist organization in the United States, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Our Revolution also has support from Communist Party USA (CPUSA), Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS), and FRSO. The three latter groups support the Chinese Communist Party, as do certain sectors of DSA.
Phillips plays a crucial role in raising the money and directing the funds of this electoral army.
Electing Far-Left Governors
This election cycle, Phillips with PowerPAC.org, a sister organization to PowerPAC+, backed five gubernatorial candidates of color: John Chiang (California, Asian-American), Stacey Abrams (Georgia, black), Ben Jealous (Maryland, black), Andrew Gillum (Florida, black) and David Garcia (Arizona, Latino).
California
Chiang has been Phillipss only failure so far this cycle. In a crowded progressive field, the former California comptroller (the states financial officer) managed only fifth place. Its hard to understand why Phillips ever wasted time and money on his long-shot candidacy. The fact that Chiang is a member of the very influential and deep-pocketed Committee of 100 may have been a factor.
Georgia
Abrams of Georgia was Phillipss first success, this cycle. A long-time Phillips protege, Abrams beat her white Democratic primary opponent by more than 50 points.
Abrams serves as a board member for PowerPAC+ and was given at least $1 million by Susan Sandler for her primary campaign, with commitments of another $1 million from Sandlers friends. Abrams was endorsed by PowerPAC+ conferences in her successful 2014 Georgia state House re-election campaign. Phillips and Sandler have promised more funds to Abrams for the general election in November.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Phillips said:
This is a seminal moment. Thats why were so heavily involved. We see winning 2020 in winning 2018. This is the down payment.
The Chronicle article goes on to read: Abrams strategy wont change in the general election, Phillips said. The key is turning out the potential voters they knownot convincing the ones they dont.
To win in November, Phillips says Abrams must increase turnout among nonwhites by 230,000about the margin by which Georgia Democrats have lost statewide races to Republicans in recent years. There are 1.2 million eligible nonwhites who arent registered to vote in the state, Phillips said. His organization, PowerPAC Georgia, plans to spend $10 million in the general election to move them.
Abrams has her own voter registration organization, the New Georgia Project. She is supported by Our Revolution and enjoys good relations with the Atlanta chapter of Democratic Socialists of America.
She is up against conservative Brian Kemp, probably the only Republican in the state who can beat her army and war chest.
Maryland
Jealous of Maryland won his Democratic primary convincingly against a well-established moderate Democratic opponent. Jealous is a longtime friend and collaborator of Phillips. In 2007 and 2008, Jealous and Phillips worked together to implement an 18-state initiative under Vote Hope that increased communities of color participation in the 2008 election behind Barack Obama.
Most of Jealouss money comes through Maryland Together We Rise PAC, whose largest single donor at $250,000 was Susan Sandler. He was also a board member of Phillipss PAC+, the predecessor of PowerPAC+.
Jealous is backed by DSA-controlled Our Revolution and by the 23,000-member-strong Progressive Maryland, which is led by DSA member Larry Stafford.
Stafford wrote in an article published by OurFuture.org:
At Progressive Maryland, weve been on board with Ben from the start and he with us. Back in December, he let us know where he stands on key issues: the $15 minimum wage, workers right to organize, womens rights and Medicare for All.
Bens primary victory represents a shift in the balance of power in Maryland politics.
It also shows that the path forward for progressive values and working peoples values is through organizing and creating meaningful alliances between populist progressive, white constituency groups and progressive people of color, who want to vote for people who knows [sic] the issues of our communities and who will put forward bold solutions that meet the needs of our constituency.
Currently, Jealous is trailing in the polls behind incumbent moderate Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. According to Phillips, however, only 800,000 Democratic voters turned out for Hogans 2014 election, compared to about 1.1 million who turned out to elect former Gov. Martin OMalley. Those voters, Phillips argues, could be swayed to turn out with a progressive agenda of economic and social justice.
Jealous is the bridge between the Steve Phillips and Bernie Sanders organizations, where he serves on the board of Our Revolution. He has boasted that as the former president of the NAACP, he knows how to bring out voters.
Arizona
Garcia of Arizona is a bright hope for the Phillips cabal. Garcia easily won his Democratic primary and is set to face incumbent Republican Gov. Doug Ducey in November. Garcia has been backed by Democracy Alliance members Steyer and Phillips.
In a column published by DSA-aligned publication The Nation on June 21, Phillips said Garcias candidacy had immense potential to bring more Latino voters to the polls.
Electing David Garciaa person who comes from the very community Trump demonizes and who is unapologetically committed to building an inclusive, multiracial democracywill represent a resounding rejection of the nativist, nationalist, and racist impulses lifted up by this president, Phillips wrote.
In the same article, Phillips wrote: What Census and electoral data tells us is that the most promising regions in our country for future Democratic wins are in the South and Southwest, where the multiracial ranks of Democratic voters are growing faster than in any other part of the country.
Often overlooked in 2016 election postmortems is the fact that Arizona was one of the most closely contested states in the country. Clinton lost by just 3.5 percentcoming closer than she did in Ohio, Iowa, and North Carolina, states that slid from the Democratic column after Obama had previously won them. Trump won by just 91,000 votes in Arizona, a state in which 600,000 Latinos who were eligible to vote didnt cast ballots.
Many of Garcias supporters come from the Bazta Arpaio coalition, which defeated Sheriff Joe Arpaio in 2016. That organization was led by several Freedom Road Socialist Organization comrades and PowerPAC+ board member Randy Parraz.
In November 2017, another PowerPAC+ board member, Eddy Morales, hosted Garcia at a fundraising meeting in Portland, Oregon. Garcia is also on good terms with the Arizona branch of Our Revolution and the states four DSA chapters.
After Garcias victory, Phillips posted on Facebook: Incredible and inspiring election results last night. Most of the attention went to the upset victory of the awesome Andrew Gillum in the Florida gubernatorial primary, but also historic and important was David Garcias win in Arizona. Re-upping my piece in The Nation on David. A Rainbow Revolution is sweeping this country, and not a moment too soon.
Florida
Gillum of Florida shocked the country with his come-from-behind victory in the Florida Democratic primary on Aug. 28. It wouldnt have been the least bit surprising had the public known of the extensive voter registration drives and get out the vote campaigns run by DSA and Freedom Road Socialist Organization-led organizations on Gillums behalf. A PowerPAC+ board member and long-time protege of the Democracy Alliance, Gillum is currently the mayor of Tallahassee.
The New Florida Majority, led by Freedom Road Socialist Organization, boasts of signing up tens of thousands of new black and Latino voters in south and central Florida. Another FRSO front group, the Florida Immigrant Coalition, vowed to sign up every immigrant in the state. ACORN-descended Organize Florida also pitched in.
In 2012, Gillum had trainedlike Jealous before himat the FRSO/ACORN-affiliated activist training school Rockwood Institute in Oakland, California.
The Florida Democratic Party Progressive Caucusalso controlled by DSAis also right behind Gillum.
The day before his primary election, Gillum was in Miami with Miami-Dade Progressive Caucus leader Thomas Kennedy, who gushed that the election of Gillum would radically change politics in the state. Argentinian-born Kennedy also chairs the Miami DSA, has held leadership roles in The New Florida Majority and Florida Immigrant Coalition, and has past affiliations with FRSO.
According to an opinion piece by Kennedy, posted at online media Latino Rebels on Aug. 25:
Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum is running a bold and progressive campaign for governor that embraces the black and brown voters that statewide campaigns by Democrats in Florida have ignored and taken for granted in the past.
Medicare for All. Abolishing ICE. Fighting the NRA. Investing $1 billion on [sic] education. Restoring voting rights for those disenfranchised. Ending stand your ground. Cleaning Floridas waterways. Legalizing marijuana. $15 minimum wage. Those are the popular progressive stances that have allowed Gillum to surge from fourth place to first in a crowded field of five candidates.
We have a chance to make history in November by electing Floridas first black governor and radically change politics in the state.
Even Bernie Sanders himself came to Florida to campaign for Gillum. Most of Gillums funding comes through the Forward Florida PAC. Contributors include radical actress Jane Fonda and Democracy Alliance members Lear, Soros, and Phillips.
In May, when Gillums campaign was almost beyond saving, another Democracy Alliance member, California billionaire Tom Steyer, threw in $1 million worth of organizational and advertising support. Steyers NextGen contributed $500,000 to Gillums political committee, Forward Florida, and it committed another $500,000 to pay for digital ads and 50 paid field staffers to organize a team of 620 volunteers. NextGen claimed it had registered 13,000 Florida voters.
As Phillips said, A Rainbow Revolution is sweeping this country, and not a moment too soon.
Permanent Socialist Power
The new Rainbow Coalition is well underway. Phillips and the Democracy Alliances campaign to elect Abrams, Jealous, Garcia, and Gillum in November is just the tip of the spear. By promoting gubernatorial candidates of color in minority-heavy states. Phillips and his allies hope to increase Democratic voter turnout all down the ticket, especially in congressional races.
With relentless and strategically targeted voter registration, financial support from Phillips and his deep-pocketed allies from the Democracy Alliance, and boots-on-the-ground support from Marxist organizations DSA, FRSO, CPUSA, and Our Revolution, the Democratic Party is rapidly becoming a socialist-communist organization.
According to Phillips and his allies, the way to permanent socialist power in America is the mass-mobilization of the progressive white vote coupled with the minority vote behind an increasingly radicalized Democratic Party.
File photo: A selection of IVF hormone bottles and syringes at the Science Museum on July 23, 2018, in London. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Teens Born Through IVF May Have Higher Blood Pressure
High blood pressure increases the risk of heart disease and stroke
Teenagers who were conceived through assisted reproductive technologies, including in vitro fertilization (IVF), may be six times more likely to have hypertension compared to those who were conceived naturally, according to new research.
Researchers from the University Hospital in Bern, Switzerland, said this is the first evidence of its kind.
There is growing evidence that artificial reproductive technologies alters the blood vessels in children, but the long-term consequences were not known, said the lead author of the study, Dr. Emrush Rexhaj.
We now know that this places ART children at a six times higher rate of hypertension than children conceived naturally, Rexhaj said.
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, puts an individual at a higher risk of heart disease and stroke.
Assisted reproductive technologies (ART), including IVF, were developed in 1978 and have helped millions of people who cannot have children naturally. The most common ART methods are IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).
The findings supported earlier evidence from animal studies, where mice were found to have premature aging of the blood vessels and subsequently hypertension.
The Study
The researchers followed 97 teenagers in total54 of whom were born through ART, and 43 of whom born naturally. The teenagers in the study were all aged 16 to 17.
The teenagers born through ART had an average blood pressure of 119/71, while those who had been born naturally had a slightly lower average of 115/69.
The first figure is systolic, and the second is diastolic pressure, which are maximum and minimum pressures, respectively. The systolic pressure coincides with each heart beat while diastolic pressure is measured when arteries relax between the beats.
The authors proceeded to see who would be diagnosed as having clinical hypertension, that is, a reading of more than 130/80.
Eight out of the 54 ART teensthat is, 14.8 percenthad clinical hypertension, whereas only one out of the 43 naturally conceived teensor 2.3 percenthad hypertension. Dividing 14.8 by 2.3 gives 6.4the figure the authors said is the heightened risk of someone who was born through ART would have for hypertension.
Five Years Ago
According to the authors, the same group of children had been studied five years ago, then aged 11 to 12. No major differences in blood pressure between ART and naturally conceived children were found at the time.
It only took five years for differences in arterial blood pressure to show, Rexhaj said.
This is a rapidly growing population (ART-conceived individuals) and apparently healthy children are showing serious signs of concern for early cardiovascular risk, especially when it comes to arterial hypertension (high blood pressure), he added.
Limitations and Implications
The study acknowledged several limitations, including that all the participants were taken from one birth center, and that only single-birth children were studied.
Whilst I laud the efforts to monitor health, this should be done on a population basis not with small biased studies like this one, said IVF expert professor Alaistar Sutcliffe of the University of London told The Telegraph.
The study had excluded factors that would heighten cardiovascular disease from the study, including premature babies, low birth weight, and pre-eclampsia.
But, noting the above exclusions, Dr. Larry Weinrauch said in an accompanying editorial in the same journal that the studys small cohort may downplay the significance of increased blood pressure found in ART-conceived teenagers.
Early study, detection and treatment of ART conceived individuals may be the appropriate course of preventative action, Weinrauch said. We need to be vigilant in the development of elevated blood pressure among children conceived through ART to implement early lifestyle-based modifications and, if necessary, pharmacotherapy.
Emeritus professor in Developmental Biology, Tom Fleming, told The Telegraph that since IVF has only been around for 40 years, the majority of those born have not reached middle age, where cardiovascular conditions often arise. As such, Fleming believes more evidence may become available in the future.
From a biological perspective, the early embryo is known to be sensitive to environmental conditions that may alter how it develops, affecting later gene expression and physiological condition, and may lead to changes such as hypertension, he told The Telegraph.
From NTD.tv
Teens Plead Not Guilty of Murder of Elvia Fragstein
Two Arkansas teenagers charged with kidnapping and killing a 72-year-old woman both pleaded not guilty at a hearing on Sept. 4.
Robert Lee Smith Jr., 16, and Tacori Mackrel, 18, were formally charged with capital murder, kidnapping, aggravated robbery and theft of property, filed by the Faulkner County Prosecuting Attorneys Office. Both teens were charged as adults, despite Smith being 16.
The pair were originally arrested on July 16 and charged with kidnapping and theft of property. At a press conference on Sept. 4, Prosecuting Attorney Luke Ferguson and Chief Deputy Prosecutor Carol Crews announced that the capital murder charge had been added in the official filing on Aug. 31, according Faulkner County Sheriffs Facebook postings.
The teens were arrested after they were seen on surveillance video.
Kidnapped and Killed
Fragstein spent the afternoon of July 7 shopping at a mall in Conway, Arkansas, about 15 miles south of her home in Greenbrier. Security videos showed the 71-year-old grandmother visiting several stores, including a Kroger grocery store, a Starbucks, and finally TJ Maxx.
Video shows Fragstein leaving the TJ Maxx at about 3:43 p.m. Parking lot cameras then recorded Fragsteins car, a silver 2013 Honda CRV, driving at high speed around the parking lot. Inspection of the video showed a man in a white shirt behind the wheel, with some commotion happening inside the car, according to an affidavit from the Prosecuting Attorneys Office.
When his wife didnt return home from shopping as expected, Helmut Fragstein reported her missing to the Faulkner County Sheriffs Department.
Sheriffs reviewed all the security camera footage and noticed two young men in a blue PT Cruiser driving oddly through the mall parking lot, parking in numerous different spaces, eventually parking near to Fragsteins Honda.
The investigators shared pictures of the two young men with the Jefferson County Sheriffs office and the Pine Bluff police department. The two were identified as Robert Lee Smith and Tacori Mackrel.
On July 11, a female body was recovered in Jefferson County. On July 13, the body was identified as that of Elvia Fragstein, according to a Sheriffs Office press release. KATV reported Fragstein had been killed by blunt force trauma to the head and cervical spine as well as strangulation.
The Sheriffs Office sent out pleas for information through its various social media channels, and two witnesses came forward, saying they had seen the suspects driving the silver CRV. The identified the suspects by name.
The Mysterious Caucasian
Investigator Andy Cook and Lt. Chad Wooley from the Faulkner Sheriffs Office learned that Tacori Mackrel had been arrested on unrelated charges and was currently housed in the Jefferson County jail. On July 15, the two officers interviewed Mackrel, who admitted to being one of the men in the surveillance video, then demanded legal counsel.
The pair returned the next evening, Mackrel was read his rights, and agreed to discuss the case.
Mackerel claimed that shortly before he and Smith committed the crime, an unknown Caucasian male approached the two teens, threatened them with a .357 caliber revolver, and told them to kidnap Fragstein.
Mackrel claimed that he and Smith jumped into Fragsteins car after she got in, and bound her with their belts. Then the mysterious white male climbed in and ordered them to drive to Smiths mothers home in Pine Bluff. The unidentified man supposedly took the woman away in a truck, returned alone 10 minutes later, and disappeared.
Cook and Wooley swore in the prosecutors affidavit that there was no evidence whatsoever of an unidentified white male being involved in the crime.
EXCLUSIVE: Only @KATVNews was there when 16-year-old Robert Lee Smith was arrested today in connection to the Elvia Fragstein case. The 71-year-old woman was found dead along a road in Jefferson Co. #arnews pic.twitter.com/lkcYYaBiWn Marine Glisovic KATV (@KATVMarine) July 16, 2018
Robert Smith was arrested on July 16, and a search of his home turned up the clothes he had been wearing in the security video. The affidavit reports that there were bloodstains on the T-shirt and shoes. Smith admitted to being one of the people in the video but denied any involvement in any crime.
If convicted, Mackrel would be eligible for the death penalty. Smith, being under 18, would not.
From Colombia to the United States to Murder Victim
According to her obituary at Arkansas Online, Elvia Fragstein was born in Huila, Colombia, on May 3, 1946. As an adult she owned and operated two alcohol companies in Colombia.
She married Helmut Fragstein in 2000 and moved to the United States first to Wisconsin, and later to Arkansas, to enjoy her retirement.
She is survived by her husband, five children, and seven grandchildren.
From NTD.tv
The Questionable Ties Between Russian Oligarchs, Magnitsky Act, and Steele Dossier
Commentary
Over two years into the investigation of alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, a new picture has started to emerge, one of Russian oligarchs and their connections to some of the key figures responsible for the collusion narrative.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky is the former head of Russian oil giant Yukos. Famously imprisoned by Putin in 2003 on fraud charges, Khodorkovsky appeared a sympathetic figureportrayed as a victim of Putin retaliation. He was pardoned in 2013 and now resides in London. At the height of his power, Khodorkovsky was estimated to have a net worth in excess of $15 billion.
He obtained his wealth in a manner similar to that of many Russian oligarchs. In 1987, he founded Menatep, one of Russias first private banks. He used the bank to acquire stakes in companies that were being privatized at bargain-basement prices.
In 1996, Khodorkovsky paid $300 million for a 78 percent stake in Yukos Oil Company through an auction, using Menatep for the purchase. Yukos would be valued in excess of $40 billion in 2003. Menatep also organized the auction.
Menatep Bank, owned by Khodorkovsky, organized the auction for Yukos Oil Company, a report from Illinois State University says. Khodorkovsky bought 45 percent of the shares for $150 million and another 33 percent in an investment tender for $150 million with the promise of another $200 million to invest into the company under one of his shell companies.
The funding for the purchase of Yukos appeared almost as suspect as the auction process:
It was unclear where Khodorkovsky got the money to buy Yukos. He had various international political and financial connections and claimed that most of the money was borrowed from various sources. One former bank official stated that he was buying Yukos with the money Yukos had accumulated from not paying their taxes.
The manner in which many acquisitions were made, known as loans-for-shares, was simple and effective. Banks, controlled by oligarchs like Khodorkovsky, would make loans to the government, taking assets, such as factories, for collateral. The banks would run the businesses until the loans were repaid by the government. If the government defaulted, the banks had the collateral. The loans were rarely repaid.
Khodorkovsky remains a fierce opponent of Putin. He has also been mentioned as a possible future leader of Russiaan unlikely prospect. During a March 2017 interview with the Washington Times, Khodorkovsky framed the political situationboth here and in Russiain simple and understandable terms:
To some extent, [President Donald] Trump is president of the alt-elite, not the mainstream elite, Khodorkovsky said, before connecting the situation to Putins, who he said has targeted alternative elites around the world in influence operations. He tries to be generous to them, to build relations with them.
Khodorkovsky, who has many sympathetic supporters within the media, had a simple message for Trump:
I would tell him that the current American administration has created a crisis of sorts in the heads of America and the whole world.
Khodorkovsky noted that Trumps victory was unanticipated within the Kremlin:
If Putin had any objectives whatsoever vis-a-vis that election, it was that when Clinton wonand everybody in the Kremlin was convinced Clinton would winto create a couple of nice visible incidents in the U.S. featuring Trumps losing supporters accusing Clinton of dishonest elections, he said. Your FBI director had more impact on the election than Putin.
He was referring to former FBI Director James Comey, who announced, days before the November vote, a renewed probe of then-candidate Hillary Clintons use of an unsecured email server while she was secretary of state.
Seven months later, during an interview with NBC News on Oct. 17, 2017, Khodorkovsky was singing a very different tune:
I am almost convinced that Putins people have tried to influence the U.S. election in some way. That Putin personally tried to cooperate with the Trump campaign to affect the election is a 9 out of 10. Whether or not that proposal was accepted, I would let the people responsible for investigating the matter answer that question.
Khodorkovsky, like most Russian oligarchs, has his own ties to figures in the TrumpRussia narrative. His former head of human resources, Sergey Gorkov, met Jared Kushner at Trump Tower in New York in December 2017a meeting that was used to push allegations of Russian ties.
During the interview, Khodorkovsky was careful to mention he believed that Gorkov met with Kushner on orders from either Andrey Kostin or Herman Gref. Both men run Kremlin-backed banks that were sanctioned by the Obama administration. Notably, the two bankers Khodorkovsky cited have been publicly linked to Trump.
Gref co-organized a 2013 dinner in Moscow for Trump to meet Russian businessmen. Aras Agalarov, Grefs partner, was directly involved in offering dirt on Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump Jr. during the Trump Tower meeting in June 2016. Kostin was named by Felix Sater, a former FBI informant, as a potential source of funding for a Trump Tower project in Moscow.
Kostin hotly disputed Khodorkovskys claims, noting he has never had discussions, or any other kind of communication, with Mr. Gorkov regarding a possible meeting with Mr. Kushner, and doesnt understand the point such a meeting could have had.
According to the article, Khodorkovskys aides said this was the first time he has shared these details about Gorkov.
Khodorkovsky expanded on his viewpoint that Putin is not the all-powerful, near-mythical figure portrayed by the media, in an interview with Politico.
[Putin] does not run Russia outside the inner beltway of Moscow, he said. The pact that he has with those people who actually do run the various regions of the country is a rather simple one: You bring out the level of vote that I need for my purposes, and I let you do what you want to do in your region. Thats how it works.
Khodorkovsky, like most Russian oligarchs, has some question marks surrounding his past. In 2015, he was formally accused of hiring an assassin in 1998 to murder Vladimir Petukhov, the mayor of an oil-rich town who had threatened to increase taxes on Khodorkovskys oil company. In 2007, Khodorkovskys head of security, Alexi Pichugin, was sentenced to life imprisonment for ordering three murders, including Petukhovs. Khodorkovsky has denied any involvement.
Magnitsky Act
Khodorkovsky operates a project he has dubbed Dossier Center, which receives anonymous leaks to share with journalists. Unlike WikiLeaks, Khodorkovskys focus is more specific:
Our ambition is not simply to expose information in general, but to use material relating to Putins circle and his allies so that they can be put on trial in Russia.
Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with Trump Jr. during the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, was recently the subject of leaks from the Dossier Center. Interestingly, the Veselnitskaya leaks contained no information regarding the Trump Tower meeting, lending a certain level of credence to Veselnitskayas contention that both parties at the meeting quickly realized it was a waste of time all around. Nor was there any information contained in the leaks regarding Christopher Steele or his dossier.
Veselnitskaya has been an opponent of the Magnitsky Act, which has imposed visa bans and asset freezes on Russian officials. Some portray the act as an overdue penalty against Russian officials. Others have called it a measure that effectively ended post-Cold War hopes for normal relations between Washington and Moscow.
The Magnitsky Act was named after Sergei Magnitsky who, according to billionaire and former American citizen Bill Browder, was a lawyer who died as a result of severe beatings while held in jail. Others have stated that Magnitsky was actually an accountant who died of natural causes as a result of inadequate medical treatment.
Interestingly, the Magnitsky Act specifically condemns prosecution of Khodorkovsky, while simultaneously singling out his political enemies for visa bans and asset freezes. It strikes as disturbing that an official act was passed by Congressdirectly affecting foreign relations with a major nuclear powerwhen basic facts surrounding its genesis remain in real question.
Browder is the founder of Hermitage Capital Management and was active in Russia during the privatization boom. He has been portrayed by some as a human rights activist, while others have darker views of his activities. He is wanted by Russian authorities in regard to several tax cases and claims of financial fraud.
Unsurprisingly, Khodorkovsky and Browder have both been supporters of the Magnitsky Act, which has directly targeted their political enemies and provided a shield from Russian retaliation for themselves.
Former State Department official Jonathan Winer was one of the early architects of the Magnitsky Act, as he notes in a recent op-ed for The Daily Beast:
When Browder consulted me, he wanted to know what he could do to hold those involved in the case accountable. I suggested creating a new law to impose economic and travel sanctions on human-rights violators involved in grand corruption. Browder decided this could secure a measure of justice for Magnitsky. He initiated a campaign that led to the enactment of the Magnitsky Act. Soon other countries enacted their own Magnitsky Acts, including Canada, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and most recently, the United Kingdom.
Russian authorities are still pursuing a case against Browder. As Winer notes, the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty allows Russian prosecutors to ask the U.S. Attorney General to arrange for Americans to testify in criminal caseswith one significant exception, as noted by Winer:
The attorney general can provide no such assistance in a politically motivated case. I know this because I was among those who helped put it there. Back in 1999, when we were negotiating the agreement with Russia, I was the senior State Department official managing U.S.Russia law-enforcement relations.
As noted in an article by Diana Johnstone for the Ron Paul Institute: Winers clever treaty is a perfect Catch-22. The treaty doesnt apply to a case if it is politically motivated, and if it is Russian, it must be politically motivated.
Khodorkovsky, along with Browder, lobbied heavily for passage of the act. Khodorkovsky did so through his Corbiere Trust, which handles his remaining fortune. It also lobbied for passage of Senate Resolution 322, which provided express support for Khodorkovsky and co-defendant Platon Lebedev. The Corbiere Trust is one of APCO Worldwides largest clients. APCO lobbied on behalf of the now-defunct Clinton Global Initiative and was involved, at least tangentially, in the Uranium One transaction, as noted by the Hill:
APCO was paid $3 million in 2010 and 2011 to work for Rosatom, Russias state-owned nuclear company. Rosatom paid APCO to lobby the State Department and other federal agencies on behalf of its Tenex subsidiary, which sought to increase its commercial uranium sales in the United States.
Johnstone observes that APCOs president and CEO, Margery Krause, is a member of Mikhail Khodorkovskys son Pavels Institute of Modern Russia, devoted to promoting democratic valuesin other words, to building political opposition to Vladimir Putin.
Of interest is that Khodorkovsky and Browder knew each other from Browders business dealings in Russia. According to a New York Times article, Browder and Khodorkovsky had some acrimonious dealings over Yukos, and Browder was happy when he was arrested.
The relationship changed in 2010 or 2011 as both men began to lobby for the Magnitsky Act. Their relationship appears to have continued. In November 2016, the two men appeared together to testify on the UKs relationship with Russia before the House of Commons. Browder continues to bring up Khodorkovsky in interviews. and he specifically noted Khodorkovskys story during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In some respects, the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting virtually ensured that the Magnitsky Act will remain in force. That one event accomplished more than Browder or Khodorkovsky could have accomplished in years of lobbying. The Trump Tower meeting rendered the Magnitsky Act politically untouchable in the intermediate term. In August 2017, Trump placed additional sanctions on Russia.
In July this year, Putin noted during his joint press conference with Trump that he wanted to interview 11 American citizens and foreign nationals in relation to Browder and the Magnitsky Act. In exchange, Muellers special counsel team would be able to interview the 12 Russian intelligence officials they had indicted. Included on Putins list were Browder, Michael McFaul, David Kramer, and Christopher Steele.
Kramer and McFaul, a former ambassador to Russia, have both been frequently quoted in The Washington Post and The New York Times criticizing Trumps foreign policy. Kramer, at late Sen. John McCains behest, flew to London to meet with Steele. Kramer then hand-delivered the Steele dossier to McCain, who gave a copy to Comey.
At this point, it remains unknown whether Khodorkovsky or Browder have involvement, direct or otherwise, in the production of the Steele dossier. A common link between the participants is Jonathan Winer, who has known Steele for years. Winer lobbied on behalf of Khodorkovsky and the Corbiere Trust. Given Khodorkovskys focus on passage of the Magnitsky Act, a link to Browder is a short hop at best.
Winer had direct involvement in the dissemination of the Steele dossier. In September 2016, Winer met with Steele and passed a copy of the dossier along to Victoria Nuland at the U.S. State Department. Winer noted this himself in a Washington Post op-ed:
In the summer of 2016, Steele told me that he had learned of disturbing information regarding possible ties between Donald Trump, his campaign and senior Russian officials. In September 2016, Steele and I met in Washington and discussed the information now known as the dossier. Steeles sources suggested that the Kremlin not only had been behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign but also had compromised Trump and developed ties with his associates and campaign. I was allowed to review, but not to keep, a copy of these reports to enable me to alert the State Department. I prepared a two-page summary and shared it with Nuland, who indicated that, like me, she felt that the secretary of state [then John Kerry] needed to be made aware of this material.
The level of involvement from Khodorkovsky and Browder is murky at best. But one thing seems fairly clear. The Magnitsky Act, which had a material impact on relations with Russia, has stemmed primarily from the unsubstantiated narratives of two men: Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Bill Browder.
Jeff Carlson is a CFA charterholder. He worked for 20 years as an analyst and portfolio manager in the high-yield bond market. He runs the website TheMarketsWork.com
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
A group gathered to greet Chinese head of state Xi Jinping, mostly made up of students, outside the Old Executive Office Building in Washington on Sept. 25, 2015. (Lisa Fan/The Epoch Times)
The Shadow That Haunts Chinese Students in America
Recently, there has been some buzz in the media about President Donald Trumps alleged characterization of virtually every Chinese student studying in the United States as being a spy, despite the fact that he didnt identify the country by name. While the mainstream media might find his words far-fetched, Trump wasnt totally off the mark.
On Feb. 13, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified at a Senate hearing that a massive Chinese intelligence espionage network, whether its professors, scientists, students, is in operation at universities across the United States. We see [that] in almost every field office the FBI has around the country. Its not just major cities. Its small ones as well, he said.
I think the level of naivete on the part of the academic sector about this creates its own issues. Theyre exploiting the very open research and development environment that we have, which we all revere. But theyre taking advantage of it.
There are some 350,000 students from mainland China (about 35 percent of all foreign students in America) currently enrolled at U.S. higher-education institutions. According to Michael Wessel, commissioner of the congressional U.S.China Economic Security Review Commission, Beijing is recruiting some of them to secure technology knowhow.
Cases such as Ruopeng Liu, a former Duke doctoral student accused of passing sensitive technology to China, arent uncommon, although often not as sensationally covered as a Russian spy story by the press.
The Shady CSSAs
Chinese Students and Scholars Associations (CSSAs) exist at virtually all U.S. universities that have enrolled Chinese students. They are influenced and frequently funded by their local Chinese consulates.
These are not typical student clubs; rather, they serve to monitor fellow Chinese students and carry out a variety of state missions such as harassing the so-called anti-China speakers on campus and greeting any visiting Chinese leaders, rain or shine, outside their hotels.
In 2015, when Chinese head of state Xi Jingping was in Washington, the Chinese Embassy used WeChat and relied on these CSSAs to mobilize some 700 Chinese students from nearby universities to show up, waving red flags to welcome their communist leader, each being compensated later with $20 for their effort; some were even bused into town from locations hours away, such as Virginia Tech.
In a jaw-dropping example, hundreds of Chinese students studying in Europe were flown to Iceland when Jiang Zemin made an official state visit there in 2002. The Iceland authorities fell on their knees to receive Jiang, while denying the entry of hundreds of Falun Gong and Tibetan protesters at the ReykjavikKeflavik Airport, using a blacklist provided by Beijing.
As if such CSSAs werent bold enough in their missions, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has openly set up its branches on university campuses across America.
In an interview with Foreign Policy, a student member of the CCP cell at the University of Illinois said: After we went back to China, we had one-on-one meetings with our teachers. We talked about ourselves and others performance abroad. We had to talk about whether other students had some anti-party thought.
Such CCP cells are operating in California, Ohio, New York, Connecticut, North Dakota, and West Virginia.
The culture of students spying on one other isnt unique in an Orwellian society. In fact, students are also encouraged to report on their professors.
As a result of tip-offs from students, professor You Shengdong of Xiamen University, professor Zhai Juhong of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, and professor Tan Song of Chongqing Normal University have all been suspended from teaching for making politically incorrect comments in the classroom.
Stockholm Syndrome
I once asked a Chinese student, a devoted Christian: Why would you answer the CSSAs call to greet the visiting Chinese leader while your underground church brothers and sisters in China are hiding and being persecuted by this atheist communist regime? If anything, I could understand if you would go and protest on their behalf.
He was visibly at a loss, struggling between whether he should fulfill his patriotic duty or defend his personal faith. Neither was he able to differentiate what has become an ambiguous line between China and the CCP, thanks to decades of systematic propaganda that has equated the nation with the party.
Some of these active CSSA members may very likely have parents or grandparents who went through a tough time during the Cultural Revolution, but the CCP seems to have succeeded in convincing these students that without the CCP, there is no New China, according to a universal slogan.
Dr. Jingduan Yang, an Oxford-trained psychiatrist, was the first Chinese doctor who sought to explain the internal conflict the Chinese people have suffered all these years.
At a well-attended Yenching Auditorium at Harvard in May 2006, Dr. Yang used the case of the famous Chinese writer Ding Ling to illustrate how the entire Chinese population has been a victim of Stockholm syndrome. Stockholm syndrome, coined after a 1973 bank robbery that took place in Sweden, is used to describe the paradoxical feelings a victim experiences for his or her abuser.
Ding Ling, who barely survived the living hell of the Anti-Rightist Movement in the 1950s and the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, to the surprise of many, ended up vigorously defending the CCPs Anti-Rightist Movement after she was rehabilitated. Of course, Ding Ling wasnt alone in this regard, as an Orwellian society that is sustained by fear and mind control can mass-produce individuals with such distorted thinking.
Although no one living in Beijings Zhongnanhai compoundthe headquarters for the CCPmay have ever heard of B.F. Skinner, it appears that they have certainly mastered his behavior-modification model, better perhaps than many counselors in the West.
Skinners model, referred to as operant conditioning, is based on the premise that behavior can be shaped by external stimuli. Through multiple experiments, Skinner discovered that such stimulation, specifically rewards or punishments, is most likely to impact behavior in a well-controlled environment. Few regimes have done a better job than the CCP in isolating their citizens to better manipulate and control their thinking and behavior.
Often, longtime victims of Stockholm syndrome may not be aware that their thinking is distorted or that they have been victimized. From a young age, Chinese people arent educated with objective facts but instead indoctrinated with ideas the government wants them to believe. This is dangerous for the Chinese people, as well for those living outside Chinas borders.
This is not to say that a democratic government is completely free of ideological manipulation, but there is a big difference: The success of a democracy depends on the active participation of its citizens whereas the success of a communist regime depends on the passive adherence of its populace, which can only be achieved through relentless propaganda and a draconian grip on all media, including a well-insulated intranet for its 600 million internet users.
Therefore, the only treatment for an entire people held hostage by a massive authoritarian system is a free society.
Overcoming the effects of Stockholm syndrome or other types of mind control from years of communist education is perhaps one of the most daunting tasks facing all Chinese people, particularly overseas students who have a decent opportunity to transform themselves in a free society. George Orwell wrote in 1984, Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.
Instead of offering overseas Chinese students scientific and technology know-how exclusively, U.S. universities may find it a worthy cause to invest resources in studying mind control and Stockholm syndrome under the Chinese communist system. Workshops on these topics may help students overcome the traumatic effects of the constant and insidious propaganda to which they were subjected, so that they can feel safe enough to think critically and creatively.
Winston Churchill said, The empires of the future are the empires of the mind. If we are to help China become a peaceful and trustworthy nation, nurturing a healthy mind is perhaps a good place to start.
Peter Zhang focuses his research on political economy in China and East Asia. He is a graduate of Beijing International Studies University, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and Harvards Kennedy School as an Edward Mason Fellow.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
So far, hes already had plenty of opportunities to make memories through participation in band, Peer Helpers, Peer Mediators, speech team, and Senior Leaders. He already has earned more than 100 service hours, according to Carla Erdey, director of communications for Consolidated High School District 230.
Trump Talks Trade Deals, Terrorism With Emir of Kuwait
President Donald Trump welcomed the emir of Kuwait as a friend to the White House on Sept. 5, almost exactly a year after the leaders last visit to Washington.
Trump called Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah a very special and highly respected leader in the Gulf region, and said the United States appreciated his friendship.
Emir Al-Sabah, who leads a Muslim-majority nation about the size of New Jersey sandwiched between Saudi Arabia and Iraq, had similar accolades for the United States.
I commend the unwavering commitment of the United States to the security and stability of our region as it had demonstrated in its leadership of the international coalition that liberated my country, he said, referring the U.S. involvement in the Gulf War, in which Iraq annexed and occupied Kuwait.
We will also discuss means of cooperation to resolve the crisis in the Gulf region and look forward with hope that an end to this crisis will be reached, he said.
Emir Al-Sabah pointed to the violence in Yemen and the PalestinianIsraeli conflict as particular areas where the United States was having a positive effect.
Trump said: Frankly, were working very hard to bring some stability into the Middle East. Yemen is a tragic situation.
Both leaders talked about the important role of investment for the countries relationship, and Trump thanked Emir Al-Sabah for Kuwaits tremendous investments in the United States.
The United States exports mainly vehicles, aircraft, and machinery to Kuwait. Trade between the two countries has increased 20 percent since 2016. In 2016, foreign direct investment from Kuwait into the United States reached $1.1 billion.
In June, Boeing was awarded a $1.5 billion contract to build 28 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets for the Kuwait Air Force.
Thats jobs for the United States, Trump said. Nobody makes jets, fighters, and all of the different components better than the United States. Weve given them great incentive. But we appreciate the big purchases that youve been making.
Most of the leaders private conversation was not publicized, but Trump said that they talked about difficulties in the Middle East.
After the meeting, Trump held a working group with the emir and a delegation of officials from Kuwait that he said was to talk about trade and terrorism.
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the name of Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. The Epoch Times regrets the mistake.
Trump to Chair UN Security Council Meeting on Iran
President Donald Trump will chair a U.N. Security Council meeting on Iran this month to spotlight its violations of international law, during the annual gathering of world leaders in New York, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said on Sept. 4.
The United States, which holds the council presidency for September, has unsuccessfully pushed the Security Council to call out Iran. Haley has regularly attacked Iran, accusing it of meddling in the wars in Syria and Yemen.
Haley told reporters Trump will leading the meeting to address Irans violations of international law and the general instability Iran sows throughout the entire Middle East region.
Diplomats said Iran could request to speak at the Sept. 26 meeting, the high-level week of the U.N. General Assembly. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is expected to address the assembly on Sept. 25. The Iranian U.N. mission didnt immediately respond to a request for comment, and Haley said the United States wouldnt object to Rouhani speaking.
Russias Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said the Iran meeting should focus on the implementation of a 2015 resolution on Iran.
We very much hope that there will be views voiced in connection with the U.S. withdrawal from a 2015 international nuclear deal, Polyanskiy told the council.
Trump in May withdrew from the accord between Iran and six world powers that is aimed at stalling Tehrans nuclear capabilities in return for lifting some sanctions. Trump ordered the reimposition of U.S. sanctions suspended under the deal.
Iran is still subject to a U.N. arms embargo and other restrictions contained in the resolution, which enshrines the nuclear deal. European powers have been scrambling to salvage the accord.
In February, Russia vetoed a U.S.-led bid for the Security Council to call out Tehran for failing to prevent its weapons from falling into the hands of Yemens Houthi group, a charge that Tehran denies.
Several council members on Sept. 4 also expressed opposition to Haleys plan to convene a Sept. 5 meeting on Nicaragua.
More than 300 people have been killed and thousands injured in crackdowns by Nicaraguan police and armed groups on protests over government plans to cut welfare benefits. The protests have developed into broader opposition against President Daniel Ortega.
China, Russia, Bolivia, and others said the situation in Nicaragua isnt a threat to international peace and security, and therefore shouldnt be discussed by the council. Bolivia is expected to try to block the meeting but doesnt have the minimum nine votes required to do so, diplomats said.
Additional reporting by Mohammad Zargham; editing by Grant McCool and James Dalgleish
UK Brexit Poll Shows 6-Point Swing Toward Remaining in EU
LONDONThe latest Brexit opinion poll shows a six-point swing toward remaining in the European Union, in the furthest shift from the narrow referendum result in 2016 that pushed Britain down the road toward a possible exit from the 27-member trading bloc.
The new polling showed 59 percent of voters would now vote to remain in the bloc, versus 41 percent who would opt to leave, according to an academic-led report on Sept. 5 by research bodies NatCen and The UK in a Changing Europe. Its the highest support for EU membership in such a survey since the 2016 referendum.
On June 23, 2016, 52 percent of those who voted in the referendum opted to leave the EU, and 48 percent voted to stay.
Since then, opinion polls have overall shown a slight shift in favor of remaining in the EU, although they have fluttered along with the political winds whipped up by Brexit issues.
The UK has yet to leave the EU, and the terms of Brexit have yet to be agreed on between the EU and the UKthe matter that will decide on a hard or soft Brexit.
Polls showing support for the EU are often used to bolster growing demands for a second referendum on whether or not to accept the final deal with the EU.
Referendums Harder to Predict than Elections
The researchers note that the composition of remain-voters and leave-voters in their interview panel didnt quite reflect the percentages of the referendum vote53 percent had voted to remain.
Nonetheless, the poll marks a significant shift, said professor John Curtice, a senior research fellow at NatCen.
There has apparently been a six-point swing from Leave to Remain, larger than that registered by any of our previous rounds of interviewing, and a figure that would seemingly point to a 54 percent (Remain) vote in any second referendum held now, Curtice wrote.
Polls prior to the Brexit vote wrongly predicted that voters would opt to remain in the EU.
Polling experts said it is even harder to predict referendums than regular elections.
However, the NatCen survey is the latest in a series of five surveys, asking the same questions with the same method. So it more reliably tracks changes in public attitudes, even if it is hard to predict exactly how that shift would correspond to votes cast on the day in a ballot box.
The research was carried out before Prime Minister Theresa May put forward her much-pilloried Brexit blueprint.
The researchers also compared peoples attitudes toward various other factors often linked to Brexitsuch as immigration.
When it comes to predicting whether someone will change their mind about Brexit one thing alone stands out, according to the researchers: the economy.
Curtice said, Nothing is more likely to persuade someone who voted Leave in 2016 that perhaps they made the wrong choice than the perception that the UK will economy will suffer as a result of Brexit.
Equally, nothing is more likely to persuade someone who voted Remain that perhaps the UK should be leaving after all than the perception that the UK economy might benefit from Brexit.
No Credible Bargaining Position
Voters have become less concerned about controlling EU migration, and also are losing faith that the UK will secure a good deal with the EU.
May has come under fire in recent weeks from all sides for her negotiating tactics.
On Sept. 5, former Bank of England Gov. Lord King said that the UK did not have a credible bargaining position because it had not made serious preparations for the no deal scenario.
King told the BBC, We hadnt put in place measures where we could say to our colleagues in Europe, Look, wed like a free-trade deal, we think that you would probably like one too, but if we cant agree, dont be under any misapprehension, we have put in place the measures that would enable us to leave without one.'
Pigs on their way to market in Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, China on March 14, 2013. (Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images)
UN Holds Emergency Meeting in Asia as China Battles African Swine Fever
BEIJINGThe United Nations is holding an emergency meeting this week with animal health experts in Asia to discuss the threat of African swine fever. The first outbreak of the disease in the region was discovered in China last month.
China has detected eight cases of the highly contagious virus since discovering the first outbreak on Aug. 3, raising concerns about its spread in the worlds largest pork producer and beyond its borders into Southeast Asia.
Its arrival in China marked a new front in the battle to control the disease, which has traveled from Europe over the past decade through Russia.
First detected in Africa almost a century ago, the virus is often deadly for pigs but does not harm humans.
Specialists from China and nine other countries are attending the meeting, running from Sept. 5 to 7 in Bangkok, along with experts from outside the region and participants from the private commercial swine sector.
The nine countries are Cambodia, Japan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam, the UNs Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a statement on Sept. 5.
The FAO has repeatedly warned that the arrival of the disease poses a significant threat to Asia.
Its critical that this region be ready for the very real possibility that (swine fever) could jump the border into other countries, said Wantanee Kalpravidh, regional manager of the FAO Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases in Asia.
Thats why this emergency meeting has been convenedto assess where we are nowand to determine how we can work together in a coordinated, regional response to this serious situation.
Chinese authorities are shutting live markets in infected provinces and banning transportation of live pigs and pork products in and out of those regions.
The latest outbreak of swine fever in China was reported in Wuxi City in Jiangsu Province on Sept. 3.
Highlighting the challenge though, South Korea had to ramp up quarantine measures at airports after a traveler was found carrying Chinese food infected with the disease.
The seminar will review recent research studies and technologies and consider lessons from recent and ongoing episodes in Europe, it said.
The disease is transmitted by ticks and direct contact between animals, and can also travel via contaminated food, animal feed, and people traveling from one place to another. There is no vaccine.
By Josephine Mason
Richard Liu, CEO and founder of JD.com, at a France-Chinese forum on artificial intelligence at SOHO 3Q in Beijing on Jan. 9, 2018. (Reuters/Jason Lee)
US Police Say JD.com CEO Arrested on Rape Allegations
MINNEAPOLIS/SHANGHAIThe CEO of Chinese online retail giant JD.com, Richard Liu, was arrested in Minneapolis last week following an allegation of rape, according to a police report released on Sept. 4.
The disclosure adds detail about the accusation after police said previously he had been arrested on suspicion of criminal sexual conduct.
Liu, who through his lawyers has denied any wrongdoing, was arrested late on Aug. 31 during a business trip to the United States. He was released from custody on Sept. 1 without being charged or paying bail. He soon returned to China, appearing at an event on Sept. 4 to sign an agreement with Shandong Ruyi, the owner of Swiss luxury shoe firm Bally.
The rape accusation is likely to increase pressure on Liu and the U.S.-listed JD.com, which saw its shares drop 6 percent on its first day of trade since the news of his arrest broke.
Minneapolis Police Department spokesman John Elder said on Sept. 4 that if there were any charges against Liu, they would not be filed until completion of a criminal investigation, which would not occur before this Friday, Sept. 7.
The police report said domestic violence was not involved. Elder said the alleged attack reportedly occurred at 1 a.m. local time on Aug. 31. Liu was taken into custody hours later.
Elder declined to disclose whether any accuser was cooperating with police. I wouldnt address that. That goes to the investigation, he said.
According to Minnesota law, the maximum penalty if found guilty of first degree sexual assault is 30 years, and the minimum is 12 years.
Beijing-based lawyers said that if Liu was charged, there would be few legal channels to force him to return to the United States, but added that it was unlikely he would refuse, given the potential negative impact on his business interests. China does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.
They declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Any prolonged absence by Liu could exacerbate risks for the company, given JD.coms unusual rules that require Liu to be present at board meetings for the board to make decisions. It is not clear, however, if he has to be physically present or could participate by teleconference.
Liu owns over 15 percent of JD.coms stock and controls nearly 80 percent of the companys voting rights.
JD.com said on Sept. 5 it had no comment to make on the case.
Danny Law, Hong Kong-based analyst at brokerage Guotai Junan, said that if U.S. police charged Liu, the firms share price would fall further, but predicted there would not be a sharp crash because of an already steep fall so far this year.
JD.coms shares, now valued at some $42 billion, have lost around 30 percent since the start of the year on weaker sales amid stiff competition from much bigger rival Alibaba.
The company counts Walmart, Alphabet Inc.s Google and Chinas Tencent as investors.
If this spirals as a media focus, negative attention could offset some of the positives associated with endorsement by Walmart and Google, analyst Rob Sanderson of MKM Partners said.
Negative publicity could also compromise JD.coms ability to attract international brands to its marketplace, which has been a top focus of the CEO over the past two years or so, Sanderson said.
The agreement with Shandong Ruyi is part of that effort. Liu talked about the fashion industry in a press release about the deal but did not address his arrest in the United States.
Liu lost a court battle in Australia in July to keep his name out of a sexual assault trial. Liu was not accused of any wrongdoing in that case, according to a court document.
The case involved a person who had been a guest at a party hosted by Liu at his home in Sydney in 2015, who accused another guest of sexually assaulting her at a hotel. The defendant was found guilty of seven offenses.
By Todd Melby and Adam Jourdan.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the National World War II museum in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Aug. 23, 2018. (Jonathan Bachman/Reuters)
Vice President Pence Calls for Release of Jailed Reuters Journalists
WASHINGTON U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Sept. 4, called on Myanmars government to reverse a court ruling that imprisoned two Reuters journalists for seven years and to release them immediately.
The journalists were found guilty on Sept. 3, on official secrets charges in a landmark case seen as a test of progress toward democracy in Myanmar, which was ruled by a military junta until 2011.
Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were investigating the killing by security forces of Rohingya villagers at the time of their arrest last December and had pleaded not guilty.
Wa Lone & Kyaw Soe Oo shd be commendednot imprisonedfor their work exposing human rights violations & mass killings. Freedom of religion & freedom of the press are essential to a strong democracy, Pence wrote on Twitter.
Pence is the most senior U.S. official to add his voice to an international outcry against the verdict by a Myanmar judge, who said the two had breached the colonial-era Official Secrets Act when they collected and obtained confidential documents.
In Yangon earlier on Sept. 4, the wives of two journalists insisted that the men were innocent and called for them to be reunited with their families.
Deeply troubled by the Burmese court ruling sentencing 2 @Reuters journalists to 7 years in jail for doing their job reporting on the atrocities being committed on the Rohingya people, Pence wrote in another tweet.
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Sept. 4, that the United States would become more vocal about the two journalists situation.
Speaking at a news conference in New York marking the U.S. assumption of the rotating chairmanship of the Security Council for September, Haley said the reporters were in prison for telling the truth.
Mark Green, administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, said: these convictions are an enormous setback for democracy and the rule of law in Burma.
Mounting Pressure
The verdict came amid mounting pressure on the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi over a security crackdown sparked by attacks by Rohingya Muslim insurgents on security forces in Rakhine State in west Myanmar in August 2017.
More than 700,000 stateless Rohingya Muslims have fled into Bangladesh since then, according to U.N. agencies. The Rohingya, who regard themselves as native to Rakhine, are widely considered as interlopers by the countrys Buddhist majority and are denied citizenship. Neither Suu Kyi nor her government have commented publicly on the case since the reporters were convicted.
The journalists were arrested on Dec. 12, while investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya men and boys and other abuses involving soldiers and police in the village of Inn Din.
Myanmar has denied allegations of atrocities against Rohingya by its security forces, saying it conducted a legitimate counterinsurgency operation against Muslim militants.
The military acknowledged the killing of the 10 Rohingya at Inn Din after arresting the Reuters reporters.
A U.N mandated fact-finding mission said last week that Myanmars military carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Muslim Rohingya with genocidal intent and called for top generals to be prosecuted. Myanmar rejected the findings.
The International Criminal Court is considering whether it has jurisdiction over events in Rakhine, while the United States, the European Union, and Canada have sanctioned Myanmar military and police officers over the crackdown.
Consumers expect businesses to provide ease of use, efficiency and seamless payment processes. That's especially pressing considering that globally, around two-thirds of the population of 52 key countries are expected to own a smartphone in 2018, as documented by Zenith Media.
Unfortunately, as NFIB research shows, many smaller companies still forgo adopting digital solutions. One of my main companies helps small and large businesses with software, and we constantly encounter issues of old and unreliable systems and even an absence of the right software, including ecommerce options. Although this may seem like a no-brainer topic, the research proves that there are still slow adopters and laggards to digital solutions.
While there are a host of variables to consider when putting up an ecommerce channel, among the critical decisions to make is choosing a payment system. As shown in this Baymard article, checkout concerns are among the top reasons why online shoppers abandon their purchases. Customers demand a frictionless experience.
Related: New to Ecommerce? Save Yourself Thousands Yearly With These 5 Frugal Hacks.
It's high time for small business to ramp up their use of digital solutions. Here are five factors you should consider when choosing how to integrate ecommerce into your business.
1. Customer's preference
There's a dizzying array of payment methods and solutions that are currently available. However, supporting every method available can be costly and impractical. A good way to approach this is for you to support the methods most preferred by your key customers.
This can be based on geography. For instance, Americans typically use cards as funding sources even with digital wallets such as PayPal and Apple Pay. Certain regions in Europe such as the Nordics prefer to use bank accounts. The Chinese use mobile payment solutions such as WeChat and Alipay. Other parts of Asia still prefer cash-on-delivery.
Preference can also be based on your particular audience and niche. Working-age customers should have a certain level of financial capacity and would have access to bank accounts and credit cards.
Payment services can help you support virtually all these methods but keep in mind that service tiers that accommodate multiple payment methods come with a cost. If you run a smaller operation, consider prioritizing support for the most preferred method by your market.
2. Emerging tech
Consider emerging niches as well. There's a growing demographic of the crypto-wealthy who made their money investing in Bitcoin and Ether. Because of the lack of means to exchange cryptocurrencies to local currencies, these people try to spend them instead. This creates an opportunity for you to tap into this market. Services such as Paybear can help you support payments in Bitcoin and other altcoins.
However, supporting cryptocurrency payments does have its challenges, after all, cryptocurrency values can fluctuate wildly. For example, Bitcoin can take double-digit swings within a single trading day.
Projects like T.OS are developing blockchain-based emoney that can even be pegged to local currencies. Such stablecoins hold their value even if the rest of the crypto market fluctuates, making them suitable for use in commerce. Such options could allow you to work with crypto payments while minimizing the risk of volatility.
Developments in logistics and payments have allowed cross-border commerce to grow. So, if you're looking to expand your market across borders or overseas, accommodate the preferred methods in those places.
3. Security of transactions
Security is always a concern for anything that involves money and customer data. Payment services providers should be the ones who work towards compliance with security standards. Check if the provider you're partnering with follows industry standards such as the PCI Standards if you're accepting card-funded payments.
Related: 5 Hot Trends That Will Continue to Change Your Ecommerce Horizons in 2018
Fraud and chargebacks are also concerns. Criminals often use stolen credit cards for online purchases. If you happen to process orders from such fraudsters, you may be left shouldering the cost of goods and even shipping since card companies typically rule in favor of the cardholders in cases of disputes.
Fraud prevention and chargeback protection may be available with your payments provider but they often charge extra for these services. One of the advantages of accepting crypto payments is that transactions can be irreversible and final, which eliminates exposure to chargeback fraud.
4. Ease of use
Due to the advances in user experience design, customers now demand speedy and convenient interfaces to use. It would do you well to check if your targeted payments solution will enhance your checkout experience. The fewest clicks or page loads customers have to make, the better.
Take note of the ease of use at your end as well. See if the experience will be idiot-proof for your or your staff to handle. Go through the checkout process yourself to confirm. Ask questions about reporting, such as will you gain functionalities such as dashboards and reporting, inventory management, invoicing and bookkeeping integration? Does the new software have plug-ins and integrations for your shopping cart platform (e.g. Magento or Shopify)?
You don't want your payment solution to introduce unwanted complications to the way you do business.
5. Fees and costs
Among the reasons many small businesses want to stick to cash are the costs associated with supporting other payment methods. Card companies can charge somewhere between 1 to 3 percent for every transaction. Digital payments services that support card payments often pad these rates even more.
Crypto payments can charge lower rates. Since they use blockchain, they don't have to route payments through intermediaries such as banks and clearing houses. However, it's a different story if you have to convert crypto coins to traditional currencies. Crypto exchanges charge additional fees and commissions for such transactions.
Related: $0 to $1,000 in a Day: How to Create a Community That Keeps Buying and Buying From You
Most payment services offer tiered charging depending on the volume of transactions you make. Shop around so that you can find the best option depending on your locality. Crunch the numbers to see which one will give you the best value.
As a business owner, you are in the best position to know your business, industry and customers. The success of your ecommerce efforts depends on various factors, but your choice of payments system will play a major part. So evaluate your situation, check out possible providers and do the math to see how these would affect your bottom line.
Related:
5 Points to Consider When Choosing an Ecommerce System for Your Business
How This Teenpreneur is Making a Fortune by Running an Online Business Single-handedly
The 'Hot Vet' of Instagram Shares What He's Learned About Brand-Building, Human Nature and Pet Allergies With His 1 Million Followers
Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
Blanchette said the Salvation Army, which provides an application to the customer, does most of the legwork determining eligibility, with an in-person interview, but it also helps them if they need assistance in other areas of their lives. Following approval, credits are applied electronically to the customers account.
NORWALK Norwalk-area Republicans running for the General Assembly won the endorsement of the Independent Party of Connecticut during a convention in Newtown on Tuesday evening.
Their names will appear on both the Independent and Republican Party lines of the Nov. 6 election ballot, according to a statement released by the candidates Wednesday.
Republicans have sought the Independent Party endorsement to provide them a second line and offer voters an alternative just as Democrats have sought the endorsement of the Connecticut Working Families Party.
State Rep. Gail Lavielle, who is running for re-election in the 143rd District of the state House of Representatives, was among the Republicans candidates backed by the Independent Party. She said the endorsement reflects her approach of considering every issue on its merits, working with people of all political affiliations to get things done, and representing my constituents, who hold a broad spectrum of viewpoints.
I am honored that independent-minded people see the value of my work in representing our district, Lavielle said in the statement. Connecticuts persistent fiscal crisis and serious economic issues transcend politics and demand clear and objective thinking, honest working relationships, and transparency for the states residents.
Lavielle and state Rep. Fred Wilms, who is running for re-election in the 142nd District, as well as Republicans Frank Page, who is running in the 137th District, and Marc DAmelio, who is running for the 25th District in the state Senate, also received the backing of the Independent Party.
Wilms described his nomination by fellow Republicans in May as an honor, but added Connecticuts crisis transcends political labels, thus prompting him to seek the Independent endorsement as well.
Connecticut is in the midst of a huge economic and fiscal crisis. GE is gone. Our economy has shrunk 8 percent, Wilms said. We have a hostile business environment, high taxes, massive unfunded liabilities and a $5 billion budget deficit for 2019- 2020. We all need to work together.
Page presented himself as a newcomer and independent thinker ready to represent the 137th District and shake things up in Hartford.
I know from experience that viewpoint does not fall along party lines, Page said. I am happy to accept support from anyone who shares my vision for Norwalk and I am glad I will be appearing on the Independent Party line. I look forward to campaigning as a nonpartisan community advocate.
Republican John Flynn, who is running for the 140th District in the state House, also received the Independent Party's endorsement after collecting sufficient petition signatures from voters in the district.
DAmelio said the Independent Partys endorsement of his candidacy demonstrates the hard work that I have put in to earn the support of people across the political spectrum.
What defines me is not the party label that appears next to my name, but, instead, the fact that I am running to represent Norwalk and Darien in the state Senate, DAmelio said. The best interests of my community as a whole will determine my approach to the issues. I intend to engage Republicans, Independents, and Democrats alike as I campaign, and I pledge to take a similar independent-minded approach in the state Senate.
The Republican candidates earlier endorsement by the Danbury Branch of the Independent Party was thrown into question amid a long-running leadership battle within the party. In August, a Superior Court judge sided with the Waterbury faction and ordered the Secretary of the States Office to accept the groups endorsements and nominations.
Former state House Republican Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr. of Norwalk, who is running for Norwalk Wilton Probate Court Judge, secured the endorsement of the Independent Party after successfully gathering petition signatures of voters in both towns. His name will also appear on two lines on the Norwalk ballot.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
NORWALK Life at Norwalk High School appeared routine on Wednesday, the morning after it was revealed a longtime cafeteria worker had been accused of bringing a gun onto school grounds and making threats.
Leslie Delaney, 69, of Hamden, was charged with possession of a weapon on school grounds, second-degree threatening and second-degree breach of peace after coworker told police he made threatening statements last month, police said. School officials said Wednesday he had been placed on paid administrative leave until the end of a police investigation.
School security reached out to the School Resource Officer assigned to Norwalk High on Tuesday morning about some threats that security and the school administration had just learned about.
The SRO was told that on Aug. 30, a school cafeteria worker was talking to a co-worker when he said if the co-worker ever saw him in his army clothes, the co-worker should leave because he would have an AK-47 and that he could come to finish everything and then off himself, police said.
Police said the person identified the person making the threats as Delaney.
Officers responded to Norwalk High School and found Delaney in the cafeteria. He was brought outside to be interviewed. During the interview with officers, police said, he admitted to making the comments and claimed they were a joke.
Police had Delaney taken to Norwalk Hospital for an evaluation. The officers got consent to search Delaneys car, which was parked at Norwalk High School.
While searching the vehicle officers located a .22 caliber Mossberg rifle in the trunk, police said. The rifle was not loaded and there was no ammunition in the vehicle.
Delaney was placed under arrest and police got a search warrant for his home. Delaneys bond is set at $75,000 and he will appear in court on Sept. 14. Police said there were no weapons or ammunition at Delaneys home.
Based on the investigation, it was determined that there was no immediate threat to students or staff, police said.
As a precaution and to provide an added sense of security, additional SROs will be at Norwalk High School on Wednesday.
Norwalk Public Schools employees are required to pass an extensive background check that includes fingerprinting, reference checks, verification of past work experience and educational history, according to Brenda Wilcox Williams, the schools public information officer.
Principal Reginald Roberts sent an email to parents Tuesday night, outlining the incident. But at 8:57 p.m., there would be no way to contact a school official with questions, said parent, Susan Cortese.
I was upset that the news was more informative than the email, Cortese said of media reports. In the email, she said, there was no mention of a weapon or threat.
Students referred to Delaney as the nacho guy. He would sometimes act out and yell at students, said Annabella Neilson, a senior at Norwalk High School.
Theres no excuse for what he did but working with rude teenagers probably didnt help, she said.
Thank God the gun wasnt loaded, said Thomas Volpe, a senior who brings his lunch every day. He praised school administrators for keeping the incident quiet during school hours and not alarming students.
School officials are encouraging students to report incidents to administrators or teachers. In a press release, school officials urged students to utilize Anonymous Alerts, an application that was introduced to middle and high school students last fall. The application students to report incidents anonymously.
I think they did a great job of responding and getting the guy out of there, said Kevin Mullins, a father who drives his daughter to school. My sympathy is with him and getting him the help that he needs.
NORWALK A high school employee was charged Tuesday after he allegedly made threatening statements to a co-worker late last month, police said.
Leslie Delaney, 69, of Hamden, was charged with possession of a weapon on school grounds, second-degree threatening and second-degree breach of peace.
School security reached out to the School Resource Officer assigned to Norwalk High School on Tuesday morning about some threats that security and the school administration had just learned about.
The SRO was told that on Aug. 30, a school cafeteria worker was talking to a co-worker when he said if the co-worker ever saw him in his army clothes, the co-worker should leave because he would have an AK-47 and that he could come to finish everything and then off himself, police said.
Police said the person identified the person making the threats as Delaney.
Officers responded to Norwalk High School and found Delaney in the cafeteria. He was brought outside to be interviewed. During the interview with officers, police said, he admitted to making the comments and claimed they were a joke.
Police had Delaney taken to Norwalk Hospital for an evaluation. The officers got consent to search Delaneys car, which was parked at Norwalk High School.
White searching the vehicle officers located a .22 caliber Mossberg rifle in the trunk, police said. The rifle was not loaded and there was no ammunition in the vehicle.
Delaney was placed under arrest and police got a search warrant for his home. Delaneys bond was set at $75,000. Police said there were no weapons or ammunition at Delaneys home.
Based on the investigation, it was determined that there was no immediate threat to students or staff, police said.
As a precaution and to provide an added sense of security, additional SROs will be at Norwalk High School on Wednesday.
The Norwalk Police Tip Line 203-854-3111. Anonymous internet tips can be submitted at www.norwalkpd.com. Anonymous text tips can be sent to CRIMES (274637) by typing NPD into the text field, followed by the message.
NORWALK Things should soon return to normal at the Norwalk Senior Center after a summer of reconstructing parking lots.
The repaving project, which closed the facility for 10 days last month, is nearly finished, said Beatrix Winter, executive director of Norwalk Senior Center. Once workers complete the project, 13 additional parking spots will be available to senior center members and parents and staff at Norwalk Early Childhood Center, which shares the building.
We are thrilled with the work. We are happy it got done, Winter said.
Part of the citys budget helped finance the project, Winter added. The senior center, which comprises 2,000 members and has hosted 100 people at events, desperately needed the additional parking spots. The lots hadnt been repaved in 40 years, Winter said.
Deering Construction workers, who showed up daily at 7 a.m. and left at 6 p.m., completed the task despite a high heat index and almost 100 degree weather on several days. The center was closed from Aug. 16 to 30 for safety reasons. Seniors at the facility Wednesday said the closure made them appreciate the centers services even more.
It really affected the people who come here on a daily basis, said Joan Vitali, a 74-year-old volunteer. When thats disrupted maybe they have more time on their hands than they like.
But, she conceded, the center desperately needed the renovations.
Even though the Allen Road location of the senior center was closed during major construction, the center continued to provide transportation and meals on wheels to the seniors who needed it most, Winter said.
The Norwalk Transit District allowed the senior center to temporarily store its buses at its headquarters and Cranbury Elementary School and St. Peters Lutheran Church hosted the centers meals on wheels program during the closure.
And we got a lot of other things, said Vitali.
In addition to the repaving, construction workers fixed the centers back door and a new side walk, she said.
The senior center offers exercise classes, benefits counseling, scam prevention, and a long list of other services.
Different groups met at the center Wednesday morning, including a group of 22 seniors who met there before traveling to Atlantic City.
The Social Stitchers, a group which meets weekly to knit hats and scarves, said they were happy to be back at the center. The clothing theyre creating will be donated to veterans and homeless people at an upcoming event.
On Aug. 30, seniors gathered at the center for weekly bingo. It was their first time back since the closing of the facility, Winter said. It was like a reunion.
This story originally published on Aug. 30, 2018.
Sen. Bernie Sanders is taking a closer look at how big corporations treat their workers, especially ones overseen by billionaires such as Amazon and Walmart. Here is what you need to know about the conflict between Jeff Bezoss ecommerce empire and the senator who has built his platform on issues of economic equality.
Sanderss inquiry
The senator from Vermont posted a form on his website asking Amazon employees to share their experience of working for the company, particularly if they used public assistance programs.
Sanders invoked Jeff Bezos in the explanation for why he was seeking these accounts, writing on his website, Amazon is one of the wealthiest corporations in the world, and its owner, Jeff Bezos, is the richest man on the planet, worth over $155 billion. Despite this, Bezos continues to pay many thousands of his Amazon employees wages that are so low that they are forced to depend on taxpayer-funded programs.
While Amazon encouraged its employees to to tell Senator Sanders their truth, the companys leadership also took issue with Sanderss characterization of the fulfillment center working conditions, saying that the senator was making misleading accusations.
Amazons response
In a blog post addressing the inquiry, the company claimed that Sanders had not toured a fulfillment center despite invitations to do so.
The post also included details about the companys payment and benefits package, writing that the company created more than 130,000 jobs in the last year. Sanders claims that Amazon's median U.S. salary is $28,446, despite the fact that we've made clear that this number is global and includes part-time employees," the company wrote. "In fact, the median U.S. salary for full-time Amazon employees is $34,123. We encourage anyone to compare our pay and benefits to other retailers.
The post also criticized Sanderss use of the term food stamps when referring to SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), in part because the lexicon had been phased out in recent years and because those who were participating in the program included people who only worked for Amazon for a short period of time and/or chose to work part-time -- both of these groups would almost certainly qualify for SNAP.
Sanderss legislation
Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna on Sept. 5 introduced a piece of legislation called Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies, or the Stop BEZOS Act.
At the top of a press conference with Khanna, Sanders referenced Bezos, noting his net worth of $168 billion and that since the start of 2018, the Amazon founders wealth has increased by about $260 million daily, and proceeded to read from some of responses his office solicited from former and current Amazon employees who were participating in programs such as SNAP, Medicaid and subsidized housing.
Sanders said the aim of the legislation was created to have Mr. Bezos and the Walton family of Walmart and other billionaires get off of welfare and start paying their workers a living wage." He added, Specifically, this bill would establish 100 percent tax on corporations with 500 or more employees equal to the amount of federal benefits received by their low-wage workers.
Related:
What It's Really Like to Work at the World's Second $1 Trillion Company
Bernie Sanders Has Named a Bill After Jeff Bezos
Amazon Surges to $1 Trillion. 3 Things to Know Today.
Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
WASHINGTON (AP) Reality television star Kim Kardashian West, who successfully pushed President Donald Trump to grant a pardon for a drug offender earlier this year, returned to the White House on Wednesday for a meeting with senior aides as part of the administrations efforts on criminal justice reform.
Kardashian, who may have felt right at home with the drama-infused atmosphere in the West Wing as it grapples with the fallout from Bob Woodwards new book, participated in a listening session on clemency and prison reform with several staffers, including the presidents senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
The discussion is mainly focused on ways to improve that process to ensure deserving cases receive a fair review, according to Hogan Gidley, White House deputy press secretary.
Among the others in attendance were CNN commentator Van Jones, Shon Hopwood, a lawyer who served time in prison for bank robbery and Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, who has been instrumental in steering Trumps Supreme Court picks, including Brett Kavanaugh, whose confirmation hearings have begun on Capitol Hill.
But the headliner was Kardashian, who last visited the White House three months ago to press for a pardon for 63-year-old Alice Marie Johnson. At the time, the reality star, dressed in black, posed for an instantly iconic and seemingly somber photo with Trump in the Oval Office, though there were no plans for her to meet with the president on Wednesday.
One week after Kardashians visit, Trump granted Johnson clemency, freeing her from prison after a more than two-decade stint on drug charges.
When I looked at Alice, I said we cant just stop with one person. We have to change the laws, Kardashian said in a statement released by #cut50, a group that looks to reduce incarceration time.
The pardon for Johnson was one of several instances where the president has used his constitutional power to pardon federal crimes. Trump in May pardoned conservative commentator Dinesh DSouza and suggested he was considering a commutation for former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and a pardon for lifestyle guru Martha Stewart. He has not yet acted on either front.
We are working to build support for prison reform, sentencing reform, and fair treatment of people coming home from prison, said Van Jones. When you have prominent people like Kim helping voiceless people behind bars like Chris Young who she is advocating for today thats incredibly powerful.
Kardashian gave an interview this week in which she said she would lobby for Young, who was charged in December 2010 for being involved in drug trafficking in Clarksville, Tennessee. He was later convicted and, due to mandatory minimum sentencing, was given life in prison without parole after being arrested for marijuana and cocaine possession.
Kushner has added prison reform to his broad portfolio, though others in the administration namely Attorney General Jeff Sessions support the toughest possible sentences for drug and other convictions. The presidents son-in-law has had an interest in prison reform since his own father, Charles Kushner, was incarcerated for 14 months after being convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering.
TMZ first reported Kardashians White House visit Wednesday.
The essay prompts themselves are nothing short of inspirational, so that helps. Applicants are asked to reflect on, or discuss, or describe, or share a time when theyve been challenged, or failed, or succeeded, or questioned, or solved, or become enthralled by, or suddenly realized, or finally identified something in a way that is so significant, or troubling, or rewarding, or valuable, or surprising, or disappointing, or defining that it merits acknowledgment and skillful recounting, within the given word limit.
Morgan County
Sheriff
ARRESTS, CITATIONS
Christina T. Turner, 23, of 410 E. Morton Ave. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 6:55 p.m. Saturday on charges of driving while license is revoked or suspended and driving without a seat belt.
James P. Norville, 35, of 230 E. Pennsylvania Ave. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 10:56 p.m. Saturday on a charge of criminal trespass to land.
Michael D. Morrow, 38, of 1907 St. Clair Road was booked into the Morgan County jail at 3:02 p.m. Sunday on charges of failure to report an accident and failure to report damage.
Latoria M. Freeman, 31, of 637 N. Fifth St., Springfield, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 9:20 p.m. Sunday on charges of driving while license is revoked or suspended, having an obstructed windshield, having no restraint for a child under 4 years old, operating an uninsured motor vehicle and unlawful use of a license permit.
Robert L. Halls, 32, of 1067 N. Fayette St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 1:22 a.m. Monday on charges of driving under the influence.
Melissa A. Martin-Orr, 48, of Mount Vernon was booked into the Morgan County jail at 4:16 a.m. Monday on a charge of driving while license is revoked or suspended.
Walter L. Frazier, 40, of 328 S. Washington St., Meredosia, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 3:20 a.m. Tuesday on charges of traffic control violation and driving while license is revoked or suspended.
Jacksonville Police
ARRESTS, CITATIONS
Claude D. Morris, 36, of 750 E. Chambers Ave. was booked into the Morgan County jail on a retail theft charge.
Riley J Powell, 21, of 101 Walnut Court was booked into the Morgan County jail at 4:11 a.m. Monday on a resisting a peace officer charge.
Joseph M. Avila, 33, of 1011 S. Clay Ave. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 5:13 a.m. Tuesday on a possession of methamphetamine charge.
Skee D. Sanders, 24, of 308 N. Church St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 5:27 a.m. Tuesday on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting a peace officer.
Jalen R. McBride, 26, of 4020 Treviso Drive, Springfield, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 5:52 a.m. Tuesday on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting a peace officer.
Gary D. Williams, 65, of 738 Allen Ave. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 11 a.m. Tuesday on a charge of violating the litter control act.
BURGLARIES, THEFTS
An undisclosed amount of money was stolen from a home in the 300 block of Northwood Lane between 2 and 9:20 p.m. Monday.
South Jacksonville Police
ARRESTS, CITATIONS
Spencer P. Fortney, 45, of 507 W. Fourth St., Beardstown, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 1:09 a.m. Sunday on charges of possession of methamphetamine and possession of narcotic instrument.
Caquista C. Pence, 41, of 611 Pine St., Greenfield, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 8:19 p.m. Sunday on charges of possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Theodore M. Holmes, 48, of 1610 S. Clay Ave. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 11:05 a.m. Monday on charges of possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Betsy E. Gutierrez, 30, of 1850 S. Main St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 8:41 p.m. Monday on a charge of driving while license is revoked or suspended.
Compiled by Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree and Greg Olson
GODFREY Prospective students are invited to learn more about becoming a Trailblazer and experience campus during Lewis and Clark Community Colleges next fall Discover Day, Monday, Oct. 8.
Future Trailblazers will enjoy free food, giveaways, fun and games, as well as opportunities to talk with financial aid and enrollment reps, tour campus, find info on the programs theyre interested in and experience campus life.
The event will take place from 11 a.m. 1 p.m. on the colleges Godfrey Campus, just behind the Enrollment Center. In the event of inclement weather, the event will move into The Commons.
Discover Days are a great opportunity for prospective students to visit our campus and see what being a Trailblazer is all about, said Delfina Dornes, Director of Enrollment and Advising. They will have the chance to visit academic programs, go on tours, talk to our academic advisors and enjoy free food and activities.
Pre-registration is encouraged, but not required. Fill out the online RSVP form at www.lc.edu/discoverdays.
Discover Days are held twice per year once in the fall and once in the spring when high schools are not in session but the college is.
Discover Days are meant to provide those considering L&C a taste of campus life, while giving them an opportunity to ask any questions they may have, said Vice President of Enrollment Kent Scheffel. Each one is going to be a fun and educational experience.
Advisors and experts will be available to talk with potential students, who will also have the opportunity to tour programs and labs.
Cant make it? The next Discover Day at Lewis and Clark will be held Monday, Feb. 18, 2019.
For more information, contact Enrollment Center Director Delfina Dornes at (618) 468-5200 or ddornes@lc.edu.
CSI LA Facebook followers arrested in Koh Tao rape case
SURAT THANI: Police have arrested nine of 12 people wanted for publishing or sharing a CSI LA Facebook report about the alleged rape of a 19-year-old British tourist on Koh Tao.
crimetechnologypolice
By Bangkok Post
Wednesday 5 September 2018, 02:36PM
Deputy Tourist Police chief Surachate Hakparn (right) says the administrator of the CSI LA Facebook page will be immediately arrested if he ever returns to Thailand. Photo: via Bangkok Post
Were tracking down the other three, who included Facebook page administrator Pramuk Anantasin, media reports quoted deputy Tourist Police chief Surachate Hakparn as saying on today (Sept 5).
Mr Pramuk was believed to be living in the United States, but if he returned to Thailand immigration officers would arrest him immediately, Maj Gen Surachate said.
The swift operation, led by Royal Thai Police technological crime suppression centre, followed the approval of 12 arrest warrants by Samui Provincial Court in Surat Thani on charges of violating the Computer Crime Act.
All the detained suspects would be handed over to local police for legal action, Maj Gen Surachate said.
CSI LA and Samui Times, an online English news website, have been in hot water since reports of the alleged rape appeared on their pages and were shared.
The Samui Times owner, British national Suzanne Buchanan, is also wanted on similar charges.
Authorities took action after an initial inquiry found no evidence to support the 19-year-old backpackers claim, in a story carried by the London tabloid The Sun, that she was drugged, robbed and raped on Koh Tao on June 25. She alleged local police would not record her complaint of sexual assault.
Investigators questioned her claim that she was drugged at a beach bar and then carried further along the beach, where she was raped. They said the tide was very high along that stretch of beach at the time and her allegation was not believable.
The resort island, adjacent to Full Moon Party island Koh Pha-Ngan, was thrown into a negative light by two earlier cases.
In 2015, 23-year-old British backpacker Christina Annesley was found dead on Koh Tao, but investigators were not convinced she was murdered because they found no sign of physical assault or rape.
In 2014, the scenic islands image was further marred by the murder of two British tourists, Hannah Witheridge and David Miller, in September.
Two Myanmar men were found guilty and sentenced to death. They have appealed.
Read original story here.
Mandarin Oriental to open new resort in Phuket
PHUKET: The Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group has announced that it will manage a new luxury resort on Phuket that is scheduled to open in 2022.
transportconstructioneconomics
By The Phuket News
Wednesday 5 September 2018, 10:35AM
The Mandarin Oriental, Phuket will overlook Laem Singh Beach, pictured here when beach vendors were still allowed on the sands. Photo: The Phuket News / file
The Mandarin Oriental, Phuket will be located on an undeveloped beachfront site on Millionaires Mile on the west coast. It will occupy a 59-rai of land overlooking Laem Singh Bay.
The hotel will feature 105 rooms, including 37 pool villas, with panoramic views of the Andaman Sea, the company announced in a release yesterday (Sept 4).
The site itself encloses a white sand beach with rocky outcrops, providing excellent access for snorkelling and swimming, the release added.
Facilities will include three restaurants and bars with ocean-front settings, comprising an all-day dining venue, specialty restaurant, sunset bar and a beach club.
There will be a range of flexible function facilities, ideal for landmark events, social gatherings or business meetings, Mandarin explained in its release.
The Groups signature wellness therapies and treatments will be provided in a spacious Spa at Mandarin Oriental, a well-equipped fitness centre and two outdoor swimming pools. A Kids Club and a host of outdoor leisure pursuits will also be available, it added.
James Riley, Group Chief Executive of Mandarin Oriental said, Phuket is one of Asias leading leisure destinations and we are delighted to have found such a special site on which to develop our resort.
The Groups established reputation and experience in delivering award-winning service and facilities at Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok, when combined with this stunning new property, will provide guests a unique proposition for a luxury visit to the entrancing Kingdom of Thailand.
We look forward to working with our partners to create this.
The project ownership is represented by Grand Larn Luang Co Ltd.
Sansrit Yenbamrung, CEO of Grand Larn Luang, said, We are pleased to partner with Mandarin Oriental on this very exciting project, which will provide visitors with a world-class facility, coupled with the renowned service of Mandarin Oriental.
The Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, with a strong pipeline of hotels and residences under development, is a member of the Jardine Matheson Group. Having grown from its Asian roots into a global brand, the the award-winning owner and operator now operates 31 hotels and seven residences in 21 countries and territories.
Patong Municipality issues health regulation notice to tattoo shops
PHUKET: Patong Municipality yesterday (Sept 4) issued a notice to tattoo shops within the Patong area to strictly adhere to health regulations following Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) health officials closing a tattoo shop in Phra Nakhon district after it was found that it did not follow safe, hygienic practices.
healthdeathtourism
By Tanyaluk Sakoot
Wednesday 5 September 2018, 05:58PM
A Patong Municipality health official carries out an inspection of a Patong tattoo shop. Photo: Patong Municipality
The temporary closure of the Bangkok tattoo shop followed reports of the recent death of a 22-year old woman from Loei province last month, where HIV was recorded by a doctor as one of the causes. (See story here .)
A health official from Patong Municipality, Sirawat Kraingkrai, has also warned tourists to be aware when choosing a tattoo shop and make sure the shop features a Patong Municipal Health Certificate on the premises.
Mr Sirawat said, We have issued this warning following the report that four female friends recently died of AIDS-related illnesses after having tattoos together at Klong Lot market near the Grand Palace, Bangkok in March.
For health protection for tattoo customers, Patong Municipality is requesting tattoo operators strictly follow specific guidelines. We hold clean and safe tattoo training every three years and check tattoo shops every year, he said.
There are about 70 approved tattoo shops in the Patong area already and there are a further 10 awaiting their certification from us.
We want to repeat to them to be clean in their business to avoid any risk of infection.
We sent the following notice to tattoo shops on Sept 4, which was signed by Patong Deputy Mayor Banyong Kebsup.
1. All tattoo operators must be clean and sterilise all equipment, which must be one-time-use only and then thrown away. All equipment must be neat and sterilised before use.
2. All tattoo operators must always clean the tattoo shops using sterile liquids.
3. All tattoo needles, ink, cotton pads and gloves must be used only one time (they must not be reused). All of these items must be thrown in a bin specifically for infectious items and sent to the health office who will destroy them.
4. All tattoo operators must ask their prospective customers about their personal health problems before giving a tattoo. Any customer suffering diabetes or hemophilia must not be serviced.
5. All tattoo operators must advise their customers after having of things to ensure there are no avoid infections such as not going into the sea.
Please follow this regulations seriously, the notice read.
Phuket surf rescues continue, loved dog latest victim at Nai Harn
PHUKET: The dangerous surf and rip currents continue to endanger swimmers along the west coast with rescues at Nai Harn Beach yesterday, while at Nai Thon Beach on the northwest coast lifeguards are saddened by the drowning of a much-loved local dog at the beach earlier today (Sept 5).
animalsdeath
By The Phuket News
Wednesday 5 September 2018, 05:18PM
Attempts by lifeguards at Nai Thon Beach to revive Thae were unsuccessful. Photo: Ohm NaiThon lifeguard
The dog, 8-year-old male Thae, belonged to a lady who sells fruit shakes on the beach and was very popular with people along the beach. Apparently, Thae had a fever and ventured near the water, possibly to cool off, Daren Jenner explained to The Phuket News today. Lifeguard Ohm Chnachaitaruearaksa saw the dog in distress and rescued it, he said. Nai Thon lifeguards attempted canine CPR, however, the dog did not respond, and died, he added. The death has deeply affected the lifeguards Just like a human drowning, there is profound sadness for this innocent animal, Mr Jenner explained. The death of an innocent animal. It's difficult to erase those terrible images from your mind, he added. The death of Thae comes as lifeguards along the west coast continue to pull people, including tourists, from the surf, with rescues at Nai Harn yesterday still overwhelming lifeguards there. (See here.)
Big Sioux River canoe, kayak access approved by city council
Canoe and kayakers will soon have an access point onto the Big Sioux River in Watertown. Several alcoholic beverage licenses were presented.
National leaders of all stripes have complained for decades that Washington keeps too many secrets. Too much of the governments information is classified, the argument goes, making it nearly impossible for Americans to know what their leaders are doing.
Secrecy is a mode of regulation, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote in 1997, when the congressionally created board he headed, the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, released a report. In truth, it is the ultimate mode, for the citizen does not even know that he or she is being regulated.
Moynihan hoped that a culture of openness would develop to balance the culture of secrecy. It didnt happen. A dozen years later, in 2009, The New York Times editorialized that the federal governments creation of 107 different categories of restricted information seems designed not to protect legitimate secrets but to empower bureaucrats. Still more recently, when the House held hearings on secrecy in 2015, the journalist Terry Anderson testified, The Moynihan commission recommended some changes in the law, including an office of declassification. Nothing was acted upon.
Today, the culture of secrecy is keeping the public from learning some basic facts about the Trump-Russia affair, even as newscasts and newspapers are filled with reporting, speculation and debate about it. When it comes to allegations that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to fix the 2016 election, the Justice Department and other agencies have withheld information from the public because such information is classified, or because it is purportedly critical to an ongoing investigation, or because officials just want to keep the departments secrets secret.
Remember the Comey memos? Starting in the transition, then-FBI director James Comey wrote notes on each of his encounters with President Trump. Later, he leaked some of them to the press in hopes of setting off a firestorm that would result in the appointment of a Trump-Russia special counsel. His plan worked.
But even after that, the Justice Department kept the Comey memos tightly under wraps, as if they were one of the nations highest-level secrets. When members of Congress of both parties demanded to see the memos, the Department would allow only a few lawmakers a glimpse and then only with an FBI minder present, and no copying or note-taking allowed.
The situation changed only when Comey began a book tour, with much of his presentation clearly based on the memos. After that, even the Justice Department couldnt come up with a reason to keep them secret. The public finally got to see the memos, and the country and the investigation survived.
This year, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes wrote a memo, based on classified information, about the FBIs rationale for wiretapping the Trump campaigns volunteer foreign policy adviser Carter Page. The FBI and Justice Department protested that releasing the memo would endanger both lives and national security. President Trump ordered it released, and the public finally learned that the FBI had used the opposition research known as the Trump dossier as part of its wiretap application. The country and the investigation survived.
Then there are the Michael Flynn papers. On Jan. 24, 2017, just four days into the Trump administration, the FBI went to the White House to interview Flynn, ostensibly on the suspicion that during the transition he might have violated a never-enforced law on U.S. contacts with foreign officials. It was that interview that led Flynn to plead guilty to lying to the FBI. But Comey told Congress the agents who interviewed Flynn did not think he lied to them. The public has no idea what happened a situation that could be remedied by release of the write-up, known as a 302, that the agents did immediately after the interview. But the Justice Department, along with the special counsel, is steadfastly refusing.
There are also the Sally Yates emails. Congress has asked for emails to and from Yates, an Obama appointee who played a role in sending the FBI to question Flynn. Even though Congress limited its request to just 10 days of emails, the Justice Department said no.
Finally, there are the remaining parts of the Carter Page wiretap application. Some, but not all, of it was released in the wake of the Nunes memo. Now, Republicans claim some critical information is still being withheld. The public has no way of knowing.
The need for the government to stop reflexively classifying and keeping secrets is especially acute in a case like Trump-Russia, when there is endless public debate over every aspect of the case, and some of the presidents adversaries hope to use the affair to remove him from office. Nothing could be of greater public interest and benefit than the release of more facts.
But for the moment, too many people are too set in their ways to bring a culture of openness to this politically charged affair. That group can even include journalists. Back in 1997, when the Moynihan commission report was released, The Washington Posts E.J. Dionne wrote: A journalist can win acclaim by publishing a secret report leaked by a government official who also benefits from the transaction. But other citizens robbed by secrecy of any knowledge beyond what was leaked have no way of judging what the published account means.
That was true in 1997. And it is true today.
(Byron York is chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner.)
Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd. is planning to return about $1.2 billion to shareholders from its sale of the contentious Trans Mountain oil pipeline to the Canadian government.
The board also voted to approve a plan for a reverse stock split of the restricted voting shares and special voting shares on a one-for-three basis, the unit of Houston-based Kinder Morgan Inc. said in a statement Tuesday.
The Trans Mountain extension project, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus government bought for $4.5 billion, suffered a major setback last week after a Canadian court nullified its approval. The line, which takes crude from the oilsands to the countrys Pacific Coast, faces strong opposition in British Columbia, the province it crosses to reach the shore.
The payment to holders of restricted voting shares will take place Jan. 3, with the reverse stock split to follow, if the plan is approved. The proposals will be voted on at a special shareholder meeting during the fourth quarter of this year.
Here are other key take-aways from the statement: Kinder Canada expects to maintain a dividend of $0.1625 per restricted share in the third quarter and expects to pay the dividend before the reverse split. For the fourth quarter, the first entirely without Trans Mountain, Kinder Canada expects its remaining assets in the pipelines and terminals segments to generate adjusted earnings before certain items, or Ebitda, of just over $50 million. The company expects to finish the year with little or no debt. John Schlosser was named president, and he continues to serve as president of Terminals for Kinder Morgan Inc. Kinder Morgan said it plans to vote in favour of Kinder Canadas board proposals.
Read more:
Opinion: Trudeau gave Kinder Morgan a good problem to have
Liberals say they need more time to review court decision before next move on Trans Mountain pipeline
Trudeaus youth council challenges Kinder Morgan pipeline bail out
Read more about:
HALIFAXA new study shows Atlantic Canadian businesses have the hardest time in the country when it comes to hiring employees.
According to Labour Shortage: Here to Stay, a survey of 1,208 entrepreneurs released Wednesday by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), 50 per cent of small to medium-sized businesses in the Atlantic region reported difficulty hiring new employees.
That puts the Atlantic region ahead of British Columbia at 45 per cent as well as the national average of 39 per cent.
Pierre Cleroux, BDCs chief economist, said in an interview he was not that surprised to see Atlantic Canada come out on top because during visits with employers this summer he often heard that they have a very tough time hiring people.
As for the reason, Cleroux said Atlantic Canada is facing a more severe version of a problem emerging across the country: an aging population.
Its a bit worse in the Atlantic provinces because over the last decade a lot of young people left the region to work in the west part of the country. So as a result, your pool of young workers is smaller and thats probably explaining the number we see in the report, which is quite high, Cleroux said.
The BDC also hears from employers that feel the labour shortage is a temporary problem but Cleroux said its quite the opposite. He said the baby boomer generation is retiring in such large numbers that there arent enough people entering the workforce to make up the difference.
Its important that you have different strategies, that you change the way youre managing your human resources, because this situation is for the next decade, Cleroux said.
Its important to be aware of labour shortages and how to address them because they often limit the growth of an economy, he said.
Theres a strong demand from the rest of the world, so our exports are increasing, but what is very clear from this research (is) a lot of companies are not able to respond to this stronger demand. So they refuse contracts, they limit the number of services they offer, Cleroux said.
According to the studys analysis, a company affected by labour shortages is 65 per cent more likely to be a low-growth company: one with an annual sales growth of less than 10 per cent.
The study also sought to understand what employers are doing to mitigate labour shortages.
The most common hiring strategies are using less-qualified workers or younger workers; 43 per cent of the employers said they use the former strategy, and 40 per cent said they use the latter. Cleroux said larger companies focus more on automation and technology.
However, the study says hiring less-experienced people comes at a cost because the additional time and effort required to train junior employees keep senior staff away from higher value tasks, such as developing client relationships or new projects.
One strategy the study suggests to address the labour shortage would be to tap into underused demographics, such as immigrants. Right now thats one of the least-used strategies, with only 18 per cent of respondents saying theyre looking to hire immigrants due to a shortage of labour.
Although Atlantic Canada as a region has the worst labour shortage, Nova Scotia itself is really interesting because we are hiring more immigrants than other parts of the country are, Cleroux said. Plus, its the only province where the unemployment rate is almost the same when comparing immigrants and Canadian-born workers.
Nova Scotia saw an 8.2 per cent unemployment rate for Canadian-born residents vs. 8.1 per cent for landed immigrants in 2017, according to Statistics Canada, while the national rate was 6.2 per cent for Canadian-born residents and immigrants were slightly higher at 6.7 per cent.
Cleroux said provincial offices around N.S. helping immigrants get closer to the job market and organizations like the Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia seem to be having an impact that other provinces could follow.
On the one hand, you have companies who are looking for workers; on the other hand, you have immigrants who have difficulties to join the labour force so theres a real opportunity there, Cleroux said.
Employers in the study didnt offer reasons as to why they tend not to look to immigrants as a labour shortage solution, Cleroux said, but he suggested its a question of perception.
One important message of this report is the labour force is changing, so we have (to) as business people change the way we recruit people, Cleroux said, adding that we can do much better to hire more Indigenous and disabled workers who are also underrepresented in the labour force.
The Canadian sectors hardest hit by the shortage include manufacturing (56 per cent say its hard to find workers), retail trade (54 per cent) and construction (48 per cent).
The study is based on an online survey of 1,208 small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and eight phone interviews with entrepreneurs across Canada. The results were weighted by region and company size to ensure that findings are representative of Canadas economy as a whole.
A spokesperson with BDC said SMEs in Atlantic Canada represent about 7 per cent of all Canadian SMEs, so the number of business owners BDC surveyed in Atlantic Canada is proportional to that of the actual Canadian SME population.
The survey was carried out between April 30 and May 11, 2018. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Read more about:
HALIFAXTextbooks and pocketbooks alike are opening this week as university students return to classrooms and pony up to pay tuition, with those in Nova Scotia facing some of the highest fees in the county.
Nova Scotia universities and colleges are charging some of the highest tuition fees in Canada for the 2018-19 academic year, according to new Statistics Canada figures released Wednesday.
Based on data from an annual survey of all public degree-granting institutions in Canada, Statistics Canada found that this years tuition fees at Nova Scotia universities and colleges are above the national average in the top four fields of undergraduate study.
Nova Scotia is the most expensive spot in the country to get an undergraduate education in three of the top four fields: humanities; social and behavioural sciences, and legal studies; and physical and life sciences and technologies.
The average tuition cost in the province for each of those fields, respectively, is $7,113, $7,162 and $7,831, whereas the national average in each field is $5,773, $5,893 and $6,395, respectively.
In the fourth field business, management and public administration Nova Scotia institutions charge an average of $7,782, again above the national average of $7,409. The fee is second only to Ontario, where average fees are $10,570.
The lowest fees in the country for all the top four undergraduate fields are found in Newfoundland and Labrador. Fees on the easternmost province range from $2,550 to $2,805.
Statistics Canada says undergraduate tuition fees in Nova Scotia increased 5.6 per cent from the 2017-18 academic year, compared to the national average of 3.3 per cent. Fees increased in every province, although Alberta almost held fast, increasing only 0.1 per cent.
Share your thoughts
The Canadian Federation of Students-Nova Scotia (CFS-NS) also sent a news release Wednesday morning regarding tuition fees, with data from the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission (MPHEC).
While Statistics Canada does not break down its data by institution, MPHEC does.
According to the MPHEC data, every university and college in Nova Scotia increased undergraduate tuition fees by at least 2.99 per cent, with students at NSCAD University incurring an increase of more than 10 per cent.
Aidan McNally, chairperson of CFS-NS, says in the release that students are suffering because of the increasing tuition fees in the province, and she believes the province is in a position to intervene.
This fall is a crucial moment for students and all Nova Scotians. The agreement that determines tuition fees and government funding for universities is up for renegotiation. The provincial government has an opportunity to take bold action to put Nova Scotia on course for a sustainable future where students are not burdened by debt, students can stay in the province after graduating, and young people are able to access the education that is increasingly necessary in todays economy, she said in the release.
McNally refers to the Memorandum of Understanding between the Province of Nova Scotia and the Nova Scotia Universities, which came into effect in April 2015 and expires at the end of March 2019.
The MOU currently allows universities to increase their undergraduate tuition fees up to 3 per cent annually, in addition to a one-time market adjustment in order to charge similar amounts for similar programs at peer institutions.
Of course, as the Statistics Canada figures suggest, institutions in Nova Scotia already surpass tuition fees at most of their peer institutions around the country.
According to MPHEC, full-time tuition fees for undergraduate arts programs in Nova Scotia are:
Acadia University: $8,673
Cape Breton University: $7,800
Dalhousie University: $7,638
Mount Saint Vincent University: $7,701
NSCAD University: $8,670
Saint Marys University: $7,670
St. Francis Xavier University: $8,570
University of Kings College: $7,638
Universite Sainte-Anne: $7,560
According to MPHEC, full-time tuition fees for undergraduate science programs in Nova Scotia are:
Acadia University: $8,673
Cape Breton University: $7,800
Dalhousie University: $8,677
Mount Saint Vincent University: $8,083
NSCAD University: n/a
Saint Marys University: $8,240
St. Francis Xavier University: $8,570
University of Kings College: $8,667
Universite Sainte-Anne: $8,680
Read more about:
OTTAWAThe federal Liberals are being accused of withholding secret documents in the politically charged case against one of the militarys most senior leaders, Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, whose criminal trial is set to run through next years election.
Normans high profile lawyer, Marie Henein, issued the complaint against the government during a hearing Tuesday inside an Ottawa courtroom packed with supporters, including a number of former military officers and industry representatives.
The military suspended Norman in January 2017 as the second-in-command of the Canadian Armed Forces. He was charged earlier this year with one count of breach of trust for allegedly leaking government secrets known as cabinet confidences to a Quebec shipyard. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The Opposition Conservatives and many of Normans supporters have accused the Liberals of political interference in the case, with some suggesting Norman has been charged unfairly.
Henein said she has repeatedly asked the government to be able to access documents labelled as cabinet confidences so that we can defend this case and so that we can see the full story.
But she said she has yet to receive a response from the government, and that she is prepared to address the issue with the court if the government continues to drag its feet.
Its quite an extraordinary prosecution where really the complainants deciding what we get to look at, whats important and what's not, she said outside the courthouse.
Documents protected by cabinet confidence are considered political secrets. Usually prepared for ministers to help with government deliberations and decision-making, theyre legally protected from unauthorized release.
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjans spokesperson, Byrne Furlong, refused to comment on Tuesday as the matter is with the justice system.
Normans trial is scheduled to start Aug. 19, 2019, and is expected to last seven or eight weeks. The federal election is on or before Oct. 21, 2019.
Justice Norman Boxall noted the court could hear the case earlier, but he ultimately agreed to Henein's proposed schedule meaning much of the trial will coincide with next year's federal election.
Henein denied wanting the trial at a time that would be politically sensitive for the Liberals, saying the schedule was intended to allow other court procedures in the case to play out.
She wouldnt say whether she intended to call politicians or other military officers as witnesses. When asked how the trial could be affected by its concurrence with the election campaign, Henein said: I dont know. Youd have to ask the prime minister about that.
For his part, Norman said he was happy dates had been set for the trial even as he thanked the literally thousands of Canadians out there who are supporting me.
This has been a really difficult time and its going to continue to be a real challenge, he said. And I just want to know how much that support means to me and my family.
Norman was charged with one count of breach of trust earlier this year for allegedly leaking the Liberal governments decision to pause and review a $700-million shipbuilding project for the navy in November 2015.
The secrets were allegedly leaked to Quebec-based Davie Shipbuilding in what the RCMP has suggested was an attempt to pressure the Liberals into continuing the project, which involved converting a civilian ship into a new resupply vessel for the navy.
The Liberals ultimately decided to continue with the project and the vessel is now being used on naval operations. This summer, the government contracted Davie to convert and sell three used icebreakers to the Canadian Coast Guard.
Norman was replaced as vice-chief of the defence staff in July, but remains a member of the military pending the results of his trial.
WASHINGTONPrime Minister Justin Trudeau held firm Tuesday to the lines drawn in sand three decades ago as the latest push to preserve a North American Free Trade Agreement one that still includes Canada was poised to unfold.
Trudeau said Canadians will not sign onto a deal that does not include a dispute resolution mechanism and exemptions for cultural industries two positions that were among the pillars of the original 1988 Canada-U.S. free trade deal.
The prime minister staked out Canadas ground as a fresh Oct. 1 deadline and the encroaching American midterm elections cast a shadow over Wednesdays resumption of negotiations in Washington. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is to resume talks with U.S. trade czar Robert Lighthizer, whom she has praised as a good faith negotiator in the face of President Donald Trumps Twitter barrages.
Faced with an unpredictable U.S. president ready to strike on Twitter, Trudeau said the dispute resolution mechanism in Chapter 19 ensures trade rules are followed.
Read more:
Will Chapter 19 be a deal-breaker for Canada in NAFTA talks?
Trumps NAFTA threat leaves Trudeau locked in high-stakes game of poker
Donald Trump threatens to terminate NAFTA if Congress stands up for Canada
Weve said from the very beginning that we need a dispute resolution mechanism like Chapter 19 and we will hold firm on that, Trudeau told reporters in Vancouver.
We will not sign a deal that is bad for Canadians and, quite frankly, not having a Chapter 19 to ensure that the rules are followed would be bad for Canadians.
Chapter 19 allows for independent panels to resolve disputes between companies. The Trump administration views it as an infringement of U.S. sovereignty.
It was the hill that former Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney was willing to die on during the final hours of the original Canada-U.S. free trade deal in 1988. After consulting with Mulroney over the weekend, Trudeau made clear he shares that view.
The prime minister also said his government wont sign an updated free trade accord with the U.S. and Mexico if the deal doesnt continue exemptions for Canadas cultural industries, which aims to protect Canadas publishing and broadcast industries.
That too was entrenched in the original Canada-U.S. free trade deal that preceded NAFTA. Giving up the exemptions would be tantamount to giving up Canadian sovereignty and identity, Trudeau said.
It is inconceivable to Canadians that an American network might buy Canadian media affiliates, whether its newspapers or TV stations or TV networks, he said.
So weve made it very clear that defending that cultural exemption is something that is fundamental to Canadians.
Canada and the U.S. need to present a text to the U.S. Congress by Oct. 1 in order to join the deal the Trump administration signed with Mexico last week, trade analysts say.
The overall goal is to reach a deal by Dec. 1 so Congress can give its approval to a new NAFTA before Mexicos new president takes office.
Otherwise, Trump is threatening to move ahead on a deal with Mexico that excludes Canada.
Canada enters Wednesdays talks with some strength on preserving Chapter 19 because American companies need its anti-dumping safeguards more than Canadas, according to Toronto trade lawyer Cyndee Todgham Cherniak.
Foreign companies seeking relief through Canadas Federal Court of Appeal are often repeatedly coming up empty-handed, said Todgham Cherniak, a former federal tax court adviser.
She said thats because a recent ruling by the court emphasized that it did not have jurisdiction under the Special Import Measures Act to change so-called dumping margins.
Canadian negotiators are also trying to protect Canadas dairy sector from American demands in NAFTA renegotiations.
The two sides broke off talks Friday as Trump formally notified Congress of the deal with Mexico, saying Canada might join later.
But in recent days he has become more aggressive towards Canada on Twitter bluster that some trade experts are dismissing as a predictable negotiating tactic.
On Saturday, Trump said there is no political necessity to keep Canada in NAFTA and he warned Congress not to interfere or he would kill the pact.
U.S. business and labour leaders have warned Trump not to dump Canada from NAFTA.
Trumps bombastic rhetoric ought to be ignored because he has no power to override the opposition in Congress to exclude Canada, and he needs 60-days notice to terminate NAFTA, said Derek Holt, vice-president and head of capital markets at Scotiabank Global Economics.
Holt wrote in a Tuesday note that Congress will not allow Trump to skirt past Canada in NAFTA negotiations given the long lineups of members of Congress Democrats and Republicans saying they will not support a bilateral deal with Mexico.
With the U.S. mid-terms eight weeks away, and Trump facing pressure to maintain the Republican hold on the House and Senate, the influence of Congress will permeate the resumption of Wednesdays talks.
Congress must approve any rewrite of the deal and could refuse to endorse an agreement that excludes Canada. But thats not set in stone, said Dan Ujczo, an Ohio-based trade lawyer with Dickinson Wright.
Congress will support Canada throughout September, he said. After that, Congress will have a tough choice to make in terms of going forward with a good deal with Mexico, opening Mexicos agricultural markets as we brace for the long haul with China.
Read more about:
MONTREALIf U.S. president Donald Trumps threat to exclude Canada from a post-NAFTA U.S.-Mexico trade deal was meant to drive a wedge within Justin Trudeaus free trade coalition it has so far failed.
In the days since Trump formalized his intention to submit to the U.S. Congress new trade arrangements with Mexico that might not include Canada, it is the president and not the prime minister who has endured significant public pushback. Some of that pushback has come from a number of influential U.S. constituencies at the union and the corporate levels.
By comparison, Canadas federal-provincial front is holding. The big tent Trudeau built to weather the Trump-driven trade storm is still standing.
Late last Thursday the prime minister briefed the premiers on the state of NAFTA negotiations. It is safe to assume that whatever he told his vis-a-vis has since been communicated to Canadas main opposition parties and beyond. The first ministers table is a politically diverse one with direct connections to most non-Liberal constituencies right across the country.
As a result, first ministers venues usually function more like sieves than sealed boxes. For the purpose of disseminating information, they often tend to rank second only to the issuing of a press release. That at least had been the experience of those of us who covered the free-trade negotiations of the late eighties and that eras constitutional wars.
And yet on this particular occasion, the prime ministers update was followed by a radio silence that is as exemplary as it is extraordinary in the current federal-provincial climate.
Read more:
Cohn took papers from Trumps desk to protect NAFTA, Woodward book alleges
Protecting Canadian culture a surprise sticking point at NAFTA talks
Trudeau criticizes Trump, arguing Canada needs an independent NAFTA dispute system because the U.S. president breaks the rules
These days, the prime minister and many of the premiers do not see eye to eye on a variety of non-NAFTA issues. The list has been lengthening with every recent provincial election.
Trudeaus government is on a collision course with Ontario and Saskatchewan over its carbon-pricing plan; it has been feuding with British Columbia over the federal commitment to expand Canadas pipeline capacity.
The first ministers teleconference came only hours after a federal court had thrown a wrench in the Ottawa/Alberta relationship by ordering the suspension of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
The day before Trudeau brought the premiers into the latest NAFTA loop, Quebecs Philippe Couillard had warned his federal counterpart from the campaign trail to steer well clear of opening more of Canadas dairy market to the U.S.
The Trudeau briefing did not alter Couillards unequivocal support for the supply-management system but it did put an end to his sabre-rattling. The premier has since qualified his stance somewhat by vouching to oppose any deal that did not have the support of Quebecs agricultural community.
TOP STORIES. IN YOUR INBOX: For the days top news from the Stars award-winning journalists, sign up for our daily headlines newsletter.
Perhaps what the prime minister had to report about the state of the American demands at the NAFTA table was so dire that none of those he briefed could see his or her interest in claiming the role of backseat driver.
The latest polls suggest Trudeau still very much enjoys the benefit of the doubt in his dealings with Trump. At this juncture, the president and not the prime minister would bear the brunt of the Canadian blame for the end of trilateral North American trade arrangements.
Most political leaders would rather not climb on a sandbox if it rests on quicksand.
The most notable exception has been Maxime Bernier. As the former Conservative MP sets out to build a breakaway party, he is using his social media feed to alternatively chastise his former caucus seatmates and their leader and/or to shoot at Canadas negotiating position from the sidelines.
By contrast, the bulk of Canadas political class on the right as on the left of the Liberals seems to have opted to wait and keep dry most of the powder it could use against Trudeaus handling of NAFTA.
That is not to say that the prime minister is not under pressure from a variety of potentially conflicting constituencies to limit the potential damage of the ongoing talks to Canadas trade position and its economy or that a resolution would not come with a political price tag. But it is Trump and not Trudeau who is, at this juncture, negotiating with knives sticking out of his back.
On that score, the latest sharp object came in the shape of excerpts from an upcoming book by veteran journalist Bob Woodward, of Watergate fame. It is too early to know whether this will make Trump belatedly reach out for the low-hanging fruit of mutually profitable trade arrangements with Canada or hit out at the neighbour that seems to have become his default punching bag.
Chantal Hebert is a columnist based in Ottawa covering politics. Follow her on Twitter: @ChantalHbert
Read more about:
OTTAWANewly unsealed court documents are giving a window into a custody battle between a Canadian man and his American wife who were kidnapped and held hostage in Afghanistan for five years.
The family court documents detailing the dispute between Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman over their three children, all of whom were born in captivity, were previously covered by a publication ban.
Coleman, who was kidnapped with Boyle while the two were backpacking in Afghanistan in 2012, sought the courts permission to leave Canada and return to the U.S. with the couples children.
Boyle tried to prevent his wife, who is expecting a fourth child this month, from relocating and asked that his parents and sisters have access to the children.
Justice Tracy Engelking dismissed Boyles requests in July.
Engelking gave Coleman temporary sole custody and allowed her to relocate the children to Pennsylvania, where her parents live, pending the results of the custody battle.
Read more:
Kidnapped Canadian-American family freed in Pakistan gun battle after 5 years in captivity
Joshua Boyle, Canadian hostage in Afghanistan, arrested and faces list of charges in Ottawa
After a lifetime in captivity, the children of Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman begin to heal
Boyle is currently free on bail awaiting a separate criminal trial over charges of assault allegedly perpetrated after the family was rescued in Pakistan and returned to Canada last October.
Boyle denies any wrongdoing and the charges have not been tested in court.
Read more about:
OTTAWAThe secretive, tight-knit culture of Canadas special forces units where information is shared only on a need-to-know basis and outsiders are viewed with suspicion undermined accountability and impeded an investigation into allegations of wrongdoing by its soldiers during the Afghan conflict, a military inquiry has found.
An overemphasis on operational security and strong cultural barriers prevented reporting serious and significant issues in a clear and unambiguous language, a report released Wednesday said.
In dealing with allegations of assault and even murder arising from operations in Afghanistan, special forces soldiers and their commanders were reluctant to raise the potential misconduct with military outsiders.
It was only after the allegations of numerous criminal acts were raised with the ombudsmans office in 2008 that a military police investigation known as Project Sand Trap was launched. It concluded in 2011 that there was no evidence of wrongdoing and that personnel had acted within the rules of engagement.
A second phase examined allegations that Canadian troops had failed to report serious crimes committed by soldiers of other nations also turned up no evidence to support criminal charges.
But a separate board of inquiry launched in 2009 flagged problems with what it painted as an overly secretive culture of the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command.
The inquirys 63-page executive summary heavily censored in parts was released Wednesday by the defence department under access to information legislation, five years after it was completed.
The inquiry, which made 32 recommendations, urged special forces to better balance operational security to encourage more openness and transparency.
Maj.-Gen. Pete Dawe, commander of the special operations forces command, told the Star Wednesday that the military has gone to great lengths to address the concerns.
We took the lessons very much to heart, implemented them right away and I can tell you that were a much better force today for that experience, he said.
At the time in question, the special forces command had just been created, born out of a single special forces unit Joint Task Force 2 that had a domestic counter-terror mandate.
Dawe conceded that administrative processes in the fledgling command were not as sophisticated as they should have been.
In the years since, the command has grown to add other capabilities such as a special operations forces regiment, an aviation detachment and a biological and chemical team.
It took a bit of an adjustment and perhaps we didnt have that really right at the front end of the campaign in Afghanistan, Dawe said. In keeping with evolution of this command, we were kind of learning as we went.
Today, he says he has no doubt that similar concerns would be quickly sent up the chain and properly investigated. He says all soldiers in the field have an obligation to report even perceived violations of the law of armed conflict.
Weve gone to great lengths to continue to refine and to improve the way that we educate and train the members of the command, Dawe said.
The report offers a window into the ethos of special operations forces, a shadowy branch of the military, which has grown significantly in recent years as Canada adapts to new threats at home and abroad.
Details of the allegations were censored from the report but they involved potential violations of use of force and rules of engagement in Afghanistan in 2005 and 2006. At the time, Joint Task Force 2, a unit within the special forces command, was deployed to the Kandahar region, in part to target Taliban leaders responsible for the deaths of Canadian and allied soldiers.
One complaint appeared to arise from an operation where there were significant EKIAs, short for enemies killed in action, because of the unexpected number of insurgent fighters.
The inquiry examined how those allegations were handled by the military. It heard from 124 witnesses and reviewed 40,000 pages of records.
It concluded that the special forces command of the day did investigations internally, informally and superficially without the preparations of any reports.
The report drives home the special forces mentality to zealously protect information about operations, personnel and capabilities, a view forged by close bonds in the unit.
As a result, information, allegations and concerns were passed along lines of trust and friendship, around the formal chain of command.
Those bonds also make soldiers reluctant to speak out for fear of being viewed as disloyal, the report said.
The decision by a soldier to disclose critical information is a difficult one, even trickier when the matter concerns a close comrade, it said.
It found a tendency by special forces members to use imprecise terminology and vague language, often relying on verbal rather than written reports and a reliance on operational security and a need to know principle to limit the sharing of operational information.
While the report acknowledges that operational security is vital, it cannot be used to weaken accountability.
The mere fact that (special forces) claims something to be a matter of operational security does not necessarily make it so, the report said.
It urged the Armed Forces to regularly question claims of operational security when it suspects that special forces is trying to evade oversight and accountability.
Dawe conceded that operational security can be challenging. Youre trying to strike that balance between ensuring a successful mission while being as transparent as you need to be, especially in a democratic context, he said.
He said that special forces has matured and evolved significantly in that regard and noted visits by media, including the Toronto Star, with special forces soldiers deployed to Iraq.
Read more about:
For the second year in a row, Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti missed nearly half of all votes taken at Toronto city council.
Mammoliti was absent for 48.7 per cent of 1,048 votes taken in the chamber in 2018, a Star analysis of councils voting record shows. And Michelle Holland again ranked near the top of the list for worst attendance. Missing 42.1 per cent of the votes, she came in second for worst attendance.
That was a slight improvement for both the suburban councillors over 2017s attendance numbers, when Mammoliti (Ward 7 York West) missed 49.2 per cent of votes and Holland (Ward 35 Scarborough Southwest) missed 50.8 per cent, topping the list.
For the entire term 2014 to 2018 Mammoliti and Holland ranked first and second of the most truant councillors, missing 43.1 per cent and 37 per cent respectively of 4,526 votes cast over 46 meetings.
Mammoliti, who represents Ward 7 (York West), told the Star that both of his parents have been quite ill this term. He also noted he is typically at public meetings in his community during the evening and has missed council for that reason. He refused to answer further questions.
The votes Mammoliti missed included ones on funding out of the cold programs for those experiencing homelessness, and on designating school zones as part of a Vision Zero pedestrian safety plan.
Holland told the Star in an interview that several deaths in her family this term made it difficult to attend all of the meetings, which typically last for a number of days one week of the month, and can stretch into the evenings after running all day.
Its been a really tough term in terms of my family, she said, noting some evenings she was needed to care for an elderly, widowed family member.
Holland also said theres a lot of weight on the portfolio given to her by Mayor John Tory when he appointed her as the citys advocate for the innovation economy at the end of 2016.
The votes that I missed had nothing to do with my ward, she said. It was more about downtown fence exemptions or downtown related items that werent of a broader citywide issue.
Hollands vote record for 2018 shows she missed votes about the Vision Zero community safety zones for schools, a policy on car-sharing services, adopting a new community council structure and future uses for Old City Hall, among others.
Follow the Toronto Star on social media:
Councillor Justin Di Ciano, the only first-term councillor to make the top 10 list of worst attendees for both 2018 (42 per cent of votes missed) and for the whole term (24.3 per cent), said in an email he has come to realize council sessions are nothing more than pure theatrics and a complete waste of time.
I always voted on the most important issues affecting our city, Di Ciano said, noting work he did outside the council chamber on behalf of various boards and committees and his Ward 5 (Etobicoke Lakeshore) residents.
Councillor Stephen Holyday (Ward 3 Etobicoke Centre) was the best in class, missing no votes in 2018. Over four years, he missed only four votes, all of which he was obligated to be absent for after he declared an interest in the items they were about.
You certainly plan around the meetings, Holyday said of how he is always in the chamber for the hundreds of votes per meeting. I pack my lunch or a snack with me. If you do need to take a bowel break, you try do to that when theres a break in council.
Holyday noted that its kind of become his thing not to miss votes. Its something I believe very strongly in, that the public expects us to be there to vote, he said. Thats the privilege that weve got as a councillor, thats a duty.
The median was Councillor Neethan Shan, who missed 12.6 per cent of the votes. Mayor John Tory ranked higher, missing 28.1 per cent of the votes. Tory missed 19.4 per cent of the votes all term, better than his predecessor Rob Ford, who missed 23 per cent.
The Star calculated council attendance by reviewing vote records maintained by the city clerks office. Every time a councillor is not in their seat to push a button to vote, they are marked as absent. The Star tallied all the absences for council meetings the only meeting all council members are required to attend.
The votes recorded are not reflective of every single vote taken. There are some votes done by a quick show of hands and it is not recorded whether members are absent.
Lately, nothing in the lives of Miruna Suntharalingam and Amira Brown has been routine. They and their families are among those displaced from the highrise apartment towers at 650 Parliament St, where a fire two weeks ago caused major damage.
On Tuesday morning, the two 10-year-old Grade 6 students, and dozens of other displaced kids, found comfort in the first day of school at Rose Ave. Junior Public School. A return to friends. A return to some degree of predictability. And, for these two, a chance to meet a bunch of reporters.
School is like the calm place, the relaxing place, because our friends are here, so you can kind of express (things) to them and kind of be distracted from all that, said Suntharalingam, before she gamely faced a row of cameras to talk about her experience and to thank all those who have reached out to help.
School, explained, Brown, is kind of the same as it was last year, except that it takes longer to get here, and when Im leaving, it takes longer to get back. She was last allowed into her familys apartment on Monday and took nearly everything out.
Browns family has been living in a hotel, but on Wednesday will be moving into a house belonging to a friend of her mothers, which, she says, will be cool because Ive always wanted to live in a house. The commute will be even longer, since the house is in Ajax.
Suntharalingam, her older sister and her parents are living at the Regent Park Community Centre. Instead of a short walk to get to school, she now takes the TTC.
Read more:
City says it learned from 2010 apartment fire, but displaced Parliament St. residents still frustrated
It will be Thanksgiving at the earliest before some residents of the St. James Town building can return
Long lines, anger and frustration as residents of highrise emptied by fire wait to collect belongings
More than 120 students from the building, attend 14 Toronto District School Board schools, but none more so than Rose Ave., where about 70 students come from 650 Parliament. Of those, about 50 made it for the first day of classes.
Residents of the north tower could be out for six more weeks, and those living in the south tower, could be out 16 weeks, according to the City of Toronto.
After news of the fire, the extent of damage and the long wait for residents to return, public school board and school officials met to discuss how to offer immediate support, said area TDSB superintendent John Chasty. A parent family literacy program started a week early. Principals at all affected schools reached out to every student to ask how they could support them, through, for example, enhanced nutrition programs and transportation.
We continue to work with those families, Chasty told reporters. The displacement is very unusual, and its unsettling, said Chasty, and on a scale without precedent, he believed. Students are so excited about coming to the first day of school, he said. They so look forward to it ... and then to have that impacted for some of our families who are still trying to figure out where theyre going to be residing, and how they can come to their home school.
Jyodi Sethiya, who lives at 650 Parliament, delivered Kesha, her 4-year-old son to Rose Ave. for his first day of junior kindergarten Tuesday. That alone can be traumatic, for mom and child. Being without a home the family is living with a friend for now made it more difficult. Im not feeling well, actually, because right now we dont even have accommodation, said Sethiya, and that is causing stress for her son. Hes missing his home, and he does not have any toys and other things.
Displaced families are spread out across the city. TDSB students in Grade 6 and above will be helped with TTC tokens. For younger students, the board will work with parents to try to get them to home or area schools.
Social and settlement workers were at Rose Ave. school Tuesday to support families as they dropped off their children. In the gymnasium, donated clothing and other items, such as toys, filled a stage area and spilled out on to the gym floor. One item in demand but in short supply was underwear, said one social worker.
The Community Matters program is extending its after school program for students and family to 7 p.m. It is also handling the donations that are pouring in to the school.
Rose is really viewed as the heart of this community, said Rose Ave. principal David Crichton, so we take that responsibility very seriously. Meetings have been held with parents. Gift cards were being handed out, along with the TTC tokens. Breakfast, lunch and dinner programs are available.
Were really trying to tailor the need to that of the individual families, said Crichton. Thats one of the challenges. The families are all over the city. They want their children to be here. Parents are desperate to try to make arrangements that bring stability, but also some routine for their children.
Along with donations from citizens, there have been corporate boosts, including a financial donation from Manulife and backpacks with back-to-school supplies from Bell. Gift cards will allow parents to buy what they need. In one hallway of the school is an internal donor board in the shape of 650 Parliament, giving unaffected students and parents an outlet to help.
A group of Torontonians, in conjunction with Islamic Relief Canada, have also set up a GoFundMe campaign, which is offering charitable receipts. As of Tuesday, it had raised more than $100,000. Another campaign, has been set up by Ryan Peterson, principal at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School, where 65 student have been displaced by the fire.
On Tuesday, 650 Parliament, taped off with emergency tape and metal fencing, was teeming with workers of all sorts.
Wellesley Parliament Square Property Management is allowing tenants to break leases, allowing for an opportunity to find other housing. The property manager, the city said, has assumed responsibility for communication to displaced residents and coordination of services.
Residents, the city said, can reach the company at 647-760-7339, through email at 650helpline@wpsq.ca, and on Twitter via @650parliament.
A woman has been rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries after a shooting in Scarborough Tuesday evening.
Shortly after 10 p.m., Toronto police responded to a call of a woman suffering from a gunshot wound at Birchmount Rd. and Laura Secord Walk, in the area of Kennedy and Ellesmere Rds.
Paramedics found the victim, who is in her 30s, and took her to hospital in critical condition.
Suspect information is not available at this time, police spokeswoman Katrina Arrogante said.
A man who fatally shot his father-in-law, mobster Rocco Zito, in their North York home has been sent to prison for almost six years.
Domenico Scopelliti, 54, smiled tightly as Madam Justice Faye McWatt delivered the sentence at the University Ave. courthouse on Wednesday before more than a dozen members of Zitos family, including his widow, daughters and grandsons.
Zito, 87, was killed shortly after suppertime on Jan. 29, 2016, in the Playfair Ave. bungalow where three generations of his family lived.
At his trial, Scopelliti testified that he was acting in self defence when he shot Zito three times at close range using an illegal .25-calibre pistol that was fitted with a silencer. He said he killed Zito after the older man pulled a gun on him and threatened his life.
Scopelliti was convicted of manslaughter in June, but found not guilty of the more serious offences of first- and second-degree murder.
During his trial, the court heard that Zito was a local Mafia leader, loan shark and convicted underworld killer.
McWatt noted that Scopelliti had a university education and strong letters of support from community members.
Generally, the letters cast him as an involved father, a kind and gentle man whose character does not fit the crime he has committed, McWatt said in her written sentencing decision.
The defendant has no criminal record and the offence is out of character in terms of his history, McWatt wrote.
He has expressed remorse for the shooting, the judge continued. The Crown candidly admitted that the defendant would have entered a guilty plea to manslaughter before the trial if the Crown had consented.
Zito was considered by police to be a figure of significant power and authority within organized crime, specifically the Italian Mafia throughout his adult life, according to an agreed statement of facts submitted by the Crown and defence.
Scopelliti has been in custody since just hours after the shooting, when he surrendered to police after destroying the pistol he used.
The judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison, but with credit for time spent in custody before the trial, he will now serve slightly more than five years and eight months.
Defence lawyer Brian Ross had called for a penitentiary term of seven years while Crown Attorney Anna Stanford said 11 years would be more appropriate.
The court heard that Zito was in poor health in the final days of his life, and that he required afternoon naps, a cane and occasionally a walker for mobility and help navigating stairs.
Zitos ailments included diabetes, poor vision in one eye, chronic diarrhea, hardening of the arteries, unstable legs, headaches and mental health challenges. His granddaughter described him as a confused, often angry man who experienced some signs of dementia and wandered about at nights confused.
Scopelliti testified that he deeply regretted killing his father-in-law.
We went from celebrating my daughters birthday that day to mourning her grandfathers death, he said at his trial. I cant say how much I regret it.
Scopelliti and his then-wife Laura lived in the bungalow with their four children at the time of the shooting. They have since divorced.
His trial heard that things had been particularly tense in the home for a number of days before the shooting, after Zito announced he had changed his plans on how he wanted his estate divided.
Stanford suggested Scopelliti killed Zito because he was enraged over the planned changes to the will.
A bank statement in the home showed Zito had more than $1 million in a Toronto account. Court heard Zito also had $2 million or $3 million in Italian bank accounts and that his house was mortgage free.
Scopelliti nodded and smiled to family members but said nothing before he was led from the courtroom in handcuffs on Wednesday.
A man in his 50s is dead after being pinned between a dump truck and a vehicle, Toronto Police say.
The incident happened around Twenty Sixth St. and Elder Ave., near Etobicokes Long Branch neighbourhood, around 2:15 p.m. Wednesday. The victim was found unresponsive, and was rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries.
He was pronounced dead at hospital.
Twenty Sixth St. is closed in both direction from Laburnham to Elder Aves.
With files from Ilya Banares
Steve Bannon will take centre stage in Toronto at the November Munk Debate, days after being dropped from the New Yorker magazines festival.
U.S. President Trumps former White House chief strategist will debate Atlantic senior editor David Frum at the prestigious debate on Nov. 2 at Roy Thomson Hall, organizers announced Wednesday.
The two will take on the rise of populism, with Bannon on the pro side and Frum on the con.
Throughout the Western world, politics is undergoing a sea-change, reads the description of the debate on the website for Munk Debates, a charitable initiative that pits two opposing figures against each other on polarizing issues.
Does this surging populist agenda in Western nations signal a permanent shift in our politics? Or, is it passing phenomenon that will remain at the fringes of society and political power?
Bannon was dropped as a headliner from the New Yorker magazines October festival, after several other high profile speakers at the event, including Judd Apatow and Jim Carrey, said they would pull out if he appeared, the New York Times reported.
Frum, a Canadian-American who worked as a speech writer for George W. Bush, tweeted Wednesday morning about the debate.
On the Friday before the most important midterm elections of our lifetimes, I will debate Steve Bannon at Canadas @munkdebate and argue that his politics will lose and liberal democracy prevail across the Western world, he wrote.
Vote now:
The Munk Debates past debaters include Henry Kissinger, Glenn Greenwald and Tony Blair.
Read more about:
Ontario is open for business and soon there will be massive sign on the Canada-U.S. border to tout that.
Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Minister Jim Wilson confirmed Wednesday that Premier Doug Fords election promise of signage near the New York frontier will be kept.
You dont think hes going to allow me to make that announcement today, do you? quipped Wilson, as he announced province-wide consultations on reducing red tape to boost business in Ontario.
Its coming soon, he said, emphasizing the sign would not be manufactured by Deco Labels and Tags, the family company founded by the premiers father.
During the June 7 election campaign, Ford vowed that if he defeated Kathleen Wynnes Liberals he would make a big show of the provinces intentions to lure businesses across the border.
Today, Buffalo and Niagara are bragging about all the jobs theyre taking from us, because of Kathleen Wynnes high hydro rates, high taxes, and red tape, the Tory leader said on May 14.
Were going to put up a big sign on the border that says Ontario is open for business.
Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser pointed out the provinces borders have always been open for business and that his party left the economy in good shape after almost 15 years in power.
The Conservatives have inherited one of the strongest economies in the world, said Fraser, adding that Ontarios economic growth has outpaced all G7 countries and other provinces and it currently enjoys its lowest unemployment rate in a generation.
I really find it strange that theyre trying to create this image of Ontarios economy not being strong, he said.
Starting next week, Wilson said there will be red-tape reduction round-tables on cutting some of the provinces 380,000 regulations.
The push to slash red tape follows a similar initiative by the Liberals that was led by Ed Clark, who is no longer serving as the premiers business adviser.
Clark, the former TD Bank chair and Wynnes privatization czar, was part of a post-election purge by Ford.
But Wilson maintained the Liberals did not follow the respected bankers advice on cutting the regulatory burden on business even though the previous government passed legislation to do so.
Frankly, from the briefings I had, nothing happened. Mr. Clark made his report, (it) sat on the shelf. It was purely lip service.
Last year, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business awarded the Ontario government an honourable mention in its annual golden scissors award for reducing red tape.
The group praised then-Liberal minister Brad Duguid for introducing the red tape challenge as part of Ontarios business growth initiative.
The challenge is conducted through an online portal where Ontarians may submit ideas to cut red tape within seven industry sectors. Consultations for two sectors have already been completed and the government has received hundreds of submissions covering more than 200 regulations, the business federation said at the time.
Robert Benzie is the Stars Queens Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie
Read more about:
BENGHAZI, LIBYAThe death toll from more than a week of fighting between armed groups in Tripoli has climbed to at least 50 people, including civilians, Libyan authorities said Tuesday, as the UN expressed alarm over the fate of detained migrants and Libyans already displaced by years of unrest.
Fighting erupted last week when the Seventh Brigade, militias which hail from Tarhouna, a town about 60 kilometres south of Tripoli, attacked southern neighbourhoods of the capital. The Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigades and the Nawasi Brigade militias which support the UN-backed government have come to the citys defence.
In addition to those killed, another 138 people, including civilians, have been wounded, the Health Ministry said.
Libya slid into chaos after the 2011 uprising that overthrew long-ruling dictator Moammar Gadhafi and led to his death. The country is currently governed by rival authorities in Tripoli and the countrys east, each of which are backed by an array of militias. Other armed groups have carved out fiefdoms across the country, with many profiting from smuggling and extortion.
On Tuesday, a shell landed inside a former U.S. embassy compound in Tripoli, setting off a fire that ignited a fuel tank, an embassy official said. No one was wounded and the fire did not reach the building itself, said the official, who was not authorized to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The embassy, which was relocated to Tunisia during heavy fighting in 2014, tweeted that the compound was not impacted in todays fuel tank fire, which occurred in the vicinity.
The UN high commissioner for human rights in Geneva has voiced concern about the impact of the fighting on migrants and internally displaced people. Spokesperson Liz Throssell said Tuesday that some of the nearly 8,000 arbitrarily detained migrants are trapped in detention centres in areas where fighting has taken place, without access to food or medical treatment.
She said at least 21 civilians have been killed, including two women and two children, since Aug. 26.
The UN Refugee Agency called on all sides to spare civilians and civilian infrastructure and allow safe passage for those seeking refuge in safer areas.
The UN-backed government has declared a state of emergency in and around Tripoli. Delegations from the warring parties met Tuesday in the town of Zawiya, west of Tripoli, to try to reach a UN-brokered cease-fire, the UN mission in Libya said.
Issandr el-Amrani, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, said theres a risk of other militias entering the fighting, including powerful groups from the city of Misrata.
He said the fighting could also empower forced loyalists to Khalifa Hifter, the leader of a powerful militia in the east allied with the government there. Hifter has long opposed the UN-backed government in Tripoli.
The Tripoli government is losing ground and the little legitimacy it has, el-Amrani said. Escalation of fighting could mean that the government loses control the capital.
Mohamed Buisier, an analyst and former political adviser to Hifter, said the fighting was expected as armed groups in Tripoli were getting larger portions of financial incentives.
This is a normal thing after years of failure, he said. We are in a new phase where nobody can strip the militias from their arms. Libya needs an international peacekeeping force.
Read more about:
WASHINGTONA man whose teenage daughter was killed in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting tried to shake the hand of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during a break in Tuesdays confirmation hearing.
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime died in the February 2018 attack, approached Kavanaugh after he rose from the witness table for a lunch break. He put out his hand to Kavanaugh, who paused for a moment before turning away as a security guard stepped in.
Afterward, Guttenberg tweeted that Kavanaugh pulled his hand back, turned his back to me and walked away. I guess he did not want to deal with the reality of gun violence.
White House spokesperson Raj Shah said security intervened before Kavanaugh could shake the hand of the unidentified individual. He shared a video clip of the moment, saying it showed that as the Judge was leaving and had already turned away and begun walking, security intervened and ushered the Judge away.
Guttenberg pushed back on Twitter, saying: Incorrect. I was here all day and introduced by Senator Feinstein. No security involved. He turned and walked away.
After the encounter, Capitol Police talked with Guttenberg. He was again sitting in the hearing room for the afternoon session.
The Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School left 17 people dead.
Read more:
Kavanaughs confirmation hearing starts off with a bang
WASHINGTONA new book by Bob Woodward, the longtime Washington Post reporter, portrays a White House with relentless infighting and a work culture so toxic and volatile that many of President Donald Trumps top advisers and cabinet members became accustomed to working around their boss, whom they described as unstable and uninformed.
Fear: Trump in the White House, which is set for a public release next Tuesday and already sits atop Amazons bestseller list, is one in a series of insider accounts published this year that have drawn the ire of the West Wing. Fire and Fury, by the writer Michael Wolff, and Unhinged, by the former White House adviser Omarosa Manigault Newman, also reported the kind of hostility and interpersonal feuding that Woodward depicts. Trump reacted to both books with numerous tweets targeting the authors.
On Tuesday, after copies of Woodwards book leaked to reporters, Trump told the Daily Caller that parts of it may have been made up.
Its just another bad book. Hes had a lot of credibility problems, Trump said of Woodward.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, called it nothing more than fabricated stories.
Read more:
Cohn took papers from Trumps desk to protect NAFTA, Woodward book alleges
Trumps NAFTA threat leaves Trudeau locked in high-stakes game of poker
Donald Trump, Carl Bernstein tangle on Twitter over CNN story
Here are some key takeaways from the book.
The Russia investigation is a constant source of anxiety for Trump, and for his lawyers. In late January, Woodward wrote, Trump sat down with John Dowd, then an outside lawyer advising the president on the White Houses interactions with Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel. The idea was to stage a mock interview between the president and Mueller, who was angling to question Trump. During the session, Trump repeatedly lied and contradicted himself, insulted the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, then exploded in anger, ranting for a half-hour about the investigation being a hoax.
Dowd tried to demonstrate why their meeting was reason for Trump not to do an interview with Mueller, citing the presidents schedule demands.
Its not that youre lying or youre bad or anything like that, Dowd told him. Given your daily intake just look what weve done this afternoon.
Dowd handed him a letter addressed to Mueller asserting the presidents right to terminate the investigation. Trump loved it.
The day after, a gleeful Trump called Dowd. I slept like a rock, the president said. I love that letter.
By March, little progress had been made with Mueller. On March 5, Dowd met with the special counsel and one of his deputies and explained why he was trying to keep Trump away from them.
Im not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot, he said.
Later that month, Dowd told Trump why he should avoid an interview: Its either that or an orange jumpsuit.
Mueller engaged in lively conversations for months with Trumps lawyers. The book offers the first extensive look at dialogue between Mueller and those involved in the Russia investigation. Woodward recounted Dowds zigzagging relationship with the special counsels office, and the lengths he went to to build a rapport with Mueller in the heat of negotiations over an interview with Trump. Dowd fluctuated between credulity and outrage, at one point telling Trump after an especially trying meeting with Mueller that the president may have been right about the special counsel all along.
Woodward wrote that Dowd would tell Mueller that the president did not have time for the inquiry while he was juggling the responsibilities of his new job.
Im very sensitive to that, Mueller reportedly responded. Im doing the best I can.
Still, Mueller at one point told Dowd that he could acquire a grand jury subpoena, which Dowd interpreted as a threat.
Im not trying to threaten you, Mueller reportedly told Dowd. Im just thinking of the possibilities here.
In one meeting with Mueller, Dowd, to make plain just how much he feared that Trump would commit perjury, asked Jay Sekulow, another one of Trumps lawyers, to re-enact Trumps practice session from January. Sekulow, playing Trump, imitated an answer to a question about Comey.
Sekulows answer was classic Trump an answer spun out of thin air, with contradictions, made-up stuff, anger, Woodward wrote. A perfect performance. A perfect Trump.
Trumps advisers are repeatedly stunned by the presidents lack of interest in and knowledge of major issues. Woodward used several defence-related meetings to illustrate the presidents problem grasping his own administrations policy, including a July 2017 gathering at the Pentagon between Trump, military brass and members of his cabinet.
When are we going to start winning some wars? Trump groused as those around him tried to clarify the purpose of the war in Afghanistan. Weve got these charts. When are we going to win some wars? Why are you jamming this down my throat?
Trump attacked the generals and cabinet members in the room, leaving Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson exasperated. Hes a moron, Tillerson reportedly said once Trump had left, using an expletive.
At a January meeting of the National Security Council, Trump asked why the United States was spending so much on the Korean Peninsula.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis replied that the administration was trying to prevent World War III. After Trump left the room, Woodward wrote, Mattis told people that Trump understood the topic like a fifth or sixth-grader.
In another episode, Gary D. Cohn, the former chief economic adviser to Trump, stole a letter from Trumps desk that the president had planned to sign, withdrawing the United States from a trade deal with South Korea. Woodward wrote that Cohn told a colleague that he had to protect the country. Trump apparently never realized the letter had disappeared.
In his interview with the Daily Caller, Trump denied that Cohn had taken the letter. There was nobody taking anything from me, he said.
Woodward also prints a summary of the July 2017 meeting written by a senior White House official who spoke with its attendees.
It seems clear that many of the presidents senior advisers, especially those in the national security realm, are extremely concerned with his erratic nature, his relative ignorance, his inability to learn, as well as what they consider his dangerous views, it read.
Trump himself was not a primary source for the book. Woodward conducted most of his interviews on deep background, meaning he could incorporate the material without citing from whom it came. Throughout the book, he described settings and events with exhaustively reported detail, incorporating what he said in a note in the book were hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand participants.
But, Woodward said in the same note, Trump declined to be interviewed, leaving the tale largely his advisers telling.
The Washington Post published audio of an 11-minute call between Woodward and Trump in which Woodward warned the president that his book would be severe, and expressed regret that he never had a chance to incorporate Trumps view of his own job. Trump sounded incredulous that he never got to sit for an interview and defend himself to the author. Woodward told him that he made the request to at least a half-dozen people close to the president, and that it was never granted.
On the call, Trump sounded worried, repeating his refrain that it would be a bad book for him, and that Woodward did not understand just how successful he had been in office.
So were going to have a very inaccurate book, and thats too bad, Trump said.
Its going to be accurate, I promise, Woodward responded.
Yeah, O.K., Trump said. Well, accurate is that nobodys ever done a better job than Im doing as president.
John F. Kelly, the chief of staff, quickly soured on Trump. Kelly, who has long been rumoured to be close to resigning, once called Trump an idiot and said the White House staff was operating in crazytown, according to the book.
Its pointless to try to convince him of anything, Kelly bemoaned in a meeting. Hes gone off the rails.
Trump came to be suspicious of Kellys scrupulousness, finding workarounds, such as calling members of Congress when Kelly was not in the room.
When Cohn tried to resign over comments Trump had made after a white nationalist march in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017, Trump belittled him but persuaded him to stay. Kelly then pulled Cohn aside to express his dismay over how Cohn was treated.
That was the greatest show of self-control I have ever seen, Kelly said. If that was me, I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his ass six different times.
Still, Kelly shared some of Trumps paranoia about bad press.
Im the only thing protecting the president from the press, Woodward quoted Kelly as saying in a meeting. The press is out to get him. They want to destroy him. And Im determined to stand in the way, taking the bullets and taking the arrows.
On Tuesday, Kelly denied in a statement that he had ever called Trump an idiot.
Read more about:
MEXICO CITYWhen Jimmy Morales ran for president of Guatemala three years ago, the former TV comedians campaign slogan was Neither corrupt, nor a thief.
One of the reasons Morales had to make honesty a central issue in his campaign was the work of an unusually powerful group of crime fighters known as the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, or CICIG.
In the face of enormous political pressure, this United Nations-backed organization had conducted rigorous investigations of corruption at the highest levels of Guatemalas government for more than a decade. Its work helped inspire a nationwide protest movement in 2015 and led to the arrest of then-President Otto Perez Molina, then-Vice President Roxana Baldetti and many more.
For more than a year, CICIG has been investigating Morales himself, accusing him of accepting about $1 million (U.S.) in illegal campaign donations and earning his ire in return.
Last year, Morales tried to expel the head of CICIG, Colombian prosecutor Ivan Velasquez, but the Supreme Court blocked the move.
Over the past week, the conflict has flared up again. On Aug. 31, Morales said he would not renew CICIGs mandate, which expires next year. The same day, Guatemalan military vehicles stood guard outside CICIGs offices and descended on a central plaza. On Tuesday, Morales ordered that Velasquez, who has led CICIG since 2013, not be allowed back in Guatemala.
For some time now, there have been efforts to derail anti-corruption efforts in Guatemala and continued attacks against the commission and the commissioner, said Adriana Beltran, a Guatemala expert at the Washington Office on Latin America. Moraless actions, she said, are his attempt to protect himself, given the continuing probe against him.
While Velasquez remains in the United States, the work of CICIG continues, said a spokesman, Matias Ponce. The organization, which has about 200 staff members, is also waiting for the Guatemalan government to renew work visas of CICIGs foreign staff, he said.
Apart from blocking Velasquezs entrance into Guatemala, the Morales government this year removed 25 police personnel assigned to guard CICIG, cutting its security force in half.
Morales has argued that CICIG, as a foreign body that receives U.S. funding, constitutes a violation of Guatemalan sovereignty and that Guatemalas own judicial institutions should be handling such graft cases.
CICIG works in conjunction with the Guatemalan attorney generals office in building corruption cases.
In a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres last week, Morales said CICIG has had more than sufficient time over the course of its mandate to achieve its goals.
CICIG was set up in 2006 to bolster Guatemalas weak judicial institutions. At the time, impunity was rampant in the country and murders were hardly ever solved. The group, composed of investigators from around the world, used sophisticated investigative techniques, wiretapping and examination of financial records to pursue high-profile crimes. Its work became a model and inspiration in Latin America, where corruption often goes unpunished.
But CICIG has also been polarizing. Critics see it as overzealous and manipulated for political reasons. Earlier this year, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., put on hold $6 million in State Department funding to CICIG, saying he was concerned that Russia had manipulated the group into pushing for the prosecution of a Russian family in Guatemala.
CICIGs investigation against Morales had also been gaining steam. Last month, Velasquez, along with Guatemalan Attorney General Maria Consuelo Porras, asked the nations Congress to strip Morales of his immunity from prosecution. A congressional commission has been formed to weigh the request.
ISLAMABADPakistans newly-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Islamabad on Wednesday, saying he was optimistic he could reset the relationship with Washington after the U.S. suspended aid over the countrys alleged failure to combat militants.
You know Im a born optimist, said Khan, a former cricket star who was sworn in last month. A sportsman always is an optimist. He steps on the field and he thinks hes going to win.
Pompeo spent just four hours in Pakistan, his first visit to the country. At the airport before leaving for neighbouring India, he said he was hopeful that a foundation had been laid to move forward.
Weve still got a long way to go, lots more discussion to be had, he said. Its time for us to begin to deliver on our joint commitment Weve had lots of times where weve talked and made agreements, but we havent been able to actually execute those.
Pompeo held meetings with Khan, Pakistans Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and the powerful Army Chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa.
We talked about their new government, the opportunity to reset the relationship between our two countries across a broad spectrum, economic, business, commercial, Pompeo said.
He said they also discussed the work that we all know that we need to do to try to develop a peaceful resolution in Afghanistan that benefits certainly Afghanistan, but also the United States and Pakistan.
Im hopeful that the foundation that we laid today will set the conditions for continued success as we start to move forward, he said on the tarmac before leaving.
The United States last weekend cancelled a $300 million Coalition Support Fund payment to Pakistan after long complaining that it was not doing enough to combat the Taliban and other militants who attack Afghan and U.S. forces across the porous border.
Pakistan has rejected those allegations, saying it has played a key role in the U.S.-led campaign against extremists that began after the 9-11 attacks.
On the plane to Pakistan, Pompeo announced his appointment of Zalmay Khalilzad, a veteran diplomat who is unpopular in Pakistan, as the new U.S. special adviser on Afghan reconciliation, which could further complicate relations with Islamabad.
Khalilzad has been very critical of Pakistan in the past and his appointment will not help move things forward, said Zahid Hussain, a defence analyst and the author of two books on militancy in the region.
Khalilzad was born in Afghanistan and served as U.S. special envoy to the country following the collapse of the Taliban from 2001-2003 and then as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2003-2005.
He has been critical of Pakistan, often blaming Afghanistans deteriorating security and countrywide chaos on Pakistans military and powerful ISI intelligence agency, accusing them of harbouring and aiding Taliban insurgents.
Khalilzad has been criticized for his role in cobbling together an Afghan government of warlords headed by Hamid Karzai following the Talibans collapse. Afghanistans corruption-plagued government and, by some accounts, poorly trained security forces have frustrated Afghans and contributed to the countrys deteriorating security situation.
Neither the U.S. nor Pakistan can afford a complete rupture in relations, but Hussain said Islamabad is frustrated that the relationship has been reduced to a single issue: Afghanistan.
The United States seems only to see Pakistan through the prism of Afghanistan, he said. The main thing is we would like to be allies with the U.S. but with dignity.
As an opposition leader, Khan often chastised Pakistans reliance on U.S. financial assistance. He briefly stopped trucks supplying fuel and other goods to U.S. and NATO troops from crossing into Afghanistan to protest U.S. drone strikes in Pakistans tribal regions along the border.
In a speech following the July 25 elections that propelled him to power, Khan said Pakistan would not participate in the U.S. war on terror, instead advocating a peaceful end to the protracted war in Afghanistan.
Khan has flatly rejected a U.S. strategy that advocates a heavy military hand to force Afghanistans Taliban to the negotiating table.
Pompeo arrived shortly before 8 p.m. local time (10:30 a.m. EDT) in the Indian capital of New Delhi.
Read more about:
NEW YORKA plane has been quarantined at New Yorks Kennedy Airport amid reports of ill passengers aboard a flight from Dubai.
The Emirates flight landed around 9:10 a.m. Wednesday. The airline says about 10 passengers were sick and were getting medical attention as a precaution.
Video from news helicopters showed the jet sitting on the tarmac surrounded by ambulances, vehicles and airport personnel.
Representatives of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were on the scene.
Eric Phillips, a spokesperson for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, tweeted that the flight stopped in Mecca, which is experiencing a flu outbreak, and early indications point to that as a possibility.
A New York police counterterrorism division tweeted it appeared to be a medical situation.
Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh was before the Senate Judiciary Committee for the second day of his Supreme Court confirmation hearing Wednesday, where he was defending his judicial independence amid questions over how he would treat U.S. President Donald Trump on the high court.
Senators have pressed Kavanaugh on guns, abortion and regulation, as well as some tantalizing questions over purloined emails. Each senator has 30 minutes to interrogate Kavanaugh.
Protests continue intermittently.
On stolen Senate emails and Kavanaughs knowledge of them
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy raised two Bush-era scandals with Kavanaugh, and he suggested that Bush White House emails in the Judiciary Committees possession may contradict testimony the nominee made more than a decade ago if only they could be released publicly.
The exchange was tantalizing but incomplete.
One of the scandals was the disclosure in late 2003 and 2004 that a Republican Judiciary Committee staff member had infiltrated the Democrats confidential internal files about which of President George W. Bushs judicial nominees to try to block and with what tactics. The other was the disclosure that after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Bush administration had secretly ordered the National Security Agency to intercept Americans phone calls and emails without obtaining the judicial warrants seemingly required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Read more:
U.S. Supreme Court nominee turned his back on Parkland shooting victims father
Kavanaugh confirmation hearing riddled with protestors
Kavanaughs confirmation hearing begins as a partisan brawl
At his appeals court confirmation hearing in 2006, Kavanaugh who had worked as an associate White House counsel in the Bush administration told senators that he did not know anything about the infiltration of Senate Democrats files on judicial nomination fights or about the warrantless wiretapping program before they eventually became public.
But Leahy indicated that documents marked committee confidential show that Manuel Miranda, then a Republican staffer on the Judiciary Committee, had sent Kavanaugh emails about Leahys private concerns about a judicial nominee whose hearing was coming up and a draft letter Leahy had not yet sent. He also suggested that the files may show that Miranda made a reference to having a mole on the committee or spying on Democrats and that Miranda may have suggested meeting outside of their workplaces.
The senator also indicated that Kavanaugh may have had some involvement with a memo written by John Yoo, who was an attorney in the Justice Departments Office of Legal Counsel who wrote opinions secretly blessing the surveillance program as lawful.
Kavanaugh insisted that everything he had testified before was 100 per cent accurate, but indicated that he was not sure what Leahy was referring to. Leahy asked Grassley to lift the confidentiality protections over the emails in question so he and Kavanaugh could discuss them in his second round of questioning, and Grassley indicated he would look at them.
I am concerned because there is evidence that Mr. Miranda provided you with materials that were stolen from me, Leahy said. And that would contradict your prior testimony. It is also clear from public emails and Im refraining from going into nonpublic ones that you had reason to believe materials were obtained inappropriately at the time.
Kavanaugh says hell respect abortions precedent on precedent.
Kavanaugh, under attack from progressives and Democrats who say he will roll back abortion rights, asserted that he understood the significance of the issue and would respect the Supreme Courts precedent on precedent.
I dont live in a bubble. I understand I live in the real world, he said, after Feinstein reminded him of the death tolls in this country among women who tried to end their own pregnancies before Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion.
I understand your point of view on that, and I understand how passionate and how deeply people feel about this issue, he said.
Feinstein did not ask him the operative question Does he believe Roe was correctly decided? but even if she had, he had already told Grassley it would not be appropriate to answer it. She did ask him what he meant when he told Sen. Susan Collins that he believed Roe was settled law. At that, he launched into a discourse on the value of precedent.
Kavanaugh said Roe was settled as a precedent of the Supreme Court, and as such, deserves respect from judges who took note of it. But then he noted a subsequent case, the 1992 case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which narrowed the scope of Roe, at the same time that it reaffirmed Roe as a precedent.
Casey, which gave states the authority to regulate abortion so long as those regulations do not pose an undue burden on the woman, is precedent on precedent, he said.
His comments were a reminder that, as Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, has often pointed out, precedents are only settled law until the Supreme Court unsettles them. Democrats complain that previous nominees have pledged to respect precedents, only to narrow or overturn them once seated on the court.
What about this abortion precedent?
One opinion of intense interest to Democrats is Kavanaughs dissent in the 2017 case Garza v. Hargan, which involved a pregnant 17-year-old immigrant, who was in the country illegally, whom the Trump administration tried to block from having an immediate abortion.
Kavanaugh sided with the administration in arguing that the teen should have been transferred to the care of an immigration sponsor a family member or friend before being allowed to terminate her pregnancy. Under questioning from Sen. Richard J. Durbin, he said he was only following Supreme Court precedent, though he conceded, There is no case on exact point.
So, Kavanaugh said, he rooted his dissent in Supreme Court cases that have permitted states to require pregnant teens to obtain the consent of their parents for an abortion. Durbin objected, suggesting that Texas, where the girl was housed in an immigration facility, had imposed no such requirement on her.
You are adding a requirement here, the senator said.
Im not adding. Im a judge. The policy has been made by others, Kavanaugh replied. Im deciding whether the policy is consistent with Supreme Court precedent.
I did my level best in an emergency posture, he added.
Can Trump pardon himself? Hmm.
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy put that question directly to Kavanaugh.
If Leahy thought he was going to get a direct answer to the direct question, he was mistaken.
The question of self-pardons is something Ive never analyzed, Kavanaugh said, adding: I cant begin to answer in this context as a sitting judge and a nominee to the Supreme Court.
Leahy pressed anyway, asking whether the president could pardon associates to keep them from testifying against him. Again, Kavanaugh dodged the question, saying that as a judge, he would normally receive briefs and arguments from both sides before coming to a conclusion.
Im not going to answer hypothetical questions of that sort, he said.
Can a president be subpoenaed? No comment
Pressed by Feinstein, Kavanaugh refused to say whether he would rule that the U.S. Constitution permits a sitting president to be subpoenaed for testimony. He said that as a matter of judicial independence, he would not give the Senate a precise answer on a hypothetical that might come before me.
The potential for a legal fight over a presidential subpoena has become a hot topic amid speculation that Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russias interference in the 2016 campaign, may issue a subpoena for President Donald Trump. Lawyers for the president and the office of the special counsel have been negotiating for months over whether Trump will voluntarily sit for an interview, so far without success.
In 1974, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in United States v. Nixon that a sitting president in that case Richard M. Nixon could be subpoenaed for documents and records like the Watergate tape recordings. But the court has never addressed the question of whether a sitting president could be forced to answer questions, which raises additional issues about the time it would take to prepare and the potential distraction from carrying out his constitutional duties.
Noting that Chief Justice Warren Burger, who wrote the ruling, had been appointed by Nixon, Kavanaugh said he thought the Watergate tapes ruling was one of the greatest moments in the Supreme Courts history because it stood up for judicial independence in the face of political pressure, but how that precedent would apply to other hypotheticals like whether a subpoena for presidential testimony in a criminal investigation should also be upheld, was something he should not address, citing the practice of previous Supreme Court nominees.
Kavanaugh was a prosecutor working for Ken Starr when the independent counsel issued a subpoena to President Bill Clinton. But Clintons legal team negotiated a deal whereby he testified voluntarily before a grand jury, and Starr withdrew the subpoena, so the issue was never adjudicated. Years later, after working in the Bush administration after the Sept. 11 attacks, Kavanaugh said that he thought presidents should be temporarily shielded from criminal investigation while they were in office, although he left it ambiguous as to whether he thought that was a change Congress should make or that the Constitution might already allow.
Kavanaugh cites Nixon to assert his independence
Answering the first question Wednesday, from Grassley, the Judiciary Committee chair, Kavanaugh said he would be an independent justice. He cited three Supreme Court landmarks to make his case.
Two were predictable: Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 decision that ruled segregated public schools unconstitutional, and Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer, the 1952 decision rejecting President Harry S. Trumans attempt to seize the nations steel mills to aid the war effort in Korea.
The third was notable: United States v. Nixon, the 1974 decision in which Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon had to comply with a subpoena seeking tapes of his conversations in the Oval Office.
Kavanaugh has not always been unequivocal in his support for the decision. In a 1999 transcript of a round-table discussion, he said, Maybe Nixon was wrongly decided heresy though it is to say so. His allies have said he meant the statement as a critique of the legal strategy of Clintons lawyers.
On Wednesday, Kavanaughs said the message of the decision, which he called one of the greatest moments in U.S. judicial history, was clear. No one is above the law in our constitutional system, he said.
Kavanaugh says he is not anti-regulation
An abstract but important part of Kavanaughs judicial philosophy is his skeptical approach to so-called Chevron deference, the principle that when a statute granting a regulatory agency the authority to make rules about a certain topic such as protections for the environment, consumers, or workers are ambiguous, the courts should accept the agencys interpretation that it has the power to make a rule.
Corporations opposed to what they see as overly burdensome regulations want the Supreme Court to overturn or narrow the Chevron ruling, making it harder for executive agencies to expand into new areas.
Questioned about his view of the powers of administrative agencies by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, Kavanaugh touted several rulings in which he had upheld environmental regulations rather than striking them down, but he gave little sign of support for Chevron deference, insisting instead that executive branch agencies must not be permitted to rewrite laws passed by Congress to expand its authority.
Ive heard it said that Im a skeptic of regulation, he said. Im not a skeptic of regulation at all. Im a skeptic of unauthorized regulation, of illegal regulation, of regulation that is outside the bounds of what the laws passed by Congress have said.
Kavanaugh defends his earlier testimony about torture
Back in 2006, Kavanaugh testified during his appeals court confirmation that he was not involved in the questions about the rules governing detention of combatants while working in a Bush administration that was wrestling with the handling of terrorism suspects.
Instead, he said, his portfolio focused on civil justice issues like terrorism insurance.
Durbin was having none of it. It has since emerged that Kavanaugh was involved in a Bush White House discussion about whether U.S. citizens being held as enemy combatants should get access to lawyers, the senator said, and that the nominee had volunteered to prepare a Justice Department official for testimony about monitoring attorney-client conversations of terrorism-related federal inmates. He also said Kavanaugh had privately admitted involvement in a December 2005 signing statement by Bush that asserted a right to bypass a newly tightened torture ban.
You went further than you should have, Durbin said. In the three specific instances I gave you, you clearly were involved in questions about rules governing detention of combatants.
But Kavanaugh defended his testimony as accurate. Among other things, he said his statement that he was not involved which came in response to a question 12 years ago from Durbin was a reference to the Bush administrations so-called enhanced interrogation program, not terrorism prisoners generally.
I was not read into that program, he said. I told the truth about that.
He also said that while, as White House staff secretary in December 2005, he passed the torture ban signing statement onto Bush for his signature, it was the White House counsel Harriet Miers who controlled the text of that document.
I cant recall what I said about the torture ban signing statement, Kavanaugh said. I do recall that there was a good deal of internal debate about that signing statement, as you can imagine there would be. I remember that it was controversial internally.
Sham president, sham justice
The second day of Kavanaughs hearings started with still more protests just as Grassley opened with a hope that the proceedings would be under more control than Tuesdays divisive opening. One woman was led out shouting, Sham president, sham justice.
In his opening remarks, Grassley accused Democrats who plotted strategy for the hearing on a conference call Monday of colluding with protesters to disrupt the hearing.
NBC News reported that Democratic members of the committee plotted with minority leaders to disrupt the hearing yesterday, he said. Democratic senators interrupted the hearing 63 times before lunch, and in the audience, 70 people were arrested yesterday who were following their lead.
But one of the protesters took exception to Grassleys assertion, since, she said, she was calling out Democratic leaders such as Durbin for their tepid efforts to thwart the nominee. And a spokesman for Schumer said there was no coordination.
Ken Starr redux
In the 1990s, as a prosecutor in Starrs Monica Lewinsky investigation, Kavanaugh supported aggressive questioning of former president Bill Clinton about his sexual relations with the former White House intern.
Years later, however, Kavanaugh expressed regret about that view, suggesting that sitting presidents should not be subjected to the kind of distracting investigations that helped subject Clinton to part of the Starr investigation.
That shift in views has prompted Democrats to assert that Kavanaugh would try to protect Trump from Muellers Russia investigation. Feinstein pressed Kavanaugh on that point Wednesday.
Kavanaugh said his views changed after he watched Bush deal with the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and the aftermath, and concluded that presidents should not be distracted from important crises like that by having to respond to investigations like the one Clinton faced.
September 11 thats what changed, he told Feinstein. He added, however, that his comments about potential changes to the statutes governing investigations of presidents do not reflect his thinking on the question of whether the Constitution would allow such investigations to proceed.
If a case came up where someone was trying to say this was a constitutional principle, I would have a completely open mind on that, he said.
A gut punch on sexual harassment but no guilt by association
Critics of Kavanaugh have noted that he clerked for former U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Alex Kozinski, who has been accused of sexually harassing more than a dozen women. They assert that Kavanaugh must have known about the allegations long before they were made public.
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch came to Kavanaughs defence, calling such accusations against Kavanaugh guilt by association, but asked a series of gentle questions designed to give the judge an opportunity to deny them. He did just that, seeking to put distance between himself and any hint that he knew of or condoned the judges behaviour.
Did you know anything about these allegations against Kozinski? Hatch asked.
Nothing, Kavanaugh responded, adding a moment later: When they became public, the first thought I had was no woman should be subjected to harassment in the workplace, including in the judiciary, especially in the judiciary.
He went on: It was a gut punch for me. It was a gut punch for the judiciary. I was shocked, disappointed, angry, swirl of emotions.
Overall, Kavanaugh has gone out of his way to extol his record on women. He said he has made an aggressive effort to hire female clerks. Twenty-five of the 48 clerks that Kavanaugh has hired during his 12 years on the appeals court have been female, and 21 have gone on to clerk at the Supreme Court, he told the committee.
He said he was spurred to do so by an article in The New York Times by Linda Greenhouse, the newspapers former Supreme Court correspondent, who wrote in 2006, the same year Kavanaugh joined the court, about the paucity of female clerks on the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh said that troubled him, calling it unacceptable. He hired three women (out of four clerks) for his first year on the bench, adding that the next generation of leaders and Supreme Court justices will be drawn from the ranks of that generation.
Its something Im very focused on at all times, he said.
Kavanaugh and Osama bin Ladens bodyguard
Kavanaugh touted his ruling in a 2012 appeals court case reversing the military commissions conviction of a former Guantanamo detainee, Salim Hamdan, as evidence that he would be independent and could resist public and political pressure when it came to deciding cases.
Hamdan, a Yemeni man who served as a driver and bodyguard for Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, had been convicted in 2008 before a military commission on a charge of providing material support for terrorism. His lawyers challenged the conviction on the grounds that material support is not a recognized international war crime at the time of his actions, and tribunals are generally for war crimes. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 listed that charge as a war crime that the tribunals could handle, but Kavanaugh and the appeals court ruled that it did not apply retroactively and overturned the conviction.
You will never have a nominee who has ruled for a more unpopular defendant than ruling for Salim Hamdan, Kavanaugh said. And why did I do that in that case? Why did I rule for someone who had been involved in the September 11th? Its because the law compelled it.
Still, Hamdan, who had already served his sentence and been repatriated back to Yemen by 2012, was not accused of advance knowledge of or involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks. And in many other important cases involving Guantanamo detainees, Kavanaugh sided with the government including ruling in ways that made it harder for detainees to win habeas corpus lawsuits challenging the basis for their indefinite wartime detention without trial; arguing that the appeals court had no jurisdiction to hear challenge brought by military commissions defendants before the tribunal issued a final judgment; and maintaining that international law cannot be enforced in court as a constraint against what Congress and the president do with tribunals.
WASHINGTONMexico and the U.S. hinted Wednesday that a NAFTA deal was possible within days even as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dug in on his key demands and criticized President Donald Trump as a breaker of trade rules.
Trudeau, who has usually taken pains to avoid direct shots at Trump over NAFTA, argued that Trumps behaviour makes it especially important for Canada that any deal include an independent dispute resolution system.
We need to keep the Chapter 19 dispute resolution because that ensures that the rules are actually followed. And we know we have a president who doesnt always follow the rules as theyre laid out, Trudeau told Edmontons 630 CHED radio.
Trump did not respond directly. He suggested that he was optimistic about the talks, hinting that there could be a deal by the weekend.
A lot of people are saying, How are you doing with Canada? Well let you know. We should know over the next two or three days. Maybe even today. But you will be the first to know, Trump said at the White House.
Trump added, though, that it would be fine for the U.S. and wont be fine for Canada if no deal were reached.
Mexican chief negotiator Kenneth Smith Ramos told an aluminum industry event in Mexico that he hoped Canada and the U.S. would come to an accord by Friday or Saturday. He repeated the statement on Twitter.
Caution is warranted. Several previous eruptions of deal-is-near optimism over the past year have not been followed by a deal, and the Canadian government was unwilling to offer a prediction on Wednesday.
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said the days talks had been constructive, but she declined to say how close the two sides were.
Freeland said she would return to the table on Thursday morning after lower-level officials worked into the evening and probably late into the night.
We are making good progress. We continue to get a deeper and deeper understanding of the concerns on both sides, Freeland said after her second meeting of the day with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and other U.S. officials in Washington.
Trump said the U.S. has a very strong position in the talks with Canada. He argued that Canada and other countries have been taking advantage of the United States for many years.
Were really, right now, in very intense negotiations with Canada. Well see how it works out. And if it doesnt work out, thats going to be fine for the country, for our country. It wont be fine for Canada. But we love Canada. Theyre our next-door neighbour. Weve had a great relationship with them for many, many years, Trump told reporters at a meeting with the emir of Kuwait.
Any Canada-U.S. agreement would not be the end of the process.
Smith Ramos said Mexico would have to rejoin the talks at least briefly to complete a three-country deal. And any formal agreement would not be final until approved by the three countries legislatures including the U.S. Congress, which has sometimes taken four years or more to vote on trade deals reached by the president.
Trump seemed enthused about the possibility of a deal, telling reporters that he had come up with a new name to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement he dislikes.
Trudeau called the Chapter 19 system one of his red lines. The system allows import duties imposed on Canada by the U.S. government to be challenged at independent panels made up of people from both countries rather than in the U.S. court system. The U.S. and Mexico can also use the Chapter 19 panels to challenge Canadian duties outside Canadian courts.
Trudeau said Wednesday, as he did Tuesday, that his other red line is the preservation of NAFTAs cultural exemption, which allows Canada to maintain a system of regulations and subsidies meant to protect Canadian content. Trudeau said the exemption is needed to allow Canada to block American companies from trying to take over Canadian media entities.
We cant imagine a situation in which an American TV company or network could come up and buy radio stations or buy, you know, CTV for example. That would not be good for Canada. It wouldnt be good for our identity. It wouldnt be good for our sovereignty, Trudeau said.
Trudeau made clear that he was open to making incremental concessions to the U.S. on dairy.
He vowed again to defend Canadas protectionist supply management system, which uses quotas and tariffs to shield Canadian farmers from foreign competition. But he noted that Canada has shown a certain amount of flexibility on dairy in other trade negotiations.
In the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Canada agreed to open 3.25 per cent of the domestic dairy market to imports.
These are things were always willing to look at, Trudeau said, though that depends on the kinds of negotiations we have.
Canada and the U.S. blew past a non-binding Trump deadline of last Friday for Canada to sign on to the preliminary deal between the U.S. and Mexico. Trump officially notified Congress on Friday of a deal with Mexico, starting a ticking clock that might allow him to sign a final deal with Mexico alone as soon as the end of November.
But it is not clear whether Congress would be willing to grant him permission to proceed with Mexico alone. Senior Republicans, along with business and labour leaders, have insisted that the deal include Canada, and they have said that a Mexico-only process could violate trade law.
Read more about:
LONDONA tentative deal was reached Wednesday to resolve a conflict over scallop fishing rights off Frances coast, British and French officials said.
Officials and industry representatives said after talks in London that an agreement on the principles of a deal has been reached with details to be ironed out in Paris on Friday.
A joint statement said that a previous agreement involved British boats 15 metres and over will be renewed. In addition, the agreement calls for smaller vessels to be included in the deal subject to a reasonable compensation package still to be finalized.
In the meantime, there is a voluntary agreement for all U.K. vessels to respect the French closure period in the disputed area, officials said.
The talks follow an incident last week in which French and British fishermen angrily bumped boats over access to fisheries off the French coast near Normandy.
About 35 French boats confronted five British ones, sometimes banging hulls, in international waters during the incident.
British Fisheries Minister George Eustice said the goal of Wednesdays talks was to reach a new agreement that would prevent more confrontations.
An agreement reached in 2013 had broken down, leading to the clashes.
Read more:
French, British fishing boats skirmish over scallops
VALIER, MONT.The searchers rummage through the abandoned trailer, flipping over a battered couch, unfurling a stained sheet, looking for clues. Its blistering hot and a grizzly bear lurking in the brush unleashes a menacing growl. But they cant stop.
Not when a loved one is still missing.
The group moves outside into knee-deep weeds, checking out a rusted garbage can, an old washing machine and a surprise: bones.
Ashley HeavyRunner Loring, a 20-year-old member of the Blackfeet Nation, was last heard from around June 8, 2017. Since then her older sister, Kimberly, has been looking for her.
She has logged about 40 searches, with family from afar sometimes using Google Earth to guide her around closed roads. Shes hiked in mountains, shouting her sisters name. Shes trekked through fields, gingerly stepping around snakes. Shes trudged through snow, rain and mud, but she cant cover the entire 1.5 million-acre reservation, an expanse larger than Delaware.
Im the older sister. I need to do this, says 24-year-old Kimberly, swatting away bugs, her hair matted from the heat. I dont want to search until Im 80. But if I have to, I will.
Ashleys disappearance is one small chapter in the unsettling story of missing and murdered Native American women and girls. No one knows precisely how many there are because some cases go unreported, others arent documented thoroughly and there isnt a specific government database tracking these cases. But one U.S. senator with victims in her home state calls this an epidemic, a long-standing problem linked to inadequate resources, outright indifference and a confusing jurisdictional maze.
Now, in the era of #MeToo, this issue is gaining political traction as an expanding activist movement focuses on Native women a population known to experience some of the nations highest rates of murder, sexual violence and domestic abuse.
Just the fact were making policy-makers acknowledge this is an issue that requires government response, thats progress in itself, says Annita Lucchesi, a cartographer and member of the Southern Cheyenne Tribe who is building a database of missing and murdered Indigenous women in the U.S. and Canada a list of some 2,700 names so far.
As her endless hunt goes on, Ashleys sister is joined on this day by a cousin, Lissa, and four others, including a family friend armed with a rifle and pistols. They scour the trailer where two no trespassing signs are posted and a broken telescope looks out the kitchen window. One of Ashleys cousins lived here, and there are reports its among the last places she was seen.
Were following every rumour there is, even if it sounds ridiculous, Lissa Loring says.
This search is motivated, in part, by the familys disappointment with the reservation police force a common sentiment for many relatives of missing Native Americans.
Outside, the group stumbles upon something intriguing: the bones, one small and straight, the other larger and shaped like a saddle. Its enough to alert police, who respond in five squad cars, rumbling across the ragged field, kicking up clouds of dust. After studying the bones, one officer breaks the news: Theyre much too large for a human; they could belong to a deer.
There will be no breakthrough today. Tomorrow the searchers head to the mountains.
For many in Native American communities across the nation, the problem of missing and murdered women is deeply personal.
I cant think of a single person that I know who doesnt have some sort of experience, says Ivan MacDonald, a member of the Blackfeet Nation and a filmmaker. These women arent just statistics. These are grandma, these are mom. This is an aunt, this is a daughter. This is someone who was loved and didnt get the justice that they so desperately needed.
MacDonald and his sister, Ivy, recently produced a documentary on Native American women in Montana who vanished or were killed. One story hits particularly close to home. Their 7-year-old cousin, Monica, disappeared from a reservation school in 1979. Her body was found frozen on a mountain 20 miles away. No one has ever been arrested.
There are many similar mysteries that follow a pattern: A woman or girl goes missing, theres a community outcry, a search is launched, a reward may be offered. There may be a quick resolution. But often, theres frustration with tribal police and federal authorities, and a feeling many cases arent handled urgently or thoroughly.
So why does this happen? MacDonald offers his own harsh assessment.
It boils down to racism, he argues. You could sort of tie it into poverty or drug use or some of those factors (but) the federal government doesnt really give a crap at the end of the day.
Tribal police and investigators from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs serve as law enforcement on reservations, which are sovereign nations. But the FBI investigates certain offences and, if theres ample evidence, the U.S. Department of Justice prosecutes major felonies such as murder, kidnapping and rape if they happen on tribal lands.
Former North Dakota federal prosecutor Tim Purdon calls it a jurisdictional thicket of overlapping authority and different laws depending on the crime, where it occurred (on a reservation or not) and whether a tribal member is the victim or perpetrator. Missing person cases on reservations can be especially tricky. Some people run away, but if a crime is suspected, its difficult to know how to get help.
Where do I go to file a missing persons report? Purdon asks. Do I go to the tribal police? In some places theyre underfunded and undertrained. The Bureau of Indian Affairs? The FBI? They might want to help, but a missing person case without more is not a crime, so they may not be able to open an investigation Do I go to one of the county sheriffs? If that sounds like a horribly complicated mishmash of law enforcement jurisdictions that would tremendously complicate how I would try to find help, its because thats what it is.
Sarah Deer, a University of Kansas professor, author of a book on sexual violence in Indian Country and member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, offers another explanation for the missing and murdered: Native women, she says, have long been considered invisible and disposable in society, and those vulnerabilities attract predators.
Its made us more of a target, particularly for the women who have addiction issues, PTSD and other kinds of maladies, she says. You have a very marginalized group, and the legal system doesnt seem to take proactive attempts to protect Native women in some cases.
Those attitudes permeate reservations where tribal police are frequently stretched thin and lack training and families complain officers dont take reports of missing women seriously, delaying searches in the first critical hours.
They almost shame the people that are reporting, (and say), Well, shes out drinking. Well, she probably took up with some man, says Carmen OLeary, director of the Native Womens Society of the Great Plains. A lot of times families internalize that kind of shame, (thinking) that its her fault somehow.
The result: Some families start their own investigations.
Matthew Lone Bear spent nine months looking for his older sister, Olivia using drones and four-wheelers, fending off snakes and criss-crossing nearly a million acres, often on foot. The 32-year-old mother of five had last been seen driving a Chevy Silverado on Oct. 25, 2017, in downtown New Town, on the oil-rich terrain of North Dakotas Fort Berthold Reservation.
On July 31, volunteers using sonar found the truck with Olivia inside submerged in a lake less than a mile from her home. Its a body of water that had been searched before, her brother says, but obviously not as thoroughly, or they would have found it a long time ago.
Lone Bear says authorities were slow in launching their search it took days to get underway and didnt get boats in the water until December, despite his frequent pleas. Hes working to develop a protocol for missing person cases for North Dakotas tribes that gets the red tape and bureaucracy out of the way, he says.
The FBI is investigating Olivias death. Shes home, her brother adds, but how did she get there? We dont have any of those answers.
Other families have been waiting for decades.
Carolyn DeFords mother, Leona LeClair Kinsey, a member of the Puyallup Tribe, vanished nearly 20 years ago in La Grande, Oregon. There was no search party. There was no, Lets tear her house apart and find a clue, DeFord says. I just felt hopeless and helpless. She ended up creating her own missing persons poster.
Theres no way to process the kind of loss that doesnt stop, says DeFord, who lives outside Tacoma, Wash. Somebody asked me awhile back, What would you do if you found her? What would that mean? It would mean she can come home. Shes a human being who deserves to be honoured and have her children and her grandchildren get to remember her and celebrate her life.
Its another Native American woman whose name is attached to a federal bill aimed at addressing this issue. Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, 22, was murdered in 2017 while eight months pregnant. Her body was found in a river, wrapped in plastic and duct tape. A neighbour in Fargo, N.D., cut her baby girl from her womb. The child survived and lives with her father. The neighbour, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to life without parole; her boyfriends trial is set to start in September.
In a speech on the Senate floor last fall, North Dakota Democrat Heidi Heitkamp told the stories of four other Native American women from her state whose deaths were unsolved. Displaying a giant board featuring their photos, she decried disproportionate incidences of violence that go unnoticed, unreported or underreported.
Her bill, Savannas Act, aims to improve tribal access to federal crime information databases. It would also require the Department of Justice to develop a protocol to respond to cases of missing and murdered Native Americans and the federal government to provide an annual report on the numbers.
At the end of 2017, Native Americans and Alaska Natives made up 1.8 per cent of ongoing missing cases in the FBIs National Crime Information Center database, even though they represent 0.8 per cent of the U.S. population. These cases include those lingering and open from year-to-year, but experts say the figure is low, given that many tribes dont have access to the database. Native women accounted for more than 0.7 per cent of the missing cases 633 in all though they represent about 0.4 per cent of the U.S. population.
Violence against Native American women has not been prosecuted, Heitkamp said in an interview. We have not really seen the urgency in closing cold cases. We havent seen the urgency when someone goes missing We dont have the clear lines of authority that need to be established to prevent these tragedies.
In August, Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, asked the leaders of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to hold a hearing to address the problem.
Lawmakers in a handful of states also are responding. In Montana, a legislative tribal relations committee has proposals for five bills to deal with missing persons. In July 2017, 22 of 72 missing girls or women or about 30 per cent were Native American, according to Montanas Department of Justice. But Native females comprise only 3.3 per cent of the states population.
Its one of many statistics that reveal a grim reality.
On some reservations, Native American women are murdered at a rate more than 10 times the national average and more than half of Alaska Native and Native women have experienced sexual violence at some point, according to the U.S. Justice Department. A 2016 study found more than 80 per cent of Native women experience violence in their lifetimes.
Yet another federal report on violence against women included some startling anecdotes from tribal leaders. Sadie Young Bird, who heads victim services for the Three Affiliated Tribes at Fort Berthold, described how in one and a half years, her program had dealt with five cases of murdered or missing women, resulting in 18 children losing their mothers; two cases were due to intimate partner violence.
Our people go missing at an alarming rate, and we would not hear about many of these cases without Facebook, she said in the report.
Canada has been wrestling with this issue for decades and recently extended a government inquiry that began in 2016 into missing and murdered Indigenous women. A report by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police concluded that from 1980 to 2012 there were 1,181 Indigenous women murdered or whose missing person cases were unresolved. Lucchesi, the researcher, says she found an additional 400 to 500 cases in her database work.
Despite some high-profile cases in the U.S., many more get scant attention, Lucchesi adds.
Ashley has been the face of this movement, she says. But this movement started before Ashley was born. For every Ashley, there are 200 more.
Browning is the heart of the Blackfeet Nation, a distinctly Western town with calf-roping competitions, the occasional horseback rider ambling down the street and a hardscrabble reality. Nearly 40 per cent of the residents live in poverty. The down-and-out loiter on corners. Shuttered homes with Meth Unit scrawled on wooden boards convey the damage caused by drugs.
With just about 1,000 residents, many folks are related and secrets have a way of spilling out.
Theres always somebody talking, says Ashleys cousin, Lissa, and it seems like to us since she disappeared, everybody got quiet. I dont know if theyre scared, but so are we. Thats why we need people to speak up.
Missing posters of Ashley are displayed in grocery stores and the occasional sandwich shop. They show a fresh-faced, grinning woman, flashing the peace sign. In one, she gazes into the camera, her long hair blowing in the wind.
One of nine children, including half-siblings, Ashley had lived with her grandmother outside town. Kimberly remembers her sister as funny and feisty, the keeper of the family photo albums who always carried a camera. She learned to ride a horse before a bike and liked to whip up breakfasts of biscuits and gravy that could feed an army.
She was interested in environmental science and was completing her studies at Blackfeet Community College, with plans to attend the University of Montana.
Kimberly says Ashley contacted her asking for money. Days later, she was gone.
At first, her relatives say, tribal police suggested Ashley was old enough to take off on her own. The Bureau of Indian Affairs investigated, teaming up with reservation police, and interviewed 55 people and conducted 38 searches. There are persons of interest, spokesperson Nedra Darling says, but she wouldnt elaborate. A $10,000 reward is being offered.
The FBI took over the case in January after a lead steered investigators off the reservation and into another state. The agency declined to comment.
Ashleys disappearance is just the latest trauma for the Blackfeet Nation.
Theda New Breast, a founder of the Native Wellness Institute, has compiled a list of missing and murdered women in the Blackfoot Confederacy four tribes in the U.S. and Canada. Long-forgotten names are added as families break generations of silence. A few months ago, a woman revealed her grandmother had been killed in the 1950s by her husband and left in a shallow grave.
Everybody knew about it, but nobody talked about it, New Breast says, and others keep coming forward perhaps, in part, because of the #MeToo movement. Every time I bring out the list, more women tell their secret. I think that they find their voice.
Though these crimes have shaken the community, there is a tendency to be desensitized to violence, says MacDonald, the filmmaker. I wouldnt call it avoidance. But if we would feel the full emotions, there would be people crying in the streets.
His aunt, Mabel Wells, would be among them.
Nearly 40 years have passed since that December day when her daughter, Monica, vanished. Wells remembers every terrible moment: The police handing her Monicas boot after it was found by a hunter and the silent scream in her head: Its hers! Its hers! Her brother describing the little girls coat flapping in the wind after her daughters body was found frozen on a mountain. The pastors large hands that held hers as he solemnly declared: Monicas with the Lord.
Monicas father, Kenny Still Smoking, recalls that a medicine man told him his daughters abductor was a man who favoured Western-style clothes and lived in a red house in a nearby town, but there was no practical way to pursue that suggestion.
He recently visited Monicas grave, kneeling next to a white cross peeking out from tall grass, studying his daughters smiling photo, cracked with age. He gently placed his palm on her name etched into a headstone. I let her know that Im still kicking, he says.
Wells visits the gravesite, too every June 2, Monicas birthday. She still hopes to see the perpetrator caught. I want to sit with them and say, Why? Why did you choose my daughter?
Even now, she cant help but think of Monica alone on that mountain. I wonder if she was hollering for me, saying, Mom, help!
Ash-lee! Ash-lee!! Ash-lee! Ash-lee!!
Some 20 miles northwest of Browning, the searchers have navigated a rugged road lined with barren trees scorched from an old forest fire. They have a panoramic view of majestic snowcapped mountains. A womans stained sweater was found here months ago, making the location worthy of another search. Its not known whether the garment may be Ashleys.
First Kimberly, then Lissa Loring, call Ashleys name in different directions. The repetition four times by each woman is a ritual designed to beckon someones spirit.
Lissa says Ashleys disappearance constantly weighs on her. All that plays in my head is where do we look? Whos going to tell us the next lead?
That weekend at the annual North American Indian Days in Browning, the family marched in a parade with a red banner honouring missing and murdered Indigenous women. They wore T-shirts with an image of Ashley and the words: We will never give up.
Then Ashleys grandmother and others took to a small arena for whats known as a blanket dance, to raise money for the search. As drums throbbed, they grasped the edges of a blue blanket. Friends stepped forward, dropping in cash, some tearfully embracing Ashleys relatives.
The past few days reminded Kimberly of a promise shed made to Ashley when their mother was wrestling with substance abuse problems and the girls were briefly in a foster home. Kimberly was 8 then; Ashley was just 5.
We have to stick together, shed told her little sister.
I told her I would never leave her. And if she was going to go anywhere, I would find her.
The New York Times on Wednesday took the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers.
U.S. President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader.
Its not just that the special counsel looms large. Or that the country is bitterly divided over Mr. Trumps leadership. Or even that his party might well lose the House to an opposition hell-bent on his downfall.
The dilemma which he does not fully grasp is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.
I would know. I am one of them.
To be clear, ours is not the popular resistance of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.
But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.
Read more:
Trump blasts gutless op-ed from anonymous U.S. official
Key takeaways from Bob Woodwards upcoming book on Trump White House
Cohn took papers from Trumps desk to protect NAFTA, Woodward book alleges
That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trumps more misguided impulses until he is out of office.
The root of the problem is the presidents amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.
Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these ideals in scripted settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright.
In addition to his mass-marketing of the notion that the press is the enemy of the people, President Trumps impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic.
Dont get me wrong. There are bright spots that the near-ceaseless negative coverage of the administration fails to capture: effective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military and more.
But these successes have come despite not because of the presidents leadership style, which is impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.
From the White House to executive branch departments and agencies, senior officials will privately admit their daily disbelief at the commander in chiefs comments and actions. Most are working to insulate their operations from his whims.
Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back.
There is literally no telling whether he might change his mind from one minute to the next, a top official complained to me recently, exasperated by an Oval Office meeting at which the president flip-flopped on a major policy decision hed made only a week earlier.
The erratic behaviour would be more concerning if it werent for unsung heroes in and around the White House. Some of his aides have been cast as villains by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, though they are clearly not always successful.
It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do whats right even when Donald Trump wont.
The result is a two-track presidency.
Take foreign policy: In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Koreas leader, Kim Jong Un, and displays little genuine appreciation for the ties that bind us to allied, like-minded nations.
Astute observers have noted, though, that the rest of the administration is operating on another track, one where countries like Russia are called out for meddling and punished accordingly, and where allies around the world are engaged as peers rather than ridiculed as rivals.
On Russia, for instance, the president was reluctant to expel so many of Mr. Putins spies as punishment for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. He complained for weeks about senior staff members letting him get boxed into further confrontation with Russia, and he expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on the country for its malign behaviour. But his national security team knew better such actions had to be taken, to hold Moscow accountable.
This isnt the work of the so-called deep state. Its the work of the steady state.
Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until one way or another its over.
The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but rather what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our discourse to be stripped of civility.
Senator John McCain put it best in his farewell letter. All Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, with the high aim of uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation.
We may no longer have Senator McCain. But we will always have his example a lodestar for restoring honour to public life and our national dialogue. Mr. Trump may fear such honourable men, but we should revere them.
There is a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing to put country first. But the real difference will be made by everyday citizens rising above politics, reaching across the aisle and resolving to shed the labels in favour of a single one: Americans.
Read more about:
There are a legion of reasons why uploading the TTC subway system to the province is a bad idea. Its more mindless political tinkering when there are far more important governance issues to address if our transit ridership is ever going to be seamless, affordable and time-competitive with the car.
Uploading may allow the province to borrow at a slightly lower rate than the city for subway expansion. But it raises more questions than it answers. How are the fares across a fully integrated system to be shared? Who pays for the maintenance of the subway and rolling stock?
Ford has pledged $160 million annually to maintain the rail network. The TTC says it will average $327 million a year. Its forecast is based on years of experience. The province is deliberately lowballing its offer in what will surely descend into the Brexit of provincial-city politics.
The current value of Torontos subway system is about $2.3 billion. Its one of the citys biggest assets. Does Ford plan to compensate the Toronto taxpayers for their asset? Or, is he going to somehow expropriate it? How will this upload impact the citys efforts to plan its own future urban form when Queens Park controls its subway infrastructure?
The more important question is how to best govern and deliver transit services across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. The GTHA is now one large, contiguous urban megalopolis stretching from Durham to Hamilton with a population of over seven million.
Instead of one, region-wide, operator there are currently 12 different transit fiefdoms. They compete with each other for funding and political advantage, while struggling to deliver even the most basic transit services.
Despite population growth, ridership on the TTC has stalled since 2014. Its evidence that the current, fragmented area service delivery system needs to be reexamined and soon. Its an opportunity for Premier Ford to go beyond mere tinkering and look at how other successful North American cities are making transit more car-competitive.
The premier seems to value the views of the business community above all else. So I suggest he begin by looking at a study done last year by the Toronto Regional Board of Trade (TRBT).
It examined the advantages for the rider of what they called Superlinx a single regional transit agency focused on delivering a superior rider experience. Riders would only have to deal with one fare. The complex multiple, schedule system would be unified. First and last mile service would improve dramatically. And bus, subway, light and commuter rail would all be fully integrated.
The study also concluded that Superlinx would be better equipped to introduce region-wide transit innovation and fast-track transit expansion across the whole region.
The operating and capital funding model developed by the TRBT study uses fares, current provincial funding and other forms of income from real estate and commercial revenues. Superlinx would be able to lift the burden of delivery and funding off the shoulders of local municipalities, allowing them to address other pressing issues.
Ford need only look south of the border to see how far behind we are when it comes to delivering transit services that are more car-competitive. Many of the major cities we compete with for investment and economic growth have already regionalized their transit systems.
Business Insider, the largest business news site on the web, ranks Chicago, Boston, Vancouver and Montreal far ahead of Toronto in their analysis of The best transit systems in North America.
Regional transit agencies have been tested around the world in cities like London, Hong Kong and many more. The templates are there to examine, modify and apply across the GTHA.
Metrolinx is the provincial agency established on the principle that regional transportation issues require regional solutions. It manages the GO Transit commuter rail network and is responsible for planning and delivering a seamless, integrated transit network across the GTHA.
But with a dozen other operators delivering local transit in the area, the promised integration has not materialized. Rider experience has suffered and we endure some of theworst congestion on this continent.
The regional operator recommended by the TRBT could be overseen by Metrolinx. That would finally bring the planning, delivery and funding for GTHA transit under one agency, responsible to the provinces and rider for making transit more attractive.
One-fifth of all Canadians live in the GTHA. Instead of playing around the edges, Ford needs to get serious about moving more of these people out of their cars and into transit.
R, Michael Warren is a former corporate director, Ontario deputy minister, TTC chief general manager and Canada Post CEO.
Read more about:
U.S. President Donald Trumps image of a great U.S. president, other than himself of course, is Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Eisenhower years, Trump has suggested, were a time when his slogan Make America Great Again was redundant. America was then great.
So what might Trumps favourite predecessor tell him about dealing with Canada at a time of unprecedented tension over NAFTA? What kind of instructions did Eisenhower give his own negotiators on the most important bilateral issues?
It was to go the extra mile for the United States closest neighbour and ally.
When youre trading with those Canadians, be so fair that you could move on their side of the table and feel comfortable in your bargaining, Eisenhower exhorted his officials concerning the biggest bilateral initiative of the era construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway, which was then the worlds largest construction project and stood for decades as the largest trans-border water control project ever undertaken.
Now, Eisenhowers team drove a harder bargain than their presidents words implied, knowing that the Seaway was more important to Canadian economic development than American. Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent was criticized for having not looked after Canadian interests adequately.
But the Eisenhower philosophy of continent building still stands in sharp contrast to Trumps beggar-thy-neighbour, zero-sum, win-at-all-costs approach to Canada, which is virtually unprecedented in terms of bilateral relations. Even some Trump supporters in the U.S. Congress, who have fallen into line on past controversies, appear to be taken aback by White House tactics vis-a-vis Canada.
Trumps tactics also stand out compared to another favourite predecessor of his Ronald Reagan, who ran for president on a platform that included a North American accord for freer cross-border movement of goods and people.
When negotiations for the Canada-U.S. free trade agreement were hitting the rocks in 1987, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney threatened to call Reagan and ask how it was that the United States could have just concluded a nuclear arms deal with the Soviet Union but couldnt do a trade deal with Canada. If you couldnt do a trade deal with Canada, with whom could you do a trade deal?
That simple question seems even more relevant now with U.S. and Canadian negotiators back to the bargaining table, ostensibly to build on Mulroney and Reagans handiwork but with the U.S. side showing every sign they want a more protectionist pact than what came before.
It remains striking that it is Canada that appears in the crosshairs a country with whom the United States has balanced trade that has quadrupled in value in the past generation. Not Mexico, after Mexico gave ground on the terms of U.S.-Mexico auto trade.
Nor, for that matter, the European Union, after the EU and the White House ostensibly agreed over the summer to work toward the elimination of tariffs, subsidies and other trade barriers. This same offer was made to Canada at the G7 summit in June by Trump; only to be ignored, likely because the idea wasnt viewed as credible.
It may be that Canada is in the crosshairs out of convenience. Canada has always lacked a strong constituency in the United States; among other things, efforts to rally the one million-plus Canadians living there to help to build mutually advantageous bilateral ties have always fallen flat.
It may be that Canada hasnt given adequate ground in these negotiations, especially on reform of the protectionist supply-management system of dairy production, which has long been a bugaboo of U.S. negotiators.
And it may just be that mutual economic interest is hostage to this most prickly of U.S. presidents and resentment of criticism of him by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. (At least Trudeau hasnt been grabbed by his lapels and told that you pissed on my rug after another prickly president, Lyndon Johnson, took umbrage at Prime Minister Lester Pearsons criticism of his Vietnam policies.)
In the days of the St. Lawrence Seaway negotiations, the challenge of working out a deal with Washington was described well as being caught between two fires, by Pearson, who was then external affairs minister. And so it is too today. One fire was about national interest. The other fire was about relations with the worlds predominant power.
Canadas NAFTA negotiators face those same flames now, but theyve only grown hotter.
Drew Fagan is a professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto
Read more about:
Eye-opening disclosures from Bob Woodward's new book "Fear," about the Trump presidency were revealed in The Washington Post on Tuesday.
In today's climate, that means at least one thing in the pop culture world: The comedic weaponry of network television's late-night hosts was loaded with fresh ammunition. And boy, did they use it.
Here's what the late-night hosts had to say.
- "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert"
A (somewhat) bearded Colbert talked about his (kind of) beard for a moment before diving in by saying, "It seems like an explosive book about the White House comes out every few minutes at this point."
The one he wanted to talk about, though, was Woodward's "Fear," which he said is "a book named after the emotion Trump feels whenever he sees a book."
Of all the late-night hosts, Colbert dug the deepest into the recently published revelations, milking them for about five full minutes of jokes.
First, he took issue with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly claiming his current position is the worst job he's ever had by saying the worst job Kelly will really ever have "will be explaining to your grandkids why you worked for the big, orange baby-cager."
Colbert also used a portion of the book reported in CNN in which Trump yelled at his generals about Afghanistan, "You should be killing guys. You don't need a strategy to kill people."
"Yes! And who needs a strategy in war," Colbert quipped. "We all remember what Eisenhower said at D-Day: 'Helter Skelter, little piggies!' "
Colbert also used a quote in which, Woodward wrote, Mattis said Trump, "had the understanding of - 'a fifth- or sixth-grader'" for a gag featuring a photo of comedian Jeff Foxworthy and Trump with the text, "Are You Smarter Than the President?" - a reference to Foxworthy's game show "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?"
The fictional game show is "the show where everyone's a winner," Colbert joked.
The comedian also brought up part of the book in which Trump mocks Attorney General Jeff Sessions, an Alabamian, by calling him "this dumb Southerner."
"You know what? As a South Carolinian, that is a hurtful stereotype, sir. Not all Southerners are dumb," he said. "Just the ones willing to work for you."
Colbert closed by reiterating one of the anecdotes from the book: that Trump's former lawyer John Dowd and his lawyer Jay Sekulow conducted a practice interview with Trump about the Russia investigation. They were so appalled by how it went that, according to the book, they met with special counsel Robert Mueller III and re-enacted it as proof that Trump wasn't fit to testify.
"Those are his lawyers trying to help him not go to jail," an incredulous Colbert said before impersonating a fictional lawyer. "Your honor, my client could easily take the stand and say he never killed anyone, but if we let him in here, he will kill everyone."
- "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon"
As is his wont, Fallon kept his commentary on the book brief, simply using one of the more distressing revelations as a bridge to make a silly joke about Trump's son.
He points out that Trump, in a profane matter, called condemning the white supremacist attacks in Charlottesville, Virginia, one of his biggest mistakes.
"Then Trump looked at Don Jr. and said, 'Actually, second-biggest mistake,' " Fallon joked, before impersonating the president and adding, "I'm sorry, Donny, come back Donny!"
- "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"
Kimmel, meanwhile, simply repeated excerpts from the book and laughed, before saying, "It's a good thing Donald Trump doesn't read books, because I think this one would make him very upset."
"Of course, these guys are all denying they said any of this stuff," Kimmel added, referring to the immediate backlash the book has received from the White House.
"White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Whatever said that the book is 'nothing more than fabricated stories made by former, disgruntled employees told to make the president look bad,' " Kimmel continued before adding his own commentary. "Right, otherwise he'd look great if it wasn't for this. ... At this point, the Trump administration has had more men-tell-alls than 'The Bachelorette.' "
- "Late Night with Seth Meyers"
Meyers wasted no time getting to the book, merely asking his studio audience how they were before jumping in.
"I don't think Trump's going to like it, because it's a book," he joked.
"According to Woodward's new book, Trump once told Rudy Giuliani that he was a baby. And then, out of habit, he added, 'But I'm not the father,'" Meyers said.
The comedian later brought it up in his "A Closer Look" segment, playing part of the recorded phone conversation between Trump and Woodward.
During the conversation, Woodward explained that he spoke to many people and that the resulting book is "a tough look at the world and your administration and you."
"Right, well, I assume that means it's going to be a negative book," Trump responded.
"Oh my God," Meyers laughed. "He's like a guy who doesn't understand why he's being dumped."
Meyers then assumed the voice of the fictional woman dumping him.
"'I'm breaking up with you because you're dumb, annoying, selfish, ugly, and I don't like you, and I'm not attracted to you in anyway,'" Meyers said, before assuming the voice of the dumpee.
"'So it sounds like you're on the fence about going to prom with me?'"
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) Insurance giant State Farm on Tuesday reached a $250 million preliminary settlement in a federal class-action lawsuit claiming the company funneled money to the campaign of an Illinois Supreme Court candidate.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis alleged Bloomington-based State Farm secretly funneled money to the campaign of Supreme Court Chief Justice Lloyd A. Karmeier while he was a candidate for the high court in 2004.
In the 2005 case of Avery v. State Farm, Karmeier cast the deciding vote to reverse a $1.06 billion judgment in 1999 against State Farm for its use of aftermarket car parts in repairs. The court ruled the nationwide plaintiff class was improperly certified by a Williamson County trial judge. It also contended using aftermarket parts was not a breach of State Farm policyholders contracts.
The class-action lawsuit sought nearly $10 billion from State Farm in a trial that was scheduled to begin Tuesday. The plaintiffs alleged State Farm covertly supported Karmeiers campaign in order to secure his win and reversal of the Avery lawsuit decision.
U.S. District Judge David Herndon of the Southern District of Illinois certified the lawsuits class action status last year. The class representative, Mark Hale, is a New York resident.
In a joint statement issued by State Farm and the plaintiffs, the insurance company said it agreed to settle with the plaintiffs because both believe it is in the best interest of all the parties and to avoid protracted litigation and appeals that could continue for several more years.
Despite the settlement, State Farm continues to deny any liability. In its statement, the company said it considers the claims in the lawsuit without merit.
As a part of the settlement, the lawsuits plaintiffs agreed to dismiss, upon final approval, their Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations claims and unjust enrichment claims.
The lawsuit claimed millions of dollars were funneled through donations to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which then sent the money to a political action committee and the Illinois Republican Party for use in Karmeiers 2004 campaign.
Karmeier and his Democratic opponent, Gordon Maag, spent a combined $9.3 million in their battle for the southern Illinois seat on the Supreme Court. It was the most expensive judicial race in American history at the time, experts said.
In a court filing supporting the settlement, State Farm wrote it believes it could win at trial.
Plaintiffs lawyers, in their filing of support, cited the monetary payments to about 4.7 million members of the class action.
After two decades of litigation, the members of the class action suit are gratified State Farm is finally paying the damages that are due, Robert A. Clifford, lead counsel for plaintiffs in the case and senior partner of the Chicago-based Clifford Law Offices, said in a statement late Tuesday.
He added: This settlement is a victory for the little guy against a national corporation with incredible power, influence and resources.
Members of Illinois congressional delegation are touting the importance of maintaining locks and dams in helping move agricultural products, but theres some caution moving forward.
U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Moline, said there are billions of dollars in backlogged maintenance needs in the locks and dams system and if any of them fail, farmers would take a massive hit.
We need to address it, Bustos said. It has been this fix-as-fail mentality, weve got to be more proactive than that in a system that was built in the Depression era.
She plans an information session for her constituents in January to update people on the issue.
U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, said Bustos is right. Locks and dams must be maintained.
Its one thing to talk about doing it like the Obama administration did, Davis said. Its another thing to invest the $10 million in making it happen like the Trump administration is doing.
The Trump administration announced $10 million for the LaGrange Lock in Cass County. The lock last underwent rehabilitation in 1988.
U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Dunlap, said agriculture is the No. 1 industry in his district. He said with Illinois being connected to major rivers and waterways, locks and dams are crucial in getting agriculture products around the world.
There is not a more efficient or effective way to send grain than on barges, LaHood said. But you have to have that infrastructure. You have to have those locks and dams.
LaHood praised the Trump administrations $10 million investment in the Lagrange Lock in west-central Illinois.
U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, said policy makers must keep a check on any public-private partnerships moving forward.
So that we make sure we dont cause our grain prices, the transfer of our grain, to cost so much that we cant compete in a world market, Bost said.
Bost cautioned about increased grain transfer prices if the private sector takes too much control.
WOOD RIVER Riverbend-area police are warning residents of potential abduction attempts in store parking lots after another attempt was made Monday in the Wood River Walmart parking lot.
The Wood River Police Department took a report from an individual who reported he was at Walmart, 610 Wesley Drive, on Monday when a female approached him in the parking lot. The female told the male she was locked out of her vehicle, according to Wood River Police Chief Brad Wells, but one of the windows was open. She wanted to know if one of the children with the male could climb into the vehicle and unlock the door.
The assassination of the German diplomat Ernest von Rath in Paris in November 1938 by 17-year old Herschel Grynszpan, a young Polish-Jewish refugee, gave the Nazis a pretext to launch Kristallnacht when Germans mounted a widespread attack on Jewish people and property.
The name refers to the shards of broken glass shattering the streets from Jewish-owned stores, building and synagogues with the death toll mounting into the hundreds.
Erwin Weinberg, a 16-year-old Jewish boy, along with thousand of others, was thrown into the infamous prison of Buchenwald, which later on became known as a place of terror. It was the beginning of the program designed to exterminate or at least force all Jews out of Germany.
As Weinberg recalled, It wasnt an extermination program, that didnt come until later. Upon obtaining permission to go to England or America, Jews who had been taken into custody were permitted to leave the country.
Commencing in 1936, while residing in Fulda about 100 miles northeast of Frankfurt the Weinbergs made repeated attempts to depart. However, it was not until 1940 when Erwins mother was given permission to go to England, while Erwin emigrated to America, where he began making Army uniforms in a factory in Philadelphia.
Though the boy was determined to fight against Nazi Germany, his status as an alien made it impossible, and it was not until 1943 he was allowed to join the Army Air Force.
Though only a private, Weinberg felt certain he could provide valuable information about military targets in his hometown back in Germany.
After talking with both his first sergeant and his company commander, he was sent to John H. Simone, a major in the U.S. Strategic Air Forces. The major expressed great interest when Weinberg pinpointed promising targets in his hometown: the ball bearing plant Gebaur and Moller, the rubber plant Gummiwerke Fulda AG and an enamel factory almost certainly producing goods of war.
Though the intelligence was aware that Fulda offered promising targets, Weinberg had actually lived in the city and using pencil and paper, the private provided a rough sketch of the area that included the plants and factories.
The officer assured Weinberg the information he had provided would prove invaluable, however, the Air Force would be unable to take appropriate action until after the invasion of France.
Though Weinberg was anxious for the raid on his hometown, months went by before the major called him back in his office. Producing reconnaissance photos of Fulda, he asked, Can you pinpoint those targets?
Without hesitation, Weinberg marked the ball-bearing factory, the rubber plant and the plant making enamel, while suggesting other targets in the area.
Anxious for the Air Force to act upon the information, more than six months went by before the major called the enlisted man into his office. With obvious pleasure, the officer displayed superb reconnaissance photos showing the results of the bombing attack upon the city of Fulda, including the factories Weinberg had suggested, along with substantial damage to the citys extensive railway yards.
The young soldier was enormously pleased with the photos provided by the major showing widespread damage to Fulda; however, the picture the private found most impressive was one showing a direct hit upon the house his father had owned the one commandeered by the Nazis.
Though the Air Force had dispatched only 100 four-engine bombers on that first raid, it was a splendid operation on behalf of a single GI.
Robert Underbrink is a Jacksonville writer.
As part of its never-ending resistance to the Trump agenda, the California legislature has just passed a bill to reinstate the discredited concept of net neutrality for access to the internet. A bill described as the nations strongest form of net neutrality awaits the signature of lame duck Governor Jerry Brown.
Net neutrality is as phony as free trade, in that both are wonderful only for those getting the better end of the deal. Google, Facebook, and other California companies have been getting a free ride on net neutrality because it enables them to avoid paying their enormous share of internet traffic.
Net neutrality is a fiction invented by Silicon Valley monopolies to stop cable companies from charging them for their huge amounts of traffic. Yet these same monopolies do not believe in neutrality in how they conduct business, by censoring political content they dislike.
The many billions in profits flowing to the Silicon Valley companies is partly due to how they hog traffic on the internet for free, without paying their full costs. They avoid paying, for example, the many billions of dollars needed to bring internet service to peoples homes.
Imagine a toll road where big trucking companies did not have to pay a dime. This would result in overuse of the toll road by trucks, and underfunding of road improvements.
The free market would be far superior to the phony net neutrality that enriches only Silicon Valley, because the free market enables the owner to charge fees based on use of its property. Free enterprise is also better in protecting free speech and preventing censorship.
Once the favoritism is ended, whether on the internet or roads, then better facilities would be built and more efficient usage would occur. The internet could be light years ahead of where it is now, if net neutrality stopped giving billionaire companies a free ride.
Without net neutrality, the public would have far better and faster internet service than we have today, because cable companies could raise money from the traffic hogs to improve the service. Instead, billions of dollars line the wallets of Silicon Valley executives who invest very little of it in improving internet service.
Under the superior, free-market-based approach adopted by President Trump, companies that carry internet traffic would be able to negotiate with the traffic hogs to compel them to pay their fair share of costs rather than freeload off others. Google and Facebook would then no longer be able to discriminate against conservatives and shift their costs to us, too.
The public who pays the cable costs could then insist on access to the content that they want, which they cannot do now as Silicon Valley censors it.
The Silicon Valley companies do not want any rules of neutrality to apply to them, of course, as they exclude conservatives to appease their liberal base. They demand net neutrality only when it favors them, and oppose any requirement that they be fair to content with which liberals disagree.
The California legislators know who butters their bread, and their Democrat majority just passed a bill that interferes with President Trumps better approach of allowing competition to rule the internet. SB 822 is being sent to Governor Jerry Browns desk, and he has not yet said whether he will sign it by his deadline of Sept. 30.
This new California law would prohibit cable companies and other internet service providers from charging high-traffic users more. This ban is an encroachment on the rights of private property, because the owner of the internet service should be able to require traffic hogs to pay rather than freeload on the private property.
Under the California law, cable companies and their millions of customers could not tell Google and Facebook to stop discriminating against content that people want. The California law inverts the internet by allowing Silicon Valley to dictate content on the internet, when internet users and internet providers should be able to tell Google to stop discriminating against Dennis Prager and other conservatives.
It is Google and Facebook that block access, and they want leverage to continue doing so. That is backwards as Trump and his Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recognize, and hopefully they will sue in federal court if California Governor Brown signs this ill-advised bill into law.
Meanwhile, Congress is holding a hearing this week to review San Francisco-based Twitters bias against conservatives. The FTC could be investigating Googles unfair business practices, Sen. Orrin Hatch points out.
Internet service providers may sue to overturn the California law, which would establish one system in that State which is different from most other States. California is essentially trying to force its self-interest on the rest of us with respect to the internet, to which California has no special claim of right.
John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.
Job
Title: Public
Relations and Communication Officer
Organisation: Edes & Associates
Duty Station:
Uganda Kampala,Uganda
Reports to:
and Corporate Affairs Manager Administrationand Corporate Affairs Manager
About US:
Associates is a global professional services firm, providing quality, tailored
and innovative audit, assurance and advisory services to both public and private
sector institutions at local and international level. The firms expertise in
financial management and project management consultancy and advisory work in
developing economies is unrivaled. With offices in Kampala, Abuja and London
and an extensive network of associate consulting firms worldwide, Edes &
Associates is able to swiftly mobilise multi-disciplinary expert teams in
several countries to assist you and your business. They are recruiting for a
client who is committed to improving lives through providing efficient and
sustainable health care supply chain management solutions through delivering
life-saving medicines equipment and other medical supplies to over two million
Ugandans. Edes &Associates is a global professional services firm, providing quality, tailoredand innovative audit, assurance and advisory services to both public and privatesector institutions at local and international level. The firms expertise infinancial management and project management consultancy and advisory work indeveloping economies is unrivaled. With offices in Kampala, Abuja and Londonand an extensive network of associate consulting firms worldwide, Edes &Associates is able to swiftly mobilise multi-disciplinary expert teams inseveral countries to assist you and your business. They are recruiting for aclient who is committed to improving lives through providing efficient andsustainable health care supply chain management solutions through deliveringlife-saving medicines equipment and other medical supplies to over two millionUgandans.
Job Summary: The Public Relations and Communication
Officer will spearhead, plan and coordinate strategic initiatives, public
relations and communications to promote a positive image of the Organization. The Public Relations and CommunicationOfficer will spearhead, plan and coordinate strategic initiatives, publicrelations and communications to promote a positive image of the Organization.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
communications. Plan and Implement publicity strategies. campaigns andcommunications.
positive image of the Organization. Liaise with both external and internal stakeholders to promote apositive image of the Organization.
and supported protects Ensure public knowledge of the services provided by the Organizationand supported protects .
brochures and calendars Develop effective press releases, media kits inclusive of policies,brochures and calendars .
Develop and maintain an up to-date Organization website.
Innovations and successes, best practices and program report Support documentation and disseminate publications on OrganizationsInnovations and successes, best practices and program report
for disseminations to various stake holders Liaise with various departments to develop communication materialsfor disseminations to various stake holders
Identity. Develop and maintain the Organizations corporate image, brand andIdentity.
organizations. Respond to public enquiries from the press and stakeholderorganizations.
tours and visits. Organize promotional events such as press conferences, exhibitions,tours and visits.
Government officials and media representatives Establish and maintain effective working relationships with donorsGovernment officials and media representatives .
.
communication. Develop policies and procedures related to public relations andcommunication.
Maintain company archives of various communication and PR materials.
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
Media Studies, Marketing or any other related field. The applicant must hold a Bachelors degree in Mass Communication,Media Studies, Marketing or any other related field.
related field. Postgraduate qualification in Public relations or any other business related field.
medial broadcasting, in a reputable public relations organization. At least five years of work experience working as a journalist, inmedial broadcasting, in a reputable public relations organization.
techniques and methods Knowledge of media production, communication and disseminationtechniques and methods .
including the meaning and spelling of words rules of com position, and
grammar. Knowledge of the structure and content of the English languageincluding the meaning and spelling of words rules of com position, andgrammar.
Public communication principles
Knowledge of Public Relations principles
Excellent communication skills both oral and in writing
Excellent interpersonal skills
Computer prociency
High level creativity and initiative
Ability to prioritize and plan effectively
Ability to maintain confidentiality and good ethical conduct
Ability to work under pressure
How to Apply:
All suitably
qualified and interested candidates should submit their detailed Curriculum
Vitae to The Human Capital and Business Manager, Edes & Associate
Consultants Limited, Plot 22 Entebbe Road, Bound Plaza, 6th Floor, P.0 Box
21984 Kampala-Uganda . Or email them to: HR@edes.com
Deadline: 21st September 2018 by 5:00pm
NB: Our Client is an equal opportunity employer, committed to diversity within the work place. Our Client does not in any way encourage or facilitate any form of canvassing for jobs, solicit for money or gifts from anyone that is applying for a job. Should anyone contact you for any money, facilitation or gift to procure a vacancy, they MUST be immediately reported to the relevant authorities. Please include that disclaimer for each job.
latest jobs, please visit
find us on our facebook page For more of thelatest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com orfind us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline
Platinum Credit is aleading Regional Micro Finance Company providing emergency loans to employedindividuals in Eastern Africa. We have a wide spread branch network in Uganda,Kenya and Tanzania. Platinum Credit (U) Ltd has introduced a new productavailable to formally employed persons working in the Private Sector. PlatinumCredit (U) Ltd is a subsidiary of Platcorp Holdings Ltd.
Streets of the national capital witnessed a red wave from early morning on Wednesday. Close to a lakh protesters, comprising of peasants, farm labourers and anganwadi workers from several states marched to gherao the Parliament on Wednesday.
The rally was conducted as part of the 'Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally' backed by Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), All India Agriculture Workers Union (AIAWU) and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI).
The September 5 rally was announced by AIKS in March this year, subsequent to which participants in a number of states were reached out by the farmers' union.
The primary demands of the protesters are about changes made to labour laws, minimum wages for farmers, lack of employment opportunities for youth and recognition of anganwadi and ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) as workforce.
The CPI(M) claimed on its website that more than one lakh people from states like Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala, Telengana, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Tripura attended the rally.
"This is the biggest rally in the history of Delhi after independence," the CPI(M) statement said. The party claimed that the rally was the first of its kind when peasants, agri-workers, anganwadi workers and unemployed youth took to street together.
Left leaders like Sitaram Yechury, Prakash Karat and Brinda Karat, and a host of leaders from states like West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura addressed the rally.
A protester holds a boy on his shoulder during a rally in Delhi | Arvind Jain
Invoking Urdu poet Faiz's lines about the worker seeking his rights from the rest of society, Ashok Dhawale, president, AIKS said: "This worker-peasant alliance is a challenge to the Modi government who had always followed anti-farmer and anti-worker policies."
"Modi had made promises of doubling farmers' incomes and providing jobs to our youths. Yet, farmers are selling their crops below minimum support prices. Youth and farmers in the country are committing suicide after facing the economic humiliation they were subjected to by this government," said Dhawale.
Those attended the rally also included a number of farmers who had flooded the streets of Mumbai with a red wave in March. "We are seeking farming rights on the forest land that we have tilled for generations," said Yogi Satpute, a farmer from Nashik's tribal block Peint.
"The BJP-led Maharashtra government fooled us in March promising a loan waiver. We have come to Delhi to register our protest against the BJP government," said Satpute, who came along with his son-in-law and brothers' sons.
Another farmer, Swarup K. Ravindran, 31, from Palakkad, came to attend the rally despite the devastation from floods in Kerala. "I, along with my three friends, came riding motorcycle and meeting farmers across many states to reach Delhi," Ravindran said about his seven-day long journey.
"The farmers in the country are in extreme distress. The time has now come to seek their rights," said Ravindran. He was seen leading a contingent of protesters from Kerala, who had assembled and camped at a mud and slush filled Ram Lila Maidan for the past two nights.
Women formed a large part of Wednesday's protest gathering. "As an anganwadi worker, I am responsible for implementation of 18 government initiated health schemes," said Neha Chandravanshi, hailing from Gopalganj, Madhya Pradesh.
"My salary should be minimum Rs 18,000 per month and not Rs 1,000 per month," she said.
Peasants attending Wednesday's rally are also seeking a Rs 18,000 per month minimum pay from the government.
"The Mazdoor Kisan Mahsangharsh rally does not end here. This was just the trailer and we will be organising more such rallies in a number of states as well as in the capital till March 2019," said Tapan Sen, general secretary, CITU.
From September 10 onwards, left parties would be taking out similar rallies in all major cities and districts of West Bengal, to protest against the policies and governance of Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee.
"This rally also has another focus and that is to raise our voice against the environment of communalism and casteism and in defence of secularism and democratic values," said Sen.
The major demands of Wednesday's march are:
1. Curb price rise; universalise public distribution system; ban forward trading in essential commodities
2. Concrete measures for generation of decent employment
3. Minimum wage of not less than Rs 18,000 per month for all workers
4. Stop anti-worker labour law amendments
5. Remunerative price for the peasants as per Swaminathan Committee recommendations; ensure public procurement
6. Debt waiver for peasants and farm workers
7. Comprehensive legislation for farm workers
8. Implementation of MGNREGA in all rural areas; amendment to the Act to cover urban areas
9. Food security, health, education and housing for all
10. No contract system in workers' employment
11. Grant of universal social security
12. Land re-distribution; stop forcible land acquisition
13. Relief and rehabilitation for victims of natural calamities
14. Reversal of neo-liberal policies of Modi government, which benefited only large corporates and scamsters
Ever since Malayalam actor Mohanlal met Prime Minister Modi, speculations have been rife about him joining the BJP. Reports claimed the RSS wanted Mohanlal to contest Lok Sabha polls from Thiruvananthapuram on a BJP ticket. Putting an end to speculations, Mohanlal said he wasn't aware of himself contesting the polls and refused to comment further on the matter.
Talking to Manorama Online, Mohanlal said: The meeting with Prime Minister Modi was scheduled a long time ago. It was to discuss about an organisation that had a great vision.
The actor had recently met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, inviting him to appear at an event held by the former's charity foundation in Wayanad, which had set tongues wagging. After the meeting, Mohanlal tweeted that PM Modi assured all possible assistance for Kerala, which is currently reeling under destruction caused by floods. "He has assured all support and offered to participate in the Global Malayalee Round table that can formulate futuristic solutions for a New Kerala. Hon. PMO India has also appreciated our vision to set up a Cancer Care Centre to cater to the needs of the under-privileged," Mohanlal tweeted.
Kerala BJP president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, on Tuesday, told THE WEEK that the state unit was not aware of any such move. There has been no official communication on the matter yet. I also heard the rumour, he said.
But, he added that they would be thrilled if Mohanlal joins the party. We will be very happy if he agrees to join us. We garnered 2,80,000 votes in Thiruvananthapuram in the last Lok Sabha polls. If Mohanlal stands as BJP candidate, it will be a sure seat for us, he said.
Mohanlal also said that he had met other prime ministers also earlier, and even met Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also a couple of times. Such speculations keep coming. I am just doing my job now, he said.
-with inputs from Unni K. Varrier
The adage that failures can teach many lessons seems quite...
BJP leader Tarun Vjiay has had an impressive career as an editor and spokesperson for Sangh Parivar causes over the years. So it was a surprise when he landed in a spot on Tuesday night over a series of tweets that were perceived to be critical of the BJP's attacks on Congress chief Rahul Gandhi's decision to undertake the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.
Not surprisingly, Vijay deleted the tweets and blamed one of his staffers for the issue. Screenshots of some of the tweets have been widely circulated, including by Congress spokespersons Manish Tewari and Randeep Singh Surjewala. One of the tweets says, Making cheap comments on Rahul's Kailash Yatra are wrong. Not what a Hindu should do. Another criticises the arrogance of an unnamed person.
As debate over Vijay's deleted tweets raged, the BJP leader put up another tweet at 12AM on Wednesday, saying I am on morning walk and I am Ok. Sacked person who was handling my tweets. The tweet evoked surprise given the time it was posted. While some of Vijay's tweets later on Wednesday gave the impression that he was in Singapore, the small difference between India and Singapore would still make a morning walk implausible at the time he tweeted!
Later on Wednesday, Vijay tweeted that the deleted tweets were sent when he was shifting his home and he had filed a police complaint over the issue. Thank you friends for showing faith in us and not believing the wrong tweets. It happened when we were shifting home. Password misused and I am filing a police complaint. Changed password. Thanks to the huge number of friends who stood by me, he tweeted.
Not surprisingly, Vijay's tweets were received with suspicion, scepticism and amusement on social media. However, Vijay declared his dedication to the BJP. In a statement to a news agency, Vijay declared he would live and die for Modi and party chief Amit Shah. Vijay even compared the duo to Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Syama Prasad Mukherjee!
However, his protestations didn't seem to be enough to deter the trolling. In a tongue-in-cheek comment, Tewari lauded Vijay, tweeting, Accounts do get hacked if you support @RahulGandhi. We do understand The Conscience has a funny way of driving fingertips my friend. Well done .@Tarunvijay.
Tewari also poked fun at Vijay's 'morning walk' tweet, saying, I would love to do a LOOOOOOOOONG MORNING WALK AT 12.11 AM. 11 MIN PAST MIDNIGHT. This is Mota Bhai Motivation.
Surjewala posted screenshots of two deleted tweets of Vijay and implored him to be courageous in what he wrote about Gandhi's Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.
In August, Union Minister K.J. Alphons trotted out a defence similar to Vijay, when he said a photograph of him sleeping at a relief camp for Kerala flood victims was posted by his staff. Alphons had been severely trolled over the incident.
Former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt was arrested Wednesday by the Gujarat CID in connection with a 22-year-old case of alleged planting of drugs to arrest a man, police said.
Bhatt and seven others, including some former policemen attached with the Banaskantha Police, were initially detained for questioning in the case.
Shortly after being questioned, Bhatt was arrested by the Crime Investigation Department, while others are still kept under detention, Director General of Police, CID, Ashish Bhatia said.
Bhatt had several run-ins with the BJP government in the past over the issue of the 2002 post Godhra riots. He has been a vocal critic of the ruling BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media platforms.
Bhatt was the Banaskantha district superintendent of police in 1996. He was dismissed from the service in 2015.
As per the case details, the Banaskantha Police under Bhatt had arrested one Sumersingh Rajpurohit, an advocate, in 1996 on charges of possessing around one kg of drugs.
At that time, the Banaskantha Police had claimed that drugs were found in a hotel room occupied by Rajpurohit in the district's Palanpur town.
However, a probe by the Rajasthan Police had revealed that Rajpurohit was allegedly falsely implicated by the Banaskantha Police to compel him to transfer a disputed property at Pali in Rajasthan.
It had also found that Rajpurohit was allegedly abducted by the Banaskantha Police from his residence at Pali in Rajasthan.
Following the Rajasthan Police's investigation, former police inspector of Banaskantha, I B Vyas, had moved the Gujarat High Court in 1999 demanding a thorough inquiry into the matter.
In June this year, the high court had handed over the probe in the case to the CID while hearing the petition.
The high court had asked the CID to complete the probe in three months.
Bhatt was in August 2015 sacked by the union home ministry on grounds of "unauthorised absence" from service.
Bhatt had last week met Patidar leader Hardik Patel, who is on an indefinite fast since August 25 at his residence demanding reservation for his community and farm loan waiver.
Recently, the BJP-ruled Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation razed illegal construction at Bhatt's residence in Ahmedabad after the Supreme Court dismissed his plea seeking a stay on the demolition.
In a major embarrassment to the Edappadi K. Palaniswami government in Tamil Nadu, the CBI officials conducted day-long searches in Chennai and other districts in connection with a bribery case involving Health Minister Vijaya Bhaskar. The chief minister, who chose to retain his cabinet colleague even after the Income Tax searches last year in the similar case, has now been pushed to show him the door. Palaniswami is also likely to replace his all-time blue eyed boy and Tamil Nadu Director General of Police T.K. Rajendran, who is also facing allegations in the case.
According to highly-placed sources close to the chief minister's office, the raids and the simultaneous searches have brought a black mark against the already unpopular government.
"The chief minister will take a call on this soon," a senior bureaucrat told THE WEEK. This is the second time Bhaskar comes under an investigating agency's scanner. In April 2017, days before the countermanded RK Nagar bypolls, the Income Tax department conducted searches in his residences and quarries in Pudukottai. Though Bhaskar and his cabinet colleagues brushed aside the raids as a routine happening, the opposition DMK demanded his resignation. And when the gutkha scam report was leaked to the media, the opposition party stepped up its demand. However, the chief minister chose to retain him in the cabinet.
However, after the CBI raids at Bhaskar's residences on Wednesday, sources say Palaniswami has been pushed to take a call on retaining him in the cabinet. Bhaskar is likely to call on the chief minister soon to discuss in the consequences of the raids. Sources also say that Bhaskar will soon be summoned by the CBI for interrogation, as the agency has registered a fresh case, rather than taking the report from the investigating agencies in the state. "If Bhaskar is summoned for interrogation, it will bring much more damage to the government," says the officer.
On the other hand, the pertinent question now is if Tamil Nadu DGP T.K. Rajendran will be replaced? He is the first serving officer to come under CBI radar. It may be recalled that in 2017 when the Income Tax department conducted searches at former chief secretary Rama Mohana Rao's residence, he was replaced. He was kept in waiting list for a few weeks and then transferred to the Entrepreneurial Skill Development Department. He subsequently retired.
Sources say the chief minister has been discussing with officials in the home department to replace the top cop. The CBI probe may ultimately lead to a rejig in Tamil Nadu cabinet and the bureaucracy.
Amidst political slugfest over Rafale fighter jet deal with France, deputy chief of Indian Air Force came out in defence of fighter jet by saying that Rafale once inducted into the Indian Air Force would revolutionise airpower in our sub-continent but is discussed for the wrong reasons.
Deputy Chief of IAF R. Nambiar, who is involved in the negotiations of 36 Rafale jets, highlighted the depleting squadron strength of the IAF which is down to just 31 squadrons and said the core procurement focus now is for a multi-role combat fighter.
Our future inductions, as is well known, being discussed for the wrong reasons. Rafale is likely to come in from next year onwards into our inventory and will continue to be procured till we reach the number of 36 by the year 2022, Air Marshal Nambiar said, while adding on its capability, he added, The Rafale gives us full spectrum capabilities to a large extent and would revolutionise airpower in our sub-continent having capabilities which do not exist
Nambiar was addressing a seminar on aerospace industry organised by Centre for Air Power Studies and the Confederation of Indian Industry in national capital.
Supporting Nambiar's argument, vice chief of IAF Air Marshal SB Deo says," All these discussions (Rafale allegations) are happening because people do not have information. People should first read Defence Procurement Procedures (DPP) and offsets. Rafale is a beautiful and capable aircraft and we are waiting to it fly it." India has contracted for 36 Rafale jets from France in an inter-governmental agreement at cost of 7.87bn (6,542 cr approx).
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on September 5, agreed to hear next week a PIL seeking stay on the Rafale fighter jet deal between India with France.
While considering the plea filed by advocate ML Sharma, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud considered the submissions. Sharma was seeking his PIL to be listed for urgent hearing, which alleged discrepancies in the fighter jet deal with France and sought a stay on it. Petitioner is seeking an inquiry by a Supreme Court monitored Special Investigation Team.
The Rafale is a beautiful aircraft that will give India "unprecedented" combat capabilities, the Indian Air Force said Wednesday amid escalating controversy over the Rs 58,000 crore deal. The statement came on a day that the Supreme Court agreed to hear a plea seeking a stay on the deal.
Vice Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal S.B. Deo also said those criticising the Rafale deal must understand the laid-down norms and procurement procedure.
"It is a beautiful aircraft... It is a very capable aircraft and we are waiting to fly it," he said on the sidelines of an event when asked about the controversy surrounding the Rafale deal.
The air marshal said Rafale jets will give the IAF unprecedented advantage over its adversaries in the region.
The Modi government had inked an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore. The delivery of the jets is scheduled to begin from September 2019. The Congress has raised several questions about the Rafale deal, including the price of the aircraft, but the Narendra Modi government has rejected the charges.
SC hearing next week
The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear next week a plea seeking a stay on the Rafale fighter jet deal between India and France.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud considered the submissions of advocate M.L. Sharma that his plea be listed for urgent hearing.
In his petition, Sharma has alleged discrepancies in the Rafale deal with France and sought a stay on it.
Sharma has claimed in his plea that the inter-government agreement to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets must be quashed as it was an "outcome of corruption" and not ratified by Parliament under Article 253 of the Constitution (Parliament has power to make any law for implementing any inter-government agreement).
The petition has also sought that an FIR be registered and prosecution of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then defence minister and current Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, business tycoon Anil Ambani and French armament firm Dassault, along with recovery of the paid amount.
A similar plea was filed in the Supreme Court in March this year seeking an independent probe into the Rafale deal and disclosure of the cost involved in the deal before Parliament.
The plea, filed by Congress leader Tehseen S. Poonawalla, had sought issuance of a direction against the Modi government as to why the Union cabinet's approval was not sought as part of the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) before signing the procurement deal with France on September 23, 2016.
Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao is most likely to dissolve the state assembly post cabinet meeting on Thursday morning. Hectic political activity was witnessed throughout Wednesday in Hyderabad as the chief minister held closed door meetings with senior party leaders and government officials.
It was widely speculated that the ruling party, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, wants to go for an early election. The state elections are scheduled to be held simultaneously with the general elections in 2019. If the assembly is dissolved, the state may go for polls along with Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and other states at the end of the year.
The chief minister instructed all the cabinet ministers to be present in Hyderabad and also met some of them in the evening. He also consulted the assembly secretary and chief secretary of the state on legal issues. He is expected to meet Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan in the evening.
It is learnt that the chief minister was advised by the religious priests to dissolve assembly on Wednesday or Thursday, considering the auspicious time.
Amidst these developments, the TRS party is gearing up for a number of meetings in the coming few weeks. After their mammoth public meeting held on Sunday on the outskirts of Hyderabad, the party is organising another meeting on Friday. According to TRS sources, the first list of Assembly candidates will be announced at this meeting.
During the public meeting held on Sunday, the chief minister and TRS supremo expressed confidence that people will support him in case he takes any political decision. During a press meet held last month, he had hinted at early elections.
The wives of the Reuters journalists who were jailed for seven years have said that the men were innocent and called for their release. The men were sentenced to seven years in prison by the Myanmar court for violating the Official Secrets Act.
Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were arrested while they were investigating the killing of villagers from the Rohingya Muslim minority by security forces and civillians in Rakhine State. The case is seen as test of progress and freedom of speech in the country.
The journalists had pleaded not guilty. Kyaw Soe Oo has a three-year-old daughter, and Wa Lones wife, Pan Ei Mon, gave birth to their first child last month. The duo were only allowed to see their daughters and families outside of prison visits and court hearings ever since their arrest in December.
The wives, alongside Wa Lones brother, Thura Aung, and their defence lawyers, spoke to reporters at a news conference in Yangon on Tuesday.
The defence can appeal the conviction, and the lawyers told the news conference they were considering all options.
Kyaw Soe Oos wife, Chit Su Win, said she had expected the two reporters to be acquitted on Monday.
I believed that we would be able to go home together, she said, adding that later she almost went crazy.
They are innocent. They were doing their jobs as journalists, Chit Su Win said, She said she feared their daughter, Moe Thin Wai Zan, would be traumatised by the ordeal.
Wa Lones wife, Pan Ei Mon, said she wanted the journalists to be released as quickly as possible.
I never thought such a harsh verdict would be handed down, she said of the seven-year sentence.
Since I became pregnant, I stayed strong on the hope that Wa Lone would be released. After yesterdays verdict, if feels like my hopes have been destroyed.
Pan Ei Mon said she was disappointed that Myanmars government leader, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, had appeared to speak against the reporters ahead of the verdict.
Suu Kyi told Japanese television station NHK in an interview in June that the reporters were not arrested for their reporting on Rakhine, but because they broke the Official Secrets Act.
Neither Suu Kyi nor her governments main spokesman have commented publicly on the case since the reporters were convicted.
(With inputs from Reuters)
The latest book to cause consternation in the White House, Fear: Trump in the White House, has been tagged as a "con on the public" by the subject himself.
US President Donald Trump condemned the book written by renowned Watergate journalist Bob Woodward.
The book is scheduled for release on September 11 and reveals a chaotic administration on the brink of a "nervous breakdown of executive power".
The book is being considered the ultimate report on what happens inside the White House. It is based on accounts given by Trump's closest aides, who are often quoted as calling the president an "idiot" and a "liar". The book raises questions on Trump's adequacy as a president as most his own staff deem him to be lacking in many factors.
According to BBC, which quotes an early excerpt of Woodword's book, staff have hidden documents and removed papers from his desk to keep him from signing them. Woodward describes these acts as "no less than an administrative coup d'etat".
John Dowd, who was the president's personal attorney, staged a mock interview session with Trump to demonstrate what would happen if Trump were to meet with special council Robert Mueller's investigation team looking in to the 2016 election meddling case. As expected, the demonstration did not go well and Trump at one point angrily called the investigation "a goddamn hoax". Dowd told Mueller that Trump won't be meeting him as he did not want to let the president "look like an idiot" and embarrass the nation on the world stage. Dowd resigned when the president changed his mind and decided to testify.
Another quote that catches the eye is one on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in which he says, "Let's [expletive] kill him. Let's go in."
After the US believed the Syrian government had launched another chemical attack in April 2017, Mr Trump told Defence Secretary James Mattis to assassinate President Bashar Assad.
"Let's kill the [expletive] lot of them," the president reportedly said.
Mr Mattis acknowledged Mr Trump's request then, after the conversation, told an aide he wouldn't do "any of that".
Even chief of staff John Kelly seems to have had enough when he says, "We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had." Chief of Staff Kelly repeatedly calls Mr Trump an "idiot" and said that "it's pointless to try to convince him of anything".
Defence Secretary Jim Mattis told an aide that the president has the foreign policy understanding of a "fifth- or sixth-grader" (an 11 or 12-year-old).
Woodward is a widely respected and veteran journalist who helped expose President Richard Nixon's role in the Watergate scandal in the 1970s. This itself grants the writer and the book the credibility and authenticity that is required for such an explosive book.
Meanwhile, Trump has send out a series of tweets in an effort to discredit Woodward's book silently calling it a move by the Democrats to damage the chances of Republicans during the November midterm elections.
New Delhi, Sept 5 (PTI) Following are the top foreign stories at 1700 hours:
FGN19 PAK-2NDLD POMPEO
Pompeo, Qureshi discuss 'bilateral, regional and international issues': FO
Islamabad: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Wednesday discussed "bilateral, regional and international issues" during their crucial talks, in a bid to reset the strained bilateral ties on basis of "mutual trust and respect". By Sajjad Hussain
FGN8 INDOUS-DIALOGUE-LD POMPEO
US, India to discuss 'big and strategic' items during first 2+2 Dialogue: Pompeo
Washington: The US and India have "big and strategic" items to discuss during the first 2+2 Dialogue, according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who asserted that the primary focus of the meeting was not about India's plans to buy a Russian missile defence system and oil from Iran. By Lalit K Jha
FGN20 UK-SPY-LD RUSSIANS
UK charges 2 Russians with poisoning former spy Skirpal, his daughter with deadly nerve agent
London: Scotland Yard on Wednesday said there was "sufficient evidence" to charge two Russian nationals for the nerve agent poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the UK earlier this year. By Aditi Khanna
FGN21 PAK-ZARDARI-JIT
Pak SC orders formation of JIT to probe Zardari's involvement in fake accounts case
Islamabad: Pakistan's Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the formation of a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe the alleged involvement of former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister in a Rs 3,500 crore money laundering and fake bank accounts case, according to a media report.
FGN16 PAK-PRESIDENT-RESULT
Pak's election commission officially declares Dr Arif Alvi as 13th president
Islamabad: Pakistan's election commission Wednesday officially declared Dr Arif Alvi as the 13th president of the country after an official count showed he had secured 352 votes -- 44 more than his two rivals could collectively obtain.
FGN18 AFGHAN-US-LD KHALILZAD
US ropes in veteran diplomat for peace efforts in Afghanistan
Washington: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has roped in high-profile former American ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table and help America on the reconciliation efforts in the war-torn country. By Lalit K Jha
FGN17 PAK-SUMMON
Pakistan summons Indian envoy over 'ceasefire violations'
Islamabad: Pakistan on Wednesday summoned India's Deputy High Commissioner to protest the "unprovoked ceasefire violations" across the Line of Control by the Indian forces that resulted in the death of a Pakistani villager.
PTI AMS
AMS
Kolkata, Sep 5 (PTI) Thousands of people residing in the south-western suburbs and vast areas of South 24 Parganas district faced travel woes Wednesday owing to closure of the arterial Diamond Harbour Road after Tuesday's collapse of a section of the Majerhat bridge, the police said.
A traffic police officer said vehicles that usually move to and from the city through the Majerhat bridge have been diverted through various other roads.
A section of the over 50-year-old Majerhat bridge on Diamond Harbour Road in south Kolkata collapsed Tuesday, snuffing out one life, trapping several people and crushing many vehicles.
Though traffic snarls were reported at various points in the morning in the south-western parts as diversions of a few kilometres in both direction were imposed leading to pressure on these roads. The situation is likely to worsen as the day progresses.
Train movement below the Majerhat Road Over Bridge (ROB) is normal, Eastern Railway spokesman R N Mahapatra said.
"Train services in both Circular Railway and the Sealdah-Budge Budge line are being run normally," he said.
Eastern Railway had stopped movement of trains on these lines on Tuesday following the collapse of the bridge as a precautionary measure.
Services on the Sealdah-Budge Budge section resumed from 9 pm on Tuesday.
The closure of a part of the arterial Diamond Harbour Road that connects the city to the shores of Bay of Bengal at Frazerganj over 120 km away, connecting many hamlets and towns, would affect thousands of people travelling to work, schools and colleges, and other purposes.
Patients from these places travelling to hospitals in the city would also have to face the woes of travelling a longer distance until the bridge is restored.
West Bengal Transport Principal Secretary B P Gopalika said that additional state buses have been pressed into service to mitigate the problems being faced by the people in these areas.
"Wherever there will be need for more buses, we will provide," he said.
Traffic police officials said that vehicles, including buses, are being diverted via Kidderpore, CGR Road to Taratala as also through Judges Court Road and also from Diamond Park in far south, as per requirements.
People travelling from the southern district and suburbs to the city for work in the morning had to leave early to reach on time.
"I am now trying to chalk out a proper route to reach my destination since this situation is likely to continue for months till the bridge is repaired and normal traffic movement is restored through Diamond Harbour Road," said Jayanta Mukherjee, a resident of Thakurpukur area, who travels to his workplace at Park Circus daily.
Oishiki Mukherjee, who travels to her college at Park Street from Behala, said the longer distance and excess travel time that may continue for months, will impact her studies.
"I only hope the bridge is repaired and the road is restored as early as possible," said Sailendu Rakshit, another resident of the south-western suburbs. PTI AMR JM DV
DV
New Delhi, Sept 5 (PTI) Thousands of farmers and workers took out a protest march in the national capital Wednesday demanding remunerative prices for farm produce as per the Swaminathan Committee recommendations, loan waiver and a minimum wage of not less than Rs 18,000 a month.
Organised by Left-wing farmers' and workers' outfits, the 'Mazdoor Kishan Sangharsh Rally', began from the Ramlila Maidan and culminated at the Parliament Street.
Carrying red flags and shouting slogans against the policies of the Central government, the participants, who came from across the country, also assailed the BJP's "communal and divisive" agenda.
Leaders of trade unions and farmers' organisations addressed the rally at the Parliament Street. PTI CSN TIR
TIR
Chennai, Sep 5 (PTI) Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar faced on Wednesday a second central agency probe in two years, with the CBI knocking at his doors after the Income Tax raid last year.
Vijayabaskar is the first state minister to come under the IT and CBI scanner, with both the raids being carried out in the post-Jayalalithaa era.
The Tamil Nadu health minister, state police chief T K Rajendran and a former senior police official were among those whose premises were searched by the CBI on Wednesday as part of its probe into the Gutka scam, involving alleged payments to officials by a gutka manufacturer.
The raids began around 7 AM with the sleuths swooping down on the premises of those under its radar.
The minister could not be contacted for a response, even as his residence remained out of bounds for the media.
The Income Tax sleuths had visited him as part of a coordinated state-wide searches in April last year over alleged tax evasion. The IT raids were conducted in full media glare following information that black money was allegedly being pumped in for the R K Nagar assembly bypoll scheduled that month.
The April 12 bypoll, necessitated following the death of chief minister J Jayalalithaa in December, 2016, was later rescinded by the Election Commission over complaints of money distribution.
Rajendran, said to be the first serving police chief to face CBI raids, also could not be contacted. Sources in the state police headquarters said he has not come to office "so far."
The DMK, PMK and CPI(M) have demanded the minister's ouster from the cabinet and also wanted the government to remove Rajendran as DGP.
The Gutka scam came to light on July 8, 2017, when income tax sleuths raided the godown, offices and residences of a pan masala and gutka (a concoction of tobacco and pan masala) manufacturer in Tamil Nadu, who had been facing charges of tax evasion to the tune of Rs 250 crore.
The manufacture, storage and sale of the chewable forms of tobacco, including gutka and pan masala were banned by the Tamil Nadu government in 2013.
During the raids, the IT department sleuths had seized a diary containing names of those who had been allegedly paid by the gutka manufacturers.
The case was sent to the CBI by the Madras High Court in April this year on the plea of a DMK leader. This was challenged in the Supreme Court by a Tamil Nadu health official but the apex court sided with the order of the Madras High Court and asked the agency to register a case.
The probe agency had registered an FIR against unidentified officials of the Tamil Nadu government, Central Excise Department and the Food Safety Department in May. PTI SA BN NSD
NSD
Lucknow, Sep 5 (PTI) As a gift on the occasion of Teachers' Day, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to give 7th pay commission pay scale to teachers and professors of state colleges and universities.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath approved the implementation of the seventh pay scale at a meeting of the state cabinet chaired by him Tuesday.
The decision was taken in the light of revision of pay scales of Central Government employees on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission.
According to an official spokesman, the government will bear financial burden of Rs 921.54 crore for this hike and the state will bear 50 per cent of the burden.
The new pay scale to the state and related cadre teachers will come into force from January 1, 2016.
It will cover 18 state varsities, which also includes one law university, one deemed and an open university.
The spokesman said the registrar, financial officer, controller of examination, pro VC and VC will not be covered under this. PTI SMI DV
DV
EC could consider scheduling T'gana polls with other states:
Ex-CEC
Hyderabad,Sep 5(PTI) There is a reasonable possibility of
the EC considering scheduling Telangana Assembly elections
along with the four States where polls are due later this year
in case the House is dissolved, former Chief Election
Commissioner T S Krishnamurthy said Wednesday.
There is heightened speculation in political circles that
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is all set to recommend
dissolution of the House, with an aim to club the state
elections with that of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh
and Mizoram, due in November-December.
A meeting of thestate Cabinet has been convened for
tomorrow where it may consider adopting a resolution
recommending dissolution of the House.
"Yes, that's what is happening. (CM may consider
recommending dissolution of the Assembly)," a senior leader of
the ruling TRS told PTI.
Assembly elections are originally scheduled to be held
along with the Lok Sabha polls in April-May next year, but the
chief minister is keen on "uncoupling' the two polls, seeing
it as an advantage for the ruling TRS.
"If the Assembly is dissolved by the chief minister, the
Election Commission will certainly consider bunching along
with Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram.
Generally, the idea is to bunch them. If it's dissolved, the
EC will certainly consider bunching them," Krishnamurthy told
PTI.
"If they (Telangana government) dissolve it (the
Assembly) round about the time (before the EC announces poll
schedule for the four states) they are going to bunch it," he
said.
But if it's one or two days before the announcement, it
may be difficult for them (EC) but they will consider, the
former CEC said.
Generally, the intention is to bunch as far as possible,
it's easy for them, he added.
However, he said the election schedule depends on
"ground realities" in Telangana.
"If there are special difficulties, they may not be able
to do. It depends on local conditions," Krishnamurthy said.
"If it's around the time (before the announcement of poll
schedule in the four states), they will certainly bunch it,"
he said.
According to him, electoral rolls are prepared as on
January one.
Normally, the rolls hold good but if the EC feels
there is a need for a special drive to "weed out or include"
names, they can do it by giving a window of 15 days or three
weeks, he said.
"If it's dissolved, they will consider bunching.
There is a reasonable possibility of bunching. If local
conditions are different, if there are special problems
relating to the state, they may hold it even 15 days later.
There is a reasonable possibility of bunching if it's
dissolved," he said. PTI RS
SS
RBS RBS
Indo-US 2+2 dialogue to deepen trade ties: US industry
Mumbai, Sep 5 (PTI) The US Chamber of Commerce
Wednesday said the upcoming '2+2 dialogue' between India and
the US will deepen trade ties and help achieve the USD
500-billion bilateral trade volume target by 2025.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary
Jim Mattis from the US will be holding the first 2+2 dialogue
with defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and external affairs
minister Sushma Swaraj Thursday.
"You can't do defence without economic strength and
the 2+2 will set the groundwork for something that will not
only improve our defence ties but will clearly take us towards
the USD 500 billion (target)," said Thomas J Donohue,
president and chief executive officer, US Chamber of Commerce.
"Security goes hand in hand with prosperity. Efforts
to strengthen our security ties will help us as we work to
tighten our economic ties," he said speaking at a US-India
Business Council event.
He said after some difficulties, the trade ties
between the two countries are in a state of "jog", at USD 125
billion now, but there is a need for them to "sprint".
"There is a general agreement in the US government
that our relationship is a significant priority... India is at
the centre of the administration's vision for seizing
opportunities in Asia and truly worldwide," he added.
The dialogue in New Delhi will only act as a "further
confirmation" of the same tomorrow, he said.
According to news reports, trade is not on the agenda
for the 2+2 dialogue, even though there may be some mention on
the ties.
Donohue said this is the first of its kind engagement
for India; inclusion of India in a select list of countries
like Japan, South Korea and Australia with whom the US is
having such a dialogue makes the intentions very evident.
He said it is time for establishing a trade agreement
between the two countries and pointed out that such a pact
will particularly help the startups thrive in the innovation
economy of the future.
"The pact can specifically help establish more power
for intellectual property rights and also a rules-based
system," he added.
Donohue said both Washington DC and New Delhi need to
work on many facets in order to leverage the trade potential.
He said India needs to continue unleashing more free
market oriented reforms which will make it easier for
companies to invest and operate in the country.
For the US, Donohue pointed out that his home country
needs to be more open in welcoming immigrants, especially the
high-skilled ones.
He said the US is staring at "demographic pain" in the
future and while it will work at re-skilling the domestic work
force, it will have to rethink on its immigration policies for
being more open. PTI AA SS SS SS
RDS RDS
NEW YORK/LONDON September 4, 2018 The Financial & Risk business of Thomson Reuters (NYSE/TSX: TRI) today announced that Brian J. West has been appointed Chief Financial Officer of Refinitiv effective November 5, 2018. The Financial & Risk business will be known as Refinitiv on October 1, 2018, after the closing of Thomson Reuters sale of a 55% majority stake in the Financial & Risk business to private equity funds managed by Blackstone.
As we get ready to begin the exciting journey as an independent business, our relationships with the financial community, both private equity and debt investors, shift considerably, said David Craig, President of Thomson Reuters Financial & Risk. I am pleased that Brian will be joining Refinitiv at a crucial time in our evolution, adding to our leadership team a deep understanding of the investment community and a proven track record of growth and operational excellence with both established companies and fintech start-ups.
Brian will be joining Refinitiv from Oscar Insurance, an innovator in US health care, where he is Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Operations. Prior to Oscar, Brian spent nine years at Nielsen as Chief Financial Officer and then Chief Operating Officer. Previously, he held various CFO and other finance leadership positions over 16 years at General Electric.
Thomson Reuters announced on January 30 that it had signed a definitive agreement to enter into a strategic partnership with Blackstone. As part of the transaction, Thomson Reuters will sell a 55% interest in its Financial & Risk business to private equity funds managed by Blackstone. An affiliate of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and an affiliate of GIC will invest alongside Blackstone.
About Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters is the worlds leading source of news and information for professional markets. Our customers rely on us to deliver the intelligence, technology and expertise they need to find trusted answers. The business has operated in more than 100 countries for more than 100 years. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. For more information, visit www.thomsonreuters.com.
SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Certain statements in this news release are forward-looking, including the companys expectations regarding the timing for closing of the proposed Financial & Risk transaction and Mr. Craigs comments and statements regarding the future Financial & Risk business. These forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and reflect our companys current expectations. As a result, forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations. There is no assurance that a transaction involving all or part of the Financial & Risk business will be completed or that other events described in any forward-looking statement will materialize. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements which reflect expectations only as of the date of this news release. Except as may be required by applicable law, Thomson Reuters disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.
CONTACT
Kate Reid
Vice President, Business Communications
Thomson Reuters Financial & Risk
Office +44 (0) 207 542 2215
Mobile +44 (0) 7917 200 737
kate.reid@thomsonreuters.com
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.
Bank of Montreal provides diversified financial services primarily in North America. The company's personal banking products and services include checking and savings accounts, credit cards, mortgages, and financial and investment advice services; and commercial banking products and services comprise business deposit accounts, commercial credit cards, business loans and commercial mortgages, cash management solutions, foreign exchange, specialized banking programs, treasury and payment solutions, and risk management products for small business and commercial banking customers. It also offers investment and wealth advisory services; digital investing services; financial services and solutions; and investment management, and trust and custody services to institutional, retail, and high net worth investors. In addition, the company provides life insurance, accident and sickness insurance, and annuity products; creditor and travel insurance to bank customers; and reinsurance solutions. Further, it offers client's debt and equity capital-raising services, as well as loan origination and syndication, balance sheet management, and treasury management; strategic advice on mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and recapitalizations, as well as valuation and fairness opinions; and trade finance, risk mitigation, and other operating services. Additionally, the company provides research and access to markets for institutional, corporate, and retail clients; trading solutions that include debt, foreign exchange, interest rate, credit, equity, securitization and commodities; new product development and origination services, as well as risk management advice and services to hedge against fluctuations; and funding and liquidity management services to its clients. It operates through approximately 1,400 bank branches and 4,800 automated banking machines in Canada and the United States. The company was founded in 1817 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.
Read More
7 Wall Street analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Cineworld Group in the last twelve months. There are currently 2 sell ratings and 5 hold ratings for the stock. The consensus among Wall Street analysts is that investors should "hold" Cineworld Group stock. A hold rating indicates that analysts believe investors should maintain any existing positions they have in CINE, but not buy additional shares or sell existing shares.
View analyst ratings for Cineworld Group or view top-rated stocks.
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 Prudential Financial: 210-220 E. 22nd Street SSGA Owner LLC, AIG Edison, AIG Star, AREF Cayman Co Ltd., AREF GP II Pte. Ltd., AREF GP Ltd., ASPF II - Feeder Fund GmbH, ASPF II - Verwaltungs - GmbH & Co. KG, ASPF II Management GmbH, ASPF III (Scots) L.P., ASSURANCE, AST Investment Services Inc., Adlerwerke CB Investment LLC, Administradora de Fondos de Pensiones Habitat S.A., Administradora de Inversiones Previsionales SpA, Aoba Life Insurance Company, Asia Property Fund III GP S.a.r.l., Assurance IQ LLC, Assurance Intelligence LLC, BSC CP LP, Braeloch Holdings Inc., Braeloch Successor Corporation, Brazilian Capital Fund GP Limited, Broad Street Global Advisors LLC, Broome Street Holdings LLC, CB German Retail LLC, CLIS Co. Ltd., COLICO INC., Campus Drive LLC, Capital Agricultural Property Services Inc., Chadwick Boulevard Investment Holdings Co. LLC, Cibecue LLC, Coconino LLC, Colico II Inc., Columbus Drive Partners L.P., Commerce Street Holdings LLC, Commerce Street Investments LLC, Coolidge LLC, Coral Reef GP, Coral Reef L.P., Coral Reef Unit Trust, Cottage Street Investments LLC, Cottage Street Orbit Acquisition LLC, DHFL PRAMERICA LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED, DICKENS AVENUE HOLDINGS VI LLC, DICKENS AVENUE PARTNERS VI (Ireland) L.P., DICKENS AVENUE PARTNERS VI (US) L.P., Don Cesar Investor LLC, Dryden Arizona Reinsurance Term Company, Dryden Finance II LLC, EVP II GP S.a r.l., EVP II Sweden Resi I GP S.a r.l., Edison Place Senior Note LLC, Essex LLC, EuroCore GP S.a r.l., European Value Partners GP S.a.r.l., Everbright PGIM Fund Management Co. Ltd., Flagstaff LLC, GA 1600 Commons LLC, GA 333 Hennepin Investor LLC, GA BV LLC, GA Bay Area GP LLC, GA Bay Area Investor LLC, GA Belden LLC, GA CLARENDON LLC, GA Cal Crossings LLC, GA Collins LLC, GA E. 22nd Street Apartments Holdings LLC, GA East 86 Street LLC, GA JHCII LLC, GA MENLO PARK INVESTOR LLC, GA Manor at Harbour Island LLC, GA Metro LLC, GA Mission LLC, GA TRITON INVESTOR LLC, GA W Paces LLC, GA/MDI 333 Hennepin Associates LLC, GIBRALTAR BSN HOLDINGS SDN BHD, GIBRALTAR INDIA SOLUTIONS LLP, Gateway Holdings II LLC, Gateway Holdings LLC, German Retail Income CP LP, Gibraltar BSN Life Berhad, Gibraltar International Insurance Services Company Inc., Gibraltar International Service LLC, Gibraltar Reinsurance Company Ltd., Gibraltar Universal Life Reinsurance Company, Glenealy International Limited, Global Portfolio Strategies Inc., Gold GP Limited, Gold II L.P., Gold L.P., Graham Resources Inc., Graham Royalty Ltd., Green Tree GP, Green Tree L.P., Greenlee LLC, Halsey Street Investments LLC, Hirakata LLC, IVP Fund GP LLC, Impact Investments Bridges UK S.a.r.l, Inter-Atlantic G Fund L.P., Inversiones Previsionales Chile SpA, Inversiones Previsionales Dos SpA, Ironbound Fund LLC, Jennison Associates LLC, Kyarra S.a r.l., Kyoei Annuity Home Co. Ltd., LINEUP LLC, Lake Street Partners IV L.P., MC GA COLLINS HOLDINGS LLC, MC GA COLLINS REALTY LLC, MC Insurance Agency Services LLC, Manor at Harbour Island LLC, Marble Canyon LLC, Maricopa LLC, Market Street Holdings IV LLC, Morenci LLC, Mulberry Street Holdings LLC, Mulberry Street Investment L.P., Mulberry Street Partners LLC, Mullin TBG Insurance Agency Services LLC, MullinTBG Insurance Agency Services, National Family Assurance Group LLC, New Savanna, Orchard Street Acres Inc., PAI Bay Farm LLC, PAI Bayrock Groves LLC, PAI Belvidere Farms LLC, PAI Big Cypress Farm LLC, PAI Corcoran 640 Ranch LLC, PAI DeKalb Farm LLC, PAI Delano 1500 Ranches LLC, PAI Flicker Orchard LLC, PAI Good Hope Farm LLC, PAI Hawk Creek Ranch LLC, PAI Hills Valley Ranches LLC, PAI Holly Hill Groves LLC, PAI Hunt Farm LLC, PAI Jackson Bayou Farm LLC, PAI Lake Placid Groves LLC, PAI Wallula Gap Vineyard LLC, PCP V Cayman AIV GP L.P., PEREF II Co-Invest 1 GP S.a r.l., PEREF II GP S.a r.l., PEREF II PV S.r.l, PFI EM-Tech Fund I LLC, PG Business Service Co. Ltd, PG Collection Service Co. Ltd., PGA Asian Retail Limited, PGA European Limited, PGI Co. Ltd, PGIM (Australia) Pty Ltd, PGIM (Hong Kong) Ltd., PGIM (Scots) Limited, PGIM (Shanghai) Company Ltd., PGIM (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., PGIM AVP IV GP S.a r.l., PGIM Advisory (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., PGIM Agricultural Investments GP LLC, PGIM Agricultural Investors LP, PGIM Broad Market High Yield Bond Fund L.P., PGIM Broad Market High Yield Bond Partners LLC, PGIM Capital Partners Management (Feeder) VI LLC, PGIM Capital Partners Management Fund VI L.P., PGIM European Financing Limited, PGIM European Services Limited, PGIM Financial Limited, PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives Fund II L.P., PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives Fund L.P., PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives GP LLC, PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives II GP LLC, PGIM Foreign Investments Inc., PGIM Holding Company LLC, PGIM INDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT PRIVATE LIMITED, PGIM INDIA TRUSTEES PRIVATE LIMITED, PGIM Inc., PGIM International Financing Inc., PGIM Investments LLC, PGIM Japan Co. Ltd., PGIM Korea Inc., PGIM LTIF Berlin GP S.a r.l., PGIM LTIF Berlin MLP S.ar.l., PGIM LTIF GP S.a.r.l., PGIM Limited, PGIM Loan Originator Manager Limited, PGIM M Campus GP S.a r.l., PGIM Management Partner Limited, PGIM MetaProp Investor LP LLC, PGIM Netherlands B.V., PGIM Overseas Investment Fund Management (Shanghai) Company Ltd, PGIM Private Capital (Ireland) Limited, PGIM Private Capital Limited, PGIM Private Placement Investors Inc., PGIM Private Placement Investors L.P., PGIM REF EUROPE SCSp, PGIM REF Europe GP S.a r.l., PGIM REF Europe Member LLC, PGIM REF Intermediary Services Inc., PGIM Real Estate (Japan) Ltd., PGIM Real Estate (UK) Limited, PGIM Real Estate CD S.a.r.l., PGIM Real Estate Capital VII GP S.a r.l., PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest GP LLC, PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest GP S.a r.l., PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest L.P., PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest SCSp, PGIM Real Estate Co-Invest Holdings LLC, PGIM Real Estate Debt GmbH, PGIM Real Estate Finance Holding Company, PGIM Real Estate Finance LLC, PGIM Real Estate France SAS, PGIM Real Estate Germany AG, PGIM Real Estate Global Debt GP LLC, PGIM Real Estate Inmuebles S. de R.L. de C.V, PGIM Real Estate Italy S.r.l., PGIM Real Estate Loan Services Inc., PGIM Real Estate Luxembourg S.A., PGIM Real Estate MVP Administradora IV S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate MVP Administradora V S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate MVP Inmuebles IV S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate MVP Inmuebles V S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate Management Luxembourg S.a.r.l., PGIM Real Estate Mexico S.C., PGIM Real Estate S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate U.S. Debt Fund GP LLC, PGIM Senior Loan Opportunities Management (Feeder) I LLC, PGIM Senior Loan Opportunities Management Fund I L.P., PGIM Strategic Financing LLC, PGIM Strategic Investments Inc., PGIM USPF VI Manager LLC, PGIM Warehouse Inc., PGLH of Delaware Inc., PIFM Holdco LLC, PIIC Limited, PIISC Holdings (UK) Limited, PIM KF Blocker Holdings LLC, PIM KF Blocker V Holdings LLC, PIM USPF V Manager LLC, PLA Administradora Industrial SRL, PLA Administradora LLC, PLA Administradora S. de R.L. de C.V., PLA Asesoria Profesional II S. de R.L. de C.V., PLA Asesoria Profesional S.de R.L. de C.V., PLA Co-Investor LLC, PLA Mexico Industrial Manager I LLC, PLA Mexico Industrial Manager II LLC, PLA Mexico Residential Manager I LLC, PLA Residential Fund III Aggregating Manager LLC, PLA Residential Fund III Limited Manager LLC, PLA Residential Fund III Manager LLC, PLA Residential Fund IV Aggregating Manager LLC, PLA Residential Fund IV Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund I Blue LP, PLA Retail Fund I LP, PLA Retail Fund I Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund I Red LP, PLA Retail Fund II Aggregating Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund II LLC, PLA Retail Fund II LP, PLA Retail Fund II Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund II U.S. Carry/Co-Invest LP, PLA Services Manager Mexico LLC, PLAI Limited, PMCF Holdings LLC, PMCF Properties LLC, PPPF General Partner LLP, PR GA SCP Apartments LLC, PRAMERICA PRECAP VI GP (SCOTS FEEDER) LLP, PRAMERICA PRECAP VI GP LLP, PRECO ACCOUNT III LLC, PRECO ACCOUNT PARTNERSHIP III LP, PRECO Account IV LLC, PRECO Account Partnership IV LP, PRECO III GP LLP, PREFG Hanwha Manager LLC, PREI Acquisition I Inc., PREI Acquisition II Inc., PREI Acquisition LLC, PREI HYDG LLC, PREI International Inc., PRIAC Property Acquisitions LLC, PRICOA Management Partner Limited, PRISA Fund Manager LLC, PRISA II Fund Manager LLC, PRISA II Pooled Manager LLC, PRISA III Fund GP LLC, PRISA III Fund PIM LLC, PRREF II Fund Manager LLC, PRU 3XSquare LLC, PRUCO LLC, PRUDENTIAL CAPITAL ENERGY PARTNERS MANAGEMENT (FEEDER) LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP MEMBER LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP REIT LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP VENTURE 2 LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP VENTURE LLC, PT PFI Mega Life Insurance, Passaic Fund LLC, Pine Tree GP, Pine Tree L.P., Platinum GP Limited, Platinum II L.P., Platinum L.P., Pramerica (Hong Kong) Holdings Limited, Pramerica (Luxembourg) CP GP S.a.r.l., Pramerica (Scots) CP GP LLP, Pramerica Business Consulting (Shanghai) Company Limited, Pramerica EVP CP LP, Pramerica Financial Asia Headquarters Pte. Ltd., Pramerica Financial Asia Limited, Pramerica Fixed Income Funds Management Limited, Pramerica Fosun Life Insurance Co. Ltd., Pramerica General Partner LLP, Pramerica Holdings Ltd, Pramerica Insurance Agency (China) Company Ltd., Pramerica PRECAP I GP LLP, Pramerica PRECAP II GP LLP, Pramerica PRECAP III GP LLP, Pramerica PRECAP IV GP LLP, Pramerica Pan European Real Estate (Scots) LP, Pramerica Property Partners Fund (Scotland) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital I (Scotland) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital I GP (Scots Feeder) LLP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital II (Scots) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital III (Scots) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital IV (Scots) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital IV GP (Scots Feeder) LLP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital IV GP Limited, Pramerica Real Estate Capital V (Netherlands) GP LLP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital V (Scots) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital VI (Scots) Limited Partnership, Pramerica SGR S.p.A, Pramerica Systems Ireland Limited, Preco III (Scotland) Limited Partnership, Pru 101 Wood LLC, Pru Alpha Partners I LLC, Pru Fixed Income Emerging Markets Partners I LLC, PruVen Capital Partners Fund I L.P., Pruco Assignment Corporation, Pruco Life Insurance Company, Pruco Life Insurance Company of New Jersey, Pruco Securities LLC, Prudential 900 Aviation Boulevard LLC, Prudential Affordable Mortgage Company LLC, Prudential Agricultural Property Holding Company LLC, Prudential Annuities Distributors Inc., Prudential Annuities Holding Company Inc., Prudential Annuities Inc., Prudential Annuities Information Services & Technology Corporation, Prudential Annuities Life Assurance Corporation, Prudential Arizona Reinsurance Captive Company, Prudential Arizona Reinsurance Term Company, Prudential Arizona Reinsurance Universal Company, Prudential Bank & Trust FSB, Prudential Capital Energy Opportunity Fund L.P., Prudential Capital Energy Partners L.P., Prudential Capital Energy Partners Management Fund L.P., Prudential Capital Partners Management Fund IV L.P., Prudential Capital and Investment Services LLC, Prudential Chile II SpA, Prudential Chile SpA, Prudential Commercial Property Holding Company LLC, Prudential Customer Solutions LLC, Prudential Equity Group LLC, Prudential Financial Securities Investment Trust Enterprise, Prudential Fixed Income Global Liquidity Relative Value Partners LLC, Prudential Fixed Income U.S. Relative Value Partners LLC, Prudential Funding LLC, Prudential General Services of Japan Y.K., Prudential Gibraltar Agency Co. Ltd., Prudential Global Funding LLC, Prudential Holdings of Japan Inc., Prudential Huntoon Paige Associates LLC, Prudential IBH Holdco Inc., Prudential Impact Investments Mortgage Loans LLC, Prudential Impact Investments Private Debt LLC, Prudential Impact Investments Private Equity LLC, Prudential Industrial Properties LLC, Prudential Insurance Agency LLC, Prudential International Insurance Holdings Ltd., Prudential International Insurance Service Company L.L.C., Prudential International Investments Advisers LLC, Prudential International Investments Company LLC, Prudential International Investments LLC, Prudential Investment Management Services LLC, Prudential Japan Holdings LLC, Prudential Legacy Insurance Company of New Jersey, Prudential Life Insurance Company of Taiwan Inc., Prudential Mortgage Asset Holdings 1 Japan Investment Business Limited Partnership, Prudential Mortgage Asset Holdings 2 Japan Investment Business Limited Partnership, Prudential Mortgage Capital Asset Holding Company LLC, Prudential Mortgage Capital Funding LLC, Prudential Mortgage Capital Holdings LLC, Prudential Multifamily Mortgage LLC, Prudential Mutual Fund Services LLC, Prudential Newark Realty LLC, Prudential QOZ Investment Fund 1 LLC, Prudential Realty Securities Inc., Prudential Retirement Financial Services Holding LLC, Prudential Retirement Holdings LLC, Prudential Retirement Insurance and Annuity Company, Prudential Securities Secured Financing Corporation, Prudential Securities Structured Assets Inc., Prudential Seguros Mexico S.A. de C.V., Prudential Seguros S.A., Prudential Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., Prudential Structured Settlement Company, Prudential Systems Japan Limited, Prudential Term Reinsurance Company, Prudential Trust Co. Ltd., Prudential Trust Company, Prudential Universal Reinsurance Company, Prudential Workplace Solutions Group Services LLC, Prudential do Brasil Seguros de Vida S.A., Prudential do Brasil Vida em Grupo S.A., Prudential/TMW Real Estate Group LLC, Pruservicos Participacoes Ltda., QMA JP EM All Cap Equity Partners LLC, QMA LLC, QMA Wadhwani LLP, Quartzsite LLC, Residential Services Corporation of America LLC, Rio CP LP, Rock European Real Estate Holdings S.ar.l., Rock Global Real Estate LLC, Rock Kensington Limited, Rock Marty GP S.a r.l., Rock Oxford S.a r.l., Rock UK Real Estate Holdings S.ar.l., Rock UK Real Estate II S.a.r.l., Rockstone Co. Ltd., Rosado Grande LLC, Ross Avenue Energy Fund Holdings LLC, Ross Avenue Minerals 2012 LLC, SCP Apartments LLC, SENIOR HOUSING PARTNERS VI GP LLC, SENIOR HOUSING PARTNERSHIP FUND VI GP LLC, SHP IV Carried Interest LP, SHP V Carried Interest L.P., SMP Holdings Inc., SVIIT Holdings Inc., Sanei Collection Service Co. Ltd. (Kabushiki Kaisha Sanei Shuuno Service), Senior Housing Partners IV L.L.C., Senior Housing Partners V LLC, Senior Housing Partnership Fund IV L.L.C., Senior Housing Partnership Fund V LLC, Sterling Private Placement Management LLP, Stetson Street Partners L.P., Strand Investments Limited, TBG Insurance Services Corporation, TENSATOR HOLDINGS LTD, TF Proveedora S.C., TMW ASPF I Verwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG, TMW ASPF Management GmbH, TMW Management LLC, TMW Real Estate Group LLC, TMW Realty Advisors LLC, TMW USPF Verwaltungs GmbH, TRGOAG Company Inc., The Gibraltar Life Insurance Co. Ltd., The Keynes Dynamic Beta Strategy (US) Fund GP LLC, The Prudential Assigned Settlement Services Corp., The Prudential Brazilian Capital Fund LP, The Prudential Gibraltar Financial Life Insurance Co. Ltd., The Prudential Home Mortgage Company Inc., The Prudential Insurance Company of America, The Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd., The Prudential Real Estate Financial Services of America Inc., The WMF Group, Thurloe Commercial Guernsey Limited, Times Square Center Associates, USPF V - Verwaltungs - GmbH & Co. KG, USPF V Carry LLC, USPF V Co-Invest LLC, USPF V Investment LP, United States Property Fund VI GP S.a r.l., Vailsburg Fund LLC, Vantage Casualty Insurance Company, Wabash Avenue Holdings V LLC, Wabash Avenue Partners V L.P., Wadhwani Capital Limited, Waveland Avenue Holdings I LLC, Waveland Avenue Partners I (Ireland) L.P., Waveland Avenue Partners I (US) L.P., Wellness Services Ecossistema De Bem Estar Ltda., Wellness Services SRL, Yamato Life, and Yavapai LLC.
The following companies are subsidiares of Occidental Petroleum: 1PointFive Inc., 1PointFive P1 LLC, APC Aviation Inc., APC International Holdings LLC, APC Midstream Holdings LLC, APC Venezuela Srl, ARCO Long Beach, Altura Energy, Amarok Gathering LLC, Anadarko 20-25 Company, Anadarko 20-36 Company, Anadarko 20-47 Company, Anadarko 20-48 Company, Anadarko 20-49 Company, Anadarko Algeria Block 403 c/e Company, Anadarko Algeria Block 406B Company, Anadarko Algeria Company LLC, Anadarko Algeria Oil & Gas Company, Anadarko Brazil Investment I LLC, Anadarko Brazil Investment II LLC, Anadarko Canada E&P Limited, Anadarko China Holdings 2 Company, Anadarko Colombia Company, Anadarko Consolidated Holdings LLC, Anadarko Cote d'Ivoire Block 103 Company, Anadarko Cote d'Ivoire Company, Anadarko DBMOS Operator LLC, Anadarko Development Company, Anadarko Development Holding Limited, Anadarko E&P Onshore LLC, Anadarko Egypt Holdings Company, Anadarko Energy Holding Limited, Anadarko Energy Services Company, Anadarko Exploracao e Producao de Petroleo e Gas Natural Ltda., Anadarko Finance Company, Anadarko Gabon Company, Anadarko Ghana Mahogany-1 Company, Anadarko Global Energy S.a.r.l, Anadarko Global Funding 1 Company, Anadarko Global Funding II Ltd., Anadarko Guyana Company, Anadarko Holding Company, Anadarko International Development S.a.r.l, Anadarko International Energy Company, Anadarko International O&G Company, Anadarko International Trading Corporation, Anadarko Jordan Company, Anadarko Kenya Company, Anadarko LMM S.a.r.l, Anadarko Land Corp., Anadarko Mexico B.V., Anadarko Mexico S.a.r.l, Anadarko Midkiff/Chaney Dell BR Corp., Anadarko Midkiff/Chaney Dell LLC, Anadarko Natural Gas Company LLC, Anadarko New Zealand Company, Anadarko OGC Company, Anadarko Offshore Holding Company LLC, Anadarko Offshore Well Containment Company LLC, Anadarko Oil & Gas 5 LLC, Anadarko Peru B.V., Anadarko Petroleum, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Anadarko Realty LLC, Anadarko Rockies LLC, Anadarko Royalty Holdings Company, Anadarko UK Corporate Limited, Anadarko US Offshore LLC, Anadarko USH1 Corporation, Anadarko Venezuela Company, Anadarko Venezuela LLC, Anadarko Venezuela Srl, Anadarko WCTP Company, Anadarko West Texas BR Corp., Anadarko West Texas LLC, Anadarko Worldwide Holdings C.V., Atlantic Rim Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Aventine LLC, Baseball Merger Sub 2 Inc., Bear Branch Exploration LLC, Big Island Trona Company, Bitter Creek Coal Company, Bravo Pipeline Company, Cain Chemical, Cain Chemical Inc., Carbon Finance Labs LLC, Concord Petroleum Corporation, Conn Creek Shale Company, D.S. Ventures LLC, DMM Financial LLC, Deerwood Exploration LLC, Downtown Plaza II, Elk Hills Field, FLAG Development LLC, FP Westport Commodities Limited, FP Westport GmbH, FP Westport LLC, FP Westport Limited, FP Westport Services LLC, FP Westport Trading LLC, Fosters Mill Exploration LLC, Glenn Springs Holdings Inc., Globrep Representaciones S.A., Grand Bassa Tankers Inc., Grupo OxyChem de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Headwater II LLC, Houndstooth Resources LLC, INDSPEC Chemical B.V., INDSPEC Chemical Corporation, INDSPEC Chemical Corporation, INDSPEC Chemical Export Sales LLC, INDSPEC Holding Corporation, Ingleside Cogeneration GP LLC, Ingleside Cogeneration Limited Partnership, Interore Trading Ltd., Joslyn Partnership, KERR-McGEE TT E&P LTD., KM BM-C-Seven Ltd., KM International Insurance Ltd., Kerr-McGee Corporation, Kerr-McGee Natural Gas Company Inc., Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Onshore LP, Kerr-McGee Shared Services Company LLC, Kerr-McGee Stored Power Corporation, Kerr-McGee U.K. Energy Corporation, Kerr-McGee Worldwide Corporation, Kerr-McGee do Brasil Ltda., Kerr-McGee of Canada Northwest Ltd., Laguna Petroleum Corp., Laguna Petroleum LLC, Liwa Oil & Gas Ltd., MC2 Technologies LLC, Mariana Properties Inc., Marico Exploration Inc., Miller Springs Remediation Management Inc., Moncrief Minerals Partnership L.P., NGL Ventures LLC, Natural Gas Odorizing Inc., New OPL LLC, OEVC Energy LLC, OEVC Midstream Projects LLC, OIH LLC, OLCV CE Holdings ULC, OLCV CE US Holdings Inc., OLCV Net Power LLC, OLCV Services LLC, OOG Partner LLC, OOOI Chem Holdings LLC, OOOI Chem Sub LLC, OOOI Chemical International LLC, OOOI Chile Holder LLC, OOOI Ecuador Management LLC, OOOI Oil and Gas Sub LLC, OOOI South America Management LLC, OPM GP Inc., OPM Holdco LLC, OTCF LLC, OTH LLC, OXY CV Pipeline LLC, OXY Campus LLC, OXY Inc., OXY LPG LLC, OXY Libya E&P Area 103 BR4 B.V., OXY Libya E&P Area 35 Ltd., OXY Libya E&P Concession 103 Ltd., OXY Libya E&P EPSA 102 B.V., OXY Libya E&P EPSA 1981 Ltd., OXY Libya E&P EPSA 1985 Ltd., OXY Libya E&P NC 143 144 145 150 B.V., OXY Libya Exploration SPC, OXY Libya LLC, OXY Little Knife LLC, OXY Mexico Holdings I LLC, OXY Mexico Holdings II LLC, OXY Middle East Holdings Ltd., OXY Oil Partners Inc., OXY PBLP Manager LLC, OXY Support Services LLC, OXY Tulsa Inc., OXY USA Inc., OXY USA WTP LP, OXY VPP Investments LLC, OXY West LLC, OXY of Saudi Arabia Ltd., OXYCHEM (CANADA) INC., OXYMAR, Oakwood Exploration LLC, Occidental (Bermuda) Ltd., Occidental (East Shabwa) LLC, Occidental Advance Sale Finance Inc., Occidental Al Hosn LLC, Occidental Angola Holdings Ltd., Occidental CIS Services Inc., Occidental Canada Holdings Ltd., Occidental Chemical Asia Limited, Occidental Chemical Belgium B.V.B.A., Occidental Chemical Chile Limitada, Occidental Chemical Corporation, Occidental Chemical Export Sales LLC, Occidental Chemical Far East Limited, Occidental Chemical Holding Corporation, Occidental Chemical International LLC, Occidental Chemical Investment (Canada) 1 Inc., Occidental Chemical Receivables LLC, Occidental Chemical de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Occidental Chile Investments LLC, Occidental Chile Minority Holder LLC, Occidental Colombia (Series G) Ltd., Occidental Colombia (Series J) Ltd., Occidental Colombia (Series K) Ltd., Occidental Colombia (Series L) Ltd., Occidental Colombia (Series M) Ltd., Occidental Colombia (Series N) Ltd., Occidental Colombia (Series O) Ltd., Occidental Crude Sales Inc. (Canada), Occidental Crude Sales Inc. (International), Occidental Dolphin Holdings Ltd., Occidental Energy Marketing Inc., Occidental Energy Ventures LLC, Occidental Exploradora del Peru Ltd., Occidental Exploration and Production Company, Occidental Hafar LLC, Occidental International (Libya) Inc., Occidental International Corporation, Occidental International Exploration and Production Company, Occidental International Holdings Ltd., Occidental International Oil and Gas Ltd., Occidental International Services Inc., Occidental Joslyn GP 2 Co., Occidental LNG (Malaysia) Ltd., Occidental Latin America Holdings LLC, Occidental Libya Oil & Gas B.V., Occidental MENA Manager Ltd., Occidental Middle East Development Company, Occidental Midland Basin LLC, Occidental Mukhaizna LLC, Occidental Oil Asia Pte. Ltd., Occidental Oil Shale Inc., Occidental Oil and Gas (Oman) Ltd., Occidental Oil and Gas Corporation, Occidental Oil and Gas International Inc., Occidental Oil and Gas International LLC, Occidental Oil and Gas Pakistan LLC, Occidental Oil and Gas of Peru LLC, Occidental Oman (Block 27) Holdings Ltd., Occidental Oman Block 51 Holding Ltd., Occidental Oman Block 51 LLC, Occidental Oman Block 65 Holding Ltd., Occidental Oman Block 65 LLC, Occidental Oman Block 72 Holding Ltd., Occidental Oman Block 72 LLC, Occidental Oman Gas Company LLC, Occidental Oman Gas Holdings Ltd., Occidental Oman North Holdings Ltd., Occidental Oriente Exploration and Production Ltd., Occidental Overseas Holdings B.V., Occidental PVC LLC, Occidental Peninsula II Inc., Occidental Peninsula LLC, Occidental Permian Ltd., Occidental Permian Manager LLC, Occidental Permian Services Inc., Occidental Peruana Inc., Occidental Petrolera del Peru (Block 101) Inc., Occidental Petrolera del Peru (Block 103) Inc., Occidental Petroleum (Pakistan) Inc., Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Occidental Petroleum Corporation Political Action Committee, Occidental Petroleum de Venezuela S.A., Occidental Petroleum of Nigeria, Occidental Petroleum of Oman Ltd., Occidental Petroleum of Qatar Ltd., Occidental Power Marketing L.P., Occidental Power Services Inc., Occidental Qatar Energy Company LLC, Occidental Red Sea Development LLC, Occidental Research Corporation, Occidental Resource Recovery Systems Inc., Occidental Resources Company, Occidental Shah Gas Holdings Ltd., Occidental South America Finance LLC, Occidental Specialty Marketing Inc., Occidental Tower Corporation, Occidental Transportation Holding Corporation, Occidental West Texas Overthrust Inc., Occidental Yemen Ltd., Occidental Yemen Sabatain Inc., Occidental del Ecuador Inc., Occidental of Abu Dhabi (Bab) Ltd., Occidental of Abu Dhabi (Shah) Ltd., Occidental of Abu Dhabi Holdings Ltd., Occidental of Abu Dhabi LLC, Occidental of Abu Dhabi Ltd., Occidental of Bahrain Ltd., Occidental of Bangladesh Inc., Occidental of Colombia (Chipiron) Inc., Occidental of Colombia (Cosecha) Inc., Occidental of Colombia (Medina) Inc., Occidental of Colombia (Putumayo) Ltd., Occidental of Colombia (Teca) Ltd., Occidental of Colombia PUT-36 LLC, Occidental of Dubai Inc., Occidental of Iraq Holdings Ltd., Occidental of Iraq LLC, Occidental of Oman Inc., Occidental of Russia Ltd., Occidental of South Africa (Offshore) Inc., Occidental of Yemen (Block 75) LLC, Oceanic Marine Transport Ltd., Opcal Insurance Inc., Oryx Crude Trading & Transportation Inc., Oxy BridgeTex Limited Partnership, Oxy C & I Bulk Sales LLC, Oxy Canada Sales Inc., Oxy Carbon Solutions LLC, Oxy Carbon Storage LLC, Oxy Climate Ventures Inc., Oxy Cogeneration Holding Company LLC, Oxy Colombia Holdings LLC, Oxy Colombia TopCo Ltd., Oxy Delaware Basin LLC, Oxy Delaware Basin Plant LLC, Oxy Dolphin E&P LLC, Oxy Dolphin Pipeline LLC, Oxy Energy Canada Inc., Oxy Energy Services LLC, Oxy Expatriate Services Inc., Oxy FFT Holdings Inc., Oxy Holding Company (Pipeline) Inc., Oxy International Ventures Ltd., Oxy LPG Terminal LLC, Oxy Levelland Pipeline Company LLC, Oxy Levelland Terminal Company LLC, Oxy Low Carbon Ventures LLC, Oxy Midstream Strategic Development LLC, Oxy Oleoducto SOP LLC, Oxy Overseas Services Ltd., Oxy Permian Gathering LLC, Oxy Permian Plaza LLC, Oxy Petroleum de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Oxy Renewable Energy LLC, Oxy Salt Creek Pipeline LLC, Oxy TL LLC, Oxy Taft Hub LLC, Oxy Technology Ventures Inc., Oxy Transport I Company LLC, Oxy Vinyls Canada Co., Oxy Vinyls Export Sales LLC, Oxy Vinyls LP, Oxy Westwood Corporation, Oxy Y-1 Company, OxyChem Ingleside Ethylene Holdings Inc., OxyChem do Brasil Ltda., OxyChile Investments LLC, Oxychem Shipping Ltd., Permian Basin JV Tax Matters Member LLC, Permian Basin Limited Partnership, Permian VPP Holder LP, Permian VPP Manager LLC, Phibro, Placid Oil LLC, Ramlat Oxy Ltd., Rio de Viento Inc., Rodeo Midland Basin LLC, San Patricio Pipeline LLC, Scanports Shipping LLC, SequestCo LLC, Stetson Exploration LLC, Sun Offshore Gathering Company, Swiflite Aircraft Corporation, Transok Properties LLC, Troy Potter Inc., Turavent Oil GmbH [in liquidation], Tuscaloosa Holdings Inc., UP Petroleo III Ltd., Upland Industries Corporation, Venezuela US SRL, Vintage Gas Inc., Vintage Petroleum, Vintage Petroleum Argentina Ltd., Vintage Petroleum Boliviana Ltd., Vintage Petroleum International Finance B.V., Vintage Petroleum International Holdings LLC, Vintage Petroleum International LLC, Vintage Petroleum International Ventures Inc., Vintage Petroleum Italy Inc., Vintage Petroleum South America Holdings Inc., Vintage Petroleum South America LLC, Vintage Petroleum Turkey Inc., WGR Asset Holding Company LLC, WGR Canada Inc., Wardner Ranch Inc., Western Gas Resources Inc., Western Gas Resources-Westana Inc., Western Midstream Holdings LLC, Woodlands International Insurance Ltd., and YT Ranch LLC.
7 hours ago
Stocks rise after Fed says it will dial back aid for economy
Stock indexes on Wall Street shrugged off a downbeat start and notched more record highs Wednesday after the Federal Reserve announced plans to begin reducing the extraordinary aid for the economy it has been providing since the early days of the pandemic.
Read Article
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 Ingersoll Rand: 211 E. Russell Road LLC, Air-Relief, Belliss & Morcom Brasil, Belliss and Morcom, Boardwalk Enterprises, Charm Merger Sub Inc., CompAir, CompAir (Hankook) Korea Co. Ltd., CompAir Acquisition (No. 2) Ltd., CompAir Acquisition Ltd., CompAir BroomWade Ltd., CompAir Canada, CompAir Finance Ltd., CompAir GmbH, CompAir Holdings Limited, CompAir Holman Ltd, CompAir International Trading (Shanghai) Co Ltd, CompAir Korea Ltd, CompAir South Africa (SA) (Pty) Ltd., CompAir UK Ltd, CompAir USA, Consolidated Distribution Holdings Ltd., DV Systems Inc., Emco Wheaton, Emco Wheaton GmbH Branch, Emco Wheaton Gmbh, Emco Wheaton UK, Emco Wheaton USA Inc, Enza Air Propriety Limited (South Africa), GD Aria Holdings #2 Limited, GD Aria Holdings Limited, GD Aria Investments Limited, GD First UK Ltd, GD German Holdings GmbH, GD German Holdings I Gmbh, GD German Holdings II GmbH, GD German Investments GmbH, GD Global Holdings, GD Global Holdings II, GD Global Holdings UK II Ltd., GD Global Ventures I B.V., GD Global Ventures II B.V., GD Global Ventures III B.V., GD Industrial Products Malaysia SDN. BHD., GD Investment KY, GD UK Finance Ltd., Gardner Denver (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Gardner Denver Austria GmbH, Gardner Denver Bad Neustadt Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Belgium NV, Gardner Denver Brasil Industria E Comercio de Maquinas Ltda., Gardner Denver CZ + SK sro, Gardner Denver Canada Corp, Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments II Ltd., Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments II Ltd. - US Branch, Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments Ltd., Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments Ltd. - US Branch, Gardner Denver Deutschland GmbH, Gardner Denver Engineered Products India Private Limited, Gardner Denver FZE, Gardner Denver Finance II LLC, Gardner Denver Finance Inc & Co KG, Gardner Denver France SA, Gardner Denver France SAS, Gardner Denver Group Services Ltd, Gardner Denver Group Svcs Ltd, Gardner Denver Hoffman, Gardner Denver Holdings, Gardner Denver Holdings Limited, Gardner Denver Hong Kong Investments Limited, Gardner Denver Hong Kong Ltd, Gardner Denver Iberica, Gardner Denver Industries Ltd., Gardner Denver Industries Pty Ltd., Gardner Denver Industries Pty Ltd. Branch, Gardner Denver International, Gardner Denver International Ltd., Gardner Denver Intl Ltd Middle East Regional Rep Office, Gardner Denver Investments, Gardner Denver Italy Holdings S.r.L., Gardner Denver Japan, Gardner Denver Kirchhain Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Korea, Gardner Denver Korea Ltd, Gardner Denver Ltd, Gardner Denver Ltd South Africa, Gardner Denver Ltd., Gardner Denver Ltd. Branch (Ireland), Gardner Denver Machinery (Shanghai) Co, Gardner Denver Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Gardner Denver Nash Brasil Industria E Comercio De Bombas Ltda, Gardner Denver Nash Deutschland GmbH, Gardner Denver Nash LLC, Gardner Denver Nash Machinery Ltd, Gardner Denver Nash Machinery Ltd., Gardner Denver Nederland BV, Gardner Denver Nederland Investments B.V., Gardner Denver Oberdorfer Pumps, Gardner Denver Oy, Gardner Denver Petroleum Pumps, Gardner Denver Polska Sp z.o.o., Gardner Denver Pte Ltd., Gardner Denver S.r.l., Gardner Denver Schopfheim GmbH, Gardner Denver Schopfheim Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Schweiz AG, Gardner Denver Slovakia, Gardner Denver SudAmerica S.r.l., Gardner Denver Sweden AB, Gardner Denver Taiwan Ltd., Gardner Denver Thomas, Gardner Denver Thomas GmbH, Gardner Denver Thomas Pneumatic Systems (Wuxi) Co., Gardner Denver Thomas Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver UK, Gardner Denver Water Jetting Systems, Garo Dott. Ing. Roberto Gabbioneta S.r.l., Hamworthy Belliss & Morcom, ILMVAC (UK) Ltd., ILS Innovative Labor Systeme, ILS Inovative Laborsysteme GmbH, Indonesia Foreign Trade Representative Office, LeROI, LeRoi International Inc, MP Pumps Inc., Mako Compressors, Nash, Nash Elmo, Oina VV, Oina VV Aktiebolag, Robuschi, Rotary Compression Technologies, Runtech Systems, Runtech Systems (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Runtech Systems Inc., Runtech Systems OY, Shanghai CompAir Compressors Co Ltd, Shanghai Compressors & Blowers Ltd., Syltone, TCM Investments, TIWR Real Estate GmbH & Co. KG, TODO AB, Tamrotor Marine Compressors AS, Thomas Industries, Thomas Industries Inc., Tri-Continent Scientific, Welch Vacuum Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zinsser Analytic, Zinsser Analytik GmbH, and Zinsser NA.
NORRISTOWN As a convicted Norristown juvenile killer seeks a reduction in his 48-year prison term on grounds it is excessive, a legal battle is brewing between public defenders and prosecutors regarding the disclosure of sealed documents related to funding for defense experts in the case.
The commonwealth seeks to unseal and compel disclosure of all information related to the defendants engagement of experts for resentencing purposes and payments for such services, including relevant defense filings, invoices and court orders, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele and co-prosecutor Lauren Marvel wrote in court papers, claiming disclosure of the information is needed so prosecutors can adequately address convicted killer Terrell Lamar Clarys latest request for reconsideration of his sentence.
But defense lawyer Carrie L. Allman, chief homicide lawyer for the public defenders office, argued Steeles request should be denied and that the court-approved funding distribution for defense experts was appropriately under seal.
The commonwealths reason for asking for the disclosure is its tenuous claim that somehow the amounts paid by the court is necessary to determining whether or not the sentence imposed was proper, Allman responded in court papers to Steeles request.
The propriety of the sentence must be reviewed based on the evidence of record, namely the actual testimony presented over three days of a hearing, not the amount paid to such experts, Allman maintained.
Allman argued prosecutors, dissatisfied with simply waiting for Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy to rule on the issue, on Aug. 29 filed several Right-To-Know requests with various county agencies to improperly obtain some of the documents.
The commonwealths actions, in blatantly and quite boldly, disregarding the basic procedural requirements of the Right-To-Know Law is of grave concern and sends a chill down counsels spine. Any attempts to explain their actions as an oversight or an innocent blunder would lack all credibility, Allman and Keisha Hudson, deputy chief public defender, wrote in court papers.
While Demchick-Alloy considers the legal battle over the disclosure of information regarding defense experts and funding she is also weighing Clarys request for a reconsideration of his sentence.
On May 9, Demchick-Alloy sentenced Clary, now 35, formerly of the 500 block of Norris Street, to a total sentence of 48 years to life in prison on a charge of first-degree murder for the Nov. 25, 1999, gunshot slaying of William Six, 39, in Palm Alley, and on a charge of attempted murder for the Nov. 24, 1999, shooting and wounding of Juan Watson, 36, outside of Watsons West Basin Street home.
The sentence means Clary wont be eligible for parole for the first time until the year 2047, when he is 65 years old.
Demchick-Alloy imposed the new sentence after a three-day hearing in county court, which was marked by highly emotional testimony from Sixs survivors, who tearfully expressed the grief they suffered, and Clarys relatives, who candidly discussed Clarys failings and dysfunctional upbringing but who hoped for his release one day.
Clary, who was convicted by a jury at an August 2000 trial and initially was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in November 2000, was granted a re-sentencing hearing in light of the U.S. Supreme Courts 2012 ruling that mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole were unconstitutional for juveniles. In 2016, the high court said the ruling should be applied retroactively.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in a separate ruling, said prosecutors bear the burden of proving, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the juvenile offender is incapable of rehabilitation.
During the hearing in May, Steele and Marvel asked the judge to re-instate the life prison term against Clary or in the alternative impose a sentence of 50 years to life. Prosecutors argued Clary demonstrated that he poses a substantial risk to the community and has not made significant strides toward rehabilitation.
But Allman and Hudson sought a sentence of 25 years to life in prison for Clary, arguing he is not incapable of rehabilitation and is not permanently incorrigible.
During the hearing, Allman presented four experts who testified about brain development and the differences between juveniles and adults as well as about Clarys background and the question of permanent incorrigibility.
In the latest request for a reconsideration of Clarys sentence, Allman argued the minimum 48-year prison term imposed against Clary is manifestly excessive and unreasonable and failed to consider the steps Clary had taken toward rehabilitation.
Mr. Clary was determined to not be permanently incorrigible yet given no meaningful opportunity for parole, Allman wrote in court papers, renewing the request for a sentence of 25 years to life.
ALBANY - Nick Grimm said he was on Facebook on Aug. 20 when he found out that there had been another police involved shooting in the city.
But it would not be until later that night that he would receive a phone call and learn that the person shot was his 19-year-old brother, Ellazar Williams.
"I was speechless," Grimm told the Times Union Tuesday. "I never thought that the person would be my little brother."
Grimm is now seeking answers as to what exactly happened that day, he wants to see the surveillance video of the shooting and he wants to hear the 911 calls associated with the shooting.
He is not the only one.
Grimm and nearly 100 community members gathered at the Malcolm X Community Park in Albany Tuesday evening to protest last month's shooting and demand more information from police.
"We believe there is more to the story than what has been released and we want it," Marquinn Jennings, the chair of a group called Justice or Else, which organized the protest, said. "We want to know who called police and why. We want to know who said there was a gun. We want to know why the police report was so horribly written. We want to know who the shooter is and why he shot. We want to know why the information, in regards to the investigation, is taking so long to be released. We want to know what the new chief is going to do about this. We want to know the mayor's thoughts about this incident. Finally, we want to know why this black man was shot in the back."
Williams, who was paralyzed from the waist down in the shooting, was shot at least once by Detective James Olsen on Aug. 20 in the rear of the Tony Clemente Education Center on Elk Street.
Police said Williams had been involved in a fight at a store on Central Avenue and fled when police arrived. Police said three detectives pursued Williams because he matched the description of a man who had displayed a gun during the fight.
Olsen fired at Williams after the teen displayed a knife, refused to drop it and began to run toward Olsen, police said. No gun has been recovered, but police said they found a large hunting knife near Williams after the shooting.
Grimm said his brother had been shot once in the back, where the bullet was lodged in his spine.
As the investigation continues, little information about the incident has been released, including surveillance video.
"The only information that I had by Wednesday was that no gun was found at the scene and that the man was shot in the back," Anthony Muhammad, who spoke at the rally, said. "That is not enough information for me to sit down and not do anything, because I felt the pain."
Community members took turns talking into the microphone, encouraging others to step up, ask the police for answers and some chanting "Enough is Enough."
Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.
"It just didn't sound right,"Councilman Derek Johnson said to the crowd. "What I'm asking our community to do is, if it doesn't sound right then people need to speak up. Don't wait for a situation where it hits your home to start speaking up, because then it's too late."
Williams, who has been charged with felony menacing and misdemeanor weapons possession, remains in the hospital, but Grimm delivered a message to the community on his behalf.
"My little brother Ellazar, wants me to tell the public that he is in good spirits, currently undergoing rehab and he is determined to walk again," Grimm said.
Grimm described Williams as a good kid who liked to play video games and sports. He said he never would have thought his brother would be in this situation.
And although Williams is a Binghamton resident, that didn't matter to the Albany community.
"We want everybody to know that we got the back of our brother, Ellazar Williams," Jennings said. "It doesn't matter why he was or where he's from, he is a resident of Albany that second he set foot here. We got his back."
Jennings said they are planning on holding another rally for Williams soon.
"We want to make sure this 'incident' is on the forefront of people's minds," Jennings said. "This could be anybody. This could be your cousin. Your auntie. Your grandmother. It doesn't matter the gender. It doesn't matter the age. It doesn't matter the education. It doesn't matter your job title. You could be the next victim."
New York
Amazon on Tuesday became the second publicly traded company to be worth $1 trillion, hot on the heels of iPhone maker Apple.
Launched as an online bookstore in 1995, Amazon.com has changed the way people shop for toilet paper, TVs and just about anything else. In its two decades, the company has expanded far beyond those bookseller beginnings, combining its world-spanning retail operations with less flashy but very profitable advertising and cloud computing businesses. It's now expanding into the health care industry and increasing its brick-and-mortar presence.
The company's rise has boosted the fortunes of its founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos: His 16 percent stake in Amazon is now worth about $160 billion. Forbes magazine placed him at the top of its 2018 billionaires list for the first time, surpassing Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
Amazon stock has increased almost 600 percent in the past five years, including a 70 percent surge so far in 2018 alone. On Tuesday, the stock climbed enough to push the company's valuation past the $1 trillion mark, although it dropped back slightly after that.
Apple topped the $1 trillion mark in early August.
Saudi Arabia's national energy company, Aramco, is widely believed to be worth much more than either Amazon or Apple.
Bezos left a hedge fund job in 1994 to start an internet business. He decided to sell books, and called Amazon "earth's biggest bookstore." It quickly added more products, and then eventually opened up a marketplace where others could sell their products. Amazon has cemented customer loyalty through its Prime membership program, offering fast, free shipping as well as music and video streaming perks. In April, Bezos disclosed for the first time that Amazon had more than 100 million paying Prime members around the world.
Wall Street has become very enthusiastic about Amazon's other businesses. Amazon Web Services provides cloud computing services to companies and governments, and Amazon's advertising division makes billions by selling ads to companies that want their products to show up when shoppers search on the site.
Those profitable businesses have helped offset the high costs associated with running its online store. Amazon saw its quarterly profit soar past $2 billion for the first time earlier this year as the online shopping, cloud computing and advertising businesses all kept growing.
Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.
More recently, Amazon has started to build up its physical presence. Last year's purchase of the Whole Foods grocery chain gave Amazon hundreds of stores at which to promote its gadgets and offer discounts tied to Prime memberships. It has also formed partnerships with many old-line retailers, selling the Kenmore washing machines traditionally found at Sears and opening shops inside Kohl's stores where people can bring returns and look at Amazon devices.
Amazon also has opened more than a dozen brick-and-mortar bookstores, and has plans for more cashier-less Amazon Go convenience stores.
It's also has been looking for a while to find a way to have more control over how its packages are delivered. Under a program announced this summer, contractors around the country can launch businesses that deliver Amazon packages. The move gives Amazon more ways to ship its packages to shoppers without having to rely on UPS, FedEx and other delivery services.
The company is moving into health care. It has formed a venture with JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway to figure out ways to attack rising health care costs for their U.S. employees and possibly for many more Americans. It also announced plans to buy the online pharmacy PillPack.
Bethlehem
School's Out in Bethlehem is proposing an innovative way to turn a horse farm on Kenwood Avenue into its main off-school site.
The non-profit, which provides before- and after-school care to elementary school students in the Bethlehem Central School District, wants to buy the home and horse farm of John and Holly Lutz to replace its so-called "storefront" site on Delaware Avenue.
The Lutz property is located in an area of farms and homes near the Tri-Village Little League fields and the Delmar Bypass.
The Delaware Avenue location is the only one that School's Out operates that is not located at one of the district's elementary schools. It is used for the School's Out summer program as well as for holiday camps and overflow for the other sites.
School's Out would need a zoning variance in order to use the Lutz property, which the Lutzes used to train and stable horses before they moved to Florida. The Lutzes have been trying to sell the property, which includes an indoor horse riding arena and barns in addition to the house.
Under a plan submitted to the town, School's Out would turn the house into "co-living" space for School's Out employees, who would share meals and chores and run the property as a farm.
Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.
The non-profit, which is under contract to buy the property should the plan receive town approval, would also build a new building that would have classrooms for School's Out's before- and after-school and summer programs.
School's Out calls the plan an "immersive incubator for student educators" who work at the non-profit to fulfill their internship requirements or others who want to work in agriculture. It would also provide an affordable housing option for School's Out staff as well, including a resident manager who would oversee the facility.
The plan would also include offering up a portion of the 13-acre site to connect to a proposed trail system in Bethlehem.
The new building would not be visible from the road, and School's Out would build a parking lot for employees and parents and a new circular driveway for bus pick-up and drop-off.
It's a sweet and beautiful thing when I have the opportunity to learn from my children. Lucy, from a young age, taught me to be kind and loving to all living creatures (even spiders, and I'm still working on that one) and Zoe inspires me to be strong and stand up for myself. I love that about her. And then there's Elliot, my soulful 14-year-old son, who is devoted to mountain biking and video games in equal measure. He is also newly passionate about fishing, and from this I have learned a lot.
I've watched Elliot fish a few times, his gangly arms and legs reflecting on bright water, and observed the slowness of it all. I take in the way he pulls back his rod and casts out, again and again. There is quiet beauty and determination in his movements. When I sat back and thought about what I could glean from him and apply to my own life, it wasn't hard for me to put those lessons together with how I cook.
My favorite cooking method involves nothing more than vegetables, a good, sharp knife and a steaming hot wok. It's all done in about a minute, then I add herbs and hot chiles, slide it onto a plate, and dinner is ready. There's no patience or reflection involved. But I cannot make chopped and stir-fried vegetables for my family every single day. Sometimes, they want crisp, roasted meat and tender, caramelized vegetables. That is where grilling comes in.
A new series Join Caroline Barrett in introducing five classic cooking techniques. There will be one each month, with tips, recipes and a story or two to go along with it. This month: grilling. Barrett is a freelance writer who lives in Delmar. Reach her at cvbarrett@verizon.ne-t. See More Collapse
The thing about grilling real and proper grilling is that it takes talent, practice and, most of all, patience. Kinda like that fishing thing. There's no rushing in fishing or in grilling. No impatience, no instant gratification. Those fish, they refuse to be rushed to the hook, in exactly the same way a bird refuses to be rushed into juicy, tender meat and crispy skin on the grill. Both take time. So I watch Elliot, with his pole set over the water, being patient. I take that lesson to my kitchen.
Grilling is how most of the food is cooked at my house between May and September. Maybe, if you are like me, you've taken for granted the care and even the art that goes into perfectly grilled food. There is, without any doubt, an art to grilling.
Take the recipe here for piri piri chicken. There is beauty in the history and ingredients of this dish, for sure. It's Portuguese in origin, with roots in North Africa and based on a chile pepper called piri piri. There are as many recipes for piri piri chicken as there are cooks who make it. Ingredients vary, of course, but most often contain a fiery hot chile pepper, plenty of garlic, onion, ginger and paprika. Don't be afraid of the heat in the sauce here. Most of it burns off, leaving a nice warmth that balances with the sweet bell pepper and crispy chicken skin. Make the paste, rub it all over the chicken, then put the whole thing on the grill. Then, stand back and let it roast, slowly. Turn it over a few times, and yes, it's supposed to be a little blackened here and there. This isn't weeknight cooking. Remember what I said about patience and time? You'll need it here. There will be reward, as the meat is sweet and juicy, the skin crisp, salty and full of flavor.
Then, there's grilling that doesn't take a lot of time but still needs finesse. Grilled eggplant takes standing before the grill, tongs in hand, waiting for the perfect char. You'll need to know where the hot coals are and judge exactly the right amount of time it takes before the eggplant is burned and overcooked.
Once you have perfectly grilled eggplant, it's a great match for fattoush. Fattoush is a Middle Eastern salad, beautiful in its rusticity. Tear and chop the vegetables, cheese and bread however you wish, then toss them together with garlicky lemon and olive oil. The result is a marriage of texture, flavor and color. I especially love crisp, raw vegetables together with the soft, spongy grilled eggplant. There's a little magic there.
Not wanting to leave dessert out of the grilling recipes, I've included a particular favorite: grilled peaches. We're close to the end of peach season in New York, so I buy as many as I can and have peaches with my granola, peaches in my lunchtime salad, peaches for dessert. I cannot get enough. Grilled peaches takes a fruit that's already pretty perfect, and makes it even better. A quick brush of olive oil and a few minutes over very hot coals yields a warm, soft piece of fruit, with a touch of smoky char. The simple gingersnap crumble has a spicy kick that goes well with the super-sweet peaches and an easy scoop of vanilla ice cream. Fresh basil adds an earthy sweetness. You could leave it off, but why would you?
Elliot is getting in as much fishing as he can before school starts, before summer ends, before he has to stop doing things like casting a rod into the water again and again and start doing math homework, writing assignments and practicing his trumpet. While I can, I'm going to sit and watch him cast his line out, patiently waiting for a bite, and teaching me life lessons, all the while.
Grilling 101
Clean your grill, and often: It's really important to have clean grates on your grill. Keep a wire grill brush close by, and give them a good scrub down before you grill. This ensures nice grill marks.
Oil the grates: Use tongs to rub paper towels dipped in canola oil to oil the grates of your grill. That way, food won't stick.
Season your food before grilling: Generously salt meats before grilling, as this creates a crust that seals in flavor.
Grill vegetables and meats separately: Meat and vegetables cook at different times. Put them on separate skewers.
Don't overcrowd: Give meat and vegetables space around them for heat to circulate. Too much food on a grill and it won't cook evenly.
PIRI PIRI CHICKEN
Serves 5
One 3-pound whole chicken, spatchcocked (see note)
Kosher salt
For the marinade:
3 garlic cloves
red onion
1-inch piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
1 poblano pepper, stemmed
1 jalapeno pepper, stemmed
1 cup chopped cilantro, leaves and stems
cup red wine vinegar
cup olive oil
1 heaping teaspoon paprika
Combine the marinade ingredients in a food processor and puree until a smooth paste forms. Remove cup and set aside. Set the chicken in a large glass baking dish and pour the marinade over. Rub the marinade into the skin on both sides, then set in the refrigerator for an hour.
Light a grill to medium heat. Place the chicken on the grill and turn down the burner that's directly under the chicken, so the bird is exposed to indirect heat. Allow the chicken to cook for 1 hour, turning occasionally. Check the temperature and when the interior temp is at 160 degrees, baste with the remaining marinade and cook for another 10 minutes.
Remove from the grill and let rest for 15 minutes. Slice the meat, keeping the skin intact (it's the best part!) and serve warm.
Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.
Note: A spatchcocked chicken has its backbone removed and is butterflied. Ask the butcher to do it for you.
GRILLED EGGPLANT FATTOUSH WITH CHEESE AND HERBS
Serves 5
1 garlic clove, peeled and sliced in half
Juice of 1 lemon
1 large eggplant, sliced into rounds -inch thick
Kosher salt
Olive oil
seedless cucumber, chopped
1 large tomato, cored and chopped
1 cup mozzarella, torn
1 large handful fresh flat leaf parsley leaves
2 stale naan or pita breads, toasted and torn
cup pitted kalamata olives, chopped
1/3 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
Stir the garlic clove halves into the lemon juice and set aside. Lay the eggplants on a work surface and sprinkle liberally with kosher salt. Allow to rest for 30 minutes or so, until they sweat. Blot dry with a clean towel.
Light a grill to medium. Brush both sides of the eggplant generously with olive oil and grill for five minutes on the first side, or until deep brown marks appear. Flip and cook for another five minutes. Remove from the grill and cool. Chop into bite-sized pieces.
Combine the cucumber, tomato, mozzarella, parsley, olives, bread and eggplant together in a salad bowl. Remove the garlic cloves from the lemon and discard. Whisk the olive oil into the juice, then season with salt and pepper. Pour just enough over the salad to moisten, and serve the rest on the side.
GRILLED PEACHES WITH GINGERSNAP CRUMBLE AND FRESH BASIL
Serves 6
25 gingersnap cookies
cup flour
cup brown sugar
cup butter, cut into chunks
teaspoon kosher salt
3 ripe peaches
Olive oil
1 pint vanilla ice cream
Basil springs
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the ginger snaps, flour, brown sugar, butter and salt in a food processor. Pulse until the cookies are crumbs. Spread out on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes, stirring once. Cool.
Slice the peaches in half and remove the pits. Brush generously with olive oil and grill over direct medium high heat on clean and oil grates, cut side down. Grill until deep brown and soft throughout, about 6-7 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a minute or two.
To serve, place half peach in a shallow bowl and top with a scoop of ice cream, cup gingerbread crumble and a basil sprig.
Washington
President Donald Trump so alarmed his defense secretary, Jim Mattis, during a discussion last January of the nuclear standoff with North Korea that an exasperated Mattis told colleagues that "the president acted like and had the understanding of a 'fifth- or sixth-grader.'"
At another moment, Trump's aides became so worried about his judgment that Gary Cohn, then the chief economic adviser, took a letter from the president's Oval Office desk authorizing the withdrawal of the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea. Trump, who planned to sign it, never realized it was missing.
These anecdotes are in a sprawling, highly anticipated new book by Bob Woodward, which depicts the Trump White House as a Byzantine, treacherous, often out-of-control operation "crazytown," in the words of the chief of staff, John Kelly hostage to the whims of an impulsive, ill-informed and undisciplined president.
The New York Times obtained a copy of the book, "Fear," which will be published next Tuesday by Simon & Schuster.
Woodward, a longtime Washington Post reporter and editor, has turned the internal dramas of several previous White Houses into best-sellers. In taking on Trump, he faced the challenge of an unusually leaky administration, which has already provided grist for countless news articles and one megabest-seller, "Fire and Fury" by Michael Wolff.
But Woodward's book has unsettled the administration and the president, in part because it is clear that the author has spoken with so many current and former officials, although all on the condition that they not be cited as sources for the information.
Trump, after initially brushing it aside as "just another bad book," accused Woodward of making up quotes from Mattis and Kelly, and perpetuating a "con on the public." In a tweet, he suggested that the author was a Democratic operative who had timed the publication to hurt the president politically before the midterm elections.
The White House, in a statement, dismissed "Fear" as "nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees. After hours of saturation news coverage on cable networks, "Fear" rocketed to No. 1 on Amazon.
Some of the freshest details in the 448-page book involve Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general who has been viewed as a stable anchor in Trump's Cabinet. Woodward portrays Mattis as frequently derisive of the commander in chief, rattled by his judgment, and willing to slow-walk orders from him that he viewed as reckless.
Mattis issued his own statement denying he ever used the "contemptuous words" that Woodward attributed to him. "While I generally enjoy reading fiction," he said, "this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility."
Woodward's reporting adds another layer to a recurring theme in the Trump White House: frustrated aides who sometimes resort to extraordinary measures to thwart the president's decisions a phenomenon the author describes as "an administrative coup d'etat." In addition to Mattis and Cohn, he recounts the tribulations of Kelly and his predecessor, Reince Priebus, whose tensions with Trump have been reported elsewhere.
Cohn, Woodward said, told a colleague he had removed the letter about the Korea free trade agreement to protect national security.
Later, when the president ordered a similar letter authorizing the departure of the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement, Woodward said, Cohn and other aides plotted how to prevent him from going ahead with a move they feared would be deeply destabilizing.
"I can stop this," Cohn said to the White House staff secretary at the time, Rob Porter, according to the book. "I'll just take the paper off his desk."
Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.
He found a sympathetic ear in Kelly, another retired Marine general, who frequently vented his frustration to colleagues about the president, whom he labeled "unhinged," an "idiot" and "off the rails." Kelly's reference to Trump as an "idiot" has been reported before.
"We're in crazytown," Kelly said in one small meeting, according to Woodward. "I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had."
Kelly also issued a denial on Tuesday, saying that "the idea I ever called the president an idiot is not true" and repeating his earlier insistence that he and Trump had "an incredibly candid and strong relationship."
In Woodward's account, Trump rarely returns the loyalty of his subordinates. He derided Attorney General Jeff Sessions, one of his earliest political supporters, as "mentally retarded" and a "dumb Southerner," mimicking his accent and making fun of his halting answers during his Senate confirmation hearing.
Trump referred to Priebus as a "little rat" who just "scurries around." For his part, Priebus described the White House as a Hobbesian world, in which officials delight in sticking knives into one another, according to the book.
"When you put a snake and rat and falcon and a rabbit and a shark and a seal into a zoo without walls, things started getting nasty and bloody," said Priebus, whom Trump frequently ridiculed, before ousting him and leaving him on a rain-slicked tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base.
Woodward did not interview Trump for the book. The author said he tried fruitlessly to get access to the president. After he had completed the manuscript, Trump called the author to express regret for not talking to him, blaming it on aides who he said had failed to inform him of Woodward's interest.
In a transcript and tape of the call published Tuesday in the The Post, Woodward told Trump he interviewed many White House officials outside their offices and gathered extensive documentation. "It's a tough look at the world and the administration and you," he told Trump.
"Right," the president replied. "Well, I assume that means it's going to be a negative book."
ALBANY - Eric Hawkins start as the citys new police chief was like any other first day, filled with meetings, human resources paperwork and other tasks.
But the pressure is about ramp up, as the department is expected to unveil the results of its investigation into the shooting of 19-year-old Ellazar Williams sometime in the next few days.
Ahead of that, Hawkins laid out his plans for the beginning of his tenure as the head of the roughly 300-member Albany Police Department.
On Wednesday he met with command staff, was briefed on specific crime issues the department is handling and met with some community leaders.
I see a great city and a great police department, he said. Its been fairly busy.
The Michigan native has served as chief in the Detroit suburb of Southfield since 2012, after rising through the ranks of the department for almost three decades. At 10 a.m. on Friday hell be sworn in as Albanys chief.
Over the coming days he said he plans to learn more about the issues facing the department, as well as continuing to reach out to other law enforcement and community leaders to ensure open communication, he said.
Its important that they know those traditions continue, he said.
Hell also be looking at the citys programs and policies built around community policing to determine which programs should continue and which ones should be changed.
Hawkins, 50, takes over for Acting Chief Michael Basile at the tail end of a violent summer. The city this year has recorded 43 shootings and nine homicides as of Wednesday, as well as a police shooting that paralyzed a 19-year-old two weeks ago.
There are also issues with the citys police union, whose leadership is distrustful and skeptical of Mayor Kathy Sheehan.
Earlier this year the union's vice president, Greg McGee, wrote a controversial post on the unions Facebook page that criticized Sheehan and an anti-violence group in the city just days after one of the groups employees was fatally shot during a party in the citys South End.
The post drew swift condemnation from Sheehan and former police chief Robert Sears, and laid bare the rough feelings between the city administration and leaders of the departments rank-and-file.
Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.
Hawkins said one of his objectives will be to let the departments officers know they have a leader who supports them.
I have to reassure the men and women of the department that they have a leader in place that supports them and that Ill be their biggest advocate, he said.
But one of the first issues for Hawkins will be the investigation of the Aug. 20 police shooting of Ellazar Williams. Detective James Olsen shot Williams behind the Tony Clemente Center for Education after a brief chase from Central Avenue to Elk Street.
Hawkins declined Wednesday to go in to further detail on the investigation.
Police said Williams matched the description of man who displayed a gun during a fight and fled when detectives tried to stop him. Police said Williams produced a knife when confronted by Olsen and that Olsen fired twice when Williams ran toward him. At least part of the incident was caught on video surveillance, but the department has not said what the tape shows or how much of the shooting was caught on tape. Olsen and two other detectives are on administrative leave while the department investigates the shooting. Officers said they recovered a knife at the scene, but no gun was found.
On Tuesday, dozens of community members protested the shooting at Malcolm X Park, calling on the department to quickly release further information. Williams brother, Nick Grimm, said Williams was shot once in the back.
COLONIE Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo wants his re-election bid to be judged on the economy, progress on social justice issues and public construction projects initiated during his two terms in office.
"Are there other things that we need to do? Yes. Are there things I would have liked to do, but I couldn't get done? Yes," Cuomo told the Times Union editorial board on Tuesday. "But have we moved the ball ahead remarkably? Yes."
In a wide-ranging 76-minute conversation, Cuomo delved into his "unprecedented" commitment to upstate's economic fortunes and his opposition to President Donald J. Trump's policies. The governor also answered questions about corruption in his administration, a federal probe into one of his donors and unfulfilled pledges.
Cuomo did not mention Cynthia Nixon, his opponent in the Sept. 13 Democratic primary, or Marc Molinaro, the Republican gubernatorial nominee.
The governor touted $36 billion in spending on economic development projects for upstate New York, including $92 million to modernize the Albany International Airport. "I brought an unprecedented focus to upstate New York," he said.
Cuomo argued the investment has paid off, pointing to unemployment rates of 4.3 percent for upstate, which is down from 7.9 percent in June 2010. During the same period, the national unemployment rate dropped from 9.5 percent to 3.9 percent.
He claimed no other state had matched New York's ambitious social agenda, including the legalization of same-sex marriage, a paid family leave program, minimum wage increases, aggressive renewable energy standards and a more progressive income tax structure.
"We're passing more laws that are actually of national significance, not just traffic-light laws," Cuomo said.
He also highlighted the creation of an outside ethics body and financial disclosure requirements, while acknowledging unfinished work in the realms of transparency, campaign finance and curbing outside income for elected officials.
He claimed these were "thorny legislative issues" and predicted a Democratic majority in the state Senate would help advance stalled priorities with the caveat that campaign promises from those in the minority conference were often at odds with actions made after they win the majority. State legislators blamed the governor's surrogates for torpedoing a potential pay increase in 2016, and his Democratic allies in the state Assembly blocked economic development transparency reforms during the past legislative session.
In November 2016, following the arrest of then-SUNY Polytechnic Institute President Alain Kaloyeros on bid-rigging charges, Cuomo pledged to take unilateral steps to eliminate conflicts of interest in the state procurement process, including ordering his campaign to stop taking donations from companies seeking state contracts through the request for proposal (RFP) process.
Asked about the pledge on Tuesday, Cuomo said, "I don't even remember the issue, to tell you the truth."
He took a measure of responsibility for his administration's high-profile corruption scandals, which resulted in the felony convictions of his former close aide Joe Percoco and Kaloyeros, as well as several development executives who donated to his campaigns.
"The buck stops on my desk," he said, while discounting the idea that the situations reflected poorly on his judgment.
Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.
Referring to Kaloyeros, he said, "I still don't even understand what happened there. I mean, nobody says he put a dollar in his pocket, right? There's no enrichment to him, but they proved that there was tampering with an RFP."
Cuomo rejected the idea that he allowed consultant Todd Howe, who pleaded guilty to corruption charges and became a federal witness, to have access to top-level staff in his administration. The governor maintained that Howe's access stemmed from past working relationships.
"Todd Howe is irrelevant to me. Todd Howe was on the periphery. Todd Howe never worked for me here," Cuomo said.
The governor held up the 2013 SAFE Act, legislation enacted in response to the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, as a model for what comprehensive gun control should look like.
Despite objections at the time and criticisms since it was enacted, Cuomo said New Yorkers retained their Second Amendment rights and the state was still able to ban assault weapons, limit magazine capacities and the create a mental health database that now has 77,000 people.
"I was right," he said.
When pressed on a deal struck in 2015 by his administration with Senate Republicans to stymie the creation of an ammunition database authorized by the legislation, the governor maintained it wasn't "a significant aspect of the SAFE Act."
David.Lombardo@timesunion.com - 518.454.5427 - @poozer87
TROY A Rensselaer County State Supreme Court justice is expected to rule from the bench Thursday on defense motions to vacate the July murder and arson conviction of a 50-year-old man the judge convicted of setting a blaze that killed two teenagers 32 years ago.
Rensselaer County Judge Andrew Ceresia is scheduled to sentence Richard J. Wright Thursday on four counts of second-degree murder and one-count of first-degree arson. It is the second time he's been convicted in connection with the case.
The motions filed by Wright's attorney, Michael P. McDermott, ask Ceresia to overturn the guilty verdict the judge rendered after Wright opted for a bench trial rather than taking his chances with a jury.
Ceresia deliberated for three days before finding Wright guilty.
It was the second time that Wright was found guilty of killing Tara Gilbert, 14, and Meredith Pipino, 13, by setting the fire on Sept. 1, 1986 on a rear porch at 17 108th St. in Lansingburgh. Wright has been imprisoned since he was arrested in 1987.
Ceresia ordered a new trial for Wright and set aside his 1988 conviction on the four murder and one arson counts. Ceresia took this action after the defense presented new evidence that undermined the initial forensic evidence in the case.
McDermott argued that the new verdict should be vacated due to the "ever-changing testimony"of primary prosecution witness Martin "Danny" Williams regarding Wright's confession to him about the fire. He argued Special Prosecutor Jasper Mills instructed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Special Agent Mark Meeks against writing a report that would have been turned over to the defense. McDermott also took issue with Mills' closing argument and told the judge the special prosecutor failed to take the oath of office.
Williams drew most of McDermott's attention both during the trial and in his motions.
"His credibility is non-existent. He has lied for 32 years and been caught in his lies by his own prior testimony and police records. The benefit he received for his false testimony was undeniable, an incredible 24 felonies were not pursued against him for his testimony against Mr. Wright," McDermott said in his filing.
McDermott pointed to Williams introducing a "bottle of gas" as the means for Wright setting the fire as evidence of his changing story. Williams never mentioned the bottle at the original 1988 trial nor in any previous statements to police.
Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.
"According to Northwestern University Law School's Center on Wrongful Convictions, the leading cause of wrongful convictions in capital cases in the United States is false informant testimony. This is exactly what happened in this case," McDermott wrote.
"Without this testimony, there is no evidence implicating Mr. Wright in the crime and the verdict should be set aside," McDermott said.
Mills countered that Williams' testimony was supported by other prosecution witnesses.
"Furthermore, as the defendant has attempted to attack the credibility of Martin Williams both at trial and in his moving papers; the defense has failed to mention how witnesses whose credibility has not been questioned by the defendant corroborated Mr. Williams' testimony at trial," Mills said.
Mills also denied the issue of an improper summation and the issue of the oath of office. Mills further said that McDermott was given all of the evidence collected by Meeks and had an expert witness he consulted about Meeks testimony as it occurred.
ALBANY Students returning to school this week across New York state should have plenty of room and no problem finding a seat. Thats because enrollment numbers are expected to be at an all-time low since the early 1970s.
There were 2.6 million students in public schools last year, down from a high of 3.5 million in the early '70s and from another high of 2.9 million during a population rebound for the 1999-2000 year.
But since then, the states pupil enrollment count has been dropping steadily, according to a report released Tuesday by the Empire Center, a fiscally conservative government watchdog group. (The report also noted that statewide nonpublic school enrollment has been decreasing even faster than public school enrollment in New York.)
Despite this, education costs are still climbing in New York.
Only 100 of New Yorks nearly 700 school districts have had net enrollment growth since 2007-2008, according to the report. That downward trend is expected continue, if one looks at U.S. Census data, birth rates and migration trends. At this rate, New York states student population will soon be at levels last seen during the 1950s.
The dropping enrollment continues even as pupil numbers in the rest of the country continue to rise, underscoring the ongoing population loss in upstate New York.
While New Yorks enrollment fell by 10 percent since the turn of the 21st century, the national pupil count has risen 7 percent, noted E.J. McMahon, the Empire Centers founder and research director who authored Tuesdays report.
The drop in part reflects the ongoing out-migration of New Yorkers to other states.
And it raises questions about why education spending in the state keeps growing even as there are fewer students to teach. New York tops the nation in school spending at more than $22,000 per pupil, which is 90 percent above the national average, according to U.S. Census data.
McMahon said the report suggests that its time for policymakers to think of innovative solutions. Lets stop debating finances, management and policy in a vacuum, he said.
He believes that more flexibility for rural schools or regionalization could be one answer as would easing some of the regulations surrounding teaching hiring and assignments.
Whats troubling is that it just goes up, Jonathan Drapkin, president of the research group, Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress, said of education costs.
McMahons report, which uses state Education Department data, also depicts a tale of two states. While upstate is steadily losing pupils, New York Citys pupil numbers have remained stable over the years, hovering at just over 1.1 million. Thats the nations largest single school district and its reflective of New York Citys ongoing growth, fueled largely by immigration.
Immigration has also helped bolster pupil numbers in a few select upstate cities that havent seen large losses over the years including Albany, which serves about 9,500 students.
Areas in central and western New York, though, have seen notable drops with many losing between 10 percent and 25 percent of their students over the last decade.
The loss is especially acute in some the smallest, more remote districts. The Long Lake school district in the Adirondacks is starting this year with 71 pre-K-12th grade students, down from 130 in the 1980s.
Numbers in the Capital Region overall have dropped slowly, according to the report. But even Saratoga County, with heavy real estate development, has seen a slight loss of pupils over the past decade.
Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.
Likewise, in the Hudson Valley, which includes Columbia and Greene counties, numerous elementary schools have closed over the past decade, Drapkin noted.
The report notes that outside of New York City there have been pockets of growth that are either in affluent suburbs like Rye and Mamaroneck in Westchester County or in struggling upstate cities such as Albany and Syracuse, as well as some inner ring suburbs.
Enrollment in Albany hit a low of 8,170 in the 2008-09. But over the next eight years the district grew by nearly 1,500 students, spokesman Ron Lesko said. The district also has had an influx of immigrant and refugee students. Many need extra help learning English, which adds to the cost.
That helps explain why education costs are rising in many districts, said Michael Borges, executive director of the state Association of School Business Officials.
"Increases in high need students, like English language learners, students with disabilities and those living in poverty, have offset the overall decline in the number of students, he said.
But he added that schools also face increases in employee benefit costs like pensions and health care, which have negated any savings from fewer students.
Contracts for teachers and other unionized school employees typically include fringe benefits that have to be bargained if they are going to be reduced. Additionally, most teachers contracts include annual longevity increases that run for 20 years.
Similar contracts are in place for other public-sector unions such as municipal police and fire departments, noted Drapkin. That adds yet another legacy cost that communities are saddled with even if as fewer and fewer taxpayers contribute to the system each year.
If you keep losing population, Drapkin said, its not sustainable.
rkarlin@timesunion.com 518-454-5758
ALBANY Footage from a video surveillance camera shows two men shooting Equan Fallen, 20, in front of his Livingston Avenue home earlier this year.
According to a criminal complaint, the video showed Trayron Palmer, 21 and Shaquille Moore, 26, fire multiple shots, striking Fallen at least once in the chest. The complaint doesnt specify where the camera was located, but does say the footage shows the entire incident.
Greenport
The body found last week in a car in a Walmart parking lot was a Greene County man who died of a drug overdose, according to Columbia County Sheriff David Bartlett.
The dead man was identified as Thomas W. MacGregor, 59, of Athens.
On Aug. 29, State Police contacted the Sheriff's Office for help in investigating McGregor's disappearance. His last known cell phone coordinates were in the area of Fairview Avenue and Joslen Boulevard in Greenport.
Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.
Deputy David Pulcher located MacGregor's vehicle in the parking lot of the Greenport Walmart with MacGregor's body inside.
Video surveillance provided by Walmart showed the vehicle arrived in the parking lot Aug. 20 and did not leave, the sheriff said.
Based on evidence at the scene and the medical examiner, MacGregor's death was ruled a presumed heroin overdose, the sheriff said.
Rensselaer County Sheriff Patrick Russo, whos been criticized for his controversial cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to check county jail inmates for immigration violations, met with President Donald Trump at the White House and was on Capitol Hill Wednesday urging passage of legislation to improve border security.
Russo is the only sheriff in New York state, to join the 287(g) program run with ICE.
Russo was among 44 sheriffs in Washington D.C. from across the country meeting with congressional representatives and attending a White House roundtable discussion, according to a release issued by the Rensselaer County Sheriffs Office Wednesday afternoon.
"We're down here telling Congress to get something done. Create a path for citizenship. You have to prioritize," Russo said Wednesday night in a telephone interview from Washington D.C.
The Republican sheriff met with both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence during his visit to the White House.
Russo was there when Trump was asked about an anonymous New York Times opinion piece written by a member of his staff.
"He just said what he always says -- 'another anonymous source,'" Russo said. " He was joking with us. A blip on the radar. I don't think he lost his cool."
Russo said the sheriffs met with top Border Patrol and ICE leaders as well as administration attorneys.
Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.
The sheriffs were attending the discussion hosted by the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Topics covered were immigration, border security, "and the critical need for collaboration between local, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies," according to the sheriff's office.
We as sheriffs view this opportunity to push for meaningful immigration reform as a way to uphold our promise and commitment to the people who elected us to protect them, Russo said in a statement.
Russos decision to opt into the ICE program resulted in him going to New York City in April where he was interviewed at Fox studios by Brian Kilmeade on Fox & Friends.
Russo has said the program is another tool to protect county residents. He has emphasized that the program is only happening at the county jail in Troy. The New York Civil Liberties Union and some county residents have condemned Russo's decision to participate.
A woman accused of smuggling contraband into a downstate prison is among the fugitives State Police say they are looking for as part of their Warrant Wednesday effort.
Julisa Viera, 49, is wanted by State Police in Hawthorne for allegedly smuggling contraband into Sing Sing Correctional Facility. She's also charged with bail jumping and unlawful possession of marijuana.
Ronald J. Brdeja, 55, is wanted by State Police in Clarence on a charges of drug possession, false impersonation and aggravated unlicensed operaiton of a vehicle. The warrant was issued in the city fo Albany.
Dazzell Middleton, 22, is wanted by State Police in Haverstraw on a misdemeanor drug charge. State troopers said he as a passenger in a vehicle that was stopped at a police roadblock and caught with Xanax.
Julisa Viera, 49, is wanted by State Police in Hawthorne for allegedly smuggling contraband into Sing Sing Correctional Facility. She's also charged with bail jumping and unlawful possession of marijuana.
Akil T. Wright, 22, is wanted by State Police in Oneonta on a charge of criminal contempt that accuses him of violation an order of protection issued in Laurens Town Court.
Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.
Robert F. Young, 35, is wanted by State Police in Schuyler on a bench warrant that accuses him of driving while intoxicated on the Thruway three years ago. Young was initially charged during an Aug. 10, 2015, traffic stop for an alleged traffic violation.
Alexander Valenti, 34, is wanted by State Police in Rochester on a driving while intoxicated charge.
Joe A. Flores, 53, is wanted by State Police in Farmingdale on a driving while intoxicated charge from 2007. Troopers said is wanted for violating the conditional discharge in his case.
The first phase of the massive redevelopment of the former O'Connors Shopping Centre site in Nenagh is due to open this Thursday when German discount giant Lidl opens its doors to the public.
The retail unit will be the flagship project in the rejuvenation of Martyr's Road by Two-Mile Borris developer Martin Healy, with the former shopping centre having lain idle since it closed suddenly in 2011 with the loss of around 70 jobs.
Mr Healy bought the 5.5-acre site in 2015 and subsequently turned it into an eight-acre site.
Lidl will be the anchor tenant in the 12m redevelopment, moving from their original shop at the back of Martyr's Road to the front section, and, in the first of its kind in Ireland, will have a plaza to the front. And, we understand that the German retail giant has further plans for other major developmens in the county also.
Developer Mr Healy told the Tipperary Star that when Lidl moves out of their old premises he will take possession of it and lodge a planning application with Tipperary County Council for a 30,000 square foot office premises, which will be developed at a cost of 2.5m.
He paid tribute to contractors Mannings Construction Ireland, who, Mr Healy said, had been exemplary in their work throughout the build.
I also want to acknowledge and thank Tipperary County Council and the people of Nenagh for their co-operation, which has been unbelieveable, he said.
The site was developed in keeping with Tipperary County Council's strategic plan for that part of Nenagh, which will also see new plans for Mr Price and the former Sheahans yard
Miroslav Kokot, store manager said: We are delighted to open our new store in Nenagh after six months of construction. Lidl has hired extra staff for the new store, giving local employment a boost.
Nenagh MDC Cathaoirleach and county chair Cllr Mattie Ryan welcomed the opening, saying it was a substantial investment for the town. He said that it would tidy up an area that had become an eyesore and would be a link to the primary retail centre of Nenagh.
Chamber vice-president Denis Finnerty said the development would be a great boost to the town centre. It can do nothing but good for the town. Mr Finnerty welcomed the plaza aspect of the development, saying it would provide a public space from where people could filter into town. It is another step in the right direction. We just need to bring it to another level.
The development has also been welcomed by Deputy Alan Kelly.
Meanwhile, Mr Healy revealed to the Tipperary Star that he is in the process of submitting a new planning application to develop the former Munster Hotel in Thurles, which he also owns.
Tipperary Fine Gael candidate Mary Newman Julian has said has said that 5 community groups and schools in Tipperary are to benefit from additional Government funding through the CLAR programme.
This announcment comes on top of 7.5 million for 240 projects of this nature approved earlier this year, bringing to 9.1m the total investment in these facilities under the CLAR programme in 2018
Speaking about the purpose of the funds Mary said: By supporting improved safety around schools and other community facilities, and providing play areas in disadvantaged rural areas, CLAR funding is helping to make these areas more attractive places for families to live and to settle in.
Tipperary has been allocated a total of 124,200 in this round of CLAR funding. Measure 1 in CLAR 2018 is for funding of safety measures in communities. There is now 124,200 of funding allocated under CLAR measure 1 for Tipperary.
Areas in Tipperary to benefit are, Lorrha Dorrha GAA - 27,900, Ballyporeen - 20,700, Newtown NS - 45,000, Hollyford NS - 18,000 & Templederry NS - 12,600.
The CLAR Programme forms a significant part of Fine Gaels Action Plan for Rural Development which was launched in January 2017.
Tipperary projects that received funding already in 2018 under CLAR measure 1 include the pedestrian crossing at Lisvernane National school and footpaths in Hollyford as well as safety measures at Knock National School, Kilruane National School and the speed radar warning signs in Silvermines village.
The playground in Gortnahoe and the Drangan & Cloneen community playground as well as the national school in Cloughjordan have also received CLAR funding in 2018 under measure 2.
Earlier this month Minister Ring launched a further CLAR Measure to recognise the role that volunteer organisations play in the provision of vital services to provide transport services to and from medical support services for those with significant mobility issues, and to and from designated cancer treatment hospitals and centres under the National Cancer Care Programme. The closing date for this measure is today, Friday 31st of August.
I have worked with the Irish Wheelchair Association in both Tipperary Town and Roscrea to complete the CLAR funding applications to support the purchase of new wheelchair accessible vehicles which are much needed to continue the provision of vital transport services to people with mobility issues.
If any group or community group would like assistance in submitting applications for CLAR funding I would be delighted to help them and they can contact me at maryfortipperary@gmail.com or www.MaryforTipperary.ie
Fianna Fail Spokesperson on Food and Horticulture, Jackie Cahill has said that Minister Creed must come to this weeks Agriculture Committee meeting which is focused on the current fodder crisis with answers to three main issues.
Deputy Cahill, who requested that the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee meet to discuss this crisis, has said that rural Ireland is struggling to deal with the implications of the ongoing fodder crisis.
He said that there were three main areas that must be dealt with head on.
First, we need low cost credit facilities rolled out to struggling farmers. Secondly, we need to secure new export markets for dairy cross-cattle to reduce demands on fodder and finally, the Department must actively start important large quantities of fodder into the country in advance of winter, he said.
Deputy Cahill sadi that farmers, merchants and contractors were struggling with cash flow.
The Government must roll out low cost credit facilities, he said.
Deputy Cahill said that Bord Bia must be refocused to actively seek out new live export markets for dairy cross-cattle.
He said that the Department must start importing large quantities of fodder now and not wait any longer.
Minister Creed must grasp the urgency of the crisis, he said.
Cashel Town Centre Forum and Cashel Chamber of Commerce have sent out an open invitation to the people of Cashel to meet with the judges at a presentation to the Bank of Ireland Enterprise Town Awards in which Cashel has an entry in the Small Town category.
Bank of Ireland's National Enterprising Town Awards aims to assist in the promotion of enterprise across the country by bringing business and community groups together to showcase to a panel of judges, the spirit of enterprise in their local area. Cashel Town Centre Forum and Cashel Chamber of Commerce would like to offer an open invitation to the Cashel Community to attendance and support at the days events.
The events in Bru Boru will include the following:
*30 minutes presentation by the town starting at 2pm sharp.
*30 minutes question and answer session with the judges.
*20 minutes for the judges to meet with people socially.
We would appreciate it if persons were in a position to attend and support Cashel's presentation to the Judging Panel, to please RSVP to cashelchamber2015@
gmail.com before 7th September, said President Cashel Chamber of Commerce, Mr Martin Lynch. Cashel Chamber can be messaged on facebook at www.facebook.com/CashelChamber
[September 04, 2018] Fujitsu Introduces fi-7300NX, the New Image Scanner for Flexible Distributed Capture
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Fujitsu, the world's leading scanner manufacturer, today announced the launch of the fi-7300NX , an innovative image scanner that connects directly to client systems, as the newest image scanner solution for business use in the age of digital transformation. In recent years, new developments in the IT industry have caused a dramatic shift from PC-based systems to environments using smart devices and thin clients. Business applications have also seen transitions from client-server model applications to those utilizing the web, smart devices, cloud, and Robotic Process Automation. With increasing demand for products to adapt to such trends, "We are introducing a solution that adapts with flexibility to each organization's unique IT infrastructure to enable more efficient and productive capture environments resulting in simpler installation and operational cost savings," said Chief Executive Officer and President, Yasunari Shimizu, Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc.*1 Key features: Seamless integration into business systems
Users can begin scanning from the scanner's touch screen or from various applications on smart devices to suit all business needs. SDK utilization allows direct data transfer to client-unique web systems, authentication, and scan requests. Strong data encryption also enables constantly secure data transfer. Scan without the computer
With the fi-7300NX, users can now scan and save documents without any requirement for a local computer. Users simply login to the scanner using NFC*2 authentication and select from their personalized job menus on the fi-7300NX's touch screen. Customized job menus are displayed with user authentication, and ensure efficient and secure decentralized data capture is possible for each user. Scan from your smart device to any business platform*3
Deploying the fi-7300NX with Fujitsu's new PaperStream NX Manager server software option allows users to scan from mobile or web applications opened up on smart devices or thin client terminals. Seamless integration into client systems enables the use of a variety of devices for scanning operations. 3 types of SDK to suit user environments
The PaperStream NX Manager SDK is provided to enable integration with various client systems and applications. The fi-7300NX will support a variety of partner integrations to enable seamless process workflow. Three types of SDK are offered: a REST API for web application development, Authentication API for validating credentials by NFC or authentication server, and a Connector API that links PaperStream NX Manager with other enterprise systems and doument management software.
Reduce operating costs with centralized management
The user authentication function, customized job menus for each user, and other scan settings can all be centrally managed with PaperStream NX Manager and Scanner Central Admin . With the fi-7300NX's server software, there is no need for a conventional single client computer to control the scanner. This reduces the total burden on IT professions for installation, expansion, operation, and management. Manage jobs and process images with PaperStream NX Manager
PaperStream NX Manager carries out user authentication, job management, image processing of scanned data, and data output for the fi-7300NX. PaperStream NX Manager allows automatic sharing of authentication methods and job settings to up to 1,000 fi-7300NX scanners. Monitor scanner operation with Scanner Central Admin
Scanner Central Admin specializes in centralized management of multiple scanners, including batch updates of scanner settings and firmware, as well as monitoring of errors and consumables status on up to 1,000 scanners per server. User-friendly hardware
Consistent, high-speed scanning
Inheriting the fi Series legacy of high-speed, consistent paper feeding, the fi-7300NX boasts a speed of 60 ppm/120 ipm for letter size documents*4. Documents folded in half and carbon-copy sales slips are also easy to scan with Manual Feed Mode. As the first standalone scanner in the industry*5 to support Wi-Fi in the 5 GHz bandwidth*6, the fi-7300NX reduces data transfer time. Intuitive 4.3 inch touch screen for easy control and scan verification
The touch screen enables users to intuitively perform operations such as scanning and verifying data as thumbnails. The screen also displays messages or instructions with illustrations to provide guidance to users. Put it anywhere with Wi-Fi flexibility
The fi-7300NX introduces PaperStream IP Net, the PaperStream IP scanner driver for Fujitsu image scanners with network connectivity. Connection without the USB cable allows the scanner to be positioned wherever needed, to improve user productivity, reduce interruptions, and make more room for other used equipment. Both advanced driver and software, PaperStream IP and PaperStream Capture, enable users to fully enjoy simple scanning operations and high quality images. Pricing & Availability
The Fujitsu fi-7300NX available now through authorized resellers, VARs, and distributors including Ingram Micro, NewWave Technologies, Inc., and Tech Data Corporation. Fujitsu has priced the fi-7300NX scanner at $1,395 list price. 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. For more information, please see http://www.fujitsu.com. About Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc.
Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. is an established leader in the Document Imaging industry, delivering innovative scanning solutions and services that enable our customers to solve critical business productivity issues and streamline operations. Fujitsu provides cutting-edge document capture solutions for business and personal environments, backed by a comprehensive portfolio of service and support programs. For more information about Fujitsu document imaging, visit us.fujitsu.com/fcpa. Trademarks
Product names and company names are the registered trademarks or trademarks of the respective companies. Note Installation requires tools such as fi-7300NX Rollout Tool, Network Setup Tool for fi-7300NX, and Scanner Central Admin. NFC authentication includes Type-A and Type-B. User authentication with username and password input on the touch screen is also available. Integration required for mobile device scanning. A4 size documents fed in vertically, 200/300 dpi. Based on a 2018 study by PFU Limited on scanners with Wi-Fi connectivity. 5 GHz Wi-Fi availability may vary across regions. Contact: Gabrielle Kur, 516-567-3036, fcpa@bamcommunications.biz View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fujitsu-introduces-fi-7300nx-the-new-image-scanner-for-flexible-distributed-capture-300706575.html SOURCE Fujitsu
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 04, 2018] Eight-time GRAMMY Winner Dolly Parton to Be Honored as 2019 MusiCares Person of the Year
Eight-time GRAMMY winner Dolly Parton will be honored at the 2019 MusiCares Person of the Year tribute on Friday, Feb. 8, 2019, it was announced today by Neil Portnow, President/CEO of MusiCares and the Recording Academy. Proceeds from the 29th annual benefit gala will provide essential support for MusiCares (www.musicares.org), a charity founded by the Recording Academy that ensures music people have a place to turn in times of financial, medical, and personal need. The tribute will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center two nights prior to the 61st Annual GRAMMY Awards. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005946/en/ Photo Credit: Kii Arens Parton will be the first artist from the Nashville music community to be honored by MusiCares. She is being recognized as the 2019 MusiCares Person of the Year for her considerable creative accomplishments and her longtime support of a number of causes through her Dollywood Foundation, including the Imagination Library, which, since 1996, has provided more than 100 million books to children from birth to 5 years of age in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the U.K. "Dolly Parton has always been and continues to be a courageous trailblazer and indomitable inspiration for creators and artists-so for us to have the opportunity to honor her at our annual MusiCares Person of the Year gala is to pay tribute to a true pillar of strength and someone who we all look up to and cherish," said Portnow. "With her legendary talent, she has forged a career that spans decades, and her gifts as a performer resound on both stage and screen. Dolly also knows the power of philanthropy and she has used her stardom to contribute to a wide range of causes from natural disasters to education and literacy programs." "I am so excited and humbled to be honored as MusiCares Person of the Year," said Parton. "It's even more special knowing the gala benefits music people in need. I can't wait to hear all of the great artists singing my music." Remarks Parton's manager Danny Nozell, CEO, CTK Management, "I couldn't think of anyone more deserving to be the first MusiCares Person of the Year representing the Nashville music community. It's been a privilege to witness her generous heart firsthand for the last 14 years." "With each passing year, the goal of MusiCares remains clear: to do more and serve more music people in need," said Michael McDonald, MusiCares' Board Chair. "Over the course of our last fiscal year, we provided more than $6.4 million to more than 8,500 members of the music industry-the largest number of clients served and dollars distributed in a single year in our charity's history. We are confident that our 2019 Person of the Year tribute to Dolly Parton will help us raise the funds that sustain and expand our mission."
The MusiCares Person of the Year tribute ceremony is one of the most prestigious events held during GRAMMY Week. The Person of the Year gala will begin with a reception and silent auction offering an exclusive and unparalleled selection of luxury items, VIP experiences, and one-of-a-kind celebrity memorabilia for bidding guests. The reception and silent auction will be followed by a gala dinner sponsored by AEG; a live auction; a tribute concert featuring renowned musicians and other artists; and the award presentation. The celebration culminates with the 61st Annual GRAMMY Awards at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2019. The telecast will be broadcast live on the CBS Television Network at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
Established in 1989 by the Recording Academy, MusiCares offers health and human services and programs to members of the music community, including emergency financial assistance for basic living expenses such as rent, utilities, and car payments; medical expenses, including doctor, dentist and hospital bills; and treatment for HIV/AIDS, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, hepatitis C, and other critical illnesses. MusiCares offers nationwide educational workshops covering a variety of subjects, including financial, legal, medical, and substance abuse issues, and programs in collaboration with health care professionals that provide services such as flu shots, hearing tests, and medical/dental screenings. MusiCares provides access to addiction recovery treatment and sober living resources for members of the music community. Staffed by qualified chemical dependency and intervention specialists, MusiCares offers Safe Harbor Room support, sponsored in part by the Bohemian Foundation, to provide a network to those in recovery while they are participating in the production of televised music shows and other major music events. MusiCares holds weekly addiction support groups for people to discuss how to best cope with the issues surrounding the recovery process. For more information, please contact MusiCares at 310.392.3777 or personoftheyear@musicares.org. ABOUT DOLLY PARTON Dolly Parton is the most honored female country performer of all time. Achieving 25 RIAA certified gold, platinum, and multiplatinum awards, she has had 26 songs reach No. 1 on the Billboard country charts, a record for a female artist. She has 41 career Top 10 country albums, a record for any artist, and she has 110 career-charted singles over the past 40 years. In 2014, the RIAA recognized her impact on recorded music with a plaque commemorating more than 100 million units sold worldwide-and in 2016, her album Pure & Simple, which topped the Billboard Top Country Albums and Americana/Folk Albums charts and debuted at No. 1 in the United States, Canada, U.K., and Australia, added to that massive tally. She has garnered eight GRAMMY Awards, including a 2016 win with Pentatonix for their collaboration on her iconic 1974 hit "Jolene"; nine Country Music Association Awards, including Entertainer of the Year; 13 Academy of Country Music Awards, also including a nod for Entertainer of the Year; four People's Choice Awards; and three American Music Awards. In 1999, Parton was inducted as a member of the coveted Country Music Hall of Fame. In 2008, Parton launched her return to touring on a global scale with Backwoods Barbie World Tour, the first of many sold-out arena tours, returning her to Billboard Boxscore's Top 10 Country Tours of the Year. Her 2016 movie Christmas Of Many Colors: Circle Of Love, was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Television Movie. In 2017, Parton released her first children's album, I Believe In You, on Dolly Records through her partnership with Sony Music Nashville; the project's proceeds benefit The Dollywood Foundation's Imagination Library, a nonprofit that, since 1996, has provided more than 100 million books to children from birth to 5 years of age in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the U.K. In 2018, Parton received her first two Midsouth Emmy Awards as the organization recognized her lifetime of giving with the Governors Award and the award for Best Community Service Program, lauding her 2016 telethon "Smoky Mountains Rise," which raised more than $13 million for her My People fund, which provided financial assistance to victims of massive wildfires in Gatlinburg, Tenn. Parton is currently collaborating with producer Linda Perry on the soundtrack for the film Dumplin' starring Jennifer Aniston and Danielle MacDonald with Parton as the executive producer. And Parton's Dixie Pixie Productions is partnering with Warner Bros. Television to produce a series of television films to premiere on Netflix in 2019. Next year will mark the 33rd anniversary season for Dollywood, her theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., which since 1986 has hosted more than 2 million visitors annually. ABOUT MUSICARES A friend and ally of the music community, MusiCares was established by the Recording Academy to safeguard the health and well-being of all music people. A four-star charity and safety net in times of need, MusiCares offers confidential preventative, recovery, and emergency programs to address financial, medical, and personal health issues. Through the generosity of our donors and volunteer professionals, our dedicated team works across the country to ensure the music community has the resources and support it needs. For more information, visit www.musicares.org, "like" MusiCares on Facebook, and follow @MusiCares on Twitter and Instagram. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005946/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 04, 2018] Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP Files Class Action Suit against Philip Morris International Inc.
Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP (http://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases/philipmorris/) today announced that a class action has been commenced by an institutional investor on behalf of purchasers of Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM) common stock during the period between February 8, 2018 and April 18, 2018 (the "Class Period"). This action was filed in the Southern District of New York and is captioned City of Westland Police and Fire Retirement System v. Philip Morris International Inc., No. 18-cv-08049. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 permits any investor who purchased Philip Morris common stock during the Class Period to seek appointment as lead plaintiff. A lead plaintiff acts on behalf of all other class members in directing the litigation. The lead plaintiff can select a law firm of its choice. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than 60 days from today. If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests, please contact plaintiff's counsel, Brian Cochran of Robbins Geller at 800-449-4900 or 619-231-1058, or via e-mail at djr@rgrdlaw.com. You can view a copy of the complaint as filed at http://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases/philipmorris/. /p>
The complaint alleges that during the Class Period, defendants made false and misleading statements and/or failed to disclose adverse information regarding the Company's business and prospects, including that Philip Morris was experiencing a faster decline in overall cigarette and e-cigarette (or "heated tobacco") sales volumes during the first quarter of 2018 than investors had been led to believe, that its much-lauded sales initiatives had stalled, and that it was experiencing adverse sales headwinds in key markets. As a result of these misrepresentations, Philip Morris stock traded at artificially inflated prices during the Class Period, reaching a high of $109 per share. In addition, while the Company's stock price was artificially inflated, the Company's CEO sold 49,000 shares of his Philip Morris stock at these artificially inflated prices for proceeds of more than $5 million.
Then, on April 19, 2018, Philip Morris issued a press release announcing disappointing results for the Company's first quarter of 2018. Against its easiest prior-year comparison, the Company reported that combined cigarette and heated tobacco unit shipment volume had declined by 2.3% during the quarter. The Company also stated that key sales initiatives had stalled, as the Company's heated tobacco unit growth had plateaued due to market demographics and faltering consumer conversion tactics and, further, that cigarette shipments had fallen by 5.3% during the quarter, signaling persistent adverse trends in the business. On this news, the price of Philip Morris stock declined $15.80 per share, or more than 15%, to close at $85.64 per share on April 19, 2018. Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of all purchasers of Philip Morris common stock during the Class Period (the "Class"). The plaintiff is represented by Robbins Geller, which has extensive experience in prosecuting investor class actions including actions involving financial fraud. Robbins Geller is one of the world's leading law firms representing investors in securities litigation. With 200 lawyers in 10 offices, Robbins Geller has obtained many of the largest securities class action recoveries in history. For five consecutive years, ISS Securities Class Action Services has ranked the Firm in its annual SCAS Top 50 Report as one of the top law firms in both amount recovered for shareholders and total number of class action settlements. Robbins Geller attorneys have helped shape the securities laws and recovered tens of billions of dollars on behalf of aggrieved victims. Beyond securing financial recoveries for defrauded investors, Robbins Geller also specializes in implementing corporate governance reforms, helping to improve the financial markets for investors worldwide. Please visit http://www.rgrdlaw.com for more information. https://www.linkedin.com/company/rgrdlaw
https://twitter.com/rgrdlaw
https://www.facebook.com/rgrdlaw
https://plus.google.com/+Rgrdlaw/posts View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005947/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 04, 2018] A Big Shot Joins Tongdun International Southeast Asian Market
HANGZHOU, China, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- As a service provider dedicated to becoming a world leader in intelligent risk management and analysis decision-making, Tonghun Technology is comprehensively promoting its international strategic layout. Since the establishment of "Tongdun International Pte. Ltd.", the subsidiary in Singapore at the beginning of 2018, the company has accelerated the construction of the international team and successively introduced Lawrence Lu, Vice President of Tongdun International, Lock Kwee Yoong, Senior Technical Director of Tongdun International and other high-end talents. Recently, Jean Reksodiputro officially joined Tongdun International as the Head of the Indonesian Market of Tongdun International. Jean Reksodiputro has more than 20 years' experience in IT development and nearly 10 years' experience in large compny management. He also has great comprehensive management capabilities in finance, information technology and government relationship management. He was a member of the Board of Directors at Asosiasi FinTech Indonesia and served as the coordinator of the credit infrastructure working group.
Prior to joining the company, Jean was the Director of the PEFINDO Credit Bureau, which was prepared by PT PEFINDO, Indonesia's oldest independent credit rating agency, in 2014 for providing banks and other financial institutions, individuals and SMEs with comprehensive credit reporting services. Since the establishment of PEFINDO Credit Bureau, Jean has been dedicated to the construction of the bureau from scratch through efforts like coordinating and planning of company strategies, business processes and information systems. During the period, he took the lead in the construction of a data application process automation system, as well as the design, development and implementation of the bureau's credit scoring, credit reports, credit warnings, credit analysis, etc., empowering local financial institutions through its products, technologies and services to promote the construction of Indonesia's credit system. In recent years, with the increase in the bilateral trade between China and Southeast Asian countries, the increasing scope of cooperation, the open attitude of the Southeast Asian market to foreign investment and the huge demand for financial services, Tongdun International has been provided with favorable conditions to go global and a pivot to open the entire international market.
In the future, Tongdun's overseas business will be based on the full expansion in Southeast Asia, and will further expand to Africa, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, South America and other markets. Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180904/2227145-1 SOURCE Tongdun Technology
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 04, 2018] GSMA: Free Flow of Data across Borders Essential for Asia's Digital Economies
Governments in Asia can expand the region's digital economy and unlock further socio-economic benefits for their citizens by removing unnecessary restrictions on the movement of data internationally, according to a new report released by the GSMA (News - Alert) today at the Mobile 360 - Digital Societies conference in Bangkok. The study, 'Regional Privacy Frameworks and Cross-Border Data Flows', reveals that striking the right balance in the region's data privacy regulations could significantly enhance economic activity and future innovation in 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI). Over the past decade, international data flows have increased global GDP by 10.1 per cent, and their annual contribution to global GDP has already surpassed US $2.8 trillion1 - a larger share than the global trade in goods. The ability to transfer, store and process data enables commerce, spurs innovation, and drives the development of new technologies, platforms, services and infrastructure. Although the Asia Pacific region has made good progress in the development of data privacy frameworks that protect consumers while also allowing data to flow across borders, the report highlights that variances in data privacy laws across countries is holding back trade and innovation. The report also calls for better links at a regional level between Asia's two main privacy frameworks - the ASEAN Framework on Personal Data Protection and the APEC Privacy Framework - to enable cross-border data flows. "The immense economic opportunities arising from the digital economy and data flows are indisputable," said Boris Wojtan, Director of Privacy, GSMA. "Working towards a pan-Asian approach to data privacy is critical to protecting the rights of individuals and unlocking this economic potential, not only in Asia, but around the world. Regulating people's personal information by a patchwork of geographically bound privacy laws will only restrict how Asian companies can innovate and bring better products and services to consumers in the future. Now is an important time for all countries to take actions to bridge the differences in thei privacy regulation and achieve greater alignment."
The study evaluated various regional data privacy frameworks and their key principles, while diving down into individual countries to identify national approaches to privacy regulation. It highlights specific steps that all countries, including less developed states, can take to support greater alignment across Asia. Some of the key recommendations included in the report are: APEC and ASEAN governments should consider the options outlined in the study to bridge the differences between their respective privacy frameworks and seek interoperability with other regional frameworks;
Countries should advance the alignment of national-level privacy regimes by conducting a landscape analysis to see where they stand in terms of data privacy and reviewing the experience of other governments in the region to understand common paths forward;
Policymakers in government and privacy enforcement authorities should support deeper collaboration and cross-learning across the region; and
Governments should also draw on non-government privacy experts in the private sector and academia to inform their approaches. The GSMA also today released its report, 'Cross-Border Data Flows: Realising Benefits and Removing Barriers', which describes the benefits of global data flows for individuals, businesses and governments, and explores the damaging impact of increased data localisation measures, which can either require companies to store data locally, or even prohibit companies from transferring personal data altogether. The report calls for governments globally to commit to removing unnecessary localisation measures and enable data to flow cross-border through improved approaches to protecting people's data.
The 'Regional Privacy Frameworks and Cross-Border Data Flows' report is available here in English. The 'Cross-Border Data Flows: Realising Benefits and Removing Barriers' report is available here in English. -ENDS- Notes to Editors: 1. McKinsey Global Institute, 'Digital Globalisation: The New Era of Global Flows' (2016) About the GSMA The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting more than 750 operators with over 350 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as Mobile World Congress (News - Alert) , Mobile World Congress Shanghai, Mobile World Congress Americas and the Mobile 360 Series of conferences. For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at www.gsma.com. Follow the GSMA on Twitter (News - Alert) : @GSMA. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005374/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 04, 2018] Alipay Seeks Japanese Partners to Strengthen Cashless Experience across the Country for Tourists before 2020
Alipay, the world's leading mobile and online payment platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group ("Ant Financial"), today announced that it will collaborate with a wider range of local Japanese partners to build a cashless environment for tourists coming to Japan, in particular for the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020. This will allow the large number of visitors coming from China the chance to enjoy easy payment methods that they are familiar with and provide business opportunities for local merchants in Japan. In addition, efforts will continue to extend Alipay coverage throughout Japan as one of the most popular tourist destinations for travelers from China and other Asian countries. "Alipay is dedicated to enhancing user experience and creating value for small and micro businesses through technology. The Tokyo Olympics and the hike in visitors that this will bring is a good target for us, to ensure that the Alipay platform is the bridge between inbound visitors and local merchants here in Japan. It is also important that we are collaborating with partners not only in the metropolitan areas and big cities but also in smaller cities with popular tourist attractions. We look forward to working with a wide range of Japanese partners to achieve this ambition, and in doing so contribute in some way to driving the local economy of areas across Japan," said Eric Jing, Executive Chairman and CEO of Ant Financial. The number of Chinese tourists visiting Japan continues to increase year over year. Close to 7.35 million people came to Japan in 2017 with a y-o-y growth rate of 15.4% (? 1), and the inbound consumption from this group reached 1.6 trillion yen (US$14.3 billion, ? 2). This trend is likely to continue and the Olympic Games in 2020 are expected to be a peak with visitors attracted to the international sporting spectacle as well as the country's famous locations.
Alipay is expanding its services across the country in Japan which reflects the needs of increasingly adventurous Chinese tourists. Specific collaborations to date with regional banks, such as Hida Credit Union and Kyoto Shinkin Bank, have allowed Alipay to make its payment services available in tourist spots and shops out of the major cities. To further expand its merchant network, Alipay is also seeking to work with more small and micro merchants by cooperating with local mobile payment platforms in Japan such as Line Pay and Paypay.
Alipay, which currently has over 700 million active users in China, was introduced to Japan to provide services to Chinese visitors at local merchants in December 2015 and is currently available in all 47 prefectures across the country. It is available in a wide range of outlets to support tourism including airports, department stores, restaurants and popular attractions. ? 1: Source (News - Alert) : Japan Tourism Board (JNTO) "Trends in the number of customers outside Japan"
(Https://www.jnto.go.jp/jpn/statistics/since2003_tourists.pdf) ? 2: Source: Tourism Agency "Survey on consumption trends of foreigners visiting Japan" Heisei 20 (2017) annual value (Final)
(Http://www.mlit.go.jp/common/001226297.pdf) About Alipay Operated by Ant Financial Services Group, Alipay is the world's largest mobile and online payment platform. Launched in 2004, Alipay currently works with over 200 domestic financial institution partners. Over the years, Alipay has evolved from a digital wallet to a lifestyle enabler. Users can hail a taxi, book a hotel, buy movie tickets, pay utility bills, make appointments with doctors, or purchase wealth management products directly from within the app. In addition to online payments, Alipay is expanding to in-store offline payments both inside and outside of China. Alipay's in-store payment service covers over 40 countries and regions across the world, and tax reimbursement via Alipay is supported in 29 countries and regions. Alipay works with over 250 overseas financial institutions and payment solution providers to enable cross-border payments for Chinese travelling overseas and overseas customers who purchase products from Chinese e-commerce sites. Alipay currently supports 27 currencies. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005976/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Namecheap Surpasses 10 Million Domains Under Management
PHOENIX, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Namecheap, one of the fastest-growing American companies according to the 2018 Inc. 5000, today announced it has reached more than 10 million domains under management, cementing its place as one of the world's top domain registrars. CEO Richard Kirkendall founded Namecheap in 2000 with a mission to make building a website accessible and affordable for everyone. Now, 18 years later, Namecheap is the second biggest retail domain registrar in the world, and a burgeoning technology company with a diverse, growing portfolio of products for web professionals, small businesses, and independent Internet users. "I'm truly humbled that we have reached this incredible milestone. In under two decades, we've managed to evolve from a startup into a global company with more than 10 million domains under management, millions of customers, and an expanding portfolio of products, including web hosting, EasyWP managed WordPress hosting, and other online services," said Richard Kirkendall, Namecheap CEO. "Our customers are at the center of everything we do, and I'd like to say thank you to them and stay tuned for more exciting news on the horizon!" Since its launch in 2000, Namecheap has remained a private company, and has grown consistently and organically without Super Bowl-sized markeing budgets. Namecheap's unique culture can also be reflected in its long history of fighting for Internet freedom and Net Neutrality. To date, Namecheap has raised almost $500,000 to support Internet freedom causes with its annual Move Your Domain Day. With more than 1,000 team members across 10 countries, and still growing, the future is set to be very exciting.
Additionally, Namecheap is committed to providing exceptional products coupled with unparalleled service and low prices for its millions of customers, helping them to establish their place on the Internet. Recently, Namecheap was named the first company to surpass 1 million verified customer ratings online. Namecheap's friendly and knowledgeable Customer Support team are on hand 24 hours a day to seamlessly assist all customer questions. Visit namecheap.com today to purchase a domain for as little as $0.88 (with free WhoisGuard privacy protection for life), web hosting for only $2.88 per month, and don't forget to check out some of the hottest products in the Namecheap marketplace including EasyWP for top-notch managed WordPress hosting.
About Namecheap
Namecheap is an ICANN-accredited domain registrar and technology company founded in 2000 by CEO Richard Kirkendall. Celebrating nearly two decades of providing unparalleled levels of service, security, and support, Namecheap has been steadfast in customer satisfaction. With over 10 million domains under management, Namecheap is among the top domain registrar and web hosting providers in the world. To learn more about Namecheap, visit namecheap.com. Contact:
Derek Musso
917-334-5005
derek.musso@namecheap.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/namecheap-surpasses-10-million-domains-under-management-300706684.html SOURCE Namecheap
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] WISeKey Ramps Up Semiconductors and Blockchain Operation in China
WISeKey Ramps Up Semiconductors and Blockchain Operation in China WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.2 billion secure chips (since 2010) in virtually all IoT sectors - autonomous cars, smart cities, drones, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, mobile phones, etc. WISeKey International Holding Ltd ("WISeKey" or the "Company") (SIX: WIHN) (OTCQX: WIKYY), a leading cybersecurity and IoT company, today announced that is joining the 2018 Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin. More than 2,000 leaders from government, business, science and civil society will join the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, People's Republic of China, taking place on 18-20 September 2018. 111 countries will be represented. WISeKey was originally nominated as one of the founding members of the New Champions community back in 2007 in China with already 12 years of deep engagement with the Forum as member of its Expert Network and member of the PACI, Cyber Resilience and Global Agenda Council. During the past years, the New Champions event in China has provided an excellent platform for WISeKey to exchange insights and practices with multi-stakeholders in China, which has greatly accelerated our WISeKey China operations. The main objective of Summer Davos is to create a global community to ensure that emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and the internet of things are used to benefit society and that they remain human-centered. This requires global collaborative efforts to define the necessary principles of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the standards to ensure global interoperability. WISeKey has already started the localization of the its IoT semiconductors in China, having as a goal the ramp up of its secure chip install base to 10 billion within the next 3 years, with a new Secure Microprocessor for IoT, Blockchain, AI and WISeCoin. WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.2 billion secure chips (since 2010) in virtually all IoT sectors - autonomous cars, smart cities, drones, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, mobile phones, etc. VaultIC407 features an outstandingly rich set of Security Protocols and Security Functions tailored to IoT applications. While WISeKey will continue manufacturing chips in other countries in Asia and Europe, its new plant in China will become the main manufacturing center for Asia. WISeKey China has the goal of becoming one of the leading providers of Internet of Things (IoT) and Blockchain services for the growing Chinese market. The over-arching objective of the new company is to establish a market foothold with credible in-country leaders to maximize revenue in the near-term and realize reputable category position in the sectors of: retail, financial transaction, automotive, smart cities, consumer products, healthcare, smart card, industrial, transportation, and IT infrastructure, in the long-term. Trusted Semiconductors are the building blocks of the IoT, found in everything from autonomous cars, smart cities, drones, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, mobile phones, etc. Although China has mastered the art of assembling products with semiconductors produced elsewhere (the iPhone is the most famous example), the aspiration is for technology companies in China to move from being mere assemblers to manufacturers of semiconductors, therefore there is huge opportunity for WISeKey to become one of the first global companies to establish its semiconductors manufacturing facility in mainland China. The world is beginning to feel the effects of the explosive development of the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT is a driving force for social development, powering industrial transformation: smart cities, transportation, finance, energy, healthcare, manufacturing, smart home or consumer electronics, and offering the potential for Communications Service Providers to capture new services and revenue - estimated to reach 15 billion connections by 2020, and over $2 trillion in overall market revenue.
China has the world's fastest rate of growth in total IoT connections. By 2020, the number of IoT connections in the country alone will reach 8 billion. An estimated 1.08 billion of these connections will be delivered over cellular networks. China's trying to reduce a reliance on some $200 billion of annual semiconductor imports, which it fears undermines national security and hampers the development of a thriving technology sector. The country envisions spending about $150 billion over 10 years to achieve a leading position in design and manufacturing This is a great revenue opportunity for WISeKey as China is currently the world's largest chip market, but it manufactures only 16 percent of the semiconductors it uses domestically. Currently, China imports about $200 billion worth of chips annually - a value exceeding its oil imports. To cultivate a domestic industry, the government of China has slashed taxes for chip makers and plans to invest as much as $32 billion to become a world leader in design and manufacturing.
To take advantage of these opportunities in China, WISeKey made the strategic decision to localize the production of VAULTIC, a Vault in a secure Integrated Circuit. Combined with the Application Microcontroller in the IoT Edge Device, VaultIC407 brings premium security level. WISeKey Secure Elements provide secure storage and usage of sensitive assets. The firmware running on the WISeKey chips, is built with unique features able to secure storage, cryptographic calculations and digital signatures, and is specifically designed to execute sensitive calculations, without leaking information such as power consumption patterns or electromagnetic emissions to the outside world. The data is stored deep down within the protected memory of the chips, which are designed with unique capabilities not to allow other software to run on them and are equipped with various hardware sensors and protection mechanisms making them resistant to hardware attacks. Of note, would these WISeKey Secure Elements have been used for sensitive data storage for the Application Microcontrollers affected by the recent 'Meltdown' and 'Spectre' attacks, they would have never been successful. For more than twenty years, WISeKey has been providing a range of Common Criteria certified tamper resistant microprocessors that can be implemented on IoT devices to provide secure storage and usage of sensitive assets, and to uniquely identify, authenticate and protect devices in the field. These assets can be managed through a Webtrust certified Public Key Infrastructure on premises or as an operated service. WISeKey Semiconductors has been busy developing the latest VaultIC407 Secure Microprocessor enabling the new secure chip to be deployed in all business areas. WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.2 billion VaultIC chips in virtually all IoT sectors (smartcards, smart cities, drones, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, mobile phones, etc.). WISeKey is uniquely positioned to be at the edge of IoT as VaultIC semiconductors produce a huge amount of Big Data that, when analyzed with Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help industrial applications to predict the failure of their equipment before it happens. Imagine an intelligent car with a system processing authenticated data for each of the vehicle's components, being able to detect if/when various parts will require service and to digitally sign all the logs required to prove that service was provided. This platform can be used in multiple industrial applications, allowing for optimized productivity across industries through predictive maintenance on equipment and machinery, creating truly smart homes with connected appliances, and providing critical communication between devices including self-driving cars and smart homes. The possibilities that IoT brings to the table are endless. WISeKey's technology creates a platform that helps connected devices to become intelligent devices that can learn from attacks, defend themselves, and transfer this intelligence to other devices in the network.
About WISeKey: WISeKey (SIX: WIHN) (OTCQX: WIKYY) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying via a Virtual Platform large scale digital identity ecosystems. WISeKey's Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust ("RoT") and IoT Microchips provide secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit www.wisekey.com. To receive WISeKey's latest news, subscribe to our Newsletter or visit the WISeKey Investors Corner. Press and investor contacts: WISeKey International Holding Ltd
Company Contact: Carlos Moreira
Chairman & CEO
Tel: +41 22 594 3000
info@wisekey.com WISeKey Investor Relations (US)
Contact: Lena Cati
The Equity Group Inc.
Tel: +1 212 836-9611
lcati@equityny.com Disclaimer:
This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of article 652a or article 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations or a listing prospectus within the meaning of the listing rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of WISeKey.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Afrique Telecom Commended by Frost & Sullivan for Developing Internet Connectivity Solutions Aimed at Underdeveloped Areas
The elasticity of the solutions makes them cost effective, modular, and ideal for deployment in rural areas LONDON, Sept. 5, 2018 /CNW/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) communications services market, Frost & Sullivan recognises Afrique Telecom with the 2018 Sub-Saharan Africa Enabling Technology Leadership Award. The company's broadband connectivity solutions SpaceDSL and TAMTAM help businesses, governments, and consumers deliver cost-effective, high-bandwidth Internet access to areas facing last-mile connectivity issues. "Afrique Telecom's SpaceDSL and TAMTAM stand out from other communications service providers' solutions as they give customers the flexibility to choose consumption variables like data volume, time, and speed," said Fadzai Deda, Best Practices Research Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. "In addition to these two solutions, Afrique Telecom is preparing to commercialise its new solution, Broadband Africa, which will deliver a best-in-class customer experience to consumers all over the continent." Afrique Telecom's SpaceDSL largely addresses the issue of the lacking fixed-line infrastructure in SSA . SpaceDSL is a kit consisting of a small 35-kilogram satellite dish and a modem that businesses or individuals can deploy quickly. Space DSL allows users to choose the connectivity timeframe, ranging from 30 to 90 days, as well as the connectivity speed and data volume. Furthermore, it does not tie users to any subscription contracts. Meanwhile, the TAMTAM solution helps create a more connected ecosystem in SSA by combining satellite and Wi-Fi to create Internet hotspots. Each TAMTAM system can extend connectivity up to a few 100 metres radius round the hotspot and up to six kilometres by using additional repeaters or long-distance customer-premises equipment. TAMTAM can deliver speeds of 10 megabytes per second (Mbps) and will soon support 100 Mbps. This solution allows Afrique Telecom to cater to a variety of stakeholders such as UNICEF, which has already deployed it to give Internet access to schools in Cameroon.
"Lastly, Afrique Telecom's yet-to-be-released connectivity solution, Broadband Africa, comes with built-in flexibility that allows users to increase or decrease connection speed, set limits for data volume consumption, and set the connection duration," noted Deda . "Broadband Africa will use last high throughput satellite technology to deliver connectivity of up to 100 Mbps across SSA." For delivering the best consumer experience with its advanced technologies, Afrique Telecom is richly deserving of the 2018 Sub-Saharan African Enabling Technology Leadership Award.
Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to a company that developed a pioneering technology that not only enhances current products, but also enables the development of new products and applications. The award recognizes the high market acceptance potential of the recipient's technology. Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognise companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, 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. About Afrique Telecom
Afrique Telecom founded in 2005, listed on Stock Exchange in Paris, develops innovative solutions for the African continent based on satellite connection. Afrique Telecom's motivation is to reduce the digital divide in Africa by offering everyone the opportunity to connect to the global network at a lower price. Thus, Afrique Telecom contributes through it distributor's network , to the integration and approval of ICT's, for the development of several activities in african community. Contact: Virginie Tintignac
P: +33 3 86942641
E: vtintignac@afrique-telecom.com 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: Samantha Park
P: 210.247.2426
F: 210.348.1003
E: samantha.park@frost.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/afrique-telecom-commended-by-frost--sullivan-for-developing-internet-connectivity-solutions-aimed-at-underdeveloped-areas-300706800.html SOURCE Frost & Sullivan
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Malls Resurge, but E-Commerce a Threat in Tier-2/3 Cities - ANAROCK Report
MUMBAI, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- 91% Indian retail sales driven by brick-and-mortar stores, but smaller cities remain underserved
Good quality mall stock to increase by 10-15%; mediocre-to-weak stock to decline by 5-10% While e-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores will continue to co-exist in India, e-commerce currently has a definite edge over physical retail in India's tier II and tier III cities, warns ANAROCK Retail's report 'Rebirth of Retail Malls: New, Improved and Revitalized'. The report, which was released at the India Retail Forum (IRF) in Mumbai today, mentions that India's tier-II / tier-III cities will also be key contributors to the country's retail growth going forward. The organized retail market is growing at CAGR of 20-25%. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/701435/ANAROCK_Logo.jpg )
"Nearly 100 million people out of India's 300-400 million-strong middle class currently live in tier-II and tier-III cities," says Anuj Kejriwal, MD & CEO - ANAROCK Retail. "This indicates that a significant portion of Indian retailers' target clientele lives in the non-metro cities. In cities such as Jaipur and Surat, household incomes are expected to cross Rs. 800 billion and 26 other cities will cross Rs. 400 billion by 2020. Considering the rising purchasing power and the consumption pattern in these cities, the slow deployment of physical organized retail there is worrisome." Tier-II cities alone received investments of more than USD 6,000 million between 2006-17 and tier-III cities received around USD 500 million. Tier-I cities collectively saw USD 1,300 million investments in the same period. The numbers speak for themselves. "Investors and mall developers are beginning to realize the massive potential of these 'smaller' markets and trying to make their presence felt," says Kejriwal. "However, the speed of quality retail deployment must pick up a onsiderably faster pace to leverage the huge opportunities India's tier-II and tier-III cities offer."
The report warns that the lack of physical outlets is allowing e-commerce to flourish in these towns and cities. This main competitor to physical retail is growing rapidly and is expected to cross USD 100 billion of value by 2020. The major share of online shoppers in India includes millennials (Gen Y) aged 18-35 who currently account for 34% of the population. The high purchasing power of this online shopping population is insufficiently tapped in these cities due to the lack of good quality physical retail spaces. The report emphasizes that retailers have several advantages in tier-II and tier-III cities over tier-I counterparts:
Location charges 30-40% lower than in metros
than in metros Rental values in the range of Rs. 40-80/sq.ft. in prime locations as against Rs.150 -250/sq.ft. in equivalent metro locations
in the range of Rs. 40-80/sq.ft. in prime locations as against -250/sq.ft. in equivalent metro locations Operating costs 30-50% lower than in metros While retail sales density in smaller cities will be lower than in metros, adoption of innovative models and diverse product mixes assures retailers not only of survival in tier-II and tier-III cities but also of steady growth. On a larger scale, the report confirms that the Great Indian Mall Story is alive and growing rapidly. As much as 91% of retail sales in the country are driven by brick-and-mortar stores in India. With respect to the quality of the operational mall stock, around 40-45% meet 'good quality' requirements, 30-35% of them are in the mediocre range, while the remaining in the weak category. In the next 5 years, good quality stock will increase by 10-15% while the mediocre and weak stock may decline by 5-10%, respectively. The report also examines the syndrome of failed and struggling malls, and envisages re-inventing strategies for retail malls to strengthen their positioning in the evolving digital era. It makes a strong argument for the Technology Imperative as physical retail's only viable means to counter e-commerce competition. In a country like India that boasts of a population of 1.35 billion and the rapid adoption of the tech-savvy culture, modernization and innovation are critical for the survival of brick-and-mortar stores. In the final analysis, the advantage that physical retail has over e-commerce is essentially the 'experience' factor. By uniting conventional methods with key success elements of digital experience, brick-and-mortar retailers can offer consumers an experience surpassing that of online shopping. Click here to download the report Rebirth of Retail Malls - New, Improved and Revitalized About ANAROCK Property Consultants: The ANAROCK Group is India's leading specialized real estate services company with diversified interests across the real estate value chain. Anuj Puri, the Group's chairman, is a highly-respected industry veteran and India's most prominent thought leader in the real estate domain. He has over 27 years' expertise in leveraging Indian and global real estate opportunities.
ANAROCK Group's key strategic business units are Residential Broking & Advisory, Retail Transactions & Advisory, Capital Markets, Hospitality, Investment Management, and Research & Consulting. ANAROCK's growing business teams account for 1500 of the real estate industry's most qualified and experienced professionals. With operations across all major Indian markets and dedicated services in Dubai, ANAROCK also has global business coverage via over 80,000 hand-picked channel partners. Every facet of ANAROCK's rapidly-expanding business portfolio is governed by the Firm's core assurance to its clients and partners - Values over Value.
Visit: http://www.anarock.com Media Contact:
Arun Chitnis
arun.chitnis@anarock.com
+91-9657129999
Head - Media Relations
ANAROCK Property Consultants
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Linius Signs Commercial Deal with Newstag Deploying Linius Video Search Technology
MELBOURNE, Australia and STOCKHOLM, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Linius Technologies (ASX: LNU) -- the only cloud platform that transforms static video into interactive intelligent content with its world-first Video Virtualization Engine (VVE) -- has reached an agreement with Stockholm-based video news service Newstag, to deliver hyper-personalized news experiences with a social impact. View the video overview of the Linius - Newstag announcement here:
https://www.linius.com/linius-signs-commercial-deal-with-newstag-deploying-linius-video-search-technology/ Newstag is an award-winning news platform that aggregates content for more than 20 broadcasters and agencies around the world, including leading news producers such as AP, AFP, CNN and Bloomberg. Newstag is a world leader in the use of data to learn and tailor content experiences for users in more than 150 countries. In the first instance, Newstag will deploy the Linius Search Solution across the Newstag site, allowing users to search news archives and generate their own personalized news experience, creating value through Newstag's Infinite Heart Program. The Linius technology will also be deployed to the Newstag workflows providing both improved efficiency and enhanced personalization to news feeds currently being provided to broadcasters around the world. Linius will receive monthly license fees, in addition to US$1 per video virtualized and US$40 per thousand videos assembled (discounted to US$10 per thousand until a future commercial deal is signed). "Linius is in the commercialisation phase of our business and is targeting market leaders in the news, sports, education and corporate communications sectors, with our video hyper-personalization capability," aid Linius CEO Chris Richardson.
Once deployed, Linius and Newstag will work together to sell the capability to the thousands of news broadcasters and news content providers around the world, including but not limited to existing Newstag clients. Planning for the second phase rollout has already commenced. Separately, Linius intends to appoint the chairperson of Newstag, Ph.D Camilla Dahlin-Andersson, to the Company's Advisory Board to facilitate the combined go-to-market plan.
"Newstag is excited about working with Linius to rapidly scale our personalised video news content offering, helping users to find relevant content more efficiently," said Dr Dahlin-Andersson. "Linius' technology will allow us to gain market share in this rapidly evolving market." The market opportunity According to Nielsen's Total Audience Report 2016, news consumption is showing significant growth. In the US alone, adults over 18-years-old watched more than 27 billion minutes of national cable television news programming per week. While cable TV saw the largest increase, news consumption across all media, including radio, traditional broadcast TV and smartphones rose by 18 percent, compared with a year earlier, to 73.5 billion minutes per week. According to Deloitte Global, by the end of 2018, at least 50 percent of adults in developed countries will have at least two online-only media subscriptions. This is expected to double by the end of 2020. "Our strategy has been to seek a leading brand to commercially validate the Linius solution and a channel partner to rapidly scale our business. The agreement with Newtag gives us a strong foothold into the booming news sector," said Mr Richardson. Linius will continue to work with existing global channel partners to roll out the company's world leading video virtualisation capability. Revenue to be generated under this agreement is dependent upon take-up of the service and will commence on deployment. About Linius Technologies Limited: Linius Technologies Limited (ASX: LNU) has invented and patented the Video Virtualization Engine (VVE), which is available on Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and IBM Cloud. Amazon, Microsoft and IBM are investing billions in virtualizing video services (technologies) and Artificial Intelligence in the cloud. It is arguably the biggest battle on the internet, given that video accounts for nearly 80 percent of internet traffic. Only Linius can expose the data that makes up the video file, making cumbersome video as flexible as all other forms of data. Accessing the data within the video file is the missing link for video cloud service providers, creating unparalleled value across the internet video industry. Linius has the potential to transform many multi-billion-dollar markets, and is initially focused on: Anti-Piracy: Applying proven data protection methods to video to solve piracy
Applying proven data protection methods to video to solve piracy Search: Search within videos and compiling new videos on-the-fly
Search within videos and compiling new videos on-the-fly Security and Defense: Intelligent search and immediate distribution of security footage
Intelligent search and immediate distribution of security footage Personalized Advertising: Hyper-personalized to individuals, time slots and content For more on Linius Technologies, visit www.linius.com. For regular news and updates, follow Linius Technologies on Twitter (@linius_tech), LinkedIn (Linius Technologies Ltd), Vimeo (Linius Technologies) and Facebook (@linius). For further information or interview requests, please contact: Lachlan James, Director of Marketing and Communications, +61 (0)431 835 658, ljames@linius.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/739445/Linius_Logo_Positive_Logo.jpg
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] DragonVein launches its new VR+Blockchain product
SHANGHAI, Sept. 5, 2018 /CNW/ -- VlaVR, DragonVein's exclusive subject of operation in China, signed strategic partnership with Nibiru, one of the world's largest VR operation system suppliers of AI/AR/VR at the N+ International Technology Summit. Vlavr, as the partner of China Mobile in 5G application, supported DragonVein's DVC hardware project. Vlavr's latest VR hardware, DVBox and MiniVR, were recently unveiled. On site, VlaVR and Nibiru jointly launched the MiniVR, the world's lightest VR goggles weighing only 105g and the DvBox adopting Nibiru's latest N+ 3.0 operation system and distributed storage based on blockchain technology developed by Dragonvein. According to the agreement, Nibiru will provide technically innovative solutions based on N+ Creator, the VR content maker software, while VlaVR will contribute its professionalism in cloud-based distributed storage solutions and its token mechanism based on blockchain technology. "The main pain points VR indutry suffering are the significant cost of content, the stutter videoplay experience caused by underspeed network and piracy violations," said VlaVR. "With N+ creator, every user can create their own VR content. The advantages of UGC (user generated content), such as low cost, has already been proven successful in online video platforms like YouTube. On the other side, our distributed storage solutions and 5G application capabilities will fully leverage the value of N+ creator. Blockchain is able to protect creators from piracy violation as data are stored separately under distributed storage system. Applications of 5G network ensure a smooth experience. This cooperation will create great synergies and become an innovational power in the industry."
Further cooperation will be proposed in 5G VR cloud-based games and an in-depth study on performance optimization. Both parties will work closely to build the next generation of AR/VR edge network service platform based on 5G network. Yamamoto Shuto, head of DragonVein, regards this cooperation as a milestone for the DragonVein Family Entertaining Ecosystem Chain supported by VlaVR. This is open for future worldwide cooperation.
About DragonVein: DragonVein is a pioneer and innovator in VR+BlockChain field. DragonVein aims to bring innovative solutions to DRM (Digital Rights Management) using blockchain technology. DragonVein has built an integrated ecosystem with all elements including hardware, content creators and a token mechanism for users. http://www.dragonvein.io/
http://www.vlavr.com/ View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dragonvein-launches-its-new-vrblockchain-product-300706878.html SOURCE DragonVein
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Accomplished Hospitality Professional Erika Bucsi Joins Knowland to Support Rapid Expansion of European Operations
ARLINGTON, Virginia, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Knowland, the industry leader in market intelligence for hotels, venues, and convention and visitor bureaus, today announced Erika Bucsi has joined the company as the enterprise director of sales in Europe. In her new role, Erika will be leading sales and customer success activities in the European market, which is also supported by sales veteran Mattia Melillo and Betty Huang, a dedicated service manager. Erika joins Knowland as the company increases its footprint in Europe. Recognized as an industry innovator, Knowland has significantly expanded its product offerings in the last 18 months by introducing a series of next-generation, analytics-based solutions that help customers find, evaluate, pitch, and win the best groups and meetings business. Combining the release of these new products with a series of several strategic acquisitions, Knowland is poised to accelerate their European operations and undergo rapid expansion. With more than a decade of hospitality experience, Erika brings a wealth of industry knowledge to her new position. Most recently, she served as regional director of sales in Europe for Cvent, where she oversaw sales of Cvent Hospitality Cloud solutions for MICE and Business Transient (formerly Lanyon) to new prospects, while managing an impressive roster of existing accounts. Prior to Cvent, Erika was the regional salesmanager in Central Europe for Amadeus Hospitality, a leading technology provider for global hospitality organizations and proud partner of Knowland.
Tracking group activity at more than 7100 venues in 200 of the busiest markets in the world, Knowland has amassed the industry's largest database of actualized events, including more than 15 million events across nearly a million organizations. Knowland started gathering data in Europe in 2011 and today collects event details from 436 properties across 29 markets in Europe and the Middle East alone. Powerful analytical and predictive technology queries this database to deliver customers a steady flow of pre-qualified leads fitting their need periods, to automatically score and prioritize inbound leads that are a best fit for a property, and to provide sales teams with deep account insights that can be leveraged to deliver winning sales pitches. "It's a thrilling time to join Knowland given the innovative products they have recently introduced and the acceleration of their adoption in the European market," said Erika. "I am excited to introduce the hospitality community to these amazing solutions and to show sales teams how they can truly sell smarter and capture a competitive edge with Knowland's products."
Erika is well versed in the challenges and opportunities facing group sales leaders in hotels today. She previously led conference and event sales, revenue, and strategy for leading hospitality organizations, including Accor Hotels, Park Plaza Hotels Europe and Hilton Hotels. Erika also participated in special projects throughout her time in hotels, such as new openings, team restructures, system implementations and integrations. "Erika brings deep knowledge of hospitality technology, as well as years of hands-on group sales and revenue management experience to Knowland. As a result, she is uniquely able to provide our customers with phenomenal insight into how they can optimize their group sales processes and maximize revenue by partnering with us," commented Tim Hart, chief executive officer of Knowland. "Her experience and connections will be instrumental as we expand our presence in Europe and we are delighted to welcome her to our team." Erika studied hotel management at MODUL, the Hospitality University in Vienna (Austria). She is passionate about triathlon, diving, and animal welfare, and fundraises for organizations like the World Wildlife Fund and Cats Protection in her free time. About Knowland
Knowland enables hotel properties, hotel brands, management companies, CVBs, and other meeting venues to achieve their group sales goals by delivering deep market intelligence and innovative technology. By combining powerful analytics with the industry's largest historical database of actualized events, we deliver insights that drive more revenue, accelerate the sales cycle, and optimize processes. See why thousands of organizations trust our solutions to sell smarter and maximize their revenue. To learn more, please visit knowland.com or call 202-312-5880.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Williams Lea Tag Acquires Taylor James to Build Leading Global Presence in Digital Production
LONDON, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Williams Lea Tag, the leading independent global marketing activation partner, announced today that it is adding Taylor James to its portfolio of integrated digital marketing execution services providers, turning creative ideas into reality for global brands worldwide. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/739062/Williams_Lea_Tag_Logo.jpg )
Taylor James is a leading digital production house on the cutting edge of technology. Founded in London in 1999, the company is predominantly US and Europe-focused and offers high-end capabilities in CGI, animation, design and VFX to brands and their creative agencies to produce engaging, photo-real digital content across all channels. Clients include American Express, Lexus, Jack Daniels, Ford, Progressive, Dell, and Honda, among others. David Kassler, Group CEO of Williams Lea Tag, commened: "I am delighted to welcome Taylor James into the Williams Lea Tag family - Glen Taylor and his highly-talented team will help us to broaden our strategic relevance to the world's leading brands. We share common goals in using better technology and process to reduce cost and waste in our clients' marketing budgets, plus they have the scale and expertise to match our global ambition. As the first acquisition to be made under Advent International's ownership, this is an important milestone for Williams Lea Tag - with Advent's support, we will continue to proactively explore further synergistic acquisition opportunities."
Glen Taylor, CEO and co-founder of Taylor James, added: "As a creative and design-driven studio, it was important for us to join an independent group focused on inventive ways to service clients' changing needs. Williams Lea Tag helps a wide variety of clients from many sectors, which closely echoes the skills and experiences we have gained over the last two decades. We are building a true strategic partnership that creates great opportunities for our business and people to grow. Advances in technology are helping us further explore what is possible, using bespoke tools and expert craftsmanship. We are excited to push creativity, helping brands and agencies best reach their audiences in today's ever-changing media landscape." WILLIAMS LEA TAG is the leading independent marketing activation partner trusted by global brands worldwide to turn creative ideas into reality. http://www.wlt.com
TAYLOR JAMES - a production studio that connects brands with audiences in an expertly designed way. http://www.taylorjames.com ADVENT INTERNATIONAL - one of the largest and most experienced global private equity investors. http://www.adventinternational.com SOURCE Williams Lea Tag
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Segula Technologies Confirms Talks About a Potential Strategic Partnership with Groupe PSA/Opel
PARIS and COLOGNE, Germany, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- This project would lead to the creation of a core engineering campus in Russelsheim, supporting the automotive industry worldwide Global engineering group SEGULA Technologies ("Segula") today confirms talks about a potential strategic partnership with Groupe PSA/Opel, aimed at the creation of a European engineering campus and Center of Excellence in Russelsheim, Germany. This would include a takeover of up to 2,000 employees of the current Russelsheim R&D Center. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/679987/Segula_Technologies_Logo.jpg )
This project would create, for one of the first times in the industry, the capacity to combine complete vehicle development and testing, as well as powertrain engineering and testing under one roof. The project would be a "Triple Win" for Opel, Segula and those employees involved. Segula would become PSA/Opel's development partner in Russelsheim and Dudenhofen and expand the Center's activities to other sectors and new customers in the coming years. Laurent Germain, Group Managing Director, SEGULA Technologies, said: "This project would be very good news for the European automotive industry, involved employees and local communities. The recognized skills of the Opel engineers combined with Segula's know-how, would allow us to set the standard and contribute to the development of the local economy in the long run,to meet our customer expectations. Establishing this campus of Engineering Excellence would also encourage the settlement of further engineering companies in the Russelsheim and Dudenhofen area, and would promote a thriving and globally recognized campus of engineering expertise."
Martin Lange, Managing Director SEGULA Technologies Germany, added: "We are looking forward to engaging in fruitful dialog and to reaching an agreement with the social partners. Segula is willing to continue the protection against dismissal agreed until July 2023. Our plan is not only to secure a sustainable future for the people that would join us from Opel, but we also plan to increase our footprint at the site in line with the technological changes required by the market. Together with our customers, partners and all the employees involved, we would accelerate our contribution to the future of the automotive industry as well as to other industrial sectors." Segula follows a clear growth strategy and has developed into a leading engineering group, supporting around 300 customers in all major industrial sectors, in 28 countries.
The potential strategic partnership is in line with Segula's strategic ambitions which consider Germany as a corner stone, aiming at becoming the world's leading automotive solutions provider by 2023. In Germany, through the previous acquisitions of Technicon Design and EK Design, the 550 employees of Segula are already carrying out engineering activities in product and process development throughout the field of body components with car manufacturers and their tier one companies, as well as in the industrial vehicle, rail and other sectors. In June 2018, Segula also announced a cooperation in strategic projects with ESG Mobility, based in Munich, geared towards the mobility of tomorrow. About Segula Technologies SEGULA Technologies is an engineering group with a worldwide presence, helping to boost competitiveness within all the major industrial sectors: automotive, aerospace, energy, rail, naval, pharmaceutical and petrochemical. Operating in 28 countries and with 140 offices worldwide, the Group fosters a close relationship with its customers thanks to the expertise of its 11,000 employees. As a leading engineering specialist placing innovation at the heart of its strategy, SEGULA Technologies undertakes large-scale projects, ranging from technical studies to industrialization and production. For more information, visit: http://www.segulatechnologies.com Follow SEGULA Technologies on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] LiveU Expands its Global Hybrid IP Satellite and Cellular Service Across Europe and North Africa
Working with Eutelsat, this new solution will bring the best in HEVC cellular bonding and Ka-band satellite connectivity to Europe HACKENSACK, New Jersey, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- LiveU has announced plans to expand its affordable, hybrid global IP satellite service, which works in combination with its HEVC bonding technology. Increasing the range of options, the new solution, based on Eutelsat's KA-SAT, will allow customers to use satellite or cellular connectivity seamlessly, streamlining both the billing structure and workflow. LiveU will be offering its customers in Europe Ka satellite airtime in combination with its current cellular roaming data packages. Using this hybrid solution, operators don't have to choose manually which network to use; the connectivity choice is made automatically based on a combination of signal strength and cost-effectiveness. LiveU will be working with Eutelsat whose KA-SAT satellite wide beam footprint extends right across Europe and parts of North Africa. The collaboration utilizes NewsSpotter, Eutelsat's state-of-the-art Satellite News Gathering (SNG) product, developed in response to an increasing demand to transfer rich media content from the field. NewsSpotter is highly efficient via extremely compact satellite terminals and also innovative as it provides native bidirecional IP connectivity, facilitating integration with modern news production and media content management workflows. Being Ka-band-based, NewsSpotter terminals are both compact and portable enough to fit in a backpack and be mounted on a small car.
Customers can now take advantage of LiveU's LU600 HEVC solution to use satellite connectivity whenever desirable. This is a fully bundled service with a single-point-of-contact for support and a single bill. A range of packages are available. Zion Eilam, Regional VP Sales (EMEA), LiveU, said, "This is a truly integrated service offering, bringing together the best of both worlds via market leaders in their respective fields. Making this as seamless and effortless as possible for our customers was essential, ensuring that they can concentrate on bringing high-quality live content to their viewers. Partnering with Eutelsat has achieved that, complementing our existing hybrid Ku-satellite service solution."
"Undoubtedly the contribution market, especially news, has changed significantly in recent years, with speed of deployment and mobility at realistic price points increasingly taking center stage. NewsSpotter was a clear response to that and this collaboration with LiveU is the natural next step", said Gerry O'Sullivan, Executive Vice President, Global TV and Video of Eutelsat. Visit LiveU at IBC on stand 3.B62 and Eutelsat on stand 1.D59 to learn more about this solution. About LiveU LiveU is driving the live video revolution, providing live video streaming for TV, mobile, online and social media. Let your audience become part of your story with high-quality and flawless live video, transmitted from anywhere in the world, through the use of our patented bonding and video transport technology. LiveU creates a consistent bandwidth and a reliable connection so you can acquire, manage and distribute high quality remote live broadcasts over IP. Our broad portfolio of products sets the industry standard for live video production. From backpacks to smartphones, and satellite/cellular hybrid to external antenna solutions, LiveU offers a complete range of devices for live video coverage anytime, anywhere. In addition, LiveU offers extensive cloud-based management and video distribution solutions. With over 3,000 customers in 100+ countries, LiveU's technology is the solution of choice for global broadcasters, online media, news agencies and social media. For more information, visit www.liveu.tv, or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn or Instagram. Contacts:
Joss Armitage (Int'l)
+44-7979-908-547
joss@jumppr.tv Joyce Essig (US)
201-742-5229
joyce@liveu.tv Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/267684/liveu_logo.jpg
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Maxar Technologies to present at Upcoming Investor Conferences
WESTMINSTER, CO, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Maxar Technologies (the "Company" or "Maxar", formerly MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.), (NYSE: MAXR; TSX: MAXR), a global technology innovator powering the new space economy, announced today that members of senior management will present at the following investor conferences: 2018 RBC Capital Markets Global Industrials Conference
Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Las Vegas
September 6, 2018
11:30 a.m. PDT
There will be no webcast available for this presentation Morgan Stanley 6th Annual Laguna Conference
Ritz-Carlton, Laguna-Nigel, Dana Point, CA
September 13, 2018
8:45 a.m. PDT
Webcast available below:
https://cc.talkpoint.com/morg007/091218b_as/?entity=13_SG76ORV During the presentations, representatives of Maxar's senior management intend to discuss the Company's: Growth strategy, operations and outlook;
Robust pipeline of large, new business opportunities, including the EnhancedView Follow-On contract option announced yesterday;
Ongoing delivery of revenue and cost synergies following the acquisition and successful ongoing integration of DigitalGlobe;
Ongoing exploration of strategic alternatives for its GEO communications satellite line of business; and
Strategic and capital allocation priorities. If indicated, webcasts of the presentations will also be accessible on the Investor section of the Maxar website, http://investor.maxar.com/events-and-presentations/default.aspx About Maxar Technologies
As a global leader of advanced space technology solutions, Maxar Technologies (formerly MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates) is t the nexus of the new space economy, developing and sustaining the infrastructure and delivering the information, services, systems that unlock the promise of space for commercial and government markets. As a trusted partner, Maxar Technologies provides vertically-integrated capabilities and expertise including satellites, Earth imagery, robotics, geospatial data and analytics to help customers anticipate and address their most complex mission-critical challenges with confidence. With more than 6,500 employees in over 30 global locations, the Maxar Technologies portfolio of commercial space brands includes MDA, SSL, DigitalGlobe and Radiant Solutions. Every day, billions of people rely on Maxar to communicate, share information and data, and deliver insights that Build a Better World. Maxar trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange as MAXR. For more information, visit www.maxar.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
"Certain statements and other information included in this release constitute "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") under applicable securities laws. Statements including words such as "may", "will", "could", "should", "would", "plan", "potential", "intend", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate" or "expect" and other words, terms and phrases of similar meaning are often intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements involve estimates, expectations, projections, goals, forecasts, assumptions, risks and uncertainties, as well as other statements referring to or including forward-looking information included in this release. Forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results or expectations expressed in this release. As a result, although management of the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. The risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to, the risk factors and other disclosures about the Company and its business included in the Company's continuous disclosure materials filed from time to time with Canadian and U.S. securities regulatory authorities, which are available online under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com, under the Company's EDGAR profile at www.sec.gov or on the Company's website at www.maxar.com.
The forward-looking statements contained in this release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements. All such forward-looking statements are based upon data available as of the date of this presentation or other specified date and speak only as of such date. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements in this release as a result of new information or future events, except as may be required under applicable securities legislation." Investor Relations Contact:
Jason Gursky
Maxar VP Investor Relations
1-303-684-2207
jason.gursky@maxar.com Media Contact:
Turner Brinton
Maxar Media Relations
1-303-684-4545
turner.brinton@maxar.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/maxar-technologies-to-present-at-upcoming-investor-conferences-300706825.html SOURCE Maxar Technologies Ltd.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Ladenburg Thalmann Annuity Insurance Services (LTAIS) Acquires Certain Assets of Kestler Financial Group's Insurance Distribution Business
Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc. (NYSE American: LTS, LTSL, LTS PrA, LTSF, LTSK) ("Ladenburg"), a publicly-traded, diversified financial services company, announced today that its Ladenburg Thalmann Annuity Insurance Services LLC ("LTAIS") subsidiary has purchased certain assets of the insurance distribution business operated by Kestler Financial Group, Inc. ("KFG"), a leading independent distribution company (" IDC (News - Alert) ") located in Leesburg, Virginia. Under the terms of an asset purchase agreement, LTAIS purchased certain KFG assets, including the rights to the "Kestler Financial Group" name and brand, as part of an ongoing strategy for LTAIS to reinforce its position as a leading distributor of annuity solutions for independent financial advisors throughout the country. The acquisition is expected to generate important benefits for the Ladenburg insurance and annuity platform, which consists of LTAIS and Ladenburg's complementary subsidiary Highland Capital Brokerage, a leading independent brokerage of life insurance solutions nationwide. Founded in 1993 by father and son Tom and Jason Kestler, KFG has established itself as one of the nation's leading distributors of annuities, life insurance, long term care insurance and disability insurance by identifying, recruiting, and training independent insurance agents, registered representatives and financial planners nationwide. The firm brings strong client relationships to Ladenburg's insurance and annuity platform, including selling agreements with over 20 independent broker-dealers, RIAs and other firms representing more than 3,000 affiliated financial advisors. Richard Lampen, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ladenburg, said, "We are very pleased to welcome the Kestler team to the Ladenburg family. This is a significant step forward in our strategic vision for LTAIS and the entire Ladenburg insurance and annuity platform, especially with respect to reinforcing our leadership position in the independent financial advice space at a time when insurance and annuity solutions are becoming increasingly important to individuals and families across the country." Jim Gelder, CEO of LTAIS, said, "Kestler Financial Group has a long, successful history in the fixed index space working with the financial advisors of independent broker-dealers across the country. Jason and Tom Kestler are well-known and highly respected thought leaders in this market, and we're excited to bring them into our organization. With the longstanding client relationships the Kestler team has formed and the industry-leading capabilities they bring to our organization, the Ladenburg insurance and annuity platform will be exceptionally well-positioned to shape the future of this space." KFG is one of the few IDCs with a service model that effectively addresses the needs of insurance-only advisors, registered representatives and investment advisor representatives in the RIA space. LTAIS will benefit from KFG's deep and specialized expertise in marketing, sales and operations in the annuity and insurance sector.The acquisition will also enable LTAIS' existing sales team to expand and strengthen the support it provides advisors affiliated with Ladenburg's independent advisory and brokerage (IAB) subsidiaries, by giving the LTAIS sales team access to robust lead generation capabilities through social media, seminars and other channels.
The Kestler team will operate from their current headquarters in Leesburg, Virginia, as part of LTAIS. Effective immediately, Jason Kestler will become part of the Highland executive management team, while also serving as President of the Kestler Financial Group Division within LTAIS. Jason Kestler, President of KFG, said, "This announcement marks the start of an exciting new period of growth for our insurance distribution business. We've established our organization by focusing on creating one-to-one relationships with our advisors, built on a foundation of mutual respect and exceptional service. It's very clear to us that LTAIS, Highland Capital and Ladenburg share the Kestler team's longstanding focus on advisor service, and that becoming part of the Ladenburg family of companies will amplify our ability to assist advisors in growing their practices in an area that is crucial to millions of households, business owners and individuals across the country who are seeking to maximize their financial security over the long run."
About Ladenburg Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc. (NYSE American: LTS, LTSL, LTS PrA, LTSF, LTSK) is a publicly-traded diversified financial services company based in Miami, Florida. Ladenburg's subsidiaries include industry-leading independent advisory and brokerage (IAB) firms Securities America, Triad Advisors, Securities Service Network, Investacorp and KMS Financial Services, as well as Premier Trust, Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management, Highland Capital Brokerage, a leading independent life insurance brokerage company, Ladenburg Thalmann Annuity Insurance Services, a full-service annuity processing and marketing company, and Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc., an investment bank which has been a member of the New York Stock Exchange for over 135 years. The company is committed to investing in the growth of its subsidiaries while respecting and maintaining their individual business identities, cultures, and leadership. For more information, please visit www.ladenburg.com. About LTAIS Ladenburg Thalmann Annuity Insurance Services LLC ("LTAIS") is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc. LTAIS is a full-service annuity processing and marketing platform offering advisors proprietary and industry-leading technologies, contracting and licensing, and in-house annuity experts. The company's sales support team works in close coordination with financial advisors to ensure that the products being offered are in the best interest of the client. For more information, visit the LTAIS website at ladenburgannuity.com. About Kestler Financial Group Kestler Financial Group, Inc. ("KFG") is a valued resource for thousands of independent advisors nationwide. KFG delivers products and tools built on a robust platform for their clients to run and grow their practices more successfully. Members of the KFG team have a rich history of being thought leaders in the annuity distribution channel, and the firm has found its niche providing insurance and annuity solutions within the securities industry. For more information, visit the KFG website at kestlerfinancial.com. This press release includes certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding future growth, growth of our independent advisory and brokerage business and growth of our insurance and annuity business. These statements are based on management's current expectations or beliefs and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied by the statements herein due to changes in economic, business, competitive and/or regulatory factors, including the SEC's (News - Alert) proposed rules and interpretations concerning the standards of conduct for broker dealers and investment advisers when dealing with retail investors, future cash flows, a change in the Company's dividend policy by the Company's Board of Directors (which has the ability in its sole discretion to increase, decrease or eliminate entirely the Company's dividend at any time) and other risks and uncertainties affecting the operation of the Company's business. These risks, uncertainties and contingencies include those set forth in the Company's annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017 and other factors detailed from time to time in its other filings with the SEC. The information set forth herein should be read in light of such risks. Further, investors should keep in mind that the Company's quarterly revenue and profits can fluctuate materially depending on many factors, including the number, size and timing of completed offerings and other transactions. Accordingly, the Company's revenue and profits in any particular quarter may not be indicative of future results. The Company is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions or otherwise, except as required by law. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005181/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Shailesh Rao to Lead TPG Growth and The Rise Fund in India and Southeast Asia
TPG Growth, the middle market and growth equity investment platform of global alternative asset firm TPG, announced today that it has named Shailesh Rao Head of TPG Growth and The Rise Fund for India and Southeast Asia. Rao has been serving as a Senior Advisor to TPG Growth and The Rise Fund since October 2017 and will assume this newly created role beginning September 15. "TPG Growth and The Rise Fund have assembled a dynamic global portfolio-from companies focused on energy-saving solutions to fast-growing consumer internet platforms," said Bill McGlashan, Founder and Managing Partner of TPG Growth and Co-Founder and CEO of The Rise Fund. "As we continue to build businesses with leaders across India and Southeast Asia, Shailesh's regional expertise and global operating experience will be invaluable. In addition to sourcing new regional opportunities, we look forward to advancing our technology investment activity worldwide with the help of Shailesh's connections in the technology sector." Rao has nearly 20 years of experience spanning some of today's most renowned technology companies. Prior to joining TPG as a Senior Advisor, Rao spent four years leading international operations at Twitter (News - Alert) . During that time, Rao helped the company significantly expand its presence, revenue, and user-base beyond the US to Latin America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East/North Africa. Prior to joining Twitter, Rao spent over seven years at Google as a Vice President, leading YouTube (News - Alert) in Asia. Prior to that, he was the Managing Director for Google India. "I am looking forward to joining a world class team and to accelerating the great work they have done to-date," said Rao. "Leveraging my operating experience from Google (News - Alert) and Twitter, I see tremendous opportunity to work with founders and business leaders to scale their businesses across and beyond Asia." In his role leading TPG's groth and impact investing platforms in the region, Rao will work closely with Puneet Bhatia and Ganen Sarvananthan-who continue to serve as co-managing partners of TPG Capital Asia-to provide leadership to TPG's growing activities in the region.
Shailesh will join the Boards of BookMyShow and Fourth Energy Partners upon joining the firm. About TPG
TPG is a leading global alternative asset firm founded in 1992 with more than $84 billion of assets under management and offices in Austin, Beijing, Boston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Luxembourg, Melbourne, Moscow, Mumbai, New York, San Francisco, Seoul, and Singapore. TPG's investment platforms are across a wide range of asset classes, including private equity, growth venture, real estate, credit, and public equity. TPG aims to build dynamic products and options for its investors while also instituting discipline and operational excellence across its investment strategies and the performance of its portfolio. For more information, visit www.tpg.com. About TPG Growth TPG Growth is the middle market and growth equity investment platform of TPG, the global alternative asset firm. With approximately $13.2 billion of assets under management, TPG Growth targets investments in a broad range of industries and geographies. TPG Growth has the deep sector knowledge, operational resources, and global experience to drive value creation, and help companies reach their full potential. The firm is backed by the resources of TPG, which has approximately $84 billion of assets under management. For more information, visit www.tpg.com. About The Rise Fund The Rise Fund is the world's largest global fund committed to achieving measurable, positive social and environmental outcomes alongside competitive financial returns -what we call "complete returns." The Rise Fund is managed by TPG Growth, the global growth equity and middle market buyout platform of alternative asset firm TPG. The Rise Fund is led by a group of influential thought leaders with a deep personal and professional commitment to driving social and environmental progress. The board includes: Bill McGlashan, TPG Growth Founder and Managing partner; Bono, Jeff Skoll, Mo Ibrahim, Laurene Powell Jobs, Anand Mahindra and Pierre Omidyar. The Rise Fund's objectives align with the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals. The Rise Fund invests in education, energy, food and agriculture, financial services, growth infrastructure, healthcare, and technology, media, and telecommunications companies that deliver complete returns. For more information, visit therisefund.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005336/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Gartner Announces ReimagineHR 2018 Conferences in London and Orlando
Gartner (News - Alert) , Inc. (NYSE:IT): What: Gartner ReimagineHR Conference 2018
When/Where: September 5-6, 2018 - Tobacco Dock, London, U.K. October 28-30, 2018 - Hilton Orlando, Orlando, FL
Details: Gartner ReimagineHR is the premier event for HR leaders around the world. Join Gartner and senior HR executives to hear key insights and learn actionable strategies necessary to support organizational performance. Gartner ReimagineHR will be held September 5-6 in London, and October 28-30 in Florida. Follow news and updates from these events on Twitter (News - Alert) using #GartnerHR. Through six conference tracks, attendees will learn about: The Next Frontier - HR's Role in Leading Digitalization
Future of Work Scenarios 2035: How Will Leaders Manage in a Majority-Bot Workforce World?
What CEOs Need from HR
Using Artificial Intelligence to Improve Recruiter Effectiveness
The Gig Economy: Implications for Recruiting Critical Talent
How to Build a Vibrant Internal Labor Market
Using Talent Analytics to Compete in the Complex Labor Market
Emerging HR Technology Trends and What to Do About Them
Global Perspectives on Tackling Pay Equity
Getting Ahead of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Keynotes: Opening Keynote: The Next Frontier - HR's Role in Leading Digitalization - Brian Kropp, Group VP, Gartner's HR Practice
Guest Keynote: Radical Inclusion - What the Post-9/11 World Should Have Taught Us About Leadership - Ori Brafman, Author, Radical Inclusion
Guest Keynote: Closing the Gender Gap in Technology - Reshma Saujani, Founder and CEO, Girls Who Code (U.K. only)
Guest Keynote: People-Centered Future of Work - Dr. Eddie Obeng, Innovator, Educator, Author (U.K. only)
Guest Keynote: The Day After Tomorrow - Peter Hinssen, Author, Entrepreneur and Expert on Disruptive Innovation (U.K. only)
Guest Keynote: Next Gen Talent - Unleash the Power and Perspective of Every Generation - Seth Mattison, Internationally renowned expert, author and futurist, FutureSight Labs (U.S. only)
Guest Keynote: Grit to Great - How Perseverance, Passion and Pluck Take You From Ordinary to Extraordinary - Linda Kaplan Thaler, Business Leader, Author, Communications Expert (U.S. only)
Guest Keynote: Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World - Adam Grant, Professor and Author (U.S. only) The Exhibit Showcase at the event will bring together the world's leading partners and service providers at the forefront of HR and provide attendees with exclusive access in a variety of settings. A listing of current exhibitors is available on the ReimagineHR U.K. Exhibitor Directory and the ReimagineHR U.S. Exhibitor Directory. For complete event details, please visit Gartner ReimagineHR U.K. or Gartner ReimagineHR U.S. Members of the media can register for the event by contacting Mary Baker at mary.baker@gartner.com. Join the discussion on social media using #GartnerHR. About Gartner Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT), is the world's leading research and advisory company and a member of the S&P 500. We equip business leaders with indispensable insights, advice and tools to achieve their mission-critical priorities and build the successful organizations of tomorrow. Our unmatched combination of expert-led, practitioner-sourced and data-driven research steers clients toward the right decisions on the issues that matter most. We're trusted as an objective resource and critical partner by more than 15,000 organizations in more than 100 countries - across all major functions, in every industry and enterprise size. To learn more about how we help decision makers fuel the future of business, visit www.gartner.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005009/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Radian's Jill Cadwell and Dave McCormick Named HousingWire Insiders Award Winners
Radian (News - Alert) Group Inc. (NYSE: RDN), today announced that Jill Cadwell, senior vice president of operations at ValuAmerica, and Dave McCormick, senior vice president of inside sales for Radian Guaranty, have been named 2018 HousingWire Insiders Award winners. The HousingWire Insiders Award program recognizes organizations' operational all-stars; the insiders that are a company's best-kept secret, yet vital to its success. "This year's group of Insiders exemplify what it means to get the job done and done right," Online Editor Caroline Basile said. "Each of the mortgage and housing professionals we honored made incredible contributions to their companies' successes and we're excited to recognize their achievements." This year's HousingWire Insiders Award winners include 40 "go-to" team members in their companies and represent a wide range of occupations within the housing industry, from lending and servicing to investments and real estate. The Insiders are professionals their companies turn to with their most important or challenging projects because their contributions and hard work lead to superior results. The senior vice president of operations at ValuAmerica, a Radian company, Cadwell is the team's newest, forward-thinking executive leader who takes pride in her industry and team. With more than 30 years of experience in the national title and closing market, Cadwell looks to disrupt the title business with new and innovative technology platforms, catering to both consumers and lenders. With a passion for both her staff and customers, her skills and background have made noticeable changes to the title services Radian has to offer. Since joining Radian in March 2018, Cadwell has helped build a strategy that will continue to make Radian a pioneer in the industry. Cadwell is based out of Radian's Pittsburgh office. "Jill's innovative and technology-driven mindset makes her an invaluable asst to the Radian team," said Eric Ray, senior executive vice president, technology and transaction services for Radian. "With more than three decades of experience, Jill is equipped with a vast amount of title and closing knowledge and her team is continually learning and growing from her leadership."
Another strong asset to the team, Dave McCormick, is the senior vice president of inside sales for Radian Guaranty. He has been instrumental in establishing a high-quality, centralized inside sales function for Radian's core mortgage insurance business that, balanced with its traditional field sales presence, provides a more cost effective, yet equally productive, means of supporting customer needs. McCormick has spent the past year introducing an enterprise-wide inside sales coverage model to meet customers' needs across the mortgage continuum. McCormick's efforts support the broader Radian focus of diversifying revenue streams with an array of products and services. Each day, McCormick continues to implement innovative and creative ways to keep both himself, and his team, competitive and strategically supporting enterprise-wide sales, showcasing himself as the ultimate team player.
"Dave is a team player who continuously motivates everyone at Radian with his positive, can-do attitude," said Brien McMahon, chief franchise officer at Radian. "Because of his responsibilities, he is always thinking of every aspect of our business and how Radian can support our customers and their clients. He is a true leader who has fun, inspires others and is really one of our best kept secrets here at Radian." For more information on the HousingWire Insiders Award, visit: https://www.housingwire.com/articles/46713-hw-insiders-2018 ABOUT RADIAN Radian Group Inc. (NYSE: RDN), headquartered in Philadelphia, provides private mortgage insurance, risk management products and real estate services to financial institutions. Radian offers products and services through two business segments: Mortgage Insurance, through its principal mortgage insurance subsidiary Radian Guaranty Inc. This private mortgage insurance helps protect lenders from default-related losses, facilitates the sale of low-downpayment mortgages in the secondary market and enables homebuyers to purchase homes more quickly with downpayments less than 20%. Mortgage and Real Estate Services, through its principal services subsidiary Clayton, as well as Entitle Direct, Green River Capital, Red Bell Real Estate, LLC and ValuAmerica. These solutions include information and services that financial institutions, investors and government entities use to evaluate, acquire, securitize, service and monitor loans and asset-backed securities. Additional information may be found at www.radian.biz. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005064/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Mexico's State of Puebla Eases Public Transportation for 2.7 Million City Inhabitants with Conduent Transportation
FLORHAM PARK, N.J., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Conduent Transportation, a business unit of Conduent Incorporated (NYSE: CNDT), today announced that it is helping the state of Puebla in Mexico address a top complaint from public transportation riders outdated payment technology. Growing its existing relationship with the state, Conduent is extending its contactless smart card payment system to all riders on Puebla's Red Urbana de Transporte Articulado (RUTA) Bus Rapid Transit lines. Conduent first implemented its automated fare technology on RUTA Line 1 in 2016, completed an expansion to Line 2 this January in a record 75 days without service interruption, and is expanding to Line 3 throughout this summer. Conduent's automated fare technology works with the new Puebla contactless transit card to replace old cash fares and allow users to board any RUTA line with a simple tap-and-go experience. Thousands of riders are now using the fare collection system every day on Lines 1 and 2, with more expected as soon as it is running on Line 3. Ridership of Puebla's RUTA system is up thanks to shorter payment lines and improved transaction processing; the implementation of Conduent technology will give riders a new means of payment by tapping their phones into Conduents new validators, which will be installed across all three lines. In addition, RUTA and Conduent will be implementing an external reload network that will allow riders to reload their pre-paid cards in more places across the city, outside of the three lines. "Meeting the needs and expectations of citizens is key to any technology overhaul but doing so without disruption of service is even more important," said Mick Slattery, CEO, Conduent Transportation. "We want those who ride the RUTA lines and use Puebla's touristic train system daily to enjoy the enhancements to the system and the first step to getting them onboard with the implementation is to provide a seamless transition." The new centralized payment system replaces all existing field equipment, including free-standing ticket vending machines, inspector terminals, validators and access control gates. All three lines are also receiving new fleet management capabilities that provide a real-time look at fleet performance. This capability will allow RUTA to have a better and quicker response when an interruption in service occurs or during an increase in service demand. Scheduling services will become easier and decision-making processes will improve, providing better ridership experience to the citizens. Ina separate contract with Carreteras de Cuota, the state agency in charge of mass public transportation, Conduent is implementing the same fare collection technology used on RUTA on the touristic train that runs from Puebla City to Cholula. Additionally, Conduent is working to integrate other bus operators offering inter-urban services into the system. Both of these steps are integral in continuing to make transportation easier for residents and tourists in the state of Puebla.
"Growing our relationship with Conduent was an easy decision, especially after the increased ridership we saw following Line 1 implementation," said Cinthia Chavez, director of Mass Public Transportation in the state of Puebla. "The automated fare collection system provides a convenient and consistent user experience, and we aim to bring that to as many people as possible." Conduent Transportation is a leading provider of public transportation and mobility solutions including electronic toll collection, parking management, and advanced transit and safety systems that offer automated, analytics-based and personalized services for government agencies and their constituents. The company has been helping transportation clients for more than 40 years and operates in 27 countries.
Click to Tweet LinkedIn About Conduent
Conduent creates digital platforms and services for businesses and governments to manage millions of interactions every day for those they serve. We are leveraging the power of cloud, mobile and IoT, combined with technologies such as automation, cognitive and blockchain to elevate every constituent interaction, driving modern digital experiences that are more efficient, helpful and satisfying. Conduent's differentiated offerings touch millions of lives every day, including two-thirds of all insured patients in the U.S. and nearly nine million people who travel through toll systems daily. Whether it's digital payments, claims processing, benefit administration, automated tolling, customer care or distributed learning Conduent serves a majority of the Fortune 100 companies and more than 500 government entities. Learn more at www.conduent.com. Note: To receive RSS news feeds, visit www.news.conduent.com. For open commentary, industry perspectives and views, visit http://twitter.com/Conduent, http://www.linkedin.com/company/conduent or http://www.facebook.com/Conduent. Conduent is a trademark of Conduent Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mexicos-state-of-puebla-eases-public-transportation-for-2-7-million-city-inhabitants-with-conduent-transportation-300706722.html SOURCE Conduent Incorporated
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] FlexTrade Rolls Out Multi-Asset, Strategy Back-Testing Framework
FlexTrade (@FlexTrade), a global leader in multi-asset execution and order management systems, today introduced a new Back-Testing framework designed to gauge and adjust the performance of past trading strategies for real-time use in trading equities, FX and futures. "Just because a trading strategy worked successfully in the past, doesn't mean it will show the same results in the present," said Vijay Kedia, President and CEO of FlexTrade. "There are countless variables - old and new - that could impact performance in unanticipated ways. That's why using an advanced back-testing framework can make all the difference in running a winning strategy." Available via the FlexTRADER EMS and FlexTrade's order management solution, FlexOMS, the Back-Testing framework includes:
A fast framework designed to allow traders to test an unlimited number of financial instruments in parallel;
Testing for single security, cross asset, multi-leg and portfolio-based trading strategies;
A flexible fill simulation module for traders to tailor the exchange simulation logic to their target market;
The ability to replay past orders alongside market data and track the algo performance under various market conditions;
The ability to replay Top-of-Book and Depth-of-Book Market Data. According to Kedia, the speed in which the Back-Testing replay occurs is quite extraordinary. "One day's worth of data can be back-tested in less than 30 seconds, while a full year's worth of data can be back-tested in less than a day," he said. "It's revolutionary in scope and simplifies the trading strategy development for the trader into a three-step process: first, build your strategy; second, test against past performance factors and adjust; and lastly, deploy." About FlexTrade Systems, Inc.
Founded in 1996, FlexTrade Systems, Inc. is the industry pioneer in broker-neutral algorithmic trading platforms for equities, foreign exchange and listed derivatives. With offices in North America, Europe and Asia, FlexTrade has a worldwide client base spanning more than 225 buy-side and sell-side firms, including many of the largest hedge funds, asset managers, commodity trading advisors, investment banks and institutional brokers. For more information, visit FlexTrade Systems at www.flextrade.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005167/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] RF Filter Market to Grow at a Stellar Value CAGR of 17.3% During the Period Forecast 2018-2026 - Persistence Market Research
NEW YORK, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Persistence Market Research forecasts the RF filter market to grow at a stellar value CAGR of 17.3% during the period of forecast, 2018-2026 Growth of RF filter market is largely influenced by several industry-specific factors including rising demand for satellite phones and increasing penetration of smartphones worldwide. With an upswing in digitization, the semiconductor scenario has drastically changed, paving significant pathways of growth for RF filter, according to the report. Persistence Market Research forecasts the RF filter market to grow at a stellar value CAGR of 17.3% during the period of forecast, 2018-2026. RF filter sales are estimated to touch a value of around US$ 25 Bn by the end of the period of assessment. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661339/Persistence_Market_Research.jpg )
5G on the Go - Trend Fueling Sales of RF Filter 5G has witnessed noteworthy acceleration since the past few months on the back of rising demand for high bandwidth from internet users worldwide. This has translated into increasing 5G field trials and deployments as service providers are sprinting to provide high speeds and next generation services to subscribers. Against this backdrop, semiconductor manufacturers are investing in developing their offerings for 5G-capable infrastructure. Manufacturing of 5G chips is expected to create potential opportunities for manufacturers of RF filter in the coming years, in turn pushing the growth of the RF filter market. This factor is expected to accelerate the use of RF filter in mobile phone communications, making it an attractive application area that RF filter manufacturers can leverage to gain profitability. Request For Report Sample: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/24187 RF Filter Demand from Aerospace Industry to Push Global Sales Use of RF filter technology in aircraft such as Boeing and Airbus, for enhancing electronic surveillance, RADAR systems, navigation, GPS, Air Traffic Control (ATC) and data exchange is expected to auger well for the growth of the RF filter market. Moreover, rising demand for improved conversations between ground staff and pilots has fueled the sales of RF filter technology in the aerospace sector at a substantial rate. RF Filter Market Segmentation (By Type - Band-pass, Low-pass, High-pass, Band-stop; By Application - Navigation, Radio Broadcast, TV Broadcast, Mobile Phone Communication, Satellite Communication, RADAR, Others) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Sare, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2018-2026: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/rf-filter-market.asp
China Likely to Emerge as a Lucrative Regional Market for RF Filter Manufacturers Developed economies of North America, particularly the United States, have showcased higher adoption of RF filters since the past few years. According to the report, sales of RF filter in North America are projected to swell at a significant pace, making North America a highly lucrative market for RF filter. On the other hand, sales of RF filter in China and Japan are expected to soar at a high rate, with China at the forefront. Growing demand for RF filter in China can be attributed to the increasing shipments of smartphones in the country coupled with rising purchasing power parity of the Chinese people. Manufacturers of RF filter can expect a steady stream of opportunities from China and the United States in the years to follow.
Download and View Report TOC, Figures and Tables @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/24187 Overcrowding Leading to Frequency Interference - Factor Limiting Revenue Growth of the RF Filter Market Technological advances in the semiconductor industry have facilitated increased production of radio frequency devices since the past two decades. However, mushrooming growth of new technologies has translated into crowding of the RF filter spectrum thereby increasing complexities. Special RF filters are used in smartphones and communication technology, which are essentially SAW (Surface Acoustic Waves) filters. However, as bands are closely allocated with each other, the system is likely to project a lag or delay of around one minute causing interference of frequencies. This is expected to confine the growth of the RF filter market during the period of forecast. Get full Report Now: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/24187 More from PMR's Electronics and Smart Devices Intelligence: Portable Battery Pack (Power Banks) Market Segmentation (By Battery Type - Li-ion (Lithium ion) Battery, Li-polymer (Lithium-Polymer) Battery, Nickel Metal Hydride Battery, Ni-Cd (Nickel Cadmium) Battery; By Capacity - 1,000 mAh to 2,500 mAh, 2,500 to 5,000 mAh, 5,000 to 7,500 mAh, 7,500 to 10,000 mAh, Above 10,000 mAh; By Product Type - Mobile Phones, Tablets, Others (portable media players and other electronic devices); By Price Range - Low, Mid, High) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016-2024https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/portable-battery-pack-market.asp Analog IC Market Segmentation (By Product Type - Application Specific IC, General Purpose IC ; By Application Type - Communication, Consumer Electronics, Automotive, Industrial, Medical and Healthcare, Others) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016-2024: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/analog-ics-market.asp Air Cargo Security & Screening Systems Market Segmentation (By Size of screening systems - For small cargo, For break and pallet cargo, For oversized cargo; By Technology - Narcotics trace detectors, Non-computed tomography, Explosive detection systems; By Applications - Narcotics detection, Explosive detection, Metal & contra band detection) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016-2024: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/air-cargo-security-screening-systems-market.asp Persistence Market Research Overview Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance. To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes. Contact
Persistence Market Research
U.S. Sales Office:
305 Broadway, 7th Floor
New York City, NY 10007
+1-646-568-7751
United States
USA - Canada Toll-Free: 800-961-0353
Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
PMR Latest News: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/news
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Pluribus Networks Extends Support for New DELL EMC Open Networking Switches
Pluribus Networks announced the release of Netvisor ONE 3.1 with support for additional Dell EMC (News - Alert) Open Networking switches, enabling new interface speeds, greater intelligence and the extension of its unique software-defined network fabric architecture from the data center to the network edge. This brings the total number of Dell (News - Alert) EMC Open Networking switches supported by Pluribus Networks to nine. Building on the previous Netvisor ONE Network Operating System (OS) integrations with the widely-deployed Dell EMC Z- and S-Series switches, Pluribus has added support for the Dell EMC S4148F- ON (News - Alert) , S4148T-ON, S4128F-ON, S4128T-ON, and S5048F-ON models. These high-performance Open Networking switches, designed for enterprise and service provider data center and network edge deployments, deliver increased capacity and support for 25 GbE and 100 GbE interfaces to meet the increasing demands of virtualized and multi-cloud operations. "Our strategy is providing customers with choice for accelerating adoption of disaggregated network solutions that support their next-generation networking requirements," said John Hultman, vice president for global sales, Dell EMC Networking & Solutions. "The Pluribus Netvisor ONE OS brings a unique set of differentiated capabilities to Dell EMC customers with a simple, controllerless SDN fabric architecture for scalable, distributed, multi-location deployments." Networking disaggregation is changing the way networks are built and enable organizations to break free from the closed legacy networking model to take advantage of best-of-breed open technologies and challenge incumbent vendors. The transformational Open Networking model is predicated on a combination of a strong hardware foundation with a robust networking OS to build next-generation networking systems. In this new architectural model, the network operating system software matters as it is the critical enabler of rich new services and capabilities that enable IT transformation. Netvisor ONE is Pluribus Networks' deployment-proven third-generation Open Networking OS that delivers best-in-class advanced networking services to power the next-generation, agile and programmable software-defined network. Netvisor ONE virtualizes the network and powers the Adaptive Cloud Fabric architecture to build a holistic, distributed network that provides single-network OS to challenge Arista and Cisco (News - Alert) .
Simple to deploy and interoperable with existing networks to support brownfield deployments, the Adaptive Cloud Fabric operates without a controller to deliver a more dynamic, resilient, and elastic network that adapts to change and streamlines operations to optimize service delivery, improve efficiency and lower operational costs. Intrinsic automation, API-driven programmability and deep integrations with VMware vCenter enable integrated end-to-end management and provisioning from compute and storage in the data center to the network edge. "As organizations are transforming their networks to support next-generation multi-cloud architectures, the operational value and economic benefits of disaggregated Open Networking strategies have become increasingly compelling," said Steven Shalita, vice president, marketing and business development for Pluribus Networks. "As Dell EMC continues to lead the global adoption of Open Networking, we are proud that our combined solution enables our joint customers to build scalable, automated, and distributed networks that improve business agility, efficiency and operational simplicity, challenging the legacy incumbents."
Availability
The Pluribus Netvisor ONE OS version 3.1 with support for the Dell EMC Open Networking hardware is now available for immediate deployment globally through Dell EMC and its channel partners. About Pluribus Networks
Pluribus Networks is simplifying the software-defined enterprise with its simple, dynamic and secure Adaptive Cloud Fabric architecture, enabling organizations to build scalable private and public clouds that improve service velocity, performance, and reliability. The innovative Netvisor ONE Operating System software virtualizes open networking hardware to build a holistic, distributed network that is more intelligent, automated and resilient. The company's Insight Analytics platform leverages embedded telemetry and other data sources to enable pervasive visibility across the network to reveal network and application performance that speeds troubleshooting and improves operational and security intelligence. Pluribus Networks has received venture funding from Temasek Holdings, NEA, Menlo Ventures (News - Alert) , and AME Cloud Ventures. Pluribus Networks is headquartered in San Jose, California, with development and support centers in Bangalore, India; Phoenix, Ariz.; Dallas, Texas; and Hong Kong, PRC. For additional information contact Pluribus Networks at info@pluribusnetworks.com, or visit www.pluribusnetworks.com. Follow us on Twitter @pluribusnet. Netvisor is a registered trademark, and Pluribus Networks, the Pluribus logo, and Adaptive Cloud Fabric are trademarks of Pluribus Networks, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005389/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Toshiba Empowers the Art of Business at LEAD 2018
Toshiba America Business Solutions and Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions are teaming up to empower its business partners during LEAD (Learn, Engage, Act and Deliver) 2018 Sept. 5 and 6 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. LEAD 2018's theme of Empowering the Art of Business, celebrates the notion that each company is a unique collection of people, ideas, language, culture and brand. This concept epitomizes Toshiba's (News - Alert) collective belief that every client is unique. Their work is their art, their employees the artist. More than 1,600 LEAD 2018 attendees - comprised of customers, resellers and technology partners as well as industry media and analysts - will receive a first glance at Toshiba's 13 just-introduced e-STUDIO multifunction printers (MFPs). The seven color and six monochrome additions to Toshiba's award-winning e-STUDIO multifunction printer (MFP) line deliver up to 50 pages-per-minute to tackle the print, document management and workflow applications today's organizations demand. Toshiba's new products all incorporate Elevate, the company's customizable user interface (UI) enabling clients to enjoy a completely custom-tailored experience supporting each customer's unique requirements. Elevate enhances an organization's overall efficiency and productivity by enabling document workflows and common tasks at the push of a button. The event's 35 information-jammed educational sessions are tailored to help resellers increase profits while assisting organizations operate more efficiently, effectively and affordably. Attendees are also welcome to listen to LEAD 2018 keynote speaker and New York Times bestselling author, Shawn Achor, who will iscuss the connection between happiness and success. Other noted speakers include Keith Kmetz, program vice president of imaging, printing and document solutions, IDC (News - Alert) and Judy Spitz, founding program director, Initiative for Women in Technology and Entrepreneurship in New York.
"Our team is excited to host an event where key decision makers and industry leaders converge to collaborate, plan and prepare our resellers, customers and business partners for success," said Bill Melo, Chief Marketing Executive of Toshiba America Business Solutions and Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions. "Beyond the informative sessions on trending topics on office printing, document workflow, digital signage and retail commerce technology, our resellers and customers are encouraged to personally review our latest product innovations." While this is the eighth LEAD, this year marks the third time that Toshiba America Business Solutions and Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions have combined to host the event. Five of Toshiba's previous six LEAD events have been recognized with Stevie Awards, the world's top honor for customer service, contact center, business development and sales professionals.
About Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc. Toshiba America Business Solutions (TABS) provides multifunction printers, managed document services and digital signage for businesses of all sizes throughout the United States, Mexico, and Central and South America. The company's award-winning e-STUDIO copiers and printers provide quality performance with the security businesses require. Complementing its hardware offering is a full suite of document workflow, capture and security services including Encompass, the company's industry-acclaimed Managed Print Services program. Encompass enables clients to print less and optimize workflow while improving energy efficiency. TABS' Ellumina digital signage offering includes all of the hardware, software and services needed to implement dynamic and interactive digital signage installations. TABS provides content creation and management, displays, integration, installation and project management services as well as financing for solutions ranging from a single screen to the biggest arenas and stadiums. For additional information, please visit www.business.toshiba.com. Follow Toshiba:
Facebook (News - Alert) : https://www.facebook.com/ToshibaBusiness/
Twitter (News - Alert) : @ToshibaBusiness
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/ToshibaBusiness
YouTube (News - Alert) : https://www.youtube.com/ToshibaBusiness Newsroom:
http://business.toshiba.com/usa/about/press View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005393/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Infiniti Research Highlights the Technology Trends Influencing the Future of Banking
Infiniti Research, a world-renowned market intelligence solutions provider, has announced the completion of their latest article on the technology trends that are influencing the future of banking. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005515/en/ Technology Trends That Will Transform the Future of Banking. (Graphic: Business Wire) The future of banking will be significantly different from what we see now. At present, fintech firms are capturing more of the retail banking's value chain, offering services such as payments, checking, and even savings accounts that could erode the traditional bank's revenues to a large degree in the foreseeable future. This is encouraging many retail banking organizations to think over the options to improve their services and move to platforms that give a "more digital" experience to the customers. Customer expectations and behaviors are quickly moving to more personalized and immediate services that are provided first on their mobile devices. Modern retail banking customers wish to remove processes such as having to go to branches to get bank-related work done. Rather, they want financial data and the ability to transact at their fingertips. To know more about the scope of our research engagement, request a proposal "The future of banking is expected to witness the advent of innovative technologies such as contactless payments in ATM," says an industry expert from Infiniti.
Future of banking: Upgraded ATMs: One of the largest technology trends in the retail banking industry that has transformed the whole banking system since their beginning in 1967 is advanced ATMs. The future of banking is anticipated to witness contactless payments in ATMs. Customers will be able to perform contactless ATM transactions using a mobile phone. Numerous innovations in this space have previously been applied; for example, the iris recognition used at Qatar National Bank ATMs and biometric authentication have already been executed in many ATMs in India. These technologies improve retail banking security and stop hacking and such illegal practices. To know more about our portfolio of market intelligence solutions , get in touch
One of the largest technology trends in the retail banking industry that has transformed the whole banking system since their beginning in 1967 is advanced ATMs. The future of banking is anticipated to witness contactless payments in ATMs. Customers will be able to perform contactless ATM transactions using a mobile phone. Numerous innovations in this space have previously been applied; for example, the iris recognition used at Qatar National Bank ATMs and biometric authentication have already been executed in many ATMs in India. These technologies improve retail banking security and stop hacking and such illegal practices. , Wearables in banking: Wearable technology is all set to go mainstream in the future of banking. Retail banking can use smart watches to push personal greetings to customers through Bluetooth beacons when they enter a bank's location. Smart-glasses for bank tellers is also an innovation that is being considered for implementation. This can be used to process customer banking information for the employee as the employee is instantaneously doing other customer service tasks. To know more about our portfolio of solutions , request a proposal
Wearable technology is all set to go mainstream in the future of banking. Retail banking can use smart watches to push personal greetings to customers through Bluetooth beacons when they enter a bank's location. Smart-glasses for bank tellers is also an innovation that is being considered for implementation. This can be used to process customer banking information for the employee as the employee is instantaneously doing other customer service tasks. , Use of extended reality: Extended reality refers to all real-and-virtual united environments and interactions of human-machines that are produced by computer technology or wearables. This comprises virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR). Using these technologies could help form more meaningful customer engagements and also improved workforce performance. For example, South Korea's Hana Bank is bringing mobile mortgages to customers through augmented-reality applications on their phone. Such practices create immersive and engaging experiences for customers, also making banking less of a chore in the minds of customers.
Extended reality refers to all real-and-virtual united environments and interactions of human-machines that are produced by computer technology or wearables. This comprises virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR). Using these technologies could help form more meaningful customer engagements and also improved workforce performance. For example, South Korea's Hana Bank is bringing mobile mortgages to customers through augmented-reality applications on their phone. Such practices create immersive and engaging experiences for customers, also making banking less of a chore in the minds of customers. Get in touch, to know more about the technology trends in the future of the banking industry 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 technology trends in the future of the banking industry.
View the complete list of the technology trends in the future of the banking industry: https://www.infinitiresearch.com/thoughts/fast-forward-technology-trends-will-transform-future-banking 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/20180905005515/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
Measure 2A passes. Will allow for over $10 million in road repairs.
Pueblo voters passed Ballot Measure 2A, which will allow the city to use excess sales tax funds for road repairs.
[September 05, 2018] CrediVia Introduces New Hotel Financing Experience
Today, CrediVia announced the launch of its hospitality financing marketplace. Designed to drive smarter decisions and stronger engagement, the cloud-based platform securely connects interested lenders and qualified borrowers through a simpler, faster and more transparent loan experience. See our concept video. The inspiration behind CrediVia stems from the founders' personal financing frustrations. Built by lenders and borrowers, CrediVia is a collaborative platform designed to yield a greater potential for mutually successful loans. The redefined process reduces common challenges found across commercial real estate borrowing and lending, uniquely focused for now on the riskiest of CRE assets - hotel loans. Anuj Mittal, co-founder and CEO of CrediVia, explained, "It took me nearly a year to secure financing for my first hotel: six months of searching for a lender who would work with me and another three to six months of back and forth to get through underwriting. I realized that my challenges were part of a greater industry problem that needed to be fixed. I've spent years since then identifying the right partners to join with me in creating a solution that could make hotel financing as easy as it is in Monopoly." CrediVia centralizes all data for the borrower and digitizes lenders' application workflow on a single platform. Borrowers enter application data once before being connected with multiple lenders looking for candidates who meet their criteria. Lenders receive a complete loan package right from the tart that helps expedite decisioning and approvals, and have access to valuable reporting and analytics to support their underwriting and loan review. Plus, the comprehensive borrower data entered at the beginning drastically reduces unnecessary iterations between borrower and lender, easing burden for both parties.
Find out more benefits specific to lenders and borrowers. Ajay Jain, CrediVia's co-founder and chief product officer, added, "Our intent with this marketplace is to blend a customized, meaningful loan request with a detailed business plan - saving time, effort and money for everyone touching the deal. We're taking out a lot of the guesswork that interrupts the typical loan process, while also providing lenders and borrowers a more secure way to exchange data. Efficiency and simplicity were leading drivers in building CrediVia, supported by protecting our users with a level of platform security and data privacy that gives them the confidence to move lending forward."
The CrediVia name stands for the way to credit. The platform can be a reliable source for borrowers seeking new financing or wanting to refinance, and lenders can trust it to source qualified leads specific to their loan portfolio criteria, every time. Mittal adds, "As a borrower I can attest that we're frustrated with lenders' processes and delays, which cost us money. However, I also recognize that lenders get frustrated with our general lack of data and preparedness. There is a human element to lending that has been buried in all of this. CrediVia is here not to aimlessly match borrowers and lenders, but to expose the deeper story - the personal need - behind every loan request." About CrediVia CrediVia is a cloud-based platform that directly connects hospitality lenders and borrowers, allowing them to have the greatest potential for mutual success. The online marketplace keeps the application process simple, fast and transparent without sacrificing the loan's integrity. CrediVia becomes borrowers' return source for new financing, and lenders' reliable partner for loan relationships right for their portfolio. Visit CrediVia.com or follow @CrediVia for more information. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005510/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Nominees Announced - 4th Annual CanBIM Innovation Spotlight Awards
TORONTO, Sept. 5, 2018 /CNW/ - The Canada BIM Council (CanBIM) Announces the Nominees for the 2018 Innovation Spotlight Awards on Tuesday September 4th. Established in 2008, CanBIM is in its 10th year of building a community of technology leaders within the Architectural, Engineering, Construction and Owner & Facility Management (AECO) industries. The CanBIM Innovation Spotlight Awards recognizes technology leadership and innovation within the AECO industry. The CanBIM Innovation Spotlight Awards takes place on September 20th, 2018 - 6-10PM, in Toronto at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. CanBIM recognizes industry leaders in eight (8) award categories: Technology, Academics, General Contractors, Trades, Design & Engineering, Owners & Facility Management, International, Trailblazer (Volunteer of the Year) and Professional Achievement. Top honours are presented to the Best In Innovation, candidates for this category will be selected from the winners of each of the award categories. Nominees for the 4th Annual Innovation Spotlight Awards are as follows: Visit CanBIM Website for a full listing of Nominees and Award Sponsors Trailblazer Award Nominees
Harsh Vyas Fanshawe College
Sergey Grushko George Brown College International Awar Sponsored by Bluebeam
An award of distinction for an international project. Academic Award Nominees Sponsored by Global eTraining
Carleton Immersive Media Studio - Library of Parliament
Fanshawe College - Practical Evaluation of BIM IPD
Owners & Facility Management Award Nominees Sponsored by B+H Architects
Alberta Infrastructure Digital Project Delivery Requirements
IBI Group Head Office Facility Management Design & Engineering Award Nominees Sponsored by SolidCAD
DIALOG Calgary Cancer Center
Entuitive Corporation Unnamed Healthcare Project
Stantec Royal Columbian Hospital Project Phase 1
Zenit Consulting Multidiscipline BIM Implementation General Contractors Award Nominees Sponsored by Brownlee LLP
EllisDon York University New Student Centre
EllisDon YYC Baggage Handling System
Gillam Group Inc. Farquharson Life Sciences Renovation
Kenaidan Contracting Bramalea GO Station
PCL Constructors Inc. National Arts Centre Architectural Rejuvenation
Pomerleau Place Ville Marie Repositioning
Tucker HiRise/TLogic Massey Tower Technology Award Nominees Sponsored by Glaholt LLP
Assemble Systems
BIM & Co - OnFly
BIM Track Open API
IBI Group - InForm
Revizto The CanBIM Professional Achievement Award nominees and Best In Innovation will be announced at the event on September 20th. Registration is still open to attend the Awards Dinner & Presentation. Visit the CanBIM website for details. Website: www.canbim.com
CanBIM Social Media: @CanBIM YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn. About CanBIM - http://www.canbim.com/about-canbim
Serving as the business voice of Canada's BIM community, CanBIM represents, supports and advocates on behalf of the entire AECOO and educational community to build a positive business environment for the effective deployment of BIM, not only for our member firms, but for all engaged in utilizing BIM in Canada. About CanBIM Awards - http://www.canbim.com/about-canbim-awards
CanBIM recognizes excellence in BIM/VDC through an Annual Awards presentation to those CanBIM Member companies and or individuals that demonstrate leadership and innovation through the implementation of technology, processes and methodologies. SOURCE CanBIM
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Vainu Labs Builds A.I. to Read and to Understand What Is Being Said About Companies on the Web
NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Vainu's mission is to build the most comprehensive database of all the companies in the world. A crucial part of this mission is having the ability to determine when companies are being mentioned in natural language. Named Entity Recognition (NER) is a subset of natural language processing that focuses on understanding when an entity is mentioned in free text. For example, a sentence like "Apple's logo is beautiful but why has the apple been bitten?" Has named entity: organization (Apple) and word "apple" in different contexts. Many companies have names that are also words of their own and therefore searching with text pattern only is not a sufficient way to detect when companies are being mentioned in text. State-of-the-Art Neural Network Predictions with Mind Blowing Amounts of Training Data Earlier, Vainu used to leverage Google's NER technology, but it soon became evident that instead of only recognizing linguistic patterns, a more advanced solution could be made using company data. Vainu analyzes approximately 1.5 million news stories about companies on a daily basis; it houses data from about 120 million companies in its database. The raw data to create the training set was always there. By creating effective tools using huge amounts of human workers and carefully using cross-validation in which the same piece of information was evaluated by different workers, Vainu Lab's team converted the raw data into a massive, structured training set. From there, employing current state-of-the-art deep learning technology and validation of results enabled Vainu to create the most accurate company NER in the world today. "Like with most of the machine learning tasks in the world, the largest task for us has bee generating the training set that meets our quality standards and creating the technology to build it," said Tuomas Rasila, CTO and co-founder of Vainu.
What is the value of this technology? "Beyond the original usemcase of collecting vast amounts of publicly available information about companies of the world, this technology could potentially be used for a number of tasks like searching companies in unorganized textual databases through corporate databases and emails," said Riko Nyberg, Head of A.I. Vainu Labs.
The technology is currently being used as a part of Vainu's company intelligence platform and offered as a part of its technology stack for corporate customers, but it may possibly find its way to wider audiences in upcoming releases, according to Rasila. Test results: How Vainu's NER fairs compared to global benchmarks As described, recognizing the correct companies is the most crucial element for Vainu's company-centered service. Thus, to serve the overall mission of Vainu, the one measure where Vainu's NER must crush all other services is the recognition of companies. And this is the case in all the languages in which Vainu processes unorganized textual data. Widely respected benchmarks for NER services are the Google NER and the Stanford NER. However, they do not provide solutions in Finnish, Swedish or Norwegian, so based on purely that fact Vainu NER performs better in these languages and sets the bar. For context, in Swedish, Vainu NER's F1 score in recognizing companies was already as high as 85.89%. And how about English the most researched language in named entity recognition? The overall F1 score of Vainu NER vs. Stanford NER using the English test set provided by Stanford was 94.20% vs. 92.99% Vainu outperformed Stanford's NER. For more information on Vainu Labs, visit vainulabs.com. About Vainu Labs A subset of Vainu.io, VainuLabs provides commercial data teams with the building blocks for machine learning projects, from making accurate predictions on company trajectories to scoring and segmenting companies based on desired outcomes.
The company's goal is to make B2B collaboration as advanced as its B2C counterparts, using the data that is readily available for smarter business interactions. As a privately owned, founder-led company, we're able to work fast and respond to our customers needs without anything getting in our way. For more information, visit vainulabs.com. Media contact:
Bob Spoerl
201125@email4pr.com
773-453-2444 View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vainu-labs-builds-ai-to-read-and-to-understand-what-is-being-said-about-companies-on-the-web-300707085.html SOURCE Vainu
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Solace and NEC Announce Partnership to Accelerate Data Connectivity Solutions
TOKYO and OTTAWA, Ontario, Sept. 5, 2018 /CNW/ -- Solace Corporation, creators of PubSub+, an advanced event broker technology that enables smart data movement, today announced a strategic business alliance with NEC Corporation, a leading global systems integrator, to accelerate NEC's data connectivity solutions. In recent years, thanks in part to the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the need for businesses to pursue digital transformation (DX) to remain competitive, information technologies have evolved in their complexity and overall business importance. These technological advances, coupled with increasingly empowered consumers, have dramatically increased not only the type and size of data, but the need for enterprises in a variety of industries to securely and efficiently move that data. Today's IT architects understand that a real-time, event-driven architecture is key to meeting these demands. NEC has led the market as one of the world's leading providers of connectivity solutions for public institutions, enterprises, service providers, mobile operators, and other customers in and outside of Japan. To keep pace with the rapidly growing demands of today's market, NEC is committed to creating the next generation of its connectivity infrastructure based on network technologies. As the first step in the partnership, NEC will implement Solace's technologies in the cloud to provide messaging functions as part of their service portfolio. The resulting solution will provide NEC customers with a variety of interfaces and protocols in cmbination with an access line, including a mobile phone network and a Low Power Wide Area (LPWA).
"NEC has an accomplished history of providing connected value, primarily through networks, to enterprises and public institutionsincluding domestic and international telecommunications carriers. This partnership with Solace enables us to further expand our connected value to the data domain, where one-stop connectivity can be offered from the edge to the cloud," said Takashi Sato, General Manager, Digital Services Solution Division, NEC. "By combining Solace's advanced messaging technology and NEC's broad network solutions, we are confident that we can quickly, easily, and flexibly contribute to the realization of our customers' IoT and DX business operations." "We are excited about this collaboration with NEC, a leading provider of a wide range of global data connectivity solutions," said Les Rechan, CEO, Solace. "We are confident in our smart data movement technologies and honored to contribute to NEC's goal of 'orchestrating a brighter world.'"
The collaboration will accelerate digital transformation initiatives through the creation of smart, scalable, and robust connectivity platform solutions.
About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation is a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies that benefit businesses and people around the world. The NEC Group globally provides "Solutions for Society" that promote the safety, security, efficiency and fairness of society. Under the company's corporate message of "Orchestrating a brighter world," NEC aims to help solve a wide range of challenging issues and to create new social value for the changing world of tomorrow. For more information, visit NEC at https://www.nec.com. About Solace
Solace is the only advanced event broker that supports publish/subscribe, queueing, request/reply and streaming using open APIs and protocols across hybrid cloud and IoT environments. The company's smart data movement technologies rapidly and reliably route information between applications, devices and people across clouds. Established enterprises such as SAP, Barclays and American Express as well as high-growth companies such as VoiceBase and Jio use Solace to modernize legacy applications and successfully pursue analytics, hybrid cloud and Internet of Things strategies. Learn more at https://solace.com/ Press contact for Solace:
Lori Niquette
SHIFT Communications
solace@shiftcomm.com
617-779-1800 View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/solace-and-nec-announce-partnership-to-accelerate-data-connectivity-solutions-300706776.html SOURCE Solace
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Altair Semiconductor and Ethertronics Announce High-Performance Small Antenna Technology, Paving Way for Tiny IoT and Wearable Devices
HOD HASHARON, Israel, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Altair Semiconductor (altair-semi.com ), a leading provider of cellular IoT chipsets, and Ethertronics (a subsidiary of AVX) a leader in high performance antenna system solutions, today announced a new small antenna technology, which will be demonstrated within a new cellular IoT wearable concept at Mobile World Congress Americas. The technology is a significant breakthrough that combines Ethertronics' ultra-small antenna with Altair's ALT1250 dual-mode Cat-M1/NB-IoT chipset algorithms to reduce the size of cellular wearable devices without sacrificing performance. "Ethertronics is a recognized leader in antenna design and tunable components, making it an excellent partner for developing this concept," said Dima Feldman, Head of Product Management for Altair. "Combining Altair's modem algorithmic capabilities with a world class antenna designer has resulted in the smallest antenna design for cellular wearable devices and other tiny IoT devices, setting a new standard for antenna performance that improves coverage, power efficiency and overall user experience." The ALT1250 is the market's most highly integrated dual-mode Cat-M1/NB-IoT chipset, with lowest power consumption and enabling longest battery lif. It includes GNSS location positioning, a RF front-end supporting all commercial LTE bands within a single hardware design, a hardware-based security framework and an internal application subsystem.
"Until now, wearable device manufacturers have struggled to reduce the size of their products without sacrificing cellular coverage and overall performance," said Olivier Pajona, Chief Scientist for Ethertronics. "Altair's antenna tuning algorithm and leadership in integrated solutions, together with our expertise in antenna design, paves the way to developing the smallest and highest performing wearable devices." The prototype will be demonstrated by Altair at Mobile World Congress Americas from September 12 to 14 in Los Angeles.
About Ethertronics Ethertronics is a global leader and innovator in ultra-high performance smart antenna system solutions for wireless communications. Ethertronics Active Steering Antenna technology provides performance enhancements for throughput, range, efficiency and reliability across a range of applications, from 5G to Wi-Fi and the Internet of Things. Ethertronics has shipped over 1.8 billion antenna systems that are being used by leading wireless handset and device manufacturers worldwide. Ethertronics is a subsidiary of AVX, a global electronic component supplier & manufacturer. For more information, visit http://www.avx.com/ethertronics About Altair Semiconductor Altair Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation, is a leading provider of LTE chipsets. Altair's portfolio covers the complete spectrum of cellular 4G market needs, from supercharged video-centric applications all the way to ultra-low power, low cost IoT and M2M. Altair has shipped millions of LTE chipsets to date, commercially deployed on the world's most advanced LTE networks including Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Softbank and KT (Korea Telecom). The company's customer roster includes some of the world's leading OEMs and ODMs, such as Hewlett-Packard, ASUS, D-Link, WNC, Sierra Wireless and Murata, as well as the majority of Asian ODMs developing LTE products for global markets. For more information, visit http://www.altair-semi.com. Follow Altair on Twitter: @AltairSemi Media/Analyst Contact:
Finn Partners Israel for Altair Semiconductor
Glenn Jasper
Email: goel.jasper@finnpartners.com
Twitter: @goeljasper
+1-929-222-8002 SOURCE Altair Semiconductor
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Medical Properties Trust Completes Joint Venture of 71 German Hospitals
Medical Properties Trust, Inc. ("MPT" or the "Company") (NYSE:MPW), today announced that it has completed the previously announced joint venture among certain of its European affiliates and affiliates of Primonial Group ("Primonial"). As previously disclosed, the joint venture agreements establish a value of the 71 assets of 1.63 billion, reflecting an unlevered internal rate of return exceeding 15% since MPT's acquisition of the assets. Total proceeds to MPT, including its portion of secured debt, are approximately 1.14 billion. The company expects to use such proceeds to repay balances under its revolving credit facility, make investments in additional U.S. and European hospital assets and for other corporate purposes. "This partnership with Primonial demonstrates MPT's unique expertise and ability to create long term value for our shareholders, reduce our cost of capital and provide permanent capital for reinvestment to create additional highly attractive hospital real estate portfolios," said Edward K. Aldag, Jr., MPT's Chairman, President and CEO. "Already we are highly focused on reinvestment of proceeds to acquire hospital real estate leased to high-quality operators in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere." MPT also disclosed that the joint venture has entered into a 655 million secured financing arrangement with a consortium of lenders, including Societe Generale S.A. Frankfurt Branch as Mandated Lead Arranger and affiliates of AXA. Provisions of the financing agreement include a term of seven years and a swapped fixed rate of approximately 2.3%. About Medical Properties Trust, Inc. Medical Properties Trust, Inc. is a self-advised real estate investment trust formed to capitalize on the changing trends in healthcare delivery by acquiring and developing net-leased healthcare facilities. MPT's financing model helps facilitate acquisitions and recapitalizations and allows operators of hospitals and other healthcare facilities to unlok the value of their real estate assets to fund facility improvements, technology upgrades and other investments in operations. Facilities include acute care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals, and other medical and surgical facilities. For more information, please visit the Company's website at www.medicalpropertiestrust.com.
About Primonial Group Primonial Group, specialized in all aspects of wealth management, selects, combines and offers comprehensive solutions for wealth management professionals and their clients. It is supported by a large number of specialists in residential property investments and real estate funds, life insurance and annuities, structured products and asset management, and has assets under management (managed or advised) of 23.44 billion. For more information, please visit the Company's website at www.primonial.com.
The statements in this press release that are forward looking are based on current expectations and actual results or future events may differ materially. Words such as "expects," "believes," "anticipates," "intends," "will," "should" and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results of the Company or future events to differ materially from those expressed in or underlying such forward-looking statements, including without limitation: the satisfaction of all conditions to, and the timely closing (if at all) of pending transactions; the amount of acquisitions of healthcare real estate, if any; results from potential sales and joint venture arrangements, if any; capital markets conditions; estimated leverage metrics; the repayment of debt arrangements; statements concerning the additional income to the Company as a result of ownership interests in certain hospital operations and the timing of such income; the payment of future dividends, if any; completion of additional debt arrangements, and additional investments; national and international economic, business, real estate and other market conditions; the competitive environment in which the Company operates; the execution of the Company's business plan; financing risks; the Company's ability to maintain its status as a REIT for income tax purposes; acquisition and development risks; potential environmental and other liabilities; and other factors affecting the real estate industry generally or healthcare real estate in particular. For further discussion of the factors that could affect outcomes, please refer to the "Risk factors" section of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 and as updated by the Company's subsequently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other SEC (News - Alert) filings. Except as otherwise required by the federal securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update the information in this press release. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005522/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] SetSchedule Launches Impactful, New Machine Learning Product and Leads with Startup Sponsorship at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2018
IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SetSchedule, an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven real estate technology company, will showcase its innovative lead-generating execution platform as a sponsor at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2018. As the premier event for technology startups, TechCrunch Disrupt features on-stage interviews, startup competitions, a virtual hackathon, workshops and unparalleled networking opportunities with companies and thought leaders from around the globe. As a startup sponsor, SetSchedule represents a select group of game-changing companies younger than five years which have launched an MVP. SetSchedule announced today the rollout of exciting new product enhancements and a propriety platform that will truly exemplify the event's theme of disruption. Today agents will be introduced to the world's first machine learning, AI-based dynamic real estate data marketplace to help them select the best data, pick the best leads and secure the best scheduled opportunities. Real estate professionals will be able to access the platform online, on location and on demand to help them run their territory in a new way anytime, anywhere. SetSchedule has already disrupted the real estate industry with advanced data analytics and AI technology that connects real estate professionals with homebuyers and sellers. The platform features AI-powered predictive data, timely, accurate markt insights and advanced digital marketing and business development features. Homebuyers can take advantage of real-time property estimation tools and algorithmically match with the perfect agent to suit their unique needs.
"We believe that more than anything, we are a technology company, and understanding the foundation of data enrichment, machine learning and AI, and how we can harness those capabilities in the real estate space is extremely important," said Roy Dekel, CEO of SetSchedule. "TechCrunch Disrupt hosts some of the most forward-thinking entrepreneurs and investors in the space, and our enthusiastic participation in this event lets us collaborate with those thought leaders and keep our finger on the pulse of innovation." Dekel and the SetSchedule team will also participate in Disrupt's many networking opportunities. Networking with industry visionaries and entrepreneurs is the event's key attraction, from exploring the exhibits of Startup Alley to enjoying the after parties hosted at the city's hottest spots.
TechCrunch Disrupt will be held at the Moscone Center West in San Francisco, California from Sept. 5-7, 2018. To learn more about SetSchedule's tremendous growth, innovative solutions and how their platform has helped more than 7,400 active agents close more than $265 million in deals by using predictive analytics, please visit www.setschedule.com. About SetSchedule
SetSchedule is a first-of-its-kind technology-based real estate marketing firm that connects Realtors with local homeowners, home buyers, and investors who are seeking to buy and sell properties. The company identifies potential sale properties before they even reach the market with its innovative, multi-patented matching engine that leverages AI-powered predictive data, insider market insights and automated marketing software tools. Founded in 2014, SetSchedule is based in Irvine, California. Learn more at setschedule.com. Media Contact:
Laura Waldron
Interdependence PR for SetSchedule
201085@email4pr.com
(949)777-2485 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/setschedule-launches-impactful-new-machine-learning-product-and-leads-with-startup-sponsorship-at-techcrunch-disrupt-sf-2018-300706761.html SOURCE SetSchedule
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Nav Awards Mobile, Solar-Powered Bait & Tackle Business Owner $10,000 Grant
SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Nav, a free site and app for small business owners to access their business credit scores and get matched to financing options, announced Chris Jones, the owner and operator of CJ's Bait & Tackle, as the grand prize winner of its second Small Business Grant. CJ's Bait and Tackle is the Mississippi Gulf Coast's first mobile, solar-powered bait and tackle shop. Located in Pascagoula, Mississippi, patrons can purchase a variety of items including snacks, cold drinks, bait, fishing accessories, and life jackets. Stemming from an idea Jones and his father-in-law had, the mobile and solar-powered shop came to fruition in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. "Having the ability to pick up and go when necessary and on relatively short notice is important for our business and family," said Jones. "By going tiny and being mobile, we're able to take our livelihood with us if we ever have to evacuate again. We're also able to be where the people need us and do business in places that wouldn't have been possible with a brick and mortar operation." While Jones' father-in-law was not alive to see the business open, Jones is using the business as a way to connect and make memories with his own sons. To be considered for the Nav Small Business Grant, business owners were asked to share a challenge their business is facing. When Jones applied for the Grant earlier this summer, he shared that access to capital was a primary challenge for his business. "Much like other families in our area, we live paycheck-to-paycheck and have scraped together every extra penny, and even bartered and traded to obtain the resources we needed," shared Jones. "Now that we've opened, we realize we need to add to our existing systems to be completely off the grid and grow. Unfortunately, we do not have the capital to take the next step." Jones' challenge s a common pain point for small business owners. In the first round of Nav's first Small Business Grant this summer, winner Rachel Irons, owner of Founding Foods, shared a similar challenge with her business.
"Access to capital and financing is one of the most frustrating aspects of running a business," said Levi King, Nav's CEO and co-founder. "Chris' story is one that we've heard often, and I've personally experienced many times. Chris is very deserving of this Grant, as his business is smart, well-conceived and has great potential to succeed. We look forward to seeing Chris use this money to help his dream thrive." With the Grant, Jones plans to upgrade equipment, add additional solar panels and upgrade inventory.
"This is absolutely life changing for us," remarked Jones after learning he won the Grant. "We can now grow our business into what we envisioned. Thank you so much to everyone at Nav for this opportunity. We have truly been blessed." Jones will be awarded the $10,000 check by Pascagoula Mayor Dane Maxwell on September 13. "Pascagoula loves small businesses," said Mayor Maxwell. "We've attracted some now-famous entrepreneurs, and I have no doubt that CJ's Bait & Tackle is another one of those Pascagoula-born companies that will create a big buzz on the Gulf Coast and beyond. What a great concept a mobile bait and tackle shop! We're a city that loves our waterways and fishing and I'm proud we could help them launch this business right here, at our beautiful Beach Park, and Nav is providing the capital for them to grow this business." More information about CJ's Bait & Tackle and Jones' vision for the future of his business is available in Nav's latest blog post. Two other small businesses were also awarded grants. Caffeine Corps, a veteran-owned caffeine shop in Alabama received $2,000, and Calyan Wax Co., a boutique, mission-driven candle company, was given $1,000. The third round of Nav's Small Business Grant will launch on October 15, 2018. It will feature a $10,000 grand prize and prizes for runners-up. More information about the Grant is available here: https://www.nav.com/business-grant-contest/. About Nav
More than 400,000 small business owners use Nav to get more funding, lower their costs and save time so they can create the business of their dreams. It gives free access to business credit scores, cash-flow analysis, and tools to help build business credit. Nav's online marketplace offers more than 100 financing products, including loans and credit cards, and uses a lender-neutral algorithm to help business owners find the best financing options for their needs before they apply. The company has offices in Silicon Valley and Salt Lake City. For more information visit: nav.com. CONTACT:
Amanda Triest
Nav PR Manager
201103@email4pr.com
801-890-5024 View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nav-awards-mobile-solar-powered-bait--tackle-business-owner-10-000-grant-300706950.html SOURCE Nav.com
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] OneDigital Health and Benefits Acquires LMG International, Expands Global Benefits Solution
OneDigital Health and Benefits, the nation's largest company focused exclusively on employee benefits and HR, has acquired LMG International in Tysons, Virginia. Managing Principal Jeff Gentile and his team will join OneDigital, strengthening the international benefits division by providing innovative and competitive solutions to meet the needs of employers serving both U.S. and global employees. LMG International is one of the leading international employee benefits and global causality consulting firms in the Mid-Atlantic, servicing companies with a multinational workforce and specializing in the U.S. Government Contractors, Defense, and Aerospace sector, a unique capability in the industry. LMG International's approach centers on duty of care to help employers protect their most valuable asset, their employees. By joining OneDigital, LMG International's clients will have access to ERISA counsel, compliance, health and wellbeing, HR consulting, enhanced claim analysis for pharmaceutical insights and actuarial support. "Being part of a larger organization gives us the resources we need to navigate through all of the ongoing industry changes," says Jeff Gentile, president of LMG International. "I am thrilled for our clients as well, who will be the main beneficiaries of the newly available resources through OneDigital. I ultimately chose OneDigital because I felt their culture, strategy, commitment to growing globally and resources would allow us to continue to deliver to existing clients." The expnsion of the global benefits division further complements OneDigital's comprehensive advisory services and market-leading solutions that are offered in over 74 offices throughout the country. OneDigital focuses on building a disruptive competitive advantage by partnering with like-minded leaders and teams, who fit the culture, love the benefits business and embrace the latest advances in the industry.
"OneDigital is committed to providing industry leading and integrated solutions to help clients attract, retain and motivate their teams," says Chris Schutt, regional managing principal, OneDigital Mid-Atlantic. "This is why we are thrilled to welcome LMG International on board. Jeff's team of global experts will allow us to expand our expertise through their strength in global risk advisory services, assuring our clients can take care of their employees, no matter where they are located." About OneDigital Health and Benefits
OneDigital Health and Benefits, the nation's largest company focused exclusively on employee benefits and HR, combines people and technology to power your business with exceptional benefits and HR. Serving companies of all sizes, OneDigital offers employers a sophisticated combination of strategic benefit advisory services, analytics, compliance support, human resources management tools and comprehensive insurance offerings. Headquartered in Atlanta, OneDigital has over 1,400 employees throughout the country, serves 38,000 clients and manages nearly $4.5 billion in premiums. OneDigital has been named to the Inc. 5000 List of America's fastest-growing companies each year since 2007. Currently listed as 13th in EBA's Top 50 Brokers in the Large Employer Group, OneDigital's experience offers a fresh-thinking and strategic perspective that will improve all aspects of plan design and performance. About LMG International LMG International is an internationally recognized benefit consulting and brokerage firm, established to service government contractors with the development or restructuring of their employee benefit plans and foreign casualty risks on a global basis. The firm is the broker of choice for many U.S. Department of Defense contractors and the focus on U.S. Federal Government contractors is unique within the industry. LMG International's mission is to strive to provide clients with the best available employee benefits programs allowing them to attract and retain the most talented employees on a local and global basis. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005144/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] MinerEye AI-Powered Data Classification Solution in New U.S. Distribution Agreement with Promark, an Ingram Micro Subsidiary
TEL AVIV, Israel, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MinerEye today announced it has signed a major distribution agreement with Promark, a premier, U.S.-focused value-added distributor (VAD) and wholly-owned subsidiary of Ingram Micro Inc., the world's largest technology distributor and global leader in IT supply-chain and mobile device lifecycle services. Promark will now offer resellers and system integrators MinerEye's DataTracker, an AI-powered data governance solution that now enables companies to continuously identify, classify and track vast information assets - including undermanaged, unstructured and dark data, and to fast track their businesses into the cloud. Data classification is a vexing process that systems integrator's clients are confronting as they seek to identify, classify and tag data as part of cloud migration, and for GDPR and other compliance requirements. "Promark/Ingram Micro and MinerEye will enable companies to conduct accurate and rapid data classification, to reduce security risks and as part of cloud migration initiatives - which virtually all integrators are incorporating into their data storage approach," says Yaniv Avidan, chief executive officer of MinerEye. "We're pleased to add MinerEye's Data Tracker to our roster of world class technology partners that provide solutions to meet the most demanding needs of our customers," says Jeff Brown, President/GM, Promark. "Data Tracker is easily installed and maintained with no agent, an insignificant network and CPU footprint - a single virtual machine manages 120 terabytes - and fast dployment that delivers exponential ROI for our reseller's customers."
About Promark Technology
Promark Technology, an Ingram Micro company, is one of the premier value-added distributors (VAD) in the United States. Promark's core technology focus is distributing data storage and virtualization products and solutions through a two-tier distribution channel to value added resellers (VARs) and system integrators. Promark leverages its direct relationships with world class technology partners to provide solutions that meet the most demanding needs of its customers. Promark also offers a Public Sector Business Program that helps resellers navigate the government selling process and expand the reach of their Business. The program provides authorized resellers the ability to leverage Promark's GSA Schedule to market and sell products and solutions into both federal government and state and local organizations. Promark offers professional services in application integration, backup and recovery, network optimization, storage implementation and disaster recovery. To learn more about Promark Technology call 800-634-0255 or visit www.promarktech.com.
About MinerEye
Powered by Interpretive AITM, MinerEye technology sees and continually tracks data by its essence, regardless of its form and information content type, wherever it resides. With MinerEye's unique approach, companies can now discover, organize and track vast information assets by scanning enterprise data repositories at the byte and pixel level. Sensitive data is mapped, tagged and secured according to data protection and compliance regulations including GDPR, HIPPA, PCI-DSS, SOC2, and EU-U.S. Privacy Shield. Employing machine learning and computer vision, MinerEye's flagship product DataTracker is helping companies significantly reduce data storage, monitor and fast-track cloud migration activities, protect previously undetected, unclassified and undermanaged data against security breaches, and continuously audit their information to maintain regulatory compliance. For more information, visit www.minereye.com, or watch a video on our solution. Press Contacts:
Andrew Lavin
A. Lavin Communications
+1-516-944-4486
alc@alavin.com Kelley Smith
Promark Technology
240.280.8030 x31039
kelleys@promarktech.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/minereye-ai-powered-data-classification-solution-in-new-us-distribution-agreement-with-promark-an-ingram-micro-subsidiary-300707104.html SOURCE MinerEye
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
More than 20 participants from seven African countries demonstrated Chinese martial arts at a gala on Monday night welcoming African leaders to the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.
The performance was a way for them to celebrate their graduation from a three-month training program at the Shaolin Temple, a Buddhist monastery in Henan province that is also revered by devotees of kung fu. It was the sixth set of training sessions exclusively for African students.
From Egypt's pyramids and the Great Sphinx of Giza to the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya, pictures of breathtaking African scenery were juxtaposed in the media center of the FOCAC Beijing Summit.
Many Chinese journalists passing by couldn't help staring at the landmarks and murmuring: "I really want to go there one day."
A two-day summit in Beijing is short, but these glimpses may create lasting ties between Chinese and African people's hearts.
"Tourism has become a flag carrier in China-Africa people-to-people connectivity," according to a report released on Monday by the China Tourism Academy, the data analysis center affiliated with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and several leading Chinese tourism websites.
The report said China and Africa together had 1.42 million cross-visits in 2017, including 797,800 Chinese visits to Africa and 628,300 the other way around. The first seven months of this year saw a 70 percent increase of Chinese visits to Africa over the same period last year.
A boom has also been seen in cross-border cultural activities.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism listed 168 major cultural communication projects between China and Africa since 2016, including exchange exhibitions, visits of art troupes and symposiums.
About 200 African scholars and 500 African youths come to China for cultural exchange programs annually.
As platforms for cultural communication, 54 Confucius Institutes, mainly in universities, and about 30 Confucius Classrooms set up in elementary and high schools, have been opened in 41 African countries. They have enrolled 1.4 million students and contributed to establishing Mandarin as part of the national education systems of 14 African countries.
President Xi Jinping announced on Monday that China will set up an institute of African studies and enhance exchanges with Africa on civilization. He said China welcomes Africa's participation in the Silk Road International League of Theaters, the Silk Road International Museum Alliance and the Network of Silk Road Art Festivals.
"Africa is the wellspring of human civilization," said Wang Heng, deputy director of the Institute of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. "It's also an important part of the Belt and Road Initiative. People-to-people exchanges are becoming more frequent."
Wang's institute is the first comprehensive research institute on Africa at a Chinese university.
"The FOCAC Beijing Summit presents a new horizon for people-to-people exchanges in the future," she said. "The communication will become more abundant in content and will be well-planned through sincere, pragmatic approaches."
[September 05, 2018] Security Compass Expands Support for Operational Security, Adding Microsoft Azure to its Knowledge Library
TORONTO, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Security Compass , a software security company that provides organizations with the knowledge, training and technology to make software secure, today announced it has expanded on operational security (OpSec) requirements available in the SD Elements' knowledge library, with support for Microsoft Azure and other application deployment environments. As the leading policy-to-procedure platform, SD Elements makes it easy for agile development teams to manage the security considerations of the entire technology stack both the software itself, as well as the OpSec requirements of the Web server, application server, database server, and operating system.
Since announcing in October 2017 Amazon Web Services (AWS) as the initial set of OpSec requirements available SD Elements, Security Compass has expanded its content library to include support for the Apache Tomcat Server, Apache HTTP Server, Microsoft IIS Server, and Microsoft Azure. Support for the MySQL Database Server is coming soon. Application security (AppSec) and OpSec unite in SD Elements to embed security into the software development lifecycle (SDLC) earlier on, helping to eliminate potential threats and vulnerabilities, before code is written. This helps to maintain a safe production environment. Whereas AppSec builds security into the development process, OpSec protects applications in their runtime environments by ensuring that configuration and deployment settings are secure. Together, organizations can leverage the efficiencies of DevOps, without sacrificing security, to realize the greater benefits of DevSecOps. "SD Elements provides ngineering teams with a holistic solution for managing software security requirements in a DevSecOps environment, allowing them to release and maintain software with more efficiency and fewer flaws," said Ehsan Foroughi, VP of Product at Security Compass. "These production-environment capabilities, combined with our existing AppSec and just-in-time training, enable agile organizations to achieve a continuous and comprehensive software security program, which allows for better risk management and data protection."
Key features and functionality of the SD Elements OpSec extension include: Secures the production environments of applications, also known as the "configure and deploy" stage of the DevOps cycle.
Can be used to manage the security requirements of the deployment configuration settings alongside the requirements for the application itself to achieve DevSecOps.
Features industry-standard benchmarks for securing application deployments from the Center for Internet Security The new content from Security Compass is being welcomed by existing clients. An executive sponsor for the AppSec program at a Fortune 50 company remarked, "We rolled out SD Elements based on the promise that our software teams wouldnt run into any more issues. It worked as expected on the application side, but there were still issues from the deployment and configuration side. The new OpSec coverage allowed us to stand by our original promise by covering the operational aspect of the deployment hardening."
About Security Compass
Security Compass is a leader in helping customers proactively manage cybersecurity risk without slowing down their business. Offering Advisory Services , Training , and SD Elements , an award-winning Policy-to-Procedure platform for security and compliance. Security Compass enables organizations to rapidly and efficiently deliver technology thats secure by design. Security Compass serves some of the worlds largest businesses including seven of the 15 largest financial institutions and four of the 10 largest technology companies in North America. The privately held company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada with global offices in the United States and India. Follow Security Compass on Twitter @securitycompass or visit https://www.securitycompass.com/ Media Contact:
April H. Burghardt
PR Consultant for Security Compass
april@gabdata.com
646-246-0484
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] bitWise Announces Next Generation Adaptive eLearning Platform Allowing Students to Learn Applied Computer Science and Emerging STEM Technologies at Their Own Pace
FREMONT, Calif., Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- bitWise Academy, a venture-backed eLearning company that enables personalized and adaptive eLearning courses for students in schools and colleges, today unveiled its new artificial intelligence (AI) driven adaptive eLearning platform for STEM education. The new bitWise platform harnesses AI and machine learning algorithms to enable students, in grades K-12 through college, to learn applied computer science and emerging STEM technologies in a progressive, self-paced manner.
These interdisciplinary courses are designed for students of all ages to complement their existing school curriculum or provide extracurricular instruction in these specialized STEM subjects. Unlike other eLearning programs which typically offer a one size fits all teaching style delivered through traditional static videos, the new bitWise platform integrates the power of AI and machine learning to personalize the course content and create a cognitive blueprint for each student based on their individual learning style, mastery of the subject, and other behavioral factors. The bitWise platform provides a unique and immersive learning experience tailored to each individual student. The bitWise engine is the worlds first eLearning platform led by on-demand chatbots. These chatbots are an integral part of the adaptive learning process by encouraging students to ask questions so that they can better retain the subject matter. Enrolled bitWise students can access the suite of interactive online courses, participate in ommunity discussion groups, engage the chatbot "study buddy" and avail of other self-help tools all in one centralized location. Parents and teachers receive detailed analytics and reports giving them insight into their students unique learning style and mastery rate for each specialized subject. The upcoming version of the AI platform will further enable students to share their progress and achievements with their friends by creating private social networks and advanced communications.
bitWise represents the next-generation of distance education by allowing every student to have an opportunity to pursue emerging technologies at their own pace in a practical and affordable way, said G Venkat, president and founder of bitWise. bitWise gives students control over their own learning path and empowers them to maximize their individual learning potential regardless of age, gender, or geography. System Requirements
bitWise is an online platform that is compatible with any computer and can be accessed by a browser. The platform supports the xAPI eLearning standard.
Pricing and Availability
After parents and teachers register their accounts, they can purchase subscriptions and add students. Detailed reports and analytics are available to monitor student progress. bitWise subscriptions are currently available worldwide for a promotional introductory price of $100 per year for an individual student. The annual subscription includes access to all online courses during the year. About bitwise Academy
Headquartered in Fremont, Calif., bitWise Academy is a venture-backed eLearning company dedicated to developing the next generation of AI-driven eLearning technology. The core belief of bitWise is that applied computer science and multi-disciplinary STEM education should be a fundamental skill taught to all students, from grades K-12 through college. The companys mission is to bring a progressive and integrated emerging technology curriculum to complement the current educational system. More information can be found at www.bitwiseacademy.com . Media contacts: Belinda Young
BYPR
206-932-3145
byoung@bypr.com Jeremy J. Young
BYPR
714-403-8733
jyoung@bypr.com
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018]
Open Networking Summit Europe Offers 100+ Sessions on AI, Edge Computing, NFV, SDN, White Boxes and More, Plus Exciting Event Experiences for Attendees
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced the schedule of onsite experiences and activities for Open Networking Summit Europe, taking place September 25-27 in Amsterdam. This is the first time the now semi-annual event has taken place outside of North America in the past seven years.
Open Networking Summit (ONS) is the industry's premier open networking event, gathering enterprises, service providers and cloud providers across the ecosystem to share learnings, highlight innovation and discuss the future of open source networking, including SDN, NFV, edge, orchestration, the automation of cloud, network and IoT services and topics related to AI, containers, cloud native and other important technologies.
Event experiences include:
Partner Reception - September 25
All-Attendee Reception - September 26
5K Fun Run - September 26
Fun Run - Morning Yoga - September 27
Features and add-ons include:
Demos from Sponsors, Open Networking Foundation and others including 10 demos from the LF Networking community of projects that cover different areas of collaboration and innovation across the open networking stack.
LF Networking Unconference Track - Programming for this track will be developed by attendees themselves, providing opportunities to discuss topics not covered elsewhere at the event.
Networking Mobile App - This app will recommend other attendees with similar interests, and enable attendees to schedule times to meet face-to-face onsite.
Women in Networking Lunch/span> - September 25 - All attendees who identify as women or non-binary are welcome to join this lunch.
Support #YesWeCode - Oakland -based non-profit #YesWeCode aims to help 100,000 young women and men from underrepresented backgrounds find success in the tech sector. The Linux Foundation encourages event attendees this year to donate to this great organization.
-based non-profit #YesWeCode aims to help 100,000 young women and men from underrepresented backgrounds find success in the tech sector. The Linux Foundation encourages event attendees this year to donate to this great organization. Complimentary Child Care - This service provides child care to registered attendees during conference hours.
Diversity and Needs-Based Scholarships - These scholarships help enable individuals who could not otherwise attend to come to Open Networking Summit Europe.
Diversity & Inclusion Resources, including:
Travel funding assistance
Nursing room
Quiet room
Communications stickers
All-gender restrooms
The keynote speaker lineup includes:
Helen Chen , Principal Architect, Huawei
, Principal Architect, Huawei Axel Clauberg , Vice President, Aggregation, Transport, IP (TI-ATI) & Infrastructure Cloud Architecture, Deutsche Telekom AG
, Vice President, Aggregation, Transport, IP (TI-ATI) & Infrastructure Cloud Architecture, Deutsche Telekom AG Lingli Deng , Senior Project Manager, China Mobile
, Senior Project Manager, Dr. Paul Doany , Chief Executive Officer, Turk Telekom
, Chief Executive Officer, Turk Telekom Rajesh Gadiyar , Vice President, Data Center Group & Chief Technology Officer, Network Platforms Group, Intel
, Vice President, Data Center Group & Chief Technology Officer, Network Platforms Group, Intel Alla Goldner , Director, Technology, Strategy & Standardization, Amdocs
, Director, Technology, Strategy & Standardization, Amdocs Fran Heeran , Head of Cloud & Automation, Vodafone Group
, Head of Cloud & Automation, Vodafone Group Arpit Joshipura , General Manager of Networking, The Linux Foundation
, General Manager of Networking, The Linux Foundation Dr. Feng Junlan, Chief Scientist, China Mobile
Heather Kirksey , Vice President, Ecosystem & Community, The Linux Foundation
, Vice President, Ecosystem & Community, The Linux Foundation Dan Kohn , Executive Director, Cloud Native Computing Foundation
, Executive Director, Cloud Native Computing Foundation Catherine Lefevre, Assistant Vice President, Network & Shared Services, AT&T
Xinhui Li , Senior Architect, VMware
, Senior Architect, VMware Emmanuel Lugagne Delpon, Chief Technology Officer, Orange Group Network
Dr. Catherine Mulligan , Visiting Research Fellow, Centre for Cryptocurrency Research and Engineering, Imperial College London
, Visiting Research Fellow, Centre for Cryptocurrency Research and Engineering, Imperial College London Bill Ren , VP, Network Industry & Ecosystem Development, Huawei
The full lineup of 100+ educational sessions 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 dbrown@linuxfoundation.org.
Open Networking Summit Europe is made possible by Diamond Sponsor Intel, Platinum Sponsors Huawei and Red Hat, and Gold Sponsor Cloud Native Computing Foundation.
Additional Resources
YouTube: Why Attend Linux Foundation Events (https://youtu.be/X_rLxfmLlYY)
Recap: Open Networking Summit North America 2018 (https://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/open-networking-summit-north-america-2018/)
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
pr@linuxfoundation.org
View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/open-networking-summit-europe-offers-100-sessions-on-ai-edge-computing-nfv-sdn-white-boxes-and-more-plus-exciting-event-experiences-for-attendees-300707017.html
SOURCE The Linux Foundation
[September 05, 2018] Radiant Earth Foundation Releases First Earth Imagery Platform for Global Development
WASHINGTON, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Radiant Earth Foundation (formerly known as Radiant.Earth) announced today the release of its new open Earth imagery platform, fundamentally changing the way humanitarian aid workers, policymakers, researchers, journalists, and others use satellite images to understand and serve their communities. The platform is the first of its kind to offer instant, secure, and free access to Earth observation data on the cloud and help the global development community apply the data to real-world problems.
Today, there are more than 600 Earth observation satellites orbiting the planet, each one generating an estimated 6.4 terabytes of data each day. From seeing the scale of natural disasters to supporting Ebola outbreak responses, this data can measure global changes in near real time, leading to better-informed interventions and investments from the public and private sectors. However, the current growing market for Earth observation data is highly fragmented and often cost-prohibitive for NGOs, multilateral organizations, government agencies, and others focused on social entrepreneurship. Working with organizations such as NASA, the European Space Agency, the Group on Earth Observations, the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, and private companies around the world, Radiant Earth Foundations platform brings together billions of dollars worth of satellite imagery and makes it available to the global development community. Additionally, the platform provides user-friendly analytical tools and support, empowering a range of users to consume and analyze the data in their everyday work. As global threats like climate change rapidly grow, observation systems and analytical technologies such as machine learning allow us to analyze landscapes and communities at a scale that was previously impractical and inaccessible to global development practitioners, said Anne Hale Miglarese, founder and CEO of Radiant Earth Foundation. And while satellite imagery offers a front row seat to humanitys footprints, data alone doesnt advance solutions. Our platform has been built by and for the development community, providing the best of todays technology tools and insights to support the people who need it mostfrom a refugee camp in Myanmar to a small island nation in the Pacific. During its beta phase, Radiant Earth Foundation served mor than 100 organizations including the World Bank and Catholic Relief Services and developed use cases that will be available to the public at large. The platforms open API also allows users to integrate non-imagery data, including air quality, population, and weather statistics.
Ive been using drones to help low-income farmers across Botswana analyze crops, but I struggled with incomplete data, let alone data storage, said Mmoloki Morapedi, a 2017 Mandela Fellow who uses Radiant Earth Foundations platform in his work as a drone designer, pilot, and analyst. The platform allows me to streamline my drone data and help farmers better understand when and where to plant their cropsultimately increasing their potential revenue and reducing food insecurity in Botswana. With funding from Omidyar Network and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Radiant Earth Foundation serves as a neutral, not-for-profit organization helping the growing satellite imagery industry balance bottom lines and higher purpose.
The opportunity to create positive change through Earth observation data has never been greater, said Peter Rabley, venture partner at Omidyar Network. Radiant Earth Foundation is truly democratizing access to and use of satellite imagery, bringing clarity to an industry that has been confusing and costly for the global development community. The platform has the potential to spark solutions for some of societys most entrenched issuesfrom rapid, unchecked urbanization to environmental degradation and more. Radiant Earth Foundations platform is now available to the public at app.radiant.earth through secure self sign-up or integrated social sign-on via Twitter, Facebook, GitHub, or Google accounts. Radiant Earth Foundation will host a webinar on September 26, 2018, at 11 a.m. EDT to demonstrate the platforms unique features to users. To attend the webinar, please register here: http://bit.ly/REFPlatformWebinar . About Radiant Earth Foundation
Founded in 2016, Radiant Earth Foundation (formerly Radiant.Earth) is a nonprofit organization committed to aggregating the worlds open Earth imagery and providing access and education on its use to the global development community. Radiant Earth Foundations open technology platform helps people discover and analyze the vast resources of Earth imagery, improving decision-making and fueling new solutions, discoveries, and innovations for society. Radiant Earth Foundation also offers a robust, integrated community development program to guide people in the use of Earth imagery, geospatial data sets, and tools. Visit us on Twitter , LinkedIn , Facebook , Instagram , Medium , and GitHub . Media Contact:
Louisa Nakanuku-Diggs
Louisa@radiant.earth
+1.202.596.3603
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Local Fire Departments, Colleges And Universities Selected To Educate Communities On Fire Safety, Install Alarms
AURORA, Ill., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- First Alert, the most trusted brand in home safety*, Campus Firewatch and the Michael H. Minger Foundation have selected 25 organizations to participate in the second annual Town/Gown Fire Safety Community Service Project to raise awareness about fire safety. The initiative pairs firefighters with local colleges and universities to raise awareness among students and community members across the country about the importance of working smoke alarms and help to improve fire safety in homes. The chosen organizations represent an array of entries from coast to coast, and each organization will receive 100 donated smoke or carbon monoxide (CO) alarms from First Alert to install with students during home safety visits in at-risk communities during the fall semester:
Colorado
Colorado Springs Fire Department North Carolina
Wilmington Fire Department
Durham Fire Department
Connecticut
Willimantic Fire Department North Dakota
Fargo Fire Department
Georgia
Griffin Fire-Rescue Oregon
Corvallis Fire Department
Idaho
Bannock County Rural Fire Department Pennsylvania
Factoryville Fire Company
Indiana
Fort Wayne Fire Department
West Lafayette Fire Department South Carolina
Charleston Fire Department
Iowa
Waldorf University Tennessee
Chattanooga Fire Department
Kentucky
Richmond Fire Department Texas
San Antonio Fire Department
Mississippi
Lafayette County Fire Department
Oktibbeha County Fire Department Virginia
Danville Fire Department
Nebraska
Lincoln Fire Department Vermont
Castleton Fire Department
Nevada
Truckee Meadows Fire Department Washington
Spokane Fire Department
New York
City of Cortland Fire Department West Virginia
Morgantown Fire Department
"The Town/Gown project promotes fire safety education and collaboration between students, fire departments, universities and their surrounding communities," said Tarsila Wey, director of marketing for First Alert. "By partnering with Campus Firewatch and the Michael H. Minger Foundation, we are positively impacting the long-term safety for students and communities." College students living independently for the first time with new academic challenges and social distractions may not view fire safety as a top priority. The Town/Gown Fire Safety Community Service Project encourages students to learn about and take responsibility for their personal safety, while also supporting the local community. "By helping to install alarms in their communities, the students see first-hand the importance of working smoke and CO alarms," said Ed Comeau, founder of Campus Firewatch. "They are learning fire safety by doing fire safety, and making their communities safer at the same time." According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), a fire is reported every 24 seconds on average across the country and fire departments responded to 1.3 million fires in 2016. Three of every five home fire deaths result from fires in homes without smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms according to the NFPA. In the fires where a smoke alarm was present, but did not operate, half of them had missing or disconnected batteries. "Teaching simple steps about fire safety paired with community outreach can not only help prevent tragedies, but also improve the well-being of the whole community," said Gail Minger, president of the Michael H. Minger Foundation. "We are thrilled to offer students this unique volunteer opportunity through the Town/Gown Fire Safety Community Service Project." To learn more about fire safety, visit the First Alert website at www.firstalert.com, the Campus Firewatch website at www.campus-firewatch.com or the Michael H. Minger Foundation at www.mingerfoundation.org. You also can follow the Town/Gown Fire Safety Community Service Project on Twitter and Facebook via #TownGownFire. *First Alert Brand Trust Survey, February 2018 Results are based on the responses of 1,000 adults, ages 25 and older, living in the United States who completed an online survey, February 15-19, 2018. Results are statistically significant at a 95 percent confidence level and can be generalized to the entire adult population in the United States within those statistical parameters. For more information or a copy of the complete survey results, contact Tim Young at LCWA: 312/565-4628 or tyoung@lcwa.com. About Campus Firewatch
Campus Firewatch is a social entrepreneurship focused on helping to save lives at our nation's campuses. For more information, visit http://www.campus-firewatch.com. Facebook | @campusfirewatch About Michael H. Minger Foundation
The Michael H. Minger Foundation was formed following the death of Michael Minger in a residence hall fire. The Foundation focuses on fire safety for all students, including students with special needs such as physical, sensory and cognitive disabilities. More information is available at www.mingerfoundation.org or on Facebook at facebook.com/mingerfoundation. About BRK Brands, Inc.
BRK Brands, Inc. (Aurora, IL), is a fully owned subsidiary of Newell Brands. For 60 years, BRK Brands, Inc. has been the manufacturer of First Alert-branded home-safety products, the most trusted and recognized safety brand in America. BRK Brands designs and develops innovative safety solutions including Tundra Fire Extinguishing Spray, Onelink by First Alert smart home products, a comprehensive line of smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms, fire extinguishers and escape ladders to protect what matters most. Such products are also marketed under the BRK Electronics brand, The Professional Standard for the builder and contractor audiences. BRK Brands, Inc. products are found in more than 30 countries worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.firstalert.com, http://www.brkelectronics.com or http://www.newellbrands.com. About Newell Brands
Newell Brands (NYSE: NWL) is a leading global consumer goods company with a strong portfolio of well-known brands, including Paper Mate, Sharpie, Dymo, EXPO, Parker, Elmer's, Coleman, Marmot, Oster, Sunbeam, FoodSaver, Mr. Coffee, Rubbermaid Commercial Products, Graco, Baby Jogger, NUK, Calphalon, Rubbermaid, Contigo, First Alert, and Yankee Candle. For hundreds of millions of consumers, Newell Brands makes life better every day, where they live, learn, work and play. This press release and additional information about Newell Brands are available on the company's website, www.newellbrands.com. 2018 BRK Brands, Inc., Aurora, IL 60504. All rights reserved.
First Alert is a registered trademark of The First Alert Trust, Aurora, IL 60504.
BRK Electronics is a registered trademark of BRK Brands, Inc., Aurora, IL 60504.
NYSE is a registered service mark of NYSE Group, Inc. Contacts: Lindsey Lucenta or Rebecca Raudabaugh
L.C. Williams & Associates
P: 312-565-3900 or 800-837-7123
E: llucenta@lcwa.com or rraudabaugh@lcwa.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/local-fire-departments-colleges-and-universities-selected-to-educate-communities-on-fire-safety-install-alarms-300706767.html SOURCE First Alert
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Bambu Global Expands Executive Team With Addition Of Sean O'Brien
LOWELL, Mass., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Bambu Global, a family of innovative companies advancing disruptive technologies to "improve life throughout the world," announces today that Sean O'Brien has joined the company as Senior Vice President, Product Management. O'Brien will be responsible for the product vision, product architecture, go-to-market strategy and rollout of products and solutions across the Bambu Global family of companies. He will also help drive product marketing, supply chain, manufacturing and partner channel development. "Our mission is to make life better with innovations across industries from coatings that repel the sun's heat to LED lighting that helps mitigate the blue light epidemic," said Bambu Global's CEO, Robb Osinski. "Sean's leadership and knowledge in product strategy and growing distribution and partner channels will be critical to our success in bringing these innovations to market. We're thrilled to have him as pat of the Bambu team."
"It's not every day you have the opportunity to work with a true industry disrupter, let alone several under one roof," added O'Brien. "Bambu Global and its family of companies are going to reshape a number of industries, and I couldn't be more excited to be part of that evolution." O'Brien brings more than 28 years of B2B/B2C experience in product development, marketing, sourcing, retail and sales to Bambu Global. Prior to joining Bambu, he served as President of Honeywell Global Retail, where he was responsible for developing and executing strategic growth plans for all Honeywell retail brands globally. Previously, O'Brien served as the Senior Director of Product Merchandising for Converse brands, a Nike company. His experience also includes senior product marketing roles with Wilson Sporting Goods and New Balance.
About Bambu Global
Bambu Global is a family of innovative companies with a portfolio of advanced technologies designed to disrupt the life science, lighting, renewable energy, safety, tattoo and defense industries throughout the world. Located in Lowell, Massachusetts, the cradle of the American Industrial Revolution, Bambu Global draws on the inspiration of the city's rich history and the brightest minds of technology-rich Massachusetts to advance its mission. With a creative perspective and cross-discipline team of scientists, Bambu Global is advancing disruptive technologies to "improve life throughout the world." Learn more about Bambu Global at www.bambuglobal.com. Media Contact :
Jackie Dunn
781.749.0077 ext. 21
Jackie@hollywoodagency.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bambu-global-expands-executive-team-with-addition-of-sean-obrien-300707020.html SOURCE Bambu Global
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Cappasity Platform Brings 3D Technology to American Greetings
3D technology startup, Cappasity, is providing its full-package 3D imaging SaaS (News - Alert) solution to American Greetings, a creator and manufacturer of innovative social expression products and the leader in e-greetings. This new technology will help reimagine the way consumers shop for and interact with social expressions products online, and consumers can begin to experience this technology with most greeting cards on www.americangreetings.com. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005169/en/ Cappasity's platform currently serves more than one million views of 3D content per month. Its proprietary 3D streaming format allows users to load and browse products with a 360-degree view, four times faster than other similar technologies. Cappasity's strength lies in its unique combination of production software and SaaS platform that allows rapid creation and upload of hundreds or thousands of 3D product images per day - a process that would have previously taken hours or days, producing large files that wouldn't play smoothly on most internet connections. This is a revolutionary step in the standardized incorporation of 3D content for large e-commerce sites. With the ongoing emergence of e-commerce retailing, American Greetings is developing new ways t deliver a more compelling and immersive online shopping experience for their products and the Cappasity technology is a part of its solution.
"Replicating the traditional shopping experience for greeting cards online is challenging with the current merchandising tools available," said Rob Matousek, GM - Direct to Consumer e-commerce at American Greetings. "The Cappasity technology will help consumers see and appreciate the creative design and quality craftsmanship of our products when shopping for greeting cards on amerciangreetings.com." Cappasity technology bridges an important gap in online greeting card merchandising; product features frequently present on greeting cards such as glitter, foil, embossing, and other attachments can be difficult to appreciate with traditional, flat photography.
"Cappasity's innovative product restores the in-store browsing experience to online retail, allowing you to examine each card, inside and out, and get a true feel for the quality of the greeting card you're ordering," said Kosta Popov, CEO at Cappasity. CAPPASITY
Cappasity was founded in 2013 with the aim of developing a technological standard and an easy, scalable platform for creating, embedding, and analyzing 3D and AR/VR content. The company successfully raised over $4.9M and launched its platform and 3D digitizing software in 2017. Cappasity brings an in-store browsing experience to online retail through interactive and photorealistic 3D images that can be easily embedded into websites, mobile apps, and AR/VR applications. Their clients report 30%+ increase in conversion rate and fewer returns. With headquarters in Santa Clara, California, the company is now also working with luxury brands at Station F in Paris. AMERICAN GREETINGS As the leader in meaningful connections, American Greetings is committed to making the world a more thoughtful and caring place. Founded in 1906, the creator and manufacturer of innovative social expression products offers paper cards, digital greetings, gift wrap, party goods and more to help consumers honor the people and moments in life that really matter. The Company's major greeting card brands are American Greetings, Carlton Cards, Gibson, Recycled Paper Greetings and PAPYRUS. AmericanGreetings.com is a go-to destination for connecting, shopping and celebrating with its offering of paper cards, ecards, printables, party supplies and gift wrap along with inspirational content, gift guides, DIY tutorials, a What to Write series, and party planning tips. The 112 year-old Company is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, and its products can be found in retail outlets worldwide. For more information, please visit www.corporate.americangreetings.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005169/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Creative. Caring. Compassionate. Regions Bank Associates Find New Ways to "Share the Good" in September
In Missouri, the program will build wheelchair ramps for people with disabilities. In Indiana, the program will fight malnourishment by discreetly placing food in the backpacks of children in need. In Tennessee, the program will support at-risk students and the educators who provide them a high-quality education. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005189/en/ Share the Good initiatives are coordinated by Regions associates who use their relationships in the community to identify ways the bank can make a difference - from collecting thousands of boxes of crayons and other school supplies to donations of food and any number of additional outreaches. (Photo: Business Wire) The program is called Share the Good. The program is powered by associates from Regions Bank. The program will reach countless people spread across the Southeast, Midwest and Texas, throughout the month of September. Now in its ninth year, Share the GoodSM connects Regions associates with nonprofits to address a variety of pressing needs. This year, there are dozens of localized community engagement initiatives taking place as part of Share the Good. Among examples: In Huntsville, Ala., Regions associates will support a program raising awareness and funds to help connect foster children with healthy, stable home environments.
In Nashville, Tenn., Regions associates will donate essential supplies for women and children who have survived domestic violence and are beginning a new chapter.
In St. Louis, Mo., Regions associates will roll up their sleeves and build wheelchair ramps in conjunction with Paraquad, a nonprofit that serves people living with disabilities.
In Bato Rouge, La., financial professionals from Regions will spend time training eighth-grade students how to manage money, spend wisely and avoid common financial mistakes.
In Knoxville, Tenn., Regions will provide financial support to the Knoxville Museum of Art's Community School program, which provides at-risk students with access to art education, abstract thinking and problem-solving lessons designed to help young people tap into their potential to excel.
In Birmingham, Ala., Regions associates across all Regions headquarters facilities will collect food to be distributed through local food banks to families in need.
In Mobile, Ala., and Pensacola, Fla., Regions associates will volunteer with the Feeding the Gulf Coast food bank to connect people with vital nutrition.
Regions associates in Indianapolis will do the same; however, there, they will place the food in the backpacks of children who need a source of nutrition during nights and weekends when they're away from school.
"Share the Good is a program that empowers our teams at Regions to serve communities in creative ways that people may never have expected from a bank," said Leroy Abrahams, head of Community Affairs for Regions. "Some of the most powerful ways we can make a difference include supporting education, promoting financial wellness and staying constantly in touch with local issues that we can help address. Our commitment to community engagement is year-round; Share the Good gives our teams a special opportunity to develop new and innovative ways to serve."
Community engagement is part of the culture at Regions and is fostered through a variety of ongoing programs. For example, every year, Regions offers each of its associates a paid day off to volunteer in his or her community. Associates are also able to match their skills and interests with nonprofit service opportunities across communities where they work. Additional examples of Regions' commitment to social responsibility are illustrated on regions.doingmoretoday.com and are also detailed in the company's annual Social Responsibility Report, which is available in the Community Engagement Section of Regions.com. About Regions Financial Corporation Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF), with $125 billion in assets, is a member of the S&P 500 Index and is one of the nation's largest full-service providers of consumer and commercial banking, wealth management, and mortgage products and services. Regions serves customers across the South, Midwest and Texas, and through its subsidiary, Regions Bank, operates approximately 1,500 banking offices and 2,000 ATMs. Additional information about Regions and its full line of products and services can be found at www.regions.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005189/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Sarcos Robotics Raises $30 Million in Series B Funding
Sarcos Robotics, a global leader in robotic systems that augment, rather than replace, humans working in the industrial, public safety and military sectors, today announced that it has secured $30 million in Series B funding from a consortium of investors co-led by DIG Investment and Alex. Brown & Sons. Each of the Company's Series A investors also participated in this round, including Caterpillar Ventures, Cottonwood Technology Fund, GE Ventures, Microsoft (News - Alert) , Schlumberger and Sarcos' chairman and CEO, Ben Wolff. This Series B funding will be used to expand Sarcos' team, scale the production and deployment of its Guardian S mobile IoT inspection and surveillance robot, and prepare for the launch of the commercial versions of its powered, full-body industrial exoskeleton Guardian XO product line in late 2019. "Sarcos is growing rapidly - we've doubled our workforce in the last year as we realize our vision of delivering robotic systems that simultaneously reduce the risk of workplace injuries, while also increasing productivity and efficiency," said Ben Wolff, chairman and CEO of Sarcos Robotics. "This new funding will allow us to continue to grow our team, scale our production and deliver our unrivaled products to customers around the globe to address the unmet global demand for robotic systems that create the safest, most productive workforce possible." Sarcos' powered, full-body exskeletons augment human productivity and safety by combining the best of what man and machine have to offer - the intelligence, intuition and instincts of humans and the strength, endurance and precision of machines. Sarcos' Guardian GT system, the largest in its line of powered exoskeletons systems, can be custom ordered to meet customers' specific requirements and needs. The Guardian XO and Guardian XO Max will be the first autonomously powered, full-body industrial exoskeletons that materially increase strength and stamina, allowing workers to work more safely and more productively than ever before.
In March, Sarcos announced the formation of an industry-focused Exoskeleton Technical Advisory Group ("X-TAG") that is comprised of executives from leading companies across a variety of industries, with the goal of identifying key performance and safety requirements necessary to bring powered, full-body industrial exoskeleton systems to the workforce. Sarcos has also launched its next generation ground-based surveillance and inspection robot, the Guardian S, that is uniquely capable, cost-effective and man-portable. The Guardian S has been designed for wide applicability in industries including manufacturing, construction, mining, oil & gas, power, aerospace, maritime, petrochemical, mining, defense and public safety.
"Sarcos represents one of those rare opportunities where an incredibly talented team with a proven track record has developed an entirely new category of products that address an enormous global need," said Sanjan Dhody, managing director at Alex. Brown. "In this case, the need is driven by the growing shortage of skilled workers and the skyrocketing social and economic costs associated with workplace injuries. I am very pleased to have been able to work with Sarcos to bring together a consortium of prominent investors who are well-positioned to assist Sarcos with expansion into new industries and new geographic regions." For more information about Sarcos, its leadership team, board of directors and investors, visit https://www.sarcos.com/company/. ABOUT SARCOS Sarcos Robotics is the world's leader in mobile, dexterous, tele-operated robots that combine human intelligence, instinct and judgment with robotic strength, endurance and precision to augment worker performance. Leveraging more than 25 years of research and development, Sarcos makes revolutionary robotics products designed to save lives, reduce injury and improve productivity, including the Guardian S, Guardian GT, and Guardian XO. Sarcos is revolutionizing a myriad of industries by deploying robots that will create the safest, most productive and cost-effective work force in the world. Sarcos' investors include Caterpillar, GE Ventures, Microsoft, and Schlumberger (News - Alert) . Sarcos is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, with additional offices in the Seattle area. For more information please visit www.sarcos.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005323/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Data-driven Technology Solutions Help Fuel Offerpad's Rapid Growth
Within three short years, on-demand homebuyer Offerpad has seen 3x growth year-over-year, and is on pace to achieve $2.5 billion in annual real estate transactions. The company's solution of providing certainty and ease when buying and selling a home was built on the backbone of decades of real estate experience and led by real estate agent innovator, Brian Bair. "We understand every pain point that occurs for the consumer during this process, and we are constantly striving to develop new solutions that will eliminate stress when purchasing a home. Our real estate background gives us this perspective, and our technology allows us to do it even more successfully," said Bair. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005270/en/ Gint Grabauskas, Offerpad CTO (Photo: Business Wire) Ongoing efforts to enhance the customer's experience through data-driven technology solutions includes an announcement of Gint Grabauskas as Offerpad's chief technology officer. Grabauskas will oversee the company's engineering and IT teams, and be responsible for quality assurance, system development and technology-powered product enhancements, including Offerpad's Instant Access mobile app. He brings 20+ years of technology leadership with him, most recently as chief technology officer at Arizona-based Vixxo. Grabauskas also served as vice president of engineering with GoDaddy, where he led the hosting business unit. Under his leadership the unit experienced significant growth which contributed to GoDaddy's IPO in 2015.
"I am really excited to be part of the Offerpad team. Our technology stack is well-positioned to enable significant growth in the business," said Grabauskas. "My goal will be to amplify this growth by focusing on a friction-less customer experience, and a world-class, scalable platform." ATTOM Data Solutions recently covered Offerpad's data-fueled disruption in the marketplace. "We've been watching Offerpad and others in the industry use technology and data to feed insights into their operations over the recent years. As this new industry is being defined, we believe the companies who focus on technology to align with consumer needs will be the ones that experience brand awareness and growth," said Rob Barber, CEO at ATTOM Data Solutions.
The demand of Offerpad's solution is driving the company's uptick in hiring across eight markets. The company has nearly doubled its employee pool since August 2017, recently announcing Offerpad's COO & Chief of Staff, Rahim Lakhani and Chief of Product & Analytics Officer, Arindam Bose. To learn more about Offerpad's solution and open employment positions, visit www.offerpad.com. ABOUT OFFERPAD Offerpad is revolutionizing the real estate industry by providing an innovative and convenient way to sell or buy a home. Founded in 2015, the leadership team brings decades of real estate experience that collectively has purchased, renovated and rented or sold more than 100,000 homes. Offerpad is a privately held company, headquartered in Arizona, with markets in Atlanta, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orlando, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Tampa. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005270/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
Cultural exchanges between China and Africa have a history going back centuries, and music is increasingly becoming a part of that.
In recent years, African drums like the djembe have gained a huge fan base in the country. With their energetic rhythms and one-of-a-kind sound, the African drum traditions are winning over Chinese hearts and sparking curiosity in people old and young.
Every Sunday afternoon, an African drum show makes a splash near Beijing's bustling Houhai Lake.
Liu Yong, who makes a living by selling and playing djembes, initiated the Houhai drum group 10 years ago. To his great surprise, a whopping 5,000 drummers have joined him ever since, trying their hands at challenging rhythms.
"Rain or shine, we will meet up and play drums together. That's our goal," said Liu.
Liu said in the beginning, they had only a couple of people playing together and many of them were passersby. "But now, people from all walks of life are playing here," he said.
In Africa, hand drums are more than just musical instruments. They are an indelible part of the continent's heritage. But for Chinese people, the newly-found obsession with the beats is another story.
"Every Sunday, Liu Yong and I help each other to carry our drums to Houhai by car," said a drummer who has played with Liu for six years. "When I play the drums, I feel purely happy and calm."
"I have played the djembe for almost a year and it makes me more confident, " added another drummer, who bought his drum with the signature of an African drum master.
[September 05, 2018] Esker Continues Its International Development With New Subsidiary in Hong Kong
Esker (News - Alert) , a worldwide leader in document process automation solutions and pioneer in cloud computing, announced today that it has opened a new subsidiary in Hong Kong, further strengthening the company's international development strategy. Esker is one of the few mid-sized French companies that has achieved international success - generating 61 percent of its sales outside of France and featuring 13 subsidiaries worldwide with more than 20 employee nationalities. This achievement is all the more exemplary in an industry where leading players are often American or Nordic. Joining the existing Southeast Asian subsidiaries in Malaysia and Singapore, Esker's Hong Kong office will meet several objectives, including: Provide an nsite presence for an increasing number of customers, particularly in the luxury sector, including Kering, Esquel, QNet, Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) Watch and Jewelry and LVMH Fashion Group
particularly in the luxury sector, including Kering, Esquel, QNet, Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) Watch and Jewelry and LVMH Fashion Group Strengthen its global presence in Asia, with locations in Hong Kong and Singapore, the two markets with the most decision-making centers in Asia
"From the onset, Esker has looked to expand internationally. Today, our goal is to anticipate the emergence of new, high-growth markets," said Jean-Michel Berard, CEO at Esker. "Hong Kong, like Singapore, is a key location that will allow us to further our reach into the Asia-Pacific region. This new subsidiary will also allow us to approach the Chinese market more strategically."
About Esker Esker is a worldwide leader in cloud-based document process automation software, helping financial and customer service departments digitally transform their order-to-cash (O2C) and purchase-to-pay (P2P) cycles. Used by more than 6,000 companies worldwide, Esker's solutions incorporate technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to drive increased productivity, enhanced visibility, reduced fraud risk, and improved collaboration with customers, suppliers and internally. Esker operates in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific with global headquarters in Lyon, France, and U.S. headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin. For more information on Esker and its solutions, visit www.esker.com. Follow Esker on Twitter (News - Alert) @EskerInc and join the conversation on the Esker blog at blog.esker.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005220/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Indegy CEO to Discuss How Attackers are Compromising Industrial Control Networks at SCADA Tech Summit 2018
Indegy, a leader in industrial cyber security, today announced Co-Founder and CEO Barak Perelman will discuss how to safeguard industrial control networks from cyber attacks and malware at the SCADA Tech Summit on Wednesday, September 12.
WHO:
Barak Perelman is CEO and Co-Founder of Indegy, a leading industrial cyber security company. Prior to founding Indegy, Barak led several multi-million dollar cyber security projects for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). He is a graduate of the elite Talpiot military academy, as well as the esteemed 8200 Unit, and has over 15 years of hands-on experience in cyber security and protection of critical infrastructures. WHAT: Contrary to popular belief, industrial control networks are easy to attack, yet extremely difficult to defend. A confluence of events has caused this "perfect storm" phenomenon. Namely, SCADA environments are increasingly being connected to the Internet, exposed to mobile access and leverage Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies. Recent incidents at a Ukrainian electric utility involving the Industroyer malware and Middle Eastern oil and gas refinery where TRISIS malware was identified illustrate the growing threat weaponized malware poses to industrial environments. In this presentation, Barak will explain how SCADA and industrial control systems are attacked, the damage that can occur, and the steps necessary to safeguard ICS environments against cyber attacks, unauthorized activity and human error. WHERE: SCADA Tech Summit 2018 at the Double-Tree Oak Brook, 1909 Spring Road, Oak Brook, Illinois.
WHEN: Wednesday, September 12, 2018 at 4:00 PM CDT (News - Alert) .
HOW: To schedule a conversation with Barak Perelman contact Marc Gendron at marc@mgpr.net or 781-237-0341. For more information visit: http://scadatechsummit.com/schedule/safeguarding-scada-and-industrial-control-networks/.
About Indegy Indegy, a leader in industrial cyber security, protects industrial control system (ICS) networks from cyber threats, malicious insiders and human error by providing visibility and control. The Indegy Industrial Cyber Security Suite arms security and operations teams with full visibility, security and control of ICS activity and threats by combining hybrid, policy-based monitoring and network anomaly detection with unique device integrity checks. The Indegy ICS Suite is deployed by manufacturing, pharmaceutical, energy, water and other industrial organizations around the world. For more information visit www.indegy.com, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005577/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Persistent's low-SWAP mobile ad hoc networking Embedded Module receives new security validation
NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Persistent Systems, LLC ("Persistent") announced today that its Embedded Module, a low-size, -weight and -power mobile ad hoc networking (MANET) unit for sensors and unmanned vehicles, received a Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 Level 2 security validation from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This achievement confirms that all Persistent's main products have achieved this level of validation, increasing usability for users with nonnegotiable requirements for FIPS 140-2 Level 2. The new FIPS 140-2 Level 2 validation means the Embedded Module not only meets its Level 1 cryptographic data security requirement, but it also has in place physical security mechanisms, such as tamper-evidence, allowing it to handle sensitive data transmission. "Now, all of our main products running the Wave Relay MANET routing protocol are FIPS 140-2 Level 2," said Eric Stern, Director of Engineering at Persistent Systems. "This is critical for our customers in the federal government, U.S. military and special operations, who require extremely secure networking." Persistent's suite of Wave Relay MANET products have been engineered to meet information assurance requirements in any use case, whether it is a person carrying an MPU5 or an Embedded Module built into a UAV, UGV, or sensor. This is especially important for Wave Relay Ecosystem partners who have incorporate Wave Relay MANET radios into their products and are competing for government programs with FIPS requirements. The Wave Relay Ecosystem is an alliance of industry-leading companies that develop and build products connected via the Wave Relay MANET.
Persistent products have consistently met strict security requirements, with every product achieving both Level 1 and Level 2 FIPS 140-2 validation. Persistent's principal product is the handheld MPU5 MANET radio. The MPU5 allows users to transmit and relay voice, video, text, and sensor data in a true peer-to-peer fashion, without the need for external communications infrastructure. In July, it received its FIPS 140-2 Level 2 Security validation.
The Embedded Module, now likewise validated, delivers the same data networking capabilities, but in a smaller form factor, which can be built into an unmanned aircraft, ground robot or sensor. "This validation marks the Embedded Module as the go-to Wave Relay MANET integrator for all systems and sensors," Stern said. Certificate numbers and information for each FIPS 140-2 validated Wave Relay MANET product are as follows: Certificate #3183 MPU5 Level 1
Certificate #3234 MPU5 Level 2
Certificate #3180 Embedded Module Level 1
Certificate #3259 Embedded Module Level 2 About Persistent Systems, LLC Headquartered in New York City since 2007, Persistent Systems, LLC is a global communications technology company that develops and manufactures a patented and secure Mobile Ad hoc Networking (MANET) system: Wave Relay. Wave Relay transmits and receives data, video, voice and other applications under the most difficult conditions. Their suite of products is utilized in Commercial, Military, Government, Industrial, Agriculture, Robotics, and Unmanned Systems markets. Please visit http://www.persistentsystems.com to learn more. Follow Persistent Systems on Twitter to get updates on the latest developments @pswaverelay View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/persistents-low-swap-mobile-ad-hoc-networking-embedded-module-receives-new-security-validation-300706637.html SOURCE Persistent Systems, LLC
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Tektronix PRISM Now Includes IP Connectivity as Standard
BEAVERTON, Ore., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- IP networks are the future of broadcasting. Just this month, TV Technology magazine reported "an upturn in momentum behind IP infrastructure deployments" and "expeditedinvestment plans in IP solutions." The pace of the industry evolution is quickening. As the market moves toward widespread adoption, new tools are needed to ensure the delivery of quality content to viewers. Looking towards the future, new models of the industry-leading Tektronix PRISM now come standard with IP connectivity and a feature set, allowing customers to effortlessly identify the number and content of IP multiple streams, ensure presence of PTP messages, quickly debug IP systems in hybrid environments, and perform quality checks on content. The PRISM also arrives packed with basic editing features like Waveform, Vector, and Diamond. "Tektronix has been an integral part of the first wave of IP system deployments," said Charlie Dunn, General Manager of Tektronix's Video business unit. "We believe that IP is the future of our industry and as a leader in this space, we want to remove the price premium for IP monitoring capabilities to facilitate all-IP system deployment." The following IP capabilities now come standard with the PRISM media monitoring and analysis tool: IP to SDI bridging through the AUX SDI Output The standard 10GE PRISM comeswith the ability to bridge SMPTE ST2022-6/7 or ST2110-20 inputs to an AUX SDI output. This provides the capability to drive external SDI equipment and simplify total system configuration.
Identification of streams and content in an IP System - A single 10G ethernet link can carry multiple streams, making it difficult to determine what content is being carried on each stream. PRISM offers a range of tools to quickly identify streams, showing the protocol, source IP address and port number, destination IP address and port number, Source MAC, Destination MAC, PTP Domain, RTP Seq Error, RTP Clock Freq, and RTP Marker Freq of all streams in a 10G link. PTP System Setup Verification PRISM allows engineers to ensure the settings of the PTP system are correct by displaying the PTP traffic with domain information to check for the presence of PTP messages giving confidence that the PTP system has been deployed correctly.
Event Log Troubleshoot hybrid IP/SDI systems quickly. PRISM offers time-stamped error detection capabilities for both the IP layer and content layers, allowing customers to quickly isolate the root cause of an error and take corrective action. Video Sessions Instantly check that your video content is correct using familiar tools that show the start of active video, end of active video, bit checks, and CRC errors. Availability IP capabilities are included as standard features in the new models of PRISM: the MPI2 and MPX2 which are available now globally. For more information, go to: tek.com/PRISM. Wondering what else Tektronix is up to? Check out the Tektronix Bandwidth Banter blog and stay up to date on the latest news from Tektronix on Twitter and Facebook. About Tektronix Headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, Tektronix delivers innovative, precise, and easy-to-operate test, measurement and monitoring solutions that solve problems, unlock insights, and drive discovery. Tektronix has been at the forefront of the digital age for over 70 years. Join us on the journey of innovation at TEK.COM/VIDEO. Tektronix is a registered trademark of Tektronix, Inc. All other trade names referenced are the service marks, trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective companies. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tektronix-prism-now-includes-ip-connectivity-as-standard-300704659.html SOURCE Tektronix, Inc.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Unified Office Launches Total Connect Now Dental Management SuiteSM (TCNDMSSM) To Help Dental Practices Dramatically Improve Patient Experience
Integrates with leading Dental Practice Management Software Solutions and Unified Offices Industry Leading, Reliable Voice Communications Platform to Bring Customer Service, Scheduling and Worker Productivity to a New Level Dallas, TX, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Unified Office, Inc , a leading managed services provider offering reliable hybrid cloud-based virtual communications services and business analytics to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), announced today that they are extending their award-winning communications and analytics service offerings to the dental industry with their Total Connect Now Dental Management SuiteSM (TCNDMSSM). Unified Office will exhibit this new offering at booth 333 at the Southwest Dental conference Sept. 6th through 8th, 2018 in Dallas. We are so happy to have found Unified Office, said Dr. Daniel Fanikos, DMD, Fanikos Salib Dental Care. At Fanikos Salib Dental Care we are obsessively dedicated to delivering the highest quality care to our patients. Similarly, Unified Office listens to our problems and then develops concrete, customized solutions that meet the unique needs of our rapidly growing practice. We are very pleased with the high reliability and high quality of their business communications services in addition to the superior customer support we have received from Unified Office. Because we dont have to worry about the reliability and quality of our communications services, we are able to focus more on the overall effectiveness of our practice so we can continue to deliver the highest quality of care and customer service to our patients. Thank you, Unified Office! Unified Office provides a highly reliable, high quality, always available voice communications system with unique integrations into the leading dental practice management software platforms such as Dentrix, Opendental and Eaglesoft. More importantly, Unified Office enables dental practices to easily create and modify their own unique workflow choreography and to create their own virtual office communications environment, in addition to providing them with performance analytics and automated appointment confirmation and scheduling. All of this is delivered to them in the form of a managed service where Unified Office takes responsibility for all of our customers services 24 x 7. Dental office staff can now easily forward calls to different locations at different times of the day in order to keep up with their mobile workforce that frequently movesbetween multiple offices or even within the same office. TCNDMSSM also provides an easy to use centralized administration solution for their communications systems across all of their offices and can be accessed by the device of their choice no matter whey happen to be.
The dental industry landscape is undergoing rapid change, the pace of which is largely unprecedented, said Ray Pasquale, Founder & CEO of Unified Office. Dentists live in a highly competitive marketplace. For example, consumers have come to expect a one stop shopping experience where they receive all the services they need from a single dental practice. We also live in a real-time world today where consumers expect immediate attention. Missing an inbound call or putting someone on hold or even worse, putting them through to voicemail can result in missing a new patient opportunity or an appointment from an existing patient, both of which can result in lost revenue opportunities and potential reputational harm. Summary of Benefits for Dental Practices:
Uniformity of services enables their staff to easily bring their offices with them, wherever they happen to be on any given day. A hybrid, on premise and cloud-based solution that enables the highest quality VoIP offering available with the most reliable and resilient service platform converting calls into dollars. Business continuity that eliminates down time by finding and fixing problems in most cases before the customer becomes aware of them. Automated notifications and scheduling. Superior customer service, 24X7, provided by Unified Office in the US. Integration with best-in-class dental practice management software. Rapid installation of their services without interrupting their business. Cost savings experienced over other options from eliminating the need for costly legacy T1 lines and/or MPLS circuits. A single end-to-end managed service solution provided by one vendor means one call gets it all done with one partner should an issue arise. Unified Offices core mission is to help businesses of all types monetize their communications service and solve problems that are unique to them. Unified Office does this by providing them with reliable, high quality, business class, voice communications, and simple and elegant, easy-to-use services and applications that help them improve the effectiveness of their business operations. These services include real-time performance analytics and automated notifications for appointment confirmations and scheduling. Total Connect Now ? is an easy to use managed business communications service that integrates voice and video communications, messaging, service-level monitoring, business continuity, and business analytics tools into a seamless, high quality, reliable communications service that can be configured to meet the unique needs of any business. Unified Office provides an at-a-glance view of customer service responsiveness in real-time, along with on-demand and scheduled reporting, and real-time analytics for any single or multilocation business. All of this can be viewed, configured and accessed remotely via the Unified Office fully integrated TCN? Operational Management Suite (TCNOMS) web-enabled portal on any device. Unified Office is a managed services company that takes total responsibility for its customers business communications services. Proactive service monitoring and business continuity backup around the clock ensures a worry-free experience. With Unified Offices extensive interoperability testing, users can rest assured that their service provides outstanding reliability and is available whenever and wherever they need it. About Unified Office Unified Office, Inc. is a leading provider of SDN-based, hybrid cloud, managed, Voice-over-IP (VoIP) and Unified Communications services to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Unified Offices Total Connect Now? service architecture was purpose-built to deliver the highest quality of experience and availability, leveraging the latest in extensible business VoIP communications technology and cloud-based infrastructure to enhance SMB workforce productivity. Their cloud-based intelligent network incorporates Unified Offices unique adaptive Highest Quality Routing Protocol (HQRP) for end-to-end service quality, and Business Continuity shadowing to ensure high availability operation over one or more redundant broadband links. The Unified Office Visual Performance Suite and IoT service platform provides a real-time view of changes in operational performance levels and actionable intelligence for SMBs, store managers and business owners, enabling them to readily determine real-time business performance, take immediate actions, and apply continuous operational improvements. This results in higher customer satisfaction, increased customer retention, and increased revenues and profitability. For more information visit www.unifiedoffice.com . Contact: Cathy Clarke CNC Associates Ph.: 508-833-8533 Email: cathy@cncassocs.com
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Shoptalk Announces Preliminary 2019 Agenda, First 100+ Speakers And Unprecedented Educational Programs
NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Shoptalk, the world's largest retail and ecommerce conference with more than 8,000 attendees, including over 750 CEOs, today released its preliminary 2019 agenda and initial lineup of more than 100 speakers that includes: Nordstrom Co-President, Erik Nordstrom
Co-President, Gap Inc. President & CEO, Art Peck
President & CEO, Canada Goose CEO, Dani Reiss
CEO, Crate and Barrel CEO, Neela Montgomery
CEO, Pinterest Co-Founder & CEO, Ben Silbermann
Co-Founder & CEO, Tapestry CEO, Victor Luis
CEO, DSW CEO, Roger Rawlins
CEO, Lowe's Chief Marketing Officer, Jocelyn Wong
Chief Marketing Officer, Mattel, Inc. Chief Strategy & Development Officer, Sid Mathur
Chief Strategy & Development Officer, Taubman Centers , Inc. Chief Operating Officer, Bill Taubman
Chief Operating Officer, Ulta Chief Merchandising & Marketing Officer, Dave Kimbell
Chief Merchandising & Marketing Officer, lululemon , EVP, Americas, Celeste Burgoyne
, EVP, Americas, Walmart VP & GM of Walmart Media Group, Stefanie Jay
VP & GM of Walmart Media Group, KFC Global Chief Digital Officer, Ryan Ostrom
Global Chief Digital Officer, ipsy Co-Founder & President, Jennifer Goldfarb The final agenda will feature a total of more than 350 speakers. Shoptalk will be held on March 3-6, 2019 at the Venetian in Las Vegas. Shoptalk also today announced two new groundbreaking education initiatives that will launch with the 2019 event: A standardized set of agenda sessions called the Core Curriculum, representing courses that will be offered every year, but with updated perspectives. An Annual Retail Education Certificate which is awarded each year to those individuals who complete at least 10 credits of approved continuing education at Shoptalk. "As Shoptalk gears up for its fifth show, we continue to set new standards for the industry and break new ground with our agenda and unprecedented onsite programs," said Anil D. Aggarwal, founder and CEO of Shoptalk. "Learning has become criticl to being a leader and key contributor in the retail industry. To succeed, retail leaders--and aspiring leaders--must now focus on their professional development to deepen their knowledge of retail trends and technologies. Our new Core Curriculum and Annual Retail Education Certificate are designed to empower the entire retail industry with the absolute best continuing education opportunities at this critical time."
Introducing Shoptalk's Core Curriculum Shoptalk has created a standardized set of sessions called the Core Curriculum. Starting in 2019, approximately half of Shoptalk's 40-minute track sessions will form the standardized Core Curriculum.
Core Curriculum courses (sessions) include many of the fundamentals of retail that will remain relevant for years to come. Courses in the Core Curriculum cover a wide range of topics, from Innovations in Store Design to Hiring and Training Digital Talent, and from Selling on Marketplaces to Next Generation Supply Chains. These courses will be offered every year, but with updated, current perspectives. Other sessions on the agenda--those outside the Core Curriculum that may not be repeated--address topics that are just as critical, but may be covered differently in future years.
This groundbreaking new approach to standardizing industry education enables retailers and brands to get a fresh perspective each year on the core issues they must continue to address, and to learn from companies at the forefront of change.
Announcing the Annual Retail Education Certificate Shoptalk also launched an Annual Retail Education Certificate which is awarded to those individuals who complete at least 10 credits of approved continuing education at Shoptalk. Starting in 2019, individuals can earn credits onsite during the event by attending main stage and track agenda sessions as well as taking part in other Shoptalk learning programs including: Tabletalks - Interactive peer group discussions among retailers and brands
Interactive peer group discussions among retailers and brands Techtalks - Overviews of technology innovation presented by tech company executives
- Overviews of technology innovation presented by tech company executives Hosted Retailers & Brands Program - Meetings with tech company executives The Annual Retail Education Certificate helps recipients distinguish themselves at a time when retail industry professionals there is a significant divide in retail industry professionals' knowledge of digital innovation. Any attendee can qualify for an Annual Retail Education Certificate and Shoptalk is working directly with employers to help teams across their organizations participate in the annual certificate program. Shoptalk's 2019 preliminary agenda is available at: https://shoptalk.com/agenda and the initial speaker lineup can be viewed at https://shoptalk.com/speakers. Those interested in speaking can apply at https://shoptalk.com/speakers/apply. About Shoptalk Shoptalk is the world's largest conference for retail and ecommerce innovation. Held annually in Las Vegas, Shoptalk is an unprecedented global gathering of individuals and companies reshaping how consumers discover, shop and buy. The event provides a platform for large retailers and brands, startups, tech companies, investors, media and analysts to learn, collaborate and evolve. Shoptalk will be held on March 3-6, 2019 at the Venetian in Las Vegas. For more information, visit www.shoptalk.com. Follow @shoptalk. Like facebook.com/shoptalk. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/shoptalk-announces-preliminary-2019-agenda-first-100-speakers-and-unprecedented-educational-programs-300707034.html SOURCE Shoptalk
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] APCON Expands Global Presence With New Director of EMEA Operations
WILSONVILLE, Ore., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- APCON, a leading provider of intelligent network visibility and security solutions, today announced its new Director of EMEA Operations, Mike Simmonds. APCON's data center monitoring and security solutions offer complete visibility to service providers and enterprises seeking network insights for enhanced investigation, threat detection and response. Simmonds will lead a team to drive sales and build brand recognition across the EMEA region. He will be responsible for supporting business activities focused on technical customer support and revenue generation. "Mike's industry knowledge and experience is a great fit for APCON's expanding presence in EMEA," said Richard Rauch, president and CEO of APCON. "His expertise in network security and visibility is a huge asset for APCON and will help bolster our international business. We're delighted to have him on our team." Simmonds is intimately familiar with network performance and security and has already been established as a leader in the market. Prior to joining APCON, he led the technical team at Axial Systems, a long-standing APCON reseller. Additionally, he has held numerous positions within the data communications industry throughout his career, including executive positions, product evangelist, hardware design, sles, support and software engineer.
"I am very pleased to be joining APCON, an innovative company I have known for many years," said Simmonds. "I look forward to working with the EMEA team to further position APCON as the top network visibility solution on the market." Simmonds and his team will attend IP EXPO Europe, taking place on Oct. 3 4 2018 at ExCeL, London.
About APCON For more than 20 years, APCON has consistently delivered smart, stable and scalable technology solutions that provide an unparalleled level of confidence to service providers and businesses seeking total data center visibility and security. Its customers range from midsize companies to Fortune 1000 enterprises in more than 40 countries. APCON assures superior network monitoring while supporting traffic analysis and streamlined network management and security. For more information, visit us at www.apcon.com or follow us on Twitter: @apcon. Media Contact Sydney Hirshberger 503-682-4050 sydney.hirshberger@apcon.com Related Images mike-simmonds.jpg
Mike Simmonds
Mike Simmonds - Director of EMEA Operations, APCON apcon.jpg
APCON
APCON provides the visibility needed to improve security in any network environment. Related Links APCON Solutions Overview APCON Products Overview View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/apcon-expands-global-presence-with-new-director-of-emea-operations-300707035.html SOURCE APCON Inc.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] ElmTree Funds Bolsters Investor Relations Team with Strategic Hire
ElmTree Funds, LLC, a leading real estate private equity firm, is pleased to announce Annie Hsieh has been hired as Executive Vice President of Investor Relations. In this role, she will be leading the firm's capital raising and investor relations functions and will be based in New York City. "Annie's in-depth knowledge of the real estate markets and longstanding industry relationships will play a key role in advancing our strategic growth priorities and broadening our global investor base," said Jim Koman, managing principal at ElmTree Funds. "With this hire, we are further enhancing our fundraising and investor support capabilities." Before joining ElmTree, Ms. Hsieh covered U.S. institutional investors as a Director on the Client Relations team at ZAIS Group. Prior to this, she managed both Investor Relations and Business Development for Five Mile Capital where she focused on real estate and fixed income assets for U.S. and Asian institutional investors. Her background also includes a variety of investment, fundraising and trading positions at firms such as Barclays Capital, Credi Suisse and Citigroup, where she focused on a diverse set of industries and geographies.
Ms. Hsieh commented, "ElmTree is one of the most experienced real estate investment management firms focused on the net lease, sale-leaseback, and build-to-suit sectors and I look forward to having an immediate positive impact on the business. Net lease is a very stable and predictable asset class that investors like due to its recurring cash flows, and we see significant opportunity to grow the ElmTree platform as institutional investors continue to allocate more capital to real estate." Ms. Hsieh holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from New York University Stern School of Business, as well as an MBA from Columbia Business School.
About ElmTree Funds: ElmTree Funds, LLC is a leading real estate private equity firm and seasoned fund manager to institutional and private investors. ElmTree's investment philosophy focuses on creating attractive risk-adjusted returns for its investors in the commercial real estate net lease, sale-leaseback, and build-to-suit sectors. Since its founding in 2011, ElmTree Funds has acquired, developed or financed more than $6 billion of office, industrial and healthcare properties. ElmTree Funds targets investments in secondary and tertiary markets across the United States that are leased to investment grade tenants on a long-term basis. ElmTree Funds is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. For more information please visit www.elmtreefunds.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005213/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Cambridge Mobile Telematics and Aioi Nissay Dowa Launch Telematics Platform in Southeast Asia
Global insurer Aioi Nissay Dowa and Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), the world's largest smartphone-centric telematics provider, brought their longstanding partnership to Southeast Asia through Aioi's new subsidiary, Singapore-based AIS Asia. AIS Asia recently launched Visual-drive, a multi-language mobile telematics app for personal line and commercial insurance. "One of our missions is to provide a telematics scheme to local insurers quickly and reasonably in Southeast Asia, who would like to develop telematics insurance like UBI," said Susumu Tategami, AIS Asia's managing director. Visual-drive works in conjunction with the optional tag (News - Alert) , a Bluetooth tracking device attached to the user's car. Aioi and CMT have worked together since 2016 when they brought Visual Drive to Japan. "Southeast Asia consists of over 10 countries and CMT's solutions are very universal, so they can meet our demands," said Tategami. In 2017, Aioi launched CMT's DriveWell Fleet program to enable commercial fleet owners and insurers to reduce claims, improve employee safety and increase operational efficiency. AIS Asia is planning to provide the Visual-drive program to comercial fleet owners in Southeast Asia as well.
"We are excited to work with Aioi to expand our global reach to new markets that are embracing smartphone-centric telematics, by offering our services and products to insurers in Southeast Asia," said Katherine Wellman, CMT's vice president of product and marketing. Since 2016, telematics has become more universally prevalent with increased demand from consumers and companies across the globe.
About AIS Asia
Aioi Nissay Dowa Services Asia (AIS Asia) was established in October 2017 and is 100 percent owned by Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Japan. AIS Asia provides telematics services and data analysis services related to insurance in Southeast Asia. About Cambridge Mobile Telematics
Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT) makes roads and drivers safer around the world. Founded in 2010 by two MIT (News - Alert) professors and experienced entrepreneurs, CMT pioneered telematics for behavior-based insurance (BBI) and deployed the first solution to provide both traditional vehicle-centric UBI and BBI. With over 40 customers in 20 countries, CMT has a proven record of changing driver behavior: an average reduction of 35 percent in phone distraction, 20 percent in hard braking, and 20 percent in at-risk speeding all within less than 30 days of using the program. For more information, please visit cmtelematics.com and follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @cmtelematics. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005243/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) Adds Six Distributors Across North and South America to Meet Increasing Demand for Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs)
Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR), a leading global supplier of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), today announced five new distributors in the US, Mexico and Argentina to help meet the ever-increasing demand for its robots worldwide. MiR, whose North American sales account for nearly a quarter of its worldwide growth, added Allied Automation, based in Indianapolis, Indiana; Empire Automation System in Rochester, N.Y., known as MASEAS; Lydey Automation in Maumee and Brecksville Ohio; i3 Mexico in Monterey Mexico, Murten S.L.R., in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Macon, in Tierra del Feugo, Argentina. This brings the total number of MiR distributors to 143 in 40 countries. "Automating internal transport with mobile robots is proving to be a key element for manufacturers to optimize production and increase competitiveness," said Ed Mullen, general manager - North America, Mobile Industrial Robots. "This is especially true within multinational corporations that have successfully tested our robots within a few facilities and now want to optimize their internal transportation throughout their plants worldwide. By expanding our distribution network throughout the US and Latin America, we can help even more companies reap the benefits." Increased Demand Requires New Distributors, More Focus on Latin America
MiR has grown quickly since its founding in 2013, with sales rising by 500 percent from 2015 to 2016, and 300 percent from 2016 to 2017. MiR added its second US office in San Diego this spring, which includes an entire team focused exclusively on growing sales in Latin America. "Not only are US companies benefitig from our autonomous mobile robots, but there is great potential for growth in Latin America, since many of our multinational customers in the automotive, consumer goods and electronics industries have production plants in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina," Mullen added. "This provides distributors with ready-made customers, while providing local examples of successful use cases to share with potential customers to demonstrate how automating logistics with mobile robots is helping them save money and increase productivity overall."
MiR Showcases AMRs for Light and Heavy Transport Needs at IMTS 2018
Each member of the family of MiR AMRs is flexible, easy to program and safe for both heavy and light internal transport, enabling companies to optimize logistics throughout the entire production chain, from the warehouse to the delivery of goods. The MiR100 and MiR200 AMRs, which can autonomously transport up to 100 kg (220 lbs) and 200 kg (440 lbs) respectively, were joined in June by the MiR500, which satisfies the industry need for a bigger, stronger and faster AMR. MiR will demonstrate all three AMRs at the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS 2018) at booth #121468. Demonstrations include:
The new MiR500, with a lifting capacity of 500 kg (1102 lbs), which is designed to transport pallets in manufacturing floors and warehouses, and can automatically collect, transport and deliver pallets with speeds of 2 miles per hour.
The MiR200 with a Universal Robots UR5 robot arm and OnRobot RG2 gripper, which demonstrates how the robots can pick up, autonomously transport and deliver circuit boards, allowing the UR5 to service multiple work stations. To meet the task's precise requirements, the MiR200 connects to a docking station built into a stationary table.
The MiR200 with a MiRHook, which can tow carts weighing up to 500 kg (1102 lbs). "Aligning with MiR was an easy call," said Don David, president and CEO of Minuteman | Empire Automation Systems. "Not only does MiR fit into our existing portfolio of high-tech products, but as an innovative and forward-thinking company, MiR exemplifies everything we look for in a strategic partnership. Its commitment to R&D and marketing will ensure that our customers end up with not just a quality product, but one that is flexible enough to meet the needs of an ever-shifting industrial landscape. The entire team at Minuteman | Empire Automation Systems is very excited to embrace MiR as we explore new opportunities with customers old and new." According to Dan Lydey, president of Lydey Automation Company, "As so many of our customers are trying to apply collaborative robotics to automate their manufacturing processes, MiR provides a platform that offers a clear and short path to ROI with exciting new tools for productivity and growth. The robot interface is very intuitive, the autonomy and safety of the robot is impressive, and the handling capabilities are very industrial. MiR is a logical choice for our customers who would rather be spending less time learning, and more time using, collaborative robotics." About Mobile Industrial Robots:
Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) develops and markets the industry's most advanced line of collaborative and safe autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) that quickly, easily and cost-effectively manage internal logistics, freeing employees for higher-value activities. Hundreds of mid-sized through large multinational manufacturers, along with several hospitals and nurseries around the world, have already installed MiR's innovative robots. MiR has quickly established a global distribution network in more than 40 countries, with regional offices in New York, San Diego, Singapore, Dortmund, Barcelona and Shanghai. MiR has grown quickly since its founding in 2013, with sales rising by 500% from 2015 to 2016, and 300% from 2016 to 2017. Founded and run by experienced Danish robotics industry professionals, MiR is headquartered in Odense, Denmark, and was recently acquired by U.S. company Teradyne (News - Alert) , the leading supplier of automated test equipment. Three years ago, Teradyne also acquired the Danish company Universal Robots. For more information, visit http://www.mobile-industrial-robots.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005605/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
China's Ministry of Education has released an announcement requiring universities to work harder to end academic misconduct in bachelor's theses, including plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, ghostwriting, as well as buying and selling theses, the ministry said Tuesday.
The announcement, in a bid to restore order to undergraduate education, asked for revised management systems to strengthen supervision over all steps in the thesis process including topic selection, proposal, and defense, as well as strict enforcement of plagiarism detection and spot checks on bachelor's theses.
It also called for more challenging and better quality curriculum, adding that formative assessment performance should comprise a higher proportion of a student's total score.
The current evaluation system applied on college teachers also needs to be revised, as required by the announcement, which said teaching quality should be a major consideration when reviewing teacher performance.
[September 05, 2018] ComEd, Metropolitan Mayors Caucus Partner to Support 21 Public Safety Projects Throughout Northern Illinois
In support of innovative public safety initiatives that are essential to local communities across northern Illinois, ComEd and the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus today announced grants of up to $10,000 each to 21 communities to fund local public safety projects. Each of the 21 projects to receive a Powering Safe Communities grant proposed a unique way to improve the efficiency and delivery of public safety programs, increase community resiliency, and address unmet safety needs. The Metropolitan Mayors Caucus - a council for Chicagoland's chief elected officials to collaborate on public policy issues - reviewed all applications. "At ComEd, safety is our number one priority - not just for our employees and our customers, but for the greater communities where we live, work, and play," said Terence R. Donnelly, president and COO of ComEd. "For the last few years, we've delivered on that promise by partnering with the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus to carry out the Powering Safe Communities Program. We are pleased to see proposals from this year's grantees to invest in innovative technologies that will strengthen their response to critical safety and health concerns." ComEd and the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus share a commitment to ensuring that residents of northern Illinois are protected in their communities. Working together through the Powering Safe Communities partnership, they have put this commitment into action, delivering more than $500,000 in funding to 70 public safety projects in the last three years. ComEd has provided funding for the program since its inception four years ago, and the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus has served as the program administrator for the last three grant cycles. "The Metropolitan Mayors Caucus knows that we are stronger as a region because of the tireless work of our public servants. That's why it's so important to us that our local municipalities have the resources they need to keep both our public servants and the community members they protect safe and secure," said Joseph Mancino, Mayor of Hawthorn Woods, Ill., and Chairman of the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus. "Thanks to ComEd's generous support, we are once again able to realize this goal and assist over 20 local communities as they pursue tailored public safety solutions." Information on the Powering Safe Communities Program can be found here: http://mayorscaucus.org/initiatives/environment/psc/. The 21 Powering Safe Communities grant recipients for 2018 are: Village of Alsip This grant helps fund equipment, goods, and services for the recently approved volunteer Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) run by the Village of Alsip's Department of Emergency Preparedness (DEP). CERT educates individuals about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. Village of Arlington Heights This grant allows the Village to purchase a Smart Board display to enhance disaster preparedness and community resiliency. In combination with other equipment that will be funded by the Village, the Smart Board display will augment the decision-making process in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). Village of Barrington This grant funds the purchase of two Lucas CPR mechanical assist devices. These battery-powered units enhance paramedics' lifesaving efforts for cardiac arrest patients through automated chest compressions, allowing paramedics to concentrate on more advanced resuscitative skills, such as IV access, medication delivery, defibrillation, and advanced airway management. Village of Bull Valley This grant helps purchase a front-end loader, a tailgate mounted salt spreader, and a ditch bank mower, three pieces of equipment that will improve the safety of Village roads. Funing from the Village will also aid in the purchase and provide safety training for employees who use the equipment.
Village of Cary This grant allows the Village to purchase two solar-powered RADAR message signs with trailers. The Village currently possesses only a single arrow board that does not have the capability to display other messages. The new units will serve as replacements for both the arrow board and radar trailer, providing greater flexibility for the Public Works and Police Departments.
City of Countryside This grant helps purchase and install high-definition video cameras at the City's most attended parks, Ideal Park and Countryside Park. This modern equipment will capture vital evidence in the event of a serious criminal incident, while bringing a heightened sense of safety and security to the neighborhood. Village of Crete This grant supports the purchase of three Thermal Imaging Cameras, two for the Police Department and one for Crete's Emergency Management Agency ( EMA (News - Alert) ). The cameras will be installed on specific patrol vehicles to greatly enhance the ability to see at night by combining night optics with heat sensing ability. City of Crystal Lake This grant enables the City to install electronic speed limit displays along Country Club Road to aid in calming traffic. The road, which is in a residential area, currently experiences a high incidence of speeding, with measurements at various locations showing speeds between 36 and 39 miles-per-hour (mph) when the posted speed limit is 25 mph. Village of Elburn This grant assists in purchasing traffic speed monitoring and safety signs. The signs will be used in neighborhoods, business areas, and around schools in the Village to monitor speeds and provide visual reminders to motorists. City of Elgin This grant allows the Elgin Police Department to equip two parks that experience a high level of youth engagement with pole-mounted security cameras. The new cameras will improve the overall safety and security of the area for teens and young children, as well as disincentivize activity in the parks after they close. Village of Flossmoor This grant funds two portable, programmable, and energy-efficient speed display signs to be used at multiple locations throughout the Village. The signs will allow the Village to set sign configurations, schedule operating modes, and gather traffic data for analysis. The Village's goal is to increase motorists' awareness of their traveling speed in school zones and achieve better adherence to speed limits on residential streets. Village of Glendale Heights This grant funds the purchase of a portable 10-print fingerprinting system, which will allow the Glendale Heights Police Department to provide safe and private fingerprinting services to community members, local businesses, and school districts. It will also provide a private, secure location for juvenile offenders to be printed. Currently, the Department has only one stationary fingerprinting machine located in the adult section of its holding facility. Village of Hebron This grant allows the Village to purchase a new squad car to provide full-time police protection coverage. The Village recently added two full-time officers and made the chief of police a full-time position; however, its current squad cars are not reliable and break down often. With the grant, the Village will purchase a new 2018 Dodge Charger Pursuit through the NWMC Suburban Purchasing Cooperative. Village of La Grange This grant helps fund the purchase of four solar-powered speed display signs to be placed throughout the Village of La Grange. The display signs will not only provide a visual reminder to drivers of their current speed, but they also can be used to determine the amount of traffic in an area so that the La Grange Police Department can deploy its officers more efficiently. Village of Minooka This grant funds the purchase of a speed display sign and LED school zone sign. The signs will be used in conjunction to visually notify vehicle drivers of their speed and alert drivers that they are entering a school zone by displaying bright LED blinkers. City of Northlake This grant aids with the installation of a backup, natural gas fired, electrical generator at the public works facility. The generator will allow the facility to operate during power outages. It is the last City-owned building that does not have a backup power source. City of Oak Forest This grant helps expand the City's AED (automated external defibrillator) program from nine to 20 units to help diagnose and treat community members suffering from life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias. The City will replace existing AED units and deploy 11 AEDs in public buildings and on the street in police, fire, EMA, and public works vehicles. City of Polo This grant allows the City to update the electrical services at Millard Deuth Park, as the City is a small community that does not have a park district to cover the costs. The update will turn off electrical currents when the breaker is shut off, decreasing the likelihood of a dangerous fire outburst. City of Rolling Meadows This grant helps fund the City's Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) Acquisition project through the purchase of six LIFE PAK CR Plus Semi-Automatic AEDs. Currently, none of the City's patrol squads are equipped with AEDs. The grant will help enable patrol personnel of the Rolling Meadows Police Department to safely, effectively, and quickly administer and deploy life-saving external defibrillators to anyone suffering from cardiac arrest. Village of Willowbrook This grant funds the purchase and installation of 12 solar-powered LED stop signs at specific locations throughout the Village to improve the safety of both drivers and pedestrians. The 12 locations, including two near elementary schools, currently have traditional, unlit stop signs and are in need of upgraded signage. Village of Worth This grant funds the replacement of 12 tower type computers for the Worth Police Department. The new computers will allow the Department to effectively communicate with other public safety agencies in the region using a new "Superion Public Safety Records Management System." The enhanced technology, through the speed and accuracy of data acquisition, will also improve the Department's ability to comply with its mission of serving and protecting community residents and visitors. About ComEd Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), the nation's leading competitive energy provider, with approximately 10 million customers. ComEd provides service to approximately 4 million customers across northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state's population. For more information visit ComEd.com, and connect with the company on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. About Metropolitan Mayors Caucus The Metropolitan Mayors Caucus is a membership organization of the Chicago region's 275 cities, towns and villages. Founded in 1997 by then Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and leading mayors from nine suburban municipal groups, the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus pushes past geographical boundaries and local interests to work on public policy issues. The caucus provides a forum for metropolitan Chicago's chief elected officials to collaborate on common problems and work toward a common goal of improving the quality of life for the millions of people who call the region home. For more information visit http://mayorscaucus.org/. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005608/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018]
Garrett Motion Inc. To Host Investor Conference In New York City
MORRIS PLAINS, N.J., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Honeywell (NYSE: HON) announced that Garrett Motion Inc., the spin-off of Honeywell's Transportation Systems business, will be hosting an investor conference in New York City on Thursday, September 6, 2018 at 8:30 a.m. EDT. Olivier Rabiller, Garrett President and Chief Executive Officer, and other members of the Garrett leadership team will present.
A real-time audio webcast of the presentation can be accessed at http://www.honeywell.com/investor, where related materials will be posted prior to the presentation and a replay of the webcast will be available for 30 days following the presentation.
Honeywell (www.honeywell.com) is a Fortune 100 software-industrial company that delivers industry specific solutions that include aerospace and automotive products and services; control technologies for buildings, homes, and industry; and performance materials globally. Our technologies help everything from aircraft, cars, homes and buildings, manufacturing plants, supply chains, and workers become more connected to make our world smarter, safer, and more sustainable. For more news and information on Honeywell, please visit www.honeywell.com/newsroom.
Contacts:
MEDIA: INVESTOR RELATIONS:
Michael Stoller Mark Macaluso Paul Blalock Garrett Motion Honeywell Garrett Motion +1 734 392-5525 +1 973 455-2222 +1 862 812-5013 michael.stoller@garrettmotion.com mark.macaluso@honeywell.com paul.blalock@garrettmotion.com
View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/garrett-motion-inc-to-host-investor-conference-in-new-york-city-300707173.html
SOURCE Honeywell
Mastercard & Bank of America Support Small Business Growth with Launch of Second Annual "Grow Your Biz Contest"
Sixty percent of small businesses nationwide are planning to grow their businesses over the next five years*. Mastercard and Bank of America want to help them do just that with the launch of the second annual Grow Your Biz Contest, a call to action for small business owners from across the country to pitch their business for the opportunity to win $25k and business consultation with industry experts.**
"At Bank of America, we're committed to supporting the ideas, goals and unique banking needs of small businesses throughout the nation," said Sharon Miller, head of small business at Bank of America. "Grow your Biz is a great opportunity to consult an expert and access capital for your business. Every minute matters when you run a business, so we've made participation as simple as possible. I look forward to hearing from small businesses across the country about their plans to grow."
To enter the Grow Your Biz Contest, small business owners must answer the simple question, "How will you grow your small business?" by submitting a video (up to 1 minute) online.
From the submissions, four finalists will be identified for their creativity and business strategy to receive a $1,000 Mastercard prepaid card, one-on-one business consultation with industry experts and the opportunity to pitch their businesses to the Grow Your Biz Panel during the final event in New York City on November 8, 2018.
"We are thrilled to take the Grow Your Biz Contest to a national level and extend this opportunity to small businesses across the country," said Ginger Siegel, Head of North America Small Business, Mastercard. "By collaborating with Bank of America, we can provide small businesses with holistic solutions and tools to meet their business, consumer and community needs."
We've gathered a panel of expert judges for the Grow Your Biz Contest finalists to present to including Create and Cultivate CEO Jaclyn Johnson, host of CNBC's "Cleveland Hustles" Bonin Bough, Head of North America Small Business for Mastercard Ginger Siegel and Northeast Small Business Divisional Executive for Bank of America Kevin Kelly. The judges will provide all finalists with individual consultation sessions and select one grand-prize winner who will receive $25,000 to pursue their business plan.
Last year's Grow Your Biz Contest focused on the Boston market where four finalists demonstrated great enthusiasm the desire to grow and grow smart. From Intriguing Hair's beautifull styled hair, Birch Baby's organic baby products, Paddy Wagon's inflatable pubs, and the Grow Your Biz Contest winner More to Love's inspiring mindfulness, each finalist showed their unique value and how they planned to take their business to the next level - all they needed was a jump start with the proper tools and resources.
Mastercard and Bank of America continue to make it a priority to deliver the right resources that help give small business owners the competitive advantage to grow smart and expand successfully, including small business rewards and benefits as seen through the recently introduced Bank of America Relationship Rewards.
About the Grow Your Biz Contest
**NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Void where prohibited. Open to small business owners in the 50 US and DC, 18+. Ends 9/30/18. Restrictions apply. Click here for Official Rules.
About Mastercard
Mastercard (NYSE:MA), www.mastercard.com, is a technology company in the global payments industry. Our global payments processing network connects consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. Mastercard products and solutions make everyday commerce activities - such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing finances - easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone. Follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @MastercardNews, join the discussion on the Beyond the Transaction Blog and subscribe for the latest news on the Engagement Bureau.
About Bank of America
Bank of America is one of the world's leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving approximately 67 million consumer and small business clients with approximately 4,400 retail financial centers, including more than 1,700 lending centers, more than 1,900 Merrill Edge investment centers and more than 1,300 business centers; approximately 16,100 ATMs; and award-winning digital banking with approximately 36 million active users, including 25 million mobile users. Bank of America is a global leader in wealth management, corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry-leading support to approximately 3 million small business owners through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations across the United States, its territories and more than 35 countries. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE:BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
For more Bank of America news, including dividend announcements and other important information, visit the Bank of America newsroom. Click here to register for news email alerts.
* As sourced in the spring 2018 Bank of America Small Business Owner Report
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005625/en/
[September 05, 2018] Momentum Telecom Becomes Member of Telarus' TrustedSky Alliance
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Momentum Telecom has announced that they have joined the Telarus TrustedSky Alliance in a step that further distinguishes the companys status as the industrys customer experience leader. Having already completed the necessary modifications and enhancements in their data centers, Momentum is ready to provide partners with an even greater control along with increased insight and more tools for managing Momentums cloud-based communications solutions.
TrustedSky is a web-based testing platform that ensures businesses are receiving the best possible experience by enabling partners to test and diagnose their customers network capabilities and performance. This functionality provides the crucial knowledge that IT staffs and partners need to act both independently and autonomously and will inherently lead to faster and more comprehensive service resolutions. This simple, yet powerful technology firmly places visibility and insight in the hands of partners, said Momentum EVP of Technology, Mark Marquez. Now, a few mere clicks performs a pitch and catch test that sends test VoIP packets over the network all the way to the Momentum data centers and then quickly returns results that can be used to identify the correct party, whether its the internal IT department, the ISP or Momentum, to contact for assistance. In addition to the network management benefits, through TrustedSky, Momentum will have a larger portfolio of tools that will continue to simplify and expedite the provisioning, implementation and deployment process of their solutions. At Momentum, we are known for our unmatched customer experiene with white glove implementation, training and ongoing support, said Momentum Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Chuck Piazza. So adding Telarus' TrustedSky to our already celebrated network was a natural step forward for us in our continued our commitment to having both the industrys most satisfied and empowered customers and partners.
For more information about Momentum Telecom or the TrustedSky announcement email sales@momentumtelecom.com or call 877-251-5554. About Momentum
Momentum Telecom is a premier provider of Business Voice , BBX Broadband Management and Unified Communications solutions . Momentums solutions offer smart, customizable cloud-based applications including voice, video and collaboration tools that enhance business productivity and efficiency for direct customers and more than 500 nationwide white label and channel partners. Momentum Telecom is committed to delivering best-in-class products backed by a geo-redundant network paired with industry-leading uptime and customer service. Headquartered in Birmingham, AL, Momentum Telecom has regional offices actively serving customers across the United States. To learn more visit momentumtelecom.com or connect with us on Facebook , Google Plus , Twitter , LinkedIn or visit our blog . At Momentum Telecom, our mission is to enable others to thrive by combining smarter technology with seasoned experts while delivering unmatched customer experience.
About Trusted Sky
TrustedSky is a joint alliance of leading service providers in the Cloud and Unified Communications market. TrustedSky was formed to solve the broken Cloud support model. Hosted Cloud applications guarantee that no single support group can satisfy an end user when it comes to performance problems. The goal of TrustedSky is to bring transparency to this process and create a self-service workflow that accelerates the time to solution between an end-user, the end-users IT staff and the Cloud provider. Media Contact
Beth Hildreth
bhildreth@momentumtelecom.com
315-579-7112
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Audra Brown Joins Splash Worldwide as Client Services Director
Global creative technology company Splash Worldwide today announced the addition of marketing veteran Audra Brown as Client Services Director. Based in Splash's Portland, Oregon office, Brown will drive all client engagement and project management functions for North America as well as oversee operations in the Portland location. "Audra brings an impressive trifecta of integrated expertise, a thorough understanding of the digital and social landscapes, and broad connections to both the agency and the brand spheres," said Erik Semmelhack, Chief Revenue Officer, Splash Worldwide. "She strengthens Splash's presence in North America, and will be a valuable asset in strategically growing our business and bolstering our client engagement initiatives." With twenty years of experience in developing and executing marketing strategy and communications programs for clients across retail, tech, manufacturing, and service sectors, Brown has worked with leading brands including Subway Restaurants, Intel (News - Alert) , HP, Dell, CLIF Bar, CenturyLink, Daimler, nd many more to drive growth and create memorable brand interactions for customers. She joins Splash Worldwide from Portland agency CMD, where she worked for the past eight years, most recently serving as Group Account Director. Previously, Brown spent twelve years at HMH Agency, running a variety of consumer and B2B accounts.
"Splash has a very well defined set of services and offers proven expertise in key areas, which to me is very refreshing in today's trend toward overextension," shared Brown. "Splash's client roster and track record - not only with creative and production services but also with its robust technology offering for asset management and distribution - really proves the value and effectiveness of what we bring to the table. I'm very excited to work with the entire team here at Splash to continue to make sure our clients are at the center of everything we do." About Splash Worldwide
Splash is a creative technology company that unleashes creativity for everyone, everywhere. With multi-disciplinary insight, creative, production, technology, consulting and innovation teams, we collaborate with clients to create impactful content and distribute it within the right ecosystems. Our offices in London, New York, Los Angeles, Portland, Amsterdam, Dubai, and Singapore serve the world's largest brands and bridge the gap from concept to delivery. https://splashworldwide.com/ View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005224/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Express Logic's X-Ware IoT Platform Provides Turnkey Support for the Microsoft Azure IoT Software Development Kit (SDK)
Express Logic, provider of the industry-leading X-Ware IoT Platform powered by the stalwart ThreadX RTOS, today announced seamless safe and secure support and integration of the Microsoft (News - Alert) Azure IoT SDKs. This new support complements the existing direct X-Ware IoT Platform support for Azure. Extending Options For Azure IoT Express Logic's X-Ware IoT Platform provides another option for Azure IoT customers who seek to quickly and easily develop devices and applications that connect to and are managed by Azure IoT Hub services. X-Ware IoT Platform was created entirely in house and designed from the ground up to be industrial grade. This enables Azure developers using the X-Ware IoT Platform to leverage its size, performance, safety, security, ease of use, and other advanced features to create best-of-class IoT sensors, devices, edge routers, and gateways. Express Logic's high-performance ThreadX RTOS is at the heart of the X-Ware IoT Platform. With more than 6.2 billion deployments, as certified by VDC Research, ThreadX is arguably one of the world's most widely deployed RTOS. ThreadX provides embedded developers with priority-based preemptive scheduling, preemption-threshold scheduling, optimized context switching, real-time event trace, downloadable memory-protected application modules, and full determinism, all accessible through a highly intuitive API. The X-Ware IoT Platform leverages the near-wire-speed performance and small footprint of Express Logic's NetX Duo to provide direct IoT cloud connectivity using Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT) and NetX Secure TLS/DTLS to provide a fast and secure connection solution. Complete IoT Development and Connectivity Solution X-Ware IoT Platform is more than just an RTOS with some connectivity capabilities. It is built upon the powerful, safety-certified NetX Duo dual IPv4/IPv6 stack and includes the safety-certified FileX embedded FAT-32/exFAT file system, the GUIX GUI development and embedded runtime framework, and the USBX embedded host/device USB stack. Embedded developers can leverage the entire X-Ware IoT Platform solution to create IoT applications that necessarily must do far more than simply communicate with the cloud.
In addition to the performance and size advantages of the X-Ware IoT Platform, Express Logic's ThreadX FileX and NetX Duo have attained the highest level of safety certifications, including IEC (News - Alert) 61508 SIL 4 (the highest, most dependable level as determined by IEC), IEC 62304 Class C, ISO 26262 ASIL D, EN 50128 SW-SIL 4, UL 60730-1 Annex H, CSA E60730-1 Annex H, IEC 60730-1 Annex H, IEC 60335-1 Annex R, and IEC 60335-1 Annex R, 1998. "Cloud-networked IoT devices by their very nature require reliable, safe, and secure connectivity all within a limited amount of memory and processing power," said William E. Lamie, President, Express Logic. "By leveraging X-Ware IoT Platform, Microsoft Azure IoT customers can easily build, deploy, and connect billions of devices using virtually any popular microprocessor - almost instantly."
Sam George, Director, Azure IoT at Microsoft Corp., said, "Microsoft Azure is committed to meeting the next-generation demands of connected devices to empower businesses to benefit from IoT. The X-Ware IoT Platform works great with Azure IoT services, enabling our customers to rapidly develop and manage devices without compromising security or performance." About Express Logic and ThreadX Headquartered in San Diego, CA (News - Alert) , Express Logic offers the industry's most advanced run-time solutions for deeply embedded applications, including the popular ThreadX RTOS, the high-performance NetX and NetX Duo embedded TCP/IP stacks, the FileX embedded FAT-compatible file system, the USBX Host/Device embedded USB protocol stack, and the GUIX embedded graphical user interface development toolkit. Most Express Logic products include full source code and are available free of run-time royalties. For more information about Express Logic solutions, please visit www.expresslogic.com, call 1-888-THREADX, or e-mail sales@expresslogic.com. ThreadX, TraceX, FileX, and X-Ware IoT Platform are registered trademarks, and Safety-Critical Certification Pack, NetX, NetX Duo, USBX, GUIX, GUIX Studio, LevelX, preemption-threshold, picokernel, and UDP (News - Alert) fast path technology are trademarks of Express Logic. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005178/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Sacramento, CA- Based Financial Advisory Firm, Towerpoint Wealth, Expands with the Addition of Advisor Jonathan LaTurner
Towerpoint Wealth is pleased to announce that the firm has expanded with the addition of financial advisor Jonathan LaTurner. Mr. LaTurner joins the firm from Wells Fargo (News - Alert) Advisors in Sacramento where he worked as a financial advisor since 2012. He managed approximately $50 million in client assets. Based in Sacramento, CA (News - Alert) , Towerpoint Wealth was launched in July 2017 by financial advisor Joseph Eschleman. Towerpoint Wealth is a member of the Dynasty Network of Advisory firms. Prior to Wells Fargo, Mr. LaTurner worked for First Citizens Bank. He earned his B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from California State University at Sacramento and his MBA from Drexel University's LeBow College of Business. Mr. LaTurner has a focus on professional private fiduciaries including conservatorships, special needs trusts, estate administration, guardianships, court blocked accounts and tribal trusts. "As an independent advisor at Towerpoint Wealth, I will be able to provide more extensive services to this important client base of Professional Fiduciaries. I specialize in helping families or individuals with complex needs that require special attention and expertise. From helping investors who are incapacitated and don't have family nearby, to working with their third party trustee to manage their affairs, assisting a family that might include a special needs child, or executing a complicated family trust.," said Mr. LaTurner. Towerpoint Wealth is an independent financial advisory firm with a client focus on pre-retirees, retirees, business owners, corporate executives, industry professionals (technology in particular), and individuals who have recently experienced a significant life event, such as the death of a spouse, a divorce, or a job or career change. "We are delighted to welcome Jonathan to Towerpoint Wealth. Hebrings extensive experience in the growing area of private professional fiduciaries," said Mr. Eschleman. "At Towerpoint, we see significant potential to expand our business in rapidly-growing Sacramento. There is a real opportunity in this region for a truly independent investment advisory firm to serve entrepreneurs, corporate executives and high net worth families."
For more information, please visit Towerpoint Wealth at: www.towerpointwealth.com
www.facebook.com/TowerpointWealth/ www.linkedin.com/company/towerpointwealth/ About Dynasty Financial Partners Dynasty Financial Partners develops, sources and integrates management capabilities for some of the industry's leading independent investment advisor firms. Dynasty's integrated platform services delivery chassis offers a customized, open-architecture wealth management solutions and technology platform, supporting advisors as they protect and seek to grow their clients' wealth. Dynasty's core principle is "objectivity without compromise," and the firm is committed to crafting solutions that allow investment advisors to act as true fiduciaries to their clients. Dynasty Financial Partners has corporate offices in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco. Visit our website for more information: www.dynastyfinancialpartners.com. Also visit Dynasty on social media: LinkedIn (News - Alert) : https://www.linkedin.com/company/dynasty-financial-partners Twitter (News - Alert) : @DynastyFP Youtube: http://bit.ly/1MKXhC8 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005134/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
Corporate Synergies Names Robert Flicker Regional Vice President of Account Management in New York
Corporate Synergies, a national insurance and employee benefits brokerage and consultancy, has named industry veteran Robert Flicker Regional Vice President of Account Management for their Long Island, New York office.
Flicker joins Corporate Synergies to provide guidance in developing, implementing and managing strategies for a team of benefits consultants. He brings expertise in negotiation, product design, funding options and personalized cost-control strategies based on client needs, honed over 28 years of experience in the field.
"Rob has built a tremendous reputation in the employee benefits industry. He shares our dedication to delivering the highest level of benefits expertise and responsive account management," said John Turner, CEO of Corporate Synergies. "We're excited to have him on board."
Under Flicker, CorporateSynergies' Long Island office will continue working hand-in-hand with their Manhattan group, led by Mike Lisa, Executive Vice President and Regional Manager, Northern Region.
"Rob's reputation and core beliefs truly make him an extraordinary leader. His market knowledge and experience are second to none. I know he will fit perfectly into our corporate mission and apply his vision to drive success for our clients," said Lisa.
Before joining Corporate Synergies, Flicker served as Area President, Long Island at Gallagher Business Services (GBS) where he managed clients and oversaw a team of Directors, Account Executives and Account Specialists.
"I'm thrilled to be joining a team of experienced insurance professionals in a growing company like Corporate Synergies," said Flicker. "Their unique service model and commitment to bringing a deeper understanding to employers' specific situations makes them stand out in the employee benefits space."
About Corporate Synergies
Corporate Synergies is a national insurance and employee benefits brokerage and consultancy. The firm delivers strategies that control costs, relieve administrative burdens and mitigate risk. Its experts develop a deeper understanding through established listening posts in all areas of their competencies, fueling the ability to better execute. The company operates from five U.S. locations, including the headquarters in Camden, New Jersey, and regional offices in New York City; Melville, New York; Bethesda, Maryland; and Orlando, Florida. corpsyn.com
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005083/en/
Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank Appoints Michael Quinn as Managing Director, Head of Corporate Coverage Canada
Michael Quinn has joined Credit Agricole CIB as Managing Director, Head of Corporate Coverage for Canada, effective August 20, 2018.
Based in Toronto, Michael is a member of the Credit Agricole CIB Canada Management Committee and reports locally to Xavier Roux, Senior Country Officer for Credit Agricole CIB Canada.
Michael is a seasoned banker with more than 15 years' experience in global corporate and investment banking in Canada. He graduated with an MBA from the Ivey Business School, University of Western Ontario, and holds an undergraduate degree from Brock University.
About Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank (Credit Agricole CIB)
Credit Agricole CIB is the Corporae and Investment Banking arm of the Credit Agricole Group, the world's n13 bank measured by Tier One Capital (The Banker, July 2018). The Bank offers its clients a comprehensive range of products and services structured around six major divisions:
Client Coverage & International Network
Global Investment Banking
Structured Finance
Global Markets
Debt Optimisation & Distribution
International Trade & Transaction Banking
The Bank provides support to clients in large international markets through its network with a presence in major countries in Europe, America, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
For more information, please visit the website at www.ca-cib.com
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005700/en/
[September 05, 2018] TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2018 Announces Startup Battlefield Competitors
TechCrunch, the leading technology media property dedicated to obsessively profiling startups, reviewing new Internet products, and breaking tech news, today announced 21 participants will compete in Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2018, the biggest Disrupt event yet. Each year, the event brings together tech titans, noted thought leaders and experienced entrepreneurs to offer unique insights into industry topics-of-the-moment. At the very heart of TechCrunch Disrupt, Startup Battlefield launches promising, under-the-radar companies from all over the world to a global audience on tech's biggest stage. TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2018 will be held at Moscone West in San Francisco on September 5-7 and will stream live on TechCrunch.com. Starting on Wednesday September 5 and continuing throughout the week, Startup Battlefield will gather founders to demo their new, never before seen products in front of a world-class panel of innovators and investors. This year's Startup Battlefield judges include the top and brightest of the venture world. The competition has become the world's leading authority in debuting revolutionary startups, introducing game-changing technologies and discussing what's top of mind for the tech industry's key innovators. "We have so many great new startups surfacing around the world and this year's Startup Battlefield once again will showcase the best of the best," said Samantha Stein, Startup Battlefield Editor for TechCrunch. "Startup Battlefield has always provided startups a platform to gain recognition across the entire tech industry and this year with our international expansion we are expecting the caliber to be even higher. We're looking forward to announcing this year's competitors and we are eager to watch them pitch our judges, TechCrunch Disrupt attendees and viewers around the world who tune in to the livestream." Since appearing on the TechCrunch stage, more than 700 Startup Battlefield alumni have collectively raised more thn $8 billion in funding and more than 100 have achieved exits. Notable competitors that have launched on the Startup Battlefield stage include major brands like Mint, Yammer, Dropbox, and Fitbit. The new Startup Battlefield winner will be announced at the closing awards ceremony Friday, September 7 at 4:15 p.m. PT. The winner will walk away with a $100,000 prize and the highly coveted Disrupt Cup.
The list of Startup Battlefield participants include: Binary Bubbles/PopBase
Carma
CB Therapeutics
Crossing Minds
D-ID
Elevian
Fibre
Forethought
Kegg
Kinta
KidSense
Lori
McCarthy
Mira
Nutrigene
Origami Labs
PoLTE
Stealthy Labs
Unbound
Wingly
Vtrus The list of 2018 Startup Battlefield judges include:
Aaron Patzer, Vital Software
Aileen Lee, Cowboy Ventures
Catherine Ulrich, FirstMark Capital
Cyan Bannister, Founders Fund
Ellie Wheeler, Greycroft
Hans Tung, GGV
JD Vance, Revolution (News - Alert) , LLC
Jeff Clavier, UnCork Capital
Jeremy Liew, Lightspeed Venture Partners
Jim Adler, Toyota AI Ventures
John Borthwick (News - Alert) , Betaworks
Julie Grant, Canaan Partners
Kirsten Green, Forerunner Ventures
Lo Toney, Plexo Capital
Matthew Panzarino, TechCrunch
Megan Quinn, Spark
Rebecca Kaden, Union Square Ventures
Roelof Botha, Sequoia Capital
Samantha O'Keefe, Google (News - Alert) Cloud
Sarah Cannon, Index Ventures
Sarah Guo, Greylock
Shauntel (Poulson) Garvey, Reach Capital
Susan Lyne (News - Alert) , BBG Ventures For more information about TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2018 and Startup Battlefield, please visit https://techcrunch.com/startup-battlefield/ Social:
@TechCrunch
#TechCrunch
#Disrupt About TechCrunch Disrupt TechCrunch Disrupt is the world's leading authority in debuting revolutionary startups, introducing game-changing technologies and discussing what's top of mind for the tech industry's key innovators. Disrupt gathers the best and brightest entrepreneurs, investors, hackers, and tech fans for on-stage interviews, the Startup Battlefield competition, a virtual Hackathon, hundreds of startups in Startup Alley, Workshops, and legendary networking at After Parties. The biggest TechCrunch Disrupt SF event ever will be held September 5-7, 2018 at Moscone Center. For more information, visit TechCrunch.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005284/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
Videos
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos.
The southwestern US state of New Mexico boasts its stuccoed constructions, among which one building stands out.
Located in Albuquerque, the largest city in the state, the Chinese Culture Center is constructed of reinforced concrete, radiating grandeur.
In the main hall stand various instruments of wushu, a synonym in Chinese pronunciation of kung fu or martial arts, and a placard on the wall clearly states the philosophy, rules and etiquette of martial arts.
Billy Jack Davidson, 14, is warming up by performing a set of kung fu motions, a convention before his martial arts class.
"I've found it so entertaining to perform, move around and be active," said Davidson, adding that his favorite artist is Jackie Chan, a Chinese kung fu movie star known across the world.
It has been 10 years since the high school student started to learn wushu at the center.
Davidson is among the 100 or so students now at the center. His bond with martial arts and the training school has roots in his grandmother, who was also a member of the center.
Every day, local kung fu fans like Davidson come to the epicenter of wushu in the US state with the hope of a step further toward "the essence of martial arts", a motto at the training center.
'Magic of culture'
Founded in 1974, the center is one of the oldest martial arts schools in the southwestern United States. It offers ongoing classes on a variety of martial arts including qigong, a system of breathing and exercise designed to benefit both physical and mental health, tai chi as well as Shaolin kung fu.
Its founder, Charles Lin, a Chinese-American, had practiced the arts for more than 50 years.
Master Lin used to be the only kung fu teacher in the school. During his four-decade teaching career, he had traveled to China 10 times and learned from other masters in order to further improve his skills and knowledge.
Lin expressed his hope of introducing the art of Chinese kung fu to local people. "Martial arts is not just sparring, on the contrary, it's more about internal disciplines."
The training center has drawn in over 3,000 kung fu fans since it was started. The majority of them chose to stay for more than 10 years. They also called in their relatives and friends, mainly due to "the magic of Chinese culture".
So far, the school has organized three tours to China, helping about 200 students realize the dream of exchanging views and skills with masters from Shaolin and Wudang, the cradle of Chinese martial arts, during those pilgrimages.
[September 05, 2018] Class Action Launched on Behalf of Residents of 650 Parliament Street
The law firms of Strosberg Sasso Sutts LLP and Charney Lawyers PC have filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of the approximately 1500 residents of the apartment building located at 650 Parliament Street in Toronto, Ontario. On August 21, 2018, an electrical fire occurred in the building. All of the residents were evacuated, and none of them have been able to return to their homes as a result of the extensive damage caused by the fire, except to briefly gather some belongings. Residents may be entitled to compensation for loss of use and enjoyment of their homes, physical injury including smoke inhalation, emotional injuries, damage to property, costs of repair and cleanup of their property, expenses for mileage, food, and the costs of purchasing new clothing and essentials, costs of obtaining alternative accommodations and lost income. "A class action will provide access to justice for all tenants and their families," said Ted Charney of Charney Lawyers PC. "Our goal is to obtain compensation for the residents of 650 Parliament Street. I implore the residents to save their receipts for expenses incurred, record their mileage for extra driving and track days missed from work for the purposes of proving their losses," said Sharon Strosberg of Strosberg Sasso Sutts LLP.
Mr. Charney and Ms. Strosberg will hold a town hall information meeting for the residents on Tuesday September 11 at 6:00 pm at Saint Luke's United Church located at 353 Sherbourne Street (Carlton & Sherbourne). Residents are encouraged to attend the meeting to meet the lawyers and learn more about the class action. Mr. Charney and Ms. Strosberg are experienced class action litigators with particular expertise in residential tenancy class actions. As co-counsel, they were successful in obtaining compensation for residents in class actions arising out of fires/explosions at apartment buildings in Toronto on Secord Avenue and Kingston Road. They were also co-counsel on the Sunrise Propane class action which was resolved in a $23 million settlement.
Residents of 650 Parliament Street are encouraged to register to receive more information about the class action at https://www.strosbergco.com/class-actions/parliament. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005776/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
Panel of Data Security Experts to Discuss Best Practices for Accelerating Incident Response During Code42 Live Webinar
Code42, a leading data security company, today announced that it will host a complimentary live webinar entitled "Code42 Security Panel: Accelerating Incident Response in a Changing Data Security Threatscape." The webinar will bring together skilled practitioners from Code42's security team to share firsthand insights into some of the most pressing issues in cybersecurity today. The webinar will be held on Tuesday, September 11 from 1-1:45 p.m. CDT (News - Alert) . Registration for the webinar is now open.
With the volume and variety of cybersecurity threats on the rise, investigations are getting more complicated and incident response is taking longer. Security teams are juggling more technologies and are overloaded with more log sources, events and alerts. During this webinar, the panel will discuss ways to quickly cut through the noise, including how to:
Create tighter collaboration between security and IT teams to shrink response times.
Identify the threats most likely to impact your organization.
Handle sensitive data security incidents, such as insider threat.
Get near real-time answers to complicated data security questions by using Code42 Forensic File Search in concert wit other security tools.
About Code42
Code42, a leading data security company, secures the ideas of more than 50,000 organizations worldwide, including the most recognized brands in business and education. Because Code42 collects and indexes every version of every file, the company offers security, legal and IT teams total visibility and recovery of data - wherever it lives and moves. With real-time alerts and forensics, these teams can easily detect, investigate and rapidly recover from any data incident, such as ransomware, lost or stolen devices, and insider threats. Supported by a global state-of-the-art cloud infrastructure, the Code42 platform safeguards hundreds of petabytes of data and helps organizations comply with evolving regulatory requirements.
Founded in 2001, the company is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and backed by Accel Partners (News - Alert) , JMI Equity, NEA and Split Rock Partners. For more information, visit code42.com, read Code42's blog or follow the company on Twitter.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005843/en/
[September 05, 2018] Aetna Offers Assistance to Members Affected by Tropical Storm Gordon
Aetna (NYSE: AET) is offering resources to members who have been affected by Tropical Storm Gordon in Louisiana, the counties of George, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Peal River and Stone in Mississippi, and the counties of Baldwin, Choctaw, Clarke, Conecuh, Escambia, Mobile, Monroe and Washington in Alabama. Aetna members can refill their prescriptions early, if needed. Those members who use Aetna's mail-order pharmacy can either get a prescription at an alternate delivery location or refill a prescription that may have been lost, damaged or destroyed. In addition to helping with prescription refills, Aetna can help members who have been evacuated from their homes find care and behavioral health support, among other services. Aetna is also extending claim and appeal filing times. Aetna professionals who have experience dealing with traumatic events are also available to help. The company has opened its Resources for Living services to those affected by Tropical Storm Gordon, regardless of whether they are Aetna members or not. Individuals can call 1-833-327-AETNA (1-833-327-2386) for assistance with finding available shelters, accessing government resources and seeking referrals or help coping with the emotional impact of Tropical Storm Gordon. Aetna members affected by Tropical Storm Gordon can also seek emergency care anywhere, as needed. The company will monitor the impact Tropical Storm Gordon has on its network doctors, hospitals and other health care providers, and make further modifications to its policies as necessary to ensure members have access to care. If any additional local, state o federal disaster executive orders or regulations are issued related to these catastrophic event, Aetna will adjust its policies to comply.
Aetna members and health care providers affected by the hurricane who need care or other assistance can reach the company at the following toll-free numbers: Aetna Member Services: Call the number printed on your ID card*. If ID card is unavailable, call 1-800-443-AETNA (1-800-443-2386).
Call the number printed on your ID card*. If ID card is unavailable, call 1-800-443-AETNA (1-800-443-2386). Rx Member Services and Aetna Rx Home Delivery Customer Service: 1-888-RX AETNA (1-888-792-3862)
1-888-RX AETNA (1-888-792-3862) Aetna Specialty Pharmacy Customer Service: 1-866-782-ASRX (1-866-782-2779)
1-866-782-ASRX (1-866-782-2779) Aetna Student Assistance Program: 1-877-351-7889
1-877-351-7889 Aetna Dental: 1-877-238-6200
1-877-238-6200 Health care providers should contact the Provider Service Centers:
- Indemnity and PPO-based benefit plans: 1-888-MD-AETNA (1-888-632-3862)
- HMO benefit plans: 1-800-624-0756
- Indemnity and PPO-based benefit plans: 1-888-MD-AETNA (1-888-632-3862) - HMO benefit plans: 1-800-624-0756 Coventry Health Plans: Commercial HMO and PPO Plans 1-866-847-8235 Medicare Advantage Plans 1-800-847-3995 Coventry National and First Health Plans 1-800-937-6824
* Members can find replacement ID cards and access to a Personal Health Record on Aetna's secure member site Aetna Navigator. Log in on Aetna's home page.
About Aetna Aetna is one of the nation's leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving an estimated 38.8 million people with information and resources to help them make better informed decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of traditional, voluntary and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental and behavioral health plans, and medical management capabilities, Medicaid health care management services, workers' compensation administrative services and health information technology products and services. Aetna's customers include employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, health care providers, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and expatriates. For more information, see www.aetna.com and learn about how Aetna is helping to build a healthier world. @AetnaNews View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005880/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Superion, TriTech, Zuercher, and Aptean's Public Sector Business Merge to Form CentralSquare Technologies
Created by the merger of four innovative software businesses, CentralSquare Technologies launched today as an industry-leading provider of public sector software. The completed merger brings together the capabilities of Superion, TriTech Software Systems along with Zuercher Technologies, and the public sector and healthcare business of Aptean. CentralSquare today provides technology solutions that help over 7,500 public sector agencies deliver vital safety and administrative services to 3 out of every 4 residents of the U.S. and Canada. CentralSquare's mission is to innovate on behalf of the public sector to create the broadest and most agile software platform to help solve some of the most pressing issues facing local governments today. The formation of CentralSquare Technologies comes at a critical time in the public sector. The number of law enforcement personnel and local government employees across North America has increased by less than 0.05% in the past decade. However, public safety concerns, such as active-shooter incidents have increased by over 30 times since 2000. And, wildfires such as the recent one in British Columbia have destroyed more than a million acres in 2018 alone. This is also coupled with rising citizen demands, such as the expectation to have immediate, seamless interactions with local government. In such an environment of increasing demands and limited resources, it becomes critical to rapidly deploy smart technologies, incorporating recent advances in cloud-based solutions, Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence/machine learning which can have a multiplier effect on the work done by public sector agencies. "Every one of our clients-and by extension, the communities thy serve-wins. By coming together as CentralSquare, we strengthen our commitment to delivering the broadest, smartest, and most unified software platform for public safety and public administration agencies," said Simon Angove, CEO of CentralSquare Technologies. "Our combined experience and resources, a deep bench of talent, and a sharp focus on innovation solely for the public sector will enable us to provide solutions that build safer and smarter communities."
CentralSquare Technologies will support all current products from each business while investing in the development of new and advanced technology solutions. Further, the merged company will be able to provide even better customer service through a much larger support organization that can smartly address customer needs across geographic areas and time zones. Over the coming weeks, CentralSquare will be hosting a number of webinars and roadshows to further communicate upcoming innovations across all product lines. The name, CentralSquare Technologies, emphasizes putting citizens at the center of everything the new company offers. A central square is a place where citizens interact with their government, whether it be at city hall, a police or fire station, or a hospital. "To square" reflects taking communities to the next level, and the four corners of a square refer to the four brands that are coming together to form CentralSquare Technologies.
Learn more at www.CentralSqr.com About CentralSquare Technologies Formed by the merger of Superion, TriTech along with Zuercher, and the public sector and healthcare business of Aptean, CentralSquare Technologies is an industry leader in public safety and public administration software, serving over 7,500 organizations from the largest metropolitan city to counties and towns of every size across North America. Its technology platform provides solutions for public safety, including 911, computer aided dispatch, records management, mobile, citations, evidence management, and corrections. For public administration agencies, CentralSquare provides software for finance, human capital management, payroll, utility billing, citizen engagement, asset management, regulatory compliance, and community development. For hospitals and clinicians, it provides patient information, compliance, and analytics software. CentralSquare's broad, unified and agile software suite serves 3 in 4 citizens across North America. More information is available at www.CentralSqr.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005895/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Duos Technologies Receives Award to Develop Mechanical Inspection Algorithms
Agreement Provides for Development of Enhanced Algorithms to Monitor Potential Defects on Rolling Stock at Rail Inspection Portals
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Duos Technologies Group, Inc. (Duos or the Company) (OTCQB: DUOT), a provider of intelligent security analytical technology solutions, was awarded a Software License and Application Models Agreement from a leading North American Class-1 Transportation and Logistics company. The Agreement covers the development and licensing of seventeen artificial intelligence-based detection algorithm models. Noel Heiks, President and COO of the Companys wholly owned operating subsidiary Duos Technologies, Inc., added: This Agreement allows rail operators to deploy sophisticated algorithms which will force-multiply and streamline their overall inspection process. Ultimately, with these algorithms fully implemented, rail operators will be able to increase the speed and accuracy by which potential mechanical defects can be identified as well as corrected. Duos Chairman and CEO Gianni Arcaini stated: This agreement will allow us to demonstrate how significantly our automated inspection strategies can impact rail operations in general and, in particular, the safety and efficiency of traditional mechanical inspection practices. We anticipate the development and deployment of many additional detection algorithms in the near future, which wil go hand in hand with the deployment of our constantly improving inspection portal technologies.
About Duos Technologies Group, Inc.
Duos Technologies Group, Inc. (OTCQB: DUOT), based in Jacksonville, Florida, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Duos Technologies, Inc., provides advanced intelligent security and analytical technology solutions with a strong portfolio of intellectual property. The Companys core competencies include intelligent technologies that combine machine learning, artificial intelligence and advanced video analytics that are delivered through its proprietary integrated enterprise command and control centraco platform. The Company provides its broad range of technology solutions with an emphasis on mission critical security, inspection and operations within the rail transportation, retail, petrochemical, government, and banking sectors. Duos Technologies also offers professional and consulting services for large data centers. For more information, visit http://www.duostech.com . Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking terminology such as believes, expects, may, will, should, anticipates, plans, or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, which could cause Duos Technologies Group, Inc.s actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those described in Item 1A in Duos Annual Report on Form 10-K, which is expressly incorporated herein by reference, and other factors as may periodically be described in Duos filings with the SEC.
Contacts: Duos Technologies Corporate
Tracie Hutchins
Duos Technology Group, Inc.
904-652-1601
tlh@duostech.com Investor Relations
Matt Glover or Tom Colton
Liolios
949-574-3860
DUOT@liolios.com
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Insight School of Minnesota Set to Begin 2018-2019 School Year on September 10
Students and teachers at Insight School of Minnesota (ISMN) will start the 2018-2019 school year on September 10, simply by turning on their computers. An online public school, ISMN is a tuition-free education option for students across Minnesota in grades 6 through 12. ISMN combines innovative technology, a rigorous curriculum and dedicated staff to support each student's academic and personal success. "We are eager to get the new school year underway at Insight School of Minnesota," said John Huber, head of school. "As a trusted public education partner to families throughout the state, we are proud to provide an innovative online learning platform and supportive teachers to help each student set and meet their academic goals." ISMN offers an engaging curriculum, and provides students with a personalized learning experience. Minnesota-licensed teachers facilitate lessons during live, interactive online classes. Through the state's Postsecondary Enrollment Options Program, eligible ISMN students can earn college credits at higher education institutions throughout the state while they work towards earning a high school diploma. ISMN's Student Success Program, which includes social and emotional learning resources, family support, remediation programs and college and career counseling, helps students build cofidence and independence as they prepare for life after high school.
To keep students on track towards graduation, ISMN deploys a Family Academic Support Team ( FAST (News - Alert) ) of licensed social workers and other school personnel. FAST offers integrated support to families, teachers and students with the goal of improving academic outcomes. Along with community partners, FAST aims to prevent and eliminate the barriers that can leave students vulnerable to falling behind, before such needs arise. Throughout the year, ISMN builds a sense of community through in-person field trips, community service opportunities and social outings. Graduating seniors are celebrated at an in-person commencement ceremony each spring. ISMN alumni have gone on to enroll in two- and four-year colleges and universities, join the Armed Forces and enter in-demand careers.
ISMN is still accepting enrollment applications for the 2018-2019 school year. Families are encouraged to attend an online or in-person information session hosted by the school. To learn more about enrollment and for a schedule of upcoming events, visit mn.insightschools.net or download the K12 enrollment app for iOS and Android (News - Alert) devices. About Insight School of Minnesota Insight School of Minnesota (ISMN) is a tuition-free, full- and part-time online public school program of Brooklyn Center School District that serves students in grades 6 through 12. As part of the Minnesota public school system, ISMN is tuition-free, giving parents and families the choice to access the curriculum provided by K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN), the nation's leading provider of proprietary K-12 curriculum and online education programs. For more information about ISMN, visit mn.insightschools.net. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005925/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018]
Predictive Technology Group Announces Updated Presentation Time at the H.C. Wainwright 20th Annual Global Investment Conference
SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Predictive Technology Group, Inc. (OTC/PINK: PRED), a life-sciences technology company, announces that its presentation time at the H.C. Wainwright 20th Annual Global Investment Conference has been changed to Thursday, September 6, 2018 at 3:50 p.m. Eastern time (12:50 p.m. Pacific time). Bradley Robinson, President and CEO, will present a corporate update at the conference, which is being held at the St. Regis New York.
A live webcast and replay of the presentation will be available on the events section of the Companys website at www.predtechgroup.com/investor-relations .
About Predictive Technology Group, Inc.
Predictive Technology Group aims to revolutionize patient care through predictive data analytics, novel gene-based diagnostics and companion therapeutics through its wholly owned subsidiaries Predictive Therapeutics and Predictive Biotech. These subsidiaries are focused on endometriosis, scoliosis, degenerative disc disease and human cell and tissue products. The subsidiaries use genetic and other information as cornerstones in the development of new diagnostics that assess a persons risk of illness and therapeutic products designed to identify, prevent and treat diseases more effectively. Additional information is at www.predictivetechnologygroup.com, www.predrx.com and www.predbiotech.com.
Contact:
Investors
LHA Investor Relations
Jody Cain jcain@lhai.com
Kevin Mc Cabe kmccabe@lhai.com
310-691-7100
[September 05, 2018] DHI Releases Sapphire Touch, the International Mobile Hotspot with Advanced CloudSIM Technology
Today, DHI Telecom CEO, Wallace Davis announced the world-wide release of Sapphire Touch, just one year after the release of the original Sapphire International Mobile Hotspot, which sold tens of thousands of devices. What's new is a touchscreen that monitors the data level, and 15 hours of battery life on one charge, which also works as a USB Power Bank. Both devices use the secure, CloudSIM platform. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005955/en/ The Sapphire Touch is $179 and comes in graphite black or white with a gold band. All Sapphire hotspots come with 500 free megabytes of international data. It takes only a minute to connect and just a few minutes to set up an account online. Sapphire devices are sold in stores at 35 military bases, including select Army & Air Force Exchange Services. They are sold online at ShopMyExchange.com and at SapphireGo.com.
DHI Telecom started in 2007 and built its reputation on developing reliable, commercial internet solutions in war zones where troop deployments are made with little notice. Traditional ways of getting cellular service were difficult 11 years ago and remain so. It involves purchasing SIM cards and local data plans for each country. "The wasted hours add up while looking for a mobile store, sometimes in bazaars, and even from unscrupulous sellers. Sometimes, the data is stolen from hackers within hours of buying it," Davis explained.
Sapphire mobile Wi-Fi hotspots create a secure hub that connect five devices to the internet. This technology enables soldiers and DoD personnel to take the internet with them to stay in touch with their family and friends back home. No SIM cards are needed, and international data plans for 100+ countries are instantly available online for downloads. The hotspots connect to the strongest cell signal creating a private 4G Wi-Fi hub. In addition to the military, international business and vacation travelers are an emerging market for Sapphire devices. Davis specified, "For our armed services, a Sapphire hotspot is not just the internet, it's a lifeline." DHI Telecom is an official U.S. government telecommunications solutions provider, Army & Air Force Exchange Service, Advanced Telecom Division concession, and a Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command internet supplier. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005955/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] Leidos Health Named Top IT Consultant by Black Book Survey
RESTON, Va., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos (NYSE: LDOS), a FORTUNE 500 science and technology leader, today announced it was named by Black Book Market Research as the 2018 Top Health Information Technology (IT) Consultant according to polls taken by nearly 2,000 healthcare providers and organizations. The company rated highest overall for client experience and satisfaction across a variety of segments, and was ranked No. 1 in the Go-Live Support and Cerner Implementation categories. Since 2009, Black Book has surveyed the client experience of healthcare software and services users for trends and industry insights. Black Book measures customer satisfaction across 20 consultant-centric, performance indicators such as innovation, level of advisory expertise on subject matter, scalability, engagement successes, and return on investment. Leidos also ranked in the top 10 for other Black Book IT Consultants & Advisor categories. These include: Enterprise Resource Planning (No. 3); IT Assessment and Vendor Selection (No. 3); Revenue Cycle Management Optimization (No. 5); System-Wide Technology & Digitalization Strategy (No. 5); Epic Implementations (No. 6); Financial Strategic Planning (No. 7); Clinical Workflow Optimization (No. 9); and Value Based Care Transformation & Strategy (No. 10). With innovative solutions that span from the research bench to the patient bedside, the Leidos Health Group provides a 360 degree approach to helping federal, military, life sciences, and hospital customers solve their most critical healthcare challenges. "Our team brings deep systems integration and healthcare IT expertise to both commercial and government customers," said Leidos Health Group President, Jon Scholl. "This recognition underscores both the breadth and value of the consulting services we provide to our hospital and health system customers." In total, 142 consultant firms received crowd-sourced evaluations from the polls conducted Q1 to Q3 2018. The survey methodology and full listing of healthcare consultant and advisory firm rankings in each category can be found at Black Book's website: https://blackbookmarketresearch.com/it-consultants-and-advisors. 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.
Contact: Melissa Koskovich Jason Kello
(571) 526-6850 (571) 526-6011
Koskovichm@Leidos.com Jason.Kello@leidos.com
View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/leidos-health-named-top-it-consultant-by-black-book-survey-300707515.html SOURCE Leidos
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[September 05, 2018] UnitedHealthcare and Optum Take Action to Support People Along Gulf Coast Affected by Tropical Storm Gordon
UnitedHealthcare and Optum, the health benefits and services companies of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), are taking action to help people in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana affected by Tropical Storm Gordon. Support includes assisting health plan participants who may need to make alternate arrangements to access care and early prescription refills, as well as offering a free emotional-support line to help people who might be affected. Help Finding a Network Care Provider, Early Refills: Plan participants who need help finding a care provider in the UnitedHealthcare network or obtaining early prescription refills can call customer care at the number located on the back of their medical ID cards.
Plan participants who need help finding a care provider in the UnitedHealthcare network or obtaining early prescription refills can call customer care at the number located on the back of their medical ID cards. For plan participants who may have misplaced their medical ID cards , call 866-633-2446, 8 a.m.-8 p.m. (in the local time zone), Monday through Friday. People enrolled in Medicaid, employer-sponsored and individual health plans (except Medicare) who have a smartphone can download the free Health4Me app , which provides instant access to their ID card, network care providers, their personal health benefits and more. The Health4Me app is available as a free download at the Apple (News - Alert) iTunes AppStore and the Android (News - Alert) Market on Google Play.
, call 866-633-2446, 8 a.m.-8 p.m. (in the local time zone), Monday through Friday. People enrolled in Medicaid, employer-sponsored and individual health plans (except Medicare) who have a smartphone can download the free , which provides instant access to their ID card, network care providers, their personal health benefits and more. The Health4Me app is available as a free download at the Apple (News - Alert) iTunes AppStore and the Android (News - Alert) Market on Google Play. Free Help Line: Optum, a leading health and behavioral health services company, is offering a free emotional-support help line.
Along with the toll-free help line, emotional-support resources and information are available online at www.liveandworkwell.com.
About UnitedHealth Group
UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) is a diversified health care company dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and helping to make the health system work better for everyone. UnitedHealth Group offers a broad spectrum of products and services through two distinct platforms: UnitedHealthcare, which provides health care coverage and benefits services; and Optum, which provides information and technology-enabled health services. For more information, visit UnitedHealth Group at www.unitedhealthgroup.com or follow @UnitedHealthGrp on Twitter (News - Alert) . Click here to subscribe to Mobile Alerts for UnitedHealth Group. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005977/en/
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
Fotang ancient town was once a hive of activity, bustling with as many as nine ports. It was part of the Qiantang River system that goes all the way to Hangzhou, 150-kilometers to the north, which then connects to Beijing through the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.
Local produce, like brown sugar, dates and ham, was exported to the rest from China. However, the town was most noted for one commodity salt. During the peak of Fotang's prosperity, up to 500 ships would dock overnight.
As water routes have been replaced, this riverside port has had to find itself a new competitive edge. Fotang ancient town has found a way to preserve its trading heritage manufacturing and selling traditional wedding items.
Traditional wedding accessories are still made by hand in Fotang ancient town. An item such as a traditional wedding couplet could take an experienced craftsman an hour to sew if not interrupted.
Even now a lot of young Chinese couples prefer to have a traditional style Chinese wedding in traditional Chinese outfits. Even with the increasing pace of life, there's still a market for nostalgia in China.
[September 05, 2018] Canada's G7 Presidency Advances Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in the Energy Sector
TORONTO, Sept. 5, 2018 /CNW/ - Canada's Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, has made gender equality a priority for Canada's G7 Presidency, dedicating one of five main themes to Advancing Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment. Canada's energy industry remains gender-imbalanced, with women making up just 24 percent of the workforce. Women's representation in clean energy is only slightly higher at 25 percent. The Government of Canada is committed to addressing the gender imbalance in our energy sector. Women in Renewable Energy today hosted a panel discussion and networking event aimed at increasing women's participation and leadership in the energy sector. The event sought input on ways to advance women's participation in the energy sector, including in the cleantech industry, and promote female role models in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The event, which was held in advance of the G7 Ministerial Meetings on Climate Change, Oceans and Clean Energy later this month in Halifax, Nova Scotia, featured an esteemed panel of experts who provided their perspectives and insight as influential voices in the area of gender equality. The event also included a keynote address by Dr. Imogen Coe, former founding Dean of Science at Ryerson University and expert in equity, diversity and inclusion in STEM. As well, Dionne Pohler, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, moderated a panel with Jane Travers, Vice-President of Strategic Operations Renewable Generation, Ontario Power Generation; Michelle Branigan, CEO of Electricity Human Resources Canada; and Michael Kaufman, a G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council member. The panel discussed the barriers that women face in the energy sector and explored possible solutions including organizational culture and the role of men in the gender equality revolution.
At the close of the event,CUTRIC and Ontario Waterpower Association signed on to the Equal by 30 Campaign, joining more than 30 Canadian and international signatories who have committed to work toward equal pay, equal leadership and equal opportunities for women in the clean energy sector by 2030. Canada will continue to make gender equality in the energy sector a priority through initiatives such as the Women in Cleantech Challenge and internationally with the launch of the Equal by 30 Campaign at the 2018 Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM).
Quotes "Canada is leading by example to address the issue of gender equality in the G7 energy agenda. We will continue to engage key private sector and public sector leaders on this important issue and take actions to improve gender equality, particularly in the energy sector. We want to influence current and future leaders of Canadian industry to commit to meaningful action in the area of gender equality." Amarjeet Sohi
Canada's Minister of Natural Resources "Women in Renewable Energy (WiRE) is excited to partner with Natural Resources Canada to promote the Equal by 30 Campaign. WiRE supports the Equal by 30 Campaign as it provides organizations a practical framework to develop concrete commitments and take action to make their cultures more inclusive. The campaign is also creating a community of organizations that can share, learn and grow together while keeping each other accountable." Joanna Osawe
WiRE Chair, Executive Director and Co-Founder Associated Links Women in Renewable Energy (WiRE)
Equal by 30
G7 Advancing Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment
Leadership Accord for Gender Diversity Follow us on Twitter: @NRCan (http://twitter.com/nrcan)
NRCan's news releases and backgrounders are available at www.news.gc.ca.
Follow WiRE on Twitter: @WiRE_Canada SOURCE Natural Resources Canada
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
You have reached a premium content area of TOL. To read this entire article please login if you are already a TOL subscriber.
Not a subscriber?
Annual membership costs only $55 per year for individuals ($33 for students) and organizational subscriptions start at $141 per year.
Subscribe today for access to:
Full access to the website, including premium articles videos, country reports and searchable archives (containing over 25,000 articles).
PopSockets PopMount 2 review
If youre a PopGrip user the PopSockets PopMount 2 is the only phone holder youre going to need and it even works on your desk.
The streets and sidewalks in Westport should be open and accessible on weekend nights. But if stakeholders remain committed to the new security measures put in place to improve public safety in the district, they may need to develop better solutions to address issues in the area Otherwise, the decision to privatize some sidewalks in the district may prove cumbersome for customers - and could lead to unrest in the streets.
While Opioids Grab The Spotlight, The Meth Epidemic Grows Worse Than Ever Starting in the mid-1990s, Capt. Dan Cummings worked as an undercover cop going after meth suppliers in his hometown of Independence, Missouri. He had grown up seeing what meth could do, so for him the work was personal. "When I was a kid, a cousin brought a bag of this white powder in and said, 'Man, hey, you gotta try this stuff.
If there's a theme for this year, it's that junkies come from all walks of life . . . Accordingly, this news update reminds us that meth continues to be a problem that impacts working-poor whites and Latinos with growing frequency . . . Even worse, the home grown epidemic is now part of the local culture. Stagnant wages andhas created not just an underground economy but an outlaw community that rejects the values of the mainstream and would, seemingly, opt for the illicit drug trade rather than daily grind.Read more:
Victims' advocate doubts Missouri's church investigation will match Pennsylvania's Kansas City lawyer Rebecca Randles wonders how effective a state investigation will be in uncovering sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. Randles represents alleged victims of abuse by priests. Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley is less than two weeks into his investigation of the St. Louis Archdiocese.
This local advocate doesn't seem too confident about a crisis of faith and the widespread demand for accountability among local victims. Read more:
Kansas City Suffers Scooter Tech Crime
Bird scooters damaged, vandalized in Kansas City KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Bird scooters have been popular since they arrived in Kansas City. Recently, some have complained about them being damaged and vandalized. "I have probably ridden it about 10 times now," said Mike Townsend. By now you have probably seen Birds speeding past you.
KCMO 2nd Story Man Wanted
Rooftop burglar sought in Kansas City Kansas City, MO - Police are looking for the public's help to identify a man who has been breaking into businesses through the roof.Det. Eric Johnson with KCPD's East Patrol Property Crimes Section says the pictured burglar is linked to several break-ins in recent months.
Looking For Answers After Jezzy Creezy Lookalike Suspicion
Questions remain about Shawnee Christian school's future as founder sits in jail for alleged sex crimes SHAWNEE, Kan. -- There are questions Tuesday morning about whether a Shawnee school will open just days after prosecutors charged its founder with sex crimes against children. Oaklawn Christian School at 47th and Woodlawn has taken down its website along with the Oaklawn sign out front.
JoCo Slice Of Life Testimony
Man testified he chopped up wife's body to keep his children During a preliminary hearing Tuesday, 36-year-old Justin Rey testified that dismembered his wife's body at a Kansas City, Missouri, hotel in October 2017.
Nasty Lurks In The Stax
KC man gets 10 years for printing child porn at library Kansas City, MO - A man previously convicted of possessing child pornography was sentenced to 10 years in prison for printing off images of child porn from a Kansas City library in 2017. Court records show that David R.
Right now we contemplate an eternal party of news links along with some of today's alleged crime and misdeeds.But first, here's a bit of pop culture news as we patiently await a sequel:Closer to home, these news links dominate our discourse . . .Developing . . .
China said it will encourage and attract private investment to help build more general aviation airports, to provide more comprehensive services such as public transportation and social services, and further promote the growth of the sector.
The government will encourage policy-based and commercial financial institutions to provide diversified financial services to support the construction of general aviation airports, and reduce the financing costs of enterprises, according to the statement released by the National Development and Reform Commission on Tuesday.
Local governments are encouraged to adopt models like franchising and government purchasing services, to prevent local government debt risks, according to the statement.
During the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), the Civil Aviation Administration of China will appropriate civil aviation development funds to the building of one to two general aviation airports in different provinces. Those airports should be dedicated to short-distance transportation, emergency relief and medical assistance, the statement said.
In urban clusters with high market demand, such as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta, the local governments should lay out comprehensive general aviation airports, to ease the non-core business of hub airports, and provide more personal and highly efficient services.
Besides, those city clusters should build general airports near hospitals, and gradually set up general aviation medical assistance networks, enabling the distances between hospitals and airports to be reduced to 30 minutes.
In addition, more general aviation airports should be built in areas with frequent natural disasters and near national highways to enhance emergency rescue capability by air, the statement said.
"For long, the limited number of general aviation airports and inadequate support facilities have been one of the restrictive factors that hampered the growth of the general aviation sector," said Lin Zhijie, an aviation industry analyst and columnist at Carnoc, one of China's largest civil aviation websites.
It is projected that by 2020, China will have 500 general aviation airports, and more than 5,000 general aviation aircraft will be in operation. The industry's value will exceed 1 trillion yuan ($1.5 billion), according to CAAC.
Currently, the United States has around 20,000 general aviation airports, and more than 70 percent of general aviation aircraft globally are delivered to the US, according to data from Qianzhan Institute for Industrial Research.
"The new policy will be beneficial to attract more social capital to be involved in the building of general airports, and help to improve the infrastructure of general aviation sector. Yet, the attraction of private investments not only needs the encouragement of government policies, it also requires profit incentives," Lin said.
Drive in to the Blue Ridge Community College Transylvania Campus on Saturday, Sept. 22, to see a wide variety of vehicles on display at the car show, taking place from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. in the parking lots of Blue Ridge Campus on Oak Park Drive. It is free and open for public viewing.
Vehicles on display will be a variety of makes and models and will include antiques, performance, motorcycles and unique designs. Trophies will be awarded for winners in each category.
Participants may register their car show vehicles early for $15 or on the day of the show for $20.
Call Eric Stephens at 694-1659 or email him at [email protected] to sign up.
Car show registration proceeds will benefit Blue Ridge automotive technology students and other technical students as they compete in state and national SkillsUSA competitions. The money will help students with competition costs such as transportation, food, lodging and registration.
Automotive technology instructors Eric Stephens and Johnny Galloway are excited about the car show and the way the Blue Ridge automotive program has grown over the years.
Stephens came to Blue Ridge Community College as a student at the main campus in Henderson County after Coats American closed their plant in Rosman. Stephens, who had been an electrician at Coats, decided to study automotive technology.
"Being an electrician helped me transition into automotive because a lot of vehicles are electronic based," he said.
During his last semester in 2004 Stephens was hired as an instructor. In 2008 Stephens transferred to the Transylvania County Campus to start the automotive program inside the newly built Applied Technology Building. Stephens attributes Blue Ridge Community College for providing him an education which allows him to support his family and have a successful career in Transylvania County.
Galloway came through the Blue Ridge Community College automotive technology program, starting when he was a senior in high school as one of the original dual-enrollment students, leaving Rosman High to take automotive courses. Galloway continued his studies under instructor Stephens at the Transylvania County Campus, earning an associate degree in automotive systems technology.
Due to the phenomenal growth of the auto program, an instructor position came open and Galloway began teaching dual-enrolled high school students in 2013. "The program gave me the skills and confidence to work in the industry and to teach the next group of automotive technicians. I appreciate the opportunities that Blue Ridge has provided me and my family," said Galloway.
Over the years the program has grown from five to more than 40 students. Stephens instructs the curriculum students majoring in automotive systems technology, and Galloway instructs students from Davidson River, Rosman and Brevard high schools. Students spend about 70 percent of time working on cars in the automotive lab, and 30 percent learning in the classroom. It is a very hands on program. Stephens and Galloway teach students how to diagnose and repair cars effectively, as well as teaching them soft skills such as good workmanship and good work ethics.
The Blue Ridge automotive program is NATEF (National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation) certified and the instructors, Stephens and Galloway, are ASE (Automotive Society of Engineers) certified. The instructors spend 40 hours minimum a year in training to keep up on the latest automotive technology.
Students who graduate from the Blue Ridge Community College automotive systems technology program have a wide array of career choices ahead of them. In addition to being a service technician in a shop or at a dealership, graduates can work in the industry in positions such as service manager, sales, design, manufacturing and driveability testing, or they may choose a specialty such as transmission repair or engine rebuilding.
Blue Ridge graduates have been hired widely by local employers.
Stephens remembers one student success story.
"Russell Shoemaker has been hired on full-time at BMW in Greer, S.C. When Russell started our program here, he went through three programs before finishing in the automotive program," he said.
Tours of the BRCC automotive lab and machining lab will take place on the Saturday of the car show, Sept. 22.
(Handy is a member of the BRCC staff.)
The 2018 College Night will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 11, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in Blue Ridge Conference Hall at Blue Ridge Community College in Flat Rock. The public is invited to attend.
Representatives from more than 50 colleges and universities will be available to talk with high school students and their parents about post-secondary educational opportunities. The representatives will also provide applications and promotional materials for their schools.
While most of the colleges attending will be from North Carolina, there will also be a number of schools from Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee.
Although College Night is held primarily for the benefit of local high school juniors and seniors and their parents, college students who are interested in transfer opportunities are also encouraged to attend.
For more information about College Night, contact Student Services at Blue Ridge Community College at (828) 694-1800.
Participating colleges and universities (as of Aug. 28): Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, Barton College, Belmont Abbey College, Bennett College, Berry College, Blue Ridge Community College, Bluefield College, Brevard College, Bridgewater College, Campbell University, Carolinas College of Health Sciences, Carson-Newman Uni-versity, College Foundation, Inc. (CFNC), Columbia International University, Converse College, East Carolina University, Florida Institute of Technology, Gardner-Webb University, High Point University, Hollins University, Johnson & Wales University, King University, Lander University, Lees-McRae College, Lenoir-Rhyne University, Liberty University, Mars Hill University, Mid-Atlantic Christian University, Montreat College, North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina State University, North Greenville University, Pfeiffer University, Piedmont College, Queens University of Charlotte, Saint Augustines University, Southwestern Community College, The Citadel, Universal Technical Institute, University of Mount Olive, University of North Carolina at Asheville, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, University of Tennessee, Visible Music College, Warren Wilson College, Western Carolina University, William Peace University, Winthrop University, Wofford College, and Young Harris College.
On Wednesday, Aug. 29, The Greystone Inn hosted its first "Friends of the Greystone" event with Southern Living's Rebecca Lang.
At the event, Lang hosted a cooking and wreath making demonstration in the Lakeside Dining Room with Lake Toxaway in the background. The guests in attendance were local residents who were thrilled to learn new cooking techniques and tricks, as well as how to make their own wreath. Guests were able to sample each of the recipes that Lang demonstrated and left the event with recipe cards, as well as a signed copy of Lang's book, "Southern Vegetables."
Recipes demon...
HAITI'S LE PLAZA: MORE THAN JUST A HOTEL
General manager builds resilience into hotel operations
MIAMI (September 5, 2018) - Blessed with generations of family leadership - and having overcome the challenges of natural disasters as well as underfunded governments and economic instability - the executive management at Le Plaza Hotel know as much about resilience, creativity and the power of networking as they do about hospitality.
Located in the central part of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, the iconic hotel weathered the catastrophic earthquake that wreaked havoc on the Caribbean nation in 2010, but was spared the devastation suffered by much of the capital and surrounding businesses. As a result, the property was able to house relief and recovery workers from many countries.
Under the leadership of the Pierre-Louis family, the Le Plaza team learned many lessons from the earthquake and its aftermath - most notably the importance of strong community partnerships and the need to have back-up plans in place.
"So, we tend to be extremely resilient and have a variety of contingency plans to ensure our staff and guests are well taken care of," noted general manager Marc Pierre-Louis, who assumed the reins of the hotel from his older sister Agnes Pierre-Louis, now a tourism consultant working throughout the Caribbean and Latin America.
Pierre-Louis observed that over the years Haitian hoteliers have developed coping mechanisms: "All the hoteliers and basically all the businesses have a culture of extreme self-reliance ... we work with the government, but also rely on each other," he said, adding "you're only as strong as your community network."
Le Plaza has often been described as "an island within an island" because its secure structures and location make it a haven during crises. "In the hurricane season, we put in contingency plans with our staff. Certain members of our staff might not have secure shelter so we'll accommodate them and their families at our hotel. If it's a different kind of disruption, we'll put in plans so that shifts can sleep overnight."
He also recalled being able to fly to the aid of those stricken in other Caribbean islands: "This was kind of ironic. Haiti is usually on the receiving end of aid. But, when a hurricane hit Turks and Caicos last year, a friend and I chartered a small Cessna aircraft to fly in a generator and some tarps. Nothing was working, so within 48 hours of the hurricane hitting we managed to get in and provide some support. And that was probably the first outbound Haitian-aid flight ever!"
To Pierre-Louis, regional conferences such as the Caribbean Hotel Industry Exchange Forum (CHIEF), organized by the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) this summer, are opportunities to build relationships that could save lives throughout the Caribbean.
"You really have to cultivate relationships and see where can you find the right help at the right moment. There are different phases to a disaster - there's the immediate action and then there's recovery and rebuilding. So for different phases you need different skill sets and you definitely have to be aware of what are you going to need at different times, what's missing in your Rolodex, in your network, and look actively for people to help you build that out," he said.
"No man is an island. We are strong together and must continue to build partnerships at all levels - local, regional and international," said Pierre-Louis.
Ride-hailing platform Didi Chuxing will shut down most of its nighttime services, including taxis and web-hailing, for a week while it improves safety, the company said on Tuesday.
The move comes after a female passenger was allegedly killed by a Didi driver in August.
The shutdown-from 11 pm to 5 am-will start on Saturday and end on Sept 15.
Didi said it has upgraded the "emergency help" function on the passenger version of its app to "press the button to report to police", and a "safety center" will enable passengers to share trip routes in the event of an emergency. The upgraded system, introduced on Tuesday, will also remind passengers to add emergency contacts to their profiles.
The company will also record entire rides made using web-hailing services, starting from Saturday.
A 20-year-old woman using its "hitch" service was allegedly raped and killed by a Didi driver in Zhejiang province at the end of last month.
The company has been harshly criticized and questioned about the safety of its services in the wake of her death, as the woman texted a friend for help after she got into the car. Her friend and family called the company's customer service line, asking for information about the driver, but were shuffled around.
The family later called police and the police asked the company to hand over the driver's information, but they still had to wait for some time.
Netizens accused the company of being responsible for the woman's death because of the delay in handing critical information to police.
The statement said the platform handled 2.12 million complaint calls every day in August. The company has 5,000 employees at its customer service department and another 10,000 outsourced personnel to handle complaint calls. The company will hire another 3,000 customer service staff by the end of this year, the statement said.
It was the second such killing this year. In May, a flight attendant using the hitch service was killed by a Didi driver in Zhengzhou, Henan province.
In a statement published on the company's Sina Weibo micro blog account last month, the company's founder and CEO, Cheng Wei, and its president, Liu Qing, apologized for the latest incident.
Didi will make passenger safety the core value in the company's growth and development, rather than sheer size and profit, that statement said, adding that more emphasis will be placed on customer service.
It said Didi will re-evaluate its business model and service logic, and its online hitch ride service will remain deactivated until such time as its security measures are accepted by the public.
Treehugger and our third-party partners use cookies and process personal data like unique identifiers based on your consent to store and/or access information on a device, display personalized ads and for content measurement, audience insight, and product development. To change or withdraw your consent choices for Treehugger.com, including your right to object where legitimate interest is used, click below. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. List of Partners (vendors)
editorial@tribune.com
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 4
The UT Traffic Police will start challaning women two-wheeler riders without helmets from Wednesday.
A police official said the field staff would keep an eye on women two-wheeler riders and issue challans to those not wearing helmet. The new rule applies to the pillion riders as well, the police official added.
The Administration had issued a notification on July 6, making helmet compulsory for women. Only Sikh women wearing a turban will be exempted from wearing helmet.
The Traffic Police in the past ran a campaign, Helmet Pehnao, Beti Bachao, to encourage women two-wheeler riders to wear the safety gear. Cops even distributed helmets and other gifts during the campaign to women riding two-wheelers while wearing helmet.
The decision to make helmet compulsory for women two-wheeler riders is expected to bring down the fatality rate in road accidents. As many as 43 women have lost their lives in mishaps since 2013 as they were not wearing helmet while riding two-wheelers.
harinder@tribunemail.com
The increased venting of the forces grievances as well as purveyance of fake news might have motivated the Army Chief, Gen Bipin Rawat, to deliver his recent homily on social media. There are actually three messages bundled in the Chiefs address: (i) the tendency of soldiers to take to social media, (ii) the need to insulate the forces from honey traps and anti-India propaganda, and (iii) the Armys plans to vastly scale-up its current social media reach. It is a mystery why the Army Chief publicly disclosed plans to enlarge psychological operations (psy ops) that are usually kept under wraps. But what is not a mystery, and as the Chief himself acknowledged, is the dilemma about the extent of insulation from social media that is practical and implementable.
The soldier of today is not the callow, wet-behind-the-ears village simpleton of yesteryear. He is now plugged into social media even before turning up at his first recruitment rally or entrance examination. The awareness level about society and its traits is at an all-time high and the Chief is right in saying that a ban is not the answer. The armed forces are destined to constantly play catch up with the new media unless they acknowledge the fact that social media is an elephant in the room.
The elephant was present for a while but in a different form: word of mouth. There was no social media to trigger the unrest in a few units after Operation Bluestar or for that matter, the 1857 revolt, while honey traps were around even before wireless communication became widespread. Uploading of content has been easy to control: by informing the ranks that commenting or posting material that violates the basic rules of a soldiers conduct are prohibited. But the antidote to discontent and unhappiness with service conditions is to sympathetically review the outdated soldier-officer dynamics which perturbs the other ranks more than what the soldier imbibes from social media.
editorial@tribune.com
Tribune News Service
Jhajjar, September 5
A delegation of 28 civil service officers from Bangladesh on Wednesday reached Jhajjar to get information about administrative functioning of the district authority. All these officers have been undergoing training at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy in Mussoorie under the Mid Career Training Programme being run by India and Bangladesh jointly.
Jhajjar Deputy Commissioner (DC) Sonal Goel welcomed the guests by delivering her speech in Bengali language during an interaction programme while one of the guests in return also thanked the Jhajjar administration in Hindi.
At the programme, Sonal apprised the guests of programmes being run by the Central as well as the state government and the district administration for the welfare of various sections of the society. She also informed them about functioning of district administration for getting feedback from public about various government initiatives and redressing their grievances.
The DC also put light on significance of the field visits and shared their experience of direct interactions with common men during field visits.
Jhajjar SP Pankaj Nain described the police functioning while explaining the role of cops in maintaining law and order in various situations and investigating the cases of serious nature. He also described various vital factors for establishing a good mutual understanding between civil and police administration.
Zila Parishads CEO Shikha and Chief Ministers Good Governance Associate (CMGGA) Tanya Sharma informed the guests about seven star village programme, educated gram panchayats, crop insurance scheme and other steps being taken to enhance the income of farmers and for rural development in the district.
Later, the Bangladesh officers visited Saral Kendra and other offices in mini secretariat here and also interacted with people who came there for their personal work. They also received the information about facilities being provided to the visitors at the Saral Kendra.
editorial@tribune.com
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 5
To maintain transparency and consistency in denotifying acquired land and regulate the procedure of such denotification, the state government has decided to frame a policy for return of unutilised land under Section 101-A of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Haryana Amendment) Act, 2017.
The decision was taken in a meeting of the Cabinet held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar here on Wednesday.
The policy aimed at prescribing procedure for denotifying land, acquired under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, becoming unviable or non-essential on such terms as might be decided by the state government.
If the acquiring department was of the opinion that land acquired under the 1894 Act was unviable or non-essential for the public purpose for which it has been acquired and that the land should be denotified from acquisition, it would inform the government about its opinion and seek approval of the government before proceeding further in accordance with the provisions.
The district-level sub-committee constituted would, while examining the opinion of the acquiring department, consider issues like extent of payment of compensation, if any, to the landowners on account of damage, if any, sustained by them due to acquisition of land and extent of compensation by providing alternative land along with payment of damages, if any, in case of part utilisation of acquired land or in case of any encumbrances created on or against the acquired land or part thereof.
The district-level sub-committee, after examining the matter, would give its recommendations and reasons as to whether the opinion of the acquiring department referred to it for consideration deserved to be accepted or not. The sub-committee would submit a report to the Administrative Secretary of the acquiring department who would, after taking approval of the government, place the matter before the ministerial sub-committee.
A report of the ministerial sub-committee would be put up for consideration and decision by the Cabinet at the earliest. The Cabinet could, upon consideration of the report of the ministerial sub-committee, allow denotification of the acquired land.
Govt job for martyrs kin and other decisions
amansharma@tribunemail.com
Chandigarh, September 5
A strike call given by the employees of state-owned Haryana Roadways fizzled out on Wednesday after policemen rounded up protesting workers in pre-dawn action at several bus depots.
The workers were held for defying the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), invoked by the Haryana government to foil the one-day strike against a move to allow private buses run within and from the state.
"The public transport is plying normally in the state. Several of those employees who defied ESMA are now saying they want to return to work," Haryana Transport Minister Krishan Lal Panwar Panwar claimed.
However, some union leaders claimed the strike had its impact at many depots including Rohtak, Rewari and Narnaul and services were affected.
Union leaders had halted bus services at some depots on Tuesday night but they were restored in the morning, officials said.
The police rounded up several employees early in the morning, including union leaders, at the depots to foil protests.
They resorted to a mild lathicharge at some depots, including Fatehabad and Jind, as some employees sat on dharna at the main gates to stop buses from leaving.
Prohibitory orders under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were imposed at some places to prevent the assembly of more than four people.
Police said several Roadways employees were detained for defying these orders.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court had on Tuesday directed the state government to carry out videography at each Haryana Roadways depot in view of the proposed strike.
The court had also directed the government to take appropriate action under the ESMA against the striking employees.
A single-judge bench had passed these orders while hearing a petition filed by some private bus operators who alleged harassment by the Roadways unions.
Haryana Roadways Employees Union president Dalbir Kirmara was among those detained by the police in Hisar on Wednesday.
He had earlier said the government was adamant on introducing 700 private buses on various routes, which was being opposed by the union.
Union leaders claimed that some workers suffered minor injuries in Wednesday's police action.
Employees sat on dharnas at Fatehabad, Jind, Hisar, Ambala, Tohana, Sirsa, and Panchkula.
The Haryana government had on August 30 invoked the ESMA for six months, barring bus workers from going on the planned strike.
While the government termed the planned strike "unjustified", the opposition Indian National Lok Dal had earlier slammed the move to invoke the ESMA.
The Roadways employees have gone on strike earlier during the past year as well. - PTI
editorial@tribune.com
Tribune Reporters
Kurukshetra, September 5
A strike call given by employees of Haryana Roadways fizzled out on Wednesday as the police detained protesting workers in pre-dawn action at several depots.
Officials claimed the bus services across the state remained normal.
Union leaders had halted bus services at a few depots on Tuesday night, but they were restored in the morning, officials said.
Leaders blamed divided unions for the failure of the strike.
The Fatehabad police arrested 45 union leaders under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA). Protesting employees clashed with the police as the former tried to stop buses.
In Hisar, a case under the ESMA was registered against 37 union leaders. Haryana Roadways Employees Union president Dalbir Kirmara was among those detained by the Hisar police.
They have also been booked on the charge of assaulting and obstructing government officials from performing their duty. They allegedly damaged a video camera of a videographer who was filming the protesters. A case was filed under Sections 147, 148, 186, 323, 325, 341 and 427 of the IPC.
Union leaders claimed some workers suffered minor injuries in the police action.
In Jind, the police resorted to a mild lathicharge in the wee hours when a group of union activists tried to stop buses from leaving the depot. Deputy Commissioner Amit Khatri said several protesting union activists were taken into preventive custody and all of them were released before noon.
Prohibitory orders were issued in various districts; protests were not allowed within a 100-m radius of bus stands. A heavy posse of the police was deployed to prevent Roadways workers from protesting.
Haryana Roadways Workers Joint Action Committee (HRWJAC) general secretary Balwan Singh Dodwa told The Tribune the strike failed as unions associated with the Sarv Karamchari Sangh (SKS) and Bharatiya Mazdoor Mahasangh supported the state government.
A meeting has been called in Jind on Thursday to decide the future course of action against the state government which is adamant on introducing 700 private buses on several routes, he said.
Sarbat Punia, president of the SKS-affiliated Haryana Roadways Workers Union, condemned thrashing of employees and announced a protest at district headquarters on Thursday.
In Rohtak, buses plied under police protection. Rohtak depot General Manager Rahul Jain said the bus service was smooth.
In Karnal, around 95 per cent of buses plied. The district administration deployed 50 additional private buses, and 70 tempo-travellers and Jeeps in case of emergency situation.
In Hisar, the bus service remained suspended for a couple of hours, but it was resumed soon after union leaders were detained.
In Faridabad, all 185 buses of the depot plied, as none of the employees joined the strike.
In Rewari, more than 25 employees were apprehended in the morning when they were staging a dharna in the bus stand.
43 held in Ambala
Ambala: In all, 43 Haryana Roadways employees from here were arrested under Sections 5, 6 and 7 of the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), 1981, and Sections 353, 186 and 188 of the IPC. They were sent to judicial custody. The employees were booked for allegedly obstructing the movement of buses in the local depot. Rohit Jain, one of the advocates for employees, said, A bail application has been filed in court. A notice has been issued for Thursday. TNS
Experts attending a roundtable dialogue on World Trade Organization (WTO) modernization agenda in Beijing recently discussed emerging and existing issues in the context of US-China trade tensions.
Experts exchange views at a roundtable event entitled "Dialogue on WTO Modernization Agenda" in Beijing on Aug. 23, 2018. [Photo courtesy of CCG]
The Beijing-based Center for China and Globalization (CCG) held the roundtable event on Aug. 23 in collaboration with the leading Swiss think tank Center for International Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) and the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) of China.
Sun Zhenyu, Chairman of China Society for WTO Studies and former Ambassador of China to the organization, said a global trade war was a dysfunctional and highly complicated issue. He emphasized that the WTO's reform process should not only work for developed countries but also include developing countries.
"The WTO should bear in mind the purpose of reform," Sun said, "The major urgent challenge is the threat of unilateralism and trade protectionism. We cannot allow a single member to put their own domestic rules and regulations above WTO rules and regulations. WTO's rules, regulations and very basic principles must be preserved."
There should be stricter rules to prevent some countries from abusing "national security" and using it as an excuse for trade protectionism. "If you try to claim your national security is threatened by some normal trade on goods, I think that's ridiculous. You cannot simply take the pretext of the so-called 'national security' and [introduce] large scale State intervention into the normal trade between countries," he stressed.
Regarding intellectual property rights issues, Sun said it was wrong for any government to force enterprises to transfer their patented technology to other countries if they were not willing to do so. Equally, it would be wrong for a government to prevent enterprises from transferring these technologies if they so desired, or to ban such transfers outright,"The very fundamental purpose of this is to encourage the free flow of technology so that we can make more contribution to the progress of humanity and benefit the whole world."
In the context of the US-China trade war, American dissatisfaction with the WTO and its criticism of China's relevant policies had persisted for a long time. Points of contention include the WTO Appellate Body's negative ruling on the practice of zeroing in the US anti-dumping investigation, Article 15 of the China's WTO accession protocol, the Special and Differential Treatment enjoyed by emerging economies, and the government's role in the overall economy. Unlike previous governments, President Donald Trump has adopted a fiercely unilateralist approach.
Ricardo Melendez-Ortiz, CEO of ICTSD, said he was "actually very excited and optimistic" of seeing a shake-up in the multilateral trade system. The world had changed a lot since the WTO was established and had moved into an era of widespread global production, investment and trade, while more regional trade cooperation and related mechanisms were emerging, so that WTO was now required to play a different role than before.
He said the WTO still focused on issues related to the trade of goods and tariffs, while information and data had yet to be included in the trade framework. This meant it lagged far behind the development of the digital economy and thus should be an important aspect of WTO reform.
The United States, the EU and Japan proposed a number of WTO reform recommendations in their tripartite statement released on May 31, including State industrial subsidies, State-owned enterprises and market conditions, intellectual property rights protection, and compulsory technology transfers.
Meanwhile, the EU has also completed internal recommendations on WTO reform. In addition to the topics covered by the tripartite statement, its reform plan also involves development issues, the daily work of the WTO, etc. Additionally, the China-EU High Level Economic and Trade Dialogue is planning to set up a working group on WTO reform issues.
On Aug. 30, President Donald Trump threatened to pull out of the WTO unless it adopts rules more favorable to the United States. "If they don't shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO," he told Bloomberg.
Regarding Sino-US trade, Melendez-Ortiz said the Trump administration was trying to bring investment and manufacturing back to the United States by imposing tariffs; however, this was not wise in the long run.
China proposed a reform plan many years ago, but such a program takes a long time to achieve, and China should further promote the implementation of the reform. From the perspective of responsibility, the settlement of Sino-US trade disputes should focus on the level of rules rather than the market access level. The two countries should resolve disputes through active dialogue in the trade system, he said.
China had played an important role in the trading system and made important contributions to both the United Nations and the WTO, and together with other countries to the promotion of investment and development under the WTO framework, he said, adding that China will also benefit from further reforms in the WTO.
Among those attending the roundtable were Zhou Xiaoming, former deputy permanent representative at the Permanent Mission of China to the UN Office in Geneva, Adam Dunnett, secretary-general of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, Jacob Parker, vice president of US-China Business Council China Operation, Sun Yongfu, CCG senior fellow and former director-general of the Department of European Affairs of the Ministry of Commerce, Su Qingyi, senior researcher from the Institute of World Economics and Politics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Li Siqi, assistant professor with the China Institute for WTO Studies of UIBE.
monicakchauhan@gmail.com
London
The commonly used painkiller diclofenac may increase the risk of major cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and stroke, a study warns.
The study, published in The BMJ, compared diclofenac use with no use, paracetamol use, and use of other traditional painkillers.
Researchers at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark said that diclofenac should not be available over the counter, and when prescribed, should be accompanied by an appropriate front package warning about its potential risks.
Diclofenac is a traditional non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) for treating pain and inflammation and is widely used across the world.
However, its cardiovascular risks compared with those of other traditional NSAIDs have never been examined in large randomised controlled trials, researchers said.
They examined the cardiovascular risks of starting diclofenac compared with no NSAIDS, starting other traditional NSAIDs and paracetamol.
The results are based on national registry data for more than 6.3 million adults in Denmark with at least one year of continuous prescription records before study entry in January 1996.
Participants were split into low, moderate, and high baseline cardiovascular risk.
Average age was 46-49 years among participants starting NSAIDs and 56 years among those starting paracetamol.
After taking account of potentially influential factors, starting diclofenac during the study period (1996-2016) was associated with an increased rate of major adverse cardiovascular events within 30 days compared with starting other traditional NSAIDs (ibuprofen or naproxen) or starting paracetamol.
Events included irregular heart beat or flutter, ischaemic stroke, heart failure, and heart attack.
The increased risks applied to men and women of all ages and also at low doses of diclofenac, researchers said.
Starting diclofenac was also associated with an increased rate of cardiac death compared with no NSAIDs, and an increased risk of upper gastrointestinal bleeding compared with no NSAIDs, starting ibuprofen or paracetamol, they said.
Researchers noted that this is an observational study, so no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect.
However, the study's sample size is larger than most previous analyses of observational and randomised studies taken together and provides strong evidence to guide clinical decision making. PTI
editorial@tribune.com
Rajouri, September 5
The Army gunned down an intruder near the Line of Control (LoC) in the Keri sector in Rajouri district on Tuesday.
Sources said the incident occurred near the famous Veer Bhadreshwar temple of Lord Shiva situated close to the LoC. Two residents of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) had crossed the LoC reportedly to collect fodder in the Kass area.
When they were challenged by the Army, they started running towards PoK side. A soldier deployed on the LoC opened fire. One intruder was killed while another managed to escape, said the sources.
A rope and sickle was recovered from the possession of the slain person. He was not carrying any identity proof. However, the sources claimed the deceased was Mohd Arif, a resident of Kass in PoK.
Pertinently, during the last few months, PoK residents have been stealing cattle in the guise of collecting fodder in border villages. Several such incidents were reported near Sair village in the Nowshera sub-division in July. On July 23 in one such attempt an unidentified PoK resident was killed when he touched an electrified fence. After completing legal formalities, the police sent the body to Poonch for handing it over to the PoK authorities. OC
monicakchauhan@gmail.com
Hyderabad, September 5
A crucial meeting of the Telangana cabinet is likely to be held on Thursday to recommend dissolution of the state assembly to pave way for early polls.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has asked his cabinet colleagues to be available at 6 a.m. on September 6 for the cabinet meeting, according to sources in the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
The TRS chief considers '6' as his lucky number and that's the reason cited for not taking the decision during the cabinet meeting on September 2, which was held hours before the massive public meeting by the ruling party to sound the poll bugle.
The cabinet is expected to pass a resolution recommending to Governor E. S.L. Narasimhan to dissolve the assembly. The term of the assembly is till May, 2019 and the elections in normal course have to be conducted along with the polls for Lok Sabha.
On the eve of the cabinet meeting, the state capital on Wednesday witnessed hectic activity in the political circle. Chief Secretary SK Joshi, Chief Advisor to government Rajiv Sharma, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, S Narsing Rao and Legislative Assembly Secretary Narasimhacharyulu called on Narasimhan on Wednesday.
KCR also had a series of meetings with top party leaders.
A day after recommending dissolution of assembly, KCR will be launching the election campaign with a public meeting at Husnabad in Siddipet district on September 7.
Christened 'Prajala Aasirwada Sabha', this will be the first of 100 public meetings planned by TRS over next 50 days.
Political observers say TRS is keen for early assembly elections as it believes that simultaneous elections to assembly and Lok Sabha may not help it in properly highlighting the welfare and development works undertaken during last four years.
The political circle has been abuzz with the talks of early polls for the last few weeks with KCR himself giving strong hints with his two meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August, announcement of sops for various sections of people and transfer of top police and civil officials.
There was strong possibility of a decision in the cabinet meeting before September 2 public meeting, attended by lakhs of people and claimed to be mother of all rallies.
While the cabinet took no decision, KCR kept the suspense by telling the party cadres that the party leaders have empowered him to take a decision and that they would soon hear it (decision on early polls).
At the public meeting, the TRS chief highlighted the achievements of his government since it took reins in the newly created state in 2014.
He sought fresh mandate to continue the good work and achieve the goal of 'Bangaru Telangana' or golden Telangana. He urged people to protect their 'self-respect' by rejecting the parties from Delhi who want to make them slaves.
IANS
uttara@tribuneindia.com
New Delhi, September 5
With the government under attack from the Opposition on the Rafale issue, top security brass Wednesday briefed the Union Council of Ministers on the fighter aircraft deal with France in a bid to provide the leaders with facts to counter the allegations being levelled against it.
Sources said National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra made a detailed presentation on various aspects of the deal in the meeting, which lasted more than two-and-a-half hours.
The ministers were informed that it was a deal between two governments involving no private party, leaving little scope for corruption.
The security brass also highlighted the aircraft's capability that would strengthen the Indian Air Force and make the fighter jets an asset for it.
Opposition parties led by the Congress have been attacking the Modi government over the deal, alleging that it was struck at an exorbitant price and benefited an Indian businessman at the cost of the government-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
The presentation in the meeting also underscores Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to take all his allies, who are represented in the council of ministers, on board as the government works to counter the opposition on the issue with the Lok Sabha election being less than eight months away.
Separate presentations were also made on the government's ambitious 'Ayushman Bharat' mission, a health insurance cover for the poor, and 'Swachh Bharat' (clean India) project. PTI
rchopra@tribunemail.com
Ahmedabad, September 5
Former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt was detained on Wednesday by the Gujarat CID in connection with a 22-year-old case of arrest of a man for alleged possession of drugs, a senior police official said.
Bhatt and seven others, including some former policemen attached with the Banaskatha police, were detained for questioning in the case, Director General of Police, Crime Investigation Department (CID), Ashish Bhatia, said.
Bhatt was the Banaskantha district superintendent of police in 1996.
As per case details, the Banaskatha police under Bhatt had arrested Sumersingh Rajpurohit, an advocate, in 1996 on charges of possessing around 1 kg of drugs.
At that time, the Banaskanta police had claimed that drugs were found in a hotel room occupied by Rajpurohit in the districts Palanpur town.
However, a probe by Rajasthan Police had revealed that Rajpurohit was allegedly falsely implicated by the Banaskatha police.
It had also found that Rajpurohit was allegedly kidnapped by the Banaskatha police from his residence at Pali in Rajasthan.
In June this year, the Gujarat High Court had handed over the probe in the case to the CID while hearing Rajpurohits plea.
The high court had asked the CID to complete the probe in three months.
The CID found substance in charges against Bhatt, which led to his detention, Bhatia said, adding that Bhatt and some others could be arrested after questioning.
Bhatt was sacked by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in August 2015 for unauthorised absence from service. PTI
pardeepdhull@gmail.com
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 5
Former Indian bureaucrat Poonam Khetarpal Singh was on Wednesday nominated for a second five-year term as Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia.
Singhs candidature was unopposed, as the 11 Member countries of WHO South-East Asia Region met at the ongoing Regional Committee session to elect the next Regional Director.
Health and Family Welfare Minister JP Nadda hailed the move.
Under Khetarpal WHO South-East Asia Region emerged as the top performer in the organisation globally.
WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said as the first woman to become Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia Region, you have provided dynamic leadership in a Region that accounts for one quarter of the worlds population, but a disproportionate burden of its diseases.
The Director-General said that through her flagship programmes, Dr Khetrapal Singh had brought a strong focus to delivering results in countries, which is one of the key themes of WHOs new General Programme of Work and of WHOs transformation project.
Khetrapal Singh said, My vision is to consolidate, accelerate and innovate to further strengthen progress in the priority areas and translate vision into action.
Singh, a Punjab cadre IAS officer, has a long career in public health of over four decades.
She served in the health sector at various senior positions during her stint in the Indian Administrative Services; in the World Bank; was part of WHO Director-Generals cabinet in Geneva; worked as the Executive Director of Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments in WHO headquarters; and was Deputy Regional Director WHO South-East Asia Region from 2000-2013.
Singhs ongoing first term as Regional Director began on February 1, 2014, during which, in consultation with the Member countries she identified seven flagship prioritiesachieving universal health coverage; strengthening emergency response capacity; reversing the non-communicable disease epidemics; finishing off neglected tropical diseases; combating antimicrobial resistance; preventing maternal, under-5 and neonatal deaths and eliminating measles and controlling rubella. Eliminating tuberculosis was added as her eighth flagship in 2017.
Substantial progress has been made in each of these flagships and beyond. Certified polio free in 2014, the Region continues to maintain this status. The Region eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus becoming only the second WHO Region to do so. Four countries in the Region have eliminated measles and six have controlled rubella. The maternal mortality rates in the Region have reduced by 69%, the steepest decline in any WHO Region during the MDG era. Countries in the Region have reduced maternal, under-5 and neonatal mortality rates to levels below the SDG targets.
Among neglected tropical diseases, India eliminated yaws, Nepal eliminated trachoma, while Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand have eliminated lymphatic filariasis. Two countries Maldives and Sri Lanka have eliminated malaria.
All countries are implementing national action plans to combat anti-microbial resistance.
As per WHO procedures, the WHO Executive Board, which next meets in Geneva in January 2019 is expected to confirm Dr Khetrapal Singhs nomination and appoint her as the Regional Director. Dr Khetrapal Singh will commence her next five-year term on February 1, 2019.
harinder@tribunemail.com
New Delhi, September 5
The Modi government on Wednesday dismissed the Congress demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Rafale deal with France saying: ... to satisfy the ego of an ill-informed gentleman (Rahul Gandhi) it was not an option.
With the government under attack from the Opposition on the issue, the top security brass briefed the Union Council of Ministers on the fighter aircraft deal, saying its cost was based on equipment and weapons that would be integrated into the jet.
The presentation was made in a bid to provide the leaders with facts to counter the allegations of favouritism and corruption being levelled against the government by the Opposition.
A senior government functionary said National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and the Secretary, Defence Production, Ajay Kumar, highlighted various aspects of the deal at the meeting which lasted more than two hours. The ministers were informed that it was a deal between two governments involving no private party, leaving little scope for corruption.
The Opposition led by the Congress has been attacking the Modi government over the deal, alleging that it was struck at an exorbitant price and had benefited an Indian businessman at the cost of the government-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. The charges have been denied by the government.
Taking a dig at the Congress, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said questioning the deal was the biggest ignorance. He said cost escalation and currency variations between 2007- 2016 had to be considered. The 36 jets will come in a fly away condition and not even a bolt will be fitted here ... during UPA (rule), they did not believe in transfer of technology but preferred to buy (hardware) from foreign buyers ..., he said. TNS/PTI
rchopra@tribunemail.com
New Delhi, September 5
In a possible first, premises of Tamil Nadu police chief were among 40 locations searched by the CBI on Wednesday in connection with the 2017 gutkha scam, officials said.
After registering a case in May, the CBI carried out searches at 35 places in Tamil Nadu and five places in Karnataka, Mumbai and Puducherry, which included residential premises of Health Minister C Vijayabaskar, Tamil Nadu DGP TK Rajendran and former police commissioner S George in Chennai.
An Indian Revenue Services officer has also been raided by the CBI in connection with the case, the officials said.
This is possibly a rare incident when a serving DGP of a state has been raided by the CBI. A 1984-batch IPS officer, Rajendran was made the DGP in 2016 after Ashok Kumar opted out for a voluntary retirement scheme. Officials said Kumar, a 1982-batch IPS officer, was forced to seek VRS as he had recommended for a CBI probe in the gutkha scam.
The scam came to light on July 8, 2017, when income tax sleuths raided the godown, offices and residences of a pan masala and gutkha (a concoction of tobacco and pan masala) manufacturer in Tamil Nadu, who had been facing charges of tax evasion to the tune of Rs 250 crore.
The case was sent to the CBI by the Madras High Court in April this year on the plea of a DMK leader. This was challenged in the SC by a TN health official but the apex court sided with the High Court order and asked the agency to register a case.
The agency had registered an FIR against officials of the TN Government, Central Excise Department and the Food Safety Department in May. PTI
amansharma@tribunemail.com
Yash Goyal
Jaipur, September 5
The Rajasthan High Court on Wednesday ordered that there should not be any 'public function' during Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's Gaurav Yatra when she and BJP functionaries halt for a break.
The division bench comprising Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and justice G R Moolchandani, which has reserved the judgement on August 27 after completing hearing and discussion on a PIL by lawyer Vibhuti Bhushan Sharma, pronounced the order this afternoon.
In its 12-page judgement, the HC said, "Keeping in view the principles laid down in the two decisions of the Supreme Court in the writ petition filed by Common Cause, we declare that henceforth no public functions sponsored and financed by the state would be held during the road shows that is Gaurav Yatra to be undertaken by the BJP in the state of Rajasthan. Meaning thereby, on the day of Gaurav Yatra no government functions would be held and enroute when the chief minister and the functionaries of the BJP halt the Gaurav Yatra for some time and recommence the same after the break."
"It is conceded by the state that government function for inaugurating government projects or inaugurating exhibitions where publicity would be given to the social welfare schemes of the state are being held during the Gaurav Yatra. Meaning thereby, after the chief minister along with office-bearers of BJP Travels as part of road journey during the Yatra, the Yatra is temporarily halted and if function is held, purporting to be state sponsored function. Thereafter, Yatra proceeds and another state is sponsored function is held," the order stated.
"The division bench does not comment or deny on the recovery of expenditure made by the state government from the BJP as it has claimed to be its party's functions and submitted an affidavit of rough expenditures worth Rs 1.1 crore in the court," the petitioner told media.
The PIL alleged the misuse of fund and government machinery by the ruling party for Rajasthan government 'yatra' that is being led by Chief Minister Raje since August 4, and would complete on September 30 at Pushkar.
On earlier hearing, the state BJP has filed an affidavit in Rajasthan High Court on Vasundhara Raje's Gaurav Yatra expenditure, stating a sum of Rs 1.10 crore has been spent in first phase from August 4-10.
Hailing the HC order, PCC president Sachin Pilot demanded that the Raje government and BJP should repay to the exchequer the money which was spent on two phases of Gaurav Yatra so far.
Bharat Vahini Party president G S Tiwari, who quit the BJP after four decades and formed a new political outfit, said it was a moral defeat for Chief Minister who was running "Kaurav Yatra".
There was no reaction from the BJP or the state ministers.
In a similar PIL of Kuldeep Purohit on the same issues, a Division Bench of HC (Jodhpur bench) on Wednesday told the petitioner and respondents that the judgement has been pronounced today in those writ petitions (Jaipur PIL) and hence it is disposed of as not pressed.
pardeepdhull@gmail.com
New York, September 5
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that Indias planned purchase of a Russian missile system or its relations with Iran will not be the primary focus of the incredibly important 2+2 Strategic Dialogue meeting he and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis will be having with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Seetharaman this week.
Calling India a true strategic partner, he said on Tuesday the meeting in New Delhi is really about things that are big and strategic and will go on for 20, 40, 50 years and those are the kinds of topics that Secretary Mattis and I are hoping to address.
We have a true strategic partner who, frankly, is our only major defence partner... with whom we have a great relationship and who is very important to our success in our Indo-Pacific strategyenormous country with incredibly opportunity and capacity for wealth creation, he told reporters travelling with him to India according to a transcript provided by the State Department.
We hope we can find opportunities to continue to expand the relationship not only diplomatic and military-to-military but a good set of business relationships as well, he added.
Theres half a dozen things on the agenda that were really intent on making progress on, he said.
The 2+2 Strategic Dialogue was postponed twice at the request of the USfirst in April when the leadership of the State Department was transitioning from Rex Tillerson to Pompeo.
I regret it was my fault the second time in July, he said. I had to travel to Pyongyang. Trump had suddenly set up a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump had decided on the Strategic Dialogue when they met in Washington in 2017.
Trump administrations strategic vision embodies India and the US as the two bookends of stability in the Asia Pacific regionand a counterbalance to Chinas rising power.
Symbolically, the US now calls the region Indo-Pacific and even renamed its Pacific military command.
At this weeks meeting, Iran and the Russian missile defence system purchase will certainly come up, but I dont think they will be the primary focus of what it is we are trying to accomplish here, Pompeo said.
Those decisions are important to the relationship for sure, but I dont see us resolving those during this set of meetings of the Strategic Dialogue, he added.
India is planning to buy five advanced S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems from Russia in a deal estimated to cost about Rs 40,000 crore.
India reportedly also plans to continue buying oil from Iran despite threat of sanctions by Trump, who reneged on the agreement between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany to stop Tehrans nuclear programme. IANS
You are here: China
Appointments for the latest variation of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine are now being made available in a number of hospitals in Beijing, reports the Beijing News.
People will have to wait around 20 days to receive an injection of the nine-variant HPV vaccine, which costs around 1,300 yuan.
Chinese authorities approved the importing of the nine-valent HPV vaccine to the mainland in April.
The nine-valent HPV vaccine has been tested effective in preventing up to nine types of HPV and it has been in high demand in China since the first batch of it arrived in Hainan Province in late May.
HPV has been linked to a global rise in cervical cancer rates among women.
Medical professionals recommend young women receive the vaccine before they become sexually active, as HPV is spread through sexual activity.
amansharma@tribunemail.com
The Hague, September 5
India has backed Mauritius over its claim on the disputed Chagos islands, which is home to Diego Garcia the key military base of the UK and the US in the Indian Ocean, saying its decolonisation process remains incomplete as long as the atolls continue to be under British control.
Both Mauritius and the UK are engaged in a diplomatic and legal war over the atolls located in the strategic Indian Ocean.
Presenting the countrys stand in the oral proceedings on the matter before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) here, Indias Ambassador to the Netherlands Venu Rajamony said the analysis of historical facts and consideration of the legal aspects confirm that sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago has been and continues to be with Mauritius.
Rajamony was representing India in a four-day ICJ hearing, which began on Monday, on the request for advisory opinion by the UN General Assembly in the matter.
The UN General Assembly in June last year adopted a resolution presented by Mauritius and backed by African countries asking the ICJ to offer a legal opinion on the island chains fate.
The world court on Monday started listening to arguments on the legal consequences of (Britains) separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965, shortly before Port Louis independence from its colonial ruler.
Rajamony said the historical survey of facts concerning colonisation and the process of decolonisation indicate that the Chagos archipelago throughout the pre- and post-colonial era has been part of the Mauritian territory.
These islands came under the colonial administration of the United Kingdom as part of Mauritian territory, he said.
An understanding reached in November 1965 between Mauritius and the UK for the retention of the islands by Britain for defence purposes and return thereof to Mauritius when no longer needed for defence purposes.
Rajamony said the legal aspects should root themselves in the historical facts, behaviour of the nations concerned, and the consideration of the issue by relevant administrative and judicial institutions The diplomat said before Mauritius independence in 1968, the UN in December 1960 had proclaimed the necessity of a speedy and unconditional end of colonialism in all its forms. However, detachment of the Chagos archipelago still took place in November 1965.
He said the UN in December 1965 asked the UK to complete the decolonisation of Mauritius and report the same to the General Assembly.
Rajamony further said the UK is legally bound by a ruling of the The Arbitral Tribunal, constituted on March 18 2015, to return the archipelago to Mauritius.
The Tribunal ruled that the undertakings of the UK with respect to the fishing rights of Mauritius in the waters of Chagos archipelago, its eventual return to Mauritius and the benefit of mineral and oil resources in and near the archipelago, are legally binding undertakings, he said.
By declaring as legally binding the undertaking of the UK to return the archipelago to Mauritius, the award has determined the legal obligation of Britain to return the islands to Mauritius, he added.
The process of decolonisation of Mauritius remains incomplete both technically and in substance as long as the Chagos archipelago continues to be under UKs colonial, the diplomat said.
The US also operates a crucial air base on Diego Garcia, a part of the Chagos islands.
Mauritius has repeatedly asserted that the Chagos archipelago is part of its territory and that the UK should return the same to it.
The UK has consistently maintained that it has no doubt about the Mauritian claim to sovereignty in the islands but will cede the archipelago to Mauritius when it is no longer required for defence purposes. PTI
pardeepdhull@gmail.com
Kanpur, September 5
An Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, Surendra Das, posted as a Superintendent of Police in Kanpur city, consumed poison on Wednesday, the police said. His condition is said to be very critical.
Doctors at a city hospital said Das had been put on ventilator for respiratory support and that the next 48 hours would prove to be very critical for the officers recovery.
A 2014-batch officer, Das allegedly attempted suicide at his official residence and was rushed to the hospital by his staff.
His parents live in Lucknow and have since rushed to Kanpur to be with Das.
The officer hails from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh and his wife is a doctor.
Informed sources say the officer may have taken the extreme step due to marital discord. Das, a B.Tech, is known as a good officer in police circles. IANS
editorial@tribune.com
Lucknow, September 5
Surendra Kumar Das, IPS officer posted as the Superintendent of Police City (East) in Kanpur, who attempted suicide on Wednesday morning has slipped into coma and is on ventilator.
A team of experts led by Dr Pranav Ojha is arriving by a special chartered plane from Mumbai and are expected to reach Lucknow late at night after which they will reach Kanpur by road. Das, 32, had reportedly consumed sulphas and was rushed to Kanpur's Regency hospital. A forensic team has found a torn suicide note in the officers room. Kanpur range ADG Avinash Chandra confirmed the finding of the note in which the officer has not blamed anyone for taking the step.
He has mentioned many issues indicating a family discord. Now it is a police case. It is also a matter of investigation as to who tampered with the two-page note." the ADG said. Das was reportedly under stress due to marital discord. His wife is a doctor pursuing her PG in Kanpur. TNS
pardeepdhull@gmail.com
Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 5
Maharashtra Police on Wednesday filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court justifying the arrest of five activists in connection with Bhima-Koregaon violence.
The affidavit asserted that the activists were arrested not because of their dissenting views or ideology.
Filed in response to a petition challenging their arrest, the affidavit said they were arrested because evidence suggested they were active members of banned outfit CPI (Maoist).
It accused the activists of being involved in planning and preparing for violence. They were also in the process of creating large-scale violence, destruction of property resulting into chaos in the society as per agenda prepared by CPI [Maoist], banned since 2009, it told the court.
In a pan-India crackdown on August 28, poet Varavara Rao was arrested in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, trade unionist and lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad and Chhattisgarh and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha in Delhi for suspected Maoist links.
READ: Koregaon-Bhima case: Police says 250 Twitter handles created to spread misinformation
The raids were part of a probe into a conclave Elgar Parishad held in Bhima-Koregaon near Pune on December 31, 2017 which had allegedly triggered violence the very next day.
Describing dissent as the safety valve of democracy, the Supreme Court on August 29 directed that the five activists arrested by the Maharashtra Police over suspected Maoist links be kept under house till September 6, the next date of hearing.
Dissent is the safety valve of democracy and if you dont allow these safety valves it will burst, a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra had said questioning the activists arrests nine months after the violence between Dalits and upper caste Peshwas at Bhima-Koregaon village in Maharashtra.
The top court had issued notice to the Maharashtra Government and the state police seeking a factual report on a petition filed by five leading intellectuals, including historian Romila Thapar and economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain.
The petitioners alleged the arrests were aimed at silencing dissent and instilling fear in the minds of people.
But in its affidavit, the Maharashtra Police said material found from computers, laptops, pendrives, from memory cards of accused persons clearly implicated them not only as active members of banned CPI (Maoist) but clearly reflected a design to commit criminal offences having potential of destabilising society.
Requesting the top court to peruse the evidence submitted in sealed cover, the affidavit said, it would become amply clear that they were found to be committing, planning and preparing for a series of criminal offences in conspiracy with other persons.
The activists were arrested under various Sections of the IPC, including 153 (A) for promoting enmity on grounds of religion, race, place or birth, residence, language and committing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony, besides the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
monicakchauhan@gmail.com
Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 5
Batting for creative freedom, the Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a petition seeking ban on certain portions of Malayalam novel 'Meesha' for its controversial portrayed of priests and young girls, saying books cannot be read in a fragmented manner.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said, A persons subjective perception of a novel or work of fiction cannot enter legal arena to seek its ban.
The craftsmanship of writers needed to be respect and they should have freedom to play with words, it emphasised.
The top court said imagination of a writer must enjoy freedom and it cannot be ordered to be fashioned in a particular manner.
Delhi resident N Radhakrishnan had sought a direction to delete certain paragraphs of the novel by S Hareesh on the ground that it defamed temple going Hindu women.
The petitioner had particularly objected to a dialogue between two characters in the novel, which he contended, insulted Hindu women. The authors comments about Brahmins were tantamount to cattiest slur, he had alleged.
Disapproving of the culture of banning books, the Supreme Court had during a hearing on August 2 had 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, a three-judge Bench headed by CJI Misra had said during the hearing.
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, the Bench had said.
The petitioner had 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.
amansharma@tribunemail.com
Ravi S.Singh
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 5
In an impressive show of strength, workers and peasants converged at the national capital on Wednesday and took part in Mazdoor-Kisan Sangharsh rally which included a "march to Parliament".
A pledge was taken at the meeting to defeat the BJP in the 2019-General Elections. The show was organised by CPI (M)-affiliated "mass organisations"-- Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and the All Indian Agriculture Workers' Union (AIWU).
About 200 constituents of the organisations backed agitation. Top CPI (M) leaders, including their incumbent and former chiefs Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karat, respectively, made appearance at the rally to express their solidarity to the agitation. Yechury and other CPI (M) leaders did not address the meeting.
As per the CPI (M) protocol, its leaders who are not functionaries of the "mass organisation" do not address such events. A number of CPI (M) MPs sat in audience enclosure like Yechury and Karat.
The rally was in protest against Union government's policies. It pressed for 15 demands, including curb on price rise, minimum wage of not less than Rs 18,000 per month for all workers and end to contract labour system.
Addressing the workers, CITU general secretary and former MP Tapan Sen called "the Narendra Modi government's policies as anti-poor" and called for defeat of the BJP in the next Lok Sabha elections.
Anti-Narendra Modi theme pervaded in speeches of all the speakers.
Speaking on the sidelines of the meeting, Yechury said the motto of the show was "Modi hatao, Mazdoor Kisan bachaoo" (oust Narendra Modi, save workers and agriculturists). He cautioned the government not to pursue with its anti-labour amendments to laws in the name of reforms.
The hallmark of the rally was participation by large number of women.
The protesters trudged about 5 km stretch chanting slogans against the government at Parliament Street -- the venue of the meeting.
amansharma@tribunemail.com
Bengaluru, September 5
Activist-journalist Gauri Lankesh's murder case is in the final stage of investigation and a chargesheet will be filed in two months, a senior SIT official probing the killing said Wednesday.
The Special Investigation Team, under the leadership of Additional Commissioner of Police (West) B K Singh, has arrested 12 people in connection with the killing of Lankesh, known for her strong anti-Hindutva stand, on September 5 last year.
Some of the people arrested in the case are allegedly linked to Sanatan Sanstha and its allied outfit Hindu Janajagruti Samiti.
"The case is in final stage of investigation. We will file a chargesheet in the case in two months," Investigating Officer M N Anucheth said.
The Gauri Memorial Trust and her supporters organised a series of events here to mark the first anniversary of her death.
The Gauri Balaga and Gauri Lankesh Memorial Trust submitted a joint six-point memorandum to Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala.
The memorandum demanded that Sanatan Sanstha and its affiliates be declared "terror organisations." Earlier, a large number of activists led by Lankesh's sister Kavitha and playwright Girish Karnad staged a march to Raj Bhavan to mark the journalist-activist's first death anniversary.
Other activists, who participated in the march, were freedom fighter H S Doreswamy, social activist Swami Agnivesh Gujarat MLA and Dalit activist Jignesh Mewani and lawyer Teesta Setalvad, among others.
A 'Freedom of Expression' meet was held on the occasion.
The Trust also released a pen with a photograph and signature of Lankesh.
Mevani alleged that there was a connect between the killings of four progressive and rationalist writers.
He also alleged that without the involvement of state machinery, such murders could not happen.
Wife of late professor MM Kalburgi, Gauri Lankesh's mother Indira, and Meghna Pansare, daughter of CPI leader Govind Pansare also addressed the gathering.
Writers, thinkers and journalists released a copy of newly launched Kannada tabloid "Nyaya Patha" during the meet.
Lankesh was shot dead on the night of September 5, 2017, from close range in front of her Rajarajeshwari Nagar house around 8 p.m.
The SIT got a breakthrough in its probe when a Gujarat-based forensic lab confirmed that Parashuram Waghmare shot and killed her.
The SIT, formed by then chief minister Siddaramaiah, has arrested suspected mastermind Amol Kale and shooter Parashuram Waghmare, among others.
A few others are yet to be nabbed. Sanatan Sanstha has claimed that those arrested were not its members.
Investigations revealed that Lankesh was among 26 people including Prof K S Bhagwan, Girish Karnad and Chandrashekar Patil, were in rightwing extremists' list, as they were critical of Hindutva ideology.
Kavitha Lankesh has said rightwing outfit Sanatan Sanstha should be treated like any other terrorist organisation if its involvement in killings of rationalists, including that of Narendra Dabholkar, was proved.
In a counter move, members of Hindu Vidhidnya Parishad, some of them lawyers fighting for the accused, have criticised the SIT for invoking Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act against the accused. - PTI
harinder@tribunemail.com
Parvesh Sharma & Sukhmeet Bhasin
Tribune News Service
Sangrur/Bathinda, September 5
With liquor rates in Haryana 30-40 per cent less than those in Punjab, liquor continues to be smuggled into various districts of Punjab from the neighbouring state. Punjab shares a 45-km stretch with Haryana.
The Sangrur police have registered 658 cases of liquor seizure and arrested 751 persons since January this year. As the district shares a long border with Haryana, smugglers generally try to smuggle liquor in small quantities, said Sangrur SSP Sandeep Garg. In the Bathinda Police Range compromising Bathinda, Mansa and Muktsar districts, 1,020 cases have been filed under the Excise Act and 1,024 peddlers arrested since April 16. In Mansa district, 330 cases have been filed and 336 arrested.
Punjab page: Screening bootleggers at Haryana border an uphill task
Bootleggers are smuggling liquor into Punjab primarily from Sirsa and Dabwali in Haryana. A police official said: Those in the trade are well-acquainted with link roads leading to Bathinda and are often successful in evading the police. With 35 passages between Sangrur and Haryana districts along the inter-state border, the peddlers mostly carry liquor bottles on motorcycles, scooters, cars and tractor-trailers.
Not wishing to be named, cops in Sangrur claimed that distilleries too had a role in it. A retired police official in Bathinda said those who failed to get liquor contracts in Punjab often took to smuggling liquor from Haryana. Now, border villagers have begun to do likewise to make quick money, he said.
Contractors in Punjab engaged in smuggling already have links in Haryana and have only to rope in couriers to deliver liquor to their contacts. They have fixed customers. The mobiles have made their job easier. Many a times, they simply leave the consignment in the fields, another retired officer said.
monicakchauhan@gmail.com
Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 5
Microblogging site Twitter on Wednesday blocked the account of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the legal adviser to Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), the body that is seeking referendum for Sikhs in 2020.
Pannun, on Sunday, had asked the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) president Manjit Singh GK to either endorse the referendum or he will not be allowed in the US, Europe and Canada.
GK was physically attacked in California and on his return to Delhi on Sunday, dismissed the threat by SFJ saying he stood for Sikh rights within constitution.
The SFJ latter blamed the Indian government for action by Twitter to block Pannun.
pardeepdhull@gmail.com
Beirut, September 5
Israeli missile strikes targeted Iranian military positions in the Syrian provinces of Hama and Tartus on Tuesday, killing three Syrian soldiers, a monitoring group said.
Syrias state news agency SANA said its air defence systems downed several missiles launched from Israeli warplanes.
The Observatory said missiles struck Wadi al-Oyoun in the central province of Hama, near a scientific research centre which was already targeted by Israeli strikes in July and last year.
Iranian military positions in the coastal region of Banias, in the province of Tartus, were also targeted, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.
Three Syrian soldiers were killed and 23 people injured -- 14 Syrian and nine Iranians, according to the Observatory.
The air defence system responded to an Israeli aggression carried out by aircraft... that targeted some of our military positions in the provinces of Tartus and Hama, SANA said, quoting a military source.
Some of the missiles were downed, the agency said, reporting an initial casualty toll of one dead and four wounded.
A spokesman for the Israeli army refused to comment on the new raids, but an Israeli military official, in a rare confirmation, said the army had carried out some 200 strikes in Syria over the past 18 months against mainly Iranian targets.
Israel has pledged to prevent its main enemy Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria, where Tehran is backing President Bashar al-Assad in the ongoing civil war.
A series of strikes that have killed Iranians in Syria have been attributed to Israel in recent months, but the Israeli military rarely confirms them. AFP
China conducted an oil slick cleanup drill in the East China Sea on Tuesday to improve the country's emergency response ability.
Thirty-six vessels, two helicopters, two drones and more than 500 personnel took part in the drill, which featured 22 scenarios stemming from a collision between two ships.
It was the first drill involving collaboration by national, provincial and city authorities since China released its National Major Ocean Oil Slick Emergency Response Plan in March.
In accordance with the plan, and the lessons learned from dealing with January's sinking of the oil tanker Sanchi, the drill simulated the handling of a maritime oil leak and showed China's strength in responding to maritime emergencies, said Zhuo Li, deputy director of the Ministry of Transport's China Maritime Search and Rescue Center.
The drill, in the sea off eastern China's Zhejiang province, was based on a collision between an oil tanker carrying 200,000 metric tons of crude oil and a container vessel, with the oil tanker catching fire and exploding. A total of 19 crew members were said to be at risk, with more than 1,000 tons of crude oil leaking into the ocean. Because of mechanical problems, the oil tanker drifted to a nearby oil drilling platform and threatened to cause a secondary accident. The container vessel was slightly impaired and the crew members were safe.
Co-hosted by the Ministry of Transport, Zhejiang's provincial government and the Zhoushan city government, the drill tested the plan and emergency response procedures.
"With economic globalization, maritime vessels have become larger and faster," ministry spokesman Wu Chungeng said. "More hazardous cargo is transported by sea, including crude oil and gas, which increases the risk of a major oil slick."
On Jan 6, the Panama-registered, Iranian-owned oil tanker Sanchi, carrying 111,300 tons of highly flammable condensate oil, collided with the CR Crystal, a Hong Kong-registered cargo ship, in the East China Sea about 296 kilometers east of Shanghai. The tanker exploded and sank on Jan 14, killing 32 crew members. The cargo ship's 21 crew members were rescued. The sinking of the oil tanker caused an oil slick, with cleanup work carried out to reduce the environmental impact.
China's maritime search and rescue system involves inter-ministry conferences in the event of a search and rescue or oil leak emergency, with the response on the water mainly dependent on professional search and rescue teams, government personnel and the military, He Jianzhong, director of the China Maritime Search and Rescue Center, said in March.
China carried out 2,063 maritime search and rescue operations last year, he said, rescuing 1,462 vessels and 15,046 people in distress.
Cheng Ping, director of transportation safety at the ministry, said China's professional search and rescue teams have rescued 75,543 people and 5,108 distressed vessels in the past 67 years.
pardeepdhull@gmail.com
Washington, September 5
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has defended the Trump administrations decision to cut USD 300 million aid to Pakistan, saying Islamabad did not make satisfactory progress in combatting terrorism.
Pompeo is arriving in Islamabad along with General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, days after the Trump administration cancelled USD 300 million in military aid to Pakistan as it was not doing enough against terrorist groups inside its borders, the latest controversy to hit Islamabads troubled relationship with Washington.
Pompeos talks will be the Trump administrations first high-level dialogue with Pakistan since the new government of Prime Minister Imran Khan assumed office after the July 25 elections.
Talking to reporters travelling with him hours before landing in Pakistan, the Secretary of State said: The rationale for them (Pakistan) not getting the money is very clear. Its that we havent seen the progress that we need to see from them.
The top American diplomat, during his meeting with Khan, army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, would convey the same message of acting tough on terrorist organisations in Pakistan.
The very reason for this trip is to try and articulate what it is our expectation is, the things that they can do, the things that they expect us to do, and see if we cant find a path forward together, Pompeo said amid reports that the Pentagon has sought a Congressional approval to reprogramme USD 300 million meant for financial assistance to Pakistan because of the lack of progress in fight against terrorism.
However, Pompeo said that this was not news for Pakistan.
Look, this wasnt news to the Pakistanis. It made a lot of headlines over the last few days because of the formality... but they were told this past summer that they werent likely to get that money, he said.
Ahead of the meeting with Khan, Pompeo hoped that they can turn the page and begin to make progress.
There are real expectations. We need Pakistan to seriously engage to help us get to the reconciliation we need in Afghanistan... They have important interests, security interests in Afghanistan to make sure they get the issues at their border right, and we need their help, Pompeo said.
On his first trip to Pakistan after Khan became the Prime Minister, Pompeo said he wanted to get there at the beginning of Khans tenure in an effort to reset the relationship between the two countries.
We have worked closely with the Pakistanis in my role as the CIA director. Our teams have been working together for a long time. There are lots of challenges between our two nations for sure, but were hopeful that with the new leadership that we can find common ground and begin to work on some of our shared problems together. They have expressed good-faith intention to do so, the Secretary of State said.
Pompeo said that he and Dunford would have opportunities to walk through the complexity that is this relationship and hopefully begin to make some progress so that they can get back to a set of common understandings.
So thats really the very straightforward objective. I think its important to meet the new prime minister early on in his time in office, Pompeo said.
Responding to a question, Pompeo said that US aid to Pakistan could be restored, but he has not seen the progress yet.
We certainly havent seen the progress that we would hope to have seen, certainly not progress that would be sufficient for us to have advocated for turning back on that financial support, said the top American diplomat.
Would that aid be back on the table if you do see measures that meet yours, he was asked.
I think the answer is probably yes, Pompeo said.
If we get to the place you have to remember what it was. Some of this was we use the term aid loosely there. Its more complicated; its different sets of resources.
But we were providing these resources when they made sense for the US, when it made sense because the partnership was in a place that the actions of our two countries, it made sense to do that. If that arises again, I am confident well present to the President the rationale for that, and then something like that might make sense, Pompeo added. PTI
laxmi@tribune.com
London, September 5
British prosecutors on Wednesday charged two Russian nationals, described as officers from the Russian military intelligence service GRU, with the attempted murder of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter with a deadly nerve agent in the UK earlier this year.
There was sufficient evidence to charge two Russian nationals, Scotland Yard said.
The suspects, named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, believed to be in their 40s and using the names as aliases, Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said in a statement.
In an update to the House of Commons, British Prime Minister Theresa May pointed the finger of blame directly at the Russian government. The 66-year-old former Russian double agent and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious on a shopping centre bench in the southern English town of Salisbury on March 4. They spent weeks in hospital in critical condition before Yulia being released in April and Sergei in May. They had been sent to an undisclosed location.
Britain blamed Russia for poisoning them with a military-grade nerve agent, Novichok, developed by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s, a charge vehemently denied by Moscow.
The poisoning had sparked a Cold War-style diplomatic crisis between Russia and the West, including the expulsion of hundreds of diplomats from both sides.
Terming the incident in March as appalling, May said the chemical weapons attack on the UK soil was part of a wider pattern of Russian behaviour that persistently seeks to undermine the UKs security and that of its allies around the world.
We know that the GRU has played a key part in malign Russian activity in recent years. The actions of the GRU are a threat to all our allies and to all our citizens, she said, adding that the UK and its allies would continue to undermine Russias efforts to undermine the international rules-based system.
Scotland Yard gave some details of its investigation into the chemical attack and the movement of the two suspects, who were caught on CCTV footage conducting reconnaissance around their target of Skripals home in Salisbury.
We now have sufficient evidence to bring charges in relation to the attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury and domestic and European arrest warrants have been issued for the two suspects. We are also seeking to circulate Interpol Red Notices, said Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, the UKs National Lead for Counter Terrorism Policing.
We know that Novichok was applied to the Skripals front door in an area that is accessible to the public, which also endangered the lives of members of the public and emergency service responders, Basu said. PTI
Suspects intelligence officers: May
In the House of Commons, PM Theresa May laid the blame with the Russian state, describing the suspects, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, as officers in Moscows GRU military intelligence
Based on a body of intelligence, the government has concluded that the two individuals are officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU, May said
The GRU is a highly disciplined organisation with a well-established chain of command, she said
UK move means nothing: Moscow
laxmi@tribune.com
Seoul, September 5
A high-level South Korean delegation met with Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang on Wednesday, as Seoul plans a new summit with the North Korean leader to break a deadlock in denuclearisation talks.
The Souths President Moon Jae-ins special envoy Chung Eui-yong, who is leading the five-member delegation, earlier said he would discuss ways to completely denuclearise the Korean peninsula and establish lasting peace.
His delegation met with Chairman Kim Jong Un and delivered a personal letter (from Moon) and exchanged opinions, a presidential office spokesman in Seoul said.
The delegation flew back to Seoul after attending a dinner banquet but Chung and other officials declined to speak to the media.
Details about their trip will be given during a press briefing on Thursday, Moons office said.
US President Donald Trump and Kim reached a vague agreement at a landmark summit in June to work towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, but there has been little movement since.
Talks reached an impasse last month when Trump abruptly cancelled Secretary of State Mike Pompeos trip to North Korea, citing a lack of progress.
The stated aim of the South Korean delegations day-long visit to Pyongyang is to finalise details of a third summit between the leaders of the two Koreas, due later this month.
But observers said that Moons personal letter to Kim will likely be a proposal aimed at breaking the denuclearisation impasse. AFP
rchopra@tribunemail.com
Smita Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 5
US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo hopes to reset relations with Pakistan and find common ground with the Imran Khan-led new government.
Pompeo, who will hold discussions in Isalamabad on Wednesday, enroute to Delhi, with his counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi and meet Pak Army Chief General Bajwa as well as PM Khan, made these remarks to the accompanying press pool.
Our teams have been working together for a long time. There are lots of challenges between our two nations for sure, but were hopeful that with new leadership we can find common ground and begin to work on some of our shared problems together, said Pompeo.
Pompeo is accompanied by his top military commander and Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dunford for stocktaking on Trumps Af-Pak strategy which has chalked out a larger role for India to play in the region, much to the disapproval of the military headquarters in Rawalpindi.
Just ahead of this visit, the US signed on suspension of 300 million USD worth of Coalition Support Fund (CSF) for Pakistan leading to much anger in its non-NATO frontline ally. However, Pompeo sought to dismiss the suggestion that this row would overshadow his current Pak visit.
It made a lot of headlines over the last few days because of the formality, but they were told this past summer that they werent likely to get that money. And the rationale for them not getting the money is very clear. Its that we havent seen the progress that we need to see from them. And the very reason for this trip is to try and articulate what our expectation is, the things that they can do, the things that they expect us to do, and see if we can find a path forward together, he said.
Pompeo acknowledged that the souring of ties with Pakistan took place with the previous governments in place and hoped they could now turn the page and begin to make progress.
But there are real expectations. We need Pakistan to seriously engage to help us get to the reconciliation we need in Afghanistan. Without their assistance, without their help, youve heard General Nicholson and General Miller both the incoming and outgoing commanderstheyve both talked about this. They have security interests in Afghanistan to make sure they get the issues at their border right, and we need their help, he added.
Sources in India on Tuesday told The Tribune that a direct perspective on messages conveyed to Pakistan on action against terror groups and reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan is expected when Pompeo and US Defence Secretary Mattis hold discussions with their counterparts in Delhi at the inaugural 2+2 dialogue on Thursday.
President Trump who has expressed his frustration openly at the Pak duplicity on terror has so far with Congressional approval suspended 800 million USD worth of aid money towards Pakistan. Pakistan has argued that this is not aid money but money owed to it for partnering with the US-led war in Afghanistan. Pompeo underlined that this money would not be back on the table soon. We certainly havent seen the progress that we would hope to have seen, certainly not the progress that would be sufficient for us to have advocated for turning back on thosethat financial support, said the Secretary of State.
Zalmay Khalilzad returns as US advisor on Afghanistan
The United States has announced that its former Ambassador to Afghanistan and an old regional hand Zalmay Khalilzad will be back in the State Department.
In his new innings, Khalilzad will be an advisor to the Trump administration on matters related to Afghanistan. Khalilzad incidentally is accompanying the top minister for his Pakistan and India visits.
Confirming the move, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said, Ambassador Khalilzad is going to join the State Department team to assist us on the reconciliation effort, so he will come on and be the State Departments lead person for that purpose.
Khalilzad, a Pashtun, has worked with four US administrations in the past. He worked closely with the Bush administration in formulating the Afghanistan invasion plan to defeat the Al Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks that also led to the ousting of the Taliban that was in command then.
But his task is going to be working with Ambassador Wells and Ambassador Bass and our team to be fully focused on developing the opportunities to get the Afghans and Taliban to come to a reconciliation. That will be his singular mission statement, added Pompeo when asked about Khalilzads mission directive.
Trinidad and Tobago Securities and Exchange Commission
Competent investment management is critical to achieving returns and helping investors meet their financial goals. Over the next five weeks, the Trinidad and Tobago Securities and Exchange Commission (TTSEC) will be providing information on the topics of portfolio diversification, financial statements, the investment process, indicators of a viable investment opportunity and the impact of interest rates on investments. This weeks article discusses two very important aspects of investment management, which include diversification and asset allocation.
More countries in the Western Pacific region are expected to join a campaign launched by the World Health Organization to encourage companies to create 100 percent smoke-free workplaces, following Vietnam and China, the WHO said.
The "Revolution Smoke-Free" campaign, initiated by the WHO Regional Office in the Western Pacific, was launched in Vietnam on World No Tobacco Day in May and in China on July 16, Kate Lannan, coordinator of the Tobacco Free Initiative, WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific, said.
"We are currently preparing case studies of the early adopters to introduce on the campaign website. The companies that have made pledges are mapped on the campaign site, as will future pledgers," Lannan said. "A series of country-level campaign launches are planned across the region to invite and motivate more companies to join the campaign and share their stories," she said.
The private sector has an important role to play in protecting public health, Lannan said.
"That is why WHO wants to invite businesses to change our workplaces, protect our workers and clients, and promote smoke-free environments as a global standard to which every responsible company must strive," she said.
As of July 15, a total of 56 Chinese companies based in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Chongqing, covering over 400,000 employees, had participated in the campaign, Kelvin Heng, a technical officer at the WHO China Representative Office, said.
All of the pledged companies confirmed that their offices in China are already 100% smoke-free, he said.
WHO has provided guidelines and campaign brochures to support these companies in maintaining the good work, particularly on enforcement of the smoke-free policy and to support employees who wish to quit smoking, he said.
After two days of leaders claiming the stage, COP26 gets down to brass tacks from today with negotiators from each country rolling up their sleeves to engage in hard bargaining over pledges.
Are you planning on staying in one place for a couple of nights in a row? If so, definitely Car!
More flexible and cheaper.
You can buy a cheap picnic set/bits and pieces from a charity shop and beg a broccoli box from a fruit shop or supermarket as a cooler for food so you can still self cater. Lots of picnic areas and free barbecue places along the way.
You wont find any free camping on the coastal route so you need to pay for a camp site which can be $40-$70 per night for a powere site. You also dont have to pack everything up every time you want to drive anywhere.
If doing single nights, a camper can be a good way to get about, so long as you hire the best you can afford- the cheap ones get terrible reviews for condition and mechanics- you dont want to spend most of your holiday on the side of the road waiting for a tow.
Cheers.
Re: Best base location(s) to stay for CR family vacation?
1. Re: Best base location(s) to stay for CR family vacation?
What is the total length of your trip - all of June 2019 or 2 wks, as you r talking about possibly splitting it between the 2 rental properties?
Do you know which international airport or airports in CR you will be using?
You might want to see a sample 2-wk itinerary- , which includes 3 areas.
Arenal and Manuel Antonio are often combined on the 1st trip.
Calmer swimming beach for the kids might be in Samara.
June is rainy season, but you might have sunnier mornings, rain at some point in PM, no guarantees when, how many days or at what time of the day and night.
Nearly 1,000 accredited journalists covering the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), coming from 278 media outlets in 153 countries and regions, conducted interviews around Beijing from Aug. 29 to Sept. 2.
The media center of the FOCAC Beijing Summit and the Information Office of the Beijing Municipal People's Government organized 10 guided tours to assist the journalists in learning about Beijing's urban planning and city landscape, scientific and technological innovation, cultural innovation, high-end manufacturing, high-speed railway, new airport construction, the Peking Opera, construction in the rural area, traditional Chinese medicine, Chinese acrobatics, as well as cooperation between China and Africa.
The journalists visited the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall to learn about the city's new urban planning (2016-2035), especially focusing on the planning on its strategic functions. They then climbed Jingshan Mountain for a bird's eye view of Beijing's central axis, getting a sense of both the historical legacy and future vision of the city.
The journalists also paid a visit to the exhibition center of Zhongguancun Science Park, the production line for off-road vehicles of the Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation, as well as the StarTimes Group, a technology and content provider in China's television broadcasting industry. During this trip, they learned about Beijing's recent progress in technological and cultural innovation, as well as its latest achievements in the transformation and upgrading of the high-end manufacturing industry.
They also visited Beijing's new airport being constructed by the Beijing Urban Construction Group and took a tour through the Beijing Tong Ren Tang Museum, both of which helped them learn about the city's efforts in supporting Africa in various ways. In addition, the journalists were shown with China's achievements in high-speed railways from a trip to the traffic control center of the China Railway and the Beijing section of the tracks.
The journalists also toured around the Mutianyu Great Wall in Beijing's Huairou district, a featured village at the foot of the Great Wall, and a science and technology exhibition park in Xiaotangshan, Changping district, to experience Beijing's beautiful countryside and technological development in agriculture, as well as the construction of the Great Wall cultural belt.
The journalists also had a look around the Liyuan Theater to talk to Peking Opera artists, as well as the Lao She Teahouse and the China National Acrobatic Troupe to learn about Beijing's tea culture and Chinese acrobatics respectively.
The journalists spoke highly of all the events and have published a large number of positive reports.
Hi my partner and I, both 50's have a trip booked for Feb-March, 24 days, fly in and out HCMC, I would love some advice on travelling between cities and best mode transport.
So far my thinking is couple nights HCMC then flying to Hanoi 3 nights, 2 night Halong or one of the other areas, then I wanted to also go to Sapa for 2 nights but am now unsure since reading forums re weather for that time, we wont be hiking but thought it would be just beautiful to relax there?
After Hanoi travel? to Hoi An at least 6 nights there.
Then make our way back to HCMC
So a few questions now I have read some great advice on here....Best to fly to Hanoi or Da Nang from HCMC?
as we wanted to do Mekong would it be better to go there for couple nights then fly out of Can Tho to Hanoi or Da Nang?
Could we fit Hue in there somewhere?
Hoping this itinerary is doable but welcome any advice please
We love to do a lot of nothing usually but want to see a bit as well, if that makes sense
MANY THANKS :-)
Re: Is this too risky to catch my plane back to Singapore?
8. Re: Is this too risky to catch my plane back to Singapore?
It's the Golden Rule of flying in SEASIA to always spend your last night in your city of international departure. HCMC maybe a little chaotic but for a Singaporean it'll be nothing you can't cope with. Lots to see and do.
If you send me an email to dirtypierre at gmail dot com I will email you a pdf file of the best value quality therapeutic 90min massage for 250,000 dong (less the 15 Singapore dollars) and that includes the tip.
No need to stay out near the airport as it's so close to the CBD anyway.
Agoda has some good specials and Beautiful Saigon Boutique Hotel with a pool is rated high and good value for money.
Edited: 3 years ago
-:- Message from Tripadvisor staff -:-
This topic has been closed to new posts due to inactivity. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one.
To review the Tripadvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html
We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason.
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "getting into Japanese culture" in the sense that not every Japanese is particularly into the tea ceremony or zen meditation. That being said Kyoto has, for example, the Kyoto Handicraft Center, which includes craft workshops, and Gion Corner which provides an introduction into song and dance as performed by geisha (actually maiko).
More importantly, Kyoto through shrines and temples provide the best glimpse into the best of what Japanese traditional culture is about, combining that with not a small aspect of samurai political adventurism also. Any trip to Kyoto should be combined with Nara, the older capital with its traditions as well, and Osaka, the big commercial and industrial city exemplifying a lot of the economic dynamism and entrepreneurship of Japan (and Osaka actually has shrines and temples dating back to the earliest times as well).
So basing oneself in Kyoto for a week is excellent exposure.
Please also indicate where you intend to board your cruise ship because you need to get there to. Please also say if you intend to get to Kyoto through Kansai International Airport.
Have fun planning.
Google Kenya Limited is a subsidiary of Google Inc., founded as a search engine in 1995 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who were students at Stanford University at that time. Google Inc. now has its headquarters, also know as Googleplex, at Mountain View California, with operations stretching globally with a mission of organizing information and making it universally accessible and useful. The company has accumulated a broad base of employees estimated at sixty thousand across fifty different states. Google has unleashed several products and services including Google Search, YouTube, and the Android Operating system, among others used by millions of clients worldwide. Connect with the company through Google Kenya contacts for instant feedback, inquiries on products, services, and career opportunities now available.
Kenya is one of the states in Africa where the Google Inc has established its offices. Google Kenya Limited aims at making it easy for you to access the information you need and providing other online services. It is in the best interest of the company to push the limits of the existing technology in Kenya by providing fast, accurate, and flexible service for all people. Google Kenya continues to focus on delivering the best user experience through innovate products and services. The primary goals of the firm center on relevance, comprehensiveness, freshness, and speed to adapt amid dynamics. Google Kenya Limited is fast rolling out user-friendly and creative products for clients working online and offline in the nation. The products and services at Google Inc. range from Gmail to Android smartphones and tablets. The following are the contacts for Google Kenya.
READ ALSO: Amiran Kenya contacts and offices
Google contacts in Kenya
Google has its offices in Nairobi Kenya. Below is a breakdown on Google Kenya physical address, Google Kenya phone contacts, and Google Kenya email contacts to help you connect with the firm.
Google Kenya head office contacts
Purshottam Place 7th Floor, Westlands Road, Nairobi Kenya
Primary phone number: (+254) (020) 360 17 00
Other lines:
(0)20 3601000
(+254) (020) 360 11 00
Mobile phone: 0748 118040
P. O. Box 66217 - 00800, Nairobi, Westlands
Fax: 254 20 360 1100
Their website will directly take you to where you can search for whatever you want online.
Google Kenya products and services
The goal of Google Kenya is to develop products and services that improve the lives of as many people as possible. Google Kenya Limited offers the following products and services.
Applications for searching and getting answers
Search -Enables one to search for information on the internet.
Maps -It functions as a GPS navigation tool and enables the user to discover places around them.
Translate -It can translate text in over 100 languages.
Chrome the application is a fast, simple and secure browser for computers.
Applications for watching, listening, and playing music
YouTube a robust website platform site for watching and sharing videos.
Google Play Music -It enables subscribers to have access to online songs when they need the songs.
Chrome cast -It enables the user to stream movies and videos into the phone and television.
Google Play Movies and Television -The user can access his or her popular programmes.
Google devices worldwide
Pixel 2 -This is a type of smartphone by Google Inc.
Google Home -These are hands-free devices for use in the house.
Daydream View -It is a virtual reality headgear that enables one to view images in three dimensions.
Google Wi-Fi -A system which has faster connectivity for use in the home.
Googe Wi-Fi and the Daydream View are not yet in Kenya, but we believe that Kenyans will have access to these devices soon.
Connectivity display devices and software from google Kenya
Android Operating System -It is an Operating system for all kinds of devices from smartphones to smart televisions.
Wear Operating System by Google -It uses smart watches that track the fitness of an individual and allows connectivity to the internet.
Chromebook -Easy to use laptops running on Chrome Operating system.
Android Auto the system is used in cars for navigation and music.
Applications for social connectivity by google Kenya
Gmail -Email service by Google, allows users to send and receive electronic messages.
Google Allo -A messaging application by Google Kenya.
Google Duo -A video calling application by Google Kenya.
Google+ -It is an application which enables the user to connect with friends and share messages.
Applications for organizing contacts, photos, and calendar
Photos -The app organizes photos.
Contact -It is an application for organizing contacts.
Calendar -It is an application which enables the user to share and organize events.
Keep -It is an application which enables the user to save voice memos.
Office applications by Google Kenya
Docs -It is an application for editing documents.
Sheets -It is used to edit data with the spreadsheets.
Slides -It enables one to make presentations of stories.
Drive -It is a cloud storage system by Google Kenya.\
Google Kenya services for business organization
Google Ads -Business organizations can advertise their products and services whenever people use Google Search.
AdSense -Enables business organizations to advertise their products.
Analytics -Business organizations can obtain useful information about the products and services their customers need.
Google My Business -It provides a platform for listing businesses.
Google Kenya team
The Google team in Kenya includes:
Mr. Joseph Mucheru- Regional Lead for Google in Sub Saharan Africa, Nairobi
Paa Kwesi Imbeah- Partner Solutions Organization, London
Bridgette Sexton - Program Manager, Developer and Tech Outreach Africa
Richard Ngamita- Data Analyst & Developer Outreach, Kenya
Victor Munyua- Commercialisation, Sub Sahara Africa
Jeremiah Kairuki- Geographic Consultant - Nairobi
Udi Graff- Visual Designer
Raj Rajuai- Geographic Consultant, Nairobi
Vignesh Anand- Partner Solutions, Nairobi/Strategist, Ads Quality, Hyderabad
READ ALSO: CRB Kenya contacts phone number & email address
From the above information, it is evident that google offers a range of essential services and products that residents in Kenya and the world at large can benefit from. Google Kenya office contacts have helped enhance accessibility and availability of services across the country. Reach out to them today for any inquiries.
READ ALSO
MP Shah Hospital contacts and branches
Voyager Beach Resort contacts
Valentine Cake House contacts and branches
Sportpesa contacts and addresses in Kenya
Jambo jet contacts
Source: Tuko.co.ke
- Sharon's body was found dumped in Kodera Forest a day after she went missing
- She was abducted together with a Nation journalist who was probing an alleged love affair she had with Migori governor
- Migori governor's personal assistant was arrested in connection with the kidnapping
- Governor Obado denied he had anything to do with the abduction and killing
Kenyans on Wednesday, September 5, trooped to social media to express their rage following the murder of a pregnant second year Rongo University student, Sharon Otieno, whose lifeless body was found dumped in a thick forest.
Many seemed dismayed to learn the 26-year-old student's body was discovered abandoned in Kodera Forest, about two-hours drive from Migori County, a day after she was abducted alongside Nation Media Group journalist, Barrack Oduor.
Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens
READ ALSO: Polisi mwanamke afanya wanaume Kenya kutamani kuvunja sheria, picha zake zaduwaza
Sharon Otieno was found dumped in the dense Kodera Forest, about two-hour drive from Migori, a day after she was abducted alongside Nation Media Group journalist, Barrack Oduor. Photo: Nation.
Source: Twitter
READ ALSO: Police Retrieve 3 Bodies From Mount Kenya Forest
A section of local leaders also reacted the the chilling murder incident and demanded speedy investigations and immediate justice for the deceased student's family.
"The brutal murder of Sharon Otieno is deeply disturbing. Human life is sacred, cannot be taken so recklessly. Also wishing my friend journalist Barack Oduor a quick recovery. Those behind this heinous act must be brought to book, however high or mighty," said Homa Bay Woman Representative, Gladys Wanga, in a tweet seen by TUKO.co.ke on Wednesday.
READ ALSO: Police on the spot as 2 men they arrested are found murdered
Although investigations were still ongoing, some pointed an accusing finger at Migori County Governor Okoth Obado whose Personal Assistant, Michael Oyamo, was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the kidnapping of Oduor and Sharon a day earlier.
As was earlier reported by TUKO.co.ke, Oduro and Sharon were reportedly lured out of Graca Hotel in Rongo by Oyamo, moments before their abduction.
READ ALSO: Kileleshwa Resident Committs Suicide To Kill Intruders In His Body
Oduro reportedly managed to escape by jumping out of the speeding vehicle, leaving behind Sharon with the kidnappers.
The journalist, who was badly hurt during his escape, proceeded to report the matter to the police and the search for the university student and the kidnappers commenced.
READ ALSO: Kayole Police Being Investigated After Man Dies In Cell
The Nation reporter was investigating an alleged love affair in which Governor Obado was accused of impregnating and abandoning Sharon.
She met the reporter at the Graca Hotel to share her story.
Obado, however, distanced himself from the kidnapping and murder incident and claimed it was a plot to damage his reputation.
Through a communication officer, the governor also denied having impregnated Sharon and abandoning her.
Below are more reactions from Kenyans.
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 Angry Over High Fuel Prices - On Tuko TV
Source: Kenya Breaking News Today
- Wambugu said he was never called to substantiate his claims and only learnt of the outcome in the media
- He claimed JSC had been reduced to a welfare association to shield judicial officers from public accountability.
-The vocal MP vowed to introduce a bill aimed at fixing the ills in the commission when Parliament resumes.
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has been put in the spotlight over the questionable handling of a petition that sought the removal of Chief Justice David Maraga due to alleged gross misconduct in 2017.
The petition filed by Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu, accused Maraga of using his position as the head of the third arm of government to institute "a judicial coup" against President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens.
READ ALSO: Mwilu's prosecution and removal will plunge JSC into a crisis - Ahmednasir
Wambugu says he slowed down in pursuing the petition following a public request by the President after it elicited loud political noises. Photo: Ngungiri Wambugu
Source: Facebook
READ ALSO: Why Chief Justice David Maraga is a man under siege
The MP claimed the CJ had been held captive by a group of NGOs which were against Uhuru's presidency since 2013, resulting in the nullification of the August 8, 2017 presidential election results.
While Wambugu said he slowed down in pursuing the petition following a public request by the president after it elicited loud political noises, he has now come out with some damning revelations.
READ ALSO: Raila accuses Uhuru of plotting to eject CJ David Maraga from office
What escaped public notice was that the JSC then sat over my petition during a retreat in Mombasa early this year (2018) and dismissed it. I was never called to substantiate my claims. There were no investigations done (that I know of).
"There was no interrogation of the fundamental issues that I had raised. I have never even known why they dismissed it, as they never communicated with me despite being the petitioner. I read it in the newspapers, he said on Wednesday, September 5.
With the petition quietly dismissed, Wambugu wondered whether Maraga, as the subject of the probe, excused himself from the JSC session that discussed the petition.
READ ALSO: Polisi mwanamke afanya wanaume Kenya kutamani kuvunja sheria, picha zake zaduwaza
He said similar critical questions had been revived after the JSCs spirited attempts to protect Deputy CJ Philomena Mwilu who has been charged with corruption, wondering if justice would be served if the commission was to handle the matter.
This is the same JSC she seats in to represent the Supreme Court. As in my Maraga petition do you think she would recuse herself from the JSC meeting discussing her issue - especially considering that they need her presence to make quorum? he posed while calling on Mwilu to step aside until she is cleared.
Wambugu wonders whether Maraga(pictured), as the subject of the probe, excused himself from the JSC session that discussed the petition. Photo: JSC
Source: Twitter
READ ALSO: Uhuru and Maraga meet for the first time since historic Supreme Court ruling
The vocal legislator tore into the JSC which is tasked with investigating claims of misconduct against judges and recommending their removal from office if necessary - saying it had been reduced to a welfare association to protect judicial officers accused of wrongdoing.
The reality is that the JSC as currently constituted operates like a judicial welfare association; a Cotu of judicial officers to protect them from public accountability. We need to fix this, he stated while promising to introduce a bill to this effect when Parliament resumes.
In the wake of the charges against Mwilu, the JSC is staring at a quorum hitch after Maraga declined to swear in four new members.
Former Kenyatta University Vice Chancellor Olive Mugenda, ex-Cabinet Secretary Felix Koskei and former National Assembly clerk Patrick Gichohi are yet to be sworn in by the CJ despite having been approved by Parliament and gazetted.
They were vetted by the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee on February and approved.
In the wake of the charges against DCJ Mwilu (pictured), the JSC is staring at a quorum hitch after Maraga declined to swear in four new members.Photo: UGC
Source: Facebook
READ ALSO: Government promises speedy investigations in murder of Rongo University student
Attorney General Paul Kihara was to take over automatically from his predecessor, Githu Muigai, in the commission but has not been sworn in.
Maraga is said to be adamant after Uhuru refused to gazette Justice Mohamed Warsame.
The president had forwarded Warsames name to Parliament for consideration by the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee before his formal appointment to the JSC but the Judiciary opposed his vetting by MPs.
Currently, the commission comprises of Maraga, Mwilu, Emily Ominde (Magistrates Court), Justice Aggrey Muchelule (High Court) and lawyers Tom Ojienda and Mercy Deche representing the Law Society of Kenya.
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.
Theresa May, British Prime Minister, Visits Kenya | Tuko TV.
Source: Tuko Breaking News Latest
- The governor's office rubbished claims he was dating the deceased student
- A county official said the governor was also not behind the abduction of a Nation journalist
- The official claimed the allegations were only meant to taint the governor's reputation
- Obado's personal assistant was arrested in connection with the abduction
- The Nation reporter managed to escape but Sharon was not lucky
Migori County governor, Okoth Obado, has refuted allegations that he orchestrated the kidnapping of Rongo University student, Sharon Otieno, and Nation journalist Barrack Oduor.
The governor also denied he had an affair with Sharon who was found dead in Kodero Forest, Homa Bay County, on Tuesday night, a day after the kidnapping incident.
Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens
READ ALSO: Who killed pregnant university student Sharon Otieno? Kenyans demand answers
Sharon Otieno went missing on Monday, September 3,and her body was found dumped in a forest in Homa Bay County on Tuesday night. Photo: Nation.
Source: Facebook
READ ALSO: Polisi mwanamke afanya wanaume Kenya kutamani kuvunja sheria, picha zake zaduwaza
Speaking to Citizen TV on Wednesday, Migori County communications officer, Nicholas Anyuor, termed the allegations that Obado impregnated and abandoned the deceased student unsubstantiated and urged the media to let the detectives do their job.
"The police should be allowed to conduct their investigations with no interruptions. The arrest of the governors PA Michael Oyamo is not enough to link the governor to the abduction," Anyuor said in defence of his boss
READ ALSO: Police on the spot as 2 men they arrested are found murdered
There were claims doing rounds on social media that Obado had a relationship with the late Rongo University student during which he allegedly got her pregnant.
The governor was alleged to have refused to take responsibility and instead ordered his personal assistant, Michael Oyamo, to 'take care' of Sharon.
READ ALSO: Kileleshwa Resident Committs Suicide To Kill Intruders In His Body
As was earlier reported by TUKO.co.ke, Oduro and Sharon were reportedly lured out of Graca Hotel in Rongo by Oyamo, moments before their abduction.
Oduor managed to escape by jumping out of the speeding vehicle the kidnappers had bundled them onto, leaving behind Sharon.
The journalist, who was badly hurt during his escape, proceeded to report the matter to the police and the search for the university student and the abductors commenced.
READ ALSO: Police Retrieve 3 Bodies From Mount Kenya Forest
The Nation reporter was investigating the alleged love affair between Obado and Sharon.
She met the reporter at the Graca Hotel to share her story.
Oyamo was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the kidnapping of the two.
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.
Isaac Nyamwamu Story: The Kenyan Man Who Eats Egg Shells - On Tuko TV
Source: Tuko
- Blogger Cyprian Nyakundi accused Pierra of rolling in the sheets with numerous men
- According to him, the lady has bedded over 27 men
- Pierra issued a fierce come back stating she had even slept with more men than the ones mentioned by Cyprian
Controversial blogger Cyprian Nyakundi has this time round decided to go for popular DJ Pierra Makena's jugular with claims the sultry mama has slept with countless men.
The two were involved in an online spat after Nyakundi accused the entertainer of sleeping with more than 27 men. Yes, you heard that right.
Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens
READ ALSO: Polisi mwanamke afanya wanaume Kenya kutamani kuvunja sheria, picha zake zaduwaza
READ ALSO: Pierra Makena bares her curvaceous body in tiny dress and she looks perfect
"If Kamene Goro's body count is 27 men, Pierra Makena's must be ten times that.There are claims she has rolled in the sheets with quiet a number of sponsors who have had a fair share of her goodies," claimed Nyakundi.
The ever controversial blogger went further to warn the likes of Makena not to take children sired by sponsors to other men to being them up.
Nyakundi was adding fuel to the controversial 'body count' debate which was recently ignited by radio presenter Kamene who said she has had it with 27 men.
But an infuriated Pierra through an epic Instagram post clapped back at the blogger and even stated 27 was such an understatement as she has rolled in the sheets with way more than that. Ahem!
The single mother went ahead to say she just woke up next to one of her sponsors and she had no apologies for that.
READ ALSO: Kenya's hottest female DJ reveals her daughter is a product of an illicit affair
Talk about go big or go home. There's definitely levels to this.
"Awww, thanks hun for downplaying me. It means a lot. I promise none of the sponsors will take care of my babies and neither will I bring any to you to raise. I banked a lot while at it and oh add one more to the list. I made a killing last night and I am just waking up right now," Pierra hit back.
One thing we learnt from this is that this mama bear is not here to play.
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 angry over high fuel prices - On Tuko TV
Source: Tuko Newspaper
Relations between Pakistan and the United States are passing through a difficult phase. There are genuine concerns and grievances on both sides and one wonders if Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during his visit to Islamabad on September 5 can fix some of them.
Two important events ahead of Pompeo's trip provide ominous tidings for his interactions with his hosts. First, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif became the first foreign leader to travel to Islamabad after the new government took office.
Pakistan's foreign ministry said in a statement after the meeting between Zarif and his counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi that Islamabad supported Tehran in his recent tiff with the U.S. over the nuclear issues.
Donald Trump unilaterally dumped the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known as the nuclear deal. Pompeo was tasked to read the riot act and issued a list of demands for Tehran to fulfill before any new deal is negotiated.
Second, the Pentagon announced just days ahead of Pompeo's planned visit to cancel $300 million in aid to Pakistan, citing its failure to act against certain militant groups allegedly using Pakistan's soil to launch attacks across the border.
Pakistan has diverged with the U.S. on the issue. Not only has it rejected the accusation about inaction against militants but also the description of the stalled money as "aid."
Foreign Minister Qureshi said that the funds were not "aid or assistance" but the reimbursement of past expenses made by Pakistan in the fight for a common objective to defeat militants and create peace and stability.
It means that the U.S. has stopped its payments to Pakistan under the Coalition Support Fund which provided for reimbursing the expenditures incurred by Pakistan in the fight against terrorism and its provision of various kinds of logistic support to the U.S. forces.
What can we make out of these developments just days before the visit of Mike Pompeo whose task also includes creating a rapport with the new government of Prime Minister Imran Khan? Interestingly, Khan had been an ardent opponent of the war on terror and advocated the policy of dialogue to address the issues of militancy.
He has also demanded in the past that Pakistan should part ways with the U.S. over the issue of the war on terror and stop fighting against the militants as it was an "American war." Khan also continuously opposed the drone strikes in tribal regions close to the Afghan border.
Pompeo's difficulty is not only how to handle Khan but also Donald Trump who has been wary of what he calls "Pakistan's double game," and has been pushing for a tougher policy against it. Trump also questioned the logic of financial assistance and has been instrumental in effectively choking up the bulk of it.
The root cause of differences is the issue of militancy in Afghanistan and the persistent demand by U.S. leaders that Pakistan should act against the Taliban and Haqqani network. Pakistan's position is that it has expelled all militant groups and it is not providing any kind of support to those fighting against NATO and Afghan forces.
Officials in Islamabad also believe that the U.S. is using Pakistan as a whipping boy to hide its massive failures in Afghanistan. They also say that the U.S. gave India an upper hand in the affairs of Afghanistan to the detriment of Islamabad and allowed India to use Afghan soil to support militant activities inside Pakistan.
Successive governments in Pakistan and the U.S. have failed to address this basic disjuncture. In order to bring the relations to an even keel, Pakistan needs to meet U.S. demands for a decisive action against militants in return for Washington addressing Pakistan's concerns about India and the Afghan government. Islamabad also needs U.S. economic support to get out of its current financial difficulties.
Pompeo should know that any kind of high-handedness will absolutely fail and backfire as the new government is not in a position to absorb even a little bit of pressure. Imran Khan will be discredited if he took any unilateral measure to satisfy Pompeo or Trump.
Conversely, the secretary of state will expect visible progress on his demands to calm the situation in Afghanistan without showing any appeasement towards Pakistan. The margin of give and take is slim but there is always room for progress in diplomacy.
Sajjad Malik is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SajjadMalik.htm
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
- Sharon Otieno was found dead in a forest on Tuesday night after she was kidnapped
- She was abducted a day earlier alongside Nation reporter, Barrack Oduor, who managed to escaped
- Migori Governor Okoth Obado's PA was arrested in connection with the abduction
- It was alleged the governor had impregnated the deceased student then orchestrated her murder
- The governor denied the allegations and claimed they were meant to taint his image
Fresh and disturbing details have emerged regarding the cold blood murder of Rongo University student, Sharon Otieno, whose lifeless body was found dumped in Kodero Forest, Homa Bay County, on the night of Tuesday, September 4.
The 26-year-old student was reportedly seven months pregnant at the time of her killing and Migori Governor Zachary Okoth Obado was accused of being responsible for both her pregnancy and death, allegations that the county chief denied.
Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens
READ ALSO: Picha 11 zinazoonyesha maisha ya kifahari aliyokuwa akiishi Sharon Otieno kabla ya kuuawa
Sharon Otieno was found dumped in the dense Kodero Forest, about two-hour drive from Migori, a day after she was abducted alongside Nation Media Group journalist, Barrack Oduor. Photo: Nation.
Source: Facebook
READ ALSO: Who killed pregnant university student Sharon Otieno? Kenyans demand answers
TUKO.co.ke on Wednesday, September 5, gathered trouble started when Obado's personal assistant, Michael Oyamo, reportedly arranged to meet Sharon and Nation reporter, Barrack Oduor, claiming he had information on an alleged scandal.
Below is the blow by blow account of how the events leading to the killing of the Rongo University student unfolded as from Monday, September 3, according to Daily Nation:
READ ALSO: Body of pregnant Rongo student who was kidnapped with journalist found in forest
5.00 pm:
Sharon called Nation reporter, Oduor, to inform him Obado's Personal Assistant, Oyamo, had been sent by the governor with a response to an alleged scandal.
5:45 pm:
Oduor met Sharon at Rodi Kopany market, where the meeting was scheduled to take place, before Oyamo informed the student the meeting venue had changed to Rongo town in Migori County, roughly 30 kilometres away.
READ ALSO: Government promises speedy investigations in murder of heavily pregnant Rongo University student
6:20 pm:
Sharon and Oduor took seats at Graca Hotel in Rongo to wait for Oyamo.
7:20 pm:
Oyamo called Sharon and asked if the journalist (Oduor) had arrived then once again proposed change of venue.
7:30 pm:
Oyamo arrived at Graca Hotel, visited a toilet and returned with a suggestion that they move to a different venue if he was to disclose any meaningful information from Governor Obado to Oduor.
READ ALSO: CID Officer Caught Red-Handed Robbing A Mall In Eastleigh
7:35pm:
The trio (Oyamo, Oduor and Sharon) left Graca Hotel to a car park where a black car was parked.
The governor's PA then ushered the journalist and the university student into the car with two male occupants, a driver and co-driver.
Oyamo, Oduor and Sharon took the back seats.
7:37pm:
The car left the parking and stopped about 50 metres from the hotel.
It was parked by the roadside where two men with headgear entered as Oyamo alighted.
The strangers, who were not introduced by Oyamo, sand-witched Oduor and Sharon and ordered them to switch off their mobile phones and hand them over to the driver together with their personal effects.
They obliged and the car sped away towards Homa Bay town.
8:28 pm:
The two men sandwiching Oduor and Sharon started harassing them around Nyangweso market along Homa Bay-Kisumu road, about 70 kilometres from Rongo town.
They informed the duo they were being taken to see Governor Obado.
8:30 pm:
One of the strangers seated next to Oduor started to attack and strangle him.
The Nation journlaist struggled in self-defence and jumped out of the speeding car.
He sustains serious bruises on his knees and hands.
The journalist escaped into the nearby bushes and moved to a homestead around Nyangweso.
The vehicle stopped about 100 metres away and he saw the two men rushing back on foot.
He, however, managed to escape to the homestead.
8:35 pm:
A Good Samaritan at the home drove Oduor to Adiedo Police Post where he handed him to the police.
The reporter was later moved in a police car to Kendu Bay Police Station where he recorded his statement OB Number 41/04/09/2018.
Tuesday, 1.00 am:
Oduor was picked up by his colleagues from Kisumu bureau, (Aggrey Mutambo and Justus Ochieng) and rushed to Aga Khan Hospital.
READ ALSO: Kileleshwa Resident Committs Suicide To Kill Intruders In His Body
Meanwhile, police had launched a manhunt for the kidnappers and the missing student.
Sharon was found dead later in the night in Kodero Forest, Homa Bay County.
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.
Rejected For Naming Son Uhuru Kenyatta - On Tuko TV
Source: Tuko.co.ke
- Musevei said it was wrong for the Speaker to institute the ad hoc committee without consulting him
- He asked NRM party MPs to go slow on the probe suggesting Parliament enjoyed power from his office
- The antagonism between the Ugandan ruling party and the Opposition parties has been growing after arrest of MPs
The growing antagonism between the Ugandan ruling party and the Opposition parties may soon escalate into an unimaginable level after President Yoweri Museveni threatened to do away with the country's Parliament.
This followed a move by Speaker Rebecca Kadaga to institute an ad hoc committee to look into the violence which rocked the Northern region on the eve of Arua Municipality by-election where scores of Opposition supporters were injured.
Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens
READ ALSO: President Museveni warns lovers against using their mouths while making love
President Yoweri Museveni's official car was damaged when his supporters met fierce opposition in Arua, northern Uganda. Photo: Daily Monitor.
Source: UGC
READ ALSO: Picha 11 zinazoonyesha maisha ya kifahari aliyokuwa akiishi Sharon Otieno kabla ya kuuawa
And on Wednesday, September 5, when the former army general and junta leader met MPs from his National Resistance Movement, a visibly furious Museveni did not hide his intention, The Observer reported.
Between 1971 and 1979, there was no Parliament. Dont think that you are in heaven; do what took you there. You should know where the power of that Parliament comes from.In fact, I can do away with that Parliament," he threatened.
He took a swipe at the Speaker for forming the committee saying the probe team did not consult him since his car was badly damaged during the melee.
Independent candidate Kassiano Wadri floored Museveni's NRM party candidate Nusura Tiperu and several others to win the parliamentary seat.
Wadri emerged winner with 6,528 votes, which represented 38% of the total votes cast on Wednesday, August 15.
Bobi Wine and two other MPs were arrested following an attack on Museveni's motorcade.
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 Demand for the Release of Bobi Wine | Tuko TV
Source: Tuko.co.ke
The unresolved death of presumably innocent Kenyans is a matter the government agencies have been grappling with for sometimes now with little results.
Even as the affected families hope justice shall be served one day and the perpetrators behind the gruesome murders are brought to book, Kenyans are waiting for answers regarding the mysterious death of five women in the hands of prominent men.
Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens
READ ALSO: Picha 11 zinazoonyesha maisha ya kifahari aliyokuwa akiishi Sharon Otieno kabla ya kuuawa
Kenyans are waiting for answers regarding the mysterious death of five women in the hands of prominent men.
Source: UGC
READ ALSO: Migori governor denies impregnating murdered Rongo University student
1. Eunice Chepkwony and Ainamoi MP David Kimutai Too
The day is January, 31 2008 and students assembled at Kericho High School Assembly Hall waiting for the newly elected Ainamoi MP David Kimutai Too who was their teacher and who had promised to visit the institution and give a lecture to his former students.
Then at 1pm, hell broke loose, gunshots rented the air and the first time MP was gunned down alongside a police constable, Eunice Chepkwony.
Investigations would later reveal the suspected killer, Andrew Maoche, who was a former traffic policeman was in a secret intimate relationship with Chepkwony.
He shot dead the lovers outside West Indies Hotel in Eldoret.
I accepted Eunice as my co-wife and asked him to formalise the relationship, Edna Kerubo and wife to the suspect told Justice David Maraga during the hearing in 2009
2. Mercy Keino and ex-Kiambu governor William Kabogo
Mercy attended a party hosted by the then Juja MP and later Kiambu governor William Kabogo in Nairobi's Westlands where she was reported to be drunk and unruly. Photo: Standard.
Source: UGC
The body of Mercy Keino, a University of Nairobi student, was discovered by passers-by on Waiyaki Way, a few metres away from the St Marks Church in Westlands, Nairobi.
Before her death, Keino and another unnamed woman attended a party hosted by the then Juja MP and later Kiambu governor William Kabogo at Wasini Luxury Apartments, Westlands where she was reported to be drunk and unruly.
At one point, she was reported to have broken glasses and assaulted other guests at the party.
A CCTV footage showed an unidentified man followed the former law student out of the main bar area.
A night guard would later violently eject her out of the bar even as she protested.
In 2013, a Nairobi court absolved Kabogo of any wrong doing.
It is clear the adversely mentioned parties had no motive to harm the deceased. The adversely mentioned parties have therefore been absolved of blame and cannot be held liable for (Keinos) death, ruled Magistrate Peter Ndwiga.
3. Careen Chepchumba and former TV news anchor Louis Otieno
The one time media personality Louis Otieno is still fighting off allegations he might have a hand in the death of his lover Careen Chepchumba in on February 14, 2012. Photo: Nation.
Source: UGC
The one time media personality, Louis Otieno, is still fighting off allegations he might have a hand in the death of his lover, Careen Chepchumba, in on February 14, 2012.
The Kenya Power engineer was found dead in her apartment at Kilimanis Santonia Court, Nairobi in the morning by her father.
An autopsy conducted by the chief government pathologist Johansen Odour revealed Careen was strangled to death.
She bled in the eyes and neck muscles due to pressure applied on her neck by the assailant.
During the inquest, her father alleged prior to her death, Careen had gone into a borrowing spree to finance Otienos flashy lifestyle.The journalists denied the allegations.
According to Otieno, he was out of Nairobi for a commercial shoot during the incident.
4. Carol Ngumbu and the ex-IEBC manager Chris Msando
Carol's body was found in the same area as that of the slain ICT manager with her family denying the two were in a relationship. Citizen TV.
Source: UGC
Carol Ngumbu is said to have gone out for drinks with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Information Technology Manager Chris Msando one month to the 2017 General Election before both went missing.
Her body was found in the same area as that of the slain ICT manager with her family denying the two were in a relationship.
Carol who hailed from Gachie village in Kiambu had just finished her studies at KMTC and was to graduate in December 2017.
5. Sharon Otieno and Migori Governor Okoth Obado
Sharon was allegedly abducted alongside Nation Media Group (NMG) journalist, Barrack Oduor by personal assistant to Migori Governor Okoth Obado.Photo: Sharon Otieno/Facebook.
Source: Facebook
The lifeless body of Sharon Otieno was found dumped in K'Odera forest in Homa Bay county on the night of Tuesday, September 4, 2018,
Sharon was allegedly abducted alongside Nation Media Group journalist, Barrack Oduor, in an event said to be orchestrated by a personal assistant to Migori Governor Okoth Obado.
The county chief refuted allegations that he orchestrated the kidnapping of the duo.
Obado also denied he had an affair with 24-years old Sharon.
The deceased who was a second year student at Rongo University where she pursued a degree in Medical Records and Information, was evidently expectant at the time of her abduction.
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.
Isaac Nyamwamu Story: The Kenyan Man Who Eats Egg Shells - On Tuko TV
Source: Breaking News
Flash
Tourism New Zealand Tuesday reached an agreement with major Chinese online travel agency Ctrip to attract more independent Chinese tourists.
Under the agreement, Tourism New Zealand and Ctrip will offer more routes and products mainly to woo Chinese tourists who prefer customized trips over group tours.
China is the second largest source of tourists for New Zealand. From July 2017 to July 2018, Chinese tourists made 448,000 trips to New Zealand, up 11.9 percent year-on-year. Among them, over 40 percent were independent travelers.
Chinese travelers are sophisticated and like individualized itineraries, according to Gregg Wafelbakker, general manager for Asia at Tourism New Zealand.
"For example, Chinese are now attracted more by hiking in New Zealand, but still spend less time for each hiking tour than traditional European visitors," said Wafelbakker, "therefore we will develop more specialized services for them."
Under the agreement, Tourism New Zealand and Ctrip will also jointly train more professionals to serve Chinese tourists, currently focusing on those specializing in honeymoon or family trips.
Wafelbakker estimated that the annual number of trips made by Chinese to New Zealand would double by 2024.
Residents of a few communities on the outskirts of Princes Town came together on Wednesday m
Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Sreide has welcomed the prospects for investment cooperation with Ukraine, taking into account the current level of reforms.
She said this during a meeting with Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman in Kyiv on Tuesday, September 4, the Government portal reported.
"We are impressed by the results of reforms already achieved by Ukraine. The improvement of the investment climate can already be felt. That is why the prospects of investment cooperation are quite optimistic," Ine Eriksen Sreide noted.
According to the minister, Ukrainian reforms are in good hands, and this is important to understand with a view to the formation of areas for cooperation with Ukraine, and the calculation of efficiency of specific commercial projects that can be implemented in Ukraine.
At the same time, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman noted that the volume of tasks facing Ukraine was in fact unprecedented.
"If we talk about how many processes we manage today, among the key ones are education, medicine, privatization, decentralization, fighting corruption, defense, internal security. And this is just a small list. Separately, we are shaping a decision on deepening of the European integration processes and improvement of the business climate. So we invite and welcome the Norwegian business in Ukraine," the prime minister said.
The parties stressed that the meeting of the Ukrainian-Norwegian Intergovernmental Commission scheduled for September would give a significant impetus to joint cooperation as well as further direct contacts between government officials of both countries. The head of government accepted an invitation to visit Norway approximately in November this year.
ish
Ukraine should preserve and expand the Iranian market, which is very important for our country.
"I think that we should not abandon the dialogue with Iran as well as the dialogue on the Iranian issue with all the parties concerned," Ukrainian Ambassador to Iran Serhiy Burdyliak said in an interview with Ukrinform
Iran has impact on the region with a population of about 130-140 million people, the diplomat noted.
"Its a huge market! We must not leave it in any case! We need to stay there, because if we, God forbid, leave, it will be very difficult to return," Burdyliak stressed.
In this context, he recalled that Ukraine had high trade turnover with Iran. According to the State Fiscal Service, Ukraine-Iran trade turnover totaled more than $1.2 billion last year. The Iranians call the figures of $1.5 and even $2 billion. The diplomat highlighted that 95 percent of Ukrainian exports to Iran was agricultural products that did not come under U.S. sanctions.
"Moreover, the potential agricultural market with Iran totals $3 billion. Iranians call this figure as they are ready to purchase the agricultural products from Ukraine to the tune of $3 billion. But they want to have a long-term predictable partner, since the importance of food security for them is similar to importance of energy security for us," the ambassador said.
ol
In August 2018, Ukrainian coal production reached 2.904 million tonnes.
The Trade Union of Coal Mining Industry of Ukraine informed this on September 5 with reference to the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry.
"In August 2018, coal mining enterprises of Ukraine of all forms of ownership extracted 2,904,151 tonnes of coal. The plan was fulfilled by 103%, reads the report.
In particular, the production of coal mines managed by the Energy Ministry made up 348,836 tonnes, which amounted to 97.9% of the planned targets.
The production of coal mining enterprises of all forms of ownership totaled 21,435,150 tonnes of coal since the beginning of the year, which is by 611,139 tonnes of coal more than targeted.
The production of coal mines managed by the Energy Ministry made up 3,135,500 tonnes of coal since the beginning of the year, which is 89.9% of the planned targets.
ish
Ukraine and Poland are actively working on the extension of railway connection between the two countries.
Infrastructure Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Omelian said this at a meeting with Infrastructure Minister of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Adamczyk, the press service of the Infrastructure Ministry reports.
Volodymyr Omelian noted the intensity and high impact of the Ukrainian-Polish dialogue in 2018.
"We are extremely pleased with the progress achieved at the level of relevant ministries of Ukraine and Poland. The direct railway connection between Ukraine and Poland, launched in 2016, is an example of a successful implementation of Ukrainian-Polish projects. And now the two countries are actively working on the extension of the railway connection between Ukraine and Poland. I thank Poland for its active position on this issue and the full support of the initiative, said Omelian.
He also confirmed that the work on two projects is underway: the resumption of railway connection in the direction of Przemysl-Malhowice-Nyzhankovychi and the establishment of regular passenger railway service between Lviv and Lublin.
The parties also agreed to hold a meeting of the bilateral working group in Lviv to discuss the extension of railway connection between Ukraine and Poland.
iy
The occupation authorities in Crimea, despite the obvious signs of an environmental disaster in the town of Armyansk, are in no hurry to declare emergency situation on the peninsula. To record the facts of human rights violations, Ukraine submitted the information about the situation to UN, OSCE, WHO, ICRC.
"The concentration of sulphur dioxide in the air [in northern Crimea] has exceeded the norm. However, it is still unknown to what extent the norm is exceeded. The occupation authorities in the person of Sergey Aksyonov announced that the work of the Crimean Titan plant had been suspended for two weeks. In addition, the unplanned vacations were announced in local schools, and children were sent to health resorts. The fact that the state of emergency has not been announced yet, the adult population is not being evacuated and the occupying power continues to quiet down people gives rise to concern," Ismail Khalikov, the representative of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights for observance of the rights of residents of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, posted on Facebook.
"The residents of the towns of Armyansk and Krasnoperekopsk told me that the oily yellow-tinged rust-like residues had been formed primarily on the roofs of the houses and metal objects in the apartments. The number of patients in hospitals has increased several-fold. People mainly complain about cough, inflammation of the mucous membrane of mouth, nose, throat and eyes. It is surprising that the patients are diagnosed with acute respiratory disease or allergy. There is a shortage of absorbents, gauze bandages and antihistamines in local pharmacies," Ismail Khalikov noted.
He stressed that signs of the environmental disaster are visible to the naked eye: the metal things continue to be covered with rust, leaves massively fall from trees (some look like burnt), there is acidic smell in the air, dead birds lay on the lawns.
This information will be submitted to the international organizations (UN, OSCE, WHO, International Committee of the Red Cross) with a view to documenting the facts of human rights violations. In addition, an appeal will be sent to the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to initiate the criminal proceedings against the people involved in violation of the environmental rights of citizens in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and the threat to their lives, the representative of the Commissioner said, stressing that he continues to monitor the situation in the north of Crimea.
ol
Russia believes it is inappropriate to meet with representatives of Ukraine, France and Germany after the assassination of Donetsk militants leader Alexander Zakharchenko.
It would be blasphemous to gather for a meeting in the "Normandy format" now, especially when neither Paris nor Berlin condemned the assassination of Alexander Zakharchenko, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated on the air of Russian Channel 1, the Echo of Moscow reports.
As a reminder, the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic Zakharchenko was killed in explosion in the occupied Donetsk on August 31.
Austrian Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called on Russia to return to the negotiating table in the Normandy format for sake of a peaceful settlement of the situation in Donbas.
On Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France released a statement, saying that the recent developments in eastern Ukraine do not abolish the commitments of the parties to the Minsk agreements implementation as well as meetings in the Normandy format.
ol
Flash
China and African countries agreed to work together toward an even stronger community with a shared future, according to a declaration adopted Tuesday at the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
Sharing weal and woe, the Chinese and African peoples have forged a deep friendship rooted in similar historical experiences, development tasks, and political aspirations, the declaration says.
"We agree to strengthen collective dialogue, enhance traditional friendship, deepen practical cooperation, and work together toward an even stronger China-Africa community with a shared future," it says.
Calling Africa an important participant in the Belt and Road Initiative, the declaration says China-Africa cooperation under the initiative will generate more resources and means, expand the market and space for African development, and broaden its development prospects.
African countries support China in hosting the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in 2019, the declaration says.
It notes that China and African countries applaud the role FOCAC has played over the past 18 years to promote China-Africa relations.
In the declaration, China pledges to continue to strengthen solidarity and cooperation with African countries in keeping with the principle of sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith, and the principle of upholding justice while pursuing shared interests, as proposed by President Xi Jinping.
China welcomes a representational office of the African Union (AU) in Beijing, the document says.
African members of FOCAC reaffirm their commitment to the one-China principle, and their support for China's reunification and China's efforts in resolving territorial and maritime disputes peacefully through friendly consultation and negotiation.
On anti-corruption cooperation, China and African countries welcome the launching of the African Anti-Corruption Year, pledging to take it as an opportunity to jointly fight corruption and promote integrity.
China will continue to, in keeping with the principle of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, help enhance Africa's production capacity in the secondary and tertiary industries, and promote the transformation and upgrading of China-Africa economic and trade cooperation focusing on improving Africa's internally driven growth that reduces reliance on export of raw materials, according to the declaration.
"China will, as always, offer assistance and support to Africa's development with no political strings attached," the document says.
It notes that China and African countries firmly uphold multilateralism and oppose all forms of unilateralism and protectionism.
China supports early progress in developing African Continental Free Trade Area and the Single African Air Transport Market, says the declaration.
It urges developed countries to honor their official development assistance commitments to developing countries, especially those in Africa, on time and in full.
In the declaration, China vows to firmly support African countries and regional organizations such as the AU in their efforts to independently resolve African problems in the African way, and to continue to play a constructive role, in light of the need of Africa, in providing good offices and mediation of African hotspot issues.
On tackling climate change and protecting the environment, the declaration calls on developed countries to honor their commitments at an early date and to support African countries with funding, technology transfer and capacity building.
China will work with Africa to fight illegal trade in wildlife, says the document.
It says China and African countries welcome Senegal as the next co-chair of FOCAC, noting that the Eighth FOCAC Ministerial Conference will be held in Senegal in 2021.
The United States has called on Russia to fulfill its obligations under the accords of the Minsk Protocol and to cease immediately hostilities in eastern Ukraine.
"The Minsk Protocol was signed four years ago today to bring peace to eastern Ukraine. But the fighting never stopped, threatening lives and livelihoods of innocent Ukrainians. Russia must live up to its commitments and end the fighting now," the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine wrote on Twitter.
The Minsk Protocol, which provided for the cessation of hostilities in Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, was signed on September 5, 2014.
As Ukrinform reported, Leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic Alexander Zakharchenko was killed in explosion in the occupied Donetsk on August 31. According to the speaker of the State Duma of Russia, this "nullifies" the force of the Minsk agreements.
ish
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has approved the composition of a delegation to attend the 2018 Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, which will take place in Warsaw.
The relevant decree was published on the website of the head of state.
"To create a delegation of Ukraine to participate in the annual meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Human Dimension Implementation (September 10 - 21, 2018, Warsaw, the Republic of Poland)," the document reads.
The delegation included 22 officials and diplomats.
Deputy Foreign Minister Serhiy Kyslytsia was appointed as a head of the delegation.
According to the decree, the Foreign Ministry has to approve the instructions of the delegation, and the Cabinet of Ministers - to ensure its financing.
The Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM), Europe's largest annual human rights and democracy conference, is organized every year by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).
ish
In eight months of 2018, more than half a million Ukrainians visited Antalya, which is called the tourist capital of Turkey.
Turkeys Anadolu Agency reported this with reference to the Office of Culture and Tourism of Antalya.
"Since the beginning of the year, Turkeys southern province of Antalya was visited by 3.367 million tourists from Russia, 1.441 million from Germany, 538,000 from Ukraine, 440,000 from Britain, and 289,000 from the Netherlands. In addition, 287,000 tourists arrived in Antalya from Poland, 192,000 from Kazakhstan, 153,000 from Romania, 144,000 from Belgium and 135,000 from Denmark," the report reads.
The tourist flow to Antalya from Ukraine increased by 1.73 percent and amounted to 6.14 percent of the total number of guests.
In total, more than nine million tourists from 180 countries across the world visited Antalya in the first eight months of 2018, a 28.28-percent year-on-year increase.
ish
There are calls to have at the top post Igor Girkin aka "Strelkov," an allegedly retired Russian FSB Colonel and a former "defense minister" in the occupied Donetsk at the start of the Russian aggression in 2014, the report claims.
Russian media report a "coup" is being plotted in the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" ("DPR") following the assassination of their self-styled "chief," Alexander Zakharchenko, aimed to elect a new leader.
A rally is allegedly being set up in the center of Donetsk, to which everyone is invited, with the purpose of bringing the demands of "ordinary citizens" to lift borders between the so-called "DPR" and "LPR" in eastern Ukraine to unite the self-proclaimed republics under the single flag of 'Novorossia'," the Moskovsky Komsomolets news portal reported.
The media outlet claims the "authority" of Dmitry Trapeznikov, who has been hastily appointed after Zakharchenko's assassination, is illegitimate as he "was not elected by the people, or approved by 'parliament,' so he has no grounds to claim this post."
Zakharchenko's withdrawal reanimates the conflicts and disputes which had long gone online between various factions in Donetsk, the newspaper reports citing its sources, claiming that such developments are not something Moscow seeks.
According to media reports, there are calls to have at the top post former "DPR Defense Minister" Igor Girkin, nom de guerre Strelkov who has long been living in Moscow after leaving the warzone in eastern Ukraine after the failure of the so-called "Novorossiya" project.
Read alsoUkraine to use Girkin's statements as evidence against Russia in ECHR
According to his official CV, Girkin is a "retired" FSB Colonel.
Approached for a comment, Girkin called the calls for his return to Donetsk a "provocation" of whic he is not part.
As UNIAN reported, Alexander Zakharchenko was killed on August 31 in an explosion in a Donetsk restaurant.
Russian-controlled militants in the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk region claimed a "Ukrainian trace" in the blast, while Russia's MFA echoed the accusations.
In turn, the Ukrainian SBU did not rule out the involvement of Russian intelligence in the assassination, adding that gang altercations in the occupied areas of Donetsk region could be the cause.
Besides, 49% said they knew nothing about the situation.
Only 4% of Russians consider it necessary to pardon illegally convicted Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov.
According to a survey by the Levada Center, an independent Russian polling and sociological research organization, when asked how the Russian authorities should act in connection with Sentsov's hunger strike demanding the release of Ukrainian political prisoners, 4% of the respondents said it was necessary to "pardon only Sentsov", 24% said "to swap political prisoners between Russia and Ukraine," 17 % claimed "to leave Sentsov and all Ukrainian political prisoners in custody", 49% said they knew nothing about the situation, while 8% found the question difficult to answer.
Read alsoU.S. State Department calls on Russia to immediately release Sentsov
The survey was conducted on August 23-30 on a representative all-Russian sample of urban and rural population. A total of 1,600 people aged from 18 were questioned in 52 regions of Russia.
UNIAN memo. Sentsov was arrested in Russian-occupied Crimea in spring 2014 and in August 2015 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison following an unfair trial where he faced "terrorism" charges stemming from his opposition to Russia's occupation of Crimea. He has been serving his term in a penal colony in the town of Labytnangi, Russia's Yamal. Sentsov began his hunger strike on May 14, 2018, in protest against the politically motivated jailing of dozens of Ukrainians in the Russian Federation.
Girkin is an "FSB guy," and now it is now the moment the agency sees it possible, and necessary, to promote him to succeed the late Zakharchenko.
Igor Girkin aka Strelkov, the long-forgotten "hero" of the failed "Novorossia" project, who has been sharply criticizing the Russian government and the Kremlin's policy on Donbas (without any consequences, which is important to note) ever since he fled eastern Ukraine for Moscow, may see a sharp "career turn" soon.
In a rather dramatic twist, the "retired" FSB Colonel and infamous terrorist could be returned to the occupied territories in Donbas, Ukrainian military expert Oleksandr Kovalenko wrote in an op-ed on the Information Resistance website.
The Russian media, in particular the Moskovsky Komsomolets news portal, have already begun spinning narratives that the "people of Donbas" demand the return of the "hero" who was with them during their most difficult days in 2014. And it is under Girkin's auspices that the "independent" Donbas should be united in the format of the unrecognized self-proclaimed "Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics" ("DPR" and "LPR").
Of course, Girkin himself has so far disavowed such prospects claiming he was done with Donbas, "but not everything is as simple as it might seem at first glance," the author writes.
Read alsoLavrov: New Normandy talks "inappropriate" after murder of Zakharchenko
Firstly, in the context of the confrontation between the GRU [military intelligence] and the FSB security service in the occupied part of Donbas, the FSB needs a reliable and trustworthy person with leadership skills, who is recognized by the people. "Trapeznikov just does not fit this role," the columnist says. And in general, most members of the current "DPR government" are anything but charismatic and respected.
Secondly, Girkin is an "FSB guy," and now it is the moment the agency sees it possible, and necessary, to promote him to succeed the late Zakharchenko. Girkin may also be put forward in the Donbas political arena as a kind of a "third" force with a hint of a "gray cardinal," a moderator. At the same time, his staged "critical" stance toward the Kremlin he has been sticking to lately will give the FSB a greater field for maneuver, as they could always deny any connections with Girkin citing his "anti-Kremlin views."
Thirdly, Girkin, as a person particularly close to the Moscow-controlled Orthodox Church, being an ideal candidate to lead the so-called "great crusade" against the background of prospects of Constantinople granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).
Read also"Deliberate dismantling": Minister Klimkin on Russia's plans for Ukraine
It is worth remembering that it was Girkin who visited Simferopol a month before Crimea's occupation as a guard of the Gifts of the Magi delivered to the peninsula under the patronage of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and personally Russian Patriarch Kirill.
Taking into account the threats pro-Moscow clerics and their sympathizers voice that a "religious war" may begin in Ukraine if autocephaly is granted, Girkin's reappearance is not so much surprising.
The question of religious confrontation in Ukraine could be entrusted to Girking, to let him spark escalation at the Donbas frontlines ahead of Ukraine elections, which could play into the hands of pro-Russian candidates who promote "peace" at all costs.
The list covers mostly Russian nationals and companies, as well as pro-Moscow Ukrainian entries.
European Union envoys on Wednesday agreed to prolong for another six months the bloc's blacklist of people and entities involved in Russia's detribalization of Ukraine, diplomats and officials said.
The blacklist will run to 154 people and 44 entities subject to an EU travel ban and asset freeze, once the leader of the Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine, Alexander Zakharchenko, who was killed in a cafeteria blast last week, is removed, diplomats said, Reuters said.
The list covers mostly Russian nationals and companies, as well as pro-Moscow Ukrainian entries.
The formal extension of the sanctions until mid-March will be completed in the coming days, diplomats said.
Read alsoNew U.S. sanctions against Russia: Infernal, but not too much
The bloc also has economic sanctions in place against Moscow for annexing Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and for backing Russian-led rebels facing off against Kyiv in the east of the country.
Given the delicate balance between Russia hawks in the EU's north and east, and those in the west and the south who would want to seek more business ties with Moscow, the bloc is likely to keep on extending the sanctions for now.
But it is unlikely to step up significantly its sanctions regime despite a call by London for new punitive measures against Moscow over the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain earlier this year.
British prosecutors on Wednesday identified two Russians who they accused of trying to murder the ex-spy and his daughter in Salisbury, England.
Russian border guards in April 2018 started inspecting and detaining foreign vessels heading to and from Ukrainian ports.
The European Union calls on the Russian authorities to ensure foreign vessels' free access to Ukrainian ports in the Sea of Azov.
"In the past months, Russia has increasingly and deliberately hindered and delayed the passage of vessels, including those from EU Member States, transiting through the Kerch Strait to and from Ukraine's ports in the Sea of Azov. We expect Russia to ensure unhindered access to Ukrainian ports in the Sea of Azov," the European Delegation to Ukraine has said in a statement.
According to European diplomats, the Crimean Bridge, linking Russia and Russian-annexed Crimea, imposes restraints on vessels sailing across the Kerch Strait to Ukrainian ports in the Sea of Azov.
Read alsoRussia's moves in Azov Sea show aggressor readies to also block Ukrainian ports in Black Sea - expert
The European Union reiterated it fully supports Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and continues to condemn the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol and to conduct the policy of non-recognition.
As UNIAN reported, in the second half of April 2018, Russian border guards started inspecting and detaining foreign vessels heading to and from Ukrainian ports.
The Ukrainian State Border Service says that Ukraine has been a hostage to the situation since 2004, namely, under an agreement on cooperation between Ukraine and the Russian Federation in the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, which defines the Azov Sea as a sea of internal use of the two states. Thus, both Russian and Ukrainian border guards can inspect vessels that they consider to be suspicious.
Information about the signs of the environmental disaster has been forwarded to the UN and OSCE.
Photos and videos are emerging in social networks showing the ongoing efforts to evacuate children from Armyansk, a town in the northern part of the Russian-occupied Crimea, located close to the Crimean Titan plant where an alleged hazardous chemical leak caused environmental damage.
At the same time, occupation authorities have not yet declared the state of emergency in the area. Adult population is not being evacuated.
Read alsoKlimkin: Russians provoking environmental disaster in Crimea
Information on the environmental disaster in the occupied Crimea was transferred to a number of international organizations, said Ismail Khalikov, representative of the Ukrainian ombudsman for human rights of residents of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol.
On September 4, came the reports stating that the concentration of sulfurous acid anhydride in the air exceeded the norm, Khalikov noted, adding that no information was available on precise figures.
Occupation authorities ordered a 2-week operations halt at the Crimean Titan plant and announced unscheduled days-off at local educational facilities, sending children away from the area.
"Residents complain of coughing, inflammation of the mucous membrane in the mouth, nose, throat, and eyes. "It's surprising that doctors diagnose patients with respiratory infections or allergy. Pharmacies lack the required amount of absorbents, gauze dressings, and antihistamines," Khalikov said.
Read alsoAnother Crimean village under "chemical attack" (Photo, video)
At the same time, the consequences of an environmental catastrophe in the area are visible to the naked eye: metal objects are covered with rust, trees have massively shed their leaves, while the odor of acid in the air remains persistent, and dead birds are seen lying on lawns.
"This information was sent to international organizations (the UN, OSCE, WHO, the Red Cross Organization) to document human rights violations, and to the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea regarding the opening of a criminal case against those involved in violation of the environmental rights of citizens in temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and causing threat to their lives," summed up Khalikov.
As UNIAN reported, in the early hours of August 24, an unknown chemical substance was released in the air across the northern part of the occupied Crimea.
It has been established that the emission took place at the local Crimean Titan plant.
Joint Forces have reported no casualties over the past 24 hours.
Russian-led forces mounted 24 attacks on Ukrainian troops in Donbas in the past 24 hours.
"No casualties among the Ukrainian troops have been reported over the past day. According to intelligence reports, one occupier was killed and another two were wounded," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation said in an update on Facebook as of 07:00 Kyiv time on September 5, 2018.
Read alsoRussian-led forces open fire on Ukrainian troops on Sept 4, using anti-tank missile systems
Russian occupation forces opened aimed fire from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms to attack the defenders of the towns of Schastia, Krasnohorivka and Maryinka, and the villages of Triokhizbenka, Krymske, Mayorsk, Novhorodske, Pisky, Bohdanivka, Hnutove, Lebedynske, Vodiane, and Shyrokyne. In one of the sectors, the enemy employed anti-tank missile systems.
"Since Wednesday midnight, Russian-led forces have already attacked the Ukrainian positions outside Vodiane, using heavy machine guns and small arms. There have been no casualties among the Ukrainian troops," the report says.
You are here:
Work Together for Common Development and a Shared Future
Keynote Speech by H.E. Xi Jinping
President of the People's Republic of China
At the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Beijing Summit
Of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation
Beijing, 3 September 2018
Your Excellency President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa,
Your Excellency President Paul Kagame, Chairperson of the African Union,
Distinguished Heads of State and Government,
Distinguished Heads of Delegation,
Your Excellency Mr. Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations,
Your Excellency Mr. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the AU Commission,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends,
September has just set in Beijing, bringing with it refreshing breeze and picturesque autumn scenery. And we are so delighted to have all of you with us, friends both old and new, in this lovely season for the reunion of the China-Africa big family at the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
I wish to extend, on behalf of the Chinese government and people and in my own name, a very warm welcome to all of you, dear colleagues and guests. I also wish to extend, through you, the best regards and cordial greetings of the Chinese people to the brotherly people of Africa.
I wish to mention in particular that since the Johannesburg Summit, FOCAC has had three new members, namely, the Gambia, Sao Tome and Principe and Burkina Faso. Today, we are joined by President Barrow, Prime Minister Trovoada and President Kabore and their delegations. Let us welcome them with a warm round of applause!
Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Over a month ago, I paid my fourth visit to Africa as the Chinese President, which was also my ninth visit to this land of great promise. During the last visit, I once again saw an Africa that is beautiful and richly endowed, that is full of dynamism in development, and I learned about first-hand the African people's ardent hope for a better future. I concluded the visit even more convinced that Africa's development has great potential, that this great continent is full of hope, that China-Africa friendship and cooperation have broad vistas, and that China and Africa can forge an even stronger comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership!
As an ancient Chinese scholar once observed, "Only with deep roots can a tree yield rich fruit; only filled with oil can a lamp burn brightly." History follows its own rules and logic. With similar fate in the past and a common mission, China and Africa have extended sympathy to and helped each other throughout all the years. Together, we have embarked on a distinctive path of win-win cooperation.
Marching on this path, China has followed the principle of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith and the principle of pursuing the greater good and shared interests. China has stood with African countries. Together, we have worked in unity and forged ahead.
-- China values sincerity, friendship and equality in pursuing cooperation. The over 1.3 billion Chinese people have been with the over 1.2 billion African people in pursuing a shared future. We respect Africa, love Africa and support Africa. We follow a "five-no" approach in our relations with Africa: no interference in African countries' pursuit of development paths that fit their national conditions; no interference in African countries' internal affairs; no imposition of our will on African countries; no attachment of political strings to assistance to Africa; and no seeking of selfish political gains in investment and financing cooperation with Africa. We hope this "five-no" approach could apply to other countries as they deal with matters regarding Africa. For China, we are always Africa's good friend, good partner and good brother. No one could undermine the great unity between the Chinese people and the African people.
-- China pursues common interests and puts friendship first in pursuing cooperation. China believes that the sure way to boost China-Africa cooperation is for both sides to leverage its respective strength; it is for China to complement Africa's development through its own growth, and it is for both China and Africa to pursue win-win cooperation and common development. In doing so, China follows the principle of giving more and taking less, giving before taking and giving without asking for return. With open arms, we welcome African countries aboard the express train of China's development. No one could hold back the Chinese people or the African people as we march toward rejuvenation.
-- China takes a people-oriented approach in pursuing practical cooperation with efficiency. With top priority given to the interests of Chinese and African peoples, China advances its cooperation with Africa to improve the well-being of Chinese and African peoples and deliver more benefits to them. We will fully honor the promises we have made to our African brothers. Faced with new developments and challenges, China will continue to improve institution building, develop new ideas and expand areas of cooperation with Africa to bring our cooperation to greater heights. Ultimately, it is for the peoples of China and Africa to judge the performance of China-Africa cooperation. No one could deny the remarkable achievements made in China-Africa cooperation, not with their assumption or imagination.
-- China takes an open and inclusive approach to cooperation. China is fully aware that long-term stability, security, development and invigoration for Africa is not only the longing of the African people; it is also the responsibility of the international community. China stands ready to work with other international partners to support Africa in pursuing peace and development. China welcomes and supports all initiatives that meet Africa's interests, and believes that it should be the same with the wider international community. No one could stand in the way or obstruct international efforts to support Africa's development.
Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Our world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century: the surging trend toward multi-polarity, economic globalization, IT application and cultural diversity, accelerated transformation of the global governance system and international order, rapid rise of emerging markets and developing countries, and greater balance in global power configuration. The well-being of people in all countries has never been so closely intertwined as it is today.
On the other hand, we also face challenges unseen before. Hegemony and power politics persist; protectionism and unilateralism are mounting; war, conflicts, terrorism, famine and epidemics continue to plague us; security challenges, both traditional and non-traditional, remain as complex and interwoven as ever.
However, we are firm in our conviction that peace and development remain the underlying trend of our times. Indeed, they are the call of the times. The international community should take our historical responsibility and respond to the call of our times with solidarity, vision, courage and a sense of mission.
-- To respond to the call of the times, China takes it its mission to make new and even greater contribution to mankind. China will work with other countries to build a community with a shared future for mankind, forge partnerships across the world, enhance friendship and cooperation, and explore a new path of growing state-to-state relations based on mutual respect, fairness, justice and win-win cooperation. Our goal is to make the world a place of peace and stability and life happier and more fulfilling for all.
-- To respond to the call of the times, China is ready to jointly promote the Belt and Road Initiative with international partners. We hope to create new drivers to power common development through this new platform of international cooperation; and we hope to turn it into a road of peace, prosperity, openness, green development and innovation and a road that brings together different civilizations.
-- To respond to the call of the times, China will get actively involved in global governance and stay committed to the vision of consultation, cooperation and benefit for all in global governance. China has all along played its part in promoting world peace and development and upholding the international order. We call for increasing the representation and voice of developing countries in international affairs and support efforts to strengthen the South, a weak link in the global governance system, as well as efforts to create synergy in South-South cooperation. We will continue the efforts to make the global governance system better represent the will and interests of the majority of countries, especially developing countries.
-- To respond to the call of the times, China will remain committed to opening-up. Facing uncertainty and unpredictability in global growth, China will continue to grow an open economy for win-win cooperation, and it will embrace an open world economy and the multilateral trading system and reject protectionism and unilateralism. No one who keeps himself in isolation on a single island will have a future.
Trackers of the Russian army have posted pictures of cargo trains carrying hulking Soviet-era war machines.
Military boffins on social media claim to have spotted "1000" Russian tanks moving west towards Ukraine.
Trackers of Vladimir Putin's army have posted pictures of cargo trains carrying the hulking the war machines along with other snaps showing armored vehicles also being transported, The Sun wrote.
Echelons of tanks were spotted moving toward the border from Russia's distant Buryatia region, according to RFE/RL's Ukrainian Bureau.
Analysts at Strategic Sentinel believe that "between 500 and 1000 tanks" have been moved towards Russia's western borders in the past two weeks.
Read alsoRussia fully responsible for Ilovaisk tragedy Ukraine's General Staff
This comes amid rising tensions in Ukraine following the killing of Russian puppet "DPR leader" Aleksandr Zakharchenko who died in a bomb attack at a cafe in Donetsk.
The tanks pictured are ageing Soviet-era T-62s which would not be used in frontline combat.
Strategic Sentinel wrote on Twitter: "Photos taken in #Russia of trains continuing to send T-62s west towards #Ukraine.
"Given the amount of trains spotted with this cargo heading west, it's likely between 500 to 1000 tanks have been moved in the past 2 weeks."
The account added: "These tanks are very old and #Russia has several new tanks it could deployed to this region.
"These units probably make up a reserve force and not a frontline battle unit."
However, other military enthusiasts online have suggested the tanks could be used as "cannon fodder" to "storm positions."
Russia's relationship with NATO is increasingly strained following its military intervention in Ukraine in 2014 and the ongoing presence of Putin's military on the country's borders.
Ukraine's police recorded 60 facts of the use by Russian-backed terrorists of Crimean weapons.
The Ukrainian police are investigating facts when weapons illegally seized by Russia amid the annexation of Crimea have been supplied to Russian-led terrorist groups in Donbas, the east of Ukraine.
Investigators of the Main Directorate of the Ukrainian National Police for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol have added such information to the State Register of Pre-Trial Investigations, the National Police's media liaison office reported.
Thus, they launched criminal proceedings against the Russian Federation on the grounds of committing a criminal offense under Part 2 of Article 438 (breach of laws and customs of war) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, i.e. the supply of weapons from the annexed peninsula to illegal armed forces in the east of Ukraine.
Read alsoRussia sends "up to 1,000 tanks towards border with Ukraine" media
After Russia's army occupied Crimea in March 2014, firearms from more than 10 Ukrainian military units were shipped to Russian-occupied areas in Donbas.
The police recorded more than 60 facts when they seized weapons used by terrorists in Donbas that were being stored at the Ukrainian Armed Forces' units in Sevastopol, Feodosia and Simferopol amid the annexation.
"These facts prove that it is the Russian Federation that arms terrorists in the east of our country who kill civilians and Ukrainian soldiers every day," chief of the National Police Serhiy Knyazev said.
According to him, 51 assault rifles, 15 guns, two grenade launchers and one carbine all originating from Crimea were seized by Ukrainian law enforcement agencies in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Under international law, a state that unlawfully occupied another country's territory should maintain law and order in the occupied areas. Despite this, Russia not only failed to ensure the secure storage of small arms and ammunition in the territories of the seized military units of Ukraine in Crimea and Sevastopol, but also relocated the weapons it seized from 14 Ukrainian military units and one military college to occupied Donbas.
"Later, these weapons were given to illegal armed groups in the east of our country for waging an aggressive war against Ukraine," it said.
Russian and Syrian planes pounded areas on the western edge of Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold, on Tuesday, according to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a rebel source.
The UN Security Council will hold a meeting on Friday on the situation in Syrias Idlib province, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Tuesday, warning Syrias government not to use chemical weapons ahead of a widely expected military offensive there.
Russian and Syrian planes pounded areas on the western edge of Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold, on Tuesday, according to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a rebel source. A Syrian government minister also said the siege of Idlib would probably be resolved by force, according to Reuters.
Read alsoBloomberg: U.S. warns Russia it will hit Assad if he uses chemical arms
This is a tragic situation, and if they want to continue to go the route of taking over Syria, they can do that, Haley said at a news conference, referring to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as well as its allies Russia and Iran.
But they cannot do it with chemical weapons. They cant do it assaulting their people and were not going to fall for it, she added.
The worlds chemical weapons watchdog has documented systematic use of banned munitions in Syrias civil war, including nerve agent sarin and sulfur mustard gas. But the body, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, has not assigned blame for the attacks.
If there are chemical weapons that are used, we know exactly whos going to use them, Haley said.
Earlier this week, U.S. President Donald Trump warned Syria and its allies Russia and Iran against attacking the last major rebel stronghold of Idlib province in the country's northwest.
"President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province," Trump wrote on Twitter. "The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!" Donald Trump tweeted.
"The recklessness of the Russian state in bringing a nerve agent in to the UK, and total disregard for the safety of the public, is appalling and irresponsible," UK foreign secretary said.
The substance that killed a woman in Amesbury was the same Novichok nerve agent that poisoned Sergei and Yulia Skripal, experts have confirmed.
The independent Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons report backs up the UK government's findings, the BBC reported.
Dawn Sturgess, 44, died in hospital on 8 July after handling a contaminated container, months after the Skripals were poisoned in Salisbury.
The UK foreign secretary said Russia's recklessness was "appalling."
Russia has denied any involvement in the poisonings.
The international chemical weapons experts reached their conclusions having collected samples from the UK.
It was not possible to conclude whether the nerve agent used in the two incidents was from the same batch, the OPCW said.
UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt thanked the OPCW and paid tribute to the "high standards set by our world-leading scientists."
Read alsoNovichok poisoning victim reveals perfume gift he gave to partner contained deadly nerve agent media
He said it was a reminder of the importance of upholding the the global ban on all use of chemical weapons.
"The recklessness of the Russian state in bringing a nerve agent in to the UK, and total disregard for the safety of the public, is appalling and irresponsible," he added.
On June 30, the couple collapsed in a house in Amesbury, a town located close to Salisbury.
The UK Foreign Office said police investigations into the Amesbury and Salisbury poisonings were continuing.
Meanwhile, the Russian Embassy in London has accused the UK of refusing it access to the Skripals.
Read alsoU.S. sanctions on Russia over poisoning in Britain go into force media
In a statement marking six months since the pair were admitted to hospital, the embassy said the pair had been "kept in isolation and under full control of British authorities."
"They remain out of the public eye at an unknown location, unable to communicate freely with their relatives, friends, journalists or Russian officials, deprived of the freedom of movement," the statement added.
Ms Skripal has previously thanked the Russian embassy for its offer of assistance, but said she and her father were "not ready to take it."
Polish investigators have an assumption that Russia forged the flight recorders.
A senior investigator in Poland said on Tuesday that officials should seek international help over Moscow's refusal to allow the reconstruction of the wreckage of a Polish presidential plane that crashed near the western Russian city of Smolensk in 2010.
Antoni Macierewicz, a former defense minister and head of a panel of Polish investigators who are still probing the 2010 crash, told the country's public radio broadcaster that Poland could try to put pressure on Moscow through the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) after Russia had refused to allow the wreckage to be reconstructed, Radio Poland's English Service reported.
Read alsoRussia gives Polish prosecutors green light to visit Smolensk media
What is more, the Polish investigators have an assumption that Russia forged the flight recorders from the late Polish President Lech Kaczynski's Tu-154M plane, Radio Poland's Ukrainian Service reported.
Macierewicz said the Russian side had mentioned in its protocol that there were four flight recorders, however, the Tu-154M does not have four "black boxes."
"There is an assumption that the 'black boxes' were forged. The availability of two pairs of similar but differing flight recorders makes us think there is forgery," he said.
Meanwhile, a group of Polish prosecutors were on Tuesday expected to continue work on examining the wreckage of the Polish presidential plane.
A spokeswoman for Russia's Investigative Committee was last month quoted as saying that Polish investigators "will participate in re-examination of material evidence parts and components of the Tupolev-154M plane kept in Smolensk" from September 3 to 7.
The Council of Europe's Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights in June called on Russia to return the wreckage of the Polish presidential plane, which crashed near Smolensk on April 10, 2010, killing all 96 on board, among them President Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria, and dozens of top officials.
The committee unanimously approved a resolution saying that "the continuing refusal of the Russian authorities to return the wreckage and other evidence constitutes an abuse of rights and has fueled speculation on the Polish side that Russia has something to hide."
Polish conservative MP Arkadiusz Mularczyk said at the time that the resolution gave Poland "a strong mandate to demand the return of the wreckage, the plane's black boxes and the rest of the evidence from Russia."
September 5 2018
Scottish Canals have launched a public consultation into plans to create a three-way footbridge spanning the Stockingfield Junction of the Forth & Clyde Canal at Maryhill.
The consultation precedes a detailed planning application for the infrastructure link, prioritised as a means to improve physical connections for both residents and canal users.
Pedestrians and cyclists wishing to cross the junction must navigate a precipitous route down from the canal to ground level to access a narrow single file road tunnel, before ascending back to the canal level.
Draft plans call for an elevated cable-stayed solution although ambitions to create a towering skeletal figure, dubbed The Big Man, to hold the cables aloft appears to have been dropped in favour of a simple pole.
The consultation kicks-off this Saturday at Maryhill Burgh Halls between 11:00 and 16:00 with follow-up sessions held at Lambhill Stables between 13:00 and 18:00 on the 11th and Ruchill Community Centre between 10:00 and 14:00 on the 12th.
A final session is scheduled to take place at Cadder Community Centre between 13:00 and 19:00 on the 13th.
Pakistan Mercantile Exchange Limited's commodity index on Tuesday closed at 3,423 points; with traded value of metals, energy and COTS/FX recorded at Rs 1.915 billion.
KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Sep, 2018 ) :Pakistan Mercantile Exchange Limited's commodity index on Tuesday closed at 3,423 points; with traded value of metals, energy and COTS/FX recorded at Rs 1.915 billion.
The number of lots traded was 2,261, said press release on Wednesday.
Major business was contributed by gold amounting to Rs 759.997 million, followed by WTI crude oil Rs 466.124 million, currencies through COTS Rs 358.548 million, silver Rs 95.502 million, platinum Rs 71.918 million, natural gas Rs 61.927 million, DJ Rs 38.769 million, SP500 Rs 37.227 million, copper Rs 12.564 million, NSDQ100 Rs 11.438 million and Brentcrude oil Rs 1.841 million.
(@FahadShabbir)
A delegation of Russian business representatives at the annual Damascus International Fair will offer Syrian colleagues to organize joint efforts to restore infrastructure, and also plans to discuss the topic of currency settlements between the countries, Vice-President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vladimir Padalko told Sputnik.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) A delegation of Russian business representatives at the annual Damascus International Fair will offer Syrian colleagues to organize joint efforts to restore infrastructure, and also plans to discuss the topic of currency settlements between the countries, Vice-President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vladimir Padalko told Sputnik.
The 60th Damascus International Fair will be held between September 6 and September 15. Representatives of 48 countries are expected to take part in the event.
Padalko said that the event will be attended by 38 Russian companies.
"The main goal of Russia's participation is to look at those areas where it is already possible to organize joint work with the Syrians to restore Syrian industrial infrastructure," he said.
According to Padalko, in order to restore the facilities that were destroyed by war, "it is necessary to start from basics: to organize a cluster of companies that produce construction materials to restore the installations connected with energy supply, social sectors, among others."
"Therefore, we specifically invited to our delegation Russian companies and manufacturers which are interested in working in Syria, not only as suppliers, but also as possible founders of joint ventures," he noted.
Padalko also said that one of the key issues up for discussion with the Syrians was the topic of finance and monetary transfers.
"Syria is under sanctions. Currency movements in one direction or the other are almost impossible, so we should find some other forms of mutual settlements. Apparently, these will be Russian loans, reimbursable ones," he suggested.
Padalko also noted that some Syrian businesses did have foreign currency reserves, and the way these would be used in the future was up for discussion.
"On the other hand, the Syrian side has resources. There is a business that operates in third countries and has foreign exchange reserves.
We expect that we will clarify this issue during our work in Damascus," he said.
Padalko told Sputnik that the Russian-Syrian Business Council, which is scheduled to take place in Damascus between September 7 and September 10, will be attended by all delegates from Russia, without exception.
"We see a great interest in this event not only among the Syrians, but also among foreign guests who will be in Damascus for the industrial fair during this time," the vice president of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said.
Representatives of Russia's Ministry of Industry and Trade and their colleagues from Syria, bank representatives, Syrian Central Bank representatives and others will attend the plenary meeting within the framework of the council. Roundtables on pressing issues will be held after the meeting. Participants will discuss industry and energy, personnel training, the agricultural sector, and the production of agricultural machinery and machinery for the food processing industry. Trade, transport, communications and telecommunications, as well as issues related to bilateral cooperation between Russian and Syrian enterprises will also be discussed.
"Some 120 companies from the Syrian side have expressed a desire for B2B communications with our enterprises," Padalko concluded.
According to director of the Syrian state organization of exhibitions and markets, Fares Kirtli, Russia's participation in the exhibition will be substantial, with 500 square meters (5,382 square foot) of space allocated for the country.
He added that the exhibition, which will have a total area of 90,000 square meters (22.2 acres) will open on September 6. Besides businessmen, economy and trade ministers of some participating countries are expected to visit. According to Fares Kirtli, 48 countries are going to participate in the exhibition, some of them participating officially through embassies, and others involved through companies.
Six ships, APL Savanan, Maersk Kinloss, Uni Wealth, GP Asphalt-III, Port Vera Cruz and Southern Robin carrying Containers, Palm Kernel, Bitumen, Coal and Palm oil were allotted berths at Qasim International Container Terminal, Multi-Purpose Terminal, Pakistan International Bulk Terminal Liquid Cargo Terminal respectively on Tuesday
KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Sep, 2018 ) :Six ships, APL Savanan, Maersk Kinloss, Uni Wealth, GP Asphalt-III, Port Vera Cruz and Southern Robin carrying Containers, Palm Kernel, Bitumen, Coal and Palm oil were allotted berths at Qasim International Container Terminal, Multi-Purpose Terminal, Pakistan International Bulk Terminal Liquid Cargo Terminal respectively on Tuesday.
Meanwhile three more ships Conti Darwin, Songa Wave and Bhairavi carrying containers, coal, and chemicals also arrived at outer anchorage of Port Qasim during the same day.
A total of eleven ships namely, APL Savanah, Maersk Kinloss, Thor Brave, Vera Cruz, Melbourne, Sakizaya Miracle, Uni Wealth GP Asphalt- III, Lokoja, Southern Robin and UACC Ibn Sina are currently occupying PQA berths to load/offload containers, palm Kernel, Bitumen, Coal, Rape seeds, LNG, Palm oil and Diesel oil respectively during last 24 hours.
Cargo handling registered an upward trend at the Port where a cargo volume of 199,521 tonnes, comprising 183,428 tonnes import cargo and 16,093 tonnes export cargo inclusive of containerized cargo carried in 3,681 containers (TEUs), (2,834 TEUs imports and 847 TEUs exports) was handled during last 24 hours.
Two ships, Lokoja and Thor Brave sailed out to sea on Wednesday morning, while three more ships Melbourne, UACC Ibn Sina and Maersk Kinloss are expected to sail on same day in the afternoon.
Three ships Conti Darwin, Bhairavi and Darannee Naree carrying containers, chemicals and coal are expected to take berths at QICT, EVTL and PIBT respectively on Wednesday, while another containers ship OOCL Washington and Hansa America are due to arrive at Port Qasim onThursday.
H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, has met in London with Penny Mordaunt, Secretary of State for International Development of the United Kingdom, UK.
LONDON, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 04th Sep, 2018) H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, has met in London with Penny Mordaunt, Secretary of State for International Development of the United Kingdom, UK.
The meeting, which was held as part of Sheikh Abdullahs official visit to the UK, discussed the means of strengthening the joint overall cooperation between the two countries, including in the area of international aid.
Sheikh Abdullah stressed that the UAE and the UK are major players in international development while expressing his hope for further joint cooperation between both sides.
Mordaunt welcomed the visit of Sheikh Abdullah and highlighted its importance in strengthening the joint cooperation and partnership between the two countries in all areas.
She also praised the UAEs leading humanitarian initiatives, its efforts to offer urgent humanitarian aid to needy people around the world, and its support for relevant international efforts.
The meeting was attended by Reem bint Ibrahim Al Hashemy, Minister of State for International Cooperation, and Suleiman Hamed Salem Al Mazrouei, UAE Ambassador to the UK.
Flash
In a new UN-led effort to move forward the process to end the Syrian conflict, senior officials from Russia, Turkey and Iran will meet in Geneva next week for constitution-related discussions, the UN special envoy on Syria said Tuesday.
The UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said at a press conference here that he will hold formal talks with representatives from the three countries on the establishment of a "Syrian-led and Syrian-owned" constitutional committee.
He described the effort as a curtain-raiser for a real peace process in Syria consistent with UN Security Council Resolution 2254 as a "strong guideline" which includes many issues.
"The constitutional committee can be, and should be, now the entry point for what we call a credible political process, as the long as the constitutional committee is credible as well," said the UN negotiator.
De Mistura said his discussions with the senior Russian, Turkish and Iranian officials will take place on Sept. 10 and 11 for the new process, which he said is the best "roadmap we can see."
Those talks will be followed on Sept. 14 by further encounters with senior delegations from seven other states: Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Britain and the United States.
"There are some important options on how to help the Syrian side to organize the work of the constitutional committee."
"I am also engaging the European Union which is very keen in supporting our effort and the Arab League on the political process," said the UN envoy.
According to the UN envoy, the UN Security Council will also hold a discussion on Syria on Sept. 20.
"I cannot and will not at this stage forecast today how far we will be progressing on 10 and 11 September, but I do can state the following: it is going to be quite an important moment of truth," de Mistura said
His team is seeking the "buy-in" of the government and opposition in Syria and a wide-range of Syrian society, including women from the country, in the bid to restart the peace process.
He touched briefly on the current tension in northern Syria's Idlib region.
"We hope that nothing will be dramatically happening regarding Idlib. That is our hope and our wish," said de Mistura. "We still believe that the political process should not be the hostage of anything."
After a successful two months of engaging reading activities and events, the Around the World Summer Programme came to a close on 31st August 2018.
ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 05th Sep, 2018) After a successful two months of engaging reading activities and events, the Around the World Summer Programme came to a close on 31st August 2018. Established by the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, DCT Abu Dhabi, and National Library, the programme featured 195 workshops across six libraries, and welcomed a record 16,750 visitors from all nationalities and backgrounds.
The programme was introduced across Abu Dhabi libraries, including Al Wathba Library, Al Marfa Library, Mazyad Library, Al Bahia Library and Khalifa Park Library, and Al Ains Zayed Central Library, to encourage children and teenagers to adopt better reading habits during their summer break. The programme also hosted a variety of interactive workshops covering arts, crafts, language, storytelling and innovative creation, which opened a host of opportunities for youngsters to be creative.
The programme also introduced the Summer Reading Challenge to challenge youngsters to read 30 books from across the world. The challenge was successfully completed by 150 members aged between 6 to 16 years old. Meanwhile, the programmes Young Librarian initiative successfully welcomed 192 children aged 8-14 for a behind-the-scenes look into the inner workings of a library and support the staff.
Each library across the emirate hosted weekly cultural themes to celebrate a country or region, educating visitors about the nuances of language and culture through activities, workshops and a list of international books.
Participants were also able to meet renowned Arab authors during the weekly programmes, including Maitha Al Kayyat, Sahar Najaa Mahfouz, Sara Al Hammadi, Mariam Saqr Al Qasimi, Badria Al Shamsi, and Nadia Al Najjar, Daphne and Gerald Mercer, Sarah Sillisand Khadijah Kudsi amongst others.
Abdullah Majed Al Ali, Acting Executive Director of the National Library Sector, DCT Abu Dhabi, said, "The success of the Around the World Summer Programme has been an inspiring insight into the strong and positive reaction to reading habits in the UAE. It has been an instrumental tool in extending active dialogues by the National Library with young learners and the wider audience, moving one step closer to helping support and nurture the younger generation. In addition, this programme has been key in facilitating a diverse and engaging environment enriched with experiences, cultures and civilizations of many countries."
Established in 1981, the National Library sector, as part of DCT Abu Dhabi, is one of the UAEs largest knowledge repositories and a vital resource for intellectuals, scholars and scientists. The National Library is responsible for the establishment of regional, community, childrens and mobile libraries. It also acts as a publisher, translates the world's major literary works and promotes talented Emirati writers and researchers by publishing their books and academic works. The National Library also collects, preserves and displays ancient Arab and Islamic manuscripts, covering a variety of topics from literature and religion to science and the arts.
The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation has declared Thursday, 13th September, an official paid holiday for all private sector employees in the UAE to celebrate the coming Islamic New Year, Al Hijri 1440.
ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 05th Sep, 2018) The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation has declared Thursday, 13th September, an official paid holiday for all private sector employees in the UAE to celebrate the coming Islamic New Year, Al Hijri 1440.
Nasser bin Thani Al Hamli, Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation, extended his sincerest greetings and blessings to the 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 Highnesses the Supreme Council Members and the Rulers of the Emirates.
He also congratulated the government, citizens and residents of the UAE on this glorious occasion and wished further progress and prosperity to the UAE and to Arab and Islamic nations.
(@rukhshanmir)
MIRPUR (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Sep, 2018 ) , Sept 5 (APP)::AJK President Sardar Masood Khan, Prime Minister Raja Muhammad Farooq Haider Khan and Minister for Information, Tourism and Information Technology Raja Mushtaq Minhas on Wednesday called upon the countrymen to pledge on Defense Day of Pakistan that they would stand shoulder to shoulder with the valiant armed forces of the country for defense of inch after inch of the motherland like they did against Indian aggression this day in 1965.
In their message on Defence Day of Pakistan, September 6, issued Wednesday evening, the president, prime minister and information minister paid rich tributes to martyrs and ghazis of armed forces for their sacrifices rendered for the defence of Pakistan.
They said September 6, 1965, was a very important day in the history of the country when our soldiers successfully defended borders of the country.
In his message, AJK President Sardar Masood Khan said, we were proud of our brave armed forces the way they defended the country in the fateful war of 1965. The nation also salutes to the great sacrifices of the armed forces for defeating the biggest army of the region.
He said our national security faced its greatest danger when India launched her most aggressive attack on Pakistan on 6th September, 1965.
We were dragged into a battle of survival against an enemy much larger in size and numbers. The brave people of Pakistan displayed immense courage during this fateful war, 53 years ago. They proved that a nation imbued with the true spirit of Jihad cannot be vanquished even by the mightiest forces.
Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan said the entire nation was proud of the supreme success of its Armed Forces in the war of 1965. We hold in great esteem the valor and gallantry of our warriors and were profoundly indebted to our Shaheeds for showing unto us the path of ultimate glory.
He said the challenges ahead will require of us a much greater national harmony and cohesion. A monumental task both for the civilians and Armed Forces personnel was to dedicate all their energies and abilities to make Pakistan a stable and self-reliant nation.
Minister for Information Mushtaq Minhas said, by the grace of Allah, our officers and airmen were fully alive to the demands of their calling. May Allah give us strength and vision to fulfill our obligations to the nation, he said. He also prayed for the martyred soldiers.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)
ISLAMABAD, Sep 5 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Sep, 2018 ) :`The entire nation along with the armed forces will celebrate the Defence Day of Pakistan on Thursday with a renewed pledge to continue safeguarding the geographical, ideological boundaries and territorial integrity of the motherland against all threats.
The day will dawn with special prayers in the mosques for the well-being and prosperity of the country.
`Fateha' and Quran Khawani will be held for all those, who laid their lives in the line to serve the nation.
Special events will be held to mark the day. Prime Minister Imran Khan will be the chief guest at Defence and Martyr's Day ceremony at the General Headquarters (GHQ).
Wreath laying ceremonies will be held at the mausoleums of the recipients of Nishan-e-Haider (the highest gallantry award), which will be attended by the senior officials of the respective areas across the country.
Several ceremonies will be held to pay homage to the Pakistan Army soldiers and officials and other law enforcement agencies personnel, who laid their lives in the battlefield. Main ceremonies would be held at all the district headquarters in which families of martyrs will be invited to commemorate sacrifices of the martyrs.
To mark the day with national enthusiasm, different programmes have been chalked out by the Armed Forces of Pakistan in Peshawar. The major function will be held at Karnal Sher Khan Stadium where different types of weapons, warplanes and helicopters' models etc. will be displayed for students and general public.
Another major function will be held at Swabi where a wreath will be laid on the grave of Captain Karnal Sher Khan Shaheed (Nishan-e-Haider). A smartly turned out contingent of Pakistan Army will present salute to the celebrated hero of Kargil war.
The day will also be celebrated in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). Special ceremonies will be held at various places in AJK, including all the ten district headquarters, to pay tribute to the martyrs of the 1965 Indo-Pak war as well as other military and civilian martyrs for giving the supreme sacrifices of their valuable lives to safeguard the country.
The media will also carry the messages of President, Prime Minister, Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly in relation to the significance of the Day.
Special talk shows will be held on the state-run and private television channels and radio stations across the country.
It was on this day in 1965 that the Indian forces crossed international border in the darkness of night to attack Pakistan, but ever-vigilant armed forces, solidly backed by the nation, foiled enemy's nefarious designs.
The Armed Forces of Pakistan commemorate 6th September to pay tribute to `Shuhada' and Ghazis for their supreme sacrifices and gallantry acts.
Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of Pakistan Army, has released a video song in commemoration of defence services by Pakistan Armed Forces. The promo shared at the official handle of DG ISPR, Major General Asif Ghafoor shows combined footage of the country's all forces putting their lives on the line to protect the nation, whereas in the background a song filled with gusto and patriotism can be heard.
Roads, intersections and other public places all over the country have been decorated with banners and steamers, bearing pictures ofmartyrsof PakistanArmed Forces under the theme of 'Hamain Payar HayPakistan Se'. Similarly, Pakistan Railways has decorated its trains giving the message that Pakistani nation loves its armed forces and law enforcement agencies.
Earlier, in the last of week of August the DG ISPR in a conference had revealed that the country's martyrs would be honoured on the Defence and Martyrs Day adding that "Every martyr of our nation should be visible on (September 6)." The 213th Corps Commanders Conference, recently held at the General Headquarters Rawalpindi with Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa in the chair paid rich tribute to martyrs of Pakistan. The COAS directed that field formations should reach out to families of martyrs in their respective areas as mark of respect and acknowledgment of their great sacrifices.
The ceremonies regarding the Defence Day will be held at Fortress Stadium, Mazar-e-Iqbal, Town Hall, Yadgar- e-Shuhada, Manawan and Airport Road in Lahore.
The change of guard ceremony will take place at Mazar-e-Quaid in Karachi in the morning. A PAF contingent will assume guard duty. The representatives of three armed services will also visit the Mazar of the Father of the Nation, lay wreaths and offer Fateha.
In Balochistan, the main ceremony will be held at the Yadgar-i-Shuhada in Quetta Cantt. Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Jam Kamal Khan and Commander Southern Command Lieutenant General Asim Saleem Bajwa will lay a wreath on the Yadgar-i-Shuhada. A flag hoisting ceremony will be held at the grave of Nawabzada Mir Siraj Raisani Shaheed in his ancestral village Killi Kanak in Mastung district. Inspector General Frontier Corps Balochisatn, Major General Nadeem Anjum will lay a wreath on the grave of martyr.
Radio Pakistan will air special programmes based on interviews of martyrs of Pakistan and paying homage to the heroes of the nation who sacrificed their lives for the motherland. A special two-hour long show will be broadcast between 1100 hours to 1300 hours. The Minister for Information and the Minister for Defence are expected to attend.
(@FahadShabbir)
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Tuesday congratulated Dr Arif ur Rehman Alvi over his election as President of Pakistan.
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Sep, 2018 ) :Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Tuesday congratulated Dr Arif ur Rehman Alvi over his election as President of Pakistan.
In a message the minister said that Dr Arif ur Rehman Alvi was a serious and sober person and his election as president of Pakistan was a good omen.
He said that Dr Arif ur Rehman Alvi was the founding member of the PTI and belonged to an educated and religious family and his election would strengthen the federation.
The minister expressed the hope that as head of the state he would perform his duties in exemplary manner and with his election another milestone in democratic change has been achieved.
Fawad Hussain also congratulated the opposition for their participation in the democraticprocess.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)
Islamabad Police on Wednesday reviewed security arrangements in connection with Muharram ul Harram and decided to enhance vigilance and patrolling in various areas to ensure fool proof security.
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Sep, 2018 ) :Islamabad Police on Wednesday reviewed security arrangements in connection with Muharram ul Harram and decided to enhance vigilance and patrolling in various areas to ensure fool proof security.
The security arrangements were discussed in a meeting presided over by the Senior Superintendent of Police (Operations) Najeeb-ur-Rehman Bugvi which was attended among others by all Zonal SPs, SP (Investigation), Sub-Divisional Police Officers and Station House Officers. All wings of Islamabad police were given directions to ensure complete coordination for success of this plan.
The SSP directed all SDPOs and SHOs to maintain close liaison with peace committees and organizers of Majalis and processions in Muharram-ul-Haram. Cooperation of organizers should be ensured with the police and law enforcing officials, he added.
The SSP has directed for strict security arrangements on gatherings and special checking of participants. He said that it should be ensured to make arrangements for checking of participants of Majalis and processions thorough using metal detectors. Strict vigilance should be maintained to ensure that security measures are in place by the police as well as peace committees, the SSP maintained.
He directed to launch effective search operation as well as combing activities in the slum areas of the city including Afghan habitats and enhance vigilance at all entrance points of the city. All SPs have been asked to monitor this search operation themselves and inform SSP's office on daily basis about progress in this regard.
The SSP also ordered all SHOs to make proper light arrangements after negotiations with concerned authorities and also to weed out bushes in the various areas in the vicinity of worship places.
The personnel of Rangers and police Commandos along with vehicles would perform the security of Imambargahs arranging religious gatherings.
He said that it should be ensured that processions will pass through the fixed routes and timings of processions to be observed strictly. He has also directed for effective patrolling and use commando vehicles for the purpose.
He directed for maintaining close coordination among all wings of Islamabad police and staff. The SSP said that walk through gates must be installed at all entry and exit points of Majalis and processions and it should be covered through large strength of policemen. He also asked all SPs, SDPOs to take steps to curb wall chalking or pasting posters which may hurt sentiments of people.
Patrolling officers must conduct visit of all the routes of Muharram processions and Imambargahs and rooftops to be covered by the police officials. The SSP said that lady Police should be deputed for the female gatherings while police officers and Jawans would perform security duties outside the Imambargahs.
All Station House Officers (SHOs) should get the complete bio-data of those volunteers performing security duties.
Peace committees would be asked to ensure that no stranger is allowed to stay in the worship places for security reasons during the month of Muharram.
The SSP Najeeb-ur-Rehman Bugvi said those performing at police pickets should behave politely with citizens and highlight the real friendly image of Islamabad police. The SSP said they should play a role model in inculcating positive image of the force.
He said that o one within the department would be allowed to do any kind of embezzlement and only those following the policy of zero tolerance against corruption would survive.
He said that awards should be given as an encouragement for those police officersaccomplishing their duties in a responsible manner and honest way.
His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani sent on Tuesday a cable of congratulations to H. E. Dr. AfifAlvi on his election as President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Islamabad (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 05th September, 2018) His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani sent on Tuesday a cable of congratulations to H. E. Dr. AfifAlvi on his election as President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, wishing him success in his duties and the relations between the two friendly countries further development and growth.
(@FahadShabbir)
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Chairman of the Japan-Pakistan Parliamentary Friendship League (JPPFL) Seishiro Eto on Wednesday held in-depth discussions on the entire gamut of Pakistan-Japan bilateral relations and deliberated on the various possibilities of deepening existing ties in diverse areas including trade, investment, education and cultural cooperation.
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Sep, 2018 ) :Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Chairman of the Japan-Pakistan Parliamentary Friendship League (JPPFL) Seishiro Eto on Wednesday held in-depth discussions on the entire gamut of Pakistan-Japan bilateral relations and deliberated on the various possibilities of deepening existing ties in diverse areas including trade, investment, education and cultural cooperation.
The two sides also expressed their satisfaction at current trajectory in the bilateral relations and agreed to maintain the momentum through continued high-level exchanges.
The JPPFL chairman called on the foreign minister at Foreign Office. Eto felicitated the foreign minister on the assumption of his office, Foreign office in a press release said.
Both sides exchanged views on the current developments in the region and reaffirmed their commitment to promote the goals of peace and prosperity of the region.
The foreign minister underscored that Japan was one of Pakistan's major development partner and had always supported Pakistan in testing times. Japan has played an important role in the socio-economic development of the country and it actively participated in the Friends of Democratic Pakistan forum, and hosted the FoDP Donors Conference in Tokyo in 2009.
Both sides also reviewed the existing economic cooperation between the two countries.
Japanese development projects in Pakistan in social sectors like education and health and the promotion of investment in Pakistan by the Japanese companies also figured in the discussion.
Referring to the recent visit of Japan's State Minister for Foreign Affairs last month, Eto stressed that Pakistan-Japan relations were making historical progress.
Eto, thanked the foreign minister and said that he had been impressed by the feelings of goodwill in Pakistan for Japan and assured of his government's continued support to contribute to enhance trade and investment possibilities for Pakistan.
Matters related to correct the balance of payment, which was tilted towards Japan and increased Japanese investment in Pakistan also came under discussion.
The foreign minister thanked Eto and the members of his delegation for their long-standing support to bilateral parliamentary exchanges.
He lauded the joint efforts of the two parliaments to deepen the bilateral friendly relations.
Pakistan valued its exchanges and cooperation with the Japanese parliament, and was readyto further such exchanges with parliamentary leaders, members, special committees and friendshipgroups, he added.
The Bahrain Space Science Agency (NSSA) is engaged in talks with Russia on sending its astronauts to space, but no specific agreements have been reached yet, the Russian embassy in Manama told Sputnik on Wednesday.
DOHA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) The Bahrain Space Science Agency (NSSA) is engaged in talks with Russia on sending its astronauts to space, but no specific agreements have been reached yet, the Russian embassy in Manama told Sputnik on Wednesday.
"The representatives of the Bahrain Space Science Agency attended a spacecraft launch at Baikonur this year, where they discussed with the Russian side the prospects for possible cooperation, specifically in training and sending the first Bahraini astronaut into orbit. But no specific agreements have been reached yet, no documents on the issue have been signed," the embassy spokesperson said.
Last July, the agency announced the launch of its Space Team program which seeks to recruit 10 people who would become Bahrain's first group of space science and technology specialists.
The group is set to undergo 24-month training, which will be held both on the kingdom's territory and abroad.
The development of the Bahraini space program comes amid the United Arab Emirates' announcement that it had picked its first two astronauts who would go to the International Space Station (ISS). According to the Russian Gagarin Research and Test Cosmonaut Training Center, the two UAE nationals are already undergoing a training in Russia.
In August, Russian space agency Roscosmos said it was engaged in negotiations on cooperation with Gulf states. The agency noted a short-term mission for a UAE citizen to the ISS had been agreed while a long-term mission for a UAE astronaut and short-term flight for a Bahraini national had been under discussion.
Russian nuclear power companies are interested in digitization and the use of blockchain technologies in energy production and distribution, the chief innovation officer for global digital energy solutions at GE Power, a global power generation leader, told Sputnik on Wednesday.
BONN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) Russian nuclear power companies are interested in digitization and the use of blockchain technologies in energy production and distribution, the chief innovation officer for global digital energy solutions at GE Power, a global power generation leader, told Sputnik on Wednesday.
"We [GE] have an interest in Russia. When I was talking with the power sector, for example, with nuclear companies and so on, they showed an interest in blockchain. Last week in Paris, I kicked off a group focusing on digitization where blockchain was included, and I had about 50 companies who joined, including Russian players, [Russian nuclear corporation] Rosatom and all its subsidiaries. I talked to officials from Rosatom, and they have high interest in these technologies including blockchain, cybersecurity and so on," Maher Chebbo said on the sidelines of Innovation Week in Bonn organized by International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
Blockchain can be particularly useful in the production of renewable energy, Chebbo, who is also chairman of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) international organization, pointed out.
"It helps in making peer-to-peer transactions fast. Blockchain helps also tracing these transactions and giving some visibility and also making the costs of these transactions cheaper ... Blockchain here can play a role in improving the operations and maintenance costs. We will continue engagement with these companies who joined this group 'The Digital Energy Executives Exchange Hub,'" Chebbo explained.
Chebbo noted that in the future, when renewable energy accounts for half of global production, it would be impossible to manage and supervise distribution and prevent accidents without the use of modern digital technologies.
Flash
The UN Security Council will discuss the situation in Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria, on Friday, said U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
Haley, whose country is taking over the presidency of the Security Council for September, on Tuesday warned against the use of chemical weapons in Idlib, saying U.S. President Donald Trump has made it clear that the country will respond if chemical weapons are used.
"This is a tragic situation, and if they want to continue to go the route of taking over Syria, they can do that. But they cannot do it with chemical weapons. They can't do it assaulting their people and we're not going to fall for it," Haley told reporters when presenting the Security Council's program of work for September.
She said a Security Council meeting has been scheduled for Friday morning so that the council will be acting before a chemical weapons attack would take place.
"What you are seeing is the Security Council come together and say: we will not kind of sit by and wait until after the chemical weapons attack. We want to have a meeting now to discuss what should not happen," said Haley.
The United States and its Western allies were threatening Syria with the use of force over allegations that the Syrian government is planning a chemical attack in Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold in the Arab country.
Damascus read the threats as the Western powers' way to hinder the government forces' planned assault in Idlib under false pretexts of chemical weapons' use.
(@rukhshanmir)
Algeria and China have signed a memorandum of understanding on Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which is aimed at developing infrastructure and strengthening ties between Eurasian countries, as well as with Africa, Oceania and other nearby regions, media reported.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) Algeria and China have signed a memorandum of understanding on Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which is aimed at developing infrastructure and strengthening ties between Eurasian countries, as well as with Africa, Oceania and other nearby regions, media reported.
The memorandum was signed by Algerian Foreign Minister Abdelkader Messahel and chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission He Lifeng on the sidelines of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing on Tuesday, according to Algeria Press Service.
Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia welcomed on the sidelines of the summit the Chinese contribution to Africa's development.
Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier said that China intended to strengthen cooperation with the African continent in fight against terrorism, piracy and other challenges and will continue to provide the African Union with free military aid.
China's Belt and Road Initiative was first announced by Xi in 2013. The initiative focuses on the Maritime Silk Road, which connects China and Europe via India, East Africa and the Red Sea states, and on the Silk Road Economic Belt, which includes the Central Asia, Russia, and the middle East.
FOCAC, which was established in 2000, comprises 53 African countries and China, along with the Commission of the African Union. The forum's objectives include the promotion of cooperation and friendship among members.
Vienna, Sept 5 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Sep, 2018 ) :Austria said Wednesday it would appeal an EU court's dismissal of its case against Europe-approved, British subsidies for a new nuclear power plant in England.
The General Court, Europe's second highest, in July confirmed a decision of the European Commission to approve UK government aid for the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.
The tribunal ruled it was up to each individual EU state to decide which type of energy technology to pursue, even if fellow members disagreed.
Anti-nuclear Austria challenged the commission's green light for the project before the General Court in 2015. The court ruled against Vienna in July this year.
Austria was backed by Luxembourg and nuclear activists, while Britain had the support of the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
On Wednesday, an Austrian cabinet meeting agreed to lodge an appeal against the July ruling, the ministry in charge of sustainability said.
"Austria continues to have the viewpoint that nuclear energy is not the technology of the future and that it gives the wrong sign to present subsidies for the construction of nuclear power plants as harmless," the ministry said in a submission to the cabinet.
The British government says Hinkley is vital for the country's energy security, as most existing nuclear stations are due to close before 2023.
The 19.6-billion ($25-billion, 22-billion-euro) project, to be built by French energy giant EDF and the China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN), is highly symbolic of Britain's nuclear renewal.
Austria has long campaigned against nuclear power, bolstered by a referendum in 1978 rejecting atomic energy.
(@rukhshanmir)
The construction of Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline has started in Finland, the press service of the Nord Stream 2 AG, the project's operating company, said on Wednesday, adding that the process would be held in accordance with environmental requirements.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) The construction of Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline has started in Finland, the press service of the Nord Stream 2 AG, the project's operating company, said on Wednesday, adding that the process would be held in accordance with environmental requirements.
"The offshore pipelay vessel Solitaire started today at 13:25 CET [12:25 GMT] the pipelay for the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline in the Gulf of Finland," the press service said.
According to the company, the vessel will take into consideration the environmental requirements and use a dynamic positioning system to make sure it is only the pipeline that touches the seabed. All the welding and testing will be done on board of the vessel and then the pipes will be lowered down to the seabed according to the positioning system data, the press service added.
A court in Estonia arrested two men on suspicion that they had transferred classified information to Russia, local media reported on Wednesday.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) A court in Estonia arrested two men on suspicion that they had transferred classified information to Russia, local media reported on Wednesday.
The two are suspected of sharing confidential information with the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, according to Delfi news outlet.
Harju District court ruled on Tuesday that the two should be arrested, the report said.
One of the detainees served in the Estonian Defense Forces at the time when the crime was committed, according to the news outlet.
BRUSSELS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) The European Union calls on guarantors of the Astana process on the Syrian reconciliation - Russia, Iran and Turkey - to protect civilian population of the province of Idlib, which may face the offensive of the Syrian government troops, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said.
Idlib province is one of Syria's de-escalation zones and a remaining stronghold of the insurgency in the country. The situation in the province has recently escalated with Moscow and Damascus suggesting that militants are planning to stage a false-flag chemical attack against civilians there to frame the Syrian government.
"Idlib is the last remaining de-escalation zone in Syria that the Astana guarantors committed to safeguard. The European Union calls on the Astana guarantors to follow through on their commitment and protect civilians as a matter of priority. All necessary measures to protect civilian lives as well as unhindered, safe and sustainable humanitarian access need to be ensured," Mogherini said in a statement issued on Tuesday after her phone conversation with US Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura.
She pointed out that the possible Syrian army's offensive in Idlib may result in a humanitarian disaster.
"A military offensive in Idlib would put at risk the lives of more than three million civilians living in the region and result in a new humanitarian catastrophe. Any use of chemical weapons could have devastating human and humanitarian consequences. Moreover, a full-scale military operation in Idlib province would escalate an already dangerous conflict in a volatile region," Mogherini said.
The EU foreign policy chief also reaffirmed the bloc's support for the activities of de Mistura.
"As European Union, we continue to support the efforts of the UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura, with whom I spoke again today on the phone, with a view of an inclusive credible and sustainable political solution in Syria. Only a political process can bring to a solution to the conflict that respects the freedom and the dignity of all Syrian people in accordance with UNSC Resolution 2254 and the Geneva Communique," Mogherini added.
On Monday, US President Donald Trump called on the Syrian government as well as Russia and Iran to prevent the Syrian army's possible offensive in Idlib.
(@FahadShabbir)
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford told reporters that Greek Admiral Evangelos Apostolakis, the chief of the Hellenic National Defense General Staff, offered to expand American access to the country's military bases.
"[Apostolakis] expressed interest in expanding our access to their bases," Dunford said on Tuesday as quoted by US Department of Defense (DoD) news.
Dunford, who held talks with his Greek counterpart earlier in the day in Athens, also said Greece is open to increasing military cooperation with the United States.
US military cooperation with Greece provides significant opportunities pertaining to current operations in Libya and Syria including potential operations in the Eastern Mediterranean, Dunford added.
Dunford and Apostolakis also discussed the importance of sharing intelligence especially on counterterrorism.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)
The director-general of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) expressed hope on Wednesday that the US state of California would make its final decision on becoming 100 percent clean in its energy production by 2045 in the coming days.
BONN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) The director-general of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) expressed hope on Wednesday that the US state of California would make its final decision on becoming 100 percent clean in its energy production by 2045 in the coming days.
On Tuesday, the California State Assembly passed a bill to decarbonize its energy production by 2045, after reaching a 60 percent share of renewables in total energy production by 2030. The bill now has to get final approval from the Senate and a signature from Governor Jerry Brown to become law.
"I have been on the phone in the last couple of weeks with friends in California, who were pushing a new initiative, which is a 100-percent renewables for California.
That has been passed by the House [of Representatives] and is on the desk of the governor of California for signature, and I am hoping in the meetings that will be taking place in California in the coming days we will hear good news about that," Adnan Amin said at the opening of the IRENA Innovation Week in Bonn.
California, "which by itself could be the sixth largest economy in the world," recently said it would meet the 2030 renewable energy generation target of 50 percent ten years ahead of schedule, Amin added.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th September, 2018) The Office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller issued a subpoena to conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi who has connections to Roger Stone, a former adviser to US President Donald Trump, media reported on Wednesday.
Corsi has been subpoenaed to provide testimony on Friday, The New York Times reported citing defense lawyer David Gray.
Corsi's attorney said that Mueller was going to ask his client about conversations with Stone regarding the release of former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's emails by WikiLeaks, the report added. Gray also said his client will comply with the court subpoena.
Stone, according to the report, appeared to publicly predict that WikiLeaks planned to publish material damaging to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign during the 2016 election.
Corsi has propagated conspiracy theories about former President Barack Obama's place of birth and the attacks on September 11, 2001, among others. He is also tied to Alex Jones, the host of the notorious conspiracy website InfoWars.
The special counsel is investigating allegations that Russia meddled in the 2016 US election and charges of collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign. Russia has dismissed claims that it interfered with the vote, insisting that it does not meddle in the internal affairs of other countries. Trump has also rejected accusations of collusion and has publicly denounced Mueller's probe.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)
Motorcyclists without helmets will be barred from buying fuel at filling stations in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, police said.
Dhaka, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Sep, 2018 ) :Motorcyclists without helmets will be barred from buying fuel at filling stations in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, police said.
The move is part of efforts to quell tensions after the city of nearly 20 million people was rocked by angry protests about poor road safety last month.
"The petrol pumps (owners) have already been told not to sell fuel to any motor bikers without helmets," Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia said on Tuesday.
He added that a maximum of two people were allowed on a bike and pillion passengers must also wear a helmet.
Protests across Dhaka and other cities in August saw tens of thousands of teenage school pupils and students block the streets to demand better road safety on Bangladesh's chaotic and corruption-ridden transport network, after a speeding bus killed two teenage pedestrians.
In the wake of the protests, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's cabinet approved a new transport law stipulating harsher punishments for offenders.
Bangladeshi highways are some of the deadliest in the region with around 12,000 dying in road accidents every year, according to a private group that monitors accidents.
In the Eid al Adha holidays last month, 259 people were killed and 960 people were injured in 237 road accidents in the space of 13 days.
In Dhaka, like elsewhere in Asia, more than two people riding a motorbike or a moped is a common sight. Many times, none of them wear helmets.
The warring parties in Yemen must prioritize the protection of the country's children as a core concern when they convene for peace talks for the first time in three years, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) The warring parties in Yemen must prioritize the protection of the country's children as a core concern when they convene for peace talks for the first time in three years, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said on Wednesday.
"Twenty-one children were killed in the Yemen conflict in July, according to United Nations teams on the ground," Fore said in a statement. "Another 55 were reportedly killed in two weeks in August. After more than three years of fighting, the situation of children in Yemen is getting worse, not better."
Social services in Yemen are barely functioning and the whole country is on the verge of collapse, Fore observed.
"When these services fail, children are the first to suffer as their health, education and protection needs are overlooked.
Unless we act now, the impact of this war will haunt us all for generations to come... The children of Yemen need to heal. They need justice. They need lasting peace, now." she said.
Fore called on the warring parties in Yemen to guarantee unimpeded and safe access to all children in need, stop airstrikes and attacks on civilians to protect children's lives, stop the recruitment and use of children in the conflict and release all children associated with armed forces or groups.
She also demanded an end to the arbitrary arrest and detention of children, including those detained for alleged association with armed opposition groups and the release of all children detained on security-related charges.
You are here:
Remarks by H.E. Xi Jinping
President of the People's Republic of China
At the Joint Meeting with the Press Together with
Presidents of the Previous and Sitting African Co-Chairs of FOCAC
Beijing, 4 September 2018
Your Excellency President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa,
Your Excellency President Macky Sall,
Friends from the Press,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good afternoon. It is a pleasure to meet you here.
First of all, it is my pleasure to announce that the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) has just successfully concluded.
In the past two days, leaders of FOCAC members gathered in Beijing under the theme of "China and Africa: Toward an Even Stronger Community with a Shared Future through Win-Win Cooperation". We reviewed implementation of the outcomes of the 2015 FOCAC Johannesburg Summit, discussed plans for future growth of China-Africa relations, and drew the blueprint for China-Africa cooperation to go ahead. The Summit issued the Beijing Declaration Toward an Even Stronger China-Africa Community with a Shared Future, which embodies the agreement reached between China and Africa on major regional and international issues in today's world and sends out a strong message that China and Africa will go hand in hand in years to come. The Summit adopted the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Beijing Action Plan, and identified eight major initiatives as the focus of China-Africa cooperation in the coming three years to strengthen practical cooperation across the board.
We agreed that the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century. Economic globalization is deepening in an increasingly multipolar world. The future of the world's people has never been so closely linked. Meanwhile, mankind faces a host of common challenges as uncertainties and destabilizing factors continue to mount. China and Africa will join hands to build a China-Africa community with a shared future that features joint responsibility, win-win cooperation, happiness for all, common cultural prosperity, common security, and harmonious co-existence. Together, we will better uphold the common interests of China and Africa, boost the strength of developing countries, and make the world a more balanced and better place for everyone to live in. This will set a good example for the building of a community with a shared future for mankind in our times.
We agreed that China-Africa relations have stood the test of time and international changes and embarked on a distinctive path of win-win cooperation. China-Africa relations are at their best in history. The two sides will enhance synergy between strategies and policies, advance cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, and pool the strength of this Initiative with that of Agenda 2063 of the African Union, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations, and national development strategies of African countries. The focus will be on the implementation of eight major initiatives, namely, industrial promotion, infrastructure connectivity, trade facilitation, green development, capacity building, health care, people-to-people exchange, and peace and security. It will provide more opportunities and give even stronger impetus to China-Africa cooperation.
We agreed that China-Africa relations have demonstrated unprecedented solidarity, vitality and creativity, which offers significant opportunities for the development of each side. China is the biggest developing country, and Africa the continent with a large gathering of developing countries in the world. The two sides will stay committed to strengthening unity and cooperation and working with each other along the path of win-win cooperation and common development. China will continue to act in the principle of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith and of pursuing the greater good and shared interests. Together, China and Africa will draw on the strength of our profound friendship and mutual trust, keep to the right direction as practical cooperation flourishes, and work for solid, steady and sustained growth of the China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership.
We agreed that Africa is entitled to achieving development and invigoration. This requires both the hard work of African countries and their people, and the support from the international community. China-Africa cooperation, as part of the international cooperation with Africa, follows the principle of mutual benefit, openness and inclusiveness. We hope that Africa's international cooperation partners could learn from each other, leverage their respective strengths, build synergy and jointly contribute to peace and development in Africa. While conducting cooperation with Africa, all parties of the international community need to respect the sovereignty of African countries, listen to Africa's voice, take Africa's stance seriously and deliver on the promises made to Africa.
The meeting has completed all items on the agenda. Chinese and African leaders have reached significant common ground and spoken with one voice on all major issues. The Beijing Summit has achieved great success and produced significant outcomes. It has opened a new chapter in the history of China-Africa relations and set a new milestone for South-South cooperation of our times.
Over the past few days, Chinese and African leaders also had intensive bilateral meetings during this friendly gathering of the big China-Africa family, and some African heads of state and government have paid or will pay bilateral visits to China. I had bilateral meetings with all the African leaders who attended the Beijing Summit and visited China. We had in-depth exchange of views and reached broad and significant common understanding on our respective bilateral relations and issues of shared interest.
Eighteen years ago, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation was established to answer the call of the times. Since then, it has grown strong and prospered as China-Africa cooperation continues to flourish. It has become a distinct symbol in international cooperation with Africa and in South-South cooperation. The success of the Beijing Summit marks a new historic starting point for the China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership. We are about to set out on a new journey in history. We need to work together to substantiate and strengthen FOCAC, and deliver on the outcomes of the Beijing Summit in full and in real earnest, so that China-Africa cooperation will bring tangible benefits to our peoples.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As the Beijing Summit comes to a conclusion, I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to African leaders attending the Summit. Their hard work, active contribution, valuable experience and great wisdom have all contributed to the great success of the Summit.
In particular, I wish to thank President Cyril Ramaphosa for working closely with me over the past two days to co-chair the Summit, and I thank South Africa for the excellent job it has done as co-chair of FOCAC. I congratulate Senegal on taking over as the new co-chair of FOCAC, and I thank President Macky Sall for his strong commitment to advancing the Forum in its development.
My thanks also go to friends from the Chinese and African business and cultural communities as well as think tanks and the media for your active participation and support. To friends from the media, I thank you for your comprehensive and timely coverage of the Summit and its outcomes. I hope you will continue to follow the development of FOCAC and support China-Africa relations.
I am convinced that with our concerted efforts and with the strong support of the over 2.6 billion Chinese and African people, we will meet our goal of building an even stronger China-Africa community with a shared future. China-Africa relations will embrace even brighter prospects in the time to come.
Thank you.
Hundreds of people will gather in London on Wednesday for the three-day conference of the World Nuclear Association, which will be dedicated to the future of nuclear power.
LONDON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) Hundreds of people will gather in London on Wednesday for the three-day conference of the World Nuclear Association, which will be dedicated to the future of nuclear power.
The event will be attended by representatives of multiple sectors of the nuclear industry, from fuel enrichment to transport and reactor construction, from over 30 nations.
The symposium will address key issues facing the nuclear industry, with environmental concerns and nuclear energy's public image set to be the key points of debate.
The conference will be featured by a high-level panel discussion, including Michael Bluck, the director of the Centre for Nuclear Engineering at Imperial College London, and Mikhail Chudakov, the deputy director general and head of the Department of Nuclear Energy of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which will be held on Friday.
The event will be carried out amid sporadic protests across the United Kingdom with both the safety and environmental sustainability of nuclear power prompting concern of the general public.
On Saturday, activists from the Highlands Against Nuclear Transport group and the Cromarty Peace Group campaigners held a protest at a train station in the Scottish city of Inverness over transportation of radioactive waste through the city to the Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing facility.
In a similar case on August 27, hundreds of protesters gathered at the National Assembly for Wales to rally against the authorities' plans to dump dredged mud from Somerset's Hinkley Point C nuclear power site into Cardiff Bay.
Although the Hinkley Point C site is not yet operational, campaigners fear the mud may be contaminated by radioactive waste from sites A and B, something that the EDF Energy, the sites' owner, has consistently ruled out. Protesters insist that their fears are well-founded, believing that tests on potential mud contamination, which have already been carried out, are insufficiently conclusive.
(@FahadShabbir)
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) The Western countries are responsible for the 2014 overthrown of then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, which triggered the military conflict in the country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
"Our Western parties are accusing us of that [eruption of the conflict in Ukraine]. I believe that they are acting dishonestly as, in fact, they are guilty of that. They hardly managed to make the opposition ... sign the agreement of February 20, 2014, they signed that agreement as guarantors but in the next morning they said 'Yanukovych left for Kharkiv, we are sorry.' The things should not be done in such a manner," the minister told Russia's Channel One broadcaster on late Tuesday.
Lavrov pointed out that the Western countries' decision to target Russia with sanctions after such moves was indecent.
Ukraine had been facing protests at Kiev's Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) since late 2013 after Yanukovych refused to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union. In late February, the situation significantly de-escalated despite the reached agreement between the opposition and Yanukovych and the latter left the country.
Some people in eastern Ukraine refused to recognize the new government, which triggered the conflict in the region of Donbas. Moreover, the developments in Kiev urged Crimea to rejoin Russia.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)
The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force was able to patrol a checkpoint at the Israeli-Syrian border in the demilitarized zone at the Golan Heights, the unit's security was ensured by the Russian military police, the deputy commander of the Russian forces in Syria said Wednesday.
QUNEITRA (Syria) (UrduPoint news / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force was able to patrol a checkpoint at the Israeli-Syrian border in the demilitarized zone at the Golan Heights, the unit's security was ensured by the Russian military police, the deputy commander of the Russian forces in Syria said Wednesday.
"We are near Quneira, where UNDOF forces are scouting the checkpoint from Syria-controlled territory to Israel-controlled territory ... The Russian flag is the guarantee of security in the entire demilitarized zone. The presence of the Russian military police guarantees security for the residents of the province of Quneitra," Lt. Gen. Sergei Kuralenko told reporters.
According to Kuralenko, the reconnaissance mission would help make checkpoint operational again. The territory in the vicinity was seized by militants when the conflict flared up in Syria, so UN forces had to enter Israel via Lebanon.
The deputy commander added that the Russian military police operations allowed to clear the demilitarized area from heavy weapons that used to be owned by the militants.
However, some small arms and light weapons could still remain in the area.
"The Russian military police are continuing their work. We are continuing the joint patrolling [of the demilitarized zone] with UNDOF forces," Kuralenko said.
Israel took control of the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War of 1967, while the Israeli parliament later announced that the territory belonged to Israel. However, the United Nations urged Israel to leave the land. Some of the territory was later returned to Syria.
The UNDOF was established in 1974 to ensure that the ceasefire holds in the demilitarized zone.
In August this year, after the area was freed from terrorists, the UN mission, accompanied by the Russian military police, entered the zone from the Syrian side for the first time in years. The second patrol was carried out by the UN mission without the help of the Russian military.
Tehran, Sept 5 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Sep, 2018 ) :The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey meet Friday in Tehran for a summit expected to shape the future of Idlib province, home to Syria's last major rebel bastion.
The summit comes as Syrian forces look poised to launch a major assault that is raising fears of a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale not yet seen in the seven-year-old conflict.
Damascus and its main backer Moscow have vowed to root out the jihadist groups that dominate Idlib province but the outcome of Friday's meeting could determine the scope and the timing of an offensive.
"We know that the Syrian armed forces are getting ready to solve this problem," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the last major chunk of Syrian territory still in rebel hands.
Turkey has limited sway over the jihadist groups that control an estimated 60 percent of Idlib but it backs rebel groups there and has 12 military "observation points" across the province.
Russia, Turkey and Iran are the guarantors of the Astana process, a track of negotiations that has eclipsed the older Geneva process and de facto helps Syrian President Bashar al-Assad re-assert his authority on the country.
In parallel to the Syrian government's military buildup, the recent weeks have seen intense diplomatic activity.
Al-Watan, a Syrian daily close to the government, wrote on Monday that the result of the talks will be presented in Tehran for the three powers "to endorse it and decide on the 'zero hour' for the Syrian army's military operation, which is expected to immediately follow the summit."
(@ChaudhryMAli88)
UN humanitarian teams based in Turkey need full access to deliver aid in the province of Idlib, UN Special Envoy for Syria's senior adviser, Jan Egeland, said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th September, 2018) UN humanitarian teams based in Turkey need full access to deliver aid in the province of Idlib, UN Special Envoy for Syria's senior adviser, Jan Egeland, said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
"We need full access for all humanitarians [in Idlib]," Egeland said. He also said civilians need "full freedom of movement."
UN teams must be able to cross into Syria from Turkey to deliver aid, he added.
Earlier on Tuesday, Syrian Minister of State for National Reconciliation Affairs Ali Haidar said that the liberation of the Syrian province of Idlib from militants via a military operation is more likely than through a ceasefire.
The province of Idlib in northwest Syria is the last remaining stronghold of several terrorist groups in the country. Last week, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said the United Nations believes that around 10,000 members of the Nusra Front and Al-Qaeda (banned in Russia) terrorist groups are operating in the province.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front has joined forces with other hardline jihadist militants to form a terrorist alliance called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which is the dominant force on the ground in Idlib.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)
The United Nations and its partners have raised 65 percent of its $2.96 billion target for the 2018 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, the UN said on Wednesday.
GENEVA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) The United Nations and its partners have raised 65 percent of its $2.96 billion target for the 2018 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, the UN said on Wednesday.
"The UN and partners are requesting USD 2.96 billion through the 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan to support millions of people in need across the country. As of today 5 September 2018, 65% is funded," a Yemen humanitarian update issued by the UN, read.
The largest donor to the program is Saudi Arabia, which has contributed $530.3 million, while the United Arab Emirates, as the second biggest donor, has contributed $466.5 million.
The 2018 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan has been designed by the Humanitarian Country Team with aims to assist 13.1 million people with the provision of humanitarian or protection assistance.
In late August, a UN panel of experts in a report alleged that the Saudi-led coalition may be responsible for most civilian deaths in Yemen. According to the report, the coalition killed 6,660 civilians and injured another 10,563 during military operations conducted between March 2015 and August 23, 2018.
Yemen is engulfed in an armed conflict between the government headed by Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Houthi movement, also known as Ansar Allah. The Saudi-led coalition of mostly Persian Gulf nations has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi's request since March 2015. Multiple human rights organizations have criticized the coalition for indiscriminate bombings which result in civilian casualties.
Turkey will not release jailed US pastor Andrew Brunson because of the US threats, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said
ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) Turkey will not release jailed US pastor Andrew Brunson because of the US threats, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
"Turkey is a country with the rule of law and the United States cannot demand illegal decisions on Brunson. The trial in Izmir is underway and it cannot be ignored despite the demands for the pastor's release. [The United States] will achieve nothing via such threats," Erdogan told reporters on late Tuesday.
US-Turkish relations deteriorated amid the imprisonment of Brunson, who was detained in Turkey in 2016 over his alleged ties to the movement of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, which Turkey holds responsible for orchestrating the failed military coup of 2016.
The pastor was released from prison in late July, only to be moved to house arrest.
The United States later imposed sanctions on Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu accusing them of human rights violations.
The Turkish-US relations even more worsened in August when US President Donald Trump authorized the doubling of steel and aluminum tariffs on Turkey, up to 50 and 20 percent, respectively, which resulted in the Turkish lira falling to a new historic low.
(@rukhshanmir)
Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov commenting on the UK's Wednesday statement about Russia's alleged role in the Salisbury nerve agent attack said that the information was controversial.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov commenting on the UK's Wednesday statement about Russia's alleged role in the Salisbury nerve agent attack said that the information was controversial.
Earlier in the day, the United Kingdom has revealed the Names and photographs of two males they believed to be the Russian nationals behind the attack.
"I do not know what data is being talked about," Ushakov said in response to a request to comment on photographs and the names of alleged suspects, released by the UK side.
"We have only heard or seen two names, but these names do not tell me personally anything ... Moreover, there was then a commentary by the Scotland Yard that these names were supposedly fictional. I do not understand why this was done and what kind of signal the UK side sends. It's difficult to understand," Ushakov stressed.
The main side effect of prostate-specific membrane antigen targeting alpha therapy (PSMA TAT) is dry mouth syndrome. Inflammation of the salivary glands and consequent reduced salivary function have been reported in patients after radioiodine therapy. The beneficial effects of sialendoscopy on radiation-induced inflammation in tissue are well known. Thus sialendoscopy with dilatation, saline irrigation and steroid injections (prednisolone) was performed before and after 225Ac-PSMA-617 TAT to reduce inflammatory effects in the salivary glands and to improve or prevent xerostomia.
Eleven men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mean age 68.5 years, range 58-80 years) underwent sialendoscopy, dilatation, saline irrigation and steroid injection of both submandibular and both parotid glands before or after every cycle of 225Ac-PSMA-617 TAT. Sialendoscopy and steroid injection were performed by a senior ENT physician. Quality of life was evaluated using two health-related quality of life (HRQOL) questionnaires, the Xerostomia Questionnaire (XQ) and the Xerostomia Inventory (XI) before and 3 months after the intervention.
In all 11 patients both parotid and both submandibular glands were affected by radiation sialadenitis and sialendoscopy was performed. The patients experienced no complications after sialendoscopy, and showed a significant improvement in HRQOL as measured using the XQ and XI. After sialendoscopy the XQ score decreased significantly from 77.7 13.6 to 42.7 14.8 (p = 0.003) and the XI score decreased from 44.5 6.9 to 25.8 12.8 (p = 0.003). Due to the limited number of patients we only report tendencies.
Sialendoscopy with dilatation, saline irrigation and steroid injection had beneficial effects on salivary gland function and HRQOL in patients undergoing 225Ac-PSMA-617 RLT. However, even with sialadenoscopic support after multiple cycles of TAT, salivary gland function was reduced and xerostomia was present. Therefore, not only inflammation but also the direct effect of radiation is a putative cause of dry mouth. Further research is necessary to determine the main side effects of PSMA TAT.
European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging. 2018 Aug 27 [Epub ahead of print]
Hendrik Rathke, Clemens Kratochwil, Ralph Hohenberger, Frederik Lars Giesel, Frank Bruchertseifer, Paul Flechsig, Alfred Morgenstern, Matti Hein, Peter Plinkert, Uwe Haberkorn, Olcay Cem Bulut
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Heidelberg University Hospital, INF 400, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany. ., Department of Nuclear Medicine, Heidelberg University Hospital, INF 400, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany., Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery (ORL-HNS), Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany., Directorate for Nuclear Safety and Security, European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Karlsruhe, Germany., Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, SLK Klinikum Am Gesundbrunnen, Heilbronn, Germany.
PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30151743
Flash
Accusations regarding China's efforts to assist African countries in poverty reduction and common development as new colonial attempts are groundless, said Xu Jinghu, the special envoy of China for African affairs.
Xu made her speech at a press conference held at the Media Center of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on Sept. 4.
"Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, announced on Sept. 3 that all African countries disagree with any accusations of new colonialism in African countries," Xu said.
"Both the African representatives and the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres spoke highly of the friendship between China and the African countries, believing that the friendship can withstand the test of time," Xu said.
They also recommended China's strategies for poverty alleviation to be implemented in African countries, Xu added.
Regarding the US$60 billion in funding that Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to offer to African countries, Xu said, "The implementation of the US$60 billion fund must be a win-win cooperation decided between China and Africa under terms of equality."
According to Xu, there will be cooperative studies on the feasibility of projects involving the use of the fund which can help ensure the self-development of African countries in need of funding, human resources and infrastructure.
Periodic global economic fluctuations and the fall in the prices of raw materials have aggravated the debt burden of African countries. However, among the entire international community, China is not the biggest creditor to Africa. At the same time China will increase its non-resource imports from Africa, Xu said.
On Monday, in his opening remarks to the Summit, President Xi proposed eight initiatives, including industrial promotion, infrastructure connectivity, trade facilitation, and green development, for the common development and win-win cooperation between China and African countries.
Flash
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday sent a congratulatory message to Arif Alvi on his election as Pakistan's new president.
China and Pakistan are good neighbors, good friends and good brothers that treat each other with all sincerity and share weal and woe, and the friendship between the two countries has remained solid and kept growing despite the fluctuating international situation, Xi said in the message.
Xi recalled that China and Pakistan jointly decided to enhance their bilateral relations to an all-weather strategic cooperative partnership when he visited Pakistan in 2015.
In recent years, with the joint efforts made by both sides, mutual political trust is stronger, and the construction of the China-Pakistan economic corridor is fruitful, which has not only benefited the two countries and the two peoples, but made positive contribution to peace and development in the region, Xi said.
The Chinese president noted that the strategic significance of the China-Pakistan relations is more prominent under the current circumstances, and the two countries should support each other more staunchly and conduct deeper cooperation.
Xi said that he highly values the development of the China-Pakistan relations and is willing to join hands with Alvi to further enhance the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership and build a closer China-Pakistan community of shared future.
Arif Alvi, a senior leader of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), was elected president of the South Asian country on Tuesday, according to a statement from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Venezuelan nationals receive food from religious volunteers in Tumbes at the border with Ecuador while they wait for authorisation to enter Peru. (AFP or licensors)
Peruvian Archbishop Jose Antonio Eguren Anselmi, S.C.V. of Piura recently visited the northern city of Tumbe. Bordering Ecuador, Tumbes marks the place of arrival for Venezuelan migrants who cross Ecuador from their conflict-ridden country to reach hope in Peru.
By Francesca Merlo
Peruvian Archbishop Jose Antonio Eguren Anselmi, S.C.V. of Piura recently visited the northern city of Tumbes. Bordering Ecuador, Tumbes marks the place of arrival for Venezuelan migrants who cross Ecuador from their conflict-ridden country to reach hope in Peru.
Over 2,000 of these migrants have been taken in and looked after by 7 parishes in Tumbes. These communities started a new initiative, called Almuerzo Solidario (Caring lunch). This initiative, coordinated by Mrs. Aniana Ho, is designed to feed the 2,100 migrants who are now living in the small community.
Treated with love
During Archbishop Egurens visit, one migrant, who arrived from Venezuela two weeks ago, spoke on behalf of all the Venezuelan migrants who have taken refuge in Tumbes. Thank you for your patience and for the love with which you treat us, he said. He pledged that the Venezuelan community would continue to do their part, paying them back in any way possible so that the Tumbes community would be able to carry on helping all those who neither have a job nor a way to survive.
Protected by Our Lady of Coromoto
Peruvian church members handed out images of the Patron saint of Venezuela, Our Lady of Coromoto, to the Venezuelan migrants, so that she would protect them. They then sang the Venezuelan National Anthem, a gesture which made the Venezuelans feel at home, bringing many of them to tears.
Archbishop Eguren urged the institutions and communities of Peru to continue working for this initiative. He invited all people of good-will to continue pursuing their generosity in the Parish of San Nicolas de Tolentino, where all the hard work stems from, including the preparations for the lunches.
A cry of despair
The large number of migrants who have arrived in Tumbes are the voice of a cry of despair from a country that is appealing to the international community not to give up on Venezuela, and that they make every possible effort to help end the dictatorship that has attacked the most fundamental of its countrys rights, placing it in misery. Archbishop Eguren said.
The Vatican Observatory is hosting an International conference in Rome entitled The Legacy of Angelo Secchi 200 years after his birth. Jesuit Father Christopher Corbally is researcher for the Vatican Observatory. He explains what the conference is all about.
By Francesca Merlo
Angelo Secchi was an Italian Jesuit and scientist from northern Italy. He dedicated his life to the study of the stars and planets, making huge advances in various branches of science. 200 years after his birth, the Vatican Observatory is celebrating his life and work.
Before Angelo Secchi, the main focus of astronomers was to find out the precise location of each star and planet. Their aim was to unveil the mysteries of navigation in order to use them in daily life. Secchi had a different aim in mind. His curiosity was not roused by the question of where the planets were but rather why the planets were. Through his innovative thoughts, which went hand in hand with his new tools, he applied his knowledge to the study of stars. 200 years later, much of the work we see today, related to meteorology, astrophysics and earth sciences can be linked back to Secchis research.
Listen to the Father Corbally
Whats the weather like?
Jesuit Father Corbally, a researcher for the Vatican Observatory spoke to Vatican News about the conference, focusing on the science and legacy of Fr Secchi and looking at what his work leads to today.
According to Fr Corbally, much of what we take for granted today is the product of Angelo Secchis discoveries. The weather, for example, checked daily for agricultural purposes, dress purposes, planning a holiday, the weather has entire television channels dedicated to it. Secchi was part of the developing and understanding of weather patterns. He was a prime mover in producing the first weather maps. Those we now see on our television did not exist before him.
Fr Corbally speaks about the link between Secchis innovative questions and his faith. For Secchi, science is a gift from God. Fr Corbally compares this with the work done at the Vatican Observatory: enjoying this gift of God in using science to find out about the world. Adding Secchis work to their findings has enabled wonderful things to happen, such as predicting the weather. Some of these lessons learnt from Secchi have also affected studies regarding climate change.
Faithful scientist
Fr Corbally believes there is absolutely no difference in the way religious and non-religious scientists approach their research. The tools are the same, the mathematical equations are the same, and they both try to develop observations that stem from consistent theories. The spirit with which it is done is what makes it different.
For the person of faith, it is a way to connect with the Creator, to join in with the light and the enjoyment of creation. Chapter 8 of the Book of Proverbs talks about how the Creator found joy in creation, and Fr Corbally believes that faith-filled scientist shares this joy.
Last night (September 4, 2018), GRAMMY-nominated recording artist Adam Lambert and Roger Taylor and Brian May, founding members of the legendary British rock band Queen, were spotted attending the hit show ABSINTHE, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas (Photo courtesy of Joseph Sanders/Spiegelworld).
Enjoying a night off from their limited engagement concert residency at Park Theater at Park MGM, The Crown Jewels headliners were seen taking in ABSINTHEs outlandish acts and wild antics during the 8 p.m. performance, and later took to Instagram to express their enjoyment of the show; Lambert sharing, @Absinthe_Vegas was so hilarious and mind blowing! Laughed soooo hard, and lead guitarist Brain May noting, Outrageously inappropriate show!!! Thanks for having us and deeply embarrassing Rog! Its an image that will live on in my mind forever!
At one of An Nguyens old jobs in Hanoi, she had a daily ritual: When she wanted to log in to the computer, she had to answer a cybersecurity question such as What is spear phishing? or How does malware work?
Nguyen did not work in the technology industry, but this was her employers way of making sure that all staff had at least a basic understanding of good cyber awareness.
Vietnam could use more people like Nguyen, according to security professionals. They say the countrys small businesses, in particular, do not realize how big a threat they face from hackers or other sources of data breaches.
Cybersecurity for us, sometimes we are too confident -- or maybe we are ignorant, Nguyen, who has since started her own business, said regarding Vietnamese apathy toward computer security. So we dont care much about that.
But small and medium enterprises (SMEs) should care, cyber professionals say, especially considering the factors that make security risks even more acute in Vietnam. These include the Southeast Asian countrys widespread use of pirated software, the high internet penetration among a tech-loving society without the IT support to match, and the love-hate relationship with China.
There are two kinds of people, said Vu Minh Tri, vice president of cloud services at the gaming company VNG, deploying a favorite global cliche -- those who have been hacked, and those who do not know that they have been hacked.
There is a very true saying that there is no company, or no organization, or no computer not impacted by malware, Tri said. Theres only organizations, computers, or people not aware the computer is impacted. So all are impacted. Its just a matter of whether you're aware or not.
A new wrinkle in the story comes from neighboring China, with some cyber-attacks believed to be related to its Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to connect many countries from Asia to Europe through infrastructure projects. Research from the security firm Fireeye suggests Chinese hackers may be used either to defend Beijings partners in the Belt and Road, such as Cambodia, or to target those that do not play ball, like Malaysia.
Vietnam has taken a cautious approach to the initiative, with some scholars expressing concern about risks like burdensome loans and over-reliance on China. The Southeast Asian country also has reason to worry about potential cyber fallout. In one famous case, Chinese internet protocol addresses were suspected in the 2016 hack of Vietnamese airports, where screens displayed messages challenging Hanois claims in the South China Sea.
In this digital era, Asia Pacific region has become the largest digital market in the world, creating tremendous business opportunities for SMEs, Jason Kao, director of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperations SME crisis management center, told small businesses at a Ho Chi Minh City workshop his office sponsored last week.
But not enough of these small and medium-sized enterprises are paying attention to online security, Kao warned.
Since more businesses use computers to connect their customers and store data, cyber-attacks and data leaks can cause serious harm, he said.
The cost burden is understandable, though, he added.
On the one hand, a small business might be too little to attract the unwanted attention of hackers. On the other hand, they might be too small to bear the expense of insuring or guarding against attacks.
As we talk about cost and benefit, we know that we have to buy insurance contracts, we know that we have to protect ourselves, Nguyen said. But we dont have enough resources.
That is the reason ripped software remains popular in Vietnam, earning it a spot among countries to watch in the U.S. Trade Representatives report on intellectual property. Thanks to this pirated software, overseas hackers can access Vietnamese computers, which they use in denial of service attacks - sending so many requests to target websites that the sites become overloaded and shut down.
At the same time Vietnam lacks the information technology specialists who can alleviate some of these dangers. By one estimate, the country could face a shortage of one million IT staffers by 2020.
In the meantime, security advisers offer some basic reminders to increase safety online. Do not click on links, in emails or otherwise, if they are even slightly questionable. Use strong passwords and do not reuse them across different accounts. And of course, avoid pirated software.
U.S. President Donald Trump spoke on the phone Tuesday with his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, regarding the latest developments on the Korean peninsula.
According to White House officials, Moon briefed Trump on Seoul's plan to dispatch a special envoy to Pyongyang on Wednesday, and promised to give the U.S. president details of the meeting after the South Korean envoy meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
U.S. officials say efforts continue to bring about what they call the "final, fully verified de-nuclearization of North Korea" as agreed to by Kim.
Officials say Trump and Moon agreed to meet later this month in New York when the United Nations General Assembly convenes.
[Editors note: Nick Beresford is the United Nations Development Programme Cambodia Country Director. The UNDP works with the Cambodian government, civil society groups, community organizations, aid agencies, donors and the private sector on issues related to the UNs Sustainable Development Goals.]
VOA: What development area does UNDP Cambodia work on with the government?
Beresford: We could divide the work that we do with the Cambodian government maybe into three areas. The first is environmental protection, climate change-related. The second is looking at prosperity and resilience. And the third one is looking at the policy issues around governance and economic policies.
VOA: What do you think about the course of development in Cambodia and inequality?
Beresford: We look at development overall. First of all, economic development has been very successful. Over a 15-year period, you have seen the economy more than triple in size. You have seen poverty fall by more than half and thats quite a remarkable achievement. On the governance side, I think there are some challenges around democratic governance and so on, there is more work to be done. Then, I think the last part of your question was also looking at inequality. If we look at the data that we have, whether we use Gini coefficient or we use Tile data and so on, whichever way we look at it, the data shows that actually, inequality is under control. It compares well to neighboring countries and its not showing any sign of getting too bad. But, I think one of the issues there sometimes is how good is the data that we are using. We know that some of the national data systems do need some improvement and it cant be sure sometimes that the data that we use might necessarily reflect the completed picture.
VOA: How do you see the progress of governance?
Beresford: On the issue of governance, I mean, just a couple days before the election, the Secretary-General issued a statement and he called for an inclusive and pluralistic political process. He called for the government to uphold international human rights standards, guarantee civil society actors and political parties were able to excise their democratic rights. We stand behind our Secretary Generals call for those improvements. Within the UN country team, as well as the OHCHR (Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights), we also noted their concerns around some of the recent issues where many certain sections of the population did not have the political opportunities that they had before and expressed concerns around the restriction on the press and so on. I think on the governance issues, we recognize that there is some work to be done. More positively, we are also keen to engage with the government to see where we can help to make some of those improvements.
VOA: What should be done to ensure that development can benefit ordinary Cambodians, especially the millions that live under the poverty line or live slightly above the poverty line?
Beresford: You raised two important points there. You have people below the poverty line. At the moment, we estimate that probably 10 percent of the population is underneath the national poverty line. But there is a large section of the population who are only just above the poverty line. They might not be counted as the poor but they are quite near poor and we categorize them as being vulnerable to economic shocks, health shocks and so on. I think one of the most important policies going forward is the social protection policies. We are very pleased to see that the government has been very active in this area, issuing the policies and putting some of the first social protection policies in place. Thats the way that we start to help to build resilience and protect [them] against the vulnerable.
VOA: Do you think it has to do with strengthening state institutions?
Beresford: Yes, thats another aspect. I think its also important in order for the social protection scheme to work well. You need resilience and you need good capacity within your government so that they are able to administer these schemes properly so that you guard against leakages and so on, and that the schemes are effective and efficient and the wealth goes to those people who need it.
VOA: Government departments often complain of not having funds because they are dependent on foreign aid. Where is the new money coming from?
Beresford: Its a good question because it touches on important change coming through Cambodia. Many years ago, we were aid dependent. Thats no longer true. For a long time now, Cambodia has been trading dependent. Its openness to foreign markets and its economic growth has been the engine that has helped people move out of poverty because a lot of that economic growth was also in low-skilled or unskilled labor. For example, in the garment factories, it provides employment for many ordinary people. Going forward, what we see is two things that work. Number 1, you have a high rate of economic growth, 7 percent or so. That has been true for many years. Secondly, you have a very good rate of tax collection, maybe about 20 percent which is quite high for this region. Certainly, it compares well to its neighbors. If we put those two together, the fiscal space of the government is growing quite rapidly.
VOA: Are you concerned about corruption in Cambodia, especially corruption in the tax system?
Beresford: I think we have to remember that all lower-middle income countries face this problem, and in fact many upper-middle-income countries, and in fact, many high-income countries face this issue. So, Cambodia is not alone. I think its natural and it is a particular part of economic development, where only a few years ago we were a lower income country. The leakages, corruption, transparency and accountability problem should be expected to happen. We should expect them to be there but theres no reason for us to accept them or to say that we shouldnt try to combat them. I think if you look at even the richer countries such as China, they have made a very public and a very committed attempt to both acknowledge the problem and also to take quite strong measures to try to deal with it. So I think there are a lot of lessons in Asia where the government can pick up and see how it can start to more successfully tackle that issue.
VOA: Has the Cambodian government done enough to combat corruption in the country?
Beresford: Hard to say. I think at the moment its still quite a challenge for the government. But I think the government is aware of that. And, it needs to find its own way forward to address that and then to address that more successfully. Development partners such as ourselves do as much as we can also to help alleviate that problem. One thing the government can do is to raise the salary of civil servants by providing a decent standard of living for civil servants. It helps to reduce the need for the civil servants to seek other forms of income. I think the most famous example of that may be Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore who has taken a very tough stance against corruption and also very significantly increased salaries to make sure that civil service jobs are very well paid. There are a lot of different ways to address this and we encourage the government to look at these examples and to do what they can to move ahead in those efforts.
VOA: How can development partners assist Cambodians to hold the government accountable?
Beresford: I think that we can see that the government is making moves to reach out across political alliances and to be more inclusive, but we do what we can to encourage the government. Of course, its for the government and the people in Cambodia to work out these issues. At the same time, at the UN, we reaffirm the principles for which we stand, of democratic governance and human rights. In the OHCHR and in the Secretary Generals comments that I eluded to earlier, we expressed some of our concerns and then at the same time also expressed our encouragement that the government addresses the issues of inclusive governance, address the issue of democratic governance, address the issue of human rights.
Demonstrators in Washington mark the one year anniversary of Myanmar's ethnic cleansing of Rohingya by demanding more economic sanctions and recognition by the U.S. that what happened to the Rohingya was genocide. Anna Kook reports from Capitol Hill for VOA.
China Aviation Daily | Sep. 04, 2018
Etihad Airways has been recognised as one of the world's 'Top 10 Airlines' for the second consecutive year by Conde Nast Traveler China in the publication's 'Gold List 2018', announced at an award ceremony at the CHAO hotel in Beijing.
The Gold List is one of the most reliable travel guides for travellers worldwide, adopting the spirit of justice, authority and professionalism since 2014.
Linda Celestino, Etihad Airways Vice President Guest Experience and Delivery, said: "Etihad Airways is extremely proud to once again be named a top airline, which is testament to Etihad Airways' China team. As one of the fastest growing travel markets in the world, it has been a great honour for us to participate in China's tourism and aviation industry for the past 10 years.
"Etihad provides an unparalleled experience for travellers in China and across the world, and with digitalisation gradually becoming the most important driver globally, our partnership with the online flagship store on the Alitrip platform, have made us stand out in the fiercely competitive market."
Etihad Airways upgraded the Shanghai and Beijing services to its state-of-the-art Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner in 2016 and 2017 respectively, in order to further meet the strong demands of Chinese passengers for a more comfortable, personalised and memorable travel experience.
"Recognition as one of the 'Top 10 Airlines' on the Gold List 2018, comes after Etihad Airways launched several original and superior products and services to tailor the guest experience and to strengthen its leading position as an innovative and preferred airline," adds Ms. Celestino.
This April, Etihad Airways launched a new Emirati designed loungewear collection, offered to the airline's guests on all First Class flights and those staying in The Residence on board the Airbus A380 fleet. The loungewear collection was designed by local brand, A Friend of Mine by Xpoze, to be comfortable, functional, and to follow the same attention to detail and design principles held by Etihad Airways.
For all premium guests, Etihad Airways also launched a major new partnership with the Italian fragrance brand, ACQUA DI PARMA, introducing a range of exclusive amenity bags and toiletries for its customers travelling in The Residence, and on long-haul First Class and Business Class services and the airline's flagship First Class Lounge & Spa in Abu Dhabi.
For Economy Class passengers, Etihad Airways offers a range of enhanced services, including pay-for lounge access and chauffeur transfers at a number of airports on the airline's global network, neighbour-free seats, and extra-legroom seats.
In addition, Etihad Airways has enhanced its upgrade programme to a bidding system which allows real-time notifications of a guest's bid to be displayed on their screen. The new dynamic live auction gives guests the chance to select a premium offering at a price they are willing to pay by putting them in control of the experience.
Earlier this year, Etihad Airways celebrated its 10th anniversary of operations in China, ten years after it launched the first Abu Dhabi - Beijing service in 2008. To date, nearly four million travellers have flown on Etihad Airways services to and from China. There are currently 28 flights per week between Abu Dhabi and Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Hong Kong, with easy connectivity via Etihad's Abu Dhabi hub to more than 40 business and leisure destinations across the Middle East, Europe, Africa and North America.
Contributed by Etihad Airways
Prosecutors in Los Angeles said Tuesday that they would not pursue a sexual assault charge against actor Kevin Spacey because the statute of limitations has run out.
Spacey has been accused of assaulting a male colleague in 1992.
The Los Angeles district attorney's office said it was also declining to charge another actor, Steven Seagal, on allegations of assaulting a teenage girl in 1993 for the same reason. Seagal denies the charge.
Spacey is facing other sexual assault charges, and also is under investigation for alleged misconduct in London.
The Oscar-winning star of such films as American Beauty was fired from the television series House of Cards earlier this year, and his appearance in the film All the Money in the World was edited out.
Spacey apologized last year for trying to seduce a teenage actor in 1986, and his spokesman said Spacey was seeking treatment.
Afghan officials say twin bomb blasts at a wrestling club in the capital Kabul have killed at least 20 people and wounded more than 60 others.
Police said a suicide bomber blew himself up inside the club located in a mainly Shi'ite neighborhood. A second blast occurred nearby while authorities were helping victims of the first explosion.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but it bore the hallmarks of Islamic State. The Sunni Muslim terror organization views Shiite Muslims as heretics, and has carried out bombings against the minority before.
The Dascht-e-Barchi neighborhood, mainly populated by Shiites, has frequently been a target of IS. Last December, a series of bombings left more than 40 residents dead. In August, another suicide bombing killed 34.
Amazon.com is in talks with Chile to house and mine massive amounts of data generated by the country's giant telescopes, which could prove fertile ground for the company to develop new artificial intelligence tools.
The talks, which have been little reported on so far and which were described to Reuters by Chilean officials and an astronomer, are aimed at fueling growth in Amazon.com's cloud computing business in Latin America and boosting its data processing capabilities.
President Sebastian Pinera's center-right government, which is seeking to wean Chile's $325 billion economy from reliance on copper mining, announced last week it plans to pool data from all its telescopes onto a virtual observatory stored in the cloud, without giving a timeframe. The government talked of the potential for astrodata innovation, but did not give details.
The government did not comment on companies that might host astrodata in the computing cloud.
Amazon executives have been holding discussions with the Chilean government for two years about a possible data center to provide infrastructure for local firms and the government to store information on the cloud, an official at InvestChile, the government's investment body, told Reuters.
For at least some of that time, the talks have included discussion about the possibility of Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosting astrodata, astronomer Chris Smith said, based on email exchanges he was part of between AWS and Chilean Economy Ministry officials over the last six months. Smith was at the time mission head of AURA observatory, which manages three of the U.S. federally-funded telescope projects in Chile.
Jeffrey Kratz, AWS's General Manager for Public Sector for Latin American, Caribbean and Canada, has visited Chile for talks with Pinera. He confirmed the company's interest in astrodata but said Amazon had no announcements to make at present.
"Chile is a very important country for AWS," he said in an email to Reuters. "We kept being amazed about the incredible work on astronomy and the telescopes, as real proof points on innovation and technology working together."
"The Chilean telescopes can benefit from the cloud by eliminating the heavy lifting of managing IT," Kratz added.
AWS is a fast-growing part of Amazon's overall business. In July it reported second-quarter sales of $6.1 billion, up by 49 percent over the same period a year ago, accounting for 12 percent of Amazon's overall sales.
Star-gazing to shoplifting
Chile is home to 70 percent of global astronomy investment, thanks to the cloudless skies above its northern Atacama desert, the driest on Earth. Within five years, the South American country will host three of the world's four next-generation, billion-dollar telescopes, according to Smith.
He and Economy Ministry officials leading the Chilean initiative to store astrodata in the cloud saw potential in more Earth-bound matters.
The particular tools developed for the astrodata project could be applicable for a wide variety of other uses, such as tracking potential shoplifters, fare-evaders on public transport and endangered animals, Julio Pertuze, a ministry official, told Reuters at the event announcing Chile's aim to build a virtual observatory on the cloud.
Smith added that the same technology could also be applied to medicine and banking to spot anomalies in large datasets.
Amazon, whose founder and largest shareholder Jeff Bezos is well known for his interest in space, already provides a cloud platform for the Hubble Telescope's data and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Australia.
As Amazon explores the potential in Chile's astrodata, tech rival Google, owned by Alphabet, is already a member of Chile's Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which will be fully operational in Cerro Pachon in 2022. Google also has a data center established in the country.
Justin Burr, senior PR associate for AI and Machine learning at Google, declined to comment on any Google plans around astrodata or its involvement in other telescope projects.
Separately, a Google spokeswoman said last week that the company will announce expansion plans for its Chilean data center on Sept. 12.
Giant database
Smith said that what the Chileans are calling the Astroinformatics Initiative to harness the potential of astrodata could enable Amazon Web Services access to the research that astronomers are doing on projects like the LSST.
"We are going to have to go through a huge database of billions of stars to find the three stars that an astronomer wants," Smith said, adding that was not too different from searching a database of billions of people to find the right profile for a targeted advertisement.
"So a tool that might get developed in LSST or the astronomical world could be applicable for Amazon in their commercial world."
Since speaking to Reuters, Smith has moved on from his job heading AURA to a new position at the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Amazon's role in the astrodata project would also give it an entry into a market where it is seeking to expand. Amazon which controls nearly one-third of the global cloud computing business, ahead of rivals Microsoft and Google has struggled to lure public institutions in Latin America, including research facilities, to store their data online instead of on physical machines.
AWS declined to provide any information on the size of its regional business in Latin America.
Economy Minister Jose Ramon Valente said at last week's announcement, "Chile has enormous potential in its pristine skies not only in the observation of the universe but also in the amount of data that observation generates."
The retrial of a Blackwater security guard alleged to have participated in a 2007 massacre of unarmed Iraqi civilians ended Wednesday in a hung jury.
U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth declared a mistrial after the jury said it remained deadlocked after more than two weeks of deliberations in the case of Nicholas A. Slatten.
Slatten was accused of firing the first shots of a one-sided firefight on Sept. 16, 2007, in Baghdad's Nisour Square. Armed Blackwater personnel fired machine guns and threw grenades into traffic, killing or injuring 31 people.
Since that time, the U.S. Justice Department has been trying to hold the Blackwater employees involved in the incident responsible.
In 2014, Slatten was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Last August, a federal appeals court threw out that conviction and ordered a new trial.
Two active members of Russian military intelligence were sent to Britain in March to poison a former spy, Britain's prime minister told Parliament on Wednesday after prosecutors charged two Russian nationals with conspiracy and attempted murder.
Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were hospitalized after being found collapsed on a bench outside a shopping mall in the southern British city of Salisbury. Investigators determined they were sickened by a Soviet-designed nerve agent called Novichok.
Prime Minister Theresa May said the two assassins were officers of the GRU intelligence service and that their actions were almost certainly approved "at a senior level of the Russian state.''
"This was not a rogue operation,'' she told lawmakers after police released photos of the suspects as they traveled through London and Salisbury before flying back to Moscow from Heathrow Airport on the evening of March 4, hours after the Skripals were poisoned.
Sue Hemming, director of Legal Services at the Crown Prosecution Service, said Wednesday that there was sufficient evidence to charge Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov with using Novichok in violation of chemical weapons law; conspiracy to murder Sergei Skripal; and the attempted murder of both Skripals and a British police officer who was also poisoned.
While Britain has blamed Russia for the attack since early in the investigation, Russia has repeatedly and strongly denied any involvement.
Russian officials said they did not recognize the suspects. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the names and images of Petrov and Boshirov "say nothing to us.''
Hemming said Britain would not be asking Russia to extradite the men because that country's constitution does not permit extradition of its own nationals. But she said a European Arrest Warrant had been issued in case they traveled to any participating nations.
China is finding Vietnam to be a tough partner as Chinese firms try to do more business with the long-time political rival along its southern border.
Vietnams legislature, faced with public protests, has put off until May 2019 a bill that would let Chinese and other foreign investors use special economic zones. The government in Hanoi also warns against taking out preferential loans from China for infrastructure development. It has cautioned as well against Chinese development aid.
Still, the Vietnamese are allowing a surge of private business with China as it benefits their country, experts say. In one sign of that trend, Chinese companies are setting up factories in Vietnam to dodge the Sino-U.S. trade dispute, said Maxfield Brown, senior associate with the business consultancy Dezan Shira & Associates in Ho Chi Minh City.
In a separate development, companies along the border from October can settle deals in Chinese yuan per popular demand as trade increases, the Viet Nam News reported in August.
My general take is that economic relations between the two countries will get stronger in the next five years partly because of Americas more America-first attitude to Asia Pacific, but also theres just a lot of economic benefits, said Adam McCarty, chief economist with Mekong Economics in Hanoi.
Tough business partner
Deals that quickly help Vietnamese without the risk of giving China any control of their economy will work, while others will face a backlash, analysts expect.
This dynamic may frustrate China, which is used to easing political disputes with other countries by offering benefits from its $12 trillion-plus economy, the worlds second largest, analysts say. Countries unhappy with China sometimes turn to its chief geopolitical rival the United States for help.
The reason why the increased inflow of Chinese invest[ment] in Vietnam is noteworthy is that it is occurring in spite of the Vietnamese publics unfavorable attitude toward Chinese economic influence and penetration, said Fabrizio Bozzato, a Taiwan Strategy Research Association fellow specialized in East Asia.
Chinas policy of economic engagement in Vietnam reflects (Chinese) President Xi Jinpings vision of a new improved relationship with Vietnam, he said.
Since Beijing lost a World Court arbitration in 2016 over the legal basis for its South China Sea claims, it has stepped up economic relations with the most vociferous counterclaimant, Vietnam. Many Vietnamese also resent China because of previous border disputes, which led to clashes in the 1970s.
In 2014, Vietnamese rioted against Chinese companies after a boat-ramming incident in the sea. This June, protests against the special economic zone bill prompted legislators to delay it. Vietnamese want economic action but without becoming a satellite of China, McCarty said.
Cooperation and struggle
Since 2003 Vietnam has built ties with major powers on a policy of cooperation and struggle, said Carl Thayer, Southeast Asia-specialized emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia.
This meant cooperation when it suited Vietnams economic interests and struggle, opposing a country when it infringed on Vietnams national interests, he said.
Todays Vietnam is cautious about applying for loans from Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), said Le Hong Hiep, a fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, in a March research paper.
The Belt and Road is a $1 trillion campaign to build infrastructure and trade routes around Eurasia. Countries such as Kazakhstan, Malaysia and Sri Lanka have allowed China to get involved in more local development work.
Vietnam may test Chinas initiative by applying for a couple of pilot projects, Le said. China cares about how Vietnam reacts, he added.
As the BRI is about Chinas stature as a benevolent rising power, Vietnams diplomatic support for it will still matter to China, he said.
Private trade, investment
Private business from China is growing, and the Vietnamese government accepts company partnerships so local firms can become competitive, Brown said. Chinese companies are often bigger and better connected offshore.
Chinese investment in Vietnam reached 7.7 percent of the total from other countries in 2016 at $1.88 billion after a steady rise since 2021. Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan are among Vietnams top sources. Trade with China came to $93.8 billion last year and grew another 28.8 percent in the first half of 2018.
Chinese firms are setting up factories in Vietnam, particularly now, to avoid paying higher tariffs for exports to the United States as required for goods shipped from China, analysts in Vietnam say. These investments play into Vietnams hands as it seeks factory investment to sustain economic growth of 6.8 percent last year.
For this particular situation, the tables have kind of turned, Brown said. Chinas traditionally been a much larger economy and deals with Vietnam in a way where they expect Vietnam to want to work with them. Theyre in a position of weakness coming in.
The U.N. special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, is hopeful that talks in coming days with delegations from the government of Yemen and Houthi rebels will lead to full-blown peace negotiations.
Thursdays formal consultations will be the first time in two years that Yemens warring parties will meet. Griffiths calls this an opportunity to restart talks. Griffiths does not underestimate the difficulties ahead, but said it will be important to focus on confidence-building measures to reactivate the peace process.
Confidence-building measures are designed partly to help build this trust through agreements on them, partly to actually deliver some benefits for the people of Yemen and partly to send a signal to the international community and the people of Yemen that something is happening, Griffiths said.
People of Yemen, like in any other conflict are desperately in need of a signal of hope.
The United Nations calls Yemen the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. It reports more than 16,000 civilians have been killed and injured and more than 22 million are in need of humanitarian aid. The war in Yemen is now in its fourth year.
Griffiths said the government delegation has arrived, but the Houthis have been delayed in Yemen and probably will arrive in Geneva on Thursday. In the meantime, Griffiths said he will hold informal talks with the government delegation. When the Houthis arrive, he said he hopes the two parties will hold discussions in the same room, although that is not a necessity.
We need to discover what the sticking points are, Griffiths said. We need to discover in this kind of formal, informal setting what the parties are prepared to do and what they are prepared to prioritize, both in terms of substance, which will come in a later round and in terms of these confidence-building measures.
Griffiths acknowledges it is not easy for the opposing delegations to come together, given all that has happened during the war. But, he said, it takes a lot of courage for them to come to the table to explore avenues toward peace.
The war pits the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, based in the south and backed by Saudi Arabia, against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement that controls the north including the capital, Sanaa.
Ben Judah is the author of This Is London and Fragile Empire, a contributing writer at Politico, and an expert at the Hudson Institute. His think tank project on modern-day kleptocracy was recently targeted in a cyberattack that Microsoft has linked to the Fancy Bear (ATP28) hacking unit associated with Russian military intelligence.
Judah spoke the Voice of America about the attack on the various right-leaning think tanks, Senate groups, and the current similarities between Moscow and Washingtons political climates.
Question: What happened at the Hudson Institute? Why was your research targeted?
Ben Judah: There is a lot I cant discuss due to security procedures in place. But what happened is that Microsoft revealed that a series of think tanks and conservative organizations had been targeted by Russian hackers, including, specifically, the program that I had been working on.
Prior to that my own computer had been attacked from a Russian-speaking country. I actually think this is more widespread than people realize. The computers with journalists and think-tankers, dealing not just with Russia, but with Iran, or Turkey, or China, are being targeted far more frequently than talked about.
Q: Should there be more awareness of this problem? Should news organizations, and journalists themselves, be establishing better security protocols?
BJ: When the Russian hackers targeted the think tank project, they created a clone website, so that people would sign up for it and give their details. People trying to read or engage with the work would have their information compromised in this manner. We didnt know it was happening, so it wasnt an issue of our security procedures.
And there was no way to find out, apart from frantically Googling yourself all of the time and name-searching yourself in different corners of the internet.
Q: What were the goals of the attack on the Hudson Institute?
BJ: I cant be entirely sure, but I would assume that they wanted to know the identities of people interested in the work that the think tank was doing on anti-kleptocracy. They wanted to know who was subscribing to it, who was checking it, and who was collaborating with the project. And what the project has been doing is pushing reform on the U.S. legal and financial systembecause it argues that the corruption cases that are linked to the administration of President Donald Trump and to Russia are rather a systemic problem in the U.S.
Q: Could intimidation be another factor? Particularly intimidation of researchers or journalists who rely on trips to Russia for their work? Visa issues, for example, can routinely come up for people like that.
BJ: What Im doing at the moment doesnt really involve travel to Russia. Its more to do with the U.S. legal and financial systems, and how shell companies, for example, allow foreign kleptocrats, not only Russian kleptocrats, to abuse the U.S. system. But I also think that intimidation could be a part of the rationale here.
Q: You recently wrote a piece for The Atlantic talking about the similarities between the political climate in Moscow and in Washington. What has changed in D.C. to make such a comparison possible?
BJ: Since the election of Trump, a lot of things [in Washington] have started to remind me of how power behaves in Moscow: endless discussions of the Trump family, the blurring of business interests and executive power, the intensity of the propaganda, politics revolving around one man, increased paranoia amongst journalists and policy operativesnot groundless paranoia, I would say, about being potentially targeted or hackedthe hysteria about foreign influence and foreign interference in politics... All of that reminds of the atmosphere in Moscow.
Another aspect of this is that while working as a journalist in Moscow, I had to face the fact that even if I got an interview with lowly ministers or chairmen of committees or Federation Council senators, I wasnt talking to people with power vested in their hands. Because it was far more a world of oligarchs and TV propaganda all linked to the Russian president, and there is something of that Ive noticed developing in Washington.
Previously influential people, people linked into policymaking systems, just dont have the influence [in Washington] right now, and people who are influencing the president are his family and his top propagandists, as well as other oligarchs.
Q: What is your advice for people in Washington who are dealing with this climate, a climate most Americans simply arent used to?
BJ: Be careful of what you keep on your computer and your phone. Have sensitive information? Use pen and paper.
An international money transfer company has launched an online service for East Africans to send and receive money more easily. Analysts say WorldRemit will lower the cost of transferring money and boost African trade and economies.
Africa has become a thriving market for money transfer companies as its telecommunication facilities improve and its economies grow.
WorldRemit, a British-based money transfer company, recently launched a new digital service in four East African countries. The company facilitates the transfer of at least $1.6 billion to Africa each year.
The co-founder and the head of WorldRemit, Ismail Ahmed, told VOA how money transfers in Africa have changed over the years.
When we launched our services, 99 percent of remittances were cash both on the sending and receiving side. But today that is changing fast and in the next few years we think as much as 50 to 60 percent of international remittances would move from traditional physical cash, traditional remittances, to digital. And thats why our services has grown very fast in the last few years, he said.
Ahmed said that as transactions become digital, the cost of each transfer comes down, and tracking money becomes easier.
Its easier for businesses and individuals to move within countries but also across countries. Its easier to fight financial crime because once the transaction becomes digital, there is an audit trail compared to cash where there is no audit trail," he said.
Gerrishon Ikiara is an international economic affairs lecturer at the University of Nairobi. He said digital money transfers will boost trade within Africa -- but notes that some countries still lack the necessary connections.
Obviously, the main challenge is the level of infrastructure, because a country without the good infrastructure in terms of electricity and telecommunication infrastructure will make it a bit difficult, said Ikiara.
The World Bank says $37.8 billion was sent to Africa through remittances in 2017. This year, the amount is expected to be $39 billion.
As legislators grill Silicon Valley executives over Russian hacking ahead of midterm elections, some observers say the debate over expanded government oversight is far from over.
On Tuesday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey met with legislators in Washington ahead of today's hearing, where Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg answered questions about cybersecurity before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the committee's ranking Democrat, told The Washington Post's Tony Romm that the hearing aims to "to sound the alarm that what happened in 2016, as we've seen, was not a one-off."
In recent weeks, Microsoft reported that it had disabled six Russian-launched websites masquerading as U.S. think tanks and Senate sites. Facebook and the security firm FireEye revealed influence campaigns, originating in Iran and Russia, that led the social network to remove 652 impostor accounts, some targeting Americans. The office of Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said hackers tied to a "nation-state" had sent phishing emails to old campaign email accounts.
Hacking attempts
Newly reported attempts at infiltration and social media manipulation which Moscow officially denies point to Russia's continued interest in meddling in U.S. politics. While observers say there is no clear evidence of Kremlin efforts to disrupt midterms, it nonetheless appears hackers outside the American political system are probing for a way in.
"What's interesting about this is that the Russians have shown here that they are not at all partisan in this," said David Sanger of The New York Times, who first reported on Microsoft's account of the latest attacks, in which company officials seized website domains created by the Kremlin-linked hacker group known as Fancy Bear or APT28 the same group that federal investigators and private cybersecurity firms blamed for the 2016 election hack.
The phony sites, designed to emulate the Hudson Institute and International Republican Institute, surreptitiously routed users to pages built by hackers to steal passwords and log-in credentials. The aim, Sanger said, is to disrupt institutions that challenge Moscow or Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"They are pursuing their own national interests, going after think tanks that have taken positions that the Russians find uncomfortable or threatening, whether it's the use of sanctions or promotion of democracy or pursuit of kleptocrats," Sanger told VOA.
The extent to which Microsoft coordinated with federal investigators to thwart the latest attack wasn't clear, he said.
"I'm not sure whether they gave the government an advance heads up, but the nature of cyber now is that you hear about these [attacks from the] companies before you hear about them from government," Sanger added.
In recent months, legislators on both sides of the aisle have expressed willingness to regulate how U.S. tech companies safeguard themselves against intrusions. But analyst Ben Nimmo of the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab says the Microsoft takedown bodes well for the private sector's ability to prevent attacks independently.
"This is something we've seen over the last couple of months tech companies have been much more forward-leaning in their attempts to prevent this kind of interference," Nimmo told VOA.
"We had Microsoft coming out up front and saying we've just stopped this attack, and they actually attributed it directly to Fancy Bear, which is very striking that they're actually confident in making that direct attribution. A couple of weeks ago, we had Facebook coming out and exposing a number of inauthentic accounts, which had some connections with the troll farm in St. Petersburg," he added, referring to the Internet Research Agency linked to the 2016 U.S. election hack. "About a month before that, we had Twitter coming out and releasing a list of handles that it had traced back to the troll farm."
A troll farm is a group of people who attempt to create disruption in an online community by posting comments online that are deliberately inflammatory or provocative.
US, European action
With all of the recent activity on the platform side, Nimmo said the question is "what are we going to see on the government level?"
More specifically, what can the West can do in order to pressure the Russian government and does the West have the political will to do it? If nothing else, the latest attacks are likely to embolden U.S. and European lawmakers to pass additional sanctions.
"Although I think we need to fully understand the scope of this activity that Microsoft has reported, it clearly demonstrates that Russia is not in any way pulling back from the techniques that it used in 2016," said Alexander Vershbow, a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, and a former NATO deputy secretary general.
"If anything, it's broadening its target to include conservative think tanks and organizations like the Hudson Institute, and so I think you can say right now, at a minimum, it would give momentum to congressional efforts to tighten the sanctions even further," added Vershbow, who also has been a U.S. ambassador to Russia, South Korea and NATO. "It may also strengthen the hand of administration officials as they consult with Europe in trying to push the Europeans to tighten their sanctions as well."
Retired Marine General Jim Jones, former national security adviser during the Obama administration, said although sanctions can be effective in the short term, long-term national security depends on safeguarding cyber infrastructure itselfand internationally regulating its deployment in the same way that trade and military practices are regulated.
Because of the progress many countries have achieved in technology, it allows them to do things that are unregulated," he told VOA. "There is no treaty on cyber security; technology has outstripped our capacity to regulate it, both here [in the U.S.] and internationally."
Until regulatory treaties are established, Jones said, "we are locked in this free for all, where countries like China, like Russia, Iran, and, to a certain extent, North Korea, can use this new type of competitive warfare21st century warfareto penetrate our culture, to penetrate our intellectual properties, our science and technology and keep abreast of the West.
"I think for the foreseeable future what we are looking at is getting into a world that is competitive in the network sense," he added. "This first country that achieves security where the networks are impenetrable will walk away with the prize of the 21st century. I really mean this in a serious way. This is where we are, this is where the competition is.
Until that day comes, individuals targeted by foreign hackers, such as the Hudson Institute's Russian kleptocracy expert Ben Judah, no amount of new sanctions, international regulatory statutes or malware detection will ever be enough.
"Be careful of what you keep on your computer and on your phone," Judah told VOA in an extended interview. "Have sensitive information? Use pen and paper."
Following Wednesday morning's Senate hearing, Twitter CEO Dorsey will appear solo before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where he'll be asked to address allegations of political censorship.
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
Facebook and Twitter executives insisted at a Senate hearing Wednesday that they were aggressively trying to identify foreign actors who wanted to inflict damage on the U.S. before the November midterm elections.
Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told the Senate Intelligence Committee her company was "now blocking millions of attempts to register false accounts each and every day" and was "making progress on fake news."
She said the company's recent efforts were "starting to pay off" but added, "We cannot stop interference by ourselves."
Sandberg said Facebook was "working with outside experts, industry partners and governments, including law enforcement, to share information about threats and prevent abuse" to avert further interference in American elections.
Social media companies are under pressure over foreign meddling in U.S. elections, the spread of disinformation, privacy and censorship. Congress has criticized social media companies during the past year as it became clear they were on the front lines during Russia's interference in the 2016 elections and beyond.
WATCH: Facebook, Twitter, Step Up Defenses Ahead of Midterm Election
Special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russians earlier this year on charges stemming from plans to disrupt the 2016 election by creating bogus accounts that circulated divisive issues on social media. The indicted Russians are members of the GRU, a Russian Federation intelligence agency.
Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey said that his company was "unprepared and ill-equipped" for the foreign influence campaigns but that it had intensified its efforts to eliminate phony accounts to prevent "hostile foreign influence."
"We're identifying and challenging 8 million to 10 million suspicious accounts every week, and we're thwarting over a half-million accounts from logging into Twitter every single day," he said.
Dorsey also said Twitter was continuing to find accounts that might be linked to the Russians, noting that 3,843 accounts had been suspended and that the company had seen recent activity.
Googles parent, Alphabet Inc., refused to send its top executive to Wednesday's hearing, prompting sharp words from some senators for Alphabet CEO Larry Page. Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, suggested the company might have bailed because it was arrogant, while Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, expressed outrage about the absence.
Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner said at the hearing that social media giants "were caught flat-footed by the brazen attacks on our election" and expressed doubt that the companies were adequately confronting the problem.
"I'm skeptical that, ultimately, you'll be able to truly address this challenge on your own," Warner said. "Congress is going to have to take action here."
Despite such skepticism from lawmakers, a key U.S. military official said Wednesday that he was encouraged by the actions companies like Facebook and Twitter had taken in advance of the midterm elections.
"This is where social media companies can impose a cost against our adversaries," U.S. Cyber Command's General Paul Nakasone told a security conference in Washington. "This is an ability that I think, uniquely, they are stepping up to."
Nakasone, who also heads the National Security Agency, also said he was not prepared to give up on companies that have been hesitant to take action, calling continued engagement critical.
"We can't run from it. We can't hide from it," he said, warning that adversaries like Russia and even nonstate actors "continue to have an ability to up their game."
While Congress has forced social media companies during the past year to focus more on the Russian interference issue, it took several months last year for Facebook and Twitter to acknowledge they had been manipulated.
Many social media companies have made policy changes that caught and banned numerous malicious accounts during the past year. But free services that find out as much about users as possible remain unchanged, prompting critics to say social media companies will continue to contend with bad actors manipulating their systems unless they change.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged in a Washington Post opinion piece on Tuesday that his company found out too late in 2016 there were "foreign actors running coordinated campaigns to interfere with America's democratic process."
He said the company had since made improvements, such as "finding and removing fake accounts" and misinformation.
But Zuckerberg warned that Facebook and other social media companies faced "sophisticated, well-funded adversaries who are getting smarter over time, too. It's an arms race, and it will take the combined forces of the U.S. private and public sectors to protect America's democracy from outside interference."
Over the past year, three-fourths of all Facebook users have adjusted their privacy settings, taken weeks-long breaks from the platform or deleted Facebook apps from their cellphones, according to a Pew Research Center survey.
The survey was conducted May 19-June 11, after revelations that the former consulting firm Cambridge Analytica had gathered data on tens of millions of Facebook users without their knowledge.
House hearing
Later Wednesday, Twitter's Dorsey was headed to a House committee hearing focused on Republican complaints that social media companies have shown evidence of bias against conservatives. In testimony released before that hearing, Dorsey denied that Twitter uses political ideology to make decisions.
Some Republicans have contended that Twitter is shadow banning some in their party because of the ways search results have appeared. Twitter has rejected the assertions.
Dorsey was the lone invitee to the House hearing. While all three tech companies have been accused of being biased against conservatives, the more public-facing nature of Twitter has made it an easier target.
VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
Top Twitter and Facebook executives will defend their companies before U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday, with Facebook insisting it takes election interference seriously and Twitter denying its operations are influenced by politics.
But no executive from Alphabet's Google is expected to testify, after the company declined the Senate Intelligence Committee's request to send one of its most senior executives, frustrating lawmakers.
Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, appearing alongside Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey, will say that her company's efforts to combat foreign influence have improved since the 2016 U.S. election, according to written testimony released Tuesday.
"The actions we've taken in response ... show our determination to do everything we can to stop this kind of interference from happening," Sandberg said.
The company is getting better at finding and removing "inauthentic" content and now has more than 20,000 people working on safety and security, she said.
Technology executives have repeatedly testified in Congress over the past year, on the defensive over political influence activity on their sites as well as concerns about user privacy.
The Senate Intelligence Committee has been looking into efforts to influence U.S. public opinion for more than a year, after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Kremlin-backed entities sought to boost Republican Donald Trump's chances of winning the White House in 2016.
Moscow has denied involvement.
Google offered to send its chief legal officer, Kent Walker, to Wednesday's hearing, but he was rejected by the committee, which said it wanted to hear from corporate decision-makers.
'Don't understand the problem'
Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, the committee's Republican chairman, said he expected the hearing would focus on solutions to the problem of foreign efforts to influence U.S. elections and sow political discord, with a jab at Google.
"You don't understand the problem if you don't see this as a large effort from whole of government and the private sector," Burr told reporters at the Senate.
Google said Walker would be in Washington on Wednesday and be available to meet with lawmakers. On Tuesday it released written "testimony" describing the company's efforts to combat influence operations.
Twitter's Dorsey also will testify at a House of Representatives hearing on Wednesday that the company "does not use political ideology to make any decisions," according to written testimony also made public Tuesday.
Dorsey will appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, addressing Republican concerns about how the social media platform polices content.
"From a simple business perspective and to serve the public conversation, Twitter is incentivized to keep all voices on the platform," Dorsey said.
Conservative Republicans in Congress have criticized social media companies for what they say are politically motivated practices in removing some content, a charge the companies have repeatedly rejected.
Trump faulted Twitter on July 26, without citing any evidence, for limiting the visibility of prominent Republicans through a practice known as shadow banning.
Democratic Representative David Cicilline of Rhode Island blasted Wednesday's hearing and his Republican colleagues, calling claims of political bias baseless.
"There is no evidence that the algorithms of social networks or search results are biased against conservatives. It is a made-up narrative pushed by the conservative propaganda machine to convince voters of a conspiracy that does not exist," Cicilline said.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has warned Southern African officials meeting in Zimbabwe to better prepare for expected drought or risk food security.
About an hours drive south of Harare, 62-year-old maize farmer Leo Yuma is tending to his land.
With the rainy season expected in just weeks, Yuma with no irrigation facilities for his maize field - said he cannot sit still as drought is expected.
He said all his children are unemployed so they all depend on farming for survival. "I do not irrigate I depend on the rains. I cant dictate to God what to do. I will depend on his rains for my maize."
Back in Harare, the U.N.s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is warning southern African officials that investment not prayer is needed to prepare for drought.
At a three-day meeting on ending hunger, the FAO warned Southern African nations must take measures to deal with dry conditions or risk food security.
Patrick Kormawa is coordinator for the FAO in southern Africa.
Drought is with us. This is one peculiar issue that countries have to take into consideration; you do not wait for prediction before you put any measures to mitigate drought. This sub-region only 7 percent of the arable land is irrigated, which is about 34 million hectares. That is not acceptable. Investment in irrigation is very, very important. Investment in climate resilient agriculture is very important, he said.
Kormawa said there is about a 40 percent chance the region will be hit again this year by the El Nino weather pattern with high temperatures and low rainfall.
The last El Nino-induced drought from 2014-2016 led to 40 million people requiring food assistance across southern Africa. Madagascar and Zimbabwe were among some of the worst hit countries.
Firefighters found bone fragments from a collection in the still-smoldering National Museum, an official said Tuesday, raising hopes that a famed skull might somehow have survived a massive blaze that turned historic and scientific artifacts to ashes.
Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. Aerial photos of the main building showed only heaps of rubble and ashes in the parts of the building where the roof collapsed.
The firefighters found fragments of bones in a room where the museum kept many items, including skulls, said Cristiana Serejo, the museums vice director. We still have to collect them and take them to the lab to know exactly what they are.
In its collection of about 20 million items, one of the most prized possessions is a skull called Luzia, which is among the oldest fossils ever found in the Americas.
Museum spokesman Marcio Martins noted that the collection contains hundreds of skulls, and all material would first need to be examined by the Federal Police, who are investigating the still-unknown cause of the fire. Experts will then examine them to determine their identity.
Some objects were rescued from the flames on Sunday night by a professor who rushed into the blaze. Paulo Buckup, a professor of zoology at the museum, recounted Tuesday how he and a few other people pulled out mollusks and marine specimens, going into and out of the building several times until it became too dangerous. He said the group tried to identify in the dark the most irreplaceable objects, but said they only saved a minuscule portion of the heritage that was lost.
Many have already said that regardless of what is salvaged, the loss will be immeasurable. Marina Silva, a candidate for president in upcoming elections, called it a lobotomy of Brazilian history.
The Globo newspaper wrote in an editorial published Tuesday: The size of the catastrophe is vast: It struck the national memory, through the loss of the important historical collection; it affected the sciences, interrupting research; and it represents a cultural loss impossible to quantify. We only know that it is enormous.
The disaster has led to a series of recriminations about who was to blamed, and it has raised concerns that other institutions might be at risk. The national development bank announced Tuesday that it would make $6 million available for museums looking to upgrade their security or fire-prevention plans.
Investigators were first allowed to enter the main building Monday, but it is still off-limits to researchers. Instead, some scientists were focusing attention on an annex on the site, where vertebrate specimens were housed. The fire didn't reach the area, but it caused the electricity to fail, threatening some artifacts, said Marcelo Wexler, a researcher in the vertebrate department.
We have animals that need to be frozen, and they were rotting without electricity, Wexler said.
In a sign of the enormity of the task ahead, a man created a stir when he arrived on the scene carrying a document he said belonged to the institution that he had found across the street. A group of journalists crowded in to see the piece of paper, which was burned at the edges and contained printed text and was in a clear plastic folder. It was not clear what it was or if it was authentic.
I came here to give it back. I am sure there is much more that flew around,'' said Felipe Silva, who said he was a guard at the museum.
Even as efforts turned to searching the rubble, firefighters were still occasionally directing water at the building, where some embers were still burning. Eduardo Rosse, a fire official, said that was normal for a blaze of this size.
Luiz Fernando Dias Duarte, a museum official, said Monday that anything held in the main building was probably destroyed, and Serejo told the G1 news portal that 90 percent of the collection may have been destroyed.
But on Tuesday, she held out some hope, telling journalists that staff members were reasonably optimistic about finding some more items inside.
She added that UNESCO, the U.N.'s cultural agency, had offered financial and technical assistance. French and Egyptian officials also have offered help. The museum was home to Egyptian artifacts, and Egypts ministries of foreign affairs and antiquities have expressed concern over the fate of those objects.
With the cause still under investigation, many already have begun to fix blame, saying years of government neglect left the museum underfunded and unsafe.
Roberto Leher, rector of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, to which the museum was linked, said it was well known that the building was vulnerable to fire and in need of extensive repair. In fact, two years ago, federal prosecutors in Rio de Janeiro began investigating safety conditions in the building.
The institution had recently secured approval for nearly $5 million for a planned renovation, including an upgrade of the fire-prevention system, but the money had not yet been disbursed.
On Monday, government officials promised $2.4 million to shore up the building and promised to rebuild the museum.
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley warned Wednesday that the situation in Nicaragua risked deteriorating into another Venezuela or even Syria.
"With each passing day, Nicaragua travels further down a familiar path," Haley told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the situation in the Central American country. "It is a path that Syria has taken. It is a path that Venezuela has taken."
More than 300 Nicaraguans have been killed and hundreds injured since mostly peaceful protests erupted in mid-April after longtime President Daniel Ortega made cuts to the Social Security system. The cuts were quickly reversed, but the protests grew and turned into demands for him to step down.
Haley said the Security Council could not remain a "passive observer" as Nicaragua continued to deteriorate "because we know where this path leads."
"The Syrian exodus has produced millions of refugees, sowing instability throughout the Middle East and Europe," Haley said. "The Venezuelan exodus has become the largest displacement of people in the history of Latin America. A Nicaraguan exodus would overwhelm its neighbors and create a surge of migrants and asylum-seekers in Central America."
Beyond borders
Nicaragua's southern neighbor, Costa Rica, has seen a sharp increase in asylum-seekers since the political crisis began nearly five months ago. Ambassador Rodrigo Carazo told the council that his government received 400 asylum applications from Nicaraguan citizens in January, before the crisis erupted. In August, that number skyrocketed to over 4,000. So far this year, the Costa Rican government has received nearly 13,000 asylum applications from Nicaraguans, he said.
"The deepening of the political, social and economic crisis, the repression, and the failure to respect fundamental freedoms and human rights shown by the authorities has the potential of an unbridled worsening of the crisis," Carazo warned. "And this can have a direct impact on the stability and the future of development in Central America."
Civil society and human rights groups have reported abuses by police, the military and paramilitary groups, including arbitrary detentions, torture, sexual violence, harassment and intimidation.
'A huge prison'
"Today, Nicaragua has become a huge prison which seems to be without any controls," Nicaraguan civil society leader Felix Maradiaga told council members. "Every day, we see a climate of terror and indiscriminate persecution."
Maradiaga warned that the situation was at risk of spinning out of control. "Today, there is a time bomb in Nicaragua," he said. "Crimes against humanity are creating an atmosphere conducive to internal conflict that can only grow in size."
Last week, the Ortega government expelled the U.N.'s human rights officers in the country two days after their office published a report blaming the authorities for the violent repression of opposition protests.
The Organization of American States has condemned the violence and human rights abuses and has urged the parties toward dialogue. The OAS has called for bringing elections forward to next year, instead of as planned for 2021.
"When tensions like this are so high, and violence takes place in such a way in a society that leaves more than 300 people dead, you need to give the power back to the people to decide," OAS Chief of Staff Gonzalo Koncke told reporters.
Koncke said the OAS has been working with the Ortega government to make the necessary electoral reforms.
Pushing back
Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada spoke at the session, telling council members his country is "a model" in the fight against terrorism, organized crime and drug trafficking in the region and has a growing economy.
He criticized the U.S. for its past intervention in Nicaragua in the 1980s and urged it to pay compensation and "cease any type of aggression or intervention."
Moncada said the current situation did not belong in the Security Council. "Its inclusion in this meeting is a clear case of interference in the internal affairs of Nicaragua and a violation of the Charter of the United Nations, and indeed, international law."
Council members Russia, China and Bolivia also vocally resisted holding the meeting, saying Nicaragua did not meet the threshold of being a threat to international peace and security.
"Differences need to be resolved through direct, peaceful dialogue without pressure from abroad," Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council. He characterized the council discussion as "a glaring and grim example of destructive foreign intervention."
U.S. pressure on India to halt oil imports from Iran and shelve major defense purchases from Russia, countries that New Delhi sees as regional allies, will feature prominently as India and the United States prepare to hold a high-level dialogue aimed at shoring up political and strategic ties.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will meet their Indian counterparts, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in New Delhi on Thursday.
Billed as the inaugural 2 plus 2 dialogue, the twice-postponed talks come amid efforts to deepen the partnership as both countries seek to counterbalance China.
Waiver from US sanctions
One of the priorities at Thursdays meeting will be firming up a key agreement that will pave the way for India to get access to high technology defense systems and allow their militaries to securely share information. The U.S. designation of India as a major defense partner in 2016 had opened the door to bolstering military cooperation.
But there are some sticking points. India will be pushing for a waiver from U.S. sanctions that target countries that conduct a significant military transaction with Russia. New Delhi is in the final stages of negotiations with Moscow to purchase a $6 billion sophisticated air defense system that will provide high altitude protection from incoming missiles. Indian officials have indicated that New Delhi intends to push ahead with the deal with a country that has been one of its biggest defense suppliers.
However, ahead of the dialogue, Randall Schriver, the Pentagons assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, said that there was no guarantee that India would get a waiver and the United States would have very significant concerns if India pursued major new platforms and systems from Russia.
Still, analysts in the Indian capital are optimistic the two countries will find ways to work out their differences.
To make this a deal breaker in Indo-U.S. relationship wont serve any purpose and I think mature minds understand this, said Harsh Pant at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. It is not going to be a case of India getting rid of its relationship with Russia just because Americans wants it to.
Iran oil deal
India has made no official comment on what it plans to do about its oil purchases from Iran, its third biggest supplier the United States wants all countries to end Iranian oil purchases by November. But while India maybe willing to curb supplies, there are worries in New Delhi that pressure to bring down imports to zero could damage longstanding ties with Iran, where it is building a strategic port that will give it access to landlocked Afghanistan.
Security analyst Bharat Karnad, at New Delhis Center for Policy Research, said the threat of U.S. economic sanctions on countries doing business with Iran and Russia is a worry for India.
That is the real problem. How far can you take this relationship if you have the Damocles sword of sanctions hanging over India? he asked.
Countering China
However, the widespread expectation in New Delhi is that despite the challenges, ties between India and the United States will maintain an upward trajectory. More than anything, the relationship is being driven by mutual concerns about Chinas growing military and economic clout.
China is very much a security threat to both the United States and India, and I think we need to talk about meeting the challenge of China on so many fronts which have opened up recently, said Lalit Mansingh, a former Indian foreign secretary.
In a symbolic gesture, the U.S. military in May this year renamed its Hawaii-based American combatant command, which oversees the Pacific region, as the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
As ties have improved, the United States has also become a major arms supplier to India: Purchases of U.S. defense equipment are expected to reach an estimated $18 billion by next year.
Pompeo and Mattis will also meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their visit.
Josh Russell works as a systems analyst and programmer at Indiana University, has two daughters, and exposes Russian internet trolls in his spare time.
Russell first became interested in the phenomenon of Russian trolls during the 2016 presidential election, when he noticed a large amount of misinformation distributed about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. He noticed how many accounts spreading misinformation, ostensibly run by American activists, were, in fact, operating from abroad, and were linked up to now notorious Russian troll farms.
Today Russell collaborates with many American journalists in the fight against fake information on the internet.
Question: We recently learned that Russian hackers attacked some conservative U.S. organizations, the Hudson Institute, for example, and the International Republican Institute. What, in your opinion, is driving this?
Joshua Russell: Any organization that investigates Russian interference in U.S. politics is a potential target for these kinds of attacks.
Q: According to Microsoft, the attacks themselves failed.
JR: Yes. But the result is not whats most important here. Hacker attacks and misinformation are being used to sow confusion and discord in our society.
Q: You noticed this all the way back in 2016, when the majority of Americans did not grasp this. How did you realize what was happening?
JR: I began to monitor the activity of fake activists online. For example, I found a group pretending to be a black activist groupbut something was weird about it. If you track the activities of the individual members of such groups, you realize they are being coordinated. When you dig deeper, you understand that they are operated from abroad. Trolls often make mistakesmaybe their English will be suspect, or, for example, an Instagram tied to a particular account is filled with suspicious info. The whole tangle is unraveled when you tug at loose strings.
Q: How can an ordinary internet user spot a fake account?
JR: If you see dubious information being posted, look at where it may have originated. Whats the source, and who else is distributing this information? Follow the trail of clues these guys inevitably leave behind.
Q: It was reported that youve actually been threatened over your online activities before. Is this accurate?
JR: Yes. It got to the point that someone sent me pictures of mutilated corpses.
Q: Do you think it was Russian trolls or someone else?
JR: See, we have a lot of people right here in the States who do not want to believe that Kremlin interference is real. Thats where a lot of this aggression stems from.
Q: How do you respond to attempts at intimidation?
JR: I'm more of a liberal than a conservative, but I live in Indiana. This means that I have weapons at home. I have not been threatened for a while, but when it did happen, before I blocked someone, Id send them a photo of my gun. It tends to have a sobering effect.
Q: So this is a case of you talking to these people in their own language?
JR: Yes, this is what you have to do. I used to be a bit of an internet troll myself, so I understand how trolling works, and the intended psychological effect. If you understand how it works, you know how to respond in an effective and yet tasteful way (laughs).
Paul Manafort's second trial will remain in the District of Columbia, a judge ruled Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said the former Trump campaign chairman's attorneys had failed to show that thorough jury questioning and careful instructions couldn't ensure that both sides could pick an impartial jury in Washington.
Manafort's attorneys had argued that the trial should be moved to Roanoke, Virginia, because the intensity of publicity in Washington made it impossible for him to receive a fair trial. But Jackson said the request appeared to relate more to concerns about the political affiliation of Washington residents, rather than a unique amount of pretrial publicity.
Jackson's ruling clears the way for Manafort to be tried later this month on several felony charges related to his lobbying and political consulting work on behalf of Ukrainian political interests. It was the second time Manafort had been denied moving a trial away from the Washington metropolitan area.
Manafort had made a similar unsuccessful request in his bank fraud and tax evasion trial in northern Virginia. A jury there convicted him on eight counts of filing false tax returns, failing to report foreign bank accounts and bank fraud. Jurors deadlocked on 10 other counts.
In ruling against Manafort's request for a change of venue, Jackson said she could reconsider if they are unable to qualify enough jurors to proceed to jury selection in the case, scheduled to begin September 17.
Jackson's announced her decision during a hearing in which prosecutors revealed that they are unsure whether Manafort's longtime deputy and fellow Trump campaign aide, Rick Gates, will testify at trial. Jackson also ruled that Manafort's defense couldn't introduce evidence about Gates' extramarital affairs, a topic that came out during his testimony during Manafort's trial in last month in Virginia.
Gates, who worked directly for Manafort for years, took a plea deal earlier this year and agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Manafort's defense spent a considerable amount of the Virginia trial painting Gates as a liar, philanderer and embezzler as they sought to attack the government's case.
After the verdict last month, a juror in the case told news outlets that the jury agreed to throw out Gates' testimony because they found him unreliable. The juror, Paula Duncan, told Fox News that the jury relied largely on the paper evidence presented at trial, which was enough for her to vote to convict Manafort on all charges. The jury ultimately returned a split verdict because one juror held out due to reasonable doubt, she said.
In the Washington case, Manafort is accused of acting as an unregistered foreign agent, conspiring to launder money and lying to the FBI and Justice Department about the nature of his work. He is also accused of tampering with witnesses in the case.
A panel of federal judges formally backed off Tuesday on the idea of requiring a new congressional map for North Carolina's fall elections, one week after broaching the possibility when the judges declared the current lines illegal partisan gerrymanders.
While declaring 12 of North Carolina's 13 districts violated the U.S. Constitution, the three judges had suggested ordering the Republican-dominated legislature or an outside expert to redraw the entire map, possibly by mid-September. They envisioned holding primaries for redrawn seats on Election Day, or perhaps having no primaries this year at all.
The panel shelved those ideas after hearing from the parties in the lawsuit late last week.
"We conclude that there is insufficient time for this court to approve a new districting plan and for the state to conduct an election using that plan prior to the seating of the new Congress in January 2019,'' the judges wrote in Tuesday's order.
In particular, the election advocacy groups, the state Democratic Party and Democratic voters who were victorious in their lawsuits wrote that regretfully they opposed a quick fix for the fall because it would be "too disruptive and potentially counterproductive.''
Any new map also would have required weeks of preparation by state election officials to carry out. The state elections board also told the court there was essentially only one doable option holding a stand-alone congressional election a week before Christmas.
Democratic prospects
New boundaries may have helped Democrats be competitive in more seats on a map that Republicans approved in 2016 with a goal of preserving 10 of the seats for the GOP. Democrats nationally need to flip about two dozen Republican seats in November to take control of the House again.
But the plaintiffs wrote last Friday that a rush to alter the map and hold an election on an unusual date could make it harder for Democrats to pick up seats in North Carolina in part by depressing voter turnout among young people and minorities.
"Because these populations tend to support the Democratic Party, it is entirely possible that this proposal would actually hurt, rather than help, the electoral prospects of the Democratic Party exactly what the legislative defendants sought to do through the unconstitutional 2016 plan,'' they wrote.
It wasn't surprising that attorneys for the Republican lawmakers who were sued fought any new map this fall. They say partisan gerrymandering claims are groundless and have never been affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court. They had asked the judges to delay the enforcement of last week's ruling and filed a notice of appeal to the Supreme Court.
Attorneys for some of the plaintiffs wrote earlier Tuesday that they would be willing to accept a delay as long as a schedule is in place to make it likely for the Supreme Court to hear the cause during the upcoming term if the justices chose to do so. That would mean a ruling by next June that affirms the lower-court decision would leave time for a redraw well before the 2020 elections, the attorneys wrote.
In Tuesday's order, the three judges also asked for more responses to the GOP lawmakers' delay request by late Wednesday.
The same three-judge panel declared unconstitutional the state's congressional map last January, but the Supreme Court returned the case to the judges in June to review in light of a Wisconsin case.
Reality television star Kim Kardashian West, who successfully pushed President Donald Trump to grant a pardon for a drug offender earlier this year, returned to the White House on Wednesday for a meeting with senior aides as part of the administration's efforts on criminal justice reform.
Kardashian West, who may have felt right at home with the drama-infused atmosphere in the West Wing as it grapples with the fallout from Bob Woodward's new book, participated in a listening session on clemency and prison reform with several staffers, including the president's senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
"The discussion is mainly focused on ways to improve that process to ensure deserving cases receive a fair review," according to Hogan Gidley, White House deputy press secretary.
Among the others in attendance were CNN commentator Van Jones, Shon Hopwood, a lawyer who served time in prison for bank robbery and Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, who has been instrumental in steering Trump's Supreme Court picks, including Brett Kavanaugh, whose confirmation hearings have begun on Capitol Hill.
But the headliner was Kardashian West, who last visited the White House three months ago to press for a pardon for 63-year-old Alice Marie Johnson. At the time, the reality star, dressed in black, posed for an instantly iconic -- and seemingly somber -- photo with Trump in the Oval Office, though there were no plans for her to meet with the president on Wednesday.
One week after Kardashian West's visit, Trump granted Johnson clemency, freeing her from prison after a more than two-decade stint on drug charges.
"When I looked at Alice, I said we can't just stop with one person. We have to change the laws," Kardashian West said in a statement released by (hash)cut50, a group that looks to reduce incarceration time.
The pardon for Johnson was one of several instances where the president has used his constitutional power to pardon federal crimes. Trump in May pardoned conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza and suggested he was considering a commutation for former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and a pardon for lifestyle guru Martha Stewart. He has not yet acted on either front.
"We are working to build support for prison reform, sentencing reform, and fair treatment of people coming home from prison," said Van Jones. "When you have prominent people like Kim helping voiceless people behind bars -- like Chris Young who she is advocating for today -- that's incredibly powerful."
Kardashian West on Tuesday told "Wrongful Conviction" podcast host Jason Flom that she's advocating for Young, who was sentenced to life without parole after being arrested for marijuana and cocaine possession.
"It's so unfair. He's 30 years old. He's been in for almost 10 years," she said.
Kardashian West later tweeted an image from the meeting, writing "It started with Ms. Alice, but looking at her and seeing the faces and learning the stories of the men and women I've met inside prisons I knew I couldn't stop at just one. It's time for REAL systemic change"
Young was one of 32 people charged by federal prosecutors in a drug trafficking investigation. Prosecutors say he was buying cocaine or crack from a major drug supplier at a gas station in December 2010. He was convicted in 2013 on drug charges and also pleaded guilty to being a felon with a gun.
Young, who was 26 at the time, received a life sentence in August 2014 from then-U.S. District Judge Kevin Sharp, who has since left the bench and has very publicly opposed the mandatory minimum sentencing he had to hand down.
"What I was required to do that day was cruel and did not make us safer," Sharp tweeted in June.
Young previously had been arrested at both 18 and 19 on both felony and misdemeanor drug possessions charges. For those two arrests combined, he had been slated to serve 14 years through community corrections.
Kushner has added prison reform to his broad portfolio, though others in the administration -- namely Attorney General Jeff Sessions -- support the toughest possible sentences for drug and other convictions. The president's son-in-law has had an interest in prison reform since his own father, Charles Kushner, was incarcerated for 14 months after being convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering.
TMZ first reported Kardashian West's White House visit Wednesday.
VCCIs Yvonne Taiki taking on the importance of graduates in private sector and MoFA Mike Masauvakalo (r)
Kite Runner" author Khaled Hosseini urged world leaders to "act with compassion" towards refugees as he launched his new book inspired by a Syrian boy who drowned in the Mediterranean trying to reach Greece.
Hosseini said on Wednesday there was a "deeply concerning" shift in attitudes in Europe where several countries have closed their borders and called for greater efforts to resettle those fleeing violence and reunite divided families.
"I wrote "Sea Prayer" to pay tribute to those who have perished or gone missing at sea coming to Europe," said Hosseini at a book launch in London.
The Afghan-American novelist, himself a former refugee, said that while the numbers arriving on European shores had fallen since the height of the refugee and migrant crisis in 2015, the Mediterranean had become more treacherous.
One in 18 people have died attempting the central crossing this year, up from one in 42 last year.
"Sea Prayer" is inspired by Alan Kurdi, a three-year-old boy whose body washed up on a Turkish beach in September 2015, sparking a global outcry.
"When I saw those devastating images ... my heart shattered," Hosseini, a father of two, wrote in a U.N. report this week on migrant deaths.
"Yet, just three years on and despite thousands more people losing their lives at sea, our collective memory and urgency to do better seems to have faded."
"Sea Prayer" is an imagined letter from a Syrian father to his son, on the eve of crossing the sea to Europe, who does not know if they will still be alive the next day.
"The experience of being a refugee often is escaping one nightmare and falling into another," Hosseini said.
Agonizing decision
The writer, a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR), said he hoped to show the despair that pushes families to leave everything and hand their life savings to smugglers who have little regard for human life.
"It's agonizing to leave your home," he told a public event on Tuesday night. "Those boats are vessels of desperation."
"I think much of what we're seeing [in Europe] is based at least in part on a poor understanding of who refugees are ... and why exactly they are coming."
He said there was a common misconception that refugees were opportunists seeking better jobs, but all the refugees he had met wanted to go home.
Hosseini was particularly struck by one Afghan refugee he met on a recent trip to Lebanon who told him: "Even heaven is not home."
The vast majority of refugees did not head west but chose to stay in countries neighbouring their own, Hosseini said, adding that one in six people in Lebanon was a Syrian refugee.
He said governments must keep their borders open and do more to tackle the root causes of displacement, which would increasingly include climate change as well as conflict.
Hosseini, whose novels have sold over 55 million copies, said stories like "Sea Prayer" could help humanize the issue.
"We're a species hardwired to respond to storytelling. For us to understand something we have to care first, and for us to care first we have to feel something," he said.
"If you just watch the news and just look at stats ... they have a way of blunting our emotional response."
Hosseini said he was "really proud" that "The Kite Runner" the book that made his name had brought a more human face to Afghanistan.
The novel, which tells the story of the friendship between a wealthy Afghan boy and the son of the family servant, was made into a film in 2007.
Proceeds from the sale of "Sea Prayer," his fourth book, will go to the UNHCR and Hosseini's own foundation.
Elizabeth Eckford, one of the nine black students who first integrated Little Rock's Central High School in 1957, walked to a bus stop bench Tuesday on the corner of 16th Street and Park Street as hundreds of people watched, much as she'd done exactly 61 years ago.
This time, however, the onlookers weren't furious and violent white protesters who blocked her entrance to the high school, but friends and community members who gathered to watch Eckford and current Central High students dedicate a commemorative bench as part of the school's Civil Rights Memory Project.
The 76-year-old Eckford told the crowd how lonely she'd felt that first day of school, and how local reporters had tried to shelter her from the angry protesters by forming a "human barrier." Today, she was "very, very happy" to return, she said, noting how important it is to discuss and learn from history.
"I believe that we can only have true reconciliation after there has been an honest acknowledgment of the painful but shared past," Eckford said.
Eckford also said how grateful she was to the students who led the bench construction effort. "I don't cry anymore when I'm talking about the past, and that is because of the efforts of students," she said.
High school senior Adaja Cooper, who led reconstruction efforts, said she began to consider the idea of reconstructing the bench during 60th anniversary events last year when she heard oral histories from the Little Rock Nine. She saw pictures of Eckford on the bench and wanted to find it for herself.
"I was looking for the bench all around Central, all around Little Rock. I couldn't find it so I was like, you know, we should just build it," Cooper said. She contacted architects and community partners, and after she spoke to the local rotary club, she said they donated $15,000 "on the spot."
Cooper combined her project with other students' work with the Civil Rights Memory Project, including senior Morgan Hibbard, who was working to help create an audio walking tour app of the Little Rock Nine students' journey to school that day. The final stop on the walking tour, Cooper said, is Eckford's bench, so the projects naturally combined.
The construction effort, which was in conjunction with the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service and the National Park Service, among other partners, raised over $25,000, said Clinton School Dean Skip Rutherford.
After she spoke, Eckford sat on the bench, alone again. She posed for photos before she went to officially dedicate the bench with the students.
As she cut the ribbon, which was black and gold for Central High's colors, she said how she'd long avoided wearing those painful colors.
"But now I want a piece of this," Eckford said, and she cut a souvenir for herself.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says the U.S. is watching to see if the Syrian government uses chemical weapons during its offensive on the rebel-held bastion of Idlib, noting Syrian opposition fighters are not able to carry out such attacks.
We have zero intelligence that shows the [Syrian] opposition has any chemical capability, Mattis said. On the other hand, Mattis said there is evidence that President Bashar al-Assad has done this before and we are watching very closely for this.
U.S. officials have warned of a potential humanitarian catastrophe as the Syrian government moves in on the last remaining stronghold of Syrian rebels in the northwestern province of Idlib. An estimated three million people live in the area.
Stefan de Mistura, the top U.N. envoy for Syria, has also warned of a perfect storm coming up in front of our eyes potentially.
Assads government has been accused of repeatedly using chemical weapons during the seven-year-old war. Assad rejects the accusation, instead accusing rebels of using the chemical agents.
The Trump administration has twice launched airstrikes against Syrias government in response to the chemical weapons attacks.
Let us be clear, it remains our firm stance that if President Bashar al-Assad chooses to again use chemical weapons, the United States and its Allies will respond swiftly and appropriately, said White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.
Mattis, who spoke en route to India, noted that the Islamic State group has made several sophomoric attempts to use chemical weapons in Iraq, but that they were generally failures.
You know, a grenade with some kind of mustard agent in it or something, Mattis said. But nothing along the lines of what the white helmets and United Nations have seen exposed by the Assad regimes violation of the prohibition on chemical on chemical weapons.
As he was sworn in to start a second term this week, Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita promised to address insecurity in the northern and central parts of the country, caused by a continued Islamist insurgency.
"I chose to place the re-establishment of peace and security at an absolute level of priority," the president told hundreds of supporters and diplomats during the inauguration ceremony in Bamako, the capital.
But while the president may be starting a new term, the old foes that dogged him throughout his first term seem to be getting bolder. In June, gunmen attacked the headquarters of the G5 Sahel Force in Sevare, killing six people. In July, a French military patrol was ambushed in the northern city of Gao; four civilians were killed in a shootout.
"Extremists are a threat to [Malian] democracy, a threat to our way of life," said Niankoro Yeah Samake, former Malian ambassador to India and one of the presidential candidates during the last elections.
Expanding terror threat
"Today in Mali, there are people and students who cannot go to school because of insecurity," said Aissatou Traore, a student living in Bamako.
"There are towns and villages which are very dangerous to access, the population can't go anywhere because of insecurity," she told VOA.
The Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington, D.C., recently published a study on the situation in Mali, which noted the country is facing multi-layered security challenges.
Wendy Williams, an analyst with the center, said the coalition of terror groups under the umbrella Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, known as the JNIM, have stepped up their activities in parts of Mali.
"They pose a significant threat to the security in the central and northern regions, considering they don't appear to be showing any signs of slowing down," Williams added.
As if to underscore that warning, the U.S. State Department on Wednesday designated the JNIM as a terrorist organization. The move freezes any assets JNIM has under U.S. jurisdiction, and bans Americans from conducting any transactions with the group.
"JNIM has described itself as al-Qaida's official branch in Mali and it has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks and kidnappings since it was formed in March 2017," said the announcement.
Seven years of unrest
Al Qaida-linked extremists hijacked the Tuareg rebellion that started in 2011 in northern Mali, capturing and occupying major cities like Kidal, Timbuktu and Gao, before France launched Operation Serval and drove them out into the vast, scarcely populated semi-arid countryside.
"The specificity of the jihadi terrorist threat in Sahel is its cross-border dimension," the French Military Operations Press Office told VOA in a written statement.
Because of the cross-border nature of the threat, the French military launched a regionwide military operation known as Barkhane against the militants.
But, even with the 4,500 French troops conducting direct missions against terrorists, defeating the extremist threat in Mali remains elusive.
"Mali continues to face a dire security environment," Kamissa Camara, chief foreign policy adviser to Keita, told VOA.
The military front
With one of its three permanent support bases strategically located in Gao, Operation Barkhane also has two other forward-operating bases in Kidal and Tessalit, where French land forces are deployed "to take action in the most remote areas of the region alongside partner forces," according to the French military.
Mali also hosts the headquarters of the G5 Sahel Force, which the country established along with Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger and Chad to fight terror groups.
The other military actor in Mali is the United Nations mission known by its acronym MINUSMA, which has been labeled the deadliest peacekeeping operation in the world. MINUSMA has over 15,000 military personnel and is designed to support the political process and help stabilize Mali.
'No peace if you are not ready for war'
Mali's defense minister, Tienna Coulibaly, told VOA the priority for the government will be the implementation of the long-delayed 2015 Peace Agreement with armed rebels in the north.
Camara agreed, saying that implementing it will undercut terrorists by strengthening the hands of the state in the north.
"Its successful implementation will make former foes become allies in the fight against terrorist and jihadi groups," Camara said.
Coulibaly said Mali is planning to deploy better-trained and better-equipped soldiers to the central region to contain the escalating insecurity.
"Although Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world, we believe that you can't have peace if you are not ready for war," the Malian defense minister added.
For analysts like Alix Boucher of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, the Malian government also needs to address other issues besides the military one.
"The question won't be fighting only jihadi groups, but also providing security and building trust outside of Bamako, particularly in the center of the country, in a context where citizens have turned either to ethnic militias or sometimes to jihadi groups for dispute resolution and recognition," Boucher said.
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said Tuesday that she has read the Trump administration's much-anticipated Middle East peace plan. And while it is "getting close," it will not be rolled out later this month during the U.N. General Assembly, as some had predicted.
"I can tell you that Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt have done unbelievably detailed work in it," Haley said of the two presidential advisers tasked with coming up with a plan to resolve one of the world's most intractable crises. "I have read the plan. It is thoroughly done. It is well-thought-out from both sides the Palestinians and the Israelis."
Haley, who is also a member of President Donald Trump's Cabinet, said she couldn't "say enough good things" about the proposal and warned that "there are a lot of false statements" circulating about it. She added that the proposal would only work if both sides would hear it, and urged the international community to put particular pressure on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to come to the table.
"For the good of the Palestinian people, the region, the international community, we have to put pressure on Abbas and say it's time. It's time for a better life for the Palestinians," Haley said. "And only he can deliver that."
The Trump administration has seen its relations go from bad to worse with the Palestinian Authority, peaking in December over the White House's decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The Palestinians have also been infuriated with the administration's decision to cut off funding to the U.N. agency that assists Palestinian refugees and efforts to redefine who is a Palestinian refugee.
Haley told reporters at a news conference marking the United States' monthlong presidency of the U.N. Security Council that Trump would chair a meeting of the council on Sept. 26 on Iran. It will take place on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly leaders' week.
"It's hard to find a place that has conflict where Iran isn't in the middle of it, and we think that's a problem," Haley told reporters. "They've been ignored and given a pass for too long."
Haley said it is time that Iran explains its actions in Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.
"That's the biggest reason for this meeting is that the world is watching," she said. Haley added that the administration would like to see Iran come into the mainstream and "be a valid country that wants to do good in the world."
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will be in New York for leaders' week. Under the rules of the Security Council, he could attend the session. Haley said she would not have a problem with that.
Earlier, Russian deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said in a council meeting that he hoped the discussion of Iran would take place within the framework of the Iran nuclear deal, which the council endorsed after it was signed in 2015. The Trump administration received international criticism when it withdrew from the agreement in May.
"We very much hope that there will be views voiced and aspects voiced in connection with the U.S.'s withdrawal from the JCPOA," Polyanskiy said, referring to the deal by its acronym.
Top U.S. intelligence and defense officials caution the threat to the U.S. in cyberspace is not diminishing ahead of Novembers midterm elections despite indications that Russias efforts to disrupt or influence the vote may not match what it did in 2016.
The warnings of an ever more insidious and persistent danger come as lawmakers and security officials have increasingly focused on hardening defenses for the countrys voter rolls and voting systems.
It also comes as top executives from social media giants Facebook, Twitter and Google prepare to testify on Capitol Hill about their effort to curtail the types of disinformation campaigns used by Moscow and which are increasingly being copied by other U.S. adversaries.
The cyberthreat to the U.S. is not limited to U.S. elections, a point that is too often missed, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told a conference outside of Washington Tuesday. The weaponization of cybertools and the relative lack of global guardrails in a cyber domain significantly increases the risk that a discrete act will have enormous strategic implications.
Foreign influence efforts online are increasingly being used around the globe, he added.
Others ramp up attacks
Government officials as well as those from private cybersecurity have said repeatedly over the past few months that they have not yet seen a repeat of what Coats himself described as the robust campaign Moscow launched in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.
Still, there are concerns that even if the Kremlin has eased its efforts, other countries and a variety of nonstate actors have ramped up their own campaigns, often learning from Russias 2016 exploits.
I remain deeply concerned about threats from several countries to upcoming U.S. elections the midterms this year, the presidential elections in 2020 and beyond, Coats said.
While the director of national intelligence did not name any countries in particular, other officials have previously pointed to China, Iran and North Korea as the main culprits.
Two weeks ago, social media giants Facebook and Twitter announced they had removed hundreds of pages and accounts linked to a disinformation campaign that originated in Iran and targeted the U.S. as well as other countries.
Once major attacks now normal
U.S. cybersecurity officials warn that hacking, phishing attacks and disinformation campaigns have become increasingly popular tools for so-called bad actors and that they often escape the attention of the general public.
One reason is that what might have been described as a major cyberattack 10 years ago is often seen now as part of the normal threat landscape.
Weve crossed that threshold many, many times, said John Rood, the Pentagons undersecretary of defense for policy. We are in that environment where on a near daily basis we are being challenged with those activities.
What worries him, he said, is not the cyberattacks on their own but the prospects of someone combining cyber with a more traditional type of attack on the U.S. homeland.
Some of our allies or friends have experienced a combination of cyberactivities, manipulation of the electromagnetic spectrum and physical air, land, sea domain [attacks], whether that be Ukraine or Georgia.
Small attacks just as worrisome
Yet other U.S. officials believe it is not the prospect of large-scale cyberattacks that should be the sole reason for concern.
While I dont see a dramatic cyberattack coming at us, every day there are small ones, according to National Security Agency Deputy Director George Barnes.
The problem is we focus on the big and the slow drip happens out the back, he said. And the slow drip is the continued theft of intellectual properties from our industries.
Part of the problem, according to Barnes and other officials, is the extent to which government and industry in the U.S. in connected to and dependent on cyberspace, creating what they describe as a large and vulnerable attack surface.
And despite government efforts to reach out to private companies to share information about the threats, and even about ongoing or imminent attacks, U.S. officials fear the current level of cooperation is still not enough.
As a result, the U.S. is continually pummeled by nation state and non-nation state sponsored malicious cyber activity, Barnes said.
In response to the growing pace of attacks, the U.S. military and intelligence agencies have become ever more vocal in identifying the perpetrators and calling attention to their exploits.
Increasingly, they are also talking out loud about hitting back.
We are not standing idly by, Coats said.
Every kind of cyberoperation, malicious or not, leaves a trail, he said. Persistence on our part has enabled us to identify and publicly attribute responsibility for numerous cyber attacks and foreign influence efforts and then prepare for the response.
The clock is ticking on two contests with nationwide consequences and Senator Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat in one of the most Republican states in the country, is at the center of both.
Heitkamp must retain her seat to give her party a fighting chance to wrest control of the U.S. Senate from Republicans, who currently hold a 51 to 49-seat majority.
But she will also face a tough decision shortly before the November election that will play a role in guiding voters' decisions at the polls and that will impact American life for decades: the confirmation of a new U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
Representing a state that voted for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton by more than thirty percentage points in the 2016 presidential election, Heitkamp faces pressure from grassroots groups and individuals on both sides of the aisle. They're mobilizing to make their voices heard about the Supreme Court nominee, Federal Judge Brett Kavanaugh, and other issues during a mid-term election year.
WATCH: How President Trump's Supreme Court Pick Roils One Rural State
Voters in North Dakota know the unusual concurrence of a close Senate race and a high-stakes Supreme Court confirmation process gives them this unique opportunity. Blue-collar workers and farmers struggling to make ends meet, fiscal conservatives outraged by excessive Federal spending, pro and anti-abortion proponents are all reaching out to candidates to make their feelings known.
Politicians aren't distant figureheads in North Dakota, one of the most sparsely populated states in the nation with 755,000 residents. North Dakota voters refer to their Senator simply as Heidi, greeting her without ceremony as she makes her way around a town park in Fargo on a recent humid summer night.
Heitkamp's opponent, Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer, chats up families just a few feet away. Heitkamp was considered for a job in Trump's cabinet but Cramer is the candidate the president has campaigned for during trips to Fargo this summer.
The race between Heitkamp and Cramer will likely be extremely close. North Dakota's Senate race is rated as a toss-up by Cook Political report, an independent newsletter analyzing U.S. elections. A Real Clear Politics average of polls shows Cramer leading by half a point.
Voters will judge Heitkamp, 62, a lawyer and former businesswoman, not only on her record as a first-term Senator but also for her decision on Kavanaugh.
The prominent conservative judge could be the deciding vote on the U.S. Supreme Court on issues ranging from immigration to privacy rights to a possible challenge of Roe vs. Wade, the court's 1973 decision legalizing abortion. Trump's choice of Kavanaugh to succeed retired justice Anthony Kennedy also set up one of the closest pairings of a confirmation process and a nationwide election in modern U.S. history.
Heitkamp is one of three Democratic senators facing reelection who voted to confirm Trump's previous Supreme Court pick, Judge Neil Gorsuch. If any moderate Republican Senators choose not to vote for Kavanaugh, the support of Democrats like Heitkamp will be crucial for securing his nomination.
Heitkamp has not said how she will vote ahead of formal hearings that began in Washington on Tuesday (September 4.)
"This is not a judge who is going to tell me how he's going to vote, nor should he on any particular case but it is someone that we have to properly vet," she told VOA of her process evaluating Kavanaugh ahead of the U.S. Senate's confirmation process.
Her opponent told VOA one issue abortion did stand out, prompting North Dakota voters to push him into the Senate race.
"It fired up so many North Dakotans, that they came to me and saidyou have to reconsider," Cramer said of the debate over a 2013 North Dakota law banning abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected.
Cramer, 57, a one-time state public service commissioner, said the Supreme Court confirmation debate has intensified the Senate race.
"The SCOTUS [Supreme Court] decision has put an even greater national spotlight on North Dakota and caused a lot of North Dakotoans to look at their responsibility in light of the country," Cramer said.
Legal analysts say Kavanaugh's confirmation could tip the ideological balance of the court, leading to the first major challenge of Roe v. Wade.
"We're likely to see some greater limitation, perhaps even some erosion of the right to abortion because Kennedy notably voted with the liberal wing of the court relatively consistently to uphold the basic right to access abortion and there's a lot of concern that Justice Kavanaugh would not similarly vote in that vein," said Stacy Hawkins, Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School.
In North Dakota, 47% of all adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to a 2013 Pew Research Center study. Nationwide, the number of adults who say abortion should be legal in most cases is higher at 57%.
New life for long-running debate
"This state is certainly a red state," Mark Jorritsma, executive director of the Family Policy Alliance of North Dakota, told VOA. "It overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump and a whole bunch of people say we voted for Trump because of his ability to appoint someone who was pro-life, pro-family."
The Family Policy Alliance is one of several grassroots groups that has rallied in front of Heitkamp's Fargo office this summer, encouraging her to confirm Kavanaugh as well as educating their neighbors on her record.
"We have canvassers going out all over North Dakota," said Wendi Johnston, the eastern North Dakota field director for Susan B. Anthony List, a national network of 630,000 pro-life grassroots activists working to end abortion. "We have them reaching out to Senator Heitkamp and to telling them [voters] how she stands on life."
Students for Life, the nation's largest pro-life student organization, with groups in 1200 high schools and college campuses in all 50 states, has also mobilized a campaign to confirm Kavanaugh. Noah Maldonado, the northern regional coordinator for the group, said despite Heitkamp's previous voting record on abortion legislation, he thinks groups like his will have an impact on her decision.
"If you go into politics, it's your job to listen to your constituents," he said. "We have this system where if we elect someone as our leader, they have a duty to represent us well and there are lots of reasons to support Brett Kavanaugh even if someone has a 100% rating from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund."
The political arm of Planned Parenthood, a non-profit providing reproductive health care, gave Heitkamp the 100% rating for a voting record that consistently supports abortion rights. Heitkamp voted against a nationwide ban on abortions after 20 weeks earlier this year as well as voting down an attempt to restrict access to abortions in private health plans.
At Red River Clinic, the state's only facility for performing abortions, the consequences of Heitkamp's decision are clear.
"In North Dakota, we have a trigger ban which means that if Roe v. Wade were overturned, our attorney general could say that abortion is no longer constitutional," said Tammi Kromenaker, the director of Red River Clinic. "That would mean that the most vulnerable women in our staterural women, poor women, women of color would not have access to abortion."
Kromenaker noted that any challenge to Roe v. Wade would take at least a year to work through the courts. But she said pro-choice activists like herself are conducting their own letter-writing campaigns and events to educate voters on Heitkamp's decision.
"We don't want to say that women in North Dakota are going to have less rights than their sisters in neighboring states," she said. "So we are doing everything in our power to highlight the issue, to let voters know that they need to have their voices heard."
But Caitlin, a clinic employee who has worked to escort patients past protesters for ten years, said she realizes that election-year politics may play the greatest role in her Senator's decision.
"Heidi is what we have," she said. "Heidi is the best that we've got right now and the best that we can hope for going forward until we have a new, progressive generation in power in North Dakota."
Israel announced on Wednesday it would close its embassy in Paraguay and recall its ambassador after the South American country said it would move its embassy from the official Israeli capital of Jerusalem to the nearby city of Tel Aviv.
In May, Paraguay moved its embassy to Jerusalem, following the United States and Guatemala.
Palestinian media reported that new Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benitez decided to reverse the move after receiving pressure from the Palestinian Foreign Ministry.
"Paraguay wants to contribute to an intensification of regional diplomatic efforts to achieve a broad, fair and lasting peace in the Middle East," Paraguayan Foreign Minister Luis Alberto Castiglioni said during the official announcement.
Countries have long kept their embassies in Tel Aviv. Both the Israelis and the Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital, so operating out of another city allows countries to avoid taking sides.
President Donald Trump broke with tradition last December when the U.S. became the first country to relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv and recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday called on Myanmar's government to reverse a court ruling that imprisoned two Reuters journalists for seven years and to release them immediately.
The journalists were found guilty Monday on official-secrets charges in a landmark case seen as a test of progress toward democracy in Myanmar, which was ruled by a military junta until 2011.
Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were investigating the killing by security forces of Rohingya villagers at the time of their arrest last December, and had pleaded not guilty.
"Wa Lone & Kyaw Soe Oo shd be commended 'not imprisoned' for their work exposing human rights violations & mass killings. Freedom of religion & freedom of the press are essential to a strong democracy," Pence wrote on Twitter.
Pence is the most senior U.S. official to add his voice to an international outcry against the verdict by a Myanmar judge, who said the two had breached the colonial-era Official Secrets Act when they collected and obtained confidential documents.
WATCH: Reporters' Lawyer: Harsh Sentence Will Tarnish Myanmar's Image
In Yangon earlier Tuesday, the wives of the two journalists insisted that the men were innocent and called for them to be reunited with their families.
"Deeply troubled by the Burmese court ruling sentencing 2 @Reuters journalists to 7 years in jail for doing their job reporting on the atrocities being committed on the Rohingya people," Pence wrote in another tweet.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Tuesday that the United States would become more vocal about the two journalists' situation.
Speaking at a news conference in New York marking the U.S. assumption of the rotating chairmanship of the Security Council for September, Haley said the reporters were "in prison for telling the truth."
Mark Green, administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, said "these convictions are an enormous setback for democracy and the rule of law in Burma."
Mounting pressure
The verdict came amid mounting pressure on the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi over a security crackdown sparked by attacks by Rohingya Muslim insurgents on security forces in Rakhine state in west Myanmar in August 2017.
More than 700,000 stateless Rohingya Muslims have fled into Bangladesh since then, according to U.N. agencies. The Rohingya, who regard themselves as native to Rakhine, are widely considered as interlopers by the country's Buddhist majority and are denied citizenship.
Neither Suu Kyi nor her government have commented publicly on the case since the reporters were convicted.
The journalists were arrested December 12 while investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya men and boys and other abuses involving soldiers and police in the village of Inn Din.
Myanmar has denied allegations of atrocities against Rohingya by its security forces, saying it conducted a legitimate counterinsurgency operation against Muslim militants.
The military acknowledged the killing of the 10 Rohingya at Inn Din after arresting the Reuters reporters.
A U.N-mandated fact-finding mission said last week that Myanmar's military carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Muslim Rohingya with "genocidal intent" and called for top generals to be prosecuted. Myanmar rejected the findings.
The International Criminal Court is considering whether it has jurisdiction over events in Rakhine, while the United States, the European Union and Canada have sanctioned Myanmar military and police officers over the crackdown.
In her mother's eyes, Lucky truly is fortunate. The 5-year-old girl is learning social skills and her ABCs at a new preschool instead of playing at home or amid the maize and beans that her parents grow in Rwanda's eastern Bugesera district.
"Seeing my daughter going to school makes me so happy," said Immaculate Zihinjishi, whose three older children didn't have access to formal early childhood education. The family also has a toddler.
The preschool in the village of Kasebigege is a 10-minute walk from the family's home. It opened early this year, enrolling almost 120 youngsters ages 3 to 6.
Like many countries around the globe, Rwanda wants to strengthen support for young children's education and development. As of 2011, the year the government announced a plan to increase the number of early childhood centers, just 10 percent of young children were enrolled in preschool programs though that was up from 6 percent the previous year, according to the Institute of Policy Analysis and Research-Rwanda, a nonpartisan research firm. The United Nations, in an undated report, puts the participation rate at 12 percent.
The low-slung red brick school grew out of a joint philanthropic effort led by the heads of Paxful Inc., a U.S.-based digital platform for bitcoin transactions, and Zam Zam Water, a humanitarian organization promoting clean water and quality education.
Paxful CEO Ray Youssef, who said he wants to encourage charitable giving in the cryptocurrency sector, launched the online #BuiltWithBitcoin fundraising initiative in 2017. He was impressed by the work of Zam Zam and its founder, Yusuf Nessary.
'A new world with crypto'
Paxful's Youssef added that he was drawn to Rwanda as a site for the school, and specifically to Bugesera province, because it had overcome a painful history of genocide to become a model of forgiveness and living peacefully side by side.
"I thought it was very poetic," Youssef told VOA, adding that he hoped to "show people a new world with crypto."
Zam Zam had built wells in five villages in the province, earning the trust of the local government and residents. They donated land for the school, and Paxful and firms such as cryptocurrency company AnthemGold gave $50,000 worth of bitcoin for its construction. The building has three classrooms, four restrooms and a water tank.
The preschool has free tuition and all-English instruction, with its handful of teachers trained as early childhood educators, Zam Zam's Nessary said. Parents help with caring for the children and maintaining the grounds.
Lucky's mom, Immaculate Zihinjishi, said she appreciated that her daughter is learning English, supplementing her native Kinyarwanda. Zihinjishi also praised the preschool and its benefactors.
"We're all very happy that these people came to help us and to build this school," she said, adding that they've been generous to the broader community. "They even gave goats to those in extreme poverty."
In August, Paxful and Zam Zam Water announced their partnership had begun raising funds to build a primary school nearby, intended for students age 6 through 15. Paxful gave an initial $20,000 donation toward the estimated $100,000 cost and pledged to match community donations toward that total, it said in a press release. The company also said in the press release that it has a goal of building 100 schools in Africa.
This report originated in VOA's Africa Division's Central Africa Service.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held meetings Wednesday with leaders of Pakistans newly elected government, where the two sides agreed to make efforts to reset troubled bilateral relations to jointly push peace in Afghanistan.
The relationship between Washington and Islamabad, officially allies in fighting terrorism, has plunged to its lowest point in the past year over allegations Pakistan has covertly enabled the Taliban insurgency to sustain the conflict in the neighboring country.
WATCH: Afghanistan a Key Focus of Pompeo Trips to India and Pakistan
Pompeo, also accompanied by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Joseph Dunford, held delegation-level talks with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. The U.S. delegation later held separate meetings with Prime Minister Imran Khan and General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the Pakistan military chief.
The top American diplomat sounded cautiously optimistic about the outcome of his meetings.
"We talked about their new government, the opportunity to reset the relationship between our two countries across a broad spectrum economic, business, and commercial, Pompeo told reporters at the end of his meetings.
The discussions, however, appeared to have focused mainly on the crisis in Afghanistan and Pakistans important role to help end it.
We all know that we need to try and develop a peaceful resolution in Afghanistan, which benefits certainly Afghanistan, but also the United States and Pakistan, Pompeo said. And Im hopeful that the foundation that we laid today will set the conditions for continued success as we start to move forward, Pompeo told reporters before departing for neighboring India.
For his part, Foreign Minister Qureshi said the U.S. delegation brought a "message of willingness to move forward and described the discussions as cordial and positive.
An atmosphere has emerged after today's meeting to reset our bilateral relations, and the impasse is broken, the foreign minister told a news conference late Wednesday. Qureshi said Secretary Pompeo also invited him to the U.S. for furthering the bilateral engagement.
Relations between Pakistan and the U.S. suffered a critical blow last year when President Donald Trump unveiled his new strategy to try to break the stalemate in the war with the Afghan Taliban.
Trump accused Pakistan of playing a double game, by covertly supporting the insurgency, charges Islamabad rejected as an attempt to coverup for U.S. military failures in ending the Afghan conflict.
The tensions have led to suspension of all U.S. military assistance to Pakistan since the start of the year, bringing mutual engagements to almost non-existent until Wednesday.
Pakistan consistently denies it is providing havens for the insurgents. It has also been pressing Washington to find a negotiated end to the conflict. The government in Islamabad says the use of military force has failed to achieve the objective and instead encouraged terrorism in the region, allowing the Taliban to capture more Afghan territory in the process.
Qureshi said that in Wednesdays interactions with Pompeo and his team, the U.S. side conveyed its readiness to engage with the Taliban to promote a political solution to the Afghan war.
"That's where you see America and Pakistan have a convergence of views, and I think we can move forward on this, he noted.
Just days before Pompeo visited Pakistan, the Pentagon announced it had decided to scrap $300 million in military aid to Pakistan, citing the countrys lack of cooperation with Trumps South Asia strategy.
Islamabad swiftly dismissed the assertions, saying the money was not U.S. aid but reimbursements for expenses incurred by Pakistan using its own resources to fight regional terrorism in support of Washingtons counterterrorism efforts.
The United States has now withheld $800 million from its so-called Coalition Support Funds since the start of the year. A U.S. military training program for Pakistani officers also has been terminated and civilian financial assistance to Islamabad has dropped to zero, according to officials.
Despite persistent diplomatic tensions, analysts rule out a total breakdown of U.S.-Pakistan ties. They note that Washington's military mission in landlocked Afghanistan heavily depends on ground and air lines of communications through Pakistan for ferrying key supplies to about 23,000 U.S. and NATO forces deployed in the neighboring country for training and advising Afghan forces battling the Taliban.
While speaking to reporters Wednesday, General Dunford dismissed concerns that Pakistan intended to block the supply lines because of suspension in mutual engagements. He said the U.S. military-to-military cooperation with the South Asian ally has remained in place despite diplomatic tensions.
We dont have any reason to indicate that our cooperation in keeping the GLOCs [ground lines of communications] open is going to change, Dunford replied when asked whether the Pakistani side raised the issue during the dialogue.
Afghan and U.S. officials have pressed Islamabad to use force against leaders and fighters of the Taliban allegedly sheltering in Pakistan to push them to engage in peace talks with the Kabul government.
Pakistani officials maintain the insurgents have gone back to the other side of the border in the wake of counterterrorism operations. Islamabad says it is ready to make all possible efforts and use its limited influence on the Taliban to encourage an Afghan peace dialogue.
The Pakistan military has ruled out the possibility of launching operations against residual Taliban insurgents it suspects are sheltering among nearly 3 million Afghan refugees Pakistan still hosts.
The sentencing of two Reuters journalists to seven years in prison for allegedly breaching a Myanmar state secrets law has triggered outrage, in the country and abroad. The two men were arrested in December while investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya men in Rakhine State, reportedly by the military. Governments around the world say the sentence is a blow to Myanmar's transition from military rule and to democracy VOA's diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.
Show more Show less
Reuters editor-in-chief Stephen Adler discusses the seven-year prison term given Myanmar journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, telling VOA the journalists' arrest was "a blatant set-up," and with no normal, legal due-process during court proceedings, their convictions were not surprising. Adler spoke with VOAs Ira Mellman.
A South Korean presidential delegation has met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang and has conveyed a personal letter from South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
Moons office says the envoys will return to South Korea later Wednesday after attending a dinner reception.
The office says it cannot provide further details. It plans to hold a briefing on the visit Thursday.
The five-member delegation led by Moons national security adviser arrived in Pyongyang on Wednesday to arrange a third summit between Moon and Kim planned for later this month and help rescue faltering nuclear diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang.
While pushing ahead with summits and inter-Korean engagement, Seoul is trying to persuade Washington and Pyongyang to proceed with peace and denuclearization processes at the same time so they can overcome a growing dispute over the sequencing of the diplomacy.
Seoul also wants a trilateral summit between the countries, or a four-nation meeting that also includes Beijing, to declare a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War. The U.N. General Assembly in late September would be an ideal date for Seoul, but many analysts see that possibility as low, considering the complications of the process and how far apart the parties currently are.
U.S. officials have insisted that a peace declaration, which many see as a precursor to the North eventually calling for the removal of all U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula, cannot come before North Korea takes more concrete action toward abandoning its nukes. Such steps may include providing an account of the components of its nuclear program, allowing outside inspections and giving up a certain number of its nuclear weapons during the early stages of the negotiations.
The North has accused the United States of making "unilateral and gangster-like" demands on denuclearization and holding back on the end-of-war declaration.
South Korean officials said an end-of-war declaration will be among the issues discussed in the meetings between the South Korean envoys and North Korean officials.
"Our government believes that an end-of-war declaration is very much needed while we enter a process toward stabilizing peace in the Korean Peninsula through complete denuclearization," said Chung Eui-yong, Moon's national security adviser and the head of the South Korean delegation to Pyongyang, in a news conference on Tuesday.
"We will continue to put in efforts so that an end-of-war declaration can be reached by the end of the year. We are always maintaining close communication with the United States," he added.
Chung said inter-Korean engagement is a crucial part of the efforts to resolve the nuclear crisis.
"If needed, we should pull forward the negotiations for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula with the development in relations between the South and North," he said.
Any progress could depend on whether Moon's envoys are able to coax a stronger verbal commitment from North Korea on denuclearization to help put the nuclear talks between the United States and Pyongyang back on track.
U.S. President Donald Trump called off a planned visit to North Korea by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last month, citing insufficient progress in denuclearization. The resumption of U.S.-North Korea talks sometime before the next inter-Korean summit, which will likely take place in mid-September, could give Moon more to work with when he arrives in Pyongyang.
Considering the difficult circumstances, it's unclear whether Moon's envoys will be able to get anything other than a fixed date for his new summit with Kim.
The two past inter-Korean summits in April and May removed war fears and initiated a global diplomatic push that culminated with a meeting between Kim and Trump in June. But Moon faces tougher challenges heading into his third meeting with Kim with the stalemate in nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington raising fundamental questions about Kim's supposed willingness to abandon his nukes.
Moon has been aggressively pushing engagement with North Korea in past months, but the lack of progress in nuclear talks could mean an end to the inter-Korean detente.
"Now is a very important time for establishing lasting peace in the Korean Peninsula; that's why special envoys are being sent to North Korea," Moon said Monday. "Peace in the Korean Peninsula goes together with the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and the government is closely examining and carefully managing the situation."
The Korean War ended with an armistice, leaving the peninsula technically still at war. Moon has made an end-of-war declaration an important premise of his peace agenda with North Korea.
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh faces a day of questioning Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he has already told members his philosophy is that judges should interpret the law and not make the law.
Those words were part of the opening statement he gave Tuesday at the start of the confirmation process that President Donald Trump hopes will result in Kavanaugh becoming the ninth member of the Supreme Court.
Senators are expected to raise issues such as abortion, affirmative action, executive power and the conflict between religious beliefs and gay rights as they try to determine whether they believe Kavanaugh should join the court.
Protesters and calls to postpone
The proceedings got off to a raucous start Tuesday with Democrats trying to postpone the hearing and loud disruptions by protesters in the crowd, drawing insults from some of the senators.
Kavanaugh sat for nearly seven hours, listening to Republicans and Democrats speak for and against his joining the court before he finally got his chance to address the panel.
WATCH: Verbal Senate Brawl Erupts at Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearing
The Supreme Court must never be viewed as a partisan institution, Kavanaugh said. A good judge must be an umpire a neutral and impartial arbiter who favors no litigant or policy.
He said during his 12 years as a federal appeals judge, he decided more than 300 cases.
I have ruled sometimes for the prosecution and sometimes for criminal defendants, sometimes for workers and sometimes for businesses, sometimes for environmentalists and sometimes for coal miners.
In each case, Kavanaugh said, he followed the law and did not let any personal or policy preferences get in his way.
I am a pro-law judge, he declared.
Hearings to last days
The nomination hearing is expected to last several more days, during which Democrats will likely try to portray Kavanaugh as someone too tied to Trump and who will push a conservative agenda on the high court. Republicans are expected to try to paint the nominee as an independent thinker and a principled jurist. Wednesday, the hearing is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 UTC).
Kavanaughs Republican supporters say he is one of the most qualified jurists ever to be considered for the nations highest court.
They pointed to endorsements from fellow judges and Kavanaughs legal associates, liberals and conservatives, including a number of women.
Presidential power
Democrats say they have a lot of misgivings about Kavanaughs pledge to be nonpartisan, saying he has a history of conservative political activism. They said they fear he may rule against a womans right to choose whether to have an abortion. And, at a time when President Trump is facing his own legal troubles, Democrats are concerned about Kavanaughs views on executive authority. Kavanaugh has argued that presidents should be free from civil lawsuits, criminal prosecution and investigations while in office.
The matter could be significant to Trump if the high court is called upon to render judgment on matters arising from special counsel Robert Muellers ongoing Russia-related investigation into the Trump administration and several civil lawsuits pending against Trump.
If he is approved by the panel, his nomination goes to the entire Senate, where Republicans will hold a very slim 51-49 majority when Republican Jon Kyl fills the seat of the late Arizona Senator John McCain.
So far, no Republicans have said they plan to vote against Kavanaugh.
WATCH: What's Involved in Confirmation Process?
After spending 12 hours before the Senate Judiciary Committee, U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh returns Thursday for another round of questioning as senators decide whether to support his bid to become the ninth member on the nations highest court.
President Donald Trump, who nominated Kavanaugh in July, says he is pleased with the way the hearings are going so far.
During Wednesdays session, Kavanaugh pledged judicial independence from Trump.
An independent judge
Im an independent judge, Kavanaugh said when asked by Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch for assurances that, if confirmed to the high court, he would not be swayed by the views or interests of the president.
I owe my loyalty to the Constitution, and the Constitution establishes me as an independent judge, bound to follow the law as written, the 53-year-old federal appellate judge added.
Kavanaugh asserted no one is above the law in our constitutional system and that no matter your station in life, no matter your position in government, its all equal justice under law. But he declined to say whether a sitting president, like all other citizens, must respond to a subpoena to provide testimony.
I cant give you an answer on that hypothetical question, the nominee said.
The issue has particular relevance given Special Counsel Robert Muellers continuing probe of the 2016 Trump campaigns alleged links to Russia. Mueller has not subpoenaed Trump, but it remains an option in his ongoing investigation of Russian meddling in the election.
In the 1990s, as an attorney, Kavanaugh took part in an investigation of then-president Bill Clinton that compelled Clinton to testify. Years later, having served in the George W. Bush administration, Kavanaugh wrote that presidents should be shielded from legal proceedings while in office.
Nominated to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, Kavanaugh told lawmakers he has not hesitated to make unpopular rulings in the past. He cited his opinion in a case releasing Osama bin Ladens former chauffeur, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, from detention at the U.S. military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Youll never have a nominee whos ruled for a more unpopular defendant, Kavanaugh said. He said judges should not make decisions based on who people are, but whether they have the law on their side. My personal beliefs are not relevant.
While Republican senators posed many questions on Kavanaughs overall judicial philosophy, Democrats zeroed in on hot-button issues from gun control to abortion rights in America.
The committees top Democrat, Dianne Feinstein, sought assurances that the nominee views as settled law the Supreme Courts landmark 1973 decision, Roe v. Wade, establishing abortion rights nationwide.
Its an important precedent of the Supreme Court thats been reaffirmed many times, Kavanaugh said. I understand the importance of the issue. I dont live in a bubble, I live in the real world.
He described a 1992 decision reaffirming the original ruling as precedent upon precedent. He said Americans need to know the law is predictable. Precedent is the foundation of our system.
Numerous womens groups are opposing Kavanaughs nomination, fearing he would vote with other conservative justices to restrict or eliminate abortion rights.
Protesters periodically interrupted the hearing. One repeatedly shouted, Sham president, sham justice.
If approved by the Republican-led committee, Kavanaughs nomination would go to the full Senate, where Republicans will hold a slim 51-49 majority. So far, no Republicans have said they plan to vote against Kavanaugh. Dozens of Democrats have announced their opposition.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas is making a two-day visit to Turkey in the latest step in warming relations between the two countries.
Last year, bilateral relations plummeted to the point that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of using "Nazi methods."
But before leaving for Ankara, Maas said "we are determined to keep working hard to improve our relations. Turkey is more than a large neighbor, it is an important partner of Germany."
Maas will meet Erdogan and top Turkish ministers.
The visit is to prepare for Erdogan's state visit to Berlin later this month, a rare privilege in Europe, analysts say, given Turkey's poor human rights record.
Looking for help
"There indeed seems to be a warming of relations between Turkey and Germany," said political analyst Sinan Ulgen of the Istanbul-based Edam research group. "Turkey's relationship with its other big partner in the West, the United States, is under tension. So,there is a real willingness in Ankara to improve the relations with key European countries, primarily Germany."
Last month's imposition of U.S. tariffs on Turkish goods triggered a collapse in Turkey's currency, threatening a financial crisis. The Turkish and German finance ministers are to meet in Berlin later this month to reportedly discuss financial support for Turkey.
Until recently, Erdogan had threatened to look east toward Moscow, in response to souring ties with Washington and Europe. But analysts point out that Turkish financial woes and the deepening crisis in Syria, underscore the limits of Ankara's relationship with Moscow.
"There was always a consciousness in Ankara that Russia could never really be a strategic partner to Turkey," Ulgen said. "Namely, there continue to be fundamental differences on how the two countries look at developments in the region, be it Syria, Ukraine, Crimea."
"Secondly," he added, "Russia is not an economic partner in the sense that the IMF [International Monetary Fund] or EU could ever be," he added, "so expectations in terms that Russia could be helpful in an economic downturn scenario in Turkey were always very superficial."
Human rights
Turkey's human rights record is seen as a significant stumbling block to any improvement in relations with the EU.
Maas said he would call on Turkish authorities for the release of seven German citizens, which Berlin claims are being held for political reasons.German politicians are accusing Ankara of pursing hostage diplomacy.
Ankara insists the Turkish judiciary is independent. But in the past few months, Turkish courts have released German journalists Deniz Yucel and Mesale Tolu.
Analysts warn if Ankara is seeking significant improvement in its ties with Berlin and the wider European Union, it will have to take substantial steps toward complying with EU standards on human rights defined by the Copenhagen Criteria.
"The EU demand of meeting the Copenhagen Criteria requires having some kind of democratic regime some kind of independent judiciary, some role for checks and balances," said political analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners. "You cannot put people in jail for their postings on social media or arrest journalists for writing something Erdogan doesn't like. These practices need to stop."
"Ankara is looking for a relationship that is devoid of political conditionality. From the European perspective, that will not be possible," Ulgen said.
Analysts claim the decline in human rights in Turkey means Ankara's EU membership hopes are all but finished.
"This vocation of becoming a full EU member is over," said former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen. "Now, even to renew the customs union is not going to happen this year or next."
"But yet separately," he added, "those countries in the European Union are the biggest trade partners of Turkey, and it will remain so," he added. "Especially Turkey and Germany enjoy a special relationship with many problems, but no country can replace Germany for Turkish industry, and Turkey needs more industrial production to get out of this dire straits in Turkey."
Analysts say an EU agreement with Turkey to control migrants entering European countries remains a compelling reason for Berlin and the rest of the bloc to improve relations and maintain Turkey's economic stability.
"Given that both parties now realize that Turkey's accession is unfeasible, at least for the foreseeable future, a new relationship will have to be defined," Ulgen said. "A new balance has to be struck overall."
Tropical Storm Gordon made landfall overnight along the border between the southern U.S. states of Alabama and Mississippi, bringing strong winds and bands of heavy rain to the Gulf Coast.
Forecasters had expected the storm to reach hurricane strength by the time it reached land late Tuesday, but the maximum sustained winds of 110 kilometers per hour were just below that level.
Gordon will quickly lose strength during the day Wednesday as it moves further inland, but it does still carry the threat of widespread heavy rains and windy conditions.
Tens of thousands of people lost power because of the storm. The governors of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana all declared states of emergency in order to speed relief efforts. U.S. President Donald Trump also said the White House is standing by to help with storm recovery.
The National Hurricane Center said the storm could bring a total of 10 to 20 centimeters (4 to 8 inches) of rain to the region by the time it exits later this week
U.S. voters will head to the polls in two months to elect a new Congress and to render a midterm judgment on the often controversial and polarizing presidency of Donald Trump.
The political stakes are enormous, especially for a president who has undone much of his predecessor's agenda but who could face a similar fate if Democrats recapture control of one or both congressional chambers on November 6.
A central question before voters is whether they want to continue with a Trump agenda backed by compliant Republican majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate, or hand partial or full control of the legislative branch back to the Democrats, marking a return of divided government.
Campaign series
As a sorely divided nation prepares for the historic midterm election, VOA beginning today will publish a series of video and text reports gauging stakes in the election and exploring in detail the issues that define the campaign.
Those issues include immigration, jobs and the economy, gun control, abortion, Russian interference in the U.S. election process and the fast-mushrooming scandals engulfing Trump and his administration. These stories can be found on a US Midterm 2018 special page.
The stakes
With the course of his presidency literally on the line in November, Trump has been an aggressive force on the campaign trail, touting Republican candidates and warning against a Democratic takeover of the House.
"This election is bigger than any one race," Trump told supporters at a recent rally in Charleston, West Virginia."It is about whether we want to continue the amazing progress we have made for America or whether we want to surrender that progress to the forces of extremism and obstruction."
Rallying the base
Among those in the audience was coal miner Kevin Abbott. "I believe the way Trump believes," he told VOA. "I believe if people quit road-blocking him, I think he can do amazing things. He's already done so much."
Last week, Trump warned a group of evangelical Christian ministers at the White House that a Democratic takeover of Congress would be disastrous, suggesting Democrats would quickly move to undo his tax and economic policies, his tough crackdown on immigration and his actions to cut regulations on the environment and energy.
"They will overturn everything we have done and they'll do it quickly and violently," he said, according to The New York Times.
Fired-up Democrats
As much as Trump hopes to spur Republican turnout in November, he is already firing up Democrats who appear to be eager to vote in the midterms.
Democratic turnout has surged in recent primaries and special elections, and party activists point to the unifying effect of opposing Trump as a key motivator.
"This man has got to go!" shouted critic James Obergefell, a gay-rights activist, during an anti-Trump protest at the White House last month, spurring cheers from dozens of like-minded critics.
Democrats are counting on resistance to Trump to help them retake control of the House.
"We now know that this partisan fight has become a fierce battle for the soul of America, and we, the people, have to win this battle," said billionaire and Democratic fundraiser Tom Steyer, who is leading a push to have Trump impeached.
Daunting landscape
Historically, the president's party loses seats in midterm elections, and experts predict that 2018 is likely to follow that pattern.
"When you look at the overall landscape, what you do see is a very typical midterm election shaping up," said George Washington University political analyst Lara Brown. "And that is that historically speaking, the president's party does not do well. The country does, to a certain extent, see the midterm elections as a check on the president's power."
Trump has already warned Republicans about the consequences of Democrats taking back control of one or both chambers in November, and with good reason, according to Brookings Institution scholar William Galston.
"Number one, no more Republican-only legislation," Galston told VOA via Skype. "And number two, House Democrats would then command the mechanisms of oversight, which is after all one of the principal responsibilities of Congress."
Some analysts predict a Democratic House would push for impeachment at some point, but the party is split over whether to highlight that as an issue in the midterm campaign.
Trump as central issue
Even Trump allies acknowledge that the midterm vote will be seen by many as a referendum on the president, and several openly welcome it.
"This is an up-or-down vote it couldn't be clearer," former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon told Associated Press Television. "If we keep the House, President Trump's program will continue on. If we lose the House, then [Democratic House leader] Nancy Pelosi will try to grind his program to a halt."
All 435 House seats are up for election this year along with 35 of the 100 Senate seats and 36 state governorships.
Gallup pollster Frank Newport said there is little doubt that Trump is a galvanizing force for both sides in the November vote.
"I think Republicans will actually bring him up. Some of them will say, 'Vote for me because there is going to be a move to impeach Trump if we have more Democrats in the Congress,' " Newport told VOA. "And Democrats clearly will say, 'Vote for us because we will oppose Trump's policies.' So I think he clearly is a central figure in this election."
Trump's approval rating could drag down Republican hopes in November. Real Clear Politics has Trump's average approval at 42 percent favorable and 54 percent unfavorable, which is on the low side for an incumbent president.
Gallup polling going back to 1946 has shown that when a president's approval rating is below 50 percent, the president's party loses more than 36 House seats on average.The Democrats need to pick up 23 House seats in November to regain control of that chamber and two seats to take back the Senate.
Polling edge
Democrats have an edge in what is known as the generic ballot poll, which simply asks voters which party they will support in November. The Real Clear Politics polling average shows Democrats with about a 9 percentage-point advantage over the Republicans.
Republicans appear better positioned to hold on to their slim 51-49 majority in the Senate. Democrats hold 24 of the seats up for election this year, while Republicans hold nine. Two other seats are held by independents who caucus with Democrats. Ten of the Democratic-held seats are in states Trump won in the 2016 election.
The odds of Democrats winning back the House majority are "considerably better than 50-50," said Brookings analyst Galston."I would guess that 2018 would be something like 2006 [midterms] for Democrats, when they did very well and picked up 32 seats."
Republican lawmakers are joining opposition Democrats in criticizing President Donald Trump for remarks that many are interpreting as an assault on the countrys judicial independence.
The president criticized his attorney general earlier this week over charges his Justice Department brought against two Republican congressmen. New York Rep. Chris Collins was charged as part of an alleged insider-trading scheme. California Rep. Duncan Hunter is accused of misusing campaign funds. Both have pleaded not guilty.
The president has long criticized his attorney general and the Justice Department over the ongoing probe into Russian election meddling by special counsel Robert Mueller. But the presidents latest remarks have been denounced by legal experts and members of his own party for appearing to put political concerns ahead of criminal law.
A spokesperson for House Speaker Paul Ryan told CNN that the Justice Department should always remain apolitical, and the speaker has demonstrated he takes these charges [against Collins and Hunter] seriously.
Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska released a statement saying, The United States is not some banana republic with a two-tiered system of justice -- one for the majority party and one for the minority party.
Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona tweeted that Trump was looking to use the Department of Justice to settle political scores."
Democrats also expressed alarm over the presidents remarks.
"Our justice system is under attack," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, said on Tuesday.
Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, called Trump's actions "unprecedented in American history." Durbin said Trump, by his tweets, has virtually no respect for the rule of law.
The U.S. justice system is politically influenced, in that the president appoints some top Justice Department officials as well as chief prosecutors in districts across the United States. But those individuals are expected to follow the law not politics when conducting their jobs.
Political interference?
Trumps denunciation of Sessions crosses a well-established line, said Nancy V. Baker, emeritus professor of government at New Mexico State University and author of Conflicting Loyalties: Law and Politics in the Attorney General's Office.
Baker said even if Trumps criticisms and remarks do not affect the Justice Departments prosecution of the congressmen, the president severely damages the administration of justice every time he makes a threatening remark.
Public perceptions are important, Baker said. Trumps comments make it clear that he sees his office as above the law, which directly undermines the ancient principle of rule of law, that the law applies without fear or favor, and no one is above it," she added.
In an interview with The New York Times in 2017, Trump was asked if he would reopen the investigation into former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clintons use of a private email server during her time as secretary of State. Trump replied, "I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department."
However legal experts say that precedents established since the Watergate scandal, which led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974, call for presidents to strictly limit communications with the department and not interfere in ongoing cases.
U.S. President Donald Trump unleashed a new attack Wednesday on a book depicting his presidency and White House as chaotic and dysfunctional, calling it a "work of fiction."
Trump offered his assessment of author Bob Woodward's new book, Fear: Trump in the White House, as he talked to reporters at the White House, hours after he suggested libel laws ought to be changed to protect against what he sees as false reports.
"Isnt it a shame that someone can write an article or book, totally make up stories and form a picture of a person that is literally the exact opposite of the fact, and get away with it without retribution or cost," Trump said on Twitter. "Dont know why Washington politicians dont change libel laws?"
It was Trump's latest broadside against the Woodward book, excerpts of which first appeared Tuesday, with countless anecdotes painting Trump as dangerously ignorant of world affairs and his White House devastatingly beset by internal feuds.
Within hours of the first reports about the book, the U.S. leader started attacking it, asserting that quotes and stories in the book "were made up frauds, a con on the public."
The Republican president questioned whether Woodward, a Washington Post journalist credited with helping drive President Richard Nixon from power in 1974, is an operative for the opposition Democratic party.
The book quotes White House Chief of Staff John Kelly as describing Trump as "unhinged" and calling him an "idiot" who had "gone off the rails." Woodward's account also quotes Defense Secretary Jim Mattis as saying that Trump comprehends material at the level of "a fifth- or sixth-grader."
Both officials denied the quotes, and Trump retweeted their denials.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also dismissed Woodward's book, saying, "I havent read a lot of his books. I am into fiction like General Mattis, so maybe Ill take a look at this one.
Woodward says the 448-page book, set to be released next Tuesday, cites mostly anonymous sources.
It describes aides in the Trump White House as orchestrating an "administrative coup d'etat" by plucking documents off his desk to keep him from seeing and signing them. The author said the president's administration suffered a "nervous breakdown" during its first 19 months.
There have been previous reports by journalists and former White House staffers of upheaval in the White House West Wing since Trump's January 2017 inauguration.
Aside from Trump rejecting quotes attributed to him, Kelly and Mattis both pushed back with vehement denials of remarks Woodward quoted.
"The idea I ever called the president an idiot is not true," the White House chief of staff said, reiterating that he has "an incredibly candid and strong relationship. He always knows where I stand, and he and I both know this story is total BS."
Kelly's statement emphasizes he is committed to Trump's presidency, his agenda, and the country.
"This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administration's many successes," Kelly said.
Defense Secretary Mattis said, "The contemptuous words about the president attributed to me in Woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence. While I generally enjoy reading fiction, this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility."
The book claims that after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ordered chemical weapons to be used against civilians in April of last year, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted to assassinate Assad. Mattis is quoted as telling an aide, after hanging up the phone, "We're not going to do any of that. We're going to be much more measured."
The president's former lead personal attorney, John Dowd, is quoted in graphic language referring to Trump as a "liar" who will end up wearing an "orange jump suit" if he gives testimony to special counsel Robert Muller, who is looking into ties between the 2016 Trump election campaign and Russia.
Woodward repeatedly requested an interview with Trump for the book, but did not succeed.
According to a recording of a call Woodward made to Trump last month, and released by The Washington Post, Trump accused the journalist of writing a "very inaccurate book" that would not reflect that no predecessor has "ever done a better job than I'm doing as president."
Ken Bredemeier, and Carla Babb at the Pentagon contributed to this report.
The United States and India will try to expand already close defense ties when senior leaders from both countries meet for their first two plus two dialogue Thursday in New Delhi.
The worlds two largest democracies, the United States and India, have a lot in common, including a desire to contain China. But the United States takes issue with India buying oil from Iran and its planned acquisition of a Russian missile defense system.
On his way to India, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis confirmed he will discuss the Russian missile defense system, but said shared values will allow the two countries to handle any perturbations in stride, without alarm.
Freedom means that at times nations dont agree with each other. That doesnt mean we cant be partners. That doesnt mean we dont respect the sovereignty of other nations, said Mattis.
While India does not recognize unilateral U.S. sanctions and has bristled at what it considers U.S. restraints on its historically neutral stance in world affairs, U.S. and Indian officials have described the relationship as extremely close.
What we see is a continuing growth of the consultations between us. Its on a very firm foundation, Mattis said.
The talks will also include U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Indian Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
Russian missile system
Last week, the Pentagon threatened to impose sanctions on India if it purchases the Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile system. The deal, estimated at around $6 billion, would violate U.S. sanctions placed on Russia last year in response to Moscows destabilizing activities globally.
While the Trump administration could extend a sanctions waiver to India theres no guarantee that will happen, the Pentagons top Asia policy official, Randall Schriver, said last week.
We would have very significant concerns if India pursued major new [Russian] platforms and systems, Schriver said.
Most of Indias weapons are Russian-made, a legacy of Indias Cold War relationship with the Soviet Union.
While U.S. officials say they understand Indias need to keep defense ties with Russia in order to maintain those weapons, they aim to convince India to buy more U.S. weapons in the future.
The United States is currently Indias second-largest weapons supplier.
Iranian oil
U.S. officials are signaling more flexibility on Indias purchase of Iranian crude oil.
Starting November 4, any country buying Iranian oil could face financial penalties under sanctions reinstated after the United States unilaterally pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal.
But a senior State Department official said sanctions would be imposed on a case-by-case basis.
Its not clear what that means in Indias case, but under the Obama administration India received a sanctions waiver, as long as it substantially reduced its Iranian oil purchases.
India, the second-largest buyer of Iranian oil, will almost certainly not agree to go to zero imports, says Tanvi Madan of the Brookings Institution.
"They don't want to break ties with Iran, and going to zero would do that, said Madan.
It goes back to a fundamental concern India has about the U.S. sanctions regime constraining its options in terms of how to operate in the world, who to buy from, she adds.
COMCASA deal 'pretty much there'
But the meeting could yield progress on a long-negotiated deal to share sensitive defense equipment. Known as COMCASA it would pave the way for greater collaboration on encrypted defense technology.
Indian media have reported the language of a COMCASA deal has been finalized, and Mattis has indicated they are close.
I think that were pretty much there already on the American side. Well see where theyre at, said Mattis.
India is already designated as a Major U.S. Defense Partner, allowing it to more easily receive American defense technology. This year, India has also been designated a Strategic Trade Authorization-1 country, a status comparable to that of NATO allies.
India could also agree to work more closely on Afghanistan, where the United States has been at war for 17 years. But Indias arch rival, Pakistan, is opposed to Indian military involvement in the conflict.
The two plus two meeting had been planned for last April, but was postponed after the departure of former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. It was delayed a second time after Pompeo left in June on a last-minute trip to North Korea.
The U.S. State Department and human rights groups have expressed shock and outrage at Irans arrest of the husband of Nasrin Sotoudeh, a detained rights lawyer whose release he campaigned for.
Rights groups said security agents detained Reza Khandan at his home early Tuesday and took him to Tehrans Evin prison. The groups quoted Khandans lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi, as saying Iranian authorities charged Khandan with national security offenses and promoting nonobservance of the compulsory wearing of veils or hijabs by women in public.
A Tuesday tweet by the State Departments Farsi Twitter feed said the Trump administration is deeply shocked and alarmed by Khandans arrest. It said Washington also is monitoring reports of the arrest in recent days of three Iranian lawyers, Farrokh Forouzan, Payam Dorafshan and Hoda Amid. The tweet ended with a question: We have to ask the Iranian government, what are you really afraid of?
In a Monday Facebook post, Khandan said an intelligence agent called him that day and asked him to report for questioning Tuesday. He said he objected to being summoned without a written warrant from the judiciary but was told in response to his objection that he would be arrested.
Campaigned for wife's release
Khandan had publicly campaigned for the release of his wife, Nasrin Sotoudeh, since her June imprisonment to serve a five-year sentence for a national security-related conviction handed down in absentia. In the months before her arrest, Sotoudeh had defended Iranian women arrested for removing their compulsory hijabs or headscarves during public protests against the Iranian government. She began a hunger strike Aug. 26 to protest her detention and government harassment of her family and friends.
Before his arrest, Khandan also criticized the Iranian governments treatment of human rights defenders such as his wife and its prosecution of women who campaigned against forced veiling.
In an interview for the Tuesday edition of VOA Persians NewsHour program, Reporters Without Borders activist Reza Moini said it appeared that Khandan was arrested for publicizing information about his wife, who has defended journalists and citizen-journalists in recent years.
We assume that, in regards to political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, the Iranian government always fears the spread of information about them, and this fear has led the government to take actions to instill dread and fear in the families of these prisoners and force them into silence, said Moini, who is based in France.
Iranian state media had no immediate comment on Khandans detention.
Rights groups call out 'callous act'
Rights advocate Philip Luther of Britain-based group Amnesty International issued a statement denouncing the arrest of Sotoudehs husband as a callous act.
The Iranian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release both Nasrin Sotoudeh and Reza Khandan, Luther said. They must drop all charges against them and stop their harassment of this family once and for all.
The U.S.-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said multiple elements of the Iranian establishment were to blame for the situation.
The intelligence ministry, which reports directly to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and was responsible for Khandans arrest, has become one of Irans major human rights violators while Rouhani stands by silent, CHRI executive director Hadi Ghaemi said in a separate online statement.
This article originated in VOAs Persian Service.
The White House has warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against using chemical weapons in an upcoming offensive against the last rebel-held enclave in Syria. The Assad government and its allies are expected to launch a massive bombardment of the northwestern Idlib province. The United Nations special envoy for Syria is making a last-ditch effort to prevent massive bloodshed and is urging all sides in the Syrian war to find a peaceful solution. VOA's Zlatica Hoke reports.
Britain risks considerable disruption to many aspects of its economy and society, including trade, transport, health care and citizens rights, if it crashes out of the European Union next March without a deal, according to a report into the risks of a so-called no-deal Brexit.
The research from Kings College Londons UK in a Changing Europe program focuses on the short-term risks to Britain from a no-deal scenario, though it also cautions that there will be longer-term negative effects on the British economy.
The warnings come as British lawmakers returned from a six-week summer break Tuesday to growing uncertainty over Britains future relations with the EU, and continued speculation that Prime Minister Theresa May could face a leadership battle as the pressure mounts.
No withdrawal agreement
A withdrawal agreement with Brussels has yet to be worked out, raising the prospect of a chaotic cliff-edge Brexit. Report co-author Professor Jonathan Portes said such a result would be in the interest of neither party.
But there are these big obstacles. The first is that of the Irish border, where at the moment, the position of the EU 27 (member states) is that there has to be a Northern Ireland-specific backstop legally written into the withdrawal agreement that ensures no hard border and carving out that special position for Northern Ireland where it remains to some extent intimately linked with the EU.
However, such a special arrangement for Northern Ireland is unacceptable to many MPs, who fear it could ultimately split the United Kingdom.
Many lawmakers also dont want to pay the estimated $50 billion divorce bill to Europe money that is owed for existing commitments without the guarantee of a future trade deal. But including such a guarantee in the withdrawal agreement is fraught with difficulty.
The complications are the natural result of 45 years of British EU membership, Portes said.
The rules, regulations, law, policies and regulatory aspects of the EU have become fundamentally embedded in whole swaths of the UKs social and economic infrastructure. So, its not just about trade. There are all sorts of other things that would come to a grinding halt on March 30 if we crashed out without any deal at all.
The report warns trade with the EU would face immediate disruption, with potential food and medicine shortages. Safety certification for British aircraft would be invalid, possibly grounding flights. The rights of British citizens living in the EU would be thrown into doubt.
Brexit report
Reporting to parliament Tuesday on Britains progress in talks with Brussels, Secretary of State for Exiting the EU Dominic Raab said a no-deal Brexit remains unlikely.
Our approach acknowledges that there are some risks to a no-deal scenario and demonstrates that we are taking the action to avoid, to minimize and to mitigate these potential risks so we are equipped to manage any short-term disruption. And while its not what we want, a no-deal scenario would bring some countervailing opportunities. We would be able to lower tariffs and negotiate and bring into effect new free-trade deals straightaway, Raab told lawmakers.
Some European governments are resisting offering any concessions to Britain, Portes said.
There certainly is a view among some in Europe, certainly in France and Germany and the (EU) Commission, that any sort of deal that appears to allow the UK to pick and choose, the cherry-pick, to have its cake and eat it would indeed encourage disintegrationist and populist forces elsewhere in Europe.
The political battles were mirrored on the high seas in recent days as British and French fishermen clashed in the English Channel. France has warned it may send in its navy to police the dispute. Fishing rights are another battleground in the long list of issues yet to be resolved.
Britains exit is due to be discussed at an EU heads of state meeting scheduled later this month in Austria.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will not attend celebrations of the 70th anniversary of North Koreas founding this weekend but will send a top ally to represent him instead, the ruling Communist Party announced Tuesday.
Speculation had swirled over whether Xi would attend the celebrations following three visits to China this year by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Analysts said a decision by Xi not to travel to Pyongyang would indicate that Beijing expected further actions from Kim, including real signs of progress toward denuclearization.
The partys International Department said Xi would be represented by Li Zhanshu, the partys third-ranking official and head of Chinas rubberstamp parliament.
While China-North Korea relations have improved this year following a prolonged chill, China remains committed to U.N. economic sanctions placed on the North over its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons testing programs.
Trump faults China
The celebrations in Pyongyang also come as U.S. President Donald Trump has blamed Beijing for the slow progress of denuclearization, suggesting that China has been encouraging North Korea to drag its feet with denuclearization to gain leverage against the U.S. in a trade dispute that has seen both sides leveling tariffs on $50 billion of each others products.
Last week, Trump tweeted that North Korea is under tremendous pressure from China because of our major trade disputes with the Chinese government, adding, This is not helpful!
China wasnt having any of it. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Washington should engage in self-reflection and stop flip-flopping and blaming others.
Regarding Americas attempts to pass the buck, Im sorry, wed rather not accept, Hua told reporters.
China has distanced itself somewhat from its significant cooperation with the U.S. on North Korea. After supporting tough U.N. sanctions and scaling back trade with the North after it ramped up nuclear and missile tests last year, Beijing has eased the pressure on its neighbor slightly.
No Chinese head of state has visited North Korea since President Hu Jintao met with Kims father, Kim Jong Il, in Pyongyang in 2005, a time when Beijing was urging the North to reform its economy and take part in six-nation denuclearization talks.
When the younger Kim took power in 2011, exchanges slowed as Kim sought to assert his independence and China grew impatient with Kims nuclear and missile tests. Ties frayed last year when China supported tougher U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang and suspended coal and iron ore imports.
That made Kims three visits to China this year all the more striking, a sign that the relationship was back on track.
Relations basically on track
A visit by Xi on such a symbolic occasion would have further underscored the unique historical ties between the two countries ruling parties. Mao Zedong sent Chinese troops to aid North Korea after the Korean War began in 1950, setting up a relationship once described as being as close as lips and teeth.
Xi could have also used the opportunity to reassert Chinas claim to a place at the table when key decisions are made concerning Pyongyangs relationships with both Washington and South Korea, including over a possible formal end to the Korean War. Beijing is determined to ensure its interests are honored, especially its desire to maintain the viability of Kims regime and keep U.S. and South Korean forces far from its border.
I think Beijing is worried that North Korea will go its own way and work out new relationships with Washington and Seoul and move out of Chinas orbit, said John Delury, a North Korea expert at Yonsei University in Seoul.
Michael Kovrig, senior adviser for Northeast Asia at the International Crisis Group, described a decision by Xi not to go as a strong signal, indicating that North Korea has a lot to do to get back in Chinas good graces.
Still, his appointment of a high-ranking official such as Li as his envoy appeared to indicate ties remained basically on track.
Sanctions in place, but tourism
Diplomats say Beijing continues to implement U.N. sanctions on exports of coal, iron ore, seafood and other products. In one area not covered by the sanctions, however, it seems to be cutting Pyongyang some slack: tourism.
Recent visitors to North Korea say numbers of Chinese visitors have exploded in recent months, with busloads turning up at key spots such as the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas and Mount Paektu, which touches the countrys border with China.
China is likely advertising the potential benefits of North Korean compliance farther down the line.
China has a strategy of trying to prevent North Korea from straying too far, Delury said. This relationship is full of mutual distrust, but they keep it within certain bounds.
The URL has been copied to your clipboard
The code has been copied to your clipboard.
Newly sworn in MDC Alliance legislator, John Houghton representing Kariba constituency in Mashonaland West, said he is pessimistic about how much progress will be achieved under President Mnangagwa, if he fails to attract foreign investors.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is poised to be back at full strength after the Senate confirmed Elad Roisman on Wednesday to fill the regulator's open Republican seat, likely providing a boost for the Trump-appointed chairman who leads the agency. Roisman, who has been serving as chief counsel to the Senate Banking Committee, will join the SEC as Chairman Jay Clayton tries to secure enough support from commissioners to pass rules on his agenda. Near the top of Clayton's list is a sweeping effort to overhaul conflict-of-interest regulations for Wall Street brokers.
Many government operations are funded only through Sept. 30, giving Congress three weeks to patch together the coalition of lawmakers needed to avoid a partial shutdown. Trump wants Congress to appropriate at least $5 billion for construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, but congressional leaders have told him they will not be able to marshal enough votes to secure any wall funding by the end of the month.
The test of that notion places Timbers back on a perch to which hes now growing familiar, as the point person of a big-deal show with lots of hope and money riding on it. Born in New York and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, Timbers went to Yale, where he majored in theater studies and film, and developed a gift for irreverent inventiveness: On graduation weekend, he staged a Brechtian version of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying that winked at some of its more sexist aspects. After college, he and two fellow Yalies, Aaron Lemon-Strauss and Jennifer Rogien, founded the giddily modernist theater troupe Les Freres Corbusier, which created the hilarious A Very Merry Unauthorized Childrens Scientology Pageant. Later came Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, which was directed by Timbers and went on to a Broadway run.
If youve wandered into Amsterdam Falafelshop late, youre probably under the influence of Adams Morgan, so you wont notice that the employees are unamused by your presence. Youre here for the goods coming out of the fryer and the freedom to top them with anything your heart desires cabbage, cucumber, beets, pickled cauliflower, tahini and so much more. Does customer service mean much when youre unlikely to remember that the songs kept changing after a minute of play, before settling on a mood and volume that seemed to be willing you to eat as quickly as possible and leave? The falafel and fries were satisfying and your buzz was calmed. And thats why you came. 2425 18th St. NW. 1830 14th St. Adams Morgan location open until midnight Sunday and Monday; 2:30 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday; 3 a.m. Thursday; and 4 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Kara Elder
Those positions were frustrating to school choice proponents such as Jeanne Allen, founder of the advocacy group Center for Education Reform, who argues that some federal oversight is worthwhile if a program delivers new options for children. Im confident minimal federal intrusion is possible, she said. The tax credit plan, she said, should have been part of the tax bill, but no one was willing to put it there.
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
He said the state or private industry could finance the upfront replacement of all heating and cooling systems in Baltimore, most of which are more than 30 years old, and use the money saved on operating the more efficient systems to repay the debt within three years.
While Hogan tells voters in his stump speech that public schools have received record state funding each year of his administration, his critics point out the governor was required to give that much to schools under state law. In a few instances such as his first year in office Hogan and Democratic lawmakers fought over how much extra funding to allocate to the states neediest school districts.
Mrs. Lengel, who also went by Shelley and Shellie, began her federal career as a public information writer for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare in the 1960s and worked for what became HHS from 1976 to 1988.
In 1965, Mr. Cohen called Longs claims overblown, insisting that the wiretaps were chiefly focused on racketeers attempting to bribe IRS personnel. But two years later, Mr. Cohen admitted in a letter to Long that the extent of wiretapping was far more extensive than initially revealed. By his count, the IRS had made improper and questionable use of wiretapping 287 times between 1958 and 1966, mostly owing to the overzealousness on the part of certain personnel engaged in the investigation of the criminal element.
Moye was caught later that day in the woods near his home in Silver Spring where he tried to take his own life as officers approached him.
The list of people who may testify or be referred to includes many of the vendors, accountants and investigators who took the stand at the recently completed trial in Alexandria, Va., where Manafort was convicted of eight of 18 tax- and bank-fraud charges. But the list for the D.C. trial also includes 23 Ukrainian and four European politicians.
Kavanaughs denial of knowledge about the policy later came into question when The Washington Post revealed a year later that he had participated in a meeting in the White House counsels office in which he had been asked his opinion about how Justice Anthony M. Kennedy for whom he had clerked was likely to view the matter. Some Democrats have said the revelation raises questions about the accuracy of his 2006 testimony, and they plan to ask him about it at the hearing.
A year later, and after weathering a raft of news accounts about the surge in Optimas rates, Dennis Matheis, the companys president, said that he is sympathetic to the frustrations of people who faced the higher prices. But he also said he felt the company is not being credited for coming back into the Charlottesville area and others, and saving affordable care for the 91 percent of people in the individual market who qualify for government subsidies.
Lawyer Jeffrey Breit, arguing for the Democratic Party, said the affidavits signed by Taylors staffers could be presumed, under case law, to signify that they were afraid to incriminate themselves by answering certain questions. Several had gathered in the hallway outside the courtroom and left shortly after the judge accepted their affidavits.
In a statement to reporters . . . Black noted that during his visit to Syria he sensed the love of the Syrian people for [Assads] army and leadership, who maintained the unity of the country and restored security to it, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported on its website Wednesday. Black criticized the American diplomats who do not stop threatening people with war, killing and imposing sanctions instead of looking for common ground for cooperation between nations and peoples.
In an abnormal arrangement, attorneys for the federal government the defendant in the case sat on the same side of the courtroom as the plaintiffs lawyers during Wednesdays hearing. The odd seating pattern stems from the fact that the Trump administration is largely agreeing with the plaintiffs who are suing. In June, the Justice Department saying in a court filing it would not defend the law.
The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva has voiced concern about the effect of the fighting on migrants and internally displaced people. Spokeswoman Liz Throssell said Tuesday that some of the nearly 8,000 arbitrarily detained migrants are trapped in detention centers in areas where fighting has taken place, without access to food or medical treatment.
Local governments across the country have steadily lost power every legislative session over the past several years, with no sign of letting up. Mayors, city council members and county commissioners have been stripped of tools they once used to keep residents safe, pursue racial and economic equity, ensure livable wages, ban discrimination in housing and the workplace, and to safeguard fair elections. All of these are now in question.
The flag representing the Canadian Merchant Navy, the Red Duster, flies at city hall on Tuesday in memory of the members of Canadas merchant navy who served during the Second World War.
First, the last-minute dump is a time-honored tradition in the nations capital and a common tactic in litigation. Lawyers will do what lawyers do. As for the whining about needing more time, really? This is Washington, folks, where Starbucks is literally on all four corners of a downtown park. Teams of fast skimmers and a case or two of Red Bull could have produced a rash of salient bullet points by breakfast if Democrats were really curious. Happens all the time. Indeed, Garrett Ventry, Grassleys communications adviser, tweeted Tuesday afternoon that the senators legal documents team did review the full stack Monday. We had 15 people working on it.
Yet Trump insists on treating Canada as the enemy, imposing steel and aluminum tariffs to protect U.S. national security. In off-the-record comments to Bloomberg News, Trump insisted that any revamp of the North American Free Trade Agreement would be totally on our terms and that if Canada balked at his unreasonable demands, he would impose tariffs on Canadian-produced vehicles. That makes no sense because such tariffs would hurt American companies such as General Motors, which produces Chevrolet Impalas at a plant in Ontario. Trump is oblivious to the fact that Canada is Americas largest export market and that we actually run a trade surplus with Canada.
The United States has negotiated intermittently with Russia and the United Nations on cyber issues, trying to build norms of behavior and confidence-building measures without compromising Internet freedom. The main forum since 2004 has been the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts (GGE). Over the years, it has applied the rules of war to cyber conflict, extended international law to cyberspace, and pledged that nations will protect critical infrastructure from cyberattack.
Kavanaugh may not become the most conservative member of the court, but his background suggests he would be the most partisan. Working for Kenneth W. Starr in the 1990s, he was involved in the Vincent Foster and Monica Lewinsky probes, proposing an explicit line of questioning for President Bill Clinton with graphic queries about genitalia, masturbation, phone sex and oral sex. And as a young lawyer under George W. Bush, Kavanaugh was involved in Bush v. Gore, the probe of Clintons pardons and legal decisions about torture.
Increased transparency in our advertising systems is another area where we have also made progress. You can now see all the ads an advertiser is running even if they arent targeted to you. Anyone who wants to run political or issue ads in the United States on Facebook must verify their identity. All political and issue ads must also make clear who paid for them, in the same way as TV or newspaper advertisements. But weve gone even further by putting all these ads in a public archive, which anyone can search to see how much was spent on each individual ad and the audience it reached. This greater transparency will increase responsibility and accountability for advertisers.
So much for the new era of comity, the appeal to better angels over partisanship, ushered in by the death of Arizona Sen. John McCain. If you had any delirious hopes of fever-breaking, they should have been thoroughly dashed by the first day of the Senate Judiciary Committees hearings on Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh. They should have been dashed, in particular, by the refusal of the panels Republican majority to allow adequate and timely access to documents from Kavanaughs White House service.
For the most deep-pocketed museums, special measures can help stave off the worst threats. The Getty Center in Los Angeles sits on a hilltop in an area of frequent earthquakes and wildfires. But with an endowment of nearly $7 billion, it has been able to invest extensively in protective technologies. Its billion-dollar campus features thick walls of fire-resistant travertine stone, a million-gallon water tank and a system of irrigation pipes that can soak the perimeter if needed. It has also developed display cases that isolate artworks from seismic activity.
Second, in our constitutional system, the burden is on the executive to prove it has the right to withhold information, not on Congress to prove it has the right to investigate. Executive privilege even if an administration doesnt specifically refer to it in such terms should be reserved for the most compelling reasons. It should not be invoked to protect the political interests of the president, or, in this case, to advance his odds of having his judicial nominee confirmed. Short of a strong showing by the executive branch of its need to withhold documents, Congresss right to access information must be upheld. The Senate Judiciary Committee, regardless of partisan leaning, should not forego its own institutional prerogative to fully vet a nominee.
Whats left is a kind of ceremonial cleansing of the sacred city, a mighty labor to make sure that the two circles on the Venn diagram never, ever come into contact. Theres something admirable about uncompromising ethical purity, but also something rather dangerous. For it means that outside your circle, theres an entirely different normal. And if you abdicate any influence over that alternate normality, while rigorously expelling your own heretics, you may one day awake to find that your impeccably maintained ring of truth has been swamped by that other normal, now grown entirely beyond your control.
Jones has accused the tech giants of censoring conservative voices after they suspended his conspiracy theory website Infowars last month. He made an unexpected appearance in the front row of the audience at Wednesdays hearing and was also seen milling about the hallways outside the room, yelling about anti-conservative bias and declaring that he had come to face my accusers.
The void to be filled by Johns passing is more than I can fill. Dont look to me to replace this man, Graham said last week. Look to me to remember what he was all about and try to follow in his footsteps. If you want to help me, join the march.
In his tweet this week, Trump wrote: Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time.
Some day, when Im not president, which hopefully will be in about 6 years from now, the New York Times and CNN and all of these phony media outlets will be out of business, folks, because there will be nothing to write and therell be nothing of interest, the president said.
Whats changed for me is the passing of John McCain, said Woods, who delivered a eulogy for the late senator last week. Its challenging for me be so involved in everything that we did to honor him over the last week and then think of staying on the sidelines as we face a world without John McCain.
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.
Said Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) on Tuesday: I think we all know its likely he is going to terminate him after the midterms. In the interim I think it would be good if he stopped raving about Sessions. Its unbecoming. Either do something or dont, but these comments just continue to degrade our nation.
Coming out in India remains difficult, however. In Bhubaneswar a town where girls colleges lock their doors at 6 p.m. and where public kissing is frowned upon gay men meet secretly in the unused bathrooms of the citys park or on dating apps. Some of those who come out to their families are forced to take medication, shock therapy or fake cures peddled by quack doctors and ascetics. Even the movements most vocal champions some of the organizers of the citys first pride march have not told their parents they are gay or that they attended the event.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said at a news conference Wednesday evening that the discussions with Pompeo, who was accompanied by Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had set the stage to reset the environment for bilateral relations and that he had been invited to Washington to follow up later this month. We understood what they want, and have also presented what Pakistan expects . . . in a mutually respectful manner, he said.
When I first heard about this, I laughed, Koofi said in an interview. I have spent my career struggling against these kinds of abusive people and warlords, and now they say I am one of them? She said she suspected the complaint came from political adversaries but has no way to know, because the process was secret. If she could see the charges, she said, I would happily fight this in court.
By Wednesday night, demonstrators massed in Basra had torched a municipal office building and police had responded with warning shots in an attempt to disperse the crowd. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Demonstrators in Baghdads Tahrir Square avoided the kind of confrontation that led police to use deadly force earlier in the week. Activists said they expect the number of protests to surge on Friday, the first day of the weekend.
Mattis knows and understands and has the experience and humility to pick his battles, said one senior European foreign policy official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss fears about the behavior of an ally. It is not clear to me that a lesser man or woman could keep DODs head above water. So in a macro sense, Mattis is important as an experienced and balanced adult who knows that defense of Europe is in the U.S.s interest.
North Korea wants the United States to formally declare an end to the Korean War before it takes any genuine steps to open up or scale back its nuclear program, arguing that such a step is vital to defusing tension on the Korean Peninsula and building trust. It says Trump expressed support for such an idea when he met Kim in Singapore.
Its important to be tough and strong when it comes to the national interest, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks. With that being said, I think we and the U.S. and Mexico would all like to see a swift conclusion to these negotiations.
Concurs de granturi adresat COMUNITATILOR (APL) pentru sporirea rezilientei lor la schimbarile climatice si FEMEILOR ANTREPRENOARE in vederea dezvoltarii unor afaceri prietenoase mediului
The battle for control of the listed Investa Office Fund has taken yet another 11th-hour turn, with private equity giant Blackstone threatening to walk away from its $3.2 billion offer if the scheduled meeting to approve the deal is adjourned.
On legal advice, the IOF independent directors have said they will hold the scheduled meeting on Thursday, September 6, "but it will be adjourned shortly after its commencement, so that the IOF manager has sufficient time to consider and obtain advice on the Oxford proposal".
In the interim, IOF's independent directors have unanimously recommended the Blackstone proposal in the absence of a superior proposal.
Investa Office's $110 million office tower at 151 Clarence Street, known as Barrack Place.
Oxford Properties is the real estate business of the Canadian pension fund OMERS, which manages about $100 billion of assets.
Maybe if the law was on my side when Jaxon was a minor. Jaxon started using drugs when he was 14. Just a few years later, the kid whose father described as popular, friendly and happy, is a man in deep trouble. Gone is the sporty child with a cheeky grin; in his place is a violent and erratic young man in the throes of an addiction he cannot seem to curb. At 20, Jaxon has been in and out of rehab numerous times.
He has entered various treatment programs, but none have been able to make him stay. Last year he was placed on life support after overdosing on benzodiazepines. Twice. He was a great kid, Murray said. We all still love him; were just afraid of him. Jaxons family became so scared of his behaviour his mother and two younger sisters started carrying pepper spray, and Murray installed locks on the girls bedroom doors. There have been a couple of times weve had to have Jaxon removed from the house, Murray said.
Hes become violent and threatening. Weve tried tough love. We kicked him out. He came back seven days later, emaciated. He just cant take care of himself. A proponent of enforced detox and rehabilitation for drug users, Murray took to Twitter just weeks ago saying there were parents of drug users desperate for their child to commit a crime. It might just save their life, he wrote. Within days, his own son was taken into police custody.
It happened on a Sunday evening He just exploded, Murray said. He just went off. Jaxon was placed on life support last year after twice overdosing on benzodiazepines. A seemingly innocuous conversation in the family home about future treatment plans for Jaxon led to a violent incident on the familys front lawn, witnessed by neighbours. He stomped through the house; he was swearing at us, he was just going off, Murray said.
He told me I could go and get f--ked - that I was the worst f--king father in the world. Hes told me that many times. Jaxon then smashed a lead-light door before walking outside. Seeing red, Murray followed his son, telling him not to come back. This prompted Jaxon to take a swing at his father. Murrays wife - and Jaxons mum - tried to pepper spray the 20-year-old, but he took an almighty swing and knocked his mother out.
She just hit the ground, Murray said. My daughters called the police and a neighbour had to pull me off Jaxon. Thats the last time we saw him. Murray has had no contact with his son since the assault on his wife. At this point, he doesnt want to see him. Hed have to do rehabilitation, he said. My son needs detox.
Murray said as much as he hated the idea of Jaxon being in prison, he considered it the best place for him at the moment. Im hopeful he will get better, Murray says. Im hopeful. Am I confident? Not with the way the system is at the moment. We need urgent help There is currently no legislation in Western Australia that allows for the compulsory treatment of people with severe drug or alcohol addictions.
In September 2016, the Mental Health Commission released a discussion paper relating to the proposed provision of a compulsory alcohol and other drug treatment service in Western Australia, Mental Health Minister Roger Cook said. New South Wales currently operate a compulsory rehab program which is being evaluated by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre. I look forward to the results of that evaluation which are due to be finalised by the end of 2018. This isnt good enough for Murray. The biggest problem weve had is trying so many different places, he said.
Four psychiatrists have given up on him. Other states have enforced rehab, but try and find me a detox centre in Perth that can hold onto a person. It just doesnt happen. Murray believes a six-step plan needs to be introduced by the government to address the scourge of meth addiction. The plan would include intervention and enforced abstinence, as well as medical treatment, counselling, relapse monitoring and brain scans to determine damage done. He fears the worst for Jaxon if the current system for treating addicts doesnt change. Jaxon has presented numerous times at the local hospital, only to be released within hours.
He wont stay at a residential treatment facility, and his family - who have already spent upwards of $40,000 trying to help him - are at their wits end. Hell end up dying, Murray said. He cant take care of himself. He doesnt know how to. I feel like I failed. I shouldve stopped my boy from getting drugs. I let him go. As much as I hate him being in prison, at this point we only see it as the best thing for him. We havent given up on him, but we need urgent help.
As part of WAtoday's Big Perth series, we explore the South and Peel framework in detail below. Creeping south Urban sprawl is as quintessentially Western Australian as an ice-cold Emu Export in the middle of a sweltering December heatwave or being unable to merge on the freeway. About 1.4 million people are expected to make Perth home over the next 30 years. Credit:Fairfax Media This framework continues that time-honoured tradition of flattening the landscape and putting up swathes of 4x2s by extending the sprawl beyond Perths own established boundaries.
The Shire of Waroona, outside the Greater Perth area, has been earmarked for a 350 per cent increase in population, from its current 4200 to 18,200. Most of that would occur in or near the township of Waroona itself. Just north of Waroona, within the Greater Perth boundary, the Shire of Murray is projected to receive a 950 per cent increase in population. This means the 17,300 people currently living there will have almost 150,000 new neighbours by 2050. Most of these new Murray residents will be centred around an expanded Pinjarra. Other outer suburban council areas like Serpentine Jarrahdale and Mandurah will also experience huge growth in residents and housing.
By 2031 the framework projects that Mundijong in Serpentine Jarrahdale, currently inhabited by cows and horses feeding off the endless green pastures, will become a huge regional centre. Loading According to the frameworks maps it will feature an urban area roughly the same size as its neighbouring suburb Byford to the north, which has already undergone a huge transformation from farmland to urban jungle. In general, lovers of rural blocks should hold onto them tight. Areas zoned 'rural residential', those with lot sizes from one to four hectares, have been labelled inefficient forms of development and new blocks would not be supported. 'They put a big circle around Perth'
High-level frameworks are fine but what does it mean for the councils at the coalface who will have to come up with the finer details? Shire of Waroona president Mike Walmsley was sceptical of the population projections. They just put a big circle around Perth, which happened to include us, he said. I cant see it happening in the next 30 years but God knows what the future holds. Any attempt to create a metropolitan hub in Waroona would probably be met with resistance, he said.
Mr Walmsley said Waroona was a rural town and residents didn't want to destroy that character. Most people live out here because they like the quiet, he said. We need to protect our beautiful agricultural land because Perth is going to need it to feed itself, he said. The Shire of Murray was less surprised.
Shire president David Bolt said regardless of whether their population would actually hit 160,000 his council was planning for higher density. Weve got an activity centre plan thats before the government for Pinjarra at the moment and were waiting for that to be advertised. Whether you agree with the numbers or not were planning for large growth over the next 30 years; we need to do that. Murray Shire president David Bolt Why the south is booming Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage director general Gail McGowan said development would occur south because Perths north was extremely constrained.
She also defended including Waroona, which represented the edge of the Peel region, in the framework. People talk about need to draw finite lines, and other states and countries have imposed urban growth boundaries, but the Darling Scarp, the oceans and the Peel Harvey catchment which is under considerable challenge are natural limits, she said. The growth of areas such as Pinjarra will be due to their access to industry, both rural and industrial. This will create stronger linkages from east to west." An artist's impression of the future Peel Business Park. Credit:Landcorp Where will people work?
Cr Bolt said if Pinjarra was to support all these new people it would need to provide somewhere for them to work close to home. Its a similar story across the rest of the region. The framework says 5900 hectares of industrial land would be needed to improve employment self-sufficiency of the region from 65 per cent to 83 per cent. Expansion of industrial areas on the Kwinana Western Trade Coast, the new outer harbour and proposed intermodal rail and road freight facilities within the Latitude 32 industrial area would create a gargantuan hub of industry running from Bibra Lake in Cockburn to Rockingham. Further south the establishment of a Peel Business Park in Nambeelup near Mandurah and Pinjarra would provide 30,000 jobs. Beyond industrial areas the framework allowed for greater employment opportunities in city centres like Armadale, Mandurah and Rockingham.
It also highlighted the potential for employment from tourism in waterside locations like Mandurah and Rockingham and hills areas, national parks and state forests in the east. The City of Kwinana looking southwest from Wandi, with the Kwinana Freeway running south through the middle of the frame and the Kwinana industrial area in the distance. Under the framework the industrial area will extend from Rockingham in the south to the city of Cockburn in the north. Credit:Hamish Hastie Hitting the road and rail Some big road and rail projects worth potentially billions of dollars have been proposed to move the influx of people around. Nearer term projects like the Thornlie-to-Cockburn link, Armadale-to-Byford extension and Karnup train station were mentioned but there are more abstract proposals on the cards as well.
The framework includes the southern portion of the long dreamed about circle line. This would entail extending the Forrestfield-airport line to Thornlie and connecting the Thornlie line to Fremantle. The circle line would also connect north to the future Ellenbrook line and the Joondalup line. Loading It also suggests the Australind train service be better integrated with the Transperth network between Perth and Mundijong. An additional southern metro rail line and high-speed extension to Bunbury has also been raised.
Karnup has been selected as the site for a new train station on the Mandurah line. When it comes to asphalt, east to west road upgrades were high priorities to deal with the increased industrial activity. Extensions, realignments and upgrades were proposed for east-west roads like Rowley, Anketell, Thomas, Mundijong and Mandjoogoordap. Tonkin Highway will become Perths second major north-to-south arterial road with a 45-kilometre extension from Thomas Road in Byford to Pinjarra. More highlights
Some trekking companies, which act as brokers and take a percentage of rescue fees from helicopter companies, make more money through evacuations than they do charging for hikes, officials said, pulling in thousands of dollars in kickbacks when a typical profit margin for each trekker might be just a few hundred dollars. Nepal's government announced a new monitoring program late last week to crack down on the fraud. Rabindra Adhikari, Nepal's minister for tourism, said in an interview that new procedures had been set up for medical evacuations, and that helicopter companies, trekking operators and hospitals must now submit invoices for rescues to his office to ensure that they are "genuine". An increase in unnecessary rescues Nepali officials said they were also investigating claims that guides in some cases had purposely made clients sick to force an evacuation, reportedly through serving spoiled food or mixing large amounts of baking soda into meals. A view of the Himalayas in Nepal from a rescue helicopter in flight. Credit:Lauren DeCicca/The New York Times
Insurance companies have had enough, too. They have raised premiums, posted red-banded advisories on their websites warning trekkers of the scam, or sometimes threatened to end coverage entirely in the country. Phil Sylvester, a spokesman for World Nomads, a popular insurance provider with clients around the globe, said the number of unnecessary rescues was rising. In one recent example, Sylvester said, a man was evacuated by air for an earache. "I personally have seen 200 to 250 suspect evacuation cases in a year from a handful of insurers," he said. "With each evacuation costing $6000 to $10,000, that adds up." I personally have seen 200 to 250 suspect evacuation cases in a year. With each evacuation costing $6000 to $10,000, that adds up. World Nomads spokesman Phil Sylvester
The problem has become extensive enough that World Nomads recently put together an internal blacklist of Nepali helicopter companies and hospitals that it suspects of fraud. Sylvester said claims involving a blacklisted company were not automatically rejected. Trekkers, he said, "have no control over who gets called on the phone". Nepal is a poor country, sandwiched between India and China, where every year thousands of visitors embark on multi-day hikes to glimpse some of the world's highest peaks. Aware of the risks associated with travelling to high altitudes, many trekkers buy insurance for several hundred dollars, opting for plans that include helicopter rescues. To ensure proper acclimatisation, they spend days hiking to places like Everest Base Camp, where the air is thin and trekkers often experience mild altitude sickness. Trekkers at the airport in Lukla, Nepal before beginning their trek to the Everest base camp in May. Credit:Lauren DeCicca/The New York Times A few dozen trekking companies are thought to be central to the fraud.
In a common scenario, mountain guides exploit inexperienced trekkers by pressuring them to be helicoptered back to Kathmandu at the first minor signs of illness. They are dissuaded from exploring other options, like taking medicine that eases altitude sickness, going to clinics along the trek route, or simply descending a few thousand feet, which solves many cases. Other versions of deceit are more disturbing In 2016, Faina Gersh's mountain flight back to Kathmandu was delayed by bad weather. Gersh, a trekker from California, was worried that she would miss her connecting flight to the U.S. The owner of her trekking company came up with an alternative. "They suggested that we say I was sick, like with food poisoning or an illness, so then my insurance would cover a helicopter," said Gersh, 42, who had finished a trek to Base Camp. "I was like, 'No, I'm not going to commit insurance fraud.'" They suggested that we say I was sick ... so then my insurance would cover a helicopter ... I'm not going to commit insurance fraud. Faina Gersh
In the case of Chang and Tjondro, the Australians whose guide had pushed an air evacuation in 2016 even though they were willing to walk down the mountain themselves, the insurance company they bought a policy from, World Nomads, said there were some clear irregularities. Sylvester, the spokesman from World Nomads, said that their guide, without contacting the insurance company, had coordinated with the trekking company, Advanced Adventures, to send a helicopter from Flight Connection International, a company blacklisted by World Nomads, to pick up the trekkers in Lobuche, a small village about 16,000 feet above sea level and a day's walk from Base Camp. After arriving in Kathmandu, around 150 kilometres away, Chang and Tjondro were transported to Swacon International Hospital, a clinic for foreigners that is also on World Nomads' blacklist, where Chang's passport was taken, possibly "to prevent me from leaving too early," he said. Trekking outfits in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. Credit:Lauren DeCicca/The New York Times In interviews, all three of those companies denied wrongdoing. When he was discharged after three days, Chang said, he was given no receipt. The hospital told him "they would sort everything out," he said.
Later, they found that a doctor's report attached to Chang's insurance claim, which The New York Times reviewed, included inaccuracies, the pair said, including that Chang's symptoms had not improved even after descending, making a medical evacuation necessary. Tjondro reiterated that they had not even tried to descend by foot because their guide discouraged it. 'Killing the goose that lays the golden eggs' In the Nepali government investigation that led to the new rules for trekking companies, the report accused both Flight Connection International and Swacon of producing fraudulent invoices and overcharging insurance companies. Insurance companies are closely monitoring whether the government acts on those findings. But Rishi Ram Bhandari, the managing director of Satori Adventures and Expeditions, worries about the fraud's lasting effect on tourism here, and about whether it will be stopped.
London: Two Russian intelligence officers have been named and charged over the Novichok poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Prime Minister Theresa May told the Commons that the two men named by police are officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU.
"The GRU is a highly disciplined organisation with a well-established chain of command," she said.
"So this was not a rogue operation. It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state."
Washington: Facebook and Twitter executives pledged on Wednesday to better protect their social media platforms in the 2018 elections and beyond, and told Congress of aggressive efforts to root out foreign intrusions aimed at sowing divisions in American democracy.
Facebook's No. 2 executive, Sheryl Sandberg, and Twitter's CEO, Jack Dorsey, testified before the Senate intelligence committee, but there was an empty chair for Google's parent Alphabet, which refused to send its top executive.
Senators had sharp words for Alphabet CEO Larry Page, who oversees Google. Senator Marco Rubio, suggested the company might have bailed because it was "arrogant" while Senator Susan Collins expressed outrage over the absence.
Sandberg's appearance came several months after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in highly publicised Capitol Hill hearings. Like Zuckerberg, she acknowledged Facebook's lag in recognising Russian efforts to manipulate Facebook during and after the 2016 US presidential election. Sandberg detailed Facebook's efforts to fight the problem with new technologies and manpower.
ABC/Randy HolmesMetallica paid tribute to a hometown hero at their show in Minneapolis Tuesday night by playing a cover of a Prince classic.
During the concert, guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo performed a rendition of the Purple Rain hit "When Doves Cry." Trujillo handled lead vocals with a growl as Hammett jammed alongside him. You can watch official footage of the cover now on YouTube.
The "When Doves Cry" performance was a part of Hammett and Trujillo's regular "doodle" segment, during which the pair play a rough cover of a song related to the city in which they're playing. For example, during a stop in Stockholm on Metallica's European tour earlier this year, Hammett and Trujillo covered "Dancing Queen" by Swedish pop icons ABBA.
Metallica is currently touring the U.S. behind the band's latest album, Hardwired...to Self-Destruct. The outing continues this Thursday, September 6 in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
BRIDGEPORT - An undocumented immigrant accused of fatally stabbing his girlfriend, seriously wounded her best friend and fleeing the state with the couples 6-year-old daughter rejected a 50-year plea bargain Wednesday.
Oscar Ziggy Hernandez told Superior Court Judge Robert Devlin he would rather go to trial.
Then we will begin jury selection, the judge said.
Hernandez is charged with murder, attempted murder, first-degree assault and risk of injury to a minor.
During a brief hearing, Senior Assistant States Attorney Joseph Corradino told Devlin he had offered to recommend Hernandez get the 50-year term if he pleaded guilty to the charges.
Devlin said that based on the charges he would not consider giving Hernandez less than that.
I understand that offer is not acceptable to you? the judge asked Hernandez.
No, Hernandez replied.
Hernandez had been living with his girlfriend, 26-year-old Nidia Yubi Gonzalez, and their young daughter in a small, two-bedroom basement apartment on Greenwood Street when in the early morning of Feb. 24, 2017, police said, Hernandez fatally stabbed Gonzalez in a jealous rage and wounded her friend.
Hernandez then fled with his daughter, setting off a three-state pursuit before finally crashing in central Pennsylvania, police said.
Hernandez was previously convicted of choking an estranged wife in their apartment in 2008 on Stamfords East Side.
He was convicted three years later and deported in 2013. But authorities said he illegally returned to the U.S.
If convicted of the charges against him, Hernandez could be sentenced to more than 100 years in prison.
Mortgage banker: Dave Stambone
Home type: Single-family, owner-occupied purchase in Ridgefield
Home value: $464,000
Loan amount: $450,000
Loan terms: Conventional, 30-year-fixed, 4.625 percent, no points.
Backstory: A first-time home buyer was in the process of shopping around for a mortgage when she was advised to call Stambone by her Realtor to obtain a pre-approval.
The purpose of becoming pre-approved is to determine an individuals maximum buying power in order to purchase a home. This is a necessary component that must be done prior to viewing homes with a real estate agent.
Additionally, a pre-approval letter from a mortgage professional is required by the real estate agent listing a home when accepting offers on behalf of a seller. The letter limits the risk of a deal falling through and increases a buyers credibility. A thorough review of income, assets and credit must be considered when deciding what someone may qualify for.
Stambone arranged a time to meet to discuss her situation in detail. The buyer and her family were bursting at the seams and ready to leave their small apartment in the city for country living.
Although the buyer was interested in learning about first-time home buyer programs, she was concerned she and her husband may not qualify based on their high level salaries. The other lenders she spoke to said they would not qualify for a first-time buyer program since their joint income exceeded 100 percent of the area median income. They had no intentions of leaving their positions in the city and planned on commuting each day from Ridgefield.
However, Stambone and his bank offered a special program for first-time buyers with no income limit.
A first-time home buyer is defined as an individual who meets all of the following requirements: (1) Is purchasing the mortgaged premises (2) Will reside in the mortgaged premises as a primary residence (3) Had no ownership interest (sole or joint) in a residential property during the three-year period preceding the date of the purchase of the mortgaged premises.
In order to qualify, at least one borrower must be a first-time home buyer. The program is limited to only a 30-year fixed rate loan. The property must be one unit (condo, single-family or planned unit development) and a primary residence. Financing is available up to 97 percent of the purchase price and $453,100 loan amount.
Mortgage insurance is required with down payments less than 20 percent and is automatically removed when the home has reached a 78 percent loan-to-value ratio. Refinancing is not required to remove mortgage insurance.
At last, the couple closed on their home in 30 days with 3 percent down and obtained a low fixed rate mortgage. The family is now enjoying their new life in suburban Connecticut and appreciative of Stambone and his teams assistance.
Dave Stambone,
Total Mortgage Services,
203-240-9611,
dave@davestambone.com
If you are looking for a truly prominent horse property of elegance and grandeur with a world-class barn of 12 stalls, look no further than the two properties that make up June Hill Farm. They are so special and unique that they are too good to be in just one community: The properties are a mile from each other: The main propertys address is in Greenwich while the smaller home is in Stamford.
The two properties encompass 23.4 magnificent acres and is a true treasure, according to co-listing agent June Rosenthal of William Pitt Sothebys International Realty.
Its a piece of Ireland. Its the kind of property they have in that wonderful country. Its that special, Rosenthal said.
The horse barn, she said, is located between the two homes.
You can see everything from the horse farm, Rosenthal said. Its a natural space. There are hills; its not all straight flat land. Its a rare equestrian family estate and is a truly picturesque fantasy.
The main property, located at 23 Carrington Drive in Greenwich, is 8,800 square feet and has a finished lower level, main level and second level. It also has a wraparound porch around the whole house on the main level, but Rosenthal said, you can walk out to it from every room.
The lower level features a media and recreation rooms. It also has a bath and walkout.
Details Addresses: 23 Carrington Drive, Greenwich; 242 June Road, Stamford Price: $9.950 million Rooms: 19 Features: Two homes comprise this property which includes a horse barn, a solarium and a professional observatory. Schools: (In Stamford): Roxbury Elementary, Cloonan Middle, and Westhill High School. See More Collapse
The main level, Rosenthal said, has a huge entryway where everything is so big. Walk to the left and there is a large living room, fireplace and lots of windows.
Its a colonial with a contemporary flair, Rosenthal said.
Also, on the main level is a dining room also with large windows. Then, there is the stand-out kitchen, which has stainless-steel appliances and an eating area to sit six comfortably. There is an open area to the family room from the kitchen, Rosenthal noted. The family room, she said, has a fireplace and windows throughout. There are five fireplaces in total on the property. This level also includes an office den that can be used to work or relax, Rosenthal said. There is also a powder room.
The second floor has four bedrooms including the master suite. The spacious master has a fireplace, windows and a balcony. The master bath Rosenthal said, is as luxurious as you would want in a young (12-years-old) home.
The 242 June Road home in Stamford is 2,800 square feet. The 1950s home features a main level and second level. It comes complete with a solarium on the main level and three bedrooms including the master on the second level.
The property also has a professional observatory that is great for people into astronomy, Rosenthal said. In addition, she said, the land also has a hill with more than 30 trees of multiple varieties including apple, peach, plum and pear. There are also blackberry and raspberry bushes.
Listing agents: June Rosenthal, William Pitt Sothebys International Realty, (203) 536-7470, jrosenthal@wpsir.com and Linda Sentementes, William Pitt Sothebys International Realty, (203) 940-0275, lsentementes@wpsir.com.
By the time you read this, Tuesdays election will be history. We will know whether or not Texans came out...
Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay was busy in Winnipeg on Tuesday announcing more than $12 million in funding for canola and hemp producers.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 4/9/2018 (1156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay was busy in Winnipeg on Tuesday announcing more than $12 million in funding for canola and hemp producers.
The $9.2-billion canola industry received the lions share of the announced funding to advance the growth and profitability of the sector. The funds will go towards research into innovative and sustainable approaches to adapting new food-processing techniques, exploring uses for canola meal in livestock production, examining practices to optimize yields and protecting crops from pests.
While the industrial hemp industry is tiny in comparison to canola, it may stand to see more dramatic growth.
With about 140,000 acres in production by comparison, there were 22.7 million acres of canola planted in Canada in 2018 industrial hemp production generated about $160 million in revenue last year.
But with new legislation that will allow hemp producers to harvest the whole plant, including the flowering and leafy materials that had previously been discarded, it will open up a whole new revenue stream for producers.
Ted Haney, the newly appointed executive director of the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance (CHTA), said the industry goal is to increase acreage planted to 450,000 to 500,000 acres by 2025, which would mean an increase in value of the crop to about $1 billion.
Under the federal governments Growing Forward 2, AgriRisk Initiatives program, the CHTA will receive $330,550 to develop industry grading standards to ensure Canadian hemp products are known globally as being of the highest quality.
MacAulay said, "Being a farmer, I can understand the value of being able to use the whole crop and there are so many benefits to the hemp plant."
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.
Among other things, he said it will also be important for the industry to be able to continue to educate the public about the benefits of the crops, including the nutritional values, promote their usage and also educate about the increasingly popular hemp food products as well as hemps distinction from marijuana. The primary difference is that the industrial hemp plant contains only trace amounts of THC, the active component of recreational marijuana.
MacAulay made the announcement in Winnipeg at Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods, the largest hemp food processor in North America. The companys popular Manitoba Harvest Hemp Hearts recently had a promotion where it was available in every Costco store in North America, selling out three months worth of supply in three weeks.
Hemp has only been grown legally in Canada since 1998. Manitoba has become the centre of productions with about 50 per cent of the countrys crop produced here.
The flower and leafy elements of the hemp plant contain varying amounts and various types of cannabidiol, a substance that lacks the psychoactive effect of THC but has much medicinal promise for treating everything from pain and sleep disorders to epilepsy, Crohns disease and Parkinsons disease.
Last month, Health Canada made a revision to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to allow whole plant harvest of industrial hemp for the 2018 crop, which was previously not permitted. After the new Cannabis Act comes into force on Oct. 17, industrial hemp farmers can market those parts of the hemp plant.
martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
The Johnston Group, one of the largest group benefit plan administrators in the country, has long prided itself in being good at what it does.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 4/9/2018 (1156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Johnston Group, one of the largest group benefit plan administrators in the country, has long prided itself in being good at what it does.
Among other things, that means processing more than 3,000 health and dental claims in a typical day and making sure all sorts of wellness benefits are available to its customers across the country.
Now, the company can also boast nice new digs for its roughly 250 Winnipeg employees.
On Tuesday night, the family-owned business opened its new 70,000-square-foot headquarters at 1051 King Edward St. more than twice the size of its previous Winnipeg head office to about 600 friends and family.
While business owner David Johnston may shy away from the media spotlight, the company is perennially included on best-managed-companies lists and has long been in the top tier of corporate support of community endeavours alongside companies ten times its size.
"We have three legs of the stool that are important for us," Johnston said. "One is our customers, obviously. Another is culture, which is really important to us, and the other is our community."
As one of the largest (maybe the largest) third-party benefit administrators in the country, Johnston Group now has close to $600 million in annual premiums that it administers. Johnston Group is not an insurance company and does not take on any risk, but it does many of the same things that the insurance company will do when it comes to administering the group benefit plans plan, design and administer the benefits, provide all the billings and customer service, offer insured and self-funded program options and provide access to pay-direct prescription drug cards.
As Johnston put it, "We have to be better than the insurance companies or there is no reason for us to be here. Our job is to provide better service."
It also has to do it in a cost-competitive way while still building in enough margin to keep growing.
Its sweet spot is to provide the group insurance benefits to small and medium-sized enterprises. Its largest customer has 10,000 employees, but the company is very connected to chambers of commerce throughout the country and helps companies employees access all the same kinds of services and supports for their group benefits plans that much larger companies do.
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.
Johnston is also a partner in the Winnipeg payroll company Payworks, and as sister companies, the two recently launched a product called Tandem that can simplify the costs and time to process benefits with the industrys first real-time integration of payroll and employee benefit platforms.
The company must be doing a good job because its adding about 4,000 new groups every year to the close to 34,000 it already has on the books. Last year, Johnston said the company grew by about nine per cent.
In addition to not being worried about getting its name out there other than for its community support work the company is not really that interested in what the competition is doing either.
"We have no intention on selling... ever," he said.
martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
OTTAWA Days after taking over Churchills washed-out railway, one of the main shareholders says he cant guarantee passenger service will resume before the November freeze-up.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 5/9/2018 (1155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
OTTAWA Days after taking over Churchills washed-out railway, one of the main shareholders says he cant guarantee passenger service will resume before the November freeze-up.
Meanwhile, the federal Liberals say theyll soon reveal whether Ottawa paid Denver-based Omnitrax for the railway and port.
On a Tuesday visit to Churchill, AGT Foods chief executive officer Murad Al-Katib told locals shovels should hit the ground this week, but he warned engineers had only done helicopter visits to portions of the damaged line.
"Were really hopeful that by next year, everythings going to be running; it may be sooner," he said. "Im being very honest; it really depends on Mother Natures kindness this fall."
Meanwhile, federal International Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr said hed soon reveal whether Ottawa paid Omnitrax for the assets.
"Well explain the deal in detail to Manitobans," Carr told the Free Press.
"All of that will come out very soon," he said in a Tuesday phone interview during a trade mission to Israel.
Ottawa announced Aug. 31 it had brokered a deal to transfer all of Omnitraxs northern Manitoba holdings to local hands but did not disclose how much federal money has been put up, whether the Denver-based company got a payment or how much the repairs will cost.
Carr said more detail should come next week. He also confirmed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be visiting Winnipeg on Sept. 11.
The Hudson Bay Railway, Port of Churchill and the towns marine tank farm now all fall under ownership of Arctic Gateway, a new consortium involving northern Manitoba communities, Toronto financier Fairfax and Saskatchewan-based grains giant AGT.
Omnitrax wont say whether its walking away with any payout or debts: "The financial terms of the agreement will not be disclosed," spokeswoman Hilary Sloan wrote.
The Manitoba government confirmed Tuesday it is "not part of the financing arrangements of the Arctic Gateway consortium."
Ottawas partners say the Liberals arranged "a long-term support package" to buy the assets, repair the railway and do "rehabilitation upgrades to the port and the railway assets." A second phase of repairs will allow heavy grain cars, likely next year, and it appears that has not secured federal funding.
Fairfax and AGT said they now have "a 99-year operating agreement" to operate the railway, and half of the shares of Arctic Gateway. The heads of both firms visited Churchill to speak with locals Tuesday.
Arctic Gateway has awarded a contract to Cando Rail and Paradox Access Solutions.
Al-Katib said AGT has already moved some of its Saskatchewan railway parts to The Pas, with the plan of having the firms use those parts this week along washed-out parts of the railway.
Churchill-area MP Niki Ashton said last week she was "relieved" to hear about the deal and proud of the local buying group, but said taxpayers ought to know how their money is being spent, and whether that included a payment to Omnitrax.
Previously, sources familiar with takeover talks said Omnitrax had extracted favourable conditions, such as limited liability in ongoing litigation.
Carr returns to Winnipeg on Friday, and was on government business in Singapore when the deal was signed. "Well make all of the arrangements clearer when I get back to Winnipeg," he said.
He noted the handover involved multiple stakeholders.
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.
"It was the layers of complexity, both in the formation of the partnership, and in finally negotiating the deal that took more time than we wanted it to take," Carr said.
"It was the culmination of a lot of hard work, over a period of time, among many people. But the result was worth the effort."
Fairfax president Paul Rivett told Churchill residents talks seemed uncertain for months, and he believed theyd outright fallen apart the evening before the deal was signed.
"Theres a lot of people who didnt want us to succeed here. Theres a lot of people who were just talking dollars, and I guess not remembering people," he said.
"Its on all of us to stay together in this, because there will be a lot of people who will not want it to work."
dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
City councillors on the finance committee approved adding $4.8 million to the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service budget to avoid a projected shortfall by the end of the year.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 4/9/2018 (1156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
City councillors on the finance committee approved adding $4.8 million to the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service budget to avoid a projected shortfall by the end of the year.
Council had approved $193.5 million for the WFPS for 2018, but service officials said they wouldnt be able to stay within that amount.
John Hall, the WFPS financial controller, told the committee Tuesday firefighting overtime accounts for $1.5 million of the over-expenditure, with another $1.1 million for firefighter benefits.
The overtime costs are not unexpected. The WFPS has repeatedly under-budgeted firefighter overtime costs and this year is no different, citing a staff shortage. The WFPS had budgeted about $900,000 for overtime in 2018, but its projected to be almost $2.4 million. The actual overtime costs in 2017 were $2.124 million.
The WFPS budget was one of a handful of issues reviewed by the committee, including the Waverley Street rail underpass (which remains on schedule), and upgrades to the south-end sewage treatment plan, which is also on schedule and on budget.
Mike Ruta, the citys chief financial officer, said some progress has been made over the summer on the funding dispute with the provincial government.
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.
Ruta said provincial officials have verbally agreed to the funding formula for ambulance services this year, but he added civic officials are still waiting for a formal, written agreement.
There appears to be no resolve, however, to the citys contention the province has shortchanged it on the rapid transit corridor funding. While Mayor Brian Bowman had previously said hes prepared to take this to court, Ruta told the committee talks are ongoing.
Councillors were told revenues from the impact fee -- a new charge on residential development in certain suburban areas -- have totalled $15 million to the end of June: $4 million from part of 2017, and $11 million so far this year.
The impact fee revenue is supposed to offset infrastructure costs related to new development. However, the funds remain placed in a reserve, pending the outcome of a court challenge by the home-building industry, which claims the city doesnt have the authority to impose the fee.
Finance chairman Scott Gillingham said while the City of Winnipeg faces financial pressures, he supports holding the funds aside until the court challenge is resolved.
aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca
Local developer Andrew Marquess got no love at city hall Tuesday from the property and development committee, which gave the thumbs-down to his proposal for a mixed-use redevelopment of the Parker lands.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 4/9/2018 (1156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Local developer Andrew Marquess got no love at city hall Tuesday from the property and development committee, which gave the thumbs-down to his proposal for a mixed-use redevelopment of the Parker lands.
The matter was voted on by Couns. Matt Allard (St. Boniface), Shawn Dobson (St. Charles) and Jenny Gerbasi (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry).
On the advice from city planners who said the plans needed a "substantial number of required changes" the councillors unanimously shot down Marquess's proposal.
Nonetheless, also on the advice of city planners, the councillors left the door open for Marquess to amend his proposal moving forward without having to start the process over from scratch.
"I think it's important to note that you're giving the applicant a chance to come back without having to apply again. That's significant. It's a sign of an olive branch to work with them," Gerbasi said, addressing the city planners present.
"But having said that, you're stating that this is not ready for prime time and there are concerns that need to be taken seriously."
In anticipation of the outcome, Marquess released an early morning statement through his company Gem Equities Inc., saying he was going to skip the meeting entirely.
He also denounced the city administration's handling of the file, making clear he puts more faith in the courts than in city officials.
Marquess is currently petitioning the courts to force the city into holding a public consultation for the proposed development, which would include apartments, townhouses and homes. The matter will go back before a judge Sept. 10.
Last week, a city administration report was published that recommended councillors reject the development plan before a public consultation takes place. That recommendation was followed Tuesday.
BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Developer Andrew Marquess.
Marquess characterized the report as "filled with exaggerations and inaccuracies (that) cast aspersions on the well-respected, multi-disciplinary team of professionals from across Canada working on this project."
The report contends his proposal for the 133-acre plot differs significantly from what he'd previously disclosed at public meetings, as well as lacking necessary detail. It also alleges the plan includes no guarantees the remaining forest on the site will be preserved contrary to past promises.
The land was the subject of a lengthy blockade in the summer of 2017, which aimed at blocking the clear-cutting of trees on the property. The protesters cited, among other concerns, the fact the land was home to a historic Metis settlement called Rooster Town.
Marquess was forced to go to court to get an eviction order against the protesters. He has since commenced legal action against some of them, including Jenna Vandal, the daughter of St. Boniface-St. Vital MP Dan Vandal, who spearheaded the efforts.
That was just the latest chapter in the lengthy drama over the land, which dates back to 2009 when Marquess obtained the 59-acre plot in a controversial land swap with the city. His company also acquired an additional 14 acres of nearby land from CN Rail.
The city later expropriated 24.5 acres of the land. The expropriation of a portion of it 16.5 acres to build a storm-retention pond was questioned after a 2015 inquiry concluded civic officials misled Marquess and had been secretive and dishonest in their dealings with him.
Marquess also went to city hall in April and alleged city officials had reneged on a promise to allow the project to proceed, later producing emails from city staff supporting his position. More recently, he began his current legal action against the city.
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.
His lawyer, Dave Hill, has previously said the city's refusal to approve the project could be linked to a dispute over the value of land the city expropriated to build the retention pond.
Hill said if Marquess isnt allowed to develop the property to its highest value then it would lower the value of the plot. That, in turn, would lower the cost the city has to pay for the land it expropriated.
Marquess has valued the expropriated land at $1.7 million an acre, for total of almost $35 million, while the city has offered Marquess $116,500 per acre, about $2.4 million.
With files from Aldo Santin
ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @rk_thorpe
Less than a week after a Manitoba RCMP officer was shot during a break-and-enter call, all four suspects have appeared in court. For most of them, it was far from their first time inside a courtroom.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 4/9/2018 (1156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Less than a week after a Manitoba RCMP officer was shot during a break-and-enter call, all four suspects have appeared in court. For most of them, it was far from their first time inside a courtroom.
The accused shooter, 18-year-old Therae Racette-Beaulieu of Sandy Bay First Nation, has no adult record. Manitoba courts do not make youth conviction records publicly accessible. Racette-Beaulieu has been accused of pulling the trigger in the shooting that injured RCMP Cpl. Graeme Kingdon last Wednesday, and he faces two counts of attempted murder as well as five other criminal charges.
The three other suspects all have criminal records. At the time of the shooting, 21-year-old Tommy Edward Beaulieu was already facing other gun-related charges for alleged violence, including assault with a weapon and causing bodily harm with intent using a firearm on July 15.
RCMP Emergency Response Team took down the suspect involved in the shooting of an RCMP officer in Onanole. (Erin DeBooy / The Brandon Sun)
He and 30-year-old Shane Donovan Beaulieu both have lengthy criminal records, including convictions for drug possession for the purpose of trafficking.
Since 2015, Tommy Beaulieu has been in and out of jail for weapons possession, thefts of motor vehicles and vehicle parts, possession of stolen property, trespassing at night, fleeing from police, resisting arrest and one count of drug possession for the purpose of trafficking.
Shane Beaulieu has convictions dating back to 2006, when he was found guilty of being unlawfully in a dwelling house. He was subsequently convicted of breaking and entering, disguising himself with intent, possession of stolen property, uttering threats and several breach charges for failing to follow court conditions. He was convicted of sexual assault in 2011 and was required to register as a sex offender, something he failed to do in 2016, according to court records. In 2015, he was convicted of two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking and was sentenced to just over 20 months in provincial jail.
Both are from Portage la Prairie and face a combined total of 10 new charges. A fourth suspect, 23-year-old Delaney Marcus Houle, also from Portage, was previously convicted and fined $100 for violating a court condition that prohibited him from consuming drugs and alcohol. He faces four charges in the alleged break-in and shooting that injured Kingdon.
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.
FACEBOOK RCMP officer Graeme Kingdon
The RCMP didn't provide an update on Kingdon's condition Tuesday. A news release issued late Friday said he remains in hospital and is doing well.
The 42-year-old officer was shot in the upper body as he got out of his cruiser car while responding to a break-and-enter report near Onanole last Wednesday night. The suspects fled and were arrested the next day. Two were arrested together early Thursday morning, while another was arrested by himself afterward. A fourth suspect was arrested in Neepawa hours later after a standoff near an elementary school.
Manitoba RCMP did not respond to a request for more information Tuesday and have not released any other information about the shooting or how the suspects know each other.
katie.may@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @thatkatiemay
The province's alcohol and gambling regulator has a new name Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Authority of Manitoba and a new mission: informing Manitobans about the legal basics of marijuana legalization.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 4/9/2018 (1156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The province's alcohol and gambling regulator has a new name Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Authority of Manitoba and a new mission: informing Manitobans about the legal basics of marijuana legalization.
To that end, the LGCA has kicked off a new public awareness campaign, "The Can and Can't of Cannabis," featuring straightforward messages about how Manitobans can stay within the law after federal cannabis legalization on Oct. 17.
"You can't smoke or vape cannabis in public in Manitoba," advises one of the campaign's five core messages in an eye-catching typeface. (LGCA)
"You can't smoke or vape cannabis in public in Manitoba," advises one of the campaign's five core messages in an eye-catching typeface.
Other blunt messages inform Manitobans they can only buy or use cannabis if they're older than 19, legal marijuana can only be bought from LGCA-licensed retailers, home cannabis cultivation is prohibited in Manitoba, and there's a 30-gram limit on public possession of cannabis.
"I find it difficult to go anywhere without people asking how things are going with respect to the regulation of retail (cannabis) sales," LGCA chief administrative officer Elizabeth Stephenson said at a Tuesday news conference at the regulator's Winnipeg offices.
"And, certainly, our research showed that there's also some uncertainty about the new laws, and that is, particularly, what people can and can't do when it comes to cannabis, once retail cannabis is legal in Manitoba and across the country."
The English and French messages will appear on billboards, street posters and transit vehicles, along with wall murals on university and college campuses, and washrooms on campus and in other "high-traffic locations," according to a LGCA spokeswoman. Social media advertising spots on Instagram and Facebook will also help spread the word.
LGCA spent about $200,000 buying advertising spots for the campaign, according to a spokeswoman for Justice Minister Cliff Cullen, with an additional $200,000 allocated to buy spots for a second phase of the campaign to launch in mid-October. Both campaigns cost $50,000 to design, said the spokeswoman.
The second phase of the campaign will be meant "to help Manitobans who may choose to use retail cannabis, or are thinking about it, to help them to set limits and reduce risks of harm," said Stephenson, who added the regulator wants to be "neutral in our messaging."
The English and French messages will appear on billboards, street posters and transit vehicles, along with wall murals on university and college campuses, and washrooms on campus and in other high-traffic locations. (LGCA)
"We're neither for nor against the products that we regulate," she said.
The LGCA public awareness campaign is the direct result of the regulator's research into Manitobans' cannabis knowledge, including a 2017 survey.
"These were really the five key things that people really needed some clarification on, particularly the age 19, particularly the no smoking and vaping in public," she said.
Cullen framed LGCA's new campaign as being part and parcel of the provincial government's health-and-safety-first approach to cannabis legalization.
"We want to make sure that Manitobans are aware of the rules and the laws around cannabis use," he told reporters Tuesday. "Our goal is to ensure that adults in this province are equipped with the tools to make responsible decisions within the letter of the law."
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.
Manitoba Justice Minister Cliff Cullen speaks about the province's cannabis public education campaign. (Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press)
Cullen also reiterated his government's belief federal cannabis legalization was rushed.
"We're doing everything we can as a province to make sure we're ready for that October date, and part of it is education... There's a lot of misconceptions out there around operating equipment and driving while under the influence of cannabis."
Public safety messaging regarding cannabis and driving remains the domain of Manitoba Public Insurance, said Stephenson.
"We feel that their messaging on this has been very strong, it's been very well-received, it's been very direct and to-the-point... We didn't want to compromise MPI's messaging in any way, that's their messaging and we're happy to leave that in their court."
LGCA will update its public messaging in 2019 to educate the public about edible cannabis products. The federal government is expected to regulate commercial production and sales of edibles next year, and until then, the products will not be legally available for commercial sale.
solomon.israel@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @sol_israel
The locomotive's diesel fumes waft over a child's backyard trampoline. The deep rumble of the engine that's been left idling since Monday night is interrupted by loud snaps and hisses from valves releasing pressure Tuesday afternoon.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 4/9/2018 (1156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The locomotive's diesel fumes waft over a child's backyard trampoline. The deep rumble of the engine that's been left idling since Monday night is interrupted by loud snaps and hisses from valves releasing pressure Tuesday afternoon.
The train replaces the locomotive that arrived Friday night, and was parked and left running until Labour Day. It had neighbours scratching their heads and plugging their ears and noses.
CAROL SANDERS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Al Donahue lives on Southall Drive and says CP trains are left idling for days in his neighbourhood.
"It's unbelievable," West Kildonan resident Al Donahue said Tuesday.
"The federal government is trying to push a carbon tax and this thing is just sitting there idling and noisy," he said of the line that runs next to his home on Southall Drive.
Before he bought the house 25 years ago, Donahue did his homework. He learned a CP Rail train passed by twice a day: at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
"You could set your watch on it," he said. That's changed in the last three years: now, at all hours, trains come and stay for days at a time, and are left running.
"They were so good before," said Donahue, who's been keeping a journal of when trains come and go and how long they're left idling right beside the homes on his street and the other side of the tracks.
He and his neighbours have complained to the City of Winnipeg, the province, the railway and federal government about the fumes and the noise. KildonanSt. Paul MP MaryAnn Mihychuk's office looked into it last year.
In June 2017, the Liberal MP sent a letter to Donahue and his neighbours announcing a "successful resolution" to the problem. It didn't turn out to be permanent resolution, however.
"We worked with CP, and we had the issue resolved," Mihychuk said by phone Tuesday.
Her office was in touch last year with a superintendent of operations at the railway who was "terrific" and dealt with the residents concerns about the long-idling trains "yarded" close by. "He got transferred and there was a new superintendent and we're trying to address the same issue for the second time," said Mihychuk.
"There were complaints coming in the spring, then things settled down," she said. Mihychuk said she was away last week and was just made aware the idling trains were back, getting on her constituents' nerves over the Labour Day weekend.
"We'll get back on the phones with CP," she 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.
CP Rail did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
On Wednesday, it issued a statement saying, "The tracks in Winnipeg are a vital part of CPs infrastructure, and like any part of the rail network, operations can take place 24/7, including idling, shunting, switching and trains moving through the corridor."
The Canadian Transportation Agency's rail infrastructure advisory committee made up of industry, government and public representatives posted a document online saying diesel locomotives are left idling for several reasons, including to let oncoming trains pass, for mechanical inspections or repairs, for inclement weather to pass and crew changes.
Donahue, who's been keeping an eye on the idling trains, said there's no logical reason a locomotive has to be left running right beside their backyards for hours and days -- especially when there is a huge empty field behind Southall Drive next to the tracks.
"They could back the train up 500 yards, and it would bother no one."
carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
How do we prepare for and manage whats known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution?
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 5/9/2018 (1155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Opinion
How do we prepare for and manage whats known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution?
A technological metamorphosis is upon us, and we need to do more than look behind and use digital technologies to fix historical problems. We must start thinking more innovatively about how we re-engineer communities, moving from smart (where we use individual tools and technologies to fix problems) to intelligent (where we plan on using disruption to our advantage).
The recent debate over the Google/Sidewalk Labs proposals for the city of Toronto is an example of how quickly digitalization is moving forward and how unprepared we are to answer some important questions.
Here are some critical issues:
Open data
With more data from the Internet of Things (IoT), how will we make use of the information? Data is an asset that must be managed as a valued resource, not only by companies for use and resale, but for its public good and its opportunity to spur new social and economic innovations.
A recent Smart Cities World article outlined some good examples on improvements we could make. The combination of several sources of data can make a significant difference in bringing about new solutions to a host of problems, from forecasting floods to minimizing medical wait times and preventing crime.
Open data needs management principles and procedures ownership decisions and intellectual property (IP) rights, safe uses and protection, and compatible systems based on common standards to combine several data sets from different organizations in order to make inferences about that information.
This will force engagement and partnerships among the public sector, private sector, non-profits and citizens to make principled decisions.
Communities are at the centre of this planning, and have resources they can use to help the European Commission, for example, has published a toolkit for data managers and data holders. And a Canadian public interest law clinic (CIPPIC) provides an FAQ on smart cities that contains valuable legal information.
Ownership and protection of personal information, as well as privacy issues, are key points of contention. But lets remember that not all data are sensitive and require deep contemplation about usage. There are models for dealing with contentious issues, such as those proposed in a playbook provided by Harvard to cities wanting to share data.
Artificial intelligence and robotics
AI and robots will continue to replace humans. Were already experiencing downsizing in some disciplines and demand for new types of skills, or more of the skills needed for the digital revolution. The ability to use AI to help us make decisions, to serve customers and perform repetitive tasks will continue to dramatically alter the workplace.
Post-secondary programs will need to change some currently popular programs may have fewer job offerings, while other fields, or an amalgamation of disciplines, will need to be created or emphasized. Learning more than one discipline and honing up on soft skills (such as in communications, innovation and problem solving) will be key for many graduates.
The shifts in employment could hit some communities harder than others. Therefore its more important than ever to think ahead and determine how the new digital economy might have an impact on the future of each community, and understand that the lifespan of some companies is now shorter.
Autonomous vehicles are evolving, perhaps slowly in some jurisdictions, but more actively in others. Legislation in the United States on self-driving vehicles is an example of how governments are grappling with the issues raised by driverless cars.
It causes some rethinking on insurance, new forms of ownership and entrepreneurship and a reassessment of planning for parking and land use. Vehicle manufacturers have been including more technologies in cars, inching our way to autonomous systems.
According to Deloitte, consumers may not be willing to pay for more technology in cars, but new ownership systems and ride-hailing services offer cost savings), cut down accidents by as much as 90 per cent and provide efficiencies that may accelerate consumer adoption.
More than 33 industries will be affected by the advent of driverless cars, according to CB Insights. Communities need to envision how they plan for the resulting opportunities and disruptions.
Envisioning the smart city
Regarding smart cities, we need more active community engagement in debating the pros and cons, in thinking about the impediments to change and how to implement what we believe will benefit citizens. These kinds of disruptions cannot be managed by governments alone; they require a wide variety of stakeholders at the table planning for change.
There are several interesting ideas floating around on future cities. We have an opportunity to think about doing things differently, and correctly, rather than repeating the same patterns.
In Barcelona, for example, community activists are working on a fabrication city concept. They describe it as:
"A step away from importing most things into the city and exporting our waste, and instead introducing a circular model, where all resources flow in a closed-loop system within the city itself."
3D printing shops will be able to fabricate refrigerators and and cars with designs uploaded from the cloud. The question that must be answered: what changes would we need to make locally to allow this to happen?
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.
Other examples are cities that focus on food production to improve their own food security; cities that are reducing CO2 and improving quality of life by becoming more walkable or more attractive for telecommuters.
This is only the start. There are many other ways that digitalization will impact sectors that affect where and how we live. Health care, for example, will undergo tremendous change as we self-manage, choose implantable technologies and cell and tissue regenerative technologies, and live longer lives.
We must think about the impact of these changes before we start building infrastructure that may no longer be needed in a few years.
Technology is already changing how we live our lives and go about our days. Are we ready with collaborative planning processes so we are not taken by surprise?
Sylvie Albert is a professor and past dean in the faculty of business & economics at the University of Winnipeg.
This article was first published at The Conversation Canada: theconversation.com/ca.
Repeated efforts to improve public school education across Canada curricular enhancements, increased accountability, intensified literacy and numeracy initiatives are failing to improve student achievement.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 5/9/2018 (1155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Opinion
Repeated efforts to improve public school education across Canada curricular enhancements, increased accountability, intensified literacy and numeracy initiatives are failing to improve student achievement.
In the province of Saskatchewan, student achievement results have flatlined and only 43.2 per cent of Indigenous students are graduating on time.
Saskatchewans results are not atypical. In her analysis of Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results, Man-Wai Chu, assistant professor of education at the University of Calgary, said Canadian students have shown no improvements in science, mathematics or reading over the past decade.
So what can we do differently? We can engage parents in ways that enable students to do better, like school more and stay in school longer.
Five decades of research evidence attest to the benefit of parent engagement. The educational and moral imperative is clear: to shift the existing student achievement trajectory, educators must intentionally and systematically use parents untapped knowledge to enhance student learning.
As educator and family-engagement expert, Dr. Steven Constantino said in his book Engage every Family, "If we as educators could successfully teach all children by ourselves, then it seems to me we would have already done so."
Walking alongside children
During more than 20 years of research into parent engagement, I have come to understand it as a philosophy and a pedagogy of "walking alongside."
This is both a belief system about parents and their meaningful and authentic voice in their childrens schooling and education and a way of enacting those beliefs in practice.
When parents are seen to be holders of knowledge, as capable and as possessing gifts and strengths, then this can be leveraged alongside teacher knowledge to enrich programming.
Engaging parents entails assuming a new worldview in schools in which parents are seen to be central to the work of the school, not separate or apart from it.
Elementary math bins
A former graduate student of mine, Kirsten Kobylak, is now a Grade 1 teacher at Willowgrove School in Saskatoon, Sask. As part of my research on the impact of graduate teacher education, she shared with me how she wanted to engage parents in their math theme, "Math is Everywhere."
In an email home to parents, she explained how important language and culture are to childrens learning. She posed the question, "Where does math live in your culture?" and asked parents to share such things as game ideas, artifacts with patterns, number lines in different languages and more.
As items came in, the children created math bins patterning, fact families, number lines, problem-solving.
Parents came in and taught games and shared materials, comparing versions of items from one country to another, simultaneously sharing culture, language, history and family stories.
Through this parent engagement, children learned and strengthened math skills such as skip counting, memory, estimation, addition, greater than, less than.
They also deepened their relationships with one another, their knowledge of diversity and sense of social cohesion.
We are all Treaty people
Jesse Reis, another former graduate student, is now a high school teacher in Warman, Sask. He shared with me the example of a daily email he sent to the parents of students in each of his classes.
In the email he included a concept the students and he had discussed that day, something interesting that arose, and something parents could chat with their son or daughter about that evening at home.
For example, in one email, Jesse shared with parents of students in his Social Studies class a statement they had explored that day: "We are all Treaty people." He noted that while some students saw themselves as "Treaty people," others did not. He invited parents to discuss with their teen what stance they took and why.
The daily email took Jesse less than five minutes to send per class, but gave him potential contact with every parent every day. Parents were able to engage in meaningful conversations with their children about curricular concepts in the normal course of their day and to add their voice and knowledge to their son or daughters teaching and learning.
Parents were always invited to respond to Jesses email as well, sharing with him their conversations with their child and thus bringing home learning back into the classroom. Parents asked questions and offered to participate in the unfolding curriculum in other ways (sharing knowledge, stories, artifacts or suggesting potential resources and experiences).
What we see in these examples is that parent engagement can happen on the school landscape or off of it, and with all ages of students.
Critical to parent engagement is that it draws on parent knowledge, is connected to teaching and learning, honours a parents hopes and dreams for their child, enables a parent to remain in the role of parent, is authentic and meaningful, promotes shared decision-making, is strength-based and ensures everyone benefits from the engagement children, parents, and teacher.
The possibilities of parent engagement in education are endless when these critical attributes are embraced by teachers and lived out in ways that are contextual and culturally responsive honouring students, parents, families and communities.
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.
A gentle revolution
To shift from the current worldview in education, one which reflects schools as a domain exclusive to educators and students, to a new worldview where schools are using parent knowledge in teaching and learning will take a gentle revolution.
Notice the word "love" embedded in revolution? By working together, with mutual respect, care and concern for one another, educators at all levels of the system and parents can work together to revolutionize schooling.
We need to establish "parent engagement offices" in ministries of education, develop core teacher education courses on parent engagement, require parent engagement coursework for teacher certification, establish school district positions for parent engagement consultants, structure parent universities and establish parent mentor programs.
The results of such a gentle revolution creating an integral place and voice for parents in their childrens teaching and learning will positively impact the trajectory of student achievement and other educational outcomes.
Debbie Pushor is a professor in the department of curriculum studies at the University of Saskatchewan.
This article was first published at The Conversation Canada: theconversation.com/ca.
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland need not be in any hurry to conclude a new trade deal with the United States and Mexico, despite the fulminations of U.S. President Donald Trump. His increasingly shrill cries reflect his political isolation as trade negotiations resume today.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 4/9/2018 (1156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland need not be in any hurry to conclude a new trade deal with the United States and Mexico, despite the fulminations of U.S. President Donald Trump. His increasingly shrill cries reflect his political isolation as trade negotiations resume today.
Mr. Trumps tweets during the Labour Day weekend attacked labour federation head Richard Trumka for saying the new trade treaty should include Canada. He also repeated an old threat to terminate the three-way trade treaty if Congress interferes to support Canada. Democrats, farm bodies and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce already opposed his attempts to coerce Canada. Now the labour movement and congressional Republicans are also lining up against him. Hence the angry lashing out.
Jose Luis Magana / The Associated Press Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland
This suggests that the president is increasingly desperate to reach a deal with Canada. He has sent a notice to Congress saying he wants to conclude a bilateral deal with Mexico before the newly-elected Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador takes office on Dec. 1. Since Mr. Lopez Obrador supports what has been agreed to so far, that seems like a fake deadline another one.
Mr. Trump may want to have an early agreement in time for the Nov. 6 U.S. midterm elections, when his Republican party risks losing its majority in the House of Representatives and possibly losing a seat or two in the Senate. If he really is as desperate as he seems, this might be a good moment to strike a deal with him. He is in no position to refuse any reasonable offer.
The way to find out is to continue bargaining, slightly sweeten the current offer and see if he takes it. No harm is done if he still refuses. The present trade treaty and its implementing legislation continue in force until the three governments and the U.S. Congress change them.
Want more great journalism? Get our best news and features delivered in your inbox every weekday evening. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.
Mr. Trumps threats to block auto-parts trade in order to punish Canada are unlikely to be carried out he has done nothing in that direction for fear of massively disrupting a leading U.S. industry.
Much may be gained by delay. Midterm elections usually weaken a sitting president. Special election results and recent polls suggest a large swing to the Democrats. Mr. Trumps clout in his own party will be weakened already if his party fares poorly on Nov. 6. His clout in Congress will suffer still further, in that case, when the new Congress takes office Jan. 3.
We should not visibly stall or dawdle or delay, but we can quite legitimately take all the time complex and ambitious trade negotiations should rightfully take.
In these circumstances, Canada can hope to make a better trade deal after Nov. 6 and a still better one after Jan. 6. We should not visibly stall or dawdle or delay, but we can quite legitimately take all the time complex and ambitious trade negotiations should rightfully take.
Our U.S. and Mexican partners already played a dirty trick on us by holding two months of bilateral talks supposedly about bilateral issues. Those talks somehow broadened to cover, in Canadas absence, issues such as the renewal provisions and dispute settlement, which are of equal concern to all the parties. Canada probably suffered no significant damage, but our partners gave us a grievance to complain about, if it ever becomes useful to do so.
So the Canadian negotiators and government they represent should be alert for an attractive offer reflecting Mr. Trumps eagerness to make a deal, but they should be quite prepared to play out the clock and try again next year.
WiGBits Headline News Would you like to receive our WiGBits? Signup today!
WiG Entertainment News Would you like to receive our WiG Entertainment News? Signup today!
Digital Issue Would you like to receive our Digital Issue? Signup today!
Allergan plc, a pharmaceutical company, develops, manufactures, and commercializes branded pharmaceutical, device, biologic, surgical, and regenerative medicine products worldwide. The company operates in three segments: US Specialized Therapeutics, US General Medicine, and International. It offers a portfolio of products in various therapeutic areas, including medical aesthetics and dermatology, eye care, neuroscience, urology, gastrointestinal, women's health, and anti-infective therapeutic products. The company also offers breast implants and tissue expanders; and RM-131 (relamorelin), a peptide ghrelin agonist for the treatment of diabetic gastroparesis. In addition, it develops medical and cosmetic treatments; therapies for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and other liver diseases; inhibitor for the treatment of psoriasis and other autoimmune disorders; atopic dermatitis drug candidate; peri-ocular rings for extended drug delivery and reducing elevated intraocular pressure in glaucoma patients; and treatments for neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease. Further, the company develops RST-001, a novel gene therapy for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa; small molecule therapeutics for inflammatory and fibrotic diseases; topical medicines for fat reduction; and delivery system and botulinum toxin-based prescription products. It has collaboration, option, and license agreement with Lyndra, Inc.; and strategic alliance and option agreement with Editas Medicine, Inc. Allergan plc also has licensing agreements with Assembly Biosciences, Inc.; MedImmune; and Heptares Therapeutics, Ltd. The company was formerly known as Actavis plc and changed its name to Allergan plc in June 2015. Allergan plc was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.
Read More
The following companies are subsidiares of Textron: AAI Corporation, AAI Services Corporation, ALSTOM Gears, Able Aerospace, Able Aerospace Services Inc., Able Engineering & Component Services, Aeronautical Accessories LLC, Airborne Tactical Advantage Company LLC, Arctic Cat, Arctic Cat ACE Holding GmbH, Arctic Cat France SARL, Arctic Cat GmbH, Arctic Cat Inc., Arctic Cat Production LLC, Arctic Cat Production Support LLC, Arctic Cat Sales Inc., Arctic Cat Shared Services LLC, Arctic Cat UK Ltd., Arkansas Aerospace Inc., Avco Corporation, Aviation Service servis letal doo Ljubljana, Aylesbury Automation, B/K Navigational Equipment sro, Beech Aircraft Corporation, Beech Holdings, Beechcraft Defense Support Holding LLC, Beechcraft Domestic Service Company, Beechcraft Germany GmbH, Beechcraft International Holding LLC, Beechcraft International Service Company, Beechcraft New Zealand, Beechcraft Service Company UK Limited, Bell Helicopter GK, Bell Helicopter KK, Bell Textron Asia (Pte.) Ltd., Bell Textron Canada International Inc., Bell Textron Canada Limited/Limitee, Bell Textron Inc., Bell Textron Korea Inc., Bell Textron Miami Inc, Bell Textron Prague a.s., Bell Textron Rhode Island Inc., Bell Textron Services Inc, Bell Textron Supply Center BV, Bell Textron Technical Services Inc., Benzlers, Brazaco Mapri Industrias, Burkland, Cessna Aircraft Company, Cessna Citation European Service Center SAS, Cessna Dusseldorf Citation Service Center GmbH, Cessna Finance Corporation, Cessna Finance Export Corporation, Cessna Mexico S de RL de CV, Cessna Spanish Citation Service Center SLU, Cessna Zurich Citation Service Center GmbH, Citation Parts Distribution International Inc., Cushman Inc., Datacom Technologies, David Brown Group, Doncaster Citation Service Centre Limited, E-Z-GO Canada Limited, Energy Manufacturing, Flexalloy, HBC LLC, Hawker Beech de Mexico S de RL de CV, Hawker Beechcraft Argentina SA, Howe & Howe Inc., Howe and Howe Technologies, Industrial Technology Inc., InteSys Technologies, International Product Support Inc., KSB Annecy SAS, Kautex (Changchun) Plastics Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Chongqing) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Guangzhou) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Pinghu) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Shanghai) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Wuhan) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex Corporation, Kautex Craiova srl, Kautex Germany Holding GmbH, Kautex Inc., Kautex Japan KK, Kautex Shanghai GmbH, Kautex Textron (UK) Limited, Kautex Textron Benelux BVBA, Kautex Textron Bohemia spol sro, Kautex Textron CVS Limited, Kautex Textron GmbH & Co. KG, Kautex Textron Iberica SL, Kautex Textron Italia Srl, Kautex Textron Management Services Company de Puebla S. de RL de CV, Kautex Textron Portugal Produtos Plasticos Sociedade Unipessoal Lda., Kautex Textron de Mexico S de RL de CV, Kautex Textron do Brasil Ltda., Kautex of Georgia Inc., Kaywood Products Corp., Klauke, LCI Corporation International, LLC Textron RUS, Maag, McCord Corporation, Mechtronix, Medical Numerics Inc., Midland Industrial Plastics, MillenWorks, MillenWorks Themed Technologies, MotorFist LLC, OPINICUS Simulation and Training Services LLC, OmniQuip International, Opinicus, Optical Boring Co., Opto-Electronics, Opto-Electronics Inc., Overwatch Systems Ltd., PEINER Umformtechnik, Pirelli Tyres - General Rubber Goods (GRG) division, Premiair Aviation Maintenance Pty Ltd, Progressive Electronics, Ransomes, Ransomes Inc., Ransomes Investment LLC, Ransomes Jacobsen France SAS, Ransomes Jacobsen Limited, Ransomes Limited, Ransomes Pensions Trustee Company Limited, Replacement Part Solutions LLC, Response Technologies LLC, Rotor Blades Limited, Sukosim Verbindungselemente, TRU Simulation & Training Spain SL, TRU Simulation + Training Inc., TRU Simulation + Training LLC, TekGPS Engineering Srl, Textron Airland LLC, Textron Atlantic LLC, Textron Aviation Australia Pty. Ltd., Textron Aviation Canada Ltd., Textron Aviation Defense LLC, Textron Aviation Finance Corporation, Textron Aviation Inc., Textron Aviation Prague Service Center sro, Textron Aviation Rhode Island Inc., Textron Aviation Services de Mexico S de RL de CV, Textron Capital BV, Textron Communications Inc., Textron Far East Pte. Ltd., Textron Finance Holding Company, Textron Financial Corporation, Textron Financial Corporation Receivables Trust 2002-CP-2, Textron Fluid and Power Inc., Textron France Holding SAS, Textron France SAS, Textron Global Services Inc., Textron Ground Support Equipment Inc., Textron Ground Support Equipment UK Limited, Textron IPMP Inc., Textron India Private Limited, Textron Innovations Inc., Textron International Inc., Textron International Mexico S de RL de CV, Textron Limited, Textron Management Services Inc., Textron Motors GmbH, Textron Motors North America Inc., Textron Outdoor Power Equipment Inc., Textron Realty Corporation, Textron Shared Service Centre (Canada) Inc., Textron Specialized Vehicles Inc., Textron Sweden AB, Textron Systems Australia Holding Pty Ltd, Textron Systems Australia Pty Ltd, Textron Systems Canada Inc., Textron Systems Corporation, Textron Systems Electronic Systems UK (Holdings) Limited, Textron Systems Electronic Systems UK Limited, Textron Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Textron UK Pension Trustee Limited, Textron Verwaltungs-GmbH, Turbine Engine Components Textron (Newington Operations) Inc., United Industrial Corporation, Westminster Insurance Company, Williams Machine & Tool, Wuxi Textron Specialized Vehicles Co. Ltd., and Zhenjiang Bell Textron Aviation Services Limited.
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 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
Wall Street analysts have given El Paso Electric 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 El Paso Electric wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.
View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.
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.
The Southern pays an annual dividend of $2.64 per share and currently has a dividend yield of 4.23%. SO has a dividend yield higher than 75% of all dividend-paying stocks, making it a leading dividend payer. The Southern has been increasing its dividend for 20 consecutive years, indicating the company has a strong committment to maintain and grow its dividend. The dividend payout ratio of The Southern is 81.23%. Payout ratios above 75% are not desirable because they may not be sustainable. Based on earnings estimates, The Southern will have a dividend payout ratio of 74.58% next year. This indicates that The Southern will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.
View The Southern's dividend history.
The following companies are subsidiares of Accenture: 2nd Road, 2nd Road Pty Ltd., ?What If!, ?What If! China Holdings Ltd, ?What If! Holdings Limited, ?What If! Innovation Singapore Holdings Pte, ?What If! Limited, ?What If! Shanghai Co. Ltd, ?What If! USA LLC, ACN Consulting Co Ltd, AD Dialeto Agencia de Publicidade SA, AD.Dialeto (Digital Agency acquired by Accenture), AGS Business and Technology Services Limited, ASM Research Inc., ASM Research LLC, ATAN, Accenture (Beijing) Mobile Technology Co Ltd, Accenture (Botswana) (Proprietary) Limited, Accenture (China) Co Ltd, Accenture (Shenzhen) Technology Co. Ltd., Accenture (South Africa) (Proprietary) Limited, Accenture (South Africa) Pty Limited, Accenture (UK) Ltd, Accenture 2 Business Process Services S.A., Accenture 2 LLC, Accenture A/S, Accenture AB, Accenture AG, Accenture AS, Accenture Africa Pty Ltd, Accenture Australia Holding B.V., Accenture Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, Accenture Australia Pty Ltd, Accenture Azerbaijan Ltd, Accenture BPM Operations Support Services S.A., Accenture BPM S.C.R.L., Accenture BV, Accenture Branch Holdings B.V., Accenture Bulgaria EOOD, Accenture Business Services for Utilities Inc, Accenture Business Services of British Columbia Limited Partnership, Accenture Business and Technology Services LLC, Accenture C.A, Accenture CAS GmbH, Accenture Canada Holdings Inc., Accenture Capital DAC, Accenture Capital Inc, Accenture Central Europe B.V., Accenture Chile Asesorias y Servicios Ltda, Accenture Cloud Services GmbH, Accenture Cloud Software Solutions Ltd, Accenture Cloud Solutions Australia Pty Ltd, Accenture Cloud Solutions LLC, Accenture Cloud Solutions Ltd, Accenture Cloud Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Co Ltd, Accenture Co Ltd., Accenture Communications Infrastructure Solutions Ltd, Accenture Company Ltd, Accenture Consulting Services Ltd Tanzania, Accenture Consultores de Gestao S.A., Accenture Consultoria de Industria e Consumo Ltda, Accenture Consultoria de Recursos Naturais Ltda, Accenture Credit Services LLC, Accenture Customer Services Distribution SAS, Accenture Customer Services Limited, Accenture Danismanlik Limited Sirketi, Accenture Defined Benefit Pension Plan Trustees Ltd, Accenture Defined Contribution Pension Plan Trustees Ltd, Accenture Delivery Poland sp. z o.o., Accenture Dienstleistungen GmbH, Accenture Digital France Holdings SA, Accenture Digital Holdings GmbH, Accenture East Africa Limited, Accenture Ecuador S.A., Accenture Egypt LLC, Accenture Enterprise Development (Shanghai) Co Ltd., Accenture Federal Services LLC, Accenture Finance (Gibraltar) III Ltd, Accenture Finance GmbH, Accenture Finance GmbH in liquidation, Accenture Finance II GmbH, Accenture Finance II GmbH in liquidation, Accenture Finance II Ltd, Accenture Finance Limited, Accenture Finance and Accounting BPO Services S.p.A., Accenture Finance and Accounting Services Srl, Accenture Flex LLC, Accenture GP LLC, Accenture Ghana Limited, Accenture Global Holdings Ltd., Accenture Global Services Ltd, Accenture Global Solutions Ltd, Accenture GmbH, Accenture HR Services Ltd, Accenture HR Services S.p.A., Accenture Healthcare Processing Inc., Accenture Holding GmbH, Accenture Holding GmbH & Co. KG, Accenture Holding GmbH in liquidation, Accenture Holdings (Iberia) S.L., Accenture Holdings B.V., Accenture Holdings France SAS, Accenture Holdings plc, Accenture Hungary Holdings Kft, Accenture Inc, Accenture Industrial Software Limited Liability Company (Accenture Endustriyel Yazylym Cozumleri Limited irketi), Accenture Industrial Software Limited Liability Company (Accenture Endustriyel Yazlm Cozumleri Limited Sirketi), Accenture Industrial Software Solutions Kft, Accenture Industrial Software Solutions SA, Accenture Insurance Services LLC, Accenture Insurance Services SAS, Accenture Insurance Services SpA, Accenture International BV, Accenture International Capital SCA, Accenture International LLC, Accenture International Limited, Accenture International Sarl, Accenture Japan Ltd, Accenture Korea BV, Accenture LLC, Accenture LLP, Accenture Lanka (Private) Ltd, Accenture Limited, Accenture Ltd, Accenture Ltda, Accenture Maghreb S.a.r.l., Accenture Managed Services SRL, Accenture Managed Services SpA, Accenture Management GmbH, Accenture Middle East B.V, Accenture Middle East BV, Accenture Minority I BV, Accenture Minority III Ltd, Accenture Mozambique Limitada, Accenture Mzansi (Pty) Ltd, Accenture NV/SA, Accenture NZ Limited, Accenture Newco LLC, Accenture Nova Scotia Unlimited Liability Co., Accenture OOO, Accenture Operations Sp. z o.o., Accenture Outsourcing SRL, Accenture Outsourcing Services, Accenture Outsourcing Services S.A., Accenture Oy, Accenture Panama Inc, Accenture Participations BV, Accenture Participations II Limited, Accenture Peru S.R.L, Accenture Peru S.R.L., Accenture Post Trade Processing SAS, Accenture Post-Trade Processing Limited, Accenture Process Ltd, Accenture Product Lifecycle Services, Accenture Properties, Accenture Pte Ltd, Accenture Puerto Rico LLC, Accenture S.A., Accenture S.C., Accenture S.L., Accenture S.R.L., Accenture SAS, Accenture SG Services Pte Ltd, Accenture SRL, Accenture Saudi Arabia Limited, Accenture Sendirian Berhad, Accenture Service Center SRL, Accenture Services (Mauritius) Ltd, Accenture Services AB, Accenture Services AG, Accenture Services AS, Accenture Services GmbH, Accenture Services Ltd, Accenture Services Morocco SA, Accenture Services Oy, Accenture Services Pty Ltd, Accenture Services S.r.l., Accenture Services SRL, Accenture Services Sp. z o.o., Accenture Services Sp. z.o.o., Accenture Services and Technology Srl, Accenture Services fur Kreditinstitute GmbH, Accenture Services s.r.o., Accenture Servicos Administrativos Ltda, Accenture Servicos de Suporte de Negocios Ltda, Accenture Solutions Co Ltd, Accenture Solutions Private Limited, Accenture Solutions Pte Ltd, Accenture Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Solutions Sdn Bhd, Accenture Sp. z o.o., Accenture Sp. z.o.o., Accenture SpA, Accenture State Healthcare Services LLC, Accenture Sub II Inc., Accenture Sub Inc, Accenture Sub LLC, Accenture Systems Integration Limited, Accenture Sarl, Accenture Tanacsado Kolatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Accenture Tanacsado Kolatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag KFT, Accenture Technologia, Accenture Technologia Consultoria e Outsourcing S.A., Accenture Technology Infrastructure Services Pty Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions (Dalian) Co Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions (HK) Co. Ltd., Accenture Technology Solutions (Thailand) Co. Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions - Solucoes Informaticas Integradas, Accenture Technology Solutions - Solucoes Informaticas Integradas S.A., Accenture Technology Solutions GmbH, Accenture Technology Solutions Oy, Accenture Technology Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions S.A. de C.V., Accenture Technology Solutions SAS, Accenture Technology Solutions SRL, Accenture Technology Solutions Sdn. Bhd., Accenture Technology Solutions Slovakia s.r.o., Accenture Technology Ventures BV, Accenture Technology Ventures S.P.R.L., Accenture Uruguay SRL, Accenture Vietnam Co., Accenture Vietnam Co. LTD, Accenture Zambia Limited, Accenture do Brasil Limitada, Accenture plc, Accenture s.r.o., Acceria, Acquity Customer Insight Limited, Acquity Group, Adaptly LLC, Adaptly UK Limited, AddVal Technology, Adqptly, Advantium Inc., Agave Consultants Limited, Agilex Technologies Inc., Allen International, Allen International Consulting Group Ltd, Alnova Technologies Corporation S.L., AlphaBeta Advisors, Altima, Altima Asia Ltd., Altima SAS, Altitude, Altitude LLC, Analytics 8 LP, Analytics 8 Pty Ltd, Analytics8, Aorui Advertising (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Apis, Appaloosa Technology SAS, Arca, Ariba - BPO, Arismore, Aspiro Solutions (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Avanade, Avanade (Guangzhou) Computer Technology Development Co. Ltd., Avanade (Thailand) Co Ltd, Avanade Asia Pte Ltd, Avanade Australia Pty Ltd, Avanade Belgium SPRL, Avanade Canada Inc., Avanade Denmark A/S, Avanade Denmark ApS, Avanade Deutschland GmbH, Avanade Europe Holdings Ltd, Avanade Europe Services Ltd, Avanade Federal Services LLC, Avanade Finland Oy, Avanade France SAS, Avanade GZ Computer Technology Development Co. Ltd. (SH), Avanade Guangzhou, Avanade Holdings LLC, Avanade Hong Kong Ltd, Avanade International Corporation, Avanade Ireland Limited, Avanade Italy SRL, Avanade KK, Avanade Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avanade Netherlands BV, Avanade Norway AS, Avanade Poland Sp. z o.o., Avanade Poland Sp. z.o.o., Avanade Schweiz GmbH, Avanade South Africa, Avanade South Africa Pty Ltd, Avanade Spain SL, Avanade Sweden AB, Avanade UK Ltd, Avanade do Brasil Limitada, Avanade Osterreich GmbH, AvantBiz Consulting Limited, Avenai, Axia Ltd., BABCN LLC, BCT Solutions, BCT Solutions Pty Ltd, BPO Servicos Administrativos Ltda, BRIDGE Energy Group, Beacon Consulting Group Inc., Beijing Genesis Interactive Technology Co. Ltd., Benext, Bionic, Blue Horseshoe, Boomerang Pharmaceutical Communications, Boomerang Pharmaceuticals Communications Ireland Limited, Bow & Arrow, Brand Learning, Brand Learning Group Limited, Brand Learning LLC, Brand Learning Ltd, Brand Learning Partners Limited, Brand Learning Pte Limited, Bridge Energy Group LLC, Brightstep AB, Byte Prophecy, CAS, CRMWaypoint, CadenceQuest Inc., Capable Marketer Limited, Capgemini - North American health practice, Capital Consultancy Services Inc., Certus Solutions Consulting Services Ltd, Certus Solutions Ltd, ChangeTrack Research Pty Ltd., Chaotic Moon Studios, Chengdu Mensa Advertising Co. Ltd., Cimation, Cimation UK Limited, Cirruseo, Cirruseo SAS, Clarity Insights, Clearhead, Clearhead Group, Clearhead Group LLC, ClientHouse GmbH, Cloud Sherpas, Cloud Sherpas (GA) LLC, Cloud Sherpas (SN) (PTE.) Limited, Cloud Sherpas New Zealand Ltd., Cloud Talent Limited, Cloudsherpas, Cloudsherpas Inc., Cloudworks, Codagenic Pty. Ltd., Computer Research and Telecommunications LLC, Concrete Desenvolvimento de Sistemas Ltda., Concrete Solutions, Concrete Solutions Ltda., Context Information Security, Coritel S.A., Corliant Inc., CreativeDrive, CustomerWorks Europe SL, Cutting Edge Solutions Ltd, D5 Global Holdings LLC, DAZ Systems Inc, DAZ Systems LLC, DAZSI Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd., DMA Solutions Limited, Davies Consulting, DayNine Consulting, DayNine Consulting (Australia) PTY LTD, DayNine Consulting (Deutschland) GmbH, DayNine Consulting (New Zealand) Limited, DayNine Consulting France SAS, DayNine Consulting Japan K.K., DayNine Consulting LLC, Declarative Holdings, Declarative Holdings LLC, Defense Point Security, Deja vu Security, Design Strategy and Research de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Designaffairs LLC, Digiplug S.A.S., Digiplug SAS, Digital Consulting & Software Services LLC, Droga5, Droga5 LLC, Droga5 Studios LLC, Droga5 UK Ltd., Duck Creek Technologies, Duck Creek Technologies LLC, Deja Vu Security LLC, ESR Labs, Elcurator SAS, Enaxis Consulting, Enaxis Consulting L.P., End-to-End Analytics, Energuia Web, Energuia Web S.A., Energy Management Brokers Ltd., Energy Quote Private Ltd., EnergyQuote JHA, EnergyQuote JHA Ltd., EnergyQuote Trading Ltd., Enimbos, Enkitec, Enterprise System Partners, Enterprise System Partners B.V. , Enterprise System Partners Bilisim Danismanlik Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Enterprise System Partners Global Corporation, Enterprise System Partners Limited, Enterprise System Partners PR LLC, Enterprise System Partners S.A.S., Entropia, Epylon, Ethica Consulting Group, Evopro Group, Exactside Limited, Exton Consulting, Fairway Technologies Inc, Fairway Technologies LLC, Filmproduction ApS, First Annapolis Consulting, First Annapolis Consulting Inc., First Annapolis Consulting LLC, First Annapolis International, Fjord, Focus Group Europe, Focus Group Europe Limited, Formicary, Formicary Holdings Limited, Formicary Limited, FusionX, FutureMove Automotive, Gapso Servicos de Informatica Ltda., Genfour, Genfour Limited, George Group Consulting L.P., Gestalt LLC, Gestion Altima Canada Inc., Gevity, Global Public Firm S.L., GlobalView SAS, GoodFilm GmbH Filmproduktion Stuttgart, H.B. Maynard and Co. Inc., HRC Retail Advisory, Hagberg Consulting Group, Hangzhou Aiyunzhe Technology Co. Ltd., Happen, Hjaltelin Stahl, Hjaltelin Stahl K/S, Hytracc Consulting AS, Hytracc Consulting Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Hytracc Consulting UK Limited, Hytracc Holding AS, I-Faber S.p.A., IBB Consulting, IMJ Corp, IMJ Corporation, INCAD, INSITUM, IT One Company Limited, ITBS Servicios Bancarios de Tecnologia de la Informacion SL, Icon Integration, Imagine Broadband (USA) Ltd, Imagine Broadband USA LLC, Imaginea Inc, Industrie&Co, Infoman AG, Infoman Schweiz AG, Informatica de Euskadi S.L., Infusion Development Inc., Infusion Development UK Limited, InfusionDev LLC, Innoveer Solutions India Pvt Ltd, Insitum Consultoria Argentina SRL, Insitum Consultoria Brasil LTDA, Insitum Consultoria Colombia SAS, Insitum Consultoria Europa SL, Insitum Consultoria Peru SAC, Insitum Consultoria S.A. de C.V., Intrepid, Intrigo Systems Inc, Intrigo Systems India Pvt. Limited, Intrigo Systems LLC, Inventor Advertisement (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Inventor Technology Limited, InvestTech, Investtech Systems Consulting LLC, Javelin Group, Javelin Group (Bulgaria) EOOD, Javelin Group Limited (UK), Javelin Group SASU, K Comms Group Limited, KCS.net AG, KCS.net AG West, KCS.net Deutschland GmbH, KCS.net Holding AG, KCS.net Osterreich GmbH, Kaper Communications Limited, Karma Communications Debtco Limited, Karma Communications Group Limited, Karma Communications Holdings Limited, Karmarama, Karmarama Comms Limited, Karmarama Limited, Knowledge Rules Inc., Knowledgent, Knowledgent Group LLC, Kogentix, Kogentix LLC, Kogentix Ltd, Kogentix Singapore Pte. Ltd, Kogentix Technologies Private Limited, Kolle Rebbe, Kolle Rebbe GmbH, Kream Comms Limited, Kunstmaan, Kunstmaan NV, Kurt Salmon, Kurt Salmon Canada LTD, Kurt Salmon UKI, Kurt Salmon UKI Ltd., Kurt Salmon US LLC, LEXTA, LINKBYNET, LabAnswer, LabAnswer Government, LemonXL Limited, Logistics Market Place Limited (UK), Loud & Clear Creative Pty Ltd, MAXIM Systems Inc., MCG US Holdings LLC, Mackevision CG Technology and Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Mackevision Corporation, Mackevision Japan Co. Ltd., Mackevision Korea Ltd, Mackevision Medien Design, Mackevision Medien Design GmbH, Mackevision Singapore Pte. Ltd., Mackevision UK Ltd, Maglan, Maglan Information Defense Technologies Research Ltd., Maihiro, Matter, Matter Llc, Maud Corp Pty Limited, Maxamine International, Media Audits Ltd., Media Hive, Mediasenz Pty Ltd., Meredith Specialty LLC, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing Corporation, Meridian Informed Purchasing Ltd., Mindtribe, Mindtribe Product Engineering LLC, MobGen, MobGen Technology S.L, Moonrise NV, Mortgage Cadence, Mortgage Cadence an Accenture Company, Most Champion Ltd, Mudano, N3 LLC, NBS Marketing Inc., NYTEC, Nanjing Demeng Advertising Co. Ltd., Nashco Consulting, NaviSys Inc., NellArmonia, Neo Metrics Analytics S.L., Neo Metrics Chile, Neo Metrics Chile S.A., New Content, New Content Chile SpA, New Content Editora e Produtora Ltda., New Energy Aborda, New Energy Associates Ltd, New Energy Group, New Energy S.r.l., NewsPage, NewsPage (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, NewsPage China Ltd., NewsPage Pte Ltd, Nice Agency Limited, Northstream, Northstream AB, Northstream Holding AB, OCTO Technology, OPS Rules Management Consultants, Octagon Research Solutions Inc., Octo Technology LTDA, Octo Technology Pty Ltd, Octo Technology SA, Octo Technology SPRL, Octoman SAS, Odgaard ApS, Olikka, Openmind, Openminded, Operaciones Accenture S.A. de C.V., OpusLine, Orbium, Orbium Consulting Ltd, Orbium GmbH, Orbium Holding AG, Orbium Inc., Orbium International AG, Orbium International sp. z o.o., Orbium Licences AG, Orbium Limited, Orbium Pte. Ltd., Orbium Pty Ltd, Orbium Services sp. z o.o., Orbium Sarl, Origin Digital, PCO Innovation, PCO Innovation Canada Inc., PCO Innovation EURL, PIXO PUNCH Limited, PLM Systems S.r.l, POC Holdings, PRION GmbH, PT Accenture, PT Asta Catur Indra, PT Kogentix Teknologi Indonesia, Pach Invest SARL, Pach Invest SAS, PacificLink Group, PacificLink iMedia Ltd., Paja Finanssipalvelut Oy, Parker Fitzgerald Inc, Parker Fitzgerald Inc., Parker Fitzgerald International Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Limited, Parker Fitzgerald PTY Ltd, Parker Fitzgerald Services Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Solutions Limited, Partners Technology Mexico Holdings BV, Pecaso Ltd., Pegasus Production K/S, Perseroan Terbatas. Accenture, Phase One Consulting Group, Pillar Technology, Pollux, Pragsis Bidoop, Pragsis Bidoop UK Ltd, Pragsis Technologies S.L, PrimeQ, PrimeQ Australia Pty Ltd, PrimeQ Ltd, PrimeQ NZ Pty Ltd, Procurian Germany GmbH, Procurian Inc., Procurian International I LLC, Procurian International II LLC, Procurian LLC, Procurian Singapore Pte. Ltd., Procurian Switzerland GmbH, Procurian USA LLC, Proquire LLC, PureApps Ltd., Qi Jie Beijing Information Technologies Co Ltd, Radiant Services, Radiant Services LLC, Random Walk Computing Inc., Reactive Media Limited, Reactive Media Pty Ltd., Real Protect, Realworld OO Systems Ltd., Redcore, Redcore (Asia) Pte Ltd, Redcore (India) Private Limited (India), Redcore (New Zealand) Limited, Redcore Group Holdings Pty Ltd, Redcore Pty Ltd, Renacentis IT Services, Revolutionary Security, RiskControl, Rothco, Rothco Holdings Designated Activity Company, Rothco Unlimited Company, S.C. EnergyQuote S.r.l., S3 TV Technology Limited, S3 TV Technology Ltd., SEC Servizi, SEC Servizi S.p.A., SOPIA Corp., Sagacious Consultants, Sagacious Consultants LLC, Salt Solutions, Sanchez Capital Services Pvt Ltd, Schlumberger Business Consulting, Seabury Airline Planning Group, Seabury Aviation & Aerospace (UK) Limited, Seabury Aviation & Aerospace Asia (Hong Kong) Limited, Seabury Aviation Consulting LLC, Seabury Cargo Advisory B.V., Seabury Consulting, Seabury Corporate Advisors LLC, Seabury Human Capital LLC, Seabury Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Seabury Structured Finance LLC, Search Technologies BPO, Search Technologies BPO Inc., Search Technologies GmbH, Search Technologies International LLC, Search Technologies LATAM, Search Technologies LATAM S.A., Search Technologies LLC, Search Technologies Limited, Sente Partners LLC, Sentelis, Servicios Tecnicos de Programacion Accenture S.C., Shackleton, Shackleton Barcelona S.L., Shackleton Chile S.A., Shackleton Madrid S.L., Shackleton S.A., Shanghai Baiyue Advertising Co. Ltd., Shun Zhe Technology Development Co. Ltd., Silveo, Simian Pty Limited, SinnerSchrader AG, SinnerSchrader Commerce GmbH, SinnerSchrader Content GmbH, SinnerSchrader Deutschland GmbH, SinnerSchrader Praha s.r.o., SinnerSchrader Swipe GmbH, Sinnerschrader, Sistemes Consulting S.L., Solutions IQ, Solutions IQ LLC, SolutionsIQ, SolutionsIQ India Consulting Services Private Limited, Storm Digital, Storm Digital B.V., Structure Consulting Group, Structure Consulting Group LLC, Sutter Mills, Systor AG, TQuila Limited (UK), Tadata Creative Unlimited Company, Tara Insurance DAC, Tara Risk DAC, TargetST8, TargetST8 Consulting LLC, Tech - Avanade Portugal Unipessoal Lda, Tecnilogica Ecosistemas S.A., Tecnilogica Ltd., Tecnilogica, The Brand Learning Partners Limited, The Callisto Integration Corporation, The Monkeys, The Monkeys Pty Limited, The Myrtle Group, Total Logistics, Total Logistics Supply Chain Consultants Limited, Tquila, Trivadis AG, Troop Studios Pty Ltd, VanBerlo, Verax Solutions, Verax Solutions Corporation, Vertical Retail Consulting (Shanghai) Ltd., Vertical Retail Consulting Hong Kong, Vertical Retail Consulting Hong Kong Ltd., Vertical Retail Consulting Ltd., Vivere Brasil Servicos e Solucoes SA, Vivere Brasil Solucoes De Credito Ltda., Wabion GmbH, Weblinc Pty Ltd, Wire Stone, Wire Stone LLC, Wire Stone Sarl, Wolox, Workforce Insight Inc, Yesler, Zag, Zenta, Zenta Global Philippines, Zenta Global Philippines Inc., Zenta Mortgage Services LLC, Zenta Recoveries Inc, Zenta US Holdings Inc., Zielpuls, Zielpuls (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zielpuls GmbH, avVenta, designaffairs, designaffairs Business Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., designaffairs GmbH, designaffairs group China Co. Ltd., dgroup, i4C Analytics, iDefense, and solid-serVision.com GmbH.
Wall Street analysts have given Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility 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 S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.
View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.
Everyone eligible should be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of long-distance travel or employment.
Vaccination should be voluntary but those who don't get vaccinated should be frequently tested for COVID-19 as a condition of long-distance travel and employment.
Both vaccination and testing should be voluntary and not required as a condition of long-distance travel or employment.
I defer to the judgment of lawmakers as long as they base their decisions on a consensus of medical professionals.
Vote
View Results
The Bank of New York Mellon pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and currently has a dividend yield of 2.27%. 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 30.22% 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 CVS Health: @Credentials Inc., ACS ACQCO CORP., ADMINCO Inc., AE Fourteen Incorporated, AHP Holdings Inc., AMC - Tennessee LLC, APS Acquisition LLC, ASCO HealthCare LLC, ASI Wings LLC, AUSHC Holdings Inc., Accendo Insurance Company, Accordant Health Services L.L.C., Active Health Management Inc., Administrative Enterprises Inc., AdvancePCS SpecialtyRx LLC, AdvanceRx.com L.L.C., Advanced Care Scripts Inc., Aetna, Aetna (Beijing) Enterprise Management Services Co. Ltd., Aetna (Shanghai) Enterprise Services Co. Ltd., Aetna ACO Holdings Inc., Aetna Asset Advisors LLC, Aetna Behavioral Health LLC, Aetna Better Health Inc., Aetna Better Health Inc., Aetna Better Health of California Inc., Aetna Better Health of Florida Inc., Aetna Better Health of Kansas Inc., Aetna Better Health of Michigan Inc., Aetna Better Health of Missouri LLC, Aetna Better Health of Nevada Inc., Aetna Better Health of North Carolina Inc., Aetna Better Health of Oklahoma Inc., Aetna Better Health of Texas Inc., Aetna Better Health of Washington Inc., Aetna Capital Management LLC, Aetna Card Solutions LLC, Aetna Corporate Services LLC, Aetna Dental Inc., Aetna Dental of California Inc., Aetna Financial Holdings LLC, Aetna Florida Inc., Aetna Global Benefits (Asia Pacific) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Bahamas) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Bermuda) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Europe) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Middle East) LLC, Aetna Global Benefits (Singapore) PTE. LTD., Aetna Global Benefits (UK) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits Limited (DIFC UAE), Aetna Global Holdings Limited, Aetna Health Holdings LLC, Aetna Health Inc., Aetna Health Insurance (Thailand) Public Company Limited, Aetna Health Insurance Company, Aetna Health Insurance Company of Europe DAC, Aetna Health Management LLC, Aetna Health and Life Insurance Company, Aetna Health of California Inc., Aetna Health of Iowa Inc., Aetna Health of Michigan Inc., Aetna Health of Ohio Inc., Aetna Health of Utah Inc., Aetna HealthAssurance Pennsylvania Inc., Aetna Holdco (UK) Limited, Aetna Holdings (Thailand) Limited, Aetna Inc., Aetna Insurance (Hong Kong) Limite, Aetna Insurance (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Aetna Insurance Company Limited, Aetna Integrated Informatics Inc., Aetna International Inc., Aetna Ireland Inc., Aetna Korea Ltd., Aetna Life & Casualty (Bermuda) Ltd., Aetna Life Assignment Company, Aetna Life Insurance Company, Aetna Medicaid Administrators LLC, Aetna Multi-Strategy 1099 Fund LLC, Aetna Network Services LLC, Aetna Partners Diversified Fund LLC, Aetna Pharmacy Management Services LLC, Aetna Resources LLC, Aetna Risk Assurance Company of Connecticut Inc., Aetna Rx Home Delivery LLC, Aetna Services (Thailand) Limited, Aetna Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Aetna Student Health Agency Inc., Aetna Ventures LLC, Aetna Workers Comp Access LLC, Alabama CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Alaska CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Allina Health and Aetna Insurance Company, Allina Health and Aetna Insurance Holding Company LLC, American Continental Insurance Company, American Drug Stores Delaware L.L.C., American Health Holding Inc., Arbor Drugs, Arizona CVS Stores L.L.C., Arkansas CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Badger Acquisition LLC, Badger Acquisition of Kentucky LLC, Badger Acquisition of Minnesota LLC, Badger Acquisition of Ohio LLC, Banner Health and Aetna Health Insurance Company, Banner Health and Aetna Health Insurance Holding Company LLC, Banner Health and Aetna Health Plan Inc., Beauty Holdings L.L.C., Best Care LTC Acquisition Company LLC, Busse CVS L.L.C., CCI Foreign S.a R.L. (R.C.S. Luxembourg), CCRx Holdings LLC, CCRx of North Carolina LLC, CHP Acquisition LLC, CP Acquisition LLC, CVS 2948 Henderson L.L.C., CVS 3268 Gilbert L.L.C., CVS 3745 Peoria L.L.C., CVS AL Distribution L.L.C., CVS AOC Corporation, CVS AOC Services L.L.C., CVS Albany L.L.C., CVS Bellmore Avenue L.L.C., CVS Care Concierge LLC, CVS Caremark Advanced Technology Pharmacy L.L.C., CVS Caremark Indemnity Ltd., CVS Caremark Part D Services L.L.C., CVS Caremark TN SUTA LLC, CVS Foreign Inc., CVS Gilbert 3272 L.L.C., CVS Health Solutions LLC, CVS Indiana L.L.C., CVS International L.L.C., CVS Kidney Care Advanced Technologies LLC, CVS Kidney Care Health Services LLC, CVS Kidney Care Home Dialysis LLC, CVS Kidney Care LLC, CVS Manchester NH L.L.C., CVS Media Exchange LLC, CVS Michigan L.L.C., CVS Orlando FL Distribution L.L.C., CVS PA Distribution L.L.C., CVS PR Center Inc., CVS Pharmacy Inc., CVS RS Arizona L.L.C., CVS Rx Services Inc., CVS SC Distribution L.L.C., CVS State Capital L.L.C., CVS TN Distribution L.L.C., CVS Transportation L.L.C., CVS Vero FL Distribution L.L.C., Campos Medical Pharmacy LLC, Canal Place LLC, Care Pharmaceutical Services LP, CareCenter Pharmacy L.L.C., Carefree Insurance Services Inc., Caremark Arizona Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Arizona Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark California Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Florida Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Florida Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Hawaii Mail Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Hawaii Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark IPA L.L.C., Caremark Illinois Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Illinois Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Irving Resource Center LLC, Caremark Kansas Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark L.L.C., Caremark Logistics LLC, Caremark Louisiana Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Maryland Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Massachusetts Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Michigan Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Minnesota Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark New Jersey Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark North Carolina Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Ohio Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Pennsylvania Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark PhC L.L.C., Caremark Puerto Rico L.L.C., Caremark Puerto Rico Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Redlands Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Repack LLC, Caremark Rx L.L.C., Caremark Tennessee Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Texas Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Texas Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Ulysses Holding Corp., Caremark Washington Specialty Pharmacy LLC, CaremarkPCS Alabama Mail Pharmacy LLC, CaremarkPCS Health L.L.C., CaremarkPCS L.L.C., Central Rx Services LLC, Claims Administration Corp., Cofinity Inc., Compscript LLC, Connecticut CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Continental Life Insurance Company of Brentwood Tennessee, Continuing Care Rx LLC, Coram Alternate Site Services Inc., Coram Clinical Trials Inc., Coram Healthcare Corporation of Alabama, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Florida, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Greater D.C., Coram Healthcare Corporation of Greater New York, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Indiana, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Massachusetts, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Mississippi, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Nevada, Coram Healthcare Corporation of North Texas, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Northern California, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Southern California, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Southern Florida, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Utah, Coram LLC, Coram Rx LLC, Coram Specialty Infusion, Coram Specialty Infusion Services L.L.C., Coventry Consumer Advantage Inc., Coventry Health Care National Accounts Inc., Coventry Health Care National Network Inc., Coventry Health Care Workers Compensation Inc., Coventry Health Care of Illinois Inc., Coventry Health Care of Kansas Inc., Coventry Health Care of Missouri Inc., Coventry Health Care of Nebraska Inc., Coventry Health Care of Virginia Inc., Coventry Health Care of West Virginia Inc., Coventry Health Plan of Florida Inc., Coventry Health and Life Insurance Company, Coventry HealthCare Management Corporation, Coventry Prescription Management Services Inc., Coventry Rehabilitation Services Inc., Coventry Transplant Network Inc., D & R Pharmaceutical Services LLC, D.A.W. LLC, Delaware CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Delaware Physicians Care Incorporated, Digital eHealth LLC, District of Columbia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., E.T.B. INC., Echo Merger Sub Inc., Eckerd Corporation of Florida Inc., Employee Assistance Services LLC, Enloe Drugs LLC, Enterprise Patient Safety Organization LLC, EntrustRX, Evergreen Pharmaceutical LLC, Evergreen Pharmaceutical of California Inc., Express Pharmacy Services of PA L.L.C., FOCUS HealthCare Management Inc., First Health Group Corp., First Health Life & Health Insurance Company, First Script Network Services Inc., Florida Health Plan Administrators LLC, Garfield Beach CVS L.L.C., Generation Health L.L.C., Geneva Woods Health Services LLC, Geneva Woods LTC Pharmacy LLC, Geneva Woods Management LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Alaska LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Washington LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Wyoming LLC, Geneva Woods Retail Pharmacy LLC, Georgia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., German Dobson CVS L.L.C., Goodhealth Worldwide (Asia) Limited, Goodhealth Worldwide (Global) Limited, Goodyear CVS L.L.C., Grand St. Paul CVS L.L.C., Grandview Pharmacy LLC, Group Dental Service Inc., Group Dental Service of Maryland Inc., Health Care Management Co. Ltd., Health Data & Management Solutions Inc., Health Re Inc., Health and Human Resource Center Inc., HealthAssuance Pennsylvania Inc., Healthagen LLC, Highland Park CVS L.L.C., Holiday CVS L.L.C., Home Care Pharmacy LLC, Home Pharmacy Services LLC, Hook-SupeRx L.L.C., Horizon Behavioral Services LLC, Idaho CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., IlliniCare Health, Indian Health Organisation Private Limited, Innovation Health Holdings LLC, Innovation Health Insurance Company, Innovation Health Plan Inc., Interlock Pharmacy Systems LLC, Iowa CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., JHC Acquisition LLC, Kansas CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Kentucky CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., LCPS Acquisition LLC, Langsam Health Services LLC, Lo-Med Prescription Services LLC, Lobos Acquisition LLC, Longs Drug Stores, Longs Drug Stores California L.L.C., Louisiana CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., MHHP Acquisition Company LLC, MHNet Life and Health Insurance Company, MHNet Specialty Services LLC, MHNet of Florida Inc., Managed Care Coordinators Inc., Managed Healthcare LLC, Martin Health Services LLC, Maryland CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Med World Acquisition Corp., Medical Arts Health Care LLC, Medical Examinations of New York P.C., Melville Realty Company Inc., MemberHealth LLC, Mental Health Associates Inc., Mental Health Network of New York IPA Inc., Meritain Health Inc., Merwin Long Term Care LLC, MetraComp Inc., Minor Health Enterprise Co Ltd., MinuteClinic, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Alabama L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Arizona LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Florida LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Georgia LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Hawaii L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Illinois LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Kentucky L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Louisiana L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Maine L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Maryland LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Massachusetts LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Nebraska L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of New Hampshire L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of New Mexico L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Ohio LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Oklahoma LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Oregon LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Pennsylvania LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Rhode Island LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of South Carolina L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Texas LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Utah L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Virginia LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Washington LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Wisconsin L.L.C., MinuteClinic L.L.C., MinuteClinic Online Diagnostic Services LLC, MinuteClinic Physician Practice of Texas, MinuteClinic Telehealth Services LLC, Mississippi CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Missouri CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Montana CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., NCS Healthcare LLC, NCS Healthcare of Illinois LLC, NCS Healthcare of Iowa LLC, NCS Healthcare of Kansas LLC, NCS Healthcare of Kentucky Inc. (Oh, NCS Healthcare of Montana LLC, NCS Healthcare of New Mexico LLC, NCS Healthcare of Ohio LLC, NCS Healthcare of South Carolina LLC, NCS Healthcare of Tennessee LLC, NCS Healthcare of Wisconsin LLC, NIV Acquisition LLC, Navarro Discount Pharmacy, Nebraska CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., NeighborCare Holdings Inc., NeighborCare Inc., NeighborCare Pharmacy Services Inc., NeighborCare Services Corporation, NeighborCare of Indiana LLC, NeighborCare of Virginia LLC, New Jersey CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Niagara Re Inc., North Carolina CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., North Shore Pharmacy Services LLC, NovoLogix LLC, OCR Services LLC, Ocean Acquisition Sub L.L.C., Ohio CVS Stores L.L.C., Oklahoma CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Omnicare, Omnicare Holding Company, Omnicare Inc., Omnicare Indiana Partnership Holding Company LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of Pennsylvania East LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of Pennsylvania West LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of the Great Plains Holding LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy and Supply Services LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy of Tennessee LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy of the Midwest LLC, Omnicare Property Management LLC, Omnicare of Nebraska LLC, Omnicare of Nevada LLC, Omnicare of New York LLC, Oregon CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., PE Holdings LLC, PHPSNE Parent Corporation, PP Acquisition Company LLC, PRN Pharmaceutical Services LP, PT Aetna Management Consulting, Pamplona Saude e Beleza LTDA, Part D Holding Company L.L.C., PayFlex Holdings Inc., PayFlex Systems USA Inc., Pennsylvania CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Performax Inc., Pharmacy Associates of Glenn Falls LLC, Pharmacy Consultants LLC, Phoenix Data Solutions LLC, Precision Benefit Services Inc., Prime Net Inc., ProCare Pharmacy Direct L.L.C., ProCare Pharmacy L.L.C., Prodigy Health Group Inc., Professional Risk Management Inc., Pt. Aetna Global Benefits Indonesia, Puerto Rico CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Red Oak Sourcing LLC, Resources for Living LLC, Rhode Island CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Roeschens Healthcare LLC, RxAmerica, Schaller Anderson Medical Administrators Incorporated, Scrip World LLC, Sheffield Avenue CVS L.L.C., Shore Pharmaceutical Providers LLC, Silverscript Insurance Company, Soma Intimates, South Carolina CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., South Wabash CVS L.L.C., Specialized Pharmacy Services LLC, Spinnaker Bidco Limited, Spinnaker Topco Limited, Stadtlander Drug Company, Stadtlander Pharmacy, Sterling Healthcare Services LLC, Superior Care Pharmacy LLC, Sutter Health and Aetna Administrative Services LLC, Sutter Health and Aetna Insurance Company, Sutter Health and Aetna Insurance Holding Company LLC, T2 Medical Inc., TCPI Acquisition LLC, TargetPharmacy, Tennessee CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Texas Health + Aetna Health Insurance Company, Texas Health + Aetna Health Insurance Holding Company LLC, Texas Health + Aetna Health Plan Inc., The Vasquez Group Inc., Thomas Phoenix CVS L.L.C., Three Forks Apothecary LLC, U.S Healthcare Holdings LLC, U.S. Healthcare Properties Inc., UAC Holding Inc., UC Acquisition LLC, UNI-Care Health Services of Maine LLC, Universal American - Medicare Part D Business, Utah CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., VAPS Acquisition Company LLC, Value Health Care Services LLC, Vermont CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Virginia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Virtual Home Healthcare L.L.C., Warm Springs Road CVS L.L.C., Washington CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Washington Lamb CVS L.L.C., Weber Medical Systems LLC, Wellpartner LLC, West Virginia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Westhaven Services Co LLC, Williamson Drug Company LLC, Wisconsin CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Woodward Detroit CVS L.L.C., Work and Family Benefits Inc., ZS Acquisition Company LLC, Zinc Health Services LLC, Zinc Health Ventures LLC, bSwift LLC, and iTriage LLC.
Wall Street analysts have given SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services 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 SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.
View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.
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
William Lyon Homes (NYSE:WLH) posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November, 6th. The construction company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.07. The construction company had revenue of $466.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $487.15 million. William Lyon Homes had a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 6.98% and a net margin of 3.04%. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.68 earnings per share.
View William Lyon Homes' earnings history.
Franklin Covey Co. engages in consulting and training in the areas of strategy execution, customer loyalty, leadership, and individual effectiveness. It operates through the following three segments: Direct Offices, Education Practice, International Licensees and Corporate and Other. The Direct Offices segment includes sales personnel that serve the United States and Canada; international sales offices located in Japan, China, the United Kingdom, and Australia; governmental sales channel; and public program operations. The Education Practice segment includes domestic and international Education practice operations, which are focused on sales to educational institutions such as elementary schools, high schools, and colleges and universities. The International Licensees segment primarily comprised of royalty revenues received from these licensees. The Corporate and Other segment includes leasing operations, shipping and handling revenues, and certain corporate administrative expenses. The company was founded by Brent L. Bishop, Stephen R. Covey and Hyrum Wayne Smith in 1983 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT.
Read More
If the administration of US President George W Bush is paying attention, the drama over the 15 British sailors and marines, whose release by Iran after 12 days of detention was announced in Tehran on Wednesday, was designed to convey two key messages, according to experts in Washington.First, the initial capture of the Britons by Revolutionary Guards near the entry to the disputed Shatt-al-Arab waterway was meant
to demonstrate that, despite its conventional military weakness and diplomatic isolation, Iran retains the ability to strike at Western interests when it feels sufficiently provoked.
Second, when Western powers engage Iran with respect and as an equal, they are more likely to get what they want than when they take a confrontational path designed to bully or humiliate the regime.
Neither message is likely to be well received either at the White House or among the neo-conservative and other right-wing pundits who have tried hard to depict the incident as the latest sign of Islamic or Persian barbarism. Properly understood, however, the messages could form the basis of a new approach capable of yielding still greater results, according to Juan Cole, a regional expert at the University of Michigan.
"The British have now opened a channel," he said. "Although this incident really did constitute a crisis - one that might have escalated to very dangerous levels - the resolution was diplomatic, and that diplomatic resolution could contain the seeds for future diplomacy, if the British and the Americans are so inclined."
The announcement that the sailors were being released in honor of the Prophet Mohammed's forthcoming birthday and the Christian Easter holiday was made by President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, who then met with the captives personally.
"Our government has pardoned them; it is a gift from our people," he said, adding that the gesture had "nothing to do" with Tuesday's release in Iraq of a senior Iranian diplomat who was abducted two months ago reportedly by a special Iraqi intelligence agency that works closely with the US Central Intelligence Agency. "We approached the subject on a humanitarian basis. It was a unilateral decision on our end," he insisted.
Nonetheless, the diplomat's release, as well as reports that Tehran also just received assurances that it will be given consular access to five alleged Revolutionary Guards seized by US forces at an Iranian liaison office in Irbil nearly three months ago, suggest that Wednesday's events were more than just coincidence, although both London and Washington, like Ahmadinejad, insist there were no quids pro quo.
"I personally believe that the US action [in Irbil] ... accounts for why Iran chose to stage its capture of the British sailors," said Gary Sick, an Iran expert at Columbia University who served in the White House under president Jimmy Carter. "Iran appears to have gained something from its pressure tactics."
That assessment was shared by Trita Parsi, president of the US National Iranian American Council. "By taking the [British] soft targets, the Iranians put pressure on the US."
In addition to collecting bargaining chips, the original capture had other purposes, including rallying nationalist sentiment behind the regime just as it faced the imposition by the United Nations Security Council of a new round of sanctions for rejecting demands to suspend its uranium-enrichment program.
As important, however, was the message Tehran wished to convey to the West that it could indeed respond to what it saw as US provocations in ways that could harm or embarrass its allies.
"In seizing the Iranians, who, after all, had been invited by the Iraqi authorities, the Americans were seen as behaving aggressively," said Cole. "Now the Iranians have demonstrated that the Anglo-American forces are not in a strong enough position to afford to do these things. They can play tit-for-tat."
Sick agreed: "It is a reminder that Iran has quite an array of asymmetrical options available to it to counter indirectly the actions of the US forces in Iraq and elsewhere."
At the same time, according to Sick, Tehran's behavior during much of the crisis - including both the seizure itself, the precise location of which remains a matter of dispute, and its use of "confessions" by the British captives and threats to put them on trial - will probably have cost it much-needed international support.
"I suspect that recognition of this fact accounts for Iran's desire to end this dispute as promptly as possible," said Sick. "For the same reason, I suspect that this ploy will not be repeated any time soon."
Parsi said: "I think the Iranians thought it was better to declare victory and put an end to the crisis before there was any further escalation."
At the same time, however, Parsi and other analysts said the point at which victory could be declared was reached because of important changes in the British approach to the crisis.
London officials have said the turning point came on Monday, when Ali Larijani, the Iranian national security adviser, gave a conciliatory interview to Britain's Channel Four television - an interview that was followed up the next day with a critical conversation between Larijani and British Prime Minister Tony Blair's top foreign-policy adviser, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, according to The Independent. However, Cole pointed to a shift in the British stance from one of threats and demands to a more diplomatic approach over the weekend, including confirmation by British Defense Secretary Des Browne that London was "in direct bilateral communication with the Iranians".
"These sorts of incidents are always to some extent about face, and apparently the Iranians felt that when Britain agreed to enter into direct bilateral negotiations, Iran had gained enough face to be magnanimous," Cole said. "On Sunday, they were admitted as equals, not scolded as little children. That created the opening for [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khameini and Ahmadinejad to climb down and save face."
William Beeman, an Iran expert at the University of Minnesota, said: "Iranians have been signaling repeatedly, and not just during this crisis, that they will engage diplomatically, but without preconditions and on the basis of equality. So now they say, 'You see, when we have the upper hand, you see how magnanimous we are; we are a charitable, civilized people. We are reasonable. You can talk with us.'"
Parsi said: "The Iranian message is that if you deal with us respectfully, through incentives, then things can get resolved rather quickly. If you only resort to force or impose sanctions at the UN Security Council, then you'll only get stuck, and Iran will respond in kind. They're hoping that the West gets the impression that that is the incentive structure through which it can make progress with Iran. Whether that will be understood in the West is obviously a complete different question."
The Bush administration's relative silence during the crisis may also have conveyed, inadvertently perhaps, another message - that, despite widespread speculation that its recent military buildup in the Persian Gulf is intended to prepare the grounds for an attack on Iran, it has no wish to do so, at least for the moment.
"The Iranian capture of 15 [British] military personnel could certainly have been used as ... a pretext [for a military strike], since it could easily have escalated to a full-fledged military crisis," said Sick. "I regard the absence of unbridled escalation in this case as a significant indicator that the US desire for a strike may be more muted than it has been portrayed."
(Inter Press Service)
World Bulletin / News Desk
As a soldier, a ruler, and a human being, Sultan Salahuddin Ayubi was a person of phenomenal attributes. The hero of hundreds of battles was the person who for 20 years braved the storm of the Crusaders and ultimately pushed them back. The world has hardly witnessed a more chivalrous and humane conqueror. His unmatchable battle tactics and gallantry as a soldier, heroic statesmanship and his strength of character won him the respect of even his foes. known for liberating the holy city of Jerusalem from the Crusaders. His chivalrous behavior was noted by Christian chroniclers, especially in the accounts of the siege of Kerak in Moab, and despite being the nemesis of the Crusaders he won the respect of many of them, including Richard the Lionheart; rather than becoming a hated figure in Europe, he became a celebrated example of the principles of chivalry. The Crusades represent the maddest and the longest war in the history of mankind, in which the storm of savage fanaticism of the Christian West burst in all its fury over western Asia. At the height of his power, he ruled over Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Hijaz, and Yemen. History is full of his greatest achievements, but here, we are highlighting his two major achievements that are recognized not only by Muslim world but his enemies. One was the Wars against Crusaders and second was, the Capture of Jerusalem.
Early life
Sultan Salahuddin Ayyubi was born in the year 532 AH/1137 CE in Tekrit on the West Bank of the Tigris between Mosul and Baghdad, loved dearly by his father, Ayyub. His family was of Kurdish background and ancestry. His father, Najm ad-Din Ayyub, was banished from Tikrit and in 1139, he and his brother Asad al-Din Shirkuh, moved to Mosul. He later joined the service of Imad ad-Din Zangi who made him commander of his fortress in Baalbek. After the death of Zangi in 1146, his son, Nur ad-Din, became the regent of Aleppo and the leader of the Zengids.
The Wars against Crusaders and the Capture of Jerusalem
Sultan Salahuddin Ayyubi, the hero of hundreds of battles, was the person who for twenty years braved the storm of the Crusaders and ultimately pushed back the combined forces of Europe which had come to swarm the Holy Land. The world has hardly witnessed a more chivalrous and humane conqueror. The Crusades represent the maddest and the longest war in the history of mankind, in which the storm of savage fanaticism of the Christian West burst in all its fury over western Asia.
Christianity hurled itself against Muslims in expedition after expedition for nearly three centuries, until failure brought lassitude, and superstition itself was undermined by its own labour. Europe was drained off men and money, and threatened with social bankruptcy, if not with annihilation. Millions perished in battle, hunger or disease and every atrocity imagination can conceive disgraced the warrior of the Cross'. The Christian West was excited to a mad religious frenzy by Peter the Hermit, and his followers to liberate the Holy Land from the hands of the Muslims. `Every means', says Hallam, `was used to excite an epidemical frenzy'. During the time that a Crusader bore the Cross, he was under the protection of the Church and exempted from all taxes as well as frees to commit all sins.
The Wars against Crusaders and the Capture of Jerusalem
Sultan Salahuddin Ayyubi, the hero of hundreds of battles, was the person who for twenty years braved the storm of the Crusaders and ultimately pushed back the combined forces of Europe which had come to swarm the Holy Land. The world has hardly witnessed a more chivalrous and humane conqueror. The Crusades represent the maddest and the longest war in the history of mankind, in which the storm of savage fanaticism of the Christian West burst in all its fury over western Asia.
Christianity hurled itself against Muslims in expedition after expedition for nearly three centuries, until failure brought lassitude, and superstition itself was undermined by its own labour. Europe was drained off men and money, and threatened with social bankruptcy, if not with annihilation. Millions perished in battle, hunger or disease and every atrocity imagination can conceive disgraced the warrior of the Cross'. The Christian West was excited to a mad religious frenzy by Peter the Hermit, and his followers to liberate the Holy Land from the hands of the Muslims. `Every means', says Hallam, `was used to excite an epidemical frenzy'. During the time that a Crusader bore the Cross, he was under the protection of the Church and exempted from all taxes as well as frees to commit all sins.
On September 29, Salahuddin crossed the Jordan River to intercepted Crusader reinforcements from Karak and Shaubak along the Nablus road and took a number of prisoners. Meanwhile, the main Crusader force under Guy of Lusignan moved from Sepphoris to al-Fula. Salahuddin sent out 500 skirmishers to harass their forces and he himself marched to Ain Jalut. When the Crusader forcereckoned to be the largest the kingdom ever produced from its own resources, but still outmatched by the Muslimsadvanced, the Ayyubids unexpectedly moved down the stream of Ain Jalut. After a few Ayyubid raidsincluding attacks on Zir'in, Forbelet, and Mount TaborHowever, Raynald of Chatillon, harassed Muslim trading and pilgrimage routes with a fleet on the Red Sea, a water route that Salahuddin needed to keep open. In response, Salahuddin built a fleet of 30 galleys to attack Beirut in 1182. Raynald threatened to attack the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and responded by looting a caravan of pilgrims on the Hajj in 1185.
Capture of Jerusalem
In July 1187 Salahuddin captured most of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. On July 4, 1187, at the Battle of Hattin, he faced the combined forces of Guy of Lusignan, King Consort of Jerusalem and Raymond III of Tripoli. In this battle alone the Crusader army was largely annihilated by the motivated army of Salahuddin. It was a major disaster for the Crusaders and a turning point in the history of the Crusades. Salahuddin captured Raynald de Chatillon and was personally responsible for his execution in retaliation for his attacking Muslim caravans. The members of these caravans had, in vain, besought his mercy by reciting the truce between the Muslims and the Crusaders, but he ignored this and insulted their prophet Muhammad before murdering and torturing a number of them. Upon hearing this, Salahuddin swore an oath to personally execute Raynald.
Mannerism & Legacy of Salahuddin Ayubi
Salah-ud-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub known as Saladin in the Western World, this great Muslim sultan is widely revered as the ideal of a warrior who is fierce in battle and generous to his enemies.
Saladin used to perform the five obligatory prayers on time, along with the supererogatory prayers. He never prayed except in congregation, and he never delayed a prayer. He used to always have an imam with him, but if the imam was not present, he would pray behind any pious scholar who might be sitting with him. He never quit a prayer except when he slipped into a come for three days before his death.
He would spend most of his money on sadaqah (optional charity), and he never possessed enough wealth that would have required him to pay Zakah (obligatory alms). Although he always wanted to perform Hajj, he was occupied in jihad, so he did not have enough money to perform Hajj, and he died without performing it.
To be a great Sultan, one should be courageous, strict, and strong-willed, yet merciful, fair, and kind. On Mondays and Thursdays, Saladin used to sit and listen to his peoples petitions in a general assembly attended by jurisprudents, judges, and scholars. He would then spend an hour during the day or the night writing his comments and opinions concerning every petition. He never let down anyone who called on him for help.
He never spoke badly about anyone and never allowed anyone to do so in his presence. He never uttered a rude word and never used his pen to humiliate a Muslim.
Ibn Shaddad also relates
When English King Richard the Lionheart, Saladins archenemy, fell ill, Saladin asked about his health and sent fruits and ice to him. The Crusaders, who were hungry and poverty-stricken, were astonished at that noble chivalry and mercy from their enemy.
Saladin died at the age of 57. His estate was only 47 dirhems and one dinar. He left no real estate or any other hereditaments. May Allah honor him in the hereafter, lighten his grave, and raise his rank in Paradise. Amen.
source: //www.hamariweb.com/articles/article.aspx?id=54860
Guncelleme Tarihi: 05 Eylul 2018, 12:08
A United Arab Emirates (UAE) airplane was held Wednesday as it landed at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York after several people reported feeling sick, according to the airline.
"Emirates can confirm that about 10 passengers on #EK203 from Dubai to New York were taken ill. On arrival, as a precaution, they were attended to by local health authorities. All others will disembark shortly. The safety & care of our customers is our first priority," the airline said on Twitter.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), along with the Port Authority Police were in the staging area to check the passengers for illness, according to NBC news.
Larry Coben, a passenger on the flight, took to Twitter to explain what was happening.
"All we have been told is that some passengers have fallen ill and we should remain in our seats," he wrote, adding that they have deplaned and had their temperatures taken.
Lincoln Pigman
The relationship of the two countries predates that of the two leaders. And when Merkel and Putin sit down for talks on Saturday in the German governments villa outside Berlin, they will be influenced by a long history of alienation and rapprochements, limiting the expectations and possibly the results of the meeting.
Pressed on the nature of the talks, Merkels spokesman, Steffen Seibert, indicated the leaders would focus on finding common ground on acute international issues, such as Syria, Ukraine and energy. But he declined to provide details.
Russia is an international actor without whom it is impossible to imagine finding solutions to various problems in the world, Seibert told reporters in Berlin.
Many experts expect that the meeting will attempt to put the relationship between Berlin and Moscow on more pragmatic ground, but few expect the session to end with strong resolutions or a new strategic partnership.
Heres a look at some of the issues that define and influence German-Russian ties.
Are Germany and Russia friends?
The two countries could be described as the ultimate international frenemies, with economic, cultural and intellectual ties reaching back centuries. Since the 18th century, they have cycled through a series of conflicts and reconciliations, most recently World War II and the Cold War.
Throughout the Soviet era, Germany was Moscows most important trading partner, and many Germans view the strong, positive ties to Moscow as a key contributor to the end of the Cold War and German unification. When the Berlin Wall fell, Germany reached out to Moscow, partly to help former Soviet bloc countries integrate into the European Union, not only strengthening political and economic ties, but also investing in civil society.
But a break in relations that started with the Russian authorities repressive reaction to public protests in 2011 and 2012 worsened in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and supported rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Merkel and Putin have maintained regular contact. In May, she visited Putin at his summer residence in Sochi, Russia.
But Susan Stewart, a senior associate with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, cautioned that the leaders meeting in Germany should not be viewed as a fundamental shift in German-Russian relations. Instead, it is an indication of the hope that the two sides will be able to reach a compromise on key points, while maintaining their differences over Russias role in the conflict in Ukraine.
They will be trying a two-pronged approach, Stewart said. They will try to cooperate on those points where there is a common interest, but we will not see a return to business as usual.
What does Germany want from Russia?
Both Germany and Russia have problems that are tied to Syria.
For Merkel, the issue is domestic, as her decision to allow more than 1 million people most of them refugees from the war in Syria to apply for asylum in Germany has met increasing resistance from the public and from her own government. For Putin, it is not being quite able to find a solution to Syrias civil war despite having declared mission accomplished on several occasions.
Both leaders could benefit from finding a way to ensure sufficient political stability in Syria to allow Germany to begin encouraging refugees to return, while Putin is seeking support from Berlin and the European Union to help rebuild the country, said Stefan Meister of the German Council on Foreign Relations.
It is in the domestic political interest of the German government that Syrian refugees be able to return to a stable Syria, Meister said.
What does Russia want from Germany?
Germanys willingness to throw its full weight behind the United States decision to impose sanctions on Moscow over its annexation of Crimea, its involvement in the pro-Kremlin insurgency in eastern Ukraine and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, took the Russians by surprise.
The move made clear to Russian leaders that the special relationship they believed they had shared with Berlin was over. Soon afterward, Germany found itself in the crosshairs of Russian cyberattacks and a campaign in the Russian news media that caused Germany to plunge in Russian public opinion.
If you look at the image of Germany and Merkel in particular in Russian political discourse, you will see that it really has deteriorated tremendously, said Sabine Fischer, head researcher on Eastern Europe at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
A survey cited on Friday by Vedomosti, a Russian business daily, reflected this trend, showing approval of the German chancellor among Russians plummeting to 15 percent in August 2016 from 60 percent in February 2011.
But to break out of its international isolation, Russia needs Germanys support. It hopes to persuade the chancellor not to support a fresh round of sanctions President Donald Trump has threatened to impose over the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain.
There is a need for more pragmatic action at the political level, Fischer said.
Is Germany a captive of Russia, as Trump says?
Germany imports about 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia, according to government statistics. That is more than any other EU country, but less than the 60 percent to 70 percent Trump cited when he accused Germany of being a captive of Russia at a NATO summit last month.
That comment clearly taps into a stereotype in Washington that because of its economic ties, Germany is weaker on Russia, said Derek Chollet, an adviser on security and defense policy with the German Marshall Fund in Washington.
Former Chancellor Gerhard Schroders close relationship to Putin and his decision to join the board of Russias state oil company, Rosneft, has only bolstered that notion. But Merkel has shown a willingness to draw a line, with her decisions to support sanctions against Russia in 2015 and to join the coordinated response to the poisoning in Britain this spring.
My sense is Merkel, who in her own way makes clear that she understands the Russians and Putin as a type as well as anyone, has no illusions about Russia or Putin and their motives, Chollet said.
Source: The New York Times
Guncelleme Tarihi: 19 Agustos 2018, 14:45
Maung Zarni
Watching YouTube Myanmar State Counsellors 43rd Singapore lecture -- 1-hour lecture including the questions and answers entitled, Democratic Transition in Myanmar: Challenges and the Way Forward, left me deeply disturbed, pained and outraged.
The degree of her delusions, distortions and concoctions made me realize that my fellow Burmese dissident has become nothing more than the most polished mouth piece for her former captors, namely the murderous military regime.
Aung San Suu Kyi wasnt simply one dissident leader among several potential leaders of significance that I, like millions of other Burmese Buddhists, supported in those long years of vibrant anti-dictatorship opposition after the nationwide uprisings of 1988.
My sentimental ties to Aung San family is more personal and goes far deeper.
One late great uncle of mine was her fathers next-door neighbor, class mate and a friend at Pegu Hall (dormitory) when both were young undergraduates who hailed together from the Buddhist heartland of the then Upper Burma to study Pali, literature, law, etc. at the colonial Rangoon University in the early 1930s.
Through my relatives first-hand accounts of Aung San, the anti-colonial revolutionary and founder of Burma Independence Army under WWII Japans fascist patronage, as well as my own study of the slain national heros voluminous speeches and writings, I have developed a lifelong admiration for the mans strength of character, integrity, Marxist-influenced non-racialism and unwavering sense of service to the oppressed of colonial Burma, not just Buddhists nor the majority Burmans or Bama, but all people who considered Burma their home.
In fact, in my high school days in Mandalay of 1970s I learned the worthy English phrase love of truth from one of his writings wherein he pointedly said as a father he wanted to instill the love of truth in his three children.
So, when I watched Suu Kyis speech act performed at the Grand Hyatt in Singapore, available on YouTube, I noted with deep pains and rage that my heros world famous, or infamous, daughter packed lie after lie all verifiable in her prepared lecture, which she proceeded to deliver with a straight face.
Suu Kyis Singapore lecture August 22 was a speech her own martyred father would most definitely feel so ashamed about.
Two years since Suu Kyis assumption of her self-declared Above-the-President office as State Counsellor with her reportedly autocratic control over all ministries save the security-related ministries such as Home Affairs, Defense and Border Affairs, her leadership is noted only for serial failures.
The commissions she has formed to address the countrys defining problem -- crimes against Rohingyas -- have become a butt of international jokes. As the countrys most revered politician since her fathers murder in 1947, Suu Kyi has been unable to deliver on every one of the partys official major priorities: rule of law, peace, development, amendments to the Constitution.
And yet in the lecture, the NLD leader served up the typically democracy-indifferent and docile Singaporean audience a rose-tinted view of her leadership and governmental performance, which the official hosts on the panel dutifully clapped and heaped praise on.
For someone who grew up under General Ne Wins Burmese Way to Socialism (1962-1988), Suu Kyis speech sounded more like a typical party General Secretarys report to the Socialist Polit Bureau presided over by Chairman (despot) Ne Win in the 1960s and 1970s.
The State Counsellor in her own words: In each of the three panglong (peace) meetings held over the last two years, we made valuable progress. in the First Union Peace Conference, a seven-step roadmap for peace and national reconciliation was achieved. In the Second Conference, 37 principles were adopted. Before the Third Conference, two more ethnic armed groups signed the ceasefire agreement and during the Conference itself, 1``4 more principles were adopted.
Not only her words are unpersuasive and uncorroborated by the harsh realities of Myanmar ethnic minorities, particularly more than 100,000 Kachin war refugees in the countrys eastern and northern border regions but the world of Myanmar watchers who actually set their foot in these conflict zones offer an assessment radically different from Ms. Suu Kyis. Virtually all news reports and field studies about the Burmese militarys internal colonial war of pacification note not only the regression of the countrys peace process under Suu Kyis incompetent and failing leadership, typically rich in rhetoric and empty of substance, but also the disappearance of the so-called democratic space even for the ethnically dominant Burman Buddhist public.
That democratic space was deliberately allowed by the quasi-democratic regime former General Thein Sein in 2010 designed to tango with the Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton administration as the generals sought to rebalance the militarys overreliance on the increasingly aggressive and invasive China in the Burmese affairs.
The emerging, if belated wisdom in Washington is that the Obamas Myanmar embracement policy, once held up as one of his signature achievements emboldened, sped up and facilitated the genocidal destruction of Rohingya people.
Under Suu Kyis leadership, Myanmar now faces a growing chorus of international calls for the Security Council for the International Criminal Court referral for international crimes in Western Myanmar state of Rakhine, irrespective of whether such calls will bear fruit. Suu Kyi stands accused, with good reasons, of culpability and complicity in the militarys crimes against humanity and even genocide against Rohingya people.
It is matters pertaining to Rohingya persecution -- which my researcher colleague Natalie Brinham and I call the slow burning genocide, because of its decades-long nature -- on which Suu Kyis speech act morphed from detectable delusions into deliberate distortions.
With no basis in reality, Suu Kyi boasted of having implemented most of the Kofi Annan Commission recommendations, thus: (t)he recommendations of Dr. Kofi Annans Commission, 88 in all, of which we have to date implemented 81, aim at the establishment of lasting peace and stability in Rakhine.
Kofi Annan is no more to do the fact-checking. But former ambassador Laetitia van den Assum, one of his fellow Rakhine Commission members, is still alive to know the untruths, nah, outright lies of Ms. Suu Kyi. Van den Assum tweeted The underlying reasons for their (Rohingyas) flight remain unaddressed. The tweet, which can be seen at https://twitter.com/lvandenassum/status/1032527791303139328, came on the eve of the one year anniversary of Myanmars large scale military attacks on the unarmed and peaceful Rohingyas in more than 300 villages across northern Rakhine region.
As a researcher who has spent the last six years concentrating on my own countrys decades-long, state-directed persecution of Rohingyas, I find it morally repugnant and empirically false Suu Kyis disingenuous framing of the largest refugee crisis her military partners in power have created as initially terror-related.
She in effect added insult to the collective injury of the nearly 2 million Rohingya survivors, internally displaced inside Myanmar, internationally deported across the border to Bangladesh, or the diaspora, when she said, the danger of terrorist activities, which was the initial cause of events leading to the humanitarian crisis in Rakhine, remains real and present today. Unless this security challenge is addressed, the risk of inter-communal violence will remain.
Suu Kyi words echo how Myanmar military has long framed the Rohingyas -- a threat to security -- and justified their institutionalized killings of the latter.
For the first 15 years since the countrys popular uprisings in 1988, I had been one of the most hard-working and effective foot soldiers for Suu Kyi in her international campaigns to ostracize and punish Myanmar military leaders.
I have studied closely Suu Kyis leadership and poured over every speech of hers, over the last 30 years since she first parachuted onto the Burmese political stage as the daughter of General Aung San, as she put it.
Painfully, I have concluded that the daughter of my nationalist hero is no longer part of Myanmars solution. For she has for all intents and purposes morphed into the most polished mouthpiece of the military perpetrators.
Suu Kyi even had the audacity to call three generals in her Cabinet rather sweet amidst international calls to haul Myanmar generals to the International Criminal Court.
On Aug. 25, 700,000-plus Rohingya survivors of Myanmar genocide in 35 camps in Kutupalong meet to mourn, memorialize and honor loved ones who were senselessly maimed, mass-raped, slaughtered and burned alive a year ago. The least the world, both grassroots communities and governments, could do is to drop the decades-old policy delusions, globally, that Suu Kyi represents hope, liberty and liberalism.
As a Burmese, a dominant Bama, Buddhist from an extended military family at that, I will say for the record Myanmars State Counsellor no longer speaks for me.
Nor does she represent the humanistic values which I learned to embrace through her fathers writings. I know for a fact that there are fellow dissidents inside Myanmar, however small their numbers, who share my categorical rejection of Suu Kyi and her military partners in crimes.
Lets remember Rohingya victims today. And lets reject false messiahs of Myanmar, starting with Aung San Suu Kyi.
Guncelleme Tarihi: 28 Eylul 2018, 17:43
Adam McConnel
From time to time during the past year, Turkish officials have indicated their preference for dealing directly with us in lend-lease matters. The Turks have felt that they would know where they stood much better if they dealt directly with us, would know precisely to whom they were indebted, and would have more control over American material destined for them. An additional reason for the Turkish attitude was undoubtedly a feeling that they were being treated more or less as a British colony or protectorate.
Memorandum by George V. Allen, Division of Near Eastern Affairs, March 16, 1943, Foreign Records of the United States
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, one of the greatest United States presidents, recognized as early as 1941 that Turkey would be vital to U.S. global strategy in the coming era. Another five years would pass -- including the Bretton Woods conference, World War II's conclusion, and the Cold Wars advent -- before U.S. policymakers also concluded that Turkey would be a fundamentally important component of U.S. strategy towards the USSR, and therefore required massive amounts of economic and military aid. The eventual results were the Truman Doctrine, Turkeys inclusion in the Marshall Plan and, in 1952, Turkeys NATO membership.
Now, after five years of recurring crises in Turkish-American relations, the events of WWII and the Cold War era seem eons in the past. Renowned American journalist Tom Brokaw called Americas WWII leadership and citizens the Greatest Generation, and even though historians have voiced important reservations about Brokaws evaluation, his definition may well be justified. But once that WWII generation gave way to younger arrivals, American officials gradually lost the ability to formulate well-informed, astute, or creative policy towards the Turkish Republic. After Harry Truman, Dean Acheson, and the NATO accession glow receded, disasters have been Turkeys typical experience stemming from the choices of U.S. officials.
Examples? The Jupiter Missiles and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Johnson Letter. Cyprus and the arms embargo. Vague official U.S stances towards repeated military interventions into Turkeys democratic political system. Two Iraq invasions. Granting Fethullah Gulen residency. The George W. Bush Administrations reaction to the March 2003 Turkish parliamentary resolutions failure, and Paul Wolfowitz. Robert Pearson and Ambassador Eric Edelman. U.S. attempts to force Turkey to abide by its unilateral sanctions against Iran; the Reza Zarrab-Hakan Atilla-Halkbank revenge trial. The Obama administrations collaboration with the PKK. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone. The Obama administrations sluggish and tepid response to Fethullah Gulens July 2016 coup attempt, and consequent inaction on Gulens extradition. Ambassador John Bass and his fly-by-night visa ban. The Trump administrations 30,000-man PKK/YPG army. And now Trumps sanctions -- carried out for domestic political considerations -- against the Turkish interior and justice ministers, accompanied by tariffs on certain Turkish export products.
- Respect essential in foreign relations
The above paragraph lists only the main lowlights of the past 70 years of Turkish-U.S. relations. This alliance began with U.S. recognition that, as a Great Power with urgent geostrategic imperatives, it needed allies; in order to cultivate those allies, certain steps would have to be taken in order to cement relationships. U.S. officials recognized that those steps were their responsibility, and that they had to approach their allies with respect and circumspection. That was the reason why George Marshalls famous speech was a Harvard commencement address, and why the speechs tone and content were carefully crafted.
After the Cold Wars conclusion, Turkeys role in U.S. global strategy arguably became even more vital, which begs the question of why the U.S. has not been able to maintain the same level of responsibility and respect towards the Turkish Republic that it maintained towards other European allies. However, the current U.S. president, Donald Trump, has now thrown almost all other U.S. partners under the bus as well. Trumps obnoxious behavior towards traditional U.S. allies could be understood as simply taking previously established precedents to their logical ends. That is, other U.S. allies are now treated with the same sort of brusque regard that Turkey has been subject to since the 1960s.
From that perspective, Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogans remarks on Aug. 4, 2018 to a Justice and Development Party womens congress appear similar to sentiments expressed by earlier Turkish politicians when confronted by unconstructive and regrettable U.S. behavior. Erdogan, commenting on recent talks between Turkish and U.S. officials, explained:
So what was said? That, on this issue, this sort of approach with Turkey is not appropriate. If we are going to act sincerely, if we are truly a strategic partner, we should do what is necessary for our partnership. Were we not together with you in Somalia? Were we not together with you in Afghanistan? Did we not take steps together and in unity with you for NATO in various places in the world? If you treat your partners this way, in what manner do you expect us to perceive you?"
As logical as these statements are, similar comments from earlier Turkish politicians had little effect on U.S. policymakers. The problem was that U.S. officials were not able to follow or were simply not aware of the logic which brought the U.S. together with Turkey during and after WWII. Concurrently, U.S. officials forgot the necessity to approach Turkey with respect, as an equal. This is a problem that continues to plague U.S. policy formulation towards Turkey.
- Rising UK profile in Turkey
U.S. inability to devise sound policy towards Turkey in the past 60 years can, at least partially, be blamed on consistently poor understanding of Turkish society, history, politics, and interests. But the actors clamoring to affect U.S. policy, and the number of factors influencing policy calculations have also greatly increased.
The George V. Allen memorandum quoted at the beginning of this commentary brings up issues which U.S. officials had identified as important to Turkish officials during WWII, but that U.S. policymakers have subsequently either neglected or forgotten. For example, Turkish officials still prefer foreign representatives who deal with them openly, directly, and honestly. They also prefer foreigners who treat them with the respect that should be accorded to equals.
Allens memorandum concludes as follows:
The Turks believe that Great Britain has made commitments to Russia which will prevent Britain from exercising a restraining influence on Russia after the war. The Turks would be much encouraged if they were convinced that the United States retains a strong interest in Turkeys welfare. It is difficult to create such a conviction while we continue to agree to British demands in Turkeys regard.
Certainly after the past two decades, but especially after the past five devastating years, can we argue convincingly, using the evidence available to us, that the U.S. retains a strong interest in Turkeys welfare? Every passing month, and every new crisis has made the argument more difficult to make.
Originally, I intended to write a commentary that wrapped up with U.S. Ankara Embassy Charge dAffaires Philip Kosnetts recent trip to the Black Sea. During his visit to the Trabzon Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Kosnett commented to the press on current Turkish-American relations, stating that the important thing is to keep communication channels open in reference to ongoing issues between the Turkish and U.S. governments. I then planned to suggest that Turkish-U.S. relations were not only about inter-government relations, and that the U.S. representation in Turkey needed to be more proactive in establishing an open dialogue with Turkish society, not just with Turkish officials. That would be another important way to keep communication channels open.
But the U.S. Embassy in Ankara consistently acts as if they are oblivious to Turkish citizens sentiments and concerns. This July 15 the U.S. Ankara Embassy did nothing more than tweet the original and a Turkish translation of the State Departments press release commemorating the failed 2016 Turkish coup attempt. As the U.S. governments in-country representation, there wasnt anything that the embassy might have been able to add in order to show some empathy?
On Aug. 1, the day after a PKK attack in southeastern Turkey killed a mother and her infant, the British deputy head of mission to Turkey, Jennifer Anderson, tweeted a condemnation in English and Turkish. But the U.S. Embassy in Ankara? Silence, except for self-promotional tweets, including one on Kosnetts Trabzon junket. That is exactly the sort of inability to engage directly and sincerely with the issues important to Turkish society that deepens and magnifies Turkish distrust of U.S. intentions.
Thus, in terms of the U.S. representation in Turkeys sensitivity to and understanding of Turkish society, nothing has changed over the past five years, whether the secretary of state is John Kerry, Rex Tillerson, or Mike Pompeo, or whether Kugulu Parks primary resident is Francis Ricciardone, John Bass, or no one. The United Kingdoms representation in Turkey, on the other hand, now displays more attention to issues important to Turkish citizens.
In fact, since the Brexit vote, Turkish-British relations have been experiencing a revival. Most importantly, the U.K. government has put a top-level member of Fethullah Gulens cult, Akn Ipek, under house arrest, with possible extradition proceedings pending. This is a stark contrast to the U.S. governments refusal -- displayed by both the current and previous administrations -- to take even an initial step towards legal procedures that might result in Fethullah Gulens extradition.
- Demands from White House ruspanti
George Allens memo also suggested that demands were emanating from the British side in 1943. Then, the most important demands were from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who wanted Turkish soldiers to do the fighting in the Balkans instead of British soldiers. Now, during the Trump administration, demands come from the U.S., and specifically from whomever has Trumps ear. Trumps attention span is notoriously short and his White House is occupied by ruspanti constantly vying for his attention and favors. At the moment, Vice President Pence and National Security Advisor John Bolton apparently dominate Trumps time because the November 2018 midterm elections are fast approaching. For that reason, sanctions against Iran, and the Brunson case, are front-and-center in Trumps field of vision.
But Trumps demeanor is so volatile that no one knows what will happen from one day to the next. Trump also has far too many other problems occupying his mind to focus extensively on Turkey, a subject for which he has apparently left U.S. policy to the soldiers (attested to by the recent statements from both sides strongly asserting that military matters in northern Syria were totally separate from the Brunson case). This means that demands can come from multiple sectors, and that policy-making is even more diffuse and chaotic. Allens memo accused the British of fomenting a similar situation, so apparently we have experienced a complete reversal in the Anglo-American-Turkish relationship since WWII.
Finally, on Aug. 7, 2018, the U.S. Ankara Embassy tweeted two Turkish-language tweets aimed at Turkish society. One reaffirmed the strength of Turkish-American collaboration, and the other denied a Turkish press rumor. Those tweets, at the very least, recognize the Turkish public.
In reality, though, it should not take provocative Turkish press rumors to elicit such tweets. The U.S. Embassy needs to be more energetic in taking the initiative to promote open, positive, and constructive dialogue with Turkish society. This can take many forms, but in the age of social media, Twitter is an important route through which the U.S. Embassy can begin establishing better communication channels. As an illustration, the embassy might start with putting a more Turkey-friendly picture on their Twitter page (compare the current picture with the picture featured on the British Embassys Twitter page). That and similar efforts, over the long term, can help to show Turkish citizens that the U.S. representation in Turkey respects them, their culture, and their democratically elected representatives, and does not see them as a colony or protectorate.
AA
Guncelleme Tarihi: 13 Agustos 2018, 14:18
World Bulletin / News Desk
The Turkish president on Saturday criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's threats ahead of the recent UN General Assembly vote on Jerusalem, saying money and intimidation were not enough to influence the outcome.
The UN's 193-member General Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution on Jerusalem by an overwhelming majority, calling on the U.S. to withdraw its recognition of the city as Israel's capital.
A total of 128 members voted in favor of the Jerusalem resolution, nine countries voted against and 35 others abstained. Twenty-one countries did not cast a vote.
Trump had warned that aid would be cut to those countries voting against Washingtons move at the General Assembly.
"They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us. Well, we're watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We'll save a lot. We don't care," Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.
Erdogan said the UN vote demonstrated that money could not buy will.
"As you know, everyone stood united at the UN....128 against 9.... This means, will cannot be bought with dollars, intimidation," he said in a public address ahead of an ordinary provincial congress of his ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party in the southeastern province of Hakkari.
Separately, Erdogan at his party's ordinary provincial congress in the southeastern province of Sirnak once more called on the U.S. to revoke its decision on Jerusalem and asserted that Turkey will not "allow" Jerusalem to be used for "personal interests" and "ideological fanaticisms".
"We will also defend the rights and justice of Orthodox and Catholics in Jerusalem if necessary, as we did throughout history," he said, asserting that Turkey "will not allow" Jerusalem "into a bloodbath".
Guncelleme Tarihi: 25 Aralk 2017, 00:04
World Bulletin / News Desk
Turkey's EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik on Monday asked the German chancellor to hold on to her words that the two countries should engage in talks.
"We invite [Angela] Merkel back to her own words," Celik said, during an interview with Turkish private broadcaster NTV.
Celik was referring to Merkel's visit to the U.S. this March, where she had said that her moto was to talk to each other, and not about each other.
Turkey and our president are becoming part of Germanys internal politics and not a single day passes in Germany when they are not talked about, he said.
Celik said the debate about Turkey, turned into a campaign after racist parties entered the discussion, adding that Merkel and Martin Schulz, who leads Germany's main opposition Social Democratic Party, had lost votes when compared to previous polls.
On the question whether Germanys negative statements towards Turkey will end after the German general election on Sept. 24., Celik said that there will be "a certain softening".
Celik said that neither Germany nor Turkey benefit from the negative news German media is producing against Turkey.
He added that the European Parliament's involvement was the reason why the Customs Union became part of politics.
Guncelleme Tarihi: 22 Agustos 2017, 00:51
Russia on Tuesday said it has officially warned US internet giant Google against meddling in next Sunday's local elections by posting opposition leader Alexei Navalny's videos calling for mass protests. A Google spokeswoman declined to give a specific comment, telling AFP in an emailed statement that the company "reviews all valid requests from government institutions."
Central Election Commission member Alexander Klyukin said the commission had sent an official letter to Larry Page, the CEO of Google's parent company Alphabet, regarding Navalny's use of YouTube.
The fierce Kremlin critic has urged Russians to protest on September 9, when several Russian regions and Moscow elect regional and local officials.
Navalny is currently serving a 30-day sentence for violating public order laws during a protest earlier this year.
"Mr. Navalny buys the company's advertising tools to publish information on YouTube about the mass political event on September 9, on the day of elections," Klyukin said.
"We informed Google that such events on election day will lead to massive violation of the law" because political agitation is banned on election day, he said.
"Meddling by a foreign company in our election is not permitted."
He called Google a "gigantic American company" and hinted that Washington uses it as an influence tool.
US officials have repeatedly warned about the dangers of Russian interference in upcoming elections and there is a full-scale probe underway into Moscow's alleged role in the 2016 presidential election which brought Donald Trump to office.
Canadian establishment politics has been rattled by former Conservative leadership contender Maxime Berniers announcement that he has quit the Conservative Party and will soon launch a new right-wing party, dedicated to promoting a free market revolution and employing anti-immigrant demagogy.
At an August 23 press conference, held on the eve of the Conservatives national convention, the long-time libertarian denounced the party he had served as an MP for the past twelve years as too intellectually and morally corrupt to be reformed.
Whatever the ultimate outcome of Berniers new political project, it is part of a crisis wracking the traditional governing parties of Canada, the US and Europe under conditions of rampant social inequality and mounting popular alienation and class conflict.
With the stated aim of becoming Canadas Macron, that is a politician who breaks the traditional political mold to push through a right-wing Thatcher-style agenda, Bernier articulates the demand of the bourgeoisie for a more aggressive policyan intensified assault on the working class, beginning with massive tax cuts for big business and the rich to match those enacted in the US under Trump, and a more vigorous drive to advance Canadian imperialist interests on the world stage. Coming soon after the ruling elite propelled the right-wing populist and Trump admirer Doug Ford to power in Ontario, the countrys most populous province, Berniers initiative is manifestly part of a pronounced shift further right in establishment politics.
Berniers August 23 gambit was prepared by several high-profile controversies Bernier instigated in recent months over the Liberal governments promotion of multiculturalism and identity politics. The most recent and inflammatory was launched by Bernier on August 12, the first anniversary of the fascist rampage in Charlottesville, Virginia, and came in the form of a series of tweets attacking a speech Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had given a few days earlier.
Among other things, Bernier denounced Trudeaus extreme multiculturalism and cult of diversity, saying it will divide Canadians into little tribes that have less and less in common, apart from their dependence on government in Ottawa. Bernier also insinuated that immigrants, or at least many of them, reject basic Western values, and refuse to integrate into our society and want to live apart in their ghetto.
Aware that there is broad support for such chauvinist sentiments both among Conservative MPs and the party rank-and-file, Conservative leader Andrew Sheer remained conspicuously silent for several days, before ultimately distancing himself from Berniers remarks, with the comment that Bernier was not speaking for the party but only for himself.
Undeterred, Bernier issued even more explicitly chauvinist comments after Scheers intervention. In terms that closely resemble the tirades of Jordan Peterson, the psychology professor who is being touted as a leading Canadian intellectual even as he cultivates a constituency among the global New Right, Bernier asserted immigration policy should not aim to forcibly change the cultural character and social fabric of Canada, as radical proponents of multiculturalism want.
The Liberals, their multiculturalism policy and identity politics more generally are not left-wing or pro-refugee. But Berniers criticisms of them are from the standpoint of an explicitly right-wing nationalism that emphasizes national and cultural unity and, in the name of the defence of Western values, promotes anti-egalitarianism, militarism and xenophobia.
The son of a former Progressive Conservative MP, Maxime Bernier began his political career as an advisor to Bernard Landry, Minister of Finance in Quebecs Parti Quebecois (PQ) government in the late 1990s.
After a career in finance, Bernier was appointed in 2005 Executive Vice-President of the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI), a neoliberal advocacy group. Elected to parliament in 2006, he held several positions in Stephen Harpers government, where he was best known for deregulating much of the telecommunications sector.
He has long been a proponent of the privatization of healthcare and the abolition of equalization, the system whereby the federal government transfers funds to the poorer provinces to ensure minimum national standards for health care and other essential public services.
The continuity in Berniers career is to be found in his virulent opposition to government environmental and labor regulations, public services and social-welfare provisions and his championing of the dismantling of any worker social rights not only in the name of the free market, but of freedom tout court. He is an admirer of such right-wing capitalist ideologues as Ayn Rand and the economist (and advisor to the Chilean dictator Pinochet) Friedrich Hayek.
Berniers adoption of populist new right rhetoric, stoking anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment, is more recent. In 2009, when members of the Action democratique du Quebec (ADQ)the right-wing populist movement that merged in 2012 with the current Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ)petitioned Bernier to become their leader, he politely declined the offer. More recently, amid the controversy sparked by Ontario Conservative Kellie Leitchs 2016 survey, Bernier opposed the idea of a values test for new immigrants.
Only in the more recent period, characterized above all by Trumps victory south of the border, does it appear Bernier recognized the potential for chauvinist appeals to broaden the base for his hard-right neoliberal agenda.
Bernier began to distance himself more openly from the Conservative Party establishment after finishing, to his own surprise and that of senior party leaders, a very close second to Scheer in last years party leadership race.
Berniers Conservative critics present his departure as a rash decision, fueled by ambition, egotism and sour grapes. However, press reports indicate he has been promised financial support from prominent sections of business. There is also manifest sympathy for his trenchant criticisms of the partys leadership and direction among a substantial layer of Conservative Party activists. Running as a self-described Conservative libertarian, Bernier, it should be recalled, won the first twelve out of thirteen leadership ballots at last years convention, and lost to Scheer on the final ballot by less than two percent.
Berniers erstwhile Conservative colleagues in parliament have thus far uniformly panned his plans to found a new party. But for many this reaction is due to tactical considerations, principally the fear of being divided against their opponents in the 2019 federal elections.
Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Jason Kenney, leader of Albertas new United Conservative Party, and Doug Ford in Ontario have all dissociated themselves from Bernier in the name of Conservative unity. But they have all previously shown an affinity for the type of politics Bernier is now embracing, making rank chauvinist appeals, whether against Quebec, immigrants or Muslims. Within days of becoming premier, Ford was whipping up anti-refugee sentiment, seeking to scapegoat those fleeing Trumps anti-immigrant witch hunt for a housing shortage that is the product of decades of cuts by Liberal, Conservative and NDP governments.
Whatever the fate of Berniers soon to be created new party, a growing section, not only of the Conservatives but of the entire political establishment, is adopting little by little the ultra-right rhetoric and policies that he articulates only more boldly. The rise of the extreme right in America and Europe, including the participation of the neo-fascist AfD party (Alternative for Germany) in the German parliament, is emboldening the bourgeoisie to set aside political taboos.
The traditional political order is discredited. But war and austerity remain the only means available to the ruling class to solve the crisis of capitalism. It is the need to impose this unpopular program that is behind the bourgeoisies rapid reconciliation with the extreme right. The latter, long banned from official politics after the horrors of Nazism and the Second World War, is increasingly being promoted and politically legitimized.
As one journalist wrote in a surprisingly candid defence of Bernier for CBC, a common identity... creates impermeable unity in crisis. The only means of cultivating such national unity are authoritarianism, militarism, anti-immigrant chauvinism and the division of the working class through the promotion of the most socially backward conceptions.
The Michigan State Board of Elections has certified Socialist Equality Party (SEP) candidate for Congress Niles Niemuth for the November 6 general election ballot. Niles is running in Michigans 12th congressional district, which covers the Ann Arbor area, Dearborn and the Downriver suburbs of Detroit.
The Michigan Secretary of State has posted a list of general election candidates for the entire state. Out of all the candidates running for the House of Representatives, Niemuth submitted the most petition signatures, garnering the support of more than 5,800 voters. The signatures, nearly double the 3,000 required, were submitted and approved without any objection from potential challengers.
Due to restrictive ballot access laws that require tens of thousands of signatures to achieve official third party status for the SEP, Niemuth will appear on the ballot as an Independent candidate.
The 2018 midterm elections take place amid an unprecedented political crisis in the United States, including bitter factional conflicts within the ruling class. While the Trump administration pursues a fascistic strategy aimed at appealing to far-right nationalism and anti-immigrant chauvinism, the Democrats have centered their opposition to Trump on the basis of a neo-McCarthyite, anti-Russia campaign and the promotion of the military-intelligence apparatus.
In the elections, the Democrats are running an unprecedented number of individuals drawn from the CIA and the military. Typical of these CIA Democrats is Elissa Slotkin, the Democratic candidate in Michigans 8th Congressional District, who is running ads featuring her long record in the military and CIA.
We launched our campaign this summer to advance a revolutionary socialist program and perspective for workers and young people in Southeastern Michigan and across the country, Niemuth said. Polls show that there is enormous and growing interest in socialism, but there is still limited understanding of what socialism is and how it can be achieved.
Niemuth added, The issues confronting workers and students in the 12th districtlow wages and the assault on living standards, ever mounting levels of student debt, the threat of dictatorship and world warare the issues confronting the working class all over the world. Wherever we go, we encounter enormous opposition to the Democrats and Republicans, opposition to war and militarism, and support for the rights of immigrants.
We have a very aggressive schedule for the next two months to use the campaign as a platform to present a genuine socialist program to voters across the district, Niles concluded. Our aim is to mobilize and organize the working class and youth, who are coming into increasingly direct conflict with the entire political establishment and the capitalist system.
Niles will appear on the ballot alongside three other candidates:
Debbie Dingell is the incumbent Democrat from the 12th district. She a former auto industry lobbyist in Washington, D.C. and a multi-millionaire. Dingell succeeded her husband, John Dingell, Jr., in 2014 after his retirement. Dingell, Jr. was the longest serving Congressman in US history, holding the seat for more than 59 years after succeeding his father, John Dingell, Sr.
Jeff Jones, the Republican candidate, is running a far-right, Trump-like campaign seeking to appeal to disillusionment with the Democratic Party, particularly in the heavily deindustrialized working class Downriver communities, which went for Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
Gary Walkowicz, a lower-level UAW Local 600 official at Ford's Dearborn Truck Plant, is running as a candidate for the Working Class Party, an electoral outfit run by the Spark organization, which presents itself as left while opposing any mention of socialism or capitalism. Walkowicz ran for UAW president against Dennis Williams in 2014, promoting illusions in the possibility of pressuring the corrupt union leadership into opposing a series of concessions contracts.
Niemuths campaign is the only campaign in the 12th district and throughout the US that offers a way forward for the working class, in opposition to both the Democrats and Republicans.
Visit niles2018.com to donate and get involved in the campaign.
In a brazen display of contempt for those who oppose police violence, one New York City police union is seeking to bribe the public to not only accept, but to actively assist, in police brutality.
The Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA), New York Citys police sergeants union, announced a new program offering a $500 reward to any citizen who assists a New York City law enforcement officer in apprehending an individual resisting arrest.
The program, named Help A Cop, was created by the SBA, which represents 13,000 active and retired New York Police Department (NYPD) sergeants. Since the announcement, trucks equipped with digital billboards have been dispatched to each of the five boroughs in New York City, advertising the program with slogans such as, Put your camera downBecome a good Samaritan.
SBA President, Ed Mullins, held a press conference to introduce Help A Cop and speak about the motivation behind it. We will offer a $500 reward for any individual who comes to the aid to any member of the law enforcement in the City of New York while making an arrest and someone is resisting that arrest, and they help that officer. This includes officers from other police agencies such as the FBI, the DEA, the state police, and MTA officers. While the program literature does not mention ICE, as a federal agency, it is doubtlessly also be included in the SBAs bounty program, encouraging an escalation of the war on immigrants.
When asked by reporters what someone should do to help an officer, Mullins encouraged the use of physical force on the suspectGrab his hand or hold him downin order to give us that extra edge. Mullins was also asked whether the NYPDs ban on chokeholds should be reversed, to which he responded, When youre fighting for your life, you do whatever you need to go home. He continued, If youre resisting arrest, we need to be able to make you comply.
Speaking about what the program is trying to combat, Mullins cited the Ferguson Effect, the unsubstantiated theory that there has been a spike in crime nationwide resulting from increased scrutiny of police activity after the mass protests over the 2014 police murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, which in turn has made police officers fear that their activities will be recorded by bystanders and posted online, resulting in hands-off policing.
Mullins connected this to the problematic mixed messages supposedly coming from the public. Youre telling us you want enforcement. Youre telling us to make arrests. Youre promoting more arrests, more summonses. And then when it goes wrong, when it goes bad, we have an officer indicted.
With these deeply reactionary statements, Mullins rejects the notion that a police officer should be punished, seemingly in any circumstance, and makes the argument that an officer should never be punished if he or she is attempting to enforce the law, even when committing murder.
The process of taking cell phone videos versus helping a police officer has to stop, Mullins stated. This anti-democratic position, where police are seen to be above the law, opposes the right of by-standers to record police activity, while at the same time recruiting these bystanders as temporary extensions of the police force in exchange for a monetary reward.
The official document announcing the Help A Cop program says, Far too often we see police officers engaged in violent struggles with perpetrators while members of the public stand by and take videos of the incident with their cell phone cameras. Help A Cops main slogan, Put Your Camera DownBecome A Good Samaritan is displayed on the programs website. The aim of this Big-Brother motto is clear: stop documenting police violence and start assisting in police violence, even without knowing anything about the actions of the person being apprehended.
Under current New York State law, people coming to the aid of a cop involved in a violent struggle will not be legally protected and will be liable, should the suspect decide to sue. Mullins addressed this fact when asked at the press conference if civilians aiding police could be sued, blandly stating, Probably they could be sued.
Despite acknowledging this issue, the SBA still chose to implement the program and is looking into legislation with New York state senator Martin Golden, a retired cop, to create a Good Samaritan law to protect individuals who assist an officer.
The NYPD has not voiced support for Help A Cop. A police spokesperson said, The NYPD encourages people to support their cops by calling 911. The department doesnt want to see people put in harms way unnecessarily to collect a reward. Mullins has not concealed his hostility to the NYPD leadership, publicly calling Commissioner James O'Neill, as well as police chiefs and elected officials in general, weak.
This past weekend, Mullins tweeted a video of cops being harassed by two young adults, adding, Seems like two more turds raised by parents who simply dont care. In a matter of time the people of NYC will see a drastic change in safety on city streets. Its all beginning to erode, dont say you werent warned! Thank the Mayor & Police Commissioner who just dont back cops. This mix of belligerent and childish language, cut from the same fascistic cloth as Trump, comes from a leading representative of police officers in New York City.
The Help A Cop program is not only an effort by the most reactionary elements in the state apparatus to clamp down on the documenting of police violence, but encourages right-wing vigilante forces to actively assist the state in brutalizing the working class.
One week after neo-Nazi riots in the German city of Chemnitz, around 70,000 people attended a rock concert against the far right on Monday. The concert in Chemnitz, held under the motto We are more, showed the massive opposition to right-wing extremism and fascism on the part of workers and youth.
The performances by well-known German bands and rappersincluding the Toten Hosen, Kraftklub and Marteria and Casperwere repeatedly interrupted by chants from the crowd of anti-fascist slogans such as Nazis out or Alerta Alerta Antifascista. Protests against the far right also took place in other cities on the same day. In Hanover around 3,000 people took to the streets and in Duisburg a protest by 1,500 stopped a march by 50 supporters of the extreme right Pegida movement.
The concert in Chemnitz
Reporters from the World Socialist Web Site, members of the Socialist Equality Party (SGP) and its youth and student organization, the IYSSE, distributed large numbers of a leaflet titled The fight against right-wing terror requires a socialist perspective and spoke with participants at the concert.
We come from Chemnitz and are not prepared to tolerate what happened here, Felix and Jenny said. Such a protest shows that something is really wrong in society and makes people aware, even those who are not directly involved. I hope that people then become active, not just at such events, but in general. And I hope they openly take to the street against the right wing.
Felix
Anika, a student of politics, said: Im here today because all the radical right-wing movements active in East Germany and especially in Chemnitz make me incredibly frightened and angry. One has to oppose them. Otherwise it would look like 1933. There are many causes for the aggressive mobilisation of the right-wing extremists. Politics plays a major role in this, as does the media. They constantly talk about refugee crisis or anti-deportation industry. This type of language and reporting is now normal and only helps to spur on the far right.
Christina, an actress, explained: I feel you cannot leave the field to the far right, you have to take a stand. Its not acceptable for people to give the Hitler salute in this country and chase people through the streets.
Hilde also condemned the far right-wing riots of last weekend and said: I think a point has been reached here in Chemnitz that is exemplary for all of Germany and even for the whole of Europe. On this issue people have to come together to show their opposition. And now masses of people have come together. Fifteen percent voted for the AfD and the other 85 percent have to make their presence felt.
Her companion, Klaus, criticized the fact that policies of the right-wing extremists were being adopted by the establishment parties. The AfD comes up with the concepts and suddenly the other parties refer to the price of asylum, asylum tourism and so on. In using these slogans they take over in practice the policies proposed by the AfD.
WSWS reporters also talked to Marie and Rika from Chemnitz, who had just graduated from high school. I think that politics is focusing too much on extreme opinions, Marie said. Asked about the return of German militarism and the massive armament of the German army, which is not discussed publicly, she explained: Nobody talks about this. I have no idea what they want to do with the money flowing into these areas. Everyone should be informed. I want to know why they need the money. Why do they want to rearm? For what?
Marie and Rika
Rika adds: I believe that information is withheld because politicians are afraid of the majority. They are afraid that so many are now standing up against racism and so many voices raised against it. This is not what they anticipated. They try to contain these things at all costs.
Rika is aware that the call for the intervention of the state, which is now being raised by all established parties, is in reality directed against the broad masses and not against the far right. They say they will now spend more money on the police. They say they are investing money to protect people. But I do not think thats the reason. And I do not believe that people understand it that way.
When I go out on the street, Im as afraid of the police as of the far right. I am uneasy when there are police cars everywhere. And I feel even more insecure when the parties now say they are strengthening the police force even more. I ask myself what theyre trying to do, apart from gaining more control over the population.
The SGP leaflet explained the political connections between the aggressive activities of the right-wing extremists and the return of German militarism and the growth of a powerful police state, which is being pursued by all of the capitalist parties. Many took the leaflet and read it with interest. The only social force that can counter this development and stop the extreme right is the international working class, it said.
It added that: the SGP calls for the expansion of the class struggle across the continent. The conspiracy of the grand coalition, the intelligence services and right-wing extremists must be stopped.
It is time to revive the revolutionary socialist traditions of Marx, Engels, Luxemburg, Liebknecht, Lenin and Trotsky, defended only by the International Committee of the Fourth International and its sections. The SGP calls on workers and young people to join its ranks and take up the fight against capitalism, fascism and war.
With forces loyal to the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad apparently preparing for a ground offensive to reassert control over the northwestern province of Idlib, the Trump White House, the State Department and the Pentagon have all issued warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe and threats of US retaliation over the use of chemical weapons.
The latest threats came Tuesday, with the White House issuing a statement declaring that Washington was closely monitoring the situation in Idlib and the threat of an imminent Assad regime attack, backed by Russia and Iran.
Such an attack, the statement continued would be a reckless escalation of an already tragic conflict and would risk the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. It added that, in the event of a chemical weapons attack, the United States and its Allies will respond swiftly and appropriately.
The statement reiterates earlier declarations by Trump and top administration officials. The US president had tweeted on Monday, The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned last Friday that the US would view an offensive in Idlib as an escalation of an already dangerous conflict, and National Security Advisor John Bolton warned that the US will respond very strongly to any use of chemical weapons.
Russia and the Assad government have rejected the warnings. After a three-week lull, Russian warplanes carried out at least 20 airstrikes on targets near the Idlibs western border, reportedly targeting positions held by Chinese Uighur Islamist extremists who are affiliated with the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda. The action involved Russian Sukhoi Su-24Ms and Su-34s jets and was supported by Russian ships in the eastern Mediterranean.
Syrian Foreign minister Walid Muallem said that the US threats would not stop the determination of the Syrian people and Syrian armys plans to clear Idlib and finally put an end to terrorism in Syria. Syrian troops and armor have reportedly been massed at the provinces border.
Speaking at a Moscow press conference Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described Idlib as a terrorists nest that threatened Russian bases in Syria. Just to speak out with some warningswithout taking into account the very dangerous, negative potential for the whole situation in Syriais probably not a full comprehensive approach, he said, in obvious reference to the threats from Washington.
Absent from the US statements is any recognition that Idlib is effectively run by the Syrian Al Qaeda affiliate, which leads the dominant rebel faction, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (IHT), and includes large numbers of so-called foreign fighters. The IHT has reportedly set up gallows and employed firing squads to eliminate opponents seeking accommodation with the Syrian government.
The UNs special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has acknowledged that there are at least 10,000 Al Qaeda-affiliated fighters in Idlib. The front that the group leads is said to control 60 percent of the provinces territory along with its capital, and effectively governs the region. Others have put the number of Al Qaeda-linked fighters at between 20,000 and 30,000.
Washington is threatening to intervene not out of any humanitarian concerns. Successive US administration have carried out bloody interventions in the regionfrom the war of aggression in Iraq, to the regime change operations in Libya and Syria and the near genocidal US-Saudi war against Yementhat have claimed the lives of millions and decimated entire societies.
If it launches a new act of aggression in Syria, it will be to rescue the Al Qaeda-led rebels, which Washington and its Western and regional allies have supported since the onset of the proxy war for regime change in 2011, pouring billions of dollars worth of money and weapons to support these forces. And it will be to further US geo-strategic interests in dominating the Middle East and rolling back the influence of Iran and Russia in both Syria and the wider region.
With the open defense of Al Qaeda in Syria, Washington is unceremoniously ditching the 17-year-old global war on terror in favor of preparations for military confrontation with what US national security documents describe as revisionist states challenging US hegemonyi.e., Russia and China.
As for the warnings over a chemical weapons attack, these amount to an invitation to the Al Qaeda forces to stage an incident in order to secure air support from the US and its allies. Damascus flatly denied responsibility for earlier incidentsin Douma last April and in Khan Shaykhun a year before. Both were used as the pretext for missile and air strikes by Washington and its allies.
The Washington Post Tuesday published excerpts from a new book on the Trump White House by Bob Woodward, Fear, which included an account that after the supposed April 2017 chemical weapons incident, Trump proposed to his defense secretary that the US military assassinate Syrian President Assad.
Lets fucking kill him! Trump is quoted as saying Lets go in. Lets kill the fucking lot of them.
While Mattis is reported to have told Trump he would develop such plans, the book says that he immediately told a senior aide: Were not going to do any of that. Were going to be much more measured.
Gripped by extreme political crisis over the internecine war within the US political establishment, particularly over US policy toward Russia, and confronting mounting social tensions and rising working class militancy at home, the impetus for the Trump administration seizing on another phony chemical weapons incident to launch a major US escalation in Syria is greater than ever.
The UNs Syria envoy, De Mistura, told reporters this week that the Syrian Al Qaeda affiliate had the capability to produce weaponized chlorine, meaning that it is entirely capable of staging a chemical weapons attack and blaming it on the government.
The moves toward a Russian-backed Syrian government offensive to retake Idlib are unfolding in the midst of intense rounds of diplomatic discussions between Moscow, Ankara and Tehran. The leaders of the three powersVladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hassan Rouhaniare set to meet in Tehran on September 7 for discussions that will center on the question of Idlib.
Turkeys defense minister and intelligence chief were in Moscow, while Irans foreign minister has held meetings in both Ankara and Damascus in recent days.
Turkey, which has backed a section of the Islamist militias in Syria and is anxious to avoid another flood of refugees across its border, has sought to forestall the offensive, insisting that the moderate rebels can be separated from their Al Qaeda core. It has also sent troops and tanks to positions inside Idlib near the Turkish border with the aim of blocking any further movement of Syrians into Turkey.
Moscow is clearly hopeful that Turkey can provide a means of delivering Idlib to the government in Damascus without a protracted and bloody campaign.
The Erdogan government has come into increasing confrontation with Washington, over both the US militarys use of the YPG Syrian Kurdish militia as its principal proxy ground force in Syria and the Trump administrations imposition of sanctions that have exacerbated Turkeys economic crisis.
The Turkish government reported on Tuesday that the countrys defense minister, Hulusi Akar, had told the visiting US special representative for Syria, James Jeffrey, that Turkey wanted all Kurdish militants out of the Syrian-Turkish border region.
The threat of the developments in Syria turning into a wider and far more dangerous confrontation are clear. Russia has reportedly moved 26 warships and 36 planes, including strategic bombers, into the Mediterranean. The US, meanwhile, has also positioned substantial forces in the region.
Moscow reported last week that the Pentagon had redeployed the USS Sullivan to the Persian Gulf, with 56 cruise missiles on board, and that B-1B strategic bombers had been redeployed to the Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
Ashley is one of the roughly 40 million young Americans between the ages of 14 and 29 who are employed in the US, comprising over a quarter of the total employed labor force. Though she was just 20 years old when injured on the job at a Texas Wal-Mart last year, Ashleys body, her credit score, and her aspirations for the future have all suffered as a result.
Ashleys story epitomizes how it has become practically impossible for young people to live healthy and fulfilling lives under capitalism. At the same time, Ashley represents a new wave of workers who are not content with their oppression and are drawing broader political conclusions. She considers herself a revolutionary socialist and blames the capitalist system for her treatment.
I work in electronics and were supposed to have three people on staff at all times but I was the only one working there at the time, said Ashley, who did not want to use her real name. A customer wanted me to bring a TV for them, but all the carts were in use. I called for help on the intercom but no one came, so I did what I thought was best and I picked the TV up myself. Im pretty light, and I heard a popping in my stomach which made me scared.
Ashley knew she had to go to the emergency room but couldnt afford to pay the several thousand dollars cost. I asked a manager if they could drive me to the ER, she said. They told me I could leave and I ended up going across the street to an urgent care center, where I had a three-hour wait. The doctor didnt run any tests, did a stomach pump, and charged me $2,000.
She says Wal-Mart made her go to a corporate-approved doctor, who told me it was a hernia and that I shouldnt really do anything about it. I knew that was bull because Ive read about the long-term impact of hernias, including that you maybe cant get pregnant. Their doctors told me to only come back if it started bruising or bleeding. Wal-Mart only offered to take me off the work schedule for two weeks, not to give me any paid time off.
One day, I heard this awful popping noise in my bellybutton, it was my worst nightmare. And it was spewing blood. So I go into shock instantly and trying to figure out what is going on. It was bleeding out chunks. We went to the ER and the ER told me it was not a hernia, that I had been misdiagnosed and it was a cyst above my belly button. I ended up with $8,000 medical bills.
Ashley explained, Wal-Mart was very hesitant to pay anything and they sent me documentation proving that they paid all the bills, but it turns out that a collection agency has been trying to call me about it for six months because there was one bill that Wal-Mart apparently never paid. It has been an absolute nightmare. Youd think the company would make sure that Id get help from now on, but they still dont do anything for me. They still dont send anyone to help me.
Ashleys experience is far from uniqueboth among Wal-Mart employees and workers more broadly. Since 2000 alone, Wal-Mart has been forced to pay $1.5 billion in penalties for violations related to pay, discrimination and workplace safety.
Conditions for young people have deteriorated significantly over the last 30 years. According to a report from the non-profit Young Invincibles, the income of 25- to-34-year-oldsa bracket that is slightly older than Ashleys age grouphas declined by 20 percent from 1989 to today. Young people today own half as much wealth as the Baby Boomer generation.
Workers like Ashley find that their ability to enjoy their young adulthood is hampered by financial strain. In Ashleys case, she is forced to live with her parents because she cannot afford to find her own apartment. Because Wal-Mart may have not paid one of Ashleys medical bills, her credit score has been hit.
Now my credit score is 100 points lower than last year, so I tried to get a car lease and that made my car payments way higher. My loan rate is 6 percent on a lease. I havent attempted to look for apartments because of my credit and I still live with my parents.
Ive asked Wal-Mart whether they paid the bill and they just tell me the case was closed. The collection agency says theyve asked for a check to see if the urgent care center was paid and theyre saying it was unpaid. So, either the doctors office messed up or Wal-Mart. Either way, nobody has helped me figure out whats wrong and I am getting penalized as a result.
Ashley works two other jobs in addition to working at Wal-Mart, where she earns $11.80 an hour. If I wasnt living with my parents, I would be screwed, she said. I have three jobs currently. I write Facebook ads for other companies through an app on my cell phone. These apps are temp agencies for online work. Those jobs pay $10 an hour, so I work 38 hours per week at three different jobs, and on top of that I am in school.
Though Ashley loves her parents, she is not satisfied with living at home. I want to feel like an adult. I have work constantly treating me like Im 16 and I dont want to feel like that at home. I dont have a curfew, but I feel the need to come home early so I dont wake anyone up. I want freedom. Im not getting that entirely at my parents house because I have to drive an hour and a half to school twice a week and Id rather live near the school but I cant do that because its incredibly expensive. Its ridiculous that we act like there isnt enough housing. What about all of the foreclosed homes?
She feels that getting an education will provide her with an opportunity to secure a more fulfilling job and a secure life. She wants to work in game design and just transferred to a larger public university that is an hour-and-a-half from her home. But to do so, she has had to take out loans:
Ive taken out $12,000 in loans. I will probably have to double that to $25,000. It isnt as bad as most people. Its obscene that this is the way the United States works. I dont know how we havent revolted yet honestly.
Ashley feels that she has something to contribute to her area of study. She is dissatisfied with the current state of the gaming industry, which she explains is dominated by a handful of corporations who make games that glorify imperialist war.
In terms of video games, it seems like there are more and more games that are just money-making tools and none of them have cultural content, she said. Its the same way for every other part of life. It feels like companies are just feeling more confident screwing people over. It is the same with Internet companies. I live in an area where I can only get 5 megabytes per second and we pay $80 a month.
Ashley has been a regular reader of the World Socialist Web Site for some time. She is a supporter of the Socialist Equality Partys campaign against Internet censorship and spoke at length about how she became a socialist.
I have read about censorship of WSWS and other sites. It sounds insane to me that the Internet is even something that should be censored. I just cant believe companies have that power. They arent king of the Internet. They dont get to censor everything they want because it doesnt meet what they want. The Internet should be free to use. You should be able to post what you want and read what you want. How else will people get information about socialism and about revolution if you cant even see it online? Its unfair that theyre censoring those beliefs just because they dont want that.
Ashley explained that though she comes from a conservative family, she became a socialist in ninth grade.
I like to say capitalism: more like crapitalism. Thats my feeling. My parents are Republicans and would talk to me about trickledown economics. I have to pretend not to barf. They dont understand that rich people are holding on to their money that is just sitting there and we have young people who are drowning in student loan debt. We need that wealth but we dont get to touch it. The rich are literally stockpiling money in banks and we have tens of thousands in student loans. I cant fathom it.
She also hates the fact that she has grown up in a period of permanent war:
Ive always been super anti-war. My grandfather was a war veteran and I always protested the glorification of war because he got leukemia from Agent Orange in Vietnam. I was especially angry about that because the government did nothing to help my grandmother. They wont help her and it was entirely the governments fault that he got leukemia. They didnt care. They wanted to hurt people. I had to watch him lose all his mobility over a substance that the government decided to use to hurt people. That was one of the big moments when I switched to socialism.
Ashley described how she and her coworkers debate what constitutes real socialism. She disagrees with those who claim Sanders is a socialist: Even Democrats, theyre so ugh. I hate watching the Democrats like Sanders on Twitter praising John McCain after he died.
I thought, There is no reason to mourn this mans death. And when people say they wish Obama was back, I dont wish Obama was back in office because he was doing the same things as Trump, deporting children, sending out drone strikes, killing civilians ... Im sick and tired of praising people when they deserve to be criticized.
Ashley believes it is essential for workers of all ages to take up these political questions and relate them to their own experiences at work. Id like for young people to start speaking out about our treatment. Its not going to change if we dont talk about it.
Teachers in at least four additional school districts walked out Tuesday, as strikes and protests by educators spread across the state of Washington. Teachers are demanding substantial improvements in pay and school funding. The escalation of the struggle is taking place in defiance of the efforts by the National Education Association (NEA) and its state and local affiliates to isolate walkouts and prevent a statewide strike.
Picket lines of educators went up Tuesday morning in Stanwood-Camano, 50 miles north of Seattle, and Rainier, Tumwater and Centralia, all located south of the state capital of Olympia. The strikes led to the cancellation of classes for thousands of students scheduled for the first day of school on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Teachers in several other districtsEvergreen, Battle Ground, Washougal and Longview in Southwestern Washingtonremain on strike. Teachers in Puyallup, Tukwila, Conway, South Whidbey, Monroe and Wapato have all voted to strike if agreements are not reached by the start of school this week.
On Tuesday night, more than 2,000 teachers attended a mass meeting in Tacoma, the states second largest school district, and voted 97.3 percent in favor of authorizing a strike if a new contract is not reached by Thursday, the first day of school. Teachers are outraged by the school districts insulting offer of a 3.1 percent raise, which is barely above the state-mandated 2.5 percent pay hike. Any additional raise, the district has threatened, would be paid for through 115 layoffs.
As in other districts, particularly in metropolitan areas, teachers in Tacoma are saddled with crushing student loan debts and cannot pay for rising housing, medical and other living expenses on their meager salaries. Educators are all the more outraged because Tacoma Schools Superintendent Carla Santorno makes more than $291,000 a year.
A school psychologist told the WSWS Teacher Newsletter, Im at the strike meeting right now and, as an avid socialist, Im pissed that our local unions arent coming together to fight inequality in our state. Our politicians have abandoned public education in the name of job creation, aka corporate welfare.
The Washington Education Association (WEA) and its local affiliates have rushed to reach deals in major cities and prevent a unified struggle. Over the weekend, the unions shut down a strike by 1,600 teachers in Vancouver, in the southwest near the Oregon border, and reached deals in Camas, Ridgefield, Arlington and Hockinson.
Last Friday, the Seattle Education Association announced it had reached a deal and instructed 5,000 teachers to report to work Wednesday before they had the full details of the agreement or any chance to vote on it. The SEA has scheduled a membership meeting for Saturday to vote on the deal.
After getting a cursory text message about the deal, one Seattle teacher posted on the SEA Facebook page, We need the details, please!! The Seattle educators have been left in the dark during this whole process. PLEASE give the Seattle staff some information ASAPwe deserve to know what is going on, especially with regards to salary!
During negotiations, the SEA leadership called for a one-year pay increase of 8 to 10 percent, while the so-called Social Equity Educators faction called for a 15 percent hike. Both proposals are woefully inadequate for teachers who have faced a years-long pay freeze in a city where the cost of a two-bedroom apartment is 80 percent higher than the national average.
The immediate impulse for the wave of teacher strikes was the recent state supreme court ruling, which found that the state of Washington, long controlled by the Democratic Party, had failed to fulfill its constitutionally mandated responsibility to educate children and had to increase funding for schools and teacher salaries.
However, the state has left it up to the 300 districts to vie over the estimated $2 billion allocated for salaries out of the $9.2 billion in state funding over the next six years. In addition, a new cap on local tax levies, which could reduce school revenue, means that whatever districts give to teachers this year they could take away next year.
In an effort to justify their sellout deals, the unions are pointing to a possible state takeover of health care for school employees. However, as West Virginia teachers have learned through bitter experience, such schemes, jointly run by the state, insurance companies and the unions, impose impossibly high co-pays and premiums to make up for revenue shortfalls, and these higher costs eat up whatever pay raises teachers receive.
The assault on education and teachers has proceeded as Governor Jay Inslee and other state Democrats showered billions of dollars in tax cuts on Washington-based companies like Boeing and Amazon. The unions, which are politically aligned with the Democrats, have opposed any statewide action by teachers. Far from proposing any challenge to the economic domination of the giant corporations and the states billionaires, like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the unions are planning to work with the Democrats once again to fund the schools and meager pay increases through more regressive taxes that hit the working class the hardest.
The struggle in Washington takes place as teachers and school employees across the country fight to recoup lost wages and increase resources to public schools that have suffered deep cuts in funding and personnel since the 2008 financial crash a decade ago.
One in five teachers must work a second job to make ends meet, and economic insecurity has led thousands to leave the profession, leading cash-strapped districts to hire teachers with insufficient training. According to the Learning Policy Institute, schools are starting this year with 100,000 classrooms in which teachers are either not adequately certified or lack experience.
Last Friday, teachers in Los Angeles, the second largest school district in the nation, voted by 98 percent to authorize strike action. Officials from the United Teachers Los Angeles, however, have made it clear they are opposed to a strike by the citys 33,000 teachers, who have been working without a new contract for 13 months.
Far from organizing a struggle, the unions have proven to be the biggest obstacle to a unified struggle by teachers for livable wages and the right to high quality public education for their students. Allied with the Democratic Party, the unions have colluded with both big business parties to make teachers and the whole working class pay for the bailout of the Wall Street banks and the squandering of trillions more on tax cuts and endless wars.
The top executives of the teachers unions make 10 times or more than the average salaries of starting teachers and have no interest in opposing social inequality. In 2017, NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia ($348,732) and Executive Director John Stocks ($375,942) easily cleared the threshold for the richest one percent of the population, as did AFT President Randi Weingarten ($492,563), Secretary-Treasurer Lorretta Johnson ($392,530), and Executive Vice President Mary Cathryn Ricker ($337,434). These reported figures do not include additional fees and income derived from handling billions of dollars in pension funds and other investments.
The strikes by teachers in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona and other states, earlier this year, took the form of a rebellion against the unions. The unions, however, reasserted their control over these struggles, isolated and betrayed them.
If such an outcome is not to be repeated, Washington teachers must take the conduct of this battle into their own hands by electing rank-and-file strike committees in every school and community. These committees should mobilize educators, parents and teachers to reject the sellout deals being pushed by the unions and to organize a statewide strike for good wages and fully funded services.
At the same time, rank-and-file teachers should reach out to educators and other workers in struggle throughout the country, including UPS, Amazon, steel and auto workers, to prepare a general strike. The securing of good paying jobs and the resources for a vast improvement of public education is only possible through a political struggle by the working class, in opposition to both big business parties and the capitalist system they defend.
Country
United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
World Reuters
Former world No.1 tennis doubles player Peng Shuai, one of China's biggest sporting stars, has publicly accused a former Chinese vice premier of forcing her into sex several years ago in a social media post that was later deleted. According to a screenshot of her verified Weibo account late on Tuesday, Peng said that Zhang Gaoli, who became a member of the Politburo Standing Committee - China's top decision-making body - coerced her into sex and they later had an on-off consensual relationship. The post was deleted around half an hour after it was published, although searches for Peng's name on China's tightly controlled internet surged after the posting, and screenshots were shared among private WeChat groups and over iMessage.
Meghan Markle joined Prince Harry at one of his most emotional events of the year on Tuesday.
The WellChild Awards, one of the annual highlights of Harrys public calendar, honors gravely sick children and their caregivers.
Harry, 33, who has been patron of WellChild since 2007, and Meghan, 37, attended a pre-awards reception, meeting winners and their families, an occasion where Harry regularly doles out his trademark hugs and charms the room of caregivers, families and friends with his close attention to their individual stories.
Meghan opted for one of her go-to looks for the event: a black pantsuit by Altuzarra paired with a shirt by Deitas. She styled her hair in a low side messy bun.
Meghan Markle
Meghan Markle
Speaking at last years awards, Harry said, These awards were created to shine a bright light on an amazingly brave group of children and young people, on their lives, and on the resolve they and their families have shown to overcome challenges. Life for families caring for seriously ill children is exceptionally tough. And without WellChild it is even tougher.
Meghan Markle
Watch: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (in a suit by Altuzarra and blouse by Deitas) arrive at the @WellChild awards in London pic.twitter.com/GOCZGl7HnU Simon Perry (@SPerryPeoplemag) September 4, 2018
More than 100,000 children and young people in the U.K. are living with serious or exceptional health needs, and many spend years in the hospital because there is no support enabling them to leave. Meanwhile, those who are at home face inconsistent and inadequate levels of support.
Meghan and Harry meet Matilda Booth, one of those being honoured by @WellChild, at the pre-awards reception @people pic.twitter.com/X4WJvbOPuG Simon Perry (@SPerryPeoplemag) September 4, 2018
Among this years WellChild Honorees:
Story continues
Matilda Booth, 7. Paralyzed with spina bifida from the chest down, she has had brain surgery seven times, among more than 40 operations.
Mckenzie Brackley, 4, battled Acute Flaccid Paralysis following a virus. Mckenzie cheers up everyone when they are low, and is guaranteed to put a smile on your face, the charity says.
Chloe Henderson, 10, was born 10 weeks early and has cerebral palsy. She is the first differently abled child to pass her pre-primary ballet award with the prestigious Royal Academy of Dance.
Jamie Jobson, 10, has a complex range of conditions, including CIPO, which severely affects his intestines. Jamie is determined to be independent, the charity says. He speaks through signing and his mischievous character always shines through.
Poppy Slater, 13, battles Crohns Disease. She has had extensive hospital stays and takes significant medication to keep her condition in remission, as there is no cure. Despite tiredness and nausea she works hard at school and participates in many clubs such as the writers and illustrators club, debate society and drama club and she is even learning Latin.
Jake Stacey, 12, loves acting and has had small TV parts, despite years of being told he couldnt audition for roles because of his spinal muscular atrophy.
Evie Toombes, 16, was born with spina bifida. She blogs and mentors young people with health problems to encourage them.
Cameron Dixon, 16, was born with a rare form of muscular dystrophy and was not expected to live long. His mum says he has achieved so much, although school and education is incredibly challenging for him he never gives up, WellChild says. He is a junior political editor for a magazine and has been to both Scottish and English Parliament to interview politicians.
Scarlett Mathison, 10, cares for her differently abled 13-year-old sister Freya. Scarlett is very selfless, she understands totally that Freya requires a lot of care and attention, her only concern is her sister and having her well, says WellChild.
Jacob Granger, 17, cares for his sister Melissa, who has Angelman syndrome, which leaves her in need of 24-hour care. His determination and patience have resulted in Melissa learning first to crawl and then walk.
Geraldine Phillips has been a childrens diabetes nurse at Morriston Hospital, Swansea, for more than 20 years. When she started as the lone nurse covering a large clinic population, she quickly helped establish a support group for families, including organizing an annual activities weekend. The residential weekend is an innovative service in Wales that helps children meet other young people with diabetes.
Dr. Alf Bass is an orthopedic surgeon at Alder Hey Childrens Hospital who has pioneered changes in the orthopedic management of children with cerebral palsy, radically shifting the emphasis from surgery to rehabilitation.
Prince Harry is spreading smiles.
Seven-year-old Matilda Booth, who has spina bifida and is paralyzed from the chest down, was one of the children that the 33-year-old royal and his wife, Meghan Markle, met at Tuesdays WellChild Awards. Matildas mother, Sharon Booth, told reporters after their meeting the royal couple that they were really nervous when we got there but [Harry and Meghan] made us feel so much at ease. They were both so nice.
Matilda shared a special moment with Harry during the meeting, when he told her to never stop smiling.
He made her pinky promise to always keep that beautiful smile, Sharon said.
Meghan, 37, bent down when Matilda presented her with flowers. The Duchess of Sussex plucked a cream rose from the bouquet for the little girl to keep.
She just seems so gentle and sincere, Sharon said of Meghan and Harry. They were just like normal people.
As Prince Harry asked whether Sharon would get emotional during the evening, Meghan reassured her, By the way, me too. I wont be able to hold back.
Meghan and Harry meet Matilda Booth, one of those being honoured by @WellChild, at the pre-awards reception @people pic.twitter.com/X4WJvbOPuG Simon Perry (@SPerryPeoplemag) September 4, 2018
Amy Brackley, whose 4-year-old son son Mckenzie was joint winner of the Inspirational Child Years Award with Matilda, said their meeting with the royal couple was amazing.
They were so lovely, she explained to reporters. They knew he was scared of the cameras and they said they didnt like the cameras either so they turned around. They said he was amazing and to keep going the way he is going and told him to look after me.
Story continues
Amy added, Hes never going to forget this, even though hes only 4.
Congratulations to #WellChildAwards Winner Mckenzie, aged 4, who has learned to speak, swallow, eat, drink and move again following a virus, which left him paralyzed.
Mckenzie is there for other children when they are scared or sad, and has helped @echcharity with fundraising. pic.twitter.com/0qyFlvlsoR Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) September 4, 2018
Cant get enough of PEOPLEs Royals coverage? Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more!
Prince Harry and Meghan also chatted with 10-year-old Chloe Henderson, who boldly asked the royal couple a very important question.
Theres a question I have to ask you, she said, as Harry laughed and hid his head in his hands. Whats your favorite Disney film?
Harry said he loved The Lion King, while Meghan replied that she has always loved The Little Mermaid.
Harry isnt the only royal who fittingly loves The Lion King. Prince William revealed last year that the 1994 film is also one of Prince Georges favorites.
During Tuesdays event in London, Harry also revealed that he liked Zootopia and Moana, and shared one of his favorite parts of the latter film is when the chicken [Heihei] comes up and finds himself out at sea in a boat.
Speaking at last years awards, Harry said, These awards were created to shine a bright light on an amazingly brave group of children and young people, on their lives, and on the resolve they and their families have shown to overcome challenges. Life for families caring for seriously ill children is exceptionally tough. And without WellChild it is even tougher.
Facebook (FB) COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter (TWTR) CEO Jack Dorsey took to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee regarding their companies efforts to counter disinformation campaigns by foreign governments seeking to influence U.S. elections.
Google (GOOG, GOOGL) leadership, however, was conspicuously absent from the hearing much to the committees ire. Instead, the company chose to submit written testimony. As a result, Google appeared to send the message that the meeting was unimportant. Of course, skipping the hearing spared the company from having to comment on its attempts to develop a new search engine for the Chinese market, as well.
Im disappointed Google decided against sending the right senior level executive to participate in what I truly expect to be a productive discussion, Committee Chairman Senator Richard Burr (R, NC) said in his opening statement.
The Intelligence Committee originally sought to bring Larry Page, CEO of Google parent Alphabet, in to testify, though the company decided against that or having Google CEO Sundar Pichai speak. Instead, Googles Chief Legal Officer and Head of Global Affairs Kent Walker submitted the companys testimony to the committee.
According to TechCrunch, Google informed the Intelligence Committee in July that it would be sending Walker to the hearing, and was under the impression at that time that doing so would be sufficient. The senators clearly felt differently.
Bashing the big G
Vice Chairman Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) hit Google especially hard saying, Im deeply disappointed that Google, one of the most influential digital platforms in the world, chose not to send its own top corporate leadership to engage this committee. Because I know our members have a series of difficult questions about structural vulnerabilities on a number of Googles platforms that well need answers for.
Warner continued, From Google Search, which continues to have problems surfacing absurd conspiracies, to YouTube where Russian-backed disinformation agents promoted hundreds of divisive emails, to Gmail where state-sponsored operatives attempted countless hacking attempts, Google has an immense responsibility in this space. Given its size and influence I would have thought that leadership at Google would have wanted to demonstrate how seriously it takes these challenges and actually take a leadership role in this discussion.
Story continues
Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) said she wanted to express her outrage that Google was absent, while Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), questioned whether Googles absence from the hearing was due to its own arrogance.
In his written testimony, Walker laid out how Google is fighting disinformation campaigns and where it is cooperating with government officials.
We believe that we have a responsibility to prevent the misuse of our platforms and we take that very seriously, Walker wrote in his testimony. Google was founded with a mission to organize the worlds information and make it universally accessible and useful. The abuse of the tools and platforms we build is antithetical to that mission.
But those comments werent enough to save Google from the committees anger. On the flip side, senators repeatedly praised Sandberg and Dorsey for attending the meeting, and expressed their thanks for the work Facebook and Twitter have done to reduce the effectiveness of disinformation and interference campaigns from the likes of Russia and Iran.
In his written testimony submitted to the Intelligence Committee in November 2017, Walker explained that Google saw a relatively small amount of disinformation through YouTube compared to the vast amounts of content uploaded to the service.
Of course, by refusing to send its chief executives, Google and Alphabet managed to dodge any questions regarding the companies reported work on a new search engine for the Chinese market that would abide by the governments strict censorship of topics ranging from freedom of speech and human rights to religion.
Both Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) questioned why Facebook and Twitter dont do business in China Sandberg and Dorsey responded that they are banned from the country. In July, Facebook briefly received approval to open an innovation center in the country, only to have the approval revoked in a matter of hours.
Its not as though Google isnt working to prevent election interference and disinformation, but by failing to have its highest-ranking leadership appear before the committee it appeared to take a backseat in the conversation.
Based on optics alone, having Page and Pichai sit out of the hearing makes it appears as though Google simply doesnt take the matter of election interference and disinformation seriously. And while Walker says Google recognizes the importance of the committees work, actions often speak louder than words.
Still, the decision not to attend the meeting didnt appear to affect Googles stock in the short-term. Facebooks stock was down 1.6% in midday trading, while Twitter was down 4.7%. Google, meanwhile, was down 1.2%
More from Dan:
Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@oath.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley. Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn
Eleven people were treated at a local hospital after a plane carrying sick passengers landed at John F. Kennedy Airport Wednesday.
Around 100 people on Emirates Flight 203 from Dubai complained of illness, with symptoms including cough and fever, before being officially evaluated, Benjamin Haynes, a spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Infectious Disease Media Team, told TIME. Emirates, however, said that only about 10 of the roughly 500 passengers on the flight were taken ill.
Statement: Emirates can confirm that about 10 passengers on #EK203 from Dubai to New York were taken ill. On arrival, as a precaution, they were attended to by local health authorities. All others will disembark shortly. The safety & care of our customers is our first priority. Emirates Airline (@emirates) September 5, 2018
LIVE VIDEO, UPDATE: Officials from Dubai are blaming food poisoning for 100 passengers becoming ill on @Emirates Flight 203 as the plane remains under #quarantine at #JFK Airport: https://t.co/FCH6DVldJt CBS New York (@CBSNewYork) September 5, 2018
Eric Phillips, press secretary for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasios office, tweeted about three hours after the plane landed that all passengers had disembarked. (Though Phillips initially said the plane was quarantined, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey did not escalate the incident to that level of formal response.) Ten sick people were initially taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens, while another nine were found to be ill but declined further medical treatment. One person on the plane sought treatment for unrelated symptoms later in the day, Jamaica Hospital representatives said in a statement Thursday.
Story continues
All the passengers are off and have been evaluated. 19 sick. 10 to hospital and 9 refused medical attention. Health officials are processing tests now to determine the cause. Symptoms still pointing to the flu. https://t.co/ZWURgb68bJ Eric Phillips (@EricFPhillips) September 5, 2018
10 sick people off the plane and heading to Jamaica Hospital. Health officials taking others off one by one checking for symptoms. About 40 cleared and going to customs. A few others showing symptoms and being held for treatment and possible transport to hospital. https://t.co/6X0445ivXy Eric Phillips (@EricFPhillips) September 5, 2018
Emirates said the 10 people taken to the hospital included seven crew members and three passengers.
Media Statement #2: Emirates can confirm that all passengers have disembarked from flight #EK203. All passengers were screened by local health authorities prior to disembarkation. 3 passengers & 7 crew were transferred to the hospital for further medical care and evaluation. 1/4 Emirates Airline (@emirates) September 5, 2018
A Jamaica Hospital spokesperson said in a statement provided to TIME that patients brought to the hospital had symptoms including cough, fever, sore throat and headache. Test results came back positive for influenza, Phillips tweeted Thursday morning.
Ten of the 11 patients were discharged by Thursday afternoon, according to Jamaica Hospital representatives, while the final patient remained at the hospital for flu treatment.
Vanilla Ice was apparently among the more than 500 passengers on the A380 aircraft. The rapper tweeted a video of the scene on the tarmac, and called the situation crazy in a separate tweet.
So I just landed from Dubai and now there is like tons of ambulances and fire trucks and police all over the place, he wrote. Apparently there is over 100 people sick on the bottom floor, so happy Im up top, its a double-decker plane 380, he added in another tweet.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) Democrats know who their voters are. They just have to figure out how to get them to the polls in November and that's where the puppies come in.
Students returning to the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus this summer were greeted by therapy dogs for petting. Those lured by the chance to ruffle a dog's ears were then asked to register to vote a "Pups to the Polls" gimmick that was just one of several similar events being staged in 11 battleground states by the liberal group NextGen America.
Young people tend to vote for Democrats, but they also tend stay away during midterm elections. It's a perennial frustration for the party one they are trying to overcome as they seek to take control of Congress.
NextGen America, formed by billionaire activist Tom Steyer, hopes to be a game changer. Steyer is investing more than $30 million in what's believed to be the largest voter engagement effort of its kind in U.S. history.
The push to register and get pledges from college students to vote is focusing on states such as Wisconsin, Virginia, California and North Carolina with competitive races for Congress, U.S. Senate and other offices.
NextGen sees young voters such as Kellen Sharp as key to flipping targeted seats from red to blue.
"The outcome of this election definitely affects us," said Sharp, an 18-year-old freshman from Milwaukee who stopped to register during the dog event the week before classes started. "I'm just excited to have a voice and say something."
A poll this summer by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and MTV found that most Americans ages 15 to 34 think voting in the midterm elections gives their generation some say about how the government is run. The poll found young people eager to vote for someone who shared their political views on issues such as health care and immigration policy. They expressed far less excitement about voting for a candidate described as a lifelong politician.
Story continues
"If we all vote, we can make a change," said 20-year-old Grace Austin, who stopped to pet the dogs at the Wisconsin event and wound up registering to vote.
Austin and other college students who registered said they feel like their friends are more interested in politics than ever before boosting hopes of Democrats trying to reverse the trend of declining youth participation in midterm elections.
"We want them to know they need to show up and when they do, we will win," said NextGen's Wisconsin director George Olufosoye. "We want them to know they have power."
They certainly have the numbers.
Since the last midterm election in 2014, 15 million post-millennials those between the ages of 18 and 21 have become eligible to vote. But while Generation X, millennials and post-millennials make up the majority of voting-eligible adults nationwide, they are not expected to cast the most votes in November.
In the 2014 midterm, they cast 21 million fewer votes than voters over age 54, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center. Turnout among 18- to 24-year-olds hit a 40-year low in 2014, bottoming out at 17.1 percent, according to an analysis by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, or CIRCLE, at Tufts University.
NextGen points to higher voter turnout on the University of Wisconsin campus for a spring state Supreme Court election won by a liberal, and spikes in turnout in other targeted races, to argue that their push to register 122,000 young people to vote is bearing fruit.
"We're trying really hard to have this be much more of an infrastructure, organizational thing than a two-month campaign," NextGen founder Tom Steyer said in an interview. "We're trying to get the broadest possible democracy, the biggest representation."
More media coverage of competitive races, combined with energy from the March for Our Lives movement that seeks stricter gun laws, has empowered young voters and made them "feel like it's time to have their voice heard about what happens to their generation," said Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, director of CIRCLE.
That's what NextGen hopes. It has nearly 800 organizers on 421 college campuses in Wisconsin, Arizona, California, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia. In Wisconsin alone, NextGen has 27 full-time workers and 40 student fellows registering voters on 26 campuses.
Republicans recognize the power that motivating young voters could have for Democrats, but they're skeptical that participation will increase much. In Wisconsin, Republicans have been targeting college voters for years.
"Wisconsin Republicans win by connecting with voters directly where they are and young voters are no different when it comes to that strategy," said Wisconsin Republican Party spokesman Alec Zimmerman.
Wisconsin has two of the nation's competitive and closely watched races. Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin is being challenged by GOP state Sen. Leah Vukmir, while Republican Gov. Scott Walker faces a challenge from Democratic state schools chief Tony Evers. Polls show the races to be a dead heat just the kind of competitive elections research shows excite younger voters.
"I've never seen anything like this," said NextGen worker and 2016 University of Wisconsin graduate Joe Waldman. "I've never seen the energy, passion and activism there is now."
___
Follow Scott Bauer on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sbauerAP
___
Sign up for "Politics in Focus," a weekly newsletter showcasing the AP's best political reporting from around the country leading up to the midterm elections: https://bit.ly/2ICEr3D
Homeless war veteran Johnny Bobbitt, 34, used his last $20 to fill up the gas tank of stranded motorist Kate McClure (right) in Philadelphia. Source: AAP
The lawyer for a homeless war veteran who used his last $20 to fill up a gas tank for a stranded motorist claims the 300,000 raised for his client is gone.
Johnny Bobbitt, 34, gained worldwide attention when he used his last $20 to help stranded motorist Kate McClure in Philadelphia in November, 2017.
Ms McClure and her boyfriend Mark DAmico started a GoFundMe campaign in return, promising that Mr Bobbitt would have a home.
The couple were last week accused of withholding the money and Mr Bobbitts lawyer now claims it has all gone.
Mr Bobbitts lawyer Chris Fallon doesnt know where the money has gone. Source: AAP
The homeless mans lawyer Chris Fallon told The Star-Ledger the hundreds of thousands are gone.
There is no money left, he said.
Where the money went, I have no idea.
He added Mr Bobbitt is completely devastated.
Mr Fallon told WPVI Philadelphia he found out his clients money was gone during a conference call with Ms McClures lawyer on Tuesday.
The lawyer told NJ.com hes now making requests to access the couples financial records to find out where the money went.
A judge ruled the money needed to be transferred to an account over the weekend.
Mr Bobbitt claims the couple spent money on holidays and a new BMW.
Mr Bobbitts lawyer claims the man is back on the street. Source: AAP
Its further claimed by Mr Fallon in the Philadelphia Inquirer, that Mr Bobbitt received more than $75,000 (55,000) and had a used SUV and camper purchased for him.
Both the camper and the SUV had Ms McClure listed as their owner, but were later sold.
The lawyer told CNN, GoFundMe charged about 23,000 for the campaign, and while 55,000 was given to his client, there should still be over 200,000 left for Mr Bobbitt.
Mr DAmico said after establishing the GoFundMe page, the money would be going into the couples bank account because they were concerned Mr Bobbitt had issues with drug addiction.
The couples lawyer said at Thursdays hearing that Mr Bobbitt had received about 156,000.
Mr DAmico admitted to the Inquirer he used about 380 at the casino, but later repaid it.
READ MORE ON YAHOO NEWS UK:
Story continues
Four out of five adults at risk of early death because their heart age is too high
Misogyny could be made a hate crime as MPs prepare for historic vote
2.6 million have changed their minds about supporting Brexit
Japan typhoon: Hundreds of cars left wrecked as worst storm in 25 years kills 10
Neglected cat covered in dreadlocked fur undergoes miracle transformation
Mr Bobbitts other lawyer Jacqueline Promislo said the man is back out on the streets and using drugs however he is entitled to the money.
What [Mr Bobbitt] would like is to obtain the money that has been raised for him, Ms Promislo told NBC News.
Over 14,000 people gave him money to help him get off the streets and give him a safe place to live.
Mr DAmico said he would rather burn it in front of Mr Bobbitt than give it to him to spend on drugs.
Surprisingly, the toilet seat isn't the dirtiest part of an airport. Neither is the bathroom door handle, or the baggage claim, or even the floor.
Germs love the plastic security trays, according to a study from the University of Nottingham and the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare.
SEE ALSO: Kathleen Turner reveals what it's really like to experience Donald Trump's 'gross handshake'
For the study published in BMC Infectious Diseases, researchers swabbed a variety of frequently touched surfaces at Helsinki-Vantaa airport during peak travel time in the winter of 2016. They discovered viruses on 10 percent of all the tested surfaces, including staircase rails, passport checking counters, and payment terminals.
But the most popular hotspot for infections like rhinovirus (the common cold) and influenza was the plastic security bins where passengers dumped their shoes, phones, and carry-on bags.
Even worse, the study concluded that although the viruses found on frequently touched surfaces may not cause disease, the microbes can survive on "various materials" for "up to several days."
The study's researchers hope that the findings "improve public awareness of how viral infections spread."
In a statement, the University of Nottingham's Professor of Health Protection Jonathan Van Tram suggested that travelers minimize the spread of contagious viruses by washing their hands and coughing into a handkerchief or sleeve while in public, which is the same advice elementary school teachers give their students.
"These simple precautions can help prevent pandemics and are most important in crowded areas like airports that have a high volume of people traveling to and from different parts of the world," he said.
It should be noted, however, that the study was only conducted at one airport. Considering that sanitation practices likely differ between airports, security bins may be contain more germs at some than others.
Story continues
According to the University of Nottingham the study is part of a larger research project funded by the European Union that investigates how airports and other travel-heavy checkpoints are platforms for spreading serious infections. Organizers hope that the research will "strengthen public health advice in preparation for future flu pandemics."
Virology expert Niina Ikonen, who co-authored the study, suggested "technical improvements" that could limit the spread of germs. She concludes that airports could provide free hand sanitizer where "intense, repeat touching of surfaces takes place."
So after you grab your phone and shoes from airport security, consider washing your hands. You don't know what microscopic creatures are crawling across your screen.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones yelled at senators and did a bizarre performance of pretending to be a robot as he arrived at the Senate grilling of Twitter and Facebook bosses.
Facebook and Twitter both sent representatives to the grillings, which are intended to cover issues such as election meddling and accusations of bias on the platforms.
But Mr Jones threatened to overshadow them as he arrived, and yelled at passersby. He shouted homophobic insults at senators and made bleeping noises as he walked around corridors, after taking his seat at the front of the hearings.
Mr Jones has become a difficult figure for social networks such as Facebook. Twitter, whose CEO Jack Dorsey attended proceedings, is the only major platform to have chosen to allow Mr Jones to continue publishing on it.
He appeared to suggest that he was attending the meetings in part as a response to those bans, which he has claimed are part of a conspiracy to censor him.
Mr Jones livestreamed his arrival at the event through Twitter. Large parts of it were difficult to follow or indecipherable, but he shouted a number of insults as well as making strange remarks towards the camera.
"I'm here to face my accusers," he barked to no one near the beginning of the break, which he used as an opportunity to begin a livestream.
"Stop violating the first amendment," he yelled at one senator. Shame on you, you un-American tyrant."
He then went on to launch a homophobic rant towards Marco Rubio, and began a bizarre performance in which he joked about Russian interference in the election.
"Beep beep beep beep I'm a Russian bot beep beep beep beep," he said, waving his arms.
The livestream came to an end when the hearings began again. Mr Jones made his way back into the chamber but the person filming on his behalf was now allowed in while using a camera.
Washington (AFP) - With the United Nations warning of a potential "bloodbath" in Syria's Idlib province, the United States warned President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday it would respond "swiftly and appropriately" if he uses chemical weapons against his own people.
As Syrian troops massed near the northwestern region of nearly three million people, the last major rebel stronghold, renewed Russian airstrikes killed at least nine civilians, according to a violence monitor.
Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said the UN Security Council would meet on Friday to discuss the precarious situation in the province.
Rebel-backer Turkey has held several rounds of talks with regime ally Russia aimed at averting an assault on Idlib, but Moscow dubbed the region a "pocket of terrorism."
The UN's Syria peace envoy Staffan de Mistura said Russia and Turkey held "the key for (a) soft solution to the Idlib issue" and urged them to help avert a humanitarian disaster.
De Mistura pointed to press reports indicating that Syria has set a September 10 deadline for finding a solution before it begins an all-out offensive on the province.
"Let's try to avoid that the last probably major battle of the Syrian territorial conflict... ends in a bloodbath," De Mistura told reporters in Geneva.
US President Donald Trump warned Assad on Monday not to "recklessly attack" Idlib and the White House strongly cautioned him Tuesday against using chemical weapons.
"Such an attack would be a reckless escalation of an already tragic conflict and would risk the lives of hundreds of thousands of people," said White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, warning the US and its allies "will respond swiftly and appropriately."
Haley's own warning focused more explicitly on the prospect of a chemical attack.
"If they want to continue to go the route of taking over Syria, they can do that, but they cannot do it with chemical weapons," she said.
Story continues
- 'Pocket of terrorism' -
De Mistura urged Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to urgently speak on the phone even before they are set to meet with their Iranian counterpart in Tehran on Friday.
His appeal came after Russian warplanes resumed airstrikes on Idlib after a 22-day pause.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on sources in Syria for its reports, said at least nine civilians, including five children from the same family, were killed in the raids, while 10 people were wounded.
Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the last major chunk of territory still in rebel hands.
Many of the residents are rebels and civilians who were bussed out of other areas as they came back under Syrian regime control.
Tuesday's bombardment hit several areas held by the jihadist-led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance, among them the large town of Jisr al-Shughur, but also areas held by rival Turkish-backed rebels, including the town of Ariha.
The Syrian military has been deploying reinforcements to the zone for more than a month, and Russia has stepped up its rhetoric.
"We know that the Syrian armed forces are getting ready to solve this problem," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, calling Idlib a "pocket of terrorism."
Moscow has been carrying out strikes in Syria since September 2015, using aircraft at the Hmeimim base in Latakia province.
It accuses rebels in Idlib of attacking Hmeimim with weaponized drones and insists jihadists in the province must be eliminated.
- 'Appeal for sanity' -
De Mistura said there were an estimated 10,000 fighters with UN-designated terror groups currently in Idlib.
But he stressed that there are some 2.9 million civilians in the province, including around one million children, who "are not terrorists."
"There are many more babies than terrorists in Idlib," said Jan Egeland, head of the UN's humanitarian taskforce for Syria. "We appeal for sanity."
Amid a diplomatic frenzy to try to avoid a full-scale assault on Idlib, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told AFP Tuesday "it is important today that the path to negotiations be open and not that toward confrontation."
De Mistura, whose years of efforts to push forward a Syrian peace deal have achieved no breakthroughs, insisted that he would pursue his efforts to set up a committee to write a new Syrian constitution.
The UN envoy said he did not plan to postpone two rounds of consultations next week with high-level representatives of a range of countries with influence on different sides in the conflict.
"It is going to be a moment of truth," he said.
More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since Syria's war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
burs-oh/ia
A former Cosby Show actor is speaking out after a photograph surfaced showing him working at a grocery store in what many perceived as an attempt to shame him for his job.
Actor Geoffrey Owens spoke with Good Morning Americas Robin Roberts Tuesday after images of him working at a local Trader Joes were shared widely online, drawing job-shaming comments and widespread pickup from media outlets. But not long after the photos went viral, other commentators and fellow actors started flooding Owens with support, empathy and stories from their own careers.
I was really devastated, Owens said, But the period of devastation was so short.
The incident, Owens said, shed light on what it means to work and the dignity of it. There is no job that is better than another job. It might pay better, it might have better benefits, it might look better on a resume and on paper, Owens, who wore his Trader Joes name badge during the interview, said. But actually, its not better. Every job is worthwhile and valuable, and if we have a rethinking about that because of what has happened to me, that would be great.
FULL INTERVIEW: @GMA EXCLUSIVE -- "There's no job better than another...every job is worthwhile..." Actor Geoffrey Owens speaks out, responding to job shaming and backlash after a photo of him working at a grocery store was posted online: https://t.co/0wZJnpowI9 pic.twitter.com/aNiG5fV2yf Good Morning America (@GMA) September 4, 2018
Owens says he began working at Trader Joes just over a year ago to help make ends meet. The former Cosby Show actor has been acting, directing and teaching those two crafts for more than 30 years, and it got to a point where it just didnt add up enough, he said. At the grocery store, patrons would recognize Owens every day and they were very, very cool about it, he told Good Morning America.
Story continues
Indeed, working several jobs to make ends meet is no rarity for actors and artists as the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists highlighted in a tweet on Labor Day in support of Owens. The union encouraged actors to share their own stories on Twitter with the hashtag #ActorsWithDayJobs, and actors and those in other fields shared their stories of working multiple jobs for years to support themselves and their families.
This #LaborDay, we honor #geoffreyowens & ALL of the hard-working actors & artists who work 1, 2, 3 day jobs in order to pay the bills, take care of their families & still work to entertain us. #ActorsWithDayJobs, please share yours! Were here for u & will RT #ActorsWithDayJobs SAG-AFTRA Foundation (@sagaftraFOUND) September 3, 2018
While Owens said the incident has sparked interest in him for future acting gigs, he maintained that he would only be interested in pursuing opportunities he earned on merit alone.
No one should feel sorry for me, either from a positive or negative perspective, Owens said. Ive had a great life, Ive had a great career, Ive had a career that most actors would really die for. No one has to feel sorry for me; Im doing fine.
Insurgent challenger will be states first black female member of Congress
The Democratic candidate Ayanna Pressley takes the stage after winning the Democratic primary in Boston, Massachusetts. Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters
In the latest upset during the 2018 Democratic primaries, Ayanna Pressley beat a veteran 10-term Democrat in Massachusetts in a House race being watched nationally as an indicator of the future of the Democratic Party.
With Michael Capuano conceding and no Republican opponent on the ballot in November, Pressley will be become the first African American woman to represent Massachusetts on Capitol Hill.
The night also marked another victory for insurgent candidates within the Democratic Party, who are demanding a more strident political posture in the era of Trump.
In her victory speech, Pressley said: These times demanded more from our leaders and from our party. These times demanded an approach to governing that was bold, uncompromising and unafraid. Its not just good enough to see the Democrats back in power but it matters who those Democrats are.
Her win adds her to the growing number of female and minority candidates who have been propelled to victory in primaries by the Democratic base, joining candidates like Andrew Gillum, the Democratic nominee for Florida Governor as well as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Although Pressley gained renewed national attention in the wake of Ocasio-Cortezs shock win against longtime incumbent Joe Crowley in New York City in June, she is a far more orthodox figure.
Long heralded as a rising star in the Democratic Party, Pressley was first elected to the Boston City Council in 2009. The former staffer for Senator John Kerry and Congressman Joe Kennedy has been touted by national progressive groups for years. A former Clinton surrogate, Pressley was awarded a rising star award by the Democratic activist group Emilys List in 2015.
Pressley, a Boston city councilor, and Capuano were both ardent progressives with a few differences. Pressley supported the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice); Capuano did not. Capuano favored a federal jobs guarantee; Pressley did not. Instead, the race focused on style.
Story continues
Pressley argued that while Capuano was a consistent progressive vote in Congress, she would provide activist leadership. In contrast, Capuano pointed to his longstanding relationships in Congress and ability to bring home federal money to the district.
Pressley benefited from the changing demographics of her district, which spans much of Boston as well as a mix of blue collar and well-educated suburbs. It is the only majority minority district in Massachusetts. Her campaign focused on turning those voters, particularly African Americans, who were less likely to cast ballots in a Democratic primary.
Pressley thought was also helped by some cracks in establishment support for Capuano. Both of the states Democratic senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren did not endorse in the race and state attorney general Maura Healey endorsed Pressley. In addition, she was endorsed by the Boston Globe.
However, Capuano still had strong support from organized labor, Boston mayor Marty Walsh as well as the Congressional Black Caucuss political action committee.
In remarks where he conceded even before the race had been called by the Associated Press, Capuano seemed to take his defeat in stride. Clearly the district wanted a lot of change, said the incumbent. Apparently the district was just very upset with lots of things going on. I can tell you I have been just as upset as they are. But so be it, thats the way life goes.
During her victory speech, Pressley dug into President Donald Trump and his predecessors: While our president is a racist, misogynistic, truly empathy bankrupt man, the conditions which have made the 7th district one of the of most unequal in America was cemented through policies long before he ever descended the escalator at Trump Tower.
Pressley spoke of Capuano, saying he forced me to bring my best, and thanked him for his 20 years of service.
Stephanie Voltaire, 29, excitedly jumped through the crowd to glimpse a sight of Pressley. Voltaire cited her candidates work to save Temporary Protected Status for immigrants as a major factor of her support. Im ready for her to fight for immigrants.
Damali Vidot, who is city council president in nearby Chelsea and volunteered for Pressleys campaign, said that Pressleys win opens up a conversation of who the Democratic Party represents.
Many communities feel unseen, she said. This gives us the opportunity to see how inclusive the party can be.
Shortly after the win, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted her support: Lets push together to make Medicare for All, tuition free college, & living wages a reality in America - all without corporate PAC money.
Reuters
Former world No.1 tennis doubles player Peng Shuai, one of China's biggest sporting stars, has publicly accused a former Chinese vice premier of forcing her into sex several years ago in a social media post that was later deleted. According to a screenshot of her verified Weibo account late on Tuesday, Peng said that Zhang Gaoli, who became a member of the Politburo Standing Committee - China's top decision-making body - coerced her into sex and they later had an on-off consensual relationship. The post was deleted around half an hour after it was published, although searches for Peng's name on China's tightly controlled internet surged after the posting, and screenshots were shared among private WeChat groups and over iMessage.
Ben Chaplin stars in new BBC Drama Press (BBC Pictures).
BBC Ones upcoming newspaper drama Press was forced to change a terror attack storyline after a genuine attack occurred on a London tube.
Speaking at the shows screening Press star Charlotte Riley revealed that an original storyline involving a tube bucket bomb was axed following the September 2017 Parsons Green train bombing.
There were one or two storylines that we filmed that then actually happened in real life, so they didnt make the cut. We couldnt then use them because they were too close to reality.
We ended up cutting that out because it had literally just happened. There were others too. When things from the script kept happening in real life I thought, What is going on here?' Riley explained.
That was quite fascinating. But it made me think the writer was a witch of some kind, she added.
Press, starring Ben Chaplin, Charlotte Riley and Priyanga Burford, explores the unflinching, fast-paced world and personal lives of the journalists working at two fictional national newspapers.
The Herald, clearly based on The Guardian strives for social justice and promotes left-wing ideology, while The Post is an amalgam of The Mirror and The Sun and goes after the salacious and clickbait.
Press creator and writer Mike Bartlett (Doctor Foster, Trauma), said he envisions the show as a West Wing for papers and that he strived to portray an accurate version of the turmoil within the British national newspaper industry:
The heart of it is getting to know characters in the workplace and then in terms of the news industry it is about increasing change. As the show goes on it is shown as an industry that has been the same for a long time and that now cannot stay the same and has to change, Bartlett said.
(BBC Pictures).
Indeed both Bartlett and the actors researched national newspapers, with several spending time in the offices of The Daily Mirror and The Guardian.
Riley said she now has a newfound respect for journalists, I was quite shocked at how effected and tough the job is and how it effects the journalists life. Its not just the work life they really do take their jobs home.
Story continues
On a personal level it is quite different now meeting a journalist. Unfortunately for jounralists I am completely intrigued by them! she said.
Press starts on BBC One at 9pm Thursday September 6.
Read more
BBC Ones Bodyguard is biggest TV drama in a decade
Five reasons to watch X-rated BBC drama Wanderlust
Bodyguard viewers think they know set the bomb off
New York (AFP) - An African American woman on Tuesday pulled off an upset victory in a Democratic primary contest against a 10-term entrenched male incumbent in Boston, the latest sign that insurgent US candidates from the left are gaining ground.
Ayanna Pressley, 44, won the Democratic nomination for the US House of Representatives in Massachusetts's seventh district, one of the most left-leaning in America and which includes Harvard University.
"It seems like change is on the way," she told her cheering supporters. "Ours was truly a people-power, grass-roots campaign."
Pressley has long been identified as a rising star in the Democratic Party. In 2009, she was the first woman of color ever elected to the Boston City Council. She also worked for former senator John Kerry.
Michael Capuano, who has represented the district for 20 years, conceded defeat in a primary that few predicted he would lose, armed with an impressive party machinery and top-flight support.
"This is life and this is OK. America's going to be OK. Ayanna Pressley is going to be a good congresswoman, and I will tell you that Massachusetts will be well served," the 66-year-old said.
Winning Tuesday's primary in the safe Democratic seat puts Pressley on course to become the first African American in Massachusetts to be elected to the US House of Representatives.
Teeming opposition on the left to US President Donald Trump has fueled primary wins for insurgent, women and minority candidates in Democratic primaries ahead of November's crucial mid-term elections.
Some similarities have been drawn between Pressley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the political novice who defeated Democratic Party grandee Joe Crowley in a New York primary in June.
But as Capuano and Pressley are both progressives, she campaigned for change and argued that her life experience -- she is a survivor of sexual assault -- would make her the better representative.
Body of missing 2-year-old Florida boy found in wooded area, mother charged with murder originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
A 2-year-old boy who went missing in Florida has been found dead, authorities said.
The body of Jordan Belliveau was found in a wooded area, five days after he was believed to have been kidnapped by a stranger who gave a lift to him and his mother as they were walking at night in the city of Largo, police said.
"THE AMBER Alert for Jordan Belliveau has been canceled. Sadly, the child has been found deceased," the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) said in a tweet.
Jordan's mother, Charisse Stinson, has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder, ABC Affiliate station WFTS reported.
Police have not revealed any information about how the boy was killed or what evidence led them to arrest Stinson.
PHOTO: The Florida Department of Law Enforcement issued an Amber Alert on Sept. 1, 2018, for Jordan Belliveau, 2, pictured in this undated photo. (The Florida Department of Law Enforcement)
For nearly a week, multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Largo Police Department and the FDLE dragged bodies of water, reviewed surveillance footage, deployed canine search teams and interviewed family in the hunt for the child.
(MORE: Police release video related to search for 2-year-old boy missing in Florida)
The boy's 21-year-old mother said that on Saturday night, after she and Jordan entered the car of the man who was giving them a lift, she had an altercation with the man and he struck her in the face, causing her to lose consciousness, police said.
When she woke up early Sunday morning in a wooded area in Largo Central Park, she said she could not locate her son.
Jordan was last seen in the car with the unknown man, who the mother said identified himself as "Antwan," officials stated.
Police later released a sketch of the man.
PHOTO: Members of law Enforcement gather during the search for missing toddler Jordan Belliveau. (Largo Police Department)
The mother had told police she did not know the driver, but she entered his car because she felt her son was too heavy to carry all the way home, police said. Police had also spoken to the father of the child, who they said was cooperating with authorities.
(MORE: Arrest warrant issued for man in murder of wife, Amber Alert for 2 missing sons)
Police on Monday said they had recovered "bloody items" from the apartment where the mother lived with Jordan, although they did not say it was in any way connected to the boy's disappearance.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's intelligence minister said on Wednesday he had no knowledge of close ally U.S. President Donald Trump ever ordering the killing of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad. A new book by Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, "Fear: Trump in the White House", says Trump told his defense secretary that he wanted to have Assad assassinated in response to a chemical attack on Syrian civilians in April 2017. The book said James Mattis, the defense secretary, told Trump he would "get right on it" but instead developed a plan for a limited air strike that did not threaten Assad personally. Trump tweeted that quotes attributed to Mattis were "made up frauds, a con on the public". Mattis dismissed the book as "a uniquely Washington brand of literature". "I do not know of any such instruction. He (Trump) is also denying it, by the way," Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz told Tel Aviv radio station 103 FM. "In any event, what can be said is that in the framework of the coordination between the United States and Israel ... the subject of the Syrian regime is certainly part of the discussions. Israel did not take a decision to topple Assad." While formally neutral on the 7-year civil war in neighboring Syria, Israel has carried out scores of air strikes against suspected attempts by Assad's Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah allies to set up permanent posts or advanced arms. Under decades of Assad family rule, Syria has maintained a Cold War-style hostility toward Israel. Katz said Israel did not see a better alternative to Assad among Syrian rebel groups. "Of course his (Assad's) actions are terrible actions, and something that we abhor and condemn. Those opposing him, ISIS and others, are not a side that we think are better. We took care to preserve our interests," Katz said. Woodward gained national fame for his reporting on the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, and has since written a number of books that provide behind-the-scenes glimpses of presidential administrations and other Washington institutions. For this book, Woodward spoke to top aides and other insiders with the understanding that he would not reveal how he got his information, said the Washington Post, which published excerpts from the book on Tuesday. (Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
WASHINGTON Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court confirmation hearing got off to a raucous start on Monday, as Democrats immediately objected and asked for a delay over the refusal of the White House to release a trove of documents related to his past tenure in President George W. Bushs administration.
More than a dozen times, protesters in the galley shouted as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) attempted to bring the proceedings to order and later to deliver opening remarks.
Capitol Police officers escorted the demonstrators out of the room, as the protesters tried to shout that Kavanaughs confirmation would threaten womens rights, LGBT rights, and voting rights, as well as health care and checks on presidential power. Many times, a protester was ejected, and then a new demonstrator would fill the seat.
Democrats said that a delay of the hearing was essential because more than 102,000 pages of documents are being withheld from the committee based on White House claims of constitutional privilege.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said there is no valid claim there of executive privilege.
What is the rush? What are we trying to hide by not having the documents out front? said Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who also noted that there was also a document dump of more than 40,000 pages just on Sunday night.
Just on the basic ideals of fairness, the traditions of this body, we should have a thorough understanding of the nominee before us, he said.
Grassley refused to allow a vote to delay the hearing. He defended the confirmation process, but at times seemed irritated as Democrats pressed their points.
How long do you want this to go on? he asked at one point.
He said that all of the senators would get ample time to ask questions and make statements, and that the hearings would extend into the weekend if needed.
Story continues
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said that the hearing was being based on mob ruleIt is hard to take it seriously when every single one of our colleagues have announced their opposition to this nominee even before the hearing.
He also said that Kavanaughs work as staff secretary in the Bush White House would teach us nothing about his legal views.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said that Kavanaugh was no ideologue, no extremist who will bring thoughtful reasoning to the court and was well within the judicial mainstream.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said that the acrimony is nothing more and nothing less than an attempt by my Democratic colleagues to re-litigate the 2016 election. He said that voters in 2016 made their preferences for judicial appointments clear.
In the hour before the hearing, a long line snaked outside the hearing room in the Hart Senate Office building for visitors trying to get a seat, while a group of demonstrators dressed in handmaids costumes akin to those on A Handmaids Tale lined balconies that overlook the buildings atrium. They are demonstrating against the potential for Kavanaugh to be the decision vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
As the senators argued back and forth, Kavanaugh sat in a witness chair and watched. He is expected to give an opening statement later on Monday.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) told reporters before the hearing that 93% of the records for Kavanaughs tenure in the White House have not been provided to the Senate and 96% are hidden to the public.
Feinstein, the ranking member of the committee, told Kavanaugh that his reasoning is far outside the mainstream of legal thought, citing his view on gun rights and the Second Amendment.
Nevertheless, the focus of most of the Democrats was that the hearing was not following regular order compared to past confirmation processes.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Conn.) said to Kavanaugh, You shouldnt even be sitting in front of me today. He also cited the Republicans refusal to meet with Judge Merrick Garland, President Barack Obamas nominee for the Supreme Court in 2016. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declined to take up the nomination because it came during a presidential election year.
Leahy, too, was interrupted by protesters, even though he has been critical of Kavanaughs nomination, condemned the outburst.
The divisiveness surrounding Kavanaughs nomination was reflected in an ABC News/Washington Post poll showing that he was among the least popular nominees at this point in the confirmation process. Just 38% said that he should be confirmed, while 39% said he should not be, while 23% had no opinion.
Kavanaugh, a judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, would succeed Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement in June. As Kennedy is regarded as the high courts swing vote, Kavanaughs nomination triggered a summer of protests from civil rights, labor and other groups.
Democrats are expected to focus on a host of issues, but also what Kavanaugh has said about presidential authority at a time of Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation of Russian influence in the 2016 election, and whether members of President Trumps team colluded with sources linked to Vladimir Putins regime.
If you are in that seat because the White House has big expectations that you will protect the president from the due process of law, that should give every senator pause, said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (R-R.I.)
Related stories
From Scandal to Politics, TV News Is Feeling the Heat
Google Pushes Back on Trump's Claim of Bias in Promotion of State of the Union
John McCain, Political Maverick and Hero of Vietnam War, Dies at 81
Subscribe to Variety Newsletters and Email Alerts!
Donald Trump's nominee for new US Supreme Court justice, Brett Kavanaugh, will face a barrage of questions from Democrats at his Senate confirmation hearing this week.
If he survives the onslaught unscathed, Mr Kavanaugh, 53, will succeed the liberal-minded Justice Anthony Kennedy, 81, who announced his retirement in June.
Considered a stolid conservative, the presidents choice has been criticised by Democrats who fear his appointment would pull the courts political bias to the right, imperilling abortion rights and gay marriage, bolstering support for capital punishment and weakening the influence of regulatory authorities.
Mr Kavanaugh, a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, is known for drafting the Starr Report in 1998 recommending the impeachment of president Bill Clinton and working on the Florida recount of 2000 as part of George W Bushs campaign team.
He was chosen from a shortlist of candidates including federal judges Amy Coney Barrett, Raymond Kethledge and Thomas Hardiman.
Among the most outspoken critics of his selection was Democratic senator Bob Casey, who tweeted it was outrageous that President Trump will nominate from a list of just 25 dictated to him by the Heritage Foundation, alluding to a conservative think-tank, branding the situation a corrupt bargain between the far right, big corporations and Washington special interests.
But what happens next and how is a Supreme Court justice appointed?
Article II, section 2 of the US constitution places an obligation on the president to submit a preferred candidate: [The president] shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court.
The nominee does not need any special qualifications to be considered, not even a law degree or US citizenship.
The position is a job for life, intended as such to shield the justices from the need to seek re-election and therefore from the influence of lobbyists and special interest groups bearing the promise of campaign donations.
Story continues
Once the president has announced the name as Mr Trump did in July, heavily trailing the announcement on Twitter to build suspense it falls to the Senate Judiciary Committee to consider their suitability.
The committee, convening from Tuesday 4 September, vets the potential justice, reviewing their professional and personal background and interviewing them on their constitutional views during a hearing that can take a matter of hours or even days.
A vote is then held to decide whether the candidate will be rejected or approved.
(AP)
A famous rejection occurred in 2005 when George W Bushs choice, Texas lawyer Harriet Miers then serving in Washington as his White House special counsel was spurned on the grounds that her written responses to questioning were incomplete to insulting, in the judgement of Democrat Patrick Leahy.
She was privately told she had flunked and publicly dismissed as little more than a crony of the Bush family and satirised savagely as such by political cartoonists.
If this eventuality occurs, the president is then invited to choose a new nominee and the whole process starts over.
Should Judge Kavanaugh be approved, the decision will then fall to the Senate, which will hold its own hearing and vote on his suitability. The Houses decision is final.
The Republicans currently have a slim 51-49 majority in the Senate, reduced from the 54-45 it held when Mr Trumps first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, was elected to replace the late Antonin Scalia in April 2017.
This places particular emphasis on two Republicans Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska both of whom support a womans right to an abortion and will be seeking assurances that Mr Kavanaugh has no ambition to overturn the Roe v Wade decision establishing abortion rights, in spite of Mr Trumps 2016 pledge that he would be putting pro-life justices on the court.
The recent death of Arizona senator John McCain places further pressure on the Republican cause in the face of minority leader Chuck Schumers Democrats presenting a united front opposing Judge Kavanaugh.
The latter will be guided through the process by Arizona Republican Jon Kyl, an experienced ex-senator, who will serve as his sherpa through this treacherous terrain.
The trek can be a long one. In 1916, it took the Senate 125 days to appoint Kentucky lawyer Louis Brandeis to the Supreme Court.
Judge Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court confirmation hearing continues Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The hearing kicked off with chaos Tuesday as Democrats demanded more time to review 42,000 pages of documents from Kavanaughs time working in President George W. Bushs White House. Theirs wasnt the only coordinated dissent in the room protesters also disrupted the proceedings.
Read live updates from the second day of the hearing below. (You may need to refresh the page to see the latest updates.):
10:08 p.m. ET
More than 12 hours after the second days proceedings began, Judge Brett Kavanaugh has been dismissed for the evening.
Doha Madani
9:40 p.m. ET
Kavanaugh continually refuses to answer questions on Roe v. Wade, but Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) asked whether the judge can think of any laws that allow the government to make a decision about a mans body.
Kavanaugh stumbled but eventually said, Im not thinking of any right now, senator.
Doha Madani
9:28 p.m. ET
Sen. Kamala Harris asked Kavanaugh directly if he had a conversation about special counsel Robert Mullers Russia investigation with anyone working at the law firm founded by President Donald Trumps lawyer Marc Kasowitz.
There was a brief pause for the committee to discuss the appropriateness of the question before Harris was allowed to continue her line of questioning.
Kavanaugh did not answer, saying he does not know who works at the Kasowitz, Benson Torres law firm.
Doha Madani
.@senkamalaharris asks if Judge Kavanaugh has discussed Mueller Investigation with anyone at Kasowitz Benson Torres law firm.#Kavanaugh: "I would like to know the person you're thinking of."
Sen. Harris: "I think you're thinking of someone and you don't want to tell us." pic.twitter.com/pI2XEHNba9 CSPAN (@cspan) September 6, 2018
8:49 p.m. ET
Story continues
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) objected to Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) questioning Kavanaugh on an email the judge cannot see.
Thats why this system is rigged, Booker responded.
Booker argued, again, to release some of the committee confidential records that are being withheld from the public.
Doha Madani
8:40 p.m. ET
Booker has not relented on Kavanaughs position on racial diversity, profiling and targeted policing. The senator pressed Kavanaugh on his position on voting rights, citing a case from South Carolina in which the judge ruled in favor of a voter identification law despite evidence of the laws discriminating effect. Booker called such laws a modern-day poll tax.
We are at a time when states are enacting these laws all over our country designed to disenfranchise voters, as one federal court said about a South Carolina law, targeting them with almost surgical precision to disenfranchise them, Booker said toward the end of his time. And now we dont even have the Voting Rights Act designed to curtail discriminatory laws before they go into effect. Your answers dont provide me comfort.
Doha Madani
8:19 p.m. ET
Sen. Cory Booker pushed Kavanaugh on whether he shares Justice Antonin Scalias one-race theory, the belief that its never permissible for the government to remediate past discrimination. Booker cited old emails and opinion pieces written by Kavanaugh on the matter and asked what he believed now.
Senator, I am following the precedent set by the eight justices currently sitting on the Supreme Court. To put it in the words of Justice Kagan, who was asked some of the same questions, it would be inappropriate to give a thumbs up or a thumbs down, Kavanaugh said.
Doha Madani
7:47 p.m. ET
There will be a 25-minute break. Kavanaugh is asked to return at 8:05 p.m. to speak with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.).
Doha Madani
6:53 p.m. ET
Hirono pushed Kavanaugh on his relationship with federal court judge Alex Kozinski, who has been accused of making sexually inappropriate comments to female clerks and lower-level staff members and showing them pornography on his office computer. Kavanaugh insisted he had no knowledge of the allegations before they were reported publicly.
Doha Madani
6:46 p.m. ET
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) asked Kavanaugh the same two questions shes been asking all of President Donald Trumps nominees for the last seven months:
Since you became a legal adult, have you ever made unwanted requests for sexual favors or committed any verbal or physical harassment or assault of a sexual nature?
Have you ever faced discipline or entered into a settlement related to this kind of conduct?
Kavanaugh said no to both inquiries.
Doha Madani
6:39 p.m. ET
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) asked Kavanaugh whether he believes a president should be able to use his authority to pressure agencies for political purposes, citing President Donald Trumps suggestion that the Department of Justice ought to lay off prosecuting Republicans ahead of the November midterm elections.
Kavanaugh declined to weigh in, maintaining that it wouldnt be appropriate for a Supreme Court nominee to comment on current events or political controversies.
Igor Bobic
6:04 p.m. ET
Pressed by Blumenthal, Kavanaugh once again said he followed Supreme Court precedent on parental consent provisions in the Texas case involving an undocumented teenager who sought an abortion last fall. The teen followed state law in the case, obtaining permission from a judge in lieu of parental consent. Kavanaughs opponents say his suggestion that the teen first consult an immigration sponsor before deciding on the abortion was unfair and harmful.
Sara Boboltz
6:01 p.m. ET
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) asked Kavanaugh if he would commit to never overturning Roe v. Wade. Kavanaugh did not answer, citing previous justices who did not answer the question at their hearings.
Doha Madani
5:53 p.m. ET
Kavanaugh would not say whether he would recuse himself from any Supreme Court cases involving President Donald Trumps criminal or civil liability, citing judicial independence.
Sara Boboltz
5:28 p.m. ET
Grassley has called a 10-minute break. Kavanaugh is asked to return after five minutes to speak with Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
Sara Boboltz
5:04 p.m. ET
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) posed a hypothetical scenario in which a president from the Purple Party was driving a vehicle that struck and killed another person, asking whether the president would be immune from prosecution.
No one has ever said a president is immune from civil or criminal process, Kavanaugh replied, saying the key was all about timing.
The Justice Department for 45 years has taken the position that the timing of the criminal process should be after the president leaves office, he said, adding: Now, that doesnt include accumulation of evidence.
Sara Boboltz
5:02 p.m. ET
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said Democrats have only begun to grill Kavanaugh about his views on health care and abortion.
Its just gotten started, Wyden told reporters on Wednesday. I can tell you for certain before these hearings are done, Democrats will have dug into in great length the issue of turning back the clock on womens privacy.
Igor Bobic
4:21 p.m. ET
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) asked whether the president could fire at will a prosecutor who is criminally prosecuting him, citing a past opinion of Kavanaughs.
I think all I can say, Senator, is that was my view in 1998, the nominee said.
Sara Boboltz
4:02 p.m. ET
Progressive groups leading the fight against Kavanaugh Demand Justice, MoveOn and NARAL Pro-Choice America are urging Senate Democrats to release all committee confidential records that could potentially show that he lied under oath.
During his questioning, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) suggested that Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has deemed some documents committee confidential that show that Kavanaugh received copies of emails stolen from Leahy in 2002 relating to Democrats strategy for processing then-President George W. Bushs judicial nominees. Kavanaugh testified in 2004 and 2006 that he didnt know those emails had been stolen, so evidence suggesting otherwise would mean he committed perjury. But since Grassley has restricted access to those documents to committee members, Leahy wasnt able to ask Kavanaugh specifically about them in his hearing.
Chairman Grassley must not shield Judge Kavanaugh from evidence that Kavanaugh perjured himself in previous confirmation hearings reads a joint statement by the three groups. Democratic senators must put an end to this secretive sham. They know that nothing in the Senate Standing Rules or Judiciary Committee Rules grants Grassley sole authority to designate documents Committee Confidential or prohibit their public release.
Jennifer Bendery
3:58 p.m. ET
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Kavanaugh and Merrick Garland former President Barack Obamas 2016 Supreme Court nominee who never advanced to hearings were on the same page in the vast majority of decisions both judges participated in on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Hes a judge whos not trying to impose any personal preferences onto his decision but take the law as written, Kavanaugh said of Garland.
Sara Boboltz
3:39 p.m. ET
Klobuchar also asked for the nominees thoughts on limits to campaign finance contributions by individuals, citing a past Kavanaugh quote: I, for one, tend to think those limits have some constitutional problems.
The judge cited two cases in which he upheld campaign contribution limits while serving on the D.C. circuit court and said the Supreme Court generally upholds the limits unless they are too low.
Sara Boboltz
3:34 p.m. ET
Klobuchar questioned a past dissent of Kavanaughs by seeming to suggest it could threaten vital government agencies, repeatedly naming the Social Security Administration as an example. In his dissent, Kavanaugh wrote that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is an unconstitutional body because its led by just one member. Klobuchar said other agencies are structured similarly, but Kavanaugh did not explain what the difference was.
Sara Boboltz
3:21 p.m. ET
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) again brought up executive power, reminding Kavanaugh that he once said a president could be prosecuted for a dastardly act.
Kavanaugh waffled, saying that he would come to any case with an open mind if it involved a constitutional question. He would not define an impeachable offense.
Sara Boboltz
3:05 p.m. ET
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who wrote a book about the Constitution, had a lengthy exchange about Kavanaughs views on the Constitution and the Federalist Papers. Lee asked which of the Federalist Papers is the nominees favorite. When Kavanaugh named several, Lee suggested that Spotify should put them into a playlist of greatest hits.
Brett Kavanaugh names his seven favorite Federalist Papers: 78 (judicial independence), 69 (presidency not a monarchy), 10 (factions good), 37 + 39 (the meanings of laws change over time), 47 (accumulation of power in one body is tyranny), 51 (the fallibility of men). James Hohmann (@jameshohmann) September 5, 2018
Senators just adjourned for a break. Back in 10 minutes.
Marina Fang
2:30 p.m. ET
Kavanaugh, asked about The Federalist Society, which has essentially handpicked conservative justices for the Supreme Court, claimed that I am not familiar.
Heres more on the groups role in helping Trump reshape federal courts, from HuffPosts Jen Bendery.
Marina Fang
2:21 p.m. ET
Continuing the theme of his opening statement Tuesday, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) pressed Kavanaugh on the network of conservative special interests and its heavy influence on the Supreme Court in recent years.
Read more on this from HuffPosts Paul Blumenthal.
Marina Fang
2:07 p.m. ET
Kavanaugh said Wednesday that he couldnt give assurances that he would uphold pre-existing condition requirements under Obamacare as constitutional if the issue arose before him on the Supreme Court in the future.
I cant give assurances on a specific hypothetical, he said, arguing that his declining to speak on the matter is consistent with how other nominees have discussed issues they may rule on.
Igor Bobic
1:36 p.m. ET
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) used a procedural rule to force Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to adjourn the Senate for the day in protest of Republicans withholding more than 100,000 pages of documents from Kavanaughs records.
On the Senate floor, McConnell asked for consent to waive a rule that prevents committees from meeting for more than two hours after the Senate convenes. The Senate met at noon on Wednesday, which would mean that no committees could meet after 2 p.m. unless McConnell got consent. Schumer objected to granting that consent.
Over 90 percent of Judge Kavanaughs record has not been received by the Senate and may never be, Schumer said. The Republican majority is deliberately obstructing the Senates constitutional duty to fairly and thoroughly conduct our advise and consent powers. ... So I object.
To get around that rule, McConnell opted to simply end all Senate floor business and adjourn. So Kavanaughs hearing will continue, even as Senate floor business will not.
Jennifer Bendery
1:22 p.m. ET
Durbin questioned a harsh 2017 dissent Kavanaugh authored that criticized the D.C. circuit courts decision to quickly allow a pregnant, undocumented teenager in Texas access to an abortion. Kavanaugh defended his opinion because a minor was involved and it was proper for her to first consult with an immigration sponsor, which can be a family member or friend.
Durbin said Kavanaugh was adding to the requirements of Texas law.
Sara Boboltz
1:09 p.m. ET
Durbins line of questioning began with an issue that he has long promised to bring up, stemming from Kavanaughs 2006 confirmation hearing for his post on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
At the time, Kavanaugh said he was not involved in the Bush administrations torture program when he worked in the White House. Later reports suggested otherwise, and Durbin argued today that Kavanaugh provided inaccurate and misleading testimony.
Kavanaugh just said he stands by his answer.
Marina Fang
12:59 p.m. ET
Back from the break. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) again brought up the records issue with Grassley.
Marina Fang
12:24 p.m. ET
After questioning from five senators, Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, as promised, announced a lunch break until around 12:45 p.m. ET.
Marina Fang
12:21 p.m. ET
Addressing Roe v. Wade, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asked how Kavanaugh would overturn the notion of judicial precedent in a case, given the judges previous comments on his commitment to the practice.
The senator emphasized that there is a process in place to overturn a precedent. The nominee agreed.
You listen to all arguments, Kavanaugh said.
Sara Boboltz
12:04 p.m. ET
Asked by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) whether presidents have the absolute right to pardon themselves, likely referencing Trump, Kavanaugh called it a hypothetical question that I cant begin to answer.
He similarly said earlier that Feinsteins question about whether a sitting president can be required to respond to a subpoena was a hypothetical question.
Marina Fang
11:58 a.m. ET
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) appeared to give Kavanaugh a chance to respond to critics who say he snubbed Fred Guttenberg, the father of a Parkland shooting victim, on Tuesday. Kavanaugh instead spent several minutes on his charitable habits, including his experience helping the homeless through Catholic organizations.
Sara Boboltz
11:50 a.m. ET
Asked explicitly by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) whether he knew about the computer hack or whether any information provided to him in the Bush White House was done so inappropriately, Kavanaugh replied, No.
Sara Boboltz
11:40 a.m. ET
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) grilled Kavanaugh on what he knew about the Republican staff members who hacked into Democrats computers to monitor strategy memos in 2002 and 2003. The hack became public in 2004, and included Leahys files. Implicated in the scandal was Manny Miranda, an aide to then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). Miranda resigned under pressure from Democrats.
Leahy surfaced emails involving Kavanaugh and Miranda, asking why Kavanaugh did not question how Miranda was able to send him very private emails from Democrats. The senator suggested the emails may contradict a prior statement from Kavanaugh in which he denied any prior knowledge of the hack, and argued that more documents from Kavanaughs time in the Bush White House should be released to the committee.
Sara Boboltz
11:08 a.m. ET
When Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) asked Kavanaugh for his views on diversity in legal circles, he noted that most of the nominees clerks have been women. Kavanaugh said he believes in equality and has been very aggressive about hiring the best, and understanding that the best include women.
Sara Boboltz
11:01 a.m. ET
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) asked Kavanaugh about his former boss, Judge Alex Kozinski, who was accused of sexual harassment by at least 15 women, including former law clerks and staffers. Kavanaugh said he had no prior knowledge of the allegations, calling them a gut punch.
I was shocked and disappointed and angry, he said. No women should be subjected to sexual harassment in the workplace.
Expect this topic to come up again later, as Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) plans to ask Kavanaugh about sexual harassment, a topic she has brought up with many other Trump administration nominees.
Marina Fang
10:59 a.m. ET
The hearing room was a bit quieter this morning as members of the public were kept out for over 30 minutes. Its not clear what happened, but seats for the public were left open, and people were unable to get in. But around 10:45 a.m., tickets were given to people standing in line once again and they were allowed in 23 people at a time. So the block was just temporary.
Amanda Terkel
10:52 a.m. ET
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) voiced her concern over Kavanaughs stance on gun rights, citing a dissent in which he argued that a ban on semi-automatic rifles violated the Second Amendment, according to the argument laid out in a 2008 Supreme Court decision, because those weapons are not so different from semi-automatic handguns, which the opinion said were generally protected. At the hearing, Kavanaugh defended his opinion and disagreed with Feinsteins assessment that the weapons are not in common use.
Asked how he reconcile[s] his words with the hundreds of school shootings that have taken place with assault weapons in recent years, Kavanaugh acknowledged that violence in schools is something we all detest. But he added, My job, as I saw it, was to follow the Second Amendment opinion of the Supreme Court whether or not I agreed with it.
Sara Boboltz
10:49 a.m. ET
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) tried to find out more about the nominees feelings on executive powers.
Feinstein: Can a sitting president be required to respond to a subpoena?
Kavanaugh: I cant give you an answer on that hypothetical question." Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) September 5, 2018
Igor Bobic
10:42 a.m. ET
If things get too out of hand at Kavanaugh's hearing, don't worry, his stunt double is sitting right behind him: pic.twitter.com/1TIKLaynXD waitwait (@waitwait) September 5, 2018
His stunt double would be Don McGahn, President Donald Trumps outgoing White House counsel. McGahn has played a key role in helping cement Trumps judicial legacy, leading White House efforts for the nominations of both Kavanaugh and Justice Neil Gorsuch, as well as scores of other lower-court judges.
Marina Fang
10:41 a.m. ET
PBSs Lisa Desjardins said seats available to the public for Kavanaughs hearing were empty early in the day on Wednesday, despite there being a line outside the hearing for people waiting to get in.
NOW: Police and staff are keeping all seats for the public empty. No more public inside. There is a line outside, unclear if this is temporary.
This is why you hear no more protests. pic.twitter.com/ZMOzwvUYU7 Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) September 5, 2018
Paige Lavender
10:40 a.m. ET
Kavanaugh called Roe v. Wade, the landmark reproductive rights Supreme Court opinion, an important precedent that has been reaffirmed many times, including in the Planned Parenthood v. Casey case.
Casey reaffirmed it and became a precedent on precedent, Kavanaugh said.
Responding to a comment from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) about not wanting to go back to a time when abortion is outlawed, Kavanaugh said, I dont live in a bubble. I live in the real world.
When Feinstein asked whether he believed a woman had a right to choose an abortion, Kavanaugh reiterated again that Roe is an important precedent of the Supreme Court.
Igor Bobic
10:05 a.m. ET
Kavanaugh repeatedly stressed Wednesday that he views U.S. v. Nixon, the landmark Supreme Court opinion that ordered President Richard Nixon to turn over White House recordings toward the end of the Watergate investigation, as one of the best examples of judicial independence.
On the second day of his confirmation hearing before the Senate, Kavanaugh called the opinion one of the greatest moments in judicial history.
During a roundtable discussion with other lawyers in 1999, however, Kavanaugh said, maybe Nixon was wrongly decided heresy though it is to say so. At the time, Kavanaugh said the opinion took away the power of the president to control information in the executive branch by holding that the courts had power and jurisdiction to order the president to disclose information in response to a subpoena sought by a subordinate executive branch official.
Igor Bobic
10 a.m. ET
Its going to be a long day. Heres the schedule for Day Two of Kavanaughs hearing, via CNN.
9:30 a.m.-noon: Questioning
12 p.m.-12:15 p.m.: Break
12:15 p.m.-1:15 p.m.: Questioning
1:15 p.m.-1:45 p.m.: Lunch
1:45 p.m.-3:45 p.m.: Questioning
3:45 p.m.-4 p.m.: Break
4 p.m.-6:15 p.m.: Questioning
6:15 p.m.-6:45 p.m.: Dinner
6:45 p.m.-9 p.m.: Questioning
Jennifer Bendery
9:57 a.m. ET
Grassley asked whether Kavanaugh would have a problem ruling against the president who nominated him, a common concern among Democrats.
No one is above the law in our constitutional system, Kavanaugh said. No matter where you come from, no matter how rich you are, how poor you are, no matter your race, gender, your position in life its all equal justice under law.
He praised a 1952 decision by the court to rule against then-President Harry Truman for seizing steel mills and emphasized the importance of resisting public pressure.
Sara Boboltz
9:50 a.m. ET
I want the losing party in every case to come out and say, Kavanaugh gave me a fair shake, the nominee replied when asked what makes a good Supreme Court justice.
Sara Boboltz
9:44 a.m. ET
Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted her opposition to Kavanaugh on Wednesday morning, arguing he would of course work to gut or overturn Roe v. Wade.
If Brett Kavanaugh becomes a Supreme Court justice, will he help gut or overturn Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in America? Yes, of course he will. Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 5, 2018
She previously warned of Kavanaughs potential impact on health care access.
A post shared by Hillary Clinton (@hillaryclinton) on Sep 4, 2018 at 6:33am PDT
Paige Lavender & Sara Boboltz
9:43 a.m. ET
Grassley explained todays format: 30 minutes of questioning from each senator, with a 30-minute lunch break around 12:15. After five senators have completed their rounds of questioning. Kavanaugh can request other breaks, if needed.
Marina Fang
9:40 a.m. ET
Kavanaughs two daughters, Margaret, 13, and Liza, 10, did not join their parents for the start of the second day of the confirmation hearing. The girls left early in the first day of the hearing amid continued protests.
Sara Boboltz
9:39 a.m. ET
And were off to the races. Protesters just interrupted the opening minutes of Day Two, just as Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) brought up the arrests from Tuesday.
Marina Fang
8:16 a.m. ET
HuffPosts Jen Bendery noted on Twitter that the two senators who could decide Kavanaughs fate Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) have both voted to confirm all of President Donald Trumps other anti-abortion judges.
So Kavanaugh's confirmation is gonna come down to two GOP senators, Collins and Murkowski, and a handful of red-state Dems.
A reminder that Collins and Murkowski have voted to confirm ALL of Trump's other anti-abortion lifetime judges. https://t.co/mBnJI4cb5r Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) September 4, 2018
Paige Lavender
Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trumps latest nominee for the Supreme Court, turned his back and walked away as the father of a Parkland school shooting victim extended a hand for him to shake during his confirmation hearing.
Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was killed in the February 2018 attack, approached Mr Kavanaugh after the latter rose from the witness table for a break on Tuesday.
He extended his hand to Mr Kavanaugh, who paused for a moment, but failed to accept it before turning away as a security guard stepped in.
Mr Guttenberg later tweeted: Just walked up to Judge Kavanaugh as morning session ended. Put out my hand to introduce myself as Jaime Guttenbergs dad. He pulled his hand back, turned his back to me and walked away. I guess he did not want to deal with the reality of gun violence.
To be clear, I was invited by Senator Feinstein to attend today. Anyone who knows me knows I will talk to anyone. I initiated an effort to introduce myself to Kavanaugh. It was my decision and I own it. Anyone trying to come up with some political master plan is simply wrong.
YES, I DO NOT SUPPORT KAVANAUGH. It is true. I won't support anyone who does not support gun safety. That said, I went up to him as a dad with the hope that he might actually ask why and the hope that we could discuss it.
White House spokesman Raj Shah said security officials intervened before Mr Kavanaugh was able to shake the hand of the unidentified individual. He shared a video clip of the moment, saying it showed that as the judge was leaving and had already turned away and begun walking, security intervened and ushered the judge away.
Mr Guttenberg pushed back on Twitter, saying: Incorrect. I was here all day and introduced by Senator Feinstein. No security involved. He turned and walked away.
Video footage of the incident shows Mr Guttenberg approaching Mr Kavanaugh and extending his hand. The nominee considers it and listens to Mr Guttenberg, before turning away, accompanied by a man wearing an orange tie and an earpiece.
Story continues
Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal tweeted later that Mr Guttenberg deserves better than a cold shoulder.
After the encounter, Capitol Police talked with Mr Guttenberg. He was seen sitting in the hearing room for the afternoon session.
The 14 February massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida left 17 people dead.
Students later organised widespread gun control protests that included classroom walkouts and marches in cities across the US.
A survivor of the shooting was among the witnesses due to testify at Mr Kavanaughs confirmation hearing.
California senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the committee, had previously raised concerns about the nominees legal approach to the second amendment. He dissented in a key District of Columbia case prohibiting assault weapons.
Additional reporting by agencies
Montreal (AFP) - On the eve of the resumption of talks to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces a dilemma.
He can either push back against US demands and risk being cut out of a continental trade deal, or give in and be accused by opposition parties of capitulating to Donald Trump.
"Trump's NAFTA threat leaves Trudeau locked in high-stakes game of poker," the Toronto Star headlined over the weekend.
With 13 months before the next general election, Trudeau has some "wiggle room" in the negotiations, University of Ottawa professor Patrick Leblond told AFP.
The Americans and Mexicans are in a hurry to sign a deal before US midterm elections in November and the transfer of power to Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador the following month.
But for Canada there is no urgency, Leblond said.
"The real question is whether or not we will accept an agreement that is worse than the one we have now, and have to live with it for the next 20 or 30 years," he added.
The last main obstacle to a trilateral deal is a dispute resolution mechanism from the 1994 pact that Canada insists on keeping and the United States wants nixed.
"There's political consensus in Canada to keep the Chapter 19 dispute resolution mechanism, and if the government goes back on its position it will be bad for Mr. Trudeau and his government," said Antonia Maioni, a political scientist at McGill University in Montreal.
"It's a big risk for Mr. Trudeau and for the country's economy," she told AFP.
- 'It's rhetoric' -
Trudeau suffered a major setback last week when a court blocked a project to build a pipeline to the Pacific that his administration has said was in the national interest.
His Liberal party remains ahead of the opposition Conservatives and New Democrats, according to the latest polling.
But his woes were compounded by uncertainty over NAFTA after the United States concluded separate negotiations with Mexico.
Story continues
Canada rejoined the talks with the aim of reaching a three-way pact, but Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland abruptly ended the last round of talks on Friday with no deal, after derogatory remarks by Trump about Canada were leaked.
Trump boasted about taking a hard line with Canada at the negotiating table, and has since threatened to cut America's northern neighbor out of a deal if it didn't cave to his demands.
Talks are scheduled to resume on Wednesday.
"Yes, Mr. Trump is going to say the worst things possible about Canada -- even yesterday, he announced that the rest of the world is profiting from the United States -- but that's rhetoric and we should not be too worried about it," said Leblond.
"You have to be careful about what he says and what he's actually doing."
If Trump follows through and excludes Canada from NAFTA 2.0, it would raise concerns in Canada, whose economy is heavily reliant on trade with its neighbor.
Canada and the United States last year traded US$673 billion in goods and services or US$1.3 million per minute, according to US official data.
More than two-thirds of Canadian exports go to the United States, equivalent to 20 percent of its GDP, while Canada is the largest export market for the United States.
Ottawa (AFP) - Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, an outspoken former journalist, is a combative negotiator with a clear goal: to use good relations with Washington to successfully negotiate a new North American Free Trade deal.
It hasn't always gone so well -- with US President Donald Trump threatening to cut America's northern neighbor out of the deal if it doesn't cave to his demands.
But Freeland has persisted, cutting short a European tour last week to fly to Washington to resume talks aimed at salvaging NAFTA as a three-nation pact with the United States, Mexico and Canada.
"We are looking forward to constructive conversations today," she told reporters as she headed into Wednesday's negotiations with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
Throughout the talks, the Canadian minister has made a point of briefing journalists camped outside the Washington government offices where the talks are happening. She even handed out lime and raspberry-lemon-strawberry popsicles to reporters on one sweltering, late summer day.
Always smiling and stoic, the 50-year-old has become the de facto face of efforts to update the 1994 pact as her counterparts shied away from the limelight.
But she hasn't share any details of the closed-door talks -- saying she won't negotiate through the media, while taking pains not to antagonize Trump.
She recently brushed off the US president's cutting remarks about Canada, emphasizing that it was Lighthizer, not Trump, at the negotiating table.
Educated at Harvard and Oxford, Freeland was a working journalist for much of her professional life.
She worked for the Financial Times of London, Canada's daily Globe and Mail and the Reuters news agency before jumping into politics.
Of Ukrainian descent, she is fluent in Slavic, in addition to English, French, Italian and Russian.
She covered the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, before moving to New York to report on American finances.
Story continues
- 'Surrounded by politics' -
Trudeau and his team spent months trying to persuade her to enter politics before she finally took the plunge in 2013, running for a seat in Toronto vacated by former Liberal leader Bob Rae.
Insiders say she and Trudeau share a global outlook, described in her best-selling 2012 book "Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else."
When the Liberals took office in 2015, Freeland was appointed trade minister, and steered free trade talks with the European Union to a succesful conclusion, raising her profile.
Her parents were both lawyers who had run unsuccessfully for seats in the Alberta legislature. "I remember being surrounded by politics from the moment I was born," she told the Toronto Star in 2015.
In a cabinet shuffle two years later, the mother of three and wife of a New York Times journalist replaced Stephane Dion as foreign minister and was tasked with heading the NAFTA negotiations.
She is "an extremely strong member of the team," Trudeau's office told AFP, adding that it "made sense" to task her with overseeing Canada's most important relationship, with the United States.
Her outspokenness has endeared her to Canadians, but it has sometimes come at a cost. Her defense of women's rights in Saudi Arabia last month triggered a diplomatic row with the kingdom.
Her sharp criticism of Russia's annexation of Crimea got her banned from travel to Russia -- an unusual sanction for a G7 foreign minister.
"Love Russ lang/culture, loved my yrs in Moscow; but it's an honour to be on Putin's sanction list," she responded on Twitter.
Her political future now hinges on the outcome of the NAFTA negotiations, according to political analysts.
"If Canada wins, she'll reap the benefits, but if it fails, she will be blamed," former Dion advisor Jocelyn Coulon wrote in her book, "A selfie with Justin Trudeau."
Legendary Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein has called on White House Chief of Staff John kelly to resign from his position and testify to Congress about what he has seen during the Trump presidency.
Mr Bernstein called on Mr Kelly to do so after excerpts from a book written by his former reporting partner, Bob Woodward, were . That book details allegedly White House in chaos, with senior officials working to curb some of Mr Trump's more dangerous behaviour.
I want to say one thing about General Kelly, Mr Bernstein said during an appearance on CNN. It would seem to me that General Kelly, in the interest of country, needs to resign.
Mr Bernsteins statement surprised host Brooke Baldwin, who countered: Really?
Video: Bob Woodwards Fear Details Turmoil at Trump White House
For more news videos visit Yahoo View.
The veteran journalist continued: And with a statement that says, The presidency can no longer be entrusted to this man. I will be happy to appear before committees of Congress, whether in executive session or whether in open session and tell them what I have seen about this president of the United States and whether or not he is competent and able to lead the United States.
Mr Woodwards book includes references to several White House officials who appear uncomfortable with Mr Trumps abilities as president, including Mr Kelly.
A report on the book released on Tuesday indicates that Mr Kelly often loses his temper, and has called Mr Trump unhinged, and said that the president was an idiot.
Its pointless to try to convince him of anything. Hes gone off the rails. Were in Crazytown. I dont even know why any of us are here, Mr Kelly said, according Mr Woodwards book. This is the worst job Ive ever had.
In a statement provided to reporters, Mr Kelly denied having called the president an idiot.
Story continues
The idea I ever called the President an idiot is not true. As I stated back in May and still firmly stand behind: I spend more time with the President than anyone else, and we have an incredibly candid and strong relationship. He always knows where I stand, and he and I both know this story is total BS. I'm committed to the President, his agenda, and our country. This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administrations many successes, the statement read.
Mr Bernstein and Mr Woodward are celebrated Washington journalists, who are largely responsible for the reporting that broke the Watergate scandal that began with a break-in at the Democratic headquarters and led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon
By Hallie Gu and Dominique Patton
HARBIN, China (Reuters) - China will almost entirely replace its soybean imports from the United States with Brazilian beans and other origins in the upcoming season, but may run out of the oilseed in early 2019, said an executive with a top crusher on Tuesday.
The forecast was one of the most bearish yet on the impact of the Sino-U.S. trade war for American farmers.
The world's top buyer of soybeans bought about 60 percent of U.S. soybean exports last year, but has been mostly out of the market since Beijing imposed a 25 percent tariff on U.S. beans on July 6 in retaliation for U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.
Imports from the United States will plunge further in the 2018/19 season starting this month to just 700,000 tonnes, said Guo Yanchao, deputy chairman of Jiusan Group.
That compares with 27.85 million tonnes of U.S. soybeans imported in the prior year.
Overall, China's imports of soybeans for the year will drop to 84.67 million tonnes, down 10.79 million tonnes from last year's purchases, Guo told an industry conference.
That would include 71.06 million tonnes from Brazil, 7.5 million from Argentina, and the rest from Canada, Russia and other countries, he said.
Guo's comments echo those of a top executive at another major crusher, who said last week that China's imports could tumble to 86 million tonnes.
Still, Guo expected stocks of imported beans at ports to drop to historical lows by November, pushing soymeal prices "very high" and hurting demand for the ingredient in the first quarter of 2019.
Supplies could run out by February or March next year, he warned, when Brazilian beans will be limited. At that time, some private companies could take the risk and buy beans from the United States, he said.
China is also expected to increase imports of alternative meals and boost domestic crushing volume to 3.4 million tonnes, while selling 1.6 million tonnes from state reserves.
(Reporting by Hallie Gu and Dominique Patton; Editing by Tom Hogue)
Sebastien Roblin
Security, Asia
The dragon vs. the eagle would be a war for the ages.
China vs. America: Who Wins a Deadly War in Asia?
China and the United States will likely remain fixated on each other as potential military competitors for decades to comebut if relations are prudently managed, they wont have to become actual adversaries in a war. The two countries respective capabilities, however, will play a role in how their global influence is perceived.
Two superpowers eye each other uneasily across the Pacificone well established after decades of Cold War conflict, the other a rising power eager to reclaim regional hegemony. Fortunately, despite profoundly different political systems, China and the United States are not as intrinsically hostile to each other as were the West and the Soviet Unionin fact, they have a high degree of economic interdependence.
Still, history shows that there is often a risk of war when a rising power challenges the ascendancy of an existing one. Beijing and Washington have profoundthough fortunately not comprehensivedisagreements on matters of global governance. They also have reasons to mistrust each other. Fortunately, there are historical examples of rival superpowers coexisting mostly peacefully for long periods of time. For example, see the century in between the defeat of Napoleon and World War I, during which there was no European-wide war.
(This first appeared several months ago.)
Still, the balance of power between nations will likely play a role alongside diplomacya fleet that is never used in war may still prevent one, for example, by deterring possible opponents.
China today has the largest military on the planet, with two million active personnel in the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA). However, China only spends slightly over one-third as much as the United States, accounting for thirteen percent of annual global military spending in 2017, compared to thirty-five percent by the United States according to SIPRI.
Story continues
Yet, the Chinese government is aware that the large size of its forces in part reflects an antiquated mid-twentieth century force structure emphasizing massive, low-quality ground armies. Starting in 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinpingwho seems set to remain in power indefinitelyannounced a major reform initiative to radically downsize PLA ground forces to improve their quality.
PLA ground and air forces still exhibit a wide range of quality, fielding both early Cold War systems and cutting-edge variants. For example, the PLA musters 8,000 tanksbut 3,000 are 1950s-era Type 59 and Type 63 tanks. At the same time, the PLA also fields 500 Type 99 tanks which are in a similar ballpark to the very capable U.S. M1 Abrams. The PLA Air Force also has a similar issue. For instance, of its 1,700 aircraft, roughly a third are dated J-7 fighters, while another fourth include modern fourth-generation J-10s and J-11s comparable to U.S. F-15s and F-16s and even a few fifth-generation stealth fighters.
By contrast, the U.S. military operates over two-thousand fourth-generation combat jets, increasingly being supplemented by fifth-generation stealth designs. These newer U.S. planes theoretically enjoy a massive edge in long-range aerial combat and in penetrating enemy airspace.
America's massive military spending reflects its technology-oriented approach to warfare, a paradigm which seeks to send a drone or guided missile in place of a man (or woman) whenever possibleespecially as every friendly casualty may result in a political firestorm. Therefore, the Pentagon prefers to develop comprehensive intelligence and communication capabilities to direct a few weapons systems with a high degree of precision. This in contrast to fielding a larger, and cheaper, number of platforms which was typical in the past such as World War II. This paradigm favors networked warfare', in which various weapons systems exchange sensor data. A ship, for example, may detect an attacking jet and pass the targeting data to a nearby fighter which can then use the telemetry to launch a missile without exposing itself by turning on its radaror vice versa.
Recommended: Air War: Stealth F-22 Raptor vs. F-14 Tomcat (That Iran Still Flies)
Recommended: A New Report Reveals Why There Won't Be Any 'New' F-22 Raptors
Recommended: How an Old F-15 Might Kill Russias New Stealth Fighter
China is also an enthusiastic adopter of this doctrine and has arguably made greater strides in developing armed drones and advancing networking capabilities than Russia or various European countries. On the one hand, Chinese industry still lags notably behind in the development of technologies such as jet engines and suffers quality control issues. However, on the other, it is relatively strong in the realm of electronics and is happy to copy both Western and Russian technologies. Furthermore, Chinese hackers have also proven reasonably adept at hacking into foreign computer systems and perpetrating industrial espionage, but Beijing has at least so far refrained from election-manipulation tactics practiced by its neighbor Russia.
Posture for Intervention Abroad and Defense At Home
Operationally, the PLA and U.S. military have very different needs. The U.S. is geographically isolated from its foes and instead depends on a massive network of overseas bases on six continents to engage or contain adversaries. This requires globe-spanning logistical capabilities including hundreds of transport planes, aerial refueling tankers to keep jet fighters and transports aloft, and amphibious transports and carriers to convey Marine units. Just as importantly, strong diplomatic alliances are necessary to maintain those overseas bases and keep them supplied with fuel, personnel and munitions. For example, U.S. operations in Asia are heavily dependent on alliances with South Korea, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines and more recently, India. Several of these Asian countries, as well as western and central Europe, also rely upon U.S. military forces to meet their security needs.
China is only beginning to acquire such logistics and is situated in a very crowded neighborhood surrounded by potential military competitors such as India, Russia and Japan. (Personally, this author does not believe contemporary Japan will become an aggressive military power anytime soon, but the Chinese don't see it that way due to their bitter memories of Japanese invasion.) Additionally, Beijing has only a few military alliances with Pakistan, North Korea, and a few southeast Asian nations. But, China is slowly developing multi-national institutions such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and its aspirational Silk Road project in hopes of fostering stronger ties.
However, China still retains tense relations with India, a country with a comparably huge population but only one-quarter of the gross domestic product, from which China seized Himalayan territory in a brief 1962 war. Moreover, Beijing has built up its forces and road network on its border with India, and also constructed a series of bases in nearby countries to envelop' India.
China is also expanding its capacities for longer-range expeditionary operations befitting its status a superpowerparticularly in Africa, where Chinese companies maintain a dominant and ever-growing presence. Beijing's non-interference and no-questions-asked approach to human rights and corruption issues have won it many friendly governments on the African continent.
For example, Chinese troops have deployed as peacekeepers in Mali, where they have seen some action, and recently opened a naval base in Djiboutijust seven miles across from a long-established American base there. The PLA and Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) have also concentrated on training a Special Forces and Marine branch suitable for more expeditionary operations.
Despite all of this, the United States military still has vastly more recent combat experience, particularly in joint operations coordinating multiple services. The PLAs last major armed conflict was a not very successful punitive invasion of Vietnam in 1979. Today, the PLA is only beginning to implement a more joint-operations oriented doctrine while struggling to overcome the traditional parochialism of the military hierarchy, which occupies a prestigious place in its society.
Nuclear Doctrine
The United States maintains more than twenty times the number of nuclear warheads that China does (1,350 compared to 45 deployed and 4,000 compared to 270 when including stockpiles, according to the Arms Control Association). This reflects Washington's more aggressive nuclear posture, which holds that the U.S. has the right to launch a nuclear first strike in a conflict, even if it has only been attacked with conventional weapons. (Moscow has a similar stance, claiming it may use tactical nuclear weapons to de-escalate' a conventional war.) China, by contrast, has a defensive nuclear doctrine claiming it will only employ nukes if attacked with them first.
While some might scoff at the distinctionafter all, doctrine does not prevent a country from launching a first strike if it wants tothe reality is that offensive and defensive nuclear warfare involve different force structures. The United States has a massive arsenal in a nuclear triad'. This is made up of ballistic missile submarines (which are basically so hard to hunt there is no way to stop them all); nuclear bombers (useful for signaling to an opponent the possibility of a nuclear attack, or for hitting mobile targets); and ground-based missile silos (the least flexible of the three, but these allow more targets to be hit and force an enemy to devote resources to attack them). Such an arsenal is capable of launching a broader assault designed to disable an opponent's military capability to retaliate and therefore more easily includes the option of a first strike.
In contrast, China holds a no-first-use doctrine because it maintains only nuclear ballistic missiles and a few ballistic missile submarinesthough it may one day re-introduce a nuclear bomber component. China's smaller arsenal is also inadequate to deliver a knock-out first strike but is instead a deterrence-oriented counter-value' force threatening nuclear annihilation of an adversary's largest cities were China to come under attack. Beijing has become nervous, in recent years, by the expansion of U.S. ballistic missile defense capabilities, which may eventually prompt a move to enlarge the arsenal.
Staring Contest over the Pacific
It is at sea that the United States and China are most openly in competition. Today, U.S. warships regularly operate off of Chinese littoral water, but not vice versa. As maritime invasions dealt China crippling and humiliating blows in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Beijing places great importance on pushing the U.S. Navy away from its belt of bases it calls the first island chain', and preferably even further to the second or third (which includes Hawaii).
International waters are generally defined as being twelve nautical miles from a country' shoreline. But, Beijing claims vast swathes of the South China Sea as its exclusive preserve, even if those waters are hundreds of miles distant from mainland China and directly adjected to other Asian countries. In recent years, Beijing has taken to creating artificial islands and deploying military bases on them to reinforce its claims, as well as harassing ships and aircraft passing through the South China Sea. It utilizes a vast naval militia of sorts, including hundreds of nominally civilian boats and vessels, to advance Chinese foreign policy and control.
For its part, the U.S. Navy has continued to dispatch destroyers and cruisers on Freedom of Navigation patrols to maintain a presence in these international waters. More importantly, it has a network of bases in Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Singapore, as well as on islands such as Guam and Hawaii, which would be hard to dislodge it fromunless alliances with those countries are allowed to fray.
However, China has built up a sufficient arsenal of ground-based ballistic missiles, warplanes, and naval assets that arguably it has won military superiority in its littoral waterssomething which was not the case a few decades ago. Also, the conventional missile force could pose a significant threat both to crucial U.S. airbases and even carriers at hundreds of miles away at sea.
On the other hand, China is only beginning to catch up with United States's unique fleet of eleven nuclear-powered supercarriers, each of which carries dozens of Super Hornet and Growler fighters and, eventually, F-35B stealth jets. Each carrier is furthermore protected by a task force of escorting warships boasting networked radars, submarine-detecting sonars, and missile defenses.
Currently, China has two lower-capability ski-jump style carriers in service carrying smaller wings of J-15 fighters. But China plans on building two larger carriers with superior catapult-assisted takeoff, and eventually two nuclear supercarriers with newer electromagnetic catapults. It also is building up a fleet of both small and large surface combatants armed with very long-range anti-ship missilesthough the doctrine and sensors to pull off such long-range attacks may still be in development.
The U.S. and Chinese Navies also have very different submarine fleets. The U.S. Navy has to operate across vast distances and has built up a force of forty to fifty attack submarines, and eighteen Ohio-class ballistic and cruise-missile subs, that can remain underwater nigh indefinitely due to nuclear propulsion. China has in service only slightly over a dozen nuclear-powered submarines, but seventy much cheaper diesel, or quieter AIP-powered submarines, which are suitable for short-range operations off of Chinas coast. Though noisier than U.S or Russian submarines, the numerous Chinese diesel and AIP submarines could still be quite effective in an anti-ship role.
China and the United States will likely remain fixated on each other as potential military competitors for decades to comebut if relations are prudently managed, they wont have to become actual adversaries in a war. The two countries respective capabilities, however, will play a role in how their global influence is perceived.
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
Police surround the Mermaid Traditional Fish Bar, which is owned by Andy Star, where they found a laboratory above the shop. (Counter Terrorism Policing North East/PA Wire)
Two men who allegedly plotted a terror attack from above a chip shop planned to place a bomb inside a driverless car, a court heard.
Andy Star, 32, owner of the Mermaid Traditional Fish Bar in Chesterfield, and Farhad Salah, 23, were hoping to harm infidels using the weapon, which could be placed inside the vehicle, prosecutors have said.
Jurors at Sheffield Crown Court heard that the younger of the two defendants had told a contact that the vehicle could be controlled by a laptop.
Prosecutor Anne Whyte QC told jurors: They intended to manufacture a device which would be placed in a vehicle but controlled remotely so that they did not have to martyr themselves in the process.
Andy Star, 32, (r) who is accused at Sheffield Crown Court of working with Farhad Salah, 23, (l) to attempt to build a remotely-controlled bomb. (Counter Terrorism Policing North East/PA Wire)
Describing the two defendants as supporters of Islamic State, she said their intentions were sophisticated and lethal, adding that there was evidence to suggest they had been testing from a very low level how to make and ignite explosives.
Jurors were told that the pair shared instructional videos with one another, with the prosecutor saying that Salah believed he and Star had mastered the art of an explosive reaction.
Days before his arrest, Salah is said to have told a contact: We have made invention in the field of explosion we have produced substance, if you put it in any explosive it triples the power and also controlling vehicle with laptop and without a driver.
READ MORE ON YAHOO NEWS UK:
Four out of five adults at risk of early death because their heart age is too high
Misogyny could be made a hate crime as MPs prepare for historic vote
2.6 million have changed their minds about supporting Brexit
Japan typhoon: Hundreds of cars left wrecked as worst storm in 25 years kills 10
Neglected cat covered in dreadlocked fur undergoes miracle transformation
Following their arrests on 19 December, both defendants denied any involvement in terrorism.
Star supposedly said he was not a supporter of Islamic State, while Salah told officers he was not a threat and that his Facebook account, which prosecutors said was evidence of his affiliation to Islamic State, had been hacked.
The prosecution will resume its case on Monday morning.
Paris (AFP) - Ambitious action on climate change could contribute an extra $26 trillion to the world economy by 2030, international experts said on Wednesday, urging nations and businesses to step up their engagement.
The economic benefits offered by a shift to a low-carbon economy have been "grossly" underestimated, according to the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, a think tank grouping former heads of government and top economic and business leaders.
"Bold action could yield a direct economic gain of $26 trillion through to 2030 compared with business-as-usual. And this is likely to be a conservative estimate," the commission's annual report found.
Dynamic action on climate could also generate "over 65 million new low-carbon jobs" by 2030 and avoid over 700,000 premature deaths due to air pollution, it said.
But policymakers were "not taking sufficiently bold action to escape the legacy economic systems," the study found, warning that the window for change was narrow.
"We are at a unique 'use it or lose it' moment. Policymakers should take their foot off the brakes and send a clear signal that the new growth is here," said the commission's co-chair Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria's former finance minister.
"There are real benefits to be seen in terms of new jobs, economic savings, competitiveness and market opportunities, and improved wellbeing for people worldwide."
Such growth would be driven by the interaction between rapid technological innovation, increased resource productivity and investment in sustainable infrastructure, which is expected to reach $90 trillion by 2030, it said.
- Bold action needed -
The shift would involve change in five key areas: the development of clean energy systems, improved urban planning, a shift towards more sustainable agriculture, smart water management and decarbonising industry.
"Seizing the economic benefits of low-carbon and resilient growth will only be possible if we act boldly over the next two to three years," it said, flagging it as a "critical window" when many of policy and investment decisions will be taken which will shape the coming decade and beyond.
Story continues
Urging economic decision-makers to move beyond generic proposals or statements, it called on governments to put a price on carbon of at least $40-80 by 2020, and to move towards mandatory climate risk disclosure for major investors and companies.
It also pushed for a much greater emphasis on investment in sustainable infrastructure, with better-designed cities, buildings, transport, energy and water systems as well as investment in forests and wetlands that purify water and offer valuable flood control.
To this end, development bodies and banks should double their collective investment in infrastructure, aiming to invest at least $100 billion per year by 2020, it said.
By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal judge overseeing the second trial of Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's one-time campaign chairman, ruled on Wednesday that a federal investigation of possible collusion between the campaign and Russia cannot be discussed during the trial. The collusion investigation being led by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is "wholly irrelevant to the charges in this case," Judge Amy Berman Jackson said during a pre-trial hearing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Manafort was convicted last month in Virginia of charges including bank and tax fraud in what was the first trial arising from Mueller's investigation of Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. election. Jackson said on Wednesday that while prosecutors may present evidence used in that trial, the jury will not be allowed to hear about Manafort's conviction. She also said she plans to deny a request by Manafort's defense attorneys to move the trial to different court, saying that a concern about the political affiliations of the jury pool in Washington, D.C., is "not a lawful basis" for a venue transfer. During the trial, which begins with jury selection on Sept. 17 and opening arguments Sept. 24, Manafort will face seven counts, including conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy to defraud the United States, failing to register as a foreign agent for the pro-Russia Ukrainian government, making false statements and witness tampering. Manafort, a long-time Washington lobbyist who was with Trump's campaign from March through August in 2016, was convicted on Aug. 21 on eight counts in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, related to bank fraud, tax fraud and failing to disclose foreign bank accounts. The jury deadlocked on 10 other charges and prosecutors have not yet announced if they will seek to retry him. The decision by Jackson to exclude testimony about the Russia collusion investigation is not a surprise. None of the charges are related to alleged collusion and Judge T.S. Ellis made a similar ruling ahead of the Virginia trial as part of an effort to keep politics out of it. Discussion of Manafort's role in the Trump campaign will come up only in connection with alleged false statements he made about his foreign lobbying activities after critical media reports surfaced during the end of his stint as campaign chairman, prosecutors said Wednesday. Prosecutors also indicated they do not yet know whether they plan to call as a witness Manafort's former business partner Rick Gates, who has pleaded guilty in the Muller probe. In the first trial Gates testified he helped Manafort doctor financial statements, hide foreign income and cheat on his taxes. The jury decided to disregard his testimony and focus on the documentary evidence, a juror said. Manafort's lawyers revealed they are working to retain an expert witness who may testify at trial. They did not call witnesses in his first trial. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Writing by Tim Ahmann; Editing by Bill Trott)
BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's Marxist ELN rebels have released three soldiers held hostage for nearly a month, the country's human rights ombudsman said on Wednesday, as new right-wing President Ivan Duque evaluates whether to continue peace talks with the insurgents. Duque has said the National Liberation Army (ELN) must free 19 hostages before he will resume dialogue. He said during his Aug. 7 inauguration he would evaluate the talks, which began with his predecessor Juan Manuel Santos government in February 2017, over his first 30 days. The last round of the talks, which have been held in Cuba, ended on Aug. 1. The rebel group is believed to be holding six more members of the security forces in Choco province as well as 10 civilians. "The soldiers Orlando Yair Vega Diaz, Juan Pablo Rojas Ovando and Eduardo Caro Banol, in the power of illegal group the ELN since August 8, 2018, were handed over to a humanitarian commission comprised of the ombudsman and the Episcopal Conference of Colombia, the ombudsman said on Twitter. The soldiers had been held in eastern Arauca province, near the border with Venezuela. The ELN, founded by radical Catholic priests, is considered a terrorist group by the United States and European Union. It has waged a five-decade war against the government, engaging in bombings, kidnappings, extortion and sabotage of oil pipelines. During a ceasefire from September 2017 to January 2018, the ELN suspended hostage-taking, attacks on oil installations, the use of landmines and the recruitment of minors. (Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Tom Brown)
Donald Trump has predictably hit out at an explosive tell-all book about his time in the White House written by a reporter who exposed the Watergate scandal.
Fear: Trump In The White House by celebrated Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward has infuriated the White House, after exposing how Trumps aides called him an idiot and snatched sensitive documents off his desk to keep him from taking rash actions.
The President described the book as a con on the public on Twitter ahead of the books publication.
Donald Trump has hit out at a new book about his presidency (Rex)
He tweeted: The Woodward book has already been refuted and discredited by General (Secretary of Defense) James Mattis and General (Chief of Staff) John Kelly.
He added: Their quotes were made up frauds, a con on the public. Likewise other stories and quotes. Woodward is a Dem operative? Notice timing?
Trump earlier described the incendiary book as nasty stuff, denying certain scenes even occurred.
The Woodward book has already been refuted and discredited by General (Secretary of Defense) James Mattis and General (Chief of Staff) John Kelly. Their quotes were made up frauds, a con on the public. Likewise other stories and quotes. Woodward is a Dem operative? Notice timing? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2018
The already discredited Woodward book, so many lies and phony sources, has me calling Jeff Sessions mentally retarded and a dumb southerner. I said NEITHER, never used those terms on anyone, including Jeff, and being a southerner is a GREAT thing. He made this up to divide! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2018
The President spoke to the conservative Daily Caller after details emerged about the book, calling it another bad book and saying Mr Woodward has a lot of credibility problems.
Story continues
Trump also denied that senior aides took sensitive documents from his desk, saying there was nobody taking anything from me.
The White House, in a statement from press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, dismissed the book as nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad.
READ MORE ON YAHOO NEWS UK:
Four out of five adults at risk of early death because their heart age is too high
Misogyny could be made a hate crime as MPs prepare for historic vote
2.6 million have changed their minds about supporting Brexit
Japan typhoon: Hundreds of cars left wrecked as worst storm in 25 years kills 10
Neglected cat covered in dreadlocked fur undergoes miracle transformation
The book quotes chief of staff John Kelly as having doubts about Trumps mental faculties, declaring during one meeting were in Crazytown.
It also says he called Trump an idiot, an account that Mr Kelly denied.
He said in a statement: The idea I ever called the President an idiot is not true.
Trump aides have described the President as an idiot in Fear: Trump In The White House (AP)
Mr Woodward helped expose the Watergate scandal in the 1970s with fellow journalist Carl Bernstein.
Their reporting implicated President Richard Nixon in the scandal and he later resigned the presidency.
One of the extraordinary claims in Mr Woodwards book is that Trump ordered the assassination of Syrian leader Bashar Assad after he launched a chemical weapons attack on civilians in April 2017.
The explosive book was written by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward (Rex)
Trump is reported to have called Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis to tell him he wanted the Syrian leader taken out, saying kill him! Lets go in.
Mr Mattis assured Mr Trump he would get right on it but then told a senior aide they would do nothing of the kind, Mr Woodward wrote.
National security advisers instead developed options for the airstrike that Mr Trump ordered.
Mr Woodward also claims that Gary Cohn, the former director of the National Economic Council, boasted of removing papers from the Presidents desk to prevent Trump from signing them into law, including efforts to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Trump described the quotes and stories in the book as frauds and a con on the public (Rex)
The book also quotes Trump as mocking his attorney general Jeff Sessions, who has been a target of the Presidents wrath since recusing himself from the Russia investigation.
This guy is mentally retarded, Trump said of Mr Sessions, according to the book.
He couldnt even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.
Trump did not speak to Mr Woodward until after the books manuscript was completed.
Mr Woodward and journalist Carl Bernstein exposed the Watergate scandal in the 1970s that ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon (pictured) (Rex)
The Post released audio of Trump expressing surprise about the book in an August conversation with Mr Woodward.
Mr Woodward tells Trump he had contacted multiple officials to attempt to interview him and was rebuffed.
The book follows the January release of author Michael Wolffs Fire And Fury, which led to a rift between Mr Trump and Steve Bannon, his former chief strategist, who spoke with Mr Wolff in terms that were highly critical of the President and his family.
Explosive passages from the book
Former Cosby Show star Geoffrey Owens recently made headlines not because hes in the cast of a blockbuster film but because his latest role is bagging groceries at a New Jersey Trader Joes. A customer snapped a shot of him in action at his register and sent it to the Daily Mail, and the photo quickly went viral. Fox News picked up the story and seemingly shamed the actor for his new gig, sparking a huge backlash from Yahoo commenters who leapt to his defense.
Geoffrey Owens, who starred in The Cosby Show, spoke with Good Morning America co-host Robin Roberts on Sept. 4, 2018, in New York. (Paula Lobo/ABC via AP)
Hard-working people deserve respect, period, said one user. Another wrote, Disrespecting a man for working hard? Speechless. One even joked, Better than a Kardashian.
WHY, asked one commenter. Why did Fox News sink this LOW? This man graduated from YALE and doesnt think that bagging groceries in between teaching Shakespeare and acting is beneath him. This is a REAL man.
The actor broke his silence on Good Morning America, proudly sporting his Trader Joes name tag. Speaking to Robin Roberts he said of the story, No one has to feel sorry for me. Im doing fine. He added that he was moved by the outpouring of support he received, saying: I really want to thank everybody out there family, friends, the Hollywood community, and the general public for the amazing support and positivity that theyve shown for me. Its quite astounding. Its very encouraging.
Fellow actors have also spoken out, slamming those who sought to mock Owenss job.
Comedian and star of Community Yvette Nicole Brown posted:
After doing #Girfriends & a few commercials, while doing #DrakeAndJosh & right before I did #Community, I worked as an office temp in various offices to pay my bills. And I will be right back there (or on fries at McDonald's) if acting work dries up. #TheresNoShameInHavingAJob yvette nicole brown (@YNB) September 1, 2018
Brooklyn Nine-Nine actor and former NFL player Terry Crews noted:
Story continues
I swept floors AFTER the @NFL. If need be, Id do it again. Good honest work is nothing to be ashamed of. https://t.co/8mseCpaIqz terrycrews (@terrycrews) September 2, 2018
Emmy-winner Patricia Heaton chimed in:
Again, why is this news? When I worked on Thirtysomething I was also summarizing depositions to pay my rent. Why are you trying to humiliate this honorable, hardworking actor? Shame on you! #geoffreyowens many great blessings are coming your way! https://t.co/8tgvW3iixr Patricia Heaton (@PatriciaHeaton) September 2, 2018
Then megaproducer and actor Tyler Perry tweeted a job offer to Owens:
#GeoffreyOwens Im about to start shootings OWNs number one drama next week! Come join us!!! I have so much respect for people who hustle between gigs. The measure of a true artist. Tyler Perry (@tylerperry) September 4, 2018
After receiving the offer, Owens told Entertainment Tonight: That was kind of cool. Weve never worked together before. So, thats a very, very generous thing for him to say. And well see what happens with that. But, thats encouraging.
As a result of the coverage, he also had to quit his job at Trader Joes, he said. I felt like just for my personal sake, my dignity and my emotional well-being, I didnt want to be in the store while I felt like people might be staking out the place as they did. I felt like I needed to at least temporarily step out, and I think that was the wise thing to do, actually.
What do you think about Owens taking up an everyday job?
Let us know in the comments below.
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.
Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump's White House is mired in a perpetual "nervous breakdown" with staff battling to rein in the worst impulses of an angry, paranoid leader, according to an explosive new book by veteran reporter Bob Woodward.
Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews, the respected White House chronicler describes a coalition of like-minded aides plotting to prevent the US president from destroying the world trade system, undermining national security and sparking wars.
While Woodward's is not the first unflattering investigation into Trump's White House, it carries particular weight coming from the man who together with Carl Bernstein authored the Watergate expose that brought down Richard Nixon.
Trump's White House is described as having undergone "no less than an administrative coup d'etat," according to The Washington Post where Woodward is an associate editor and which received an advance copy of the 448-page book entitled "Fear: Trump in the White House," set for release on September 11.
The White House hit back at "fabricated stories" as the long-awaited book piled fresh pressure on a president besieged by multiple investigations and a looming election that could damage his Republican Party.
Trump claimed that the quotes in Woodward's book were "made up frauds, a con on the public. Likewise other stories and quotes."
"Woodward is a Dem operative? Notice timing?" he added, after tweeting earlier statements by Defense Secretary James Mattis, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and spokeswoman Sarah Sanders refuting the quoted statements as false.
Mattis and former economic advisor Gary Cohn are cited among the aides actively circumventing Trump's orders and even stealing documents off his desk.
Woodward recounts that Mattis -- having had to explain to the president that the US must keep forces in South Korea "to prevent World War III" -- told colleagues Trump had the understanding of "a fifth- or sixth-grader," a 10- or 11-year-old child.
Story continues
After the April 2017 chemical attack blamed on Bashar al-Assad, Woodward claims Trump called the Pentagon chief to press for the Syrian leader's assassination.
"Let's fucking kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the fucking lot of them," Trump reportedly told him.
Mattis agreed to take action -- but after hanging up ordered "more measured" steps against Syria, a punitive air strike.
- 'We're in Crazytown' -
Mattis was among several high-profile figures quoted by Woodward who issued swift denials.
"The contemptuous words about the President attributed to me in Woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence," Mattis said in a statement, charging that the journalist's "anonymous sources do not lend credibility."
While he does not name his sources, Woodward says he spoke with many people currently or formerly working for Trump as he researched the book, discussing not just the president's personality but also major policy debates regarding North Korea and Afghanistan.
Woodward describes Trump regularly insulting key members of his own team, branding Attorney General Jeff Sessions "mentally retarded" and a "dumb Southerner," and saying former chief of staff Reince Priebus is "like a little rat."
Trump is quoted as telling his hand-picked 80-year-old secretary of commerce, Wilbur Ross, "I don't trust you... You're past your prime."
The aides and cabinet members respond, privately, with equal disdain.
According to Woodward, Kelly told colleagues Trump is "unhinged" and "an idiot."
"It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in Crazytown," Kelly is quoted as saying.
Former Trump lawyer John Dowd called Trump "a fucking liar," the book says.
Both Kelly and Dowd denied the quotes attributed to them -- although Woodward is not the first to cite them making brutal comments about the president.
- 'Edge of a cliff' -
Since the Watergate expose appeared in The Washington Post in the early 1970s, Woodward has published powerful, insightful and often embarrassing books on eight US leaders, including George W. Bush and Barack Obama, based on extensive access to many White House insiders.
Woodward is one of the most respected living US journalists, and an authority on modern US presidents who drew praise from Trump himself in 2013 for his work on Obama.
"Fear" is flecked with accounts of White House officials working to prevent Trump's anger and paranoia from being translated into policy.
Cohn went so far as to steal an order from Trump's desk that, if the president had signed it, would have cancelled the US-South Korea trade agreement and thus deeply damaged security ties, according to Woodward.
Former Trump staff secretary Rob Porter is also said to have conspired with Cohn to remove an letter that Trump ordered Porter to draft that would have withdrawn the US from the North American Free Trade Agreement.
"A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren't such good ideas," Woodward quotes Porter as saying.
"It felt like we were walking along the edge of the cliff perpetually."
On September 5, 1774, the first Continental Congress in the United States met in Philadelphia to consider its reaction to the British governments restraints on trade and representative government after the Boston Tea Party.
The group of colonial luminaries didnt meet in Independence Hall (which, at the time, was called the Pennsylvania State House). Instead, delegates selected by colonial legislatures met next door in Carpenters Hall, which had just been constructed. The State House was already occupied by the Pennsylvania provincial assembly.
The delegates gathered on the morning of September 5 at Philadelphias City Tavern, near Benjamin Franklins home. Franklin had remained in England, and he would deliver a petition from the First Congress to King George III in late 1774. The group then walked over to Carpenters Hall to inspect the meeting room.
They took a view of the room, and of the chamber where is an excellent library The general cry was, that this was a good room, and the question was put, whether we were satisfied with this room? and it passed in the affirmative, said John Adams.
In all, 56 delegates from 12 colonies came to Philadelphia for the meeting to address the Coercive or Intolerable Acts. The laws were meant as punishment for the activities of the Boston Tea Party, but they affected all colonies. Neither Franklin nor Thomas Jefferson attended, but in addition to Adams, the delegates included Patrick Henry, Roger Sherman, John Jay, John Dickinson, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, and John Adams cousin, Samuel Adams.
Thomas Jeffersons cousin, Peyton Randolph, was named as the first president of the Continental Congress. Randolph was another prominent Virginia leader and Washingtons close friend.
After about seven weeks of debates, the group agreed to a boycott of British goods within the colonies as a sign of protest, spelled out in the Articles of Association. In addition to the boycott, the Articles called for an end of exports to Great Britain in the following year if the Intolerable Acts werent repealed. The First Continental Congress also made plans to convene a second Continental Congress in May 1775 to continue the work started in Philadelphia if the Intolerable Acts remained in force.
Story continues
A separate document, now called the Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress, stated the groups objections to the Intolerable Acts, listed the rights of the colonists, and itemized objections to British rule beyond the Intolerable Acts. On October 26, the delegates also crafted a formal petition to King George III. It outlined the grievances of the colonies to the King, but it also didnt assign blame to him.
Next May, when the Second Continental Congress came back to Philadelphia, it met in the Pennsylvania State House. Violence had broken out in Boston with the battles of Lexington and Concord. Delegates from Georgia joined the Second Continental Congress, as did Franklin and John Hancock. Jefferson arrived to replace Randolph, who was called back to Virginia on political business.
The new Congress became focused on the war effort, just seven months after it had left Carpenters Hall hoping for a constructive response from the King and the British government.
Elon Musk has launched his most extreme attack yet on Vern Unsworth, one of the heroes of the Thai cave rescue.
The Tesla boss sent a profanity-laden tirade to a reporter in which he baselessly suggested that Mr Unsworth had a "child bride".
Mr Musk has repeatedly and without any evidence at all claimed that Mr Unsworth is a paedophile and that people around the rescue did not like him. The abuse has apparently come from Mr Musk because he was upset that Mr Unsworth had mocked his attempts to get involved with the mission, which involved a special diving capsule that was widely derided as useless.
Mr Musk initially apologised for his first messages, in which he referred to the diver as "pedo guy". But he continues to revive the allegation, including in his latest and most intense comments.
Asked about legal threats from Mr Unsworth's lawyer over the allegations, Mr Musk continued to double down on the attacks.
"I suggest that you call people you know in Thailand, find out whats actually going on and stop defending child rapists, you f***ing asshole," he said in the email to BuzzFeed reporter Ryan Mac, who posted the message in full on Twitter. "Hes an old, single white guy from England whos been travelling to or living in Thailand for 30 to 40 years, mostly Pattaya Beach, until moving to Chiang Rai for a child bride who was about 12 years old at the time."
Video: Breaking Down Elon Musks Most Painful Year Yet
For more news videos visit Yahoo View.
He signed off with a message about the lingering threat of the lawsuit. "As for this alleged threat of a lawsuit, which magically appeared when I raised the issue (nothing was sent or raised beforehand), I f***ing hope he sues me."
He then sent a follow-up message in which he continued to defend his "mini-sub" the capsule he had instructed his employees to make but which was rejected by diving teams on the ground. He claimed that it would have worked and that it was going to be tried, despite suggestions from some experts that it would not have been able to fit through the cave system.
Mr Musk's latest attacks on Mr Unsworth began in the wake of a New York Times interview in which he repeatedly broke down while revealing the toll working so hard at Tesla was taking on him. He revealed that he sometimes came to regret his late night posts, and that the company's board was concerned about the damage his outbursts were doing.
By Aaron Maasho ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - An Ethiopian ship docked in an Eritrean port for the first time in two decades on Wednesday and Eritrea announced plans to upgrade a road to its neighbor, local media said, in further signs of strengthening ties between the former foes. The announcements came as Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed met Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki in their second face-to-face encounter since a July peace deal ended two decades of enmity. Abiy and Isaias traveled the entire 70-km (40-mile) road that links Assab's port along the Red Sea to the town of Bure just across the border in Ethiopia, which had not been used since a two-year war broke out between the neighbors in 1998. "They were able to confirm that the existing road link was in good state," state-run EriTV said. "There are (now) plans to modernize the port in Assab and enlarge the road linking it to Bure to four lanes (from one)," it added. Landlocked Ethiopia's access to Assab and Eritrea's other port in Massawa were cut off in 1998, forcing Addis Ababa to turn to Djibouti for sea access. The country of 100 million has been almost entirely dependent on tiny neighbor Djibouti ever since, but Ethiopia has also negotiated a deal with Sudan to hold equity in its Port Sudan. Earlier on Wednesday, an Ethiopian commercial ship docked in an Eritrean port for the first time since 1998, entering Massawa. State outlets said it planned to carry 11,000 tonnes of Eritrean zinc exports to China. Abiy and Isaias were due to hold a summit with Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo in Asmara on Thursday. It was Abdullahi's second visit to Eritrea since July 30 and the latest sign of thawing relations across the Horn of Africa following Eritrea's rapprochement with Ethiopia. Past Somali administrations had accused Eritrea of supplying weapons to anti-government Islamist insurgents. Asmara has repeatedly denied this, saying the accusations were concocted by Ethiopia. In 2007, Eritrea walked out of the East African bloc IGAD in protest as Ethiopian forces entered Somalia to fight militants. (Editing by Ingrid Melander and Janet Lawrence)
Irish honey has been proven to be as beneficial for health as manuka honey [Photo: Getty]
The health benefits of manuka honey have long been flouted. But a new study claims that Irish heather honey could actually be even better for you.
While it is well known that manuka honey from New Zealand can give overall health a boost, thanks to its antioxidant, antibacterial, antidiabetic and anti-inflammatory properties, new research suggests Irish honey could be equally as beneficial.
The study, by researchers at Dublin City University and Trinity College Dublin, found that Irish honey contains just as many powerful antioxidants (phenolic compounds) as manuka honey.
Scientists tested 131 honey samples from beekeepers across Ireland and found that Irish heather honey had the highest total phenolic content of all the honeys tested, which was even higher than manuka honey.
Antioxidants are so good for us because they help prevent damage occurring in the bodys cells. They also help our body to fight infection and promote healing.
Whats more, the Irish honey is a heck of a lot cheaper than its manuka cousin, which could set you back a whopping 40 per jar, yikes.
So while were all having a honey love-in, both Irish and Manukan, heres a few more benefits of the sticky stuff that might just surprise you
It sorts out your skin
Theres a reason many of your beauty products contain honey as an ingredient. Not only does it help to smoothe skin but also keeps breakouts at bay, thanks to its antimicrobial properties.
Honey is also a natural humectant, meaning it hydrates the skin by drawing in moisture from the air.
Honey is great for the skin [Photo: Getty]
It helps prevent hayfever
The bee pollen in honey can desensitise your body to other pollens, which can help with the likes of hayfever, explains nutritionist Cassandra Burns.
It can help stop you coughing and sneezing
You know how your mum always used to tell you to put honey in your hot drink when you were poorly? Well, she may have had a point. Research from the journal Frontiers in Microbiology found that the sugary substance fights off a cold in multiple ways.
Story continues
And earlier this year health officials recommended that people suffering with coughs should opt for honey and over-the-counter remedies before using antibiotics.
Thats because honey has been found to offer soothing properties that help offer cough relief.
Its good for the heart
As well as offering a sweet hit on your morning porridge, honey is packed full of polyphenols, which are useful antioxidants that have been linked to increased blood flow and helping to prevent blood clots from forming. All good for boosting heart health.
Some honey a day keeps the doctor away [Photo: Getty]
It heals wounds
Honey has long been considered a natural healer when applied to wounds, cuts and grazes. With its antibacterial properties, not only does the sweet stuff kill bacteria, it wards off infection too.
It gives you an energy hit
About to hit up the gym? Try drizzling some honey onto your pre-HIIT porridge. As a carbohydrate made up of fructose and glucose, honey makes for a natural energy snack that packs a punch.
Unlike its naughtier refined sugar counterpart, the sticky stuff, contains small amounts of proteins and minerals which can help the body metabolise bad cholesterol and fatty acids.
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for non-stop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyleUK.
Read more from Yahoo Style UK:
Forget fasting, time-restricted feeding is the way to double fat loss, study finds
Three bars of chocolate a month can decrease chance of heart failure, study finds
Can you ever reverse sun damage?
The Senate Intelligence Committee didnt just grill Silicon Valley executives about Russian meddling. They also wanted to know how they are dealing with China.
During Wednesdays hearing, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) asked why Facebook and Twitter dont do business in China, the second largest economy in the world.
The Chinese government has chosen not to allow our service in China, said Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook. You know weve been open about the fact that our mission is to connect the world and that means its hard to do that without connecting the worlds largest population. But in order to go into China, we would have to be able to do so in keeping with our values. And thats not possible right now.
When we were blocked, we decided that it wasnt a fight worth fighting right now. We have other priorities, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey added.
In July, Facebook got an approval to open a subsidiary in the eastern province of Zhejiang in China, to set up an innovation hub. But the Chinese government quickly withdrew that approval. Twitter never bothered to penetrate mainstream in China, where a similar social media platform, Weibo (WB), dominates.
An empty chair reserved for Googles parent Alphabet, which refused to send its top executive. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
I think both of you should and your company should wear it as a badge of honor that the Chinese Communist Party has blocked you from operating in their country, said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). He went on to blast Google senior executives absence at Wednesdays hearing, criticizing the internet giant for terminating cooperation with the American military while reportedly developing a censored search engine for China.
Perhaps they didnt send a witness to answer these questions because there is no answer to those questions and the silence we would hear right now from the Google chair would be reminiscent of the silence, said Cotton. Other senators used even harsher terms to criticize Googles absence. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) pointed out the empty chair on Googles seat and said, maybe its because theyre arrogant.
Story continues
Google offered to send its Chief Legal Officer and Head of Global Affairs Kent Walker but the Senate Intelligence Committee rejected Walker as a witness stating that he was not high-level enough. John Hennessy, chairman of Googles parent company Alphabet, defended the companys decision to send Walker on Tuesday. I think Kent Walker was the right person to go, Hennessy said on Yahoo Finances live show The Final Round. Perhaps people dont realize it He sits in every single board meeting, operates at the highest level of the company and is responsible for its global brand, and image, and legal advice.
Twitter shares (TWTR) slumped 6% at market close Wednesday, while Facebook (FB) shares dropped 2.3% and Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) shares slipped nearly 1%.
Krystal Hu covers technology and economy for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
Read more:
The real reason why traders are shorting Alibaba
Why China and US tech stocks are diverging
Walmart buys from US suppliers, but that doesnt protect it from tariffs
A Florida mother was charged Tuesday with murdering her two-year-old son, one day after her report of his disappearance prompted a statewide Amber Alert.
Charisse Stinson, 21, has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder, ABC Action News reports.
Police found two-year-old Jordan Belliveaus body in a wooded park in the middle of Largo, Florida.
Stinson had told police that she was walking with her son around 9:30 p.m. Saturday when they were offered a ride by a man named Antwan. She said she accepted because Jordan was too heavy to carry home.
According to her account, shortly after getting in the white Toyota Camry she was struck in the face until she was unconscious. When she woke up around 1:30 a.m. Sunday at Largo Central Park, she said she discovered Jordan was missing.
Investigators issued an Amber Alert, and included a composite sketch of the alleged suspect.
Updated with sketch: Please share! A Florida AMBER Alert has been issued for Jordan Belliveau, 2 years old pic.twitter.com/12xKT05NVm FDLE (@fdlepio) September 4, 2018
When police went to Stinsons home to establish the last time Jordan had been there, they found bloodied childrens items, according to ABC Action News. It is unclear if the items are connected to the boys death.
Chicago (AFP) - Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a Democratic party star bruised by the US city's pervasive gun violence and a controversial police shooting case, announced Tuesday he would not seek a third term in office, avoiding a tough election battle.
The former White House chief of staff for the previous US president, Barack Obama, made the tear-filled announcement just one day before a white Chicago police officer was to go on trial for the killing of a black teenager in Obama's hometown.
"I've decided not to seek re-election," Emanuel told a hastily-arranged, surprise news conference. "This has been the job of a lifetime, but it is not a job for a lifetime."
Emanuel has struggled with unpopularity in a city facing a stubborn gun violence epidemic that spiked during his tenure beginning in 2011. The de facto Midwest capital has had 1645 shootings and 375 murders so far this year, the most of any US city.
Emanuel on Tuesday couched his decision to not seek a third term in personal terms, as his wife Amy Rule stood beside him.
"Now with our three children in college, Amy and I have decided it's time to write another chapter together," he said.
- 'We need a new mayor' -
The mayor had faced a string of protests over the city's pervasive violence and what some residents claim is a lack of investment in impoverished, predominantly African-American communities facing the worst of the often gang-related shootings.
Emanuel had also withstood repeated calls to resign over his handling of the killing of black teenager Laquan McDonald in 2014, when police officer Jason Van Dyke shot the 17-year-old 16 times.
The dash-cam video of the shooting was not released for a year, until a judge compelled city officials to do so.
The mayor had been accused of being part of an attempt to prevent or delay the release of the damaging video, which appeared to show McDonald walking away from police when he was gunned down.
Story continues
Chance The Rapper, a Chicago-born artist and a frequent Emanuel critic, praised organizations that had "pushed for accountability and resignation from Rahm."
"We need a new mayor, but not just anybody," he said on Twitter.
"We gotta start to come together around a candidate that cares about equity in regards to education, job development and healthcare in one of the most segregated cities in the country."
- 'A very hard race' -
Emanuel had reportedly accumulated an $8 million war chest for a re-election bid. His announcement stunned the city's political establishment, and realignment began almost immediately for the February 2019 election.
"(Emanuel) would have had a very hard race," University of Illinois political science professor Dick Simpson told WGN television. "But, he certainly was the leading candidate."
With Emanuel out, new candidates reportedly were exploring the possibility of a mayoral run.
Former US Education Secretary Arne Duncan and another Obama-era chief of staff, Bill Daley were among those gauging support among donors and others, according to Politico.
Emanuel once was rumored to aspire to even higher office.
The former Democratic operative had worked in both former president Bill Clinton's administration in the 1990s and was the first chief of staff for Obama. He also was a three-term congressman from Illinois.
"Rahm Emanuel has been a tireless and brilliant public servant," Obama said. "Chicago is better and stronger for his leadership, and I was a better President for his wise counsel."
"Rahm Emanuel has served with vision, purpose, principle, and impact," Clinton said.
Former US Senator Jon Kyl speaks as Senate Republican leadership hold a press conference in 2012: Allison Shelley/Getty Images)
Former Senator Jon Kyl will fill the late Senator John McCains seat in the US Congress, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has said.
The appointment marks an unexpected return to Capitol Hill for Mr Kyl, who retired in 2013 after serving three terms an Arizona senator. Mr Doucey said he expected the 76-year-old to hit the ground running", adding that now was not the time for newcomers.
There is no one in Arizona more prepared to represent our state in the US Senate than Jon Kyl, Mr Ducey said in a statement. He understands how the Senate functions and will make an immediate and positive impact benefiting all Arizonans."
The appointment expires in November 2020, when a special election will be held to replace Mr McCain, who died last month from an aggressive form of brain cancer. But Mr Kyl has promised only to serve until the close of this Congressional session, which ends in January 2019. He also said that he has no plans to run again in 2020.
"Im accepting this appointment to fill the seat vacated by the passing of my dear friend because of my sense of duty to the state I love, and the institution of the Senate which I served for 18 years, and because the governor asked for my help," Mr Kyl said at a press conference, according to AZ Central.
The decision was praised by current Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, as well as Mr McCains widow, Cindy McCain.
Jon Kyl is a dear friend of mine and Johns, Ms McCain tweeted. Its a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona.
The move will not be a dramatic one for Mr Kyl, who has worked for the past five years at Washington-based lobbying firm Covington & Burlington. He has been a familiar face on Capitol Hill since leaving Congress, helping nominees like Attorney General Jeff Sessions prepare for their Senate confirmation hearings, according to Roll Call.
Mr Kyl has been shepherding Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh through the same process in recent months, and in an interesting twist may wind up voting on Mr Kavanaugh's confirmation upon returning to Congress. He is expected to be a reliable conservative vote for President Donald Trump on that issue, and on many to come.
Story continues
Mr Kyl started his career as an attorney in Phoenix, and joined Congress as a representative from Arizona in 1986. He became a senator eight years later, and worked his way up to the No 2 position of Senate Minority Whip a position he held for six years.
One of Mr Kyls most infamous moments in Congress came in 2011, when he argued against providing federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Mr Kyl claimed abortions made up well over 90 per cent of the services the womens health clinics provided. Confronted with the fact that abortions make only 3 per cent of the Planned Parenthoods work, Mr Kyls office claimed the senators words were "not intended to be a factual statement".
Mr Kyl later claimed he had simply misspoken, and ordered his statement stricken from the congressional record.
Reza Jarrahy and Geena Davis in 2013. (Photo: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage)
Theres a new twist in Geena Daviss divorce case. In May, the Thelma & Louise stars fourth husband, Reza Jarrahy, filed for divorce after nearly 17 years of marriage, but Davis says the whole thing is moot because they were never actually married.
According to documents obtained by People, Davis claims she and Jarrahy knowingly and voluntarily chose to have a marriage-like ceremony, fully aware that it was not legally binding.
Jarrahy, an Iranian-American neurosurgeon, and Davis wed in a private ceremony in the Hamptons on Sept. 1, 2001. We are very happy and we look forward to spending the rest of our lives together, they announced at the time.
The couple separated in November 2017, according to court documents. Jarrahy cited irreconcilable differences as the cause for their split and sought spousal support and joint legal and physical custody of the couples three kids. The surgeon also asked the judge to block Daviss request for spousal support. They have 14-year-old twin sons, Kaiis Steven and Kian William, and a daughter, Alizeh Keshvar, 16.
The Greys Anatomy actress filed a petition Tuesday to have the case dismissed, claiming that the marriage was never legal. According to documents, Davis included a letter allegedly signed by Jarrahy in 2012 that stated, I filed my tax returns in 2009 as a single individual because I am not currently married. Ms. Davis and I co-habitate and co-parent our three children but are not officially wed.
Davis and Jarrahy met through mutual friends in 1999 and got engaged the following year. The actress was previously married to director Renny Harlin (199398), actor Jeff Goldblum (198790), and restaurateur Richard Emmolo (198283).
Representatives for Davis and Jarrahy have not commented on the latest filing.
Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
By Thomas Escritt ANKARA (Reuters) - Germany is prepared to offer humanitarian assistance to countries harboring Syrian refugees if it comes to an all-out government offensive in Idlib, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in Ankara on Wednesday. Damascus, backed by Russia and Iran, has been preparing an assault to recover Idlib, the last stronghold of active rebellion against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Maas was in Ankara on a visit aimed at improving badly frayed relations between Germany and Turkey after a post-coup crackdown in which Ankara imprisoned tens of thousands of people, including some German citizens. With Turkey's economy in crisis after the United States imposed sanctions, officials from Germany, Europe's richest country, see a chance to improve ties, potentially leading to improved conditions for the detained. But events in Syria's northwestern Idlib region dominated Maas's meetings with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. At a joint news conference, Cavusoglu said refugees from Idlib would likely flood into Turkey and European countries. Turkey, which backs rebels against Assad, is sheltering 3.5 million Syrian refugees. The European Union already relies on Turkey to stem the flow of refugees whose mass arrival in Europe in 2015 boosted support for anti-immigrant political parties. The leaders of Turkey, Russia and Iran are due to meet on Friday in Tehran and are expected to discuss the situation in northwestern Syria. "Germany is prepared to redouble its humanitarian engagement if it comes to fighting along a broad front in the region," Maas said at the news conference. He said he had raised the question of detained Germans at his meetings in Ankara, but declined to be drawn on the substance of those discussions. Erdogan is due to visit Berlin later this month. Germany is home to a three-million-strong Turkish diaspora, the world's largest, many of whom have dual citizenship. German officials believe they have little choice but to improve ties, despite concerns over the human rights situation in Turkey. Critics of Chancellor Angela Merkel's government warned Germany should not compromise on human rights issues for the sake of a rapprochement. "Maas and the government must work to help other political prisoners as well as the seven German hostages in Turkey," said Greens lawmaker Cem Ozdemir, himself of Turkish ethnic background. "Their only crime was to be doing their job as journalists or opposition politicians." Tens of thousands of people were detained in a crackdown that followed the 2016 failed coup. Maas is also due to meet business leaders in Istanbul, a gesture meant by officials as a statement of confidence in the Turkish economy. (Reporting by Thomas Escritt and Michelle Martin; Editing by Peter Graff and Janet Lawrence)
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg appeared at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday to answer questions about foreign interference on their platforms aimed at disrupting U.S. politics.
Notably absent from the hearing: anyone from Google or its parent company, Alphabet.
While the committee invited either Google CEO Sundar Pichai or Alphabets Larry Page to testify, the company declined to send either of its top executives. Senators didnt take the slight lightly, and set out a Google name placard in front of a conspicuously empty chair alongside Dorsey and Sandberg:
An empty chair on the left marks the absence of anyone from Google as Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey answered questions from members of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday. (Photo: JIM WATSON via Getty Images)
Im disappointed Google decided against sending the right senior level executive, committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said in his opening remarks.
Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-V.A.) echoed that sentiment.
Im deeply disappointed that Google one of the most influential digital platforms in the world chose not to send its own top corporate leadership to engage this committee, he said.
The company had said it would designate its senior vice president of global affair, Kent Walker, to attend the hearing (hes appeared previously before the panel). But that offer was rebuffed, as the committee sought to hear from higher-ranking executives.
In a statement to HuffPost, Google said its been diligent in briefing lawmakers on the political interference issue in the past.
Over the last 18 months weve met with dozens of Committee Members and briefed major Congressional Committees numerous times on our work to prevent foreign interference in US elections, a Google spokesperson said in an email.
The statement reiterated that Google had made Walker available and that the company had understood that he would be an appropriate witness for this hearing.
Related...
Here's How Facebook Could Be Regulated
Trump Distances Himself From His Own Remarks On Russian Election Meddling
Trump's Intel Chief Warns Of Upcoming Kremlin Election Interference
Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Moscow (AFP) - Russia's powerful GRU intelligence agency is facing international accusations that it carried out large-scale cyber attacks including a foiled attempt to hack into the computer system of the global chemicals watchdog.
London has also accused two of GRU's officers of poisoning former double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the British city of Salisbury in March, using a perfume bottle containing a powerful nerve agent.
- What is GRU? -
GRU stands for the Main Intelligence Directorate, Russia's military intelligence agency which is one of Moscow's three spy agencies along with the FSB security service and the SVR foreign intelligence agency.
Still commonly known as GRU, the agency changed its name to the Main Directorate (GU) as a result of a reform in 2010.
Its chief Igor Korobov reports to the Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.
The agency's structure, staff number and finances constitute a state secret. Its official emblem is a black bat flying above a globe.
- What does it do? -
It has an extensive spy network abroad and its highly-trained "spetsnaz" special forces have fought in various conflicts, including in Afghanistan and Chechnya.
In recent years the agency has gained notoriety for its connection to some of Russia's most contentious actions abroad.
On Thursday, the Netherlands announced it had foiled a hacker attack by GRU against the global chemical weapons watchdog OPCW.
Britain and Australia also accused GRU of carrying out numerous major cyber attacks in recent years on Kremlin orders -- including one targeting the US Democratic Party during the 2016 presidential campaign.
In July this year, US Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 GRU officers, accusing them of interfering in the US polls.
The Bellingcat investigative team has linked the downing of MH17 in eastern Ukraine in 2014 to a GRU officer who it said "supervised the procurement and transport of weapons".
Story continues
The Netherlands said Thursday that a laptop seized from Russian alleged agents in the Hague showed activities in Malaysia related to the MH17 investigation.
The agency has also been linked to an attempt to overthrow Montenegro's government on the eve of parliamentary elections in October, 2016.
GRU officers are believed to provide military guidance to the Syrian army as well as rebels in eastern Ukraine, among others.
- Does it kill traitors? -
In 2010, Putin famously said that Russian special services do not kill traitors, saying they "croak all by themselves".
He acknowledged that Soviet authorities deployed assassins to get rid of enemies, but said modern Russia no longer does so.
"Such units have been liquidated," he said.
While describing Skripal as a "scumbag," Putin this week again dismissed claims Moscow attacked Skripal, saying: "No one had to poison anyone there (in Britain)."
Earlier this year, former GRU chief Fyodor Ladygin also denied his agency's involvement.
"The Russian intelligence structure where I had the honour of serving for many years...never -- I repeat never -- did such vile, stupid things," he told Russian television.
British police accuse GRU officers, identified as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, of trying to kill Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Skripal, a former colonel in Russian military intelligence, was jailed for betraying agents to Britain's MI6 security service. He moved to England in 2010 as part of a spy swap.
Several top GRU agents have defected to the West in the past.
Vladimir Rezun, who defected in the 1970s, wrote a partly autobiographical book under the penname Viktor Suvorov. The book is entitled Aquarium, the nickname of the GRU headquarters in Moscow.
"What kind of fish swim there?" he asks his boss in the book. "There's only one kind there -- piranhas."
Paris (AFP) - They may be small and striking, but shrikes are songbirds known for viciously impaling their victims with a razor-sharp bill although experts have long wondered about their ability to subdue much larger prey.
Now researchers say these carnivorous killers use powerful beak-and-jaw motions to shake their victims vigorously, whirling them around at speeds which cause injuries akin to whiplash.
"We already knew that they can kill surprisingly large animals for their size, but we didn't know specifically how they do it," said Dr Diego Sustaita, lead author of a study published in Wednesday's Biology Letters journal.
Although shrikes have sharply hooked, falcon-like beaks which they jab into the head or neck of their prey, causing partial paralysis, they don't have the large talons possessed by other birds of prey to help them finish the job.
But researchers at San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research on California's San Clemente island found clear evidence of violent shaking in a motion which uses the victim's weight against it, Sustaita said.
"The way that shrikes shake their prey is likely to be important for immobilising and killing it because the accelerations of the prey's own body around its neck results in forces that could break or damage the neck," he told AFP.
"The rate at which the shrikes shake their heads was surprising, especially with relatively large animals in their jaws!" he said, with the study suggesting the movement resulted in accelerations equivalent of around 6g-force.
- 'Like a raptor' -
For the study, researchers studied footage of attacks by 37 loggerhead shrikes involving live domestic black mice and other creatures. In 28 cases, they observed prey-shaking behaviour with the results giving a clear indicator of how the birds subdued larger creatures.
"They help explain how a small songbird is able to kill relatively large animals in ways that differ from large raptors like hawks. Shrikes have some of the 'equipment' like the sharply-hooked beak, but not all, like the talons, and so they seem to have found another way to get the job done."
Story continues
Shrikes, he said, are disproportionately strong for their size but their ability to kill is actually more reliant on speed.
"As a group, shrikes can take prey larger than you would expect for their body sizes and 'types' -- keep in mind, these are songbirds. You wouldn't expect a robin, for instance, to have the strength to kill a mouse and they don't," he said.
"This particular behaviour relies more on speed to generate accelerations to take advantage of the prey's body weight, so it might not necessitate as much strength as it would seem."
Abuja (AFP) - Nigeria's two main political parties are asking election hopefuls to pay huge fees for the chance to stand at next year's general election, in a move criticised as favouring the rich and well-connected.
At the last nationwide vote in 2015, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of then-president Goodluck Jonathan charged 22 million naira per nomination form.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) of the eventual winner Muhammadu Buhari asked for 27.5 million naira just to stand in the party's presidential primary.
Now, as both parties prepare for polling in February next year, the APC wants an eye-watering 45 million naira ($125,500, 108,000 euros) per presidential primary candidate, according to newspaper adverts on Wednesday.
Individuals wanting to be selected to run for a governorship post have to pay 22.5 million naira, up from 10 million naira last time round.
The PDP has reduced the cost of its presidential candidate forms to 12 million naira and the selection for a tilt at a governorship from 11 million naira to six million naira.
But both are still significant sums in a country of more than 180 million where some 87 million live in extreme poverty, according to the World Poverty Clock.
The APC has offered a half-price discount for women and the disabled, while the PDP has made forms free for female candidates, in a move designed to widen representation.
- Political patronage -
Nigeria is not alone in imposing high election fees.
Lawmakers in neighbouring Benin this week voted to increase the deposit for presidential candidates to 250 million CFA francs ($441,000, 380,000 euros).
The country of 11 million people has more than 200 political parties and the increase has been seen as a way of reducing the numbers.
In Nigeria, the Not Too Young to Run group, which successfully campaigned for a reduction in the lower age limit for elected representatives, said the fees were still "exorbitant" and would disqualify potential candidates.
Story continues
It claimed the main parties had reneged on a promise to cap the cost of nomination forms for all elected posts.
Kassim Afegbua, former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida's spokesman, wrote in the New Telegraph newspaper on Tuesday that the process should be more affordable.
Debo Adeniran, of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership lobby group, said the high costs was an example of how the two main parties had "monetised the political environment".
The system favoured the wealthy and fostered cronyism and corruption, as sponsors who often pay for a candidate's forms expect pay-back once they are in power, he added.
Buhari was elected partly on a platform to tackle endemic corruption in government.
- 'Serious business' -
Clement Nwankwo, head of the Situation Room of Nigeria civil society groups that promote good governance, said the system was intended to exclude all but the wealthiest and those who had previously benefited from patronage.
But APC spokesman Yekini Nabena told AFP the amounts were a reflection of the cost of campaigning and a way of ensuring the party was not in thrall to a handful of wealthy donors.
"We want the party itself to take care of the elections so that nobody will say because he gave money to the party he wants to dictate to the party what to do," he told AFP.
He added: "Politics is a very serious business. We shouldn't be petty about it. Even though you are financially handicapped, if you are the man of the people, your supporters can contribute money for you."
Party primaries are expected in the coming weeks, with Buhari, who in 2015 was said to have taken out a bank loan to cover his nomination costs, set to secure the APC ticket unopposed.
All eyes will instead be on the PDP, with an increasingly crowded field of hopefuls including former vice-president Atiku Abubakar and Senate leader Bukola Saraki.
By Simon Johnson and Johan Sennero KOPPARBERG, Sweden (Reuters) - Those wondering why Swedish politics are set to lurch to the right in Sunday's election need look no further than Ljusnarsberg, a tiny central county of dense pine forests and glistening lakes. Many inhabitants of this once-booming region are uneasy about asylum seekers after a large number arrived here in 2015. Some also feel that Sweden's widely admired tax and welfare model has left them behind. Fears over globalization's effect on industrial jobs, the pressure of an aging population and a failure to integrate minorities have boosted right-wing and anti-establishment parties from Italy and Germany to Britain and the United States. Polls indicating one in five voters in Sweden are likely to back a party with roots in the far-right fringe on Sept. 9 show that even seemingly successful political systems are vulnerable. Several online surveys indicate the anti-immigration, anti-European Union Sweden Democrats could become the largest party, overtaking the Social Democrats, who have dominated politics for the last 100 years. They are likely to do particularly well in Ljusnarsberg where they won a quarter of the vote in 2014, double their national score. (Sweden Election graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2LmSZFD) (Swedish economy snapshot: http://tmsnrt.rs/2bylYpf) "I think people here want to see a change, they want society to be like it used to be," said Mats Larsson, the Sweden Democrat's top politician in Ljusnarsberg. Most people in the county live in Kopparberg, where the 17th century church, with its blood-red, wooden facade and spires, hints at the region's rich past, built on copper and iron mines. For many years, the area was a heartland of the ruling Social Democrats. Its swing to the right highlights election themes of asylum and a split between poor rural or suburban areas home to immigrants and wealthy places like Stockholm. Ljusnarsberg's mines have gone - the last closed in the mid-1970s. Unemployment at the end of last year was nearly 13 percent, almost double the national level. Many live on sickness benefits, masking the figures of those relying on welfare. As jobs have disappeared, so have people. The population has roughly halved in the last 50 years and many services have been centralized to Orebro, an hour's drive south of Kopparberg. "The 1970s and 1980s were a fantastic time to grow up here in this county. Now everything is falling to pieces," said Leif Danielsson, 53, a businessman in Kopparberg, the county's only sizable town. "Houses are rotting, some places are overgrown with weeds. If you have any education or contacts, you leave." While Kopparberg retained its health clinic, it has been unable to recruit permanent doctors, with temporary staff filling the gap. Decades of closures have left Kyrkbacks school in Kopparberg as the only school for 6-15 year-olds in the region. It has also had problems recruiting staff and was rated as one of Sweden's worst by the teachers' union, long before asylum numbers jumped. STRETCHED SERVICES When Sweden took in 163,000 asylum seekers in 2015 as hundreds of thousands fled war in Syria and Afghanistan, Ljusnarsberg was assigned around 1,200, the highest concentration compared with its population. Many of the new arrivals were unaccompanied minors, and the influx stretched services to the limit. Anne-Marie Hagglund, assistant headteacher of Kyrkbacks school, said families just showed up with their migration papers. "They came back day after day until we could take in their children," she said. All but 260 of the refugees have now gone - mostly assigned to other areas by the Migration Agency - yet the unease remains. Sitting in a cafe on the town green in Kopparberg, personal assistant Ulrika, 44, said that since the arrival of so many asylum seekers, women are afraid to walk the streets at night. "There are lots of robberies. I think a lot of it is to do with immigration," she said, declining to give her surname. Police say the number of reported crimes fell in 2017 compared to the previous year, though they admit that many crimes go unreported. After cutbacks, the nearest police station is in Lindesberg, 40 km away. "Of course, we should help people," said Staffan Myrman, 53, who works at the Kopparberg brewery, one of the two major employers in the Ljusnarsberg region. "But when 25-30 percent of the population are refugees, we need to be able to cope with that and we can't." Sweden took in more asylum seekers than any other European country per capita in 2015. But while worries over immigration explain some of the Sweden Democrat's gains, unease about economic and social change also plays a role. "It is a target to point your anger at," said Ljusnarsberg Liberal party politician Hendrik Bijloo. "Of course there are racists voting for the Sweden Democrats, but they are not even close to a majority." REFERENDUM ON WELFARE? It is not just rural areas like Ljusnarsberg where the Sweden Democrats have thrived. A spate of gang killings and car-burnings have sharpened concerns that authorities are losing control in poorer city suburbs where immigrants make up the majority of the population. But welfare is also a big theme, despite that fact that Sweden is one of Europe's richest countries, with strong growth and low unemployment. "This election is a referendum on welfare or whether we have continued asylum immigration. I choose welfare," Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Akesson said in a televised election debate. The center-left government and main opposition Moderate Party both plan to spend an extra 20 billion Swedish crowns ($2.19 billion) over the next four years. Despite those plans, and already higher spending, many Swedes believe the welfare system is in crisis. Sweden scores highly in the quality of healthcare - for example more Swedes are alive 30 days after a heart attack than in other European countries, according to a 2015 study. But a growing and ageing population means waiting lists for operations have grown and half of health centers have to cover doctor shortages with temporary staff, according to a report by the Swedish Agency for Health and Care Services Analysis. Since 2000, 16 percent of maternity units have closed, a Swedish television report showed. Many women travel more than 100 km (62 miles) to give birth, while schools need to recruit around 77,000 teachers over the next five years. Inequality, measured by the Gini coefficient, has grown faster in recent years in Sweden than in any other industrialized nation, although the country remains among those where income is most evenly distributed. This partly explains why mainstream parties' shift to tougher immigration policies after the 2015 crisis has failed to win back disillusioned voters. Many locals in Ljusnarsberg are resentful about what they see as preferential treatment for immigrants. "They get a better deal, all of them, at the dentist, with the doctor, they are first in the queue always," said 65-year-old pensioner Torbjorn Lundgren. "That makes me angry." Asylum seekers get subsidized welfare, housing and 71 crowns ($7.79) a day for food and other essentials, including healthcare. Healthcare costs are capped at 400 crowns over a 12 month period. For Swedish citizens the cap is 1,100 crowns. "It's not the immigrants fault, it's the politicians," said pensioner Torbjorn Lundgren, who backs the Sweden Democrats. "I'm going to vote for them, then we'll see if things change or not." (Additional reporting by Johan Ahlander; editing by Niklas Pollard and Philippa Fletcher)
Cryptocurrency could be due for a big comeback. Last month saw the debut of Asias largest blockchain conference, the International Blockchain Congress in India, with over 5,000 registered attendees and over 200 government attendees. Its a huge sign of interest in the technology, and the CEO of co-host Nucleus Vision sees it as a sign that the markets are about to soar.
It only needs a few triggers globally to bring the market back up, Abhishek Pitti tells Inverse. What happened in India is giving everybody this huge signal that the governments are supporting the blockchain applications. The crypto markets are just following signals that come. There definitely has been lag in coming back, but based on the blockchain adoption in the community, the crypto markets are only a signal away to come back up. Though its a little bearish at the moment, I think its only a short-term thing.
Bitcoins current price of $7,375 is well below its December 2017 peak of nearly $20,000, while the total cryptocurrency market cap of $240 billion is well below its $830 billion peak at the start of January.
People who have been in this industry have seen this movement multiple times, Pitti says, citing the 2014 drop in bitcoin price from around $1,500 to near the $200 mark that caused many to question the long-term potential of the industry. Because of the underlying principles of blockchain and the decentralization, the entire disintermediation of resources, I think the blockchain is obviously here to stay.
Developers are still exploring new applications for both the coins and the decentralized blockchain ledger that underpins its workings despite the downturn, with Revolut offering crypto cashbacks and Everipedia launching a censorship-proof blockchain encyclopedia.
Abhishek Pitti.
This years conference, hosted in Hyderabad on August 3 and 4 and in Goa on August 5, saw several memorandums of understanding signed between governments and organizations. The conference also saw the announcement of the India-developed Eleven01 blockchain protocol.
Story continues
Eleven01 is an emerging market centric blockchain protocol with government compliance standards, which serves as a foundation for decentralized applications, Rama Iyer, president of the Eleven01 Foundation, said in a statement. This will create a blockchain ecosystem and build a nation-centric procedure which is custom built for the countrys needs.
A representative from Telenganas state government highlighted the role of the countrys largest incubator T-Hub in bringing the project to life. The state government, along with the Goa state government, co-hosted the conference.
That has happened nowhere in the world, where you have 200 people from the government attending the conference, Pitti says.
Pitti predicts that growing interest in the technology will lead to more interest in the second annual blockchain congress next year, projecting a tenfold increase in attendees. The team is also scheduling a womens hackathon at the end of February in the state of Goa.
Cryptocurrency may not make headlines like it used to, but its proponents are working away on its future applications.
The author of this story has a stake in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Photos via Nucleus Vision, Unsplash / Andre Francois
More From Inverse
Ankara (AFP) - Turkey already hosts the world's largest refugee population, including three million Syrians, but over the last year there has been an influx of Afghans seeking a safe haven -- and not just from Afghanistan itself, but from Iran.
For decades Iran, to Turkey's east, has been home to some three million Afghans who have fled the endless war pitting the Taliban and other rebels against the western-backed government in Kabul.
Many live in miserable conditions and their prospects have become even more precarious due to the Islamic Republic's increasingly troubled economy.
Turkey is home to 145,000 Afghans, according to Amnesty International figures in April, but the influx has really taken off this year.
Up to mid-August, 61,819 Afghan migrants had arrived in Turkey in 2018 compared to 45,259 in 2017, according to Turkish interior ministry figures.
Javad Saadatnejad was a refugee in Iran for 34 years before arriving in Turkey last month.
"Iran didn't do anything for me," he said.
Those who seek asylum in Turkey are called "conditional refugees."
Izza Leghtas, senior advocate for Europe at Refugees International, said this gives "the idea that really they're only in Turkey temporarily until they go and resettle" elsewhere.
But resettlement figures to the US have gone down "drastically" in the last 18 months, Leghtas said.
In 2017, US President Donald Trump cut the number of refugees that Washington would accept to 45,000 from 110,000 in the last year under Barack Obama.
- 'Uncomfortable conditions' -
The new arrivals find they have to make the best of limited or even no facilities.
Mohammad Hussein, from northern Kunduz province, said his six children aged between two and 15 slept in an Ankara park for a week in "uncomfortable" circumstances in front of the Association for Solidarity with Asylum-Seekers and Migrants (ASAM) building.
ASAM works together with the UN and the Turkish Provincial Directorate of Migration Management to register refugees.
Story continues
Hussein, 35, said he fled the Taliban because he had helped NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) find the group's weapons.
Fearing reprisals since "the Taliban knew" about his work, Hussein fled, walking across the Turkish border with his wife and children aged two, four, six, nine, 13 and 15.
But Hussein said he could not stay in Turkey where he is "in danger", saying he wanted to go somewhere like Switzerland or Canada.
- 'Economic situation' -
Afghanistan ranked second globally as the largest source of refugees in 2017, with 2.6 million compared to 6.3 million Syrians concentrated in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.
According to UN refugee agency the UNHCR, three million Afghans are in Iran but only a third of them are officially registered as refugees.
Levent Ulusoy, deputy general coordinator at ASAM, said Afghans were coming from Iran "because of the economic situation (there), the difficulties persisting in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, they leave to find work or to flee the war".
The Iranian economy has been hit hard by renewed US sanctions following President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
- 'No support for Afghans' -
For Afghans who stay in Turkey, Metin Corabatir, president of the Ankara-based Research Centre on Asylum and Migration (IGAM), described the "difficult process" of getting work permits, which often leads many to work illegally.
If a Syrian or Afghan seeks to work legally in Turkey, the company who wishes to hire them must apply for the permit.
The magnitude of the influx first became apparent when nearly 30,000 Afghans arrived in Turkey in the first few months of 2018.
Turkish authorities reacted by deporting thousands back to Afghanistan, in coordination with the Afghan government.
Amnesty in April said 7,100 had been deported and the figure is believed to be higher today.
"As they come, the government put the majority in removal centres and from there, they send them back to Afghanistan," Corabatir said.
Zakira Hekmat, who founded Afghan Refugees Solidarity and Aid Association (Afgan-Der) in 2014, said there was "no support" for Afghan refugees in Turkey which has become tired of bearing the brunt of the problem.
"We have seen more incidents in the past three months" of refugees sleeping in parks, she added.
Hekmat also described how attitudes towards Afghans had changed in Turkey with "increasing prejudices" and many Turks assuming the war in Afghanistan was over.
"But the war continues in ways unseen."
Basra (Iraq) (AFP) - Iraqi security forces in the southern city of Basra opened fire Wednesday as they clashed with protesters a day after six people were killed in demonstrations over poor public services.
An AFP journalist reported gunshots and tear gas were fired by security personnel as they faced off with several thousand demonstrators outside the regional government headquarters.
The measures failed to disperse protesters, who responded by hurling Molotov cocktails and letting off fireworks at the security forces.
Basra and the surrounding province have been the focus of angry demonstrations over government neglect that have rocked Iraq since early July.
Residents are particularly angry over pollution of the local water supply, which has put 20,000 people in hospital.
On Tuesday six demonstrators were killed and more than 20 wounded during the bloodiest day of clashes with security officials, a local official and medics said.
The authorities said that 30 security personnel were wounded in the violence.
The United Nations envoy to Iraq has called for "calm" in Basra and urged the authorities "to avoid using disproportionate, lethal force against the demonstrators".
In his weekly press conference in Baghdad on Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said he had ordered "no real bullets ... to be fired, in the direction of protesters or in the air".
Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr said in a tweet ahead of the latest clashes that "vandals infiltrated" the protesters.
Sadr's political bloc won the largest number of seats in national elections held in May, and he is trying to form a new government with Abadi.
In July, the government announced a multi-billion dollar (euro) emergency plan for southern Iraq, to revive infrastructure and services.
But protesters are wary of promises made by the outgoing government, as negotiations drag on over the formation of the next administration.
Jerusalem (AFP) - The Israeli army said Wednesday it was closing its sole crossing for people with the Gaza Strip following a violent demonstration the previous day, just 10 days after it reopened it.
"Yesterday, a violent riot was instigated in the area of the Erez crossing, with the participation of hundreds of Palestinian rioters," the army said in a statement.
"Subsequently, it was decided to close the Erez crossing until the damage caused by the rioters will be repaired."
The Palestinians were protesting against a US announcement on Friday that it would cease all funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) which helps some three million needy refugees.
Washington, which until last year was by far the biggest contributor to the UNRWA, had already plunged the nearly 70-year-old agency into financial crisis in January with its announcement of a $300 million funding freeze.
In Gaza, most children attend UNRWA-run schools whose funding beyond the end of this month is now in doubt, along with that of the agency's network of clinics and food distribution centres.
The army said Tuesday's protesters had damaged the infrastructure of the crossing with rocks thrown from the Gaza side.
It said it would remain open for "individually approved humanitarian cases".
An AFP correspondent said several thousand Gazans passed the Palestinian Authority checkpoint at Erez during Tuesday's protest and headed to the Israeli side, where they caused damage to lights and the road surface.
The Israeli army eventually forced them back, using tear gas and live ammunition. Five Palestinians suffered gunshot wounds, the Gaza health ministry said.
Israel reopened Erez on August 27 after an 11-day closure following previous clashes, as part of its policy of easing its decade-long air, land and sea blockade on the Gaza Strip when calm is maintained.
The sole goods crossing between Israel and Gaza, Kerem Shalom, remains open.
There have been months of tension along the border and several military flare-ups, but recent weeks have seen relative calm.
Egyptian and United Nations officials have been mediating indirect negotiations on a long-term truce between Israel and Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas, who have fought three wars since 2008.
Khan al-Ahmar (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Israel's top court on Wednesday upheld an order to raze a Palestinian Bedouin village in the occupied West Bank, clearing the way for the demolition to go ahead despite international pressure.
Khan al-Ahmar is located in a key location outside of Jerusalem and international powers say the move will enable Israeli settlement expansion that would cut the West Bank in two, making the prospects of an independent Palestinian state even dimmer.
The ruling means that in seven days authorities will be allowed to raze the village, which Israel says was built illegally.
"We reject the petitions" against the directive to demolish Khan al-Ahmar, the supreme court panel said in its decision, adding that a temporary order preventing the razing of the village during court hearings "will be cancelled in seven days from today".
It will now be down to the authorities to decide when to carry out the demolition after the restriction order ends.
The United Nations, European Union and rights groups have opposed the razing of the village, which consists mainly of makeshift structures of tin and wood.
"Demolitions undermine prospect for two state solution and are against international law," UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov said on Twitter Wednesday, condemning the demolition plans.
The Palestinian government said the demolition plans amounted to "ethnic cleansing".
In May, Israel's Supreme Court rejected a final appeal against its demolition after nine years of hearings before various tribunals.
The court said Khan al-Ahmar residents had rejected proposals by the state regarding the site of their relocation, and expressed hope "the dialogue" would continue.
Activists say the villagers had little alternative but to build without Israeli construction permits that are almost never issued to Palestinians in the large parts of the West Bank where Israel has full control over civil affairs.
Story continues
-'Stay to the end'-
Hussein Abu Dahook, a resident of the hamlet, said the court wanted to "expel Palestinians and replace them with Israelis".
"We are already refugees, we were expelled 70 years ago, and they want us to move again?" he said, referring to the 1948 war that accompanied Israel's foundation and forced many Arabs from their homes.
But while Israel has "guns and tanks," residents of Khan al-Ahmar would "stay to the end," Abu Dahook vowed.
Tawfiq Jabareen, one of the lawyers representing Khan al-Ahmar residents in the petitions, said the court "was following Israel's right-wing government" in its ruling, which he said was "legally wrong".
"It is not based on legal arguments and contradicts past supreme court rulings," he told AFP. "This is unfortunately what the government wants, and the court doesn't want to intervene."
Jabareen said there were currently no understandings between the state and residents on a voluntary relocation.
"Ive never seen someone who's being expelled and whose house is being destroyed sitting idly by," he said.
Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who oversees the occupation of the West Bank, praised the judges for their decision in the face of "the coordinated attack of hypocrisy by (Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas), the left and European states".
"Nobody is above the law, nobody will keep us from acting on our sovereignty and responsibility as a state," he said.
Khan al-Ahmar, which is east of Jerusalem, is located near several major Israeli settlements and close to a highway leading to the Dead Sea.
Diplomats from Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the European Union in July expressed their support of the village, and the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Jamie McGoldrick, condemned the Israeli demolition order.
Asuncion (AFP) - Paraguay said on Wednesday it was moving its embassy in Israel back from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to order the closure of Jewish state's mission in the South American country in retaliation.
Palestinian authorities reacted by deciding to "immediately" open an embassy in Paraguay's capital Asuncion, Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki said, according to the official news agency Wafa.
Paraguay's new President Mario Abdo Benitez, who took office in mid-August, decided to move back the embassy "to contribute to the intensification of regional and international diplomatic efforts that aim to achieve a broad, just and durable peace in the Middle East," his government said.
"Israel views with utmost gravity the extraordinary decision by Paraguay, which will cloud bilateral relations," Netanyahu's office retorted on Twitter.
The original decision to move the embassy from Tel Aviv was taken by Abdo Benitez's predecessor Horacio Cartes shortly after President Donald Trump had announced the United States would relocate its own embassy to Jerusalem.
Cartes even joined Netanyahu in the new embassy's opening ceremony in Jerusalem in May.
Abdo Benitez was already president elect at that point and had questioned the decision, complaining that he had not been consulted.
Announcing the move, his government said it considered the return to Tel Aviv "appropriate," but Netanyahu's office replied that the decision had cast a shadow on relations between the two countries.
Paraguay, though, pointed to a long history of positive relations with Israel.
"I don't think this should annoy our Israeli brothers and friends," said Paraguay's Foreign Minister Luis Castiglioni.
"There are more than 85 countries that have kept their embassies in Tel Aviv and we're historic allies of Israel.
"Don't forget that Paraguay's vote was the decisive vote in the creation of Israel."
Story continues
In line with most of Latin America, Paraguay was one of the 33 countries that voted in favor -- compared to just 13 against and 10 abstentions -- of the 1947 United Nations two-state partition plan for what was until then British Mandate Palestine.
Castiglioni said Paraguay had always been "predictable in its international relations" but that Cartes's move was "a distortion of this tradition and culture of respect for international law" and UN decrees.
Trump broke with decades of US policy by moving the US embassy to Jerusalem on May 14, infuriating Palestinians and intensifying protests on the Gaza border, with 60 killed in clashes with Israeli forces that day.
His move was followed by Guatemala while the Czech Republic decided to reopen its honorary consulate in Jerusalem as President Milos Zeman voiced his wish to also move its embassy from Tel Aviv.
Crisis Phone Numberspecial noticeIf you are a veteran in emotional crisis and need help RIGHT NOW, call this toll-free number 1-800-273-8255, available 24/7, and tell them you are a veteran. All calls are confidential.1-888-899-9377A Crisis Intervention Hotline has been established by the VA Heartland Network to assist veterans who may be dealing with a mental health crisis or difficult issue in their lives. The hotline will also aid family members or friends of veterans who need help in assisting a veteran in crisis.
Members of the Liverpool Crown Court heard that officers found the stash when they searched his bag (Merseyside Police/PA)
A prison officer who was found smuggling crack cocaine, heroin and steroid tablets in fruit juice cartons has been jailed for nine years.
Paul Heap, 43, was discovered carrying a bag containing two fruit juice cartons packed with drugs as he went into HMP Altcourse in Liverpool while on sick leave on 28 June last year.
Officers found crack cocaine, heroin, cannabis and more than 2,000 steroid tablets, a mobile phone, charger and two sim cards in his rucksack.
Some of the haul that the officers found (Merseyside Police/PA)
Police said the drugs had an estimated value of more than 215,000.
Judge David Aubrey QC said Heap had cast a shadow on his colleagues after 14 years working as a prison officer.
He said: You had in effect changed sides. You had changed to the other, the dark side, having become involved in that evil trade of the supply of drugs within and to a prison, your prison.
You were therby corrupting and corroding the very environment and system that you were supposed to be safeguarding. Your offending was a grave breach of trust.
Paul Heap had been working at HMP Altcourse for 14 years. (Merseyside Police/PA Wire)
Sentencing the father-of-two, he said: Your head is rightly bowed in shame and by your corrupt dealings you have also brought shame upon your family.
The court heard that a search of Heaps car and house, in Hartleys Village, Aintree, revealed more than 9,000 of cash which he initially claimed was savings.
He pleaded guilty to seven charges of possessing drugs with intent to supply, three counts of conveying a prohibited article and one charge of possessing cash which was criminal property.
Paul Heap had been going under financial difficulties which lead him to agree to a suggestion by an inmate to supply drugs (Merseyside Police/PA)
Andrew McInnes, defending, said a psychiatric report showed Heap was suffering a depressive episode and had issues for many years after witnessing a prison suicide.
He also said he had financial pressures, including paying the mortgage for the home where he lived with his parents.
A financial investigation showed he had relied on credit cards and long and short-term loans to fund his lifestyle until December 2016.
Mr McInnes said: It seems, unfortunately, the pressures of the job and pressures financially have led this defendant to accept a suggestion to become involved in this enterprise.
Story continues
READ MORE ON YAHOO NEWS UK:
Four out of five adults at risk of early death because their heart age is too high
Misogyny could be made a hate crime as MPs prepare for historic vote
2.6 million have changed their minds about supporting Brexit
Japan typhoon: Hundreds of cars left wrecked as worst storm in 25 years kills 10
Neglected cat covered in dreadlocked fur undergoes miracle transformation
In an interview with police, Heap said he had been put under pressure, although he had not been threatened directly, by a prisoner who he refused to name.
Detective Chief Inspector Chris Mossop, head of the Titan prison corruption unit, said: This sentence is a message to those prison staff who are considering taking contraband into prison.
Titan continues to set dismantling prison corruption as a priority and with staff dedicated to investigating prison staff suspected of being involved in the supply of drugs and contraband within prisons, if they are convicted they will be looking at similar lengths of sentence.
Meghan wearing Queen Marys diamond bandeau tiara on her wedding day (Rex)
The Duchess of Cambridge and Duchess of Sussex have to adhere to many royal protocols from the requirement of neutral hosiery to muted nail polish.
However, there are a few that are actually just urban myths, one of which concerns jewellery.
Its widely believed that the royals do not wear diamonds in the daytime, but Grant Harrold, also known as The Royal Butler, has told us that this simply isnt true.
In fact, the etiquette expert has revealed the more significant event, the more likely you are to see them wearing diamonds specifically when there is a reason.
While Kate is unlikely to wear pieces such as the Queens dazzling Nizam of Hyderabad necklace to a daytime engagement, diamond earrings and delicate bracelets are not off-limits.
Kate at an evening reception on the royal tour of Canada 2016, wearing the Maple Leaf Brooch (Rex)
The Queen and Kate also regularly wear bejewelled brooches, particularly on overseas visits or royal tours.
The Duchess of Cambridge has sported the diamond encrusted Maple Leaf brooch, which originally belonged to the Queen Mother, on both her royal tours of Canada in 2011 and 2016, as a tribute to the host nation.
Grant added that jewellery would be chosen to reflect the tone of the event and naturally, statement pieces would be kept for evening engagements.
He said: Kate and Meghan often wear diamond earrings and both their engagement rings, of course, contain precious stones.
But there is one rule, Grant explained, that all royals must follow diamond tiaras can only be worn after 6pm.
They are traditionally worn for evening events and are typically reserved for married women.
Before marrying into the royal family, we never saw Kate or Meghan wearing a tiara in public.
Grant explained: For married ladies, it was a sign of status and would show you were taken and not looking for a husband.
For the gentleman, it was a clear sign not to make advances toward the lady in question.
The Duchess of Cambridge wore the Cartier Halo tiara on her wedding day in April 2011, while the Duchess of Sussex donned Queen Marys diamond bandeau headpiece when she wed Prince Harry in May earlier this year.
Story continues
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for non-stop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyleUK.
Read more from Yahoo Style UK:
Meghan Markle continues power suit streak at the WellChild Awards
Prince George and Princess Charlottes roles in royal wedding bridal party confirmed
Meghan Markle could feel suffocated in the cycle of royal life, says royal expert
Kim Kardashians work to get Alice Marie Johnson out of prison left her inspired to help others and shes zeroed in on the next felon she hopes to free.
On Wednesday, Kardashian visited the White House for the second time to join a listening session about prison reform and the clemency process, according to a statement from the White House. The trip comes just hours after the Keeping Up With the Kardashians stars interview on Jason Floms Wrongful Conviction podcast was released, in which she talked about her new quest to help an inmate named Chris Young.
During the conversation, the reality star, the daughter of late attorney Robert Kardashian, said shes been talking to Young, a 30-year-old Tennessee native who was sentenced to life in prison without parole for a 2010 drug arrest due to mandatory sentences, in hopes of having his sentence commuted. Yesterday, I had a call with a gentleman thats in prison for a drug case got life. Its so unfair. Hes 30 years old. Hes been in for almost 10 years, she said. His prior conviction to get him to his three strikes was marijuana, and then marijuana with less than half a gram of cocaine possession. (Youngs case, which is more complex and includes a gun charge, is detailed here.)
Kardashian continued, I was on the phone with the judge that sentenced him to life who resigned because he had never been on the side of having to do something so unfair, referring to former Tennessee Judge Kevin Sharp. Now he is fighting [alongside] us to get [Young] out. It was a mandatory sentence [Sharp] had to deliver, and he knew it was so wrong. And he was like, Im going to make this right. Im going to step down, and Im going to fight to help get him out.
Kardashian said she really connected with Young, who has had a perfect record in prison. She said he worries about being dragged into trouble being housed in a maximum security prison where there is violence on a daily basis.
Story continues
At another point in the interview, Kardashian referenced Cyntoia Brown, a trafficking victim serving a life sentence for murder, saying she had been reading up about her. She also talked about Kevin Coopers case.
Kardashians passion for prison reform is clear in the hourlong interview. She talks more about helping to pardon Johnson in June and learning that there are probably 3,000 Alices out there people serving life terms for nonviolent drug-related charges. So she says shes been doing research, including visiting a womens prison in California in July.
The place was practically shaking, Kardashian said of her visit to California Institution for Women in Corona. Because she had just helped Johnson and got so much press for it prisoners were yelling, Kim Kardashian is here. Are you going to get us out? Get us out, she recalled. But the experience helped normalize the life of an inmate for her. I totally understood them, she said. However, she admitted, I was overwhelmed leaving. I dont even know where to start. Im learning. She also said that after talking to so many women imprisoned for domestic violence cases, she thought for the first time about helping to free violent criminals too, depending on the circumstances.
Kardashian said that she often speaks with Jared Kushner, White House senior adviser and President Trumps son-in-law, who she said is passionate about changing sentencing laws. There are so many flaws in the law, she said. However, she continues, Im hopeful. She also said that when she was first interested in helping Johnson, she reached out to Ivanka Trump because she figured she would totally understand as a woman and mother.
The mom of three ended her interview by talking about her passion to make things better for inmates. I didnt know anything going into this, she said, and I still dont know everything. Im learning so much as I go. But I know that I have a voice, and so I am happy to use it. And shes using it at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Labor Day is being observed in the US today, the national holiday commonly celebrated with parades, parties, picnics, cookouts and shopping sprees.
Commemorated in the latest Google Doodle, the event was inaugurated in the late 19th century to honour the American worker and the social and economic achievements of organised labour.
There is some debate over who first proposed it.
Peter McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and vice president of the American Federation of Labor, is often credited with putting forward the initial idea in spring 1882.
However, Matthew Maguire, machinist and secretary of the Central Labor Union (CLU) in New York has also been posited as an alternative source.
The first Labor Day was duly held on 5 September 1882 in New York City at the instigation of the CLU, with a street parade held in Union Square.
Other cities followed suit and Oregon became the first state to make it an official holiday in 1887. By 1894, 34 states observed the date, prompting the president, Grover Cleveland, to sign a bill into law that June making it an official national holiday.
President Clevelands bill coincided with one of the darkest episodes in the history of American industrial relations: the Pullman Strike.
The result of unrest born of poor working conditions and wages, the dispute saw 4,000 American Railway Union (ARU) workers employed at the Pullman Company plant on Chicagos South Side engage in a series of wildcat strikes between 11 May and 20 July 1894.
Pullman, a manufacturer of railroad cars, ran the local community as a company town, refusing to let its employees own their own homes. When it sacked operatives and slashed wages without lowering rents and utility bills, its staff downed tools in protest.
Contemporary American newspaper illustration of freight cars being set alight during the Pullman Strike of 1894 (Rex)
Eugene V Debs, head of the newly formed ARU, subsequently stopped the movement of cars to railroads and called for the boycott of all trains that towed a Pullman carriage, the disorder resulting hit all railway lines west of Detroit, Michigan, with 250,000 workers in 27 states joining the cause.
Story continues
The company stood firm and refused to recognise the protests, resulting in rioting in which 37 people were killed, 57 injured and $80m of damage caused. Cleveland had to send in the US Army to restore order.
Labor Day thus played an important role in stabilising, resetting and advancing Americas relationship with its working men and women in the aftermath of this tragedy.
Riga (AFP) - A Latvian Catholic priest has been arrested on allegations he raped a mentally handicapped victim of human trafficking, police in the capital Riga said Wednesday ahead of a papal visit.
A second man was also arrested on suspicion of trafficking in the case, which has shocked the Baltic state as it prepares to receive Pope Francis from September 22.
"One of the suspects 'delivered' the defenceless victim for a fee, the church representative, who was the end buyer, paid the fee and then committed violent sexual crimes against the victim," said Armands Lubarts, chief of a police task force on human trafficking and pimping.
The priest, identified as Pavels Zeila, 73, served in the AglonaRezekne diocese in eastern Latvia, which is to host Pope Francis during his four-day tour of the three Baltic states.
Zeila's lawyer flatly denied the allegations and the Catholic diocese of Rezekne said Zeila must be presumed innocent.
The allegations are the latest to hit the Catholic Church, which was rocked last month by a devastating US report into child sex abuse accusing more than 300 "predator" priests of abusing more than 1,000 children over seven decades in the state of Pennsylvania.
The pope has sharpened his criticism on the explosive issue -- but he remains under pressure to make far-reaching changes.
Zeila faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty of sex abuse, while the other suspect could be sentenced to 12 years if convicted of human trafficking.
Dave Majumdar
Security,
Lockheed Martin is reportedly pitching a new version of the stealthy F-22 Raptor air superiority fighter to the United States Air Force. But the new Raptor variant would not simply be a rehash of the original F-22, instead this new derivative would replace the original jets avionics and mission systems with hardware from Lockheed Martins F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Lockheed Martin Has a Big Idea for the Air Force: Merge an F-22 and F-35
Lockheed Martin is reportedly pitching a new version of the stealthy F-22 Raptor air superiority fighter to the United States Air Force. But the new Raptor variant would not simply be a rehash of the original F-22, instead this new derivative would replace the original jets avionics and mission systems with hardware from Lockheed Martins F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. It would also incorporate structural modifications and possibly Pratt & Whitney F135 engines or Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) motors in place of the F119 engines that are installed on the current Raptors.
As my former colleague Marcus Weisgerber reported for Defense One, the new F-22 derivative would incorporate the F-35s much more modern mission system and other advancements in the stealth coatings and things of that natureciting a person familiar with the proposal.
However, bringing the new F-22 derivative to fruitionassuming the U.S. Air Force were interestedwould not be an easy or inexpensive task. The U.S. Air Force deemed restarting production of a slightly modified version of the basic F-22A version of the Raptor to be prohibitively costly in a February 2017 report to Congress.
Restoring production lines, re-establishing and re-qualifying the manufacturing and supplier network, procuring critical long lead raw materials, restoring and re-training a skilled production workforce, anticipated re-design of major subsystems, and government costs, the Air Force report states.
These non-recurring restart costs could range between $7-$12 billion base year 2016 dollars (BYl 6$). The Air Force estimates procurement unit costs could range between $206 and $216 million (BY16$) for 194 aircraft (Fiscal Year (FY) 2025-2034)... Assuming a buy of 194 aircraft, the total procurement cost is estimated to be between $40 and $42 billion (BY16$). When the total procurement cost is combined with the non-recurring restart estimated costs of $9,869 million (BY16$), the total restart cost is estimated to be $50,306 million (BY16$).
Story continues
Developing an exportable foreign variant would add even more expense to the effort and could take more than six and half years, according to the Air Force report. Even with foreign assistance in funding a Raptor production restart effort, a new F-22 production line would be expensive. The costs to restart production of the F-22 would be extensive even with the involvement of foreign partners, the Air Force report states. Just as F-22 production would compete for fiscal and contractor resources with other Air Force programs, any F-22 export would compete with FMS [foreign military sales] customers' resources as well, including countries already committed to F-35 purchases. Most nations are not likely to have the resources available for procurement of an export F-22, which extremely limits the ability of FMS to reduce the costs associated with restarting production.
Those costs assessments are for a relatively simple restart of the F-22 production line, it does not include the cost, expense and difficulty of modifying the Raptors avionics, structure, propulsion and stealth features. Nor does the report account for the time and expense of conducting a completely new flight test program for what would essentially be a new aircraft in many ways. A new Raptor variant with new avionics, airframe and propulsion systems would be akin to the difference between the Boeing F/A-18A/B/C/D Hornet and the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, which was essentially a completely new aircraft design.
The same report noted that the technology for the F-22 is already dated and that foreign great power challengers to the United States such as Russia and China would start to counter the Raptors capabilities by the time production could be restarted.
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?
The timeline associated with pursuing F-22 production restart would see new F-22 deliveries starting in the mid-to-late 2020s, the Air Force stated in its report. While the F-22 continues to remain the premier air superiority solution against the current threat, new production deliveries would start at a point where the F-22's capabilities will begin to be challenged by the advancing threats in the 2030 and beyond timeframe.
Moreover, restarting the F-22 production line would compete with the U.S. Air Forces next-generation Penetrating Counter Air (PCA) effort to develop a successor to the Raptor. F-22 production re-start would also directly compete against the resources necessary to pursue the Chief of Staff of the Air Force-signed Air Superiority 2030 (AS 2030) Enterprise Capability Collaboration Team (ECCT) Flight Plan, which addresses the critical capabilities required to persist, survive, and be lethal in the rapidly evolving-highly-contested-Anti-Access/Area-Denial (A2/AD) threat environment, the Air Force said in its report.
In fact, even if the Air Force were to receive additional funding specifically for a Raptor production restart effort, the service would prefer to allocate that money towards a next-generation air superiority capability. If funding was provided from outside Air Force Total Obligation Authority (TOA) to assist in the capability and capacity challenges associated with prematurely ending F-22 production, the Air Force recommends that those resources be applied to the capability development plans outlined in the AS 2030 ECCT Flight Plan, the Air Force stated.
The United States Air Force has already budgeted nearly a billion dollars to study an Air Superiority Family of Systems to replace the F-22 and the Boeing F-15C Eagle for which the service is currently conducting an analysis of alternative (AOA) for under the moniker Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD). The Penetrating Counter Air (PCA) is the air domain platform component of a future family of capabilities for air superiority. But that family of capabilities is more than just the PCA aircraft itself, it includes basing and logistics, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), command and control, as well as other platforms and weaponsboth existing and future. Indeed, for the Air Force, air superiority will likely move beyond just the realm of kinetic actions to include non-kinetic effects such as electronic attack and cyber-warfare.
Increasingly, as Russia, China and other potential adversaries advance their capabilities , current American capabilities are increasingly challenged. Thus, ultimately, the Air Force will need to develop a new air superiority fighter to maintain American military supremacy. Our adversaries have advanced both in terms of their platform and weapons maneuverability but we have advanced too, and I think that has fundamentally changed how we will conduct air-to-air operations in the future, Col. Tom Coglitore, chief of Air Combat Commands Air Superiority Core Function Team in an interview with The National Interest some time ago.
Dave Majumdar is the defense editor for The National Interest. You can follow him on Twitter: @davemajumdar.
Read full article
Martha McSally is probably going to be a Senator, whether she wins in November or not.
Those are the signals coming out of Phoenix, where Gov. Doug Ducey on Tuesday announced former Sen. Jon Kyl will hold the Senate seat left vacant when John McCain died on Aug. 25 at age 81 after a brutal fight with brain cancer. Kyl, who is 76, has committed only to holding the seat through the end of this year, meaning Ducey may get a chance to appoint McSally to the role if she falls short in her election this November against Democratic rival Kyrsten Sinema.
In other words, it doesnt really matter how McSally does this fall. Shes going to wind up moving her offices from the House to the Senate in short order. In fact, from a purely political perspective, she might actually benefit from losing; if Ducey, a Republican, puts her in the role in December, shell leapfrog an entire class of newly elected officials who wont take office until January.
McSally, a current House member and former military fighter pilot, was one of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells dream recruits last year. The first woman to fly combat missions for the U.S. military, shes an appealing candidate for Republicans and independents alike. However, her campaign has hit some speed bumps namely, President Donald Trump.
Arizona is among the states where Trumps approval ratings are solid and durable, and McSally was hardly a Trump backer when he ran for President in 2016. She skipped the nominating convention and scolded Trump after a tape of him bragging about sexual assault was broadcast. McSally has tried to recast herself in Trumps image, down to the profanity and anti-immigration rhetoric, but she faced a tough primary where 47% of Republican voters cast their ballots against her.
Read More: Martha McSally, Who Learned to Love Donald Trump, Wins Arizona Primary
Kyl, by contrast, remains popular in Arizona. He retired in 2013 but has kept his hand in politics, working for a D.C. powerhouse law firm and lobbying operation. Currently, he is guiding Brett Kavanaughs nomination to the Supreme Court as a special White House adviser.
Story continues
Those factors should allow him to dodge any Trump objection to the role, even though Kyl told reporters in Arizona hes only met Trump once.
Kyl also remains close to the McCain family, which jumped the gun a bit by pre-empting Duceys announcement by offering praise. Ducey, too, could find his choice of Kyl a bit of a boost for his own re-election this November.
All of this should leave McSally feeling good despite the head-to-head looking tough. In the fall, she faces Sinema, a current colleague in the House who could make history by becoming the first bisexual woman elected to the Senate. Sinema has impressed national Democrats, who have choked down their objections to a voting record that has her siding with Trump about 60% of the time. Sinema is running a well-funded, few-error campaign that may be part of an election that could tilt the Senate into Democratic hands if absolutely everything goes as planned.
Arizona law requires Ducey to appoint a member of McCains party to the seat. The law also allows that appointment to carry through until the next election, which would be in 2020. But Kyl seemed to suggest he could step down at the end of the year, which opens the door for McSally, a former Kyl national security adviser, to slide right in.
Such a shrewd move fits what McConnell had hoped to see happen. McConnell and his allies wanted to have someone replace McCain who would instantly go into campaign move for 2020 and again in 2022, when that person would run for a fresh, six-year full term in the Senate.
Given that Trump is likely to be on the ballot in 2020, seeking his second term, it makes sense for McSally to continue to embrace Trump. If she is appointed this fall and has to run in 2020, theres no point in angering the Trump supporters now to seek a potential edge against Sinema.
If McSally wins her race this year and all polling suggests that is a very real possibility that could allow Kyl to stay on, Ducey to appoint someone else who wants the seat in 2020 and 2022 his chief of staffs name is often mentioned or perhaps recruit someone from the business world. McConnell advisers doubt Ducey himself would seek the seat in 2020.
One thing is certain, though: McSally has perhaps the beset safety net in politics at the moment. She simply cannot lose.
Mercedes-Benz was not known as a leader in the electric car space, emphasizing instead its fleet of hybrids and its progress toward developing more fully autonomous driving. But that could very well change with the EQC, a new fully electric SUV that the company launched on Tuesday with plans to hit showrooms in the United States by 2020.
Its the first vehicle that the European automotive giant has launched under its EQ brand (the EQ per a press release, stands for electric intelligence). It was formally introduced today at a premier event in Stockholm.
The new EQ is expected to have an estimated range of roughly 200 miles, according to the company, powered by a lithium ion battery with a capacity of 80 kWh. The car will be able to accelerate from zero to 60 mph in under five seconds, though these specs are just early estimates.
Mercedez-Benz's new electric car will boast a range of 200 miles, and will hit the roads some time in 2020.
Will the EQ Be Able to Compete With the Model X?
At first glance, it seems like the EQ is meant to compete with the Tesla Model X, Teslas SUV which boasts a nearly 300 mile range and can seat up to seven people. In terms of towing capacity in particular, the Model X has turned heads, and it retails for more than $70,000 after accounting for the savings and tax credits. Jaguars I-Pace sells for $69,500, meaning its relatively safe to say that the EQ will also retail in the $70,000 range to be competitive.
Most of Teslas competitors have focused on higher end makes: Porsche recently unveiled the Mission E Cross Turismo at the Geneva Motor Show. Audi has also featured prominently in the electric car race, debuting a prototype of its E-Tron in March. Its expected to have a 311 mile range.
These announcements show how the race to build the fully electric car is heating up, while also shedding light on how audacious Teslas ambition to develop and begin shipping its mass market Tesla Model 3 by this year really was. The push to ramp up production has taken a toll on the company, particularly CEO Elon Musk, though the company has met the summers production targets.
Story continues
For its part, Mercedes-Benz executives told Bloomberg, its going all in on electric vehicles, with plans to have at least 22 fully electric makes by the year 2022. Audi plans to have 20 electric vehicles and hybrids by the year 2025.
Photos via Mercedez-Benz, Mercedes-Benz
More From Inverse
Brussels (AFP) - EU lawmaker Manfred Weber, an ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, on Wednesday announced his bid to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as head of the European Commission next year.
Weber's move marks the start of a year-long rush for top jobs in the Commission, the European Union's executive arm, and other major institutions as anti-EU populism buffets the bloc.
"I hope to be the EPP's candidate for the European elections in 2019 and become the next president of the European Commission," the leader of the biggest grouping in the European Parliament said on Twitter.
"Europe needs a new departure and more democracy," tweeted Weber, a 46-year-old Bavarian who heads the centre-right European's People's Party (EPP).
Weber, a member of the conservative CSU, an ally of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, told reporters he wants to give Europe "back to the people", in a nod to those who see the EU as bureaucratic and elitist.
He also wants to heal deep divisions that have seen British voters decide to leave the bloc and some newer members from eastern Europe refuse to admit migrants.
"I deeply believe that only together we will be strong. Otherwise Europe has no chance in today's world," Weber said.
In Berlin, Merkel hailed Weber's decision. She noted that others may come forward, and that the EPP as a whole would decide, but added: "I support Manfred Weber's candidacy."
Weber is the first to announce his candidacy within the EPP on the eve of the official period for candidates to declare themselves, a process that ends October 17.
The EPP will then decide on its candidate at a conference in Helsinki on 7 and 8 November.
But the outcome depends not only on the various candidates but also the result of elections across the 27 member states between May 23 and 26, 2019 for a new European Parliament.
A summit of EU leaders will follow the next month to discuss appointments to top jobs in light of the results.
Story continues
Juncker, a fellow EPP member and former Luxembourg premier, was picked in 2014 by a new and controversial "Spitzenkandidat" system -- from the German for "lead candidate."
- National sovereignty -
Under the system, the biggest political group or coalition in the European Parliament nominates its candidate for the job.
The European Council of national leaders then makes the final choice, "taking account" of the parliament's nomination, in the vaguely worded provision of the EU treaties.
The whole parliament then gets a vote at the end.
Members of the European Parliament have argued that this is a more democratic method than the backroom deals between heads of member states that preceded it.
But some national leaders say it is in turn a stitch-up by Brussels-based political groups that harms national sovereignty.
It is not clear yet if the national leaders could upend the process.
Media in Germany, the EU's most powerful country, have reported Merkel wants a German to head the Commission, abandoning her bid to have a fellow national run the European Central Bank.
Besides the ECB, a new head of the European Council and a new president of the European Parliament must be named.
Microwaves possible cause, not 'prime suspect' in US personnel illness in Cuba: Doctor originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
The "health attacks" on American personnel in Cuba have perplexed U.S. investigators and medical teams for months now -- but despite recent reports that researchers are focused on microwaves, there is still no "prime suspect," the doctor leading an investigation tells ABC News.
Nearly two years after the first U.S. personnel reported symptoms, the investigation into what caused them and possibly who is behind them remains ongoing. Now, with one medically confirmed case at the consulate in Guangzhou, China, and possibly others there, the challenge of solving this mystery has only grown, even as the State Department takes steps to slowly rebuild the embassy in Havana.
The evidence suggests the attacks were not by a sonic weapon, as reported when the illnesses first came to light. Instead, the screeching or buzzing sound embassy employees reported hearing was a "side effect," according to Dr. Douglas Smith of the University of Pennsylvania, who said it could be a hint at a different kind of "exposure" the affected individuals experienced.
A total of 26 Americans working out of the U.S. Embassy in Havana have now been medically confirmed to have symptoms consistent with mild traumatic brain injury or brain network disorder.
But Smith, who heads the Center for Brain Injury and Repair and leads the team that has examined 21 of the affected individuals, says they still do not know what kind of exposure is responsible, with microwaves one of a handful of possibilities.
"Yes that's on the list, but we haven't determined it is the source," Smith told ABC News.
That matches what the State Department has said, too, with an official confirming to ABC News Tuesday, "The situation has not changed: There is no known source or cause." Led by the FBI and the State Department's Diplomatic Security, the U.S. investigation "is working diligently to determine the cause of the symptoms, as well as to develop mitigation strategies," another official said Monday.
Story continues
Another leading researcher is arguing the symptoms of U.S. employees "are consistent with the effects of RF/MW," or radio-frequency/microwave radiation, in a forthcoming paper in the medical journal "Neural Computation." Dr. Beatrice Golomb of the University of California, San Diego, said the experiences are also similar, with individuals hearing targeted sounds like chirping or ringing and reporting sensations like pressure or vibrations. The majority of the U.S. workers who Smith and his team studied and reported hearing a noise also said they experienced a "pressure-like" or "vibratory" sensation.
Golomb's study follows a similar one in February by Dr. James Lin of the University of Illinois, who argued the public accounts of personnel's experiences seemed to match "a targeted beam of high-power microwave pulse radiation."
To help determine the source, Smith and his team are now using advanced MRI technology to study the white matter of these individuals' brains.
"Since this group looks like concussion patients, we are studying their brains to see if there are similar kinds of changes in white matter. If that's the case, that might point to the source," he said. White matter is the tissue in the brain that contains nerve fibers that connect brain cells and is responsible for transmitting messages between different parts of the brain and the body.
PHOTO: Marines stand outside the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba, Feb. 21, 2018. (Adalberto Roque/AFP/Getty Images, FILE)
Those U.S. personnel were confirmed to have debilitating symptoms such as cognitive difficulties like memory loss or inability to concentrate; persistent trouble sleeping or seeing; headaches and balance problems; and auditory problems like tinnitus and hearing loss, as detailed in a Journal of American Medical Association report by Smith and his team published in March.
In July, JAMA published four letters critical of that study and arguing that mass hysteria could be responsible for the reported symptoms. Cuba has denied responsibility for the illnesses, at times also casting doubt on whether they are real.
But Smith pushed back strongly against the idea of mass hysteria, saying each patient went through a series of neurological exams, "some of which are impossible to fake," with several specialists who are "uniformly all convinced there is something there -- what we call brain network disorder." The team's MRI study hopes to provide evidence of brain matter changes to dispel that idea entirely.
The National Institutes of Health and the Canadian government are conducting replication studies to verify Smith's team's results, he said. About half a dozen Canadian citizens have been similarly affected, but sources tell ABC News they were likely collateral damage in attacks on Americans.
After weeks and months of recovery and rehabilitation, including cognitive therapies, all the personnel Smith has worked with have shown improvement: "There were some people who had spontaneous improvement," including some who improved before they saw his team of doctors, he said, but, "Others without rehabilitation would have continued to suffer substantially."
Still, it's unclear who in Cuba would have this kind of weapon that could inflict this damage, especially since it has now affected one employee at the consulate in Guangzhou, with symptoms "consistent with what happened in Cuba," according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. State Department officials have told ABC News that Cuba must know who is responsible, given the country's surveillance state, but they have not ruled out others' involvement, including Russia.
Smith told ABC News he was aware of "a lot of research, escalated in the past few years, to use energy weapons to take down drones" or other aircraft and to put words in people's brains, but no one had been successful on that yet.
Last week, the State Department announced it had taken some steps following an Accountability Review Board investigation into its response to what former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had called "health attacks."
The review found "significant vacancies in security staffing," a lack of resources in department's Bureau of Medical Services, and "some challenges with information sharing," but overall it rated the response as "adequate and properly implemented." A handful of steps have been taken since to strengthen the response to the issue, including a point person to handle the issue and liaison with the affected personnel.
One major change is moving the remaining U.S. employees in Havana into fewer residences, a State Department official told ABC News.
The State Department ordered a drawdown of its personnel last fall, citing the health incidents, and there are now only a dozen or so employees working at the embassy. For months that restricted staff has been unable to provide full consular services for American citizens and no visa services to Cubans -- and the State Department even warned in a travel advisory that U.S. citizens could be affected as well in a travel advisory.
But after a "thorough review," the State Department quietly lowered that advisory a week and a half ago to its "Level Two: Exercise Increased Caution," an official confirmed, essentially admitting there was no evidence private citizens had been targeted.
The embassy is now also providing the full array of U.S. citizen services because of staffing changes, but there are no plans to increase staffing at this point, a State Department official told ABC News. The embassy is currently led by an interim Charge dAffaires, Mara Tekach. Previously a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Western Hemisphere Affairs and Minister Counselor at the U.S. embassies in Mexico and Haiti, Tekach replaced Philip Goldberg, an experienced ambassador who only took the post in February.
Tekach, who as the deputy chief of mission was elevated to charge on July 20, is said to be in the post for longer-term than the six-month rotations of her two predecessors.
A teenager is among five people arrested on suspicion of being members of National Action (Rex)
Police have arrested five people including a 17-year-old boy suspected of being members of a banned far-right terrorist group.
The youth, from Nottingham, was arrested by counter-terrorism officers after a series of raids across the country, West Midlands Police said.
Two men, aged 22 and 28, both from Birmingham, a 23-year-old man and a woman, 22, both from Halifax, West Yorkshire, were all arrested on Wednesday.
The five have been detained on suspicion of being members of a proscribed organisation, National Action, which was banned in December 2016 by former Home Secretary Amber Rudd.
The suspects are all being held at a police station in the West Midlands, after an operation carried out by West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit in conjunction with CTP North East and East Midlands CTIU.
Far-right group National Action is a proscribed organisation (Rex)
A number of addresses are also being searched in connection with the arrests.
A police spokesman said: The arrests were pre-planned and intelligence-led.
Ms Rudd made National Action, the first extreme right-wing group to be proscribed by the Government since the Second World War, a banned group in December 2016.
READ MORE ON YAHOO NEWS UK:
Four out of five adults at risk of early death because their heart age is too high
Misogyny could be made a hate crime as MPs prepare for historic vote
2.6 million have changed their minds about supporting Brexit
Japan typhoon: Hundreds of cars left wrecked as worst storm in 25 years kills 10
Neglected cat covered in dreadlocked fur undergoes miracle transformation
However, in March 2017, an undercover investigation by ITV found that its members were still meeting in secret.
In the official list of proscribed groups, it is described as a racist neo-Nazi group that was established in 2013 and has branches across the UK.
It is the first extreme right-wing group to be outlawed in the UK.
National Action was banned in December 2016 by Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary at the time (Rex)
The proscription means that being a member of or inviting support for the organisation is a criminal offence, carrying a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
Story continues
The group has held numerous marches and demonstrations on Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday, and celebrated the election of Donald Trump as US President.
When she banned the group, Ms Rudd said: National Action is a racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic organisation which stirs up hatred, glorifies violence and promotes a vile ideology, and I will not stand for it.
It has absolutely no place in a Britain that works for everyone.
Christopher Lythgoe, the groups leader, was jailed for eight years in July after he was arrested by police investigating a plot to kill West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper and a female police officer.
On National Wildlife Day, this story is a sad reminder of what innocent animals across the globe endure.
According to BBC, 87 elephant carcasses were recently discovered near the borders of the well-known Okavango Delta wildlife sanctuary in Botswana. The heartbreaking discovery was made by Elephants Without Borders, a charity dedicated to conserving wildlife and nature in southern Africa.
The non-profit did an aerial sweep of the areas surrounding the sanctuary as part of a government elephant census and found the animals, all of which they believe are victims of poachers. After closer inspection it appears that most of the animals were killed for their tusks within the past three weeks.
The scale of elephant poaching is by far the largest Ive seen or read about anywhere in Africa to date, Dr. Mike Chase of Elephants Without Borders told the BBC.
The unsettling rise in elephant poaching is aligned with the recent decision to disarm Botswanas anti-poaching units. Poaching has depleted Botswanas elephant population, the largest in the world, adding to Africas overall elephant losses; according to Elephants Without Borders, one-third of the continents elephants have been killed in the past decade.
RELATED VIDEO: Prince William Pens Heartfelt Op-Ed to End Illegal Wildlife Trade
Unfortunately, the conservation group is only halfway through its aerial survey of Botswana, which means the non-profit may discover even more dead elephants in the days ahead.
Dr. Chase told BBC that for Botswana to come back from these horrible losses, the country needs to recommit itself to the strict anti-poaching practices that once made it a safe haven for thousands of elephants.
Jerusalem (AFP) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the closure of Israel's embassy in Paraguay, his office said, after the South American country announced Wednesday it was moving its mission back to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem.
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the Foreign Ministry to close the Israeli Embassy in Paraguay," Netanyahu's office said in a tweet.
"Israel views with utmost gravity the extraordinary decision by Paraguay which will cloud bilateral relations."
Paraguay's announcement that it was moving the embassy back to Tel Aviv came little more than three months after it had transferred it to Jerusalem following a similar move by Washington.
US President Donald Trump's deeply controversial move to recognise the disputed city as capital of Israel sparked outrage among Palestinians who see Jerusalem's east as the capital of their future state.
In May, then-president of Paraguay Horacio Cartes met with Netanyahu in Jerusalem after his country and Guatamala opened their embassies there.
His successor President Mario Abdo Benitez, who took office in August, decided to move it back "to contribute to the intensification of regional and international diplomatic efforts that aim to achieve a broad, just and durable peace in the Middle East."
The Palestinians responded by saying they would "immediately" move to open an embassy in Paraguay's capital Asuncion, according to official news agency Wafa.
Foreign affairs minister Riyad al-Maliki said the Palestinian move was "a mark of esteem for the courageous position of the Paraguayan government".
Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site.
Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site.
Nissan is recalling 153,047 vehicles in the U.S. and Canada because their ignition switches could wear out over time, causing the car to shut off while in motion.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said that a spring within the ignition may fail after six years of normal use.
Transport Canada, the Canadian government agency responsible for vehicle recalls in that country, issued an official recall notice and recommends owners of affected vehicles remove all objects from the ignition key ring, such as additional keys, key chains, etc.
A Nissan spokesman told CR that the recall is happening out of an abundance of caution, and that the automaker is not aware of any incidents related to this condition.
In 2014, GM recalled 2.6 million vehicles with faulty ignition switches that could shut the car off while driving and potentially disable power steering, brakes, and airbags. The defective GM switches were linked to at least 13 deaths and 47 crashes.
Stay informed about recalls that might affect your vehicle using our Car Recall Tracker. Create a free account now to become a CR member.
The Details
Vehicles recalled: Certain 2017 and 2018 Juke SUVs, Frontier pickup trucks, Sentra and Versa sedans, Versa Note hatchbacks, and NV200, NV1500, NV2500, and NV3500 vans sold in the U.S. The Nissan Taxi and Canada-only Nissan Micra are also included in the recall, as is the Chevrolet City Express van (which is made by Nissan). Vehicles with push-to-start keyless ignitions are not included.
The problem: Ignition systems that use a mechanical key may experience reduced durability after several years of normal use, the automaker said. In extreme cases, under specific vibration conditions, the key could potentially move out of the ON position while the vehicle is in motion. '
Story continues
NHTSA said that a vehicle's air bag system would "continue to be powered through built-in electrical capacity reserve" if the ignition shut off, but "this reserve will deplete unless the vehicle is restarted," which increases the risk of injury from a crash.
The fix: Dealers will inspect and, if necessary, replace the mechanical key ignition switch assembly at no cost to owners, Nissan said.
How to contact the manufacturer: Nissan plans to notify owners of vehicles included in the recall by October 19, 2018.
NHTSA campaign number: 18V551
Check to see whether your vehicle has an open recall: Plug in the 17-digit vehicle identification number at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website. It will tell you whether your vehicle has any open recalls that need to be addressed.
Updated: This article was updated to reflect new information released by NHTSA.
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.
Ottawa (AFP) - Canada's trade deficit narrowed to Can$114 million (US$87 million) in July, as rising prices pushed up the value of its crude oil exports, the government statistical agency said Wednesday.
The deficit was the smallest in two years, beating expectations after a Can$743 million shortfall the previous month.
According to Statistics Canada, exports rose 0.8 percent in July to a record Can$51.3 billion.
Increased exports of energy products and passenger vehicles were partially offset by lower exports of aircraft, it said.
July marked the fifth consecutive monthly increase in crude oil exports, which have more than doubled over the past two years.
Crude oil exports volumes actually fell in July, but their total value was up because of prices rising 9.4 percent.
Imports, meanwhile, declined slightly to Can$51.4 billion in July, as imports of aircraft mainly from the United States and gold from Japan, Brazil and the Dominican Republic fell, partially offset by higher oil imports.
In trade with the US, Canada posted its largest surplus in a decade, widened from Can$4.1 billion in June to Can$5.3 billion in July, despite recent friction between the two neighbors.
Exports to the US in the month rose 3.3 percent to Can$38.4 billion while imports from the United States edged down 0.1 percent to Can$33.1 billion.
Canada and the United States were due to resume negotiations on Wednesday to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The talks have been dogged by US President Donald Trump's threats to leave Canada on the sidelines and proceed with Mexico, which reached a deal with Washington last week.
Further straining the relationship, Trump imposed tariffs on imports of Canadian steel and aluminum in June, and Canada hit back the following month with the same on imports of US goods.
Canadian exports of steel subject to the 25 percent customs tariff rose 16.4 percent in July, while aluminum exports subject to a 10 percent tariff fell 2.0 percent.
Imports of steel from the United States fell 39.6 percent while aluminum imports fell 5.2 percent.
NAURU (AP) Leaders in the Pacific met this week to forge new agreements on climate change and other pressing regional issues, but it was New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her absent baby who stole the limelight.
While some people in New Zealand grumbled that Ardern had cost taxpayers thousands of dollars by scheduling an extra flight to the Pacific Islands Forum to minimize time away from her baby, Nauru's President Baron Waqa penned Ardern and 11-week-old Neve a tribute.
During a break in an all-day's leaders retreat on Wednesday, Waqa grabbed a guitar and along with a group of elders sang the song he titled "Aotearoa our friend, Jacinda our new star in the sky." The first word is the indigenous Maori name for New Zealand. The lyrics included the line: "A little baby star is born."
Ardern disputed whether her trip had cost taxpayers anything, saying the military had told her they had a fixed budget which they could use on extra trips like hers or training exercises.
"So I have been advised it cost the taxpayer no additional funding," she said.
Ardern added she would have been the first New Zealand leader in almost 50 years to miss the forum, aside from those who had been campaigning during an election cycle.
"I was damned if I did and damned if I didn't," she said, adding "At the end of the day, I am Prime Minister. I have a job to do."
Barry Soper, who writes a column for the New Zealand Herald newspaper, questioned whether the trip was necessary: "If Ardern decided not to go because of baby Neve, surely the family-focused Pacific leaders, more than any others, would have understood."
Ardern, 38, in June became just the second elected world leader in modern times to give birth while holding office, after Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto gave birth to daughter Bakhtawar in 1990.
The leaders at the forum were signing a new security agreement called the Boe Declaration that identifies climate change as a major threat to security in the Pacific, since low-lying islands might cease to exist if sea levels keep rising.
Story continues
The declaration also addresses crimes such as drug smuggling and illegal fishing that cross borders, as well as cybercrime and health concerns such as communicable diseases and pandemics. The agreement was the centerpiece of the three-day meeting.
Earlier Wednesday, Pacific fishing and community groups signed an agreement with the European Union to improve sustainable fishing and ocean governance in the region.
Under the Pacific-European Union Marine Partnership, the EU will provide 35 million euros ($41 million) and Sweden will provide 10 million euros ($12 million) over five years. The program will provide direct assistance to regional organizations.
Tensions over China and refugees ran high at the forum after Nauru on Tuesday accused a Chinese official of bullying and temporarily detained a New Zealand journalist who had been interviewing a refugee.
Nauru is home to more than 600 refugees who had tried to reach Australia by boat. The island's economy relies on the money Australia spends on keeping the refugees there.
Australia designed the policy of keeping boat refugees and asylum seekers far from its shores to deter more of them from trying to make the voyage, but many critics say the policy violates human rights.
ISLAMABAD (AP) Pakistan's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday summoned India's deputy high commissioner in Islamabad to protest the killing of a Pakistani villager in "unprovoked firing" by Indian troops in the Himalayan region of Kashmir.
Abdul Rauf was fatally shot by Indian security forces Tuesday in the Kotkoterra Sector while grazing animals, according to a Pakistani military statement.
The Foreign Ministry summoned the Indian diplomat and condemned what it said was an unprovoked cease-fire violation by Indian forces.
"The cease-fire violations by India are a threat to regional peace and security and may lead to a strategic miscalculation," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The Indian military said no such incident took place Tuesday in the disputed region.
Lt. Col. Devender Anand, an Indian army spokesman, however, said soldiers killed an "intruder" on the Indian side after he sneaked in from Pakistan on Wednesday in the Rajouri sector. He did not give any other details.
The developments come as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived on a short visit to Islamabad before going to India.
Pakistan and India often exchange fire in Kashmir along the Line of Control that serves as a frontier in the disputed region, divided between the two nuclear-armed south Asian neighbors.
The two sides signed a cease-fire agreement in 2003 but both often violate it and accuse each other of 'unprovoked firing'.
The two nations claim Kashmir in its entirety and have fought two of their three wars over it since they gained independence from British rule.
___
Associated Press writer Aijaz Hussain in Srinagar, India, contributed to this report.
ASUNCION (Reuters) - Paraguay will move its embassy in Israel back to Tel Aviv, reversing a May decision by former President Horacio Cartes to move the diplomatic site to Jerusalem, the South American country's foreign minister told reporters on Wednesday.
"Paraguay wants to contribute to an intensification of regional diplomatic efforts to achieve a broad, fair and lasting peace in the Middle East," Foreign Minister Luis Alberto Castiglioni said.
Cartes had traveled to Israel to inaugurate the new embassy in May. His successor Mario Abdo, also a member of the conservative Colorado party, took office last month.
(Reporting by Daniela Desantis; Writing by Luc Cohen)
ATLANTA (AP) Vice President Mike Pence is set to make a return trip to Georgia in support of Republican Brian Kemp's bid for governor.
The White House confirmed to The Associated Press on Tuesday that Pence is scheduled to headline a Sept. 13 event in Atlanta.
An email invitation from the Georgia Republican Party said the event was slated as a "Victory Dinner." Other prominent Republican invitees include Gov. Nathan Deal and U.S. Senators David Perdue and Johnny Isakson.
The trip will be Pence's second foray into the race, after headlining an event in Macon in July.
President Donald Trump had thrown his administration's weight behind Kemp just days before Pence's initial appearance. Trump tweeted his "full and total" endorsement of Kemp, helping to tip the scales before his July 24 Republican primary runoff against Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle.
Cagle, who has since endorsed Kemp, is also an invited guest at the event.
Kemp faces Democrat Stacey Abrams in November's general election. Abrams has secured the backing of former President Barack Obama.
___
Associated Press writer Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.
Montreal (AFP) - A Canadian court has sparked the ire of the oil industry by suspending the expansion of a pipeline to the Pacific over environmental concerns -- and dealt a huge blow to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's climate plan.
The Federal Court of Appeal on August 30 ordered construction halted of the Trans Mountain pipeline connecting the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific coast, saying regulators had failed to consider the impact of increased tanker traffic to the port of Vancouver on local killer whales.
The Trudeau government, which regularly calls for global action to stem climate change, authorized the expansion of the pipeline in late 2016, along with two other new conduits.
"It was a compromise to convince oil-rich provinces to do more in the climate fight, not less," said an editorial in the daily La Presse on Monday.
Canada committed at a meeting in Paris in 2015 to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels, and by 80 percent by 2050.
In order to achieve this lofty goal, Ottawa set a national carbon price with incremental increases to Can$50 per tonne of CO2 pollution in 2022.
Alberta, which sits on the world's third largest oil reserve, bought into the plan, on condition new pipelines were built to reach new exports markets and ease its reliance on the United States.
As the oil sands are Canada's single largest source of carbon emissions, its participation in the national carbon scheme is crucial.
But after last week's court ruling, Alberta backed out of the deal. "Signing on to the federal climate plan can't happen without the Trans Mountain pipeline," Alberta Premier Rachel Notley told reporters.
"With the Trans Mountain halted and the work on it halted, until the federal government gets its act together, Alberta is pulling out of the federal climate plan. And let's be clear, without Alberta, that plan isn't worth the paper it's written on," she said.
Story continues
In doing so, the province joins Ontario and Saskatchewan in vowing to fight a new carbon tax on strapped Canadians.
"The Trudeau government is losing an ally in promoting Canada's plan to fight global warming," Pierre-Olivier Pineau, chair of energy management at HEC Montreal, told AFP.
Greenpeace said Alberta's withdrawal "further weakens Canada's climate plan," which it contended was already insufficient to meet Canada's target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
- Credibility concerns -
Calling on Trudeau "not to be pulled further down by Alberta", the environmental NGO urged the prime minister to "turn 180 degrees and align his policies to respect the Paris Agreement."
Because Canada's provinces have jurisdiction over environmental matters, the federal government negotiated emissions targets with them last year.
But it warned it would step in and unilaterally impose a carbon price if the provinces failed to advance their respective climate plans.
Each had until September 1 to submit their plan to the federal environment ministry. British Columbia already had a carbon tax, while Quebec was part of a carbon market with California. Alberta, meanwhile, had set a CAn$30 per tonne carbon price in 2017.
Pineau noted that Notley's social democratic government was only cancelling future increases of its carbon tax over the next three years.
Trudeau -- who was scheduled to meet with Notley on Wednesday -- has insisted that the Trans Mountain pipeline will be built.
His government bet big on Trans Mountain, buying it for Can$4.5 billion (US$3.5 billion) from Kinder Morgan, which had balked at the financial risks posed by interprovincial feuding and protests over its construction.
Trudeau could seek relief from the Supreme Court, but he has signalled that he intends to first try to assuage the environmental concerns of the indigenous tribes that brought the court challenge.
But the prime minister still faces significant obstacles -- Alberta's skittishness, legal challenges by Saskatchewan and Ontario, and a vocal Conservative opposition that is promising to nix the carbon tax if it wins election next year.
"If Justin Trudeau continues to irrationally defend this pipeline, he will similarly defend his climate plan, he will press ahead if only to maintain his credibility," said Pineau.
London (AFP) - Britain has issued European arrest warrants for two Russians suspected of poisoning a Russian ex-spy and his daughter in March with a nerve agent that later killed a woman in the same area of southwest England.
Here is a timeline of events since the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury:
- Slumped on a bench -
Former double agent Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, are found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury on March 4.
Three days later, with the Skripals in critical condition, police say the pair were poisoned with a highly-toxic nerve agent.
On March 12, British Prime Minister Theresa May says the military-grade nerve agent has been identified as part of the Novichok ("Newcomer") group developed by the former Soviet Union.
May says it is "highly likely Russia was responsible". Moscow rejects the claim.
- Diplomatic backlash -
On March 14, London says Moscow is "culpable" and vows to expel 23 Russian diplomats. It suspends high-level diplomatic contact with Moscow.
The next day, France, Germany and the United States also blame Russia.
On March 17, Moscow says it will expel 23 British diplomats, among other measures.
- Mass expulsions -
A raft of Britain's allies announce on March 26 that they are also expelling Russian diplomats because of the affair.
Washington says it is throwing out 60 Russian "spies" and closing the Russian consulate in Seattle.
By March 27, the overall number of Russian diplomats expelled is near 130.
Two days later Russia announces the expulsion of 60 US diplomats and the closure of the US consulate in Saint Petersburg.
On March 30, it says diplomats from another 23 countries, almost all European Union (EU) members, will have to leave. At least 121 diplomats, including those from the United States, are targeted.
- Source not verified -
On April 3 the British military facility analysing the nerve agent -- which appears to have been put on the door of Skripal's home -- says it has "not verified the precise source" of the substance. The Kremlin demands an apology.
Story continues
Yulia Skripal is released from hospital on April 10.
Two days later, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which had also taken samples in March, confirms Britain's findings on the nerve agent but does not apportion blame.
Sergei Skripal is discharged from hospital on May 18.
- Two more poisoned -
On July 4, police reveal that two people are in a critical condition after being found unconscious days earlier in the village of Amesbury, around 12 kilometres (eight miles) from Salisbury.
Later they confirm that the man and woman had come into contact with Novichok.
The situation is declared a "major incident" and counter-terrorism police take the lead in the investigation.
Britain's interior minister says Moscow must clarify its use of the poison, drawing a Russian rebuke that London was playing "dirty political games" and must apologise.
- Sturgess dies -
Police say tests on the couple -- Dawn Sturgess, 44, and Charlie Rowley, 45 -- show they had been exposed to Novichok.
They visited Salisbury the day before falling ill.
On July 8, police announce that Sturgess has died, and launch a murder investigation.
- Arrest warrant -
On September 5, British prosecutors issue an arrest warrant for Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. May tells parliament they "are officers of the Russian military intelligence service" known as the GRU.
A Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman accuses Britain of "manipulating information".
Japan scrambled Wednesday to evacuate passengers trapped at a major airport when a tanker slammed into its only access bridge during the most powerful typhoon to hit the country for 25 years.
Typhoon Jebi left a trail of destruction Tuesday, killing 11 people and injuring hundreds more as it battered western Japan with ferocious winds and lashing rain.
As Japan was still picking up the pieces, the northern island of Hokkaido was jolted by a powerful 6.6-magnitude earthquake early Thursday, although there was no tsunami warning.
Authorities said an 82-year-old man was showing no signs of life after falling down the stairs in his home during the quake, Kyodo news agency reported.
A total of seven houses had collapsed on the island, firefighters said according to the agency, with rescue attempts underway to free anyone trapped in the rubble.
The typhoon packed winds up to 216 kilometres (135 miles) per hour, which ripped off roofs, overturned trucks and swept a 2,500-ton tanker into the bridge to Kansai International Airport, the region's main international gateway and a national transport hub.
The damage to the bridge left the artificial island housing the airport temporarily cut off, stranding 3,000 travellers overnight as high waves flooded the runways and some buildings, knocking out the power.
On Wednesday boats began ferrying people out of the airport, and buses began to run on one side of the damaged bridge after safety inspections.
"We're very sorry" that the passengers had to stay overnight in the airport, an airport official told a press conference.
"We'll transport all the travellers who wish to get out of the airport by the end of today, but we'll continue the bus and ferry service tomorrow," he said.
But the official added it was unclear when the airport, which operates over 400 flights a day, could be reopened, while Kyodo News said it could take up to a week.
"There were about 3,000 people stranded at the airport, but we think about 2,000 to 2,500 of them already got out. We think there are not many people left," a transport ministry official told AFP.
Story continues
Airport spokeswoman Yurino Sanada told AFP: "We don't know how many hours we need to bring everyone out but we're doing our best to finish it by the end of today."
Rescued passengers spoke of their discomfort in sweltering post-typhoon temperatures of around 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday.
"We had a blackout so there was no air conditioning. It was hot," a woman told public broadcaster NHK after being ferried to Kobe. "I'd never expected this amount of damage from a typhoon."
- 'Industrial heartland' -
Typhoon Jebi made landfall at midday on Tuesday and moved quickly over the mainland, smashing through the major manufacturing area around Osaka -- Japan's second city -- wrecking infrastructure and destroying homes.
Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said 11 people had been killed and 470 injured. According to Kansai Electric, more than 400,000 households were still without power.
In the tourist magnet of Kyoto -- home to ancient temples and shrines -- it brought down part of the ceiling of the main railway station. In nearby Osaka, the high winds peeled scaffolding from a multi-storey building.
Businesses, factories and schools in the affected area shut down while the storm barrelled across the country, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights, ferry services and some bullet trains.
Pictures showed containers piled up like dominos and vehicles thrown together by the wind, with others overturned.
More than 1.2 million people had been advised to leave their homes as Jebi approached the Kansai area -- Japan's industrial heartland -- although it was unclear how many had heeded the warning. Around 16,000 people spent the night in shelters, local media said.
Economists said it was too early to gauge the storm's impact on local industry, with much depending on how long the airport remained closed.
Around 10 percent of Japan's exports leave from Kansai airport, said Yusuke Ichikawa, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute.
"Logistics could be affected as it may take time for Kansai airport to restart operations," he told AFP.
But with other airports and ports nearby, companies might be able to reroute shipments to minimise disruption, he added.
- 'Utmost efforts' -
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, tweeting on his official account, said the government was battling to get the airport back online.
"We continue to make utmost efforts to respond to disaster damage and restore infrastructure," he said.
Japan is regularly hit by powerful typhoons in the summer and autumn, many of which cause flooding and landslides in rural areas.
And Jebi was far from the deadliest Japan has seen in recent years.
In 2011 Typhoon Talas killed 82 people in the area, while in 2013 a storm that struck south of Tokyo left 40 people dead.
Earlier this year, torrential rains lashed the west of the country, sparking flooding that killed more than 200 people.
MOSCOW (AP) Russia says it has launched airstrikes targeting militant infrastructure in Syria's northern Idlib province, where the government is expected to launch a major offensive against the rebels' last major stronghold.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday that four jets struck targets linked to an al-Qaida-linked group, including a weapons depot and a launch pad for drones that Russia says have targeted its military bases in Syria. The Russian military says it has shot down dozens of hostile drones.
Russia first intervened in Syria in 2015, helping to turn the tide of the civil war in favor of President Bashar Assad's forces.
Eight people were reported killed Tuesday in airstrikes on Idlib. The Russian military says it struck militant targets far from residential areas.
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Russia on Wednesday accused the United States of 'destructive' meddling in Nicaragua's affairs for calling a UN Security Council meeting on the crisis in the Central American country.
Human rights groups say more than 300 people have died in Nicaragua during four months of anti-government unrest that have seen police and the military open fire on protesters opposed to President Daniel Ortega's rule.
Russia, China and Bolivia opposed the US-chaired meeting, but US Ambassador Nikki Haley said the top UN body "should not -- it cannot -- be a passive observer as Nicaragua continues to decline into a failed, corrupt and dictatorial state."
"The Security Council is being transformed into something of a judge over Nicaragua," Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the meeting, the first to be held by the council since large-scale protests erupted in April.
Nebenzia described the US decision to raise Nicaragua at the UN council as a "glaring and grim example of destructive foreign intervention" and accused Washington of stoking division in the country.
"Following today's discussion, polarization in Nicaragua will only worsen. The initiators are indeed seeking to achieve that."
Russia argued that the situation was "stabilizing" and that differences between the government and its opponents should be resolved "through direct peaceful dialogue, with pressure from abroad."
Haley drew a parallel with Venezuela, arguing that the economic and political crisis there was caused by the failed policies of President Nicolas Maduro.
"Daniel Ortega and Nicolas Maduro are cut from the same corrupt cloth. They are both students of the same failed ideology. And they are both dictators who live in fear of their own people," said Haley.
More than 25,000 Nicaraguans have fled to Costa Rica since the start of the crisis, and others have found refuge in Honduras, Panama and Mexico, she said.
Story continues
China, Russia and Bolivia argued that the crisis in Nicaragua did not pose a threat to international peace and security, which, according to the UN charter, would make it a matter to be addressed by the Security Council.
Nicaragua's Foreign Minister Denis Moncada told the council that "this meeting is a clear interference in the internal affairs of Nicaragua" and a violation of the UN charter.
Ortega kept it simpler. He told thousands of supporters later that "if the United States wants to help the Nicaraguan people, to contribute to peace, the best thing they can do is not mess with Nicaragua!"
A UN human rights mission last week released a report detailing serious abuses in Nicaragua including disproportionate use of force by police, which resulted in killings, disappearances, detentions and torture.
That four-member mission was forced to leave Nicaragua on Saturday at the government's request.
A new way to capture the power of the sun and successfully split water into hydrogen and oxygen by altering how plants conduct photosynthesis has been invented by scientists.
Plants convert sunlight into energy through photosynthesis, which releases oxygen into the air when plants split water molecules to gain energy.
Almost all of the Earth's oxygen, which animals need to breathe, is produced via photosynthesis - and hydrogen is a potentially unlimited source of renewable energy.
In a study led by researchers at St John's College, University of Cambridge, scientists have used semi-artificial photosynthesis to develop new ways to capture the sun's energy.
The research could revolutionise renewable energy production, and the paper published in Nature Energy explains how the scientists used solar energy to split water molecules.
Using biological components and human technology, the team used natural sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
Katarzyna Soko, the first author on the paper and a PhD student at St John's, said: "Natural photosynthesis is not efficient because it has evolved merely to survive so it makes the bare minimum amount of energy needed - around 1-2% of what it could potentially convert and store."
Although artificial photosynthesis has been around for decades, it isn't used for renewable energy because of its dependence on expensive and toxic catalysts - meaning it can't be used on an industrial scale.
The study is part of a growing field of semi-artificial photosynthesis using enzymes instead of these catalysts.
Ms Soko and her colleagues improved on the amount of energy produces and stored, as well as managed to reactivate a process in algae that has been dormant for millennia.
Ms Soko explained: "Hydrogenase is an enzyme present in algae that is capable of reducing protons into hydrogen.
"During evolution this process has been deactivated because it wasn't necessary for survival but we successfully managed to bypass the inactivity to achieve the reaction we wanted - splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen."
Story continues
The researcher said that she hopes her findings will contribute towards new inventions helping people capture renewable solar energy.
Dr Erwin Reisner, the head of the Reisner Laboratory, and a fellow of St John's College - as well as one of the paper's authors - described the research as a "milestone".
He explained: "This work overcomes many difficult challenges associated with the integration of biological and organic components into inorganic materials for the assembly of semi-artificial devices."
It "opens up a toolbox for developing future systems for solar energy conversion", he added.
(WASHINGTON) With Republicans hoping to move the Supreme Court to the right for years to come, a Senate committee is beginning hearings for President Donald Trumps second nominee to the court.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh, 53, has served for the past 12 years on the appeals court in Washington, D.C., which is considered the second most important court in the country after the Supreme Court. He has a solidly conservative record, including a dissenting opinion last year that would have denied immediate access to an abortion for an immigrant teenager in federal custody.
Kavanaugh worked in key White House positions when George W. Bush was president and was a member of independent counsel Kenneth Starrs legal team that investigated President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s, leading to Clintons impeachment.
As a young lawyer, Kavanaugh worked for Justice Anthony Kennedy, the man he would replace on the high court. Kennedy retired at the end of July. Trumps first nominee, Justice Neil Gorsuch, also was a Kennedy law clerk the same year as Kavanaugh.
The first day of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings Tuesday will feature opening statements from senators and Kavanaugh himself. His remarks are not likely to be released in advance, but nominees often sing the praises of judicial independence. When he was sworn in as an appellate judge in 2006, Kavanaugh called an independent judiciary the crown jewel of our constitutional democracy.
Questioning will begin on Wednesday, and votes in committee and on the Senate floor could occur later in September. If all goes as Republicans plan, Kavanaugh could be on the bench when the court begins its new term on Oct. 1.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who is the committee chairman, has called Kavanaugh one of the most qualified nominees ever picked for the court. The American Bar Association has given Kavanaugh its highest rating, well qualified.
Rebuffed in their request to delay the hearing, Democrats are planning to shine a light on Kavanaughs views on abortion, executive power and whether Trump could be forced to testify as part of special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation.
Story continues
I remain troubled by your view of executive power, Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, a committee member, wrote Friday in an open letter to Kavanaugh. I am not satisfied with your responses to me during our private meeting, and I believe that you owe the Committee and the American people more thorough, candid answers during your hearing next week.
Many Democratic senators already have announced their intention to vote against Kavanaugh and many Republicans have likewise signaled their support. A handful of Democrats seeking re-election in states Trump carried in 2016 could vote for Kavanaugh.
If no Democrat ultimately supports the nomination, the Republicans have no margin for error in a Senate they control by 50-49. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are the only two Republicans even remotely open to voting against Kavanaugh, though neither has said she would do so. Abortion rights supporters are trying to appeal to those senators by focusing on concerns that Kavanaugh could vote to limit abortion rights or even overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling from 1973 that first established a womans constitutional right to an abortion.
Democrats have been under intense pressure from liberal voters to resist Trump, and many remain irate, even two years later, over the treatment of Merrick Garland, President Barack Obamas nominee for the Supreme Court, who was denied so much as a hearing last year by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
But Democrats are powerless to delay a vote on Kavanaugh since McConnell led Republicans, during the Gorsuch nomination, in eliminating the 60-vote filibuster threshold that had been in place for Supreme Court nominations.
The filibuster rule required 60 of the 100 votes to advance a bill or nomination, in contrast to the simple 51-vote majority that applies in most cases.
By Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Gunmen from Somalia's Al Shabaab group killed six people including at least four soldiers in the streets of the capital, a day after the Islamist movement kidnapped scores of elders in a central region, officials said. The militants drove up to a tuk-tuk vehicle carrying the soldiers in Mogadishu's Karan district and opened fire, killing all four of them on Tuesday, police said. "We heard the gunfire and we rushed to the scene but ... the killers escaped," police captain Farah Aden told Reuters. Al Shabaab fighters also shot two people dead in the Wardigley district in the heart of the city, he added. The militants said the two were an officer and his bodyguard, in a statement claiming responsibility for both attacks. Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's military operations spokesman, said the militants also set off a car bomb that seriously injured a man working for the finance ministry. There was no immediate comment from the authorities. Al Shabaab - which is fighting to impose its form of Islam and topple the Western-backed government - has launched regular guerrilla attacks across the country since the army backed by African peacekeepers pushed it out of the capital in 2011. On Monday, the group kidnapped more than 60 elders from Galgadud, in the central, semi-autonomous state of Galmudug, officials said. Al Shabaab said it took the local leaders because their sub-clan had refused to pay full compensation for five people killed from another clan. "We do not want the two clans to fight again," said Abdullahi Abu Khalid, named as al Shabaab's governor for Galgadud. The militant group has kept up a presence in remote parts of Somalia, many of them already riven by years of ethnic rivalries and blood feuds. Some clans are seen as linked to the militants, others to the government. Galmudug's president, Ahmed Duale Gele Haaf, said the militants had kidnapped 62 elders in a bid to destabilize his region. "They will either kill them or order them to spread chaos," he said. He accused the central government in Mogadishu of not giving enough resources or troops to protect the region. Somalia has been gripped by violence and lawlessness since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991. (Editing by Elias Biryabarema and Andrew Heavens)
By Hyonhee Shin SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump plan to discuss North Korea during the U.N. General Assembly in New York this month, Moon's office and the White House said on Tuesday, amid lackluster progress on the North's nuclear issues. Moon and Trump spoke for 50 minutes by telephone on Tuesday, a day before Moon's special envoys were due to visit Pyongyang to discuss a third summit to be held this month between the liberal South Korean leader and his North Korean counterpart. The planned inter-Korean summit follows Trump's cancellation of a visit to Pyongyang by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last month after Pompeo received a belligerent letter from a senior North Korean official. Moon and Trump agreed in their call "to explore the idea of meeting in person on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly and having in-depth consultations on strategies and how to cooperate on the peninsula issues," Moon's office said in a statement. In Washington, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement that Moon briefed Trump on his plan to send a special envoy to Pyongyang on Wednesday to meet Kim. "They agreed to meet later this month on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York," she said. Kim vowed during his unprecedented summit with Trump in June in Singapore to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, but the two sides have made little headway toward that goal. Earlier on Tuesday, Chung Eui-yong, chief of the national security office at Seoul's presidential Blue House, said he would deliver a letter from Moon to Kim when he visits the North, without elaborating on its contents. Chung said he wanted to discuss with Pyongyang officials ways to achieve the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Seoul will continue to push for a joint declaration of an end to the 1950-53 Korean War this year with the United States, Chung told reporters. (Reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Heekyong Yang in Seoul and Steve Holland in Washington; Editing by Gareth Jones and James Dalgleish)
Tehran (AFP) - The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey meet Friday in Tehran for a summit expected to shape the future of Idlib province, home to Syria's last major rebel bastion.
The summit comes as Syrian forces look poised to launch a major assault that is raising fears of a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale not yet seen in the seven-year-old conflict.
Damascus and its main backer Moscow have vowed to root out the jihadist groups that dominate Idlib province but the outcome of Friday's meeting could determine the scope and the timing of an offensive.
"We know that the Syrian armed forces are getting ready to solve this problem," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the last major chunk of Syrian territory still in rebel hands.
Turkey has limited sway over the jihadist groups that control an estimated 60 percent of Idlib but it backs rebel groups there and has 12 military "observation points" across the province.
Russia, Turkey and Iran are the guarantors of the Astana process, a track of negotiations that has eclipsed the older Geneva process and de facto helps Syrian President Bashar al-Assad re-assert his authority on the country.
In parallel to the Syrian government's military buildup, the recent weeks have seen intense diplomatic activity.
Al-Watan, a Syrian daily close to the government, wrote on Monday that the result of the talks will be presented in Tehran for the three powers "to endorse it and decide on the 'zero hour' for the Syrian army's military operation, which is expected to immediately follow the summit."
Idlib is a cul-de-sac for many rebels and civilians transferred there after previous regime assaults.
- Inevitable assault? -
The United Nations and aid groups have warned that a full assault could spark one of the worst disasters of a conflict that has already killed 350,000 people and displaced 11 million in seven years.
Story continues
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the armed groups in Idlib attacking Syrian government positions and Russia's air base in nearby Hmeimim should be eliminated.
At stake in Tehran is the scope of the offensive and Lavrov said Tuesday that efforts were being made to separate "regular armed oppositionists from terrorists".
The main target of an offensive would be the jihadist fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist alliance dominated by the former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda.
Russia wants Turkey to use its influence on the ground in Idlib to rein in the rebels and the jihadists.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu appeared to suggest Monday there will still room for negotiation ahead of the summit and a promised offensive.
"We are continuing contacts before the summit and preparing it to make sure it yields a good outcome," he said.
The International Crisis Group insisted a devastating offensive in Idlib could and should still be averted, calling this week on all brokers to go back to negotiations.
It said Russia needed to be convinced that backing an all-out Syria offensive risked undermining its own long-term objectives, which include the "re-legitimation" of Assad and his regime.
The think tank said the three Astana guarantors should thrash out a plan that would satisfy some of Moscow's key demands.
ICG cited "intensified Turkish efforts to rid the area of jihadists, an end to drone attacks on Russia's (Hmeimim) air base and regime control over Idlib's key highways."
TOKYO (AP) A powerful earthquake rocked Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido early Thursday, triggering landslides that crushed homes, knocking out power across the island, and forcing a nuclear power plant to switch to a backup generator. The magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck southern Hokkaido at 3:08 a.m. at the depth of 40 kilometers (24 miles), Japan's Meteorological Agency said. The epicenter was east of the city of Tomakomai but the shaking also affected Hokkaido's prefectural capital of Sapporo, with a population of 1.9 million. The Japanese national broadcaster NHK, citing its own tally, reported that 125 people were injured and about 20 were feared missing.
The Japanese national broadcaster NHK is reporting that 125 people have been injured and about 20 are feared missing after a powerful quake triggered dozens of landslides in heavily forested mountains on the northern main island of Hokkaido. The magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck southern Hokkaido early Thursday morning. Power was knocked out across the island. The government said airports and many roads on the island were closed following the quake. Officials said that 25,000 troops and other personnel were being dispatched to the area to help with rescue operations.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his commitment to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula amid a growing standoff with the United States, his state-controlled media reported Thursday after a South Korean delegation met him to set up an inter-Korean summit. The statement from the Korean Central News Agency wasn't new information Kim has repeatedly declared similar intentions before but allows hopes to rise that diplomacy can get back on track after the recriminations that followed Kim's meeting in June with U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore. The impasse between North Korea and the United States, with neither side seemingly willing to make any substantive move, has generated widespread skepticism over Trump's claims that Kim is intent on dismantling his nuclear weapons program.
Story continues
BANGKOK (AP) Myanmar's government looks as if it's under siege from an international community concerned about the condition of its nascent democracy, with widespread calls for a genocide tribunal to hold its military to account for the brutal treatment of its Muslim Rohingya minority. But experts say not to expect any change of course from the country's leader, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, even after a fresh round of withering criticism from abroad following Monday's show-trial conviction of two Reuters reporters who helped expose extrajudicial killings of 10 Rohingya men and boys. Suu Kyi's motivations are opaque. Even as a revered pro-democracy activist, the Nobel Peace laureate had a reputation for being autocratic, but now her core ideology has come into question.
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) U.S. Vice President Mike Pence called on Myanmar to immediately release two journalists who were sentenced to seven years' imprisonment on charges of possessing state secrets in connection with their reporting on massacres against Rohingya Muslims. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo from the Reuters news agency were sentenced Monday in proceedings that were widely decried as unfair. They had reported about the army's brutal counterinsurgency campaign that drove 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh. The subject is sensitive in Myanmar because of worldwide condemnation of the military's human rights abuses, which it denies. Pence on Tuesday tweeted the two should be "commended not imprisoned for their work exposing human rights violations & mass killings." "Freedom of religion & freedom of the press are essential to a strong democracy," he wrote in back-to-back tweets.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) As North Korea prepares for a massive parade Sunday featuring thousands of goose-stepping soldiers and lots of scary-looking missiles, some potentially capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, worry is rising in South Korea that a tentative, hard-won detente is starting to slip away. An authoritarian nation obsessed with big milestones, North Korea will use the celebration for the 70th anniversary of its national founding to glorify Kim Jong Un as a leader who's standing up for a powerful nation surrounded by enemies. Kim will also welcome a delegate from his most important ally, senior Chinese official Li Zhanshu, the third-ranking official of the country's ruling party and head of its rubberstamp parliament, whose presence at the parade would underscore Beijing's role as a major player in international efforts to solve the nuclear crisis.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) Twin bombings at a wrestling training center in a Shiite neighborhood of Afghanistan's capital on Wednesday killed at least 20 people, including two reporters, and wounded 70, Afghan officials said. Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said a suicide bomber struck at the center and then a car bomb went off nearby. Sediqullah Tawhidi, a senior member of the Afghan journalists federation, said a reporter and a cameraman working for Tolo TV were among those killed, and that another local TV reporter was wounded. No one immediately claimed the attacks, but they bore the hallmarks of the country's Islamic State affiliate, which has carried out a wave of deadly bombings against minority Shiites.
ISLAMABAD (AP) Pakistan's newly-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Islamabad on Wednesday, saying he was "optimistic" he could reset the relationship with Washington after the U.S. suspended aid over the country's alleged failure to combat militants. "You know I'm a born optimist," said Khan, a former star cricket player who was sworn in last month. "A sportsman always is an optimist. He steps on the field and he thinks he's going to win." Pompeo spent just four hours in Pakistan, his first visit to the country. At the airport before leaving for neighboring India, he said he was "hopeful" that a foundation had been laid to move forward.
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) India's president is hailing his country's strategic partnership with the European Union to work together on issues like terrorism and climate change. Indian President Ram Nath Kovind said after talks with Bulgaria counterpart Rumen Radev on Wednesday that both countries agree "that terrorism poses a great threat to humanity and a strong response is required to deal with this menace." India and Bulgaria are looking to deepen economic ties and to intensify cooperation on climate change, sustainable development and tourism. Kovind invited Bulgaria to become a key partner of India in the defense and IT sectors. The Indian head of state thanked Bulgaria for supporting his country's bid to become a U.N.
TOKYO (AP) Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito said he will take to heart how his father was mindful of Japan's history and tried to build closer ties during his upcoming visit to France, expected to be his last foreign trip before becoming emperor. Naruhito, 58, told a news conference Wednesday that foreign visits, including his Sept. 7-15 trip to France, are a key role for the royal family in fostering friendship. Emperor Akihito and his wife, Empress Michiko, always paid close attention to the history of the countries they visited and thought deeply about how they could promote mutual understanding and friendship in the future, Naruhito said.
Aden (AFP) - The general overseeing US military operations in the Middle East visited war-torn Yemen's chief of staff in the de facto capital Aden on Wednesday, state media said, a day ahead of peace talks in Geneva.
US Central Command head General Joseph Votel met Major General Taher al-Aqili to discuss developing Yemen's coast guard, navy and special forces to "tackle the threat of terrorist militias and fight smuggling," the Saba news agency said.
The two also discussed the government's "efforts to restore the state and put an end to the coup by the Iran-backed Huthi militia", it said, referring to rebels who ousted the government from the capital Sanaa and large parts of Yemen in 2014.
The US provides weapons, aerial refuelling to jets, intelligence and targeting information to the Saudi-led coalition that is fighting Huthi rebels in Yemen.
Votel's visit followed meetings in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the main players in a military coalition set up in 2015 to back Yemen's government in its fight against the Huthis.
Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said last week that US support for the coalition was not "unconditional" as he defended America's ongoing role in the war.
His comments came as UN investigators said they had reasonable grounds to believe warring parties in Yemen had committed violations of humanitarian law that could amount to "war crimes".
Washington has also carried out a long-running drone war against Yemen's Al-Qaeda branch, which took advantage of the chaos created by the war to strengthen its own operations, particularly in the country's south.
The Pentagon sees Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as the jihadist network's most dangerous branch.
It has intensified its strikes against AQAP since President Donald Trump took office in 2017.
The United Nations is set to host rebel and government delegations for indirect talks in Geneva on Thursday in a bid to revive formal negotiations.
But the rebels said Wednesday that they were stranded in Sanaa because the coalition, which controls Yemen's airspace, had not given their UN plane permission to fly.
By Kathy Finn NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Gordon made landfall on Tuesday just west of the Alabama-Mississippi border, lashing the U.S. Gulf Coast with high winds and heavy rain, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Gordon was about 35 miles (55 km) south-southwest of Mobile, Alabama and was packing maximum sustained winds of 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) after making landfall, the Miami-based weather forecaster said. "Rapid weakening is forecast after Gordon moves inland, and is forecast to become a tropical depression on Wednesday," the NHC added. As of Tuesday night, the storm had not reached 74 mph winds, the minimum to become a hurricane. Hurricane and storm surge warnings and watches were in effect across the region, the NHC said. Though the Louisiana coast remained calm as of early Tuesday evening, Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency and companies cut 9 percent of U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production. "I'm asking all residents to do their part in getting ready for this storm," New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said in a statement. "The city's absolute No.1 priority is to ensure the safety of our residents." Tropical-storm force winds were already lashing the Alabama and western Florida panhandle coastlines and some areas still recovering from last year's storms could see 12 inches (30 cm) of rain. Beaches around Mobile, Alabama were washed by storm-driven waves, said Stephen Miller, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. "We're expecting an increase in winds," Miller said in a telephone interview. "We could see flooding." Sea levels could rise as much as 5 feet (1.5 m) from Shell Beach, Louisiana, to Dauphin Island, Alabama, forecasters said. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency told South Mississippi residents to be prepared to evacuate. EVACUATIONS At LaFrance Marina near Ansley, Mississippi, a mile north of Heron Bay on the Gulf of Mexico, marina owner Sue Cates said that a tidal surge is sure to push water into the marina's low-lying campgrounds, making evacuation "the only choice" people have to protect themselves. Nevertheless, she said she and her husband will remain in their home, which sits on tall pilings, 24 feet above ground. Built after Hurricane Katrina, the home is made to withstand a 150 mile-an-hour wind, she said. "We're way up here, and I think we'll be OK," Cates said. "People around here are well-trained for this sort of thing." U.S. oil producer Anadarko Petroleum Corp evacuated workers and shut production at two offshore oil platforms on Monday, and other companies with production and refining operations along the Gulf Coast said they were securing facilities. The Gulf of Mexico is home to 17 percent of U.S. crude oil and 5 percent of natural gas output daily, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The U.S. Coast Guard said the ports of New Orleans and Gulfport and Pascagoula, Mississippi, may have to close within 48 hours. Last year, hurricanes hit Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, causing widespread destruction and thousands of deaths. The Inn at Ocean Springs and the Roost Hotel in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, had guests planning to ride out the storm, said Kristin Smith, general manager of both hotels. "A lot of guests are real comfortable sticking it out in our rooms," Smith said in a telephone interview. "Any of our guests who feel like they want to go home we encourage them to follow their instincts." (Reporting by Kathy Finn in NEW ORLEANS; Additional reporting by Gina Cherelus in NEW YORK, Brendan O'Brien in MILWAUKEE, Scott Malone in BOSTON and Dan Whitcomb in LOS ANGELES; Editing by Toni Reinhold, Lisa Shumaker and Darren Schuettler)
Donald Trumps legal team will likely try to stop the release of special counsel Robert Muellers probe into Russias alleged interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign, the presidents top lawyer has said.
Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York who now serves as legal adviser to the president, said the White House legal team will probably try to use executive privilege to block it being made public.
Im sure we will, Mr Giuliani told the New Yorker, when asked about the possible invoking of privilege. He said the final decision would taken by the president.
Because attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself from overseeing the Russia probe something that has infuriated Mr Trump and which may see him being fired Mr Mueller will issue the report, when completed, to deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein.
The magazine said Mr Rosenstein will then have the ability to release the report to Congress and the public. But Mr Giuliani has signalled that the president may move to stop that from happening, a move that would result in a legal battle over whether Mr Rosenstein is allowed to disclose the report.
He said Mr Trumps original legal counsel struck a deal with the special counsel reserving the White House the right to object to the public disclosure of information covered by executive privilege.
He also said the White House was planning to release a report of its own to refute Mr Muellers findings. He said the counter-report was already forty-five pages and will likely grow in size, saying: It needs a five-page summary for me.
Last week, ahead of the Labour Day holiday, there was speculation that Mr Mueller was poised to release his report and his final indictments. The special counsel has said he does not want his report to interfere with the midterm elections, which are about 60 days away. As it was, Mr Mueller made no such announcement.
By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will chair a U.N. Security Council meeting on Iran this month to spotlight its "violations of international law" during the annual gathering of world leaders in New York, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said on Tuesday. The United States, which holds the council presidency for September, has unsuccessfully pushed the Security Council to call out Iran. Haley has regularly attacked Iran, accusing it of meddling in the wars in Syria and Yemen. Haley told reporters Trump was chairing the meeting "to address Iran's violations of international law and the general instability Iran sows throughout the entire Middle East region." Diplomats said Iran could request to speak at the Sept. 26 meeting, the high-level week of the U.N. General Assembly. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is expected to address the assembly on Sept. 25. The Iranian U.N. mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Haley said the United States would not object to Rouhani speaking. Russia's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said the Iran meeting should focus on the implementation of a 2015 resolution on Iran. "We very much hope that there will be views voiced in connection with the U.S. withdrawal" from a 2015 international nuclear deal, Polyanskiy told the council. Trump in May withdrew from the accord between Iran and six world powers aimed at stalling Tehran's nuclear capabilities in return for lifting some sanctions. Trump ordered the reimposition of U.S. sanctions suspended under the deal. Iran is still subject to a U.N. arms embargo and other restrictions contained in the resolution, which enshrines the nuclear deal. European powers have been scrambling to salvage the accord. In February, Russia vetoed a U.S.-led bid for the Security Council to call out Tehran for failing to prevent its weapons from falling into the hands of Yemen's Houthi group, a charge Tehran denies. Several council members on Tuesday also expressed opposition to Haley's plan to convene a meeting on Wednesday on Nicaragua. More than 300 people have been killed and thousands injured in crackdowns by police and armed groups on protests over government plans to cut welfare benefits. The protests developed into broader opposition against President Daniel Ortega. China, Russia, Bolivia and others said the situation in Nicaragua was not a threat to international peace and security and therefore should not be discussed by the council. Bolivia is expected to try to block the meeting on Wednesday but does not have the minimum nine votes required to do so, diplomats said. (Additional reporting by Mohammad Zargham; editing by Grant McCool and James Dalgleish)
Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump denied Wednesday having discussed wanting to kill Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, a key claim in a new book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward.
"That was never even contemplated," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as he met with the emir of Kuwait.
Trump's comments came as he warned Damascus that "the world is watching" Syrian troops massing on the edges of the rebel-held province of Idlib, raising fears of a humanitarian disaster.
"I just tell you that they will hopefully be very, very judicious and careful," Trump said of the Syrian regime.
"Because the world is watching. That cannot be a slaughter. If it's a slaughter, the world is going to be very, very angry. And the United States is going to be very angry, too."
In his new book "Fear: Trump in the White House," Woodward recounts that the president told Defense Secretary Jim Mattis that he wanted to have Assad killed after he carried out a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017.
"Let's fucking kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the fucking lot of them," Woodward quotes Trump as saying.
He writes that Mattis told the president he would "get right on it" but then came back later with plans for a more limited air strike.
Trump and White House aides have assailed the book as a full of "made up" stories, and in a tweet on Wednesday morning the president wondered why Congress doesn't change the laws on libel.
"The book means nothing. It's a work of fiction," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, noting that Mattis and White House chief of staff John Kelly had both issued statements rejecting the book's account.
Ahead of Judge Brett Kavanaughs confirmation hearings Tuesday, Americans have expressed some of their lowest levels of support for a Supreme Court nominee since the 1980s and are split on his confirmation, according to a new poll from ABC and The Washington Post.
The public is divided on President Donald Trumps Supreme Court pick, with 38 percent of Americans saying he should be confirmed by the Senate, and 39 percent saying he should not be, the poll says.
The results mark the most significant opposition to a Supreme Court nominees confirmation since 1987, when former President Ronald Reagan nominated Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. (Fifty-seven percent of Americans said Bork should not be confirmed; he was ultimately rejected.)
Comparatively, 32 percent of Americans said Justice Neil Gorsuch should not be confirmed ahead of his Senate hearings, and 44 percent said he should. Former President Barack Obamas nominees Justice Sonia Sotomayer and Justice Elena Kagan received a bit more support, with 60 percent and 56 percent of Americans supporting their nomination, respectively. All three of those nominees were confirmed by the Senate.
The publics views of Kavanaugh falls largely along party lines, with 78 percent of Republicans and just 13 percent of Democrats supporting his nomination. Democrats have pushed back on Kavanaughs nomination with hopes to bar him from filling the seat vacated by retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was seen as the courts swing vote. However, its unlikely his nomination will be derailed in a Republican-controlled Senate.
Debate over Kavanaughs nomination has also centered on the issue of abortion rights. More Americans believe the Supreme Court should not make it more difficult for women to get abortions, the ABC/Post poll says, and 59 percent of Americans believe Kavanaugh should publicly state his opinion on the matter before he being confirmed. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican senator who Democrats have targeted as a potential ally to block Kavanaughs nomination, met with Kavanaugh last month and said he believed Roe v. Wade settled the issue.
The poll was conducted by Langer Research Associates and has a margin of sampling error of 3.6 points.
By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump wanted to have Syrian President Bashar al-Assad assassinated last year but his defense secretary ignored the request, according to a new book that depicts top Trump aides sometimes disregarding presidential orders to limit what they saw as damaging and dangerous behavior. Excerpts from the book, "Fear: Trump in the White House," written by famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, were published by the Washington Post on Tuesday. The book, which is scheduled for release on Sept. 11, is the latest to detail tensions within the White House under Trump's 20-month-old presidency. "It's just another bad book," Trump told the Daily Caller. The book portrays Trump as prone to profane outbursts and impulsive decision-making, painting a picture of chaos that Woodward says amounts to an "administrative coup detat" and a "nervous breakdown" of the executive branch. According to the book, Trump told Defense Secretary Jim Mattis that he wanted to have Assad assassinated after the Syrian president launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017. Mattis told Trump he would "get right on it," but instead developed a plan for a limited air strike that did not threaten Assad personally. Mattis told associates after a separate incident that Trump acted like "a fifth- or sixth-grader," according to the book. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the book is "nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the president look bad." Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, also cast doubt on the account about Assad. "I have the pleasure of being privy to those conversations ... and I have not once heard the president talk about assassinating Assad," Haley told reporters on Tuesday. The Pentagon declined to comment. Woodward gained national fame for his reporting on the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, and has since written a series of books that provide behind-the-scenes glimpses of presidential administrations and other Washington institutions. For this book, Woodward spoke to top aides and other insiders with the understanding that he would not reveal how he got his information, the Post said. Among his other revelations: Former top economic adviser Gary Cohn stole a letter off Trump's desk that the president planned to sign that would withdraw the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea. Cohn, who tried to rein in Trump's protectionist impulses, also planned to remove a similar memo that would have withdrawn the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada, Woodward wrote. "I'll just take the paper off his desk," Cohn told another White House aide, according to the book. Trump said that did not take place. "It's just made up," he told the Daily Caller. The United States remains part of both trade agreements as it negotiates new terms. "WORST JOB" EVER Other aides insulted Trump behind his back. Chief of Staff John Kelly called Trump an "idiot," and said, "We're in Crazytown. ... This is the worst job I've ever had." Trump treated top aides with scorn, the book says, telling Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that he was past his prime and calling Attorney General Jeff Sessions "mentally retarded." Kelly, in remarks released by the White House, said he never called the president an idiot and called the story "total BS." Trump has grown paranoid and anxious over an ongoing federal inquiry into whether his campaign colluded with Russia in Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election, prompting aides to compare Trump to former President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, Woodward reported. Trump's former lawyer John Dowd conducted a mock interview with Trump to convince him that he would commit perjury if he agreed to talk to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Russia investigation, the book says. Trump did not speak with him until the manuscript was complete, the paper said. "So I have another bad book coming out. Big deal," Trump told Woodward, according to a transcript of a telephone call released by the Post. (Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, Frances Kerry and Leslie Adler)
Ankara (AFP) - Turkey on Wednesday insisted the government is trying to prevent an assault on Syria's rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib, as expectations rise of a regime offensive.
Syrian regime troops have for weeks been massing on the edges of the province which borders Turkey, raising fears of a humanitarian disaster on a scale not yet seen in Syria's seven-year conflict.
Ankara wants to "prevent attacks on Idlib" Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a press conference with German counterpart Heiko Maas.
Idlib is one of the so-called "de-escalation" zones set up as a result of talks by Russia, Turkey and Iran last year as Damascus regained control of more of the country.
"From the day that it was clear there could be an attack on Idlib, we have been working hard to prevent the regime violating the ceasefire and to stop the attacks on Idlib," Cavusoglu told reporters during the conference in Ankara.
Maas said Germany shared Turkey's concern of a "looming humanitarian catastrophe" in Idlib.
"We will continue our efforts to prevent it. Turkey is possibly better prepared than others to weigh in on these developments," the German minister said.
Maas was in Ankara on Wednesday as the two countries seek to improve relations which have soured since the 2016 failed coup in Turkey, which resulted in a government crackdown on the opposition.
Maas met with Cavusoglu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the presidential palace in Ankara.
Germany's links with Turkey are of greater significance in Europe since three million ethnic Turks live in the continent's top economy, the largest diaspora abroad and a legacy of Germany's "guest worker" programme of the 1960s and 70s.
Ankara has recently turned to Europe following a bitter row with Washington over the detention of an American pastor, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel giving her support to the Turkish economy after the Turkish lira's dramatic fall last month.
Story continues
Germany-Turkey relations improved recently especially after Turkey last month lifted an overseas travel ban on German journalist and translator Mesale Tolu on trial on terror-related charges.
Although there have been releases of jailed Germans including well-known journalist Deniz Yucel, seven German citizens remain in jail for political reasons.
During his two-day visit, Maas and Cavusoglu on Thursday will attend the opening ceremony of the German lycee in Istanbul on the school's 150th anniversary.
Erdogan is expected to visit Berlin on September 28 and 29.
VLADICIN HAN, Serbia (AP) In the south of Serbia, a Turkish car parts company has been hailed as a savior: its new plant created hundreds of jobs and breathed new life into a region that has long been underdeveloped and was devastated in the 1990s' wars.
But with the dramatic plunge in the value of the Turkish currency this year as a result of investor concerns and a diplomatic dispute with the U.S., there are worries in Serbia and the rest of the Western Balkans that such investments from Turkey may dry up.
Analysts say that the country's financial turmoil may slow future Turkish investments in Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo, where Ankara is vying for influence, both economic and political, together with the European Union, China and Russia.
"We are worried, the crisis in Turkey cannot be without repercussions for us," Serbian Trade Minister Rasim Ljajic said recently as the Turkish lira fell.
Trade between the Western Balkans and Turkey has grown from $430 million in 2002 to $3 billion in 2016, with Serbia accounting for nearly one third. Turkey is now among the top 10 trading partners for Serbia and top three for Kosovo.
Western European leaders worry about the expanding authoritarian influence of Turkish President Recept Tayyip Erdogan and are concerned that he may gain influence in the Balkans. The Western Balkan countries formally want to join the EU but their applications have virtually been put on hold because of the EU's internal problems like Brexit, and that has exposed the Balkans to additional economic and political influence from Turkey, China and Russia.
The Balkans had been under Ottoman occupation for 500 years, meaning there are also cultural ties for example, in Bosnia's and Kosovo's Muslim heritage that have helped Turkey gain a presence.
Some think that the Western Balkans are significant enough geopolitically for Erdogan that Turkey will try to retain its existing investments and trade.
Story continues
Aleksandar Medjedovic, a board member of the Turkish-Serbian Business Council, says Turkey will likely maintain planned investments but that they may be delayed.
"Fluctuations in the domestic currency rates always have an impact on the economy and they do impact on Turkish economy at the moment," said Medjedovic. But, he added, the "Balkans is a strategic area for Turkish investors."
In the Muslim-dominated Bosnia, Turkish investments are so far modest, but its political influence has risen since the bloody war there in the 1990s. Turkish aid groups have been rebuilding bridges and old Ottoman mosques and financing education. They have provided some 300 million euros for non-profit projects in Bosnia.
Demonstrating the extent of Erdogan's political influence in Bosnia, the Turkish president held a pre-election rally in May in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, after similar gatherings were banned in Germany and Austria.
While Turkey is not a major investor in Bosnia, Ankara last year pledged 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) in financing for the construction of a highway between Sarajevo and Belgrade, and officials expect that project to go ahead.
Medjedovic said Turkey sees the Balkans, particularly Serbia and EU member Croatia, primarily as a "gateway" for its goods to the European Union.
So while there are questions about new investments, that may bode well for existing ones, like the spare parts factory in Vladicin Han, a small, drab-looking Serbian town of some 20,000 people where unemployment is rife. It produces mainly rubber parts for cooling and heating systems for clients such as Volkswagen, Skoda, Audi or Porsche.
The plant's Turkish manager, Fikret Aynibal, said that parent company Teklas Automotive has not taken any decision yet to stop investing in Serbia and the wider region because investment plans are based on five to ten years. If anything, Aynibal said, the company might invest more as turmoil reins at home.
"We are thinking to expand also in the Serbian region."
____
Sabina Niksic contributed from Sarajevo, Bosnia.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - An attack on Syria's Idlib, a rebel-held enclave, would be a massacre and the upcoming summit in Tehran, which will be attended by Iran, Russia and Turkey, would yield positive results, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying by Hurriyet Daily. Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, resumed air strikes on Tuesday against insurgents in Idlib. This followed weeks of aerial bombardment and shelling by pro-Syrian government forces in an apparent prelude to a full-scale offensive against the rebels' last major enclave. "The situation in Idlib is crucial for Turkey. A ruthless process has been going on there. ... God forbid, if this area is hailed by missiles there would be a serious massacre," Erdogan was quoted as saying. Turkey, which has backed some rebels against Assad, is hoping for a positive outcome from the summit in Tehran which will be held later in the week. "We will carry this issue to a positive point with the Tehran summit, which is a continuation of Astana. I hope we will be able to prevent the Syrian government's extremism in this region," Erdogan said, according to Hurriyet. Speaking to reporters on the plane back from an official visit to Kyrgyzstan, Erdogan said the road map for the northern Syrian city of Manbij agreed between Ankara and Washington in June is not going forward on the same path, according to Hurriyet. Under the road map for Manbij agreed by the two NATO allies, Turkish and U.S. forces are now carrying out joint patrols there to clear the area of YPG militants. "We are not at an ideal point (about Manbij). Unfortunately the agreement made is not going forward in the same direction as the initial discussions," Erdogan was quoted as saying. In a meeting on Tuesday, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar and the U.S. special representative for Syria, James Jeffrey, discussed the developments in Syria. (Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Leslie Adler)
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Energy companies and port operators along the U.S. Gulf Coast took steps on Wednesday to resume operations after Tropical Storm Gordon shut more than 9 percent of the region's oil and gas output.
Gordon never became a hurricane as forecast and weakened into a depression on Wednesday, just hours after making landfall near the Alabama-Mississippi border, helping to keep production and refining operations running unimpeded at most energy facilities in the Gulf and along the Louisiana coast.
Coast Guard inspectors flew over ports in Mississippi and Alabama to evaluate the facilities, which remained closed on Wednesday morning to most traffic, Petty Officer 3rd Class Alexandria Preston said.
In New Orleans, pilots began moving cargo ships through the mouth of the Mississippi River after the storm, said Matt Gresham, a spokesman for the Port of New Orleans.
"We had no impacts from the storm and operations resumed as normal this morning," said Gresham.
The lock connecting the Mississippi River to the intracoastal waterway that stretches to Texas and Florida was opened and pilots began escorting ships out of the area, he said.
U.S. crude futures prices slipped more than 1 percent as Gulf production constraints appeared temporary and global trade disputes came into the forefront. U.S. crude futures were off $1 at $68.85 per barrel in afternoon trade.
In all, company shut-ins lopped 315,992 barrels of oil and nearly 500 million cubic feet of natural gas from Gulf output in the last two days, according to Wednesday's estimate by the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
The bureau, which regulates offshore drilling, said 9.4 percent of oil production and 10.4 percent of natural gas output was halted by the storm's path through the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Workers were evacuated from 48 production platforms, it said in an updated statement on Wednesday.
Offshore oil production accounts for 17 percent of total U.S. oil production and 5 percent of the nation's natural gas production.
Story continues
Companies including Exxon Mobil Corp , Chevron Corp , Talos Energy Inc and Anadarko Petroleum had evacuated offshore platforms ahead of the storm.
By Wednesday afternoon, Chevron said it has begun to restaff and restore production at its Petronius platform.
Anadarko also said it plans to begin moving workers back to two offshore sites and will restart production as quickly as possible.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba and Gary McWilliams; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Marguerita Choy)
By Jon Herskovitz
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A federal judge blocked Texas laws requiring the burial or cremation of aborted fetal tissue, saying in a decision on Wednesday the measures placed substantial and unconstitutional obstacles in the path of a woman's right to choose an abortion.
U.S. District Judge David Ezra in Austin, Texas, issued a permanent injunction preventing the measures from going into effect.
"The evidence in this case overwhelmingly demonstrated that if the challenged laws were to go into effect now, they would likely cause a near catastrophic failure of the healthcare system designed to serve women of childbearing age within the State of Texas," Ezra wrote in a decision posted in online records.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs, who include abortion providers, said women could already seek burial or cremation of fetal tissue under current state law.
They said the law placed an arbitrary burden on women's beliefs by requiring a burial ritual and could place providers under threat of closure if they could not find ways to abide by the measures.
Lawyers for Texas argued the laws would protect human dignity and have no impact on abortion providers.
Texas began crafting regulations on fetal tissue disposal in 2016, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down separate abortion restrictions regarding doctors and facilities.
The proposed Texas requirements were more stringent than those in almost every other state, which generally allow aborted fetal tissue to be disposed of in a similar manner as other human tissue, typically through incineration and disposal in a sanitary landfill, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which monitors reproductive health laws.
In June 2017, Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed abortion restrictions into law, including the requirement on disposal of fetal tissue.
Ezra, who had temporarily halted the law, has said he wanted to keep the proceedings from being influenced by speculation a new U.S. Supreme Court justice could alter national abortion law.
Story continues
Republicans are hoping the Senate will confirm Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative U.S. appeals court judge nominated by President Donald Trump to fill the Supreme Court vacancy, before the court's next term opens in October.
Abortion rights advocates worry Kavanaugh could change the balance on the Supreme Court in favor of more restrictions or even help overturn the court's landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.
During his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Kavanaugh signaled respect for Roe v. Wade, calling it an important legal precedent that had been reaffirmed by the justices over the decades.
(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Bill Tarrant and Peter Cooney)
By Andrew Hay
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Wednesday postponed hearings for five suspects from a ramshackle New Mexico compound where a toddler's body was found in order to give federal attorneys more time to prepare their defense in the racially-charged case.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Kirtan Khalsa in Albuquerque, New Mexico delayed the detention and preliminary hearings until Sept. 12. The defendants will remain in custody until then.
The five defendants were appointed federal lawyers after their first appearance in U.S. court on Tuesday on new firearms-related charges brought by the FBI.
"We need time to do our own investigation, we need time to get up to speed," Carey Bhalla, an attorney representing defendant Hujrah Wahhaj, told reporters.
Federal prosecutor George Kraehe declined to comment.
The five suspects, all black Muslims, were first arrested after police said they found 11 children without food or clean water and a cache of firearms at their desert compound in an Aug. 3 raid. Three days later police unearthed the body of a three-year-old at the settlement located near the Colorado state line.
The five had initially faced child abuse charges in state court, but that case unraveled last week as state prosecutors missed a procedural deadline and charges were dismissed, allowing three suspects to be released.
The FBI moved in on Friday and arrested all five in Taos, about 95 miles (153 km) north of Albuquerque.
Jany Leveille, a Haitian national described as the spiritual leader of the group, is charged with being in the United States illegally and in unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition.
The other defendants Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40; Hujrah Wahhaj, 37; Subhanah Wahhaj, 35; and Lucas Morton, 40, are charged with aiding and conspiring with Leveille.
Bhalla said she agreed for "the most part" with comments by state defense lawyers that the five were being discriminated against for being black and Muslim and had acted within their rights of religious freedom and firearm ownership.
Story continues
In an affidavit, the FBI said a teenage boy among the group told agents Ibn Wahhaj was "trying to put an army together" to conduct "jihad."
State prosecutors say they will bring charges against Leveille and her partner Siraj Ibn Wahhaj related to the toddler's death, and refile child abuse charges against the other defendants, at a Sept. 27 grand jury.
(Reporting by Andrew Hay; editing by Bill Tarrant, G Crosse)
Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.
The report predicts the Global Phototherapy Market to grow with a CAGR of 4.6% over the forecast period of 2017-2023. The study on Phototherapy Market covers the analysis of the leading geographic such as America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and EMEA.
Phototherapy Market Sketch
The Global Phototherapy Market is expected to grow at a steady rate during the forecast period 2017-2023. The demand for phototherapy is high across the globe. Increasing ratio of death in infants due to jaundice and increasing psoriasis and vitiligo population with such disease are driving the market growth. According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it has been found that approximately 60 percent of the new-born babies suffer from neonatal jaundice across the world. The most common type of phototherapy used to treat skin diseases are narrowband ultraviolet B (UVB) light. This uses a special machine to emit UVB light, which is the best part of natural sunlight for treating skin diseases. Furthermore, the product firefly is in massive demand that controls the bilirubin rate in the infants.
The Global Phototherapy Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.6% during the forecast period 2017-2023.
Get Sample PDF Illustration @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1844
Key Players for Global Phototherapy Market
GE Healthcare (UK), Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Netherlands), Natus Medical Incorporated (U.S.), Beurer GmbH (Germany), Herbert Waldmann GmbH & Co. KG (Germany), PhotoMedex, Inc (U.S.), MTTS ASIA (Vietnam), VIA Global Health (U.S.), are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the Global Phototherapy Market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.
Global Phototherapy Market - Competitive Analysis
Characterized by the presence of several well-established and small players, the global market of phototherapy appears to be highly competitive and fragmented. With well-established market in the North America region major companies have their home in the region and generate maximum market share. These companies have expanded their operating unit in various other emerging regions as well. Moreover the other small and medium scale players are generating revenue from local market.
The phototherapy market has turned into a critical factor in the global point of care industry. Through extensive research it is found out that the market players have adopted the strategy of launching products in the market, the key player involved in this strategy are Koninklijke Philips N.V and F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG. Partnership was the second most widely adopted strategy which was adopted by the key market players. The number of key market player involved in mergers and acquisition was comparatively low, the market players which were involved in mergers and acquisition are F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. and others in the Global Phototherapy market.
Regional Analysis for Global Phototherapy Market
The Global Phototherapy Market is segmented into the various regions including Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. The Americas accounts for the largest market share of about more than ~40%. The major share in the global phototherapy market is due to the growing prevalence of new-borns with jaundice, psoriasis, vitiligo, and others skin disease. Moreover, the presence of major players in this region is likely to fuel the growth of the market during the forecasted period.
Europe holds the second largest phototherapy market, which is followed by Asia Pacific. Major factor influencing the growth of the market include initiatives by government agencies focusing on various treatment of skin diseases.
Asia Pacific is the fastest growing phototherapy market due to the increasing population of new-borns, raising healthcare awareness, development in the economy and increasing government support. Moreover, increasing demand for new treatment methods in countries like India and South Korea is likely to emerge as the fastest growing market across the globe.
On the other hand, the Middle East & Africa holds the least share of the market due to poor political conditions in Africa and limited availability of funds and availability of medical facilities. Middle East is one of the emerging market due to changing healthcare structures in countries like Turkey and few others. Whereas, Africa region is expecting a healthy growth due to the presence of a huge opportunity for the development of the market.
Get Complete Access of Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/phototherapy-market-1844
Some Brief Table of Contents of Report
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
4.1 Drivers
4.2 Restrains
4.3 Opportunities
4.4 Challenges
4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators
4.6 Technology Trends & Assessment
Chapter 5. Market Factor Analysis
5.1 Porters Five Forces Analysis
5.1.1 Bargaining Power Of Suppliers
TOC Continued
Get Prime Discount on Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/1844
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), Statistical Report, Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.
Contact Us:
Market Research Future
Hadapsar, Pune 411028
Maharashtra, India
Phone: +1 646 845 9312
Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
By Phil Stewart ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met new Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday, saying he was hopeful of "a reset of relations" long strained over the war in Afghanistan. Pompeo's visit, along with the U.S. chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, was the first high-level U.S. mission to the new government. It aimed to smooth over tensions after President Donald Trump took a tough new line towards Pakistan over longstanding accusations it is not doing enough to root out Afghan Taliban fighters on its territory. Pompeo met with Khan as well as Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and the country's powerful army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa. "We talked about their new government, the opportunity to reset the relationship between our two countries across a broad spectrum," including business ties and ending the war in Afghanistan, Pompeo told reporters before leaving for India. "And Im hopeful that the foundation that we laid today will set the conditions for continued success as we start to move forward." Khan, a former cricket star who swept to power in the July elections, also struck a positive tone. "I'm a born optimist. A sportsman always is an optimist. He steps on the field and he thinks he's going to win," Khan told reporters. AID CUTS Pompeo expressed confidence in a new beginning in relations with nuclear-armed Pakistan, but conceded: "Weve still got a long way to go." "We made clear to them that and they agreed its time for us to begin to deliver on our joint commitments," Pompeo said, without specifically mentioning the Taliban. The meetings come against a backdrop of tense ties and U.S. military aid cuts over Islamabad's alleged reluctance to crack down on militants. Washington has accused Islamabad of turning a blind eye to, or helping, Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network fighters who stage attacks in Afghanistan. Pakistan denies doing so. Pompeo landed in Islamabad minutes after the plane carrying U.S. Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Ahead of the talks, Dunford said Trump's South Asia strategy set clear expectations for Pakistan, including help to drive the Taliban to a peace process in neighboring Afghanistan. "Our bilateral relationship moving forward is very much going to be informed by the degree of cooperation we see from Pakistan in doing that," he told reporters. The United States has withheld $800 million in overall assistance this year, cuts Pakistan says are unwarranted as it incurs expenses in fighting militants who threaten U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Pompeo was also expected to discuss Pakistan's possible plans to seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ease currency pressures and avert an economic crisis. In July, Pompeo said there was "no rationale" for the IMF to give money to Pakistan that would then be used to pay off Chinese loans, comments that further rattled Islamabad. INDIA NEXT Pompeo is next due to visit India, Pakistan's neighbor and bitter foe, where he is expected to put pressure on New Delhi over its purchases of Iranian oil and Russian missile systems. He and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will meet their Indian counterparts in New Delhi on Thursday and are expected to finalize defense pacts that could bring their militaries closer amid growing Chinese influence across Asia. The talks come as U.S. hostility rises towards India's traditional allies Iran and Russia, targets of U.S. sanctions. Iran is a big oil supplier to India, and two-thirds of its military equipment is from Russia. The United States is concerned about India's planned purchase of S-400 surface-to-air missile systems from Moscow. An Indian defense ministry official said the country had nearly concluded commercial negotiations with Russia for the systems and intended to proceed with them, to boost defenses against China. India has said it will not completely halt oil imports from Iran, but will finalize its strategy on crude purchases after this week's meeting with U.S. officials. (Additional reporting by Drazen Jorgic in Islamabad and Krishna Das in India; Writing by Drazen Jorgic and Kay Johnson; Editing by Andrew Roche)
London (AFP) - A deal to end clashes between British and French fishermen over access to scallops off the Normandy coast would be "the right outcome" when negotiators meet Wednesday, British Fisheries Minister George Eustice said before the talks.
Eustice's department will host British and French fishing and government officials to try to avoid new clashes between their vessels, after tensions flared last week in scallop-rich waters off northern France over the pricey delicacy.
"The industry (is) coming together... to see if they can get back up an agreement similar to that which has pertained in the previous five years, which is the right outcome on this if we can get a solution along those lines," Eustice told a parliamentary committee.
Tensions boiled over last Tuesday when five British vessels sparred with dozens of French boats in the sensitive Seine Bay, with video footage showing fishermen from both sides ramming each other.
The clashes, which occurred around 12 nautical miles from the Normandy coast, were the most serious in years of wrangling over the area's scallops.
French fishermen are incensed that British boats are accessing the highly productive waters, while their own government limits them to fishing there to between October and May to allow stocks to replenish.
Deals struck previously exempted British boats less than 15 metres (50 feet) long from the restrictions, a loophole French fishermen want to see closed and which led to deadlock in reaching an agreement earlier this year.
"All of the (UK) flotilla must be bound by the agreements," Normandy fishing chief Dimitri Rogoff told AFP on the eve of the talks.
"We will not move an iota," he added, predicting his negotiating entourage would be "intransigent" in the talks because the Seine Bay was an "essential" area for the French.
The latest skirmish in the long-running so-called "Scallops Wars" has led to France placing its navy on standby in the area, with Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert saying it was "ready to intervene in case of clashes".
Story continues
Eustice, who discussed the situation with his French counterpart last week, said the two countries were in agreement on the issue.
"We haven't had further incidents since... they also recognise that under international law those (British) boats had a right to be there," he added.
burs-jj/jwp/bmm
Maya Hawke wears a puff-sleeve white gown from Zac Posens SS19 collection. (Photo: Courtesy of Zac Posen)
Even with more than 15 years of fashion experience under his belt, Zac Posen keeps redefining what it means to be a fashion designer. His latest move? Opting to launch a set of dreamy images instead of a traditional NYFW runway show to unveil his new spring-summer 2019 collection.
The gorgeous lookbook and video trailer stars Maya Hawke, daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, and was shot by Gia Coppola, granddaughter of esteemed filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. The project was extremely personal to Posen, who wanted to create something authentic, intimate, and enduring for his new collection.
Both Maya and Gia are important figures in Posens life, as he has watched each of them grow up and into their careers. I watched her grow up and perfect herself as a filmmaker, Posen tells Yahoo Lifestyle regarding Gia.
Similarly, he has known Maya now on the verge of breaking into her own Hollywood success story (shell be featured in the upcoming season of Stranger Things) since she was a little girl. He says he wanted to capture this special moment and special summer before Stranger Things came out. With the launch of his collection, he says he wanted to present her beauty and her character and her spirit. Shes incredibly special.
Maya Hawke wears a pink, voluminous gown from Zac Posens SS19 collection. (Photo: Courtesy of Zac Posen)
Maya Hawke wears a floor-length, off-the-shoulder, floral gown from Zac Posens SS19 collection. (Photo: Courtesy of Zac Posen)
Maya Hawke wears a classic white shirtdress from Zac Posens SS19 collection. (Photo: Courtesy of Zac Posen)
The beautiful shoot took place at the home of another close friend of Posens, designer Jacqueline Schnabel. Her place on Long Island, New York where he spent time as a teen and still visits to this day (and in fact was stationed for this storys phone interview) has been highly influential and formative for the designer.
The new images have an emotive quality, evoking the summer-freedom feeling of youth when everything felt glorious, and they have a saturated, vintage quality, thanks to Coppolas discerning eye. They help illustrate the rich color palette in Posens collection: radiant aquas, rosy pinks, and eggshell yellows.
Maya Hawke wears an off-the-shoulder aqua, polka-dot gown from Zac Posens SS19 collection. (Photo: Courtesy of Zac Posen)
A blush pink fairy-tale gown from Zac Posens SS19 collection, shot by Gia Coppola. (Photo: Courtesy of Zac Posen)
Maya Hawke wears an eggshell yellow A-line dress from Zac Posens SS19 collection. (Photo: Courtesy of Zac Posen)
The collection highlights Posens iconic voluminous gowns, which feature his signature, architectural, anatomical beading work. But he also wanted to include wearable pieces, outside of his typical red carpet gowns, as his customer base includes a range of women of all ages and locales. His Liberty floral-print shirt dresses, blouses, and shorts, as well as his classic white A-line dresses, are a natural fit for much of his real-world clientele.
Story continues
Maya Hawke wears a Liberty floral-print collared dress from Zac Posens SS19 collection. (Photo: Courtesy of Zac Posen)
Maya Hawke wears a Liberty floral-print blouse and tweed shorts from Zac Posens SS19 collection. (Photo: Courtesy of Zac Posen)
This type of project, Posen notes, tells more about a brand, because you can tell the depth of the narrative that one is unable to [gather from just] clothing walking down a runway.
Posen has opted out of a runway show or presentation at NYFW for a few seasons now. In February, he released a lookbook starring his close friend Katie Holmes for his fall-winter 2019 collection. I love a great runway show, but I also I wanted to create something that I can look back at and actually have something besides an archive of clothing, he explains. With imagery and short films, you can create that excitement that lasts longer, closer to the time that the clothing arrives in the store, which typically takes six months after a show debuts on the catwalk.
A behind-the-scenes image of American fashion designer Zac Posen and Maya Hawke on set for his SS19 shoot, (Photo: Courtesy of Zac Posen)
Posen understands the marketplace is not what it used to be, and that its vital to be able to adapt as a designer. Its important to take [these] kinds of risks strategically if fashion cant change, theres no more fashion in the way it presents, in the way it sells, in the way its made. But still, Posen says, a fashion show isnt out of sight. For if and when this happens, hell at least have had the time and space to make it special to really put in the thought and care into creating something that I can give that magic to.
Posen can easily be described as the fashion industrys Renaissance man. He possesses more than a decade of fashion design experience and has dressed Hollywoods biggest A-listers, including Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Naomi Watts. In fall 2014, he was appointed the creative director of heritage suit label Brooks Brothers, and he most recently collaborated with Delta airlines to redesign its uniforms. On top of it all, he has penned a cookbook and has served as a judge on Project Runway.
Maya Hawke wears a strapless gown and white heels from Zac Posens SS19 collection.(Photo: Courtesy of Zac Posen)
Posen may be best known for his glamorous artisanal-quality gowns, but he continues to flourish as a designer, always staying two steps ahead.
Below, watch an exclusive behind-the-scenes video of the Zac Posen SS19 collection shoot, starring Maya Hawke and shot by Gia Coppola.
(Video: Courtesy of Zac Posen)
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for non-stop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyleUK.
Read more from Yahoo Style UK:
Maya Hawke is all grown up
The celebrity children taking over the catwalk
Female celebrities and their daughters on the red carpet
Tripoli (AFP) - A ceasefire in Libya brokered by the UN will fail to reduce tensions between myriad armed groups without a sustainable political agreement on security reform, experts said Wednesday.
The truce -- signed on Tuesday -- appears to be tentatively holding, despite a few exchanges of fire overnight in the south of capital.
Fighting in and around Tripoli since August 27 has killed at least 63 people and wounded 159, most of them civilians, according to the Libyan health ministry.
Even if the fragile ceasefire continues to largely endure over the coming days, it is nothing more than a band-aid, analysts told AFP.
"The ceasefire agreement cannot hold for long," said Libyan security specialist Omran Khalil.
The international community's biggest concern, he said, was to "preserve what remains" of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), as they fear their efforts could be "in vain".
The UN itself acknowledges the limits of the truce it has brokered.
Tuesday's meeting did "not aim to fix all the Libyan capital's security problems", the UN mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said on Twitter.
"It seeks to agree on a broader framework on the way to start addressing these issues."
- 'Status quo unsustainable' -
Despite being mandated by a December 2015 political accord to overhaul and unify security forces, the GNA has failed to do so.
Rather than removing the militias from major cities and integrating them into regular security forces, the government continues to rely on these unreformed armed groups to keep the capital secure.
This has enabled the militias to accumulate enormous power and economic sway.
The 2015 deal "complicated the security situation and encouraged militias to battle for influence," said Khaled el-Montassar, professor of international relations at the University of Tripoli.
Another analyst said tensions boiled over because Tripoli-based militias had been allowed to accumulate disproportionate influence, compared with other armed groups outside the capital.
Story continues
"The current fighting has upended what was an unsustainable status quo in Tripoli," said Wolfram Lacher, a Researcher for the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
The militias' uneven access to resources "prompted armed groups from outside Tripoli, who saw themselves excluded from access to wealth and power, to mobilise", he said.
The recent fighting has pitted armed groups from Tarhuna and Misrata against Tripoli militias supposed to be under the GNA's control.
But "as catastrophic as the current fighting is, it has opened a window of opportunity for negotiating more sustainable security arrangements in Tripoli," added Lacher.
"This window of opportunity is closing fast. The ceasefire is very fragile, and there is a real risk of further escalation.
"A new negotiating framework is needed -- one that closely combines talks over political power sharing and security arrangements."
- 'Unkept promises' -
Some doubt whether the UN has the authority to broker a long-term deal.
"It seems clear that the international community, after failing all its obligations towards Libya, today seems impotent and overwhelmed by events," said Karim Bitar at the Paris-based Institute of International and Strategic Affairs.
Most analysts approached by AFP agreed a radical change of approach is required.
"What is needed now is a new security plan for the capital and some kind of political shake-up," said Claudia Gazzini of the International Crisis Group.
Meanwhile, Tahar El-Sonni, an adviser to GNA leader Fayez al-Sarraj, accused the international community of breaking its "promises" to hold to account those undermining Libya's political process.
Welcoming the ceasefire, the United States, Britain, France and Italy reaffirmed their support for the GNA, in a joint declaration late on Tuesday.
But this does little to mask divisions among Western powers over the political situation in the country.
Also on Tuesday, Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini criticised France's role in the oil-rich North African country.
France, which is pushing for elections in Libya before the end of the year, defended its role.
Washington (AFP) - Efforts to salvage the North American Free Trade Agreement as a three-country pact resumed at the ministerial level Wednesday, after Canadian and US officials continued the lower level technical talks over the weekend.
But the talks will be dogged by President Donald Trump's repeated threats to leave Canada on the sidelines and proceed with Mexico, which reached a deal with Washington last week and could sign NAFTA 2.0 as soon as November 30.
Amid rising optimism last week that an agreement would soon be finalized on a rewrite of the 25-year-old trade deal, inflammatory comments from Trump angered officials in Ottawa and the discussions ended Friday with no agreement.
Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters Wednesday she is "looking forward to constructive conversations today" with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
"Our officials have continued to work hard and constructively over the weekend," she said.
Trump, meanwhile, continued his tough talk throughout the weekend, and was unlikely to be in a more cooperative mood after trade data showed the US deficit with Canada expanded, and deficits with China and the European Union hit new records.
"There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. If we don't make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out," Trump tweeted.
"Congress should not interfere with these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off."
The White House notified Congress on Friday of its "intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico -- and Canada, if it is willing -- 90 days from now."
The White House has until September 30 before it must present the full text of the new agreement to Congress, which gives Ottawa and Washington time to iron out remaining differences.
- Trilateral or bilateral? -
But legislators and trade law experts have warned that Trump does not have the authority to supplant the three-nation NAFTA with a bilateral pact with Canada.
Story continues
Freeland and Lighthizer said there had been progress in the negotiations last week, which frequently went late into the night.
But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stressed Tuesday that no NAFTA is better than a bad deal for Canada, and he will insist on retaining the dispute mechanism in Chapter 19 that provides binational panels to resolve disagreements.
"We will hold firm on that," Trudeau said Tuesday.
"We will not sign a deal that is bad for Canadians, and quite frankly, not having a Chapter 19 to ensure that the rules are followed would be bad for Canadians."
Canada has used the mechanism to fight off US antidumping duties.
After the US and Mexico reached an agreement on new rules for trade in autos, and tougher protections for workers and intellectual property, talks with Canada were hung up on the mechanisms used to resolve disputes among partners, and on Ottawa's strictly controlled dairy sector.
Mexican officials stressed in a joint statement that they are "continuing to promote an agreement to which Canada is a party."
But they also have said that either way they are protected with a bilateral deal with the United States, while Mexican businesses also have said they would support a two-nation deal.
A deal without Canada "is not the ideal scenario, but it's better than ending up without any agreement at all, it's better than living in uncertainty," said Gustavo de Hoyos, the president of the Mexican Employers' Association (COPARMEX).
But the US business sector strongly prefers that NAFTA remain a trilateral agreement.
"Anything other than a trilateral agreement won't win Congressional approval and would lose business support," warned Thomas Donohue, president of the US Chamber of Commerce.
And in a rare show of common cause with the business group, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka also supports a trilateral NAFTA.
He said it was "pretty hard to see" how efforts to revamp the pact would work "without having Canada in the deal."
Minutes later, Trump lashed out at the labor leader on Twitter for "poorly" representing his union and making comments that were "against the working men and women of our country, and the success of the U.S. itself."
US escalates warning to Assad regime, Russia not to use chemical weapons in Idlib originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
The White House is doubling down on its warning to the Syrian regime not to use chemical weapons ahead of an expected assault on Idlib province in northwest Syria, saying the U.S. will respond "swiftly and appropriately."
It's the strongest warning yet as the U.S. tries to assert a greater role in Syria and prevent what it says would be a humanitarian disaster, even as Syria and its allies, including Russia, prepare for an offensive into the heavily populated province. But the threat of retaliation extends only to the potential use of chemical weapons, with critics charging that the U.S. has done nothing to stop Assad's march on rebel enclaves elsewhere in the country.
In a statement on Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the U.S. was "closely monitoring the situation in Idlib province, Syria, where millions of innocent civilians are under threat of an imminent Assad regime attack, backed by Russia and Iran."
In particular, Sanders warned that "If [Syrian] President Bashar al-Assad chooses to again use chemical weapons, the United States and its Allies will respond swiftly and appropriately," after the Trump administration has twice ordered airstrikes on Assad regime targets following its use of chemical weapons.
But more broadly, the threat of an Assad offensive into Idlib would be "an unacceptable, reckless escalation of the conflict," State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement Tuesday, adding Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, and they agreed on this point.
Still, there were reports Tuesday of Russian fighter jets already bombing parts of the suburbs around Idlib city as it backs Assad in what could be an all-out offensive to retake the province seen as the last stronghold of Syrian rebel groups.
Story continues
PHOTO: A Syrian man rides a motorcycle past a destroyed building in an area that was hit by a reported air strike in the district of Jisr al-Shughur, in the Idlib province, on Sept. 4, 2018. (AFP/Getty Images)
The Russian government maintains that Idlib is a "hotbed of terrorism," with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov telling reporters that President Trump's opposition to Russian military action there shows his "limited approach" to the situation.
There are some groups the U.S. and its allies consider terrorists based in Idlib, including al Qaeda's affiliate Hay'at Tahrir al Sham. But there are also nearly three million civilians living there, more than one million of them displaced from elsewhere in Syria, according to human rights groups. Any offensive would, therefore, be incredibly deadly or unleash an even larger wave of refugees into neighboring Turkey and beyond.
The U.S. military campaign in Syria is instead focused on fighting another terror group in the north and east of the country -- ISIS.
The president and his top advisers, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have said since Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin that they want to work with Russia on counterterrorism. But the divide over Idlib shows how difficult that will be, with the two sides in disagreement on who even is a terrorist.
In a tweet on Monday, Trump called for Assad to "not recklessly attack Idlib Province," adding that "the Russians and Iranian would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy." His Twitter message was seen as an escalation of the U.S. war of words, as Trump has rarely weighed in on Syria, where he has said he wants to withdraw U.S. troops and aid.
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Dont let that happen! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2018
For two weeks now, Defense Secretary James Mattis, National Security Adviser John Bolton, and Pompeo have been urging Assad and his allies not to wage an offensive into Idlib province. That message was also communicated in person to the Russian ambassador in Washington by Amb. David Satterfield, top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, and Amb. Jim Jeffrey, the new Special Representative for Syria Engagement.
But the U.S.'s strongest words have been saved for a warning that the U.S. would respond to another chemical weapons attack, as it did after the attacks in Khan Sheikhoun in April 2017 and Douma in April 2018. Each attack killed nearly a hundred civilians, including women and children.
In response to the Douma attack earlier this year, the U.S., France, and the United Kingdom launched targeted airstrikes at three locations related to chemical weapons development. The Assad regime has denied the use of chemical weapons and delayed independent chemical weapons inspectors' access to the site of the attack.
For weeks, Moscow has attempted to portray the U.S. and its partners as the ones actually planning to stage a chemical weapons attack in Idlib as a pretext for again striking Assad.
"This is absurd," Pentagon spokesperson Navy Cmdr. Sean Robertson told ABC News in a statement on Friday. "That Russia is seeking to plant false lies about chemical weapons use suggests that Moscow is seeking to deflect from its own culpability when these heinous weapons are used. Russia's efforts to obscure the truth only underscore its years-long role in abetting the murder and mayhem conducted by the Assad regime."
After the Douma attack, the Russian government said it had evidence that the chemical weapons attack was "staged," despite U.S. intelligence assessments that it was conducted by the Syrian regime with knowledge by the Russians.
ABC News' Luis Martinez contributed to this report from the Pentagon.
Washington (AFP) - Arizona's governor on Tuesday named former US senator Jon Kyl as the temporary successor to late senator John McCain, appointing a respected and powerful former Republican lawmaker to the post.
"There is no one in Arizona with the stature of senator Jon Kyl. He is a man without comparable peer," Governor Doug Ducey told reporters in Phoenix, with Kyl at his side.
"Senator Kyl is prepared to hit the ground running."
Kyl, 76, was to fly to Washington to be sworn in possibly just days before a high-stakes Senate vote on the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's pick to be the next US Supreme Court justice.
Ducey insisted his appointment was not political, despite Kyl working closely with the White House in recent months on getting Kavanaugh confirmed in the Senate, where Republicans hold a razor-thin one-vote majority.
"Now, senator Kyl can cast a vote for Kavanaugh's confirmation."
Kyl, 76, served for 18 years alongside McCain in the Senate, until 2013, and said he would be "honored" to return to the chamber.
But he only committed to serve until January 2019, raising the prospect of requiring Ducey to again appoint a replacement until the seat is up for re-election in November 2020.
"I'm hoping that the senator will consider serving longer" than this year, Ducey said.
Widow Cindy McCain said it was a "great tribute" to her late husband that their close friend Kyl will return to public service by assuming McCain's seat.
McCain died late last month at age 81 following a yearlong battle with brain cancer.
His funeral service Saturday at Washington National Cathedral was in many ways a stern rebuke of Trump, with presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama eulogizing McCain as an iconic statesman who embodied passionate but civil debate, bipartisan compromise and a commitment to American values.
The Hague (AFP) - The United States told the UN's top court Wednesday it had "a duty" not to take a position on a bitter dispute over the British-ruled Chagos islands, home to a strategic joint US military base.
Judges at the International Court of Justice in The Hague are listening to arguments from various countries in a case brought by the United Nations over the future of the Indian Ocean archipelago, which is claimed by Mauritius.
London split off the remote islands from Mauritius in 1965, three years before Port Louis gained independence. Their status has since been at the centre of a bitter dispute spanning five decades.
US representative Jennifer Newstead said even though the UN request was for a "non-binding advisory opinion" on the row, the ICJ's 15 judges were in fact being asked to rule in a bilateral territorial dispute.
"This places the court in an untenable position," said Newstead, a State Department legal advisor, because it has been asked to rule in a sovereignty dispute when it was only meant to give a legal opinion.
Therefore "the court has a duty to decline to provide the opinion," Newstead said.
In a diplomatic blow to Britain, the UN General Assembly last year adopted a resolution presented by Mauritius and backed by African countries asking the ICJ to offer legal advice on the island chain's fate.
The judges are tasked to give an opinion whether the "process of decolonisation of Mauritius was lawfully completed" after Chagos was split off.
They are also to give their view on the consequences of Britain's continued administration of the islands -- including the inability of thousands of Chagossians who were evicted in the 1970s, to return to their homes.
On Wednesday India's representative however told the ICJ that historically Chagos was "clearly part of Mauritian territory."
"It is our understanding that the legal aspects (of the case) should root themselves in these historical facts," said India's representative Venu Rajamony.
Story continues
- Military base -
The African Union and 22 countries -- which also includes the US, Germany and several Asian and Latin American nations -- are making statements during the four-day hearing.
After the hearings, the ICJ is expected to hand down a non-binding advisory opinion, but the judges' ruling may take several months or even years.
However, an opinion still carries weight and a finding in favour of Mauritius may strengthen its hand in future negotiations. It could also lay the foundation for an eventual formal claim before the ICJ -- set up after World War II in 1946 to rule in disputes between countries.
Mauritius, which declared independence in 1968, argues that it was illegal for London to break up its territory while still under colonial rule.
Afterwards as the Cold War heated up, London established a combined military base with the US on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands.
Britain said it would give back the islands to Mauritius "when no longer required for defence purposes".
Port Louis did acknowledge that Mauritius "recognises the existence of the base and accepts its continued and future functioning in accordance with international law."
The Diego Garcia base remains important for US strategic military operations, including serving as a staging ground for bombing campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq and the fight against rampant piracy in the Indian Ocean.
The base "continues to play a critical role in the peace and security of the Indian Ocean region and beyond," US representative Newstead said.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) The United States warned the Security Council on Wednesday that Nicaragua is heading down the path that led to conflict in Syria and a crisis in Venezuela that has spilled into the region but Russia, China and Bolivia said Nicaragua doesn't pose an international threat and the U.N. should butt out.
The sharp exchanges took place at the first Security Council meeting called by U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, the current council president, to address what the U.N. says is the government's violent repression of student and opposition protests that have killed over 300 people since mid-April and led thousands to flee the country.
"With each passing day Nicaragua travels further down a familiar path. It is a path that Syria has taken. It is a path that Venezuela has taken," Haley said.
She said Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega and Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro "are cut from the same corrupt cloth ... And they are both dictators who live in fear of their own people."
But she said there is still an opportunity for Nicaragua's government "to prevent tyranny from threatening peace and security" by responding to the people's demands for freedom, an end to "dictatorship," and the release of arbitrarily jailed protesters.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia countered that the "subversive policies of the United States against Nicaragua have a long history" and the meeting which Moscow "categorically objects to" represented "a glaring and grim example of destructive foreign intervention."
He warned that "following today's discussion, polarization in Nicaragua will only worsen."
In Nicaragua, Ortega responded to Haley's comments in a speech to a pro-government march in Managua.
"What should we say to the United States?" the Nicaraguan president said. "We'll tell them that if they want to help the Nicaraguan people, if they want to contribute to peace, the best thing they can do and should do is not meddle in Nicaragua, respect Nicaragua."
Story continues
The popular protests that began in mid-April were triggered by cuts to the social security system. Ortega reversed the cuts, but demonstrations quickly expanded and turned into a call for him to step down. He has refused to give up power before elections scheduled for 2021.
A report released last Wednesday by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights on four months of unrest in the country described government repression that stretched from the streets to courtrooms, where some protesters face terrorism charges.
The human rights office called on the government to immediately halt the persecution of protesters and disarm the masked civilians who have been responsible for many of the killings and arbitrary detentions. It also documented cases of torture and excessive force.
Two days later, the government expelled the U.N. human rights team in the country.
Gonzalo Koncke, chief of staff to the secretary-general of the Organization of American States, told the council that Nicaragua "is at a critical juncture and the government must take critical measures" to re-establish democracy in the country.
The government must quickly hold "free, just, democratic and transparent elections" and start a dialogue with all parties that leads to agreements.
If democracy is not restored, Koncke warned, Nicaragua "may go the way of other countries in the region who have fallen in the arms of dictators."
Civil society leader Felix Maradiaga, a former secretary general of Nicaragua's Ministry of Defense who said he faces constant death threats, told the council he came to convey the urgency of the situation in the country that threatens peace and security in the region.
"Every day we see a climate of terror and indiscriminate persecution," he said, citing the rising number of political prisoners, armed and masked people bursting into homes, and sexual attacks.
"For more than a decade, the Daniel Ortega regime has been benefiting from the fact that it is off the international agenda, off the international radar," Maradiaga said. "So we are seeing the danger of Nicaragua spinning out of control in a volatile region of the world."
Nicaragua needs the attention of the United Nations, he said, "to ensure there is peace and security before it's too late." And he urged the U.N.'s most powerful body to adopt a legally binding resolution, assign resources and establish a system to monitor what's happening in the country and support the restoration of the rule of law.
Nicaragua's Foreign Minister Denis Moncada Colindres made no mention of the unrest or elections, stressing instead that "in Nicaragua we love peace, we strengthen our security and we promote and defend human rights in a holistic way."
"There is consensus in this council Nicaragua does not represent a threat to international peace and security," he said.
Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.
Market Research Future published a research report on Cancer Diagnostics Market Forecast Up To 2023. Report include market Analysis, Scope, Size, Share, Growth, Recent Trends and forecast in detail information. The market is projected to demonstrate a sound growth by 2023, Market will grow at a CAGR of 11.8% during forecasted period.
Cancer Diagnostics Market Highlights
There are several methods of diagnosing cancer today such as biopsy based, endoscopy based, imaging procedure, tumor cancer diagnostics and many more. Population affected with cancer are showing a tremendous growth during last few years, which create the requirement of advanced technology for diagnosis cancer on early stage. According to the American Cancer Society, in 2017, it is estimate that around 161,360 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed and around 26,730 deaths occur owing to prostate cancer in the United States. Thus, many companies are involve in collaboration in order to provide better technology for diagnosis the cancer. In this regards, in January, 2015, Roche and Qualcomm Incorporated entered into a strategic collaboration to improve remote monitoring and management of patients with chronic disease.
Rising demand for better technology, increasing investment in biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries for R&D are driving the market for cancer diagnostics. Moreover, increasing government support for research & development, changing lifestyle, and rapidly developing technology are also expected to fuel the market during the forecast period. However, the high cost of the treatment may slow the market growth during the period 2017-2023.
The Global Cancer Diagnostics Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.8% during the forecast period 2017-2023.
Get Sample PDF Illustration @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1962
Key Players for Global Cancer Diagnostics Market
Some of key the players in the market are Armune BioScience, Inc. (U.S.), Arquer Diagnostics Ltd (U.K), BioMark Diagnostics Inc. (Canada), Biotheranostics, Inc. (U.S.), Cancer Diagnostics, Inc. (U.S.), Agilent Technologies, Inc. (U.S.), Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (U.S.), Illumina, Inc. (Denmark), Becton, Dickinson and Company (U.S.), GE Healthcare (U.K), QIAGEN N.V. (Netherlands), Abbott Laboratories, Inc. (U.S.), Roche Diagnostics (Switzerland), Siemens Healthcare (Germany), Philips Healthcare (U.K), C.R. Bard, Inc. (U.S.).
Segments for Global Cancer Diagnostics Market
The global cancer diagnostics market is segmented on the basis of types, application, and end user. On the basis of the type, it is segmented into biopsy based, endoscopy based, imaging procedure, tumor cancer diagnostics, and others. On the basis of the application, it is segmented into lung cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, cervical cancer, prostate cancer, skin cancer, blood cancer, kidney cancer, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, and others. On the basis of the end user, it is segmented into diagnostic center, clinic, hospital, research institutes, and others.
Regional Analysis for Global Cancer Diagnostics Market
The Americas dominate the global cancer diagnostics market owing to the presence of huge patient population with cancer, high healthcare spending, and increasing government support for research & development. According to a report published by the breast cancer information and awareness, in 2017, around 252,710 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women, along with 63,410 new cases of non-invasive breast cancer.
Europe holds the second largest share of the global cancer diagnostics market as result of increasing focus of various government agencies on the treatment of diseases. Moreover, the growing public awareness is also likely to boost the European market.
Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market across the globe. Moreover, rapidly developing economy, increasing healthcare expenditure, and the government initiatives for research & development are projected to drive the market in China and India.
The Middle East and Africa holds the least share of the global market due to limited availability of medical facilities. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait are expected to drive the Middle East & African market. Whereas, the African region is expected to witness a moderate growth.
Get Complete Access of Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/cancer-diagnostics-market-1962
Some Brief Table of Contents of Report
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
4.1 Drivers
4.2 Restrains
4.3 Opportunities
4.4 Challenges
4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators
4.6 Technology Trends & Assessment
Chapter 5. Market Factor Analysis
5.1 Porters Five Forces Analysis
5.1.1 Bargaining Power Of Suppliers
TOC Continued
Do You Have Specific Requirement? Ask To Our Experts@ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/1962
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), Statistical Report, Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.
Contact Us:
Market Research Future
Hadapsar, Pune 411028
Maharashtra, India
Phone: +1 646 845 9312
Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
All right stop, collaborate and listen: Vanilla Ice was on board a flight from Dubai that landed Wednesday at New York Citys JFK Airport with dozens of sick passengers.
There is like tons of ambulances and fire trucks and police all over the place, he wrote in a tweet accompanied by a video. You can hear the rapper telling a fellow passenger in the video, It must be pretty serious.
A follow-up tweet included a news video from YouTube about the flight Ice apparently believed he was on:
So I just landed from Dubai and now there is like tons of ambulances and fire trucks and police all over the place pic.twitter.com/i9QLh6WyJW Vanilla Ice (@vanillaice) September 5, 2018
The former reality show star tweeted that the passengers who are sick are on the bottom floor of the aircraft and that hes happy hes up top on the double-decker jet.
This is crazy. Apparently there is over 100 people sick on the bottom floor, so happy Im up top, its a double-decker plane 380 Vanilla Ice (@vanillaice) September 5, 2018
Authorities checked the flight after roughly 100 of the 521 passengers complained of illness, including fever and coughing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some members of the flight crew were among those ailing.
That plane reportedly was emptied by 12:30 p.m. local time. But the Ice, Ice Baby rapper began sending a series of tweets at 1:41 p.m. about a flight he was on, which made it unclear whether he was referring to the plane from Dubai with sick passengers or another one.
Story continues
A representative for Vanilla Ice verified that the rapper had been on the plane reviewed by the CDC and that he was released with all the other passengers that did not exhibit any symptoms.
I have no other information about the situation beyond that, Chuck Quon said in an email to HuffPost. Also, he is not in NY any longer. He has already flown home.
Authorities from the CDC, the Port Authority, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and city EMS took passengers temperatures on the plane from Dubai and arranged transportation for those who were ill to local hospitals.
Passengers who are not ill will be allowed to continue with their travel plans, and if necessary will be followed up with by health officials, the CDC said.
This article has been updated with comment from Vanilla Ices agent.
Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley speaks during a debate at the University of Massachusetts, in Boston - AP
A 10-term Democratic congressman has conceded defeat to a Boston city councillor who is now poised to become Massachusetts' first black congresswoman in a race with parallels to a New York upset that rattled the party in June.
The Democratic nominating contest fight between US Representative Michael Capuano, 66, and Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley, 44, was his first since 1998.
"Clearly the district wanted a lot of change," Mr Capuano told supporters on Tuesday as he conceded. "I'm sorry that this didn't work out."
With no Republicans on the ticket in Tuesday's nominating primary, Ms Pressley is all but certain to succeed Mr Capuano in Washington in November's congressional elections.
Ms Pressley argued she would bring new energy and awareness of the needs in the state's only congressional district where a majority of residents are not white.
Incumbent U.S. Representative Mike Capuano speaks to reporters after voting in the Massachusetts Primary Election in Somerville Credit: Reuters
The race echoed the June primary in a safely Democratic New York City congressional district where first-time candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beat a 10-term incumbent, sparking fresh enthusiasm for progressive candidates across the United States.
Within hours of her victory, Ms Ocasio-Cortez, 28, had endorsed Ms Pressley on Twitter, saying, "Vote her in next, Massachusetts."
Both candidates had collected high-profile endorsements, with the Boston Globe newspaper backing Ms Pressley and the Congressional Black Caucus supporting Mr Capuano, who is white.
Polls and political observers predict the state's nine House seats will remain in Democratic hands, along with the seat held by US Senator Elizabeth Warren, a leading progressive voice often cited as a possible 2020 White House contender. Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican who regularly shows up in polls as one of the United States' most popular governors, is also expected to be re-elected.
Democrats need to pick up 23 seats in the House of Representatives and two in the Senate nationwide in the November 6 general election to gain a majority that could allow them to counter Republican President Donald Trump's agenda.
By Scott Malone
BOSTON (Reuters) - Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley beat a 10-term incumbent on Tuesday to win the Democratic nomination to run for the U.S. Congress, and she immediately came out swinging at President Donald Trump.
Pressley's win was the latest in a streak of primary victories by younger, more diverse Democratic candidates against established rivals before the Nov. 6 election. Democrats need to win 23 seats to take back the majority in the House of Representatives.
The Chicago-raised activist faces no Republican rival for the district, which includes most of Boston and its neighboring cities, leaving her free to focus on Trump.
"Our president is a racist, misogynistic, truly empathy-bankrupt man," Pressley, 44, told supporters on Tuesday night. "It is time to show Washington, D.C., both my fellow Democrats, who I hope will stand with us and Republicans who may stand in our way ... change is coming and the future belongs to all of us."
Trump has angered Democrats with comments describing immigrants as criminals, attacks on black professional athletes protesting against racism and Twitter slaps at female politicians.
Pressley's win echoes the June primary in a safely Democratic New York City congressional district, where first-time candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beat a 10-term incumbent, sparking enthusiasm for progressive candidates across the United States. Shortly after her win, Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Pressley.
Pressley took on U.S. Representative Michael Capuano, who had not faced a primary challenge since he was first elected in 1998. She argued that she was more attuned to the needs of the state's only congressional district where a majority of residents are not white.
Pressley is poised to become the state's first black woman in Congress.
"This wasn't a battle between a conservative and a liberal, they were both progressives in very good standing," said Peter Ubertaccio, a professor of political science at Stonehill College outside Boston. "It does point to a generational shift and this notion that a lot of folks are not waiting their turn in the way they might have years ago."
Story continues
Polls and political analysts predict the state's nine House of Representatives seats will remain in Democratic hands, along with the seat held by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, often cited as a possible 2020 White House contender.
Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican who regularly shows up in opinion polls as one of the most popular U.S. governors, is also expected to be re-elected.
Other Massachusetts Democratic incumbents held off challengers.
Secretary of State William Galvin, 67, who has held his office for 24 years, easily beat another Boston City Council member, 34-year-old Josh Zakim.
U.S. Representative Richard Neal, the 69-year-old ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, now in his 15th two-year term, held off a challenge by 44-year-old lawyer Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, a Muslim who was endorsed by Our Revolution, a progressive group that grew out of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders' 2016 Democratic presidential campaign.
As of Wednesday morning, Lori Trahan held a 223-vote lead over Dan Koh, a former chief of staff for Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, local media reported. They were contesting a primary to run for the seat held by U.S. Representative Niki Tsongas, who is retiring after 11 years.
(Reporting by Scott Malone, editing by Larry King)
Ken Livingstone once again brought up Hitler during a rambling television interview about the anti-semitism crisis in Labour this morning.
The former London mayor, who resigned from the party this year over his comments on the Jewish community, refused to apologise for saying that Hitler supported Zionism.
Livingstone claimed he said Hitler did a deal with German Zionists in 1933 adding that he was not a Zionist himself.
Asked whether he stood by his previous statement, he told Good Morning Britain (GMB): Absolutely. I said that in the 1930s Hitler supported Zionism.
Ken Livingstone rambled for 10 minutes about Hitler yet again on a live TV interview (Rex)
Not because he liked German Jews, but because he did a deal with the German Zionists. Theres a complete difference. He did a deal.
Echoing Donald Trumps fake news assertions, the 73-year-old added: This has dragged on for two years.
And still no one has asked me what I actually said. It has been lie after lie all over the media.
READ MORE ON YAHOO NEWS UK:
Four out of five adults at risk of early death because their heart age is too high
Misogyny could be made a hate crime as MPs prepare for historic vote
2.6 million have changed their minds about supporting Brexit
Japan typhoon: Hundreds of cars left wrecked as worst storm in 25 years kills 10
Neglected cat covered in dreadlocked fur undergoes miracle transformation
There were claims I said Jews were like Nazis. This is the problem with fake news.
Nobody has ever found a shred of evidence Ive said any of this nonsense.
Livingstone told GMB that the anti-Semitism row should not concern Labour the day after the party finally adopted the international definition of anti-Semitism with a closed that ensured it would not undermine freedom of expression on Israel.
The former London mayor said Labours anti-Semitism crisis was a conspiracy against Jeremy Corbyn (Good Morning Britain)
He said: No one should have any worries about this stuff. Anti-Semitism is about people who hate and loathe Jews. Its not about criticising the Israeli Governments policy towards the Palestinians.
He added: People who hate Jews blacks or homosexuals are never going to join the Labour Party because we have always been defending the rights of people like that.
Story continues
Livingstone also claimed that anti-Semitism allegations against Labour and Jeremy Corbyn are part of a conspiracy by the establishment, great corporations and the super-rich.
He insisted he is not anti-Semitic himself, saying: The simple fact is, just before I resigned from the Labour Party, a senior official told me theyd found about 50 members who had tweeted something anti-Semitic.
The Labour leader has been accused of being an anti-Semite for various comments unearthed over summer (Rex)
Thats one in out of every 10,000. When I was Mayor of London anti-Semitic incidents halved.
Labour has been rocked by claims it is now an anti-Semitic party, while leader Jeremy Corbyn has faced accusations himself that he is an anti-Semite and a racist by Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge.
A senior member of Labours shadow cabinet has now urged Jewish critics to come back into the room and engage with the party over its approach to anti-Semitism.
Baroness Chakrabartis call came after Labours ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) agreed to incorporate the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, including all its examples of prejudice against Jews, in the partys code of conduct.
Labour voted to adopt the IHRA anti-Semitism definition in full on Tuesday despite protests from Corbyn supporters (Rex)
But Jewish groups hit out after the move was accompanied by the statement that said the party will ensure the changes do not in any way undermine freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of Palestinians.
Dame Margaret Hodge, said the leader had sullied the adoption of the IHRA definition by trying to amend it by saying it was not anti-Semitic to describe Israel as racist.
But Lady Chakrabarti, who conducted an inquiry into anti-Semitism for Mr Corbyn, insisted that the NECs additional statement did not dilute its commitment to fighting the problem.
Labour has been rocked by claims it is infested with anti-Semitism (Rex)
The shadow attorney general told BBC Radio 4s Today: There was no sullying. The words were not a caveat, were not a dilution; the words are true, which is that accepting these examples, in my view, in no way negates reasonable free speech around these difficult issues around Israel and Palestine.
Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) said the attempted amendment showed that Mr Corbyn was part of the problem, not the solution.
Labour Against Anti-Semitism said the move appears to be about protecting the freedom of racists to present vile views.
Mr Woodward spent over a year meeting with sources to describe the inner machinations of the Trump White House: AFP/Getty Images
Donald Trumps White House aides have removed paperwork from his desk and considered him a threat to national security, according to a new inflammatory book written by veteran journalist Bob Woodward.
The new book is the latest in a series of publications that have described a tumultuous and chaotic Trump White House, and is the first of its kind written by a industry respected journalist who played a pivotal role in the reporting that led to former President Richard Nixons impeachment.
In the book Fear which wont be released until next week the White House is described as a a tumultuous place where top aides to the president had insulted the president behind his back, and considered his lack of curiosity and knowledge about governing and foreign policy to be a worry for the presidents national security team, according to a review by The Washington Post, which obtained an advance copy of the book.
One instance outlined in the book, a 19 January National Security meeting, involved Mr Trump disregarding the importance of long-standing US military presence on the Korean Peninsula which allows the US to detect North Korean missile launches within seconds instead of the 15 minutes it would take to detect such a launch from Alaska.
Mr Trump questioned why the US was spending money in the area at all.
Were doing this in order to prevent World War III, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis reportedly told him.
Mr Mattis, immediately after the meeting, then reportedly said the president cited like and had the understanding of a fifth- or sixth-grader.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, in response to the portions of the book made available publicly through reports, said that the entire book is full of falsehoods intended to make the president look bad.
"This book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad," Ms Sanders said in a statement distributed to the press.
Story continues
Another portion of the book describes an instance with Mr Trumps former chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, who stole a letter off Trumps desk that the president intended to sign to formally withdraw the US from a trade agreement with South Korea. Mr Cohn later said he had done so to protect national security, and that the president did not know that it had gone missing.
Mr Cohn also made a similar move when it came to Mr Trumps planning to take the US out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), which was a main promise of Mr Trumps 2016 campaign.
In that instance, Mr Trump asked fro an aide to draft up a notification letter to pull the US out of Nafta but advisers felt doing so could trigger an economic and foreign relations crisis.
I can stop this. Ill just take the paper off of his desk, Mr Cohn told that aide, according to Mr Woodwards book.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With Syria apparently on the brink of a new spasm of violence, the White House warned on Tuesday that the United States and its allies would respond "swiftly and appropriately" if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons again. The White House also said in a statement that it was closely monitoring developments in Syria's rebel-held Idlib region, where the Syrian government is expected to mount an offensive that could spark a humanitarian disaster. President Donald Trump in the past year and a half has twice ordered U.S.-led air strikes against targets in Syria in response to what Washington called the Assad government's use of chemical weapons against civilians. In a tweet on Monday, Trump warned Assad and his allies Iran and Russia not to recklessly attack Idlib province and warned that hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. The Kremlin on Tuesday dismissed Trumps warning to Syria not to launch an offensive in Idlib, saying the area was a nest of terrorism." The northern province and surrounding areas are the last major enclave held by insurgents fighting Assad, who has been backed by both Russian and Iranian forces in Syrias seven-year-old civil war. They are home to some three million civilians. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the United States is closely monitoring the situation in Idlib province and that Trump has warned an attack there would be a reckless escalation of an already tragic conflict and would risk the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. "Let us be clear, it remains our firm stance that if President Bashar al-Assad chooses to again use chemical weapons, the United States and its allies will respond swiftly and appropriately," she said. She said the United States will work with its allies to find a lasting diplomatic solution to resolve the hostilities in Syria under the auspices of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254. (Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by James Dalgleish)
If Brett Kavanaugh (center) is confirmed to the Supreme Court and if President Donald Trump (right) responds to a potential barrage of congressional subpoenas in the next Congress by making good on his threat to fire special counsel Robert Mueller (left), the new justice could be put in a very tough situation. (Photo: GETTY/AFP/REUTERS)
The Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Brett Kavanaughs nomination to the Supreme Court began Tuesday with Democrats strong protest against the committees unprecedented rush to confirm the judge. This protest has a compelling constitutional foundation based on the very sort of originalism Kavanaugh says he supports.
The decisive issue arose only this weekend when President Donald Trump claimed executive privilege to deny the Senate all access to records involving Kavanaughs service as staff secretary in George W. Bushs White House. This unilateral assertion of presidential power is flatly inconsistent with the constitutional text and the original understanding of the framers. Further, it could easily trigger a series of events that would threaten the very foundations of our democracy.
First, some facts: From 2003 to 2006, Kavanaugh controlled the flow of papers to the Oval Office, playing the key role of intermediary between the president and the countless bureaucracies competing for his attention. This was also a time when the CIA and military had transformed Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and covert sites throughout the world into torture chambers. Senators want to know how Kavanaugh dealt with the war crime issue in his role as staff secretary.
The question is of central importance if the Senate is to discharge its constitutional duty to advise the president as well as consent to his nominee. It is no small matter to put a war criminal onto the Supreme Court if the papers show that Kavanaugh did, in fact, endorse John Yoos notorious torture memos in his dealings with the president. It is no less important to reassure the country that the then-38-year-old Kavanaugh was merely a paper-pusher at the time, and that it would be wrong to condemn him retroactively now that he has returned to center stage with a 12-year track record as a seasoned jurist.
Trumps assertion of executive privilege, however, is so sweeping that it strips the Senate of any capacity to deliberate on the issue. Rather than insist that senators read the essential documents behind closed doors, he is asserting the unilateral power to deny them all access.
Story continues
Kavanaugh is sworn in during his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court on Tuesday. (Photo: Chris Wattie/Reuters)
This will require senators to accept on blind faith Kavanaughs predictable reassurances that he was entirely uninvolved in White House discussions of the merits of the worldwide torture campaign. This is especially perilous, given the nominees past dealings on the matter. When his nomination as circuit judge came before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2006, the main focus was on the nature of his engagement in White House decisions to endorse the torture of detainees in the war on terror. His unequivocal assertion that he was not involved in these discussions played a crucial role in winning his confirmation.
A year later, however, a Washington Post story, based on anonymous sources within the administration, reported that Kavanaugh had in fact engaged in at least one White House discussion leading Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to formally request an explanation from Kavanaugh for this apparent inconsistency. Kavanaugh, however, refused to answer.
Worse yet, there is absolutely no reason to suppose that Trump has told his staff to investigate the matter seriously. To the contrary, he has already won Senate confirmation of Gina Haspel as CIA director despite her deep involvement in a CIA torture site in Thailand during the same period Kavanaugh was serving in the White House. But at least the Senate knew what it was doing in endorsing Haspel. It is quite another thing for it to rubber-stamp the ascent of a Supreme Court justice without the least pretense to independent deliberation.
This not only represents a total repudiation of the constitutional demand that it advise before it consents to Kavanaughs nomination. The founders put this requirement into the text for compelling institutional reasons.
Suppose, for example, that Kavanaugh wins confirmation in the next few weeks, but that the Democrats win the House in November, and that Trump responds to a barrage of congressional subpoenas by making good on his threat to fire special counsel Robert Mueller. As legal challengers to this move race to the Supreme Court for an expedited decision, another enterprising journalist breaks the news that Kavanaugh lied again, producing unambiguous documents leaked to him by dissidents in the Justice Department or elsewhere within the administration.
This would place Kavanaugh in an impossible situation. On the one hand, he could recuse himself from the case of Mueller v. Trump thereby acknowledging that there is substance to the claim he had lied to the Judiciary Committee. On the other hand, he could continue his 12-year refusal to confront the charges against him. Given his long-standing commitments to unilateral executive power, this means he would supply the fifth vote in favor of Trumps peremptory efforts to stop Muellers inquiry.
From left: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) deliver opening statements during Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Tuesday. (Photo: The Washington Post via Getty Images)
These scenarios would have different consequences for the next round of struggles between the newly elected House and the deeply embittered president. But they both would do terrible damage to the court. However Kavanaugh resolves his dilemma, the House would be right to inaugurate impeachment proceedings against the new justice demanding the documentary evidence, and personal testimony, that would conclusively establish whether he had lied under oath during his confirmation hearing.
Throughout the months that followed, the court would be called on to resolve a host of other controversial matters while the integrity of a swing justice was under constant challenge. This would generate a dramatic decline in public confidence in the one remaining institution that continues to sustain bipartisan support beyond the Beltway.
It would also do terrible damage to the Senate, especially if the Republicans continue to maintain a narrow majority and another Supreme Court vacancy opens up. If the majority leader rams a third super-conservative justice through on a party-line vote, this will strip the court of any pretense of impartiality and set the stage for a wrenching constitutional crisis if Democrats win the 2020 elections. If the super-Republican court strikes down the ascendant administrations initiatives on health care or voting rights, Washington will be the scene of a confrontation that will make the court-packing crisis of 1937 seem tame by comparison.
Whatever the ultimate result, it will further convince ordinary Americans of all persuasions that dishonest politicians on the court, as well as in the presidency and Congress, are betraying them.
The time to stop this clear and present danger is now. If the presidents unprecedented assault doesnt provoke a bipartisan Senate effort to defend its central role in the system of checks and balances, Americas constitutional democracy will be under grave threat. Both Republicans and Democrats should refuse to consider Kavanaughs nomination until Trump grants them access to all the relevant evidence. It is far better to leave the courts seat vacant than to abdicate core constitutional responsibilities.
Bruce Ackerman is Sterling Professor of Law at Yale, and the author of The Decline and Fall of the American Republic.
ALSO ON HUFFPOST OPINION
We Need To Know Brett Kavanaugh's Role In Bush-Era Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment
What We Know About The Money Behind Brett Kavanaugh's Confirmation Fight
Trump Is Turning America Into The United States Of Hopelessness
Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Former Bank of England governor Mervyn King has warned UK is left without a credible position over Brexit. Photo:Oli Scarff/Getty Images
The former governor of the Bank of England has called the governments handling of Brexit incompetent.
Lord Mervyn King, who has previously spoken out in support of Britain leaving the EU, said that it beggars belief that one of the worlds largest economies had been forced into a position where it is stockpiling medicines and food.
King warned that the governments approach to a no-deal scenario had left it without a credible bargaining position, and that the current approach would leave nobody happy with the outcome.
He told the BBC: Im not going to tell the government what to do, but what is pretty clear is that we are likely to have some sort of deal.
But we are going to get the worst of both worlds.
We will leave next March, but only in the sense that we wont be going to any of the meetings that take place, so we will have no say in what happens. And yet we will still be bound by all the rules and regulations of the European Union.
The referendum hasnt decided it, because both camps feel that they havent got what they wanted, and that is not how policy in Britain is usually made.
Lord King called the governments preparations for Brexit incompetent. Photo: Getty Images
The damning assessment came as Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham called for an extension to the Article 50 timeline to avoid the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal.
The Labour politician is set to tell Westminster on Wednesday that this isnt about frustrating Brexit, but instead about getting Brexit right.
READ MORE ON YAHOO NEWS UK:
Four out of five adults at risk of early death because their heart age is too high
Misogyny could be made a hate crime as MPs prepare for historic vote
2.6 million have changed their minds about supporting Brexit
Japan typhoon: Hundreds of cars left wrecked as worst storm in 25 years kills 10
Neglected cat covered in dreadlocked fur undergoes miracle transformation
On Tuesday, the Brexit secretary Dominic Raab insisted that a withdrawal deal was within our grasp, despite the EUs chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier warning that he is strongly opposed to the governments current negotiating position.
Story continues
Raab faces a grilling from MPs later today as he appears before the European scrutiny committee alongside the PMs Europe adviser, Olly Robbins.
He is expected to defend the PMs Chequers plan which continues to cause deep rifts through his own party.
Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.
Market Research Future (MRFR) has published a research report about the global sepsis diagnostics market that anticipates steady growth for this market by the end of 2022. In terms of cash, the market is expected to grow to the US $ 710 mn by the end of the forecast period. This report provides a detailed analysis of the market structure until the end of the forecast period. Observing the factors affecting the market, this report analyzes the current market size and evaluates the scope and potential for future growth. This report provides the strategic profiling of the key players in this market and figures out their competencies. This reports tracks and analyzes competitive developments such as joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, research and developments (R & D), and strategic alliances.
The global sepsis diagnostics market has been segmented on the basis of end users, product type, technology, and lastly, region. On the basis of end users, this market has been segmented into diagnostic centers, hospitals, pathology laboratories, specialty clinics, and others. Based on technology, the market segmentation comprises of biomarkers, immunoassays, molecular diagnostics, and others. Biomarkers are defined as naturally occurring characteristics, genes, or molecules that can help identify a particular pathological or physiological process, disease, etc. Immunoassay is a biochemical test that can measure the concentration or presence of a macromolecule or a small molecule in a solution via the use of an antibody (usually) or an antigen (sometimes). Molecular diagnostics is defined as a collection of techniques that are used for analyzing biological markers in the genome and proteome. The analysis is done by applying molecular biology to medical testing. Based on product types, the market has been segmented into kits, instruments, blood culture media and others. In blood culture, media blood tests are conducted to detect infections that are spreading through the bloodstream.
Get Sample PDF Illustration @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2110
The global market for sepsis diagnostics is expected to reach USD 710 million by the end of the forecasted period and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8%.
Key Players for Global Sepsis Diagnostics Market
The key players in the global sepsis diagnostics market include Axis-Shield Diagnostics Ltd. (Scotland), Becton - Dickinson and Company (USA), bioMerieux, Inc. (the USA), Cube Dx GmbH (Austria), EKF Diagnostics (UK), Immunexpress (USA), Sandstone Diagnostics, Inc. (the USA), and T2 Biosystems, Inc. (USA).
Latest Industry News
An international group of researchers that includes Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (D-H) is claiming to have identified a simple blood test that might be capable of identifying patients at greatest risk of dying from sepsis. 31 JUL 2018
Australian molecular diagnostics startup AusDiagnostics is planning to enter the US infectious disease detection market. They are specialist in diagnosing various kinds of ailments like sepsis, genetic disorders, and sexually transmitted diseases. 20 JUL 2018
Regional Analysis for Global Sepsis Diagnostics Market
The regional segmentation of the global sepsis diagnostics market covers The Americas (North America & South America), Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). Currently, North America is the largest market for medical tourism in the world. The North American market for sepsis diagnostics is expected to reach the US $ 320 mn by the end of the forecast period. Due to technological advancement, high disposable income, and the availability of better medical facilities, North America is the bigger market than South America. Increasing healthcare expenditure, government aid to researches in the field of medical sciences and the presence of the key players in North America boosts the growth of the market in North America. Majority key players in this region are based in the United States of America (USA). In terms of cash, the North American market is expected to achieve magnificent growth by the end of the forecast period, and it is expected to be worth the US $ 320 mn.
Europe is the second largest market for sepsis diagnostics which is expected to grow significantly by the end of the forecast period. Due to reasons same as The Americas, Western Europe market is bigger than Eastern Europe. Maximum revenue for European market comes from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom (UK), followed by rest of Europe.
According to the report, the Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing region in sepsis diagnostics market by the end of the forecast period. In this region, the technological advancement is picking up the pace, but it is yet to reach the level of North America and Europe. In this region, the biggest markets are China, India, Japan, and South Korea, followed by the rest of Asia Pacific. MEA region is a small market due to political instability in most countries. Lack of technology and less investment in healthcare due to healthcare not being considered a priority by governments in this region are the reasons for limited facilities.
Key Questions Answered In This Report:
What will the market size 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?
Get Complete Access of Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/sepsis-diagnostics-market-2110
Some Brief Table of Contents of Report
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
4.1 Drivers
4.2 Restrains
4.3 Opportunities
4.4 Challenges
4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators
4.6 Technology Trends & Assessment
Chapter 5. Market Factor Analysis
5.1 Porters Five Forces Analysis
5.1.1 Bargaining Power Of Suppliers
TOC Continued
Do You Have Specific Requirement? Ask To Our Experts@ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/2110
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), Statistical Report, Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.
Contact Us:
Market Research Future
Hadapsar, Pune 411028
Maharashtra, India
Phone: +1 646 845 9312
Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Sanaa (AFP) - Yemen's Huthi rebels said Wednesday they were stranded in the capital Sanaa on the eve of United Nations-sponsored peace talks in Geneva with their government rivals.
The Huthis said the UN had been unable to "secure authorisation" from a Saudi-led coalition backing the government for a plane to transport the rebel delegation and wounded insurgents out of the country, according to the Huthis' Al-Masirah TV.
While the Huthis control Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, the coalition controls the country's airspace.
The Huthis, who are linked to Saudi Arabia's arch-nemesis Iran, have hinted that their delegation demanded the evacuation of wounded rebels to Oman for medical treatment as a condition for their attendance at the talks.
Huthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam tweeted on Tuesday that the UN had "made promises on facilitating the transport of the wounded... abroad" and accused the world body of stalling.
In 2014, the Huthis seized Sanaa, driving the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi into exile and marking a major turning point in Yemen's long-running conflict.
The following year, Saudi Arabia and its allies formed a powerful regional military coalition to back the Hadi government in its fight against the Huthis.
Nearly 10,000 people have been killed since the Saudi-led alliance joined the war, pushing the impoverished country to the brink of famine.
The last round of peace talks between the Huthis and government collapsed in 2016, when 108 days of negotiations in Kuwait failed to broker a power-sharing agreement.
The Huthi delegation to Kuwait was grounded in Oman for three months on its way back to Yemen, blocked from travel by the Saudi-led coalition.
Geneva (AFP) - Planned talks in Geneva this week between Yemen's warring parties offer a "flickering signal of hope" after years of conflict, the UN mediator said Wednesday, despite signs of delay and low expectations.
The talks will be the first public meetings between the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and Yemen's powerful Huthi rebels since 2016, when 108 days of negotiations in Kuwait failed to broker a power-sharing deal.
"The people of Yemen... are desperately in need of a signal of hope," UN envoy Martin Griffiths told reporters in Geneva.
"We would like to think that the work we will do together in these next days will begin to send a flickering signal of hope to them."
But both the government and the rebels have said they expect no breakthrough at the "consultations", which had been scheduled to open Thursday but appear likely to be delayed.
- Rebels stranded in Sanaa -
While representatives of the Yemeni government arrived in Geneva Wednesday, the rebels remained stranded in Sanaa, amid claims the Saudi-led coalition backing Hadi was preventing them from leaving for the talks.
The Huthis said the UN had been unable to "secure authorisation" from a Saudi-led coalition backing the government for a plane to transport the rebel delegation, along with wounded insurgents, out of the country, according to the Huthis' Al-Masirah TV.
While the Huthis control Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, the coalition controls the country's airspace.
When asked about the Huthi charges, Griffiths said: "We are working on that."
The UN meanwhile announced that there would be no meetings at its European headquarters in Geneva on Thursday as previously planned.
But Griffiths said his "informal consultations" with the government side would begin immediately.
"I am looking forward to meeting their leader right after this, Foreign Minister Khaled al-Yamani," he said at a press conference.
Story continues
That meeting is expected to take place in a Geneva hotel, as are any other meetings that might happen on Thursday, while more formal consultations could kick off at the UN on Friday.
"We are not going to waste time," Griffiths said.
He emphasised that the Geneva talks were "not formal negotiations," but said they aimed to pave the way towards bringing the parties back to the negotiating table.
The talks also seek to put in place a range of so-called confidence-building measures, which could include prisoner swaps and the vaccination of children, he said.
"There is a chance for some tangible progress," he said, adding that he hoped to get the two sides to sit at the same table during the consultations, which are expected to last a couple of days.
Yemen's foreign minister Khaled al-Yamani however told AFP this week that the chance of face-to-face sitdowns between the two delegations was slim to none.
- 'Broken promises' -
The UN Security Council on Wednesday urged both sides in Geneva to "take a first step towards ending a conflict that has brought severe pain and humanitarian suffering to the Yemeni people".
The Huthis have hinted that their delegation demanded the evacuation of wounded rebels to Oman for medical treatment as a condition for attending the talks, and accused the UN of stalling.
Huthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam tweeted on Tuesday that the UN had "made promises on facilitating the transport of the wounded... abroad" -- pledges the world body had thus far failed to keep.
Yemen's government meanwhile said Wednesday it planned to demand the release of the body of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, killed by rebels last year, during the talks.
Saleh, for decades the most powerful politician in troubled Yemen, had sided with the Huthi rebels for three years before shifting alliances in the country's armed conflict. He was killed by the rebels in December.
But Griffiths rejected that either side had presented any conditions for taking part in the talks.
"There is a real chance for hope," he insisted. "We will make it happen."
All previous attempts to resolve the Yemen war have failed.
Griffiths is the UN's third Yemen envoy since 2014, when the Huthis overran the capital Sanaa and drove Hadi's government into exile.
The following year, Saudi Arabia and its allies formed a powerful regional military coalition to back Hadi's government in its fight against the Huthis.
The conflict has since left nearly 10,000 people dead and pushed the Arab world's most impoverished country to the brink of famine.
Thank you for reading!
Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue.
Authorities at the Ashdod Port have announced that maintenance work that was scheduled to be carried out this Shabbat will not take place after the citys deputy mayor from an ultra-Orthodox party urged Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz to halt the planned works.
Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter
The announcement comes almost two weeks after the Tel Aviv municipality warned Ayalon Highways Co. not to cancel the planned weekend construction work on a new bridge over the Ayalon Highway despite Katz's decision to freeze the project until an alternative can be found that won't include work on Shabbat.
Ashdod Deputy Mayor Rabbi Mordechai Lieberman (United Torah Judaism) appealed directly to Katz on Monday seeking his intervention.
(Photo: Avi Roccah)
Lieberman wrote to Katz asking him to urgently intervene to delay the work for the six days of work.
The Ashdod Port is proud to be Israels leading economic gateway, which engraved on its flag the values of the Jewish state and which observes Shabbat as a day of rest, the deputy mayor wrote.
I am sure that in these days, when the people of Israel are seeking a good and blessed year, surely the observance of Shabbat, which is the source of the blessing, can be the source of comfort, and surely observing will bring help against the competing seaports, the rabbi wrote in the letter.
In an interview with Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth, Rabbi Lieberman said that he had already received an answer and that Katz had acquiesced to his demand.
Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
The Ashdod Port is the only one that does not work on Shabbat and that will continue in this case too, he said.
Attorney Eli Nehet, who is running at the top of the "Atid Ashdod" list in the municipal elections in the city slammed what he described as blackmail, while accusing the deputy city mayor of harming the main economic gateway to Israel.
We have to put an end to this. Each day that harms work on the port costs the State of Israel millions of shekels. Is the Haredi sector the one that will pay for that?, he asked. The answer is obvious. We call on the minister of transport not to surrender to this blackmail.
A statement was also issued by the Ashdod Port itself after Katzs intervention. The company is operating according to the usual six days a week and it will continue to do so in the future.
An attack on Syria's Idlib, a rebel-held enclave, would be a massacre and the upcoming summit in Tehran, which will be attended by Iran, Russia and Turkey, would yield positive results, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying by Hurriyet Daily.
Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, resumed air strikes on Tuesday against insurgents in Idlib. This followed weeks of aerial bombardment and shelling by pro-Syrian government forces in an apparent prelude to a full-scale offensive against the rebels' last major enclave.
"The situation in Idlib is crucial for Turkey. A ruthless process has been going on there. ... God forbid, if this area is hailed by missiles there would be a serious massacre," Erdogan was quoted as saying.
Turkey cannot fulfill "unlawful requests" regarding US Pastor Andrew Brunson's ongoing case, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying by the Hurriyet newspaper early on Wednesday.
The case of Brunson, standing trial in Turkey over terrorism charges, lies at the heart of a diplomatic crisis between Ankara and Washington that has prompted a crash of Turkey's lira currency.
Citing his comments to reporters, Erdogan said Turkey followed the rule of law and the United States would not be able to make progress in the case by using threats, according to Hurriyet.
A South Korean presidential delegation flew to North Korea on Wednesday for talks to arrange a summit planned later this month and help rescue faltering nuclear diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang.
It's unclear who the South Korean envoys will meet in the North or whether they will see North Korean leader Kim Jong Un before returning to the South later Wednesday.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in said his national security adviser will be carrying a personal letter for Kim. Moon said the envoys are tasked with a crucial role at a "very important time" that could determine the prospects for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.
The security forces arrested on Wednesday 10 wanted Palestinians suspected of involvement in terrorist activity in Judea and Samaria.
The suspects were taken in for questioning.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nicky Hailey referred to the US plan to renew the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians and said it was a very detailed plan that "takes into account every aspect."
At a press conference, Hailey added that the plan, dubbed the "Will only be possible if Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas "agrees to come to the negotiating table."
"We succeeded in ensuring that Netanyahu will agree to come," she added.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu about Syria on Tuesday.
The two agreed any Assad military offensive in Idlib would be unacceptable and reckless.
Pompeo highlighted the importance of releasing US Pastor Andrew Brunson, and both committed to continued discussions to resolve the matter.
Joint List leader MK Ayman Odeh, met Tuesday with EU Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini in Brussels, and discussed with her the Nation-State Law approved by the Knesset last July, urging the EU official to condemn the legislation.
Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter
At Mogherinis request the discussion was closed to the media but at the end of the meeting, the Joint List party issued an official statement.
At the meeting, Odeh expressed his concern about the implications of the Nation-State Law on the Arab minority in Israel and its violation of equal rights, and asked for condemnation from the European Union and for it to call for the law to be repealed," stressed the statement.
Federica Mogherini and Ayman Odeh (Photo: Yair Sagi)
Odeh reportedly said during the meeting that the legislation undermines the peace process.
"The law starts with the words Land of Israel, which does not relate to the State of Israel within the 1967 borders, and includes the West Bank, and it undermines the attempt to reach peace between the two nations," he argued.
He also claimed that in Israel there is economic and social discrimination against the Arab population, and "incitement started by the prime minister and other officials against the Arab citizens."
MK Odeh concluded his words by thanking the EU official for her willingness to discuss the issue.
"I am grateful for Mogherinis willingness to meet, even though there were those who tried to cancel it. I was pleased to discover that the foreign minister shares our concern and believes that the law harms first and foremost Arab citizens, but also democracy and the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state and a possibility of peace," Odeh exclaimed.
At the same time, the Joint List leadership met on Tuesday in Luxembourg with the countrys Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn. During the meeting, MKs Ahmad Tibi, Jamal Zahalka, Yousef Jabareen, Masoud Ghanaim and Taleb Abu Arar demanded the EU condemns and acts against the Nation-State Law.
Ahmad Tibi (Photo: Itay Blumenthal)
The MKs also demanded European assistance to Israeli Arabs, especially when it comes to the issue of students and the unrecognized villages in the Negev.
Luxembourg's foreign minister promised to review the requests, and at the same time expressed concern for the future of the two-state solution due to the continuation of the settlement construction.
"We emphasized to the minister that there is a joint agreement between Israel and the EU based on the values of justice, equality and democracy, which are negated by the Nation-State Law. The minister said that the values of democracy, equality and human rights must be implemented and respected for all," their statement said.
The Israeli Embassy in Brussels approached the Foreign Ministry in Luxembourg and tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to cancel the meeting. A diplomat in Luxembourg told the Joint List MKs about the Israeli attempt to intervene.
"They contacted us a few days ago and wondered why we were meeting with you and what is the subject of discussions, and hinted that it would be better not to hold the meeting, but Minister Asselborn insisted on it," stressed the diplomat.
MK Tibi described the intervention by Israel as crude and deviating from the authority of the Foreign Ministry, saying that "we will continue to meet with world leaders and explain our position."
In the meantime, an extraordinary conference was held in the European Union in Brussels, where for the first time, Israeli settlers and Palestinians gathered together to protest against the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) and encourage economic cooperation.
Friends of Judea and Samaria in the European Parliament
The conference was hosted by the Friends of Judea and Samaria in the European Parliament organization, with 120 people participating in the event, including 20 members of the European Parliament and 10 ambassadors from various EU countries.
"I wonder why the Arab MKs are coming to the European Parliament?" said Bassam Eid, a Palestinian activist from Jericho.
"Why not the Syrian parliament? I think it's somewhat of a propaganda. These types of people are trying to push Israel into a corner, and every time they attempt it, they fail. The BDS movement uses Palestinians for political purposes and does not help them financially, he lamented.
"We are representing a true story of coexistence in the West Bank," said Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council.
"Today, 25 years after the Oslo Accords, we can say that Oslo is dead. Every day we hear from local leaders in our region that the Palestinian Authority harms Arabs living in the West Bank, he added.
At this very moment, Arab MKs from Israel are meeting with EU Foreign Minister Mogherini. The foreign minister ignored a request for a meeting with ussettlers from the West Bank and Palestinians who came to promote regional coexistence in Israel. And that says it all, Dagan concluded.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte met with President Reuven Rivlin on Tuesday morning and was greeted by several dozen demonstrators, who held signs and shouted at his convoy in protest of the visit.
Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter
In recent weeks, the Tag Meir organization, a grassroots group devoted to combating hate crimes, implored Rivlin to cancel his meeting with the Filipino leader since "he is a racist and anti-Semitic who is suspected of murder and other grave crimes."
"We asked the president to cancel his meeting with Duterte and stop legitimizing his statements and deeds, but he did not respond," the organization said.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and President Reuven Rivlin (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)
The demonstrators shouted "shame" as Duterte's convoy arrived at the President's House, as well as "stop inviting dangerous dictators," and "Dutertea rapist."
Tag Meir's chairman Dr. Gadi Gvaryahu expressed his disbelief regarding the visit of the controversial leader.
"It is unthinkable that a week before Rosh Hashanah, a Jewish state hosts a man who compares himself to Hitler, a racist and a person who encourages rape. You cannot hold both ends of the stickto define the state as Jewish and to host leaders whose actions contradict Jewish values at the same time," he stressed.
The protest was organized by Amnesty International and was attended by Adv. Itay Mack, a human-rights lawyer and activist who fights for greater transparency on Israels military exports, and MK Mossi Raz (Meretz).
At the meeting, President Rivlin emphasized a stability of the relations between the two countries.
"Our relationship has a long history of 70 years with your recognition of Israel's independence. One can say that this is an 80-year relationship that began when you opened your gates to the Holocaust refugees. Anyone who has found refuge in your country will never forget it," stated the president.
"All of humanity, not only the Jewish people and the entire free world, felt that Hitler represented the devil himself, Satan on earth, and I have no doubt that you felt the same way during your visit to Yad Vashem," he added.
Rivlin meets Duterte (: , ") X
Regarding economic relations between the two countries, Rivlin said that it is clear that Israel and the Philippines "will be able to cooperate."
Duterte thanked Israel for inviting him, and introduced Rivlin to his Jewish daughter.
"My wife could not come, she is ill. I brought military men with me. We would like to strengthen our ties with Israel, we have a lot in common and this explains our relationship. You have helped our country in the war against terrorism, and I hope to discuss future economic and commercial investments with you. There are many opportunities in Israel," he explained.
He remarked that Israel is helping the Philippines in the intelligence field: "My military personnel know that when it comes to the purchase of military gear and weapons, there is only one countryIsrael. US is a good friend, but there are limitations on purchases made there."
"There will not be a problem with us from this point of view. We are far from you and are not connected to the troubles in Israel, we maintain ethics and principles of democracy," Duterte added.
"When it comes to terrorism, we have to fight to win against a common enemy," he continued.
Referring to the war he declared on Mindanao's jihadists, the Philippines president said:" We started bombarding targets in Mindanao as part of this war."
Duterte likes to mention the people he killed from time to time. Last year, during his speech to the Filipino community in Vietnam, he confessed to the murder he committed at the age of 16.
Similarly, in December 2016 the contentious leader claimed that he shot criminals when he was mayor of Davao:
"In Davao I used to kill personally. Just to show to the police that if I can do it why can't you. I'd go around in Davao with a motorcycle, with a big bike around, and I would just patrol the streets, looking for trouble. I was really looking for a confrontation so I could kill," he exclaimed.
The High Court of Justice rejected Wednesday the petitions filed by residents of Khan al-Ahmar, a Bedouin community near Jerusalem, against the evacuation of the village.
The temporary injunction forbidding the evacuation expire within a week, after which the evacuation can begin.
In response, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman tweeted:
"Khan al-Ahmar will be evacuated!I congratulate the judges of the High Court of Justice for a courageous and obvious, in light of an orchestrated hypocrisy of Abbas, the Left and European countries. No one is above the law. No one will prevent us from exercising our sovereignty and our responsibility as a state."
Israel closed on Wednesday the Erez border crossing in the northern Gaza Strip following violent riots which erupted on the Palestinian side of the checkpoint on Tuesday.
Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter
According to the IDF Spokesperson Unit, hundreds of people participated in the riots, reportedly hurling rocks at the crossing which resulted in severe damage to the infrastructure. The IDF said they responded with tear gas and live fire.
The crossing is closed until damages are repaired. Entry will be allowed in humanitarian cases only and will be approved on an individual basis.
Erez border crossing (Photo: AFP)
On Tuesday, the Health Ministry in Gaza reported that several Palestinians were wounded by Israeli fire as they protested near the territory's main personnel crossing with Israel.
Such protests are rare at Erez, the only terminal for travel into Israel or the West Bank from Gaza.
In addition, another incident occurred in the area yesterday, which saw a Palestinian man attempting to breach the border fence, but he retreated into the strip after being fired upon by Israeli forces.
In light of the ongoing negotiations for a long term ceasefire arrangement with Hamas, the IDF refrained from proactively announcing the riot had taken place, and reports of the events came to light only after the Palestinians released a statement regarding the closure of crossing.
Last month Israel also partially closed the Erez crossing in response to violent demonstrations staged by the residents, and following a delay in the reaching of an expected ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman recently addressed the relative calm along the southern border and its implications on the crossings closure.
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Photo: Roee Idan)
Recently, we have seen that Hamas is in complete control of what goes on here. All the violence has decreased to almost zero, he stated.
I am trying to form the equation between security quiet and economy. If theres terror, theres no economy. If theres no terror, there will be an economy, the defense minister explained.
There has to be a direct connection. That is the important message that we are trying to communicate to the Gaza residents, to the average Gazan who is concerned with making a living and who thinks about how to provide for his family, he continued.
Therefore, if there is quiet border crossings will remain open. If there is no quiet, they will be closed.
The High Court of Justice on Wednesday rejected an appeal against the demolition of a Bedouin village in the West Bank, ruling that its stay would expire in a week and the spartan encampment could then legally be torn down.
Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter
The fate of Khan al-Ahmar , east of Jerusalem, has drawn heavy international attention, with the United Nations and others expressing grave concern, and has become a rallying cry for the Palestinians, whose leaders have gathered there to protest its planned demolition.
Israel claims the village, an encampment of corrugated shacks outside the Kfar Adumim settlement, was illegally built and has offered to resettle residents 12 kilometers, about 7 miles, away. But critics say it's impossible for Palestinians to get building permits and that the demolition is meant to make room for an Israeli settlement.
Khan al-Ahmar (Photo: B'Tselem, Amit Gilutz)
The three judges hearing the appeal said they were presented no evidence to warrant overturning the previous verdict and there was no question over the illegality of the construction on the site.
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman lauded the judges for their "brave" ruling.
"No one is above the law. No one can stop us from implementing our sovereignty and responsibility as a state," he said.
The village is in the 60 percent of the West Bank known as Area C, which remains under exclusive Israeli control and is home to dozens of Israeli settlements. Israel places severe restrictions on Palestinian development there and home demolitions are not unusual.
As part of interim peace deals in the 1990s, the West Bank was carved up into autonomous and semi-autonomous Palestinian areas, known as Areas A and B, and Area C, which is home to some 400,000 Israeli settlers.
The Palestinians say that Area C, home to an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 Palestinians, is crucial to the economic development of their future state.
Israel says the structures that make up the Khan al-Ahmar encampment, which include an Italian-funded school, pose a threat to residents because of their proximity to a highway. But critics have dismissed this claim as a ploy to remove the village's 180 or so residents to clear the way for new Jewish settlements.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights' office has called on Israel to abandon its plans and said the destruction of private property by an occupying power violates international law.
The West Bank's Arab Bedouin are a small, impoverished minority among the broader Palestinian population. Like many other Bedouin encampments, residents of Khan al-Ahmar live in corrugated shacks or tents, often without electricity or running water, and raise livestock.
The Palestinian ministry of education recently decided to start the schoolyear early for 170 elementary students in Khan al-Ahmar and four nearby Bedouin communities to try and pre-empt any Israeli move.
Russia's envoy to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said on Wednesday that Moscow had nothing to do with the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy, in England, the RIA news agency reported.
British prosecutors earlier on Wednesday identified two men who they said had tried to murder Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a military-grade nerve agent.
British prosecutors on Wednesday identified two Russians who they accused of trying to murder former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a military-grade nerve agent in England.
Skripal, a former colonel in Russian military intelligence who betrayed dozens of agents to Britain's MI6 foreign spy service, and his daughter Yulia, were found unconscious on a public bench in the southern city of Salisbury on March 4.
Britain has blamed Russia for the poisonings and identified the poison as Novichok, a deadly group of nerve agents developed by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s. Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attack.
British prosecutors named the two suspects as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, who police said arrived in Britain from Moscow on March 2 at London's Gatwick airport on an Aeroflot flight and left on March 4. Police released images of the two men.
Neil Basu, Head of UK Counter Terrorism policing, said the two suspects were travelling under aliases but were around 40 years old and had genuine Russian passports.
"We would like to hear from anyone who knows them," Basu said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in response that the names of two men British prosecutors have accused of trying to murder Skripal and his daughter Yulia "do not mean anything to us," RIA cited the Foreign Ministry as saying.
A few dozen retired security service employees are demonstrating outside the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, in protest of the government's failure to equate the wages of police officers and prison guards to those of the IDF's career soldiers.
Earlier today, Minister of Public Security, Gilad Erdan addressed the issue and said it was a "grave mistake."
Several dozen retired security service employees broke Wednesday into the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem to protest against a government resolution that would discriminate between the salaries of the police and Israel Prison Service's (IPS) pensioners, and those of the IDF's career soldiers.
Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter
A riot soon developed, and a curfew was declared. Ministers were asked to keep away from the entrance, and enter the building through the Interior Ministry office.
At 2:30 PM, a cabinet meeting was scheduled to take place in the Prime Minister's Office.
Demonstrators break into the PM's office (Photo: Inbar Tvizer)
All the guards in the office left their posts and started chasing down the demonstrators. All employees were asked to lock cabinets containing classified documents. Police retirees even broke into the inner courtyard of the Prime Minister's Office.
The offices employees who were inside at the time lashed out at the police for not sending reinforcements.
Retired security service employees break into the Prime Minister's Office (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)
"This is a major security failure. They have been here for some 45 minutes, and the police are not sending additional forces to disperse the protesters. The security guards instructed the employees through the megaphone to lock themselves in the rooms and keep classified documents safe. The prime minister and the public security minister are stranded inside the office and cannot leave. Its a disgrace," lamented one of the workers.
The Border Police were called to the scene, which prompted the demonstrators to shout: Kahlon, go home!
Arden: 'A grave mistake'
Minister of Public Security, Gilad Erdan addressed the issue at the cabinet meeting.
"On the one hand, I condemn all violence There is no room for forced entry into the Prime Minister's Office. This is a serious act of violence. On the other hand, the government meeting today deals with a painful issue that concerns pensioners, police officers and prison guardsthey have been subjected to a very severe injustice," Arden stated.
Riot develops outside PM's Office (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)
"They are entitled to a wage increases according to the Labor Court ruling. The Ministry of Finance is turning this into a political decision, to discriminate against people who risk their lives to defend civilians is something that should never be done. I hope the government will approve the wage increase," he added.
Police retirees and the IPS decided to protest against the Finance Ministry's intention to submit a proposal during a government meeting that would exclude police officers, prison guards, and pensioners from additional payments and would perpetuate a situation where police officers are discriminated against.
The payments in question have been transferred to career soldiers and IDF reservists for the past 12 years, yet police retirees and retired prison guards have been excluded from receiving those payments.
The proposal was supposed to be addressed at the cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
The protestors demand to equate the salaries of policemen and prison guards serving in the army, including pensioners, to the salaries of the IDF's career soldiers.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a government meeting Wednesday that, Israel is determined to prevent Iran from entrenching itself in Syria. We are working relentlessly in order to prevent Iranian precision-guided arms production in all theatersnear and farand will continue to work for Israel's security.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused US President Donald Trump on Wednesday of planning to "abuse" the presidency of the U.N. Security Council to criticise Tehran, Washington's arch-foe.
US Ambassador Nikki Haley said on Tuesday that Trump would chair a UN Security Council meeting on Iran this month to spotlight its "violations of international law" during the annual gathering of world leaders in New York.
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said Wednesday he is against conducting the Eurovision preparations on the Jewish rest day, but acknowledged that "he knows where he lives."
Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has sent an official letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanding him to guarantee the government would not interfere in the contents of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest planned to be held in Israel.
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)
The EBU posed an additional two demands according to which Eurovision fans would not be banned from entering the contest based on their political opinions, religion, or sexual orientation and that the preparations for the contest would be held on Shabbat.
Addressing the aforementioned demands, Deri said in an Ynet interview, generally speaking, our borders are open. However, if anyone tries to use this in order to hurt Israel, he would be stopped.
I will not accept Shabbat becoming a work day for social events organizers, since it hurts the working class. They will then have no rest days and will work seven days a week like slaves," Deri elaborated.
The fact that recreational activities like visiting cafes, cinemas, restaurants and the Eurovision are taking place on Shabbat hurts me as a Jewish individual, but I know where I live.
Residents of south Tel Aviv rallied in the streets on Thursday evening in a display of anger over the governments failure to fulfill promises made last year to rid the area of illegal African migrants, with some protesters burning pictures of
Deri.
Posters with Deri's picture burning in a Tel Aviv Rally (Photo: Liberation of South Tel Aviv Front)
I am not hurt, neither in body nor in spirit, said Deri. and I will participate in the opening of the Shas municipal campaign headquarters in south Tel Aviv.
Whoever did this, he continued, was a provocateur, that was his aim, he wanted attention, thats all. The people of south Tel Aviv are our public, these are conservative people who know my work.
Deri also addressed the asylum seekers issue, and the deal with third-party countries to accept them that collapsed earlier this year. From the day I took office, not even a single infiltrator has crossed the border. 1,700 have left in recent months.
Close to 20,000 have already left on their own accord, and the third-party agreement, which I worked hard for and was approved by the Supreme Court, collapsed due to international pressures on the receiving countries, Deri elucidated.
When asked about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus statement according to which he predicts 40 mandates for the Likud party on the next elections and its effect on Shas, Deri said, Praise the lord, we are only rising in popularity.
"Netanyahu is the prime minister and leader of the Likud and we want him as a leader and he will have our support.
"However, Shas will guarantee to take care of all Likud voters who seek traditional Judaism and aspire for a country that caters for the needs of the weak and the transparent," the interior minister said.
Deri and Netanyahu (Photo: Amit Shabi)
According to Deri, a strong Likud party means a further weakening of the poor population, and that means a less Jewish state. Only a strong Shas alongside Netanyahu will guarantee that he takes care of things as (the conservatives) want.
We dont want Yair Lapid to form a government with Netanyahu instead of Shas and United Torah Judaism. Last time this happened, Lapid and Netanyahus government attempted to erase a 70-year-old Israeli status quo, he added.
I dont aspire to be the prime minister or minister of foreign affairs, I have other commitments. My greatest responsibility after the death of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is to keep representing his public and continue his lifes work. This is what keeps me going.
One of the things endangering this government is early elections amid the controversial Draft Law. According to Deri, the Draft Law will not end this government since the coalition agrees on it.
In reference to the internal feud within the Ultra Orthodox public revolving the Draft Law, Deri said, There is an internal dispute that I hope will be resolved after the upcoming holidays. I am almost certain that we can reach an agreement and approve this law in the upcoming Knesset's winter session. Elections will take place in 2019, as planned."
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Evtimov Mladenov called upon Israel not to demolish the village, located in the Maale Adumim region.
He tweeted that the demolition will undermine the two-state solution and is against international law.
The Russian defense ministry confirmed Wednesday that its fighter jets bombed the Idlib province on Tuesday, after the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had said Tuesday Moscow had resumed air strikes on Syria's last rebel-held stronghold after a 22-day break.
Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter
The defense ministry stressed that the strikes targeted merely rebel Jihadists and that Russia had refrained from attacking residential areas.
Refugee children in Idlib
However, according to a Syrian report, 13 civilians were killed in the strikes, with six of them being children.
The Russian foreign ministry said on Wednesday that it was Russia's duty to fight terrorists in Syria's Idlib until their "complete and final liquidation", and called on other countries to support that effort, not obstruct it.
In a statement, the ministry said its actions in Idlib province were in line with multilateral agreements aimed at stamping out violent militant groups.
"Russia considers it its duty to closely follow these agreements and will continue to destroy terrorists until their final and complete liquidation," the ministry said in the statement.
Russia claims that four of its aircraft equipped with high precision-guided arms, struck Tahrir al-Sham (al-Qaeda-affiliated organization) targets.
The Syrian regime is also bombarding the rebel-held province.
Air strikes on Idlib (Photo: AP)
In recent weeks, President Basahr Assad's forces are approaching Idlib, planning an attack that could end the seven-year civil war.
Meanwhile, Russia is currently conducting a vast military exercise in the Mediterranean Sea, which is expected to reach its highest point of intensity on Wednesday at 6 am until Thursday at 1 pm and is scheduled to end on Saturday.
The world is concerned a humanitarian disaster might occur. However, the Kremlin says that the drill aims to prepare for scenarios in which Russia may be forced to face with the US-led coalition operating in Syria.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rybakov said that so far all of Russia's military actions in Syria were executed with high precision to avoid harming civilians as much as possible.
"We, as we have said many times before, act precisely, selectively, trying to minimize possible risks to the peaceful population," Ryabkov as explained.
Refugee children in Idlib (Photo: AFP)
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan warned Wednesday that an attack on Syria's Idlibwhich borders with Turkey would be a massacre and voiced concern that hundreds of refugees would flee to Turkey.
"The situation in Idlib is crucial for Turkey. A ruthless process has been going on there. ... God forbid, if this area is hailed by missiles there would be a serious massacre," Erdogan opined.
Turkey, that support some of Syria's rebel groups, held several talks with Russian and American officials in an attempt to prevent Assads planned phased offensive to reclaim Idlib.
Rebels preparing for attack on Idlib (Photo: AFP)
"Three and a half million people live there. In case of a disaster, God forbid, they will flee to Turkey," Erdogan went on to say.
Turkey, Russia and Iran's leaders will attend a three-way summit in Tehran on Sept. 7, which will address the civil war in Syria which is nearing to its end.
The UN Security Council is expected to convene Friday to discuss Idlib's situation, while taking into account the possibility Assad will use chemical weapons to reclaim the rebel-held province, causing a humanitarian disaster.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would continue to fight against groups it sees as terrorists in Syria and that Idlib was a nest of terrorism.
Turkey's Erdogan (L) and Russia's Putin (Photo: AFP)
UN envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura expressed fears of a "perfect storm" that could have a devastating impact on nearly 3 million people nearly half of whom arrived from elsewhere in Syriain the region largely controlled by al-Qaida-linked fighters.
US President Donald Trump on Monday warned Syrian President Bashar Assad and his allies Iran and Russia not to "recklessly attack" Syria's rebel-held Idlib province, warning that hundreds of thousands of people could be killed.
"The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!" Trump wrote in a tweet.
The UN and other human rights organizations have warned that a military operation in Syria might cause one of the biggest humanitarian catastrophes Syria had known during its seven-year civil war.
Tahrir al-Sham's jihadists currently control more than half of Idlib. The rest of the province's territory is mainly dominated by rebels supported by Turkey.
Assad's regime took the reins over the small southeast part of the province.
The Syrian army bombarded Idlib today, while the rebels blew up another bridge in an attempt to thwart the upcoming attack.
Paraguay will move its embassy in Israel back to Tel Aviv, reversing a May decision by former President Horacio Cartes to move the diplomatic site to Jerusalem, the South American country's foreign minister told reporters on Wednesday.
"Paraguay wants to contribute to an intensification of regional diplomatic efforts to achieve a broad, fair and lasting peace in the Middle East," Foreign Minister Luis Alberto Castiglioni said.
In response, Foreign Ministry spokesman said Israel will close its embassy in Paraguay.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also the foreign minister, ordered the closure of Israel's embassy in Paraguay on Wednesday hours after the Latin American nation said it had decided to return its embassy from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.
Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter
The United States and Guatemala also moved their embassies to Jerusalem in May and Netanyahu has attempted to persuade other countries to follow their lead.
PM Netanyahu (L), Paraguay's President Mario Abdo (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky, AP)
"Israel views with great severity the unusual decision by Paraguay that will strain the ties between the countries," a brief statement from the Prime Minister's office said.
According to the Palestinian foreign ministry, the Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki was responsible for Paraguay's decision to move back the embassy to Tel Aviv.
The ministry added Paraguay had said it would move its embassy back to Tel Aviv two weeks ago during al-Maliki's visit to the country.
Explaining the new Paraguayan move, the country's foreign minister, Luis Alberto Castiglioni, said: "Paraguay wants to contribute to an intensification of regional diplomatic efforts to achieve a broad, fair and lasting peace in the Middle East."
Former Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes travelled to Israel to inaugurate the new embassy in May. He was replaced last month by Mario Abdo, also a member of the conservative Colorado party.
Former Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes (L)and Netanyahu (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended the inauguration ceremony at the Malha Technology Park, near the new Guatemalan embassy.
"It is an honor for me to be here today," Paraguayan President Cartes said at the ceremony. "The opening of the embassy holds special meaning, because it expresses the sincere friendship and the brave solidarity between Paraguay and Israel," Netanyahu said.
"I don't like binding or ambiguous positions. Our friendship is based on shared values, such as democracy, tolerance and dignity, lack of discrimination and peaceful coexistence," Cartes stated.
"This is a historic day that strengthens ties between Paraguay and Israel," he continued.
"A great day for Israel. A great day for Paraguay. A great day for our friendship," Netanyahu responded. "You have not only the support of our government but the profound gratitude of the people Israel."
Paraguay's former president inaugurates Jerusalem embassy (: ')
X
"Paraguay helped the Jews escape Nazi Germany," the prime minister said of the historic bond between Paraguay and the Jewish people.
"We will never forget it. You did it before, during and after the Holocaust. It was an expression of compassion and generosity that will always be etched in our hearts. Paraguay also supported the establishment of the State of Israel and recognized Israel at the UN. We won't forget that, either," the premier added.
"You're an amazing friend to Israel," Netanyahu told Cartes. "Under your leadership, Paraguay made courageous moves in the international arena and refused to take part in the lies against Israel. It's time we do a lot more together and increase the cooperation between us. We've been discussing water, agriculture, security, and we are doing and want to do more. And we will."
The IDF revealed on Tuesday that as of the beginning of 2017, more than 200 Iranian or pro-Iranian targets were attacked across Syria.
Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter
An entire system of pilots, officers, analysts, and officials has been working around the clock to execute the strikes.
The attacks included the dropping of 800 bombs and missiles by the Israeli Air Forcean amount that adds up to half used in a real war. Some were launched to long ranges. In almost all such operations that are meant to take place under the radar, all participants know very quickly or even in real time whose fist gave the punch, hundreds of kilometers from Israel.
And so, one of the purposes of these inter-war attacks is to send a message of power through the Middle Eastern arena, alongside establishing Israeli deterrence, postponing the next war and preventing Israels enemies from arming themselves with advanced weapons.
IAF attack on Syrian base (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
Behind heavy secrecy, that was lifted yesterday, the IDF has been trying to eradicate Iranian presence in Syria even at the cost of an incident that could trigger a war on the northern border. This agenda is led by Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot who was the commander of the northern border in years when Hezbollah was growing stronger.
According to the IDF, the Iranian plan to establish its presence in Syria was discovered two years ago by intelligence officials. Back then, the Russian blitz on the rebels was strengthening Assad, and in Tehran leaders were already looking forward to what is to come after the war.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards concocted a multi-year plan to establish military naval and air bases in Syria. These bases were supposed to include, according the IDF, thousands of soldiers and local Shiite militias serving as an army to fight against the "Zionist enemy."
The Yamanite model of this plan, which is already enabling the launching of missiles to Riyadh, is proving successful for the Iranians. They have an old-fashioned army, but also advanced technologies and intelligence capabilities, alongside drones and an ambitious missile program.
The IDFs recommendation for government officials was clearto eradicate any Iranian move in the Syrian arena, without claiming responsibility. Secrecy had been maintained until February of this year. Then, circumstances led to the surfacing of this covert confrontation, when an Iranian drone penetrated Israel and was shot down above Bik'at HaYarden by an Apache helicopter.
The IDF then openly attacked the T-4 base in the Tadmor region in Syria from which the drone was launched. Shortly after an Israeli F-16 was shot down over the Galilee by Syrian antiaircraft missiles.
The F-16 crash site (Photo: AFP)
The confrontation between Israel and Iran became public, violent, and dangerous, reaching its highest point of intensity three months later during Operation House of Cards when more than 50 Iranian targets were destroyed in Syria.
Israel's "excuse" for this vast operationits largest operation executed in Syria since 1974was the launching of 32 rockets at the northern Golan Heights, most of which falling in Syrian territory and several being intercepted by the Iron Dome system.
Following the Israeli blow, the Quds Forces led by Major General Qasem Soleimani convened for a situation assessment.
However, it was a brief lull, and ever since then Tehran has been galloping through Syrian territory while attempting to dodge Israeli intelligence.
Evading tactics included smuggling weapons through civil flights, entrenchment on Syria and Iraq's border and acquiring Syrian knowledge about precision-guided missiles.
In addition, it was reported Tuesday night that fighter jets had bombed targets around Wadi al-Uyun in the Hama area in Syria. Syrian media attributed the bombardment to Israel.
Amir Hatami, Iranian Defence Minister, during a visit to Damascus
The IDF has a reason to be pleased regardless of its efforts against Iran. US forces have been pushing Iranians out of the 55 kilometer strip along the Syrian-Iraqi border around the Euphrates river. They are also more vigorously active against Iranian moves in the region.
However, Russia is competing with Tehran over reconstruction contracts for war-torn Syria, and have thus pushed Iranian forces to at least 80 kilometers from the Israeli border.
According to the IDF, it is executing these operations a few times a week, also throughout Cyber tools. The Iranians understand that they have poor infrastructures and an intelligence gap. Our response to their entrenchment in Syria has come a year to a year and a half earlier than they had planned".
Still, the IDF report read, Iraq is more important to Iran then Syria, since 64 percent of the Iraqi population is Shiite, and they are thus organizing more militias there.
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he remained open to the possibility of talks between Washington and Tehran, but said Iran was in turmoil and struggling to survive.
Brazil's National Museum said Wednesday that centuries-old Torah scrolls, considered to be some of Judaism's oldest documents, had been moved before a massive fire ravaged the place and gutted much of the largest collections of national history artifacts in Latin America.
No suburbs of Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra at present can provide investors with the opportunity to buy a detached house and have a cash flow positive with only a deposit of 20% or less, according to research firm Propertyology.
To initially support the claim, the report cited conditions in specific regions.
Even though its 80 kilometres from Sydneys GPO, the Central Coast (Wyong and Gosford) are technically part of Greater-Sydney, while Medlow Bath in the Blue Mountains has a median house price of $500,000, Propertyology reported.
Propertyologys Head of Research Simon Pressley underscored that investors interested to capitalise in Sydney would need to slightly move away to find houses with robust cash flow.
An option would be a house in Lake Munmorah on the Central Coast, which will cost $3093 per year to hold.
Blacktown, which is 38 kilometres west of Sydney, is not recommendable given that it has a median house price of $740,000 and a property in the area will cost $11,775 per year to maintain, even if one has 20% deposit.
The same goes for Hornsby whose figures are even worse. The suburb was recorded to have median house price of $1.33 million that will leave an investor $26,152 a year.
More importantly, Pressley said that it may be difficult to invest in New South Waless capital at this time, especially when one considers that the citys growth phase finished a year ago, and the next cycle could take a while.
Looking closely, another city was found to be experiencing a downturn in cash flows.
Victoria paints a similar picture with Greater-Melbournes best locations for cash flow investors within the municipality of Melton 40 kilometres north-west of the CBD, noted Propertyology.
Here, the median house price is around $400,000 and will cost those with a 20% deposit just $4000 per year to hold.
If one would opt to try his or her luck, there is the Yarra Ranges to explore. The entry price for a typical property in the area is slightly more affordable and the annual impact on the household budget could be less than $2000.
The local government area could provide a better deal when put side by side the places nearer Victoria.
Compare those figures to somewhere like Doncaster, 17 kilometres from the CBD, where a typical house will cost $34,702 a year to hold under the same parameters.
Similarly, Brunswick housing sees its investors contributing $23,805 per year to maintaining the holding a tough ask if youre trying to be patient.
As an ending, Pressley reminded that cash flow is just one element in choosing an investment option.
It is important to note that proximity to employment nodes, local demographics, and the various factors which affect housing supply are essential aspects as well.
Suburbs offering both high cash flow and capital growth potential are not common, but they can be found in every state.
Also included in Propertyologys new research is the list of best capital city suburbs where rental properties pretty much pay for themselves. Below is the data for reference.
News
Houston, Texas - Houston-based Waste Management of Texas has agreed to forfeit more than $5.5 million and perform remedial measures for a documented pattern and practice of hiring illegal aliens at the companys Afton, Texas, location.
The five-year investigation that led to the forfeiture was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Houston, Texas.
On Aug. 29, to avoid prosecution, Waste Management of Texas entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the federal government that required the company to forfeit $5,527,091.55, and perform remedial measures.
The non-prosecution agreement requires Waste Management to continue its substantial remedial measures to address all past immigration violations and forfeit more than $5.5 million in proceeds gained from hiring an illegal workforce at the Afton location, said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick, U.S. Southern District of Texas. In considering whether to enter into such agreements, we must take into account the collateral consequences that a criminal prosecution would have on the companys contracts with many municipalities across the country and the thousands of employees for the conduct of three managers at one operating unit in Houston.
Waste Management Inc. is North Americas leading provider of waste disposal and collection headquartered in Houston. The company serves nearly 20 million municipal, commercial, industrial and residential customers. Waste Management of Texas employed at least three managers at its Afton location who actively encouraged and induced aliens to work illegally between 2003 and April 2012.
In April 2012, HSI Houston executed search warrants at the Afton, Texas, location where authorities discovered 16 illegal aliens and at least 100 employees in company records who were verified as fraudulently documented or using an identity that did not belong to them.
Waste Management of Texas hired various staffing agencies to provide contract laborers. Many were hired or rehired at the Afton location in reckless disregard of the fact that they were not authorized to work. The undocumented workforce allowed the company to maintain their preferred helper workforce to maximize profits and productivity. The estimated proceeds to the company derived from this conduct at the Afton location is $5,527,091.55 the amount forfeited to the United States.
Federal law requires employers hire only U.S. citizens and aliens who are authorized to work in the country, said HSI Houston Special Agent in Charge Mark Dawson. This company hired manual laborers with little or no regard for their legal status for almost 10 years at their Afton location. Today, they paid a substantial price for that conduct. We will continue to vigorously enforce immigration law where we find employers engaging in a pattern or practice of hiring unauthorized individuals in reckless disregard of the law.
Managers at the Afton location fired at least 10 employees in January 2012 because they lacked documentation. The aliens were told to assume the identity of actual U.S. citizens or individuals with legal status in order to work there. Managers also engaged in an identity-theft scheme providing the terminated aliens with names and identifiers of actual individuals with status in the United States to allow the illegal aliens to be employed and added to the companys payroll.
A federal grand jury indicted three managers in May 2014 for engaging in a conspiracy between 2008 and 2012 to induce and encourage unlawful immigration through a scheme to employ illegal aliens as helpers on waste trucks picking up garbage in and around Houston. All three managers were convicted and received sentences of 27, 87 and 94 months in federal prison.
Waste Management of Texas cooperated with the governments criminal investigation and conducted its own internal investigation. The company determined that the managers at its Afton location intentionally thwarted pre-existing immigration compliance procedures that have since been enhanced to prevent future hiring of unauthorized aliens seeking employment by fraud or identity theft.
Latest News
Houston, Texas - A documented member of the gang Los Tumbadores - a gang known for preying on illegal aliens - was sentenced Wednesday to 40 years in prison following his conviction for rape and robbery.
This investigation was conducted by the following agencies: Texas Anti-Gang Center (TAG), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Houston Police Department, Harris County Sheriffs Office, and other agencies at the TAG.
Aron Alexi Herrera Munguia, 29, from Honduras, was sentenced to 40 years for raping and robbing two women who owned a bar in the Houston, Texas, area. Munguia is the sixth member of Los Tumbadores to be convicted in state court as part of this investigation.
These convicted defendants, all Honduran men in their twenties or early thirties, chose victims whom they believed would be too afraid to call the police for fear of deportation.
They thought they could operate with impunity as they preyed on their own people, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said. These officers and agents pursued the defendants over several years and over the boundaries of multiple investigations; state and federal. Their selfless cooperation and collaboration with our gang and organized crime team led these defendants to inevitable justice.
As a result of this investigation, three gang members Marcos Antonio Olivares Calderon, 36, Eledis Fernandez, 38, and Nelson Rodriguez, 33 were sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a cocaine dealer who was shot to death during a home-invasion robbery. Two other gang members Carlos Ortega, 25, and Eder Murillo, 26 received 25 years and 15 years, respectively, for their roles in a separate home invasion.
Ogg stressed that regardless of a persons immigration status, they should not fear reporting a crime.
We do not ask victims of violence how they came to the United States, she said. We treat everyone equally when it comes to seeking justice.
Latest News
Washington, DC - Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo spoke with Turkeys Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and both agreed that any Assad regime military offensive in Idlib would be an unacceptable, reckless escalation of the conflict in Syria.
The Secretary also stressed the importance of Turkey releasing Pastor Andrew Brunson. The Secretary and Foreign Minister committed to continued discussions to resolve the matter and address other issues of common concern.
Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business.
Check out the details of the upcoming PSE event in Peshawar and invest in a property of your choice by visiting us on the event day.
Named after a mineral discovered in the Ural Mountains of Russia, perovskites have taken center stage as a class of materials with properties that could be applied to future electronics and energy devices.
Semiconducting films made of perovskites promise flexible, light-weight solar cells that are cheap and easily made from abundant materials. While they are not yet available commercially hurdles include making them more stable and durable they may transform the solar energy industry in the next decade or two.
For scientists, perovskites also present an interesting puzzle: Start with any number of variations on the basic ingredients for making them - lead, iodide and methylammonium and you end up with the same basic material. Yet, tweaks to the chemistry at various stages in the process can lead to perovskites with more desirable qualities for solar cells.
For researchers at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) and Stanford University, the mystery and potential of perovskites converge in experiments where extremely bright X-rays are used to study the chemistry of the material in the very moments it is being formed. The DOE Office of Science user facility at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory offers multiple ways to approach the problem and discover new insights about this useful material.
We asked SSRL staff scientists Christopher Tassone and Kevin Stone, Stanford Chemistry PhD student Aryeh Gold-Parker and Michael Toney, head of the SSRL materials science division, what they recently found out about perovskite chemistry and where they are hoping their work will lead.
Their research was published today in Nature Communications.
How are perovskites made, and what interests you about this process?
Stone: You start by dissolving some basic ingredients in a solvent. Then you deposit that solution and dry it into a film. The film is then transformed into the final perovskite by a treatment such as annealing, which involves heating it to a certain temperature and then cooling it again. We are interested in the chemistry of that entire process and how it evolves at each stage. The idea is that if you can understand what we call the formation chemistry of perovskites, you can create the materials to have the exact properties you desire.
Gold-Parker: There are dozens of different methods for depositing perovskite films, for example. And these methods lead to differences in thickness, texture, grain size and crystallinity of the films. In the lab, creating perovskites with distinctive characteristics is mostly done through trial and error. Engineers make small changes to the process to optimize the particular property they're interested in, whether that's solar cell voltage or performance. Trial and error can work, but its not efficient.
Tassone: My group is really interested in how we make large quantities of solar panels very cheaply to meet growing demands for solar power and clean energy goals. Conventional silicon solar cells cant be manufactured rapidly enough. We believe that if we can understand the chemical transformations that are occurring during the process of making perovskite solar cells, we can ultimately engineer better processes that meet the needs of industry.
What was your latest study about?
Gold-Parker: Our study builds on work by other groups of researchers at Oxford, Cornell and Stanford that showed using chlorine in the processing can lead to high-quality perovskite films with impressive performance. After the solution is deposited theres an intermediate step where a crystalline film forms we call this a precursor and then a gaseous salt of chlorine called methylammonium chloride (MACI) leaves the film continually while it's converting into a perovskite. A few years ago, an SSRL study by myself, Toney and co-workers showed there is very little chlorine left in the final product. Even though you start with quite a lot of chlorine, the vast majority of it is lost in the processing.
Stone: In this latest study we wanted to know: Where does the chlorine go and what purpose does it serve? Why chlorine in the first place? What does the precursor consist of, and how is it influencing this transformation?
What did you find out?
Stone: We were able to figure out what the structure of that crystalline precursor is, how the atoms are put together, and roughly how much chlorine is present. When we heat it up during the annealing stage, we see that crystalline precursor persists for quite a while before it begins to transform into perovskite.
Gold-Parker: We were also able to show that the transformation into the final perovskite is limited by the gradual evaporation of MACl, and that this slow transformation might actually lead to a higher quality perovskite material.
Toney: There are also broader implications. Theory calculations can tell you with good accuracy the properties your material will have. But they provide almost no guidance about how to go about synthesizing it. This question has driven interest in the science community over many decades, but even more so over the last five years, in what's been called synthesis science: understanding how you actually make something. What are the processes that the material goes through, the pathways? This study is one very nice example of being able to disentangle that synthesis process, and as a result gain insight into how we could redesign it.
How did you study it?
Tassone: We used multiple versions of two techniques called X-ray scattering and X-ray spectroscopy. X-ray scattering is used to study structure; it tells you where the atoms are located in crystalline materials. X-ray spectroscopy is a complementary technique. It tells you about the chemistry of the film, how much of the different chemical elements are present and how they are bonded.
Gold-Parker: These methods allowed us to probe changes in the crystal structure and the amount of chlorine throughout the transformation, as well as the chemical state of the chlorine. And very importantly, we used each of those techniques in situ or as the changes are actually occurring. SSRL has world-class capabilities for designing and performing these sorts of in situ experiments that monitor the actual process instead of just the starting and end points, and that was really powerful.
Tassone: What makes this result and our approach very strong is that we use the interpretation of the scattering data to inform the interpretation of the spectroscopy data, and vice versa. We would not have solved this mechanism without moving those things together. In the paper we lay out a clear pathway for anyone who wants to study the processes involved in making this or other materials. This is an important step in perovskites research but also in the broader field of synthesis science that Mike described.
Whats next?
Stone: I would like to study what happens in the solution before it dries, so at an earlier stage in the process. I would also like to expand our methods to include other perovskite materials.
Toney: Another point to pursue is related to the role of the chlorine that's present in the film in this specific example. It serves as a mediator or regulator, and it slows down the conversion. How does this general concept of a mediator a compound that serves a purpose but does not end up in your final material work in this process or other processes or materials? Silicon has been studied for at least 50 years, perovskites for five, so weve got a lot of work ahead of us.
Tassone: I have two points for moving forward. One is how do we develop the processes that will work at scale and allow solar to be affordable to everyone and really make a large impact on our energy landscape? The other is, based on the fact that perovskites are the most exciting semiconductor development in the last decade or two, how can we utilize the unique properties of this material for other applications as well?
Other contributors to this research include SSRLs Vanessa Pool, Eva Unger of Lund University in Sweden and Stanford Universitys Andrea Bowring and Michael McGehee, now at University of Colorado Boulder. Funding was provided by the DOE Office of Science, the National Science Foundation (Graduate Research Fellowship) and the Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation.
Citation: K.H. Stone, et al., Nature Communications, 27 August 2018 (10.1038/s41467-018-05937-4)
For questions or comments, contact the SLAC Office of Communications at communications@slac.stanford.edu.
SLAC is a multi-program laboratory exploring frontier questions in photon science, astrophysics, particle physics and accelerator research. Located in Menlo Park, Calif., SLAC is operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.
Manulife Financial Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides financial products and services in Asia, Canada, the United States, and internationally. The company operates through Wealth and Asset Management Businesses; Insurance and Annuity Products; And Corporate and Other segments. The Wealth and Asset Management Businesses segment provides mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, group retirement and savings products, and institutional asset management services through agents and brokers affiliated with the company, securities brokerage firms, and financial advisors pension plan consultants and banks. The Insurance and Annuity Products segment offers deposit and credit products; individual life, and individual and group long-term care insurance; and guaranteed and partially guaranteed annuity products through insurance agents, brokers, banks, financial planners, and direct marketing. The Corporate and Other segment is involved in property and casualty insurance and reinsurance businesses; and run-off reinsurance operations, including variable annuities, and accident and health. It also manages timberland and agricultural portfolios; and engages in insurance agency, portfolio and mutual fund management, mutual fund dealer, life and financial reinsurance, and fund management businesses. Additionally, the company holds and manages oil and gas properties; holds oil and gas royalties, and foreign bonds and equities; and provides investment management, counseling, advisory, and dealer services. Manulife Financial Corporation was incorporated in 1887 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.
Read More
McDermott International, Inc. provides engineering, procurement, construction and installation, and technology solutions to the energy industry worldwide. It operates through five segments: North, Central and South America; Europe, Africa, Russia and Caspian; the Middle East and North Africa; Asia Pacific; and Technology. It designs, engineers, and constructs upstream offshore oil and gas facilities, downstream oil and gas facilities, gas-fired power plants, liquefied natural gas import and export terminals, atmospheric and refrigerated storage vessels and terminals, water storage and treatment facilities, pipe and module fabrication, hydrocarbon processing facilities, pipe fabrication and manufacturing, and refining and petrochemical facilities. The company also provides gas processing, refining, petrochemical and coal gasification technologies, as well as a supplies catalysts, equipment, and related engineering services. It serves national, integrated, and other oil and gas companies, as well as producers of petrochemicals and electric power. McDermott International, Inc. was founded in 1923 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Read More
A number of institutions across the length and breath of the country offer academic scholarships. Many of these scholarships are open to employees of the sponsoring company but some are also available to students in the general public. These scholarships are offered yearly. For the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) Foundation, under its Education and Training module managed by the GNPC Scholarship Secretariat, undergraduate Scholarship applications have been opened for the 2018-2019 academic year.
To have the opportunity of making the GNPC scholarship 2018-2019 list, qualified applicants are expected to submit their applications by the close of working hours on September 7, 2018. Applications are invited from duly qualified applicants who would like to make the GNPC Scholarship shortlist not later than close of business on the above stated date. The GNPC online scholarship call is only open to undergraduates. The GNPC Ghana scholarship is therefore for potential Ghanaian students going to offer degree courses at accredited public tertiary institutions in Ghana and is expected to cover the tuition, living expenses, book allowance and dissertation/project allowance of GNPC Scholarship beneficiaries. Tertiary students in Ghana can apply for the GNPC scholarship. GNPC scholarship KNUST is very popular amongst KNUST students.
READ ALSO: Top 10 scholarships to study in Ghana
About GNPC
Established in 1983, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) is Ghana's National Oil Company, mandated to undertake exploration, development, production and disposal of petroleum. It was set up under the PNDC Law 64, to back the government's decision of providing adequate and reliable supply of petroleum products and reducing the country's dependence on crude oil imports, through the development of the country's own petroleum resources.
Since commencing operations in 1985, the corporation has played a huge role in all oil agreements of the country. It also works as the nations gas sector aggregator and aims to supply efficient fuel to meet Ghana's increasing energy needs.
Eligibility for GNPC scholarship 2018/2019
For interested persons to be qualified for the GNPC Scholarship 2018-2019 list, applicants must:
Be a citizen of Ghana.
Have gained admission to commence a degree program at an accredited public tertiary institution at the time of application
Application requirements for GNPC scholarship 2018/2019
Deadline for submission of the GNPC Scholarship 2018-2019 should not be later than September 7, 2018. So make sure you satisfy all the needed requirements for the GNPC Ghana scholarship. The requirements that make one eligible for the GNPC Scholarship list include submitting hard copies of the following documents to the GNPC Scholarship Secretariat in Takoradi. You can also get a gnpc scholarship renewal form to apply again even if you have already benefited from
Application letter
Curriculum vitae (cv)
Admission letter from the university offered a degree programme
Birth certificate
West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results.
With all these ready, an interested applicant ought to visit the GNPC Online Scholarship website and follow the application procedure to fill the GNPC scholarship form to secure this opportunity. Applicants are expected to attach all relevant documents to the completed GNPC scholarship form. You could also, via email, send your application letter including admission letter from the school you have been admitted, contact email and phone number to localscholarships@gnpcghana.com.
There are various academic programmes offered by public tertiary institutions in Ghana but the sole purpose is to ensure the training of qualified Ghanaian technologists in the oil and gas industry. However, the GNPC Scholarship 2018/2019 list has some preferences. Mentioned below are the preference.
Students with disability will be given preference.
Women who satisfy the stated requirements.
Applicants in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
Students going to offer Special Needs Education
Agricultural Science
Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) applicants.
READ ALSO: School in Ghana charges $30k for KG admissions
GNPC scholarship beneficiaries
The GNPC Scholarship beneficiaries who have made the GNPC Scholarship shortlist either undertake undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. This year, the foundation closed its applications for the postgraduate scholarships on July 27, 2018. Postgraduate applicants who wish to make the GNPC Scholarship list are advised to wait until next year when postgraduate scholarship applications open. For undergraduate scholarships the GNPC Foundation has been providing scholarships for students over the years. However, in August 2017, the Chief Executive Officer of the GNPC, Dr Kofi Koduah Sarpong announced in Kumasi that the GNPC is offering $1.5 million worth of scholarship to 1,000 students to pursue science, mathematics and technical education in the country's tertiary institutions.
Fifty per cent of the grant would be used to support women studying engineering to bridge the gender gap in Science and Engineering education in the country.
It is worth noting that the current opening is for local undergraduates and that Ghanaian students can gain GNPC Scholarship to study abroad. The foundation also has a GNPC Foreign Scholarship programme which supports undergraduates and postgraduates. The GNPC Foreign Scholarship also supports Ghanaian students pursuing science, mathematics and technical education. In the last few years, organizations offering a number of educational scholarships have been challenged in the payment of stipends to scholarship beneficiaries. GETFund, one of such institutions was hit with a number of problems last year. This led to them corresponding with some of the schools and students to make arrangements in settling their obligations. We urge students in the above mentioned fields to take advantage of this scholarship
READ ALSO:
Ghana Chevening Scholarships 2018
Top 50 Senior High Schools in Ghana Read more
Source: Yen
Ensign College of Public Health in Ghana is a private, not for profit non- sectarian institution. It is the new flagship tertiary Institution of Public Health in Kpong, Ghana. Ensign college of public health is located in a beautiful land next to Volta River. It houses learning spaces that blend the highest standards of technology and internships. The college is committed to improvement of community health and well-being of people in Ghana and beyond, through competent training of Public Health Professionals.
The college was started with a vision of becoming a centre of excellence for competency- based training in public health. It offers practical, team-based and contemporary approach to public health through.
Giving evidence-based solutions.
Delivering healthcare system in hard to reach areas and
Having an active research culture.
History of Ensign College of Public Health in Ghana
The university was an idea born by Bob and Lynette Gay. After working in the healthcare sector in Ghana, Lynette Gay's attention was drawn to public health and need to provide a long term solution for the unhealthy, that would result in improved public health practices. This was unlike the much needed short term medical supplies and technical assistance helping that was available. In 2011, they began to plan on gathering resources to establish a world class school of public health. This saw their partnership with Ghanaian partner and mentor Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and The University of Utah in the USA also joined in the effort.
All funds gathered from the college program do not benefit any individual but are used up in scholarships, research and community based development.
Ensign College of Public Health benefits both African and American students. It does discriminate on any basis.
Ensign College of Public Health courses offered
Course offered at Ensign College of Public Health include;
Master of Public Health (MPH) Degree
Duration: 2 Years
Ensign College of Public Health fees
The following are the fee structures for the MPH program at Ensign College of Public Health.
Basic
$56/ month
Access to all courses
Example code available
High resolution videos
Standard
$79/ month
Access to all courses
Example code available
High resolution videos
Certificate after completion
Platinum
$99/ month
Access to all courses
Example code available
High resolution videos
Certificate after completion
Private sessions
Refund policy & procedure
The following are the regulations concerning refund of monies paid:
1. All refund requests are submitted by the student in writing, in person, by regular mail, or by email.
2. All refunds are made by cheque within 30-calendar days from the date of receipt.The student may pick up the cheque in person or request delivery of the check by mail, in which case the applicable mailing fee will apply.
3. The refund cheque is payable to the entity or to the person from which the funds originated. If a student is applying through an educational counselor/agency, the refund will be made payable to the agency, unless ECOPH is instructed by the students agency to pay the student directly.
Basis for Refund
The tuition refund is solely based on:
1. The money received by the school after all applicable fees owed to the school are deducted.
Any money not paid, discounts or promotions, will be void and will not apply upon withdrawal.
2. The standard published price in full.
Admission at Ensign University College of Public Health in Ghana
Ensign College of Public Health admits not more than 50 students for an academic year.
A student is admitted if they meet the following eligibility admission requirements:
1. 1st degree holder with minimum 2nd class division and good quantitative skills.
2. Bachelor's degree in any of the following disciples;
Economics
Political sciences
Management
Social sciences
Engineering
3. Demonstrate eligibility within specified deadline.
4. Submit application and required attachments within specified deadlines.
5. Take part in interview if invited.
Admissions received after the closing date will be considered for subsequent year or intake.
Application for MPH program at Ensign College of Public Health in Ghana.
Below are the steps to follow in order to submit your application and start the admission process:
Online Applicants;
Register online using the Online form
Log in to your online account and start an online application to the programme
Fill out all necessary information on your online application and submit it
One of the admissions advisers will communicate with you to guide you through the submission of all required documents and payments
If you qualify for admission you will be invited to an interview
Once admitted you will receive a letter of admission via email.
If the application is unsuccessful, you will be notified via email.
Ensign College of Public Health contacts
Physical Address: Ensign College of Public Health, Kpong- E/R, Ghana.
Post office Address: P.O.Box AK 136, Akosombo- E/R, Ghana.
Facebook: Ensign College of Public Health - ECOPH - Kpong
Phone number:+233 245762229
Email address: info@ensign.edu.gh
READ ALSO: African University College of Communication courses, fees and admission requirements
Ensign college of public health is deeply committed to public health and and therefore in instilling the skills required to meet that commitment. The goal is that graduates will use the skills they have gained to raise the level of health and life in the people of West Africa.
There are many opportunities for research, healthcare development and community engagement and we welcome all the potential learners to come and join us as we work toward identifying, analysing and intervening in today's most pressing public health issues.
Source: Yen
The pony hairstyle in Ghana is a go-to style that is easy to wear. Pony hairstyle in Ghana is particularly popular over the hot summer days. The Ghana ponytail is fashionable among most women because of its simplicity and elegance. The different types of pony hairstyles in Ghana ponytail are popular with many women since they blend well with each look that one can possibly choose to wear. The ponytail hairstyles in Ghana are simple, yet can still offer a wide variety of options for salon-goers and DIY enthusiasts.
Source: free-hairstyles.com
Source: UGC
The Ghana ponytail hairstyles are mostly an adaptation of the European ponytail. The styles are, however, given an African twist. These pony styles are particularly friendly to younger women and kids. The outcome of the ponytail may be dependent on the volume of the hair or the preference of the wearer of the style. The Ghanaian pony can either be done purely using natural hair or have synthetic additions to make it voluminous. Here are some types of pony hairstyles that you can try.
1. Ghana cornrow ponytail
Source: theworldtreetop.com
Source: UGC
The cornrow ponytail is a simple and elegant way to achieve the Ghanaian ponytail hairstyle. This Ghanaian ponytail hairstyle is an excellent way to have a fashionable look that is still protective of the hair. The cornrows are good when it comes to protecting hair from damage. With this pony style, you can choose to do cornrows on the entire hair or just pick a few sections of the hair to do the cornrows.
The most important thing to consider with this hairstyle is the length of the hair. Short hair may require reinforcing the cornrows with a braid or thread. This way the style will come out looking more presentable. The other thing to note is the texture of the hair. Coarse hair might require a blow-dry or relaxing to achieve a neat ponytail.
READ ALSO: Beautiful afro twist braids hairstyles
2. Ghana braids in ponytail
Source: sistahsbraidtoo.com
Source: UGC
Out of all the possible ponytail styles available, the braids in ponytail style is the most popular in Ghana and the rest of Africa. In this style, the hair is braided first. Once the whole head is braided, the braids are held in ponytail style to come up with a simple type of ponytail. This style is very elegant and allows the hair to grow as the ponytail is in position. The braids in ponytail style is preferred due to the coarse texture of most hairs in Ghana. This rough texture makes it simpler for most ladies to opt for the braiding.
READ ALSO: Marley braids hairstyles
The length of the ponytail with the braided hairstyle depends on the length of the braid chosen for use. Therefore, to achieve the perfect long ponytail, one must go for a long braid.
3. Ghana ponytail hairstyle with bangs
Source: modern-hair-styles.com
Source: UGC
The ponytail hairstyle can be a bit monotonous. One of the ways to break monotony is to have banged hair. This is the perfect pony hairstyle for ladies with broader foreheads. The bangs not only add spice to the ponytail hairstyle in Ghana, but also serve as additions to the volume of the hair making the style look more elegant.
The bangs can either be the natural hair of the person or a weave addition. The weave addition is likely to be of the human hair type to prevent having two different textures on the head. A semi-human weave can also be used to make the textures almost similar to that of the hair. The most important thing is to ensure that the design is trimmed to fit the forehead well and not overpower the hair.
4. Ponytail updos for long hair
Source: hairstylesideas.org
Source: UGC
The ponytail hairstyle was initially meant for long hair. It is easier for someone with longer hair to have the perfect ponytail updo without much struggle. All you need to achieve this hairstyle is to ensure that the hair is clean and conditioned before combing it into a ponytail style and then, fixing the hair band. In some instances, one may feel the need to straighten the hair by blow drying or relaxing it. The choice is, however, dependent on the preference of the wearer of the ponytail hairstyles. The angle of fall of the ponytail can either be in the middle or lower or higher above, also depending on the preference of the user.
5. Ponytail with curls for Ghanaian hair
Source: gprprevencion.com
Source: UGC
Out of the many pony hairstyles in Ghana 2018, the ponytail with curls style is the most popular. This is because the curls on the ponytail add more class to the hairstyle. The curls also give the hair a sense of youthfulness and bounce that might be lacking in straight hair. The curly ponytail is achieved by first setting the hair into curls under a drier or applying a curl activator onto the hair. The choice of how to achieve curls is dependent on the texture of the hair. Once the curls have been achieved, one can then style the hair into a ponytail. The ponytail can be elongated by using a ponytail weave to make it more appealing.
READ ALSO: Best perm cut hairstyles in Ghana
6. Weave ponytail for ladies
Source: bikramormond.com
Source: UGC
The weave ponytail is the second most common for Ghana ponytail hairstyles. This basically involves the use of weaves to achieve a ponytail on the hair. This style is perfect for ladies with short or less hair as it adds volume to the hair and gives it the perfect height for the desired ponytail.
This style requires an experienced salon specialist to handle to come up with a neat result. In some cases, hair is left all around the scalp while the weave is put at intervals to make it look more natural. This is known as tracking. Tracking is a smart way of achieving the perfect ponytail while protecting sections of the hair and giving it time to grow without disturbance.
7. Weave ponytail with bangs
The weave ponytail with bangs is a pony style that has become very popular in weddings. This style is simple and classy. It also allows room for accessories such as the beads or pearls to be used around the ponytail. Most bridal parties prefer this look since it is easy to achieve and can be used after the ceremony. The outcome and texture of the pony hairstyle will be dependent on the weave that was chosen.
Some people prefer the rugged or curly weave while others will go for the straight type of weave. The type of weave determines the overall outcome of the ponytail hairstyle. This look is simple to manage since all that will be necessary is to brush up on the ponytail and bangs or to spray it to give it a glow.
8. Long weave ponytail for ladies
Source: .weavegoodhair.com
Source: UGC
The long weave ponytail is a favorite for many ladies as it is the perfect or ideal ponytail. The hairstyle is mainly a weave, either human-hair or synthetic that is sewn onto the hair to achieve the perfect long ponytail. This style is mainly used for fashion runways by different designers across Ghana. The most important factor to consider is how the weave is put and the bulk that will be used to come out with the perfect long weave. The long weave ponytail is a favorite for many since it can be used to make the perfect hair buns in case one needs a change in style. The volume of the weave will be dependent on the preference of the wearer of the weave.
9. Natural ponytail styles
Source: YouTube.com/NaturalLovesMoi
Source: UGC
In this approach, the ponytails are done on natural hair that has just been shampooed and conditioned. This style is gentle on the hair as it might only need styling gel and there is not much processing done to damage the hair. This style favors people with long hair since the ponytail is easier to achieve and neater when the hair is longer. This pony style is however susceptible to faster damage and needs a lot of care and maintenance to keep it neat.
10. Ponytail for dread-locked hair
Source: pinterest.ca/mayeenatural
Source: UGC
The dread locked hair pony style allows people with dreadlocks to experience a ponytail. To achieve the ponytail, the dread locked hair can either be held as a pony style directly or braided into lines or twists depending on the preference of the wearer. This is one of the ways of achieving a neat dread locked style as most times, people prefer to leave the locks hanging.
The ponytail is one of the styles that make dreadlocks perfect for official events. The ponytail makes the dreadlocks more stylish and appealing especially since retouching is done to achieve the perfect ponytail.
READ ALSO: Best dreadlocks styles for short Hair
11. Ghanaian lines braid ponytail
Source: shopify.com
Source: UGC
In recent years, the Ghanaian lines have become a favorite hairstyle worldwide. The Ghanaian lines can also be made into a ponytail. The only difference between the Ghanaian line and braid ponytail is the approach, and the time it takes to achieve the ponytail. The Ghanaian line ponytail style is also less bulky on the head compared to the braided style. The less bulky feeling is because it only uses a few braids compared to the braided ponytail style.
The Ghanaian lines ponytail style is popular since it is an elegant and stylish way to achieve a simple ponytail with braids. This style requires minimum management as it only needs spraying.
12. Crochet braids ponytail
Source: pinterest.com/mrswilkins515
Source: UGC
The crochet braids and weave have become very popular in Ghana. The hairstyle is achieved by crocheting the braids into lines on the hair rather than doing the direct braiding. This protects the hair from direct damage and too much strain. This crochet style also takes less time to make at the salon and hence, is preferred by most ladies.
13. Twisted braided hair ponytail
Source: napturalnicole.com
Source: UGC
This ponytail hairstyle is achieved by first braiding the hair into locks of twists. The twists are then held as a ponytail to produce a simple but elegant ponytail. The twists can be plainly for the natural hair or achieved with braids. For the natural braids, once the twists have lasted for a week, they can be unplaited and then held into a strawed ponytail. That is the advantage of having a twisted ponytail. The twists on the hair also serve as protection for the hair and encourage the hair to grow in volume. The twists on the hair also contribute to some sophistication of the pony styles.
READ ALSO: African natural hairstyles for wedding in Ghana
14. The wig ponytail
Source: makromikro.me
Source: UGC
The wig ponytail is the simplest ponytail to achieve. In this style, one can pre-style the wig into a ponytail before wearing it. Alternatively, one can wear the wig then style it into a ponytail. The choice of the wig is what matters most when it comes to this pony style. The length of the hair on the wig is the most important factor to consider while picking out the wig for a ponytail hairstyle. The advantage of using a wig for a ponytail is that you can always style it however you choose when it is not held as a ponytail.
15. Vintage ponytail
This is a ponytail that is held with the hair styled into straws or tiny curls to give it a perfect vintage look. The vintage ponytail is all about having curly or strawed hair or even loosely dread locked hair into a ponytail. This look is all about having the hair in its state and not caring much about straightening it or relaxing it. It is about embracing the natural texture and curls of the hair. It is a simple style to achieve on your own as all the hair needs is a shampooing or conditioning. This is a style that embraces the natural beauty of the hair and its natural ponytail.
Takeaway
In conclusion, pony hairstyles are simple styles that suit women from all walks of life. Pony styles give women the much-needed youthfulness and elegance that they need to make them feel confident all day. Apart from events and special occasions, pony hairstyles in Ghana have been embraced as part of the fashion styles that will live with us for a long time.
READ ALSO: Kinky braid hairstyles in Nigeria
Source: Yen
Korle-Bu is a third level government funded health institution that is situated in Accra Ghana. It is the first institution to be established in the Gold Coast and West Africa as a whole.The institution was established in the year 1945, in which the establishment was supervised by the first West African female doctor, Agnes Yewande Savage. It is basically situated in the Accra metropolitan which makes it easier for anyone to locate the physical location. Their main activities are monitored by the Ministry of Education of Ghana which ensures that they produce high quality studies to their students. Korle-Bu Nursing Training forms for admission must be filled and submitted back to the institution.
The diploma in nursing is awarded by the university of Ghana to a student who has completed the nursing training for a period of three years. This is after admission of which you will be required to fill in the korle bu nursing training admission forms .The nurses and midwifery council (NMC) has the responsibility of regulating the activities, the curriculum and the examinations done by the students in the college.
Korle-Bu Nursing Training College admission
The institution accepts new admissions, however you have to have no criminal record in any way. You also need to be between the ages of 18 and 35 years of age. In addition, you will also need to be of good health to be accepted by the institution. There are selection interviews that you will be required to pass.
As a student, you will also be required to have an aggregate score in SSCE24/WASSCE: 36 or above in six subjects, 3 scores and also 3 electives. All these are required to have credits. If you are able to meet all these admission requirements, you can now get the Korle-Bu Nursing Training admission forms 2018 on their website.
How to apply for admission in Korle-Bu Nursing Training college
If you are interested in applying for admission then you must follow these steps to be considered.
1. Buy application codes from the Ghana commercial bank or any of the Agricultural development bank. The codes are at a cost 100 Ghana cedis. This will include the notifications sent to you.
2. You can also pay with MTN by simply going to this website, then click on the mobile money option and follow the prompts.
3. After the payment, as an applicant, you will receive a voucher that will contain your unique serial number and your pin.
4. You will in addition need a dedicated email address and a dedicated phone number.
5. Use the serial number (SN) and pin (PIN) to access the 2018 Korle-Bu Nursing Training forms
6. Note that you cannot access the online application form without the SN and the PIN.
7. Fill the application form correctly and accurately as any wrong entry will automatically disqualify you from being admitted to the college.
8. After you have filled the application form, you will given a uniqur reference number. You will use this number to track your application process.
9. If you meet the admission requirements you will be invited to a competitive interview.
READ ALSO: Presbyterian University College courses and tuition fees
Korle-Bu Nursing Training courses offered
Distant learning is available but the foreign students fees are not government sponsored. Apart from the nursing courses, the college also offers midwifery courses. There is a very wide range of the courses offered in the Korle-Bu Nursing Training college, these are some of the courses offered.
Diploma courses
Community health-health promotion and social marrketing
Community health(pest control)
Community health (health promotion and social marketing)
Community health-disease control (top-up)
Community mental health (post basic)
Community health (nutrition)
Community health-nutrition (top-up)
Health information management
Health information management (top-up)
Medical laboratory technology
Medical laboratory technology (top-up)
Optical technology
Optical techonology (top-up)
Radiography
Registered dental surgery assistant
Technical officer (community health-disease control and surveillance option)
Community mental health
Certificate courses
Certificate community health (field technician)
Certificate dispensing optics
Certificate health records management
Certificate health records management (top up)
Certificate in lower limb orthotics
Certificate in lower limb prosthetics
Korle-Bu Nursing Training college fees
The institution boasts of tuition fees and other academic-related charges that are very affordable to students.In addition, you can find the Korle-Bu Nursing Training college forms online easily. Their main policy, however, is based on paying on or before the re-opening day. They demand that the fees are paid before the semester ends, failure to that, the student is barred from taking any examinations whatsoever. The 2018/2019 fees structure though, is yet to be updated by the administration of the institution.
In addition, if a student pays the examination fee after the exams are done they will not be examined with a new set of examination questions. Their website does not provide with the updated with the latest fee structure and so if anyone wants to check the fees structure then they need to keep revisiting the website. Within the website you can also find the Korle-Bu Nursing Training forms.
Korle-Bu Nursing Training College contact information
If you wish to contact the college you can go to their website or contact them using the following contact information
Korle-Bu Nursing Training College:
P.O Box: KB81/KB83. Korle-Bu
Helplines: 0302 677 166/0302 665401/0302 665478
Fax: +233802677166
READ ALSO: Islamic University College Ghana courses and admission requirements
The Korle-Bu Nursing and Midwifery Training College is a good school for studying these two programmes. The contact information is also open if anyone wants to contact them in any way about any clarification. With an online application as this, the applicant work is made easier, they will only have to invited to the interview. The applicant will not have to keep going back and forth to visit the physical location of the college.
Source: Yen
The 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections will be keenly contested between the two major parties in the country.
It will be a straight fight between the incumbent, New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the biggest opposition, National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Though we are two years away, there have been lot of predictions by some popular men of God as to who will emerge winner of the 2020 polls.
President Akufo-Addo
Source: UGC
READ ALSO: Ghanaians give various ideas on how to prepare a meal with GHc4
YEN.com.gh is projecting a victory for the NPP due to the following reasons;
1. The two-term convention
Ghanaians are expected to vote massively for the NPP for a second-term based on the convention of giving political parties a second chance in power.
Since 1992, the political party that has won power is given a second four-year term to at least complete and execute their plans and projects.
Based on this convention, YEN is predicting a second term for the Akufo-Addo led NPP administration.
2. Free SHS
The NPPs Free SHS is currently and arguably the best and biggest social project undertaken by any government in the fourth republic.
It is being projected that President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has already locked down votes in the 2020 elections because of the free SHS policy.
The NPP has also won hearts and minds with the free SHS across the political divide. The NPP government has made it clear that in spite of foreseeable challenges with the implementation of the free SHS, it was prepared to brave it for the sake of the Ghanaian child and the nations future.
Interestingly, the first batch of students enjoying Free SHS will be of voting age in 2020 and it is expected that they will massively endorse Nana Addo.
READ ALSO: Menzgold assures clients over delay in dividend payment
3. NABCo
Unemployment has always been a big challenge in Ghana. Thousands of Ghanaians do not have jobs, a situation which is gradually becoming a security threat.
The unemployment situation has led the NPP government to introduce the Nation Builders Corps (NaBCo) programme. The NaBCo programme is a policy that is intended to provide jobs for thousands of the unemployed youth.
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo launched the NaBCo in Kumasi as an initiative by the government to provide employment for 100,000 unemployed graduates.
The programme will operate on seven modules designed to meet the pressing needs of the nation, while providing jobs for the teeming youth who have received tertiary education but are struggling to find jobs, partly because of the ban placed on public sector employment by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The NPPs ability to provide decent jobs for the youth means another four-year term in government is all but secured.
Ghana Funny Tricky Questions: 6X9? | #Yencomgh
READ ALSO: Malaysia women caned for attempting to have lesbian sex
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.com.gh
- The Audit Service has reportedly spent GHC7.6 million on 27 vehicles
- This was sourced from the Audit Services 2017 budgetary allocation, as well as funds from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Information available to YEN.com.gh shows that the Audit Service has spent an amount of GHC7.6 million on 27 vehicles.
The purchase, it is alleged was done without resorting to the required tender procedures.
The vehicles, which comprise five Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, one Toyota Land Cruiser V8 and 21 Toyota IMV Hilux Deluxe, were purchased from the Audit Services 2017 budgetary allocation, as well as funds from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo Source: ghananewsonline.com.gh
Source: UGC
READ ALSO: Capital Bank: Dr. Nduom jumps to Otabil's defense with a memory verse
The Land Cruiser V8 is valued at about GH529,805.
Although the procurement of the vehicles went through the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), the expenditure was well above the threshold of the Auditor-General, as well as the Entity Tender Committee of the Audit Service.
The Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo, however, parried the allegations that he procured the vehicles, and shifted the blame to one of his four deputies, who he is yet to name.
The purchases were made at a time Domelevo is said to be at loggerheads with members of the Governing Board of the Audit Service who have accused him of sidelining members in the running of the Service.
He has been accused of ignoring the inputs of the governing board of the Audit Service by taking unilateral decisions in contravention of the 1992 Constitution and the Audit Service Board.
When queried if the governing board was aware of the purchases, the Auditor-General said by law the board does not have the mandate for procurements.
Explaining further, he said his deputy might have gone to the Central Tender Board for approval for the procurement of the vehicles.
READ ALSO: Placement for 2018 BECE candidates out
Ghana News Today: National Cathedral Drama / Kofi Anan to be buried back home | #Yencomgh:
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
The water crisis has become a common problem in most African countries. This precious global resource is fast running out. To make matters worse, most states are struggling to clean and recycle their own wastewater. Though this problem is often about quality instead of quantity, reliable resources have warned that the continued climate change combined with population growth and the neglect of wastewater plans will result in water shortages in many countries by 2025. The best solution to this water crisis is digging boreholes; they offer many benefits like saving money in the long run and being self-sufficient. This post will outline borehole drilling companies in Ghana.
Source: hilldrill.com
Source: UGC
Borehole drilling encompasses the drilling and casing of a hole to get the groundwater. There are two broad forms of water borehole drilling. The first one is shallow/unconfined wells which are normally completed within the topmost saturated aquifer while the other is deep/confined wells which are sunk via an impermeable stratum into the aquifer beneath. To get the best services, you need to know borehole drilling companies in Accra Ghana. Keep reading on to find out more about the companies you can pick for mechanized borehole services today.
READ ALSO: List of waste management companies in Ghana
List of borehole drilling companies in Ghana
Here are the companies that can offer borehole drilling services if you are in Ghana in no particular order.
1. Global Water Ghana Limited (solar boreholes)
Source: globalengineeringgh.com
Source: UGC
One of the most popular companies that provides water drilling services and solar borehole in Ghana is Global Water Ghana limited. This company is into boreholes for institutions, communities and household consumption. Established in 2012, the company specializes in providing a wide range of services across the country like:
Water treatment
General construction
Borehole drilling
Plumbing services
Swimming pool construction
Geological survey
Pump installation & storage services
This company was operating before it got its formal registration in the year 2012. They started out as water treatment and borehole drilling service company, but due to the increased demand from their clients, it became necessary to broaden their services. This is why they currently provide multi-disciplinary construction services.
Global Water continues to strive to become the best multi-disciplinary practice service provider in order to offer their clients the specialists solutions required in the ever-changing project and construction environment. They always focus on teamwork on each project as their key success element and believe in a hands-on approach for all the projects they take on.
If you have an inquiry or request or you need additional information, do not hesitate to contact them. You can visit their website, call them on phone via 0302903420 or mobile phone (0265756680). They are located at Adenta Down Lane, Accra, Ghana.
READ ALSO: Price of cement in Ghana 2018
2. Able Water Solution
Source: ablewatersolutions.wordpress.com
Source: UGC
Able Water Solution is a registered mechanised borehole services company that deals in water sanitation, borehole drilling, and general plumbing works. They are the company you should consider if you need to drill a borehole to get a constant supply of water not only in the dry season but also for a lifetime. They work in all regions of Ghana and have well-trained engineers who execute all the projects their clients provide.
Their services include:
Borehole drilling and construction
Water test analysis
Pump supply and installation
Geographical survey for the borehole sitting
General plumbing works
The company is competent when it comes to delivering services to their clients. They always ensure they surpass their clients expectations and this is a value that has kept them going since their establishment in 2014. Some of the companies they have worked for include: Unilever Ghana Limited, GS International Developers, Ghana Prison Service, Meridian Port Services (MPS), GRIDCO Ghana Limited, Lincoln Community School, Blooming Africa just to name a few.
They have flexible payments rates for anyone who wants to drill a borehole. Note that the price may vary depending on your region, transportation, and other expenses. If you need more information about the pricing or you have any question, you can visit their website or call at +233 500209541 or 233 273767557. You can also send them an email via this address ablewatersolutionghana@gmail.com.
READ ALSO: List of Rural banks in Ghana
3. Massoud ISS Water Ventures
Source: massoudventures.com
Source: UGC
Established in 2013, Massoud ISS Water Ventures is one of the reliable borehole drilling companies in Kumasi Ghana you can contact. They offer borehole drilling services for water wells, geophysical investigation, hand-dug wells as well as groundwater monitoring. They always provide the best solution from the initial geophysical survey to drilling and turning on the water tap.
To date, Massoud Water Ventures has managed to execute many major supply projects like:
Pipeline distribution
Elevated tank construction
Borehole mechanization and drilling
The company offers its services to NGOs, companies and individual household. They also provide a wide array of hand pump accessories. The base workshop is located at Suame Magazine. The company also undertakes the rehabilitation of boreholes hand pumps like Afridev hand pump, Indian Mark II, and Nira AF-85 hand pumps, as well as electric pumps.
For information on any of their services or products, you can send a mail to P.O.BOX S.E 779, Suame Kumasi, Kumasi, Ghana or call Phone (0506949260), Mobile phone (0506949260), (0261303895). You may also visit their website and their support team will be glad to help.
READ ALSO: List of car rental companies in Ghana
4. Mint Borehole Drilling Services
Source: nhslodwar.com
Source: UGC
If you are searching for borehole drilling companies in Takoradi or borehole drilling companies in Tamale, you will definitely come across Mint Borehole Drilling Services. This company has been working towards meeting different water requirements for many people in all areas in the country. They seek to provide clean drinking water in order to meet the growing demand for water in Ghana. Mint borehole drilling has three rigs. They have completed several projects in challenging terrains of Ghana; these projects demonstrate their expertise and technical skills in drilling wells and offering assured water supply. They have expertise in undertaking different borehole projects in terrains such as Conglomerates, Metamorphic, Alluvium, Basement Rock, Sedimentary, and Volcanic.
Mint borehole drilling services have worked in all regions of Central, Eastern, Northern, Greater Accra, Ashanti, Upper East, Volta, Upper West, Brong Ahafo and Western. Whether you live in flat plains or high plains of Ghana, this company will work diligently to provide borehole services of 6 to 16-inches to meet the kind of water requirements you have. Their customized solutions are aimed at ensuring customers maximize their gain by getting trouble-free water supply for a long time. This company constantly incorporates the latest technology while offering their services to ensure commercial customers, individual household, and the entire community gets dependable sources of water.
Services they offer include:
Geo physical survey
Borehole servicing and rehabilitation
Borehole Drilling
Supply of Hand Pump and Submersible pumps
If you need information on the services they provide, do not hesitate to contact this reliable company through phone on 0202461557, or mobile phone (0244867465, 0240826452). The company is located at Kofi Annan Av. North Legon, Accra, Ghana.
READ ALSO: List of cocoa processing companies in Ghana
5. M-Mesh Borehole Drilling
Source: universalaquaghana.com
Source: UGC
Established in 2006, M-Mesh Borehole Drilling is an expert borehole drilling company that has its head office in Accra Ghana. However, they have agencies in Cape Coast, Weniba, Western Region, Ashanti region, , Central Region, Northern Region, Volta Region, Brong Ahafo Region and Koforidua . They handle drilling and mechanization of borehole water system for companies, homes, institutions, and many more.
They can offer mechanized borehole services with an electric submersible pump. This pump supplies customers with water immediately the pump controller is switched on. Other services include:
Plumbing services
Mechanised borehole with a hand pump
Hydrological survey for drilling
Water quality test
Installation of hand pumps and electrical submersible pumps
Repair of old pumps and boreholes
Construction of concrete water reservoir and stands
Water treatment services
Hydrofracking of dry borehole. Hydrofracking helps to increase the volume of water if a borehole has a low or less supply water-yielding capacity.
Their technical engineers are always ready to help so do not hesitate to call them using +233547179464 or +233209863853. You also visit their Facebook page for more information.
READ ALSO: List of packaging companies in Ghana
6. Elite Borehole & Watercare Limited
Source: dando.co.uk
Source: UGC
Founded in 2012, Elite Watercare Limited is a service providing company that offers innovative water solutions to household and companies in Ghana. They provide services like:
Site survey
New borehole drilling
Pump installation and replacement
Old borehole maintenance and repair
Equipment supply (poly tanks, steel and submersible water pumps, poly tank stands)
General water treatment and care (salt, color, scent, particles, iron, and reverse osmosis)
All the services and products are offered nationwide, and this has made them one of the best water borehole and treatment companies not only in Ghana but also beyond the borders.
For more information, you can visit the company at Westlands Legon, Accra, Ghana, or call them via +233245928363. The Facebook page of the company is .
READ ALSO: Is Menzgold Investment legit or a scam?
7. Tovila Water Solutions
Source: tovilawatersolutions.com
Source: UGC
Tovila Water Solutions was established in 2012 to be a water solution consultancy firm that specializes in research and water treatment and engineering services. Their primary goal is to ensure that the quality of water citizens take is sustainable for healthy living and can increase productivity. Their services include borehole and drilling services (the exploration, drilling, construction and installation of pipes, pumps and storage tanks), online water treatment training and customized water treatment solutions.
Note that the company does not just sell water treatment systems, but they also provide customized water treatment solutions. Their reverse osmosis systems can be purchased as a solution rather than a system. They also have various types of filters for different filtration needs to get rid of manganese, iron, sediments of any size and other suspended particles often found in water.
Feel free to contact this company through Phone +(233) 50 1336290 / +(233) 50 1336291 or Mobile phone +(233) 24 5302321 WhatsApp: +(233) 233302321. You can also visit their website.
READ ALSO: List of telecommunication companies in Ghana 2018
8. Echad Ghana Limited
Source: echad.in
Source: UGC
Echad Ghana Limited is another drilling and construction company thats capable of offering excellent services for your entire commercial, domestic, agriculture, mining and industrial boreholes. The company is well established, certified and licensed to offer different services different services in Ghana. They take pride in being a full-service drilling company that provides the customers with services such as:
Hydrogeological survey
Pumping testing
Water analysis
Rehabilitation of borehole
Drilling of a borehole
Water treatment
Pump installation
Video well inspection
Hydrofracking
Echad is located at Florenbert Plaza, Boulevard, West Legon, and Accra in Ghana. You can contact them via Phone +233 30 242 3363, mobile phone +233 24 453 5989 or visit the website.
Hopefully, these borehole drilling companies in Ghana have given you an idea of the companies you should contact if you need borehole drilling, hydro-geological survey, water analysis, hydro-fracking, water treatment or installation of pumps services. You can be sure you will get quality services, on-time delivery, great value, and honest service.
READ ALSO: List of furniture companies in Ghana 2018
Source: Yen
- President Akufo-Addo has told Chinese authorities directly that his government will not spare any Chinese national involved in illegal small-scale mining
- According to the Ghanaian president, he would not relax the laws on illegal small-scale mining because of its adverse effect on water bodies and lands in the country
President Akufo-Addo has told Chinese authorities that the Ghana government will not hesitate to prosecute any Chinese national caught engaging in illegal mining activities.
According to him, illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, has led to the destruction of many lands and water bodies in Ghana, and must therefore not be condoned.
The President made the statement whiles addressing some Chinese officials and a section of Ghanaians as part of his state visit to China.
President Akufo-Addo with the Xi Jinping, the Chinese Premier. Photo credit: Presidency.gov.gh
Source: Facebook
READ ALSO: Three reasons why NPP would win the 2020 elections
He said the laws on illegal mining need to be enforced, adding that an arrest of a Chinese illegal miner was not an attack on China.
This phenomenon of galamsey has left a devastation of large tracts of Ghana lands. In many areas the lands have become ugly because of this indiscriminate exploitation of the lands with some of them going deep into forest reserves, President Akufo-Addo said.
People go and dig in forest reserves at midnight hoping to escape the scrutiny of the law enforcement agencies and they have active support and connivance sometimes of our own men
"Our water bodies across the country, you drive through Ghana, you cant drink Birem River anymore because it is now a dirty tract of water. There is no future if we continue down that road and together we have to stop it.
Unfortunately for us, again, there are foreigners who are acting in this area. Some of them come from here [China]. In my meeting with President Xi Jinping yesterday, I said it to him frankly that we have this situation and many of his compatriots are involved in this exercise and I want him to understand that when the law enforcement agencies in Ghana act against them, were not acting against Chinese.
READ ALSO: 5 cars that you should be driving in Ghanas hard economy
He further stated that Ghanaians do not dislike Chinese and neither does that country have any anti-Chinese laws and policies.
He assured that Ghana will always open its arms to welcome Chinese investors, but he would not compromise on the fight against galamsey.
We dont have anti-Chinese policies in Ghana, we dont have any hatred or dislike for China, on the contrary, weve welcomed Chinese investments in our economy, China today is the largest trading partner of Ghanaso, we have no quarrel with Chinese presence in Ghana but we do have a quarrel with those who get involved in this illegal mining and as far as it is concerned, I dont intend to change my mind, no curve, no bend; Im not changing my mind about this fight against galamsey, President Akufo-Addo added.
Do Ghanaians know about late Kofi Annan? | #Yencomgh
READ ALSO: Malaysia women caned for attempting to have lesbian sex
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
- The Ghana Police Service has cautioned the public on the rise in robbery and defilement cases
- The report however said the crime rate in general, has declined, with major offences such as rape, murder and narcotics all maintaining a steady rate of occurrence
The Ghana Police Service has expressed worry about the rise in cases of robbery and defilement across the country.
The latest annual report released by the police indicates that most of these cases were recorded following street robberies.
The report identified crimes like rape, murder and narcotics as crimes that have been on the rise in the country.
Robbery and defilement on the rise - Ghana Police
Source: Instagram
READ ALSO: Three reasons why NPP would win the 2020 elections
It said while crime in general has declined, the most affected in recent times have been mobile money operators.
According to the police, mobile money operators are being targeted due to the proliferation of the service and the perception that they always have money on them.
A critical look at the data indicates that street robbery has accounted for the slight increase in the robbery cases recorded between the years 2016-2017. Street robbery has accounted for the increase in robbery in 2017, sections of the report read.
The report also said the police must periodically organise swoops if they are to be able to reduce the crime rate in the country.
To effectively manage the crime situation, especially robberies, the police periodically conduct intelligence swoops by the new Directorate of Intelligence, it added.
Part of the plan to combat crime has also seen the police put in place measures to establish intelligence units at the regional levels.
Until now, the police had its intelligence unit only stationed at its headquarters in Accra.
READ ALSO: Menzgold assures clients over delay in dividend payment
The police has also increased its motorbike and vehicular patrols as well as its snap checks in a bid to reduce crime.
Meanwhile, parents have also been advised to keep watchful eyes on their daughters in order not to expose them to threats of defilement.
Ghana Funny Tricky Questions: 6X9? | #Yencomgh
READ ALSO: Ghanaians give various ideas on how to prepare a meal with GHc4
Your suggestions are welcome in the comment box. Also 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
- An automatic apprentice, Richard Osarfo, has been apprehended for stealing a government vehicle
- The vehicle is the property of the Ghana Highway Authority
- The suspect jumped into the vehicle and sped off after the driver of the vehicle left the key in the ignition with the engine running
Information available to YEN.com.gh shows that a 24-year-old auto mechanic apprentice, Osarfo Richard, has been sentenced for stealing a government vehicle.
A Koforidua Circuit court presided over by Her Honour, Mercy Adei Kotei, sentenced him to either pay a fine of GHC2,400, or in default, go to prison for 18 months.
The suspect is reported to have stolen a vehicle with registration number GV 623-14, belonging to the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA).
Richard Osarfo, the suspect Source: adomonline.com
Source: UGC
READ ALSO: Three reasons why the NPP will win the 2020 elections on a silver platter
He was therefore charged with stealing, contrary to Section 124(1) of the Criminal Offences Act 1960(Act 29).
Presenting the case in court, Assistant State Attorney, Cyril Boateng Keteku, said on September 1, 2018, Samuel Oyetey Tetteh, an accountant of the Ghana Highway Authority, was driving from Suhum to Koforidua in a blue-black Nissan Patrol vehicle with registration number Gv 623 14.
Upon reaching Koforidua-Effiduasi, he parked opposite the Miracle Rock Church to buy some items in a shop.
Keteku went on to say that Tetteh left the engine of the vehicle running, with the key still in the ignition.
Shortly after departing from the vehicle, the suspect, Osarfo Richard, was seen jumping into the vehicle and driving off on with top speed.
Luck, however eluded Richard when he was involved in an accident on the Commercial Bank street near the Total 2 fuel filling station and he was arrested by the police.
READ ALSO: Bride slaps mother-in-law over food at wedding reception
Ghana News Today: President Akufo-Addos Tour | #Yencomgh
Want to be featured on YEN.com.gh? Send us a message on our Facebook page or on Instagram with your stories, photos or videos
Source: Yen
Jim Watts has been in business with Commercial Art Glass for 21 years in Barnum. Kara Pearson Gwinn
Even as most of Denver's urban neighborhoods have seen an influx of development that's pushing real estate prices higher, not much has changed in Barnum, one of the city's last bastions of affordability.
There's not much room for development in Barnum, the working-class neighborhood bounded by Sixth Avenue to the north, Federal Boulevard to the east, Alameda Avenue to the south and Perry Street to the west. And, though the city of Denver draws a distinction between Barnum and Barnum West, residents consider it all to be one neighborhood, which extends the western boundary to Sheridan Boulevard.
The name dates back to 1878, when master showman P.T. Barnum of Barnum & Bailey Circus fame paid $11,000 for the 760-acre tract of land that became the neighborhood. Though Denver folklore suggests Barnum planned to establish a winter home for his circus in the city, he never wintered his animals anywhere but Connecticut or Florida and only made four documented trips to Colorado, according to the Denver Public Library.
P.T. sold as much of his land as possible before selling the rest to his daughter, Helen Buchtel, for $1. Much of the neighborhood's initial development was a result of efforts by Helen and her second husband, William Buchtel. The land was incorporated into the city of Denver in 1896.
Today, Barnum is home to about 11,500 people in 3,764 households, according to the neighborhood's application to Denver's Sustainable Neighborhood program . The majority of its residents (77 percent) are Latino, and nearly one-third are children and youth younger than 18. The majority of Barnum's dwellings are single-family homes, and 66 percent of occupied housing units are owner-occupied, compared to just 50 percent for Denver as a whole.
The neighborhood's namesake comes from master showman P.T. Barnum. Food desert, housing oasis
Most commercial space in the neighborhood is limited to the major corridors on its perimeter, though it does have a small "downtown" area at First Avenue and Knox Court.
"We're two miles from any supermarket," says Kaye Boeke, president of the registered neighborhood organization, Concerned Citizens for Barnum . "There are folks who don't have reliable transportation or cars and folks who just don't want to go that far."
Though there are a number of small Latino markets in Barnum, residents would like to see a supermarket built, Boeke says. Re:Vision, a cultivator of community food systems, has received funding that will help build a food co-op in Westwood , the neighborhood immediately south of Barnum West, which will give Barnum residents a closer place to shop, but none of the large grocers have plans to build stores in the neighborhood.
"The neighborhood is lower-income, so it's probably not attractive to the full-service grocers," she says. "The only way they'll come is if the neighborhood totally gentrifies, and we don't want that either. This is the last bastion of houses in the $200,000 price range."
Over the last 90 days, the median sale price of a home in Barnum was about $230,000, according to Redfin, a real estate brokerage that got its start inventing map-based search. But investors are taking note of the neighborhood, which likely will push prices higher.
Seikou Investment Group , a company that connects buyers and sellers of investment property, has targeted the Barnum neighborhood because it's a good neighborhood for renters, says Teal Nipp, president of the company.
"Unlike other neighborhoods in Denver, the price of the properties allows them to cash-flow," Nipp says. "It's one of the last neighborhoods in Denver that is affordable for our rental portfolio."
Jim Watts, who has had his Commercial Art Glass business at First Avenue and Knox Court since 1994, says the neighborhood hadn't changed much until the recession forced many Barnum residents into foreclosure.
"Homes were lost and picked up by investor types -- fix-and-flippers," Watts said. "I fit that description, as well. In '08 and '09 when nobody was buying stained glass, I purchased several foreclosures. People have been putting money into properties and selling them to a different clientele."
During his 21 years in Barnum, Watts also has seen a number of businesses come and go.
"When I first moved there 20 years ago, there were four or five haircutting businesses," Watts says. "Little by little, these properties have been changing hands. The commercial properties that have changed are primarily Hispanic-owned."
Jim Watts has been in business with Commercial Art Glass for 21 years in Barnum. Links to the city
Connections from Barnum to other parts of the city are improving. A new pedestrian and bicycle bridge over Sixth Avenue at Knox Court connects Barnum Park North with Barnum Park South.
Though there isn't a light-rail station in Barnum itself, the neighborhood now has access to the 12.1-mile W Line that runs from the Jefferson County Government Center in Golden to Denver Union Station downtown. Barnum residents have reasonably easy access to stations at Sheridan, Perry and Knox.
And that's critical here, where transit is a conduit for residents to access work and education, as well as healthy food.
In 2013, the median household income in Barnum was $36,985, compared with $51,089 in Denver, according to
Photos by "It's not a story of poor Latinos," Boeke says. "It's a story of poor folk."Photos by Kara Pearson Gwinn
A press statement from the Ghana Education Service (GES) shows that over 67,000 candidates who sat for the 2018 BECE did not get placement.
The circular has shown that out of the total 521,710 registered candidates, 67,382 candidates failed to meet the requirement for selection into any of the four-choice schools they selected.
Head of the GES Public Relations Unit, Cassandra Twum Ampofo, says unplaced candidates are to do a self-placement to get themselves into senior high schools with vacancies.
READ ALSO: Doomsday prophets in Ghana bleach their faces - Sam Korankye Ankrah
The statement noted that candidates are placed in two categories Green Track and Gold Track, signaling the commencement of the double-track system.
Candidates can access the placement portal by dialing *713*24# to buy a placement code at a cost of GH5.00 after which they log onto www.cssps.gov.gh to print out their placement.
Also, candidates can check their placement by purchasing the CSSPS scratch card and texting the 10-digit code plus their index number to the shortcode 1060 on all mobile networks.
In all, 83 candidates had their results canceled because they took along their mobile phones to their various examination halls.
These BECE candidates also were caught for receiving external assistance. In addition, 2,061 others had their results withheld pending investigations into alleged malpractices.
Meanwhile, WAEC states it is in the process of dispatching the results to the various schools.
The release said another batch of 134 candidates had their subject results canceled for bringing foreign materials into the examination hall and for collusion and engaging in irregular activity during the examination.
READ ALSO: Accra will soon be the cleanest city in Africa - Accra Mayor
In all, 509,827 candidates made up of 263,291 males and 246,536 females sat for the examination. The examination was administered at 1,772 centres and out of those who initially registered for the examination, 0.93% of the candidates were absent.
Do Ghanaians know about late Kofi Annan? | #Yencomgh
Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page.
Source: Yen
The Deputy Majority Leader and Minister of State for Procurement, Sarah Adwoa Safo, has lost her mother, Emily Engman.
Madam Engman died at the Ridge Hospital where she had been on admission.
The 56-year-old woman was taken ill for a short time.
Adwoa Safo at her mother's one-week observance
Source: Facebook
Already, a one-week observance has been held for Madam Engman.
READ ALSO: Top police officer dies after bouts of intimacy with girlfriend in his office
Dr Bawumia and other dignitaries
Source: Facebook
The one-week observance was well-attended by people from government, Parliament and the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) leadership.
Ms Adwoa Safo has, on behalf of her family, taken to Facebook to express her gratitude to all those who attended the event.
Akrobeto with other dignitaries
Source: Facebook
The Dome Kwabenya MP wrote: "On behalf of my Siblings and Family, we express our heartfelt gratitude for your valued presence, donations, prayers and support exhibited during the One Week Celebration of our dear Mum, Madam Emily Engman.
Our utmost Thanks goes to the Vice President, H.E. Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the Chief of Staff, Hon. Frema Osei-Opare, Senior Members of the Government and Party, Ministers of State, Members of Parliament, the Leadership of the New Patriotic Party, the Municipal Chief Executive of Ga East, Hon. Janet Mensah, the Dome Kwabenya Constituency and all friends and loved ones for the show of Love in our moment of grief this past weekend.
May God richly bless us all.
Hon. Sarah Adwoa Safo
MP, Dome-Kwabenya."
READ ALSO: Bride slaps mother-in-law over food at wedding reception
Meanwhile, a Ghanaian lady has embarrassed herself on social media after her failed attempt to correct a sentence written by Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia on Twitter.
Dr Bawumia, after attending a sod-cutting ceremony in Accra, shared photos on his official Twitter account.
"This morning, I cut sod for work to begin on the construction of a Police Housing Project at the National Police Training School, Tesano-Accra," Dr Bawumia tweeted.
READ ALSO: Sarkodie responds to Counsellor Lutterodts claim that he should marry more than one
But the lady, Yvonne Quarcoo, who uses the Twitter handle, @yvonne_quarcoo, felt that there was a grammatical error in the post.
In a Twitter post, the lady falsely asserted that whoever was in charge of Dr Bawumia's Twitter account got it all wrong by spelling 'sod'.
Ghana Funny Tricky Questions: 6X9? | #Yencomgh:
Want to be featured on YEN.com.gh?
Send us a message on our Facebook/Instagram pages with your stories, photos
Source: Yen News
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.
While most con artists just try to sell you a shady Rolex for $50, every so often an ambitious grifter comes along claiming that he's actually Mr. Rolex, and that if you give him a million dollars, he will take you to a magical clockwork land where not only can you tell time ... you can tell it what to do . And the craziest part is how often it seems to work. For example ...
5 A Man Bluffed His Way Into A 20-Year Soccer Career Without Ever Playing
Born in the soccer-obsessed hills of Brazil to a soccer legend father, Carlos "Kaiser" Raposo knew that being a player was the best possible life he could hope for. The only hurdle was that he ... wasn't very good at soccer. But what he lacked in ball-handling skills he made up for with charm. He would buddy up with other players and have them vouch for him to get spots on their teams. When a team signed him up, Kaiser would mask his incompetence by bribing another player to brutally tackle him during training so he could fake an injury. If that didn't work, he'd simply have his grandma die again so he'd be too stricken with grief to play. You'd think that after the 19th time, they would've caught on.
It sounds basic, but Kaiser worked insanely hard to convince the world he was the best soccer player nobody had seen play. He spent his free time feeding reporters fake stories about his career, and even carried around a very grainy VHS tape of someone who looked a bit like him scoring incredible goals. He also bought a toy cell phone (this was the '80s, so they all looked fake anyway) and pretended to have long negotiations in foreign languages to drive up his price. Until that one time he was supposedly taking a call from an English team, and the coach informed him that he spoke English and knew Kaiser was spouting gibberish.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby used to be an oil company executive before taking holy orders. So he knows as much about business as he does about the teachings of Jesus Christ.
And the central insight of the Archbishop's powerful report on the British economy marks an astonishing break from the teaching of the Church.
The Archbishop in defiance of Christian teaching considers that God and Mammon can indeed live together.
But he argues that hard-nosed economic dynamism is not nearly enough. A modern economy will only work properly if is also fair and just.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby (pictured) used to be an oil company executive before taking holy orders
As he rightly points out, life has become much too tough for millions of decent, hard-working people who have seen their incomes fall sharply over the past decade.
And as their incomes fall, their livelihoods have become more insecure.
Meanwhile, the rich many of whom hide their assets overseas have grown ever richer.
The Archbishop does not simply consider this a moral abomination. He also thinks it is an economic mistake.
That is why Welby argues for a transformation of British society as profound as the one masterminded by Labour leader Clem Attlee after the Second World War, or Margaret Thatcher's free-market reforms of the Eighties.
I wholeheartedly agree with him about the need for such reforms. But I am afraid that massive question marks surround his solutions.
Welby, in defiance of almost all theory and practice, believes he can solve Britain's economic problems by putting up more taxes.
To repeat more taxes!
The fact is that Mrs Thatcher brought about her economic miracle by reducing and not increasing taxation.
Whatever else one thinks of President Trump, you have to admit that his tax cuts last year have brought US employment and prosperity to record levels.
I also feel intense qualms about Welby's support for a state investment bank.
History teaches us that such institutions throw good money after bad. Much better leave money in the hands of taxpayers than allow politicians to pick and choose industrial winners. Let us not forget that archbishops of Canterbury do not always get it right when they meddle in the economy.
Robert Runcie made a fool of himself when he took a stand against Maggie Thatcher with his Faith in the City report.
However, I believe that the Welby proposals which were prepared with the high-powered centre-Left think-tank the Institute for Public Policy Research contain a number of truly worthwhile proposals that deserve serious consideration.
The fact is that Mrs Thatcher (pictured in 1994) brought about her economic miracle by reducing and not increasing taxation
First and foremost is the Archbishop's determination to confront out-of-control 21st-century racketeers such as retailer Amazon and internet giants Google and Facebook.
Until now, British politicians such as David Cameron and Tony Blair have cravenly given in to these unscrupulous companies, which are changing the face of our country. The fact is that they pay far too little tax in Britain. They use this unfair advantage to drive honest firms that do pay honest tax out of business.
Welby is surely right to call an end to this rank economic and moral injustice. All decent people will support his demand that these unscrupulous titans be made subject to much tougher regulation.
To be fair to the Archbishop, his tax proposals are in effect a return to the radical policies of the Thatcher/Lawson period, when taxation was levelled equally on investment and earnings alike.
Recent adjustments by clever-dick chancellors such as George Osborne and Gordon Brown reversed that.
Rich investors who gain windfall profits from stocks and shares or property pay far less taxation than ordinary folk who work hard for their earnings.
The Archbishop wants to force the rich to make a bigger contribution to society so that the rest of us especially young people have a better chance in life.
What's wrong with that?
There are many flaws in this report, but it is still a huge contribution to the debate. It is exceptionally well written and far higher in quality than many party manifestos.
In many ways it comes as a reminder of the policies aimed at hard-working, hard-up people advocated by Theresa May when she became Prime Minister two years ago.
As a vicar's daughter, she is in the perfect position to learn from the Archbishop's report. And so she should. For all its faults, it contains many worthwhile ideas.
As Lieutenant Colonel George Custer did not quite tell his men at the Battle of Little Bighorn: We dont roll over just because weve got a bit of push-back.
Those were the words of Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab yesterday when asked if he realised Theresa Mays Chequers proposal was opposed so strongly by the European Commission that it was a floater.
Dead in the water, was the description of pro-Brussels Stephen Kinnock (Lab, Aberavon). Quite a few Eurosceptics also made plain their distaste for the Chequers thing. It is a policy with few friends.
We dont roll over just because weve got a bit of push-back, murmured Mr Raab. His tone was the same throughout his Statement which updated MPs, fresh back from the summer recess, on the state of the Brexit negotiations.
Dominic Raab has shown his skills as a lawyer in reassuring doubters over the on-going Brexit negotiations
Slim, high-browed Mr Raab insisted things between him and the ECs Michel Barnier were going reasonably well. Weve injected some additional pace into negotiations, he said.
A neighbour of mine concluded that this must mean they had started speaking faster.
As regards to startling talk of disaster, Mr Raab said in a negotiation there are efforts to put pressure on all sides. He also described continued worries over the Irish border as an attempt to create leverage over London. He asserted, with the slightest growl, that that wont work.
Mr Raab, with his otherwise level voice and calm demeanour, could have been an airline pilot coming on to the intercom to reassure passengers that an appalling bout of turbulence, which had seen the in-flight trolley on the ceiling and the cabin crew flung all round the galley, was really nothing to worry about. Hello there, folks, this is Captain Raab. Well soon have you comfortable but for the moment please just return to your seats and fasten your belts as a precautionary measure.
At which point the oxygen masks leap out of their overhead lockers and the planes engines start making the low whine of a Stuka dive-bomber. Actually, Mr Raab was rather effective. He has a lawyers grasp of detail much more so than his Labour opponent, Sir Keir Starmer, who is supposed to have been a hot-shot lawyer but who consistently underimpresses in the Chamber.
Sir Keir Starmer, appearing on the BBC1 current affairs programme, The Andrew Marr Show has been less than impressive compared to Mr Raab
If there was a theme to yesterdays exchanges, it was a certain deflated air among the Europhiles. Some of them met M Barnier on Monday and they now seem depressed. It was a measure of the extent to which Mr Raabs aura of lawyerly competence hypnotised the Chamber that when he said the scope and the contours of the agreement are now clear he was not washed away by mockery. Scope, contours: these are peachy words, meaningless but freighted by a certain technical character.
Civil servants use such terms to baffle ministers. Mr Raab was using them to anaesthetise the Commons.
Sir Keir did not say what he wanted instead of the current impasse between Brussels and London. He was just generally peevish, like a child short of sleep.
Some of the backbench champions of the two sides of the argument (Europhile Anna Soubry and her gang, Jacob Rees-Mogg and his) were absent. Instead we heard from the likes of former Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson, who said the Irish border question was not a real problem a point firmly reinforced by Nigel Dodds of the DUP, who said some anti-Brexit people were just using it to create mischief.
Mr Raab, shown here addressing MPs in the House of Commons last week, said Britain may still avoid a 39billion divorce fee even without a deal
Emma Reynolds (Lab, Wolverhampton NE) worried about the EC telling European car makers to stop using British components. Mr Raab suggested that was just negotiating talk and told her she should show a bit of mettle and stand up for this country.
If theres no deal, do we get to keep our 39billion? asked Philip Hollobone (Con, Kettering). Maybe, said Mr Raab.
Chris Bryant (Lab, Rhondda) wondered what queues we would in future use at airport passport barriers. My sort of question. Mr Raab said that would be up to the Home Secretary.
A New York judge has ordered that a woman return a pricey engagement ring to her ex-fiance, five years after the man filed suit against her to get the rock back.
Rodney Ripley, 54, proposed to Jennifer Rutten, 50, on Dec. 5, 2011. Yet less than a year later, the couple broke up, and Ripley asked to get the ring back but Rutten refused.
'I was dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and he started harassing me,' she complained, according to the New York Post.
Give it back: Rodney Ripley, 54, proposed to Jennifer Rutten, 50, on Dec. 5, 2011 but the split less than a year later. A judge has now ordered her to return the $40,000 ring (not pictured)
Ripley and Rutten are both from Wisconsin, but Ripley proposed on the Brooklyn Bridge because Rutten was in New York at the time, working for the American Red Cross.
He gave her a Tacori 3-carat cushion-cut sparkler, and held onto the $39,057.10 receipt. He also had it insured for $40,000.
When they broke up and he asked for it back several times, but she did not return it so he sued.
The legal battle went on for five years, as Rutten and her lawyer tried numerous tactics to deny Ripley the ring.
First, they argued that the ring was worth less than Ripley said, only $13,000 which would make it less than the $25,000 required to filed a civil suit.
After Ripley turned over a receipt proving the suit should go forward, Rutten claimed New York didn't have jurisdiction, because she didn't live there. That tactic didn't work either.
She then accused her ex of being abusive which, even if true, wouldn't have legally entitled her to the ring.
'From what I recall, he became angrier, he became more typically abusive, emotionally abusive,' she said. 'I was angry, I didnt want to return it.'
In 2016, Bradley Moss and Amy Bzura (pictured) broke off their engagement. A judge ordered Bzura to return the ring. She also sued for the Moss family to pay for part of the wedding
In New York state, a ring is not legally considered a gift, but a condition for marriage. That means that if a marriage is called off, the person who purchased it has the legal right to it.
Similar stipulations exist in Iowa, Florida, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Jersey, and New Mexico. Only in Montana is an engagement ring considered an outright gift.
'Here the undisputed facts show that the ring was given in contemplation of marriage and that marriage did not occur,' Justice Robert Reed wrote in his decision. 'Thus, Ripley is entitled to the return of the ring.'
Ripley's diamond suit isn't the only one to make headlines in recent years.
In 2016, Bradley Moss, then 31, and Amy Bzura, then 27, broke off their engagement the night before their wedding, when a family fistfight broke out over dinner.
The couples' families then argued over who would pay the bill for the $325,000 wedding that was cancelled.
It escalated when Bzura's family suing Moss' for the $89,919, which was the cost of the 79 guests that the Moss family had invited. Moss then sued Bzura for the return $125,000 ring.
Months later, courts rules that Bzura had to return the emerald-cut diamond.
Teenage plastic surgery is on the rise, and more and more adolescents are opting to go under the knife over the summer right before they return to school.
Dr. David Cangello, a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York City, told Dailymail.com that rhinoplasty is by far the most popular procedure for back-to-schoolers, followed by ostoplasty procedure to change the shape, position, or size of the ears.
'These are two procedures that can really improve confidence,' he said, noting that kids with large, prominent noses or ears can get bullied over their appearances.
New look: More and more teens are seeking out plastic surgery before heading back to school
'While bullying isnt always the motivating factor for kids seeking correction, improving self-confidence is,' he explained.
Dr. Cangello said his teenage patients are commonly around 16 or 17 years old, although he has seen adolescents as young as 15 seeking out these types of procedures.
Younger patients who have sought out rhinoplasty have told him that they wanted to look and feel their best for their prom and yearbook photos, among other things.
However, the surgeon stressed that a minor under the age of 18 can't have surgery without parental consent.
'It is important that parents dont coax their children into having surgery because they feel that a feature needs to be fixed,' he said.
'I've seen adults who have told me that they finally sought cause their nose bothered them their whole life and that a parent used to make fun of their nose.
'For kids who do express insecurity about their nose or ears, I think that parents should be supportive,' he added. 'It can truly be life altering for people to undergo procedures such as rhinoplasty or otoplasty.'
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, approximately 66,347 cosmetic surgical procedures were performed on people ages 13 to 19 in 2016 a three per cent increase from 2015.
Rhinoplasty was the most commonly performed procedure, followed by breast augmentation, and breast reduction in men.
Dr. Cangello told DailyMail.com that he definitely sees more young women seeking out plastic surgery, but he noted that there is a 'fair share of men as well.'
Expert: Plastic surgeon Dr. David Cangello said rhinoplasty is by far the most popular procedure for back-to-schoolers
Although some warn of the dangers of our celebrity-obsessed culture fueling teens' desire to go under the knife, he explained that rhinoplasty and otoplasty can be confidence boosters for young adults.
'As long as the kids are mature enough physically and emotionally and in good health, there is no reason not to perform these procedures,' he said. 'I just took the splint off a 21-year old girl two days ago and she was beaming.
'She said, "I can finally smile and asked to hug me." The benefit of these procedures is profound for patients and highly rewarding for me.'
There has also been an increase in nonsurgical procedures in teens, with laser hair removal being the most commonly performed, followed by laser skin resurfacing and botulinum toxin type A injection.
In comparison to the year before, the number of teens getting injectables increased by five per cent in 2016.
The phenomenon has been credited the 'celebrity worship in teenagers' and the propagated belief among adolescents that Botox can 'prevent aging' a theory that has not been scientifically validated.
Look: Although he doesn't perform these types of procedures on teens, Dr. Cangello believes the Kardashians have inspired people to get lip augmentation, liposuction, and fat transfers
On the record: Kourtney (left), 39, has been open about her breast implants, but her younger sister Kim (right), 37, has only admitted to having Botox
In addition to botulinum toxin type A, teens are also getting hyaluronic acids injected into their cheeks and lips.
The growing number of celebrities with augmented cheeks and lips is thought to be the the cause of more and more teens seeking these types of procedures.
Dr. Cangello believes the Kardashians have been huge influences on people seeking lip augmentation, liposuction, and fat transfers to the buttocks, but he noted that he doesn't perform those types of procedures on young people.
However, that doesn't mean young people aren't going elsewhere to get these procedures that have been made famous by the reality TV stars who have denied most of their rumored plastic surgeries.
Kourtney, 39, has been open about her breast implants, but her younger sister Kim, 37, has only admitted to having Botox.
And while their younger half-sister Kylie Jenner famously confessed to having lip fillers, she has insisted that she hasn't had any other plastic surgery.
We all have those days when pulling back the sheets and stepping out of bed into the cold seems completely unbearable.
But for those that wish to enjoy the cozy warmth of their comforter all day long, there is now a fashion-focused alternative to wandering around wrapped in blankets: a jumpsuit that doubles up as a snug sleeping bag.
Created by adult onesie brand Onepiece as part of its new Fall 18 collection, the funky, and less-than figure-flattering, design envelopes the wearer in a thick sleeping bag material that can withstand temperatures as low as 12 degrees Fahrenheit.
Get cozy! Norwegian onesie brand Onepiece has a created a new jumpsuit that can transform into a sleeping bag
Ready, steady, sleep! The $249 unisex design has legs that zip together to turn it into a tubular sleeping bag
The polyester ensemble is also water resistant, making it ideal for anyone who wants to go trudging about in the snow this winter, without sacrificing any coziness or comfort.
And while it might not make for the most sartorially successful outfit to grace your closet, what the $249 design lacks in style, it makes up for in practicality thanks to its handy ability to transform from a two-legged jumpsuit into a tubular sleeping bag with just the tug of a zipper.
Indeed, the jumpsuit was designed with festivals in mind - ensuring that anyone who braves a chillier-than-wanted musical event will not only remain snug as a bug all day long, they'll also be able to bed down for a quick nap whenever the mood strikes, without having to worry about getting changed, or facing any cold temperatures before diving into their sleeping bag.
'Since we started Onepiece 10 years ago, we've been to hundreds of festivals, constantly getting lost, not finding our way back to camp,' the brand's website says of the motivation behind the jumpsuit.
'What's better than a sleeping bag you can wear, always with you, always ready for a nap.'
Strut your stuff: The water resistant creation also has buttons on the back of each leg, so that the bottoms can be turned up and kept clean of any dirt or water on the ground
Netflix and... onesie? According to a spokesperson for the brand, the sleeping bag jumpsuit is designed to be worn at festivals and on camping trips, as well as on lazy Sundays
Warm and toasty: The new jumpsuit can withstand temperatures as low as 12 degrees Fahrenheit, and also boasts a large hood for extra warmth
As well as featuring zippers that connect the two legs of the jumpsuit and turn it into a sleeping bag, the design also has buttons on the back of each calf, which allow the wearer to hook up the bottoms of each leg to stop them from dragging on the ground and getting dirty.
The jumpsuit also features a pocket in the hood, perfect for storing your most precious belongings - or for stuffing with something soft to turn it into a comfy pillow when you are ready to bed down.
And, just like a sleeping bag, the jumpsuit also comes with a matching tote bag so you can transport it and store it easily and without fuss - although keep in mind the puffy outerwear may take a fair amount of stuffing order to cram it into the carrier.
Based in Norway, Onepiece is a brand that thrives on the country's popular cultural trend of hygge - a concept that focuses on combing comfort, warmth, peacefulness, safety and contentment - all of which are very neatly wrapped up in the adult onesie company's latest offering.
The brand has also proven itself to be incredibly popular with A-listers, boasting a legion of celebrity fans including Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Gigi Hadid, Halle Berry, Harry Styles, and Taylor Swift, so don't be surprised if you see the sleeping bag jumpsuit being worn by a slew of stars this fall.
Anyone looking for a slightly more low-key look this fall can also opt for one of the brand's more traditional seasonal offerings, which include a collection of motocross-inspired pieces, as well as a few simpler, single-color creations.
While as children we are often told that you need to wash and condition your hair - and regularly - for super smooth locks, in fact the opposite may be true.
Leading hairdressers have revealed that slapping on on an extra dollop of conditioner after a visit to the salon to colour your locks is a complete waste of time.
Speaking to FEMAIL, celebrity hairdresser Anthony Nader revealed what you should use instead of conditioner on coloured hair - as well as the one thing the majority of Australian women get wrong when washing their hair.
Countless hairdressers said that women should forgo conditioner in favour of a hair mask; pop star Taylor Swift (pictured) famously doesn't use conditioner
'While all hair types need conditioner, if you have highly coloured hair, some sort of deep conditioning is more necessary,' celebrity stylist Anthony Nader (pictured) told FEMAIL
According to the founder of Not Another Salon, Sophia Hilton, if your hair is dyed or regularly uses heated styling tools, you're better off ditching conditioner in favour of an intensive hair mask:
'I don't see the point of conditioners when there's a product available that's better and stronger,' she told Refinery 29.
'Conditioners can only nourish so much, whereas hair masks typically have smaller particles, so the product absorbs better, and your hair stays conditioned for longer.'
This is something that chimes somewhat with Anthony Nader, who has worked with the likes of Cate Blanchett in his hairdressing past.
'While all hair types need conditioner to some degree, if you have highly coloured hair, some sort of deep conditioning is more necessary,' he told Daily Mail Australia.
Anthony said that women in general wash their hair too much, and instead need to adopt a more French approach of washing their locks less like Pia Miller (pictured)
Anthony explained that he loves to use a mask on coloured hair, because 'it has smaller particles than a regular conditioner and doesn't sit on top of the hair scales as much'.
'Think of using a mask on your hair strands as like waxing a car,' he said.
'When you wax the surface of a car, it's protected for longer and the shine is impeccable.'
The celebrity stylist said you should regularly use a mask and leave-in conditioning spray for luscious locks (pictured: Gwyneth Paltrow)
What are Anthony Nader's tips for coloured hair? * Skip the conditioning on the roots as they don't need it. * Start using a leave-in conditioning spray daily and once a week just condition your mid-lengths and ends with a lightweight conditioner. * Use a mask regularly as this will penetrate the hair better. * Switch your heated tools down to the lowest setting to avoid causing breakage and damage. Advertisement
When it comes to what the majority of women get wrong when washing their hair, Anthony said in fact we're overwashing in a major way.
'I think that Australians tend to wash their hair far too many times a week which is unnecessary,' he said.
'We should be taking a note out of those refined French women and their beautiful understated hair and just washing once, maybe twice a week max.'
The celebrity stylist said that overwashing will only cause more damage by 'drying out your locks and making your colour appear duller and flatter'.
Speaking about his tips for looking after coloured hair, Anthony said it's all about using no conditioner on the roots and going easy on the heated tools.
'You've only got one chance with your hair, so be kind to it,' he added.
Aldi released its luxury homewares collection on Wednesday and, as expected, it was an instant success.
Australian customers devoted to the 'Special Buys' section of the global supermarket snapped up $29 towel packs, quilt cover sets and ottomans at a much cheaper rate than you'd find the same items elsewhere.
But it was one product in particular that had people rushing into their closest store: a $99 Diana Velvet Slipper chair.
Scroll down for video
But it was one product in particular that had people rushing into their closest store: a $99 Diana Velvet Slipper chair (pictured)
The plush aquamarine colour captured the eye of the Internet with countless people praising it.
'Wow I love that chair count me in,' one person wrote on Facebook.
'Buy me everything. What a price!' Another added, followed by 'we desperately need a chair update'.
The chair comes in a monochromatic shade of grey as well - and bears a striking similarity to the Peacock Coco Velvet Slipper chair at Temple & Webster.
The difference? It's almost $550 more expensive.
The chair comes in a monochromatic shade of grey as well - and bears a striking similarity to the Peacock Coco Velvet Slipper chair at Temple & Webster (pictured)
The sale, which started on Wednesday September 5, has an entire range of high quality, luxe pieces for your bedroom, bathroom and living areas.
There are three different styles to choose from, including plantation, indigo earth and neo classic, each with their own accented hues.
The neo classic collection features the queen size alloy quilt cover set for $59.99, four monochroma towels for $29.99, a two metre Corinthian woven rug for $49.99 and an atlas marble side table for the same price.
Aldi Australia suspected the nation would be looking to renovate around this time and have curated next week's Special Buys for the sole purpose of solving this problem
Their St Lucia four-piece towel set ($29.99) is made with a delightful moss green thread and matches the macrame gumball foot rest ($39.99)
There are three different styles to choose from, including plantation, indigo earth and neo classic, each with their own accented hues
There is a mixture of black and white marble accents, minimalist grey plush throws for the bed ($16.99) and cushions ($16.99) worthy of any glamorous, modern home.
If your style is more earthen you'll fall in love with the plantation range.
A mixture of ocean blues and sand-tinted nudes it's a Byron Bay dweller's delight at a fraction of the cost you'd normally pay.
Their St Lucia four-piece towel set ($29.99) is made with a delightful moss green thread and matches the macrame gumball foot rest ($39.99).
There is a mixture of black and white marble accents, minimalist grey plush throws for the bed ($16.99) and cushions ($16.99) worthy of any glamorous, modern home
Meanwhile the indigo earth offering appears to be Moroccan-inspired with burnt orange and navy shades abounding patterned throws and towels
Fringed jute decorator mats ($24.99) would delightfully span the hallway or living room of a sun-streaked home and marry in well with a pineapple pillow ($16.95).
Meanwhile the indigo earth offering appears to be Moroccan-inspired with burnt orange and navy shades abounding patterned throws and towels.
You can buy a framed art wall stack for $49.99, a wooden tall boy for $149, an accent chair ($99.99) and candle ($9.99) in-store next week.
To make things as easy as possible to turn your home into a designer retreat, Aldi's buying team takes a user-friendly approach to its packaging design
A mixture of ocean blues and sand-tinted nudes it's a Byron Bay dweller's delight at a fraction of the cost you'd normally pay
The Style Your Room range is made with the customer in mind.
To make things as easy as possible to turn your home into a designer retreat, Aldi's buying team takes a user-friendly approach to its packaging design.
'Every product across the range has a "Shop the Look" tag on its packaging so that customers can easily identify the items in their preferred collection.'
It's a smart little touch that will help you select as much of your favourite collection as you want.
Beauty blogger and model Rachel Tee Tyler has uploaded more than one thousand photos to her Instagram account, reaching 350,000 people every time she does.
The 28-year-old Australian has had plenty of practice both behind and in front of the camera, recently shooting with Bonds underwear for their 'Queendom' campaign.
While speaking to Cosmpolitan about all things makeup and photography, Rachel let it slip that she follows the 'three C' approach to taking her selfies.
Beauty blogger Rachel Tee Tyler has uploaded more than one thousand photos to her Instagram account, reaching 350,000 people
They are concept, camera and composition - and when understood - can make or break your social presence.
Here, FEMAIL uncovers how to master the perfect snap and why that trio of words is so important.
Concept
Whether you're taking a photo to update your Facebook profile or shooting for a Vogue cover shoot, you need to map out what you're trying to convey first.
If you're trying to show off a near-natural beauty look you've created, keep the elements around you soft as well: opt for white lace detailing in your clothing and position yourself outside in a native environment.
Whether you're taking a photo to update your Facebook profile or shooting for a Vogue cover shoot, you need to map out what you're trying to convey first
Whereas if your photo is an artful underground music shot with plenty of shadows and neon signage you'll be conveying a more urban feel online.
Rachel has a mixture of both looks on her social media accounts, showing her fans she can adapt to a range of different themes and styles. It's her chameleon style that makes her so well liked.
Camera
Rachel uses the Olympus PEN E-PL9 camera to take all of her photos - and it's easy to see why.
Its flip-down selfie screen, 4K video and compact size also make it a great tool for selfies and vlogging - two things the beauty blogger is doing regularly.
Rachel uses the Olympus PEN E-PL9 camera to take all of her photos - and it's easy to see why
Other fan favourites of the influencer elite include the Canon EOS 70D Digital SLR camera and Sony a5100.
If you want to ensure your image quality is top notch you'll need to invest in a DSLR - although the iPhone X does work for the average Instagrammer.
Composition
Most people don't take their best selfies from a face-forward angle.
It may take a slight head tilt, a pop of the hip and balancing on one foot before you're happy with the outcome.
Consider what mood you're trying to set in the photo and move your body in a way that will convey that
Kylie Jenner once confessed to taking 500 selfies before she chooses one to upload, and more often than not it will take more than one try to get it right.
Rachel uses her hands as a focal point of the photo - sometimes grazing her forehead with a finger or spreading her arms wide in an enveloping hug.
Consider what mood you're trying to set in the photo and move your body in a way that will convey that.
A French fashion editor and It-girl has tied the knot with her businessman beau in front of a host of glamorous guests near Bordeaux.
Blogger turned designer Anne-Laure Moreau, known to her 460,000 Instagram followers as Adenorah, wed Edouard Moreau over the weekend in a predictably stylish affair in which she underwent not one but two outfit changes.
The bride, whose maiden name is Mais and lives in Paris, wore a breathtaking boho dress custom made by Wednesday Atelier featuring a sweeping skirt, breezy v-neck bodice and delicate lace detail.
The pair said their vows in front of an impeccably dressed congregation at the Chapelle de l'Herbe, Sainte Marie, Cap Ferret.
Tres chic! Anne-Laure Moreau wed business manager Edouard Moreau over the weekend in an ultra-stylish ceremony in which she underwent not one but two outfit changes (pictured in her second dress after the ceremony at the Chapelle de l'Herbe, Sainte Marie, Cap Ferret)
The stunning seaside town provided the perfect backdrop for the stylish nuptials, with snaps from inside the reception showing tables festooned with Diptyque scented candles and elaborate floral centrepieces.
The bride teamed her gown with Miu Miu shoes, vintage Cartier jewels and a wedding ring from Stone Paris, according to Vogue - while the groom wore a De Fursac suit and Tod's shoes.
While her bridesmaids wore frocks from Jacquemus and The Loeil, with shoes from Anne-Laure's own newly-launched label Musier, the fashion bible reports.
The bride, who was born on La Reunion and grew up in Biarritz, carried a colourful bunch of wildflowers arranged by French florists Mar de chez Gaztelur.
Bride and groom Anne-Laure and Edouard Moreau following their wedding ceremony this weekend. The stunning seaside town of Sainte-Marie provided the perfect backdrop for the decadent nuptials, with snaps from inside the reception showing the ultra-stylish set-up
Stylish guests assemble outside before the wedding reception. After the ceremony, guests feasted on a cheese bouquet before dancing the night away at the Chateau de l'Isle near Bordeaux - with the bride changing into a ruched mini number from Magda Butrym
Guests pose for a snap outside the reception venue. London photography duo Morgane Lay and Jonny Cochrane - who recently shot Vincent Cassel and new wife Tina Kunakey for Vanity Fair Italia - were tasked with capturing the day, but guests shared unofficial snaps on Instagram
Anne-Laure and Edouard Moreau said their wedding vows in front of an achingly cool congregation at the Chapelle de l'Herbe, Sainte Marie, Cap Ferret over the weekend (pictured)
A detail from the wedding of Anne-Laure and Edouard Moreau. Posting a series of snaps of their big day on Instagram, the bride wrote: 'It's not wedding spam, it's just love'
Guests shared snaps from inside the couple's reception showing tables festooned with Diptyque scented candles and elaborate floral centrepieces (pictured)
Guests enjoyed a cheese buffet (pictured) at the wedding reception of Anne-Laure and Edouard Moreau over the weekend, with tables festooned with figs and wildflowers
After the ceremony, guests feasted on a cheese bouquet before dancing the night away at the Chateau de l'Isle near Bordeaux - with the bride changing into a ruched mini number from Magda Butrym.
London photography duo Morgane Lay and Jonny Cochrane - who recently shot Vincent Cassel and new wife Tina Kunakey for Vanity Fair Italia - were tasked with capturing the day.
The couple officially tied the knot last month in a civil ceremony with Anne-Laure wearing a customised frock from Pronovias.
And posting a series of snaps of their big day on Instagram, the bride wrote: 'It's not wedding spam, it's just love.
'Thank you all for being there, for your love and support, this weekend was a dream.'
A mother-of-two has given her home and wardrobe a 1950s revamp in a bid to 'distract' people from her disability.
Helen Brundrett, 40, from Manchester, was left unable to walk after the birth of her second child Arthur seven years ago, and was desperate to regain her confidence.
Also mother to Fraser, 10, Helen says embracing retro living has helped her find her own identity and feel she is being noticed for something other than her crutches or wheelchair.
Turning heads with her stunning vintage wardrobe - which includes traditional tea dresses, capri pants and waist-clinching belts - with her victory rolls and vampish red lipstick, she looks every inch the fifties starlet.
Helen Brundrett, 40, of Manchester, was determined to be noticed for more than her disability so she revamped her home and wardrobe to replicate the 1950s
Recalling her ordeal, Helen explained: 'With Fraser I was fine, but with Arthur, I suffered terrible pelvic pain. I could barely walk, and would be dragging my legs, as I couldn't lift my feet.
'Eventually, I ended up bedridden and doctors said I had a condition called symphysis pubis dysfunction (SPD), where the pelvic joint becomes swollen and unstable.'
The full-time mother continued: 'It was thought I'd get better after birth, but I never did. I tried to soldier on as best I could, but in the end I had to accept I couldn't walk unaided anymore, suck it up and get a wheelchair.
'Now, I need a wheelchair or crutches whenever I go out, so the way I dress is a way of distracting from that. I don't want people to see my chair first I want them to see my fabulous frock.'
Helen was left unable to walk after the birth of her second child Arthur, now seven, and was desperate to regain her confidence so turned to vintage dressing (seen with crutches)
Also mother to Fraser, 10, Helen says embracing retro living has helped her find her own identity, seen wearing a bardot top and patterned skirt in her vintage-themed home
Growing up, Helen, whose husband, Mark, 44, works in children's services, loved everything retro, from 1940s jazz to black and white films - although she lacked the confidence to adopt a vintage look.
But, around a year after having Arthur, her thinking changed.
She continued: 'It was a combination of being older and a bit more confident, and the fact I felt I'd lost my identity a little. I think women can feel that anyway when they have kids, but I was also dealing with all these health problems on top.
'I remember after getting my chair, I thought, 'If this is me now, I might as well make the most of it.'
'I finally bought a 1950s-style circle skirt I'd fallen in love with and it went from there. Gradually, I replaced all my old wardrobe.'
Now, Helen, who cannot work due to her condition, said she dresses up whenever she leaves the house, and trawls specialist online stores, vintage fairs and charity shops for her finds.
Turning heads with her stunning vintage get-ups - which include traditional tea dresses and vibrant prints, Helen feels she has finally found herself
Helen teams many of her ensembles with waist-clinching belts victory rolls and vampish red lipstick, so she looks every inch the 50s starlet.
With her fabulous ensembles, Helen finally feels as though she is being noticed for something other than her crutches or wheelchair
She continued: 'I don't even like taking the bins out if I haven't got my hair done. My husband always jokes about it, saying I can be too glamorous, but I don't think there's any such thing.
'I can tone down my look and go 1950s casual, with capri pants and a tie up shirt, but I love doing the full victory rolls and red lipstick.
'Now, I feel old and frumpy if I wear modern clothes. I had to get a long haul flight to New York recently and realised I didn't own anything comfy to wear for it. I bought some joggers and a denim jacket, but just felt so odd in them.
Growing up, Helen, whose husband, Mark, 44, works in children's services, loved everything retro, from 1940s jazz to black and white films and she has finally channeled that
When she was younger she lacked the confidence to adopt a vintage look but has now embraced the trend and lifestyle
About a year after having Arthur, her thinking changed and she felt confident enough to start experimenting with her clothes and hairstyles
'It's like I'm in fancy dress if I wear anything normal.'
A dab hand at tracking down bargains, Helen manages to get a lot of her pieces for around 10 a pop.
She also estimates that not following high street trends has saved her money, as she is not replacing clothes every few months, as they go out of style.
As well as her wardrobe, she has also revamped her home - kitting out her kitchen, living room and breakfast room in retro decor.
And, while they do not dress up themselves, she said her family love living in a time warp.
Helen, pictured here before her retro transformation, wore 'safer' options before but now she admits that she doesn't feel confident when she wears 'modern' clothing
Helen is seen when she used to dress in modern clothing, before she had trouble walking
'We all dress very differently, but they're great at helping me pick things out,' she said. 'My boys will tell me they like the dresses I wear and my friends and family are always asking me if I want old furniture they're chucking out.
'A lot of the vintage touches throughout our house have been donated by loved ones, as they know I like anything with a story.'
Documenting her looks and lifestyle on social media, Helen has earned hundreds of online fans.
Meanwhile, reactions are just as positive in real life, with admiring strangers often stopping her to compliment her look.
Helen has a 1950s-style kitchen and is often gifted furniture from friends who know she likes things 'with a story'
Helen said she receives compliments from admiring strangers on her look, especially from older generations
Helen said her look is a way of reclaiming her confidence now she is disabled and often finds her outfits for under 10
Disabled mother-of-two Helen said she feels 'old and frumpy' in modern clothes (pictured here in retro lipstick and bright clothing)
Helen, pictured here in a 1950s-style diner, looks right at home in her colour-coordinated ensemble
'Sometimes I will worry before I'm about to walk into a room that people will thing I look strange,' she said. 'Some people don't get it and don't understand why I want to look like this.
'But the older generation especially are really complimentary, as they remember the look the first time around.
'I just love the 1950s look. It's so glamorous and, if anything, I'd feel like I was in a costume if I wore anything else.'
A romantic hopeful who admitted he was wearing a wig to hide his baldness over dinner on First Dates Hotel won the heart of his date - and fans of the show.
Paul Bowen, 28, from Lancashire, was praised by his date Kimmie, 30, from Manchester, for his honesty.
The pastry entrepreneur explained to his date that he had lost the majority of his hair by the time he was 20 years old, and decided a hair piece was the only answer.
Viewers took to Twitter to gush over Paul's 'impressive' wig and one even said if things didn't work out for the pair then they would happily date the pie maker.
Paul Bowen admitted to his date Kimmie over dinner on Channel 4's First Dates Hotel that he wore a wig because he had gone bald
The bakery boss became a viral hit last year when he filmed his excitement at getting a new wig and documented the dramatic change it had for his previously bald head in another comedic video that racked up more than 15million views
Viewers praised Paul for being brave and telling Kimmie about wearing a wig, saying that if things didn't work out with her they would be happy to date the pie maker
Paul became a viral hit last year when he filmed his excitement at getting a new wig, and documented the dramatic change made to his previously bald head in another comedic video that racked up more than 15million views.
He explained to the cameras: 'On a date there's always something I like to tell them first rather than go a few dates down the line. I like to be open and honest about it.'
Paul then dropped the bombshell to Kimmie: 'There's something I have to admit, I will just tell you now just to get it over with.
'My hair is a wig.'
Doggy day care assistant Kimmie was unfazed by his revelation saying: 'That is one of the best wigs I've ever seen in my life. So your hair fell out?'
'By 20 years old it was pretty much gone. So I went to this clinic and I said I was thinking of a hair transplant, but he said "sorry Paul you're too late for a hair transplant it's too far gone,' Paul revealed.
'The only option for you is a non-surgical hair piece and I just went "a f***ing wig?!"
Kimmie was totally smitten telling Paul that he suited a bald head as well as with hair.
Paul explained to his date that he had lost the majority of his hair by the time he was 20 years old and a hair piece was the only answe
The end of the first date went well as the pair had plenty of chemistry, talking about their families and what they want in a partner
He charmed his way through the date after complaining originally that girls don't normally go for his look.
'I think girls like me, but something goes wrong. Girls they want that shredded look, the tatts, the hair... I'm just an average Joe.
'Girls like tall, dark and handsome and I'm just small and ginger. It's dead hard.'
He then recalled a brutal encounter with a woman on a night out: 'Girls say having no hair doesn't matter, but I'm telling you it does. You can put a fancy shirt on but there's always something missing.
'I was actually at the bar and I was chatting with this girl, I bought her a drink and she took it then at the end of the night I asked if I could get her number and she said "no I don't date bald people".
'It was like "ow".
Paul recalled a brutal encounter with a woman on a night out where he bought her drinks all night but then when he asked for her number she told him she 'didn't date bald men'
The cute pair went on a second date the following day on the show which is filmed on location in Italy and sees people from the UK matched on blind dates
Kimmie said afterwards: 'I appreciated how honest you were straight away about your baldness, it's how you should be, it was nice'
The pair enjoyed their dinner along with Paul's awkward jokes and he picked up the bill with both of them agreeing they'd like to see each other again.
In First Dates Hotel, which is filmed on location in Italy, they were seen going on a second date the next day for coffee and there was a promising future for the pair.
Kimmie said afterwards: 'I appreciated how honest you were straight away about your baldness, it's how you should be, it was nice.
'Not a lot of people are like that nowadays. You were really brave to be honest.'
First Dates Hotel returns next Tuesday on Channel 4 at 9.15pm
Great British Bake Off contestant Manon Legreve has already impressed the judges but it was not her mouth-watering culinary creations that had viewers talking after last night's episode.
The French-born baker faced accusations of cheating after she left a plastic wrapper on her showstopper cake to stop it from melting before it was presented to the judges.
It came after she became the first contestant ever to say 'f****d' in the tent - a feat that left even laid-back presenter Noel Fielding open-mouthed in shock.
French-born Great British Bake Off contestant Manon Legreve faced accusations of cheating after she left a plastic wrapper on her showstopper cake to stop it from melting before it was presented to the judges. Pictured, Paul Hollywood peeling the wrapper off the cake
The talented baker, pictured, took the decision to leave the plastic wrap on her chocolate cake collar because it hadn't set in the soaring heat. She was unabashed when questioned by Paul
Manon also became the first contestant ever to say 'f****d' in the tent - a feat that left even laid-back presenter Noel Fielding open-mouthed in shock at the slip, pictured
The scandalous moments left viewers reeling, with some accusing Manon of 'not playing by the rules'. Others pointed out that swearing is not allowed on the 'wholesome' show
Another posted: 'Why is no one pointing it that Manon CHEATED by leaving her plastic collar on, therefore giving it extra time to set! CHEAT!!!!'
One tweeted: 'Manon is a rule breaker. No one breaks rules on bake off. I love her #BakeOff #GBBO #CakeWeek.'
Last nights episode saw the 11 contestants trying to cope with making a chocolate-covered cake in sweltering temperatures.
It was filmed at the start of May, when the heat outside climbed to an unseasonal 28C (82F). Two contestants in particular who failed to cope were Luke Thompson and Terry Hartill.
Manon took the strategic decision to leave the plastic wrap on the bottom layer of her two-tier princess castle cake (seen in foreground) to stop it from melting before it was judged
The move meant the tempered chocolate collar, pictured, a key part of the showstopper challenge, had time to set before it was brought before the judges at the end of the show
Other contestants came unstuck in the hot tent, with temperatures outside climbing to an unseasonal 28C (82F). Pictured, Luke's attempt at a white chocolate and raspberry showstopper was left a soggy, sloping mess by the time it was presented to judges
Some outraged Bake Off fans called for Manon to be booted off the show for 'cheating'
Terrys champagne and strawberries Eiffel Tower collar cake failed to set, slumping to one side before collapsing. Lukes white chocolate and raspberry showstopper failed to set and was criticised by judge Paul Hollywood, who said his sponge wasnt good.
Manon, noticing her chocolate also hadn't set in the final moments of the challenge, decided to leave the plastic acetate on until the moment it came before the judges.
Trying to cut into the two-layer princess cake, Hollywood asked: 'What's going on? Why wasn't this taken off?',' he added later: 'It's a very, very nice cake. Very smart. It's a shame you left the acetate on.'
Many viewers took a less measured approach, with one tweeting: 'Manon so clearly just cheated!!! Well fuming.' Another added: 'wtf Manon ya cheat???? surely her choc can't have saved her when it was set like 10 mins after the finishing time?'
Presenters Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig were left shocked, pictured, when Manon said the word 'f****d' while having a conversation at her station during the showstopper challenge
The moment caught viewers off-guard but some declared it a highlight of the popular show
Earlier in the show Manon, who won star baker last week, left viewers reeling when she said 'f****d' while chatting with Fielding and co-presenter Sandi Toksvig during the showstopper.
Pointing to boy and girl cake-toppers she made for her cake, Fielding asked: 'Are these us? Is this Sandi?' Deadpan Manon responded: 'Yeah thats you, youre fast asleep. And thats Sandi f**ked off because youre late.'
Shocked by her expression, Noel looked into the camera and announced: 'I think shes looking at the wrong script!'
Research scientist Rahul Mandal excelled in the heat and was named star baker. His chocolate orange layer cake with shards of chocolate won the first Hollywood handshake of the series.
iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The White House is doubling down on its warning to the Syrian regime not to use chemical weapons ahead of an expected assault on Idlib province in northwest Syria, saying the U.S. will respond "swiftly and appropriately."
It's the strongest warning yet as the U.S. tries to assert a greater role in Syria and prevent what it says would be a humanitarian disaster, even as Syria and its allies, including Russia, prepare for an offensive into the heavily populated province. But the threat of retaliation extends only to the potential use of chemical weapons, with critics charging that the U.S. has done nothing to stop Assad's march on rebel enclaves elsewhere in the country.
In a statement on Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the U.S. was "closely monitoring the situation in Idlib province, Syria, where millions of innocent civilians are under threat of an imminent Assad regime attack, backed by Russia and Iran."
In particular, Sanders warned that "If [Syrian] President Bashar al-Assad chooses to again use chemical weapons, the United States and its Allies will respond swiftly and appropriately," after the Trump administration has twice ordered airstrikes on Assad regime targets following its use of chemical weapons.
But more broadly, the threat of an Assad offensive into Idlib would be "an unacceptable, reckless escalation of the conflict," State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement Tuesday, adding Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, and they agreed on this point.
Still, there were reports Tuesday of Russian fighter jets already bombing parts of the suburbs around Idlib city as it backs Assad in what could be an all-out offensive to retake the province seen as the last stronghold of Syrian rebel groups.
The Russian government maintains that Idlib is a "hotbed of terrorism," with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov telling reporters that President Trump's opposition to Russian military action there shows his "limited approach" to the situation.
There are some groups the U.S. and its allies consider terrorists based in Idlib, including al Qaeda's affiliate Hay'at Tahrir al Sham. But there are also nearly three million civilians living there, more than one million of them displaced from elsewhere in Syria, according to human rights groups. Any offensive would, therefore, be incredibly deadly or unleash an even larger wave of refugees into neighboring Turkey and beyond.
The U.S. military campaign in Syria is instead focused on fighting another terror group in the north and east of the country -- ISIS.
The president and his top advisers, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have said since Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin that they want to work with Russia on counterterrorism. But the divide over Idlib shows how difficult that will be, with the two sides in disagreement on who even is a terrorist.
In a tweet on Monday, Trump called for Assad to "not recklessly attack Idlib Province," adding that "the Russians and Iranian would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy." His Twitter message was seen as an escalation of the U.S. war of words, as Trump has rarely weighed in on Syria, where he has said he wants to withdraw U.S. troops and aid.
For two weeks now, Defense Secretary James Mattis, National Security Adviser John Bolton, and Pompeo have been urging Assad and his allies not to wage an offensive into Idlib province. That message was also communicated in person to the Russian ambassador in Washington by Amb. David Satterfield, top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, and Amb. Jim Jeffrey, the new Special Representative for Syria Engagement.
But the U.S.'s strongest words have been saved for a warning that the U.S. would respond to another chemical weapons attack, as it did after the attacks in Khan Sheikhoun in April 2017 and Douma in April 2018. Each attack killed nearly a hundred civilians, including women and children.
In response to the Douma attack earlier this year, the U.S., France, and the United Kingdom launched targeted airstrikes at three locations related to chemical weapons development. The Assad regime has denied the use of chemical weapons and delayed independent chemical weapons inspectors' access to the site of the attack.
For weeks, Moscow has attempted to portray the U.S. and its partners as the ones actually planning to stage a chemical weapons attack in Idlib as a pretext for again striking Assad.
"This is absurd," Pentagon spokesperson Navy Cmdr. Sean Robertson told ABC News in a statement on Friday. "That Russia is seeking to plant false lies about chemical weapons use suggests that Moscow is seeking to deflect from its own culpability when these heinous weapons are used. Russia's efforts to obscure the truth only underscore its years-long role in abetting the murder and mayhem conducted by the Assad regime."
After the Douma attack, the Russian government said it had evidence that the chemical weapons attack was "staged," despite U.S. intelligence assessments that it was conducted by the Syrian regime with knowledge by the Russians.
Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
A mother-of-two has described her fury after being denied a seat on a packed commuter train while breastfeeding her son.
Kate Hitchens was forced to stand for half an hour as she travelled home from Stratford to Wickford on Tuesday after a work event.
The 32-year-old, from Essex, said she felt 'uncomfortable and embarrassed' breastfeeding six-month-old Charlie while standing up on the busy carriage and claims fellow commuters noticed but did not offer her a seat.
She told MailOnline: 'I'd actually spent the afternoon in London after the event and had used the tube, everyone until this point had been really friendly and helpful on the underground, helping with my buggy up stairs and offering their seats.
Mother-of-two Kate Hitchens, from Essex, posted this snap to Instagram after she was forced to stand for half an hour as she travelled home from Stratford to Wickford on Tuesday with following a work event (pictured with baby Charlie); her post has racked up over 500 likes
'I actually declined one teenage boy's offer of his seat as Charlie was happy in his buggy and I didn't feel I needed it more than he did at the time.'
But to her dismay, when she boarded her commuter train back to Wickford and the youngster began crying out for a feed, there was no offers of somewhere to sit.
Frustrated, the blogger snapped a selfie during her train ride and penned an Instagram post about her ordeal which quickly racked up almost 600 likes in a matter of hours.
Kate, who is also mother to three-year-old Oliver, wrote: 'On my way home from London on a packed commuter train and this is what I faced.
'What has the world come to that a mother has to stand up on a moving train breastfeeding a wriggling and writhing six-month-old, 20 lb baby?!
Kate Hitchens with baby Charlie, who she was carrying as she travelled from London to Wickford this week. Also a mother to three-year-old OIiver, she blogs about family recipes
'The point here isn't just that I found it difficult because I was nursing (although that was b****y difficult!), but that not one person offered a mother carrying a small child a seat for around half an hour, or three stops!'
Admitting that she felt too 'silly' to ask to sit down, Kate claims that some of her fellow passengers saw she was struggling because they 'made eye contact and smiled'.
She added: 'I cannot get my head around not offering a parent with a child a seat.
'Next time you see someone with a child on a train - if you're able bodied and fit and healthy please offer your seat to them.'
Kate told MailOnline: 'I felt uncomfortable and embarrassed breastfeeding standing up on the busy train. Although I'm happy to feed anywhere he needs it, I do still try and be discreet and not show my breasts, wearing clothing designed for nursing.
Kate (pictured in a recent snap with her son Charlie) snapped a selfie during her breastfeeding train ride this week and penned an Instagram post about her ordeal which has since racked up almost 600 likes in a matter of hours
Mother-of-two Kate with six-month old Charlie and Oliver, three months. The blogger was left upset and uncomfortable after commuters forced her to stand on a train for half an hour
'Because I was having to stand up and hold [Charlie's] 20 lb weight, I was uncomfortable physically as well as personally.
'As the train moved he pulled and it hurt. I also felt uncomfortable myself as I accidentally exposed more of myself to the people standing around me than I usually would sitting down, trying to hold him wriggling in one arm whilst sorting myself out with the other hand was difficult.
'Usually I balance him on my knee so I have both hands free and can do my top up discreetly.'
Kate writes a blog, hitchenskitchen.co.uk, chronicling the ups and downs of weaning her baby as well as healthy family recipes.
Prince Charles attended a star-studded engagement on Wednesday where he joined the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch and Myleene Klass at the Royal Albert Hall.
Charles, patron of Children & the Arts, joined his industry leaders for a conference to discuss creativity in school after it was revealed that he is 'very concerned' about the decline of artistic subjects.
The Prince of Wales received a warm welcome from the stars who had assembled alongside their families at the request of the royal.
The 69-year-old could be seen catching up with old friend Myleene Klass, whom he has met on a number of occasions, as well as he two daughters Hero, seven, and Ava, 11.
Following his visit to the historic theatre, Charles was joined by the Duchess of Cornwall at St Katharine Docks where they met with Princess Haya bint Hussein of Jordan.
The trio paid a visit to the newly refurbished 'Maiden' Yacht which will work with partner charities to promote the education of girls around the world.
Scroll down for video
Prince Charles joined Myleene Klass and her two daughters Ava and Hero at the Royal Albert Hall on Wednesday for a conference on creativity in school
Other celebrity guests included actor Benedict Cumberbatch (centre) who was seen having a stimulating conversation with His Majesty alongside Amanda Holden (left) and Arlene Phillips (right)
The Yacht was famously used by the first all-female crew to sail in the Whitbread Round the World Race in which they finished second in 1990
At the Royal Albert Hall event, broadcaster and professional classical musician, Myleene said: The idea that someone can look at the arts and decide that it is a softer subject has never had to sit in a hot, suffocating practice room for eight hours just to try and perfect a peace.
'The dedication that it takes, the life skills that you learn, are second to none.
Other celebrity guests included actor Benedict Cumberbatch who was seen having a stimulating conversation with His Majesty alongside Amanda Holden and Arlene Phillips.
Charles looked in great spirits as he left HMS President with his wife Camilla after their visit to the newly refurbished 'Maiden' Yacht at St Katharine Docks
are introduced to crew members of the the newly refurbished 'Maiden' Yacht by the original skipper Tracy Edwards MBE during their visit to St Katharine Docks
Camilla had a practice run at the wheel of the 'Maiden' Yacht as she visited with Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein of Jordan on an overcast day in London
Mind how you go! The Prince of Wales watched his step as he dismounted the 'Maiden' Yacht at St Katharine Dock forllowing a guided tour
Andrew Lloyd Webber was among the other VIPs at the event today and joined the prince to watch a performance from a local school choir.
The heir to the throne gave an off-the-cuff speech during the event to discuss creativity in schools.
Charles bemoaned the fact that as a nation we too often fragment life and should appreciate how valuable our creative industries are to us as a nation both economically and socially.
Highlighting the role his own grandmother, the late Queen Mother, had in encouraging him to embrace the sphere, he said: It seems to me that we fragment life too often.
Andrew Lloyd Webber was among the other VIPs at the event today and joined the prince to watch a performance from a local school choir (pictured)
Sir Lenny Henry could be seen introducing the royal to a group of local school children also attending the conference
Zoe Wannamaker (right) and Meera Syal (left) were seen shaking hands with the prince as he made his way around the room of guests
Shortly after Charles made the short trip to the Old Vic to celebrate the theatre's 200th anniversary where he joined actress Imelda Staunton for a performance
The royal appeared to be enjoying the special performance and was unable to wipe the smile off his face throughout the play
Apart from the joy of all the arts, it is a very good discipline. It makes you look. And I think half the problem nowadays is that people arent encouraged to observe and really look.
I know so many actors, actresses and musicians are there because they have had a grandmother, a mother or father or teacher who inspire them to take interest.
As a result, we in this country have a fantastic reputation for its creative industries. We dont realise enough how much these creative industries contribute to our whole economy.
Ahoy there! Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall stands at the helm of the 'Maiden' yacht during an official visit at St Katharine Docks
The royal couple were joined by their counterpart Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein of Jordan during a visit to see the Maiden yacht at HMS President in London
Prince Charles looked in great spirits during this afternoon's visit to HMS President with his wife Camilla and Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein of Jordan, after attending a creativity conference at the Royal Albert Hall
Mind your step! The heir to the throne seemed to wobble a little as he climbed off the Maiden Yacht at HMS President while his wife Camilla looked on
If you are thinking just in purely economic terms its worthwhile, but also in terms of developing the whole person and having a real understanding about life, the arts and the creative side of life is vital. So of course are engineering skills and all these things, but we mustnt see things in separate compartments.
I hope that we might be able to understand the need we have in this country to ensure these things are joined up and operating in harmony.
The prince had earlier arrived at the Royal Albert Hall in London in a new electric Jaguar costing 60,000 that he will now use for official engagements.
Asked how the eco-friend drive was, Charles chuckled: Silent but deadly!
Charles was later joined by Camilla to meet Princess Haya bint Hussein of Jordan (seen right) at St Katherine Dock
The Duchess of Cornwall and Prince of Wales are joining the princess to visit the newly refurbished 'Maiden' Yacht which will work with partner charities to promote the education of girls around the world
The royal couple were accompanied by local cabin crew who were on hand to help them on and off the boat today
And it seems that the royal has already settled in to his new motor, which he has believed to have got earlier this week, with his famous cushion seen on the backseat today.
It has previously been reported that the 69-year-old always travels with a cushion to sit on to 'help his sore back.'
He first attended a round table discussion with luminaries including Lord Lloyd Webber and his brother, musician Julian, about how to encourage creativity and the arts in schools.
The prince founded his charity in 2006 to tackle inequality through concentrated arts experiences. The charity works with venues across the UK to reach children who may be in danger of missing out on creative and cultural experiences.
Much of the discussion centred on whether there was a need for an arts tsar and how to encourage schools to promote arts on the timetable.
Prince Charles arrived at the Royal Albert Hall in his state of the art 60,000 electric Jaguar on Wednesday for a conference on arts in schools
The 69-year-old royal appeared to be in good spirits as he arrived at the London landmark in his new motor on Wednesday
Lord Hall, Director General of the BBC, enthused about the role the public broadcaster had has in promoting and inspiring the creative arts, particularly by encouraging young performers.
This is about us all working to together on the things that matter to us, he said.
Lord Lloyd Webber also called for a new music tsar and said: Arts in education, whatever anyone likes to say, has had their funding reduced. I believe this to be a great, great mistake.
'Its also about the attitude of teachers and wanting children to embrace and enjoy arts in the widest possible form.
'The arts on the widest level are vital to this country. Its not just about turning kids into musicians or telling them to go into the theatre or whatever, its about empowering our kids. We owe it to our kids that we do exactly that.
Charles is said to be 'very keen' to encourage other children to 'share the magic' of performance and will discuss this at today's conference
The grandfather-of-three appeared to have put his mark on his new car already with the cushion he famously travels with seen on the backseat
He then paid a visit to the Old Vic theatre in celebration of its 200th anniversary where he took a seat alongside Imelda Staunton for a performance.
It was revealed today that His Royal Highness is 'very concerned' about the decline of the arts in schools, the boss of one of his charities has said.
Rosie Millard, chief executive of Charles's Children & The Arts organisation, made the comment before stars gathered to discuss the issue at his request.
The former BBC arts correspondent said the Royal Albert Hall conference was 'the next stage' in a campaign to 'increase and stop the general slide of arts and creativity in schools for children and young people.
What features does Jaguar's new electric car have? -One full charge gives you a range of up to 292 miles -It has an automatic transmission -Five seats and 656 litres of boot space -Can reach 60 mph in 4.5 seconds -A top speed of 124 mph -The interior features a floating console at the heart of the cabin where you can control everything, including temperatures of the seats -You can even use your smartphone to ensure the vehicle is at the desired temperature before you enter it Advertisement
'The prince is very concerned about it and he wanted to have this day to bring together educationalists, politicians and arts leaders, artists and people to whom this matters and for whom arts has been their life.'
Ms Millard spoke about how the prince's passion for the arts was fostered by his grandmother.
'The Prince of Wales is aware that he has had an amazing life and because of his position has outstanding access to arts and creativity which he's always been a huge supporter of.'
She added: 'When he was a young boy he was taken by the Queen Mother to see the Bolshoi Ballet and to see Shakespeare and he said he didn't really understand it ... but he was aware of the magic of arts performance and the magic, beauty and creativity of culture.'
She said he was 'very keen' that all children and young people across the country should 'share that magic and have a chance to see that magic.'
She added that parents needed to be reassured that doing an art or music A-level would not result in their child 'starving in a garret'.
Ms Millard went on to say that the arts should not be the preserve of the middle classes at home and should be 'baked into the school day'.
The coalition government, during Michael Gove's tenure as education secretary, introduced the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) which measures the numbers of pupils achieving a grade C - or grade 5 under the new grading system - at GCSE in English, maths, science, history or geography, and a language.
There were concerns at the time the focus on these core subjects would squeeze out others, such as art and drama.
The Royal Albert Hall event will see leading figures from movies, music, television and politics discuss the state of the arts and creativity in schools.
BBC director-general Tony Hall and former Tate director Nicholas Serota will be some of the individuals attending.
Other guests include comic Lenny Henry, performer Myleene Klass, designer Dame Vivienne Westwood, cellist Julian Lloyd-Webber, actors Adrian Lester, Robert Lindsay, David Morrissey, Meera Syal and Zoe Wanamaker, and Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright and Arts Minister Michael Ellis.
As the King and Queen of Spain, Felipe and Letizia are well-versed in shaking hands and posing for photos wherever they go.
But today's meet and greet saw them come face to face with a rather unusual guest.
The royal couple were introduced to a large white bull as they attended the opening of the agriculture and fish fair in Salamanca, Spain.
Scroll down for video
King Felipe and Queen Letizia were introduced to a large white bull as they attended the opening of the agriculture and fish fair in Salamanca, Spain, pictured
Letizia struck the perfect balance between smart and casual in a shirt dress at the fair. The frock fell to just below the sleeves and she turned up the cuffs to add a touch of sartorial flair
Letizia wore her hair in an elegant low bun, adding a touch of colour to her make-up with blusher and eyeshadow as she joined King Felipe at the fair in Salamanca on Wednesday
There was a handler standing between the VIP visitors and the impressive beast, but that didn't stop Letizia and Felipe from looking a little dubious.
Letizia struck the perfect balance between smart and casual in a button-down shirt dress for the occasion.
The chic frock fell to just below the sleeves and Letizia turned up the cuffs to add a touch of sartorial flair.
Brave Felipe extended a hand towards the bull as they were introduced to the impressive animal at the fair. Despite wearing leather shoes, the king was still willing to stand on the sand
However King Felipe appeared rather nervous as he came face-to-face with an inquisitive bull at the popular event on Wednesday
The king appeared somewhat apprehensive as he posed near the grand bulls on show, at one point sheepishly waving his hand and appearing to wave at one unsuspecting creature
She finished the look with a trendy striped belt which cinched in her waist.
Injecting a splash of colour, she coordinated her belt with a bold red envelope clutch and adding height to her stature in delicate black slingbacks.
Letizia wore her hair in an elegant low bun, adding a touch of colour to her make-up with blusher and eyeshadow.
Meanwhile Felipe cut an imposing figure in a grey suit, crisp blue shirt and flower-embellished tie.
Showing off her fashion credentials, Letizia opted for a button-up denim shirt dress, cinched in at the waist by a striped belt at the fair
Injecting a splash of colour, Letizia coordinated her belt with a bold red envelope clutch and adding height to her stature in delicate black slingbacks
The king appeared somewhat apprehensive as he posed near the grand bulls on show, at one point sheepishly waving his hand and appearing to wave at one unsuspecting creature.
Letizia was seen looking on and smiling as she kept a safe distant from the handsome beasts.
The event aims to promote business and commercial activities in Spain's province of Castile and Leon.
This year, the event is focusing on industrial baking and patisserie necessities in Salamanca, as well as publicising its new facilities in the city.
The couple married ten years ago at Cathedral Santa Maria la Real de la Almudena in Madrid.
Relieved couple Letizia and Felipe were then seen exploring the rest of the 2018 Salamanca September Fair
The event aims to promote business and commercial activities in Spain's province of Castile and Leon
Letizia wore her hair in an elegant low bun, adding a touch of colour to her make-up with blusher and eyeshadow
As term time begins this week, social media has been flooded with snaps of youngsters embarking on the new school year but a security expert has warned that proud parents could be putting their youngsters at risk.
Raj Samani, chief scientist at Cyber security company McAfee, argues that predators can easily piece together information from a back to school photo posted online.
Speaking to Femail, the British security expert said: 'Before proud parents share their childrens first day photos on social media, they must consider the potential consequences of what they post.
'These sorts of images can be used to gather personal information such as school, location, a childs full name, or even birth dates to paint a picture of who they are.
'Parents must think twice about what they share on social media, their privacy settings and who they allow in their social network - before it is too late.'
Revealing his top tips to staying safe online for parents, Raj highlighted the importance of disabling location-tagging and setting ground rules with friends.
Security expert Raj Samani has warned parents against posting pictures of their children's first day at school, arguing that they could fall into the wrong hands (stock images used)
How parents can keep their children safe online
1. Think and then post
Before posting a picture on social media, ensure that there is nothing in the photo that could be used as an identifier like birth dates, visible home addresses, school uniforms, financial details or passwords in the photo.
Parents should ask themselves if this is a photo that they would be okay with a stranger seeing
2. Disable geo-tagging
Many social networks will tag a users location when a photo is uploaded. Parents should ensure this feature is turned off so as not to give away their current location. This is especially important when posting photos away from home.
Raj Samani, chief scientist at Cyber security company McAfee, shared the stark warning to parents
3. Maximise privacy settings on social media
Parents should only share photos and other social media posts with their intended audience.
Everything posted on a social network should be treated as if its public. Deleted never means disappeared forever.
4. Set ground rules with friends, family and children
Be clear with friends and family about guidelines when posting about your children.
These rules can help avoid unwanted situations where a family member has shared photos without explicit permission.
5. Ask for consent
Requesting a childs consent before you post pics is essential but be prepared for them to say no. We should always consider their digital reputation and bright futures before sharing.
Cynthia Nixon has opened up about her mother's illegal abortion, in an effort to highlight the bleak future some could face if the procedure were criminalized or restricted again.
Nixon, 52, explained in a new video released on Tuesday as part of her run for New York governor that her mother Anne Knoll Nixon, who died in 2013, had an abortion when it was still illegal in New York State.
The candidate has made reproductive rights one of the cornerstones of her campaign, and has highlighted the dangers of illegal abortions several times in the past, including as part of her work as an activist prior to her gubernatorial run.
Scroll down for video
Past: Cynthia Nixon opened up about her mother's illegal abortion in a new campaign video released on Tuesday as part of her run for New York governor
Talk: Nixon (pictured with her mother Anne Knoll Nixon in 2011) , 52, explained that her mother, who died in 2013, told her when she was younger that she had gotten an illegal abortion
'When I got old enough, my mother told me she had had an abortion and that she had had an abortion when it was actually illegal in New York,' Nixon said in her new campaign video.
'She said it was a really awful experience and she really didn't want to talk about it in any detail, but at the same time I could tell how important it was that she convey this information to me.
'I think that that's also a forgotten part of it, what a deep, dark secret you had to keep.'
Nixon also recounted how she attended her first reproductive rights event at the age of 13.
'It was a great kind of moment of female solidarity,' she said. 'It's an important issue in and of itself but I also think it's really important as a marker. Do you support people's rights to make choices about their own lives?'
Conversation: 'She said it was a really awful experience and she really didn't want to talk about it in any detail,' Nixon said of her mother (pictured in an archive photo)
The candidate shared the video on her Instagram account on Wednesday as part of her push against the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, 53.
'With #BrettKavanaugh's confirmation hearings underway, I can't help but think of my mother and the story of her illegal abortion,' she wrote.
'We can never go back. #StopKavanaugh #SCOTUS'
During his decade as a judge, Kavanaugh, who was being grilled by Senate lawmakers on Wednesday, has not ruled directly on abortion but has signaled sympathy for legal arguments made by anti-abortion advocates.
Last October, he was on a panel of judges that issued an order preventing a 17-year-old illegal immigrant detained in Texas by U.S. authorities from immediately obtaining an abortion. That decision was overturned by the full appeals court and she had the abortion.
In a 2017 speech, Kavanaugh praised several opinions written by former Chief Justice William Rehnquist, including his dissent in Roe v. Wade.
Mother-daughter: Nixon (pictured with her mother in 2004) said she could tell how important it was for her mother to tell her daughter about the illegal procedure
Previously: She also mentioned the abortion at a rally in July, during which she held a coat hanger as a way to warn against the dangers of illegal procedures
Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing has strong political overtones ahead of the November election, but Democrats lack the votes to block his confirmation.
They fear Kavanaugh will push the court to the right on abortion, guns and other issues, and that he will side with Trump in cases stemming from Mueller's investigation of Trump's 2016 campaign.
Kavanaugh could potentially be the deciding vote on overturning the 1973 decision. The court is currently split four-four on ideological lines.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, a conservative whom Kavanaugh would replace, disappointed conservatives by backing abortion rights in two key cases.
Conservatives hope Kavanaugh will seal a majority that would at least be willing to curb abortion rights if not overturn Roe.
This is not the first time Nixon has discussed her mother's abortion. She mentioned it at a rally in July, during which she held a coat hanger as a way to warn against the dangers of illegal procedures.
Platform: The gubernatorial candidate (pictured campaigning in Brooklyn on Monday) has often spoken out in support of reproductive rights
Judge: Nixon shared the video on her Instagram account on Wednesday as part of her push against the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, 53
Nixon also wrote about her mother's experience in a 2016 essay for Time Magazine defending abortion rights.
'Over 50 years ago, my mother had an abortion,' she wrote.
'She was a working woman in New York City with an office job for Goodson and Todman, the TV game show producers who created everything from What's My Line? to Family Feud.
'She never was willing to tell me any details about her abortion, except to let me know that she had one and it was awful and scary.'
Nixon added: 'Abortion at that time was illegal and often unsafe. Many women back then were so desperate they attempted to perform the abortion themselves, in some cases causing irreparable harm to their bodies. Some women died. Most were made to feel ashamed.
'I am deeply grateful that my mother was able to get the abortion she needed without any health complications but I am heartsick to contemplate what her experience must have been so that she was unable to speak about it, even decades later.'
Early September: the time of year when social media feeds are filled with photographs of grinning children wearing spotless uniforms on the first day of the new school year.
This week, over half 53 per cent of UK parents will plan to share snaps of their youngsters on the doorsteps of their homes as they set off to school, attracting comments like: Aw, so cute and How time flies.
Yet when four-year-old Lucy Lewis starts Reception this week, her mother Nicola wont be posting any pictures of this milestone moment.
When Lucy was just two years old, she was stalked by a stranger who collected all the happy family snapshots Nicola had posted online and re-posted them on more than ten fake social media accounts, interspersed with shots of a pornographic model of the same name.
Experts revealed the dangers many parents are unaware of when posting photographs of their children on social media. Gemma Hawkins, 31, (pictured with her children Lilly and Teddy) recalls the shock of discovering images of her son being used without her permission on Instagram
Mum of one Nicola, 33, from Bromley, Kent, says: I used to post sweet snaps of Lucy in a new dress or playing with her toys on my Twitter feed, which only had about 200 followers, including lots of friends and family.
Then one day I got a notification that a complete stranger was re-tweeting my photos. When I looked, this persons feed was full of them. I couldnt tell who it was as the profile picture was a cartoon character, the location was given as Canada, and they used weird, made-up names.
When I sent a message asking why this person was using my childs image in such a disturbing way, they never replied.
Panicked, Nicola, who works as an artist, blocked the account only to find more kept popping up over the next month, on both Twitter and Facebook, with some using her child as the header picture until eventually she had to call in the police.
Nicola says: You think: There are billions of pictures of kids out there, why would anyone take an unhealthy interest in mine? But then it happens to you. It was terrifying. I felt like I was being watched constantly.
Yet despite risks that include attracting the interest of paedophiles (horribly, its often photos of children in school uniform that hold most interest for them), fraudsters and even burglars, this week UK parents will add millions more pictures to the 1.3 billion they post on social media every year.
A third of them, often revealing the schools children attend (through badges and logos) and even clues to addresses, such as door numbers, will be shared on accounts which are not private, according to new research released by cyber security firm McAfee.
And this week, it became all too clear just how many cruise the web with dark intentions. In a speech to technology giants, Home Secretary Sajid Javid revealed there are at least 80,000 paedophiles active in the UK on social media. A crop of fresh new photos flagged with hashtags such as #firstdayofschool2018 (which on Instagram alone brings up 2.5 million images) gives paedophiles a vast new library of images to comb through.
Gemma says she received over 100 friend requests a day on Instagram from strangers who had images of child pornography on their accounts. She says nothing happened when she reported the problem to the social media platform (file image)
According to security expert Will Geddes, the author of Parent Alert! How To Keep Your Kids Safe Online, many parents have no idea how their perfectly innocent picture of precious family memories can be used in disturbing ways.
One way photos can be abused is deep faking in which normal childhood pictures are manipulated so that the head of a child is superimposed onto anothers naked body or adult pornographic images. They are then uploaded and shared via paedophile sites.
Millions more gleaned from parents social media accounts are not tampered with at all. Yet the lurid comments from users make it clear their interest is unhealthy.
Mum-of-two Gemma Hawkins, from the South-East, was shocked to discover how her eight-year-old sons pictures were being used without her knowledge. As a result of her experience, the only people Gemma, 31, will be sharing start-of-term pictures of Teddy and his sister Lilly, six, with are her parents.
How common is identity fraud? Identity fraud in Britain hit a record high of 174,523 incidents last year, up 125 per cent since 2007 Advertisement
Gemma says: I always thought I was careful. I posted pictures on Instagram, but I kept my settings private. But then in January, I got a friend request from a modelling promotion page and I accepted. Now I feel I was naive, but at the time I thought it was harmless.
Not once did I send them any pictures of my son or give them permission to use his pictures.
But within a few days, I started getting over 100 friend requests a day from men I didnt know. When I clicked on the profile pictures, there were no faces, but images of child pornography.
Then I saw pictures of my son on the modelling promotion account. From my feed, and without my permission, theyd taken a picture of him playing on a rope swing and also messing about with some paint, so hed had to take his shirt off.
There were comments like Handsome Lad and Good looking boy. I felt sick.
I messaged the account to ask them to take the pictures down and they ignored me.
Will Geddes warns photos with school badges can lead predators to a child's exact location (file images)
I reported them to Instagram and they didnt do anything, so I closed my account. I felt terrible. Id failed Teddy because its my job as a mother to protect him.
It really opened my eyes to how easily photos of children can be stolen and misused.
Yet its often photos of children in school uniform that most interest paedophiles, a taste fostered by easy access to the huge number of openly available pornographic sites with titles such as School Uniform Porn, featuring young adults dressed up as pupils.
A quick look through recent court reports of paedophile cases illustrates how many ask victims to send pictures of themselves in their school uniforms while they are grooming them.
Will Geddes says parents must also bear in mind how easily school badges on blazers, sweatshirts and rucksacks can lead predators to your childs exact location.
It opens up to an undesirable person the opportunity to think: Oh, thats where that child goes to school. While they are more likely to just circulate pictures, I dont think you can discount the risk that they develop an unhealthy interest in the child or the school.
In the vast majority of cases, parents will never have the slightest inkling of how their childs pictures are used for the sexual gratification of predators, says Will.
Alexandra Neil, 32, found a profile with over 30 stolen photos of her children. The profile owner pretended the images were of their own children (file image)
Police have to prioritise investigating images that show children being actively abused and dont have time to trace parents when pictures of children in uniform are found.
Alexandra Neil, 32, from South-West London, is another mother-of-two who was shocked to discover more than 30 photos of her children stolen from her Instagram account.
Two weeks ago, I had a private message from one of my followers saying shed seen some pictures of my children posted on another page, under another womans name, pretending they were hers.
While they had used the childrens real names, the captions were different and the woman was saying how she looked forward to seeing them.
Alexandra said: The page had been set up a few weeks earlier and already had nearly 400 followers.
It was extremely scary, especially as the profile was fake. There was no evidence this woman existed in real life. I told them to stop, but I never heard back and eventually Instagram took the account down last week. It made me stop wanting to put my life and family out there.
Experts claim not only can posting photos reveal someone's location it can also open up families to crimes including burglary (file image)
While Alexandra was never able to find out why the page was set up, another possible reason for the theft of childrens photos is the disturbing rise of what are known as baby role play pages on the internet, in which Instagram users create bizarre fictional lives using pictures of other peoples children.
But beyond sexual or fantasy uses of such snaps, experts also point out that first-day-of-school pictures open up your family to crimes such as burglary.
Consumer security expert Pete Turner, of cybersecurity firm Avast, says: Firstly, they give away the school a child attends.
Secondly, posting that photo online is likely to disclose the familys home address. Todays smartphones include location trackers, which applications like Instagram and Facebook use to determine someones location.
More often than not, people grant these applications permission to track them when they sign up for the service, often without realising. So, in a couple of clicks, the two locations where a child spends most of their time could be exposed. To a lesser extent, it could also help a burglar to approximate the times of morning or evening routines, such as school runs.
Doorstep pictures could even put your child at risk of fraud in the future, according to research by Barclays Bank, because they provide valuable insights that fraudsters can exploit.
Barclays Bank estimates that, by 2030, the trend for 'sharenting' will account for two-thirds of online identity fraud against young people (file image)
The bank warns that an innocent first-day-of-term snap could be used to circumnavigate a security question such as the name of someones first school, which is the kind of security question someone might use to access bank accounts when they come of age. Information like this can also be pieced together to fraudulently take out a credit card or a bank loan in the childs name.
Indeed, Barclays experts predict that, by 2030, the trend for sharenting will be the reason for two-thirds of online identity fraud against young people. Will Geddes believes that even though the National Crime Agency and other bodies are doing all they can, parents must be on the front line.
Ask yourself, would you feel comfortable leaving the photo on a table in a public coffee shop? he says. Are you happy theres nothing that a stranger could benefit from seeing?
For Nicola, the stalking of her daughter ended after two months when the person behind it contacted her via the call app FaceTime on Christmas Day, after finding her mobile number on the website she uses to sell her art.
It turned out to be a mentally disturbed teenager in Canada who had created a fantasy in her head that she was friends with her daughter. Nicola said: I answered the call from a Canadian number I didnt know and there was this young girl. I hung up immediately and blocked the number.
However, the call meant she could persuade the Canadian police to trace the number and visit the girls family. The girl lived with her grandparents, who had no idea what she was up to on her iPad in the bedroom. I dont know how she found Lucy or why she focused on her.
But it showed me there are people out there who will fixate on young children and I am not prepared to give them any bait.
Some names have been changed.
Rose McGowan and her partner, non-binary model Rain Dove, made an appearance together at the GQ Men of the Year Awards in London on Wednesday evening.
The actress, 45, and the model, 27, looked loved up as they posed together on the red carpet and during the event, just hours after Asia Argento returned to Twitter following a six-week hiatus to attack Dove.
Dove wore a dark suit with the event and at one point posed with their hands on McGowan's waist for a couple shot.
Couple: Rose McGowan and her partner, non-binary model Rain Dove, made an appearance together at the GQ Men of the Year Awards in London on Wednesday evening
Outfits: Dove, 27, wore a dark suit with the event, while McGowan, 45, went for a $1,109 metallic trench coat by Osman
Loved-up: The pair posed for a series of couple shots, including one that saw Dove rest their hand on McGowan's shoulder while looking tenderly at the actress
Celebration: Rose took home the Inspiration Award at the event
Other photos see Dove looking lovingly at McGowan, who wore a $1,109 metallic trench coat by Osman to the event.
It turned out to be a bumper evening for the actress, who accepted the Inspiration Award at the event; and as well as making a fashion statement, Rose also took the opportunity to speak out about the public abuse she has suffered at the hands of the public, while calling for men around the world to 'change' for the better.
'I come in peace, truly,' she told the audience, according to Mail Online's Showbusiness Editor Louise Saunders, who was reporting from the event.
'My monster paid off people in your industry... people [try to] ridicule me, to paint me as imbalanced and as a whore.'
She went on: 'People ask if what I do is for women, its not. Its for men. Youre sold an illusion from birth that youre better. Its in you to change and I see you as the humans as you are.
'My platform is one of freedom [for] humanity. I want women to hate themselves less and know they deserve a seat at the table.
'...I was silenced by my rapist for twenty years but then I realized I had more followers than the head of the senate and thought f*** it.'
Thought process: McGowan explained on Twitter prior to the event that she chose to wear the trench after being thrown by the dress code, which required women to wear cocktail dresses
Duo: McGowan and Dove looked loved-up as they posed for photos at the event inside the Tate Modern gallery in London
Together: The pair held hands as they posed for a red carpet picture upon their arrival
Making a statement: Rose took the opportunity to hit out at those who have 'tried to paint me as imbalanced and as a whore' as she accepted the Inspiration Award at the event
'I come in peace': The actress made an incredibly powerful speech as she accepted her award
Earlier in the day, McGowan used said platform to air some person thoughts, revealing on Twitter why she had decided to wear the trench coat rather than a dress.
'Breaking News: I have decided to what to wear to tonights @BritishGQ Man of the Year awards,' she wrote in a long thread.
'The dress code said women should wear cocktail or evening gowns. This threw me. Mostly because those kinds of dress give me Hollywood PTSD that is peculiar to someone like me.'
She added: 'A survivor of the Hollywood former sex symbol machine. Very few, if any, survive with a mind fully intact, it's no wonder Garbo retreated from the public at large. It's a peculiar beast our kind of world, and unknowable by most.'
McGowan added that she wore a blue robin egg sheath dress from Topshop, which she got for $19, under the trench coat, and that her shoes were a vegan model by Stella McCartney.
In her thread, the actress, who turned 45 on Wednesday and used the hashtag #birthdaymusing, gave Dove a shout-out.
'I'll be with my love @raindovemodel someone who's brought water energy to my fire,' she wrote. 'They have allowed me space [to] heal and to explore showing my softer side to the outside world. Reminding me always to be what I say I am.'
Rose McGowan shares her thoughts on Twitter ahead of GQ Men of the Year Awards Advertisement
Earlier on Wednesday, Argento attacked Dove in a series of tweets.
The actress, who had been absent from social media for the past six weeks, returned to Twitter after the model criticized Argento's attorney for refusing to acknowledge that she had a sexual relationship with actor Jimmy Bennett when the boy was underage.
'I will 100% help support You through this process with whatever resources I have that can assist the healing necessary - but You need to be honest. I cant help a dishonest being,' wrote Dove.
Argento responded by firing back: 'Very funny coming from a sick pathological liar like you, who made money out of me by selling selected text messages in order to portray me for something I am not.'
Her return to social media came at the same time X Factor Italia formally announced that Argento would appear only in the first half of the show's new season, and be replaced for the live episodes when they air later this year.
The Italian star, 42, also used her return to Twitter to attack Dove for information they relayed regarding the death of Anthony Bourdain.
Underage: Dove, 27, criticized Argento and her lawyer for recent statements, including their recent claim that the actress was sexually assaulted by Jimmy Bennett in 2014 (pair above at that 2014 meet-up in California)
Shots fired: 'Very funny coming from a sick pathological liar like you, who made money out of me by selling selected text messages,' tweeted Argento (above in one Twitter exchange from Wednesday)
It was Dove's texts with Argento that confirmed the actress had sexual relations with Bennett in a California hotel room back in 2014, more than a decade after the actress first worked with the boy at the age of 6 in her film adaptation of JT Leroy's The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things.
Argento, who was one of the first women to publicly accuse Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault, initially lied about her encounter with Bennett following a New York Times report that revealed the young man had received a $380,000 payment from the actress' partner Anthony Bourdain when he threatened to file a $7.5 million lawsuit.
Just hours after she denied ever having sex with Bennett, TMZ published a text exchange between Dove and with Argento, confirming most of the Times report.
Argento and her lawyer are now claiming that she was the victim, and Bennett sexually assaulted her that day in the hotel.
Dove voiced their opinion on this latest version of events from Argento by writing in one tweet: 'NO Jimmy Bennet didnt rape Asia. We must hold all beings to the truth here. Dont need to kno the whole story but what we do know should b truthful.'
Argento then took aim at Dove for making claims about the death of Bourdain.
She posted a handful of cryptic text exchanges she had with the model that seem to suggest they both believe the celebrity chef did not take his own life.
'Why did you tell me you knew the truth about my partners death and pretended to be some sort of 007? You wrote me hundreds of lies, for over a month. I have all the text messages. Now its time for YOU to tell the truth, if you are capable. Your ex calls you a pathological liar,' wrote Argento.
She followed that up by stating: 'Then tell me why did you invent that articulate, humongous, gross lie about you and your NETWORK knowing the truth about Anthonys death?'.
Conspiracy: Months prior, Bourdain had agreed to fund Argento's $380,000 payment to Bennett, who was threatening to sue the actress for $7.5 million (tweets from Wednesday above)
Allegations: Dove told Argento he had unreleased information about Bourdain death in texts posted by the actress on Wednesday (above)
Dove, who engaged with Argento throughout her attack, replied: 'That wasnt a lie. We did a lot of great work including - which You saw yourself- the toxicology report which French authorities dumbed down to the media. And then later on redacted and said yeah there was alcohol. And Im not 007. Im just part of a common research team.'
Argento then posted a text conversation she had with Dove about documents concerning Bourdain's death that she hoped to get to a journalist for an investigative piece about the Emmy winner.
In another exchange shared by Argento, Dove writes about a 'network' being involved in Bourdain's death and how 'dangerous' it was to be investigating the matter.
They also claim to have see documents and exchanges between unknown parties, prompting Argento to tweet: 'Go tell that to @CNN. What you did (if you did it! I highly doubt it) is criminal.'
Dove responded: 'Alright love. But You are just deflecting. Ill own my own path itll clearly be a fun week. But You still must own urs. 100%. You had a sexual dynamic w Jimmy Bennett. Whether u felt used or extorted or that ur friend was rude the engagement still happened. & he didnt rape u.'
Argento did not dispute Dove's claims in that tweet, and instead accused the model of deflecting, before adding: 'Dont call me love. All that is left of your answers is treachery and deceit.'
She later closed out her attack by writing: 'You cant help yourself but keep lying, can you? You never sent me or showed me any documents. And remember, there was a witness.'
Dove went offline at the exact same time, but not before posting a few final remarks.
'Ok, through the gates of Hell I walk willingly with You if only for the truth to see the light of the fire,' said the model to Argento in one post.
Dove then said in a final tweet: 'Fair for U to be angry- U are trapped and want to take everything down with U. I am not afraid of what is coming. But the truth still remains You slept w Jimmy Bennett. You lied when You demand others accused of sexual assault to be honest. This hurts victims voices everywhere.'
The model is a new acquaintance of Argento, whom she met through McGowan.
Dove started dating the actress earlier this year in the wake of McGowan's rage-filled rant at a transgender woman at a New York City book signing for her memoir Brave that many found to be transphobic.
In the wake of that incident, Dove offered to help the actress repair her image.
Dove said that she released the texts with McGowan's blessing, and also sent her exchanges with the actress to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
Plane food hasn't always had the best reputation, but as time goes on that seems to be improving.
New technologies mean tastier meals and one Australian chef has revealed how cabin crew manage to keep the rice they serve fluffy, even at 35,000 feet.
Neil Perry told Escape that the easiest way to keep rice moist and in perfect condition is to use cabbage.
The world renowned chef explained that the vegetable leaves are wrapped around rice dishes and removed just prior to service to ensure they keep the rice palatable.
Scroll down for video
New technologies mean tastier meals and Neil Perry (pictured) has revealed how cabin crew manage to keep the rice they serve fluffy, even at 35,000 feet
Neil said that the easiest way to keep rice moist is to wrap cabbage leaves around rice dishes until they're served (pictured: an in-flight meal)
Neil isn't the first person to reveal secrets involving plane food as previously a celebrity chef revealed his $4 trick to improving any in-flight meal.
Jason Atherton, who was awarded a Michelin Star for his London restaurant Pollen Street Social in 2011, included the nifty trick in a list of travel tips.
The English chef said the secret to spicing up a bland in-flight meal was bringing a bottle of Tabasco sauce, which he learnt from Hollywood star Jude Law.
'It was [Jude] Law who told me to always take Tabasco on a plane. Airplane food is always bland, so it's great to give it kick,' he told Live Mint.
Jason Atherton said the secret to spicing up a bland in-flight meal was bringing a bottle of Tabasco sauce, which he learnt from Hollywood star Jude Law
'But I just try my hardest not to eat on planes. I can normally do it up to about 12 hours,' he continued.
'If I go to Australia, I have to eat, obviously, because it's 24 hours on a plane for me. I just eat the protein, drowned in Tabasco.'
Although airline food has become more and more advanced over the years there are certain foods customers will most likely never be served.
Speaking to Traveller, Sydney chef Matt Moran, a member of the Singapore Airlines culinary panel, said food needs to be kept 'really simple'.
'It was [Jude] Law who told me to always take Tabasco on a plane. Airplane food is always bland, so it's great to give it kick,' he said
'I think people want to identify what they are eating on a plane,' he explained.
He said serving food like beef cheeks, seared beef medallions and lamb racks are a good idea.
But he said scallops won't be served any time soon as they don't reheat well.
Fried foods like potato chips and tempura are also on the no-fly list as they just won't crisp up again.
A Cornish seafood restaurant with a 'refreshing lack of pomp' and a Michelin star eatery in Wales serving 19 course meals are among the UK's top ten restaurants, according to The Good Food Guide 2018.
The Waitrose & Partners annual guide has awarded the top spot to Restaurant Nathan Outlaw in Cornwall for the second year running, praising the eatery for its 'ingenious' yet simple seafood menu.
Additionally, Chef Nathan has achieved a perfect cooking score of 10 for the third year in a row, thanks to dishes such as raw scallops with peas and mint and John Dory, with hazelnuts and red wine dressing.
Cumbria's L'Enclume, came in second place and also retained its perfect ten with Clare Smyth's restaurant Core in Notting Hill in third place, the guide's highest ever new entry with a third score of 10.
The prestigious list recognises the very best talent in the country and restaurants are ranked by a cooking score, editor appraisal and feedback from readers.
Read on to discover the UK's top five restaurants of 2018.
The restaurant awarded the top spot in The Good Food Guide for the second year running is Restaurant Nathan Outlaw in Cornwall
The Good Food Guide's top British restaurants of 2018
1. Restaurant Nathan Outlaw in Cornwall
The Port Isaac seafood restaurant has been crowned number one thanks to Nathan's 'confident cooking' and 'knack for deploying first-rate seafood to its ultimate advantage', scoring a perfect ten for the third year running.
The restaurant is noted for having 'a refreshing lack of pomp' with a tasting menu that is 'ingenious in its simplicity, yet continues to surprise'.
Waitrose & Partners Good Food Guide Editor, Elizabeth Carter noted: 'This is the perfect Good Food Guide restaurant, embodying everything we champion. Expect cooking that is consistently of the highest quality combining the freshest ingredients, from shellfish and fish from sea and estuary, to locally grown fruits and vegetables.'
Commenting on being crowned the GFG's No.1 restaurant yet again, Nathan Outlaw said: 'Learning that we had been placed in the top spot last year and retained a cooking score of 10/10 from the previous year was amazing, but this is just mind-blowing.
'My aim has always been to offer customers food cooked simply but with subtle layers of flavour and to make a visit an experience to remember, for not only the food, but also for the professional and welcoming hospitality our Front of House team provide'
Scallops with creamed corn at Restaurant Nathan Outlaw which has been named the UK's best dining establishment for the second year running
2. Restaurant L'Enclume in Cumbria
The restaurant which prides itself on providing seasonal food sourced locally has retained last year's score of ten.
The guide comments that 'L'Enclume delivers a complete package, with unobtrusive but attentive service that underscores the impressive food and drink', noting that chef Simon Rogan 'has achieved something of a miracle.
His farm-to-table operation has influenced chefs right across the country and the guide writes that it's 'beyond dispute that British food owes him a lot'.
Diners can expect dishes such as aged veal in coal oil; native lobster with broad beans and elderflower, and Goosnargh duck with cherries and smoked beetroot.
Restaurant L'Enclume in Cumbria has come runner-up in the list of the top 50, retaining its perfect 10 score for the second year running thanks to dishes such as spiced poached rhubarb, apple & marigold leaves and rhubarb mousse
The farm-to-table operation has influenced chefs right across the country and the guide writes that it's 'beyond dispute that British food owes chef Simon Rogan a lot'
The guide comments that 'L'Enclume delivers a complete package, with unobtrusive but attentive service that underscores the impressive food and drink', noting that chef Simon Rogan 'has achieved something of a miracle
3. Restaurant Core in Notting Hill, London
Clare Smyth's restaurant Core - her first solo venture- is the Guide's highest ever new entry.
She appears in the top 10 at No.3 and receives a perfect cooking score of 10, joining Restaurant Nathan Outlaw and Simon Rogan's L'Enclume.
Absent from the Guide for two years, Smyth, who previously headed the kitchens at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, is back with a smash hit.
Diners will be treated to a 13-course tasting menu, featuring dishes such as jellied eel, toasted seaweed and malt vinegar and Skate with Morecambe bay shrimps, Swiss chard and brown butter.
Pan roasted wild halibut is served with charcoal grilled and pickled kohlrabis, clams and clam sabayon at Clare Smyth's restaurant Core - her first solo venture
Clare Smyth's restaurant Core in London's upscale Notting Hill- her first solo venture- is the Guide's highest ever new entry
Absent from the Guide for two years, Smyth, who previously headed the kitchens at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, is back with a smash hit
4. Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottingham
The eponymous restaurant of Satwant Singh 'Sat' Bains boasts two Michelin stars.
He opened Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms in 2002 and a year later it became Nottingham's first Michelin star restaurant.
In 2006 it won the AA's Restaurant of the Year for England and in 2009 the restaurant received the AA's highest accolade of five rosettes.
It offers a seven-course tasting menu for 95, with dishes such as smoked eel with apple, turnip, seaweed and Manjimup truffle and glazed veal sweetbread with celeriac, remoulade and thyme.
Hay roasted Veal sweetbread with Celeriac, remoulade, pickled truffle puree and chicken jus at Sat Bains in Nottingham
Restaurant Sat Bains in Nottingham boasts two Michelin stars and has been named the fourth best restaurant in the UK
Chef Satwant Singh 'Sat' Bains opened Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms in 2002 and a year later it was Nottingham's first Michelin star dining establishment
5. Restaurant Ynyshir in Powys, Wales (with Chef Of The Year Gareth Ward)
Another new entry to the top 10 is Ynyshir in Powys, whose chef Gareth Ward has been given the Editors' Award for Chef of the Year.
The restaurant has climbed seven places in the Top 50 since last year, from twelfth place to fifth.
Gareth is commended in the Guide, with Elizabeth Carter saying: 'I was as impressed by the sheer enthusiasm and skill as by the fiercely seasonal Welsh produce which Gareth Ward's industrious kitchen bakes, pickles, ferments, cures and bottles.
'He delivers flavour in small punchy bites. Eighteen courses later, I predict you'll be in complete agreement that this is one of our most brilliant, innovative chefs'.
Restaurant Ynyshir in Powys, Wales, comes in at four with the Chef Of The Year award going to Gareth Ward
Gareth Ward's 200 day aged Welsh wagyu with BBQ-wasabi and beer dressing
A 38-year-old woman was left with a 'broken heart' after taking part in a Zumba class to raise money for charity.
Cardiologists diagnosed the unnamed social worker with takotsubo cardiomyopathy, also known as broken heart syndrome.
The ailment, usually triggered by a horrible shock, such as the death of a loved one, is similar to that of a heart attack and can prove deadly.
Doctors in Michigan claimed the only possible cause of her broken heart was Zumba, a class that combines dance moves with Latin music.
The unnamed social worker, from Michigan, was left with a broken heart from the outdoor workout, doctors have revealed
Writing in the case report, the doctors said: 'Zumba is considered an activity with excessive sympathetic stimulation.
'Our patient did not have one clear trigger for her overt takotsubo cardiomyopathy other than the Zumba activity.'
The woman visited Wayne State University School of Medicines emergency department complaining of throbbing chest pain, after taking part in the Zumba workout.
Writing in the Journal of Medical Case Reports, a team of medics led by Dr Sana Chams revealed the class was part of a fundraising event.
The womans discomfort, which began around two hours after the workout, was typical of exercise-induced chest pain, they said.
She also admitted enduring episodes of a fluttery feeling and at times feeling lightheaded - two potential symptoms of a serious heart problem.
Dr Chams and colleagues were able to relieve her pain with a drug usually given to patients with angina, chest pain caused by reduced blood flow.
The team then thoroughly quizzed the woman about her medical history, in order to determine the root cause of her chest pain.
Her notes revealed she had been taking 125mg of spironolactone a drug with pain as a known side effect - each day to combat her excess bodily hair.
WHAT IS BROKEN HEART SYNDROME? Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is also known among the medical community as broken heart syndrome and stress-induced cardiomyopathy. The condition usually triggered by a horrible shock, such as the death of a loved one is similar to a heart attack. It occurs when extreme stress causes the heart to become stunned, resulting in one of its main chambers the left ventricle changing shape. It was first identified in Japan the 1990s and the term takotsubo means octopus pot, which describes the deformed shape of the heart. Scientists are still trying to understand exactly how it occurs and why some people are affected and not others. Last year a major project by Swiss researchers found the condition was commonly triggered by happy events as well as sorrow. Advertisement
The patient denied any family history of heart disease or illegal drug use, which may have explained her worrying symptoms.
Upon further questioning, she admitted to being a former occasional smoker and having drank alcohol socially.
The woman also denied having endured any hugely stressful periods in her life and had not been on the receiving end of any major news.
But she did state that she never did any kind of exercise except for the activities of daily living, according to the doctors.
Dr Chams and colleagues decided to conduct a series of tests on the woman, to see if there was a physical cause of her pain.
A echocardiogram showed signs of apical ballooning syndrome, another medical name for takotsubo cardiomyopathy.
The condition, which has no known cause, makes the heart weaken, leading it work poorly and triggering symptoms such as chest pain.
The patient was eventually diagnosed with the syndrome, first reported in the 1990s, after fulfilling all four of the diagnostic criteria.
The woman was given a beta blocker and told to wear a LifeVest, a defibrillator that monitors a patients heart rate externally.
A follow-up appointment a month later revealed the woman had no definitive signs of any lasting damage from her broken heart.
The British Heart Foundation says up to 15 per cent of people who have experienced takotsubo cardiomyopathy before will have another episode.
A woman diagnosed with the same incurable cancer as her friend is not allowed to take a life-prolonging medication prescribed to her because of NHS red tape which boils down to nothing more than unlucky timing.
Caroline Watts and Joanne Myatt, who have been close friends for 12 years, share a lot of things in common.
They are both 42 years old, social workers and live in Lancashire. And they both also have incurable secondary breast cancer.
But in a cruel twist of fate, NHS red tape means only one of them is eligible for a life-prolonging drug which could give them precious extra months.
Only Mrs Watts is allowed to take palbociclib, a targeted cancer therapy proven to slow the growth of her aggressive breast cancer.
She told MailOnline it's 'heart-wrenching' that Mrs Myatt, diagnosed in 2016, can't take the same drug because she had already begun therapy when the new medication became available.
Guidelines set by NICE, which advises the NHS, said in December last year that palbociclib should only be offered to women at the beginning of their treatment.
And although the new medicine is a lifeline for Mrs Watts, it came too late for her friend, who has had to turn back to chemotherapy to stave off her disease.
Caroline Watts (left) and Joanne Myatt (right), both 42, have known each other for 12 years, worked together, live less than 40 miles apart and both have the same type of incurable cancer
Mrs Myatt and Mrs Watts met in 2006 when they worked together as social workers in Lancaster and the Isle of Man.
The pair, who have now stopped working, have become close friends through their shared ordeal and are now in regular contact and go running together.
Both were diagnosed with breast cancer in their 30s Mrs Myatt in 2006 and Mrs Watts in 2013 but made good recoveries after surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
And despite living cancer-free for years, in a tragic coincidence both were again diagnosed with cancer this time incurable just 18 months apart.
But even more unluckily for Mrs Myatt, who lives in Buckshaw Village near Preston, the pairs similarities don't extend to the cancer therapy theyre receiving.
Mrs Watts, from Wray near Lancaster, is being treated with 3,000-a-month palbociclib alongside hormonal therapy letrozole, which together are keeping her condition stable.
But her friend was refused palbociclib because she had already begun letrozole treatment when the former became available on the NHS.
Official guidelines say patients who have already started treatment cannot have the drug.
Its devastating to not even be able to try a drug that could work for you,' Mrs Myatt told MailOnline.
'I understand a line has to be drawn but it feels unfair that other people make decisions about your life and how much it's worth.
Mrs Watts (pictured with her husband Mark and children, whom she declined to name) has been given a drug which was not available to her friend, simply because of the time difference between their diagnoses
Mrs Myatt married her husband, Martin, after being successfully treated for breast cancer when she was first diagnosed in 2006 she lived for 10 years without cancer before it returned
Mrs Watts, pictured with her husband Mark, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013 and, following successful surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, she made a good recovery
Since being diagnosed with secondary breast cancer and being 18 months to live in 2016, Mrs Myatt has outlived her prognosis and still goes running every other day
Its hard waking up every day knowing what you know, and that theres a drug which could make your treatment last longer but you cant have it.
Because Mrs Watts was not diagnosed with secondary cancer until January this year, she was able to start both drugs at the same time in line with official advice.
She said: For me to be prescribed a drug that Jo isnt is utterly heart wrenching. Knowing youve got something that could help them does make you feel guilty.
'Letrozole can keep the cancer stable or reduce it but the cancer can develop resistance to it. Palbociclib will hopefully extend how long it works for.
WHY WAS ONE OF THE WOMEN DENIED AN IMPORTANT DRUG? The difference between Caroline Watts' and Joanne Myatt's cancer treatments was simply a result of unlucky timing. Caroline Watts was prescribed and continues to take a hormone treatment letrozole alongside a drug newly available on the NHS called palbociclib. Palbociclib, which works by blocking breast cancer cells from thriving on oestrogen, became available to NHS patients in December 2017. Before a drug can be prescribed by the health service it must be approved by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE). Once NICE has recommended NHS funding for a drug it sets rules on how it should be given to patients. NICE's guide for palbociclib, which costs 2,950 for a three-week course, was that it could be used as an 'initial therapy' for patients with advanced or metastatic breast cancer. Its designation as an 'initial therapy' means it must be used first, so people who are already being treated for secondary breast cancer are not eligible. Joanne Myatt had already started her letrozole treatment before palbociclib became available so, despite having the same cancer as her friend and still being on the medicine which is taken alongside palbociclib, she was not allowed the drug on the NHS. Source: NICE Advertisement
'With the combination it's possible I could get another two years progression-free.
Although palbociclib which works by blocking breast cancer cells from thriving on oestrogen has been used to treat the disease in the US since 2015, it only became NHS-funded in December.
As part of its official regulations, the National Institute for Care and Excellence (NICE) ruled it should only be given to women at the start of secondary cancer treatment.
NICE is a non-government body which advises the NHS on which drugs to use, and decides which medicines the NHS will fund and for whom.
It ruled out Mrs Myatt for palbociclib and, after the cancer which has spread to her liver and bones became resistant to letrozole, she has had to resort back to chemotherapy.
She will find out this week whether the more gruelling treatment is working.
A NICE spokesperson said: 'NICEs recommendation for palbociclib to be made available on the NHS was published in December 2017.
'The recommendation was for use only as an initial treatment for locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer, meaning that patients who had already received other treatments at this disease stage would not be eligible.'
Already six months past the end of the 18 months doctors gave her to live in 2016, Mrs Myatt said she is 'under no illusions' about the seriousness of her illness.
She said: 'It's daunting but you've got to live day-to-day I try to stay healthy and run every other day and do yoga.
'My quality of life is really good; I feel well and I'm lucky to be able to do what I can do. There are still a few treatments on the NHS I could try.'
Both women are now raising money to fund potential future treatments after realising their best options may not always be available on the health service.
Combined, they have more than 54,000 donated by well-wishers, and are investigating potential future therapies.
Mrs Watts said: What Im having now isnt going to work forever but there are other lines of treatment.
Its just not acceptable to me that one day my therapist will tell me weve tried everything.
Mrs Myatt, pictured with husband Martin, was denied a potentially life-prolonging drug because it became available on the NHS after she had already started cancer therapy
Mrs Watts (pictured with husband Mark) is taking both hormonal drug letrozole and the newly-sanctioned palbociclib, which together are keeping her incurable cancer stable
The future isnt guaranteed for anybody and nobody knows how your individual cancer will react to different therapies.'
The pair are keen to warn women about the threat of secondary breast cancer after their own shock diagnoses years after they thought they had been cured.
WHAT IS SECONDARY BREAST CANCER? Secondary breast cancer, also known as metastatic breast cancer, is when tumour cells which started in the breast move to other parts of the body. The secondary cancer can take years to return, and does not always reappear in the breast. Some 35,000 people are thought to be living with the disease some 35 per cent of women who get breast cancer will be diagnosed with secondary cancer within 10 years. Places commonly affected by spreading cancer include the bones, brain, liver, lungs and skin. While primary breast cancer can usually be operated on or cured with drugs or radiation, secondary cancer is incurable. Because secondary cancer has already started spreading around the body you can never be completely cured of it. But chemotherapy, hormone drugs and other treatments can slow down the growth and spread of tumours and improve patients' lives. Life expectancy varies depending on how advanced the cancer is, but many women live for years with the condition under control. Source: Breast Cancer Care and Breast Cancer Now Advertisement
Secondary breast cancer is when one or more breast tumours which have been treated spread to other parts of the body.
Mrs Watts and Mrs Myatt say women are not given enough warning about the possibility of the cancer returning in future.
Some 35 per cent of women who get breast cancer will be diagnosed with secondary cancer within 10 years, according to the charity Breast Cancer Now.
And the second diagnosis is often worse because the disease is likely to have spread through the body, making it far more difficult to treat.
Both Mrs Watts and Mrs Myatt were given stage four incurable diagnoses straight away.
It was an indescribable shock to be told I had cancer for a second time, Mrs Watts said.
When youre diagnosed with breast cancer nobody tells you you could get secondary cancer afterwards.
Youre checking your breast to check it isnt coming back but actually it often comes back somewhere else mine was a pain in my side.
And the way people describe cancer as a battle makes you feel like a loser when it comes back, when in reality your treatment either works or it doesnt.
Its not a matter of how hard you fight.
The pair live less than 40 miles apart, with Mrs Myatt in Buckshaw Village, near Chorley and Mrs Watts in Wray, near Lancaster, and have a lot in common both are 42, worked for Lancaster social services, and have been diagnosed with cancer twice
Mrs Myatt, pictured with husband Martin, said: 'People think you can have a mammogram every year and youll be fine but thats not true'
Mrs Watts said it was an 'indescribable shock' to be told she had cancer a second time and more research needs to be funded for secondary cancer instead of primary, which is easier to treat
Mrs Myatt found out she had stage four cancer when she went to the doctors feeling unwell, and was told her liver was failing.
She added: People think you can have a mammogram every year and youll be fine but thats not true.
The cancer never returned in my breast it went straight to my liver and bones.
There are an estimated 35,000 people living with this in the UK and you feel like a failure because you havent beaten it.'
Mrs Watts said: Only about seven per cent of breast cancer funding goes into secondary but nobody dies of primary cancer any more.
Theres a bit of a pinkification of breast cancer and charity fundraising, but this isnt a big pink party its a deadly disease which is killing a lot of women.
To donate to either woman's fundraiser visit their GoFundMe pages: Mrs Watts's here and Mrs Myatt's here.
The NHS is hiding the true number of people who are dying from antibiotic-resistant superbugs, the government's health chief has warned.
Dame Sally Davies, the Chief Medical Officer for England, are not properly recording patients' cause of death when they are killed by the infections.
She said families are 'rarely told' if their relative has died of a drug-resistant bacteria because it would 'look as if the NHS is failing'.
Infections which do not respond to normal medications a phenomenon called antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are on the rise and expected to kill up to 10 million people a year by 2050.
And research has shown at least 700,000 patients are already dying each year from untreatable infections around the world, Dame Sally told the government.
She pointed the finger at the health service for not properly recording causes of death, pharmaceutical companies for not investing in new antibiotics, and the government for cutting health budgets.
Growing numbers of people are dying because of infections which have evolved to become resistant to antibiotics, but England's Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally Davies, says the NHS is not recording the deaths properly out of fear the figures will make the health service look bad
Speaking to the UK Government's Health Select Committee, Dame Sally said that without antibiotics, modern medicine will be 'lost'.
She called for a rule change to make sure it is routinely recorded on people's death certificates if they died of an antibiotic-resistant infection.
She said: 'That would really wake people up to the deaths as they happen,' The Telegraph reported.
'One of the problems at the moment is families often dont know that their bereavement was due to infection,' Dame Sally added.
'And theyre rarely told that the infection was resistant to treatment because it looks as if the NHS is failing.'
Dame Sally claimed the NHS avoids admitting people have died because of AMR because it would make the health service look bad.
Infections which have become resistant to medicines are mostly ones which used to be easy to treat.
WHAT IS ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE? Antibiotics have been doled out unnecessarily by GPs and hospital staff for decades, fuelling once harmless bacteria to become superbugs. The World Health Organization (WHO) has previously warned if nothing is done the world is heading for a 'post-antibiotic' era. It claimed common infections, such as chlamydia, will become killers without immediate solutions to the growing crisis. Bacteria can become drug resistant when people take incorrect doses of antibiotics or if they are given out unnecessarily. Figures estimate that superbugs will kill 10 million people each year by 2050, with patients succumbing to once harmless bugs. Around 700,000 people already die yearly due to drug-resistant infections including tuberculosis (TB), HIV and malaria across the world. Concerns have repeatedly been raised that medicine will be taken back to the 'dark ages' if antibiotics are rendered ineffective in the coming years. In addition to existing drugs becoming less effective, there have only been one or two new antibiotics developed in the last 30 years. Advertisement
But overprescribing antibiotics and giving too many to farm animals has allowed some bacteria to learn how to survive routine treatments like penicillin.
Dame Sally made the comments alongside the economist Lord Jim O'Neill, who produced a report on AMR in 2016.
She said: 'Jim's work showed that at least 700,000 people a year are dying from infections that are untreatable.
'There are horror stories like the woman in the US with gonorrhoea who was resistant to 22 or 23 drugs.
'And in this country, we have people who are dying of resistant infections or those who don't die but double their time in hospital and they have that morbidity and suffering and it costs the NHS at this time at least 180 million every year.'
Lord O'Neill's 2016 review concluded that AMB could one day be a bigger threat to mankind than cancer.
He criticised the government for not prioritising action on antibiotic resistance, and pointed the finger at pharmaceutical companies for not developing new drugs.
Dame Sally added that companies were being 'short-sighted' by not creating new therapies to be used in future.
And she raised concerns about cuts to sexual health funding, warning that the common sexually transmitted infection gonorrhoea is becoming increasingly difficult to treat.
'I am very worried about our sexual health services,' she said.
'The information I am receiving suggests that savings are too great and we are seeing a degradation of many of those sexual health services.'
Thirty more people have contracted Salmonella from eating Kellogg Co's Honey Smacks cereal, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revealed.
That brings the total number to 130 cases in 36 states - 34 of whom have been hospitalized.
Health officials had thought the outbreak, which started in March, was brought under control in June when they recalled 1.3 million cases of the cereal in affected states.
But now they are warning Americans, again, to avoid the product nationwide.
Salmonella bacteria can survive for a long time in dry heat, such as in toasted cereals
'Do not eat any Kellogg's Honey Smacks cereal, regardless of package size or best-by date. Check your home for it and throw it away or return it to the place of purchase for a refund,' the CDC said on Tuesday.
Following the latest reports, three more states - Delaware, Maine and Minnesota - have been added to the list of places that will issue recalls.
However, an FDA investigation has found the contaminated cereal is still being sold in some locations that were meant to recall it.
Illnesses in this outbreak started on dates ranging from March 3 to August 7, CDC said, adding the investigation is still ongoing.
Kellogg had not yet shipped any new cereal to retailers and that people who bought the potentially affected product can contact it for a full refund, the company said in a statement
The FDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It is not clear how such vast quantities of Honey Smacks got infected, but it is not surprising to food safety specialists.
While Salmonella is typically associated with under-cooked chicken and eggs, it is known to thrive and survive in dry heat.
Toasted cereals, therefore, are a welcome home for the bacteria.
Honey Smacks' ingredients are listed as: Sugar, Wheat, Dextrose, Honey, Contains 2% or Less of Vegetable, Salt, Caramel Color, Soy Lecithin, BHT for Freshness. Vitamins and Minerals: Vitamin C (Sodium Ascorbate), Niacinamide, Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine Hydrochloride), Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin), Vitamin B1 (Thiamin Hydrochloride), Folic Acid, Vitamin D, Vitamin B12.
Britain's main supplier of insulin is stockpiling the medicine in case Brexit disrupts the supply chain.
Around 4.6 million people in the country are thought to have diabetes and many of them rely on insulin to stay healthy.
Danish healthcare company Novo Nordisk supplies more than half of the UK's insulin and has revealed it's importing enough of the vital medication to last four months.
The move comes just weeks after medical experts warned millions of diabetics' health would be at risk if there was an insulin shortage after Brexit.
Novo Nordisk is stockpiling amid fears Britain will leave the European Union without new trade deals in March, which could make it difficult to import drugs.
The company said it is committed to making sure its patients' health is not affected by Brexit.
Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk has said it will stash 16 weeks' worth of insulin almost triple the government's six-week recommendation to make sure people with diabetes are not hit by drug shortages after Brexit
Novo Nordisk will build up a 16-week reserve of insulin in the UK before January next year.
The medication is vital for hundreds of thousands of Brits who have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, in which the body cannot use its own insulin.
Britain plans to exit the European Union on March 29 2019 and, in the event of no international trade agreements being made before then, importing and exporting goods could become slower and more expensive.
Without insulin, diabetics risk having dangerously high blood sugar which could send them into a coma.
The government led by Prime Minister Theresa May, who herself has type 1 diabetes advised companies to build a six week supply of meds for the country.
And the leading insulin supplier has gone a step further, The Independent reported.
'Our first commitment is to ensure that patients treated with our medicines remain unaffected in the event of a no-deal Brexit,' said Pinder Sahota, Novo Nordisk UK's corporate vice president.
'Our decision to increase stock is in line with the technical notices and guidance published by the government to industry.'
WHY DO DIABETICS INJECT INSULIN? Insulin is a hormone made in the pancreas, an organ in your body that helps with digestion. Insulin helps your body use glucose which comes from sugar in the food and drink you consume for muscle energy. Glucose is initially absorbed by the gut from food and passed into the blood, where the body decides what to do with it. Insulin makes this decision by regulating how much sugar moves from the blood into the blood cells, muscles or fat cells, where it can be used up or stored. But diabetes can mean the pancreas does not make any insulin, it doesn't make enough, or the insulin it does make doesn't work properly. This can lead to the levels of sugar in the blood becoming dangerously high or low which can cause fatigue, feeling hungry or thirsty, or in extreme cases life-threatening coma. To avoid this and stop blood sugar getting too high, diabetics can inject insulin into their body as a medication to bring their blood sugar down. Source: Diabetes.org Advertisement
And the Danish company's move comes just weeks after Sir Michael Rawlins, chairman of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, said millions of diabetics could be put in danger by drug shortages after Brexit.
Sir Michael told the Pharmaceutical Journal in July: 'We make no insulin in the UK. We import every drop of it.
'You can't transport insulin around ordinarily because it must be temperature-controlled.
'And there are 3.5 million people who rely on insulin, not least the prime minister.
'We can't suddenly start manufacturing insulin it's got to be sorted, no question.'
Novo Nordisk's stockpiling will double its current seven-week reserves over the next few months.
Dan Howarth, head of care at Diabetes UK, told The Independent: 'This further commitment from Novo Nordisk will no doubt reassure those people with diabetes who rely on the insulin this company produces.
'Insulin and other diabetes medication aren't optional extras for the millions of people in the UK who rely on them.
'It's incredibly important that the companies involved in their production and distribution, and those involved in guaranteeing their entry into the UK, work together so that supply continues uninterrupted.'
French insulin supplier Sanofi has also said it will increase its reserves by nearly a third to build a 14-week stockpile.
It can still be bought from pharmacies in its gel form, such as Voltaren
Diclofenac was banned over-the-counter in the UK due to heart concerns
Taking the drug diclofenac also raises the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding
A common painkiller that is prescribed to millions in the UK may increase a person's risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke by 50 per cent, research suggests.
A study of more than 6.3 million adults found that diclofenac, which is prescribed under the brand names Motifene and Diclomax among others, also puts patients at a higher risk of gastrointestinal bleeding compared to other painkillers.
Diclofenac is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that is approved for the relief of gout, severe allergic conjunctivitis, pain post surgery and arthritis in the UK.
Heart concerns caused British regulators to ban tablet forms of the drug from being sold over-the-counter in 2015. It can still be bought from pharmacies in its gel form, such as Voltaren, to relieve pain and inflammation.
The common painkiller diclofenac, which is prescribed to millions in the UK, may increase a person's risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke by 50 per cent (stock)
On the back of the study's findings, published in the British Medical Journal, the Danish researchers are calling from the drug's UK ban to be expanded worldwide.
The scientists, from Aarhus University Hospital, said: 'It is time to acknowledge the potential health risk of diclofenac and reduce its use.
'Dicofenac should not be available over the counter and when prescribed should be accompanied by an appropriate front package warning about its potential risks.'
The scientists analysed national registry data for millions of Danish adults.
All of the study's participants had been taking prescription medications for at least a year before the trial began in January 1996.
The average age of the participants taking NSAIDs ranged from 46 to 49, while the patients starting paracetamol, another painkiller, were around 56.
The researchers divided the participants into groups depending on their risk of suffering a heart-related event, which was ranked low, moderate or high.
Results show diclofenac is overwhelmingly associated with an increased risk of major heart problems, such as an irregular heart beat, ischemic stroke, heart failure or a heart attack within 30 days of starting the treatment, compared with other painkillers (stock)
WHAT IS DICLOFENAC? Diclofenac is a painkiller that is used to treat aches and pain in the joints, muscles and bones. In the UK, the drug can only be issued in its tablet form on prescription and is approved for: Gout and other forms of arthritis
Post-surgery pain
Severe allergic conjunctivitis Brands of the tablet form of the drug include Motifene and Diclomax. Diclofenac was made prescription only in the UK in 2015 after studies suggested it increases a person's risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke even if taken at a low dose for a short time. The drug can still be bought in a gel form over-the-counter, with brands including Voltaren. Injection or eye drop forms of the drug are available but are usually only given in hospital. In the US, diclofenac is available on prescription. Brands include Solaraze, Cambia and Zipsor. Advertisement
Results show diclofenac is overwhelmingly associated with an increased risk of major heart problems, such as an irregular heart beat, ischemic stroke, heart failure or a heart attack within 30 days of starting the treatment, compared with taking ibuprofen, naproxen or paracetamol.
With each year a patient stays on diclofenac, this risk increases.
Participants who started the study with a low risk and then took diclofenac had on average one more heart attack or stroke compared to those who took ibufrofen. The same results occurred when diclofenac was the same compared against naproxen.
In comparison to those taking paracetamol, diclofenac users have three more heart attacks or strokes.
Those who take no drugs at all fare best, with four fewer heart attacks or strokes, on average, compared to those on diclofenac.
This increased risk affects men and women of all ages, including those with an initially low risk of a heart attack or stroke.
Although some patients may need NSAIDs to improve their quality of life, 'despite potential side effects,' diclofenac may not be the best option, according to the researchers, who add the drug's risks need assessing immediately.
In 2013, the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency announced diclofenac tablets have a small but significant effect on a user's risk of suffering a heart-related event.
Although the drug's product information was updated to reflect this risk, it was not until 2015 that a review by the Commission on Human Medicines concluded that these complications cannot be ruled out even if diclofenac is taken for a short time at a low dose.
In the interest of patient safety, diclofenac was made prescription only in the UK on the back of this review.
A woman who is covered from head to toe in tiny tumours reveals how she has been refused entry into public swimming pools and even asked to move on flights by heartless strangers.
Gail Appelgren, 57, from Edmonton in Alberta,Canada, has battled with neurofibromatosis (NF) her whole life, which she believes makes her 'special' and 'unique'.
Her condition has left her with 180 growths on one hand alone, as well as tumours twice the size of her fist on her back.
Despite the cruel comments she receives from strangers, Mrs Appelgren, a retired social worker, said: 'I don't cover up, I wear sleeveless shirts and tops. I'm a regular person, I laugh and cry, like you or anybody else.
'When I look in the mirror, I don't see neurofibromatosis, I see Gail looking back at me. I see my smile and my bright eyes, that's the way I've always been.'
Gail Appelgren, who is covered in thousands of tumours all over her body, refuses to hide her condition, known as neurofibromatosis, despite many assuming she has a contagious disease
Pictured at 14, the age she was diagnosed with NF, Mrs Appelgren always had a large tumour on her chest, as well as lots of flat birthmarks. It was not until she developed a growth on her breast that hung down and grew under her armpit that her condition was realised
Despite enduring cruel comments from strangers, Mrs Appelgren (pictured with her husband Tim Golumbia, 55, who also has NF) refuses to let her appearance affect her
Speaking of her condition, Mrs Appelgren said: 'I cannot even guess how many bumps I have, they are in the thousands and thousands.
'My entire torso has wall-to-wall bumps. There are so many they are growing on each other or out of each other.
'When I look at my one hand I count 180 from the wrist up but the other has double that number.
'The biggest is on my stomach and others range from the size of my fist of my stomach and one on my back and tail bone that was twice my fist size, to smaller than that.'
Although others gawk at her appearance, Mrs Appelgren refuses to let it impact her confidence.
She said: 'I think I'm unique and special because I have a condition a lot of people don't understand, even some doctors don't know about it.
'I live every day to the fullest, as I get older the more complications I have with NF but I'm a happy and active person.'
WHAT IS NEUROFIBROMATOSIS? Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a common genetic condition that affects one in 3,000 people in the UK to some extent. It's caused by a genetic mutation that affects nerve tissue growth. Around half of cases are inherited from a parent and the other half occur spontaneously. Early symptoms include flat brown birthmarks, and lumps and bumps in unusual places. It is also associated with mild learning difficulties, although most people with NF1 are otherwise healthy and live to a normal life expectancy. There is no cure, however, surgery can be performed to remove the benign growths. Source: The Neuro Foundation Advertisement
Despite being content with her growths, Mrs Appelgren still requires up two surgeries a year to help manage the pain of her disorder. She is pictured after her first operation this year
Mrs Appelgren describes her torso as being 'wall-to-wall bumps'. On one hand alone, she counted 180 growths, with some on her back and tailbone being twice the size of her fist
Mrs Appelgren previously said she was too busy for love until she met Tim in 2010. Pictured on their wedding day in 2014, the couple are celebrating their four-year anniversary
The pair refuse to let their NF hold them back, despite one woman asking Mr Golumbia if he caught NF from his wife due to him having fewer growths than her
Although Mrs Appelgren has always had a large tumour on her chest and numerous flat birthmarks, it was not until she turned 12 that the growths on her body began to multiply at a rapid rate.
At 14 years old, she was finally diagnosed with NF after developing a large mass on her breast that hung down and grew under her armpit.
Despite numerous surgeries to remove the large mass, which was 22cm (nine inches) across and hung 30cm (12 inches) down, it continued to grow back, with Mrs Appelgren risking her life during every operation.
She said: 'When I had part of the large one removed from my chest, they almost lost me because I lost so much blood, but I was determined and lived on.
'It was so big that they couldn't get to the root of it, so had to go in for a second time. They removed more of the tissue from my chest and some of my ribs, then rebuilt it.'
Mrs Appelgren still undergoes up to two surgeries a year to help manage the pain of her disorder, with small tumours continuing to grow back regardless.
Mrs Appelgren believes her appearance makes her 'unique' and 'special'. Although her condition is painful, she insists she 'lives life to the fullest' and is a 'happy, active person'
Mrs Appelgren is pictured at 23 after having surgery to remove a tumour from her foot
Despite her confidence, Mrs Appelgren admits the stigma around NF often lands her and her husband Tim Golumbia, 55, who also suffers from NF, into difficult situations.
She said: 'We were on a flight to our vacation destination when the flight attendant came and told me that someone was on the airplane and thought I was contagious.
'They added that my husband must have caught it from me as he did not have as many bumps. We were already in the air and the flight attendant said she didn't know how to deal with this issue.
'So, I gave her a piece of paper with the spelling of condition and recommended she Google and research the condition. I assured her I was not contagious.
'When we were leaving the country, on our way home we were detained at the airport but no explanation was provided.
Mrs Appelgren, who said she was too busy for love until she met Mr Golumbia in 2010, added: 'Once, when Tim came with me to a medical appointment, a man moved and said, "You are contagious", as Tim had some bumps but not as many as I had.
'A doctor I saw earlier this year, not my regular doctor, told me to just get a skin transplant.'
As she grew older, Mrs Appelgren's tumours began to multiply at a rapid rate. Despite having surgery to remove them, the growths came back bigger, causing her more discomfort
Pictured at 25 on holiday in Cuba, Mrs Appelgren has always refused to cover up, describing herself as just a normal person who does not even see her bumps when she looks in the mirror
As a very young child, pictured at three, she did not suffer from NF but it soon developed
Although she has endured cruel comments all her life, Mrs Appelgren relishes educating others on NF.
She said: 'I love people asking about it, I want to tell them. Seeing me it's very obvious that I don't look like a lot of other people. I tell them that I have a condition that makes me look different.
'It's something I've dealt with all my life, but I would like to say I'm not contagious.
'I have been asked not to swim in the pool, not to touch fruit at the supermarket and more.
'When a little boy asked me about my condition, I explained that it makes me special and unique. He said, "Isn't there anything they can do for you?" I shook my head and he replied, "You are fine the way you are".'
Ebola has now killed 82 people in an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Four more people have died since Monday and 11 new cases have been reported since August 28, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports.
In a desperate attempt to contain the outbreak, aid workers have educated nearly 2.5 million people about how to reduce the risk of spreading the lethal virus.
But officials admitted it is becoming hard to track where the infection is being transmitted because the outbreak is near a dangerous conflict zone.
Saturday, September 1, marked a month since the beginning of the outbreak and 122 cases of Ebola have been reported 91 of those confirmed.
Nearly 70 per cent of people thought to have been infected have died of the disease, but DRC health officials are rolling out experimental drugs to treat patients, and at least two people have recovered following treatment.
The WHO's latest situation report on the outbreak, released yesterday, said 'recent trends suggest control measures are working'.
At least 122 people have been infected with Ebola in the outbreak around the North Kivu region in the north-east of Democratic Republic of the Congo since it was first declared on August 1 the city of Beni has been the centre of the current outbreak
An Ebola patient is led to be treated by medical workers in Beni: Since the outbreak began some 4,296 people are thought to have come into contact with people who had the virus and 16 medical workers have been infected
The Ebola virus is spreading near the city of Beni in the North Kivu region in the DRC's north-east, near the border with Uganda.
Some 16 health workers have caught the virus and one has died from it.
Since the outbreak began, officials have identified 4,296 people who have been in contact with those who caught the virus. More than half of those people are still being monitored.
And the country's efforts to keep the outbreak from spiralling out of control have been praised as a 'global first and a ray of hope' by the WHO.
UNICEF this week said it has now reached 2,454,000 people with its Ebola prevention messages in the past month.
'An increasing number of communities are now aware about Ebola and how to prevent its transmission,' said Dr Gianfranco Rotigliano, a UNICEF representative.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO'S CURRENT EBOLA OUTBREAK IN NUMBERS 122 cases of Ebola have been reported 91 of those cases are confirmed 31 are 'probable' Ebola cases 82 people have died of the virus 62 of cases have been in women 16 health workers have caught Ebola One health worker as died 4,296 people have been in contact with Ebola patients 2,454,000 people have been reached by UNICEF's Ebola prevention messages 11 million people live in the North Kivu and Ituri provinces of DRC, where the outbreak is taking place Source: World Health Organization Advertisement
'The active involvement of concerned communities is key to stopping the spread of the disease.
'We are working closely with them to promote hand-washing and good hygiene practices, and to identify and assist people that might be infected with the virus.'
At-risk populations are being reached through community engagement, radio, door-to-door activities, church meetings and adolescent groups, and prevention messages are shared in four different languages.
Last Friday, the WHO said there are still 'substantial risks' in trying to beat the Ebola outbreak in the east of DRC.
The UN agency said that although efforts to stop the virus spreading are working, it is proving hard to keep track of where the virus is active.
Four of 13 recent cases in the city of Beni were not previously identified as contacts of other patients, meaning officials don't know how they were exposed to Ebola.
An important part of preventing the spread of the virus is monitoring people who have been in contact with others infected with the fever, to make sure they don't develop symptoms and spread the infection.
If people develop the infection without coming into contact with previous patients it could mean the virus is coming from elsewhere.
This makes it harder for health workers to track down and contain all the sources of the fast-spreading disease.
The WHO also reports 'sporadic instances' of high-risk behaviors like unsafe burials, which could worsen the outbreak because Ebola can still be caught from corpses.
Some 82 people have died in the most recent Ebola outbreak taking place in the North Kivu province in the north-east of Democratic Republic of the Congo. Pictured: Health workers carry the body of a suspected victim last Wednesday, August 22, in Mangina, a town near Beni
But there are rays of hope for the troubled African country two infected patients have recovered after being given an experimental therapeutic drug.
The UN health agency in a statement said most patients recently admitted to Ebola clinics were given experimental treatments and that many contacts of cases have been immunized with a novel vaccine.
More than 3,400 people have been given medicines and experts say the DRC's medical assault on the infection is a 'global first'.
Two of the first 10 people to have been given an experimental cure known as mAb114 made a recovery from the deadly infection.
In a statement the DRC's health ministry confirmed: 'These two people are among the first 10 patients to have received the therapeutic molecule mAb114.'
Developed in the US, mAb114 was the first of five experimental treatments the DRC has begun using in the outbreak.
The health ministry has confirmed four other experimental drugs have been approved for use in the country ZMapp, Remdesivir, Favipiravir and Regn3450-3471-347.
The World Health Organization said the country's attempts to stop the virus were 'a global first, and a ray of hope for people with the disease.'
The mayor in the city of Beni, Jean Edmond Nyonyi Masumbuko Bwanakawa, has announced treatment for Ebola will be free in the region for three months.
He hopes the move will encourage people to seek immediate medical help and not be put off by a fear of having to pay for healthcare.
An Ebola patient is checked by two medical workers after being admitted into a Biosecure Emergency Care Unit (CUBE) in Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo
The current Ebola outbreak is the 10th to strike the Congo since 1976, when the virus was first identified and named after the Ebola River in the north of the country.
The outbreak was announced just days after another was declared over in the north-west of the Congo at the start of August.
Yet the new outbreak has already dwarfed the one earlier this summer and has stoked more fears among the medical community.
Virologists feared it would be 'reminiscent' of the 2014 Ebola pandemic, which decimated West Africa and killed 11,000 people.
There are also concerns that conflict in the region might make the outbreak hard to control, as the infected could be displaced to refugee camps where the virus can thrive.
Aid workers have been told they will have to navigate their response among more than 100 armed groups.
A WHO spokesperson said: 'This is an active conflict zone. The major barrier will be safely accessing the affected population.'
A womans tongue turned black and hairy because of a drug she took after both her legs were crushed in a car crash.
The unidentified 55-year-old was diagnosed with black hairy tongue a harmless condition often caused by poor oral hygiene.
Doctors in St Louis have revealed it was caused by minocycline, an antibiotic that was given to her to combat a wound infection.
The unidentified 55-year-old was diagnosed with black hairy tongue a harmless condition often caused by poor oral hygiene
The drugs bizarre side effect, a known cause of black hairy tongue, was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The woman was rushed immediately to Washington University Hospital in St Louis following her motor vehicle accident.
Dr Yasir Hamad and Dr David Warren, who wrote the report, revealed that she sustained a severe crush injury to both legs.
They gave her IV drips of meropenem, another antibiotic, and oral minocycline tablets to combat a wound infection.
Within a month, her tongue returned to its normal colour, doctors in St Louis wrote in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine
WHAT IS BLACK HAIRY TONGUE? Black hairy tongue is a temporary and harmless condition that makes the tongue turn dark and furry, the Mayo Clinic states. It is usually caused by a build-up of dead skin cells on the on the papilla finger-like projections on the surface of the tongue that contain taste buds. But it can also be associated with poor oral hygiene, tobacco, irritating mouthwashes and certain antibiotics, doctors say. According to Mayo Clinic, antibiotics can change the normal bacteria or yeast content of the mouth, causing the bizarre discolouring. Advertisement
After just one week of the treatment, the patient noticed her tongue was slowly turning black. She also reported nausea and a bad taste in her mouth.
Writing in the prestigious journal, the medics said: Black hairy tongue, resulting from treatment with minocycline, was suspected.
Black hairy tongue is a temporary and harmless condition that makes the tongue turn dark and furry, the Mayo Clinic states.
It is usually caused by a build-up of dead skin cells on the on the papilla finger-like projections on the surface of the tongue that contain taste buds.
But it can also be associated with poor oral hygiene, tobacco, irritating mouthwashes and certain antibiotics, the doctors wrote.
Doctors decided to stop giving the patient minocycline and they urged her to ensure she was brushing her teeth as often as she should.
Within a month, her tongue returned to its normal colour, Dr Hamad and Dr Warren explained in the NEJMs Images in Clinical Medicine.
Stephen Fry's prostate cancer diagnosis led to a surge in referrals to NHS services and may partly be to blame for missed waiting time targets.
Matthew Swindells, national director for operations and information at NHS England, revealed there had been an 'extraordinary spike in demand' in recent months.
This was 'largely driven' by the announcement that the TV presenter and comic had undergone surgery to have his prostate removed early this year, he said.
Fry, 61, urged 'men of a certain age' to get themselves tested after revealing his diagnosis back in February in a heartfelt video.
Stephen Fry, 61, celebrated his 61st birthday last month and admitted on Twitter that he was 'happy to still be here'
He discovered he had the disease in the run-up to Christmas and underwent an operation to have his prostate removed shortly after.
The TV legend celebrated his 61st birthday last month and admitted on Twitter that he was 'happy to still be here'.
Figures from April to June show 80.8 per cent of patients with suspected cancer started treatment within 62 days of being urgently referred by a GP.
This is below the Government target of 85 per cent for the 18th consecutive quarter, and the worst quarterly performance against this target since records began.
Mr Swindells said the drop in performance against cancer targets was a 'complex story'.
Speaking at the Health and Care Innovation Expo in Manchester, he said: 'When we look at the data, there's been an extraordinary spike in demand.
Stephen Fry uploaded a 12 minute video to his blog revealing: 'For the last two months I've been in the throes of a rather unwelcome and unexpected adventure'
'I'm told [it's] largely driven by Stephen Fry getting prostate cancer and the media coverage of that.
'We have seen increases in referrals into a number of the cancer specialties, particularly urology, in the sort of 15 per cent level jump this year, which is unprecedented.'
Mr Swindells admitted to the audience that the numbers look 'terrible'.
But he added the health service 'treated more patients in the first quarter of this year within 62 days than it ever has before'.
Mr Swindells said: 'The NHS managed to respond to a 15 per cent jump in demand with about a 12 per cent jump in supply.'
He added it was encouraging to see more people get tested for cancer.
Mr Swindells said: 'We now have as an NHS to be able to work out how we manage our demand and our capacity and get smarter.'
The 14-day wait target from GP referral for suspected cancer to the outpatient appointment was also missed for a whole quarter.
In the clip, the 60-year-old said: 'My family and my darling husband were just marvelous.' Pictured: The QI star with husband Elliot Spencer in February last year
Fry (left) presented the BAFTAs for a number of years before his final award ceremony last year. He was replaced by Joanna Lumley this year
Fry is pictured with his long-time colleague Hugh Laurie (left at a London after party in June 1990 and right on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles in 2016) said he was lucky to have the support of his friends
This was the first time since records began in 2008/09, the figures released last month show.
Between April and June, 91.4 per cent of patients with suspected cancer urgently referred by a GP were seen within 14 days, below the target of 93 per cent.
Fry paid tribute to his husband, Elliot Spencer, for his support in the time since his operation, in the video posted in February.
He said: 'Here's hoping I get another few years left on this planet because I enjoy life at the moment and that's marvellous thing to be able to say and I'd rather it didn't go away.'
'You think you are going to recover pretty well but it's all pretty undignified and unfortunate, but my family and my darling husband were just marvellous.'
Fry, who pulled out of presenting the Bafta Film awards for the first time in years before making the video, described the cancer as an 'aggressive little bugger'.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. There are over 47,000 patients in the UK diagnosed with prostate cancer every year.
The day before her 21st birthday in February, Kaitlin Holton was getting ready to go out to dinner with her friends when suddenly her left arm went numb.
Soon afterwards, her face started to droop and her speech began to slur.
Holton, a student at the University of Indianapolis, in Indiana, knew these were the signs of a stroke, but she brushed them off.
However, after she filled in her mother - who is a nurse - on her symptoms the following day, she was rushed to the emergency room despite insisting that she was fine.
But doctors confirmed that Holton had indeed suffered a stroke and, if she had waited any longer to seek medical treatment, she could have died.
Kaitlin Holton, 21 (left and right), of Indianapolis, Indiana, was prepared to celebrate her 21st birthday in February when she felt her left arm go numb, her face droop and her speech slur. She ignored her symptoms until she told her mother, who rushed her to the emergency room
Doctors at Franciscan Health confirmed Holton had suffered a stroke due to a heart defect known as a patent foramen ovale, which occurs when a hole in the heart doesn't close after birth. Pictured: Holton in the hospital
Strokes occur when an artery or blood vessel that carries oxygen or nutrients to the brain bursts or becomes blocked.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says strokes occur in 795,000 Americans each year and kill around 140,000.
According to analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Neurology, around 75 percent of strokes occur in people aged 65 or older.
But the same analysis found that there was a 32 percent increase in strokes among 18- to 34- year-old women and a 15 percent increase among men in the same age range between 2003 and 2012.
However, when the symptoms hit Kaitlin on the night of February 16, she didn't believe she could be suffering from a stroke.
'Never in a million years did I think that was the case. I was too young for that,' she told the Daily Journal.
The next day, Holton was getting ready for a birthday dinner when she casually mentioned to her mother, Kimberly, the symptoms she had experienced.
Kimberly, a former nurse with Franciscan Health in Indianapolis, knew the signs of a stroke and rushed her daughter to the emergency room.
HOW CAN F.A.S.T. SAVE YOU DURING A STROKE? The main symptoms of stroke can be remembered with the word F.A.S.T. This will help you more quickly identify someone having a stroke. Face: Ask the person to smile and see if their mouth or eye droops
Arms: Ask the person to raise both arms. They may not be able to lift both arms and keep them there because of weakness or numbness
Speech: Ask the person to repeat a simple phrase and see if their speech is slurred or garbled
Time: If you observe any of these signs or symptoms, it's time to call 911 immediately Source: National Stroke Association Advertisement
'I was in complete denial, even though I knew the symptoms, because I had relatives who had strokes,' Holton told the newspaper.
'On your 21st birthday, the last thing you want to do is go to the ER. But I thought, in two or three hours I'd be done and then we could go to dinner or whatever.'
Holton spent her 21st birthday - and the next five days - in the emergency room at Franciscan Health.
Both an MRI and a CT scan confirmed that Holton had suffered a stroke. But she learned that it stemmed from a heart condition she wasn't aware she had.
Doctors told her she had a patent foramen ovale (PFO), a defect where there is a hole in the heart that didn't close after birth.
When a fetus is developing, there is a small opening - a foramen ovale - that is present in the wall between the heart's upper chambers, which allows oxygen to flow from mother to baby.
However, within the first few days after birth, this hole is supposed to close.
According to the Mayo Clinic, about 25 percent of the healthy population has a PFO -but most people don't know they have it or ever need treatment for it.
The Mayo Clinic also states that a PFO is most common in people with disorders such as unexplained strokes and migraines with aura.
'People with PFO, they are prone more than the general population, to have a stroke, not because PFO by itself causes a stroke, but it puts them risk,' Dr Abdelkader Almanfi, an interventional cardiologist at Franciscan who treated Holton, told WISH-TV.
He also discovered that Holton had a blood clot in a vein in the right side of her heart and, without the PFO, the clot could have traveled to her lungs, causing a pulmonary embolism.
The hole had allowed a clot in Holton's heart to travel from the right side of her body to the left side and into the brain. Doctors used a piece of mesh to patch the hole. Pictured, left and right: Holton
Holton now takes baby aspirin every day and hopes that sharing her story will help spread awareness of the condition. Pictured: Holton and her brothers
But because of her condition, her clot traveled from the right side of the body to the left side and to her brain, which led to her stroke.
Holton told the Indianapolis Star that she was given two treatment options: a daily blood thinner she could take for the rest of her life or surgery to close the hole.
The 21-year-old, who was worried that the medication would interfere with the outdoor activities she likes to do, chose the minimally-invasive procedure.
Known as a transcatheterization, the procedure involves inserting a catheter into the groin with a small mesh piece inside, which seals the hole in the heart on both sides. Over time, heart tissue will grow over the mesh and fix the defect.
Despite needing to take baby asprin every day, Holton said her life has mostly returned to normal.
She told the Daily Journal that she even managed to make honor roll despite missing two weeks of school.
Holton hopes that by sharing her story, more people will be made aware of the heart condition that caused her stroke.
'The heart condition that I had is so common, I want people to understand the surgery that helped me and if they go through it, feel comfortable with it,' she said.
'This surgery is a life changer, and you can go back to living a normal life.'
Children who don't get enough sleep perform worse in school, health officials have warned, as California considers delaying its school start times.
According to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), students who sleep at least eight hours every night get better grades and have better attendance.
But more than 60 percent of middle schoolers and 70 percent of high schools don't get enough sleep every night, affecting their performance in school and leading to other physical and mental health issues - including depression and substance abuse.
Experts say that most teens are night owls and don't produce melatonin, the hormone that makes you drowsy, until much later at night but are forced to begin school around 8am each day.
California Governor Jerry Brown has until the end of the month to decide if he will sign a bill into law that would ban the state's public middle and high schools from starting before 8.30am.
Children who don't get enough sleep perform worse in school and have poor attendance, health officials at the CDC have warned (file image)
Health experts says the solution is not as simple as making sure children go to bed earlier. They explain that kids' brains function differently from those of adults.
'We have some evidence that most teenagers are night owls,' Dr Rebecca Robbins, a postdoctoral fellow and sleep researcher at the NYU Langone School of Medicine, told Daily Mail Online.
She explains this has to do with production of the hormone melatonin.
Light is the main cue that influences our daily (circadian) rhythms. When the sun rises, the brain sends signals to the pineal gland to suppress melatonin production.
When the sun sets, the pineal gland receives signals to secrete melatonin to make you drowsy.
'There is this phase shift where melatonin is not secreted in the brain until much later,' Dr Robbins said.
'Lots of teens find it hard to get to sleep until midnight or 1am. Unfortunately, because we live in a society that values being a morning person, we then make them get up really early for school.'
The CDC recommends a few tips to improve children's sleep, including making sure they go to bed at the same time each night, keeping their bedrooms cool and dimming the lights.
However, there is a growing body of research that suggests delaying school start times can also help.
A 2016 review of 38 studies examined the association between school start times and sleep.
It found that delaying the start time by half an hour resulted in better attendance, less tardiness, fewer students falling asleep in class and improved grades.
The CDC found that fewer than one in five US public middle schools and high schools began at the recommended start time of 8.30am during the 2011-12 school year.
The average start time was found to be 8.03am.
'Schools that have a start time of 8.30am or later allow adolescent students the opportunity to get the recommended amount of sleep on school nights: about 8.5 to 9.5 hours,' researchers wrote.
'Insufficient sleep is common among high school students and is associated with several health risks such as being overweight, drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, and using drugs - as well as poor academic performance.'
A 2016 study from Brown University School of Public Health in Rhode Island confirmed this, finding that poor sleep health among middle schoolers was an indicator of alcohol and marijuana use later in adolescence.
Last week, California lawmakers passed a bill in both chambers, known as SB328, that would ban middle schools and high schools in the state from starting before 8.30am.
According to CDC data, almost 79 percent of public middle and high schools in the Golden State start before this time.
Governor Jerry Brown has until the end of the month to decide if he will sign the bill into law.
If he does, schools will have three years to comply with the law.
'This is the single most cost-effective thing we can do to improve high school graduation rates,' Assemblyman Jay Obernolte, R-Hesperia, told the Associated Press.
Opponents of the bill say it should be up to the local school boards, not the state, to put start times in place.
'When it comes to education, the farther away the decisions are made from the classroom, the worse those decisions are,' Assemblyman Jose Medina, D-Riverside, told the AP.
Japanese cars are the most dependable motors on the market, and high-end Teslas are most likely to let their owners down.
That's according to a keenly-watched reliability survey, which found that Suzuki along with four other Japanese brands were among the top six most robust, while the US electric car company has the shakiest track record.
The What Car? Reliability Survey also listed the most and least dependable new models you can buy in showrooms today, based on the feedback of more than 18,000 motorists.
Meanwhile, exclusive data released to This is Money and MailOnline also tells you which used cars you can rely on... and which ones you can't.
Top of the charts: Suzuki has been named the most reliable car brand by a new poll of more than 18,000 drivers. The Sx4 S-Cross (pictured) was named the joint most dependable new car in the What Car? Reliability Survey 2018
The survey is one of the biggest of its kind in the UK, processing the feedback of 18,284 owners of some 159 models spanning 31 different brands.
Suzuki, which mainly makes cheap and cheerful small cars and 4x4s, topped the overall manufacturer rankings for new cars up to four years old with a reliability score of 97.7 per cent, joined by Lexus, Toyota, Mitsubishi and Subaru in the top six.
The only non-Japanese mark in the top order was Korean firm Kia, taking fourth spot, with sister brand Hyundai in ninth.
At the opposite end of the spectrum it was American luxury electric-car giant Tesla that recorded the worst reliability track record.
Despite the cheapest brand new Tesla setting buyers back more than 60,000, its reliability score of 57.3 per cent was by far the worst rating.
Land Rover - which was second from bottom - scored at 76.5 per cent for reliability of cars between one and four years old.
Elon Musk's Tesla came out bottom of the brand rankings with a lowly reliability score of just 57.3%. The 60,000 Model S (pictured) was also named the least reliable model
Most (and least) reliable car brands 1. Suzuki - 97.7% 2. Lexus - 97.5% 3. Toyota - 96.8% =4. Kia - 95.8% =4. Mitsubishi - 95.8% =4. Subaru - 95.8% 7. Skoda - 95.6% 8. Alfa Romeo - 95.5% 9. Hyundai - 95.4% 10. Seat - 95.2% =11. Vauxhall - 94.6% =11. Mazda - 94.6% 13. Dacia - 94.1% 14. Fiat - 94.0% 15. Honda - 93.8% 16. BMW - 93.4% 17. Volkswagen - 92.9% 18. Ford - 92.7% 19. Renault - 91.7% =20. Audi - 91.5% =20. Volvo - 91.5% 22. Mini - 91.2% 23. Porsche - 90.9% 24. Peugeot - 89.4% 25. Citroen - 88.1% 26. Mercedes-Benz - 88.0% 27. Nissan - 87.1% 28. Jaguar - 84.9% 29. Jeep - 82.7% 30. Land Rover - 76.5% 31. Tesla - 57.3% Source: What Car? Reliability Survey 2018
The trend continued when the data revealed which specific models were most and least reliable.
For newer cars it was the current Toyota Yaris and Suxuki SX4 S-Cross that led the table, both recording a staggering 100 per cent dependability record, according to their owners.
The electric Nissan Leaf took third spot, ahead of the Toyota RAV4 and BMW 3 Series.
The Toyota Yaris (left) was the model with the joint highest reliability score of 100%. The recently replaced Nissan Leaf (right) ranked at number 3, making it the most dependable electric car
Most and least reliable new models MOST RELIABLE =1. Toyota Yaris (2011 - Present) - 100.0% =1. Suzuki Sx4 S-Cross (2013 - Present) - 100.0% 3. Nissan Leaf (2011 - 2017) - 99.7% 4. Toyota RAV 4X4 (2013 - 2018) - 99.6% 5. BMW 3 Series (2005 - 2014) - 99.5% Source: What Car? Reliability Survey 2018 LEAST RELIABLE 1. Tesla Model S (2013 - Present) - 50.9% 2. Range Rover (2013 - present) - 67.3% 3. Ford Edge Diesel (2016 - present) - 70.7% 4. Range Rover Evoque (2011 - present) - 73.2% 5. Land Rover Discovery Sport (2015 - present) - 74.7%
Anchoring the standings was the Tesla Model S, which costs from 61,600 in the UK.
Owners' reports of breakdowns and necessary repairs saw it gain a reliability score of just 50.9 per cent - almost half that of the most dependable Japanese cars.
A spokesperson for Tesla branded the survey as 'statistically meaningless'.
'Only 28 Model S owners responded out of a total of 18,000 car owners surveyed by What Car?,' they said.
'Thats less than 0.3 per cent of UK Tesla owners, so this survey is statistically meaningless.
'The results of this survey are also at odds not only with our internal figures showing customer satisfaction scores for Model S and X at well over 90 per cent, but with statistically valid surveys like our Net Promotor Score and Consumer Reports customer satisfaction survey, which weve topped every year since 2013, with 90 per cent of Tesla owners saying they would buy the same car again more than any other brand.'
They continued: 'We are committed to making the worlds best cars, and in order to ensure the highest quality, we review every vehicle for even the smallest refinement before it leaves the factory.
'To the extent repairs are needed, the majority of work carried out on cars up to 4 years old is done under warranty and free of charge to the customer while they are supplied with a courtesy car.
'Unlike other manufacturers, Tesla repairs can also be carried out in a customers driveway or office by mobile service, or even via over-the-air updates, to minimise any disruption.'
The results also didn't make favourable reading for Land Rover either, with three of its models - the Discovery Sport, Range Rover and Range Rover Evoque - among the top five models with the poorest owner ratings.
Look away Land Rover: The British marque had three separate models in the list of the 5 most unreliable new cars. That included the 81,500 Range Rover (pictured) with a score of just 67.3%
Overall, around 30 per cent of the respondents with cars less than four years old said their car had suffered at least one fault in the past 12 months.
Steve Huntingford, editor of What Car?, said: 'Reliability is a huge consideration for any prospective car buyer, as your car is likely to be your second biggest monthly expense after mortgage or rent payments.
'You want your car to last and you dont want to have to fork out huge amounts to fix faults and keep it running.
'Our annual survey has shown that it is Japanese models that continue to dominate the top of the reliability rankings, both for car model and brand rankings.'
Used cars you can - and can't - count on
This is Money has teamed up with What Car? to also reveal which older used cars you should and shouldn't consider buying on the second-hand market.
This is based on the feedback from owners of cars that are between 4 and 12 years of age - so those built between 2014 and 2006.
Here's are the most reliable five models, and the ones with the worst dependability score from their owners.
Most reliable used cars
1. Toyota RAV4 (2013-2018) 100% reliability score
The Toyota RAV4 was designed to be a robust offroader. Glowing owner feedback saw it score a remarkable 100% reliability rating
One of the trim levels of this generation of RAV4 is 'Invincible'. It lives up to the name. No faults were reported on pre-2015 cars.
2. Skoda Citigo (2012-present) 99.3% reliability score
The Citigo is Skoda's answer to cheap and cheerful motoring. It's also dependable, according to owners
Only six per cent of Citigos had a problem. Brakes and braking systems were the only isues, though cars remained driveable and were fixed under warranty the same day.
3. Toyota Yaris Hybrid (2011-present) 99.1% reliability score
The Yaris Hybrid was, for some time, one of the smallest cars on sale with a combination of petrol and electric power. It's as reliable as it is green
Only eight per cent of cars had a problem, with those being minor like battery and automatic window wipers. All cars fixed in less than a day and repair bills didnt exceed 100.
4. BMW X5 (2013-present) - 98.9% reliability score
WHile earlier versions of the X5 are remembered for being flaky when it comes to reliability, the current model is the complete opposite
Only seven per cent of X5s had an issue, with exhausts being the only fault listed. All cars were fixed under warranty the same day.
5. Lexus CT (2011-present) - 98.8% reliability score
Lexus has always had a very strong reliability track record, frequently topping these surveys. The CT hatchback is no different
Just five per cent of Lexus' hybrid hatchback had to be repaired, with radio, sat nav and tyre pressure warning systems being minor headaches. All cars could still be driven and were repaired the same day under warranty.
Least reliable used cars
1. Alfa Mito (2008-present) 27.7% reliability score
It's no surprise to see an Alfa in the list. The Mito scored a woeful 27.7% reliability rating, based on owner feedback
More than two in five cars had at least one fault. A quarter of owners reported suspension problems, while 21 per cent had gearbox and clutch issues. Around half remained driveable and most were repaired under warranty, but a small percentage of owners had to pay out more than 1,500 when billed by garages.
2. Range Rover (2002-2013) - 35.4% reliability score
Land Rover just can't shake that poor reliability track record. For a car that's supposed to be able to handle mountains it seems to only be scaling service lifts in repair garages
Some 56 per cent of cars had an issue. Most common of these problems was the battery (28 per cent) followed by repairs to the engine, engine electrics, exhaust, fuel system, suspension and wheels and tyres, all of which occurred on 11 per cent of cars. Most cars could still be driven, but more than half of owners paid out between 500 and 1,000.
3. Jaguar XJ (2010-present) 38.1% reliability score
The Jaguar XJ is the British brand's answer to the popular German luxury saloon cars. Unfortunately, they're more problematic than premium
Like the Range Rover, 56 per cent of cars had a fault. A quarter of these were engine electrics while 13 per cent of models had to have the brakes, engine or exterior lights repaired. Two-thirds of cars could still be driven, but lots of owners paid out 300 to 500.
4. Volkswagen Polo (2002-2009) 38.4% reliability score
Many younger drivers might be tempted by a second-hand Polo like this, but What Car? readers say they often suffer from issues
Two in five cars had a fault, of which 27 per cent were related to the brakes and 20 per cent linked to the suspension components. More than half couldnt be driven and took more than a day to fix, but most repair bills were below 200.
5. BMW 1 Series (2004-2011) 40.1% reliability score
The first-generation 1 Series was a huge step into the hatchback market for BMW. It appears this original attempt isn't proving all that reliable
Almost three in five cars (58 per cent) had problems. Some 16 per cent were battery and engine-related while 13 per cent were brake issues. Two-thirds of cars could still be driven, but some repair bills topped 1,500.
Fuller, Smith & Turner's finance director James Douglas is moving to Germany
PUB EXIT The finance director of pub chain Fuller, Smith & Turner has stepped down after 11 years.
James Douglas is moving to Germany for his wifes work.
STORE UNVEILED Retailer Amazon has opened its biggest bricks and mortar store yet in Seattle.
The Amazon Go branch, the third of its kind, has no check-outs but bills shoppers automatically online.
RETAIL EXPANSION Spanish retail giant Inditex is making all its brands including Zara available online to every country in the world by 2020.
INDEX DROPOUT Troubled German lender Deutsche Bank is to drop out of an index of the biggest Eurozone firms, Euro Stoxx 50, in an embarrassing blow. It follows a 38 per cent fall in its share price this year.
BITCOIN FUNDRAISER One of Chinas biggest bitcoin firms, Bitmain Technologies, is seeking to raise 780million ahead of a stock market float.
CITIBANK FLOOD Three of the most senior executives at Citibank are leaving. Chief finance officer John Gerspach, Europe chief Jim Cowles and North America boss Bill Mills are all due to go within a year.
COMPETITION BOSS The Financial Conduct Authority has appointed Sheldon Mills as director of competition.
The lawyer, 42, was a senior director at the Competition and Markets Authority.
SHOPPING APP Picture sharing app Instagram is launching a shopping app.
GAMING RECORD Video games firm Frontier Developments is expecting a record year despite profits falling 64 per cent to 2.8million in the year to May 31.
It sold 1m copies of Jurassic World Evolution since June and predicts net record revenues of more than 80million this year.
WASN'T ME Embattled retailer Steinhoffs former boss Markus Jooste has told South African MPs he was unaware of a black hole in company accounts when he left in December.
GOLD DIGGING Miner Randgold Resources restarted production at one of its most important gold mines, Tongon in Ivory Coast, after strikes.
PRINT SELL-OFF Scottish firm John Menzies has sold off its print media division Menzies Distribution to Endless for 74.5million, to concentrate on its aviation arm.
Berkeley chief exec Rob Perrins pocketed 7.8m, including 7.1m in bonuses
Housebuilder Berkeley has warned stamp duty is suffocating the London housing market as it saw a revolt over a 28million payout to its bosses.
Official figures have shown prices in the capital are falling at the fastest pace since the financial crisis, which Berkeley blamed on stamp duty rises introduced in 2014 by then-chancellor George Osborne.
It said: London remains constrained by high transaction costs, restrictive income multiple limits on mortgage borrowing and prevailing economic uncertainty, accentuated by Brexit.
Its warning came as nearly 8 per cent of shareholder votes were cast against a pay report at its annual general meeting.
Berkeleys seven executives were handed 28.3million overall for the year to April 30.
The group has warned of a profits dip next year of around 30 per cent after a 15 per cent surge in the year to April.
The boss of John Lewis has unveiled a multi-million makeover of the department store chain but her announcement was overshadowed by job cuts.
Managing director Paula Nickolds, 45, has opened an upmarket footwear room with shoes costing up to 695.
She is ploughing 3.5million into its beauty halls as well as setting aside 3million for staff training.
Revamp: John Lewis has opened an upmarket footwear room with shoes costing up to 695 and is ploughing 3.5m into its beauty halls as well as setting aside 3m for staff training
'While others are investing in drones we're investing in our partners, while others are cutting back we're investing in the very thing that is our point of difference,' she said.
But her comments came just 24 hours after John Lewis axed around 270 jobs in its IT, finance and security departments.
Employees have already seen bonuses slashed to the lowest level in more than 60 years, while the group made around 1,440 workers redundant last year.
M&S beefs up top team Marks & Spencer has recruited a top director from Canadas biggest food retailer as bosses Archie Norman and Steve Rowe beef up its management team. Jeremy Pee, senior vice president at Loblaw, will take the new role of chief digital and data officer in December. At Loblaw, Pee was responsible for building and growing online businesses in grocery, beauty, clothing and pharmacy. His appointment is the latest in a string of recruits which has seen M&Ss top team overhauled. The chain hopes to make a third of its sales online.
The group has a unique partnership structure which distributes profits to all employees described as 'partners' through bonuses.
John Lewis is preparing to reveal a major slump in half-year profits next week which are expected to fall to zero.
Maureen Hinton, group retail research director at Globaldata, said: 'The job cuts are obviously uncomfortable for John Lewis, it comes at a time when they're streamlining the business.
But we are in a very tough trading environment, there's a lot of change going on in retail.' Analyst Nick Bubb added: 'For all the talk about investment and increasing market share, the fact is that John Lewis profits are going backwards.
Price-matching the distressed sale promotions at House of Fraser and Debenhams has hit the bottom-line hard.
'The best hope in the medium to long term is that House of Fraser and Debenhams largely disappear so that John Lewis can scoop up most of their business.'
More than 60billion was wiped off the value of American technology titans last night after US lawmakers declared it was the end of the Wild West for social media.
Shares in Twitter, Facebook, Google, Snap, Netflix, Microsoft and Amazon fell as investors fretted about the prospect of tighter regulation.
The sell-off will worry British investors with money tied up in the US tech giants through individual share holdings or funds exposed to the stocks.
Shares in Twitter, Facebook, Google, Snap, Netflix, Microsoft and Amazon fell as investors fretted about the prospect of tighter regulation
The slide in share prices began as Facebook operating chief Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter boss Jack Dorsey were questioned by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in Washington about their efforts to tackle election interference.
During the hearing, senators told the executives that Silicon Valley would be unable to tackle meddling by countries such as Iran and Russia alone, with some saying the only answer was tough new laws.
The committees Republican chairman, Richard Burr, told them: Weve learned about how vulnerable social media is to corruption and misuse.
The very worst examples of this are absolutely chilling and a threat to our democracy. Unfortunately, what I described as a national security vulnerability... remains unaddressed.
'Clearly, this problem is not going away.
Mark Warner, the panels top-ranking Democratic senator, told them: Each of you have come a long way with respect to recognising the threat. The bad news, Im afraid, is that there is a lot of work still to do.
And Im sceptical that ultimately youll be able to truly address this challenge on your own. Congress is going to have to take action here.
The era of the Wild West in social media is coming to an end.
Other members of the committee warned that user data held by the firms could become a weapon of choice for foreign adversaries.
Responding to the criticism, Sandberg admitted Facebook had been slow to act on interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
But she insisted the firm had since been proactively banning users and removing pages that appeared suspicious.
Meanwhile, Dorsey responded to concerns about misinformation on Twitter and accusations from politicians that the platform censors right-wing views.
He said: Required changes wont be fast or easy. Were committing to the people and this committee to do it openly.
Google had also been invited but declined.
The senate hearing sent Twitter shares down 6.1 per cent and Facebook fell 2.3 per cent.
Netflix dropped 6.2 per cent, Amazon eased 2.2 per cent and Microsoft lost 2.9 per cent.
When the markets closed, more than $80billion or about 62billion was wiped off the value of US tech firms.
The Royal Bank of Scotland has announced it is closing 54 more of its branches up and down the country next year.
The bank, which taxpayers still own a 62 per cent slice of, said the additional closures were going ahead because it was no longer launching Williams & Glyn as a challenger bank.
The bank's latest round of closures will be made in addition to the 162 closures and 792 redundancies announced in May.
SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE TO SEE IF YOUR BRANCH IS CLOSING
Closures: The Royal Bank of Scotland has announced it is closing 54 more of its branches
The closures announced today mean RBS will end up with just 54 branches across England and Wales.
Unite union has branded the move, which will see 258 RBS staff made redundant, 'utterly disgusting', claiming it will further decimate communities relying on local bank branches.
Meanwhile, rival Lloyds Banking Group will cut 380 jobs as it continues to reorganise the business, trade union Accord has said.
The move will hit staff in the bank's commercial banking, people and productivity, and retail and transformation divisions. The reorganisation will also involve the creation of 435 new roles, which will result in a net increase of 55 positions.
'Whilst on the face of it the plans look positive, not all existing colleagues will have the transferable skills for the newly created roles and will mean some will face redundancy,' Accord said.
Earlier this year, research from consumer group Which? revealed that around 60 bank branches are being closed every month, risking financially isolating millions of consumers, particularly the elderly and vulnerable, reliant on cash and branch services.
In a statement, RBS said: 'As we are no longer launching Williams & Glyn as a challenger bank we now have two branch networks operating in close proximity to each other in England and Wales - NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland.
'As a result we have reviewed our overall branch footprint in England and Wales and have made the difficult decision to close 54 Royal Bank of Scotland branches.'
Among the branches being closed include those located in Basildon, Bolton Harwood, Kingston Upon Thames, Notting Hill Gate in London, Swansea and Wolverhampton.
Unions reacted with fury to the news, describing the decision as a hammer blow to the disabled and elderly.
In charge: Ross McEwan became RBS' chief executive in October 2013
Sparse: The closures announced today mean RBS will end up with just 54 branches across England and Wales
Rob MacGregor, of union Unite, said: 'It is utterly disgusting that Royal Bank of Scotland has the audacity to announce that yet more important local bank branches will permanently close their doors.
'This announcement heaps further misery on communities across England and Wales that have already seen the demise of local banking services as branches that were signposted by the bank earlier in 2018 as an alternative for customers whose branches were closing, now suffering a similar fate.
'The disabled, elderly and many local businesses will today be deeply disappointed that their bank has chosen to withdraw from their community and no longer provide them with the access to banking services which we all deserve.'
RBS said that since 2014, branch transactions across its sites in England and Wales had fallen by 30 per cent, while online customer numbers grew by 53 per cent and mobile transaction levels rose by 74 per cent over the period.
A spokesman for RBS said: 'We will now focus on investing in our Royal Bank network in England and Wales to make sure customers have a consistent range of products and services wherever they bank, be it Scotland, England or Wales.'
RBS said it will be writing to customers affected by the branch closures to inform them about how they can carry on banking.
The group said RBS customers can now use NatWest branches for their everyday banking, such as withdrawing cash, checking balances or paying in.
Shares in RBS are up 1.97 per cent or 4.85p to 251.35p.
In June, figures published by consumer group Which? revealed that around 60 bank branches are being closed every month.
At the time, Which? money expert, Gareth Shaw, said: 'While the decision is clearly a commercial one for a bank to take, it is also crucial that banks do recognise the needs of their customers and the communities they serve, before simply shutting their doors and their customers out.'
Mothers have been left horrified after discovering that their favourite family park is being used as a gay hook-up point.
The romps are reportedly happening in bushland directly opposite a children's play ground.
Disgusted mothers have been forced to pick up used condoms and tubes of lubricant so that their children don't have to see them.
Mother-of-three Clare Tapp claims that she has seen men come into Deepwater Park in New South Wales for sex and has spotted dirty condoms in the bush, local media reports.
Deepwater Park is located along the beautiful Georges River in Milperra, some 24 kilometers west of Sydney's CBD
'We walked through Deepwater with a female friend and we had two encounters way too close with men in their fantastic acts.
'I didn't need to see that. I'm horrified.'
Mother-of-five Hannah Tuton told the Canterbury-Bankstown Express that she had seen two men dressed in work clothes enter the bushland directly opposite the play equipment.
'They were in the bush for about 15 minutes then exited and left separately,' she said.
Deepwater Park is located along the beautiful Georges River in Milperra, some 24 kilometres west of Sydney's CBD, and is a popular recreational spot for mothers to bring their children.
A City of Canterbury Bankstown spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that the council is working with the local police to combat all forms of anti-social behaviour in the park.
This includes locking the gate at sundown and installing signage. The council is also considering further measures to combat the issue.
'If, at any time, residents see anti-social behavior in any park, they are urged to contact Police immediately,' the spokesperson said.
This is not the first time locals have spotted strange things in the park. Back in 2014, Facebook user Brett Fish found some miscellaneous items including a nurses uniform and handcuffs.
Advertisement
They pose jauntily before the camera, some draped only in a shawl, some wearing only fancy hosiery, others looking pensive and clad in nothing at all. The women are surrounded by curtains and lace, pictured doing everything from bathing and reading to preening in preparation for male customers. Their barely-dressed ease in front of the lens is remarkable, their calm faces framed either by opulent 1890s hairstyles or left to tumble seductively over their bare shoulders.
This is life inside an 1890s American brothel, an intimate portrait of a segment of society so frequently kept behind closed doors, discussed only in hushed tones. And this extraordinary set of photographs shot for the private collection of a commercial photographer named William Goldman in Reading, Pennsylvania at the end of the 19th century was almost lost to history, as well.
Then an art curator happened upon them at a vintage fair in northern California, setting him on a journey to identify the city, the brothel and the photographer who captured them so intimately more than 100 years ago. Now the photos feature in a new book, published this week, titled Working Girls: An American Brothel, Circa 1892 The Secret Photographs of William Goldman.
The photographs were taken two decades before the famous E. J. Bellocq pictures of 1913 sex workers in Storyville, New Orleans - meaning Goldman's pictures are the earliest known body of work on this subject in the United States.
They were discovered around a decade ago by Robert Flynn Johnson, and his book offers a fascinating insight into the lives of prostitutes in the 1890s. Through research and clues, Johnson figured out that the anonymous photographs depicted women who worked at an upmarket brothel run by single mother Sal Shearer in Reading around 1892 at a time when the city was teeming with young, unmarried male railroad and factory workers and other laborers.
William Goldman, a commercial photographer in industrial Reading, Pennsylvania, took private photographs in the 1890s of women working at one of the city's more upmarket brothels - an establishment run by a single mother named Sal Shearer, who dressed her girls as upper-middle-class ladies to feed into male laborers' fantasies
The photographs were discovered by author and art curator Robert Flynn Johnson about ten years ago at a vintage paper sale in northern California; he had no information about their origin but noticed one image depicted a prostitute reading a newspaper, the Reading Eagle, from August of 1892 - giving him clues that eventually led him to that Pennsylvania city
Working with local Reading historian George M. Meiser IX - to whom he would eventually dedicate his book - Johnson tracked the photos to Sal Shearer's brothel and identified the man behind the lens as commercial photographer Goldman, who was also a patron of the establishment and kept the pictures in albums for his private collection
Goldman's photos were taken two decades before the famous E.J. Bellocq photographs of 1913 sex workers in Storyville, Louisiana - meaning the Reading photographer's collection marks the earliest known body of work on this subject in the United States
The girls at Sal Shearers brothel, Johnson explains, likely charged more for their time than other brothels in town - $3 or $4 as opposed to $1 or $2 because the establishment catered to a particular fantasy or predilection amongst the male clientele. Many of the men had not yet made enough money to marry and start their own families, and the brothels answered a definite need in the testosterone-laden city.
Reading, located in southeastern Pennsylvania, about 120 miles from New York and 60 miles from Pennsylvania, was an industrial and railroad center throughout much of the 19th Century, especially important for moving coal. The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad (P&R) was one of the first railroads in the US and highly successful, though problems surfaced in the years just before the time period during which Goldman shot his photos, when competition encroached and the railroad company went into receivership before gaining strength again.
Johnson, author and former curator of prints at the Achenbach Foundation at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, explains that the city fathers considered prostitutes the necessary evil. They considered it a safety valve for the community, so these men wouldnt be accosting their own daughters and sisters on the street.
He explains: At Sal Shearers establishment, the men went in there and they didnt want to sleep with a farm girl or an immigrant woman. Thats who the women were, of course, Johnson tells DailyMail.com. They wanted to fantasize that they were sleeping with the boss daughter, so to speak so therefore the madam dressed her girls up as upper-middle-class with really nice clothes and stockings and all of that.
Not only were the men buying sex, they were buying the fantasy and so the women were in a situation where they were being protected and not hurt in any way, they were being paid and they were wearing nice clothes and makeup and all that sort of thing the clothes were a very important aspect of the whole fantasy, the whole illusion.
It was a different era, Johnson points out, arguing that working at a place such as Sal Shearers brothel was not necessarily the worst option.
These women in the 1890s, these women didnt have much prospects, Johnson tells DailyMail.com. They were in an urban environment; they could work at a hotel, where theyd be sexually harassed; they could work at a restaurant and be sexually harassed; they could be a nanny in a household and be sexually harassed by the husband when the wife was away; they could work in a box factory for a dollar a day or they might become a prostitute, where at least theyd be protected and wear nice clothes and stuff.
Burlesque star Dita von Teese, who wrote the foreword for the book, echoes the view of brothels as a necessary evil in town, where men with certain desires visited women who would oblige.
In this case, it was the desire of a man to capture the beauty and sensuality of the women he befriended, she writes.
Johnson says the photographs reminded me of Degas, reminded me of Rodin. They were beautiful and honest, and thats why I had enthusiasm for them.' He adds: The thing that struck me, for sure, is that there are photos from around this period or a bit later that you dont want to touch with a ten-foot pole. Either theyre pornographic pictures or theyre the kind of French winky postcard the naughty photographs that were made, especially in France, to monetize to sell. And these photographs were never monetized, as far as we can tell he never published these photographs. These were his private albums'
Goldman photographed the girls posed and also going about their day-to-day activities at the brothel such as reading, bathing and preparing for male customers; in the late 19th Century, Reading was awash with young, unmarried male workers employed by factories and railroads. Johnson says that 'the city fathers considered prostitutes the necessary evil. They considered it a safety valve for the community, so these men wouldnt be accosting their own daughters and sisters on the street
The brothel was located six or eight blocks from Goldman's studio; Johnson says that the photographer 'became friends with Sal Shearer and he became friends with the girls and they seemingly were extremely comfortable with him'
Unmarried women faced few prospects at the time, Johnson explains; sexual harassment of women working as domestic help or in restaurants, or they could make $1 a day in a factory - but if they worked as prostitutes, they enjoyed some level of protection and fine clothes
There is much to learn and (most of all!) take pleasure in with this discovery. As these lost photographs illustrate more than a century later, one periods social problem is anothers cultural revelation.
Johnson had no idea about the photos backstory when he first caught sight of the images at a vintage fair in Concord, California about ten years ago.
They reminded me of Degas, reminded me of Rodin, Johnson tells DailyMail.com. They were beautiful and honest, and thats why I had enthusiasm for them.
The woman displaying the photographs, priced individually, was selling items from the estate of her late collector husband. Johnson who has published books featuring other artistic photographs of unknown subjects and origin asked her for a better price if he bought the pictures in bulk, but the pair clashed, and he left with only two. It was a decision he soon regretted.
Over the next couple of days, I realized that maybe Id made a mistake that her personality had turned me off to the quality of the art, he says. So I had [her] card, so I called her up and said, Well, you know, I bought a couple of these photographs at that fair over the weekend do you still have any of them? And she said, Have them? Youre the only person whos interested in those.
Goldman, pictured, included a naked self-portrait in his collection, which helped Johnson and historial Meiser identify him as the man who photographed the women
So Johnson drove three hours to view more of the collection and purchased about 50 additional photographs, eventually amassing several hundred as he sought to turn the distinctive images into a book an endeavor which turned into a bit of a detective story as Johnson tried identifying the brothel, the photographer and the women captured by his lens.
One of the photographs was the key to everything else, Johnson tells DailyMail.com. Without that photograph, these would have been beautiful, mysterious, anonymous photographs, period. I would not have been able to connect it to a photographer, a brothel or a city but one of the photographs had one of the prostitutes reading the Reading Eagle of August of 1892.
I called up the historical society in Reading, Pennsylvania from California, and I said, What was the name of your newspaper in 1892? And they said, The same as it is today: The Reading Eagle.
And I said to myself: Bingo, Johnson says. Thats where I started my search, and it was like a detective story.
He made several trips to Reading and enlisted the aid of local historian George M. Meiser IX to whom the eventual book would be dedicated. Their efforts identified the establishment as that run by Sal Shearer, who had been abandoned by her husband and tried working as a seamstress unsuccessfully before opening up the brothel.
Meiser also helped identify the photographer, a local man who worked in commercial photography named William Goldman whose naked self-portrait within the collection of photographs led to his own identification. Goldman, it turned out, had been a friend of the women, a fan of private and artistic photo shoots and it seems a brothel client.
Obviously, if these albums had seen the light of day in his community during his lifetime, it wouldve been a scandal, Johnson tells DailyMail.com. He wouldve gone out of business; he wouldve lost all his clientele, because his profession was to take photographs of businessmen and weddings and school events and things like that so he was just a professional photographer, and his studio was six or eight blocks away from the brothel.
'And he was obviously a patron and he became friends with Sal Shearer and he became friends with the girls and they seemingly were extremely comfortable with him.
He adds: The thing that struck me, for sure, is that there are photos from around this period or a bit later that you dont want to touch with a ten-foot pole. Either theyre pornographic pictures or theyre the kind of French winky postcard the naughty photographs that were made, especially in France, to monetize to sell.
And these photographs were never monetized, as far as we can tell he never published these photographs. These were his private albums.
Johnson divided the book into 14 chapters exploring themes such as Customers, Erotic Poses, Artistic Photos, Off Duty and Side Jobs.
He had used the prostitutes for some of his commercial work, Johnson says. He had them pose as Joan of Arc, he had them pose as jockeys, he had them pose as Cleopatra, he had them pose as the birth of Venus. He made commercial photographs with them sometimes for peoples parlors, decorative work, but he also behind the scenes took photographs of them in the brothels and then had the girls come to his studio. He took artistic photographs in there, too.
In addition to his own research and impressions in the book, Johnson included writings by von Teese, historian and UC-Davis professor Ruth Rosen and Dennita Sewell, curator of fashion design at Phoenix Art Museum.
The book includes a foreword by burlesque star Dita von Teese, as well as writings about the sociological history by professor and historian Ruth Rosen, and Dennita Sewell - curator of fashion design at Phoenix Art Museum - who explores the costume history. Johnson says: 'The idea of me lining up three women authors for this book, I think, was very important ... the last think I wanted this book to come off [as] is the male gaze, so to speak. I didnt want to be accused of being some misogynist curator who decided he found some pics of women without their knickers on'
If the pictures had come out during Goldman's lifetime, they would certainly have caused a scandal and he would have lost his work in commercial photography as well as his standing in the local Reading community; hence the photographer kept the images in private albums
The photographer also 'used the prostitutes for some of his commercial work, Johnson says. He had them pose as Joan of Arc, he had them pose as jockeys, he had them pose as Cleopatra, he had them pose as the birth of Venus. He made commercial photographs with them sometimes for peoples parlors, decorative work, but he also behind the scenes took photographs of them in the brothels and then had the girls come to his studio. He took artistic photographs in there, too
Burlesque star Dita Von Teese writes in the foreword: 'For these working girls who were already going against the drudgery of toiling in a factor or as a domestic, who were surviving in a patriarchal world by their wits and sexuality, the opportunity to sit for Mr Goldman was very likely not only thrilling it was also empowering'
The idea of me lining up three women authors for this book, I think, was very important, Johnson tells DailyMail.com. It will be important, because something I wanted to the last think I wanted this book to come off [as] is the male gaze, so to speak. I didnt want to be accused of being some misogynist curator who decided he found some pics of women without their knickers on, you know?
He adds: I wrote about the art history, Ruth Rosen wrote about the sociological history, Dennita Sewell wrote about the costume history, and Dita wrote about the experience of being the seductress, so to speak, or the performer. So between all of those things, I think weve really told a responsible overview, history of these photographs, in addition to them just being about photographs to look at.
The photos are presented by author Robert Flynn Johnson in new book Working Girls: An American Brothel, circa 1892 / The Private Photographs of William Goldman, copyright 2018
Von Teese who became involved because she and Johnson have mutual friends writes in the foreword of the book: Sexuality is subjective. One womans last gasp for survival can be anothers act of independence. One mans whore can be a muse in the eye of the artist.
This fascinating collection of found images more than a century old could not have originated just as a case study on the women employed at a brothel. The local photographer and his anonymous muses appear to straddle an artful titillation, at times striving toward Degas nudes and at another, more in the spirit of a strip and tease. There is beauty in even the most mundane moments.
She adds: For these working girls who were already going against the drudgery of toiling in a factor or as a domestic, who were surviving in a patriarchal world by their wits and sexuality, the opportunity to sit for Mr Goldman was very likely not only thrilling it was also empowering.
And in addition to shining a light on the intimate lives of the 1890s women pictured, Johnson said, hes gratified by the fact that the meticulous, private work of a commercial photographer will finally see the light of day; after a book launch at New Yorks Rizzoli Bookstore on September 12, Goldmans photographs will be exhibited at the Ricco/Maresca Gallery.
When this book comes out, William Goldman will be a known photographer, Johnson says with satisfaction. I mean, he died in 1922; nobody remembers him. He didnt have any children or anything and Im giving William Goldman his second act with his secret photographs.
A tiny village in Alaska has experienced a boom in tourism over recent years as polar bears spend more time on land than on diminishing Arctic sea ice.
More than 2,000 people visited the northern Alaskan village of Kaktovik on the Beaufort Sea last year to see polar bears in the wild, the state's Energy Desk reported Monday.
The community is located on the Beaufort Sea coast, an area where rapid global warming has sped up the movement of sea ice, the primary habitat of polar bears. As ice has receded to deep water beyond the continental shelf, more bears are remaining on land to look for food.
Far off the tourist path until recent years, the new residents of the tiny village of Kaktovic in Northern Alaska are polar bears retreating from their natural habitats due to climate change. Now thousands of people flock to the remote location each fall to get up close to the creatures
Bruce Inglangasak (pictured above) was concerned visitors would be deterred by the local tradition of subsistence whaling, but has instead seen growing numbers of photographers on his wildlife viewing tours
The village had less than 50 visitors annually before 2011, said Jennifer Reed, of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
'Today we're talking about hundreds and hundreds of visitors, many from around the world each year,' Reed said.
Polar bears have always been a common sight on sea ice near Kaktovik, but residents started noticing a change in the mid-1990s. More bears seemed to stay on land, and researchers began taking note of more female bears making dens in the snow on land instead of on the ice.
US Fish and Wildlife Service biologists began hearing reports of increasing numbers of polar bears in the area in the early 2000s, Reed said. As more attention was given to the plight of polar bears about a decade ago, more tourists started heading to Kaktovik.
Most visit in the fall, when bears are forced toward land because sea ice is the farthest away from the shore. Average high temperatures during this part of the year hover around freezing. Some bears become stranded near Kaktovik until the sea freezes over in October or November.
More summer dens have resulted in more cubs (pictured above) being born on land for the first time
The fall is also when residents of Kaktovik kill three bowhead whales. Bruce Inglangasak, an Inupiaq subsistence hunter who offers wildlife viewing tours, said residents were unsure how tourists would react to whaling.
'The community was scared about, you know, activists (who would) try to get us to shut down the subsistence whaling,' Inglangasak said. 'But that's not true.'
Inglangasak said he's been offering polar bear tours since 2003 or 2004.
Most of his clients are from China and Europe, as well as from the continental US, and arrive in Kaktovik on charter planes from Anchorage and Fairbanks.
Many tourists stay several days in the village, which has two small hotels, Inglangasak said.
Thousands of Detroit's public school students were told Tuesday to drink from district-supplied water coolers or bottled water on the first day of classes, after drinking fountains were shut off because of contaminants in some water fixtures.
Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said last week that elevated levels of lead or copper were found in fixtures at 34 schools. Test results are pending for other schools.
The discovery of contaminated water in Detroit's schools follows a lead-tainted water crisis in Flint, Michigan. In 2014 and 2015, Flint didn't properly treat corrosive water that was pulled from the Flint River. As a result, lead in old pipes contaminated the water going into homes and businesses, and it streamed from household taps as a brown and smelly fluid.
Scroll down for video
When teacher Cedric Cook learned that his school, Noble, would have no drinking fountain or sink water from Tuesday for two months, he volunteered to haul bottled water to campus as all public schools in Detroit grapple with the issue of water polluted by copper and lead fixtures and pipes
Some children in the city were subsequently found to have elevated levels of lead in their blood, which can lead to developmental delays and other health problems.
Eager to not undergo the same health and financial fallout as Flint, officials decided no students at Detroit's 106 public schools should drink water from existing fountains or sinks until a solution can be found and the water declared safe. School officials believe old fixtures, not the water source, may be to blame.
'We're still providing water that we believe is safer, and, ultimately, we actually believe students will drink more water than they did previously,' Vitti said Tuesday at Gardner Elementary on Detroit's west side. 'But this is about teaching and learning, not a conversation about water. It's an injustice that children and parents have to think about quality water, but we did the overall testing to be transparent and be proactive.'
'I can sleep better at night and actually look in the mirror knowing that we did the right thing,' he added.
Detroit Federation of Teachers president Ivy Bailey responded by assisting her colleagues at Noble School with bottles of water from the American Federation of Teachers on Tuesday. The AFT is also providing Detroit schools with hand sanitizer as water from some sinks is also contaminated
District-provided water coolers and paper cups will be replacing the traditional water fountain at all 106 public schools in Detroit until results are in from each property and a long-term plan for central water stations is put into place
Vitti said the cost of the coolers and bottled water will be $200,000 over two months, and he's looking at developing a long-term plan for new central water stations at every school with independent piping systems.
But as parent Quala Bennett dropped two children off at Gardner Elementary Tuesday, she wondered why the district only recently began testing its water.
'I don't understand why it's still a problem. I don't understand why now they're checking the school system,' Bennett said. 'They should have done that once the whole Flint thing happened.'
'Detroit Schools should not have waited until the start of the school year to alert parents about the water issues,' said Rhonda Walton, whose grandson is a kindergartner at Gardner.
'That's something that should have been ongoing over the summer,' Walton said. 'They knew that we had to be at school by today. And those issues should have been corrected by today.'
Some 50,000 Detroit public school students, like those pictured above at Gardner, started the school year with dry sinks and fountains, and will likely rely on aid from the district by way of water coolers, bottled water and supplies of hand sanitizers well into fall
Walton also said she reminds her grandson not to drink the water. 'We're not touching that water if we don't have to,' she said.
Ken Coleman, a spokesman for the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said the union would deliver bottled water and hand sanitizer to Noble Elementary-Middle School on Detroit's west side Tuesday afternoon, and that more would be distributed to other schools later. The American Federation of Teachers is providing the water and hand sanitizer.
Local teachers' union leaders are expected to meet Tuesday afternoon with the American Federation of Teachers to discuss how to address issue.
'We see this as an effort to augment what already is being provided by the district,' Coleman said. 'It's our opportunity to help make the school setting a better learning environment for our students.'
The father of an Australian teenager who died during a trip to Bali with friends has spoken about his grief.
Kristen Mace, 19, from Melbourne, drowned after falling into a pool at her Seminyak accommodation while suffering a suspected epileptic seizure on Sunday morning.
On what would be her 20th birthday her father, Justin Mace, spoke to ABC News about the unbelievable pain of losing a daughter - just three weeks after he lost his wife to cancer.
The former Firbank Girls' Grammar School student, who had a history of epilepsy, was walking next to the pool when she had a seizure
'[Kristen] was sitting out at the table having breakfast in the morning and her friend was inside having a shower,' he said.
'She looked out the window, saw Kristen was half in the pool, half out the pool, face down, so she screamed and called for help.
'It would appear she's fallen and hit her head we don't know how long she was like that for.'
He said it was a struggle coming to terms with the death of his daughter just weeks after his wife, Jodie Mace, died after a battle with cancer.
Justin Mace (pictured left) said it was a struggle coming to terms with the death of his daughter just weeks after his wife, Jodie Mace (pictured right), died after a battle with cancer
Kristen Mace (pictured), from Melbourne, lost her life in an 'unfortunate accident' on the Indonesia island on Monday, just two days before she would have turned 20
He described his daughter as 'the life of the party' and 'very unique', something he said he would greatly miss.
Now her family face a battle to bring her body home, and are raising money to pay for the repatriation.
Her father is now in Bali to identify the body and organise the repatriation, the costs of which are not covered by Ms Mace's insurance because she did not list her epilepsy on her travel insurance.
The former Firbank Girls' Grammar School student, who had a history of epilepsy, was walking next to the pool when she allegedly had a seizure, family friends said.
Ms Mace's lifeless body was later found in the water by a friend. Witnesses who attempted CPR were unable to revive her.
The accident came just three weeks after her mother Jodie died of brain cancer, and the family had just attended the funeral in Brighton, in the city's south-east.
Ms Mace (pictured) lost her mother Jodie to brain cancer just three weeks before the accident
'The impact on the Mace family no doubt is indescribable,' a family friend told Nine News.
'Kristen was an amazing girl and will be dearly missed by all.
'The circumstances over the last three weeks for the Mace family are beyond tragic.'
Ms Mace's death has prompted an outpouring of grief from family and friends, and hundreds of people have already donated almost $50,000 on GoFundMe.
Jenny Williams, Firbank Girls' Grammar School Principal, put out a statement offering the school's condolences.
'We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Firbank Old Grammarian, Krissy Mace, who graduated from our School in the Class of 2016,' she told The Herald Sun.
Mr Mace (pictured) is now in Bali to identify the body and organise the repatriation, the costs of which are not covered by Ms Mace's insurance because she did not list her epilepsy on her travel insurance
Ms Mace's death has prompted an outpouring of grief from family and friends, and hundreds of people have already donated almost $50,000 on GoFundMe
'She is fondly remembered by staff and students alike she was part of our family and a lifelong member of our community.'
'Our thoughts are with her family particularly as this tragic loss comes only weeks after the passing of her mother. We extend our support and condolences Krissy will be greatly missed.'
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told Daily Mail Australia consular assistance is being provided to Ms Mace's family.
'For privacy reasons we are unable to provide further details,' a DFAT spokesperson said.
A bikini model has clashed with a Supreme Court judge after she was told to 'sit down' during a debate about bail after she was charged with a string of offences.
Patrice Ruby Poutu, 31, represented herself after her bail was revoked at Southport Magistrates Court in Queensland, the Courier-Mail reported.
Charged with stealing a car, wilful damage, trespass, drug possession and breach of bail, Poutu was told by Justice Martin Burns that she was not a good candidate for bail, to which she asked: 'How can I change it so that I am a good candidate?'
'You can't, sit down,' Justice Burns replied.
Patrice Ruby Poutu, 31, represented herself after her bail was revoked at Southport Magistrates Court in Queensland
Poutu was told to not interrupt as she was refused bail, with Justice Burns saying he was not confident that she would comply with her conditions
Poutu was told to not interrupt as she was refused bail, with Justice Burns saying he was not confident that she would comply with her conditions.
'You are not a good candidate for bail, Ms Poutu, you need to get that into your head,' Justice Burns said.
Poutu has spent 41 days in jail after her bail was revoked on July 26.
As her request was refused, Justice Burns said he suspected Poutu had an 'underlying drug problem'.
'She has not shown cause why her continued detention in custody is not justified,' he said.
Poutu is expected to appear in Southport Magistrates Court on September 17.
A think tank for regional Australian issues has issued a report that highlights the top 10 places across Australia that are most vulnerable to job replacement by new technology.
According to the data from the Regional Australia Institute, Mount Gambier in South Australia is most at risk of losing jobs to automation, with 33.49% of its occupations classified as 'highly vulnerable'.
According to the data, Mount Gambier in South Australia is most at risk of losing jobs to automation
Regional areas and industry and service hubs are more susceptible to job replacement by new technology
Mount Gambier's economy is driven by the service industry and its key areas of business include retail, hospitality and tourism.
Most vulnerable areas 1. Mount Gambier - 33.49% 2. Gawler - 32.84% 3. Sorell - 32.86% 4. Griffith - 32.01% 5. Warrnambool - 31.95% 6. Albury - 31.84% 7. Victor Harbor - 31.82% 8. Shellharbour - 31.72% 9. Tea Tree Gully - 31.66% 10. Moonee Valley - 31.63% Advertisement
The South Australian town of Gawler came in second with 32.84% of jobs deemed 'highly vulnerable'. A semi-rural area, Gawler has a population of 26,472 and key industries include retail, tourism, construction and healthcare.
The Tasmanian town of Sorell didn't fare much better, with 32.06%. With a population of just 2,907, most people are employed in clerical and administrative work or construction.
Other South Australian regions that made it into the top 10 list include Victor Harbor and the City of Tea Tree Gully.
The Victorian towns of Moonee Valley and Warrnambool both had a percentage of vulnerable jobs higher than 31%, as did New South Wales' Albury, Griffith and Shellharbour.
Least vulnerable areas 1. North Sydney - 19.95% 2. Nedlands - 17.88% 3. Subiaco - 22.85% 4. Sydney - 25.61% 5. Ryde - 21.38% 6. Canberra - 24.25% 7. Melbourne - 25.64% 8. Lane Cove - 20.31% 9. Yarra - 22.16% 10. Port Phillip - 22.68% Advertisement
But why are these places considered more at risk than others?
The think tank shows that the professions most at risk of being replaced by robots are in the fields of retail and hospitality, particularly checkout operators, office cashiers and receptionists.
The fields least at risk include medical professions and midwifery, teaching and legal, social and welfare professions.
Regional areas and industry and service hubs have a higher proportion of people working in these high-risk industries, thus making them more susceptible to job replacement.
Large metropolitan areas, on the other hand, have lower risks of job replacement. Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne are all cities that are considered to have a low level of vulnerability.
Regional Australia Institute CEO Jack Archer believes that regional areas should start preparing for the future.
However, he remains optimistic that while some jobs will be lost or dramatically changed due to automation, many new jobs will be created in the process.
The fields least at risk include medical professions and midwifery, as well as teaching and legal, social and welfare professions
The professions most at risk of being replaced by robots are in the fields of retail and hospitality
'Some regional areas are more susceptible to automation than others, and each region also has a unique set of strengths and weaknesses to deal with the changing nature of work,' Mr Archer said.
Further work is expected to be released by the think tank over coming months to help regions gear for the future and focus on creating job opportunities in regional Australia.
Labor frontbencher Tony Burke lobbied for a controversial Islamic hate preacher who advocates the execution of homosexuals to be granted a business visa.
The former immigration minister and member for Watson in Sydney's south-west sent a letter to the Australian embassy in Jordan on behalf of Mohammed Rateb Abdalah Ali al-Nabulsi on July 21 last year.
The Voice of Islam radio station had invited Mr Nabulsi to Australia for a series of public engagements and sought the help of Mr Burke to secure his visa.
Mohammed Rateb Abdalah Ali al-Nabulsi (pictured) was denied entry last November after the Voice of Islam radio show invited him to be a guest speaker at charity events
Labor frontbencher Tony Burke (pictured) lobbied for a business visa to be granted to the controversial Islamic hate preacher, who advocates for the execution of homosexuals
Mr Nabulsi was denied entry to Australia despite the opposition frontbencher's efforts, The Australian confirmed.
Mr Burke's office allegedly called Immigration to find out the status of the Syrian's visa prior to writing to the embassy.
Australian intelligence officials have declared Mr Nabulsi a hate preacher, as his views on women would be 'abhorrent' to many Australians.
Despite this, he had been granted visas to enter the country in 2004, 2006, 2012 and 2013, before being red-flagged in 2017.
The Islamic scholar has called for the execution of homosexuals and the subjugation of women, whom he labels the 'devil's temptation'.
In a television broadcast on MEMRI-TV in 2011, Mr Nabulsi said: 'Homosexuality involves a filthy place, and does not generate offsprings.'
'Homosexuality leads to the destruction of the homosexual. That is why, brothers, homosexuality carries the death penalty,' he said.
'There are thousands of notions around the world, according to which a homosexual is a normal person, with homosexual genes.
'Therefore, the British health secretary says: 'I'm a homosexual.' He said it just like that, in a press conference. It's frightening... We are extremely lucky in our countries.'
In his letter to the department, Mr Burke said that Mr Nabulsi had followed his visa conditions on previous visits.
In his letter to the department, Mr Burke said that Mr Nabulsi had followed his visa conditions on previous visits
The revelations come as Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton weathers a scandal over his ministerial decisions to overturn Border Authority decisions to deny entry to Australia to two European au pairs.
Mr Burke told The Australian that he asked Mr Dutton whether there were any specific issues he should be aware of, but Mr Dutton didn't respond.
'It is outrageous and appalling that there were character concerns about this specific individual and he never bothered to let me know, even though I had specifically asked,' Mr Burke said.
'Mr Dutton needs to answer the question as to why he kept character concerns secret from an MP who was seeking that exact information.'
The Senate legal affairs committee will on Wednesday begin its inquiry into whether Mr Dutton misused his ministerial powers by intervening in cases.
Thousands of parents across Australia will have to pick up their children from care early today as workers hold their fourth strike in the last 18 months.
Seven thousand childcare workers are expected to join the 'Big Steps' national walkout in protest over low wages, with a total of 350 centres closing for the afternoon.
It will be the biggest industrial walkout to date over the issue, with workers arguing that they should be paid as much as men in the manufacturing sector.
Thousands of parents across Australia will have to pick up their children from care early today as workers hold their fourth strike in the last 18 months
'We have been calling for some time for government to come up with a solution and we're getting bigger and stronger every time,' United Voice union boss Helen Gibbons told Daily Mali Australia.
'We want a fair wage for early educators and we won't stop until that's a reality.'
At least 30 centres in Sydney will close at lunchtime so staff can meet at 4pm in Martin Place this afternoon for a major rally.
Gibbons estimates that at least 40,000 families across the country will be impacted by the strike, and all affected parents have been informed.
Educators are walking off the job with the unwavering support of parents who have chosen to keep their children at home for the afternoon so that their educators can participate, she said.
'It's a hallmark of the relationship between parents and childhood educators.'
7,000 childcare workers are expected to take join the 'Big Steps' national walk-out in protest over low wages, with a total of 350 centres closing for the afternoon
Gibbons explained that Australias educators must have qualifications, yet they earn an 'appalling' $22 an hour and are some of the lowest-paid professionals in the country.
'Educators are tired of being discriminated against because most of us are women,' one childhood educator said.
'Without us, Australia would grind to a halt, but we can't afford to stop until we are recognised for who we are.'
NSW Early Childhood Minister Sarah Mitchell was quizzed on the industrial action at a budget estimates hearing.
When it comes to issues of pay parity, yes Im aware of those matters but ultimately the rates are set by the Fair Work Commission at a Federal level, Mitchell said.
United Voice union boss Helen Gibbons (left) said parents of children attending centres taking part in the strike have been informed, while NSW Early Childhood Minister Sarah Mitchell (right) said that she was aware of the pay parity issues
Childcare workers lost a test case at the Fair Work Commission in February this year for failing to produce any evidence whatsoever that their work was undervalued.
The NSW Government has announced $200 million in subsidies for all three-year-olds to attend preschool as of next year, but many experts have criticised the proposition.
The vast majority of NSW-based three-year-old children will fail to see any benefits from theproposal, said the Australian Childcare Alliance.
Opposition Early Childhood spokeswoman Kate Washington expects only 5 per cent of three-year-olds in the state to benefit from the scheme.
When more than 80 per cent of the States three-year-olds obtain their preschooling in long day-care services, and community preschools are full of four-year-olds, the governments universal three-year-old funding in a lie, she said.
After this years budget was released, nine early childhood providers signed an open letter to NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, saying that the proposal was far from universal.
As drought-stricken farmers continue to struggle across Australia, supermarkets are selling refrigerated milk at 'every day' low prices.
Bizarrely, bottled water is moving off the shelves for double the price following a breakdown by the litre.
Celebrity Chef Matt Moran, who grew up on a dairy farm in Tamworth, shared a photo on Instagram, expressing his dismay at the national supermarket giant.
Matt Moran cannot believe the advertised price of Coles' milk given the struggles of farmers
The development come as Prime Minister Scott Morrison this morning rejected a potential milk levy to support drought-stricken farmers, declaring he 'doesn't want to push up prices for mums and dads pouring milk on their cornflakes'.
The Queensland Dairy Farmers Organisation (QDO) wants to see the price of milk increased by ten cents, with the additional proceeds to be passed on directly to farmers.
More than 22,000 people have signed a change.org petition from by the QDO, with Woolworths also a proud supporter.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is against a milk levy increase to help our farmers
Mr Morrison publicly expressed his doubt over the proposed levy increase.
'My first instinct is never to try and solve a problem with a tax, and I don't want to see any increase in prices for Australians,' the Prime Minister told the Nine Network.
'I want to ensure we can ensure the sustainability and viability of our dairy sector, but not doing that at a cost to mums and dads pouring milk on their cornflakes.'
The PM did add the levy increase would be considered in cabinet.
'A proposal will come (from Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud),' he said.
'We will then consider it carefully.'
Mr Littleproud has been in contact with Woolworths and Coles' CEOs, with the former quick to back the levy if approved.
Coles have been a little more cautious, with the process only likely to eventuate if both companies are on board.
'This is a whole of industry approach. We are hoping that Coles will now come on the journey,'' Littleproud said.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison doesn't support a milk levy increase to help farmers
'I've spoken to the Coles CEO who has indicated to me he's a little bit more circumspect about it, he is concerned about a 10c levy and the pressures on households.
'I've also chatted with farmer's kitchen tables, they told me that they can't wait any longer, they need relief now.'
Mr Littleproud also said his agricultural partners are working closely with retailers to ensure the small levy can be facilitated.
'The conversations have been constructive, they know the farmers need to have an industry into the future, so they are very much open to whatever ideas and policies can be put forward,'' he said.
'We are doing everything we can to make sure the 10c (levy) goes directly to the farmers.'
Sir Peter Cosgrove has announced he will stand down as Governor-General in March, leading to speculation he may be replaced by Julie Bishop.
'My plan is to retire at the end of March,' Mr Cosgrove told The Australian, meaning his tenure should end before the next federal election, widely thought to be held next April.
The 71-year-old said that he has enjoyed his tenure but 'if you do the job properly, at the end of five years you're probably running out of puff a bit.'
Sir Peter Cosgrove has announced he will stand down as Governor General before the next federal election, leading to speculation he may be replaced by Julie Bishop
Given that Julie Bishop has recently resigned to the back bench following a chaotic change of leadership in the Liberal Party, speculation is growing she may be in line to replace him.
Ms Bishop, 62, has considerable experience dealing with diplomats from her time as Foreign Minister.
She has been preselected for the Liberal seat of Curtin in Western Australia but has made no formal announcement that she will run in the election.
Bill Shorten has previously spoken to the new Prime Minister Scott Morrison asking to extend Sir Peter's term for six months until September next year, well after the next election.
Mr Shorten claimed that this would allow a newly elected prime minister time to nominate a successor.
Cosgrove, 71, said that he has enjoyed his tenure but 'if you do the job properly, at the end of five years you're probably running out of puff a bit'
'You very much, when you retire, you take, in a profile sense, a back seat. You don't want an immediate past governor-general turning up and making a pronouncement or something,' Mr Cosgrove said about his plans following stepping down.
He says he still hopes to be involved in many projects within the community, but with a lower profile.
Prison guards are being given training courses to remind them they can't have sex with jailbirds following an alleged affair between an officer and inmate.
In a budget estimates meeting on Tuesday, NSW Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Severin said the Maintaining Professional Boundaries training courses were necessary.
'It's to remind staff what it means to do the right thing about how to react if they discover that somebody is doing the wrong thing or if they themselves feel vulnerable,' he said.
NSW Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Severin (pictured) said the Maintaining Professional Boundaries training courses were necessary
Amy Connors (pictured) and convicted killer Sione Penisini are alleged to have had a sexual relationship at Kempsey maximum-security prison
Connors, a married mother-of-two, was reported to be pregnant with Penisini's (pictured) child, but her family has denied those claims, according to radio station 2GB
A Corrective Services spokeswoman told the Daily Telegraph that the course will cover various topics such as 'risk and protective factors, and self-care'.
'The course will also cover strategies for maintaining strong professional boundaries and how to continue to be professional,' she said.
Amy Connors and convicted cop killer Sione Penisini are alleged to have had a sexual relationship within the walls of Kempsey maximum-security prison on the New South Wales north coast.
Connors, a married mother-of-two, was reported to be pregnant with Penisini's child, but her family has denied those claims.
Police officer Glenn McEnally (pictured) was murdered by Sione Penisini in 2002
Penisini was sentenced to 36 years jail in 2002 after being convicted of murdering police officer Glenn McEnally.
Corrective Services staff reportedly had Connors and Penisini under surveillance for a month before they swooped, suspending the guard from duty.
Penisini has since been moved to Goulburn Supermax jail, home to Australia's most hardened criminals, after allegedly assaulting a fellow prisoner in recent weeks.
Penisini allegedly 'groomed' Connors by pushing her into weight-loss surgery.
Connors, 34, was eventually suspended following the investigation by Correction Services.
She was charged with misconduct in public office and larceny, and will have her case heard before the court on November 21.
Melbourne police have revealed a series of high-tech, non-lethal weapons to tackle gang violence in the city following a violent brawl over the weekend.
Police came under fire for not taking stronger action at the incident on Sunday morning which reportedly involved 200 youths of African and Islander descent and saw six injured and one hospitalised.
Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton announced that over the last six months 100 Operational Response Unit riot police have been training with new weapons and they are now ready to be deployed.
Public disorder will not be tolerated, Ashton told The Age.
We will be sending a clear message to people that we will be dealing with this with all the tools we have available.
He said that the tactics police will use will be quite confronting and that eventually 300 police would be trained to use the new equipment.
The new weapons include 15 semi-automatic 175-shot pepper-ball rifles that fire capsicum rounds, pellets the size of marbles and dye markers to brand offenders for identification later.
Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton (pictured, left) announced that over the last six months, 100 riot police have been training with new weapons that are now ready to be deployed
There are also 40mm launchers that fire squash-ball-like projectiles designed to hit offenders from 50 metres away and with the force of a very hard punch.
Other weapons include stinger grenades that roll into crowds emitting light, smoke and rubber pellets up to waist height, noise distraction devices designed to disperse violent crowds, and canisters that will detonate a cloud of capsicum and are to be used as a last resort.
The new equipment is expected to minimise injuries to police as they will not need to physically confront rioters, and the officers will also be issued with new lightweight body armour and helmets.
Police tactics will be quite confronting and 300 police will eventually use the new equipment
The purpose is to keep public order while minimising the risk of injuries to police, the public and offenders, said Superintendent Tim Tully from the Operations Support Division.
As well as the new equipment, new strategies will be put in place to ensure a greater police presence at potential riot scenes.
The new riot police will be positioned out of sight at events tipped to turn violent, and a riot command truck will be used to record violent activity and help identity those who escape arrest at the scene.
As well as the new equipment, new strategies will be put in place to ensure a greater police presence at events tipped to turn violent
Officers were repeatedly warned of the potential for violence at the record launch party on Saturday evening before the event ended in a brawl, a car rampage and a victim in a serious condition in hospital.
About 200 youths, many of African and Pacific Islander heritage, were involved in the melee which spilled out from the Gasometer Hotel in Collingwood in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Victoria Police revealed they held concerns for the event and were aware of several teens attending who had criminal convictions, The Australian reported.
Deputy police commissioner Bob Hill said: 'Certainly (66Records) is a group we've been well and truly aware of and been monitoring.
A crowd of more than 200 people had spilled onto the streets following a record label launch party
'Victoria Police were aware that we were having people participating or attending the event that were known to us, that were known to have a criminal history that presented a risk.'
Wayne Gatt, the police association boss, raised questions regarding allegations police on the ground made requests for additional staff, but were rejected.
'It had all the hallmarks of a brawl waiting to happen. (Extra resources) certainly weren't dedicated to that venue, I understand that they were sharing another nine high-risk events that night,' Mr Gatt said.
Mr Hill disputed those claims and said police were monitoring the venue, and were on the scene within minutes of the car collision.
While he did concede arrests could have occurred, he commended the tactical commander and police for their work and risk assessment on a case-by-case basis.
'We have one main offender who was the driver of the car,' Commander Tim Hansen said
Laa Chol (left and right) died at a party she attended in Melbourne in late July. It is not known if Sunday's violence was a revenge attack over her death
The admission came as 18-year-old David Bilal was left in a serious condition after he was hit by a car during the brawl.
The man was allegedly with a teenager accused of the stabbing death of Laa Chol, 19, on the night she died.
Mr Hill said there is currently no information to indicate the two incidents are related, or that the brawl was the result of a revenge attack for the alleged murder.
The victim remains at The Alfred Hospital in a serious condition, as his father urges a stop to the violence.
'It's a parent's worst nightmare, you know what I mean. It was Father's Day and the last thing you want is to go and check out if your son is alive or not,' he told the Herald Sun.
'This madness has to stop.'
Blood is seen on a car at the scene after a vehicle smashed into parked cars in the early hours of Sunday
The admission of police awareness comes only a day after Prime Minister Scott Morrison provided a scathing assessment of Melbourne's gang crisis in the wake of the street brawl.
The prime minister said there is a reason problems are occurring in Melbourne and not in Australia's other major cities.
'We have the highest proportion of Sudanese population in New South Wales. [But] we don't have these problems. Why is it happening in Melbourne?' he asked on 3AW Radio on Monday.
'There is a law and order problem, clearly, in Victoria, even though we have the same challenges in other cities in the country.'
Scott Morrison (with wife Jenny) has provided a scathing assessment of Melbourne's gang crisis in the wake of a violent street brawl
The prime minister recounted how former New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione changed the name of the NSW Police Service to NSW Police Force, bringing about a cultural change.
'Law and order means something in New South Wales and I feel for Victorians who are asking the big question, why is this happening in our city and it's not happening in other places?' he said.
'There's not the same issue, even though we have the same challenges in other cities in the country, including in my home city of Sydney, because we have a police force that's a force.'
'There is a law and order problem, clearly, in Victoria, even though we have the same challenges in other cities in the country,' Mr Morrison said
He said it was up to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to ensure 'there is a police force that is a force'.
'When you don't have that control and rule of law being imposed and forced in your community, people take advantage of it,' he said.
Mr Morrison did not accept there is a racial element to Melbourne's gang violence.
'There is a high proportion of Sudanese in New South Wales too, but we don't have that problem. This is a law and order problem,' he said.
The organiser of an event which sparked a wild brawl and left a teenager fighting for life warned revellers 'violence will not be tolerated'
'During the affray, a car has collided with a number of parked cars on Mater Street and pinned one person against the parked vehicle,' police Commander Tim Hansen told reporters.
Daily Mail Australia does not suggest the injured man had any involvement in any capacity with Ms Chol's death, or any wrongdoing on the night of her death.
Six other people were also injured in the brawl while three cars were damaged, and police are still searching for the instigators.
No arrests have been made as yet.
Three patrol cars were on duty to keep an eye on the 66 Records launch and police had flagged the venue for monitoring after recent crimes involving the Pacific Islander and African communities.
Event organiser J-Nelly told revellers to be on their best behaviour in a Facebook post on Friday, saying 'violence will not be tolerated'.
'A moment of anger isn't worth a lifetime of bad labeling (sic),' he wrote.
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 14 years and 30,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
Wealthy families should pay more tax to help the poor, the Archbishop of Canterbury declares today.
In a major intervention sure to spark controversy, Justin Welby says he wants to rake in an extra 9billion a year with a shake-up of inheritance tax.
Multinationals who dodge their dues would also be hit. Proceeds would fund a higher minimum wage and pay for 10,000 handouts to help the young buy homes.
The recommendations come in a report co-written by the Archbishop that says Britain's economy is broken. Demanding radical action to reduce 'damaging wealth inequality', its key proposals include:
Wealthy families should pay more tax to help the poor, the Archbishop of Canterbury (pictured with his wife Caroline) declares today
Higher capital gains tax and taxes on dividends netting up to 27billion a year;
A 13billion-a-year corporation tax hike;
The creation of a 186billion 'Citizens Wealth Fund' by 2030.
The report, drawn up by the Left-leaning Institute for Public Policy Research, calls for inheritance tax to be scrapped and replaced by a gifts tax.
An individual would be able to receive 125,000 over their lifetime with any further gifts subject to income tax. The tax-free threshold for an entire estate is currently 325,000, or 650,000 for a couple.
The report points out that many families avoid death duties by exploiting a rule that allows gifts to become tax-free after seven
years. The Archbishop is also demanding a 'backstop tax' to make multinationals such as Starbucks and Amazon pay more tax on their profits.
In his article for the Mail, the Most Rev Welby writes: 'We cannot continue with an economy that works so badly for so many. Chronically low pay means a hard day's work no longer keeps people out of poverty: today, a majority of the poor are working families.'
It was 'particularly hard for young people, many of whom are set to be poorer than their parents, unable to find secure work and with little prospect of getting on the housing ladder'.
The archbishop adds: 'The wealthiest 10 per cent of households own more than 900 times the wealth of the poorest 10 per cent, and five times more than the bottom half of all households combined.'
And it was 'an obvious injustice that income from work is taxed at a higher rate than income from capital gains or share dividends.'
All income should be taxed on the same basis, just as it was under Margaret Thatcher, he says.
Using his faith to justify his proposals, the Archbishop says: 'As a Christian I start with learning from Jesus Christ that people matter equally, are equally loved by God, and that justice in society matters deeply a theme that runs throughout the Bible.'
The Citizens Wealth Fund would be funded with 90billion income from the new 'lifetime gifts tax' over ten years, 57billion in proceeds of planned state asset sales such as RBS, income from the 11billion Crown Estate and other sources.
It would give 25-year-olds a 10,000 'universal minimum inheritance' to get on the housing ladder or start a business. It could also provide all citizens with a small annual dividend.
The report suggests giving English regions as well as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the power to set their own immigration levels.
The City high flyer betting on Brexit Dame Helena Morrissey, a mother of nine, is a rising City star A self-styled 'progressive Brexiteer' is among the authors of the report by the Institute for Public Policy Research. Dame Helena Morrissey, a mother of nine, is a rising City star. The financier has said a Brexit-induced shake-up in the Square Mile could open up opportunities for women. Dominic Barton, a director at consultancy giant McKinsey, also served on the panel. He sat alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury and Frances O'Grady, a prominent Remainer and general secretary of the TUC. The IPPR's Commission on Economic Justice was launched after the 2016 European Union referendum. The think-tank became well known in the 1990s for promoting Tony Blair's policies and is seen as left of centre. Advertisement
It calls for a 'global talent visa' to give the brightest immigrants a fast track to a British passport, for German-style worker directors on boards and for more bargaining power for unions.
Former Tory Cabinet minister Nicky Morgan said last night that the report's calls for higher taxation would concern some Conservatives but it deserved to be taken seriously.
'I agree that greater fairness is required in the way the economy is run and there is a big appetite for finding ways to achieve that,' she said. 'But we need to think hard before approving big tax rises.'
Miss Morgan, who chairs the Commons Treasury committee, added: 'Our aim should be to make the whole nation wealthier.'
The IPPR insists the proposals would not reduce Britain's competitiveness.
'All the evidence is that a fairer economy is a more productive and happier one,' it says. 'Countries like Denmark, Sweden and Norway have high tax rates and yet come top in surveys of well-being and life satisfaction.
'Britain feels split along old dividing lines gender, class, income, geography or ethnicity and new ones: the generational divide, attitudes to immigration and whether we voted to leave or remain in the EU.
'The UK economy needs fundamental reform. We cannot muddle through.
'Fundamental reform has happened twice before in the last century following crises: the Attlee government's reforms in the 1940s and the Thatcher free market reforms in the 1980s. Change of this magnitude is needed again.
'The inexorable rise of executive pay has been a significant factor in making Britain one of Europe's most unequal societies. This contributes to a deep sense of unfairness.'
The think-tank called for a 'more active and powerful state to produce prosperity and justice' without resorting to central planning or state control.
'Why I believe we need to tax wealth more': Archbishop of Canterbury's declaration in his own words
I'm proud to live in a country that is the world's fifth largest economy. We have world-leading businesses characterised by extraordinary innovation, high productivity, strong exports, highly skilled jobs and good pay.
We have low unemployment, lower than for many decades. Economically, politically, and often morally, we remain a global power.
There is much of which we can be proud.
Yet despite these strengths, it is evident that for many people, the economy is not working. It no longer fulfils the promise of rising living standards.
Justin Welby, the Archbishop Of Canterbury has said he believes we need to tax wealth more to help lower middle income earners
For more than a decade, most people have seen no improvement in their pay, even while the economy as a whole has continued to grow.
As the Bank of England has shown, for nearly 40 years the share of our national income going into people's pay has been falling while the share going to profits has been on the rise.
Chronically low pay means that a hard day's work no longer keeps people out of poverty: today, a majority of the poor are working families.
It is particularly hard for young people, so many of whom are set to be poorer than their parents, unable to find secure work and with little prospect of getting on the housing ladder.
And meanwhile the divisions between the nations and regions of our country have grown larger.
In London, we have the wealthiest region in northern Europe; yet six of the ten poorest regions are also here in the UK.
I do not believe we can continue with an economy that works so badly for so many.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby (pictured) held back tears as spoke at a child sexual abuse inquiry in London
As a Christian I start with learning from Jesus Christ that people matter equally, are equally loved by God, and that justice in society matters deeply a theme that runs throughout the Bible.
That's why over the past two years I've been a member of the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice.
My fellow commissioners come from all walks of life: from CEOs of major businesses to entrepreneurs shaping the new economy, from leading investors to prominent trade unionists.
The report the commission is publishing today comes to a simple but profound conclusion. If we are to get the economy working properly again, it needs reform.
This kind of change has happened twice before in the last century following periods of crisis both after 1945 with the Attlee Government and in the 1980s with Mrs Thatcher.
At the heart of our report is a simple but profound truth. If we make the economy fairer for ordinary people, we will also make it stronger. When prosperity and justice go hand in hand, every part of society benefits.
That's why the Commission says we need to 'hard-wire' justice into the economy.
People need decent pay for a good standard of living but also so they can afford to buy the goods and services that business creates. Raising pay will encourage firms into raising their productivity.
The Commission puts forward three key ideas: First, a boost to our manufacturing and exporting sectors. The commission proposes a strategy of 'new industrialisation' to build more world-leading firms and create better-paying jobs right across the country.
Second, it proposes an immediate increase in the minimum wage so that it becomes a real living wage. It would add around 30 a week to the pay packets of full-time minimum wage earners.
For companies that might find this difficult to afford while they raise their productivity, the commission proposes a reduction in national insurance.
It also proposes that people on zero-hours contracts should be paid 20 per cent above the new higher minimum wage to prevent employers shirking their responsibilities.
Third, trade unions need a stronger role in helping workers bargain on pay and conditions. In today's fragmented workforce, many low-paid workers are too insecure to ask for more pay.
The gig economy and zero hours contracts are ways of holding down costs. That can be good, but not when it leaves families needing to go to food banks to survive. In the food banks in which the Church of England participates more than 40 per cent of those who come are in work.
Countries like Germany and Sweden have strong trade unions that often work in close cooperation with employers recognising that it is in the interest of the country as a whole and they also have higher pay and productivity.
Our companies and markets also need reform. Too many British businesses have become focused on short-term profits. The commission proposes changes to the way companies are governed so that they are focused on long-term success.
And we have let too many markets become uncompetitive, dominated by a small number of excessively powerful firms. This is particularly true in the digital economy, where a small number of giant companies lead. The commission proposes new ways of making markets more open and competitive, where entrepreneurs can flourish in start-ups, and where the public interest is protected from enabling innovation to protecting the free Press that is vital for our democracy.
Taxation will always be controversial. But it is also essential: it pays for things that we all need. Every family depends on decent schools, good hospitals, roads and public transport, as well as our remarkable armed services and the police that protect us. Businesses depend on these things too.
Mr Welby revealed before the EU referendum in 2016 that he planned to vote Remain, but said he had 'desire to tell others how to vote'
Today our society is rapidly ageing. Not only does this mean that more people need and deserve more health and social care in old age, it also means there are fewer working-age people to pay for these services. I welcome the honesty of the recent public acknowledgement that taxes are likely to have to rise to pay for the health and social care our society needs.
The commission believes we now need a new deal on tax, so that it promotes prosperity and justice at the same time.
It argues for reform of the way income tax is levied, so that taxes are cut for those on lower and middle incomes.
It also argues that we need to tax wealth more. Today the wealthiest 10 per cent of households own more than 900 times the wealth of the poorest 10 per cent, and five times more than the bottom half of all households combined.
It is an obvious injustice that income from work is taxed at a higher rate than income from capital gains or share dividends. The commission proposes that all income is taxed on the same basis, just as it was under Mrs Thatcher.
Finally, the commission proposes a level playing field for business taxation. It is fundamentally unfair that firms focused on the UK economy especially small businesses pay their business taxes responsibly while multinational firms create complex schemes to avoid paying what they owe. That's why it suggests a new form of corporation tax to close these loopholes.
The members of the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice are citizens, not politicians. We supported different sides in the Brexit debate. But all of us believe that our country needs fundamental economic reform for the sake of justice, no matter the shape of our future relationship with the EU.
Now is the time for the whole country and all political parties to come together around an agenda of economic reform. Making the economy fairer will benefit us all.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is recorded as giving one of the greatest challenges possible to his disciples just before his arrest and crucifixion when he describes the judgment of God at the end of time. In that passage he explicitly says that judgment is linked to justice, namely, in the way in which we treat those who are most vulnerable and weakest. Out of that extraordinary passage comes the Christian call to work for the common good and for the welfare of everyone in our society.
HIS BLUEPRINT
Bid to stop rich exploiting seven years loophole
It is simple to avoid paying many taxes on wealth including inheritance tax, the Institute for Public Policy Research warns.
Its report says many wealthy families use the so-called seven year rule to get round the single persons maximum 325,000 tax-free bequest or 650,000 for a couple. If someone survives for seven years after gifting large sums, no inheritance tax is levied.
To combat this, the report calls for IHT to be abolished and replaced with a lifetime gifts tax on all gifts received during a persons life over a certain amount, set initially at around 125,000. It states: All further gifts would be classed as income ... and taxed at income tax rates. Small gifts and those between spouses and civil partners would be exempt.
The report says this would raise 15billion a year 9billion more than current IHT revenue.
The report also says taxing capital gains and share dividends at lower rates than income from work benefits those with wealth and encourages tax avoidance.
Income tax rates range from 20 to 45 per cent, with capital gains at 10 and 20 per cent (18 and 28 per cent on property except main homes) and dividends taxed between 7.5 and 38 per cent.
Bid to stop rich exploiting seven years loophole
A Citizens Wealth Fund worth 186billion would be set up under the think-tanks plan to tackle inequality.
From 2030 the fund would give 10,000 grants to 25-year-olds to help them on to the homeowning ladder or start up in business.
Half of the money to pay for this would come from higher levies on inheritance. The rest would come from existing plans to sell state assets such as Royal Bank of Scotland and the 330million-a-year income from the 11billion Crown Estates, made up of royal possessions such as farms and forests, Ascot racecourse, Windsor Great Park and property in London.
At present the 330million is paid into Treasury coffers.
The report says the fund would be owned by and run in the interests of the whole population.
25-year-olds should get 10,000 handout
Multinationals accused of avoiding tax are also targeted in the IPPR report.
They would be hit by an Alternative Minimum Corporation Tax based on a complex formula involving the firms estimated UK profits.
The report says it would be a backstop tax on corporations that report low profits to HM Revenue & Customs.
It should be applied when a firm declared profits below a certain percentage of its global profits for more than five years, it said.
Companies including Amazon and Starbucks have been accused of avoiding hundreds of millions of pounds in tax.
Crackdown on firms that hide profits
Multinationals accused of avoiding tax are also targeted in the IPPR report.
They would be hit by an Alternative Minimum Corporation Tax based on a complex formula involving the firms estimated UK profits.
The report says it would be a backstop tax on corporations that report low profits to HM Revenue & Customs.
It should be applied when a firm declared profits below a certain percentage of its global profits for more than five years, it said.
Companies including Amazon and Starbucks have been accused of avoiding hundreds of millions of pounds in tax.
2020s set to be decade of disruption
The 2020s will be a decade of disruption as we confront the impacts of Brexit, globalisation and other changes, the report warns.
Doing nothing will not keep things the same, it will make things worse, it says. Leaving the EU represents a momentous change and few parts of the economy will be unaffected. The UK is deeply embedded in the complex supply chains of the EU single market.
The changes will inevitably lead to uncertainty and disruption. The economy will need to be as strong and resilient as possible if it is to thrive.
Our structural weaknesses made change necessary before Brexit; they will make it all the more important afterwards.
Ministers last night vowed to press ahead with plans to cut the number of MPs by 50 despite warnings that they face defeat in the Commons.
In a letter to Tory MPs, party chairman Brandon Lewis and Theresa Mays deputy David Lidington said failure to press ahead with a controversial boundary review would leave Britain with the most out-of-date boundaries in modern political history.
Tory whips have warned Mrs May that they could struggle to win the Commons vote needed to put the new boundaries in place ahead of the next election.
But in their letter last night, the two Cabinet ministers warned that leaving the borders as they are would cement the existing bias in the electoral system towards Labour.
Conservative Party chairman Brandon Lewis and the Prime Minister's deputy David Lidington have written to MPs. Lidington warned that failing to press ahead could leave Britain with 'the most out-of-date boundaries in modern political history'
Without such reforms, there will be a significant bias at the next election that will unfairly discriminate against voters in Conservative constituencies, they wrote. The absence of fair and equal boundaries risks gerrymandering the election in favour of Jeremy Corbyn.
But Conservative MP Peter Bone said at least ten Tories were opposed to slashing the size of the Commons in principle, with several more poised to vote against the plans due to fears about their own futures.
Mr Bone urged Mrs May to think again and order a boundary review based on keeping the existing 650 MPs. There are a number of us opposed to this in principle, he said. We do not agree with the idea of reducing parliamentary scrutiny. Why should the number of MPs be cut by 50 while the size of government remains the same? All it means is there will be 50 fewer MPs to hold the Government to account. I dont think there is any chance of getting it through and the whips know that. Instead of going down this route, the Prime Minister should think again. The idea of cutting the number of MPs was a PR stunt dreamed up by David Cameron.
Circumstances have changed we are now going to have to do the work of Members of the European Parliament as well. The letter also promises jittery MPs that no colleague will be left behind by the review a reference to a pledge to find a seat for all existing MPs who want to stay on.
Theresa May, who has been touring Africa this month, has been fighting on all fronts this month as she responds to criticism from Boris Johnson, pictured with May at a NATO summit this summer, over her Brexit plans.
David Davis, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn are among the MPs whose seats face being carved up by the changes.
The Boundary Commission is due to deliver its final proposals to ministers today ahead of their publication on Monday. Tory MPs have been invited to a briefing on the details next week, ahead of a vote, which is likely to take place this autumn. The existing boundaries are based on data from the turn of the century. Demographic changes mean some constituencies have twice as many voters as others.
An assessment of the proposals by the Electoral Calculus website in July suggested the changes could be worth an extra 20 seats to the Tories at the next election. The Tory pledge to equalise the size of constituencies and cut the number of MPs from 650 to 600 has been in place since 2010. It was blocked by Nick Clegg during the Coalition government and is now under threat from the Tory rebels.
Labour will also oppose the changes. Shadow cabinet minister Cat Smith said: With no plans to reduce the number of Ministers it will weaken the role of Parliament, to the advantage of the Executive.
Asia Argento has claimed Jimmy Bennett was the one who sexually assaulted her when he was 17 years old - as it is revealed she has halted the remainder of the $380,000 hush money her boyfriend Anthony Bourdain promised him.
Argento's lawyer Mark Jay Heller told TMZ that Bennett had 'sexually attacked' her at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Marina del Rey, California in 2013 and he was lucky she decided not to prosecute him.
The allegations first surfaced last month when it was revealed that Argento had secretly paid off Bennett, a former child star, after he accused her of sexually assaulting him when he was 17.
Argento's boyfriend - the late Anthony Bourdain - arranged to pay Bennett a $380,000 in an out-of-court settlement in order to protect her, according to her attorney.
Heller revealed on Tuesday that Argento will not pay Bennett the balance of the settlement - $130,000 - because the arrangement was made by Bourdain before he took his own life in June.
Asia Argento has claimed Jimmy Bennett was the one who sexually assaulted her when he was 17 years old - as it is revealed she has halted the remainder of the $380,000 hush money her boyfriend Anthony Bourdain promised him
Days after the news broke about the assault allegations, text messages that were allegedly sent by Argento to a friend and published by TMZ revealed she did in fact have sex with Bennett when she was 37 and the boy just 17.
'The horny kid jumped me... I had sex with him it felt weird,' one text message read.
Her attorney pointed to those messages on Tuesday when he argued that Bennett was the one who sexually assaulted her and that he tried to extort her when he realized she was dating Bourdain.
'Asia does not intend to prosecute Bennett for his conduct and recognizes that his unfortunate past, his stalled acting career, and a lawsuit against his own parents for allegedly misappropriating more than a million and a half dollars from his account might explain his desperation to seek money from Asia and Bourdain for this falsely alleged incident that took place more than 5 years ago,' her attorney said.
When the story broke, Argento denied having a sexual relationship with Bennett.
Her lawyer defended that statement on Tuesday, saying she was being honest because it was just a one-time thing and not a relationship.
In a statement to Page Six, Heller said: 'Her relationship with Bennett was never sexual, but rather the relationship was a long distance friendship over many years.'
Asia Argento (right) is stopping payment of the remainder of the $380,000 to Jimmy Bennett, an actor who has accused her of sexually assaulting him when he was 17 years old. Attorney Mark Jay Heller says the arrangement was made by her ex-boyfriend, Anthony Bourdain (left)
Heller acknowledged that Bennett and Bourdain entered into the arrangement for a $380,000 settlement. The lawyer says Bourdain wanted to protect Argento.
'Now that Mr. Bourdain has passed away and is not able to comment on his desire to avoid potential scandal Asia will not permit any portion of the balance of the $380,000 payment to be paid to Bennett who has already received $250,000 from Anthony Bourdain,' Heller said.
Argento's attorney suggested the allegations against her was an attempt to discredit her after she came forward and accused disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein of raping her.
'Asia's courage to originally make the accusations against Harvey Weinstein has not waned,' Heller said.
'Phase Two of the #metoo movement dictates that the voice of a victim, even one with a history that may be in question, should be heard and she is hopeful that in the Court of Public Opinion it will ultimately be determined that Asia never initiated an inappropriate sexual contact with a minor, but rather she was attacked by Bennett and might even be suffering the fallback of a smear campaign by those already accused who may have a vested interest in their accusers being denied credibility.'
Argento has been accused of luring Bennett to her California hotel room back in 2013.
Once there, she sent away his chaperone, plied him with alcohol and showed him her love letters before kissing the teen.
The Italian actress, who is 20 years his senior, then pushed him onto the bed where she performed oral sex on Bennett before climbing on top of him and having sex with him, he claimed in his notice of intent to sue the actress.
Bennett, who once played Argento's son in a movie when he was seven years old, filed the notice in November 2017 - just one month after she became one of the first actresses to publicly accuse disgraced Miramax producer Weinstein of sexual assault.
Asia Argento and 17-Year-Old Boy in Bed in Sexual Encounter https://t.co/y6EeKOdPT7 TMZ (@TMZ) August 22, 2018
Argento's texts to a friend Friend: As in what does the public know and not know? Like which things are facts or not facts? It's an annoying question but I need to have a clear vision on what angles we have to send some folks to get good intel for us Argento: The public knows nothing, only what NYT wrote. Which is one sided. The shakedown letter. The horny kid jumped me F: So it was rape? Or an attempted secual action? A: I has sex with him it felt weird. i didn't know he was a minor until the shakedown letter. F: Either one is good enough to show You actively frowned upon his advances A: No it was all on snapchat. Disappeared I didn't report because I always felt bad for this Hollywood failed child actor, a casualty of the machine, of his parents I have 80 pages on him by a PI that Anthony hired F: Yeah we don't always think og ourselves in those time periods A: All of Anthony's emails pushing me to accept pay. My emails with Carrie where we disagreed with that Advertisement
Documents first obtained by the New York Times reveal that Argento, who was dating Bourdain until his suicide in June, settled the claim out of court earlier this year for $380,000.
The original notice, which was sent to the newspaper anonymously from an encrypted email, asked for $3.5 million in damages for the intentional infliction of emotional distress, lost wages, assault and battery.
It was sent to Anthony Bourdain's lawyer, Richard Hofstetter, who was representing Argento at the time.
In it, Bennett's lawyers, who had characterized the hotel encounter as 'sexual battery', claimed the sexual assault was so traumatizing that it had affected their client's acting career.
ASIA ARGENTO SAYS BOURDAIN URGED SEX ASSAULT SETTLEMENT 'I strongly deny and oppose the contents of the New York Times article dated 20 August 2018, as circulated also in national and international news. 'I am deeply shocked and hurt by having read news that is absolutely false. I have never had any sexual relationship with Bennett. 'I was linked to him during several years by friendship only, which ended when, subsequent to my exposure in the Weinstein case, Bennett - who was then undergoing severe economic problems and who had previously taken legal actions against his own family requesting millions in damages - unexpectedly made an exorbitant request of money from me. Bennett knew my boyfriend, Anthony Bourdain, was of great perceived wealth and had his own reputation as a beloved public figure to protect. 'Antony [sic] insisted the matter be handled privately and this was also what Bennett wanted. Anthony was afraid of the possible negativity that such person, whom he considered dangerous, could have brought upon us. We decided to deal compassionately with Bennetts demand for help and give it to him. Anthony personally undertook to help Bennett economically, upon the condition that we would no longer suffer any further intrusions into our life. 'This is, therefore, the umpteeth development of a sequence of events that brings me great sadness and that constitutes a long-standing persecution. I have therefore no other choice but to oppose such false allegation and will assume in the short term and all necessary initiatives for my protection before all competent venues.' Advertisement
TMZ published the texts, including one that reads: 'It wasn't raped but I was frozen. He was on top of me. After, he told me I had been his sexual fantasy since was 12.'
One day later, Argento denied ever having sex with Bennett in a statement while suggesting the young man extorted her and Bourdain, who paid out the settlement.
TMZ also published an image reported to be a post-coital photo of the two taken in May 2013.
Argento also allegedly claims to have been unaware that Bennett was a minor when they had sex in 2013 in the texts, despite raving about how talented the boy was when they met in 2003 on the set of The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things on Twitter just months before their encounter.
In that tweet, posted in August 2012, she wrote: 'At 7 you were already one of the most accomplished actors I'd ever met.'
'The public knows nothing, only what NYT wrote. Which is one-sided. The shakedown letter. The horny kid jumped me,' reads one text.
When asked if it was rape, the person reported to be Argento responds: 'I had sex with him and it felt weird. I didn't know he was a minor until the shakedown letter.'
The other person, who is not identified, then asks why she did not report the incident, which she responds to by saying she 'always felt bad for this Hollywood failed child actor, a casualty of the machine, of his parents.'
Then, in a move that seems to be directly out of the Harvey Weinstein's playbook, Argento allegedly reveals that a private investigator was hired by Bourdain to follow the boy and there are '80 pages' of notes in a text.
Argento also speaks of her plans should she lose work for this incident, stating that she would 'move to Africa or the Amazon forest' in one text.
This alleged text conversation took place just after The New York Times published its piece on Argento's settlement with Bennett.
'I strongly deny and oppose the contents of the New York Times article,' said Argento in a statement just days after the Times report.
'I am deeply shocked and hurt by having read news that is absolutely false. I have never had any sexual relationship with Bennett.'
She goes on to state that Bennett went after her because of her relationship with Bourdain, a 'man of great perceived wealth' who 'had his own reputation as a beloved public figure to protect.'
Bourdain paid the settlement despite the fact that it represented almost half of his cash and savings at the time, with court papers submitted after the chef's death revealing $425,000 of his $1.2 million estate was in cash.
'Anthony personally undertook to help Bennett economically, upon the condition that we would no longer suffer any further intrusions in our life,' writes Argento in her statement.
She says that at the request of both Bourdain and Bennett, the matter was settled privately
That payout was only a fraction of the $3.5 million that Bennett had requested in the notice.
'This is, therefore, the umpteenth development of a sequence of events that brings me great sadness and that constitutes a long-standing persecution,' claims Argento .
CNN pulled two episodes of Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown featuring girlfriend Asia Argento. The late Bourdain deemed the Rome episode their 'most beautiful show', the couple are pictured on set of the episode where they met
'I have therefore no other choice but to oppose such false allegations and will assume in the short term all necessary initiatives for my protection before all competent venues.'
TMZ reported on Tuesday that Argento told Bourdain she was 'too broke' to pay the settlement, and the two referred to Bennett as a 'donkey' in text messages.
Up until his death, Bourdain was the host of the popular CNN food and travel show Parts Unknown.
In light of the news of the payout to Bennett, it was learned this past weekend that CNN had removed episodes of the show that featured Argento.
Two of the episodes feature the Italian actress - one in Rome which the late chef deemed 'our most beautiful show, and another set in Hong Kong which Bourdain called a 'professional highlight' of his career.
'This was a very special show for me because it was an odd and miraculous confluence of events,' Bourdain said of the Hong Kong episode, which Argento directed and aired shortly before his death.
Restaurants are set to be forced to display calorie counts on their menus under controversial plans that have triggered a Cabinet row.
The Department of Health is set to unveil plans within days to impose the new rules on all food outlets, including small cafes and fast food businesses.
But the Treasury has moved to try and block the plan blaming the risks of spiralling costs for small food companies - warning menus would need reprinting every time a recipe is changed.
Chief Secretary Liz Truss has accused health officials of underestimating the cost of the policy and written a letter to David Lidington, the PM's deputy, to intervene.
The Treasury estimates that calculating the precise calorie content of each dish and printing menus could cost restaurants up to 500.
Liz Truss, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury (pictured) has accused health officials of underestimating the cost of forcing restaurants to publish calorie counts on menus
Under the proposals, restaurant menus (file image) would need to include details of calorie content and need reprinting every time a recipe was changed
In the letter Ms Truss made it clear the Treasury could block the policy, the Daily Telegraph reported.
'At this stage I am not agreeing to any preferred option or final policy change for small or micro businesses,' the letter said.
'We should take a final decision following this consultation and informed by the evidence submitted to it.
'HM Treasury clearance is required for government's response to this consultation.'
Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt announced in June that the Government would seek views on introducing calorie counts on menus.
A draft consultation, expected to be released this week, states that legislation will ensure there is consistent calorie labelling for restaurants, cafes, takeaways and online deliveries.
It says: 'Making this information available can help people to make informed and healthy choices for themselves and their family to regulate their energy intake and that of their children.'
Jeremy Hunt (pictured in Downing Street yesterday) announced a consultation on the plan while he was Health Secretary in July
But Mrs Truss warned the proposals 'could result in job losses and higher food prices being passed on to consumers'.
She added: 'It could cost businesses up to 13million an average of 500 each for 26,000 businesses per year and individual costs may be particularly burdensome to micro and small businesses which frequently change their menus.
'I am also concerned that the accompanying impact assessment may underestimate the cost to businesses.'
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: 'The Government announced its intention to consult on mandatory calorie labelling on menus as part of the second chapter of the childhood obesity plan in July and we will set out our next steps in due course.'
Jean-Claude Junckers right-hand man in Brussels faced calls to quit yesterday after a watchdog suggested Eurocrats broke the law to promote him.
Martin Selmayr was fast-tracked into his role as secretary-general of the EU Commission in a way which stretched and possibly even overstretched the limits of the law, an inquiry ruled.
The German official, nicknamed The Monster by Juncker for his ruthlessness, was even handed the position despite being unqualified to fill it, the report said. He should have first served in a deputy post.
Martin Selymar, left, pictured with Jean-Claude Juncker, has been urged to resign over the way the German official was appointed the EU's top civil servant
An EU watchdog claimed Mr Selmayr was unqualified for his role and was 'parachuted' into the EU's top job because of his previous role Juncker's chief of staff
Yesterdays scathing report by the EU watchdog also poured scorn on the Commission the arm of the EU which oversees Brexit and of which Mr Juncker is president for its defensive and evasive response to the allegations.
Its leaders showed either a lack of self-awareness and understanding of the valid concerns or a wilful refusal to admit to them, the investigation found.
In her report the European Ombudsman, Emily OReilly, said Brussels bosses were guilty of acts of maladministration.
Mr Juncker was found to have allowed lines to blur between administrative independence and his political closeness to Mr Selmayr, previously his chief of staff. It meant Mr Selmayr was effectively parachuted into the EUs most senior civil service post. Despite the damning findings, the Commission yesterday said nobody would face disciplinary action and even suggested that the reports conclusions were the result of misunderstandings. But critics branded the EU body corrupt and called for Mr Selmayr to resign so a new secretary-general could be appointed.
Williamson mauls Barnier Ministers rounded on Michel Barnier yesterday after he rejected Theresa Mays Chequers deal. The EUs chief Brexit negotiator has said he is strongly opposed to the Governments Brexit plan. But arriving for the Cabinet meeting at No 10, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said: Michel Barnier doesnt know an awful lot about British politics. In the Commons, MPs urged Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab to abandon the plans, saying it was hopeless to continue faced with Mr Barniers opposition. But Mr Raab said they were being used by Mr Barnier to undermine the Governments negotiating position. Advertisement
Tory MEP Daniel Hannan said: The really shocking thing is that this is how the EU always behaves. It makes up the rules as it goes along. No one is ever held accountable, no one is ever punished, Im so glad were leaving.
If the EU allows this appointment to stand, it will be a confirmation of what we have long suspected that it doesnt believe in keeping its own rules.
Fellow Tory MEP David Campbell Bannerman added: This is a very strong and extraordinary condemnation coming from an EU body.
The whole appointment process must be repeated and done properly. Mr Selmayr must re-apply for the post.
The probe followed complaints that Mr Juncker promoted Mr Selmayr in February without following due process.
Mr Selmayr, a 47-year-old lawyer and fanatical Euro-federalist, caused controversy after allegedly leaking details of a key Brexit dinner at Downing Street between Theresa May and Mr Juncker last year a claim he denies.
A British woman facing prison in the US after she was accused of killing a patient who died just minutes after a botched cosmetic buttock operation could be held in rat-infested cells 'covered in faeces and vomit', a court has heard.
Donna Francis, 37, gave Kelly Mayhew, 34, three silicone injections in her bottom in the basement of her house in New York in May 2015.
But on the third dose Ms Mayhew 'turned purple' and immediately went into shock. She died shortly after.
Francis is facing extradition to the US after being indicted by a jury in Queens, New York.
British woman Donna Francis (left) gave Kelly Mayhew, 34, (right) three silicone injections in her bottom in her New York basement in May 2015. Ms Mayhew died shortly after
Instead of calling an ambulance, Francis allegedly cleared up her equipment and ran from the house, fleeing to London when she learned the woman had died.
More than a year later an arrest warrant was issued and a jury indicted Francis for 'criminally negligent homicide'.
She was finally tracked down and arrested by police in London in December 2017.
A lawyer giving evidence on behalf of the defence described the 'filthy' conditions Francis would be subjected to while being screened upon arrival in the US.
She would be brought to either Manhattan Detention Complex or Brooklyn Detention Centre, both of which house male inmates. It would be the first time either would house a female inmate.
Zachary Katznelson, who works for prisoners' rights NGO Legal Aids Society, said: 'My experience, and I have spoken now with at least over 100 people who have been incarcerated, is that the screening frequently takes three to four days and people during that time are held in filthiness.
'The walls have vomit, faeces, dried milk on them ... they are caked in filth.
'Other times the water doesn't work at all. There are vermin, mice, roaches and rats on occasion.
'There are no mats, no bedding, no cleaning facilities ... often the toilets don't work.
Emergency services rushed to the house and found Mayhew unconsious. They performed CPR and rushed her to the hospital, where she died. Francis allegedly cleared up her equipment and ran from the house, fleeing to London when she learned the woman had died
Francis (pictured, left, avoiding reporters) is facing extradition to the US after being indicted by a jury in Queens, New York. She argued her extradition breached her right to a family life and she faces inhumane conditions and torture under European Convention on Human Rights
'I have never heard of a woman being screened in those facilities.'
He said that although the average time spent in screening is three to four days, people have spent up to seven days in the centres.
Francis is likely to be sent to one of two jails in Suffolk County, one of which - Riverhead - often 'denies' prisoners access to mental health assessments and had people 'die' in the cells, according to Mr Katznelson.
Mayhew died after the third silicone injection when she turned purple and her body went into shock. Her mother said she implored Francis to call 911, but instead the woman fled
He said: 'People experiencing mental health crises in the jail are often ignored or put into isolation or held in their cells 23 hours a day.'
The jail does not have metal health facilities in place to treat anyone with acute problems, he said, adding: 'The only option is to send them to hospital.'
Although Mr Katznelson had not been to the jail, he spoke with a number of inmates and staff at Riverside, who reported inadequate facilities.
He said: 'For example one of the problems in the jail is one of sewage, where the toilets frequently back up and overflow.
'Instead of the waste going down it goes up in the toilets of other cells and floods onto the floor.'
The court heard the assistant District Attorney George Farrugia had estimated Francis would spend a year in prison on remand.
Cross examining, Catherine Brown, representing US authorities, argued that the assistant District Attorney had said Francis would be given singled out and given special treatment because it was an international case.
She said: 'Do you not the receiving authority will adhere to those conditions because it's a matter of an international agreement?'
But Mr Katznelson said: 'I don't know of anyone who has been singled out and always been treated fairly.
'There's a grave risk she would not be because that is consistently the case.'
He also said he did not know how she would held in appropriate conditions in an all-male detention centre.
Ms Brown questioned Mr Katznelson's impartiality as he has an upcoming lawsuit concerning the conditions in the Brooklyn and Manhattan detention centres.
He said: 'I am open and honest with what I see and hear.
Francis fled to London after learning Ms Mayhew had died. She was finally tracked down and arrested. The home out of which she conducted her business is pictured
'When I discover unconstitutional conditions I'm obliged to try and remedy them.'
Ms Brown said that Suffolk County had set out a budget for the year, which included funding plans for both jails, the other being Yaphank correctional facility, and there had been no allocation to repair the plumbing.
She said: 'Do you not think if there were serious ongoing problems with the sanitary facilities, it would be mentioned here?'
Mr Katznelson said the repairs would costs 'tens of millions of dollars'.
He said: 'The fact that the department isn't choosing to address the repairs is down to the department.
'It would be of huge cost to them.'
A previous court heard that the mother of the victim, who was with her for the procedure, begged Francis for help when her daughter stopped breathing but Francis simply packed up her equipment and fled the scene.
Emergency services found Kelly unconscious at the home in Mayhew and rushed her to hospital, but sadly she passed away.
NYPD detectives got an arrest warrant for Francis a year later and a jury indicted her for 'criminally negligent homicide'.
Francis had fled to the UK but was tracked down in London last year by the Met Police, where she was working as a hospital driver.
She was bailed on the condition that she wear an electronic tag.
The Supreme Court in New York charged her with three offences including criminal negligent homicide and two counts of unauthorised practice of a professional.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of four years in prison for each offence.
Francis has been fighting her extradition arguing it breached her right to a family life under Article 8 and she faces inhumane conditions and torture under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The judgment in the extradition case was adjourned at Westminster Magistrates' Court until October 25.
Francis, who wore a black suit and wept through most of the proceedings, was released on conditional bail until that date.
Simin Doyich is accused of stalking a businessman with whom she had an affair
A millionaire hedge fund manager and his wife were stalked and abused by his jilted mistress after he ended their relationship, a court heard.
The businessman met Simin Doyich, 44, on the Illicit Encounters website - an online dating service for married people - before whisking her away on luxury business trips where they romped in five-star hotels.
The wealthy 55-year-old also had sex with her in his office in which she role-played as a 'sexy' secretary coming in for a job interview.
Doyich, from West Hampstead, north-westLondon, later claimed she was carrying his child.
But he ended their fling soon after - which sparked a wave of abuse against him and his wife.
She even accused him of rape before dropping the allegation earlier this year.
Doyich allegedly posted intimate details of their affair on social media site Twitter during the targeted campaign of harassment.
She wrote that his wife was ugly and came from a trashy family - and claimed she had sexually assaulted her husband as he was not keen on having sex with her, the court heard.
The businessman met Doyich on the Illicit Encounters website - an online dating service for married people (pictured, file photo)
She uploaded pics of her unborn child online and turned up at the man's work unannounced, jurors were told.
She also followed the couple's friends on Twitter and friends of their sons, Inner London crown court heard.
Prosecutor Jenny Burgess said: 'At the end of 2016 the husband decided to embark on an extramarital affair.
'What he wanted was a little bit of fun. He did not intend to leave his wife and made this abundantly clear to her from the outset. However, he soon came to the realisation she wanted more.'
The pair flew to Zurich on a 'business trip' in February last year.
They stayed in a luxury five-star hotel, got spa treatments and had sex multiple times.
But the affair took a twist on the journey home when she discovered her lover had been texting his wife.
Back at home, the pair engaged in role-play sex at his office before jetting off to Paris a day later.
She also followed the couple's friends on Twitter and friends of their sons, Inner London crown court heard
But she became angry again after catching him texting his wife. She later told him she was pregnant.
After hearing news of the child, the man came clean to his wife and said he had told his mistress that he never wanted to see her again.
But she allegedly turned up at his London office and bombarded him with 81 unwanted phone calls.
The man told the court: 'I felt under siege. I felt, 'What have I done and how can I stop it'?'
He offered to fund an abortion, but the mistress said she'd keep the baby, it was said. She later claimed she had miscarried.
The woman denies two counts of stalking, causing serious alarm or distress. Trial continues.
Advertisement
Eleven people have been killed, a million are without power and thousands have been left stranded after a fierce typhoon lashed Japan.
Hundreds more were injured when homes and infrastructure along the west coast were devastated by Typhoon Jebi - Japan's most powerful storm in a quarter of a century.
Kansai International Airport - one of the country's busiest - was cut off when a 2,500-ton tanker smashed into the terminal's sole access road meaning thousands had to spend the night in the partially flooded facility.
This morning, boats were ferrying stranded passengers to the mainland while footage showed a caravan of buses making a perilous trip across the damaged bridge - yards from the spot where the ship had crashed into the carriageway amid 135mph winds yesterday.
Runways were flooded as high waves washed into the facility on Tuesday, knocking out electricity and inundating buildings.
Elsewhere, a large commercial ship was washed onto a breakwater, and shipping containers were left floating in the sea. In Kyoto, the former imperial capital and a popular tourist destination, wooden shrine buildings and tall orange-red entrance gates were knocked down. Soaring trees fell at a shrine in Nara, another historic city.
Jebi, or 'swallow' in Korean, has since slammed into Russia territory - causing flash floods on Sakhalin Island to Japan's north.
Kansai International Airport - one of the country's busiest - was cut off when a 2,500-ton tanker smashed into the terminal's sole access road (pictured today) meaning thousands had to spend the night in the partially flooded facility
Kansai International Airport is built on artificial islands in Osaka Bay, and the high seas flooded one of its two runways (pictured), cargo storage and other facilities, said the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. One passenger was slightly injured by shards from a window shattered by the storm
Passengers stranded at Kansai International Airport queue outside the terminal today as they wait for the arrival of a special bus service to transport them out of the area, in Izumisato, western Japan
More than 1.2 million people had been advised to leave their homes as Jebi approached the Kansai area - Japan's industrial heartland. Around 16,000 people spent the night in shelters, local media said. This was the scene today in Kobe, western Japan after cars were left piled up in a heap
More than 100 used cars at a storage site caught fire after the area was submerged due to a high tide as Typhoon Jebi smashed into Nishinomiya
Dozens of cars exploded into flames after their electrical systems were shorted out by sea water in a car park in Nishinomiya
Aftermath: The winds were so powerful that they drove this ship up and over a breakwater in Nishinomiya, western Japan (pictured today)
Jebi, or 'swallow' in Korean, has since slammed into Russia - causing flash floods (pictured) on Sakhalin Island to Japan's north
By Wednesday lunchtime several hundred people had been ferried to Kobe on a specially chartered boat, but more than two thousand were still awaiting rescue. There was no indication yet when the airport, which runs over 400 flights a day, might reopen.
'We had a blackout so there was no air conditioning. It was hot,' a woman told public broadcaster NHK after being ferried to Kobe. 'I'd never expected this amount of damage from a typhoon.'
Appearing relieved but exhausted, passengers said they had to spend the night feeling uneasy in the dark.
Hideko Senoo, 51, who was planning a family trip to India, said she could not even buy drinks at vending machines after food at convenience stores were all sold out.
'We could not use vending machines or access to wireless local network to get information, and we didn't even know about this boat service,' she told Kyodo News.
Another passenger, Miki Yamada, said she spent the night at an airport cafeteria, Kyodo said. 'It was a rather scary night, as we were so isolated.'
Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said the death toll in the storm stood at 10, with 300 people injured.
Air passengers (pictured today) were forced to spend the night in Kansai International Airport after it was cut off in the fierce storm
Scaffolding crumpled into the streets below when the typhoon lashed the city of Osaka in western Japan yesterday. A crane was brought in today to start the clean-up operation (pictured)
The morning after: Trees were ripped out of the ground by the force of the 135mph typhoon as it ripped across Nishi-ku, Osaka city
Road block: A major clean-up operation is getting underway in Japan today in the aftermath of 135mph Typhoon Jebi
Japan woke up to scenes of devastation this morning with buildings torn to pieces and major infrastructure damaged. Wind damage is pictured at an industrial unit in Osaka today
Dozens of large shipping containers stacked up at a port in the city of Osaka were tossed around in winds topping 135mph
The powerful winds destroyed many buildings and structures, including a wall of the South Noh stage at Nishi Honganji temple in Kyoto (pictured today)
A ship was driven up on to a sea wall (pictured today), such was the force of the wind when Typhoon Jebi struck in Nishinomiya, western Japan
Giant cranes at a port in Nishinomiya, western Japan, came crashing down (pictured today) after being battered by high winds during the Typhoo
A huge tanker came adrift (pictured) and smashed sideways into a bridge linking the mainland with Kansai International Airport
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, tweeting on his official account, said the government was working to get the airport back online.
'We will do our best to get the airport functioning again,' he said.
He said 2.4 million households had lost power in the storm, with service restored to only half by Wednesday morning.
'We continue to make utmost efforts to respond to disaster damage and restore infrastructure,' he added.
The deaths included a man in his 70s who was blown to the ground from his apartment in Osaka prefecture.
Police said five others died elsewhere in the prefecture after being hit by flying objects or falling from their apartments.
In nearby Shiga prefecture, a 71-year-old man died when a storage building collapsed on him, and a man in his 70s died after falling from a roof in Mie, officials said.
Debris is pictured at an industrial storage unit in the city of Osaka this morning - hours after Typhoon Jebi swept through the area
Wind damage: Cladding was ripped off the outside of a number of buildings in the city of Osaka (pictured today)
A 2,591-tonne tanker was sent crashing into a bridge connecting Kansai airport, built on a man-made island in a bay, to the mainland. The bridge was damaged but the tanker was empty and none of its crew was injured, the coast guard said
Electricity pylons lie in twisted ruins after being brought down by the ferocity of gusts when the typhoon hit Tadaoka, Osaka
A man stands next to the overturned car blown by strong wind as Typhoon Jebi, the strongest storm in 25 years, hit Osaka
A car is squashed by fallen ad board in Wakayama, Japan. Eleven people were confirmed dead and a further 221 people injured
Hundreds of flights have been cancelled across Japan after the typhoon struck. This was the scene at Kansai International Airport yesterday
A truck sits at an angle on a bridge after being blown over by strong winds caused by Typhoon Jebi in Sakade, Japan
Typhoon Jebi smashed the country's west coast as it made landfall yesterday with violent winds sparking evacuations in the area. This was the scene as boats and debris drifted along in the storm in Nishinomiya City
Daihatsu Motor Co stopped production at its Kyoto and Osaka factories, while Panasonic halted work at its air conditioning and refrigerator factory in Shiga.
Major beverage maker Kirin Co suspended production at its brewery in Kobe, according to Kyodo News agency.
In nearby Nishinomiya in Hyogo prefecture, about 100 cars at a seaside dealership burned after their electrical systems were shorted out by sea water, fire officials and news reports said.
In Osaka, the Universal Studios Japan theme park remained closed for a second straight day. A news release said it would open again on Thursday.
More than 1.2 million people had been advised to leave their homes as Jebi approached the Kansai area - Japan's industrial heartland. Around 16,000 people spent the night in shelters, local media said.
Japan is regularly hit by powerful typhoons in the summer and autumn, many of which cause flooding and landslides in rural areas.
This was the view from a window at Kansai International airport in Japan after it was flooded during the typhoon
Pile up: Cars were left in a crumpled heap after being blown over during the typhoon when it hit the city of Osaka
Fierce winds toppled heavy containers stacked up near a port in the Japanese city of Osaka as the typhoon struck land
Emergency response: Rescue teams walk past the remains of traffic lights which collapsed when the typhoon struck Osaka
Tides in some areas were the highest since a typhoon in 1961 with flooding covering the runways at Kansai International Airport in Osaka. The strong winds sent a 2,591-tonne tanker crashing into a bridge (pictured) connecting the airport, built on a man-made island in a bay, to the mainland
Jebi was the strongest typhoon to make landfall in Japan since 1993. The storm headed north across Japan's main island of Honshu towards the Sea of Japan
Jebi appears to have caused damage to the region's infrastructure on an unusual scale.
In the tourist magnet of Kyoto - home to ancient temples and shrines - it brought down part of the ceiling of the main railway station, while in nearby Osaka, the high winds peeled scaffolding from a multi-story building.
Footage on NHK showed a 328ft tall ferris wheel in Osaka spinning furiously in the strong wind despite being switched off.
'I've never seen such a thing,' a 19-year-old man at the scene told NHK.
Businesses, factories and schools in the affected area shut down while the storm barrelled across the country, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights, ferry services and some bullet trains.
Despite its strength, the storm was far from the deadliest Japan has seen in recent years.
In 2011, Typhoon Talas killed at least 82 people in the area, while in 2013, a storm that hit south of Tokyo left 40 people dead.
Earlier this year torrential rains lashed the west of the country, sparking flooding that killed more than 200 people as it laid waste to villages and caused hillsides to collapse.
Japan's weather agency has issued warnings about possible landslides, flooding and violent winds, as well as high tides, lightning and tornadoes across of western Japan including the major cities of Osaka and Kyoto. Water crashes over a sea wall in Kochi Prefecture, western Japan
Dash cam footage shows how lorries were blown over by the powerful winds as Japan suffered its worst storm in 25 years
Powerful winds caused havoc in western parts of the country. Footage has emerged showing roofing panels being torn off buildings (left) and a ferris wheel being blown around by the force of the wind
With winds of up to 100 mph at its centre, Jebi is classed as a 'very strong' typhoon, the weather agency's chief forecaster Ryuta Kurora said
A U.S. soldier killed in eastern Afghanistan in an apparent insider attack has been identified as Army Command Sergeant Major Timothy Bolyard.
Bolyard, 42, of Thornton, West Virginia, died on Monday of wounds sustained from small arms fire in Afghanistan's Logar province, the Pentagon said in a statement on Tuesday.
He was said to have been in Afghanistan supporting Operation Freedom's Sentinel and was assigned to 3rd Squadron, 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade out of Fort Benning, Georgia.
The Pentagon confirmed that Army Command Sergeant Major Timothy Bolyard, 42, of Thornton, West Virginia, died from wounds sustained during a suspected insider attack
The attack occurred on Monday at 12:30pm at Camp Maiwand, Stars and Stripes reported.
An Afghan Army official said that gunfire from within a police Humvee hit Bolyard and another US service member in the back and that the shooter was an Afghan police officer, who fled the scene but was later captured and detained.
The second US service member was wounded, but said to be in stable condition.
Bolyard joined the Army in 1994 and was an armor/cavalry scout senior sergeant on his 13th deployment overseas, eight of which were combat deployments, according to Newsweek.
He was said to have been the highest enlisted soldier in his 1st Squadron, 38th Cavalry Regiment unit, which was part of the Fort Benning 3rd Squadron, 1st Security Force Brigade.
Star and Stripes said that Bolyard died while on his second deployment in Afghanistan and he had also previously been deployed in Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait and Albania.
Bolyard was on his 13th deployment when he died. It was said that a Afghan policeman shot at him and another US service member from inside a Humvee. The incident is under investigation
Bolyard (center) was highly-decorated throughout his 24-year career, receiving six Bronze Star Medals two with valor as well as four Meritorious Service Medals, among others
The attack was said to have occurred Monday at 12:30pm at Afghanistan's Camp Maiwand
The highly-decorated soldier had been awarded six Bronze Star Medals two with valor as well as four Meritorious Service Medals, six Army Commendation Medals, nine Army Achievement Medals, the Iraq Campaign Medal with four Campaign Stars, the Kosovo Campaign Medal with Bronze Service Star and the Combat Action Badge, according to Army Times.
The Pentagon said Monday's incident is under investigation.
Insider attacks, often known as 'green on blue' attacks in which Afghan service members or attackers wearing Afghan uniforms fire on US or coalition troops, have been a regular feature of the conflict in Afghanistan, although their frequency has diminished in recent years.
Bolyard is the second US service member to have been killed in a suspected insider attack this year.
In July, the Pentagon said that Army Cpl. Joseph Maciel of South Gate, California, died of wounds sustained during an attack in Tarin Kowt District, Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan. Two other service members were wounded in that attack.
John Bash laid the hammer down on eagle-eyed liberals Tuesday after they accused his wife of making a white supremacist hand gesture during the hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
The US attorney said on social media neither he nor his Mexican-Jewish wife, Zina Bash, had a clue as to what the hateful signal stood for until she was suddenly chastised on Twitter for allegedly making it.
Zina, who formerly served as a law clerk for Kavanaugh, sat directly behind him at the court hearing with her arms crossed. Her right hand was seemingly positioned in an 'OK' sign - which is commonly associated with members of the alt-right.
Her furious husband later slammed the claims and said they are 'idiotic and sickening', and added he hopes 'people will clearly condemn' them.
Brett Kavanaugh's former law clerk, Zina Bash, is pictured behind the Supreme Court nominee Tuesday at his hearing. She is accused of making an alt-right hand gesture above
Zina's right hand is seemingly positioned in an 'OK' sign, which some claim is on purpose. Her husband called the claims against his Mexican-Jewish wife 'idiotic and sickening'
The US attorney said neither he nor Zina had a clue as to what the hateful signal stood for until she was chastised for it on Twitter
He wrote on Twitter: 'The attacks today on my wife are repulsive. Everyone tweeting this vicious conspiracy theory should be ashamed of themselves.
'We weren't even familiar with the hateful symbol being attributed to her for the random way she rested her hand during a long hearing.
'Zina is Mexican on her mother's side and Jewish on her father's side. She was born in Mexico. Her grandparents were Holocaust survivors.'
Cato Institute fellow, Ilya Shapiro, also chimed in: 'My friend Zina Bash, whose father is Polish-American Jew (whose parents escaped the Holocaust) and mother immigrated from Mexico, is not a white supremacist.'
Zina was born in Mexico and her grandparents were survivors of the Holocaust. She is pictured above with husband John
Outgoing White House Counsel Don McGahn (R) and Zina Bash look on during the US Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Kavanaugh to be Associate Justice on the US Supreme Court, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, September 4, 2018
Bash and White House Counsel Don McGahn listen during the hearing on September 4, 2018 in Washington, DC
Kavanaugh delivers his opening statement during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on September 4, 2018
Kavanaugh (C) is escorted by Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs Amy Swonger (L) and White House employee Bash (R) as he heads for a meeting on Capitol Hill July 11, 2018 in Washington, DC
John went on to assure the public that his family does not take part in hate groups that 'aim to terrorize and demean other people.'
He added straightforwardly: 'Never have and never would.'
President Trump's former associate counsel further said the vicious comments were aimed at his young daughter for whatever reason.
'Some of the Twitter comments have even referred to our baby daughter... I know that there are good folks on both sides of the political divide,' the US attorney concluded in his message.
John, seen left in Texas in March 2018, said Zina (right in her Facebook and LinkedIn photo) is Mexican on her mother's side and Jewish on her father's side. She was born in Mexico
Harvard Law grad Zina, who is one of four children, has not personally remarked on the matter.
Zina's father Dr Lawrence Richard Gelman met his wife Maria Esperanza in Monterrey, Mexico. They have been married 38 years.
Speaking about his political affiliations he is quoted on empowertexans.com as saying: 'I don't belong to anything, I hate politicsWe [as a society] are affected by what goes on in Washington, and Austin; my involvement wasn't intentional, it was more of a self-defense. When you've got your kids, [you] want to try to return the way things used to be, the way things are supposed to be.'
He received his medical degree in anesthesia from the Medical College of Wisconsin and has also penned the book 'The Fall from Grace' in 2014 which explores the 'gradual undermining of American constitutional values by the counter revolutionary forces of fascism.'
Thousands are without power along the Gulf Coast and one child died after the region endured Tropical Storm Gordon that made landfall Tuesday.
As of 11am Wednesday, Alabama Power said about 12,000 outages in the greater Mobile area remain, according to AL.com. Meanwhile a dozen Mississippi Gulf Coast casinos have been given permission to re-open a day after the threat of severe tropical weather forced them to close.
Wednesday's announcement from gambling regulators was the latest sign of things getting back to normal on Mississippi's coast.
Gambling hall closures are typical in advance of tropical storms and hurricanes, because casinos are in waterfront locations. While casinos themselves typically dont flood, access roads and parking areas often do.
Tropical Storm Gordon came ashore just west of the Alabama line, then weakened to a tropical depression Wednesday as it moved north. The remnants are expected to pose a heavy rain and flood threat as it moves toward Arkansas and the Great Lakes region.
Susan Jones walks through a flooded road from Tropical Storm Gordon, Wednesday, in Dauphin Island, Alabama
A vehicle drives through a flooded street from Tropical Storm Gordon on Wednesday in Dauphin Island, Alabama
Ndoc Nguyen waits on a pier as fishing boats return to harbor, after being moved inland due to Tropical Storm Gordon, which made landfall nearby Tuesday night, in Biloxi, Mississippi
Gordon has been downgraded to a Tropical Depression as its moving inland but flooding is expected in its wake
The storm has been blamed for the death of a baby who was killed when a tree limb fell on a mobile home in the Florida panhandle.
Gordon made landfall just west of the Alabama-Mississippi border, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Tuesday.
Gordon was located about 35 miles south-southwest of Mobile, Alabama and was packing maximum sustained winds of 70 miles per hour, the Miami-based weather forecaster said.
A storm must reach winds of 74 miles per hour to reach hurricane status but never did.
Authorities in northwest Florida say a tree fell on a mobile home, killing a child in Escambia County.
It is the first death directly related to the tropical storm, according to WALA-TV.
Tropical Storm Gordon hurled rough surf, high winds and heavy rain, strengthening as it spun toward the northern U.S. Gulf Coast.
Gordon came ashore late Tuesday along the Mississippi Gulf coast near the Louisiana state line.
Summer Ranaldson walks to her car in the rain as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches on Tuesday in Mobile, Alabama
Charles Phanthapannha stands in the rain outside a bar as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches in Mobile late Tuesday
Nick Eberlein, bartender at The Merry Widow, draws a new sign as Tropical Storm Gordon arrives at night on Tuesday in Mobile
A woman uses a beach umbrella to stay dry as she crosses Scenic Highway 98 in Miramar Beach, Florida on Tuesday
Boats ride out the incoming waves and rain from Tropical Storm Gordon in Dauphin Island, Alabama on Tuesday
Tropical Storm Gordon hurled rough surf, high winds and heavy rain, strengthening as it spun toward the northern U.S. Gulf Coast. The image above was taken on Tuesday in Dauphin Island
Authorities in Alabama say up to 32,000 people were without electricity in areas including Dauphin Island, Bayou la Batre, Theodore, downtown Mobile and West Mobile, according to local reports on Tuesday, but by Wednesday a majority of customers were back on.
Earlier on Tuesday, families filled sandbags, took patio furniture inside and stocked up on batteries and bottled water as the Gulf Coast prepared for Gordon, which was forecast to become the second hurricane to hit the region in less than a year.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency and companies cut 9 per cent of U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production.
The forecast calls for significant rainfall throughout the region - with southern Alabama and Mississippi seeing the most precipitation
The intensity of the wind is expected to die down the further inland Gordon moves
Authorities are concerned over potentially life-threatening storm surges along the coast
'Im asking all residents to do their part in getting ready for this storm,' New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said in a statement.
'The citys absolute No.1 priority is to ensure the safety of our residents.'
Beaches around Mobile, Alabama, were being washed by storm-driven waves on Tuesday morning, said Stephen Miller, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
The storm saw gusty winds and heavy rain along the coast of the western Florida Panhandle and along the Texas coast, the National Hurricane Center said in an afternoon advisory Tuesday.
Video: storm surge flooding well ahead of #TropicalStormGordon on the west side of Dauphin Island, AL @breakingweather @accuweather pic.twitter.com/1C9cV0eDb1 Reed Timmer (@ReedTimmerAccu) September 4, 2018
The satellite image taken on Tuesday night shows the storm bearing down on the Gulf Coast
In Mississippi, state officials ordered 12 casinos along the Gulf Coast to close as Gordon approaches
Laura Cunningham (left), Hunter Shows (center), and Brandon Perry (right) watch the waves crash from Tropical Storm Gordon on Tuesday in Dauphin Island
Update: storm surge, strong wind with road under a few feet of water west side of Dauphin Island, AL #TropicalStormGordon @breakingweather @accuweather #alwx pic.twitter.com/E3CuseicUE Reed Timmer (@ReedTimmerAccu) September 5, 2018
A car drives through a road as it slowly begins to flood as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches on Tuesday in Dauphin Island, Alabama
U.S. oil producer Anadarko Petroleum Corp evacuated workers and shut production at two offshore oil platforms on Monday, and other companies with production and refining operations along the Gulf Coast said they were securing facilities.
The Gulf of Mexico is home to 17 per cent of U.S. crude oil and 5 percent of natural gas output daily, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Last year, hurricanes hit Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, causing widespread destruction and thousands of deaths.
The Inn at Ocean Springs and the Roost Hotel in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, had guests planning to ride out the storm, said Kristin Smith, general manager of both hotels.
'A lot of guests are real comfortable sticking it out in our rooms,' Smith said in a telephone interview.
'Any of our guests who feel like they want to go home we encourage them to follow their instincts.'
Just hours before the storm was expected to come ashore, a few people remained on the beach, soaking in the sun before the tropical rain bands became more numerous.
Others did their familiar pre-storm preparation rituals, including the staff at The Hotel Whiskey in Pass Christian, Mississippi, only about a block away from the Gulf of Mexico.
Storm clouds loom over a beach as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches Waveland, Mississippi, on Tuesday
Chris Stebly tries to catch some waves as Tropical Storm Gordon heads towards the coast on Tuesday in Dauphin Island, Alabama
Children play in the sand on Crystal Beach as waves from Tropical Storm Gordon churn the Gulf of Mexico in Destin, Florida, Tuesday
Mitchell Nugent paddles a board toward waves near Crystal Beach as Tropical Storm Gordon churns the Gulf of Mexico in Destub, Florida, Tuesday
Sheets of rain and heavy clouds move into the city ahead of the landfall of Tropical Storm Gordon in New Orleans, Louisiana, Tuesday
Residents fill bags with sand as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches Bay St. Louis, Mississippi
Inmates with the Hancock County Department of Corrections fill bags with sand as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches Bay St. Louis, Mississippi
Governors in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana all declared states of emergency for Gordon, allowing them to quickly mobilize state resources and National Guard troops to help during and after the storm.
The storm is still forecast to go above the 74 mph threshold to be a hurricane before hitting land late Tuesday or on Wednesday.
The US Coast Guard has already closed Mississippi ports in Gulfport and Pascagoula and the port in Mobile, Alabama, in anticipation of hurricane force winds within 12 hours.
President Donald Trump said in a tweet the federal government is ready to help anyone in Tropical Storm Gordons path.
A storm surge warning has been issued for the area stretching from Shell Beach, Louisiana, to Dauphin Island, Alabama.
The warning means there is danger of life-threatening inundation. The region could see rising waters of 3 to 5 feet.
'The deepest water will occur along the immediate coast near and to the east of the landfall location, where the surge will be accompanied by large waves,' the center said.
Senior Hurricane Specialist Stacy Stewart watches monitors at the National Hurricane Center, Tuesda in Miami
Evan Green, 8, gets out of the water as the first clouds from Tropical Storm Gordon come in on Tuesday in Dauphin Island
Sailors prepare the Sea Biscuit to leave Long Beach Harbor Tuesday in Long Beach, Mississippi, in advance of Tropical Storm Gordon
Kamdn Boose, 4, helps his family fill sandbags at Long Beach Harbor, Mississippi, Tuesday
Miami Beach Police said via Twitter that the Labor Day holiday was 'NOT a beach day,' with rough surf and potential rip currents.
Red flags flew over Pensacola-area beaches in Floridas Panhandle, where swimming and wading in the Gulf of Mexico was prohibited.
More than 4,000 Florida Power & Light customers lost power Monday due to weather conditions.
Separately, Tropical Storm Florence continues to hold steady over the eastern Atlantic. Forecasters say little change in strength is expected in coming days and no coastal watches or warnings are in effect.
Storm Gordon has seen oil prices break past $70 per barrel, after two Gulf of Mexico oil platforms were evacuated as the hurricane rolls in.
A surfer enjoys the waves kicked up by Tropical Storm Gordon Monday in Miami as heavy rain and gusty winds are hitting the Keys and south Florida
Walter Augier (L) and Jhon M. fish as rain and wind are whipped up by Tropical Storm Gordon in Miami Monday
Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said the leading social network and other internet firms are in an arms race to defend democracy against 'sophisticated adversaries'.
Writing in the Washington Post, Zuckerberg argues that Facebook's enemies were 'getting smarter over time' and that public and private sectors needed to join forces.
Zuckerberg's op-ed came on the eve of hearings during which lawmakers are expected to grill top executives from Facebook and Twitter.
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Facebook, said social networks like his are in an arms race with 'sophisticated adversaries' in the fight for democracy
Google's potential participation in these hearings is unclear.
The hearings come with online firms facing intense scrutiny for allowing the propagation of misinformation and hate speech, and amid allegations of political bias from the president and his allies.
'Companies such as Facebook face sophisticated, well-funded adversaries who are getting smarter over time, too,' Zuckerberg said in an op-ed piece outlining progress being made on the front by the leading social network.
'It's an arms race, and it will take the combined forces of the US private and public sectors to protect America's democracy from outside interference.'
After days of vitriol from President Donald Trump, big Silicon Valley firms face lawmakers with a chance to burnish their image - or face a fresh bashing.
Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg were set to appear at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday.
Zuckerberg's op-ed on 'defending democracy' came on the eve of hearings during which lawmakers are expected to grill top executives from Facebook and Twitter.
Lawmakers were seeking a top executive from Google or its parent Alphabet, but it remained unclear if the search giant would be represented.
Sources familiar with the matter said Google offered chief legal officer Kent Walker, who the company said is most knowledgeable on foreign interference, but that senators had asked for the participation of CEO Sundar Pichai or Alphabet CEO Larry Page.
Dorsey testifies later in the day at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on online 'transparency and accountability.'
The tech giants are likely to face a cool reception at best from members of Congress, said Roslyn Layton, an American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar specializing in telecom and internet issues.
'The Democrats are upset about the spread of misinformation in the 2016 election, and the Republicans over the perception of bias,' Layton said.
'They are equally angry, but for different reasons.'
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a University of Pennsylvania professor and author of an upcoming book on Russia's role in election hacking, said the hearings could give the companies a platform to explain how they operate.
'Hearings are an opportunity as well as a liability,' she said.
'These companies have put in place fixes (on foreign manipulation) but they have done it incrementally, and they have not communicated that to a national audience.'
The Australian tourism and travel website Wotif is celebrating its 18th birthday by funding the construction of a new 'big thing' - and the final decision on what it is and where it goes will be left up to the public.
The monument is set to join the ranks of Australia's other great tourism attractions, including the Big Banana and Big Pineapple.
Voting opened on Wednesday, and people can lodge their ideas and their favoured potential location.
The Australian tourism and travel website Wotif is celebrating its 18th birthday by funding a new 'big thing' for the nation
The monument is set to join the ranks of Australia's other great tourism attractions, including the Big Banana (pictured) and Big Pineapple
Wotif has provided a series of inspirational mock-ups of potential Big Things, with ideas spanning from Big Grapes in the Barossa Valley to the Big Bin Chicken in Sydney Harbour.
Research commissioned by Wotif suggests Australians as a whole affiliate the well-known monuments with the country and are proud of their connotations.
'Widely regarded as a cult Aussie phenomenon, the research reveals our fascination with 'Big Things', including a desire to travel around the country to visit these oversized monuments,' the findings reveal.
Wotif has provided a series of inspirational mock-ups of potential Big Things, with ideas including Big Grapes in the Barossa Valley
Another popular choice is the Big Bin Chicken near Sydney Harbour
'Ninety per cent of Aussies have visited a 'Big Thing' in their lifetime and the average traveller has visited five 'Big Things'.'
Wotif also said more than half of Australians will choose to stop off while on the highway if they pass one of the items, while 39 per cent will travel out of their way to visit one while on a road trip.
Wotif believes a new Big Thing is a great way to boost tourism and give back to the people and places that helped build their success.
The site started as a backyard business and has grown to a multi-million dollar company, booking approximately four hotel rooms for customers every minute.
This week Larry the Lobster (pictured) was saved from being relocated from the small coastal town of Kingston, South Australia
The Big Merino is a famous monument that attracts a host of tourists and visitors each year
'Regional Australia plays a critical role in the Australian tourism industry, accounting for 44 cents of every tourism dollar spent here. But it is often overlooked,' Wotif managing director Daniel Finch said.
'As the search for Australia's 'Next Big Thing' begins, we are excited to be able to put not just the big cities, but also regional areas on the map to create excitement within these communities and a new reason to visit, helping to boost local economies.'
The Big Footy is a popular example of what Wotif could create if it is voted as the best option
Is the Big Camel the one? Participants must vote if they want it to take up residency in their home town
The competition comes as one of Australia's most beloved Big Things was sold this week.
Larry the Big Lobster, situated in the small coastal town of Kingston, South Australia, was bought by a millionaire pastoralist to save it from being relocated.
There are roughly 150 things in Australia's collection of large objects scattered across the country, including the Big Banana, the Big Pineapple, the Big Merino and the Big Prawn.
All entries will be judged by a panel within Wotif, with a shortlist of finalists announced on September 25.
The public will then have two weeks to vote on their favourite, and by midday on October 9, Australia's Next Big Thing will be decided.
Wotif is hoping for the project to be completed and unveiled by the end of 2018.
Saving up for your first property can be a long process that seems almost impossible.
And now new research released by financial comparison website RateCity reveals how long it really takes to put away enough money for a deposit in Australia's capital cities.
Prospective homeowners in Sydney have the longest wait as the study shows it's the most expensive city in the country to buy property.
The study shows prospective homeowners in Sydney have the longest wait to save up for a home deposit
A couple with two incomes can take five years to save for a deposit on a property in Sydney
New research released by financial comparison website RateCity reveals how long it really takes to save for a deposit in Australia's capital cities
To afford a 10 per cent deposit for a median-priced unit of $740,093, home owners will have to save for a grand total of nine years and six months if they are putting away $200 per week.
A couple with two incomes who put away a total of $400 per week can reduce the overall time to five years.
Melbourne fares slightly better, with buyers saving around $200 per week waiting about six years before they can reach their goal.
Darwin has proved to be the easiest city to get a foothold on the property ladder, with single buyers able to afford a deposit after just over three years of saving.
This is reduced to one year and seven months for those who can afford to save $400 a week.
Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide remain among the more affordable of Australia's cities.
RateCity research director Sally Tindall remains optimistic about the new figures, believing they prove getting into the housing market is tough, but not impossible.
'As the property market declines and investors dip out, there's now a real opportunity for first home buyers to get into the market,' she said.
'There are a couple of things they can do to maximise their chances of getting a home. They include saving a big enough deposit to avoid paying lenders mortgage insurance and taking advantage of the first home buyer grants and stamp duty exemptions in your state.'
RateCity's tips for hopeful property owners including avoiding paying stamp duty where possible. For example in Melbourne, if a first homebuyer purchased a property under $600K they will be exempt from stamp duty.
Another top tip is to make your cash go further by parking it in a high-interest-earning savings account or a term deposit.
RateCity's tips for hopeful property owners including avoiding paying stamp duty where possible
A two-year-old Florida boy has been found dead five days after his mother says he was kidnapped by a man after they both got into his car while they were out walking at night.
The body of Jordan Belliveau was found in woodland in the city of Largo on Tuesday. That same day his mother, Charisse Stinson, was charged with first-degree murder. Cops did not say what evidence led to that charge or how they think the boy died.
The 21-year-old said she and Jordan were walking on Saturday night when she accepted a ride from a stranger named 'Antwan' in a white Toyota Camry. She told them he punched her in the face and knocked her unconscious.
Jordan Belliveau was found in woodland in the city of Largo on Tuesday. That same day his mother, Charisse Stinson, was charged with first-degree murder
Jordan and the man were gone when she woke up hours later in some nearby woods, she claimed.
Police have released a sketch of the man they are hunting over the incident. Stinson denied knowing who he was.
'THE AMBER Alert for Jordan Belliveau has been canceled. Sadly, the child has been found deceased,' the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) said in a tweet on Tuesday.
Police on Monday recovered 'bloody items' from the apartment where Stinson lived with Jordan, although they did not explain whether these were connected to his disappearance, reported ABC News.
Prior to her arrest for murder, Largo police Maj. Stephen Slaughter called Stinson a 'struggling single mom.'
He confirmed Monday that child protective services had investigated the family for domestic violence, and officers recovered bloody items from the home.
Jordan's mother claimed he was abducted by a driver who invited them into his car. Pictured is a photo of Jordan (left) and a police sketch of the alleged abductor
Jordan's father, also called Jordan Belliveau, has written on social media about his distress since his son went missing.
The 22-year-old said he was celebrating his birthday in a hotel when Stinson told him Jordan was missing. Belliveau told the Tampa Bay Times he was high at the time so went to sleep but started searching for him the next day.
He texted Stinson to say 'just tell me where he is', to which she replied a minute later: 'I do not know if I knew where my baby was we would not be going through this.'
He and Stinson had a tempestuous relationship and faced financial problems, according to court records.
On July 14, Belliveau was arrested after Stinson accused him of punching her when he tried to drop Jordan off.
She did not want the boy back at the time, the mother told police. Belliveau is set to be arraigned on September 24 and denies the charges.
Law enforcement at the spot where Jordan was found on Tuesday. His mother was taken into custody
BREAKING: @LargoPD confirm the body of missing 2-year-old Jordan Belliveau was found in a wooden area south of McMullen Rd in Largo. #Florida. Devastated family members are hoping for more answers in this case. Calling for #JusticeForJordan @10NewsWTSP pic.twitter.com/WjEezxm462 Sarah Rosario (@sarahbrosario) September 4, 2018
Belliveau was also arrested in January 2017 over claims he held a gun to Stinson's head and left red marks around her throat.
Then in April that year, Stinson was arrested accused of domestic battery against Belliveau, who the next day asked for charges not to be filed.
They both argued over who should look after Jordan, who they called 'Junior', and never married.
Stinson also faced an eviction order over allegations she had failed to pay rent.
The Australian Paramedics Association has apologised for claiming the family of a dying man attacked ambulance workers who were trying to save him.
The outraged family of Sydney man Hamze Ibrahim, 25, hotly disputed reports they acted aggressively towards paramedics, leading to an APA investigation.
Representatives of the New South Wales APA have now concluded there were 'factual inaccuracies' in the report, and have apologised unreservedly.
APA NSW secretary Steve Pearce on Sunday claimed relatives of Mr Ibrahim were responsible for his death by hindering paramedics called to revive him.
The Australian Paramedics Association has apologised for claiming the family of a dying man (pictured with his wife) attacked ambulance workers who were trying to save him
The outraged family of Sydney man Hamze Ibrahim (pictured with his wife Hanan), 25, hotly disputed reports they acted aggressively towards paramedics
'Any statement in the previous media release to the effect that Mr Ibrahim's family members either contributed or were in any way responsible for his death is wholly incorrect and should not have been published,' the APA said in a statement.
'Likewise, APA further acknowledges that at no time did Mr Ibrahim's family members obstruct or threaten paramedics.
'APA deeply regrets publishing its previous media release and unreservedly apologises for any grief, embarrassment or distress it caused to family members of Mr Ibrahim.'
The initial report claimed paramedics treating Mr Ibrahim for a drug overdose were attacked and forced to take refuge inside a unit in Riverwood, in Sydney's west, on Sunday morning.
APA NSW secretary Steve Pearce (pictured) on Sunday claimed relatives of Mr Ibrahim were responsible for his death by hindering paramedics called to revive him
Representatives of the News South Wales APA have now concluded there were 'factual inaccuracies' in the report, and apologised unreservedly (pictured is the scene of the incident)
Claims 80 angry men surrounded the unit and demanded drugs and a defibrillator to treat the dying man themselves were denied by family members.
Mr Ibrahim's cousin, who gave his name as Issa, denied anyone was aggressive towards paramedics.
'Yes, there were a lot of people there but no one attacked nobody. We were listening, we were cooperating, and doing exactly what the sergeant was telling us,' he said.
'The only thing that was wrong over there was, you know, the females crying and getting a bit loud, but they weren't aggressive towards police.'
Issa called the Kyle and Jackie O Show on Monday morning to defend police reports that his cousin died from a drug overdose.
The initial report claimed paramedics treating Mr Ibrahim (pictured with wife Hanan) for a drug overdose were attacked and forced to take refuge inside a unit
'[The claims] make my cousin sound like he's a junkie, when he had never taken a drug in his life,' he said.
He said his family was 'thankful' for the paramedics' presence at the scene.
Following the interview, Mr Ibrahim's family's lawyer Raed Rahal released a statement hitting back at the Australian Paramedics Association's version of the morning's events.
The family claimed Mr Ibrahim suffered from sleep apnoea and did not use drugs.
'Many members of Mr. Ibrahim's extended family and his friends attended the residence upon hearing of this tragedy,' the statement read.
'The large number of people who did attend were emotional and many had difficulty accepting what had occurred, however, none were violent or threatening towards paramedics or police.
Mr Ibrahim's cousin, who gave his name as Issa, denied anyone was aggressive towards paramedics (pictured is Mr Ibrahim, with his wife)
'The sheer number of people, who did attend the residence, and the tense emotional circumstances surrounding the sudden death of a 25-year-old man, may have caused the paramedics to believe they required police attendance.
'The inaccurate comments made on behalf of the association, which in essence, blames the family for the death of Mr Ibrahim, are totally devoid of compassion and empathy.'
'Mr Ibrahim was a hard working and dedicated family man who was loved and respected by family and friends,' Mr Rahal said.
'He leaves behind a wife, a mother, siblings and a large extended family who are all devastated at his sudden passing.'
Police also disputed the initial APA report, saying fewer than 20 officers attended in contrast to the 150 claimed by paramedics.
New figures show that the vast majority of offences in Victoria are committed by Australians and New Zealanders, despite the popularly held view that South Sudanese immigrants commit more crime.
Earlier this year former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said that there was 'real concern about Sudanese gangs' in Melbourne.
Nyadol Nyuon, a practising lawyer and social justice advocate, defended the South Sudanese community to ABC's News Breakfast program, saying that 'South Sudanese commit about 1 per cent of the offences'.
New crime figures show that the vast majority of crime in Victoria is committed by Australians and New Zealanders (pictured, a car involved in a brawl in Collingwood)
Earlier this year former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said that there was 'real concern about Sudanese gangs' in Melbourne (Victorian police pictured)
The claim is backed up by the new figures from the Crime Statistics Agency, which show that in the 12 months to March 2018 Australian and New Zealanders made up 73.5 per cent of alleged crimes committed in Victoria.
The figures also show that people born in Sudan and South Sudan made up 1.1 per cent of crimes committed in the state.
There has been much debate over the issue following high-profile incidents in recent years, including groups of youths rioting during the 2016 Melbourne Moomba festival, the vandalising of the Ecoville Community Centre in Tarneit in 2017, and the alleged murder of a 19-year-old Sudanese woman in a Melbourne apartment building earlier this year.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, 200 people were involved in a mass brawl on the a Collingwood street that resulted in a man being struck by a vehicle. Many of those involved were reportedly of African and Pacific Islander descent.
In the early hours of Sunday morning 200 people were involved in a mass brawl on a Collingwood street
CRIMES COMMITTED IN VICTORIA BY NATIONALITY 2017 Australia 71.3 per cent Sudan / South Sudan 1.1 India 1.4 New Zealand 2.2 UK and Ireland 1.3 Vietnam 1.1 Advertisement
The issue will be at the forefront of Victoria's election in November.
Australians account for 64.8 per cent of the state's population, New Zealanders 1.6 per cent, and people born in Sudan and South Sudan account for just 0.14 per cent.
This means there is a greater crime rate when compared to population for South Sudanese immigrants. However, some contest that the group's age range accounts for their over-representation, not their nationality.
'We know that the heightened time of offending is between 18 and 25 years,' Monash University's Associate Professor Rebecca Wickes told the ABC.
'When you're talking about comparing Sudanese groups with other groups, they're a very young group and they need to be age-standardised in order for you to make these comparisons,' she added.
Members of the public have already reported 7000 incidents of an elaborate new scam.
The Australian Tax Office (ATO) warned more than $200,000 has already been handed over to the thieves, who threaten targets with outstanding bills.
The scammers are calling taxpayers and impersonating tax officers, claiming the person has a debt to pay.
The scammers are calling taxpayers and impersonating tax officers, claiming the person has a debt to pay
They then ask for the phone number of the victim's tax agent, and create a three-way phone conversation with a second impersonator, this time pretending to be an employee at the tax agent's office.
They then suggest there is a warrant out for the victim's arrest, and convince them to clear an alleged debt to clear the warrant.
'One recent example had a taxpayer unfortunately thinking the telephone conversation was legitimate, and ended up withdrawing thousands of dollars in cash and depositing it into a Bitcoin ATM, fearing the police had a warrant out for his arrest,' Assistant Commissioner Kath Anderson told Tweed Daily News.
The Australian Tax Office (ATO) warned more than $200,000 has already been handed over to the thieves, who threaten targets with outstanding bills
The timeliness of the scam has only enhanced its effectiveness, with people often expecting calls from the ATO during tax time.
'We are at the halfway point of tax time, and we've seen an increase in reports in recent months. In September we typically see these high volumes continue, so we are warning the community to be on the lookout for things that don't look or feel quite right,' Ms Anderson said.
'During July and August the ATO received over 7000 scam reports to our dedicated phone line, with close to $190,000 being paid to scammers and over 1600 people handed over their personal or financial information.'
She also said the fake tax debt is still the most successful scam in the market, while others are continuing to rise.
'It's very hard to get your money back.'
Consumers are told to maintain awareness and report any activity that doesn't seem quite right to ATO's dedicated scams line, 1800 008 540.
A 17-year-old has been arrested after balancing himself on a tripod over a train line, in a dangerous protest against coal mining.
Newcastle teenager Ballyn Teagle hung from the ten metre high tripod at the Hunter River Rail Bridge at Sandgate where he then started a Facebook live stream.
His video started at around 6am this morning and he said he was protesting to support Frontline Action on Coal.
Newcastle teenager Ballyn Teagle (17) hung from the ten metre high tripod at the Hunter River Rail Bridge at Sandgate where he then started a Facebook live stream
Police arrived at 6.15am and urged him to come down. Despite initial refusals, the teenager was eventually removed by Police Rescue at around 8.30am.
Teagle had also erected a banner which read 'Where is our plan?' and he said in his Facebook live stream that he was calling on everyone from executives to the general public to 'think outside their wallets' when it comes to coal.
'The fact that we have no meaningful plan to transition from fossil fuels frustrates me beyond belief,' he said.
'We have had the technology for years and still our leaders drag their feet, actively ignoring the obvious warning signs of a world heating up.'
The coal industry brings in $47 billion to the economy every year and employs 80,000 workers.
Rail services were suspended during the protest and NSW Police told Daily Mail Australia that a male supporter in the vicinity was also arrested.
He was taken to Waratah Police station where he is expected to be charged for trespassing, aid and abet offences, Police said.
Frontline Action on Coal provided regular updates on Teagle's situation to followers on Facebook throughout the protest.
'The fact that we have no meaningful plan to transition from fossil fuels frustrates me beyond belief,' the teenager said in his Facebook live stream of the protest
'Ballyn has been taken into police custody and we're hoping he will be released soon,' the group wrote in its latest update.
'Ballyn's action this morning is a testament to the fact that young people have had enough of the governments inaction in ensuring that they, and their children, have a future that isn't destroyed by climate change,' a spokesperson for Frontline Action on Coal told Daily Mail Australia.
'Ballyn had, and continues to have the full support of Frontline Action on Coal, and we thank him for standing up for what he and many other Australians believe: that we can no longer wait for dysfunctional governments to take action on ensuring Australia's greenhouse gas emissions decrease and is instead taking that power into their own hands.'
Police arrived at 6.15am and urged him to come down. Despite initial refusals, the teenager was eventually removed by Police Rescue at around 8.30am
The spokesperson also said that Ballyn was in 'very high spirits' and is preparing for a number of live TV interviews this evening.
This is the second time this week that protestors have strung themselves over railway lines in the Sandgate area.
On Monday, university student Sarah Barron also balanced over a railway line in support of Frontline Action on Coal.
Barron and two others were arrested and charged.
Ivanka Trump reportedly was offended when she was told by strategist Steve Bannon she was merely a White House 'staffer' by answering: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter,' it has been claimed.
Famed reporter Bob Woodward includes the explosive anecdote in his new book, Fear: Trump in the White House.
Excerpts of the book were reported on Tuesday by The Washington Post.
In the book, Woodward writes of an 'expletive-laden altercation' between the then-adviser Bannon and President Donald Trump's eldest daughter.
In the exchange, a furious Bannon lashed out at Ivanka Trump.
'You're a goddamn staffer!' Bannon reportedly yelled at her.
'You walk around this place and act like you're in charge, and you're not. You're on staff!'
Scroll down for video
Ivanka Trump reportedly was offended when she was told by strategist Steve Bannon she was merely a White House 'staffer' by answering: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter,' it has been claimed. She is seen outside her Washington, D.C. home last month
'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter,' Ivanka is reported to have told Bannon.
Bannon was said to have been upset with Ivanka's reported tendency to bypass the standard chain of command and take up issues directly with her father.
Every other White House aide was required to report to the chief of staff at the time, Reince Priebus.
But the reported exchange apparently highlighted the fact that Ivanka felt she was not bound by the same rules.
Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, are senior advisers to the president even though they have no previous experience in government.
The reported clash between Ivanka and Bannon is one of a number of shocking details about the inner workings of the Trump White House as told by Woodward.
According to the author, Trump wanted to have Syrian President Bashar al-Assad assassinated last year but his defense secretary ignored the request.
Bannon was said to have been upset with Ivanka's reported tendency to bypass the standard chain of command and take up issues directly with her father
Woodward often depicts top Trump aides as sometimes disregarding presidential orders to limit what they saw as damaging and dangerous behavior.
'It's just another bad book,' Trump told the Daily Caller.
The Republican president said in a Twitter post that quotes in the book attributed to Defense Secretary James Mattis, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and others 'were made up frauds, a con on the public.'
The book portrays Trump as prone to profane outbursts and impulsive decision-making, painting a picture of chaos that Woodward says amounts to an 'administrative coup d'etat' and a 'nervous breakdown' of the executive branch.
According to the book, Trump told Mattis that he wanted to have Assad assassinated after the Syrian president launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017.
Mattis told Trump he would 'get right on it,' but instead developed a plan for a limited air strike that did not threaten Assad personally.
Famed reporter Bob Woodward includes the explosive anecdote in his new book, Fear: Trump in the White House
Mattis told associates after a separate incident that Trump acted like 'a fifth- or sixth-grader,' according to the book.
In a statement on Tuesday, Mattis dismissed the book as 'a uniquely Washington brand of literature' and said the contemptuous words about Trump attributed to him 'were never uttered by me or in my presence.'
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the book was 'nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the president look bad.'
Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, cast doubt on the account about Assad.
'I have the pleasure of being privy to those conversations ... and I have not once heard the president talk about assassinating Assad,' Haley told reporters on Tuesday.
Woodward gained national fame for his reporting on the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, and has since written a number of books that provide behind-the-scenes glimpses of presidential administrations and other Washington institutions.
For this book, Woodward spoke to top aides and other insiders with the understanding that he would not reveal how he got his information, the Post reported.
Among his other revelations: former top economic adviser Gary Cohn stole a letter off Trump's desk that the president planned to sign that would withdraw the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea.
The book portrays President Donald Trump (above) as prone to profane outbursts and impulsive decision-making, painting a picture of chaos that Woodward says amounts to an 'administrative coup d'etat' and a 'nervous breakdown' of the executive branch
Cohn, who tried to rein in Trump's protectionist impulses, also planned to remove a similar memo that would have withdrawn the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada, Woodward wrote.
'I'll just take the paper off his desk,' Cohn told another White House aide, according to the book.
Trump said that did not take place.
'It's just made up,' he told the Daily Caller.
The United States remains part of both trade agreements as it negotiates new terms.
Other aides insulted Trump behind his back.
Kelly called Trump an 'idiot,' and said, 'We're in Crazytown. ... This is the worst job I've ever had.'
Trump treated top aides with scorn, the book says, telling Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that he was past his prime and calling Attorney General Jeff Sessions 'mentally retarded.'
Trump insists Bob Woodward's book interview request never made it to the Oval Office President Donald Trump complained on a recorded phone call no one ever contacted him about veteran journalist Bob Woodward's interview request then complained advisor Kellyanne Conway should have come to him directly. The Washington Post released a recorded August 14 phone call between the famously well-sourced author and the president soon after the paper reported on a copy of 'Fear,' Woodward's forthcoming book on Trump. Trump does admit at one point during the call that a senator had passed along Woodward's request for an interview, but at other times says he had no idea about it. The call begins with Woodward, after alerting the president he was recording, regretting the two hadn't been able to connect and Trump saying he wished he had known about the book which was already coming out at the time of the call. 'She should have come to me,' Trump said of Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway, (seen at the White House on August 29) during a conversation with Bob Woodward about an interview request Trump claims he never was told about 'I never got a call. I never got a message,' the president said at first. 'Who did you ask about speaking to me?' Woodward told him he had lunch with counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway where he pressed her on getting a Trump interview prompting Trump to admonish his former campaign manager while she was in the room. At one point during the back-and-forth, Conway walked into the room where Trump was speaking, and he invited her to jump on the call. 'You and I spent a whole lunch on it, Kellyanne ... And you said you would get back to me. Nothing,' Woodward told her. Conway then told Woodward: 'Yeah. So, I did. I presented it to the people here who make those decisions,' without naming names. 'Who are the people?' Woodward asked, but he got no response. At that point, without answering, Conway jumped off the call, and Trump got back on. Trump then faulted Woodward for not calling him directly. 'But you never called for me. It would have been nice, Bob, if you called for me in my office,' Trump said. 'Kellyanne went to somebody, but she didn't come to me. And she should have come to me,' Trump said. Advertisement
Kelly, in remarks released by the White House, said he never called the president an idiot and called the story 'total BS.'
Trump has grown paranoid and anxious over an ongoing federal inquiry into whether his campaign colluded with Russia in Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election, prompting aides to compare Trump to former President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, Woodward reported.
Trump's former lawyer John Dowd conducted a mock interview with Trump to convince him that he would commit perjury if he agreed to talk to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Russia investigation, the book says.
Trump did not speak with Woodward until the manuscript was complete, the newspaper reported.
'So I have another bad book coming out. Big deal,' Trump told Woodward, according to a transcript of a telephone call released by the Post.
A father-of-28 has pleaded guilty to sexual assault in court and was told to set an example for his children and stop offending before it was too late.
Queensland man Victor Francis Sebasio, 61, from Bamaga in the farthest regions of the state faced Cairns District Court and pleaded guilty to charges of sexual assault.
Sebasio was already on a suspended sentence for a prior conviction for a sexually related crime, just two months after appearing in court for an earlier breach of that same conviction, the Cairns Post reported.
Queensland man Victor Francis Sebasio, 61, from Bamaga in the farthest regions of the state faced Cairns District Court and pleaded guilty to charges of sexual assault
Defence barrister James Sheridan told the court his client had turned to the church in an effort to curve his ways and rehabilitate.
However Judge Dean Morzone told Sebasio that his actions had shown a demonstration of 'your disrespect of (the victim), she felt sick on seeing you in the community' before sentencing him to four months jail.
The sentence was suspended for a period of six months.
The incident, which occurred in May of 2017, took place at Sebasio's workplace in Cairns where he approached a female co-worker from behind.
He grabbed her by the hips and touched her inappropriately before she was able to push him away.
Prosecutor Aaron Dunkerton spoke on behalf of the victim and said the woman's daily life had been impacted by the assault.
'This was an uninvited sexual advance in the workplace, she couldnt go back to work because she felt uncomfortable working around males,' he said.
Before sentencing Judge Morzone had some choice words for Sebasio.
According to figures released by the Queensland Police Service 208 sexual offences occurred in a Queensland workplace between 2016 and 2017
'Let this be the last time you are in this place and show an example to the 28 children you have fathered,' he said.
According to figures released by the Queensland Police Service 208 sexual offences occurred in a Queensland workplace between 2016 and 2017, 51 of those were rape or attempted rape and 157 were for all other sexual offences.
However overall, sexual offences in Queensland between 2016 and 2017 dropped by 11 per cent, which was 660 less reported offences from the number reported in the previous financial year.
'As with previous years, Northern Region recorded the highest rates of offences against the person,' the statistical report read.
Donald Trump has slammed Bob Woodward's bombshell book as a 'fraud' and denied ever calling attorney general Jeff Sessions 'mentally retarded'.
'The already discredited Woodward book, so many lies and phony sources, has me calling Jeff Sessions mentally retarded and a dumb southerner". I said NEITHER, never used those terms on anyone, including Jeff, and being a southerner is a GREAT thing. He made this up to divide!' he tweeted at 11pm on Tuesday.
Trump also tweeted statements from John Kelly and James Mattis that refuted quotes attributed to them by Woodward questioning his mental faculties. Kelly allegedly called Trump an 'idiot' while Mattis compared him to a 'fifth grader'.
'The Woodward book has already been refuted and discredited by General (Secretary of Defense) James Mattis and General (Chief of Staff) John Kelly. Their quotes were made up frauds, a con on the public. Likewise other stories and quotes. Woodward is a Dem operative? Notice timing?'
Scroll down for video
Donald Trump tweeted on Tuesday to accuse famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward of fabricating quotes and information in his new book, Fear: Trump in the White House
At 11pm [ET] Trump went on to deny another claim in the book regarding slurs he allegedly made against Attorney General Jeff Sessions
'This guy is mentally retarded. He's this dumb Southerner,' Trump (left, on August 29) reportedly said of his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the Russia probe. He is pictured in DC on August 31
Trump repeatedly ripped into sessions after he decided to to recuse himself from the Russia probe.
In addition to calling him a 'traitor', the President allegedly said: 'This guy is mentally retarded. He's this dumb Southerner. He couldn't even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.'
Woodward quoted Kelly as ripping in to Trump after he blew a fuse at a meeting.
'He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails,' the White House Chief of Staff allegedly said. 'We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had.'
But Kelly hit back at the claims on Tuesday, saying in a statement: 'The idea that I ever called the President is not true, in fact it's exactly the opposite...
'This is both a pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from his many successes.'
In another episode, Trump questioned the utility of U.S. early warning systems in Alaska to identify a nuclear attack from North Korea.
When Trump asked about it, Defense Secretary Mattis schooled him: 'We're doing this in order to prevent World War III.
Mattis then told colleagues Trump had the mental ability of 'a fifth- or sixth-grader.'
But on Tuesday he denied the account, saying: 'The contemptuous words about the President attributed to me in Woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence.
'While I generally enjoy reading fiction, this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility.'
A Pentagon spokesman, Col. Rob Manning, said Mattis was never interviewed by Woodward.
'Mr. Woodward never discussed or verified the alleged quotes included in his book with Secretary Mattis' or anyone within the Defense Department, Manning said.
Previous accounts during Trump's first year had former secretary of state Rex Tillerson calling Trump a 'moron,' and Tillerson did not explicitly deny it. This would mean three of Trump's most senior advisors have ridiculed his mental capacity.
Woodward also reported that after Syria's Bashar Assad launched a chemical weapons attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted the Syrian leader taken out, saying: 'Let's f***ing kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f***ing lot of them'
Mattis assured Trump he would get right on it but then told a senior aide they'd do nothing of the kind, Woodward wrote. National security advisers instead developed options for the airstrike that Trump ultimately ordered.
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley denied Tuesday that Trump had ever planned to assassinate Assad. She told reporters at U.N. headquarters that she had been privy to conversations about the Syrian chemical weapons attacks, 'and I have not once ever heard the president talk about assassinating Assad.'
She said people should take what is written in books about the president with 'a grain of salt.'
Defense Secretary Mattis (left, at the Pentagon on August 28) and Kelly, White House chief of staff, (right, in the White House on August 27) both questioned quotes attributed to them
Trump also tweeted official statements from Kelly and Mattis as part of a barrage of posts on Tuesday evening
In a taped phone call with Trump that the journalist released hand-in-hand with excerpts from the forthcoming book on Tuesday, Woodward recounts how he tried to reach the president to fact-check claims he had made.
Trump says he wished he had known about the book which was already coming out at the time of the call.
'I never got a call. I never got a message,' the president said at first. 'Who did you ask about speaking to me?'
Woodward told him he had lunch with counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway where he pressed her on getting a Trump interview prompting Trump to admonish his former campaign manager while she was in the room.
At one point during the back-and-forth, Conway walked into the room where Trump was speaking, and he invited her to jump on the call.
'You and I spent a whole lunch on it, Kellyanne ... And you said you would get back to me. Nothing,' Woodward told her.
Conway then told Woodward: 'Yeah. So, I did. I presented it to the people here who make those decisions,' without naming names.
'Who are the people?' Woodward asked, but he got no response. At that point, without answering, Conway jumped off the call, and Trump got back on.
Trump then faulted Woodward for not calling him directly.
'But you never called for me. It would have been nice, Bob, if you called for me in my office,' Trump said.
'Kellyanne went to somebody, but she didn't come to me. And she should have come to me,' Trump said.
The president noted that the book was almost certain to contain embarrassing information about his administration - and that it would probably be 'very inaccurate' as he geared up for the coming bloodbath.
Woodward assured him that it wouldn't, and the two ended the call that took place in August amicably.
Highlights: The most searing quotes in Bob Woodward's book WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT TRUMP: JOHN KELLY, CHIEF OF STAFF: 'He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had.' JAMES MATTIS, DEFENSE SECRETARY: 'Fifth- or sixth-grader' REX TILLERSON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: 'He's a f***ing moron.' JOHN DOWN, FORMER PERSONAL ATTORNEY: 'F***ing liar.' JOHN DOWD ON HOW TRANSCRIPT OF A MUELLER INTERVIEW WOULD BE DESCRIBED BY FOREIGN LEADERS: 'I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?' GARY COHN, FORMER CHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISER: 'A professional liar' ROB PORTER, FORMER STAFF SECRETARY WHO QUIT WHEN BOTH EX-WIVES ACCUSED HIM OF ABUSE: 'A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren't such good ideas.' WHAT THEY SAID TO EACH OTHER: STEVE BANNON TO IVANKA TRUMP: 'You're nothing but a f***ing staffer! You walk around this place and act like you're on charge, and you're not. You're on staff!' IVANKA TRUMP TO STEVE BANNON: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter and I'm never going to be a staffer!' JOHN KELLY TO GARY COHN: 'If that was me, I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his a** six different times.' DOWD TO ROBERT MUELLER: 'He just made something up. That's his nature.' WHAT TRUMP SAID ABOUT THEM: BARACK OBAMA: 'Weak d**k' RUDY GIULIANI, PERSONAL ATTORNEY: 'Rudy, you're a baby. I've never seen a worse defense of me in my life. They took your diaper off right there. You're like a little baby that needed to be changed. When are you going to be a man?' WILBUR ROSS, COMMERCE SECRETARY: 'I don't trust you. I don't want you doing any more negotiations. You're past your prime.' H.R McMASTER, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: 'Dresses like a beer salesman.' REINCE PRIEBUS, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF: 'Like a little rat. He just scurries around.' AFTER EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT FATAH AL-SISSI ASKED IF HE WAS GOING TO BE AROUND: 'Like a kick in the nuts.' BASHAR AL-ASSAD, SYRIAN DICTATOR: 'Let's f***ing kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f***ing lot of them.' Advertisement
The president was singing a different tune on Tuesday, hinting that Woodward could have 'made up' anecdotes in his book, including a story about Gary Cohn absconding with an order to end the United States' trade deal with South Korea to keep Trump from making an international mess.
'That's false. It's just made up,' Trump told The Daily Caller in a furious response to the book. 'There was nobody taking anything from me.'
Trump suggested that 'disgruntled employees' may have made the claims -- or that they could have been falsified Woodward in their entirety.
'It could just be made up by the author,' Trump said of the journalist he once defended on Twitter against slights levied against him by the Obama administration.
The damaging statement about the widely respected journalist had former President George W. Bush's White House Press Secretary Ari Fleisher shaking his head.
'I've been on the receiving end of a Bob Woodward book. There were quotes in it I didn't like. But never once - never - did I think Woodward made it up,' Fleisher said. 'Anonymous sources have looser lips and may take liberties. But Woodward always plays is straight. Someone told it to him.'
Trump's press secretary piled on with a statement that said: 'This book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad.'
In the response to Woodward's book, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders argued that 'sometimes' Trump's approach to the office is 'unconventional' but it 'always gets results.'
'Democrats and their allies in the media understand the President's policies are working and with success like this, no one can beat him in 2020 not even close.'
The White House did not hold a televised question and answer session with reporters again on Tuesday, choosing instead to respond to the explosive book that hits shelves on Sept. 11 through written statements.
Trump held off on eviscerating Woodward on Twitter, as well, responding to him instead in the interview with The Daily Caller.
MAYBE HE MADE IT UP: That was Trump's charge on Tuesday as he tried to get out from under Woodward's damaging allegations. Ari Fleisher, the former press secretary to George W. Bush, said in a tweet that the charge didn't add up
Trump was once a fan of Bob Woodward - but now the president says he might be a liar
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders dismissed the work of the famed journalist as 'nothing more than fabricated stories'
The book also recounts efforts by Cohn to try to head-off what he considered rash or ill-advised policy moves by Trump.
Cohn 'stole a letter off Trump's desk' to prevent the president from executing a planned withdrawal from the United States-South Korea trade pact.
The book even ventures into the advice Trump received from his former lead lawyer on the Russia investigation, John Dowd.
'Don't testify. It's either that or an orange jumpsuit,' he advised Trump, according to the book.
Dowd is also said to have explained to special counsel Robert Mueller face-to-face that he didn't want his client to testify, because he feared that Trump would be cast as an imbecile.
He reportedly told him: 'I'm not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, 'I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?''
According to Woodward, Mueller replied: 'John, I understand.'
Extracts from veteran Watergate reporter Bob Woodard's (left) new book (right) set off explosions across the political world
Trump insists Bob Woodward's book interview request never made it to the Oval Office President Donald Trump complained on a recorded phone call no one ever contacted him about veteran journalist Bob Woodward's interview request then complained advisor Kellyanne Conway should have come to him directly. The Washington Post released a recorded August 14 phone call between the famously well-sourced author and the president soon after the paper reported on a copy of 'Fear,' Woodward's forthcoming book on Trump. Trump does admit at one point during the call that a senator had passed along Woodward's request for an interview, but at other times says he had no idea about it. The call begins with Woodward, after alerting the president he was recording, regretting the two hadn't been able to connect and Trump saying he wished he had known about the book which was already coming out at the time of the call. 'She should have come to me,' Trump said of Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway, (seen at the White House on August 29) during a conversation with Bob Woodward about an interview request Trump claims he never was told about 'I never got a call. I never got a message,' the president said at first. 'Who did you ask about speaking to me?' Woodward told him he had lunch with counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway where he pressed her on getting a Trump interview prompting Trump to admonish his former campaign manager while she was in the room. At one point during the back-and-forth, Conway walked into the room where Trump was speaking, and he invited her to jump on the call. 'You and I spent a whole lunch on it, Kellyanne ... And you said you would get back to me. Nothing,' Woodward told her. Conway then told Woodward: 'Yeah. So, I did. I presented it to the people here who make those decisions,' without naming names. 'Who are the people?' Woodward asked, but he got no response. At that point, without answering, Conway jumped off the call, and Trump got back on. Trump then faulted Woodward for not calling him directly. 'But you never called for me. It would have been nice, Bob, if you called for me in my office,' Trump said. 'Kellyanne went to somebody, but she didn't come to me. And she should have come to me,' Trump said. Advertisement
Dowd said Tuesday in emails to the Washington Examiner that anecdotes and quotes attributed to him including a claim that he called Trump a 'f**king liar' and that a mock session with Trump in advance of a potential interview with Mueller revealed the 'full nightmare' he was dealing with are not true.
'I have not read Bob Woodward's book, which appears to be the most recent in an endless cycle of accusations and misrepresentations based on anonymous statements from unknown malcontents,' he told the outlet.
'I do not intend to address every inaccurate statement attributed to me but I do want to make this clear: there was no so-called 'practice session' or 're-enactment' of a mock interview at the Special Counsel's office. Further, I did not refer to the President as a 'liar' and did not say that he was likely to end up in an 'orange jump suit.'
The email from Dowd concluded: 'It was a great honor and distinct privilege to serve President Trump.'
Trump said his former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, (pictured in DC on February 7) scurries around 'like a rat'
Former director of the U.S. National Economic Council Gary Cohn snatched a letter off Trump's desk to keep him from precipitously moving to pull out of a trade deal. Cohn is seen on the right next to Jared Kushner on March 8
Woodward also described an argument between Ivanka Trump and then chief White House strategist Steve Bannon.
'You're a goddamn staffer!' Bannon allegedly screamed at her, explaining she had to work through Priebus like other aides. 'You walk around this place and act like you're in charge, and you're not. You're on staff!'
Ivanka replied: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter.'
According to another anecdote, Trump told former staff secretary Rob Porter former chief of staff Reince Priebus was 'like a little rat. He just scurries around.'
Porter in turn allegedly said on Trump: 'A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren't such good ideas.'
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, 80, a billionaire investor, wasn't spared Trump's criticism, either.
'I don't trust you. I don't want you doing any more negotiations. You're past your prime,' Trump reportedly told him.
Trump also reportedly called his personal Rudy Giuliani a 'baby', and compared former national security adviser H.R. McMaster to a 'beer salesman'.
Ivanka Trump 'got into an expletive-laden screaming match with Steve Bannon' By Ariel Zilber Woodward described an argument between Ivanka Trump and then chief White House strategist Steve Bannon. 'You're a goddamn staffer!' Bannon allegedly screamed at her, explaining she had to work through Priebus like other aides. 'You walk around this place and act like you're in charge, and you're not. You're on staff!' Ivanka replied: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter.' Ivanka Trump reportedly was offended when she was told by strategist Steve Bannon she was merely a White House 'staffer' by answering: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter,' it has been claimed. She is seen outside her Washington, D.C. home last month Bannon was said to have been upset with Ivanka's reported tendency to bypass the standard chain of command and take up issues directly with her father. Every other White House aide was required to report to the chief of staff at the time, Reince Priebus. But the reported exchange apparently highlighted the fact that Ivanka felt she was not bound by the same rules. Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, are senior advisers to the president even though they have no previous experience in government. Advertisement
The book follows the January release of author Michael Wolff's 'Fire and Fury,' which led to a rift between Trump and Steve Bannon, his former chief strategist, who spoke with Wolff in terms that were highly critical of the president and his family. Wolff's book attracted attention with its vivid anecdotes but suffered from numerous factual inaccuracies.
Woodward's work also comes weeks after former White House aide and 'Apprentice' contestant Omarosa Manigault Newman published an expose on her time in the West Wing, including audio recordings of her firing by Kelly and a follow-up conversation with the president in which he claimed to have been unaware of Kelly's decision.
While White House aides have become increasingly numb to fresh scandals, the latest book still increased tensions in the West Wing, especially given the intimate details shared and the number of people Woodward appeared to have interviewed.
Some White House officials expressed surprise at the number of erstwhile Trump loyalists willing to offer embarrassing stories of the president and his inner circle.
White House aides on Tuesday coordinated with other officials quoted in the book to dispute troublesome passages. But insiders speculated the fallout could be worse than that from 'Fire and Fury,' given Woodward's storied reputation.
Woodward's book was already ranked the top-selling book on Amazon on Tuesday.
Trump has been increasingly critical of anonymous sources used by reporters covering his administration. Woodward's account relies on deep background conversations with sources, meaning their identities are not disclosed.
The family of a Sydney man buried on Wednesday has slammed a belated apology from the paramedics' union, which wrongly accused them of attacking ambulance workers trying to save his life.
They claim the apology, made just hours before the funeral for Hamze Ibrahim, 25, is too little too late and that a slur would be 'left on his name' forever.
A media statement put out by the Australian Paramedics' Association on Sunday claimed members of Mr Ibrahim's family had contributed to the death by stopping ambulance workers from treating Mr Ibrahim - and also claimed he died of a drug overdose.
The family maintains his death at his home in Riverwood in western Sydney was instead due to a respiratory problem after a long battle with sleep apnoea - and is considering legal action against the union.
Mr Ibrahim was also due to fly to Lebanon the next day for a gastric banding operation, but became ill in the early hours of the morning and an ambulance was called to help him, but he died at the scene.
The devastated family of Hamze Ibrahim (pictured with his wife Hanan) say the apology provided to them by the paramedics union gave them little comfort
Mr Ibrahim, 25, died on Sunday morning at his Riverwood home, in Sydney's south-west, after a battle with sleep apnoea, according to his family (pictured is Mr Ibrahim's funeral)
He was due to fly to Lebanon the next day for a gastric banding operation, but became ill in the early hours of the morning and an ambulance was called to help him, but he died at the scene (pictured is Mr Ibrahim's funeral)
As her husband's body was laid to rest, Mrs Ibrahim and other women released bunches of white balloons into the sky (pictured)
In a media statement put out by the APA on Monday Mr Pearce blamed the man's death on his family who had 'interfered' with emergency workers doing their job (pictured is Mr Ibrahim and his wife Hanan)
Following his tragic death, the Australian Paramedics Association boss Steve Pearce claimed up to 80 of Mr Ibrahim's family and friends 'ambushed' paramedics trying to resuscitate him.
In a media statement put out by the APA on Monday Mr Pearce blamed the man's death on his family who had 'interfered' with emergency workers doing their job.
Just hours before Mr Ibrahim's funeral on Wednesday, the APA released an apology to the family, saying they were wrong in their claims.
But Mr Ibrahim's family said it was 'too little, too late'.
'It's cold comfort and all a bit late now, isn't it,' a cousin of Mr Ibrahim told Daily Mail Australia.
'The damage to his name has been done. They've made him look like a drug user, like a bad person... you can't undo that.'
The Australian Paramedics Association has apologised for claiming the family of a dying man (pictured with his wife) attacked ambulance workers who were trying to save him
'It's cold comfort and all a bit late now, isn't it,' a cousin of Mr Ibrahim told Daily Mail Australia (pictured is Mr Ibrahim's funeral)
Draped in a traditional Islamic garment, Mr Ibrahim's silver coffin was carried to its burial site by a group of male mourners at Rookwood Cemetery (pictured)
'Those cruel claims were just wrong. Ok, so now they say 'we were wrong', but they shouldn't have said it in the first place'.
Draped in a traditional Islamic garment, Mr Ibrahim's silver coffin was carried to its burial site by a group of male mourners at Rookwood Cemetery.
As it was lowered into the ground those standing around the burial site let out cries of 'allahu akbar'.
Mr Ibrahim's distraught wife Hanan was comforted throughout the service by dozens of women, all wearing traditional white head scarves.
As her husband's body was laid to rest, Mrs Ibrahim and other women released bunches of white balloons into the sky.
Mr Ibrahim's distraught wife Hanan was comforted throughout the service by dozens of women, all wearing traditional white head scarves (pictured)
Up to 300 people mourners gathered around Mr Ibrahim's grave site, hugging and crying (pictured)
APA NSW secretary Steve Pearce (pictured) on Sunday claimed relatives of Mr Ibrahim were responsible for his death by hindering paramedics called to revive him
Up to 300 people mourners gathered around Mr Ibrahim's grave site, hugging and crying.
A solicitor representing Mr Ibrahim's family, Raed Rahal, said the dead man should be remembered for the 'fun-loving, caring person' that he was.
'The pain family and friends are suffering at this time has been unjustifiably and unnecessarily amplified by the self-serving, reckless and unfounded comments made by Australian Paramedics Association,' Mr Rahal said on Monday.
He added: 'Matters as to any future claim will be considered once the family has had time to grieve.
In a statement on Wednesday the New South Wales APA made an 'unreserved apology' for their first media statement.
A solicitor representing Mr Ibrahim's family, Raed Rahal, said the dead man should be remembered for the 'fun-loving, caring person' that he was (pictured is Mr Ibrahim's funeral)
In a statement on Wednesday the New South Wales APA made an 'unreserved apology' for their first media statement (pictured is Mr Ibrahim's funeral)
'Any statement in the previous media release to the effect that Mr Ibrahim's family members either contributed or were in any way responsible for his death is wholly incorrect and should not have been published,' the APA said in a statement.
'Likewise, APA further acknowledges that at no time did Mr Ibrahim's family members obstruct or threaten paramedics.
'APA deeply regrets publishing its previous media release and unreservedly apologises for any grief, embarrassment or distress it caused to family members of Mr Ibrahim.'
Police also disputed the initial APA report, saying fewer than 20 officers attended in contrast to the 150 claimed by paramedics.
Just hours before Mr Ibrahim's funeral on Wednesday, the APA released an apology to the family, saying they were wrong in their claims (pictured is Mr Ibrahim's funeral)
The once-heralded blood-testing startup Theranos is now set to formally dissolve just weeks after its CEO was charged with criminal fraud.
Theranos told its shareholders via email on Tuesday that it plans to dissolve and pay out remaining cash to creditors, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the scandal-plagued company, was indicted by federal prosecutors in June for allegedly defrauding investors, doctors and the public in a multi-million dollar scheme.
The company's former second-in-command, Ramesh 'Sunny' Balwani, was also charged.
Blood-testing startup Theranos is now set to formally dissolve just weeks after its CEO Elizabeth Holmes was charged with criminal fraud for allegedly defrauding investors, doctors and the public in a multi-million dollar scheme
Holmes, who was once considered a wunderkind of Silicon Valley, and Balwani were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire fraud each.
She launched Theranos in 2003 in Palo Alto, California, pitching its technology as a cheaper way to run dozens of blood tests.
Holmes advertised the company as a cheaper and more efficient way for patients to test for life-threatening conditions, like cancer and diabetes, with just a few drops of blood from their fingers.
But prosecutors allege that Holmes and Balwani deliberately misled investors, policymakers and the public about the accuracy of Theranos' blood-testing technologies going back to at least 2013.
A notoriously secretive company, Theranos shared very little about its blood-testing machine, nicknamed Edison, with the public or medical community.
Holmes said she was inspired to start the company in response to her fear of needles.
Holmes, who was once considered a wunderkind of Silicon Valley, launched Theranos in 2003 in Palo Alto, California, pitching its technology as a cheaper way to run dozens of blood tests
Prosecutors allege that Holmes and Balwani deliberately misled investors, policymakers and the public about the accuracy of Theranos' blood-testing technologies
She carefully crafted her image as well, wearing almost entirely black turtleneck sweaters that earned her the moniker in Silicon Valley as 'the next Steve Jobs.'
Investors bought what Holmes was selling and invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the company. At one time, Theranos was worth more than $10 billion and Holmes the youngest self-made female billionaire.
But an investigation by The Wall Street Journal two years ago found that Theranos' technology was inaccurate at best, and that the company was using routine blood-testing equipment for the vast majority of its tests.
The story raised concerns about the accuracy of Theranos' blood testing technology, which put patients at risk of having conditions either misdiagnosed or ignored.
The Journal's investigation marked the beginning of the end of Theranos.
Walgreens ended its blood-testing partnership with the company, and the Department of Health and Human Services effectively banned Theranos in 2016 from doing any blood testing work at all.
The Securities and Exchange Commission brought civil fraud charges against Holmes and Balwani earlier this year. Holmes settled with the SEC by agreeing to pay $500,000 in fines and penalties, while Balwani is fighting the charges.
Talks between British and French officials will be held in London today to find a resolution to the scallop wars.
The French Navy said yesterday it is ready to intervene to prevent further clashes between fishermen harvesting the shellfish in the English Channel after heated confrontations.
Agriculture Minister George Eustice is expected to be quizzed about the issue when he appears before the Commons Environment Committee.
French officials and industry representatives are set to meet their UK counterparts later to discuss ways to resolve the row.
UK and French officials are meeting in London today in a bid to resolve the recent 'scallop wars'. Pictured: French fishermen throw rocks at a British boat off Normandy coast last week
About 35 French boats confronted five British craft off the coast of northern France last week, with UK crews reporting that rocks, smoke bombs and other projectiles were hurled at them during the confrontation.
Some of the fishermen from both sides also rammed each other, video footage showed.
The clashes have occurred in a scallop-rich area known as the Baie de Somme, off the coast of Normandy.
National regulations allow British ships to fish legally in the area all year round but French fishermen are banned from taking the molluscs between May 15 and October 1 to conserve stocks.
But scallops aren't the only thing that is causing tension. On Monday two French boats based in Normandy caught 44 tuna fish while hunting for bream off the Channel Islands - adding to already simmering tensions between the two nations.
Footage shows French fishing rivals using a petrol bomb to stop their UK counterparts catching scallops in the English Channel
The tuna, each weighing between 50kg and 120kg and worth more than 100,000 in total, were then brought ashore at Granville in France to be sold.
Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks are managed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).
French fishermen are allowed to keep bluefin tuna while their British counterparts are banned from doing it.
The bluefins are usually only found in the Bay of Biscay and Mediterranean but rising water temperatures are sending more into UK waters.
The UK has no quota to catch bluefin tuna but France, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Malta and Cyprus do.
France's agriculture minister Stephane Travert said yesterday that the French navy is 'ready to step in' if more clashes break out.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the comments were in line with Environment Secretary Michael Gove's position that it was for the French to take any steps needed to prevent violence in the area.
Downing Street said both sides were hoping for an 'amicable' solution from the talks.
British and French fishermen are at loggerheads over scallops and have clashed off the coast of Normandy and Jersey over tuna
A man has appeared in court on charges of burglary after he broke into a local zoo and attempted to steal a squirrel monkey to give to his girlfriend.
John Owen Casford, 23, told the Wellington District Court he was 'high as a kite' when he broke into the squirrel monkey enclosure at the Wellington Zoo in New Zealand on April 7.
The alarm wasn't raised until the following morning when staff found an enclosure gate open and discovered one of their female monkeys injured and hiding inside.
John Owen Casford, 23, told the Wellington District Court he was 'high as a kite' when he broke into the squirrel monkey enclosure at the Wellington Zoo and tried taking one
Casford was able to gain access to the grounds via an unsecured gate before breaking two padlocks to enter into the enclosure, the NZ Herald reported.
Casford then sustained a number of serious injuries inside the enclosure which the judge highlighted during proceedings.
'I don't know what happened in the squirrel monkey enclosure. The squirrel monkeys know. You say you couldn't find them and I don't speak squirrel,' he said.
'What I know is that by daybreak all the monkeys were distressed, two of them were injured, and you had a broken leg, two fractured teeth, a sprained ankle, and bruises on your back.'
Casford said he had broken his leg after jumping into the enclosure.
While Casford was unable to successfully capture any of the squirrel monkeys some of them are now suffering from stress, months after the incident, and another was injured.
One monkey had a haematoma on its elbow while a number of others had scratch marks which indicated they had at least been grabbed
One monkey had a haematoma on its elbow while a number of others had scratch marks which indicated they had at least been grabbed.
Casford also faced court on Wednesday for unrelated charges which included an unprovoked attack another Wellington man, another attack at Westport and two other assaults, one on a council worker and one on a 'night shelter resident'
He pleaded guilty to all charges.
He was sentenced for all offences on Wednesday with the judge handing him a two year and seven month jail term.
The Australian economy has finally shaken off the aftermath of the mining and housing boom, growing at its fastest pace in nearly six years.
The economy expanded by 0.9 per cent in the June quarter and 3.4 per cent over the 12 months to June, national accounts data released on Wednesday show.
The growth exceeded economists' expectations for quarterly growth of 0.7 per cent and an annual improvement of 2.8 per cent.
The Australian economy has grown by 3.4 per cent over the 12 months to June - the fastest pace since the peak of the mining boom in September 2012 (pictured)
The latest annual growth is the steepest since September 2012, when the mining boom reached its peak.
Australians splashing their cash played a starring role in growth in the three months to June, the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show.
Household expenditure was up 0.7 per cent, helping to push domestic demand 0.6 per cent higher.
Figures from the ABS show consumer spending played a key role in driving growth, while new treasurer Josh Frydenberg (pictured) linked the spending with the fact there are more Australians are in work
New treasurer Josh Frydenberg was quick to link the spending with recent improvements to the number of Australians in work.
'You get more people earning more money, there's more spending, and that has a real impact on generating more product across the economy,' he told reporters in Canberra.
Employment improvements have also chipped into a rise in compensation to employees, he said.
But Labor finance spokesman Jim Chalmers said wages are rising far slower than company profits and while people may be spending more, they are saving less.
'It's not a sustainable way for us to grow the economy to have decade-low household savings,' Mr Chalmers told reporters.
'Growth in this country needs to be inclusive and it needs to be bottom-up.'
A Labor finance spokesman said however that wages were rising far less than company profits, with Mr Frydenberg (pictured) saying he expects them to go up as the economy keeps expanding
ANZ senior economist Felicity Emmett said the falling household saving rate 'raises a question' about the sustainability of consumer spending.
Mr Frydenberg said lifting wages is an important challenge for the government and expects them to go up as the economy keeps expanding.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison earlier hailed the strong economy as the means to providing services such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
'If you don't have a strong economy, then you can't support nation-changing programs like this,' he told reporters.
The girlfriend of an electrocuted tradesman has issued a heartbreaking plea following his death.
Jaime-Lee Digby fronted the media on Wednesday.
'No person should go to work one day and not make it home alive by the evening.'
Her boyfriend, Luke Bray, 24, was electrocuted while working in the roof of a home in Carlton, in Sydney's south, in February.
Scroll down for video
The girlfriend of an electrocuted tradesman has issued a heartbreaking plea following his death
Luke Bray, 24, was electrocuted while working in the roof of a home in Carlton, in Sydney's south, in February (right)
Power was switched off at the mains, but is believed to have been still flowing into the house via illegal wiring without the tradesman's knowledge.
'There was another wire coming into the house poor young kid, and his workmates were devastated,' a neighbour told The Daily Telegraph.
Paramedics desperately tried to save Mr Bray - a former Navy sailor from far north Queensland - but were unable to revive him.
Paramedics desperately tried to save Mr Bray - a former Navy sailor from far north Queensland - but were unable to revive him
Power was switched off at the mains, but is believed to have been still flowing into the house via illegal wiring without the tradesman's knowledge
'For the love of my life, taken too soon. I lost the most incredible man but I gained me a perfect angel,' (pictured Ms Digby's tattoo)
Sharing the loving story of when they first met, Ms Digby could not help but share the pain she felt after finding something amongst his belongings following his death.
'Luke and I met on the navy we were on the same ship together. Things went very, very quickly,' she said laughing at the memory.
'When this happened it tore my entire life apart. I lived here all by myself at the time, so I had to fly my parents down from the Sunny Coast to go and identify his body.
'I then had to collect his belongings from the police station of which had a receipt for an engagement ring...its been very, very painful.'
'I then had to collect his belongings from the police station of which had a receipt for an engagement ring...its been very, very painful.'
Power was switched off at the mains, but is believed to have been still flowing into the house via illegal wiring without the tradesman's knowledge (pictured is the scene of the incident)
An academic who slammed Qantas after a flight attendant called her Miss instead of Doctor has sparked a fierce debate over whether the airline was really at fault.
Dr Siobhan O'Dwyer, an Australian academic currently working in the UK, took to Twitter on Friday to complain about her experience of being called Miss.
'Hey Qantas, my name is Dr O'Dwyer. My ticket says Dr O'Dwyer. Do not look at my ticket, look at me, look back at my ticket, decide it's a typo and call me Miss O'Dwyer. I did not spend 8 years at university to be called Miss,' she wrote.
Dr Siobhan O'Dwyer, an Australian academic currently working in the UK, took to Twitter on Friday to complain about her experience of being called Miss
Dr O'Dwyer's tweet sparked a fierce debate online over whether the airline was really at fault
The post has received nearly 8000 likes and sparked debate about whether Dr O'Dwyer, who has a PhD in Philosophy, or the flight attendant was in the wrong.
Some have said Dr O'Dwyer was simply looking for an ego boost while others argued that to not call her doctor was a sign of disrespect.
Fellow academic Dr Mel Thomson tweeted her support, writing: 'You have all of the solidarity on this issue.'
'I'm first gen to finish high school (let alone get several degrees) in my family I'll be damned is some trolley dolly gets to decide what honorific I get called, FFS.'
'I did not spend 8 years at university to be called Miss,' Dr O'Dwyer reasoned
Many people took offence with Dr Thomson's use of the term 'trolley dolly', saying it was disrespectful to women and the flight attendant profession.
'Please don't refer to us as trolley dollies. We may not have completed a PhD however we are required by law 2 maintain quals (sic) that enable us to evacuate an aircraft in 90 secs, keep u alive in-flight, prevent hijacking, put out fires etc,' an airline steward using the Twitter handle Belleo tweeted.
Fellow academic Dr Mel Thomson tweeted her support, but was slammed for calling flight attendants 'trolley dolly'
'I have always used the correct honorific. And I have always been especially careful to ensure I used it when I saw it on a woman's boarding pass as I was proud to be able to support the woman and her achievements in a male-centric world,' she continued.
'You've just gone and sh*t on that with your condescending comment about us.'
British man Tim Almond said people who insisted on being called Doctor on planes when they didn't have a medical degree could
UK man Tim Almond said he had two friends with doctorates who refused to use their correct title outside of professional conferences.
'You're asking for trouble on an aircraft. A passenger gets stuck and they'll ask you for help,' he tweeted.
Qantas said they stood by the professionalism of their cabin crew.
'We are extremely proud of our cabin crew who respectfully serve our customers day in and day out and play a vital safety role,' a Qantas spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.
'Please don't refer to us as trolley dollies' an airline steward using the Twitter handle Belleo tweeted
After her tweet went viral, Dr O'Dwyer took to social media to say she had been 'copping so much flak' for the post.
'This was not about my ego. It was about highlighting one of a thousand instances of sexism that women encounter every day. Its not about the title, its about the fact that this wouldnt have happened if I was a man,' she wrote.
Twitter users were divided over Dr O'Dwyer's reasoning, with some accusing her of making a big deal out of nothing and others agreeing it was a case of sexism.
'Your tweet is exactly about ego. How many male doctors write tweets to Qantas complaining they get called Mr & not Dr ? If they did, they would cop exactly same the responses as you,' one man wrote.
'Why dont the trolls understand that its about equality?,' argued another.
People boasting on social media about tattoos that depict horrific acts of violence against police officers has stoked a backlash online.
One man has 'F*** the NSW Police Force' tattooed in large font on his back. His tattoo also includes an images of a police officer being shot in the back of the head.
Another man's back is covered in an image of a kangaroo with a shotgun standing over a dead police officer. These are just some of the designs Australians are getting permanently on their skin.
'F*** the NSW Police Force' is one of many tattoos Australians are getting permanently on their skin
People are boasting about their ink that depicts horrible acts of violence against police officers on social media
The images are all over social media, from Brown Cardian's Facebook page to Instagram, and the response from social media is overwhelming.
'I've really been racking my brain what I can get done on my back, these have really inspired me,' one person responded.
'Get your back lazered off and start something like this I reckon,' another person said.
But not everyone was supportive.
'Haha thats a solid montage of a few poor life choices,' one person commented.
'On a positive note... it is good to see the last guy likes and respect all the other state and territory police forces.'
A senior Russian politician is facing fury and ridicule over a hunting video in which he shoots dead a 'hibernating' wild brown bear in its den at point blank range.
Communist Sergey Levchenko, is the powerful governor of gold-rich Irkutsk region in Siberia.
The 63-year-old can be seen firing the rifle, which was a birthday gift, for the first time.
A sidekick of the politician then tells him: 'There's a head, fire at the head.'
Scroll down for video.
Sergey Levchenko can be seen using his birthday rifle for the first time to shoot the sleeping brown bear in the Irkutsk region of Siberia, which he rules as governor
The Communist Party politician then shot the 'hibernating' bear by pointing his gun into the bears den
The group of around six men then pull the dead bear from its den by attaching a rope around its head
Then the Communist Party governor shot into a hole where a bear was hibernating.
The slain giant beast was then pulled out dead as a trophy for the politician by a group of around six men, who hooked a rope around its neck to haul it from the hole.
Around Levchenko were acolytes watching and fawningly congratulating him on his kill, which critics said is the same as shooting a 'sitting duck'.
Another henchman asks him as he shakes his hand: 'Well, have you reached the goal?'
As the brown bear is pulled from its den one member of the group adds: 'What a beast - handsome.'
The governor claims the leaking of the video was a dirty trick as part of a political smear campaign against him by Vladimir Putin's supporters ahead of legislative elections Irkutsk region.
Levchenko's critics posted the footage with a message in Russian which reads: 'A sleeping bear is shot at point-blank range.'
And: 'Any hunter, indeed any decent human being, can judge for themselves what happens here.'
After the killing, one of Levchenko's henchman shakes his hand asks him: 'Well, have you reached the goal?'
As the large brown bear is hauled from its den a hunting dog sniffs around the corpse and bites the animal's leg
After pulling the bear from its hole the group throw it on a rock to display it as a trophy
YouTube users berated the Red governor as an 'animal torturer', 'a beast', and a 'vile killer'.
Police and prosecutors have been urged to examine the footage to see if he broke the law in killing a sleeping bear.
A top animal rights MP, Nikolai Nikolaev, who heads the parliament's Natural Resources Committee, claimed the slaying 'is worthy of neither a governor, a Siberian, nor a man'.
He warned: 'Personally, I know that hunting of bears in dens is forbidden by law.
'And if someone has framed Levchenko, then it is not his political opponents, but the organisers of this scandalous action.
'Maybe they had a license. Maybe they did, but killing the animal in a den is already poaching.
'There is also an ethical angle in this story - people were shocked with this video.
'It caused a serious public outcry, and it's impossible to keep silent about the situation.'
In Russia, it is generally against the law to hunt bears in November, and transgressors can be punished by up to five years in prison.
It is also illegal to kill hibernating bears and it has emerged the recently leaked footage was shot in November 2016.
The governor's spokeswoman said the bear was shot in a game reserve - with a permit.
She said: 'The hunt was preceded by appeals from local residents who complained about the bear.'
But she did not explain why the governor was needed to personally shoot the wild animal.
Levchenko claims the video was posted by his critics and Vladimir Putin's supporters ahead of a crucial legislative vote in the region
In Russia it is illegal to hunt bears in November and to kill hibernating bears. The recently leaked footage of the killing was shot in November 2016
The den where the unsuspecting bear was sleeping when it was shot by Irkutsk governor Levchenko in 2016
Nikolai Tereshchenko, a hunter who accompanied Levchenko in the video, said the shooting was 'legal' and that the bear was an 'insomniac' posing a danger to people.
He said: 'To prevent any casualties, we did this.
'The dogs tracked his scent and drove the animal into its den.'
Others suggest the governor may have been fooled and the bear was shot before the hunt was 'staged' to make him think how he had killed his first wild animal.
In 2015 Levchenko shocked Russian politics by beating the incumbent governor of Irkutsk and member of Putin's United Russia party - which has a bear as its symbol.
Ken Livingstone has said 'no one should have any worries' about the Labour anti-Semitism crisis and has defended his controversial comments Hitler supported Zionism.
The former Mayor of London, 73, backed the Labour Party's decision to include a get-out clause ensuring the adoption of the international definition of anti-Semitism yesterday would not 'undermine freedom of expression on Israel'.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain he said the anti-Semitism row that has plagued the party for years should be of no real concern.
He said: 'No one should have any worries about this stuff. Anti-Semitism is about people who hate and loathe Jews. It's not about criticising the Israeli Government's policy towards the Palestinians.'
Speaking on Good Morning Britain this morning Ken Livingstone said people 'should not worry' about the anti-Semitism crisis in Labour that came to a head at its NEC meeting yesterday
He added: 'People who hate Jews blacks or homosexuals are never going to join the Labour Party because we have always been defending the rights of people like that.'
The retired politician also stood by his highly-controversial claims Adolf Hitler supported Zionism, when quizzed by hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid.
Yesterday Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was branded 'contemptible' by Jewish leaders after he argued it is not anti-Semitic to call the state of Israel racist.
At a meeting of the party's ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) yesterday he asked them to endorse a statement saying is not 'anti-Semitic to describe Israel, its policies or the circumstances around its foundation as racist'.
Describing Israel as a 'racist endeavour' directly contravenes one of the key examples of the international definition of anti-Semitism.
Corbyn was eventually forced to back down after it became clear he could not get the statement through.
Instead the NEC adopted the full definition of anti-Semitism as laid down by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), including all 11 examples it lists.
The retired politician (pictured in 2016) also stood by his highly-controversial claims Adolf Hitler supported Zionism, when quizzed by hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid
But it also endorsed a get-out clause to make it clear that adopting the full definition will not undermine 'freedom of expression on Israel'.
Speaking on TV this morning, Corbyn's former colleague Mr Livingstone refused to back down on comments made about Hitler and Zionism two years ago, which saw him suspended from the party.
He claimed he said Hitler did a deal with German Zionists in 1933, not that he was a Zionist himself.
Asked whether he stood by his previous statement, he replied: 'Absolutely. I said that in the 1930s Hitler supported Zionism.
'Not because he liked German Jews, but because he did a deal with the German Zionists. There's a complete difference. He did a deal.'
Pressed a second time, he added: 'This has dragged on for two years.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain he said the anti-Semitism row that has plagued the party for years should be of no real concern
'And still no one has asked me what I actually said. It has been lie after lie all over the media.
'There were claims I said Jews were like Nazis. This is the problem with fake news.
'Nobody has ever found a shred of evidence I've said any of this nonsense.'
He claimed after his suspension from Labour in 2016 Jewish people had approached him in the street to tell him they supported his outlandish claims.
He said: 'In the two weeks after my suspension people came up to me and said: 'I'm Jewish and I know what you said to be true - dont give into these people.'
Mr Livingstone resigned from the party this year.
Asked whether he was sorry for offending the Jewish community, he said: 'I'm sorry for any Jewish person who's upset by all these allegations and smears.' But he refused to apologise for the comments.
On the NEC's clause on not undermining freedom of speech on Israel he said the IHRA is 'vague'.
He told the programme: 'The man who drafted the anti-Semitism guidelines Kenneth Stern, an American lawyer who is Jewish himself, he has admitted the examples he added to it are a bit vaguely worded and can be used to limit freedom of speech.
'So Labour's just simply added a statement saying that that's not going to happen.'
He also maintained he is not anti-Semitic, saying: 'The simple fact is, just before I resigned from the Labour Party, a senior official told me they'd found about 50 members who had tweeted something anti-Semitic.
'Thats one in out of every 10,000. When I was Mayor of London anti-Semitic incidents halved.'
Leah Cambridge, 29, pictured with her fiance Scott Franks, 31, died after the procedure
The Turkish cosmetic surgery clinic where a British mother-of-three died after a botched 5,000 'Brazilian buttock lift' has declared it is 'open for business'.
Leah Cambridge is said to have suffered unexpected complications and had three heart attacks after the procedure at the Elite Aftercare private hospital.
The hospital in Izmir, which is popular with reality TV stars from the likes of Geordie Shore and The Only Way is Essex, told how it was 'devastated' at 29-year-old Miss Cambridge's death.
But it insisted 'preliminary investigations have not raised any concerns over surgical competence or standards of care' - and so it remained open.
It said the death had caused 'a great deal of thought, reflection and consideration' and it was 'taking all reasonable steps to protect and reassure our clients'.
Miss Cambridge's devastated fiance Scott Franks, 31, said he was a 'broken man' after losing his partner of ten years, who was self-conscious about her figure.
Miss Cambridge spent 5,000 on a 'Brazilian buttock lift' but faced unexpected complications
But had spoken out to warn people considering the treatment that they needed to be 'aware of the full situation' following the death of the mother-of-three.
The procedure was carried out at Elite Aftercare last week. It involved transferring excess fat from the patient's stomach to her bottom, to improve its shape.
Mr Franks, a scaffolding manager from Leeds, said: 'Leah was paranoid that she had excess weight from having three kids round her stomach.
'I told her she was beautiful how she was but she really wanted it for her own confidence. I didn't think this would ever happen or could happen to her.'
The family understand the problems faced by Miss Cambridge resulted from fat deposits getting into her blood while she was under general anaesthetic.
It was claimed last week that the Turkish surgeon who carried out the operation told other patients he always made them as big as he could.
The operation was carried out at the Elite Aftercare private hospital in Izmir, western Turkey
A TV crew captured Dr Ali Uckan boasting to another patient who asked him to make her bottom as big as possible, saying: 'That's what I do every time.'
Turkish surgeon Dr Ali Uckan told patients he always made their bottoms as big as he could
Elite Aftercare boasts that The Only Way is Essex stars Lauren Goodger and Amber Turner have had cosmetic surgery there, along with Geordie Shore's Chloe Ferry.
Celebrity Big Brother contestant Chloe Khan is said to have had a 'Brazilian butt lift' at the clinic as well.
On its website the Turkish clinic states that the 'butt lift' operation, which usually takes 'one or two hours' is a 'perfect and most natural way to enhance and shape the buttocks via surgery, sculpting your waist and resulting in a desirable hourglass-like shape.'
In the 'frequently asked questions' section of the website it asks 'how safe is the procedure?' Potential patients are told: 'Any type of surgery should not be taken lightly as there are risks in all procedures.
'The safest aspect of the Brazilian Butt Lift is that it lets your surgeon use your own body tissue to augment your buttock. This avoids the need for any foreign material or implants.
The clinic is run by Caraline Douglas, 38, and Gina Korkmazer, 29, two sisters who were set to star in their own reality show about their cosmetic surgery lifestyles
'Complications can rarely occur. The vast majority of complications are related to the liposuction portion of the procedure and can usually be managed with additional liposuction.
'Although uncommon, areas of concern can include; bleeding, infection, anaesthesia problems, fat necrosis and decreased sensation.'
Given the nature of the tragedy a full inquest into Miss Cambridge's death is likely to be held in the UK at a later date.
The British medical authorities are unlikely to investigate the incident, although the coroner may request evidence from medical experts.
A spokesman for Britain's General Medical Council said it was 'not within our remit' to regulate doctors abroad and action would only be considered if the surgeon involved was on the UK register.
The Only Way is Essex's Lauren Goodger (left) and Amber Turner (right) have used the hospital
An Elite Aftercare statement issued last night said: 'The recent tragic incident has precipitated a great deal of thought, reflection and consideration here at Elite Aftercare. We are devastated that one of our clients has passed away during surgery.
Elite Aftercare issued a lengthy statement on Instagram yesterday about the death
'We also understand how worrying this news is to all our clients who are currently booked in for surgery and also potential new clients who are considering surgery.
'We are saddened and disappointed that, before the cause of death has been officially established, there has been significant unfounded speculation in the press and in the media's coverage of this story.
'However, we understand that an official post-mortem will be undertaken shortly, which it is hoped will objectively establish the cause of Leah's death.
'Rest assured that we are treating this matter with the seriousness and gravity that it deserves and are taking all reasonable steps to protect and reassure our clients.
'We can wholeheartedly assure you that all our preliminary investigations have not raised any concerns over surgical competence or standards of care.
'We therefore remain open for business and fully engaged with the investigation to ensure that our clients' needs remains at the centre of what we do so that can be assured that surgical competence and the standards of care that are offered by Elite Aftercare remain of the very highest order.'
Elite Aftercare (pictured) said that its 'preliminary investigations have not raised any concerns over surgical competence or standards of care' and so it remained open
The clinic is run by Caraline Douglas, 38, and Gina Korkmazer, 29, two sisters who were set to star in their own reality show about their cosmetic surgery lifestyles.
Following the death, consultant surgeon Gerard Lambe, of the British Association of Aesthetic and Plastic Surgeons, warned against travelling outside the UK or US for cosmetic procedures 'as you cannot be certain about the surgeons or hospital you are being treated in'.
He added: 'The death in Turkey of Leah Cambridge after a BBL, or 'Brazilian bum lift', has highlighted the risks of both this dangerous procedure and of travelling abroad to have cosmetic surgery.
'Your health is priceless so do not, for the sake of a discounted price on a procedure fee, compromise your safety.'
Georgia police say a teen stabbed his on-again, off-again girlfriend to death in a 'crime of passion.'
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports 17-year-old India Chapman was stabbed eight times on Friday in what arrest warrants say was a 'crime of passion' by 18-year-old Sincere Brown.
It's unclear what events that led up to the slaying caused it to be termed a 'crime of passion.'
Authorities said India Chapman, 17 (left), was fatally stabbed by her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Sincere Brown on Friday. Chapman is pictured with her mother, Schara, who has not been able to walk for years and has a limited income, according to a family friend
Chapman was said to have been stabbed eight times. Brown allegedly attempted to hide her body, which was eventually found by one of his relatives
The two attended the same high school until April 2017, although it is unclear which school they were set to attend when school resumed after Labor Day.
Police said Chapman's body was later found by one of Brown's relatives near a county home in Atlanta, Georgia, 11 Alive reported.
Dekalb County police said Brown also attempted to hide Chapman's death.
Brown was arrested Friday evening and now faces charges of murder and concealing death of another. He is currently being held without bond, according to jail records.
Details about what led to Chapman's murder have not yet been released.
It's unclear if Brown has a lawyer.
Chapman's family friends have created a GoFundMe page to help raise money to cover her funeral costs. The fundraiser's description states that Chapman's mother, Schara, has not been able to walk for years and has a limited income.
Chapman's funeral is scheduled for Saturday at 2pm in Atlanta.
A transgender woman was left humiliated after her bank account was frozen when a phone banking system identified her voice as a man's.
Distraught Sophia Reis, 47, from Carlton, Nottinghamshire, said she was left 'humiliated and embarrassed' and is now battling with the bank to ensure that other transgender people aren't treated the same.
Miss Reis, who moved to Nottingham 18 years ago, said she informed Santander last November that she would no longer be named Sergio on the account.
Scroll for video
Miss Reis (pictured) moved to England in September 1997 as a single parent with her three-year-old son
She said the bank changed her details and her new identity was registered, but on Thursday, August 30, she went through a traumatic ordeal with Santander's phone banking staff.
Miss Reis, who works as a customer service advisor, did not pass the security check and was not allowed to transfer 72 to a friend on her debit card.
The next day the bank froze her account and she could not pay for items in Tesco.
She said: 'The embarrassment and humiliation I felt was unbelievable.
Santander has apologised to Miss Reis and said they have offered her a 'gesture of good will'
'I went into the bank in Clumber Street and said 'you have got all my documentation and I changed my name on November 11.'
'They said 'my voice did not match my profile because it sounded like a man on the phone and not a woman.'
'I was crying my eyes out and I am not that type of person at all. I am a very courteous person and I am outgoing but to feel that way when all I asked was for my money to be transferred...I feel mistreated.'
She said that despite informing the phone banking staff that she was a transgender woman, they did not pay attention. She now wants to ensure that other transgender people don't go through the same ordeal.
'They were not taking any notice of me,' she added.
'I work as a woman, I identify myself as a woman and I look good as a woman but for the first time in my life I felt embarrassed about being who I am.
'It was humiliating having to go into my bank and to explain myself when all my information was at the click of a button.'
She said that as a multi-million pound company, it should have better systems in place: 'Santander is a multi-million pound company that should have a flag on their system for people who are a minority like myself.
'It could have been someone with throat cancer calling and you can't see the person on the other end of the phone.'
A spokeswoman for Santander said: 'We have apologised to Miss Reis for the experience she had when using our telephone banking service and offered her a gesture of goodwill.
'It was certainly not our intention to cause any offence, and our service was not as good as it should have been.
'When verifying customers are who they say they are we have to balance our duty to protect the security of their accounts.
'If a customer rings up with their banking credentials they should be able to pass security with no problems.
Miss Reis said she went through a 'traumatic ordeal' with Santander's phone banking staff
'Santander works closely with LGBT+ colleagues and charities to identify the barriers that are in place to access our services.
'We want all of our customers to be treated equally and fairly.'
Miss Reis, originally from Portugal, moved to England in September 1997 as a single parent with her three-year-old son.
Through family circumstances, she could never address herself as a woman and set up home in Grantham.
But it was during a night out in Nottingham that she began to feel the city was the perfect place to make the transition.
'For the first time in my life I saw gay and lesbian people together and no-one paid attention,' she said.
'I thought 'this is the place where I want to live' and within weeks I was working and living here.
'My son is old enough now and I said 'the woman you know will be coming out more often.'
She is hoping to have sex reassignment surgery next year.
Theresa May today demanded Jeremy Corbyn say sorry for jibing at British Zionists today as the Labour leader faced fury from his own MPs over the anti-Semitism crisis.
The Prime Minister delivered a stinging attack on Mr Corbyn as the leaders clashed at PMQs for the first time after the summer break.
Mrs May highlighted comments made by the veteran left-winger at a conference in 2013, revealed by MailOnline, when he complained that British Zionists had 'no sense of English irony'
'I believe that we should all be united in our determination to tackle anti-Semitism, so when the leader of the Labour Party stands up he should apologise for saying Jewish people who have lived in this country their whole lives do not understand English irony,' Mrs May said to cheers in the House of Commons.
A clearly furious Mr Corbyn insisted that racism should be tackled 'wherever it arises'.
'There is no place for racism in any form in our society. On that we are all agreed and we should tackle it wherever it arises, in our parties as well and that includes the Conservative Party,' he said.
The Prime Minister delivered a stinging attack on Mr Corbyn as the leaders clashed at PMQs for the first time after the summer break (pictured)
In the Commons today (pictured) Mrs May highlighted comments made by the veteran left-winger at a conference in 2013, revealed by MailOnline, when he complained that British Zionists had 'no sense of English irony'
Mr Corbyn last night failed to quell anger over a wave of vile abuse that has been wracking Labour despite finally bowing to demands to adopt the international definition of anti-Semitism.
He caused new offence by trying to add a lengthy personal statement detailing protection for people who call Israel racist - a caveat that was rejected even by loyalists on the party's ruling NEC.
He was branded 'contemptible' by Jewish leaders after the attempt emerged.
Mrs May raised the issue when Mr Corbyn tried to challenge her handling of Brexit.
'I'm making sure that the economy works for everyone, I'm building a stronger, fairer country,' she said.
'What is (he) doing? He is trying to change his party so anti-Semites can call the creation of Israel racist and he should be ashamed of himself.'
At least half a dozen MPs are thought to be considering whether to match Frank Field's sensational resignation from the Parliamentary Labour Party last week.
Former minister Dame Margaret Hodge today claimed it showed the 'reluctance' of Mr Corbyn to tackle anti-Semitism head on and 'sullied' the belated adoption of the IHRA definition.
Dame Margaret said Mr Corbyn must now 'own' the definition and try to take the first step to 'rebuild trust' with Jews following months of strife.
The criticism was dismissed by shadow attorney general Shami Chakrabarti today, who insisted there was no 'sullying' or caveats added.
Jeremy Corbyn (pictured leaving home this morning) has been dogged by accusations that he has allowed anti-Semitism to go unchallenged in the party since he became leader
Mr Corbyn (pictured last night) was branded 'contemptible' for bringing a second personal statement to the meeting on anti-Semitism and Palestinian rights.
Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge (pictured at the Jewish Labour Movement conference on Sunday) today claimed it showed the 'reluctance' of Mr Corbyn to tackle anti-Semitism head on and 'sullied' the belated adoption of the IHRA definition
Dame Margaret told the Today programme the adoption of the IHRA definition and examples was only 'a start' to resolving the issue.
'Absolutely this is not over,' Dame Margaret told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. 'This is the start.
'I campaigned for the full IHRA definition to be adopted. I'm delighted by that. I'm saddened it was sullied by this argument over an additional statement. I'm saddened that the leader of the Labour Party chose to try to amend it.
Red Ken dismisses anti-Semitism storm as nothing to worry about Speaking on Good Morning Britain this morning Ken Livingstone said people 'should not worry' about the anti-Semitism crisis in Labour that came to a head at its NEC meeting yesterday Ken Livingstone has said 'no one should have any worries' about the Labour anti-Semitism crisis and has defended his controversial comments Hitler supported Zionism. The former Mayor of London, 73, backed the Labour Party's decision to include a get-out clause ensuring the adoption of the international definition of anti-Semitism yesterday would not 'undermine freedom of expression on Israel'. Speaking on Good Morning Britain he said the anti-Semitism row that has plagued the party for years should be of no real concern. He said: 'No one should have any worries about this stuff. Anti-Semitism is about people who hate and loathe Jews. It's not about criticising the Israeli Government's policy towards the Palestinians.' Advertisement
'I now wait and say there has to be further action and there has to be a real commitment.'
Labour MP John Mann told The Times Mr Corbyn's personal statement would have added to 'turmoil' in the party had he got it through the NEC yesterday.
He said: 'What was he thinking of, after all we have gone through, to try and create another almighty row?
'It would have been turmoil if his proposal had been accepted.'
Labour Friends of Israel director Jennifer Gerber said of Mr Corbyn's statement: 'It is contemptible but utterly unsurprising that Jeremy Corbyn prioritised and fought for the right of anti-Semites to describe the world's only Jewish state as racist in a meeting supposedly about combating anti-Semitism.
'It is now even more clear that Jeremy Corbyn is part of the problem not the solution.'
Lady Chakrabarti, who conducted an inquiry into anti-Semitism for Mr Corbyn, insisted that the NEC's additional statement did not dilute its commitment to fighting the problem.
The shadow attorney general told BBC Radio 4's Today: 'There was no sullying. The words were not a caveat, were not a dilution; the words are true, which is that accepting these examples, in my view, in no way negates reasonable free speech around these difficult issues around Israel and Palestine.'
The NEC statement was 'about reassuring people that you can be a critic of Israel without being anti-Semitic, you just need to conduct your debate in a certain way,' she said.
Lady Chakrabarti dismissed comparisons - made by former chief rabbi Lord Sacks - between Mr Corbyn's previous comments about Zionism with the 'rivers of blood' speech made by Enoch Powell.
Insisting Mr Corbyn had been 'misquoted, misrepresented and spun', she said: 'I'm a British Asian who grew up in the 70s and 80s, I remember the real Enoch Powell, before this stuff gets hyperbolised and exaggerated.
'I know what it's like to be listening to misreports in the media that make you feel scared.'
At least half a dozen MPs are thought to considering whether to match Frank Field's sensational resignation last week.
Labour MP Luciana Berger (left) has said she no longer feels comfortable in the party due to handling of anti-Semitic abuse. John Mann (right) has warned that British Jews are leaving
Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone also played down the row today.
He told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'No one should have any worries about this stuff.
'Anti-Semitism is about people who hate and loathe Jews. It's not about criticising the Israeli Government's policy towards the Palestinians.'
Despite the full adoption of the IHRA definition and its 11 examples after months of strife at yesterday's meeting, questions about anti-Semitism and Labour's rulebook will emerge again later this month.
Corbyn ally Chris Williamson is berated by protesters A furious protester angrily confronted Chris Williamson and accused him of being a 'Labour fascist' in a tense showdown outside Labour headquarters. Mr Williamson - a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn - turned up at yesterday's rally to speak to applauding Momentum crowds in a speech criticising Israel. But as he spoke to reporters afterwards he was confronted by Damon Lenszner, 58, who shouted at him through a megaphone 'fascist, Labour fascist.' Speaking to MailOnline afterwards, Mr Lenszner, who is Jewish, said that Jeremy Corbyn has allowed his hatred of Israel to infect the party. He said: 'I'm here to try to persuade the Labour Party that I once voted for to adopt the IHRA in full.' Asked why he called Nr Williamson a fascist, he said: 'The guys that sit alongside Corbyn and on the NEC making up this legislation for the party have taken up Jeremy Corbyn's hatred of Israel to such an extent it is spilling over into anti-Semitism.' Earlier Mr Williamson had been greeted with a rapturous round of applause when he turned up at the momentum demonstration against the IHRA definition. He was greeted with high fives, handshakes and hugs as he arrived at the demonstration. And in a speech he railed against the current government in Israel and said that Labour members must be free to criticise it. Asked later by reporters about about Peter Willsman's re-election to the NEC, he said the activist's remarks about Jewish 'Trump fanatics' had been 'misrepresented'. 'I think his comments have been misrepresented. We heard a snippet of a longer conversation, obviously. 'I don't believe that that's his view. 'The Jewish community is not a homogeneous group, there are a range of different opinions.' He said many Jewish Labour members were 'here to express their solidarity with the Palestinian people' and their concerns with the IHRA examples. Advertisement
Jewish groups are to be consulted further on how the party's code of conduct is policed as part of a wider democracy review.
Rules on what can be considered under any complaint, and how far back in time investigators should go in a probe, are being considered.
It is seen as a statute of limitations by critics who fear the rulebook is being drafted to stop Mr Corbyn's past statements being used against him.
The statement Labour did issue on protecting the right to criticise Israel was also widely condemned.
Leading Jewish MP Dame Margaret Hodge, who has branded Mr Corbyn an anti-Semite, condemned the new caveat.
She said: 'Two steps forward and one step back. Why dilute the welcome adoption in full of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism with an unnecessary qualification?'
Labour Against Anti-Semitism said: 'We are disappointed by the decision of Labour's governing body, the NEC, to diminish the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism via the attachment of a ''clarification'' that risks giving racists in the party a get out of jail card.
'The NEC has been told repeatedly that it needs to adopt the IHRA in full, without caveats or conditions, if it wants the Labour Party to begin the process of dealing with its anti-Semitism crisis.'
The Campaign Against Anti-Semitism dismissed Labour's get out clause.
A spokesman said: 'The definition already includes such a caveat, and any such addition is an attempt to undermine the definition's validity, despite its adoption around the world.
'We have also seen an amendment that Jeremy Corbyn attempted to add to the definition.'
The British Board of Deputies of British Jews said Labour's decision to adopt the definition in full with all its example was the 'right call'.
President Marie van der Zyl said: 'It is very long overdue and regrettable that Labour has wasted a whole summer trying to dictate to Jews what constitutes offence against us.
'However the adoption of the internationally-recognised definition by itself, can only be the beginning. Action is what matters.'
Following today's meeting a Labour spokesman said: 'The NEC has today adopted all of the IHRA examples of anti-Semitism, in addition to the IHRA definition which Labour adopted in 2016, alongside a statement which ensures this will not in any way undermine freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of Palestinians.
'The NEC welcomed Jeremy Corbyn's statement to the meeting about action against antisemitism, solidarity with the Jewish community and protection of Palestinian rights, as an important contribution to the consultation on Labour's Code of Conduct.'
Peter Willsman (pictured) was applauded by Momentum activists as he turned up for the NEC gathering at the party's HQ today. But Jewish protesters angrily chanted 'shame on you'
Protesters against the leadership's position on the anti-Semitism definition gathered outside the Labour NEC meeting today (pictured), but there were also supporters
At the start of yesterday's crunch meeting, the Corbyn ally who ranted about Jewish 'Trump fanatics' was cheered as he arrived for a crunch meeting of Labour's ruling body today.
Peter Willsman was applauded by Momentum activists as he turned up for the NEC gathering at the party's HQ - with some hugging him and punching the air as he walked in.
But a group of Jewish protesters who had also gathered outside the offices angrily chanted 'shame on you' as he walked in.
The tense scenes came after Mr Willsman was re-elected to the NEC on Monday with more than 70,000 votes despite his diatribe in July, when he accused critics of 'making up' complaints about anti-Semitism.
Mr Willsman refused to answer questions on his remarks or whether he would back adopting the IHRA definition, but smiled and thanked his 'comrades' for their support.
Mr Willsman won 70,321 votes to claim the ninth and last spot on the committee. Yasmine Dar was first in the election with 88,176 votes
Labour deputy leader Tom Watson (pictured arriving at the NEC meeting in London's Victoria today) said he hopes the adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism could be the start of a journey to rebuild trust with the Jewish community
Mr Corbyn arrived later for the showdown - but avoided embarrassing questions from the media by using a backdoor to get into the building.
Labour deputy leader Tom Watson said he hoped the definition would be adopted as he arrived at the offices in London Victoria for yesterday's meeting.
He said: 'I hope we can adopt the IHRA definition today, I hope that is the start of the journey in rebuilding trust with the Jewish community.'
The latest controversy was sparked over the summer when the party stopped short of including all examples from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism in its code of conduct.
Left-wingers argued that the rules - which include banning jibes about the Israeli state being a racist endeavour - would hamper criticism of Israel.
But many MPs and Jewish groups view watering down the definition as totally unacceptable, and Mr Corbyn himself has been forced to deny being an anti-Semite.
Mr Corbyn is facing demands to show 'remorse' for his failure to tackle the wave of vile abuse that has been wracking the party since he took charge.
The future of grocery shopping will arrive in Australia on Thursday with Woolworths trialling a system that will see customers scan goods with their phone, removing the need to ever go through a checkout.
Woolworths' new high-tech system will be rolled out at just one store initially - at swanky Double Bay in Sydney's harbourside East.
The trial is aimed at a new generation of shoppers used to do just about all their transactions on their phone instead of using the old-style checkouts and cash registers.
It's been called the 'future of bricks and mortar retailing' by using the app to scan barcodes of the items as customers chuck them in the trolley or basket
Customers will download an app, which is linked to their debit or credit cards, and then use it to scan barcodes of the items as customers chuck them in the trolley.
Special scales have been installed to assist in the scanning of fruit and vegetables.
Customers then pay via the app and tap off at an exit pole in the store.
Woolworths will launch a high-tech way of shopping in Sydney's Double Bay on Thursday leaving the days of the checkout behind
The final step is not crucial but research found customers preferred some acknowledgment that they had paid so it did not seem as though they had stolen the items, Woolworths' head of digital and payments, Paul Monnington told Fairfax.
Bricks and mortar retailing is getting high-tech across the globe as it competes with online shopping, and Australian retailers are catching on.
Amazon has had three 'Walk and Go' stores in Seattle since 2016. The store allows customers to walk in, scan the items they want and their account is automatically charged.
Mr Monnington said it was the natural next step as they had been getting feedback from customers that they are busier and busier and are using their mobile phones all the time.
Gary Mortimer, an associate professor at the Queensland University of Technology's school of business, said Woolworths' trial was a response to the global trend.
'One of the pain points shoppers often talk about is having to line up at the checkouts. This type of technology removes that element of the shopping experience completely and puts the power back into the consumer's hands.'
Woolworths has no plans to extend the high-tech shopping experience beyond the Double Bay store just yet.
A convicted member of a notorious paedophile ring is appealing his jail sentence.
In March, Alfred John Impicciatore, 48, was sentenced to nine-and-a-half years in a Western Australia prison for repeatedly raping a 13-year-old girl while her father, who is also serving time in jail, watched on and joined in.
On Wednesday, Impicciatore launched an appeal against the sentence, saying police didn't follow procedures when eliciting a confession.
No date has been set yet for his appeal hearing.
Alfred John Impicciatore (pictured) is appealing a prison sentence given to him for the rape of a 13-year-old girl, whose father offered her to other men and joined in on the molestation
Two charges against Impicciatore came out of admissions he made to police.
Impicciatore had tried to get a video of his police interview ruled inadmissible for the trial, claiming police detained him longer than was allowed, but his bid failed.
He was the only member of the Evil 8 to fight the charges against him.
At one point, he fled the state and had to be extradited from NSW.
Trial Judge Mark Herron said during sentencing that Impicciatore had not showed any remorse and had taken advantage of a girl who was extremely vulnerable.
"Your actions were depraved and were entirely for your own sexual gratification," Judge Herron said.
Impicciatore (pictured outside court last November), said the police footage used in his sentencing was wrongly acquired, saying police detained him for longer than allowed
Eight men were originally implicated in the investigation, but one was never charged with offences related to the girl.
The girl's father, who cannot be named, pleaded guilty to dozens of charges and was sentenced in June 2016 to 22-and-a-half years in jail.
He later lost an appeal against the length of his sentence.
The five other men received sentences ranging from three years to almost 13 years.
Indian police have arrested a woman and four others after her nine-year-old stepdaughter was allegedly gang-raped, murdered and mutilated, in the latest horrific crime to shock the country.
The child's decomposed body was found on Tuesday hidden behind bushes about a kilometre from her home in the Baramulla district of Indian-administered Kashmir, police said.
Her father had reported her missing 12 days earlier.
Police said the woman, aged 36, was jealous of her stepdaughter and of her husband's second wife, and on August 24 took the girl to a forested area.
A Kashmiri police officer was filmed breaking down in tears as he spoke about the death during a public announcement on Tuesday
There she allegedly directed her own 14-year-old son and his two teenage friends, aged 14 and 19, to take turns in raping the child.
The stepmother is accused of then strangling the girl while her son hit the child on the head with an axe.
His friend brought vehicle battery acid from home and sprinkled it on the body while another friend gouged out her eyes before dumping the corpse in the bushes.
A 28-year-old man has also been arrested over the case.
'Physical condition and preliminary forensic analysis of dead body substantiated all these facts,' said a police statement issued on Tuesday.
Local police Superintendent Imtiyaz Hussain told AFP the teenage offenders have confessed to the crime and separately corroborated the facts during questioning.
'They will be sent to a juvenile home and dealt with according to the state's juvenile law,' Hussain said.
The nine year old girl's death is the latest rape scandal to hit India. Pictured: Indian women protest against rape in New Delhi in June 2018
Former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King today derided the Government's 'incompetent' preparations for no deal.
He said the failure to properly prepare for the talks with Brussels had left Britain on track for 'Brexit in name only'.
Lord King, who backed Brexit, said the last-minute preparations for a no-deal Brexit had left Britain without a credible bargaining position.
Former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King (file image) today derided the Government's 'incompetent' preparations for no deal
He made the comments after ministers confirmed efforts were under way to stockpile medicines and ensure an 'adequate' food supply if talks fail.
Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab insisted to MPs yesterday that Britain was ready 'deal or no deal'.
Lord King told the BBC: 'Frankly, if a government cannot take action to prevent some of these catastrophic outcomes, whatever position you take on the EU, it illustrates a whole lack of preparation.
'It doesn't tell us anything about whether the policy of staying in the EU is good or bad, it tells us everything about the incompetence of the preparation for it.'
Brexit in name only would leave Britain closely linked to the EU after leaving, a state Brexiteers say would leave it subject to EU rules but unable to reap the benefits of a full divorce.
Asked if that meant the Government had been incompetent, Lord King said: 'The group of people tasked with trying to make decisions on all of this is Parliament as a whole not just the Government, and the civil service, who have brought us to a position where we are now being told that we have to accept a certain course of action otherwise it would be catastrophic.
'Now, it beggars belief that the sixth biggest economy in the world should get itself into that position.'
Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab insisted to MPs yesterday (pictured) that Britain was ready 'deal or no deal'
Lord King, who was in charge of the UK's central bank from 2003 until 2013, said that credible plans should have been put in place to leave without a deal because Britain cannot impose a deal on the EU.
However he warned that such plans can not be drawn up in six months and would take several years.
Lord King said he feared biggest risk to the UK was that the referendum had failed to resolve the issue of Brexit and it 'isn't going to go away'.
A 59-year-old woman accused of having sex with a 14-year-old boy while on holiday told him: 'Your mum thinks you're a boy but I know you're a man,' a court heard.
Gail Dickinson, of Glenrothes, Fife, was allegedly seen by the victim's grandmother having sex on the balcony of an apartment in San Antonio in Ibiza.
Ms Dickinson was said to be a friend of the family and had gone to the Spanish island with the youngster, his mother, grandmother and brother.
Dunfermline Sheriff Court was told during the holiday, where they all shared a flat together, the schoolboy's grandmother heard her telling him: 'You've got a lovely package there.'
Gail Dickinson, of Glenrothes, Fife, was allegedly seen by the victim's grandmother having sex on the balcony of an apartment while on holiday
Dickinson denies that she engaged in sexual activity with the boy by kissing him on the lips, touching him on the body, performing oral sex on him and engaging in sexual intercourse in June last year
She told the court: 'I thought she was talking about his private parts and that it was very, very inappropriate,' the Daily Record reports.
She said she had split up Dickinson and the boy when she found them in the living room and her grandson was partially naked and 'clearly aroused.'
She then told him to go to bed but later heard whispering from the balcony.
When she looked through a gap in the curtains, she saw the pair engaged in sexual intercourse.
She then told the court that she saw Dickinson performing a sex act on the boy and added: 'I could tell from his face he was enjoying it.'
She added that Dickinson was 'making demands' and the boy was following 'like a robot.' She added: 'It was a horrible situation. I couldn't believe it.'
But she told how she was too shocked to intervene adding: 'I didn't want a rumpus to start'.
Ms Dickinson was said to be a friend of the family and had gone to resort of San Antonio (pictured) in Ibiza with the youngster, his mother, grandmother and brother
Later she confronted Dickinson, who told her she must have been dreaming but added: 'I'm terrible, you must hate me.'
The witness then told her daughter and Dickinson was told to leave the flat. When the family returned home the police were contacted.
Earlier the boy gave evidence via video link, saying he had been out for drinks in the evening with his mother and Dickinson.
The boy admitted he was 'pretty drunk' when they returned to the flat, and told how 'Gail was coming on to me She was touching my shoulders and legs.'
He told how he went to bed, but later went back to Dickinson, who led him out on to the balcony where they had sex.
He told the court: 'I was stunned it happened. When I woke up in the morning I felt pretty rubbish. I regretted it.
'It wouldn't have happened if I was sober.'
Dickinson denies that she engaged in sexual activity with the boy by kissing him on the lips, touching him on the body, performing oral sex on him and engaging in sexual intercourse in June last year.
The trial continues.
A newlywed couple flying back from their dream honeymoon claim they were kicked off the plane for complaining about the food.
Marcus and Zarrah Hayles, of Sherwood, Nottinghamshire, flew to Cuba with Thomas Cook after their wedding in August.
But on the flight home they claim they were reprimanded by cabin crew and met by police when they landed - over a complaint about the on-board catering.
The couple, 38 and 34, were two hours into their journey back to Manchester Airport when they say they had not been offered any food or drink.
Marcus and Zarrah Hayles, of Sherwood, Nottinghamshire, claim they were kicked off a Thomas Cook plane on the way back from their honeymoon in Cuba last month
When the food arrived, they claim it was the combined main meal and snack, which was due later on in the flight.
Mr Hayles complained about the service and admitted saying 'what the f***, but says the comment was not aimed at the flight attendant.
The pair claim they were greeted by police when they landed at Manchester Airport
He claimed they were then approached by one member of the cabin crew who said they did not tolerate swearing on the flight and could face arrest.
The couple replied by saying they did not want any trouble and were surprised when they landed to be greeted by police and escorted off the plane.
Mrs Hayles, a post office worker, said: 'Two officers said 'can you please come with us?' and escorted us off the flight in front of everyone.
'I have never been so humiliated. I have never been in a situation like this before.
'It was such a beautiful occasion - the wedding and the honeymoon - and this has left a big dent in our memories.'
A Thomas Cook Airlines spokesman said: 'The safety of our customers and crew is always our first priority and we will not tolerate any form of abusive behaviour on board our aircraft.'
MailOnline has contacted Greater Manchester Police for comment.
China could soon put its J-20 stealth fighter into mass production by the end of the year after fixing earlier problems with its engine.
Development of the aircraft's new WS-15 engine has been for years hindered by issues related to the blades overheating at top speeds.
However, Chinese technicians have now solved the problems after conducting successful ground tests and trial flights with the corrected engine, putting the goal of a consistently high quality product in sight, sources told South China Morning Post.
The new and improved engine features cutting-edge single-crystal turbine blades and will allow the Chinese jet to fly undetected at supersonic speeds, on par with the United States' F-35.
Scroll down for video
J-20 stealth fighter made its first public flight at the Zhuhai Airshow in China in 2016 (pictured)
The improved engine of the J-20 (left) features single-crystal turbine blades and will allow the Chinese jet to fly undetected at supersonic speeds, on par with the United States' F-35 (right)
China's J-20 jet Top speed: 1,305 mph Range: 2,113 mi Length: 67 Wingspan: 42 0 Weight: 43,000 lbs Engine Type: Xian WS-15 turbofan engines Cost: $110m Manufacturer: Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group Advertisement
'The WS-15 is expected to be ready for widespread installation in the J-20s by the end of this year,' one of the sources told SCMP.
Although some 'minor problems' remained, these should be resolved once the engine had been more 'extensively run in the aircraft', the source added.
China has put the warplane into combat service in early February, hoping it will narrow the military gap with the US.
It has been working alongside other fourth-generation aircraft, such as the J-16 and J-10 fighters.
Beijing expects the US to deploy between 200 and 300 F-35s in the Asia-Pacific by 2025, meaning that China needs a similar number of J-20s, or at least 200 of them, according to the report citing military expert Zhou Chenming. China currently has about 20.
A second military source told reporters that the problems with the WS-15 needed to be resolved before large numbers of the J-20 could be manufactured.
J-20 stealth fighter takes part in a flight test in Chengdu in 2011. China could soon put its the jet into mass production by the end of the year after fixing earlier problems with its engine
'[Having] a home-grown engine is a must for the J-20 to enter mass production, as no other country would be prepared to give China such cutting-edge technology.'
People's Liberation Army Air Force spokesman Shen Jinke was previously quoted as saying the J-20 deployment would 'help the air force better shoulder the sacred mission of safeguarding national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity'.
China's J-20 stealth fighter jets were commissioned into military service last September, reported state-run Xinhua News Agency.
It is said to be capable of carrying multiple types of air-to-air missiles and could apparently dodge radar detectors.
It was reported in April that the Chengdu Aerospace Corporation was set to open a fourth production line for the stealth fighter in 2019.
Valet Mirosla Maciag stole items from customers cars at Manchester Airport
A valet for the official 'meet-and-greet' service at Manchester Airport who stole items from customers' cars including cash, an iPad and designer sunglasses has escaped jail.
Mirosla Maciag, 56, had been entrusted to park vehicles for customers due to fly out of Manchester but he secretly rifled through them for items unwittingly left behind.
His crimes were exposed following a police sting operation after travellers complained of items going missing from their vehicles when they returned to collect them after their holidays.
Officers placed 25 in cash inside an Audi car Maciag was instructed to park only to find the money gone after he parked it.
The sneak thief was searched and found to have the cash in his pocket.
His home in Heywood, near Rochdale was subsequently raided and various items including several pairs of designer sunglasses were seized.
At Manchester Magistrates Court Maciag, who was contracted through a third party agency - Contact Industrial Recruitment, admitted theft of items from four cars.
He denied stealing items from six other cars.
The court accepted his denial after he insisted colleagues also had access to the vehicles and these thefts remain unsolved.
Maciag, originally from Poland, had been working at Manchester Airport's Meet and Greet service when items were reported missing from customers cars between October and November last year.
Maciag secretly rifled through vehicles for items left behind including an iPad and cash
The reception of the Manchester Airport Meet and Greet Service
Management at the company began looking at its records and were able to find out who had access to those vehicles and Maciag's name was said to have 'stuck out' in relation to the items that had gone missing.
Prosecuting, James Towey, said: 'Cash to the value of 25 was placed into an Audi vehicle and the defendant was given that vehicle. But that cash was taken by the defendant and, after being spoken to at the airport, he was arrested and found to be in possession of that cash.
The court heard other thefts included taking an iPod valued at 200 from a BMW.
It also included theft of cash and a pair of Hugo Boss sunglasses from another car and a silver iPad to the value of 170 belonging to a doctor.
A house search was done at the defendant's property and a number of other items were found. In relation to these victims, all the property has been recovered.
Mr Towey said: 'I submit there is a significant degree of culpability - these offences were committed by a man with a high degree of trust.'
In a statement, Lee Lane, a manager at Manchester Airport Meet and Greet service said: 'These types of incidents have a negative impact on our business and affect our reputation. Customers will use the Meet and Greet service expecting to get a great service. Our staff are in a position of trust and are expected to be professional at all times.'
Maciag, who has now been dismissed from his role, was sentenced to 18 months jail suspended for two years and was also ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work.
He was also ordered to pay 200 in costs and surcharges.
Maciag was caught following a police sting after complaints of items going missing. Stock picture of the Manchester Airport arrivals section
In mitigation defence lawyer Miss Alia Khokhar, said: 'He fully accepts that what he did was unacceptable and he broke the trust expected by his customers and employer. He has expressed regret with what he has done.
'He has been in the UK for about four years now and this is the first time he has found himself before the court. Even back in Poland, he has never found himself before the court.
'At the time of the offence, he was in a relationship with his now ex-partner. He says that he was finding it very difficult to make ends meet and his partner at the time was making financial demands from him that he couldn't meet.
'Although they were both working, he said that she was putting away her entire wage into her savings account and his wage was used to pay for their living - such as rent. This left him with hardly any money left over.'
The lawyer said many of the sunglasses seized from Maciag's home were bought legitimately on eBay but since his arrest he had split up with his partner and she had changed all of the passwords to their account.
At Manchester Magistrates Court (pictured) Maciag admitted theft of items from four cars.
Miss Khokhar added: 'He now works for Rolls Royce as a driver three days a week and earns around 1,100 a month. He tells me that he sends money back to his elderly mother in Poland and this comes out of his wage.
'This is the first and last time he hopes to appear before this court. He has been very stressed out and fearful of the consequences of appearing at this court today.'
Sentencing, chair of the magistrates Andrew Jeffay said: 'Compensation is not necessary as these items have been returned, but you will forfeit all the items that are believed to have been stolen over that period and that does include the sunglasses.'
The news of his sentence was welcomed by the airport.
A Manchester Airport spokesman, said: 'We take all reports of crime on the airport site seriously and in this instance we worked with Greater Manchester Police after reports of thefts from vehicles. Following a joint operation he was apprehended and we welcome Mirosla Maciag's successful prosecution.'
The case comes amid reports of other valets from airport meet-and-greet companies stealing from cars entrusted to them, crashing their vehicles or racing in them at almost twice the speed limit.
The reports have sparked calls for greater regulation on companies offering the service.
A Muslim woman in Denmark has been fined 120 for wearing a burqa in public.
The Turkish tourist walked into a police station in the Scandinavian country in a full-face covering and was handed the on-the-spot fine.
She had only gone to the station to renew her visa and was not aware of Denmark's recent law change that makes it illegal to wear such garments in public.
Danish authorities say the 48-year-old woman then removed her veil and left.
Police in Aarhus, western Denmark, fined her 120 (1,000 kroner) when she walked into the police station yesterday.
The traditional burqa is banned in public in Denmark and can attract a fine from police after MPs approved the new rule from August 1 (file photo)
Ayah, 37, a woman in a face veil weeps as she hugs a police officer during a protest in Copenhagen last month
Despite protests Danish MPs passed a vote to make it illegal to wear Islamic face coverings in public from the start of last month
No other details of the incident were available by officers.
Denmark's 'burqa ban', which came into effect on August 1, prohibits garments covering the face, including burqas and niqabs. Both are rarely seen in Denmark.
Restrictions on Islamic face veils were approved by Danish MPs in May after being brought forward by the country's centre-right coalition, known for tightening asylum and immigration rules in recent years.
Anyone forcing a person to wear garments covering the face by using force or threats can be fined or face up to two years in prison.
Austria, France and Belgium have similar bans, claiming they are not aimed at any religion in particular, and don't ban headscarves, turbans or the traditional Jewish skull cap.
As of 2017, non-Western immigrants, about half of whom are Muslim, account for 8.7 per cent of Denmark's 5.7 million population.
Protesters wearing niqab and body-length burqas marched in Denmark last month after the country's ban on wearing face veils in public was put into action.
Hundreds of demonstrators, most with children, marched in solidarity with Muslim women despite risking fines or jail time.
Non-niqab-wearing Muslim women and non-Muslim Danes with faces masked or covered also took part as a protest against the ban.
Police officers stand guard as masked demonstrators surround the Bellahoj Police Station in Copenhagen as part of the protest against Denmark's face veil ban
Danish women wore niqabs, hijabs and burqas, risking a fine of 120 1,000 (kroner) or jail for those caught wearing the face veil in public
Non-Muslim men and women who covered their face in solidarity with women no longer allowed to wear the niqab
During the protest a woman in a full face veil was seen being hugged by a police officer.
Last month a woman wearing a niqab became the first person in Denmark to be fined under the new laws banning full-face Islamic veils.
A 28-year-old female was fined after getting into a fight with another woman, who had tried to tear of her veil in the town of Horsholm.
At Copenhagen Fashion Week, models wearing burqas and niqabs strutted down the catwalk in protest at the ban on Islamic face coverings.
Iranian-born designer Reza Etamadi caused a stir as he showed off his MUF10 brand on Wednesday, days after the law came into effect on August 1.
Mr Etamadi said that by enforcing the ban, authorities were violating women's rights and 'the free choice we in the Western world are known for and proud to have'.
Iranian-born designer Reza Etamadi caused a stir as he showed off his MUF10 which included women in face veils
A furious mother has claimed Coles staff are snatching the collectable cases for the supermarket's Little Shop promotion before customers can get their hands on them.
The woman said she was at the Coles store in Yamba, northern New South Wales, when she heard staff 'bragging' about taking the highly-sought after cases.
Her daughter made the claims in the closed Coles Little Shop - Minis Swap Group Australia Facebook group on Wednesday.
'She was going about her shopping when she got to the self serve area and overheard two staff bragging about how a box of the collectable cases came in this morning and they were all gone to staff already,' the woman's daughter posted.
A woman has claimed Coles staff have been 'bragging' about getting their hands on the supermarket's Little Shop promotion collectable cases (pictured) before customers can
The woman's daughter took to a closed Facebook group to make the claims
'My mum spun around and said excuse me? To which the girl responded we are apart (sic) of the community too we can get them - mum said not while you're in that uniform at work and not spending money as a paying customer outside of work hours you're not.'
She said her mother complained to the store and Coles' head office and claimed she was told 'this has been happening with staff all over the country'.
A Coles spokesman told news.com.au a head office staff member never said such a thing when contacted.
The daughter said her mother was also told by senior store employees the cases had been taken off staff.
The collectable cases are a highly-sought after component of the Coles Little Shop promotion
The Little Shop promotion includes 30 miniature branded products, including Nutella and Milo (pictured)
The collectable cases provide a home for the 30 miniature items Coles is offering through their Little Shop promotion, which ends on September 11.
Customers are given one of the miniature branded products, which include Vegemite, Nutella and Weet-Bix, for every $30 spent.
The woman said she has three children herself and has collected three sets of the collectables but has yet to find one of the cases.
She added that 'just by an off chance of mum hearing this girl brag about it they got caught out. I am furious'.
The Coles spokesman said the woman who made the complaint had been offered one of the cases.
He added the Yamba store had received a delivery of collectable cases on Tuesday but they were handed out to the public within 10 minutes.
The Facebook post attracted a deluge of comments, including a photo of 'bulk Coles minis' which were being advertised on social media for $1,000.
Daily Mail Australia contacted Coles for comment.
A newborn has been rescued alive from a toilet bowl in a hospital in north-east China after its mother attempted to abandoned it there.
The baby was discovered by shocked witnesses who heard cries coming from inside a cubicle in Tianjin city. They immediately alerted nurses to the toilet.
The young mother was reportedly trying to leave the facility and was stopped by witnesses and other nurses at the scene.
A newborn has been rescued alive from a toilet bowl in a hospital in north-east China after her mother attempted to abandoned her there. Nurses rushed to pluck it from the toilet
Reports said the child appeared healthy and was in stable condition, and that its mother became pregnant out of wedlock and did not inform her family.
Footage taken inside a women's bathroom at the Tianjin Third Central Hospital on Sunday shows nurses rushing into a cubicle to pluck the newborn from a toilet bowl.
Nurses found the baby, whose gender was not revealed, and the mother's placenta inside the toilet, according to reports.
Footage taken inside a women's bathroom at the Tianjin Third Central Hospital on Sunday shows nurses rushing into a cubicle to pluck the newborn from a toilet bowl
Nurses found the baby and the mother's placenta inside the hospital toilet
An experienced head nurse was seen wrapping the newborn in a towel before cleaning the child by the washbasins. She can also be seen wiping blood off the baby's face.
In the clip, she calls for an obstetrician to assist her, while also telling hospital staff: 'Don't let her leave!' - presumably referring to the baby's mother.
Her identity has not been revealed and the incident is under police investigation.
Two men who were trapped 160 metres below the ground have been rescued after a dramatic six hour operation.
Two miners, working at the Tahmoor coal mine, about 75 kilometres south-west of Sydney, were trapped in a lift cart at around 5pm on Wednesday afternoon, sparking the desperate rescue.
Just before midnight, the two men were rescued as a crane hoisted the cart out of the shaft, which a senior officer told Daily Mail Australia was stuck about halfway up.
The incident is understood to have occurred when a mechanical fault with the lift trapped the two men.
Two miners have been rescued from a lift shaft in a coal mine in Tahmoor (pictured)
The two men were trapped about 160 metres below the ground, authorities told Daily Mail Australia.
The two men are reportedly uninjured.
Rescue crews were seen setting up a crane to extract the lift cart they were stuck in.
The two men were trapped in the lift shaft for more than six hours, though authorities say they were lucky to be well ventilated and in constant contact with their rescuers
A Fire and Rescue NSW spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia the men were safe, able to communicate with their rescuers and had plenty of ventilation.
Four fire crews were on the scene, including specialist rescue and technical rescue units, and four senior fire officers.
Authorities were working with miners on site to best plan out an approach.
The operation was overseen by NSW Police, Fire and Rescue NSW and the NSW Resources Regulator.
Fewer than one in five voters now expect Britain to get a good deal out of Brexit talks, according to new research by leading poll expert Sir John Curtice.
The proportion expecting a good deal has fallen from 33 per cent in February 2017 to just 17 per cent in June 2018.
Those predicting a bad deal have increased from 37 per cent to 57 per cent over the same period, according to a survey for NatCen Social Research.
Fewer than one in five voters now expect Britain to get a good deal out of Brexit talks, according to new research by leading poll expert Sir John Curtice
According to the research from Sir John (pictured), the proportion expecting a good deal has fallen from 33 per cent in February 2017 to just 17 per cent in June 2018
The survey - conducted ahead of the publication of Theresa May's Chequers plan for future relations with the EU - found that 51 per cent expect the UK economy to be worse off as a result of Brexit, up from 39 per cent in June 2016.
Just 38 per cent said Brexit would mean lower immigration, compared to 64 per cent in June 2016.
Just 13 per cent said the UK Government had handled negotiations well - down from 29 per cent in February 2017 - while 64 per cent said it had handled them badly.
But there was little support for the EU's approach to negotiations, with 57 per cent saying Brussels had handled them badly and 16 per cent well.
The report, authored by polling expert Professor Sir John Curtice of Strathclyde University, found that 59 per cent of members of a NatCen panel now say they would vote Remain in a second referendum, with just 41 per cent backing Leave.
However, the researchers cautioned that this apparently comfortable lead for Remain may be wrong because the same panel predicted voting against Brexit by a margin of 53 per cent-47 per cent in the 2016 referendum.
Theresa May (pictured last week in Kenya) has been scrambling to build support for her struggling Chequers plan for Brexit
The survey found that just 81 per cent of 2016 Leave voters would back Brexit now, with 12 per cent saying they had switched to Remain.
By contrast, just 6 per cent of Remain voters have changed sides, with 90 per cent sticking by their original decision.
Among those who did not vote in 2016, almost half (49 per cent) said they would now vote against Brexit, compared to 23 per cent who would back Leave in a second referendum.
The report said: 'Instead of a narrow majority in favour of leaving the EU recorded in the referendum in June (2016), there might now be a narrow majority in favour of Remain, though in any second referendum much might turn on the relative propensity of Leave and Remain supporters to make it to the polling station.'
This is the moment a police officer tasered her own force's race relations adviser in the face after mistaking him for a wanted suspect.
Acting sergeant Claire Boddie used 'unnecessary, unreasonable or disproportionate' force when she used the Taser on Judah Adunbi, her misconduct hearing was told yesterday.
But Pc Boddie was today cleared of misconduct after Tasering the adviser when he refused to identify himself.
Bodycam footage shows Mr Adunbi at the moment he was struck in the face by one of the Taser's barbs.
This bodycam footage shows Judah Adunbi at the moment Pc Boddie discharged her Taser at him in the confrontation
The race relations adviser can be seen tumbling to the floor after the officer used the Taser on him in Bristol
Mr Adunbi lies on the ground after the officer Tasered him when he would not reveal his identity to her
Police constable Claire Boddie (left) mistook Judah Adunbi (right) for a wanted suspect
She was on uniformed duty with colleague Pc Darren Weston in the Easton area of Bristol at about 9.10am on January 14 last year.
Alan Bell, secretary of Avon and Somerset Police Federation, said Pc Boddie was 'relieved and could now concentrate on 'doing what she is good at'.
'Obviously she is relieved,' he said. 'Police officers do expect to be scrutinised for the decisions they made, however 18 months, a criminal trial then a gross misconduct hearing does put a lot of pressure on someone.
The alleged conduct of officer who fired Taser 1. Pc Boddie was on uniformed duty with another officer and equipped with a Taser. 2. She encountered a male, who she suspected was wanted by police. Pc Boddie tried to engage with the man, who became hostile and aggressive and threatened her colleague. 3. Pc Boddie drew her Taser and aimed it at the male, warning him she'd drawn a Taser as he had threatened her colleague. She then holstered her Taser as she believed the male was becoming more compliant. 4. The man continued to behave in an aggressive manner towards Pc Boddie and her colleague. The male pushed her colleagues hand/arm off him. 5. At this point Pc Boddie drew her Taser for a second time. 6. Immediately prior to firing the Taser, he male was moving away from her colleague and his hands were by his sides. 7. Immediately prior to firing the Taser, Pc Boddie had the opportunity to warn the male that she had drawn her Taser and were preparing to use it and did not warn the male prior to firing her Taser at him. 8. Pc Boddie fired her Taser in such a way that one of the barbs struck the male in the face. Advertisement
'She can concentrate on doing what she is good at - that's being a police officer.'
Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset Police Andy Marsh expressed 'regret' for the distress experienced by Mr Adunbi.
He warned against falling into 'blame culture' but said there was a difference between a mistake and misconduct.
'Following this outcome, I'd like to recognise the significant impact this incident has had on Judah Adunbi and regret the distress he's experienced over the past year and a half,' he said.
'This was a very difficult situation and I clearly wish it had never happened. It's always regretful when cases of genuine mistaken identity occur and we'll take all the necessary steps to make sure this doesn't happen.
'The initial incident, subsequent court case and misconduct proceedings have had a profound impact on all of us, especially Pc Boddie.'
Pc Boddie and her colleague were driving to another incident when they saw Mr Adunbi, 65, walking on the side of the road with his dog.
A misconduct hearing at Avon and Somerset Police headquarters in Portishead heard they believed Mr Adunbi was wanted man Royston McCalla and stopped to speak to him.
'This case starts off with an incident of mistaken identity,' George Thomas, presenting the case against Pc Boddie, said.
'It escalated from that to the point at which Pc Boddie used a Taser on Mr Adunbi. One of the barbs of the Taser struck Mr Adunbi in the face, causing a minor injury to his chin.'
Pc Boddie insists she was acting in accordance with her training and the force she used on Mr Adunbi was lawful, claiming that he posed a threat as he had keys in his hand and was 'using violence to escape'.
She was cleared of assaulting Mr Adunbi following a trial in Salisbury in May.
Mr Thomas said Pc Boddie used the X26 Taser on Mr Adunbi when he was moving away from her and had his hands down.
The officer had previously drawn her Taser and warned Mr Adunbi that she had done so, but did not do this immediately before she discharged the weapon.
'Having drawn the Taser, she fired it from a reasonably close range in such a way that one of the barbs struck Mr Adunbi in the face,' he said.
'It is not alleged that Pc Boddie deliberately aimed that Taser to Mr Adunbi's face.'
Footage taken from bodycams worn by Pc Boddie and Pc Weston, as well as a mobile phone recording, was played to the hearing.
A misconduct notice alleges that Mr Adunbi (pictured on the floor) was moving away from Pc Boddie's colleague and his arms were by his sides immediately before the Taser was fired
It showed the officers repeatedly asking Mr Adunbi to identify himself, with the community elder replying: 'I'm not telling you my name. I have done nothing wrong.'
He is heard shouting: 'Why you coming to torment me? Go f*** off about your business and don't follow me. Stop, stop, if you put your hand on me I'm gonna f*** you up.
'I'm not threatening you. I'm telling you if you put arms on me I'm going to defend myself. This is not the first time you have done this.'
In the mobile phone footage, a neighbour is heard telling the officers: 'He is just trying to get into his house. Leave him alone.'
Mr Thomas said Mr Adunbi, who had previously been stopped and accused of being Mr McCalla, was under 'no obligation' to provide officers with his identity.
'It is apparent from the footage that angry though he is, Mr Adunbi is indignant that he has been stopped,' he said.
Mr Adunbi, pictured (left) with his dog Hazel and (right) at a community event, helped set up an advisory group to help police with race relations
Pc Boddie drew her Taser at Mr Adunbi and used it to put a 'red dot' on him, before putting it away.
There was a scuffle after Mr Adunbi used his keys to open his gate and Pc Boddie discharged her Taser, shouting that she had done so.
Mr Thomas described this as an 'unnecessary, unreasonable or disproportionate use of force in the circumstances'.
He said there was a 'three second window' between Pc Boddie claiming she had seen Mr Adunbi punch Pc Weston and her discharging the Taser.
'It doesn't appear that she really takes any care to aim it, other than roughly in Mr Adunbi's direction, before she pulls the trigger,' Mr Thomas said.
Mr Adunbi was later taken to hospital to have the barb removed from his face.
Pc Boddie started her policing career in 1994, working at Avon and Somerset Police as a special constable. She joined Wiltshire Police as an officer in 2008.
Mr Adunbi needed to go to hospital to have the taser's barb removed from his face
In 2012, she attended an initial Taser training course and was authorised to carry the weapon. She completed refresher training in 2013 and transferred to Avon and Somerset Police that year.
She completed a second initial Taser training course in 2014.
Giving evidence at the hearing, Pc Boddie said she had never been accused of misconduct before, or of using unlawful force.
The officer said she was acting using the National Decision Model at all times, with Mr McCalla having markers for violence and weapons.
She said Mr Adunbi threatened that he would 'put to sleep' Pc Weston, adding that she took this to mean: 'That he was going to kill him.'
Pc Boddie said she drew the Taser for the first time but Mr Adunbi was still not 'fully calmed down' and she still 'viewed him as a threat'.
After putting it away, Mr Adunbi was in a 'fighting stance' and used his gate to 'crush' Pc Weston as the officer attempted to handcuff him, she said.
In a statement, Pc Weston said: 'He has pulled the gate against me with a lot of strength. I have tried to grab his left wrist to apply handcuffs and he has wrenched it from me with force. He needs to be arrested.'
Pc Boddie said she believed Mr Adunbi had punched her colleague and drew her Taser for a second time, aiming it at Mr Adunbi's chest area.
Police Constable Alan Bates demonstrates the new camera with police dog Spike in a disused factory. The dog was able to easily able to find PC Bates in a pitch-black room
They already already have superb sight, smell and hearing, but now Durhams police dogs are wearing military-grade cameras that show armed officers what they can see.
The cameras, designed for and used by the US special forces, are virtually identical to those used to film the capture and killing of Osama Bin Laden, in 2011.
But now these British police dogs will wear them in an attempt to help officers with anything from robberies and crashes to sieges and terrorism incidents.
Mounted on the back of the specially-trained dogs, the cameras send live footage to a screen that the officers can wear on their wrist.
The technology allows the police to see in the dark - from the dogs perspective.
'We can use it to clear a larger area or building, places where its easier to hide, or where its dangerous or difficult to send a human,' dog handler Police Constable Alan Bates explained.
Scroll down for video
The camera is made by tactical electronics will now be mounted on the dog's back after those worn on the animal's head caused problems with the picture
'If its pitch black we can use the infrared capability, combine that with the dogs nose and sense of hearing, and we can locate somebody a lot quicker than if it were you or I searching with a bog-standard flashlight.
'We can then hold the dog in a certain position to cover a particular area if the dog were to indicate at a door to a room, that would give us a clue that someones in that room.'
PC Bates demonstrated the nigh-vision abilities in a disused factory with police dog Spike, who was able to find him in a pitch-black room.
Despite the darkness, the images appearing on the screen clearly showed what was in the room.
Armed police officers wear a screen on their wrist which will allow them to see what the hi-tech camera is picking up from the dog's perspective
Infrared capabilities mean that the officers will be able to 'see in the dark'. The cameras are useful for anything from robberies and crashes to sieges and terrorist incidents
But not all dogs will have the chance to wear the new kit - as Durham Constabulary states that only those with 'excellent obedience and control at a distance' will be selected to undergo the additional training.
'The equipment that we see on Spike is made by tactical electronics and its now mounted on his back, whereas previously weve had camera systems which were mounted on the dogs head and caused problems for stability of the picture,' PC Bates added.
'Dogs dont tend to like it, theyll shake their head and try to get the kit off.
'Youll see that Spikes a lot more comfortable with the camera on his back; its a lot more stable, practical and technology has moved on.
The equipment is designed for and used by US special forces and is virtually identical to cameras used to film the capture and killing of Osama Bin Laden, in 2011
'It has infrared capability so we can see at night, the footage is secure so it cant be eavesdropped by anybody so its secure for the police and in particular the firearms officers and the tactics we use the kit for.
'The kit that we use is the commercial version of what the US use for their special forces.'
Durham Police have been working with manufacturer Tactical Electronics UK since January last year to develop the more practical cameras.
The gear is also being used by North Yorkshire and Cleveland police forces and has already been used during a number of firearms and other high-risk incidents in the North-East.
A 16-year-old cashier was left traumatised after she was held up by an armed robber wielding a hammer at an IGA supermarket in Queensland.
Police said the hooded man brazenly walked into the Mount Warren Park business in the outer eastern area of Logan City, south of Brisbane, shortly after 8pm on Tuesday.
CCTV footage released by Queensland Police shows the man calmly walking into the store, bypassing customers, and making his way around the counter to the cashier.
Scroll down for video
Police said the hooded man (pictured) brazenly walked into the Mount Warren Park business in the outer eastern area of Logan City shortly after 8pm on Tuesday
CCTV footage released by Queensland Police shows the man (pictured) calmly walking into the store, bypassing customers, and making his way around the counter to the cashier
Police allege the man then demanded the female cashier to open the register and give him the money inside.
In the video, the girl is shown opening the till for the hooded man and then moving out of his way so that he can remove its contents.
The footage next shows the hooded man running towards another man - believed to be the store manager - while waving the hammer in the air.
Police allege that the man stole a sum of cash and several packets of cigarettes before fleeing the scene in a silver-coloured car.
Following the incident, the Mount Warren Park business posted a CCTV image of the man on their Facebook page, urging anyone with information to come forward.
CCTV footage shows the hooded man (pictured) remove the contents of the IGA supermarket register
After unloading the till, the hooded man is seen running towards another man - believed to be the store manager - while waving the hammer in the air.
'He threatened one our friendly new 16 year old girls with a claw hammer before turning on the store manager,' the post stated.
'He left the scene on foot heading south down Mt Warren Blvd with an undisclosed amount of money.
'Please share this and help get him off our streets. Lets make Mt Warren safe again.'
Police confirmed no one was injured during the incident and are seeking assistance from anyone who can help identify the man.
Some 30 people including a woman are appearing in court today and tomorrow charged with child sex grooming offences including rape and human trafficking.
The offences relate to five young girls and teenagers and were allegedly carried out between 2005 and 2012, when the complainants were 12 to 18 years old.
About 40 police officers gathered outside Kirklees Magistrates' Court to keep the peace with 31 defendants set to appear over alleged crimes around Huddersfield.
Amin Ali Choli (left), 36, is charged with two rapes, and Shaqeel Hussain (right), 35, is charged with one rape and two counts of trafficking
Umar Zaman (left), 30, and Basharat Hussain (right), 31, are both charged with two rapes
Usman Ali (left), 32, and Abdul Majid (right), 34, are both charged with two counts of rape
Mohammed Suhail Arif, 30, pictured arriving at court today, was charged with one rape
Protesters claiming to be from the English Defence League and others from the Socialist Party were also present outside the court in West Yorkshire this morning.
Today, 17 men and a woman appeared before District Judge Michael Fanning in small batches. Twelve more defendants are due to appear at the same court tomorrow.
The 18 who appeared today were all given conditional bail and ordered to appear at Leeds Crown Court on November 1.
The defendants (all from Huddersfield except where stated) were:
Iftikar Ali, 37, of Holly Road, charged with three rapes and one attempted rape
Umar Zaman, 30, of Bishops Court, charged with two rapes
Basharat Hussain, 31, charged with two rapes
The one female defendant, Fehreen Rafiq (left), 38, is charged with two counts of facilitating the commission of a child sex offence, and Mohammed Dogar (right), 35, is charged with facilitating the commission of a child sex offence
Gul Riaz, 42, pictured outside the court in West Yorkshire, was charged with one rape
Banaras Hussain, who is charged with one count of rape, appears at court this morning
Iftikar Ali (left), 37, was charged with three rapes and one attempted rape, while Mohammed Sajjad (right), 31, was charged with four counts of rape and one count of facilitating the commission of a child sex offence
Banaras Hussain, 37, of Shipley, charged with one rape
Mubasher Hussain, 35, charged with one rape and one sexual assault
Abdul Majid, 34, charged with two rapes
Gul Riaz, 42, charged with one rape
Fehreen Rafiq, 38, charged with two counts of facilitating the commission of a child sex offence
Mohammed Sajjad, 31, charged with four counts of rape and one count of facilitating the commission of a child sex offence
Usman Ali, 32, charged with two counts of rape
Around 40 police officers gathered outside Kirklees Magistrates' Court this morning
Protesters stand outside Kirklees Magistrates' Court ahead of the hearings this morning
Police were present with 31 people set to appear over the alleged crimes around Huddersfield
Police stand guard outside the court in West Yorkshire this morning ahead of the appearances
Head teachers may have to cut the length of the school week as part of a new drive to help save money.
Schools have warned the move could jeopardise the education for tens of thousands of pupils due to cut-backs on funding.
At least 24 schools, including 14 in the Birmingham area alone, have now reduced the school week to just 4.5 day weeks, having scrapped Friday afternoon lessons.
Now more than 200 other head teachers have warned they may have to take similar actions.
It comes amid an investigation by the Mirror which found many special needs pupils were still not getting support as teaching assistants have been axed, leading to fears of behavioural problems.
At least 24 schools in Britain have cut Friday afternoon lessons as part of a drive to save money (stock image)
That is coupled with a lack of basic equipment, growing class sizes, no cash to repair leaky buildings, staff shortages and cancelled school trips.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Union of Headteachers, said: 'The idea that some schools have moved to a 4.5 day week and that others are considering the same option ought to be ringing serious alarm bells with the Government.
'School budgets are at breaking point. School leaders have made all the obvious savings, now they are faced with having to make major changes to the way they provide education.'
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, told the Mirror: 'Unless this is addressed a dire situation will only get worse.
'Children and young people deserve better than this bargain basement version of an education system.'
Cutting the school week short on Friday lunchtime would allow head teachers to employ fewer classroom assistants, who provide cover for teachers who are doing vital preparation for other lessons.
Kate Baptiste, head of St Monica's Catholic Primary School in Enfield, North London, said she was spending a greater percentage of her schools budget on salaries through statutory pay rises while incomes remained the same.
She said: 'I used to spend 80% of my budget on salaries, now it is 92%. The knock-on effect is that we have fewer resources for the children. Our deficit is now 77,000. Within three years, by 2020, it will be 377,668.'
Jules White, head of a secondary school in West Sussex, said: 'The Government must do far more to support our education system if it truly wants to end the burning social injustices that Theresa May spoke of when she came in to office.'
The Institute for Fiscal Studies revealed there has been an eight per cent cut in budgets to school since 2010 (stock image)
The Institute for Fiscal Studies revealed there has been an eight per cent cut in budgets to school since 2010.
Funding is expected to fall by nearly three per cent between last year and 2010, even with the additional 1billion-a-year the Government is providing by scrapping free school meals for infants.
Music and swimming lessons at some schools have had to be cut as part of a money-saving drive.
Justine Greening, then Education Secretary, said schools would get an increase of 0.5% per pupil from this school year and a 1% increase from 2019-20.
She said cash would go directly to schools rather than local authorities and minimum funding levels of 4,800 per pupil at secondaries would boost schools that are currently underfunded.
Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner said: 'For many pupils and schools, funding will fall in real terms between now and 2020.
'There is no new money for education and this funding for schools is coming from other cuts to education budgets.'
Disturbing video has emerged showing barbecued kittens for sale in an Indonesian market that has ignored orders to stop selling cat and dog meat.
Footage shows cruel traders bludgeoning the animals to death and then blowtorching them in front of shocked onlookers at an 'extreme market' in Tomohon, a city in North Sulawesi Province.
Horrified campaigners who are battling to end the barbaric industry claim some of the animals were still alive when they were being blasted with flames.
Charities say officials from the Mayor of Tomohon's office pledged to end the sale and slaughter of dogs and cats at the market in February. Last month, Indonesia said it was also preparing a regulation to ban the trade of meat derived from pets and exotic animals.
Disturbing video has emerged showing barbecued kittens for sale in an Indonesian market that has ignored orders to stop selling car and dog meat
Footage shows cruel traders bludgeoning the animals to death and then blowtorching them in front of shocked onlookers at an 'extreme market' in Tomohon, a city in North Sulawesi Province
Horrified campaigners who are battling to end the barbaric industry claim some of the animals were still alive when they were being blasted with flames
People in some parts of the Southeast Asian nation are known to consume dog meat and the government faces pressure from animal rights groups to tackle the issue.
Despite the government's pledge, newly released pictures show men holding cats upside down by the legs before using rods to batter them to death.
Videos shot by campaigners also show dogs - some already with sores on their heads - cowering in cages as workers pull the howling animals out and bludgeon their heads with wooden batons while visitors to the market, some with children, watch.
The animals are then blasted with blowtorches to remove their hair in preparation for butchering and sale.
Members of the Dog Meat-Free Indonesia (DMFI) coalition - consisting of animal rights charities including the Humane Society International - have urged the Indonesian government to keep to its pledge to outlaw the cat and dog meat trade.
Charities say officials from the Mayor of Tomohon's office pledged to end the sale and slaughter of dogs and cats at the market in February
The bodies of three dogs lie in a heap in the 'extreme market' in Tomohon, a city in North Sulawesi Province
The animals are blasted with blowtorches to remove their hair in preparation for butchering and sale
Videos shot by campaigners also show dogs - some already with sores on their heads - cowering in cages as workers pull the howling animals out
Lola Webber, from DMFI, said of the footage: 'It was the most horrific cruelty we have witnessed so far in our campaign to shut down this hideous trade, and it was all done in full view of very young children.
'By the end of our filming we were all spattered with blood and brain matter from the bludgeoning, showing how easy it would be for customers and tourists to become infected with diseases such as rabies, and in fact two of our team were extremely sick following the market visit.
'We are really grateful that the horrific cruelty and human-health risks of this appalling trade has been publicly recognised by the Indonesian government, but our latest evidence clearly shows the need for an immediate ban cannot be ignored. This is an urgent situation requiring immediate action.'
There has been mounting pressure on the country to outlaw the industry.
Members of the Dog Meat-Free Indonesia (DMFI) coalition - consisting of animal rights charities including the Humane Society International - have urged the Indonesian government to keep to its pledge to outlaw the cat and dog meat trade
There is no data on how much dog meat is consumed in Indonesia, but 2015 research cited by the agriculture ministry showed that about 730,000 dogs enter the capital, Jakarta, from West Java each year for consumption
A car lies on a piece of corrugated iron roof sheet as traders prepare to blowtorch it at the market
Caged dogs are dragged out an beaten around the head before being blasted with flames
Some of the caged dogs could be seen with sores on their heads at the Indonesian market
More than 90 celebrities including Cameron Diaz, Simon Cowell and Ellen DeGeneres signed a letter urging President Joko Widodo to act.
In August, Syamsu Ma'arif, director of veterinary public health at the agriculture ministry, told Reuters that dog meat 'is not food, according to our food law'.
He added that the ministry was still gathering material to back planned regulations. However, he gave no timeline for it to be issued or when it would take effect.
There is no data on how much dog meat is consumed in Indonesia, but 2015 research cited by the agriculture ministry showed that about 730,000 dogs enter the capital, Jakarta, from West Java each year for consumption.
By comparison, nearby Vietnam consumes five million dogs every year, the Asia Canine Protection Alliance says.
An oil worker accused of killing his pregnant wife and two young daughters and stuffing their bodies in barrels is on suicide watch in custody as he awaits trial.
Chris Watts, 33, must spend 23 hours alone in his cell at Colorado's Weld County Jail and is constantly watched on CCTV to make sure he doesn't self-harm.
Guards have to check on him ever ten minutes and must make eye contact with him when they do.
Chris Watts (left in court), 33, must spend 23 hours alone in his cell at Colorado's Weld County Jail and is constantly watched on CCTV to make sure he doesn't self-harm
Chris Watts is accused of killing Shanann Watts and children Celeste and Bella (pictured together)
He has no privileges and cannot access weights, reading material and television, a source told HLN's Crime & Justice with Ashleigh Banfield.
In his hour out of his cell, Watts is taken to a room where he can shower and make phone calls. He does not meet any other prisoners.
Watts was accused of killing Shanann Watts, and their two children Celeste and Bella, aged three and four, last month after their bodies were discovered at an oil field where he worked.
Police later found Watts 'was actively involved in an affair with a co-worker' - something he had initially denied.
Last week, a criminologist claimed Watts may have committed the alleged murders because he wanted to start a new life with his lover.
Denise Mowder, an associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at MSU Denver, told the Denver Channel she believes that Watts may have wanted to rid himself of his family to be with her.
Denise Mowder, an associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at MSU Denver, said she believes that Watts may have wanted to rid himself of his family to be with her
Christopher Watts is accused of killing Shanann Watts, and their two children Celeste and Bella (pictured together)
'I think he had a vision of another life with this other woman carefree, no responsibilities,' she said. 'Two children and another on the way, that's a big responsibility.'
She added that she was surprised it hadn't been a murder suicide.
'I'm pretty surprised he didn't kill himself, too. Oftentimes, it goes in a pattern,' said Mowder.
She said that most cases of men killing their children were triggered by rage but 30 per cent were sparked by spousal revenge, and another ten say they don't know why.
The day before his arrest, Watts had pleaded for his family's safe return saying in an on-camera interview: 'I just want people to know that I want my family back. I want them safe and I want them here'.
Mowder, who was also a prosecutor for several years, said that the fact that Watts went on the news to plead for people to try and find his 'missing' family after they disappeared reveals that he planned to blame an intruder, play victim and then begin his new life.
'This whole facade he put on right after they started looking for them that was very odd, and it makes me wonder if he wasn't trying to find an out to be with the girlfriend,' said Mowder. 'Somebody else did it. I'm the poor grieving father.'
Mowder said that the fact he tried to point his finger at his wife, was typical of domestic abusers.
Watts, 33, was charged with nine felony counts - including three counts of first degree murder - on Tuesday morning
Watts had told police that he murdered Shanann because she had killed their two children. Investigators didn't believe his story, and charged him with nine felony counts - including three counts of first-degree murder, two of murdering children in his trust, one of terminating a pregnancy and three of tampering with bodies.
'When he said she was the one strangling the children, I knew right then he was the one who strangled the children, because he can give all the details of what he said she did because he was doing it himself,' she said.
'It's going to be hard on the family to hear the lies. And there's some secrets there, I'm afraid. It's going to be hard for the jury. It's going to be hard for the public to really understand because there is no understanding it,' Mowder said.
Watts was arrested last week in the slayings of his wife and their two children and the affidavit states he told his wife he wanted to separate when she returned home.
Watts was last week arrested for murdering his wife Shanann and their two young daughters
Shanann suffered from lupus and was pregnant with their third child. According to co-worker Nickole Utoft Atkinson, she was feeling unwell during their business trip to Arizona.
'A double joy is a shared joy and a double sorrow is not a shared sorrow,' he ends the presentation to a round of applause.
He has not entered a plea to murder and other felony charges and faces the death penalty if found guilty.
Detectives believe Watts killed his children first and then killed his 15-week pregnant wife.
During his court appearance on Tuesday, Watts hung his head and stayed silent. Shanann's father, Frank Rzucek, wept silently but uncontrollably as the charges were read.
The girls' bodies were found in barrels and his wife's in a shallow grave.
Well-wishers have left toys, dozens of flowers, candles and balloons in the front yard of the $400,000 house on Saratoga Trail in Frederick that the couple bought in 2013.
Advertisement
Theresa May will wreak revenge on Vladimir Putin by ordering a covert war on his spy network as she accused two of its assassins of carrying out the Salisbury novichok attack.
The Prime Minister said the security services would target the GRU, the military intelligence unit the pair work for.
Cyber warfare, espionage, financial sanctions and travel bans could be used, sources said. Interpol has been put on red alert to detain the two agents, who use the aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.
Mrs May has warned they would be brought to Britain for trial if they ever left Russia - but experts have said that Vladimir Putin will personally ensure the assassins never leave the country and reward them with lucrative promotions despite botching their assassination attempt on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Historian Yuri Felshtinsky, author of The Putin Corporation whose friend Alexander Litvinenko was murdered after the co-authored a book together, told MailOnline: 'Even though they botched their covert attack, President Putin will praise the two members of the GRU and reward them in ways that will advance their career, promoting them as heroes now that their cover is blown'.
Theresa May yesterday blamed the Kremlin for the novichok attack and hinted the assassination order may have come directly from Mr Putin because only he has the power in Russian law to order killings abroad.
UK Security Minister Ben Wallace said today that the Russian President bears ultimate responsibility because 'his government that controls, funds and directs' the GRU and said Britain is '100 per cent sure' the assassins named yesterday carried out the attack.
Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the Commons foreign affairs committee, went further by saying: President Putin bears responsibility for a war-like act' while Bob Seely, a Tory MP and Russia expert, said the order could only have come from the Russian head of state.
This diplomatic row will heat up further today when British and Russian officials come face-to-face at the UN Security Council.
As a permanent member of the Security Council, Russia will be represented at Thursday's meeting - called by Britain to update members on progress in the Salisbury investigation - alongside UK allies such as the US and France.
These are the two Russian spies being sought over the Novichok poisoning in Salisbury in March. Police say it is unlikely Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are their real names, as they are thought to have many aliases
Poisoning victim Charlie Rowley has urged police to bring the two suspects to justice.
Mr Rowley, 48, and his partner Dawn Sturgess, 44, fell ill in Amesbury after coming into contact with the substance months after the same nerve agent was used against former double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Mr Rowley (pictured), 48, and his partner Dawn Sturgess, 44, fell ill in Amesbury after coming into contact with the substance months after the same nerve agent was used against Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia
Ms Sturgess died in hospital in July and a still frail Mr Rowley made an impassioned call to see the suspects, said by police to be Russian military intelligence officers, 'brought to justice'.
There are fears his calls could prove futile because Russia's president Vladimir Putin would protect his 'heroes' and prevent them ever leaving the country, which has no extradition treaty with Britain.
It echoes the case of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, was murdered using radioactive polonium in London.
Andrei Lugovoy, widely suspected of the killing, remained in Russia where he claimed it was'more likely that the moon will become part of the Earth' than that he would face justice in Britain.
In a day of extraordinary revelations, it emerged that the two suspects had 'near-identical passport numbers' suggesting the travel documents were issued at the same time ahead of their journey to the UK.
While an apartment in a 25-story building registered to one of the suspects in Moscow proved to be bogus as it was revealed to be the home of an elderly female cleaner - with residents telling Russian media they had never seen a man coming or going on that floor.
Services announced Petrov and Boshirov as the two men responsible for the attack on Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, Wiltshire, in March.
Astonishing CCTV images show Petrov and Boshirov grinning as they walk around the Wiltshire city on the day Mr Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with the military-grade chemical weapon.
Map shows Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov's movement on the day of the poisoning
Petrov (right) was seen grinning in Salisbury on the day police believe the men smeared Novichok on Mr Skripal's front door
It has been possible to reconstruct their journey from Moscow to London, on to the Wiltshire cathedral city and back on a plane to Russia
Alexander Litvinenko Former KGB agent Litvinenko was poisoned after radioactive polonium 210 was slipped into his tea pot in 2006, a killing which a judge said was probably approved by President Vladimir Putin. An inquiry found two Russian men - Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun - had deliberately poisoned Litvinenko by putting polonium-210 into his drink at a London hotel, leading to an agonising death. Litvinenko in hospital before his death It said the use of the radioactive substance - which could only have come from a nuclear reactor - was a 'strong indicator' of state involvement and that the two men had probably been acting under the direction of the FSB. Possible motives included Litvinenko's work for British intelligence agencies, his criticism of the FSB, and his association with other Russian dissidents, while it said there was also a 'personal dimension' to the antagonism between him and Putin. International arrest warrants issued for Mr Lugovoi and Mr Kovtun remain in force although Russia continues to refuse their extradition. Mr Lugovoi became a Russian MP in 2007 soon after the interest in him over Litvinenko's death. This meant he now has political immunity and cannot be prosecuted. An inquiry found two Russian men - Andrei Lugovoi (pictured) and Dmitri Kovtun - had deliberately poisoned Litvinenko Advertisement
Prime Minister Theresa May today revealed the two men are thought to be officers in Russia's GRU military intelligence service, according to British agencies.
The Novichok attack left a trail of the deadly nerve agent around Salisbury, with mother-of-three Dawn Sturgess dying after she came into contact with the chemical. Mrs Sturgess's partner Charlie Rowley and county police officer Nick Bailey were also hospitalised.
In response, Mr Rowley said from his hospital bed that he while he did not recognise the pair, he wants to see the men 'brought to justice'.
He told ITV News: 'I don't recognise the two suspects, but I want to see them brought to justice.
'I am glad that Police are making progress with their investigation but at the same time, it's upsetting to see Dawn's face everywhere, because it brings all the hurt and pain at losing her back to reality.
'It is progress to see the suspects identified in the Skripal case. But we need to make sure that these people are also held accountable for Dawn's murder. She was a beautiful woman whose life was unjustly taken away because of them.'
Despite Mr Rowley's calls, Mark Galeotti, a Russia expert for the Institute of International Relations, said the pair will never be brought to justice, even if Putin loses his grip on power.
He told Sky News: 'Even if the government changes in Moscow, the Russian constitution explicitly bars the extradition of Russian citizens and given that we assume these two, whatever their real names are, it's not what's on their passport, given that they are Russian citizens, they are not going to be extradited.
'The only chance is if they are stupid enough to try to travel abroad but to be perfectly honest, their holiday plans are going to be Crimea rather than anywhere else.'
Crystal clear CCTV images released today show the two Russian agents entering Britain at Gatwick, strolling around Salisbury on the day of the attack, and leaving the UK at Heathrow Airport just hours after the Skripals were found collapsed in a park.
Prosecutors will not be applying to Russia for the extradition of the two men, as no agreement exists between the countries, but a European Arrest Warrant has been obtained in case either of the pair are ever spotted outside of Russia.
Theresa May told MPs that British secret services believe the two suspects are officers of the Russian military intelligence agency known as the GRU.
She said it's unlikely the agency would have been allowed to carry out such a brazen attack on its own and the hit was 'almost certainly approved at a senior level of the Russian state'.
Mrs May added: 'The GRU is a highly-disciplined organisation with a well-established chain of command. So this was not a rogue operation.
'The actions of the GRU are a threat to all our allies and all our citizens. On the basis of what we have learnt in the Salisbury investigation and what we know about this organisation more broadly, we must now step up our collective efforts specifically against the GRU.'
The pair were caught on CCTV at Salisbury train station on March 3, the day before Mr Skripal was poisoned. Scotland Yard believe they came to the town to carry out a reconnaissance mission
Police released an image of the perfume bottle believed to have contained the Novichok and the box it was hidden in. This was picked up by Salisbury resident Dawn Sturgess weeks after the attack. She sprayed it on her wrists before she died
Mr Skripal was a colonel in the GRU before he was jailed for selling secrets to the West and brought to Britain in a spy swap. The Prime Minister's announcement therefore suggests the hit may have been organised by his former colleagues.
Police said it is likely the suspects, who are aged around 40, were travelling under aliases and Petrov and Boshirov are not their real names. They are appealing to anyone around the world who knows their real identities to contact them.
In a busy morning of announcements and statements, prosecutors revealed Petrov and Boshirov are wanted for conspiracy to murder Mr Skripal and the attempted murder of his daughter.
If caught, the Russians will also be charged with the attempted murder of DS Bailey and the use of Novichok contrary to the Chemical Weapons Act.
But Russian authorities denied all knowledge of the two men, with foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova telling reporters: 'The names published by the media, like their photographs, mean nothing to us.'
Novichok 'assassins' movements revealed: Spies flew into Britain from Russia before getting train to Salisbury Scotland Yard today released detailed information about the movements of the prime suspects in the Novichok nerve agent attack. Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov arrived in the UK on a Friday afternoon in March and checked into a budget hotel in east London. On the Saturday, the day before the attack, they carried out a reconnaissance trip to Salisbury before returning to London. On the Sunday, they took another train to Salisbury and are thought to have smeared the Novichok on Mr Skripal's front door. That afternoon they returned to London and flew from Heathrow hours after the Skripals were found collapsed in a park. Friday, 2 March: 3pm: The suspects arrive at Gatwick airport, having flown from Moscow on Aeroflot flight SU2588. CCTV images from 3pm on Friday, March 2 show Petrov (left) and Boshirov (right) arriving at Gatwick airport on a flight from Moscow Friday, March 2 5.40pm: After travelling into London by train, the pair arrive at Victoria station. 6pm: They travelled to Waterloo station, where they were seen between 6pm and 7pm. 7pm: The pair then travelled to the City Stay Hotel in Bow Road, East London, where they stayed on the night of the Friday, 2 March. Saturday, 3 March: 11am: They left the hotel and took the underground to Waterloo station, arriving at approximately 11.45am. The two spies were pictured in Salisbury the day before the attack, when they carried out a reconnaissance trip 2.25pm: Having caught a train to Salisbury from Waterloo, they arrive in the cathedral city, the day before the attack. 4.10pm: After carrying out what police believe was reconnaissance of the Salisbury area, they leave the city and return to London. 8.05pm: They return to their hotel in Bow and stay there for the night. Sunday, 4 March: 8am: They made the same journey from the hotel, again using the underground from Bow to Waterloo station before continuing their journey by train to Salisbury. CCTV later showed them in the vicinity of Mr Skripal's house and police believe that they contaminated the front door with Novichok. The pair are pictured at Salisbury train station on the morning of the day the Skripals were poisoned The pair are pictured in Wilton Road, Salisbury shortly before midday on March, 4, the day the Skripals were poisoned with Novichok The pair were then seen on Salisbury's Fisherton Road on March 4 shortly after 1pm, around the time the nerve agent is thought to have been smeared on their target's front door As they walk around Salisbury on the day of the attack, they are seen on CCTV in Fisherton Road shortly after 1pm The pair were seen at Salisbury train station shortly before 2pm on March 4. This is thought to be after they left the Novichok on the door 4.45pm: The arrived at back Waterloo Station after the hour and half journey from Salisbury. 6.30pm: They boarded the London Underground to London Heathrow Airport. 10:30pm: They fly out of London, returning to Moscow on Aeroflot flight SU2585. The two men were then seen going through security at Heathrow on their way back to Russia at 7.30pm, just hours after the Skripals were found collapsed in the park in Salisbury Advertisement
Biometric data is required from Russians seeking British visas, meaning anti-terror police could hold their genuine fingerprints and iris data.
But there are fears the pair could avoid justice but simply staying in Russia for the rest of their lives, like the alleged killers of Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with radioactive polonium in 2006.
The charge d'affaires at Russia's London embassy was today summoned to the Foreign Office for a dressing-down by an official as Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko is not currently in the country.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'He was informed of the charges we have brought against two Russian citizens, the fact that they were GRU officers and of our determination that they should be brought to justice.
'We also made clear that the UK expects the Russian state to account for the reckless and outrageous actions of the GRU and that the UK expects that Russia provides a full account of its chemical weapons programme to the OPCW.'
Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with Novichok in Salisbury in attack which the UK has blamed on Russia
Mother-of-three Dawn Sturgess died and her partner Charlie Rowley fell ill after they came into contact with Novichok. It is thought they found a bottle used to store the chemical
Why won't Russia extradite the suspects? British authorities today said they would not apply to extradite the suspects as any request would be rejected by Putin's regime. The Russian constitution forbids the extradition of Russian citizens to another state. A European Arrest Warrant (EAW) has been obtained, which means that if either man travels to a country covered by the scheme they will be arrested. Police investigating the Salisbury poisoning are also seeking to circulate Interpol 'red notices'. The potential for a deadlock carries echoes of the aftermath of the murder of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. In that case, two men were identified as suspects but were never handed over to Britain. Advertisement
Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with the military-grade chemical weapon in Salisbury in March.
Police officer Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey was also poisoned when he attended the retired spy's suburban home. Like the Skripals, he recovered after receiving life-saving treatment at the city's hospital.
But in June, mother-of-three Dawn Sturgess died and her partner Charlie Rowley were hospitalised after they fell ill at his home in nearby Amesbury.
Police have now released an image of the perfume bottle used by the would-be assassins to transport the Novichok. Mrs Sturgess found the bottle and put the substance on her wrists.
Today's announcement relates to the initial attack, but Mr Basu confirmed that officers have now linked the attack on the Skripals to events in Amesbury less than four months later, in which Dawn Sturgess, 44, and her partner Charlie Rowley, 48, were exposed to the same nerve agent.
Scotland Yard's counter terror Commissioner Neil Basu said: 'Today marks the most significant moment so far in what has been one of the most complex and intensive investigations we have undertaken in Counter Terrorism policing; the charging of two suspects both Russian nationals - in relation to the attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal.'
Mr Basu added: 'We do not believe Dawn and Charlie were deliberately targeted, but became victims as a result of the recklessness in which such a toxic nerve agent was disposed of.
'We know that Novichok was applied to the Skripals' front door in an area that is accessible to the public, which also endangered the lives of members of the public and emergency service responders.'
The Skripals were found collapsed on a park bench in Salisbury in March, sparking a huge investigation which involved anti-terror police, the military and chemical weapons experts
Britain's most senior police officer, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick added: 'We remain absolutely determined to identify and bring about a prosecution in the UK courts of those persons responsible for these attacks and we will do all we can to get justice for the victims and their families.'
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed yesterday the toxic chemical that killed Dawn Sturgess was the same nerve agent as that which poisoned the Skripals three months earlier.
The OPCW said it was not possible to conclude whether the nerve agent used in the two incidents was from the same batch.
The Russian state has previously denied involvement. Its embassy in London yesterday demanded access to the Skripals.
A statement released by the Russian Embassy on Tuesday claimed the circumstances of the March attack as 'obscure' and accused British authorities of keeping the Skripals in isolation ever since their release from hospital.
It said: 'They remain out of the public eye at an unknown location, unable to communicate freely with their relatives, friends, journalists or Russian officials, deprived of the freedom of movement.'
Mrs Sturgess's former home in Salisbury was closed off by police in July as her death meant the investigation became a murder probe
It is thought Novichok was smeared on the front door handle of Mr Skripal's Salisbury home
'We're open for business as usual': 48-a-night east London hotel where Salisbury 'assassins' left traces of Novichok six months ago issues safety reassurance to customers after police urge former guests to get in touch
The Metropolitan Police confirmed today that 'low' levels of Novichok were found in the two-star 48 a night hotel in May during part of their investigations
A budget hotel used by the two Salisbury poison suspects today insisted they are 'open for business' after it emerged traces of nerve agent Novichok were discovered in a room.
Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov stayed in the City Stay Hotel in Bow, East London, before carrying out the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed today that 'low' levels of Novichok were found in the two-star 48 a night hotel in May during part of their investigations.
In a statement released by the Metropolitan Police today, it said 'we are fully supporting the police investigation' and said they are 'open for business as usual.'
Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu insisted there was no threat to public health, but has asked anyone who stayed there between March 4 and May 4 to contact police.
It added: 'We are reassured that the police and Public Health England have confirmed very clearly that there is no health risk whatsoever to our guests or our staff.
'We are receiving a lot of media attention, and we would kindly ask that you allow our staff and guests to go about their business unhindered.'
In a timeline released by police today Petrov and Boshirov travelled to London on March 2 after landing at Gatwick, making their way to the hotel in Bow.
They stayed there for two nights and then went to Salisbury for reconnaissance before returning to the City Stay Hotel for the night.
The hotel, on Bow Road in East London, is situated next to a train station. It is where the two Russian suspects stayed during their time in the UK
The next day, the suspects travelled to Salisbury again, which is when they smeared Novichok on the Skripal's door.
Mr Basu said today: 'Two swabs showed contamination of Novichok at levels below that which would cause concern for public health.
'A decision was made to take further samples from the room as a precautionary measure, including in the same areas originally tested, and all results came back negative.
'We believe the first process of taking swabs removed the contamination, so low were the traces of Novichok in the room. Following these tests, experts deemed the room was safe and that it posed no risk to the public.'
One of the rooms at the 48-a-night City Stay Hotel in Bow, East London where the novichok hitmen stayed while in UK
The lobby of the hotel, with table and chairs and a television on the wall
Mr Basu said there has been no reports of anyone falling ill who stayed in the hotel between March 4 and May 4.
Mr Basu added: 'It is likely, given what we have learnt from this investigation, that anyone exposed to Novichock will have experienced symptoms within 12 hours of exposure.
'The levels of Novichok we found in the room at the time of police sampling in May were such that they were not enough to cause short or long-term health effects to anyone exposed to it, at that point or thereafter.
'We will continue to work closely with Public Health England as new information comes to light.
'We are asking anyone who stayed at the hotel between 4 March and 4 May to call 0800 789 321 or email Salisbury2018@met.police.uk. Staff from PHE will be on hand to give advice and reassurance.'
One of the twin rooms inside the hotel. It looks over a railway line, has discarded cigarette butts on its doorstep and graffiti drawn onto the front
Today, police officers guarded the entrance and staff declined to comment.
The hotel, which over looks a railway line, has discarded cigarette butts on its doorstep and graffiti drawn onto the front.
Black metal bars are positioned over windows and grass has overgrown on the side of the hotel. Although there is no exterior CCTV, there is a camera in the front lobby.
One hotel guest, retired Army Major Khalid from Bangladesh, said he was paying 258 for five nights.
He said: 'The police are inside. I'm in room 6 and they are near my room outside rooms 7,8 and 9.
'I didn't know what happened until now but I am sure the police have made the hotel safe again for guests to stay.'
Revealed: How 'assassins' faked a Nina Ricci perfume bottle full of toxic nerve agent then 'recklessly threw it away', leading to the death of British woman Russian agents suspected of carrying out the Novichok attack used a glass container made to look like a perfume bottle. Charlie Rowley, 48, told police he found a box he thought contained perfume in a charity bin on Wednesday June 27. The box and bottle were labelled as Premier Jour by Nina Ricci - but Scotland Yard has confirmed that they were counterfeits and had been specially adapted. Inside the box was a bottle and applicator, and police said Mr Rowley tried to put the two parts together at his home address in Amesbury on Saturday June 30. In doing so, he got some of the contents on himself. He said his partner, Dawn Sturgess, 44, had applied some of the substance to her wrists before feeling unwell. After he told police where he found the box, cordons were put in place and two bins behind shops in Catherine Street, Salisbury, were removed. Previously, during a search of Mr Rowley's home in Muggleton Road, Amesbury, on July 10, a small box labelled as Nina Ricci Premier Jour was recovered from a rubbish bag in the kitchen. The deadly chemical weapon is thought to have been smuggled around Britain disguised as perfume in this box On July 11, a small glass bottle with a modified nozzle was found on a kitchen worktop. Tests undertaken at the Government's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory established that the bottle contained a 'significant amount of Novichok', Scotland Yard said. The Novichok container was designed to look like a bottle of Premier Jour by Nina Ricci. File photo Ms Sturgess died in hospital in July, just over a week after she and Mr Rowley fell ill. Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said the manner in which the bottle and packaging was adapted made it a 'perfect cover' for smuggling the weapon into the country. He added: 'We have carried out numerous inquiries in relation to the bottle and are now able to release an image of it with the nozzle attached. 'We are also releasing an image of the box that the bottle and nozzle were in. 'We have spoken to Nina Ricci and undertaken further inquiries. Nina Ricci and our inquiries have confirmed that it is not a genuine Nina Ricci perfume bottle, box or nozzle. 'It is in fact a counterfeit box, bottle and nozzle that have been especially adapted. 'I'd like to reassure anyone who has bought Nina Ricci perfume from a legitimate source that they should not be concerned. It is safe. 'We cannot account for the whereabouts of the bottle, nozzle or box between the attack on the Skripals on March 4 and when Charlie Rowley said he found it on Wednesday June 27.' Advertisement
Who are the GRU and how was double agent Sergei Skripal involved with them?
The GRU - an acronym for Glavnoye razvedyvatel'noye upravleniye or Main Intelligence Directorate - was founded in 1918 after Lenin's Bolshevik Revolution.
Lenin insisted on its independence from other secret services and the GRU was seen as a rival by other Soviet secret services, such as the KGB.
According to Yuri Shvets, a former KGB agent, GRU officers were referred to as 'boots' - tough but unsophisticated.
'The GRU took its officers from the trenches,' he said, whereas KGB picked its agents from the USSR's best universities.
The GRU headquarters in Moscow. The agency's operatives were originally seen as rougher and less sophisticated than their KGB counterparts, according to former agents
The GRU would train agents and then send them to represent the Soviet Union abroad as military attaches in foreign embassies, according to historian John Barron.
But once a member of the GRU, it is believed to be exceptionally difficult to leave. And those who do so to joined foreign agencies were punished savagely.
A younger Sergei Skripal. He went on to unmask dozens of secret agents and feed information to MI6
Viktor Suvorov, a GRU officer who defected to Britain in 1978, said new recruits were shown a video of a traitor from the agency being burned alive in a furnace as a warning.
Unlike the KGB, the GRU was not split up when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
It has a special status and answers directly to the chief of the general staff, one of the three people who control Russia's portable nuclear control system.
GRU chiefs are reportedly picked by Putin himself.
The GRU is now considered Russia's largest foreign intelligence service, according to Reuters, dwarfing Moscow's better-known Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), which is the successor to the KGB's First Chief Directorate.
Sergei Skripal, a former colonel in GRU , was considered by the Kremlin to be one of the most damaging spies of his generation.
He was responsible for unmasking dozens of secret agents threatening Western interests by operating undercover in Europe.
Col Skripal, 66, allegedly received 78,000 in exchange for taking huge risks to pass classified information to MI6.
In 2006, he was sentenced to 13 years in a Russian labour camp after being convicted of passing invaluable Russian secrets to the UK.
A senior source in Moscow said at the time: 'This man is a big hero for MI6.'
He was sentenced to 13 years in a Russian labour camp when he was convicted of passing secrets to Britain
After being convicted of 'high treason in the form of espionage' by Moscow's military court, Col Skripal was stripped of his rank, medals and state awards.
He was alleged by Russia's security service, the FSB, to have begun working for the British secret services while serving in the army in the 1990s.
GRU, one of whose divisions has an emblem featuring a bat, was founded after the Russian Revolution
He passed information classified as state secrets and was paid for the work by MI6, the FSB claimed.
Col Skripal pleaded guilty at the trial and co-operated with investigators, reports said at the time. He admitted his activities and gave a full account of his spying, which led to a reduced sentence.
In July 2010, he was pardoned by then Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and was one of four spies exchanged for ten Russian agents deported from the US in an historic swap involving red-headed 'femme fatale' Anna Chapman.
After the swap at Vienna airport, Col Skripal was one of two spies who came to Britain and he has kept a low profile for the past eight years.
The former spy was living at an address in Salisbury, Wiltshire, when the suspected poisoning took place in the city centre.
Russia says names of Novichok poisoning suspects 'mean nothing' to them as it continues to deny links to attempted assassination of former spy - despite 'killers' flying in from Moscow Russia said Wednesday it did not know the names of two Russians Britain has blamed for a nerve agent attack on a former spy and accused London of manipulating information. 'The names published by the media, like their photographs, mean nothing to us,' foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. 'We once again call on the British side to switch from public accusations and manipulating information to practical cooperation through law enforcement agencies,' Zakharova said in televised remarks. Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said the names of the suspects mean nothing to Russia. Vladimir Putin previously claimed he had never heard of Sergei Skripal before the attack took place Russia's permanent representative at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Alexander Shulgin, called the UK statement a 'provocation'. 'Right from the start we said that Russia has nothing to do with what happened in Salisbury,' Shulgin told Russian state television. The Russian Foreign Office meanwhile tweeted the clip of the PM jerkily dancing in Africa last week sliced with a video of their press chief Maria Zakharova and her rhythmic moves. Mr Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow that the names of the two Russian men suspected in the poisoning 'do not mean anything to me'. Mr Ushakov pointed to the fact that British authorities mentioned that they think the men's names are aliases, and wondered 'why this has been done and what kind of a message' Britain is trying to send to the Russian government. The UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it would not apply for their extradition but it added that it obtained a European arrest warrant for the two men. Advertisement
There is a close correlation between the surge in anti-Semitic hate crimes and the scandal rocking Labour, MPs were today told.
Dave Rich, the head of policy at the Community Security Trust (CST), said incidents soared from a few dozen a month to over 100 in spring 2016 - Just when the crisis erupted in Jeremy Corbyn's party.
And he urged the Labour leader to finally listen to the Jewish community and pass reforms to root out the racism and usher in a 'cultural change'.
It comes as a new Survation poll published in the Jewish Chronicle reveals that four out of ten Jews would consider leaving the UK if Mr Corbyn becomes PM.
The Labour leader last night failed to quell anger over vile abuse wracking Labour despite bowing to demands to adopt the international definition of anti-Semitism.
He caused new offence by trying to add a statement detailing protection for people who call Israel racist - a caveat rejected even by loyalists on the party's ruling NEC.
Speaking to the women and equalities select committee today, Mr Rich said: 'Over the last two years we have seen a much closer correlation between events in the Labour Party and our anti-Semitic incidents statistics than any other single factor.'
Dave Rich, the head of policy at the Community Security Trust (CST) (pictured today in parliament in front of the women and equalities select committee) said incidents soared from a few dozen a month to over 100 in spring 2016 - Just when the crisis erupted in Jeremy Corbyn's party
Laura Marks, chairwoman of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, (pictured, far left at the committee in Parliament today) said their has been a 'tide change' in the Jewish community over the past three years and that the unease is 'palpable'
Detailing anti-Semitism incidents reported to the CST, he said: 'We recorded 129 incidents in June and 129 in July, but we had recorded 135 in May the month prior and 100 incidents in April.
'The big uptick in anti-Semitism incidents we recorded came in April and May. Now around that time came the whole issue about anti-Semitism in the Labour Party really hit the front-pages with the suspensions of Naz Shah and Ken Livingstone.
Jewish couple are packing their bags for Israel over the anti-Semitism crisis A leading Jewish lawyer and his partner have said they are leaving the UK after being bombarded by anti-Semitic abuse and death threats by Jeremy Corbyn supporters. Mark Lewis, an ex Labour supporter who represented victims in the phone-hacking case, and Mandy Blumenthal said they are planning to move to Israel by the end of the year. They accused Mr Corbyn of moving the 'rock anti-Semites have crawled out from' and said they have received a growing wave of hate and threats since he became Labour leader. Mr Lewis said a man has been sent to prison for threatening to kill him simply because he is Jewish. He told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire Show: 'The online abuse might continue, the Israelis might not like me because I am too left, might not like me because they think I am too right, whatever their view. 'But they are not going to dislike me because I am Jewish. And there is only so much you can take when you are getting threats to kill you. 'When you are getting threats from people that they want you to be ill etc, it's a drip drip effect.' Ms Blumenthal said: 'People are in the majority of circles that I mix in actually talking about their options of leaving here because of the anti-Semitism.' Advertisement
'So we took that increase to be in response to those incidents that were happening here in the Labour Party.
'It may be the debate around Brexit and increase in hate crime after that debate kept the anti-Semitic incidents sustained at a higher level, and maybe they would have fallen away had it not been for that, but we had already seen an uptick before other hate crime.
'Over the last two years we have seen a much closer correlation between events in the Labour Party and our anti-Semitic incidents statistics than any other single factor.'
Mr Rich said that while he is not suggesting everyone committing the hate crimes are in the Labour Party, he warned the scandal is feeding a toxic atmosphere.
And he urged Mr Corbyn to listen to the Jewish community and make the reforms needed to root out the abuse.
He said this must be seen as more than mere 'technical' changes, but 'a cultural change as well'.
At least half a dozen Labour MPs are considering following Frank Field and quitting over the scandal.
Meanwhile, a poll today found that 39 per cent of the 710 British Jews who were quizzed for the survey said they would consider emigrating if Mr Corbyn gets the keys to No10.
Last month Mark Lewis, an ex Labour supporter and leading Jewish lawyer,, and his partner Mandy Blumenthal revealed they are leaving Britain for Israel because of the scandal.
They accused Mr Corbyn of moving the 'rock anti-Semites have crawled out from' and said they have received a growing wave of hate and threats since he became Labour leader.
He told MailOnline today: 'Waiting to see if Corbyn will become PM is already too late. The damage has already been done.
'He has moved the rock which was covering many very nasty creatures.
'Even after the reluctant acceptance of the IHRA definition of antisemitism (and its caveat that renders it meaningless) Corbyn made sure that his personal proposal was leaked so that his nasty gang knew that he was still with them.
'Of course it is an individual decision but for those who will listen, I say get out while you can.'
In today's select committee hearing, Mr Rich also demanded tougher laws for social media companies, where much of the anti-Jewish hatred is peddled.
He said: 'I would say the Government needs to be looking at the legal responsibilities of the social media companies and their status in law.'
His words were echoed by Danny Stone, director of the Antisemitism Trust, who said: 'It is all about the social media companies at the moment.'
MPs were also warned the Jewish community have been so shaken by the anti-Semitism crisis that they are gloomier about their lives in Britain than they have been for many years.
Laura Marks, chairwoman of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, said there has been a 'tide change' in the Jewish community over the past three years.
She said that while there has not been a big exodus of Jewish families from the UK yet, there is a new 'uneasiness' which is 'palpable'.
The stark warning to the women and equalities select committee (pictured today in Parliament) comes as Labour continues to be engulfed by the bitter anti-Semitism crisis which has rocked Jeremy Corbyn's leadership
Jeremy Corbyn (pictured leaving home this morning) has been dogged by accusations that he has allowed anti-Semitism to go unchallenged in the party since he became leader
Ms Marks told the committee the Jewish community is more fearful today than they have been for many years.
She said: 'About four years ago after I think the Paris attacks I was asked on the radio, is it true that the Jews are packing their bags? It was a whole thing that the Jews are packing their bags.
'I said this is absolute nonsense.
'And I think there has been a tide change in the Jewish community and whether or not people are packing their bags - I don't know if people are packing their bags - but there is an uneasiness in the community that is palpable and very different from three or four years ago.
'We see it around us all the time - nobody is talking about anything mush else. Which is very depressing.'
A 'stressed and hungry' sea lion stranded about a quarter of a mile from water for four days has been rolled into a front-end loader and returned to the ocean.
The stranded 1,700lb male Stellar sea lion was first spotted sitting by the side of a road in a a residential area by a bewildered motorist in Sitka, Alaska, at 3am on August 31.
He notified scientists at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries (NOAA) about the creature, which spent time on a resident's timber deck, and even took refuge under trees in a nearby wooded area.
Scroll down for video
The rogue sea lion on a resident's front deck, after the 1,700lb male waddled away from Sitka Harbor, in Sitka, Alaska and became stranded
The Steller (or northern) sea lion is the largest member of the family Otariidae, the 'eared seals,' which includes all sea lions and fur seals
Police, firefighters and scientists, above, were all involved in the effort to get it safely back to the ocean after it waddled out of the water and got lost
The stranded 1,700lb male Stellar sea lion was first spotted sitting by the side of a road in a a residential area by a bewildered motorist
On September 2, scientists tweeted: NOAA is asking the public to clear the area in Sitka where a male Stellar sea lion is in distress, and is hiding in the woods; the incident is drawing onlookers.
Please, for your own safety and the well-being of the animal, if you are in the area, leave.
Police, firefighters and scientists were all involved in the effort to get it safely back to the ocean after it waddled out of the water and got lost.
Volunteer firefighters sprayed water on the sea lion, to try and coax it back to the ocean - to no avail
But this method ended up scaring the sea lion, which then tried to make an escape
The sea lion started heading for the woods to escape from the large group trying to help him
The Steller (or northern) sea lion is the largest member of the family Otariidae, the eared seals, which includes all sea lions and fur seals.
Local law enforcement cautioned drivers in the area and started the delicate process of trying to coax the sea lion back to the ocean using a hose.
But their efforts were unsuccessful because the animal had become stressed and dehydrated.
On September 3 - four days after the sea lion was first spotted - rescuers made the decision to sedate it and transport it back to Sitka Harbor.
The dehydrated creature then took refuge under trees, prompting the above tweet from NOAA Fisheries for members of the public to 'stay clear' of the area
The mammoth creature was knocked out by a NOAA vet using a dart and rolled onto the barrel of a digger, before being placed on the back of a pick-up truck.
NOAA spokesperson Julie Speegle said the snoozing sea lion was given medication to counteract the sedatives and was carefully monitored in the ocean after its release.
Despite its ordeal, the mammal was munching on a fish moments after jumping into the harbor's waves from the University of Southeast Alaska boat ramp.
A decision was made to sedate the mammoth sea lion, and roll him onto the front-end loader
He was taken directly to the ocean, where scientists kept a close watch on him
After a four-day effort, the sea lion was successfully returned to the ocean in Sitka Harbor
Speegle said: 'We tried to coax the sea lion in the right direction towards the water with a fire hose.
'It worked for a little while, he was going the right way, but when he got to a road, he just veered into the woods.
'He's an adult male and weighs about 1,700lbs so there was no moving him manually.
'At this point he was tired and dehydrated.
'We decided to let him calm down; he was frightened and confused. He seemed stressed because obviously he was looking for the ocean.'
He spent Sunday night under the cover of the woods, 'but he wasn't budging', Speegle said.
'On Monday, our vet came down and at 1pm they managed to sedate him using a dart.
'It was then that they were able to use a front loader and a truck to transport him back to the harbor.
'We watched him for a few hours to make sure everything was okay, but the first thing he did was eat a fish so that was a really good sign,' Speegle added.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries experts watched as he ate his first fish. The video of his release, top, was filmed by Cindy Bonner Duncan
Stellar sea lions feed on cod, herring, pollock and salmon, along with octopus and squid.
Sitka Volunteer Fire Department, which sprayed water on the creature, posted a video of its return to the ocean on Facebook.
Local residents were happy to see the sea lion had been successfully rescued, with one person commenting: Lucky! Stay away from the killer whales.
Scientists involved in the rescue said it was unclear why the sea lion had ventured so far from the shore, but NOAA is keeping a close eye on the adventurous animal.
Speegle said: 'We collected some scat for analysis to check his overall health and we fitted him with a satellite tag so we can track his location.
'We are involved in a lot of rescues but this situation was out of the ordinary for sure.'
Facebook chief Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter boss Jack Dorsey become the latest tech executives to get a grilling from Congress over foreign manipulation Tuesday, where angry Republicans also probe them on President Donald Trump's charges of bias.
The pair appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee as Russian election meddling continues to loom over Congress with the mid-terms just two months away and the value of both company stocks took an immediate dive.
Twitter's stock plunged 6 per cent during Dorsey's testimony. By early afternoon, it was off 5 per cent.
Early in the hearing, panel vice chair Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said regulation is in the cards.
'Congress is going to have to take action here,' said Warner, who was a telecomm investor before he came to Congress. 'The era of the Wild West in social media is coming to an end,' he said.
Sworn in: Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's COO and second-most senior executive, and Jack Dorsey, Twitter's CEO and co-founder, take the oath before being questioned by senators on the Intelligence Committee
Facebook's stock was down nearly 2 per cent at the start of the hearing.
Some lawmakers immediately took shots at another tech giant, Google, who wasn't there. The firm, the subject of recent complaints by Trump about supposed anti-conservative bias in search programs was represented by an empty chair next to its tech competitors.
Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio said executives 'don't want to be here to answer these questions,' then posited: 'Maybe because they're arrogant.'
Google's parent company Alphabet was also down almost 2 per cent.
President Trump warned last week the firms were 'treading on very, very troubled territory and they have to be careful.'
Twitter shares were down 6 per cent in trading during Dorsey's testimony, CNBC reported.
Trump has called Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe a 'witch hunt,' but the intelligence community has concluded that the Kremlin orchestrated efforts to manipulate social media platforms to try to sway the electorate and sow divisions.
The firms said shoring up defenses for their platforms was a 'national security priority.'
Sandberg compared the effort to stay ahead of would-be manipulators overseas to an arms race.
'We are more determined than our opponents and we will keep fighting,' she said.
Senators wanted Larry Page, the chief executive officer of Google's parent company Alphabet, to testify. The company instead offered Google's senior vice president for global affairs and chief legal officer Kent Walker, who lawmakers said was not senior enough to answer their questions.
Senators left an empty chair for Google after the company declined to send an executive the lawmakers deemed senior enough to testify
Testifying: Jack Dorsey and Sherly Sandberg are testifying on election interference and their preparations for the mid-terms with less than two months until voting
Big event: The Senate committee room was packed for the evidence from the Facebook and Twitter leaders
Making his point: Alex Jones of Infowars held an impromptu press conference outside the committee hearing where Sheryl Sandberg and Jack Dorsey were being quizzed on Facebook and Twitter's election security
Banned: Alex Jones of Infowars, who has been kicked off Twitter, was in the audience for the hearing and had interrupted a live CNBC broadcast just beforehand
Walker said he will be submitting written testimony to the committee and will be in Washington to brief lawmakers on Google's efforts to combat possible foreign influence operations.
Trump has upped his criticism of social media firms, accusing them of interfering in both the 2016 and 2018 elections.
'I think they already have,' he told the Daily Caller in an interview published Wednesday.
He then switched to 2016, where special counsel Robert Mueller has been probing Russian interference to harm Democrat Hillary Clinton and boost Trump.
'I mean the true interference in the last election was that if you look at all, virtually all of those companies are super liberal companies in favor of Hillary Clinton,' Trump said.
He continued, without providing any concrete evidence: 'Maybe I did a better job because I'm good with the Twitter and I'm good at social media, but the truth is they were all on Hillary Clinton's side, and if you look at what was going on with Facebook and with Google and all of it, they were very much on her side,' Trump said.
The execs are defending their companies against lawmakers who say they aren't doing enough combat continuing foreign efforts to influence American politics.
Sandberg, who will testify alongside Dorsey, will acknowledge to the Senate Intelligence Committee that the company was too slow to respond to Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election and American society, but insist it is doing better.
'That's on us,' she wrote in prepared testimony released by Facebook. 'This interference was completely unacceptable. It violated the values of our company and of the country we love.'
Sandberg says the platform is 'now blocking millions of attempts to register false accounts each and every day' and is 'making progress on fake news.'
'As these past few weeks and months have shown, this work is starting to pay off.'
She said the accounts are taken down if they are foreign or domestic.
Dorsey, who broke with tradition and did not wear a tie to testify, said Twitter is identify 8 to 10 million suspicious accounts every week.
Dorsey, in prepared testimony for a House committee, pushes back on the allegations of bias.
'Let me be clear about one important and foundational fact: Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules,' he plans to say.
'We believe strongly in being impartial, and we strive to enforce our rules impartially. We do not shadowban anyone based on political ideology. In fact, from a simple business perspective and to serve the public conversation, Twitter is incentivized to keep all voices on the platform,' he will tell the Energy and Commerce Committee.
'We've removed hundreds of pages and accounts involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior - meaning they misled others about who they were and what they were doing,' Sandberg said in written testimony released on Tuesday.
Warner said questions remain on where the tech companies will go moving forward and that will likely require Congressional action.
'Each of you have come a long way with respect to recognizing the threat,' he said. 'The bad news, I'm afraid, is that there is a lot of work still to do. And I'm skeptical that, ultimately, you'll be able to truly address this challenge on your own. Congress is going to have to take action here.'
'The era of the Wild West in social media is coming to an end,' he said. 'Where we go from here is an open question.'
'I mean the true interference in the last election was that if you look at all, virtually all of those companies are super liberal companies in favor of Hillary Clinton,' President Trump told the Daily Caller, diminishing conclusions of Russian interference
Facebook, Twitter 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.
Their executives have traveled to Washington several times to testify in Congress, including 10 hours of questioning of Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg over two days in April.
The Senate Intelligence Committee has been looking into Russian efforts to influence U.S. public opinion throughout Trump's presidency, after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that entities backed by the Kremlin had sought to boost his chances of winning the White House in 2016.
Moscow denies involvement, and Trump - backed by some of his fellow Republicans in Congress - has repeatedly dismissed investigations of the issue as a partisan witch hunt or hoax.
Some Republicans have also charged social media companies with bias against Trump and other conservatives.
Twitter's Dorsey was to follow his Senate testimony on Wednesday morning with an appearance at an afternoon hearing looking at that issue in the House of Representatives.
Here to reassure: Jack Dorsey and Sheryl Sandberg are trying to convince senators on the Intelligence Committee that their social networks are ready for the midterms
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg acknowledged the company was too slow to respond to Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election
Dorsey will tell the House Energy and Commerce Committee that Twitter 'does not use political ideology to make any decisions,' according to written testimony also made public on Tuesday.
Trump faulted Twitter on July 26, without citing any evidence, for limiting the visibility of prominent Republicans through a practice known as shadow banning.
Last week Trump accused Google's search engine of promoting negative news articles and hiding 'fair media' coverage of him, vowing to address the situation without providing evidence or giving details of action he might take.
Republicans control majorities in both the Senate and House, but the House's approach to the election issue has been far more partisan than in the Senate.
In the Senate, both the Republican Intelligence Committee chairman, Richard Burr, and Democratic vice chairman, Mark Warner, said they called Wednesday's hearing to press the social media companies to do more.
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.
The mother of a Belgian executive who fell to his death in Moscow has claimed he was murdered by assassins who 'knocked him out and threw him out of the window'.
Research scientist Bruno Charles De Cooman plunged from a high-rise apartment building close to the Kremlin in the Russian capital last week.
Russian officials are working on the premise he took his own life - but Belgian police have asked to speak to their Moscow counterparts as they launch their own probe.
De Cooman's family has voiced suspicion about the circumstances surrounding his death and his mother, Marie Madeline Meunier, has said she believes her son, believed to have been 59, was killed by people who were waiting for him upstairs.
The mother of a Belgian executive who fell to his death in Moscow has claimed he was murdered by assassins who 'knocked him out and threw him out of the window'. Bruno Charles De Cooman, from Belgium, was named as the new VP for Research and Development at NLMK a year ago
She told Belgian broadcaster RTL that her son left work unusually around noon and asked his driver to wait for him below the entrance to the building, saying he would not take long.
'They knocked him out and threw him out the window,' she told VTM television, a Flemish network. 'I want to know the truth and it's in the hands of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin,' she said.
Belgium's federal prosecutor's office said it has opened a routine investigation into the fall, which happened at a 12-storey building on the embankment on the opposite side of the Moskva river from the Kremlin.
Eric Van Der Sypt, spokesman for Belgian federal prosecutors, said there is no reason at this point to doubt the approach of Russian officials, who are reportedly working on the premise he killed himself and are not treating it as a criminal case.
'We opened an investigation because it was a violent death,' Van Der Sypt told AFP.
Dr De Cooman was found on the street below this block of flats in Moscow - not far from the Kremlin
'We will contact the Russian investigators. We have a cooperation agreement with the prosecutors in Moscow,' he said.
'We'll see what they see in their files,' he added. 'We're trying to gather as much information as possible.
'The driver is Belgian. It seems logical to us that we talk to the driver when he returns home. But we have no idea when,' Van Der Sypt added.
Russian news media quoted the driver as saying he saw De Cooman falling from the eighth-floor floor window of the building on Serafimovich Street on the opposite side of the Moskva river from the Kremlin.
De Cooman, a former professor at the University of Ghent in Belgium, had been vice president of research and development at the Russian group Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) since 2017.
'Bruno De Cooman's death is an enormous loss for the Group and the entire sector, for his friends and family,' said Grigory Fedorishin, NLMK Group President.
'He has made an invaluable contribution to the development of global steelmaking through product innovation.'
Meunier said Belgian investigators must interview the driver and obtain her son's phone to study his call log.
TASS news agency quoted a source as saying no traces of a struggle were found during a preliminary search of the businessman's flat.
Russia's investigative committee declined to comment when an AFP journalist phoned staff on Tuesday for more information in the case.
A source close to the case told TASS that Russian investigators were working on the premise that De Cooman committed suicide.
However, several Russian media outlets said no suicide note was found.
NLMK is owned by Vladimir Lisin who Forbes lists as one of Russia's wealthiest oligarchs. The group employs about 2,500 people in Europe, with about 1,000 in Belgium.
A furious mum has blasted jewellery retailer Claire's Accessories after her daughter, 7, was hospitalised when the back of her earring got stuck in her ear - and had to have it scooped out using a scalpel.
Enraged Suzie Nisbet claims when Lily's ears were pierced she was assured by staff at the high street retailer that she could safely change her earrings after just three weeks - providing their own-brand cleaning solution was used regularly.
Suzie, 39, said that despite religiously cleaning her ears three times a day for a month with the 15 lotion, the schoolgirl was left screaming in agony from the pain in her right ear after changing her earrings.
Suzie Nisbet with her seven-year-old daughter Lily who was hospitalised after an earring she was wearing, bought at Claire's Accessories, became embedded in her ear
Lily breathing gas and air as she had the earring removed in hospital
Lily had the earring removed under local anaesthetic to extract the embedded earring back
Suzie Nisbet with the Claire's Accessories own-brand cleaning solution used to clean her daughter's ears
Convinced the butterfly back had fallen off as Lily slept, Suzie spent three days tugging at the piercing in a bid to take the earring out and thoroughly clean it.
However a nurse family friend visiting for lunch a week after she changed her earrings took one look at Lily's ear and advised them to get it checked out, suspecting the back had become embedded under the skin and the ear infected.
Lily spent four hours at The Princess Alexandra Hospital's A&E department in Harlow, Essex, last Thursday on gas and air and under local anaesthetic to extract the embedded earring back.
The schoolgirl was in that much pain it took two nurses, one to remove it and one to hold her down, to successfully get it out.
Claire's Accessories claim the lotion is thoroughly tested and that three weeks of use is an appropriate and approved length of time. They advise customers to seek medical advice if any redness, swelling or pain occurs.
Right: Lily at home with a plaster on her ear after the earring extraction. Left: the earrings she bought from Claire's Accessories
Receptionist Suzie from Harlow said: 'I'm really furious with Claire's Accessories. I trusted them as a global brand when they said the earrings could be changed in three weeks and then this happens.
'In hospital there was nothing I could do for Lily, all I could do was hold her hand and try to make her giggle. I felt so helpless, I just felt like crying.
'I felt so guilty as I was the one who'd taken her there to get them done. If I could have gone through it for her, I would have done.'
Mum-of-three Suzie took Lily to the Harlow branch of the chain on August 1 to see whether they had time to get her ears pierced before going back to school - believing she would need six weeks' healing time.
Lily is pictured here with her family after getting her ears pierced at Claire's Accesories
But little Lily was thrilled when they were told that she could safely take them out in as little as three weeks if she used a special cleaning solution.
Suzie said: 'The school she goes to doesn't tolerate any piercings, they're strict like that, so her ears needed to be healed by the time she went back to school.
'I didn't think we'd have time before then but I said I'd ask.
'I was told that with this particular solution they would be healed within three weeks. I did think it was quick, but I didn't question it as Claire's is a reputable store and I trusted them.
'Lily was absolutely delighted. She's a real girly girl and was on top of the world when she had them done as she'd wanted them pierced for such a long time.
'She was very proud of them and loved showing them off. I also bought three pairs of sterling silver earrings for her to put in when she could change them, she was thrilled.'
Suzie claims she diligently cleaned the piercings with the Rapid Aftercare Lotion every morning, lunchtime and before Lily went to bed and said they looked fine when the first set of earrings came out on August 22.
It was approximately a week after that, that her right ear showed sign of infection.
Suzie said: 'We regularly cleaned it as we'd been told to and it looked absolutely fine, no sign of infection at all.
'Three weeks to the day after she got her ears pierced, Lily was keeping count, she really wanted to put a new pair of earrings in.
'On the day we took them out they looked ok, they weren't weeping, so we put the new ones in.
'About a week after that she came downstairs complaining that it felt weird and we noticed there was some weeping.
'We didn't think it was possible for the back to get stuck in her ear due to the size of it and searched her bed to try and find it.
'I couldn't push the earring back or forwards, it was absolutely horrible.
'She was screaming every time I tried to remove it, at this point I didn't realise the back was still in there, I thought the lump was an infection.
'My friend who's a nurse came round for lunch. She took one look at her ear and said it was the back of her earring in her ear.
'I felt absolutely terrible, so guilty, as I'd spent three days trying to tug it out.'
Left, Lily pictured in hospital and right with her dad Mark and mother Suzie
Suzie who lives with husband Mark Nisbet, a civil servant and son Charlie Nisbet, 9, took Lily to A&E at 11am last Thursday.
Suzie said: 'She's a really healthy kid and has not even been on antibiotics before. She was given gas and air and some numbing cream but they were unable to get it out.
'It took another more senior nurse, who was so lovely and put her at ease, to get the thing out.
'They gave her a local anaesthetic and then she was just puffing away on gas and air. They had to get another nurse in to hold her down as Lily kept trying to swipe her away. They tried to prise it out but it wasn't coming.
'At that point they said it was too embedded and that she would need to use a scalpel. Those 20 minutes felt like four hours, it was so traumatising for us all.
'When the needle went into her ear it obviously really hurt her as it was so sensitive and she screamed out. She was then properly crying too, it was horrendous.
'When the anaesthetic kicked in the nurse got the scalpel and had to re-open the wound and pop it out.
'She just threw it into this bowl then the front came out and that was it. They then cleaned it up and put a plaster on it, thankfully it didn't need stitches, and has healed really well.
'It was horrific watching her go through such agony.
'My son Charlie was with us. They normally fight like cat and dog and but he held her hand throughout it, he was so sweet.'
Suzie, whose eldest son Craig Nisbet, 20, is at university in Dublin, has vowed never to step foot in a Claire's Accessories store again and is now urging the chain not to encourage customers to change lobe piercings in just three weeks.
Suzie said: 'Lily is normally a chatterbox but after she had the earring out she was very quiet and reserved, I think she was in shock.
'She's back to her normal self but she's adamant she's not getting her ears pierced again anytime soon.
'This was bad advice given by a name I trusted. I don't know why they are pushing the three-week healing process guidelines. A piercing is a wound and needs at least six weeks to heal.
'I feel very disappointed in Claire's Accessories - we were such good customers but not any more.'
Lily lying on a hospital bed after the earring got lodged in her ear
Lily, who had her 7th birthday party at Claire's Accessories earlier this year, said that she wanted to make sure no-one else had the same experience as her.
Lily said: 'I wanted my ears pierced because all my friends and family have them done and I wanted to join in and look like them.
'I woke up one morning and my ear started to feel like it was vibrating, it felt really sore and yucky. It was really painful, it was hot and sore. Hospital was really weird and scary, I was worried they were going to cut off my ear.
'I will leave getting my ears pierced until I'm older.'
A spokesman for Claire's Accessories, an ear piercing specialist, said: 'Our piercing procedure and all of our piercing instruments, supplies and earrings are designed to promote the safest and most hygienic piercing experience.
'The rapid after care lotion is dermatologist and paediatrician tested for the effective care of the pierced ear. Three weeks of use is an appropriate and approved length of time.
'The Rapid lotion is safe and allergy tested and it's soothing formula is skin friendly.
'If undue pain / swelling / redness occurs at any time, seek medical advice immediately. Do not remove studs before the relevant medical advice.'
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan has revealed he helped secure an Argentinian polo player's visa application who was a 'friend of a friend', before saving a French au pair who worked for his second cousin Callum McLachlan.
The AFL head is giving evidence to a Senate committee over lobbying Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to save au pair Alexandre Deuwel.
He told the inquiry on Wednesday he asked the AFL's head of government relations Jude Donnelly - a former Liberal staffer - to check on a business visa application for the polo player in 2014.
Scroll down for video
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan has revealed he helped secure a visa application for an Argentinian polo player who was a 'friend of a friend'
McLachlan saved French au pair Alexandra Deuwel (pictured), who worked for his second cousin Callum McLachlan. He referred the case to Peter Dutton who overturned deportation
Callum McLachlan contacted his relative, who directed Ms Donnelly to forward an email from him to the minister's chief-of-staff.
Ms Donnelly said she asked a former colleague in then Prime Minister Tony Abbott's office about the status of the application and was told it had already been approved and was being processed.
The AFL boss said: 'I was contacted by someone who was waiting on a business visa, a friend of a friend, who was wanting to come into the country who had language issues.
'I asked Ms Donnelly to understand whether the visa had been approved or not.'
Ms Donnelly's request was made when Scott Morrison was immigration minister - but Mr Morrison said he had no recollection of the matter.
In a separate case revealed by leaked secret documents and emails, French woman Alexandra Deuwel was detained at Adelaide airport in October 2015 after admitting she intended to work in breach of her tourist visa for the AFL boss' second cousin.
Mr Dutton then overturned departmental advice, allowing Ms Deuwel to stay in the country on a tourist visa.
Mr McLachlan told the inquiry on Wednesday he asked the AFL's head of government relations Jude Donnelly (right) - a former Liberal staffer - to check on a business visa application for the polo player in 2014.
The Department of Home Affairs has referred the leak to the Australian Federal Police.
The Home Affair minister, who has stepped in to make visitor visa decisions just 25 times, told reporters he had received 9000 requests for intervention on visa matters from MPs and senators alone.
Migration agent Eve Watts also appeared at Wednesday's inquiry, revealing she struggled to see any public interest in granting the foreign au pairs a visa.
A young boy has been reunited with his mother after she woke from a coma following a horror car crash which killed two people.
Rachel Elliott, 25, was thrown from a Peugeot 306 which ploughed into a wall and lamppost at 3.30am in Bundoran, Ireland, on August 19.
The driver of the vehicle, carrying six adults, lost control and two 20-year-olds, Shiva Devine and Conall McAleer, were killed. Two others were seriously injured.
Following surgery at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, young mum Rachel was put into an induced coma.
Heartwarming pictures posted on Snapchat by Rachel's sister Donna showed the moment she was reunited with son Ronnie
The mother-of-one was placed in a medically-induced coma after a horror car crash in Bundoran, Ireland on August 19
But emotional pictures taken from the hospital on Tuesday show the moment Rachel was finally reunited with her son Ronnie after waking up from the coma.
Rachel's sister Donna wrote on Facebook: 'I've a very happy nephew on his way to see his mummy. Said he is going to see give u pink medicine to make u feel better.
She later added: 'Mother and son time. To say the least they were very happy to be reunited. Very emotional day..we love u xx.'
According to doctors Rachel has suffered life-changing injuries to her brain, back and pelvis.
Son Ronnie brought his mother a horde of gifts as he saw her for the first time since the accident
Six people were said to have been in the car at the time of the accident, with two killed and two others seriously injured
Her family previously revealed they were going through 'a living nightmare'.
'It's heart-wrenching seeing her there and you can't do anything,' Donna told the Impartial Reporter.
'We just want her to pull through, we need her to pull through. She has to pull through for her wee boy Ronnie.
'We are numb, it is a living nightmare. We don't know if she will make it, it's waiting game for us. We don't have any answers.'
Rachel was said to have sustained life-changing injuries to her brain, back and pelvis in the crash
A couple who earned two million airline points by signing up to dozens of credit cards are now traveling the world 'for free'.
Chad and Hannah Janis, 25, who met while studying in Utah, moved to New York in 2017 and began working on Wall Street.
Together the couple earned $225,000 in their 12 months in banking, but say their jobs were always intended as a means to an end.
After spending a year signing up to - and using - 26 different credit cards, they will be able to fly to 40 countries, in business class, by using their earned airline points.
Credit card scheme: The married couple signed up to dozens of credit cards in order to earn the sign-up bonus points to use for flights
On the journey: The couple have now began their round-the-world trip which will see them fly to 40 different countries using their saved-up airline points
Courtesy of Hannah and Chad
The couple estimate that they have saved $84,000 in travel expenses.
'After earning over two million airline points in the last year, we quit our finance jobs, sold our stuff, and are taking off,' the Janises wrote on their Instagram last week.
'Our tickets are already booked entirely with points, and we are headed out for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to over 40 countries in business class for free.'
The couple told news.com.au that the key to their success was understanding how to be able to get a credit card's signup bonus by spending just enough money to hit the 'minimum spend requirement'.
Big saver: The couple estimate that they have saved $84,000 in travel expenses
'We've already booked out the next eight months of free flights, the majority of which were through Singapore Airlines' business class round-the-world offering (240,000 points per person),' Mr Janis told the website.
'From there, we used the points we earned with other airlines through our cards' sign-up bonuses to book ancillary, 'shorter' flight tickets such as our flight from Auckland, New Zealand to Vava'u, Tonga, and many others.
'We also have several hundred thousand points with hotel programs.
The couple have now launched their own website Wall Street Minimalists, where they outline how they earned their two million points in 12 months using their first 26 credit cards.
Some of the cards they opened were linked to hotel groups, such as a Chase Marriot Rewards credit card which saw them 'save' $6,000 by getting a weeklong stay at a Marriott resort in Fiji.
Ross Kemp previously said Birmingham was 'more shocking than war-torn Afghanistan', and donning the same body armour as he did in Hellman's province the former Eastenders star took to the streets of the UK's second city to speak to members some of Britain's biggest gangs.
The TV hardman, 54, discovers a sawn-off shotgun when he joins West Midlands Police's tactical firearms unit for a raid in Billesley, Birmingham as part of an ITV documentary: Ross Kemp And The Armed Police.
In a shocking clip released ahead of tonight's show, a gang member tells Kemp he felt 'empowered' the first time he got his hands on a gun aged just 15.
He adds that children as young as 12 are getting involved in firearms as 'it's easy to turn a child into a killer'.
The gangster then boasts to Kemp he can make one phone call and get him a new gun in a few minutes'.
The thug goes on to criticise the police and says the UK is going to 'become like America with more guns on the street and more police'.
He continues 'I was locked up as a child for nothing. The police aren't squeaky clean'.
In the show, which airs tonight, he also speaks to an arms smuggler, who makes 500,000 a week, that tells him the lack of police on the streets is making life too easy for the gangs.
Shockingly, the gang member actually tells Kemp there should be more police on the streets.
The Office Of National Statistics confirmed last year that the West Midlands had 'the highest rate of non-air firearm offences per 1100,000 population' in the UK and in this week alone there have been 12 stabbings in the city.
In a shocking clip released ahead of tonight's show, a gang member tells Kemp he felt 'empowered' the first time he got his hands on a gun aged just 15
In March, Kemp said: 'I am making a documentary about our armed response units and counter terrorist units armed police across the UK...
'[I'm asking] do we have enough to meet the threat that is now posed to us?
'Not only by terrorists but also by the increase in the use of hand guns by drugs gangs... [I] wear the same body armour that I wore in Syria on the streets of Birmingham.'
The man who identifies as a member of 'one of Birmingham's biggest gangs' says that children as young as 12 are getting involved in firearms as 'it's easy to turn a child into a killer'
Kemp's father was a Detective Chief Inspector with the Metropolitan Police and carried a gun, he says in the documentary that his father 'wouldn't trust a lot of the people he worked alongside with a sharp pencil, let alone a firearm.'
The documentary maker also expresses his concern that the UK is heading towards a state where all police carry guns.
Armed officers on UK streets has increased by 1,500 in the last two years, in response to an increased terror threat but there are 20,000 fewer police on the street compared to eight years ago due to government cuts.
The thug goes on to criticise the police and says the UK is going to 'become like America with more guns on the street and more police
Advertisement
The movements of the two Russian agents during their 55-hour whistlestop trip to the UK were set out in painstaking detail by Scotland Yard today.
Novichok suspects Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov arrived in the UK on a Friday afternoon on Friday March 2 and, after two nights in a budget hotel in east London, flew back to Russia on the evening of Sunday March 4.
On the Saturday, the day before the attack, they carried out a reconnaissance trip to Salisbury before returning to London.
On the Sunday, they took another train to Salisbury and are thought to have smeared the Novichok on Mr Skripal's front door.
That afternoon they returned to London and flew from Heathrow hours after the Skripals were found collapsed in a park.
Here MailOnline sets out their movements during their three days in southern England...
The suspects flew in from Moscow two days before the attack and flew out again on the evening the Novichok was planted
On the Sunday, they took another train to Salisbury and are thought to have smeared the Novichok on Mr Skripal's front door
Friday, 2 March: 3pm: The suspects arrive at Gatwick airport, having flown from Moscow on Aeroflot flight SU2588. The first CCTV image shows the man we know as 'Petrov' and 'Boshirov' arriving through security.
The first CCTV image shows the man we know as 'Petrov' (left) and 'Boshirov' (right) arriving at London Gatwick airport at 4.22pm on March 2
Friday, March 2 5.40pm: After travelling into London by train, the pair arrive at Victoria station.
6pm: They travelled to Waterloo station, where they were seen between 6pm and 7pm.
7pm: The pair then travelled to the City Stay Hotel in Bow Road, East London, where they stayed on the night of the Friday, 2 March.
The two Russian suspects spent the night at the City Stay Hotel in Bow, east London. Police officers stand guard outside the two star 48 hotel today
Saturday, 3 March: 11am: They left the hotel and took the underground to Waterloo station, arriving at approximately 11.45am.
2.25pm: Having caught a train to Salisbury from Waterloo, they arrive in the cathedral city, the day before the attack.
4.11pm: After carrying out what police believe was reconnaissance of the Salisbury area, they were spotted at Salisbury train station waiting to return to London.
Both of the suspects are spotted at Salsibury train station on Saturday, where authorities believe they are carrying out reconnaissance mission
8.05pm: They return to their hotel in Bow and stay there for the night.
Sunday, 4 March: 8am: They made the same journey from the hotel, again using the underground from Bow to Waterloo station before continuing their journey by train to Salisbury.
11.48am: CCTV images of the suspects show the pair arriving in Salisbury train station.
The pair are pictured at Salisbury train station at 11.48am, on the day the Skripals were poisoned
Pictured: Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov walking on Wilton Road, Salisbury, on March 4 at 11.58am - just moments before the attack, authorities say
1.05pm: Around an hour after being spotted on Wilton Road, they were seen walking down Fisherton Road, Salisbury.
1.08pm: Three minutes later, they were caught on CCTV walking on Fisherton road again.
Around an hour after being spotted on Wilton Road, they were seen walking down Fisherton Road, Salisbury
The two suspects again spotted on Fisherton road at 1.08pm on Sunday, March 4
1.50pm: Both suspects seen at Salisbury train station.
Suspects seen at Salisbury train station at 1.50pm on the day of the poisoning, ready to return back to London
4.45pm: They arrived back at Waterloo station after catching a train from Salisbury.
6.30pm: They boarded the London Underground to London Heathrow Airport.
7.28pm: Suspects spotted passing through passport control at Heathrow Airport with their luggage.
A doctor has sued a WhatsApp group admin after he became fed up with 'annoying messages wasting my time'.
The medic, based in Saudi Arabia, filed a lawsuit against the individual complaining that he was being sent 'useless' messages.
He found out he had been added to the forum on returning from Hajj, an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, according to local media.
The unnamed man is quoted as saying: 'They kept sending useless, annoying messages and wasted my time.'
A doctor has sued a WhatsApp group admin after he became fed up with 'annoying messages wasting my time'
He is said to have made the complaint after tracking what had been sent through to him during a 24 hour period.
However, legal experts in the country have warned that the case could end up being dismissed, StepFeed reports.
'If he doesn't prove he suffered anything negative because he was added to the WhatsApp group, a judge might dismiss the case,' Saudi lawyer Khaled Abou Rashed told Okaz newspaper.
According to StepFeed, the reaction to his complaint has been mixed among social media users in Saudi Arabia.
One asked: 'He doesn't have time for WhatsApp but has time to sue someone?'
Another questioned why the man had not simply just left the group.
The EU's chief Brexit negotiator said Theresa May's controversial Chequers proposal is dead in the water, an MP today revealed.
Labour MP Stephen Kinnock said Michel Barnier tore into the plan in his native French tongue.
Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab, who was appearing in front of the EU scrutiny select committee today, angrily demanded to know more details, saying: 'I want to be clear if it is your characterisation?'
But Mr Kinnock said that Mr Barnier had told the meeting 'Les propositions sont mortes' - which translates as 'the proposals are dead'.
The revelations are a major blow for the PM, who is scrambling to try to get the EU and her own MPs to back her plan - with just 43 days to go to a crunch EU summit which was supposes to decide on it.
Her plans sparked a major outcry among Tory members and triggered the resignations of David Davis and Boris Johnson.
Today's remarks in the select committee came after Mrs May told MPs in PMQs that Chequers is the only deal on the table.
Labour MP Stephen Kinnock (pictured today in Parliament for the select committee hearing) said Michel Barnier tore into the plan in his native French tongue
Dominic Raab (pictured today in Parliament, left, alongside the PM's chief Brexit adviser Olly Robbins) angrily demanded to know more details, saying: I want to be clear if it is your characterisation?
Stephen Kinnock said the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier (pictured meeting with Dominic Raab last month in Brussels) said he made the comments at a public meeting
Mrs May said: 'What we're doing is negotiating a Brexit deal that will deliver for this country, deliver on the vote of the British people, and that will ensure we do so protecting jobs, maintaining our union and ensuring no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.'
Mr Raab and the PM's chief Brexit negotiator Olly Robbins faced a wave of criticism from MPs in the select committee hearing over the Chequers plan.
Ex Brexit Minster David Jones said the Government is 'flogging a dead horse' while Tory MP and committee chairman Bill Cash said: Would you advise the Prime Minster to put Chequers out of its - misery its now effectively dead and satisfies virtually no one.
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
Earlier today, the Prime Minister used the first parliamentary showdown after the summer holidays to challenge Jeremy Corbyn to rule out support for a second referendum on Brexit.
She twice asked the Labour leader to join her in ruling out a re-run of the 2016 vote but received no reply.
Instead Mr Corbyn lashed for 'dancing round the issues' in a quip about her much mocked performances on her Africa tour last week.
The Labour leader said Mrs May has no plausible Brexit plan, highlighting Mervyn's King's accusation the negotiation was 'incompetent' today.
And he warned the PM 'no deal is a bad deal' in a scene setter for a crucial few weeks in the Brexit talks.
In other developments today, a rival Brexit blueprint emerged promoted by Eurosceptics based on Canada's free trade deal model.
It was claimed former Brexit Secretary David Davis may endorse the plan with a foreword, leading to hopes Boris Johnson could adopt it were he to follow through on rumours he wants to seize No 10.
Mrs May said: 'We will not have a second referendum. He should stand up and rule out a second referendum.'
Mr Corbyn later mocked Mrs May for dancing during her recent Africa trade mission, telling the PM that she 'can't keep dancing round all the issues' over Brexit.
Mrs May shook her head before laughing at the remark.
Mr Corbyn went on: 'It seems that Panasonic have taken the cue and decided to dance off altogether - they're relocating out of this country.
'Could the Prime Minister tell the House how many other companies have been in touch with her or her ministerial team and told her privately that they intend to relocate in the absence of a serious, sensible deal with the European Union?'
Mrs May said businesses have 'shown confidence' in the economy before reeling off a list of investment projects.
She added Mr Corbyn had given mixed messages over trade deals and free movement, claiming: 'He can't even agree with himself on his own position.'
Theresa May (pictured today at PMQs) challenged Jeremy Corbyn to rule out support for a second referendum on Brexit in an angry first PMQs of a stormy autumn
The Prime Minister twice asked the Labour leader to join her in ruling out a re-run of the 2016 vote but received no reply
Instead Jeremy Corbyn (pictured today at PMQs) lashed the PM for 'dancing round the issues' in a quip about her much mocked performances on her Africa tour last week.
Trade expert Shanker Singham, of the Institute of Economic Affairs, is the author of the rumoured 14-page alternative Brexit plan, City AM revealed today.
Sources told the paper the document contains detailed proposals for resolving the Irish border issue; stresses the need for full regulatory autonomy, with full control over tariffs and trade deals; outlines policies to boost the UK's attractiveness and competitiveness; and slams the UK's negotiators for failing to bat off 'EU obstructionism' in the course of talks so far.
It was claimed former Brexit Secretary David Davis may endorse an alternative Brexit blueprint with a foreword
Earlier this week Brexiteer ringleader Jacob Rees-Mogg said he and top EU negotiator Michel Barnier agreed that Chequers 'is absolute rubbish'
Former foreign secretary Mr Johnson - many Brexiteers favoured choice to depose Mrs May - has also demanded the Government 'chuck Chequers'.
The PMQs clash came after former Bank of England Governor Lord King today derided the Government's 'incompetent' preparations for no deal.
He said the failure to properly prepare for the talks with Brussels had left Britain on track for 'Brexit in name only'.
Lord King, who backed Brexit, said the last-minute preparations for a no-deal Brexit had left Britain without a credible bargaining position.
He made the comments after ministers confirmed efforts were under way to stockpile medicines and ensure an 'adequate' food supply if talks fail.
Former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King (file image) today derided the Government's 'incompetent' preparations for no deal
Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab insisted to MPs yesterday that Britain was ready 'deal or no deal'.
Lord King told the BBC: 'Frankly, if a government cannot take action to prevent some of these catastrophic outcomes, whatever position you take on the EU, it illustrates a whole lack of preparation.
'It doesn't tell us anything about whether the policy of staying in the EU is good or bad, it tells us everything about the incompetence of the preparation for it.'
Brexit in name only would leave Britain closely linked to the EU after leaving, a state Brexiteers say would leave it subject to EU rules but unable to reap the benefits of a full divorce.
Asked if that meant the Government had been incompetent, Lord King said: 'The group of people tasked with trying to make decisions on all of this is Parliament as a whole not just the Government, and the civil service, who have brought us to a position where we are now being told that we have to accept a certain course of action otherwise it would be catastrophic.
Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab insisted to MPs yesterday (pictured) that Britain was ready 'deal or no deal'
'Now, it beggars belief that the sixth biggest economy in the world should get itself into that position.'
Lord King, who was in charge of the UK's central bank from 2003 until 2013, said that credible plans should have been put in place to leave without a deal because Britain cannot impose a deal on the EU.
However he warned that such plans can not be drawn up in six months and would take several years.
Lord King said he feared biggest risk to the UK was that the referendum had failed to resolve the issue of Brexit and it 'isn't going to go away'.
Kim Kardashian has revealed she is working with the White House to free another convicted felon.
In June, the superstar celebrated freeing Alice Johnson, a 63-year-old from Tennessee who was sentenced to life in prison in 1996 on non-violent drug charges.
President Trump commuted her sentence after Kardashian's tireless campaign against her harsh mandatory punishment.
The reality star has now revealed she will fight the cause of Chris Young, a 30-year-old drug dealer who is serving life at a federal prison in Lexington, Kentucky.
Kim Kardashian will fight the cause of Chris Young (pictured), a 30-year-old who is serving life at a federal prison in Lexington
In June, the superstar (pictured) celebrated freeing Alice Johnson, a 63-year-old from Tennessee who was sentenced to life in prison in 1996 on non-violent drug charges
Kardashian will officially announce the news on Jason Flom's Wrongful Conviction podcast later today.
According to a preview by Page Six, she says: 'Yesterday, I had a call with a gentleman that's in prison for a drug case - got life. It's so unfair. He's 30 years old. He's been in for almost 10 years.'
I felt like the only person that understood all the adversity I'd been through was gone. I was lost, and I made a lot of bad decisions Chris Young after his brother's death
'I was on the phone with the judge that sentenced him to life, who resigned because he had never been on the side of having to do something so unfair, and now he is fighting [alongside] us to get [Young] out.'
Young has been in jail since he was arrested at a Shell gas station in Clarksville, Tennessee in December.
He was talking to a drug dealer named Robert Porter while standing next to Porter's car which contained eight ounces of cocaine and six ounces of crack.
Young went to trial after turning down a guilty plea because he felt the sentence offered was too long.
He was found guilty of conspiracy with intent to possess and distribute 500 grams of cocaine and 280 grams of crack, intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a high school, and knowingly possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
Due to previous convictions, the judge had no choice but to give him life in prison.
Young had been arrested for drug possession with a firearm in 2006 and for possession of less than a half-gram of cocaine in 2007, the same year his brother Robert killed himself.
He later told Vice of his brother's death: 'I felt like the only person that understood all the adversity I'd been through was gone. I was lost, and I made a lot of bad decisions.'
The judge who sentenced Young, Kevin Sharp (pictured), left the bench in protest at 'unfair' mandatory sentences
The judge who sentenced Young, Kevin Sharp, left the bench in protest at 'unfair' mandatory sentences.
He said at Young's sentencing hearing in 2014: 'Each defendant is supposed to be treated as an individual. I don't think that's happening here.'
Young had testified that his mother was a drug addict and their home would sometimes have no lights or water.
He worked at a funeral home but soon joined his friends dealing drugs as a way to survive, he said.
Young said at his sentencing he had been relentlessly studying in jail to 'better himself.'
He told Vice: 'I look at this like I'm in college. I don't get to go to frat parties or talk to women, but this is the time to get my skill set. When I'm reading in my cell, it's like I'm studying in my dorm room.'
Judge Sharp told the Tennessean: 'If there was any way I could have not given him life in prison I would have done it.'
He added: 'Most of the defendants (in drug cases) are not dangerous. They're just kids who lack any opportunities and any supervision, lack education and have ended up doing what appears to be at the time the path of least resistance to make a living.'
Russia said Wednesday it did not know the names of two Russians Britain has blamed for a nerve agent attack on a former spy and accused London of manipulating information.
'The names published by the media, like their photographs, mean nothing to us,' foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
British police identified Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov as the men who tried to kill Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with Novichok in March.
UK authorities said the names were likely to be aliases.
Scroll down for video
Alexander Petrov (left) and Ruslan Boshirov (right) are wanted by police in connection with the Salisbury spy poisoning in March
The pair were caught on CCTV at Salisbury train station shortly after 4pm on March 3, the day Mr Skripal was poisoned
'We once again call on the British side to switch from public accusations and manipulating information to practical cooperation through law enforcement agencies,' Zakharova said in televised remarks.
Russia's permanent representative at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Alexander Shulgin, called the UK statement a 'provocation'.
'Right from the start we said that Russia has nothing to do with what happened in Salisbury,' Shulgin told Russian state television.
The UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it would not apply for their extradition but it added that it obtained a European arrest warrant for the two men.
The CPS said the pair faced charges of conspiracy to murder Skripal, and the attempted murder of him, his daughter and Nick Bailey, a policeman injured in the attack.
Petrov (right) was seen grinning in Salisbury on the day police believe the men smeared Novichok on Mr Skripal's front door
Scotland Yard's counter terror Commissioner Neil Basu (pictured) said today was the most 'significant development so far' in the investigation
Skripal was a colonel in Russian military intelligence who was jailed for betraying agents to Britain's MI6 security service. He moved to England in 2010 as part of a spy swap.
The nerve agent was believed to have been smeared on the front door of his house in the sleepy Wiltshire cathedral city of Salisbury in March.
London blamed the Russian state for the attack, but Moscow strongly denied any involvement.
The Skripals and Bailey both recovered, but in June, a British couple fell ill from the same type of nerve agent in the nearby town of Amesbury.
One of them, 44-year-old mother of three Dawn Sturgess, died in July.
Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with Novichok in Salisbury in attack which the UK has blamed on Russia
Police launched one of the most stringent investigations in recent memory in an effort to track down those responsible for the Novichok attack in March
CCTV images show Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov grinning as they walk around the Wiltshire city on the day former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with the military grade nerve agent.
The pair were also pictured leaving Britain at Heathrow Airport shortly after the attack and have never returned.
Making the announcement, Scotland Yard's counter terror Commissioner Neil Basu said: 'Today marks the most significant moment so far in what has been one of the most complex and intensive investigations we have undertaken in Counter Terrorism policing; the charging of two suspects both Russian nationals - in relation to the attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal.'
Mr Basu said it is likely the suspects were travelling under aliases and Petrov and Boshirov are not their real names. They are believed to be aged around 40.
A CPS spokesman said: 'Prosecutors from the Counter Terrorism Division have considered the evidence and have concluded there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction and it is clearly in the public interest to charge Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, who are Russian nationals.'
Prime Minister Theresa May told the House of Commons on Wednesday that CCTV evidence 'clearly' places the two Russians in the vicinity of the Skripals' house shortly before the attack on them.
She said: 'This hard evidence has enabled the independent Crown Prosecution Service to conclude they have a sufficient basis on which to bring charges'.
Mrs May said around 250 detectives had trawled through 11,000 hours of CCTV footage to identify the attackers and had taken more than 1,400 statements.
'Working around the clock, they have carried out painstaking and methodical work to ascertain exactly which individuals were responsible and the methods they used to carry out the attack,' she told MPs.
May told MPs that 'this was not a rogue operation' and would 'almost certainly' have been approved at a 'senior level of the Russian state'.
Police are on the hunt for a heartless thief who stole a wallet from a dying man.
David Lovett suffered a cardiac arrest on a station platform at Hastings station in East Sussex on his way home from live music show.
But as he lay dying, supported by two kind-hearted strangers, police believe they have CCTV images of a man rifling through the 66-year-old's belongings and stealing his wallet - making it difficult for authorities to identify him.
David (pictured) had travelled to the town to see Lipstick on Your Collar at the White Rock Theatre
David died at Hastings on August 25, but it took police three days to inform his family because the thief stole all his identity documents.
Son Rich Lovett said: 'It's the lowest of the low.
'I'm very angry that someone has done this to my father when he was at death's door.
'I know it was my father but even it had been another member of the public I would be extremely horrified and angry.'
David, from Worthing, West Sussex, was seen slumping to the floor after struggling to breathe - with two women running to his aid and alerting staff.
Police believe they saw this man rifling through David's wallet
While they tried to revive David, a man was caught on CCTV walking over and picking up the father's wallet from the ground.
Detectives eventually managed to track down David's address from his train tickets, which he had bought online.
Rich, 39, said his father had travelled to the town to see Lipstick on Your Collar at the White Rock Theatre.
Rich said he wanted to thank the two women, railway staff and paramedics who helped his father at the scene.
He added: 'Everybody that was there worked together, they all helped - they may never have known who he was but they all came to his aid.'
British Transport Police are currently appealing for anyone with information to come forward.
A British Transport Police spokesperson said: 'The victim was suffering a cardiac arrest when his wallet was taken, however despite the best efforts of paramedics the man later passed away.
'The incident occurred on Tuesday, August 28 at approximately 10.23pm.
'Officers would like to speak to the man pictured in the images because they believe he may have information which could help officers investigate.'
British Transport Police are asking for anyone who can identify the man to call 0800 405040 or text 61016 quoting 681 of 25/8/18.
Photographs have revealed the inside of the budget hotel where the two Salisbury poison suspects stayed before carrying out the Novichok attack.
Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov were guests at the City Stay Hotel in Bow, East London, before poisoning Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed today that 'low' levels of the nerve agent were found in the two-star 48 a night hotel in May - two months after the poisonings - during part of their investigations.
Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu insisted there was no threat to public health, but has asked anyone who stayed there between March 4 and May 4 to contact police.
Police officers stand guard outside the two star 48 a night hotel in Bow, east London today
The hotel, on Bow Road, is situated next to a train station. It is where the two Russian suspects stayed during their time in the UK
The guesthouse released a statement through the Met saying it was 'fully supporting the police investigation'
The guesthouse later released a statement through the Metropolitan Police saying it was ' fully supporting the police investigation' and said they are 'open for business as usual.'
Images of the interior show some of the 20 small single and double rooms, some with en suite, and a lobby with a sofa and television.
It is just minutes from the a train station, and booking websites say the hotel has free wifi and offers breakfast for an additional charge.
Although superior rooms have their own en-suite - some have a shared bathroom.
One of the bedrooms inside the hotel. Rooms are available for as little as 48 a night
The lobby of the hotel, with table and chairs and a television on the wall
Black metal bars can be seen here positioned over windows
One of the twin rooms inside the hotel. It looks over a railway line, has discarded cigarette butts on its doorstep and graffiti drawn onto the front
A website called LateRooms.com states the hotel has given itself a two star rating.
Customers also have access to a communal kitchen.
It is unclear which rooms the pair stayed in as hotel staff had refused to comment with reporters and news crews not allowed access to the narrow three storey building on the busy Bow Road today.
A police officer stayed outside the entrance to the premises while other officers went inside.
One of the 'superior rooms' inside the hotel, which is located on Bow Road in east London
The guesthouse has a communal living room, with tables and chairs and a sofa in the corner
Reception staff said they had been told by management not to comment but to direct press to the Metropolitan Police statement.
Two bewildered French tourists who said they arrived '30 minutes ago' knew little about the incident.
The CityStay Hotel sits in between Bow Church DLR station and the local branch of Barclays Bank.
Opposite is an Enterprise car rental carpark, an opticians and a petrol garage.
These are the two Russians being sought over the Novichok poisoning in Salisbury
One online review of the hotel, left on uk.hotels.com, said they had been disturbed during their March stay by 'loud noise'. He posted the comment on March 3 - the same day the suspects are believed to have left the hotel.
The reviewer, known Alex, posted: 'Lots of loud noise from next door or above, worse due to them using metal stairs outside my room.'
Alex also commented that he believed people, possibly staff, were 'shouting loudly early in the morning' and were 'rude' during his stay.
Other reviewers said the rooms were 'not good value' and were basic - but clean.
Another guest from Northern Ireland called Liz said 'not to expect a warm welcome' in the foreboding entrance area due to rude staff.
The pair were caught on CCTV at Salisbury train station shortly after 4pm on March 3
Pictures online of the hotel show the rooms are small and often cramped as beds take up the majority of space.
Some rooms appear to have a good view of Canary Wharf.
Black metal bars are positioned over windows and grass has overgrown on the side of the hotel.
Although there is no exterior CCTV, there is a camera in the front lobby.
One hotel guest, retired Army Major Khalid from Bangladesh, said he was paying 258 for five nights.
Petrov (right) was seen grinning in Salisbury on the day police believe the men smeared Novichok on Mr Skripal's front door
He said: 'The police are inside. I'm in room 6 and they are near my room outside rooms 7,8 and 9.
'I didn't know what happened until now but I am sure the police have made the hotel safe again for guests to stay.'
In a statement the hotel said: 'The City Stay Hotel in Bow Road is open for business as usual. We are fully supporting the police investigation.
'We are reassured that the police and Public Health England have confirmed very clearly that there is no health risk whatsoever to our guests or to our staff.
'We are receiving a lot of media attention, and we would kindly ask that you allow our staff and guests to go about their business unhindered.'
In a timeline released by police today Petrov and Boshirov travelled to London on March 2 after landing at Gatwick, making their way to the hotel in Bow.
They stayed there for two nights and then went to Salisbury for reconnaissance before returning to the City Stay Hotel for the night.
The next day, the suspects travelled to Salisbury again, which is when they smeared Novichok on the Skripal's door.
Mr Basu said today: 'Two swabs showed contamination of Novichok at levels below that which would cause concern for public health.
'A decision was made to take further samples from the room as a precautionary measure, including in the same areas originally tested, and all results came back negative.
'We believe the first process of taking swabs removed the contamination, so low were the traces of Novichok in the room.
Police released an image of the perfume bottle believed to have contained the Novichok and the box it was hidden in. This was picked up by Dawn Sturgess, who sprayed it on her wrists, before she collapsed and died
'Following these tests, experts deemed the room was safe and that it posed no risk to the public.'
He said there has been no reports of anyone falling ill who stayed in the hotel between March 4 and May 4.
Mr Basu added: 'It is likely, given what we have learnt from this investigation, that anyone exposed to Novichock will have experienced symptoms within 12 hours of exposure.
Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with Novichok in Salisbury in attack which the UK has blamed on Russia
'The levels of Novichok we found in the room at the time of police sampling in May were such that they were not enough to cause short or long-term health effects to anyone exposed to it, at that point or thereafter.
'We will continue to work closely with Public Health England as new information comes to light.
'We are asking anyone who stayed at the hotel between 4 March and 4 May to call 0800 789 321 or email Salisbury2018@met.police.uk. Staff from PHE will be on hand to give advice and reassurance.'
Mother-of-three Dawn Sturgess died and her partner Charlie Rowley fell ill after they came into contact with Novichok. It is thought they found a bottle used to store the chemical
The same deadly nerve agent was also said to be responsible for the killing of mum-of-three Dawn Sturgess in nearby Amesbury, in June.
Her boyfriend Charlie Rowley picked up the fake Nina Ricci 'Premier Jour' perfume used to poison the Skripals.
The teenage girl held captive in a storage container in New Hampshire by a violent predator who abducted her on her way home for school has spoken out about the horror she endured four years after escaping his lair.
Abigail Hernandez, now 19, was abducted by Nathaniel Kibby, 39, as she walked home from school in Conway, New Hampshire, in October 2013.
The zombie apocalypse-obsessed abductor had offered her a ride home and she accepted because her feet were blistered from the boots she was wearing.
For nine months, he held her captive in a shipping container stashed on his rural property. Kibby forced her to wear a shock collar which struck her if she screamed and he sexually assaulted her repeatedly.
Scroll down for video
Abigail Hernandez, now 19, spoke out in an interview which will air on Friday about being held captive and sexually assaulted repeatedly over the course of nine months between October 2013 and July 2014
In an interview with ABC'S 20/20 which will air on Friday, Hernandez, whose identity had been protected in the past because she is the victim of sexual crimes, spoke about the time she spent in captivity.
Nathaniel Kibby, 39, is serving between 45 and 90 years imprisonment for kidnapping the teen
She revealed that Kibby, who is now likely to spend the rest of his life in prison, would not tell her his name and instead instructed her to all him 'master'.
The young woman also explained how he started using the dog collar on her.
'He said, "You know, I'm thinking of finding something a little more humane for you to keep you quiet."
'He said, "I'm thinking of a shock collar. You know, that like dogs wear."
'I remember he put it on me. And he told me, "Okay, try and scream."
'I just slowly started to raise my voice. And then, it shocked me. So, he's like, "Okay, now you know what it feels like,"' she said.
In July 2014, Kibby suddenly decided to let the teenager go.
It took her a week before she revealed to her family and law enforcement agencies who he was because she was so afraid of him.
In July 2014, Hernandez bravely faced her kidnapper in court and thanked him for letting her go (they are pictured during the court hearing above)
Kibby held the girl hostage in a storage container on his property in rural New Hampshire (picture) for nine months without suspicion
She knew his name because she had seen it written on a cook book inside the home.
Kibby was arrested at his home which was 30 miles north of where he took Abigail.
Abigail went missing in October 2013 days before her 15th birthday. It sparked a large manhunt which lasted nine months
In the nine months she spent in his captivity, she was only ever allowed to write one letter to her family under his instruction.
After his arrest, she bravely confronted him in court and thanked him for letting her go.
'I want you to know that I appreciate my freedom because of you and I enjoy my life because of you. I just want to thank you for giving me my freedom back,' she said.
Kibby was sentenced to a minimum of 45 years behind bars and was charged with a litany of crimes including kidnapping and sexual assault.
He said he decided to let Abigail go because he'd 'terrorized her enough'.
Neighbors testified at his sentencing hearings that he was a gun-obsessed loner who was convinced there would be a zombie apocalypse.
They said they half expected him to unravel and do something violent but that kidnapping a child was one of the last things they predicted he would do.
Ripped off store owners have warned others to watch out for an alleged Eftpos scam involving stolen credit cards.
A group of bandits in Western Australia have allegedly used a simple technique to dodge payment, and at least two Perth camera stores were recently ripped off to the tune of a combined $36,000.
Western Australia Police were investigating a number of frauds that allegedly occurred in July and August which were believed to be linked.
CCTV footage from a Camera House store in Perth showed two women at the counter after committing to purchases valued at $15,000.
Camera House store owner Liddio (pictured) was 'absolutely gutted' after his store was ripped off $15,000 in an alleged Eftpos scam
One woman slotted a card into the Eftpos machine but didn't push it all the way through, so it didn't register.
In front of the unaware shop assistants, she allegedly then cancelled the transaction and instead manually typed in a stolen credit card number, which was approved.
'Anyone Australia-wide is at risk of this situation,' store owner Liddio told A Current Affair.
Western Australia Police are now investigating a number of recent alleged frauds involving stolen credit cards
Liddio, who has been In retail for many years, was 'absolutely gutted' by the alleged theft.
Russell, another Perth camera store owner and his employee Cooper also claimed they were allegedly ripped off by the same group with the scam.
Security footage showed a woman allegedly punching in 16 digits of a stolen credit card while her accomplice distracted Cooper from observing the brazen theft right in front of his eyes.
The women left the store with $21,000 of allegedly stolen high-end camera equipment.
Russell contacted the Commonwealth Bank to recover the $21,000 but was told the Eftpos machines could not be protected from the alleged fraud and that it was up to the vendor to observe what the customer was doing.
Perth camera store owner Russell (left), pictured with employee Cooper were also allegedly stung by the Eftpos scam
He's now gravely concerned about the potential impact on his financial situation.
'It's like being kicked in the guts when you're down - it hurts, it hurts financially,' Russell said.
'I don't think it's a good enough response. It borders on an admission of liability from the Commonwealth Bank.'
Luckily for Liddio, he was able to get passwords set up on his store's older NAB Eftpos terminals to avoid being stung by the scam again.
A Commonwealth Bank spokesman told Daily Mail Australia that merchants agree to take on liability for misuse of the terminal, including fraudulent activity, as part of their agreement with the bank.
Russell has to accept liability for the losses because of his store's newly installed Commonwealth Bank Eftpos terminal (stock image)
'CBA undertakes education and awareness programs with its merchant clients in the use of the terminal, including scenarios involving fraud,' he said.
'Given the rise in fraudulent use of the manual function across the industry, and the prevalent acceptance of contactless transactions, CBA is currently reviewing how it can further assist merchants mitigate exploitation of the manual function.'
Theresa May today branded Russian's GRU military intelligence agency a 'threat to all our allies and all our citizens' - as she vowed the Salisbury attackers will be arrested if they ever leave the country again.
The Prime Minister said a 'body of evidence' amassed by the UK authorities had identified the pair as officers of Moscow's version of MI6 - and also indicated the nerve agent outrage was ordered from the highest levels of the Russian state.
She said that the UK would issue an Interpol red notice for the arrest of the two men.
'Should either of these individuals ever again travel outsideRussia we will make every possible step to detain them, extradite them and bring them to face justice here in the United Kingdom,' the premier said.
Mrs May added: 'We will deploy the full range of tools across our security apparatus in order to deter the threat from the GRU.'
The warning came in a statement to MPs after two Russians were named as the prime suspects in the Novichok chemical weapons outrage in Salisbury.
Theresa May delivered an update to the House of Commons today on the Salisbury investigation (pictured)
These are the two Russians being sought over the Novichok poisoning in Salisbury in March. Police say it is unlikely Petrov and Boshirov are their real names, as they are thought to have many aliases
Astonishing CCTV images show Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov grinning as they walk around the Wiltshire city on the day former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with the military grade chemical weapon.
The attack left a trail of the deadly nerve agent around Salisbury, with mother-of-three Dawn Sturgess dying after she came into contact with it and county police officer Nick Bailey being hospitalised during the investigation.
The CPS today announced Petrov and Boshirov are wanted for conspiracy to murder Mr Skripal and the attempted murder of his daughter. If caught, the Russians will also be charged with the attempted murder of DS Bailey and the use of Novichok contrary to the Chemical Weapons Act.
Speaking in the Commons, Mrs May said: 'We repeatedly asked Russia to account for what happened in Salisbury in March, and they have replied with obfuscation and lies.
'This has included trying to pass the blame for this attack onto terrorists, onto our international partners, and even onto the future mother-in-law of Yulia Skripal.
'They even claimed that I, myself, invented Novichok. Their attempts to hide the truth by pushing out a deluge of disinformation simply reinforces their culpability.
'As we made clear in March, only Russia had the technical means, operational experience and motive to carry out the attack.'
Mrs May said that alongside the police probe into Salisbury the security services had been sifting through evidence.
'Based on this work, I can today tell the House that, based on a body of intelligence, the Government has concluded that the two individuals named by the police and CPS are officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU,' she said.
'The GRU is a highly disciplined organisation with a well-established chain of command.
'So this was not a rogue operation. It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state.'
The pair were pictured leaving Britain at Heathrow Airport shortly after the attack and have never returned.
Prosecutors will not be applying to Russia for the extradition of the two men, as no agreement exists between the countries, but a European Arrest Warrant has been obtained in case the pair are spotted outside of Russia.
Making the announcement, Scotland Yard's counter terror Commissioner Neil Basu said: 'Today marks the most significant moment so far in what has been one of the most complex and intensive investigations we have undertaken in Counter Terrorism policing; the charging of two suspects both Russian nationals - in relation to the attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal.'
The pair were caught on CCTV at Salisbury train station shortly after 4pm on March 3, the day Mr Skirpal was poisoned
Mr Basu said it is likely the suspects, who are aged around 40, were travelling under aliases and Petrov and Boshirov are not their real names.
Scotland Yard are appealing to anyone around the world who knows their real identities to contact them.
A CPS spokesman said: 'Prosecutors from the Counter Terrorism Division have considered the evidence and have concluded there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction and it is clearly in the public interest to charge Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, who are Russian nationals.'
Simin Doyich (pictured) is accused of stalking her ex-lover when the affair ended
The former mistress of a fund manager stalked him when he refused to leave his wife, a court heard.
Simin Doyich met up for sex sessions with the 55-year-old, who cannot be named, at his home, in his office and during a trip to Zurich after meeting on the dating site Illicit Encounters.
The 44-year-old became pregnant with her lovers child but when he ended the affair she allegedly claimed he had raped her, Inner London Crown Court heard.
She took to social media to broadcast their relationship and even posted pictures of her unborn child on Twitter as she stalked the married couple for eight months last year, leaving the fund manager feeling 'under siege', jurors were told.
The fund manager says that he swore on the lives of his sons that he would not have sex with his own wife unless he got permission.
Doyich allegedly posted their sexy WhatsApp messages and pixelated photos of them together while branding his wife 'ugly and her family trashy.
She is accused of claiming the wife had sexually assaulted her husband for years as he did not want to have sex with her.
One tweet said, Ms X should not be trusted in charge of children at her sons school, and another referenced family mental health issues such as sadly committing suicide'.
The businessman met Doyich on the Illicit Encounters website - an online dating service for married people (pictured, file photo)
She attached links to articles about couples trapped in a sexless marriage and emojis of faeces and pig faces, the court heard.
Giving evidence the fund manager told jurors: I was flattered by the attention that she was giving me and yes I was attracted to her.
I probably showed off about my work, that I have my own business and she knew I was a fund manager.
Initially they exchanged explicit messages and Doyich sent him porn that she had downloaded.
Ms Doyich (pictured) allegedly told her ex-lover she was going to post underwear to his address
The fund manager told jurors that Doyich pressed for their first meeting and he said he wanted to meet for dinner first to see if they were compatible.
But she said why dont you just book a hotel room and well go and have sex and eventually I agreed to that, he said.
They booked into the Churchill Hotel, Marylebone, on January 10 and a week later he visited her flat for sex and they would continue to do so for weeks.
I had invited her on a business trip to Zurich on the 7th of February, he said. It was fun. We met at City Airport and traveled to Zurich and had a pleasant evening.
We had sex and we had a pleasant day. I was working but I had arranged for the defendant to have some treatments in the spa.
But on the way home I sent a text message to my wife and the defendant again got incredibly angry about it.
He described her visiting the office as his secretary on the night before they went to Paris.
This was at the time my wife and children were away in Lanzarote, so the defendant had suggested we go and see a movie which we did although we left halfway through because it was such a terrible movie - it was one of the 50 Shades of Grey (films).
She suggested it might be fun to engage in some roleplay by coming round to my office and pretending that she was being interviewed to be my secretary, this was eight in the evening.
They had sex in the office but he said: I became very uncomfortable about her being in the office.
I became concerned that somebody else could come in the office and I suggested that we leave and actually that we go to my house.
She also followed the couple's friends on Twitter and friends of their sons, Inner London crown court heard
As she was passing my desk she picked up on of my business cards. I took it off her and she became insulted and as if she was not trustworthy and so I relented foolishly and let her keep it.
The house was completely empty. We went up to the top floor, we had sex and then we went down to the basement where we listened to music and I arranged for an Uber to take the defendant home.
The following day, Valentines Day, they went to Paris, he said.
We had a pleasant time, we travelled by Eurostar, stayed in a nice hotel, we had dinner and then the following day we went for a walk near the Eiffel Tower,' he said. On the way back on the train I received a text from my wife and again the same behaviour, she kicked off and she sat in silence for the whole trip back.
Detailing the stalking campaign the married man told the court: I started to receive a barrage of messages from the defendant, the jist of which was that she would reveal to my wife what had been going on unless I emailed her back or WhatsApped her back, unless I issue a statement that I would never have sex with my wife again unless the defendant approved it.
I wanted just to shut her up so I did it.
The cheating husband told her: I swear on the lives of my sons I will not have sex with my wife unless I get permission.
A few days later he went to join his wife and children in Lanzarote where she continued her threats.
She sent me messages, in particular an image - she had asked me while we were seeing each other to buy her some underwear from Agent Provocateur, he said.
She sent me an image of her putting this underwear in an envelope, stating that she was going to post it to my home address to be there when we got back from Lanzarote.
My wife became completely aware that something was going on, I was under a lot of pressure, I had obviously acted terribly foolishly but I wanted to come clean so I confessed to my wife.
I then called Ms Doyich and told her that I had confessed to my wife and that I never wanted to see her again and that she should stop communicating with me.
She didnt believe me so I then forced my wife to come on the phone and tell Ms Doyich that that was what had happened and after that I deleted everything I have ever received from Ms Doyich from my phone.
In March the phone calls began, more than 80 in the first two weeks, these were eerily silent, where a call would come in from a withheld number and nobody would speak, then the caller would hang up.
He said: I felt under siege, I felt what have I done and how can I stop this happening.
It wasnt only phone calls on my mobile it was phone calls at work and my colleague noticed something was going on.
He said, sounds like you have got a stalker and I had to arrange with my chief operating officer, I told him what was going on and he arranged for her number to be blocked on the landline somehow, even though it was being withheld.
On 2 March he received an email about her pregnancy and she asked him to arrange an appointment for her.
She wanted to go and see a particular specialist who was unable but I arranged for her to see someone more quickly so that timely action could be taken and I ended up arranging for her to see a private GP at the London General Practice.
She declined to have a blood test but produced a urine sample which was positive but she produced that in a separate room so I dont know if that was her urine or if it had been doctored.
As soon as the test results came back she stormed out of the room and I chased after her and persuaded her to have a cup of coffee.
I made clear that I would fund a termination but that if she decided to go ahead with the pregnancy I recognised the obligation that I would have financially.
She told me that she wanted to proceed even though she had told me before she couldnt carry a baby to term.
The couple finally complained to police last July and she was interviewed in September.
Doyich claimed she had fallen pregnant after he had raped her and had miscarried the day he told her not to contact him until after the birth.
She claimed she was receiving counselling and had used Twitter to cope with depression.
But on the day she was charged with stalking she stated she wanted the investigation reopened and it was only in July this year police finally dropped the rape allegation.
Doyich, of west Hampstead, denies two counts of stalking causing serious alarm or distress.The trial continues.
The Salisbury 'assassins' wanted in connection to the lethal Novichok poisoning attacks used a perfume bottle to administer the deadly nerve agent before 'recklessly' throwing it away, British authorities revealed.
Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are wanted in connection to the lethal nerve agent poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skrpial and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, as well as Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley in Amesbury.
Detectives have now formally linked the attack on the Skripals in March to the incident in Amesbury in June, which killed Dawn Sturgess and severely poisoned Charlie Rowley.
Police have released images of the perfume bottle they say was adapted to help the two Russian suspects carry out their lethal attack
Police have released images of the counterfeit perfume box found by Charlie Rowley on June 27, months after the initial Salisbury attack on March 4
Police have spoken to Nina Ricci, who confirmed the bottle, box or nozzle were not genuine.
Chemical weapons expert Hamish de Bretton-Gordon OBE described the level of sophistication involved in the bottle mechanism.
He said: 'The bottle itself is highly engineered, specifically designed for this purpose is highly sophisticated to prevent leakage in travel and application.
'This is something made by real experts in a top, top quality laboratory,'
Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said the manner in which the bottle and packaging was adapted made it a 'perfect cover' for smuggling the weapon into the country.
He added: 'We have carried out numerous inquiries in relation to the bottle and are now able to release an image of it with the nozzle attached.
'We are also releasing an image of the box that the bottle and nozzle were in.
'We have spoken to Nina Ricci and undertaken further inquiries. Nina Ricci and our inquiries have confirmed that it is not a genuine Nina Ricci perfume bottle, box or nozzle.
'It is in fact a counterfeit box, bottle and nozzle that have been especially adapted.
'I'd like to reassure anyone who has bought Nina Ricci perfume from a legitimate source that they should not be concerned. It is safe.'
CCTV images from 3pm on Friday, March 2 show Petrov (left) and Boshirov (right) arriving at Gatwick airport on a flight from Moscow
Authorities remain unsure of the location of the bottle, nozzle and the box between the dates of the two attacks, the first on the Skripals on March 4 and the second when Mr Rowley found it on Wednesday, June 27.
Mr Rowley recalled finding a box he thought contained perfume in a charity bin, where he found the bottle and applicator.
Mr Basu said: 'He tried to put the two parts together at his home address on Saturday, 30 June, and in doing so got some of the contents on himself.
'He said Dawn had applied some of the substance to her wrists before feeling unwell.
'After Charlie told police where he found the box, cordons were put in place and two bins behind shops in Catherine Street, Salisbury, were removed.
Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with Novichok in Salisbury in attack which the UK has blamed on Russia
Dawn Sturgess (left) collapsed and died after being exposed to Novichok with her friend Charlie Rowley (right)
'Previously, during a search of Charlie's home address in Muggleton Road on 10 July a small box labelled as Nina Ricci Premier Jour was recovered from a rubbish bag in the kitchen.
'On 11 July a small glass bottle with a modified nozzle was found on a kitchen worktop. Tests undertaken at DSTL established the bottle contained a significant amount of Novichok.'
Police are appealing to anyone with information on the pink box or glass bottle to contact them on 0800 789 321 or Salisbury2018@met.police.uk.
Donald Trump says he 'never even discussed' a plot to assassinate Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as claimed in a bombshell book by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward.
Trump told reporters Wednesday in the Oval Office that Woodward's expose on his presidency, 'Fear,' is a 'work of fiction' and an assassination attempt on Assad was 'never even contemplated, nor would it be contemplated, and it should not have been written about in the book.'
'The book means nothing. It's a work of fiction. Already General Mattis has come out very, very strongly. And I think you know General Mattis, he does what he wants to do, he's a very independent guy. He was insulted by the remarks that were attributed to him and he came out with a very strong statement,' Trump protested. 'General John Kelly, the same exact thing. He said he was insulted by what it said.'
Trump told reporters as he met with the Emir of Kuwait, 'If you look back at Woodward's past, you have the same problem with other presidents. He likes to get publicity, sell some books.'
Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday in the Oval Office that Bob Woodward's book on his presidency, 'Fear' is 'total fiction' and the alleged assassination plot was 'never even contemplated, nor would it be contemplated, and it should not have been written about in the book'
The president continued to fume about Woodward's book, ripping into him minutes later in an unexpected White House avail with press.
'We have a deal with South Korea. I read another phony thing in the book about the trade deal, that certain people didn't want me to look at. We've made a deal with South Korea. It may be signed during the United Nations conference in a couple of weeks. The deal is done,' he claimed, 'and we'll do a ceremonial signing over the next very short period of time. But that was another thing in the book that was just totally false.'
In a third appearance, Trump alleged that Woodward had 'accuracy' problems going back to President George W. Bush and had similar experiences with Barack Obama.
'Every time he wrote a book, they were complaining about it; they were complaining about the lack of accuracy,' he said. 'In the end, I'm very happy with the way it turned out because I think the book has been totally discredited.'
The president had reacted earlier on Wednesday to the publication of the newest mud-dragging book about his presidency by musing publicly that stronger libel laws should have prevented it.
'Isnt it a shame that someone can write an article or book, totally make up stories and form a picture of a person that is literally the exact opposite of the fact, and get away with it without retribution or cost. Dont know why Washington politicians dont change libel laws?' Trump tweeted following initial news coverage of 'Fear,' a book by famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward.
Libel, the act of publishing false and defamatory material about specific people or institutions, is typically adjudicated at the state level.
That means Trump would need to persuade state legislatures to tighten their existing statutes in order to generate a meaningful change.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday hinted at the herculean task of changing America's libel laws, following initial revelations from a critical book by Bob Woodward
Trump wrote on Twitter that he doesn't 'know why Washington politicians don't change libel laws' ignoring the fact that state laws, not federal laws, generally address libel
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders wouldn't take the bait and dodged a question on 'Good Morning America' about whether the claims in Woodward's book 'Fear' amount to libel
Minutes after the president tweeted about libel, his press secretary was deriding Woodward more gently in a 'Good Morning America' interview.
'We've seen a few excerpts that have been pretty widely pushed back on by some of the most-respected people in our country,' Sarah Sanders told reporters afterward in response to a question about whether the author had libeled Trump. 'We'll see what happens.'
In January the famously litigious president railed against author Michael Wolff following the publication of 'Fire and Fury,' saying he planned to 'take a strong look' at reforming America's libel laws.
'Fear' is the third deeply sourced anti-Trump book of the year, following tomes by Michael Wolff and Omarosa Manigault-Newman
He said at the time that he wanted a path for courtroom consequences 'when somebody says something that is false and defamatory about someone.'
'Our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace and do not represent American values or American fairness. ... You can't say things that are false, knowingly false, and be able to smile as money pours into your bank account,' he said then.
Trump had already hinted multiple times in the past, both as a candidate and as president, that he would like to make it easier to push back against media outlets that he believes treat him unfairly.
In March 2017 he specifically went after The New York Times in a tweet, saying it had 'disgraced the media world.'
'Gotten me wrong for two solid years. Change libel laws?' he asked.
His specific beefs with Woodward's reporting include stern denials that he ever called attorney general Jeff Sessions 'mentally retarded'.
'The already discredited Woodward book, so many lies and phony sources, has me calling Jeff Sessions "mentally retarded" and "a dumb southerner". I said NEITHER, never used those terms on anyone, including Jeff, and being a southerner is a GREAT thing. He made this up to divide!' he tweeted Tuesday.
Trump also tweeted statements from Kelly and Mattis that refuted other parts of Woodward's book, which alleges that the White House chief of staff called Trump an 'idiot' and and the Pentagon compared him to a 'fifth grader.'
In press avails on Wednesday afternoon he claimed that both men had refuted Woodward's book 'very strongly' in statements, even though they did not address all of the journalist's claims, including an allegation that Kelly referred to the White House as 'crazytown' and Trump directed Mattis to 'f***ing kill' Assad.
Underscoring a fundamental allegation of authors writing about the current White House, Trump claimed he was not aware of the statements before they were provided to the media.
He later claimed that Mattis told him he'd be making a statement after Trump asked him point-blank about Woodward's claims.
The president told Mattis would 'stay' in his role as Pentagon chief, dispelling rumors that the book would cause his defense secretary to be ousted.
'I think he's a terrific person. He's doing a fantastic job as secretary,' Trump said after The Washington Post reported on rumblings of a shake-up.
Trump charged on Tuesday that Woodward may have fabricated parts of his book, and former George W. Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer said in a tweet that the charges didn't add up
Trump also claimed on Wednesday that Woodward timed the release of the damning excerpts to the testimony of his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
'The Woodward book has already been refuted and discredited by General (Secretary of Defense) James Mattis and General (Chief of Staff) John Kelly. Their quotes were made up frauds, a con on the public. Likewise other stories and quotes. Woodward is a Dem operative? Notice timing?' the president originally wrote on Twitter.
He hit on the issue more directly, later, when he said: 'If you look at it, it was put out to inference with the Kavanaugh hearings, which I don't think its done.'
Trump first raised the idea of libel law reform during a February 2016 campaign rally in Fort Worth, Texas, warning the Times and The Washington Post that 'we're going to open up those libel laws, folks, and we're going to have people sue you like you never got sued before.'
'If I become president oh, do they have problems,' he told 8,000 screaming fans.
'And one of the things I'm gonna do ... I'm going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money,' Trump boasted.
'We're going to open up those libel laws. So that when The New York Times writes a hit piece, which is a total disgrace, or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they're totally protected.'
Most state laws set a tough standard for proving libel against public figures like Trump.
Cases filed by ordinary Americans can be won on the basis of whether or not a statement is false when it's published.
But public figures have to prove 'actual malice' meaning that a news outlet knew a statement was false when it published it, and that it intended to cause harm to its target.
Woodward's book portrays the president as an impetuous and sometimes vicious boss who repeatedly ripped into Attorney General Jeff Sessions after he decided to to recuse himself from the Justice Department's Russia probe.
The president has gone after media outlets in the past, suggesting that changing libel laws would help him fight back against 'fake news' coverage
Highlights: The most searing quotes in Bob Woodward's book WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT TRUMP: JOHN KELLY, CHIEF OF STAFF: 'He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had.' JAMES MATTIS, DEFENSE SECRETARY: 'Fifth- or sixth-grader' REX TILLERSON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: 'He's a f***ing moron.' JOHN DOWN, FORMER PERSONAL ATTORNEY: 'F***ing liar.' JOHN DOWD ON HOW TRANSCRIPT OF A MUELLER INTERVIEW WOULD BE DESCRIBED BY FOREIGN LEADERS: 'I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?' GARY COHN, FORMER CHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISER: 'A professional liar' ROB PORTER, FORMER STAFF SECRETARY WHO QUIT WHEN BOTH EX-WIVES ACCUSED HIM OF ABUSE: 'A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren't such good ideas.' WHAT THEY SAID TO EACH OTHER: STEVE BANNON TO IVANKA TRUMP: 'You're nothing but a f***ing staffer! You walk around this place and act like you're on charge, and you're not. You're on staff!' IVANKA TRUMP TO STEVE BANNON: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter and I'm never going to be a staffer!' JOHN KELLY TO GARY COHN: 'If that was me, I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his a** six different times.' DOWD TO ROBERT MUELLER: 'He just made something up. That's his nature.' WHAT TRUMP SAID ABOUT THEM: BARACK OBAMA: 'Weak d**k' RUDY GIULIANI, PERSONAL ATTORNEY: 'Rudy, you're a baby. I've never seen a worse defense of me in my life. They took your diaper off right there. You're like a little baby that needed to be changed. When are you going to be a man?' WILBUR ROSS, COMMERCE SECRETARY: 'I don't trust you. I don't want you doing any more negotiations. You're past your prime.' H.R McMASTER, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: 'Dresses like a beer salesman.' REINCE PRIEBUS, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF: 'Like a little rat. He just scurries around.' AFTER EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT FATAH AL-SISSI ASKED IF HE WAS GOING TO BE AROUND: 'Like a kick in the nuts.' BASHAR AL-ASSAD, SYRIAN DICTATOR: 'Let's f***ing kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f***ing lot of them.' Advertisement
The president allegedly called him a 'traitor' and vented: 'This guy is mentally retarded. He's this dumb Southerner. He couldn't even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.'
Trump has repeatedly ripped into Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia probe.
In addition to calling him a 'traitor,' the president allegedly said, 'This guy is mentally retarded. He's this dumb Southerner. He couldn't even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.'
Woodward also said that Kelly castigated Trump as 'an idiot,' saying, 'It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails.
The White House chief of staff allegedly said, 'We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had.'
Kelly denied making the claims in a statement put out by the White House.
'The idea that I ever called the President is not true, in fact it's exactly the opposite,' he said. 'This is both a pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from his many successes.'
In another episode, Trump is said to have questioned the utility of U.S. early warning systems in Alaska to identify a nuclear attack from North Korea.
Mattis is said to have schooled him. 'We're doing this in order to prevent World War III,' he reportedly said.
The Pentagon chief is said to have told colleagues after the incident that Trump had the mental ability of 'a fifth- or sixth-grader.'
On Tuesday he denied the account, saying in a statement of his own: 'The contemptuous words about the President attributed to me in Woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence.
'While I generally enjoy reading fiction, this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility.'
A Pentagon spokesman, Col. Rob Manning, said Mattis was never interviewed by Woodward.
'Mr. Woodward never discussed or verified the alleged quotes included in his book with Secretary Mattis' or anyone within the Defense Department, Manning said.
Previous accounts during Trump's first year had former secretary of state Rex Tillerson calling Trump a 'moron,' and Tillerson did not explicitly deny it. This would mean three of Trump's most senior advisors have ridiculed his mental capacity.
Woodward also reported that after Syria's Bashar Assad launched a chemical weapons attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted the Syrian leader taken out, saying: 'Kill him! Let's go in.'
AMERICA'S LIBEL LAWS THAT TRUMP LOVES TO HATE Most statutes allowing Americans to sue for libel and defamation are state laws, but the definition of libel is largely the same everywhere in the U.S. Libel is the act of publishing a false statement about someone that harms them or their reputation. In most states it's considered a 'civil tort,' not a crime, which means a newspaper, author or broadcaster can be hauled into court to face a lawsuit filed by the victim. But 17 states do have criminal statutes prohibiting defamation. In general, ordinary people only need to prove that a statement of fact was false in order to win a libel case. But so-called 'public figures' which can range from the President of the United States to practically anyone with a Wikipedia profile have a higher burden of proof called 'actual malice.' That means proving that the writer or broadcaster knew in advance that a statement was wrong and recklessly published it anyway. How that is any different from what Trump said he wanted is hard to tell. He said: 'If somebody says something that's totally false and knowingly false, that the person that has been abused, defamed, libeled, [should] have meaningful recourse.' The key word is 'knowingly' which is precisely the 'actual malice' test set by the courts. Most states allow people who are libeled by a news outlet or other publisher to demand a formal retraction. If that happens, they lose the right to sue. However, in many cases such a correction is one of the demands a lawsuit makes along with money. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides for freedom of speech and freedom of the press, setting a high bar for plaintiffs to prove they were defamed. That also restricts Congress from passing federal libel laws that might override state laws. Advertisement
Mattis assured Trump he would get right on it but then told a senior aide they'd do nothing of the kind, Woodward wrote. National security advisers instead developed options for the airstrike that Trump ultimately ordered.
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley denied Tuesday that Trump had ever planned to assassinate Assad. She told reporters at U.N. headquarters that she had been privy to conversations about the Syrian chemical weapons attacks, 'and I have not once ever heard the president talk about assassinating Assad.'
She said people should take what is written in books about the president with 'a grain of salt.'
Woodward also described an argument between Ivanka Trump and then chief White House strategist Steve Bannon.
'You're a goddamn staffer!' Bannon allegedly screamed at her, explaining she had to work through Priebus like other aides. 'You walk around this place and act like you're in charge, and you're not. You're on staff!'
Ivanka replied: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter.'
According to another anecdote, Trump told former staff secretary Rob Porter former chief of staff Reince Priebus was 'like a little rat. He just scurries around.'
Porter in turn allegedly said on Trump: 'A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren't such good ideas.'
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, 80, a billionaire investor, wasn't spared Trump's criticism, either.
'I don't trust you. I don't want you doing any more negotiations. You're past your prime,' Trump reportedly told him.
Trump also reportedly called his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani a 'baby', and compared former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster to a 'beer salesman'.
The book follows the January release of author Michael Wolff's 'Fire and Fury,' which led to a rift between Trump and Bannon, his former chief strategist, who spoke with Wolff in terms that were highly critical of the president and his family. Wolff's book attracted attention with its vivid anecdotes but suffered from numerous factual inaccuracies.
Woodward's book follows former White House aide and 'Apprentice' contestant Omarosa Manigault Newman's expose on her time in the West Wing, including audio recordings of her firing by Kelly and a follow-up conversation with the president in which he claimed to have been unaware of Kelly's decision.
While White House aides have become increasingly numb to fresh scandals, the latest book increased tensions in the West Wing, especially given the intimate details shared and the number of people Woodward appeared to have interviewed.
Some White House officials expressed surprise at the number of erstwhile Trump loyalists willing to offer embarrassing stories of the president and his inner circle.
White House aides on Tuesday coordinated with other officials quoted in the book to dispute troublesome passages. But insiders speculated the fallout could be worse than that from 'Fire and Fury,' given Woodward's storied reputation.
Woodward's book was already ranked the top-selling book on Amazon on Tuesday.
Trump has been increasingly critical of anonymous sources used by reporters covering his administration. Woodward's account relies on deep background conversations with sources, meaning their identities are not disclosed.
Crafty councillors have unveiled their latest weapon against speeding motorists - a cardboard cut-out traffic cop.
Residents in Eglington Crescent, Edinburgh, complained about motorists regularly breaching 20mph limits.
But now they will be able to commandeer one of four Pop Up Bob figures - which come complete with hi-vis jacket and speed gun.
Scroll down for video
Cardboard cop-out? Edinburgh council has supplied annoyed residents of Eglington Crescent with a Pop Up Bob figure in an attempt to stop motorists breaking the speed limit
Bob will be on two to three-week deployments to help enforce the 20mph limits.
But while officers from The City of Edinburgh Council have praised the pretend policeman as a useful road safety tool, others are not quite so convinced.
Labour councillor Gordon Munro questioned the effectiveness of what he labelled a 'token gesture'.
'We pay 2.6million for 54 extra police for our city,' the Leith councillor said.
2D Plod: The Pop Up Bob figure has drawn criticism from Labour councillor Gordon Munro who questioned its effectiveness and asked why the city's extra police weren't being used
'Surely this could be one of the tasks set for the 54 police were paying for? Unless were getting cardboard cutbacks in return for our money?
'I wouldve thought if it was a true partnership they would be supporting it with policing.
'How effective are these going to be once drivers realise thats all they are? Real police is what will inhibit driving.'
The Pop Up Bob cops are issued with advice that suggests posting him outside 'on alternate days' in the hope of duping drivers into thinking he might be real.
'Alongside high-visibility patrols and safety cameras, the pop-up Bob prop is used in areas to help deter speeding and is a visual reminder to drivers to make sure that they drive in a responsible manner,' said Superintendent Mark Rennie.
'The cut out of a police officer holding a speed gun, which is not used in place of genuine officers, can be deployed to areas where speeding has been reported as an issue.
Traffic scam? Some residents from the Haymarket area of Edinburgh think the fake policeman could be effective but only for a short amount of time
'Road safety is important to those who live and work in the city and as such is a divisional priority that we are committed to tackling along with our partners.'
But some residents around the Haymarket part of Edinburgh have taken to social media to slam the cop cutouts.
One resident wrote online: 'I dont think hes cut out for the job.'
Another joked: 'This is a perfect late night pissed up thieving for any local student. Brilliant ornament for any student flat.'
But another thought the cut-out might have some short-lived success, stating: 'I can see how this would actually work, for a short time anyway.
'I doubt that you would find many drivers who dont check their speed when they see a yellow jacket.'
Pop Up Bob is part of a new online toolkit of activities and resources to help communities reduce speeds and encourage more responsible and healthier behaviour.
It also includes tips on organising cycle rides in 20mph streets and can be downloaded from the council website.
Transport and Environment Convener, Councillor Lesley Macinnes, said: 'Our 20mph toolkit is about giving communities the resources to encourage and support safer speeds amongst the people who live there or travel through.
'We know many people in Edinburgh support 20mph so its really important that we help them to spread the word.
'In partnership with Police Scotland, were giving people the opportunity to use Pop Up Bob as a visual reminder to residents and other drivers that they should drive responsibly.
'This is in no way a replacement for real officers but it means community members can do their own bit by deterring speeding in local areas where its felt to be an issue.'
Ambassador Ngo Duc Manh (Photo: VNA)
Ambassador Manh: The visit is of great significance as it continues to confirm Vietnams consistent foreign policies in attaching great importance to reinforcing and promoting the comprehensive strategic partnership with the Russian Federation, considering it one of the leading important and trusted partners of Vietnam.
In fact, the Vietnam - Russia relationship has recently seen strong development, both in Party and State relationship, cooperation among localities and people-to-people exchanges.
The trusted political relationship has been continuously increased through bilateral exchanges. The two sides have cooperated and given mutual support at multilateral forums such as the United Nations, APEC, ASEM and ASEAN.
Continued development has been reported in economics, trade and investment cooperation, with two-way trade turnover of USD3.55 billion in 2017 and a year-on-year increase of 42% in the first half of 2018. The cooperation has also expanded in security, defence, education and training and science and technology.
In particular, the recent strong development among localities has also been seen in economics, trade, culture, tourism and people-to-people.
However, it is necessary to look at the slow growth of economics and trade cooperation, which does not fit the potential and the expectations of the two countries leaders.
Reporter: What should be done to create a breakthrough in economics and trade cooperation?
Ambassador Manh: I think that a lot of work should be done to realize the target of USD10 billion in two-way trade turnover by 2020.
Besides synchronously carrying out cooperative agreements, relevant agencies and businesses should seek new ways of cooperation; for example, the establishment of a joint-venture producing agricultural products consumed in Russia and across the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The two sides should also accelerate the implementation of cooperative projects on automobile, tractors, alternative energy, seedlings and pesticides for agricultural production, as well as medical and pharmaceutical projects.
The fact shows that many Vietnamese products like agricultural products, coffee, tea, clothing and footwear appeal to Russian customers; however, they do not appear much in the Russian supermarket network.
The Vietnamese Embassy in Russia is studying obstacles facing Vietnamese products attempting to penetrate the Russian market, to report them at the upcoming meeting of the Vietnam - Russia Inter-governmental Committee on economics, trade, science and technology cooperation. Meanwhile, the two countries businesses should work together with authorized agencies toward better product penetration.
Reporter: How do you assess the prospect of development in the Vietnam - Russia relationship after the visit by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong?
Ambassador Manh: The visit will create a new impulse for deepening the Vietnam - Russia comprehensive strategic partnership. Political trust will continue to be reinforced while bilateral cooperation will be expanded and more effective. I hope that the two countries will witness many more successful cooperative projects in the near future, making contributions to the two countries development, for peace, happiness, stability and cooperation in the region and in the world.
Reporter: Thank you very much!
A man who is on the US Marshals' 15 Most Wanted Fugitives list for allegedly killing his sister and an ex-girlfriend in New York City in 2002 has been captured in Connecticut.
Andre Neverson, 54, was caught around 3.45pm Tuesday afternoon in Bridgeport outside a home where he had been hiding.
The Trinidad and Tabago native has been on the most wanted list since February 2004.
Authorities allege Neverson fatally shot his 39-year-old sister Patricia Neverson in the head and the stomach on July 8, 2002.
Andre Neverson (pictured), 54, was caught around 3.45pm Tuesday afternoon in Bridgeport outside a home where he had been hiding
Authorities allege Neverson fatally shot his 39-year-old sister Patricia Neverson (left) in the head and the stomach on July 8, 2002. The next day, Neverson allegedly abducted his ex-girlfriend, Donna Davis (right). Her body was found on July 11, 2002
The next day, Neverson allegedly abducted his ex-girlfriend, Donna Davis, from the Audrey Cohen College in Queens, where she was studying hospital administration.
Her body was found two days later on July 11, 2002, with a gunshot wound to the head.
Neverson served a five-year prison sentence for attempted murder after he shot the uncle of another ex-girlfriend in 2002.
At the time of both murders, he was paroled by the state of New York for attempted murder in the second degree, assault in the first degree and criminal possession of a firearm.
On November 6, 2002, the Neverson, armed with a handgun, allegedly entered the home of another ex-girlfriend in an attempt to visit his daughter.
The woman's brother interrupted the incident and Neverson fled the scene.
On Tuesday, Patricia Neverson's son, Akim Neverson (right), said he's 'relieved' that his uncle (left) has been captured. Akim, who now works as a correction officer, was 17 years old when his mother was killed
Neverson (pictured) has also been featured on America's Most Wanted. He is expected to be transferred back to New York City, but it's unclear when he will be returned
At the time, the New York City Police Department searched the area for the felon, but never located him.
On Tuesday, Patricia Neverson's son, Akim Neverson, told the New York Daily News that he hadn't heard about his uncle's arrest.
'I haven't really digested it,' he said. 'I'm definitely relieved he's somewhere, rather than he's jumping out of some bush, trying to end my life.'
Akim, who now works as a correction officer, was 17 years old when his mother was killed.
Marshals said Neverson was also in the US illegally.
After finding out that Neverson was hiding in a Bridgeport house, US Marshals from the Connecticut Violent Fugitive Task Force and officers of the Bridgeport Police Department monitored the home.
They took Neverson into custody as he left the home around Tuesday afternoon.
'The United States Marshals Service is extremely pleased to have a violent criminal, who murdered two women in New York, off the streets of Connecticut after 16 years on the run,' said US Marshal Brian Taylor, District of Connecticut.
Neverson has also been featured on America's Most Wanted.
He is expected to be transferred back to New York City, but it's unclear when he will be returned.
An ugly brawl outside a Gold Coast hotel involving a film crew and fans of a popular Asian boy band has ended with a 26-year-old student being taken to hospital.
The violent fight erupted shortly after the film crew's bus arrived at the Azzura Greens Resort at Hope Island in Queensland around midday on Wednesday.
It's alleged the film crew, who were transporting Chinese boy band, Nine Percent, lashed out a group of fans who were tailing them for photos, Nine News reported.
Scroll down for video
An ugly brawl outside a Gold Coast hotel (pictured) involving a film crew and fans of a popular Asian pop band has ended with a 26-year-old student being taken to hospital
The group - dubbed China's version of One Direction - are believed to be on the Gold Coast to film a music video, and fans have been following their every move since 16-year-old band member Justin Huang arrived last month.
Video footage of the all-in brawl captured on a bystander's mobile phone shows the film crew and fans violently kicking and punching each other.
In the video, up to 20 people can be seen lashing out, and one man is shown being kicked and punched to the ground, while countless bystanders watch on.
At one point in the video, the terrifying brawl spills dangerously onto the nearby road in front of the luxurious resort.
More footage from the video shows a fight break out between two girls, with one girl with green hair being attacked by another girl before the angry mob joins in.
Police eventually broke up the group and arrested five people, including three men and two women, who were charged with common assault and public nuisance, the Gold Coast Bulletin reported.
Boy band Nine Percent (pictured) have been dubbed China's version of One Direction
A 26-year-old Griffith University student who was allegedly punched and kicked to the ground was taken to hospital for treatment.
One of the student's friends told Nine News he didn't know why the film crew started 'pushing us and punching us'.
'Ten people punched my friend. One person,' he said.
New details about Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz's birth family have emerged and reveal he comes from a line of career criminal women.
The 19-year-old is currently in custody awaiting his next court date on 17 murder charges. He is likely to be put on Florida's death row unless his attorneys find a way for him to be jailed for life instead.
Cruz was brought up not by his birth mother but by Lynda and Roger Cruz, a couple who adopted him and his half-brother Zachary when they were young. Both Lynda and Roger died before he committed the mass shooting.
Now, the arrest records of his birth mother Brenda Woodward, 62, have been revealed.
Nikolas Cruz's birth mother Brenda Woodward, 62, is pictured in an undated mugshot. She has been arrested 46 times including in 1998 when she was caught buying crack cocaine while six months pregnant with the Parkland shooter
They are lengthy and vary in seriousness but perhaps the most poignant is her June 1998 arrest for possession of crack cocaine. She was six months pregnant with Nikolas at the time.
Danielle Woodward, 31, is Nikolas's half-sister. She was taken out of her mother's care as an infant then grew up with her grandmother but was forced to live on the street when she died. Danielle - who has never met Nikolas - was arrested for bringing a firearm to school as a teenager
Brenda has been in and out of jail and is currently living in Florida. She has never spoken about the shooting.
Before she had Nikolas, her first child, Danielle, was removed from her care and given to the state.
Danielle, 31, began living in the streets when her grandmother, who eventually won custody of her, died when she was a teenager.
She too has a lengthy rap sheet which includes charges for bringing a firearm to school when she was a teenage student.
She is currently serving an eight-year sentence at the Lowell Annex prison in Ocala for attempted second degree murder of a police officer.
Records show that Brenda has been arrested 46 times in the past, mostly in Miami where she was well known to police as a one-woman crime machine.
Danielle's criminal history is also mostly in Miami. She has been arrested 19 times, according to public records.
On June 7, 1998, Brenda was followed by police into a well known drug trafficking zone in Miami.
Records obtained by The Miami Herald described how officers watched her handing cash from the window of her car to a man who gave her a bag in exchange.
When they approached her vehicle and looked inside the bag, police found five crystals of crack cocaine.
Nikolas was adopted as a baby by Lynda Cruz (pictured with him) and her husband Roger. Roger died in 2004
She gave birth to Nikolas on September 24, three months later. He was adopted not long after birth and went to live with Lynda and Roger. A month later, Brenda was back in custody on a domestic violence charge.
The following year, she gave birth to Zachary Cruz. He has a different father to Nikolas.
It's not clear when his birthday is but it is in the same year his mother was arrested for grand theft auto.
Lynda and Roger adopted Zachary when he was born and the two half-brothers grew up in Parkland.
As her two sons grew up in their care, Brenda carried on with her life of violence and drugs.
Nikolas and his half-brother Zachary, Brenda'a third birth child, are shown at their adoptive mother's funeral in 2017. Lynda died suddenly and Nikolas was struggling to cope with the loss when he committed mass murder
Other charges after she lost both of the boys include beating a friend with a tire iron, threatening to burn her house down, trespassing and others.
Their childhood was normal but Nikolas, it would later be revealed, always had a tendency towards violence and guns.
Roger died in 2004. The boys continue to live with Lynda and Nikolas became more violent.
She died in November 2017 and it was her death which, it is believed, set Nikolas' spiral towards mass murder in motion.
Cruz murdered 17 classmates and teachers on February 14 when he stormed Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland with an AR-15 rifle.
He was arrested after fleeing the school. Zachary was arrested not long afterwards after disobeying orders to stay away from campus.
He is the only person who has visited Nikolas in custody.
A man killed the mother of his teenage children before turning the gun on himself, police say.
Police were called to a home in Carrollton, Texas, on Monday afternoon, after a neighbor called 911 when two teenagers came to his home begging for help.
The teenagers had told the neighbor their father had shot their mother Michelle Deriggs, 46, while the family were all at home, Dallas News reported.
Michelle Deriggs was murdered by the father of her teenage children, while the entire family was inside their Texas home on Monday. Her two kids fled the home to find help and told a neighbor their dad had shot her
When officers arrived at the property, they say a man was seen out the front of the property, holding a shotgun.
Despite police efforts to have the man, identified as Nigel Jerome Damian DeRiggs, 49, drop his weapon, he turned and barricaded himself inside the house, and a single gunshot was heard just 10 minutes later.
Posts to social media suggest Michelle was devoted to her family, and deeply involved in local social justice causes.
Ahead of her birthday in February, the mother-of-two asked friends to make a donation instead of buying her a gift, and she used the funds to make care packages to donate to the homeless in her community.
After she spent the day handing the packages out with friends and family, she encouraged others to spend time with those less fortunate.
When police arrived, Nigel Jerome 'Damian' Deriggs was out the front of the family home (pictured) with a shotgun. Officers say he turned and barricaded himself inside before shooting himself dead
I truly had an amazing day loving on new friends in the homeless community, she wrote. If you are down, just go by and sit with these guys. I swear they have more joy than people living in mansions.
When you see them remember that they are people just like you who desire to be loved and cared for.
Michelle and Damian were not believed to be married, after filing for divorce in 2001 due to a personality conflict.
Police are yet to reveal the motive behind the fatal shooting, and the teenagers are in the care of a relative.
A two-year-old girl has died after being shot in northwestern Indiana, police say.
Jayla Miller was found inside a house in Gary at around 7pm on Tuesday with a single gunshot wound to the head. It is unclear if she shot herself or someone else did.
Cmdr. Jack Hamady of Gary Police Department said she was taken to a local hospital before being airlifted to Chicago, about 30 miles to the northwest.
Scroll down for video
Jayla Miller was found inside a house in Gary at around 7pm on Tuesday with a single gunshot wound to the head. It is unclear if she shot herself or someone else did
Hamady announced Wednesday morning that the girl died. Her name has not been released.
He said the girl's 22-year-old mother and the mother's boyfriend are being questioned about the incident on Wednesday.
They are believed to have been inside the home, reported Fox 32.
He says police have presented preliminary findings to prosecutors for review and possible charges. The coroner's office in Cook County, Illinois, is investigating.
The house in Gary (pictured) where Jayla was found. It is unclear if she shot herself or someone else did
Sarah Sanders said in a new rebuttal of Bob Woodward book on Wednesday that a damaging characterization of the White House as 'crazytown' and the president as 'unhinged' can't possibly be true.
'I don't think you can have the type of success that we've had in this White House under this president if that book was an accurate reflection of what is taking place,' she told reporters after blasting the book on two morning shows.
Sanders denied that current aides to Donald Trump believe he is an imbecile, as the president is portrayed in excerpts from the book that emerged as the White House was focused on another fight the one to get Brett Kavanaugh on the high court.
She said a series of matching accounts across bombshell books that have humiliated the White House are works of 'fiction' from anonymous sources with axes to grind against the president.
Sarah Sanders said in a new rebuttal of Bob Woodward book on Wednesday that a damaging characterization of the White House as 'crazytown' and the president as 'unhinged' can't possibly be true
Sanders avoided calling Woodward himself a liar, avoiding a trap laid by the president in an interview when he suggested the respected journalist 'made up' anecdotes in his book that is based on hundreds of hours of recorded interviews.
The president in a Wednesday tweet encouraged Congress to take a fresh look at libel laws as he desperately searched for ways to retaliate.
Sanders wouldn't take the bait, telling a reporter who asked if the book was met the current standards, 'I think we have to see the rest of the book.
'We've seen a few excerpts that have been pretty widely pushed back on by some of the most-respected people in our country,' Sanders said. 'We'll see what happens.'
Sanders on 'GMA' said the book is based on the claims of anonymous sources and disgruntled former staffers. 'This is just another repeat of pure fiction.'
'I don't think there are that many current staffers that are painting that picture,' she asserted to assembled journalists later.
She told reporters after the interview that Woodward's sources were sharing the same rehearsed stories they'd shared with other authors writing shock-and-awe books about the sitting president.
'Certainly, just because they keep getting told doesn't make them more true,' she said of the pattern of degrading comments. 'I think that's a ridiculous accusation.'
She said the fact that the 'same people keep writing the same type of books' about Trump proves nothing.
Trump slammed Woodward's book as a 'fraud' and labeled him a 'Dem operative' after the famed Watergate journalist wrote that John Kelly called the president 'an idiot' and James Mattis compared him to a 'fifth grader'.
The president said in a tweet on Tuesday night: 'The Woodward book has already been refuted and discredited by General (Secretary of Defense) James Mattis and General (Chief of Staff) John Kelly. Their quotes were made up frauds, a con on the public. Likewise other stories and quotes. Woodward is a Dem operative? Notice timing?'
Mattis and Kelly both dismissed claims they had questioned Trump's intellect.
The president personally denied a claim in the book that he used a slur to describe Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
'The already discredited Woodward book, so many lies and phony sources, has me calling Jeff Sessions mentally retarded and a dumb southerner". I said NEITHER, never used those terms on anyone, including Jeff, and being a southerner is a GREAT thing. He made this up to divide!'
Donald Trump tweeted on Tuesday to accuse famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward of fabricating quotes and information in his new book, Fear: Trump in the White House
At 11pm [ET] Trump went on to deny another claim in the book regarding slurs he allegedly made against Attorney General Jeff Sessions
Trump (left) dismissed as 'made up frauds' quotes from James Mattis and John Kelly which were deeply critical of Trump. Woodward is pictured on the right
Trump has repeatedly ripped into Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia probe.
In addition to calling him a 'traitor,' the president allegedly said, 'This guy is mentally retarded. He's this dumb Southerner. He couldn't even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.'
Woodward also said that Kelly castigated Trump as 'an idiot,' saying, 'It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails.
The White House chief of staff allegedly said, 'We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had.'
Kelly denied making the claims in a statement put out by the White House.
'The idea that I ever called the President is not true, in fact it's exactly the opposite,' he said. 'This is both a pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from his many successes.'
In another episode, Trump is said to have questioned the utility of U.S. early warning systems in Alaska to identify a nuclear attack from North Korea.
Mattis is said to have schooled him. 'We're doing this in order to prevent World War III,' he reportedly said.
The Pentagon chief is said to have told colleagues after the incident that Trump had the mental ability of 'a fifth- or sixth-grader.'
On Tuesday he denied the account, saying in a statement of his own: 'The contemptuous words about the President attributed to me in Woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence.
'While I generally enjoy reading fiction, this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility.'
A Pentagon spokesman, Col. Rob Manning, said Mattis was never interviewed by Woodward.
'Mr. Woodward never discussed or verified the alleged quotes included in his book with Secretary Mattis' or anyone within the Defense Department, Manning said.
Previous accounts during Trump's first year had former secretary of state Rex Tillerson calling Trump a 'moron,' and Tillerson did not explicitly deny it. This would mean three of Trump's most senior advisors have ridiculed his mental capacity.
Woodward also reported that after Syria's Bashar Assad launched a chemical weapons attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted the Syrian leader taken out, saying: 'Kill him! Let's go in.'
Mattis assured Trump he would get right on it but then told a senior aide they'd do nothing of the kind, Woodward wrote. National security advisers instead developed options for the airstrike that Trump ultimately ordered.
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley denied Tuesday that Trump had ever planned to assassinate Assad. She told reporters at U.N. headquarters that she had been privy to conversations about the Syrian chemical weapons attacks, 'and I have not once ever heard the president talk about assassinating Assad.'
She said people should take what is written in books about the president with 'a grain of salt.'
Defense Secretary Mattis (left, at the Pentagon on August 28) and Kelly, White House chief of staff, (right, in the White House on August 27) both questioned quotes attributed to them
Trump also tweeted official statements from Kelly and Mattis as part of a barrage of posts on Tuesday evening
Highlights: The most searing quotes in Bob Woodward's book WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT TRUMP: JOHN KELLY, CHIEF OF STAFF: 'He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had.' JAMES MATTIS, DEFENSE SECRETARY: 'Fifth- or sixth-grader' REX TILLERSON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: 'He's a f***ing moron.' JOHN DOWN, FORMER PERSONAL ATTORNEY: 'F***ing liar.' JOHN DOWD ON HOW TRANSCRIPT OF A MUELLER INTERVIEW WOULD BE DESCRIBED BY FOREIGN LEADERS: 'I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?' GARY COHN, FORMER CHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISER: 'A professional liar' ROB PORTER, FORMER STAFF SECRETARY WHO QUIT WHEN BOTH EX-WIVES ACCUSED HIM OF ABUSE: 'A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren't such good ideas.' WHAT THEY SAID TO EACH OTHER: STEVE BANNON TO IVANKA TRUMP: 'You're nothing but a f***ing staffer! You walk around this place and act like you're on charge, and you're not. You're on staff!' IVANKA TRUMP TO STEVE BANNON: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter and I'm never going to be a staffer!' JOHN KELLY TO GARY COHN: 'If that was me, I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his a** six different times.' DOWD TO ROBERT MUELLER: 'He just made something up. That's his nature.' WHAT TRUMP SAID ABOUT THEM: BARACK OBAMA: 'Weak d**k' RUDY GIULIANI, PERSONAL ATTORNEY: 'Rudy, you're a baby. I've never seen a worse defense of me in my life. They took your diaper off right there. You're like a little baby that needed to be changed. When are you going to be a man?' WILBUR ROSS, COMMERCE SECRETARY: 'I don't trust you. I don't want you doing any more negotiations. You're past your prime.' H.R McMASTER, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: 'Dresses like a beer salesman.' REINCE PRIEBUS, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF: 'Like a little rat. He just scurries around.' AFTER EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT FATAH AL-SISSI ASKED IF HE WAS GOING TO BE AROUND: 'Like a kick in the nuts.' BASHAR AL-ASSAD, SYRIAN DICTATOR: 'Let's f***ing kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f***ing lot of them.' Advertisement
In a taped phone call with Trump that the journalist released hand-in-hand with excerpts from the forthcoming book on Tuesday, Woodward recounts how he tried to reach the president to fact-check claims he had made.
Trump says he wished he had known about the book which was already coming out at the time of the call.
'I never got a call. I never got a message,' the president said at first. 'Who did you ask about speaking to me?'
Woodward told him he had lunch with counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway where he pressed her on getting a Trump interview prompting Trump to admonish his former campaign manager while she was in the room.
At one point during the back-and-forth, Conway walked into the room where Trump was speaking, and he invited her to jump on the call.
'You and I spent a whole lunch on it, Kellyanne ... And you said you would get back to me. Nothing,' Woodward told her.
Conway then told Woodward, 'yeah. So, I did. I presented it to the people here who make those decisions,' without naming names.
'Who are the people?' Woodward asked, but he received no response. At that point, without answering, Conway jumped off the call, and Trump hopped back on.
Trump then faulted Woodward for not calling him directly.
'But you never called for me. It would have been nice, Bob, if you called for me in my office,' Trump said.
'Kellyanne went to somebody, but she didn't come to me. And she should have come to me,' Trump said.
The president noted that the book was almost certain to contain embarrassing information about his administration - and that it would probably be 'very inaccurate' as he geared up for the coming bloodbath.
Woodward assured him that it wouldn't, and the two ended the call that took place in August amicably.
MAYBE HE MADE IT UP: That was Trump's charge on Tuesday as he tried to get out from under Woodward's damaging allegations. Ari Fleisher, the former press secretary to George W. Bush, said in a tweet that the charge didn't add up
Trump was once a fan of Bob Woodward - but now the president says he might be a liar
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders dismissed the work of the famed journalist as 'nothing more than fabricated stories'
The president was singing a different tune on Tuesday, hinting that Woodward could have 'made up' anecdotes in his book, including a story about Gary Cohn absconding with an order to end the United States' trade deal with South Korea to keep Trump from making an international mess.
'That's false. It's just made up,' Trump told The Daily Caller in a furious response to the book. 'There was nobody taking anything from me.'
Trump suggested that 'disgruntled employees' may have made the claims -- or that they could have been falsified Woodward in their entirety.
'It could just be made up by the author,' Trump said of the journalist he once defended on Twitter against slights levied against him by the Obama administration.
The damaging statement about the widely respected journalist had former President George W. Bush's White House Press Secretary Ari Fleisher shaking his head.
Extracts from veteran Watergate reporter Bob Woodard's new book set off explosions across the political world
'I've been on the receiving end of a Bob Woodward book. There were quotes in it I didn't like. But never once - never - did I think Woodward made it up,' Fleisher said. 'Anonymous sources have looser lips and may take liberties. But Woodward always plays is straight. Someone told it to him.'
Trump's press secretary piled on with a statement that said: 'This book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad.'
In the response to Woodward's book, Sanders argued that 'sometimes' Trump's approach to the office is 'unconventional' but it 'always gets results.'
'Democrats and their allies in the media understand the President's policies are working and with success like this, no one can beat him in 2020 not even close.'
The White House did not hold a televised question and answer session with reporters on Tuesday, choosing instead to respond to the explosive book that hits shelves on Sept. 11 through written statements.
Trump held off on eviscerating Woodward on Twitter, as well, responding to him in the interview with The Daily Caller before lashing out at him later on Twitter.
The book recounts efforts by Cohn to try to head-off what he considered rash or ill-advised policy moves by Trump.
Cohn 'stole a letter off Trump's desk' to prevent the president from executing a planned withdrawal from the United States-South Korea trade pact.
Mattis told colleagues Trump had the mental ability of 'a fifth- or sixth-grader', according to the book
It even ventures into the advice Trump received from his former lead lawyer on the Russia investigation, John Dowd.
'Don't testify. It's either that or an orange jumpsuit,' he advised Trump, according to the book.
Dowd is also said to have explained to special counsel Robert Mueller face-to-face that he didn't want his client to testify, because he feared that Trump would be cast as an imbecile.
He reportedly told him: 'I'm not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, 'I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?''
According to Woodward, Mueller replied: 'John, I understand.'
Trump insists Bob Woodward's book interview request never made it to the Oval Office President Donald Trump complained on a recorded phone call no one ever contacted him about veteran journalist Bob Woodward's interview request then complained advisor Kellyanne Conway should have come to him directly. The Washington Post released a recorded August 14 phone call between the famously well-sourced author and the president soon after the paper reported on a copy of 'Fear,' Woodward's forthcoming book on Trump. Trump does admit at one point during the call that a senator had passed along Woodward's request for an interview, but at other times says he had no idea about it. The call begins with Woodward, after alerting the president he was recording, regretting the two hadn't been able to connect and Trump saying he wished he had known about the book which was already coming out at the time of the call. 'She should have come to me,' Trump said of Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway, (seen at the White House on August 29) during a conversation with Bob Woodward about an interview request Trump claims he never was told about 'I never got a call. I never got a message,' the president said at first. 'Who did you ask about speaking to me?' Woodward told him he had lunch with counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway where he pressed her on getting a Trump interview prompting Trump to admonish his former campaign manager while she was in the room. At one point during the back-and-forth, Conway walked into the room where Trump was speaking, and he invited her to jump on the call. 'You and I spent a whole lunch on it, Kellyanne ... And you said you would get back to me. Nothing,' Woodward told her. Conway then told Woodward: 'Yeah. So, I did. I presented it to the people here who make those decisions,' without naming names. 'Who are the people?' Woodward asked, but he got no response. At that point, without answering, Conway jumped off the call, and Trump got back on. Trump then faulted Woodward for not calling him directly. 'But you never called for me. It would have been nice, Bob, if you called for me in my office,' Trump said. 'Kellyanne went to somebody, but she didn't come to me. And she should have come to me,' Trump said. Advertisement
Dowd said Tuesday in emails to the Washington Examiner that anecdotes and quotes attributed to him including a claim that he called Trump a 'f**king liar' and that a mock session with Trump in advance of a potential interview with Mueller revealed the 'full nightmare' he was dealing with are not true.
'I have not read Bob Woodward's book, which appears to be the most recent in an endless cycle of accusations and misrepresentations based on anonymous statements from unknown malcontents,' he told the outlet.
'I do not intend to address every inaccurate statement attributed to me but I do want to make this clear: there was no so-called 'practice session' or 're-enactment' of a mock interview at the Special Counsel's office. Further, I did not refer to the President as a 'liar' and did not say that he was likely to end up in an 'orange jump suit.'
The email from Dowd concluded: 'It was a great honor and distinct privilege to serve President Trump.'
'This guy is mentally retarded. He's this dumb Southerner,' Trump reportedly said of his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the Russia probe. He is pictured in DC on August 31
Trump said his former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, (pictured in DC on February 7) scurries around 'like a rat'
Former director of the U.S. National Economic Council Gary Cohn snatched a letter off Trump's desk to keep him from precipitously moving to pull out of a trade deal. Cohn is seen on the right next to Jared Kushner on March 8
Woodward also described an argument between Ivanka Trump and then chief White House strategist Steve Bannon.
'You're a goddamn staffer!' Bannon allegedly screamed at her, explaining she had to work through Priebus like other aides. 'You walk around this place and act like you're in charge, and you're not. You're on staff!'
Ivanka replied: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter.'
According to another anecdote, Trump told former staff secretary Rob Porter that former chief of staff Reince Priebus was 'like a little rat. He just scurries around.'
Porter in turn allegedly said on Trump: 'A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren't such good ideas.'
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, 80, a billionaire investor, wasn't spared Trump's criticism, either.
'I don't trust you. I don't want you doing any more negotiations. You're past your prime,' Trump reportedly told him.
Trump also reportedly called his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani a 'baby', and compared former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster to a 'beer salesman'.
Ivanka Trump 'got into an expletive-laden screaming match with Steve Bannon' By Ariel Zilber Woodward described an argument between Ivanka Trump and then chief White House strategist Steve Bannon. 'You're a goddamn staffer!' Bannon allegedly screamed at her, explaining she had to work through Priebus like other aides. 'You walk around this place and act like you're in charge, and you're not. You're on staff!' Ivanka replied: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter.' Ivanka Trump reportedly was offended when she was told by strategist Steve Bannon she was merely a White House 'staffer' by answering: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter,' it has been claimed. She is seen outside her Washington, D.C. home last month Bannon was said to have been upset with Ivanka's reported tendency to bypass the standard chain of command and take up issues directly with her father. Every other White House aide was required to report to the chief of staff at the time, Reince Priebus. But the reported exchange apparently highlighted the fact that Ivanka felt she was not bound by the same rules. Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, are senior advisers to the president even though they have no previous experience in government. Advertisement
The book follows the January release of author Michael Wolff's 'Fire and Fury,' which led to a rift between Trump and Bannon, his former chief strategist, who spoke with Wolff in terms that were highly critical of the president and his family. Wolff's book attracted attention with its vivid anecdotes but suffered from numerous factual inaccuracies.
Woodward's work also comes weeks after former White House aide and 'Apprentice' contestant Omarosa Manigault Newman published an expose on her time in the West Wing, including audio recordings of her firing by Kelly and a follow-up conversation with the president in which he claimed to have been unaware of Kelly's decision.
While White House aides have become increasingly numb to fresh scandals, the latest book still increased tensions in the West Wing, especially given the intimate details shared and the number of people Woodward appeared to have interviewed.
Some White House officials expressed surprise at the number of erstwhile Trump loyalists willing to offer embarrassing stories of the president and his inner circle.
White House aides on Tuesday coordinated with other officials quoted in the book to dispute troublesome passages. But insiders speculated the fallout could be worse than that from 'Fire and Fury,' given Woodward's storied reputation.
Woodward's book was already ranked the top-selling book on Amazon on Tuesday.
Trump has been increasingly critical of anonymous sources used by reporters covering his administration. Woodward's account relies on deep background conversations with sources, meaning their identities are not disclosed.
Police shot a jihadists knifeman who stabbed two US tourists in Amsterdam just nine seconds after he began his attack, it has emerged.
A 'spotter' had been tracking the 19-year-old, named as Jawed Santani, when he pulled out a blade and attacked the two 38-year-olds at the Dutch capital's central station last week.
Just moments later, the Afghan asylum seeker was shot in the hip by officers, according to Amsterdam's police chief.
The suspect had arrived on a train after travelling from his home in Piesport, western Germany, on Friday at around noon.
Police shot a jihadists knifeman who stabbed two US tourists in Amsterdam just nine seconds after he began his attack, it has emerged. A 'spotter' had been tracking the 19-year-old, named as Jawed Santani (pictured), when he pulled out a blade and attacked the two 38-year-olds at the Dutch capital's central station last week
Moments later, the Afghan asylum seeker was shot in the hip by police officers, officials say
Amsterdam's police chief Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg said an officer trained to spot pickpockets and potential terrorists noticed the Afghan's 'abnormal behaviour' at the station.
Aalbersberg told Dutch TV: 'He called two colleagues over. While they are working out how to go and talk to him, they see he starts stabbing.'
One of the Americans was knifed in the back before the second was stabbed.
But by this stage police were just over 60ft away and immediately drew their weapons. Santani was shot as he ran towards another person and was later arrested.
Aalbersberg added: 'Within nine seconds it was over and the officers made the difference during one precise moment.'
These actions had saved lives, he said, adding that police used CCTV to determine within minutes that he had acted alone.
The suspect's lawyer Simon van der Woude said: 'My client seems to have taken into account that he would not survive this action because a last will and testament was found in his house in Germany.'
Santani had been living in the town of Piesport on the Rivel Moselle in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate having been accepted as an asylum seeker in 2015.
Meanwhile, the two Americans injured in the attack have thanked Dutch police and medical staff.
The 19-year-old suspect is accused of stabbing the Americans in an unprovoked attack after he arrived at Amsterdam's Central Station on an international train. Prosecutors say he did not know the victims were U.S. citizens
y, the Americans, whose identities have not been released, paid tribute to the police, saying they 'cannot thank them enough for what they did to save their lives'. PIctured: Amsterdam station
In a written statement distributed by the U.S. embassy, the Americans, whose identities have not been released, paid tribute to the police, saying they 'cannot thank them enough for what they did to save their lives.'
The victims also thanked an information kiosk attendant at the station for rushing to their aid, and nurses, a surgeon and American consular staff for their support since the attack.
'The victims and their families said they appreciate everyone's support, thoughts, and prayers. The families are focusing on both physical and emotional recovery. They hope to return to living meaningful and productive lives in the United States,' the statement said. 'They want to thank everyone from the bottom of their hearts.'
The 19-year-old suspect is accused of stabbing the Americans in an unprovoked attack after he arrived at Amsterdam's Central Station on an international train. Prosecutors say he did not know the victims were U.S. citizens.
Prosecutors say the suspect believes that Islam is 'insulted' in the Netherlands, and that drove him to travel to the Netherlands to carry out an attack.
'It is apparent from his statements that he believes that in the Netherlands, the Prophet Muhammad, the Quran, Islam and Allah are repeatedly insulted,' prosecutors said in a statement Monday, noting that the young Afghan man specifically mentioned Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, who is well known for his fierce anti-Islam rhetoric.
A judge has said female sex offenders should be treated the same as male ones after jailing a middle-aged mother for grooming a schoolboy over Facebook.
Karen Robb, 43, sent explicit messages to the child and exposed her breasts to him on a video web chat between December 2016 and August 2017.
She claimed she and the boy had 'fallen in love' after they met up and planned to 'hold hands' in public and do 'naughty things'.
The mother-of-one, of Blackpool, Lancashire, had no direct sexual contact with the boy and was jailed for 16 months today.
Karen Robb, 43 (pictured) sent explicit messages to a 15-year-old and exposed her breasts to him on a video chat between December 2016 and August 2017
Guilty: Mother-of-one Karen Robb, 43, was jailed for 16 months after admitting sexual grooming of a child
She admitted one count of meeting a child following sexual grooming and one count of engaging in sexual communication with a child.
The affair started when the boy added her on social media and ended when his mother saw messages on his phone and the defendant's husband suspected her of being unfaithful.
Jailing her and subjecting her to a 10-year restraining and sexual harm prevention order, judge Heather Lloyd told her: 'When you began this conduct you knew his age.
'It may well be that as a rather naive teenager he started these conversations but when that happened, you as an adult mother, should have taken him off your account or contacted his mother.
'Instead of exchanging images of each other and encouraging him, you should have told him to stop and should have ended it there and there.
'There was a discussion about meeting up to arrange in a private place to do 'naughty things.
The mother-of-one (pictured) of Blackpool, Lancashire, had no direct sexual contact with the boy and was jailed for 16 months today
'It is clear that he became to think that he had feelings for you. You have denied deriving any sexual pleasure from this behaviour but I do not accept that.
'Of course you did, otherwise you would not have acted as you did and it is clear you were flatted by the attention you was getting.
'It may well be that you did find him attractive and were at this low point in your life but he was a child.
'This was not a moment of madness and this conversation and behaviour lasted for weeks.
'Your criminal behaviour has meant to loss of the relationship with the father of your son and this has also meant the loss of contact with your own son.
'I am concerned that you lack insight into the seriousness of what you have done.
Robb (pictured) claimed she and the boy had 'fallen in love' after they met up and planned to 'hold hands' in public and do 'naughty things'
'This child is particularly vulnerable due to his personal circumstance and this went on for some time.
'I do take into account the fact that this was a particularly difficult time in your life and you have no previous convictions.
'It is true most offenders involved in this criminality are male, but there are female offenders too.
'There is no reason to treat a female sexual offender and a male sexual offender in any different ways. I am not satisfied that it is appropriate to suspend your sentence in this case.'
Robb (pictured) admitted one count of meeting a child following sexual grooming and one count of engaging in sexual communication with a child
Wearing a baggy Hawaii T shirt and blue hoodie, she was watched by her new boyfriend from the public gallery.
Earlier the court heard Robb, who is unemployed, exchanged a large number of Facebook messages with the victim between Christmas 2016 and August last year.
Prosecutor Francis McEntee said: 'They became friends online and began communicating.
'Being naive, he did engage willingly in what was an inappropriate online relationship.
'He explained his love for her and she began to engage more and more with exchange.
'Conversation began to get explicit when she said that he loved his private parts.
'She is clearly taking advantage of naive and vulnerable young man.
'The defendant appeared on an online video service to the victim and was naked on a bed touching her breasts.
'She asked the defendant to expose his private parts to her. There is a discussion about meeting and there is a naive expression presented by the victim when he says 'I would like to hold hands with you'.
'This never took place and when they did meet it is clear that no sexual contact took place.
'The parents of the victim became aware of the contact after his mother checked his phone.
'She confronted him about the exchanged and they decided to deal with it as a family but it was the involvement of the defendants then-partner that brought the attention to the police.'
Robb is pictured as a child with comedians Bobby Davro (left) and Mick Miller (right)
Defence lawyer John Woodward said: 'At the time, she was coming to the end of a relationship that she had with her partner of 15 years.
'She told probation he was violent to her at the end of this relationship.
'She was effectively homeless and staying in hotels. She took some comfort from communicating with other males on Facebook.
'Her partner became suspicious of extra-marital affairs but this was a one-off. She was flattered by the attention he gave her.
'Initially she told he that 'we cannot do this'. She herself was vulnerable. She acted stupidly and would be the first to admit that.
'She did succumb to him persuading her to do things and that is something she very much regrets. Her remorse is genuine.
'Her life is completely different now to how it was then and she has a settled partner.
'She apologies very much to the victim and his parents for what she did.
'She has an 11-year-old child who has learning difficulties who she has not been seen since her former partner will not let her. This has caused her real distress and upset.'
Fontana police detained Jonathan Emmanuel Ward, 21, on Thursday at his home on the 7000 block of Nebraska Street
Police are searching for possible victims of a man said to have entered a California home to masturbate in a teenage girl's room.
Fontana police detained Jonathan Emmanuel Ward, 21, on Thursday at his home on the 7000 block of Nebraska Street.
At 2:42am on Thursday, police responded to a call at the 14100 block of Stanislaus County where a woman claimed that a man was inside her home.
She told police the man was in her 13-year-old daughter's room and was masturbating while she slept, according to a Fontana Police Department news release obtained by KTLA.
By the time officers arrived, the man had already left the scene.
Surveillance video showed the naked man inside the residence, and at one point, he 'looked directly into the camera and placed his finger over his lips as if signaling to be quiet'.
The suspect is said to have entered a woman's home at 2.42am on Thursday to masturbate in a 13-year-old girl's bedroom
After arresting Ward, police learned that there may be other victims including those who have not been in contact with police.
A dance studio in Inland Empire is said to have been a particular place of interest for the suspect. Ward allegedly 'became infatuated with several young girls' at the studio.
He is believed to have used the girls social media accounts to determine where they lived.
When police arrived, they claim that the suspect was seen on surveillance video and he even looked into the camera at one point
'Ward would often enter the rear yards of the victim's residence and on occasion, enter their homes when he would find an unlocked door,' the police report stated.
Ward was charged with suspicion of burglary, child annoyance and indecent exposure.
Last year, Ward was arrested for similar charges. A $1million bail enhancement was given as a result.
A news conference is scheduled for Wednesday where authorities will share images and videos of the suspect in hopes of finding other victims.
More than a dozen men who were near the World Trade Centre on 9/11 have been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Of the 15 men diagnosed with breast cancer, a type of cancer where 99 per cent of victims are women, five are first responders who arrived at the scene in the wake of the terror attack, and others worked or studied in the area.
Seventeen years after the 2001 attacks, scores of people are still developing illnesses just from being near Ground Zero, including cancers, asthma and gastrointestinal illnesses.
Rare cancer for men: Of the 15 men diagnosed with breast cancer, a type of cancer where 99 per cent of victims are women, five are 9/11 responders
One of them is Jeff Flynn, 65, who worked as an account manager neat the World Trade Centre on 9/11 and was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011.
'I do feel like my breast cancer was related to exposure to 9/11 toxins. There's no history of breast cancer in my family,' he told the New York Post.
'I spent months breathing that crap in. You can wind up with any cancer from being down there.'
Though it took years for scientists to document and for the government to acknowledge just how much lasting damage the attacks did to more than 400,000 people exposed to contaminants, some effects were immediate, and the signs were in the air.
Long-term damage: In the 17 years since the terror attack against the World Trade Centre on 11th September 2001, thousands have been diagnosed with illnesses related to attack
Witnesses and rescue workers have described the thick, dusky yellow haze hanging over the city streets and the inescapable, acrid smell.
Rates of Hodgkin's lymphoma are more than 50 per cent higher among emergency responders to the Twin Towers attacks than they are in the general population, according to statistics from a National Institutes of Health study.
In 2011, a law was enacted to provide funding to those who are still feeling the effects of the terrorist attack long after the dust has settled.
It saw the establishing of the federal World Trade Center Health Program, which recognizes hundreds of illnesses related to the attack and provides funding to help people diagnosed with any of them, including Mr Flynn and the other 14 men with breast cancer.
Mr. Koizumi Masayoshi - Thang Long Factory Manager, Canon Vietnam Co., Ltd directly handed over these new bikes to under privileged pupils who have excellent academic results, are living in poor families, far from the school or have no means of transportation. The new bikes (worth nearly VND185 million) will help them to go to school safely and more convenient.
Mr. Koizumi Masayoshi (right) with a representative from Bac Giang provincial Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union posed with local pupils. (Photo: Thuy Huyen)
Pupils are the future of each nation. Education development plays an important role. Canon Vietnam understands this issue, and wishes to bring the best things for pupils in particular and Vietnamese society in general. I do hope these new bikes will be used effectively, safely and durably, said Mr. Koizumi Masayoshi.
Beneficiaries of this years program (deployed since 2012) are Tu Son high school (Luc Nam district), Huong Mai secondary school (Viet Yen district), Phong Van secondary school (Luc Ngan district), My Thai secondary school (Lang Giang district), Hoa Son secondary school (Hiep Hoa district), Thang Cuong elementary and secondary school (Yen Dung district), Binh Son secondary school (Luc Nam district), Bo Ha high school (Yen The district), and Huong Son secondary school (Lang Giang district).
On this occasion, the Japanese company also presented a Canon printer to Tu Son high school, hoping to improve the training quality for teachers and pupils.
This September, Canon Vietnam Co., Ltd is projected to work with the Bac Ninh provincial Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union to offer 130 bikes to 10 schools in Tien Du and Gia Binh districts.
So far, some 1,570 bikes have transferred to pupils in 64 secondary and high schools of 14 districts from Bac Ninh and Bac Giang provinces - Kinh Bac region./.
British and French fishermen have reached an agreement in the so-called Scallop Wars over fishing in the Channel - but the UK's fishing chief has hinted that it will be rejected if it's 'not good enough.'
The Government has agreed that UK ships will not fish scallops in French waters in return for 'reasonable compensation' following clashes at sea between rival boats.
Tensions boiled over last week when five British vessels sparred with dozens of French boats in the sensitive Seine Bay, with video footage showing fishermen from both sides ramming each other.
But following a day of talks in London, the two sides have reached agreement on the principles of a deal that should bring the hostilities to an end.
Jim Portus, the chief executive of Britain's South Western Fish Producers Organisation, said the deal 'satisfies the honour of fishermen on both sides'.
But he added: 'If it's not good enough on Friday, it will be rejected,' he said.
Scroll down for video
Jim Portus, the chief executive of Britain's South Western Fish Producers Organisation, said the deal 'satisfies the honour of fishermen on both sides'
The agreement-in-process will prevent the smaller British ships taking advantage of the May to October window, but Portus said the talks will only be finalised if British fishermen are fully compensated.
'If it's not good enough on Friday, it will be rejected,' he said.
Asked if the French apologised, Portus said: 'Regret was voiced before we started our negotiations.'
He added to that UK fishermen have been urged to avoid the Bay de Seine until the agreement is signed on Friday.
'Until the deal is signed on Friday, we are asking them to avoid the area (Bay de Seine) for the next two days,' he told Sky News.
'Then we will see details of the deal on Friday. Quite frankly if it's not good enough it'll still be rejected.
'The owners of the vessels have got to know they are going to be as well-off in terms of their income from where they are allowed to fish.
'This is a small area of the English channel from which they will be excluded for about three weeks.'
The clashes, which occurred around 12 nautical miles from the Normandy coastline, were the most serious in years of wrangling over the area's prized scallops.
'The UK and French fishing industries and governments held constructive talks today about scallop fishing in the eastern Channel including Baie de Seine,' the British and French governments said in a joint statement.
'An agreement on the principles of a deal has been reached,' they said.
French fishermen were incensed that British boats were accessing the highly productive waters, while their own government limited them to fishing there to between October and May to allow stocks to replenish.
Deals struck previously exempted British boats less than 15 metres (50 feet) long from the restrictions, a loophole French fishermen want to see closed and which led to deadlock in reaching an agreement earlier this year.
'The previous agreement involving the UK 15-metre-and-over fleet will be renewed,' the joint statement said.
French fisherman Dimitri Rogoff speaks to the media before leaders meet in London
'In addition, there is agreement in principle for UK under-15-metre vessels to be included in the deal.
'This is subject to a reasonable compensation package, the details of which will be defined in Paris on Friday.
'In the meantime, there is a voluntary agreement for all UK vessels to respect the French closure period in the Baie de Seine.'
Mark Powell, whose boat the Golden Fleece II was caught up in the so-called 'Scallop Wars' last week, claims he is being unfairly targeted by French authorities to punish British crews
British and French officials and fishing industry representatives met in London to try and prevent further conflicts over scallop fishing.
The talks follow an incident last week in which French and British fishermen angrily bumped boats over access to fisheries off the French coast.
About 35 French boats confronted five British ones, sometimes banging hulls, in international waters during the incident.
UK crews reported rocks, smoke bombs and other projectiles were hurled at them during the confrontation.
Some of the fishermen from both sides also rammed each other, video footage showed.
French fishermen are seen throwing rocks at a British boat off Normandy coast last week
British Fisheries Minister George Eustice said the goal of the talks is to reach a new agreement that would prevent more confrontations.
An agreement reached in 2013 has broken down, leading to the clashes.
The clashes have occurred in a scallop-rich area known as the Baie de Somme, off the coast of Normandy.
National regulations allow British ships to fish legally in the area all year round but French fishermen are banned from taking the molluscs between May 15 and October 1 to conserve stocks.
Meanwhile, the British skipper of one of the boats attacked by French trawlermen is facing a 9,000 fine after being accused of illegally fishing a small number of under-sized scallops.
Mark Powell, whose boat the Golden Fleece II was caught up in the so-called 'Scallop Wars' last week, claims he is being unfairly targeted by French authorities in order to punish British crews.
Footage shows French fishing rivals using a petrol bomb to stop their UK counterparts catching scallops in the English Channel
He was arrested and detained by French authorities who boarded his boat and confiscated his 20,000 catch which they say included 180 (162) of under-sized scallops.
EU laws intended to protect sea life forbid fishermen from catching scallop under around four inches in length so they can grow large enough to spawn.
But Mr Powell, 49, denies catching any under-sized scallops and said the French were simply 'looking for technicalities all the time to have a go at the British fleet'.
He faces a court hearing in two weeks where he could be fined 10,000 (8,954) if found guilty over the incident in Le Havre last September.
Mr Powell's boat was involved in a clash with a 40-strong flotilla of French vessels which surrounded them off the coast of Normandy in the early hours of Tuesday.
But scallops aren't the only thing that is causing tension.
On Monday, two French boats based in Normandy caught 44 tuna fish while hunting for bream off the Channel Islands - adding to already simmering tensions between the two nations.
The tuna, each weighing between 50kg and 120kg and worth more than 100,000 in total, were then brought ashore at Granville in France to be sold.
British and French fishermen are at loggerheads over scallops and have clashed off the coast of Normandy and Jersey over tuna
Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks are managed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).
French fishermen are allowed to keep bluefin tuna while their British counterparts are banned from doing it.
The bluefins are usually only found in the Bay of Biscay and Mediterranean but rising water temperatures are sending more into UK waters.
The UK has no quota to catch bluefin tuna but France, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Malta and Cyprus do.
France's agriculture minister Stephane Travert said yesterday that the French navy is 'ready to step in' if more clashes break out.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the comments were in line with Environment Secretary Michael Gove's position that it was for the French to take any steps needed to prevent violence in the area.
A man who drunkenly poured beer over an Anzac memorial has told a Sydney court the bizarre act was a tribute to his veteran grandfather.
A heavily intoxicated Gregory Akerstrom, 43, was arrested in August after police caught him pouring beer on the war memorial in Martin Place.
He was also seen putting a wreath of flowers in the statue's hand, a cigarette lighter on its arm and a smoke in its rifle, before dancing in a puddle of beer.
Facing Sydney's Downing Centre District Court on Wednesday, Akerstrom pleaded guilty to the defacement of a war memorial, saying he had intended to honour his grandfather.
A drunken pensioner was arrested after defacing an inner-city Sydney war memorial (pictured)
In court, Akerstrom's defence lawyer argued the display was a misguided effort to pay homage to his late grandfather, The Daily Telegraph reported.
They heard Akerstrom's late grandfather was a WWI veteran who served in the Light Horse brigade.
'He was simply showing his interpretation of respect,' his lawyer said.
The court was told Akerstrom was a schizophrenic on the Disability Support Pension.
In handing down a judgement, Magistrate Katherine Thompson said while she understood he may not have known the offence he was causing, defacing a war memorial is 'a very serious affront to the dignity of those served'.
Akerstrom was convicted and fined $300, but told reporters outside of court he meant no harm.
Gwyneth Paltrow's high-end lifestyle and wellness brand Goop has agreed to offer its customers refunds and pay $145,000 to settle a lawsuit accusing the company of making unsubstantiated claims about the health benefits of vaginal eggs.
The complaint was brought against Goop on Friday by the California Food, Drug and Medical Device Task Force comprised of prosecutors from 10 district attorney's offices in California, acting on a report filed by the ad watchdog truthinadvertising.org a year ago.
The lawsuit alleged that the Santa Monica-based brand founded by the Academy Award-winning Shakespeare in Love star made unproven claims about the Jade Egg, Rose Quartz Egg and Inner Judge Flower Essence Blend, which were 'not supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence.'
Scroll down for video
Egg crackdown: Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle brand Goop has agreed to pay $145,000 to settle a lawsuit accusing the company of making unsubstantiated claims about the health benefits of the Rose Quartz (left) and Jade (right) vaginal eggs retailing for $55 and $66, respectively
Paltrow, 45, first touted the supposed health benefits of egg-shaped stones in January 2017, claiming they could balance hormones and boost orgasms
This diagram posted on goop.com shows how the egg should be inserted into a woman's body
Goop advertised that the Jade and Rose Quartz eggs - retailing on its website for $66 and $55, respectively - could balance hormones, regulate menstrual cycles, prevent uterine prolapse and increase bladder control when inserted into a woman's vagina and left there for hours.
According to Goop, the Inner Judge Flower Essence Blend - a $22 mixture of floral extracts - could help prevent depression if ingested or added to bathwater.
The California Food, Drug and Medical Device Task Force also took issue with the Inner Judge Flower Essence blend, whose description claims that it could prevent depression, guilt and shame
The settlement was announced by the California task force on Tuesday, stating that under the terms of the judgement, Paltrow's company has agreed to pay $145,0000 in civil penalties.
Goop also has been barred from making any claims regarding the health benefits of its products 'without possessing competent and reliable scientific evidence,' and from manufacturing or selling any falsely advertised medical devices.
It's important to hold companies accountable for unsubstantiated claims, especially when the claims have the potential to affect womens health, said Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas.
On its part, Goop has not admitted to any wrongdoing and defended its marketing practices, but said in a statement released on Tuesday to Bloomberg that the company wanted to settle the matter 'quickly and amicably'.
As part of the agreement with the district attorney's offices, Goop has promised to offer full refunds to any customer who purchased any of the aforementioned products between January 12 and August 31, 2017.
Paltrow, 45, who has two children with her ex-husband Chris Martin, first touted the supposed benefits of egg-shaped stones in a Q&A posted on her website in early 2017, claiming that the Jade Egg boosts orgasms, vaginal muscle tone and 'feminine energy' dubbed yoni.
The Iron Man star suggested women clench the stone inside their vagina all day to exercise their pelvic floor.
Paltrow's pronouncements drew swift rebuke from members of the medical community, with Bay Area gynaecologist Dr Jen Gunter leading the way by dismissing the idea of the eggs as potentially dangerous nonsense that could lead to bacterial vaginosis and even deadly toxic shock syndrome.
'I read the post on Goop and all I can tell you is it is the biggest load of garbage I have read on your site since vaginal steaming,' Dr Gunter wrote in a barbed open letter to Paltrow.
'The claim that they can balance hormones is, quite simply, biologically impossible,' Gunter went on. 'As for female energy? I'm a gynecologist and I don't know what that is. How does one test for it? Organically sourced, fair trade urine pH sticks coming soon to GOOP for $77 I presume?'
Paltrow, who founded Goop in 2008, has been roundly criticized and mocked for peddling eccentric and high-priced health fads, including the infamous vaginal steam clean
Paltrow is known for suggesting eccentric and expensive health fads on Goop, which she founded in 2008, arguably the most famous among them being the vaginal steam clean, which such A-listers as model Chrissy Teigen and actress Busy Philipps have recently tried.
As of Wednesday morning, the Rose Quartz Egg was still being sold on goop.com. Its description reads: 'made of heart-activating rose quartz - associated with positive energy and love - this yoni egg is associated with the heart chakra.
The Jade Egg is also still available for purchase, promising women 'to increase sexual energy and pleasure' and connect 'the second chakra (the heart) and yoni for optimal self-love and well-being.'
The Inner Judge Flower Essence blend's description on goop.com touted the $22 tincture as 'a purifying organic floral blend that assists in the clearing of guilt, shame, self-criticism and blame.'
According to the ad copy, the floral concoction 'supports self-acceptance, flexibility, compassion and forgiveness. It can be used frequently (every 5-15 mins) to help prevent shame spirals downward toward depressive states.
Lisa Brennan-Jobs made headlines last month when she revealed that Steve Jobs told her she 'smelled like a toilet' as he laid on his deathbed.
But now Lisa, who sprayed a rose mist on herself before visiting her billionaire father, revealed that what he said that day was actually true.
'I have to be clear about the toilet phrase,' she said during an interview with the Today Show's Hoda Kotb on Wednesday.
'I really did. I explain in the book, I was spraying myself with a natural rose water. So even though it wasn't a particularly nice phrase, it was true.'
Scroll down for video
Lisa Brennan Jobs made headlines last month when she said Steve Jobs told her she 'smelled like a toilet' as he laid on his deathbed. Now she revealed she 'really did'
Lisa sprayed a rose mist on herself before visiting Jobs, who was dying from pancreatic cancer. While she said it wasn't a 'particularly nice phrase, it was true'. They are pictured here in 1987
The toilet remark is just one of many stories that are told in Lisa's new memoir Small Fry, which was released on Tuesday.
Jobs' daughter said it 'took a long time' to write the book about her childhood and complicated relationship with Jobs, who denied he was her father for years.
'It was really cathartic and in some ways very joyful to go back and spend time with my young parents,' she said.
'They were younger than I am now, so it was nice to do that.'
Lisa, 40, wrote about a number of painful moments with her father, including when her mother Chrisann Brennan had to call him and beg for money.
Little Lisa took the phone out of her mother's hand and said 'Just give her some money, okay?' before hanging up on her father.
'My aunt witnessed that scene,' Lisa told Kotb. 'I think I was kind of a tough little scrappy soul.'
Jobs' daughter said it 'took a long time' to write the book about her childhood and complicated relationship with her father, but that she also found it 'cathartic'
Lisa recalled one touching moment to Hoda Kotb when her father sat through her boyfriend's play, despite the fact that it was 'freezing cold' and he didn't have a sweater
'Sometimes you save things from your past that you don't quite understand. They're little boxes and you preserve them for later when you can unwrap them and try and understand what they meant. And I think this whole book was a way to understand.'
But despite the many difficult times, Lisa also remembers feeling 'profound love and admiration' for her billionaire father.
One time included when Jobs sat through her boyfriend's play in the 'freezing cold'.
'He didn't have a sweater,' Lisa recalled. 'And only he and I can know how cold that night was. And he didn't complain.'
'He sat through the whole thing because he knew how important it was to me.'
These were among the 'joyful, tender, dear moments' that they were able to create after Jobs returned to Lisa's life, years after denying he was her father.
'He made the decision to come back and get to know me after he wasn't really around when I was younger,' she said.
'But I must have felt so confused and angry,' Lisa added. 'It was some combination of these things.'
As he lay dying after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, Jobs turned tender toward his daughter and frequently apologized about the times they had 'missed together'.
Laurene Powell Jobs, the Apple founder's widow (pictured together in 2005), and his sister Mona Simpson released a statement speaking out against the book
'The thing he kept on saying was "I owe you one, and I'm so sorry'", Lisa recalled.
At the time Lisa didn't fully forgive him, saying she felt 'a little bit paralyzed'. But now, seven years on, those feelings have shifted.
'Do you forgive him now?' Kotb asked.
'In many ways, yes,' Lisa replied. 'I understand him more, and understand myself more.'
And if there was one thing Lisa could wish for, it would be for more time with her father.
'I lost the chance to have more friendship with him,' she said. 'I wish we'd had more time together, and I think he wished that too.'
'Because we did like each other, and when we spent time together and got along, it was great. I wish we had more time.'
While Small Fry has been a healing process for Lisa, her aunt and stepmom did not feel the same way.
Laurene Powell-Jobs, the Apple founder's widow, and his sister Mona Simpson released a statement speaking out against the book.
'Lisa is part of our family, so it was with sadness that we read her book, which differs dramatically from our memories of those times,' it read.
Lisa wrote unsparingly of her relationship with Jobs. Her mother Chrisann Brennan (right) was with him for five years but when she told him she was pregnant, he left her
She dove into detail of how Jobs ended things with her mother when she fell pregnant with Lisa, and later told everyone 'It's not my kid'
'The portrayal of Steve is not the husband and father we knew. Steve loved Lisa, and he regretted that he was not the father he should have been during her early childhood.'
'It was a great comfort to Steve to have Lisa home with all of us during the last days of his life, and we are all grateful for the years we spent together as a family'.
Lisa said she recognized that it is always difficult to 'read about your own life and your own experiences in someone else's words'.
'I've been written about since I was three years old,' she said. 'There have been books and movies since. It can be hurtful.'
'But when I was thinking about writing this book, I realize that people have a right to tell their own story as honestly and accurately as they can.'
And, Lisa added, there was far more to Little Fry than just the story of her father.
'In many ways, this is a coming of age story of a girl growing up in California in the 1980s and 90s,' she said.
'I think it's easy to forget - because there's this distraction of this famous person - that we all have complexity in our lives.'
'So if you're going to read the 400 pages, you have to buckle up for whispering in libraries, dangling earrings, and adolescent angst and all of that.'
Jobs's admission he was Lisa's father came only after an acrimonious court case which saw her subjected to DNA testing. The relationship he built with her was difficult until his death
Chrisann, an aspiring artist, supported them by working as a cleaner, waitress and babysitter at a church. By the time Lisa was seven she had moved 13 times around San Francisco
Lisa's book has been making a splash long before it hit bookshelves as she shared tale after tale of her famous but private father.
She dove into detail of how Jobs ended things with her mother when she fell pregnant with Lisa, and later told everyone 'It's not my kid'.
Acrimony and a court case followed during which Jobs took a paternity test and still denied that he was Lisa's father.
Lisa was forced to take a DNA test and in December 1980 Jobs was ordered to pay $385 a month in child support by the state of California.
The case had dragged on for months but in the final days Jobs' lawyers rushed to resolve it.
Four days later Apple went public and overnight Jobs became worth more than $200million.
There are stories of Jobs ripping apart a waitress over a carrot salad and telling Lisa she was going to 'get nothing' after she asked about his Porsche.
Jobs vacationed in Greece in 2006, posing with his second wife Laurene Powell-Jobs, daughters Eve and Erin and Lisa, the daughter he had once refused to acknowledge
She also recalled moments Jobs was cruel to his future wife, telling dinner guests when Laurene left the room that 'she doesn't have taste'.
Lisa said Small Fry is not just about her father, but also a coming age story as she grew up in California in the 1980s and 90s
In one painful memory, Lisa recalled the moment her younger half-sister Eve told a guest that she was 'daddy's mistake'.
But there were happy times as well. Lisa said she always felt a strong bond with Jobs, and said time spent together with always was 'electrical and magical'.
They would watch classic films and play the piano when she visited his house as a child, and he often took her out rollerskating.
And, when she was 27 years old and on vacation with her father in Bono's villa in the South of France, he finally admitted to naming an early Apple computer after her.
Over lunch Bono asked Jobs about the early years of Apple and whether or not he named the Lisa after his daughter.
'Yeah, it was,' Jobs replied.
Lisa was shocked and told Bono: 'That's the first time he's said yes. Thank you for asking'.
Days before he died, Jobs admitted that he wished he 'could go back' and change how he treated her.
'I didn't spend enough time with you when you were little,' he told her. I wish we'd had more time...now it's too late'.
Small Fry, A Memoir by Lisa Brennan-Jobs is available on Amazon.com.
A ban intending to clamp down on hard liquor at frat house parties following pledge deaths last year has been ordered for fraternities in the United States and Canada.
The ban does leave room for hard liquor to be dispensed at fraternities, provided the drinks are served by someone with a liquor license.
In a news alert released Tuesday, the North-American Intrafraternity Conference revealed that all international and national fraternities of the NIC have a year to prohibit drinks with an alcohol content of 15 per cent or more from fraternity chapters and events, unless it is served by licensed third-party vendors.
The North-American Intrafraternity Conference announced that its fraternities will ban hard alcohol starting September 2019. The decision comes in the wake of the high-profile, alcohol-related, deaths of pledges Timothy Piazza, 19, and Maxwell Gruver, 18, in 2017
The rule was adopted on August 27 in a 'near-unanimous vote' of its 66 national and international fraternities, and must be implemented by September 1, 2019. Chapter facilities and events held outside the US have until September 2020 to comply.
The group has more than 6,100 chapters on 800 campuses in the US and Canada, with an estimated 385,000 undergraduate members and nearly 4.2million alumni.
The ban will allow hard liquor to be served at events provided it's doled out by a third party with a liquor license
'At their core, fraternities are about brotherhood, personal development and providing a community of support. Alcohol abuse and its serious consequences endanger this very purpose,' Judson Horras, NIC President & CEO said in the news alert.
The hard liquor ban adoption 'shows fraternities clear commitment and leadership to further their focus on the safety of members and all in our communities,' Horras added.
The hard liquor ban will extend to all fraternity house common areas and private quarters, including those belonging to students who are over the legal drinking age, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported.
In the US, the legal drinking age is 21, with the bulk of college students living in fraternity house being younger than that age.
Underage drinking on college campuses is a common occurrence, however, and is often seen to going hand-in-hand at parties, including fraternity and sorority mixers.
The NIC's ban comes on the heels of high-profile deaths of fraternity pledges at Louisiana State University and Penn State University in 2017. Authorities said that both deaths were alcohol-related.
The NIC revealed that the decision to ban hard liquor at fraternity houses and events was almost unanimous. Pictured: Louisiana State University's Phi Delta Theta fraternity, where Gruver was forced to chug alcohol while pledging and was left to choke on his own vomit
The ban does allow for hard liquor to be served, provided it is done by someone with a liquor license. Pictured: Penn State University's Beta Theta Pi, where Piazza died after consuming 18 alcoholic beverages in just under 90 minutes as part of a hazing ritual and fell down the stairs
The Interfraternity Council at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, voted in February 2015 to ban hard liquor from fraternity properties and all chapter events.
Seth Gutwein, the current Purdue IFC president, said the result has been 'a positive shift in our culture when it comes to the health and safety of our members and guests.'
'With all NIC fraternities implementing this critical change, it will provide strong support for fraternities to move as one to make campus communities safer,' Gutwein said in the NIC news release.
The NIC said the new rule follows the adoption of other alcohol-related initiatives in the past year, including a conference-wide adoption of good-Samaritan medical policies, piloting further measures to reduce alcohol, and advocating for stronger anti-hazing laws.
In February 2017, 19-year-old Timothy Piazza died after consuming 18 alcoholic beverages in just under 90 minutes as part of a hazing ritual and suffering fatal injuries when he tumbled down flights of stairs while pledging at Penn State University's Beta Theta Pi.
Piazza's parents have now settled their lawsuit against the Beta Theta Pi national organization for an undisclosed sum.
About 25 Penn State Beta Theta Pi fraternity members have been charged with hazing and other offences, three of whom have already pleaded guilty.
In September 2017, Maxwell Gruver, 18, died from acute alcohol intoxication with aspiration, after a night of being forced to chug alcohol while pledging Louisiana State University's Phi Delta Theta fraternity.
Gruver's blood-alcohol content was found to be more than six times the legal limit for driving and he had been left to inhale his vomit and other fluid into his lungs.
Authorities initially arrested 10 people in connection with Gruver's death, but the grand jury only indicted four of them. All four have since pleaded not guilty.
An Egyptian bus driver who allegedly sexually assaulted one of his female passengers was made to stand on top of his vehicle in just his underwear as part of a a public humiliation.
Photos surfaced on Twitter of the ceremony showing the man nearly naked in the street surrounded by a huge crowd of people.
Onlookers can be seen taking photos and pointing at the alleged attacker as he was made to stand on the roof for some time until the police arrived.
Twitter users who said they were at the scene claimed the man had attempted to abuse the woman after she was left alone on his bus.
Photos posted on Twitter of the incident showed a bus driver standing on the roof of a vehicle dressed only in his underwear
It was only when a nearby pedestrian heard her screaming for help that they jumped on board and cornered the man.
The bus driver was then stripped down to his underwear and made to stand on the roof of his vehicle until police arrived and arrested him immediately.
Social media users were quick to praise the mob's actions after the images of him went viral.
'Good on the people who did this and publicly shamed him until officers arrived,' one person said, 'If this happens a few more times, we'll no longer have to deal with harassers.'
Another simply tweeted: 'He deserves this.'
But some people came to the defence of the bus driver, saying he should not be subjected to mob justice.
'This a crime and an insult to a human being. This is a jungle, not a country. He made a mistake, he should be handed over to the police and be punished by them,' one person commented.
According to a 2013 report, released by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, 99.3 percent of Egyptian women have experienced some form of sexual harassment.
The pound surged today on speculation that Britain and German are ready to fudge a Brexit deal to avoid chaos next March.
Sterling rose more than 1 per cent amid claims ambitions are being downgraded for the 'political declaration' on trade that will accompany the divorce.
That could pave the way for the two year transition period to happen - effectively easing the time pressure on thrashing details of a future relationship.
It is the latest sharp market movement on Brexit rumours as anxiety grows about the impact negotiations collapsing.
However, the idea - which has been tagged 'blind Brexit' - appears to assume that Tory Brexiteers would be willing to sign off the 39billion divorce bill without knowing what the UK will receive in return.
Sterling rose above 1.29 against the US dollar today on speculation about an impending fudge over Brexit
The pound has been struggling in recent weeks as the standoff between the EU and UK deepens.
A slew of government planning papers released over the summer demonstrated the potential complexity of dealing with a no-deal outcome.
Disputed Treasury forecasts have suggested the UK economy could miss out on 10 per cent growth over the next 15 years - and the EU will also be badly damaged.
There was a spike in the value of the pound last week after comments from Michel Barnier that the bloc was ready to offer Britain an 'unprecedented' package.
Sources close to French President Emmanuel Macron were also said to have stressed the importance of reaching agreement.
However, the optimism ebbed away after Mr Barnier made clear he is still implacably opposed to Mrs May's Chequers blueprint for a soft Brexit.
Tory Eurosceptics and Remainers have also roundly condemned the proposals - which would see the UK follow rules on goods and collect some taxes for the bloc.
According to Bloomberg today, both Britain and Berlin are now ready to accept a less detailed agreement on Britain's future trade ties with the EU.
Sterling rose above 1.29 against the US dollar on the report, while against the euro it went up 0.5 per cent to 1.11.
Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, said: 'The reports indicate that both sides are prepared to forego ironing out some details on the future relationship now, in order to get a deal done.
According to Bloomberg today, both Theresa May and Angela Merkel (pictured left and right together in Berlin in July) are now ready to accept a less detailed agreement on Britain's future trade ties with the EU
'A couple of health warnings on this: first, Germany does not despite its clear dominance of the bloc economically actually speak for the EU position. Michel Barnier may well have something to say about this report. As might Theresa May.
'Second, we've heard these kinds of rumours lift the pound before and it should be treated with caution. There is a strong chance that this rally could run out of steam and retrace in fairly short order.'
The pound has taken a severe hammering in recent weeks following comments from a number of MPs and key figures.
The wife of a horse racing figure is fighting for her life after her luxury Mercedes collided with a police car.
Gai Vieira was rushed to hospital in a critical condition after the crash in Sydney's south just before midday on Wednesday.
Ms Vieira's husband is Bert Vieira, a part-owner of horse Trapeze Artist, one of the favourites to win the $13 million The Everest race, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Scroll down for video
The wife of a Sydney horse racing figure is fighting for her life in hospital after her Mercedes collided with a police car in the city's south on Wednesday. The accident scene is pictured
Gai Vieira (left, who is the husband of Bert Vieira, pictured right) was rushed to St George Hospital in a critical condition
The 68-year-old's vehicle collided with the highway patrol car at the intersection of The Kingsway and Connels Road at Cronulla.
She was treated at the scene by paramedics before being taken to St George Hospital where she underwent surgery.
A two-year-old boy who was a passenger in the vehicle was unjuried but was taken to the same hospital as a precaution.
The male Senior Constable who was behind the wheel of the police car was treated for minor facial injuries.
The highway patrol police car and Ms Vieira's Mercedes collided at the intersection of The Kingsway and Connels Road at Cronulla
Nine News reported it is understood the police vehicle was chasing after another car at the time.
'The sirens were on but I didn't see any lights,' a witness told the network.
A critical incident investigation has been launched, which will be subject to an independent review.
The Everest is billed as 'the world's richest race on turf'. It will take place at Sydney's Royal Randwick on October 13.
Jeremy Corbyn faced a backlash over his 'weaselly words' on Russian blame for Salisbury today.
The Labour leader was taken to task by Theresa May, Boris Johnson and even his own MPs for equivocating over the nerve agent outrage.
Mr Corbyn was widely criticised earlier this year when he resisted stating that the Russian authorities were behind the poison attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia.
He also previously played down Moscow's annexation of the Crimea in 2014, suggesting that NATO was to blame for the aggression.
It came as he revealed he had visited the area of Salisbury earlier this year - but critics hit out at him for failing to tell local politicians about the visit.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (pictured in the Commons today) was taken to task by Theresa May, Boris Johnson and even his own MPs for equivocating over the nerve agent outrage
During her statement, Mrs May pointedly thanked the SNP and other MPs for their tough stance on Russian involvement
Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson (pictured today) also delivered a withering assault on Mr Corbyn's response
The Tory leader of Salisbury Council hit out at Jeremy Corbyn for visiting the area without telling him
Responding to the PM's revelation today that two GRU military intelligence officers had been identified as responsible for the Novichok attack, the veteran left-winger said the Russian government must 'give a full account of how this nerve agent came to be used in the UK'.
He added: 'We will back any further reasonable and effective actions, whether against Russia as a state or the GRU as an organisation.
taken to 'secure co-operation from the Russian government' in bringing the suspects to trial.
Corbyn sparks fresh criticism over mysterious Salisbury visit Jeremy Corbyn today sparked fresh criticism after he reveled he visited Salisbury - but did not tell local politicians. The Labour leader told the Commons that he visited the town in July where former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned by the Cold War nerve agent Novichok. Labour sources said he was on a private visit and that is why he did not tell a local politicians. But local politicians hit out at the Labour leader for the snub. John Glen, Tory MP for Salisbury, told MailOnline: 'Jeremy Corbyn can go wherever he likes privately, obviously, but I was surprised he did not take the opportunity to make it known and to perhaps meet some of the people of this community. 'This is in stark contrast to Frank Field who came on Easter Saturday when it was very difficult.' He added: 'I think my constituents will be appalled that he finds it beyond himself to condemn the Russian state given the evidence that has been presented. 'How he cannot understand that the Russian state itself is responsible for what happened is beyond me and it's beyond the understanding of most of the epopel in the country. 'It is a stubborn adherence to a fixed view of Russia which is grounded in a romanticised notion of Russia rather than the reality of the state it is today.' Advertisement
Moscow has flatly refused to extradite any Russian citizens for years, including the suspect in the Litvinenko murder.
During her statement, Mrs May pointedly thanked the SNP for their tough stance on Russian involvement.
'I only wish that clear condemnation would be possible from the leaders of all parties in this House,' she said.
Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson also delivered a withering assault on Mr Corbyn's response.
He said: 'I think the whole House will have noted what I'm afraid was the somewhat weaselly language of the leader of the Opposition in failing to condemn what is now, I think, incontrovertible, in the eyes of all right-thinking people, involvement of the Russian state at the highest level in the Salisbury poisonings.'
Labour backbencher Chris Leslie said it was 'important that we do from all corners of this chamber express confidence and faith in the police and security services'.
In a thinly-veiled rebuke to Mr Corbyn and his allies, the MP added: 'Can I urge the PM to ignogr the cranks and ideological extremists whose first instinct seems to be to sow mistrust in our security professionals.'
In the same tense session, the Labour leader told the Commons he visited Salisbury in July.
Labour sources said he was on a private visit and that is why he did not tell a local politicians.
But local politicians hit out at the Labour leader for the snub.
John Glen, Tory MP for Salisbury, told MailOnline: 'Jeremy Corbyn can go wherever he likes privately, obviously, but I was surprised he did not take the opportunity to make it known and to perhaps meet some of the people of this community.
'This is in stark contrast to Frank Field who came on Easter Saturday when it was very difficult.'
He added: 'I think my constituents will be appalled that he finds it beyond himself to condemn the Russian state given the evidence that has been presented.
'How he cannot understand that the Russian state itself is responsible for what happened is beyond me and it's beyond the understanding of most of the epopel in the country.
'It is a stubborn adherence to a fixed view of Russia which is grounded in a romanticised notion of Russia rather than the reality of the state it is today.'
Tory leader of Salisbury Council Matthew Dean said on Twitter: 'Was very surprised to hear Jeremy Corbyn saying in the Commons that he visited Salisbury.
Labour backbencher Chris Leslie (pictured) said it was 'important that we do from all corners of this chamber express confidence and faith in the police and security services'
MPs gathered to hear an update from the PM on the Salisbury nerve agent attack investigation
'Certainly I wasnt aware & sadly didnt have the opportunity to brief him or introduce him to local residents, businesses, members of the emergency services or military.'
A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said the Labour leader had been led by the evidence that 'points toward' Russian state culpability for the attack.
He said: 'Jeremy has had a series of security briefings since March, including today.
'He has proceeded on the basis of the evidence and that is the right approach.
'(Since March) that evidence has shifted to direct Russian authorship of the attack.
'That is why Jeremy clearly said we would support reasonable and effective steps the Government might take against the Russian state or the GRU.'
Mr Corbyn's spokesman said action must be 'proportionate' and said Labour backed further crackdown on Russian citizens using London as a financial base.
He said Mr Corbyn wanted pressure on the Kremlin to give up the two suspects but accepted it was 'unlikely' to be the case.
Bill Cosby, pictured in court before a verdict against him was read in April, saw his Walk of Fame star vandalized Monday
Bill Cosby's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was vandalized with the words 'serial rapist' on Monday according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The authorities took a vandalism report and there are security cameras but so far no suspects have been named, according to ABC News.
Cosby's Walk of Fame star was also defaced in 2014, when someone wrote the word 'rapist' as the old allegations against the actor resurfaced.
The new vandalism has since been cleaned off.
The 81-year-old comedian, who was convicted April 26 of aggravated indecent assault, was accused of drugging and assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his home near Philadelphia in 2004.
He is back in court later this month for sentencing.
The weeks-long retrial included testimony from five other women who were among the dozens to accuse Cosby of similar sexual misconduct.
The former TV star, once known as 'America's Dad' for his portrayal of kindly Dr Cliff Huxtable on 'The Cosby Show', is now under house arrest with a GPS ankle monitor awaiting sentencing.
'Serial Rapist': Cosby was found guilty of drugging and sexually Andrea Constand, has had similar accusations against him by dozens of women
In July the Montgomery County District Attorney's office that prosecuted Cosby requested a hearing on Tuesday so a judge can make the final decision on whether the 81-year-old comedian should be considered sexually violent.
He is only allowed to leave to visit doctors or lawyers ahead of his September 24 hearing. Cosby faces up to 10 years in prison but his representatives have said he plans to appeal.
The report by the Sexual Offenders Assessment Board, which examined 14 different criteria, is not public.
Copies are given to the prosecutor, defense attorney and court before the hearing and the board's assessor will likely testify about how she made the recommendation.
State law already requires Cosby to register as a sex offender because of the nature of the charge of which he was convicted.
The sexually violent predator classification would require increased treatment in prison and increased notification of neighbors upon release.
A person deemed a predator is subject to lifetime of at least monthly, mandatory sex offender counseling with a treatment provider approved by the state board.
Photo for illustration. (Source: VNA)
The capitals tourism turnover totaled VND645 billion, a year-on-year rise of 5%.
Specifically, the Thang Long Royal Citadel greeted 4,081 tourists, a two-fold increase from the same period last year; Vietnam National Village for Ethnic Culture and Tourism received nearly 20,000 tourists, up about 20%; Huong Son relic welcomed 850 tourists, up 6% and hot spots in Ba Vi such as Khoang Xanh, Ao Vua, Ba Vi National Park and Tan Da lured 39,000 tourists, up over 10%.
According to survey, the average room occupancy was higher than the same period last year at 65% for the 1 to 5-star hotels bloc, up 2% and 69% for the 3 to 5-star hotels bloc.
Tourist markets sending the most tourists to Vietnam were China, the Republic of Korea, Japan and France./.
An Italian priest has said brides with plunging necklines should pay more for their weddings as a 'decency tax'.
Father Cristiano Bobbo, of Oriago near Venice, said there should be a levy so that the 'least dressed pay the most' for their ceremonies.
'We could set up a sort of offering to be levied in proportion to the decency of the dress of the bride, who often present themselves looking coarse and vulgar, so the least dressed pay the most,' he said.
An Italian priest has said brides with plunging necklines should pay more for their weddings as a 'decency tax'
Father Bobbo later clarified the remark as being intended as 'jocular provocation' - but added that it was something he would like to do, ANSA reports.
He is said to have written to parishioners voicing his concern over brides who turn up for their church wedding wearing gowns that were 'inappropriate for the circumstances'.
Instead, brides should chose wedding outfits that are in good taste', he said.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Father Bobbo's comments were met with a mixed reaction online in Italy.
One said it was like 'going back to the 1940s' and asking whether a low neckline was really worthy of taking such action.
But others called his plan 'common sense' with one asking: 'If people want to turn up in church semi-naked, why are they getting married in church?'
Ten passengers were removed from a quarantined Emirates flight that had rapper Vanilla Ice onboard at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport Wednesday morning.
'So I just landed from Dubai and now there is like tons of ambulances and fire trucks and police all over the place,' Vanilla Ice tweeted.
The double decker A380 aircraft, which was traveling from Dubai to New York City, landed at the Queens airport Wednesday morning shortly after 9am.
Initial reports said up to 100 passengers fell ill, but a statement from Emirates put that number at just 10.
Scroll down for video
Rapper Vanilla Ice was onboard the Emirates flight that had to be quarantined Wednesday morning after several passengers fell ill
The rapper (pictured in April), whose real name is Robert Van Winkle, followed that tweet with a second one that expressed his relief of not being on the same level as the sick passengers
The rapper, whose real name is Robert Van Winkle, followed that tweet with a second one that expressed his relief of not being on the same level as the sick passengers.
'This is crazy. Apparently there is over 100 people sick on the bottom floor, so happy Im up top, its a double-decker plane 380,' he tweeted.
Shortly after the reports of 100 people falling ill on the plane made its rounds on the internet, Emirates released a statement on Twitter that claimed only 10 people had been treated.
'Emirates can confirm that about 10 passengers on #EK203 from Dubai to New York were taken ill,' the statement read.
'On arrival, as a precaution, they were attended to by local health authorities. All others will disembark shortly.
'The safety & care of our customers is our first priority,' the airline wrote.
The double decker A380 aircraft, which was traveling from Dubai to New York City, landed at the Queens airport Wednesday morning shortly after 9am
First responders (pictured) were waiting on the tarmac for the plane to arrive at the airport
Shortly after the reports of 100 people falling ill on the plane made its rounds on the internet, Emirates released a statement (pictured) on Twitter that claimed only 10 people had been treated
A DailyMail.com request for comment to Emirates was not immediately returned to clarify that discrepancy.
But apparently, dozens of passengers reported feeling sick but only 10 were taken to the hospital.
A spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio later confirmed that 10 people were hospitalized and another eight were treated at the airport.
Airport officials said Emirates Flight 203 was carrying 500 passengers when some of them reported feeling sick.
The pilot raised concerns to air traffic controllers that many of his passengers appeared to be sick with fevers over 100 degrees Fahrenheit and several of them were coughing.
Passengers shared photos from inside the plane as they prepared to disembark
Photos showed officials from the Port Authority Police and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention waiting in a staging area to check passengers after they landed
One passenger was seen being transported on a stretcher by paramedics to an ambulance
The woman was fully covered with blankets and was wearing a face mask
Video from news helicopters showed the jet sitting on the tarmac surrounded by ambulances, vehicles and airport personnel.
Photos of the scene showed paramedics transporting passengers from the plane to the ambulances on stretchers.
Other photos showed officials from the Port Authority Police and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention waiting in a staging area to check passengers after they landed.
Passengers were exiting the plane with their luggage and getting on to buses. Some even shared photos from inside the plane as they prepared to disembark.
A few passengers also tweeted about the flight.
Larry Coben, who said he was on board the aircraft, wrote on Twitter that passengers are being asked to fill out a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention form and that CDC personnel had boarded the aircraft.
He also shared photos of passengers getting their temperatures taken. 'Deplaning and having temperature taken,' Coben tweeted.
Some sick passengers were taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center with non-life-threatening conditions, according to a New York City Fire Department spokesman.
A few passengers also tweeted about the flight. Larry Coben wrote on Twitter that passengers were being asked to fill out a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention form (pictured)
He also shared photos of passengers (left and right) getting their temperatures taken as they got off the plane
One passenger called the flight the 'worst' one ever in a tweet
CDC public health officers were working with other agencies to evaluate passengers, including taking temperatures and making arrangements for transport to hospitals, spokesman Benjamin Haynes said in the statement.
Passengers who were not ill were allowed to continue with their travel plans, Haynes added.
Another passenger, Erin Sykes, tweeted: '@emirates worst flight ever Dubai to NYC; plane was basically a flying infermary [sic].'
'Many of these people should never have been allowed to board. Now sitting on the ground after 14 hour flight unable to leave. @EmiratesSupport #emirates #worstairline,' the woman added.
In an interview, Sykes said she saw a few passengers being taken off the plane first for medical attention, but she added that 'many, many' others were showing signs of illness.
'Very intense coughing. Violently sick. Going into the bathroom a lot,' she said when asked to describe the scene.
Passenger, Raghida Dergham, who was sitting in the business section of the aircraft said in an interview that sick passengers were in a 'lower level' economy section of the plane.
'I feel great. I feel fine,' she said. 'Nobody was alarmed. ... It was handled very well.'
But others said they suspected that some passengers were sick before they got on the plane and that the airline should have done more to protect others.
'Why did they allow them on the flight? ... I sat with them for 13 hours. If it's a virus, we're all getting sick,' Srinivasa Rao said.
Passenger, Raghida Dergham (right), said she was sitting in the business section of the aircraft and that the situation was 'handled very well'. But passenger, Srinivasa Rao (left) said the airline should have done more to protect its non-sick passengers
The aircraft (pictured) was taken to a location away from the terminal so that emergency officials could evaluate the situation, officials from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in a statement
It's unclear what caused the high fevers and coughing, and health officials are still investigating.
But fears abound that the sickened passengers could have contracted MERS - Middle East Respiratory Syndrome - which Saudi Arabia has been battling to control since 2012.
MERS has been singled out by global health authorities as the most concerning virus at the moment because it is notoriously resistant to antibiotics.
Laurie Garrett, author of The Coming Plague and Ebola: Story Of An Outbreak, told the DailyMail.com that it is unlikely, based on the symptoms reported so far.
CDC officials say cases involve fever, coughing, and flu-like symptoms.
According to Garrett, the biggest concern for medics to look out for is respiratory symptoms.
It is also unlikely that MERS would strike so many so quickly, says Amesh Adalja, MD.
He said it would be 'odd to have so many probably random people becoming unwell at the same time from an infection'.
The aircraft was taken to a location away from the terminal so that emergency officials could evaluate the situation, officials from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in a statement.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said they were monitoring the situation and President Donald Trump was being updated as new information became available.
A month-long investigation by the U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency led to the apprehension of 364 undocumented immigrants in six Midwestern states.
Federal agents with the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) unit detained 18 women and 346 men from 25 countries during the 30-day enforcement period, ICE stated in a press release last week.
The immigration agency officers, working under the direction of the ICE Chicago center that oversees the six-state region, were able to capture 71 immigrants that were fugitives and another 97 that illegally came to the country after they had been deported.
ICE officers with the Enforcement and Removal Operations unit carried out a 30-day investigation, arresting 364 undocumented immigrants across six Midwestern states [file photo]
The Midwest investigation led to the arrest of 236 undocumented Mexicans, 54 immigrants from Guatemala and 40 from Honduras that made it across the US border without proper legal documentation.
Of the 364 arrested, 187 had prior convictions.
On July 24, ERO agents arrested a Mexican man, 46, in Wood Dale, Illinois, who had been previously convicted for attempted murder. He remained under ICE custody awaiting deportation.
During a seven-day period in August, immigration officers in Indianapolis successfully arrested an 18-year-old male fugitive from Honduras who was sought by authorities in Louisiana for the rape of a minor. ICE was awaiting to extradite him to Louisiana.
ICE was able to detain an a 26-year-old undocumented immigrant from Guatemala in Shelbyville, Kentucky, for the distribution of child pornography, and kept him in custody pending deportation.
The large scale arrests were effective in Illinois (134), Kentucky (60), Indiana (52), Kansas (43), Missouri (42). Wisconsin's operation led to the apprehension of another 33 immigrants.
The announcement came on the same week as ICE raided a Texas trailer-manufacturing business and arrested 160 undocumented workers, the largest ever workplace operation in the last decade.
It was at least the second immigration raid targeting the business that's located in Summer, Texas, 100 miles northeast of Dallas, the last coming in 2014.
A young girl will think twice before getting on a dirt bike again without a helmet on after suffering life-changing injuries when she crashed face-first into a gate.
Teeleah Jones, nine, was visiting a friend's farm in Toodyay, northeast of Perth, on August 11 when she hopped on a dirt bike, which she had never ridden before.
Her parents have shared gruesome photos of their daughter's horrifying injuries to raise awareness about the dangers of riding without a helmet.
Teeleah Jones (pictured) suffered extensive injuries in a dirt bike accident. She wasn't wearing a helmet at the time
Teeleah lost control and crashed into a gate at high speed, suffering extensive injuries.
They included a lacerated lip, crumpled jaw, a tooth knocked out, one cracked tooth, and two teeth pushed 90 per cent upwards into her gum.
All teeth damaged in the shocking accident were her adult teeth.
Teeleah also broke her wrist and fractured her finger and required three hours surgery on her mouth the day after the accident.
Teeleah (pictured) needed three hours of surgery on her mouth the day after the shocking accident last month
'We have been advised she will need to have ongoing treatment, which includes continuous root canals, continuous modification of braces, her teeth will need to be replaced when she becomes an adult with implants,' her dad Justin wrote on a GoFundMe page.
'Parents... Please also make sure your child or any child in your care wears a helmet. No matter how short of a ride it may be. It could end up like this or worse.'
A month on from the terrifying ordeal, Teeleah can still only eat soft foods and can't bite with her front teeth.
'We know bones can heal but the teeth are obviously our biggest worry and they are going to be our biggest expense,' her mother Teegan Robinson told Perth Now.
'When it first happened she did not want to leave the house, she did not want to go out in public, we had to cover all the mirrors up because she didn't want to look at herself.'
Teeleah's parents have publicly shared photos of her daughter's horrifying injuries to warn other parents to ensure their children wear a helmet when riding a bike
The other mother has since apologised for letting Teeleah get on the bike without her parents' permission, who weren't present at the time.
'They didn't ask me, but I would have said make sure she has shoes, long pants, long sleeves and a helmet, otherwise she wouldn't have been riding and she didn't have any of them on (apart from leggings),' Ms Robinson said.
The GoFundMe page was set up to raise fund towards Teeleah's ongoing medical costs, which has raised more than $6,200 of the $20,000 goal.
Any leftover funds will be donated to Perth's Children's Hospital's Starlight Foundation.
Teeleah Jones before the accident on August 11
Earlier this week, Father's Day ended in tragedy for one family after a motorcycle accident claimed the life of a 11-year-old boy in regional Victoria.
Emergency services were called to a Tambo Upper property in in the state's East Gippsland region after the boy crashed into a tree on Sunday.
He could not be revived at the scene, despite the desperate attempts of paramedics.
A Kidsafe fact sheet on farm safety advises parents to provide children with age appropriate bikes and safety gear and to teach them how to operate them safely in safe places to ride.
'Children under the age of 16 years do not operate or take the position of a passenger on a quad bike or motorcycle,' the fact sheet states.
Kim Kardashian spent several hours at the White House on Wednesday highlighting a drug-charge case of a convicted felon she's hoping to free.
Kardashian participated in a criminal justice reform roundtable with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner and highlighted the case of Chris Young, a felon drug dealer she wants Donald Trump to free.
It is unclear whether she extended her stay at the White House to meet with the president. A spokesperson for the president declined to comment.
President Trump was not scheduled to take part in the conversation, but that also the case last time Kardashian was on the property.
She and Trump ended up visiting in the Oval Office in June without reporters present. The White House distributed a hand-out photo after the fact.
Meeting time: Kim Kardashian was at a White House round table on criminal justice reform. She sat beside former federal judge Kevin Sharp, who quit the bench in protest at mandatory drug sentencing, including the case of Chris Young, the felon drug dealer she wants freed
In charge: Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law chaired the meeting dedicated to criminal justice reform, which his wife Ivanka Trump also attended. The White House released no pictures but Kim Kardashian did - on her Instagram story
Ivanka at the table: The First Daughter was at the opposite end of the meeting from her husband Jared Kushner
Down to business: Kim Kardashian was accompanied at the meeting by other criminal justice campaigners, and the general counsel of Koch Industries. The conservative Koch brothers back criminal justice reform to reduce sentences for drugs
Kim shared this photo with Jared and Ivanka hours after her visit
White House visit: Kim Kardashian was accompanied by CNN political commentator Van Jones as she walked outside the White House after her meeting with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump
Kim Kardashian spent several hours at the White House on Wednesday highlighting a drug-charge case of a convicted felon she's hoping to free
Kushner was leading the meeting on Wednesday that included a lawyer for Alice Johnson, Kardashian West, Van Jones and the Koch Industries' general counsel.
The president was not scheduled to take part in the conversation, but that also the case last time Kardashian was on the property
'Today at the White House, members of the Administration are hosting a listening session about the clemency process. The discussion is mainly focused on ways to improve that process to ensure deserving cases receive a fair review,' Hogan Gidley, a deputy press secretary at the White House, in a statement said.
In June, the reality TV star helped to free Johnson, a 63-year-old grandmother from Tennessee who was sentenced to life in prison in 1996 on non-violent drug charges.
President Trump commuted Johnson's sentence after Kardashian's tireless campaign against her harsh, mandatory punishment.
The reality star is taking on the cause now of Chris Young, a 30-year-old drug dealer who is serving a life term at a federal prison in Lexington, Kentucky.
Kardashian plead Young's case on Jason Flom's Wrongful Conviction podcast on Wednesday.
Kim Kardashian is at the White House to highlight a drug-charge case Chris Young, a convicted felon she's hoping to free. The 30-year-old convicted drug dealer is serving a life term at a federal prison in Lexington, Kentucky
The president was not scheduled to take part in the conversation, but that also the case last time Kardashian was on the property. She and Trump visited in the Oval Office in June without reporters present. The White House distributed a hand-out photo after the fact
According to Page Six, she said: 'Yesterday, I had a call with a gentleman that's in prison for a drug case - got life. It's so unfair. He's 30 years old. He's been in for almost 10 years.'
I felt like the only person that understood all the adversity I'd been through was gone. I was lost, and I made a lot of bad decisions Chris Young after his brother's death
'I was on the phone with the judge that sentenced him to life, who resigned because he had never been on the side of having to do something so unfair, and now he is fighting [alongside] us to get [Young] out.'
Young has been in jail since he was arrested at a Shell gas station in Clarksville, Tennessee in December 2010.
He was talking to a drug dealer named Robert Porter while standing next to Porter's car, which contained eight ounces of cocaine and six ounces of crack.
Young went to trial after three years in custody, turning down a guilty plea because he felt the 14-year-sentence prosecutors offered was too long.
He was found guilty of conspiracy with intent to possess and distribute 500 grams of cocaine and 280 grams of crack, intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a high school, and knowingly possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
Because of previous drug convictions, the judge had no choice but to give him life in prison.
Young had been arrested for drug possession with a firearm in 2006 and for possession of less than a half-gram of cocaine in 2007 - the same year his brother Robert committed suicide.
He later said of his brother's death: 'I felt like the only person that understood all the adversity I'd been through was gone. I was lost, and I made a lot of bad decisions.'
The judge who sentenced Young, Kevin Sharp, left the bench in protest of 'unfair' mandatory sentences. He was also a participant in the meeting at the White House.
He said at Young's sentencing hearing in 2014, 'Each defendant is supposed to be treated as an individual. I don't think that's happening here.'
Young had testified that his mother was a drug addict and their home would sometimes have no lights or water.
He worked at a funeral home but soon joined his friends dealing drugs as a way to survive, he said.
Young said at his sentencing he had been relentlessly studying in jail to 'better himself.'
He said: 'I look at this like I'm in college. I don't get to go to frat parties or talk to women, but this is the time to get my skill set. When I'm reading in my cell, it's like I'm studying in my dorm room.'
Judge Sharp told the Tennessean: 'If there was any way I could have not given him life in prison I would have done it.'
He added: 'Most of the defendants (in drug cases) are not dangerous. They're just kids who lack any opportunities and any supervision, lack education and have ended up doing what appears to be at the time the path of least resistance to make a living.'
Asia Argento attacked the gender-nonconforming partner of her former friend and #MeToo advocate Rose McGowan in a series of tweets on Wednesday.
The actress, who had been absent from social media for the past six weeks, returned to Twitter after model Rain Dove Dubilewski, 27, criticized Argento's attorney for refusing to acknowledge that she had a sexual relationship with actor Jimmy Bennett when the boy was underage.
'I will 100% help support You through this process with whatever resources I have that can assist the healing necessary - but You need to be honest. I cant help a dishonest being,' wrote Dove.
Argento responded by firing back: 'Very funny coming from a sick pathological liar like you, who made money out of me by selling selected text messages in order to portray me for something I am not.'
Her return to social media came at the same time X Factor Italia formally announced that Argento would appear only in the first half of the show's new season, and be replaced for the live episodes when they air later this year.
The Italian star, 42, also used her return to Twitter to attack Dove for information they relayed regarding the death of Anthony Bourdain.
Scroll down for video
Twitter tirade: Asia Argento returned to Twitter following a six-week hiatus on Wednesday to attack Rain Dove Dubilewski, Rose McGowan's nonbinary partner (Dove and McGowan above in March)
Out and about: Dove and McGowan were all smiles just hours after the Twitter spat at the GQ Awards in London (above)
Underage: Dove, 27, criticized Argento and her lawyer for recent statements, including their recent claim that the actress was sexually assaulted by Jimmy Bennett in 2014 (pair above at that 2014 meet-up in California)
Shots fired: 'Very funny coming from a sick pathological liar like you, who made money out of me by selling selected text messages,' tweeted Argento (above in one Twitter exchange from Wednesday)
Exchange: The actress then accused Dove of misleading her with theories about the death of her late partner Anthony Bourdain, who was found hanged in his hotel in June (one text exchange posted by Argento above)
It was Dove's texts with Argento that confirmed the actress had sexual relations with Bennett in a California hotel room back in 2014, more than a decade after the actress first worked with the boy at the age of 6 in her film adaptation of JT Leroy's The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things.
Argento, who was one of the first women to publicly accuse Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault, initially lied about her encounter with Bennett following a New York Times report that revealed the young man had received a $380,000 payment from the actress' partner Anthony Bourdain when he threatened to file a $7.5 million lawsuit.
Just hours after she denied ever having sex with Bennett, TMZ published a text exchange between Dove and with Argento, confirming most of the Times report.
Argento and her lawyer are now claiming that she was the victim, and Bennett sexually assaulted her that day in the hotel.
Dove voiced their opinion on this latest version of events from Argento by writing in one tweet: 'NO Jimmy Bennet didnt rape Asia. We must hold all beings to the truth here. Dont need to kno the whole story but what we do know should b truthful.'
Argento then took aim at Dove for making claims about the death of Bourdain.
She posted a handful of cryptic text exchanges she had with the model that seem to suggest they both believe the celebrity chef did not take his own life.
'Why did you tell me you knew the truth about my partners death and pretended to be some sort of 007? You wrote me hundreds of lies, for over a month. I have all the text messages. Now its time for YOU to tell the truth, if you are capable. Your ex calls you a pathological liar,' wrote Argento.
She followed that up by stating: 'Then tell me why did you invent that articulate, humongous, gross lie about you and your NETWORK knowing the truth about Anthonys death?'.
Non-binary: Dove (left in March, right in 2016) started dating McGowan in February after offering to work with her following the actress' very public argument with a transgender woman at a book signing
Conspiracy: Months prior, Bourdain had agreed to fund Argento's $380,000 payment to Bennett, who was threatening to sue the actress for $7.5 million (tweets from Wednesday above)
Allegations: Dove told Argento he had unreleased information about Bourdain death in texts posted by the actress on Wednesday (above)
Dove, who engaged with Argento throughout her attack, replied: 'That wasnt a lie. We did a lot of great work including - which You saw yourself- the toxicology report which French authorities dumbed down to the media. And then later on redacted and said yeah there was alcohol. And Im not 007. Im just part of a common research team.'
Argento then posted a text conversation she had with Dove about documents concerning Bourdain's death that she hoped to get to a journalist for an investigative piece about the Emmy winner.
In another exchange shared by Argento, Dove writes about a 'network' being involved in Bourdain's death and how 'dangerous' it was to be investigating the matter.
They also claim to have see documents and exchanges between unknown parties, prompting Argento to tweet: 'Go tell that to @CNN. What you did (if you did it! I highly doubt it) is criminal.'
Dove responded: 'Alright love. But You are just deflecting. Ill own my own path itll clearly be a fun week. But You still must own urs. 100%. You had a sexual dynamic w Jimmy Bennett. Whether u felt used or extorted or that ur friend was rude the engagement still happened. & he didnt rape u.'
Argento did not dispute Dove's claims in that tweet, and instead accused the model of deflecting, before adding: 'Dont call me love. All that is left of your answers is treachery and deceit.'
She later closed out her attack by writing: 'You cant help yourself but keep lying, can you? You never sent me or showed me any documents. And remember, there was a witness.'
Dove went offline at the exact same time, but not before posting a few final remarks.
'Ok, through the gates of Hell I walk willingly with You if only for the truth to see the light of the fire,' said the model to Argento in one post.
Dove then said in a final tweet: 'Fair for U to be angry- U are trapped and want to take everything down with U. I am not afraid of what is coming. But the truth still remains You slept w Jimmy Bennett. You lied when You demand others accused of sexual assault to be honest. This hurts victims voices everywhere.'
The model is a new acquaintance of Argento, whom she met through McGowan.
Dove started dating the actress earlier this year in the wake of McGowan's rage-filled rant at a transgender woman at a New York City book signing for her memoir Brave that many found to be transphobic.
In the wake of that incident, Dove offered to help the actress repair her image.
Dove said that she released the texts with McGowan's blessing, and also sent her exchanges with the actress to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
A Virginia man convicted of punching the organizer of last summer's white nationalist rally after he attempted to hold a news conference has been fined $1.
Jeffrey Winder of Afton was found guilty Tuesday of misdemeanor assault and battery for a second time during an appeal trial.
Prosecutors said Winder could be seen on video punching Jason Kessler, who was mobbed after he called a news conference August 13, 2017, the day after the 'Unite the Right' rally drew hundreds of white nationalists to Charlottesville, along with counterprotesters.
Scroll down for video
Winder, pictured left in red with a raised fist, was filmed as he went in to punch Jason Kessler, pictured right with his back to the camera and right arm raised, at Kessler's press conference the day after his fatal Charlottesville 'Unite the Right' rally
Prosecutors used footage from the 2017 in front of Charlottesville City Haul and Winder was found guilty of assault. He appeal led to this case, and though he was ultimately found guilty he received an absolute minimum at sentencing
Heather Heyer, 32, was killed at the rally, and over 20 others were wounded when 20-year-old white supremacist James Fields allegedly intentionally struck them with his car.
On June 27, 2018, he was charged with one count of a hate crime resulting in a death, 28 counts of hate crimes resulting in bodily injury/attempts to kill and one count of racially motivated violent interference. He has pleaded not guilty on all 30 charges.
Heather Heyer, a counterprotestor at the 'Unite the Right' rally, was killed when white supremacist James Fields drove into the crowd. The subsequent media attention was the basis for Kessler's follow up press conference
Kessler briefly made remarks at the following day's news conference before a crowd began heckling him, prompting him to flee.
Jurors could have sentenced Winder to up to 12 months of jail time and $2,500 in fines for his actions following the news conference attack. They decided instead to give him a $1 fine with no jail time, The Daily Progress reported. Some jurors could be seen tearing up as their verdict was read.
Winder's supporters were quick to set up a GoFundMe page to raise the $1 he owes the state; as of 5pm EST the fundraiser had raised $185 with all excess money to be donated to the Charlottesville Community Resilience Fund.
Pictured at left, Winder, following the conclusion of his appeal and his $1 fine. At right, Kessler speaking to the press. He is still upset as 'people made fun' of him for being subject to the punch, which caused no physical harm
In this August 13, 2017 photo, 'Unite the Right' rally organizer Jason Kessler, center rear, is escorted by police after his press conference was disrupted outside City Hall in Charlottesville
Kessler said he wasn't physically hurt, but did suffer emotional trauma.
'I was attacked in front of the whole world, and then people made fun of me for it,' he continued.
Asked for comment, Winder and the prosecutor's office told TV station WVIR that the jury's sentence speaks for itself.
Winder and his attorney have yet to decide if they will appeal, the TV station reported.
Maria Gonzalez, 33, claimed that she was robbed by two black men at the Floradora and 8th intersection in Fresno, California at 2.30pm on Saturday
A California woman who said she was robbed by two black men actually concocted her story in efforts to avoid paying $9,000 to subcontractors, police said.
Maria Gonzalez, 33, claimed that she had stopped at the Floradora and 8th intersection in Fresno at 2:30pm on Saturday, when two masked men put a gun to her head.
Gonzalez maintained that she had been held at gunpoint and robbed of money she was planning to pay employees. She also claimed to have been sexually assaulted.
But by Monday, Gonzalez allegedly confessed to making up the attack during an intense 2.5hour interrogation with Fresno police.
'The reality is she did not have the $9,000 to pay the subcontractors and that's why she made up the story,' said Chief Jerry Dyer at a press conference, according to ABC News.
Dyer explained that Gonzalez had tied her hands behind her back with a telephone cord and had faked injuries.
While at the hospital, the woman recounted that the men bound her arms and stuffed a rag in her mouth while she drove.
Fresno police found inconsistencies in Gonzalez's story and showed her a video of the scene where the kidnapping was said to have taken place
Gonzalez claimed that she lost consciousness and when she came to later, her money was gone and she had a bump the side of her head.
The woman also stated that she had 'moisture in her underwear' that she believed was from being sexually assaulted.
It was then that the woman confessed and said that she was trying to get out of paying the workers for her family business, M & C Gonzalez Trucking
But Fresno police spotted inconsistencies in the woman's story, according to the police chief.
Other valuables were found in Gonzalez's purse where the money had supposedly been in.
Police also found that the woman's memory was erratic - she could only give flesh out details surrounding how she freed herself from the backseat.
Officials then showed Gonzalez a video of the scene where the kidnapping allegedly took place and it was then that the woman admitted that she was trying to get out of paying subcontractors.
Gonzalez had claimed that the missing money was going to two employees of her family business, M & C Gonzalez Trucking.
Police released the woman on Sunday night but are looking into a possible arrest warrant for the woman.
Police released the woman on Sunday night but are looking into a possible arrest warrant for the woman, who lives at the same address that is listed for the company (pictured)
'It is important that when people file a false police report, especially of this magnitude, that we hold them accountable for doing so,' added Dyer.
'Not only did this create an enormous amount of work and pulled our detectives off other cases that they could have been working or should have been working, but it created a lot of fear in our community.'
What do we know about the Russian military intelligence unit suspected by Britain of being behind the Salisbury Novichok attack?
The GRU - Russia's 'Main Intelligence Directorate' - was founded in 1918 after Lenin's Bolshevik Revolution.
Lenin insisted on its independence from other secret services and the GRU was seen as a rival by other Soviet secret services, such as the KGB.
Before the Russian Federation came into existence, the unit was subordinate to the more famous and feared KGB, the notorious internal security service of the Soviet Union.
The GRU - Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate - was founded in 1918 after Lenin's Bolshevik Revolution. Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen above on the left with then-Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov on the roof of the newly built GRU headquarters in 2006
GRU, one of whose divisions has an emblem featuring a bat hovering above a globe, was founded as the Registration Directorate in 1918 after the Bolshevik Revolution
The KGB was ultimately succeeded by the FSB - the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.
Vladimir Putin was a member of the KGB for 16 years and later briefly the head of the FSB.
According to Yuri Shvets, a former KGB agent, GRU officers were referred to as 'boots' - tough but unsophisticated.
'The GRU took its officers from the trenches,' he said, whereas KGB picked its agents from the USSR's best universities.
The GRU - an acronym for Glavnoye razvedyvatelnoye upravleniye - would train agents and then send them to represent the Soviet Union abroad as military attaches in foreign embassies, according to historian John Barron.
But once a member of the GRU, it is believed to be exceptionally difficult to leave. And those who do so to joined foreign agencies were punished savagely.
Viktor Suvorov, a GRU officer who defected to Britain in 1978, said new recruits were shown a video of a traitor from the agency being burned alive in a furnace as a warning.
Before the Russian Federation came into existence, the unit was subordinate to the more well-known and feared KGB, the notorious internal security service of the Soviet Union. The GRU headquarters is seen above in Moscow
In recent years the agency has gained notoriety for its connection to some of Russia's most contentious actions abroad.
In July this year, US Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 GRU officers, accusing them of interfering in the 2016 US presidential election.
The Bellingcat investigative team has linked the downing of MH17 in eastern Ukraine in 2014 with a GRU officer who it said 'supervised the procurement and transport of weapons'.
The agency has also been linked to an attempt to overthrow Montenegro's government on the eve of parliamentary elections in October, 2016.
The GRU is now considered Russias largest foreign intelligence service, according to Reuters, dwarfing Moscows better-known Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), which is the successor to the KGBs First Chief Directorate.
Unlike the KGB, the GRU was not split up when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
It has a special status and answers directly to the chief of the general staff, one of the three people who control Russias portable nuclear control system.
GRU chiefs are picked by Putin himself.
Russian military intelligence has a spy network abroad that is believed by espionage experts to be several times bigger than that of Russias Foreign Intelligence Service.
Its experts decipher and analyze espionage information gathered by dozens of Russian military space satellites.
It also has several elite special forces units that fought in many post-1945 conflicts, including Afghanistan, Chechnya and the Syrian Civil War.
In 1997, it was thought to control 25,000 special forces troops.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Sergei Ivanov look at the emblem of the GRU's Spetsnaz - or special forces
The GRU has confirmed or tacitly accepted it was behind some major spy operations abroad. It has also been accused of many operations that it denies.
Former FSB agent Alexander Litvenenko - who was murdered in London by Russian intelligence after defecting to Britain - was one of many Russians to accuse the GRU of being involved in four apartment bombings in Moscow in 1999.
He alleged it was a successful coup designed to get Putin, who was then prime minister, elected president after he launched a popular invasion of Chechnya in revenge for the bombings.
It is also believed by Western governments and intelligence agencies that the GRU is behind the hacking groups Fancy Bear and Guccifer 2.0.
Fancy Bear is thought to have been responsible for attacks on official organisations within NATO states, including the German parliament.
It is also accused of interfering in the French election of 2017 and the International Olympic Committee among other world institutions.
The GRU, however, has also suffered several humiliating blows to its reputation after some of its top agents defected to the West.
Spetsnaz soldiers from the Russian Interior Ministry patrol the grounds around the airport in Beslan in the Russian republic of North Ossetia in this file photo. GRU also has several elite special forces units that fought in many conflicts including Afghanistan and Chechnya
One such defector was Oleg Penkovsky, a friend of the then GRU chief. He informed Washington of a Moscow operation to place nuclear missiles in Cuba.
The scandal led to the Cuban missile crisis and the world balanced on the brink of a full-blown nuclear war for several days.
Penkovsky was arrested in 1962 and executed in 1963 after being found guilty of high treason and espionage.
Sergei Skripal, a former colonel in GRU , was considered by the Kremlin to be one of the most damaging spies of his generation.
He was responsible for unmasking dozens of secret agents threatening Western interests by operating undercover in Europe.
Col Skripal, 66, allegedly received 78,000 in exchange for taking huge risks to pass classified information to MI6.
In 2006, he was sentenced to 13 years in a Russian labour camp after being convicted of passing invaluable Russian secrets to the UK.
A senior source in Moscow said at the time: 'This man is a big hero for MI6.'
After being convicted of 'high treason in the form of espionage' by Moscow's military court, Col Skripal was stripped of his rank, medals and state awards.
He was alleged by Russia's security service, the FSB, to have begun working for the British secret services while serving in the army in the 1990s.
He passed information classified as state secrets and was paid for the work by MI6, the FSB claimed.
Col Skripal pleaded guilty at the trial and co-operated with investigators, reports said at the time. He admitted his activities and gave a full account of his spying, which led to a reduced sentence.
In July 2010, he was pardoned by then Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and was one of four spies exchanged for ten Russian agents deported from the US in an historic swap involving red-headed 'femme fatale' Anna Chapman.
After the swap at Vienna airport, Col Skripal was one of two spies who came to Britain and he has kept a low profile for the past eight years.
The former spy was living at an address in Salisbury, Wiltshire, when the suspected poisoning took place in the city centre.
A judge blasted the mum of a reckless teenager who climbed on a house roof following a high-speed police chase after she insisted: 'He's a good kid'.
The woman was ordered to appear before the Honorary Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Clement Goldstone QC at Liverpool Crown Court to explain the 16-year-old's behaviour before he was sentenced.
The judge demanded to know why the teenager had an 'appalling' school attendance and asked her: 'What do you think you might have failed to do as his mum that's landed him in the mess he's in now?'
Judge Clement Goldstone QC (pictured) said he faced a 'stark choice' when sentencing the teenager
Judge Goldstone said he faced a 'stark choice' over whether to send the boy back to a young offenders' institution or allow him to return home under supervision, the Liverpool Echo reported.
The teenager - who cannot be named for legal reasons - admitted being a passenger in a vehicle taken without the owner's consent.
Together with Jamie Carr, 20, he was involved in two high-speed chases with police on May 4 and 8, the first involving an Audi A1 taken from We Buy Any Car's depot in Great Howard Street, Vauxhall on May 4.
Eight vehicles were taken but none of the culprits were identified.
Carr and the teen were detained in Tynwald Hill Road, Tuebrook after climbing on top of a house.
The teenager who cannot be name for legal reasons (pictured left) with the driver of the car involved in two high speed chases, Jamie Carr (right)
They spent 13 hours on the roof, refusing to come down until 11am on May 9 and witnesses said bricks and tiles were thrown down into the street below.
The woman told Judge Goldstone: 'He normally lives with me. It's just me and him. He's a good kid.'
When the judge questioned her view of her son, she insisted: 'He's a good kid to me. He got involved with the wrong crowd.'
She said she had 'supported him, loved him' when asked what she had done to give him a stable upbringing.
But Judge Goldstone said: 'Do you not understand why you are here? I have to decide whether he has a better chance of growing up as a law abiding young man in a young offenders' institution than he is growing up with you.
'That is the stark choice I have to make and you're standing there saying he is a good kid?
'Have you seen the number of times he's been in trouble? Perhaps you'd like to think again.'
Judge Goldstone went on to question the teenager's school record and asked the mum why she was given a four-week electronically monitored curfew for not sending him to school.
She said: 'I don't know. It's not my fault. I've tried my best with him.'
Jamie Carr (pictured) of no fixed abode but previously from Anfield, admitted three counts of aggravated vehicle taking
Judge Goldstone said there had been 'plenty of occasions where his behavioural problems have been nothing to do with other people apart from his relationship with you' - but the mum insisted she had a good relationship with her son.
She said spending time in a young offenders' institution since his arrest had changed him.
She said: 'I will make him do what he's got to do and I will do what I've got to do to keep him out of trouble.
'His attitude has changed since he's been in detention and he's saying he wants to go to college and change. He liked construction, he was also good at maths.'
The teenager's dad was not in court and the hearing was told his parents are not together.
Judge Goldstone said he wanted to give the teenager a chance, and sentenced him to a two year youth rehabilitation order and six month 7pm-7am curfew.
He must also see Judge Goldstone with his youth offender manager every month - which the judge said would be extended to every two months and then three 'if you are improved in your behaviour and attitude'.
Jamie Carr (pictured) sat on a ledge in Caird Street, Everton, Liverpool, holding what appears to be a knife
He told the teenager: 'If you get a bit fed up staring at your own four walls you will have a chance to think that you might be staring at the four walls of a prison cell.'
Jamie Carr, of no fixed abode but previously from Anfield, admitted three counts of aggravated vehicle taking - involving being carried, dangerous driving and driving while disqualified - plus driving without insurance and criminal damage.
Last week he was jailed for 18 months and banned from the road for two years and nine months.
Competing by difference
Deputy General Director of Duc Giang Garment Company (Dugaco), Pham Thanh Tung, could not conceal his pride when recalling how his company developed and introduced new products to local consumers.
In 2016, Dugaco established a fashion centre with a closed process from designing, making samples and manufacturing to distributing in order to make high-quality, competitively priced and original products.
In addition, the company has met the increasingly high demand of consumers with nearly 200 fashion outlets throughout the country featuring a wide variety of products.
Last April and June, the company unveiled a chain of suit shops with technology transferred from Sumikin that meets Japanese standards. With its quality and reputation, Dugaco has been selected by many organisations such as the State Treasury, the Hanoi Peoples Court, Vingroup, Agribank and Vietinbank to make their office uniforms. Dugacos goal of generating more than VND500 billion (US$21.5 million) in domestic revenues in 2018 is within reach.
For Chien Thang Garment Company, after 20 years of making garment products for foreign brands, the company has now introduced its own fashion brand, Padu, with various products for both men and women, adults and children. For instance, its jackets have the same quality but their prices are just half of those exported to Europe.
Besides serving domestic consumers and exports, the Padu brand has demonstrated that Vietnamese garment companies could now become original design manufacturers and supply offerings to foreign brands with its own designs and products to increase the added value.
Retail network expansion
A number of subsidiaries of the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex) such as Garment Co 10, Viet Tien and Nha Be have also increased investment and design efforts to introduce their own brands to the market.
Recently, Vinatex opened a six-storey fashion centre in Hanoi with a total area of more than 2,500 square metres, featuring products from Vietnams famous brands. After two months, the companys revenues reached VND19 billion.
The opening of the Vinatex fashion centre reflects the groups determination to occupy the domestic market. According to the Vietnam Textile & Apparel Association (Vitas), spending on garment products currently accounts for 5-6% of Vietnamese consumers total spending, equivalent to US$3.5-4 billion, indicating that the market holds great potential for domestic enterprises.
However, it is currently nearly impossible for domestic companies to raise their market share from 10% to 30% because the market is still flooded with smuggled and counterfeit products, many of which are branded as Vietnamese and designer products to fool consumers.
A Garment Co 10 representative stated that the company has opened a range of fashion centres with the principles: European fashion, Japanese technology, US convenience and Vietnamese prices. Besides maintaining more than 200 shops and dealers throughout the country, Garment Co 10 is also upgrading and expanding its fashion centres that cover 200-300 square metres with hundreds of new models to meet consumers demands.
Other companies such as Viet Tien, Nha Be and Viet Thang also have their own plans to expand their domestic retail network in order to increase their market shares.
According to Vinatex leaders, most companies only focus on developing stores in major towns and cities without adequate attention to the rural market. Therefore, the group has instructed its members to research and create product lines to satisfy the tastes of rural consumers.
Despite their strength in making export products and being the worlds third largest garment exporter, Vietnamese garment companies have yet to tap into the domestic market as expected.
In order to do so, Vietnamese garment makers need to renovate their management methods and equipment while ensuring the quality and affordable prices of their products. They also need to focus on designs, building brands and expanding the retail network in order to increase their competitiveness and capture the domestic market share.
Penn State fraternity pledge Timothy Piazza, 19, died in February 2017 after consuming a dangerous amount of alcohol and suffering fatal injuries when he tumbled down flights of stairs
The parents of a Penn State University student who died after drinking 18 alcoholic beverages in just under 90 minutes, as part of a hazing ritual, have settled with the national organization of the fraternity he was pledging, their lawyer said.
The amount for which Jim and Evelyn Piazza, the parents of the late 19-year-old Timothy Piazza, settled with Beta Theta Pi is undisclosed, family attorney Thomas Kline added.
Piazza, an engineering student from Lebanon, New Jersey, died in hospital on February 4 in 2017 after consuming a dangerous amount of alcohol and suffering fatal injuries when he tumbled down flights of stairs.
In a statement released by Beta Theta Pi on September 4, S. Wayne Kay, chairman of the board, said: That the Piazza family has had to endure to loss of their beloved son and brother, Tim, remains one of the greatest disappointments and darkest hours in Betas history.
It is heartbreaking and numbing to know our former members let Tim and his family down in such a tragic way.
There will never be enough words to describe the pain they feel, and Betas everywhere join with me in expressing our shared anger and sorrow that this could have happened in our Fraternity.
In a statement, Beta Theta Pi (frat above) said it was 'heartbreaking and numbing to know our former members let Tim and his family down in such a tragic way'
The statement went on: 'Including organizational reforms and monetary measures to support the Piazza family and both their and the Fraternitys efforts to combat hazing, settlement terms focus on Betas historical and future commitment to improving the culture of Greek life across North America.'
As part of its 'commitment to cultural change', undergraduate and alumni delegates recently upheld the Fraternity Board of Trustees February 2 policy announcement making all Beta Theta Pi properties substance-free by August 15, 2020.
Kline said that with Beta Theta Pi agreeing to a 17-point program that makes chapters safer and penalizes groups for hazing, such reforms would 'help establish a baseline for the new norm' of fraternity life.
In this March 23, 2018, file photo, Jim Piazza speaks about the importance of passing anti-hazing legislation named after his son, Timothy Piazza, a Penn State University student who died after a night of hazing and drinking at a fraternity, as his wife Evelyn wraps her arm around him outside of the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa.
Piazza had taken part in a series of drinking stations on the night of February 2 last year, as well as at a basement event involving rapid consumption of alcohol.
The house's elaborate video security system recorded him stumbling to a couch on the first floor before falling down the steps.
He was carried back upstairs and spent the night in evident pain most of it on the couch as fraternity brothers took ineffective and even harmful steps to address his condition.
After he was found unconscious in the basement the next morning, it took his friends about 40 minutes to summon an ambulance, and he later died at a hospital.
Medical experts say he suffered a fractured skull and shattered spleen, and his blood-alcohol level has been estimated to have peaked at three or four times the legal limit for driving.
The Piazzas' attorney, Thomas Kline, said the amount for which the settlement was reached would remain undisclosed
Police said the teen was served 18 drinks over 82 minutes before he fell down the basement steps and was later rendered unconscious.
Prosecutors have alleged that he was forced to drink copious amounts of alcohol as part of a hazing ritual. About 25 fraternity members have been charged with hazing and other offences three of whom have pleaded guilty.
The case heated up earlier this year when prosecutors recovered deleted security camera footage of the pledges giving Timothy his drinks. The discovery of the video led to the last five youths being charged.
However none of those charged will likely see jail time after the judge's decision to drop the most serious charges.
Many initially faced more serious charges of involuntary manslaughter or aggravated assault but a judge has since dismissed them.
Dr Siobhan O'Dwyer, an Australian academic currently working in the UK, took to Twitter on Friday to complain after she was called Miss instead of Doctor on a Qantas flight
An academic who slammed Qantas after a flight attendant mistakenly called her Miss instead of Doctor claims she is the victim of 'everyday sexism'.
Dr Siobhan O'Dwyer, an Australian academic with a PhD in Philosophy, said the incident would never have happened if she was a man.
Reflecting on the incident after her posts went viral last week, Dr O'Dwyer said the public response from her string of tweets had been 'pretty hateful'.
'The vitriol in my feed at the moment is staggering,' she wrote to her 3,300 followers.
Dr O'Dwyer defended her post, saying it was not about ego, but rather 'highlighting one of a thousand instances of sexism that women encounter every day'.
She doubled down on Wednesday, claiming the incident was an example of 'casual sexism' that 'women encounter every day'
Dr O'Dwyer's original tweet accused a Qantas flight attendant of deliberately calling her a Miss after assuming the Doctor on her boarding pass was a typo.
'Hey Qantas, my name is Dr O'Dwyer. My ticket says Dr O'Dwyer. Do not look at my ticket, look at me, look back at my ticket, decide it's a typo and call me Miss O'Dwyer. I did not spend 8 years at university to be called Miss,' she wrote.
Her post received nearly 8000 likes and sparked debate about whether Dr O'Dwyer - who works as a lecturer on Ageing and Family Care in the UK - or the flight attendant was in the wrong.
Following waves of both criticism and support online, Dr O'Dwyer said she wished the tweet didn't go viral after receiving a 'staggering' amount of hate.
She refused requests for comment from media on the basis it could 'provide further opportunities for attack'.
'I did not spend 8 years at university to be called Miss,' Dr O'Dwyer (left) reasoned. In July, she shared a boarding pass labelled Mr, claiming she had been mistaken as a man because of her title
Social media users were divided over whether Dr O'Dwyer's apparent snub on the flight was a sign of disrespect or a simple mistake.
Fellow academic Dr Mel Thomson tweeted her support, writing: 'You have all of the solidarity on this issue.'
Fellow academic Dr Mel Thomson tweeted her support, but was slammed for calling flight attendants 'trolley dolly'
'I'm first gen to finish high school (let alone get several degrees) in my family I'll be damned if some trolley dolly gets to decide what honorific I get called, FFS.'
Many people took offence with Dr Thomson's use of the term 'trolley dolly', saying it was disrespectful to women and the profession.
'Please don't refer to us as trolley dollies. We may not have completed a PhD however we are required by law 2 maintain quals (sic) that enable us to evacuate an aircraft in 90 secs, keep u alive in-flight, prevent hijacking, put out fires etc,' an airline steward using the Twitter handle Belleo tweeted.
'I have always used the correct honorific. And I have always been especially careful to ensure I used it when I saw it on a woman's boarding pass as I was proud to be able to support the woman and her achievements in a male-centric world,' she continued.
'You've just gone and sh*t on that with your condescending comment about us.'
Dr O'Dwyer (pictured) hit back at the 'vitriol' in her Twitter feed after she slammed airline Qantas for misrepresenting her as 'Miss' instead of 'Doctor'
British man Tim Almond said he had two friends with doctorates who refused to use their correct title outside of professional conferences.
'You're asking for trouble on an aircraft. A passenger gets stuck and they'll ask you for help,' he tweeted.
Qantas said they stood by the professionalism of their cabin crew.
'We are extremely proud of our cabin crew who respectfully serve our customers day in and day out and play a vital safety role,' a Qantas spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.
'Please don't refer to us as trolley dollies' an airline steward using the Twitter handle Belleo tweeted
After her tweet went viral, Dr O'Dwyer took to social media to say she had been 'copping so much flak' for the post.
'This was not about my ego. It was about highlighting one of a thousand instances of sexism that women encounter every day. Its not about the title, its about the fact that this wouldnt have happened if I was a man,' she wrote.
Twitter users were divided over Dr O'Dwyer's reasoning, with some accusing her of making a big deal out of nothing and others agreeing it was a case of sexism.
'Your tweet is exactly about ego. How many male doctors write tweets to Qantas complaining they get called Mr & not Dr ? If they did, they would cop exactly same the responses as you,' one man wrote.
'Why dont the trolls understand that its about equality?,' argued another.
Dr O'Dwyer took to social media to say she had been 'copping so much flak' for the post
A senior police detective who was tasked with investigating the horrific 1976 Kingsmill massacre apologised for failing to bring the victims' families justice, blaming two failures to identify evidence on 'system and human error'.
Ten workmen were murdered in a mass shooting in south Armagh, Northern Ireland on January 5 1976 in an atrocity attributed to the Provisional IRA.
The victims were lined up on a country road and asked their religion before they were executed while an eleventh man survived despite being shot 18 times.
A palm print was recovered from a van which police believe was used by the gunmen in 1976. It was not successfully matched until 2016.
This was where ten Protestant workmen were lined up and shot in an attack blamed on the IRA. No one has ever been convicted over the murders
The palm print had been taken from the van by police forensic officers, and attempts were made to match it using police database systems in 2010 and 2014, but these were unsuccessful.
Giving evidence to an inquest into the atrocity, Detective Chief Inspector Ian Harrison put this down to 'system and human error'.
DCI Harrison told an inquest sitting in Belfast it was a 'horrendous situation' for the bereaved families.
'I sit here with remorse today that my investigation has not given the families the justice they deserve,' he said.
'If I could change the situation I would.'
Mr Harrison was tasked with leading a fresh investigation into the atrocity in 2016 after the palm print, found in a van police believe was used by the murderers, was successfully matched.
The man who was arrested, referred to in court as S54, was asked to account for how his palm print was found in the van.
He made no comment during police interviews.
The inquest also heard the suspect was described in police intelligence report as 'dangerous'.
'An old school, very dangerous terrorist who would be familiar with police procedures. He should be treated with caution,' the inquest heard.
But in February 2017 Northern Ireland's Public Prosecution Service announced it would not be pursuing a case against the man due to insufficient evidence.
Mr Harrison read a section of the report he submitted to the PPS to the inquest.
It revealed some difficulty proving whether the van had been used by the gunmen, due to a lack of witnesses and a lack of firearms residue inside the van, which was likely to have transported 11 heavily armed men thought to have fired more than 100 rounds at the scene.
Mr Harrison said he believes it is 'more likely than not' the van was the one used by the terrorists, but there are no witness accounts that can place it at the scene.
There is also a lack of certainty over how the palm print came to be in the van.
The men who died were John Bryans, Robert Chambers, Reginald Chapman, Walter Chapman, Robert Freeburn, Joseph Lemmon, John McConville, James McWhirter, Robert Samuel Walker and Kenneth Worton
Mr Harrison added: 'We were not able to discount that the palm print had been placed there innocently.'
The textile workers were shot when their minibus was ambushed outside the village of Kingsmill on their way home from work.
The only Catholic on board was ordered to run away.
No-one has ever been convicted of the murders, which have been widely blamed on the IRA, even though the organisation never admitted responsibility.
Alan Black, who suffered 18 gunshot wounds and was the sole survivor of the atrocity, was in the public gallery with a number of the families of the 10 who were killed.
The hearing continues.
Talented linguist Emma Galton was killed in a hit-and-run incident as she crossed the road in Hulme, Manchester, on June 28
A grieving father told a hit-and-run motorist he was a coward for speeding away after he drove through a red light and mowed down his 24-year-old daughter.
David Galton condemned Laurence Crossan, who ploughed into his eldest child Emma just seconds after she stepped onto the road at a pelican crossing in Hulme, Manchester, in June.
Miss Galton, a 'talented' translator, suffered multiple injuries in the collision, and was pronounced dead at hospital shortly after arrival.
On Wednesday September 5, Crossan, 28, was jailed for seven years and four months after he pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing death by dangerous driving and a separate count of dangerous driving immediately after the fatal collision.
Before he was sentenced, Miss Galtons father, David, read his victim personal statement from the witness box.
Turning to Crossan, who sat slouched in his chair in the dock for most of the hearing, Mr Galton said: 'As a result of your selfish and reckless actions, our family has been changed irrevocably.
'The fact that upon hitting Emma you carried on without slowing down, let alone stopping, would indicate great cowardice and concern only for your own welfare.
Her father, David Galton, described how her untimely death had left a 'huge hole' in the lives of her family members and called Crossan 'selfish' and 'reckless'
'We have had to come to terms with each other's grieving and now whenever we cross the road at a crossing we are fearful and expect to be run over. I hope other families do not have to go through what you have made us go through.
'I very much hope that other families do not have to be put through what you have made us go through.'
He added: 'Our much-loved Emmas untimely death has left a huge hole in our lives. Initially we felt huge shock and disbelief, and an immediate sense of she has gone, help, what do we now.
Laurence Crossan, 28, mounted the pavement and crossed a grassed area and cycle lane shortly before he hit Miss Galton
'The shock and disbelief has been replaced by a slow acceptance of the situation, leaving us with a big hole that will never go away.'
At around 9.25pm on June 28, Crossan's silver Ford Mondeo mounted two pavements and crossed a grassed area and cycle lane to emerge from a side street on to the busy Chester Road.
In what a judge described as 'simply appalling driving', Manchester Crown Court then heard how the defendant had 'forced' his way into the traffic and caused another vehicle to swerve.
CCTV footage of the incident then showed the Mondeo not slowing down or braking before it collided with Miss Galton.
It was estimated Crossan was travelling between 34 and 42mph in the 30mph zone.
Crossan then accelerated from the scene as he overtook vehicles on the near side, drove through another red light and caused pedestrians to step off the road to safety.
The defendant abandoned his vehicle near his girlfriends house in Reddish, Stockport, where his trainers were later found with the Mondeo key inside.
Crossan drove off and went through a red light after hitting Miss Galton in the silver Ford Mondeo before he abandoned the car near his girlfriend's house in Reddish, Stockport
Glass fragments from the car where the windscreen was shattered on impact was also found on his T-shirt.
Crossan handed himself in three days later but gave no comment in police interview.
Miss Galton, originally from Bristol, had been working as a Spanish translator in Sale, Manchester, following graduation from Chester University, and was planning to go on and teach English to children in Spain.
Chester University is planning to name a bursary award in honour of her support work for students, the court heard.
Miss Charlotte Crangle prosecuting said: 'The vehicle drove over a pavement and grassy area on a cycle lane before forcing its way into Chester Road. A Mini Cooper had to swerve to avoid a collision.
'When the Mondeo joined Chester Road, the car accelerated with no braking or slowing down towards the crossing where Emma was. At this time Emma had been in the road for three seconds when the defendants car collided with her. Her body was projected into the air and along the road coming to rest 26.5m from the impact.
Chester University have said that they are planning to name a bursary award in honour of Miss Galton's support work for students
'Other drivers and members of the public began to cordon off the area with wheelie bins and rushed to the assistance of Emma. But it was clear she had been badly injured. All efforts made to help her failed.'
Patrick Buckley, defending, said the defendant had had a row with his girlfriend prior to the collision and then had 'driven in a way he had never driven before'.
The Recorder of Manchester, Judge David Stockdale QC, accepted that Crossan - who has a previous conviction for possessing heroin and cocaine with intent to supply - had shown genuine remorse, but said he had not given a satisfactory explanation for his 'bizarre' driving.
'You have said that you were fearful of a police car that had passed by but there must be a suspicion reinforced by your criminal record that you were intoxicated by drink or drugs - although I must emphasise that is only a suspicion and there is no evidence,' he said.
'Your driving was simply appalling, It caused the utterly needless death of a talented young woman.'
Crossan, of no fixed abode, will also be banned from driving for five years on release from custody and must pass an extended test.
The Cincinnati cop who tasered an 11-year-old girl accused of shoplifting reportedly told the girl 'You know, sweetheart, this is why there's no grocery stores in the black community.'
Officer Kevin Brown was placed on restricted duties after he tasered a fleeing Donesha Gowdy on August 6. His body camera captured the young girl crying as the taser barbs were removed from her back, before he made the racist comment.
Brown was placed on restricted duties following the incident on August 6, and Police Chief Eliot Isaac must now decide on his punishment which could range from counseling to firing him.
Officer Kevin Brown who tasered 11-year-old Donesha Gowdy accused of shoplifting reportedly told the girl 'You know, sweetheart, this is why there's no grocery stores in the black community' (pictured, the bodycam video from the officer, after taking Donesha into the back office)
Donesha Gowdy, 11, (pictured) was tasered in the back by an off-duty cop who also made a racist comment to her
Issac also acknowledged to Cincinnati.com that Brown's use of a taser was 'unnecessary in this circumstance'.
A report also found that he had also violated another three police policies; that he did not turn on his body camera until after he deployed his Taser, he did not warn her he was going to use his Taser and that his comment had constituted prejudice.
Brown reportedly tried to defend his comment during his police interview.
Shockingly, Cincinnati Police Union President Dan Hils also defended the prejudiced comment.
'I think the officer was trying to express to this juvenile suspect that there are consequences, not only to herself, but to others when you don't respect the property rights of another,' Hils said.
Hils added that grocery stores struggled in areas where there are high incidences of theft and said he felt that people were rushing to judge Brown.
A department hearing is pending for Brown regarding the four violations. His failure to turn on his body camera is considered neglect of duty, while the rest are considered failures of good behavior.
Cincinnati police said that an officer used the taser around 9.30pm on Monday at a local Kroger in Spring Grove Village
Her mom, Donna Gowdy, acknowledges her daughter should not have been stealing candy, but was horrified an officer would use such extreme force against a fleeing 11-year-old
Isaac will also take into account the fact that Brown has a prior record of making discriminatory comments while on duty.
Two years ago he was written up for using a homophobic slur while responding to an alleged domestic violence victim.
The Cincinnati Police Department's regulations manual a one to five day suspension in this case, while a seven-11 day suspension is recommended for excessive force.
But local councilman, Wendell Young, a former police officer, is calling for Brown to be terminated after the incident.
'I just don't know if you have room on the police department for people like this,' he said. 'This guy, from what I am hearing, has serious issues. He apparently polices the way he feels.'
'There comes a time you have to cut your losses. If it's true he tasered the little girl, if it's true that he said what he's reported to say, if it's also true that not terribly long ago he made derogatory comments about the gay community, he's building a case that makes it difficult for us to continue with him as a member of the police department.'
Cincinnati police said that the incident occurred around 9.30pm on Monday August 6, at a Kroger in Spring Grove Village.
Officials said that anyone over the age of seven can have a taser used on them (stock)
The police said that the pre-teen was suspected of shoplifting, placing a lot of food into her backpack, WLWT reports.
'There needs to be a complete investigation,' said Vice Mayor Christopher Smitherman at the time, according to Cincinnati.com. 'It's hard to understand why an 11-year-old would be tased. I expect answers in 24 hours.'
Taser guidelines state that they can be used on anyone who is over the age of seven, according to Lt. Steve Saunders.
But they are to be used 'for self-defense or to temporarily immobilize a subject who is actively resisting arrest.'
Brown said he had seen the girl try to leave the store through a locked entrance before heading towards the main exit, when he told her to stop and show her a receipt.
He said she ignored him, despite two more demands to stop, and left the store, which is when he fired his Taser from 10 ft away, hitting her just below the waist. She collapsed, suffering an abrasion to her right forearm, and had to have the Taser barbs removed from her back.
'It hit my back real fast and then I stopped, then I fell and I was shaking and I couldn't really breathe,' the youngster told NBC News.
Cincinnati's vice mayor Chris Smitherman (left) has since put forward a proposal (right) to raise the minimum age for stun gun use from 7 to 12 years old
'It's just like you're passing out but you're shaking.'
Her mom, Donna Gowdy, acknowledges her daughter should not have been stealing candy, but was horrified an officer would use such extreme force against a fleeing 11-year-old.
She said that the cop had no idea whether her daughter had a condition, such as asthma, which could caused a serious medical reaction to being tasered.
'I'm upset, I'm really upset about it,' Gowdy told WLWT. 'The officer, he needs to be punished. I need justice from him. He was wrong.'
'I'm not saying what she did was cool, I'm not saying that, but what he did was totally wrong,' she added.
As he walked her to the store back office, he made the racist comment about black neighborhoods, and told her that he 'didn't want to do this.'
'Sweetheart, the last thing I want to do is tase you like that. When I say stop, you stop. You know you're caught. Just stop. That hurt my heart to do that to you.'
The terrified young girl was crying as she waited for the all male team of EMTs to remove the barbs.
The 11-year-old child was charged with theft and obstruction of justice, police stated. The charges have since been dropped.
She was taken to the Cincinnati Children's Hospital and then given to the care of a guardian.
Her backpack was found to contain clothing, food and drinks worth $53.81.
Donesha says she was dared by other kids to steal soda, chips and candy from the Kroger in Spring Grove Village.
She admits she put the items in her backpack, and didn't respond when the security guard yelled at her to stop, 'because I was scared.'
The police department is now doing a review of the use of force policy for taser use which currently allows officers to use it only ages 7 to 70.
'We'll take a close look as it relates to juveniles specifically what's being done out there nationally,' Isaac said, adding that it can be difficult in the moment to determine a suspect's age.
Smitherman has called for it to be raised. 'It concerned me,' he said.
A husband has been charged with murder after his wife's body was dug up in the backyard of their family home.
The 36-year-old man is accused of killing Fahima Yusuf, 32, whose remains were found by police on Wednesday afternoon.
Officers made the grim discovery at the home in Carlisle, in Perth's south, just metres from children's toys.
The body of 32-year-old Fahima Yusuf (pictured) was discovered buried in the backyard of her home in Perth's south on Wednesday. Her husband has been charged with her murder
Police had spent the day digging in the backyard of the Carlisle property while investigating the suspicious disappearance of Ms Yusuf
Piles of soil were dug up in the backyard as part of the extensive police investigation
Police had spent the day at the Weston Street property while they were investigating the disappearance of Ms Yusuf, which had been treated as suspicious.
She had reportedly not been seen since Friday afternoon.
Officers had initially gone to the home as part of a welfare check, with homicide detectives and forensics then called in.
Piles of soil were dug up in the backyard as part of the extensive police investigation, before Ms Yusuf's body was retrieved.
Neighbours told media the house was home to a couple and two young children.
The man, who was refused bail, is expected to face the Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday.
A mother told how a psychic predicted her daughter would die and her body would be left 'in a mess' a year before she was bludgeoned to death by her boyfriend.
Sadistic killer Dean Lowe chopped up Kirby Noden's body after beating her with a rock and metal pole, then put her remains in a bin and flushed them down the toilet.
Lowe, who was jailed for 28 years for the killing in January, spent four months living in the blood soaked flat in Marazion, west Cornwall before confessing.
But months earlier Ms Noden's mother Anita had her palm read while on holiday when she was given the haunting prediction.
Anita Noden, holding a photo of her daughter, told how a psychic predicted her brutal killing
Ms Noden, of Winsford, Cheshire, said: 'He looked at my palm and asked me who was the girl who had five children.
'I said that was Kirby, she had three children and lost two.
'He said he saw prison bars and somebody behind them for a long time.
'He said 'I'm sorry to tell you this but her body is in a mess.'
'I thought the bars were for Dean, that he would get done for drugs. But I never thought he'd be put behind them for killing my girl.'
Lowe, who was jailed for 28 years for the killing in January, spent four months living in the blood soaked flat in Marazion, west Cornwall before confessing.
Exeter Crown Court heard how Lowe killed mother of three Kirby with a rock that was left smashed in five pieces and a metal pole with three protruding screws which he 'used to finish her off'.
The judge said no-one knew whether he killed her in one continuous attack 'whether it was the work of minutes, or of hours, even days, for long long she was conscious with blows raining down on her'.
After he had disposed of her body he waited four months before sending Facebook messages to his family members.
He admitted to police when they came to the flat that he 'must have killed her and cut her up' adding: 'He also said he had made a necklace out of Kirby's teeth.'
Police built a case against Lowe based on the amount of blood found in the flat and on his lover's jumper
But when Lowe have evidence during the three week trial, he claimed she is alive and living in South Africa working as a missionary.
He claimed to have had a call from her while on remand in Exeter jail saying she told him: 'You've got life in jail and I've got a new life out here.'
Speaking about the day her precious daughter was murdered Ms Noden told the Daily Mirror: 'I'm plagued by thoughts of what happened that night.
'I hope the first blow with the rock killed her.'
She also told the publication how she had a string of Facebook messages from Lowe to his cousin revealed what he had done.
Police documents show the location of the flat, near St Michael's Mount in southern Cornwall
One read: 'Facts are this: there was a body looking like Kirby on my floor was there for days not just an overnight dream was still there day after day.
'I cut it up and put it in the bin and flushed fat and guts down the toilet. The blood is still there now and the pool of matter is still stained on the floor.'
Lowe included photos, one of them showing a blood-spattered ceiling.
Ms Noden added: 'When police called to his house that night he apparently said 'I thought you'd have come before now with all the meat in the bins.'
'How he didn't block the toilet flushing her down the toilet is beyond me.
'Police came down to me on the Friday night and took DNA from me and Kirby's children.
Kirby, pictured, was described by her mother as a 'lovely, happy-go-lucky child. Everyone loved her'
'Kirby's blood was all over the house in Cornwall.
'A police family liaison officer called us that night and told us that the amount of blood they found at Kirby's house was either life-threatening or life-ending.
'From what we can see it's life-ending', he said.
'I passed the phone to Kirby's sister Vicky. I couldn't listen to anymore. My heart just broke. I couldn't stop crying.
'I was suicidal. All I wanted was my girl back. But I had to keep going for Kirby's children and my friends kept me strong.
Paying tribute to her daughter, she said: 'Kirby was a lovely, happy-go-lucky child. Everyone loved her.
'She had a great imagination and she was artistic and loving. She always had a big smile.'
She also blasted his 28 year sentence saying: 'As far as I'm concerned he should have swung from the end of a rope, but then that would be too easy, not like how he made it for our girl.
'I hate him with a passion. We're all absolutely devastated. She was so loved by her family and her friends.'
Neil Hedworth, 48, was headteacher at Woodfield Community School. The school was described as 'deeply saddened' following his death in April and dozens of tributes were sent to his family
A headteacher and church organist who wanted to 'bring out the best' in children took his own life, an inquest has ruled.
Neil Hedworth, 48 and from Darlington, had been suffering from 'chronic pain' and 'dealing with unhappiness with his relationship' when he overdosed on prescription drugs in April.
He had been given the drugs by a doctor to treat an existing illness - something which was causing him 'a lot of pain'.
The inquest, held at County Durham and Darlington Coroner's Court in Crook, revealed that Mr Hedworth's family had become concerned about the headteacher's welfare after not hearing from him for two days.
At the time Mr Hedworth, who worked at Woodfield Community Primary School in Harrogate, had been struggling with depression.
The headteacher, who suffered from a rare movement disorder known as myoclonic dystonia syndrome, was also trying to cope with the recent separation from his wife.
A post mortem report found the level of the prescription drug in his system 'could have posed a serious risk of toxicity consistent with a fatal dose', as reported by The Northern Echo.
Mr Hedworth was headteacher at Woodfield Community Primary School (pictured) at the time of his death. He was also director of music at the local St Cuthbert's Church
The father-of-two's death was met with an outpouring of support from the local community and school.
Graham Hyde, chair of governors at Woodfield Community Primary, said how the whole school had been 'deeply saddened' by the death.
He said at the time: 'Woodfield is stunned by this news but the tributes and kind messages for Neil is overwhelming.'
Annette and Colin, Mr Hedworth's parents, also noted the how comforting the community had been following the tragic death.
Colin Hedworth said: 'He had a favourite saying and that was that he tried to be the best that he could be.
'That's what he tried to instil in the children, he cared about their education and always wanted to bring out the best in them.'
Concluding the inquest coroner Jeremy Chipperfield, who was sitting at County Durham and Darlington Coroner's Court, said that the 'evidence creates a clear picture'.
He said: 'He was undoubtedly dealing with unhappiness with his relationship and chronic pain.'
A tree was recently planted in memory of Mr Hedworth at Woodfield Community Primary School.
Following his retirement after a long tenure in the U.S. Senate in 2013, Jon Kyl expressly ruled out running for a seat in the venerable legislative body in the future.
But following the passing of fellow Arizonan and U.S. Senator John McCain, Kyl will indeed be heading back to the Senate in a way he likely never imagined.
The former Senator was tapped by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey on September 4 to fill the Senate seat left vacant by McCains passing until January 2019. The appointment comes at a critical time in the Senate as the contentious hearings for the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court have recently gotten underway.
Former U.S. Senator Jon Kyl accepted his appointment at a September 4 press conference
Who is Jon Kyl?
Jon Kyl is an attorney and politician designated to serve in the United States Senate starting later in September 2018 following the death of Senator John McCain on August 25, 2018. Kyl had previously served as a U.S. Senator for Arizona from 1995 to 2013.
He was born in Oakland, Nebraska on April 25, 1942.
The son of former U.S. Representative John Henry Kyl, he attended the University of Arizona and graduated in 1964, later earning a law degree from the college in 1966.
After working as a lawyer and lobbyist in Phoenix, Arizona, he was later elected to the United States House of Representatives, serving there starting in 1987 until being elected to the United States Senate in 1994 and joining the chamber officially the following year.
In the Senate, he formed a close relationship with fellow Arizona Senator John McCain and ultimately rose to the position of Minority Whip in December 2007, making him one of the most influential Republican Senators in Washington, D.C.
On Capitol Hill, he advocated strongly for tougher crime laws, lower taxes and a conservative foreign policy.
Kyl retired from the Senate in January 2013, ruling out a run for political office in the future except if offered the role of Vice President. However, following the passing of Senator John McCain in August 2018, he was tapped by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey to return to the Senate to fill McCains vacant Senate seat until January 2019.
Kyl, seen in his December 2011 file photo, served with McCain in the Senate from 1995 to 2013
Who is Jon Kyls wife?
Jon Kyls wife is Caryll Collins. The couple have two children together, John and Kristine.
Jon Kyl and Donald Trump
Kyl has a complex view of U.S. President Donald Trump, criticizing him in the past but also receiving praise from him as of late.
In a February 2018 interview with the Phoenix radio station KJZZ, Kyl expressed criticism at the Presidents boorish style and believed he could be a more effective leader if he acted more diplomatic.
I dont like his style. Much of it is boorish. I think hes his own worst enemy, Kyl said.
Jon Kyl has advised Brett Kavanaugh, center left, during his U.S. Supreme Court nomination
He also took what many interpreted as a veiled swipe at Trump at John McCains memorial service at the Arizona State Capitol, alluding to the Presidents close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
When others were looking into Vladimir Putins eyes, with an eye of understanding him and reaching accommodation with him, John, of course, said: I looked into his eyes and saw KGB, he said, referring to Putins tenure in the now-defunct Soviet Union security agency.
However, he later struck a more friendly tone towards Trump, appearing to compare him implicitly to the late John McCain.
I think sometimes, his desire to jump into the middle of a fight or maybe even create a fight by the way, that reminds me of somebody but sometimes, that can be detrimental to what hes trying to achieve. Thats what I said, and I stand by that comment, Kyl said when questioned about his previous criticism of the President.
Trump, on his part, praised his appointment as McCains successor, hailing him as an extraordinary Senator.
Jon Kyl and John McCain
Kyl reportedly had a close relationship with John McCain, having served with him in the United States Senate from 1995 until his retirement in 2013.
Following McCains death from brain cancer, Kyl was tapped by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey on September 4, 2018 to serve in the late Senators vacant U.S. Senate seat until the end of the 115th Congress on January 3, 2019.
At a press conference accepting the appointment, Kyl stated that he would not run for the remainder of the term in a special election scheduled for November 2020.
Instead, Ducey would appoint someone else to fulfill the final two years of the U.S. Senate term before another election will be held in November 2022, which wouldve been McCains regularly scheduled reelection contest.
The seating of Kyl for his second stint in the Senate will likely occur before a vote on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. Notably, the Senator has helped Kavanaugh navigate the contentious nomination process in the Senate so far, giving him a chance to personally vote on his nomination.
Kyls appointment also drew a positive reaction from the late McCains wife Cindy McCain and Senator Jeff Flake, Arizonas other U.S. Senator who succeeded Kyl upon his retirement in 2013.
Jon Kyl is a dear friend of mine and Johns. Its a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona. Cindy McCain (@cindymccain) September 4, 2018
A Washington man was arrested for animal cruelty after a woman claimed that he sexually assaulted a beaver in a park on Monday night.
Whitney Nycole explained on Facebook that she had stumbled upon the beaver while driving through Columbia Park, in Kennewick.
'I flipped him over so he would walk but his leg is broken,' Nycole explained on Facebook. 'I got him on to a towel that I had in my car and dragged him on it til I got him closer to the pond and out of the way of traffic.'
Whitney Nycole explained on Facebook that she had stumbled upon the beaver while driving through Columbia Park in Kennewick
Nycole rushed home to find a box so that she could take the animal to a local veterinarian, Kenniwick Sergeant Aaron Clem explained to the Tri-City Herald.
When the woman returned, she found a man lying next to the beaver and believed that he was helping the critter.
But soon to her horror, Nycole realized that the man was partially clothed with his pants unzipped.
When the woman returned (pictured), she found a man lying next to the beaver and believed that he was helping the critter. She would soon learn that the man had his pants unzipped
Richard Delp, 35, was arrested at the scene and charged with animal cruelty. The beaver died by the time police arrived at the scene
By the time police arrived on the scene, the beaver was already dead. It is unknown if it was still alive at the time of the abuse.
Nycole also confirmed that the beaver had died.
Richard Delp, 35, was arrested at the scene and charged with animal cruelty.
The man was also in possession of methamphetamine at the scene and was charged with possession.
On Facebook, Nycole claimed that the man was homeless.
The statement was made by President of the Lao Front for National Development (LFND) Saysomphone Phomvihane while he was received by General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Nguyen Phu Trong in Hanoi on September 4.
Congratulating Vietnam on its socio-economic development achievements, the LFND President expressed his belief that under the leadership of the CPV, the Vietnamese people will continue to reap further achievements during the Doi moi (Renewal) process.
He took the occasion to show his gratitude for Vietnams support for Laos, most recently in its relief aid for people affected by a dam collapse in southern Laos.
He also informed the host about the outcomes of his talks with head of the CPV Central Committees Commission on Mass Mobilisation Truong Thi Mai and affirmed that the two sides will maintain close collaboration in realising signed cooperation agreements.
The Vietnamese Party chief said he is delighted at the wide-ranging development of Vietnam-Laos special relations across all fields, with the important contributions by the LFND.
He expressed his sympathy over the terrible human and asset losses caused by the dam collapse in Attapeu province, believing that under the leadership of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party, those affected will soon be able to overcome its consequences, stabilise their lives, and resume production.
The leader appreciated the cooperation results between the CPV Central Committees Mass Mobilisation Commission and the LFND, stressing the importance of mass mobilisation work at present.
He showed his hope that the two sides will step up the sharing of experience in each partys mass mobilisation work, as well as personnel training and cooperation in educating the people, especially younger generations, on the two countries special relations.
Earlier in the day, the Lao guest held talks with head of the CPV Central Committees Mass Mobilisation Commission Truong Thi Mai.
They agreed to cooperate in implementing agreements signed by the two Parties leaders as well as the 2016-2020 cooperation agreement between the two agencies.
A plane arriving from Africa was evacuated at a major airport in the South of France today following warnings that a child on board was carrying Cholera.
The emergency alert took place in Perpignan, and involved an ASL Airlines flight from Oran, the port city in Algeria.
'There was a fear for the health of the child, who was evacuated to the city hospital for examination,' said airport spokesman Denis Leluc.
'There were 147 other passengers, as well as crew, and all of them were warned about the dangers of Cholera. The eight-year-old child is still undergoing tests.'
An ASL Airlines flight arriving from Africa was evacuated at a major airport in the South of France (pictured)
A spokesman for the prefecture covering Perpignan said the Boeing 737 landed at 13.45 on Wednesday, and that the child was rushed away by waiting emergency services staff.
Others were made to wash their hands with disinfectant, and all their details were taken for future monitoring.
'The warning had come from the medical authorities in Algiers,' said the source, referring to the capital of Algeria.
Perpignan is on the Mediterranean coast and close to the French border in an area packed with holidaymakers at this time of year, including many from Britain.
There was a fatal outbreak of Cholera in Algeria that killed two in early August, but the country's health minister Mokhtar Hasellaoui said it was 'now under control'.
The disease is an infection of the small intestine by strains of the Vibrio Cholerae bacterium. It causes up to 130,000 deaths a year - mainly in Africa and South East Asia.
The child in question was removed from the flight at Perpignan airport and taken away for treatment [file photo]
Unsafe water and food contaminated with human faeces is the main cause of it spreading, along with undercooked seafood.
Cholera is relatively easy to treat through rehydration, but it can kill in a few hours if symptoms are ignored.
It is comparatively rare in developed countries, including those in the European Union, because of good water sanitation and effective treatments.
There were frequent outbreaks in Britain during the Nineteenth Century, when sailors arriving from Africa and India imported the so-called 'Blue Death'.
A 64-year-old Maryland woman was mauled to death by the pit bull she had adopted from out of state just weeks earlier.
Robin Conway was found in her backyard on Monday night with 'significant injuries', a statement from the Howard County Police said.
A family member, who CBS reports is Conway's husband, called emergency services about 7.20pm after finding Robin's body with the dog standing over it.
Robin Conway, 64, was mauled to death by a pit bull she'd rescued from interstate two weeks ago
Her husband found her body in their back yard, with the dog still standing over her
After making the 911 call, he tied the dog to a fence so it was secured, but police say the pit bull had not calmed, and was 'barking and lunging on the leash' when first responders arrived.
The dog was subdued by animal control, and later put down.
Conway's sister, Susan Eve LeClair, told WBALTV the 64-year-old had prior experience with pit bulls, and loved helping animals.
'This is one animal she thought she could save. An animal that needed to be rescued,' she said.
Conway (left) loved animals and was happy to have rescued the dog that took her life, her sister Susan (right) said
'[That] animal unfortunately killed her.'
Conway was pronounced dead at the scene, and an autopsy will be conducted to determine her official cause of death.
Police say her dog will undergo a necropsy to determine if it had rabies or any other medical issue.
LeClair told FOX her sister loved to help animals, and was a caring person.
'When we went to make service arrangements, the person said, "wow, she had hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of friends",' she said.
'Robin gave her time and gave herself to the animals. She was wonderful.'
The 64-year-old was remembered on social media as a great neighbor with a generous heart, who brought 'love, creativity and compassion to all things'.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio was in a heated clash with Inforwars' Alex Jones and threatened to 'take care of you myself' after the conservative commentator crashed his TV interview to question him on social media bias against conservatives.
Rubio had stepped outside of Wednesday's Senate Intelligence Committee where executives from Facebook and Twitter were testifying about their companies' responsibility against fake accounts and perceived bias on their platforms.
The Republican senator from Florida was talking to a reporter from CNBC when Jones, a radio host who promotes conspiracy theories and has been banned from multiple social media platforms, confronted the lawmaker.
Sen. Marco Rubio and Inforwars' Alex Jones had an extraordinary confrontation in a Senate hallway
At one point, Jones touched Rubio's shoulder
'Get your hand off me,' Rubio said. 'I'll take care of you myself'
Jones interrupted Rubio's interview to ask him about social media bias against conservatives
Several social media users posted video of exchange, which happened in the hallway of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
Rubio later chastised the media for giving Jones so much attention, saying: 'You give these guys way too much attention. I mean were making crazy people superstars so youre going to get crazier people.'
The extraordinary back-and-forth showed Jones getting into Rubio's space, touching him at one point, which led the senator to threaten him back.
The two men also exchanged in name calling showdown with Jones calling Rubio a 'snake' and a 'frat boy' while Rubio referred to Jones as a 'clown.'
Jones walked up to Rubio mid-interview to ask about social media companies bias against conservatives, an issue he has repeatedly promoted and President Donald Trump has tweeted about.
Rubio initially brushed him off, saying: 'My broader concerns is about what foreign governments are trying to do in elections.'
Jones pressed his case while Rubio continued to speak to the CNBC reporter.
'He's not answering,' Jones said of the senator.
'He's a weird one,' Rubio muttered. Then he said he didn't know who Jones was. 'Is that a heckler? I don't know who you are man. I don't know your website.'
Jones snapped back: 'That's why you didn't get elected. You're snake-like. Marco Rubio is a snake. A little frat boy there.'
'Alright man, who are you? I swear to God, I don't know who you are,' Rubio responded.
'Info wars,' a reporter tells Rubio of Jones and his website.
Jones jumped in: 'He knows who Infowars is.'
He then pats Rubio on the shoulder.
Rubio flinches. 'Get your hand off. Don't touch me again man. I'm asking you not to touch me.'
'I just patted you nicely,' Jones said and then asked if Rubio was going to have him arrested.
Rubio said he'd take care of Jones himself. 'I don't know who you are man. You're not going to arrested. You're not going to get arrested. I'll take care of you myself,' he said.
Jones responded: 'Oh he'll beat me up.'
'I didn't say that.' Rubio laughs.
'You're not going to silence me,' Jones said 'You are literally like a gangster thug. Rubio just literally threatened to take care of me.'
Rubio concluded talking to reporters and said he had to return to the hearing, adding: 'You guys can talk to this clown.'
'Go back to your bathhouse,' Jones yelled after him.
Reached a few hours after the confrontation, Rubio told DailyMail.com he didn't recognize Jones.
'I think hes just a scummy guy I dont know anything else about him other than what I read in the press,' Rubio said.
'Ive never been on his web site. I didnt know what he looked like other than I know the name Ive heard people talk about it.'
Rubio downplayed the physical aspect of the incident, and said he wasn't threatening to fight Jones.
'He touched me and I just asked him not to do it, thats all. Thats it. I just asked him not to touch me. He didnt do it again.'
Then Rubio took a shot at the press, who filmed the bizarre encounter and by covering the spot gave Jones a platform, even as he got banned from social media sites.
'You give these guys way too much attention. I mean were making crazy people superstars so youre going to get crazier people,' Rubio warned.
Google, Facebook, Spotify, and Apple banned Jones from their platforms. Earlier in August, Twitter banned Jones and his website Infowars from tweeting for seven days, saying their tweets violated companys rules against abusive behavior.
Jones, an avid Trump supporter, appealed directly to the president to put an end to 'censorship' after his content was pulled.
Since then, Trump has tweeted multiple times about the issue, including on August 18 when he accused social media of 'totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices' and vowing: 'We won't let that happen.'
Trump charged social media companies with 'trying to silence conservatives.'
Rubio said he didn't know who Jones was
The exchange featured Rubio and Jones calling each other names
Donald Trump claims that social media companies are 'trying to silence conservatives,'
Jones had been in the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday, sitting in the front row
'I think that Google, and Facebook and Twitter, I think they treat conservatives and Republicans very unfairly,' he told reporters in August.
Jones had been in the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday, sitting in the front row as Facebook Chief Operating Office Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey faced questioning from senators concerned about an outside meddling in the upcoming midterm election.
Rubio sits on the committee.
The Florida Senator has a security detail with him on Capitol Hill after concerns Diosdado Cabello, the influential former military chief in Venezuela, may have put out a hit order on Rubio, the Miami Herald reported.
Rubio has frequently attacked Cabello, calling him 'the Pablo Escobar of Venezuela.'
Just in time for the 20th anniversary of the affair that led to Bill Clinton's impeachment, a documentary is set to reveal new accuser interviews and explosive never-before-seen footage.
The three-part, six hour docuseries by A&E and Alex Gibney's Jigsaw Productions will delve into former White House intern Monica Lewinsky's affair with the then-sitting president that led to congressional action, including brand new interviews with Lewinsky herself, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The documentary will also contain never before seen footage of Bill with Monica, and is still being produced with the working title of The Impeachment of Bill Clinton.
A&E's VP and head of programming, Elaine Frontain Bryant, is calling the mini-series 'a real-life political thriller and the most in-depth and intimate account of how one of the biggest scandals in our nation's history unfolded, forever changing the landscape of American politics.'
Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky pose for a photo in the Oval Office. Lewinsky will open up about her affair with the president and how her world was turned inside out by the impeachment proceedings
Then and now: December 1998 Clinton addresses the nation on bombing in Iraq and 20-years-later in 2018 at the So the World May Hear Awards Gala
Lewinsky, whose world was turned inside out by the only second impeachment ever which was executed by special investigator Kenneth Starr, has remained relatively quiet on the topic that changed the entire trajectory of her life.
She penned an article for Vanity Fair in light of the #MeToo movement which has reinvigorated interest in her affair as a White House intern with arguably the most powerful man in the world at the time.
Other Clinton accusers are also interviewed in the series including Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and Juanita Broaddrick.
Broaddrick alleged Clinton raped her in 1978.
THR reports they have obtained an episode from the series that begins airing November 18, in which Lewinsky opens up candidly about being betrayed by her friend Linda Tripp who secretly recorded their conversations.
Lewinsky, now 45, also opened up about being in love with Clinton, and how his personal secretary, Betty Currie, would assist in arranging their meet-ups.
Left to right, Clinton accusers Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and Juanita Broaddrick also granted interviews to the A&E docuseries
Bill, Hillary and Linda Tripp (left with her former friend Monica) did not grant interviews for the series
She also talks about the infamous blue Gap dress she wore after a sexual encounter with Clinton and that she wore it out to dinner the same evening, where she says none of her friends commented that she had 'stuff' all over her dress.
Series director Blair Foster says by the time the show airs she would have conducted at least 60 interviews, including ones with those close to the Clintons such as lawyers Jane Sherburne and David Kendall.
Foster says while it is unlikely they will ultimately get Bill and Hillary to do an interview for the piece, 'They're certainly aware of the project.'
She also says Tripp has turned down an interview request multiple times.
'My goal for this series was to do a deep dive into the facts and speak to as many people as possible who were involved,' says Foster. 'The deeper I got the clearer it became that this series is as much about the present day as it is about the 1990s.'
The body of a third victim from the horrifying Labor Day Weekend crash on the Colorado River in California has been found.
Divers located the body of 24-year-old Kirra Drury around 12.35pm on Tuesday, according to the Mohave County Sheriff's Office.
The body of Brian Grabowski, 50, was discovered three hours earlier. Both had been missing since Saturday night, when two boats collided on the river around 8pm.
Authorities recovered the body of Christine Lewis, 51, on Monday morning. Raegan Heitzig, Grabowski's niece, remains missing.
The body of Kirra Drury (right) has been found three days after the horrifying crash on the Colorado River. Raegan Heitzig (left) is the final missing victim
Drury (center) and Heitzig (left) posted pictures of themselves enjoying the boat before the crash on Labor Day Weekend
Sheriff Doug Schuster said the department will continue search efforts until Heitzig is located
All four victims of the deadly crash were on a Halley boat holding 10 people, including Drury's boyfriend Lance Nelson.
Nelson shared a photo of one of his last moments with Drury and said she was the 'sweetest soul that ever touched my heart'.
'She made me the happiest guy ever and I had so many plans for us,' he wrote in an Instagram tribute.
'I'm so glad they found you and I hope you didn't suffer, you never deserved this and I still don't know why the best people get taken so early. I love you so much.'
Also on the boat were Heitzig's sister Jordan and her aunt Tabby, who was married to Grabowski.
Both women were critically injured in the crash and taken to a Las Vegas hospital, where they are still recovering.
Also on the boat were Heitzig's sister Jordan (front center) and her aunt Tabby (far right), who was married to victim Brian Grabowski
Lance Nelson, who was along on the boat, shared a photo of one of his last moments with girlfriend Drury and said she was the 'sweetest soul that ever touched my heart'
The family revealed on a GoFundMe campaign that it was Tabby who saved Jordan's life after she was knocked unconscious by the crash.
Jordan fractured her spine at the top of her neck and has burns from the crash.
The family were told as the search began that the authorities believe Heitzig was unconscious from the impact of the crash and did not suffer.
Sheriff Doug Schuster said the department will continue search efforts until Heitzig is located.
'It is our deepest desire to provide a measure of closure for the family and all involved,' he wrote in a statement on Facebook.
Divers found Grabowski's body on Tuesday. Tabby (pictured together) is recovering from her injuries at a Las Vegas hospital, as is Heitzig's sister Jordan
The body of 51-year-old Christine Lewis was recovered on Monday morning by divers
'We will continue to do everything within our means to do so and pray for a speedy resolution.'
Survivor Taylor Corbino discussed on Tuesday how total chaos broke out after the crash.
Corbino was enjoying Labor Day Weekend with family friends when their Sleek Craft boat, which held six people, smashed into the Hallet boat.
The recent college graduate was sitting at the back of the boat, chatting with friends, when she suddenly heard someone exclaim 'Oh, s**t'.
'And I look up and next I see the boat, the other boat,' she told Good Morning America. 'And next thing you know, I'm in the water.'
Pat Kelly, Corbino's father, was in a nearby boat when he heard the horrific crash.
'We were just turning into Pirate's Cove and our buddy went by us and we were waving at him,' Kelly recalled.
On Tuesday survivor Taylor Corbino discussed the total chaos that broke out after the crash
Corbino was chatting with friends, when she suddenly heard someone exclaim 'Oh, s**t' and they collided with another vessel. Pictured is one of the submerged boats
All 16 people were thrown off both boats when the two vessels collided on Saturday. Pictured is one of the recovered boats
'And we see his lights going on, and then a horrific crash. The river's all dark, it was totally dark. Sounded like a freight train hitting the side of a building. It was horrible.'
Corbino said she was underwater for so long that she couldn't hold her breath anymore.
'The current was so strong it was moving me around and all I could think about was 'get air'', she recalled.
'I actually breathed in some water and all I told myself was: 'Taylor, swim to the top to get some air in''.
'I swam to the top and my friend that I was actually sitting next to on the boat, I felt him grab me.'
Meanwhile, Kelly jumped off his own boat - which was about 50 yards from the accident - as he desperately tried to find his daughter.
His friend Dave Dade, who was on the boat with Kelly and Kelly's wife Kathy Boelter, said the river turned into complete chaos.
'While we're going into the crash site, there was debris everywhere. And I was afraid to roll the boat up, cause I didn't wanna chop somebody up [with the propeller].'
Lewis was a nurse at Kaweah Delta Medical Center in Visalia, California for 22 years. Grabowski, also of Visalia, was a board-certified ocularist who made ocular prosthetics
All four victims of the deadly crash were on a Halley boat holding 10 people, including Drury (pictured before the crash)
'I couldn't find Pat. So his wife was hysterical. All she could say was. 'Where's my baby? Where's my baby?''
Kelly said it was 'pandemonium' as people began screaming and crying.
'When it crashed, we were just trying to find [Corbino], find anybody,' he said. 'We didn't even know it was another boat until we heard other people screaming.'
'It was total chaos - and then I heard her. Somebody said, "Taylor's okay". I'm screaming "Where's Taylor? Where's Taylor?'''
'And then we knew she was okay, so we got over to that side, actually seeing her before we calmed down. But everyone seemed to be all right.'
Corbino said she feels lucky to be alive.
'I thought I was going to die,' she added. 'I thought I was going to drown.'
More than 60 crew members from Arizona and California searched for the victims this week
She remains sore from the crash and said the survivors have talked little about the accident.
'I think we're all still in shock,' she said. 'It hasn't hit us yet completely. It's been a very crazy weekend.
'But when I do talk to them about it - we're all very thankful and blessed to be alive. We shouldn't be alive.'
Lewis was a nurse at Kaweah Delta Medical Center in Visalia, California for 22 years. She is credited with saving hundreds of lives.
'We are shocked and heartbroken to learn about the passing of one our own in this weekend's tragic Colorado River boat crash,' said Kaweah Delta CEO Gary Herbst.
'Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those who knew Chrisi Lewis and to the family and friends still searching the river for their loved ones.'
Grabowski, also of Visalia, was a board-certified ocularist who made ocular prosthetics with his company Grabowski and Associates.
More than 60 crew members from Arizona and California have been searching for the victims through the week.
They tracked their route with a computer program that maps the riverbed while two helicopters searched by air.
Two helicopters already searched for the victims by air
One detective with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department suffered minor injuries after participating in 10 dives in the last two days.
'This detective has been very tenacious with his involvement,' the department said in a statement.
'[He has been] trying to do his best to help the family members get some sort of closure.'
All 16 people were thrown off both boats when the two vessels collided on Saturday. Some were swept as far as 3 to 5 miles downstream from the crash site.
It is believed that none of the boaters were wearing life vests at the time, according to ABC News.
The force of the crash also caused both boats to sink, according to the San Bernardino County Fire District.
Nine victims, including two in critical condition, were transported to nearby hospitals by ambulance.
The sheriff's office has yet to determine whether speed or alcohol played a factor in the crash.
President Donald Trump dismissed intelligence information given to him shortly after the election that showed Russia President Vladimir Putin had interfered in the 2016 contest, it was revealed in Bob Woodward's new book 'Fear.'
Trump, then president-elect, told President Barack Obama's Director of National Intelligence James Clapper that he didn't trust the information from human sources because they 'sold theirs souls' and 'sold out their country.'
'l don't believe in human sources,' he said, according to Axios. 'These are people who have sold their souls and sold out their country ... I don't trust human intelligence and these spies.'
Obama Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has previously confirmed his post-election meeting with Trump and has said he believes it's more credible that the Russians have blackmail information on the president
Bob Woodward reports in his new book that Trump dismissed intelligence information that showed Vladimir Putin had interfered in the 2016 contest
Clapper had briefed Trump at Trump Tower on the findings of the intelligence community.
Clapper told CNN in July that he and other intelligence officers briefed Trump, who was President-elect at the time, and his team on January 6, 2017 that Putin personally ordered cyberattacks to attempt to sway the 2016 election.
The president came under fire in July during his meeting with Putin in Helsinki where he indicated in a press conference he believed the Russian president over U.S. intelligence agencies.
'I don't see any reason why it would be,' Trump said, speaking to reporters about Russian election meddling as he stood side-by-side with the man U.S. intelligence says ordered it.
'So I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,' Trump said.
Putin raised the election interference issue first in their press conference, referred to it as 'so-called interference.'
'The Russian state has never interfered and is not going to interfere into internal affairs including election process,' Putin said, denying it.
Trump later walked that back his words and said he misspoke when he said that he did not have 'any reason' to believe that Russia meddled in the 2016 election.
Clapper told CNN after the Helsinki press conference that he's becoming convinced the Russians have blackmail information on Trump.
'More and more I come to a conclusion after the Helsinki performance and since, that I really do wonder if the Russians have something on him,' he said.
Trump came under fire for his comments about the election at a July press conference with Vladimir Putin
Trump had to walk his comments back
At the Helsinki press conference Putin denied having compromising information on Trump.
And Trump denied the infamous dirty dossier by saying if the dirt were real it would have come out already.
'I have to say if they had it, it would have been out long ago,' the president said, referencing unverified claims in the Steele dossier about his conduct in a Moscow hotel room during the Miss Universe Pageant before he was president.
Woodward's book, 'Fear,' which comes out September 11, offers titillating new details of life in the Trump White House.
Trump has tweeted furiously against the tome and hinted stronger libel laws may be needed.
White House officials have also denied reported accounts of what they have said of the president.
Woodward quoted White House Chief of Staff John Kelly slamming Trump after he blew a fuse during a meeting.
'He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails,' Kelly said, in Woodward's telling. 'We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had.'
Kelly fired back at the claims, saying in a statement: 'The idea that I ever called the President is not true, in fact it's exactly the opposite. ... This is both a pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from his many successes.'
In another episode described in 'Fear,' Trump questioned the utility of U.S. early warning systems in Alaska to identify a nuclear attack from North Korea.
Trump and White House officials have pushed back hard on Bob Woodward's book
Woodward's book 'Fear' comes out September 11
When Trump asked about it, Defense Secretary Mattis schooled him: 'We're doing this in order to prevent World War III.'
Mattis later told colleagues Trump had the mental ability of 'a fifth- or sixth-grader,' acording to Woodward's sources.
On Tuesday he denied the account, saying: 'The contemptuous words about the President attributed to me in Woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence. While I generally enjoy reading fiction, this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility.'
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said on 'Good Morning America' that the book is based on the claims of anonymous sources and disgruntled former staffers. 'This is just another repeat of pure fiction,' she said.
Woodward said he stands by his reporting.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh parried a question on Wednesday about whether Donald Trump has the legal power to issue himself a presidential pardon, but insisted that the occupant of the Oval Office is not exempt from federal laws.
During the second day of his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, Kavanaugh told Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy that 'the question of self-pardons is something I have never analyzed. It's a question that I have not written about. It's a question, therefore, that's a hypothetical question that I can't begin to answer in this context, as a sitting judge and as a nominee to the Supreme Court.'
Trump tweeted in June that he has 'the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong?'
He said Wednesday at the White House that he is 'happy with the Kavanaugh hearings' but Democrats are 'grasping at straws, and really the other side should embrace him.'
'He's an outstanding intellect, he's an outstanding judge, he was born for the position,' the president told reporters, adding that he had watched some of the hearing coverage.
Kavanaugh an hour earlier had flatly refused to engage with Leahy, a liberal independent who caucuses with Democrats, on whether the president could pardon himself, pardon others in exchange for bribes, or pardon people with the understanding that they wouldn't testify against him.
Scroll down for videos
Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh answered many questions from senators on Wednesday but sidestepped one about whether a sitting president can pardon himself
President Donald Trump is embroiled in overlapping legal messes related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, producing constitutionally complicated questions about whether he can pardon himself and avoid being subpoenaed
The president wrote three months ago on Twitter that he has 'the absolute right to PARDON myself'
'I'm not going to answer hypothetical questions of that sort,' he said.
Meanwhile Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer forced Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to shut down the Senate floor for the day rather than cut the hearings short.
A longstanding rule requires the minority party's consent to keep committee hearings open after the Senate has been in session for two hours, or past 2:00 p.m. It's a routine procedure but Schumer stood in the way on Wednesday, complaining that Republicans hadn't produced a complete written record of Kavanaugh's tenure in the George W. Bush White House.
'The Republican majority on the Judiciary Committee is pressing forward on a confirmation hearing on a Supreme Court nominee whose record has largely been shielded from the Senate and the American public,' Schumer said on the Senate floor, adding that he 'will not consent to business as usual.'
Facing the possibility of cutting the day's confirmation hearing short and raising the possibility of a bruising four-day process stretching through the end of next week McConnell chose to adjourn the Senate for the day so the so-called 'two-hour rule' wouldn't come into play.
Minutes later in the hearing room, Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn mocked Schumer's 'hijinks.'
Kavanaugh answered questions from senators on Wednesday, insisting that 'Youre not a Republican or a Democrat as a federal judge'
President Trump told reporters Wednesday at the White House that he liked what he saw so far from Kavanaugh and that Democrat contrarians should give up and support his nomination
By then Kavanaugh had survived a second morning of periodic outbursts from protesters, and his first tough questions from Democratic senators about a wide range of issues including gun control, abortion rights and the constitutional limits of presidential power.
He repeatedly stressed the importance of judicial independence and insisted that 'no one is above the law,' even while declining to weigh in on whether a sitting president could be subpoenaed.
'I can't give you an answer on that hypothetical question,' he told California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
The Supreme Court has never answered that question, and it is among the most important at Kavanaugh's hearing since Trump could face a subpoena in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
Outraged Democrats have complained that Kavanaugh, a 12-year federal appeals court veteran, might become Trump's ace-in-the-hole in the Supreme Court, protecting the man who nominated him for the job.
He tried to reassure them Wednesday that he would never respond to political pressure: 'Youre not a Republican or a Democrat as a federal judge.'
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (left) tried to force an early end to the Kavanaugh hearing by refusing to allow it to continue past 2:00 p.m. while the Senate was in session; that's his right under Senate rules, but Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell responded by adjourning the Senate so the hearing could continue
Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn (left) blasted Democrats for 'hijinks' that could have stretched the Kavanaugh hearings out for as many as eight days
Despite interruptions as more than a dozen protesters were hauled out of the hearing room, day two of Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings proceeded with senators plunging into questions and answers.
The hearing has strong political overtones ahead of the November election, but Democrats lack the votes to block Kavanaugh's confirmation. They fear Kavanaugh will push the court to the right on abortion, guns and other issues, and that he will side with Trump in cases stemming from Mueller's investigation of Trump's 2016 campaign.
Addressing some of those concerns, Kavanaugh said that 'the first thing that makes a good judge is independence, not being swayed by political or public pressure,' He cited historic court cases including Brown v. Board of Education that desegregated schools and U.S. v. Nixon that compelled the president to turn over the Watergate tapes a ruling that Kavanaugh had previously questioned.
'That takes some backbone,' he said of the justices who decided those cases.
Asked about court precedents, the importance of previously settled cases including the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that ensures access to abortion, Kavanaugh said, 'Respect for precedent is important. ... Precedent is rooted right in the Constitution itself.'
Kavanaugh noted that Roe was reaffirmed in a 1992 decision, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. He likened it to another controversial, landmark Supreme Court decision, the Miranda ruling about the rights of criminal suspects. Kavanaugh said the court specifically reaffirmed both decisions in later cases that made them 'precedent on precedent.'
Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, praised Kavanaugh for hiring female lawyers as his clerks as a judge on the District of Columbia court of appeals, and then posed questions about whether Kavanaugh was aware of sexual harassment allegations against retired circuit court Judge Alex Kozinski in California. Kavanaugh had clerked for Kozinski in the early 1990s and considered the judge a friend and mentor.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley escorted Kavanaugh to the witness table as he arrived for the second day of his confirmation hearing on Wednesday
Kavanaugh has referred several times to a well-worn copy of the U.S. Constitution as Democratic senators try to derail his Supreme Court nomination
Kavanaugh said he had known nothing about the allegations until they were disclosed last year. 'It was a gut punch for me,' he said, and he was 'shocked, disappointed, angry.'
Asked about an email list Kozinski allegedly used to send offensive material, Kavanaugh said: 'I don't remember anything like that.'
Trump nominated Kavanaugh, 53, to fill the seat of retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. The change could make the court more conservative on a range of issues.
Republicans hope to confirm Kavanaugh in time for the first day of the new Supreme Court term, Oct. 1.
In stressing his independence, Kavanaugh pushed back against suggestions that after his time on independent counsel Kenneth Starr's team investigating Bill Clinton in the 1990s, he no longer believes a sitting president should be investigated. He said his views did shift after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but his ideas about revisiting the special counsel law were merely suggestions.
'They were some ideas for Congress to consider. They were not my constitutional views,' he told the panel.
Pressed by Feinstein on his comment several years ago that U.S. v. Nixon might have been wrongly decided, he said his quote - shown on a poster above the senator - was 'not in context' and 'I have repeatedly called U.S. v. Nixon one of the four greatest moments in court history.'
The judge's work in the George W. Bush White House also has figured in the hearing, particularly as Democratic senators have fought for greater access to his emails and other documents during his three years as staff secretary. Republicans have declined to seek those papers, and instead have gathered documents from his work as White House counsel to Bush.
Democrats, including several senators poised for 2020 presidential bids, tried to block the proceedings on Tuesday in a dispute over the records. Republicans in turn accused the Democrats of turning the hearing into a circus.
Trump jumped into the fray Tuesday, saying on Twitter that Democrats were 'looking to inflict pain and embarrassment' on Kavanaugh.
Protesters continued to pop up during the Kavanaugh hearing on Wednesday and U.S. Capitol Police stood ready to remove them from the hearing room
A group of women dressed as 'handmaids' from the faminist dystopian TV show 'The Handmaid's Tale' took a break from protesting on Wednesday
The president's comment followed the statements of Democratic senators who warned that Trump was, in the words of Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, 'selecting a justice on the Supreme Court who potentially will cast a decisive vote in his own case.'
The most likely outcome of this week's hearings is a vote along party lines to send Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate. Majority Republicans can confirm Kavanaugh without any Democratic votes, though they'll have little margin for error.
One of several red-state Democrats watched as potentially voting for Kavanaugh, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, joined the hearing in the audience for a while. He is up for re-election this fall.
Republicans will hold a slim 51-49 majority in the Senate once Jon Kyl, the former Arizona senator, is sworn in to fill the seat held by the late Sen. John McCain.
Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are the only two Republicans even remotely open to voting against Kavanaugh, though neither has said she would do so. Abortion rights supporters are trying to appeal to those senators, who both favor abortion access.
Russian social media users are mocking Britain by comparing mug shots of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov to villains in the Hollywood film Red Heat.
Earlier today police released mug shots of and CCTV images of the Russian spies wanted for the Novichok chemical attack in Salisbury.
Prime Minister Theresa May revealed the two men are thought to be officers in Russia's GRU military intelligence services.
But since the release of images of the wanted men, Russian Twitter users have been comparing the mugshots of them to stars in 80s action films.
In one tweet a user compares the images to that of Georgian drug kingpins in the film Red Heat.
The film star's Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Belushi as detectives hunting down drug lord Viktor Rostavili.
A follow up tweet with the same image says 'it's hot, Red Heat.'
Another social media user decides to focus on two other well known 80s action stars.
In the tweet Alexander Petrov is replaced by the face of ever-present 80s action hero Dolph Lundgren and Ruslan Boshirov and is replaced by the face of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Russian social media users have also been discussing the names of the assailants- who are wanted by British authorities for the chemical attack in March- because they are very common in the country.
The Novichok attack targeted double agent Sergei Skripal- hospitalising both him, his daughter, Yulia and police officer Nick Bailey.
They all survived the poison but mother-of-three Dawn Sturgess died and her partner Charlie Rowley fell ill after becoming exposed to the Novichok.
Prosecutors will not be applying to Russia for the extradition of the two men, as no agreement exists between the countries.
But a European Arrest Warrant has been obtained in case either of the pair are ever spotted outside of Russia.
Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are wanted by British authorities after the Novichok chemical attack in March this year
Mr Skripal was a colonel in the GRU before he was jailed for selling secrets to the West and brought to Britain in a spy swap.
The Prime Minister's announcement therefore suggests the hit may have been organised by his former colleagues.
Police said it is likely the suspects, who are aged around 40, were travelling under aliases and Petrov and Boshirov are not their real names.
They are appealing to anyone around the world who knows their real identities to contact them.
Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov pictured in Salisbury at a train station a day before the attack was carried out
Advertisement
A family-of-seven went from living in a luxurious Welsh mansion to being crammed into a caravan after they 'lost millions' in a furious planning dispute.
Christine and Geraint Thomas bought a new Range Rover every Christmas when they farmed in the village of Talybont-on-Usk, in the Brecon Beacons.
The successful couple decided to take on a new challenge in 2000 by building a caravan park on their land near their 23-bed mansion at Gilestone Farm.
After planning permission was granted for 50 caravans and 50 tents, the family set out to build a successful luxury holiday business empire, welcoming tourists to the area and employing local people
After opening in 2005, the campsite was praised and even listed in the 'UK top 50' in the national press.
However, local people were furious and the Usk Valley Conservation Group called for a judicial review.
They argued permission was granted by the Brecon Beacons National Park, a delegated authority, rather than a full planning committee.
In 2010, a judge quashed the planning permission they had been granted - blaming 'many errors' of the national park authority - and the Thomases say they lost everything.
Geraint and Chris Thomas with Charlie, Frances, Hettie, Henry and Olivia - at their home and business Gilestone Farm, pictured in 2006 - before their world fell apart
Christine, 53, said: 'We had borrowed an awful lot of money to built it and invest in it.
'The shower and toilet block was only built in 2009 and that cost 350,000. There was a massive investment.
'My husband's family had farmed in Brecon for 1,000 years. They helped build the cathedral and build the churches.
'They were a good historic family. We have a son and five daughters and we thought our son would be following it on. It's heartbreaking because it was such an injustice.
'What happened at Gilestone was outrageous.
'The farm had to go on the market straight away because all our other sources of income had gone. We put everything into that caravan park.
'What happened to us, happened, and it can't unhappen.'
She says she spent the next two years writing 2,000 letters to anyone she thought could help.
'You can live without money but you can't live with injustice. It keeps you awake at night.'
Signs at the farm entrance costing 2,500 were trashed, and the judge's decision delay killed a deal with the adventure company, costing around 300,000.
The family had already spent 400,000 on the site, including 50,000 on a bio-digester, 30,000 on roads and 120,000 on electricity.
Mum-of-five Christine said she even contemplated ending her own life.
She admits she had become 'out of touch' living a life of luxury with top-of-the-range cars and her own housekeeper - but now she cleans other people's homes to put food on the table.
'When we farmed in Brecon we had 1,000 cattle and a mansion, we ended up in a caravan,' Chris said.
Christine was furious about the 'injustice' and wanted to continue to fight for Gilestone.
Geraint and Chris Thomas with Charlie, Frances, Hettie, Henry and Olivia as they battled to built a luxurious holiday camp - but they lost the final battle with a conservation group and it all came tumbling down
The Thomas' were advised not to take on the national park, but their legal team instead, for the advice they were given.
Christine said: 'We lost millions but it wasn't so much about compensation but justice.'
In 2015 the Thomas family returned to court in a bid to get 100,000 compensation against their barrister who they claimed had given them 'negligent' advice - but they lost.
'We came home, licked our wounds and sold 80 acres of land and we decided to start again.'
The couple had moved into a static caravan at an Aberaeron caravan park with their three youngest children, Hettie, then aged 16, Henry, then nine, Olivia, then four.
The farm they bought with all the money they had left was 'run down' but Christine says it was her way of starting again.
Their new caravan park opened at Easter 2017, followed by a shop and bistro.
Mrs Thomas said: 'We had planning permission for a farm shop, bistro and small caravan park we had to put all our efforts into that.'
The Moody Cow shop on the site opened in March 2018.
They are now selling everything from snacks, food items made from beef from their own farm while they employ 35 people.
Chris said: 'What happened to us made me very sad and has humbled me. The reason I was in Gilestone isn't who I am now.
'We had a new Range Rover every Christmas, all of it. Although I was born in the Valleys I had probably lost touch with reality.
'Now at our age, I'm 53 and Geraint is 56, we have had to borrow money to do this again but you do it for your family and other peoples families as well.
'Ceredigion is the most beautiful place and a place where a lot of young people move away because there isn't the jobs.
'What we're doing may only be a drop in the ocean but it's something.
'Am I bitter? No I am not. In fact, I can almost say I am quite grateful because I have learned the hard way. I have learned a valuable lesson in life.
'I cannot believe the change in our lives. I thought my life wasn't worth living at one point and that's an awful thing to say but it shocked me I could feel like that.
'I started cleaning houses in Aberaeron. I would do whatever I could just to put food on the table. I used to have a housekeeper and I went to scrubbing houses and I ended up with friends sitting with me because I wanted to end my life.'
The first part of the project was to build the caravan park at Bargoed Farm but to make it sustainable outside the main tourist season they have 13 private hot tubs.
'Obviously, when we were farming in Brecon we were by the A40, the main artery road but in Ceredigion, it's very undiscovered.
'We have got to prolong tourism by encouraging a different kind of market and what's going to encourage people to drive this way.'
Rebuilding their dreams: The Thomas family sold off their remaining land and ploughed in into a new business - The MOddy Cow
Christine and Geraint Thomas bought a new Range Rover every Christmas but wound up losing millions after a furious planning row
The Moody Cow farm shop and bistro near Aberaeron in Ceredigion is being run by the Thomas family - years after they 'lost everything'
Christine wanted something 'cheeky' which got across their links to cattle when she named the shop- both the animals and Chris' 'pets' the Highland Cows.
'When people ring and say 'Is that the Moody Cow' I say 'Yes I am' because, I can be,' she laughed.
They have expansion plans, including weddings and have a space for the community.
'I want people to leave feeling like they've been at their granny's for tea.
'Everything is handmade here. We buy the ingredients but the rest is us.'
Despite all that, Gilestone is still part of her thoughts.
'It was the worst time of our lives.
'It's really hard now to sleep when you're living with injustice. I can live with anything but injustice is something that's atrocious, I still feel it's there.
'As a mum of five and a Christian I have never been dishonest so for what happened to us to happen, all these years later I still think about that.
'I hope one day someone will look at all the paperwork and do something about it but at this moment in time we have got our heads down and we're working really hard and hoping we can encourage others.'
A dog dyed bright red and sold to a man who bought the animal because he 'liked the colour' has been rescued by an animal shelter.
Animal activists were alarmed after finding the dog on the street with a man living in a refugee camp in the town of Schimatari, in Greece.
He told them he paid the dog's former owner 150 euros (135) for the animal because he liked the colour - which made the animal look remarkably like the children's book and TV character Clifford the Big Red Dog.
Animal activists were alarmed after finding the dog on the street with a man living in a refugee camp in the town of Schimatari, in Greece
The dog's former owner bought her from sellers in Omonoia in Athens.
But activists were concerned that the red colouring could be harmful to the dog, nicknamed Scarlet.
Vets confirmed it was hair dye and that Scarlett didn't appear to be suffering from any skin ailments because of it.
The man in Greece said he had paid the dog's former owner 150 euros (135) for the animal because he'd like the colour
Activists were concerned that the red colouring could be harmful to the dog, nicknamed Scarlet
Vets confirmed it was hair dye and that Scarlett didn't appear to be suffering from any skin ailments because of it
She was taken in by the animal shelter, who cleaned her and found her a new home.
While her fur is not completely dye-free yet, the colour has faded considerably.
Her new owner reported Scarlet is living a happy life and shared pictures showing the pet's real fur colour.
Her new owner reported Scarlet is living a happy life and shared pictures showing the pet's real fur colour
Themed Towards a Resilient and Innovative Community, the event drew over 350 delegates from both member and observing countries, along with representatives from the ASEAN Secretariat and parliamentarians from Morocco and Norway as guests of the host.
Singapores Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean suggested the AIPA focus on solidarity, connectivity, creativity, and climate change adaptation to build a sustainable and innovative ASEAN community.
He affirmed that mechanisms led by ASEAN are an important foundation for regional countries especially given the context of an increasingly complicated geopolitical situation, non-traditional and cross-border challenges such as terrorism, violent extremism, and cyber crime; along with protectionism, which are threatening global political order and economy.
Meanwhile, the AIPA plays a significant part in promoting solidarity and cooperation in the region, he said, adding that AIPA parliamentarians hold a crucial role in helping other countries understand the importance of creating a more connected ASEAN as well as promoting a free and open trade market.
AIPA parliamentarians are also pivotal in promoting the application of new technology in businesses, making use of the Fourth Industrial Revolution wave in building up smart cities networks, he said.
In particular, the AIPA should urge leaders to encourage sustainable growth; create ecological systems adaptive to climate change and environmental protection; and mitigate the possible effectives that natural disasters have on peoples lives, he suggested.
A panorama of the 39th AIPA General Assembly. (Photo: VNA)
Singaporean Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin who is also President of the AIPA-39 General Assembly said that Singapore will spare no effort in making active contributions towards reinforcing mutual understanding and trust among AIPA members, thus creating an important foundation to boost cooperation and build a more sustainable and innovative ASEAN, serving the best interests of its people.
Addressing the first plenary session of the AIPA-39, NA Vice Chairman Do Ba Ty said the Vietnamese NA has been actively involved in AIPA activities, contributing to building the ASEAN community towards stability and sustainable development.
The AIPA should continue to place a high premium on ASEAN codes of conduct, such as abiding by international law; promoting solidarity and unity as a joint effort to maintain peace and security; paying attention to building trust; preventing all possible conflicts in the region; and actively implementing commitments in ASEAN, he recommended.
He added that the AIPA needs to make it easier for cooperation agendas to be implemented in ASEAN across all spheres, particularly high technology and digital fields, as well as efforts to cope with non-traditional security matters as approved by ASEAN leaders last April.
He suggested the AIPA promote parliamentarian scrutiny of the implementation of the ASEAN master plan in terms of the pillar of policy, economy, and society-culture. Enhancing coordination and assistance among member nations to develop economy, narrow development gap, improve peoples living standards, cope with climate change, protect the environment, energy security, and water resources was also recommended.
The AIPA is comprised of all 10 ASEAN parliaments, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The AIPA was established in 1977 as the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organisation (AIPO) with the parliaments of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand as its founding members. In 2007, AIPO was officially renamed the AIPA.
A Miami man living in constant fear of high-speeding vehicles in his community decided to issue his own public service announcement after a couple of ducks were run over this past weekend.
Marco Moreno stepped out of his Hialeah home on Saturday to find four lifeless ducks laying on his lawn.
As a way to instill moral conscience into drivers that speed through the block, Moreno decided to hang up one of the dead ducks on a corner stop sign near an intersection.
Hialeah law enforcement authorities removed it Monday afternoon.
Marco Moreno found four dead ducks laying in front of his Miami home on Saturday morning
One of the four ducks allegedly killed by speeding motorists in Hialeah, Florida
As a way to instill social conscience to speedy drivers, Marcos Moreno hung one of the dead ducks he found on his property onto a stop sign at a dangerous intersection
'This has turned into a racing track', Moreno told Univision and other networks that on Monday descended on the 1500 block of West 73rd Street.
'On this occasion, on Saturday morning I found four little ducks', added Moreno, who along with other neighbors has grown accustomed to feeding the flock of birds.
'On another occasion in front me, I didn't have a enough time to pick up the license plate. He [motorist] accelerated and killed a cat.'
Moreno's greatest fear is that a human life could very well be impacted by the speedy motorists.
'Today it's the animals, that depend on us. But tomorrow it could be us people,' he said.
Julia Anderson was personally impacted by the racing vehicles when her cat died after being crushed by a car at the dangerous intersection.
Marcos Moreno is emotionally affected by the constant killings of ducks by motorists that ignore the speed limit on the block where he lives at in Hialeah, Florida
'Its not necessary. This is a neighborhood,' she told Miami ABC affiliate WPLG.
'The cat saw me and tried to dash across the road and one of those zoomers came.'
Residents near Moreno's home applauded his motives.
'We need something to be placed on the street for cars that aren't obeying the proper velocity in this zone,' Elizabeth Hernandez said.
'This isn't a main avenue. It's not an expressway. It's a residential street.'
Heather Lommatzsch (pictured) has filed a lawsuit against Tesla after her Model S crashed into a stationary firetruck in May, leaving her with a broken foot
A Utah driver who slammed her Tesla into a stationary firetruck at a red light while using the vehicle's semi-autonomous function is suing the company.
Heather Lommatzsch alleges in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that Tesla salespeople told her the Model S's Autopilot mode would ensure the car stopped on its own if something was in its path.
In court documents, she says when she saw cars stopped in front of her on May 11, she tried to hit the brakes but they did not work.
Lommatzsch had earlier said the car did not provide any audio or visual warnings before colliding with the firetruck which happened on the Utah highway on May 11.
The 29-year-old claims Tesla was: 'at a minimum, negligent in developing, designing, manufacturing, producing, testing, promoting, distributing, selling, maintaining, repairing and/or servicing the Tesla Model S'.
Lommatzsch, 29, says her car was in its semi autonomous function when it failed to slow for a traffic jam ahead. She claims when she tried to hit the brakes manually, they did not work
She also alleges the company, owned by Elon Musk, did not provide 'adequate warning of the dangers of the Tesla Model S'.
When Lommatzsch, 29, crashed into the fire truck on the Bangerter Highway in South Jordan, Salt Lake City, she broke her foot and was charged with a misdemeanor traffic violation.
In her lawsuit, she alleges she: 'sustained severe and permanent injuries and has incurred reasonable and necessary expenses having a value in excess of $3,000', and has also 'suffered the loss of the pleasures and enjoyment of life and physical impairment'.
Tesla's Autopilot has been the subject of scrutiny following previous crashes.
Lommatzsch suffered a broken foot and received a traffic violation, and her car was destroyed in the incident
In March, a driver was killed when a Model X with Autopilot engaged hit a barrier while traveling at 'freeway speed' in California. NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating that case.
In May, the NTSB opened a probe into an accident in which a Model S caught fire after crashing into a wall at a high speed in Florida.
Two 18-year-olds were trapped and died in the blaze but the agency has said it does not expect Autopilot to be a focus in that investigation.
Later in the month, Tesla said Autopilot was not engaged after a Model S veered off a road and plunged into a pond outside San Francisco, killing the driver.
A Tesla spokesperson didn't immediately return a phone call and email seeking comment.
Djuan Lewis, 22, has been charged with attempted felony murder after admitting that he opened fire on his former boss
A Florida man fired from an aluminum products company after only three days on the job has been accused of opening fire on his boss.
Sanford police say 22-year-old Djuan Lewis was let go from Benada Aluminum Products on Sunday for throwing tools and products on the ground.
Manager Sean Jackson terminated Lewis at about 5am, and two hours later, Jackson was driving his girlfriend home when he noticed a vehicle following him.
The Orlando Sentinel reported that the driver of the other vehicle fired five shots at Jackson's car, but the couple were not wounded.
Another Benanda employee told police Lewis lingered in a vehicle with a handgun outside the business after he was let go.
The shooting happened in Sanford, Florida, Sunday, just two hours after a manager at Benada Aluminum Products (pictured) fired the newly hired Lewis for throwing tools on the floor
Deputies found Lewis and arrested him on charges of attempted felony murder and shooting from and into a moving motor vehicle. The 22-year-old allegedly made a confession.
Lewis is being held in Seminole County Jail on $46,000 bond.
Records indicate that Lewis has a criminal history that includes arrests on drug and theft charges.
Sadiq Khan today ordered the removal of 'offensive' posters that condemn the state of Israel as a 'racist endeavour'.
The London Mayor hit out at 'vandalism' after the images started appearing on bus stops around the capital.
The posters sprung up as Jewish groups warned that anti-Semitism was on the rise amid a major battle inside the Labour.
Among the key issues in the dispute between the party's left-wingers led by Jeremy Corbyn and moderates has been whether it is acceptable to brand the state of Israel racist.
The internationally-recognised definition of anti-Semitism that was finally adopted by Labour last night after months of wrangling makes clear that it is not acceptable.
The posters were spotted by a number of Twitter users, who expressed disgust at the slogans
The posters were spotted by a number of Twitter users, who expressed disgust at the slogans.
A spokesman for the Mayor of London said: These offensive adverts are not authorised and are acts of vandalism which Transport for London and its advertising partner takes extremely seriously.
'They have instructed their contractors to remove any posters found on their network immediately.
The latest episode comes as a new Survation poll published in the Jewish Chronicle reveals that four out of ten Jews would consider leaving the UK if Mr Corbyn becomes PM.
The Labour leader last night failed to quell anger over vile abuse wracking Labour despite bowing to demands to adopt the international definition of anti-Semitism.
He caused new offence by trying to add a statement detailing protection for people who call Israel racist - a caveat rejected even by loyalists on the party's ruling NEC.
Dave Rich, the head of policy at the Community Security Trust (CST), said anti-Semitic incidents soared from a few dozen a month to over 100 in spring 2016 - Just when the crisis erupted in Jeremy Corbyn's party.
Speaking to the women and equalities select committee today, Mr Rich said: 'Over the last two years we have seen a much closer correlation between events in the Labour Party and our anti-Semitic incidents statistics than any other single factor.'
Other images on Twitter appeared to celebrate the spread of the posters, which Sadiq Khan has vowed to remove
Dave Rich, the head of policy at the Community Security Trust (CST) (pictured today in parliament in front of the women and equalities select committee) said incidents soared from a few dozen a month to over 100 in spring 2016 - Just when the crisis erupted in Jeremy Corbyn's party
Detailing anti-Semitism incidents reported to the CST, he said: 'We recorded 129 incidents in June and 129 in July, but we had recorded 135 in May the month prior and 100 incidents in April.
'The big uptick in anti-Semitism incidents we recorded came in April and May. Now around that time came the whole issue about anti-Semitism in the Labour Party really hit the front-pages with the suspensions of Naz Shah and Ken Livingstone.
Jewish couple are packing their bags for Israel over the anti-Semitism crisis A leading Jewish lawyer and his partner have said they are leaving the UK after being bombarded by anti-Semitic abuse and death threats by Jeremy Corbyn supporters. Mark Lewis, an ex Labour supporter who represented victims in the phone-hacking case, and Mandy Blumenthal said they are planning to move to Israel by the end of the year. They accused Mr Corbyn of moving the 'rock anti-Semites have crawled out from' and said they have received a growing wave of hate and threats since he became Labour leader. Mr Lewis said a man has been sent to prison for threatening to kill him simply because he is Jewish. He told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire Show: 'The online abuse might continue, the Israelis might not like me because I am too left, might not like me because they think I am too right, whatever their view. 'But they are not going to dislike me because I am Jewish. And there is only so much you can take when you are getting threats to kill you. 'When you are getting threats from people that they want you to be ill etc, it's a drip drip effect.' Ms Blumenthal said: 'People are in the majority of circles that I mix in actually talking about their options of leaving here because of the anti-Semitism.' Advertisement
'So we took that increase to be in response to those incidents that were happening here in the Labour Party.
'It may be the debate around Brexit and increase in hate crime after that debate kept the anti-Semitic incidents sustained at a higher level, and maybe they would have fallen away had it not been for that, but we had already seen an uptick before other hate crime.
'Over the last two years we have seen a much closer correlation between events in the Labour Party and our anti-Semitic incidents statistics than any other single factor.'
Mr Rich said that while he is not suggesting everyone committing the hate crimes are in the Labour Party, he warned the scandal is feeding a toxic atmosphere.
And he urged Mr Corbyn to listen to the Jewish community and make the reforms needed to root out the abuse.
He said this must be seen as more than mere 'technical' changes, but 'a cultural change as well'.
At least half a dozen Labour MPs are considering following Frank Field and quitting over the scandal.
Meanwhile, a poll today found that 39 per cent of the 710 British Jews who were quizzed for the survey said they would consider emigrating if Mr Corbyn gets the keys to No10.
Last month Mark Lewis, an ex Labour supporter and leading Jewish lawyer,, and his partner Mandy Blumenthal revealed they are leaving Britain for Israel because of the scandal.
They accused Mr Corbyn of moving the 'rock anti-Semites have crawled out from' and said they have received a growing wave of hate and threats since he became Labour leader.
He told MailOnline today: 'Waiting to see if Corbyn will become PM is already too late. The damage has already been done.
'He has moved the rock which was covering many very nasty creatures.
Jeremy Corbyn (pictured leaving home this morning) has been dogged by accusations that he has allowed anti-Semitism to go unchallenged in the party since he became leader
'Even after the reluctant acceptance of the IHRA definition of antisemitism (and its caveat that renders it meaningless) Corbyn made sure that his personal proposal was leaked so that his nasty gang knew that he was still with them.
'Of course it is an individual decision but for those who will listen, I say get out while you can.'
Novichok suspect Ruslan Boshirov only had one friend on Facebook- a Ukranian woman he met five years ago for half an hour in a cafe in Prague.
Yulia Chopivskaya, aged around 30, said she met this Boshirov in 2013 or 2014 and chatted briefly before saying goodbye at the same establishment.
He then set up a Facebook account with her as his sole friend.
She denies having seen him since but today has been inundated with demands to know if she is close to the spy.
Today, images of Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov were released by police grinning on the day of the attack Salisbury attack in March, along with images of the perfume bottle they used.
Yulia Chopivskaya, from Ukraine, said she met Ruslan Boshirov for about half an hour in a cafe in Prague five years ago
Yulia Chopivskaya (pictured) said she has not seem him since but has been inundated with demands to know if she is close to the spy
The Ukranian, who is thought to be 30 years old, said she has deleted him from her friend's list
The Facebook page of Ruslan Boshirov with once picture of a street scene in Prague. It says he is single, works in Moscow and works at Headway
Yulia added she did not recognise him from the picture released by police in London today
Yulia Chopivskaya said when she met him she was unsure if Ruslan Boshirov was his real name or not
A European arrest warrant has been issued for Ruslan Boshirov (pictured) and accomplice Alexander Petrov
She said: 'This is a nightmare,'
'I haven't stayed in touch with this person and I don't know him.
'I deleted him from my friend's list.
She added: 'I don't know if this is a real last name or not.
'In 2013 or 2014 I met a guy who introduced himself as Ruslan, it was in Prague.
'Then he asked how to find me on Facebook and added me there.
'We chatted for half an hour maximum and said goodbye to each other at that very cafe.
'Since then I haven't seen him.'
His Facebook only has a street scene from Prague with one solitary like from himself.
She did not recognise him from the picture released by police in London, she said.
She claimed: 'I don't know the person in the photograph.'
Alexander Petrov (pictured left) and Ruslan Boshirov (pictured right) are wanted by British authorities after the
Novichok poisoning suspects Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are shown on CCTV on Fisherton Road, Salisbury at 1:05pm on March 4
Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov pictured in Salisbury at a train station. A European arrest warrant has been obtained just in case the duo ever decide to leave Russia
A perfume atomiser which is believed to have been used in the Salisbury Novichok attack, today
This Boshirov appears to work for a Moscow company monitoring state contracts for purchasing medication, said a prominent Russian political insider.
If so, this Boshirov he has remained silent today.
Anonymous social media channel Nezygar also surmised that Britain had a high-ranking mole inside the GRU, the military intelligence identified by Theresa May as sending two agents to Salisbury to launch a chemical weapons attack.
Citing an intelligence source, Nezygar claimed the most likely explanation of the poisoning in Salisbury was a mafia operation or a British provocation to undermine Russia.
'Theresa' May either publicly disclosed information about British intelligence having a high-rank mole within Russian military intelligence who passed confirming information or it is a simple assumption, manipulation, a game of coincidences,' stated the channel.
The visibility of the Russian pair in Britain and the bungled attack 'clearly raises suspicions about their professionalism and qualification', suggesting they are not GRU.
'The look of the 'officers' is more like members of an organised crime community.'
Two boys who were stabbed by their mother when they were eight and 20 months old have made a miraculous recovery from their horrific injuries.
Guillermo Timoteo, the younger of the two, was stabbed in the head with a pair of scissors, while his older brother Juan Pedro Nino-Brown had a knife shoved from his neck up into his brain in April this year, KTLA reported.
Their mother, 33-year-old Carolyn Brown, maimed them and left them for dead, walking to the Gadsden County Sheriff's Office in Tallahassee, where they lived, and telling a county worker: 'I just killed my kids'.
When police arrived at Brown's house, even the most hardened of officers were shocked by the scene that greeted them.
Both boys were inside, still alive, with the scissors still in Guillermo's head, and the knife still in Juan's neck.
Guillermo Timoteo (left) had scissors stabbed into his head by his mother and his older brother Juan Pedro Nino-Brown (right) had a knife shoved into his neck so deeply it hit his brain
They were rushed to hospital in a critical condition, where surgeons, nurses and anesthetists raced to work out how they could save the children while they still had time.
Carolyn Brown, who stabbed her twin babies and left them for dead
Dr Joseph Soto, who was the on-call surgeon for trauma at the Tallahassee Memorial Hospital that night, said the boys' injuries were one of the worst things he'd ever seen.
'I've taken care of a lot of patients - kids and adults - who have been through a trauma; stabbings, gunshot wounds to the neck,' he said.
'But never have I seen this type of situation with these two boys two young boys, who were basically defenseless.
'One boy had a pair of scissors through his ear, his left ear. Another boy had a knife through his neck, going up towards his head, in his brain.'
Both children underwent complicated and lengthy surgeries, and both survived.
Four weeks and one day later, Juan was discharged from hospital, and Guillermo was not far behind.
Brown was arrested after police arrived at her home on that afternoon in April and was taken to a mental health center.
She was charged with two counts of attempted murder in May, but two months later, she was declared mentally incompetent to stand trial.
Both boys were still alive when first responders found them and were taken into complicated and lengthy surgeries, which miraculously saved their lives (pictured: both boys were left with tubes in their head after the surgeries)
Their mother, Carolyn Brown, was taken to a mental health facility, while the boys' grandparents took over as carers while they were hospitalized
Dr Soto said the boys, who know live with their aunt and have regular contact with their grandparents, were acting like normal children.
He says while Guillermo's hearing will definitely be affected by the attack, their progress was 'remarkable', and should encourage others to have faith in their doctors.
'I hope when people hear about this story, they realize that there can be some pretty bad things that can happen, but you just keep that faith,' he said.
'You keep that hope, and you can still have the happier ending. It doesnt have to be a bad ending.'
Despite their miraculous recovery, the boys will have ongoing medical costs, and their grandmother has launched a GoFundMe to help cover these.
Zina Bash became a hot topic after she was seen making a white power hand sign during Brett Kavanaughs hearing on Tuesday.
Amy Siskind was among the first to point it out, sharing a video on Twitter claiming the symbol should disqualify the Supreme Court nominee. Siskind continued to suggest the gesture was intentionally made.
Try it for yourself, she tweeted. If you watch the video youll see she held it in place for a long time. Its not a natural resting position.
Zina Bash was accused of being associated with white supremacist groups after being seen making a suggestive hand gesture at Brett Kavanaugh's hearing
Zina Bash found herself at the center of controversy after she was seen making the OK symbol with her fingers at Brett Kavanaugh's hearing
Her tweet was later deleted as it had become way too much of a distraction.
The concern is the white nationalist policies of the Trump regime and Kavanaughs positions.
Siskind added: I have no idea if this was a comfortable resting place for her hand or more.
Zinas husband, US Attorney John Bash, assured the public that neither he nor his wife were aware of the gestures meaning. He added that they do not associate with hate groups that aim to terrorize and demean other people.
Johns wife hasnt yet spoken up for herself.
Its been noted several times since the controversy began, however, that Zina was born in Mexico and is the granddaughter of two Holocaust survivors.
Heres what else you need to know about Zina Bash.
Who is Zina Bash?
Zina Bash is a former clerk for Judge Brett Kavanaugh. She now serves as senior counsel on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxtons executive leadership team.
Zina has also held the position of Special Assistant to the President for regulatory reform, legal and immigration policy.
According to The Hill, Zina is a Republican from McAllen, Texas. Shes married to US Attorney John Bash.
Zina and her husband both attended Harvard together. They married in 2007.
The two share one child, a daughter named Maria Izabella.
Zinas husband worked for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He became US Attorney in April, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
The outlet reported that John believed border security was a top priority. He was quoted as saying: We are a nation of immigrants, but I dont understand the folks who say we shouldnt enforce the law against people who are literally picked up illegally crossing the border.
The folks that criticize our enforcement efforts have an obligation to say what those enforcement efforts should look like.
Zina also believes immigration is a top priority. She helped Donald Trump draft his widely-criticized immigration policy.
Zina Bash net worth
According to COED, Zina Bashs net worth is between $1.8 million and $6.75 million.
Above the Law reported that Zina is an heiress and has [as much as] $18 million in assets, generating passive income of over $1 million last year. More recent findings from the outlet suggest shes worth far less.
My earnest take is that we should be above proliferating conspiracy theories like these Zina Bash "hand signals."
You don't have to look for hidden signs of white supremacy when it's already out there in the open. Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) September 4, 2018
White power sign
On Tuesday, Zina Bash was accused of fashioning her hands into a white power sign during Brett Kavanaughs hearing. Her husband has vehemently denied that she intentionally made the symbol or had any knowledge of its meaning.
The symbol is also known as the OK sign. Its made when the thumb and index finger are made into an O shape with the other fingers extended.
Its recently been associated with white supremacists.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) the symbol originates from an online hoax. The organization states that the hand gesture started in early 2017 when a 4Chan user posted about an Operation O-KKK.
The user alleged that the gesture is a white supremacist sign and provided a graphic describing how WP, for white power, could be created using the OK gesture.
The hoax evolved and was embraced by members of the alt-right.
John said of the drama: The attacks today on my wife are repulsive. Everyone tweeting this vicious conspiracy theory should be ashamed of themselves. We werent even familiar with the hateful symbol being attributed to her for the random way she rested her hand during a long hearing.
He went on to say: We of course have nothing to do with hate groups, which aim to terrorize and demean other people never have and never would.
I hope that people will clearly condemn this idiotic and sickening accusation.
Cat-calling and wolf-whistling could soon become a hate crime in Britain after the Law Commission announced it will review acts of misogyny.
Labour MP Stella Creasy has been leading a campaign calling for verbal abuse of women to be punishable in the same way as religious hate crimes.
This will include so-called cat-calling which means whistling at or yelling at a person in a 'sexually suggestive' manner.
The move was announced during a parliamentary debate on upskirting - and whether or not that should be a criminal offence.
Speaking in Parliament on changes to the Voyeurism (Offences) Bill on Wednesday Ms Creasy called for a full review - which was later granted.
Stella Creasy is calling for the end of misogyny and has secured a legal review through campaigning
The Upskirting draft which has Theresa May's backing, will allow judges to jail upskirting offenders for up to two years.
Announcing the news on Twitter Ms Creasy said: 'Government agrees to fund a law commission review into all hate crime including misogyny and look at new and existing offences - finally we are sending a message misogyny isnt just a part of life we put up with but something men and women together commit to tackling. Thank you to everyone who helped us make the case to their MP!'
The full review will probe whether or not misogyny, which is defined as the 'ingrained prejudice against women' should become a hate crime. Currently, some serious misogynistic acts can be punished under other categories such as intimidation or harassment.
Ms Creasy said: 'This isnt about creating new crimes but recognising as we do with racial and religious hatred when someone is being targeted because of who they are and saying its not for them to cope with it, but us all to stop it.'
The Walthamstow MP has previously called for an extension of a pilot project by Nottinghamshire Police, which has been recording misogynistic behaviour as either hate crime or hate incidents
Posting on Instagram, Ms Creasy said that MPs voting on the Bill had 'a chance to help make sure everyone is free to walk our streets without fear of harassment'
Miss Creasy, who was previously threatened with rape and violence on social media, said women are often made to feel as though their actions lead to attacks.
She said: 'Crimes like upskirting don't happen in a vacuum.
'They happen in a world where we don't see violence against women as a priority for action; where we tell young women to not walk around late at night as a way of staying safe, rather than those who hassle them that their behaviour is unacceptable.'
Ms Creasy has campaigned to end 'cat-calling' in her constituency over women being harassed in the street by men.
Conservative MP Christopher Chope single-handedly blocked the Bill when he intervened at an earlier stage in the Commons, prompting widespread criticism
Conservative MP Christopher Chope single-handedly blocked the Upskirting Bill when he intervened at an earlier stage in the Commons, prompting widespread criticism.
The Tory grandee said he was acting on a long-held principle that has seen him routinely oppose backbench private members' bills - based on the way the bill was presented - and not its content.
Miss Creasy's campaign has not been welcomed by all, with some claiming the MP has ignored the way men are treated.
Fathers4Justice said: 'We have to STOP fanatical feminists like Stella Creasy DEMONISING men while turning a BLIND-EYE to misandry & the REAL abuse of children and fathers in secret family courts.'
However, her supporters have praised her for attempting to end appalling behaviour.
Iain Grant told on Twitter how he has been a victim.
He said: 'Why do people think this behaviour is okay?? I had long hair as a teenager and I got catcalled by a load of men in a car as I walked home from school - in my school uniform, so I was clearly under 16! It was frightening, embarrassing and horrible!'
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said of Ms Creasy's amendment: 'We already have robust legislation that can be used to protect women from a range of crimes.
'We are determined to see the upskirting bill passed as soon as possible, to better protect victims and bring offenders to justice.'
Advertisement
Scientists are working to identify the remains of victims of General Francisco Franco's regime after two mass graves in Paterna, Spain, were recently exhumed.
Mass graves across the country are believed to hold at least 114,000 victims of the Spanish Civil War - in which half a million people are believed to have died on all sides - and the four decades of Francoism that followed.
In Paterna, military and civil guard firing squads shot dead at least 2,238 prisoners after Franco seized power in 1939.
Their bodies are believed to have been thrown into 70 different mass graves and covered in quicklime to seal off the site.
Recently, after careful digging underneath a layer of ordinary, casket-burials at the cemetery in Paterna, piles of skeletons emerged.
Now, forensic archaeologists are working to meticulously clean and log the remains found so that they can be identified.
Alex Calpe, one of the independent archaeologists working at the site on behalf of the relatives of those killed, has said the experts' work must be 'thorough' because its goal is 'to deliver closure to the victims' families.'
Mariano Descals Salvador is among those who has provided his saliva for a DNA test to tries to find the remains of his grandfather Mariano Descals Montes who was shot in 1939 by Franco's forces.
The remains of some of the bodies believed to have been shot in 1939 by forces of dictator Francisco Franco are seen during the exhumation of two mass graves in Paterna's cemetery, Spain
Forensic anthropologist and member of Scientific Association ArqueoAntro Javier Iglesias takes a saliva sample from Mariano Descals Salvador for a DNA test to tries to find the remains of his grandfather Mariano Descals Montes who was shot in 1939
In Paterna, military and civil guard firing squads shot dead at least 2,238 prisoners after Franco seized power in 1939
Their bodies are believed to have been thrown into 70 different mass graves and covered in quicklime to seal off the site
Marisol Schwab examines remains recovered after the exhumation of two mass graves containing the bodies of victims shot in 1939 by forces of dictator Francisco Franco
Mass graves across the country are believed to hold at least 114,000 victims of the Spanish Civil War - in which half a million people are believed to have died on all sides - and the four decades of Francoism that followed
Forensic anthropologist Marisol Schwab is among the scientists working to meticulously clean and log the remains found so that they can be identified
Forensic anthropologist Nicole Lambacher cleans a skull that was recovered from one of the mass graves that was recently exhumed
A member of Scientific Association ArqueoAntro takes part in the exhumation of the one of two mass graves that contain the remains of the bodies of people shot in 1939
Shoes that contain the remains of one of the victims executed by General Francisco Franco forces after the dictator assumed power in 1939
A member of Scientific Association ArqueoAntro takes part in the exhumation of two mass graves in Paterna's cemetery
After careful digging underneath a layer of ordinary, casket-burials at the cemetery in Paterna, piles of skeletons emerged
A mass grave marked with the number 41 that contains the remains of the bodies of people believed to have been shot in 1939
Forensic anthropologist and member of Scientific Association ArqueoAntro Javier Iglesias takes part in the exhumation
Benjamin Ruiz Marti, a member of Association for relatives of victims of the Franco regime, is pictured during the exhumation
The owner of a South Dakota pet store where 36 animals were found dead is facing hundreds of charges of animal cruelty and neglect.
Animal control officers acting on an anonymous complaint raided the Pitter Patter Pet Store in Rapid City and found both dead and live animals in squalid conditions.
They seized 90 living animals, including dogs, cats, hamsters and guinea pigs in the raid on August 16. Authorities haven't said what animals were found dead.
Marinda Parks, 38, now faces 203 municipal charges, according to the Rapid City Journal.
Scroll down for video
The rescued animals (pictured) were taken to the Humane Society of the Black Hills for care
Animal welfare officers hope the animals will recover and be adopted into good homes
Her attorney, Timothy Rensch, said the only dead creatures were cockroaches, goldfish and snails.
Rensch says Parks is being portrayed as a villain, but is actually a kind person who loves animals. The pet store had been closed since July.
On Friday, a deputy attorney with the City of Rapid City filed the charges, including 101 counts of municipal cruelty to animals, 101 counts of abuse and neglect of animals, and 1 count of a dirty kennel, against Marinda Parks, 38, in the 7th Judicial Circuit.
Parks, who owned Pitter Patter Pet Store in the Rushmore Mall until its closure in July, will make her first appearance in September before Judge Scott Bogue.
Kinsely Groote, the city's deputy attorney who is leading the prosecution said she could not release animal control or veterinarians' reports that could confirm the type of deceased animals for fear of tainting a jury pool.
Animal control representatives have not made those details public yet. Groote did say under city code, insects are not considered animals.
In an interview, Kelsey Harty, one of the responding officers with Animal Services and Enforcement, said investigators found signs during the four-hour raid of animal abuse, including feces-smeared cages, pools of urine, and lack of adequate food and water.
Animal welfare officer Kelsey Harty (pictured) said the animals did not have adequate food
Authorities seized 90 living animals from the Pitter Patter pet store (pictured) during the raid
She said: 'We found several animals. Multiple animals in one cage.
'A little crowded, feces, empty water bowls, food dishes, the smell was a big thing. We did see a couple of deceased animals, it was pretty chaotic that morning.'
She also said the structure housing the animals contained 'material laying around that was not safe for the animals'.
In a statement, The Humane Society of the Black Hills seized more than 100 animals including dogs and cats from a local pet store on August 16.
The animals have been relocated to the Humane Society of the Black Hills where they will be cared for and adopted into good homes circumstances permitting.
Parks opened two years ago at Rushmore Mall.
Rescue staff care for the rescued animals (pictured) at the Humane Society of the Black Hills
She couldn't make money there, so she decided to buy a new storefront on Mt. Rushmore Road, according to Newscenter1.
During the moving process, several puppies escaped their enclosures and knocked a plant into the fish pond, killing some of the fish.
This prompted an anonymous welfare check tip to Animal Services and Enforcement of Rapid City on August 15.
The next morning, authorities seized the animals including cats, dogs, reptiles, birds and others.
In his congratulatory message sent to President Tran Dai Quang, Italian President Sergio Mattarella expressed his belief that on the basis of the firm strategic partnership, the two countries will together tap into all opportunities to consolidate, deepen and expand win-win collaboration in all fields, both bilaterally and multilaterally.
President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly Kim Yong Nam and Premier Pak Pong Ju of the DPRK also cabled greetings to President Tran Dai Quang and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, saying they believe that the Vietnamese people will attain greater achievements in building a strong nation and improving their living standards.
Meanwhile, Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman extended their congratulations to their Vietnamese counterparts. They expressed their wish to enhance cooperation and comprehensive partnership with Vietnam and step up win-win collaboration in all fields of mutual concern. They also hoped that both sides will continue maintaining dialogue and exchanging priority cooperation orientations in the time to come.
Mongolian President Khaltmaa Battulga, Prime Minister Ukhnaa Khurelsukh and Chairman of the State Great Hural (Parliarment) Miyegombo Enkhbold also sent their congratulatory messages to President Tran Dai Quang, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.
On the occasion, Deputy Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh received greetings from the DPRK Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and Mongolian Foreign Minister Damin Tgogtbaatar.
Jeremy Corbyn is facing a standards probe over failing to declare a trip to Tunisia where a wreath was laid for terrorist masterminds.
The Labour leader is understood to have been contacted by the parliamentary watchdog after a complaint was made.
Party sources told MailOnline he would be 'cooperating'.
The trip to attend a conference on the Israel-Palestine conflict in 2014 was funded by the Tunisian government.
Scroll down for video
Jeremy Corbyn is facing a standards probe over failing to declare a trip to Tunisia where a wreath was laid for terrorist masterminds
Mr Corbyn faced a storm over the summer when it emerged that during the three-day visit he attended a ceremony where a wreath was laid at the graves of Palestinians linked to the Munich Olympics terrorist attack.
Eyebrows were also raised that the trip was not declared on the Commons register.
Mr Corbyn insists this was because the costs were below the threshold for declaration, which was 660 at the time.
However, images of the opulent hotel where he stayed sparked doubts about the claim, and complaints were made to the parliamentary standards commissioner, Kathryn Stone.
Mr Corbyn faced a storm when it emerged he attended a ceremony where a wreath was laid at the graves of Palestinians linked to the Munich Olympics terrorist attack (pictured above)
Previously Ms Stone would have revealed publicly whether she was investigating Mr Corbyn.
But MPs controversially voted before the summer recess to keep probes secret unless politicians are found guilty of misconduct.
Mr Corbyn stayed at the five-star Le Palace hotel in Gammarth, Tunisia, where the conference in 2014 was held.
The five-star Le Palace hotel in Gammarth, Tunisia, where the conference in 2014 was held
According to the website for Le Palace - which overlooks the Mediterranean and boasts a pool, bars and restaurants - suites are charged at up to 1,000 a night.
The cheapest rooms are currently around 170 a night, and he is thought to have checked in for two nights.
Flights and transport costs are also believed to have been picked up by the Tunisian government.
A South Beach hotel's assistant manager was injured after a guest angrily pushed her to the ground after she denied her a room change request.
Alicia Garcia-Bernaza, whose left arm is still being supported by a protective sling, has been left wondering why officials from the Miami Beach Police Department haven't done enough to secure the arrest of the hotel patron.
Garcia-Bernaza was on duty the night of August 9 when two women lodged at the hotel approached the front desk of the Beach Park Hotel seeking a new room before one of them assaulted her.
'I've never been attacked like that, never have been in a situation like that,' she told WSVN.
Alicia Garcia-Bernaza got injured at her Miami Beach hotel job when an upset guest pushed her from behind in an assault captured by the hotel's surveillance system
One of the two women involved in the assault of a Miami
The beachfront hotel supervisor explained to the guests that per the site manager, she had no authority to accommodate their demands.
According to Garcia-Bernaza's account of the shocking incident, the women became enraged as the conversation reached its boiling point.
'She was using foul language,' and I said, "I dont do foul language, I have nothing else to say to you," and I turned,' said Garcia-Bernaza.
The woman with the black backpack became enraged because Alicia Garcia-Bernaza could not fulfill her request of changing their South Beach hotel room
Moments after Alicia Garcia-Bernaza tried to walk away from the problem, the angry woman in the black backpack shoves her hard
Alicia Garcia-Bernaza tumbles to the hotel lobby floor after the hotel guest wearing a black backpack pushes her from behind, causing the injuries to the hotel assistant manager
Surveillance footage from the hotel clearly shows a woman sporting a black backpack walk up to Garcia-Bernaza, who then turns around and tries walking away before she pushes her from behind with her right hand, sending her flying to the lobby's floor.
Garcia-Bernaza was diagnosed with a sore ankle from the nasty fall and has been dealing with constant headaches since.
She tried seeking assistance from the town's police department, but they said they wouldn't be able to tend to her case until the following Monday, when the Chicago visitors had already left town.
No charges have been filed, as of yet.
A copy of the police report acquired by WSVN noted that cops arrived on the scene but Garcia-Bernaza couldn't fully identify the woman that assaulted her.
In June, Kim Kardashian successfully pushed for U.S. President Donald Trump to free 63-year-old Alice Marie Johnson, a woman jailed since 1996 for life on nonviolent drug charges.
Now, the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star is asking for the release of Chris Young, a man currently serving a life sentence for similar nonviolent drug charges.
Heres all you need to know about Chris Young and Kardashians efforts to free him.
Young was sentenced to life in prison in 2014 following a third drug conviction in Tennessee
Who is Chris Young?
Chris Young is a 30-year-old man from Clarksville, Tennessee currently serving a life sentence in prison on nonviolent drug charges.
Young reportedly grew up in poverty while his mother struggled for years with drug addiction. His older brother Robert committed suicide in 2007 at age 22. His death reportedly had a profound influence on the then-18-year-old, causing him to make regrettable choices in the years ahead.
I felt like the only person that understood all the adversity Id been through was gone. I was lost and I made a lot of bad decisions, he said in an October 2015 interview with Vice.
After working in a funeral home, Young reportedly became increasingly involved with drug dealing in the Clarksville, Tennessee area.
In December 2010, he was charged with drug offenses by Federal prosecutors for being in possession of marijuana and a half a gram of cocaine. Prosecutors accused Young of being involved in drug trafficking in the Clarksville, Tennessee area and said he was buying crack cocaine from the leader of an illegal drug ring at a local gas station.
Young was specifically charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and crack cocaine and other drug and firearm-related charges. Initially offered a plea deal that included a 14-year term in prison, he rejected the offer to take his case to trial.
'What I was required to do that day was cruel,' said the judge regarding the day he sentenced Chris Young, the man @KimKardashian is trying to free from prison. https://t.co/Cn4XL3dFem Tennessean (@Tennessean) September 5, 2018
The new charges against Young subsequently triggered Federal three-strikes laws against him if he was found guilty, as he had two previous drug-related convictions which reportedly were for drugs and firearms possession in 2006 and for possession of less than half a gram of cocaine in 2007.
He was ultimately convicted in August 2013 and sentenced to life in prison in 2014. Due to suffering from sickle cell anemia, hes also had to attend a medical facility for treatment in recent years.
Despite his imprisonment, Young has reportedly dedicated himself towards furthering his education, reading extensively and even teaching himself how to write code.
I look at this like Im in college. I dont get to go to frat parties or talk to women, but this is the time to get my skill set. When Im reading in my cell, its like Im studying in my dorm room, he told Vice.
The Federal judge who sentenced Young to life in prison, Kevin Sharp, later spoke out against the mandatory three-strike law and expressed regret for being forced to sentence Young to life in prison.
If there was any way I could have not given him life in prison I would have done it. What they did was wrong, they deserved some time in prison, but not life, he said.
Speaking of defendants in drug cases, he also added: Most of the defendants are not dangerous. Theyre just kids who lack any opportunities and any supervision, lack education and have ended up doing what appears to be at the time the path of least resistance to make a living.
Kardashian has recently lobbied for Young's freedom and prison reform at the White House
Sharp, now in private practice, has pledged to work towards getting Youngs sentence commuted, though cautioned it could take years.
However, it now looks like hell have an influential ally in his fight.
Kim Kardashian, having played a key role in freeing Alice Marie Johnson earlier in 2018, is now looking to get Young freed from prison as well.
The reality TV star returned to the White House on September 5 to meet with high-ranking aides to President Trump regarding prison reform and criminal justice issues.
Speaking on the Wrongful Conviction podcast with Jason Flom, Kardashian said: I do talk to the White House often on this subject with Jared Kushner and he is really passionate about changing some of these laws and getting some bills passed. Hopefully some things will get passed Im hopeful.
An adventurous sealion has made its way back into the ocean after spending four days trapped on land dehydrated and hungry.
The sea creature was first spotted around 2am on August 31 running down a road in southeast Alaska, the chief of the Sitka Volunteer Fire Department told Anchorage Daily News.
A bemused driver recorded video footage of the marine mammal making his way down a darkened street and rescue staff in the area were quickly notified.
Scroll down for video
The rogue sea lion on a resident's front deck, after the 1,700lb male waddled away from Sitka Harbor, in Sitka, Alaska and became stranded
The Steller (or northern) sea lion is the largest member of the family Otariidae, the 'eared seals,' which includes all sea lions and fur seals
Police, firefighters and scientists, above, were all involved in the effort to get it safely back to the ocean after it waddled out of the water and got lost
The stranded 1,700lb male Stellar sea lion was first spotted sitting by the side of a road in a a residential area by a bewildered motorist
Officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Network, the Sitka Police Department, and firefighters tried to usher it to sea on Saturday.
Dave Miller, chief of the Sitka Volunteer Fire Department told Anchorage Daily News: 'It started taking off went down, oh, about halfway to the water, with us sort of pushing it along with the hose,' Miller said. 'And all of a sudden, it decided "I'm done with this," and it went into the woods.'
By Saturday afternoon, the animal had been left alone to rest, Miller said. 'You don't want to put too much stress on it,' he said.
On September 2, scientists tweeted: 'NOAA is asking the public to clear the area in Sitka where a male Stellar sea lion is in distress, and is hiding in the woods; the incident is drawing onlookers.
'Please, for your own safety and the well-being of the animal, if you are in the area, leave.'
Police, firefighters and scientists were all involved in the effort to get it safely back to the ocean after it waddled out of the water and got lost.
Volunteer firefighters sprayed water on the sea lion, to try and coax it back to the ocean - to no avail
But this method ended up scaring the sea lion, which then tried to make an escape
The sea lion started heading for the woods to escape from the large group trying to help him
The Steller (or northern) sea lion is the largest member of the family Otariidae, the 'eared seals,' which includes all sea lions and fur seals.
Local law enforcement cautioned drivers in the area and started the delicate process of trying to coax the sea lion back to the ocean using a hose.
But their efforts were unsuccessful because the animal had become stressed and dehydrated.
On September 3 - four days after the sea lion was first spotted - rescuers made the decision to sedate it and transport it back to Sitka Harbor.
The dehydrated creature then took refuge under trees, prompting the above tweet from NOAA Fisheries for members of the public to 'stay clear' of the area
The mammoth creature was knocked out by a NOAA vet using a dart and rolled onto the barrel of a digger, before being placed on the back of a pick-up truck.
NOAA spokesperson Julie Speegle said the snoozing sea lion was given medication to counteract the sedatives and was carefully monitored in the ocean after its release.
Despite its ordeal, the mammal was munching on a fish moments after jumping into the harbor's waves from the University of Southeast Alaska boat ramp.
A decision was made to sedate the mammoth sea lion, and roll him onto the front-end loader
He was taken directly to the ocean, where scientists kept a close watch on him
After a four-day effort, the sea lion was successfully returned to the ocean in Sitka Harbor
Speegle said: 'We tried to coax the sea lion in the right direction towards the water with a fire hose.
'It worked for a little while, he was going the right way, but when he got to a road, he just veered into the woods.
'He's an adult male and weighs about 1,700lbs so there was no moving him manually.
'At this point he was tired and dehydrated.
'We decided to let him calm down; he was frightened and confused. He seemed stressed because obviously he was looking for the ocean.'
He spent Sunday night under the cover of the woods, 'but he wasn't budging', Speegle said.
'On Monday, our vet came down and at 1pm they managed to sedate him using a dart.
'It was then that they were able to use a front loader and a truck to transport him back to the harbor.
'We watched him for a few hours to make sure everything was okay, but the first thing he did was eat a fish so that was a really good sign,' Speegle added.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries experts watched as he ate his first fish. The video of his release, top, was filmed by Cindy Bonner Duncan
Stellar sea lions feed on cod, herring, pollock and salmon, along with octopus and squid.
Sitka Volunteer Fire Department, which sprayed water on the creature, posted a video of its return to the ocean on Facebook.
Local residents were happy to see the sea lion had been successfully rescued, with one person commenting: 'Lucky! Stay away from the killer whales.'
Scientists involved in the rescue said it was unclear why the sea lion had ventured so far from the shore, but NOAA is keeping a close eye on the adventurous animal.
Speegle said: 'We collected some scat for analysis to check his overall health and we fitted him with a satellite tag so we can track his location.
'We are involved in a lot of rescues but this situation was out of the ordinary for sure.'
A young ballerina has filed a lawsuit against New York City Ballet and its former principal dancer, accusing the venerated institution of creating a 'fraternity-like' atmosphere and allowing male performers to abuse, assault and dehumanize female dancers with impunity.
Alexandra Waterbury, a 19-year-old dancer, model and Ivy League college student, filed her bombshell 40-page complaint in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday containing explosive allegations against the New York City Ballet and her former boyfriend, 28-year-old Chase Finlay.
The complaint obtained by DailyMail.com alleges Finlay had secretly photographed and videotaped his sexual encounters with Waterbury and shared the images and videos and other dancers, employees, NYC Ballet donors and even a sex trafficker, without her consent.
Ballet dancer and model Alexandra Waterbury (pictured left in rehearsal) has filed a lawsuit against her former boyfriend and New York City Ballet principal Chase Finlay, 28 (pictured together right in May), accusing him of sexual misconduct
Waterbury's bombshell lawsuit also names New York City Ballet as a defendant, accusing the high-brow institution of being a a breeding ground for sexual exploitation and fostering a 'frat-house' culture
The lawsuit quoted an unnamed top donor texting Finlay: 'we should get like half a kilo [of cocaine] and put it over the girls and just violate them.'
The donor went on to say: 'I bet we could tie some of them up and abuse them like farm animals,' to which Finlay replied in a text, 'or like the sluts they are,' according to his ex-girlfriends complaint.
Waterbury's lawsuit comes less than a week after New York City Ballet announced that Finlay had abruptly resigned, and that two other male principals, Amar Ramasar and Zachary Catazaro, were suspended over allegations of inappropriate communications via text and email.
The lawsuit points at the celebrated ballet companys workplace culture, describing it as a breeding ground for sexual exploitation where women are objectified and treated as second-class citizens.
She further accuses the company of fostering a highly sexualized environment and sweeping the male principals' unlawful, reckless or degrading behavior towards women 'under the rug'.
Waterbury claims that Finlay, her boyfriend of one year, had secretly photographed and videotaped his sexual encounters, and then shared the content with his colleagues
Finlay and a ballet donor at one point traded texts joking that ballerinas should be dusted with cocaine 'and abused like farm animals.' He also allegedly shared one of the 19-year-old Waterbury's photos with a pimp
The male dancersunderstood that they were above the law and could do whatever they wanted to women, whenever they wanted to do so just make sure it occurs in New York, where it could be controlled by [NYC Ballets] executives and management, the lawsuit alleged.
Without naming the person in question, the court filing claims that one male dancer was sent to rehab after a run-in with the law concerning substance abuse and domestic violence involving a ballerina, but he was allowed to return to the dance corps a week later 'without repercussion.'
'This sent the message to Mr Finlay and other New York City Ballet male dancers and others that it was acceptable to...abuse substances and degrade, demean, dehumanize and physically abuse women, including its own employees,' the complaint reads.
According to the complaint, at least one high-ranking official within the organization was aware of Finlay's substance abuse and would ask him about his partying because he would show up to work smelling of alcohol, but the institution 'buried its head in the sand' and chose not to address the principals conduct.
Waterbury, pictured dancing in 2013, learned in May 2018 that her boyfriend had been recording and disseminating naked images and videos of the tow of them having sex without her consent
The lawsuit says Waterbury sustained severe psychological and emotional damage, mental anguish, embarrassment and humiliation
'Clearly, New York City Ballet had extensive knowledge of this out-of-control, fraternity-house, abusive and sexually charged environment, but it did nothing to stop it, so long as it continued to sell tickets, Waterburys attorney wrote in the filing.
The document goes into graphic detail about Chase Finlays text message exchanges with other male principals, in which they allegedly agreed to swap sexually explicit photos and videos of their girlfriends and other ballerinas.
'You have any pictures of girls you've f***ed?' Finlay allegedly said in a text sent to another person with the Ballet, along with a naked photo of Waterbury. 'I'll send you some got ballerina girls I've made scream and squirt.'
Waterbury shared this snap taken on her first day of class at Columbia University on her Instagram page Tuesday
The male dancers allegedly began exchanging images and photos on a text message chain in September 2017 and continued through May 2018.
On one occasion, a Ballet employee allegedly texted Finlay in reference to his girlfriend: 'I want to j*** off to watching u and Alex f*** lol' and 'I cant stop looking at Alex's t**s lol.'
Finlay also allegedly discussed recording the 19-year-old Waterbury performing a sex act for profit, because 'that s*** would sell.'
It was not until May 15, 2018, that Waterbury, then a student at School of American Ballet at Lincoln Center, discovered that Finlay, whom she had been dating for a year, had been allegedly surreptitiously videotaping her and disseminating her naked photos to agents, donors, ballet employees and fellow performers.
The lawsuit claims that Waterbury sustained severe psychological and emotional damage, mental anguish, embarrassment and humiliation as a result of Finlays actions and those of the ballet company.
She is suing her ex-boyfriend and his former employer for negligence, intentional affliction of emotional distress, assault, battery and invasion of privacy.
Waterburys lawsuit is seeking unspecified punitive damages, compensatory damages and attorney's fees.
The plaintiff is currently an undergraduate student at the School of General Studies at Columbia University and a dancer at the Columbia Ballet Collaborative. Waterbury also has been modelling with the agency Wilhelmina International from the time she was a teenager.
DailyMail.com on Wednesday reached out to New York City Ballet for comment on the lawsuit.
Giving statins to the healthy elderly could be a waste of time, a major study claims.
The research, involving 47,000 over-75s, found no evidence that they make any difference to low-risk patients.
Scientists said their results 'do not support the widespread use of statins' in this group.
The news threatens to inflame the row about the pros and cons of the drugs, which reduce levels of so-called 'bad' cholesterol to prevent heart disease.
Since 2014, all over-75s in Britain have been eligible to take statins which cost no more than 20 a year even if they are in perfect health.
Giving statins to the healthy elderly could be a waste of time, a major study claims
This approach known as primary prevention means anyone with a 10 per cent chance of getting heart disease within ten years should have the medication.
The just-in-case strategy means all over-75s, most over-60s and some as young as 30 are eligible for the pills.
Experts agree that statins are lifesavers for two million people who have heart disease or diabetes particularly those who have already had a heart attack or a stroke.
But many doctors question what they call the 'over-medicalisation' of the further ten million healthy people who are eligible for statins based on the likelihood that they might become ill.
Of the total of 12million eligible, many are reluctant to take a pill for no obvious reason. As a result, only around six million agree to take the drugs.
Professor Colin Baigent (pictured), of the University of Oxford, has criticised the way the study was designed
The latest findings, published in the British Medical Journal, suggest most elderly people do not actually benefit from the pills.
Spanish scientists, led by the Catalan Institute of Health and the University of Girona, tracked 46,864 people over 75.
The participants none of whom had heart disease at the beginning of the study were monitored for six years.
For most, the scientists found no evidence that use of statins resulted in a reduction in cardiovascular disease or deaths.
The only people who benefited were those with type 2 diabetes aged 75 to 84, for whom the risk of cardiovascular disease went down by 24 per cent and the risk they would die during the study fell by 16 per cent.
But even for this group, the protective effect fell after 85 and disappeared by the age of 90.
The researchers, led by Dr Rafel Ramos, said statin use for the elderly had increased around the world despite a lack of evidence for any benefit, even though the elderly are more prone to side-effects.
The report concluded: 'These results do not support the widespread use of statins in old populations, but do support treatment in those with type 2 diabetes younger than 85.'
But Professor Colin Baigent, of the University of Oxford, criticised the way the study was designed, adding: 'The problem with this type of study, which used routine health records, is that it is a very unreliable way to determine the effects of statins on the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
'The only suitable method is a clinical trial where people are allocated to a statin or to no statin entirely at random.'
Business rates must be completely overhauled if the High Street is to survive, a lobby group for small firms has warned.
Surging rates are adding to the burden on small shops as they are crushed by foreign internet giants such as Amazon sparking a crisis which has already destroyed 50,000 retail jobs this year.
Now, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has demanded a reform of the tax to give shopkeepers a better chance of survival.
In a series of demands which echo the Mail's Save Our High Streets campaign, the FSB is calling for a freeze on rates from April 2019; a 1,000 discount for local shops, cafes, restaurants and pubs; extra relief for small firms in London, which pay over the odds at present due to sky-high property prices, and a faster appeals process to end the farce which sees small businesses forced to pay too much tax, and then left in limbo for months before their bills are corrected.
Business rates must be completely overhauled if the High Street is to survive, a lobby group for small firms has warned. Pictured, Peascod Street in Windsor
The group is also demanding a full review of consumers' access to cash amid a wave of bank branch and ATM closures.
It would like the Post Office network to be properly protected so shopkeepers and shoppers can use the organisation to deposit cash and cheques in areas where all the banks have shut, without fear it will also be downsized.
Mike Cherry, chairman of the FSB, said: 'It's clear the pressure is mounting. Spiralling business rates and ever-increasing rents are piling on to small retailers, hospitality businesses and others on the High Street.
'The high cost of town centre parking, poor infrastructure, the blight of potholes and the loss of vital banking services are also ramping up the pressure.
'We know that small business owners are resilient and are used to adapting to market forces. But we want to see the Government and local authorities come together to look at real solutions to these issues so that our high streets are not only able to survive, but to thrive.'
The plans last night won support from senior politicians.
Chancellor Philip Hammond has refused to take action on rates, despite coming under intense pressure to do so
Labour MP Wes Streeting, a member of the Treasury select committee, said: 'It is important to make sure that not only do high street businesses receive the support they need to see them through these challenging times for retail, but also that local authorities receive funding to compensate them for any reduction in revenue from business rates.
'These issues are extremely urgent and I hope the Chancellor addresses them in his autumn Budget.'
Chancellor Philip Hammond has refused to take action on rates, despite coming under intense pressure to do so.
The rates are widely believed to need major reform, but they are predicted to bring in 30.8 billion in this financial year and are relied on by councils to pay their bills.
A Treasury spokesman said: 'We've introduced more than 10 billion of business rate support to help our high streets, so many bricks-and-mortar businesses now pay no rates at all.
'We've appointed an expert panel of industry leaders, with a survey due to launch later this year, to diagnose the issues currently affecting our high streets, and advise on the best long-term approach to help their revival.'
The former Vogue assistant accused of stealing $50,000 from Grace Coddington appeared in court in Manhattan on Wednesday after pleading not guilty to grand larceny.
Yvonne Bannigan, 25, appeared for a brief hearing with her attorney at Manhattan's Criminal Court for the first time since denying the charges earlier this summer.
She will return to court on November 7 when her lawyers will motion to dismiss the case against her.
Wearing a knee-length pussybow dress and black flats, she was emotionless as she made her way in and out of the courtroom.
Bannigan is accused of spending more than $50,000 on Coddington's credit card and pocketing $9,000 of profits from consigning the former Vogue creative director's designer goods with The Real Real.
Yvonne Bannigan, 25, appeared in court in Manhattan on Wednesday. She is charged with grand larceny for allegedly stealing $50,000 from her boss, Vogue editor-at-large Grace Coddington, over a two-year period while working as her assistant
She claims it is a 'misunderstanding'. Bannigan, who is from Dublin, Ireland, worked for Coddington between 2016 and 2018. Coddington is now the magazine's editor-at-large.
The dispute arose in April when she allegedly discovered the credit card transactions and confronted Bannigan.
She insists that she told her they were legitimate and to go to the police if she had any concerns.
Coddington followed suit and reported her allegations to the police. Bannigan was charged in May.
Her attorney Michael Cornacchia said Coddington was meticulous about checking her credit cards and would have known if she was being stolen from.
On Wednesday, he told DailyMail.com he was hopeful she would be vindicated at trial.
Bannigan is shown right with her lawyer Michael Cornacchia. She pleaded not guilty to grand larceny in July. The case will return to court in November when her lawyer will file a motion to dismiss the charges
Bannigan's attorney said the allegations are 'misunderstanding' which he hopes will be explained away at trial. Grace Coddington (right) is Vogue's editor-at-large
'Today went well from our view since we can finally learn the specifics of the accusations by Grace Coddington and their bases, the alleged evidence of which, heretofore, has been solely in the possession of the prosecution.
'This being so, this is the beginning of addressing those charges and mounting Yvonne's defense which we believe will ultimately lead to her being found innocent of all accusations,' he said.
Earlier, he suggested Coddington would have noticed if her assistants had been doing anything untoward with credit cards because she checked her statements regularly.
Bannigan worked for the Vogue icon for two years. They are pictured together in a Twitter photograph from her account
'Never, ever during these two years did Coddington, who checked her credit card statements and kept track of her possessions, complain to Yvonne or anyone else about Yvonne's conduct or any misuse of credit cards or misappropriation of any of her property.
'In fact, Yvonne was the one who suggested that Coddington go to the police to report the questioned charges and Coddington went to the police the next day with Yvonne's encouragement,' he told The Irish Independent newspaper earlier this year.
Coddington has not commented on the scandal.
Disturbing footage has emerged of an aged care worker hitting a terrified elderly patient with a shoe before dragging him onto a bed and tearing his shirt off.
The carer, 35, allegedly entered an 82-year-old patient's room at a nursing home in Seaforth, on Sydney's northern beaches, multiple times between August 26 and 28.
CCTV footage from inside the aged care facility shows the patient cowering in fear as the employee repeatedly hit him with the shoe and forced him to undress.
Disturbing footage has emerged of an aged care worker hitting an elderly patient with a shoe before dragging him onto a bed and tearing his shirt off
The carer, 35, allegedly entered the 82-year-old patient's room at a nursing home in Seaforth, on Sydney's northern beaches, multiple times between August 26 and 28
Police arrested the employee at a home in Wheeler Heights just before 2pm on Wednesday and took him to Manly Police Station.
He was charged with two counts of common assault, and use of an offensive weapon with intent to commit an indictable offence.
Superintendent David Darcy from Northern Beaches Police Area Command said elder abuse can take various forms, from physical to psychological, emotional or financial.
'These vulnerable people need the community's help to be their voice,' Superintendent Darcy said.
'To see an elderly man treated in this way is disgraceful.'
The man was granted conditional bail and will appear at Manly Local Court on September 11.
CCTV footage from inside the aged care facility shows the patient being hit with a shoe before having his shirt ripped off
It is now more than a year since our beautiful son Charlie lost his life seven days short of his first birthday. Sometimes it feels like yesterday. Sometimes it feels as if Charlies father Chris and I have lived an eternity since then.
But, throughout the bewildering aftermath, there has been one constant: our unwavering belief that something had to change to ensure that other parents do not have to go through the same heartrending battle we fought to try to save the life of our son.
It would, we agreed, be our way of honouring him and making sure his short life was not in vain.
Connie Yates, right, said she and Charlie's father Chris Gard are determined that their infant son's death - just shy of his first birthday - was not in vain
Peers in the House of Lords are debating legislation which could introduce 'Charlie's Law'
Charlie's Law will give parents a greater say in the treatment of their loved ones
Thats why were absolutely delighted that a new law was laid before Parliament last night which is the first step toward Charlies law a law that will eventually will give parents of sick children or any loved ones fighting for someone who cannot speak for themselves a voice.
The introduction of better access to mediation and medical ethics committees, combined with the right for parent to seek treatment for their children that wont cause them harm would we believe help eliminate some of the conflict that can all too easily arise between medical professionals and parents in complex cases.
It was just such a conflict which Chris and I found ourselves mired within after Charlie was admitted to Great Ormond Street Hospital two months after his birth in August 2016.
There, he was diagnosed with mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome.
As any parent of a profoundly ill child will testify, a diagnosis like this is its own kind of hell, one characterised by helplessness, anxiety and fear.
The family said the disagreement with Great Ormond Street Hospital over Charlie's treatment led to friction. Under the new legislation, mediation will be compulsory in law
Yet in our case that hell was exacerbated when we found ourselves in disagreement with doctors at GOSH over the best course of action for our son.
After extensive research and after speaking to many experts all over the world, Chris and I were both convinced that experimental but potentially life saving treatment available in the US would give Charlie his best chance of life.
His doctors initially agreed. But then changed their minds.
We couldnt countenance it. Would any parent, while there was still a fighting chance that their child could live?
Anxious to keep the lines of communication open, we requested mediation one of the proposals we now hope will be made compulsory in law.
If we could get everyone around the table, we believed, then we could all air our thoughts in a constructive and transparent way.
That didnt happen. Instead matters quickly became antagonistic, escalating to a bitter courtroom battle.
According to Ms Yates, the lack of communication between her family and the hospital quickly led to a breakdown in relations with the hospital seeking to end Charlie's life by court order
Its impossible for anyone who has not been in our situation to really understand how bewildering and overwhelming everything was.
Like many people, I had occasionally seen news stories of grim-faced parents going into battle for their sick children and thinking it would never happen to us. But suddenly there we were, not only worried sick about our son but also forced into a position where the hospital took us to court to end our sons life.
We did so without legal aid and with very little support, facing an NHS with vastly superior resources. It felt like the odds were stacked against us from the start. Looking back, we lost most of our autonomy the moment we stepped through the hospital doors.
If youre caring for a child at home, you as a parent get to make decisions people dont interfere unless you are or are likely to cause your child significant harm. Yet, in our experience, once Charlie was in hospital, much of that choice seemed to dissipate.
Medical experts back 'Charlie's Law' The campaign by Connie Yates and Chris Gard is backed by an impressive array of medical and political heavyweights. Significantly, given their high-profile showdown with doctors last year, they have won the backing of a number of leading medical specialists. Today the Mail can unveil the first politicians and doctors who are publicly championing Charlies Law. The group of big-hitters is starkly different to some of the campaigners with varying agendas who attached themselves to the couple last year. They include Baroness Hollins, a former president and chairman of the British Medical Association. A world expert on childrens health, she entered the Lords as a crossbench peer in 2010. She is a past president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and led a World Health Organisation steering group on the health of children and young people with intellectual disabilities. Another backer is Dominic Wilkinson, one of the countrys leading doctors for newborns. The consultant neonatologist and professor of medical ethics at the University of Oxford took the side of doctors against Charlies parents. But now he is convinced the couple are seeking a proportionate and correct solution. His voice carries significant weight, as he is also associate editor of the Journal of Medical Ethics and managing editor of the Journal of Practical Ethics. A third expert backing the campaign is Julian Savulescu, an Oxford philosopher specialising in medical ethics. He said: Charlies Law is an important step forwards into the 21st century. The dispute at the heart of the case of Charlie Gard was fundamentally ethical, not medical. It was about what constitutes a childs best interests. Advertisement
It seemed to us a form of madness that even though we had other doctors who were willing to treat our son and it was widely accepted there were no adverse side effects to what we proposed we Charlies parents, and the ones who loved him more than anyone in the world still werent able to make that decision for him. Even though what we wanted wouldnt cause him harm it could have saved his life.
There was also a good deal of misunderstanding in the wider world about what we wanted. The experimental treatment we sought (a word that applies to any treatment in its infancy) was tried and tested.
This was no wacky, throw-anything-at-the-problem solution. Even paracetamol was once experimental and I think people forget that.
I should emphasise that we only want autonomy where its appropriate. If a parent is refusing life-saving treatment for their child, then the doctors wishes should prevail.
Our proposed legislation is about striking a much-needed balance that we passionately feel has been absent to date.
Its a balance that prominent figures in the world of politics, ethics and medicine agree is sorely needed too. Among them is Professor Dominic Wilkinson, a consultant neonatologist and professor of medical ethics at the University of Oxford, who, as an outspoken supporter of GOSH in our disagreement over Charlies care, was once on an opposing side of the fence to us.
Engaging in open dialogue with people with whom have previously disagreed, like Professor Wilkinson, has not been easy but we have done so as in this we are united by the understanding that things have to change.
Indeed, what I have learned in the past few months, is that doctors want to find a solution to these conflicts as much as parents, not least because the march of technology and medical advances means there are likely to be more and more cases like Charlies.
Its why Chris and I fervently hope that Lord Mackay of Clashferns amendment to the Governments Mental Capacity Bill, currently being debated in the Lords, will become law later this year, representing the first step toward Charlies Law.
It is a hope that keeps us going through some of the darker times we have faced and continue to face while grieving for the son we think about every second of every day.
We will never know whether the experimental treatment we so fervently wanted for him would have worked. But we do know that we should have been able to try it and that there is a chance Charlie may still have been with us if we had.
Its for that reason that neither of us will rest until we know that the law ensures that other families will be spared our heartache in future and will not have to live with the what ifs like we do.
At a meeting with Chairwoman of the National Assembly of Laos Pany Yathotou, the two sides agreed to strengthen the supervision and facilitation of the implementation of Vietnam-Laos investment cooperation projects, as well as support necessary modifications and supplements on legal policies and mechanisms to boost affiliation in trade and investment.
The two sides pledged to continue supporting each other at regional and international forums, as well as sub-regional cooperation mechanisms; deepening the cooperation and connectivity of the ASEAN community; and strengthening solidarity and the central role and voice of ASEAN in regional strategic issues, including the East Sea.
Both nations will coordinate to carry out a memorandum of understanding on building the headquarters of the Lao National Assembly.
While meeting with Vice President of the Senate of Cambodia Tep Ngorn, Ty said he hopes the two countries will actively implement the cooperation agreement signed by their parliaments; increase supervision on the realisation of cooperation deals inked between not only the two governments but the respective ministries, departments, and localities, especially in the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area; and share a common voice supporting the respective standpoints at regional and international forums.
Vice Chairman Ty suggested that Cambodias National Assembly pay closer attention to working with their Vietnamese counterpart to urge their governments to sign a new supplementary treaty to the Border Demarcation Treaty signed in 1958 and the Supplementary Treaty to the 1985 treaty inked in 2005 to soon legalise 84 percent of work which has been done and complete the land border demarcation between the two countries.
He also hoped that Cambodia would soon resolve legal papers for Vietnamese Khmer people to stabilise their lives in the long run, thus making active contributions to the hosts prosperity development, as well as enhance the bilateral friendship.
During a meeting with Vice President of the Moroccan House of Representatives Abdelaziz Omarihai, the two sides agreed to promote a close coordination mechanism at multilateral forums such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie (APF), and other parliamentary organisations.
They were unanimous in agreeing to jointly scrutinize the implementation of agreements signed between their governments and ministries to bring practical benefits to both.
Vice Chairman Ty conveyed the greetings of National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan to the President of the Moroccan House of Representatives and added that the Vietnamese top legislator will visit Morocco in an appropriate time.
A new law in memory of tragic baby Charlie Gard was laid before Parliament last night in a bid to spare other families courtroom clashes with doctors.
When Charlie died last year, his mother Connie Yates and father Chris Gard vowed their little boy would make a difference to the world. They have won the backing of prominent doctors and peers to change the law to give parents more rights over what happens to sick children.
They want parents to be allowed to move their children to a different, reputable hospital if they disagree with doctors. Last night Lord Mackay of Clashfern, who was lord chancellor under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, started the parliamentary process to usher in Charlies Law.
Chris Gard and Connie Yates vowed they would fight to save other parents the heartbreak of having to battle with medics over possible treatment for their critically ill children such as the way they were forced to go to the High Court over their son, Charlie, picture right
After a year-long battle, peers in the House of Lords are debating a change to legislation which could see the introduction of Charlie's Law - allowing parents a greater say in their child's treatment
He tabled an amendment to the Mental Capacity Bill, which is being debated in the Lords. It could become law later this year unless ministers block it.
Charlie was born healthy in August 2016 but at two months he became ill with mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome.
When Great Ormond Street Childrens Hospital in London said there was no hope, his parents wanted to take him to America for treatment. The hospital opposed this move and, following lengthy court battles, Charlie died on July 28 last year after being taken off life support.
Baron Mackay of Clashfern, left, and Baroness Sheila Hollins, right, are both supporters of Charlie's Law in the House of Lords
Charlies Law would compel hospitals to offer mediation with parents to resolve disputes before resorting to courts.
It would also force the Government to provide access to clinical ethics committees to advise doctors and parents on life and death decisions. And most crucially it would empower parents to seek treatment elsewhere. Lord Mackays amendment deals with the first two ideas, initially for adults only, and it is intended to add the third idea and extend all of it to children later.
The peer said: Everyone agrees we need a solution to prolonged and distressing legal conflicts over medical treatment.
I am happy to have laid this amendment which seeks to prevent cases reaching court unnecessarily. This is a proportionate and long-overdue measure which I hope will be the first small step toward realising Charlies Law.
For more information, click here
'No other family should be put through our heartache': In her own poignant words Charlie Gards mother, CONNIE YATES tells why she will never stop fighting for Charlie's Law
It is now more than a year since our beautiful son Charlie lost his life seven days short of his first birthday. Sometimes it feels like yesterday. Sometimes it feels as if Charlies father Chris and I have lived an eternity since then.
But, throughout the bewildering aftermath, there has been one constant: our unwavering belief that something had to change to ensure that other parents do not have to go through the same heartrending battle we fought to try to save the life of our son.
It would, we agreed, be our way of honouring him and making sure his short life was not in vain.
Connie Yates, right, said she and Charlie's father Chris Gard are determined that their infant son's death - just shy of his first birthday - was not in vain
Peers in the House of Lords are debating legislation which could introduce 'Charlie's Law'
Charlie's Law will give parents a greater say in the treatment of their loved ones
Thats why were absolutely delighted that a new law was laid before Parliament last night which is the first step toward Charlies law a law that will eventually will give parents of sick children or any loved ones fighting for someone who cannot speak for themselves a voice.
The introduction of better access to mediation and medical ethics committees, combined with the right for parent to seek treatment for their children that wont cause them harm would we believe help eliminate some of the conflict that can all too easily arise between medical professionals and parents in complex cases.
It was just such a conflict which Chris and I found ourselves mired within after Charlie was admitted to Great Ormond Street Hospital two months after his birth in August 2016.
There, he was diagnosed with mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome.
As any parent of a profoundly ill child will testify, a diagnosis like this is its own kind of hell, one characterised by helplessness, anxiety and fear.
The family said the disagreement with Great Ormond Street Hospital over Charlie's treatment led to friction. Under the new legislation, mediation will be compulsory in law
Yet in our case that hell was exacerbated when we found ourselves in disagreement with doctors at GOSH over the best course of action for our son.
After extensive research and after speaking to many experts all over the world, Chris and I were both convinced that experimental but potentially life saving treatment available in the US would give Charlie his best chance of life.
His doctors initially agreed. But then changed their minds.
We couldnt countenance it. Would any parent, while there was still a fighting chance that their child could live?
Anxious to keep the lines of communication open, we requested mediation one of the proposals we now hope will be made compulsory in law.
If we could get everyone around the table, we believed, then we could all air our thoughts in a constructive and transparent way.
That didnt happen. Instead matters quickly became antagonistic, escalating to a bitter courtroom battle.
According to Ms Yates, the lack of communication between her family and the hospital quickly led to a breakdown in relations with the hospital seeking to end Charlie's life by court order
Its impossible for anyone who has not been in our situation to really understand how bewildering and overwhelming everything was.
Like many people, I had occasionally seen news stories of grim-faced parents going into battle for their sick children and thinking it would never happen to us. But suddenly there we were, not only worried sick about our son but also forced into a position where the hospital took us to court to end our sons life.
We did so without legal aid and with very little support, facing an NHS with vastly superior resources. It felt like the odds were stacked against us from the start. Looking back, we lost most of our autonomy the moment we stepped through the hospital doors.
If youre caring for a child at home, you as a parent get to make decisions people dont interfere unless you are or are likely to cause your child significant harm. Yet, in our experience, once Charlie was in hospital, much of that choice seemed to dissipate.
Medical experts back 'Charlie's Law' The campaign by Connie Yates and Chris Gard is backed by an impressive array of medical and political heavyweights. Significantly, given their high-profile showdown with doctors last year, they have won the backing of a number of leading medical specialists. Today the Mail can unveil the first politicians and doctors who are publicly championing Charlies Law. The group of big-hitters is starkly different to some of the campaigners with varying agendas who attached themselves to the couple last year. They include Baroness Hollins, a former president and chairman of the British Medical Association. A world expert on childrens health, she entered the Lords as a crossbench peer in 2010. She is a past president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and led a World Health Organisation steering group on the health of children and young people with intellectual disabilities. Another backer is Dominic Wilkinson, one of the countrys leading doctors for newborns. The consultant neonatologist and professor of medical ethics at the University of Oxford took the side of doctors against Charlies parents. But now he is convinced the couple are seeking a proportionate and correct solution. His voice carries significant weight, as he is also associate editor of the Journal of Medical Ethics and managing editor of the Journal of Practical Ethics. A third expert backing the campaign is Julian Savulescu, an Oxford philosopher specialising in medical ethics. He said: Charlies Law is an important step forwards into the 21st century. The dispute at the heart of the case of Charlie Gard was fundamentally ethical, not medical. It was about what constitutes a childs best interests. Advertisement
It seemed to us a form of madness that even though we had other doctors who were willing to treat our son and it was widely accepted there were no adverse side effects to what we proposed we Charlies parents, and the ones who loved him more than anyone in the world still werent able to make that decision for him. Even though what we wanted wouldnt cause him harm it could have saved his life.
There was also a good deal of misunderstanding in the wider world about what we wanted. The experimental treatment we sought (a word that applies to any treatment in its infancy) was tried and tested.
This was no wacky, throw-anything-at-the-problem solution. Even paracetamol was once experimental and I think people forget that.
I should emphasise that we only want autonomy where its appropriate. If a parent is refusing life-saving treatment for their child, then the doctors wishes should prevail.
Our proposed legislation is about striking a much-needed balance that we passionately feel has been absent to date.
Its a balance that prominent figures in the world of politics, ethics and medicine agree is sorely needed too. Among them is Professor Dominic Wilkinson, a consultant neonatologist and professor of medical ethics at the University of Oxford, who, as an outspoken supporter of GOSH in our disagreement over Charlies care, was once on an opposing side of the fence to us.
Engaging in open dialogue with people with whom have previously disagreed, like Professor Wilkinson, has not been easy but we have done so as in this we are united by the understanding that things have to change.
Indeed, what I have learned in the past few months, is that doctors want to find a solution to these conflicts as much as parents, not least because the march of technology and medical advances means there are likely to be more and more cases like Charlies.
Its why Chris and I fervently hope that Lord Mackay of Clashferns amendment to the Governments Mental Capacity Bill, currently being debated in the Lords, will become law later this year, representing the first step toward Charlies Law.
It is a hope that keeps us going through some of the darker times we have faced and continue to face while grieving for the son we think about every second of every day.
We will never know whether the experimental treatment we so fervently wanted for him would have worked. But we do know that we should have been able to try it and that there is a chance Charlie may still have been with us if we had.
Its for that reason that neither of us will rest until we know that the law ensures that other families will be spared our heartache in future and will not have to live with the what ifs like we do.
The Michigan parents who killed their three-year-old daughter while potty training her and then buried her body will face up to 40 years in prison.
Erika Finley, 29, and Khairy Simon, 27, murdered their daughter Kimora, stuffed her body in a backpack, and buried her beside railroad tracks near their home in Flint.
Finley was sentenced to 15 to 40 years in prison for Kimora's 2015 death. She was also sentenced five to 10 years in prison for second-degree child abuse, which will run concurrent to the murder sentence.
Simon was sentenced to 12 to 40 years in prison. He received a lighter sentence because he tried to help authorities locate Kimora's body.
The young girl's remains were never found. Police believe they may have been taken by animals.
Erika Finley, 29, (pictured during her sentencing on Wednesday) was sentenced to 15 to 40 years in prison after she killed her three-year-old daughter while potty training her in 2015
Khairy Simon, 27, (pictured Wednesday) will also face up to 40 years in prison for his daughter's death. He confessed to burying Kimora's near their Flint, Michigan home
Simon revealed in June that Finley repeatedly punched Kimora and hit her with an extension cord while they were trying to potty train her.
He said he tried to stop Finley, but that she was 'much bigger' than him and 'at the time, she felt like she had to get her point across'.
Simon revealed in June that Finley repeatedly punched Kimora (pictured) and hit her with an extension cord while they were trying to potty train her
Simon told the judge that Finley put Kimora's body in a garbage bag before stuffing it into a backpack. He then buried his daughter by their home.
Authorities have said they believe both Finley and Simon killed Kimora together.
Genesee Circuit Judge Geoffrey L Neithercut did not hold back as he delivered the sentences on Wednesday, calling the parents 'selfish'.
'Ms Finley, you have a stain on your soul,' he said in the courtroom.
'The heinous act that you did causes every mother in this community to wonder why. Every parent in this community is appalled.'
Finley previously pleaded no contest to charges including second-degree murder, first-degree child abuse in the presence of another child, tampering with evidence, lying to a police officer, and welfare fraud.
Simon previously pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and removing a dead body without permission of the medical examiner.
Simon told the judge that Finley put Kimora's body in a garbage bag before stuffing it into a backpack. He then buried his daughter by their home
Finley must also pay $7,386 in restitution after cashing welfare checks for Kimora for more than a year-and-a-half after murdering her daughter. She is pictured here hiding her face before her sentencing on Wednesday
Neithercut said both would have received life sentences if the case had gone to trial and a jury found them guilty.
Instead both Finley and Simon chose to accept plea agreements this summer.
Finley must also pay $7,386 in restitution after cashing welfare checks for Kimora for more than a year-and-a-half after murdering her daughter, according to The Flint Journal.
An investigation into the parents began after someone reported to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services that they could be abusing their son.
When an employee from the department asked where Kimora was, Finley said she was in Detroit with Simon.
But Simon provided a conflicting story about Kimora, raising red flags.
An investigation into the parents began after someone reported to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services that they could be abusing their son
Relatives then revealed that they had not seen Kimora in more than a year and Simon's girlfriend of eight months said she had never even met his daughter.
Both Finley and Simon read apologies during their sentencing on Wednesday.
'I can't tell how you much I miss Kimora,' Finley wrote. 'I can't tell you how sorry I am.'
'I realize I have to be punished. I know that no matter how much time I do, it's not going to bring my daughter back.'
Neithercut was not impressed with Finley's letter and said she 'tried to shift some of the blame' to Simon.
Genesee Circuit Judge Geoffrey L Neithercut (pictured on Wednesday) did not hold back as he delivered the sentences on Wednesday, calling the parents 'selfish'
'You could have stopped what happened,' he said. 'Then I find out you had the audacity to collect welfare for more than a year after this child's death.'
'What a fraud on this town.'
Simon asked for forgiveness in his letter, adding: 'I want to apologize to everyone that this situation affected'.
Neithercut called Simon's 'participation' in the murder 'selfish and cruel and sad'.
Both Finley and Simon will be eligible for parole in 15 years or less.
Kimora's two brothers are now living with a foster family that plans to permanently adopt them.
A Republican lawmaker threw himself into his prior job as an auctioneer to drown out a protester who accused Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey of trying to help Democrats 'steal' the election.
Missouri Rep. Billy Long's high-speed counter-protest came after a woman stood up while holding her cell phone and began yelling during a House committee hearing with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
Dorsey's second congressional appearance of the day was interrupted by a woman in a blue dress.
Republican Rep. Billy Long from Missouri drowned out a protester by doing an auction routine
She accused the Twitter CEO of helping Democrats 'steal' the election a possible reference to complaints voiced by President Trump and other conservatives that social media are silencing conservative views in search results.
'Jack Dorsey is trying to influence the election to sway the election so that the democrats can steal the election,' the woman yelled, while appearing to film herself with a cell phone.
Conservative activist Laura Loomer said she was the one who got ejected after the protest.
That sent Missouri GOP Rep. Billy Long into a routine he honed as a professional auctioneer.
Conservative activist Laura Loomer interrupted a congressional hearing
Conservative activist Laura Loomer and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of InfoWars both managed to generate headlines Wednesday
'Whatd she say I cant understand her?' he asked into a microphone.
Then he began the high-speed auction.
'How about a 12 and half, 15,' he said.
Soon he was on to '50 dollar down.'
'Officer, will you escort this young lady out please,' said panel chair Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon while Long kept filling the air.
'Four and a quarter. Four and a half. We're selling the cell phone there,' quipped Long.
Long joked about selling her cell phone during his auction
He finally reached 'five and a half' meaning $550, before saying, 'I yield back.' At that point, the crowd of attendees burst into laughter.
'Somehow I think our auctioneer in residence is going to get tweeted about today,' said Walden.
Loomer wrote on her Twitter account that Dorsey 'lied under oath when he said he doesnt shadow ban or censor Conservatives.'
She added: 'Today I spoke for the SILENT MAJORITY.'
Earlier, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter boss Jack Dorsey become the latest tech executives to get a grilling from Congress over foreign manipulation Tuesday, where angry Republicans also probe them on President Donald Trump's charges of bias.
The pair appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee as Russian election meddling continues to loom over Congress with the mid-terms just two months away and the value of both company stocks took an immediate dive.
Twitter's stock plunged 6 per cent during Dorsey's testimony. By early afternoon, it was off 5 per cent.
Early in the hearing, panel vice chair Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said regulation is in the cards.
'Congress is going to have to take action here,' said Warner, who was a telecomm investor before he came to Congress. 'The era of the Wild West in social media is coming to an end,' he said.
Sworn in: Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's COO and second-most senior executive, and Jack Dorsey, Twitter's CEO and co-founder, take the oath before being questioned by senators on the Intelligence Committee
Facebook's stock was down nearly 2 per cent at the start of the hearing.
Some lawmakers immediately took shots at another tech giant, Google, who wasn't there. The firm, the subject of recent complaints by Trump about supposed anti-conservative bias in search programs was represented by an empty chair next to its tech competitors.
Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio said executives 'don't want to be here to answer these questions,' then posited: 'Maybe because they're arrogant.'
Google's parent company Alphabet was also down almost 2 per cent.
President Trump warned last week the firms were 'treading on very, very troubled territory and they have to be careful.'
Twitter shares were down 6 per cent in trading during Dorsey's testimony, CNBC reported.
Trump has called Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe a 'witch hunt,' but the intelligence community has concluded that the Kremlin orchestrated efforts to manipulate social media platforms to try to sway the electorate and sow divisions.
The firms said shoring up defenses for their platforms was a 'national security priority.'
Sandberg compared the effort to stay ahead of would-be manipulators overseas to an arms race.
'We are more determined than our opponents and we will keep fighting,' she said.
Senators wanted Larry Page, the chief executive officer of Google's parent company Alphabet, to testify. The company instead offered Google's senior vice president for global affairs and chief legal officer Kent Walker, who lawmakers said was not senior enough to answer their questions.
Senators left an empty chair for Google after the company declined to send an executive the lawmakers deemed senior enough to testify
Testifying: Jack Dorsey and Sherly Sandberg are testifying on election interference and their preparations for the mid-terms with less than two months until voting
Big event: The Senate committee room was packed for the evidence from the Facebook and Twitter leaders
Making his point: Alex Jones of Infowars held an impromptu press conference outside the committee hearing where Sheryl Sandberg and Jack Dorsey were being quizzed on Facebook and Twitter's election security
Banned: Alex Jones of Infowars, who has been kicked off Twitter, was in the audience for the hearing and had interrupted a live CNBC broadcast just beforehand
Walker said he will be submitting written testimony to the committee and will be in Washington to brief lawmakers on Google's efforts to combat possible foreign influence operations.
Trump has upped his criticism of social media firms, accusing them of interfering in both the 2016 and 2018 elections.
'I think they already have,' he told the Daily Caller in an interview published Wednesday.
He then switched to 2016, where special counsel Robert Mueller has been probing Russian interference to harm Democrat Hillary Clinton and boost Trump.
'I mean the true interference in the last election was that if you look at all, virtually all of those companies are super liberal companies in favor of Hillary Clinton,' Trump said.
He continued, without providing any concrete evidence: 'Maybe I did a better job because I'm good with the Twitter and I'm good at social media, but the truth is they were all on Hillary Clinton's side, and if you look at what was going on with Facebook and with Google and all of it, they were very much on her side,' Trump said.
The execs are defending their companies against lawmakers who say they aren't doing enough combat continuing foreign efforts to influence American politics.
Sandberg, who will testify alongside Dorsey, will acknowledge to the Senate Intelligence Committee that the company was too slow to respond to Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election and American society, but insist it is doing better.
'That's on us,' she wrote in prepared testimony released by Facebook. 'This interference was completely unacceptable. It violated the values of our company and of the country we love.'
Sandberg says the platform is 'now blocking millions of attempts to register false accounts each and every day' and is 'making progress on fake news.'
'As these past few weeks and months have shown, this work is starting to pay off.'
She said the accounts are taken down if they are foreign or domestic.
Dorsey, who broke with tradition and did not wear a tie to testify, said Twitter is identify 8 to 10 million suspicious accounts every week.
Dorsey, in prepared testimony for a House committee, pushes back on the allegations of bias.
'Let me be clear about one important and foundational fact: Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules,' he plans to say.
'We believe strongly in being impartial, and we strive to enforce our rules impartially. We do not shadowban anyone based on political ideology. In fact, from a simple business perspective and to serve the public conversation, Twitter is incentivized to keep all voices on the platform,' he will tell the Energy and Commerce Committee.
'We've removed hundreds of pages and accounts involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior - meaning they misled others about who they were and what they were doing,' Sandberg said in written testimony released on Tuesday.
Warner said questions remain on where the tech companies will go moving forward and that will likely require Congressional action.
'Each of you have come a long way with respect to recognizing the threat,' he said. 'The bad news, I'm afraid, is that there is a lot of work still to do. And I'm skeptical that, ultimately, you'll be able to truly address this challenge on your own. Congress is going to have to take action here.'
'The era of the Wild West in social media is coming to an end,' he said. 'Where we go from here is an open question.'
'I mean the true interference in the last election was that if you look at all, virtually all of those companies are super liberal companies in favor of Hillary Clinton,' President Trump told the Daily Caller, diminishing conclusions of Russian interference
Facebook, Twitter 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.
Their executives have traveled to Washington several times to testify in Congress, including 10 hours of questioning of Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg over two days in April.
The Senate Intelligence Committee has been looking into Russian efforts to influence U.S. public opinion throughout Trump's presidency, after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that entities backed by the Kremlin had sought to boost his chances of winning the White House in 2016.
Moscow denies involvement, and Trump - backed by some of his fellow Republicans in Congress - has repeatedly dismissed investigations of the issue as a partisan witch hunt or hoax.
Some Republicans have also charged social media companies with bias against Trump and other conservatives.
Twitter's Dorsey was to follow his Senate testimony on Wednesday morning with an appearance at an afternoon hearing looking at that issue in the House of Representatives.
Here to reassure: Jack Dorsey and Sheryl Sandberg are trying to convince senators on the Intelligence Committee that their social networks are ready for the midterms
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg acknowledged the company was too slow to respond to Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election
Dorsey will tell the House Energy and Commerce Committee that Twitter 'does not use political ideology to make any decisions,' according to written testimony also made public on Tuesday.
Trump faulted Twitter on July 26, without citing any evidence, for limiting the visibility of prominent Republicans through a practice known as shadow banning.
Last week Trump accused Google's search engine of promoting negative news articles and hiding 'fair media' coverage of him, vowing to address the situation without providing evidence or giving details of action he might take.
Republicans control majorities in both the Senate and House, but the House's approach to the election issue has been far more partisan than in the Senate.
In the Senate, both the Republican Intelligence Committee chairman, Richard Burr, and Democratic vice chairman, Mark Warner, said they called Wednesday's hearing to press the social media companies to do more.
Last night Russia accused Britain of tinkering with Gatwick CCTV images of the two alleged Novichok spies.
Pictures show Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov separately walking through gates at the airport.
But the images are timed at the same moment - 16:22:43.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zhakarova said: 'Either the date and the exact time were overlaid on the image, or the staff of the Russian GRU learned to walk simultaneously - but their images are captured in two different photographs.'
Last night police said the wanted men walk through customs before being faced with a number of automatic gates.
They split up to and each go down a different thin corridor at the same time.
CCTV of Ruslan Boshirov at Gatwick airport on March 2 2018. The CPS has issued European Arrest Warrants for the extradition of Boshirov and Alexander Petrov
Russian National Alexander Petrov at Gatwick airport at on March 2 2018. The CPS has issued European Arrest Warrants for the extradition of Ruslan Boshirov and Petrov in connection with the Novichok poisoning attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March
At arrivals at Gatwick Airport you leave the plane before heading to passport control and then move to collect your bags at the carousels.
You then go through the section of the airport where you have to declare items.
After walking through this and prior coming into the main part of the airport to get your taxi, pick up your car or get a train, you are faced with a number of thin gate corridors.
Tourists walking through the green lane at 'Nothing to declare'. After this comes a series of three or four automatic gates
Frequent flyers will know you can't go through the gates together and rather than queuing up in single file you split up and go through different segments.
This is what Petrov and Boshirov do and why the time is exactly the same.
The pictures released by the Metropolitan Police were being mocked on Russian social media.
One said: 'Yes, the corridors (at Gatwick Airport) are different.
'These are corridors at border control.
'But what an amazing synchronization of the GRU's staff.'
'Don't worry it happens - people will swallow such 'evidence',' said a social media comment mocking Britain over the pictures.
Meanwhile, a. top Moscow politician tonight denied Theresa May's claim that Vladimir Putin's GRU military intelligence agency was behind the novichok poisoning.
Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the Russian parliament's international relations committee, described the claim as 'absolute nonsense'.
Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are wanted by British authorities for the Salisbury nerve agent attack in March this year
'Britain is continuing a large-scale anti-Russian provocation,' he said.
'It is announced that they allegedly are GRU officers.
'This is an absolute nonsense.
'Any family names could have been made up and any photos could have been provided with the same result.
CCTV images of Petrov and Boshirov the day before the attack at the train station
Novichok poisoning suspects Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are shown on CCTV on Fisherton Road, Salisbury at 1:05pm on 04 March 2018
'Once again there is no real evidence of Russia's involvement, only ungrounded accusations.
'Just like there is no reply to Russia's multiple inquiries about providing information on the course of investigation.
'But that doesn't stop the UK's PM who demands more sanctions against Russia.'
London - with support from Washington - is seeking to justify 'launching a huge international scandal out of nowhere'.
Julie Bishop spoke at a Women's Weekly event in Sydney on Wednesday night where she slammed the 'appalling behaviour' of her colleagues. She is pictured at the event with partner David Panton
Julie Bishop has launched a scathing attack on the 'embarrassing circus' of federal parliament amid claims of bullying and intimidation in the wake of the Liberal Party's bitter leadership coup.
Ms Bishop spoke at an Australian Women's Weekly event in Sydney on Wednesday where she slammed the 'appalling behaviour' of her colleagues in Canberra.
'I have seen and witnessed and experienced some appalling behaviour in parliament, the kind of behaviour that 20 years ago when I was managing partner of a law firm of 200 employees I would never have accepted,' the former deputy Liberal leader said.
Ms Bishop described the 'circus' in the nation's capital and said politicians showed contempt for each other and were 'applauded' for it.
Liberal MP Julia Banks and Liberal Senator Lucy Gichuhi both claim they were subjected to bullying and intimidation from male colleagues during last month's leadership spill.
Julie Bishop (pictured with Elyse Knowles last week) slammed the 'embarrassing circus' of federal parliament in the wake of the Liberal Party's bitter leadership coup
'I have seen and witnessed and experienced some appalling behaviour in parliament,' Ms Bishop said on Wednesday night
The behaviour prompted Ms Banks to quit parliament, and Ms Bishop questioned why her party had trouble attracting and retaining women.
'When a feisty, amazing woman like Julia Banks says this environment is not for me, don't say ''toughen up princess'', say ''enough is enough'',' she said.
Ms Bishop's replacement as Liberal deputy leader, Josh Frydenberg, wholeheartedly agrees with her remarks.
Mr Frydenberg acknowledged the atmosphere inside Parliament House was often too confrontational, stretching relationships and creating tensions.
Liberal MP Julia Banks (right) and Liberal Senator Lucy Gichuhi (left) both claim they were subjected to bullying and intimidation from male colleagues during the leadership spill
Ms Bishop's replacement as Liberal deputy leader, Josh Frydenberg (left with Scott Morrison), wholeheartedly agrees with Ms Bishop's remarks
'It's not good enough, is it,' he told ABC radio on Thursday.
'That is something we all need to be very conscious of and to mitigate against.'
Mr Frydenberg said his party needed to get more women into safe seats and around the cabinet table.
Aghast silence fell on the Commons as the Prime Minister detailed the movements of two suspected Russian military assassins who loped down to Salisbury in March. Look in your diaries. It was the weekend of the late-winter snows. Beasts from the East.
The House stilled as Theresa May made a Statement laying bare the itinerary of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, names our police believe to be aliases. Detectives had traced where those men stayed in East London traces of poison were found in a room at their hotel and which Underground lines they used to reach Waterloo station at approximately 8.05am on Sunday March 4 before catching a train to Salisbury.
An early Sunday morning. In Englands cathedral shires, congregations were sinking to their knees for the start of Cranmerian communion. At Waterloo railway terminus two Russian thugs may have fingered a phial of fatal nerve agent, their thoughts black with intent.
Jeremy Corbyn, pictured, was a classless piece of work yesterday in his response to Theresa May's statement on the Salisbury attack by Russian assassins in March
Theresa May's speech was all the more chilling for her pared-back vocal delivery
Mrs Mays speech was all the more chilling for her pared-back vocal delivery. Reconstruction of those movements somehow lent fresh menace to the alleged mission. Not that it succeeded.
As Bill Wiggin (Con, N Herefordshire) pointed out, the suspects failed to kill the Skripals, although poor Dawn Sturgess would die. Mrs May read the charge sheet: conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, use and possession of novichok, causing grievous bodily harm. Humdrum GBH brought a touch of bathos to this international crisis.
We were right to say in March that the Russian state was responsible, said Mrs May.
Now we can go further. The Government has concluded that the two individuals named by the police are officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU.
This earned gasps from the House. Or at least most sides of it. Jeremy Corbyn and his neighbour Emily Thornberry slanted their heads with expressions of sour ennui. Mr Corbyns response to Mrs May was a classless piece of work: grudging, equivocal, snippy, approaching only the minimum of decency.
He conceded the attack was an outrage and that there had been a superhuman police effort but he wanted to know what steps Mrs May and Co were taking to secure the Kremlins co-operation in bringing the suspects to trial.
Conservative MPs gave him the bird for this. Get real! shouted one. It did sound as if the Labour leader still did not comprehend the Russian states likely complicity in the attack. Mr Corbyn bridled. This is a serious matter, he said, his rising voice petulant.
Tory MPs: Yes it is!
Miss Thornberry shook her head to show she disapproved of and put herself morally above the Tories molten anger. Later Mr Corbyn suffered a slip of the tongue when he said he wanted to condemn the police. He swiftly corrected this to commend but it was an eye-rolling moment. Boris Johnson (Con, Uxbridge & S Ruislip) was the first backbencher to be given the floor. He deplored Mr Corbyns somewhat weaselly language.
Later Corbyn critic Chris Leslie (Lab, Nottingham E) urged Mrs May to ignore the cranks and the ideological extremists who sided with Russia to sow mistrust in our security professionals.
Richard Benyon (Con, Newbury) spoke of the Kremlin having fellow travellers and useful idiots in the West. Several Labour MPs had chosen to stay away from the Chamber, perhaps not wishing to have to endure another of Mr Corbyns unpatriotic performances on the Salisbury attack. Towards the end, even his frontbench was pretty empty.
Ian Blackford, leader of the SNP, found a more certain tone of gravity than his Labour counterpart. Dominic Grieve (Con, Beaconsfield) described the Russian state as a gangster organisation and hoped we would make it harder for Russians to enter our country.
We must unreservedly condemn Russia, said Yvette Cooper (Lab, Normanton) something Mr Corbyn had omitted to do.
Chris Bryant had no doubt Vladimir Putin himself personally was at the end of the bloody trail. Extraordinary times.
A Mexican man charged with murdering Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts was known for years on the dairy farm where he worked by another name: John Budd.
The alias has emerged as Cristhian Bahena Rivera's employer, a cattle operation owned by a prominent Republican family, faces questions over whether its managers were aware of any warning signs that he was in the country illegally.
The name under which Rivera was hired and paid for the last four years was confirmed by three people with knowledge of his employment history.
One of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Rivera's work identity as John Budd appears in official government records.
Cristhian Bahena Rivera's alias John Budd emerged as his the dairy farm where he worked in Brooklyn, Iowa faces questions of whether they knew he was in the country illegally. He is pictured above last month after being charged with Mollie Tibbetts' murder
The employer, Yarrabee Farms, declined to confirm or deny Rivera's work identity.
Lori Chesser, an immigration employment lawyer advising the farm, said that companies cannot discriminate against workers based on how they look or how their names sound.
Farm officials have said Rivera presented an out-of-state photo identification and a Social Security number when he was hired in 2014, and they believed he was the person depicted in those documents until his arrest last month.
The farm followed legal requirements to examine the documents and determined 'that they appeared genuine on their face and related to the person presenting them,' Chesser said.
'Questioning a name or other characteristic would violate the anti-discrimination provisions of the law.'
During his four years at the farm near Brooklyn, Iowa, Rivera 'was called and responded to the name he used in the hiring process,' Chesser said. He lived in a trailer owned by the farm as a benefit of his employment, as do about half of its 10 workers.
The farm did not use the government's voluntary E-Verify system, which allows companies to confirm the identity and eligibility of employees to work in the U.S.
Police say Rivera followed and confronted Tibbetts while she was out for a run on July 18 in Brooklyn, Iowa and later stabbed her to death
Yarrabee Farms declined to confirm or deny Rivera's work identity. The farm manager Dane Lang (above) has apologized for initially saying they used the government's voluntary E-Verify system to confirm his identity
Farm manager Dane Lang has apologized for a mistake in falsely claiming to have used E-Verify in an initial statement on Rivera's August 21 arrest, hours after he allegedly led police to Mollie Tibbetts' body in a nearby cornfield.
It's unclear whether E-Verify would have detected any red flags with Rivera's claimed identity, but the farm has said it used a different government service to confirm that the name and Social Security number matched.
Police say Rivera followed and confronted Tibbetts while she was out for a run on July 18 and later stabbed her to death.
He has been jailed on $5 million bond while awaiting trial on a first-degree murder charge, which carries a sentence of life in prison. The federal government has also filed an immigration detainer, which means he would be subject to deportation proceedings if acquitted.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to comment on whether the agency is investigating Yarrabee Farms, which has said that it received dozens of angry phone calls after Rivera was arrested.
Tibbetts' father, Rob Tibbetts, has urged the public not to bring his daughter's death into the divisive racial debate over immigration.
'The person who is accused of taking Mollie's life is no more a reflection of the Hispanic community as white supremacists are of all white people,' he wrote in an opinion piece for the Des Moines Register.
Tibbetts' father, Rob Tibbetts, has urged the public not to bring his daughter's death into the divisive racial debate over immigration
Employers typically do not face legal consequences for hiring a worker under false documents as long as they were not involved in obtaining them and had no other obvious reason to suspect they are fraudulent, said Bob Teig, a retired federal prosecutor in Iowa.
'Absent unusual circumstances, it would be difficult to show they knew any more than what they were told,' Teig said, adding that it would be 'pretty racist' to assume a John Budd could not be Hispanic.
Whether anyone else knew Rivera as John Budd is unclear.
The 24-year-old had a Facebook page under his real name, and his account listed many friends from the central Iowa area. He has a girlfriend and a young daughter, his former attorney has said.
Rivera had neither an Iowa-issued identification under any name nor any known criminal history or interactions with police. It's unclear who owned the car that he allegedly used to circle Tibbetts.
Rivera's former defense lawyer, Allan Richards, has accused the farm and other employers in the area of turning a 'blind eye' to the reality that many of their workers are in the U.S. illegally and employed under false documents. He has said that Rivera came to the U.S. when he was around 17 and has the equivalent of a middle-school education.
Erica Johnson, an advocate who directs the American Friends Service Committee's immigration program in Iowa, said the case highlights the 'precarious position' that immigrant workers and their employers face.
'We have an immigration system that doesn't account for the labor needs or economic realities of Iowa businesses and farms,' she said. 'So what do you do? Do you rightly not racially profile people and take the information they give you because you need workers?'
A real estate broker from Southern California and his girlfriend got drunk, ordered an Uber, pulled the drivers hair and ears causing her to pull over and flee the car, and then drove away, authorities are alleging.
Marin County Sheriffs Office arrested Tyson Rocco Pelanconi, 53, of Burbank and Brenda Carlier, 44, a woman from Van Nuys late Sunday night.
They traveled to Northern California and were staying at a hotel in San Francisco, according to the Marin Independent Journal.
According to authorities, the two got drunk while traveling in Sausalito, the town which is just over the Golden Gate Bridge.
Marin County Sheriffs Office arrested Tyson Rocco Pelanconi (left), 53, of Burbank and Brenda Carlier (right), 44, a woman from Van Nuys late Sunday night
Pelanconi (pictured above) is a real estate broker from Burbank, California
They then hired an Uber driver who picked them up.
During the ride, Carlier is alleged to have attacked the driver.
After the driver had her hair and ears pulled, she pulled the car over, grabbed her purse, and fled on foot, authorities say.
Pelanconi then got behind the wheel and drove away, it has been alleged.
Marin County Sheriffs deputies and San Francisco police tracked down the suspects at the W hotel on Third Street.
The Uber driver then identified the couple to police.
They have been confined to a jail cell in Marin County and were placed on bail at $150,000 each.
More Americans have left Catholicism behind than any other religion in the U.S., according to a new report.
About 13 percent of American adults are former Catholics people who were raised in the faith but now say they have no religion, or converted to Protestantism or other beliefs, according to a survey by Pew Research Center.
At the other end of the spectrum, 2 percent of U.S. adults report converting to Catholicism.
Pope Francis greets the faithful in Saint Peter's Square in Vatican City in September 2018
Overall, there are 6.5 former Catholics for every convert to the religion in the U.S. a far higher ratio of losses than any other religion in the country, researchers found.
'It never connected with me,' said Oakdale, New York resident Aria Dapree, of leaving Catholicism. 'My mother actually taught religion in the house when I was young. It was weird stories. Jonah (and the whale), the Ark, all kinds of weird fantasy stories.'
The 62-year-old said 'inclusion' was the biggest reason she left the church, particularly Catholic opposition to homosexuality and the whole spectrum of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
'Love thy neighbour? Well there's all kinds of neighbors,' Dapree said.
That attitude and the 'culture wars' over sex before marriage and other choices that conflict with Catholicism is a common reason people fall away from the church, said Dennis M. Doyle, a Catholic theologian and professor of religious studies at the University of Dayton.
'The secular world kind of grinds down the nature of religiousness and then with the culture wars a lot of outward manifestations of religion seem to appear more extreme,' he said.
'These have been very difficult issues for centuries in the Catholic Church,' he added. 'I don't think we (as Catholics) need to flip over and say, "Everything goes and let's reopen the bath houses for everybody," but I don't think it's as easy as "what we always thought is true."'
Many practicing American Catholics have beliefs that conflict with the Catholic Church
The American Catholic Church has more than 17,000 parishes across the country, with roughly 51 million adults or one-fifth of the U.S. population counting themselves as believers.
Catholics are spread across the country, with 27 percent living in the South, 26 percent in the Northeast, 26 percent in the West and 21 percent in the Midwest, according to Pew.
Even believers don't think everything is perfect, with 60 percent of Catholics saying they think the church should allow priests to marry and women to become priests.
In addition, nearly half of American Catholics believe that the church should recognize and accept gay marriage.
For some American Catholics, sex abuse scandals and the cover-ups that ensued may have been enough to drive them away, Doyle said, though it's unclear how many have left the church for that reason.
A bigger issue, Doyle said, has been a large cultural shift in which churches are no longer the primary social opportunity and glue for Americans.
'If you go back to the late 19th and the first half of the 20th century, Catholics were immigrants and they were the poor and there were great numbers of them, and they were mostly in the cities and they had this subculture that held them together,' he said.
Faithful pray during Sunday Mass at a Polish Catholic Church in Hamtramck, Michigan in 2016
'As Catholics became more educated and affluent overall, and as they become more oriented to the suburbs and less this great sociological mass in the cities, there's been a lot of social changes taking place,' Doyle added.
Another contributing factor has been the decreased enrolment in Catholic schools, said Sister Katarina Schuth, a professor emerita of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.
'Those who do attend elementary and secondary are much more likely to stay in the church because they know more about the church,' she said.
The 'rise of science' has also increasingly become the place where young Americans go for answers instead of the church, Schuth said.
She often speaks publicly about efforts to draw young people back into the church something Schuth insists must be done in a respectful manner.
'Integrity is number one,' Schuth said. 'Just being open and listening to people, young people especially ... You don't have to be talking at them all the time.'
President Donald Trump is ordering a real witch hunt - this one in the corridors of the West Wing in the wake of Bob Woodward's new book 'Fear' and a scandalous, anonymous op-ed on his administration appearing in the New York Times.
He is asking loyal aides to discover who leaked private White House conversations to The Washington Post reporter, CNN reported, but it it likely that will be expanded to attempt to uncover what 'senior official in the Trump administration' wrote in The Times about the efforts from within to thwart the president's 'worst inclinations.'
'Many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. I would know. I am one of them,' the official wrote in The Times.
President Trump is demanding to know who in his administration is leaking
Journalist Bob Woodward in the lobby of Trump Tower on Jan. 3, 2017
'We believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic,' the official added.
Trump wants to know who's talking.
'He wants to know who talked to Woodward,' an administration official told CNN.
He is said to suspect former national security adviser H.R. McMaster and former chief economic adviser Gary Cohn as among those who talked to The Washington Post reporter for his tome 'Fear,' which comes out Tuesday.
Several names are being thrown around as the possible anonymous writer in the New York Times piece.
Online chatter Wednesday quickly focused on Vice President Mike Pence as armchair language analysts focused on one line describing the late Sen. John McCain as 'a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue.'
That word lodestar is a favorite of the vice president. But a senior White House official told DailyMail.com that suspicion is not focused on him or anyone in his office following a frank discussion among the VP's senior staff.
The official suspects 'lodestar' was purposely included in the op-ed to throw journalists off the scent.
When it comes to negative stories involving the West Wing, the president looks at how forcefully aides respond them.
Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson never denied calling Trump a 'moron' and a former senior White House official told CNN that Trump 'never forgave him for it.'
Tillerson was fired in March.
The president also has noticed the silence from several other former administration officials when it comes to making denials about Woodward's book, which has reached the number one spot on Amazon.com.
Trump has personally slammed both Woodward's book and the 'gutless' writer of The Times' opinion piece.
The White House issued a strong response to The Times piece.
'Nearly 62 million people voted for President Donald J. Trump in 2016, earning him 306 Electoral College votes versus 232 for his opponent. None of them voted for a gutless, anonymous source to the failing New York Times. We are disappointed, but not surprised, that the paper chose to publish this pathetic, reckless, and selfish op-ed. This is a new low for the so-called 'paper of record,' and it should issue an apology,' White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.
'This is just another example of the liberal media's concerted effort to discredit the President,' she added.
She also called on the writer to resign.
'The individual behind this piece has chosen to deceive, rather than support, the duly elected President of the United States. He is not putting country first, but putting himself and his ego ahead of the will of the American people. This coward should do the right thing and resign.'
Several observers noted The Times referred to the author as 'he' in a tweet about the piece, prompting many to assume the op-ed was written by a man.
But Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokesperson for the paper, told Business Insider this was a mistake.
Woodward's book 'Fear' comes out September 11
Trump and White House officials have pushed back hard on Bob Woodward's book
'Senior opinion editors know the identity of the official, as we pointed out in our editor's note,' Ha said. 'The tweet was drafted by someone who is not aware of the author's identity, including the gender, so the use of 'he' was an error.'
Trump expressed publicly his pleasure that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis issued forceful denials on quotes attributed to them by Woodward.
'Gen. Mattis has come out very, very strongly...He was insulted by the remarks that were attributed to him,' Trump said. 'John Kelly, same thing. He was insulted by what they said. He couldn't believe what they said.'
Woodward quoted Kelly slamming Trump after he blew a fuse during a meeting.
'He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails,' Kelly said, in Woodward's telling. 'We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had.'
Kelly fired back at the claims, saying in a statement: 'The idea that I ever called the President is not true, in fact it's exactly the opposite. ... This is both a pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from his many successes.'
In another episode described in 'Fear,' Trump questioned the utility of U.S. early warning systems in Alaska to identify a nuclear attack from North Korea.
When Trump asked about it, Mattis schooled him: 'We're doing this in order to prevent World War III.'
Mattis later told colleagues Trump had the mental ability of 'a fifth- or sixth-grader,' acording to Woodward's sources.
On Tuesday he denied the account, saying: 'The contemptuous words about the President attributed to me in Woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence. While I generally enjoy reading fiction, this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility.'
Sanders said on 'Good Morning America' that Woodward's book is based on the claims of anonymous sources and disgruntled former staffers. 'This is just another repeat of pure fiction,' she said.
Woodward said he stands by his reporting.
They include Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group, Vingroup, T&T, A Chau Automobiles, Vietcombank, VinaCapital, FLC and Kim & Kim International Cafe.
Deputy PM Minh spoke highly of their contributions to WEF ASEAN 2018, the most important multilateral external event in the year.
He said the event will attract the most numerous leaders in and outside the region, international organisations and representatives from nearly 1,000 leading firms worldwide, higher than the estimated 800 and nearly doubling those in WEF forums over the past years.
He stressed that the forum will afford Vietnamese enterprises a chance to connect and share ideas with the worlds leading businesses and investors.
Within the framework of WEF ASEAN 2018, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry will hold the Vietnam Business Summit.
Themed Vietnam Reliable business partner: Connectivity and Creativity, the event is expected to draw over 1,000 delegates from domestic and foreign enterprises.
The event will focus discussion on the role of Vietnam in regional and global value chains, as well as introduce policies and business and investment opportunities in the Southeast Asian country, particularly in the fields of finance and infrastructure.
Footage shows the dramatic moment two miners were rescued from a mine lift after a malfunction trapped them 160 metres below ground.
The men were working at the Tahmoor coal mine, about 75 kilometres south-west of Sydney, when they became trapped in a lift cart at 5pm on Wednesday afternoon.
The two men were finally rescued after an exhaustive six-hour operation.
The miners were trapped in a lift cart at around 5pm on Wednesday afternoon
Just before midnight, the two men were rescued as a crane hoisted the cart out of the shaft, which a senior officer told Daily Mail Australia was stuck about halfway down.
The incident is understood to have occurred when a mechanical fault with the lift trapped the two men.
The pair were trapped about 160 metres below the ground, authorities told Daily Mail Australia, and they are reportedly uninjured.
Footage shows the dramatic moment two miners were rescued from a mine lift after a malfunction meant they were trapped below ground
Two miners have been rescued from a lift shaft in a coal mine in Tahmoor (pictured)
A Fire and Rescue NSW spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia the men were safe, able to communicate with their rescuers and had plenty of ventilation.
Four fire crews were on the scene, including specialist rescue and technical rescue units, and four senior fire officers.
The operation was overseen by NSW Police, Fire and Rescue NSW and the NSW Resources Regulator.
Theresa May last night ordered a covert war on Vladimir Putins spy network.
As chilling pictures were released of two smiling Russian agents carrying out the Salisbury poison attack, the Prime Minister said the security services would target the GRU, the military intelligence unit the pair work for.
Cyber warfare, espionage, financial sanctions and travel bans could be used, sources said. Interpol has been put on red alert to detain the two agents, who use the aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.
Russian agents Alexander Petrov, left, and Ruslan Boshirov, right, were caught on CCTV on Fisherton Road, Salisbury at 1.05pm on March 4, 2018
The Metropolitan Police has released images of the two suspected Russian agents, Alexander Petrov, left, and Ruslan Boshirov, right
Mrs May warned they would be brought to Britain for trial if they ever left Russia. She blamed the Kremlin for the novichok attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in March. And she hinted the assassination order may have come directly from Mr Putin because only he has the power in Russian law to order killings abroad.
Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee, went further by saying: President Putin bears responsibility for a war-like act.
The Russian agents are also blamed for the death of mother of three Dawn Sturgess, 44, in July. She and her partner Charlie Rowley were poisoned when they picked up an abandoned perfume bottle containing the nerve agent novichok.
Yesterdays developments follow a huge police inquiry, which tracked the movements of Petrov and Boshirov to Salisbury, where they sprayed novichok on Mr Skripals front door handle.
As the Kremlin faced condemnation from across the globe:
Britain called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council this afternoon;
Mrs May spoke to Donald Trump and Canadas Justin Trudeau to seek support for fresh action;
Speaking from his hospital bed, Mr Rowley, 45, said he wanted Petrov and Boshirov brought to justice;
Moscow media said the pair had travelled extensively across Europe;
A senior Russian diplomat was summoned to the Foreign Office for a dressing-down;
Former attorney general Dominic Grieve urged restrictions on all Russian travellers;
The Kremlin dismissed the British accusations out of hand;
Jeremy Corbyn came under fire after failing to condemn Russia in the House of Commons.
The pair are accused of the murder of Dawn Sturgess, who picked up the pair's discarded novichok container thinking it contained perfume and tried some on
Her partner Charles Rowley, pictured, managed to survive exposure to the deadly toxin
Mrs May acknowledged yesterday that it was futile to expect Russia to hand over the two assassins, not least because Russia has a constitutional bar on extradition. She savaged Moscows response to the novichok attacks, saying requests for co-operation had been met with obfuscation and lies.
MPs were told new powers were in force to stop at the border anyone suspected of hostile state activity.
Russian oligarchs linked to Mr Putin face a clampdown, including searches of private flights and investigations of unexplained wealth by the National Crime Agency.
Mrs May said retaliatory action would focus specifically against the GRU, the organisation linked to the downing of the MH17 airliner in Ukraine, attacks in Syria and election-rigging in the United States. She said it was clear the Salisbury attack was not a rogue operation and must have been approved at a senior level of the Russian state.
Bob Seely, a Tory MP and Russia expert, said the order could only have come from the Russian head of state.
The unprecedented statement from the Prime Minister came after Scotland Yard set out the results of its lengthy inquiry. After months of secrecy, the force revealed that not only had it identified the prime suspects but it had amassed enough evidence for prosecutors to bring charges.
The main target of the attack was former KGB agent Sergei Skripal, right, who was visited by his daughter Yulia, left, in March when the initial attack happened
Officers accused Petrov and and Boshirov of conspiring to murder Mr Skripal, and the attempted murder of Yulia and Det Sgt Nick Bailey.
The respected police officer was contaminated with novichok when he opened the front door of the Skripal home after its owners were found collapsed on a bench.
Investigators believe they know the identities of the two military intelligence agents but chose instead to publicise aliases used in their Russian passports.
They are asking people worldwide to contact them if they can put a name to the faces. Police obtained domestic and European arrest warrants, and lodged Interpol red notices, effectively confining the pair to their homeland.
But the Crown Prosecution Service said it would not apply for their extradition because the Russian State refuses to deport its citizens to face trial overseas.
Both men are believed to be agents for the GRU, for whom Mr Skripal was a colonel before being jailed for selling secrets to the West. He was brought to the UK in a spy swap.
The novichok was carried in this perfume atomiser
In a bid to silence the chorus of online scepticism about the case fuelled by Russian trolls, police gave a step-by-step account of the movements of the two-man hit squad. CCTV stills showed Petrov and Boshirov arriving at Gatwick and travelling through London before visiting Salisbury twice by train.
Dressed in padded jackets, hats and carrying a rucksack the men checked the scene of their mission for reconnaissance before returning the second day.
A camera caught the pair smiling and laughing within minutes of carrying out their attack. By 10.30pm that night they were boarding an Aeroflot flight to Moscow from Heathrow, just over 50 hours after first touching down.
It is understood that the 250-strong team of detectives identified the two men as suspects in May while examining more than 11,000 hours of footage.
They were able to painstakingly follow their steps, leading to the City Stay Hotel, in Bow, east London, where they spent both nights. Forensics experts discovered a minute trace of novichok in their room, a sample so small it was washed away by the testing swab.
Unveiling the dossier of evidence, assistant commissioner Neil Basu said the pair had travelled extensively in Britain and overseas.
Mr Basu, the countrys top counter-terrorism officer, branded it a remarkably sophisticated attack by people knowledgeable in this kind of tradecraft.
Mrs May also told MPs that police had ruled out the possibility that Russia was behind 14 other deaths in the UK.
Bode Miller's wife said in a heartbreaking Instagram post that her family is usually excited about the first day of school, but this year there is a 'giant hole' after her baby daughter died in an accidental drowning.
Morgan Beck took to Instagram on Wednesday to share a photo from last September of her children getting ready to head out for their first day of school. In the picture, Beck and her husband Bode Miller's late daughter Emeline Grier is sitting on the ground in front of her siblings as they smile for the camera.
In a second picture, snapped on Tuesday, the couple's three-year-old son Nash is seen crying as the picture was taken. Beck and Miller's other two children, 10-year-old Neesyn and five-year-old Samuel, stand in the background.
There's a giant hole: Bode Miller's wife shared heartbreaking photos from last year as her kids got ready for school with Emeline sitting on the ground, and this year without the baby girl
19-month-old Emeline Grier died in June from accidental drowning after slipping into her neighbor's pool
Beck said all she could focus on in the second picture is her young son's face and the 'giant hole' where her daughter was sitting last year.
'Yesterday was the first day of school for our kids. Its a day we always look forward to with excitement. But all I can see is Nashs face and the giant hole that was created between last years picture and this years picture. I can imagine thats what my face looked like, too, stepping back into our routine without our daughter. I imagine daily how different my life would be today had I had 30 more seconds,' the professional beach volleyball player wrote.
'This heartache doesnt need to belong to any other parents,' Beck added, encouraging others to help them bring awareness to accidental drowning.
Miller, an Olympic skier, and Beck's daughter Emeline died on June 10 after wandering out the backdoor undetected of their neighbor's Orange County, California home and slipping into the backyard. The 19-month-old girl was found floating in the neighbor's pool.
In an emotional Instagram post last month, Beck shared a picture of her daughter hooked up to oxygen, writing in the caption that she wishes she had one more day with her baby girl.
Morgan Beck has been sharing photos of her baby girl on Instagram and vowing to educate parents on the dangers of accidental drowning
Olympian Bode Miller is seen in this Instagram photo celebrating Emeline Grier's first birthday last year
Bode Miller and his wife Morgan Beck, who are expecting another baby, have been spreading awareness on accidental drowning
I wish I could have one more day to hold you, but until that day comes, continue to work through me and give me the strength to bring awareness, my love,' she wrote. I told you as I held you in this moment that you could still change the world, you could still move mountains. Every step we take forward is because of you and Levi. Your footprint will forever be left on this world. I love you, My baby girl.
Ever since the the couple's tragic loss, they have been raising awareness on the dangers of accidental drowning. Beck said during an appearance on the Today show that she had an obligation to educate other parents.
She said a child could drown in as little as 30 seconds.
'And the moment those 30 seconds is up, the likelihood of you getting your child back is pretty close to zero,' Beck said, who is pregnant with her third child.
'There is not a day that goes by and I don't pray for an opportunity to go back to that day and make it different. But now we have this opportunity to make other parents' days different,' Beck said, as she wept.
The Colorado man who has been accused of murdering his wife and their two young daughters had a penchant for 'rough' and 'animalistic' sex claims an alleged mistress.
The woman, whose identity has not been revealed, told Radar Online that she was romantically involved with Chris Watts in May and June of this year after the two met on Tinder.
She said that she was unaware Watts was married or had children, but got the suspicion that she was not the only person he was intimate with during their sex-fueled relationship.
Scroll down for video
Family: A woman who alleges she was the mistress of Chris Watts (above with the three women he is accused of murdering) is speaking out in an interview with Radar Online
'He would put his hands on my throat during intercourse. Now that I know who he is, it gives me the chills! I cant even think about it,' said the woman.
'But nothing about him alarmed me until he tried to choke me. That freaked me out. He had a rape fantasy. He was very kinky.'
She went on to state: 'When we had sex, it was very animalistic. He just zoned out into a different person.
'He wasnt the kind of guy who would cuddle and watch a movie.'
Watts, 33, would visit the woman near her home, which was 30 miles away from the house he shared with wife Shannan and their daughters in Frederick.
He is behind bars now after confessing to the murder of Shannan last month, claiming that he killed his wife when he discovered she had strangled their daughters.
Despite that claim, Watts has been charged with three counts of murder in the first degree as well as charges for the disposal of those bodies and the loss of the son his pregnant wife was carrying at the time of her death.
He has yet to enter a plea in the case and the autopsies on the victims have yet to be released at this time.
In addition to his mistress, Watts was also having an affair with a co-worker and allegedly enjoyed the company of both men and women.
He is now in near-solitary confinement while awaiting his next court appearance in November, spending 23 hours of the day alone in a room while under suicide watch a source with knowledge of the situation told DailyMail.com.
Watts is behind bars now after confessing to the murder of Shannan last month, claiming that he killed his wife when he discovered she had strangled their daughters. He is pictured in court last month
'Before I begin, I would like to note to everyone that I am only making a statement in order to clarify the details in order to prevent further stress or harm from rumours or allegations to/against innocent parties. It is important to not over glorify or sensationalise the actions of any individual who comes forward with evidence in a sexual assault case because it is the basic thing one should do.
'I can confirm that the text messages are indeed between Asia Argento and myself. When I reported them to police I remained silent socially because I didnt wish to be a part of the narrative or distract from the path to justice. While the conflict may feel murky- the situation is cut and dry. An individual admitted to sexual engagement with a minor (according to the age stated by California) which is an illegal act that can qualify as statutory rape. As well as such they admitted to receiving continued nude images without reporting/blocking the account/written rejection/or action. When the individual made it clear that they were not going to be honest about their engagement, I turned in materials that may contribute towards an honest investigation.
'All victims deserve justice. Justice can rarely exist without honesty. In a sexual assault case it is important to support and believe the victim- while also allowing for due process. I believe all beings accused of a crime have the right to prove their innocence. For many victims of sexual assault their justice may never come in the court of law due to lack of evidence or time passage. Its heartbreaking and cruel. However, I still fully believe in the allowance and balance of both ethos. Support and believe- allow due process. That is why when Asia Argento asked for assistance during this case declaring full innocence, I systemically took them through the list of things they would need to clear their name. Proof that they didnt pay off this individual, proof that they didnt approve any payments if they had occurred, proof that they had indeed been harassed and rejected all sexual sexual advances through action or verbally, proof that they hadnt engaged sexually via an alibi, and a few more.
'Occasionally in the past individuals have come to me knowing that they were guilty, they admitted the guilt off the bat, and my space in their life has been guiding them through the rehabilitation process with the community and shifting their negative actions into proactive ones so that they can be productive members of the community again while justice also prevails. The key to agreement to assist is that they have the intention to do whats necessary to rectify a situation. Unfortunately Asia did not have that intention. This is a person who represents a certain ideal and who has called out for all those accused of sexual assault to be honest about their experiences in order to allow justice for the victims. However when the NYT statement came out, in which Asia denied any sexual engagement thats when it became clear that they were not going to follow their own ethics. I had received the original statement from Asia before they put it out into the world, before they had admitted their sexual engagement. In it they were dismissive of the victim, put down the integrity of the reporter Kim Severson utilising the guilt power of the opinion of their deceased former partner Anthony Bourdain, and robbed all parties of their truth. It was painful to read. I had hoped that that narrative would change after our conversation but unfortunately the piece went straight to press.
'Before bringing this information to police I did speak with Rose McGowan as they are the person who introduced me to Asia. I was admittedly a little nervous because I knew that Asia was an important person in Roses life. When confronted with the messages and knowledge that I was going to go to the police, Rose immediately agreed that it was the right action to take. No begging or bargaining. No anger. Just very matter of fact. I know this is a painful loss of community in Roses life and Im proud of her dedication to the truth. Its tempting to many to cover for their loved ones during rough times, but when a victim is involved on the other end we must think of them. True justice has no bias.
'I would also like to address allegations that Jimmy Bennet extorted Asia Argento by saying simply- keep both actions separate. They are two different accusations and all victims of a crime deserve justice. All guilty parties must be honest. I would also like to state that the case between HW and Asia Argento is separate from Jimmy Bennets case and that Asia deserves the same respect in that case that Jimmy should receive in this one. Their choice to lie to the NYT does not mean that they are lying about HW. Their accounts for that case should be held separately and fairly. I believe that most beings have the power to change. Asia has contributed a strong voice to the #MeToo movement and encouraged many in their nation as well as around the globe to come forward with their truths. Perhaps, despite where public opinion may be over time, through honesty, dialogue and rehabilitation this person can become a strong advocate for justice once again. Especially uniquely as a person who is experiencing both sides of the coin.
'We can not let this single case crumble the power and momentum of a movement that has saved so many. Just because a person is a celebrity or more visible does not make them THE VOICE or a MORE IMPORTANT voice than any other being that has been a part of #MeToo. All are equal and their struggles equally valid- we must remember that. Until then, let truth shine its light so we can see the way to a solution. Keep that light on patiently.'
Advertisement
This is the moment scientists took cell samples from a 40,000-year-old extinct baby horse in a bid to clone the species back to life.
The Russian-South Korean team claim the experiment on the male foal is the 'first step' in restoring the long-gone woolly mammoth, their ultimate goal.
Laboratory pictures from Yakutsk the world's coldest city show the search for 'living cells' on the light ginger-coloured carcass frozen in permafrost for between 30,000 and 40,000 years.
The foal was discovered in the frozen subsoil of a Siberian crater known as the 'Mouth of Hell' and was around 20 days old when it died.
Close-up images highlight the extraordinary life-like preservation in the planet's natural freezer.
Scroll down for video
This is the moment scientists took cell samples from an extinct baby horse up to 40,000 years old in a bid to clone the species back to life. The Russian-South Korean team claim the experiment on the male foal is a 'first step' in restoring the long-gone woolly mammoth, their ultimate goal
Tens of thousands of years of dirt was washed off the young foal, revealing a black mane and tail with a dark stripe along the spine.
'Fortunately, the animal's muscle tissues were undamaged and well preserved, so we managed to get samples from this unique find for biotechnology research', said Dr Semyon Grigoriev, leading researcher at Russia's mammoth Museum.
Cloning specialist Professor Hwang Woo Suk flew in from Seoul to spearhead the search for living DNA material from the foal.
'If we manage to find a cell, then we will do our best to clone the unique animal,' he said.
A mare of a horse species similar to the extinct Lenskaya breed will be used as a surrogate, he told The Siberian Times.
Laboratory pictures from Yakutsk the world's coldest city show the search for 'living cells' on the light ginger-coloured carcass frozen in permafrost for between 30,000 and 40,000 years
The foal was discovered in the frozen subsoil of a Siberian crater known as the 'Mouth of Hell' and was around 20 days old when it died
Close-up images highlight the extraordinary life-like preservation in the planet's natural freezer. Tens of thousands of years of dirt was washed off the young foal, revealing a black mane and tail with a dark stripe along the spine
Cloning specialist Professor Hwang Woo Suk flew in from Seoul to spearhead the search for living DNA material from the foal
Scientists will use horses (pictured) that are similar to the extinct Lenskaya breed. It could be the first step in working out how to restore the long-gone woolly mammoth
Plans for a'world class' research centre in the city of Yakutsk are set to be unveiled later this month when Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts a major investment forum
Similarly, when the scientists are ready to clone a mammoth an elephant will be used as a surrogate.
But the professor said there was far more similarity between the foal and a modern-day horse than between a mammoth and an elephant.
'We have so many live horses. We can get a very good choice of eggs from these female horses', he said.
'And after making the cloned embryo with this baby horse, we can easily transport it to the surrogate mother.
'There are the types of horses that are very close to the ancient one.'
In contrast, he said there is a very big distance between the ancient mammoth and the elephant.
A mare of a horse species similar to the extinct Lenskaya breed will be used as a surrogate. Similarly, when the scientists are ready to clone a mammoth an elephant will be used as a surrogate
'We have so many live horses (pictured). We can get a very good choice of eggs from these female horses', said Dr Semyon Grigoriev, leading researcher at Russia's mammoth Museum
But the professor said there was far more similarity between the foal (pictured) and a modern-day horse than between a mammoth and an elephant
In contrast, he said there is a very big distance between the ancient mammoth and the elephant. With the foal, 'if we have one live cell, we can multiply it and get as many embryo as we need
Yakutsk, the capital of Russia's diamond-rich Sakha Republic, is a hot spot for frozen animal remains. At the end of last month it was revealed Russia is opening a brand-new 4.5 million ($5.9 million) cloning facility that aims to bring back the woolly mammoth and other long-extinct species
'There was 'a million years of evolution between them', he said.
With the foal, 'if we have one live cell, we can multiply it and get as many embryo as we need.
'Actually if we get the living cell from the ancient tissue it will be unique by itself, because no-one managed to do this before.
'And if we manage to clone the horse - it will be the first step to cloning the mammoth. It will help us to work out the technology', he said.
His researcher Hae Hyun Kim who pioneered obtaining a living cell from a dead pet dog frozen by its owner has relocated to Yakutsk to try and make the breakthrough.
Yakutsk, the capital of Russia's diamond-rich Sakha Republic, is a hot spot for frozen animal remains.
At the end of last month it was revealed Russia is opening a brand-new 4.5 million ($5.9 million) cloning facility that aims to bring back the woolly mammoth and other long-extinct species.
Plans for the 'world class' research centre in the city of Yakutsk will purportedly be unveiled later this month by Russian PresidentVladimir Putin during a major investment forum.
As well as woolly mammoths, Russian geneticists are set to study a number of extinct species, including the woolly rhinoceros, which died out 10,000 years ago.
Plans for the 'world class' research centre in the city of Yakutsk will purportedly be unveiled later this month by Russian President Vladimir Putin during a major investment forum. Pictured is the foal
As well as woolly mammoths, Russian geneticists are set to study a number of extinct species, including the woolly rhinoceros, which died out 10,000 years ago
Scientists have long poised that woolly mammoth DNA preserved for thousands of years in Arctic permafrost could be used to clone one of the animals, and bring them back from extinction. Russia is planning to open a new genetics facility to explore ancient DNA
COULD WE RESURRECT MAMMOTHS? Male woolly mammoths were around 12 feet (3.5m) tall, while the females were slightly smaller. They had curved tusks up to 16 feet (5m) long and their underbellies boasted a coat of shaggy hair up to 3 feet (1m) long. Tiny ears and short tails prevented vital body heat being lost. Their trunks had 'two fingers' at the end to help them pluck grass, twigs and other vegetation. They get their name from the Russian 'mammut', or earth mole, as it was believed the animals lived underground and died on contact with light explaining why they were always found dead and half-buried. Their bones were once believed to have belonged to extinct races of giants. Woolly mammoths and modern-day elephants are closely related, sharing 99.4 per cent of their genes. The two species took separate evolutionary paths six million years ago, at about the same time humans and chimpanzees went their own way. Woolly mammoths co-existed with early humans, who hunted them for food and used their bones and tusks for making weapons and art. The most widely used technique, known as CRISPR/Cas9, allows scientists to create a hybrid animal from the preserved fossils of woolly mammoths and merging it with cells from a living elephant. The two species share 99.4 per cent of their DNA 'De-extincting' the mammoth has become a realistic prospect because of revolutionary gene editing techniques that allow the precise selection and insertion of DNA from specimens frozen over millennia in Siberian ice. The most widely used technique, known as CRISPR/Cas9, has transformed genetic engineering since it was first demonstrated in 2012. The system allows the 'cut and paste' manipulation of strands of DNA with a precision not seen before. Using this technique, scientists could cut and paste preserved mammoth DNA into Asian elephants to create and elephant-mammoth hybrid. Mammoths roamed the icy tundra of Europe and North America for 140,000 years, disappearing at the end of the Pleistocene period, 10,000 years ago. They are one of the best understood prehistoric animals known to science because their remains are often not fossilised but frozen and preserved. Advertisement
As many as 80 per cent of samples of Pleistocene and Holocene animals with preserved soft tissues discovered in Russia have been unearthed in the Yakutsk region.
It is hoped that by extracting DNA from these preserved remains, researchers will gain a better understanding of the biology behind some of the largest creatures to ever roam the Earth.
Woolly mammoths co-existed with early humans, who hunted the animal to use its bones and tusks for tools, shelter, as well as food.
The animal, which could weigh a maximum of 6000kg (6 metric tons), disappeared from its mainland range at the end of the Pleistocene era, around 10,000 years ago.
The new facility, in the city of Yakutsk, will study the preserved DNA of several extinct species, including the woolly rhinoceros (artist's impression), which died out around 10,000 years ago
However, isolated populations of the animal are believed to have survived on St. Paul Island, in Alaska until 5,600 years ago and on Wrangel Island, in Russia, until as recently as 4,000 years ago.
Woolly mammoths are believed to have been wiped out because of a shrinking habitat caused by climate change, as well as hunting by humans, experts say.
Several international projects, including a team at Harvard University, are already racing to use preserved mammoth DNA to resurrect the ancient species.
The new Russian centre will 'aim to study extinct animals from living cells and to restore such creatures as the woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, cave lion and breeds of long-gone horses', according to the The Siberian Times.
Humanity's next gold rush could take place aboard asteroids sailing around Earth.
That's according to a team of British scientists, who have devised a technique to redirect passing space rocks toward our planet to make them easier to mine.
Experts believe asteroids, which are rich in precious metals like platinum and gold, could hold wealth equivalent to 75 billion ($100 billion) for every person on Earth.
The objects can be positioned in stable trajectories around Earth using rockets to nudge them into our planet's gravitational pull, the new study suggests.
Once safely slotted into orbit, small, unmanned spacecraft could mine the rocks for metals, minerals and water, scientists said.
The research follows the news this week that the United States Geological Survey was mapping space for future extraterrestrial mining missions.
The government agency, which has spent decades mapping oil fields and gold mines across North America, said it was investing heavily in research into the locations and extent of extraterrestrial resources.
Scroll down for video
Several start-ups have begun to explore the idea of mining near-Earth asteroids for precious resources. One such company - California-based Deep Space Industries - envisions swarms of small mining craft flying out to draw resources from near-Earth asteroids (artist's impression)
In the new study, scientists at the University of Glasgow suggest using a method known as 'aerobraking' to capture asteroids.
The manoeuvre involves using the atmosphere of a planet as drag to slow objects down.
It has helped place interplanetary spacecraft in orbit around Mars and Venus, and to slow down spacecraft returning to Earth.
The team said the technique could be used to decelerate near-Earth asteroids pushed toward our planet by a small spacecraft.
This spacecraft could remain attached to the asteroid on its journey in case any sudden course-corrections are needed.
If done from a safe enough distance, the feat would require little fuel, as just a small push would be enough to change a rock's trajectory.
Pictured are the trajectories of all of the near-Earth asteroids mapped by Nasa. Scientists believe asteroids, which are rich in precious metals like platinum and gold, could hold wealth equivalent to 75 billion ($100 billion) for every person on Earth
To avoid disaster in the event of an accidental impact, asteroids selected for aerobraking would need to measure under 100 feet (30 meters) in diameter.
These space rocks are small enough that they would burn up in the atmosphere the capture procedure failed.
The team picked out the asteroid 2005 VL1 as a particularly good potential target for an aerobraking mission.
The object is the ideal size and speed for the technique, and its make-up means it would not lose much mass during the aerobraking procedure, they said.
WHY DO SCIENTISTS WANT TO MINE ASTEROIDS? Several start-ups have begun to explore the idea of mining near-Earth asteroids for precious resources. The celestial objects are made of carbon, silicon or metal, but it is metallic asteroids that mining companies are most interested in. These rogue blocks of minerals are teeming with precious metals, including pricey platinum, which could be worth quadrillions on Earth. Nickel, iron and gold are also found in abundance within metallic asteroids. Nasa estimates the total value of resources locked in space rocks is 522 quintillion - equivalent to 75 billion ($100 billion) for each person on Earth. A company could send a small space probe to intersect with asteroids as they pass near Earth, and mine them for these resources. Experts have warned that doing so may destroy commodity prices and cause the world's economy to collapse. Advertisement
The scientists, led by Minghu Tan, wrote in their paper: 'Aerobraking can in principle enable candidate asteroids to be captured around the Earth with, in some cases, extremely low energy requirements.'
The study follows the news that experts at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) have begun large-scale mapping of space for resources.
This includes understanding the locations and extent of extraterrestrial minerals, metals and water.
USGS scientists met in Golden, Colorado at the Colorado School of Mines in June to take part in a Space Resources Roundtable, Space.com reported Tuesday.
Explained: The difference between an asteroid, meteorite and other space rocks An asteroid is a large chunk of rock left over from collisions or the early solar system. Most are located between Mars and Jupiter in the Main Belt. A comet is a rock covered in ice, methane and other compounds. Their orbits take them much further out of the solar system. A meteor is what astronomers call a flash of light in the atmosphere when debris burns up. This debris itself is known as a meteoroid. Most are so small they are vapourised in the atmosphere. If any of this meteoroid makes it to Earth, it is called a meteorite. Meteors, meteoroids and meteorites normally originate from asteroids and comets. For example, if Earth passes through the tail of a comet, much of the debris burns up in the atmosphere, forming a meteor shower. Advertisement
'The space-resources community will benefit greatly from working together with the USGS to assess the location and value of minerals, energy and water on the moon, Mars and asteroids,' said Angel Abbud-Madrid, director of the Center for Space Resources at the Colorado School of Mines.
USGS offers valuable expertise that 'can lead to reliable and much-needed geological maps for more precise landing-site and resource-deposit selection,' he added.
Several start-ups have begun to explore the idea of mining near-Earth asteroids for precious resources.
The celestial objects are made of carbon, silicon or metal, but it is metallic asteroids that mining companies are most interested in.
These rogue blocks of minerals are teeming with precious metals, including pricey platinum, which could be worth quadrillions on Earth.
Nickel, iron and gold are also found in abundance within metallic asteroids.
Nasa estimates the total value of resources locked in space rocks in the asteroid belt is 522 quintillion - equivalent to 75 billion ($100 billion) for each person on Earth.
Spix's macaw, a bright blue species of Brazilian parrot that starred in the children's animation film Rio, has become extinct in the wild.
It joins seven other bird species declared extinct by a new analysis of endangered animals - making them the first avians to have died out this decade.
Scientists blame deforestation for the losses, which include the poo-uli, the Pernambuco pygmy-owl and the cryptic treehunter.
Most birds that die out are small-island species, making them vulnerable to hunting, but five of the eight extinctions have occurred in South America, researchers said.
The Spix's macaw is one of eight bird species now deemed extinct following a new statistical analysis. The birds, which include the poo-uli, the Pernambuco pygmy-owl and the cryptic treehunter, are the first to die out this decade
Researchers at BirdLife International, a group of conservation NGOs based in Cambridge, UK, carried out a statistical analysis of endangered species.
They said the study highlighted an extinction crisis on larger continents caused by damage to the environment by humans.
Stuart Butchart, BirdLife International's chief scientist, said: 'People think of extinctions and think of the dodo but our analysis shows that extinctions are continuing and accelerating today.
'Historically 90 per cent of bird extinctions have been small populations on remote islands.
'Our evidence shows there is a growing wave of extinctions washing over the continent driven by habitat loss from unsustainable agriculture, drainage and logging.'
The researchers examined 51 species judged 'critically endangered' on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) red list.
The Spix's macaw is a bright blue species of Brazilian parrot that starred in the children's animation film Rio
More than 26,000 of the world's species are now threatened, according to the list, leading scientists to warn that humans may be driving the planet's sixth big extinction event.
According to the new analysis, eight species of bird can now be added to the growing list of confirmed or 'highly likely' extinctions.
Four of the extinctions took place in Brazil, including the Spix's macaw, which was traded in cages for 150 years before a trio of wild birds were found in 1985.
Two of these were illegally captured, while attempts to breed the third failed.
The last known wild sighting was in 2000, though captive birds are now being used to breed for restoration programmes.
Three other species, the poo-uli, the cryptic treehunter and the Alagoas foliage-gleane, may have disappeared forever, according to the analysis.
THE IUCN RED LIST Species on the endangered red list are animals of the highest conservation priority that need 'urgent action' to save. An Amber list is reserved for the next most critical group, followed by a green list. Red list criteria: Globally threatened
Historical population decline in UK during 18001995
Severe (at least 50 per cent) decline in UK breeding population over last 25 years
Severe (at least 50 per cent) contraction of UK breeding range over last 25 years In recent years, in the UK, several more species have been added to the list. These included: Atlantic puffin
Nightingale
Long-tailed duck
Turtle dove Advertisement
The Alagoas foliage-gleaner, a small forest bird also native to Brazil, became extinct in 2011 following heavy deforestation.
Following its discovery in two patches of forest in north-eastern Brazil in 2002, the cryptic treehunter has not been spotted since 2007.
The small forests where it was found have been cut down and replaced with sugar cane plantations.
The poo-uli, found only on the island of Maui in Hawaii, has not been seen since 2004, and attempts to breed it in captivity have been unsuccessful.
Of the eight species to be reclassified as extinct, four are 'critically endangered (possibly extinct)'.
They include the glaucous macaw, once found in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil before its palm grove habitat was destroyed for farming.
Another is a small insect-eating owl, the Pernambuco pygmy-owl, which hasn't been spotted in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco since 2002.
Much of the bird's habitat has been destroyed by logging.
Dr Butchart hopes the shocking results spark better conservation of endangered species in future.
'Because we know birds better than any other taxonomic class we know which other species are most at risk,' he said.
'We hope this study will inspire a redoubling of efforts to prevent other extinctions.'
An app that lets people see everything their partner and children do on their phone has leaked millions of sensitive records, a security expert has warned.
The mSpy app is used by more than a million paying customers to track their partner or keep an eye on their children.
It records phone calls, records a person's location, lets users remotely read texts, view browsing history and even see how much battery the phone has left.
However hackers have used spyware to secretly collect vast amounts of information from it, including passwords, call logs and location data, a security expert has warned.
Scroll down for video
An app that lets people see everything their partner and children do on their phone has leaked millions of sensitive records, a security expert has warned (stock image)
The app was first made in 2013 and was created for 'monitoring your children, employees or others on a smartphone or mobile device'.
The person doing the spying must own the device being tracked, or the person being tracked must give their permission.
Users can also use the app to view videos and photos stored on a device, see the phone owner's list of applications and software updates, open their calendar, notes and tasks, and even get hold of the phone's unique IMEI number.
Indian security researcher Nitish Shah directed Washington-based security news site KrebsOnSecurity to an open database on the web.
The site allowed people to look up mSpy records without needing any authentication.
They could see records for customer transactions and mobile phone data collected by mSpy's software, which is used in more than 100 countries.
The database - which contained millions of records - has now been taken offline.
Anyone who looked at the database would have been able to read WhatsApp and Facebook messages from devices equipped with mSpy, Mr Shah said.
The mSpy app is used by more than a million paying customers to track their partner or keep an eye on their children
The app was first made in 2013 and was created for 'monitoring your children, employees or others on a smartphone or mobile device'
He tried to alert mSpy, which has offices in the US, Germany and the UK, but he says the firm's support personal did not want to talk to him.
The mSpy's chief security officer later told KrebsOnSecurity that the company had been 'working hard to secure our system'.
'All our customers' accounts are securely encrypted and the data is being wiped out once in a short period of time', he said.
'Thanks to you we have prevented this possible breach and from what we could discover the data you are talking about could be some amount of customers' emails and possibly some other data.'
People wanting to use the app do need to physically install it onto the phone they wish to track.
Subscribers can choose to sync the data automatically, only over Wi-Fi, or manually and if automatic sync is selected the data is updated every 30 minutes.
Users can then track this information from anywhere by signing into an online account and viewing it all on a dashboard.
The dashboard produces charts that show which apps have been used and how often, while the person's location is plotted on to a map.
MailOnline has contacted mSpy for comment.
Facebook's data privacy scandal seems to have made an impact on its users.
A new Pew Research study surveyed users to measure their activity on the site over the past 12 months.
They found that a large portion of the population has taken an extended break from Facebook, while 26 percent have deleted the app entirely.
Scroll down for video
Facebook's data privacy scandal seems to have made an impact on its users. A new Pew Research study surveyed users to measure their activity on the site over the past 12 months
For the study, researchers polled 4,594 US adults between May 29th and June 11th.
Of those respondents, 54 percent said they'd changed their privacy settings, while 42 percent had taken a break from the site.
Overall, 74 percent of those respondents had taken at least one of those actions over the last 12 months.
Interestingly, Pew found that respondents' answers differed greatly depending on their age.
They found that younger users were much more likely than older users to have altered their privacy settings or deleted the Facebook app from their phone.
A whopping 44 percent of users aged 18 to 29 has deleted the Facebook app from their phone, compared to just 12 percent of users aged 65 and older.
For the study, researchers polled 4,594 US adults between May 29th and June 11th. Of those respondents, 54% said they'd changed their privacy settings, while 42% had taken a break
Meanwhile, only a third of Facebook users 65 and older have changed their privacy settings vs. 64 percent of younger users.
Similar shares of adults and younger users have taken a break from Facebook in the last year.
The findings come in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica Scandal that rocked Facebook earlier this year.
In March, it was discovered that more than 87 million users' data had unknowingly been harvested by Trump-affiliated research Cambridge Analytica.
Interestingly, researchers found that younger users were much more likely than older users to have altered their privacy settings or deleted the Facebook app from their phone
The findings come in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica Scandal that rocked Facebook in March and ultimately led to CEO Mark Zuckerberg (pictured) testifying in front of Congress
The event sparked intense scrutiny around how Facebook and other Silicon Valley giants manage and secure users' personal data.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg even appeared in front of Congress to discuss the issue.
The company also introduced greater privacy controls for users to manage their data, while launching more stringent policies for third-party advertisers on the site that limited what kinds of data they could collect from users.
As part of the new privacy controls, Facebook began allowing users to download and review any data the site had collected on them.
WHAT IS THE CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA SCANDAL? Communications firms Cambridge Analytica has offices in London, New York, Washington, as well as Brazil and Malaysia. The company boasts it can 'find your voters and move them to action' through data-driven campaigns and a team that includes data scientists and behavioural psychologists. 'Within the United States alone, we have played a pivotal role in winning presidential races as well as congressional and state elections,' with data on more than 230 million American voters, Cambridge Analytica claims on its website. The company profited from a feature that meant apps could ask for permission to access your own data as well as the data of all your Facebook friends. Cambridge Analytica profited from a feature that meant apps could ask for permission to access your own data as well as the data of all your Facebook friends It was initially estimated that the firm was able to mine the information of 55 million Facebook users even though just 270,000 people gave them permission to do so. But, Facebook has since revealed the number was actually as high as 87 million. This was designed to help them create software that can predict and influence voters' choices at the ballot box. The data firm suspended its chief executive, Alexander Nix, after recordings emerged of him making a series of controversial claims, including boasts that Cambridge Analytica had a pivotal role in the election of Donald Trump. This information is said to have been used to help the Brexit campaign in the UK. Advertisement
The Pew survey found that about one-in-ten, or roughly 9 percent, of Facebook users have downloaded the personal data about them on Facebook.
'But despite their relatively small size as a share of the Facebook population, these users are highly privacy-conscious,' Pew explained.
'Roughly half of the users who have downloaded their personal data from Facebook (47%) have deleted the app from their cellphone, while 79% have elected to adjust their privacy settings.'
However, the survey didn't find any correlation between users' willingness to take a break from Facebook and their political views.
'...Nearly identical shares of Democrats and Republicans (including political independents who lean toward either party) use Facebook,' Pew noted.
'Republicans are no more likely than Democrats to have taken a break from Facebook or deleted the app from their phone in the past year.'
The visit is an important milestone, helping to consolidate political trust, strengthen strategic cohesion, and enhancing the effectiveness of bilateral cooperation while affirming the consistent policy of Vietnam in regarding Russia as the top prioritised partner in its foreign policy. The visit is also expected to create a new impetus to foster the comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and Russia to develop in a deep, substantive and effective manner.
The Vietnamese people are happy to share achievements in all aspects that Russia has accomplished in the past years. Russia's socio-political situation is quite stable, with high consensus among the people. In addition, Russia successfully held a presidential election on March 18 under which veteran and highly-respected leader Vladimir Putin won an overwhelming victory with nearly 77% of the vote and established the government for a new tenure.
However, Russia is currently facing many difficulties due to the Western policies of siege and embargo against the country. In this context, thanks to the implementation of radical reform measures, the Russian economy continues to recover and maintain its momentum of growth with a GDP growth rate of 1.5% in 2017 and an estimated nearly 2% in 2018. The Russian Government has set a strategy for socio-economic development until 2025 with the goal of developing Russia to be among the top five economies in the world.
Regarding foreign policy, Russia has insisted on multilateral and equal diplomacy while appreciating the central role of the United Nations and supporting the multipolar world in addition to asserting its position as a powerful nation with an important role in addressing complicated regional and world issues.
Russia also continues to promote a "Look East" policy and pay attention to developing relations with Vietnam while attaching importance to Vietnam in its cooperation strategy in the Asia-Pacific region and considering Vietnam as its leading partner in Southeast Asia.
General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's visit to Russia takes place ahead of big events of the two countries, including the 25th anniversary of a treaty on the basic principles for bilateral friendship in 2019 and the 70th anniversary of the diplomatic relationship between Vietnam and Russia in 2020. We are pleased to see that the comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and Russia has been constantly consolidated and strengthened.
The Vietnamese people always remember and appreciate the enthusiastic support of the people of the former Soviet Union, including the Russian people for the revolutionary cause and the national construction of Vietnam.
The traditional and trusted friendship is marked by regular high-level visits and exchanges between the two countries. The relations between Parties, States, Governments, Parliaments, and peoples are strengthened in a deep and substantive manner, contributing to boosting the bilateral relationship.
In addition, economic and trade cooperation between Vietnam and Russia has grown positively, particularly after the free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union took effect in October 2016. Two-way trade revenue reached US$3.55 billion in 2017, an annual increase of more than 30%. Russia ranks 22nd out of 117 countries and territories investing in Vietnam with 116 projects and a total registered capital of US$990 million. Vietnam also has 23 investment projects in Russia with a total investment capital of nearly US$3 billion.
Cooperation in the field of education and training has also expanded with an increasing number of Vietnamese students provided with scholarships to study in Russia and the number has reached 1,000 students per year. The two countries also see growth in culture, humanities, and tourism cooperation, with the number of Russian tourists to Vietnam increasing by an average of 30% per year to reach 574,000 in 2017.
General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's official visit to Russia aims to continue implementing the independent, self-reliant, peaceful, cooperative and multilateral foreign policy of Vietnam and affirms Vietnam's active integration into the world to create an international environment conducive to the cause of national construction, protection and development.
The General Secretary's visit is a political event of landmark importance in the relations between Vietnam and Russia, contributing to boosting the multifaceted cooperation between the two countries in the new situation. The visit will also contribute to the effective implementation of a number of cooperation contents and drive stronger progress in economic, trade and investment cooperation between Vietnam and Russia.
May General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's official visit to Russia be a success, creating a new impetus for promoting the comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and Russia and creating positive changes in all fields of cooperation, especially economics, trade and investment in order to contribute to peace, stability, cooperation and development in the world.
Apple is widely expected to launch three new iPhones at its annual September event next week.
Now we may know what each of them will be called.
The tech giant's 6.5-inch Plus model may be called the 'iPhone XS Max,' while the 6.1-inch budget model may be named the 'iPhone Xr.' A report last week indicated that the 5.9-inch model could be dubbed the 'iPhone XS.'
It comes as separate reports have indicated Apple may ditch its idea of introducing an in-display Touch ID.
Scroll down for video
Apple's 6.5-inch device may be called the 'iPhone XS Max.' A separate report said its 5.8-inch device could be called the 'iPhone XS.' Pictured is a leaked image claiming to be the device
Many believe Apple is eyeing the elimination of its usual naming convention, 'Plus,' to describe the biggest device in its iPhone lineup.
In in its place, 9to5Mac is reporting that the firm would go with 'Max' to describe the device, which should it feature a 6.5-inch screen, would mark Apple's biggest iPhone yet.
Longtime Apple blogger John Gruber noted that Apple might be dropping the word Plus as the firm has used that naming convention in the past to indicate that Plus devices included upgraded features, like better components, cameras and the like.
This year, many believe that the only difference between the base 5.8-inch model and the 6.5-inch device will be screen size.
Both phones are expected to get a new A12 processor and 4 gigabytes of RAM, representing a significant upgrade from the iPhone X.
Apple may also be dropping another rumored feature of the upcoming iPhones.
Separate reports have indicated Apple may ditch its idea of introducing an in-display Touch ID. In its place, Apple is said to be forging ahead with adding Face ID to all of its devices
The firm has long weighed the idea of adding an in-display touch ID to the iPhone as a way for users to control it in lieu of a physical button.
However, the technology proved to be expensive and complicated to integrate.
9to5Mac has reported that Apple will forego that idea altogether in favor of adopting facial recognition technology, or Face ID, across all its devices.
The name that seems just as peculiar is the 'iPhone Xr,' VentureBeat noted, given that it doesn't convey any obvious meaning like the 'iPhone X' - it signified the iPhone's 10 year anniversary.
Already, Twitter users were calling into question the rumored iPhone names.
The reports come after 9to5Mac last week posted what it claimed were authentic images of the 5.8-inch iPhone, said to be dubbed the 'iPhone XS.'
They reveal the 'iPhone XS' with a 5.8inch screen, alongside a 'Series 4' version of Apple's Watch.
Beneath the iPhone XS appears to be the larger 'iPhone XS Max.'
Apple last week sent out invites for the launch of the latest version of the iPhone and Watch.
It will take place on September 12th at the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple's 'spaceship' HQ in Cupertino.
The golden 'gather round' invites show the circular HQ.
Apple last week sent out invites for the launch of the latest version of the iPhone and Watch. It will take place on Sept. 12th at the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple's 'spaceship' HQ in Cupertino
It is believed that Apple is branding this year's lineup an 'S year' - meaning the new devices will mostly include internal improvements, instead of any major aesthetic overhauls, Bloomberg claimed earlier this week.
This tallies with previous reports that suggest Apple will launch three new models that resemble the existing iPhone X all-screen design on September 12th.
The three models are tipped to boast 5.8-inch, 6.1-inch and 6.5-inch displays.
All three models could have a battery charge that lasts for more than a day thanks to a new Apple-designed processor that is set to increase battery life by as much as 40 per cent.
If youre keen to escape the winter chill, what better than a cruise to exotic places? For the past two years Fred. Olsen has won a new generation of travellers with its Warmer Cruising offers discounts of up to 40 per cent on a selection of trips.
So why not take advantage of the special offers to experience the ultimate magic this winter: sailing part of the world cruise on Black Watch, which departs Southampton on November 12?
Rather than staying on board to enjoy all 107 nights, you can sail on individual legs flying out to join the ship. The offers will be available on the following legs:
The stunning walled city of Cartagena de Indias in Colombia, one of the stops on the cruise
Southampton to the Caribbean departs November 12 and arrives Barbados November 26.
Australia & The Contrasts Of Asia departs Heathrow on January 4, 2019, sails from Brisbane on January 7.
The Black Watch World Cruise offers you the chance to witness natural and man-made marvels: breathtaking scenery, amazing wildlife, awe-inspiring cultures and fascinating ancient sites on an unforgettable circumnavigation of the globe.
Thanks to rigid inflatable boats, the operator can take travellers even closer to life on the waters edge.
Journey away from the usual tourist trails in some of the most beautiful locations on Earth.
There are stunning ports of call in the Americas, including Caribbean islands, Colombias walled city of Cartagena de Indias a delight to explore with its centuries-old architecture and charming Puntarenas in Costa Rica.
Travellers also enjoy a journey along the Panama Canal all before sailing to the land down under via South Pacific Islands.
They will see the volcanic landscapes and crystal-clear lagoons of Nuku Hiva and Rangiroa, as well as Tahiti, Bora-Bora and Mystery Island, with Christmas Day at sea in between.
Passengers will also see the volcanic landscapes and crystal-clear lagoons of Nuku Hiva, pictured
In Australia, an abundance of experiences await. From Cairns, visitors can explore tropical rainforest and wetlands, or tour to the Great Barrier Reef, while a call into Sydney is a highlight of the cruise.
An extended stay is timed to celebrate the New Year with the chance to see the famous fireworks light up the midnight sky above the Harbour Bridge.
On the Asian leg of the adventure, there is the contrast between Indonesias Komodo Island the untouched natural habitat of the worlds largest lizard and Singapore, a striking modern metropolis of skyscrapers, busy commercial districts and impressive temples.
The contrasts continue with calls into Phuket gateway to exotic Phang Nga Bay and James Bond Island and three Indian cities.
From Kochi take an overland tour to the Taj Mahal; in Goa, explore the historic centres of Old Goa and the Latin Quarter; while an overnight stay in Mumbai affords time to immerse oneself in the citys hustle and bustle.
In Arabia, there is the Burj Khalifa the worlds tallest building to admire in Dubai before visiting Oman and Jordan.
See the amazing Komodo dragons, pictured, on the Asian leg of the adventure
Ride a traditional dhow boat into the Musandam Fjords from Khasab; tour historic Nizwa and the Nakhal Fort from Muscat; and uncover the lost cities of Ubar and Petra from Salalah and Aqaba.
Finally, after navigating the Suez Canal, the ship will journey through the Mediterranean, stopping at Kusadasi and Naples gateways to Ephesus and Pompeii Gibraltar and La Coruna, from where there are tours to Santiago de Compostela.
As well as an itinerary packed with cities and destinations, there is a huge programme of on-board activities including pottery, learning to play a ukulele, craft, watercolour painting, drama workshops, photography classes, bridge instruction and dance lessons.
Advertisement
I once capsized a tiny catamaran - something which is apparently pretty much impossible - and on a school trip while canoeing with my teacher on a lake, because I struggled with the steering, we ended up going around in circles for a worrying amount of time.
So when I was invited to have a crack at sailing Alex Thomson's 5million round-the-world yacht - the Hugo Boss - I took on the challenge with mild trepidation. Hopefully I wouldn't bring about its demise.
On boarding the slick-looking carbon fibre vessel in Portsmouth - which Alex used last year to speed around the world single-handedly in 74 days, 19 hours and 35 minutes - I quickly learned there was no toilet, the kitchen consisted of a gas burner, and sailing at speed would require all hands on deck.
Scroll down for video
MailOnline Travel's Sadie Whitelocks, pictured, had a go at sailing Alex Thomson's 5million round-the-world yacht. Above, she is pictured sailing the vessel in the Solent
Alex sped around the world single-handedly on the Hugo Boss last year in 74 days, 19 hours and 35 minutes
Luckily it was a windy day and Alex was clearly excited about the blustery conditions.
While the 44-year-old sailed the 60ft yacht alone in the 2017 Vendee Globe race, in which he came second, on the day I boarded, we were accompanied by a crew to take the pressure off. Phew!
Before we left the marina and things got wobbly, the British yachtsman gave me a tour of his boat.
He explained that to minimize its weight, the aerodynamic structure has extremely simple interiors.
The deck outside features angled grips on the floor to prevent Alex from slipping and sliding in choppy conditions while the belly of the boat is a cavernous space, playing host to a storage area and makeshift bed.
Alex has been sailing since a child. He is planning to attempt the Vendee Globe around-the-world race again in 2020 in a bid to score first place
Sadie has a go at 'grinding'. This activity required her to bicycle a wheel around using her arm power to control the sails
Alex showed me the kitchen, which consisted of a tiny area with a little gas canister fixed into place.
He uses the piece of kit to boil water and rustle up meals from dehydrated and freeze-dried food packs while he's speeding along. A true master of multi-tasking.
One of his favourite delicacies while he's racing on the high seas is a beef and cheese casserole, while chunks of Parmesan, slithers of Spanish ham and peanuts are other good sources of energy.
When he's in the midst of circumnavigating the globe - a feat he has accomplished three times and is due to undertake again in 2020 - he can eat up to 7,000 calories a day.
He joked: 'That's the equivalent of 14 Big Macs but somehow I always come back lighter. I lost 100lbs on my last race.'
The bed, meanwhile, is merely a flat surface he flings a mattress on. Alex says that he sleeps as little as possible when he's racing but tries to get enough kip so he can make rational decisions.
He tends to nap for between five minutes and one hour, but no longer.
To make sure he doesn't oversleep, putting him at danger of veering off course, Alex has an extremely loud industrial-style alarm, which almost deafens me when he switches it on.
The yacht's kitchen consists of a tiny area with a little gas canister fixed into place, pictured. Alex uses the piece of kit to boil water and rustle up meals from dehydrated and freeze-dried food packs while he's speeding along
Along with steering and grinding, Alex spends much of his day while racing around the world analysing weather data on a small computer screen - to make sure there are no dangers on the horizon
The bed is merely a flat surface he flings a mattress on. Alex says that he sleeps as little as possible when he's racing but tries to get enough kip so he can make rational decisions. He tends to nap for between five minutes and one hour, but no longer
On the toilet front, Alex uses a bucket that has a wide body and a slender neck, to prevent any spills. The contents are then thrown overboard.
After a speedy tour of the sportsman's boat, we got going on the water.
Watching the boat come alive was quite a magnificent show, with Alex directing the crew to get the sails lifted.
After a gentle start out of the harbour, suddenly we were off.
At one point, thanks to the strong wind, we managed to reach a speed of 29 miles an hour - the boat reaches a maximum of 40mph when it's at full pelt.
One of the scariest things when you're on the boat, is the way it leans at an extreme angle as it cuts through the waves. But thanks to hydrofoils (wing-like fins on the belly), the vessel never tips up.
After getting suitably drenched by water gushing over the deck, I had a go at 'grinding'. This activity required me to bicycle a wheel around using my arm power in a bid to control the sails.
Alex says he does this five to six times a day when he's racing. I felt suitably exhausted after one round of grinding and the thought of more filled me with dread.
After a bit of an arm workout, I had a go at steering.
To minimize weight, the aerodynamic yacht has extremely simple interiors. The deck outside features angled grips on the floor to prevent Alex from slipping and sliding in choppy conditions while the belly of the boat is a cavernous space
What is the Vendee Globe race? The Vendee Globe is the hardest and most famous sailing race in the world. Nicknamed the Everest of the Seas, it involves sailing around the world alone, without stopping and without assistance, setting sail from and finishing in Les Sables dOlonne, after rounding the three legendary capes: The Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, Cape Leeuwin in Southern Australia and the infamous Cape Horn at the tip of South America.
The first Vendee Globe race, in 1968, was won by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, who crossed the finish line in 312 days.
In the last race Alex Thomson crossed the finish line in just 74 days, 19 hours and 35 minutes and broke the World Record he already held as the fastest Briton to sail single-handedly, non-stop around the world.
He says 40 to 60 per cent of competitors who start the race will not finish.
The next race will start on Sunday 8, November 2020. Advertisement
Alex informed me: 'If you move the tiller (steering stick) to the left, the boat turns right; move the tiller right, and the boat goes left.'
I was surprised at how sensitive the steering stick was. As the yacht suddenly veered to the right, visions of my catamaran incident came flooding back. Luckily, I managed to keep things upright this time.
Along with steering and grinding, Alex spends much of his day while racing around the world analysing weather data on a small computer screen - to make sure there are no dangers on the horizon.
After a session out sailing, I was left with a sense of awe as to how Alex does this all alone.
Talking about his profession, the father-of-two concluded: 'The Vendee Globe around the world race is the most difficult sport left in the world today. It's not just physically challenging, but also mentally.
'It's just one boat and one person. It's less about technology and more about adventure. Human management in a very extreme way. I have to be the navigator, the medic, the cook, the cleaner and more while I'm on the go.
'It certainly is a conversation-stopper at dinner parties when I tell people what it is I do.'
There's clearly no taking the wind out of Alex's sails and his new boat for the 2020 Vendee Globe is set to be slicker and speedier than ever.
MailOnline Travel was invited to sail on the Hugo Boss by Opihr gin to celebrate the launch of its three new ready-to-drink flavours. Alex Thomson is an ambassador for the drinks brand and it was the official sponsor of this year's Lendy Cowes Week sailing regatta.
Egypt is the fastest growing tourist destination and France is the most visited country, new UN figures have revealed.
Visitor numbers to Egypt jumped 55.1 per cent to 8.6 million in 2017 - a huge turnaround.
The number of foreign tourists in Egypt went from 14.7 million in 2010 to 5.2 million in 2016 after the suspension of flights following the downing of a Russian charter jet and the turmoil following the uprising that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.
Egypt is the fastest growing tourist destination with a 55.1 per cent rise in tourist numbers in 2017. Pictured is the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh
France retained its 2016 No1 ranking in the most-visited list with 86.9million visitors, beating Spain into second place (81.8million) and the USA into third (75.9million).
The figures were published by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation in its annual tourism highlights report.
Egypt attracts tourists to the likes of Giza and Luxor, who come to discover the great pyramids and the Sphinx.
Meanwhile resorts around the Red Sea pull in visitors looking for beach holidays and offer spectacular diving.
The second-fastest growing destination is the African country of Togo, which saw a 46.7 per cent jump in visitors.
Here, visitors can enjoy palm-fringed beaches on the Atlantic coast as well as lush forests further north.
The second fastest growing destination is the African country of Togo, pictured, which saw a 46.7 per cent jump in visitors
The fourth fastest growing destination is Palestine. One popular attraction there is the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, pictured
A rise of 29.1 per cent in visitors sees Vietnam, known for its beautiful beaches and rivers, named the third-fastest growing destination.
While in fourth place is Palestine, which saw a 25.7 per cent rise in tourists in 2017.
Tourists travel to Palestine to visit the holy site of Bethlehem, which is home to the Church of the Nativity, as well as the Mar Saba Monastery and the Mosque of Omar.
Rounding off the top five fastest-growing tourist destinations is the tiny island of Niue in the South Pacific, which saw tourist numbers rise by 25.7 per cent in 2017.
Other places that saw huge rises in tourist numbers included Nepal (24.9 per cent, 6th), Israel (24.6 per cent, 7th), the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean (24.3 per cent, 8th) as well as Turkey and Iceland (both 24.1 per cent, tied in 9th).
The most visited country in the world is France - it attracted a total of 86.9million visitors in 2017
In the most-visited countries list China comes fourth with 60.7million visitors in 2017 then Italy, which welcomed 58.3million people.
In sixth place is Mexico on 39.3million visitors followed by the UK on 37.7million visitors in 2017.
Other countries in the top ten most visited destinations are Turkey (37.6million, 8th), Germany (37.5million, 9th) and Thailand (35.4million, 10th).
For great travel deals visit www.mailtravel.co.uk .
Tourists in Florence are being warned they could face fines of up to 450 for eating in the street.
New laws, which went into force on Tuesday, ban snacking in four streets in the Italian city's historic centre.
Local businesses in the affected sites have been asked to put up signs warning visitors about the ban in prominent places. They read: 'Respect residents, traders and workers of this street.'
Tourists in Florence, pictured, are being warned they could face fines of up to 450 if they eat in certain streets in the city
According to The Local, the restrictions will be in place from 12 to 3pm and between 6 and 10pm. They will remain in place for four months.
The affected areas are Via de' Neri, Piazzale degli Uffizi, Piazza del Grano and Via della Ninna.
Florence is known for its fine cuisine and reviews on Tripadvisor have rated the city as having the world's best sandwiches.
But the Telegraph reports that local businesses were fed up with tourists loitering outside their premises or sitting on kerbs and sating their hunger pangs.
Mayor Dario Nardella said: 'Its not a punitive measure but a deterrent.
'If tourists behave in Florence as they would at home then they will always be welcome, especially if they want to try our gastronomic specialities.'
However, it is not the first time Mr Nardella has brought in controversial rules affecting tourists.
Last year, he announced that the city would be fighting back against a rise in messy tourists who leave iconic churches strewn with rubbish by hosing down the steps at lunch time.
New laws, which went into force yesterday, ban snacking in four streets in the Italian city's historic centre close to Florence Cathedral, pictured
He said the the measure was aimed at people who 'camp out' at historic sites during the middle of the day, then leave them strewn with greasy packaging and beer bottles.
Elsewhere in Italy, in the capital Rome, there has also been a crackdown on unruly tourists and authorities have even considered fencing off the celebrated Spanish Steps to protect them from 'barbarian' hordes of sightseers.
Last year, the city considered barring tourists from stopping next to the Trevi Fountain to crack down on illegal swimming there.
In Venice, stewards patrol the city looking for signs of uncouth behaviour such as sitting down on church steps and eating. And in Milan earlier this year, visitors were banned from taking pictures with selfie sticks.
The ancient city of Palmyra, which was almost destroyed by ISIS jihadis, could re-open to tourists as early as next year.
Extensive work has been underway to restore the site, which used to be one of the most visited tourist attractions in the Middle East.
Authorities in Syria say they hope that visitors will be able to marvel at the wonders of the ancient monuments from summer 2019.
Scroll down for video
The ancient city of Palmyra pictured in September 2017 after it was almost destroyed by ISIS jihadis
Authorities in Syria say they hope to welcome back tourists to the site next year. Pictured is Palmyra in 2017
Palmyra, in the province of Homs, was an important caravan city of the Roman Empire, linking it to India, China, and Persia and was a Unesco world heritage site.
Global concern for Palmyra's magnificent ancient ruins spiked in September 2015, when satellite images confirmed that ISIS - which took control of the city - had demolished the famed Temple of Bel as part of its campaign to destroy pre-Islamic monuments it considers idolatrous.
The Syrian government then took back control of the site but it fell to ISIS one again in December 2016. Its members then caused even more destruction.
By March 2017, Palmyra was recaptured by Syrian government forces and Russian scientists from the Pushkin Museum in Moscow began trying to reconstruct some of the ancient structures.
The ancient Palmyra theater before the devastating civil war began. The site was used by Islamic State members as a backdrop for executions
The provincial governor of Homs, Talal Barazi, told Sputnik News: 'The authorities now have a project to repair all the damage caused to Palmyra's Old City.
'There are also good offers from the world powers to restore the artifacts and historical value of Palmyra. I suppose that Palmyra will be completely ready for receiving tourists by summer 2019.'
News of the re-opening comes after an antiquities museum in Syria's rebel-held province of Idlib said to house one of the world's oldest dictionaries reopened earlier this month after being shut for five years.
The Temple of Baalshamin, which was later destroyed by Islamic State. It was dedicated to the Canaanite sky god Baalshamin after being constructed sometime in the 2nd century BC. In the 5th century AD, it was converted into a Christian church
Dozens of visitors trickled into the museum in Idlib city to see what an official said represented just a fraction of the building's collection.
Ayman al-Nabu, head of antiquities for the city, which is controlled by an alliance of rebels and jihadists, said the museum had been damaged by air strikes and looting during Syria's conflict - now nearly seven years old.
The museum is said to house a collection of clay tablets dating back to 2400-2300 BC, which bear witness to the invention of the first alphabet.
Megan Marx has hit back at a magazine report claiming her ex-boyfriend Jake Ellis was 'paranoid' about the fact she is bisexual during their relationship.
The Bachelor In Paradise star, 29, told Daily Mail Australia that a Woman's Day article suggesting her sexuality was an issue for Jake, 31, was 'ridiculous and harmful'.
'Jake was never paranoid about [me being bisexual]. That's ridiculous and a pretty harmful accusation,' Megan said on Wednesday.
Scroll down for video
EXCLUSIVE: 'He was never paranoid about it': Bachelor in Paradise's Megan Marx has denied a report claiming her ex-boyfriend Jake Ellis 'was worried about her being bisexual'
'Yes, Jake and I had some problems which we've been open about on Instagram, but [my sexuality] has never been one of them,' she added.
It comes after Woman's Day quoted a supposed 'source' as saying that Jake 'always felt very paranoid about Megan being bisexual and the fact she's such a free spirit.'
The 'insider' also claimed that Jake 'couldn't handle' Megan's close friendship with fellow Paradise star Elora Murger, 27.
Speaking out: The Bachelor In Paradise star, 29, told Daily Mail Australia that a Woman's Day article suggesting her sexuality was an issue for Jake (pictured) was 'ridiculous and harmful'
Megan has previously claimed that she is physically attracted to Elora, who is also openly bisexual.
Speaking to TV Week earlier this year, she described her as 'hot' and 'my type of girl', adding: 'Going into [Bachelor in Paradise], I thought, "I'd like her to be there".'
In July, Daily Mail Australia revealed that Megan and Jake's relationship was on the rocks and they had been 'having problems for two months'.
Questionable report: It comes after Woman's Day quoted a supposed 'source' as saying that Jake 'always felt very paranoid about Megan being bisexual' and 'couldn't handle' her close friendship with fellow Paradise star Elora Murger (right)
Their issues apparently reached fever pitch after the pair argued publicly at Splendour In The Grass in Byron Bay.
The couple eventually confirmed their split last month following weeks of rumours.
Shortly after the announcement, Elora clarified that she was not involved in the break-up and was friends with both Megan and Jake.
The Bachelor continues Wednesday at 7:30pm on Network Ten
They were guests at the 60th birthday party of TV's Dr. Drew Pinsky on Sunday.
And Joel McHale explained why the celbrity medic means for much to his family during an interview during the bash at STK Los Angeles, the restaurant inside Westwoods W Hotel,
'This is very personal, but my wife had a miscarriage and we really consulted with him a lot,' Joel, 46, dished to Us Weekly.
Healthy boys: Joel McHale and wife Sarah Williams with sons Isaac, 10, and Edward 13, at an LA event in 2016. The actor revealed Dr. Drew Pinsky offered them advice when Sarah miscarried
'It was so strange and wonderful that this very famous TV doctor was like, "Yeah, whats going on?" Were forever in debt to that man.'
The Community actor, 46, and Sarah turned to Drew because they were friends and felt comfortable with the internist and addiction medicine specialist - even though he wasnt their physician.
'I was friends with him he wasnt our doctor, doctor, or her doctor, doctor, but I would call him, and hes like, "That doesnt sound right," or "That sounds OK." It was just insanely sweet of him.'
Birthday boy: Joel was speaking at the celebrity medic's 60th birthday at STK Los Angeles, the restaurant inside Westwoods W Hotel, that also kicked off Drew's month-long Prostate Cancer Foundation fundraiser on Sunday
Joel didnt disclose when the miscarriage took place. He and Sarah share sons Edward, 13, and Isaac, 10.
The couple tied the knot in 1996 after meeting when Joel graduated from the University of Washington.
Joel called a friend of Sarah's and asked if he could ask her out on a date.
Good friends: The Community actor, 46, and Dr. Drew, seen at an event in New York in 2914, have been pals for some time after becoming close following the family's miscarriage
Meanwhile, The Happytime Murders star was joined at the party by comedians Adam Carolla, 54, Bob Saget, 62, Nikki Glaser, 34, Tom Arnold, 59, and Craig Shoemaker, 59, as well as Los Angeles Lakers owner/president Jeanie Buss, 56, and Crazy Rich Asians actor Jimmy O. Yang, 31.
The event also kicked off Drew's month-long Prostate Cancer Foundation fundraiser.
Now a member of the organizations board, Drew was diagnosed with the disease in 2011 and successfully treated.
Issa Rae's HBO show Insecure has fans in high places.
And as the 33-year-old writer and star told the new issue of Glamour, one of them was none other than former First Lady Michelle Obama.
The duo were introduced last year, whereupon Michelle 'had just finished watching the finale, and she was like: "That fakeout - how could you do that?"
Issa Rae's HBO show Insecure has fans in high places, and as the 33-year-old writer and star told the new issue of Glamour, one of them was Michelle Obama
'"I thought you and Lawrence were going to live happily ever after." I was like: "You really watch it?" She was like: "Yes. Sasha and Malia put me on to it."'
Issa said fondly: 'It was like talking to my auntie. It bums me out that I will never have that feeling again of the First Family f***ing with us so hard and getting us.'
She said of the current First Family: 'If Melania said that to me, I would be like: "Well, I guess it's canceled. Were not making this show. Its not ours anymore."'
Constructive criticism: The duo were introduced last year, whereupon Michelle 'had just finished watching the finale, and she was like: "That fakeout - how could you do that?"'
Issa and Michelle met in September 2017 at the Boston Convention And Exhibition Center during the marketing convention INBOUND.
Posting a three-photo Instagram album of the pair of them together, Issa captioned: that the first one was: 'A) Me and My President.'
The second one was: 'B) Me after my President told me she was mad about the #InsecureHBO finale fake out.'
Photo three, per Issa, was: 'C) Me hugging My President with eternal gratefulness.'
Such affection: Issa and Michelle met in September 2017 at the Boston Convention And Exhibition Center during the marketing convention INBOUND
In Glamour, Issa also discussed bringing Insecure to life, saying: 'You can always tell when [a black show] feels overly explained. If youre targeting a specific audience, theres a shorthand people of color have, where you dont need to explain it.'
Explained she: 'If a story line is funny to me, if its real to me, if it moves me, then its my thing. Its my experience, so no one can take that away from me.'
The Los Angeles-born imrpesaria let on that the secret to the show's enduring ability to stay true to itself was in her 'surrounding myself with people of color. I could never do this show and have a predominantly white staff.'
Side by side: Posting a three-photo Instagram album of the pair of them together, Issa captioned: that the first one was: 'A) Me and My President'
Issa shared: 'Sometimes the white writers will be like: "I didnt even know what that line meant until I watched the show," and Im like: "Thats OK. There are some things that are just for us."'
She acknowledged her good fortune in that 'Im doing what I love, and that is never lost on me. Even when Im in my most frustrated moments, Im like: "Theres always a silver lining." My general vibe is grateful, happy.'
Issa confessed: 'You almost feel guilty, though. Not to discredit depression - you know I applaud people for being able to come out and be like: "I am sad, I am depressed" - but part of me feels guilty for being happy and OK.'
It was a historic night on The Great British Bake Off.
No, not because Manon said the word f**ked.
It didnt take Channel 4 long did it? Two episodes into the second series and we already had swearing in the Showstopper! #PrayForMaryBerry
There's a first for everything: Manon made history with the first f**ked in the Great British Bake Off tent on Tuesday
It wasnt because there was a cake in a skirt either - a grass skirt, complete with a garland of flowers. What else would it be wearing on a Hawaiian Pina Colada Cake?!
Or Jon, the contestant who confessed he wasnt looking forward to Cake Week on the grounds cakes are not really my thing. (On the Great British Bake Off! Whats he doing there?)
Like the iconic spectacle that was the top half of the Eiffel Tower falling off, they barely got a mention.
Well done: The moment came after Paul Hollywood - obviously as his Holiness blessed THREE Bakers with one of his legendary handshakes (shattering his previous record of two)
No, the landmark moment was a contribution by Paul Hollywood - obviously as his Holiness blessed THREE Bakers with one of his legendary Paul Hollywood handshakes (shattering his previous record of two).
The handshakes he bestowed on first Rahul and then Ruby were no ordinary handshakes either.
Ive never given a handshake for a Showstopper before! Paul announced modestly, after he tasted Rahuls Chocolate Collar Cake, paused for dramatic effect, and sternly requested Rahul, can you come here a minute please?
Pressing palms: The handshakes he bestowed on first Rahul and then Ruby were no ordinary handshakes either
Rahul was still wondering what he could have done wrong to merit this breach of GBBO protocol when Hollywood put the young chap out of his misery, suddenly laying hands on him the way the judge congratulates the winner at Crufts (the owner not the dog).
He did it with a two-handed handshake too - the type particularly false politicians use.
That is a fantastic cake! Hollywood eventually declared, when the applause had died down.
Congratulations: Rahul was still wondering what he could have done wrong to merit this breach of GBBO protocol when Hollywood put the young chap out of his misery, suddenly laying hands on him the way the judge congratulates the winner at Crufts
What a time to be alive! It was one of those Events well always remember where we were like hearing the Brexit result or the Susan Boyle moment (possibly better).
A piece of TV History so momentous he repeated two minutes later (on someone else).
Rahul certainly deserved it. His chocolate orange layer cake was even better than a spectacular Terrys Chocolate Orange with amazing swirls in the collar and huge shards of chocolate erupting from the top.
Impressed: Ive never given a handshake for a Showstopper before! Paul announced modestly, after he tasted Rahuls Chocolate Collar Cake
Other unusual, enticing, delights included Antonys Indian Bakewell tart, Rubys Boozy Black Forest gateaux, and Kim-Joys Pandan Chiffon Cake, which Paul was not a fan of.
So whats a Pandan leaf? he asked her, picking up the Pandan leaf and smelling it. (Its a leaf Paul.)
Thats revolting! he scoffed, Do you know what thats like? Like I just cut my front lawn!
What a wit.
Well earned: Rahul certainly deserved it. His chocolate orange layer cake was even better than a spectacular Terrys Chocolate Orange
Delightful: His creation was decorated with amazing swirls in the collar and huge shards of chocolate erupting from the top
I like it! Noel Fielding contradicted Paul later when it came to the tasting. Thats like pond water!
What a loon.
Some of the ingredients alone sounded mouth-watering without being even baked into cakes: pineapple jam, rhubarb jam, soft Spanish nougat, Yuzu curd.
As for Brionys Showstopper, Noel Fielding informed us: she needs to bake three tiers of chocolate fudge and salted caramel cake, then fill them with salted caramel and vodka butter-cream the sentence Ive been waiting my whole life for. (Vodka butter-cream?! Who knew?!)
Having made 3-D Biscuit Selfies in last weeks finale, possibly the most interesting creations involved real some might say, historical figures: namely, Jackson Pollock, Claude Monet, Fielding, and Sandi Toksvig.
Complex: As for Brionys Showstopper, Noel Fielding informed us: she needs to bake three tiers of chocolate fudge and salted caramel cake, then fill them with salted caramel and vodka butter-cream
For the Technical Challenge, Prue Leith tasked the competitors with baking une gateaux verte: a pistachio Genovese sponge topped with fondant made of spinach puree. (Coming to a Greggs near you soon.)
This is absolutely ridiculous! spluttered Terry, trying to strain a horrible sloppy wodge of the green stuff.
This is not going to go well ! predicted Karen - correctly, as it turned out later when she abandoned ship and tipped her mixture into the bin.
Laying down the gauntlet: For the Technical Challenge, Prue Leith tasked the competitors with baking une gateaux verte: a pistachio Genovese sponge topped with fondant made of spinach puree
Briony on the other hand was enjoying the experience of baking a cake with such an unusual ingredient.
It smells like Health, doesnt it?! she enthused.
Or cabbage! countered Noel Fielding, suggesting he doesnt eat a lot of spinach.
The weirdest Chocolate Collar cake (or any cake) was undoubtedly Manons.
When I was an au pair I looked after this little girl who loved dressing up as a princess. This cake is for her.
In the room at the top of her almond castle cake she put the tiny almond prince and almond princess.
Unconventional: Briony on the other hand was enjoying the experience of baking a cake with such an unusual ingredient
Is that me and Sandi?! Noel deduced astutely, possibly by recognising his horrendous new Child-Catcher haircut.
Thats fantastic! Sandi agreed.
Not necessarily
This is you fast asleep! Manon told Noel pointing to his Mini Me (in almond sponge), who was indeed lying prostrate on the bed. And thats Sandi. Shes f**ked off - because youre late!
Is anyone else sensing Manon might have Issues, that shes working through? Not by playing with dolls houses as she might have when she was younger by using houses and people made of cake?
Another psychological sub-plot to watch out for concerns the internets theory that Paul Hollywood is attracted to one of the Bakers in particular and that this years Ruby Tandoh is, um, Ruby Bhogal.
(Admittedly Ruby is a great name.)
Curious: Is anyone else sensing Manon might have Issues, that shes working through? Not by playing with dolls houses as she might have when she was younger by using houses and people made of cake?
The biggest indicator this week was Hollywoods reaction to Rubys creations being disproportion good or bad: a classic giveaway.
Her Boozy Black Forest Traybake in the Signature Challenge was not immaculate but Hollywoods verdict was scathing provocatively so.
It looks like a forest floor! he growled.
OK, gulped Ruby, clearly taken aback.
Its a mess.
A bit much when hed just agreed that Brionys traybake looked hideous but reassured her: honestly I dont care how it looks. Its absolutely delicious.
I was always expecting Paul to have a gripe, Ruby reflected afterwards. But calling it a forest floor? He is savage!
Taking his fancy: Another psychological sub-plot to watch out for concerns the internets theory that Paul Hollywood is attracted to one of the Bakers in particular and that this years Ruby Tandoh is, um, Ruby Bhogal
The Jackson Pollack-style collar that adorned Rubys Showstopper was either a fairly feeble homage to the great American painter (as she claimed) or a load of old Pollacks designed to excuse it being conveniently simple. (Too bland and plain, without Pollacks trademark multi-coloured spatter.)
The spin Ruby put on this was bordering on genius actually arguing that making a cake on the Bake Off than forging a career/reputation in the artworld.
Jackson Pollack would probably just whack it on but hes not being judged! she insisted, explaining why she hadnt really decorated the collar at all.
Luckily for Ruby, Paul Hollywood really that interested in Jackson Pollack and her actual sponge was delicious.
I could sit here eating this for an hour or so! purred Prue Leith, getting stuck in (a pretty great compliment).
Come here Ruby! grinned Hollywood, moving in for a handshake.
Im really happy with Pauls handshake, Ruby considered afterwards. Im pleased that ones in the bag and I would never take that back now.
Then her face lit up as she said: But I wanted to impress Prue!
A truly historic diss of Paul Hollywood and his handshake on The Great British Bake Off.
Ambassador Duong, who came to present his credentials, conveyed President Tran Dai Quangs greetings and invitation to visit Vietnam to his host.
He added that Morales trip to Vietnam is expected to enhance the multi-faceted cooperation between the two countries.
The Guatemalan President expressed his thanks and tasked Minister of Foreign Affairs Sandra Erica Jovel, who also attended the meeting, with arranging his visit to Vietnam.
Morales said he believes in developing the Vietnam Guatemala relations, particularly in trade and investment.
Earlier, on September 3, the Vietnamese diplomat handed over a copy of his credentials to Guatemalan Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alicia Virginia Castillo.
On the occasion, both sides frankly discussed measures to boost their bilateral cooperation in economics-trade and cultural exchanges.
They agreed that the establishment of a political consultation mechanism between the Vietnamese and Guatemalan foreign ministries, as well as the mutual support of the two countries at international organisations and multilateral forums, particularly in Asia-Pacific, are also necessary.
They considered these practical activities to mark 25 years of Vietnam Guatemala relations (1993 - 2018).
She recently returned to work on her HBO comedy Veep after production was halted while she sought treatment for breast cancer.
And now Julia Louis-Dreyfus is sharing her feelings about her health crisis as well as how she's become an advocate for others with the disease.
'I do feel different, but I cant quite articulate how,' the actress, 57, told InStyle in an interview published Tuesday.
'Ive come out the other side of this, and Im still not exactly sure how to define the difference other than to say Im grateful, of course, but its more than that. Its bigger,' she explained.
Advocate: Julia Louis-Dreyfus told INStyle she feels 'different' and 'gratfeul' following her breast cancer battle. She's also helped design this t-shirt that will be sold at Saks Fifth Avenue to raise money for a breast cancer charity
The former Seinfeld star was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2017, sharing the news the day after she won her sixth Emmy in a row for her work on Veep.
She underwent surgery and three rounds of chemotherapy and now says she wants to focus on the future.
'Im not someone who likes looking back. I look forward. Thats how I operate,' Louis-Dreyfus said. 'Im always just moving on, you know?'
Health crisis: The former Seinfeld star, 57, was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2017, sharing the news the day after she won her sixth Emmy in a row for her work on Veep
Remission: She recently returned to work on her HBO comedy after production was halted while she sought treatment. She had surgery and three rounds of chemotherapy
As part of her forward-looking focus, she has partnered with Carolina Herrera designer Wes Gordon to design a T-shirt for Saks Fifth Avenue's 20th Key to the Cure program.
The limited-edition shirt will sell for $35 at Saks stores during the month of October and the money raised will go to the AiRS (Alliance in Reconstructive Surgery) Foundation, which offers financial support to breast cancer patients who can't afford reconstructive surgery.
'There are plenty of women who decide not to get reconstruction, which is fine,' Louis-Dryfus said. 'But if you want it and cant afford it, thats heartbreaking to me.'
'The gap between the haves and the have-nots in our country its a very wide divide right now. Im lucky enough to be in a union where I get fabulous benefits. Not everyone is so lucky,' she added.
They've been inseparable since winning Love Island together in July.
And Dani Dyer put on an amorous display with her boyfriend Jack Fincham as the pair headed to Ariana Grande's concert at Koko in London on Tuesday.
The reality TV beauty, 22, looked totally smitten with her Kent beau, 26, as they were mobbed by fans outside the venue.
Coupled up: Love Island's Dani Dyer, 22, and Jack Fincham, 26, got hounded by fans as they enjoyed Ariana Grande's London gig at Koko on Tuesday
Dani looked effortlessly chic in a red leopard print dress and wrapped an edgy black jacket around her shoulders.
The daughter of TV hardman Danny Dyer elongated her slender pins in a pair of patent leather heeled boots and toted a sophisticated silver chain handbag.
Dani styled her glossy chocolate tresses in a sleek straight 'do which cascaded far past her shoulders and highlighted her natural beauty.
Staying close: The reality TV beauty looked totally smitten with her Kent beau, 26, as they were mobbed by fans outside the venue
Stylish: Dani looked effortlessly chic in a red leopard print dress and wrapped an edgy black jacket around her shoulders
Cosy: The daughter of TV hardman Danny Dyer elongated her slender pins in a pair of patent leather heeled boots and toted a sophisticated silver chain handbag
Dapper: Beau Jack looked just as smart in his casual attire, opting for a cream jacket paired with khaki polo and distressed jeans
Smiles: Dani styled her glossy chocolate tresses in a sleek straight 'do which cascaded far past her shoulders and highlighted her natural beauty
Beau Jack looked just as smart in his casual attire, opting for a cream jacket paired with khaki polo and distressed jeans.
The showbiz couple enjoyed Ariana Grande's intimate gig and were quickly met with a slew of fans as they tried to make their way out of the venue.
Ariana was peforming in the UK for an intimate gig following the release of her album Sweetner.
Having taken time away from the spotlight to deal with the aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombings in 2017, the night was clearly emotional for the pop superstar.
On stage: Ariana wowed the crowds with her vocals
Hitting the right notes: She sang hits from her new album Sweetner
Music to their ears: Having taken time away from the spotlight to deal with the aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombings in 2017, the night was clearly emotional for the pop superstar
Ariana told the crowd: 'This is so special. You are all so supportive. It means the world. Im so grateful for this
In the middle of the intimate set, the star gushed: 'I missed you guys its so lovely being here again. This is so much fun
Before their date night, Dani and Jack reunited in Manchester, with the couple trying to wade through a huge crowd of adoring fans just waiting for a glimpse of the famous pairing.
Heading home: The showbiz couple enjoyed Ariana Grande's intimate gig and were quickly met with a slew of fans as they tried to make their way out of the venue
Fan favourite: Dani stopped to speak to a fan in a wheelchair as she left the venue
Sweet: Their date night comes after Dani discussed her life outside the villa with her 'soulmate' Jack, and insisted she's never had such a strong connection before
Their date night comes after Dani discussed her life outside the villa with her 'soulmate' Jack, and insisted she's never had such a strong connection before.
Quizzed whether she'd found The One, the bubbly star enthused to MailOnline: 'Yes definitely! I havent loved anyone like this before. And when you know you know.
'He is my best friend and my boyfriend all in one and I am so so glad I met him.
'He brings out the best in me and I cant wait for our future together. I love him more and more every day. I have turned into a proper cringe bag since I have met him!'
Loved up: Quizzed whether she'd found The One, the bubbly star enthused to MailOnline: 'Yes definitely! I havent loved anyone like this before. And when you know you know'
Coupled up: 'He is my best friend and my boyfriend all in one and I am so so glad I met him' Dani enthused
Eyes for each other: The pair wasted no time moving in together after leaving Mallorca, and things have been going from strength-to-strength since deciding to rent a modern Essex pad
All eyes on her: Former Love Island star Tina Stinnes cut a racy figure as she left the intimate gig in semi-sheer lacy bodice paired with crisp white slacks
The pair wasted no time moving in together after leaving Mallorca, and things have been going from strength-to-strength since deciding to rent a modern Essex pad.
Dani enthused: 'Its fun! We really knew thats what we wanted to do, and I honestly think its the best decision we made.
'I thought moving out would be tough, but clearly my mum has taught me a lot about living with a man, hah!'
Moving in: Dani enthused: 'Its fun! We really knew thats what we wanted to do, and I honestly think its the best decision we made'
Main man: Despite things being easier because they spent 24/7 together on Love Island this summer, Dani did admit that Jack has some annoying habits
Despite things being easier because they spent 24/7 together on Love Island this summer, Dani did admit that Jack has some annoying habits.
'He is so messy!', she scoffed. 'He leaves things everywhere and he knows I like a clean tidy house.
'Especially with wrappers I always find them in the most random places. I have told him though when I wash up he can dry up because it is equal!
'But I will definitely be doing the cleaning because he is very half-hearted when it comes to that.'
Watch exclusive highlights from Capital Up Close presents Ariana Grande at Capitalfm.com, @CapitalOfficial and on Capital TV from today.
Flashing lights: Dani and Jack tried to make their way through the hordes of people but didn't mind taking a few snaps with eager fans
Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash and ex Perla Ferrara have reached a pact to finalize their divorce, after more than three-and-a-half years after he filed in the split.
The 53-year-old musician and Ferrara, 43, appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom on Tuesday, TMZ reported, to bring closure to the details in their split.
One of the main issues revolved around Ferrara's allegation Slash's girlfriend Meegan Hodges operated an Instagram account which harassed both Ferrara and the two sons she shared with the rocker, London Emilio, 16 and Cash Anthony, 14.
It's done: Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash, 53, and Perla Ferrara, 43, have reached a pact to finalize their divorce after more than three-and-a-half years after he filed in the split
The court granted Ferrara access to official Charter Communications records of Slash's Internet information to suss out whether Hodges could have been linked to the account in question.
The Sweet Child O'Mine performer has previously said that his kids were not targeted on the account, and many of the items on it came directly from Perla's account.
Slash, whose real name is Saul Hudson, had been battling with Ferrara over other issues that stalled the finalization of the split.
Red carpet: The couple was on better terms at an LA event in May of 2014
In contention: the exact amount of his income, as well as whether or not Ferrara would have a direct line of access to him via phone to discuss the children.
The Paradise City artist previously told the court that he and Ferrara had agreed to not speak with one another directly, and had a program that could assist them with it.
Slash tied the knot with Ferrara in October of 2001.
Hard feelings: Slash's current gal pal Meegan Hodges has been accused of online harassment by Ferrara
He said he and Ferrara had separated in June of 2014 in citing irreconcilable differences in his divorce filing in December 2014.
The guitarist moved in with Hodges about a month later, and the pair got matching tattoos, according to the outlet.
The Patience artist had filed for divorce four years earlier in 2001, but he and Ferrara rectified their issues at that time.
TMZ reported later in the day that Slash has been ordered to pay '$6.6 million as well as $100,000 per month in spousal support and $39,000 per month in child support.'
'Slash will keep all his guitars and any musical compositions he owns ... with future proceeds belonging to Slash.
'Perla gets primary physical custody as each kid will get .09% of Slash's income for the next 20 years.'
Meghan McCain was absent from her usual seat on The View when season 22 kicked off on Tuesday.
It appeared the hostess was taking some time off to mourn her father Sen. John McCain who died after a battle with glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive cancer, at the age of 81 on August 25.
The panel - Whoopi Goldberg, 62; Joy Behar, 74; Sunny Hostin, 49; and new co-host Abby Huntsman, 32 - took a moment to honor both Meghan, 33, and her father on Tuesday's episode.
Sad duty: Meghan McCain was absent from The View on Tuesday after a week of memorials to her late father Sen. John McCain who died, age 81, following a battle with brain cancer on August 25. Here she is seen giving an eulogy at the National Cathedral in Washington DC
Abby dished: 'Meghan is like a sister to me and this was the hardest thing she has ever been through.'
The 32-year-old, whose father is U.S. ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, previously worked for Fox & Friends Weekend.
She continued: 'Her dad was her best friend, her dad was everything. I was so proud of her it was like her dad had passed the torch to her. She was now speaking for the family.'
Abby also honored the late war hero, saying that his services represented 'a commitment to service that I think we have such an aching for, right now, in this country.
'Her dad was everything': The View's new co-host Abby Huntsman, 32, paid a touching tribute to her 33-year-old friend and her father on the ABC show
'He was willing to give his life for this country,' she said. 'And that is a love for this country that very few people have.'
Of Meghans emotional tribute to her father at his funeral, The View's Sunny Hostin, 49, remarked, 'I dont think Ive ever heard a group of people applaud at a eulogy.
'It was just so moving to see our friend and our colleague rise to that occasion,' she said.
In her usual spot: The beautiful blonde, second right, with, from left, The View co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines and guest host Mark Hamill in March
'We all know shes devastated by the passing of her father. But my God, she showed everyone how tough she is.'
Sunny was likely referring to Meghan's sly dig at President Donald at her father's memorial at the Washington National Cathedral on Saturday, when she said: 'The America of John McCain has no need to be great again because America was always great.'
He was laid to rest at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, on Sunday ending a week of memorials to him.
He and wife Emily Blunt clearly enjoy each other's company, having starred together in horror film blockbuster A Quiet Place.
And John Krasinski has revealed that the couple are so inseparable that while shooting his TV series Jack Ryan, the 38-year-old would travel 6000 miles every weekend to be with the actress and their two children.
'Family for me, its a non-negotiable thing,' the actor told People on Sunday.
Scroll down to see video
Partners: He and wife Emily Blunt clearly enjoy each other's company, having starred together in horror film blockbuster A Quiet Place. Seen here in July 2018
The star of The Office told the publication, 'I was shooting 6,000 miles away from them, and I flew back every single weekend.'
Krasinski was shooting the Amazon series in Montreal at the same time Blunt was shooting Mary Poppins in London.
So John made the weekly long-distance flight in order to spend time with his The Girl On The Train star bride and their daughters, Hazel, four, and Violet, two.
We are family: 'Family for me, its a non-negotiable thing,' the actor told People on Sunday. July 2018
The 13 Hours actor had previously spoken to Men's Health about the process of directing his wife in the hit movie A Quiet Place.
John admitted : 'I know Ill never do another movie thats this successful, this original, this underdog-y, and then on top of it have it be with my wife every step of the way.
'I said to Emily, "Theres no greater gift that the universe could have given me than to go through the biggest success of my career and I dont have to explain to you how it felt." We were both in the boat. I said to her, "I dont know if it can ever be like this again.
'Andagain, leave it to Emily, who is better at everything than meshe goes, "It cant." She just so perfectly encapsulated it. "It cant be like this again, and it shouldnt. So take this and put it on a mantel, this really special treasure that we experienced together. And now go out and do something else."'
After being stretchered out of Kylie Jenner's 21st birthday party in West Hollywood last month, you'd expect Tammy Hembrow would try to downplay her reputation as a party girl.
But the 24-year-old Australian model showed no signs of slowing down on Tuesday after hopping on a coast-to-coast flight from Los Angeles to New York.
She shared an Instagram snap of herself in a private jet with her friends Carrington Durham and Delilah Belle, the latter of whom wore a very suggestive slogan top.
Scroll down for video
'F**ked Up Friends Club': Tammy Hembrow's pal made a bold fashion statement as they flew to New York by private jet on Tuesday after the Instagram model was hospitalised at Kylie Jenner's birthday party last month
In the photo, Tammy flaunted her abs in a crop top while Delilah made a bold fashion statement in a longsleeve T-shirt with the slogan: 'F.U.F.C. F**ked Up Friends Club'.
The daring outfit choice is perhaps a little unfortunate considering that Tammy's last visit to America ended in a trip to hospital after she partied too hard.
While attending Kylie Jenner's birthday party on Thursday 9 August, the Gold Coast local became unwell at the Delilah nightclub on Santa Monica Boulevard.
Here comes trouble! On Tuesday, Tammy jetted to New York Fashion Week via private jet with her glamorous pals following a whirlwind trip to Los Angeles
Paramedics were called and she was pictured being carried out of the venue face down on a stretcher shortly before midnight.
She was transported to a nearby hospital but seemingly recovered quickly, as she was posting photos to Instagram of herself shopping on Rodeo Drive the next day.
Tammy later blamed the incident on tiredness, jet-lag and her recent split with the father of her two children, fashion designer Reece Hawkins.
Just stopping by! The mother-of-two spent around 24 hours in the City of Angels before flying across the country to the East Coast. Pictured below her Good American billboard in LA
Meanwhile Tammy's cross-country flight comes after she enjoyed an overnight stopover in Los Angeles this week.
The mother-of-two spent around 24 hours in the City of Angels before jetting to NYC for Fashion Week.
Her activewear brand Saski Collection - named after her daughter Saskia - is being showcased on the runway.
Flying in style! Tammy is travelling to NYC for Fashion Week, where her activewear brand Saski Collection is being showcased on the runway. Pictured: Tammy and friends boarding the flight
BBC Radio 3 will devote a monthly slot to relaxing sounds such as church bells or boiling kettles to help people escape the frenzy of everyday life.
The half-hour slow radio programme will also include the noise of clocks ticking, a steam engine chugging through countryside, and the sound of cattle being blessed by a priest in Ireland.
Station boss Alan Davey said he hopes it will attract younger listeners by giving them a chance for quiet mindfulness.
BBC Radio 3 boss Alan Davey, right, has announced his station will broadcast 30 minutes of relaxation sounds once a month to give people 'a chance for quiet mindfulness'
Among the sounds planned for broadcast are a steam train racing through the countryside
He said: For a long time people have been encouraged to consume things in short chunks. I think there is an increasing longing among younger audiences for longer things that take the time they take. He said the station is returning to an old fashioned feel, adding: It is like an analogue experience in a digital world, but conversely done digitally.
The programme, which will air on the first Thursday of each month at midnight, will have different themes each episode. One programme will be a sonic journey through industrial and domestic technology. An insider said: Well be aiming to capture sounds and experiences you wouldnt necessarily have a chance to hear. You cant go inside a kettle, for instance.
Radio 3 will also run a series of sonic memorials for the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War in November. Microphones were sent to battlefields across the world, from the Lochnagar crater in the Somme to modern conflicts such as Helmand in Afghanistan.
Mr Davey also announced the stations first voice-activated project a play that will use Amazons Alexa device.
For most people, long showers can serve as a great time for relaxation and introspection.
But for Keith Urban, 50, time beneath the jets often doubles as an opportunity to create his next big hit.
Speaking to HIT 105's Stav, Abby & Matt about his song-writing process on Wednesday, Keith explained: 'Showers are just one of those places where a lot of ideas come to me.'
'You want to grab your recorder and just capture it!' Keith Urban, 50, revealed he likes to write songs in the shower during an interview with HIT 105's Stav, Abby & Matt on Wednesday
'It's not convenient though, you want to grab your recorder and just capture something just not your ideal place to be writing anything down,' he added.
Keith also admitted that has developed ideas for songs while driving- another inconvenient time for writing things down.
It comes weeks after Keith's wife Nicole Kidman shared a hilarious photo of him playing a banjo next to the toilet.
'Whatever it takes to get the right sound when youre recording': It comes weeks after Keith's wife Nicole Kidman shared a hilarious photo of him playing a banjo next to the toilet
'Whatever it takes to get the right sound when youre recording,' Nicole joked in the caption.
'Nothing like the acoustics in a hotel bathroom,' she added.
In the image, Keith clutched his electric banjo behind a makeshift microphone stand and wore a pair of black headphones.
Earlier this month, Keith revealed to the Herald Sun that it was his hometown gigs which helped him hone his talents, before striking it big in Nashville.
'All those years of pub gigs in Brisbane paid off' Earlier this month, Keith revealed to the Herald Sun that it was his hometown gigs which helped him hone his talents, before striking it big in Nashville
'All those years of pub gigs in Brisbane paid off because it taught me how to read a crowd,' he told the publication.
The stellar showman credited these early performances with perfecting his craft, with skills he still uses now.
'If something is connecting, an upbeat song, I will tell the band 'f*** the ballad, let's keep the party going.'
It's the first of many educational milestones for Hilaria and Alec Baldwin's young kids.
Hilaria took to Instagram on Tuesday to share as her five-year-old daughter Carmen is headed to her first day of school this week.
'Our tiny date for the night before kindergarten!!!' the Majorca, Spain-born beauty, 34, wrote as a caption to a shot in which she, Carmen and Alec were posed in front of a door.
Milestone: Hilaria Baldwin, 34, took to Instagram on Tuesday to share a pair of posts as her five-year-old daughter Carmen is headed to her first day of school this week. She, the tot and dad Alec posed prior to the outing
In the picture, Hilaria wore a black T-shirt with a plunging neck, tattered denim shorts and light pink heels. The beautiful fitness fanatic had her brown locks parted to one side and wore a pair of black sunglasses as she snapped the shot.
Alec wore a black T-shirt with dark navy blue slacks and black dress shoes, with his grey locks parted, while Carmen looked adorable in a long-sleeved light blue shirt with blue pants and black shoes with a strap.
The 5ft4 yogi, who's been married to the A-list actor for five years, joked that Carmen 'finally put pants on' after she initially was ready to leave the home without them.
The mom-of-four - to daughter Carmen, and sons Rafael Thomas, three, Leonardo Angel Charles, one, and Romeo, three months, earlier took to the social media shot Tuesday with a pic of Carmen, explaining the itinerary for the evening.
Chow time: Baldwin shared a few shots from her pre-first day of school meal with the fam
Too cute: The mom lovingly stared at her oldest daughter while they stepped out to eat
'Tomorrow Carmen starts kindergarten,' Hilaria wrote, adding an emoji of a teary face.
Hilaria said that Carmen had an idea they should talk about it over a dinner.
'How are you feeling about school starting? What are important pieces of advice that you have?' the mom-of-four asked, adding that hashtag, '#wegotthis2018.'
She later took to the social media site to share excerpts from their night out before the big day, as Carmen sat on her dad's lap in one shot, and in another looked upset as she waited for her meal to arrive.
Hilaria added, 'Realizing that going out to dinner means waiting for your food,' with an emoji of a hysterical laughing face.
With Netflix's Murder Mystery in the can and several other upcoming projects ahead, Friends alum Jennifer Aniston is happy to be single and focusing on her film acting career.
'She isn't concerned about dating. She is happy to focus on work,' a source told People on Tuesday. 'She's been having a great summer.'
The 49-year-old Golden Globe winner was joined on the Italian set of her latest movie by her hairstylist Chris McMillan, and she also made time to visit her Rock Star producer George Clooney and his family in nearby Lake Como.
That's a wrap! With Netflix's Murder Mystery in the can, Friends alum Jennifer Aniston is happy to be single and focusing on her film acting career (pictured August 28)
'[Jennifer] loves filming with [her onscreen leading man Adam Sandler]. She has been working long days but loves being in Europe,' the insider added.
The 51-year-old Golden Globe nominee 'had a blast' working with his former Just Go With It castmate in the 2019 comedy about a married couple becoming suspects of an elderly billionaire's murder on a super yacht.
Luke Evans, Terence Stamp, and Gemma Arterton also star in Murder Mystery, which was helmed by Kyle Newacheck (Game Over, Man! and Workaholics).
As for Aniston's estranged second husband Justin Theroux - whom she 'mutually and lovingly' separated from back in December - she 'doesn't even talk about him anymore.'
A source told People: 'She isn't concerned about dating. She is happy to focus on work. She's been having a great summer' (pictured with make-up artist Angela Levin on August 15)
'#Italy': The 49-year-old Golden Globe winner was joined on the Italian set of her latest movie by her hairstylist Chris McMillan (pictured July 28), and she also made time to visit her Rock Star producer George Clooney and his family in nearby Lake Como
The insider added: '[Jennifer] loves filming with [her onscreen leading man Adam Sandler, R]. She has been working long days but loves being in Europe' (pictured August 27)
'Last day shooting!' The 51-year-old Golden Globe nominee 'had a blast' working with his former Just Go With It castmate in the 2019 comedy about a married couple becoming suspects of an elderly billionaire's murder on a super yacht
'Truly memorable summer!' Luke Evans (L), Terence Stamp, and Gemma Arterton also star in Murder Mystery, which was helmed by Kyle Newacheck
'She doesn't keep up with what he does. She is focusing on her own life,' the source noted.
On Tuesday, the 47-year-old SAG Award nominee - whom the San Fernando Valley native met on the set of Tropic Thunder in 2007 - Insta-storied a street video indicating that he was flying out of England.
Jen - who divorced Brad Pitt in 2005 - discussed single life and hinted that fertility issues might have been an issue with her split from Justin in the September edition of InStyle.
'It's pretty crazy,' Aniston told the mag.
'Mutually and lovingly' separated in December: As for Aniston's estranged second husband Justin Theroux, she 'doesn't even talk about him anymore' (pictured in 2017)
The source noted: 'She doesn't keep up with what he does. She is focusing on her own life' (final public appearance on July 25, 2017)
Bye bye! On Tuesday, the 47-year-old SAG Award nominee Insta-storied a street video indicating that he was flying out of England
'They don't know what I've been through medically': Jen - who divorced Brad Pitt in 2005 - discussed single life and hinted that fertility issues might have been an issue with her split from Justin in the September edition of InStyle
'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. First, with all due respect, Im 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.'
Aside from Murder Mystery, the Yellow Birds actress has signed on to an Apple morning show series with Reese Witherspoon, a Sophie Goodhart suburban comedy, and Netflix comedy First Ladies with Tig Notaro.
Audiences can next catch the Emmy winner as ex-beauty queen Rosie Dickson in Anne Fletcher's musical dramedy Dumplin' - due out later this year - about a teen pageant in Texas.
POTUS: Aside from Murder Mystery, Aniston has signed on to an Apple morning show series with Reese Witherspoon, a Sophie Goodhart suburban comedy, and Netflix comedy First Ladies with Tig Notaro (R)
At the beginning of the article, the author affirmed that Vietnam is becoming a prominent and influencing factor on both a regional and even global scale. Vietnams role and status are becoming increasingly affirmed in both economic and political terms. The rate of economic growth is stable at 6-7%, which is demonstrated through the successful activities of Vietnam at international organisations such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum, the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and many other organisations.
According to Grigory Trofimchuk, in order to develop the Russia-Vietnam relationship, in the future, new efforts and responsibility will be required, especially in the context that Vietnam, with the common consent of the other Asian countries, has been nominated for a position as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the term 2020-2021. In addition, 2019 will mark the 25th anniversary of a treaty on the basic principles for bilateral friendship (June 16, 1994 - 2019) which will require the two countries to be more responsible for fostering and developing the relationship.
In the article, the author emphasised that Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong is not only an excellent theorist of the Communist Party of Vietnam, but he has also done a great deal for the country. He was re-elected as the General Secretary at the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam in 2016. He is also the one who outlined the path of further development for the country in foreign and socio-economic policies, while taking into account all the changes in the modern world. It is important to acknowledge these achievements of Vietnam, with the important role of the head of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Vietnam is pursuing a clear foreign policy with a consistent approach to diversifying its international relations.
The author noted that Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong is a trustworthy comrade of Russia, and when talking about his country he can be called Comrade Vietnam. In recent years, Russia and Vietnam have achieved many new milestones but both countries are also facing new challenges, which will require more efforts to overcome, eliminate all threats and risks at this very moment, as well as successfully take advantage of opportunities. In his conclusion, Grigory Trofimchuk emphasised that the Russian experts hope that after Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trongs official visit to Russia, Moscow and Hanoi would enter a new period of development at a higher level.
They've become a cosy foursome over the past few weeks.
And brothers Nick and Joe Jonas and their respective fiancees Priyanka Chopra and Sophie Turner watched Serena Williams defeat Karolina Pliskova of Czechia in the US Open quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows in Queens, New York, on Tuesday.
The group were joined by Priyanka's mother, Madhu Chopra, as they put on an energetic display from the stands.
Family values: Nick and Joe Jonas and their respective fiancees Priyanka Chopra and Sophie Turner watched the US Open quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows in New York on Tuesday
All together now: The group were joined by Priyanka's mother, Madhu Chopra, (right) as they put on an energetic display from the stands
Nick, 25, and Priyanka, 36, looked utterly smitten as they cosied up while watching the match, with the actress wrapping her arms around her husband-to-be as she cheered away.
The Quantico star looked stunning in a white Fendi dress that highlighted her cleavage.
The form-fitting frock fell to just below her knees and an airy white cloth shirt draped gracefully from her shoulders.
Priyanka's long dark tresses tumbled in easy waves onto her chest, and carried an elegant black purse - a TODS Croc Embossed Mini Satchel.
Loved-up: Nick, 25, and Priyanka, 36, looked utterly smitten as they cosied up while watching the match, with the actress wrapping her arms around her husband-to-be as she cheered away
Double date: The Quantico star looked stunning in a white Fendi dress that highlighted her cleavage as the group headed out for the evening
Double time: The form-fitting frock fell to just below her knees and an airy white cloth top draped gracefully from her shoulders
Double down: Priyanka's long dark tresses tumbled in easy waves onto her chest, and carried an elegant black purse - a TODS Croc Embossed Mini Satchel
The actress star added a couple inches with white stilettos and accessorized with a simple gold necklace, as well as her engagement ring.
Nick kept things casual in a grey sweatshirt and black chinos.
He wrapped a black crossbody bag around himself and donned slip-o black and white shoes.
Slight stubble defined his jawline and his dark locks were neatly trimmed for his family evening out.
Doublicious: The Quantico star added a couple inches with white stilettos and accessorized with a simple gold necklace as well as her engagement ring
Double jeopardy: Nick kept things casual in a grey sweatshirt and black chinos
His older brother Joe, 29, kept to his more rocker-type stylings, donning an open flannel shirt atop a white graphic t-shirt.
Blue chinos added a bit of class to the otherwise laid-back ensemble and he finished it off with white sneakers.
He let his dark tresses roam freely across his forehead and accessorized with a large silver watch.
Double entendre: Nick's older brother Joe, 29, kept to his more rocker-type stylings, donning an open flannel shirt atop a white graphic t-shirt
His fiancee, Game Of Thrones star Sophie Turner, 22, looked stunning in an equally casual ensemble that included a white graphic T-shirt and intriguing black pants that featured a cutout of her right hip.
Her blonde tresses fell easily behind her shoulders, and she kept them back with a pair of sunglasses.
She matched her fiancee with equally clean white sneakers and accessorized with a gorgeous gold watch.
Doubletree: Joe's fiancee Sophie Turner, 22, looked stunning in an equally casual ensemble that included a white graphic t-shirt and black pants
Daily Double: The Game Of Thrones star's blonde tresses fell easily behind her shoulders, and she kept them back with a pair of sunglasses
Joe and Sophie started dating in 2016, and got engaged in October 2017, however, their wedding plans remain unknown.
Nick and Priyanka were first spotted together at the Met Gala in May of 2017.
It wasn't until May of this year that the couple began dating officially.
They reportedly got engaged July 18 and then sealed the deal with a traditional Roka ceremony in Mumbai on August 18 that included members of both families.
Double up: Both Nick and Priyanka and Sophie and Joe are engaged to be married
The group looked thrilled as they watched Serena's match, proudly cheering her on between sips of various beverages.
The sport superstar, 36, won her match in straight sets while donning a one-armed form fitting black dress.
Serena will next play Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia in the US Open semi-final.
Invested: Priyanka couldn't hold back her excitement while watching the match
Touchy: The happy couple couldn't keep their hands off of each other
Keeping up with Jonas's: Nick checked his phone as his lady seemed to by gripped by the match
Kyle and Jackie O Show radio presenter Jackie 'O' Henderson has revealed that she once called an emergency mental health hotline.
Jackie, 43, and fellow radio host Kyle Sandilands were discussing TV presenter Osher Gunsberg's mental health struggles on Wednesday when she made the revelation.
'I don't know if I called the Lifeline number or a different line once,' Jackie said.
'I called a hotline for help': Jackie 'O' Henderson (pictured) revealed on Wednesday how she once phoned an emergency mental health service during her 'Gold Coast nightclubbing days'
A shocked Kyle asked: 'What did you ring up for?'
'This was during the Gold Coast nightclubbing days ... I was young. So I called. I asked them...' Jackie said trailing off.
Kyle, 47, interrupted her by jokingly saying in a high 'girly' voice: '"Becky totally hooked up with the guy I wanted to root and I hate her guts now! I'm gunna kill myself!"'
Revelation: 'I don't know if I called the Lifeline number or a different line once,' Jackie said. 'This was during the Gold Coast night clubbing days ... I was young'
'No, no, nothing like that,' replied Jackie. 'But I do remember them saying we can't give you advice, we just have to listen. And I was like, oh, OK. I didn't realise that.'
'But I'm not sure what Lifeline does [in that instance],' she added.
'You just thought it was free advice?' asked Kyle.
Help: Shock jock Kyle Sandilands (pictured) urged listeners to phone emergency mental health hotlines such as Lifeline if they are struggling
'I did. I thought, oh, they could help me out with this situation and I thought they would give me advice but they weren't allowed to,' Jackie explained.
Shock jock Kyle then urged listeners to phone emergency mental health hotlines, such as Lifeline, if they are struggling.
'If you are having troubles them the best thing to do is to speak to someone,' he said.
'They will help you, I'm sure,' Jackie said about mental health hotline services such as Lifeline
'Absolutely, they will help you, I'm sure,' added Jackie.
Lifeline provides 24-hour crisis support and suicide prevention services in Australia, seven days a week.
Similarly, MensLine Australia provides 24/7 phone counselling, video counselling and they also have a forum where men can socialise with other men to discuss common issues.
Suicide Call Back Service is another free 24-hour counselling service. It provides phone and online counselling to people aged over 15.
For confidential support call the Lifeline 24-hour crisis support on 13 11 14, MensLine on 1300 789 978, and Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467
She was first cast to walk in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show back in 2011.
And Shanina Shaik attempted to repeat the feat on Tuesday, when the 27-year-old arrived at the casting callbacks for the 2018 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in Midtown, New York City.
The Australian beauty exuded animal magnetism in a leopard print, wraparound skirt.
Shaik it: Shanina Shaik was first cast to walk in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show back in 2011
The 5ft8in stunner paired the statement garment with a simple white T-shirt.
Around her slender waist, Shaik slipped a brown leather belt, and on her feet she wore a pair of black heels.
The Muslim model wore her dark, wavy tresses untied and cascading over her shoulders.
Shanina kept her makeup simple, opting for eyeliner and a dab of nude lip.
Hear me roar: The 27-year-old Australian beauty exuded animal magnetism in a leopard print, wraparound skirt
Well-heeled: Around her slender waist, Shaik slipped a brown leather belt, and on her feet she wore a pair of black heels
Shaik has previously spoken of the racism she experienced in the fashion industry.
Shanina, who is of Lithuanian and Pakistani descent, told TooFab on Wednesday that she sometimes struggled to find work as a model because of her skin colour and cultural background.
'I did find at times that I couldn't book jobs because I didn't fit a certain category of like background or like cultural, like skin colour,' the Melbourne native said.
She added: 'It doesn't happen so often now, for me. But it did happen and it was really hard for me, it does tear you down.'
Good hair day: The Muslim model wore her dark, wavy tresses untied and cascading over her shoulders
Shanina also revealed that she has developed a thicker skin to handle rejection, if she isn't the right 'fit' for the job on offer.
'Sometimes with a client, if they wanted apples and you come in and you're a pear, you're not right for that look or that idea that the designer or the client has with an image for the job,' she said.
The brunette beauty, who is married to DJ Ruckus, is one of the stars of E!'s upcoming reality series Model Squad, a behind-the-scenes look at a group of young supermodels.
Shushanna Mkrtychyan was accused of witchcraft on Tuesday's episode of Bachelor in Paradise.
The 30-year-old Russian was in a huff because her feelings for Polish realtor Kamil Nicalek were not reciprocated.
Kamil, 30, was already in a relationship with Annaliese Puccini and was getting creeped out by Shu's persistent advances.
Spellbinding: Shushanna Mkrtychyan was accused of witchcraft on Tuesday's episode of Bachelor in Paradise
'She keeps on staring at melike an owl,' he shuddered.
'He's still looking back,' remarked Shu, who was convinced there were romantic vibes between her and Kamil.
When Kiwi Jordan Mauger got a date card, he offered it to Shu, but she rejected him and told him to take Cassandra Ferguson.
Shu then lured Kamil to the hot tub for a chat.
Unrequited: The 30-year-old Russian was in a huff because her feelings for Polish realtor Kamil Nicalek were not reciprocated
Emotional: Mkrtychyan sobbed after she learned she had been accused of casting spells on Kamil
'He's still looking back': Remarked Shu, who was convinced there were romantic vibes between her and Kamil
'I feel like there's no connection there between you and Ithere is no spark,' he told her bluntly.
She didn't believe him, saying: 'I feel like Kamil isn't being honest.'
'I think she's bat crazy right now, I think she's using her Russian witchery on me,' Kamil told Annaliese.
Fanning the flames: A picture of Kamil's love interest burned in a fire pit
'I think she's bat crazy right now, I think she's using her Russian witchery on me,' Kamil told Annaliese
Magic in the air: 'It's like this evil stare, I don't want her to put a spell on us,' he added
Stay away: Annaliese, a a 33-year-old actress, approached Shu and told her that Kamil was strictly 'off limits'
'It's like this evil stare, I don't want her to put a spell on us,' he added.
Annaliese, a a 33-year-old actress, approached Shu and told her that Kamil was strictly 'off limits.'
'You need to back off,' she advised angrily.
'He tried to kiss me [after the rose ceremony] and come back,' Shu told her.
Defending herself: 'He tried to kiss me [after the rose ceremony] and come back,' Shu told her
Witch hunt: 'First I'm European trash and now I'm a witch, seriously?' She sobbed
When Annaliese accused her of witchcraft she grew enraged.
'Do I look like a f**** witch?' She balked.
'First I'm European trash and now I'm a witch, seriously?' She sobbed.
Enter Diggy Moreland a 32-year-old inventory analyst from Rachel Lindsay's season.
He's back! Enter Diggy Moreland a 32-year-old inventory analyst from Rachel Lindsay's season
Trying it out: Diggy chatted with Shu, but she fobbed him off
Eyes only for him: Diggy took Olivia Goethals for dinner in Puerto Vallarta, where she played with his glasses
But Shu fobbed him off too, so he took Olivia Goethals for dinner in Puerto Vallarta.
They kissed and slow danced while Olivia's former beau John Graham was left to brood at the camp.
While Jordan frolicked in the waves with Cassandra, Shu decided that she should get together with him after all.
Pucker up: They kissed and slow danced while Olivia's former beau John Graham was left to brood at the camp
Success stories! The show had opened with previous BIP couples Carly Waddell and Evan Bass and Jade Roper Tolbert and Tanner Tolbert
She then dragged Jordan away from Cassandra and admitted that she was jealous.
It was his turn to reject her, which left her sobbing: 'It's so unfair.'
'I'm a f***ing witch,' she blubbered.
The show had opened with previous BIP couples Carly Waddell and Evan Bass and Jade Roper Tolbert and Tanner Tolbert.
Oh baby! Kendall and Grocery Joe were tasked with babysitting the couple's daughters
Babysitter's club: Kendall and Grocery Joe received the 'date' which involved baby-sitting their kids so the tired parents could have a break
They were tasked with choosing the first date.
The six BIP couples spoke with them in turn so they could determine who was 'the most deserving.'
Kendall and Grocery Joe received the 'date' which involved baby-sitting their kids so the tired parents could have a break.
Parent's day! The couples were treated to a pampering session as Kendall and Joe looked after their children
Giving it a go: They built a crib, while making double entendres about 'nuts' and 'finding the hole'
'Kids like me': Joe said confidently, as they started to cry hysterically
They built a crib, while making double entendres about 'nuts' and 'finding the hole.'
Joe was confident that the babies, Bella and Emmy, would love him.
'Kids like me,' he said confidently, as they started to cry hysterically.
Turned out that Kendall was a natural at childcare.
Aww: The star cradled baby Bella, who was wearing a pink floral headband and onesie to match
Maternal side: Turned out that Kendall was a natural at childcare
'This is a new side of Kendall I haven't seen before and I like it,' observed Joe, 31.
Their reward was a trip to town.
'I only want to date you,' said Joe, who hails from Chicago.
Hard conversations: Cassandra confessed to Eric she felt he wasn't ready for a relationship
Missing her: Eric, a 30-year-old personal trainer, broke down in tears, saying he missed Angela Amezcua, and had to leave
Eric Bigger and Cassandra were experiencing difficulties.
'I don't think that you're ready for a relationship at all,' she told him sternly.
Eric, a 30-year-old personal trainer, broke down in tears, saying he missed Angela Amezcua, and had to leave.
Saying goodbye: Eric left Paradise after his difficult conversation with Angela
Love is in the air: Chris Randone and Krystal Nielson confessed their love for each other over dinner
'That was my girl,' he said sadly.
'I hope that Eric can find love one day,' said Cassandra generously.
Meanwhile Chris 'the goose' Randone said he'd 'hit the Bachelor in Paradise lottery' with Krystal Nielson.
Heart of gold: Randone said he'd 'hit the Bachelor in Paradise lottery' with Krystal
Matters of the heart: They scored their first one-on-one date, on which Chris dropped the L Bomb
Meanwhile: In a game of Truth or Dare Olivia and John recreated Carly and Evan's famous habanero kiss
'There's something really special between us,' she agreed.
They scored their first one-on-one date, on which Chris dropped the L Bomb.
'I'm in love with you too,' she responded.
In a game of Truth or Dare Olivia and John recreated Carly and Evan's famous habanero kiss.
'I'm going to vomit,' squirmed Olivia.
Bachelor in Paradise continues next week on ABC.
Jessica Alba made a style statement in a black-patterned Rachel Zoe maxi-dress at the stylist-turned-designer's SS/19 presentation at Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
The mother-of-three, 37, looked sensational as she paired her belted Bardot-style frock with a matching chain-strapped bag and peep-toe ankle-strap platforms for the fashion festivities in association with Belvedere Vodka.
Joined by an array of celebrities, fashionistas, and style influencers - including Rachel herself - the entrepreneur looked in her element as she mingled at the star-studded bash.
Wow: Jessica Alba made a style statement in a black-patterned Rachel Zoe maxi-dress at the stylist-turned-designer's SS/19 presentation at Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles on Tuesday
Squad: Joined by celebrities, fashionistas, and style influencers - including Rachel Zoe herself (third from L bottom row) - the entrepreneur looked in her element as she mingled at the bash in association with Belvedere Vodka
Given the nature of the event, Jessica showed her support in the gorgeous dress from Rachel's line.
The number boasted a cheeky split, allowing the former Dark Angel star to show off her lean legs.
Hairstylist Davy Newkirk coiffed the Honest Company boss' signature middle-parted brunette tresses while make-up artist Jamie Greenberg made sure she was ready for her close-up
Jessica wasn't just a passive observer as the woman of the hour Rachel used her $2B brand's cosmetics collection (applied by make-up artist Monika Blunder) on all of her runway models.
Fashion festivities: The mother-of-three, 37, paired her belted Bardot-style frock with a matching chain-strapped bag and peep-toe ankle-strap platforms
The number boasted a cheeky split, allowing the former Dark Angel star to show off her lean legs
Glam: Hairstylist Davy Newkirk coiffed the Honest Company boss' signature brunette tresses while make-up artist Jamie Greenberg made sure she was ready for her close-up
True friend: Given the nature of the event, Jessica showed her support in the gorgeous dress from Rachel's line
Alba and Zoe (born Rosenzweig) have been friends for a long time, and their catwalk collaboration came after an 'easy' phone call.
Coincidentally, both mompreneurs sent their children to their first day of school on Tuesday - with Haven and Skyler, 7; in the second grade, Honor, 10; in the fifth grade, and Kai, 4; in pre-school.
Last Wednesday, the Mexican-American beauty said her eight-month-old son Hayes with her husband of a decade - Pair of Thieves sock designer Cash Warren - 'weirdly brought us all together.'
Part of the show: Jessica wasn't just a passive observer as Rachel used her $2B brand's cosmetics collection (applied by make-up artist Monika Blunder) on all of her runway models
Gal pals: Alba and Zoe (born Rosenzweig) have been friends for a long time, and their catwalk collaboration came after an 'easy' phone call
Two girls and two boys: Coincidentally, both mompreneurs sent their children to their first day of school on Tuesday - with Honor, 10; in the fifth grade, Haven and Skyler, 7; in the second grade, and Kai, 4; in pre-school
'Everyone sort of melts': Last Wednesday, the Mexican-American beauty said her eight-month-old son Hayes (L) with husband Cash Warren 'weirdly brought us all together'
Hitting US theaters December 1! Alba will next play Jade in Martin Owen's action crime-drama Killers Anonymous alongside Sadie Frost (2-L) and Gary Oldman (M, pictured July 11)
'Honor and Haven are at that age, 7 and 10, when they can kind of fight a lot about the things,' Jessica told Extra.
'But instantly when he comes in the room they're like, "Awww Hayes!" You know and everyone sort of melts.'
Alba will next play Jade in Martin Owen's action crime-drama Killers Anonymous -hitting US theaters December 1 - alongside Sadie Frost and Gary Oldman.
The Pomona-born stunner also shot a mystery role in the second season of comedic police procedural No Activity, which streams this fall on CBS All Access.
Happy: Jessica couldn't wipe the smile from her face
L-R: Michelle Alves, Rachel Zoe, Soleil Moon Frye and Rebecca Gayheart
Say cheese: The girls put on an animated display as they posed for a fun selfie
Spectacle: The girls also ensured to snap away once the presentation started
Jessica - who boasts 27.9M social media followers - Insta-storied a boomerang of herself twinning with her BFF, Kelly Sawyer Patricof.
Alba has made a habit of coordinating with the British Baby2Baby co-founder, having worn couples costumes during at least five separate Halloween celebrations.
Also joining the Dark Angel alum at Zoe's event were lovely ladies Lisa Rinna, Sarah Wright Olsen, Molly Sims, Erin Foster, and her older sister Sara.
For her special night, Rachel bared her back in a pink metallic maxi-dress of her own design and she accessorized with her favorite chunky gold necklace and platform stilettos.
'#Twinning': Jessica - who boasts 27.9M social media followers - Insta-storied a boomerang of herself twinning with her BFF, Kelly Sawyer Patricof
Her other half: Alba has made a habit of coordinating with the British Baby2Baby co-founder, having worn couples costumes during at least five separate Halloween celebrations
Babes: The twosome saw the funny side of wearing similar outfits as they posed away
'Girl power!' Also joining Jessica at Zoe's event were lovely ladies (from L-R) Lisa Rinna, Sarah Wright Olsen, Molly Sims, Erin Foster, and her older sister Sara
Zoe made her fashion show a family event with her dapper gents, including her investment banker husband of 20 years Rodger Berman, whom she met while attending George Washington University.
The slim tastemaker even closed her SS/19 show with a hand-in-hand strut down the runway alongside little Kai and Skylar twinning in matching suits, rainbow shirts, and loafers.
After all these years, Rachel's signature style of power pantsuits and frilly maxi-dresses still defined the aesthetic for her spring and summer line.
Speaking of family, the 55-year-old Real Housewife of Beverly Hills donned a sapphire suit alongside her black-clad 17-year-old daughter Amelia Gray (with husband of 21 years, Harry Hamlin).
Skinny Minnie! Rachel bared her back in a pink metallic maxi-dress of her own design and she accessorized with her favorite chunky gold necklace and platform stilettos
Family affair! Zoe posed with her dapper gents, including her investment banker husband of 20 years Rodger Berman, whom she met while attending George Washington University
Finale! The slim tastemaker even closed her SS/19 show with a hand-in-hand strut down the runway alongside little Kai and Skylar twinning in matching suits, rainbow shirts, and loafers
Woman of the hour: Rachel ensured all eyes on herself as she stepped out on the ramp
Catwalkers: After all these years, Rachel's signature style of power pantsuits and frilly maxi-dresses still defined the aesthetic for her spring and summer line
Both Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. stunner Chloe Bennet and Grey Lady actress Rebecca Gayheart opted for similar black halter jumpsuits featuring silver trim.
The half-Chinese 26-year-old - who's dating YouTuber Logan Paul - befriended Crazy Ex-Girlfriend triple-threat Rachel Bloom who was wearing the same jumpsuit in black.
Also posing for selfies inside the venue were the $100,000 Pyramid contestant Sara Foster in silver and jewelry designer Jennifer Meyer in metallic navy.
Speaking of family: The 55-year-old RHOBH star donned a sapphire suit alongside her black-clad 17-year-old daughter Amelia Gray (with husband of 21 years, Harry Hamlin)
Almost identical: Both Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. stunner Chloe Bennet (L) and Grey Lady actress Rebecca Gayheart (R) opted for similar black halter jumpsuits featuring silver trim
New BFF? The half-Chinese 26-year-old - who's dating YouTuber Logan Paul - befriended Crazy Ex-Girlfriend triple-threat Rachel Bloom (R) who was wearing the same jumpsuit in black
Sparkly duo: Also posing for selfies inside the venue were the $100,000 Pyramid contestant Sara Foster in silver and jewelry designer Jennifer Meyer in metallic navy
Hello sunshine! Standing out in a yellow floral bell-sleeved dress was Lauren Bushnell
Robot Chicken guest star Victoria Justice shook her shimmy in a golden fringed halter mini-dress and black ankle-strap heels.
Master the Mess executive producer Molly Sims easily defied her 45 years in a cleavage-flaunting navy velvet wrap dress and black stilettos.
And Grey's Anatomy star Jessica Capshaw - whose stepfather is Steven Spielberg - defied her 42 years in a plunging black pantsuit featuring a chevron-patterned collar with silver stilettos.
Shake it off! Robot Chicken guest star Victoria Justice shook her shimmy in a golden fringed halter mini-dress and black ankle-strap heels
Mother-of-three: Master the Mess executive producer Molly Sims easily defied her 45 years in a cleavage-flaunting navy velvet wrap dress and black stilettos
Mother-of-four: And Grey's Anatomy star Jessica Capshaw - whose stepfather is Steven Spielberg - defied her 42 years in a plunging black pantsuit
Pregnant pair: Chriselle Lim (L) and Yael Braun (R) showcased their burgeoning bumps in thigh-split maxi maternity dresses
Katie Holmes has been busy raising her profile as a fashionista.
And on Tuesday she turned out to support a launch event for A. Human, a self-described 'fashion brand from the future.'
The actress, 39, stepped out in a purple dress and black sandal heels for the New York City event.
Purple reign: Katie Holmes looked stylish in a clingy bright dress at a launch event for a 'futuristic' fashion brand in NYC
Her dress had three-quarter sleeves and a small cowl neck and was gathered at the hips at the front.
She wore her bobbed brown hair styled back from her face.
Her eyes were rimmed with black liner and mascara and she added glossy red lip color and dark red polish on her toe nails.
Double trouble: The event was hosted by PR specialist Simon Huck, (left), who cosied up to Katie Holmes for a snap
Natural beauty: Katie added inches to her frame with a pair of killer heels
A look ahead: The A. Human exhibition is billed as an 'immersive, theatrical experience created by Society of Spectacle', according to the brand's website
The A. Human exhibition is billed as an 'immersive, theatrical experience created by Society of Spectacle', according to the brand's website.
It's the brainchild of PR specialist Simon Huck.
Also on the celebrity guest list were models Toni Garrn and Nina Agdal, former Gossip Girl star Kelly Rutherford and Antoni Porowski and Jonathan Van Ness of Netflix's Queer Eye.
Blonde beauty: Model Toni Garrn, 26, put on a leggy show in a long-sleeved black top and black mini skirt paired with emerald green sandal heels with bows at the ankle
On trend: Nina Agdal, 26, showed up in a pale pink Zadig & Voltaire mini dress with a round neckline and long sleeves and a tiered skirt and added white heeled ankle boots
Model Toni Garrn, 26, put on a leggy show in a long-sleeved black top and black mini skirt paired with emerald green sandal heels with bows at the ankle.
She flashed her taut midriff in the ensemble and wore her blonde hair loose and tumbling around her shoulders.
Nina Agdal, 26, showed up in a pale pink Zadig & Voltaire mini dress with a round neckline and long sleeves and a tiered skirt.
The Danish model added a pair of white heeled boots and wore her hair in a top knot.
On the wild side: Former Gossip Girl star Kelly Rutherford, 49, looked stylish in a sleeveless leopard print tunic and matching trousers
Fingers on the fashion pulse: Antoni Porowski and Jonathan Van Ness of Netflix's Queer Eye also lent their celebrity to the event
Influencers: Olivia Palermo posed for photos with brand creator and PR specialist Simon Huck, left, and Alice + Olivia CEO Stacey Bendet was also on hand
Ryan Serhant has an unusual name choice for his first child - Socrates.
On Tuesdays season finale of Million Dollar Listing New York the 34-year-old power broker planned his family with his wife Emilia Bechrakis.
Ryan had just bought an enormous mansion for them in Brooklyn and Emilia was intent on having lots of babies to fill it.
Family planning: On Tuesdays season finale of Million Dollar Listing New York the 34-year-old power broker Ryan Serhant planned his family with his wife Emilia Bechrakis
As they sat on the stoop of their $7.6 million home Emilia told him she wanted to start IVF very soon.
Im optimistic about it, decided the 33-year-old.
Can we call the first one Socrates? Because Socrates Serhant sounds awesome, he asked.
Babies that sound and look like old men is the thing now, he reassured her.
Big moves: Ryan had just bought an enormous mansion for them in Brooklyn and Emilia was intent on having lots of babies to fill it
Name game: Can we call the first one Socrates? Because Socrates Serhant sounds awesome, he asked
What would they shorten it to, Sock? She joked.
The show had opened with Ryan, who had been trying to shift the swanky eight bedroom townhouse, which he ended up buying himself.
I cannot list this a dollar over $9 million, said Ryan, who was given 90 days to close the sale.
Nick names:What would they shorten it to, Sock? She joked
Buyer's market: The show had opened with Ryan, who had been trying to shift the swanky eight bedroom townhouse, which he ended up buying himself
To spice up the open house he organized a scavenger hunt.
Theyre only interested in finding all the envelopes and theyre not really paying attention to the house, he frowned.
After two weeks of no offers was told he needed to shift the house that day.
Scavenger hunt: To spice up the open house he organized a scavenger hunt
New author: His wife gave him a copy of his first book as a housewarming present
He decided to make an offer to buy it himself for $7.6 million, with planned renovations of at least $1.5 million.
Maybe extend some of the space out back, make a gym downstairs, he mused.
His wife gave him a copy of his first book as a housewarming present.
Its been a crazy year, he reflected.
Takes a village: Meanwhile Steve Gold checked out a 4,000 square foot place in Greenwich Village/ East Village
Relocation: After ensuring it was listed in the swankier Greenwich Village region he got multiple offers from multiple multi millionaires, some for over his asking price
Meanwhile Steve Gold checked out a 4,000 square foot place in Greenwich Village/ East Village. He estimated a sale for $5.55 million, which would earn him a commission of $166,500.
After ensuring it was listed in the swankier Greenwich Village region he got multiple offers from multiple multi millionaires, some for over his asking price.
He then hosted his family at his mansion in The Hamptons.
Family host: He then hosted his family at his mansion in The Hamptons
Dating life: Im just happy, he grinned, while they inquired about his dating life
Im just happy, he grinned, while they inquired about his dating life.
Whats there to talk about? He sighed.
Fredrik Eklund was working on a luxury development called River Park in Brooklyn.
The 41-year-old real estate tycoon was expected to sell the apartments before the sales galleries were completed, so he arranged a massive concert to promote the building.
Hard worker: Fredrik Eklund was working on a luxury development called River Park in Brooklyn
Big deal: The 41-year-old real estate tycoon was expected to sell the apartments before the sales galleries were completed, so he arranged a massive concert to promote the building
I hope this pays off, he fretted.
He met with his brother Sigge, who had just moved to New York from their native Sweden.
They discussed Fredriks new 7,500 square foot home - bought to contain him, his husband Derek Kaplan, their twin babies, dogs and two nannies.
This is the time to live right!? He exclaimed.
Brotherly love: He met with his brother Sigge, who had just moved to New York from their native Sweden
Growing family: They discussed Fredriks new 7,500 square foot home - bought to contain him, his husband Derek Kaplan, their twin babies, dogs and two nannies
I feel like finally, truly Ive come home, he beamed as he stared at the skyline from his new deck.
At the promotional event for River Park Fredrik danced around gleefully.
Im VIP right, do I get my own security guards? He joked.
Views: I feel like finally, truly Ive come home, he beamed as he stared at the skyline from his new deck
Promotions: At the promotional event for River Park Fredrik danced around gleefully
They aired a video promoting the building before some live music hit the stage.
By the end of the day he had the first batch of deal sheets all cash, no negotiation.
That commission check is going to be so big, boasted Fredrik, who had the potential to make $30 million in commission from the entire building.
Million Dollar Listing New York will continue next season on Bravo.
Fans of everything Kardashian and Jenner were buzzing when word got out that Kourtney and her ex Younes Bendjima were seen together on Monday for the first time since their breakup.
Turns out, the reunion came just two days after the 25-year old Algerian native was spotted on a date with a mystery woman at the Malibu Chili Cook-off.
The handsome model kept a low profile as he pulled the hood of his sweatshirt over his head strolling next to the brunette.
Who is she? Kourtney Kardashian ex beau Younes Bendjima was spotted on a date with a mystery woman at the Malibu Chili Cook off on Saturday Night
Both Younes and his lady friend looked a bit startled when the photos were snapped in front of the Tilt-A-Whirl in the amusement park section of the fair.
Up until that point, they looked to be enjoying themselves.
Both opted for a casual look, with Younes dressed in that green hoodie, baggy denim jeans and white sneakers, while his mystery woman wore black short-shorts with a black jacket and white sneakers.
After enjoying some of the festivities together, the pair appeared to meet up with a group of people and walk off.
Going undercover: Kourtney's ex tried to cover his face with his hood when he got wind of the photographer
Round two? Kourtney appeared to be back on with Younes when the two were spotted side by side in her black Range Rover Monday night as they headed to a sushi restaurant in Malibu
The Algerian native was in the driver's seat as Kourtney sat in the passenger's seat
Kourtney appeared to be back on with Younes when the two were spotted side by side in her black Range Rover SUV Monday night as they headed to a sushi restaurant in Malibu for some take-out.
They then drove along the Pacific Coast Highway, found a parking spot and stayed in the vehicle for several hours as they watched the sun set over the ocean.
Later they were seen in Calabasas getting In N Out Burger at the drive-thru. After that they headed to Kourtney's mansion which is inside a nearby gated community.
Dinner to go: Younes picked up sushi from a restaurant in Malibu
A source later told TMZ that they were not dating again; he simply wanted to talk out the split. But People reported on Tuesday that the former couple may be giving it another go.
'Kourtney and Younes are spending time together again. Things are not yet back to what they were before its not an official relationship,' a source said.
'Kourtney always liked him though and it was hard for her to stay away after he reached out.'
The former couple have not been pictured together since their breakup about six weeks ago. They had been dating since October 2016.
They share a 38-year age gap as mother and daughter.
But on Wednesday, Lisa Wilkinson, 58, and Billi FitzSimons, 20, showed the apple really doesn't far fall from the tree as they attended the Women of the Future Awards in Sydney.
Beaming on the red carpet, The Project host showed off her ageless looks and her stunning figure in a striking yellow wrap dress featuring abstract detail.
Scroll down for video
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree! Lisa Wilkinson wears an eye-catching yellow wrap dress as she cuddles up to her statuesque lookalike daughter Billi, 20
She complimented her youthful complexion by wearing a nude make-up palette and had her dark locks out and loose on her shoulders.
The media personality added a touch of bling with a pair of gold pumps and matching clutch.
Meanwhile the presenter's daughter opted for a smart navy floral ensemble.
Bling: The media personality added a touch of bling with a pair of gold pumps and matching clutch
Towering over her mum, Billi paired the stylish look with a dark blazer worn over her shoulders.
Wearing her sandy locks loose, she revealed a tanned glow with minimal make-up, allowing the striking family likeness to take centre stage.
Reinforcing the close resemblance between the two, Lisa shared a stunning throwback photo last week.
Looking good! Lisa complimented her youthful complexion by wearing a nude make-up palette and had her dark locks out and loose on her shoulders
Looking like the mirror image of Billi, the photograph showed Lisa with long, flowing brunette locks and wearing a pale blue floral top with a halter bikini underneath.
She captioned the image: 'This is me aged 17 on a family holiday to the Gold Coast... one of the very few shots I have from that time.'
It's not the first time Lisa has shared a throwback snap, with an earlier photo of her aged 15 showed her looking remarkably similar to her daughter, who she shares with husband Peter FitzSimons.
Guess who? Reinforcing the close resemblance between Lisa and Billi, The Project host shared a stunning throwback photo last week
The journalist joked about her thin eyebrows, in fashion at the time, when posting that photo too.
She wrote: 'How good was the fashion uniform of the day: Peasant blouses? And thin eyebrows.'
Good genes! Earlier this year, Lisa shared a throwback photo of herself aged 15 (left) looking remarkably similar to her 20- year-old daughter Billi (right)
Studio 10's newly-appointed host Kerri-Anne Kennerley and her predecessor Jessica Rowe proved to have more in common than just their workplaces on Wednesday.
Jessica, 48, who quit her hosting gig on Studio 10 earlier this year, and veteran TV presenter Kerri-Anne, 64, both turned heads in very colourful ensembles as they stepped out at the Women Of The Future event in Sydney.
Self-confessed 'crap housewife' Jessica sported a multi-coloured tulle blouse as she posed by the media wall at the award-winning Quay restaurant at The Rocks.
Bold choices! Jessica Rowe (left) and Kerri-Anne Kennerley (right) turned heads with their stylishly bright ensembles at Women Of The Future event in Sydney on Wednesday
The bubbly blonde was bold in the cascading tulle handkerchief top which featured a cute polka-dot print.
She toned down her bright garb by teaming it with a black leather skirt and a pair of muted maroon ankle boots.
The pixie haired beauty opted for a pop of rose-hued lipstick, in turn complimenting the pink notes of her ensemble.
Wow factor: Jessica, who shares two daughters Allegra, 11, and Giselle, nine, with news presenter husband Peter Overton, looked every inch the yummy mummy as she flashed her lithe shoulders in the cut-out design
Jessica, who shares two daughters Allegra, 11, and Giselle, nine, with news presenter husband Peter Overton, looked every inch the yummy mummy as she flashed her lithe shoulders in the cut-out design.
Meanwhile Kerri-Anne didn't disappoint in the colour stakes as she stepped out in a highlighter-yellow quilted dress with gold chain embellishment.
The blonde bombshell, who was announced as the new host of Channel Ten's troubled Studio 10 program on Sunday, put on a leggy display in the thigh-skimming number.
Similarly, Kerri-Anne pulled back her bright display by slipping her age-defying figure into a black leather jacket and a pair of lace heel boots.
Not so mellow yellow! Meanwhile Kerri-Anne (pictured) didn't disappoint in the colour stakes as she stepped out in a highlighter-yellow quilted dress with gold chain embellishment
The 64-year-old has a tough job ahead of her on the Channel Ten morning show after the high profile departure of host Ita Buttrose, 76, following the notorious 'Brussels sprouts' incident involving Ita and fellow Studio 10 panelist Denise Drysdale, 69.
'I have been on the record as saying before that I think the show has such a feel-good factor that if it wasn't on Channel Ten it would have rated a whole bunch better,' Kerri-Anne candidly told The Daily Telegraph.
Jessica sent shock waves through the Australian TV industry when she abruptly quit her hosting role at Studio 10 in March.
The statement was made by Japanese Minister of State for Ocean Policy, Fukui Teru, during an international workshop held in Hanoi on September 5.
Japan's marine and oceanographic research experience, as well as its experience in the formulation and implementation of marine policies and strategies, were shared with the Vietnamese side at the event, which was co-chaired by Vietnamese Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Tran Hong Ha, and Japanese Minister of State for Ocean Policy, Fukui Teru.
The event gathered representatives from the relevant agencies, experts and scientists in marine economic development and oceanographic research from both sides.
At the conference, Minister Ha affirmed that Vietnam and Japan have many common aspects related to the sea that are associated with the survival and development process of both nations for thousands of years. Both countries attach importance to the protection of marine resources and the environment, building an outlook to take advantage of marine resources for socio-economic development, he said.
Vietnamese Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha speaks at the seminar.
The Vietnamese minister also informed that Vietnam issued its Marine Strategy by 2020 in 2007, targeting to promote the potential of the sea in the 21st century to meet the needs of marine economic development, environmental protection and response to climate change. In the same year, Japan also promulgated Basic Act on Ocean Policy and the First Basic Plan on Ocean Policy.
For his part, Minister Fukui Teru said that marine technology is an extremely important foundation for marine resources development, disaster preparedness and solutions to global problems.
Japan will share its experiences in the field of marine research, seaport development and consolidating state management agencies over the sea with Vietnam, he stated, adding that Japan's efforts in solving ocean plastic waste will also be discussed at the workshop.
Fukui Teru, Japanese Minister of State for Ocean Policy, delivers his speech at the event.
Participants also identified opportunities and challenges for marine economic development, conservation and protection of marine resources in the context climate change, sea level rises and ocean waste pollution, and the lessons learned in coastal and marine space management for the socio-economic development.
They also proposed mechanisms for exchanges and the sharing of knowledge about the sea, experiences in marine and ocean development and policy making through annual workshops and conferences.
Take Me Out premiered to rave reviews on Monday night, as viewers tuned in to see 30 single women and a group of men attempt to find love.
And it's no wonder fans can't get enough of the edgy new dating show, given many of the contestants' intriguing pasts.
From a scantily-clad pageant queen to a very risque DJ, Daily Mail Australia has unveiled the latest crop of sultry singles set to enjoy the limelight of reality TV.
And there's more! Meet Take Me Out's raunchy new stars including a scantily-clad pageant queen, busty bikini models, and a VERY risque DJ (Pictured: Emma Hollingsworth)
Emma Hollingsworth will certainly earn her share of attention on the show, thanks to her striking beauty and statuesque frame.
And the Brisbane-based Miss World Australia contestant also appears to have an army of online admirers, thanks to her racy bikini selfies.
Emma clearly isn't afraid to flaunt her figure on Instagram, and often uploads candid snaps of herself posing in high-cut swimwear around the house.
Stripping down: Brisbane-based Miss World Australia contestant Emma appears to have an army of online admirers, thanks to her racy bikini selfies
Sizzling: She is seen here posing in the park in a white bikini
Racy lady! Emma clearly isn't afraid to flaunt her figure on Instagram, and often uploads candid snaps of herself posing in high-cut swimwear around the house
Revealing: One photo of the part-time artist shows her posing in a flimsy green T-shirt and white underwear
One photo of the part-time artist shows her posing in a flimsy green T-shirt and white underwear.
Joining Emma on Take Me Out is aspiring actress and promotional model Bridie Cahill.
The Sydney-based bombshell shares Emma's passion for sharing spicy social media snaps, and can be seen showing off her cleavage and slender legs in an array of photos.
Blonde bombshell alert! Joining Emma on Take Me Out is aspiring actress and promotional model Bridie Cahill (pictured)
She's not shy! The Sydney-based bombshell shares Emma's passion for sharing spicy social media snaps, and can be seen showing off her cleavage and slender legs in an array of photos
She has also appeared in professional modelling shoots for swimwear brands and has even walked the runway for Australian designer Camilla Franks
She has also appeared in professional modelling shoots for swimwear brands, and has even walked the runway for Australian designer Camilla Franks.
According to her Starnow profile, Bridie has been retained to 'mingle with guests' on 'all occasions cruises' as part of her work with a Sydney modelling agency.
Another contestant to star on Take Me Out is Sydney DJ and vocalist Emma Bass.
Beauty and a beat! Another contestant to star on Take Me Out is Sydney DJ and vocalist Emma Bass (pictured)
Like her counterparts, Emma also enjoys uploading racy photos of herself to social media.
Many of the blonde beauty's Instagram snaps show her posing in skimpy mini-dresses, while another sees her posing in a black G-string swimsuit.
Aside from her musical pursuits, Emma's Starnow profile refers to her as a freelance model, actor and chef.
Busty belle! Like her counterparts, Emma also enjoys enjoys uploading sexy photos of herself to social media
That's cheeky! Emma donned a daring G-string swimsuit for this racy snap
Aspiring model and actress Leticia Belle Llanos is also part of the new crop of reality stars.
The Brisbane beauty's Instagram page is scattered with saucy snaps, including one of her posing in the bathroom in nothing but black lingerie.
Another image shows a stiletto-clad Leticia lounging seductively on a double bed.
Taking the plunge! Aspiring model and actress Leticia Belle Llanos is also part of the new crop of reality stars
Va va voom! The Brisbane beauty's Instagram page is scattered with saucy snaps, including one of her posing in the bathroom in nothing but black lingerie
Busting out!: The curvaceous brunette isn't shy to flaunt her figure online
They were the villains on the last season of The Block.
And on the renovation show on Tuesday, Ronnie and Georgia made a triumphant return to the series.
The married couple returned to the show as judges to give their take on a room challenge, but looked barely recognisable.
Scroll down for video
Do YOU recognise them? The Block villains Ronnie and Georgia make a return to the show as judges... and look remarkably different from their stint on the series last year
Ronnie - who was usually clean shaven on the show last year - sported a dark bushy beard.
His hair was also styled differently, with the sides of his head being shaved.
Meanwhile Georgia's locks were shorter and she had a fringe.
They're back! The married couple returned to the show as judges to give their take on a room challenge
At one point, Jess gushed over Georgia, saying: 'She's gorgeous.'
'She's got Gucci shoes, they must be doing well for each other,' she added with a laugh.
Ronnie and Georgia not only judged the show but also took part in the challenge at Royal McDonald House.
They replaced Kerrie and Spence who had to stay at The Block to finish their ceiling.
'Game on, suckers! You're going down, all of you!' Georgia yelled to this year's batch of contestants.
The pair named Hans and Courtney winners of the challenge, where they pocketed $5,000.
Home And Away actress Olivia Deeble was rushed to hospital with brain swelling after hitting her head this week.
The 16-year-old suffered a concussion but is now said to be in a stable condition.
In an Instagram post on Wednesday, she told her followers: 'A couple of days ago I hit my head and was concussed with brain swelling.
Scroll down for video
Home and Away actress Olivia Deeble, 16, is rushed to hospital with brain swelling after hitting her head
'I'm fairly crook at the moment and have been to hospital a couple of times but slowly improving.'
A brain concussion is a head injury caused by a blow to the head, according to the Brain Foundation.
Olivia, who is known for playing Raffy Morrison, told her legions of followers that she would be staying off social media so she can rest and hopes to get better soon.
'Thanks for the constant support love you all lots x (also thanks mum for taking photos of me passed out...).'
On the mend: Olivia, who is known for playing Raffy Morrison, told her legions of followers that she would be staying off social media so she can rest and hopes to get better soon
Her Home And Away co-stars offered well-wishes, including Sarah Roberts, who said: 'Get better soon beautiful! xxxx.'
Actress Georgie Parker said: 'Please take your time getting back into everything. Love you sweetheart.'
Meanwhile Penny McNamee, who plays her older half-sister Tori Morgan, wrote: 'Where is Dr Tori when you need her??? Sending lots of love and love healing vibes beautiful. Xxx.'
It is unknown what caused Olivia's accident.
Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Olivia for comment.
Olivia is the granddaughter of The Sullivans' actor Reg Gorman and the daughter of Kate Gorman, who starred in Neighbours in 1980s.
Kanye West has taken to Twitter to clear the air with Drake following their year long feud, just two days after wife, Kim Kardashian publicly denied they slept together.
The musical artist, 41, who is all about promoting love these days, penned: ' Sending good energy and love to Drake and family and crew.
Posting one of Drake's concert pictures, he said: 'I havent seen the show in person but the images look incredible online. I understand where the confusion started.'
Humble pie: Kanye West took to Twitter on Wednesday to apologise to nemesis Drake following feud... two days after wife Kim Kardashian denied sleeping with Canadian rapper
He continued: 'Let me start by apologizing for stepping on your release date in the first place
'We were building a bond and working on music together including squashing the issues with Cudi at our office.
'When I put the dates up I was a bit ramped up doing 25 tweets a day TMZ happened shortly after I have to hop on the plane now will type more when I land.'
Sorry: Posting one of Drake's concert pictures, he said: 'I havent seen the show in person but the images look incredible online. I understand where the confusion started'
Long rant: Kanye continued to address the feud in a series of explanatory tweets
The tweets appear to refer to a feud that began in June 2017, when Kanye announced he was releasing a seven-song album, as well as a joint record with Kid Cudi, 34,.
According to The Ringer, this announcement came two days after Drake, 31, announced the release of his Scorpion album around the same time.
Last week, Kanye was asked by radio station, 107.5 WGCI Chicago, if he was the person who told Pusha T, 42, that Drake had fathered a secret son called Adonis with former French porn star, Sophie Brussaux, 28.
Pusha T rapped about it on diss track The Story Of Adidon following Drake's denials that the child was his - and Kanye produced the album.
Feud: In a recent interview, Kanye accused Drake of sending him a purple demon emoji over a beat and Drake responded by posting one and a cry face emoji on this snap on Instagram
On his own song, Scorpion, Drake appears to confirm the news, finally saying: 'The kid is mine.'
But Kanye denied ever telling Pusha T about Drake's secret child.
He told the radio station: 'Dont pull me into this conversation. Im Ye. I got major things to do other than be telling him some information about Drake I honestly dont care that much, in all honesty.'
He also said: 'When we talk about the Drake thing, it hits me in a really sensitive place because you hang around people and they come to your house and be around your family and this and that.
Not true: Two days ago, Kim Kardashian, who is married to Kanye, dismissed theories that she and Drake had slept together
Not me: Kanye denied he told Pusha T that Drake had fathered a secret son called Adonis with Sophie Brussaux, 28, (pictured) after Pusha T penned it on a diss track that Kanye produced
'And then they get mad about a beat and send you purple demon emojis.'
The beat reference is about the Lift Yourself beat which was used with Kanye's controversial Poopity Scoop track.
Drake then responded to this interview by captioning a photo of himself on Instagram with purple demon and cry face emojis,' confirming there was a feud.
Kanye's reference to TMZ in his latest tweets is a reference to his comment: 'Slavery is a choice,' which he has apologised profusely for, saying he is sorry he caused offence.
Silent: Kanye produced Pusha T's (left) album but said he is not responsible for spilling Drake's secrets
Last month, Drake dissed his former mentor Kanye West while performing in Yeezy's Chicago hometown.
In a fan video, the star drew boos from the Illinois crowd after he changed the lyrics to his 2015 single Know Yourself while onstage the United Center.
Instead of 'Had a job sellin' Girbaud jeans / I had a yellow TechnoMarine / Then Kanye dropped, it was polos and backpacks' - the three-time Grammy winner said: 'then Kanye flopped.'
In 2015, it was revealed that Kanye and Drake were working on an album together, with the working title Wolves, but it never materialised.
Drake told DJ Booth: 'I dont know, I think everybody has their own little things going on, Im not really sure what hes referring to half the time, cos in the same breath, I went from being like working on a project with him, to him sorta publicly sh**ting on me and DJ Khaled for being on the radio too much. But yeah Im not really sure, everybodys got their own thing going on.'
Kanye has since said they will work together again.
Meanwhile, Kanye's wife, Kim Kardashian, 37, was forced to deny rumours that she had slept with Drake.
During an interview with Complex's Everyday Struggle, Nick Cannon, 37, claimed that Drake 'smashing' Kim wasn't a 'far off concept.'
On Monday, Kim quickly shut down the rumors on Instagram: 'Never happened. End of story.'
TMZ has confirmed that the rumors about Kim and Drake are false.
They wrote: 'They have some mutual friends and are cordial when they have run into each other at events in the past. But they've never had a personal friendship or relationship,' a source told the media outlet.
'It's all BS...she's never slept with Drake. Didn't happen while she was married and didn't happen before.'
They have reportedly been dating since October of last year.
And Dakota Johnson, 28, and Chris Martin, 41, have proved just how strong their relationship is by getting matching tattoos.
The actress and the Coldplay star have been seen in recent days sporting the exact same infinity symbol inking, intertwined with two X's.
Tattoo of them: Dakota Johnson, 28, and Chris Martin, 41, have proved just how strong their relationship is by getting matching tattoos
Symbol: The actress and the Coldplay star have been seen in recent weeks sporting the exact same infinity symbol inking, complete with two X's
The dainty tattoo was noticed on Dakota's left elbow as she stepped out for the Suspiria photocall at 75th Venice International Film Festival last week, while Chris unveiled the same ink on his right forearm in Los Angeles a day prior.
The design was also just about visible on Dakota as she posed up a storm on Suspiria premiere on the red carpet.
The infinity symbol is a popular tattoo design given it's meaning of never ending, limitless love.
Ink-redible: The dainty tattoo was noticed on Dakota's left elbow as she stepped out for the Suspiria photocall at 75th Venice International Film Festival last week (L), while Chris unveiled the same ink on his right forearm in Los Angeles a day prior (R)
Tatt's cool: The design was also just about visible on Dakota as she posed up a storm on Suspiria premiere on the red carpet
Sign: The infinity symbol is a popular tattoo design given it's meaning of never ending, limitless love
Dakota and Chris were last seen together on double date with Aaron Paul and his wife Lauren Parsekian at a July 29 Radiohead concert in Boston.
The Modern Family guest star and the Texan-born beauty reportedly met through mutual friends, and they were first romantically linked together in October.
A source had told People at the time that the two stars were alone for their meal and appeared 'cosy' while 'laughing' and being 'affectionate' with each other.
The following month in November, Dakota was pictured sitting with the crew as Coldplay performed in Argentina.
A source at the time told Us Weekly that Dakota and Chris are 'definitely dating'. They told the publication: 'They've gotten to know each other really well and are very comfortable with one another.
Lovebirds: They have reportedly been dating since October of last year with sources at the time complaining they're 'comfortable' (Pictured March 2018)
Smitten: The Modern Family guest star and the Texan-born beauty reportedly met through mutual friends
'I adore him!': The Fifty Shades Freed star's mother Melanie Griffith confirmed the relationship to People on May 10
'Chris sends Dakota his music to get her opinion. Its more than just a fling.'
The Fifty Shades Freed star's mother Melanie Griffith confirmed the relationship to People on May 10, gushing: 'I adore him! But she is very private about her life and I respect that.'
Dakota's famous father Don Johnson, 68, previously told The Sun that Chris was 'a lovely guy' and a 'very talented and gifted musician.'
The Golden Globe winner told the British mag in January: 'I've met him and you want your kids happy, no matter what shape it takes. Thats the goal, thats the key.'
Dakota's famous father Don Johnson, 68, previously told The Sun that Chris was 'a lovely guy' and a 'very talented and gifted musician'
Chris was previously was married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow from 2003 until 2014, when they revealed they were 'consciously uncoupling' and they share two children together; daughter Apple, 13, and son Moses, 11.
Gwyneth had filed for divorce in 2015, before it was later finalized in July 2016.
The Goop founder has also moved on and is currently engaged to her beau Brad Falchuk - whom she had met on the set of Glee in late 2014.
Meanwhile, Dakota is making waves on the personal front and was recently at the Venice Film Festival screening her directorial debut Hello Apartment,
She has won a legion of fans strutting her enviable model frame down the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show catwalk.
And Devon Windsor, 23, continued to wow the style brigade as she slipped into a head-turning red gown on Tuesday night for the premiere of her new E! series Model Squad in New York City.
The American supermodel, who has graced the covers of Vogue, made sure to command attention in NYC neighbourhood Tribeca alongside best friend Olivia Culpo for the launch of their new show.
Walk this way: Devon Windsor, 23, continued to wow the style brigade as she slipped into a head-turning red gown on Tuesday night for the premiere of her new E! series Model Squad in New York City
Upping the style ante, Devon's striking gown featured a daring thigh-high slit which showcased her lean legs and glittering strappy heels while she arrived to the viewing party.
Balancing the racy slit, the fashion star's long-sleeved glamorous look boasted a plunging neckline which was kept in place with a golden clasp.
Devon worked her peroxide blonde locks into a sleek, straight style which she complemented with a bold red lip and lashings of mascara.
The blonde beauty stars in E!'s latest docuseries Model Squad, which follow the models-of-the-moment who are ruling the fashion industry.
Having fun: The American supermodel, who has graced the covers of Vogue, made sure to command attention in NYC neighbourhood Tribeca alongside best friend Olivia Culpo for the launch of their new show
Daring: Balancing the racy slit, the fashion star's long-sleeved glamorous look boasted a plunging neckline which was kept in place with a golden clasp
As well as Devon, the line-up also features Daniela Braga, Hannah Ferguson, Ping Hue, Nadine Leopold, Caroline Lowe, Ashley Moore and Shanina Shaik.
Olivia followed in her friend's glamorous footsteps as she slipped into a daring sheer white lace midi dress, which hugged her framed and accentuated her cleavage.
In jovial spirits for the launch, she mimicked Devon's sleek hairstyle but sported a soft berry lip for the bash.
Model behaviour: The blonde beauty stars in E!'s latest docuseries Model Squad, which follow the models-of-the-moment who are ruling the fashion industry
All eyes: Olivia followed in her friend's glamorous footsteps as she slipped into a daring sheer white lace midi dress, which hugged her framed and accentuated her cleavage (Pictured with Shanina Shaik, Devon and Nadine Leopold)
Meanwhile, Devon has been in engagement bliss after her beau Johnny Dex proposed on June 23 after more than two years of dating.
While taking a plane ride, the blonde bombshell was able to see 'Marry Me?' spelled out on the sand of a private beach in the Bahamas.
By coincidence, she was wearing an all white ensemble for the special occasion which showcased her sensational figure.
She said yes: Meanwhile, Devon has been in engagement bliss after her beau Johnny Dex proposed on June 23 after more than two years of dating
'When you think you're flying into a photoshoot and then you look down and see this.,' she wrote on Instagram following the big surprise.
'This was the best day of my life and I cannot wait to marry the best person in the whole universe! I'm the luckiest woman in the world!'
The Missouri native's engagement ring features a large oval cut diamond and a handmade platinum setting, which took over a month to craft.
Vogue Williams and Spencer Matthews announced they have become parents for the first time.
The couple - who tied the knot in a romantic ceremony in the Scottish Highlands in June - welcomed a 'beautiful and healthy' baby boy in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Taking to Instagram, the 32-year-old Irish presenter posted: 'This morning at 3:55am, we welcomed our son into a quiet London hospital... He is beautiful and healthy. We feel truly blessed.'
Baby joy: Vogue Williams and Spencer Matthews have become parents for the first time and announced the birth with this sweet Instagram post on Wednesday morning
Vogue shared a heartwarming snap of the tiny tot in a striped baby gro, resting her hand gently on the infant's feet.
Meanwhile, former Made In Chelsea star Spencer, 30, chose to announce the news with an arty black and white image of his hand clasping his newborn's, reposting the same message as his wife.
Vogue also took to her Instagram stories to write 'I'm so in love'.
The pair, who have yet to reveal the baby's name, were inundated with well wishes from their delighted followers and celebrity friends.
Thrilled: The couple - who tied the knot in a romantic ceremony in June - welcomed a 'beautiful and healthy' baby boy in the early hours of Wednesday morning
Proud dad: Spencer chose to announce the news with an arty black and white image of his hand clasping his newborn's, reposting the same message as his wife
Frankie Bridge posted: Congratulations guys @spencermatthews soak up all the newborn you can. Just the best. Hope your all doing well xxxx
Denise Van Outen enthused: Massive congrats to you both.
Spencer's former MIC co-star Rosie Fortescue wrote: CONGRATULATIONS you guys are going to make the best parents.
The likes of Ashley James, Lydia Bright and Zoe Hardman have also send their well-wishes, while Spencer's ex Vicky Pattison also sent her congratulations.
Vogue's due date was September 1 and the star had been sharing a number of posts in recent days as she lamented being overdue.
Congrats! The pair, who have yet to reveal the baby's name, were inundated with well-wishes from their delighted followers and celebrity friends
Vogue had been praising supportive partner Spencer for taking care of her in the days running up to the birth.
'This boy has been amazing overdue means a slightly grumpy wife who tends to fall asleep quite a few times a day! Hes keeping me happy and being a great supportyoure the best @spencermatthews', she shared on social media.
Vogue and Spencer fell in love when they competed against each other on the Channel 4 celebrity ski show The Jump in 2017.
They got engaged in February 2018, when Spencer got down on one knee after treating Vogue to a backstage tour of the West End's Lion King production.
The pair married on his family's stunning 10,000 acre Glen Affric estate in Cannich, Scotland this summer, surrounded by close family and friends.
Delighted: The pair, who met on reality show The Jump, couldn't wait to become parents
Ahead of their little ones arrival, Vogue told OK! magazine that she believed Spencer would be a 'hands-on dad'.
She confessed: 'He's going to be a hands-on dad. He's so excited. He just has a thing with children - they love him and he loves hanging around with them. He's going to be a really great dad.'
The model suffered with bad morning sickness in the early stages of her pregnancy and admitted she napped every day.
She previously gushed she wanted their little one to arrive as soon as possible, explaining: 'I'm totally ready for it. Physically I'm feeling really good. I've been so lucky with my pregnancy.
Family unit: Ahead of their little ones arrival, Vogue said Spencer would be a 'hands-on dad'
'I had quite bad morning sickness and heartburn but, for the most part, I've been okay. I'm still able to work, but I have to nap every day. I'm so excited, I just want the birth to happen.'
Spencer recently said the couple are 'blessed' to have their little boy grow up so close in age to their cousin after his brother James, 41, and wife Pippa Middleton, 34, announced they're expecting their first child.
Speaking during an appearance on This Morning, the reality star opened up about the prospect of first-time fatherhood and his family's royal connections to Pippa's sister Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge.
He said: 'I think it will be great for the kids to grow up together. We feel very blessed.'
Kourtney Kardashian and her ex-boyfriend Younes Bendjima were spotted having a heart-to-heart in a Malibu parking lot earlier this week.
And sources close to the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star believe Younes deliberately called the paparazzi on them in a bid to make the most of his '15 minutes of fame'.
Despite sparking speculation they were back together, TMZ claims the chat was just about getting 'closure' for the 39-year-old reality star.
Staged? Kourtney Kardashian reportedly believes her ex-boyfriend Younes deliberately called the paparazzi on them before their Malibu parking lot meeting
Kourtney was reportedly suspicious when Younes decided to drive to that particular sushi restaurant since the pair had never been there before - only for the paps to turn up soon afterwards.
The insider told TMZ the Kardashians have long held suspicions that Younes, 25, used to call up the paparazzi when they were dating.
MailOnline has contacted both Kourtney and Younes' representatives for comment.
The two were spotted side by side in her black Range Rover SUV on Monday evening as they headed to Bui sushi restaurant in Malibu.
The former couple - who had a romantic vacation in Italy earlier this summer - shocked fans when they reportedly split in early August.
This marked the first time they have been seen together since they parted ways.
Suspicious: Kourtney was reportedly suspicious when Younes decided to drive to that particular sushi restaurant since the pair had never been there befor
A source later told TMZ that they were not dating again; he simply wanted to talk out the split.
The pair did not dine inside Bui restaurant but rather only picked up take out food, further confirming that they did not want to be noticed.
Younes was in the driver's seat while she rode in the passenger's seat. Both appeared to be in somber moods.
After he picked up their Japanese food, they drove along the Pacific Coast Highway where they found a parking spot.
They stayed in the car for several hours as they watched the sun set over the ocean.
On the go: The Algerian model, who lives in France, was driving her Range Rover car
Later they were seen in Calabasas getting In N Out Burger at the Drive-Thru.
After that they headed to the gated community in Calabasas where Kourtney owns a mega mansion.
The two have not been pictured together in over six weeks.
Their split was initiated by Kourtney, TMZ claimed.
Trouble seemed to brew after their trip to Italy when she posted a photo of her bottom. He posted a comment which read: 'Is that what you need to show to get likes?'
He got the dinner: Bendjima picked up sushi from a restaurant in Malibu
He later deleted the comments.
The racy picture was taken while they were travelling around Europe together with Kourtney's children Mason, eight, Penelope, six, and Reign, three.
He was said to be fuming with her for flashing the flesh and parading her body around in front of the world as he believes her saucy pictures should be for his eyes only.
So many avocado rolls: The Calvin Klein model carried two bags of healthy food
The pair started dating in October 2016 but they didn't make their relationship public until the following May out of respect for Kourtney's ex-boyfriend Scott Disick. (Disick had a history of cheating on Kourtney and was pictured with other women on numerous occasions during their long on-again off-again relationship.)
But in early August it seemed clear Kourt and Younes were over.
Younes was seen in Mexico with another woman on August 7. He was seen getting handsy with social media 'influencer' Jordan Ozuna.
Jordan has a history with the family - she was linked to Tyga following his split from Kylie Jenner last year.
High end: The catwalk master did not get any kind of average sushi, but headed into upscale Bui sushi
With 200,000 Instagram followers, Jordan, or according to her handle jiordyn, is what is termed a micro-influencer.
And she first found herself on the radar of plenty of those followers after being linked to Justin Bieber following his split from Selena Gomez in 2014.
Then an unknown Las Vegas cocktail waitress, she was spotted indulging in PDAs with the then 19-year-old around the city.
More eats: Several hours after they had sushi on the car while watching the sunset in Malibu, Younes pulled into In N Out in Calabasas
Back home: Then the model headed to her gated Calabasas community where she has a home
And the exposure drummed up a large number of Instagram followers for Jordan - the dream scenario for a social media obsessed Millennial.
When not waitressing - her last gig was at Vegas' Wet Republic - the brunette spends her time posting pictures of herself in various stages of undress, receiving hundreds of 'likes' and admiring comments.
Later in the day, Younes took to Instagram to deny he and Jordan were more than just friends, commenting: 'They really want me to be the bad guy... can't have fun with your friends no more' [SIC].
Busted: Younes was caught getting handsy with Tyga's ex Jordan Ozuna in August
On/off: The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star, 39, and the cover boy, 25 - who had a romantic vacation in Italy earlier this summer - shocked fans when they reportedly split the first week of August; seen in the spring
Better days: Younes had his hand on Kourtney's thigh in this image taken in Capri
However Kourtney's sister Khloe couldn't resist chiming in on his post, quipping 'Alexa play "heard it all before" by Sunshine Anderson'.
Kim Kardashian couldn't help but get in on the action as she wrote: 'Nice pics from your "boys trip."'
For her part, 24-year-old Ozuna also insisted the two are just friends, telling E! News after the photos surfaced that, 'we aren't romantically involved in any way, shape or form.'
She has become embroiled in a storm of controversy after Ryan Thomas playfully punched her in the Celebrity Big Brother house, with the soap star quitting the house - and showbiz - since.
And Roxanne Pallett's upcoming Celebrity Island debut 'couldn't have come at a worse time' as she reportedly finds herself coming to blows with Hollywood actor Eric Roberts.
According to reports, the former Emmerdale star, 35, annoyed her fellow contestants on the show after they're abandoned on an uninhabited island in the Pacific and have to survive on their own.
'Bad timing': Roxanne Pallett's upcoming Celebrity Island debut 'couldn't have come at a worse time' as she reportedly finds herself coming to blows with Hollywood actor Eric Roberts
However, during her time on the series, before she sensationally quits after five days, it has been reported that Roxanne and Eric come to blows after she annoys him.
The Dark Knight actor, 62, is believed to have confronted the soap star after she wears a bright pink bikini while everyone else is dressed in camouflage gear.
In the scenes, Roxanne reportedly says: 'I've turned into some Amazonian ninja woman, I just don't care how I look any more.'
To which Eric replies: 'Are you saying that to us or the camera?'
Oh dear: According to reports, the former Emmerdale star, 35, annoyed her fellow contestants on the show after they're abandoned on an uninhabited island in the Pacific
Not impressed: The Dark Knight actor, 62, is believed to have confronted the soap star after she wears a bright pink bikini while everyone else is dressed in camouflage gear (Eric Roberts pictured in 2006)
Fate? In a coincidental twist, Ryan in fact met his now-girlfriend Lucy Mecklenburgh on the same show in 2017
'The show couldn't have come at a worse time. Now she'll be seen being a drama queen again,' a source told the Daily Star.
In a coincidental twist, Ryan in fact met his now-girlfriend Lucy Mecklenburgh on the same show in 2017.
The reports come after it was revealed that Roxanne has quit her radio show, stepped down from panto and Emmerdale bosses revealed they will 'never' rehire her.
With the star losing work at a rapid rate, it's said that is set to lose over 100,000 from lucrative acting roles.
A source told The Sun Online: 'Roxanne will turn her back on showbiz. She understands she's upset many people and wants to step out of the spotlight to focus on herself.
Goodbye: The actress, 35, walked off the show earlier this year after the smell of the fire triggered traumatic memories of being involved in the blaze when she was aged 16 (above, Celebrity Island host Bear Grylls)
'She's not interested in anything to do with fame now and is convinced time away is the best thing for her.'
During Roxanne's debut on Celebrity Island, the soap star leaves the show after five days after the bonfires caused her to have flashbacks of being caught in a house fire.
The actress, 35, walked off the island earlier this year after the smell of the fire triggered traumatic memories of being involved in the blaze when she was aged 16.
Her spokesman told MailOnline Roxanne, her mother and grandmother were caught in the fire in the middle of the night almost two decades ago.
Outrage: This comes after Roxanne walked out of the Big Brother house in the early hours of Saturday morning after claiming Thomas punched her 'like a boxer'
Heartbreaking: Broadcast regulator Ofcom received more than 11,000 complaints over her claims as footage appeared to contradict her claims, with Ryan left a 'broken man'
They said: 'Roxanne and her family were rescued by emergency services after being trapped in the house for a substantial amount of time.
'Roxanne suffered smoke inhalation and her mum was hospitalised for months as she lost her sight, this later returned after lengthy medical care.
'Her house was completely burnt out and Roxanne and her family lost all of their belongings'.
It was also claimed that Love Island's Montana Brown and journalist Paris Lees also walked off, leaving Jo Wood Martin Kemp, James Cracknell and Anthony Ogogo.
MailOnline have contacted representatives for Roxanne and Channel 4 for comment.
Shocking: A staggering 21 former Emmerdale co-stars slammed the actress while many claimed she was making a 'mockery' of real abuse victims
Celebrity Island will air on Channel 4 on Sunday September 9 at 9pm.
This comes after Roxanne walked out of the Big Brother house in the early hours of Saturday morning after claiming Thomas punched her 'like a boxer would punch a bag' on Thursday night's episode.
Broadcast regulator Ofcom received more than 11,000 complaints over her claims as footage appeared to contradict her claims.
A staggering 21 former Emmerdale co-stars slammed the actress while many claimed she was making a 'mockery' of real abuse victims.
Interview: Responding to firm questioning by Emma Willis, Roxanne said that she was 'devastated and sorry' and that she was 'scared about her future'
Responding to firm questioning by Emma Willis, Roxanne said that she was 'devastated and sorry' and that she was 'scared about her future'.
She also told the presenter 'things in the past' have made her 'fragile'.
She said: 'I needed to come and tell everyone that I got it wrong, I'm human, I made a massive, massive, horrible mistake.'
When asked by Emma whether she felt she could be forgiven for the ordeal, the ex-Emmerdale star said: 'I would hope that I could be [forgiven].'
The actress also appeared on the Jeremy Vine show on Monday, where she admitted she 'really got it wrong' and apologised to Ryan.
Sorry: The actress also appeared on the Jeremy Vine show on Monday, where she admitted she 'really got it wrong' and apologised to Ryan
She ran out of The Bachelor mansion in tears after a heated exchange with 'villain' Romy Poulier pushed her to boiling point.
And Tenille Favios, 25, has denied she had too much to drink at the cocktail party, on Wednesday.
Speaking about the evening to NW Magazine, she said: 'No, I'd had one drink all night I think I ran off while still carrying my drink.'
'I had one drink all night!' The Bachelor's Tenille Favios says she was practically sober when dramatically fled the cocktail party after a nasty exchange with other contestants
'I was done, I was absolutely done with it,' she added about the incident.
Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Network Ten for comment.
Fans of the dating reality show saw the brunette beauty being called out by Romy for going back on her word for kissing Nick on her first solo date.
The blonde's persistence at twisting Tenille's words wore down causing her to run out of the mansion in tears and demanding to have her microphone pack removed.
Out of here: Speaking about the evening to NW Magazine, she said: 'No, I'd had one drink all night I think I ran off while still carrying my drink'
'I was done!' Tenille spoke about the explosive moment she stormed out of the mansion after Romy a heated argument with Romy, telling the magazine: 'I was absolutely done with it'
As she ran away she was followed by friend and fellow contestant Shannon and a producer who both tried their best to console her.
She was eventually persuaded by a production assistant who reminded her that she had already received a rose from Nick from their honey farm date.
Tenille also spoke about the antagonistic trio of Romy, Cat and Alisha, who have dubbed themselves the Tripod, and their attitude toward the other contestants inside the mansion.
Heated argument: Fans saw the brunette beauty being called out by Romy (left) for going back on her word for kissing Nick on her first solo date. The blonde's persistence at twisting Tenille's (right) words wore down causing her to run out of the mansion in tears
Persuaded: She was eventually persuaded by a production assistant who reminded her that she had already received a rose from Nick from their honey farm date
'I knew they were bad in the house, but I didn't know it was that bad. The wording that they used to put people down has really shocked me,' she added.
Romy, Cat and Alisha have not boded well with viewers of The Bachelor, many of whom have taking to Twitter share their thoughts on the trio.
One tweeted: 'I hate the mean girls. More air time for the nice girls would be so much better! The constant bullying and bitchiness sends a really bad message all around #TheBachelorAU.'
School opening ceremonies were conducted in a succinct and student-oriented manner and were attended my many Party and State leaders.
President Tran Dai Quangs letters to pupils and students were read at the ceremonies, followed by drum beating accompanied by songs and dances to welcome the new school year.
In a number of provinces affected by heavy rains and floods, school staff were working hard to clean up the wreckage and waste in order to hold school opening ceremonies as scheduled.
In the 2018-2019 academic year, the education sector will continue to implement nine tasks and five groups of measures to enhance educational quality.
For preschool education, the focus will be on building kindergartens near industrial zones and preventing child abuse, while for primary and secondary education, the sector will prepare for a new curriculum and improve the national high-school exam.
At tertiary level, the sector will continue to promote the autonomy of universities and colleges, improve the quality of scientific research, support student start-ups and increase the rate of graduates gaining employment appropriate to their skills.
He is getting back to full health after spending 11 days in a coma battling a deadly lung infection.
And Richard Bacon looked happy and healthy as he squeezed in a work-out session with fellow Brit Mark Wright in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
The presenter, 42, was in good spirits as he and Mark, 31, larked about in the gym, with the Extra host giving his showbiz pal a helping lift as he attempted some pull-ups.
Scroll down for video
Bouncing back: Richard Bacon looked happy and healthy as he squeezed in a work-out session with fellow Brit Mark Wright in Los Angeles on Tuesday, after recovering from a deadly infection
Hospitalised: He is getting back to full health after spending 11 days in a coma battling a deadly lung infection
In a video shared to his Instagram stories, Mark wrote: 'After nearly dying he now can't do a pull-up #comaRich'.
Mark then filmed Richard attempting a solo pull-up with the jovial presenter saying 'I can't do it' before pulling off one manoeuvre.
Former Blue Peter host Richard looked casually cool in a white t-shirt and grey shorts for the gym session, while Mark sported a white tee and black shorts.
Showing off his prowess in the gym, ex TOWIE star Mark was filmed powering through a series of pull-ups.
Pull-up: The presenter, 42, was in good spirits as he and Mark, 31, larked about in the gym, with the Extra host giving his showbiz pal a helping lift as he attempted some pull-ups
Got you: In a video shared to his Instagram stories, Mark wrote: 'After nearly dying he now can't do a pull-up #comaRich'
The video comes after Richard discussed his mystery illness, revealing the first two nights after he was admitted to hospital were the most dangerous.
Speaking to The Times Magazine, he said: 'In 2018, I can go into a hospital, aged 42, be that fit, and have all that modern equipment around me and still nearly die? F*****g hell. I came that close. The first two nights, it was incredibly close.'
And the star called waking up from a medically induced coma 'the worst day of my life' and said he was thrashing about 'like a wild animal'.
He said: 'I remember thinking: I've not got enough oxygen, the room's too hot and I'm not getting enough attention. I need help. I remember consciously pulling the pipes out of my neck to set the alarms off. And it worked people came running in.'
Reflecting on his illness, Richard explained that he's grateful to have survived his ordeal and has vowed to give up alcohol and marijuana, which is legal in LA where he lives and works.
Hunky: Showing off his prowess in the gym, ex TOWIE star Mark was filmed powering through a series of pull-ups
Looking good: Mark then filmed Richard attempting a solo pull-up with the jovial presenter saying 'I can't do it' before pulling off one manoeuvre
He said: 'I'm giving up drinking. I had been drinking four or five glasses of wine every night. In LA, I've been smoking weed. It's all legal over there. I'm going to stop all that.'
And he recently explained that he was treating the near-death experience as a wake-up call. In an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live, Richard said: 'I've decided to really, really embrace health from here on in.
'I've always drunk too much, I've always drunk too quickly, so I'm giving up drinking altogether forever as a result of what happened to me.
Adding: 'Because if I don't effect some sort of really, really positive change out of this, then it's a giant waste of everyone's time... So I'm using it to effect positive change.
'It's something I've been thinking about anyway. I want to do something different, I want to look back in 10, 20 years and think "this was the moment I changed my life".'
Casual: Former Blue Peter host Richard looked casually cool in a white t-shirt and grey shorts for the gym session
Late last month, Richard also took to Instagram to share a snap of him reunited with his son Arthur, six, and daughter Ivy, four, as he stood alongside a Welcome Home banner outside is London home.
He was also seen leaving the hospital Lewisham using the help of a walking frame alongside wife of ten years Rebecca, after he posted another snap thanking the medical staff for saving his life.
He wrote in the caption: 'Gone within the hour. I don't know whether I see this as the bed I nearly died in or the bed that saved my life.
'Either way. I won't miss it. But I will miss the 50 staff of Lewisham Hospital who definitely saved my life. Every. Single. One. Of. Them.'
She's one of the world's top supermodels who continues to strut her stuff both on and off the catwalk.
And to no surprise, Karlie Kloss has once again got all heads turning in her latest campaign for Carolina Herrera's fragrance, Good Girl.
The 26-year-old beauty was dazzling in red and channeled her best Jessica Rabbit for the sexy advertisement.
Striking hot! Karlie Kloss served her best Jessica Rabbit in a sexy red dress for her latest perfume campaign with Carolina Herrera
Karlie's ensemble saw her flaunt her ample cleavage in the form-fitting V-neck frock while also drawing attention to her incredibly long and lean legs in the sexy slit.
She teamed the breathtaking number with a pair of classic black pumps.
The cartoon-esque shoot saw the stunner with her blonde locks swept to one sides and styled into tight curls.
Gorgeous: Karlie's ensemble saw her flaunt her ample cleavage in the form-fitting V-neck frock
Legs eleven! The dress also drew attention to her incredibly long and lean legs in the sexy slit
Karlie's makeup was glamorous with contoured cheekbones and a striking red lip.
Set in a lounge, at one point she was seen blowing kisses while sitting cross-legged on top of a piano.
Carolina launched her first perfume, 212, in 1997 - and has since become a leading name in the industry.
Sending her love: Set in a lounge, at one point she was seen blowing kisses while sitting cross-legged on top of a piano
Karlie joined the designer for the Good Girl campaign in 2016, making it one of the most successful scents from her 22 perfume collection.
The former Victoria's Secret Angel is currently engaged to Josh Kushner, 33 - the younger brother of Donald Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared, 37.
Josh and Karlie began dating in 2012 and it's been reported that the 6'2" catwalk queen converted to Judaism before he popped the question on July 24.
The pair are set to get married in 2019 according to Life & Style magazine.
'She wants things to be romantic and easy,' reported their source.
'They want their wedding to be an understated affair. They're planning to get married next Spring or Summer on his family farm in New Jersey.'
Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick are the gold standard for Hollywood relationships and they're celebrating a remarkable 30 years of marriage together.
The Footloose star, 60, took to social media on Tuesday to commemorate the milestone with two totally melt-your-heart-adorable posts about his wife.
In a seflie video, Kyra, 53, and her husband sang a love ballad by the Beegees together.
Goals: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick celebrated 30 years of marriage together on September 4th with two adorable social media posts
Happily married: The Footloose star posted this image on Instagram of his longtime wife with the caption 'I Love this person'
The JFK actor also posted a photo of Kyra smiling in front of picturesque desert back drop.
He captioned the photo simply: 'I Love this person.'
Crooning out To Love Somebody, which has been covered by various artists over the decades, the couple could not have looked more enamored with each other.
Seated in front of a rustic looking wall, the Bacons looked relaxed as they belted out their duet.
'30 years! I cant believe it,' the actor marveled on social media. '@kyrasedgwick is the woman of my dreams and the music in my life.'
Strumming along to the tune, the pair finished the song while looking longingly into each others eyes.
They sang the last few words of the lyrics, which were quite appropriately, 'I love you' to one another and ended the performance with a smooch.
A lot of love: As the song ended the two sang the last lyrics while staring lovingly at one another
'Music of my life:' Kevin gushed over his wife of 30 years on social media after posting a duet with the pair
90s style: In 1997 Kevin and Kyra hit the red carpet bedecked in a collection of shiny materials. The Footloose star actually rocked a vintage inspired three piece crushed velvet suit
The Closer star's blonde hair was in enviable loose ringlets that fell over her glowing makeup free skin as she sang.
She wore an embroidered bohemian smock top with red skinny jeans and giggled at the camera when her husband apologized mid song for an unnoticeable flub.
'My bad,' the Apollo 13 star muttered quickly and then went right back to singing.
Singing is nothing new for the A Few Good Men actor, he and his brother Michael Bacon created The Bacon Brothers band in 1995.
The Philadelphia native wore dark black Wayfarer style sunglasses and a black T-shirt while he belted out the love song for his long time partner.
In the beginning: Kevin and Kyra were already married for two years when this photo was taking at a Gala in Los Angeles in 1990
Looks like they made it: This photo from April shows the couple still together on the red carpet after three decades of marriage
Kevin and Kyra have acted together on several projects over the years like Murder in the First and The Woodsman.
In fact, the pair met on the set of the PBS adaptation of the play Lemon Sky.
They wed on September 4, 1988 and have two adult children together, Travis, 29, and Sosie, 26.
Sosie is following into the family business and currently stars as Skye Miller in the hit Netflix teenage drama 13 Reasons Why.
The family business: Sosie Bacon, 26, is following her parents footsteps into Hollywood. She currently stars in the Netflix show 13 Reasons Why
The Bacon's decades long marriage is something of a miracle in Hollywood and their romance hasn't always been easy.
Statistically, money problems are one of the most common reasons that couples call it quits and these two have had their share of financial woes.
The Upper West Siders famously lost a substantial chunk of their fortune after investing it with infamous fraudster Bernie Madoff, who operated the world's largest Ponzi scheme.
The couple is frequently asked by reporters for advice on the secret to sustaining a long term marriage.
However, on multiple occasions they've each divulged that their best tip is not to take marriage advice from celebrities.
The Bachelor's Tenille Favios fled the cocktail party in tears on Wednesday's episode and threatened to quit the show after relentless taunts from 'mean girl' Romy Poulier.
And after the show was broadcast, outraged viewers flocked to Twitter accusing the producers of being 'complicit in bullying' by not intervening.
Some fans even claimed they had made formal complaints against Network Ten for airing the troubling scenes.
'The producers are complicit in bullying!' Bachelor viewers have apparently made complaints against Channel Ten after the network aired troubling scenes of Tenille Favios (pictured) fleeing the cocktail party in tears on Wednesday
'I have copped nothing but s**t from those girls,' Tenille, 25, said tearfully as she unzipped her dress and ripped off her microphone during the dramatic exit.
Her departure soon became a trending topic on Twitter, with many fans directing their anger towards Network Ten and the show's producers Warner Bros. Australia.
'I'm actually so disgusted at @TheBachelorAU this evening. The manipulative and emotional bullying from contestants and producers alike should call for a serious investigation as to how it is allowed and is so heavily used this season,' one viewer tweeted.
'Disgusting': Tenille's departure soon became a trending topic on Twitter, with many fans directing their anger towards Network Ten and the show's producers Warner Bros. Australia
Backlash: Meanwhile, a handful of viewers claimed they had filed formal complaints to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). Pictured (left to right): Romy Poulier, Cat Henesy and Alisha Aitken-Radburn, who fans have accused of 'bullying' behaviour
'What happened with Tenille tonight crossed every line out there,' read a similar tweet, as other viewers agreed that bullying is never justified.
Many fans claimed they found the episode particularly hard to watch as it triggered memories of bullying from their younger years.
So far this season, 'villains' Romy Poulier, Alisha Aitken-Radburn and Cat Henesy have been described on social media as 'school bullies' and 'mean girls'.
'Mean girls': Many fans claimed they found the episode particularly hard to watch as it triggered memories of bullying from their younger years
Furious: High-profile feminist Clementine Ford wrote on Twitter that Romy, Cat and Alisha's behaviour towards Tenille was 'gross', 'vicious' and 'disgusting'
'Anyone else concerned?' Several viewers claimed that Channel Ten and Warner Bros. were 'sending the wrong message' by airing the confronting bullying scenes
'Gross of @ChannelTen to be keeping them in,' wrote one social media user, referring to Romy, Cat and Alisha.
'I genuinely have had enough of Romy. She is abhorrent and her behaviour is absolutely disgraceful. Get her off this show,' another tweeted.
Some viewers suggested the producers should be held responsible for Romy's behaviour on the show.
'Anyone else concerned that this absolute bully is not being reprimanded at all?' a viewer asked. 'If Romy is a paid actor, then the producers are paying her to bully and should be held accountable. If she's there and being a c**t by her own volition, then she needs to be held accountable.'
'She needs to be held accountable': Many fans called for 'bully' Romy (pictured) to be immediately dismissed from the show
'The producers should be held accountable': One viewer referenced rumours that Romy is a 'paid actress' planted by the producers to stir up drama in the mansion
Meanwhile, a handful of viewers claimed they had filed formal complaints to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
'We need to all make a broadcasting complaint about the promotion of bullying,' one Facebook user wrote on Wednesday.
Another replied: 'I'd [be] pretty f**king keen to do this because the way they're portraying this season is disgusting.'
'Wow. Just went onto the site. The DO NOT make it easy [to complain],' commented another viewer.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted ACMA and Network Ten for comment.
She's set to the tie-the-knot to the love of her life in just a few weeks after meeting on the 2016 series of the hit ITV2 dating show.
And Olivia Buckland has exclusively revealed to MailOnline that she has invited Love Island host, Caroline Flack, and narrator, Iain Stirling, to her upcoming wedding to Alex Bowen.
The Instagram sensation was at the star-studded launch of her new Prep + Glow sheet mask in collaboration with Skin Republic at the Sanderson hotel in London on Tuesday night.
Not long to go!: Olivia Buckland has exclusively revealed to MailOnline that she has invited Love Island host, Caroline Flack, and narrator, Iain Stirling, to her upcoming wedding
Talking about her wedding invite list, she excitedly and exclusively told MailOnline that the Love Island team will play a big part in the day, she said: 'Iain is coming to the day, and Caroline is invited to the evening - hopefully they come!
'I know Iain is definitely coming to the day. So that will be good fun, he's a laugh.'
Talking about her upcoming big day, Olivia revealed that she had planned for her and Alex's adorable French bulldog, Reggie, to be a ring bearer, but had changed their minds as he's 'very slobbery'.
She joked: 'We were going to try and have him as ring bearer, but he's very slobbery, and I don't know if it's going to work too well.
Star-studded: Talking about her wedding invite list, she excitedly and exclusively told MailOnline: 'Iain is coming to the day, and Caroline is invited to the evening - hopefully they come!' (Iain Stirling and Caroline Flack pictured in 2017)
Gorgeous: The Essex beauty, 24, was at the star-studded launch of her new Prep + Glow sheet mask in collaboration with Skin Republic at the Sanderson hotel, London, on Tuesday
Supportive beau: Alex was there to support his wife-to-be at her exciting star-studded Skin Republic event on Tuesday night
'We did have a go, we tried to train him, he was actually really good, but it's a bit of a risk on the day, I don't want to chase my dog at the time I'm meant to be getting married! We might try, but it's still an unknown.'
And after the chaos of organising a huge wedding, Olivia revealed she's got a relaxing honeymoon in store.
She said: 'For honeymoon, we're going to Sri Lanka and Maldives. I can't wait. Sri Lanka is more for Alex, as he can't sit still, Maldives is for me, so I cna just chill and not do anything.'
Leading lady: Olivia looked sensational for her big night in a blue tasselled tuxedo dress and nude heels
Marital bliss: After the chaos of organising a huge wedding, Olivia revealed she's got a relaxing honeymoon in store with husband-to-be Alex Bowen (pictured at her Skin Republic event)
Olivia's got a sweet surprise waiting for her when she arrives back, as she and Alex are picking up their newest French bulldog puppy, Winnie, who is a half-sister to Reggie.
She said: 'We're picking her up when we come back from the honeymoon, I think I'm going to have mega honeymoon blues and post wedding, so it's something for me to do when I go back.'
Yet despite expanding their family to four, Olivia has no plans for babies with Alex just yet as she's too busy.
She said: 'Eventually, we do want kids, so it will happen eventually... just not yet. I'm loving what I'm doing and I'm hoping for a second series TLC Second Chance Dresses.
Cute: Talking about her upcoming big day, Olivia revealed that she had planned for her and Alex's adorable French bulldog, Reggie, to be a ring bearer, but had changed their minds
'I want to travel and do so many things, so I wouldn't feel right bringing a child into that. I want to be done with going out and get my career solid first.'
Olivia's close friend, Love Island star Gabby Allen, is currently on Celebrity Big Brother where she has had to witness Roxanne Pallett and Ryan Thomas' 'punch' row.
She said: 'I think she's doing so well, I'm so proud of her, I think she's been herself and that's what I was most wanting for her.
Love's young dream: She's set to the tie-the-knot to the love of her life in just a few weeks after meeting on the 2016 series of the hit ITV2 dating show (pictured on Love Island in 2016)
'To come out as herself, be honest and be opinionated, and she is - she's being herself, that's all I could have asked for.'
Talking about the Roxanne uproar, after the soap star walked out of the Big Brother house in the early hours of Saturday morning after claiming Thomas punched her 'like a boxer would punch a bag', she said: 'I mean, that is the only word you can use, shocking.
'But I am genuinely baffled. I love Ryan, he's a lovely guy, I've met him a couple of times, I love Scott, so my support is fully with Ryan.
'Luckily we know Ryan is an amazing guy and Roxanne she just needs help.'
American actress Chloe Grace Moretz recently hit out at rival gay flick, Boy Erased, for being directed by 'a straight white man'.
But on Thursday, the star of gay conversion therapy movie The Miseducation of Cameron Post backtracked on her comments that 'queer movies should be told through a queer lens'.
Speaking to the Herald Sun, the passionate 21-year-old insisted that the two productions were equally important and should 'stand together'.
'The more queer movies we can get on screen, the better': The Miseducation of Cameron Post's star Chloe Grace Moretz backtracks on her critique of rival gay conversion therapy flick Boy Erased in an interview with the Herald Sun on Thursday
'Its important to say that I think these movies should stand together, and the more queer movies we can get on screen, the better for everyone,' she said.
'All I can say is, from my perspective, I wouldnt have done my movie without Desiree. She was instrumental to my decision to be a part of it,' Chloe said of working with bisexual female filmmaker Desiree Akhavan.
Chloe plays the film's titular role of Cameron Post, a teen whose guardians place her into gay conversion therapy in the 90s.
'These movies should stand together': The passionate 21-year-old, who had slammed the rival film for being shot through 'a straight male gaze', insisted that the two productions were equally important for the queer community
While on the promotional circuit, Chloe told the LA Times: 'Theres another conversion therapy movie thats coming out and you see how that was picked up by a major distributor, they are putting all the money behind it, and you start to compare it.'
'This movie was directed by a bisexual woman of diversity, it has a very diverse cast and we didnt cast all celebrities.
'You look at the other movie - that movie has distribution already, its going to come out, its going to be big - its written and directed by a white man, its shot through a straight male gaze. You just look at the discrepancy and thats shocking,' she said, comparing it to Boy Erased.
'That movie has distribution already, its going to come out, its going to be big': Conversion-themed film Boy Erased stars Australian actors Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe, and is directed by Joel Edgerton
Conversion-themed film Boy Erased stars Australian actors Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe, and is directed by Joel Edgerton.
The film, based on Garrard Conley's memoir, follows the son of a Baptist preacher who is forced to participate in a church-supported gay conversion program.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post is in selected Australian cinemas now, while Boy Erased is due for release in November
She coupled up with Love Island lothario, Adam Collard, despite everyone's warnings that he's a womaniser.
And Zara McDermott proved she'd made the right decision as she documented her loved-up holiday with the personal trainer in Dubai with her Instagram followers.
The reality star flaunted her ultra-tanned and toned physique in a skimpy blue physique as she cosied up to the 22-year-old bad boy.
Cute couple: Love Island's Zara McDermott posed sultrily in skimpy bikini during her loved-up holiday with Adam Collard during their Dubai getaway
Sharing a snap of the couple together on her Instagram on Wednesday, she declared her love for Adam.
'Honestly having the best holiday ever. All thanks to this one. Cant put into words how much I love you,' Zara wrote.
She added lovingly: 'Cant wait to keep making these amazing crazy memories with you xxxxxxxx.'
The brunette bombshell also shared a snap of her sizzling bikini body in a sultry snap, which she captioned: 'Sun so bright and Im a little bit sunburnt.'
Sweet: The brunette beauty dazzled in a skintight white dress as she cosied up to her Lothario boyfriend Adam
Looking good: She later dazzled in a showstopping yellow gown when the couple went on a lavish night out
Adam was a late entrant into the Love Island villa, where he became something of a villain due to his womanising ways, after racking up an incredible list of conquests including Rosie Williams, Darylle Sargeant, Kendall Rae-Knight and Zara.
After being kicked off the show, he pursued his romance with Zara and the duo have been displaying their loved-up status on social media ever since.
Adam has been capitalising big time on his instant stardom with reports he will rake in 305,000 for a series of public appearances, reports The Sun.
Feeling fruity? The reality star flaunted her incredible frame in a lemon-print swimsuit
Say it in stripes: Zara later donned a stripy wrap dress while staying at the Atlantis hotel
The star who was voted out of the villa alongside Alex Miller, Darylle and Ellie Jones, announced a 61 date PA tour to his 724,000 Instagram followers.
His mammoth tour began with the PA at the BH Hotel Majorca before he flies home to the UK to spend the night at Edwards in Peterborough.
He will take in cities including Cardiff, Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle, before wrapping up his tour at Glasgows Savoy on November 17.
It was claimed the star will make an average of 5,000 per appearance, making him one of the show's first contestants to amass a fortune. Announcing the news, he wrote: 'Heres a list of all of my appearances in the upcoming months. Come say Hi'.
Lena Dunham is an open book when it comes to her personal life and she took to Twitter on Tuesday to crowd source advice on an issue that has been plaguing her.
The 32-year-old turned to the social media platform's hive mind to ask if her recent obsession with babies has something to do with her hysterectomy.
Dunham started a new estrogen protocol last week as a result of the procedure and revealed that she has been 'having actual childbirth dreams' ever since.
Help, please: Lena Dunham took to Twitter on Tuesday and Wednesday to admit that she's been struggling to deal with not being able to have children following her hysterectomy last year; seen in July
Hive mind: The Girls vet looked for help on social media from other users who've experience the same thing
What can we expect? The star tweeted that she will pen a self-help book for women undergoing hysterectomies but she wasn't clear on how serious she is about the potential project
On Tuesday she queried: 'I started estrogen a week ago tomorrow and am suddenly obsessed with babies and having actual childbirth dreams. Is this biological? Can anyone with post-hysterectomy experience give me their thoughts?'
Nearly a year ago the Emmy nominee underwent a radical hysterectomy after suffering severely from endometriosis.
Twitter users were quick to respond back to Lena with their own personal stories and offer some solace.
One user shared her own story: 'It's not uncommon. After mine at age 19 I had two years of baby thoughts and dreams. It was also about two years before I could hold a baby without crying. It gets better. Give it time. It will get better.'
Lena responded directly to the tweet: 'thank you, needed that.'
And, the New York native revealed on Wednesday that she is 'planning to share a what to expect when youre not expecting civilians guide to losing your uterus soon.'
Though, she didn't indicate whether or not she was serious about the project.
The starlet vented online in another tweet about her frustration over not being able to have a biological child.
'Sometimes in the middle of a joyful day the fact that Ill never be able to bear children hits me hard,' she admitted. 'I logically understand why this isnt a necessity- politically, emotionally etc. But you can understand and still not *know* It was a dream of mine.'
Hand in hand: Lena's emotional struggle with not bearing children comes during her burgeoning new romance with a mystery man spotted with the star here in July with her late Yorkie
Getting real: In August the HBO star celebrated the nine month anniversary of her hysterectomy with a series of nude photos
Oh baby: Last month Lena posted a list of potential baby names - including 'Oz, Na, Sara Lee, Zavie, Rah, and Shogo' - that she and ex boyfriend Jack Antonoff compiled in 2015
The Tiny Furniture writer's emotional struggle with child bearing comes while her burgeoning romance with a possible new beau heats up.
She has been spotted stepping out with a mystery man recently and was even caught stealing a quick kiss while on a date with her rumored boyfriend last month.
In August the HBO star celebrated the nine month anniversary of her hysterectomy with a series of nude photos.
She picked the date specifically because it's the same amount of time that an expectant mother would be pregnant.
'Ive never celebrated the 9 month anniversary of anything and I realized last night why that number feels so funny- I wont ever do it the way I planned to,' she wrote at the time on Instagram. 'My body is mostly healed and every day I find a new bruise on my heart, but today I offer myself gratitude: from the most pained place, I somehow knew to choose myself. The purest glint of who we are and know we can be is always available to us, calm and true at our center.'
That same week she dug up a sad relic from her five-year relationship with ex-boyfriend Antonoff.
She posted a list of potential baby names - including 'Oz, Na, Sara Lee, Zavie, Rah, and Shogo' - she and the 34-year-old Bleachers frontman compiled in 2015.
'I could definitely keep this private,' the Oberlin College grad tweeted.
'But then the world wouldn't know that you suggested Carrot over and over... Love u!'
Smize: The 32-year-old donned a high cut strapless swimsuit that secured around the waist with a built in belt
Pose! Emily Ratajkowsi acts as photographer for her swimwear line Inamorata while shooting model Lena Dunham in this Polaroid that was shared on social media Tuesday
The Lenny Letter co-creator bared all in a different way just yesterday on social media when she was featured in a saucy leopard print bathing suit during a photo shoot.
Lena posed in a high cut, revealing one-piece designed by Emily Ratajkowski for the 27-year-old's swimwear line.
EmRata switched roles for the shoot and instead of model, acted as photographer, snapping sultry pictures of her pal for the label.
He was still alive and kicking at the end of season five of House Of Cards.
But that's all about to change for Kevin Spacey's character, ex- President Francis Underwood.
A 24-second teaser for the Netflix political drama released on Wednesday shows his wife, Claire, played by Robin Wright, 52, looking steely as she stands over his grave next to his father's resting place.
R.I.P. Frank Underwood: A 24-second teaser for the final season op the Netflix political drama released Wednesday shows the grave for the disgraced Kevin Spacey's character
Now Potus, she says coldly: 'I'll tell you this though, Francis, when they bury me it won't be in my back yard. And when they pay their respects they'll have to wait in line.'
Claire then turns on her heel and leaves, leaving a wilting bunch of white tulips on his headstone.
The teaser was released on Tuesday, but fans have known for months that Spacey, 59, wouldn't be back for the final season.
He was axed from the show in November after multiple allegations of sexual misconduct including several from crew members.
Hail the new President: Robin Wright, 52, looks steely as Frank's wife Claire as she stands over his grave, saying, 'When they bury me it won't be in my back yard. And when they pay their respects they'll have to wait in line'
Showrunners filled the gap by making Claire President but viewers have yet to find out how the scheming politician dies
Meanwhile, it emerged on Wednesday that Spacey will not be prosecuted over one accusation of sexual assault that allegedly took place in West Hollywood in 1992.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office said the alleged incident was outside California's statute of limitations.
Another case concerning an alleged incident in 2016 remains under review.
A number of allegations of sexual misconduct have been made against the Oscar-winner since last November, when he was accused by actor Anthony Rapp of making a sexual advance in 1986.
Kevin claimed to have no memory of the events but publicly apologized. He has since issued an 'absolute' denial of the other allegations that later emerged.
Police in London are also probing six criminal cases against the star who was artistic director of the city's Old Vic Theatre from 2004 to 2015.
She's not shy when it comes to documenting of her life on social media.
But Chrissy Teigen was close to sharing a little too much with fans on Wednesday.
Taking to her Instagram Stories, the 32-year-old revealed she was in an Ambien haze while lying in bed.
Her ample cleavage almost spilled out of her top as she filmed herself early in the morning after taking the sleeping aid.
Close one: Chrissy Teigen almost spilled out of her top while filming an Instagram story in a sleepy Ambien haze on Wednesday
'Started getting ready...but I'm really sleepy so I'm goin' to sleep,' she said in a hazy tone.
It's not the first time Chrissy has been close to a wardrobe malfunction.
Taking to the social media on Sunday, she flashed her underboob while clad in a bra and Spanx whilst shooting a secret Christmas project in Los Angeles.
'This is pure moisture,' the Lip Sync Battle star told her 20 million fans.
Not shy: Taking to the social media on Sunday, she flashed her underboob while clad in a bra and Spanx whilst shooting a secret Christmas project in Los Angeles
Burning up: 'We're pretending it's Christmas and it's so hot out. This is swear, look at my bra'
'We're pretending it's Christmas and it's so hot out. This is swear, look at my bra.'
While it's not known what she was shooting, it may very well be for her husband John Legend's upcoming Christmas album.
The loved up couple are set to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary in the next couple of weeks are tying-the-knot on 14 September 2013.
Chrissy and John are the dotting parents to Luna Simone, two, and Miles Theodore, four months.
The award was presented at the World Travel Awards (WTA) Asia & Australasia Gala Ceremony 2018 in Hong Kong (China) on September 3.
The award is a very important accolade, affirming the brand and raising the level of Vietnams tourism.
In addition, Vietnams Vietravel company was recognised by voters as Asias Leading Tour Operator for the sixth consecutive year.
Established in 1993, the World Travel Awards, known as the Oscars of the travel industry by the Wall Street Journal, have been annually held to honour the best service providers in the fields of travel and tourism.
Each year, the WTA covers the globe with a series of regional gala ceremonies staged to recognise and celebrate individual and collective successes within each key geographical region.
WTA gala ceremonies are widely regarded as the best networking opportunities in the travel industry, attended by government and industry leaders, luminaries and international print and broadcast media.
Advertisement
She's been owning every red carpet at Venice Film Festival, stepping out in a variety of glamorous ensembles.
And Tilda Swinton continued her stylish streak as she lead the glamour at the L'Annee Derniere a Marienbad screening at Sala Giardino at the 75th annual International festival.
Turning heads in a glamorous floor-length black gown, the 57-year-old actress was a vision of beauty for the event as she joined the likes of Chloe Sevigny on the red carpet.
Glamorous: She's been owning every red carpet at Venice Film Festival. And Tilda Swinton continued her stylish streak as she lead the glamour at the L'Annee Derniere a Marienbad screening at Sala Giardino at the 75th annual International festival
Tilda's dazzling dress was adorned with rows of stunning crystals that lined the seams of her gown, as well as framing the high neckline and running along the bodice.
The eye-catching gown featured a tunic style skirt that layered over a matching slip, offering a look at her enviably long legs, which were boosted by a pair of gem-adorned stiletto heel ankle boots.
Tilda's bleach blonde crop was styled in a side parting for the event, whilst a smattering of neutral make-up highlighted her flawless features and allowed her gorgeous porcelain complexion to shine.
A real gem! Tilda's dazzling dress was adorned with rows of stunning crystals that lined the seams of her gown, as well as framing the high neckline and running along the bodice
L'Annee derniere a Marienbad - released in the US and UK as Last Year at Marienbad - is a 1961 French-Italian film that was chosen as one of the iconic movies to be screened at this year's festival in the Venice Classics section.
Tilda recently attended the premiere for her film, Susperia, in which she stars alongside Dakota Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Mia Goth and Lutz Ebersdorf.
According to the studio, the film is about 'a darkness [that] swirls at the center of a world-renowned dance company, one that will engulf the artistic director, an ambitious young dancer, and a grieving psychotherapist. Some will succumb to the nightmare. Others will finally wake up.'
Pretty in pink: Chloe Sevigny also looked sensational at the screening as she stepped out in a baby pink mini dress with a sheer overlay and a feather adorned hem and shoulder detailing
Working it! Chloe pulled a variety of poses on the red carpet as she strutted her stuff in her glamorous gown
How To Be Single star Dakota plays an 'ambitious young dancer' studying under a character played by a haunting Tilda.
The doctor in the film is allegedly played by real life doctor Lutz Ebersdorf but rumors surfaced that it might actually just be Tilda Swinton in elaborate makeup.
Susperia is competing to impress this year's Film Festival jury panel, the president of which is director, Guillermo Del Toro. The jury consists of Christoph Waltz, Taika Waititi, Malgorzata Szumowska, Trine Dyrholm, Nicole Garcia, Sylvia Chang and Paolo Genovese.
Blooming lovely! Italian actress Alessandra Mastronardi was a vision of beauty in a full floral print skirt that she teamed with a billowing blouse and black leather heeled boots
Naomi Watts was also appointed a juror on the panel, which consists of five women and four men in an effort to readdress the imbalance that has occurred in previous years.
Naomi said she hopes the experience will be 'life altering', gushing: 'To sit in a disciplined way and spend the next 10 days watching two to three films a day is extraordinary and I have just never had that opportunity.
'And to be amongst this group of people on this panel and with Guillermo leading it, I think it's going to be a really unique and really new experience.'
On September 8, the final day of the festival, Del Toro's jury will be tasked with handing out the Golden Lion for Best Film, the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, Silver Lion for Best Director, Coppa Volpi for Best Actor, Coppa Volpi for Best Actress, Award for Best Screenplay, the Special Jury Prize and the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress.
Chic and cheerful: Actress Raffey Cassidy, 16, looked stylish in a ruffled white blouse worn beneath a black cardigan and teamed with a leather peplum skirt and towering heels
Meanwhile, Claire Foy and Ryan Gosling opened the star-studded film showcase with their Neil Armstrong biopic First Man, which has already been tipped for awards glory as it tells the tale of the iconic 1969 moon landing.
In First Man Claire plays Neil Armstrong's first wife Janet Shearon who acts as a pillar of support for the spaceman ahead of the Apollo 11 mission, which is famously known as the moment man first set foot on the moon.
It proved a triumphant evening for the film as it reportedly received a three-minute standing ovation upon conclusion, and many critics have offered the film glowing reviews.
It was re-teaming of sorts for director Damien and star Ryan, who also worked on the music La La Land, which was mistakenly named as the winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2017.
Delilah Hamlin was spotted soaking up the summer sun over the weekend to celebrate the 38th birthday of Rod Stewart's son, Sean.
The 20-year-old - who is the daughter of Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin - flaunted her enviable bikini body as she strolled on the shore.
The cover girl was also seen enjoying a beverage in a wine glass and smoking a cigarette.
Stunner: Lisa Rinna's daughter Delilah Hamlin, 20, was seen flaunting her bikini body while enjoying a drink and smoke on Malibu Beach over the weekend
Delilah stunned in a black bikini top that showcased her ample cleavage and lean and toned physique.
The social media favorite paired the swimwear with some long jean shorts that were held up with a black Gucci belt.
The beauty accessorized with multiple yellow gold chains and kept her brunette locks down and out of her face.
Fun in the sun: The 20-year-old flaunted her enviable bikini body while celebrating the 38th birthday of Rodd Stewart's son, Sean, and was photographed enjoying a beverage in a wine glass and smoking a cigarette
Beauty: Delilah stunned in a black bikini top that showcased her ample cleavage and lean and toned physique
Delilah appeared to be wearing a minimal amount of makeup for the beach day celebration and was joined by her pug, Love.
The stunner currently resides on the East Coast in New York City, where she attends college. She seems to be in LA for the summer.
Speaking to WWD earlier in the year, she revealed why she chose to major in criminal psychology.
Vacation: Home for the summer, the stunner currently resides on the East Coast in New York City, where she attends college
College student: Delilah recently revealed she studies Criminal Psychology after being inspired by Kim Possible and Criminal Minds
'When I was this is kind of weird but when I was younger I would watch Kim Possible and I would be like, "Oh, my God. I want to be a secret spy",' she confessed.
'And then I started watching Criminal Minds and I really fell in love. It was so interesting. I took a course on criminal psychology in high school and it was the most interesting thing ever so I want to study that.'
Just like Gigi and Bella Hadid, who also starred on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills with their mom Yolanda, Delilah is too signed with IMG models.
Star on the rise: Just like Gigi and Bella Hadid, who also starred on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills with their mom Yolanda, Delilah is too signed with IMG models
Delilah (middle) is the eldest daughter of Lisa Rinna (R: sister Amelia Hamlin, 17, who's also a model)
Speaking to Teen Vogue, she revealed she only started modelling three years ago.
'My mom didn't let me model until I was 17,' she confessed to the publication.
'She knew the culture and the industry because she's been in it for so long, and she didn't really want me to get in it too early.'
'She wanted me to mature more and understand things more, and not be so naive going into it. It is a difficult culture with body type and body image, and she wanted me to wait until I was older,' she continued.
She's one of the jury members at the 75th annual Venice Film Festival this year.
And Naomi Watts looked chic as she stepped out in the Italian city, opting to wear a stylish yet simple ensemble for her outing on Wednesday.
The Australian actress, 49, looked the picture of elegance in a white 3/4 length T-shirt which she tucked into khaki green trousers.
Looking good: Naomi Watts looked chic in a white shirt and khaki trousers as she headed out in the Italian city before the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday
Her ensemble was cinched at the waist with an oversized belt that matched her trousers, while she stepped out in a pair of Everlane's Day Glove flats.
Leaving her cropped blonde locks into a tousled hairstyle, she protected herself from the sun with a white trilby hat and stylish shades.
Naomi completed her look with a white handbag, and held a dark blue blazer in her arms in case the weather took a turn for the worse.
Stunning: The Australian actress, 49, looked the picture of elegance in her ensemble, which she accessorized with a white hat and a pair of Everlane's Day Glove flats
Friendly: The Impossible actress was joined by Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro on her outing, who was appointed as jury president earlier this year
The Impossible actress was joined by Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro on her outing, who was appointed as jury president earlier this year.
Her fellow jury member Christoph Waltz also spent the day walking through the streets of Venice, and he looked dapper in a white shirt and grey suit jacket.
The German actor, 61, added a casual flair to his look with a pair of denim jeans and blue slip on shoes.
Finishing touches: Leaving her cropped blonde locks into a tousled hairstyle, she protected herself from the sun with a white trilby hat and stylish shades
Handsome: Her fellow jury member Christoph Waltz also spent the day walking through the streets of Venice, and he looked dapper in a white shirt and grey suit jacket
Dapper: The German actor, 61, added a casual flair to his look with a pair of denim jeans and blue slip on shoes
Among the industry professionals, other people on the panel include Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi, actresses Sylvia Chang, Nicole Garcia, and Trine Dyrholm, and filmmakers Paolo Genovese and Malgorzata Szumowska.
The Venice Film Festival has come under fire for selecting only one female director in the 2018 competition.
Speaking during the first day of the festival, president Guillermo spoke about the lack of gender diversity represented in the selection.
He said: 'I think that the goal has to be clear, and has to remain 50/50 by 2020. Its a real problem we have in the culture in general.'
Low-key: Christoph kept a low profile in a pair of black shades
Joined by: Among the other industry professionals, other people on the panel include Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi, actresses Sylvia Chang, Nicole Garcia, and Trine Dyrholm
Drama: The Venice Film Festival has come under fire for selecting only one female director in the 2018 competition
However, The Shape Of Water filmmaker also insisted the issue couldnt be solved simply by meeting a quota.
'Its not a matter of establishing a quota. Its extremely important to call it out, and to question it and to name it, and to make it known,' he continued.
'I think that is necessary, because for many decades, if not centuries, it has not been called.
'Its not a controversy, its a real problem, and it needs to be solved, in every one of our pertinent departments, with strength and resolve.'
Looking to change: Speaking during the first day of the festival, president Guillermo spoke about the lack of gender diversity represented in the selection
She passionately hit out at people who have 'slut-shamed' her during an interview earlier in the day.
And Megan Barton-Hanson appeared to have moved on from the drama as she looked in excellent spirits whilst joining boyfriend Wes Nelson at the world premiere of The House With The Clock In Its Walls at London's Westfield White City on Wednesday.
The 24-year-old Love Island star posed up a storm at the event as she ensured that the hateful comments she had referred to earlier were pushed to the back of her mind.
Cute couple: Megan Barton-Hanson joined boyfriend Wes Nelson at the world premiere of The House With The Clock In Its Walls at London's Westfield White City on Wednesday
Oozing glamour for the outing, Megan donned a Victoriana style lace gown with a high neckline and collared sleeves.
Clinging to her hourglass curves, the garment featured a thigh-skimming hemline that offered a look at her tanned and toned pins, whilst a pair of gold barely-there heels aided in boosting her petite frame.
Megan finished off the look by styling her glossy golden locks in a chic up-do, whilst bearing a slick of glossy red lipstick.
Lovely in lace: Oozing glamour for the outing, Megan donned a Victoriana style lace gown with a high neckline and collared sleeves
Leggy lady! Clinging to her hourglass curves, the garment featured a thigh-skimming hemline that offered a look at her tanned and toned pins and donned a pair of gold barely-there heels
Blonde bombshell: Megan finished off the look by styling her glossy golden locks in a chic up-do, whilst bearing a slick of glossy red lipstick
Suited and booted: Wes Nelson also looked dapper for the event in a navy pinstriped suit
Not-so mellow yellow: Megan and Wes' Love Island co-star Samira Mighty was also at the premiere and donned an eye-catching gold bustier with a shaggy cardigan
Also attending the The House with a Clock in Its Walls premiere were the lead stars Jack Black and Cate Blanchett - who looked radiant in an emerald green dress.
The fantasy film, directed by Eli Roth, and based on the 1973 novel of the same name by John Bellairs, will be released in UK and US cinemas on September 21.
The House with a Clock in Its Walls tells the story of a young orphan who aids his magical uncle in locating a clock with the power to bring about the end of the world.
Two's company: Also attending the The House with a Clock in Its Walls premiere were the lead stars Jack Black and Cate Blanchett - who looked radiant in an emerald green dress
Gorgeous in green: Cate looked phenomenal in an emerald green midi dress with a ruffled neckline, whilst a brown Gucci belt cinched in at her tiny waist
Earlier that day, Megan appeared on Good Morning Britain while wearing a slogan T-shirt which condemns 'slut-shaming.'
Talking to Love Island's harshest critic, Piers Morgan, 53, alongside Wes, 20, Megan's yellow top said: 'Stop valuing women based on their sexual history.
She said of women being open with their sexuality: 'I think it's really unfair and an old fashioned way to look at it. It's frowned upon its 2018, it shouldn't be a put a down.'
'I slept with guys on TV and people think I should be ashamed of it. I'm not. If a guy done it... Adam [Collard] did it.'
Carrying on the night: After attending the premiere, Megan and Wes decided to continue the party at Bunga Bunga Covent Garden in central London
Plenty to smile about: The former glamour model looked happy and relaxed as she headed inside the Italian party venue
Megan previously spoke about her decision to become a stripper, saying: 'I did it for a year - I got in, I got out, I earned my money, I didnt hurt anyone, I dont see why its so negative.
'Men enjoyed it, I enjoyed it, couples came in everyone is happy!
Now happy with Wes, the couple admitted they feel like they are stronger than ever, with Megan saying she wouldn't have chosen him a few years ago.
Cute couple: The Love Island pair looked happier than ever two months after leaving the villa
Loved-up: Megan and West strolled hand in hand through the streets of the capital as they made the most of their night out on the tiles
A pizza the action! The couple were seen smoking outside Bunga Bunga with two female friends as they took a cigarette break
She said: 'It's all worked out for the better. If I'd have seen his selfies, seen that he was. so, I would have run a mile if I had seen his profile, [online].
'Most definitely, I don't think either of us thought we would find love. [Love Island] is the most idyllic place to find love, it's not traditional.
'There's all the camera, producers, but there's no social media, so its probably the most organic.'
Homeward bound: The genetically-blessed twosome looked in good spirits as they called it a night and headed back to Megan's flat in Southend, Essex
She's the Hollywood acting heavyweight with two Oscar gongs to her name.
And Cate Blanchett proved her style credentials on Wednesday night as she attended the world premiere of The House With The Clock In Its Walls at Westfield White City in London.
The 49-year-old Australian actress turned heads in a green Victoriana-inspired ruffle dress with a chic Gucci belt at the star-studded event.
Chic: Cate Blanchett exuded elegance in a chic emerald gown as she posed up a storm at The House With The Clock In Its Walls premiere in London on Wednesday
The Notes On A Scandal actress certainly took centre-stage in her dress, which featured a demure ankle-length hemline and a chic pleated skirt.
Injecting a dose of sparkle into the look, she boosted her height with a pair of sparkly ankle-strap platforms.
Styling her golden tresses in Old Hollywood style retro waves, she framed her features in a slick of nude lipstick.
Cate was joined by Love Island star, Megan Barton-Hanson, who joined her reality star boyfriend Wes Nelson.
Looking good: The Notes On A Scandal actress certainly took centre-stage in her dress, which featured a demure ankle-length hemline and a chic pleated skirt
Killer footwear: Injecting a dose of sparkle into the look, she boosted her height with a pair of sparkly ankle-strap platforms
Two's company: She later mingled with a beaming Jack Black
Pucker up: Jack and Cate leaned towards each other as they pretended to pucker up
Cosy: Cate shared a hug with director Eli Roth as they attended the premiere
The 24-year-old Love Island star posed up a storm at the event as she ensured that the hateful comments she had referred to earlier were pushed to the back of her mind.
Oozing glamour for the outing, Megan donned a Victoriana style lace gown with a high neckline and collared sleeves.
Clinging to her hourglass curves, the garment featured a thigh-skimming hemline that offered a look at her tanned and toned pins, whilst a pair of gold barely-there heels aided in boosting her petite frame.
Leading stars: The film's main stars couldn't resist posing for a sweet picture together
Talented cast: Cate, Owen Vaccaro and Jack Black joined director Eli Roth for a star-studded photo also
Question time: Host Becca Dudley took centre stage with Cate for a talk before the film premiere
Megan finished off the look by styling her glossy golden locks in a chic up-do, whilst bearing a slick of glossy red lipstick.
Also attending the The House with a Clock in Its Walls premiere were the lead stars Jack Black and Cate Blanchett - who looked radiant in an emerald green dress.
The fantasy film, directed by Eli Roth, and based on the 1973 novel of the same name by John Bellairs, will be released in UK and US cinemas on September 21.
The House with a Clock in Its Walls tells the story of a young orphan who aids his magical uncle in locating a clock with the power to bring about the end of the world.
Cute couple: Also on the green carpet was Megan Barton-Hanson with his boyfriend Wes Nelson
Lovely in lace: Oozing glamour for the outing, Megan donned a Victoriana style lace gown with a high neckline and collared sleeves
Earlier that day, Megan appeared on Good Morning Britain while wearing a slogan T-shirt which condemns 'slut-shaming.'
Talking to Love Island's harshest critic, Piers Morgan, 53, alongside Wes, 20, Megan's yellow top said: 'Stop valuing women based on their sexual history.
She said of women being open with their sexuality: 'I think it's really unfair and an old fashioned way to look at it. It's frowned upon its 2018, it shouldn't be a put a down.'
Leggy lady! Clinging to her hourglass curves, the garment featured a thigh-skimming hemline that offered a look at her tanned and toned pins and donned a pair of gold barely-there heels
Blonde bombshell: Megan finished off the look by styling her glossy golden locks in a chic up-do, whilst bearing a slick of glossy red lipstick
Suited and booted: Wes Nelson also looked dapper for the event in a navy pinstriped suit
'I slept with guys on TV and people think I should be ashamed of it. I'm not. If a guy done it... Adam [Collard] did it.'
Megan previously spoke about her decision to become a stripper, saying: 'I did it for a year - I got in, I got out, I earned my money, I didnt hurt anyone, I dont see why its so negative.
'Men enjoyed it, I enjoyed it, couples came in everyone is happy!
Now happy with Wes, the couple admitted they feel like they are stronger than ever, with Megan saying she wouldn't have chosen him a few years ago.
Not-so mellow yellow: Megan and Wes' Love Island co-star Samira Mighty was also at the premiere and donned an eye-catching gold bustier with a shaggy cardigan
Suited and booted: Jack Black donned a fitted grey suit as he struck a variety of poses
She said: 'It's all worked out for the better. If I'd have seen his selfies, seen that he was. so, I would have run a mile if I had seen his profile, [online].
'Most definitely, I don't think either of us thought we would find love. [Love Island] is the most idyllic place to find love, it's not traditional.
'There's all the camera, producers, but there's no social media, so its probably the most organic.'
Sharp: Star of the film Owen Vaccaro donned a black suit and bow tie
Nick Nolte stepped out in a partially unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt when in Malibu on Wednesday afternoon.
It's not the first time the 77-year-old Rich Man, Poor Man actor has been seen in the floral top that has Orchids Of Hawaii written all over it.
In 2002, the Prince Of Tides star had on the same shirt when he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in Woodland Hills, California.
Beach side style: Nick Nolte stepped out in a partially unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt when in Malibu on Wednesday afternoon
Deja vu: In 2002, the Prince Of Tides star had on the shirt when he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in Woodland Hills, California
Nolte wore the shirt buttoned all the way up when he wastaken in by the California Highway Patrol.
The Deep star was arrested September 11 after an officer saw his Mercedes-Benz driving 'erratically.'
The actor was cited and released on a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
On Tuesday, he looked very casual as he wore the shirt - now a bit faded after years of use - partially on.
It still does the job! On Tuesday, he looked very casual as he wore the shirt - now a bit faded after years of use - partially on. He added light blue slacks that looked to be hospital pants
He added light blue slacks that looked to be hospital pants and wore his grey locks in the usual messy but hipster manner.
He also had on a wristband that looked standard issue from a hospital as well as tape around his right elbow.
Nolte and his daughter Sophie, 10, had stopped by Pavilions for some grocery shopping in Malibu.
He carried one boiled egg in a plastic container out of the store with a credit card in his other hand.
Even if Nick has been looking a little scruffy in recent years, that has not prevented him from landing plenty of acting roles.
Family man: Nolte enjoyed a casual outing with his wife Clytie and daughter Sophie, 10, in Malibuin late August
The vet recently wrapped production on his latest movie Angel Has Fallen opposite Morgan Freeman and Gerard Butler.
The veteran star was last seen in Malibu in late August.
He was with his daughter as well as his wife of two years Clytie Lane, who he has been with for over a decade.
The star of the 48 Hrs. and Down and Out in Beverly Hills was married three times previously and has a son Brawley, 32, from his third marriage.
In January, he published his memoir Rebel: My Life Outside The Lines in which he spoke about his childhood in the rural Midwest, his journey to fame in Hollywood, his relationships and struggles with addiction and his passion for his art.
She knows how to work the red carpet with her effortless sartorial elegance.
And Kate Beckinsale put on another sensational display as she made a show-stopping arrival to the 21st annual GQ Men Of The Year Awards 2018 in association with luxury lifestyle group HUGO BOSS at the Tate Modern in London on Wednesday.
The English actress, 45, left nothing to the imagination as she showcased her toned figure in a plunging and cut-out red and black patterned dress, which had a kimono-style shawl on the left side going into a long dramatic train.
Wow: Kate Beckinsale put on another sensational display as she made a show-stopping arrival to the 21st annual GQ Men Of The Year Awards 2018 in association with luxury lifestyle group HUGO BOSS at the Tate Modern in London on Wednesday
Kate accessorised her look with a set of black peep-toe heels and a simple pair of silver dangly earrings.
The Pearl Harbor star showed off her facial features as she styled her brunette locks into a glossy and sleek curly ponytail.
She added a slick of make-up which included a brown smokey eye, bronzer and baby pink lip gloss.
Show-stopping: The English actress, 45, left nothing to the imagination as she showcased her toned figure in a plunging and cut-out red and black patterned dress, which had a kimono-style shawl on the left side going into a long dramatic train
Work it: Kate accessorised her look with a set of black peep-toe heels and a simple pair of silver dangly earrings
Strike a pose: The Pearl Harbor star showed off her facial features as she styled her brunette locks into a glossy and sleek curly ponytail
Glamorous: She added a slick of make-up which included a brown smokey eye, bronzer and baby pink lip gloss
Kate knew how to work her best angles as she put her best foot forward and posed up a storm at the star-studded red carpet.
The actress has had quite the busy schedule and on Sunday the actress made a glamorous arrival to accept 'The Talent Award' during the 44th Deauville US Film Festival in France.
In July, Kate celebrated her 45th birthday with a spot of goat yoga with her daughter Lily and ex-boyfriend Michael Sheen.
Star-studded: Kate knew how to work her best angles as she put her best foot forward and posed up a storm at the star-studded red carpet
Busy bee: The actress has had quite the busy schedule and on Sunday the actress made a glamorous arrival to accept 'The Talent Award' during the 44th Deauville US Film Festival in France
Sweet: In July, Kate celebrated her 45th birthday with a spot of goat yoga with her daughter Lily and ex-boyfriend Michael Sheen
Hot stuff: Kate has been single since she ended her 12-year marriage to Len Wiseman two years ago in 2016
Talented star: The British-born star made her film debut in the 1993 film Much Ado About Nothing, while still attending Oxford
Sheen and Beckinsale were together from 1995 to 2003 but were never married.
Kate has been single since she ended her 12-year marriage to Len Wiseman two years ago in 2016.
The British-born star made her film debut in the 1993 film Much Ado About Nothing, while still attending Oxford. She went on to appear in a number of British costume dramas such as Prince of Jutland (1994), Emma (1996) and The Golden Bowl (2000).
She began to make her mark in American films in the late 1990's with such movies as The Last Days of Disco (1998) and Brokedown Palace (1999), but is best known for her work in action films that include the Underworld series (2003-2016), Van Helsing (2004) and Contraband (2012).
GQ MEN OF THE YEAR AWARDS 2018: THE WINNERS Editors Lifetime Achievement Award for Services to Philanthropy His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales Solo Artist of the Year Dua Lipa Breakthrough Designer of the Year Charles Jeffrey International Man of the Year Chadwick Boseman Solo Artist of the Year: Dua Lipa Politician of the Year David Lammy Sportsman of the Year Harry Kane Brand of the Year Philipp Plein Hugo Boss Breakthrough Actor Tom Bateman Maddox Gallery Artist of the Year Jonathan Yeo Vero Breakthrough Solo Artist: Jorja Smith Editors Special Sacha Baron Cohen Writer of the Year Michael Wolff Design Legend of the Year Ralph Lauren Vero Breakthrough Solo Artist Jorja Smith Live Act of the Year Olly Alexander (Years & Years) Lifetime Achievement Johnny Marr International Man of the Year: Chadwick Boseman Inspiration Award Rose McGowan Fashion Icon of the Year Naomi Campbell Hugo Boss Most Stylish Man John Legend Actor of the Year Daniel Kaluuya Politician of the Year: David Lammy Television Actor of the Year Elisabeth Moss Songwriter of the Year Paul Weller Designer of the Year Donatella Versace Haig Club Icon Jeff Goldblum Advertisement
Impressive: She went on to appear in a number of British costume dramas such as Prince of Jutland (1994), Emma (1996) and The Golden Bowl (2000)
Leggy: Kate put on a leggy display as she made her way across the red carpet
She is one of the best known supermodels of all-time.
But Cindy Crawford still managed to find a way to stand out on her latest outing.
The 52-year-old stunner donned an eye-catching hot pink suit while heading to lunch in New York City on Wednesday.
Alluring: Cindy Crawford donned an eye-catching hot pink suit while heading to lunch in New York City on Wednesday
No doubt she turned heads as she headed out for a midday meal at the We Are Young Kitchen And Cocktails in the Greenwich Village neighborhood.
Despite being mostly covered up, Cindy managed to ooze of sex appeal as she sported a lacy black top and matching stilettos.
She accessorized with a pair of black designer shades, gold hoop earrings, and a black Gucci bag.
Wow factor: Despite being mostly covered up, the 52-year-old supermodel managed to ooze of sex appeal as she sported a lacy black top and matching stilettos
Showing off: She accessorized with a pair of black designer shades, gold hoop earrings, and a black Gucci bag
Her brunette tresses were worn down as she accentuated her evergreen looks with complementary make-up including pink lip.
This comes just a night after she was spotted on a date night with husband Rande Gerber, 56, in the Big Apple.
For one of her outfits, the mother-of-two showed off her lithe physique in a slinky, lemon-yellow dress.
Both sides now: The previous night Crawford ditched the workout gear for not one but two ensembles as she stepped out for date night with husband Rande Gerber, 56
Illinois native Crawford had earlier slipped into black capri pants with beaded sandals.
On top she wore a black silk tank top and shielded her eyes with dark, cats eye shades.
Later, as the couple left their hotel room, she had switched to a light dress befitting the balmy east coast weather.
Keep it casual: Illinois native Crawford had earlier slipped into black capri pants with beaded sandals
Hello sunshine: For one of her outfits, the mother-of-two showed off her lithe physique in a slinky, lemon-yellow dress
Hot: Later, as the couple left their hotel room, she had switched to a light dress befitting the balmy east coast weather
Former model Gerbe meanwhile kept it casual in jeans, a T-shirt and suede sneakers.
Later, the Casamigos Tequila founder swapped the casual top for a short-sleeved button up shirt.
The couple appear to be in the Big Apple ahead of Fashion Week, which begins on Thursday.
She gave birth to her second son last Monday.
And Claire Danes is certainly keeping busy post-birth, with the actress seen walking her dog while carrying her new son in a Baby Bjorn on Wednesday.
The 39-year-old wore a pair of billowy pants for the stroll around Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood.
Mom life: Claire Danes is certainly keeping busy post-birth, with the actress seen walking her dog while carrying her new son in a Baby Bjorn on Wednesday
The Homeland star beat the East Coast heat in a dark tank top for the walk, while on her feet she wore a pair of sandals.
Claire wore her straight blonde tresses untied and with a center part.
Her newborn bub was hidden from view inside the carrier which also covered the infant's head.
The breakout star of My So-Called Life wore only a light sheen of makeup for the outing, allowing her naturally beautiful features to shine through.
Keep it casual: The 39-year-old wore a pair of billowy pants for the stroll around Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood
Well-heeled: The Homeland star beat the East Coast heat in a dark tank top for the walk, while on her feet she wore a pair of sandals
Speaking of her pregnancy cravings back in June, the actress revealed: 'Not really. Just all of the food. I welcome all of the food,' she told People.
'I get to retire for a little while and just be pregnant...which feels like a huge luxury. When I was pregnant with my first son, I worked until I was in my eighth month, so this feels like a huge gift, to have a chance to kick my feet up a little bit.'
Claire has won three Emmy Awards and four Golden Globes.
Good hair day: Claire wore her straight blonde tresses untied and with a center part
The starlet has been married to actor Hugh Dancy since 2009 and the couple already share a son, Cyrus, five.
Recently, Hugh hit the red carpet for the first time since welcoming his second child.
The 43-year-old attended a photo call for his play Apologia on Wednesday, in New York City.
The play stars Stockard Channing as a 1960s activist-turned-art-historian who publishes a memoir which threatens to split her family apart.
Her man: The starlet has been married to actor Hugh Dancy since 2009 and the couple already share a son, Cyrus, five. Hugh seen here this week
Out and about: Claire took her baby for a walk in a stroller later on
Strictly Come Dancing isnt all glitz and glamour.
Competing on the show requires hard work and often draws competitors away from their families, creating rifts between loved ones. This phenomenon is known as the Strictly curse and has led to divorces, breakups, called off engagements and more.
And it seems this season is no different, after comedian Seann Walsh and his pro dancing partner Katya Jones were spotted kissing passionately in public over the weekend.
Strictly Come Dancing has been known to have a negative effect on couples, giving way to what's known as the Strictly curse
Since we're barely into this season of Strictly Come Dancing, it seems the curse is a real thing and not just reality TV folklore. With Katya and Seann claiming the kiss was a 'one-off drunken mistake', it remains to be seen if their romantic partners Neil Jones and Rebecca Humphries will stand by them.
Heres what you need to know about the Strictly curse.
What is the Strictly Come Dancing curse?
The Strictly Come Dancing Curse is seen when one or more members of a couple compete on BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing. The couple is typically torn apart by time-related issues or one partner's attraction to another person on the show, which often leads to infidelity.
Couples who have been affected by the Strictly curse
Katya Jones and Seann Walsh
Katya and Seann are the most recent dance partners to be struck with the curse, after they were seen passionately kissing in public on Wednesday, October 3. Katya, who is married to Neil Jones, was the first to issue an apology, saying it was a 'one-off mistake after some drinks'.
Comedian Seann Walsh, who is dating Rebecca Humphries, also called it a 'drunken mistake'. It remains to be seen if this results in them splitting from their partners.
Katya and Seann are the most recent dance partners to be struck with the curse, after they were seen passionately kissing in public on October 3
Karen and Kevin Clifton
Karen and Kevin Clifton were the couple to feel the effects of the Strictly curse last season of the show.
In 2017, a source told The Sun: Kevin has spoken to some of those close to him and admitted things arent going well between them at the minute.
Kevin himself said: Strictlys a hard few weeks for everyone.
Karen and I have found this years particularly hard as weve been in different places since the start her in Manchester and London and me in Glasgow.
Rumors continued to swirl into 2018. At first, Karen maintained that she and Kevin were happy together. In March, however, everything changed.
The couple announced that they were taking a break.
Kevin told This Morning: 'There was a big elephant in the room and normally you would deal with that privately and we're positive people in general so we thought we would just get on top of it and ride it.'
Karen was still wearing her wedding ring at the time. She explained it was because they were 'not divorced yet'.
Speaking with MailOnline, Karen said: Its important to be open to all possibilities. I havent given up on it. I saw my parents break up and I didnt like it.
I think the best thing for now is to behave like adults and take a break.
She added: You never know whatll happen; maybe even in a couple of yearsits just that right now this is what we need.
Louise and Jamie Redknapp
After placing second in the 2016 iteration of Strictly Come Dancing, reports surfaced claiming that Louise Redknapps nearly two-decade old marriage was in a state of disaster. The Sun revealed in December 2017 that she and husband Jamie filed for divorce.
The time apart was said to be too much for their relationship.
A source said: They have come to a mutual agreement that divorce is the only option. Louise has filed the paperwork and theres no going back.
They were granted a quick divorce in December 2017.
Court documents obtained by Celebs Now stated that 'unreasonable behavior' was the reason for their split.
Joanne Clifton and Joe Edward-Bader
The Strictly Curse doesnt just affect married contestants. In February 2017, The Sun reported that Joanne Clifton and Joe Edward-Bader broke up weeks after she won Strictly Come Dancing.
Theyre said to have been planning a life together, but their relationship couldnt withstand the pressure that came with the show.
Around the time theyre said to have broken up, Joanne shared a photo of a man aiming a gun at Cupid. She captioned the image #GoAway.
She did not comment on the reason for their split.
Daisy Lowe and Bradley Frankie Wade
Daisy Lowe and boyfriend Bradley Frankie Wade succumbed to the Strictly curse in 2016. Sources close to the couple said they simply couldnt find time to spend together.
Daisy said of the split: 'At the beginning, which is supposed to be the most joyful honeymoon period, I had nothing to give him, we could have coped with the pressure if we had been together for ages and had known all of the ins and outs of each other.'
Georgia May Foote and Sean Ward
Georgia May Foote broke up with Coronation Street co-star Sean Ward after she began appearing on Strictly Come Dancing in 2015. She and partner Giovanni Pernice took runner up in the competition and were later seen kissing openly while on holiday together in Paris, The Sun reported.
They denied that they were a couple until they split in 2016. Scheduling conflicts were to blame for their separation.
Rachel Riley and Jamie Gilbert
Rachel Riley divorced husband Jamie Gilbert after 15 months together to be with Strictly Come Dancing partner Pasha Kovalev.
While she claims he was not the reason for her split from Jamie, they did confirm they were a couple in 2014. They are still together to this day.
Matt Di Angelo and Flavia Cacace
Flavia Cacace dumped professional dancer Vincent Simone to be with EastEnders actor Matt Di Angelo in 2007 when they were partnered together on the show.
Unfortunately their relationship didnt last either. Flavia and Matt broke up in 2010.
Flavia started dating Jimi Mistry amid news of her split from Matt. They married in December 2013 and are still together.
Ben Cohen and Kristina Rihanoff
Ben Cohen and Kristina Rihanoff found love on the set of Strictly Come Dancing after he left wife Abby Blayney. The pair had been together 11 years.
Kristina and Ben started dating and welcomed their first child, a daughter, in June 2016.
Joe Calzaghe and Kristina Rihanoff
Before she and Ben Cohen got together, Kristina Rihanoff was in a relationship with Strictly Come Dancing Partner Joe Calzaghe. She and the boxer began dating in 2009 and split in 2013.
Kristina said it wasnt the time apart that destroyed their relationship, but rather that her beau found it difficult when I danced with other men.
She later admitted she 'neglected' Joe, which 'put a lot of strain' on the relationship.
Natasha Kaplinsky and Brendan Cole
Strictly Come Dancing couple Natasha Kaplinsky and Brendan Cole were one of the earlier couples to suffer the effects of the Strictly curse. They split in 2004.
Natasha and Brendan made headlines after having an affair, leaving partners Mike Barnard and Camilla Dallerup for one another. When their relationship ended, Brendan went on to marry Zoe Hobbs.
They have two children together.
What time is Strictly Come Dancing on?
Strictly Come Dancing airs at 7:35pm BST on Saturdays on BBC One.
When is the Strictly Come Dancing final?
Strictly Come Dancing will likely have its final episode on December 15, 2018, in accordance with the time frame of previous seasons.
* Myanmar has called on countries in the Mekong basin region to cooperate in combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) under a regional health security project, Myanmar News Agency reported Tuesday (September 4).
* China lifted 740 million people in rural areas out of poverty from 1978 to 2017, roughly 19 million each year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on September 3.
*Japan issued evacuation advisories for almost 300,000 people and cancelled hundreds of flights in the face of strong winds and heavy rain as typhoon Jebi roared north and was set to make landfall later on September 4.
* The Libyan government announced late on September 3 that more than 1,800 families had been displaced by clashes in the south of the capital Tripoli.
* Mongolia has exported most of its crude oil production this year to China, adding US$55 million to the state exchequer, the Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry said on September 3.
* Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) on September 3 ruled that the Workers' Party (PT) must suspend campaign programming that presents ex-President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as the party's presidential candidate.
* Egypt on September 3 highlighted the importance of restoring stability in Libya by enabling state institutions, especially the military and security entities.
* A Croatian navy missile boat left a port in Split on the Adriatic Sea on September 3 to join NATO's Operation Sea Guardian in the Mediterranean, state news agency HINA reported.
* China has 32 civil airports with annual passenger throughput reaching the 10-million level, the China Civil Airports Association said in Beijing on September 3.
* Cyprus and India signed agreements aimed at further enhancing their "special ties", the presidents of the two countries said after talks in Nicosia on September 3.
* Iraq's newly elected parliament held its first session within its fourth legislative term on September 3.
* Argentine President Mauricio Macri on September 3 announced new taxes on exports in the world's third-biggest soy producer and steep cuts to spending in an "emergency" bid to balance next year's budget, as his center-right government aims to persuade the IMF to speed up a US$50 billion loan program.
She has ruled the catwalk ever since she began modelling aged 15.
And Naomi Campbell made sure she remained in the spotlight as she arrived fashionably late to the 21st annual GQ Men Of The Year Awards 2018 in association with luxury lifestyle group HUGO BOSS at the Tate Modern, London , on Wednesday.
The supermodel, 48, nearly spilled out of her evening gown as she made a bold fashion statement in a funky patterned corset dress by Versace.
Fashionably late: Naomi Campbell made sure she remained in the spotlight as she arrived fashionably late to the 21st annual GQ Men Of The Year Awards 2018, London, on Wednesday
She styled the item of clothing with a pair of black thigh-high heel boots, which had the same matching material as a cuff.
Naomi accessorised her entire look with a collection of rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings and a black silk choker.
The model rocked curled raven tresses with a stylish fringe as she arrived fashionably late to the star-studded red carpet.
Fashion statement: The supermodel, 48, nearly spilled out of her evening gown as she made a bold fashion statement in a funky patterned corset dress by Versace
Work it: She styled the item of clothing with a pair of black thigh-high heel boots, which had the same matching material as a cuff
Naomi visited Cannes recently for a panel discussion with broadcaster Tania Bryer following a whistle-stop trip to Milan, Italy, where she walked in the Dolce & Gabbana men's spring-summer 2019 fashion show.
The model's return to the catwalk comes after she hinted at retirement in an interview while promoting her Fashion For Relief show in Cannes in May.
She said: 'I dont know if I can walk much longer, its been 32 years.'
Stylish: Naomi accessorised her entire look with a collection of rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings and a black silk choker
Gorgeous: The model rocked curled raven tresses with a stylish fringe as she arrived fashionably late to the star-studded red carpet
The fashion darling went on to discuss passing on the baton to her younger counterparts.
She explained: 'It's an honour to walk. I'd love for it to be carried on by the younger generation and for me to sit in the audience and watch.'
Naomi was discovered at the tender age of 15 and went on to become one of the 'original' 80s supermodels alongside catwalk queens Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Claudia Schiffer and later, fellow Brit Kate Moss.
GQ MEN OF THE YEAR AWARDS 2018: THE WINNERS Editors Lifetime Achievement Award for Services to Philanthropy His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales Solo Artist of the Year Dua Lipa Breakthrough Designer of the Year Charles Jeffrey International Man of the Year Chadwick Boseman Solo Artist of the Year: Dua Lipa Politician of the Year David Lammy Sportsman of the Year Harry Kane Brand of the Year Philipp Plein Hugo Boss Breakthrough Actor Tom Bateman Maddox Gallery Artist of the Year Jonathan Yeo Vero Breakthrough Solo Artist: Jorja Smith Editors Special Sacha Baron Cohen Writer of the Year Michael Wolff Design Legend of the Year Ralph Lauren Vero Breakthrough Solo Artist Jorja Smith Live Act of the Year Olly Alexander (Years & Years) Lifetime Achievement Johnny Marr International Man of the Year: Chadwick Boseman Inspiration Award Rose McGowan Fashion Icon of the Year Naomi Campbell Hugo Boss Most Stylish Man John Legend Actor of the Year Daniel Kaluuya Politician of the Year: David Lammy Television Actor of the Year Elisabeth Moss Songwriter of the Year Paul Weller Designer of the Year Donatella Versace Haig Club Icon Jeff Goldblum Advertisement
She was just in Spain a day before promoting her new film The Predator.
But Olivia Munn was on-the-go once again Wednesday, looking stylish as she sauntered through the Toronto Airport with luggage in tow.
The Newsroom actress, 38, displayed her toned center in a casual chic combo of black denim shorts from Madewell, and a matching black crop top.
Simply stylish: Olivia Munn donned a casual black look which showcased her abs Wednesday as she touched down in Toronto
Her shorts rose high to her hips, accentuating her feminine curves.
Black out sunglasses with flashy gold arms matched a delicate chain necklace.
She continued the look with leather sandals with a subtle chunk heel.
Keeping understated for the flight, Olivia radiated a fresh-faced glow and tied her hair up into a messy top-knot.
Looking great: Black denim shorts from Madewell and a matching crop top combined to show off her toned center and long legs
Hola! Olivia's kicked off her press tour for the movie The Predator in Madrid Tuesday
Olivia's kicked off her press tour for the movie The Predator in Madrid Tuesday.
Appearing at a photocall, the actress flaunted her toned abs in a lilac bralet which she paired with a kooky floral two-piece suit.
The X-Men star slipped her trim legs into a pair of flared navy trousers, which were adorned with a floral print design that matched her chic blazer.
Show off: Appearing at a photocall, the actress flaunted her toned abs in a lilac bralet which she paired with a kooky floral two-piece suit
Olivia kept her accessories simple as she wore a gold necklace with a pair of matching hooped earrings.
She also shared a selfie with castmate Boyd Holbrook to celebrate the promo tour.
The film, which is the fourth installment in the beloved sci-fi monster series, comes out Friday September 14.
She looked the epitome of elegance when she walked the red carpet with husband Sacha Baron Cohen earlier that evening.
But Isla Fisher's glamorous get-up seemingly got too much for her as the beauty was pictured leaving the GQ Men of the Year Awards after-party completely bare foot on Wednesday night.
The Australian actress, 42, made a shoeless departure from London's Tate Modern, with her long-time husband propping her up as they called it a night and flagged a car home.
Good night? Isla Fisher's glamorous get-up seemingly got too much for her as the beauty was pictured leaving the GQ Men of the Year Awards after-party completely bare foot on Wednesday night
The couple - who have been married for eight years and share three children - appeared to see the funny side as they smiled and laughed through their animated exit.
The Now You See Me actress exuded Old Hollywood glamour in a strapless tulle gown as she cosied up to her actor husband at the star-studded bash earlier that evening.
Isla certainly took centre-stage in her Alberta Ferretti Limited Edition gown, which featured a romantic pleated skirt and cinched-in waist.
The Australian actress, 42, made a shoeless departure from London's Tate Modern as her long-time husband propped her up after they called it a night and flagged a car home
Mind your step! Isla braved the London streets as she ditched her glamorous stilettos and left bare foot
Styling her auburn-hued tresses in tumbling waves, the Confessions Of A Shopaholic actress accessorised with dazzling drop earrings.
She let her statement garment do all the talking and injected a dose of colour with a bold slick of scarlet lipstick.
Sacha, meanwhile, cut a dapper figure in a velvet navy suit teamed with patent brogues.
The British comedian was on top form on the night, making a joke about Prince Charles leaving him a 'big inheritance' in the toilet as an heir to the throne.
Giggling: The couple - who have been married for eight years and share three children - appeared to see the funny side as they smiled and laughed through their animated exit
Happy: Isla and Sacha met in 2002 at a party in Sydney and got engaged two years later, before marrying in 2010 in Paris
Cute couple: Isla certainly took centre-stage in her Alberta Ferretti Limited Edition gown, which featured a romantic pleated skirt and cinched-in waist
Looking good: The red-head certainly took centre-stage in her gown, which featured a romantic pleated skirt and cinched-in waist
Chic: Styling her auburn-hued tresses in tumbling waves, the Confessions Of A Shopaholic actress accessorised with dazzling drop earrings
Stealing the limelight: She let her statement garment do all the talking and injected a dose of colour with a bold slick of scarlet lipstick
She has been married to the British comedian, 46, for eight years.
The couple met in 2002 at a party in Sydney and got engaged two years later, before marrying in 2010 in Paris.
They share daughters, Olive, 10, and Elula, seven, and three-year-old son, Montgomery.
Suited and booted: Sacha, meanwhile, cut a dapper figure in a velvet navy suit teamed with patent brogues
Sweet: She has been married to the British comedian, 46, for eight years
Three's company: The couple were joined by fellow Australian, Kylie Minogue at their table
Isla has two projects on the go. In comedy The Beach Bum she co-stars with Matthew McConaughey and Snoop Dog; in drama The Starling sho co-stars with Keanu Reeves. Both have yet to set release dates
Meanwhile, her husband's controversial new show Who Is America debuts on Showtime on Sunday.
Sacha has reportedly been filming the spoof interview series for a year.
But he's kept it under wraps as he disguises himself as various characters to prank celebs and former politicians including Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin.
In demand: Isla has two projects on the go. In comedy The Beach Bum she co-stars with Matthew McConaughey and Snoop Dog; in drama The Starling sho co-stars with Keanu Reeves
Family affair: They share daughters, Olive, 10, and Elula, seven, and three-year-old son, Montgomery
Aussies together: Isla beamed as she stopped for a snap with Kylie, 50, who dazzled in a plunging gold gown
Emily Ratajkowski is back in front of the camera after switching positions recently and playing photographer for her swimwear line.
The sultry stunner was spotted walking around NYC on Wednesday showing a little skin as she left a casual lunch.
In a simple black and white look, the 27-year-old was effortlessly chic as she flirted with the camera.
Style star: Emily Ratajkowski was seen walking around NYC on Wednesday showing a some skin in a little black dress as she left a casual lunch
Tongue wagging: The 27-year-old beauty flirted with the camera and seductively licked her lips while dining al fresco in Manhattan
Tech check: EmRata checked her phone - with sketches of boobs covering he case - at the table
Seen hailing a cab after lunch, EmRata's enviable figure was hugged by a little black mini dress with long sleeves.
The Gone Girl star pushed the cotton sleeves up to her elbows as she checked her phone.
The curve hugging frock had white buttons that came down just below her iconic chest.
She left the buttons mostly open and pulled one side off her right shoulder, exposing more glowing skin.
The swimsuit designer seductively licked the side of her glossy lips in a photo she posted on Instagram.
With a sexy shoulder and a hint of cleavage popping out of one side her dress, Emily playfully captioned the headshots 'back to school.'
Brunette tresses that looked freshly blown out with caramel highlights framed her face which had on minimal makeup.
Hot bod: The newlywed showed off her svelte figure in a casual tight mini dress and sneakers
Into the gloss: During her lunch the model took a quick second to reapply shimmering gold gloss to her lips with the aid of her cell phone camera
Good hair day: Her brunette tresses looked freshly blown out with caramel highlights
School daze: With a sexy shoulder and a hint of cleavage popping out of one side her dress, Emily playfully captioned this headshot 'back to school' on Instagram
During her lunch the model took a quick second to reapply shimmering gold gloss to her lips with the aid of her cell phone camera.
The star accessorized her look with a red crocodile Stalvey bag, small hoop earrings and cat eye Oliver Peoples sunglasses.
On her feet she opted for a sporty pair of brand new bright white leather Nike's.
The newlywed just came off of an end of summer beach vacation with her husband Sebastian Bear-McClard and her Instagram star pal, The Fat Jewish.
Yesterday she was back in a bikini but this time for the purpose of work as she advertised that her swimwear line had their coveted leopard print back in stock.
The line, Inamorata, posted a series of sultry swimsuit shots of the different looks on Instagram.
Hear her roar: Emily Ratajkowski used her enviable physique to promote her swimwear brand Inamorata Swim in a flirty video on Instagram on Tuesday
Pose! Emily Ratajkowsi acts as photographer for her swimwear line Inamorata while shooting model Lena Dunham in this Polaroid that was shared on social media Tuesday
Girl problems: Lena Dunham took to Twitter to admit that she's been struggling to deal with not being able to have children following her hysterectomy last year; seen in July
Emily served as photographer for all the models and was grateful to have the chance to work with such amazing women.
The starlet gushed on social media about acting as photographer: '@inamorataswim is my baby. Art directing and photographing such an incredible group of women was an honor and just SO MUCH FUN.'
One famous face in the bunch was Lena Dunham who modeled a sexy one-piece.
Earlier today Lena took to Twitter to lament about not being able to get pregnant.
The Girls star shared that since getting put on estrogen following her hysterectomy, she's gotten baby fever.
'Sometimes in the middle of a joyful day the fact that Ill never be able to bear children hits me hard,' she admitted on Twitter Wednesday. 'I logically understand why this isnt a necessity- politically, emotionally etc. But you can understand and still not *know* It was a dream of mine.'
At the match: Emily and Sebastian took in some tennis later in the day
The Block's Shelley Craft has been a fixture of Australian television for over two decades.
And as a woman of 42 years, Shelley Craft is well aware that her days in the spotlight may be numbered thanks to showbiz's obsession with youth.
'I'm not going to hang on beyond my use-by date,' the bubbly presenter told TV Week Close Up magazine this Thursday.
'I'm not going to hang on beyond my use-by date': Shelley Craft, 42, says she isn't scared of being fired from The Block for not looking youthful enough (Pictured: Shelley Craft)
'If there aren't opportunities in TV for me, then I'll find them in another industry,' she insisted.
Shelley, who has co-hosted the series since 2011, also rubbished 'bulls**t' reports that she wanted to quit The Block to spend more time with her daughters Millie, eight, and Eadie, six.
'If the girls turned around and said it was too much, or they weren't coping, or if things get a little trickier as teenagers, then that's a time to reassess,' she explained.
'If there aren't opportunities in TV for me, then I'll find them in another industry': Shelley has co-hosted the series since 2011 (Pictured: Shelley Craft)
Last year, New Idea reported that lovable Shelley would be replaced by WAG Rebecca Judd, 35.
'It breaks her heart. She loves her job more than anything, but so much time away [from her family] takes its toll,'' a source allegedly told the publication
The publication reported that Shelley travels to Melbourne from Brisbane to film the show while Rebecca conveniently resides in the state.
Shelley, who has co-hosted the series since 2011, also rubbished 'bulls**t' reports that she wanted to quit The Block to spend more time with her daughters (Pictured: Shelley Craft with her daughters Millie and Eadie and husband Christian Sergiacomi)
'Bec has a huge fan base and is already a big power player in the world of interior design,' the source added.
The wife of AFL star Chris Judd had appeared on the show last August to judge a challenge and left the contestants starstruck.
It wasn't long before Rebecca shut down the rumours, however, telling Daily Mail Australia that the speculation was 'news' to her.
'I love being a judge on The Block and we watch it every night,' said Rebecca.
'And I read that [she was replacing Shelley Craft] and I was like, 'Well that's the first I've heard of it!'
Rumours: Last year, New Idea reported that lovable Shelley would be replaced by WAG Rebecca Judd, 35 (Pictured: Rebecca Judd)
The collapse of Emma Watkins and Lachlan Gillespie's marriage made headlines across the country when The Wiggles stars announced their split last month.
But Emma has admitted that it's not her former beau who has been the most difficult to deal with in the wake of the break-up.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph on Thursday, the 28-year-old took aim at the former couple's 'friends' for going public with details of their separation.
'Dealing with all that has been the hardest part the betrayal': The Wiggles' Emma Watkins (left) SLAMS friends for selling details of her split with Lachlan Gillespie (right) and admits the deceit has made her more 'guarded'
'(Lachlan) has been great, but he had spoken in confidence to friends and they had gone to the media,' she told the publication.
The Yellow Wiggle explained that the betrayal has had a profound effect on her.
'I think dealing with all that has been the hardest part the betrayal. I feel so much more guarded now,' she said.
'He had spoken in confidence to friends and they had gone to the media': Emma said Lachlan had been 'great' in the aftermath of their split, but it has been difficult to learn people close to the couple went to the media
Emma also revealed that she initiated the couple's separation after two years of marriage as they were both unhappy.
She said they parted ways during a challenging year, which saw her battle health woes, including undergoing surgery for endometriosis and a leukaemia scare.
'It has been a weird time for us. I think we just realised that we were meant to be best friends,' she said.
'I think we just realised that we were meant to be best friends': Emma claimed she simply fell out of love with Lachlan
It's over! Emma and Lachlan announced their shock split on August 3 but have since remained on amicable terms
Emma and Lachlan, 32, announced their shock split on August 3.
However, the couple actually split earlier this year - with Purple Wiggle Lachlan moving out of his Sydney marital home in February during a trial separation.
Last month, an insider claimed Lachlan is struggling with their split.
'Things hadn't been right between Em and Lachy for a while but he really thought they could work through it,' an unnamed source told Who magazine, adding: 'Lachy is devastated.'
It's no secret that reality TV stars like to cash in on their 15 minutes of fame by advertising brands on Instagram.
But just how much do Australian D-listers get paid for promoting teeth whiteners, protein shakes and holidays to Bali?
On Thursday, Jarrod Woodgate revealed his ex-girlfriend Keira Maguire gets paid a jaw-dropping amount for selling products to her 177,000 followers.
REVEALED: The jaw-dropping figure reality TV stars get paid for a single sponsored Instagram post. Pictured: Keira Maguire spruiking SmilePro Worldwide teeth whitening products
Responding to Keira's claim that she 'has more money than him' despite not having a full-time job, Jarrod told Who magazine: 'She earns over $1,500 for every Instagram post.'
The 32-year-old vineyard manager added: 'It's no wonder she earns more than me, I'm on a really low family salary.'
Other reality stars with similar Instagram followings include The Bachelor's Megan Marx (184,000), Love Island winner Grant Crapp (156,000) and Married At First Sight's Cheryl Maitland (134,000).
Spilling the beans! On Thursday, Jarrod Woodgate revealed his ex-girlfriend Keira Maguire gets paid 'over $1,500 for every Instagram post'. Pictured on Bachelor In Paradise
The perks of fame! The Bachelor 2016's Megan Marx (pictured) is well known for promoting products on Instagram. She has also admitted that her overseas trips are sponsored by brands
It is unclear if Megan, Grant or Cheryl earn the same amount as Keira per post, but it is understood advertisers pay 'influencers' a fee proportional to their followings.
Married At First Sight star Sarah Roza has an even greater fanbase than some of her contemporaries with 346,000 followers, so could possibly demand a higher fee.
Sometimes brands do not pay stars for spruiking their products but instead offer 'freebies' such as complimentary products or all-expenses-paid holidays.
Lucrative: The Bachelor's Elora Murger is pictured in a recent sponsored post for a facial mask
Another day, another dollar! MAFS star Sarah Roza has an even greater fanbase than some of her contemporaries with 346,000 followers, so could possibly demand a higher fee
Earlier this year, Woman's Day reported that Megan, 29, was overheard bragging about going on free trips thanks to her popularity on social media.
'I got a free holiday to the Maldives because of how many people follow me on Instagram,' she apparently told fellow guests at an event in March.
She told Daily Mail Australia at the time: 'Over the last 18 months I've been working with resorts, hotels and tourism boards - some are modelling jobs and others are free flights, accommodation and food in exchange for posts.'
Even the boys are doing it! Love Island winner Grant Crapp is pictured in a sponsored post for Optimum Nutrition whey protein
Taking tips from Megan? Jake Ellis (pictured), who was dating Megan Marx until recently, is also known to advertise products on Instagram following his appearance on The Bachelorette
When an 'influencer' posts an advert to Instagram, it is customary to include the hashtags 'ad' or 'spon' to clarify that it is a paid-for upload.
If they fail to do so, the individual could find themselves possibly breaching advertising regulations.
Many reality TV stars neglect to do this, however, potentially leading fans to the conclusion that the post is a genuine endorsement.
Oddball: Even Married At First Sight's Troy Delmege isn't below advertising hair removal products on Instagram
Roxy Jacenko was grilled over her infamous affair with Nabil Gazal during an awkward exchange on Hard Chat with Tom Gleeson.
The 38-year-old appeared on the ABC show on Wednesday night and nothing was off limits thanks to the comedian's brutal questions.
When asked about reuniting with Nabil while husband Oliver Curtis was in jail for conspiracy to commit insider trading in April 2017, the Sweaty Betty businesswoman provided a very quit-witted response.
'That was definitely outside of trading': Roxy Jacenko grilled over affair with Nabil Gazal during awkward exchange on Hard Chat with Tom Gleeson
Approaching the sensitive subject, Tom asked: 'Now, your husband went to jail for insider trading, do you have any stock-market tips?'
Roxy then replied: 'No [I] dont buy shares.'
Tom then referenced Daily Mail Australia's exclusive pictures when Roxy was captured kissing ex Nabi at his apartment eight weeks before Oliver was due for release from prison last year.
Biting back: When asked about kissing ex Nabil at his apartment while husband Oliver Curtis was in jail in April 2017, the entrepreneur provided the very quit-witted response
Brutal questions: The 38-year-old appeared on the ABC show on Wednesday night and nothing was off limits as Tom pushed her for answers
'When he was in jail, you were photographed kissing your ex, was that outside of trading?' Tom then asked.
Quickly responding, Roxy said: 'Yeah, that was definitely outside of trading.'
Roxy previously addressed her affair with Nabil during an appearance on Channel Seven's The Morning Show in May.
As she reflected on the difficult period on her life, she admitted: 'I'm not proud of some of the things I did. I was in a situation, where it was tough.
'I was running three businesses, my husband was in jail, I had cancer, [I was raising] two kids. It was tough.
'I'm not proud of some of the things I did': Roxy previously opened up about the incident with ex Nabil during an interview with Seven's The Morning Show
Difficult period: At the time, Oliver was approaching the end of a 12-month prison sentence for conspiracy to commit insider trading
Roxy concluded: 'But I still look at my life every day and go, "Wow, what amazing opportunities I've got."'
At the time, Oliver was approaching the end of a 12-month prison sentence for conspiracy to commit insider trading.
In February, Oliver broke his silence on Roxy's affair, slamming her ex-boyfriend Nabil for 'moving in' on his wife while he was locked up in Cooma Correctional Centre.
Loved up: Following Oliver's release from prison in June 2017, the couple put the incident behind them and now live together with their two children, Pixie and Hunter
Appearing on KIIS FM's The Kyle & Jackie O Show, Oliver ripped apart Nabil in a scathing interview, saying: 'It is absolutely disgusting. What sort of human being moves in on a man's wife while [he's] in jail?'
'I mean, come on. That is low,' he added bitterly, before wife Roxy tried to move the conversation along by saying: 'It was a mistake! I'm not proud of the mistake.'
Following Oliver's release from prison in June 2017, the couple put the incident behind them and now live together with their two children, Pixie and Hunter.
Amazon Studios and director Luca Guadagnino are pulling out all the stops to heighten interest in the upcoming horror remake Suspiria.
After photos surfaced in February purporting to show actress Tilda Swinton in prosthetics and makeup as an elderly man on the film's Berlin set, there's been an all out effort to convince people otherwise.
Deepening the mystery, a new poster for Suspiria released Wednesday shows the elderly man wearing glasses and smoking a pipe with the legend at the top announcing: 'Lutz Ebersdorf is Dr. Klemperer.'
Mystery: A poster for Suspiria released Wednesday claims to show an elderly German actor named Lutz Ebersdorf in character as Dr. Klemperer. But many believe it's actually Tilda Swinton in disguise
The previously unknown actor does indeed have a listing on the IMDb website but his only credit is Suspiria.
According to the bio posted on the site, Ebersdorf 'was born on February 15th, 1936 in Munich, Germany.'
'In 1938, when Ebersdorf was just two, his family fled Nazi Germany: first for Geneva in Switzerland, and then to London. Spending most of his youth in Camberwell, London, Lutz returned to Munich in 1954, where he studied Philosophy, taking a particular interest in Gestalt psychology and Psychodrama,' the bio adds.
The 82-year-old is credited with forming an experimental theatre group Piefke Versus - although a Google search fails to find any reference to the group.
He went on to earn a Ph.D. in Kelinian psychoanalysis, specializing in mother-daughter relationships, the bio purports.
Who is it? Photos surfaced in February purporting to show the British actress, 57, in prosthetics and makeup on the film's Berlin set. Since then there's been an all out effort to convince people otherwise.
Backgound: The previously unknown actor does indeed have a listing on the IMDb website but his only credit is Suspiria. His bio says he was born in Munich and studied psychoanalysis
It's clearly a lot of effort to try and create interest in the movie but most people aren't buying it.
For a start, there's the on set photos from February.
Then the body movements and mannerisms of the character in the film's trailer are similar to Swinton's, who is also in the film playing the character of Madame Blanc, the vice-principal of the mysterious dance academy where the action is set.
Close-ups of the actress and the elderly male character also show that they have identical ears.
Guadagnino, however, isn't backing down. The Italian director told Yahoo Movies UK in February after the on set photos were published: 'Thats a complete fake news.'
He insisted: 'They made a picture of my actor Lutz Ebersdorf and they claimed it was Tilda in makeup. I dont know why and I dont know who.'
And at a press conference for the movie at the Venice Film Festival, Swinton read a letter purporting to be from Ebersdorf which said: 'I am a private individual who prefers to remain private,' and apologizing to the media for not attending the event.
Can't fake that: Those convinced Ebersdorf is in fact Swinton in disguise point out that the two have identical ears - poster, left, and Swinton at the Venice Film Festival Wednesday, right
Playing along: At a press conference for the movie at the Venice Film Festival, Swinton read a letter purporting to be from Ebersdorf which said: 'I am a private individual who prefers to remain private,' and apologizing to the media for not attending the event
Suspiria is a remake of a 1977 Italian supernatuiral horror movie.
The plot centers on an American dancer played by Dakota Johnson who enrolls at a prestigious dance academy in Berlin where Swinton's character Madame Blanc is the artistic director.
But the school hides a dark and gruesome secret at its heart that threatens to engulf everyone who enters its doors.
The film had its world premiere on September 1 at the Venice Film Festival and opens in theatres in North America on November 2.
A 30-year-old man has been charged with a string of offences after he allegedly attacked another driver in a road rage attack south of Perth.
Police say the accused assaulted a man aged in his 30s in Mandurah on Tuesday, causing the victim to fall to the ground and hit his head. He was treated at the scene before paramedics brought him to Peel Health Campus.
His alleged attacker, who fled the scene, will face Perth Magistrates Court later on Wednesday charged with five offences including giving false personal details to police and possessing a prohibited drug.
* The White House said on September 4 that it would "respond swiftly and appropriately" if Syria uses chemical weapons in Idlib province.
* UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura on September 4 appealed to prevent a bloody conflict in the northern Syrian area of Idlib, saying that next days would be "critical".
* The UN Security Council will discuss the situation in Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria, on September 7, said US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
* The Republic of Korea (RoK)s President Moon Jae-in's special delegation left Wednesday morning for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to discuss a detailed schedule and agenda for the upcoming summit between Moon and top DPRK leader Kim Jong-un.
* The White House-prepared peace plan to settle Israeli-Palestinian conflicts was ready, US Ambassador Nikki Haley told reporters at the United Nations Headquarters on September 4.
* An Israeli missile attack targeted a Syrian site in the central province of Hama on September 4, the state TV reported. The report added that the Syrian air defenses have intercepted several Israeli rockets.
* Britain is determined to continue its contact with European Union (EU) member states in an effort to reach a Brexit deal as talks intensify, British Prime Minister Theresa May said Tuesday.
* Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and visiting Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz in Kiev on September 4 discussed the crisis in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region and bilateral cooperation, Poroshenko's press service said.
* US President Donald Trump on September 4 issued "strong" support for Argentina to tackle the country's current fiscal difficulties.
* At least eight people died on September 4 after two vehicles collided on a highway in northwestern Argentina, said local press.
* Iranian foreign minister and visiting Mongolian deputy foreign minister on September 4 called for expansion of ties in diverse areas, Tasnim news agency reported.
* Russian and Mongolian senior officials have discussed ways to enhance trade and economic cooperation between the two countries, the Russian government said on September 4.
* Britain has received a wide range of positive and constructive feedback about its proposals for a post-Brexit trade deal from a number of European Union (EU) countries, the House of Commons was told Tuesday.
* The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on September 4 announced that the fighting parties in the capital Tripoli have signed a UN-sponsored agreement to end the fierce fighting in the city.
* Israeli warplanes infiltrated the Syrian airspace on a low altitude on September 4, targeting Syrian military sites in the central province of Hama and northwestern province of Tartus, the Syrian army said.
* Chinese solar photovoltaic (PV) maker Trina Solar launched an "all in one" solar energy system in Malaysia on September 4 which the company said could help the country increase the use of renewable energy.
* Hamas chief in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar Tuesday (September 4) said that his movement will not see a war with Israel, and is interested in reinforcing an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire agreement reached with Israel in 2014.
* At least 18 people were killed and 36 others injured in rain-related incidents in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, officials said Wednesday.
* Arif Alvi, a senior leader of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), was elected as the new president of the South Asian country on September 4, according to a statement from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The union representing paramedics has admitted it was "wholly incorrect" to suggest the family of a Sydney man was responsible for his death by obstructing ambulance officers called to treat the 25-year-old.
Australian Paramedics Association NSW secretary Steve Pearce on Sunday claimed relatives of Hamze Ibrahim were responsible for his death by hindering officers called to a Riverwood unit that morning.
"We had the outrageous situation where a violent mob demanded paramedics hand over a defibrillator and drugs saying they would treat the patient ... the stupidity of these people have taken the life of their family member," Mr Pearce said in a statement.
Mr Ibrahim's family hit back on Monday stating their pain and suffering had been made worse by the association's "self-serving, reckless and unfounded comments".
The union on Wednesday admitted it was in the wrong.
"APA NSW acknowledges any statement ... to the effect that Mr Ibrahim's family members either contributed or were in any way responsible for his death is wholly incorrect and should not have been published," the organisation said in a statement.
"APA NSW further acknowledges at no time did Mr Ibrahim's family members obstruct or threaten paramedics whilst they were administering medical assistance."
Cooper Cronk isn't shying away from the heavy treatment he's expecting to receive at the hands of Cronulla enforcer Wade Graham during Saturday's NRL qualifying final.
The Roosters halfback said he was under no illusions he was set to be targeted and welcomed the challenge of foiling the Sharks' unsettling tactics.
Graham has made a habit of getting at Cronk during their careers and the former Queensland and Australian playmaker said he was expecting Cronulla's co-captain to try it again at Allianz Stadium.
Anthony Mundine could be slugged more than $1 million if he fails to make weight for his mooted showdown with Jeff Horn.
The fight, Horn's first since losing his world title to Terence Crawford, is all but locked in for November 30 at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane and is expected to be officially confirmed in the coming days.
A verbal agreement has finally been reached between the two camps over the weight limit after weeks of negotiations, with heavy financial penalties to be imposed on Mundine if he tips the scales over the agreed threshold.
A man has been charged after allegedly firing a gunshot into a wall and assaulting a man in Melbourne's southeast.
Police say the gunman fired a shot into a wall at a business on Paul Court before assaulting a man just before 12.30am on Wednesday.
A Dandenong man, 35, has been charged with two counts of reckless conduct endangering life, reckless conduct endangering serious injury, assault with a weapon, possess a firearm and other assault related offences. He was remanded to appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday.
The number of assaults in Victoria isn't reflected in national statistics as police may not report them straight away, according to a new report.
An Auditor-General's report on Wednesday said the Australian Bureau of Statistics does not include reporting on assaults in Victoria in its national figures because the force "does not comply with prima facie reporting".
This is because officers sometimes investigate before deciding whether to record the incident as a crime.
"This makes Victorian data inconsistent with that of most other Australian jurisdictions," the report says.
Victoria Police has accepted the report's nine recommendations, including training for members to report incidents "prima facie", if they appear to be a crime on first look, rather than wait until further investigation.
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan has revealed he checked a visa application for an Argentine polo player who was a "friend of a friend" when Prime Minister Scott Morrison was immigration minister.
Mr McLachlan is giving evidence to a Senate committee over lobbying Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to save a French au pair who worked for his cousin from deportation in 2015.
On Wednesday, Mr McLachlan told the inquiry he asked the AFL's head of government relations Jude Donnelly - a former Liberal staffer - to check on a business visa application for the polo player in 2014.
Ms Donnelly said she asked a former colleague in then prime minister Tony Abbott's office about the status of the application and was told it had already been approved and was being processed.
"I was contacted by someone who was waiting on a business visa, a friend of a friend, who was wanting to come into the country who had language issues," Mr McLachlan told the inquiry.
In a separate case, Frenchwoman Alexandra Deuwel was detained at Adelaide airport in October 2015 after admitting she intended to work in breach of her tourist visa for grazier Callum MacLachlan, the AFL boss' second cousin.
Callum MacLachlan contacted his relative, who directed Ms Donnelly to forward an email from him to the minister's chief-of-staff.
Mr Dutton then overturned departmental advice, allowing Ms Deuwel to stay in the country on a tourist visa.
People with footage of a large factory fire in Melbourne's inner-west have been urged to contact police, amid an arson investigation.
The Tottenham factory was filled with aerosol cans and 44-gallon drums of oil, grease and acetone residues, which went up in flames last week and spewed toxic smoke over the city and polluted waterways.
Arson and explosives detectives are urging anyone with footage of the fire or factory in the lead-up to the blaze, or who saw suspicious activity in the area around the time, to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
The Northern Territory government "cannot be in every kitchen, living room or bedroom", says Chief Minister Michael Gunner in response to another sexual assault on a toddler in Tennant Creek.
The child was allegedly assaulted by a 50-year-old man on Friday afternoon who is in custody.
It follows the rape of a two-year-old girl in the troubled NT town in February in which a 25-year-old man was charged and is due in court later this month.
The NT government has been forced to defend its response to the child protection crisis this week, which prompted former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull to recently visit Tennant Creek and new PM Scott Morrison to brand the latest assault "sickening".
There was significant family dysfunction across the NT, Mr Gunner said.
"It requires all of us, it requires the government, it requires non-government sector, it requires families community leaders.
"The government can't be in every kitchen, living room or bedroom, we can't but we can always do our best.
"It's always going to be very difficult at this acute end to make change ... the best way is investing in our children."
The latest child victim has been returned to her family but there had been 60 children taken into care and removed from their families in Tennant Creek since February, Mr Gunner said.
He said it was frustrating to hear of children having to got through tragedies or awful events when the government had spent a lot of money and time in Tennant Creek.
There had been a significant reduction in assaults and domestic violence orders follow the introduction of liquor restrictions in the town, he said.
An elderly woman who had just moved to north Queensland was allegedly murdered by a tradie after she questioned the quality of his work on her newly-purchased Townsville home, police say.
The body of Pamela Frances Corless, 73, was found in the yard of her Cranbrook home on Monday morning.
Police allege she was killed on Sunday afternoon after a dispute with the man who'd been undertaking renovations at the home turned physical.
Mark Daniel Ferguson, 21, appeared in Townsville Magistrates Court on Wednesday, charged with one count each of murder, burglary and wilful damage.
Ferguson has been remanded in custody and his matter adjourned until March 6, 2019.
Acting Detective Inspector Phil Watts alleged the pair had been arguing over the renovations when the attack occurred.
"There was work being done at the deceased's home and we will allege there was a dispute over the work and the payment of work," Det Insp Watts said.
It's unclear how Ms Corless died but Det Insp Watts confirmed she had head injuries.
Ms Corless had only just moved to Townsville from Victoria to be closer to her family, he said.
"You can imagine if your grandmother or mother move states to be close to you and then in a very short period of time this happens; they're shattered," Det Insp Watts said of the victim's family.
Ferguson had also only recently moved to Townsville from Ipswich, west of Brisbane, Det Insp Watts confirmed.
Ms Corless's house is expected to remain a crime scene for the next few days as police gather evidence.
Eight people will battle it out next week for the right to be the Liberal party candidate at the upcoming Wentworth by-election.
Businessman Andrew Bragg - who's got the backing of former prime minister and outgoing MP Malcolm Turnbull - remains the favourite to win the preselection contest on September 13.
AAP understands he'll have the support of the big branches in the eastern suburbs electorate, which are controlled by moderates.
It's likely his biggest threat will come in the form of Mary-Lou Jarvis, party sources have told AAP.
The Woollahra councillor - who's president of the NSW Liberal Women's Council - joined the contest late in the piece but has overtaken Peter King and David Sharma as the person tipped to most trouble Mr Bragg.
Mr King is a former member for Wentworth - having lost preselection to Mr Turnbull in 2004 - while Mr Sharma is Australia's former ambassador to Israel.
The other candidates vying for preselection are local surgeon Michael Feneley, digital communications specialist Carrington Brigham, Sydney East Business Chamber chair Katherine O'Regan and another Woollahra councillor in Richard Shields.
About 210 selectors from Wentworth branches will be involved in the Liberal preselection.
Any candidate who receives less than five per cent of the vote next Thursday evening will be eliminated from any further rounds. The first person to receive more than 50 per cent of the vote is preselected.
Tim Murray is Labor's candidate for the Wentworth by-election - expected to be held sometime in October - while City of Sydney councillor Kerryn Phelps is considering whether to stand as an independent.
Chinese President Xi Jinping chairs the first phase of the roundtable meeting of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 4, 2018. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)
BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- A declaration and an action plan were adopted Tuesday at the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
The Beijing Declaration -- Toward an Even Stronger China-Africa Community with a Shared Future and the FOCAC Beijing Action Plan (2019-2021) were adopted at the two-phase roundtable meeting, chaired respectively by Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, the co-chair of the forum.
Xi said the summit over the past two days repeated the call for China-Africa win-win cooperation and common development.
Xi said the leaders have unanimously decided to build a China-Africa community with a shared future that assumes joint responsibility, pursues win-win cooperation, delivers happiness for all, enjoys cultural prosperity, ensures common security, and promotes harmony between man and nature.
Xi said they have unanimously adopted the summit's outcome documents, setting the direction for the development of China-Africa relations.
Xi said they have agreed to develop FOCAC into a brand of China-Africa solidarity and cooperation, and a banner that guides international cooperation with Africa under the principle of consultation, cooperation and benefit for all.
Xi said they have decided to firmly uphold an open world economy and the multilateral trading system, while opposing protectionism and unilateralism.
The vigorous development of China-Africa cooperation has not only promoted the progress of Africa, but also inspired international partners to pay closer attention to Africa and increase their input into and cooperation with the continent, Xi said.
African leaders spoke highly of the summit and agreed that it was a historic meeting strengthening Africa-China solidarity and cooperation.
They expressed support and appreciation for the Belt and Road Initiative, believing that the joint building of the Belt and Road by Africa and China will speed up African regional integration.
If Paul Gallen raises the NRL premiership trophy again this year, he may have to thank his nemesis Queensland.
Cronulla playmaker Matt Moylan says playing for the Maroons this year gave Valentine Holmes the confidence to propel the Sharks to a top four spot - and maybe another title.
Cronulla - the 2016 premiers - are the form team ahead of the finals after winning four straight before Saturday's qualifying playoff against minor premiers the Sydney Roosters.
Moylan said they had Holmes to thank for that - and Queensland to thank for the Sharks fullback's blistering form.
"His form from around Origin time has been unreal and something that has got us in the position we are in now," Moylan said.
"Hopefully it keeps up and he can keep scoring tries."
It wouldn't sit well with Sharks skipper Gallen, who is public enemy No.1 in Queensland thanks to his time as NSW captain.
But Moylan said there was no doubt Holmes' Maroons stint was the catalyst to a scoring spree of 21 tries from 23 NRL games this year.
Holmes was a shining light in Queensland's 2-1 series loss.
The Maroons winger crossed four times in the series including a double in their game three win to take his overall Origin try tally to a staggering eight from six games.
"Obviously he would have come back with a lot of confidence playing there (Origin)," Moylan said.
"The way he has played and performed (since) is exactly what we need from him."
Clearly Holmes' confidence is rubbing off with Cronulla daring to dream of going all the way for the second time in three seasons.
"Anyone can beat anyone on the day. It's about who puts in a more complete performance," Moylan said.
"We have strung a few wins together but we haven't played our best footy yet.
"We're not putting a full 80 minute performance together."
Moylan was simply looking forward to playing finals again after missing Penrith's 2017 campaign to address personal issues.
"Obviously it is a big turnaround (in 12 months). I have enjoyed my time here and hopefully we can give it a crack," he said.
And it seems no one is more excited for the finals than mid-season Canterbury transfer Aaron Woods.
"It's Woodsy's first time in the finals for a few years. To say he is very keen, that would be an understatement," Moylan laughed.
Two men are trapped in an elevator halfway down a mine shaft south of Sydney.
The pair were left stranded about 160 metres down the shaft on Wednesday evening after the lift broke down at the Tahmoor Coal Mine near Wollongong.
The men are in good spirits and rescue crews are communicating with them using radios, a Fire and Rescue NSW spokesman told AAP.
Four FRNSW crews from Picton, Mittagong and Liverpool, including specialist rescue squads and three senior officers, are on scene working to free the men.
The Northern Territory holds enough natural gas to supply Australia for 200 years-plus and is comparable to the shale resources that have revolutionised the US energy sector, Resources and Northern Australia Minister Matt Canavan says.
Such abundant gas should enable Australia to reduce its current high energy prices, which were the fault of southern states preventing development, Senator Canavan told an NT Resources Week conference in Darwin.
The NT government lifted a ban on the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing to access onshore gas this year, which is banned in Victoria and much of NSW.
Geoscience Australia estimates the NT has about 257,000 petajoules of shale gas to meet Australia's demands for 200 years, Senator Canavan said.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner said he had been told by energy companies that figure could be double with the Beetaloo Sub-basin.
"There is more than enough gas in the Beetaloo to both export to demand overseas, to help out our fellow Australians and to support a gas manufacturing, value-adding industry here in Darwin," he told reporters.
Senator Canavan described Beetaloo, located southeast of Katherine, as "a world class shale resource rich in liquids that is comparable to US shale resources which have been so critical in turning around the US energy market and manufacturing sector".
"The refinement of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has turned the US from the world's largest net energy importer just over a decade ago to becoming a net energy exporter in recent years," he said.
"This has enormous implications for global trade and politics."
Darwin wants to establish itself as a hub for gas exports, related services and "value-adding" manufacturing - possibly with investment from China - by offering cheap energy that would create jobs.
It would also send gas to Australia's east coast from current Darwin offshore gas projects through Jemena's planned 600km-plus pipeline.
Senator Canavan also criticised the NT government's plan to introduce a new "hybrid" royalty scheme that the industry says will increase what they pay and discourage investment.
Mining investment rose 5.1 per cent in Australia's latest quarterly figures with production at record levels in the NT, so now was not the time to hike taxes, he said.
The Northern Territory's massive gas reserves have been compared to the US shale gas resources that transformed America from an energy importer to exporter.
The NT holds enough natural gas to supply Australia for 200 years-plus, Resources and Northern Australia Minister Matt Canavan says.
Such abundant gas should enable Australia to reduce its current high energy prices, which were the fault of southern states preventing development, Senator Canavan told an NT Resources Week conference in Darwin on Wednesday.
The NT government lifted a ban on the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing to access onshore gas this year, which is banned in Victoria and much of NSW.
Geoscience Australia estimates the NT has about 257,000 petajoules of shale gas to meet Australia's demands for 200 years, Senator Canavan said.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner said he had been told by energy companies that figure could be double with the Beetaloo Sub-basin.
"There is more than enough gas in the Beetaloo to both export to demand overseas, to help out our fellow Australians and to support a gas manufacturing, value-adding industry here in Darwin," he told reporters.
Senator Canavan described Beetaloo, located southeast of Katherine, as "a world class shale resource rich in liquids that is comparable to US shale resources which have been so critical in turning around the US energy market and manufacturing sector".
"The most amazing transition occurring in global markets is a geopolitical one," he said.
"This has enormous implications for global trade and politics."
Darwin wants to establish itself as a hub for gas exports, related services and "value-adding" manufacturing - possibly with investment from China - by offering cheap energy that would create jobs.
Senator Canavan criticised the NT government's plan to introduce a new "hybrid" royalty scheme that the industry says will increase what they pay and discourage investment.
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan has confirmed he involved himself in the visa cases of an Argentine polo player and a French nanny.
At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Mr McLachlan revealed he was asked by a friend to check the status of the polo player's visa application in 2014.
Mr McLachlan made enquiries for the "friend of a friend" who had limited English and was trying to enter the country on a business visa in 2014 when current Prime Minister Scott Morrison was in charge of immigration.
"An Argentine polo player that I knew, his friend was coming out to play," Mr McLachlan told the hearing.
"He was someone I knew was coming to play polo. I hadn't met him and he was introduced to me."
The AFL's head of government relations Jude Donnelly, a former Liberal staffer, contacted an old work colleague in then-prime minister Tony Abbott's office.
Mr McLachlan said he understood the visa had already been approved.
He also rejected suggestions his lobbying of Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton saved a French au pair from deportation.
When Alexandra Deuwel was detained in October 2015, the AFL boss said his second cousin Callum MacLachlan was "agitated" because it was a Sunday and he couldn't get in touch with Mr Dutton's office.
The AFL boss told his relative to put the reasons he opposed her deportation in an email which was forwarded to Mr Dutton's chief-of-staff by Ms Donnelly.
Ms Deuwel was allowed to stay in the country after Mr Dutton intervened.
Liberal senator Eric Abetz, who sat on the committee, said the evidence showed Mr Dutton had acted lawfully and on departmental advice.
"Given the kinds of amateur hour performances we saw from Labor today, I hope for their own sake they will stop embarrassing themselves and discontinue this inquiry," Senator Abetz said.
The inquiry also confirmed federal police have been asked to investigate the leaking of emails showing the AFL boss lobbied Mr Dutton.
Senator Abetz said Labor senators should co-operate with the investigation.
Department officials said Mr Dutton had used his discretion 4129 times, with 25 cases of the minister granting a tourist visa.
An employee has been accused of assaulting a resident at an aged care facility on Sydney's northern beaches.
A 35-year-old man was arrested in Wheeler Heights about 2pm on Wednesday after allegedly assaulting an 82-year-old man at an aged care facility on Sydney Road, Seaforth.
The man was charged with two counts of common assault (DV) and use of an offensive weapon with intent to commit an indictable offence and was granted conditional bail to appear at Manly Local Court on September 11.
Some Year 12 chemistry students at Perth Modern School have allegedly used social media to collude on an assessment task, forcing all students to resit a one-hour exam.
The school, Perth's only selective school for high-achievers, sent parents a letter last week saying there was "identified collusion", The West Australian reports on Thursday.
"Staff interviewed a large number of students and it became apparent that a group had colluded and shared information from two validations using social media," the letter, signed by Lois Joll, said.
All tourists visiting Australia should be compelled to take out health insurance, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard says.
Mr Hazzard wants his state and federal counterparts to support a proposal requiring tourists on temporary visas to get private insurance, extending conditions that already apply to foreign students and some working visa holders, The Daily Telegraph has reported.
"Every time an uninsured visitor does not pay for their treatment in one of our public hospitals, taxpayers foot the bill," the minister said on Thursday.
Julie Bishop has weighed into the debate about bullying in federal parliament, saying she's witnessed behaviour in Canberra that wouldn't be "tolerated in any other workplace across Australia".
Speaking at a Women's Weekly event in Sydney, Ms Bishop described the "embarrassing circus" in the nation's capital, saying politicians showed contempt for each other and were "applauded".
"Politics is robust, the very nature of it, it's not for the faint-hearted," the former Liberal deputy said on Wednesday.
"I have seen and witnessed and experienced some appalling behaviour in parliament, the kind of behaviour that 20 years ago when I was managing partner of a law firm of 200 employees I would never have accepted."
Liberal MP Julia Banks and Liberal Senator Lucy Gichuhi both say they were subjected to bullying and intimidation from male colleagues during last month's leadership spill.
The behaviour prompted Ms Banks to quit parliament, and Ms Bishop questioned why her party had trouble attracting and attaining women.
"When a feisty, amazing woman like Julia Banks says this environment is not for me, don't say 'toughen up princess', say 'enough is enough'."
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says Australia is in lock-step with the United Kingdom in holding Russia to account for a nerve agent attack on British soil.
A UK police investigation has found two Russian military intelligence officers were responsible for the Salisbury attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripel in March, and the Kremlin authorised the attack.
"Australia shares the UK's anger and outrage at this dangerous and deliberate act by Russia, which also puts at risk the British public, police and other first responders," Mr Morrison said in a statement on Thursday.
BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- China and African countries agreed to work together toward an even stronger community with a shared future, according to a declaration adopted Tuesday at the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
Sharing weal and woe, the Chinese and African peoples have forged a deep friendship rooted in similar historical experiences, development tasks, and political aspirations, the declaration says.
"We agree to strengthen collective dialogue, enhance traditional friendship, deepen practical cooperation, and work together toward an even stronger China-Africa community with a shared future," it says.
Calling Africa an important participant in the Belt and Road Initiative, the declaration says China-Africa cooperation under the initiative will generate more resources and means, expand the market and space for African development, and broaden its development prospects.
African countries support China in hosting the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in 2019, the declaration says.
It notes that China and African countries applaud the role FOCAC has played over the past 18 years to promote China-Africa relations.
In the declaration, China pledges to continue to strengthen solidarity and cooperation with African countries in keeping with the principle of sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith, and the principle of upholding justice while pursuing shared interests, as proposed by President Xi Jinping.
China welcomes a representational office of the African Union (AU) in Beijing, the document says.
African members of FOCAC reaffirm their commitment to the one-China principle, and their support for China's reunification and China's efforts in resolving territorial and maritime disputes peacefully through friendly consultation and negotiation.
On anti-corruption cooperation, China and African countries welcome the launching of the African Anti-Corruption Year, pledging to take it as an opportunity to jointly fight corruption and promote integrity.
China will continue to, in keeping with the principle of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, help enhance Africa's production capacity in the secondary and tertiary industries, and promote the transformation and upgrading of China-Africa economic and trade cooperation focusing on improving Africa's internally driven growth that reduces reliance on export of raw materials, according to the declaration.
"China will, as always, offer assistance and support to Africa's development with no political strings attached," the document says.
It notes that China and African countries firmly uphold multilateralism and oppose all forms of unilateralism and protectionism.
China supports early progress in developing African Continental Free Trade Area and the Single African Air Transport Market, says the declaration.
It urges developed countries to honor their official development assistance commitments to developing countries, especially those in Africa, on time and in full.
In the declaration, China vows to firmly support African countries and regional organizations such as the AU in their efforts to independently resolve African problems in the African way, and to continue to play a constructive role, in light of the need of Africa, in providing good offices and mediation of African hotspot issues.
On tackling climate change and protecting the environment, the declaration calls on developed countries to honor their commitments at an early date and to support African countries with funding, technology transfer and capacity building.
China will work with Africa to fight illegal trade in wildlife, says the document.
It says China and African countries welcome Senegal as the next co-chair of FOCAC, noting that the Eighth FOCAC Ministerial Conference will be held in Senegal in 2021.
Energy Minister Angus Taylor has derided a canned $1.6 billion plan to help cut power bills for Australians as a bandaid fix.
The one-off bonus payment for people struggling to pay their electricity bills was reportedly rejected by cabinet ministers in the dying days of the Turnbull government.
"Welfare payments, whatever their merits, are a bandaid on a much more fundamental problem," Mr Taylor told ABC radio on Thursday.
And yet, one of the final acts of the Turnbull government was to abandon plans to axe a fortnightly energy supplement paid to welfare recipients, which was originally offered as compensation for the carbon tax.
Australia's signing of a declaration calling climate change the "single greatest threat" to the Pacific region must be followed up with real action on emissions, environmental groups say.
Leaders capped off the 18-nation Pacific Islands Forum on Wednesday by signing a "Boe Declaration", expanding on security themes to include the environment, cybercrime and transnational crime.
As was widely expected, the forum communique said climate change presented "the single greatest threat to the livelihood, security and well-being of Pacific people" and underscored the need for "immediate urgent action".
Leaders also called on large emitters to fully implement national emissions mitigation targets and for the United States to return to the Paris Agreement on tackling climate change.
The focus on climate change recognises concerns that have been the key priority for Pacific leaders at the annual meeting.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called the Boe Declaration the most significant statement on the region's security in a generation.
"[It] acknowledges additional collective actions are required to address new and non-traditional challenges," she said.
"Modern-day regional security challenges include climate change, cybercrime and transnational crime."
The Australian Conservation Foundation said the signing of the declaration was an important recognition of the issue by the new Morrison government but needed to be followed up with policy.
"This international commitment by our nation must be matched by domestic action," ACF chief Kelly O'Shanassy said.
"Australia's climate pollution is rising, and we have observed another collapse of domestic policy to cut emissions from electricity generation."
Ahead of the forum, Australian ministers tried to ease concerns among Pacific leaders about its seriousness on climate change, saying the government was still committed to its reduction targets despite the recent collapse of its planned emissions legislation.
"There's no doubt the Pacific islands would have a dim view of Australia reducing its commitment to climate change measures - reducing our emissions footprint," Defence Minister Christopher Pyne told Sky News.
"But we have no plans to do so."
As part of the broader security declaration on Wednesday, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne also announced the establishment of a Pacific centre to assist authorities in collating information to combat illegal fishing, people smuggling and narcotics trafficking.
Federal Labor has joined calls for Australian filmmaker and convicted spy James Ricketson to be granted clemency by Cambodia.
The 69-year-old was last week found guilty by a Cambodian court of espionage and sentenced to six years in prison.
"The government has indicated its willingness to support any plea for clemency," opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong said on Thursday.
"Labor supports this and ongoing Australian government engagement with Cambodian counterparts to raise concerns over the case and secure his release."
Ricketson has confirmed he will not seek an appeal against his conviction, enabling him to seek a royal pardon.
More than 200-kilometre-an-hour winds caused havoc in the seas around Japan, sending this ship crashing into a breakwater
Japan scrambled Wednesday to evacuate passengers trapped at a major airport when a tanker slammed into its only access bridge during the most powerful typhoon to hit the country for 25 years.
Typhoon Jebi left a trail of destruction Tuesday, killing 11 people and injuring hundreds more as it battered western Japan with ferocious winds and lashing rain.
As Japan was still picking up the pieces, the northern island of Hokkaido was jolted by a powerful 6.6-magnitude earthquake early Thursday, although there was no tsunami warning.
Authorities said an 82-year-old man was showing no signs of life after falling down the stairs in his home during the quake, Kyodo news agency reported.
A total of seven houses had collapsed on the island, firefighters said according to the agency, with rescue attempts underway to free anyone trapped in the rubble.
Japan is regularly lashed by powerful storms, but Jebi was the strongest typhoon to hit the country in a quarter of a century
The typhoon packed winds up to 216 kilometres (135 miles) per hour, which ripped off roofs, overturned trucks and swept a 2,500-ton tanker into the bridge to Kansai International Airport, the region's main international gateway and a national transport hub.
The damage to the bridge left the artificial island housing the airport temporarily cut off, stranding 3,000 travellers overnight as high waves flooded the runways and some buildings, knocking out the power.
On Wednesday boats began ferrying people out of the airport, and buses began to run on one side of the damaged bridge after safety inspections.
"We're very sorry" that the passengers had to stay overnight in the airport, an airport official told a press conference.
"We'll transport all the travellers who wish to get out of the airport by the end of today, but we'll continue the bus and ferry service tomorrow," he said.
But the official added it was unclear when the airport, which operates over 400 flights a day, could be reopened, while Kyodo News said it could take up to a week.
"There were about 3,000 people stranded at the airport, but we think about 2,000 to 2,500 of them already got out. We think there are not many people left," a transport ministry official told AFP.
Evacuation advisories had been issued for over 1.2 million people, but it was not clear how many had heeded the warnings
Airport spokeswoman Yurino Sanada told AFP: "We don't know how many hours we need to bring everyone out but we're doing our best to finish it by the end of today."
Rescued passengers spoke of their discomfort in sweltering post-typhoon temperatures of around 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday.
"We had a blackout so there was no air conditioning. It was hot," a woman told public broadcaster NHK after being ferried to Kobe. "I'd never expected this amount of damage from a typhoon."
- 'Industrial heartland' -
Typhoon Jebi made landfall at midday on Tuesday and moved quickly over the mainland, smashing through the major manufacturing area around Osaka -- Japan's second city -- wrecking infrastructure and destroying homes.
Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said 11 people had been killed and 470 injured. According to Kansai Electric, more than 400,000 households were still without power.
In the tourist magnet of Kyoto -- home to ancient temples and shrines -- it brought down part of the ceiling of the main railway station. In nearby Osaka, the high winds peeled scaffolding from a multi-storey building.
Typhoon Jebi sent a tanker crashing into the only access road to Kansai International Airport
Businesses, factories and schools in the affected area shut down while the storm barrelled across the country, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights, ferry services and some bullet trains.
Pictures showed containers piled up like dominos and vehicles thrown together by the wind, with others overturned.
More than 1.2 million people had been advised to leave their homes as Jebi approached the Kansai area -- Japan's industrial heartland -- although it was unclear how many had heeded the warning. Around 16,000 people spent the night in shelters, local media said.
Economists said it was too early to gauge the storm's impact on local industry, with much depending on how long the airport remained closed.
Around 10 percent of Japan's exports leave from Kansai airport, said Yusuke Ichikawa, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute.
"Logistics could be affected as it may take time for Kansai airport to restart operations," he told AFP.
But with other airports and ports nearby, companies might be able to reroute shipments to minimise disruption, he added.
- 'Utmost efforts' -
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, tweeting on his official account, said the government was battling to get the airport back online.
"We continue to make utmost efforts to respond to disaster damage and restore infrastructure," he said.
Japan is regularly hit by powerful typhoons in the summer and autumn, many of which cause flooding and landslides in rural areas.
And Jebi was far from the deadliest Japan has seen in recent years.
In 2011 Typhoon Talas killed 82 people in the area, while in 2013 a storm that struck south of Tokyo left 40 people dead.
Earlier this year, torrential rains lashed the west of the country, sparking flooding that killed more than 200 people.
A new book by White House chronicler Bob Woodward describes US President Donald Trump's staff as constantly trying to control their unpredictable boss
President Donald Trump's White House is mired in a perpetual "nervous breakdown" with staff battling to rein in the worst impulses of an angry, paranoid leader, according to an explosive new book by veteran reporter Bob Woodward.
Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews, the respected White House chronicler describes a coalition of like-minded aides plotting to prevent the US president from destroying the world trade system, undermining national security and sparking wars.
While Woodward's is not the first unflattering investigation into Trump's White House, it carries particular weight coming from the man who together with Carl Bernstein authored the Watergate expose that brought down Richard Nixon.
Trump's White House is described as having undergone "no less than an administrative coup d'etat," according to The Washington Post where Woodward is an associate editor and which received an advance copy of the 448-page book entitled "Fear: Trump in the White House," set for release on September 11.
The White House hit back at "fabricated stories" as the long-awaited book piled fresh pressure on a president besieged by multiple investigations and a looming election that could damage his Republican Party.
Trump claimed that the quotes in Woodward's book were "made up frauds, a con on the public. Likewise other stories and quotes."
"Woodward is a Dem operative? Notice timing?" he added, after tweeting earlier statements by Defense Secretary James Mattis, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and spokeswoman Sarah Sanders refuting the quoted statements as false.
Mattis and former economic advisor Gary Cohn are cited among the aides actively circumventing Trump's orders and even stealing documents off his desk.
Woodward recounts that Mattis -- having had to explain to the president that the US must keep forces in South Korea "to prevent World War III" -- told colleagues Trump had the understanding of "a fifth- or sixth-grader," a 10- or 11-year-old child.
After the April 2017 chemical attack blamed on Bashar al-Assad, Woodward claims Trump called the Pentagon chief to press for the Syrian leader's assassination.
"Let's fucking kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the fucking lot of them," Trump reportedly told him.
Mattis agreed to take action -- but after hanging up ordered "more measured" steps against Syria, a punitive air strike.
- 'We're in Crazytown' -
Mattis was among several high-profile figures quoted by Woodward who issued swift denials.
"The contemptuous words about the President attributed to me in Woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence," Mattis said in a statement, charging that the journalist's "anonymous sources do not lend credibility."
Woodward paints a dire picture of Trump's White House
While he does not name his sources, Woodward says he spoke with many people currently or formerly working for Trump as he researched the book, discussing not just the president's personality but also major policy debates regarding North Korea and Afghanistan.
Woodward describes Trump regularly insulting key members of his own team, branding Attorney General Jeff Sessions "mentally retarded" and a "dumb Southerner," and saying former chief of staff Reince Priebus is "like a little rat."
Trump is quoted as telling his hand-picked 80-year-old secretary of commerce, Wilbur Ross, "I don't trust you... You're past your prime."
The aides and cabinet members respond, privately, with equal disdain.
According to Woodward, Kelly told colleagues Trump is "unhinged" and "an idiot."
"It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in Crazytown," Kelly is quoted as saying.
Former Trump lawyer John Dowd called Trump "a fucking liar," the book says.
Both Kelly and Dowd denied the quotes attributed to them -- although Woodward is not the first to cite them making brutal comments about the president.
- 'Edge of a cliff' -
Since the Watergate expose appeared in The Washington Post in the early 1970s, Woodward has published powerful, insightful and often embarrassing books on eight US leaders, including George W. Bush and Barack Obama, based on extensive access to many White House insiders.
Woodward is one of the most respected living US journalists, and an authority on modern US presidents who drew praise from Trump himself in 2013 for his work on Obama.
"Fear" is flecked with accounts of White House officials working to prevent Trump's anger and paranoia from being translated into policy.
Cohn went so far as to steal an order from Trump's desk that, if the president had signed it, would have cancelled the US-South Korea trade agreement and thus deeply damaged security ties, according to Woodward.
Former Trump staff secretary Rob Porter is also said to have conspired with Cohn to remove an letter that Trump ordered Porter to draft that would have withdrawn the US from the North American Free Trade Agreement.
"A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren't such good ideas," Woodward quotes Porter as saying.
"It felt like we were walking along the edge of the cliff perpetually."
Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland is due to return to Washington for talks with US officials
Efforts to salvage the North American Free Trade Agreement as a three-country pact are due to resume Wednesday when Canada and the US sit down at the negotiating table in a politically charged atmosphere.
But the talks will be dogged by President Donald Trump's repeated threats to leave Canada on the sidelines and proceed with Mexico, which reached a deal with Washington last week and could sign NAFTA 2.0 as soon as November 30.
Amid rising optimism last week that an agreement would soon be finalized on a rewrite of the 25-year-old trade deal, inflammatory comments from Trump angered officials in Ottawa and the discussions ended Friday with no agreement.
And Trump continued his tough talk throughout the weekend.
"There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. If we don't make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out," he tweeted.
"Congress should not interfere with these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off."
The White House notified Congress on Friday of its "intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico -- and Canada, if it is willing -- 90 days from now."
The White House has until September 30 days before it must present the full text of the new agreement to Congress, which will give Ottawa and Washington time to iron out remaining differences.
- Trilateral or no bilateral? -
But legislators and trade law experts have warned that Trump does not have the authority to supplant the three-nation NAFTA with a bilateral pact with Canada.
Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland is due to return to Washington for talks with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Wednesday morning.
Both officials said there had been progress in the negotiations last week, which frequently went late into the night.
But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stressed Tuesday that no NAFTA is better than a bad deal for Canada, and he will insist on retaining the dispute mechanism in Chapter 19 that provides binational panels to resolve disagreements.
"We will hold firm on that," Trudeau said in Vancouver.
"We will not sign a deal that is bad for Canadians, and quite frankly, not having a Chapter 19 to ensure that the rules are followed would be bad for Canadians."
Canada has used the mechanism to fight off US antidumping duties.
After the US and Mexico reached an agreement on new rules for auto trade, and tougher protections for workers and intellectual property, talks with Canada were hung up on the mechanisms used to resolve disputes among partners, and on Ottawa's strictly controlled dairy sector.
Mexican officials stressed in a joint statement that they are "continuing to promote an agreement to which Canada is a party."
But they also have said that either way they are protected with a bilateral deal with the United States, while Mexican businesses also have said they would support a two-nation deal.
A Canada-less deal "is not the ideal scenario, but it's better than ending up without any agreement at all, it's better than living in uncertainty," said Gustavo de Hoyos, the president of the Mexican Employers' Association (COPARMEX).
But the US business sector strongly prefers NAFTA remain a trilateral agreement.
"Anything other than a trilateral agreement won't win Congressional approval and would lose business support," warned Thomas Donohue, president of the US Chamber of Commerce.
And in a rare show of common cause, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka also supports a trilateral NAFTA.
He said it was "pretty hard to see" how efforts to revamp the pact would work "without having Canada in the deal."
Minutes later, Trump lashed out at the labor leader on Twitter for "poorly" representing his union and making comments that were "against the working men and women of our country, and the success of the U.S. itself."
Du Qiwen of China stormed out of the Pacific Islands Forum amid accusations of bullying
Nauru's president has labelled China's top diplomat at the Pacific Islands Forum "insolent" and accused him of trying to use Beijing's might to bully the tiny island nation.
President Baron Waqa's outburst followed a tense exchange at the summit he is hosting on Tuesday when China's Du Qiwen attempted to address a meeting about climate change but Waqa refused to let him speak.
Du and the Chinese delegation then stormed out, with Du reportedly striding around the room to emphasise his displeasure before leaving.
Waqa, whose country backs Taiwan over arch-rival China in the battle for diplomatic recognition, had already angered Beijing before the summit began in a row over visas.
Nauru refused to stamp entry visas into Chinese diplomatic passports, instead saying it would only process their personal passports.
While seemingly a minor detail, it provoked threats of a boycott from other PIF members, many of whom receive development aid and concessional loans from Beijing.
Nauru's President Baron Waqa accused the Chinese delegate of 'insolence' at the Pacific forum
Waqa, whose country has a population of just 11,000 and covers an area of 21 square kilometres (eight square miles), was unfazed about finding himself at loggerheads with the world powerhouse.
He accused Du of trying to throw his weight around and not respecting the fact that national leaders at the meeting outranked him and deserved to be heard first.
"He insisted and was very insolent, and created a big fuss, and held up the meeting of leaders for a good number of minutes, when he was only an official," Waqa told a press conference late Tuesday.
"Maybe because he was from a big country he wanted to bully us."
The exchange highlighted sensitivities over Beijing's rising influence in the Pacific, where China provided an estimated US$1.78 billion in aid to island nations between 2006-16.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Nauru disregarded the normal conduct of international conferences and "obstructed" Chinese representatives from speaking.
"Nauru, as the host country of the forum, violated international conventions and forum regulations and staged a bad farce," Hua told a regular press briefing in Beijing.
- Climate change threat -
The "soft power" wielded by Beijing has alarmed Australia and New Zealand, with both countries boosting their own aid programmes in a bid to maintain influence in a region they regard as their backyard.
China does not belong to the PIF but is one of 18 countries that attends as a "dialogue partner" for discussions with member nations.
PIF members on Wednesday signed a security agreement promoting cooperation on issues such as trans-national crime, illegal fishing and cyber-crime.
The agreement, called the Boe Declaration, also recognised the need for joint action on "non-traditional" threats, primarily climate change.
"We reaffirm that climate change remains the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of the people of the Pacific," it states.
Meanwhile, a New Zealand journalist who was taken into police custody for interviewing an asylum-seeker has disputed the official account of her treatment.
Nauru officials insisted TVNZ reporter Barbara Dreaver was not detained and "voluntarily accompanied" police, but Dreaver said this was not the case.
The Civic Center in Aiwo on the island of Nauru is serving as the venue of the Pacific Islands Forum
"They ordered me to turn off the camera, confiscated my phone for 3-4 hours, told me I had breached visa conditions... and ordered me into the police vehicle.
"They were professional throughout the entire process but it was not voluntary."
The plight of about 900 refugees held on the island under Australia's hardline immigration policies has threatened to overshadow the summit, despite attempts by Nauru authorities to control visiting journalists.
Dreaver's PIF accreditation was initially revoked but she said Wednesday it had been given back to her.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russia's President Vladimir Putin shake hands after a joint press conference as part of a tripartite summit on Syria, in Ankara, on April 4, 2018
The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey meet Friday in Tehran for a summit expected to shape the future of Idlib province, home to Syria's last major rebel bastion.
The summit comes as Syrian forces look poised to launch a major assault that is raising fears of a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale not yet seen in the seven-year-old conflict.
Damascus and its main backer Moscow have vowed to root out the jihadist groups that dominate Idlib province but the outcome of Friday's meeting could determine the scope and the timing of an offensive.
"We know that the Syrian armed forces are getting ready to solve this problem," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the last major chunk of Syrian territory still in rebel hands.
Turkey has limited sway over the jihadist groups that control an estimated 60 percent of Idlib but it backs rebel groups there and has 12 military "observation points" across the province.
Russia, Turkey and Iran are the guarantors of the Astana process, a track of negotiations that has eclipsed the older Geneva process and de facto helps Syrian President Bashar al-Assad re-assert his authority on the country.
In parallel to the Syrian government's military buildup, the recent weeks have seen intense diplomatic activity.
Al-Watan, a Syrian daily close to the government, wrote on Monday that the result of the talks will be presented in Tehran for the three powers "to endorse it and decide on the 'zero hour' for the Syrian army's military operation, which is expected to immediately follow the summit."
Idlib is a cul-de-sac for many rebels and civilians transferred there after previous regime assaults.
- Inevitable assault? -
The United Nations and aid groups have warned that a full assault could spark one of the worst disasters of a conflict that has already killed 350,000 people and displaced 11 million in seven years.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the armed groups in Idlib attacking Syrian government positions and Russia's air base in nearby Hmeimim should be eliminated.
At stake in Tehran is the scope of the offensive and Lavrov said Tuesday that efforts were being made to separate "regular armed oppositionists from terrorists".
The main target of an offensive would be the jihadist fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist alliance dominated by the former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda.
Russia wants Turkey to use its influence on the ground in Idlib to rein in the rebels and the jihadists.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu appeared to suggest Monday there will still room for negotiation ahead of the summit and a promised offensive.
"We are continuing contacts before the summit and preparing it to make sure it yields a good outcome," he said.
The International Crisis Group insisted a devastating offensive in Idlib could and should still be averted, calling this week on all brokers to go back to negotiations.
It said Russia needed to be convinced that backing an all-out Syria offensive risked undermining its own long-term objectives, which include the "re-legitimation" of Assad and his regime.
The think tank said the three Astana guarantors should thrash out a plan that would satisfy some of Moscow's key demands.
ICG cited "intensified Turkish efforts to rid the area of jihadists, an end to drone attacks on Russia's (Hmeimim) air base and regime control over Idlib's key highways."
Ayanna Pressley, 44, won the Democratic nomination for the US House of Representatives in Massachusetts's seventh district, one of the most left-leaning in America and which includes Harvard University
An African American woman on Tuesday pulled off an upset victory in a Democratic primary contest against a 10-term entrenched male incumbent in Boston, the latest sign that insurgent US candidates from the left are gaining ground.
Ayanna Pressley, 44, won the Democratic nomination for the US House of Representatives in Massachusetts's seventh district, one of the most left-leaning in America and which includes Harvard University.
"It seems like change is on the way," she told her cheering supporters. "Ours was truly a people-power, grass-roots campaign."
Pressley has long been identified as a rising star in the Democratic Party. In 2009, she was the first woman of color ever elected to the Boston City Council. She also worked for former senator John Kerry.
Michael Capuano, who has represented the district for 20 years, conceded defeat in a primary that few predicted he would lose, armed with an impressive party machinery and top-flight support.
"This is life and this is OK. America's going to be OK. Ayanna Pressley is going to be a good congresswoman, and I will tell you that Massachusetts will be well served," the 66-year-old said.
Winning Tuesday's primary in the safe Democratic seat puts Pressley on course to become the first African American in Massachusetts to be elected to the US House of Representatives.
Teeming opposition on the left to US President Donald Trump has fueled primary wins for insurgent, women and minority candidates in Democratic primaries ahead of November's crucial mid-term elections.
Some similarities have been drawn between Pressley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the political novice who defeated Democratic Party grandee Joe Crowley in a New York primary in June.
But as Capuano and Pressley are both progressives, she campaigned for change and argued that her life experience -- she is a survivor of sexual assault -- would make her the better representative.
Leaders and delegates attend the opening ceremony of the High-level Dialogue Between Chinese and African Leaders and Business Representatives as well as the Sixth Conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 3, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)
BEIJING, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- African leaders said here Monday that their continent stands ready to further cement its partnership with China and promote win-win cooperation under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.
They made the remarks at the High-Level Dialogue Between Chinese and African Leaders and Business Representatives and Sixth Conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs, held on the sidelines of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
The Beijing summit "reflects the unique as well as the strategic nature of our partnership," South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who co-chairs the two-day FOCAC summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, said at the dialogue.
The Africa-China partnership "facilitates the realization of Africa's developmental aspirations reflected in Agenda 2063 through pragmatic collaboration in the quest of win-win cooperation," he added.
"I am convinced that the FOCAC has taken the comprehensive strategic partnership journey further and to higher levels," Ramaphosa said.
Speaking on behalf of leaders of North African countries, Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz said "China and Africa enjoy sound cooperation in trade."
He noted that China has put forward the important Belt and Road Initiative, while the African Continental Free Trade Area is gradually taking shape and African countries are making progress in seeking development paths that suit their national conditions.
Such moves will help upgrade China's trade and investment cooperation with North African as well as other African countries, he added.
North African countries expect to deepen understanding and cooperation with other countries and promote peace, stability and sustainable development in the world, he said.
"Therefore, the countries need to work together to secure our achievements through win-win cooperation," the Mauritanian president said.
Also at the dialogue, Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh said the Africa-China partnership is based on win-win cooperation and mutual benefit.
On behalf of East Africa, Guelleh said the region is delighted that it will continue to benefit from the many advantages of the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China.
"China's investment and involvement in East Africa date back to more than 40 years ago, which demonstrate not only the depth of our friendship, but more importantly, how China, even when it was trying to develop itself and lift its people out of poverty, always extended the hand of friendship to Africa and believed in our success," he said.
China and East Africa have grown together, he said, adding that the region is pleased to see that win-win cooperation and friendship have only deepened and helped better the lives of the Chinese and African people.
In his keynote speech at the meeting, Xi said China stands ready to strengthen comprehensive cooperation with African countries to build a path of high-quality development that is suited to respective national conditions, inclusive and beneficial to all.
Realizing common prosperity for the people of all nations, including the people of Africa, is an important part of building a community with a shared future for humanity, Xi said in his speech themed "walk together towards prosperity."
FOCAC was formally founded in 2000. Since then China and African countries have held the 2006 Beijing summit and the 2015 Johannesburg summit, which have promoted cooperation between the two sides and produced fruitful results.
A South Korean delegation will meet with officials in the North to discuss denuclearisation and a third inter-Korean summit
A high-level South Korean delegation met with Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang on Wednesday, as Seoul plans a new summit with the North Korean leader to break a deadlock in denuclearisation talks.
The South's President Moon Jae-in's special envoy Chung Eui-yong, who is leading the five-member delegation, earlier said he would discuss ways to "completely denuclearise" the Korean peninsula and establish "lasting peace".
His delegation "met with Chairman Kim Jong Un and delivered a personal letter (from Moon) and exchanged opinions", a presidential office spokesman in Seoul said.
The delegation flew back to Seoul after attending a dinner banquet but Chung and other officials declined to speak to the media.
Details about their trip will be given during a press briefing on Thursday, Moon's office said.
US President Donald Trump and Kim reached a vague agreement at a landmark summit in June to work towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, but there has been little movement since.
Talks reached an impasse last month when Trump abruptly cancelled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to North Korea, citing a lack of progress.
The stated aim of the South Korean delegation's day-long visit to Pyongyang is to finalise details of a third summit between the leaders of the two Koreas, due later this month.
But observers said that Moon's personal letter to Kim will likely be a proposal aimed at breaking the denuclearisation impasse.
The envoy was likely to suggest "that Kim gives a firm commitment to presenting a list of nuclear weapons and fissile materials demanded by the US in return for a declaration of the end of the Korean War," Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies told AFP.
Despite the deadlock with the North, Trump expressed his hopes for the success of the next inter-Korean summit in a phone conversation with Moon on Tuesday.
Pyongyang has slammed Washington's "gangster-like" demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament, and accused it of failing to reciprocate the North's "goodwill measures", including the handover of the remains of US troops killed in the 1950-53 Korean War.
When Kim and Moon met in April for their first summit, they agreed to push for a declaration from Washington of an end to the Korean War, to replace the 1953 armistice.
But US officials say the North must be rid of its nuclear weapons before that can happen.
The International Atomic Energy Agency reported last month that there is no indication North Korea has stopped its nuclear activities.
A trader walks past a screen at the exchange market department of the National Commercial Bank in the Saudi capital Riyadh
With the stock market listing of its national oil company stalled, Saudi Arabia is scrambling to boost the coffers of the sovereign wealth fund spearheading a risky plan to diversify its economy.
The Public Investment Fund had sought to raise billions of dollars through the initial public offering of Saudi Aramco -- dubbed as potentially the world's biggest stock sale -- to finance the kingdom's transformation from a petro-state to a tech-focused economy.
But with the flotation indefinitely postponed, the PIF is taking radical steps to boost its treasure chest with much-needed cash to finance a slew of non-oil investments -- from risky hi-tech startups to a new mega city.
"Much of the ambitious economic and social plan to diversify the Saudi economy, jump-start its private sector and create jobs for young people relies on the PIF as an orchestrator of economic growth," said Karen Young of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.
"In fact, the PIF is so central to the government's growth strategy that finding resources to feed the PIF has become a national economic priority," she wrote in a report for the institute.
Pivoting the desert kingdom's economy away from oil, akin to what observers describe as turning around a large, lumbering ship, is a key priority for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
When the Aramco IPO was proposed in 2016, Saudi officials had expected it would raise up to $100 billion to fund his reform agenda, based on a $2 trillion valuation of the state-owned giant that many experts said was unrealistic.
With IPO efforts floundering, the once-torpid PIF, which aims to raise its assets from roughly $230 billion to more than $2 trillion by 2030, is aggressively pushing a host of big-ticket investments -- from Uber to the planned $500 billion NEOM mega city on the Red Sea coast.
The fund has also invested in British tycoon Richard Branson's space tourism company Virgin Galactic and pledged tens of billions of dollars to funds run by SoftBank and Blackstone.
- 'Spend to grow' -
Some analysts have voiced concern over the PIF's "spend to grow" strategy as it pursues what are seen as flashy deals rather than long-term investments that deliver secure returns and generate jobs as unemployment soars.
"The PIF's pattern of investment very much resembles that of a venture capital fund and that is concerning for a fund that will, by necessity, have to generate steady returns in the long run," Ellen Wald, author of the book "Saudi Inc", told AFP.
Since 2016, the PIF has made external investment commitments worth 360 billion riyals ($95 billion), according to the International Monetary Fund, including stakes in high-risk tech firms such as electric car company Tesla.
"Investments in technology companies will not transform Saudi Arabia's economy nor will they diversify the economy's sources of revenue away from oil," said Wald.
The PIF did not respond to requests for comment.
Meanwhile, the postponement of the Aramco IPO is seen as a reflection of the kingdom's stronger fiscal position following a recent rise in oil prices but also dimming optimism over reforms.
"The postponement of the IPO implies that the economic diversification envisaged by the government will either need to be scaled back or financed by higher direct or indirect public-sector debt issuance," ratings agency Moody's said on Monday.
Moody's noted that significant reliance on debt would increase liability risks and exert negative pressure on Saudi Arabia's credit profile.
- Raising cash -
The PIF last month raised an $11-billion loan from international banks, its first commercial advance, in order to finance the kingdom's transformation plans, the Riyadh-based Al Rajhi Capital said this week.
"If the PIF is to fulfil its ambitious plans in the coming years, it will need additional financing," the IMF said in a recent report.
It added that for some investments, the government may need to draw from its reserves at the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, which stand at just over $500 billion.
To raise money, the PIF is mulling the sale of a "strategic stake" in Saudi petrochemicals giant SABIC to Aramco, a potential deal that Young described as "accounting gymnastics".
SABIC, the world's fourth largest petrochemicals company with a market value of over $100 billion, is 70 percent-owned by the PIF.
Further complicating PIF's ambitions is nervousness from foreign investors after a diplomatic row over Canada's criticism of the jailing of Saudi rights activists and the arrest of high-profile businessmen at Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton last year.
The moves, experts say, have heightened concerns over Prince Mohammed's increasingly assertive policy and the impact it would have on foreign direct investment, which a UN body said plunged last year to a 14-year low.
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was seen for a time as a rising star in Silicon Valley
The once high flying blood-testing start-up Theranos, accused with cheating investors, will dissolve, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
It will seek to pay unsecured creditors its remaining cash in coming months, the Journal said, citing a shareholder email.
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes settled a shareholder lawsuit in July that was designed to recover whatever can be salvaged from the firm, the Journal said.
In June, the US Justice Department said a federal grand jury in California indicted Holmes, 34, and Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, 53, who had been president and chief operating officer.
The indictment states that Holmes and Balwani falsely claimed that they had developed revolutionary technology that could quickly provide a range of clinical tests from a small drop of blood.
Theranos was founded in 2003 by Holmes when she was only 19.
She became a media darling, attracting millions of dollars in investment based on claims of innovative technology.
But Theranos came under scrutiny after the Journal published articles questioning its claims.
In March, US securities regulators accused the youthful entrepreneur of an "elaborate, years-long fraud."
Holmes was seen for a time as a rising star in Silicon Valley, appearing at events like the Women In Technology and Politics dinner hosted by Glamour and Facebook, the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit and events hosted by the Wall Street Journal and TechCrunch.
She and Balwani pitched a tale in investor presentations, product demonstrations and media articles about the startup's key product -- a portable blood analyzer -- which they claimed could revolutionize the industry by inexpensively conducting comprehensive tests from drops of blood from fingers.
Protestors took to the streets in August to call for improvements to road safety in Bangladesh, after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus
Motorcyclists without helmets have been barred from buying fuel in Dhaka, in an attempt to quell tensions after major protests for better road safety in the Bangladeshi capital last month.
Tuseday's announcement by Dhaka police came after tens of thousands of teenage protesters and students gridlocked Dhaka for nine days in late July and early August, in a major challenge to the authority of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government.
"The (owners of) petrol pumps have already been told not to sell fuel to any motor bikers without helmets," said Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia.
He said bikers carrying more than one other person -- a common sight -- would also face punishment, and the one pillion passenger which is permitted must also wear a helmet.
Like elsewhere in Asia, the highly congested, polluted and chaotic city of almost 20 million people has seen an explosion in two-wheeled traffic in recent years.
Although Bangladeshi roads are among the deadliest in the region -- around 12,000 people perish in accidents every year, according to a private monitoring group, or more than 30 per day -- many bikers wear no helmet.
The protests, which saw vehicles vandalised and thugs loyal to the government attack demonstrators, photographers and even the US ambassador's car, began after a speeding bus killed two teenagers.
The young demonstrators, setting up roadblocks to check vehicle documents, demanded that the streets be made safer and called for a crackdown on the corruption that has bedevilled investment in infrastructure.
In the wake of the protests, Hasina's cabinet approved a new transport law stipulating harsher punishments for offenders. Dhaka police say they are already cracking down on dangerous motorists and taking unsafe vehicles off the road.
Traffic police have filed more than 5,500 cases against drivers including 2,657 bikers, Dhaka police said.
In all police have filed some 626,000 cases against motor vehicle owners in the past 18 months over violation of transport laws across the country.
"The problems on the road is not new. It has been going for ages," Mia said.
Sales of motorcycles soared by some 50 percent to 360,000 last year as Bangladesh's economy recorded over seven percent growth over the last three years.
The government has slashed customs duties on bike imports to try to ease congestion created by cars and buses.
Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, on Tuesday resumed air strikes on Idlib after a 22-day pause
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that dropping bombs and missiles on Syria's last rebel-held province of Idlib could cause a "massacre," in remarks published Wednesday.
"God forbid, a serious massacre could take place if there is a rain of missiles there," Erdogan told journalists on his plane after an official visit to the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan, Hurriyet daily reported.
His comments come as Syrian troops mass near the northwestern region of Idlib for a major assault that is raising fears of a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale not yet seen in the seven-year-old conflict.
Damascus and its main backer Moscow have vowed to root out the jihadist groups that dominate Idlib province.
Russia, an ally of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, on Tuesday resumed air strikes on Idlib after a 22-day pause.
Turkey, which backs some of the rebels, has held several rounds of talks with Russia aimed at averting an assault on Idlib, as well as with Washington.
"Our cooperation with Russia now is very important. The United States sends the ball into the corner of Russia and Russia into the corner of the US," he said.
Erdogan talked of a "very merciless process" unfolding in Idlib, warning of the risk that heavy fighting would trigger an influx of refugees.
"3.5 million people live there. God forbid, it is again Turkey where those people will flee in case of a disaster," Erdogan said.
Idlib is one of the so-called "de-escalation" zones set up as a result of talks by Russia, Turkey and Iran last year as Damascus regained control of more of the country.
Erdogan as well as the presidents of Iran and Russia will meet on Friday in Tehran for a summit expected to focus on Idlib.
"God willing we will succeed in averting the extreme actions of the regime there by getting a positive result from the Tehran summit," he said.
The UN Security Council is also due to meet Friday to address the situation in Idlib amid growing fears of an attack and the possible use of chemical weapons.
Washington warned Tuesday that if Damascus were to use chemical weapons, it would respond.
A Palestinian holds a national flag he runs from tear gas fired by Israeli forces during a protest against Washington's ending of all funding for the UN Palestinian refugee agency at the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel on September 4, 2018
The Israeli army announced the closure on Wednesday of the sole people crossing with the Gaza Strip following a violent demonstration the previous day, just 10 days after reopening it.
"Yesterday, a violent riot was instigated in the area of the Erez crossing, with the participation of hundreds of Palestinian rioters," the army said in a statement.
"Subsequently, it was decided to close the Erez crossing until the damage caused by the rioters will be repaired."
No timeframe was given for the reopening.
The Palestinians were protesting against a US announcement on Friday that it would cease all funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) which helps some three million needy refugees across the Middle East.
Washington, which until last year was by far the biggest contributor to the UNRWA, had already plunged the nearly 70-year-old agency into financial crisis in January with its announcement of a $300 million funding freeze.
In Gaza, most children attend UNRWA-run schools whose funding beyond the end of this month is now in doubt, along with that of the agency's network of clinics and food distribution centres.
The army said Tuesday's protesters had damaged the infrastructure of the crossing with rocks thrown from the Gaza side.
It said it would remain open for "individually approved humanitarian cases".
Palestinian schoolgirls pose near a UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) tractor in Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, on September 1, 2018 following Washington's announcement it was ending all funding
An AFP correspondent said several thousand Gazans passed the Palestinian Authority checkpoint at Erez during Tuesday's protest and headed to the Israeli side, where they caused damage to lights and the road surface.
The Israeli army eventually forced them back, using tear gas and live ammunition. Five Palestinians suffered gunshot wounds, the Gaza health ministry said.
"Palestinians destroyed the only crossing thru which they enter Israel for medical care & work. They also destroyed 3 TIMES the Kerem Shalom crossing thru which goods&aid enter Gaza daily," Ofir Gendelman, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Twitter.
"Now it's closed for repairs. Surely, there will be Palestinian complaints that it's closed."
Israel reopened Erez on August 27 after an 11-day closure following previous clashes, as part of its policy of easing its decade-long air, land and sea blockade on the Gaza Strip when calm is maintained.
The sole goods crossing between Israel and Gaza, Kerem Shalom, remains open.
There have been months of tension along the border and several military flare-ups, but recent weeks have seen relative calm.
Egyptian and United Nations officials have been mediating indirect negotiations on a long-term truce between Israel and Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas, who have fought three wars since 2008.
A ceremony was held in June to mark the adoption of the new constitution approved in a referendum
UN investigators on Wednesday warned that crimes against humanity and other serious rights violations were continuing unabated in Burundi, blaming in part President Pierre Nkurunziza's repeated calls to hatred and violence.
In its first report last year, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi said it had "reasonable grounds to believe" that government was committing crimes against humanity.
On Wednesday, it said such crimes were still ongoing, citing summary executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, torture and sexual violence.
"Serious human rights violations, including some which constitute crimes against humanity, have continued to be committed in Burundi, in 2017 and 2018," the commission said as it released a fresh report on the situation in the tiny east African nation.
"Some practices, such as the disposal of bodies or operating at night, tend to make these violations less visible. Nevertheless, they are still real," head of the commission Doudou Diene said in a statement.
Burundi plunged into crisis in 2015 after Nkurunziza sought a fiercely contested third term in office that his opponents said was unconstitutional.
Turmoil since then has killed at least 1,200 people, and has forced 400,000 to flee their homes and triggered an investigation by the International Criminal Court.
- 'Impunity' -
"Human rights violations documented by the Commission of Inquiry were aided by recurring calls for hatred and violence, including by the President of the Republic," the commission said Wednesday, saying such calls "took place in a general context of impunity."
Nkurunziza announced in June that he would not stand for another term in office in 2020
The UN investigators said they had "established a list of alleged perpetrators of crimes against humanity."
They said they would make the list "available to any organ or jurisdiction tasked with carrying out independent and credible investigations on human rights violations and abuses committed in Burundi and which will guarantee the safety of the witnesses."
Diene stressed that the Burundian judicial system itself "has neither the will nor the capacity to establish who is responsible and to prosecute perpetrators of violations."
"The judiciary has become an instrument of repression used by the executive against any form of protest or opposition."
The commission did not name the suspected perpetrators, but has said members of the country's National Intelligence Service, the police, military officials and members of the ruling party's youth league, the Imbonerakure were behind many of the worst violations.
It lamented the increasing strength of the Imbonerakure and decried the constantly shrinking of democratic space in the country.
"The control exercised over Burundians by the ruling power and the Imbonerakure increased significantly and is felt in all aspects of daily life," commission member Francoise Hampson said in the statement.
At the beginning of June this year, the 54-year-old Nkurunziza announced that he would not stand for another term in office in 2020.
That announcement came just after the adoption of a new constitution under which the head of state could remain in office until 2034.
Diene warned Wednesday that "the Constitutional Referendum organised in May 2018 and the campaign for the upcoming elections in 2020 have resulted in persecution, threats and intimidation towards persons suspected of opposing the government or not sharing the ruling party's line, whether proven or not."
The investigators, who are set to present their report to the UN Human Rights Council later this month, urged the council to extend their mandate.
"It is all the more crucial to continue this work as Burundi is preparing for new elections in 2020, which have already resulted in human rights violations and abuse."
Iraqis protest against the government and lack of basic services, on September 3, 2018 in the southern city of Basra
The United Nations envoy to Iraq called Wednesday for "calm" in Basra, after six died in the bloodiest day of protests over poor public services in the southern city.
In a statement, Jan Kubis, the UN's special representative in Iraq, called on "the authorities to avoid using disproportionate, lethal force against the demonstrators".
He also urged authorities to "investigate and hold accountable those responsible for the outbreak of violence".
The authorities said in a press conference on Wednesday that security personnel were wounded in Tuesday's clashes.
"Thirty members of the security forces were wounded by grenades and incendiary objects being thrown," said General Jamil al-Shammari, who is in charge of security operations in Basra.
Basra was nearly deserted on Wednesday morning.
Many shops were closed, while burned tyres lay strewn across the city's streets, an AFP correspondent said.
The city -- along with the province of the same name -- has been hit by protests since early July against poor public services.
Residents are angry over pollution of the local water supply, which has put 20,000 people in hospital.
Kubis in his statement called on the government "to do its utmost to respond to the people's rightful demands of clean water and electricity supplies as a matter of urgency".
The authorities said they would take measures to put an end to the health crisis that has ravaged the oil-rich province.
The local governorate's headquarters, the main rallying point for protestors, bore the traces of damage from molotov cocktails and fireworks thrown late into the night.
"Six demonstrators were killed and more than 20 wounded" in front of the government building on Tuesday evening, said Mehdi al-Tamimi, head of the government's human rights council in Basra province.
Medical sources confirmed the death toll to AFP.
Tamimi accused the security forces of "opening fire directly on the protestors".
In his weekly press conference in Baghdad on Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said he had ordered "no real bullets ... to be fired, in the direction of protesters or in the air".
Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr said in a tweet that "vandals infiltrated" the protestors.
Sadr's political bloc won the largest number of seats in national elections held in May, and he is trying to form a new government with Abadi.
Protestors also blocked roads and burned tyres elsewhere in Basra province on Tuesday night, a correspondent said.
Abadi announced in the night that he had met lawmakers from Basra, who are in Baghdad for the parliament's first session since the elections.
He again indicated that water pollution would be addressed, without specifying any measures.
In July, the government announced a multi-billion dollar (euro) emergency plan for southern Iraq, to revive infrastructure and services.
But protestors are wary of promises made by the outgoing government, as negotiations drag on over the formation of the next administration.
A joint Malaysia-Singapore statement said the project would be suspended until the end of May 2020
Singapore and financially-strapped Malaysia agreed Wednesday to defer plans to build a high-speed railway between the two countries by two years, ending months of uncertainty over the project.
The fate of the bullet train line has been in doubt since May when newly elected Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad announced plans to review major infrastructure projects approved by his scandal-tainted predecessor in a bid to cut the country's debt.
Malaysian Economic Minister Azmin Ali and visiting Singapore Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan exchanged legal documents on the amended deal at a ceremony in the administrative capital Putrajaya.
A joint Malaysia-Singapore statement issued after the ceremony said the project would be suspended until the end of May 2020, with plans to commence the service on January 1, 2031.
During the suspension period, both countries will "continue to discuss the best way forward" for the project with the aim to reduce costs, the statement added.
An ongoing international tender for the project will be called off, it said.
Azmin said Kuala Lumpur will pay Singapore about $10.8 million for the deferment of the project.
And if Malaysia decides not to proceed with the project by the end of the suspension period, it will further bear the agreed costs incurred by Singapore, the statement said.
Singapore Transport Minister Khaw described the new deal as a "fair arrangement" and said: "By the end of May 2020, we hope to see the resumption of the high-speed rail construction."
The 350-kilometre (217-mile) rail network is expected to cut travel time between Singapore and the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur to 90 minutes from the four or more hours by car today.
Mahathir's initial push to scrap the project alarmed Singapore, with observers wondering if the election of the 93-year-old -- whose relationship with the city-state was famously fractious during his first stint as premier -- might cause ties to deteriorate.
Malaysia earlier suspended three major China-backed projects worth billions of dollars, including a pipeline programme and a rail link which would have run from the Thai border to Kuala Lumpur, to cut the country's massive debt exceeding 1.0 trillion ringgit ($251 billion).
File picture taken in 2001 of Jalaluddin Haqqani
Decades after forging reputations as anti-Soviet fighters during the Cold War, many of Afghanistan's former mujahideen commanders still wield influence in the war-torn country, despite claims of gross human rights violations on their march to power.
Among them was former CIA asset turned brutal militant leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, who founded the eponymous Haqqani network that is now a top US target. His death was announced Tuesday by the Taliban.
Jalaluddin was among several mujahideen commanders who rose to prominence during the Soviet occupation of 1979-89. The survivors still have significant clout in Afghanistan's ethnic and tribal-driven politics.
Their bravery and battlefield skills won them fame and assistance from the United States and Pakistan. Some, such as the resistance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud who was assassinated in 2001, attained folk hero status.
But after the Russians left, Afghanistan slipped into civil war as the mujahideen commanders sought to topple the pro-communist government and then turned on each other.
Figures little known in the West but etched into the memory of ordinary Afghans are accused of killing thousands of people during the bloody chaos of the early 1990s that fuelled the flow of millions of Afghans across the border into Pakistan.
After the Taliban was overthrown by a US-led invasion in 2001, several controversial figures from the previous two decades were brought into mainstream politics in hopes of ensuring a smooth transition to democracy.
The power and wealth garnered over decades of constant conflict helped the battle-hardened commanders in their new political careers -- but also made them difficult to control.
Some kept private militias even as they ascended the political ranks, enabling them to enrich themselves and operate with impunity.
Here are four key figures:
- Hekmatyar -
Hekmatyar: accused of killing thousands
The former prime minister is one of the most notorious warlords in Afghanistan's history.
A prominent anti-Soviet commander in the 1980s, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is accused of killing thousands in Kabul during the 1992-1996 civil war.
Following the 2001 US-led invasion and the fall of the Taliban government, the US State Department designated him a terrorist, accusing him of taking part in and supporting attacks by Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
He returned to Kabul and mainstream political life in May 2017 following a peace deal between his dormant Hezb-i-Islami militant group and President Ashraf Ghani. The deal sparked revulsion from human rights groups and Kabul residents.
- Sayyaf -
The former anti-Soviet resistance leader and ally of Osama Bin Laden was a strident opponent of the Taliban and after 2001 went on to become a high-profile politician.
Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf contested the 2014 presidential election before endorsing front-runner Abdullah Abdullah, who lost to Ashraf Ghani in a controversial vote.
Sayyaf, a religious scholar who remains influential despite retiring from politics, is said to have been the "mentor" of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the main plotter of the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
Sayyaf also ran militant training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan throughout the 1980s and 1990s, which Mohammed attended.
- Mohaqiq -
Mohammad Mohaqiq fought the Soviet occupation before becoming embroiled in Afghanistan's brutal civil war in the 1990s.
Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah (C) and vice-presidential candidates Mohammad Mohaqiq (2nd R) and Mohammad Khan (2L) wave to supporters during a campaign rally in 2014
The most senior politician from the minority Hazara ethnic group, Mohaqiq contested the 2004 presidential election before becoming the second deputy to Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah in 2014.
Mohaqiq has been an outspoken critic of President Ashraf Ghani's government, accusing it, among other things, of trying to sideline mujahideen leaders.
- Dostum -
Abdul Rashid Dostum, a powerful ethnic Uzbek leader, is notorious for extreme barbarities and for repeatedly switching loyalties over 40 years of conflict.
Dostum (C) arrives at Kabul airport in July
While he fought on the side of the Soviets against the US-backed mujahideen in the 1980s, he played a key role in helping US Special Forces topple the Taliban in 2001.
Despite a catalogue of war crimes attached to his name and accusations of organising the rape and torture of a political rival, Dostum became Afghanistan's first vice president in 2014.
He received a hero's welcome when he returned to Kabul in July after more than a year in exile.
China's top legislator Li Zhanshu will head a delegation to visit the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Saturday as a special representative of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese president.
Li Zhanshu,chairman of the NPC standing committee. [File photo:npc.gov.cn]
The announcement was made by a spokesperson of the CPC Central Committee's International Department in Beijing Tuesday.
Li, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, will also attend activities to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK, said the spokesperson in a press release.
Li was invited by the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and the DPRK government, said the spokesperson.
The co-sponsors of the Astana peace process aimed at ending the Syrian conflict, (LtoR) Iran's Hassan Rouhani, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russia's Vladimir Putin, seen here in Ankara on April 4, 2018. are to meet again in Tehran on September 7
The Astana peace process, aimed at ending the Syrian conflict, was launched in January 2017 by Russia and Iran, allies of the Damascus regime, and rebel-backer Turkey.
The three presidents are due to meet in Iran on Friday, ahead of an expected government offensive on rebel-held Idlib province that could be the last major battle of the seven-year-old civil war.
The Astana process, launched after Russia's intervention definitively tipped the military balance in the regime's favour, led to the creation of four "de-escalation zones".
The cessation of hostilities in those areas was short-lived, however, and the forces backing President Bashar al-Assad have already retaken three of them. Idlib is the last one.
The Astana process gradually eclipsed an earlier UN-sponsored negotiations framework known as the Geneva process, which had put more emphasis on political transition but failed to curb violence that has already killed more than 350,000 people.
- Russia takes charge -
In late 2016, Russia, Iran and Turkey take over the Syrian peace process, sidelining the United States. They impose a ceasefire between the army and rebels.
In January 2017, they launch talks in Astana, bringing rebel and regime representatives to the capital of Kazakhstan, a Russian ally in central Asia.
At the January 23-24 talks, the three sponsors agree to bolster the fragile truce.
However, the final declaration is not signed by the rebels, led by Mohammad Alloush, or the regime, led by Bashar Jaafari, and negotiators do not hold face-to-face talks.
In February, Astana talks between regime and rebel delegations end without a major breakthrough. Several more rounds of talks are held but fail to yield significant results.
- 'De-escalation zones' -
In May 2017, Russia, Iran and Turkey adopt in Astana a Russian plan for four "de-escalation zones" across Syria to shore up local ceasefires.
According to the text, "security zones" will be created around them, with checkpoints and monitoring centres to be jointly staffed by troops from the guarantor countries.
Government troops and rebel fighters must stop using all kinds of weaponry, including aircraft.
- Only Idlib remains -
However, since the start of this year, government forces backed by Russia and allied militia have reconquered three of the zones, largely through heavy bombardments that ended with rebel surrenders.
Eastern Ghouta, a rebel stronghold outside the capital, was retaken in April after a two-month offensive. The regime then retook parts of the southern provinces of Daraa and Quneitra.
Of the four de-escalation zones, only the northwestern province of Idlib remains. The last rebel stronghold, it has been the destination for thousands of rebel fighters and civilians evacuated from other areas.
- Many summits, little progress -
The summit in Tehran on Friday between Iran's Hassan Rouhani, Russia's Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be the third between the sponsors of the Astana peace process.
Putin hosted his counterparts in November 2017 and at a peace congress in January 2018 in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, which resulted only in good intentions.
In April 2018, Putin, Rouhani and Erdogan met in Ankara, where they agreed to pool forces to achieve a "lasting ceasefire" in Syria.
Angry users have attacked Didi and called for a boycott
Chinese authorities launched a security audit of ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing on Wednesday following a public outcry over the rape and murder of a passenger last month, the transport ministry said.
Officials from 10 different government departments, including the public security ministry and the market regulator, will be stationed at Didi for a fortnight, the transport ministry said in a statement.
The company has been slammed by passengers and the transport ministry after a 20-year-old passenger was raped and murdered by her driver in the eastern city of Wenzhou last month, the second such killing this year.
"This inspection will examine all web-based ride hailing websites and ride-sharing platforms, its hidden dangers and its impact on the safety of passengers," the ministry said, adding that its recent problems are being taken "very seriously by the central leadership".
Other major market players including the Tencent-backed Meituan-Dianping online services platform will also come under scrutiny.
Angry users last month attacked Didi and called for a boycott after it emerged that the company failed to act on a complaint about the same driver just a day before the recent murder.
The incident, which came barely three months after the previous killing, was a top news item for days in China, with many calling for tougher regulation in the industry.
Didi said Tuesday that it will roll out a series of new safety measures and suspend most late-night ride services for a week beginning Saturday.
New measures include a "safety knowledge test" which drivers must pass every day before driving, upgrades to a police call button and experiments with sound recording of the entire ride.
Didi will also expand its in-house customer service team to 8,000 members by the end of the year.
The Hitch service, which links up commuters travelling in the same direction, has been suspended after both murders targeted customers using the service.
Didi Chuxing -- which muscled Uber out of China in 2016 after a bruising battle -- says it has 30 million drivers and more than 550 million users across its various services.
A Yemeni girl holds a portrait of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh in the capital Sanaa on August 24, 2017
Yemen's government will demand the release of the body of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, killed by rebels last year, at upcoming peace talks in Geneva, a minister said Wednesday.
Saleh, for decades the most powerful politician in troubled Yemen, had sided with the Huthi rebels for three years before shifting alliances in the country's armed conflict. He was killed by the rebels in December.
President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi will demand the rebels release Saleh's body via a government delegation at the UN-sponsored talks in Geneva, which open Thursday, according to Yemen's information minister.
"This is an important message that all within [Saleh's] General People's Congress should take into consideration to turn the page of the past and move forward towards the future to restore the state," tweeted Moammer al-Eryan.
Saleh founded the General People's Congress in the 1980s and while his death has significantly weakened the group, it is still a useful ally for Yemeni parties seeking broader national appeal.
Eryan said the government will also demand the release of Saleh's sons, believed to be detained by the rebels.
Mass protests forced Saleh to leave power in 2012, but he remained a key player in the chaos that followed.
For decades sworn enemies, the Huthis and Saleh formed an uneasy alliance in 2014 to jointly drive the Hadi government from Yemen's capital Sanaa.
In 2017, Saleh made overtures to Saudi Arabia and its allies in a pro-government regional alliance, sparking violent clashes between his supporters and the rebels which culminated in his death.
The Huthis now control Sanaa unchallenged.
According to one of his relatives, Saleh was buried in his village outside of Sanaa in a funeral attended by 20 people under the strict watch of the Huthis.
Supported by the Saudi-led coalition, the Hadi government has battled the Iran-backed Huthis for more than three years in what is widely seen as a proxy war between Riyadh and Tehran.
Both the government and rebels have said they do not expect any breakthrough at the Geneva talks this month, the first since UN-backed negotiations broke down in 2016.
Yemen's foreign minister has ruled out face-to-face meetings between the delegations.
More than 10,000 people have been killed in the Yemeni conflict, 2,200 of them children.
Steve Bannon describes Donald Trump as superstitious and naive
America is heading for a revolution which will "cut like a scythe through grass", Donald Trump's former chief advisor Steve Bannon predicts in a revealing new film.
The man credited with putting Trump in the White House warns in a documentary which premiered at the Venice film festival Wednesday that "if you don't allow for some way to spread the wealth, there will be a revolution in this country."
"We are going to have another financial crisis -- anyone who is smart sees it's coming," Bannon told Errol Morris in a series of long interviews for "American Dharma".
The film was shown in Venice as critics reeled from "22 July", a harrowing reconstruction of the 2011 attacks in Norway carried out by far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik in which 77 people were slaughtered.
"I believe you need radical restructuring," Bannon declared. "It can't be a pillow fight. You need killers to get change.
"That is why Trump is president," he told Morris, who won an Oscar for his confessional film "The Fog of War" about the architect of the Vietnam war, Robert McNamara.
"It was clear as daylight that someone like Trump was coming," Bannon added.
The political strategist claimed a "superstitious" Trump was heading for a crushing defeat in the 2016 election when he took the reins of the campaign.
- Black arts and "jujutsu" -
He admitted he relied on some PR "jujutsu" to rescue Trump after the leak of his "grab them by the pussy" remarks to Billy Bush threatened to sink the campaign.
This included bringing women who had accused Bill Clinton of rape and sexual impropriety to a crucial television debate.
But Bannon refused to say whether he had a hand in the WikiLeaks dump of Hillary Clinton's emails minutes after the so-called "Access Hollywood" tape of Trump's remarks was released.
Director Errol Morris says Steve Bannon embraced being compared to Satan
The former head of right-wing news website Breitbart, in Venice for the film premiere, said he didn't know Trump before the campaign, but saw his potential.
Bannon said he had simplified the campaign to a series of populist slogans: "Build the wall" (with Mexico), destroy the Islamic State, confront China and "get the hell out of Iraq and Afghanistan".
He had urged the president to "drop the hammer" as soon as he got into office with a flurry of executive orders including the hugely divisive "Muslim ban".
"If you hit the media with five things at a time, three will go through. They can only handle so much," Bannon said.
- Told Trump not to sack Comey -
He revealed that Trump could be naive -- "he thought the New York Times would wish him well when he won" -- and said the president fired FBI chief James Comey against his advice.
"Sacking Comey was a mistake. The institution of the FBI is going to bleed you out after that."
Trump was not corrupt, Bannon insisted. The multiple financial scandals he has been embroiled in "is just the real estate business".
But the former Goldman Sachs financier said he won the election for the billionaire property tycoon by portraying Clinton as "the head of a corrupt, creaking elite and Trump the agent of change like Obama."
After Trump's election, Bannon said, he was "just another advisor in the White House (but one) with a big bark."
- Modern 'serfs' -
Bannon admitted he is a product of the same "scientific-engineering-management-financial elite" he blames for bleeding the American "common man" of hope and jobs.
But he was now "on a mission to turn the Republican Party into a workers' party. You may have better food and clothing than an 18th-century Russian serf, but you are the same. They have you hung up on credit card debt... and their algorithms control your life."
Bannon said he was helping what he called the "patriotic right" in Europe, while insisting that "Neo-Nazis are an invention of the oppositional... left-wing media."
He is not bitter about being sacked by Trump in August 2017 in the fall-out from protests over a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, the political operator insisted.
"I didnt take it personally," he said. "It was the order of things" -- part of his belief in dharma, the Hindu concept of duty and destiny that order the Universe.
Morris faced hostile questioning for some journalists accusing him of "falling into Bannon's trap... and giving him a platform".
But the director pointed out that in the documentary, Bannon accepts being compared to Lucifer in Milton's poem "Paradise Lost".
"I have never interviewed anyone who willingly embraced the idea that they might be Satan, but he loved the idea, and finished the quotation, 'Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.'"
Morris told AFP that Bannon had seen and "liked the film. It is possibly not my best review."
A Syrian boy holds an oxygen mask over the face of an infant at a makeshift hospital in the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta town of Douma outside Damascus on January 22, 2018 after a reported gas attack
Since the start of the civil war in Syria in 2011, belligerents -- in particular the regime of President Bashar al-Assad -- have been accused on numerous occasions of using chemical weapons.
As the United States warns of retaliation should toxic weapons be used in a looming offensive on the last rebel-held province of Idlib, here is a look back over previous incidents.
- Sarin gas -
In August 2013, regime forces carry out attacks in Eastern Ghouta and Moadamiyet al-Sham, rebel-held areas outside Damascus.
The opposition accuses the regime of using toxic gas in the attacks which kill around 1,400 people, including more than 400 children.
The government -- which acknowledged in 2012 that it had chemical weapons -- denies the allegations.
Doctors Without Borders says 355 of the dead had "neurotoxic" symptoms.
Despite insisting the use of chemical weapons was a red line, then US president Barack Obama held back on retaliatory strikes instead striking a deal with Russia on the dismantlement of Syria's chemical arsenal under UN supervision.
In mid-September, a UN report says there is clear evidence sarin gas was used.
- Chlorine, mustard gas -
A joint commission of the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) finds in August 2016 that regime helicopters dropped chlorine-packed barrel bombs on two villages in Idlib province in 2014 and 2015.
In January 2016, the OPCW reported that the destruction of Syria's chemical arsenal had been completed but that did not include chlorine which has legitimate civilian uses too.
The commission accuses the Islamic State jihadist group of using mustard gas in August 2015 in the rebel stronghold of Marea in Aleppo province.
In October, it says the Syrian army carried out a chlorine attack at Qmenas in Idlib in March 2015.
- Idlib claims, retaliatory strikes -
Warplanes strike the rebel-held Idlib town of Khan Sheikhun in April 2017, with medical sources reporting afterwards that they had treated patients suffering from symptoms consistent with a chemical attack.
The UN puts the death toll at 83. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights counts 87.
In retaliation, US President Donald Trump unleashes Tomahawk missiles against the regime's Shayrat airbase.
UN and OPCW investigators confirm that sarin gas was used and say the Damascus regime is responsible. It denies involvement.
- Damascus accused again -
In January, the Observatory says the regime is suspected of having used chemical weapons in two incidents in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta outside Damascus that month, with people reporting breathing difficulties.
On February 4, it says 11 people were treated for "suffocation" after regime air strikes on the Idlib province town of Saraqeb.
The OPCW confirms in May, after a fact-finding mission, that chlorine was released during the attack.
On February 25, a child dies and at least 13 people suffer breathing difficulties after another suspected chemical attack on Eastern Ghouta. A medic describes a "chlorine odour".
On March 7, the Observatory says at least 60 people suffered breathing difficulties in two areas of Eastern Ghouta after regime air strikes.
- New claims in Douma -
On April 7, the White Helmets, who act as first responders in rebel-held areas of Syria, allege that regime forces used chlorine gas in Douma.
They report more than 40 deaths and 500 cases of people with symptoms indicative of exposure to a chemical agent.
The Observatory does not confirm a chemical attack but reports 70 people suffering breathing difficulties, with 11 dying.
In response, Britain, France and the United States unleash a barrage of guided missiles on three suspected regime chemical weapons facilities.
In July, the OPCW says it found no evidence of the use of nerve gas but chlorine may have been used.
A Russian Sukhoi Su-35 bomber lands at the Khmeimim military base in Latakia province, in the northwest of Syria on May 4, 2016
The Russian military on Wednesday confirmed air strikes were carried out on Syria's last major rebel stronghold Idlib with warplanes targeting the "terrorist" Al-Nusra Front on Tuesday.
"Four planes of the Russian group at the Khmeimim airbase inflicted strikes by high-precision weapons on objects of the Al-Nusra Front terrorist group in the Idlib province," the Russian military's spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.
He said the strikes were conducted on September 4 "during the dark time of day," without specifying if it was early morning or night time.
"The strike was conducted on terrorist stockpiles located outside residential areas, where unmanned aerial vehicles were stored, Konashenkov said.
A warehouse which stored portable air-defence systems and drone launch zones for attacks on Russia's Khmeimim airbase and towns in provinces Aleppo and Hama were also targeted, he added.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday that at least nine civilians, including five children from the same family, were killed in the Russian raids, while 10 more people were wounded.
Mattis: 'zero evidence' of planned chemical attacks by Syrian rebels
The Pentagon has seen "zero" evidence to suggest that opposition groups in Syria's Idlib province could use chemical weapons, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday, despite Russian claims to the contrary.
Speaking to reporters as he headed for talks in New Delhi on Thursday, Mattis rebuffed suggestions that the US may facilitate a chemical attack, then blame Russia and the Syrian regime and use this as a pretext for air strikes.
The US military has already twice conducted strikes against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime following two alleged chemical weapons attacks, most recently in mid-April with French and British help.
"We have zero intelligence that shows the opposition has any chemical capability," Mattis said.
"We have made very clear that by putting out innuendo that somehow any chemical weapon use coming up in the future could be ascribed to the opposition, well ... we cannot see anything that indicates the opposition has that capability."
Among the Russian reports, the Sputnik state news outlet said the Russian defence ministry claimed militants from the Tahrir al-Sham group were getting reading to stage a "provocation" and had kidnapped 44 children for use in a "false-flag" attack.
Mattis would not say if the Pentagon was seeing any signs the Syrian regime might be preparing to use chemical weapons in Idlib.
"I would prefer not to answer that right now," he said. "We are very alert."
On Monday President Donald Trump warned Assad against "recklessly" attacking Idlib.
Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the last major chunk of territory still in rebel hands.
The Syrian military has been deploying reinforcements to the zone for more than a month. Russia, which on Tuesday conducted air strikes in the region, has stepped up its war rhetoric ahead of an anticipated government offensive.
Mattis on Thursday is meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Delhi for talks with their Indian counterparts on a range of defence and trade issues.
Syrian rebel fighters from the recently-formed "National Liberation Front" rest in the northern countryside of Idlib province on September 5, 2018
International calls mounted Wednesday to avoid a "massacre" by regime forces in Syria's last rebel-held province of Idlib, two days before a summit between key powers backing the government and opposition.
The United Nations says nearly three million people live in Idlib and global concern has risen in recent days over a threatened regime assault to oust rebels and jihadists from the northwestern province and surrounding areas.
US President Donald Trump warned "the world is watching" as Syrian troops mass on the edges of the province that borders Turkey, raising fears of a humanitarian disaster.
"That cannot be a slaughter. If it's a slaughter, the world is going to be very, very angry. And the United States is going to be very angry, too," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as he met the emir of Kuwait.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Damascus against launching a battle to retake Idlib, the last major chunk of Syria still in opposition hands.
"God forbid, a serious massacre could take place if there is a rain of missiles there," said Erdogan, whose country has supported Syrian rebels.
He spoke two days before he is set to meet the presidents of regime backers Iran and Russia in Tehran to discuss the future of the province.
Idlib: risk of a humanitarian crisis
On Tuesday, the UN peace envoy for Syria urged Erdogan and Russia's President Vladimir Putin to speak on the phone before Friday's summit.
Staffan de Mistura called for efforts "to avoid that the last probably major battle of the Syrian territorial conflict... ends in a bloodbath".
- 'Human tragedy' -
More than half of Idlib is controlled by jihadists from Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), while much of the rest is held by rebels backed by Turkey.
The regime holds a small southeastern sliver.
The United Nations and aid groups have warned a military campaign could spark one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in a war that has already killed more than 350,000 people and displaced millions.
Syrians at a camp for displaced people in Idlib province on September 5, 2018
Many of those living in Idlib are rebels and civilians who were bussed out of their hometowns in other parts of the country that have come back under regime control.
Turkey, Russia and Iran last year designated Idlib a so-called "de-escalation zone", but that deal did not cover former Al-Qaeda affiliate HTS.
On Tuesday, Russian warplanes resumed air strikes on Idlib after a 22-day pause.
Air raids across the province killed at least 13 civilians, including six children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.
Moscow said four of its jets "inflicted strikes by high-precision weapons" on targets belonging to HTS.
On Wednesday, regime artillery and rocket fire targeted several areas in the province including the HTS-held town of Jisr al-Shughur, according to the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.
President Bashar al-Assad's regime has retaken large swathes of the country from rebels and jihadists since Russia intervened militarily on its side in 2015.
- 'Terrorist remnants' -
Moscow has accused armed groups in Idlib of sending weaponised drones to attack the Hmeimim airbase that it uses in the adjacent province of Latakia.
On Wednesday, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Idlib was the "subject of increased concern and worry" and the focus of a flurry of diplomacy.
Just a day earlier, Peskov had slammed Idlib as a "pocket of terrorism".
Friday's summit in Tehran between Erdogan, Putin and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani is expected to determine the scope and timing of any assault on Idlib.
Russian presidential adviser Yuri Ushakov described the meeting as "very important".
"National Liberation Front" rebel fighters in the northern countryside of Idlib province on September 5, 2018
"The leaders will in particular focus on the situation in the Idlib de-escalation zone, where terrorist remnants are concentrated", he said, in particular referring to HTS.
A UN Security Council meeting is also set to be held the same day to discuss Idlib, US ambassador Haley has said.
She warned against the use of any chemical weapons in Idlib, after the White House pledged to "respond swiftly and appropriately" to any such attack.
US defence chief Jim Mattis later dismissed reports fighters inside Idlib may hold such weapons.
"We have zero intelligence that shows the opposition has any chemical capability," he told reporters on Wednesday.
Samah Hadid of Amnesty International tweeted that "the lives of millions of people in Idlib, Syria are now in the hands of Russia, Turkey and Iran" which have the power to protect them.
Since 2011, Assad's regime has repeatedly been accused of using chemical weapons, including this year in its battle to retake the former rebel bastion of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus.
Rescue workers accused regime forces of killing more than 40 people with "poisonous chlorine gas" in the town of Douma in April.
The United States, France and Britain carried out punitive strikes in response.
Zalmay Khalilzad has decades of foreign policy experience, especially in Afghanistan where he will now attempt to broker peace
Zalmay Khalilzad, the veteran US diplomat tasked with leading efforts to end the war in Afghanistan, is a blunt negotiator with a history of hawkish foreign policy views.
Known by many in Washington as "King Zal", the 67-year-old Khalilzad has decades of experience in the region. Now he has what Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described Tuesday as a "singular" mission to get the Taliban and the Afghan government to reconcile.
This mission marks Khalilzad's return to focus on the country of his birth and childhood, and the place where he served as US ambassador from 2003-2005 under President George W. Bush, helping to guide regime change in the messy aftermath of the fall of the Taliban.
He was instrumental in setting up the government structure in Afghanistan and guiding President Hamid Karzai through the first elections in 2005.
Fluent in Pashto and Dari, Khalilzad's experience as a foreign policy operative in the country dates back to the 1980s, when he served as an adviser to the Reagan administration.
He spent most of the 1990s in the private sector, but returned to public service when Bush appointed him to the National Security Council with an Afghanistan brief.
After the Kabul posting the Bush administration appointed Khalilzad -- who is also an accomplished arabophone -- as ambassador to Baghdad in 2005, despite Karzai reportedly pleading with the US president not to transfer him.
Unlike his smooth stint in Afghanistan, where he cut deals with tribal chiefs and warlords, Khalilzad's Iraq mission was rocky.
He knew the Iraqi political terrain well, having served as Bush's envoy to the "free Iraqis" before the 2003 US invasion, and helped draw up the country's new constitution after the toppling of Saddam Hussein.
But he failed to accomplish a task similar to the one he now faces in Afghanistan: getting Iraq's warring factions to reconcile, and defusing the terrorist core of Sunni Muslim resistance.
Khalilzad was allied with Bush administration hawks like Vice President Dick Cheney and John Bolton, whom he replaced as Washington's UN envoy in 2007. He held the position until 2009.
He later criticised President Barack Obama's handling of the war in Afghanistan, especially the decision to draw down US troops.
- Key player -
Khalilzad has also been a fierce critic of Pakistan and like many American officials has accused it of playing a "double game" by supporting militant groups in Afghanistan despite being a US ally.
That has won him few friends over the years in Islamabad, which has denied the allegations, and whose support Pompeo said Tuesday was needed for the reconciliation effort in Afghanistan.
Khalilzad was the introductory speaker for then-candidate Donald Trump's first major foreign policy speech in April 2016.
He later told India's The Hindu newspaper that Trump's "America First" policy was not about isolationism, but "the universality of American values".
Now Khalilzad is a key player in the Republican president's efforts to extricate the US from the 17-year conflict in Afghanistan.
Born in 1951 in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, Khalilzad attended the American University of Beirut before earning a doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1979.
He taught at Columbia University from 1979 to 1986, and has over the years also held key positions at prominent US think tanks, including the RAND Corporation.
Before his stints as ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the UN, he also served in various capacities in the State Department, the Pentagon and the National Security Council.
Khalilzad also once worked with US oil giant Unocal and runs a business advisory firm called Gryphon Partners.
In 2014, Austrian authorities briefly froze bank accounts belonging to his wife during an investigation into money he transferred from the US. Khalilzad denied any wrongdoing.
Demonstrators protest outside court in Chicago as the murder trial begins for police officer Jason Van Dyke over the fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald
The trial of a white Chicago cop over the fatal shooting of a black teenager began Wednesday as protesters accused authorities of a "cover up" in a case that has set America's third-largest city on edge.
Police officer Jason Van Dyke faces murder charges for shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times in an October 2014 confrontation.
The incident, captured on police dash-cam video, has upended the city's politics with fears of violence if the officer is acquitted.
Outside the courthouse, dozens of protesters decried police shootings and demanded accountability, chanting: "Sixteen shots and a cover up."
"We're here to find out what they're going to do. We are tired of them making excuses for people who are killing human beings," Mary Johnson, 85, told AFP.
"The message today is that we have to quit covering up what officers are doing wrong," added Charles Edward Perry, a 52-year-old father of six.
The police video shows Van Dyke firing bullets into the knife-wielding teen, who appeared to have been walking away from officers. The officer continues to fire after the teen collapses to the ground.
None of the other officers at the scene fired their weapons.
"I never would have fired my gun if I didn't think my life was in jeopardy or another citizen's life was," Van Dyke told the Chicago Tribune in an interview last week.
McDonald's family, in rare public comments, has urged people to remain peaceful ahead of the trial. A contingent of around 20 relatives gathered in court for the first day of proceedings, along with many of Van Dyke's supporters.
"Laquan McDonald was the victim and we are here because he cannot speak," family spokesman Marvin Hunter told reporters.
"Jason Van Dyke did not give him his day in court. He acted as judge, jury and executioner."
Judge Vincent Gaughan instructed an initial pool of 200 potential jurors, who packed the courtroom and were given questionnaires to fill out. They are due to return next week as the pool is narrowed to a jury of 12.
The judge read all 23 charges against Van Dyke. He faces six first-degree murder counts, one of official misconduct and 16 charges of aggravated battery with a firearm -- one for each bullet that struck McDonald.
- 'We want a conviction' -
Demonstrators protest outside court in Chicago on September 5, 2018 as the murder trial begins for police officer Jason Van Dyke over the fatal shooting of black teen Laquan McDonald
The police video of the shooting, which was recorded from a distance and has no audio, was initially withheld from the public for a year, until a judge compelled its release.
Van Dyke was charged on the day the footage was made public.
The resulting political fallout claimed the jobs of the city's police chief and lead prosecutor.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel, once a star of the Democratic party, announced Tuesday he would not seek re-election, after years of unrelenting calls to resign amid accusations of an attempted cover-up.
Ja'Mal Green, a member of the "Black Lives Matter" activist movement and a mayoral candidate, told AFP Emanuel's decision would not calm infuriated locals.
"We're in a situation where we want a conviction," he said, predicting that if Van Dyke were acquitted, "you'll see thousands of people take to the streets."
Several other police officers connected to the case face criminal charges or have been recommended for firing -- all accused of making false statements or impeding the investigation into the shooting.
- Shooting 'not surprising' -
Demonstrators prepare to enter court in Chicago on September 5, 2018 as the murder trial begins for Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke over the fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald
"It's not surprising to (black youth) that an officer would shoot and kill a young black man," said Chaclyn Hunt, who runs a community organization supporting black youngsters in Chicago.
"They spend time in neighborhoods where police operate with complete impunity."
The trial will test the justice system's ability to wrest a conviction in a high-profile police shooting case.
A series of such incidents around the country, publicized by smartphone and police video, have given rise to "Black Lives Matter."
But prosecutions, let alone guilty verdicts, have proven rare.
Last week a Texas jury sentenced a white police officer to 15 years in prison for the shooting death of a black teen.
Roy Oliver fired five bullets into a car full of teens last year, killing 15-year-old Jordan Edwards.
Peng Liyuan, the wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, on Tuesday attended a China-Africa meeting on HIV/AIDS prevention and control in Beijing.
Peng Liyuan, the wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, attends China-Africa meeting on AIDS control in Beijing on September 4 2018. [Photo:Xinhua]
Peng, together with 37 spouses of African heads of state and government, launched an initiative at the meeting for joint efforts by China and Africa to combat HIV/AIDS.
Making concerted efforts against HIV/AIDS has become a global consensus, and cooperation between China and Africa in this regard has been effective, said Peng, who also reviewed her work as the World Health Organization (WHO) Goodwill Ambassador for Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
She said the on-going Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation has provided new opportunities for deepening China-Africa cooperation on HIV/AIDS control.
China, African countries and relevant international organizations will begin implementing in 2019 a three-year project on HIV/AIDS prevention among adolescents and health promotion at community level, Peng said.
At the meeting, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and Michel Sidibe, executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, made positive comments on China-Africa cooperation on combating HIV/AIDS and highly commended Peng's outstanding contributions to raising awareness of HIV/AIDS prevention and caring for AIDS patients.
China has been actively supporting African countries in combating HIV/AIDS, sending medical teams to more than 40 African countries and providing them with free medicine, medical equipment and supplies.
Iranian rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh with her husband Reza Khandan in Tehran on September 18, 2013
The husband of the imprisoned award-winning Iranian human rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh has been arrested, their lawyer told AFP on Wednesday.
"Reza Khandan was arrested on Tuesday morning at his home in Tehran by agents of Iran's intelligence ministry", their lawyer Mohammad Moghimi said.
He was transferred to Evin prison in northern Tehran where a judge charged him with conspiring against national security, propaganda against the system and campaigning against Iran's Islamic dress code.
The last charge was based on the fact that badges were found in the family's home, saying "No to compulsory hijab", the lawyer said.
Khandan's wife is one of Iran's most famed rights activists and won the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov human rights award in 2012.
Earlier this year, Sotoudeh took on the cases of several women arrested for standing in public areas without their headscarves, which have been mandatory in Iran since shortly after the Islamic revolution of 1979.
She was arrested in June and told she had already been found guilty "in absentia" on spying charges by Tehran's Revolutionary Court.
Her legal team said she is now serving a six-year jail term, one year longer than previously reported.
She began a hunger strike on August 25 in protest at the pressure brought on her family.
Khandan's bail was set at 7 billion rials (roughly $50,000 at current rates), which Moghimi called "legally unacceptable".
Khandan and Sotoudeh's 18-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son were home at the time of the arrest and are now being cared for by their aunt, he added.
Moghimi said that Khandan's charge of propaganda against the state was due to his interviews with international media on his wife's imprisonment and ongoing cases.
Human Rights Watch said Iran had "ramped up their crackdown against human rights defenders".
"Iranian authorities continue to dig a hole for their domestic and international credibility as they lock up scores of lawyers and activists for the 'crime' of defending citizens' fundamental rights," said the NGO's Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson.
One of Sotoudeh's lawyers, Payam Derafshan, was himself arrested last week along with colleague Farokh Forouzan, according to a Facebook post by another human rights lawyer.
An Indian supporter of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community takes part in a pride parade in Bhopal in July: the supreme court is about to pass judgement on laws outlawing homosexuality
India's Supreme Court is likely on Thursday to deliver an eagerly awaited judgement on colonial-era legislation criminalising homosexuality, lawyers said.
Section 377 of the Indian penal code, a relic from 1860s British legislation, bans gay acts as "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" punishable by jail terms of up to life.
The top court began hearing petitions against the ban in July, beginning an emotional debate in the world's largest democracy over the right to freedom and privacy.
Tripti Tandon, a lawyer for one of the petitioners in the case, confirmed to AFP the judgement was listed for Thursday.
Her client Aris Jafer was arrested and sent to prison for 50 days in 2001.
"We have high hopes from the Supreme Court," said Rituparna Borah, a co-director of Nazaria, which describes itself as a queer feminist advocacy group.
India has quietly made some strides in sexual rights
"This law should not have been there in the first place. This should have gone long back. We are asking for our basic human rights, nothing more," she told AFP.
Utsav Maheshwari, a 20-year-old gay college student, said he was "super excited" and hoping the "court will legitimise the community by acknowledging their existence".
The Delhi High Court effectively decriminalised gay sex in 2009, but the Supreme Court reinstated legal sanctions in 2014 after a successful appeal by religious groups.
Gay sex has long been taboo in conservative India -- particularly in rural areas where nearly 70 percent of people live -- and homophobia is widespread. Some still regard homosexuality as a mental illness.
According to official data, 2,187 cases under Section 377 were registered in 2016 under the category of "unnatural offences". Seven people were convicted and 16 acquitted.
Section 377 "is a law that propagates homophobia", said Keshav Suri, one of the petitioners, who has used his family's luxury hotel chain to promote gay rights by improving conditions for staff.
"In rural areas it is a harassment tool, used by cops, used by authorities for extortion for glorifying rape and molestation," said Suri.
A transgender man was killed in Hyderabad in June by a mob who accused him of being a child kidnapper.
- Suicide note -
A lesbian couple committed suicide in Gujarat the same month, leaving a note stating: "We are leaving this world to live with each other. The world did not allow us to stay together."
About a third of lesbian women have reported physical abuse including rape by their own relatives, according to a recent survey.
Choreographer Mandeep Raikhy has used his dance troupe to highlight the experiences of gays
"Because of this law, there are a lot of people in the LGBT community outside of India who are afraid to travel to India because of this sense of paranoia that they might get arrested," said Suri.
Many Indian professionals have moved to Canada and Europe where gays are more accepted, he added.
Section 377 has been at the centre of court battles in India since 2001. In 2009, the Delhi high court ruled that it breached the constitution, bringing long-sought relief to the LGBT community until the Supreme Court quashed the decision in 2014.
Indian choreographer Navtej Johar launched a new petition in 2016 which was joined by Suri and others.
Religious groups of all kinds fiercely oppose ending Section 377. Government lawyers have however said they will leave it up to the "wisdom" of the court to decide on Thursday.
And India has quietly made some strides in sexual rights.
A transgender judge, Joyita Mondal Mahi, presides over courts in West Bengal state, Indian passports now state whether a holder is "male", "female" or "other" and the city of Raigarh, with 139,000 people, has a transgender mayor.
"Gay sex is criminalised here, but at another level, there is an intrinsic acceptance of difference," said New Delhi choreographer Mandeep Raikhy who has used his dance troupe to highlight the experiences of gays even at the risk of making audiences feel "uncomfortable".
Former students from the elite Indian Institute of Technology have also joined the battle against Section 377 while other professionals such as doctors have felt more emboldened to come out.
Suri said the Indian economy could make "billions" from pink tourism and investment if it lifted the ban on gay sex.
But he and others see marriage between two men or two women as the ultimate prize and ending Section 377 as only part of the struggle.
Deficits with China and the European Union -- two of President Donald Trump's favorite trade villains -- hit all-time highs, contrary to the stated goals of his trade confrontations
The US trade deficit surged in July on record imports that created burgeoning gaps with trading partners in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump's aggressive policies, according to government data released Wednesday.
With US goods facing retaliatory tariffs in many countries, exports dropped sharply that month, the Commerce Department reported, pushing the trade deficit with China to an all-time high.
In addition to subtracting from growth, the high deficit could rekindle Trump's ever-present ire about how the United States is treated by its trading partners, and prompt him to unleash steep tariffs on a massive amount of Chinese goods this week.
"This report brings a record trade gap with China ... which is unlikely to soften the US stance on tariffs," RDQ Economics said in a research note.
The US trade gap with the European Union also hit a record, coming just days before US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is due to meet his EU counterpart Cecilia Malstrom in Brussels on Monday to try to defuse the dispute between the two major economies that have exchanged tariffs on billions of dollars in goods.
The deficit with Canada also widened, according to the report released shortly before Washington and Ottawa were due to resume talks aimed at salvaging the North American Free Trade Agreement as a three-nation pact with Mexico.
The difference between total US imports and exports of goods and services jumped more than $4 billion, an increase of 9.5 percent, to $50.1 billion -- just a few hundred million shy of the consensus forecast among economists.
It was the second consecutive month that saw the deficit widen, following the surge of exports in May amid a flurry of buying to outrun tariffs imposed in US markets abroad.
The figures do not bode well for growth in the second quarter, although other economic indicators point to healthy demand and expanding GDP.
It was also a month of multiple records in the trade data: imports of goods and services were the highest ever, as were service exports.
- Record gaps -
The widening deficits are contrary to the stated goals of Trump's multifront trade confrontations.
The US president has imposed steep tariffs on steel and aluminum from key trading partners, as well as punitive duties on $50 billion in annual imports from China, with the possibility that another $200 billion will be targeted as soon as this week.
And other factors are working against his goal of reducing the US trade deficit, which he has said he views as stealing from the American economy. With the Federal Reserve gradually raising interest rate, the US dollar has strengthened, making US goods more expensive; and the massive corporate tax cuts from last year tend to boost investment which means higher spending on equipment.
RDQ Economics said "the US cannot enjoy an investment spending boom without installing a significant amount of capital equipment and ... this means a surge in capital goods imports."
US imports in July rose 0.9 percent to $261.2 billion, the highest ever, including record purchases of both goods and services.
Exports fell one percent to $211.1 billion, including record shipments of industrial supplies and petroleum, while sales of soybeans -- subject to Chinese retaliatory tariffs -- dropped by $700 million.
Imports of petroleum hit the highest level in four years at $23.6 billion, on the highest price in four years of an average $64.63 a barrel.
Exports and imports of autos both rose, but the volatile aircraft category dropped $1.6 billion.
Meanwhile, the trade gap with China jumped to a record $36.8 billion, not seasonally adjusted; the deficit with the EU hit a record $17.6 billion; and the deficit with Canada jumped by $1 billion to $3.1 billion.
In contrast, the deficit with Mexico narrowed to $5.5 billion, a nearly $2 billion decline -- although the total is up for the first seven months of the year.
Markus Jooste said he was "not aware of any accounting irregularities" at Steinhoff
The former chief executive of South African retail giant Steinhoff told lawmakers Wednesday he had no knowledge of accounting irregularities that caused the company to lose 95 percent of its market value.
Markus Jooste, who had not been seen in public since resigning in December as the scandal broke, appeared in front of a parliamentary committee after fighting a legal battle to try to avoid questioning.
"When I left Steinhoff... I was not aware of any accounting irregularities at the company," he told lawmakers in Cape Town.
Steinhoff's businesses include British high street discounter Poundland, France's Ligue 1 sponsor Conforama and Pep Africa, which runs the continent's largest clothing factory.
"I was not aware of anyone that acted deliberately or knowingly in violation of Steinhoff's code of conduct," Jooste added.
Amid widespread public and political anger at the company's near-bankruptcy, Jooste added that the impact of Steinhoff's massive losses on pensioners and investors "saddens" him -- but declined to apologise.
Dressed in a dark suit and blue tie, a calm Jooste told the parliamentary committee that his strategic business relationship with the German Seiffert Group from 2007 was a "big mistake".
He had felt the company's decision to draft in accountants Deloitte to probe financial issues would "take too long to complete" which led to uncertainty and hampered the firm's ability to file accounts. That ultimately led to the share price plunge.
- 'Biggest corporate scandal' -
Jooste said his clash with auditors led to his departure from the company in December 2007.
Frustrated lawmakers repeatedly pressed Jooste about his personal role in the scandal, saying they did not "buy" his story.
Chairman of the parliamentary finance committee Yunus Carrim said Jooste was effectively incriminating himself by not clarifying what part he played in "the biggest corporate scandal" to hit South Africa.
But Jooste robustly defended his actions and said that he had no information about the company after he left in December, when his 29 years at the company abruptly ended.
He had helped build Steinhoff into one of South Africa's most successful firms, attracting investors impressed by its sprawling, consumer-focused empire with outposts in 30 countries.
But at the end of last year Steinhoff revealed it was facing criminal and tax investigations, with a reported six-billion-euro ($7-billion) hole in its accounts.
Jooste reassured MPs that although he suffered a $190 million loss, he had never syphoned money out of the country.
"Losing money played no role in my decision to leave," he said.
Committee member Themba Godi said the three Steinhoff executives so far grilled by parliament had given three different accounts of the collapse.
He said that Steinhoff's former chairman Christo Wiese had described the collapse as a shock "like thunder out of the blue", while former finance chief Ben La Grange said Jooste "did not fully share information with him."
"Now Mr Jooste today says the collapse of the share price was purely as a result of uncertainty," said Godi.
South African police are investigating Jooste over alleged fraud while accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers are still unpicking Steinhoff's accounts.
CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington
Twitter does not operate on the basis of "political ideology," chief executive Jack Dorsey said Wednesday, rejecting claims of bias against conservatives.
"Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules," Dorsey said in prepared remarks to a congressional hearing with US technology giants.
"We believe strongly in being impartial, and we strive to enforce our rules impartially."
Dorsey's comments come days after President Donald Trump accused technology firms of "censorship" and suppressing conservative voices.
The statement from Dorsey released by a House panel covered questions about foreign influence operations on social media as well as accusations of political bias.
He said Twitter is committed to rooting out abusive activity and "hostile foreign influence."
"The purpose of Twitter is to serve the public conversation, and we do not make value judgments on personal beliefs," Dorsey said in his remarks.
Senator Mark Warner told the hearing that social media firms "were caught flat-footed by the brazen attacks on our election" and questioned whether Silicon Valley is capable of confronting the problem of foreign influence.
"I'm skeptical that, ultimately, you'll be able to truly address this challenge on your own," he told the hearing with Dorsey and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg. "Congress is going to have to take action here."
Google rejected requests to send its CEO Sundar Pichai or parent firm Alphabet chief Larry Page, but offered a writted statement from its chief legal officer Kent Walker.
Huthi supporters demonstrate in the Yemeni rebels' stronghold Saada on September 5, 2018 against an August air strike by the Saudi-led coalition which left 51 people dead
Yemen's Huthi rebels said Wednesday they were stranded in the capital Sanaa on the eve of United Nations-sponsored peace talks in Geneva with their government rivals.
The Huthis said the UN had been unable to "secure authorisation" from a Saudi-led coalition backing the government for a plane to transport the rebel delegation and wounded insurgents out of the country, according to the Huthis' Al-Masirah TV.
While the Huthis control Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, the coalition controls the country's airspace.
The Huthis, who are linked to Saudi Arabia's arch-nemesis Iran, have hinted that their delegation demanded the evacuation of wounded rebels to Oman for medical treatment as a condition for their attendance at the talks.
Huthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam tweeted on Tuesday that the UN had "made promises on facilitating the transport of the wounded... abroad" and accused the world body of stalling.
In 2014, the Huthis seized Sanaa, driving the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi into exile and marking a major turning point in Yemen's long-running conflict.
The following year, Saudi Arabia and its allies formed a powerful regional military coalition to back the Hadi government in its fight against the Huthis.
Nearly 10,000 people have been killed since the Saudi-led alliance joined the war, pushing the impoverished country to the brink of famine.
The last round of peace talks between the Huthis and government collapsed in 2016, when 108 days of negotiations in Kuwait failed to broker a power-sharing agreement.
The Huthi delegation to Kuwait was grounded in Oman for three months on its way back to Yemen, blocked from travel by the Saudi-led coalition.
Nigeria's All Progressives Congress (APC) of the eventual election winner Muhammadu Buhari asked for 27.5 million naira just to stand in the party's presidential primary in 2015
Nigeria's two main political parties are asking election hopefuls to pay huge fees for the chance to stand at next year's general election, in a move criticised as favouring the rich and well-connected.
At the last nationwide vote in 2015, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of then-president Goodluck Jonathan charged 22 million naira per nomination form.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) of the eventual winner Muhammadu Buhari asked for 27.5 million naira just to stand in the party's presidential primary.
Now, as both parties prepare for polling in February next year, the APC wants an eye-watering 45 million naira ($125,500, 108,000 euros) per presidential primary candidate, according to newspaper adverts on Wednesday.
Individuals wanting to be selected to run for a governorship post have to pay 22.5 million naira, up from 10 million naira last time round.
The PDP has reduced the cost of its presidential candidate forms to 12 million naira and the selection for a tilt at a governorship from 11 million naira to six million naira.
But both are still significant sums in a country of more than 180 million where some 87 million live in extreme poverty, according to the World Poverty Clock.
The APC has offered a half-price discount for women and the disabled, while the PDP has made forms free for female candidates, in a move designed to widen representation.
- Political patronage -
Nigeria is not alone in imposing high election fees.
Lawmakers in neighbouring Benin this week voted to increase the deposit for presidential candidates to 250 million CFA francs ($441,000, 380,000 euros).
The country of 11 million people has more than 200 political parties and the increase has been seen as a way of reducing the numbers.
In Nigeria, the Not Too Young to Run group, which successfully campaigned for a reduction in the lower age limit for elected representatives, said the fees were still "exorbitant" and would disqualify potential candidates.
It claimed the main parties had reneged on a promise to cap the cost of nomination forms for all elected posts.
Kassim Afegbua, former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida's spokesman, wrote in the New Telegraph newspaper on Tuesday that the process should be more affordable.
Debo Adeniran, of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership lobby group, said the high costs was an example of how the two main parties had "monetised the political environment".
The system favoured the wealthy and fostered cronyism and corruption, as sponsors who often pay for a candidate's forms expect pay-back once they are in power, he added.
Buhari was elected partly on a platform to tackle endemic corruption in government.
- 'Serious business' -
Clement Nwankwo, head of the Situation Room of Nigeria civil society groups that promote good governance, said the system was intended to exclude all but the wealthiest and those who had previously benefited from patronage.
But APC spokesman Yekini Nabena told AFP the amounts were a reflection of the cost of campaigning and a way of ensuring the party was not in thrall to a handful of wealthy donors.
"We want the party itself to take care of the elections so that nobody will say because he gave money to the party he wants to dictate to the party what to do," he told AFP.
He added: "Politics is a very serious business. We shouldn't be petty about it. Even though you are financially handicapped, if you are the man of the people, your supporters can contribute money for you."
Party primaries are expected in the coming weeks, with Buhari, who in 2015 was said to have taken out a bank loan to cover his nomination costs, set to secure the APC ticket unopposed.
All eyes will instead be on the PDP, with an increasingly crowded field of hopefuls including former vice-president Atiku Abubakar and Senate leader Bukola Saraki.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg testified at a Senate hearing on foreign influence campaigns on social media
President Donald Trump's administration warned Wednesday of a possible legal crackdown on big technology companies over competition or political bias, in a bombshell announcement that came as social media executives were defending their policies before lawmakers.
The Justice Department statement appeared to escalate a war between the administration and Silicon Valley after a series of attacks by Trump claiming tech firms were biased against conservatives.
According to the statement, Attorney General Jeff Sessions will convene a meeting of state attorneys general later this month "to discuss a growing concern that these companies may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms."
The suggestions of legal or regulatory action caught many tech industry observers by surprise and came as lawmakers were holding hearings on foreign influence campaigns on social media and "transparency."
Daniel Castro, of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, said the intent of the statement was not clear, but that it was worrisome.
"Social media platforms have the right to determine what types of legal speech they will permit on their platforms," Castro told AFP.
"The federal government should not use the threat of law enforcement to limit companies from exercising this right. In particular, law enforcement should not threaten social media companies with unfounded investigations."
- Regulation or censorship? -
Facebook number two executive Sheryl Sandberg repeated that the social network was too slow to respond to foreign influence campaigns
Legal analysts have noted the government would have little recourse against any political bias even if proven because of constitutional free speech guarantees.
While antitrust concerns against Google and Facebook are to be expected, Eric Goldman of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University said it would be troublesome to use antitrust law as a guise for regulating speech.
"This (statement) makes me think antitrust is not the real goal, that the real goal is censorship," Goldman said.
"This could be broad action by the government to try to subvert the First Amendment."
Matt Schruers of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, a trade group that includes Google and Facebook, said tech firms "compete aggressively with one another as well as those outside of the technology sector" and that "consumers have many choices for information services and news sources online."
- Collegial atmosphere -
CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey told lawmakers the platform was ill-equipped for "weaponized" social media influence campaigns
The administration statement came at the conclusion of a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing at which Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg testified.
The hearing offered a largely collegial atmosphere in which the executives and senators spoke of the need for further efforts to thwart foreign influence campaigns on social media.
Dorsey said the messaging service was set up to function as a "public square" but had failed to deal with "abuse, harassment, troll armies, propaganda through bots."
"We aren't proud of how that free and open exchange has been weaponized and used to distract and divide people, and our nation," he told senators.
Sandberg repeated Facebook's acknowledgements about failing to crack down on influence campaigns stemming from Russia that interfered with the 2016 US presidential election.
"We were too slow to spot this and too slow to act," Sandberg told the panel. "That's on us. This interference was completely unacceptable. It violated the values of our company and of the country we love."
Lawmakers welcomed the comments but expressed concern about whether enough was being done.
"If the answer is regulation, let's have an honest dialogue about what that looks like," said Senator Richard Burr, the committee chairman.
Senator Mark Warner told the hearing that social media firms "were caught flat-footed by the brazen attacks on our election" and added: "I'm skeptical that, ultimately, you'll be able to truly address this challenge on your own."
The Senate was followed by a House panel session on "transparency and accountability," where Dorsey rejected claims of political bias.
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions is to meet with state regulators to discuss complaints against big tech firms of competition and political bias
"Twitter cannot rightly serve as a public square if it's constructed around the personal opinions of its makers," he told the panel. "We believe a key driver of a thriving public square is the fundamental human right of freedom of opinion and expression."
In the House, Dorsey faced harsher comments from some lawmakers including Republican Billy Long of Missouri, who complained that his "personalized" feed was dominated by news from sources he disagreed with.
"They're all pretty much Trump-bashing," Long said of the recommended articles.
But Democrat Paul Tonko of New York expressed dismay "that our Republican colleaues have called this hearing to rile up their base and give credence to unsupported conspiracies."
Trump stepped up his criticism of social media in an interview with the right-wing Daily Caller, saying the companies "were all on Hillary Clinton's side, and if you look at what was going on with Facebook and with Google and all of it."
Outside the Senate hearing, right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones criticized tech firms for curbing his social media efforts.
Jones, whose Infowars site has been praised by Trump, denounced what he called "a plan to deplatform conservatives, just like communist China," adding, "this is dangerous, authoritarianism."
The Saharan route is notorious for its dangers, which include breakdowns, lack of water and callous traffickers who abandon migrants in the desert
More than 400 people from across West Africa have been rescued from the desert in northern Niger in two days, the International Organization for Migration said, in the latest recovery of migrants from the frontier region near Algeria.
Search and rescue teams found the migrants in two groups at the desert border town of Assamaka, IOM said, without specifying whether they had been pushed back across the border from Algeria -- following previous claims by rights groups that migrants were dumped in the remote region.
Niger is a transit country for thousands of migrants heading to Libya and Algeria, key hubs for migrants trying to reach Europe.
The Saharan route is notorious for its dangers, which include breakdowns, lack of water and callous traffickers who abandon migrants in the desert.
Some 347 people from 13 countries, including Mali, Guinea and Senegal, were found in Assamaka on Monday after arriving on foot overnight, IOM said.
It added that most of them had been taken to a transit camp where they could receive food, water and medical assistance. A further 92 were rescued on Tuesday.
The IOM has reported a sharp rise in the number of migrants left to walk across the border between Algeria and Niger through the desert this year.
In July, the UN body said it had rescued nearly 400 people "abandoned on the border with Niger and Algeria".
But Algeria lashed out at IOM, with Interior Minister Noureddine Bedoui denouncing "a campaign of non-constructive and unfounded criticism" against his government.
The European Union has been grappling with massive migration from Africa and the Middle East since 2015.
Niger has become one of the main crossing routes for poor migrants, with 90 percent of West African migrants passing through the country, according to the EU.
In 2015, Niger introduced a law making people-smuggling punishable by a jail term of up to 30 years.
The army also stepped up patrols in the desert.
In July, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said the flow of migrants through Niger fell by 95 percent between 2016 and 2017.
A hole in the ceiling of a house hit by a rocket in Ayn Zarah on the outskirts of the Libyan capital Tripoli, on September 4, 2018
A ceasefire in Libya brokered by the UN will fail to reduce tensions between myriad armed groups without a sustainable political agreement on security reform, experts said Wednesday.
The truce -- signed on Tuesday -- appears to be tentatively holding, despite a few exchanges of fire overnight in the south of capital.
Fighting in and around Tripoli since August 27 has killed at least 63 people and wounded 159, most of them civilians, according to the Libyan health ministry.
Even if the fragile ceasefire continues to largely endure over the coming days, it is nothing more than a band-aid, analysts told AFP.
"The ceasefire agreement cannot hold for long," said Libyan security specialist Omran Khalil.
The international community's biggest concern, he said, was to "preserve what remains" of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), as they fear their efforts could be "in vain".
The UN itself acknowledges the limits of the truce it has brokered.
Tuesday's meeting did "not aim to fix all the Libyan capital's security problems", the UN mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said on Twitter.
"It seeks to agree on a broader framework on the way to start addressing these issues."
- 'Status quo unsustainable' -
Despite being mandated by a December 2015 political accord to overhaul and unify security forces, the GNA has failed to do so.
Rather than removing the militias from major cities and integrating them into regular security forces, the government continues to rely on these unreformed armed groups to keep the capital secure.
This has enabled the militias to accumulate enormous power and economic sway.
The 2015 deal "complicated the security situation and encouraged militias to battle for influence," said Khaled el-Montassar, professor of international relations at the University of Tripoli.
Another analyst said tensions boiled over because Tripoli-based militias had been allowed to accumulate disproportionate influence, compared with other armed groups outside the capital.
"The current fighting has upended what was an unsustainable status quo in Tripoli," said Wolfram Lacher, a Researcher for the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
The militias' uneven access to resources "prompted armed groups from outside Tripoli, who saw themselves excluded from access to wealth and power, to mobilise", he said.
The recent fighting has pitted armed groups from Tarhuna and Misrata against Tripoli militias supposed to be under the GNA's control.
But "as catastrophic as the current fighting is, it has opened a window of opportunity for negotiating more sustainable security arrangements in Tripoli," added Lacher.
"This window of opportunity is closing fast. The ceasefire is very fragile, and there is a real risk of further escalation.
"A new negotiating framework is needed -- one that closely combines talks over political power sharing and security arrangements."
- 'Unkept promises' -
Some doubt whether the UN has the authority to broker a long-term deal.
"It seems clear that the international community, after failing all its obligations towards Libya, today seems impotent and overwhelmed by events," said Karim Bitar at the Paris-based Institute of International and Strategic Affairs.
Most analysts approached by AFP agreed a radical change of approach is required.
"What is needed now is a new security plan for the capital and some kind of political shake-up," said Claudia Gazzini of the International Crisis Group.
Meanwhile, Tahar El-Sonni, an adviser to GNA leader Fayez al-Sarraj, accused the international community of breaking its "promises" to hold to account those undermining Libya's political process.
Welcoming the ceasefire, the United States, Britain, France and Italy reaffirmed their support for the GNA, in a joint declaration late on Tuesday.
But this does little to mask divisions among Western powers over the political situation in the country.
Also on Tuesday, Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini criticised France's role in the oil-rich North African country.
France, which is pushing for elections in Libya before the end of the year, defended its role.
The Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) opens at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 3, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua]
China and Africa will align the Belt and Road Initiative with the development strategies of African nations to bring more opportunities for the growth and prosperity of the continent, President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday.
Xi made the remark while presiding over the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held at the Great Hall of the People.
The roundtable meeting of the two-day summit, attended by leaders from 53 African nations, was co-chaired by Xi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
During the meeting, the countries adopted a declaration on building a China-Africa community with a shared future and an action plan for the next three years.
Leaders exchanged views on such issues as promoting China-Africa relations, deepening cooperation in all areas, building a China-Africa community with a shared future and jointly building the Belt and Road as well as global and regional issues of concern to all sides.
Xi pointed out that over the past two days, the summit has focused on the theme of win-win cooperation and joining hands to build the shared community, reaching consensus on cooperation, aligning development strategies and advocating for China-Africa common development.
Nations at the summit agreed to build the community featuring joint responsibility, win-win cooperation, shared happiness, cultural prosperity, common security, and harmony between man and nature, Xi said.
The outcome documents adopted at the summit have set the direction for developing China-Africa ties, Xi said.
The countries agreed to build FOCAC into a brand for China-Africa cooperation and a flagship example of international cooperation with Africa under the principle of achieving shared growth through discussions and collaboration, Xi said.
China and African countries at the summit resolved to enhance coordination and communication, firmly safeguard the open global economy and multilateral trading system, oppose trade protectionism and unilateralism, and jointly safeguard the core interests of developing nations, he added.
Noting that there is great potential for China-Africa cooperation, Xi said that China would like to make joint efforts with African countries to deepen political mutual trust, promote common development and allow the cooperation outcomes to benefit more of the people of China and Africa.
Xi pointed out that thriving China-Africa cooperation has not only promoted the progress of Africa and boosted the confidence of the continents people, but also prompted international partners to attach greater importance to Africa and increase investment on the continent.
Leaders from African countries spoke highly of the FOCAC Beijing Summit, saying it sends a strong signal of friendly Africa-China coordination.
They said that the summit is pragmatic, efficient and fruitful, and opens a new chapter for Africa-China cooperation.
The African leaders said that China has always listened to opinions from the continent and understands and supports it. China never interferes in the internal affairs of African nations and offers a hand in their development, they said.
They expressed gratitude for Chinas upholding of justice in global affairs and its safeguarding of the interests of developing nations.
Russian warplanes battered Syria's rebel-controlled Idlib province on September 4, 2018
The United States on Wednesday urged Syria and its backers to halt plans for an all-out military attack against rebel-held Idlib as the UN Security Council prepared to address the crisis.
"With millions of civilians at risk, an offensive against Idlib would be a reckless escalation," US Ambassador Nikki Haley said in a statement.
"The regime and its backers must stop their military campaign in all its forms to allow the UN-led political process to have a chance to succeed."
The council will discuss the crisis in Idlib on Friday after Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of a "humanitarian catastrophe" in the province of 3 million people if an all-out military assault is launched.
On Tuesday, Russian warplanes resumed air strikes on Idlib after a 22-day pause, pressing ahead with a campaign it has described as aimed at rooting out Al-Qaeda-linked groups.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Haley suggested that Russia and Syria could move ahead with a counter-terrorism operation but must spare civilians.
"This is a tragic situation, and if they want to continue to go the route of taking over Syria, they can do that," Haley said.
"But they cannot do it with chemical weapons. They can't do it assaulting their people."
Ten countries, all non-permanent council members, separately expressed "deep concern" in the event of a full-scale military operation in Idlib and urged the Syrian government "to prioritize the protection of civilians."
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura is to hold talks next week in Geneva with Russia and Iran, Syria's main backers, and Turkey, which supports some opposition groups.
More than 350,000 people have died in Syria's seven-year war, but UN officials fear the assault on Idlib could trigger one of the worst bloodbaths of the conflict.
The "consultations" between the government of Yemen's President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, pictured September 2017, and the powerful Huthi rebels will be the groups' first public meetings since 2016
The UN envoy for Yemen said Wednesday that "consultations" in Geneva between the warring parties offered a "flickering signal of hope" after years of conflict.
The talks will be the first public meetings between the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and Yemen's powerful Huthi rebels since 2016, when 108 days of negotiations in Kuwait failed to broker a power-sharing deal.
But both the government and the rebels have said they expect no breakthrough at the "consultations", which are due to open Thursday but appear likely to be delayed.
"The people of Yemen... are desperately in need of a signal of hope. We would like to think that the work we will do together in these next days will begin to send a flickering signal of hope to them," UN envoy Martin Griffiths said.
While representatives of the Yemeni government arrived in Geneva Wednesday, the rebels remained stranded in Sanaa, amid claims the Saudi-led coalition backing Hadi was preventing them from leaving for the talks.
When asked about the Huthi charges, Griffiths said: "We are working on that.
"I think it will sort itself out," he said. "If you look back at previous negotiations on Yemen, there has always been a delay.
"I don't take it very seriously. We will make it happen."
The UN meanwhile announced that there would be no meetings at its European headquarters in Geneva on Thursday as previously planned.
But Griffiths said his "informal consultations" with the government side would begin immediately.
"The government of Yemen... is here already. I am looking forward to meeting their leader right after this, Foreign Minister Khaled al-Yamani," he said at a press conference.
That meeting is expected to take place in a Geneva hotel, as are any other meetings that might happen on Thursday.
"So we are not going to waste time, and we are looking forward to getting our friends from Sanaa here and participating fully in the consultations."
Griffiths emphasised that the Geneva talks were "not formal negotiations," but said they aimed to pave the way towards bringing the parties back to the negotiating table.
The talks also seek to put in place a range of so-called confidence-building measures, which could prisoner swaps and the vaccination of children, he said.
"There is a chance for some tangible progress," he said, adding that he hoped to get the two sides to sit at the same table during the consultations, which are expected to last a couple of days.
CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg appeared at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing just before a Justice Department announcement of a probe of social media firms
The US Justice Department said Wednesday it would probe social media giants over concerns over competition and "stifling the free exchange of ideas."
The announcement comes days after President Donald Trump accused big technology firms of censoring and suppressing conservative voices, allegations strongly denied by the companies.
A Justice Department statement said Attorney General Jeff Sessions "has convened a meeting with a number of state attorneys general this month to discuss a growing concern that these companies may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms."
The brief statement, which came at the conclusion of a Senate hearing including top executives of Facebook and Twitter, offered no clues on whether officials were considering an antitrust investigation or some form of regulatory action.
Tech industry analysts say there is little evidence internet firms are filtering content for political reasons, but that the companies would have constitutional protections against any government effort to regulate their algorithms.
On Tuesday, Federal Communications chairman Ajit Pai said Silicon Valley firms to provide more transparency about how they operate, raising the possibility of tougher regulations for technology firms.
"We need to seriously think about whether the time has come for these companies to abide by new transparency obligations," Pai said in a blog post.
Pai offered no specific proposals, but appeared to echo concerns raised by Trump, who claimed tech firms may be biased against conservatives.
"Consumers interact with these digital platforms on a daily basis. We get our news from them. We interact with our family and friends on them," Pai wrote.
Trump last week issued a warning to Google, Facebook and Twitter to "be careful" but stopped short of calling for regulation.
Twitter chief Jack Dorsey rejected any suggestion of political bias in comments prepared for a House of Representatives hearing Wednesday.
"Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules," Dorsey said in his written testimony.
"We believe strongly in being impartial, and we strive to enforce our rules impartially."
Google and Facebook have made similar points.
Daniel Castro of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said the intent of the statement was not clear but that the statement was worrisome.
"Social media platforms have the right to determine what types of legal speech they will permit on their platforms," Castro told AFP.
"The federal government should not use the threat of law enforcement to limit companies from exercising this right. In particular, law enforcement should not threaten social media companies with unfounded investigations for booting white nationalists like Richard Spencer off their platforms."
The Group to Support Islam and Muslims' leader, Malian jihadist Iyad Ag Ghaly, has already been named a "global terrorist" by the United States
The United States on Wednesday added the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM), a fusion of three Malian jihadist groups allied to Al-Qaeda, to its list of "foreign terrorist organizations."
The move is aimed at denying GSIM the "resources to plan and carry out terrorist attacks," the State Department said in a statement.
It said any property owned by GSIM in the United States would be blocked and that US citizens are prohibited from dealing with the group.
The State Department said GSIM has described itself as Al-Qaeda's official branch in Mali.
It added the group has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks since it was formed in March 2017, including those on March 2 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
"Al-Qaeda and its affiliates like (GSIM) remain deadly threats to the United States and our allies," said ambassador Nathan Sales, the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism.
"These designations are part of our continuing efforts to squeeze Al-Qaeda's finances, denying it the resources it needs to carry out attacks."
The group's leader, Malian jihadist Iyad Ag Ghaly, has already been named a "global terrorist" by the United States.
Sri Lankan opposition activists hold torches during a demonstration led by ex-president Mahinda Rajapakse in Colombo
Tens of thousands of supporters of former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse staged a huge night rally in Colombo late Wednesday as the ex-leader demanded snap elections.
Rajapakse, who ruled his country with an iron first for a decade, lost the presidency in January 2015 and the subsequent parliamentary elections in August 2015.
However, his new Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party won local council elections in February as he attempts to engineer a dramatic comeback ahead of presidential elections slated for 2019.
Police said they deployed over 5,000 officers in Colombo as activists began pouring into the city from early afternoon and took over a key intersection.
"Our estimate is 75,000 to 80,000 people participated and it is the biggest night-time protest in Colombo," a senior police official told AFP.
Rajapakse addressed supporters holding candles and kerosene oil torches
"We are against the sale of national assets," Rajapakse said. "We are pressing the government to hold early elections."
The SLPP is also bitterly opposed to the government leasing to China a loss-making $1.4 billion port built by Rajapakse with loans from Beijing.
The government leased the facility to China under a $1.1 billion deal saying it was unable to repay the huge loans taken out by Rajapakse.
Sri Lanka's ex-president Mahinda Rajapakse is attempting a comeback after losing the presidency in January 2015 and the subsequent parliamentary elections in August 2015
Another troubled Rajapakse-era project, an international airport built inside a wildlife sanctuary, is up for sale, but there have been no buyers so far.
Finance and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera said the protest was also aimed at putting pressure on investigators and the judiciary ahead of a special court hearing into Rajapakse-era corruption.
"This is an attempt to intimidate the judiciary. All those who are leading the protests are currently on bail in connection with massive corruption charges," Samaraweera told reporters.
A new court set up to investigate major corruption began its work two weeks ago by hearing the case against Rajapakse's top aide Gamini Senarath and three others accused of siphoning off 500 million rupees ($3 million).
Two of Rajapakse's three sons have also been charged with money laundering and other relatives face corruption allegations.
The ex-president denies any wrongdoing and has accused the government of a witch-hunt.
Huthi supporters demonstrate in the Yemeni rebels' stronghold Saada on September 5, 2018 against an August air strike by the Saudi-led coalition which left 51 people dead
Planned talks in Geneva this week between Yemen's warring parties offer a "flickering signal of hope" after years of conflict, the UN mediator said Wednesday, despite signs of delay and low expectations.
The talks will be the first public meetings between the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and Yemen's powerful Huthi rebels since 2016, when 108 days of negotiations in Kuwait failed to broker a power-sharing deal.
"The people of Yemen... are desperately in need of a signal of hope," UN envoy Martin Griffiths told reporters in Geneva.
"We would like to think that the work we will do together in these next days will begin to send a flickering signal of hope to them."
But both the government and the rebels have said they expect no breakthrough at the "consultations", which had been scheduled to open Thursday but appear likely to be delayed.
- Rebels stranded in Sanaa -
While representatives of the Yemeni government arrived in Geneva Wednesday, the rebels remained stranded in Sanaa, amid claims the Saudi-led coalition backing Hadi was preventing them from leaving for the talks.
The Huthis said the UN had been unable to "secure authorisation" from a Saudi-led coalition backing the government for a plane to transport the rebel delegation, along with wounded insurgents, out of the country, according to the Huthis' Al-Masirah TV.
While the Huthis control Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, the coalition controls the country's airspace.
When asked about the Huthi charges, Griffiths said: "We are working on that."
The UN meanwhile announced that there would be no meetings at its European headquarters in Geneva on Thursday as previously planned.
But Griffiths said his "informal consultations" with the government side would begin immediately.
"I am looking forward to meeting their leader right after this, Foreign Minister Khaled al-Yamani," he said at a press conference.
That meeting is expected to take place in a Geneva hotel, as are any other meetings that might happen on Thursday, while more formal consultations could kick off at the UN on Friday.
"We are not going to waste time," Griffiths said.
He emphasised that the Geneva talks were "not formal negotiations," but said they aimed to pave the way towards bringing the parties back to the negotiating table.
A Yemeni child stands in the wreckage of a bus that was hit in an August strike by the Saudi-led coalition
The talks also seek to put in place a range of so-called confidence-building measures, which could include prisoner swaps and the vaccination of children, he said.
"There is a chance for some tangible progress," he said, adding that he hoped to get the two sides to sit at the same table during the consultations, which are expected to last a couple of days.
Yemen's foreign minister Khaled al-Yamani however told AFP this week that the chance of face-to-face sitdowns between the two delegations was slim to none.
- 'Broken promises' -
The UN Security Council on Wednesday urged both sides in Geneva to "take a first step towards ending a conflict that has brought severe pain and humanitarian suffering to the Yemeni people".
A Yemeni pro-government fighter near Hodeida fires a heavy machine gun in an image grab taken from AFPTV on June 15, 2018
The Huthis have hinted that their delegation demanded the evacuation of wounded rebels to Oman for medical treatment as a condition for attending the talks, and accused the UN of stalling.
Huthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam tweeted on Tuesday that the UN had "made promises on facilitating the transport of the wounded... abroad" -- pledges the world body had thus far failed to keep.
Yemen's government meanwhile said Wednesday it planned to demand the release of the body of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, killed by rebels last year, during the talks.
Saleh, for decades the most powerful politician in troubled Yemen, had sided with the Huthi rebels for three years before shifting alliances in the country's armed conflict. He was killed by the rebels in December.
But Griffiths rejected that either side had presented any conditions for taking part in the talks.
UN Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths addresses a press conference at Sanaa airport during a visit to Huthi insurgents on July 04, 2018
"There is a real chance for hope," he insisted. "We will make it happen."
All previous attempts to resolve the Yemen war have failed.
Griffiths is the UN's third Yemen envoy since 2014, when the Huthis overran the capital Sanaa and drove Hadi's government into exile.
The following year, Saudi Arabia and its allies formed a powerful regional military coalition to back Hadi's government in its fight against the Huthis.
The conflict has since left nearly 10,000 people dead and pushed the Arab world's most impoverished country to the brink of famine.
Soldiers loyal to Yemen's government guard the docks in the port of Aden on August 9, 2018
The general overseeing US military operations in the Middle East visited war-torn Yemen's chief of staff in the de facto capital Aden on Wednesday, state media said, a day ahead of peace talks in Geneva.
US Central Command head General Joseph Votel met Major General Taher al-Aqili to discuss developing Yemen's coast guard, navy and special forces to "tackle the threat of terrorist militias and fight smuggling," the Saba news agency said.
The two also discussed the government's "efforts to restore the state and put an end to the coup by the Iran-backed Huthi militia", it said, referring to rebels who ousted the government from the capital Sanaa and large parts of Yemen in 2014.
The US provides weapons, aerial refuelling to jets, intelligence and targeting information to the Saudi-led coalition that is fighting Huthi rebels in Yemen.
Votel's visit followed meetings in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the main players in a military coalition set up in 2015 to back Yemen's government in its fight against the Huthis.
Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said last week that US support for the coalition was not "unconditional" as he defended America's ongoing role in the war.
His comments came as UN investigators said they had reasonable grounds to believe warring parties in Yemen had committed violations of humanitarian law that could amount to "war crimes".
Washington has also carried out a long-running drone war against Yemen's Al-Qaeda branch, which took advantage of the chaos created by the war to strengthen its own operations, particularly in the country's south.
The Pentagon sees Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as the jihadist network's most dangerous branch.
It has intensified its strikes against AQAP since President Donald Trump took office in 2017.
The United Nations is set to host rebel and government delegations for indirect talks in Geneva on Thursday in a bid to revive formal negotiations.
But the rebels said Wednesday that they were stranded in Sanaa because the coalition, which controls Yemen's airspace, had not given their UN plane permission to fly.
The US embassy in Ukraine says it is "concerned" by the Ukrainian court's decision to grant access to investigative reporter Natalia Sedletska's phone data, saying it could have a "chilling effect" on press freedom in the country
The US embassy in Ukraine on Wednesday condemned a court decision to grant the country's prosecutor general access to the phone data of one of the country's top investigative journalists.
"We are concerned that yesterday's court decision regarding investigative reporter Natalia Sedletska could have a chilling effect on press freedom and anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine," the embassy said on its official Twitter account.
"Ukrainian authorities should support independent journalism," it added.
Tuesday's court decision was linked to Sedletska's role as a witness in a case against Ukraine's anti-corruption head Artem Sytnyk, who is accused of leaking state secrets to journalists last year.
Sedletska also fronts and edits a programme called "Schemes" -- a joint project by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Ukraine's first public TV channel -- that has investigated officials including the president and the prosecutor general.
A court decision from August 27 granted investigators from the prosecutor's office access to metadata from her phone dating back almost a year and a half, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said in a statement.
This includes lists of her phone calls and SMS messages, as well as her location over that time.
Ukraine was ranked 101st out of 180 countries in the annual media freedom ranking composed by Reporters Without Borders in 2018.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "has asked the foreign ministry to close the Israeli embassy in Paraguay," an official statement said
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the closure of Israel's embassy in Paraguay, his office said, after the South American country announced Wednesday it was moving its mission back to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem.
"The prime minister has asked the foreign ministry to close the Israeli embassy in Paraguay," the statement said, adding that Paraguay's decision had cast a shadow on relations between the two countries.
Paraguay's announcement that it was moving the embassy back to Tel Aviv came little more than three months after it had transferred it to Jerusalem following a similar move by Washington.
US President Donald Trump's deeply controversial move to recognise the disputed city as capital of Israel sparked outrage among Palestinians who see Jerusalem's east as the capital of their future state.
In May, then-president of Paraguay Horacio Cartes met with Netanyahu in Jerusalem after his country and Guatamala opened their embassies there.
His successor President Mario Abdo Benitez, who took office in August, decided to move it back "to contribute to the intensification of regional and international diplomatic efforts that aim to achieve a broad, just and durable peace in the Middle East."
Iraqi security forces are deployed in a street in the southern city of Basra on September 5, 2018
One person was killed and 25 injured, some seriously, on Wednesday as Iraqi security forces opened fire on protesters as clashes broke out in the southern city of Basra, a day after six people were killed in demonstrations over poor public services.
An AFP journalist reported gunshots and tear gas were fired by security personnel directly at demonstrators, who had gathered in their thousands outside the regional government headquarters.
The measures failed to disperse protesters, who responded by hurling Molotov cocktails and letting off fireworks at the security forces.
Security forces later stopped firing in the direction of protesters and instead fired shots in the air and used tear gas.
"One demonstrator was killed and 25 others wounded, including some seriously," said Mehdi al-Tamimi, head of the government's human rights council in Basra province.
Medical sources confirmed to AFP the death of a young man.
Reinforcements had been sent to Basra and concrete blocks erected to protect the government building, which for demonstrators has become a symbol of state corruption and neglect.
Basra and the surrounding province have been the focus of angry anti-government demonstrations that have rocked Iraq since early July.
Iraqi security forces are deployed in the southern city of Basra on September 5, 2018, after six died in the bloodiest day of protests over poor public services in the southern city
Residents are particularly angry over pollution of the local water supply, which has put 20,000 people in hospital.
On Tuesday six demonstrators were killed and more than 20 wounded during the bloodiest day of clashes with security officials, a local official and medics said.
The authorities said that 30 security personnel were also wounded in the violence "by grenades and incendiary objects".
Commander Jamil al-Shammari said an overnight curfew was being imposed and more security personnel deployed in the city.
The United Nations envoy to Iraq had called for "calm" in Basra ahead of Wednesday's clashes and urged the authorities "to avoid using disproportionate, lethal force against the demonstrators".
The UN's Jan Kubis also asked the government to "investigate and hold accountable those responsible for the outbreak of violence" and "do its utmost to respond to the people's rightful demands of clean water and electricity supplies".
- 'No real bullets' -
In his weekly press conference in Baghdad on Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said he had ordered "no real bullets... to be fired, in the direction of protesters or in the air".
Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr said in a tweet ahead of the latest clashes that "vandals infiltrated" the protests.
Iraqis help a wounded protester in Basra on September 4, 2018
Iraq is currently in a state of political limbo.
Sadr's political bloc won the largest number of seats in national elections held in May, and he is trying to form a new government with Abadi.
The authorities have pledged to take measures to put an end to the health crisis that has ravaged the oil-rich province of Basra.
Abadi announced overnight that he had met lawmakers from Basra, who are in Baghdad for the first parliamentary session since the elections.
He again indicated that water pollution would be addressed, without specifying any measures.
In July, the government announced a multi-billion dollar (euro) emergency plan for southern Iraq, to revive infrastructure and services.
But protesters are wary of promises made by the outgoing government, as negotiations drag on over the formation of the next administration.
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 4, 2018. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)
BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday met with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta who attended the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.
Xi said the China-Kenya comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership has enjoyed rapid development and is leading China-Africa cooperation in various fields.
China is willing to strengthen inter-party cooperation and governance experience sharing with Kenya, expand cooperation in the areas of agriculture, infrastructure construction, medical care and health as well as industrial capacity, and enhance people-to-people and sub-national exchanges, helping Kenya achieve its Big Four Agenda, said Xi.
China welcomes Kenya to participate in Belt and Road cooperation, congratulates its accession into the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and will support Kenya in building an economic belt and industrial parks along the railway lines, Xi said.
Kenyatta said the summit made plans for the direction of the forum in the coming years and will promote the common prosperity of Africa and China.
Kenya is willing to deepen its comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership with China, actively participate in Belt and Road construction and promote connectivity, said Kenyatta.
After the meeting, the two leaders witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents.
The UN's International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals has, since 2010, handled outstanding and ongoing cases from the former International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (pictured 2014) that tried suspects in the 1994 genocide
Five people have been arrested in Rwanda for allegedly seeking to bribe and intimidate witnesses in order to overturn a genocide conviction at the UN tribunal in neighbouring Tanzania, the court said Wednesday.
Contempt of court warrants for Maximilien Turinabo, Anselme Nzabonimpa, Jean de Dieu Ndagijimana, Marie Rose Fatuma and Dick Prudence Munyeshuli were issued under seal on August 24, and the five were arrested in Rwanda on Monday.
The UN's International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals has, since 2010, handled outstanding and ongoing cases from the former International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) that tried suspects in the 1994 genocide that killed around 800,000 people, mainly minority Tutsis.
The court said in a statement that the five had "offered bribes and exerted pressure to influence the evidence of protected witnesses" in the case of Augustin Ngirabatware, a former Rwanda government minister whose appeal against a 30-year sentence is due to be heard later this month.
"The alleged aim of these efforts was to secure the reversal of Augustin Ngirabatware's conviction... for direct and public incitement to commit genocide, instigating genocide and aiding and abetting genocide," the statement read.
"I wish to express our gratitude to the Rwandan authorities for promptly executing the... arrest warrants and apprehending the five accused," said chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz.
"My office underscores our determination to stand against all efforts to interfere with witnesses and the proper administration of justice," he added.
The five accused are due to be transferred to the court's branch in Arusha, Tanzania.
President Mario Abdo Benitez is reversing predecessor Horacio Cartes's decision to move Paraguay's embassy in Israel
Paraguay said Wednesday it was moving its embassy in Israel back from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to order the closure his country's mission in the South American country in retaliation.
Paraguay's new President Mario Abdo Benitez, who took office in mid-August, took the decision "to contribute to the intensification of regional and international diplomatic efforts that aim to achieve a broad, just and durable peace in the Middle East," his government said.
The original decision to move the embassy from Tel Aviv was taken by Abdo Benitez's predecessor Horacio Cartes shortly after President Donald Trump had announced the United States would relocate its own embassy to Jerusalem.
Cartes even joined Netanyahu in the new embassy's opening ceremony in Jerusalem in May.
Abdo Benitez was already president elect at that point and had questioned the decision, complaining that he had not been consulted.
Announcing the move, his government said it considered the return to Tel Aviv "appropriate" but Netanyahu's office replied that the decision had cast a shadow on relations between the two countries.
"The prime minister has asked the foreign ministry to close the Israeli embassy in Paraguay," it said in a statement.
Trump broke with decades of US policy by moving the US embassy to Jerusalem on May 14, infuriating Palestinians and intensifying protests on the Gaza border, with 60 killed in clashes with Israeli forces that day.
His move was followed by Guatemala while the Czech Republic decided to reopen its honorary consulate in Jerusalem as President Milos Zeman voiced his wish to also move its embassy from Tel Aviv.
US President Donald Trump said that killing his Syrian counterpart was "never even contemplated"
US President Donald Trump denied Wednesday having discussed wanting to kill Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, a key claim in a new book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward.
"That was never even contemplated," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as he met with the emir of Kuwait.
Trump's comments came as he warned Damascus that "the world is watching" Syrian troops massing on the edges of the rebel-held province of Idlib, raising fears of a humanitarian disaster.
"I just tell you that they will hopefully be very, very judicious and careful," Trump said of the Syrian regime.
"Because the world is watching. That cannot be a slaughter. If it's a slaughter, the world is going to be very, very angry. And the United States is going to be very angry, too."
In his new book "Fear: Trump in the White House," Woodward recounts that the president told Defense Secretary Jim Mattis that he wanted to have Assad killed after he carried out a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017.
"Let's fucking kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the fucking lot of them," Woodward quotes Trump as saying.
He writes that Mattis told the president he would "get right on it" but then came back later with plans for a more limited air strike.
Trump and White House aides have assailed the book as a full of "made up" stories, and in a tweet on Wednesday morning the president wondered why Congress doesn't change the laws on libel.
"The book means nothing. It's a work of fiction," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, noting that Mattis and White House chief of staff John Kelly had both issued statements rejecting the book's account.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, pictured August 2018, said that White House aides Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt had proposed the idea of a confederation with Jordan, an idea that Jordan has rejected
Jordan's King Abdullah II firmly rejects the idea of a confederation with the Palestinians in the place of a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict, the royal court said Wednesday.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas told activists Sunday that White House aides Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt had proposed the idea of a confederation with Jordan, one of the activists said.
Hagit Ofran of Israel's Peace Now NGO reported Abbas as saying he had told the US officials, who are working on a peace plan, that he would only be interested if Israel was also part of such a confederation.
Abbas's office confirmed the meeting with Israeli peace activists had taken place, but did not confirm his comments on the confederation.
Neighbouring Jordan, along with most of the international community, has long supported a two-state solution to the long-running conflict.
"Every year we hear about a confederation. My question is: a confederation with whom? This is a red line for Jordan," King Abdullah said, according to a palace statement.
"Jordan's position is firm and steadfast: there is no alternative to the two-state solution and the establishment of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital," he said.
"Any proposal outside this framework has no value."
Palestinians see the idea of a confederation as destroying their long-held dream of a state.
But some on the Israeli right see the establishment of a Palestinian-Jordanian confederation as a way to avoid the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
They argue that it would also absolve Israel of any responsibility towards the 3.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, currently under Israeli military occupation.
The Palestinian Authority severed contact with Washington after President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December.
In response, Trump said in January he would cut aid to the Palestinians in order to push them back to the negotiating table.
The US said Friday it would cease all funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) which helps some three million needy refugees across the Middle East.
Palestinian leaders see these moves as part of an effort to "liquidate" their cause.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (pictured September 3, 2018) says that Ankara wants to "prevent attacks on Idlib," as Syrian regime troops have for weeks been massing on the edges of the province which borders Turkey
Turkey on Wednesday insisted the government is trying to prevent an assault on Syria's rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib, as expectations rise of a regime offensive.
Syrian regime troops have for weeks been massing on the edges of the province which borders Turkey, raising fears of a humanitarian disaster on a scale not yet seen in Syria's seven-year conflict.
Ankara wants to "prevent attacks on Idlib" Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a press conference with German counterpart Heiko Maas.
Idlib is one of the so-called "de-escalation" zones set up as a result of talks by Russia, Turkey and Iran last year as Damascus regained control of more of the country.
"From the day that it was clear there could be an attack on Idlib, we have been working hard to prevent the regime violating the ceasefire and to stop the attacks on Idlib," Cavusoglu told reporters during the conference in Ankara.
Maas said Germany shared Turkey's concern of a "looming humanitarian catastrophe" in Idlib.
"We will continue our efforts to prevent it. Turkey is possibly better prepared than others to weigh in on these developments," the German minister said.
Maas was in Ankara on Wednesday as the two countries seek to improve relations which have soured since the 2016 failed coup in Turkey, which resulted in a government crackdown on the opposition.
Maas met with Cavusoglu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the presidential palace in Ankara.
Germany's links with Turkey are of greater significance in Europe since three million ethnic Turks live in the continent's top economy, the largest diaspora abroad and a legacy of Germany's "guest worker" programme of the 1960s and 70s.
Ankara has recently turned to Europe following a bitter row with Washington over the detention of an American pastor, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel giving her support to the Turkish economy after the Turkish lira's dramatic fall last month.
Germany-Turkey relations improved recently especially after Turkey last month lifted an overseas travel ban on German journalist and translator Mesale Tolu on trial on terror-related charges.
Although there have been releases of jailed Germans including well-known journalist Deniz Yucel, seven German citizens remain in jail for political reasons.
During his two-day visit, Maas and Cavusoglu on Thursday will attend the opening ceremony of the German lycee in Istanbul on the school's 150th anniversary.
Erdogan is expected to visit Berlin on September 28 and 29.
A Washington judge declared a mistrial in the case of former Blackwater security guard Nick Slatten (C) over the killing of at least 14 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007
The second murder trial of a former Blackwater security guard over the 2007 killing of a civilian in Baghdad was ruled a mistrial Wednesday, a year after his first conviction was thrown out.
Washington federal judge Royce Lamberth declared a mistrial in the case of Nicholas Slatten, 34, after a jury reported last week they were at an impasse and could not reach a unanimous verdict.
Slatten was one of four armed guards for the former US security contractor Blackwater Worldwide who were found guilty in 2014 of murder for the notorious killings in Baghdad's Nisour Square.
While escorting a diplomatic convoy on September 16, 2007, they opened fire with sniper rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers, allegedly without provocation, in the bustling square, leaving at least 14 civilians dead and at least 17 wounded. The Iraqi government says the toll was higher.
The shooting deepened the resentment of Americans in Iraq four years after US forces toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, and raised questions about the expanded use of armed contract guards by the US government.
Slatten was originally sentenced in 2015 to life in prison as the alleged first person to have opened fire.
The three others were given 30 year prison sentences, although Lamberth at the time of sentencing said that: "It's clear these fine young men just panicked."
An appeals court, accepting later evidence that another guard was the first to fire, overturned Slatten's guilty verdict and ordered a new trial for him alone.
He faced one charge of first degree murder of a single Iraqi, Ahmed Haithem Ahmed al Rubia'y.
A spokesman for the court said federal prosecutors were reviewing the case. They can choose to ask for a new trial, or decide not to pursue it further.
Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz al-Saud apparently told a crowd in London, similar to the one pictured in March 2018, to stop chanting slogans against the Saudi royal family over the kingdom's involvement in the Yemeni conflict
Saudi King Salman's brother has played down controversial remarks he made to anti-Saudi protesters in London that sparked furious speculation about possible discord within the royal family.
Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz al-Saud apparently told a crowd in London to stop chanting slogans against the Saudi royal family over the kingdom's involvement in the three-year conflict in Yemen.
"What does the family have to do with it? Certain individuals are responsible... the king and the crown prince," he said, according to a widely-circulated online video of the incident in London.
The comment was seen by many on social media as rare criticism from a royal family member of the kingdom's leadership as well as its role in the Yemen conflict, dubbed by the UN as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
But in a statement, the prince dismissed that interpretation as "inaccurate".
"I have made it clear that the king and the crown prince are responsible for the state and its decisions," the prince said in the statement released by the official Saudi Press Agency late Tuesday.
"This is true for the security and stability of the country and the people. Therefore, it is not possible to interpret what I said in any other way."
In a bid to suggest unity within the royal family, multiple pro-Saudi social media accounts posted images of Prince Ahmed kissing the hand of King Salman.
The internal affairs of the royal family are shrouded in secrecy and a public airing of disagreements is extremely rare.
But Saudi expert James Dorsey said the London incident suggests "a long suspected greater degree of domestic questioning of Saudi Arabia's 3.5-year-old ill-fated war in Yemen than has been publicly evident until now".
The remarks come as powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tightens his grip on power by cracking down on dissent with the imprisonment of prominent clerics, women and human rights activists.
The crown prince, architect of the kingdom's 2015 intervention in Yemen, has also drawn criticism over the conflict that left nearly 10,000 people dead and pushed the impoverished country to the brink of famine.
President Mario Abdo Benitez is reversing predecessor Horacio Cartes's decision to move Paraguay's embassy in Israel
Paraguay said on Wednesday it was moving its embassy in Israel back from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to order the closure of Jewish state's mission in the South American country in retaliation.
Palestinian authorities reacted by deciding to "immediately" open an embassy in Paraguay's capital Asuncion, Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki said, according to the official news agency Wafa.
Paraguay's new President Mario Abdo Benitez, who took office in mid-August, decided to move back the embassy "to contribute to the intensification of regional and international diplomatic efforts that aim to achieve a broad, just and durable peace in the Middle East," his government said.
"Israel views with utmost gravity the extraordinary decision by Paraguay, which will cloud bilateral relations," Netanyahu's office retorted on Twitter.
The original decision to move the embassy from Tel Aviv was taken by Abdo Benitez's predecessor Horacio Cartes shortly after President Donald Trump had announced the United States would relocate its own embassy to Jerusalem.
Cartes even joined Netanyahu in the new embassy's opening ceremony in Jerusalem in May.
Abdo Benitez was already president elect at that point and had questioned the decision, complaining that he had not been consulted.
Announcing the move, his government said it considered the return to Tel Aviv "appropriate," but Netanyahu's office replied that the decision had cast a shadow on relations between the two countries.
Paraguay, though, pointed to a long history of positive relations with Israel.
"I don't think this should annoy our Israeli brothers and friends," said Paraguay's Foreign Minister Luis Castiglioni.
"There are more than 85 countries that have kept their embassies in Tel Aviv and we're historic allies of Israel.
"Don't forget that Paraguay's vote was the decisive vote in the creation of Israel."
In line with most of Latin America, Paraguay was one of the 33 countries that voted in favor -- compared to just 13 against and 10 abstentions -- of the 1947 United Nations two-state partition plan for what was until then British Mandate Palestine.
Castiglioni said Paraguay had always been "predictable in its international relations" but that Cartes's move was "a distortion of this tradition and culture of respect for international law" and UN decrees.
Trump broke with decades of US policy by moving the US embassy to Jerusalem on May 14, infuriating Palestinians and intensifying protests on the Gaza border, with 60 killed in clashes with Israeli forces that day.
His move was followed by Guatemala while the Czech Republic decided to reopen its honorary consulate in Jerusalem as President Milos Zeman voiced his wish to also move its embassy from Tel Aviv.
US President Donald Trump said "it's possible" that he would meet with his Iranian counterpart on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly
President Donald Trump left the door open Wednesday to meeting with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly -- even as the United States ramps up the pressure on a regime it accuses of destabilizing the Middle East.
"It's possible, anything is possible," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about the possibility of a face-to-face with Rouhani during the gathering later this month.
"We'll see what happens with Iran. Whether they want to talk or not, that's up to them, not up to me," said the US leader, who decided in May to pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal between world powers and Iran.
"Iran is a much different place than when I took over the presidency," Trump added, describing the country as "in turmoil."
"When I took office it was just a question of how long until they took over the entire Middle East. Now they are just worrying about their own survival as a country."
Trump is due to lead September 26 meeting of heads of state of the UN Security Council, with the goal of ramping up pressure on Tehran over its alleged violations of council resolutions.
Measures against Ebola contagion include burning mattresses of the victims
An army of health workers fighting the Ebola epidemic in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo are confronting denial and false beliefs regarding the highly contagious hemorrhagic virus.
"Ebola is a war," said Ndjoloko Tambwe Bathe, who heads a programme to combat Ebola, which has claimed 85 lives including three new deaths in Beni, according to the health ministry.
"The idea is that people should... understand that if there is a suspect case they should notify the authorities, and they should accept that the victims are taken to hospital," he said.
"Some families have long hidden sick people, prevented health workers from taking patients to the Ebola Treatment Centre and refused to be vaccinated," the ministry said in a statement, adding that several attacks on medical personnel had been reported.
At a recent gathering in Beni, several people voiced their doubts over Ebola, one of the world's most feared viruses that in extreme cases causes fatal bleeding from internal organs, the mouth, eyes or ears.
"Couldn't vomiting or a fever come from some other virus than Ebola?" one speaker asked. "Are the tests reliable in confirming Ebola? Why is it that the Ebola we have here does not come with bleeding?"
"The people are in doubt," 21-year-old Edouard Karafuli told AFP, summarising the speeches made in Swahili.
He said the speakers are saying that "a sick person is sent to hospital and we don't know where he goes next. It could be that he has some of his body parts that are cut off and then they bring back the cadaver."
Burying the victims presents an acute risk of contagion, as traditional funeral rites involve cleansing the dead with numerous family members present.
The Red Cross's "dignified and safe burials" are not widely appreciated.
Karafuli said "they promise to bury our corpses according to our customs, but that's not the case. When Red Cross people turn up, we throw stones at them because they don't want to show proof about this illness."
- Survivor speaks out -
Burying the victims presents an acute risk of contagion, as traditional funeral rites involve cleansing the dead with numerous family members present
In the face of rumours, false beliefs and cultural or religious misunderstanding, health workers have called on Ebola survivors to tell their stories.
"Those of us who were cured have a lot of messages for the community," said Jotham Kyungolo, 40, who was contaminated while helping Ebola victims in nearby Mangina.
"Some said, and they still think it, that at the Ebola Treatment Centre people don't eat and many die of hunger, which isn't true," he said.
"We have to show how the treatment is carried out there so people are willing to go to the centre as soon as they feel sick," said Kyungolo, who speaks about Ebola on behalf of Oxfam and the UN Children's Fund.
Like others that he calls "Ebola beaters", Kyungolo was driven home after his release from hospital aboard a truck with a loud hailer proclaiming his cure and broadcasting celebratory songs.
Ebola has claimed 85 lives including three new deaths in the epidemic's epicentre Beni, according to the health ministry
"There are rumours; we have to remove these rumours from people's heads. You will help us," Germain Kahoko shouted over the loud hailer.
"Recent trends suggest that control measures work," the WHO said in a statement on Tuesday.
The UN agency said "significant risks" remained however, including "the reticence of some communities to adopt prevention behaviours."
But it added, on a positive note: "People's general acceptance of anti-Ebola measures is strong."
BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- China will host an international forum on non-governmental cooperation on ecological improvement along the Belt and Road.
The forum, scheduled for Sept. 12 and 13 in Wuwei City of northwest China's Gansu Province, will launch a restoration project of the Populus euphratica trees along the Belt and Road to promote non-governmental cooperation on ecological improvement, Chen Peng, vice president of China Green Foundation, said at a press briefing Tuesday.
There is also plan to launch a fund for international cooperation in ecological improvement.
Chen said the road to ecological improvement along the Belt and Road would be long and uphill as desertification and land degradation are serious in many Belt and Road countries.
During the forum, China will share its experiences in ecological improvement and promote non-governmental cooperation to tackle ecological problems along the Belt and Road, said Chen.
A total of 180 representatives from over 20 countries along the Belt and Road and international organizations will attend the forum.
Japan has confirmed for the first time that a worker has died after being exposed to radiation at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in 2011.
The announcement today is the first time Japanese authorities confirmed a worker at the plant died as a result of being exposed to dangerous levels of radiation from the disaster seven years ago.
The man aged in his 50s developed lung cancer after he was involved in the emergency clean-up work at the plant following the devastating tsunami between March and December 2011.
Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry of Japan ruled that compensation should be paid to the family of the man who died.
The wave from the 2011 tsunami crashed over a street in Miyako City. The devastating wave knocked out generators in the Fukushima nuclear power plant
The disaster killed around 18,000 and left a further 300,000 people evacuated from the Fukushima area on the east coast with a clean-up expected to take decades and cost more than 18 billion
A man aged in his 50s developed lung cancer after he was involved in emergency work at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant between March and December 2011, following the devastating tsunami
Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant went into meltdown after a devastating 9.0 earthquake knocked out power to the station and the tsunami swamped diesel generators placed low in reactor buildings, leading to a series of explosions
Compensation in four previous cases where workers contracted cancer following the disaster were paid out by the Japanese government, according to the country's Jiji news agency.
But this is the first time the government has acknowledged a death related to radiation exposure at the plant, the Mainichi daily reported.
Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant went into meltdown after a devastating 9.0 earthquake knocked out power to the station and the tsunami swamped diesel generators placed low in reactor buildings, leading to a series of explosions.
A massive undersea earthquake triggered the March 2011 tsunami, killing around 18,000 people and swamping the Fukushima nuclear plant, sending its reactors into meltdown and leading to the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
A hydrogen explosion at the Fukushima nuclear power station - number three reactor which was caused by a huge tsunami wave hitting the area
The unnamed man was in charge of measuring radiation at the Fukushima plant and he is said to have worn a full-face mask and protective suit, but developed lung cancer in February 2016
The dead man worked mainly at the Fukushima Number 1 nuclear plant and other atomic power stations nationwide between 1980 and 2015.
Following the disaster, the unnamed man was in charge of measuring radiation at the plant, and he is said to have worn a full-face mask and protective suit, but developed lung cancer in February 2016.
He has not been publicly identified and his family have asked that the exact date of his death remains private.
It was reported at the time that three of the plant's six nuclear reactors went into meltdown and released radioactive materials.
The soil and water in the region still contains high levels of radiation which makes the clean-up effort difficult.
A total of 300,000 people evacuated the Fukushima area on the east coast with a clean-up expected to take decades and cost more than 18 billion.
An investigation panel concluded the disaster had major elements of being 'man-made', and there was a culture of complacency about nuclear safety and poor crisis management.
The soil and water in the region still contains high levels of radiation which makes the clean-up effort, which could take decades, difficult
An investigation panel concluded the disaster had major elements of being 'man-made', and there was a culture of complacency about nuclear safety and poor crisis management
Tokyo Electric is facing a string of legal cases seeking compensation over the disaster.
Authorities have been working to rebuild the region, about 150 miles (240 kilometres) north of the capital Tokyo, although areas near the crippled plant remain uninhabitable because of radiation dangers.
In an echo of the 2011 disaster at least two people were killed and 32 missing after a 6.7 magnitude quake struck the northern island of Hokkaido just after 3am today.
The quake caused landslides and left millions of homes without electricity, with local media reporting at least 120 people had been injured.
The island's only nuclear plant, the Tomari Nuclear Power Station, needed backup generators to keep the electricity supply in order to keep fuel rods cool, despite the plant being out of action since the Fukushima disaster.
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, seen here with President Donald Trump, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, will hold talks in Delhi Thursday
US President Donald Trump's top two envoys were expected Thursday to press India not to buy Russian military equipment or Iranian oil, while seeking to bolster ties as China grows more assertive in the region.
The "2+2" meeting in New Delhi of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis with counterparts Sushma Swaraj and Nirmala Sitharaman is the first of its kind.
It follows Washington's designation in 2016 of India as a "major defence partner" as the US seeks to turn India into a regional bulwark against China.
The talks were first meant to be held in April and then in June but both were postponed, triggering speculation of a rift.
Pompeo said on Tuesday, en route for India's arch rival Pakistan, that India was a "true strategic partner" and "very important to our success in our Indo-Pacific strategy".
"As the world's largest democracy, we see India taking on a greater regional and global responsibility, a stabilising force," Mattis said.
The talks were expected to touch on expanding the scope of joint military exercises.
India and the US are also close to signing an agreement that would ensure communications between their two militaries are compatible and secure.
But Washington also wants India to distance itself from Russia, notably by stepping back from decades of purchases of Russian military equipment.
India, the world's top defence importer, wants to purchase new systems from Moscow, including its S-400 long-range, surface-to-air missile system.
Under current US rules against Russia, third countries could face sanctions if they transact with Russian defence or intelligence sectors.
- Russia deal almost done -
The Press Trust of India recently quoted an unnamed official as saying the deal was almost done, and that Delhi would be asking for a special sanctions waiver from Trump.
However last week, Randall Schriver, the Pentagon's assistant secretary of defence for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, warned there are no guarantees.
"We would still have very significant concerns if India pursued major new platforms and systems (from Russia). I can't sit here and tell you that they would be exempt, that we would use that waiver," Schriver told a Washington think tank.
India already has bought US Apache attack helicopters and other gear, and is negotiating to buy armed drones.
In May, Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and said other countries, including India, must stop buying oil from Tehran before November 4 or face US sanctions.
India however is highly reliant on Iranian crude imports.
Pompeo said on Tuesday that the issues of Russian arms sales and Iranian oil "will certainly come up, but I don't think they will be the primary focus of what it is we are trying to accomplish here."
"There are half-a-dozen things on the agenda that we are really intent on making progress on... They are really about things that are big and strategic and will go on for 20, 40, 50 years."
The ultra-conservative former judge from Alabama is seeking $95 million in damages from satirist Sacha Baron Cohen and from the Showtime and CBS networks
Former Republican Senate candidate and accused child molester Roy Moore is suing British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen for defamation after being pranked on his new show "Who Is America?"
The ultra-conservative former judge from Alabama is seeking $95 million in damages from the satirist and from the Showtime and CBS networks, which broadcast an episode featuring him on July 29, according to a copy of the complaint which was filed in a federal court in Washington.
Moore said he was duped into coming to the capital in February under false pretenses, to appear on what he thought was an Israeli television station that wanted to give him an award for his pro-Israel stances.
He was interviewed by a person he believed to be an Israeli anti-terrorism expert, Colonel Erran Morad, but who was in reality Cohen.
"Defendant Cohen's character falsely and fraudulently introduced a false and fraudulent 'device' supposedly invented by the Israeli Army to detect pedophiles," the complaint said.
"During the segment, Defendant Cohen's 'device' -- as part of the false and fraudulent routine -- purports to detect Judge Moore as a sex offender, thus defaming him."
During Moore's Senate run last year, several women came forward to accuse Moore of having sexually assaulted or harassed them when he was a state attorney in his thirties and they were in their teens.
Despite an endorsement from President Donald Trump, Moore lost his race to a relatively unknown Democrat, Doug Jones.
Moore said he, his wife and their entire family had suffered "severe emotional distress and pain" as a result of the defamatory statements, "especially given his status as a prominent conservative and God fearing person of faith."
Federal and state lawmakers have proposed or adopted a series of measures designed to address the problem of missing and murdered Native American women and related issues, such as human trafficking, domestic violence and rape. Among them:
FROM CAPITOL HILL
- Savanna's Act : The legislation, introduced last fall by North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, seeks to expand tribal access to some federal crime databases and establish protocols for handling cases of missing and murdered Native Americans. It also would require annual reports to Congress on the number of missing and murdered Native American women. The Democratic senator says if authorities have accurate statistics, they might be able to detect patterns that help solve more cases. Last year, Heitkamp also launched the #NotInvisible social media campaign to draw attention to this problem.
Kimberly Loring, left, touches her forehead to her little sister, Jonnilyn, 17, as she says goodbye before heading out on a search for their missing sister Ashley with their cousin, Lissa Loring, left, outside their home on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Mont., Wednesday, July 11, 2018. "I'm the older sister. I need to do this," says 24-year-old Kimberly. "I don't want to search until I'm 80. But if I have to, I will." (AP Photo/David Goldman)
- End Trafficking of Native Americans Act: The bill , introduced in July by three senators - Heitkamp, Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, and Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada Democrat - would expand efforts to combat human trafficking among Native Americans and Alaska Natives. It would establish an advisory committee to make recommendations to the Justice and Interior departments and a coordinator within the Bureau of Indian Affairs to organize prevention efforts across federal agencies.
- SURVIVE Act (Securing Urgent Resources Vital to Indian Victim Empowerment): This measure would create a tribal grant program within the Justice Department. It would allot 5 percent from a federal crime victims' fund for grants that could be used to help tribes assist survivors of violent crimes and set up programs and services, including rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters. The bill was reintroduced last year by Sen. John Hoeven, a North Dakota Republican, and has several bipartisan co-sponsors.
-The National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls. The Senate unanimously passed a resolution designating the day in memory of Hanna Harris, who was murdered in July 2013 on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana. The first day of awareness was May 5, 2017, which would have been Harris' 25th birthday. A woman and her common-law husband pleaded guilty in Harris' death, and both were sentenced to prison.
STATE INITIATIVES
- WASHINGTON: In June, a law was enacted that requires the Washington State Patrol to conduct a study to examine how to improve the collection and sharing of information about missing Native American women. The study also will develop an estimate of how many Native women are missing in the state. "We don't even know the exact scope of our problem," says State Patrol spokeswoman Monica Alexander. "We have been told there are hundreds ... and nobody is doing anything about it." Patrol officials will travel the state to assess the problem and meet with Native Americans. Washington is home to 29 tribes. The patrol will present a report to the Legislature next June.
- MONTANA: The Legislature's State-Tribal Relations Committee heard testimony this spring that could lead to five bills addressing missing persons. These measures were inspired, in part, by discussions about missing and murdered Native American women. One proposal is called Hanna's Act, in remembrance of Hanna Harris. It would authorize the state's Justice Department to assist with the investigation of all missing person cases and employ a specialist who would act as a liaison between families and law enforcement agencies. A second proposal would require law enforcement to accept, without delay, reports of missing persons. Harris' family complained authorities were slow to search for Hanna after they reported her missing. The committee meets Sept. 7 to decide whether to move the proposed legislation forward.
- MINNESOTA: A bill to establish a governor's task force to address missing and murdered Native women in the state failed to pass the Legislature this year. But the chief sponsor, state Rep. Mary Kunesh-Podein , says she is working with activists to gather data and plans to tweak the measure with additional information and reintroduce it in January.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Facebook and Twitter executives plan to defend their companies in two congressional hearings Wednesday, arguing they are aggressively trying to root out foreign actors who want to do the United States harm just weeks before the midterm elections.
Twitter's CEO will also face angry Republicans who claim the companies have shown evidence of bias against conservatives. In prepared testimony released ahead of a House hearing Wednesday afternoon, Jack Dorsey says his company does not use political ideology to make decisions.
Congress has sharply criticized the social media companies over the last year as it has become clear that they were at the forefront of Russia's interference in the 2016 elections and beyond. That scrutiny has led to additional criticism over the companies' respect for user privacy and whether conservatives are being censored - frustrations that are particularly heightened ahead of the midterms.
FILE- This Nov. 19, 2015, file photo shows Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey being interviewed on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Dorsey says the company isn't biased against Republicans or Democrats and is working on ways to ensure that debate is healthier on its platform. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
"The companies have made progress, the government has made progress, but the bad guys have made progress as well," said Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, which will hear from both companies in the morning on the subject of foreign interference. Warner has proposed a series of ways the companies could be regulated for the first time.
The afternoon hearing in the House Energy and Commerce Committee will feature only Dorsey in a hearing focused on bias and the platform's algorithms. Some Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have pushed the idea ahead of the elections that Twitter is "shadow banning" some in the GOP because of the ways search results have appeared. Twitter denies that is happening.
Missing from the conversation will be Google, which refused to make its top executive available for the Senate intelligence hearing. The panel invited Larry Page, the CEO of Google's parent company, Alphabet, but the company said it would send a lower-ranking executive instead. The committee rejected that offer, and is expected to have an empty chair at the hearing for Page.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr said Tuesday that Googledoesn't "understand the problem" if it doesn't want to work with the government to find solutions.
The back-and-forth with Google is the latest in a year's worth of attempts by Congress to force the companies to focus more sharply on the Russian interference issue. While Burr says he believes Facebook and Twitter do understand the problem, it took both companies several months last year to acknowledge they had been manipulated.
It also underscores how difficult the problem may be to solve. While the companies have made many changes around their policies and have caught and banned hordes of malicious accounts over the past year, their business models - free services that rely on attracting as many users as possible for as long as possible and finding out as much about them as possible - remain the same. Some critics have charged that unless they change this, they will continue to contend with bad actors taking advantage of their systems.
In prepared remarks for Wednesday's hearing, Facebook's No. 2 executive, Sheryl Sandberg, details many ways the company is addressing the problem but reiterates that the company was slow to spot it. Thirteen Russians were indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller earlier this year on charges of an elaborate plot to disrupt the 2016 U.S. presidential election by creating fake accounts that pushed divisive issues on social media.
In her testimony, Sandberg details ongoing efforts to take down material linked to the Russian agency, including the removal this year of 270 Facebook pages. Still, Sandberg says the company's overall understanding of the Russian activity in 2016 is limited "because we do not have access to the information or investigative tools" that the U.S. government has.
"This is an arms race, and that means we need to be ever more vigilant," Sandberg says.
Dorsey says Twitter has continued to identify accounts that may be linked to the same Russian internet agency in Mueller's indictment. He says Twitter has so far suspended 3,843 accounts the company believes are linked to the agency, and has seen recent activity.
On bias, the Twitter CEO is aggressive in defending his company, saying in the prepared House testimony that he wants to be clear about one thing: "Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules."
To address the concerns, Dorsey offers an explanation of how Twitter uses "behavioral signals," such as the way accounts interact and behave on the service. Those signals can help weed out spam and abuse.
He says such behavioral analysis "does not consider in any way" political views or ideology.
Dorsey says the San Francisco-based company is also "committed to help increase the collective health, openness, and civility of public conversation, and to hold ourselves publicly accountable towards progress."
Only Dorsey was invited to the House hearing after specific Republican concerns about bias on Twitter. While all three tech companies have been accused of political bias against conservatives, the more public-facing nature of Twitter has made it an especially easy target.
Despite the companies' denials, conservatives have continued to push the issue ahead of the 2018 elections.
"Sadly, conservatives are too often finding their voices silenced," House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a statement when the hearing was announced. "We all agree that transparency is the only way to fully restore Americans' trust in these important public platforms."
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) - A man testified Tuesday that he spent about eight hours cutting up his wife's body after she died at a Missouri hotel because he was afraid authorities would take away his children.
Justin Rey, 36, said protecting his family was the reason he didn't call for medical help after his wife delivered a baby at the hotel in October and afterward when she killed herself, The Kansas City Star reported . Investigators later found Rey with his newborn and 2-year-old daughter, along with bags of body parts, at a storage shed in Lenexa, Kansas.
Rey is not charged in his wife's death, but faces child endangerment charges in Kansas and Missouri and is charged with abandonment of a corpse in Missouri. He took the unusual step of testifying at his preliminary hearing in Kansas, with defense attorney Zane Todd saying Rey wanted to correct some witness testimony. After Tuesday's hearing, a not guilty plea was entered for Rey to Johnson County, Kansas, charges of two counts of aggravated child endangerment and two counts of contributing to a child's misconduct.
"It's something I had to do," Rey testified. "My family is very dear to me. It's something I had to do to protect my family."
One officer who met Rey at the storage unit said the 2-year-old appeared unhealthy and "almost looked like she had cancer." The baby had a serious eye infection, according to several witnesses. The children were put in protective custody.
Rey has said in the past that his wife died in childbirth, but Lenexa police detective Shannon Murphy testified that Rey told her his wife had killed herself. After having his children pose for photographs with her body, Rey said he "skinned her like a fish," Murphy testified. Murphy said Rey flushed body parts that would not fit in containers down the toilet.
Deputy Johnson County Coroner Charles Glenn testified that "a number" of stab were wounds found on some parts of Jessica Rey's body but that it wasn't possible to tell whether the injuries were inflicted before or after she died.
Rey told the court that he and the children had not been living at the storage locker, as witnesses said, but had been there for only about 11 hours while preparing to travel to Arizona, where he said he intended to give his wife a proper burial. He also said his children were well cared for.
"I didn't endanger my children," he testified. "My children were perfectly healthy."
Rey also denied flushing anything but a placenta down the toilet.
His trial on the Kansas charges was scheduled for Nov. 5.
Rey also was charged in November in California in the death of Sean Ty Ferel, a Palm Springs resident who disappeared after vacationing with Rey in 2016. Ferel's body hasn't been found, but his blood was detected in the trunk of his vehicle after Rey was involved in an accident with it months after Ferel disappeared.
___
Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com
PHOENIX (AP) - Two advocacy groups alleged in a lawsuit Tuesday that police in Phoenix violated the free-speech rights of protesters outside a rally by President Donald Trump by firing tear gas as they were about to confront Trump supporters.
The excessive force lawsuit against the Phoenix Police Department says police didn't try to remove a few problematic anti-Trump protesters and instead acted violently toward a large number of peaceful demonstrators.
It also says officers deliberately targeted anti-Trump protesters and showed a preference toward Trump supporters.
FILE - In this Aug. 22, 2017 file photo shows smoke billowing after police used tear gas on protesters outside a rally held by President Donald Trump in downtown Phoenix. Two advocacy groups filed an excessive-force lawsuit on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, against the Phoenix Police Department over the conduct of officers during a protest outside the rally. The suit alleges officers deliberately targeted anti-Trump protesters and showed a preference toward Trump supporters. The police department declined to comment on the lawsuit. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)
The police agency "silenced anti-Trump protesters at the precise moment that they sought to have their opinions heard by the intended audience - President Trump and his supporters as they left the Convention Center," the lawsuit says.
Police spokeswoman Sgt. Mercedes Fortune declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The protest was held a year ago at a rally where Trump hinted he would pardon former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a Trump ally.
Arpaio had been convicted of criminal contempt of court for intentionally ignoring a judge's order to stop his traffic patrols that targeted immigrants.
Days later, the president pardoned Arpaio.
The disturbance on the downtown streets didn't start until after Trump's speech inside the Convention Center had ended.
It turned unruly as officers fired pepper spray and tear gas at crowds after the police agency said someone apparently lobbed rocks and bottles at officers.
It was Trump's first political rally after he made statements equally blaming white supremacists and counter-protesters for violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The two advocacy groups, Puente and Poder In Action, alleged in their lawsuit that police didn't formally announce to the protesters that they should disperse from the area until about a half-hour after officers began to use pepper spray, tear gas and other measures.
Puente advocates on behalf of immigrants, while Poder in Action has organized protests to raise awareness on issues affecting black, Latino and immigrant communities. Four anti-Trump protesters also joined in on the lawsuit.
Those who filed the lawsuit are seeking unspecified damages and a court order restraining Phoenix officers from disrupting people's free-speech rights in the future.
The lawsuit notes that some anti-Trump protesters kicked tear gas containers away from their fellow demonstrators, but the overwhelming majority of the demonstrators acted peacefully.
___
Follow Jacques Billeaud at twitter.com/jacquesbilleaud. His work can be found at https://bit.ly/2GGWEPO.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on an American soldier killed in Afghanistan (all times local):
8:30 p.m.
The Pentagon has identified the soldier killed in Afghanistan Monday in what U.S. officials said was an attack by a member of the Afghan national police.
He was identified as Army Command Sgt. Maj. Timothy A. Bolyard, age 42, from Thornton, West Virginia.
The Pentagon says Bolyard died of wounds sustained from small arms fire in Logar Province in eastern Afghanistan. The incident is under investigation.
Bolyard was assigned to 3rd Squadron, 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade, based at Fort Benning, Georgia.
__
2 p.m.
An attack on U.S. troops in Afghanistan that killed one American was carried out by a member of the Afghan national police now in Afghan government custody, a U.S. official said Tuesday. It was the second so-called insider attack there this summer.
Lt. Col. Martin O'Donnell, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Kabul, said in a telephone interview Tuesday that the American, whose name has not yet been made public, was killed in eastern Afghanistan by an Afghan policeman. Another U.S. service member was wounded; O'Donnell said that person's wounds are not life threatening.
NAURU (AP) - Leaders in the Pacific met this week to forge new agreements on climate change and other pressing regional issues, but it was New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her absent baby who stole the limelight.
While some people in New Zealand grumbled that Ardern had cost taxpayers thousands of dollars by scheduling an extra flight to the Pacific Islands Forum to minimize time away from her baby, Nauru's President Baron Waqa penned Ardern and 11-week-old Neve a tribute.
During a break in an all-day's leaders retreat on Wednesday, Waqa grabbed a guitar and along with a group of elders sang the song he titled "Aotearoa our friend, Jacinda our new star in the sky." The first word is the indigenous Maori name for New Zealand. The lyrics included the line: "A little baby star is born."
Nauru President Baron Waqa, left, talks with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern before the Pacific leaders gather for a photo opportunity during the Pacific Islands Forum in Nauru, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (Jason Oxenham/Pool Photo via AP)
Ardern disputed whether her trip had cost taxpayers anything, saying the military had told her they had a fixed budget which they could use on extra trips like hers or training exercises.
"So I have been advised it cost the taxpayer no additional funding," she said.
Ardern added she would have been the first New Zealand leader in almost 50 years to miss the forum, aside from those who had been campaigning during an election cycle.
"I was damned if I did and damned if I didn't," she said, adding "At the end of the day, I am Prime Minister. I have a job to do."
Barry Soper, who writes a column for the New Zealand Herald newspaper, questioned whether the trip was necessary: "If Ardern decided not to go because of baby Neve, surely the family-focused Pacific leaders, more than any others, would have understood."
Ardern, 38, in June became just the second elected world leader in modern times to give birth while holding office, after Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto gave birth to daughter Bakhtawar in 1990.
The leaders at the forum were signing a new security agreement called the Boe Declaration that identifies climate change as a major threat to security in the Pacific, since low-lying islands might cease to exist if sea levels keep rising.
The declaration also addresses crimes such as drug smuggling and illegal fishing that cross borders, as well as cybercrime and health concerns such as communicable diseases and pandemics. The agreement was the centerpiece of the three-day meeting.
Earlier Wednesday, Pacific fishing and community groups signed an agreement with the European Union to improve sustainable fishing and ocean governance in the region.
Under the Pacific-European Union Marine Partnership, the EU will provide 35 million euros ($41 million) and Sweden will provide 10 million euros ($12 million) over five years. The program will provide direct assistance to regional organizations.
Tensions over China and refugees ran high at the forum after Nauru on Tuesday accused a Chinese official of bullying and temporarily detained a New Zealand journalist who had been interviewing a refugee.
Nauru is home to more than 600 refugees who had tried to reach Australia by boat. The island's economy relies on the money Australia spends on keeping the refugees there.
Australia designed the policy of keeping boat refugees and asylum seekers far from its shores to deter more of them from trying to make the voyage, but many critics say the policy violates human rights.
Members of Pacific fishing and community groups sign documents during the Pacific Islands Forum in in Nauru, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. The groups signed an agreement with the European Union to improve sustainable fishing and ocean governance in the region. (Jason Oxenham/Pool Photo via AP)
New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, center, and Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, right, speak to the media during the Pacific Islands Forum in Nauru Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. The Pacific leaders meeting are expected Wednesday to sign a security agreement that addresses climate change and crimes such as drug smuggling and illegal fishing that cross borders. (Jason Oxenham/Pool Photo via AP)
Members of Pacific fishing and community groups join hands after signing an agreement during the Pacific Islands Forum in Nauru, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. The groups signed an agreement with the European Union to improve sustainable fishing and ocean governance in the region. (Jason Oxenham/Pool Photo via AP)
Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Malielegaoi, right, chats with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern before Pacific leaders gather for a photo opportunity during the Pacific Islands Forum in Nauru, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (Jason Oxenham/Pool Photo via AP)
Television New Zealand journalist Barbara Dreaver speaks to the media after she was released by Nauru Police in Nauru, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. Nauru police detained the journalist for about three hours and revoked her forum accreditation after she interviewed a refugee outside a local restaurant. (Jason Oxenham/Pool Photo via AP)
BOSTON (AP) - Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, a moderate seeking a second term in solidly Democratic Massachusetts, fended off a primary challenge Tuesday from conservative minister Scott Lively, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump who questioned Baker's commitment to the Republican platform.
Baker, who has distanced himself from Trump, will face the winner of the Democratic primary, Jay Gonzalez, in November. He defeated Robert Massie on Tuesday.
Polling has shown Baker to be highly popular with voters, including many Democrats, throughout his first term - support he credits in part to his willingness to work with Democratic legislative leaders at the Statehouse.
FILE - In this Thursday, July 27, 2017 file photo, Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker addresses a gathering at the Statehouse in Boston. Baker defeated Scott Lively in the Sept. 4, 2018, Republican primary and will face Democrat Jay Gonzalez in the November general election. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
Baker has said he did not cast a vote in the 2016 presidential election because he didn't believe Trump had the "temperament" to be president, nor was he a "fan" of Hillary Clinton. He has been a frequent critic of White House policy.
Lively, who has called Trump "God's man in the White House," frequently called Baker a RINO - a Republican in name only - but had little money or staff to mount a serious challenge to the well-financed incumbent.
Addressing supporters Tuesday night, Baker rattled off a list of what he said were the accomplishments of his administration over the past four years. He said Massachusetts added 180,000 new jobs, eliminated a state budget deficit, increased state funding for public education, and made progress in tackling the opioid addiction crisis, all without raising taxes.
"We believe that people in public life can, and should, debate the issues respectfully, and seek common ground whenever possible," Baker said.
Gonzalez's background is similar to that of Baker. Before entering politics, each served as state Secretary of Administration and Finance - Gonzalez under former Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, and Baker under former Republican Gov. Paul Cellucci. And Gonzalez, like Baker, headed a health insurance company after leaving state government.
Gonzalez said Baker needs to do more than just be liked.
"I get it, it's a relief to have a governor who seems nice and isn't a crazy right-wing extremist," Gonzalez told supporters. "With Donald Trump setting the bar so low, nice and not crazy seems pretty good. But it's not good enough."
The ongoing trouble with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority - better known as the "T'' - was the top issue among voters he met during the campaign. It came under scrutiny during the crippling winter of 2015.
He has pledged if elected to fire Keolis, the private firm that currently operates the T's commuter rail network, and end efforts to privatize other aspects of the transit system.
Baker says transit service has improved significantly during his term but acknowledges that more needs to be done.
Gonzalez's bid for the nomination received a major boost in June when he was endorsed by delegates to the Democratic state convention.
Massie, a longtime political and environmental activist, won the endorsement of the Bernie Sanders-inspired Our Revolution group, but struggled to raise cash and was twice forced to take out personal loans to keep his campaign afloat.
Baker enters the general election campaign with a sizable financial edge, having raised more than $8 million for his re-election effort and reporting a campaign balance of $6.6 million through mid-August. Gonzalez reported a balance of $367,000.
Gonzalez will run in the fall with Quentin Palfrey, a onetime aide to former President Barack Obama who defeated Jimmy Tingle, a comedian, in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor.
Republican Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito ran unopposed.
Jay Gonzalez celebrates victory over Bob Massie in the Massachusetts Democratic gubernatorial primary, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Jay Gonzalez celebrates victory over Bob Massie in the Massachusetts Democratic gubernatorial primary, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
The author
Following the recent general election, Pakistans nascent democratic system has entered into a new era, as its third democratically elected government takes charge.
The country's new Prime Minister, Imran Khan, has succeeded in breaking the country's political status quo, forming his government after struggling to do so for 22 years. He marked the beginning of a new political era in Pakistan's history by implementing his first 100-days agenda.
In his first address of the nation, a day after assuming office, Khan vowed to transform Pakistan into a true Islamic welfare state with the focus on overcoming foreign debt, austerity, institutional reform, eradication of corruption and retrieving money stashed abroad.
Prime Minister Khan has formed an Economic Advisory Council containing leading business and economic experts, to better manage the country's economy. He has promised to create 10 million jobs by boosting the economy and will construct five million new homes for the people.
Although the country's general and economic situation vastly improved during the previous governments tenure, the current government still faces a myriad of challenges including an ailing economy, terrorism and extremism, poverty, unemployment and water shortages. The new Prime Minister is also likely to face tough opposition in the coming months, with major political parties set to protest against the alleged rigging in general elections. These opposition parties have jointly demanded to form a parliamentary commission to audit elections.
As for the bilateral relations between Pakistan and China, Khan has reiterated his wishes to further strengthen ties.
After the party's victory in the 2018 General Election, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) Twitter account sent out its first message in Chinese to emphasize the close relationship between Pakistan and China. In the tweet, the PTI chief said that he would work to strengthen and improve Pakistans relationship with China.
In his victory speech after the 2018 General Election, Khan noted that his government would explore investment opportunities under the umbrella of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is considered a vital plank of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and would also learn from them in regards to poverty alleviation and corruption control.
In its manifesto, the ruling party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, declared that its government will make Pakistan business-friendly and turn the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor into a game-changer by enhancing bilateral relations.
The government is ready to take CPEC to the next level with the establishment of nine Special Economic Zones. Minister for Planning, Development & Reform, Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, has instructed the authorities to fast-track the processes to ensure early implementation of this important sector of CPEC.
Pakistans new government is not oblivious to its responsibilities regarding the China Pakistan Economic Corridor and progress on CPEC projects will continue without any hindrance. The Chinese government also expects the government of Pakistan to continue with their smooth and timely implementation of CPEC projects. It is expected that in the coming weeks high level exchanges involving top level government officials from both sides will be held, to further improve relations between the two governments.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a flagship BRI project, is the largest Chinese investment in Pakistan to date. Often termed as a game changer, the mega-project involves a huge financial inflow into Pakistan to improve infrastructure, energy and trade development as well as create job opportunities.
CPEC has already started to benefit Pakistans ailing economy. Due to the completion of energy projects, the countrys severe energy crisis is about to end. Massive infrastructure projects are improving connectivity and new jobs are being created, thus improving the economy.
After the establishment of industrial zones, it is believed that the process of industrialization in Pakistan will begin, further strengthening the economy of Pakistan. Successful implementation of CPEC projects will further increase the country's GDP, which is currently 5.8 percent, and bring social and economic development to the country.
The implementation of CPEC projects is sure to create win-win outcomes, bringing massive benefits for both countries and the region in the future.
The author is a researcher and journalist working for Independent News Pakistan.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, in an effort to answer lingering questions about trips he took that are being investigated by the state's ethics commission, released receipts on Monday that he says show he paid for his travel.
Gillum, who last week won the Democratic primary for Florida governor, met Tuesday with investigators from Florida's ethics commission to discuss the trips to Costa Rica and New York City. The commission inquiry is separate from an ongoing FBI investigation into city government, but there are links between the two.
In a statement, Gillum maintained he was being open and repeated his promise to cooperate with the FBI. He knocked his Republican opponent Ron DeSantis for being a critic of the ongoing investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russia's interference in U.S. elections and whether President Donald Trump or his close allies colluded with Russia.
FILE - This July 18, 2018, file photo shows Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum speaking during a Democratic gubernatorial debate held at Florida Gulf Coast University's Cohen Center in Fort Myers, Fla. Gillum, in an effort to answer lingering questions about trips he took that are being investigated by the state's ethics commission, released receipts on Monday, Sept. 3, 2018, that he says show he paid for his travel. Gillum, who last week won the Democratic primary for Florida governor, met Tuesday with investigators from Florida's ethics commission to discuss the trips to Costa Rica and New York City. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File
"The FBI has a job to do - and whether it's Washington, D.C., or Florida, Congressman DeSantis and President Trump should allow the agency to do its work," said Gillum. "Here in Florida, we've done everything we can to aid the agency, while Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump have done the exact opposite - demonizing the FBI and making the case that collusion is not a crime."
But the disclosures released by the Gillum campaign do not include all expenses related to the two trips that Gillum took in 2016 before the FBI probe became public. A Tallahassee businessman filed an ethics complaint once the trips were revealed.
Stephen Lawson, a spokesman for DeSantis, said that "these receipts do nothing to shed light on his luxury trips to Costa Rica and New York City with lobbyists and undercover FBI agents. In fact, they simply raise more questions about Gillum's ongoing involvement. The people of Florida deserve answers, and Andrew Gillum keeps refusing to provide them."
Gillum has said he has talked to the FBI and that he is not the target of an investigation. The first open knowledge of the probe came in June 2017 when a federal grand jury subpoenaed five years of records from Tallahassee and a local redevelopment agency that involved high-profile projects and developers, including an ally of Gillum. The FBI earlier this year asked for more records, dealing primarily with an upscale restaurant that is located in a city-owned building. The Edison received $2 million in financial assistance from the city and the local community redevelopment agency.
One of the owners of the restaurant was lobbyist Adam Corey, who once served as Gillum's campaign treasurer and has known him since college. Gillum vacationed at a luxury resort in Costa Rica in May 2016 with Corey, as well as another investor in the Edison. During that trip, Corey set up a meeting between Gillum and FBI undercover agents.
Gillum said he paid for the cost of the resort in cash and produced bank records to show he withdrew $400 to pay for his share of the $1,400-a-night villa that was shared by several couples. He also produced credit card expenses showing other trip expenses.
During the New York trip, Gillum met with Corey and undercover agents and attended a showing of the Broadway show "Hamilton." Gillum produced a hotel bill for two nights, but said he spent a third night in a hotel room rented by his brother. He said his brother, Marcus Gillum, gave him the Broadway ticket and that he learned later his brother swapped a concert ticket with Corey to get the "Hamilton" ticket.
Geoff Burgan, a spokesman for Gillum, said he did not know the value of the two swapped tickets. He also said that the New York airfare was paid by People for the American Way, who was Gillum's employer at the time. The campaign did not produce a receipt for the air travel.
Christopher Kise, an attorney for Corey, disputed the account given by Gillum. He said that Corey won the Costa Rica lodging through a charity auction and "to date Mr. Corey has not received any cash from the mayor." He added that Corey did not purchase the Hamilton ticket or swap it for a concert ticket.
"The idea that Marcus Gillum would have exchanged something for the Hamilton ticket is nonsense," Kise said.
Gillum's campaign on Tuesday contended that the investigation is focused on "another elected official."
In February, a federal search warrant was accidentally made public on a court website and detailed that the FBI launched its corruption investigation in 2015 and that agents posed as out-of-town real-estate developers and medical marijuana entrepreneurs in order to gain access to various city officials.
The warrant stated that agents were focusing on City Commissioner Scott Maddox, a former head of the Florida Democratic Party, and his former chief of staff and whether Maddox was paid to help out businesses seeking help from the city. He has denied any wrongdoing.
BOSTON (AP) - Ayanna Pressley is all but assured of becoming the first black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts, the latest example of the Democratic Party's embrace of diversity and progressive politics as the recipe for success in the Trump era.
The 44-year-old's upset victory against longtime Democratic Rep. Michael Capuano in Tuesday's primary sets the stage for Pressley to represent an area once served by Tip O'Neill and John F. Kennedy. Her win comes at the tail end of a primary season in which black politicians have made a series of advances.
In nearby Connecticut, Jahana Hayes is on track to become that state's first black woman to win a congressional seat if she prevails in November. And black politicians in three states - Florida, Georgia and Maryland - have won the Democratic nomination for governor, a historic turn for a country that has elected just two black governors in U.S. history.
Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley celebrates victory over U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass., in the 7th Congressional House Democratic primary, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Greeting voters at a Boston polling station, Pressley spoke of "the ground shifting beneath our feet and the wind at our backs."
"This is a fight for the soul of our party and the future of our democracy," she told reporters. "This is a disruptive candidacy, a grassroots coalition. It is broad and diverse and deep. People of every walk of life."
For Pressley, as with many other ascendant candidates of color, unabashedly progressive credentials smoothed her path to victory in the primary. No Republicans were running, so only a write-in campaign in November could possibly stand between her and Washington.
She was endorsed by fellow congressional upstart Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who knocked off veteran Rep. Joe Crowley of New York in June. Pressley backs Medicare-for-all, the single-payer healthcare proposal, which helped her garner backing from Our Revolution, the offshoot of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign.
Pressley called for defunding the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE, which helped her draw support from Massachusetts' popular attorney general, Maura Healey, who's gained a national following for repeatedly suing President Donald Trump in an attempt to block his policies on immigration, gun control and other issues.
"We have to be disruptive in our democracy and our policymaking and how we run and win elections," she said in an interview this summer with The Associated Press, adding that Ocasio-Cortez's victory challenged "narratives about who has a right to run and when, and who can win" in American politics.
"My mother did not raise me to ask for permission to lead," she added.
Pressley tapped into growing cries within the Democratic Party for newer, more diverse leadership. She and Ocasio-Cortez both defeated older, white congressmen who were reliable liberal votes, but who didn't look like many voters in their districts.
"With so much at stake in the era of Trump, tonight's results make clear what Ayanna Pressley knew when she boldly launched her campaign against a ten-term incumbent: Change in the country and Congress can't wait," said Jim Dean, chair of the liberal group Democracy for America.
The district she's competing in includes a wide swath of Boston and about half of Cambridge as well as portions of neighboring Chelsea, Everett, Randolph, Somerville and Milton. It includes both Cambridge's Kendall Square - development there is booming - and the neighborhood of Roxbury, the center of Boston's traditionally black community.
Pressley has bristled at the notion that race was a defining issue in her campaign.
"I have been really furious about the constant charges being lobbed against me about identity politics that, by the way, are only lobbed against women and candidates of color," she said in one debate. "I happen to be black and a woman and unapologetically proud to be both, but that is not the totality of my identity."
Massachusetts' last Democratic primary upset came in 2014, when Seth Moulton defeated Rep. John Tierney in the state's 6th Congressional District.
___
Associated Press writers William J. Kole in Boston and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.
MOBILE, Ala. (AP) - The Latest on Tropical Depression Gordon (all times local):
12:30 p.m.
Tropical Depression Gordon is piling up huge rainfall totals in parts of the South, including more than 10 inches (25 centimeters) in the Florida Panhandle.
Trucks with the Alabama Department of Transportation work to block off a flooded part of US Highway 98 while fighting rain from Tropical Storm Gordon on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Spanish Fort, Ala. Tropical Storm Gordon never became a hurricane but it was deadly all the same, as it made landfall late Tuesday just west of the Alabama-Mississippi border. (AP Photo/Dan Anderson)
The Southeast Regional Climate Center reports that about 10.5 inches (26.6 centimeters) fell at Florida's Pensacola International Airport. The National Weather Service says that number will rise as rain continues to fall.
The Weather Service says the heaviest rain fell to the east of Gordon's center, which came ashore in the Pascagoula, Mississippi, area. That means the most impressive rainfall totals so far have been in southern Alabama and in the Florida Panhandle.
In Baldwin County, Alabama, rainfall estimates by mid-day Wednesday ranged from about 4 inches (10.2 centimeters) to 7.1 inches (18 centimeters) in one spot.
___
11:45 a.m.
A dozen Mississippi Gulf Coast casinos have been given permission to re-open a day after the threat of severe tropical weather forced them to close.
Wednesday's announcement from gambling regulators was the latest sign of things getting back to normal on Mississippi's coast. Tropical Storm Gordon came ashore just west of the Alabama line, then weakened to a tropical depression Wednesday as it moves north. The remnants are expected to pose a heavy rain and flood threat as it moves toward Arkansas and the Great Lakes region.
The storm has been blamed for the death of a baby who was killed when a tree limb fell on a mobile home in the Florida panhandle.
___
11:05 a.m.
Neighbors of a Florida child killed in a mobile home as Tropical Storm Gordon moved ashore say the victim was about 10 months old.
The child died in a Florida panhandle mobile home that was struck by a falling tree limb late Tuesday. Neighbor Michael Barradas told The Pensacola News-Journal he heard a loud crack and ran out of his nearby mobile home to ask if everything was all right. The child's mother replied: "No, my baby's in there."
Barradas said he ran back inside his home to get a flashlight, but by the time he got to the neighbor's home the baby had stopped crying.
Escambia County emergency workers used chain saws to get to the baby. The child's name had not been released as of Wednesday morning.
___
10:40 a.m.
Utility firms say more than 24,000 customers in Alabama and Mississippi remain without power following the landfall of Tropical Storm Gordon.
Alabama Power says 13,700 customers in the greater Mobile area remained without power late Wednesday morning. More than 48,000 customers lost power at some point during the storm.
In Mississippi, emergency officials say about 11,000 are without power statewide.
Gordon came ashore Tuesday night just west of the Alabama-Mississippi state line. It weakened into a tropical depression but heavy rain and flooding remains a possibility in the western Florida Panhandle, southwest Alabama and central Mississippi. Arkansas, Missouri, southern Iowa and Illinois also are expected to get heavy rains as Gordon moves inland.
Gordon was blamed for the death of a child in a Florida mobile home.
___
10:15 a.m.
Flooding remains the major concern as Tropical Depression Gordon could dump a foot or more of rain before the remnants of the storm are finished pushing through Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.
The National Weather Service in Mobile said Wednesday morning that Pensacola got 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rainfall.
Flash flood warnings were issued for several counties in south Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.
___
9 a.m.
Jason Beaman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, says there was an unconfirmed report of a tornado overnight near Pace, Florida, as Tropical Storm Gordon hit the area.
Beaman said they did yet know of any damage associated with it and were trying to get more details on it.
Gordon weakened to a tropical depression Wednesday morning and is expected to continue weakening as it moves inland.
___
8:05 a.m.
Officials in Florida's Escambia County haven't yet released the identity of a child killed when a large oak tree limb fell onto a mobile home near Pensacola as Tropical Storm Gordon skirted the Florida Panhandle.
In an email sent Wednesday morning, officials said the county received 10 calls overnight for downed trees in roadways, along with multiple reports of regarding arcing power lines.
The county's emergency operations center noted peak wind gusts of 61 mph (98 kph).
Officials are warning beachgoers of dangerous rip currents in the Gulf of Mexico. Beaches in the area are flying red flags, which means it is illegal to enter the Gulf.
Crews are also assessing roadways and bridges following a night of wind and rain.
Gordon has weakened to a tropical depression and is expected to continue weakening as it moves inland.
___
7:25 a.m.
Utility firms say thousands of customers remain without power as bands of rain from Gordon continued to soak some areas.
Alabama Power said that by 7 a.m. CDT, about 21,000 customers were without power, mostly in the Mobile metro area. The majority of the outages across the region were in Alabama.
Alabama Power said in an update on the power outages that its crews were working in areas where it was safe for them to do so.
Mississippi Power said on its website that only about 275 customers remained without power at 7:15 a.m. CDT.
At the height of the storm, more than 27,000 customers across the region were without electricity, mostly in coastal Alabama, southeast Mississippi and the western tip of the Florida Panhandle around Pensacola.
Gordon has weakened to a tropical depression and is expected to continue weakening as it moves inland.
___
7:25 a.m.
The mayor of Dauphin Island - a barrier island off the Alabama coast - says about half of the community remained without power as dawn broke Wednesday.
Mayor Jeff Collier says the causeway that connects the island to the mainland remained open all night as Tropical Storm Gordon swirled overhead, despite some driftwood and other debris the ocean hurled onto the roadway.
In a telephone interview from his house, which had no power around dawn Wednesday, the mayor said town officials were preparing to visit the island's west end. That's where most of the power outages were. He said he's heard no reports of any significant emergencies or any widespread damage on the island.
Collier said "it sounds like, for the most part, we did OK."
Gordon has weakened to a tropical depression and is expected to continue weakening as it moves inland.
___
7:10 a.m.
Gordon has weakened to a tropical depression over central Mississippi after hitting the Gulf Coast as a tropical storm.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the storm's maximum sustained winds decreased Wednesday morning to near 35 mph (55 kph) with additional weakening expected as it moves inland.
Gordon never became a hurricane before making landfall just west of the Alabama-Mississippi border late Tuesday. But it was still deadly, killing a child when a tree was blown onto a mobile home in Florida.
Forecasters say the threat of heavy rains and flooding continues along with the possibility of a tornado.
___
6 a.m.
Rain is still falling in Mobile, Alabama, in the wake of Tropical Storm Gordon and the power is out in places, but the lights are on at a Waffle House restaurant where factory worker Jerome Richardson was happy to get breakfast.
He said his lights went out at about 9 p.m. as Gordon moved in from the coast, and he was still without electricity as he left for work. He says he hopes he doesn't have to throw out everything in his refrigerator when he comes home from his 12-hour shift.
Driftwood and other debris on the causeway made for a hazardous trip to nearby Dauphin Island, where a storm surge submerged streets with seawater overnight.
___
4:45 a.m.
Forecasters say remnants of Tropical Storm Gordon could cause flash flooding across parts of seven states - as far north as southern Iowa - in coming days.
In its latest update before dawn Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center says the storm is expected to leave total rain amounts of 4-8 inches (10-20 centimeters) in the Florida panhandle and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa and Illinois.
The Hurricane Center says that isolated amounts of 12 inches (30 centimeters) will be possible in parts of the region through early Saturday.
Though Gordon is expected to weaken to a tropical depression sometime Wednesday morning, forecasters say tornadoes will still be possible Wednesday and Wednesday night in Mississippi and western Alabama.
___
3:45 a.m.
Tropical Storm Gordon spawned multiple possible tornadoes as it came ashore late Tuesday.
The National Weather Service issued several tornado warnings in south Alabama and the Florida panhandle after radar indicated possible twisters associated with the storm.
There were not any immediate damage reports.
While not hurricane strength, the tropical system downed trees, flooded roadways and brought heavy rainfall as it moved inland Wednesday morning.
The National Weather Service in Mobile cautioned that the Styx River near Elsanor, Alabama, could reach moderate, and possibly major, flood stage later Wednesday.
___
2:45 a.m.
A child has died in Florida in what could be Gordon's first storm-related death.
The Escambia County Sheriff's office posted on its Facebook page late Tuesday that deputies responded to a call that a tree had fallen on a mobile home in Pensacola. Upon their arrival they found a child deceased. The post says no one else in the home was injured. The name and age of the child were not released.
Tropical Storm Gordon made landfall late Tuesday just west of the Alabama-Mississippi border. Gordon formed Monday morning near the Florida Keys.
___
10:00 p.m.
The National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Gordon has made landfall just west of the Alabama-Mississippi border.
The Miami-based forecasting center said Tuesday that Gordon struck about 10 p.m.
Gordon formed Monday morning near the Florida Keys.
Gordon's maximum sustained winds were 70 mph (110 kilometers). It never achieved hurricane status.
The storm is forecast to quickly weaken as it moves inland across Mississippi, Louisiana and into Arkansas through Thursday.
The last hurricane to strike the U.S. was Nate, which came ashore in Biloxi, Mississippi, last October.
Forecasters say 4 to 8 inches (10-20 centimeters) of rain could fall along the storm's track. Flash flood watches have been issued.
___
7 p.m.
The National Hurricane Center says Gordon has begun hurling tropical storm-force winds onshore along the Alabama and western Florida Panhandle coastline.
The Miami-based forecasting center said the core of Tropical Storm Gordon was still about 75 miles (125 kilometers) southeast of Biloxi, Mississippi as of 7 p.m. CDT Tuesday. That's also about 70 miles (115 kilometers) south of Mobile, Alabama.
Forecasters say the storm could become a hurricane before expected landfall sometime Tuesday night along the north-central Gulf Coast. Hurricane Nate was the last hurricane to strike the U.S., making landfall near Biloxi, Mississippi, last October.
Forecasters say Gordon, after some strengthening late Tuesday, now packs top sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph). It's moving to the northwest toward the coast at 14 mph (22 kph).
___
An earlier version of this report incorrectly stated that a tornado had been confirmed in Florida.
A flooded parking lot sits near a shutdown portion of US Highway 98 from Tropical Storm Gordon on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Spanish Fort, Ala. Tropical Storm Gordon never became a hurricane but it was deadly all the same, as it made landfall late Tuesday just west of the Alabama-Mississippi border. (AP Photo/Dan Anderson)
Crew members with the Alabama Department of Transportation work to block off a flooded part of US Highway 98 while fighting rain from Tropical Storm Gordon on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Spanish Fort, Ala. (AP Photo/Dan Anderson)
Summer Ranaldson walks to her car in the rain as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Mobile, Ala. Tropical-force winds from fast-moving Gordon smashed into the coastline of Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle on Tuesday evening, the frontal edge of a system just offshore that forecasters warned could become a hurricane by the time it makes landfall. (AP Photo/Dan Anderson)
Summer Ranaldson walks to her car in the rain as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018 in Mobile, Ala. Tropical-force winds from fast-moving Gordon smashed into the coastline of Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle on Tuesday evening, the frontal edge of a system just offshore that forecasters warned could become a hurricane by the time it makes landfall. (AP Photo/Dan Anderson)
Manuel Arias walks with a guard dog, Toto, past boats that were dry-docked inland in preparation for Tropical Storm Gordon, expected to make landfall as a hurricane later in the evening, in Pass Christian, Miss., Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Lauren Dueitt, left, and John Payne, 6, right, play in the high tide waters caused by Tropical Storm Gordon on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Dauphin Island, Ala. (AP Photo/Dan Anderson)
John Cunningham, left, and Hunter Shows, right, watch the waves crash from Tropical Storm Gordon on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Dauphin Island, Ala. (AP Photo/Dan Anderson)
Laura Cunningham, 10,left, Hunter Shows, center, and Brandon Perry, 10, right, watch the waves crash from Tropical Storm Gordon on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018 in Dauphin Island, Ala. (AP Photo/Dan Anderson)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A Minneapolis police report says the arrest of Chinese billionaire Liu Qiangdong, founder of the Beijing-based e-commerce site JD.com, was over a felony rape accusation.
The report doesn't provide details of the alleged incident. No charges have been filed against the billionaire, also known as Richard Liu.
Jail records show he was arrested Friday in Minneapolis. He was released Saturday.
JD.com official Zhang Shuhan said Monday that Liu was back in China.
In a statement Sunday, JD.com said Liu was falsely accused while in the U.S. on a business trip, and that police investigators found no misconduct.
A spokeswoman for the University of Minnesota said Liu, who is enrolled as a student with the Carlson School of Management's doctor of business administration China program, was in Minneapolis to attend a residency from Aug. 26 to Sept. 1.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - Brazil's National Museum said Wednesday that centuries-old Torah scrolls, considered to be some of Judaism's oldest documents, had been moved before a massive fire ravaged the place and gutted much of the largest collections of national history artifacts in Latin America.
Questions about the fate of the scrolls had swirled since Sunday night's blaze at the museum, which used to be the home of Brazil's royal family. Amid an ongoing investigation and unable to access much of the now destroyed museum, officials have been reluctant to give any account of how specific artifacts fared in the fire or disclose information on other material that may have been in other locations.
"The Torah is being kept in a safe place," according to a museum statement sent to The Associated Press on Wednesday, adding it had been removed nearly two years ago. The statement did not say where it had been transferred.
Vultures fly over Brazil's National Museum days after a fire tore through the structure in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. Brazil's National Museum said Wednesday that centuries-old Torah scrolls, considered to be some of Judaism's oldest documents, had been moved before a massive fire ravaged the place and gutted much of the largest collections of national history artifacts in Latin America. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
A spokesman at the Israeli Embassy in the capital Brasilia said it didn't have more information on the Torah, Judaism's holy book.
Brazilian scholars have said the scrolls originated in Yemen and possibly date back to the 13th century.
The museum's website says the nine scrolls, written in Hebrew, were acquired in the early 19th century by the country's last monarch, Dom Pedro II. The website, which had apparently not been updated, also said the scrolls were not part of an exhibit, but rather kept in a safe in the director's office.
Avraham Beuthner, from the Jewish organization Beit Lubavitch in Rio de Janeiro, told the AP that university officials told him the Torah was being housed at a university library near the museum. The museum is part of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Beuthner said he had been fielding calls from Jews in Israel and several Latin American countries since the fire inquiring about the scrolls.
"Thank God it's safe," he said, adding that university officials had promised to soon allow Jewish community leaders to see where the Torah is being held.
The good news came as museum officials said they feared as much as 90 percent of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might have been lost in the fire. Aerial photos of the main building showed only heaps of rubble and ashes in the parts of the building where the roof collapsed.
Firefighters on Tuesday "found fragments of bones in a room where the museum kept many items, including skulls," said Cristiana Serejo, the museum's deputy director. "We still have to collect them and take them to the lab to know exactly what they are."
In its collection of about 20 million items, one of the most prized possessions is a skull called Luzia, which is among the oldest fossils ever found in the Americas.
Serejo told reporters Wednesday that several countries, including France and Germany, had offered help with recovery efforts and some rebuilding. She said that researchers could get into the museum as soon as next week, but it will depend on how fast federal police could finish their investigation.
"We are in line to get in there," she said.
With the cause of the fire still under investigation, the disaster has led to a series of recriminations amid accusations that successive governments haven't sufficiently funded the museum, and it has raised concerns that other institutions might be at risk. Officials have said it was well known that the building was vulnerable to fire and in need of extensive repair.
On Wednesday, state firefighting officials said in a statement the museum didn't have certification that it was up to code - another indication of negligence.
"It's the responsibility of building administrators to comply with the laws," the statement read.
A UNESCO group of specialists in recovery and reconstruction are expected to arrive in Brazil next week, according Maria Edileuza Fontele Reis, the organization's Brazilian ambassador in Paris.
The group "has experience working with pieces of national heritage in areas of war, such as in Iraq, and areas impacted by fire," Fontele Reis told the AP in a phone interview.
____
Associated Press journalist Diarlei Rodrigues contributed to this report.
___
This story corrects in the penultimate paragraph that Fontele Reis is UNESCO's Brazilian ambassador in Paris.
The sky can be seen through the windows of Brazil's National Museum after a fire tore through it in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. Brazil's National Museum said Wednesday that centuries-old Torah scrolls, considered to be some of Judaism's oldest documents, had been moved before a massive fire ravaged the place and gutted much of the largest collections of national history artifacts in Latin America. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
Federal police investigate the cause of the fire that tore through Brazil's National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. Officials have said as much as 90 percent of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might have been lost in a fire that broke out Sunday. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
Federal police investigate the cause of the fire that tore throught Brazil's National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. Officials have said as much as 90 percent of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might have been lost in a fire that broke out Sunday. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows wooden armor originating from Vancouver, British Columbia, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a mummified head produced by the Jivaro of the Ecuadorian Amazon, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. The famous heads shrunk by the so-called "people of the waterfall" were prepared in complex rituals and had a deep spiritual significance. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows an a speciman of the Macrodontia cervicornis beetle, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. The long-horned beetle, an endangered species, can exceed 6 inches in length. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a miniature Inca tunic worn by a silver or gold idol that served as an offering in sacrificial events, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. This type of garment was used exclusively in festivities known as capacochas, in which children were sacrificed. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a green stone frog pendant originating from Obidos, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. These common frogs have long been considered powerful amulets against all kinds of evil. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a Munduruku hooded feather cloak at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. The Munduruku live in the Amazon River basin. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, Sept. 2, 2018, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)(Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a representation of the Egyptian dwarf god Bes, circa 350 A.C., at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Bes the patron of childbirth was present in Egyptian homes, both rich and poor. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a statue representing a woman, circa 1000 to 1400 A.D., at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, Sept. 2, 2018, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a Peruvian Moche bird-shaped vase , at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, Sept. 2, 2018, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a Peruvian Moche ceramic instrument, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, Sept. 2, 2018, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows bronze mirror handles dating back to the 6th century A.C., at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. The mirror on the right represents Kouros, a greek sculpture that represents youth. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a tripod glass vase originating from Pompeii, circa 1 A.D., at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, Sept. 2, 2018, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a Para ceramic piece of a sitting man circa 1,000 a 1,400 A.D., at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, Sept. 2, 2018, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a nocturnal bird known as the giant potoo, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. These birds choose a trunk that resembles their body and spend the whole day absolutely still so that they go unnoticed by the daytime predators. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a priestess/princess Takushit statue dating to 730 B.C., at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, Sept. 2, 2018, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows an ancient Egyptian gold leaf funeral mask dating to 304 B.C., at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, Sept. 2, 2018, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows an Egyptian mummified cat, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, Sept. 2, 2018, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a rare zoomorphic sculpture, probably in phyllite or shale, produced by Amazonian ceramic artisans, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. The two circular and parallel holes in the center of the piece are recurrent in the stone idols found in Trombetas River region. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a 19th century rare Swahili comb, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Believed to be made with ebony, dark wood type. Used among the Swahili-speaking people of the eastern coast of Africa. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump unloaded Wednesday against an explosive new book from journalist Bob Woodward, labeling the tell-all memoir "a work of fiction" as West Wing staff scrambled to rebut its vivid depictions of White House dysfunction.
"The book means nothing," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. He said the early release of information from the book this week was designed to interfere with confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, "which I don't think it's done."
Venting for a second day, Trump tweeted that "Fear: Trump in the White House" was the "exact opposite of the fact." He also revisited a call to change libel laws, though he has no authority to do so.
President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The book features current and former aides calling the president an "idiot" and a "liar" and depicting him as prone to rash policy decisions that aides worked furiously to derail or stall.
Within the West Wing, aides increasingly numb to drama still were shaken by the in-depth reporting, which included interviews with numerous aides and copies of internal memos. The White House press office appeared caught off guard when The Washington Post published a story about the book on Tuesday, a week before its Sept. 11 release date. The office was unable to quickly procure an advance copy of the book.
Key allies have pushed back against the book, which quotes Trump aides disparaging the president's judgment and claiming they plucked papers off his desk to prevent him from withdrawing from a pair of trade agreements. Those issuing denials, at least in part, included Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and chief of staff John Kelly.
Underscoring the aggressive response, Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale tweeted Wednesday that Woodward "got played," adding that "most of these stories are made up from low confidence under performing people that have fallen flat on their faces because they didn't have the talent or intelligence to be successful."
In a statement to the Post, Woodward said, "I stand by my reporting." He did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders evaded questions Wednesday on Fox News about whether it was a mistake for the communications department not to have Trump sit for an interview with Woodward.
Trump and Woodward spoke after the book was sent to the publisher. In a transcript and audio of the call released by the Post, Woodward tells Trump he made repeated efforts to get an interview, while a clearly irritated Trump says he would have participated if he had known.
Allies said some of the ire in Trump's orbit was focused on former staffers such as ex-staff secretary Rob Porter and onetime economic adviser Gary Cohn, who are sympathetically portrayed.
"I don't think Woodward made anything up. It's who he talked to," said former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg, adding that Cohn and Porter "look like unsung heroes."
Trump and aides pushed back on a series of incendiary scenes in the book, including Kelly calling the White House "crazytown," Mattis telling associates Trump had the understanding of "a fifth- or sixth-grader" and Cohn plucking key documents off Trump's desk so he could not sign them.
Trump took to Twitter to deny the book's claim that he had called Attorney General Jeff Sessions "mentally retarded" and "a dumb Southerner."
Trump insisted he "never used those terms on anyone, including Jeff," adding that "being a southerner is a GREAT thing." Sessions has been a target of the president's wrath since recusing himself from the Russia investigation.
While Trump mentioned libel laws, Sanders said on Fox News that she hadn't spoken with Trump about filing a libel lawsuit. Brian Hauss, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement that a threat against libel laws was not "credible."
"There is no federal libel law for President Trump to bully Congress to change, and the president does not have the authority to change state libel laws," Hauss said.
The book follows the January release of author Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury," which led to a rift between Trump and Steve Bannon, his former chief strategist. Bannon spoke with Wolff in terms that were highly critical of the president and his family. Wolff's book attracted attention with its lively anecdotes but suffered from numerous factual inaccuracies.
Woodward's work also comes weeks after former White House aide and "Apprentice" contestant Omarosa Manigault Newman published an expose on her time in the West Wing, including audio recordings of her firing by Kelly and a follow-up conversation with the president in which he claimed to have been unaware of Kelly's decision.
Woodward has been among the best-selling political writers for more than 40 years, going back to his Watergate classic "All the President's Men," co-written by fellow Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein. "Fear" renews a Woodward tradition of releasing a news-making account of a sitting president in the fall of an election season, with previous works including "The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House" and "Plan of Attack: The Definitive Account of the Decision to Invade Iraq," about President George W. Bush.
On Amazon, Woodward's new book was ranked as the top-selling book on Wednesday.
___
Associated Press writers Robert Burns, Ken Thomas and Eric Tucker in Washington and Hillel Italie in New York contributed to this report.
FILE - This June 11, 2012 file photo shows former Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward speaking during an event to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Watergate in Washington. Details are starting to come out from journalist Bob Woodward's forthcoming book on President Donald Trump's first 18 months in office. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file)
President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with the Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, left, listens as President Donald Trump speaks during an expanded bilateral meeting with the Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Democrats looking to win the battle of public opinion over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh are essentially accusing Republicans of concealing evidence to ensure his confirmation before the midterm election.
The strategy was front-and-center as Kavanaugh's hearing got underway Tuesday, with Democrats immediately calling on the committee to adjourn. They characterized the hearing as a "charade and mockery of our norms."
Meanwhile, Republicans pointed to the huge number of documents released, the most ever for a Supreme Court nominee, to make the case that the review of Kavanaugh is "the most thorough and transparent confirmation process in history."
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., right, and other Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee appeal to Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to delay the confirmation hearing of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
A look at what the two sides are fighting about:
___
WHAT RECORDS ARE SENATORS REVIEWING?
The Senate Judiciary Committee has been able to review the more than 300 legal opinions Kavanaugh has authored and the hundreds more he has joined as a circuit court judge.
Republicans argue that those opinions are the most relevant records for determining a nominee's judicial philosophy and fitness to serve on the nation's highest court. But Kavanaugh's paper trail goes beyond that, as he also worked in the George W. Bush White House and for independent counsel Kenneth Starr during the investigation of President Bill Clinton.
The Judiciary Committee has reviewed tens of thousands of documents from Kavanaugh's work for Starr, including a memo he wrote urging lawyers on Starr's team to ask aggressive and graphic questions of Clinton concerning his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Another 267,000 pages of Kavanaugh documents from his time working in the Bush White House have been made public, with another 215,000 provided for viewing only by committee members.
___
WHAT RECORDS HAVE NOT BEEN PROVIDED TO THE COMMITTEE?
Kavanaugh worked some five years in the Bush White House, first as legal counsel and then as staff secretary. It's those records that are at the center of the dispute. Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa declined to request Kavanaugh's staff secretary records, which cover a 35-month period of Kavanaugh's work that he has described as "among the most interesting and most formative" in his career.
The Trump administration is also withholding more than 100,000 pages of Brett Kavanaugh's records from his tenure as legal counsel on the basis that disclosing the records would disrupt the functions or decision-making processes of the executive branch. Democrats denounced that decision Tuesday, saying there is no basis for those documents to be held back.
___
WHY ARE REPUBLICANS MOVING AHEAD?
Grassley describes the documents sought by Democrats as "the least useful in understanding his legal views and the most sensitive" when it comes to the inner workings of the executive branch. Grassley says reviewing Kavanaugh's staff secretary documents would "teach us nothing about his legal views." For that, senators should rely on Kavanaugh's legal opinions, speeches and articles, Grassley says.
___
WHAT DO DEMOCRATS SAY ABOUT THE PROCESS?
Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont said about 4 percent of Kavanaugh's White House records have been posted for the public to view and about 7 percent have been made available to the committee. That compares to 99 percent of Justice Elena Kagan's records from her years at the White House being made available.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said there is a "35-month black hole" in Kavanuagh's career from which senators have been denied any and all documents. Democrats have attacked the records production on two fronts. They're raising the question of whether Republicans are trying to hide something in Kavanaugh's record. They're also asserting that the Senate is "phoning in" its responsibility to carefully vet judicial nominees, calling the process a "sham."
___
ARE MORE RECORDS COMING IN?
Yes. The committee received 42,000 pages of documents Monday night. Democrats asserted that the lack of time to review those documents made the notion of properly vetting them "laughable."
The National Archives is also preparing to release more than 1 million documents from Kavanaugh's time in the White House counsel's office. But Archives says the review of those records will not be finished until the end of October.
Republicans hope to confirm Kavanaugh by Oct. 1, the first day of the Supreme Court's new term.
CHICAGO (AP) - Several dozen would-be jurors reported to a courthouse Wednesday and were told by a judge they might be asked to decide whether a Chicago police officer committed murder when he shot and killed black teenager Laquan McDonald.
Nearly four years after Officer Jason Van Dyke shot the 17-year-old and nearly three years after the city was forced to release police video of the shooting, the first phase of Van Dyke's trial started with the distribution of questionnaires to prospective jurors to fill out before attorneys question them in their effort to select a jury. That questioning is expected to begin next week.
The potential jurors were not told officially before they arrived at the courthouse what trial they might be selected for. But they had to walk past a crowd of protesters and a small army of law enforcement officers outside the courthouse on the city's South Side before the judge told them what case they'd been called for.
Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke walks into the courthouse, Wednesday morning, Sept. 5, 2018, in Chicago. Prospective jurors in the murder trial of Dyke who killed black teenager Laquan McDonald are to be given questionnaires as the first phase of jury selection starts Wednesday. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Van Dyke is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery and official misconduct. He has pleaded not guilty; his attorneys have contended that he was in fear for his life. McDonald was shot 16 times. Video shows Van Dyke opened fire as McDonald walked away from police with a knife in his hand.
Van Dyke's attorneys have also filed a motion asking that the trial be moved out of Chicago, arguing that extensive publicity has made it impossible for the officer to get a fair trial in the city where the video sparked massive protests. Judge Vincent Gaughan has said he will decide on the change of venue motion after he hears from potential jurors during jury selection.
Van Dyke's attorneys have also put off announcing whether they want a jury or the judge alone to decide the case. The attorneys do not have to decide whether they want a jury trial or what is called a bench trial until the 12th juror is sworn in.
FILE - In this Oct. 20, 2014 file image taken from dash-cam video provided by the Chicago Police Department, Laquan McDonald, right, walks down the street moments before being fatally shot by Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke in Chicago. Prospective jurors in the murder trial of the white Chicago police officer who killed black teenager Laquan McDonald are to be given questionnaires as the first phase of jury selection starts Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (Chicago Police Department via AP, File)
The Rev. Marvin Hunter, Laquan McDonald's great-uncle, walks with family into the Leighton Criminal Courthouse as jury selection starts for the trial against Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Chicago. Prospective jurors in the murder trial of the white officer who killed black teenager Laquan McDonald are to be given questionnaires as the first phase of jury selection starts Wednesday. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Laquan McDonald's mother, Tina Hunter, walks with family into the Leighton Criminal Courthouse, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018 in Chicago. Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke has been charged with first-degree murder for the fatal shooting of 17-year-old McDonald in 2014. The trial begins Wednesday with jury selection. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Protesters gather outside the Leighton Criminal Courthouse as jury selection starts for the trial against Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Chicago. Prospective jurors in the murder trial of the white officer who killed black teenager Laquan McDonald are to be given questionnaires as the first phase of jury selection starts Wednesday. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Protesters gather outside the Leighton Criminal Courthouse as jury selection starts for the trial against Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Chicago. Prospective jurors in the murder trial of the white officer who killed black teenager Laquan McDonald are to be given questionnaires as the first phase of jury selection starts Wednesday. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Protesters gather outside the Leighton Criminal Courthouse as jury selection starts for the trial against Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Chicago. Prospective jurors in the murder trial of the white officer who killed black teenager Laquan McDonald are to be given questionnaires as the first phase of jury selection starts Wednesday. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Protesters gather outside the Leighton Criminal Courthouse as jury selection starts for the trial against Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Chicago. Prospective jurors in the murder trial of the white officer who killed black teenager Laquan McDonald are to be given questionnaires as the first phase of jury selection starts Wednesday. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
FILE - In this May 4, 2018 file photo, Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke attends a hearing for the shooting death of Laquan McDonald at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, in Chicago. Prospective jurors in the murder trial of the white Chicago police officer who killed the black teenager McDonald are to be given questionnaires as the first phase of jury selection starts Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. Van Dyke has pleaded not guilty. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool)
CHICAGO (AP) - Rahm Emanuel, whose tumultuous tenure as Chicago mayor included an infamous police shooting and a surge in violent crime, said in a surprise announcement that he would abandon his plan to seek a third term next year but gave no reason for the sudden change of heart.
Emanuel also led the effort to conduct the largest mass closing of neighborhood schools in American history and is credited with helping to stabilize the city's finances through politically unpopular increases in taxes and fees.
The 58-year-old former White House chief of staff known for his pugnacious political style said only that he and his wife "look forward to writing that next chapter in our journey together."
With wife Amy Rule by his side, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announces Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, he will not seek a third term in office at a press conference on the 5th floor at City Hall in Chicago. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune via AP)
"This has been the job of a lifetime, but it is not a job for a lifetime," the mayor said, reading prepared remarks at a news conference Tuesday where he was joined at the podium by his wife. He held her hand throughout the announcement.
Before becoming mayor in 2011, Emanuel was a Democratic congressman and chief of staff to President Barack Obama. In winning the city's top office, he succeeded Richard M. Daley, who was mayor for more than 20 years, and won a second term in 2015.
Emanuel had been running and raising money for months in preparation for the February election. The Chicago Tribune said he had already amassed more than $10 million to campaign for another four-year term.
His announcement came the day before the start of jury selection for one of the biggest police-shooting trials in Chicago history, a case that seemed sure to renew questions about the city's long effort to prevent the release of video showing white officer Jason Van Dyke shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times in 2014.
Many people asked whether Emanuel's office delayed releasing the video to lessen the political damage.
"Imagine this trial is starting and what happened is going to get rehashed over and over and over again while you are in campaign mode," said Delmarie Cobb, a media and political consultant and a vocal critic of the mayor.
David Axelrod, a friend of Emanuel's who worked with him in Obama's White House, disagreed. He said Emanuel told him of his decision not to run over the weekend.
"I think he was aware of the timing of the trial, and he was also aware of what he did and didn't do. And I think he was comfortable about that," Axelrod said. "His concerns ... were about his own level of energy and freshness."
A verdict in the officer's favor or a hung jury could prompt another crisis in the city, angering many Chicagoans, inviting large protests and creating a volatile political atmosphere.
No matter how the trial ends, Emanuel's legacy as mayor will likely be tied to the case. The release of the video led to a Department of Justice investigation of Chicago police, culminating in a damning report last year that found widespread civil rights violations.
After the report, he vowed to carry out sweeping police reforms , which has already included fitting all patrol officers with body cameras and non-lethal stun guns.
Chicago's violent crime drew national attention throughout Emanuel's second term, with the number of shootings and homicides climbing to levels not seen in nearly two decades and exceeding the bloodshed of any other U.S. city. The number of slayings in each of the last two years was more than twice the total of Los Angeles and New York combined.
The mayor clashed several times with President Donald Trump over the gun violence. Soon after becoming president, Trump tweeted that, "If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible 'carnage' going on ... I will send in the Feds!" Emanuel said he welcomed federal help but cautioned against the strictly "tough and rough" approach Trump seemed to advocate.
There are now no front-runners in the mayoral race, and Emanuel's departure will almost certainly encourage others to enter it. The twelve candidates declared to date include a former Chicago police superintendent, Garry McCarthy; a former Chicago public schools CEO, Paul Vallas; and Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown. They were all considered longshots.
Emanuel has been a profile writer's dream, from his time as a ballet dancer, to the loss of part of a finger while operating a meat-slicing machine at a deli where he once worked. Obama enjoyed linking the incident with Emanuel's fondness for profanity by joking that the loss of his middle finger "rendered him mute for a while." Emanuel once sent a pollster a dead fish, which helped earn him the nickname "Rahmbo."
His battle with the teachers union led to a strike in 2012 - the first in a quarter century. To shore up the city's bleak financial situation, he was willing to do something no American mayor had ever done before: close 50 schools at once.
The mayor several times referred to his family Tuesday, noting that his three kids are now in college. But he stopped short of saying family considerations drove his decision.
"Politicians always say they're leaving office to spend more time with their family," he said. "My kids were smart enough to see that coming and scattered to the two coasts. So as of the other day, we are now empty nesters."
Emanuel grew up in the ritzy Chicago suburb of Wilmette, the son of an Israeli physician who moved to the United States. His start in politics came after college, when he worked for Sen. Paul Simon's 1984 Senate campaign and Daley's run for mayor in 1989.
Then he went to work for a little-known Arkansas governor who wanted to be president.
His fundraising skills helped keep Bill Clinton's campaign afloat during some rocky times, particularly the scandal over whether he had slept with Gennifer Flowers.
Clinton made him his political director in the new administration, but internal tensions led to his comeuppance a year later, when he was demoted to a policy adviser.
Midway through Clinton's second term, Emanuel left for Chicago to work in investment banking. The firm he joined was soon sold, and Emanuel made millions, giving him the financial security to get back into politics.
___
Follow Michael Tarm on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mtarm
___
Sign up for "Politics in Focus," a weekly newsletter showcasing the AP's best political reporting from around the country leading up to the midterm elections: https://bit.ly/2ICEr3D
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announces Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, he will not seek a third term in office at a press conference on the 5th floor at City Hall in Chicago. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune via AP)
FILE - In this Aug. 6, 2018, file photo, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel speaks at a news conference in Chicago. Emanuel announced Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, that he will not seek a third term in 2019. AP Photo/Teresa Crawford, File)
FILE - In this April 7, 2015, file photo, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel celebrates at Plumbers Local 130 Union Hall in Chicago after winning in a runoff election for a second term in office. Emanuel, a Democratic congressman and chief of staff to President Barack Obama before becoming mayor in 2011, announced Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, that he won't seek a third term in 2019. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
FILE - In this May 16, 2011, file photo, Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel, left, and his wife, Amy Rule, look out into the crowd during his inaugural ceremony in Chicago. Emanuel, a Democratic congressman and chief of staff to President Barack Obama before becoming mayor in 2011, announced Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, that he won't seek a third term in 2019. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
FILE - In this Nov. 13, 2010, file photo Rahm Emanuel announces his candidacy for mayor of Chicago at the John C. Coonley School in Chicago. Emanuel, a Democratic congressman and chief of staff to President Barack Obama before becoming mayor in 2011, announced Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, that he won't seek a third term in 2019. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty, File)
Nearly a year after Russian government hackers meddled in the 2016 U.S. election, researchers at cybersecurity firm Trend Micro zeroed in on a new sign of trouble: a group of suspect websites.
The sites mimicked a portal for U.S. senators and their staffs. Emails to Senate users urged them to reset their passwords - an apparent attempt to steal them.
The attempt to infiltrate the Senate network and others reported recently point to Russia's continued efforts to interfere in U.S. politics, which Moscow official denies. There is no clear evidence, experts said, of Kremlin efforts specifically designed to disrupt elections in November.
This combination of 2017-2018 photos shows from left, a Facebook posting from a group named "Being Patriotic" attributed to Russian agents by the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri whose campaign was targeted by Russian hackers and voting machines in Chicago after hackers found a way into the voter registration database at the Illinois State Board of Elections in mid-2016. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick, Jeff Roberson, Kiichiro Sato)
Still, "we fully realize that we are just one click away of the keyboard from a similar situation repeating itself," Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, said in July.
Michael McFaul, architect of the Obama administration's Russia policy, has said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin perceives little benefit in major disruption now, preferring to keep his powder dry for the 2020 presidential contest.
Experts said it is too late to safeguard U.S. voting systems and campaigns this election cycle. Trump's recent decision eliminating the White House cybersecurity coordinator's post confirmed his lack of interest in countering Russian meddling, critics say. Congress has not delivered any legislation to combat election interference or disinformation.
But there is time to take stock of interference that has come to light - and to assess the risks of what we don't know.
____
In mid-2016, hackers got into Illinois' voter registration database. Special counsel Robert Mueller's indictment of a dozen Russian intelligence agents this July said the hackers had stolen information on 500,000 voters.
It is the most notable case of foreign tampering with U.S. election systems made public. There has been no evidence of efforts to change voter information or tamper with voting machines, but experts caution hackers might have planted unseen malware in systems that could be triggered later.
"My unofficial opinion is that we're kind of fooling ourselves if we don't think that they tried to at least make a pass at all 50 states," said Christopher Krebs, the undersecretary for critical infrastructure at the Department of Homeland Security.
Before the 2016 general election, Russian agents sent spear-phishing emails to 122 state and local elections officials who were customers of election software vendor VR Systems. At least 21 state systems were probed by the same Russian unit, officials said. But federal officials have moved slowly to share intelligence. As of mid-August, 92 state election officials had been given clearances.
Much of the machinery used to collect and tabulate votes is antiquated, built by a handful of unregulated and secretive vendors, the outdated software highly vulnerable to attacks, researchers say.
"If someone was able to compromise even a handful of voting machines I think that would be sufficient to cause people to not trust the system," said Sherri Ramsay, a former National Security Agency senior executive.
___
Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, seeking re-election in a state that voted overwhelmingly for Trump, provided little detail in July when an attempt by Russian hackers to infiltrate her campaign came to light.
"While this attack was not successful, it is outrageous that they think they can get away with this," McCaskill said.
The failed hack, which included an attempt to steal the password of at least one McCaskill staffer through a fake Senate login website identified by Microsoft, is the most notable instance of attempted campaign meddling by Russia made public this year. Microsoft executives said recently that the company had detected attempts by Russia's GRU military intelligence agency to hack two senators.
Since mid-2017, the group behind that attempt has aggressively targeted political groups, universities, enforcement agencies and others, according to TrendMicro.
"Russian hackers appear to be broadening their target set, but I think tying it to the midterm elections is pure speculation at this point," said Michael Connell, an analyst at the federally funded Center for Naval Analyses in Arlington, Virginia.
Eric Rosenbach, assistant secretary of defense for global security during the Obama administration and now at Harvard, said Russian intrusion that has come to light may be only a tip to larger, hidden schemes.
"There probably have already been compromises of important campaigns in places where it could sway the outcome or undermine trust in the election," Rosenbach said. "We might not see that until the very last moment."
___
By the time a group called "ReSisters" began organizing a rally against white nationalism, it had spent a year sharing left-wing posts. But in late July, Facebook shut down ReSisters' account and 31 others that researchers said echoed Russian troll operations before the 2016 election.
Since 2016, we've learned much more about social media infiltration. House Democrats' May release of thousands of ads placed on Facebook by Russian agents revealed a deliberate campaign to inflame racial divisions in the U.S. Tech companies say they are working hard to combat such behavior.
But companies must be forced to act faster against such campaigns and be more accountable, said Dipayan Ghosh, who has worked at the White House and Facebook on tech policy and is now at Harvard.
It is difficult to assess the threat of Russian disinformation efforts. In 2016, the greatest damage was done by hacking and leaking emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign and Democrats' national organization, widely reported by the news media. But comparatively few saw individual pieces of misinformation on social media, making it unlikely they swayed many votes, said Brendan Nyhan, a University of Michigan political scientist.
Still, it is clear the Russian efforts have stirred others, like Iran, to try similar strategies, with long-term goals of influencing U.S. politics.
"We can't just think in the context of the next election," said Lee Foster, manager of information operations analysis at the cybersecurity firm FireEye. "It's not like this goes away after the midterms."
___
Associated Press writers Barbara Ortutay in New York and Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta contributed to this story.
GUANGZHOU, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- A batch of wood has just been transported from Gabon in Central Africa to Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province. After being painted and assembled, the wood will be sent to European and American countries.
This has been a project of Yihua Group in recent years. In 2012, Yihua Group set up wood processing and production bases in Gabon, participating in the country's green industry and using environmentally friendly methods to exploit 350,000 hectares of forest, creating jobs for over 1,000 locals.
In recent years, more and more private firms in Guangdong have invested in Africa. According to the provincial commerce department, 244 companies from Guangdong have set up branches in Africa by the end of 2017, among which 241 are private firms.
"Private firms, full of economic vitality, have been actively investing in Africa in recent years and are optimistic about Sino-Africa cooperation," said Liu Jisen, executive vice president of the Institute for African Studies at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.
China and African countries have complementary advantages in labor, natural resources, industrial structure, finance and technology, said Xu Chuwu from the African General Chamber of Commerce (Greater China).
According to customs data,Guangzhou's import-export volume to Africa reached 87.35 billion yuan (12.8 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017, seven times that of 2006. Mechanical and electrical products were major export products and diamond and resources were major imported products.
Guangdong Shineng Electric Equipment Group Ltd has invested in power plants and power equipment factories in Uganda in the past eight years, with its products accounting for 80 percent of the local retail market. The company is also expanding its business in countries including Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda and Nigeria.
An industrial park was also opened in Uganda in August. Besides a steel plant and a tin smelter, a brick factory and a slag grinding plant, which both use steel slag as materials, and a sewage treatment plant were also built.
"We not only lift the products' added value but also make efforts to protect the environment in the park," said Lyv Weidong, chairman of Guangzhou Dong Song Energy Group Co. Ltd.
With Sino-Africa relations deepening, cooperation has also gradually expanded from trade, construction and infrastructure to medical services, environmental protection, tourism, education, culture and technology.
Artepharm CO. LTD., China, co-founded by Guangdong New South Group Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, carried out projects in the Union of Comoros with an aim to cure malaria.
By 2014, malaria cases decreased by 98 percent compared with those before 2006, and no malaria-related deaths were reported, said Chen Yuejin, vice president of New South. In addition, the company is planning to build 10 new medical centers in Africa.
To better match the needs of both private firms and African counterparts, commerce chambers and industry associations have been established. The Africa Investment and Trade Alliance, initiated by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Guangdong Committee, has recruited over 100 members, said Lin Tao, the committee's president. The committee also built a commerce chamber in Kenya this year.
"We are building a platform for the two sides to communicate and share information, integrate financial resources, improve investment mechanisms and help firms build wholesale centers, sales bases and industrial parks in Africa," Lin said.
A Roman Catholic bishop who apologized to his flock last month for the "misguided and inappropriate decisions of church leaders" is reckoning with his own role - revealed in federal court a decade ago - in the system that protected pedophile priests.
Scranton Bishop Joseph Bambera handled three sexual misconduct cases during his three-year tenure as diocesan vicar for clergy. He testified about one of them in a 2007 civil trial over clergy abuse.
Under questioning from a plaintiff's lawyer, Bambera acknowledged the diocese ignored its own policy by failing to report "Father Ned" - a pseudonym used in court - to civil authorities. He testified that Father Ned was removed from ministry only temporarily before getting another parish assignment. Once there, Bambera told the jury, Father Ned was caught "grooming" a boy for sexual assault.
In this Aug. 21, 2018 photo, Joseph Bambera, Roman Catholic bishop of Scranton, Pa., discusses the clergy abuse crisis in an interview with The Times-Tribune in Scranton. Bambera is reckoning with his own role, revealed in federal court a decade ago, in the system that protected pedophile priests. (Butch Comegys/The Times-Tribune via AP)
The Associated Press has learned that Father Ned's real name is the Rev. Robert Gibson, who died in 2012. Gibson is one of about 300 predator priests named in a landmark Pennsylvania grand jury report that said more than 1,000 children in six Catholic dioceses have been abused since the 1940s.
Bambera's participation in the Gibson case highlights the fact that some of today's bishops, while they were rising through the ranks, helped their superiors shield priests accused of abuse from law enforcement and allowed them to continue in ministry - or at least had knowledge of the cover-up by senior church officials and didn't blow the whistle.
"He knew. He was part of the system," said Marci Hamilton, a University of Pennsylvania legal expert on child sexual abuse and the founder of CHILD USA, an advocacy group.
Bambera, who has emphasized his zero-tolerance policies toward clergy abuse since becoming Scranton's bishop in 2010, said Bishop James Timlin had already decided to reassign Gibson to another parish by the time Bambera became vicar in 1995. He said he worked to make sure Gibson and other priests accused of abuse were eventually barred from ministry.
"Could I have done things better? Do I wish that there were things that were different in those days? Yeah, I do, I do," Bambera told the AP. "I wish that law enforcement was engaged on a much much more regular basis than it had been." But he said there was only so much he could do: "I worked for Bishop Timlin and the decisions were his to make, they weren't mine."
On Friday, Bambera barred Timlin from representing the diocese in public, citing his failure to protect children from abusive priests. Bambera said in a statement announcing Timlin's punishment that the grand jury report had also "caused me to reflect on my own role in handling allegations of abuse in the church" and "to consider my role and past actions in protecting children."
Bambera isn't the only current Pennsylvania bishop whose handling of old abuse cases has come under scrutiny. Like Bambera, Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik and Allentown Bishop Alfred Schlert were, at one time, high-ranking church officials tasked with investigating reports of sexual misconduct.
The grand jury said Zubik, on behalf of Pittsburgh Bishop Donald Wuerl, wrote a 1991 letter giving permission to a known child molester to transfer to a parish in the Diocese of Reno-Las Vegas. Wuerl, now a cardinal and the archbishop of Washington, D.C., has himself come under fierce criticism over his tenure in Pittsburgh. In Allentown, the grand jury said Schlert was involved in the diocese's 2002 effort to discredit a victim of priestly abuse. The bishop has flatly denied it.
In the Scranton case, the grand jury said the diocese was first contacted about Gibson - Father Ned - by an attorney for a man who claimed the priest had sexually abused him 20 years earlier. Gibson admitted to it, resigned as pastor and was sent to Saint John Vianney Center outside Philadelphia for treatment.
Before major church reforms in 2002, bishops often sent abusive priests to treatment and allowed them to return to ministry. Thus, eight months after his resignation and one month after Bambera became vicar for clergy, Gibson left treatment and went to live in a parish rectory outside Wilkes-Barre.
Gibson was reinstated "to a limited ministry as a parish priest" based on the recommendation of mental health professionals at St. John Vianney Center, diocesan spokesman Bill Genello said via email.
Bambera, as a top adviser to Timlin, participated in closed-door discussions about Gibson, according to his 2007 testimony. But he told jurors the final decision on what to do with the priest rested with Timlin. The grand jury extensively documented Timlin's role in concealing clergy sex abuse, but mentioned Bambera only a few times.
"To be fair to Bambera, he was not the ultimate decision maker here," said Nicholas Cafardi, a canon lawyer and former dean of Duquesne University School of Law.
Hamilton said Bambera's subordinate role is no excuse. She has called on Pennsylvania prosecutors to file child endangerment charges against bishops who concealed abuse as well as subordinates who took part. Hamilton noted the case of Philadelphia Monsignor William Lynn, the first Catholic Church official convicted over his handling of sexual-abuse complaints.
Lynn - who, as vicar for clergy, held the same position Bambera did in Scranton - served 33 months of a three-to-six-year prison term before a state appeals court granted him a new trial, which is pending.
"They all did the same thing," Hamilton said. "And what they did was put children in the pathway of pedophiles."
Bambera told the AP that while he didn't do the job perfectly, he did what he could to remove abusive priests, and "I clearly did raise my voice and my concern on many occasions about behavior and decisions that I didn't agree with."
BEIJING (AP) - China is trying to defuse a spiraling tariff war with Washington over technology policy by highlighting gains in other trade-related areas.
The Cabinet press office invited The Associated Press to interview the head of the country's patent and copyright office, as part of government efforts to persuade Washington and other trading partners to tone down objections to Chinese industry policy.
The official, Shen Changyu, pointed to improvements in fighting violations, previously a target of complaints by the United States, Europe and other traders.
In this April 26, 2018, file photo, a staff member uses his smartphone in front of a billboard for Chinese cellphone maker Honor at the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) in Beijing. The head of China's patent and copyright agency is defending what he says are gains in fighting violations - once a chronic complaint by China's trading partners - in a new effort to defuse a tariff war with Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
"China's work on intellectual property protection is solid and very productive," said Shen, commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office. "This point should be evaluated objectively and fairly by the international community."
The interview coincided with a series of events organized by Chinese officials, including briefings for foreign reporters by economists and other researchers, seeking to change minds abroad.
They have emphasized China's importance as a market, its plans to end ownership limits in its auto industry and other regulatory changes. But none of those moves directly addresses the policies that prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to impose penalty tariffs on Chinese goods.
Washington says Beijing steals or pressures foreign companies to hand over technology. American officials say Chinese plans for state-led development of global champions in robotics and other fields violate Beijing's free-trade commitments and might erode American industrial leadership.
The Cabinet press office said Shen couldn't address those complaints because his office has no role in technology policy.
The Trump administration has imposed 25 percent duties on $50 billion of Chinese imports and is poised to add similar penalties on another $200 billion list of goods as early as this week. Beijing says it will retaliate.
Washington and Beijing went to the brink of a trade war in the 1990s over complaints China allowed rampant unlicensed copying of medicine, movies, software, designing clothing and other goods. Business groups say enforcement has improved since then, largely because Chinese companies started creating their own technology in smartphones, solar power and other fields that required protection.
Shen cited promises this year by President Xi Jinping and China's No. 2 leader, Premier Li Keqiang, to strength enforcement and "make infringers pay a heavy price."
"It is an independent choice for us to build an innovative country and promote economic and social development," said Shen.
The conflict has largely moved on from over rampant Chinese copying of Hollywood movies, music, software and medicines to one focused on the bedrock of Beijing's state-led development strategy.
Chinese officials have rejected U.S. pressure to scale back industry plans Beijing sees as the path to prosperity and global influence.
"Ratcheting up U.S. pressure will not work on China," said a foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, last week. "For people who still think China will give in to intimidation, threats and groundless criticism, I think it's the time for them to wake up."
Chinese leaders also have stressed protection for patents and copyrights in meetings with foreign businesspeople, though their reaction suggested the topic is no longer the irritant it once was.
Li, the premier, asked representatives of some of Europe's biggest companies at a July meeting to give examples of intellectual property theft or measures they wanted changed. None did during the portion of the meeting reporters were allowed to watch. Instead, a German auto executive expressed concern about Chinese industrial standards - part of technology policy.
Shen expressed frustration at the U.S. government's "Section 301" investigation that concluded Beijing improperly obtains foreign technology.
"In the 301 survey, intellectual property was a justification or an excuse," said Shen. "We hope the U.S. government will provide specific infringement cases or clues. We will deal with them seriously and will not tolerate them."
China faces similar, though more muted, criticism from Europe and other trading partners.
The 28-nation European Union challenged China's rules on technology licensing in a June complaint to the World Trade Organization. The EU said Beijing unfairly favors domestic companies in violation of its commitments to treat all competitors equally.
At a government-organized event last week, researchers from official think tanks stressed the potential gains from collaboration between the two biggest global economies and what might be lost if they fight.
"The United States and China are interdependent. Not just trade in goods but in many other areas too," said Wu Baiyi, director of the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
"These are the only two countries with more than $10 trillion of economic scale," said Wu. "If there is a serious (economic) war between these two countries, then the whole world economic system may collapse. This will be a disaster for the whole world."
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A rape case against an Idaho prison inmate working at a Utah wildfire base camp raises safety questions for vulnerable crews who spend long days on the front lines, the head of a firefighting nonprofit said Wednesday.
"It's going to put a chill through fire camps across the country," said Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology. The case is an extreme example of a culture of harassment that women have endured working wildfires in the past, he said.
Inmate Ruben Hernandez is charged with sexually assaulting a base-camp worker after she rejected his advances on Aug. 29. He invoked his right to a speedy trial during his first court appearance on Wednesday, a signal he disputes the rape charge, said prosecutor Kevin Daniels.
This photo taken Aug. 6, 2018, shows a helicopters returning from performing an air operation on the Coal Hollow Fire near U.S. Highway 6. An Idaho prisoner sent to help fight a wildfire in Utah raped a woman who also was working to support firefighters, prosecutors said Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. The woman had rejected several advances from Ruben Hernandez, 27, in the days before the Aug. 29 assault at the base camp, Sanpete County attorney Kevin Daniels said. Hernandez has been charged with felony rape. (Evan Cobb/The Daily Herald via AP)
His defense attorney didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.
Hernandez met the woman while working on a janitorial inmate crew making $1.25 an hour at the remote camp south of Salt Lake City, according to court records. It was his first time working at a wildfire and he had spent nine days working before his arrest, said Idaho Department of Correction spokesman Jeff Ray.
Court records show Hernandez, 27, of Blackfoot, Idaho, has a history of misdemeanor arrests dating back more than a decade, including theft and alcohol violations. He was serving time on a felony drug charge when he joined the wildfire program. He had been sentenced to probation but was sent to prison for a three-to-seven-year term after he violated it.
He qualified for the wildfire program because he had no history of assault, was less than a year from being paroled and didn't have serious behavior problems behind bars, prison officials said.
He also was required to show he could carry a heavy pack and pass basic CPR training to participate.
Most Western states have similar programs for minimum-security inmates, some dating back decades. Experts say cases like the one against Hernandez appear to be rare, though there have been some cases where inmates have tried to walk off the job.
Working on a wildfire crew is typically a sought-after position by inmates because it allows them to get into the outdoors, and they don't often cause problems, said Jack Tidrow, president of the Professional Firefighters of Utah union.
"You just hardly even hear of problems with those crews," he said.
The Idaho Department of Correction returned its inmate crews to prison after the charge was filed last week. Prison authorities are cooperating with the Utah investigation and reviewing the way they choose, train and deploy inmates in the program.
The 10-person crew from Idaho was supervised by two correctional officers. Inmates wear correction department T-shirts and work in groups of two. They are allowed to move around inside the camps and interact with other workers as their do their jobs.
That relative autonomy inside the camp is "shocking" for Ingalsbee, who said that firefighters are often exhausted at the end of long days at the front lines when they return to base camp to eat and sleep. Camps can be like small cities, with hundreds of people and plenty of places for things to slip between the cracks, he said.
Crews' "guards are lowered, and the last thing they need to be dealing with feeling fearful," he said. "You don't want to end that possibility with inmates, but there has to be close security and screening of candidates like that."
___
Associated Press reporter Keith Ridler in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this story.
This photo provided by the Sanpete County Jail in Manti, Utah, shows Ruben Hernandez. Prosecutors say Hernandez, an Idaho prison inmate sent to help fight a wildfire, raped a woman who was also working to support firefighters in Utah. Sanpete County Attorney Kevin Daniels said Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, the woman had rejected several advances from Hernandez before the Aug. 29 assault. Hernandez was charged with felony rape. (Sanpete County Jail via AP)
This photo taken Aug. 6, 2018, shows a helicopter dumping water on a section of the Coal Hollow Fire near U.S. Highway 6. An Idaho prisoner sent to help fight a wildfire in Utah raped a woman who also was working to support firefighters, prosecutors said Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. The woman had rejected several advances from Ruben Hernandez, 27, in the days before the Aug. 29 assault at the base camp, Sanpete County attorney Kevin Daniels said. Hernandez has been charged with felony rape. (Evan Cobb/The Daily Herald via AP)
A new virtual reality walking tour lets you explore ancient Jerusalem as it would have appeared during the time of Jesus.
The high-tech expedition offers 360-degree simulations that reveal what Jerusalem's citadel, palaces, streets and ancient Jewish temples looked like 2,000 years ago.
The city enjoyed its heyday under King Herod during the first century BC, building many of the ancient monuments it is famous for today.
The Tower of David Museum, which is housed in the Old City's ancient stronghold, is launching the attraction this month ahead of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
Scroll down for video
Pictured is a temple presented as it would have looked 2,000 years ago. A new virtual reality walking tour lets you explore ancient Jerusalem
The virtual reality guide, 'Step into History,' offers visitors a chance to 'walk in the streets of Jerusalem and enjoy the present and take a look back to the past,' said Tower of David Museum director Eilat Lieber.
Working with archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority, Lithodomos VR created the tour to show what life was like under the famed King Herod.
Herod, a Roman vassal who ruled Judaea from 37-4 B.C., invested heavily in large construction projects across his realm.
He oversaw a major expansion of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and the fortress and palace where the Tower of David stands today.
His monuments, including the mountaintop fortress at Masada and the port city of Caesarea, are among the most visited sites in Israel.
'Especially with Jerusalem, I think the biggest challenge was getting it right,' said Simon Young, founder of Lithodomos VR, an Australian startup.
The high-tech expedition offers 360-degree simulations that reveal what Jerusalem's citadel, palaces, streets and ancient Jewish temples looked like 2,000 years ago
Pictured is an ancient temple seen through the tour's virtual reality guide. The city enjoyed its heyday under King Herod during the first century BC, building many of the ancient monuments it is famous for today
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AR AND VR? Virtual reality is a computer-generated simulation of an environment or situation It immerses the user by making them feel like they are in the simulated reality through images and sounds For example, in VR, you could feel like you're climbing a mountain while you're at home In contrast, augmented reality layers computer-generated images on top of an existing reality AR is developed into apps to bring digital components into the real world
For example, in the Pokemon Go app, the characters seem to appear in real world scenarios Advertisement
'There's a lot of different opinions about how Jerusalem looked in the ancient world ... of course, we want to do justice to Jerusalem and to make it as accurate as possible.'
Lithodomos VR's team of archaeologists and artists has produced similar projects in London, Rome, Athens and other cities.
Accompanied by a guide, visitors will be able explore nine different vantage points in the city.
The tour starts at the citadel - an Ottoman-era fortress built atop remnants of several earlier bastions - before meandering through the Old City's Jewish Quarter down toward the remains of the Second Jewish Temple.
In order to keep from crashing into modern Jerusalem, visitors carry the goggles between sites, then put them on once they are stationary.
At each point, a narrator explains the historical significance of the structures they can see in the goggles.
The VR tour around the Old City takes approximately two hours, the museum said.
Young says the Lithodomos VR team would be interested in adding additional historical layers to the virtual reality guide that would allow people to explore Jerusalem during other periods, such as the Crusades.
Judy Magnusson, an Australian tourist who previewed the tour on Monday ahead of its launch, said the virtual reality-enhanced experience 'brings history to life' and makes the stories about the city 'more real.'
This image shows the virtual reality goggles used as part of the tour. The Tower of David Museum, which is housed in the Old City's ancient stronghold, is launching the attraction this month ahead of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot
In order to keep from crashing into modern Jerusalem, visitors carry the goggles between sites, then put them on once they are stationary
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - A Philippine senator who is President Rodrigo Duterte's fiercest critic in Congress remained holed up in the Senate on Wednesday to avoid what he considers an illegal arrest after Duterte voided his amnesty for his role in failed coup plots as a former rebel military officer.
Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV told reporters after staying overnight in the Senate that his lawyers would file a petition to the Supreme Court to challenge the legality of Duterte's proclamation voiding his amnesty. Amid the standoff, a small group of soldiers and policemen, including SWAT commandos, was seen outside the Senate.
Duterte also ordered the Department of Justice and the military to pursue criminal and administrative complaints against Trillanes.
Supporters shout slogans to express support for Philippine opposition Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, center, as he continues to be holed up in the Philippine Senate Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018 in suburban Pasay city, south of Manila, Philippines. Sen. Trillanes, who is the president's fiercest critic in Congress has remained holed up in the Senate to avoid what he considers an illegal arrest after the president voided his amnesty as a rebel military officer. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
Trillanes told the police and military not to follow Duterte's "illegal order" for him to be arrested without a court warrant, saying his rebellion and coup cases were dismissed in 2011 after he accepted an amnesty offered by Duterte's predecessor.
Addressing military and police officers who may be pressured to enforce Duterte's order out of fear, Trillanes said "Duterte will not be there for long, please do not do anything illegal or unconstitutional."
Trillanes, a 47-year-old former navy officer, was detained for several years before his election to the Senate for involvement in three military uprisings from 2003 to 2007 to protest government corruption.
Duterte's order, which was made public Tuesday while he was on a trip to Israel, has sparked a legal debate. Some legal experts have questioned whether Duterte can invalidate a rebel amnesty declared by a previous president and approved by legislators.
Despite questions on Duterte's move, the Defense Department said it had deployed officers to the Senate to take custody of Trillanes, who would be made to face a military court inquiry over alleged misconduct for his role in past uprisings.
"With our MPs (military police) and legal officer in the Senate, we are awaiting to acquire his custody for the purpose of returning him to military control and for him to face a court martial," Defense Department spokesman Arsenio Andolong told reporters.
The Department of Justice, meanwhile, asked a court to issue an arrest warrant for Trillanes and restrain him from leaving the country. The court did not immediately issue a warrant and gave Trillanes five days to respond to the government move and set a hearing for next week.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Duterte voided the amnesty because Trillanes had failed to comply with all of its requirements, including a clear admission of his involvement in past coup attempts.
Trillanes cannot invoke his congressional immunity from arrest because the crimes he allegedly committed, including rebellion, were serious and punishable by life imprisonment, Guevarra said.
During a televised Senate session, however, Trillanes showed video footage and news reports denying Duterte's basis for voiding his amnesty. The news reports showed an image of his amnesty application, which officials said they could not find, and carried remarks by Trillanes acknowledging his participation in the uprisings.
"I have no case, but they want to arrest me," Trillanes said. "The police and military are here. There is no basis, so that is now our situation."
"We used to have democracy, there was due process. Now, there is none," he said.
Known for his temper and expletives-laden outbursts against critics, the 73-year-old Duterte has openly expressed anger against Trillanes, who has accused him of large-scale corruption and involvement in illegal drugs. The volatile leader has repeatedly denied the allegations.
Aside from Trillanes, another opposition senator, Leila de Lima, has been detained after being accused by Duterte of involvement in illegal drugs, a crime she has vehemently denied. A former human rights commission chief, de Lima investigated Duterte's alleged role in extrajudicial killings in a yearslong anti-drug crackdown when he served as mayor of southern Davao city for years.
Another Duterte critic, Maria Lourdes Sereno, was ousted by fellow justices from the Supreme Court in May after the government solicitor-general alleged that her appointment by Duterte's predecessor was legally flawed and petitioned for her removal.
Philippine opposition Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV holds copies of the decision of the trial court granting him amnesty during a news conference at the Philippine Senate Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018 in suburban Pasay city, south of Manila, Philippines. Sen. Trillanes, who is the president's fiercest critic in Congress has remained holed up in the Senate to avoid what he considers an illegal arrest after the president voided his amnesty as a rebel military officer. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
Philippine opposition Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV waves to supporters as he continues to be holed up in the Philippine Senate Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018 in suburban Pasay city, south of Manila, Philippines. Sen. Trillanes, who is the president's fiercest critic in Congress has remained holed up in the Senate to avoid what he considers an illegal arrest after the president voided his amnesty as a rebel military officer. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
REDMOND, Ore. (AP) - One of the largest U.S. congressional districts voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in 2016, yet an Oregon Democrat campaigning against a Republican incumbent doesn't see it as hostile territory.
Buoyed by electoral wins by a couple of Democrats elsewhere in Trump territory, candidate Jamie McLeod-Skinner is undaunted, traveling a district that's as big as North Dakota in her Jeep and tiny trailer that she sometimes sleeps in.
McLeod-Skinner is enduring all this because she doesn't think the incumbent is focused on the district's issues. She's driven 35,000 miles (56,300 kilometers) in 14 months of campaigning.
In this Monday, Aug. 6, 2018, photo, Oregon Democratic U.S. congressional candidate Jamie McLeod-Skinner stands next to her teardrop trailer in Redmond, Ore., before setting off again on the campaign trail in eastern Oregon, a conservative district that voted for Donald Trump for president in 2016. McLeod-Skinner is fighting what many consider to be an uphill battle to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Walden in the November election, but is undaunted and buoyed by victories of a couple other Democrats in Trump territory. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky)
When a parade in the small town of Joseph (population 1,000) was set to start in July, she walked up to an antique convertible carrying Rep. Greg Walden, who's running for his 11th term, and challenged him to a series of debates.
"I look forward to debating you. We'll figure out a schedule that works," Walden replied. Five weeks later, a debate has not been scheduled.
Nationally, Democrats are hoping a "blue wave" in November will give them a majority in Congress. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is financing selected candidates through its Red to Blue program , hoping to flip seats in Republican-controlled districts.
McLeod-Skinner's campaign isn't one of them. If the Red to Blue's 73 candidates are long shots, ones like McLeod-Skinner - running in very conservative districts - are real Hail Marys.
Walden, who typically wins around 70 percent of the vote, had a war chest currently totaling around $3.2 million in late June - 31 times bigger than McLeod-Skinner's.
"The biggest issue is the disparity in fundraising," said Jeff Dense, professor of political science at Eastern Oregon University. Without money, she can't afford a media campaign, Dense said, noting that eastern Oregon is peppered with Walden campaign signs.
"I just drove by one in east nowhere," he said in a telephone interview.
In an interview at a coffee shop in Redmond - the town near where McLeod-Skinner and her wife live - the candidate said she felt compelled to run because "our current representative is not focused on the district, not addressing the issues that folks in my district care about: health care, education, economic development."
She downplayed the funding factor.
"It's not about a TV spot or sending out fliers," McLeod-Skinner said, wearing faded jeans, red work shirt and scuffed cowboy boots. "It's about showing up. It's about listening to folks with respect and hearing the issues that people are concerned about."
She accuses Walden of not speaking out for his constituents, including failing to oppose President Trump's trade war that risks increasing tariffs on Oregon wheat. Walden last year also advocated the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
"His attack on health care would hurt one in five people in our district," McLeod-Skinner said.
McLeod-Skinner, who has degrees in engineering, regional planning and in law, distances herself from city Democrats, often derided here as liberal elites from Portland, uninformed about challenges in this sparsely populated, agricultural-ranching region. She calls herself a rural Democrat, with loyalty to constituents outweighing party loyalty. She's not big on gun control, for example.
"Some Democrats felt I was not far enough to the left in the primary," said the former Santa Clara, California, city councilor. Her stance resonated. She beat six other candidates in the Democratic primary for Oregon's 2nd District, taking 43 percent of the vote.
Only registered Democrats and Republicans can vote in their own party's primaries. In the Republican one, Walden got more votes than all seven Democrats combined.
Walden did not respond to requests for an interview. His spokesman, Justin Discigil, said in an email that Walden has raised concerns directly with the administration about the impact of tariffs on Oregon agriculture. Discigil also defended Walden on health care, saying he extended the Children's Health Insurance Program and responded to the opioid crisis.
McLeod-Skinner's role models are Cheri Bustos, a Democrat who beat a Republican by 20 points in an Illinois district that narrowly chose Trump in 2016; and Connor Lamb, a Pennsylvania Democrat who won a House seat in Trump territory in a special election in March.
"I think we have an opportunity to absolutely shock people," McLeod-Skinner said. "Eastern Oregon's not blue and I'm not looking to turn eastern Oregon blue. I'm looking to represent the folks in my district who are not represented."
She's crisscrossed the high desert, forests and mountains of the 70,000-square-mile (180,000- square-kilometer) district - the second-biggest in America among states with multiple districts. She's heard voters' concerns about lack of economic development, health care and educational opportunities. She supports exchanging public service for college or trade school educations.
On the campaign trail, she sometimes takes her teardrop trailer, outfitted with a mattress, onto the wide, empty spaces of Bureau of Land Management land for some solitude and sleep. She often takes her dog. After the hour-long interview, she began a long drive to her next campaign stop.
McLeod-Skinner is the strongest Democratic candidate Walden has faced, said James Foster, professor emeritus of political science at Oregon State University-Cascades. He predicts McLeod-Skinner will take about half the vote in November, and could win.
"She has a real knack of connecting with people," Foster said.
Even so, it's hard to achieve name recognition in a district so vast.
Alan Kartchner, who lives in the eastern Oregon town of Burns and usually votes Republican, told a reporter he didn't know Walden's challenger's name or her platform.
"We spend way too much time on national level politics, all of this hyperbole," Kartchner said. "I think we'd all be better off paying attention to what's going on in the state and county. I'm interested in hearing what she has to say."
___
Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky
FILE - In this March 5, 2011, file photo, U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., speaks to Republicans at the annual Dorchester Conference in Seaside, Ore. Buoyed by surprise electoral wins by a couple of Democrats elsewhere in Trump territory, Oregon Democratic U.S. congressional candidate Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who is challenging Walden for his seat, is undaunted, traveling the vast district covering eastern and central Oregon in her Jeep, pulling a tiny trailer that she sometimes sleeps in. (AP Photo/Jonathan J. Cooper, File)
In this Aug. 6, 2018, photo, Democratic U.S. congressional candidate Jamie McLeod-Skinner poses in Redmond, Ore. McLeod-Skinner is campaigning to take Oregon's 2nd Congressional District House seat from Republican incumbent Rep. Greg Walden in the November election. McLeod-Skinner, who calls herself a rural Democrat who would pay more attention to constituents' concerns than the party's, has been crisscrossing the vast, conservative district as she campaigns. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky)
FILE - In this Aug. 23, 2017, file photo, House Speaker Paul Ryan, right, is joined by U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., while speaking during a visit to Intel in Hillsboro, Ore. Buoyed by surprise electoral wins by a couple of Democrats elsewhere in Trump territory, Oregon Democratic U.S. congressional candidate Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who is challenging Walden for his seat, is undaunted, traveling the vast district covering eastern and central Oregon in her Jeep, pulling a tiny trailer that she sometimes sleeps in. (AP Photo/Don Ryan, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 29, 2007, file photo, Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani, left, with Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., speaks to reporters in Portland, Ore. Buoyed by surprise electoral wins by a couple of Democrats elsewhere in Trump territory, Oregon U.S. congressional candidate Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who is challenging Walden for his seat, is undaunted, traveling the vast district covering eastern and central Oregon in her Jeep, pulling a tiny trailer that she sometimes sleeps in. (AP Photo/Greg Wahl-Stephens, File)
ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistan's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday summoned India's deputy high commissioner in Islamabad to protest the killing of a Pakistani villager in "unprovoked firing" by Indian troops in the Himalayan region of Kashmir.
Abdul Rauf was fatally shot by Indian security forces Tuesday in the Kotkoterra Sector while grazing animals, according to a Pakistani military statement.
The Foreign Ministry summoned the Indian diplomat and condemned what it said was an unprovoked cease-fire violation by Indian forces.
"The cease-fire violations by India are a threat to regional peace and security and may lead to a strategic miscalculation," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The Indian military said no such incident took place Tuesday in the disputed region.
Lt. Col. Devender Anand, an Indian army spokesman, however, said soldiers killed an "intruder" on the Indian side after he sneaked in from Pakistan on Wednesday in the Rajouri sector. He did not give any other details.
The developments come as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived on a short visit to Islamabad before going to India.
Pakistan and India often exchange fire in Kashmir along the Line of Control that serves as a frontier in the disputed region, divided between the two nuclear-armed south Asian neighbors.
The two sides signed a cease-fire agreement in 2003 but both often violate it and accuse each other of 'unprovoked firing'.
The two nations claim Kashmir in its entirety and have fought two of their three wars over it since they gained independence from British rule.
___
Associated Press writer Aijaz Hussain in Srinagar, India, contributed to this report.
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - The mayor of Bucharest launched an attack on the powerful leader of Romania's ruling party, saying he should resign for the good of "the party and country."
Mayor Gabriela Firea accused Social Democratic Party chairman Liviu Dragnea of running the party in an underhand way, and of indirectly blocking city hall projects. Firea is also a member of the party
In public, "everything is 'milk and honey' but underground in the meetings he has with a few aides, decisions are totally different," she said late Tuesday in an interview with public television TVR.
FILE - In this Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017 file photo, the Mayor of Bucharest, Gabriela Firea, attends the unveiling of a monument that celebrates circus arts, in Bucharest, Romania. Mayor Firea claims party colleagues are trying to indirectly blame her for the police response to an anti-corruption protest on Aug. 10, that left 450 people injured when police tried to break up the protest, and leading to public complaints of mistreatment by police. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru, File)
"I think (him) stepping down would benefit the party and the country."
According to polls, Firea is the party's most popular figure. Dragnea, who keeps a tight rein on the party, can't be prime minister due to a 2016 conviction for vote-rigging.
Criticism has mounted against Dragnea since an anti-corruption protest last month that drew tens of thousands degenerated into violence that left some 450 people needing medical treatment.
On Wednesday, the opposition Liberal Party filed a motion in Parliament calling for Interior Minister Carmen Dan to be removed.
The Liberals said protesters "were hit and attacked with tear gas," and said Dan, a Dragnea aide, was responsible for the violence.
"We won't ever tolerate innocent Romanians being hit over the head with rubber truncheons. This isn't the country we chose to build after the 1989 revolution," a Liberal Party statement said.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Danish submarine inventor Peter Madsen, who was found guilty of the torture, sexual assault, murder and dismemberment of a Swedish reporter, challenged his life sentence before an appeals court Wednesday.
The three-day session at the Eastern High Court in Copenhagen before three judges and three jurors will not deal with the Apr. 25 guilty ruling.
In Denmark, a life sentence is on average 16 years, but can be extended if necessary. Madsen, 47, wants a time-limited sentence, not an open-ended prison term.
FILE - In this Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017 file photo, police technicians board Peter Madsen's submarine UC3 Nautilus on a pier in Copenhagen harbour, Denmark. Danish submarine inventor Peter Madsen, who was found guilty of the torture, sexual assault, murder and dismemberment of a Swedish reporter, appeared before an appeals court Wednesday Sept. 5, 2018, to fight against his life sentence. (Jacob Ehrbahn/Ritzau Foto, File via AP)
Madsen looked down at the desk in front of him as his defense lawyer Betina Hald Engmark read long excerpts of his previous statement as she attempted to cast him in a more favorable light.
In April, Madsen was convicted of murdering the 30-year-old journalist in his homemade submarine last August before dismembering her body. He has confessed to dumping her body parts at sea, but insists Wall died accidentally.
Wearing a dark blazer, a black T-shirt and jeans, Madsen listened quietly as prosecutor Kristian Kirk read out the April verdict to present the case. The prosecutor also read out texts found in Madsen's possession about young women being impaled and killed. Wall's parents, who both attended court Wednesday, also listened quietly.
He looked away when Kirk played a police video of the inside of his UC3 Nautilus submarine, which he had claimed was the largest privately built submarine in the world.
"My client is not satisfied with the (life) sentence. that's why we are here, not to find out whether he is guilty or not," said Hald Engmark.
The Copenhagen City Court had ruled unanimously that Madsen lured Wall onto his home-made submarine with the promise of an interview.
The court ruled the murder was sexually motivated and premeditated, with the prosecution using Madsen's shifting explanations against him and quoting a court-ordered psychiatric report that described him as "emotionally impaired with severe lack of empathy, anger and guilt" and having "psychopathic tendencies."
Hald Engmark argued that the prosecution case was based "on undocumented claims."
She said Madsen did something "horrible" by cutting Wall's body into pieces, but he should only be sentenced for that, noting that the cause of death has never been established. Under Danish law, indecent handling of a corpse carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail.
A freelance journalist, Wall wrote for The New York Times, The Guardian and other publications. She had reported from post-earthquake Haiti, among other places, and had studied at Paris' Sorbonne University, the London School of Economics and Columbia University in New York.
She set out on the submarine on a sunny August evening last year to interview Madsen, the co-founder of a company that develops and builds manned spacecraft. Her remains were found in plastic bags on the sea bed weeks later.
Madsen initially said he had dropped Wall off on a Copenhagen island several hours into their submarine trip.
Then he claimed Wall had died as a result of a buildup in pressure inside the submarine, and changed that to say that Wall had died accidentally inside the vessel when a hatch fell and hit her on the head. There was no indication of a skull injury when her head was finally located.
A decision is expected Sept. 14.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - Contestants from Florida and Wisconsin scored the first preliminary wins in the post-swimsuit era of the Miss America pageant Wednesday night, and proclaimed a new day had arrived for a piece of Americana that's trying to reboot itself in a rapidly changing world.
The competition swapped swimsuits with interview questions that were as daunting for some as walking across the stage in a bikini and heels.
Miss Florida Taylor Tyson won the talent competition for a piano rendition of "Mephisto's Waltz" by Lizst.
Miss Florida, Taylor Tyson, left, and Miss Wisconsin, Tianna Vanderhei, talk to the media after the first night of preliminary competition at the Miss America competition in Atlantic City, N.J., Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. Tyson won the talent competition and Vanderhei won the onstage interview competition. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
Miss Wisconsin Tianna Vanderhei won the onstage interview competition for her comments on how higher education should be more affordable and more widely accessible.
Both said they were excited to be the first winners in the revamped Miss America competition, which has generated controversy for its decision to eliminate swimsuits - a staple of the pageant since it began 98 years ago in Atlantic City.
"Swimsuit is behind us," Vanderhei said after Wednesday night's competition ended. "It's sad that it's gone, but I understand the reasons it's gone."
"People are going to get to see what Miss America is all about with these changes," Tyson added.
The preliminaries began amid a revolt by state pageant officials unhappy with the way the decision to drop swimsuits was made, and who are demanding that top leadership, including chairwoman Gretchen Carlson, step down.
The current Miss America, Cara Mund, has accused Carlson and CEO Regina Hopper of bullying and silencing her - allegations the two officials deny.
Mund did not reference the controversy in her opening remarks, which followed a prolonged standing ovation. But she did pay tribute to local and state officials without mentioning national ones.
"This only exists because of our volunteers," she said. "We wouldn't have any organization if it weren't for them."
A spokesman for opponents of the current leadership said 46 state organizations have signed letters calling for Carlson and Hopper to resign; only Arkansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nevada and Vermont have not signed.
The first of three nights of preliminary competition began with a big change: In past years, one talent and one swimsuit winner were named in each of the three preliminary nights.
This year, instead of a swimsuit winner, the winner of an onstage interview will be named.
Some of the questions were softballs: Where is the most interesting place you've ever visited, and how did you grow emotionally from it? Others put some contestants squarely on the spot on red-hot social issues.
Miss Texas, Madison Fuller, was asked if NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem are showing freedom of speech or disrespect.
"Where NFL players who kneel are standing up for what they believe in, there is an arena to promote change, not during the anthem," she said.
Miss Mississippi Asya Branch was asked whether health care is an entitlement.
"Health care is not an entitlement, but we do all need it," she said. "We should work within our country to make it more affordable and available. No one deserves not to have health care."
The format is similar to what will happen during Sunday night's nationally televised broadcast on ABC.
Scholarships totaling nearly $506,000 will be awarded, including $50,000 for the new Miss America; $25,000 for the first runner-up; $20,000 for the second runner-up; $15,000 for the third runner-up, and $10,000 for the fourth runner up.
Follow Wayne Parry at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC
Allison Farris, Miss District of Columbia, introduces herself at the beginning of the first night of preliminary competition in the Miss America competition in Atlantic City, N.J., Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
Katelyn Lewis, Miss Missouri, introduces herself at the start of the first night of preliminary competition in the Miss America competition on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Atlantic City, N.J. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
Laura Lynn Haller, Miss Montana, introduces herself at the start of the first night of preliminary competition in the Miss America competition, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Atlantic City, N.J. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
China and Africa have consolidated public support to further enhance bilateral practical cooperation thanks to their efforts in intensifying cultural and people-to-people exchanges in recent three years.
By the end of this August, a satellite television project aided by China has benefited nearly 2,000 villages in 9 African countries including Senegal, Guinea, Rwanda and Uganda.
The project has installed two digital TV projection devices for public service areas and offered free digital TV set-top boxes for 20 households in each village.
Dubbed Access to Satellite TV for 10,000 African Villages, the project covers a total of 10,112 villages in 25 African countries, said Guo Ziqi, Vice-Chairman of Chinas StarTimes Group which implements the project.
The project was now advancing smoothly, and would be completed by the end of this year, Guo added.
It is a great project. Thanks for choosing our village, villager Abu Bakar from Senegal told Peoples Daily, adding that he had never watched Chinese TV dramas before, and it is the Chinese project that made him learn about China and life of Chinese people.
A Rwandan young man Shamir, who interpreted for Rwandan President Paul Kagame during Chinese President Xi Jinpings state visit to his country this July, has become a hot figure in his country thanks to the increasingly strengthened China-Africa cultural cooperation.
Shamir had a close bond with China in the past 10 years. As a Chinese Government Scholarship recipient, he studied at Chinas Tianjin University and North China Electric Power University, and took part in a China-Africa cooperation project at Poly Solar Technologies (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
His experiences of living and studying in China are unforgettable for him. Shamir still remembers the celebration of the Chinese New Year with his colleagues family members in 2016 in Hebei province.
He was impressed by the warmth of the Chinese family and lovingly called the colleagues mother his Chinese mom. Today, he still keeps in contact with her through WeChat, a Chinese social application.
Shamir told Peoples Daily that he would contribute to Rwandas development with what he learnt in China.
Over the past three years, Chinese government has provided over 30,000 government scholarships for African students, and Chinese universities and colleges also created favorable conditions for them to study in China. The students are contributing to a cemented China-Africa friendship as civilian ambassadors.
In addition, a wide range of tourism facilitation measures on visas and transport have been introduced with the joint efforts by China and Africa.
Many Chinese people travel to Africa to escape the heat this summer, according to a man surnamed Xiao engaged in African tourism business in Wuhan, Hubei province in the center of China. He disclosed that out-of-season travelling to African countries in the Southern Hemisphere had become a traveling choice for Chinese people.
The number of Chinese tourists to Africa has seen a 50 percent growth since China Southern Airlines and Air China opened direct flights between Guangzhou and Nairobi, Beijing and Addis Ababa, and Beijing and Johannesburg in the second half of 2015.
Tourists from the Chinese mainland to Africa only accounted for 3 percent of its total outbound tourists in 2008, but the rate rose to 10 percent in 2016, with the number of visitors climbing to 11.3 million, according to statistics by the World Tourism Organization.
The 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held on Sept. 3 and 4 will chart a new path to elevate China-Africa friendly cooperation to a new level.
It will introduce various people-centered cooperative measures to deepen mutual understanding and affection between the two peoples, and enable the China-Africa friendship to be passed on from generation to generation.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's official IRNA news agency reports that an elevator at a construction site plummeted multiple floors, killing six construction workers in the capital Tehran.
Jalal Maleki, spokesman for the Tehran Fire Department, tells IRNA the incident took place Tuesday night in the Chitgar district. Unofficial reports said the elevator plunged more than 20 stories.
The semi-official ISNA news agency reported that three Iranians and three Afghan workers were killed.
The cause of the incident is under investigation.
Safety measures are often poorly enforced in Iran.
ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistan's newly-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Islamabad on Wednesday, saying he was "optimistic" he could reset the relationship with Washington after the U.S. suspended aid over the country's alleged failure to combat militants.
"You know I'm a born optimist," said Khan, a former star cricket player who was sworn in last month. "A sportsman always is an optimist. He steps on the field and he thinks he's going to win."
Pompeo spent just four hours in Pakistan, his first visit to the country. At the airport before leaving for neighboring India, he said he was "hopeful" that a foundation had been laid to move forward.
In this photo released by Press Information Department, visiting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, shakes hand with Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, prior to their meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. Pompeo arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday at a time when relations between the two countries have sunk to a new low. (Press Information Department via AP)
"We've still got a long way to go, lots more discussion to be had," he said. "It's time for us to begin to deliver on our joint commitment... We've had lots of times where we've talked and made agreements, but we haven't been able to actually execute those."
Pompeo held meetings with Khan, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and the powerful Army Chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa.
"We talked about their new government, the opportunity to reset the relationship between our two countries across a broad spectrum, economic, business, commercial," Pompeo said.
He said they also discussed "the work that we all know that we need to do to try to develop a peaceful resolution in Afghanistan that benefits certainly Afghanistan, but also the United States and Pakistan."
"I'm hopeful that the foundation that we laid today will set the conditions for continued success as we start to move forward," he said on the tarmac before leaving.
The United States last weekend canceled a $300 million Coalition Support Fund payment to Pakistan after long complaining that it was not doing enough to combat the Taliban and other militants who attack Afghan and U.S. forces across the porous border.
Pakistan has rejected those allegations, saying it has played a key role in the U.S.-led campaign against extremists that began after the 9/11 attacks.
"In all of his meetings, Secretary Pompeo emphasized the important role Pakistan could play in bringing about a negotiated peace in Afghanistan, and conveyed the need for Pakistan to take sustained and decisive measures against terrorists and militants threatening regional peace and stability," the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said in a statement issued after Pompeo's departure.
On the plane to Pakistan, Pompeo announced his appointment of Zalmay Khalilzad, a veteran diplomat who is unpopular in Pakistan, as the new U.S. special adviser on Afghan reconciliation, which could further complicate relations with Islamabad.
Khalilzad "has been very critical of Pakistan in the past and his appointment will not help move things forward," said Zahid Hussain, a defense analyst and the author of two books on militancy in the region.
Khalilzad was born in Afghanistan and served as U.S. special envoy to the country following the collapse of the Taliban from 2001-2003 and then as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2003-2005.
He has been critical of Pakistan, often blaming Afghanistan's deteriorating security and country-wide chaos on Pakistan's military and powerful ISI intelligence agency, accusing them of harboring and aiding Taliban insurgents.
Khalilzad has been criticized for his role in cobbling together an Afghan government of warlords following the Taliban's collapse. Afghanistan's corruption-plagued government and, by some accounts, poorly trained security forces, have frustrated Afghans and contributed to the country's deteriorating security situation.
Neither the U.S. nor Pakistan can afford a complete rupture in relations, but Hussain said Islamabad is frustrated that the relationship has been reduced to a single issue: Afghanistan.
"The United States seems only to see Pakistan through the prism of Afghanistan," he said. "The main thing is we would like to be allies with the U.S. but with dignity."
As an opposition leader, Khan often chastised Pakistan's reliance on U.S. financial assistance. He and his supporters once briefly stopped trucks supplying fuel and other goods to U.S. and NATO troops from crossing into Afghanistan to protest U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal regions along the border.
In a speech following the July 25 elections that propelled him to power, Khan said Pakistan would not participate in the U.S. war on terror, instead advocating a peaceful end to the protracted war in Afghanistan.
Qureshi, Pakistan's foreign minister, told a news conference held after Pompeo's departure that the United States indicated there was an opportunity for direct talks with the Taliban, a demand the insurgent movement has consistently made.
Khan has flatly rejected a U.S. strategy that advocates a heavy military hand to force Afghanistan's Taliban to the negotiating table.
Pompeo arrived shortly before 8 p.m. local time (1430 GMT) in the Indian capital of New Delhi.
___
Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed contributed to this report.
In this photo released by Press Information Department, visiting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, third right, talks with Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, third left, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. Pompeo arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday at a time when relations between the two countries have sunk to a new low. (Press Information Department via AP)
FILE - In this July 23, 2018, file photo, Pakistani politician Imran Khan, chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, addresses his supporters during an election campaign in Lahore, Pakistan. Khan met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Islamabad on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, saying he was "optimistic" he could reset the relationship with Washington after the U.S. suspended aid over the country's alleged failure to combat militants. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary, File)
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi briefs media about the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, at foreign ministry in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. Pakistan's newly-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan met with Pompeo in Islamabad on Wednesday, saying he was "optimistic" he could reset the relationship with Washington after the U.S. suspended aid over the country's alleged failure to combat militants. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi briefs media about the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, at foreign ministry in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. Pakistan's newly-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan met with Pompeo in Islamabad on Wednesday, saying he was "optimistic" he could reset the relationship with Washington after the U.S. suspended aid over the country's alleged failure to combat militants. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi gestures during a briefing about the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, at foreign ministry in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. Pakistan's newly-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan met with Pompeo in Islamabad on Wednesday, saying he was "optimistic" he could reset the relationship with Washington after the U.S. suspended aid over the country's alleged failure to combat militants. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)
A convoy with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for talks in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. Pompeo arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday at a time when relations between the two countries have sunk to a new low. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)
Pakistan army soldiers sit guard outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives for talks in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. Pompeo arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday at a time when relations between the two countries have sunk to a new low. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)
ISTANBUL (AP) - Germany's foreign minister says Berlin wants to continue "to work hard" to improve relations with Turkey.
Heiko Maas spoke Wednesday before departing for a two-day visit to Turkey where he is scheduled to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish officials.
The visit comes as Turkey aims to repair ties with European allies. Last year, Erdogan accused Germany of "Nazi practices" after Turkish ministers were barred from holding election rallies in the country. Relations also soured over the detention in Turkey of German citizens for what Berlin considers to be political reasons.
Maas said: "It's in Germany's strategic interest to have constructive relations with Turkey."
The minister is scheduled to attend a ceremony in Istanbul marking the start of a German high school's new academic year.
LONDON (AP) - The economies of Italy and Spain faltered over the summer months and are now growing at their slowest rates in years, according to a closely watched survey of the 19-country eurozone.
Though the single currency bloc continues to expand at a healthy tick, financial information firm IHS Markit cautioned Wednesday about developments in the eurozone's number 3 and 4 economies.
It main index of business activity across the eurozone's manufacturing and services - called the composite purchasing managers' index - rose to 54.5 points in August from 54.3 the previous month. Anything above 50 indicates expansion and August's level points to quarterly economic growth of around 0.4 percent, in line with the second-quarter outcome.
Much of the growth, however, was due to Germany, the region's biggest economy, and to a lesser extent France.
Chris Williamson, the firm's chief business economist, cautioned about developments in Italy and Spain, with the former "on course for its weakest expansion for nearly two years." For Spain, he said, growth could be even the "worst for almost five years."
Spain has been growing strongly for years, so a slowdown had been anticipated. In the second quarter of the year, it grew at a still-healthy annual rate of 2.7 percent.
Italy, on the other hand, has not seen growth as strong as Spain's for years and in the second quarter of 2018 expanded at an annual rate of just 1.1 percent. Tepid growth has been one of the main reasons why Italians voted in such large numbers for more populist parties in this year's election.
The worry in financial markets is that Italy's new coalition government could ramp up its anti-euro rhetoric if growth stumbles further, especially after the European Central Bank end its bond-buying stimulus program this year, as it has signaled it will do.
Daniel Harenberg, a senior economist at Oxford Economics, said Wednesday's survey highlights again that the business cycles in the eurozone are "not perfectly in sync," with Italy potentially more affected by a slowdown in export orders in Germany.
"This bears the potential to heighten political tensions between the Italian government and European institutions once the ECB stops its quantitative easing towards the end of the year," he said.
BRUSSELS (AP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday threw her weight behind the candidacy of one of her allies in the European Parliament to become the next head of the EU's executive.
Manfred Weber, the head of the European People's Party, had earlier announced his intention to lead the grouping of center-right parties in next year's elections for the Parliament of the 28-nation bloc.
"I want to be EPP candidate in the 2019 European elections and become the next president of the European Commission," Weber said on Twitter.
FILE - In this March 14, 2017 fiel photo the Chairman of the European People's Party group of the European Parliament Manfred Weber listens during a press briefing in European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France. Weber said he wants to run as head candidate in the 2019 EU elections. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, file)
Weber, a member of the Bavaria-only Christian Social Union that's allied with Merkel's party, said: "Europe needs a new start and more democracy."
The EU's powerful executive Commission is currently led by Jean-Claude Juncker, the former prime minister of Luxembourg, who is also with the EPP. His five-year term ends next year.
Several EU countries have recently expressed concerns that too many Germans hold high EU posts.
Merkel told reporters in Berlin that there are still several months left before the EPP chooses who will lead the grouping into next May's European elections.
Should the EPP emerge as the strongest force in those elections, the 46-year-old engineer would be in a strong position to succeed Juncker.
"There are many steps that need to be taken before then, but the very first one has occurred now with the announcement of his candidacy," said Merkel, adding: "I support the candidacy of Manfred Weber."
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The Latest on diplomatic efforts involving North Korea (all times local):
6:35 p.m.
A South Korean presidential delegation has met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang and has conveyed a personal letter from South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, second from left, presides over a meeting with his security ministers, including National Security Advisor Chung Eui-yong, second from right, and National Intelligence Service Director Suh Hoon, third from right, one day before Chung and Suh make a one-day trip to North Korea at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. A South Korean presidential delegation on Wednesday, Sept. 5, plans to leave for North Korea for talks to arrange a summit planned later this month and rescue a faltering nuclear diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang. (Hwang Gwang-mo/Yonhap via AP)
Moon's office says the envoys will return to South Korea later Wednesday after attending a dinner reception.
The office says it cannot provide further details. It plans to hold a briefing on the visit on Thursday.
The five-member delegation led by Moon's national security adviser arrived in Pyongyang on Wednesday to arrange a third summit between Moon and Kim planned for later this month and help rescue faltering nuclear diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang.
Chung Eui-yong, head of the presidential National Security Office, walks to board an aircraft as he and others in a delegation leave for Pyongyang, North Korea, at a military airport in Seongnam, south of Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. The high-level South Korean delegation left for North Korea to discuss arrangements for an inter-Korean summit there this month, as relations grow cooler between Washington and Pyongyang. (Jung Yeon-je/Pool Photo via AP)
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - A Philippine town mayor who was linked by the president to illegal drugs was fatally shot in his office Wednesday in the latest brazen attack on local officials.
Four gunmen barged into the Ronda municipality's town hall in Cebu province early Wednesday and repeatedly shot Mayor Mariano Blanco, who was sleeping in his office, police said. The men fled in a van.
A police report said the gunmen ordered two watchmen to lie on the ground at gunpoint, rushed to the town hall, and then "a burst of gunfire was heard from the mayor's office." The watchmen later found Blanco dead and notified the police.
President Rodrigo Duterte had included Blanco in a list of officials allegedly linked to illegal drugs. The mayor had denied any wrongdoing and had been alternately sleeping in his office and his nearby house after reportedly receiving death threats, officials said.
Last year, Blanco was stripped of control over the local police due to his alleged links to illegal drugs. Blanco's nephew, Ronda Vice Mayor and lawyer Jonah John Ungab, was shot and killed in his car by motorcycle-riding men in February after attending a court hearing for a client, a suspected drug lord, in central Cebu city.
Investigators were trying to determine whether Blanco's killing was related to a local political rivalry, a personal feud or his alleged links to the drug trade, police said, without elaborating.
Attacks on local officials by motorcycle- and car-riding assassins have continued despite concerns raised by a national association of town and provincial officials which has sought additional security.
In July, Mayor Antonio Halili was fatally shot in the heart while singing the national anthem at a flag-raising ceremony in Tanauan city, south of Manila, in an assault by gunman positioned on a nearby hill. The shooting was captured on cellphone videos which were posted online, prompting police to order tighter security.
The next day, the mayor of northern General Tinio town was killed in an SUV by motorcycle-riding assassins.
The killers of both mayors, among several who have been slain under Duterte, remain at large.
The killings have taken place alongside a national anti-drug crackdown ordered by Duterte that has left more than 4,500 mostly poor drug suspects dead in the last two years. Duterte has denied condoning extrajudicial killings but has openly threatened drug suspects, including officials and policemen involved in the drug trade, with death.
LONDON (AP) - The Latest on the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain (all times local):
5:15 p.m.
Britain has called a United Nations Security Council meeting for Thursday to discuss the Novichok poisoning case.
This still taken from CCTV and issued by the Metropolitan Police in London on Wednesday Sept. 5, 2018, shows Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov at Salisbury train station on March 3, 2018. British prosecutors have charged two Russian men, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, with the nerve agent poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury. They are charged in absentia with conspiracy to murder, attempted murder and use of the nerve agent Novichok. (Metropolitan Police via AP)
Officials plan to update members on the progress of the investigation at the meeting.
Russia will be present at the meeting because of its status as a Security Council member.
British officials said Wednesday they have charged two alleged Russian military intelligence officers with the nerve agent poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury - though authorities held out little hope of being able to bring them to justice.
Prosecutors said the men are being charged in absentia with conspiracy to murder, attempted murder and use of the nerve agent Novichok, prosecutors said.
Prime Minister Theresa May told lawmakers that British intelligence has concluded that the two men are officers of Russia's GRU military intelligence service.
___
2:05 p.m.
A senior adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin says he doesn't know the people whom Britain named as suspects in the poisoning of a former Russia spy.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday that the two suspects behind the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter work for Russia's military intelligence.
Putin's foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters in Moscow that the names of the two Russian men suspected in the poisoning "do not mean anything to me."
Ushakov pointed to the fact that British authorities mentioned that they think the men's names are aliases and wondered "why this has been done and what kind of a message" Britain is trying to send to the Russian government.
___
1 p.m.
British Prime Minister Theresa May says the two prime suspects in the nerve-agent poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter are agents of Russia's military intelligence agency.
May says U.K. intelligence services have concluded that the men, Alexander Petrov and Rusdan Boshirov, work for the GRU agency.
British prosecutors have charged the two men with the attack on the Skripals, but acknowledge that Russia will not extradite them. They say the names are probably aliases.
Police say they came to Britain two days before the March 4 attack on the Skripals in the city of Salisbury, and that traces of the Novichok nerve agent were found in their London hotel room.
Russia denies involvement, but May said Moscow was spreading "obfuscation and lies"
___
12 noon
Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesman says Moscow has no knowledge of the suspects named in the poisoning of a former Russian agent in Britain.
British prosecutors on Wednesday charged two Russian men with the nerve agent poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia earlier this year. Police say the men flew from Moscow to London two days before the Skripals were poisoned on Russian passports but that it believes that the names were aliases.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says the names of the men and their photos "say nothing to us." Zakharova called on Britain to cooperate with Russian law enforcement agencies on the investigation. She has criticized London for turning down Moscow's request to see the case files.
___
11:40 a.m.
The Kremlin is denying that it played a role in the poisoning of a former Russian spy in a British city, saying that Britain is not sharing any intelligence with it.
British prosecutors on Wednesday charged two Russian men with the nerve agent poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia earlier this year. The prosecutors said that the U.K. is not asking Moscow to extradite the men because Russian law forbids extradition of the country's citizens.
Police say the men, both about 40, flew from Moscow to London two days before the Skripals were poisoned on March 4.
Speaking ahead of the announcement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday denied any Russian role in the poisoning, saying that Russia has no new information about it because Britain has refused to share case files.
___
11:30 a.m.
Police say they believe the nerve agent used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter was smuggled to Britain in a counterfeit Nina Ricci perfume bottle and applied to the front door of Skripal's house.
More than three months later, the bottle was found by a local man, Charlie Rowley. He was hospitalized and his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess died after being exposed to the contents.
Police are still trying to determine where the bottle was between the Skripal poisoning in March and its discovery by Rowley on June 27.
As a result, he said, police are not yet ready to bring charges in the second poisoning.
Assistant police commissioner Neil Basu would not say whether police believe the suspects worked for Russian security services but, he said, "This was a sophisticated attack across borders."
___
11 a.m.
British prosecutors have charged two Russian men with the nerve agent poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury.
The Crown Prosecution Service says Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are charged in absentia with conspiracy to murder, attempted murder and use of the nerve agent Novichok.
Prosecutor Sue Hemming said Wednesday that the U.K. is not asking Moscow to extradite the men because Russian law forbids extradition of the country's citizens.
Police say the men, both about 40, flew from Moscow to London on Russian passports two days before the Skripals were poisoned on March 4.
This combination photo made available by the Metropolitan Police on Wednesday Sept. 5, 2018, shows Alexander Petrov, left, and Ruslan Boshirov. British prosecutors have charged two Russian men, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, with the nerve agent poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury. They are charged in absentia with conspiracy to murder, attempted murder and use of the nerve agent Novichok. (Metropolitan Police via AP)
LISBON, Portugal (AP) - Police in Portugal say they have seized 840 kilograms (1,850 pounds) of cocaine from a yacht in the Atlantic, bringing seizures of the drug at sea over the past three months to more than 10 metric tons (11 U.S. tons).
A police statement Wednesday said the two men and two women on board are suspected of smuggling the cocaine from the Caribbean to Europe. They were not identified.
Police helped by the Portuguese Navy and Air Force monitored the yacht and carried out a search when it stopped in Portugal's mid-Atlantic Azores islands.
The seizure resulted from cooperation with the Lisbon, Portugal-based Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre - Narcotics, an intelligence agency involving seven European Union member countries.
Operations through that agency have brought a recent spike in Atlantic seizures.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - Two Americans injured in an Amsterdam knife attack that prosecutors say had a "terrorist motive" thanked Dutch police and medical staff Wednesday for their assistance.
Police and prosecutors say the two 38-year-old American men were stabbed last Friday at Amsterdam's busy central railway station by an Afghan who is seeking asylum in Germany. The alleged attacker was shot and wounded by police officers immediately after the attack and remains in custody.
In a written statement distributed by the U.S. embassy, the Americans, whose identities have not been released, paid tribute to the police, saying they "cannot thank them enough for what they did to save their lives."
Dutch police officers point their guns at a wounded 19-year-old man who was shot by police after stabbing two people in the central railway station in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Friday Aug. 31, 2018. Police investigators in Amsterdam included an extremist attack as a possible motive for the stabbings of two people at a busy railway station Friday as authorities in the Dutch capital reported that the suspect shot by police is an Afghan citizen. (AP Photo)
The victims also thanked an information kiosk attendant at the station for rushing to their aid, and nurses, a surgeon and American consular staff for their support since the attack.
"The victims and their families said they appreciate everyone's support, thoughts, and prayers. The families are focusing on both physical and emotional recovery. They hope to return to living meaningful and productive lives in the United States," the statement said. "They want to thank everyone from the bottom of their hearts."
The 19-year-old suspect is accused of stabbing the Americans in an unprovoked attack after he arrived at Amsterdam's Central Station on an international train. Prosecutors say he did not know the victims were U.S. citizens.
Prosecutors say the suspect believes that Islam is "insulted" in the Netherlands, and that drove him to travel to the Netherlands to carry out an attack.
"It is apparent from his statements that he believes that in the Netherlands, the Prophet Muhammad, the Quran, Islam and Allah are repeatedly insulted," prosecutors said in a statement Monday, noting that the young Afghan man specifically mentioned Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, who is well known for his fierce anti-Islam rhetoric.
The prosecutors added that there was so far no indication the suspect, identified as Jawed S. under Dutch privacy rules, was working with anyone else.
The 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) finally arrives on Monday. Chinese President Xi Jinping will announce new measures of China-Africa practical cooperation at the meeting, also Chinas largest home-field diplomatic event attended by the most number of foreign leaders so far this year.
China is the largest developing country in the world, while Africa is the continent with the largest number of developing nations.
China was the first country to provide emergent aid for Ebola-hit countries after the outbreak of the virus in March 2014, and constructed Kenyas first railway after its national independence, and the first highway in Uganda. China has been Africa's largest trading partner for nine years in a row.
The handshake between China and Africa, which carries the dreams and welfare of 2.6 billion Chinese and Africans, has drawn attention from the whole world.
Namibian President Hage Geingob hailed China as a sincere partner and friend of Africa, saying that China has never colonized or plundered Africa and it has always treated other countries equally.
China supported the courses of justice of African countries in history, and continued to help their development now, the president added.
Even the western media who are always harsh on China admit that Chinese image in Africa is better than many Westerners.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel also said that the package of plans China could offer in economic cooperation with Africa is better.
As a matter of fact, economy is not the only sector that benefits from China-Africa cooperation. British scholars have found that Chinese-built standard gauge railway connecting Mombasa and Nairobi has not only created 46,000 jobs for Kenya, but also trained its first batch of female drivers.
Many female farmers or housewives in Ethiopia now have a better career future after employed by Chinese projects.
These facts constitute an epitome of the dramatic changes brought by China-Africa cooperation.
Both China and Africa are now standing at the key stage of development, and will continue to be so in the future. Africa is accelerating its modernization drive in a hope to realize economic independence and sustainable growth, while China is committed to comprehensively deepening reforms and speeding up economic restructuring.
Both sides, whose development strategies are highly complementary to each other, will be presented with unprecedented opportunities brought by co-construction of the Belt and Road.
At the same time, China and Africa need to do more amid the changing international situation, so as to ensure a justified, fair and representative global governance system that is more abreast with todays world political environment.
It is believed that the Beijing summit will once again underline the strong vitality of China-Africa solidarity and cooperation, boost the sound development momentum of developing countries, pool global righteous forces upholding peaceful development, and propel the building of a community with shared future for mankind by taking the chance of constructing an even closer community with a shared future for China and Africa.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Gov. Scott Walker's first attack ad of the Wisconsin gubernatorial race released Wednesday refers to a sex act while accusing Democratic candidate Tony Evers of not doing enough to revoke the license of a teacher who viewed pornographic images on a school computer.
Walker and his Republican allies have said for more than a year that Evers, the state superintendent, didn't do all he could to remove Middleton middle school teacher Andrew Harris from the classroom. It's been a central issue of the tight governor race. Evers argues Walker is just trying to distract from his failure to address problems facing the state in the past eight years.
Evers has consistently said he didn't then have the legal authority to revoke the teacher's license. He later worked with the Legislature to pass a bill, which Walker signed, expanding the circumstances that warrant revocation.
FILE - In this Aug. 14, 2018, file photo, Tony Evers speaks after winning Wisconsin's Democratic gubernatorial primary election during an event in Madison, Wis. Evers faces incumbent Republican Gov. Scott Walker in the November election. Walker's first attack ad of the gubernatorial race released Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, refers to a sex act while accusing Evers, the state superintendent, of not revoking the license of a teacher who viewed pornographic images on a school computer. (Amber Arnold/Wisconsin State Journal via AP, File)
Republican legislative leaders said Wednesday that Evers hadn't been a leader on the proposal, noting that it had no Democratic co-sponsors and Evers did not personally testify for it, although a representative of the education department did.
The Republican-controlled Legislature passed it unanimously.
Evers' campaign manager, Maggie Gau, accused Walker of making "disgusting, dishonest and increasingly desperate attacks" that reveal his desperation as polls show the race is about even.
"The people of Wisconsin know Tony has spent his lifetime doing what is best for our kids," Gau said, adding that Evers "worked with both parties to toughen the law."
School boards in Wisconsin have the authority to fire teachers. The decision to revoke a teacher's license rests with the state education department that Evers runs. The Legislature changed the law in 2011 to allow for license revocation in cases where teachers view pornography in the classroom, even if students were not exposed to it.
The law in place at the time of the Harris case required students to be endangered by the teacher's "immoral conduct" in order to revoke the teaching license. Evers has cited that as the reason why he couldn't revoke Harris's license - because no students viewed the material in question.
The Walker ad quotes from a Middleton-Cross Plains School District report from 2010 that found Harris had suggested to one student that she "brush up on her sex skills because that's all she'll be good at later in life." Wording from the report referring to oral sex is shown on the screen.
The ad also shows stock footage of young women talking, but not their faces, while the narrator says the teacher "commented on the chest sizes of middle school girls."
The school investigation into Harris began in 2009 when the district received a complaint from a female teacher about emails containing nudity, crude jokes and other inappropriate material that Harris was viewing and sending to other school employees.
Harris was fired in 2010, but an arbitrator determined he should have been suspended so that his punishment would be on par with those given to other teachers who looked at explicit materials or emails while at work.
A circuit court judge and state appeals court upheld the arbitrator's ruling and Harris returned to work in 2014 - which the ad notes with a closing line: "The teacher is still in the classroom with young girls."
___
Follow Scott Bauer on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sbauerAP
___
Sign up for "Politics in Focus," a weekly newsletter showcasing the AP's best political reporting from around the country leading up to the midterm elections: https://bit.ly/2ICEr3D
BANGKOK (AP) - Myanmar's government looks as if it's under siege from an international community concerned about the condition of its nascent democracy, with widespread calls for a genocide tribunal to hold its military to account for the brutal treatment of its Muslim Rohingya minority.
But experts say not to expect any change of course from the country's leader, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, even after a fresh round of withering criticism from abroad following Monday's show-trial conviction of two Reuters reporters who helped expose extrajudicial killings of 10 Rohingya men and boys.
Suu Kyi's motivations are opaque. Even as a revered pro-democracy activist, the Nobel Peace laureate had a reputation for being autocratic, but now her core ideology has come into question.
FILE - In this Nov. 1, 2015, file photo, Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi speaks during an election campaign rally of her National League for Democracy party for upcoming general election in Yangon, Myanmar. Myanmar's government looks as if it's under siege from an international community concerned about the condition of its nascent democracy, with widespread calls for a genocide tribunal to hold its military to account for brutal treatment of its Muslim Rohingya minority. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win, File)
There is at least a loose consensus that she faces real restrictions on her actions due to the power retained by the military that is enshrined in the constitution it imposed in 2007.
"Aung San Suu Kyi has tried to balance her delicate and antagonistic relationship with the military and her conception of society's needs, perhaps fearing too strident a stance could prompt an overt return to military rule, which is possible under the constitution in certain circumstances," David Steinberg, professor emeritus at Georgetown University, wrote in July in the online magazine The Diplomat.
Other observers are less generous, saying Suu Kyi's seeming impassivity toward the plight of the Rohingya - and hostility toward those wishing to address the issue - undercut the narrative pitting her against the military.
"People tended to think that Aung San Suu Kyi and the military were at odds, and each feared that the other would dislodge them from power," said Khin Zaw Win, a rare outspoken critic of the government who directs the Tampadipa Institute, a Yangon-based capacity-building institution.
He said the conviction of the two Reuters journalists, who were sentenced to seven years in prison, is a reminder that "shows that what they fear in tandem is the world out there finding the truth and seeking to unseat them."
The old saying, "They have to hang together, or they hang separately," describes their situation, he said.
Political realities inside and outside Myanmar suggest there is neither the will nor a way to ensure justice for the Rohingya, 700,000 of whom fled to neighboring Bangladesh to escape a brutal counterinsurgency campaign by the army. Myanmar denies any large-scale human rights violations and says its actions were a response to surprise attacks by militants in August last year that killed a dozen members of the security forces. Critics charge it was ethnic cleansing.
Those inclined to bring Myanmar to account have few weapons to do so. Despite the recommendation last month of a special U.N. fact-finding commission that top Myanmar commanders be charged with genocide, no trial is likely to be held in the foreseeable future.
It's far from clear that any country would officially push prosecution, and certain that several would seek to frustrate it. Major powers that have never entertained much interest in human rights - China and Russia - also have strategic reasons to cozy up to Myanmar, a well-situated outpost on the Indian Ocean.
"A tribunal at the International Criminal Court, for example, on genocide charges will be difficult to pull off," Murray Hiebert, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., said in an email interview. "Not only isn't Myanmar a member of the ICC, but a case must be brought by a member of the U.N. Security Council. China and Russia have made clear that they would block a case against Myanmar."
The desire to contain China's growing influence in Southeast Asia is a major issue.
"The U.S. and most Western democracies want to avoid pushing Myanmar further in the arms of Beijing," Hiebert said.
Competition with China for geopolitical influence, as well as friendship from regional countries anxious not to rock the boat or jeopardize investments, also limits the threat of unfriendly action.
"I think Myanmar can still count on most Southeast Asian countries as partners, and also India and probably Japan - Japan has been wary of taking a tough stance on the issues related to the Rohingya, for fear of losing strategic influence in Myanmar," said Joshua Kurlantzick, a senior fellow for the New York-headquartered Council on Foreign Relations.
Sanctions - the second-line approach to pressuring Myanmar - face the same constraints as pushing for a genocide tribunal, though nations inclined to do so can act unilaterally.
Hiebert noted that U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell - a stalwart supporter of Suu Kyi in her Nobel Prize-winning days as a freedom fighter against military rule - remains sympathetic to her and is a roadblock to tougher action by Washington.
"I think Myanmar and most of the population will hunker down in the face of more sanctions as they have stood up to most protests over the treatment of the Rohingya over the past year," Hiebert said. "They tell foreign visitors that they have resisted and survived sanctions before. The difference this time, of course, is that most of the population seems to support the military's moves against the Rohingya, while in the past many people seemed to support the sanctions to put pressure on the military to move toward greater democracy."
FILE - In this May 6, 2016, file photo, Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's foreign minister and de facto leader, left walks with senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar's commander-in-chief, right, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. Myanmar's government looks as if it's under siege from an international community concerned about the condition of its nascent democracy, with widespread calls for a genocide tribunal to hold its military to account for the brutal treatment of its Muslim Rohingya minority. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo, File)
LUKOVA, Czech Republic (AP) - A 14th-century church in the Czech Republic that was once in ruins is getting a new life from tourists who want to see the eerie visitors from beyond the grave.
In 2012, art student Jakub Hadrava used St. George's Church in the village of Lukova as his canvas for his senior arts thesis. He filled the Catholic church's pews with ghostly figures, made from plaster casts of live models draped in white cloth. The effect is chilling. He called the work "My Mind."
Word got out about the "ghost church" of the Czech Republic and in 2013 a videographer published a stylized YouTube video featuring creepy music and movie effects. It was a hit and has almost 200,000 views.
In this picture taken on Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018, French tourists visit the church of Saint George in the village of Lukava, Czech Republic. In the year of 2012 the art student Jakub Hadrava filled the church's pews with ghostly figures, made from plaster casts of live models draped in white cloth. The effect is chilling. He called the work 'My Mind'. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Curiosity about the installation has been building, and there is now a website and mentions on travel websites. The church is open to the public on Saturday afternoons, when around 150 people come to the "ghosts."
Petr Koukl, caretaker of the ghost church, says that most people have a positive reaction to the church's ghoulish guests.
But "it's also true . we had two or three visitors that refused to enter," he said. "They peeked through the door, but didn't enter because they didn't feel well about it."
The church fell into disrepair after World War II when the ethnic German parishioners were expelled by the Czechs. The church kept deteriorating through the late 1960s and was abandoned after pieces of the ceiling began to fall during a funeral.
The church, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of Prague, got a new roof in 2017 mainly from 600,000 koruna ($23,300) in donations that the spooky specters have brought in by visitors eager to take selfies and shoot video with them.
A Mass is held annually in April at the ghost church to celebrate St. George's Day. Pictures online show the pews are packed on that day with both the living and the "dead."
In this picture taken on Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018, French tourists visit the church of Saint George in the village of Lukava, Czech Republic. In the year of 2012 the art student Jakub Hadrava filled the church's pews with ghostly figures, made from plaster casts of live models draped in white cloth. The effect is chilling. He called the work 'My Mind'. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
In this picture taken on Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018, French tourists visit the church of Saint George in the village of Lukava, Czech Republic. In the year of 2012 the art student Jakub Hadrava filled the church's pews with ghostly figures, made from plaster casts of live models draped in white cloth. The effect is chilling. He called the work 'My Mind'. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
In this picture taken on Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018, French tourists visit the church of Saint George in the village of Lukava, Czech Republic. In the year of 2012 the art student Jakub Hadrava filled the church's pews with ghostly figures, made from plaster casts of live models draped in white cloth. The effect is chilling. He called the work 'My Mind'. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
This picture taken on Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018 shows an exterior view of the church of Saint George, in the village of Lukava, Czech Republic. In the year of 2012 the art student Jakub Hadrava filled the church's pews with ghostly figures, made from plaster casts of live models draped in white cloth. The effect is chilling. He called the work 'My Mind'. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
In this picture taken on Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018, French tourists visit the church of Saint George in the village of Lukava, Czech Republic. In the year of 2012 the art student Jakub Hadrava filled the church's pews with ghostly figures, made from plaster casts of live models draped in white cloth. The effect is chilling. He called the work 'My Mind'. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
In this picture taken on Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018, French tourists visit the church of Saint George in the village of Lukava, Czech Republic. In the year of 2012 the art student Jakub Hadrava filled the church's pews with ghostly figures, made from plaster casts of live models draped in white cloth. The effect is chilling. He called the work 'My Mind'. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
In this picture taken on Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018, French tourists visit the church of Saint George in the village of Lukava, Czech Republic. In the year of 2012 the art student Jakub Hadrava filled the church's pews with ghostly figures, made from plaster casts of live models draped in white cloth. The effect is chilling. He called the work 'My Mind'. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
In this picture taken on Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018, plaster statues are displayed at the church of Saint George in the village of Lukava, Czech Republic. In the year of 2012 the art student Jakub Hadrava filled the church's pews with ghostly figures, made from plaster casts of live models draped in white cloth. The effect is chilling. He called the work 'My Mind'. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. trade deficit widened for the second straight month in July, reaching the highest level since February, as imports hit an all-time high. The deficit in goods with China and the European Union set records.
The Commerce Department said Wednesday that the deficit in goods and services - the difference between what America sells and what it buys from other countries - rose to $50.1 billion in July from $45.7 billion in June. Exports slipped 1 percent to $211.1 billion. Imports increased 0.9 percent to a record $261.2 billion on increased purchases of trucks and computers.
The deficit rose despite efforts by President Donald Trump to bring it down by renegotiating trade agreements and imposing taxes on imports.
FILE- In this Aug. 22, 2018, file photo cargo is unload from trucks at the Port of Long Beach in Long Beach, Calif. On Wednesday, Aug. 5, the Commerce Department reports on the U.S. trade gap for July (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
The United States has already slapped tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods in a dispute over Beijing's aggressive efforts to challenge American technological dominance. It is taxing imported steel and aluminum and may target auto imports next, causing a rift with the EU. Trump also has threatened to exclude Canada from a revamped North American trade agreement.
So far, the president's aggressive policies have had little impact on the trade numbers. The goods deficit with China rose 10 percent in July to a record $36.8 billion. The gap with the EU shot up 50 percent to a record $17.6 billion and with Canada nearly 58 percent to $3.1 billion. The July deficit with Mexico, though, plunged 25 percent to $5.5 billion.
So far this year, the trade deficit is up 7 percent from January-July 2017.
Trump views trade deficits as a sign of economic weakness, caused by bad trade deals and abusive behavior by America's trading partners.
Mainstream economists blame persistent U.S. trade deficits on an economic reality that can't be changed much by trade policy: Americans spend more than they produce, and imports fill the gap. The strong U.S. economy is also encouraging Americans to buy more foreign products.
"The core story here is that strong domestic demand is sucking in imports ... the trade deficit likely will be flat-to-higher over the next couple of months," Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Economics, wrote in a research report.
In July, the United States ran a deficit of $73.1 billion in goods such as cars and machinery, but recorded a surplus of more than $23 billon in services such as education and banking.
BOSTON (AP) - Only a few dozen votes separated the top two finishers in a 10-way Democratic primary for an open U.S. House seat in Massachusetts, making a recount appear increasingly likely.
Unofficial returns from 100 percent of the precincts in the congressional district showed Lori Trahan leading Dan Koh by just 52 votes, out of approximately 85,000 votes cast on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the Massachusetts Secretary of State ordered all ballots impounded and locked away to sealed to protect against any tampering in anticipation of a recount in the too-close-to-call election.
Congressional candidate Dan Koh speaks to supporters at the Oak and Iron Brewery Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Andover, Mass. Ten Democrats, including Koh, were competing in the 3rd district primary to fill the seat left open by Democratic Rep. Niki Tsongas, who is retiring. (Peter Jasinski/The Lowell Sun via AP)
Democratic U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, the widow of former U.S. Sen. Paul Tsongas, is retiring at the end of this term following more than a decade in the House. Her departure set off a scramble among Democrats in the district which stretches from the cities of Lowell and Lawrence in the Merrimack Valley to historic Concord and other towns west of Boston.
Trahan, who served as chief of staff to former Democratic U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan, claimed victory before supporters early Wednesday.
"I am deeply grateful to all who were part of making this incredible night possible. Thank you to everyone who believed in this campaign and everything it stands for," she said on Twitter.
But Koh, the former chief of staff to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, quickly made it clear he had no intention of conceding, noting that possibly hundreds of provisional ballot had yet to be counted.
"It's clear that the final outcome of the election will not be known for a few days," the campaign said in a statement. The campaign also said it was reviewing procedures for a recount, should it be necessary.
State law allows candidates to request a recount if the margin of victory is less than 0.5 percent. Both Trahan and Koh had 21.6 percent of the totals votes cast.
Should either or both candidates petition for a recount, they must gather certified signatures of at least 500 registered Democrats within the district by 5 p.m. on Friday.
The eventual nominee will face in the general election Republican Rick Green, who said in a statement Wednesday he hoped for a quick resolution of the Democratic contest.
"If it devolves into a power struggle between two political dynasties, the victim will inevitably be the will of the people," said Green, who was unopposed in Tuesday's GOP primary.
Mike Mullen, an independent, will also be on the fall ballot.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Tens of thousands of opposition supporters marched in Sri Lanka's capital on Wednesday to demand the government step down, accusing it of corruption and selling national assets to foreign nations.
The activists loyal to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa walked along several main roads in Colombo, shouting slogans and holding placards, before gathering near the president's office and launching a sit-in protest on a main road.
It was the first major opposition protest since Rajapaksa's party won control of a majority of local councils in elections last February.
Former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, center, rides on an open car during an anti government protest in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. Thousands of Rajapaksa supporters attended a protest organized by a group of opposition law makers condemning the government. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)
Opposition lawmaker Prasanna Ranathunga said the government made many promises when it took power three years ago. "It has failed to fulfil the promises given to the people, and instead it has heaped the burden on the people due to its inefficiency and malpractices," he said.
The government was elected on a platform of good governance but its image was marred in 2015 by a central bank scandal that led to the resignation of a key minister.
Ranathunga said the government does not understand the displeasure and disappointment of the people. "Therefore, people should express their anger in a way that is heard by the government. People have gathered today to do that," he said.
Rajapaksa loyalists criticize the government for selling national assets to foreign countries, including the leasing of a sea port to China for 99 years.
Government spokesmen did not answer phone calls seeking a comment.
Rajapaksa ruled Sri Lanka for nine years beginning in 2005 and was widely expected to win an unprecedented third term in elections in 2015. He had built up immense power and was popular among the country's majority ethnic Sinhalese after overseeing the military's brutal defeat of ethnic Tamil rebels in 2009, ending a 25-year civil war. Some supporters even hailed him as a king and a savior.
But he was increasingly criticized for failing to allow an investigation of alleged war crimes by the military, while also facing mounting allegations of corruption and nepotism. He lost the 2015 election to his own health minister, Maithripala Sirisena, who launched a last-minute campaign.
Rajapaksa's followers accuse Sirisena's government of betraying the country and the military by promising an independent investigation of alleged atrocities by both the military and the rebels, as demanded by the United Nations. Those who oppose such an investigation say the U.N. is meddling in Sri Lanka's sovereign affairs.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on executives from social media companies and their appearances before Congress (all times local):
3:30 p.m.
Lawmakers are sparring over whether a now-reversed change to auto-suggestions on Twitter unfairly hurt Democrats or Republicans more.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on 'Foreign Influence Operations and Their Use of Social Media Platforms' on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey isn't saying which, but says he'll follow up.
The storm over "shadow banning " of Republicans on Twitter broke out in July after Vice News reported that some politicians didn't show up in a drop-down menu of automatically suggested searches, even when typing in the politicians' names.
Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle says at a House hearing that those claims have no merit.
Dorsey had explained the hidden drop-down searches affected 600,000 accounts based on the activity of those accounts followers. Twitter fixed the issue in late July.
Under further questioning by Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton, Dorsey said he agreed the impact along partisan lines "was not impartial."
___
3:20 p.m.
A House hearing about social media censorship was briefly interrupted as a protester stood up and yelled at Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. A Republican congressman drowned her out using his auctioneering skills.
A woman stood up and started loudly yelling at Dorsey, complaining about bias and publicly pleading President Donald Trump to help.
As staff appeared to look for security to drag her out, Missouri Rep. Billy Long started speaking in the rapid pace of an auctioneer, pretending to auction something off.
Long, who owned an auctioneering company, finished to applause from his colleagues just as security reached the woman and took her out of the room.
The GOP-led House Energy and Commerce Committee is examining whether Twitter has censored conservatives.
___
2:50 p.m.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says Twitter "can't place the burden" on victims when it comes to reporting abuse on the service.
He says Twitter is committed to developing automated tools that would go all the way to deleting content even without an actual person making a complaint - which is the only way it takes down content now.
Facebook already removes some objectionable content before people report it. But Twitter is behind in this regard.
Using artificial intelligence in this way is still difficult and in the early stages. It works well for some things - for example images of child porn or beheadings. But when it comes to understanding the subtleties of language and when it's hate speech or abuse, machines still have a lot to learn.
Dorsey is appearing before a House committee.
___
2:40 p.m.
A congressional hearing on Twitter's "transparency and accountability" is kicking off with partisan rancor.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing was prompted by claims of censorship and suppression from conservatives.
The chairman, GOP Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, is citing recent complaints that Twitter had limited the visibility of prominent Republicans when searched on Twitter.
But the committee's top Democrat, Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, says the hearing appears to be "just one more mechanism" for Republicans to "raise money and generate outrage."
Pallone says claims of conservative suppression are "conspiracy theories" and he criticizing President Donald Trump for using Twitter to "bully and belittle people."
Pallone also is chiding Twitter for not doing enough to prevent the spread of propaganda and false information and for "chasing the latest headline" when it comes to enforcing rules.
___
1:10 p.m.
The Justice Department says it's convening a meeting later this month to discuss concerns that social media companies may be hurting competition and "intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms."
The statement comes as Facebook and Twitter executives appeared at congressional hearings Wednesday. Both companies pledged to better protect their social media platforms in the 2018 elections and beyond.
Justice Department spokesman Devin O'Malley says Attorney General Jeff Session will meet with a number of state attorneys general later this month to discuss the department's concerns.
Some Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have pushed the idea that Twitter is "shadow banning" some in the GOP because of the ways search results have appeared. Twitter denies that's happening.
___
11:10 a.m.
Google has skipped a Senate intelligence hearing on social media companies, and a lawmaker says it's "maybe because they're arrogant."
Sen. Marco Rubio is also citing questions raised in a new report by a watchdog group that had success buying ads while posing as Russia's Internet Research Agency. That's the propaganda machine accused of interfering in the 2016 U.S. election.
The watchdog group used the Russia's agency tax ID, bought ads in rubles and pointed to IRA-affiliated websites, and the report said Google approved the ads as soon as within 24 hours.
Rubio says he's sure that Google executives "don't want to be here to answer these questions."
Google offered to send its chief legal officer, but the committee issued specific invitations to Larry Page, CEO of Google parent Alphabet, and to Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
___
10:45 a.m.
Facebook and Twitter executives say they agree with Congress that strengthening privacy protections for their users is a "national security priority."
Critics have charged that the companies' business models, which are built on offering a free service and making money from advertising targeted using personal data, can conflict with efforts to oppose those who would abuse their systems.
The Senate intelligence committee is holding a hearing on social media and elections.
Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden says personal data is now the "weapon of choice" of political influence campaigns.
___
10:40 a.m.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has told Congress that Twitter has created better tools and stronger policies for combating election interference. He says Twitter has learned from the 2016 elections and from other elections around the world.
But he also tells the Senate intelligence committee that "we all have to think a lot bigger, and decades past today."
The committee is holding a hearing on social media and elections.
___
10:35 a.m.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has made a surprise appearance outside the Senate intelligence committee's hearing with Facebook and Twitter executives, and he tells reporters that he's there to "face my accusers."
The Infowars host was temporarily suspended from Twitter and Facebook last month. He says the "real election meddling" is the silencing of conservatives on social media.
The companies deny that's happening.
___
10:05 a.m.
Facebook's No. 2 executive has told a Senate committee that Facebook has made progress in addressing the issue of meddling by foreign interests in U.S. elections. But Sheryl Sandberg also says security efforts to combat such threats are never finished.
She tells the Senate intelligence committee that Facebook is "more determined" than adversaries seeking to interfere in American democracy. Sandberg says Facebook is working with outside experts, law enforcement and government, and she acknowledges that Facebook doesn't always have the expertise to determine the source of such threats.
Sandberg says "we are more determined than our opponents and we will keep fighting." She calls the fight an "arms race," as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has in the past.
___
9:58 a.m.
The Senate intelligence committee is holding a hearing on what it calls social media "influence operations" as the November elections near.
And while executives from Facebook and Twitter are testifying, there's an empty chair in place for Google's parent Alphabet, which has refused to send its top executive.
And committee leaders aren't happy about that.
The committee chairman - Sen. Richard Burr - is praising the companies for what they've done so far. But the North Carolina Republican says threats from countries beyond Russia aren't going away.
He notes that an outside security company had a large role in identifying the most recent threat the companies have disclosed. This was an attempt by Iran to meddle with politics using social media.
___
12:15 a.m.
Representatives from two leading social media companies are defending their efforts to crack down on foreign attempts at online meddling during this U.S. election year.
Twitter's CEO and Facebook's No. 2 executive are appearing before the Senate's intelligence committee to discuss foreign interference.
Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg says in prepared remarks that Facebook is addressing the problem but remains slow in spotting it. Sandberg says Facebook's overall understanding of Russian activity in 2016 is limited because it doesn't have access to the U.S. government's information or investigative tools.
In a separate hearing before a House committee, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is expected to hear from Republicans who claim Twitter shows evidence of bias against conservatives. Dorsey says in his prepared remarks that Twitter doesn't use political ideology to make decisions.
An empty chair reserved for Google's parent Alphabet, which refused to send its top executive, is seen as Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg accompanied by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on 'Foreign Influence Operations and Their Use of Social Media Platforms' on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Washington. Google CEO did not show for the hearing. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., left, and Chairman Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., center, greet Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey before he testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on 'Foreign Influence Operations and Their Use of Social Media Platforms' on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
The 2019 model year vehicles are hitting dealerships right now. Trucks are a big deal, and new and improved full-size pickups from General Motors and Ram will offer buyers a bumper crop of choices. But the 2019 model year will also debut new and innovative sedans, hybrids and electric vehicles. Although there isn't enough room here for a comprehensive list, these 10 vehicles highlight the best of what you can expect at dealerships now or in the near future.
2019 BMW 8 SERIES
The BMW 8 Series coupe returns after a 20-plus-year hiatus. The new version will come in just one trim level to start, the M850i xDrive. It features a 523-horsepower turbocharged V8 and all-wheel drive. Generous use of aluminum, magnesium and carbon fiber stiffens the body and reduces weight, helping the new 8 Series dash from 0 to 60 mph in just 3.6 seconds - a triumphant return to form. Starting MSRP (including destination fee): $112,895.
This undated photo provided by Volvo Cars of North America shows the 2019 Volvo XC40, a more affordable, scaled-down version of the Swedish carmaker's popular midsize and full-size SUVs. (Courtesy of Volvo Cars of North America via AP)
2019 CHEVROLET SILVERADO
A redesign from the ground up makes the new Silverado longer and lighter. A variety of four-, six- and eight-cylinder engines highlight the truck's versatility, helping the Silverado achieve up to 19 mpg combined and a maximum towing capacity of up to 12,200 pounds. The Silverado's corporate sibling, the new GMC Sierra, has a more upscale interior and exclusive features. Starting MSRP (including destination fee): $36,095 for the crew-cab version.
2019 FORD RANGER
The Ranger returns after eight years away, but it seems like longer. The Ranger was a dated truck when it left the scene in 2011. This fourth-generation pickup offers a compelling alternative to its midsize rivals with a turbocharged four-cylinder engine and crew- and extended-cab models to suit a range of buyers. Optional off-road and work-truck packages should enhance its appeal. Starting MSRP (including destination fee): $31,775 for the crew-cab version.
2019 GENESIS G70
Shoppers in the luxury sport sedan segment have a new offering to consider in the G70. A choice of turbocharged four-cylinder or V6 engines and lively handling makes the G70 a car capable of swaying Audi and BMW loyalists. The G70 is also loaded with standard active safety features and the latest connected tech, making it a legitimate contender. Expected MSRP: $36,000.
2019 HONDA INSIGHT
This is the third time around for the Insight, which was the first hybrid sold in the U.S. For 2019, it's a small sedan with a roomy cabin, refined interior quality and quiet ride. Even with fairly quick acceleration, the new Insight delivers 52 mpg in combined driving. Starting MSRP (including destination fee): $23,725.
2019 JAGUAR I-PACE
An all-electric crossover isn't what most people might associate with Jaguar, but the I-Pace may well turn the British automaker into a Tesla rival. With 240 miles of range, head-turning style and nearly 400 horsepower, the I-Pace is poised to redirect attention from Tesla's offerings. It's roomy enough for four adults and offers SUV-like cargo capacity. Starting MSRP (including destination fee): $70,495.
2019 LEXUS UX
The newest Lexus is a subcompact SUV called the UX. It brings Lexus' sharp design styling and a tech-rich interior to the class. The UX will offer a four-cylinder engine, and while Lexus hasn't revealed all the details yet, we expect optional all-wheel drive and a generous set of tech and driver safety features. An optional performance package and hybrid model should broaden the UX's appeal. Expected MSRP: around $31,000.
2019 RAM 1500
Fully redesigned, the Ram 1500 builds on its strengths and shores up its weaknesses. Key to its success is its unique rear suspension design, which gives the Ram the smoothest ride in its class. For 2019, the Ram sheds weight while increasing towing and payload capacity and gains hybrid-like electric assist for its V6 and V8 engines. It even offers an optional, massive 12-inch touchscreen display. Starting MSRP (including destination fee): $36,140 for the crew-cab version.
2019 SUBARU ASCENT
Subaru returns to the three-row SUV class with the new Ascent. With seating for up to eight, a massive cargo space and a new four-cylinder engine that returns 23 mpg combined, the Ascent offers an excellent choice for families. Standard all-wheel drive and nearly 9 inches of ground clearance mean the Ascent can roam off the highway as well as it can mean urban streets. Starting MSRP (including destination fee): $32,970.
2019 VOLVO XC40
For 2019, Volvo shrinks the best elements of its larger SUVs into the more affordable XC40. It offers comfortable seats, ample interior space, and clever cargo space and small-item storage. The XC40's four-cylinder engine comes in two power levels: 187 horsepower, or 248 horsepower when equipped with all-wheel drive. And like all Volvos, this new SUV comes with sophisticated driver safety systems. Starting MSRP (including destination fee): $34,195.
EDMUNDS SAYS: Several new and redesigned cars, trucks and SUVs are coming for the 2019 model year, and many will arrive at dealers by the end of the year. If you've been waiting for a good reason to buy a new car, the broad range of choices among the class of 2019 should offer ample motivation.
____
This story was provided to The Associated Press by the automotive website Edmunds. Dan Frio is a staff writer at Edmunds. Twitter: @danfrio; Instagram: danfrio
Related links:
- 2019 BMW M850i xDrive review: https://edmu.in/2NvcJZg
- 2019 Chevrolet Silverado First Drive video: https://bit.ly/2MW8Cs2
- 2019 Ford Ranger Review: https://edmu.in/2wma8Kq
- 2019 Genesis G70 Review: https://edmu.in/2wlV8wj
-2019 Honda Insight First Drive video: https://bit.ly/2PjYuqL
- 2019 Jaguar I-Pace Review: https://edmu.in/2MBzePF
- 2019 Ram 1500 Review: https://edmu.in/2wmx2kZ
- 2019 Subaru Ascent Review: https://edmu.in/2LB9HAK
- 2019 Volvo XC40 Review: https://edmu.in/2NsqGa2
This undated photo provided by Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. shows the 2019 Lexus UX, a new luxury subcompact crossover that is less expensive than the company's popular RX and NX models. (Courtesy of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. via AP)
This undated photo provided by Jaguar Land Rover North America shows the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace, a fully electric small SUV that makes a compelling alternative to Tesla's electric lineup. (Courtesy of Jaguar Land Rover North America via AP)
This undated photo provided by American Honda Motor Co. shows the 2019 Honda Insight, which returns to the U.S. after a five-year absence and now more closely resembles Honda's Civic and Accord models. (Courtesy of American Honda Motor Co. via AP)
This photo provided by Genesis Motor America shows the 2019 Genesis G70, the newest entry into the competitive field of sport luxury compacts dominated by Audi, BMW and Lexus. (James Lipman/Genesis Motor America via AP)
This undated photo provided by Ford Motor Co. shows the 2019 Ford Ranger, which returns to the midsize truck segment after a long absence. (Courtesy of Ford Motor Co. via AP)
This undated photo provided by General Motors shows the 2019 Silverado, which features a large cargo bed in the full-size truck class. (Courtesy of General Motors via AP)
This undated photo provided by BMW shows the 2019 BMW M850i xDrive, which returns after 20 years to replace the 6 Series coupe. (Daniel Kuras/BMW of North America via AP)
This undated photo provided by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles North America shows the Ram 1500, which was redesigned for 2019 with upgraded technology, and increased towing and hauling ability. (Courtesy of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles North America via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) - A spreadsheet detailing sensitive personal information about 2,000 students in the D.C. Public Schools was publicly available online for months.
Washington city councilmember David Grosso tells news outlets that school officials shouldn't have given his office the spreadsheet posted on his website.
The file saved in February contained names, dates of birth, housing status, school, grade level and whether the student was eligible for special education. School officials gave it in response to questions from Grosso's education committee.
Grosso says he removed it and alerted the school system after a student spotted it early last month.
DCPS Deputy Chancellor Amy Maisterra says steps are being taken so it doesn't happen again.
Releasing such information violates federal law, but authorities are reluctant to impose the penalty of removing federal funding.
Botswanas President Mokgweetsi Masisi is leading a delegation to China to attend the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and pay a state visit to the country at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
It is Masisi's first visit to China since he assumed office this April, and also the first trip to China by a Botswanas President in 12 years.
The Botswana society is looking forward to this trip of their president, since it is of milestone significance to China-Botswana ties.
Botswana, an inland country in southern Africa, covers an area of 580,000 square kilometers. The country boasts rich mineral resources and excellent natural environment. Ranking the second in the world in production and sales of diamonds, the country is dubbed as the nation of diamond. Thanks to the favorable natural environment and the variety of wildlife, Botswana is a country with developed husbandry industries.
Since its independence in 1966, Botswana has maintained long-term and stable political, economic and social development. With a per capita GDP of around $7,600, Botswana is regarded as a well-off African country.
China and Botswana are sincere friends who share weal and woe with each other.
In the early days after Botswanas independence, China supported Botswanas fight against harassment from neighboring racist regimes and its efforts to safeguard national sovereignty and security.
In return, Botswana, before establishing diplomatic relations with China in 1975, backed on restoration of China's lawful seat in the United Nations despite of the pressure from the West.
Botswana has always followed the one-China policy. China and Botswana have conducted highly effective cooperation in regional and international affairs. China has offered assistance to Botswanas economic and social development within its available resources, including the construction of railways, highways, and schools. In addition, China's medical-aid teams to Botswana have helped more than 2 million local patients.
China-Botswana friendship has been deeply rooted in the hearts of both peoples.
More and more Botswana citizens are learning Chinese language, and Confucius institutes in the country are seeing increasing popularity. Besides, China has gradually become a prioritized destination of overseas study for the young generation in Botswana.
Today, Chinese tourists are often greeted by smiley locals in Chinese, no matter in the northern Botswanas town of Kasane, or on the streets of the countrys capital city Gaborone.
My Botswana friends told me that Chinese people are their good brothers and good partners.
During President Masisis state visit to China, Chinese President Xi Jinping exchanged in-depth opinions with him on further pushing forward bilateral relations. The two heads of state also witnessed the signing of a series of cooperation documents.
I have every reason to believe that China-Botswana relations will usher in a new era under the joint efforts of both countries, and they are bound to make a new chapter together on their track of common development.
(Zhao Yanbo is Chinese Ambassador to Botswana)
HAMMOND, Ind. (AP) - A federal judge has set a January 2020 trial for an Indiana woman accused of providing material support to the Islamic State group.
Samantha Elhassani was charged last month with conspiracy to provide material support to IS, and aiding and abetting individuals in providing material support to the group.
The Post-Tribune reports the 32-year-old former Elkhart, Indiana, woman pleaded not guilty during a hearing Tuesday in Hammond. The judge set her trial for Jan. 6, 2020.
Elhassani told the BBC and PBS in April that during a 2015 vacation in Turkey, her Moroccan husband tricked her into traveling with their children to Syria, where he became an IS militant and died fighting for the group.
She and the children ended up in a Kurdish detention camp.
___
Information from: Post-Tribune, http://posttrib.chicagotribune.com/
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - The U.S. Navy says a recent arms seizure from small ships near war-torn Yemen netted over 2,500 Kalashnikov assault rifles.
The Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet gave the updated total in a statement Wednesday. It boarded the skiff and the dhow, a traditional ship in the Persian Gulf, during a routine check in the Gulf of Aden on Aug. 28.
The Navy added: "The origin and intended destination of the skiff have not yet been determined."
In this photo made available Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018, a team from the guided-missile destroyer USS Jason Dunham inspects a dhow while conducting maritime security operations. A U.S. military video released early Friday, Aug. 31, purported to show small ships in the Gulf of Aden smuggling weapons amid the ongoing war in Yemen, with officials saying they seized over 1,000 arms from the vessels. (U.S. Navy via AP)
In early 2016, U.S.-allied warships in the region stopped three dhows carrying thousands of Kalashnikov assault rifles as well as sniper rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, anti-tank missiles and other weapons believed bound for Yemen from Iran.
In this photo made available Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018, a team from the guided-missile destroyer USS Jason Dunham inspects a dhow while conducting maritime security operations. A U.S. military video released early Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, purported to show small ships in the Gulf of Aden smuggling weapons amid the ongoing war in Yemen, with officials saying they seized over 1,000 arms from the vessels. (U.S. Navy via AP)
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel's prime minister says the country is working in "all arenas, near and far" against Iran.
Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is working "resolutely" to combat precision weapons that could be used against it and to prevent Iran to establish a military presence in neighboring Syria. He spoke Wednesday at a meeting of his Cabinet.
The remarks come a day after an Israeli military official said Israel has struck over 200 Iranian targets in Syria over the past 18 months.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, arrives to the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (Ronen Zvulun/Pool Photo via AP)
Israel is widely believed to have been behind a series of airstrikes mainly targeting Iranian and Hezbollah forces in Syria who are fighting alongside the government. It rarely confirms the attacks.
Israel views Iran's presence in Syria as a growing threat.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Facebook and Twitter executives assured Congress on Wednesday that they are aggressively working to root out foreign attempts to sow discord in America, and they pledged to better protect their social networks against manipulation during the 2018 midterm elections and beyond.
Facebook's No. 2 executive, Sheryl Sandberg, and Twitter's CEO, Jack Dorsey, testified before the Senate intelligence committee in the morning, but there was an empty chair for Google parent company Alphabet, which refused to send its top executive.
In the afternoon, Dorsey went before a House panel alone to address Republican concerns that Twitter is censoring conservatives. Dorsey denied that is happening.
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, left, accompanied by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey are sworn in before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on 'Foreign Influence Operations and Their Use of Social Media Platforms' on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
The hearings come at a critical time, just two months before the midterm elections and as President Donald Trump has charged that Twitter is biased against Republican views.
Senators had sharp words for Alphabet CEO Larry Page. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., suggested the company was a no-show because it was "arrogant."
Sandberg's appearance came several months after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified at highly publicized Capitol Hill hearings.
Like Zuckerberg, she acknowledged Facebook's lag in recognizing Russian efforts to manipulate Facebook during and after the 2016 presidential election. Sandberg detailed Facebook's efforts to fight the problem with new technology and manpower.
"We are even more determined than our adversaries, and we will continue to fight back," she said.
Dorsey was candid with both committees about what his company needs to improve, while defending Twitter against allegations of bias.
Holding his phone throughout the hearings, Dorsey tweeted some of his opening statement to the Senate: "We aren't proud of how that free and open exchange has been weaponized and used to distract and divide people, and our nation. We found ourselves unprepared and ill-equipped for the immensity of the problems we've acknowledged."
He added: "Abuse, harassment, troll armies, propaganda through bots and human coordination, misinformation campaigns, and divisive filter bubbles - that's not a healthy public square. Worse, a relatively small number of bad-faith actors were able to game Twitter to have an outsized impact."
As the executives spoke, the Justice Department announced it would look at whether their companies are hurting competition and "intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms."
Justice Department spokesman Devin O'Malley said Attorney General Jeff Sessions will meet with a number of state attorneys general later this month to discuss the department's concerns.
Sandberg, 49, has extensive Washington experience, typically acts as her company's public face and clearly felt comfortable answering senators' questions. The bearded and tieless Dorsey, 41, is far less of a public figure and was quiet and respectful in his answers, even acknowledging at one point that he is "typically pretty shy."
Both contrasted with Zuckerberg's sometimes awkward defiance during his Washington appearance in April.
Thirteen Russians were indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller this year on charges of taking part in a plot to disrupt the 2016 election by creating fake social media accounts that pushed divisive issues.
Both Facebook and Twitter are using artificial intelligence and other increasingly sophisticated technology to combat manipulation. Facebook is going after "inauthenticity," or fake accounts. Twitter is focusing on analyzing behavior patterns to find suspicious activity because Twitter technically allows "fake" accounts.
The companies have made many policy changes and have caught and banned malicious accounts over the past year. Still, their business models - free services that rely on attracting as many users as possible for as long as possible and finding out as much about them as possible - remain the same, and that has posed challenges in rooting out those bent on mischief.
GOP Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the Intelligence committee chairman, commended the companies for their efforts but said Congress is concerned that not enough has been done.
"Clearly, this problem is not going away," Burr said. "I'm not even sure it's trending in the right direction."
Dorsey said Twitter has continued to identify accounts that may be linked to the same Russian internet agency cited in Mueller's indictment. He said Twitter has suspended 3,843 accounts it believes are connected to that agency. Facebook has also taken down pages this year that it believes were tied to the agency.
At the House hearing, Energy and Commerce chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., cited recent complaints that Twitter limited the visibility of prominent Republicans on its platform - a charge echoed by Trump himself.
"It takes years to build trust, but it only takes 280 characters to lose it," Walden said.
Dorsey has strongly denied that political ideology has played a part in any Twitter algorithms that determine what users see.
The assertion that conservatives are being censored has also been pushed by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and the No. 3 House Republican, Steve Scalise of Louisiana.
Committee Democrats charged that Republicans were manufacturing the issue ahead of the November elections.
"This hearing appears to be one more mechanism to raise money and generate outrage," said Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the committee's top Democrat. Other Democrats called it a "charade" and "a load of crap."
Twitter came under fire from some on the far right after suspending conspiracy theorist Alex Jones last month, as did Facebook. Jones made an angry appearance Wednesday outside both hearing rooms, telling reporters he was there to "face my accusers."
Jones railed against the government, media and social media companies for more than 40 minutes in the hallway as the Senate hearing began. Later, he heckled a reporter outside the House hearing room.
Jones' appearance punctuated an otherwise orderly day of hearings. The only other disruption was a protester in the House hearing who yelled at Dorsey about bias - and was drowned out by a Republican lawmaker who used his auctioneering skills.
Missouri Rep. Billy Long, who owned an auctioneering company, loudly pretended to auction something off to the laughter of his colleagues as security dragged the woman out of the room.
Twitter's stock fell more than 6 percent to $32.73 on Wednesday. Some analysts attributed the fall to comments from Dorsey that the company has more work to do in fixing the problems it faces - which, of course, means spending more money. Facebook shares dropped 2.3 percent to $167.18 on what was an overall down day for the stock market.
___
Ortutay reported from New York. Associated Press writer Ryan Nakashima contributed to this report from Fremont, California.
An empty chair reserved for Google's parent Alphabet, which refused to send its top executive, is seen as Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg accompanied by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on 'Foreign Influence Operations and Their Use of Social Media Platforms' on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Washington. Google CEO did not show for the hearing. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., left, and Chairman Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., center, greet Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey before he testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on 'Foreign Influence Operations and Their Use of Social Media Platforms' on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on 'Foreign Influence Operations and Their Use of Social Media Platforms' on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A Minnesota judge has denied a request to seal a court filing in the case of a former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an Australian woman.
Attorneys for Mohamed Noor had filed a motion in August asking the court to suppress Noor's psychological records.
Hennepin County Judge Kathryn Quaintance wrote Tuesday that Noor's attorneys had argued in private that sealing their motion and accompanying exhibits was necessary to protect medically privileged information.
According to Minnesota Public Radio News , Quaintance wrote that "embarrassing and private records are routinely admitted to court proceedings open to the public."
Noor is charged with murder and manslaughter in the July 2017 death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, who was shot after she called 911 to report a possible assault.
Noor's next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 27.
WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker Paul Ryan is rejecting President Donald Trump's suggestion that the Justice Department shouldn't prosecute two GOP congressmen because it will hurt the party's election prospects in November.
Ryan tells reporters Wednesday, "Justice is blind. Justice should be blind." The Wisconsin Republican says political party should have no impact on how the department works.
Ryan became the latest Republicans to criticize Trump since the president tweeted Monday that the Justice Department should take his political views into account when pursuing investigations. Trump criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions for prosecuting the two GOP lawmakers just before midterm elections, saying, "Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff."
Ryan adds that "the process is working its way as it should."
NEW YORK (AP) - Offers of training and stock in their new employer weren't enough to keep four out of his five staffers when Dennis Chow sold his information technology firm in 2016.
Chow and the buyers learned one of the hard lessons of a business sale - despite their best efforts, some employees will leave. People departed from both companies when SCIS Security acquired Chow's Houston-based Xtec Systems, most of them workers who didn't like their new assignments.
"We lost maybe 25 percent of the overall workforce," Chow says.
In this Friday, Aug. 17, 2018, photo, Jackie Johnson, left, and John Ahlberg work at Waident Technology Solutions in Glen Ellyn, Ill. Ahlberg, whose technology support and management company has made four acquisitions in recent years, has been able to retain about a third of the staffers who joined his firm, Chicago-based Waident. "With each person, we sit down and talk to them, and ask, 'What are you doing now, and what skills do you have?'" Ahlberg says. "But most of the conversation revolves around, 'What are your hopes and dreams. What do you want to be doing?'" (AP Photo/Annie Rice)
_____
For more small business news, insights and inspiration, sign up for our free weekly newsletter here: http://discover.ap.org/ssb
_____
As the number of small business sales keeps rising, staff retention is a priority - especially since low unemployment makes it easy for many workers to find new jobs. Transactions tallied by online marketplace BizBuySell.com show more than 2,700 small businesses changed hands during the second quarter, the most since the count began in 2007. The trend is being driven in large part by retiring baby boomer owners.
One big problem can be a culture clash - staffers whose company is sold may be uncomfortable with their new bosses and how the business is now being run. A new owner may be more rigid about schedules or more of a micromanager. Staffers who worked with just a handful of people before might find themselves with dozens of co-workers, and miss the old camaraderie.
Bosses should focus on the quality of employees' work life, says Mike Astringer, owner of Human Capital Consultants, a human resources provider. Money, whether it's in the form or a raise or a bonus, may not work in the long run.
"The new acquirer and the seller need to really collaborate in the transition to make sure the culture not going to change, that the reason people work there is going to continue," he says. Critical to keeping staffers is not springing the ownership change on them at the last minute. That will only anger them and add to their anxiety and temptation to flee, Astringer says.
A new boss should acknowledge and validate staffers' feelings, and not try pep talks to ease anxiety, says John Proctor, CEO of Ottawa, Ontario-based Martello Technologies. The information and communications technology company has made two acquisitions in recent years, giving Proctor experience with persuading reluctant staffers to stay.
"People aren't praying at the altar of Martello. It doesn't work like that," he says.
Proctor's approach is to meet with staffers individually or in small groups, spell out his ideas for the company's direction and ask employees about the roles they see themselves playing. He recommends listening rather than dictating.
"You're giving them a sense of ownership instead of, 'You're going to be doing this, and you're going to be doing that,'" he says.
Still, Proctor warns owners to expect some friction. "You also need to be realistic that there will be issues and disputes and you must deal with those with an open and frank dialogue with all involved," he says.
It can be more difficult to retain staffers in some industries than others. David Crais, chief executive of CMG Carelytics a health technology development company that has done several acquisitions, has found software engineers reluctant to be part of a company that's growing by buying others.
"Many times, they're driven by wanting to be part of a building process," says Crais,
The more an owner can align a staffer's needs with the company's culture, the greater the chances of retaining employees, Crais says. He considers an acquisition a success if 70 percent to 75 percent of the staff is still there 18 months later.
John Ahlberg, whose technology support and management company has made several acquisitions in recent years, has been able to retain about a third of the staffers who joined his firm, Chicago-based Waident Technology Solutions. Those who left tended to be uncomfortable with the culture at their new company; for example, they were used to working on their own and had a hard time adapting to team work.
"With each person, we sit down and talk to them, and ask, 'What are you doing now, and what skills do you have?'" Ahlberg says. "But most of the conversation revolves around, 'What are your hopes and dreams. What do you want to be doing?'"
Those conversations must be ongoing, Ahlberg says: "We sit with everyone regularly to make sure they are heard, we discuss the company expectations and define what is expected of them. We try to leave nothing vague."
Sometimes there isn't much an owner can do. Steve Sargent hoped for an easy transition when he bought an automotive repair shop in Cary, North Carolina, in March and turned it into a Mr. Transmission/Milex franchise. He told the three staffers they could keep their jobs, but changes he made, including new technology to handle transactions and accounting, were troubling for the shop manager. Sargent provided training and tried to talk to the man, but couldn't get him to open up about his frustration.
"He always said he wasn't going to leave," Sargent says. But nearly three months after Sargent arrived, "he called me and said, I can't do this anymore," Sargent recalls.
Sargent advises other owners to keep communicating, but be ready for people to quit.
"Not everyone will make it through the transition, so be proactive about looking for replacements before a person leaves," he says.
___
Follow Joyce Rosenberg at www.twitter.com/JoyceMRosenberg . Her work can be found here: https://apnews.com/search/joyce%20rosenberg
In this Friday, Aug. 17, 2018, photo, John Ahlberg poses for a portrait in his office in Glen Ellyn, Ill. Ahlberg, whose technology support and management company has made four acquisitions in recent years, has been able to retain about a third of the staffers who joined his firm, Chicago-based Waident. "With each person, we sit down and talk to them, and ask, 'What are you doing now, and what skills do you have?'" Ahlberg says. "But most of the conversation revolves around, 'What are your hopes and dreams. What do you want to be doing?'" (AP Photo/Annie Rice)
In this Friday, Aug. 17, 2018, photo, John Ahlberg works at his desk in Glen Ellyn, Ill. Ahlberg, whose technology support and management company has made four acquisitions in recent years, has been able to retain about a third of the staffers who joined his firm, Chicago-based Waident. "With each person, we sit down and talk to them, and ask, 'What are you doing now, and what skills do you have?'" Ahlberg says. "But most of the conversation revolves around, 'What are your hopes and dreams. What do you want to be doing?'" (AP Photo/Annie Rice)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the Senate hearings on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh (all times local):
10:15 p.m.
The Democrats' final questioner of the night engaged in a cryptic exchange with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh about whether he has talked with anyone at a law firm about special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh gestures over a small U.S. Constitution and his notes while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, on the second day of his confirmation hearing to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
The questions Wednesday from Sen. Kamala Harris of California centered on the law firm founded by Marc Kasowitz, who has represented President Donald Trump. Kavanaugh said he couldn't think of any such conversations, but he'd need to see a list of lawyers who work at the firm.
Harris challenged Kavanaugh's answer. She said she thinks Kavanaugh was "thinking of someone and you don't want to tell us."
She did not say why she was asking the question, but said she would follow up on it. Judiciary Committee Republicans complained that the question was unfair.
__
10 p.m.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is making no promises about putting Supreme Court arguments on TV.
Republican Sen. John Kennedy asked Wednesday about having cameras in the Supreme Court. Nominees frequently get asked that question by lawmakers, who point to their own practice. Transcripts of high court arguments are currently released the same day but audio follows days later.
Kavanaugh says other nominees have supported cameras at confirmation hearings only to quickly change their mind as justices. He says that "gives me some humility about making confident assertions" on the topic.
The court Kavanaugh currently sits on provides real-time audio of arguments. Kavanaugh isn't suggesting he supports the same for Supreme Court arguments, but is suggesting he could be open to allowing it when the Supreme Court announces its decisions.
__
9 p.m.
A Senate Democrat says his effort to question Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh about race has been hampered by Republicans' decision to keep emails from the public.
Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey questioned Kavanaugh about an email from when he served as a lawyer for President George W. Bush. Booker says the email shows Kavanaugh was at least open to racial profiling by police.
But Booker says he can't share the email with the nominee because it is among those that have been labeled "committee confidential" - available to senators, but not the public.
That prompted a complaint from Republicans. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah tells Booker he can't "cross-examine somebody about a document you cannot see."
Booker says the email's subject is racial profiling and he wants it released publicly.
__
7:10 p.m.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh says victims of sexual harassment need better information about how to come forward.
Kavanaugh said in response to pointed questions by Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii that women "need to know who they can call, when they can call."
He also repeated that he was unaware of the sexual harassment claims that caused Alex Kozinski to retire last year as an appeals court judge. Kavanaugh was a law clerk for Kozinski in the early 1990s and remained friendly with him.
Kavanaugh also said he was unaware of the domestic violence allegations against Rob Porter, who was President Donald Trump's staff secretary. Journalist Bob Woodward's new book about Trump says Kavanaugh recommended Porter for the job. Kavanaugh was staff secretary in the George W. Bush White House
__
7 p.m.
Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona tried not once, but twice, to engage Brett Kavanaugh in questions arising from one of President Donald Trump's tweets, but the Supreme Court nominee declined to respond.
Flake said he was concerned about the executive branch and asked whether a president should be able to use his authority to carry out directives for political gain. He specifically referred to Trump's tweet against Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday, where he complained that criminal charges against two Republican congressmen could hurt the party in the midterm election.
Kavanaugh said maintaining judicial independence "requires me to avoid commenting on current events."
Flake then took Trump out of the question. Kavanaugh still declined to engage in a hypothetical he said closely resembled the earlier one.
__
6:10 p.m.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is declining to say whether he would recuse himself from cases involving the civil or criminal liability of President Donald Trump.
Kavanaugh told Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut that he wouldn't comment on how he would handle any particular case, adding that even "the decision to participate in a case is itself a decision" he would not prejudge.
"This is part of what I see as independence of the judiciary," Kavanaugh says, noting that the senator may disagree.
"I do disagree," Blumenthal said, "and I am troubled."
Blumenthal began his questioning by saying he wanted to address the "unchartered territory" of a high court nominee from a president who is an unindicted co-conspirator in a federal criminal case that could come to the court.
__
5:30 p.m.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is pushing back against a senator's suggestion that he's opposed to investigating or prosecuting a sitting president, despite having said in 2016 that he'd "put a nail" in a ruling that upheld an independent counsel law.
Kavanaugh says his objection to the Morrison v. Olson ruling only extends to the independent counsel law, which Congress did away with in 1999, not the current special counsel law. That's the law that's underpinning special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
Pressed by Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware for his views on the breadth of executive power, Kavanaugh says he wanted to "avoid melding a lot of different things."
Kavanaugh insists if such questions come before him on the court he'll have an "an open mind."
__
5:15 p.m.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh says he stopped voting shortly after becoming a federal appeals court judge in 2006.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz asked Kavanaugh on Wednesday whether he considers himself a "Republican judge." Kavanaugh responded he believes he voted in one election as a judge and wasn't sure what his voter registration says.
Kavanaugh says he read about Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan II, who didn't vote as a federal judge. He says he thought Harlan's practice was a "good model for a federal judge" to follow.
He says, "It seemed to me that voting is a very personal expression of your policy beliefs in many ways and your personal beliefs."
Kavanaugh previously noted his decision to stop voting in a 2016 law review article.
__
3:50 p.m.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh says he has not taken a position on the constitutionality of investigating a sitting president. Yet his past writings cast doubt on the idea.
Asked by Sen. Amy Klobuchar Wednesday whether he believes such investigations are only acceptable in impeachment proceedings, Kavanaugh replied: "I did not take a position on the constitutionality. Period."
In a footnote to a 2009 law review article, Kavanaugh wrote that "a serious constitutional question exists regarding whether a President can be criminally indicted and tried while in office."
A decade earlier, Kavanaugh wrote that the Constitution seems to dictate that "congressional investigation must take place in lieu of criminal investigation when the President is the subject of investigation, and that criminal prosecution can occur only after the President has left office."
__
2:25 p.m.
President Donald Trump says he's been watching the Senate confirmation hearings of his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. He says the judge has "an outstanding intellect."
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office as he welcomes the emir of Kuwait to the White House, Trump says he's "happy" with the way the proceedings are going.
Trump says he "saw some incredible answers to very complex questions," when he tuned in to the proceedings. Trump called Kavanaugh "an outstanding judge" who was "born for the position."
Kavanaugh was questioned before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday.
Trump says Democrats are "grasping at straws" in their questioning of Kavanaugh.
__
2:05 p.m.
Senate Republicans have been forced to adjourn the Senate to continue the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer objected to a request from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to allow Kavanaugh's hearing to continue past 2 p.m. Wednesday. Under Senate rules, the minority leader must agree before a hearing can extend two hours past the opening of the Senate. The chamber opened at noon on Wednesday.
Schumer objected, protesting that Republicans are holding back records from Kavanaugh's time in government.
Rather than allowing Kavanaugh's hearing to end at 2 p.m., McConnell adjourned the Senate. The confirmation hearing is expected to last into the late evening.
Earlier in the day, liberal groups blasted Schumer's handling of the Supreme Court fight, declaring, "you are failing us."
___
12:25 p.m.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is denying that he misled senators in testimony when he was nominated to be an appellate judge in 2006. He says the testimony was "100 percent accurate."
The response does not appear to have satisfied Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont. Leahy is suggesting that confidential documents not available to the public may contradict Kavanaugh's assertions that he knew nothing about a Bush administration warrantless surveillance program or efforts by a Republican Judiciary Committee aide to steal material from Democrats in advance of judicial nomination hearings.
Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley said he would consider making the documents public in time for Leahy's next round of questions Thursday.
Kavanaugh's response came after an unusual moment where Democrats played a video clip of Kavanaugh's 2006 testimony.
___
12:15 p.m.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is declining to answer questions about the extent of the president's pardon power.
Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont asked Kavanaugh: "President Trump claims he has an absolute right to pardon himself. Does he?"
Kavanaugh responded that the question was a hypothetical one he "can't begin to answer in this context as a sitting judge and as a nominee to the Supreme Court."
Leahy followed by asking whether the president has the ability to pardon someone in exchange for a promise not to testify against him. Kavanaugh declined to answer.
Leahy concluded by saying: "I hope for the sake of the country that remains a hypothetical question."
President Donald Trump has declined to rule out pardons for people convicted in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
___
11:35 a.m.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh says he knew nothing about the sexual misconduct allegations against a judge who was a friend and mentor.
Kavanaugh said Wednesday that when the allegations against former federal appeals court judge Alex Kozinski became public, they were a "gut punch" for him and for the federal judiciary. Asked whether he knew about the allegations before they became public, Kavanaugh responded: "nothing." He said he was "shocked and disappointed."
Asked whether he was on an email list that Kozinski used to send offensive material, Kavanaugh responded: "I don't remember anything like that."
Kozinski retired in December after several female former law clerks and colleagues accused him of sexual misconduct.
Kavanaugh clerked for Kozinski, and Kozinski introduced him during his 2006 confirmation hearing to be a judge.
___
11:20 a.m.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is refusing to say whether a president can be forced to testify in a criminal case, calling it a hypothetical.
The topic is front-and-center at Kavanaugh's hearing because the man who nominated him, President Donald Trump, could face a subpoena in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, asked Kavanaugh whether he thinks a sitting president can "be required to respond to a subpoena."
Kavanaugh responded: "I can't give you an answer on that hypothetical question."
The Supreme Court has never ruled on a presidential subpoena.
President Bill Clinton was subpoenaed by independent counsel Kenneth Starr in 1998. Clinton eventually agreed to testify voluntarily and the subpoena was withdrawn.
Kavanaugh worked for Starr.
___
11 a.m.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh says a 1973 Supreme Court decision that established a constitutional right to an abortion is an "important precedent" that has "been reaffirmed many times."
Kavanaugh was asked about the Roe v. Wade ruling by Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California. He said the decision has "been reaffirmed many times over the past 45 years." And he noted that a 1992 decision of the court called Planned Parenthood v. Casey didn't just reaffirm Roe v. Wade in passing. He said that decision becomes "precedent on precedent."
Kavanaugh compared the Roe decision to another case, Miranda v. Arizona, which requires law enforcement to tell suspects their rights. Kavanaugh noted that former Chief Justice William Rehnquist had been a critic of the Miranda decision but later upheld it as precedent.
___
10:30 a.m.
Republicans are invoking Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to make the case that Brett Kavanaugh should decline to say how he might vote on any particular case.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley referred to the so-called "Ginsburg standard" Wednesday during the second day of Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings.
Ginsburg said during her 1993 confirmation hearing that it would be wrong for her to "preview in this legislative chamber how I would cast my vote on questions the Supreme Court may be called upon to decide."
As Kavanaugh put it, quoting Ginsburg, that means "no hints, no forecasts, no previews."
Despite her statement, Ginsburg was questioned extensively about abortion during her hearing. She told lawmakers, "It is essential to woman's equality with man that she be the decision maker."
___
10:20 a.m.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is pointing to a decision where he ruled for an associate of Osama bin Laden as evidence of his independence as judge.
Asked by Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley to discuss what judicial independence means to him, Kavanaugh pointed to his opinion in a case involving Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who was bin Laden's former chauffeur. Hamdan challenged his detention at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Kavanaugh told senators that "you'll never have a nominee who's ruled for a more unpopular defendant." Kavanaugh says judges don't make decisions based on who people are, but "whether they have the law on their side."
Hamdan was released from Guantanamo before the appeals court ruling that vacated his conviction.
___
9:55 a.m.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh says he believes the first thing that makes a good judge is "independence."
Kavanaugh is answering questions Wednesday in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It's his first day answering questions from lawmakers.
Committee chairman Chuck Grassley began the day by asking Kavanaugh to explain what he thinks makes a good judge.
Kavanaugh responded that he thinks "the first quality of a good judge in our constitutional system is independence." He said being a good judge also requires paying attention to the words of the Constitution and the words of laws, "not doing what I want to do."
The judge said he wants parties to leave oral arguments in his cases believing he had an "open mind, he gave me a fair shake."
9:50 a.m.
Demonstrators are again disrupting the hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley attempted to gavel in the second day of hearings on Wednesday when shouting protesters began disrupting the hearings. Grassley said 70 people were arrested during the first day of hearings the day before.
Kavanaugh will be answering questions from senators all day. Democratic senators are expected to press for his views on issues like abortion, guns and executive power.
President Donald Trump nominated the 53-year-old appellate judge in July to fill the seat of retired Justice Anthony Kennedy.
___
9:20 a.m.
Liberal and progressive groups are pressuring Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to unify Democrats against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
A letter sent to Schumer on the second day of hearings for President Donald Trump's court pick says bluntly: "You are failing us."
Democrats face a difficult climb trying to block Kavanaugh's confirmation. If nearly all Republicans back Kavanaugh, as is expected, several Democrats facing tough re-election races may vote to confirm him.
But the groups say Democrats in states like West Virginia, North Dakota, Indiana, Missouri, Montana and Alabama have nothing to fear from voting against Kavanaugh. They say voters in those states "care deeply" about the issues before the court and "will reward a principled vote."
The Senate's questioning of Kavanaugh is set to begin Wednesday morning.
___
4:20 a.m.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh touted the importance of an independent judiciary as his confirmation hearings began with strident Democratic criticism that he would be President Donald Trump's man on the high court.
On Wednesday, Kavanaugh can expect to spend most of the day in the hot seat, sparring with Democratic senators over abortion, guns, executive power and other high-profile issues.
A long day of questioning awaits the 53-year-old appellate judge, whom Trump nominated in July to fill the seat of retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. The change could make the court more conservative on a range of issues.
Barring a surprise, Republicans appear on track to confirm Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, perhaps in time for the first day of the new term on Oct. 1.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge, holds up a pocket copy of the Constitution as he testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, for the second day of his confirmation hearing to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump listens to a question during a meeting with Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
DOVER, Del. (AP) - As outbreaks of antiestablishment activism roil the Democratic Party nationwide, a veteran Delaware political leader who's never been beaten faces a primary election challenge from an insurgent who's never run for office.
Kerri Evelyn Harris, whose resume includes loading giant Air Force cargo planes, frying chicken at a convenience store chain and working as an auto body mechanic, is seeking in Thursday's Democratic primary to unseat three-term incumbent U.S. Sen. Tom Carper, one of the most successful politicians in Delaware history.
"We absolutely are fighting for the soul of the Democrat Party," said Harris.
FILE - In this May 15, 2018, file photo, Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., asks a question of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen as she testifies to the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. Kerri Evelyn Harris, whose resume includes loading giant Air Force cargo planes, frying chicken at a convenience store chain and working as an auto body mechanic, is seeking in the Thursday, Sept. 6, Democratic primary to unseat three-term incumbent Carper, one of the most successful politicians in Delaware history. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
Carper, undefeated since 1976 when he was first elected state treasurer, is taking it in stride.
"It's not like I've never been primaried before," said Carper, who served five terms in the U.S. House and two as governor before being elected to the Senate in 2000.
Carper has a huge fundraising advantage, having raised more than $1.3 million this year as of mid-August, compared to a little more than $120,000 by Harris. He has far outspent her.
Harris is among a wave of young activist Democrats, emboldened by the 2016 presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. They have sent shock waves through the party establishment around the U.S., starting in June with a New York primary victory by 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over 10-term incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley. Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, 39, riding an insurgent wave, scored a stunning victory last week in Florida's Democratic gubernatorial primary. And on Tuesday, Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley beat longtime Rep. Mike Capuano in a closely watched Democratic primary.
Now, it's the 38-year-old Harris' turn in the spotlight, a place she never expected to be.
Born in New York to a biracial couple, Harris attended high school in California before joining the Air Force. She worked as a loadmaster at Dover Air Force Base until 2008, when she was medically retired after suffering an adverse reaction to the anthrax vaccine. She then worked a variety of jobs and served on the state Human Relations Commission before becoming a political organizer.
Last year, after trying unsuccessfully to find someone to challenge Carper, she took on the job herself.
"This is a fight to prove that we are a party of the people," said Harris. She has painted Carper, 71, as an out-of-touch career politician doing the bidding of corporations and their political action committees.
Carper, meanwhile, sees himself as a centrist able to work in a bipartisan way.
"Across the country, we have a number of folks that are on the progressive wing of the party, really the far-left flank of our party. Some of them have little tolerance for centrists," added Carper, who touts his ability to work with both Democrats and Republicans.
But Harris says Carper hasn't done enough for everyday people, and that too many within the Democratic Party's core constituency have become marginalized.
"He has definitely become a corporatist," she said, noting that Carper voted for the Keystone XL pipeline. "His entire career, if you look at it, has been centered around making sure corporations thrive, and almost a Republican idea of there will be a trickle-down effect. We know that trickle down doesn't work."
Harris' campaign shares elements with those of other new activists, including government-paid health care for all, a $15 hourly minimum wage and abolishing the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Harris also favors eliminating all student debt.
"I see myself a part of the movement for the people," she said. "It's moved beyond Bernie. There's people in all parties who are ready for this."
Harris is backed by a political action committee called Justice Democrats, started by organizers of Sanders' presidential campaign. Twenty-five of its endorsed candidates are on the November general election ballot in states across the country. Ocasio-Cortez has visited Delaware to support Harris.
While Harris rejects the notion that she's a socialist, it remains to be seen how well her message will play among the more than 327,000 registered Democrats eligible to vote in Thursday's closed primary.
"Delaware's not New York City," Carper said. "And in most of these races around the country where you've got the progressive, far-left candidates running against more moderate Democrats, for the most part the more moderate Democrats are winning those races."
He retains the support of the Democratic establishment. Among those endorsing him are former vice president and U.S. Senate colleague Joe Biden, the Delaware Democratic Party, the AFL-CIO, the state teachers' union and Delaware's largest daily newspaper.
Carper also has been endorsed by the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights advocacy organization, even though Harris could make history as the first openly gay person elected to Congress from Delaware.
"We all want the same thing," Carper said. "We have maybe different ideas on how to get there."
The winner of Thursday's Democratic primary in Delaware will face the winner the GOP primary between former PayPal executive Gene Truono and Sussex County councilman Rob Arlett, who was state campaign chairman for Donald Trump in 2016.
China and Ghana announced to co-produce the first feature film titled Ebola in Beijing just ahead of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
The film commemorating Chinese medical aid to West Africa against the Ebola epidemic after the outburst of the virus in 2014 is the first co-production between China and Africa.
Africa and China have gained fruitful results in recent years cooperation on public health and people-to-people exchanges, said Ghanas Ambassador to China Edward Boateng, adding that the film Ebola is of special significance as the first co-produced film between Ghana and China.
In early 2014, the deadly Ebola disease broke out in such West African countries as Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, causing more than 20,000 infections with a death rate of over 60 percent. Many airlines suspended or cancelled their flights in and out of Sierra Leone and Liberia then.
It was the Chinese medical workers who headed into the danger at the most critical moment and started the largest medical foreign aid campaign in the history of the Peoples Republic of China.
Chinese government sent more than 1,200 medical personnel to West Africa to fight against Ebola and prevent infection. In addition, China also provided four rounds of aids worth over $120 million to 13 countries including the epidemic-hit areas and surrounding countries.
The highly infectious virus and the heat in West Africa were both severe challenges for Chinese medical workers, which even caused fever for some of them.
It took at least 40 minutes and 41 procedures to put on and off the personal protective equipment, said Song Caiping on the medical team of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) to Liberia. Their masks were often soaked by the vapor created by their breaths due to the high temperature and heavy protection suit.
Fortunately, the hard work of Chinese medical staff paid off. In Liberia, multiple Ebola patients finally walked out of wards, including a little child Robert. He danced happily for the medical staff the moment he knew he was cured.
China has always taken the lead in the global anti-Ebola campaign, as AllAfrica.com pointed out in a report. Chinese medical personnel showed their love and caring facing the relentless disease, and fought side by side with African countries after the epidemic broke out. It indicated the essence of China-Africa friendship, and also the sense of responsibilities of China.
Filmmakers from both countries interviewed tens of Chinese medical workers who were participated in the anti-Ebola campaign and Ebola patients who survived the deadly disease, said Shen Jian, a producer from the Chinese side, adding that they were all touched by the stories.
The film is scheduled to be shown in 2020 in celebrating the 20th anniversary of the FOCAC, Shen disclosed.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Trump administration officials and Canadian negotiators worked into Wednesday night, trying to strike a deal that would keep Canada in a North American trade bloc with the United States and Mexico.
"Teams are remaining here this evening, working late into the night," Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters as she entered a meeting with U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer. "They will report back to us in the morning."
Last week, the U.S. and Mexico reached a preliminary agreement to replace the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement. But those talks excluded Canada, the third NAFTA country.
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland arrives at the United States Trade Representative building in Washington, for a new round of trade talks on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Luis Alonso Lugo)
Freeland flew to Washington last week for four days of negotiations to try to keep Canada within the regional trade bloc.
The U.S. and Canada are sparring over issues including U.S. access to Canada's protected dairy market and American plans to protect some drug companies from generic competition.
Freeland expressed optimism late Wednesday.
"We are making good progress," she said. "We continue to get a deeper and deeper understanding of the concerns on both sides."
NEW CHURCH, Va. (AP) - A Virginia woman has received jail time for using her 5-year-old child as an accomplice in a break-in.
Gabrielle Lynn Kromer was convicted of burglary, grand larceny and child endangerment in March. According to court testimony, she took her two children to Simply Storage, where she found an unlocked window at the building's rear. She hoisted the 5-year-old through the window, telling the child to open the front door for her.
She then took cash and checks worth $780, and smashed a glass door to cover her tracks. A friend who worked at Simply Storage told the owner what happened.
The Daily Times of Salisbury reports the 27-year-old was sentenced to 45 days in jail Aug. 30, and must pay restitution. She can serve jail time on weekends.
PRAGUE (AP) - Officials in the Czech Republic say a helicopter has crashed in a western city, killing all four people onboard.
Regional rescue service spokesman Martin Brejcha says that the crash has occurred in Plzen, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Prague. The victims haven't been identified.
Local firefighting spokesman Petr Poncar says the helicopter crashed on the roof of an empty factory hall in the industrial zone of Plzen on Wednesday afternoon. He says that the crash didn't spark a fire and no one else has been injured.
The CTK news agency reported that the aircraft was a small Robinson helicopter.
___
This story has been corrected to show that Martin Brejcha is a spokesman for the regional rescue service, not a firefighting spokesman.
DALLAS (AP) - The Latest on a truck crashing into a Dallas TV station (all times local):
12:50 p.m.
Jail records show the 34-year-old man police say rammed a pickup truck into the downtown building of Dallas' Fox television affiliate has a criminal history dating back more than 15 years.
This image taken from video by KDFW Fox 4 shows a pickup truck after a man crashed the vehicle into the side of the Fox affiliate television station building in downtown Dallas on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. The man was arrested after pacing and scattering papers outside. Despite the crash, nobody was hurt. (KDFW Fox 4 via AP)
Dallas police say in a news release that Michael Chadwick Fry was taken into custody Wednesday morning after he intentionally crashed into the building and scattered papers outside with information on a police shooting. Police say it doesn't appear the man was targeting the media.
Online Denton County records show that Fry has been booked into jail more than two dozen times since 2003 on a variety of crimes, including public intoxication and arson.
He was charged with criminal mischief in Wednesday's crash.
Police said no "suspicious devices" were found in a bag the man removed from his vehicle following the crash.
___
11 a.m.
Authorities say they don't believe that a man who rammed his pickup truck into the downtown building of Dallas' Fox television affiliate was targeting the media.
Police Senior Cpl. Debra Webb says the man who was detained after the Wednesday morning incident was taken to a hospital for examination.
Witnesses say that after ramming into the building, the rambling man got out of his truck and scattered hand-written papers. Police say the papers had information on a police-involved shooting.
KDFW reporter Brandon Todd says people backed away when the man took an orange duffel bag out of his truck, fearing it could contain a bomb.
Webb says no "suspicious devices" were found in the bag. No one was hurt.
___
8 a.m.
Police have detained a "ranting" man accused of crashing a pickup truck into a Fox affiliate television station building in downtown Dallas during a live newscast.
KDFW posted details on Facebook Wednesday morning showing photos of the front of the vehicle rammed into windows near an entrance. The man paced and scattered papers outside. He was not able to enter the building and was soon arrested.
Anchors who continued on the air through the 7 a.m. newscast, despite the crash, say nobody was hurt.
A KDFW statement says "a man crashed a truck into the side of our building this morning" and "jumped out and started ranting."
Police haven't returned messages about the suspect or a possible motive.
This photo from video by KDFW Fox 4 shows a man being detained at right after crashing his pickup truck into the side of the Fox affiliate television station building in downtown Dallas on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. Despite the crash, nobody was hurt. (KDFW Fox 4 via AP)
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) - The Constitutional Court agreed Wednesday to consider four appeals seeking to reverse the government of President Jimmy Morales' decision to bar from Guatemala the head of a U.N.-backed commission investigating corruption in the country.
The court gave the president and other government bodies 48 hours to report on the reasons for the decision regarding Ivan Velasquez, head of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, or CICIG for its initials in Spanish.
The Guatemalan government has called him "a person who attacks order and public security in the country." The United Nations defended CICIG and the commissioner as playing "a pivotal role in the fight against impunity in Guatemala."
FILE - In this Sept. 14, 2017 file photo, Ivan Velasquez, commissioner of the United Nations International Commission Against Impunity, CICIG, pauses during an interview, in Guatemala City. Velasquez was barred from re-entering the country Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, days after President Jimmy Morales decided not to renew the body's mandate. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo, File)
Morales' government announced Tuesday that Velasquez, a Colombian national, would not be allowed to return to the Central American country and that he had asked U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to name a replacement.
But the United Nations opted to keep him in charge. Commission spokesman Matias Ponce said Velasquez was working remotely from Washington, where he was holding meetings.
"The U.N. Secretariat has serious concerns about this decision, which it is currently reviewing and which does not appear to be consistent with the Agreement on the establishment of CICIG," the United Nations said in a statement, urging Guatemala to "continue to search for a solution through dialogue."
Working with Guatemalan prosecutors, Velasquez's commission has pressed a number of corruption probes that have ensnared dozens of politicians, public servants and businesspeople.
One case dealing with over $1 million in purported illicit campaign financing allegedly received by Morales remains pending. The president denies wrongdoing.
Last Friday, Morales announced that he would not renew CICIG for another two-year mandate in the country, giving the commission until the end of its current term in September 2019 to transfer all its functions to Guatemalan institutions.
CHICAGO (AP) - For almost three years, Chicago has been grappling with the impact of a few seconds of grainy video that show a white police officer, Jason Van Dyke, emptying his service weapon into Laquan McDonald, causing the black teenager to spin and fall to the ground.
Since a judge in November 2015 ordered the release of the dashboard camera footage of the fatal shooting, jobs have been lost, trust shattered, charges filed, investigations launched and scathing reports written.
Their names still appear regularly in the news, but only once in a while are McDonald and Van Dyke the lead story or a front page headline.
Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke walks into the courthouse, Wednesday morning, Sept. 5, 2018, in Chicago. Prospective jurors in the murder trial of Dyke who killed black teenager Laquan McDonald are to be given questionnaires as the first phase of jury selection starts Wednesday. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
That is now changing: Van Dyke is about to stand trial on a murder charge, accused of firing 16 bullets into McDonald.
THE TEEN
By all accounts, Laquan McDonald's short life was a difficult one. He was placed in foster care at the age of 3, then shuttled between relatives. On the night of his death in October 2014, the 17-year-old was a ward of the state.
The teenager had told authorities he smoked marijuana every day and was arrested at least once for marijuana possession. School officials and the McDonald family's lawyer said there had been signs he was trying to get his life back in order, but the night he was shot, McDonald had PCP, a hallucinogenic drug, in his system and had been breaking into cars and slashing tires.
THE OFFICER
Van Dyke joined the Chicago Police Department in the summer of 2001 and on the night he killed McDonald, the married father of two children was still a patrol officer. But his career had not been uneventful. According to a University of Chicago database that includes police reports from 2002 to 2008 and from 2011 to 2015, at least 20 citizen complaints were filed against him, eight of which alleged excessive force. According to a media report at the time, a jury awarded $350,000 to a man who filed an excessive force lawsuit against Van Dyke. The officer was never disciplined.
THE SHOOTING
It was a 911 call on the night of Oct. 20, 2014, reporting a person trying to break into vehicles on the Southwest Side that put McDonald on a collision course with Chicago police. Officials say McDonald ignored officers' orders to drop the knife they could see in his hand.
The first two officers on the scene were not armed with a Taser, so, according to the city's attorney, they requested that an officer with a Taser come to the scene. While waiting, they pulled their squad car in front of McDonald to keep him from leaving. He punctured the tires with his knife.
Soon Van Dyke and another officer arrived and drew their service weapons. Van Dyke opened fire within seconds.
THE OFFICIAL ACCOUNT
After the shooting, the scene was a flurry of activity as more officers arrived. Also on the scene was Pat Camden, the acting spokesman for the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police. Camden told reporters that Van Dyke fired his weapon after McDonald lunged at him with a knife. The police department said in a statement that McDonald "refused to comply with orders and drop the knife and continued to approach the offices" when he was shot.
Van Dyke said he fired because the teen attacked him with a knife. Other officers at the scene supported that version of events in their own reports.
THE UNRAVELING
For months, questions about the shooting dogged the department. The autopsy found McDonald had PCP in his system, fitting the narrative that he had been acting erratically. The report also revealed that the teen had been shot 16 times. After attorneys for the McDonald family watched the squad car video, they announced that McDonald had been walking away from Van Dyke when the officer opened fire from about 15 feet (4.5 meters) away and continued to fire when the teen fell to the ground.
Activists, journalists and attorneys pushed for the video's release and in November 2015 - more than a year after the shooting - a judge ordered the city to make it public. The video confirmed the lawyers' assessment of the scene.
THE FALLOUT
On the day the video was released, prosecutors announced that they had charged Van Dyke with first-degree murder in an apparent attempt to maintain calm on the streets of Chicago. It didn't work. The video sparked massive protests, including angry confrontations between demonstrators and police.
Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez was voted out of office the following spring, scorned for waiting for the video's release before charging Van Dyke. Weeks later, three more officers were indicted for obstruction of justice and other charges related to the alleged cover-up of the shooting. A year after that, a scathing U.S. Department of Justice report called out the police department for deep-rooted civil rights violations, racial bias and the use of excessive force.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whose lawyers had fought to keep the video under wraps, meanwhile scrambled to contain the growing crisis. He ignored calls for his resignation and promised "complete and total" police reform . A $5 million settlement with the McDonald family was announced just days after Emanuel won re-election in April 2015.
He fired his hand-picked police superintendent, Garry McCarthy, who is now running for mayor .
On Tuesday, the day before jury selection in Van Dyke's murder trial was set to begin, Emanuel announced he would not seek a third term. He provided no reason and his office said the pending trial did not figure in his decision.
___
For The Latest on jury selection in the Van Dyke trial: https://bit.ly/2NlMlE6
Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke walks into the courthouse, Wednesday morning, Sept. 5, 2018, in Chicago. Prospective jurors in the murder trial of Dyke who killed black teenager Laquan McDonald are to be given questionnaires as the first phase of jury selection starts Wednesday. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke walks into the courthouse, Wednesday morning, Sept. 5, 2018, in Chicago. Prospective jurors in the murder trial of Dyke who killed black teenager Laquan McDonald are to be given questionnaires as the first phase of jury selection starts Wednesday. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
FILE - In this Oct. 20, 2014 file image taken from dash-cam video provided by the Chicago Police Department, Laquan McDonald, right, walks down the street moments before being fatally shot by Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke in Chicago. Prospective jurors in the murder trial of the white Chicago police officer who killed black teenager Laquan McDonald are to be given questionnaires as the first phase of jury selection starts Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (Chicago Police Department via AP, File)
Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke walks into the courthouse, Wednesday morning, Sept. 5, 2018, in Chicago. Prospective jurors in the murder trial of Dyke who killed black teenager Laquan McDonald are to be given questionnaires as the first phase of jury selection starts Wednesday. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Protesters gather outside the Leighton Criminal Courthouse as jury selection starts for the trial against Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Chicago. Prospective jurors in the murder trial of the white officer who killed black teenager Laquan McDonald are to be given questionnaires as the first phase of jury selection starts Wednesday. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Protesters gather outside the Leighton Criminal Courthouse as jury selection starts for the trial against Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Chicago. Prospective jurors in the murder trial of the white officer who killed black teenager Laquan McDonald are to be given questionnaires as the first phase of jury selection starts Wednesday. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Protesters gather outside the Leighton Criminal Courthouse as jury selection starts for the trial against Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Chicago. Prospective jurors in the murder trial of the white officer who killed black teenager Laquan McDonald are to be given questionnaires as the first phase of jury selection starts Wednesday. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Protesters head into the Leighton Criminal Courthouse as jury selection starts for the trial against Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Chicago. Prospective jurors in the murder trial of the white officer who killed black teenager Laquan McDonald are to be given questionnaires as the first phase of jury selection starts Wednesday. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Laquan McDonald's mother, Tina Hunter, walks with family into the Leighton Criminal Courthouse, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018 in Chicago. Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke has been charged with first-degree murder for the fatal shooting of 17-year-old McDonald in 2014. The trial begins Wednesday with jury selection. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
FLINT, Mich. (AP) - Two Michigan parents accused of beating their 3-year-old daughter to death while trying to potty train her have been sentenced to up to 40 years in prison.
The Flint Journal reports 29-year-old Erika Finley was sentenced to 15-40 years Wednesday and 27-year-old Khairy Simon was sentenced to 12-40 years in Kimora Simon's death. Finley earlier pleaded no contest to charges including second-degree murder while Simon pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
Both have offered apologies.
Erika Finley, 29, looks at Genesee County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Michael Beer as he calls the case sad while speaking to Genesee Circuit Judge Geoffrey L. Neithercut during her sentencing on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018 at Genesee Circuit Court in Flint, Mich. Finley will spend the next 15-40 years in prison for the 2015 murder of her 3-year-old daughter, Kimora Lee Simon, allegedly while trying to potty train her. Finley previously 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. ( Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP)
Simon told a judge in June that Finley hit the girl repeatedly with her fist and an extension cord because they were trying to potty train her. He said he tried to stop Finley.
Authorities say Kimora was killed in 2015 , but Finley continued to collect the child's welfare benefits. Kimora's body hasn't been found.
___
Information from: The Flint Journal, http://www.mlive.com/flint
Khairy J. Simon, 27, right, was sentenced to 12 to 40 years for his role in the 2015 murder of his daughter, Kimora Lee Simon, on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018 at Genesee Circuit Court in Flint, Mich. Simon and the girl's mother Erika Finley, 29, were both sentenced for their roles in the death of their 3-year-old daughter. ( Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) - The Toronto International Film Festival is an overwhelming omnibus of moviegoing that every year, through an onslaught of Oscar contenders and cinematic feasts, reflects the world around us. But more than usual, this year's festival radiates with urgent topicality, both on screen and off.
Take Steve McQueen's "Widows," which will make its world premiere at Toronto. McQueen's follow-up to his Oscar-winning "12 Years a Slave" has the trappings of a genre movie: It's about a group of recently widowed women who seek to pull off a heist their husbands had planned before dying in a police raid. But it electrically, expansively surveys fault lines of racial and gender biases across the vicious landscape of Chicago politics. For McQueen, it's a movie about today.
"To me, this film was important because it's about questions which are raised now. These are scenes that are going on now. Yes, it's within the genre of a heist film, but within that, I wanted to raise very important political questions, and that's what it was all about. Elections, voting. No one is to be trusted," McQueen says. "But at the same time, how do we as individuals navigate our way through this cesspool of politics and corruption? How can we be valiant? Small victories sometimes lead to bigger victories, but all we have right now is small victories."
This image released by Twentieth Century Fox shows Viola Davis, left, and Cynthia Erivo in a scene from "Widows." The film, directed by Steve McQueen, is about a group of recently widowed women who seek to pull off a heist their husbands had planned before dying in a police raid. (Merrick Morton/Twentieth Century Fox via AP)
The 43rd Toronto International Film Festival begins Thursday with the premiere of David Mackenzie's Robert the Bruce epic "Outlaw King," one of eight Netflix original films at the festival. In the 343 films to unspool over the next 10 days, there will be films that investigate democracy in the face of white supremacist terrorism (Paul Greengrass' "22 July"), that pry into the intimate tragedies of police brutality (Barry Jenkins' "If Beale Street Could Talk," George Tillman Jr.'s "The Hate U Give") and that directly confront the Trump era (Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 11/9," Errol Morris' Steve Bannon documentary "American Dharma").
"If you look at the slate, I would say that cinema is alive and well and more engaged than ever with the world around it," says Cameron Bailey, the co-head of TIFF. "You're finding filmmakers who are really digging into contemporary life, the politics, the social conflicts that are happening all around us."
That engagement includes the festival, itself. Toronto will host a women's rally in the ongoing push to improve gender equality in the movie industry. It's also diversifying the TIFF press corps, inviting and paying the way for approximately 180 journalists from underrepresented groups: women, minority and LGBTQ critics.
Toronto, where for years Harvey Weinstein was a red-carpet regular and where Louis C.K. last year debuted his now much derided (and since buried) "I Love You, Daddy," is also making its code of conduct more visible. Films directed by women make up 36 percent of this year's lineup, TIFF's highest percentage.
"The film business changes when we make changes. I think a lot of us have the ability and the power to make change and we just have to use it," says Bailey. "We're looking harder. We're making more of an effort to find great films by women. But they're out there."
Among the many findings are new films from Claire Denis ("High Life," with Robert Pattinson), Marielle Heller ("Can You Ever Forgive Me?" with Melissa McCarthy) and Rashida Jones ("Quincy"). Some of the most high-profile premieres are headlined by actresses, including Viola Davis ("Widows"), Nicole Kidman ("Destroyer"), Julia Roberts ("Homecoming") and Natalie Portman ("Vox Lux").
"It does feel like there's a lot of female-driven content up there. And that's great. I'm happy to stop and celebrate for a moment. But as my dad says in the movie, we have so much work to do," says Jones, whose documentary is about her music legend father Quincy Jones. "So let's celebrate for a second and then let's get back to work and make sure that we don't get too pleased with ourselves about having fixed everything. Because there's a lot to undo."
Much of the attention at TIFF will surround the films that drew raves last week at the Venice Film Festival, like Alfonso Cuaron's "Roma," Damien Chazelle's "First Man" and Bradley Cooper's "A Star Is Born." How potential Academy Awards contenders reverberate among the larger audiences and massive media contingent of Toronto's launching pad usually says a lot about their Oscar chances. Added to the mix will be Felix Van Groeningen's father-son addiction drama "Beautiful Boy," with Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet, and Moore's anticipated Trump documentary.
Moore believes his film, which examines the roads leading to what he considers a frightfully perilous moment for America, will connect with audiences unlike any of his previous documentaries.
"The fact that it's ready before the midterms is our good luck, I guess. But I've never believed you should put a film out until it's ready," says Moore. "I think this movie, I've seen it sear into people's brains, into their hearts. I believe with this film people are not even going to go to bed that night."
As the swift sale and release last year of eventual Oscar-winner "I, Tonya" showed, the films on the market in Toronto can quickly enter the awards fray, too. Some of this year's top titles include "The Wedding Guest," with Dev Patel; "American Woman," with Sienna Miller; "Skin," with Jamie Bell as a neo-Nazi; and Sam Taylor-Johnson's adaption of James Frey's controversial memoir "A Million Little Pieces."
For Taylor-Johnson, the director of "Shades of Grey," Toronto comes at an exciting moment.
"To feel that now there's an opportunity where everything is laid bare and the rules are changing - is exciting," says Taylor-Johnson. "Everything that has happened is leading us to a good place. I just hope the progress continues and keeps taking strides. Not small steps, but strides."
___
Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
This image released by Netflix shows a scene from Paul Greengrass' docudrama on the 2011 Norway terrorist attack "22 July," premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival. (Erik Aavatsmark/Netflix via AP)
This image released by Annapurna Pictures shows Stephan James, left, and KiKi Layne in a scene from "If Beale Street Could Talk," premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival. (Tatum Mangus/Annapurna Pictures via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones became a sideshow outside two congressional hearings Wednesday, insulting Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as a "little punk" and heckling a reporter, all while posting the spectacle on Facebook and Twitter.
The "Infowars" host stormed around Capitol Hill for hours, streaming appearances of himself on Twitter and Facebook outside the hearings where social media executives were testifying.
Jones' bread and butter is shouting over-the-top grievances and conspiracy theories in videos that he shares on social media, radio and his own websites.
Alex Jones, the right-wing conspiracy theorist, walks the corridors of Capitol Hill after listening to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on 'Foreign Influence Operations and Their Use of Social Media Platforms' on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Jones, who is angry at the tech companies because they both suspended him temporarily last month, said he was there to "face my accusers."
At one point he badgered Rubio as the Republican answered reporters' questions in a hallway. Jones called the onetime presidential hopeful a "frat boy" and "little punk" and sounded incredulous as Rubio wondered who he was.
Rubio grew angry when Jones patted him on the shoulder, and told Jones not to touch him again.
"You're not gonna get arrested," Rubio said. "I'll take care of it myself."
The first hearing, in the Senate, was about the social media companies' efforts to prevent foreign intervention after Russian meddling in the 2016 election. A second House hearing focused on Republican assertions that Twitter is censoring conservatives - a charge Jones has championed and the company has denied.
Before that hearing, Jones spotted a reporter waiting in the hall outside the meeting room, and Jones proceeded to berate the journalist, who has covered Jones' website and his suspensions from social media.
Jones said the "real election meddling" is the silencing of conservatives on social media, "just like Communist China."
There is no reliable evidence to support Jones' charge.
___
Ortutay reported from New York.
NORWALK, Conn. (AP) - Police say a Connecticut high school cafeteria worker was found with a rifle in his car and allegedly made a threatening comment to a co-worker.
Authorities increased their presence at the school.
Sixty-nine-year-old Leslie Delaney was charged with possession of a weapon on school grounds and second-degree threatening. Police say Delaney told a co-worker at Norwalk High School on Aug. 30 that if the co-worker saw him in Army fatigues on school grounds, they should leave.
Police were alerted Tuesday. Delaney was taken to a hospital for a mental evaluation. Officers later checked his car and found an unloaded rifle in his trunk.
Delaney told police he was just joking.
Police say there is no immediate threat, but have increased their presence at the school as a precaution.
IMF African Department Director Abebe Selassie. (Courtesy of Abebe Selassie)
New York (Peoples Daily) As the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) is underway in Beijing, Director of the International Monetary Funds (IMF) African Department, Abebe Selassie said, China will be an important partner for Africa in achieving its goal of socio-economic transformation over the next 50 years, in a written interview with Peoples Daily.
Selassie also emphasized how the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) provides strong opportunities for African economies to spur investment and trade.
Sub-Sahara Africa has made strides in improving economic and social conditions over the last two decades.
As Selassie pointed out, per capita income has risen on average 50 percent in the region, and doubled in Mozambique, Angola, and Rwanda.
The growth pickup has been largely driven by improved policies and a more supportive external environment, including stronger global growth and higher commodity prices, he said.
China is already a major trading partner and an important source of investment and financing, and both the FOCAC and BRI provide opportunities for African economies to spur continued investment and trade.
China will be an important partner for Africa in achieving its goal of socio-economic transformation over the next 50 years as laid forth in the 2063 Agenda for Africa, he said.
BRI will create opportunities to build a much-need infrastructure while contributing to regional connectivity, and overall trade and growth.
In response to concerns over Debt Trap in African countries, Selassie said, The key is to implement the projects well, and by ensuring high project quality, debt sustainability, governance standards, open procurement, and encouraging private sector participation. This would help minimize risks while maximizing benefits.
Selassie feels the 21st century will be the African century and will give rise to important economic and political developments that will impact the global economy.
One of the most striking points is that sub-Saharan Africa has a young population, the youngest in the world, which is both a challenge and an opportunity as the world economy would benefit by integrating Africas labor force into global supply chains, he said.
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) - India's president is hailing his country's strategic partnership with the European Union to work together on issues like terrorism and climate change.
Indian President Ram Nath Kovind said after talks with Bulgaria counterpart Rumen Radev on Wednesday that both countries agree "that terrorism poses a great threat to humanity and a strong response is required to deal with this menace."
India and Bulgaria are looking to deepen economic ties and to intensify cooperation on climate change, sustainable development and tourism.
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, left, and Indian President Ram Nath Kovind attend the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Sofia, on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)
Kovind invited Bulgaria to become a key partner of India in the defense and IT sectors.
The Indian head of state thanked Bulgaria for supporting his country's bid to become a U.N. Security Council permanent member.
Kovind is on a European tour, which includes visits to Cyprus and Czech Republic.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - The Mexican man charged with abducting and killing an Iowa college student was known for years on the dairy farm where he worked by another name: John Budd.
The alias has emerged as Cristhian Bahena Rivera's employer, a cattle operation owned by a prominent Republican family, faces questions over whether its managers were aware of any warning signs that he was in the country illegally.
The name under which Rivera was hired and paid for the last four years was confirmed by three people with knowledge of his employment history. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information during an ongoing criminal investigation. One of the people said Rivera's work identity as John Budd appears in official government records.
FILE - In this Aug. 22, 2018, file photo, Cristhian Bahena Rivera is escorted into the Poweshiek County Courthouse for his initial court appearance in Montezuma, Iowa. Rivera is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts, who disappeared July 18 from Brooklyn, Iowa. The Mexican national was known by another name on the dairy farm where he worked for the last four years: John Budd. It was confirmed by three people with knowledge of his employment history, who spoke on condition of anonymity. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
The employer, Yarrabee Farms, declined to confirm or deny Rivera's work identity. Lori Chesser, an immigration employment lawyer advising the farm, said that companies cannot discriminate against workers based on how they look or how their names sound.
Farm officials have said Rivera presented an out-of-state photo identification and a Social Security number when he was hired in 2014, and they believed he was the person depicted in those documents until his arrest last month.
The farm followed legal requirements to examine the documents and determined "that they appeared genuine on their face and related to the person presenting them," Chesser said. "Questioning a name or other characteristic would violate the anti-discrimination provisions of the law."
During his four years at the farm near the small town of Brooklyn, Iowa, Rivera "was called and responded to the name he used in the hiring process," Chesser said. He lived in a trailer owned by the farm as a benefit of his employment, as do about half of its 10 workers.
The farm did not use the government's voluntary E-Verify system, which allows companies to confirm the identity and eligibility of employees to work in the U.S. Farm manager Dane Lang has apologized for a mistake in falsely claiming to have used E-Verify in an initial statement on Rivera's Aug. 21 arrest, hours after he allegedly led police to Mollie Tibbetts' body in a nearby cornfield.
It's unclear whether E-Verify would have detected any red flags with Rivera's claimed identity, but the farm has said it used a different government service to confirm that the name and Social Security number matched.
Police say Rivera followed and confronted Tibbetts while she was out for a run on July 18 and later stabbed her to death. He has been jailed on $5 million bond while awaiting trial on a first-degree murder charge, which carries a sentence of life in prison. The federal government has also filed an immigration detainer, which means he would be subject to deportation proceedings if acquitted.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to comment on whether the agency is investigating Yarrabee Farms, which has said that it received dozens of angry phone calls after Rivera was arrested.
Tibbetts' father, Rob Tibbetts, has urged the public not to bring his daughter's death into the divisive racial debate over immigration.
"The person who is accused of taking Mollie's life is no more a reflection of the Hispanic community as white supremacists are of all white people," he wrote in an opinion piece for the Des Moines Register.
Employers typically do not face legal consequences for hiring a worker under false documents as long as they were not involved in obtaining them and had no other obvious reason to suspect they are fraudulent, said Bob Teig, a retired federal prosecutor in Iowa.
"Absent unusual circumstances, it would be difficult to show they knew any more than what they were told," Teig said, adding that it would be "pretty racist" to assume a John Budd could not be Hispanic.
Whether anyone else knew Rivera as John Budd is unclear. The 24-year-old had a Facebook page under his real name, and his account listed many friends from the central Iowa area. He has a girlfriend and a young daughter, his former attorney has said.
Rivera had neither an Iowa-issued identification under any name nor any known criminal history or interactions with police. It's unclear who owned the car that he allegedly used to circle Tibbetts.
Rivera's former defense lawyer, Allan Richards, has accused the farm and other employers in the area of turning a "blind eye" to the reality that many of their workers are in the U.S. illegally and employed under false documents. He has said that Rivera came to the U.S. when he was around 17 and has the equivalent of a middle-school education.
Erica Johnson, an advocate who directs the American Friends Service Committee's immigration program in Iowa, said the case highlights the "precarious position" that immigrant workers and their employers face.
"We have an immigration system that doesn't account for the labor needs or economic realities of Iowa businesses and farms," she said. "So what do you do? Do you rightly not racially profile people and take the information they give you because you need workers?"
WASHINGTON (AP) - It's not clear whether President Donald Trump has much to fear from "Fear" itself. But the book of that name has set off a yes-no war between author Bob Woodward and the president, using all the assets they can muster.
For Trump, that means denials from the pulpit of the presidency and from allies who had been quoted questioning his intelligence and stability. For Woodward, it means putting nearly a half-century of credibility covering eight presidents behind a vivid account he says is supported by scores of hours of recordings.
Some choice excerpts and responses:
A copy of Bob Woodward's "Fear" is photographed Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in New York. It's not clear whether President Donald Trump has much to fear from "Fear" itself. But the book of that name has set off a yes-no war between author Bob Woodward and the president, using all the assets they can muster. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
___
THE BOOK: Woodward's prologue is a snapshot from September 2017, in which economic adviser Gary Cohn quietly removed from the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office a draft letter from Trump to the president of South Korea terminating a pair of trade agreements. Cohn, Woodward writes, was afraid Trump would sign the document and, in effect, void a critical piece of U.S. national security policy. "I stole it off his desk," Cohn is quoted as saying.
THE RESPONSE: "That's false," Trump told The Daily Caller. "There was nobody taking anything from me."
Cohn, who stepped down in March 2018, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
___
THE BOOK: On April 4, 2017, an upset Trump phoned Defense Secretary Jim Mattis after photos showed a sarin gas attack on Syrian rebels. Women and children were among dozens killed and photographed. The attack was blamed on Syrian President Bashar Assad.
"Let's f---ing kill him!" Trump said. Woodward quotes Mattis as telling the president he would get right on that. The Pentagon chief hung up and told a senior aide, "We're not going to do any of that." The book also quotes Mattis, after a contentious National Security Council meeting on Jan. 19 this year, as saying Trump acted like, and had the understanding of, "a fifth or sixth-grader."
THE RESPONSE: Mattis issued a statement, tweeted twice by Trump, saying: "The contemptuous words about the President attributed to me in Woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence." Mattis called the book "the product of someone's rich imagination."
Asked whether he wanted Assad to be killed, Trump told reporters: "That was never even contemplated. Nor would it be contemplated."
U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley told reporters Tuesday that she was in all the meetings on the Syrian attack and never heard Trump mention assassinating Assad.
___
THE BOOK: White House chief of staff John Kelly is quoted in the book as saying of Trump: "He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in crazytown."
THE RESPONSE: In a statement, Kelly is quoted as saying, "The idea I ever called the President an idiot is not true, in fact it's exactly the opposite." He added, "He and I both know this story is total BS."
Trump added: "Thank you General Kelly, book is total fiction!"
___
THE BOOK: Trump has made no secret of his fury with Attorney General Jeff Sessions over Sessions' recusal from the investigation into Russian election interference. In the book, Trump says of the former Alabama senator: "This guy is mentally retarded. He's this dumb Southerner."
THE RESPONSE: Trump, who held one of his first big campaign rallies in Sessions' home state, tweeted: "The already discredited Woodward book, so many lies and phony sources, has me calling Jeff Sessions 'mentally retarded' and 'a dumb southerner.' I said NEITHER, never used those terms on anyone, including Jeff, and being a southerner is a GREAT thing."
___
THE BOOK: Rudy Giuliani tried to defend the then-presidential candidate in 2016 shortly before Election Day after a recording leaked of Trump boasting of groping women. The "Access Hollywood" tape was "reprehensible," Giuliani said on five network shows, and besides, Trump had apologized. On CNN, Giuliani agreed that Trump's words were offensive.
"Rudy, you're a baby!" Trump told him. "I've never seen a worse defense of me in my life. They took your diaper off right there. You're like a little baby that needed to be changed. When are you going to be a man?" He went on to say, "You're weak, Rudy."
THE RESPONSE: Giuliani tweeted that Woodward's "incident about me (is) entirely false." He added that the author "never called me."
Trump told reporters that Giuliani was "very insulted by the book and what was stated in the book."
___
THE BOOK: Trump's then-lawyer, John Dowd, and the president held what Woodward described as a "practice session" to show Trump what it would be like to testify about Russia's election interference. When Dowd asked about the firing of FBI Director James Comey, the president unleashed a 30-minute torrent of rage. Dowd suggested Trump not testify. Trump agreed.
Dowd re-enacted the exchange during a meeting with special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
"I don't want him looking like an idiot," Dowd said. "And I'm not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with that idiot for?"
THE RESPONSE: Dowd said in a statement he was not going to address the book's every statement. But he said "no so-called 'practice session' or 're-enactment'" took place.
___
Follow Kellman on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/APLaurieKellman
TORONTO (AP) - She is many things that would seem to irritate President Donald Trump: a liberal Canadian former journalist.
That makes Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland an unusual choice to lead Canada's negotiations over a new free trade deal with a surprisingly hostile U.S. administration.
Recruited into politics by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Freeland has already clashed with Russia and Saudi Arabia. Those who know her say she's unlikely to back down in a confrontation with Trump.
FILE - In this Aug. 31, 2018, file photo, Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland speaks during a news conference at the Canadian Embassy after talks at the Office of the United States Trade Representative, in Washington. As a liberal former journalist, Freeland is many things that would seem to irritate President Donald Trump. That makes her an unusual choice to lead her country's negotiations over a new free trade deal with an administration that is surprisingly hostile to Canada. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
"She is everything the Trump administration loathes," said Sarah Goldfeder, a former official with the U.S. Embassy in Canada.
Freeland, a globalist negotiating with a U.S. administration that believes in economic nationalism and populism, hopes to salvage a free trade deal with Canada's largest trading partner as talks resumed Wednesday in Washington. The 50-year-old Harvard graduate and Rhodes scholar speaks five languages and has influential friends around the world.
"I have enormous sympathy for her because she is negotiating with an unpredictable, irrational partner," said CNN host Fareed Zakaria, a friend of Freeland's for 25 years.
Freeland cut short a trip to Europe last week after Trump reached a deal with Mexico that excluded Canada. Talks with Canada resumed but Trump said he wasn't willing to make any concessions.
The Trump administration left Canada out of the talks for five weeks not long after the president vowed to make Canada pay after Trudeau said at the G-7 in Quebec he wouldn't let Canada get pushed around in trade talks. Freeland then poked the U.S. when she received Foreign Policy magazine's diplomat of the year award in Washington.
"You may feel today that your size allows you to go mano-a-mano with your traditional adversaries and be guaranteed to win," Freeland said in the June speech. "But if history tells us one thing, it is that no one nation's pre-eminence is eternal."
Despite being the chief negotiator with the Trump administration, Freeland has criticized it when few other leaders of Western democracies have.
"She's an extremely strong-willed and capable young woman, and I think Trump generally has a problem with that," said Ian Bremmer, a longtime friend and foreign affairs columnist and president of the Eurasia Group. "She's not going to bat her eyelashes at Trump to get something done. That's not Chrystia. She doesn't play games."
After Freeland and her department tweeted criticism of Saudi Arabia last month for the arrest of social activists in the kingdom, Canada suffered consequences. The Saudis suspended diplomatic relations and canceled new trade with Canada and sold off Canadian assets.
Peter MacKay, a former Canadian foreign minister, said public shaming like that doesn't work and said some Americans viewed her June speech in Washington as something less than diplomatic.
"It was around that time, within days, that the U.S. threw Canada out of the room," MacKay said. "There is sometimes concern that she is taking the lead from her prime minister by playing a little bit to a domestic audience."
Trudeau personally recruited Freeland to join his Liberal Party while it was the third party in Parliament in 2013. Freeland had a senior position at the Reuters news agency but was ready to move on after setbacks in her journalism career, said Martin Wolf, an influential Financial Times columnist and longtime friend.
Freeland previously had risen rapidly at the Financial Times where she became Moscow bureau chief in her mid-20s during the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Freeland also served as deputy editor of the Globe and Mail in Toronto and the Financial Times. She had designs on becoming editor of the Financial Times but left after a clash with the top editor. She was familiar to many TV viewers in the U.S. because of her regular appearances on talk shows like Zakaria's.
"She was a godsend for us, frankly, because she is so bright and so talented and articulate," Zakaria said. "She is as about as impressive a person as I have met."
Freeland, who is of Ukrainian heritage, also wrote a well-received book on Russia and left journalism for politics in 2013 when she won a district in Toronto. She has been a frequent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who banned her from traveling to the country in 2014 in retaliation for Western sanctions against Moscow.
She remains chummy with journalists, even bringing them frozen treats in 90-degree heat last week while they waited outside the U.S. Trade Representative office in Washington.
Bremmer, who met Freeland in Kiev in 1992, good-naturedly chided her for a strange foible: a habit of writing notes on her hands even when she has notepads.
"I have seen in her environments with foreign ministers and heads of state with stuff on her hands," he said with a laugh.
Throughout her career, Freeland has cultivated an impressive group of friends. Mark Carney, the Bank of England governor, is a godfather to one of her three children. Friends include Larry Summers, the former U.S. treasury secretary, and billionaires George Soros and Stephen Schwarzman, the Blackstone Group chief executive who once led one of Trump's disbanded business councils.
"I always found her to be extremely smart and easy to talk with," Schwarzman said. "She accessible and direct and quick. You don't get to be a Rhodes scholar by accident."
Summers is a mentor from Harvard.
"Her clarity of thought, straightforwardness and deep sense of principle make her an ideal leader of the international community as it responds to highly problematic American policy," Summers said in an email.
Bremmer said Freeland has serious globalist credentials, "but right now, momentum is not with that group globally."
When Trudeau became prime minister in 2015, he named Freeland to his Cabinet. She served as international trade minister and worked on ensuring that a free trade deal with the European Union didn't unravel. At one point, she left stalled talks near tears after saying it had been impossible to overcome differences. An agreement was reached not long after that, and Freeland received credit.
Now she's facing her toughest challenge with the North American Free Trade Agreement, since the U.S. represents 75 percent of Canada's exports.
"Canada is stuck with the United States. That's Canada's trade," Bremmer said. "Canadians are going to have to swallow a fair amount of pride. They are going have to pretend they like this guy a lot more than they obviously do or they risk getting much more economically punished. That's just the reality."
FILE - In this Aug. 31, 2018, file photo, Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland arrives for trade talks at the Office of the United States Trade Representative, in Washington. As a liberal former journalist, Freeland is many things that would seem to irritate President Donald Trump. That makes her an unusual choice to lead her country's negotiations over a new free trade deal with an administration that is surprisingly hostile to Canada. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
NEW YORK (AP) - The Latest on the emergency response around a plane carrying sick passengers (all times local):
6:41 p.m.
The 10 passengers and crewmembers who were hospitalized in New York City after arriving sick on a flight from Dubai appear to have the flu.
In this frame from video emergency response crews gather outside a plane at JFK Airport amid reports of ill passengers aboard a flight from Dubai on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in New York. (WABC 7 via AP)
New York City health officials say they obtained respiratory samples from the patients and their symptoms look like influenza. They say they won't know for sure until they get final results. All of the patients were listed in stable condition.
The Emirates flight was quarantined after landing a Kennedy Airport Wednesday morning.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 100 of the 520 people aboard the plane had complained of illness, including cough and fever.
____
3:30 p.m.
An airliner from Dubai with 10 passengers and crew members who were hospitalized with flu-like symptoms was carrying 1990s rapper Vanilla Ice.
A manager for the rapper confirmed on Wednesday that he was on the Emirates flight that landed at New York's Kennedy Airport.
Ice, whose real name is Robert Van Winkle, used Facebook to post a video of the emergency response to an initial report that dozens of people could be sick. On Twitter, he described looking out the window to see several ambulances, firetrucks and police vehicles converge on the plane.
He also said he was thankful he was on the top deck to the twin-deck jumbo jet. He said the sick people were on what he called the "bottom floor."
___
2 p.m.
Fire officials say 10 of the people who arrived sick to New York City on a flight from Dubai have been taken to a hospital.
Emirates airline says they included seven crew members and three passengers.
The plane was quarantined Wednesday at Kennedy Airport.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 100 of the 520 people aboard the plane had complained of illness, including cough and fever.
Medical workers in masks and gloves took passengers' temperatures on the tarmac while evaluating them.
News helicopters showed the jet sitting on the tarmac surrounded by ambulances, vehicles and airport personnel.
___
Noon
A plane was quarantined at New York's Kennedy Airport amid reports of numerous ill passengers aboard a flight from Dubai.
There were conflicting reports about how many people were sick aboard the Emirates flight, which landed around 9:10 a.m. Wednesday.
The airline says about 10 passengers were ill and got medical attention "as a precaution."
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 100 of the 520 people aboard the plane were being evaluated after complaining of illness, including cough and fever.
Video from news helicopters showed the jet sitting on the tarmac surrounded by ambulances, vehicles and airport personnel.
Passengers were exiting the plane with their luggage and getting on to buses.
A New York police counterterrorism division tweeted it appeared to be a "medical situation."
___
11:10 a.m.
A plane has been quarantined at New York's Kennedy Airport when about 10 passengers became ill aboard a flight from Dubai.
The Emirates flight landed around 9:10 a.m. Wednesday. The airline says the passengers were getting medical attention "as a precaution."
Video from news helicopters showed the jet sitting on the tarmac surrounded by ambulances, vehicles and airport personnel.
Passengers were exiting the plane with their luggage and getting on to buses.
Representatives of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were on the scene.
A New York police counterterrorism division tweeted it appeared to be a "medical situation."
___
This story has been corrected to delete a reference to an erroneous tweet from the mayor's spokesman saying the flight stopped in Mecca.
___
10:40 a.m.
A plane has been quarantined at New York's Kennedy Airport amid reports of ill passengers aboard a flight from Dubai.
The Emirates flight landed around 9:10 a.m. Wednesday. The airline says about 10 passengers were sick and were getting medical attention "as a precaution."
Video from news helicopters showed the jet sitting on the tarmac surrounded by ambulances, vehicles and airport personnel.
Representatives of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were on the scene.
Eric Phillips, a spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio, tweeted that the flight stopped in Mecca, which is experiencing a flu outbreak, and "early indications point to that as a possibility."
A New York police counterterrorism division tweeted it appeared to be a "medical situation."
___
10:30 a.m.
The New York City mayor's office says a plane has been quarantined at New York's Kennedy Airport amid reports of numerous ill passengers aboard a flight from Dubai.
The Emirates flight landed around 9:10 a.m. Wednesday.
Video from news helicopters showed the jet sitting on the tarmac surrounded by ambulances, emergency vehicles and airport personnel.
Eric Phillips, a spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio, says representatives of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were on the scene.
Phillips tweeted that the flight stopped in Mecca, which is experiencing a flu outbreak, and "early indications point to that as a possibility."
Airline representatives did not immediate respond to an email.
A New York police counterterrorism division tweeted it appeared to be a "medical situation."
___
10:20 a.m.
The New York City mayor's office says a plane has been quarantined amid reports of numerous ill passengers aboard a flight from Dubai that arrived at New York's Kennedy Airport.
The Emirates flight landed at about 9:10 a.m. Wednesday.
Video from news helicopters showed the jet sitting on the tarmac surrounded by emergency vehicles and ground control personnel.
A spokesman for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says representatives of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were on the scene.
Airline representatives did not immediate respond to an email requesting information.
A New York Police Department counterterrorism division tweeted that it was monitoring what appeared to be a "medical situation."
In this frame from video, a person walks off an Emirates plane at JFK International Airport to a waiting bus on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in New York, as emergency response crews gather outside the plane amid reports of ill passengers aboard a flight from Dubai. (WABC 7 via AP)
Emergency response crews gather outside a plane at New York's Kennedy Airport amid reports of ill passengers aboard a flight from Dubai on Wednesday Sept. 5, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
Emergency response crews gather outside a plane at JFK Airport amid reports of ill passengers aboard a flight from Dubai on Wednesday Sept. 5, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
Emergency response crews gather outside a plane at New York's Kennedy Airport amid reports of ill passengers aboard a flight from Dubai on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (Larry Coben via AP)
A passenger gets her temperature taken as she leaves an Emirates airplane at New York's Kennedy Airport amid reports of ill passengers aboard a flight from Dubai on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (Larry Coben via AP)
Passengers leave an Emirates airplane at New York's Kennedy Airport amid reports of ill passengers aboard a flight from Dubai on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (Larry Coben via AP)
Raghida Dergham, center, a senior diplomatic reporter at the United Nations updates reporters about her flight aboard an Emirates airline after an emergency was declared when the plane landed at JFK Airport with ill passengers on a flight from Dubai, Wednesday Sept. 5, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
Sranivasa Rao, center, from Floral Park, Queens, N.Y., updates reporters about his flight aboard an Emirates airline after an emergency was declared when the plane landed at JFK Airport with ill passengers on a flight from Dubai, Wednesday Sept. 5, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
WASHINGTON (AP) - It's sort of a coordinated dance, but the performers are an organized group of protesters and a dozen or so uniformed Capitol Police officers. And the stage is this week's Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
One by one, the protesters, many wearing T-shirts that say "I am what's at stake," interrupt the proceedings by shouting slogans like "You're making a mockery of democracy!" or "Senators: Do your jobs and stop this hearing!" The police then warn that he or she will be arrested for any further disruptions. Minutes later, the person shouts again and is hustled out a side door.
Then another person repeats the process.
A protester disrupts the proceedings as President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for the second day of his confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Eventually, the back two rows of the hearing room, which are reserved for the public, are empty, and another 20 or so visitors are escorted in from a line outside. They wait for their turn to shout and be arrested.
Overall, 70 people were arrested Tuesday and charged with disorderly conduct on the first day of the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. The second day of hearings on Wednesday was marked by the same sort of shout-and-arrest pattern.
The Capitol Police can't close the room to the public and can't keep out people who look like they might disrupt the hearing. So there's no choice but to let everybody in and wait for them to misbehave before removing them.
The protesters are part of a nationwide campaign to disrupt the confirmation process. A broad coalition of activist groups, including abortion rights groups, gun control organizations and labor unions, has converged on Washington. The demonstrators fear that Kavanaugh's confirmation would shift the Supreme Court's balance for years on issues like abortion rights, LGBT freedoms and gun control.
"My goal is for this nomination to not go through," said Alison Dreith, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri, who was one of the people arrested Tuesday. "The stakes have never been higher."
It may be a quixotic goal. Republicans have the votes to confirm Kavanaugh and are expected to do so. The protesters are adding their voices to the outnumbered committee Democrats, who tried to delay the hearings, arguing that important documents about Kavanaugh have been withheld.
Dreith acknowledged that the numbers are on Kavanaugh's side but said she and other protesters are hoping to bolster Democrats on the committee and possibly sway one or two Republicans. They are also conducting phone call campaigns in each senator's home state.
At the very least, the protests managed to annoy one prominent Republican on the committee. Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, after being interrupted by a woman in the crowd, snapped, "I think we should have this loudmouth removed. We shouldn't have to put up with this kind of stuff."
President Donald Trump even weighed in on the interruptions. In an Oval Office interview Tuesday with The Daily Caller, Trump called the protests "embarrassing for the country" and wondered why the disruptions were allowed to continue.
"In the old days, we used to throw them out. Today, I guess they just keep screaming," Trump said.
Dreith said she and the other arrestees were hustled down to the building's basement while wearing plastic zip-tie handcuffs and kept in a garage-like holding area. After about five hours, they were charged and released after waiving their right to a trial and paying a $35 fee.
A second group chose a different form of protest Tuesday. Nine women were arrested in the nearby Dirksen Senate Office Building for staging a protest dressed as characters from "The Handmaid's Tale," which depicts a dystopian future where women are controlled by the government and forcibly used for breeding purposes. All protests are against the law in the Capitol and its related buildings, and the demonstrators were charged under a D.C. statute for "crowding, obstructing, or incommoding."
Lacy MacAuley, a longtime Washington-based activist and one of the people arrested, said she joined the costumed protest "to remind everyone that it can happen here. It's not just fiction. Our rights could slip through our fingers unless we act now to defend them."
A protester is removed from the hearing room as another, right, joins in protest of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, for the second day of the confirmation hearing to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Demonstrators protesting against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, wear costumes from the show "The Handmaid's Tale," during his confirmation hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
A protester is removed from the hearing room as President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, for the second day of his confirmation hearing to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
A protester attempts to disrupt President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh as he testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, for the second day of his confirmation to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
A protester disrupts the proceedings as President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for the second day of his confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
A protester disrupts the proceedings as President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for the second day of his confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
A protester disrupts the proceedings as President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for the second day of his confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
A protester against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is removed from his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
A U.S. Capitol Police Officer stands near as protesters of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh wear costumes from the show "The Handmaid's Tale," during his confirmation hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, listens as a protester yells during his confirmation hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Washington, to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - The Latest on a prison inmate charged with raping a woman at a Utah wildfire (all times local):
1 p.m.
An Idaho prison inmate charged with raping a woman while working at a wildfire base camp in Utah has invoked his right to a speedy trial.
This photo provided by the Sanpete County Jail in Manti, Utah, shows Ruben Hernandez. Prosecutors say Hernandez, an Idaho prison inmate sent to help fight a wildfire, raped a woman who was also working to support firefighters in Utah. Sanpete County Attorney Kevin Daniels said Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, the woman had rejected several advances from Hernandez before the Aug. 29 assault. Hernandez was charged with felony rape. (Sanpete County Jail via AP)
Prosecutor Kevin Daniels said 27-year-old Ruben Hernandez made his first court appearance in Utah's Sanpete County in a short hearing on Wednesday.
Daniels says he did not formally enter a plea, but the request to move quickly typically indicates a defendant disputes a charge. He is due in court for an evidence hearing next week.
A defense attorney newly appointed to the case did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Hernandez was part of a program common in Western states where minimum-security prison inmates are released to help fight wildfires. He is accused of assaulting a base-camp worker Aug. 29 after she rejected his advances.
__
8 a.m.
Idaho is scrutinizing its program allowing prison inmates to help battle wildfires after one was charged with raping a woman working at a remote base camp in Utah.
Idaho Department of Correction spokesman Jeff Ray says they've returned five crews to prison as they review which inmates are allowed to serve, the training they receive and how they are deployed.
Meanwhile, inmate Ruben Hernandez is set make his first court appearance Wednesday on a felony rape charge alleging he assaulted the woman after she rejected his advances.
He was part of a 10-person crew who cooked and did janitorial work. They were supervised by two Idaho correctional officers.
Most states in the U.S. West have similar programs allowing low-level offenders to be temporarily released to aid in firefighting efforts.
This photo taken Aug. 6, 2018, shows a helicopters returning from performing an air operation on the Coal Hollow Fire near U.S. Highway 6. An Idaho prisoner sent to help fight a wildfire in Utah raped a woman who also was working to support firefighters, prosecutors said Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. The woman had rejected several advances from Ruben Hernandez, 27, in the days before the Aug. 29 assault at the base camp, Sanpete County attorney Kevin Daniels said. Hernandez has been charged with felony rape. (Evan Cobb/The Daily Herald via AP)
This photo taken Aug. 6, 2018, shows a helicopter dumping water on a section of the Coal Hollow Fire near U.S. Highway 6. An Idaho prisoner sent to help fight a wildfire in Utah raped a woman who also was working to support firefighters, prosecutors said Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. The woman had rejected several advances from Ruben Hernandez, 27, in the days before the Aug. 29 assault at the base camp, Sanpete County attorney Kevin Daniels said. Hernandez has been charged with felony rape. (Evan Cobb/The Daily Herald via AP)
LONDON (AP) - A tentative deal was reached Wednesday to resolve a conflict over scallop fishing rights off France's coast, British and French officials said.
Officials and industry representatives said after talks in London that "an agreement on the principles of a deal has been reached" with details to be ironed out in Paris on Friday.
A joint statement said that a previous agreement involved British boats 15 meters (yards) and over will be renewed. In addition, the agreement calls for smaller vessels to be included in the deal "subject to a reasonable compensation package" still to be finalized.
French fisherman Dimitri Rogoff points as he speaks to the media before leaders meet in London, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. The meeting focuses on the so called "Scallop war". About 35 French boats confronted five British ones, sometimes banging hulls, in international waters off the coast of northern France last week, amid tensions over access to scallop fisheries. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
"In the meantime, there is a voluntary agreement for all U.K. vessels to respect the French closure period" in the disputed area, officials said.
The talks follow an incident last week in which French and British fishermen angrily bumped boats over access to fisheries off the French coast near Normandy.
About 35 French boats confronted five British ones, sometimes banging hulls, in international waters during the incident.
British Fisheries Minister George Eustice said the goal of Wednesday's talks was to reach a new agreement that would prevent more confrontations.
An agreement reached in 2013 had broken down, leading to the clashes.
French fisherman Dimitri Rogoff arrives as leaders meet in London, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. The meeting focuses on the so called "Scallop war". About 35 French boats confronted five British ones, sometimes banging hulls, in international waters off the coast of northern France last week, amid tensions over access to scallop fisheries. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
French fisherman Dimitri Rogoff speaks to the media as leaders meet in London, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. The meeting focuses on the so called "Scallop war". About 35 French boats confronted five British ones, sometimes banging hulls, in international waters off the coast of northern France last week, amid tensions over access to scallop fisheries. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
PHOENIX (AP) - Arizona carries a reputation as one of the country's political flashpoints, with heated debates over immigration, rambunctious populists and a divided GOP.
But the man who had the attention of the nation's political establishment this week is a buttoned-down former ice cream company executive running for a second term as governor.
Doug Ducey, the onetime CEO of Cold Stone Creamery, on Tuesday named former Sen. Jon Kyl to temporarily return to the Senate to fill the vacancy created by John McCain's death.
FILE - In this Aug. 29, 2018 file photo, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and his wife Angela Ducey, follow the casket of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., into a memorial service at the Capitol in Phoenix. Arizona has developed a reputation over the past decade for being one of the country's greatest political flashpoints, with divisive debates over immigration, rambunctious populists and a divided GOP. Ducey has navigated the state's political waters with a buttoned-down approach. The onetime chief executive officer of ice cream chain Cold Stone Creamery on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, named former Sen. Jon Kyl to fill the seat vacated by the late John McCain. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)
The move is a big win for conservatives in the Senate, where the Republicans have only a two-vote majority as a confirmation vote of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh looms. But it was also a relatively safe pick that won't stir up much controversy within party ranks, a maneuver that experts say is in line with the way Ducey has governed.
"It's not the time for newcomers and now is not the time for on-the-job training," Ducey said. "Arizona needs someone who can hit the ground running on day one and that's Jon Kyl."
Mario Diaz, a Democratic strategist who worked for former Gov. Janet Napolitano and supports Ducey, said picking Kyl fits Ducey's pattern.
"He's brought stability to the state," Diaz said. "Prior to his administration, it was just a very disorienting, confusing time for Arizona in many ways."
Ducey's Republican predecessor, Jan Brewer, feuded with President Barack Obama over immigration and clashed with hyper-conservative state lawmakers, as did Democrat Napolitano.
By contrast, Ducey has cut through the middle of the state's often-warring GOP. He's embraced President Donald Trump on traditional Republican goals like lowering taxes or putting conservative justices like Kavanaugh on the bench, while keeping an arm's length from more divisive issues like football players protesting police brutality and racial inequality.
Democrats have criticized Ducey's approach, saying it serves corporate and political interests. Challenger David Garcia blasted Ducey's pick of Kyl for paving the way for Kavanaugh's confirmation. State Democratic Party chairwoman Felecia Rotellini said Ducey's ability to dodge fights with the Republican base is self-serving.
"He really hasn't acted as a leader in this state, but as a classic politician who is using his governor's position as a platform for himself, to be in the pocket of outside interests who want to undermine public education, who want to cut affordable health care," she said.
After McCain's death, Ducey's office helped coordinate memorial services in Phoenix. Ducey suspended his campaign for a week and did not hold a celebration the night he clinched a primary victory. He spoke at one of McCain's memorials in Arizona and flew to Washington for the funeral.
But he withheld announcing a successor until after McCain's burial. By law, his only requirement was to pick a Republican.
Some operatives wonder if Ducey would someday run for the Senate. But he tamped down that speculation on Tuesday, saying he has "an executive personality" and that Kyl himself advised him to never enter Congress.
Like many in Arizona, Ducey comes from somewhere else. He moved from Ohio in 1982 to attend Arizona State University, where he met his wife Angela. He worked at Hensley & Co. - the same Anheuser-Busch distributor owned by Cindy McCain's family - and at Procter & Gamble before joining Cold Stone Creamery.
His first foray into politics was in 2010, when he was elected state treasurer. He served one term before being elected governor in 2014.
Ducey still appears more at home in a board room than in a room full of politicians. This approach has endeared him to the business community.
Glenn Hamer, the president and CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, says Ducey is a prime reason for businesses relocating to Arizona and why the economy is "firing on all cylinders."
But laying out a welcome mat comes with risks. Ducey in 2015 signed an executive order to allow self-driving vehicle testing in the state. This spring, an Uber vehicle in autonomous mode struck and killed a pedestrian, prompting him to suspend testing.
Arizona also was a testing ground for ill-fated startup Theranos. Ducey signed a law that allowed patients to get blood tests without a doctor's orders, paving the way for Theranos to set up shop inside Walgreens stores. But this year, prosecutors charged former executives with fraud, citing misleading statements about the accuracy of its technology.
Ducey also is contending with widespread concerns about Arizona's public education system. A six-day teacher walkout this spring saw tens of thousands of educators gather on the front lawn of the Capitol.
While his proposal to give teachers a 20-percent raise over the next three years was passed, the raises fell short of demands for $1 billion in new classroom funding. Now, many of those teachers are backing Garcia, an education professor who has criticized Ducey as being beholden to special interests.
Tom Volgy, a political science professor at the University of Arizona, thinks the current political climate makes him vulnerable in November.
"If things were normal in American politics, his style would be very helpful for him in Arizona, because he'd attract a lot of independents," Volgy said. "But right now there is a lot of anger and crying out for leadership and I think it's possible his style gets drowned out in this."
___
Associated Press reporter Nicholas Riccardi contributed to this report.
FILE - In this Jan. 5, 2015, file photo, Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey addresses the crowd after being sworn in during inauguration ceremonies at the Arizona Capitol in Phoenix. Arizona has developed a reputation over the past decade for being one of the country's greatest political flashpoints, with divisive debates over immigration, rambunctious populists and a divided GOP. Ducey has navigated the state's political waters with a buttoned-down approach. The onetime chief executive officer of ice cream chain Cold Stone Creamery on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, named former Sen. Jon Kyl to fill the seat vacated by the late John McCain.(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
file pic
With more and more Chinese cities jump onto the smart city wagon with digitalization and Internet-plus strategies to facilitate urbanization and improve residents livelihood, the risks of cyber attacks are rising despite that, major risks remain at a low level, experts noted.
Addressing the 2018 Internet Security Conference (ISC) which kicked off on Tuesday in Beijing, Chen Zhaoxiong, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), pointed out that China also is pressing for strengthened protection of basic cyber infrastructure, especially of telecommunication, the Internet, and the Industrial Internet to guarantee key data resources as well as personal information security.
Such demands are in line with Chinas smart city construction layout that is mapping out across the nation, which also goes hand in hand with cyber attack risks, noted Wu Yunkun, president of 360 Enterprise Security Group, in an interview on the sideline of the ISC.
Wu told Peoples Daily that major risks lie within four aspects: compromised personal information security, vulnerable Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and potential life losses and economic losses when things go south.
Attacks on IoT would only have a major impact on society, according to Wu. With regard to the manufacturing industry, attacks could paralyze whole assembly lines or bring down a whole city by taking down the power grid, and attacks on self driving vehicles could be fatal.
Luckily, Chinas power grid is not an easy target and will not be brought down as some fear, as all the power stations and substations are not connected to the public Internet. Instead, they use a separate network and all the power equipment is independently designed and manufactured, thus making it more reliable.
On personal information security, Chinas Huazhu Hotels Group lost some 500 million pieces of client information, marking the latest case of massive leakage.
Qi Xiangdong, chairman of 360 Enterprise Security Group, told reporters that he was stunned but not surprised by the latest incident. It was bound to happen, but not because of how Huazhu managed its data. In fact, most companies are at about the same level [in cyber security], so it is likely that many more have suffered from information leakage, he said.
New technology that sees rapid growth tends to see more weak links and is more vulnerable to attacks, but the benefits outweigh the risks. We simply need to focus more on security along the way, Qi said.
President Xi Jinping has also repeatedly emphasized cyber security and pressed for enhanced defense of basic information infrastructure by taking more preventive steps beforehand.
By taking preventive steps beforehand, as President Xi put it, we can better guard our countless devices. It is more than computers now. It can be a smartphone or a charging pile or a street light, Wu observed.
Wu suggests that China first protect the millions of connected devices across the nation, then work to improve their software and hardware, most of which are too poorly equipped to take preventive measures such as patching.
Thanks to the nations gradually improving awareness, China has already witnessed a rise in cyber security, as the ratio of security to a companys budget has climbed to 5-10% nationwide in recent years, which is about the same level as that in the US, where the ratio was 1-3% in the past, according to Wu.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - The latest push to scrap the Affordable Care Act once and for all pressed ahead Wednesday as Republican-controlled states asked a federal judge to finish what Congress started last year and bring the law that insures 20 million Americans to a halt.
A small group of protesters, some holding signs reading "Save the ACA," shouted across the street from a Fort Worth, Texas, courthouse where former President Barack Obama's health care law is again under attack. At issue are core principles of the law, including protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions and limits on how much older customers can be charged.
U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor made no immediate ruling following a four-hour hearing. Twenty GOP-led states brought the lawsuit, arguing that the entire health care law was rendered unconstitutional after Congress repealed the "individual mandate" that required most Americans to buy insurance or risk a tax penalty.
Supporters of the Affordable Care Act protest during a rally at Burnett Park in Fort Worth, Texas, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. Democratic nominee for Texas Attorney General Justin Nelson hosted the Fort Worth Rally for Preexisting Coverage Protection. (Max Faulkner/Star-Telegram via AP)
"Texans and other Americans should be free again to make their own health care choices," said Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is leading the court challenge.
The case is the most high-profile legal challenge to "Obamacare" under President Donald Trump, whose administration is not defending the law in court. But the Justice Department doesn't want an immediate injunction suspending enforcement of the law, even as Republicans press for one.
Justice Department attorney Brett Shumate told the judge that any immediate injunction could create "a potential for chaos," The Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.
The arguments in Texas unfolded as senators in Washington pressed Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, whose confirmation could swing the next major challenge to the health care law. Kavanaugh issued a 2011 opinion that some conservatives viewed as favorable to the individual mandate, but Democrats worry he will provide a key vote on the court against the law.
The Trump administration sitting out the case has left defense of the law up to Democratic state attorneys general. On Capitol Hill, Democrats sought to tie the Texas case into the fight over whether Kavanaugh should serve on the Supreme Court.
"The Republican-backed lawsuit that seeks to take away protections from people with pre-existing conditions makes the stakes as high as could be," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said at a news conference.
The law has proved largely durable so far - both in previous challenges that reached the U.S. Supreme Court and in a failed GOP effort to repeal it during Trump's first year in office.
But the collation of GOP-controlled states saw a new opening when Congress removed the individual mandate as part of a tax overhaul last year. Paxton has said that without the tax penalty, there is no "remaining legitimate basis for the law."
William Sage, a professor of law and medicine at the University of Texas at Austin, called it a "swing for the fences lawsuit" that appeared thinner than previous challenges.
Nathan Cortez, a law professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said it's not clear whether this challenge is different from other attempts to strike down the law that have failed.
"All it takes is for a district court judge and then an appellate panel to find some validity in the argument for it to get up to the Supreme Court," he added.
___
Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle in Dallas and Kevin Freking in Washington contributed to this report.
___
This story has been corrected to reflect that the University of Texas at Austin professor's first name is William instead of Williams.
Robert Henneke, General Counsel, Director, Center for the American Future talks to the media the Affordable Care Act at Eldon B. Mahon U.S. Courthouse in Fort Worth, Texas, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. On Wednesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's proposal to repeal the Affordable Care Act is scheduled for a 9:30 a.m. hearing before U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor. (Max Faulkner/Star-Telegram via AP)
Democratic nominee for Texas Attorney General Justin Nelson, center, and others address supporters of the Affordable Care Act protest during a rally at Burnett Park in Fort Worth, Texas, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. Democratic nominee for Texas Attorney General Justin Nelson hosted the Fort Worth Rally for Preexisting Coverage Protection. (Max Faulkner/Star-Telegram via AP)
Cary Clark, dressed as the Grim Reaper, protest during a rally at Burnett Park in Fort Worth, Texas, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. Democratic nominee for Texas Attorney General Justin Nelson hosted the Fort Worth Rally for Preexisting Coverage Protection. (Max Faulkner/Star-Telegram via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Judge Brett Kavanaugh is treading carefully during his confirmation hearing as senators bombard him with questions about abortion, presidential power and the independence of the judiciary.
Some highlights from the Supreme Court nominee' confirmation hearing Wednesday:
___
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh leaves the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room during a break on the second day of his confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
ROE v. WADE
Democrats and liberal interest groups have treated Kavanaugh's nomination as a moment of extreme danger for abortion rights. Abortion opponents hope he'll be a vote to uphold additional restrictions on the procedure and even possibly overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that established a constitutional right to an abortion.
Kavanaugh didn't show his hand either way on Wednesday.
He did call Roe v. Wade an "important precedent" that has "been reaffirmed many times over the past 45 years." And he noted that a 1992 decision of the court - Planned Parenthood v. Casey - didn't just reaffirm Roe v. Wade in passing. He said that decision becomes "precedent on precedent."
Supreme Court justices are generally reluctant to overturn precedent, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Last term, the court squarely overturned three precedents. One of those cases was from 1967 and had been reaffirmed in 1992.
Also in responding to questions about the Roe v. Wade decision Kavanaugh said that he understands "how passionate and how deeply people feel about this issue" of abortion. He also said he understands the "real world effects of that decision."
___
PRESIDENTIAL POWER
Kavanaugh declined to answer a series of questions about the powers of the president, questions important to Democrats particularly because of ongoing investigations surrounding President Donald Trump.
Nominees generally decline to answer questions they deem could potentially come before the court. They say they decide issues only after hearing both sides of a case.
Among the questions Kavanaugh said were too hypothetical to answer: Does the president have an absolute right to pardon himself? Can the president pardon someone in exchange for a promise not to testify against him? Can the president be required to respond to a subpoena?
That last question is among the most important at Kavanaugh's hearing since Trump could face a subpoena in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Trump has declined to rule out pardons for people convicted as part of that investigation.
___
ALEX KOZINSKI
Repercussions of the "Me Too" era made an appearance at Kavanaugh's hearing. The judge was asked what he knew about sexual misconduct allegations against a judge who was a friend and mentor, former federal appeals court judge Alex Kozinski. Kozinski retired in December after several female former law clerks and colleagues accused him of sexual misconduct.
Kavanaugh said that when the allegations became public, they were a "gut punch" for him and for the federal judiciary. Asked whether he knew anything about the allegations before they became public, Kavanaugh responded: "nothing." He said he was "shocked and disappointed."
Asked whether he was on an email list that Kozinski used to send offensive material, Kavanaugh responded: "I don't remember anything like that."
Kavanaugh clerked for Kozinski, and Kozinski introduced him during his 2006 confirmation hearing to be a judge. The two also worked together to screen applicants who wanted to clerk for Justice Anthony Kennedy, whom Kavanaugh clerked for and whom he would replace.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, from left, Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., pause during questioning of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh about his time in the White House, during the second day of his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - One of Republican Kris Kobach's main opponents said Wednesday that he is not qualified to serve as Kansas governor because of his tough stance against illegal immigration and because he promises to pursue state policies meant to discourage it.
Independent candidate Greg Orman, a Kansas City-area businessman, said Kobach's stance on immigration shows that the Republican does not understand agriculture or how it depends heavily on immigrant labor. Orman made his comment during perhaps the sharpest exchange for the major candidates' first forum of the fall campaign at a hotel in a Kansas City suburb.
Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, has made illegal immigration a key issue in his campaign after more than a decade of advocating action by states and local communities. He was an early backer of President Donald Trump, advising both his 2016 campaign and the White House on immigration and homeland security issues.
FILE - This combination of file photos shows candidates for Kansas governor, from left to right, Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach, Democratic state Sen. Laura Kelly and independent candidate Greg Orman, who are scheduled to debate Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Overland Park, Kan. (Thad Allton /The Topeka Capital-Journal via AP, File)
"I almost think the idea, Kris, that you think that we need to rid of all immigrants in Kansas - all illegal immigrants in Kansas - just disqualifies you to be governor," Orman said. "It's clearly a red meat issue for your base, but ultimately, it just demonstrates you don't understand how the ag economy works."
Both Orman and Kelly are vying for votes from GOP moderates who dislike Kobach's conservative politics, including his longstanding embrace of tough immigration policies. They have emphasized other issues, such as support for public schools for Kelly and promoting economic growth for Orman.
Both Orman and Kelly said illegal immigration is a federal issue requiring comprehensive reforms to immigration laws from Washington - echoing statements made in the past from major Kansas business and agriculture groups.
Kobach defeated Gov. Jeff Colyer in the Republican primary last month, and Orman picked up the endorsement of Colyer's ex-campaign chairman, a former Kansas Farm Bureau president. Orman said aggressive attempts to deport illegal immigrants would hurt rural Kansas, particularly dairy and meatpacking businesses.
But Kobach brushed off the criticism and said states should discourage illegal immigrants from settling within their borders. He has promised that if he is elected governor, he will issue an executive order requiring state agencies and their contractors to use the e-Verify system to check workers' legal status, something he's done with his own office.
He also has promised to pursue legislation that would cut off state funding to cities and counties that restrict law enforcement cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or offer sanctuary to illegal immigrants.
Kobach said Orman is suggesting that someone isn't qualified for governor for wanting to "have the illegal population leave the state and open up jobs for Kansans" is "180-degrees wrong."
"I'd be the first governor who's actually tried to do something about the problem," Kobach said. "We have to look out for the American worker."
Kobach also has promised to seek the repeal of a 2004 law that helps young people living in Kansas illegally to go to state colleges by allowing them to pay the lower tuition rates reserved for legal state residents. Kobach contends the law subsidizes the educations of illegal immigrants, to the detriment of taxpayers.
Like other supporters, Kelly said the law makes higher education affordable to young people brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents after they've made Kansans their home for years.
"I have voted for that, and I'll vote for it again, if I need to," Kelly said. "Those kids would be dropping out of college because they couldn't afford it."
___
Follow John Hanna on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apjdhanna .
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump will mark the solemn 17th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by participating in a ceremony at the 9/11 memorial in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, the White House said.
First lady Melania Trump will accompany the president to the remembrance in Shanksville.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed on Sept. 11, 2001, when hijackers flew commercial airplanes into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania field in what was the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
President Donald Trump smiles during a meeting with the Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The 40 passengers and crew aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania after leaving Newark, New Jersey, en route to San Francisco, are credited with thwarting a strike on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump observed the somber anniversary for the first time as president last year.
He and the first lady, surrounded by aides and administration officials, led a moment of silence on the White House lawn at the exact time that hijackers, executing a plot orchestrated by al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, had rammed the first of two airplanes into the Twin Towers.
Trump also participated in last year's 9/11 observance at the Pentagon.
A native New Yorker, Trump has a mixed history with 9/11. He frequently uses the terrorist strikes to praise the city's response but has also made unsubstantiated claims about what he did and saw that day.
Trump often lauds the bravery of New York police officers, firefighters and other emergency responders who rushed to the crumbling Twin Towers as an example of the city's resilience. But he has accused fellow Republican George W. Bush, who was president on 9/11, of failing to keep Americans safe.
Trump has also made dubious claims about Sept. 11. He has said when talking about Muslims that "thousands of people were cheering" in Jersey City, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan, as the towers collapsed. There is no evidence in news archives of mass celebrations there by Muslims.
Trump has also said he lost "hundreds of friends" in the attack and said he helped clear rubble afterward.
Trump has not provided names of friends who perished in the attack, but has mentioned knowing a Catholic priest who died while serving as a chaplain to the city's fire department.
___
Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap
The younger brother of a 15-year-old boy who starved to death while their family prayed and fasted for weeks wrote a letter that investigators found inside the locked southern Wisconsin apartment pleading with lawyers to save him.
The emaciated 11-year-old boy was clutching a Bible and an envelope containing pamphlets about death on Monday when officers found him, his mother and the body of Ayanfe Omosebi, his elder brother, in the family's Reedsburg apartment.
The apartment had no power and was padlocked from the inside, authorities say.
Investigators also found the younger boy's handwritten letter, which was addressed to 'Lawyers of Sauk County.'
'The hunger is too much,' the boy wrote. 'Please help me now so I may eat. I can't continue in such a life with no food. If I don't get food now I'll probably die of hunger.'
The parents, Kehinde and Titilayo Omosebi, were charged Tuesday with child neglect causing death and child neglect causing great bodily harm.
Kehinde Omosebi, left, and his wife, Titilayo Omosebi, were arrested Sunday, September 2, 2018, in Reedsburg, Wisconsin and charged Tuesday with child neglect causing death as well as child neglect causing great bodily harm after their teen son died and another child was hospitalized following what the father described as a weeks long religious fast
The charge involving death carries a maximum prison term of 25 years.
According to the criminal complaint, Kehinde Omosebi walked to the Reedsburg police station Monday to report that his 15-year-old son had died in their apartment during the fast.
Officers found the apartment's doors padlocked from the inside and the power turned off.
The family had no food in the home and the only furniture was a bed and four metal folding chairs arranged in a square.
In one of the chairs was the 15-year-old boy's body. Officers wrote that the boy was so emaciated they could see his backbone and ribs under his skin.
According to the police, the father said the boy died on Friday and that the family prayed for two days, in accordance with their religious beliefs, before he walked to the police station to report it.
Police Chief Timothy Becker said Kehinde Omosebi told investigators that he is a minister with Cornerstone Reformation Ministries, but they don't believe him because they haven't been able to find any record of such a ministry.
He said the couple is originally from Nigeria.
Kehinde Omosebi told police the last time the family had eaten was July 17, according to the complaint. He said the family had fasted before but never for so long.
Titilayo Omosebi said the family previously had lived in Missouri and Iowa, and they had planned to fast until they earned God's blessing to leave Reedsburg.
Kehinde Omosebi said God had told him to move to Atlanta, police contend.
Leonie Dolch, a public defender who represented Kehinde Omosebi during his initial court appearance Monday, told the court that Omosebi had worked at a local iron foundry, Grede Foundries, but had been unemployed since February.
The company didn't immediately reply to a voicemail left Wednesday.
Reedsburg, a city of about 9,000 people, is about 50 miles northwest of Madison.
A 15-year-old student has been shot and killed outside a Rhode Island high school on just the second day of the academic year.
Providence Police Chief Col Hugh Clements said the teen died after he was shot outside the Providence Career and Technical Academy Wednesday afternoon following a fight with another teen.
Clements did not identify the victim but an automated phone message to district parents said he attended nearby Central High School.
Maj David Lapatin also said police have in custody a 'person of interest' who was found shot about a mile away from the school.
A male student was shot and killed Wednesday after a fight broke out after school
The unidentified 15-year-old was a student at Central High School in Providence
That boy, who Lapatin also didn't name, was taken to the hospital with a gunshot to his thigh that isn't considered life-threatening.
He is now in police custody.
The fight broke out shortly before 2pm Wednesday as the victim's high school was released early.
As the fight escalated the suspect pulled out a pistol and fired.
The surrounding schools were placed on lock down as police arrived at the scene.
'There are no words that adequately describe how terrible this is - how tragic this is,' Providence School Superintendent Christopher Maher told NBC 10 News.
After the shooting, governor Gina Raimondo came to the crime scene.
'As a mother, this is every parent's worst nightmare,' Governor Raimondo said. 'It's scary. So I wanted to be here to say to the folks here on the scene, we're with you.'
After getting into an altercation at 2pm, the male suspect pulled out a pistol (pictured)
A 'person of interest' was found shot in the thigh a mile away from the school
'We'll do anything we can to support you. We'll make sure there's extra mental-health counselors tomorrow. We've taken action. Enough is enough with gun violence. We've got to do more. We have to continue to do more to keep our kids safe,' the governor added.
Ken Wagner, the state education commissioner, said in a statement: 'It's devastating to hear of a young life cut short, and I speak for the entire department when I say that our thoughts are with the district, the students, and most of all, with the family of the victim.
'Our focus will continue to be on the well-being of our students, and giving them - and our educators - the support they need.'
The Providence Journal reports the shooting is the city's eighth homicide this year.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A Utah driver who slammed her Tesla into a stopped firetruck at a red light earlier this year while using the vehicle's semi-autonomous function has sued the company, saying salespeople told her the car would stop on its own in Autopilot mode if something was in its path.
Heather Lommatzsch claimed in the lawsuit filed Tuesday that Tesla salespeople told her in 2016 when she purchased the Model S that she could just touch the steering wheel occasionally while using the Autopilot mode. Lommatzsch, 29, said she tried to brake when she saw the stopped cars, but that the car's brakes did not work.
The accident happened May 11 in the Salt Lake City suburb of South Jordan. Lommatzsch broke her foot and was charged with a misdemeanor traffic citation for failure to keep a proper lookout. The firetruck's driver suffered injuries but was not hospitalized.
FILE - In this May 11, 2018, file photo, released by the South Jordan Police Department shows a traffic collision involving a Tesla Model S sedan with a fire department mechanic truck stopped at a red light in South Jordan, Utah. Heather Lommatzsch, the Utah driver who slammed her Tesla into the stopped firetruck at a red light while using the vehicle's semi-autonomous function, is suing the company. (South Jordan Police Department via AP, File)
Tesla spokesman Dave Arnold said in a statement about the lawsuit that the company "has always been clear that Autopilot doesn't make the car impervious to all accidents."
"When using Autopilot, drivers are continuously reminded of their responsibility to keep their hands on the wheel and maintain control of the vehicle at all times," Arnold said.
Arnold stressed that Lommatzsch was cited and that the final police report said she told police she was looking at her phone before the crash. Car data showed Lommatzsch did not touch the steering wheel for 80 seconds before the crash, the report said.
Data taken from her car showed it picked up speed for 3.5 seconds before crashing into the firetruck, the report said. The driver then manually hit the brakes a fraction of a second before the impact.
Police suggested that the car was following another vehicle and dropped its speed to 55 mph (89 kph) to match the leading vehicle. They say the leading vehicle then likely changed lanes and the Tesla automatically sped up to its preset speed of 60 mph (97 kph) without noticing the stopped cars ahead.
Lommatzsch claimed she has suffered serious physical injuries that have deprived her of being able to enjoy life and led to substantial medical bills. She is seeking at least $300,000 in damages.
The Utah crash is one of several Tesla accidents that have brought scrutiny to its Autopilot, the company's semi-autonomous system designed to keep a vehicle centered in its lane at a set distance from cars in front of it. The system also can also guide the cars to change lanes automatically.
All Teslas are equipped with automatic emergency braking, which Tesla says will detect objects and brake to help avoid or lessen impact of crashes. Tesla warns drivers to pay attention and not to rely on the system entirely.
The National Transportation Safety Board recently issued initial findings about two separate crashes involving Tesla vehicles in which three people died.
The agency found that a Tesla Model S electric car that crashed and burned last month in Florida, killing two teenagers, was traveling 116 mph (187 kph) three seconds before impact and only slowed to 86 mpg (138 kph) as the air bags were inflated.
The agency said that a Tesla Model X SUV using Autopilot accelerated just before crashing into a California freeway barrier in March, killing its driver.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is still investigating the Utah crash and cannot yet make public details, said spokeswoman Kathryn Henry.
A study released in August by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that cars and trucks with electronic driver-assist systems may not see stopped vehicles and could even steer a driver into a crash if the driver is not paying attention. The paper, titled "Reality Check," issued the warning after testing five of the systems from Tesla, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo on a track and public roads. The upshot is while they could save your life, the systems can fail under many circumstances.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Democratic makeover is in full swing.
With just a few primaries remaining before the decisive midterm elections in November, voters have dramatically reshaped the Democratic Party to become younger, more diverse and unquestionably liberal.
The latest turn came Tuesday in Massachusetts, where Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley, 44, trounced 10-term congressman Mike Capuano, 66, in a Democratic primary. It reprised a June primary upset in which self-proclaimed democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 29, toppled New York congressman Joe Crowley, one of the House Democrats' top leaders. They join minority candidates like Democratic gubernatorial nominees Stacey Abrams of Georgia and Andrew Gillum of Florida and a host of younger white candidates - including dozens of women and a gaggle of veterans - who are offering voters an antidote to President Donald Trump.
Ayanna Pressley, who won the 7th Congressional District Democratic primary Tuesday, speaks at a Massachusetts Democratic Party unity event, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Boston. At left is Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, and at right is Massachusetts Treasurer Deb Goldberg. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes)
"We are at a crossroads," Pressley declared during a party unity rally Wednesday. "This can be our darkest hour or it can be our finest."
Outsider candidates are taking on establishment-aligned Democratic incumbents in the final primaries of the season over the coming week in states such as Delaware and Rhode Island.
Victories by candidates such as Pressley and Ocasio-Cortez have generated substantial grassroots energy. But they've also raised questions about whether the party will be able to compete in broad swaths of the country, a potential vulnerability Republicans are eager to exploit. There's also debate over what a younger, more diverse class of lawmakers might mean for the fate of congressional leaders such as House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and potential 2020 presidential candidates who are older and white, including former Vice President Joe Biden.
"2020 is going to be about who voters want best to stand up to Trump and to take on Trump," said Ben Tulchin, who worked as a pollster for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in 2016. "You're going to have to have an authentically progressive message and to be able to communicate that."
For now, Democratic leaders are embracing the enthusiasm of their base - even as it's unclear where it will lead.
"The energy and momentum and the strength is clearly on our side," said Rep. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "There's nothing more unifying than winning back the House of Representatives and restoring checks and balances."
Democrats' leftward lurch looks different contest to contest. Capuano and Crowley are reliable liberals, but Pressley and Ocasio-Cortez often go further, with full-throated calls for single-payer government health insurance and abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Coming from heavily Democratic districts, Pressley and Ocasio-Cortez won't determine whether Democrats pick up the 23 new seats necessary for a House majority. But they will affect the makeup of the Democratic caucus and what its priorities might be on issues from health care and immigration to potential impeachment proceedings against Trump once a special counsel investigation presents its findings.
Elsewhere, Democratic nominees represent a clear shift from the status quo even if they aren't as left-leaning as Ocasio-Cortez. Congressional nominees like Iowa's Abby Finkenauer or Arkansas' Clarke Tucker were the more moderate choices in their respective primaries, but are now trying to topple Republican incumbents with calls for a public option health insurance plan to compete alongside for-profit insurers.
Abrams, the Georgia Democrat who'd be the nation's first black woman elected governor, stops short of single-payer health care and abolishing ICE but promises to expand Medicaid insurance and keep Georgia's state resources from aiding mass deportation efforts.
And dozens of Democratic candidates for federal and state offices - regardless of their positions on ICE, health care or impeachment - have sworn off corporate campaign cash.
The embrace of those positions among primary voters has activists on the left looking forward to upcoming primaries in Delaware, where Kerri Evelyn Harris, a black gay woman, is challenging moderate incumbent Democrat Tom Carper on Thursday. In New York, actress Cynthia Nixon will try on Sept. 13 to oust Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo. It's unclear whether any of these outsider candidates will enjoy the same success as Pressley or Ocasio-Cortez.
The overall trend has been a wakeup call on Capitol Hill and thrilled leaders of the anti-Trump resistance and the grassroots left.
Stefanie Brown James, co-founder of Collective PAC, which supports African-American candidates, praised Pressley as an example of a new assertiveness that goes beyond policy. "I think that for so long, a lot of us who are Democrats have felt like, 'Dude, where's the fight back? ... Where's the toughness?'" she said. "You're seeing candidates who are brash and aggressive and are like, 'No, we're not going to wait.'"
Crowley, who'd been viewed as a possible future House speaker before his defeat, said Wednesday he was "sad" for Capuano, but celebrated "the engagement and the activity that it's causing and the fervor that is forming (among) young people, women."
Certainly, there is some political risk in Democrats' approach, particularly if November draws a typical midterm electorate that is older, whiter and more conservative than presidential-year electorates.
"We all know the fight for the majority runs through the suburbs. It doesn't run through the inner city," said Republican Rep. Steve Stivers of Ohio, who leads the GOP's House campaign committee. "It's the suburbs that matter, and their extreme agenda doesn't sell."
House Democrats implicitly acknowledge the potential divide, with the DCCC this week launching a series of ads and attacks on health care. Noticeably, they focused mostly on Republican votes that would strip existing protections for policy holders with existing health problems - the ads avoid any mention of single-payer proposals or even a public option.
Likewise, Pelosi has begun unveiling her strategy for a Democratic majority. And while it's focused generally on helping working- and middle-class households, it's decidedly not the wish list of the grassroots left.
Those tensions could come to a head if Pelosi struggles to be elected speaker. Even if she wins, it could be difficult for her to preside over a more liberal caucus.
James, of the Collective PAC, said that's exactly the idea.
"The status quo to me doesn't mean getting rid of people who have been in office a long time," she said. "It means you can't have the same mentality, you can't have the same goals. You can't have the same playbook. You've got to switch it up."
___
Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Alan Fram and Kevin Freking in Washington and Steve LeBlanc in Boston contributed to this report
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - The younger brother of a 15-year-old boy who starved to death while their family prayed and fasted for weeks wrote a letter that investigators found inside the locked southern Wisconsin apartment pleading with lawyers to save him.
The emaciated 11-year-old boy was clutching a Bible and an envelope containing pamphlets about death on Monday when officers found him, his mother and his brother's body in the family's Reedsburg apartment, which had no power and was padlocked from the inside, authorities say. Investigators also found the younger boy's handwritten letter, which was addressed to "Lawyers of Sauk County."
"The hunger is too much," the boy wrote. "Please help me now so I may eat. I can't continue in such a life with no food. If I don't get food now I'll probably die of hunger."
The exterior of a duplex in Reedsburg, Wis. where a 15-year-old boy who starved to death while he and his family prayed and fasted for weeks, is pictured in a Monday, Nov. 3, 2018 photo. The boys parents, Kehinde Omosebi, 49, and Titilayo Omosebi, 47, were charged in Sauk County Court with child neglect causing death as well as child neglect causing great bodily harm after their teenage son died and another child was hospitalized following what the father described as a weeks long religious fast. (Rob Schultz/Wisconsin State Journal via AP)
The parents, Kehinde and Titilayo Omosebi, were charged Tuesday with child neglect causing death and child neglect causing great bodily harm. The charge involving death carries a maximum prison term of 25 years.
According to the criminal complaint, Kehinde Omosebi walked to the Reedsburg police station Monday to report that his 15-year-old son had died in their apartment during the fast.
Officers found the apartment's doors padlocked from the inside and the power turned off. The family had no food in the home and the only furniture was a bed and four metal folding chairs arranged in a square. In one of the chairs was the 15-year-old boy's body. Officers wrote that the boy was so emaciated they could see his backbone and ribs under his skin.
According to the police, the father said the boy died on Friday and that the family prayed for two days, in accordance with their religious beliefs, before he walked to the police station to report it. Police Chief Timothy Becker said Kehinde Omosebi told investigators that he is a minister with Cornerstone Reformation Ministries, but they don't believe him because they haven't been able to find any record of such a ministry. He said the couple is originally from Nigeria.
Kehinde Omosebi told police the last time the family had eaten was July 17, according to the complaint. He said the family had fasted before but never for so long. Titilayo Omosebi said the family previously had lived in Missouri and Iowa, and they had planned to fast until they earned God's blessing to leave Reedsburg. Kehinde Omosebi said God had told him to move to Atlanta, police contend.
Leonie Dolch, a public defender who represented Kehinde Omosebi during his initial court appearance Monday, told the court that Omosebi had worked at a local iron foundry, Grede Foundries, but had been unemployed since February. The company didn't immediately reply to a voicemail left Wednesday.
Reedsburg, a city of about 9,000 people, is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Madison.
___
Follow Todd Richmond on Twitter: https://twitter.com/trichmond1
ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Several hundred supporters of Greece's extreme right Golden Dawn party have staged a protest near central Athens against plans to build a state-funded mosque in the Greek capital.
Authorities used riot police buses to block roads near the construction site during Wednesday's rally which ended with no reported arrests.
After years of delays, the government has agreed to build the mosque in an old industrial area of Athens to serve its large Muslim migrant community as well as tourists. Muslims currently use prayer houses set up unofficially.
Supporters of Greece's extreme right Golden Dawn party wave flags during a rally against the construction of a mosque, in Athens, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Golden Dawn leader Nikos Michaloliakos spoke at the rally and described members of Greece's left-wing government as being "traitors."
Once openly neo-Nazi, the party currently has 15 members in Greece's 300-seat parliament, after seeing a surge in support during years of financial crisis.
Supporters of Greece's extreme right Golden Dawn party wave Greek flags during a rally against the construction of a mosque, in Athens, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Golden Dawn party leader Nikos Mihaloliakos speaks during a rally against the construction of a mosque in Athens , on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Bilateral relations between Nigeria and China have reached a new level, and I expect more opportunities in the Beijing Summit of FOCAC. said Muhammadu Buhari, President of Nigeria, during a written interview before kicking off his visit to China for the FOCAC Beijing Summit.
Nigeria and China established diplomatic relations on February 10, 1971. Since then, the relationship has been growing. Now, it is at a very satisfactory win-win level, Buhari said, There always exists mutual respect between our two countries, and things have been taken several notches higher since 2015.
Buhari came into office in May, 2015, and he was determined to fulfill the election promises of securing the country, fighting against corruption, and reviving the economy, so that jobs could be provided for teeming Nigeria youths. He found that China was a willing ally in Nigerians developmental efforts, so the government embraced the opportunities that the foreign relationship offered to reverse Nigerian infrastructural deficits.
Buhari pointed out that Nigeria had deficiencies in roads, rail, power, agriculture, healthcare, and China advanced well in all those areas. So in the best interest of Nigeria and her people, we took the helping hand offered by China through assistance for development, and they are progressing well now. Many projects are on stream, in different sectors like road, rail, power, health, agriculture, while some others are in the pipeline. In fact, our immense gratitude goes to China for all the support given us. Buhari said.
As Buhari mentioned, China helped them with as much as 85 per cent payment, and soft loans that span 20 years. He stressed, No other country has done that for us. The healthy and growing diplomatic relations with China has been most beneficial to Nigeria.
Speaking of expectations at the FOCAC Beijing summit, Buhari noted this would be his second time of attending the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), the first in South Africa in 2015. He met with President Xi Jinping at the forum, and they held bilateral meetings, leading to his visit to China in 2016. It opened doors of diverse opportunities to the two countries, Mr. president said. He expected more from FOCAC 2018. He looked forward to a consolidation of win-win relationship, and consummation of the agreements they had entered into, as well as signing of new ones. He stated, On our part, we will always strive to keep our side of the bargain in the counterpart funding, and we are grateful to China for always being true to its promises. FOCAC is a veritable opportunity for Nigeria, and African countries in general, to attract development, and improve the quality of lives of their people.
Buhari also showed a high willing to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative. He stressed, About 90 countries have signed agreements with China on that initiative, and Nigeria as a part of the global community cannot be left out. We will actively join the Belt and Road Initiative.
This year, 2018, marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up. Buhari deemed the strides taken between 1978 and now had really been gigantic, and China took hundreds of people out of mass poverty, achieved feats in technological development, built a resilient economy, and transformed itself into a land that Chinese people were proud of.
Buhari said, It is very impressive, and I fully appreciate the leadership that has made this happen within four decades. Buhari thought it showed that, for a country to attain her place in development, it needed focused and committed leadership. China has shown the world how to do it, and Nigeria, indeed, Africa, should learn from it. It can also be done in Nigeria, and all over Africa. We all have learnt from the opening-up policy of China, and the good that has come from it. he stressed.
I am satisfied with the mutually beneficial cooperation between Nigeria and China. Buhari said.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - The days of young Mormons anxiously waiting for letters to arrive in the mailbox telling them where they will serve their missions are over, the latest tradition fading away under the march of technology.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Wednesday in a news release that it will send the letters known as "mission calls" online instead of by traditional mail. The change will save money spent on postage and allow missionaries to find out quicker, the church said.
The news triggered melancholy among Mormons who have fond memories of the dramatic opening of the envelopes and reading the letter as friends and family watched. Mormon homes commonly have pictures of the moment, and YouTube is full of videos.
Joyce Avaemai called it a sad change. She said she cherishes the letter she received in 2014 in her native country of Tahiti informing she would serve her mission in Montreal, Canada. She keeps the letter in her journal.
"Every word in the letter was for me. It was inspiring," said Avaemai, a 26-year-old social worker who lives in Montreal. "You receive emails every day. But the meaning of that paper was an amazing feeling."
Missions are considered rites of passage for many Mormons, broadening their perspective on the world, strengthening their faith and helping prepare some for future leadership roles within the church. Men serve two years, while women go for 18 months.
The church said Mormons will receive a text or email letting them the letter is available to read. They suggested the letter-opening tradition could continue if the prospective missionary gathers his or her family and reads it from a tablet, phone or computer.
The change will start in Utah and Idaho and be instituted around the world by end of the year for places with reliable internet access, the church said.
"Technology is there, and it's so easy to do," said Brent H. Nielson, the church's missionary department executive director in the news release. "We just put it online, and they can read it in a matter of minutes."
It marks the latest change to the missionary experience in recent years.
In 2012, the church lowered the minimum age for missionaries from 21 to 19 for women and from 19 to 18 for men.
In 2014, the church began giving missionaries tablets and broadened proselytizing to social media. Last year, the faith doubled the number of missions where technology is allowed and swapped out tablets for smartphones.
Mormon scholar Matthew Bowman said the move to online letters is an illustration of a broader change afoot in the faith as it adapts to being a more global church and tries to make things more uniform for members everywhere.
The mission letter-opening tradition is reflective of the white, middle-class, Western American Mormonism that dominated the faith for most of the 20th Century, said Bowman, a Mormon scholar and associate professor of history at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.
Today, though, more than half of the faith's 16 million members live outside the United States.
"A kid in Nigeria and a kid in Nevada will have the same experience now," Bowman said. "It is a nod to the increasing globalization of the church and the increasing diversity of the church in such a way that is trying to downplay these older traditions when the church was a much more homogeneous than it is now."
Rob Heyward, a 48-year-old Mormon father of five, said he doesn't agree with an online notification system that feels more impersonal and corporate. He said the family gathered and live-streamed as his oldest son opened his letter a few years ago. Heyward keeps his mission letter from 20 years ago in a scrapbook.
"It captured a moment in time where I started a very important two years of my life," said Heyward, of Fort Meade, Maryland. "If I received a digital copy, it wouldn't feel the same."
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) - The Council of Europe's anti-corruption group is calling for more transparency on how judges in Cyprus are appointed.
A compliance report by the GRECO group gave a mixed assessment Wednesday, saying Cypriot authorities fully implemented only two out of 16 of its recommendations to prevent judicial corruption.
It said "specific, objective requirements" on a candidate's integrity contained in a publicly available document would help increase transparency on such appointments.
The group urged the judicial branch to consider including lower-court judges in a body that's responsible for the appointment, transfer, promotion and discipline of judges.
It said a code of conduct should be drawn up for judges, and called for strengthening the independence of prosecutors.
As frightening as the "The Nun" is, it doesn't hold a candle to today's real-life horrors in the Catholic Church.
But while a new generation of filmmakers has breathed new life into horror by embedding it with frightful and salient social commentary, the "The Conjuring" franchise - of which "The Nun" is a spinoff and the fifth installment - isn't about anything so real. It's about exhuming classic horror archetypes - creaky old houses and creepy old dolls - with (mostly) old-school effects. And what's more old school than a mean ol' nun?
Set in 1952, "The Nun" is the origin story of Valak (Bonnie Aarons), a demonic nun who first turned up in "Conjuring 2," as the pursuit of Vera Farmiga's paranormal expert. This time, our protagonist is Sister Irene (played by Vera's younger sister Taissa Farmiga), a novitiate who, just before her vows, is dispatched by the Vatican, along with Father Burke (Demian Bichir), an expert in unexplained phenomena (or as he says, "miracle hunting"), to a remote Romanian abbey where a young nun has just hung herself.
This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Demian Bichir in a scene from "The Nun." (Cos Aelenei/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)
The decaying, overgrown abbey and its adjoining covenant are suitably eerie. The place, handsomely crafted by production designer Jennifer Spence, has the feel of a horror-movie set, complete with a foggy cemetery, and the action that follows has the almost comforting pattern of surprises and scares that's to be expected. Entering the gothic world of "The Nun," built so sturdily on horror movie cliches, is to slide into a darkly fantastical realm that's practically cozy it's so familiar.
Crypts will turn into traps, apparitions will flicker in the mirrors and ancient Christian dogma will be used for all its sinister power. Certainly, anyone who goes anywhere at any time clutching a lantern will run into trouble.
But what distinguishes "The Nun" is its silky, sumptuous shadows. Directed by British filmmaker Corin Hardy ("The Hallows") and shot by Maxime Alexander (who was also cinematographer on the "Conjuring" spinoff "Annabelle: Creation," ''The Nun" shrouds itself so much in darkness that it at times verges on becoming a nightmarish abstraction. You almost lose sense of what exactly is going on, as Sister Irene falls into a labyrinthine abyss.
The spell, of course, gets broken as the demands of plot and franchise return. And "The Nun" has little to offer beyond: Beware of spooky Romanian abbeys. But for a moment or two, it hangs suspended in a luxurious gloom, the kind that these days passes for a welcome escape.
"The Nun," a Warner Bros. release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for terror, violence, and disturbing/bloody images. Running time: 96 minutes. Three stars out of four.
___
MPAA definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
___
Follow Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Taissa Farmiga in a scene from "The Nun." (Justin Lubin/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump said terrorism, Syria and Yemen were among the topics of discussion during a White House meeting Wednesday with the emir of Kuwait.
Trump said Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah was a "very special friend" of his, while the 89-year-old Kuwaiti ruler said he was "very happy" to meet Trump for the third time in nearly a year.
The president said the U.S. and Kuwait practice "large-scale" trade and investment, and work together against terrorism. He declared Kuwait a "great partner" in that effort.
President Donald Trump shakes hands as he meets with Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The emir said before the meeting that he and Trump would also discuss trade and investment, and cooperation on the military, energy and education.
More than a billion adults around the world are at risk of serious disease through lack of exercise, a study has shown.
Investigators found that in 2016 more than a quarter of the global population 1.4 billion people were insufficiently active.
As a result, they faced an increased risk of heart and artery disease, Type 2 diabetes, dementia, and some cancers.
(PA Graphics)
The research conducted by the World Health Organisation shows there was little progress in improving physical activity levels between 2001 and 2016.
If current trends continue, the global target of reducing sedentary lifestyle by 10% by 2025 will not be met, said the scientists.
Study leader Dr Regina Guthold, from the WHO in Switzerland, said: Unlike other major global health risks, levels of insufficient physical activity are not falling worldwide, on average, and over a quarter of all adults are not reaching the recommended levels of physical activity for good health.
The study was based on self-reported activity levels both at work and at home and during travel and leisure time.
Researchers analysed information from 1.9 million men and women who participated in 358 population surveys.
They found that in 2016, around one in three women (32%) and 23% of men worldwide were not attaining recommended healthy levels of physical activity at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity, or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week.
High-income Western countries displayed the greatest increase in the proportion of people taking insufficient exercise over the study period, a rise from 31% in 2001 to 37% in 2016.
In the UK, 40% of women and 32% of men were insufficiently active in 2016.
Countries with the worst physical activity record included Kuwait, American Samoa, a US territory in the South Pacific, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. In each of these countries, more than half the adult population was insufficiently active.
The findings appear in The Lancet Global Health journal.
Dr Guthold added: Regions with increasing levels of insufficient physical activity are a major concern for public health and the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases.
Long-time Washington Post reporter Bob Woodwards book on Donald Trumps first 18 months in office includes some incendiary comments attributed to the president and key former and current White House staffers.
Mr Trump and other officials have denied some accounts.
Here are some of the most explosive passages:
White House chief of staff John Kelly on working for Mr Trump: Hes an idiot. Its pointless to try to convince him of anything. Hes gone off the rails. Were in Crazytown.
Jeff Sessions (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)
Mr Trump on attorney general Jeff Sessions: This guy is mentally retarded. Hes this dumb southerner. How in the world was I ever persuaded to pick him for my attorney general? He couldnt even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama. What business does he have being attorney general?
The president after making a speech condemning white supremacists over violence in Charlottesville: That was the biggest f****** mistake Ive made. You never make those concessions. You never apologise. I didnt do anything wrong in the first place. Why look weak?
Mr Trump to former director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn when he tried to resign after Charlottesville: This is treason.
Jim Mattis (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)
Defence secretary Jim Mattis on Iranian leaders: Those idiot raghead mullahs.
Mr Trump after Twitter doubled its character count for a single tweet from 140 to 280: Its a good thing, but its a bit of a shame because I was the Ernest Hemingway of 140 characters.
The president on his nickname for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un: Little Rocket Man. I think that may be my best ever, best nickname ever.
Ivanka Trump (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
Ivanka Trump, when told she was a staffer by Steve Bannon: Im not a staffer! Ill never be a staffer. Im the first daughter and Im never going to be a staffer.
Deputy chief of staff Zach Fuentes on Mr Kelly: Hes not a detail guy. Never put more than one page in front of him.
A 17-year-old boy is among five people arrested on suspicion of being members of a banned far-right terrorist group.
The youth, from Nottingham, was arrested by counter-terrorism officers after a series of raids across the country, West Midlands Police said.
Two men, aged 22 and 28, both from Birmingham, a 23-year-old man and a woman, 22, both from Halifax, West Yorkshire, were all arrested on Wednesday.
The arrests were made in a series of raids (Joe Giddens/PA)
The five have been detained on suspicion of being members of a proscribed organisation, National Action, which was banned in December 2016.
They are all being held at a police station in the West Midlands, after an operation carried out by West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit in conjunction with CTP North East and East Midlands CTIU.
A number of addresses are also being searched in connection with the arrests.
A police spokesman said: The arrests were pre-planned and intelligence-led.
Hundreds of fusiliers set off on a parade through the city of London to celebrate 50 years since their regiment was formed.
Bayonets were fixed high as more than 500 serving and former army personnel began marching through the square mile to the beat of drums.
Members of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers wait to set off from the Tower of London (John Walton/PA)
They set off at 10am after getting into formation at the Tower of London, their regimental headquarters.
The troops will parade toward Guildhall, where they will be received by the Duke of Kent and undergo a full inspection.
The troops were due to march from the Tower of London to the Guildhall (John Walton/PA)
Retired Colonel James Denny, regimental secretary for The Fusiliers, thanked the regiments Colonel-in-Chief, the Duke of Kent, for his continued support.
He said: The Privilege Parade on September 5 promises to be a great event for all the Fusilier family and we are delighted that so many of our affiliated regiments from around the world will be able to join us on this special day.
More than 500 personnel were participating (John Walton/PA)
It is a great honour to be allowed to parade through the City of London in this, our 50th anniversary year, so a huge thank you to all the officials for enabling this momentous occasion to take place.
The march is the final event in a year-long programme across the country to commemorate 50 years on from the infantry regiments formation in 1968.
Members of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers march to celebrate 50 years since their regiment was formed (John Walton/PA)
The Regiments affiliated regiments in Canada (The Royal Canadian Regiment, The Lorne Scots and the Royal Westminster Regiment) and from Australia (Pipes and Drums of the Royal Victoria Regiment) are attending in support.
A reception in Guildhall will follow the parade.
A South Korean delegation has met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to arrange this months inter-Korean summit and to help rescue faltering nuclear diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang.
The office of South Korean president Moon Jae-in said the envoys, led by his national security adviser, delivered a personal letter from him to Mr Kim and exchanged opinions on unspecified issues.
It is not clear whether the Korean officials fixed a date for a third summit this year between Mr Moon and Mr Kim or made any progress in breaking an impasse between the North and the US over dismantling the Norths nuclear weapons programme.
The South Korean delegation boards an aircraft for Pyongyang (AP)
The envoys will fly back to the South after attending a dinner reception hosted by the North.
Earlier, they met Kim Yong Chol, a former spy chief who has been negotiating with the United States on nuclear issues, and Ri Son Gwon, chairman of the Norths agency that handles inter-Korean affairs, at Pyongyangs Koryo hotel.
Mr Moons office is planning to hold a briefing on the visit on Thursday.
The South Korean leader, who discussed his plans with US president Donald Trump by telephone on Tuesday, said before the trip that his envoys are tasked with a crucial role at a very important time that could determine the prospects for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.
People hang ribbons symbolising their hope for Korean reunification on the border between the two countries (AP)
As it pushes ahead with summits and inter-Korean engagement, Seoul is trying to persuade Washington and Pyongyang to proceed with peace and denuclearisation processes at the same time so they can overcome a growing dispute over the sequencing of the diplomacy.
Seoul also wants a trilateral summit between the countries, or a four-nation meeting that also includes Beijing, to declare a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War.
The UN General Assembly in late September would be an ideal date for Seoul, but many analysts consider the chances of this happening to be low, considering the complications of the process and how far apart the parties currently are.
US officials have insisted that a peace declaration, which many see as a precursor to the North eventually calling for the removal of all US troops from the Korean Peninsula, cannot come before North Korea takes more concrete action towards abandoning its nuclear weapons.
Such steps may include providing an account of the components of its nuclear programme, allowing outside inspections and giving up a certain number of its nuclear weapons during the early stages of the negotiations.
BBC news presenter Rachael Bland has died after being diagnosed with incurable cancer, her family has announced.
It come days after the 40-year-old BBC Radio 5 Live newsreader revealed on social media that she had only days to live.
A picture of Rachael as she hosted You Me and the Big C. Shot by Claire Wood on the 7th March 18.
Her family confirmed that she had died this morning shortly after 3am, the BBC said.
A post on Blands official Twitter account said: Our beautiful, courageous Rachael died peacefully this morning surrounded by her close family.
We are crushed but she would want me to thank everyone who took an interest in her story or sent messages of support. Youll never know how much they meant to her. Steve and Freddie xxx.
Our beautiful, courageous Rachael died peacefully this morning surrounded by her close family. We are crushed but she would want me to thank everyone who took an interest in her story or sent messages of support. Youll never know how much they meant to her. Steve and Freddie xxx pic.twitter.com/soq7YHvF9u Rachael Bland (@Rachael_Hodges) September 5, 2018
Bland was diagnosed with primary triple-negative breast cancer in November 2016 and had been documenting her journey on her blog Big C Little Me, which has the tag line Putting the can in cancer.
Her podcast, You, Me and the Big C, reached number one in the UK podcast charts after Bland made her announcement earlier this week.
The 40-year-old was married to husband Steve for four years. The couple had a two-year-old son Freddie and would have celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary on September 14.
In a tweet posted on Monday, the broadcaster wrote: Im told Ive only got days. Its very surreal.
In an early episode of her podcast she told how she had discovered she had cancer after breastfeeding Freddie.
BBC. You me and the big C. Shot by Claire Wood on 7th March 18.
She said: I had pain first. I had this weird soreness. It was kind of inside my armpit. It went away. It was just around the time I was breastfeeding.
But because of that I was having a little bit of a feel. When I found it, I was like: How did I miss this?
It was the size of a walnut.
Originally from the Cardiff area, she had joined the BBC in 2001, and her career started at Radio Wiltshire, where she worked as a journalist and newsreader.
She later joined BBC Radio 5 Live where she became a feature on Richard Bacons late-night show and ended up staying on. She also began presenting on BBC News.
In 2011 when the BBC relocated to Salford, Blands was the first voice heard on Radio 5 Lives first broadcast from the new location and studios.
Mother to Freddie.
Wife to Steve.
Our treasured colleague Rachael Bland has died.
She inspired so many with her blogs, the chart-topping podcast #YouMeBigC and certainly put the can in cancer.
We will miss her dearly. pic.twitter.com/b0UKRwDDCY BBC Radio 5 Live (@bbc5live) September 5, 2018
Her husband Steve told the BBC: Rachaels death has left a huge hole in our perfect little family that well never be able to fill.
She was an incredibly talented broadcaster as well as a wonderful and much-loved daughter, sister, aunt, niece, wife and, most importantly to her, a mother to her precious little Freddie.
We all take such huge comfort and pride from the amazing and tireless work she has done since her diagnosis to reduce the stigma around cancer and prove that it is possible to live life to the fullest even when facing huge challenges on a daily basis.
At the end, even though her body was at its weakest, her voice was at its strongest and most powerful.
Rachael was and will always be an incredible inspiration to everyone she met. To us, she was perfect in every way and we will miss her more than words can say.
We just ask that everyone respects our familys privacy as we try and come to terms with losing our beautiful girl.
BBC Director-General Tony Hall said: Rachael was a popular and inspiring journalist. Everyone has been moved by her courage and dignity.
She will be hugely missed by her many listeners and by staff across the BBC. Our sympathies go out to her family and many friends at this difficult time.
Looking back at the multi-level interactions between China and Africa since the 2000s, overseas Chinese entrepreneurs have played a significant role in China-African cooperation and they are also witness to the China-Africa friendship, experts agreed at a seminar on Tuesday.
Overseas Chinese entrepreneurs are becoming one of the worlds most influential political and economic powers for globalization and Chinas development, especially in Africa, according to a report on the development of overseas Chinese entrepreneurs that was released at a seminar held by the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) in Beijing on Tuesday.
Overseas Chinese entrepreneurs are a group of entrepreneurs who are of Chinese origin and are active in the field of economics. Rooted in Chinese culture and familiar with the international environment, they are world-class talents capable of thinking from the perspectives of both China and other countries.
file pic
By 2016, with a total of 3,254 overseas Chinese enterprises established in Africa, investment in Africa had surpassed $40 billion. The overseas Chinese-invested enterprises are mainly located in Zambia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Africa, Tanzania, Ghana, Angola, and Uganda.
The economic interactions between the two regions have surged since the 2000s, when an increasing number of Chinese enterprises entered into the African continent. Chinese medical and agricultural professionals built up communication channels for Chinese and Africans. Further, Chinese-invested manufacturing enterprises quickly launched in African countries
In Ethiopia, the largest footwear manufacturer, Huajian Group, has invested a total of $200 million in a complete industrial chain, which successfully creates thousands of jobs for locals.
Jushi Group, a Chinese fiberglass producer that launched a production line in Egypt with the support of the Egyptian government, has already helped Egypt leap forward as the worlds third largest fiberglass producer.
Such companies continuously bring in qualified and advanced products to Africa, as well as Chinese concepts and experience that benefit economic development. The turning point came when Africas new round of urbanization focused on industrial upgrading, experts noted.
Economic cooperation between China and African countries outshines others as one of the best performers on the world stage in the last five years, noted Yang Baorong, a researcher of Institute of West-Asian and African Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Some overseas Chinese entrepreneurs also established kindergartens and schools for African young people. Africas younger generation makes the ancient continents future development more promising. The cooperation between Chinas and Africas younger generation is paving a promising way for future prosperity.
China and Africa both stand on the crossroad of development where challenges and opportunities collide. It is time for China and Africa to rethink industrial upgrading and business localization under the trend of globalization. Through overseas Chinese entrepreneurs, China can know better our African friends and market, said Wang Huiyao, chief editor of the report and chairman of CCG.
Measures addressing Northern Irelands high suicide rate have been delayed by the impasse at Stormont, a health chief said.
The Protect Life 2 draft strategy is designed to stop people from taking their own lives, but there is no health minister to sign it off.
When she was health minister in 2016, Sinn Fein leader Michelle ONeill launched a consultation on the proposed action which has not yet been implemented.
North Down MP Lady Sylvia Hermon expressed alarm that a strategy for suicide prevention had not been introduced because there are no ministers in Northern Ireland. House of Commons/PA.
That included tackling repeated self-harm which is a major risk factor for suicide; focusing on those who have been bereaved by suicide; and improving the initial response to the care and recovery of people experiencing suicidal behaviour.
North Down MP Lady Sylvia Hermon said: I am really alarmed to know that there is a strategy to deal with suicide in Northern Ireland but that it has not gone ahead because we do not have a minister.
A recent court decision means civil servants are limited in the action they can take in the absence of a minister.
Lady Hermon added: I would have thought that there could not be anybody who could object to anything to reduce the number of suicides in Northern Ireland.
According to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, 297 people killed themselves in Northern Ireland in 2016.
The year before, the tally was even higher and health experts have blamed the legacy of the Troubles and levels of deprivation.
Dr Adrian Mairs, director of public health at the Public Health Agency (PHA), told the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee of MPs at Westminster that they were taking pioneering steps to tackle the problem.
He linked the problem to a higher rate of mental ill-health than elsewhere in the UK, partly due to the Troubles legacy and ongoing violence in some areas, as well as greater levels of deprivation.
He said: There is a wide range of reasons why we have a higher suicide rate in Northern Ireland.
We do have a policy to reduce that, we have a lot of programmes and policies in place to provide information, education, training and learning to the statutory, voluntary and other sectors to identify suicidal ideation.
A register is used to identify those who have self-harmed and may be at greater risk of suicide.
The suicide rate is around 16 per 100,000, compared with 345 per 100,000 self-harming.
Royal Bank of Scotland has been branded utterly disgusting after announcing plans to swing the axe on another 54 branches, resulting in 258 job losses.
The lender, still 62% owned by the taxpayer, said the move was linked to it not having to sell its Williams & Glyn business.
As a result, the group has branches in close proximity to each other and is seeking to reduce overlap.
An RBS spokesman said: As we are no longer launching Williams & Glyn as a challenger bank we now have two branch networks operating in close proximity to each other in England and Wales NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland.
As a result we have reviewed our overall branch footprint in England and Wales and have made the difficult decision to close 54 Royal Bank of Scotland branches. Customers of Royal Bank of Scotland in England and Wales will be able to use NatWest branches and local post offices for their everyday banking needs.
The latest wave of closures comes on top of the closing of 162 branches announced earlier this year, which resulted in 792 job losses.
Unions reacted with fury to the news, describing the decision as a hammer blow to the disabled and elderly.
Rob MacGregor, of union Unite, said: It is utterly disgusting that Royal Bank of Scotland has the audacity to announce that yet more important local bank branches will permanently close their doors.
This announcement heaps further misery on communities across England and Wales that have already seen the demise of local banking services as branches that were signposted by the bank earlier in 2018 as an alternative for customers whose branches were closing, now suffering a similar fate.
The disabled, elderly and many local businesses will today be deeply disappointed that their bank has chosen to withdraw from their community and no longer provide them with the access to banking services which we all deserve.
Chief executive of RBS Ross McEwan (PA)
Last year, RBS avoided the compulsory sale of Williams & Glyn, which had been ordered by regulators as part of the banks obligations under state aid rules following its 45 billion Government bailout at the height of the financial crisis.
Instead, RBS will put up money to be shared among so-called challenger banks to help them better compete with bigger players.
The closures will come as RBS reintegrates Williams & Glyn, including its branch network, back into the core bank.
RBS also pointed out that since 2014, branch transactions across its English and Welsh operations are down 30%, while there has been a 53% increase in the number of customers using mobile banking, and mobile transactions have increased by 74%.
We will now focus on investing in our Royal Bank network in England and Wales to make sure customers have a consistent range of products and services wherever they bank, be it Scotland, England or Wales, the lenders spokesman added.
One of Japans busiest airports remains closed indefinitely a day after the strongest typhoon to hit Japan in at least 25 years caused at least 11 deaths as it swept across part of the countrys main island.
Typhoon Jebi flooded a runway at Kansai airport, toppled huge cranes, flipped cars on their side and damaged historic shrines as it arrived with sustained winds of 100mph.
The typhoon cut a path of destruction in and around Osaka and the nearby cities that bore the brunt of the storm.
High waves hit breakwaters at the port of Aki (Ichiro Banno/Kyodo News/AP)
In Kyoto, the former imperial capital and a popular tourist destination, wooden shrine buildings and entrance gates were knocked down. Trees also fell at a shrine in Nara, another historic city.
More than 400,000 households in western and central Japan remain without power, and electric utilities warned it would take time to bring everyone back online.
Chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga said at least 11 people had been confirmed dead and 470 people were injured.
A tanker slammed into the side of a bridge (Kentaro Ikushima/Mainichi Newspaper/AP)
Some 3,000 airline passengers who had to spend the night at the offshore Kansai airport were able to leave on boats and buses under sunny skies. They were stranded after a tanker unmoored by the storms pounding waves and wind slammed into a bridge that is the airports only link to the mainland.
Officials could not say when the airport, a gateway for Asian tourists visiting Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe, will reopen. The closure of the main airport serving one of Japans major business and commercial areas triggered concern about the possible impact on tourism and the economy.
Flooding at the airport had largely subsided on Wednesday but flight operations equipment needed to be assessed for damage, as did the crushed part of the bridge. The airport was built on artificial islands in Osaka Bay.
Kansai International Airport was left under water (Kentaro Ikushima/Mainichi Newspaper via AP)
Passengers stranded overnight appeared relieved but exhausted after an uneasy night in the dark.
Miki Yamada, a 25-year-old office worker planning a trip to Thailand with her friend, told the Kyodo news service she spent the night at an airport cafeteria. It was a rather scary night, as we were so isolated, she said.
The Universal Studios Japan theme park in Osaka was closed for a second day, but said it would reopen on Thursday.
Factories in the region, including car maker Daihatsu, electronics giant Panasonic and drinks giant Kirin are expected to resume operations on Wednesday after suspending production during the typhoon.
Burned cars in Nishinomiya (Hiroko Harima/Kyodo News/AP)
The deaths included a man in his 70s who was blown to the ground from his apartment in Osaka prefecture. Police said at least five others died elsewhere in the prefecture after being hit by flying objects or falling from their apartments.
In nearby Shiga prefecture, a 71-year-old man died when a storage building collapsed on him, and a man in his 70s died after falling from a roof in Mie, officials said.
In Nishinomiya in Hyogo prefecture, about 100 cars at a seaside dealership burned after their electrical systems were shorted out by sea water, officials said.
When passengers disembarked the Aeroflot SU2588 flight from Moscow to London Gatwick on the afternoon of March 2 2018, little did they know they were in the company of two men police believe were sent to the UK to kill.
Alexander Petrov (left) and Ruslan Boshirov, prime suspects in the Salisbury poisoning (Metropolitan Police/PA)
Police have now named Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov as prime suspects in the Salisbury poisonings which led to the death of Dawn Sturgess, and resulted in her boyfriend, Charlie Rowley, former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, and Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey falling seriously ill.
Here is a timeline of the suspects movements, released by Scotland Yard, during their brief trip to the UK:
Friday March 2 2018
1500: Suspects Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov arrive at Gatwick Airport, having flown from Moscow on Aeroflot flight SU2588.
CCTV image of Alexander Petrov at Gatwick Airport on March 2 (Metropolitan Police/PA)
1740: The pair arrive at London Victoria station by train from Gatwick.
1800: They then travel on public transport to Waterloo station, and then to the City Stay Hotel in Bow Road, east London, where they stay for two nights.
Saturday March 3
1145: The pair arrive at Waterloo station, having left the hotel, bound for Salisbury. It is believed the two are on a reconnaissance mission.
1425: They arrive in Salisbury by train.
1605: Having spent a short time in the city, Petrov and Boshirov leave Salisbury to begin the return journey.
2005: The pair arrive back in Bow, east London, where they stay at the City Stay Hotel for a second night.
Sunday March 4
0805: The day of the Novichok attack. Petrov and Boshirov use the Underground at Bow to travel to Waterloo, and then on by train to Salisbury.
CCTV footage showing Russian nationals Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov in Wilton Road, Salisbury, shortly before midday on the day of the attack (Metropolitan Police/PA)
1148: The pair are caught on CCTV leaving Salisbury railway station.
1158: They are then spotted in Wilton Road in Salisbury, a short distance from Christie Miller Road, Mr Skripals address. Police say this is moments before the attack.
Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov in Fisherton Road, Salisbury, at 1308 on March 4 (Metropolitan Police/PA)
1305: The suspects are caught on CCTV in Fisherton Street, heading back towards the railway station.
1350: Petrov and Boshirov begin their journey back to London.
1645: The pair arrive back in London at Waterloo station.
1830: They board the Underground heading to Heathrow Airport.
The suspects at Heathrow Arport security at 1928 on March 4, bound for Moscow (Metropolitan Police/PA)
1928: CCTV catches the pair going through passport control.
2230: They depart London for Moscow on the Aeroflot flight SU2585.
Ministers have pledged they will come up with the solution in due course to the security implications of a no-deal Brexit in Northern Ireland.
The comment came in the face of repeated questions from DUP leader Nigel Dodds, who was frustrated at the lack of action following a warning from Northern Irelands top police officer over Brexit planning.
Chief Constable George Hamilton said in June that he feels in the dark because of a lack of information, and said he did not know to who he should send a business case asking for additional resources for border duties after Brexit.
DUP MP Nigel Dodds (Jonathan Brady/PA)
.@NigelDoddsDUP at #NIQs pressing for extra resources given to PSNI to prepare for the UK leaving the European Union. The Chief Constable has been clear that he has not been given a fair allocation. pic.twitter.com/CGO1iGA8B3 DUP (@duponline) September 5, 2018
Mr Dodds, speaking in the Commons, reacted with annoyance when told by Northern Ireland Minister Shailesh Vara that the Government would be issuing guidance in future.
He said: With the greatest of respect, were not asking about issuing guidance, were asking about the allocation of resources.
So can the minister, and I really want to press him on this since it is a very big issue and its impact in terms of resourcing for policing in Northern Ireland more widely.
What is he going to do and the Government, this has been on their table for many months now.
Mr Vara responded: I can give an assurance that the Secretary of State actually spoke with the chief constable this morning, were in regular dialogue and were considering the proposals that he has put forward.
We are considering the proposals, thats what I can say and we hope to come up with the solution in due course.
Later in the question session, Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley was asked about what moves had been made to re-establish an executive at Stormont.
She said: Im acutely aware of the deep frustration and difficulties faced by the people of Northern Ireland and the urgent need to re-establish a locally elected democratically accountable devolved government.
I remain in close contact with the five main political parties and the Irish government where possible.
Theresa May has directly challenged Jeremy Corbyn to rule out a second referendum on Britains withdrawal from the EU.
But the Labour leader did not respond, instead accusing the Prime Minister of dancing round all the issues as the Brexit plan she drew up at Chequers was ripped up by her own MPs and a no-deal outcome became more likely.
The pair clashed at Prime Ministers Questions in the House of Commons shortly after the UKs Brexit preparations were branded incompetent by former Bank of England governor Mervyn King.
In a damning assessment, Lord King told the BBC the Government had been left without a credible bargaining position.
He said it beggars belief that Britain, one of the worlds leading economies, had found itself in a situation where the country was being told to take a course of action or face catastrophe.
He suggested blame should be shared by the Government, Parliament as a whole and those in Whitehall who were tasked with making key decisions.
Lord King said the Government had been left without a credible bargaining position (PA)
In the first PMQs since Parliament returned after the summer break, Mr Corbyn seized on the former governors comments as well as warnings about the dangers of a no-deal Brexit from figures including Chancellor Philip Hammond, the TUC and the CBI.
A majority of people may have voted to leave, but they expected negotiations to be handled competently and they certainly are not, Mr Corbyn told MPs.
The Prime Minister has repeatedly said that no deal is better than a bad deal. But no deal is a bad deal, and everybody from the CBI to the TUC to her own Chancellor are telling her the same thing.
The Chequers proposal is dead, already ripped apart by her own MPs. When will the Prime Minister publish a real plan that survives contact with her Cabinet and with reality? Those are of course two very separate concepts.
Mrs May retorted: What would be bad for this country would be signing up to a deal at any price whatsoever, which is the position of the Labour Party. That would destroy jobs, that would be bad for the British people.
Theresa May speaks during Prime Ministers Questions (PA)
The Prime Minister twice called on Mr Corbyn to stand up and rule out a second referendum, but he ignored her challenge.
Labour has so far declined to take off the table the option of a vote on the final Brexit deal, and Mr Corbyn is coming under intense pressure from Peoples Vote campaigners to commit to a second referendum.
The partys Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said in a high-profile speech in London that he was ready to support a second poll as a last resort to prevent the UK crashing out of the EU without an agreement.
But he said the Governments first option should be to ask the EU to postpone the March 2019 deadline for the UKs departure to allow further negotiations.
AB: "The biggest danger facing British Politics right now is to allow this polarised No-Deal-Peoples-Vote dynamic to shape the next six months.
Instead, Greater Manchesters interests lie in finding a common-sense Brexit deal." Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham (@MayorofGM) September 5, 2018
Mr Burnham accepted the move would be divisive, but said social unrest on the streets of Britain could be a price worth paying to prevent the nightmare scenario of a no-deal Brexit.
Research released on Wednesday suggested fewer than one in five voters now expects Britain to get a good deal out of the Brexit talks.
The proportion expecting a good deal has fallen from 33% in February 2017 to just 17% in June 2018, while those predicting a bad deal have increased from 37% to 57% over the same period, according to a survey for NatCen Social Research.
On Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told business leaders she could not fully rule out no deal because we still have no result from the talks.
Dominic Raab is facing questions from MPs on the Commons European Scrutiny Committee (Peter Nicholls/PA)
Lord King, who has spoken favourably of Brexit in the past, tore into the last-minute preparations for a no-deal Brexit, warning they had left Britain without a credible bargaining position.
He made the comments after ministers confirmed efforts were under way to stockpile medicines and ensure an adequate food supply if talks fail.
Frankly, if a government cannot take action to prevent some of these catastrophic outcomes, whatever position you take on the EU, it illustrates a whole lack of preparation, Lord King said.
It doesnt tell us anything about whether the policy of staying in the EU is good or bad, it tells us everything about the incompetence of the preparation for it.
Asked if that meant the Government had been incompetent, he said: The group of people tasked with trying to make decisions on all of this is Parliament as a whole, not just the Government, and the civil service, who have brought us to a position where we are now being told that we have to accept a certain course of action otherwise it would be catastrophic.
Now, it beggars belief that the sixth biggest economy in the world should get itself into that position.
Lord King, who was in charge of the UKs central bank from 2003 until 2013, said credible plans should have been put in place to leave without a deal because Britain cannot impose a deal on the EU.
However he warned that such plans cannot be drawn up in six months and would take several years.
Lord King said he feared the biggest risk to the UK was that the referendum had failed to resolve the issue of Brexit and it isnt going to go away.
Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab was facing questions from MPs on the Commons European Scrutiny Committee alongside the PMs Europe adviser, Olly Robbins, on Wednesday afternoon.
Two Russian military intelligence officers are accused of carrying out the Salisbury nerve agent attack.
Police and prosecutors announced they had enough evidence to charge the men named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov over the poisoning in March.
Theresa May told MPs investigations have concluded that the two suspects are members of the GRU, Russias military intelligence service.
In a statement that will deepen the diplomatic crisis between the two countries, the Prime Minister said: The GRU is a highly-disciplined organisation with a well-established chain of command. So this was not a rogue operation.
It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state.
Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were left critically ill after being exposed to the military grade nerve agent Novichok.
Exactly six months after news of the poisoning broke, two alleged perpetrators were identified in a dramatic joint police and Crown Prosecution Service press conference.
Detectives believe it is likely the pair, thought to be aged around 40, travelled under aliases and that Petrov and Boshirov are not their real names.
Prosecutors will not be applying to Russia for the extradition of the two men, but a European Arrest Warrant has been obtained.
(PA Graphics)
Detectives believe the front door of Mr Skripals Salisbury home was contaminated with Novichok on Sunday March 4.
Police said CCTV shows the two suspects in the vicinity of the property on that date.
Hours later, the men left the UK on a flight from Heathrow to Moscow two days after they had arrived at Gatwick.
Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said: We have no evidence that they re-entered the UK after that date.
He also confirmed that officers have now linked the attack on the Skripals to events in Amesbury four months later.
Security and barriers outside Zizzi restaurant, Salisbury, which is the only public place still cordoned off in the town (Ben Birchall/PA)
In the second incident, Dawn Sturgess, 44, and her partner Charlie Rowley, 48, were exposed to the same nerve agent used in Salisbury.
Ms Sturgess died in hospital in July, just over a week after the pair fell ill.
Mr Basu said: We do not believe Dawn and Charlie were deliberately targeted, but became victims as a result of the recklessness in which such a toxic nerve agent was disposed of.
We know that Novichok was applied to the Skripals front door in an area that is accessible to the public, which also endangered the lives of members of the public and emergency service responders.
The charges announced on Wednesday relate to the first incident, but Mr Basu said officers continue to liaise with the CPS regarding the poisoning of Mr Rowley and Ms Sturgess.
Dawn Sturgess died after being exposed to nerve agent Novichok (Met Police/PA)
Police also released an image of a counterfeit perfume bottle after tests found it contained a significant amount of Novichok.
Mr Rowley told officers he found a box he thought contained perfume in a charity bin on June 27.
Three days later he got some of the contents on himself, while Ms Sturgess applied some of the substance to her wrists.
Mr Basu said the manner in which the bottle and packaging was adapted makes it a perfect cover for smuggling the weapon into the country.
The counterfeit perfume box found by Charlie Rowley on June 27 (Met Police/PA)
But he added: We dont yet know where the suspects disposed of the Novichok they used to attack the door, where Dawn and Charlie got the bottle that poisoned them, or if it is the same bottle used in both poisonings.
Providing an in-depth update on an investigation he described as one of the most complex and intensive ever undertaken by counter-terror policing, Mr Basu also:
Appealed for anyone who knows the two suspects or saw them while they were in the UK between Friday March 2 and Sunday March 4 to contact authorities;
Published a detailed account of the movements of the two men over the three days, which included spending two nights at a hotel in east London and making a suspected reconnaissance trip to Salisbury the day before the Skripals were poisoned;
Revealed tests carried out on the hotel room in Bow where the suspects had stayed showed contamination of Novichok but at levels below that which would cause public health concern;
Said that despite meticulous and painstaking searches, although unlikely, it is impossible to guarantee there are no other materials linked to the incidents in Salisbury.
CPS director of legal services Sue Hemming said prosecutors in the services counter-terrorism division considered the evidence and concluded there was sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction and it is clearly in the public interest to charge Petrov and Boshirov with: conspiracy to murder Mr Skripal; attempted murder of Mr Skripal, Ms Skripal and Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey; use and possession of Novichok contrary to the Chemical Weapons Act; and causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Ms Skripal and Mr Bailey.
Ms Hemming said: We will not be applying to Russia for the extradition of these men as the Russian constitution does not permit extradition of its own nationals.
Russia has made this clear following requests for extradition in other cases. Should this position change then an extradition request would be made.
We have, however, obtained a European Arrest Warrant which means that if either man travels to a country where an EAW is valid, they will be arrested and face extradition on these charges for which there is no statute of limitations.
The case has echoes of the murder of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.
In that case, two men were identified as suspects but Russia refused to hand them over.
Yulia Skripal (Dylan Martinez/PA)
Mr Skripal, 67, and his daughter were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury city centre on March 4.
They spent weeks critically ill in hospital but have since been discharged.
Mr Bailey, who was involved in searching Mr Skripals home after the attack, was left seriously unwell. The officer continues to make good progress but remains off work, police said.
The events sparked a huge public health alert and plunged the UK Governments relations with the Kremlin into crisis.
Moscow has repeatedly denied claims that Russia was behind the attempted assassination in March.
A senior adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin said he does not know the people named as suspects by the UK security services.
President Putins foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters in Moscow that the names of the two Russian men suspected in the poisoning do not mean anything to me.
Mr Ushakov pointed to the fact that British authorities mentioned that they think the mens names are aliases, and wondered why this has been done and what kind of a message Britain is trying to send to the Russian government.
Education Secretary John Swinney has insisted he will retain the option of bringing forward legislation to reform Scotlands schools despite a warning from international experts that better results could be achieved without changing the law.
The Deputy First Minister said he had received cautionary advice from the Scottish Governments International Council of Education Advisers on the matter.
Teachers leaders and local government body Cosla both made clear they did not want SNP ministers to introduce legislation.
Education Secretary John Swinney said legislating for school reforms was `still an option (David Cheskin/PA)
However, Mr Swinney resisted calls to completely ditch the Education (Scotland) Bill which was dramatically shelved at the end of June saying legislating to introduce the reforms was still an option I can bring forward if necessary.
Just before Holyrood finished for its summer recess, the Education Secretary announced the Bill was being put on hold, claiming changes he wanted to make could be achieved quicker without pushing through new laws.
He insisted at the time that he would bring back the legislation if sufficient progress is not made by June 2019.
However, Liberal Democrat education spokesman Tavish Scott claimed teachers saw that as the threat of another law being imposed on top of them.
Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the EIS teaching union, said it would be useful if the big stick of legislation could be withdrawn.
The union leader said he had a concern about how much progress could be made in a year, saying: Frankly, if were talking about changing the culture, the idea that were going to do that in a year is fanciful.
Changing the culture of Scottish education is a decades-long agenda, significant progress for me is were all still sitting round the same table in a years time because we are at least then collaborating on the agreed agenda.
.@tavishscott asks @JohnSwinney about advice given to parents on participation of children in Scottish National Standardised Assessments. We expect a further statement to Parliament later today. Education, Children and Young People Committee (@SP_ECYP) September 5, 2018
We need to get rid of the idea that there are threats sitting behind the offer of friendship around collaboration.
The union leader continued: I think it would be good if we had an early signal that the collaborative approach is working and that the legislation isnt going to be required, because I think the idea that there is a big stick waiting there is not conducive to the idea of collaborative practice.
The big stick removal would be useful.
Stephen McCabe, Cosla spokesman for children and young people, said councils would prefer the Bill to ditched completely.
He said: Were happy that it hasnt been introduced, were not so happy that it is sitting there on the shelf.
When asked by Mr Scott if dropping the Bill would be a good idea, Mr Swinney said: No, I think it is there as an option I can bring forward if necessary.
It remains for me an option I can bring forward if sufficient progress is not made.
.@MspLiz asks what changed @JohnSwinney s mind about the need for a bill. Education, Children and Young People Committee (@SP_ECYP) September 5, 2018
He told MSPs on Holyroods Education Committee why the Bill had been put on hold, saying while there was very broad support for giving schools across Scotland more power, there was substantial disagreement about the detail of all of that.
With a deal struck between ministers and councils on the issue, Mr Swinney stated: I wanted to make sure I built on the agreement that was emerging about school empowerment and essentially captured that opportunity to take forward the reform agenda.
I was also influenced by the commentary of the International Council of Education Advisers who essentially believe the Scottish Governments education agenda is soundly focused and anchored, but they gave me some cautionary advice that pursuing a legislative approach to the reforms I was trying to take forward might not create as good an outcome as if I took forward a collaborative approach.
The concept of empowering schools is not just created by legislation, it needs to be a change of culture within our education system, and legislation doesnt always routinely deliver a change in culture.
Recently discovered household waste thrown away by families thousands of years ago will provide valuable clues for archaeologists uncovering the secrets of Devons Iron Age, Roman, and Medieval history.
The rubbish, found by experts working on a major archaeological dig in the county, will allow them to reconstruct farming methods thousands of years ago and learn more about what people ate.
Members of the community and experts from the University of Exeter are once again investigating fields near Ipplepen, in south Devon.
The archaeological dig in fields near Ipplepen (University of Exeter/PA)
The excavations have shown features such as ditches and wells were back filled with domestic rubbish including broken pots, butchered animal bones, metal studs from old shoes, and even a dead badger.
The remains of Amphora, large pottery storage vessels used to transport and store wine and olive oil from the Mediterranean, have also been found. This suggests the community in the area enjoyed foreign food and drink.
The settlement was occupied from the Middle and Late Iron Age from about 400 BC to AD43 throughout the Roman period and into the early medieval period.
It was home to a farming community and, in the Roman period, a road was constructed through the settlement that linked it with Exeter.
Professor Stephen Rippon, who is leading the archaeological work, said: We can use these animal bones to reconstruct past patterns of farming.
If animals such as the sheep were killed at a young age then they were being kept for their meat lamb, whereas if they were kept into old age then they were being kept for their wool and even their milk.
Some of the bones that have been found have cut marks from when they were butchered.
Looking for weekend plans? Why not visit the @UniExeter's @IpplepenDig open day, for artefacts, displays and re-enactments (refreshments available)?
Drop by the CA stand to meet Zoe and Emily, and learn how to make Roman coins and split-pin #Roman soldiers!
#Devon #Ipplepen pic.twitter.com/IYV5Or4bzN Cotswold Archaeology (@CotswoldArch) September 4, 2018
University of Exeter archaeologists have been excavating different parts of the site during the past seven years with the help of the local community.
In previous years, excavations have uncovered Iron Age roundhouses, a Romano-British settlement and associated field system, Roman road, and an early medieval cemetery.
This year the team are exploring the southern part of the site where traces of a settlement have been found that was occupied during the final years of Britain being part of the Roman Empire.
Guests at a hotel visited by two men suspected of carrying out the Salisbury nerve agent attack have been urged by health officials to come forward.
The chief medical officer for England said anyone who stayed at the CityStay Hotel in Bow, east London, between Sunday March 4 and Friday May 4 should contact the investigation team.
One of the remaining issues of concern for authorities is identifying and reassuring those guests that stayed in the CityStay hotel in the period between the suspects leaving the hotel and the police identifying, controlling and testing this location, Dame Sally Davies said.
Dame Sally Davies (Kirsty OConnor/PA)
This room was only allowed back into use after experts deemed it to be safe, she added.
Members of the public should also avoid picking up any objects they do not recognise, as per previous Public Health England advice, while experts focus on finding and making safe any remaining materials that may have been discarded by these suspects especially in the Salisbury area.
Dame Sally said she is confident that members of the public who travelled alongside the suspects between March 2 and March 4, or after, are not at risk.
This includes those who travelled on public transport systems in London, train services and stations, airports, and those who were on the same Aeroflot flights.
The risk to the public remains low provided that our advice not to pick up unknown objects is followed, she said.
Everyone can be confident that our public transport systems in London and the South are safe, and also we can be confident that Heathrow Airport, Gatwick Airport and the rail services linking them to London are safe.
Anyone who stayed at the CityStay hotel during the relevant period is asked to call the investigation team on 0800 789 32 or email salisbury2018@met.police.uk
The 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum for China Africa Cooperation contained a lot of ingredients that spoke of the hope and mutual benefit between China and Africa, said director of Amble Travel and Tours, Gao Lemmenyane, during the Summit which took place on Sept. 3 and 4, 2018.
Gao Lemmenyane, who runs a tour company in Botswana, said, As a country, Botswana is quite excited about what has come out of the interactions over the last couple of days, and we are really looking forward to now implementing the agreements that were signed in this period, adding, as an individual, Im hoping that my business will derive benefits from this.
He went on to say that Botswana is a beautiful country, with sights such as the Okavango Delta and the Chobe River. He encourages Chinese people to visit the country to see a wonderful diversity of animals in their natural environment rather than in the zoo and learn more about the countrys rich cultural heritage. He notes that coming to Botswana will allow visitors to get a taste of African hospitality and learn from the African people.
Lemmenyane added that currently, most of the tourists visiting Botswana are from Europe and America, but he hopes that through a forum like this, more people from China will learn about Botswana and make the trip to appreciate the countrys beauty, and the peace and serenity that exists in Africa.
The human cost of Stormonts political impasse on victims of historical institutional abuse is becoming increasingly severe, Northern Irelands senior judge has said.
Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan again expressed intense frustration at the decision-making paralysis.
He acknowledged difficulties facing politicians in a divided society but said handling difficult and challenging disputes was a feature of life for judges.
Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan has again expressed intense frustration at the Stormont stalemate. Paul Faith/PA.
If, however, resolution is not possible there must be a fallback position, a decision-maker.
The provision of political direction to the machinery of government is a requirement of a functioning democracy. It is not an optional extra.
He said implementation of the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry recommendations was urgent.
On its publication in January 2017, almost 20 months ago, over a third of those who had engaged with the inquiry were aged over 65, several had died and others were in very poor health.
Groups speaking on behalf of many of those who were in residential homes have made repeated pleas to have the recommendations acted on.
Sir Declan said: Those pleas have been supported by all of the main political parties in Northern Ireland yet today those recommendations have still not been implemented and the human cost on those affected is increasingly severe.
Stormont has not sat for more than a year and a half in a row between former coalition partners the DUP and Sinn Fein over identity issues like the Irish language.
The senior judge said there should be a process to address the problems facing powersharing.
I shudder to think what message it sends to the thousands of young people leaving our shores for university or work, people that we should be trying to attract back to populate our legal and other services.
His funding proposals to deal with inquests into some of the most controversial killings of the Troubles have met with political disagreement.
Sir Declan opened the new legal year at the law courts in Belfast and recalled his comments at the same event a year earlier in which he said the political impasse had stalled the reform agenda of the justice system.
On Wednesday he said: Implicit in those remarks was an expectation that those responsible for giving political direction to the machinery of government would have devised a method of ensuring that those of us engaged in the provision of public services could continue to enhance and improve the quality of what we do.
The Lord Chief Justice acknowledged the respect and sympathy he held for politicians seeking to deal with the evident divisions within the community.
Equally I acknowledge the difficulty for civil servants responsible for day-to-day business and the restrictions on what they can achieve within the current legal framework.
But handling difficult and challenging disputes is a feature of what we do as judges.
The Governments consultation on addressing the legacy of past violence in Northern Ireland has been extended by three weeks.
Those responding said they needed more time, Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley said.
The deadline has been shifted from September 10 to October 5.
Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley has extended her legacy consultation by three weeks (Kirsty OConnor/PA)
The deadline to have your say on proposals to address the legacy of #NorthernIrelands past has been extended to Friday 5 October.
https://t.co/sc5dDK2w8p#LegacyConsultation pic.twitter.com/LyOcbjEy1G Northern Ireland Office (@NIOgov) September 5, 2018
Ms Bradley said: The legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland is an enormously sensitive and emotive issue, and I want to make sure everyones voice is heard as we move forward.
I have listened to those who want to take a little bit more time to consider their responses particularly those individuals who have been most affected by the Troubles, including victims and survivors and former police officers and veterans and I am happy to extend the deadline so that they can have their say.
The UK Government launched the consultation, Addressing the Legacy of Northern Irelands Past, on May 11 to find the best way to meet the needs of victims and survivors and to help people address the impact of the Troubles.
It touched on areas like recovering more information, seeking justice and acknowledgement and helping Northern Ireland move towards long-term peace and stability.
The inquiry into the sacking of senior politician Carl Sargeant has been suspended ahead of a legal challenge by his family.
The Welsh Government ministers widow lodged an appeal at the High Court in London last month seeking to challenge how the inquiry will proceed.
The QC leading the inquiry, Paul Bowen, has halted proceedings pending the result of the judicial review.
Bernie Sargeant and son Jack at the former Welsh Government ministers funeral (Peter Byrne/PA)
Bernie Sargeant has spoken publicly of her concerns that the investigation could become a cover-up.
Mr Sargeants family are unhappy their lawyers would be barred from questioning witnesses, and oral evidence would not be heard in public.
They are also challenging rules which would allow the independent investigator to bar the family from hearings.
Mr Sargeant was found hanged at his home last November, days after he was sacked from his Welsh Government role and suspended from the Labour Party over allegations about his personal conduct.
Carwyn Jones (Kirsty OConnor/PA)
First Minister Carwyn Jones announced an independent inquiry into how he handled his former ministers sacking.
Charlotte Haworth Hird, solicitor to the investigation, said in a statement: Given that the lawfulness of the operational protocol will now be considered by the High Court, Mr Bowen QC has taken the decision to suspend the investigation pending the final determination of the judicial review proceedings.
It would not be appropriate to take any further steps in the investigation, including obtaining evidence, in circumstances where, if the judicial review is successful, the operational protocol could be quashed and the procedure of the investigation and powers of the investigator may change.
A spokesman for the First Minister said: The Permanent Secretary has agreed to a request from the IQCI for a change to the timetable for completion of its report. Whilst we understand the reasons for this announcement, the delay is deeply frustrating.
There is a case for substantial change to the devolution settlement, the Constitutional Relations Secretary has told MSPs.
Mike Russell said the weight of Brexit had proven too much for the existing arrangements to bear as he appeared before the Finance and Constitution Committee to discuss trade after the UK leaves the European Union (EU).
Scottish ministers sought urgent discussions with the UK Government on the devolution system after the EU Withdrawal Bill was passed despite the Scottish Parliament voting to withhold consent.
The Constitutional Relations Secretary says changes to the devolution settlement are needed (Scottish Parliament/PA)
Mr Russell confirmed the Scottish Government will not bring forward a consent vote for the Trade Bill aimed at ensuring the UK can continue its existing trade policy as far as possible immediately after leaving the EU or any other Brexit legislation until the issue is resolved.
I think everybody would accept that the weight of Brexit is too great for the current devolved settlement to bear. Thats obvious, Mr Russell said.
The system has not worked, and therefore there needs to be changes to the system. We think there is a case to be made for substantial change.
Scottish ministers are pressing for changes to the Trade Bill which they argue are needed to address concerns over where powers in devolved areas will lie and the set-up of the Trade Remedies Body, which will affect Scottish consumers and businesses.
They have also called for a role for the Scottish Government in the development of future trade deals.
Mr Russell said the current level of engagement between the Scottish and UK governments should be improved.
I am pretty critical presently of the nature of that engagement, he said.
Where I see essentially a tick-box exercise going on, I have an obligation to say there is a tick-box exercise going on.
Earlier, UK Trade Policy Minister George Hollingbery told MSPs that while trade is a reserved matter, the views of the devolved governments would be taken seriously.
There is extensive discussion at official level about the UKs trade policy as it emerges and as it evolves with the devolved authorities, he said.
We absolutely take those discussions very seriously and the points that are made will be incorporated as appropriate into the policies that we bring forward.
He added: I absolutely confirm to you that it is the departments clear intent and desire to take the concerns of the Scottish Government and the other devolved authorities extremely seriously.
Mr Hollingbery was also optimistic about reaching agreement over the Trade Bill.
We are absolutely committed to carrying on talking and working with colleagues in the Scottish Parliament and officials to try and find our way through this, he said.
When I say Im confident, I believe there is plenty to talk about still and that we will achieve success.
Residential establishments run by three male religious orders will be examined by the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry in a phase of public hearings announced to begin in summer next year.
Institutions run by the Order of Benedictines, the Marist Brothers and the Christian Brothers orders within the Catholic Church are to be scrutinised in what will be the fourth phase of hearings at the probe.
Five institutions in East Lothian, the Highlands, Dumfries and Galloway, Ayrshire and Fife will be under the spotlight when the hearings get under way in the middle part of 2019, the inquiry team has revealed.
Chair Lady Smith has revealed further information on future hearings (Nick Mailer/PA)
Those establishments are Carlekemp in North Berwick and the Fort Augustus Abbey School in Inverness-shire, run by the Order of Benedictines; the Marist Brothers St Josephs College in Dumfries and St Columbas College in Largs; and St Ninians in Falkland, run by the Christian Brothers.
Inquiry chair Lady Smith has urged anyone with any relevant information about the orders and schools to contact the probe.
The inquiry is tasked with examining historical allegations of the abuse of children in care. It began taking statements from witnesses in the spring of 2016 and commenced public hearings in May last year.
It has already heard evidence on institutions run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul and the Sisters of Nazareth during earlier public hearings.
Phase three of the hearings will begin in October this year with an investigation of residential childcare establishments run by large-scale care providers Quarriers, Aberlour and Barnardos, the inquiry team said.
Announcing the 2019 phase, chair Lady Smith said: Please would anyone who has any relevant information about any of these orders and schools contact the inquiry.
It does not matter whether you have already made a report to the police or to anyone else, and it does not matter whether or not you have been involved in any other investigation.
You can still talk to us and we want to hear from you.
I am well aware that it can be difficult and very emotional to talk about experiences in care and I want to take this opportunity to give an assurance that we have a dedicated witness support team here who will help and support anyone providing evidence to us.
She also said that investigations into establishments run by male religious orders, and other preparatory work, are well under way.
We have been pleased with the response to date, she said.
A later stage of the inquiry will examine the provision of care by the De La Salle Brothers, who ran a number of institutions in Scotland.
The inquiry can be contacted on 0800 0929 300 or emailed at talktous@childabuseinquiry.scot
People can also write to the Inquiry by post at SCAI, PO Box 24085, Edinburgh EH7 9EA.
Bosses at a London hospital say they have asked external regulators to oversee work being done to deal with long-standing issues relating to its cardiac surgical service.
St Georges University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust bosses say they want oversight from outside.
The trust has recently hit the headlines after becoming embroiled in litigation with one of its heart surgeons.
St Georges Hospital in Tooting (John Stillwell/PA)
Bosses excluded Professor Marjan Jahangiri from St Georges Hospital in Tooting pending a disciplinary investigation after a bullying allegation.
A High Court judge, in late August, described the move as irrational.
Mr Justice Nicklin, who analysed issues at a High Court hearing in London, said Professor Jahangiri should be allowed to return.
Professor Jahangiri has complained of a breach of contract, the litigation is continuing.
The judge was told that bosses were concerned about the working relationship between the six heart surgeons in the unit, and about an allegedly dysfunctional environment.
Trust chief executive Jacqueline Totterdell says bosses are already taking action to address the issues within the cardiac surgical service.
She says she wants an independent panel of regulators to provide external oversight and help resolve issues.
Ministers have faced calls to show compassion and change the law on bereavement benefits after a Supreme Court victory for an unmarried mother.
Siobhan McLaughlin, 46, was refused the benefit after her partner of 23 years John Adams died from cancer in January 2014 because the couple, who had four children, were not married or in a civil partnership.
But, by a majority of four justices to one, the Supreme Court ruled last week that the current law on the allowance is incompatible with Human Rights legislation.
Tory grandee Sir Mike Penning, speaking in the Commons, urged ministers to step in and change the law.
The former work and pensions minister said: I say to the minister that I am no fan of the European courts and I am extremely pro-marriage, but we have to live in the modern world that we live in now.
When hes looking at how the Government responds to this court ruling can we look at something called fairness and natural justice?
Many, many people would have been able to go to work because their partner stayed at home with the children and then theyve lost their loved one, but theyre not married.
We need to show compassion at the same time as understanding the benefit system.
Stella Creasy : UK Parliament official portrait 2017.
Later in the question session Labour MP Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) urged ministers to follow Germanys example.
She said: Will he learn from Germany where the money follows the child through orphan pensions and marriage isnt the requirement but parenting is?
Work and Pensions Minister Justin Tomlinson responded to MPs concerns saying that the Government was in the very earliest stages of considering the ruling.
He added: Officials at the department are closely working with their counterparts in Northern Ireland to examine the judgment and what our next steps should be.
However, as the House will be aware, only Parliament is able to change primary legislation and Lady Hale ruled that a declaration of incompatibility does not change the law: it is then for the relevant legislature to decide whether or how it should be changed.
Therefore the courts ruling does not change the current eligibility rules for receiving bereavement benefits.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Margaret Greenwood responded: Unmarried bereaved parents should not be subject to discrimination because of their marital status, putting it simply: their childrens needs are the same.
She added: The purpose of financial support by the state for bereaved families is to try to ensure that as far as possible families struggling with the grief at the loss of a parent or partner should not have to face the additional worry of how they will manage financially.
That should surely apply to families regardless of whether the parents were married or not, as the Supreme Court said last week.
Part of Belfast city centre could be cordoned off for at least four months following the Primark shop fire, the citys Lord Mayor said.
Fourteen businesses are unable to trade as they are within a safety exclusion zone established amid fears the blackened structure could collapse.
There will be no through access for pedestrians down the main shopping street, Royal Avenue, and signs will be erected, Belfast City Council added.
Last week, flames and thick black smoke engulfed the five-storey historic Bank Buildings which housed Primark.
Businesses remaining within the Primark safety exclusion zone have been advised that the current cordon is likely to be in place for a minimum of four months. Belfast City Council #OneWeeThing (@belfastcc) September 5, 2018
More than 100 firefighters battled the major blaze for more than three days as it ripped through the building on Castle Street.
Lord Mayor Deirdre Hargey said engineers would assess the site and consider bracing the badly damaged shell, then determine if its facade can be saved.
She added: While it is imperative that the safety cordon remains, we recognise it is having a serious impact not just on the traders within the cordon, but for those in the immediate area who are suffering due to a reduction in footfall.
The area within the cordon will be inaccessible until next year, meaning it will be out of bounds throughout the busy pre-Christmas shopping season when many businesses earn enough to sustain them through leaner times.
Deirdre Hargey at the scene (Liam McBurney/PA)
The council will be implementing measures to help struggling firms.
The mayor added: As well as erecting signage to encourage and direct footfall, council along with other agencies and government departments are working together to find alternative premises for businesses and arranging initiatives for affected traders to provide advice in respect of rates and employability.
Belfast City Council and its partners are also planning a campaign aimed at sustaining visitors to the city and supporting retailers over the next four months.
Primark customers and staff were evacuated from the building last week after smoke could be seen billowing from the roof.
Flames reaching at least 50ft were visible across Belfasts skyline.
A safety cordon around the former Primark store in Belfast will be maintained for four months (Liam McBurney/PA)
The historic clock at the top of the building was engulfed in flames before the fire spread from the roof to the floor below.
Parts of the roof then collapsed as thick black smoke and fire ripped through the rest of the flagship store.
The building has survived bombs and fires throughout its long history in the city.
It was undergoing a 30 million refurbishment and there was a recent recruitment announcement that the company was seeking to hire 100 additional staff.
A senior fire officer described it as one of the biggest blazes they had battled in a number of years, but no-one was injured.
A plane has been quarantined amid reports a number of passengers have become ill aboard a flight from Dubai that arrived at New Yorks Kennedy Airport.
The Emirates flight landed at JFK at about 9.10am (2.10pm BST).
The airline said about 10 passengers were sick and were getting medical attention as a precaution.
The Emirates flight landed at JFK (Steve Parsons/PA)
Nobody is off the plane yet. Sick passengers are being triaged on plane. 521 aboard. https://t.co/kx00DbNENA eric phillips (@EricFPhillips) September 5, 2018
Video footage shot by news helicopters showed the jet sitting on the tarmac surrounded by emergency vehicles and ground control personnel.
A spokesman for New York City mayor Bill de Blasio said representatives of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention are on the scene.
Eric Phillips, a spokesman for the mayor, tweeted that the flight stopped in Mecca, which is experiencing a flu outbreak, and early indications point to that as a possibility.
A New York Police counter-terrorism division tweeted that it is monitoring what appeared to be a medical situation.
Facebook and Twitter executives have said they are aggressively trying to root out foreign interests seeking to sow divisions in American democracy as the November elections draw near.
Facebooks chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testified before the US senate intelligence committee.
There was an empty chair in place for Googles parent Alphabet, which refused to send its top executive.
Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg (AP)
Ms Sandberg told senators that Facebook was more determined than adversaries trying to meddling in the upcoming elections, and she called the fight an arms race, echoing previous comments by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Mr Dorsey will appear later before a House committee amid complaints from Republicans that social media companies have shown evidence of bias against conservatives.
In testimony released before that hearing, Mr Dorsey denied that Twitter uses political ideology to make decisions.
US congress has criticised the companies over the past year as Russias interference in the 2016 elections and beyond became clear.
Today were committing to the people, and this committee, to do that work, and do it openly. Were here to contribute to a healthy public square, not compete to have the only one. We know thats the only way our business thrives, and helps us all defend against these new threats. jack (@jack) September 5, 2018
That scrutiny has led to additional criticism over the companies respect for user privacy, and whether conservatives are being censored.
Virginia senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the senate committee, said: The companies have made progress, the government has made progress, but the bad guys have made progress as well.
Mr Warner has proposed ways that the companies could be regulated for the first time.
A later hearing before the house energy and commerce committee will focus on bias and Twitters algorithms.
An empty chair reserved for Googles parent Alphabet (AP)
Some Republicans, including US president Donald Trump, have pushed the idea that Twitter is shadow banning some in the party because of the ways search results have appeared. Twitter denies that this takes place.
The committee invited Larry Page, the CEO of Googles parent company, Alphabet, but the company said it would send a lower-ranking executive instead. The committee rejected that offer.
The committee chairman, Richard Burr, said Google does not understand the problem if it does not want to work with the US government to find solutions.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey (AP)
The spat with Google is the latest in a years worth of attempts by congress to force the companies to focus more sharply on the Russian interference issue.
While Mr Burr said he believes Facebook and Twitter do understand the problem, it took both companies several months last year to acknowledge they had been manipulated.
The companies have made many policy changes, and have caught and banned malicious accounts over the past year. However, their business models free services that rely on attracting as many users as possible for as long as possible and finding out as much about them as possible remain the same.
Ms Sandberg, in her prepared remarks, detailed how Facebook was addressing the problem but reiterated that the company was slow to spot it.
The social media chiefs prepare to testify (AP)
Thirteen Russians were indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller this year on charges of an elaborate plot to disrupt the 2016 US presidential election by creating fake accounts that pushed divisive issues on social media.
Mr Dorsey said Twitter has continued to identify accounts that may be linked to the same Russian internet agency as identified in Mr Muellers indictment.
He said Twitter has so far suspended 3,843 accounts the company believes are linked to the agency, and has seen recent activity.
On bias, the Twitter CEO said in prepared testimony before his second hearing that Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules.
Only Mr Dorsey was invited to the House hearing after specific Republican concerns about bias on Twitter.
While all three tech companies have been accused of political bias against conservatives, the more public-facing nature of Twitter has made it an especially easy target.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) holds talks with King of the Netherlands Willem-Alexander in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 26, 2015. (Xinhua/Ma Zhancheng)
Serving as a pivotal country along the Belt and Road, the Netherlands is willing to strengthen its long-standing ties with China, as well as promote further commercial cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), said Dutch politicians and business leaders during an event to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency, held in Beijing on Sept. 5, 2018.
The ties between both countries are already strong. Commercially, the Netherlands is the third trade partner of China within the EU, while cultural exchanges, people contact and educational cooperation between our two countries are also flourishing, Bas Pulles, Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in China, told Peoples Daily Online.
Regarding the Netherlands as an important partner within the EU, China established a comprehensive partnership with the Netherlands in 2014, with a focus on open and pragmatic cooperation.
Supported by Chinese policy and the excellent climate for Chinese investments in the Netherlands, we were able to ride the wave of fast-growing outward investments from China in recent years, added Pulles.
According to statistics, the Netherlands is now a major distribution and R&D headquarter for Chinese companies in Europe, with the latter setting up nearly 90 European distribution centers and more than 50 R&D centers in the Netherlands.
To date, Chinese companies have established more than 680 direct investment enterprises in the Netherlands, creating over 15,000 local jobs, said Roland Brouwer, Executive Director of Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency in China.
Experts believe that the Netherlands, which is the sixth-largest economy in the European Union in terms of GDP and a great access point for China to enter the European market, will see further business cooperation with China under the framework of the BRI.
During his state visit to China in April, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte reiterated his countrys interests in the BRI, noting that the initiative has presented many opportunities for Dutch companies, with 236 individuals and 165 companies and institutions joining his delegation to make new contacts and show where the Netherlands excels to their Chinese counterparts.
We are expecting a high-level Chinese visit to the Netherlands in the coming months, said Pulles, who expected that China and the Netherlands will further promote their business ties.
Education Secretary John Swinney has apologised to parliament for a misleading letter on controversial primary school tests sent by a senior civil servant.
Mr Swinney said that while he did not personally sign off on the missive from Graeme Logan, a deputy director at the Scottish Government, he took full responsibility for it.
Mr Swinney told MSPs at Holyrood he remained committed to the Scottish national standardised assessments at all levels despite cross-party opposition and calls to cut his losses on the issue.
John Swinney has apologised for a `misleading letter on P1 testing (Russell Cheyne/PA)
Welcome apology from John Swinney that last weeks letter from the Scottish Government about PI tests contained misleading information. Liz Smith (@mspliz) September 5, 2018
Ministers had been pressed to clarify whether parents had the right to pull their child out of the tests after concerns about the P1 assessments.
The letter from Mr Logan to councils last week said children could only be withdrawn in exceptional circumstances and stated that advice had been taken from the Society of Local Authority Lawyers in Scotland (Solar) which was later disputed by the organisation.
Conservative MSP Liz Smith asked whether Mr Swinney had personally signed off the letter, which she said had contained misleading information.
He responded: I did not sign off the letter that was issued by the deputy director to directors of education but I take full responsibility for it because Im a minister in the Scottish Government and its right that I take full responsibility for it.
We did not seek legal advice from Solar. We discussed the legal position that we hold to, which has been consistent throughout all of the governments communication on this matter, we discussed that with representatives of the Solar organisation but an error was made in our handling of this in that we expressed a view which we believed to have been expressed by Solar, but which in fact Solar does not express such opinions.
I can only apologise to Parliament for the events that took place in that respect, but I take responsibility for it because I should take responsibility for it.
It's time for the SNP to listen to teachers, parents and pupils.
End the testing of Primary 1 children now. pic.twitter.com/g6fxwzW0KT Scottish Labour (@ScottishLabour) September 5, 2018
He stressed that the substance of the letter was consistent with the Scottish Governments position that while there is no statutory right for parents to withdraw their child from any aspect of schooling other than some parts of religious education, they could discuss the matter with the school.
Mr Swinney, who has already announced changes to the P1 tests in response to concerns, said he remained committed to them as they provided valuable information for teachers.
I want that information to be available so that at the earliest opportunity we can act to close the attainment gap, he said.
Green MSP Ross Greer urged Mr Swinney to cut his losses.
In the case of P1 tests its quite clear that a majority of this parliament want to see them go and sooner or later that is what were going to vote for, he said.
Labours Iain Gray said: Faced with the evidence of stress on four and five-year-olds caused by these tests, testimony from teachers that they are time-consuming and of little educational worth, and a campaign by parents to boycott them, he is carrying on regardless.
In P1, at least, they should be suspended. I believe thats the view of this parliament and I hope we will have the chance to demonstrate that as soon as possible.
Lib Dem Tavish Scott urged Mr Swinney to reflect on the fact that he hasnt carried the case in terms of four and five-year-old girls and boys.
Irans rial has fallen to a record low as worried residents of Tehran queued up outside beleaguered money changers.
The currency has seen a staggering 140% drop in value since America pulled out of a landmark nuclear deal only four months ago.
Those who went to work at the start of the Iranian week on Saturday saw their money shed a quarter of its value by the time they left the office on Wednesday.
Signs of the currency chaos can be seen everywhere in Tehran, where travel agents offer holiday prices only in hard currency and nappies have disappeared from store shelves something acknowledged by the supreme leader.
Many exchange shops in Tehran simply turned off their electronic signs showing the current rate for the US dollar, while some Iranians who want hard currency sought out informal money traders on street corners.
Exchange shops that remained open offered 150,000 rials to the US dollar.
Irans economy has faced troubled times in the past, whether from the shah overspending on military arms in the 1970s or the Western sanctions following the 1979 Islamic Revolution and US embassy takeover.
Drastic fluctuations in oil prices have also taken a toll.
This time, however, the currency has crashed along with hope many felt following the 2015 nuclear deal Iran struck with world powers, including the administration of then-US president Barack Obama.
Iran agreed to limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of some sanctions. The West had feared Iran would use its nuclear material to build atomic bombs, while Tehran has always insisted its activities are purely peaceful.
In May, despite the United Nations repeatedly acknowledging Iran had lived up to the terms of the deal, US president Donald Trump withdrew America from the accord.
Shortages of essential goods have been acknowledged by Iranian leaders (AP)
He said he wanted stricter conditions placed on Iran that included limiting its ballistic missile programme, curtailing its regional influence and forever limiting its nuclear activities.
While European nations say they want the deal to continue, Americas enormous influence in global financial markets led oil companies and aeroplane manufacturers to quickly withdraw from working in the country.
Harsher sanctions loom in early November, including those targeting Irans oil industry, a key source of hard currency.
The Trump administration denies it is seeking to overthrow Irans government through economic pressure, but Iranian officials say the link is clear.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Irans supreme leader, called the US moves economic sabotage this past weekend, and specifically mentioned the nappy shortage. Some 70% of material for disposal diapers is imported. As the rial falls, it makes purchasing the material from abroad more expensive.
Imagine that in Tehran or other major cities, baby diapers suddenly become scarce. This is happening, this is real, this is not make-believe, Khamenei said, according to a transcript on his official website.
In making a direct reference to nappies, he said: This makes people angry. On the other side, the enemy wants people to be angry with the government and system. This is one of their ways.
The detective who led the latest investigation into the Kingsmill massacre says he feels remorse he could not get justice for the bereaved families, an inquest has heard.
Ten workmen were murdered in the mass shooting in south Armagh on January 5, 1976. The atrocity has been attributed to the Provisional IRA.
No one has ever been convicted over the murders.
Detective Chief Inspector Ian Harrison told an inquest sitting in Belfast it was a horrendous situation for the bereaved families.
Detective Chief Inspector Ian Harrison was tasked with leading a fresh investigation in 2016 (PA)
I sit here with remorse today that my investigation has not given the families the justice they deserve, he said.
If I could change the situation I would.
Mr Harrison was tasked with leading a fresh investigation into the atrocity in 2016 after a palm print, found in a van police believe was used by the murderers, was successfully matched.
The palm print was collected in 1976 with attempts made to match it using police database systems in 2010 and 2014, but these were unsuccessful.
Earlier during the hearing on Wednesday, Mr Harrison put this down to system and human error.
Following the prints eventual successful matching, a 59-year-old man was arrested by police in Newry, Co Down. He was questioned and a file was sent to the Public Prosecution Service.
In February 2017, the PPS announced it would not be pursuing a case against the man due to insufficient evidence.
Mr Harrison read a section of the report he submitted to the PPS to the inquest.
Posters of the ten protestant workmen killed in the massacre on display at the Family Research and Policy Unit offices in Markethill, Co Armagh (PA)
It revealed some difficulty proving whether the van had been used by the gunmen, due to a lack of witnesses and a lack of firearms residue inside the van, which was likely to have transported 11 heavily armed men thought to have fired more than 100 rounds at the scene.
Mr Harrison said he believes it is more likely than not the van was the one used by the terrorists, but there are no witness accounts that can place it at the scene.
There is also a lack of certainty over how the palm print came to be in the van.
Mr Harrison added: We were not able to discount that the palm print had been placed there innocently.
The man who was arrested, referred to in court as S54, was asked to account for how his palm print was found in the van. He made no comment during police interviews.
The inquest also heard the suspect was described in police intelligence report as dangerous.
An old school, very dangerous terrorist who would be familiar with police procedures. He should be treated with caution, the inquest heard.
Alan Black, the sole survivor of the 1976 attack (PA)
Alan Black, who suffered 18 gunshot wounds and was the sole survivor of the atrocity, was in the public gallery with a number of the families of the 10 who were killed.
Kingsmill was one of the most shocking incidents in Northern Irelands past.
Republican terrorists stopped a minibus carrying a group of Protestant textile workers off a bus, lined them up and shot them on a roadside.
The European Unions chief Brexit negotiator told a delegation of MPs that Theresa Mays proposals for a future trade deal were dead, it has been claimed.
Michel Barnier held talks with the Brexit select committee on Monday to discuss progress in the negotiations, and made it crystal clear that the Chequers plan was unacceptable, according to Labours Stephen Kinnock.
During exchanges with Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab, the anti-Brexit campaigner insisted Brussels had spiked the plans.
He said: I can tell you absolutely, unequivocally, without a shadow of a doubt that Chequers is dead in the water.
Mr Barnier made it crystal clear that Chequers is completely unacceptable to the European Union.
Y'day I was in Brussels with @CommonsEUexit & Barnier told us in no uncertain terms that the Chequers proposals are completely & utterly dead in the water. What's the govt playing at? Is there a Plan B? Theyve wasted 2 years. Stop the madness. Back a unifying #EEA-based Brexit. Stephen Kinnock (@SKinnock) September 4, 2018
Mr Raab asked: Can I just check he said dead in the water?
He said: Les propositions sont mortes.
Mr Raab replied: OK.
Former Brexit minister David Jones quizzed Mr Raab on why he was flogging this dead horse?.
The Tory MP asked: You admitted that your focus is on trying to deliver an agreement along the lines of Chequers.
We know from Mr Kinnock that Mr Barnier thinks that Chequers is mort dans leau.
We know that several members of the Conservative Party, the Parliamentary Conservative Party from both Remain and Leave tendencies think that Chequers is dead in the water.
Why are you flogging this dead horse?
Today, I updated MPs and took questions on the substantial progress we are making with our EU partners in Brexit negotiations, remaining outstanding issues, and our contingency plans for No Deal. We are confident we can strike a good deal, but are preparing for all eventualities. https://t.co/psvvQvXwy7 Dominic Raab (@DominicRaab) September 4, 2018
Mr Raab replied: This is a negotiation with the EU so you are going to hear noises from various sides that are critical.
That is an inherent part of a sensitive, contentious negotiation like this, but you should be in no doubt that we are making good progress.
During the session of the Commons European Scrutiny Committee, Mrs Mays Europe adviser rejected suggestions that he should tell the Prime Minister to put the Chequers plan out of its misery.
Olly Robbins said the proposals were a credible, sensible offer.
Theresa May speaks during Prime Ministers Questions (PA)
Sterling jumped on Wednesday afternoon following reports that Britain and Germany are preparing to drop key Brexit demands, paving the way to a deal in the coming months.
Berlin is ready to accept a less detailed agreement on Britains future trade ties with the EU in an effort to get a Brexit deal done, according to Bloomberg.
Downing Street insisted there was no change in the UKs position on the need for proper information about the future relationship to be available by the time Parliament votes on the withdrawal agreement.
Mrs May, meanwhile, directly challenged Jeremy Corbyn to rule out a second referendum on Britains withdrawal from the EU, but the Labour leader sidestepped the calls.
The pair clashed at Prime Ministers Questions in the House of Commons shortly after the UKs Brexit preparations were branded incompetent by former Bank of England governor Mervyn King.
In a damning assessment, Lord King told the BBC the Government had been left without a credible bargaining position.
He said it beggars belief that Britain, one of the worlds leading economies, had found itself in a situation where the country was being told to take a course of action or face catastrophe.
He suggested blame should be shared by the Government, Parliament as a whole and those in Whitehall who were tasked with making key decisions.
Lord King said the Government had been left without a credible bargaining position (PA)
Labour has so far declined to take off the table the option of a vote on the final Brexit deal, and Mr Corbyn is coming under intense pressure from Peoples Vote campaigners to commit to a second referendum.
The partys Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said in a high-profile speech in London that he was ready to support a second poll as a last resort to prevent the UK crashing out of the EU without an agreement.
But he said the Governments first option should be to ask the EU to postpone the March 2019 deadline for the UKs departure to allow further negotiations.
Reality television star Kim Kardashian has returned to the White House for a meeting with senior presidential advisers as part of criminal justice reform efforts by the US government.
A White House official confirmed Kardashians appearance after TMZ reported on her visit to the White House.
The reality TV star held a meeting with Mr Trump three months ago (Ian West/PA)
She last visited the White House three months ago to push for a pardon for Alice Marie Johnson.
One week later, Mr Trump granted the 63-year-old clemency, freeing her from prison after more than two decades in jail on drug charges.
Kardashian participated in a listening session on clemency and prison reform with several White House staffers, including the presidents senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Hogan Gidley, White House deputy press secretary, said: The discussion is mainly focused on ways to improve that process to ensure deserving cases receive a fair review.
Among the others in attendance were CNN commentator Van Jones, Shon Hopwood, a lawyer who served time in prison for bank robbery, and Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, who has been instrumental in steering Mr Trumps supreme court choices, including Brett Kavanaugh, whose confirmation hearings have begun in Washington.
The star has previously said she will push for clemency for a man serving a life term over drugs offences (AP)
There are no plans for Kardashian to meet with the US president.
She gave an interview this week in which she said she would lobby for Chris Young, who was charged in December 2010 for being involved in drug trafficking in Clarksville, Tennessee. He was later convicted and, due to mandatory minimum sentencing, was given life in prison without parole after being arrested for marijuana and cocaine possession.
Mr Kushner has added prison reform to his broad portfolio, though others in the administration namely US attorney general Jeff Sessions support the toughest possible sentences for drug and other convictions in America.
The presidents son-in-law has had an interest in prison reform since his own father, Charles Kushner, was incarcerated for 14 months after being convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering.
British and French fisherman have celebrated progress made in negotiations to end the scallop wars in the English Channel.
After lengthy discussions on Wednesday, during which the French were said to have expressed regret for recent skirmishes, both sides reached an agreement on the principles of a deal.
No UK vessels will fish for scallops during the window in conflict, during which the French are not allowed to harvest the molluscs.
Members of the crew on board Honeybourne III (Andrew Matthews/PA)
Instead, smaller British boats will be compensated for their losses but the sum is to be debated in Paris on Friday and if both sides do not agree, the accord could be sunk.
A joint statement from the UK and French governments said the talks in London had been constructive and a finalised deal hinges on a reasonable compensation package.
National regulations allow British ships to fish legally in the area all year round, but French fishermen are banned from taking scallops in the Baie de Seine between May 15 and October 1 to conserve stocks.
A previous industry accord prevented UK vessels larger than 15 metres doing so too, but smaller ones could help themselves.
The agreement-in-process will prevent the smaller British ships taking advantage of that window, but a UK industry representative involved in the talks said they will only be finalised if British fisherman do not lose a penny.
Jim Portus, the chief executive of the South Western Fish Producers Organisation, said: Im very pleased that weve negotiated a deal which satisfies the honour of fishermen on both sides.
The French are in a hurry to make sure that it happens because what they dont want either is for there to be another conflict.
Quite frankly if its not good enough on Friday, it will be rejected.
Asked if the French apologised, Mr Portus was tight-lipped. Instead he said: Im pleased to say regret was voiced before we started our negotiations.
We want to ensure that our seas are healthy and productive for future generations, and weve outlined how we plan to do this in our #FutureFishing white paper. There is only one week left to share your thoughts with us: https://t.co/n5uXb5fX28 pic.twitter.com/o3h4mMQsih Defra UK (@DefraGovUK) September 5, 2018
All British boats have been asked to voluntarily stop taking scallops from the conflict zone until the deal is finalised.
French industry representative Pascal Coquet told reporters outside the Department of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra), where negotiations were held, that it was a good deal.
The talks were held after some 35 French boats confronted five British craft off the coast of northern France last week, with UK crews reporting that rocks, smoke bombs and other projectiles were hurled at them during the confrontation.
A cordon around businesses in Belfast city centre in the crucial months leading up to Christmas following the Primark building fire is totally unacceptable, Belfast Chamber has said.
Rajesh Rana, president of Belfast Chamber of Trade and Commerce, said the expected four-month cordon in the retail core of the city would have a seriously detrimental effect not only on the businesses in the immediate vicinity but on the entire city.
Fourteen businesses are unable to trade as they are within a safety exclusion zone established amid fears the blackened structure on Castle Street could collapse.
Last week, flames and thick black smoke engulfed the five-storey historic Bank Buildings which housed Primark.
Businesses remaining within the Primark safety exclusion zone have been advised that the current cordon is likely to be in place for a minimum of four months. Belfast City Council #OneWeeThing (@belfastcc) September 5, 2018
More than 100 firefighters battled the major blaze for more than three days as it ripped through the building.
The citys Lord Mayor Deirdre Hargey said on Wednesday that the area within the cordon could be inaccessible until next year, meaning it would be out of bounds throughout the busy pre-Christmas shopping season when many businesses earn enough to sustain them through leaner times.
Mr Rana called on Belfast City Council and Primark to find an urgent alternative to the cordon to allow pedestrians to access the area safely.
He said the chamber was doing everything within its own powers to help the traders but footfall was already down and some businesses were reporting a serious decline in takings over the past seven days.
Deirdre Hargey said on Wednesday that the area within the cordon could be inaccessible until next year (Liam McBurney/PA)
The Lord Mayor said engineers would assess the site and consider bracing the badly damaged shell, then determine if its facade can be saved.
Ms Hargey added that the council and other agencies and government departments were working together to assist businesses and find alternative premises for them.
Primark customers and staff were evacuated from the Primark building after smoke could be seen billowing from the roof.
Flames reaching at least 50ft were visible across Belfasts skyline.
Primark customers and staff were evacuated from the Primark building after smoke could be seen billowing from the roof (Liam McBurney/PA)
The historic clock at the top of the building was engulfed in flames before the fire spread from the roof to the floor below.
Parts of the roof then collapsed as thick black smoke and fire ripped through the rest of the flagship store.
The building has survived bombs and fires throughout its long history in the city.
It was undergoing a 30 million refurbishment and there was a recent recruitment announcement that the company was seeking to hire 100 additional staff.
A senior fire officer described it as one of the biggest blazes they had battled in a number of years, but no-one was injured.
A senior administration official has sounded an alarm about President Donald Trumps amorality and impetuous leadership style in an unsigned opinion piece published in The New York Times.
Mr Trump swiftly responded to the op-ed on Wednesday, calling it a gutless editorial and really a disgrace.
The writer, claiming to be part of the resistance to Mr Trump but not from the left, said: Many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trumps more misguided impulses until he is out of office.
The newspaper described the author of the anonymous column as `a senior official in the Trump administration (Susan Walsh/AP)
The newspaper described the author of the anonymous column as a senior official in the Trump administration.
The publication of the op-ed immediately triggered a wild guessing game as to the authors identity on social media, in newsrooms and inside the West Wing where officials were blindsided by it.
It was not immediately clear what, if any, steps were being taken by the White House to attempt to unmask the writer.
The column was released a day after the release of details from an explosive new book by longtime journalist Bob Woodward that raises concerns among the highest echelon of Trump aides about the presidents judgment.
The op-ed writer said Mr Trump aides are aware of the presidents faults and are trying to do whats right even when Donald Trump wont.
The writer also alleged there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment because of the instability witnessed in the president.
The 25th Amendment allows the vice president to take over if the commander in chief is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.
The writer adds: This isnt the work of the so-called deep state. Its the work of the steady state.
Mr Trump lashed out at the newspaper for publishing the op-ed during an event with sheriffs at the White House on Wednesday afternoon.
They dont like Donald Trump and I dont like them, he said of the New York Times.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the author a coward who should do the right thing and resign.
She added the individual has chosen to deceive, rather than support, the duly elected President of the United States and accused them of putting himself or herself ahead of the will of the American people.
Kei Nishikori turned the tables on Marin Cilic to reach the US Open semi-finals for the third time after another dramatic encounter at Flushing Meadows.
The pair both reached their first grand slam final here in 2014, with Cilic going on to claim a straight-sets victory.
The Croatian has built on that success, reaching two more finals in the last two seasons, but Nishikoris only similar run came in New York two years ago when he defeated Andy Murray to reach the semi-finals before losing to Stan Wawrinka.
Making history...@keinishikori defeats Cilic 2-6, 6-4, 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 to reach the #USOpen semifinals!
This is the 1st time in the Open Era that a Japanese man and woman (Osaka) are in the SF of a Grand Slam...#USOpen pic.twitter.com/0razc0QO7N US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 5, 2018
This proved to be Nishikoris day, though, as he ground out a 6-2 4-6 7-6 (7/5) 4-6 6-4 victory to mark a landmark moment for Japan after Naomi Osakas win over Lesia Tsurenko earlier.
It is the first time in the Open era that Japan is represented in the semi-finals of both the main draws at the same grand slam.
The pair, both shy characters, have recently become friends, and Nishikori said: I hope people were watching us today. Hopefully many people were cheering in support. And even here I saw a lot of Japanese coming up for the tournament.
Its good to have home support outside of Japan. Its great news were both in the semis. Hopefully we do well this week.
She has won a Masters. I think she can win the title now, even though its a grand slam. I feel its a big chance for her.
Im also happy for myself, too, being injured last year, I couldnt play this tournament. Im happy to come back, make semis. I always play good here. So I hope I can keep going.
Cilic looked to be in control of the match at a set and a break up but back came Nishikori to win the second set, and then the third on a tie-break after the Croatian wobbled on serve.
Cilic responded by taking the fourth but dropped serve early in the decider and his mood darkened, the 29-year-old arguing with the umpire and then slashing a ball wildly into the stands.
Nishikori has one of the best records in history in deciding sets. This was the 200th match in which he has been taken the distance and the 153rd time he has come out on top, including 18 out of 24 over five sets.
Kei Nishikori celebrates victory (Jason DeCrow/AP)
That made it all the more surprising that the 28-year-old allowed his advantage to slip, missing a break point that would have given him a 5-1 lead and then being pegged back to 4-4.
But Cilic was unable to hold his nerve serving to stay in the match and it was Nishikori who held his arms aloft after four hours and seven minutes.
Cilic said: I came out in the match great, 6-2 4-2 serving, and everything was going great. Just a little bit of a shift of the momentum there. Kei started to hit a little bit better. He broke me. He won six games in a row, converted three of three break points. Just put me back a bit on my back foot.
From that point on, I felt the match was quite even. I came back. I had some chances. With a great quality player like Kei, he also had his chances, and he converted. So it came down to a couple points.
A plane from Dubai caused a scare on Wednesday after a pilot radioed it would be landing at New Yorks Kennedy Airport carrying several passengers and crew members who fell ill with flu-like symptoms.
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) immediately quarantined the double-decker Emirates aircraft, holding 520 passengers, so it could evaluate about 100 of them.
Some complained about coughs, headaches, sore throats and fevers.
Emergency response crews gather outside a plane at JFK Airport amid reports of ill passengers aboard a flight from Dubai (Bebeto Matthews/AP)
Officials said 10 people three passengers and seven crew members ended up in hospital in what Emirates called a precaution.
The rest were cleared to continue their travels while the CDC sought to determine what caused the sickness.
On social media, passengers including 1990s rapper Vanilla Ice posted photos and videos of a large-scale emergency response when the aircraft touched down around 9am at JFK.
Video from news helicopters showed the jet stranded on the tarmac for several minutes before passengers began to emerge so they could board buses to get to the terminal.
Vanilla Ice, real name Robert Van Winkle, posted a video on Facebook of an emergency response to an initial report that dozens of people could be sick.
On Twitter, he described looking out the window to see several ambulances, fire trucks and police vehicles converge on the plane.
He also wrote the sick people were seated on the bottom floor of the jumbo jet, so Im happy Im up top.
So I just landed from Dubai and now there is like tons of ambulances and fire trucks and police all over the place pic.twitter.com/i9QLh6WyJW Vanilla Ice (@vanillaice) September 5, 2018
Another traveler in the business class section of the aircraft, Raghida Dergham, also said in an interview that sick passengers were in a lower level economy section of the plane.
I feel great. I feel fine, Ms Dergham said. Nobody was alarmed It was handled very well.
But other passengers said they suspected some passengers were sick before they got on the plane and blamed the airline for not doing more to protect the health of others.
Why did they allow them on the flight? I sat with them for 13 hours. If its a virus, were all getting sick, said Srinivasa Rao.
Passenger Erin Sykes posted a video of officers in masks and gloves taking the temperature of passengers on the tarmac.
In an interview, Ms Sykes said she saw a few passengers being taken off the plane first for medical attention, but she added many, many others were showing signs of illness.
Very intense coughing. Violently sick. Going into the bathroom a lot, she said when asked to describe the scene.
She added: These people should know not to travel in a confined space with other healthy people.
Another passenger, Zeph Shamba, said he saw at least one man on the 14-hour flight coughing and vomiting.
People were worried because we dont know what it is. And we get down there and guys with masks on their noses and stuff like that, Mr Shamba said.
Its like the plane from hell.
Chinas decision to extend a total of $60 billion in financial support to Africa has been hailed a triumph by African politicians and economists, with Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group, stressing that the money is to be primarily used in energy and agricultural sectors.
When talking about the $60 billion of financing to Africa, we see many alignments with African Development Banks five development priorities, especially in lighting up and powering Africa and feeding Africa. I think the money will be primarily used in those areas, Adesina told the media during the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on Tuesday.
Adesinas remarks come after President Xi delivered a keynote speech during the opening ceremony of the FOCAC on Monday, reiterating that the financing will be provided in the form of government assistance as well as investment from financial institutions and companies.
According to Xinhua News Agency, the financing includes $15 billion in grants, interest-free loans and concessional loans, $20 billion of credit lines, the setting up of a $10 billion special fund for financial development and a $5 billion fund to help finance African imports. Chinese companies are also encouraged to make at least $10 billion worth of investment in Africa over the next three years.
Energy is Africa's number one priority, as it serves as the foundation of the continents industrialization and development, while feeding a populous continent like Africa requires more investment. Im looking forward to the cooperation between the African Development Bank and its Chinese counterparts, in an effort to use the money wisely, said Adesina.
In addition to financial support, Adesina also noted that China can cooperate with African countries further under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, which may create more opportunities for both sides.
The Belt and Road Initiative will not only benefit Africa in infrastructure construction, but also in energy sectors. Im a big supporter of the BRI, which will close the infrastructure and energy gap in Africa, said Adesina.
According to Xinhua, China has honored its 2015 promise to provide Africa with funding support totaling $60 billion, with financing either already being delivered or arranged. China decided to provide the funding support at the FOCAC Johannesburg summit to ensure the successful implementation of ten China-Africa cooperation plans decided at the same summit.
British and Russian officials will come face-to-face as the UN Security Council discusses the Salisbury Novichok attack hours after Theresa May said Moscow agents were behind the deadly poisoning.
Police and prosecutors announced on Wednesday they had enough evidence to charge the men, named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, over the poisoning in March.
The Prime Minister told MPs it was carried out by two Russian spies and sanctioned at a senior level by Vladimir Putins regime.
She told the Commons investigations have concluded that the two suspects are members of the GRU, Russias military intelligence service, and it was not a rogue operation.
The UK has called for a #UNSC meeting tomorrow, Thursday, to update the Council on the Salisbury investigation. pic.twitter.com/exK4kEX0uD UK at the UN (@UKUN_NewYork) September 5, 2018
As a permanent member of the Security Council, Russia will be represented at Thursdays meeting called by Britain to update members on progress in the Salisbury investigation alongside UK allies such as the US and France.
Australia on Thursday said it was in lock step with the UK on the importance of holding Russia to account over the heinous attack, although it is not currently a council member.
Mrs May did not explicitly blame the Kremlin for authorising the attempted assassination, although senior Conservatives directly accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of approving the operation.
Commons Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat said there was no doubt it was state ordered and President Putin bears responsibility for a war-like act.
The charge daffaires at Russias London embassy was summoned to the Foreign Office for a dressing-down by an official following Mrs Mays statement.
The PM told MPs the UK would push for new sanctions against Russia (Mark Duffy/UK Parliament/PA)
The PM told MPs the UK would push for new sanctions against Russians responsible for cyber attacks, additional listings under the existing regime and promised to work with intelligence allies to counter the threat posed by the GRU.
Former GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were left critically ill after being exposed to the military grade nerve agent Novichok in March.
The alleged perpetrators were identified in a dramatic joint police and Crown Prosecution Service press conference.
Detectives believe it is likely the pair, thought to be aged around 40, travelled under aliases and that Petrov and Boshirov are not their real names.
Prosecutors deem it futile to apply to Russia for the extradition of the two men, but a European Arrest Warrant has been obtained and the authorities are also seeking the assistance of Interpol.
Detectives believe the front door of Mr Skripals Salisbury home was contaminated with Novichok on Sunday March 4.
#Salisbury: UK publishes suspects' names and photos, but shows no willingness to engage with Russia in order to establish the truth. Our offers of cooperation remain on the table. https://t.co/9pASx5T5O6 pic.twitter.com/9MPGBud34w Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) September 5, 2018
Mr Skripal, 67, and his daughter were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury city centre the same day and spent weeks critically ill in hospital.
Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu also confirmed officers have now linked the attack on the Skripals to events in nearby Amesbury four months later.
In the second incident, Dawn Sturgess, 44, and her partner Charlie Rowley, 45, were exposed to the same nerve agent used in Salisbury.
Ms Sturgess died in hospital in July, just over a week after the pair fell ill.
In a statement, the Russian Embassy in the UK accused the British authorities of being unwilling to engage with them and called on the Government to give up politicised public accusations.
By Heba Kanso
BEIRUT, Sept 4 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Like children across the northern hemisphere, young Palestinian refugees went back to school this week after their summer break. How long they will be able to stay is an open question.
The United Nations agency that funds schools for Palestinian refugee communities has said it may run out of money to keep them going by the end of this month after Washington - its biggest donor - halted its funding.
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) provides services to about 5 million Palestinian refugees across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza - among them Ziad Shtewi, a 63-year-old father of 10 who lives in a camp in north Lebanon.
"Many Palestinian refugees can't find work, or get paid little. How will we educate our kids?" said Shtewi, who has has two children at UNRWA schools.
"These kids will be in the streets. It will be a generation of uneducated kids. It would be a horrible life. Education is critical for their future."
UNRWA runs 66 free schools across Lebanon, which it says is home to nearly half a million registered Palestinian refugees, most of them descendants of those who were driven from their homes or fled the 1948 war that led to Israel's creation.
Schweti said the impact of the funding cuts would be "catastrophic" for the community - a view echoed by fellow refugee Fuad Ashool.
"We have our hands on our hearts and are really afraid of the future - I am worried about where my kids are going to go," said the 53-year-old father of four, who like Schweti lives in the Nahr al-Bared camp.
Ashool used to paint apartments, but can no longer work because of his back pain. He said he feared losing UNRWA's financial assistance, and worried for Palestinians who were even worse off.
"Our people will have to become beggars," he said.
"We are a group of people that want to go back to our homeland, and in Lebanon we are thankful for being here, but this stress that we are living in is so uncertain and difficult," said Ashool.
'PASSPORT TO DIGNITY'
UNRWA has said it faces a shortfall of more than $200 million after the United States slashed funding earlier this year, having promised $365 million for the whole year.
Washington said the agency needed to make unspecified reforms and called on the Palestinians to renew peace talks with Israel.
UNRWA-run schools in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip got under way last Wednesday. "All eyes are on the end of September when, if things continue as they are, we will not have enough money to keep our schools open," said spokesman Chris Gunness.
"Palestine refugees see an UNRWA education as a passport to dignity and if they lose that, they lose their future. If UNRWA services close down, the situation of a deeply marginalized community will get significantly worse."
Barred from taking up most jobs in Lebanon, the refugees depend on UNRWA for basic services. Many live in overcrowded camps with frequent electricity and water cuts.
For Lora, who relies on UNRWA for the blood pressure medication she needs, it is a question of survival.
"Without UNRWA we can't live. It will be devastating for our people," the 43-year-old Palestinian told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone, declining to give her full name.
"We could die at the doors of hospitals because we can't afford it."
(Reporting by Heba Kanso, Editing by Claire Cozens. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)
By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Israel has carried out more than 200 attacks against Iranian targets in Syria in the last two years, a senior Israeli official said on Tuesday, in a rare summary of its campaign.
According to regional sources, Israel began carrying out military strikes in Syria in 2013 against suspected arms transfers and deployments by Iranian forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies, both Damascus's partners in Syria's civil war.
Israeli officials have rarely detailed specific operations. On Tuesday, an Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment after Syria said it shot down rockets fired by Israeli planes at military targets near the city of Hama.
But Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz used a speech to give a more general summary of Syria missions, prompted by a military briefing given to local media earlier in the day.
"Only just now it was published - in the name of military sources, so I can quote it too - that in the last two years Israel has taken military action more than 200 times within Syria itself," Katz told a conference hosted by the IDC Herzliya college.
"Understand the significance of this matter in terms of preserving the red line, preventing the things that Iran has done, is doing and is trying to do against Israel from Syria."
Asked to confirm Katz's comments, an Israeli military spokeswoman said Israel had carried out around 200 attacks within Syria over the past year and a half.
In August 2017, the outgoing chief of Israel's air force told Haaretz newspaper that his corps had carried out "nearly 100 strikes" in Syria. That left another 100 in the time since, according to the official Israeli accounts issued on Tuesday - or roughly two a week.
Israel, which monitors neighbouring Syria intensively, has long alleged that Iran came to assist the Damascus government, in part, to set up a permanent garrison there, effectively forming an extended anti-Israel front with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran, Israel's arch-foe, has been a core supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad throughout the 7-year-old civil war, sending military advisers as well as materiel and regional Shi'ite militias that it backs.
Israel's Syria strikes have been largely ignored by Russia, Israel's big-power backer, and backed by the United States.
On Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman signaled that the country could also attack suspected Iranian military targets in Iraq, where Reuters has reported the deployment of ballistic missiles by Tehran.
Briefing reporters on Tuesday, a senior Israeli military officer who requested anonymity said that Israel believed Iran was using Iraqi territory as a conduit for missile transfers to Syria. (Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)
ANKARA, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Turkey told the United States on Tuesday that Kurdish militants must completely abandon Syria, as violence in the rebel-held northern Syrian enclave of Idlib escalated.
Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar made the call during talks with visiting U.S. special representative for Syria James Jeffrey, the defence ministry said in a statement.
Akar conveyed Ankara's discomfort with the presence of Kurdish militants in the region, it added.
Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, resumed air strikes on Tuesday against insurgents in Idlib. This followed weeks of aerial bombardment and shelling by pro-Syrian government forces in an apparent prelude to a full-scale offensive against the rebels' last major enclave.
Assad has repeatedly pledged to take back "every inch" of Syria, which would mean regaining both Idlib and Kurdish-led areas in the northeast.
Turkey, which has backed some rebels against Assad, has previously said a military operation into Idlib would be disastrous.
Ankara is angry over Washington's support for the Kurdish YPG militia in Syria. Ankara sees the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has fought an insurgency in southeast Turkey since 1984 and is considered a terrorist group by the United States, Turkey and Europe.
Turkish forces have carried out two-cross border operations against the YPG in Syria.
In a move long sought by Turkey, the NATO allies agreed in June to implement a roadmap for the northern Syrian city of Manbij. Under this, Turkish and U.S. forces are now carrying out joint patrols there to clear the area of YPG militants.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Twitter he had also met Jeffrey to discuss developments in Idlib in particular.
According to the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Jeffrey conveyed Washington's stance that an offensive in Idlib would risk civilian lives and prospects of a political settlement of the Syrian war. Such an assault would "fuel support for terrorism and harm regional stability", it also said on Twitter.
Ankara and Washington have more recently been in a stand-off over the fate of a U.S. evangelical pastor being tried in Turkey on terrorism charges that he denies. The row has helped to send Turkey's lira currency plunging about 40 percent this year. (Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ece Toksabay Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and David Stamp)
BEIJING, Sept 5 (Reuters) - The United Nations is holding an emergency meeting this week with animal health experts in Asia to discuss the threat of African swine fever after the first outbreak of the disease in the region was discovered in China last month.
China has detected eight cases of the highly contagious virus since discovering the first outbreak on Aug. 3, raising concerns about its spread in the world's largest pork producer and beyond its borders into Southeast Asia.
Its arrival in China marked a new front in the battle to control the disease, which has travelled from Europe over the past decade through Russia.
First detected in Africa almost a century ago, the virus is often deadly for pigs but does not harm humans.
Specialists from China and nine countries close by and considered to be at risk from a spread of the disease are attending the meeting running from Wednesday to Friday in Bangkok, along with experts from outside the region and participants from the private commercial swine sector.
The nine countries are Cambodia, Japan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam, the UN's Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a statement on Wednesday.
The FAO has repeatedly warned that the arrival of the disease poses a significant threat to Asia.
"It's critical that this region be ready for the very real possibility that (swine fever) could jump the border into other countries," said Wantanee Kalpravidh, regional manager of the FAO Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) in Asia.
"That's why this emergency meeting has been convened - to assess where we are now - and to determine how we can work together in a coordinated, regional response to this serious situation."
Chinese authorities are rushing to contain the virus, shutting live markets in infected provinces and banning transportation of live pigs and pork products in and out of those regions.
Highlighting the challenge though, South Korea had to ramp up quarantine measures at airports after finding a traveller carrying Chinese food infected with the disease.
The seminar will review recent research studies and technologies and consider lessons from recent and ongoing episodes in Europe, it said.
The disease is transmitted by ticks and direct contact between animals, and can also travel via contaminated food, animal feed, and people travelling from one place to another. There is no vaccine.
(Reporting by Josephine Mason Editing by Joseph Radford)
Seated :- Ranil de Silva Metal Factor, Anne Balakrishnan Group Director Marketing, Asia Broadcasting Corporation, Laila Gunasekere Martenstyne President IAA, Chalaka Gajabahu Chairman Organizing Committee, Young Spikes Competition Sri Lanka Standing :- Media competition winners - Arshaq Ali & Nireka de Silva Nextage, Digital competition winners - Levanya Mirando & Malithi Jayasinghe Mullen Lowe, Integrated competition winners - Nethmi Weerawarna & Chalukya Weerakoon JWT, PR competition winners - Chanchala Gunewardena & Maheshi Dunuwilage Bates Strategic Alliance, Cheil Creative Academy - Jonathan Joseph Academy of Design The eagerly-anticipated Spikes Asia Young Spikes programme returns for its 10th edition. Nine young professionals, and one tertiary students from Sri Lankas advertising, PR and design industries will represent the country at the annual Young Spikes 2018 & Cheil Young Creative Academy at Spikes Asia 2018 to be held from 26th to 28th September 2018 at Suntec, Singapore. It is Asia Pacific's most inspiring creative festival - offering three days of learning, inspiration and networking for professionals in creative communications, culminating in a grand awards ceremony.
These 9 talented young professionals were selected via a local competition conducted by Metal Factor in partnership with the IAA Sri Lanka Chapter. The final winners from the diverse aspects of advertising are: Integrated - Nethmi Weerawarna and Chalukya Weerakoon from JWT. Digital - Leyanvi Mirando and Malithi Jayasinghe from Mullen Lowe. Media - Arshaq Ali and Nireka de Silva of Nextage. PR - Chanchala Gunewardena and Maheshi Dunuwilage of Bates Strategic Alliance. These four teams will participate at the Young Spikes Asia competition to represent Sri Lanka. Jonathan Joseph, a student from Academy of Design will participate in the Cheil Creative Academy which is a three day intensive educational programme designed for tertiary students in the visual communications industry at the festival. There was an overwhelming demand for participation in the SriLankan competition, as these young professionals compete for the ultimate prize of representing the country on the regional platform that is Young Spikes provides during the Spikes Asia festival each year.
Hailing this years winners, Ranil de Silva, the Sri Lankan Representative for the Spikes Asia Festival said, Over the years, we have seen some exceptional creative talent emerging from the local competition as the young students and professionals strive to qualify to represent Sri Lanka at Spikes. Winning at the local competition has now become a badge of honor for these young guys and girls who I hope will make their mark on the regional Spikes Asia stage making all of us in the SriLankan industry very proud. Participating in the Young Spikes Asia Competitions in Singapore is a goal today that young professionals strive to achieve towards. My congratulations to the winners who I hope will go on to win bigger and better rewards at the regional competition.
We at ABC are delighted to support this initiative which develops the professionals competency of the youth in this industry stated Raynor De Silva , Chairman ABC via programs of this nature we are able to provide much needed exposure to our young professionals to help develop the industry, concluded Mr. Silva
At the session in Singapore, these professionals benefit from a tailored agenda which includes exclusive access to personalized tutorials and masterclasses from top industry figures, as well as participating in the Spikes Asia seminar and workshop programs. They are able to attend the networking events, giving them an exceptional first-hand insight also into the evolving marketing and communications industry of which they will be its future leaders. The Young Creatives Academy conducted by Cheil worldwide will culminate into a graduation ceremony. The Academys programme will take place during the three-day Spikes Asia Festival, where the selected students (currently in tertiary education studying marketing communications will be tutored under the leadership of Noor Azhar, who is a lecturer in Visual Communications and Media Design at the Singapore Polytechnic.
This years programme was chaired by Chalaka Gajabahu/ CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi Sri Lanka. He was supported with a committee comprising representatives of the advertising agencies in Sri Lanka.
The local competition was facilitated by Metal Factor for the 10th consecutive year. Metal Factor is a personal initiative spearheaded by Ranil de Silva to give back to the marketing communications industry. Metal Factors objective is to help Sri Lankas advertising industry realize its ambition of achieving world-class standards and to gain global recognition for the work of the industry. Metal Factor has been responsible for many programs that benefit the industry, very specially the youth. Metal Factor has played a crucial role in developing the next generation of creative leaders, and continuously organizes competitions to select promising young advertising professionals to represent the country at the worlds most prestigious festivals.
The Spikes Asia Festival is the regions oldest and most prestigious event that recognizes the best work in the categories of Film, Print, Outdoor, Radio, Digital, Direct, Promo and Activations, Media, Design, Poster, Craft, Integrated, Mobile and PR. A collaboration between the organizers of the Cannes Lions Festival and Haymarket, the Spikes Asia Festival provides the regions rapidly growing creative and advertising industry with an opportunity to network, exchange ideas and think creatively. The festival serves as an important platform, which not only recognizes the best work in the region, but also brings together Asia Pacifics leading creative thinkers and brightest young professionals.
An open day, an open heart
For the busy housewife who visits the Jathika Pola regularly she may be unaware that just down this same road by the side of the canal is a Centre that has been in operation for the last thirty years or so. The Centre supports persons affected by leprosy most of whom are already disabled because of the disease and are shunned by society, even ostracized by their own families, because of the shame and stigma attached to leprosy.
In the early biblical days leprosy-affected persons were not allowed to be seen in public and had to announce their presence by ringing a bell so that others could stay out of their way some considered it a curse from the gods. This myth was however dismissed by Jesus Christ when he touched lepers and healed them of their affliction
Most of these persons are too old, weak or disabled to work and depend on the kindness of loved ones for their sustenance and eagerly look forward to the monthly stipend that Surol doles out to them.
It is with this same love and compassion for persons considered unworthy and untouchable by society that SUROL has reached out to, in a very humane and commendable way
The Society for the Upliftment and Rehabilitation of Leprosy Affected Persons (SUROL) a registered charity was founded in 1971 and nurtured to what it is today due to the selfless and dedicated work carried out by the late Rev Fr. Glen Fernando. Today SUROL continues his legacy with the same dedication and commitment and supports leprosy affected persons irrespective of their caste, creed or colour - Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Christians are all served with the same spoon with no discrimination or difference.
Recently, the SUROL Centre in Narahenpita was a hive of activity when an Open Day was held for these affected persons from the Colombo district who gathered at SUROL to share their life experiences. Some of them came in hired tuk tuks because of their disabilities and SUROL reimbursed their travel costs. Most of these persons are too old, weak or disabled to work and depend on the kindness of loved ones for their sustenance and eagerly look forward to the monthly stipend that SUROL doles out to them.
78 year old B.N. Premadasa is from Panadura and lives with his family.
They said that SUROL gifts them with two hampers each year, one during the National New Year and the other at Christmas, consisting of dry rations, provisions, a towel, sarong/material, bed sheet plus a cash gift that brings a bit of cheer to their otherwise dreary and painful lives.
Presently SUROL can only look after about 300 families due to financial constraints and invite the public to contribute towards this very deserving and humanitarian cause by calling their hotline 11 2503263 or by email to
surol1971@gmail.com or by visiting their website www.surolsrilanka.org
Field Officers Terrence and Saman can identify each and every person by face and name in every district in the country that SUROL supports and together with Accounts Officer Niranka were mainly instrumental in organizing this Open Day. They were seen chatting enthusiastically with those present whilst serving them with tea, refreshments and lunch together with the other staff Bala and Selvaraj.
SUROL is able to carry out this mercy mission only because of the benevolence of donors and patrons who have come forward to sponsor one or more families affected by leprosy. SUROL also organizes fund raising ventures to supplement contributions and have set themselves a target of trying to support 500 such families.
THE HINDU, 04th SEPTEMBER, 2018-A portion of the arterial Majerhat bridge in southern Kolkata has collapsed, trapping several people and crushing many vehicles.
As crowds gathered at the spot in congested Alipore locality, where mangled cars were buried under the debris of the bridge, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the first priority is to rescue the injured and those who are trapped. The area has several under-construction buildings nearby. She also said the casualty figure may not be too high. Hospital sources have confirmed at least one death.
The Chief Minister is monitoring the situation from Darjeeling, where she has gone for an official meeting.
An eyewitness said some people in a minibus and private cars were trapped. Fire brigade, police and NDRF personnel are engaged in rescue work in the fading light.
The Majerhat bridge runs over the Majerhat Railway Station and connects the city centre to Behala and other southern suburbs. The incident took place at around 4.45 pm.
It is reported that India has invited a multi-party parliamentary delegation from Sri Lanka for a familiarization tour and also to discuss mutual matters. This step taken by the Indian Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be regarded as a step taken in the right direction taking into consideration the inter-connected bilateral social and political problems faced by the two countries. India is our immediate neighbour and its representatives had come here to help us on various critical occasions in the history of our island, when our island state was threatened by use of arms by our misguided youth in recent history.
A well equipped battalion of Indian Armed Forces were here in 1971 on the invitation of the Sri Lankan government ready to help the country at large when an insurrection took place under the initiative of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna. This insurrection was targeted to topple the coalition government that was elected by the people eleven or twelve months before, with the backing of the working class movement, organized trade union movement and also by the peasantry.
Lal Bahadur Shashtri, the then Indian Prime Minister who maintained fraternal relations with Sri Lanka, absorbed 520,000 of estate labour as citizens of India. Later, Kachchaitivu also came as a donation to Sri Lanka.
The series of meetings that will be taking place in Delhi, between Sri Lankan and Indian leaders from September 9-14, will open the door to discuss several mutual and regional matters
Then came the second insurrection, which developed into a large scale war in South East Asia well organized and launched by the LTTE, and also cooperated by various foreign elements. However, during a critical stage of the war, on the invitation of the Sri Lankan government the IPKF came here, on the orders of Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India. It should be noted here with gratitude that thousands of Indian soldiers sacrificed their valuable lives to safeguard the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Mother Sri Lanka. As a result of this generosity, India, lost a precious life, that of Rajiv Gandhi, the grandson of epoch-making Jawarharlal Nehru and son of magnificent Indira Gandhi.
Whatever the tragic instances of the past and unwise attitude taken by some of the south Indian politicians, New Delhi and Colombo have maintained friendly relations throughout the long period of our history. Even the left leaders of our country, who were followed by the British secret agents during the second world war, preferred India to safeguard their own lives. The revolutionary Indian comrades looked after them very well.
The illustrious Foreign Secretary of India, Romesh Bhandari advised New Delhi throughout his diplomatic career to look into the problems of Sri Lanka, from a point of view of New Delhi and not to be a partner of other sinister objectives, that would harm the interests of its immediate neighbour.
Under the wise leadership of former President Mahinda Rajapakse and the war efforts well coordinated by his commanders and also due to the active support extended by international players, including India, Sri Lanka was able to eradicate LTTE terrorism from the soil of Sri Lanka. It is the considered view of some war experts, that the elimination of the LTTE terrorism from the soil of Sri Lanka, has also benefited India in the long-run.
A well equipped battalion of Indian Armed Forces were here in 1971 on the invitation of the Sri Lankan government ready to help the country at large when an insurrection took place under the initiative of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
In this positive background, the series of meetings that will be taking place in Delhi, between Sri Lankan and Indian leaders from September 9-14, will open the door to discuss several mutual and regional matters, including bilateral trade agreements, problems within the SAARC region, suggested defence agreements, strategic engagements with other foreign powers, proposed new constitution for Sri Lanka, problems arising from the 13th Amendment, home grown solution for Sri Lanka, and so forth.
The vast and rich experience possessed by the two countries during the last seven to eight decades in handling various issues of this nature, should help both parties to find workable solutions, safeguarding the traditional relationships and fraternity of both countries.
I would like to end this essay, with the lucid statement made by Shivshankar Menon, the former Indian Foreign Secretary in his well-illustrated thesis-CHOICES-INSIDE THE MAKING OF INDIAS FOREIGN POLICY- But no matter what one might think of its internal politics, Sri Lanka today is a better place without the LTTE and the civil war. And India contributed to making that outcome possible.
The Cabinet decided yesterday to endorse the use of 'necessary force' by the police in case public order is disturbed and public properties damaged during the protest rally today, it is learnt.
The Ministers discussed the matter at the Cabinet meeting chaired by President Maithripala Sirisena.
The Cabinet asked Law and Order Minister Ranjith Madduma Bandara to take action in this regard. (Kelum Bandara)
Last March you took the decision to pull out of Baselworld. Do you still believe that was the right decision?
Yes. The best barometer is the reactions of our retailers, and they have been very positive. First, because they no longer stayed for four or five days, but generally only for two days, which didnt give them chance to see all the brands. Why did they only stay for two days? Because Baselworld has become very expensive, at every level. Living expenses, the city, accommodation, but also for us as exhibitors. We moved down to Hall 1.0, but we had to continue paying for additional areas, when it really made no sense for us.
Over the last six months, have you been able to see all the retailers that you would previously have seen in Basel?
Yes. We had a two-pronged strategy, comprising visits to them, supplemented with some joint events for different markets. For instance, we chose Milan in Italy and Madrid in Spain. For two other countries, we attended major local events: Retromobile in France and Couture in Las Vegas.
Eberhard & Co. at Retromobile 2018, Paris Eberhard & Co.
Are these the markets you will keep a close eye on from year to year?
Not necessarily. We have to make the most of the fact that we are an agile, independent brand. We can adapt to the strengths and weaknesses of our markets. Its clear that Italy, which represents 40% of our sales, is a vital element, and will remain so. We will be expanding into some new markets, and there are others where we will probably strengthen our position. The latter include the United States, for example, and Germany, where I think we have growth potential.
Six months ago you were talking about a new production calendar. Have you been able to implement it?
Yes, although its still a work in progress. The idea is to have a first launch phase at the beginning of the year, another in the spring, a third just before the summer and the fourth in the autumn, ready for Christmas. This sequence ties in very well with our online sales, and it seems to be in line with what our e-commerce customers expect.
Do you think you would reconsider your decision to leave Baselworld?
Yes, why not? Quite frankly, until September 2017 we thought wed be there in March 2018. Our decision to leave was based on cost. Baselworld is more expensive than a roadshow in financial terms but also in time. Also, the fair needs to have a better method. These days, Baselworld is all about renting the booth, without any additional services. I also think that theres a reason for the recent management changes in the fairs leadership team.
What would you suggest?
More modern and open communication methods. For instance, you could have live streaming for some sessions. They could also consider hosting de-localised Baselworlds elsewhere in the world. After all, thats what the organisers of the GPHG (Grand Prix dHorlogerie de Geneve) do, and it seems to work pretty well. Our watch market is a niche. Were not as powerful as the car industry, for example. For that reason we have to work harder, be more creative. There should be a genuinely global project, combined with a true overall philosophy, and a targeted, constructive plan.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe today rejected claims that he met with former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran in Singapore.
In response to a question raised by JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, he told Parliament that he has had no connection with Mahendran after he left for Singapore.
MP Dissanayake asked whether the Prime Minister had met Mr Mahendran in Singapore as reported in media and asked whether he did not have a personal responsibility to bring Mahendran back to Sri Lanka as he was PMs confidante and the one who recommended him for the Central Bank Governor Post.
"He can personally mediate to bring Mahendran back to Sri Lanka as he was his close confidante without seeking Interpol assistance or repatriation laws," the MP said.
The PM said the Government had taken every step to bring Mahendran back to Sri Lanka and asked the MP to complain if the Government had neglected the investigation.
"We have allowed the Attorney General and the Police to carry out their investigations independently," he said. (Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera)
Former Principal of Asian International School (AIS), Goolbai Gunasekara yesterday said that it was impossible to accept that the 25-year-old Kamer Nizamdeen who was arrested in Australia for alleged terrorism charges, was radicalised.
I certainly remember Mohammed Kamer Nizamdeen who was recently accused of being a possible terrorist in Australia. It is something I not only do not believe in, but also it is something I will continue to disbelieve until (if ever) it has been proved beyond all reasonable doubt that this exceptional boy is guilty of, someday,
Kamer came to AIS for the final 2 years of schooling in order to do his London A/L exam. He came from one of Colombos best known and most prestigious boys' schools where he had achieved excellent results at the Ordinary Level Exam. Many students enter international schools to do their Advanced Level Exam and most of them do well. But Kamer immediately became one of the most popular boys in his class for the very simple reason that his main attribute was niceness. This is an overworked adjective, but one that describes Kamer perfectly. He was a gentle, charming and yes, a nice boy in every way,
His unfailing courtesy to teachers and to his classmates was noticed from the start. Teachers who taught him were always full of praise for his work ethic and his general thorough approach to studies. His teachers have kept in touch with him after he left us (gaining 3 As I might add) and entered the University of Melbourne,
Envy is one of Sri Lankas worst national traits. It is characteristic of an island mentality say some psychologists. I am no psychologist myself, but long experience has taught me a fair amount of discernment. Kamer was gentle, sweet natured and comfortable with himself. He had no hang-ups. He had a happy home and projected an aura of personal calmness and self control. Perhaps he was too successful at what he did and that upset his contemporaries, she added.
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo travel to New Delhi this week in an effort to seal a new defence cooperation agreement with their Indian counterparts despite tensions over threatened American sanctions.
Hanging over the meeting, planned for September 6, is the prospect that the US will impose economic sanctions on Prime Minister Narendra Modis government unless it significantly reduces purchases of oil from Iran and cancels a planned $6 billion purchase of S-400 anti-aircraft missiles from Russia. Indian officials have said the Russian arms deal would go ahead as planned.
The first US-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue is about expanding a strategic partnership rather than closing individual arms deals, according to a Defence Department official. Transfers of advanced defence technology would be boosted if the two sides are able to complete work on a proposed Communications Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement.
Sales of US arms, associated parts and logistics support to India have increased to an estimated $15 billion this year from zero in 2008 and could rise by an additional $3 billion by 2019, said the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity. The prospects include a potential deal to build advanced F-16 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin Corp. in India.
But the threat of sanctions clouds the prospects for US-India cooperation. The US plans to reimpose sanctions on purchases of Iranian oil in November after President Donald Trump quit the 2015 multinational nuclear deal with Iran. Meanwhile, a 2017 law imposed by Congress requires the president to penalise countries that conduct a significant transaction with Russias defence sector.
Bloomberg, Hindustan Times,
Sep 03, 2018
Microsoft plans to take the local start-ups to the next level supporting them to expand globally with the launch of the Microsoft ScaleUp programme in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka was also one of the first countries in the SAARC and Middle Eastern regions to become part of the Microsoft ScaleUp programme.
Joining for a discussion with Mirror Business, Microsoft for Start-ups Managing Director Lathika Pai during her visit to Sri Lanka recently said, Since I have come to Colombo, I met absolutely phenomenal local start-up founders and I would say world-class entrepreneurs. What stops these entrepreneurs becoming really big is the fact that they need the support in terms of taking them global. So, thats why Microsoft is here to announce that Sri Lanka is now part of the global ScaleUp programme.
Microsoft ScaleUp offers late-stage and series A start-ups, who are keen to take advantage of Microsofts growth programmes, such as co-marketing and co-selling opportunities, hone their infrastructure and build their businesses.
Our focus to go deep with few start-ups and really helping to create that, I would say, next US $ 100 million company coming over the next five years, she asserted.
Pai was also hopeful that Microsoft ScaleUp would support the start-ups to transform to unicorn companies.
She noted that Microsoft would be selective in choosing local start-ups, pointing out that working with a few start-ups enables Microsoft to support them to go deep.
Its about working with a few, going deep, helping them with their technology platform and architecture and bringing them out to Microsoft market place. Getting them co-sell ready is a very critical part of this particular programme.
Why is it critical? Because Microsoft today is almost in every enterprise across the globe.
So, if a start-up looking is co-sell ready and if they want to expand their market to New Zealand or the US or Latin America, then Microsoft is there.
As being part of Microsoft market place, co-selling, accessing to these markets become easy, she elaborated.
Pai highlighted that many start-ups face challenges in expanding globally as they lack a viable technology platform.
When start-ups want to go global, they dont realise. It may be really exciting for them to get a global customer but do they have the technology platform to support it? The answer is nine out of 10 times, no. You got yourself a few clients and you are somehow managing it. But you are not ready to take it global with the demands of enterprise clients.
The ScaleUp programme is to really ensure that from market-ready to start-ups becomes enterprise-ready. Thats really what our goal is, she said.
She noted that the start-ups, which are B2B, revenue generating, Series A funded would be qualified to the programme.
However, she said that the start-ups, which have developed cutting-edge technologies, would be an exception to this criterion, as Microsoft could support these start-ups to create value to deliver the next disruptive technology.
Pai reiterated that the Microsoft ScaleUp programme is not a venture capital fund. However, it would help start-ups to get access to various forms of funding and credit.
Sharing his view on the programme, Microsoft Country Manager Sri Lanka and the Maldives Hasitha Abeywardena said, When you enrolled in ScaleUp, you get the access to other markets, which includes co-selling with the Microsoft team, not only in Sri Lanka but also worldwide. This is a platform for Sri Lankan companies to showcase themselves and sell their products.
Abeywardena was also upbeat that Microsoft ScaleUp could also contribute to achieve Sri Lankas IT/BPM export goal of US $ 5 billion in 2022, while developing people.
He revealed that Microsoft has supported and worked with over 200 start-ups in Sri Lanka during the past five years, which he called the first phase in supporting local start-ups and he noted that Microsoft ScaleUp is the second phase.
Microsoft has committed US $ 500 million over the course of the next two years to run joint sales engagements and offer to start-ups access to technology and community spaces. (NF)
Joint Opposition MP Namal Rajapaksa said participants from all around Sri Lanka continued to make their way toward Colombo to join the Jana Balaya Kolombata protest despite hindrances.
Despite incidents reported regarding the Government backed groups trying to cause hindrances to people coming to join the mass protest, communities from all around Sri Lanka continue to make their way toward Colombo in solidarity, he tweeted.
Video by Buddhi, Damith
(Colombo) REUTERS: The Sri Lankan rupee fell to an all-time low yesterday, marking its 11th straight session of setting fresh record lows. The rupee, which hit a record low of 161.97 early in the trade, closed at 161.95/162.05 per dollar, compared with Mondays close of 161.60/70.
The currency surpassed its earlier record of 161.65 hit in the previous session.
There was (dollar) demand from local and foreign banks. We saw some oil and gas import bills, a dealer said, requesting anonymity.
The depreciation pressure remains as exporters are waiting to see the bottom in the rupee fall.
The rupee will be under depreciation pressure with the year-end seasonal importer dollar demand, dealers said. Absence of dollar conversions by exporters and outflows from equities and government securities also pushed the rupee lower, analysts have said.
Exporters are holding on to dollars as they expect the local currency to decline further, dealers said.
The Sri Lankan currency is also hurt by weakness in the Indian rupee. India is Sri Lankas biggest trading partner and the Indian rupee, which also hit a record low yesterday, has been one of the worst performers in Asia this year.
Foreign investors bought government securities worth a net Rs.578.3 million (US$3.58 million) in the week ended Aug. 29, marking the first week of net buying since April. However, they have net sold Rs.46.9 billion worth securities so far this year, Central Bank data showed.
Govt wont intervene in forex market: Eran
Sri Lanka will leave market forces to decide the level of its rupee, and the government will not intervene in the foreign exchange market, State Finance Minister Eran Wickremaratne told Reuters yesterday.
We will not intervene, he said. We have left it to the market. We will just do the right policy and let it sort itself. Never panic about it.
The currency fell to an all-time low of 161.97 versus the U.S. dollar yesterday, in its 11th straight session of fresh record lows.
The rupee, which weakened 1.2 percent last month, has dropped 5.5 percent this year.
Russian airline, Aeroflot, will re-launch regular non-stop flights to Colombo from October 28, the Moscow-based airline announced this week.
The airline stopped regular flights to Colombo around a decade ago.
The flights will operate under the winter schedule effective through March 30, 2019.
Flight SU 0286 will depart Moscow Sheremetyevo (SVO) on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 22:05 and arrive at the Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB) at 9:05. The return flight SU 0287 will depart Colombo on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 10:45, and arrive at Sheremetyevo at 17:30.
Aeroflot said it would operate an Airbus A330 on this route.
The nine-hour flight is expected to boost inbound tourism from Russia to Sri Lanka as it will obviate the need for transit in a third country. Aeroflot, which means Air Fleet, is the fourth oldest airline in the world, having started operations in July 1923.
A key member of the SkyTeam airline alliance, it flies to 130 domestic and international destinations using a fleet of 243 aircraft with 28 more on firm order from Airbus and Boeing.
Aeroflot, which has several subsidiary airlines and aviation companies, also operates the Russian-made Sukhoi Super Jets.
Incidentally, KLM, the worlds oldest commercial airline (since 1919) has also re-started flights to Sri Lanka.
Among the other airlines planning to launch regular services to Sri Lanka in the next two months are Edelweiss (Switzerland) and Vistara (India).
Several other major foreign airlines have also expressed an interest in flying to Sri Lanka while many existing operators have added extra capacity via bigger aircraft and/or more flight frequencies.
(Colombo) REUTERS: Sri Lankan shares rose for a fifth straight session yesterday and marked their highest close in more than three weeks, led by gains in banking and beverage stocks.
However, trading volume was low as investors stayed on the sidelines for want of fresh triggers. The days turnover stood at Rs.181.9 million (US$1.12 million), the lowest since August 3 and less than a fifth of this years daily average.
The Colombo stock index ended 0.6 percent higher at 6,128, its highest close since Aug.13. It had gained 0.4 percent last week, its second straight weekly gain.
The index, however, was down 1.1 percent in August, having hit its lowest close since March 2017 on last Tuesday. The bourse is down 3.8 percent so far this year.
Most investors are awaiting proper direction on economy and taxes, said Dimantha Mathew, head of research at broker First Capital Holdings.
The main concern is that foreign selling is still continuing and we dont think this uptrend can continue for long.
Foreign investors sold a net Rs.31.3 million of shares yesterday, extending their net outflow so far this year to Rs.4.2 billion worth of shares. AIA Insurance Lanka Plc jumped 82 percent, with around 1,700 shares changing hand, due to a share buyback, dealers said.
Ceylon Tobacco Company Plc shares closed 2.5 percent firmer while Dialog Axiata Plc gained 0.8 percent and Hemas Holdings Plc ended 0.5 percent higher.
Sri Lankan companies posted an average 4 percent earnings growth in the June quarter from a year earlier, helped by financials, beverages, telecommunications and power and energy sectors, CT CLSA Securities (PVT) Ltd said in a research note.
The Sri Lankan Ambassador to Maldives did not boycott the opening ceremony of the China-Maldives friendship bridge in Maldives but turned back as his vehicle was not allowed to proceed to the venue, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said yesterday.
Ministry Spokesperson Mahishini Colonne said the ambassador had not boycotted the event as he went there in order to participate in the event.However, their vehicles were not allowed to proceed so they were forced to turn back, she informed Daily Mirror.
Media reports said that the Ambassadors of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the Maldives had boycotted the bridge opening ceremony, an event that was also not attended by the Indian Envoy.
Member of the Maldives Parliament and Joint Opposition Spokesperson Ahmed Mahloof said the Ambassadors of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh boycotted the bridge inauguration event as their cars were stopped by President Abdulla Yameens security and they were asked to walk.
Only the Chinese Ambassadors car was allowed to proceed to the venue. Such an insult to traditional friends, he tweeted.
The two-kilometre long bridge which connects Male and Hulhule Island, was built using funds mainly received from China. The opening was held on August 30. (Lahiru Pothmulla)
MAS Holdings Chief Growth Officer and Director Nathan Sivagananathan
Following is the keynote speech delivered by MAS Holdings Chief Growth Officer and Director Nathan Sivagananathan at the 19th annual general meeting of the Tea Exporters Association, held on August 31, 2018.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Plantation Industries Minister Navin Dissanayake, committee and members of the Tea Exporters Association and all other esteemed guests; I thank Tea Exporters Association Chairman Jayantha Karunaratne for inviting me to deliver this keynote speech today. It is a privilege to address all of you, who are stakeholders in an industry that is of utmost importance to Sri Lanka.
It is a matter of national pride that the Ceylon Tea brand is globally recognised for premium quality tea. Unfortunately, when I introduce myself as Sri Lankan to people abroad, they are still much more likely to bring up Ceylon tea than Ceylon underwear!
As we know, the Sri Lankan tea industry was born out of the demise of the previously thriving coffee industry in the 1860s, after coffee plantations were devastated by a disease that affected Sri Lanka and the rest of Asia. Sri Lankas tea planting was initiated by a young man who set up the first tea plantation in Kandy at the age of 17. The birth of Ceylon tea was thus initiated from one mans entrepreneurship and experiment in diversification in the face of devastation.
Sri Lanka celebrated its 150th anniversary in the tea industry last year. We now face the question - will the industry survive for another 150 years? If we are to survive, we must use the sense of entrepreneurship exerted at the time tea was first brought to Sri Lanka.
Putting things into context, we face challenges in maintaining our reputation as one of the worlds premier tea producers. World tea consumption has grown at an average of 4.5 percent every year in the last decade, driven by rapidly increasing demand from China, India and other emerging economies. However, tea production in Sri Lanka is stagnant. Production in 2017 was at the same level it was 15 years ago (around 310 million kg).
Competitors have therefore gone ahead: China grew its tea supply at an average rate of 6.5 percent annually since the 1960s, compared to Sri Lankas miniscule annual average growth rate of 0.8 percent. Over the last 50 years, Sri Lankas share in the global supply of tea dropped from 20 percent to 6 percent. We are not capitalising on the rising global demand for tea, a US $ 70 billion industry being driven by growth in the value-added segment.
I am here today to talk about my industry apparel and other industries that have gone through similar problems:
Major issues for both apparel and tea are low labour productivity and labour shortages, as workers move from agriculture and manufacture to service sectors. This has been one of our biggest challenges over the last 10 years.
A second challenge is undiversified export markets. Sri Lankan tea exports are dependent on a few markets including Russia (15 percent) and the Middle East (50 percent), which are both facing crises. Likewise, Sri Lankas apparel sector is traditionally dependent on the US and UK.
We also face the obstacle of cheaper competitors. Sri Lanka has lost significant market share over the years due to the high price of our tea. If you look at tea imports to Britain in 2016, Sri Lanka only supplied 3 percent, while Kenya supplied 47 percent - a drastic change from a few decades ago. The apparel sector is, of course, no stranger to cheap competition from Asia and now Africa. This is a key part of why we need to have more value-added services in our industry.
Finally, Sri Lanka has an unconducive policy environment: It is vital that all major export industries are governed through clear, consistent policies.
Despite these challenges, the apparel industry has been able to consistently add value and maintain growth globally by providing specialised products to the global market. The key fundamentals that have helped us are looking at the global changes that are taking place, understanding, and reacting to them.
Today I will speak to you about three of them: your consumer, your business and your supply chain.
(1) Understand and cater to your consumer
In the apparel industry we have come to learn the importance of understanding the final consumer. Over the years we have realised that our focus should not be solely on the brands for whom we manufacture but the final consumers. We have teams dedicated to consumer insights and consumer-centric design and innovation. We even hired a professional consultancy firm to help us put in place our strategy and oversee its implementation. The tea industry similarly needs to hire dedicated individuals to carry out research on consumers in their main markets, tracking their likes and dislikes, income levels and lifestyle changes, to adapt tea to suit customer needs.
A key trend worth noting is the rise of millennials and Gen Z. Globally, tea is appealing to younger, wealthier, trendier consumers. The Tea Association of the USA estimated that as of 2018, 87 percent of millennials in the USA drink tea far higher than other age group. We can see this in the success of DAVIDsTEA, a high-end tea retailer that has expanded dramatically since 2008 by tapping into a growing tea boutique industry.
Starbucks prompted the same revolution in coffee 20 years ago, when it turned coffee from something people drank with breakfast at home, to a premium product with instant brand recognition. This has even been effective in traditional tea drinking countries like India, where domestic consumption of coffee has grown at almost double the rate of tea since Starbucks entry into the market.
Winemakers have remained relevant in todays beverage market by getting rid of the stereotype that wine is a fancy drink for refined palates only. By making branding trendier, they target millennials with modern label designs and differentiated packaging such as boxes and cans.
Health and wellness is another major trend. People are looking at ways of being healthier through eating, drinking and their lifestyle. Tea and specifically herbal tea has an opportunity to benefit from this trend from increased awareness about its anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and weight loss effects. Sri Lanka is lucky enough to already grow many of the spices and herbs that the West now recognises for their medicinal qualities and there is a big opportunity to play in the wellness tea which has risen by more than 5.8 percent in the US market in 2018-2018 alone.
Other key drivers are transparency and sustainability. Modern consumers want to feel that they are minimising the ecological and social impact of their consumption. In 2005, the expiry of the quota era exposed our apparel industry to Chinese competition. We were faced with two extreme options: compete with global giants in mass garment manufacturing in other Asian countries or the less competitive yet highly risky option of rebranding. We focused on rebranding the industry as an eco- and labour-friendly manufacturing location through our garments without guilt movement, making Sri Lankans the first in the world to champion the cause of ethical garment manufacture.
The coffee industry was an early adopter of sustainability certification standards such as Fair Trade. The Brazilian coffee industry led its remarkable recovery from imminent decline through self-regulation and setting up certifications for purity and sustainability.
The tea industry is moving in this direction: Between 2009 and 2012, certified tea sales grew by 49 percent annually. Major players like Finlays, Unilevers and Tata have all launched major sustainability initiatives, including Tata pledging 100 percent sustainable sourcing by 2020. An emerging model in Taiwan improves transparency in processing by using RFID tagging of batches of tea leaves.
In summary, Sri Lanka has been traditionally been slow to capitalise on trends in the market. We still export 80 percent of our tea in bulk format, with almost 40 percent facing value-added at import destinations and tea hubs in the Middle East. There is a massive opportunity to fast-track grow by keeping track of emerging consumer trends.
(2) Invest in your business
In 2005, along with the end of the quota era, we were also completely disrupted by a competitor and lost a large amount of business almost overnight. We responded by investing in innovation as a crucial part of our growth strategy, particularly by creating a Research and Innovation team. As part of this, we visited several companies like 3M, Google and Facebook to draw learnings from them. You might wonder why an apparel manufacturer would visit these technology companies, but thats one of the most important things I can share with you there are a myriad of learnings in other industries that you could apply to the tea industry. A couple of major takeaways are to embrace technology and professionalise.
Embrace technological development. Automation is needed to improve productivity across the value chain and this can be done through robotics and data analysis. We also focus on digitisation to drive digital technologies to the core, to be able to play in the global digital economy and strengthen data analytics.
Other industries have been able to revolutionise their businesses with technology: - Coffee producers have used infrared technology to reduce coffee pulp drying time from several days to hours, thereby minimising post-harvest loss. - The 8000-year-old wine industry modernised through biodynamic processes that improve the quality of the soil and the farms microclimate, thereby improving the taste of grapes.
The tea industry needs to invest in digitising payment and collection methods, soil testing, geo mapping and automating book keeping. Even a drastic agricultural revolution like aquaponics could be considered an opportunity, not something to fear have we thought about whether tea could be grown in a different way? It is essential to develop unique systems of tea planting and not rely on tea planting systems set in place during British rule.
Prioritise professionals. The tea industry is not attractive to graduate and professionals, who are drawn to industries like, banking, IT, hospitality. It is vital to change this through higher incentives and exciting opportunities for growth. Apparel was also an old-fashioned industry with a bureaucratic nature and formal attire but we have changed that culture completely though entrepreneurship. Our employee backgrounds are not limited to those with manufacturing and textile expertise but engineers in robotics, aerospace, mechatronics, marketing entrepreneurs, financial analysts, those who have studied in the likes of Harvard, Yale, Oxford and Cambridge. This variety brings in a global view and challenges existing legacy perspectives.
The tea industry also needs to bring in younger entrepreneurial employees to create a culture of entrepreneurship so employees feel they have ownership of some of the wealth created through tea. These younger mindsets will drive the industry forward towards the 21st century.
(3) Your supply chain
Look upstream and downstream. As part of our retaliation to the end of the quota system, we looked at what we could do for our brand partners. We invested in the downstream value chain by moving into fabrics and other parts of our supply chain. We also built our own design and development services, pitching products to consumers instead of playing the role of a traditional contract manufacturer. Our transition out of being a contract manufacturer is also taking place via launching our own brands, to use our expertise to earn the higher margins associated with the retail space. We have launched several online brands, which has required a significant amount of knowledge in digital marketing and consumer insights.
Trade zones outside Sri Lanka are helping the apparel industry be more global. The Sri Lankan tea industry can benefit from having a Tea Trade Zone or a bonded hub based within a Free Trade Zone in the Middle East or Africa, where global tea can be mixed and exported to compete with global pricing. Eighty percent of our tea is exported in bulk and probably blended elsewhere, so why not start doing this ourselves? Although based offshore, this still brings in revenue to Sri Lanka though a different supply chain. We need to move on from the belief that all investment should be within Sri Lanka to bring in revenue. We must shift to a mindset that we can invest in other countries if this will have a more favourable impact on the industry as a whole.
Automate the tea auction system. This was proposed over 10 years ago and tasked to the Colombo Tea Traders Association but has not been established yet, even though it would be a key step towards revamping Sri Lankas tea export industry. India has already automated its tea auction and Sri Lanka too needs to move on to this system to access a wider selection of buyers around the world, as well as facilitate faster purchases and transparency, as well as better documentation. This also needs to link to the EDI (electronic data interchange) system, which connects exporters to Sri Lanka Customs and Sri Lanka Tea Board. The apparel industry has already established
this link.
Finally, the government plays a key role is ensuring the playing field is conducive. It is essential that the policies governing the tea industry are based on scientific, rational decisions and that they are kept consistent.
We need to invest more in research and development: tea should be a popular topic of research for Sri Lankan scientists but sadly it is not. The Tea Research Institute (TRI) can be used more effectively to incentivise more efficient, viable, commercialised research. SLINTEC is a great example of a public-private institution doing excellent research and churning out patents. It is also important to support producers through replanting support or fertiliser subsidies, as this ensures the quality of the tea produced. The government can also do more to promote Sri Lankan tea on an international scale. The Sri Lanka Tea Board must utilise the vast fund collected through the tea promotional levy since 2010. We must support outbound exports the same way we support the inbound tourism industry. Finally, the state should improve the economic and social infrastructure in tea producing areas to improve the environment for those working in the tea industry.
In conclusion, despite these internal and external challenges, we must be positive about our capacity to create positive change. Tea is Sri Lankas largest producer-led export, which is vital to the strength of our economy. Not only have we dedicated 4 percent of this countrys land to tea cultivation, this is also a livelihood crop, on which over one million Sri Lankans are directly or indirectly dependent for their livelihood. We can and must use this as a stepping stone to drive higher growth, increase FDI and support national development.
Egyptian police have arrested 11 people and seized 22 ancient Egyptian artifacts as authorities identified a gang dealing in stolen archeological treasures.
Authorities identified the gang after the wife of one of its members reported her husband's disappearance following his abduction by two men who said were deceived into paying him 5 million EGP (approx. $280,000) to invest in the sale of archeological artifacts.
The interior ministry said all the gang members have been captured, releasing a video showing 11 people arrested including the two men who paid the money.
The footage showed the recovered pieces, which include 22 statues of different sizes, including waist-length sculptures, as well as two wooden boxes.
Police also seized huge sums of money and a quantity of opium with the men, the ministry said in the statement.
Illegal trade in antiquities and illegal excavation has flourished in Egypt in recent years. Two months ago, Egyptian authorities received hundreds of ancient artifacts from Italy after they were recovered from smugglers in May. The pieces went on display at the Egyptian museum in Cairo in July.
Search Keywords:
Short link:
This article is the second of those preparing the ground for a review of the new data on the last phase of Eelam War IV served up by access to the despatches of the British Defence Attache Lt. Col. Gash (the first being an analysis of Prabhakarans strategy of assassinations). It concentrates on the character of the state of Tamil Eelam throughout its period of existence, viz. from 1990-2009. It by-passes the pre-history when the Tamil New Tigers-become-LTTE was an incipient insurgent force competing with other Tamil militant organisations and with the GoSL and or the IPKF for control of terrain.
Tamil Eelam in its fuller emergent state form could be said to have originated in early 1990 when the IPKF forces departed and the LTTE insurgents gained control of most of the Jaffna Peninsula. This span of control increased in mid-1990s when the Tiger insurgents out-manoeuvred the Premadasa government and seized control of most of the Eastern Province after attacking and seizing several police stations and then massacring around 600 policemen who had surrendered. This spatial reach was reduced in mid-late 1995 when the SL Army attacked from the Palaly enclave and seized control of the Jaffna Peninsula. But it then expanded again when the Tiger forces over-ran the SL Army base at Mullaitivu in 1996 and then took control of Kilinochchi town and eventually the huge army base at Elephant Pass in 1999-2000.
However, the LTTE and its supporters abroad always had larger territorial ambitions and its maps of the Eelam project were in step with the traditional homelands claim presented by the ITAK (Federal Party) from 1949 onwards thereby embracing Puttalam and Chilaw in the expansive world-view typical of all fascist states in their embryonic stage.
There is little doubt, therefore, that the Tiger leadership launched Eelam War IV in mid-2006 with a conviction that they could cap their existing paraphernalia of statehood with formal worldwide confirmation.
Thus, from 1990 one witnesses the LTTE setting up an independent administration in its territories with Velupillai Prabhakaran as its talaivar or Supreme Leader and its military commanders as the dominant authority in all regional centres. There was a civil administration consisting of the previous Tamil civilians who had served the government of Sri Lanka and who retained the titles of yesteryear. Over time the LTTE inserted some of its own personnel alongside some of these posts or displaced these persons with their own appointees. This process involved the creation and or overseeing of the judicial organisation as well. The law courts were LTTE run and instruments of control.
The LTTEs consolidation of state authority was enhanced by its military successes in the period 1996-2001. It reached out for international status with considerable assistance from Norway and the latters point man Eric Solheim. The military clout secured after they brought the Kumaratunga government to its knees in 1999-2001 enabled the LTTE to sign a ceasefire via A Memoranda of Understanding in April 2002 in formalities associated with all the characteristics of a state. This status was beamed to the whole world on10th April 2002 when media personnel from many countries assembled at Kilinochchi to witness the Talaivar Prabhakaran, his de facto Foreign Minister Anton Balasingham and the Political Commissar, Thamil Chelvam, hold court in solemn splendour.
Tamil Eelam under the LTTE was an efficient authoritarian state run by a dictator who commanded widespread respect among its citizenry. Its propaganda capacities were as innovative as remarkable. Central to its process of cultivating respect was the homage paid to its fighting dead, the maaveerar, at a ceremony held on the 27th November every year at the 21 thuyilum ilam (resting houses) in LTTE territory sites that were regarded as temples.
These events were preceded by several weeks of intense propaganda work and appropriate music blanketing the air waves everywhere and maaveerar-sheds depicting the dead maaveerar from each locality at judicious locations in each locality. Remarkably, as I can attest from my experience in Jaffna Peninsula in late November 2004, such processes and events devoted to the deepening of Tamilness and obeisance to the talaivar and his martyr soldiers were freely pursued within GoSL territory as well.
An Office of Great Heroes (maaveerar) was set up in 1995 and the head was an experienced grey-haired official whose no-nonsense capacities impressed me greatly when I met him briefly in Kilinochchi in 2004. The LTTE was well-served by the longstanding history of education in the Peninsula and such centres as Batticaloa several generational cohorts of public servants were available to implement its programmes.
Tamil Eelam was also an innovative state. State-of-the-art underground hospitals had been constructed in Jaffna town in the early 1990s; while the underground complex built subsequently at Mullaitivu was impressive. Its innovative building of fast shallow water attack boats gave its Sea Tigers considerable clout as a brown water navy. Its commited suicide cadre in the Black Tigers sharpened the LTTEs raiding capacity as well as assassination work. The devastation of the Central Bank in Colombo Fort on 31 January 1996 and the Tamil commando strike on Katunayake airport on 24th July 2001 mark the capacity to inflict clinical assaults displayed by these personnel.
My Ethnographic Experience in Kilinochchi in late November 2004
Through the good offices of Uthayam and guidance form Tamil friends I travelled south from Jaffna to Kilinochchi with these friends on the 26th November and in doing so passed through border controls typical maintained by the government of Sri Lanka and that of Tamil Eelam that were typical of all such practices world-wide (though not quite as mind-blowing as those I experienced at Check Point Charlie in Berlin in 1976). The first event I attended at Kilinochchi was the opening of a Media Centre on the 26th where Thamil Chelvam was the main speaker. However, my principal focus was the huge gathering of perhaps 150,000 people at the Kanagapuram Thuyilumilam south of the town who assembled at this temple in homage to their maaveerar on that sacred day, 27th November.
The organisation at both events was exemplary. The arrangements on the 27th indicated attention to spatial requirements and participant comfort. Again, the restaurants in town and the bus services were state run and well-run. I was intrigued by the occasional scenes of cyclists and tractors bearing two coconut seedlings, apparently gifts to householders on that day the 27th November which would therefore boost the productive capacity of the smallholdings everywhere a simple innovation, yet so useful.
In conversations in English with two Health Department officials who joined our little party at meals and in interviewing Thiru Master (a senior LTTE counsellor and one of the speakers at the media event) at his house, I was peppered with complaints about GoSL activities. These men were feisty and itching to return to war.
These experiences helped me understand a point dinned into my ears subsequently (2010) by Anoma Rajakaruna on the foundations provided by her frequent visits to Tamil Eelam on feminist projects during the ceasefire period 2002-06. The LTTE state, she said, had its fingers everywhere and most people were dependent on its arms in one way or another sometimes in several ways. Muralidhar Reddy and Silan Kadirgamar were therefore on the ball when (in conversations with me in 2010) they insisted that in 2006-to-2008 most of the residents in LTTE terrain were hostile to GoSL and in support of the LTTEs diktats.
However, the LTTE and its supporters abroad always had larger territorial ambitions and its maps of the Eelam project were in step with the traditional homelands claim presented by the ITAK (Federal Party) from 1949 onwards thereby embracing Puttalam and Chilaw in the expansive world-view typical of all fascist states in their embryonic stage
Nor must we forget that the LTTE had spent time and effort in regimenting the ordinary civilians in martial formations through the makkal padai training arrangements. Thus, a martial orientation had been instilled among the ordinary citizens. This was a state geared for war. One illustration of this commitment was provided by the sarong-clad manager of the guest house at which I was staying. He was an Indian Tamil from the Kandy locality whose family had migrated to the Vanni way back in the 1970s or so. His son had died as a Tiger fighter and there was a little shrine in the sons memory in the guest-house vestibule. The father a middle-aged man, perhaps in his 50s was unequivocal if the LTTE asked him to join their armed forces, he would gladly join.
The Hallmarks of Sovereignty
There is little doubt, therefore, that the Tiger leadership launched Eelam War IV in mid-2006 with a conviction that they could cap their existing paraphernalia of statehood with formal worldwide confirmation.
The existing pillars of statehood included a little innovation on their part that also pointed to a shortfall. At some point in the past I do not have a date the LTTE had decreed that their clocks should not adhere to Sri Lanka time. All their clocks were adjusted to be one hour behind that of the standard SL time. (The SL time was adjusted one hour ahead and sometime later to half an hour ahead of the standard SL time as a move to save electricity during the Chandrika Kumaratunga government. It was subsequently abandoned.)
However, this little sign highlights a fundamental shortfall. The currency in use in Tamil Eelam was the Sri Lankan rupee. I paid for my meals and bought books and disks at Kilinochchi with my stock of rupees.
Why, then, had there been no change on this front answer because a significant number of residents in Tamil Eelam were either pensioners of the SL state or were serving officers in departments subject to directives from Colombo. They were recipients of pensions and or salaries from the government of Colombo. While dependent on Colombo in this manner, they took orders from the LTTE.
Thus, one pillar of the LTTE economy was the cash flowing in regular fashion from the GoSL. That foundation, and its tell-tell sign, the ubiquitous Sri Lankan rupee, marked an outstanding shortfall; in fact, it was an Awful Sore on the forehead of the Tamil Eelam body politic.
The LTTE state, moreover, drew some of its wherewithal in food supplies and medicinal needs from the stocks despatched to their citizens by the GoSL arms working in conjunction with UN and other humanitarian agencies. The government centred in Colombo was marking asserting its sovereign rights in this manner. The supplies were so useful that the LTTE chose to let them flow in. In this concession and in their continued dependence on the rupee as currency, they were conceding limits on the fullness of their statehood.
That was not a major concern for talaivar Prabhakaran in 2006. Bolstered by past success, he and his commanders were certain that they would finalize their nation-status by waging war. Ramesh, the Tiger Propaganda Chief whom I met in Kilinochchi in November moved to Mullaitivu in December to prepare for this step. The ravages of the tsunami of 26th December that year delayed the move. However, the LTTE machinery of state regrouped and initiated Eelam War IV at Mavil Aru in August 2006.
Oops....! We couldn't find that...
404 error
Unfortunately the page you were looking for could not be found. It may be temporarily unavailable, moved or no longer exist.
Check the URL you entered for any mistakes and try again. Alternatively, search for whatever is missing or take a look around the rest of our site.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said on Wednesday that he discussed with his Uzbek counterpart President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent about how similar the Egyptian and Uzbek experiences in economic reforms were.
In a press conference held at the presidential Uzbek palace Wednesday morning following his talks with President Mirziyoyev, the Egyptian president thanked his Uzbek counterpart, government, and people for the warm reception he received.
"We succeeded in this visit in signing a number of agreements that will without a doubt contribute in creating a rapprochement between two great nations whose history and interests in technology gathered between them, president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said.
El-Sisi also revealed that that Egypt was ready to cooperate with Uzbekistan in sectors including energy and car manufacturing.
"We also discussed ways to boost tourism and cultural exchanges between the two countries as well the necessity to boost the economic relations to reach political bilateral relations, in addition to boosting military and security cooperation and counter-terrorism efforts," El-Sisi said.
The Egyptian and Uzbek presidents issued a joint statement following the talks between the two presidents stating that the two countries were seeking to enhance joint cooperation in all industries.
El-Sisi also invited Mirziyoyev to visit Egypt.
The Egyptian president arrived in Tashkent on Tuesday night where he was received by President Mirziyoyev.
Tashkent is the last stop in El-Sisi's short Asian tour that started last week in Bahrain, followed by a visit to China where he participated in the Chinese-African Cooperation Summit.
Search Keywords:
Short link:
SkyHawks cruise to playoff win OMAHA The fifth-ranked Skutt Catholic SkyHawks are finally getting healthy and it showed in a 31-10 opening round playoff win over the No. 10-ranked Norris Titans at Moylan Field...
SkyHawks capture sub-district crown OMAHA The 10th-ranked Bennington Badger volleyball team drew the unenviable task of playing top-seed and second-ranked Skutt Catholic in the opening round of the Class B-2 sub-district tournament at...
Cavs down Mustangs WAHOO The Concordia Mustang volleyball team saw its season come to an end with a loss to the second-ranked Bishop Neumann Cavaliers in the first game of the Class...
Antlers roll past Dukes into quarterfinals ELKHORN The Elkhorn High football team began its title defense with an impressive 36-0 victory over York Friday in its Class B State Playoffs home opener. The defense played...
Falcons season ends in Wahoo WAHOO The 2021 season came to an end for the Douglas County West volleyball team in Wahoo when they were defeated in four sets by the sixth-ranked Wahoo Warriors...
US Seeks Expanded Access to Greek Bases
The page you requested is only available to subscribers.
1. If you are a Premium Service subscriber, please log in here to access this story:
Log-in : Password :
2. If you are not a subcriber, you can:
-- buy access to this page: unlimited access for seven days costs 3.00 EUR + VAT (at 20%) if applicable.
Clicking on the "Ok" button below will place the item in your shopping cart and return you to our home page, where you will be able to select additional stories.
-- select additional stories and services from our home page and pay for them at the same time.
-- see your shopping cart. You can also see the contents of your shopping cart at any time by clicking on the "Order" tab on the navigation bar at the top of any page, or by clicking on the "Your order" light blue link in the top right-hand corner of our home page, immediately under the log-on box.
A Del Mar bluffs recent collapse provided new impetus to a campaign to relocate a railroad track that sits atop seaside cliffs lining the citys shore.
Frank Stonebanks, who leads Citizens for Access to Del Mar Beach, Bluffs and Trails, said the Aug. 22 incident illustrates the urgent need for action.
Yet, regional plans dont call for moving the tracks eastward off the promontories between Solana Beach and Sorrento Valley for another three decades.
Its going to take people waking up one morning and seeing, Pacific Surfliner crashes into the ocean; 50 people dead, Stonebanks said. Unfortunately until something like that happens, I dont think anybodys going to do anything about it.
The collapse of an approximately 60-foot-wide sandstone cliff face near the foot of 11th Street occurred shortly before 3 p.m. No one was present underneath the dirt and debris that fell on the beach and no injuries were reported.
Train traffic between the Solana Beach station north of Del Mar and the Sorrento Valley depot to the south was halted for a couple of hours, while the tracks were inspected to ensure safety.
The bluffs that line much of the coast from Oceanside to San Diego are notoriously unstable. Collapses occur periodically and have caused fatalities. Officials warn beachgoers to avoid lingering close to the fragile cliffs.
Built more than a century ago, the coastal railroad continues to provide service between San Diego and Los Angeles. In addition to Amtrak trains, the tracks in San Diego County are used by Coaster local commuter trains operated by the North County Transit District.
While much of the route has been or is in the process of being double-tracked to expand capacity, that is impossible through Del Mar because the bluff tops are too narrow to accommodate another track.
Del Mar residents have fretted for years about the potential for crumbling hillsides resulting from erosion they believe is exacerbated by vibrations of the locomotives zooming along rails a few steps from the cliffs.
Yet, bluff collapse is not the only issue presented by the the rails and train traffic through Del Mar.
Stonebanks learned that firsthand about two years ago, he said. Like many residents for whom it is a daily ritual, Stonebanks crossed the tracks to access a path down to the beach, only to be slapped with a citation and $400 fine by a sheriffs deputy.
I saw warning signs that said it was dangerous, but I had no idea it was illegal, Stonebanks said.
The experience motivated Stonebanks, who moved with his family to Del Mar from New York City four years ago, to explore the issue of the railroad and beach access.
Contrary to most California coastal cities, Stonebanks learned, most of Del Mar lacks legal access to the beach.
For about a 2 1/2-mile stretch from 15th Street to Torrey Pines State Beach at the citys southern border, people cross the tracks to get to the beach at risk of either tickets or mortal injury.
On average, 11 people a year are killed on the tracks between San Diego and Oceanside, Stonebanks said. He acknowledged the majority of the victims are suicides, but contends the lack of access in Del Mar exacerbates the danger.
Stonebanks inquiry led to the formation of the citizens group and the creation of a petition presented to the Del Mar City Council, the North County Transit District, which oversees the tracks, and other agencies.
The petition calls for more leniency in enforcement of the railroad-crossing prohibition; the creation of safe, legal beach access points and a public park encompassing the bluffs, along the bluffs; and the eventual relocation of the tracks inland away from the bluffs.
As for the enforcement issue, Stonebanks point was amply illustrated while he was being interviewed at the foot of 11th Street.
A dozen or so pedestrians, mostly clad in bathing suits and toting surfboards, stepped across the tracks and disappeared down the path to the beach. The trail lies about 50 feet north of the collapsed bluff face.
Here, you can get a $400 fine and a possible permanent mark on your record for going surfing, Stonebanks said. Weve proven that (NCTDs) enforcement actions dont work. Handing out tickets and stuff is not working.
The petition got results in regard to its point regarding beach access. Del Mar, the transit district and the San Diego Association of Governments jointly funded a study now in progress.
In his and his groups quest, Stonebanks said hes found strong support from the Del Mar City Council and Mayor Dwight Worden.
Id like to see at least one beach access installed in the next few years so people dont have to risk citations and risk their lives, Worden said in a recent interview.
As for moving the tracks, Stonebanks described it as a big ask, given the likely cost of more than a billion dollars and the requisite cooperation of local, state and federal agencies.
Despite the difficulties, Worden stressed it should happen, not only for bluff protection and safety, but for the economic benefit of increasing rail commerce.
Some people say Im tilting at windmills, he said. To me, thats a tilting worth fighting for. ... Im pushing to try to make it happen sooner rather than later.
Stonebanks said he and his group will keep pushing for their goals and he plans to continue lobbying Del Mar, NCTD and other relevant agencies in his quest. Yet, he remains skeptical.
Egypt's Defence Minister Mohamed Zaki told soldiers and commanders of the Third Army that armed forces are working on development and reconstruction in Sinai while still rooting out terrorism, a statement by the army spokesperson Tamer El-Refai read.
Zaki gave the speech during a meeting with Third Army field officials concerning the implementation of the planned visions of internal security and eliminating terrorism in accordance to the Comprehensive Operation Sinai 2018.
Comprehensive Operation Sinai 2018 is a counter-terrorism campaign which involves the army, navy, air force and police.
The operation was launched in February to target terrorist and criminal elements and organizations in north and central Sinai, parts of the Nile Delta, and the Western Desert.
The meeting began with all the Army commanders, soldiers, and officers standing for one minute to mourn those army and police forces who have been killed in action.
Zaki stressed that the development of combat and technical capabilities of the units in all branches and specializations is a top concern of the General Command of the Armed Forces.
He also pointed out that the challenges faced to root out terrorism and extremism will not deter the armed forces from achieving security and stability.
The minister also expressed his pride in the heads of tribes of central and southern Sinai, and appreciated their patriotic role and their full support for the armed forces in their fight against terrorism.
He also opened a dialogue with the Third Army, in which he listened to their views and inquiries across a variety of topics.
He called on them to exert more effort and attention to the physical fitness and morale of the fighters as a cornerstone for building the fighting individual while also maintaining the highest levels of efficiency and combat readiness.
He finished with expressing his gratitude concerning the high moral and determination to confront extremism and terrorism.
The meeting was attended by Mohamed Farid, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, and a number of senior commanders of the armed forces.
Search Keywords:
Short link:
The Del Mar Union School board revisited its school safety resolution on Aug. 29 and decided not to include an outright ban on semi-automatic or assault weapons. A group of parents has been requesting the ban since the board passed the safety resolution without one in April.
The board did agree to remove language regarding working with community stakeholders, including gun owner organizations, to develop educational opportunities on firearm safety. Many parents believed the language was too vague and dangerous.
The board is expected to vote on the revised resolution at its Sept. 26 meeting.
Parents such as Kristen Panebianco, a member of San Diegans for Gun Violence Prevention, have spoken out on the districts resolution at the May and June board meetings. Panebianco and others were calling for stronger language that included a ban on assault weapons but also a ban on high capacity magazines, bump stocks and any other equipment, alteration or modification that would increase a firearms capacity for ammunition or rate of fire language that has been adopted by the boards of the Solana Beach, San Dieguito Union, San Diego Unified, Encinitas, Cardiff and Vista school districts.
Clerk Erica Halpern said she was disappointed that the board was not including the ban in the resolution but she was in the minority. Only she and Stephen Cochrane supported including the ban.
This came from the community and was a strong voice, Cochrane said. I could see them feeling like were not listening to them.
President Kristin Gibson disagreed, saying she did listen but she does not agree.
Gibson said in response to the request to add the language, she reached out to Sandy Hook Promise, the California School Boards Association (CSBA) and legal counsel to discuss whether such a ban should be in a school boards purview. She found it is legal and the board does have a right to include the language, however, the CSBA advised using broader, less specific language urging the state to invest in and support strategies to ensure that schools are safe and free from violence.
Every single person I spoke with confirmed that a resolution, regardless of its contents, will have very little impact on making schools safer, Gibson said. To bring this sort of controversy here when I dont believe this resolution in and of itself is going to have any meaningful impact frightens me and it troubles me.
While Del Mars resolution does not call for a ban on assault weapons, it does demand action from state and federal representatives regarding the sale, transfer, possession, manufacturing, and distribution of all firearms, dangerous weapons and ammunition. Stricter controls referenced in the resolution include background checks of all purchases of firearms as well as reasonable waiting periods and mandated training in the safe use of guns.
The resolution also includes the districts implementation of a social and emotional learning curriculum, options-based training for all staff in response to an active shooting and the inclusion of mental health experts policies that promote a positive school environment so every child feels connected.
A lot of the stuff in the CSBA-recommended resolution is about mental health issues: depression, violence, bullying. These are the things that we can have a direct impact and make our schools here in Del Mar the safest they can be, said board member Scott Wooden in favor of a resolution that stays out of the partisan fray. We are a non-partisan board. Were supposed to be non-partisan, were supposed to look out for whats best for the students and were supposed to educate and thats what Ive been trying to advocate for here in my position on the board.
Board member Doug Rafner said he did not see a resolution as having any effect as he hasnt seen anything come out of other school districts adopting the stronger language, six months removed from the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in which 17 students and staff members were killed.
A resolution is really a meaningless gesture, Rafner said. I dont want to do something thats meaningless that ends up polarizing our community which clearly it has.
During public comment, the board heard from both sides of the issue.
Kara Chine, speaking on behalf of Team Enough, a group of teen activists from Canyon Crest Academy, Torrey Pines High School and San Dieguito High School Academy, argued that the words that the district uses do matter and a resolution could have an impact.
(Team Enough) would like me to implore you to use your language, use your leadership and acknowledge your responsibility to the children of your districtThey are a generation of future voters that know things must change and will, said Chine. They are tired of being afraid and they are looking at their communities, their teachers, their city leaders to make clear stands with specific language about what can or cant happen in the schools. They hope to see these places as sanctuaries of safety again.
Panebianco argued that a resolution is not meaningless when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell talks about gun control being solved at the local level and the U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos considers allowing states to use federal educational grants to purchase guns for schools.
Your voice matters, Panebianco urged. What you say to our officials matters. They care what you think and what represents us.
Michael Schwartz of San Diego County Gun Owners encouraged the board to be school board members and not anti-gun activists.
The last time I was here you passed a reasonable, middle-of-the road proclamation that you all pretty much agreed on. But thats not enough for the extremists who arent happy with the proclamation thats just about school safety, Schwartz said. Dont allow yourself to be used and dragged into a national issue that is far beyond the scope of what you should be doing as a school board.
Del Mar resident Paul Hines agreed, noting while he was in favor of reducing violence in schools of all kinds, a ban would present itself as a blatant attempt to undermine his second amendment rights.
While the board agreed to remove the language about gun owner groups and other stakeholder groups helping to provide educational opportunities on firearm safety and storage, they believed parents confusion was mostly in the unfortunate phrasing in the resolution.
This never meant we were going to have gun owner organizations working directly with our children in our classrooms but safe storage is such a significant issue, I dont think gun safety should be something that just happens at home, Gibson said.
Woodens concern has been in the area of safe gun storage and educating the parent community. Gibson cited frightening statistics that approximately half of all gun owners dont lock up their guns in their homes, including 40 percent of households with kids under age 18. Guns used in 80 percent of all incidents at schools were taken from the home of a friend or relative.
At the end of the last school year, the district promoted the ASK (Asking Saves Kids) Campaign which encourages parents to ask Is there an unlocked gun in your house? before sending a child over to play. As Halpern said, while the language in the resolution was troubling to some, the district should play a role and normalize the behavior of asking if firearms are safely stored, Thats one way to have an actual impact, she said.
During public comment, Schwartz had strong words for any board member who would support an assault weapons ban as well as for Cochrane personally.
Youve lost your partys support and endorsement even though you worked so hard to get it when you ran, Schwartz told Cochrane, referencing the Republican Party of San Diego County. Were going to run somebody against you in 2020.
Schwartz told the board that if they voted in favor of a ban, San Diego County Gun Owner members would show up in mass until the decision was reversed and said board members would hear and see their names on political radio shows and in op-eds about the extremism and gun activism that they prefer to do over school board business.
I dont care if my name is on the news. I dont care if Im never elected again, Gibson said in response. Im going to do what I think is best for kids and those who dont agree with me, I apologize for that, but that is exactly how Im going to be making my decisions.
By Kaori Kaneko
4 September 2018
TOKYO (Reuters) Japan began on Wednesday to clean up after a powerful typhoon killed 11 people, injured hundreds and stranded thousands at a flooded airport, though when the airport in an industrial and tourist hub might reopen was not clear.Typhoon Jebi, or swallow in Korean, was briefly a super typhoon and was the most powerful storm to hit Japan in 25 years. It came after months of heavy rain, landslides, floods, and record-breaking heat that killed hundreds of people this summer. []Winds that in many places gusted to the highest ever recorded in Japan, according to the Japanese Meteorological Agency, left a swathe of damage, with fruit and vegetables, many about to be harvested, hit especially hard. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was criticized in July 2018 for an initially slow response to devastating floods that month, posted updates on the rescue efforts at Kansai.
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.
Homecare platform startup Ucarer launches in Silicon Valley
Taiwan-headquartered Ucarer, which helps connect Chinese seniors who need in-home care with homecare professionals, is seeking series B funding as it begins to expand business to Silicon Valley.
With its recent launch in Silicon Valley, Ucarer has become the first homecare service platform that specializes in serving the Chinese community in the US.
Tech startups are raciing to gain foothold in the homecare space where demand for high-quality and personalized in-home care is growing. Ucarer cited Aging in Place Technology Watch as indicating that tech-enabled homecare startups have received more than US$400 million of funding as of 2018. Chinese in-home care market is underserved largely because of cultural elements and yet Chinese homecare players are currently still in an infancy stage.
Ucarer said it has raised US$1.5 million in series A round, led by Taiwan-based family funds in 2017. The company started in 2015 in Taiwan by co-founders Hung-yi Chen, David Lin, and Wilson Liu. The founding members each have two decades of experiences in ecommerce operations, software development, and caregivers management under their belts.
Prior to Ucarer, Chen, now Ucarer's chairman, started his career in CRM (customer relationship management) product development management at Oracle, and later came to manage products in different lines of business within Oracle. Then he was CIO and VP of Monday Tech Taiwan, an ecommerce company which was later acquired by Yahoo. Throughout his work and living experiences in Silicon Valley, Taiwan and China, Chen said he understands the homecare needs of the Chinese community.
"In addition to Taiwan, the Chinese American market in Silicon Valley is the market we're aiming for," said Chen. "There are over seven millions of Chinese immigrants in the US and Canada, and 10% of that population is living in San Francisco Bay Area. The SF Bay Area market demand is around US$250 million annually," he said.
Chen also explained that the plan is to use the new capital to further penetrate the Taiwan market and to develop business in the US market. The company chose to land in Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale with the initial focus on the Chinese market in Silicon Valley.
Jessica Su, Ucarer's caregiver support director who is in charge of the management of caregivers, said "caregivers who want to offer their services via the platform are thoroughly interviewed and qualified by Ucarer before their detailed information can be added to the portal. Through the know-hows in screening processes, we can deploy the caregivers quickly and carefully."
Ucarer started in Taiwan and plans to expand the service to Chinese population all over the world. In Taiwan, the platform offers its customers different care service providers, ranging from certified caregivers, nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and creative arts therapists.
"We're not simply taking the business model from Taiwan to apply in the US," said Chen. "We want to build Ucarer as a household brand name in the US with expanded service to include massages and acupuncture therapists," he added. After launching in Silicon Valley, the company plans to expand to southern California next and eventually all over the US.
Ucarer co-founder and chairman Hung-yi Chen (left), and team member Adam Lin at Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale.
Photo: Company
A Giza criminal court sentenced four people to fourteen years in prison on Wednesday in the retrial of a case over the killing of a prominent Shia leader and three other members of the shrinking Egyptian Shia Muslim community in June 2013.
The court convicted the four men of manslaughter of the Shia leader Hassan Shehata and three members of his family and his followers.
The case dates back to June 2013, when an angry mob led by Salafist sheikhs torched Shia residences in the small village of Zawyat Abu Musalam in Giza governorate, killing four citizens.
Shehata was visiting one of the families in the village when the attack happened.
The attack was videotaped and the footage sent shockwaves across the country.
This is not the first time that an Egyptian court has issued sentences on the case, which has seen a number of appeals.
In the first sentencing of the case in 2015, 23 defendants, including 18 in absentia, were sentenced to 14 years prison for killing the four men. Eight others were acquitted.
In 2017, nearly two years after the first sentence, Egypt's Court of Cassation rejected an appeal presented by nine of the defendants, upholding their 14 year sentences.
Search Keywords:
Short link:
The UK appointed a new ambassador to Egypt, replacing John Casson, who held the post since August 2014, a statement by the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said on Wednesday.
In a press release, the FCO said Sir Geoffrey Adams has been appointed the UK's Ambassador to the Arab Republic of Egypt in succession of Casson.
Casson was known to be one of the most engaging foreign diplomats in Egypt, especially through his social media accounts, which took a special admiration to Egypt and its Arabic dialect.
The 61-year-old Adams will take up his appointment in September 2018.
The new ambassador held the post of UK Ambassador to the Netherlands from 2013 until 2017.
He served as ambassador in Tehran from 2006 until 2009.
He was once the Deputy Head of Mission in Cairo from 1998 through 2001, as well as several posts in Jerusalem and Saudi Arabia.
Search Keywords:
Short link:
More crimes against humanity were committed in Burundi in 2017 and 2018, whipped up by rhetoric from top officials including President Pierre Nkurunziza, a U.N. human rights report said on Wednesday.
Burundi has tried and failed to stop the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Burundi, set up by the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2016, and refuses to cooperate with it. The commission said last year that officials at the highest level were responsible for crimes against humanity.
"The Commission has reasonable grounds to believe that crimes against humanity continue to be committed in Burundi," the Commission's latest report said.
"These crimes include murder, imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence of comparable gravity, and persecution on political grounds."
Nkurunziza's spokesman and Burundis human rights minister declined to make an immediate comment.
Burundi has been seized by violence since early 2015 when Nkurunziza said he would seek a third term, widely seen as a breach of the constitution.
Clashes between security forces and rebels left hundreds dead and forced about half a million to flee -- rattling a region still haunted by the memories of the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda, which has a similar ethnic mix to Burundi.
In May this year a referendum changed the constitution in a way that could allow him to remain president until 2034.
"This climate of disregard for human rights continues to be fomented by repeated instances in which hatred and violence have been advocated by the authorities, including the Head of State and members of (the ruling party) CNDD-FDD," the commission said.
The Commission said Nkurunziza's policies, pouring resources into security at the expense of social services, increasing debt and the burden on women looking after families, had turned Burundi from a developing country to a humanitarian emergency.
"In the space of two years, the number of people 'in need', mainly in terms of health care, food, water, hygiene and sanitation, increased from 1 million to 3.6 million, representing more than 34 per cent of the population."
Corruption and "misappropriation of public funds among high-level authorities" were further depleting state resources, it said.
Members of the National Intelligence Service and the police, including high-ranking officials, committed a large number of human rights violations, and the Imbonerakure, the youth wing of the ruling party, was playing a growing role, the report said.
Opponents of the government had been detained and tortured, often by the Imbonerakure, the commission said.
The number of summary executions appeared to have diminished since 2015, when they took place on a large scale, but the perpetrators took care to cover their tracks by weighing down the bodies and throwing them into rivers, it said.
Search Keywords:
Short link:
Creating an enabling environment for pan-European banks in the Banking Union
Remarks by Peter Praet, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the Eurofi Financial Forum 2018, Vienna, 5 September 2018
In recent years, the European Union has achieved major progress towards financial integration. We now have a single supervisor and a single resolution authority, and banks are subject to the same European rulebook. The Banking Union contributes to providing effective mechanisms for cross-border risk-sharing and broadening the sources of funding within a country, thereby promoting macroeconomic stability and growth.
However, we still observe a number of obstacles that hinder the fungibility of capital and liquidity of banking groups. Very often, these obstacles relate to regulatory fragmentation and ring-fencing of national markets. Further harmonisation would help to address many of the issues, while appropriate prudential safeguards can be put in place to address possible financial stability concerns by national authorities.
First, a number of national options and discretions are hindering the practical application of cross-border liquidity waivers within the Union. While such waivers are explicitly allowed by the CRR, and already contain prudential safeguards, so far the ECB has received almost no application for their use from the banks it supervises. An important reason for this lack of applications is the existence of national large exposure limits on intragroup exposures in several European countries. These limits prevent institutions in these countries from transferring liquidity within the group in a flexible manner and thus represent practical obstacles to the use of liquidity waivers. Effectively, they are hindering the free flow of liquidity in the Banking Union and should be harmonised further.
Second, the proposal to have cross-border capital waivers within the EU was not taken forward in the on-going review of the CRR, which is a missed opportunity. Such waivers would be consistent with the establishment of the SSM and the Banking Union and help to support the free flow of capital across the Union. On the one hand, it is understandable that some national authorities are concerned about the possible financial stability implications of the proposal. On the other hand, such concerns could be addressed by making the waivers subject to additional prudential safeguards, and by putting in place appropriate transition arrangements that account for the planned further progress on the Banking Union.
Third, the major progress we have made in our Banking Union needs to be recognised also in the international regulatory framework. For example, the G-SIB framework currently penalises cross-border transactions within the Banking Union by attaching a higher systemic risk score to banks with more of such transactions. This goes against the very rationale of the Banking Union, as it reduces the incentives for cross-border transactions and risk diversification. The international regulatory framework should recognise the progress that has been made in the Banking Union and exclude intra Banking Union positions from the cross-jurisdictional indicators in the G-SIB methodology.
Fourth, there are also some resolution related aspects that warrant further consideration. In particular, the allocation of internal MREL has turned out to be an area of tension between national jurisdictions. Jurisdictions with a foreign bank subsidiary prefer to have a high pre-positioning of internal MREL to ensure an orderly resolution of its local subsidiary. However, this implies a certain degree of ring-fencing to the detriment of the foreign parent bank. The compromise reached by Member States in the Council only allows that internal MREL is waived if the resolution entity and the subsidiary are located in the same Member State, neglecting the fact that we have achieved so much in terms of joint supervision and resolution among euro area countries. To account for this progress, internal MREL waivers on a cross-border basis in the Banking Union should be allowed as this would contribute to continuous cross-border banking, e.g. by generating efficiency gains and promoting further integration. Therefore, it should also be possible to use guarantees to replace internal MREL and allow for more flexibility in the allocation of resources within the Banking Union. Of course, to install confidence it will be important to have adequate safeguards in place, including that there is no legal or practical impediments to the provision of support by the parent to the subsidiary, in particular when the resolution action is taken.
By Lucyna Gornicka, Christophe Kamps, Gerrit Koester and Nadine Leiner-Killinger[1]
Economists often try to forecast whether the economy as a whole will grow or contract. When measuring the effects of fiscal policy measures on economic activity, such forecasts are based on so-called multipliers. Using a new dataset compiled from economic forecasts and recommendations by the European Commission under the excessive deficit procedure of the Stability and Growth Pact, we derive the multipliers that were assumed by forecasters during the European sovereign debt crisis to project the effects of fiscal consolidation on economic growth. Our results confirm that forecasters adapted their assumptions on multipliers as the crisis progressed and accounted for larger effects of consolidation on growth later on in the crisis. Another finding is that the actual fiscal multipliers were not exceptionally large during the crisis.
As is well known, from 2008 the euro area was faced with a financial crisis, and national government debts increased to often unprecedented levels. In order to deal with this crisis-induced increase in debt, as of 2010 many euro area countries embarked on a process known as fiscal retrenchment, i.e. raising taxes and/or cutting public services. The crisis reignited a controversial debate on the impact of fiscal policies the use of taxes and government spending to influence the overall economy on economic growth. The fact that the impact of fiscal policies on growth is not directly observable but has to be estimated lies at the heart of this debate. Forecasters usually try to estimate the effects of fiscal measures on growth using the so-called fiscal multiplier. This measures the effect of a 1 change in government spending or a 1 change in taxes on economic activity as measured by GDP.
At the height of the sovereign debt crisis in 2011 and 2012, GDP growth was much lower than forecasters had expected especially in the countries worst hit by the crisis. In an influential contribution to the policy debate at the time, two economists, Olivier Blanchard and Daniel Leigh, argued that the forecast errors came about largely because forecasters had underestimated the feedback effects of fiscal consolidation on economic growth in other words, forecasters underestimated fiscal multipliers.[2] At the same time, Blanchard and Leigh (2013, 2014) found that the underestimation of these negative feedback effects declined in the later years of the crisis. They conjectured that this reflected at least in part the lessons learned by forecasters in the course of the crisis about the size of fiscal multipliers.
In a recent paper of our own, we test this hypothesis. We identify the fiscal multipliers used by forecasters at the European Commission during the sovereign debt crisis between 2009 and 2015 and investigate their role in explaining forecast errors during consolidation episodes. We find that the forecasters did indeed adjust their assumptions about the impact of fiscal retrenchment on growth to incorporate a larger negative impact as the crisis progressed.
A new dataset
One of the strengths of our paper and one of its advantages over the papers by Blanchard and Leigh is its use of a new dataset. Our dataset is new in that it combines the two forecast scenarios published by the European Commission when conducting its surveillance of fiscal policies in the European Union (EU): the regular forecasts and the forecasts made under the excessive deficit procedure (EDP). In the regular Commission forecasts, the economic outlook is based on the assumption that no fiscal consolidation measures will be undertaken beyond those already legislated for. In the forecasts under the EDP, the Commission specifies the size of the additional fiscal consolidation that would be recommended to reduce an excessive deficit to below the 3% of GDP threshold by a certain year.[3] We then compare the two forecasts. With a limited number of assumptions, it is possible to calculate the fiscal multipliers for individual countries and years as applied by the forecasters at the European Commission. It transpires that all EU Member States except Estonia, Luxembourg and Sweden were under the EDP at the height of the sovereign debt crisis. For this reason, we could derive the fiscal multipliers as actually applied by the European Commission for almost all EU Member States in the period 2009-15.
Learning effects
What do our results show? They show that forecasters definitely learned from the crisis. This can be seen from the increases they made to the fiscal multipliers used in the European Commissions recommendations. By how much did their multipliers increase? In the early years of the crisis, between 2009 and 2011, the recommendations were based on assumptions of a fiscal multiplier of around 1/4 on average, that is, below what forecasters often consider to be the standard value of 1/2. By contrast, later on in the crisis, between 2012 and 2015, most forecasts under the EDP were based on fiscal multiplier assumptions that were much higher than this level at around 2/3. As shown in Chart 1, 18 EDP forecasts issued in the second half of 2009 are based on an ex ante implicit fiscal multiplier of around 0.1. The five EDP forecasts issued in the first half of 2010 are based, on average, on an even lower implicit fiscal multiplier of close to 0. These low implicit fiscal multipliers reflect the implicit assumption at the beginning of the crisis that fiscal retrenchment would have only very limited negative effects on growth if any. In fact, given that the private sector was concerned about the state of public finances in the light of soaring deficit and debt levels, fiscal tightening was expected by some to raise confidence and ultimately growth.[4] As the crisis continued, however, it became obvious that fiscal adjustment had had a more negative impact on growth in the early years of the crisis than anticipated. Therefore, it is likely that the broad-based rise in implicit fiscal multipliers during the later years of the crisis reflects the fact that, as previously posited by Blanchard and Leigh, forecasters did indeed learn as the crisis progressed.
Chart 1: Ex ante fiscal multipliers in EDP recommendations issued by the ECOFIN Council between 2009 and 2015 (number of EDP recommendations indicated above columns)
Note: EDP recommendations issued by the ECOFIN Council. The y-axis reflects the average size of the fiscal multiplier across all the EDP recommendations issued. For the second half of 2010, the average multiplier excludes the outlier, Finland, for which the EDP is based on an implicit multiplier of close to 2. No new EDP recommendations were issued in 2011. The data is depicted on a half-yearly basis for the early years of the crisis (from the first half of 2009 to the second half of 2011) to reflect the fact that recommendations under the EDP were issued throughout the year, which was not always the case in the later years under consideration.
Source: European Commission, own calculations.
Implications for the estimation of true ex post fiscal multipliers
What can these findings tell us about the unobservable true ex post fiscal multipliers, that is, the actual impact that fiscal retrenchment had on growth during the sovereign debt crisis? To infer something about the true ex post fiscal multipliers, Blanchard and Leigh start from two hypotheses: first, fiscal forecasters applied a standard fiscal multiplier of 0.5 in their projections; and, second, lower than initially projected growth indicates the extent to which this standard fiscal multiplier underestimated the actual impact of governments fiscal consolidation plans on growth. They conclude for a country sample broadly comparable to ours and across forecasts by different international institutions that multipliers were markedly above 1, implying that each euro of fiscal consolidation reduced output by more than this amount.
Does our analysis of information contained in the EDP recommendations support these findings that the true ex post fiscal multipliers are higher than expected? Not quite. We find that the true ex post multiplier remained below 1 at the height of the crisis. As argued by Blanchard and Leigh, our analysis shows that the impact of fiscal retrenchment on growth was indeed larger than initially assumed by forecasters. But we show that their initial assumption at the time was not what experts consider standard, but markedly below that. These very optimistic beliefs regarding the limited impact of consolidation on growth indeed imply that their true impact was larger, but not by as much as Blanchard and Leigh posit.
Our analysis benefited from the European Commissions increased transparency regarding the fiscal policy recommendations that are issued to EU Member States under the EDP. More transparency regarding the applied fiscal multipliers would generally enhance the impact of forecasting by international institutions and thus, ultimately, improve policy-making.
References
Alesina, A. and Ardagna, S. (2010), Large Changes in Fiscal Policy: Taxes versus Spending, Tax Policy and the Economy, Vol. 24(1), pp. 35-68.
Blanchard, O. and Leigh, D. (2013), Growth Forecast Errors and Fiscal Multipliers, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, Vol. 103(3), pp. 117-120.
Blanchard, O. and Leigh, D. (2014) Learning about Fiscal Multipliers from Growth Forecast Errors, IMF Economic Review, Vol. 62 (2), pp. 179-212.
Gornicka, L., Kamps, C., Koester, G. and Leiner-Killinger, N. (2018) Learning about fiscal multipliers during the European sovereign debt crisis: evidence from a quasi-natural experiment, ECB Working Paper Series, No. 2154, Frankfurt am Main.
Alaska in quandary over federal plan to boost deep-sea fish farming
Alaskans have expressed concern over a federal plan to increase aquaculture production by boosting open-ocean fish farms.
According to a news report published by juneauempire.com, the Alaskans made known their reservations over the plan to acting Undersecretary Tim Gallaudet of the Department of Commerce on Aug. 31 during a listening session at the end of a weeklong gathering of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) experts in Juneau.
Gallaudet said the strategic plan was an "initiative to grow the American blue economy," referring to the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods and jobs, and ocean ecosystem health.
He also said that the commerce department aimed to "reduce the seafood trade deficit".
The report also mentioned President Donald Trump's trade war with China as having resulted in Chinese tariffs on Alaska seafood exported to that country, and American tariffs on processed Alaska seafood products imported from China.
"A strong U.S. marine aquaculture industry will serve a key role in US food security and improve our trade balance with other nations", the plan states.
Ban on fish farms
Alaska's concern over the federal plan stems from the fact that Alaska bans fish farms. Its jurisdiction extends only to waters three miles offshore. Beyond that is considered federal waters, and the state ban does not apply.
Aquaculture in Alaska is almost limited to the production of shellfish and aquatic plants. These include Pacific oysters, blue mussels, littleneck clams, scallops and bull kelp. However, non-profit mariculture continues to provide a steady supply of aquaculture in the state.
"We are very concerned about the aquaculture activities," Frances Leach, director of the United Fishermen of Alaska, was quoted as saying in the report.
She suggested that any National Marine Fisheries Service guidelines allow an opt-out clause applicable to Alaska.
But Chris Oliver, assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries and former director of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, said concerns about aquaculture were misplaced.
"In terms of finfish, I think we're talking about very contained operations, as opposed to hatchery operations", he said.
Dairy exports from Belarus to China increase 5.6 times
Aleksei Bogdanov, head of the Central Office for Foreign Economic Activities of the Belarusian Agriculture and Food Ministry, revealed during a press conference in Minsk on Monday, enterprises affiliated with the Ministry increased dairy exports to China 5.6 times from the period of January - July 2018.
"From January - July 2018, Belarus' farm export to China totalled to $23.3 million, which is an increase of 4.2 times more, as compared to the same period last year. Dairy was the biggest contributor. In January - July, we set a record of having supplied 57,300 tonnes valuing at $20 million. Dairy exports to China rose almost 5.6 times in terms of money and 6.9 times in terms of volume," Bogdanov shared.
The first container train carrying Belarusian dairy products set off to China on September 4. He added, "The plans are set to add more cars to trains. The goal is to ramp up dairy exports to China up to 100 containers per month and to extend the product range. Today we sent skimmed milk to China. We also supply whey and dried whole milk. We actively promote finished products such as cheese and butter. Moving forward, we are seeking to branch out into the Chinese yoghurt market."
China has approved almost all of Belarusian dairy plants to export their products into the country.
Source: Belarus News
New Australia-Indonesia trade deal augurs well for Aussie cattlemen
Australia and Indonesia have announced the conclusion of the negotiations for the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA), which was welcomed by the Australian livestock and red meat industry.
Indonesia is an important market for the industry in that it purchases significant quantities of Australian live cattle, beef and offal.
"IA-CEPA is a most welcome addition to the suite of FTAs [free trade agreements] the Australian Government has concluded to date with key trading partners", said David Foote, chair of the industry's IA-CEPA taskforce.
According to Meat & Livestock Australia, IA-CEPA will deliver:
-- A quota (with a 0% in-quota tariff) for 575,000 head of live (male) cattle, which will grow by 4% per annum over five years to 700,000 head. Import permits will be issued automatically on an annual basis and without seasonal restrictions - a welcome improvement on previous administrative procedures. A review of this trade will be conducted after five years to consider future increases in the quota (i.e. above 700,000 head).
-- Liberalised access for female live cattle exported to Indonesia, with 0% tariff on entry into force (EIF) of the agreement and no quota or import permit restrictions.
-- Immediate or gradual liberalisation of tariffs applicable to boxed beef and sheep meat exports to Indonesia - whereby those tariff lines not already benefiting from 0% tariffs secured under AANZFTA, will benefit from either a 0% or 2.5% tariff on EIF (down from 5%) with the tariffs being eliminated altogether over five years.
-- Similar advantages will be extended to frozen offals - with the 5% tariff eliminated on EIF of the agreement.
"In an increasingly competitive market, whereby Indonesia is granting access to numerous beef suppliers, a removal of these import tariffs will assist in maintaining Australian product's cost competitiveness," Foote said.
Last year, Australia exported a total of 512,871 tonnes of live cattle and in the first seven months of this year, live cattle exports totalled 290,150 tonnes, according to Meat & Livestock Australia.
In terms of head count, Australia's cattle exports to Indonesia last year numbered 511,878, which accounted for 58% of all exported cattle, according to figures from the Australian Livestock Export Corp. Ltd.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also the foreign minister, ordered the closure of Israel's embassy in Paraguay on Wednesday hours after the Latin American nation said it had decided to return its embassy from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.
The United States and Guatemala also moved their embassies to Jerusalem in May and Netanyahu has attempted to persuade other countries to follow their lead.
"Israel views with great severity the unusual decision by Paraguay that will strain the ties between the countries," a brief statement from the Prime Minister's office said.
Former Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes travelled to Israel to inaugurate the new embassy in May. He was replaced by Mario Abdo, also a member of the conservative Colorado party, last month.
Search Keywords:
Short link:
President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he did not discuss assassinating Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, which journalist Bob Woodward has reported in his forthcoming book about Trump's administration, according to multiple media outlets.
Trump, speaking to reporters during a visit with Kuwaiti ruler Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, also said that if there is a slaughter in the Idlib province of Syria, the United States will be very angry. The Syrian military shelled Idlib, the last stronghold of active rebellion against al-Assad, on Wednesday as a war monitor said insurgents blew up a bridge in anticipation of a government offensive.
Search Keywords:
Short link:
Blog Archive November (11) October (92) September (92) August (120) July (122) June (82) May (82) April (76) March (100) February (106) January (143) December (132) November (90) October (62) September (64) August (77) July (67) June (89) May (92) April (75) March (87) February (85) January (86) December (74) November (67) October (60) September (60) August (59) July (64) June (51) May (62) April (52) March (58) February (69) January (68) December (70) November (78) October (98) September (77) August (70) July (68) June (60) May (67) April (54) March (61) February (55) January (69) December (61) November (53) October (48) September (40) August (47) July (55) June (56) May (71) April (55) March (43) February (3) December (14) November (48) October (46) September (39) August (27) July (18) June (33) May (44) April (38) March (31) February (34) January (34) December (26) November (57) October (43) September (81) August (66) July (77) June (85) May (70) April (56) March (49) February (32) January (39) December (42) November (25) October (16) September (36) August (34) July (40) June (55) May (45) April (62) March (56) February (57) January (60) December (58) November (50) October (55) September (31) August (77) July (65) June (27) May (52) April (53) March (77) February (75) January (36) December (24) November (31) October (31) September (29) August (30) July (49) June (53) May (61) April (65) March (96) February (35) January (53) December (56) November (52) October (51) September (109) August (94) July (70) June (65) May (85) April (80) March (96) February (74) January (79) December (75) November (104) October (105) September (108) August (86) July (101) June (106) May (100) April (97) March (103) February (92) January (95) December (137) November (122) October (173) September (111) August (178) July (168) June (184) May (193) April (161) March (149) February (121) January (131) December (120) November (97) October (137) September (105) August (133) July (120) June (103) May (111) April (72) March (48) February (58) January (27)
Search All categories Advertising General Aerospace General Agriculture General Airlines General America - Post 9/11 General Apparel General Apple Products General Architectural General Architecture Architecture Art & Entertainments Books Celebrities Country Music Dance Magazines Movies Museums Music Music Downloads News & Talk Shows Performing Arts Photography Television Web Sites Arts/Culture General Auction General Automotive Aftermarket Classic Autos Consumer Publications General Motorcycle & Bike Racing Recreational Vehicle Repair & Service Trade Publications Blogging & Social Media Blogging & Social Media Business Advertising / Marketing Books Consumer Research Direct Marketing e-Commerce Entrepreneurs Finance Franchise Human Resources Insurance Investment Management Markets Network Marketing Online Marketing / SEO Payday Loans Public Relations Publications Real Estate Retail Stocks Supermarkets Women in Business Careers/HR General Chemical General Coaching / Mentoring Coaching / Mentoring Computers Apple Products Databases Games & Entertainment General Hosting Instruction Linux / GNU "Open Source" Macintosh Microsoft Windows PC Operating Systems Programming Security Software Tablet PCs Utilities Construction General Consumer Gifts and Collectibles Hobbies Web sites / Internet Design Graphic Design Industrial Web E-Cigarette General eCommerce General Economy General Education College / University General Home Schooling K-12 Post Graduate Technical Electronics General Email Marketing General EmailWire Press Releases Press Release Tips Employment/Careers General Engineering General Entertainment General Environment General Events / Trade Shows General Finance General Food General Franchise General Fraud / Identity Theft General Gaming General Government General Judicial Law Enforcement Legislative Local National Public Services Security State Transportation Healthcare General Home and Family Banking / Personal Finance Bereavement / Loss Home Furnishings / Interiors Landscaping & Gardening Marriage / Relationships Money Parenting Payday Loans Pets Taxes Wedding / Bridal Home Schooling General Hotels/Resorts General Household General Industry Aerospace / Defense Agriculture Apparel / Textiles Broadcast Construction / Building Electrical Food Funeral Healthcare Leisure / Hospitality Logistics / Shipping Manufacturing / Production Mining / Metals Oil / Energy Paper / Forest Products Plumbing, Heating & AC Print Media Printing Publishing Radio Restaurants Tobacco Toy Insurance General Internet/Online General Legal General Leisure General Lifestyle Beauty Dating / Singles Diet / Weight Loss Fashion Food / Beverage Health & Fitness Hotel / Resorts Pastimes Restaurants Retirement Travel & Tourism Machinery General Maritime General Medical Addiction Allergies Alternative Medicine Asthma Cancer Cardiology Chiropractic Dental Dermatology Diabetes Emergency Family Medicine General General Geriatrics Hospitals Infectious Diseases Internal Medicine Managed Care / HMO Medical Products Mental Health Neurology Nursing Nutrition OB / GYN Pediatrics Pharmaceuticals Physical Therapy Plastic Surgery Psychology Radiology / Imaging Research Sports Medicine Surgery Vision Military General Mining/Metals General Miscellaneous General Nanotechnology Nanotechnology Non-profit General Occupational Safety Occupational Safety Oil/Energy General Opinion / Editorial Opinion / Editorial Paper Products General Paper/Forest General Pharmaceuticals General Podcasting Announce Tools and Services Politics Politics Print Media General Public Utilities Public Utilities Publishing General Radio General Real Estate General Religion Christian General Islam Jewish Other Restaurants General Retail General RSS & Content Syndication RSS & Content Syndication Science and Research Science and Research Self-Help / Personal Growth Self-Help / Personal Growth Shipbuilding General Society African American Interests Asian Interests Childrens Issues Disabled Issues / Disabilities Gay / Lesbian Hispanic Mens Interests Native American Senior Citizens Social Services Teen Issues/Interests Womens Interest Software General Sports Baseball Basketball Bicycling Boating / Maritime Bowling Boxing Fishing Football Golf Hockey Hunting Martial Arts Outdoors Rugby Soccer Tennis Water Winter/Snow Sports/Fitness General Stocks General Supermarkets General Technology Biotechnology Computer Electronics Enterprise Software Games Graphics/Printing/CAD Hardware / Peripherals Industrial Information Internet Multimedia Networking Public Sector/Government Robotics Semiconductor Software Telecommunications Webmasters Telecom General Wireless Television General Tobacco General Trade General Transportation General Travel General Utilities General Volunteer Volunteer Weather Weather
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he remained open to the possibility of talks between Washington and Tehran, but said Iran was in turmoil and struggling to survive.
"Iran is in turmoil right now. They're in total turmoil," Trump told reporters before a meeting with Kuwait's emir, without offering any evidence.
"Now they are just worrying about their own survival as a country," he said.
"We'll see what happens with Iran.
Whether they want to talk or not, that's up to them, not up to me. I will always be available but it doesn't matter one way or the other."
In May, Trump withdrew the United States from a 2015 international agreement intended to stall Tehran's nuclear capabilities and has since reimposed sanctions suspended under the deal.
Trump said in July that he would be willing to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani without any preconditions to discuss how to improve relations, which Rouhani dismissed.
When asked whether he would be willing to meet Rouhani at the UN General Assembly, Trump, who will chair a Security Council meeting at the United Nations on Iran this month, said, "It's possible. Anything's possible. Anything's possible. We'll see."
Search Keywords:
Short link:
UN envoy urges Erdogan and Putin to discuss Idlib
"Telephone call between two of you would make big difference even before Tehran," Staffan de Mistura said.
The UNs special envoy for Syria called on the leaders of Russia and Turkey on Tuesday to dialogue to effect a solution for Syria's Idlib.
"YOU'RE THE ONES WHO CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE"
"To President Putin and President Erdogan, you are the ones, who actually were able to talk to each other, make a telephone call, organize a formula that allows the end of that horrible peril not to be the worst," Staffan de Mistura said at a news conference at the UN Office in Geneva. "A telephone call between two of you would make a big difference even before Tehran," he added.
"AN ERDOGAN-PUTIN MEETING WOULD BE EFFECTIVE"
Talks on Syria in the Iranian capital will be held Sept. 7 with Iran, Russia, and Turkey. De Mistura said the situation in Idlib should be carefully evaluated in terms of politics and the military and a sustainable solution is not impossible as an Erdogan and Putin's one-on-one meeting would be effective. "There has often been in the past occasions for finding a reasonable, logical, non-dramatic solution. That's why I am urging them to talk," he remarked.
SYRIANS FEAR FROM A POSSIBLE ATTACK
The priority in Idlib is to protect civilians as women, men, teachers, medical staff, engineers, according to de Mistura, as children have been trapped in the unknown. Earlier Tuesday, de Mistura held a news conference in Geneva, where he said the organization is worried about a possible operation in Idlib by the Assad regime and its supporters. Civilians in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, fearing a possible assault by the regime and its allies, are looking to Turkey to ensure the regions safety. Residents are urging Turkey to increase the number of observation points in the area with a view to protecting civilians from an attack they believe is imminent. Located near the Turkish border, Idlib is home to more than 3 million Syrians, many of whom fled from other cities following attacks by regime forces.
In May, Idlib was designated a de-escalation zone -- in which acts of aggression are expressly forbidden -- as part of ongoing peace talks in Kazakh capital of Astana.
A pioneering initiative to couple world-class research laboratories and business-management experts aims to create a European innovation ecosystem that will accelerate the development of disruptive technologies and their progress to market. ATTRACT, as the initiative is known, will commit 17 million to funding 170 breakthrough detection and imaging ideas with market potential to help enable the creation of products, services, companies and jobs based on these technologies.
"Europe is at the forefront in science, and international research infrastructures play a pivotal role to enable excellence in science by providing services and by developing new technology. The sustainability of fundamental research, and its ability to contribute to the great societal challenges of our times, requires more than ever an ecosystem bringing together the worlds of basic science, innovative technology and industry in a collaborative and open framework. This will enable breakthrough research. But most importantly, it will allow to transfer new technology into new products and architectures for the development of our society, and to create new jobs for the upcoming generations of European citizens. ATTRACT aims to contribute to reach this ambitious objective" says Francesco Sette, director general of the ESRF.
The ATTRACT seed fund is open to researchers and entrepreneurs from organisations all over Europe. The call for proposals is already open and will collect breakthrough ideas until the 31st of October 2018. A high-level, independent Research, Development and Innovation Committee will evaluate proposals and select those to be funded based on a combination of their scientific merit, innovation readiness and potential societal impact. The successful proposals will be announced in early 2019.
The 170 breakthrough projects funded by ATTRACT will have one year to develop their ideas. During this phase, business and innovation experts from the ATTRACT Project Consortiums Aalto University, EIRMA and ESADE Business School will help project teams explore how their disruptive technology can be transformed into breakthrough innovations with strong market potential.
Creating life-changing technologies for society
Most scientific advances, technical applications, commercially worthwhile products and businesses targeting emerging societal challenges rely on detection and imaging technologies in some way. Disruptive innovations emerging from ATTRACT will trigger transformations that will have real impact on peoples lives.
Examples of future applications for society could include: portable scanners for out-patient treatment; sensors to help the visually impaired navigate the world more easily; networks of sensors to make agriculture more productive and less energy-intensive; smarter use of monitoring and big data analysis to make factories work more efficiently; better forms of online learning; and new ways to accurately monitor climate change.
Led by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the ATTRACT initiative involves the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), the European XFEL, Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), Aalto University, the European Industrial Research Management Association (EIRMA) and ESADE. The initiative is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Driving the economy and jobs
State-of-the-art detection and imaging technologies form the cornerstone for several industrial sectors, including ICT, energy, process industries, manufacturing, aeronautics, medicine, robotics, space and transport. These technologies drive a direct annual market of over 100 billion[i] (Frost & Sullivan Report, Top Technologies in Sensors & Control).
The market for medical imaging and radiation detectors is worth 21 billion a year.
a year. Satellite imaging is a 2 billion market , and is expected to experience a compound annual growth rate of 14.2% from 2018 to 2023.
, and is expected to experience a compound annual growth rate of 14.2% from 2018 to 2023. Open data can unlock over 2.7 trillion in value.
in value. The ICT sector represents 4% of the EUs GDP, and includes technologies such as advanced manufacturing, robotic arms, remote sensors, and opto-mechanical assemblies.
European research already excels in these areas. The availability of ATTRACT funding will accelerate the development of breakthrough solutions, as well as improving Europes return on its scientific investment by capturing the interest of private investors business angels, venture capital firms and corporate investors. ATTRACT will also create multiple ways in which private investment can get involved in supporting the resultant businesses, thus creating economic growth for years to come.
Michael Krisch, head of the Instrumentation Services and Development at the ESRF and chair of ATTRACT Project Consortium Board says: "I am particularly honored to chair the Project Consortium Board, which is the ultimate decision-making body of the ATTRACT Phase-I Project Consortium. As the major European X-ray facility, ESRF was furthermore charged to lead work package 3: Liaison with European and national Research Infrastructures, Academia, and Research & Technology Organisations, where we aim to make sure that the Open Call reaches all the relevant institutions who could potentially benefit from ATTRACT. I profoundly believe that ATTRACT will be a real game-changer in the way European Research Infrastructures will contribute to strengthen European Industry."
The Egyptian cabinet approved at its weekly session on Wednesday a funding agreement of 205 million euros between the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Egyptian government to upgrade the metros line one, one of the main transport systems in the Egyptian capital.
The agreement will support the partial refurbishment of Cairos oldest metro line through rehabilitating the components of the railway infrastructure including energy units, signals, and central control systems.
The metros first line was inaugurated in 1987 and serves up to 1.8 million commuters on daily basis, said the Minister of Transport Hisham Arafat, adding that efforts are being made to improve the service.
The rehabilitation programme of the Egyptian metro is expected to receive an additional 350 million euro loan from the European Investment Bank and another 50 million euro loan from French development agency Agence Francaise de Developpement.
The 33 station metro line stretching from El-Marg north Cairo to Helwan in the south is one of the three lines that connect Cairo. A fourth line is currently under construction.
Search Keywords:
Short link:
Written by ACM
*Strasbourg/- A badly Surprizing Verdict was issued Today for the cold-blood Murder of a young Girl aged 15, Mia Valentin, stabbed with a 20 cm. long Knife, by an Afghan Muslim mass irregular migrant/asylum seeker, Abdul Mobin Dawodzai, in Germany, on December 2017, at Nearby Kandel village of Rhineland-Palatinate (near the Borders to France) :
- The brutal Killer's condemnation was limited to only ... 8 (eight) Years, (i.e., in practice, soon just 5 years, if not even less...), while various similar Deadly Attacks are still going on Nowadays also in several Other Locations throughout Europe (See Infra) !
On the Contrary, even for a mere, bloodless, Theft or Fraud, without any violence nor attack against any person, condemnations may extend, sometimes, beyond 10 Years + And, normally, a Murder is punished with at least 15 Years in Prison, (i.e. about the Double from what he got now !).
Already, People were reportedly Demonstrating against such a Verdict on that Deadly Stabbing at Kandel.
Moreover, Not any Independent Public Scrutiny was allowed during that case's Trial, since it was all conducted behind Closed Doors, "in camera"... According to Press Reports, this even Hinders Officials to Reveal, also Afterwards, what really Happened during his Trial !
The Pretext for Both those Exceptional measures was that the Killer had been considered, by German Authorities, as a ..."Child", and, therefore, benefited from relevant Legislation, due to protect "Minors" (i.e. Children).
But, while he had declared to be only 15 y.o., in fact, according to the Official Expert who checked him, the Killer should have been aged, when he committed his Crime, somewhere between 17 and 20 y.o., most probably around 20, (i.e. he was already an Adult). Therefore, today, (on 2018), his Real Age would certainly be Over 20...
Many Youngsters among those who massively came in Europe through Turkey, particularly on 2015-2016, notoriously use to claim that they are all ...underage "Children", with the result, for that Group of Immigrants to have the greatest percentage of so-called "Non-Accompagnied Children" in History !
But Medical and/or other Tests practiced f.ex. in the UK, reportedly discovered recently that more than 2/3 of those recent young migrants Massively imported through Turkey, whose real Age had been contested the last five years, were finaly found to be, in fact, Adults...
By disguising themselves into so-called "Children", they obtain not only Legal Advantages (See above), but also Financial and Social ones : F.ex. they receive much More Money each Month, they are placed, not in Collective Centers, but at individual facilities in chosen foster Families, they benefit from special Education courses, etc. And they can even escape, much more easily than Adults, from severe Condemnations whenever they might commit an Horrible Crime, (as, f.ex., in the above mentioned case).
Various German mainstream Politicians reportedly Urged for a much more Strict Examination of the Real Age of such Mass Asylum Seekers/Irregular Migrants, precisely after several Recent Cases of this kind.
All those Facts already started to provoke a growing Row, recently, in Germany, and elsewhere throughout Europe, but that is "nothing", compared to a Surprizing Inefficiency of the Police when there is a need to Protect innocent People from Brutal Aggressions, or even their Life, in such kind of cases :
Indeed, among others, in this case of Mia Valentin, the Family of that Girl aged just 15 y.o. had already Denounced to the Police the ill-treatments, insults and threats that she reportedly faced from Abdul Mobin Dawodzai, and had even lodged a formal Legal Complaint to the Local Police against him, for slander, insults, aggressions and threats, just a few weeks before she was brutally murdered !
But the local Police, (which, in Germany, depends mainly from each Region ("Lander"), the Federal Police intervening only in certain special cases), apparently, did nothing more, in order to protect that threatened young Girl, than just ..."Visit", once, Mr. Abdul Mobin Dawodzai...
Moreover, Despite the fact that his Asylum Claim had been Rejected, he was Not Deported, even if he was reportedly Known to the Police for "Serious bodily Injury Crime", committed earlier.
However, the Public Authorities already Knew, (particularly in South Germany), that such, recent Islamist Irregular Migrants brough in Europe by Turkish Smugglers, can be very Dangerous, as it was Recently, Tragically revealed at Nearby Reutlingen (Baden-Wurttemberg), where a poor, Hard Working European Young Woman from Poland, Anne, had been atrociously Killed on 2016, also with a 30 cm. Long Manchette of a Turkish Kebab Shop (sic !), by a Middle East Mass Irregular Migrant who had Arrived in Europe through Turkey, and afterwards Attacked with that same Manchette also various Other innocent Civilian People, (including, f.ex., an Aged Couple, peacefully citting inside their own Car, some Passers-by, Clients of a nearby Cafe, etc).
In fact, the situation was even Worse, in that 2017-2018 case of Kandel village (Comp. Supra) : The competent German Authorities, in addition to that brutal Murderer's real Age, did Not even Know for sure his ...Name, and were not even certain about his real Nationality, (he had claimed to be Afghan, but without proof) !
Similar Problems with the real Identity of those presented as "unaccompanied Children" had notoriously emerged also with the Brutal Murder, after Rape, of 19 y.o. Student Maria Landenbuger at Nearby Freiburg, by an Afghan also imported through Turkey, who was not only treated as "Child" aged only 16, while, in fact, he was about ...32 Years Old, as his own Father revealed, later-on, but had even been accepted as "Asylum" seeker, placed at a Foster Family and regularly paid a notable amount of Money in Germany, while ...totaly Ignoring the fact that he was a Convicted dangerous and violent Criminal, since he had just been Condemned and Jailed in Greece, a few years earlier, for Throwing over an 8 meter High wall to a rocky beach, another young Girl, who was seriously wounded, but managed to escape from Death only because she knew, from athletism, that the priority was to protect her Head...
Strikingly Near to that is also the Recent case of 3 German Civilians very seriously wounded, (one of whom even Died afterwards), by brutal Knife Stabbings from mainly 3 Muslim irregular migrants at Chemnitz (Eastern Germany), just a few Days ago, towards the End of August 2018 :
- The main Suspect, reportedly, is someone already Condemned previously for having provoked Dangerous Bodily Harm to Other Victims in the Past, but his Sentence had been Suspended. Moreover, in addition to a Criminal Record with 6 Offences, (including Fraud and Drug possession, abuse of 2 different Identities and Forged Documents, etc), he was also known for ...always Carrying a Knife with him (sic !), but nothing wasn't done by the Local Police in order to make him harmless.
Despite all that, the Public Authorities had, reportedly, even Delayed so much an already ordered Deportation of that individual, after the Rejection of his Asylum claim, that it had become Legally impossible without starting anew another procedure for that same purpose : A Delay which proved to be Fatal for the Life of the Killed Victim. (As, also, just 1,5 Year Earlier, on December 2016, another such Delay, had already been proven Fatal also for the Lives of Many other innocent Civilian People, at the Horrible Massacre by another irregular Mass Migrant imported through Turkey, at Berlin's Christmas Market, when they were atrociously crashed with a Lorry).
Currently, Minister of Justice in Germany is Socialist MP Katarina Barley, who has Only a Few Months in her New Job there, from March 2018. Before that (on 2017) she had been appointed Minister for Family. Meanwhile, she even worked, for a Short Period of Time, at the Ministry of Labour (sic !). In such conditions, it's naturaly Difficult to imagine how, Barley, (who is a German-British politician from Koln), could aquire the necessary Experience in order to meet the Challenge of her New Job at the Ministry of Justice, which obviously represents a Big Responsibility Nowadays...
The 3 most Seriously Wounded Victims of those Knife Stabbings in Chemnitz are 2 German-Russians and 1 German-Cuban, who Died at the Hospital, later-on : Daniel Hillig, a Young Carpeter. The 3 main Suspect Killers are irregular migrants from Syria and Iraq, who had arrived to Europe through Turkey, (and 2 were already arrested).
Few are currently known about the possible Motives behind those latest Bloody Crimes. An "Heroic" Rumour at Chemnitz was that the Victims would have tried to Defend a Girl Harassed by those who attacked them with knifes soon afterwards. But it's also a Fact that those Bloody Aggressions against 2 Russians- and a Cuban- origin Germans occured, by a Coincidence, while the International Attention is now Focused on a reportedly Imminent attempt by the Russia-Backed Syrian Army to Liberate the last Armed Islamist Jihadists-held Syrian province of idlib, near to Turkey, (there where 3 Russian Airplane Pilots have been Killed earlier)...
At any case, many German People have been participating, Recently, to various Collective Protests, (included in Kandel and Schemnitz), by holding Posters expressing a "Need for Security and Protection".
And they seem, apparently, due to continue doing so, more and more, as long as more than 1,5 Million irregular Migrants/Mass Asylum Seekers who suddenly Started to be imported through Turkey from 2015-2016, still stay or come inside Europe, without a serious Distinction between Real Refugees, (and/or at least Sincere Economic Migrants really seeking to be Integrated in our Society), chosen by Europeans, or Dangerous Thugs, practically chosen and send to Europe by Turkish Smugglers.
Indeed, various Other Bloody Knife Attacks by recently Islamized Migrants also in Other Regions and even other EU Countries, almost at the Same Time, (f.ex., Nowadays, in Addition to the Murder of a Medical Doctor by Knife at nearby Offenburg, also the Killing of 2 American People and Wounding a 3rd Victim by Knife at the Netherlands, in Amsterdam's Railroad Station, where the Killer acknowledged his Islamist Terrorist Aims, while, in France, at Trappes City, the Murder of 2 Civilians by Knife was even Revendicated by ISIS, etc), obviously Remind that the real Problems and relevant Risks are quite Wide-spread.
Battling the Saracens, 1250
Combat in the Seventh Crusade
Printer Friendly Version >>>
T he news reached France's King Louis IX as he lay on his sickbed in Paris during the summer of 1244: Jerusalem had again been conquered by the Infidel Muslims. Desperately ill and near death, the King vowed in a prayer that if he got well, he would mount a crusade to recapture the Holy City. The King regained his health, but four years lapsed before he honored his vow and launched what would become the Seventh Crusade. It was a debacle. In August 1248, Louis and his army sailed with great fervor from France to the island of Cyprus. They spent the next few months there preparing for an assault on Egypt whose conquest would provide grain to feed the army and open the road to Jerusalem. The decisive battle was fought in February 1250 at the town of Al Mansurah in the Nile delta. Louis and his army were utterly defeated by the Muslims and forced to retreat. Louis was ultimately captured and held for ransom along with his brothers and many of the nobles who accompanied the campaign. With payment of the ransom, Louis was released. The king remained in the Middle East encamped at the Christian stronghold at Acre until troubles at home forced his return to France in 1254. "I gave him a thrust with my lance just under the arm-pits and struck him dead." Accompanying Louis IX on his crusade was Jean de Joinville, a councilor to the King, who kept a record of his adventures and later incorporated this into a biography he wrote of his sovereign. His experiences provide insight into warfare in the Middle Ages. We join de Joinville's story as he attacks some Muslims during the early stage of the Battle of Al Mansurah: ADVERTISMENT . . . I and my knights had decided to go and attack some Turks who were loading their baggage in their camp on our left; so we fell on them. As we were pursuing them through the camp I caught sight of a Saracen on the point of mounting his horse; one of his knights was holding the bridle. At the moment he had both his hands on the saddle to pull himself up, I gave him a thrust with my lance just under the arm-pits and struck him dead. On seeing this, his knight left his lord and the horse, and thrusting his lance at me as I passed, caught me between the shoulders, pinning me down to the neck of my horse in such a way that I could not draw the sword at my belt. I therefore had to draw the sword attached to my horse. When he saw me with my sword drawn he withdrew his lance and left me. When I and my knights came out of the Saracens' camp we found what we reckoned to be about six thousand Turks, who had left their tents and retreated into the fields. As soon as they saw us they came charging towards us, and killed Hugues de TricMtel, Lord of Conflans, who was with me bearing a banner. I and my knights spurred on our horses and went to the rescue of Raoul de Wanou, another of my company, whom they had struck to the ground.
As I was coming back, the Turks thrust at me with their lances. Under the weight of their attack my horse was brought to its knees, and I went flying forward over its ears. I got up as soon as ever I could, with my shield at my neck and sword in hand. One of my knights, named Erard de Siverey - may God grant him grace! - came to me and advised our drawing back towards a ruined house where we could wait for the king, who was on his way. As we were going there, some on foot and some on horseback, a great body of Turks came rushing at us, bearing me to the ground and riding over my body, so that my shield went flying from my neck. As soon as they had passed, Erard de Siverey came back to me and took me with him to the walls of the tumble-down house. Here we were joined by Hugues d'Ecot, Frederic de Loupey, and Renaud de Menoncourt. While we were there the Turks attacked us from all sides. Some of them got into the house and pricked us with their lances from above. My knights asked me to hold on to their horses' bridles, which I did, for fear the beasts should run away. Then they put up a vigorous defence against the Turks, for which, I may say, they were afterwards highly praised by all men of good standing in the army, both those who witnessed their bravery and those who heard of it later. During this incident, Hugues d'Ecot received three wounds in the face from a lance, and so did Raoul de Wanou, while Frederic de Loupey had a lance-thrust between his shoulders, which made so large a wound that the blood poured from his body as if from the bung-hole of a barrel. A blow from one of the enemy's swords landed in the middle of Erard de Siverey's face, cutting through his nose so that it was left dangling over his lips. At that moment the thought of Saint James came into my mind, and I prayed to him: 'Good Saint James, come to my help, and save us in our great need.' Just as I had uttered this prayer Erard de Siverey said to me: 'My lord, if you think that neither I nor my heirs will incur reproach for it, I will go and fetch you help from the Comte d'Anjou, whom I see in the fields over there.' I said to him: 'My dear man, it seems to me you would win great honor for yourself if you went for help to save our lives; your own, by the way, is also in great danger.' (I spoke truly, for he died of his wound.) He consulted the other knights who were there, and they all gave him the same advice as I had given him. After hearing what they said, he asked me to let go his horse, which I was holding by the bridle; so I let him take it.
He went over to the Comte d' Anjou and begged him to come to the rescue of me and my people. A person of some importance who was with the count tried to dissuade him, but he said he would do as my knight had asked. So he turned his horse's head to come to our help, and a number of his sergeants set spurs to their horses as well. As soon as the Saracens saw them coming, they turned to leave us. Pierre d' Auberive, who was riding in front of the sergeants with his sword clenched in his fist, saw them leaving and charged right into the midst of the Saracens who were holding Raoul de Wanou, and rescued him, sorely wounded As I stood there on foot with my knights, wounded as I have told you, King Louis came up at the head of his battalions, with a great sound of shouting, trumpets, and kettledrums. He halted with his troops on a raised causeway. Never have I seen a finer or more handsome knight! He seemed to tower head and shoulders above all his people; on his head was a gilded helmet, and a sword of German steel was in his hand. The moment he stopped, those good knights in his division whom I have already named to you, together with other valiant knights of his, flung themselves right at the Turks. It was, I can assure you, a truly noble passage of arms, for no one there drew either bow or crossbow; it was a battle of maces against swords between the Turks and our people, with both sides inextricably entangled." References:
This eyewitness account appears in: Villehardouin, Geoffroi de; Joinville, Jean; Shaw, Margaret R.B. (translator), Chronicles of the Crusades, (1963). How To Cite This Article:
"Battling the Saracens, 1250," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2009).
A RELENTLESS nine-month campaign to save the only country boarding facility between Perth and Geraldton has paid off, after the Federal government this week announced it would provide $8.7 million to keep open the doors of the Moora Residential College (MRC).
The MRC was set to close at the end of this school year after WA Education Minister Sue Ellery announced last December that an $8.7m upgrade flagged for the college would be taken off the table as part of a raft of cuts to education, in a bid to fix the States dire budgetary circumstances.
Save Moora College campaigners have since been fighting for $500,000 to fund urgent maintenance work for the continued safe functioning of the residential facility, which is home to 25 students who attend Central Midlands Senior High School (CMSHS).
After a sophisticated social media campaign, tireless lobbying and multiple protests on the footsteps of State Parliament, the Moora community was told on Tuesday the Federal government had decided to step in, with an $8.7m capital grant for the colleges refurbishment.
CMSHS P&C president Tracey Errington, who led the fight to save the college, said there were tears of joy at the high school when students were told their home away from home would remain open.
There were tears, there was laughing; its just awesome, Ms Errington said.
Theyre all so excited; staff and students are just so relieved and everyone is thrilled that weve got our full funding for the upgrade.
Ms Errington said the persistence and determination of the Moora community to keep the facility open was a reflection of the importance of the MRC, and the resilience of regional WA.
It says a lot about the community fighting together for something that they believe in, she said.
We care about our kids, we care about our community and we werent prepared to just let it get steamrolled.
We want to congratulate both the Federal government and State governments for coming to the party and reversing the decision.
Moora Shire president Ken Seymour said he was over the moon that the Federal government had thrown its support behind the college, a facility he described as an essential part of the Moora community.
He said keeping the MRC open would not only retain some of the student population at CMSHS, but help draw new families to regional WA.
When trying to attract people to country towns, especially with children, they come in and they look at the education facilities and the medical facilities, Mr Seymour said.
If theyre both good, theyre prepared to move into the region and run their businesses and find employment, so education and medical facilities are at the top of the list and when theyre not there people go elsewhere.
Mr Seymour said the efforts of Save Moora College campaigners and support from the wider WA community had been pivotal in keeping the college open.
He singled out Ms Errington, who he described as a tireless, dogged worker.
The workload that she was under and the amount of research she has been able to achieve has just been phenomenal, Mr Seymour said.
Theyve got the message out there loud and clear and its just been phenomenal to watch.
If anything, its galvanised the community.
Deputy Prime Minister and The Nationals leader Michael McCormack said the grass roots campaign to save the college had sent a resounding message across Australia that keeping the country residential facility was essential.
He said the Federal government understood regional Western Australians should have the same access to the basic educational opportunities their metropolitan counterparts enjoyed.
The community outrage expressed at various events, on social media and in the general media demonstrated not only the value of the Moora education facilitys great value to regional residents and students, but also the need to protect these people by ensuring they can continue to have fair access to essential, basic services like education, Mr McCormack said.
The Federal Liberal and Nationals government is committed to backing regional Australians which is why weve agreed to provide $8.7 million in capital funding to the Moora Residential College to secure its future by building new residencies.
Unlike others, we understand regional people living in a regional town like Moora, or any other non-metropolitan post code, such as those who will now have continued access to the Residential College, should be protected and not threatened by government actions and funding allocations.
Liberal Durack MP Melissa Price backed Mr McCormacks sentiments, and said keeping the college was of huge importance to those in her electorate.
Ms Price said she had worked closely with Mr McCormack and Liberal Senator for Western Australia, Mathius Cormann, to ensure Federal funding would allow the MRC to remain available for regional students.
This is some of the best news for my electorate and I am very proud my support and lobbying for this outcome has been realised; parents and students can now enjoy the certainty of a bright future, Ms Price said.
Premier Mark McGowan thanked the Federal government for its financial assistance and said the State would support the college through ongoing recurrent funding.
He said the State government had already thrown $60,000 behind the school this year to improve fire detection and warning systems for the safety of students and staff at the MRC.
I understand this process has been difficult for the community, staff, parents and students, Mr McGowan said.
Our decision to close the boarding facility was an extremely tough decision, but it was made in the context of the dire financial situation we inherited.
I would like to thank the Federal government and Senator Cormann, in particular, for their funding offer and welcome their interest in supporting WA.
Together with the community, we now have an opportunity to make an upgraded facility in Moora work in the long-term and ensure the boarding facility is sustainable into the future.
My government remains committed to delivering responsible financial management in the best interests of the whole State.
The SEC closed its investigation into ING Group NV one day after the banking giant reached a $900 million settlement with Dutch authorities.
In a new SEC filing Wednesday, ING said:
As previously noted, in connection with the investigations ING also received information requests from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). ING has received a formal notification from the SEC that it has concluded its investigation. In the letter the Division of Enforcement states that, based on information as of this date, it does not intend to recommend an SEC enforcement action against ING.
ING said Tuesday it will pay the Dutch Public Prosecution Service 675 million ($782 million) and disgorge 100 million ($115 million) to resolve criminal investigations for lapses in client on-boarding, the prevention of money laundering, and corrupt practices.
The SECs declination is consistent with the feds new policy against piling on. In May, the DOJ said it will try to avoid multiple-agency prosecutions of corporate defendants in FCPA and other cases.
According to FCPA Tracker, ING first disclosed the criminal investigations in an SEC filing in March 2017.
ING Group shares are listed in Amsterdam, Brussels, and New York.
____
Harry Cassin is the managing editor of the FCPA Blog.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. In the final hours of the states 2018 legislative session, the California Legislature passed a wide-ranging bill aimed at strengthening and updating Californias new motor vehicle franchise laws. Its passage wasnt a complete victory for the California New Car Dealers Association (CNCDA), which has lobbied for the bill since it was introduced in February by Assemblymember Eloise Reyes (D-San Bernardino).
Missing from the final bill, which was approved last Thursday by a 77-0 vote, were protections addressing future services and opportunities for automakers to serve customer directly. The legislation, AB 2107, now heads to Gov. Jerry Browns desk. He has until Sept. 30 to veto or sign the bill. If no action is taken, the legislation will take effect Jan. 1, 2019.
Thanks to the stewardship of Assemblymember Reyes, the passage of AB 2107 is a huge victory for all Californians, local businesses and consumers alike, said CNCDA President Brian Maas. If signed by the Governor, the passage of this bill brings Californias new motor vehicle franchise laws further into the 21st century by establishing a level playing field between local independently-owned dealerships and multinational vehicle manufacturers.
If enacted, the legislation will add further clarifications related to retail reimbursements on warranty work and customer retail pay. It will also expand the types of protests dealers can file with the states New Motor Vehicle Board regarding manufacturer encroachment; would deem a facility upgrade requirement as unreasonable if a facility was modified in the last 15 years; and builds upon existing law requiring that all performance standards be reasonable with a dealers demographics, market characteristics, allocation, local and state economic circumstances, and historical performance of the line-make.
Additionally, the bill allows dealers to select their own digital service vendors, restricting manufacturers from selecting specific vendors for their dealers to use. It also restricts a manufacturers ability to force dealers to repair a vehicle that a dealer is not allowed to sell or lease.
The legislation also preserves the states existing statutory disclosure dealers are required to give to consumers when a non-OEM endorsed F&I product is sold, thereby prohibiting OEMs from instituting their own disclosure form as General Motors did last summer. The bill also clarifies that treating dealers differently when providing financing or advancing money because the dealer sold a non-approved product is prohibited.
Stripped from the approved legislation, however, was a proposed statewide ban on automakers engaging in direct-to-consumer sales. The language would have modified the states existing guideline, which states that an automaker cant compete against a same-brand dealership within a relevant market area.
Additionally, another provision was stripped from the bill earlier this summer that would have banned automakers from offering subscription programs unless they use their dealers to operate them.
Franchise laws exist to govern the relationship between dealers and manufacturers, and California was overdue for significant improvements in the laws that will continue to protect dealers, their businesses and their customers, Maas said. We are pleased and encouraged that the California State Legislature unanimously agrees and supports our approach to improvements in Californias franchise laws.
For the second year in a row, the American Film Showcase (AFS) and the El Gouna Film Festival continue their partnership in the second edition of the festival. The cooperation will be highlighted during the Cine Gouna platform, while a workshop and mentoring session managed by two prominent American filmmakers Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe will take place during the festival.
Both Fulton and Pepe are directors of documentaries and fiction films and collaborated together in both fields for over 20 years. Their documentary feature Lost in La Mancha was nominated for the European Film Award for Best Documentary and won the evening standards Peter Sellers Award for the best comedy. In 2016, their latest documentary The Bad Kids received the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and was selected for the American Film Showcase (AFS).
AFS is the premier film diplomacy program of the US State Department, in cooperation with the University of Southern Californias School of Cinematic Arts. The AFS program promotes people-to-people engagement, offers contemporary insights into American society, and fosters understanding across cultures.
The participation of the AFS in the EL Gouna Festival was facilitated by the US Embassy, who will also offer a $10,000 post production fund and online mentorship opportunity with an American distributor for an Egyptian filmmaker. The fund will be presented at the award ceremony of the festival.
The second edition of El Gouna Film Festival is set to open on September 20 and will last for eight days in the seaside resort town of El Gouna. Eighty films will be screened throughout the festival and the Creative Achievement award will be granted to the iconic Egyptian director Dawood Abdel Sayed and Tunisian producer Dorra Bouchoucha.
For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture
Search Keywords:
Short link:
Politecnico Milano, a scientific-technological university based in Milan, Italy, and 360 Capital Partners, a European venture capital firm, have partnered to launch a new 60m fund.
Poli360 aims to support tech transfer from academia to industry backing students and researchers from Politecnico Milano.
The investments will focus on advancing high tech projects and startups based on research and/or IP in such sectors as industrial manufacturing, automation, energy, civil infrastructure and telecommunications management, advanced materials, and design.
They will cover the entile lifecycle of innovation projects, from the beginning focused on tech development to IP tech transfer to the industry, to high-tech company creation.
The fund will leverage the expertise of Politecnico Milano and the tech transfer platform managed by Technology Transfer Office of Politecnico and by PoliHub, a startup incubator.
The new vehicle will be managed by 360 Capital Partners, which will closely work with the offices of the university involved in the initiative.
Poli360 will also leverage an anchor investiment from ITAtech and other Italian industrial groups.
FinSMEs
05/09/2018
. (), ...
The Cairo International Festival for Contemporary and Experimental Theatre will run between 10 and 20 September
The Cairo International Festival for Contemporary and Experimental Theatre will kick off its 25th edition Thursday at the Higher Council for Culture, revealing its program before the performances start on 10 September.
The festival, headed by Sameh Mahran, will honor two Egyptian theatre icons, famous actor Ezzat El-Alaily and puppeteer Nagy Shaker, who died last month at the age of 86.
The festival committee, who announced the launch of a YouTube channel, has chosen 25 shows out of 160 submissions from 35 countries, including Brazil, Tunisia and Kuwait. The performances will be staged on numerous theatres across Cairo.
Amid the celebration of the silver jubilee, the Festival revived many performances that won prizes and caught attention throughout the past years by showcasing their records during August.
The Festival will also publish a historic book that documents all the shows and seminars held during all of its editions.
The press conference, headed by the Minister of Culture Inas Abdel-Dayem, will take place on Thursday 6 September.
The Cairo Int'l Festival for Experimental Theatre launched in the late 1980s. It was suspended in 2011 and returned as the Cairo Int'l Festival for Contemporary and Experimental Theatre in 2016.
For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture
Search Keywords:
Short link:
Gov. Rick Scott, a November Republican candidate for U.S. Senator, held a rally at the Southwest Florida Military Museum and Library late Tuesday afternoon to honor local veterans and share his thoughts on the upcoming election.
Special guest speakers included Florida native and North Fort Myers resident Gen. Jim Dozier, a 35-year Army veteran who earned a Silver Star and Purple Heart. He was a prisoner of war in Italy in 1981 for 42 days; Ed McSorley, a Marine who served in Vietnam and received a Purple Heart; and Capt. Wayne Smith, an Air Force veteran who served 5 years as a POW alongside the late John McCain in Vietnam. He has earned countless military honors and is currently a board member of the SWFL Veterans Alliance.
Weve got to give respect to the people who are willing to die for our freedom, Scott said to the tightly gathered group, including a number of veterans, inside the museum.
Scott, a Navy veteran in his own right, has awarded more than 15,000 veterans with the Governors Veterans Service Medal during his time as governor.
Along side his wife Ann, Scott told family stories about visiting military-themed museums and landmarks.
He spoke of his recent trip to Kuwait, his time in the Navy and how difficult it was, and still can be, to acclimate back into society after serving.
He touched on his work trying to help military families solve issues with jobs, educational opportunities and getting mental health support quicker.
We have six, five-star veteran nursing homes in Florida, Scott said. Go visit one of them. People tell you some unbelievable stories.
I will do everything I can to make this country a better country, for our veterans, Scott said to the crowd in closing. Its the most important thing I think we can do.
Scott spoke with the media following his speech and gave his thoughts on the current algae crisis and the claims by current senator and Scotts opponent in November, Democrat Bill Nelson, that Scotts to blame for the issue.
Our Department of Environmental Protection, the budgets up 30 percent since I got elected. We have funded project after project. We have record funding to deal with the Everglades, he said.
Scott spent some time pointing out the mistakes Nelson has made.
Hes been there 40 years and done nothing. And all he can do right now is attack, said Scott.
Im going to represent this state, Scott said when asked what hes going to do that Nelson didnt. Hes good at doing nothing.
He mentioned how it was he who got the money for the Herbert Hoover Dike restorations, and how it couldve been done sooner if not for Nelson.
Ive got the money for the dike, finally. Thatll take until 2022, he said.
What Congress still needs to do and President Trump has already approved it is the EAA reservoir. And weve put in $800 million. The feds are actually $900 million behind, in an agreement they made with us years ago, to match us with Everglades funding.
Im going to focus on just like Ive done is record funding for the environment, record funding for transportation, record funding for reports, Scott said. Im going to make sure, if were going to send our federal taxes up there, were going to get our fair share back.
Connect with this reporter on Twitter: @haddad_cj
Four suspected criminals were killed in a shootout today with security forces in New Cairo's Fifth Settlement.
Security forces targeted a gang of masked men who opened fire on a man driving his private car on Tesein Road in the Fifth Settlement in an attempt to force him to pull over, but he managed to escape.
They also fired on a truck driver, shooting him in the leg and stealing all of his money.
Security forces followed the masked men to Egypt's Ain Sokhna road, where both sides exchanged fire, killing the criminals.
Authorities found two automatic rifles, live ammunition, and empty bullet casings by the bodies.
The prosecutors have been brought in to investigate the incident.
Search Keywords:
Short link:
This blog covers software patent news and issues with a particular focus on wireless, mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers, connected cars) as well as select antitrust matters surrounding those devices.
There's a new Ford watch that costs $461,500.
But it comes with a car.
Well, its really the other way around.
Its a special edition chronograph made by Autodromo thats only available to owners of the $450,000 Ford GT supercar and lists at $11,500.
The watch is assembled in the USA using Swiss movement, and features a knob and buttons styled after the switchgear in the mid-engine coupe. Buyers can pick the colors of the face, stripes and bezel to match those on their vehicle. Its delivered in a carbon fiber box and comes with an aluminum case engraved with the cars chassis number.
Ford plans to make only about 1,000 GTs through 2020, and Ford Performance Marketing Manager Jim Owens doesnt expect that every owner will buy a watch to go with it, so matching pairs may become hot tickets on the auction circuit, where GTs have already been sold for as much as $1.8 million.
Too rich for your blood? There's also a fan version for $695, but anyone can buy one of those.
Well, anyone with a spare $695 who thinks watches are still a thing.
FORD GT TEST DRIVE:
Amanda Bynes is back on social media.
After almost six months since her last tweet, Bynes, 32, took to Twitter on Tuesday to share her first post, a photo of herself sitting alongside "Hairspray" producer, Neil Meron.
"Me and the incomparable producer of Hairspray, as well as many other amazing things," Bynes captioned the picture of the pair. In 2007, Bynes starred in the musical film as Penny Pingleton.
Meron retweeted the post writing: "What a great #reunion @amandabynes I was so happy to see you and share a meal."
Earlier this year, it was reported that Bynes was planning a Hollywood comeback.
At the time, Us Weekly reported that Bynes was looking to make a triumphant return to Hollywood after being plagued with a troubled past.
Amanda is going to be graduating from fashion school this summer, a source told the magazine in February. She is doing so well and is very excited about the next chapter of her professional life.
Bynes last appeared in the 2010 movie "Easy A," in which she played Marianne.
John Krasinski couldnt contain his excitement when he was given the rare privilege of sitting down with CIA personnel while filming Amazon Prime Videos new series Tom Clancys Jack Ryan.
I have to say, I completely nerded out when I went to see them, Krasinski, 38, told Fox News Friday during the series premiere at the Battleship USS Iowa to kick off LA Fleet Week.
I will say I also thought that it would be the most uneventful interview Ive ever had in my life because I thought every answer would be We cant talk about that, and instead they were the most unbelievably diverse, intelligent, giving and generous group and we are so lucky to have them.
For his meeting, the Office alum spoke about his time in the 2016 Michael Bay film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi." He was unsure of what would come away from his conversation with the CIA other than the sensationalized Hollywood account of whats been shown.
To be honest, I think I went in there very similar to '13 Hours' I think I went in there with a more Hollywood version of what I was expecting and what I wanted to get out of it, he said.
So, for '13 Hours' I went in there really wanting to learn about the warrior and I think what I really ended up coming away with was being proud to get to know these men."
Krasinski continued: And, I think thats how I feel about going to the CIA, I went in there wanting to meet spies and wanting to meet officers, and instead I met incredibly dedicated people and very honorable people and people who are putting their lives in the line in a whole different way. And, if chosen to do that selfishly I dont know, theres nothing more heroic than that for me.
During Fox News' conversation with the A Quiet Place star, he never wavered on his affinity for the men and women who serve our nation and even praised the boy scout-like nature of his Jack Ryan character, who Krasinski says is as normal a hero as they come.
For me as a person, Jack Ryan ever since I was a kid, hes one of those people who doesnt have a cape and he doesnt shoot things out of his hands hes guy who uses his instincts and his brain, Krasinski explained.
And more importantly, theres a lot of jokes in the show about him being a boy scout and I dont know I kind of thought its about time that we had a boy scout on television as a hero now.
Krasinski elucidated that the work he and his band of cast-mates and crew members did filming Jack Ryan pales in comparison to the everyday efforts the CIA members and our troops.
Im a big anti-hero fan. I love 'Homeland,' I love 'Breaking Bad,' but maybe it was time to have a good guy out there for once and I was really excited to do that, he said.
"I certainly am inspired to at least have the opportunity to play someone whos representing a community like the CIA.
You realize by doing a show like this how lucky we are to have those people on the front line for us because it sure as hell wouldnt want to be me because you wouldnt want me out there, youd want the real people.
Kim Kardashian West is taking on the case of another prisoner with a life sentence, after her campaign to free Alice Marie Johnson earlier this year was successful, according to a new report.
During an appearance on Jason Floms Wrongful Conviction podcast, which is set to air Wednesday, Kardashian, 37, said she's been talking to Chris Young, who is currently serving a life sentence without parole, Page Six reported.
Yesterday, I had a call with a gentleman thats in prison for a drug case got life. Its so unfair, Kardashian said, adding: Hes 30 years old. Hes been in for almost 10 years.
Per the site, Kardashian said Young was sentenced to life in prison without parole for possession of marijuana and half a gram of cocaine following his arrest in 2010 because of mandatory-sentencing regulations.
The Keeping Up with the Kardashians star went on to share that she's been in contact with former Judge Kevin Sharp of Tennessee, who according to Page Six resigned over a law that forced him to give out the life sentence.
I was on the phone with the judge that sentenced him to life... who resigned because he had never been on the side of having to do something so unfair, and now he is fighting [alongside] us to get [Young] out, said Kardashian, who added that she speaks to President Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner regularly, calling him passionate about changing sentencing laws.
The Dallas Morning News reported in June that Brittany K. Barnett, who was a member of Johnson's legal team, was also working to get Young released.
Kardashian took her quest to have Johnson pardoned all the way to the White House. On May 30, she met with President Trump in the Oval Office. Following their meeting, on June 6, Trump commuted Johnsons life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense, enabling her to be released from prison.
Kardashian expressed her gratitude to the president at the time in a tweet which read, Best news ever!!!! So grateful to @realDonaldTrump, Jared Kushner & to everyone who has showed compassion and contributed countless hours to this important moment for Ms. Alice Marie Johnson. Her commutation is inspirational & gives hope to so many others who are deserving of a second chance. I hope to continue important work by working together with organizations who have been fighting this fight for much longer than I have and deserve the recognition.
Fox News' Morgan M. Evans contributed to this report.
Actor Christopher Lawford, the nephew of President John F. Kennedy, has died, TMZ is reporting.
The frequent Extra correspondent was at a yoga studio Tuesday night when he had a medical emergency and later passed away, a law enforcement official told the outlet.
Law enforcement officials did not immediately return Fox News' request for comment.
Lawford was the only son and oldest child of Patricia Kennedy -- sister of John, Robert and Ted Kennedy -- and Peter Lawford -- the English actor and socialite who was a member of Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack.
The coroner's office also told Fox News it did not have Lawford's body. Officials said that if Lawford was in LA County and had seen a physician within the last 20 days, the doctor could have signed the death certificate and he wouldn't have had to be seen by the medical examiner.
Lawford's publicist said she didn't know about Lawford's reported death and it's all news to her.
However, Lawford's cousin Kerry Kennedy shared her condolences on Twitter.
Lawford had made a long career as an actor making appearances on All My Children, General Hospital, Terminator 3, Frasier as well as a number of other television shows.
Closely related to President Kennedy, Lawford was also an author and was an active member of the Democratic National Committee, where he worked with his uncle, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.
TMZ reported Lawfords cause of his death was from natural causes.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Josh Waring plans to sue Orange County, Calif., after saying his jail cell was pepper-balled.
Former Real Housewives of Orange County star Lauri Petersons son claims that deputies deployed five non-lethal pepper balls into his cell at Californias Intake Release Center earlier this summer, according to The Blast. He said the alleged attack was unprovoked, and that he was not able to access medical attention or water afterward. As a result, he wants $2 million.
Peterson told Page Six on Tuesday that she believes the alleged actions could have been in retaliation for Josh filing grievances regarding his treatment behind bars. She said Orange County has 30 days to respond to his complaint. He has been in prison on attempted murder charges for two years.
He writes grievances but they just laugh at those, tear them up and throw them in the trash can, she said.
Peterson told us that she believes officers continue to mistreat her son.
When they get mad at him they wont let him make his phone calls that are court ordered, she alleged. Hes to receive two hours of court-ordered phone calls which theyd withhold those for days. They turned off his lights in his cell theres only one light in his cell they turned off his light for seven days. And so he was in total darkness for seven straight days.
Theyll put him in the visiting booth and leave him there for up to eight hours sometimes without even letting the visitor come see him. But theyll keep him chained to a metal stool with no food or water or a restroom break or medication.
Page Six previously reported that Waring is suing Orange County for $1.4 million, claiming his privileged phone calls were intercepted while he was acting as his own attorney.
Peterson told us he came up with the $1.4 million figure $1,000 per violation based on the judgment in another case over a similar matter.
This story originally appeared in the New York Post.
Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle company, Goop, has agreed to pay a settlement after it was accused of making unscientific claims regarding three of its products.
According to Goop, its $66 Jade Egg can help balance hormones, regulate menstrual cycles, and increase bladder control when inserted vaginally. However, 10 prosecutors from the California Food, Drug and Medical Device Task Force said in their lawsuit that Goop's claims "were not supported by competent and reliable science."
Goop agreed to pay the $145,000 settlement but told SFGate in a statement, "While Goop believes there is an honest disagreement about these claims, the company wanted to settle this matter quickly and amicably."
Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a press release, "We will vigilantly protect consumers against companies that promise health benefits without the support of good scienceor any science."
The other two products called into question were Goop's $55 Rose Quartz Egg and its $22 Inner Judge Flower Essence Blend. Customers who purchased the products between Jan. 12, 2017 and Aug. 31, 2017 will be refunded.
The ruling also stops Goop from making "any claims regarding the efficacy or effects of any of its products without possessing competent and reliable scientific evidence that substantiates the claims."
Last year, Paltrow's wellness company was awarded the "Rusty Razor" award for being the "best" at promoting "pseudoscientific nonsense." The company has long been been criticized for promoting "health benefits" without scientific proof.
New episodes of House of Cards won't be available on Netflix until Nov. 2, but the show has already released a clip suggesting protagonist Frank Underwood is dead.
On Wednesday, the shows Twitter account shared footage of Robin Wright as President Claire Underwood, Frank's on-screen wife.
ROSEANNE BARR GETS EMOTIONAL, SAYS SHE CRIED WHEN JOHN GOODMAN DEFENDED HER
Ill tell you this though, Francis, she says in the clip, referring to Spaceys character. When they bury me, it wont be in my backyard.
She adds, And when they pay their respects, theyll have to wait in line.
You should have known, the show wrote when sharing the video, which features a tombstone indicating Frank lived from 1959 to 2017.
Kevin Spacey starred as the House Majority Whip, who eventually worked his way into the presidency, for five seasons.
His character's headstone lies to the left of his father's in the clip.
An episode from the show's third season involved Frank visiting the South Carolina site and urinating on the grave of his father, Calvin Underwood.
Fans, however, have been expecting the absence of Spacey's role from the program.
The Hollywood star, 59, was accused of sexual misconduct last fall by several men and the show's production was subsequently put on pause in October 2017.
A representative for Netflix told Fox News at the time they would take proper steps to ensure cast and crew members felt "safe and supported."
"[We're] deeply troubled by [the] news concerning Kevin Spacey. ... As previously scheduled, Kevin Spacey is not working on set at this time," the company said.
Spacey also released a statement admitting he didnt remember at least one of the alleged incidents involving actor Anthony Rapp who first told Buzzfeed News that Spacey, then 26, made a sexual advance on him when he was 14 years old. In the statement, the 58-year-old star came out as a gay man.
Netflix later announced it was parting ways with Spacey, and the show resumed production in January for its final season.
Fox News' Kathleen Joyce contributed to this report.
At age 10, Craig Horwich had a big mouth loaded with questions for his future stepfather, Jackie Gleason.
The celebrated comedian, one of the top stars of Hollywood during the 50s and 60s, is still remembered today as roly-poly bus driver Ralph Kramden of The Honeymooners, a sitcom he created based on one of his comic sketches. Gleason passed away in 1987 at age 71 from cancer.
Horwich, now 55, runs Jackie Gleason Enterprises, which still licenses the actors shows and specials. With the help of Horwich, Time-Life recently released a DVD collection of The Jackie Gleason Show, which also features unreleased episodes in full color.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Horwich told Fox News he still vividly remembers meeting the TV icon for the first time.
I was unaware of the magnitude of his fame, said Horwich. He was an incredible man. I had questionitis. I remember him saying that to me. I had questionitis. He answered a trove of questions that came out in rapid fire from this young boys mind.
"He lived in this beautiful, big home. He would be driven around in a limo He was always well dressed. Always at the head of the table and in charge. I found him very intriguing.
Gleason first met Horwichs mother, Marilyn Taylor of the June Taylor Dancers, in the late 1940s while they were working the east coast nightclubs. The troupe was ultimately featured in Gleasons variety programs. A romance soon blossomed.
By 1952, thats when Jackie and my mom began a relationship, said Horwich. But my mom would not go out with Jackie until he got a separation. He was married, but separated The relationship ran its course. Jackie was unable to be granted a divorce. He was very Catholic as his wife was. So the relationship really had a shelf life. So they went their own ways.
Gleason was then married to dancer Genevieve Halford, with whom he had two daughters. They eventually divorced in 1970 and Gleason went on to marry former secretary Beverly McKittrick from 1970. That union lasted until 1974.
Meanwhile, Taylor had moved north.
After they went their own ways, my mom moved to Chicago and met my father, said Horwich. I was then born. And then in the early 70s, my father passed away in Chicago. So my mom and I moved to Florida so she could be with her family.
Then fate came knocking. It turned out Gleason happened to be in Florida when Taylor came to town.
When he found out my mom was now widowed and living in South Florida He wooed and reunited with her, he said. They married and quite literally lived happily ever after.
Horwich, who was 12 when the couple tied the knot, witnessed a new side to the TV star.
The majority of his time at home was spent quietly, he said. He was a prolific reader. Constantly reading. There was a store called Bookland Every week or two the owners would come by and drop off a box of books. Jackie just consumed books. He read everything but he was most intrigued with non-fiction. He felt that his life as an actor, as a performer, was all fiction.
He also listened to the radio. He had a room upstairs that we called the radio room. There were dozens of radios. He listened to airplanes flying over at the airport, long distance radio operators from around the world. He had the passion and curiosity of a child with the experiences of an adult.
Gleason, who grew up in working-class Brooklyn, N.Y., was happily enjoying the wealth and fame he achieved entertaining America with what Horwich described as his God-given talent. And Horwich insisted Gleason never grew tired for being recognized as Kramden.
He embraced it and was very proud of it all, boasted Horwich.
The Honeymooners, which explored the hilarious antics of a city bus driver (Gleason) and his sewer worker friend (Art Carney) as they struggled to strike it rich, aired from 1955 until 1956.
Kramden was originally one of a dozen characters Gleason played on his variety show The Jackie Gleason Show, which was broadcast live from what is now the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, the current home of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. That hourlong variety show aired from 1952 until 1957.
Horwich revealed Gleason never rehearsed to bring Kramden to life.
He had a photographic memory, he explained. He could watch somebody do a dance and on his first try recreate the dance. It was a gift and he knew it He believed rehearsals can take the edge off of a performance.
"Theres just nothing like that first performance. He didnt enjoy rehearsing so he didnt do it. Thats why Art Carney and Audrey Meadows (Alice Kramden) were deserving of all accolades. And Jackie at every point in his career always acknowledged their talents.
While Gleason was a gentle giant, he had high standards when it came to performers who would join him on stage. Horwich confirmed Meadows was originally rejected for the role of Kramdens wife because she was too glamorous.
Jackies vision of The Honeymooners was to be very authentic, very blue collar without the luster that we see on television, he explained. Audrey, who was a beautiful woman, originally auditioned but was told she was too attractive.
But she had an agent who said, I got an idea. Lets dress you down, take the makeup off and take an early morning shoot. They took photos of her without makeup and lighting. When Jackie saw it, he said, Theres Alice. Her beauty almost got in the way, but she proved she was perfect."
Despite The Honeymooners becoming a massive success, it ended after one season.
He signed a contract for two years, said Horwich. But Jackie realized that after one year that if you were to do any more, it would just be a variation of those same storylines. He said, I cant do this again, the audience will tire of it. That was it was just one year and 39 episodes. Those were the ones that were put in syndication from the 50s to today.
Gleason stayed busy successfully pursuing film, television and even music. His last credited role was 1986s Nothing in Common.
Horwich said that when it came to Gleasons outlook on life during his later years, he followed one motto Just play the melody.
Be true to yourself and everything will fall into place, explained Horwich. He had a very impoverished childhood in Brooklyn He learned as a young adult that there was a lot more out there He was able to provide through hard work an affluent life that he was very proud of. He was able to enjoy the rewards of his labor.
This article originally ran in September 2018.
Reality television star Kim Kardashian West has her sights set on changing the realities of several incarcerated people.
Kardashian West, 38, has met with President Trump at the White House multiple times now in her efforts to get pardons for certain people serving long prison sentences related to drug offenses.
On June 6, 2018, Trump commuted the sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, a great-grandmother who was serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug conviction. This came following a meeting with Kardashian West.
But Johnson isnt the only person Kardashian West has advocated for. Read on for a look at people shes trying to help.
Cyntoia Brown
Now 30 years old, Cyntoia Brown was serving a life sentence for a murder she committed when she was a 16-year-old prostitute. Brown said she shot a 43-year-old real estate agent after he picked her up and brought her back to his house because she was afraid for her life.
Prosecutors had alleged Brown was trying to rob him. She was slated to remain in prison for at least 51 years, meaning shell be at least 67 years old before she can be released.
But Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam granted her clemency in January which will allow her to be released on parole supervision later in 2019.
Kardashian West, who said last year she asked her attorneys to help with Brown's case, thanked the Republican governor on Twitter.
The system has failed. Its heartbreaking to see a young girl sex trafficked then when she had the courage to fight back is jailed for life! she previously said on social media. We have to do better & do whats right.
Matthew Charles
In May 2018, Kardashian West shared with her more than 60 million Twitter followers the story of Matthew Charles.
Charles was released from prison early in 2016 but was directed to go back to jail after a federal court said his reduced sentence was an error, Nashville Public Radio reported.
Charles, who is in his 50s, already served 21 years for selling crack to an informant, but he was sentenced to 35 years, according to Nashville Public Radio.
While in prison, Charles took college classes and became a law clerk. He even taught a GED program. He's had a job since he's been released.
In sharing Charles story, Kardashian West called the situation so sad.
This man has completely rehabilitated himself, she said.
Charles was released from prison at the beginning of 2019 after Trump signed the First Step Act, a sweeping criminal justice reform legislation, into law.
Alice Marie Johnson
Alice Marie Johnson was arrested in 1993 and convicted of drug conspiracy and money laundering in 1996, Mic previously reported. She became involved with cocaine dealers after she lost her job, her son was killed, she got divorced and her home was foreclosed on, according to Mic.
Johnson said she did not sell drugs or participate in drug deals, but she did admit to acting as an intermediary for those involved, passing along messages. She was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Trump granted clemency to Johnson on June 6, 2018. She was released from federal prison later that day.
If you think about a decision that youve made in your life, and you get life without the possibility of parole for your first-time nonviolent offense, theres just something so wrong with that, Kardashian West previously told Mic about Johnson.
Chris Young
Kardashian West told Jason Flom's "Wrongful Conviction" podcast that she has taken up the case of Chris Young, a Tennessee man who authorities said was caught buying crack cocaine in 2010. Because Young had already been charged with drug crimes twice, Young received a life sentence thanks to the state's "three-strike" law, The Tennessean reported.
The judge who handed down the sentence has said he does not believe it was the right decision and said what he was "required" to do was "cruel."
Kardashian West reportedly met with Trump on Sept. 5, 2018 to discuss Young's case.
Fox News' Benjamin Brown and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Sharon Osbourne is opening up about her son Jacks impending divorce.
Im sad. Im very, very sad, she said on SiriusXMs Howard Stern Show on Tuesday. Shes a good girl. And the thing is it just didnt work.
She continued, They love each other, they cant live with each other.
Jack Osbournes wife Lisa Stelly filed for divorce in May, just three months after they welcomed their third child together. Sources told Page Six at the time the couple had been fighting badly for the last nine months.
First and foremost, we absolutely still love each other, Jack, 32, wrote on Instagram at the time. Our family is the most important thing in our lives, and we tried everything we could for many years to make this work. Whats best for our family right now is that we separate lovingly, and remain best friends who are committed to raising our children together.
However, the amicable split seemed to turn sour last month when Jack allegedly punched Stellys new boyfriend. Then, he requested a judge not grant her any spousal support.
Despite the drama, Sharon said she still gets to see her grandchildren all the time.
They are such a joy, she told Stern.
This story originally appeared in the New York Post.
A restaurant chain in Oregon is receiving customer backlash after employees started wearing politically charged buttons that read Abolish ICE and No one is illegal much to the companys dismay.
Late last month, Burgerville sent home 10 workers from its Montavilla location in Portland after they refused to take off the pins which, supervisors said, violated company policy that bans "controversial" pins.
However, one day later, the company gave the employees back pay and let them return to work with their protest buttons after the union called the policy a form of "white supremacy."
RESTAURANT FACES BACKLASH AFTER SHAMING TEEN WHO PAID BILL WITH QUARTERS
The company, a small chain that operates in Oregon and southwest Washington, is currently negotiating a union contract with the Burgerville Workers Union (BVWU), the first federally recognized fast-food union in the United States.
The talks reportedly include the employees' rights to express their political views during work hours.
The BVWU did not immediately respond to Fox News request for comment, but made clear on Facebook its support of the Montavilla Burgerville employees.
MAINE RESTAURANT RESPONDS TO 'DISTURBING' COMMENTS AND 'HOSTILE' CUSTOMERS ANGRY OVER FRENCH FRY CHANGE
Lets be crystal clear: the only reason they changed this policy is because of the actions of our co-workers. When workers at Montavilla chose to not take off their Black Lives Matter, No One Is Illegal and Abolish ICE buttons knowing they would be forced to go home they used their collective power to denounce white supremacy and shut down the drive thru and dining hall, pushing Corporate to change their policy, the recent post reads.
While this is a huge victory, Corporate is not off the hook.
The post goes on to demand a formal apology to the crew at Montavilla for forcing them to decide between their jobs and supporting the fight against white supremacy.
Burgerville corporate did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment either, but Liz Graham, director of human resources, told The Oregonian that the company is working on a better way to roll out its button-free policy.
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS
"Guests provided feedback that they didn't want to see personal and political messages while they ate," Graham told The Oregonian. "Additionally, some employees expressed that the content of the buttons was drawing unwanted attention that made them uncomfortable."
Several customers have taken to Twitter to call for a boycott of the company after employees were allowed back to work with their protest pins.
However, there were many patrons that voiced their support of the employees' actions.
The company has expressed concern that buttons worn by employees could lead customers to make assumptions about the company's politics.
Well, that was quick.
On Sept. 1, the opening day of Iowas squirrel-hunting season, a 50-year-old man accidentally shot his brother, 55, at the Brushy Creek State Recreation Area, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources reported.
SEE IT: FLORIDA MEN PULL IN MASSSIVE 750-POUND GATOR: WE WERE 'MORE SCARED THAN WE WERE HAPPY'
Sao Bunpan and his brother Khor were hunting with two others when Khor accidentally shot Sao in the upper body, authorities believe. It is unclear what type of gun Khor was using, but the Department of Natural Resources had earlier suggested .22 rifles or shotguns in a news release ahead of opening day.
Sao was initially rushed to a hospital in Webster City, before being brought to Des Moines for further treatment. His injuries are said to be non-life-threatening.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) are investigating the incident, though they do not suspect foul play.
WATCH: SQUIRREL FILMED STEALING M&Ms AT DISNEY WORLD SOUVENIR SHOP
Ironically, in late August, the DNR issued a news release ahead of squirrel-hunting season, recommending it for novice hunters, as there isnt as much competition for squirrels.
Squirrel hunters can go out knowing theyre not likely to have their hunt interfered with by other hunters, Jim Coffey, a forest wildlife research biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, was quoted as saying. We had around 20,000 hunters harvest 100,000 squirrels in 2017.
Its a great introduction to hunting because there is such little competition from other hunters, he added.
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS
Iowas squirrel-hunting season runs through Jan. 31.
One Maryland fisherman is in critical condition after accidentally shooting himself in the head with a spear gun at sea.
The U.S. Coast Guard received a call around 2 p.m. Sunday that someone had been injured with a spear gun aboard a 25-foot cabin cruiser, roughly 35 nautical miles off the coastline of Ocean City, Patch Annapolis reported.
The identity of the injured man has not been released.
FLORIDA MEN PULL IN MASSIVE 750-POUND ALLIGATOR: MORE SCARED THAN WE WERE HAPPY
After emergency personnel responded to the scene, a Maryland State Police helicopter flew the injured fisherman to the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland in Baltimore.
According to WGDM, the trauma center called in members of the Baltimore City Fire Department's rescue squad to help remove the spear.
Just one other person was reported to be aboard the boat with the injured fisherman, Patch reported.
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS
Officials said that spear guns are mostly to catch larger fish.
If Bolivia's public records are correct, Carmelo Flores Laura is the oldest living person ever documented.
They say he turned 123 a month ago.
The native Aymara lives in a straw-roofed dirt-floor hut in an isolated hamlet near Lake Titicaca at 13,100 feet (4,000 meters), is illiterate, speaks no Spanish and has no teeth.
He walks without a cane and doesn't wear glasses. And though he speaks the Aymara language with a firm voice, one must speak directly into his ear to be heard.
"I see a bit dimly. I had good vision before. But I saw you coming," he tells a group of Associated Press reporters who drove from the capital, La Paz, after a local TV report about him.
Hobbling down a dirt path, Flores greets them with a raised arm, smiles and sits down on a rock to chat. His gums bulge with coca leaf, a mild stimulant that staves off hunger that, like most Bolivian highlands peasants, he has been chewing all his life.
Guinness World Records says the oldest living person verified by original proof of birth is Misao Okawa, a 115-year-old Japanese woman, while the oldest verified age on record was 122 years and 164 days: Jeanne Calment of France. She died in 1997.
"I should be about 100 years old or more," Flores says.
But his memory is failing.
His 27-year-old grandson Edwin says he fought in the 1933 Chaco war with Paraguay, but Flores said he only faintly remembers that.
The director of Bolivia's civil registrar, Eugenio Condori, showed the AP the registry that lists Carmelo Flores' birthdate as July 16, 1890.
Condori said there is no birth certificate because they did not exist in Bolivia until 1940. Before that, births were registered with baptism certificates from the nearest Roman Catholic church, authenticated by two witnesses.
"For the state, the baptism certificate is valid because in those days priests provided them and they were literate," Condori said. He said he could not show Flores' baptism certificate to the AP because it is a private document.
The grandson says the family had to show the government the baptism certificate so Flores could qualify for a monthly subsidy for the elderly.
To what does Flores owe his longevity?
"I walk a lot, that's all. I go out with the animals," says Flores, who long herded cattle and sheep. "I don't eat noodles or rice, only barley. I used to grow potatoes, beans, oca (an Andean tuber)."
The water Flores drinks streams down from the snow-capped peak of Illampu, one of Bolivia's highest mountains.
He says he doesn't drink alcohol, though did imbibe some in his youth. He's eaten a lot of mutton, and though he likes pork it is hardly available. He fondly remembers hunting and eating fox as a younger man.
Flores is rustic, to say the least. He's unshaven with several months of beard, long fingernails and has been wearing the same unwashed clothes for some time. His clothing includes tire-rubber soled sandals, a wool cap and a brimmed hat over that for extra protection from the piercing Andean sun.
He says he has never been farther afield than La Paz, 80 kilometers away, and has never been seriously ill.
And he sorely misses his wife, who died more than a decade ago.
Of their three children only one is still alive: Cecilio, age 67. There are 40 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren but most have left the hamlet of Frasquia, a dozen homes located a two-hour walk from the nearest road in Warisata. His grandson Edwin, Edwin's wife and their two children live next door.
Edwin Flores says his grandfather, who grew up in a semi-feudal society, long worked for the rancher who owned Frasquia until 1952, when the state seized major holdings in an agrarian reform and parceled them out to peasants who worked the land.
Although electrical power arrived in Frasquia three years ago, time seems to have stood still here.
As Flores spoke, peasants prepared chuno, or dehydrated and chilled potatoes, and tilled the soil with ox-driven plows. Donkeys brayed and sheep and cattle grazed.
Almost everyone was elderly or middle-aged. Most of the young are gone.
Things are getting a little hairy for cats in New Zealand.
The village of Omaui, in New Zealand, is considering a proposal to eventually ban all domestic cats in the area, according to The Guardian. The so-called pest plan will require all cats to be spayed or neutered and microchipped, and residents will not be able to replace their pets when they pass away.
Were not cat haters, but wed like to see responsible pet ownership and this really isnt the place for cats, said John Collins, of the Omaui Landcare Trust told Newshub.
The area is home to native bush and nature reserves, and cats are posing a threat to native wildlife including insects, reptiles, birds, and smaller animals, according to Newshub, which is the central issue behind the ban.
Residents of Omaui are upset, since observing wildlife in their backyards isnt exactly a replacement for a pet many of whom are considered members of the family: You're just told one day that your cats, your treasured little possessions... really, that's it. Either they get trapped in the traps, or those that survive can't be replaced, resident Terry Dean told Newshub.
Another resident, Nico Jarvis, told the Otago Daily Times that if I cannot have a cat, it almost becomes unhealthy for me to live in my house. She says her cats offer rodent control on her property as well as companionship.
The new proposal intends to make the area cat-free by 2050. Other areas of New Zealand, like the Kotuku Parks of Kapiti Island and Auckland have similar (though not the same) cat control measures, according to The Guardian.
Residents have two months to weigh in on the proposal.
This article originally appeared on Travel + Leisure.
NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!
Ever since Robert Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May 2017 to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible Russian collusion with Donald Trumps campaign a major question has loomed: Will Mueller and his team of prosecutors get to interview President Trump?
Negotiations between the Mueller team and lawyers for President Trump including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani for a possible presidential interview have gone on and on and on, yet as far as we know the question of President Trumps testimony remains unresolved. And all the while, the Mueller probe has preoccupied the news media, the American people, the president and his administration with no end in sight.
The continuing Mueller investigation is like an open wound on the presidency and our nation. It needs to be brought to a close and the best way to do that is for the president to tell Mueller all he knows about Russia and the election that put him in the White House.
Whether you support him or oppose him, we can all agree that President Trump is unconventional doing things other presidents have never done. So now its time for him to take another unconventional step: testify before Mueller and his team of prosecutors, under oath, and on live television so the American people can hear directly from their president on the Russia investigation and other allegations of wrongdoing against him, his campaign and his associates.
Once the president testifies, Muller should quickly wrap up his probe, lay his cards on the table by producing a report, and give us his assessment of whether the president or anyone working for his campaign or in the White House who has not already been charged with a crime broke the law and should face new charges.
And in President Trumps case, Congress should examine the Mueller report and decide whether to begin impeachment proceedings against the president. We all know the impeachment cloud is hanging over the presidents head weakening him as a world leader, limiting his effectiveness at home and taking his attention away from the many duties of his office. One way or another, this needs to end.
Why would President Trump want to testify on TV before Mueller? Wouldnt he be exposing himself to greater legal jeopardy and a greater chance of impeachment?
If the president is innocent of wrongdoing as he has stated many times he should have nothing to fear. He can save himself, his family and members of his inner circle from the prospect of further investigation by sitting down and answering Muellers questions.
Several of the questions around which prosecutors are circling involve matters of mental state or intent. There are plenty of them.
Did Donald Trump conspire with Russia to win the presidency? Is he aware of anyone on his campaign doing so?
Did President Trump fire FBI Director James Comey because he intended to block the investigation into Russian election meddling? Or did the president remove Comey because of the FBI directors record of bad judgment in publicly announcing investigatory steps into the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign during the summer and fall of 2016?
Did Trump intend to protect his family when he authorized the hush-money payoffs to two women alleging they had extramarital affairs with him? Did he even know about the campaign finance limits when he reimbursed his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, for payments to the women?
Lets face it: if marital infidelity was an impeachable offense, a lot of our presidents would have been forced out of office. As was the case with Bill Clinton when he was impeached by the House (but acquitted after a trial in the Senate) we can expect lawmakers will require criminal behavior before they convict a president in an impeachment trial. So the question is not whether Trump was a faithful husband its whether he broke any laws in trying to keep his alleged affairs (affairs he denies) quiet.
A publicly aired interview with Mueller without any limits on questions would allow President Trump to tell all he knows and pave the way for an end to the Mueller investigation.
Prosecutions like those against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen could be pursued by U.S. attorneys offices. So could other new cases of alleged criminal activity Mueller has uncovered.
By testifying voluntarily, President Trump would spare the nation the harm of a constitutional showdown with Mueller if Mueller tries to subpoena his testimony and the president fights such a move all the way to the Supreme Court.
As occurred with President Nixons tapes of White House conversations during the Watergate scandal, lower courts and ultimately the Supreme Court may assert the final authority to find the presidents testimony relevant to the investigation. The high court could decide that executive privilege must give way to the needs of a criminal investigation and order the president to honor a subpoena.
President Trump would then trigger a constitutional crisis if he refused to obey a judicial order a step that President Nixon refused to take when he handed over his tape recordings in the Watergate case.
By agreeing to an interview with Muller and his team, President Trump would also honor the fundamental constitutional responsibilities of the presidency. A private individual in Trumps circumstances might choose to refuse to cooperate, out of fear of a perjury trap where prosecutors seek to trick a witness making a false statement under oath. A private person could also invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and refuse to testify under those grounds.
But the very purpose of the executive power the president holds is the power to execute the laws. The Constitutions text vests the president with the core duty to take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed. With these words, the Constitution makes the president responsible for all federal law enforcement.
Consequently, the president must cooperate with the demands of those very prosecutors who work for him in the execution of his constitutional responsibilities. Otherwise, he encourages everyone to resist the needs of law enforcement, frustrates the carrying out of the laws, and ultimately fails in his constitutional duties.
For President Trump, his constitutional duty must come first. That demands that he tell the nation, under oath, once and for all, the truth about his 2016 campaign.
And if the president does this, Mueller has an obligation to wrap up his probe, report to Congress and the American people, and let the chips fall where they may. Our nations best interests will not be served if this investigation lasts for months and even years longer.
NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!
Top executives from Facebook and Twitter will undergo questioning before the Senate Intelligence Committee Wednesday from senators outraged by a rising deluge of scandals over online censorship, privacy invasion, secret data mining, fake news, hate speech and disinformation warfare campaigns by foreign nations.
Google was invited to the hearing as well but refused to send a top executive.
The concerns the Intelligence Committee are exploring are real, the dangers clear and present. But can we legislate our way out of this mess?
Heading into a historic midterm elections in November, foreign nations are actively attacking our social media in coordinated disinformation campaigns designed to sow social discord and political confusion.
Just last week, Facebook revealed it had found hundreds of fake accounts apparently generated by Russian and Iranian state-sponsored hacking crews.
Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., has warned: Election influence from abroad represents an intolerable assault on the democratic foundation this republic was built on.
Perhaps the scariest news yet is that Facebook can lead to violence that leaves people injured or even killed. A new landmark study has directly linked increases in per-person use of the social platform to large spikes in bigotry-fueled violence.
As their creations have spun out of control, social media companies have scrambled to develop programmatic solutions, many of them problematic. Facebook, for example, has been deploying a trustworthiness score to users in order to decide whose posts should be highlighted and whose should be buried.
While meant to combat fake news, trolls and bot accounts, this algorithm to automatically rate people reminiscent of Chinas Orwellian social credit system is a far cry from any ideal of an open and democratic national discourse. Instead, these are the types of cures that could kill the patient.
Despite the shocks of the current moment, there is also a sense of deja vu. Weve been on this journey with Facebook and other tech giants for the last 10 years or more. Its like a Groundhog Day of repetitive scandals.
Each time, storms of outrage, the distant thunder of looming legislation, and blizzards of #DeleteFacebook hashtags all soon melt away, as a numbing reality sets in. After the standard stages of anger and grief, most users come to realize there is no alternative.
To even consider leaving Facebook, despite its many fails and depredations, is difficult. For many, it would mean cutting off from friends, family and professional networks. It would mean vanishing from social circles and political tribes in short, a sort of modern exile or excommunication.
And there truly is nowhere to go. Facebook, Google, and the select members of our 21st century digital oligarchy have either laid waste to their enemies (read: competition) or colonized them (think Instagram).
Nearly half of all Americans now get their news from Facebook. So at the current scale, decisions made by Facebook and other social media companies have an outsized impact on our entire society.
When Facebook tweaks an algorithm for managing the flow of news, when Twitter posts a refreshed terms of use policy, or when Google adjusts its privacy defaults, those acts of curation now have the same impact as would a sweeping censorship law in years past.
The discourse and interactions of millions, even billions, of people are shifted with each secret edit of code.
At Wednesdays hearing, Intelligence Committee members will ask executives of Facebook and Twitter what they plan to do to counter malign actors, including foreign attempts to disrupt free and fair elections.
Senators will also ask about efforts to balance concerns over fake news and hate speech with the desire for an unimpeded flow of information and unfettered opinion. And they will once again demand an accounting for various breaches of privacy, personal data and trust.
All of these questions and concerns are valid. And most all of them have been asked and answered before, with promises made and with wringing of hands but with no significant result.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, has floated a white paper listing 20 policy proposals. Warner suggests legislative and regulatory action to reduce anticompetitive behavior, support public education and promote transparency of business practices.
Worthy in intent, these specific recommendations may be fixes around the edges. Moreover, the white paper itself warns that these suggested policies could have unforeseen effects and could potentially worsen the problems they are meant to address.
More importantly, Warners white paper spotlights the likely root cause of many problems: the rise of a few dominant platforms.
At Wednesdays hearing and in the other congressional committee hearings that will follow, asking social media companies to do better simply wont work. Nudging them with little carrots and sticks wont alter their efforts to become even larger and more powerful. Instead, the overall conditions must be reset.
Lets name the core problem, once and for all. What we are witnessing is a concentration of enormous power in just a handful of companies. When this happens, the cost of service becomes far too high. In this case, the price is not in dollars but rather to personal privacy, the free flow of information, human safety, the First Amendment and our democracy itself.
Tech giants like Facebook, Twitter and Google have grown so powerful that they can whether through intent or incompetence unleash serious threats to our society and political system. Yet they remain secretive and unaccountable.
The time has come for a serious consideration of antitrust action against these companies. Theyre just too big now, and therefore too dangerous.
NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!
After sitting through almost seven hours of opening statements from senators and repeated outbursts from protesters at his confirmation hearing Tuesday, Judge Brett Kavanaugh showed why he would be an outstanding Supreme Court Justice when he delivered a brief opening statement.
Democrats desperate to keep this extraordinarily qualified judge off the nations highest court never let up in their daylong demonization of the judge, who currently serves on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
But Kavanaugh was calm throughout the hearing conducted by the Senate Judiciary Committee and finally responded by emphasizing a judges duty to correctly interpret the law, rather than bending it to achieve his or any other judges view of the best policy.
A good judge must be an umpire a neutral and impartial arbiter who favors no litigant or policy, Kavanaugh said in his opening statement. I dont decide cases based on personal or policy preferences. I am not a pro-plaintiff or pro-defendant judge. I am not a pro-prosecution or pro-defense judge. I am a pro-law judge.
Kavanaugh directly responded to those who demand only that he decide their way on their favorite policy issues of the day.
Over the past 12 years, I have ruled sometimes for the prosecution and sometimes for criminal defendants, sometimes for workers and sometimes for businesses, sometimes for environmentalists and sometimes for coal miners, the Supreme Court nominee said. In each case, I have followed the law.
Democrats are going to get nowhere trying to attack Kavanaugh on his possible future rulings on health care or abortion. Indeed, Kavanaugh has written nothing significant about these or other hot social issues which is why some religious conservatives launched a whisper campaign against him immediately after Justice Anthony Kennedys retirement.
Like nominees of all stripes since the Senate rejected Robert Borks nomination to the Supreme Court in 1987, Kavanaugh will refuse to answer questions on any specific matters that might come before as a justice. Thats appropriate Supreme Court justices should judge cases based on the evidence and legal arguments that are presented to them, not based on their preconceived personal views.
Its too bad that Democratic senators who entered the confirmation hearing with closed minds determined to oppose Kavanaugh regardless of what he says or what his record shows dont show the patience, moderation, and good spirits that Kavanaugh displayed Tuesday.
The judge called for a return to the civility and common sense that used to characterize Americas greatest institutions of government. Thats something both Democrats and Republicans should agree to.
The Supreme Court must never be viewed as a partisan institution, Kavanaugh said. The justices on the Supreme Court do not sit on opposite sides of an aisle. They do not caucus in separate rooms. If confirmed to the court, I would be part of a team of nine, committed to deciding cases according to the Constitution and laws of the United States.
That kind of reasonableness could make Kavanaugh a far more influential player on the Supreme Court than Democrats may think. While the late Justice Antonin Scalia and the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist could excite with cutting prose or daring ideas, they had difficulty building winning coalitions on the high court for conservative jurisprudence.
Kavanaugh made clear that he would instead follow the example of Justice Kennedy, who he was nominated to replace for whom he clerked.
Kavanaugh described Kennedy as his mentor and hero, and called him a model of civility and collegiality. If Kavanaugh were to apply his reasonableness and persuasive talents on the Supreme Court, he might move the court toward the more restrained, limited role that conservatives have hoped for these last three decades.
In both legitimate and illegitimate ways, liberals attempted to block the start of the first day of Kavanaughs confirmation hearing. Police had to remove protesters from the hearing room and several dozen were arrested.
Democratic senators repeatedly interrupted the Judiciary Committee chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, when he delivered his mild opening statement, The Democrats unreasonably demanded a delay over the late release of thousands of pages of documents by the White House. This was an obvious stalling tactic without justification.
Such delaying tactics, however, reveal a Democratic Senate minority that has little stomach for conducting a responsible debate over the future of the Supreme Court.
In fact, if the issue at hand was simply Kavanaughs qualifications to sit on the high court he should win the approval of every senator, regardless of party.
Kavanaugh boasts a sterling background, including service as a law clerk in a federal appeals court and the Supreme Court, an aide to Kenneth W. Starrs Whitewater probe and a prominent White House official under President George W. Bush. He has served for 12 years on the federal appeals court in the nations capital commonly known as the second most important in the nation.
Democrats fighting Kavanaughs nomination are doing so because he was nominated by a Republican president they bitterly oppose. But since they are the minority party in the Senate, Kavanaugh seems virtually certain to win confirmation.
The judge might even pick up a few votes from vulnerable Senate Democrats such as Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota who face difficult re-election campaigns in states carried by Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
More important than his resume is Kavanaughs understanding of the limited judicial role in society.
In his opening statement, Kavanaugh rejected the outcome-oriented approach to judging that seems popular among Democratic senators, emphasizing his nonpartisanship and fairness in judging cases.
But thats not what Senate Democrats want to hear. The vast majority of them appear to want to see justices on the Supreme Court who support the Democratic political platform of abortion rights, socialized medical care, and other issues near and dear to the partys left wing.
This is not the role of a Supreme Court justice, and Brett Kavanaugh knows this. If he joins the nations highest court we can be sure he will be an outstanding and fair justice.
NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!
Judge Brett Kavanaughs confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on his nomination to the Supreme Court entered its second day Wednesday, after the unhinged left was on full display on the opening day Tuesday.
Partisan rancor reigned as outbursts, interruptions, protests, and juvenile political stunts broke out when opponents of the nomination attempted to highjack the days proceedings.
Each Trump-hating Democrat on the committee took his or her turn flaunting the lefts radical anti-freedom agenda, as the American people got a glimpse of what life would look like if Democrats were entrusted with control of government.
By contrast, Kavanaugh delivered an opening statement that emphasized he would judge cases fairly and without political influence.
My judicial philosophy is straightforward, Kavanaugh said. A judge must be independent and must interpret the law, not make the law. A judge must interpret statutes as written. A judge must interpret the Constitution as written, informed by history and tradition and precedent.
The Supreme Court must never be viewed as a partisan institution, Kavanaugh added.
Halloween might not be until next month, but rest assured if Tuesday was any indicator, every scare tactic in the book will be employed this week by the frightening liberals.
Unsurprisingly, committee Democrats began their rigged obstruction charade by asking for delays and requesting more documents to review. As everyone knows, these tactics are illegitimate stunts, because the Democrats have already tipped their hands.
The Democrats on the committee are all going to vote against Kavanaughs confirmation, and in large part have already publicly stated as much. If there was a chance at changing minds and getting to yes, that might be a reason to look at more records from Kavanaughs esteemed career but thats a pipe dream.
The crazed left-wing base and the entrenched D.C. special interests driving this insanity wont permit such open-mindedness. Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, did a great job showing fairness but not giving in to the lefts overt acts of obstruction.
Reasonable American voters are keeping score. They will not forget this disgraceful sideshow any time soon, but career Democratic Party politicians and the purveyors of their far left ideology are too far gone to care what anyone thinks.
The truth is that President Trump made another outstanding pick for the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh is a supremely qualified jurist who will faithfully interpret the law and defend the Constitution.
Kavanaughs years of government service are open to the public and available for inspection by anyone who wishes to learn about his stellar record. Democrats have tried and failed to smear this fine man, but that wont stop Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California from further politicizing these hearings as an audition for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination contest.
The Democratic machines playbook is as well-known as it is stale. Everyone knows whats going to play out and its sad that the American people are going to have to stomach it yet again.
Committee Democrats are going to take turns attacking Kavanaugh for his principled decisions and in the process highlight their failed agenda for the American people. So if there is an upside to this pathetic display by the liberals, their dangerous agenda will bubble up to the surface for all to take in.
This week Kavanaugh will be ridiculed for supporting the right to robust political speech that is enshrined in the First Amendment. Then his integrity will be questioned for standing tall for the right to keep and bear arms that is protected by the Second Amendment to the Constitution.
Following that, an assault on Kavanaugh will commence in order to grandstand the lefts unflinching addiction to abortion on demand. Soon after, committee Democrats will yell and scream about unchecked executive power and the rule of law, while advocating for President Obamas unconstitutional DACA program for immigrants brought to America as children and lawless sanctuary cities.
But rest assured, the centerpiece of the Democratic agenda will not be forgotten. Judge Kavanaugh will be peppered with hypotheticals and relentlessly questioned about his views on presidential power and impeachment.
The Democrats will gladly take these hearings into the mud pit and the biased mainstream media will undoubtedly praise them for it.
But I know that Kavanaugh will answer each question honestly and with the wisdom, fortitude, and integrity of someone well-suited to be on the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh deserves robust bipartisan support but the liberal machine is powerful and Senate Democrats are too weak to stand up to it.
NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!
Tuesdays opening day of Judge Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee devolved into chicanery and chaos, as a litany of hecklers repeatedly interrupted speakers.
The atmosphere became so heated that Ashley Kavanaugh, the judges wife, was forced to escort her visibly upset daughters 13-year-old Margaret and 10-year-old Liza from the hearing room.
Is this what weve become?
When the children of a Supreme Court nominee are forced to witness members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and public attendees berate and belittle their father and dishonestly call his character into question its obvious that civility and respect are in short supply.
From Supreme Court hearings to bakeries and burger joints, can we not respect the dignity of people with whom we may have significant disagreements?
Kavanaugh is clearly a good man who is deeply committed to his family, his church and his career. He should of course be subject to questioning from senators at his confirmation hearing. But he should not be eviscerated on national television.
Regrettably, what we saw unfold at the first day of Kavanaughs confirmation hearing scheduled to continue through Friday is a microcosm of a broader strategy used by some people to harass, intimidate and shame people who hold opposing views.
Its one thing to oppose the nomination of a Supreme Court nominee. But its another thing to say that a vote for Kavanaugh is tantamount to being complicit in evil which is precisely what Senator Cory Booker, D-N.J., said in the days leading up to the hearing.
Its one thing to disagree with In-N-Out Burger donating to Republican candidates. But its another thing to call for a boycott of the restaurant chain which is what California Democratic Party official Eric Bauman did last week. (Never mind that In-N-Out also donated to Democratic candidates.)
Sadly, decorum and civility in political life have become increasingly rare. And both politicians and pundits have resorted to cheap theatrics and the tactics of schoolyard bullies.
I find it ironic that many of the same people who praised the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for his good manners and overall decency have no problem with the nasty tone surrounding Tuesdays hearing. In fact, many are contributing to it.
Fair-minded opposition is a hallmark of this country, but there is nothing fair about besmirching a persons character simply because you disagree with him or her.
When is all of this going to stop?
Is this really how we want to live and treat one another? Surely it is not.
From Supreme Court hearings to bakeries and burger joints, can we not respect the dignity of people with whom we may have significant disagreements?
My friend Dr. Tim Keller, the former senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, once said the reason the melting pot of New York City has worked so well is that people there havent gone out of their way to stick their fingers in the eyes of people of other traditions.
As a father, my heart aches for Judge Kavanaughs daughters. But Im also proud that Ashley Kavanaugh had the good sense to remove the couples daughters and limit their exposure to such vulgarity.
In the end, it would appear that both Kavanaugh and his wife are blessed with good judicial temperaments.
NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!
Democrats are really, really angry.
Every now and then, its worth recalling what it is they are so angry about. It boils down to this: they are powerless, unable to enact a progressive agenda disliked by the majority of the country. Since Democrats are in the minority in Congress, they cannot legislate. Since President Trump beat Hillary Clinton, they lost the ability to whip up diktats through White House executive orders.
And if Judge Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed as an associate justice of the Supreme Court, Democrats wont be able to look to that branch of government to further their ends.
LIZ PEEK: REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES IN 2018 SHOULD BE TALKING ABOUT ONE THING, AND ONE THING ALONE
Hence the Democratic anger and frustration on full view during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Kavanaughs nomination to the Supreme Court. Democrats on the committee, several of whom may be running for president in 2020, have embarrassed themselves.
The staged interruptions and complaints about the process by Democratic senators made a mockery of the calls for civility and bipartisanship that adorned the memorials for their late colleague, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain. Apparently, treating your ideological foes with courtesy is appropriate only if that graciousness flows right to left, not the other way around.
The Democratic committee members say they are angry that they have not received more documents about the judge, and that some of the pages were delivered less than a day before the hearings were to commence. But its all hogwash; the material provided was more than that received from the past five nominees combined.
Kavanaugh has an extensive public record of decisions that Democrats are free to review. They do not want to review them; they prefer to sulk and posture.
After all, every single one of the Democrats on the committee has vowed to vote against confirming Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court so what difference would a few thousand pages make? The Democratic senators have made their minds up.
The fury of Democrats has nothing to do with missing pages or hurried timetables. It has everything to do with being sore losers. They still cannot accept that Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Doing so would demand coming to terms with why, under President Obama, the party lost not only the presidential election but also an unprecedented number of seats in the Senate, the House, in state legislatures and governors mansions across the country.
It would mean admitting that President Obama was a disaster for his party.
During that agonizing descent into impotence as Democrats lost the House in 2010, the Senate in 2012 and the White House in 2016 not once did the party veer from policies that clearly were unpopular with voters.
Not once did Democrats loosen their grip on the progressive juggernaut that propelled them forward. They embraced environmental laws that could cripple the countrys energy base, health-care mandates that were affordable only to those subsidized by the government, restrictions on law enforcement agencies that compromised our safety on our streets, regulations on small and big businesses that made them uncompetitive. They made it harder for entrepreneurs to succeed and create jobs, and they supported immigration programs that mocked the rule of law.
Because Democrats lost their majorities in Congress, President Obama took it upon himself to create laws and to implement them. In many instances, such as with Obamas Clean Power Plan which would have upended our countrys energy industries the Supreme Court slammed on the brakes, so egregious was the executive overreach. Ditto the effort to fundamentally change our immigration and labor laws.
In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 against President Obamas use of recess appointments in the case of National Labor Relations Board vs. Noel Canning. At the time, Bob Goodlatte, a Republican representative from Virginia, said that the "9-0 decision last week was the 13th time the Supreme Court has voted 9-0 that the president has exceeded his constitutional authority."
In the 2016 Supreme Court session, the White House lost 10 cases on unanimous decisions. That was a humiliating outcome that included votes from two Obama-appointed justices.
In fact, the Supreme Court ended up being the referee-in-chief, handing down an unprecedented number of unfavorable rulings to the Obama White House. Over time, most presidents score a win rate of about two-thirds; for Obama it was about half
This history brings the flap over Kavanaugh into perspective. If you are pushing an unpopular agenda, legislating from the White House is the last resort. But in that scenario, the makeup of the Supreme Court becomes vitally important.
The addition of Kavanaugh will almost certainly tilt the Supreme Court to the right, although over time judges can gravitate one way or another. Justice Sandra Day OConnor, for instance, who was appointed by President Reagan, was initially a reliable conservative voter on the court but over the years become ever more liberal.
For the moment, however, Kavanaugh is solidly conservative; he is, in particular, no fan of the endless spread and intrusion of Big Government. For instance, he declared unconstitutional the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency uniquely unaccountable to Congress or the president.
Kavanaughs dislike of an overreaching government is catnip to conservatives, but anathema to liberals, who increasingly embrace a soft form of socialism, encouraging ever more federal control of our industries and our lives.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The Supreme Court with Kavanaugh aboard would become a serious speedbump for progressives. The next Democratic president would be less able to legislate from the White House. Instead, Democrats would have to promote their programs the old-fashioned way; they would have to win some elections.
And that, for sure, is why Democrats are so angry.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM LIZ PEEK
Boston city councilor Ayanna Pressley unseated 10-term U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano in a Democratic primary Tuesday in the latest shakeup of the House Democratic caucus by a far-left challenger.
Capuano conceded defeat to Pressley in the race to represent Massachusetts' 7th District approximately 30 minutes before The Associated Press formally called the race. With 69 percent of precincts reporting late Tuesday, Pressley had the lead by 10,682 votes.
Pressley, who is running unopposed in November, is set to become the first African-American woman elected to Congress from the Commonwealth.
Capuano is the fourth House member to lose a primary this year, along with Reps. Robert Pittenger, R-N.C.; Mark Sanford, R-S.C., and fellow 10-term Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y.
The prospect of a Pressley upset had drawn some comparisons to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's defeat of Crowley in June. The New York democratic socialist had endorsed Pressley, as did Our Revolution, the offshoot of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign.
However, unlike Crowley, Capuano had fiercely contested the Massachusetts race by racking up endorsements, attending debates and highlighting his consistently liberal voting record in one of the most Democratic districts in a traditionally Democratic state.
And unlike Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old political neophyte, the 44-year-old Pressley has a track record in Massachusetts' halls of power. She served as former Secretary of State John Kerry's political director when he was a U.S. senator and became the first black woman elected to the Boston City Council in 2009.
Greeting voters at a Boston polling station earlier Tuesday, Pressley spoke of "the ground shifting beneath our feet and the wind at our backs."
"This is a fight for the soul of our party and the future of our democracy," she told reporters. "This is a disruptive candidacy, a grassroots coalition. It is broad and diverse and deep. People of every walk of life."
Pressley has backed Medicare-for-all and called for defunding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
She likely was aided by the demographics of the 7th district, which cuts a north-south swathe through the city of Boston and includes portions of neighboring Chelsea, Everett, Randolph, Milton and Somerville -- where Capuano served as mayor for nine years in the 1990s.
PRO-TRUMP REPUBLICAN WINS PRIMARY TO TAKE ON SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN
State lawmakers designated the district as the first majority-minority district in Massachusetts. Just a third of the population is white, with blacks, Hispanics and Asians constituting most of the other two-thirds.
However, Pressley had bristled at the notion that race was a defining issue in her campaign.
"I have been really furious about the constant charges being lobbed against me about identity politics that, by the way, are only lobbed against women and candidates of color," she said in one debate. "I happen to be black and a woman and unapologetically proud to be both, but that is not the totality of my identity."
The contest also formed sharp divides among Boston's Democratic political and media elite. The city's mayor, Marty Walsh, campaigned with Capuano in the final days of the race. U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy, a grandson of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, also endorsed the incumbent, calling him "a guy who won't shy away from steep odds or tough truths."
OPINION: IS THIS WOMAN THE GOP'S OCASIO-CORTEZ?
Pressley was backed by state Attorney General Maura Healey, who repeatedly has challenged the Trump administration's policies on on immigration, gun control and other issues. She also was endorsed by The Boston Globe, which called her "the future of the Democratic Party."
The last time an incumbent Democratic House member in Massachusetts lost a primary was in 2014, when Seth Moulton defeated former Rep. John Tierney, who brought significant personal baggage to the campaign.
Fox News' Gregg Re, Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham called Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh the single best legal mind of his generation, adding he's certain the judge is going to be on the Supreme Court.
Graham told Fox News Martha MacCallum that Trump was the big winner in Wednesdays hearing and that Democrats were the big losers. He said that Republicans have voted in favor of certain liberal judges in the past when the party was in the minority -- but he claimed Democrats have been unwilling to do the same.
I think the country is tired of the yelling and theyd like us to get things done. And, at times, Donald Trump drives me crazy, but hes produced, and Kavanaugh is the single best legal mind of his generation. Any Republican president wouldve picked him.
BRETT KAVANAUGH VOWS TO KEEP AN OPEN MIND IN EVERY CASE, AFTER CHAOTIC CONFIMATION HEARING
Graham went on to say that Kavanaugh is equally qualified if not more qualified than Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Elena Kagan, both of whom were approved for the high court during the Obama administration.
He also said on The Story that the hearings will reflect poorly on Dems, adding: If this is their approach to how to govern, they're going to have a hard time in 2020.
Graham seemed to be confident that Kavanaugh would be approved.
Kavanaughs going to be on the Supreme Court. Well done, Mr. President.
Graham also spoke about the recent loss of his close friend Sen. John McCain -- and the man picked to serve out the remainder of his term.
Theyve taken Johns wingman, John Kyl, who's steady as a rock, solid conservative who tries to solve hard problems and let him finish out his good friends term and it makes a lot of sense to me and come January well get somebody that will be able to run in 2020.
ACTRESS PIPER PERABO ARRESTED, THROWN OUT OF KAVANAUGH HEARING AFTER LAUNCHING PROTEST
He also added that Kyl, a former Arizona senator, is a vote for Kavanaugh.
MaCallum briefly asked Graham about the New York Times report that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was willing to accept some written answers from Trump about Russian collusion accusations.
He said it seemed unlikely Mueller's team would produce a report before midterm elections.
If they're still negotiating, talking to the president, most likely you wont get a report until after the election.
Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings started Tuesday and are set to continue through the week.
Fox News Martha MacCallum contributed to this report.
Republicans in deep-blue Massachusetts selected pro-Trump State Rep. Geoff Diehl to take on incumbent Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren in November, setting the stage for a contentious referendum on the first-term senator's national profile as she openly mulls a run for the presidency in 2020.
Diehl triumphed over attorney John Kingston, and Beth Lindstrom, an aide to former Gov. Mitt Romney, with early results showing him with a convincing double-digit lead over his rivals.
Of the three candidates, Diehl had the closest ties to President Donald Trump. Diehl co-chaired Trump's 2016 Massachusetts campaign. He was quick to note that despite its liberal reputation, Massachusetts gave Trump one of his most lopsided early primary wins.
Warren, who has served in the Senate since 2013, ran unopposed in Tuesday's Democratic primary. She released ten years worth of tax returns recently, laying the groundwork for a potential presidential run in 2020.
Warren hasn't yet declared her intention to run, saying she's wanted to focus on her reelection first. But she has clearly floated the possibility of pursuing the White House, saying in August she's not afraid to be "the underdog."
President Trump repeatedly has unloaded on his prospective rival, saying she lied about having Native American roots to help her legal career and vowing to toss a heritage test at her during a presidential debate.
Fox News has ranked the November race as likely Democrat.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts Republican Gov. Charlie Baker on Tuesday soundly defeated ultraconservative challenger Scott Lively on his way to seeking a second four-year term in office, overcoming charges that he is too moderate as Republicans seek to maintain their hold on New England's governorships.
He's set to face 47-year-old Ohio native Jay Gonzalez, the Democratic nominee for governor, in November. A former official in the administration of Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, Gonzales has hammered Baker on the deficiencies in the state's mass transit system and called for stronger protections for immigrants.
'REAL INDIAN' RUNNING AS INDEPENDENT AGAINST WARREN SUES AFTER STATE TELLS HIM TO STOP CALLING HER 'FAKE INDIAN'
But despite Massachusetts' longstanding reputation as a deeply liberal state, Baker commands sky-high approval ratings there and ranks among the nation's most popular governors. He largely ignored Lively, a staunch supporter of President Trump.
Baker credited in part his willingness to work cooperatively with Democratic leaders at the Statehouse. He is a progressive Republican, and supports universal healthcare and greater state investments in transportation and education.
Republicans currently hold the governorships of four out of six states in highly liberal New England, including Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and are looking to grow that number in November.
Also on Tuesday, in a major upset, Boston city councilor Ayanna Pressley defeated 10-term incumbent Rep. Michael Capuano. Pressley, expected to be the first black woman elected to represent Massachusetts in Congress because she's set to run unopposed in November, had the backing of Democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
And Rep. Richard Neal defeated Democratic primary challenger Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, an attorney who had hoped to make history herself by becoming the first Muslim elected to Congress from Massachusetts. She backed a proposal to make Medicare available to all Americans regardless of age.
Neal will run unopposed in November.
Fox News' Samuel Chamberlain and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Trump on Tuesday asked whether Bob Woodward could be a Dem operative after an early copy of the veteran reporters soon-to-be-released book portrayed a chaotic White House plagued by infighting and bad-mouthing against the president.
Labeling details of the book a con on the public with made up quotes, the president also seemingly questioned the timing of the book reveal.
The Woodward book has already been refuted and discredited by General (Secretary of Defense) James Mattis and General (Chief of Staff) John Kelly, Trump tweeted. Their quotes were made up frauds, a con on the public. Likewise other stories and quotes. Woodward is a Dem operative? Notice timing?
An early copy of The Washington Post associate editors book was obtained by The Washington Post. According to the Post, it portrays a Trump White House thats filled with second-guessing by members of Trumps staff, who repeatedly bad-mouth him behind closed doors.
The book is to be released on Sept. 11.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shaj was asked about the book during an interview on Fox News The Story with Martha MacCallum Tuesday night and said that although he has yet to read it due to his focus on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, whats been reported about it is not the White House that Ive seen.
He also said that some people referenced in the details have raised questions about the veracity of things that are being reported in that book.
WHITE HOUSE FIRES BACK AT WOODWARD BOOK DETAILING INFIGHTING, INSULTS, ADMINISTRATIVE COUP DETAT
A number of other officials from the presidents staff including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, both of whom were specifically referenced in the book have come out against it.
The book claims that Mattis told associates of the president that he had the understanding of a fifth- or sixth-grader, according to The Washington Post. After Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical attack on Syrians in April 2017, Trump is said to have demanded Mattis launch an assassination attempt.
Lets f---ing kill him! Lets go in. Lets kill the f---ing lot of them, Trump reportedly said. But Mattis reportedly told an aide: Were not going to do any of that. Were going to be much more measured.
In a statement released Tuesday, Mattis said, in part, that the contemptuous words about the President attributed to me in Woodwards book were never uttered by me or in my presence.
Separately in the book, Kelly is reported to have frequently lost his temper, and described Trump as an idiot.
Its pointless to try to convince him of anything. Hes gone off the rails. Were in Crazytown, Kelly said, according to Woodward. I dont even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job Ive ever had.
But Kelly also came out against the book, asserting that the comments attributed to him were not true.
The idea I ever called the President an idiot is not true," he said in a statement. "As I stated back in May and still firmly stand behind: 'I spend more time with the President than anyone else, and we have an incredibly candid and strong relationship. He always knows where I stand, and he and I both know this story is total BS. I'm committed to the President, his agenda, and our country. This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administrations many successes.'"
Fox News Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife are making their first major foray into politics with a $10 million contribution to a super PAC that aims to elect military veterans to Congress.
The contribution introduces Mr. Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post, to a class of political megadonors that includes Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and California billionaire Tom Steyer, who have each poured more than $100 million into elections over the past decade.
But unlike with Messrs. Adelson and Steyer, the Bezos contribution isnt to a partisan political organization. Instead it is to With Honor Fund, a year-old super PAC that backs veterans of both major parties who are running for House seats. Federal Election Commission filings show the organization had raised $7 million between its launch last October and the end of July.
Rye Barcott, the founder of With Honor Fund, said the Bezoses shared his groups goal of building a cross-partisan coalition of House members willing to work with the other party.
They perceive themselves to be pretty nonpartisan, Mr. Barcott said. The idea of doing something different and disruptive appealed to them, along with our focus on values and integrity in our national discourse.
A Bezos spokesman confirmed the contribution and said the Amazon chief executive and his wife, MacKenzie, declined to comment.
With Honor Fund is backing 33 House candidates now running19 Democrats and 14 Republicans. Mr. Barcott said the PAC does no screening for ideology, but rather seeks out a common bond of service and commitment to the country.
In a New Hampshire House race, With Honors ads backing Democrat Maura Sullivan show President Trumps face as it says she will back affordable health care...no matter who stands in the way.But in an ad for Michael Waltz, the GOP nominee for a House seat in northeast Florida, With Honor says Mr. Waltz will work with President Trump to fight for Floridas conservative values.
Mr. Barcott said With Honor Fund backs candidates who agree to its three-point pledge, which calls for integrity, civility and courage.
Other major With Honor contributors include Leslie Wexner, the CEO of the company that owns Victorias Secret, and his wife, Abigail Wexner, who gave a combined $2.8 million. Mr. Bezoss parents gave the super PAC $2 million.
Mr. Bezos, whom Forbes magazine in March ranked as the worlds richest man with a net worth of more than $150 billion, has to this point not been an active campaign donor.
FEC data shows that since 2007 the couple has given $52,600 to federal candidates$31,000 of that went to Democrats and $21,600 to Republicans.
They have also given $170,000 to PACs associated with Amazon and Blue Origin, a Bezos-owned aerospace manufacturer.
In Washington state, where the Bezoses live, the couple gave $2.5 million to back a 2012 referendum to legalize same-sex marriage. Beyond that, they have given just $8,400 to state-level candidates.
Mr. Bezos joins a roster of American billionaires who have spent tens of millions of dollars backing candidates.
This year Mr. Adelson and his wife gave $55 million to the super PACs backing House and Senate Republicans. Richard Uihlein, an Illinois shipping magnate, has spent $31 million this year on federal candidates and PACs and millions more on state-level races.
Mr. Steyer, who advocates impeaching Mr. Trump, has spent $30 million so far on Democratic candidates and PACs.
And former New York City Mayor Michael Bloombergsignaled in June that he would spend $80 million to elect Democrats in 2018, but FEC records show he has given just $1 million so far. Bloomberg spokesman Howard Wolfson said Tuesday that Mr. Bloomberg still plans to spend to back Democrats.
Write to Reid J. Epstein at reid.epstein@wsj.com
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing boiled over into a series of tense exchanges late in the evening Wednesday, as high-profile Democrats lined up to hammer the appellate judge with thinly veiled accusations that he was hiding ties to President Trump's inner circle and harbored sympathies for racist policies.
In an especially combative moment late in the day, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., pointedly asked Kavanaugh whether he ever had discussed Special Counsel Robert Mueller or his Russia probe with anyone at Kasowitz Benson Torres, the law firm founded by Marc Kasowitz, a former personal attorney to President Trump.
"Be sure about your answer," Harris warned. "I'm asking you a very direct question. Yes or no?"
"I'm not sure I know everyone who works at that law firm," Kavanaugh said. "I'm not remembering, but I'm happy to be refreshed."
"How can you not remember whether or not you had a conversation about Robert Mueller or his investigation with anyone at that law firm?" Harris asked, visibly exasperated. "This investigation has only been going on for so long, sir, so please answer the question."
"I'm just trying to think -- do I know anyone who works at that firm?" Kavanaugh eventually replied. "I'd like to know the person you're thinking of."
"I think you're thinking of someone and you don't want to tell us," Harris shot back, sending the room into a few seconds of near-total silence.
Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee then interjected briefly to defend Kavanaugh, saying that "this town is full of law firms" and that they "are constantly metastasizing, they break off, they form new firms -- they're like rabbits. There's no possible way we can expect this witness to know who populates an entire firm."
According to the firm's website, Kasowitz employs more than 250 attorneys, not including dozens of staff members.
A barrage of protesters erupted in a chant of "Answer the question" before being led out by police as Lee spoke. In all, 73 people were arrested and charged for unlawful demonstrations within Senate buildings on Wednesday, including 66 people who were removed from the hearing room during the day, according to Capitol Police officials.
In another dramatic exchange, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., implied Kavanaugh had been open to racial profiling tactics, citing an email exchange between Kavanaugh and a colleague. However, Booker did not provide Kavanaugh a copy of the emails to review while questioning him about it, prompting another objection from Lee, who charged that it was inappropriate to "cross-examine" Kavanaugh about documents that he "can't see."
Booker countered that when Democrats received the emails, which he said were titled "racial profiling," they were marked "committee confidential," indicating that they contained sensitive information.
"The system is rigged," Booker said, arguing that the documents should not have been marked confidential, because they did not contain personal or national security information. "The process is unfair, unnecessary, unjust, and unprecedented on this committee."
Lee ultimately agreed that the emails should be released, but that Kavanaugh should still be able to review them: "There's no reason why this shouldn't be something we can't discuss in public -- I don't know why it was marked 'committee confidential,'" he said.
The emails, released later Thursday, showed Kavanaugh advocating for race-neutral security screening policies at airports in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, although he said that during an "interim" period before such policies could be implemented, administration lawyers would need to "grapple" with the possibility considering race during screening in the interests of national security.
Also Wednesday evening, Hawaii Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono pressed Kavanaugh at length about whether he was aware of inappropriate behavior by former 9th Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski when he clerked for Kozinski from 1991 to 1992. Kozinski abruptly retired last year after several woman who had worked as law clerks or colleagues accused him of sexual misconduct that included touching, inappropriate sexual comments and forced viewings of pornography in his chambers.
Hirono, who repeatedly has asked other judicial nominees whether they ever sexually harassed anyone, noted that Kavanaugh and Kozinski had kept in touch after his clerkship, with Kozinski recommending Kavanaugh during his 2006 confirmation hearings for his current job on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
"You saw nothing, you heard nothing, and you obviously said nothing," Hirono said, even as Kavanaugh denied being aware of any misconduct by Kozinski and said he would have reported it if he had known.
"I'm sorry about the circumstances, but we'll get through it." Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
For the most part, the lengthy hearing focused on Kavanaugh's writings and, in particular, key opinions he authored while serving on the nation's most prestigious appellate court.
At one point, Kavanaugh was asked by Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy about the constitutionality of individual federal judges issuing nationwide injunctions against presidential action -- a phenomenon that has attracted scrutiny after district court judges unilaterally brought temporary halts to President Trump's travel ban and other initiatives. Kavanaugh demurred, saying he could not discuss potential pending issues before the Supreme Court.
After Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse decried what he said was the improper mixing of partisan politics with legal discussion during the hearing, he reiterated his arguments from Tuesday that Congress often delegates excessive authority to mostly unaccountable executive branch agencies.
WATCH: SASSE UNLOADS ON CONGRESS DURING CONFIRMATION HEARING
In response, Kavanaugh specifically touched on the Obama-era Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), saying that even if the agency was a good policy idea, its creation was an improper "departure from historical practice" because it employed a single director, rather than a committee, who could only be removed by the president for cause.
Kavanaugh wrote an opinion for a three-judge panel striking down the CFPB's structure as unconstitutional in 2016, but was later reversed in part by a 7-3 vote in an unusual en banc review by other justices on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The en banc review found the CFPB's structure to be constitutional, but agreed with Kavanaugh that one of the agency's major interpretive decisions had improperly violated due process requirements.
"A single person can make these enormous decisions?" Kavanaugh told Sasse on Wednesday, referring to the director of the CFPB. "From my perspective ... that was an issue of concern."
The confirmation hearing has been chaotic at times, with Democrats trying to delay the proceedings as they complain they haven't received enough records from Kavanaugh's past work.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell found a way to allow Wednesdays confirmation hearing to continue into the night, after a brief floor clash with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Schumer had objected to McConnells request for the committee to continue meeting after 2 p.m., despite plans to go late. But McConnell, using a parliamentary maneuver, adjourned the Senate for the day -- because committees can meet as long as they like when the Senate is not in session.
KAVANAUGH VOWS TO 'KEEP AN OPEN MIND IN EVERY CASE'
California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committees ranking member and the first Democrat to question the nominee, began her questioning of Kavanaugh by referencing the outbursts from protesters: I'm sorry about the circumstances, but we'll get through it, she said.
Feinstein asked the nominee about his past case argument that Washington D.C.s assault weapons ban was unconstitutional. He said he was following the precedent of the Supreme Court, but acknowledged that gun violence posed significant policy concerns.
In his 2011 dissent in a follow-up to the landmark D.C. v. Heller case, Kavanaugh wrote that based on Supreme Court precedent, gun restrictions should be assessed principally by reviewing "text, history, and tradition," rather than a balancing analysis that mainly considers dangers to the public and the government's interest in regulation.
Kavanaugh wrote that there is "no meaningful or persuasive constitutional distinction" between semiautomatic rifles and semiautomatic handguns, rejecting the city's attempt to apply regulations to rifles, other than automatics, that could not constitutionally apply to handguns.
Feinstein also pressed Kavanaugh over the Roe v. Wade court decision regarding abortion. Well, as a general proposition, I understand the importance of the precedent set forth in Roe v. Wade, he said.
Later in the day, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., dismissed Kavanaugh's statements on Roe, saying that describing the case as important "existing Supreme Court precedent" was akin to callously introducing a woman as "my current wife," drawing a slight grin from Kavanaugh.
The nominee then stressed that "precedent on precedent" has since supported abortion rights, noting that the 1992 Supreme Court case Planned Parenthood v. Casey explicitly upheld Roe. But when pointedly asked by Blumenthal to vow to never overturn Roe, Kavanaugh reiterated that it would be inappropriate for nominees to the Supreme Court to discuss hypothetical cases during their confirmation hearings -- a view echoed by each sitting Supreme Court justice.
It was a recurring theme for Kavanaugh on the day, as he emphasized that he would remain an impartial jurist despite his personal views, both before and after the confirmation hearings. To argue that he can be trusted to be fair to all litigants, Kavanaugh cited his decision in the 2012 case Hamdan v. United States, in which he overturned the conviction of Osama bin Laden's personal driver, Salim Hamdan. The conviction, Kavanaugh said, violated the Constitution's Ex Post Facto provision by punishing a defendant under a system of military tribunals enacted after his alleged crimes.
You'll never have a nominee who's ruled for a more unpopular defendant," Kavanaugh told senators Wednesday, saying that while Hamdan was a widely reviled Guantanamo Bay detainee, he was still entitled to some constitutional protections.
Feinstein also asked Kavanaugh about past comments regarding investigations involving a president, a key issue amid the Russia probe that has implicated numerous Trump associates. Kavanaugh said hes never taken a position on the constitutionality of whether a president should be investigated while in office.
In response to later questions from Sasse, Kavanaugh emphasized that "no one's above the law," saying that while any criminal prosecution of a sitting president may face "timing" issues, there is no absolute constitutional prohibition against eventually pursuing such a prosecution.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., pressed Kavanaugh about what he knew about the Bush administrations warrantless surveillance program. Leahy also asked Kavanaugh if a president has a right to pardon himself, a power President Trump has said he believes he has.
The question of self-pardons is something I have never analyzed, Kavanaugh replied.
Outbursts from protesters have been a recurring feature since the hearings began. Moments after Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley opened the hearing Wednesday, shouting could be heard from the back of the room: Sham president, sham justice! Ironically, at one point, protesters shouted as Kavanaugh discussed how he tried to be respectful in court. "Ive tried to be a very collegial judge, Ive tried to be civil," he said.
Kavanaugh served for more than a decade on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and, before that, for five years as a lawyer in the White House Counsel's office in the George W. Bush administration. He also worked for independent counsel Ken Starr for three years during the probe that led to the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton.
Kavanaugh's elevation from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court would mark a generational rightward shift on the Supreme Court, raising the stakes beyond those of last year's nomination of Neil Gorsuch.
The judge's nomination, though, will ultimately succeed or fail depending on a handful of swing-vote senators, including vulnerable red-state Democrats and moderate pro-choice Republicans who have all said that they would withhold judgment on the nominee.
Republicans command a narrow 51-49 Senate majority. Party leaders have said they hope to have Kavanaugh confirmed by a floor vote by early October, when the next Supreme Court term begins.
Fox News' Kaitlyn Schallhorn, Judson Berger and Bill Mears contributed to this report.
In her quest to become New Yorks next governor, Cynthia Nixon has advocated for a single-payer health care system in the state something studies have shown would be a costly endeavor.
The proposed New York Health Act (NYHA), which would establish universal health care for everyone in the state, including undocumented immigrants, would require the states tax revenue to increase by about 156 percent by 2022, according to a study by the RAND Corp. But it also found state spending on total health care under NYHA would be slightly lower about 3 percent by 2031 than under the current system.
Nixon recently told the New York Daily News editorial board she did not yet have a plan to pay for single-payer.
Pass it and then figure out how to fund it, Nixon said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who Nixon is challenging in the Democratic primary next week, has said it should be up to the federal government to pass a universal health care system. During a debate between the two candidates last month, Cuomo said the NYHA was good in theory, but would cost more than New Yorks annual budget to implement it in the long-term, according to the Albany Times Union.
'SEX AND THE CITY' STAR CYNTHIA NIXON COULD BE NEW YORK'S NEXT GOVERNOR: A LOOK AT HER POLITICAL ACTIVISM
Nixon, on the other hand, has said a single-payer system will save the state and New Yorkers money overall.
There is widespread disagreement over how much it would cost to implement a single-payer health care system. Supporters say it would cut excessive administrative costs compared to those incurred by private insurers. But critics, including most Republicans, warn the savings would be less dramatic than expected and the system would cost too much.
Joe White, president of the Council for Affordable Health Coverage, has estimated that with single-payer "costs and taxes will rise, or patient access will be severely diminished turning Americas medical system into a third-world product.
The Medicare-for-all bill proposed earlier this year by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was estimated to cost $32.6 trillion over 10 years by a Mercatus Center at George Mason University study.
ANDREW CUOMO, CYNTHIA NIXON ACCUSE EACH OTHER OF LYING, CORRUPTION IN HEATED PRIMARY DEBATE
The term single-payer health care denotes only one entity bears the financial responsibility of health care the government. Under this system, the government would be solely responsible for covering health care costs.
The basic idea of single-payer is to cover everybody with a single government program, and that program would basically cover all the doctors and hospitals, Dr. Adam Gaffney, an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, told Fox News.
As the Times Union reported, the NYHA has continuously been introduced by Democrats in the state Assembly every year since 1992 but has been unsuccessful in the Senate.
New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and other Democrats reportedly considered staging a mass walkout during the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, but feared such move would only give ammunition to Republicans.
Politico, citing unnamed sources, reported that during a Labor Day conference call, Democratic senators debated whether to walk out in protest of the Republican opposition to the release of millions of pages of missing Kavanaugh documents.
But the partys top lawmakers ultimately decided against such a course of action, in part fearing the backlash from a made-for-TV moment that would only help the Republican Party, and impede any chances to stop the nomination of Kavanaugh, the report said.
The consideration of such a drastic move revealed a split between the partys more liberal wing, who wish to stop the confirmation of Kavanaugh by all means necessary, and more senior Democrats, who believe the nomination should be defeated only by following rules and norms.
The Democrats ultimately come to a compromise a disruptive and chaotic hearing, Politico reported.
Younger Democrats, such as California Sen. Kamala Harris, hijacked Tuesdays hearing almost as soon as it started and urged the committee to delay the hearing amid protests by liberal activists, some of whom were arrested.
Harris received praise for her defiance of the chambers norms. This was a big step forward, and Kamala Harris showed real leadership by going first in interrupting the hearing. Now we need other Democrats who aren't on the committee to speak up and oppose this nominee, too, Brian Fallon, director of Demand Justice, an anti-Kavanaugh group, told the outlet.
By not staging a walkout, however, Democrats also allowed themselves to become part of the process and grill Kavanaugh in the upcoming hearings, hoping to mobilize opposition to his candidacy.
If I thought that there was a way that we could stop the hearings from proceeding, I would participate in that. But the hearings are going to proceed. And therefore, we are there to do our job, Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, told Politico.
We considered a lot of different options yesterday. This was the agreed approach, said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin. It really singles this hearing out as something unusual.
The obstructionist tactics, which will surely boost some lawmakers reputations among the increasingly liberal base, may still backfire when it comes to the confirmation of Kavanaugh.
Democrats ultimately need to convince moderate Republicans to vote against Kavanaughs confirmation. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of the swing votes that could stop the nomination, dismissed Tuesdays protests as a lot of drama, according to the outlet.
Still, Democrats havent ruled out a boycott or walkout of Kavanaugh hearings, Politico reported. A group of combative Democrats reportedly met in the office of Durbin to talk about future strategy concerning the Supreme Court nomination.
Republican Rep. Mark Meadows is asking the Justice Department and its inspector general to review DOJ official Bruce Ohrs contacts with Trump dossier author Christopher Steele as well as the FBI, saying in a new letter that their coordination may have broken from established protocol to further their investigation of the Trump campaign.
Meadows, in the letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, said he wrote to encourage Horowitz and U.S. Attorney John Huber to include Mr. Ohr's involvement in these events in their parallel investigations, as his testimony brought new concerns to light."
Horowitz is investigating government surveillance abuse, while Huber was tasked by Sessions to conduct a separate investigation examining similar issues. Ohr, meanwhile, has been at the center of Republican scrutiny over his contacts with Steele and his wifes role working for Fusion GPS, the firm behind the dossier.
According to Meadows letter, during his transcribed interview last week behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, Ohr, who appeared voluntarily, described to lawmakers and staff "multiple" contacts with the FBI and Steele before and after the ex-British spy was fired by the FBI as a confidential source. Steele was terminated over his contacts with the media surrounding the controversial Trump dossier in the fall of 2016.
House Republican lawmakers are now considering whether to recall former senior FBI leadership, to possibly include fired deputy director Andrew McCabe and fired director James Comey, over who authorized the backchannel communications that circumvented Steeles termination.
Meadows, a North Carolina congressman and leader of the conservative Freedom Caucus, also wrote that Ohr testified neither he nor his wife Nellie has been interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of the Russia investigation. A source close to the investigation said his wife received multiple payments during her 2016 work for Fusion GPS.
Lawmakers have not ruled out calling Nellie Ohr as a witness.
According to Mr. Ohrs testimony, his concerns related to Mr. Steeles bias and his own apparent conflict of interest do not appear to have been included in the FISA materials approved to surveil [Trump campaign aide] Carter Page, the letter said.
Republican lawmakers have long questioned how law enforcement were able to secure multiple surveillance warrants against Carter Page, suggesting the dossier played an outsized role.
The IG's office and the DOJ declined to comment for this report.
Separately, Meadows, along with Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, have asked Horowitz to investigate allegations that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein threatened to subpoena records from congressional staffers pursuing the surveillance warrant issue.
The allegations were first documented in a June report by Fox News. At the time, a DOJ official told Fox News that Rosenstein never threatened anyone in the room with a criminal investigation. The official said the department and bureau officials in the room are all quite clear that the characterization of events laid out here is false, adding that Rosenstein was responding to a threat of contempt.
On Aug. 6, Horowitz wrote to the congressmen that, "We are carefully reviewing the information in your letter. After we complete our assessment of the information you provided and your request, we will be in further contact with you."
Facebook and Twitter executives issued mea culpas Wednesday for failing to root out Russian meddling in the 2016 election, with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg saying it was completely unacceptable, and promising to keep cracking down.
We were too slow to spot this and too slow to act. This is on us, she said at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. This interference was completely unacceptable.
Facebook in particular came under fire for being at the forefront of Russias attempts to interfere in the 2016 election, as actors set up fake Facebook groups, organized protests and spread memes as part of an effort to disrupt the election.
Thirteen Russians were indicted by FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller earlier this year on charges of plotting to disrupt the election by creating fake social media accounts to weigh in and stir up political issues.
Democrats have seized on the revelations to question the result of the election, and have repeatedly expressed anger at social media platforms for failing to act.
Sandberg said that the company was taking action in rooting out meddling, fake accounts and abuse. In combating fake news, she said articles rated as false by third-party fact checkers are demoted, and those who share them are warned about them. She said the company had doubled its safety and security section to combat bad actors, as well.
Let me be clear: we are more determined than our opponents and we will keep fighting. When bad actors try to use our site, we will block them, when content violates our policies, we will take it down, and when our opponents use new techniques, we will share them so we can strengthen our collective efforts.
Everyone here knows this is an arms race and that means we need to be ever more vigilant.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted a small number of actors were able to game Twitter to have an outsized impact.
"Abuse, harassment, troll armies, propaganda through bots and human coordination, misinformation campaigns, and divisive filter bubbles that's not a healthy public square," he said. "Worse, a relatively small number of bad-faith actors were able to game Twitter to have an outsized impact."
We acknowledge the real world negative consequences of what happened and take full responsibility to fix it, he said.
Lawmakers praised Sandberg and Dorsey for appearing and helping be part of the solution, and expressed disappointment that Alphabet (Googles parent company) CEO Larry Page did not show up for the hearing. Page's seat at the hearing was left empty.
Lawmakers also praised the companies for the work they have done since 2016, upping their policies and rooting out bad actors, but said more work was still to be done. While Democrats focused on Russian interference, Republicans also drew attention to alleged bias by Silicon Valley platforms.
Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C. commended their work in shutting down a host of foreign actors last month, and also warned of danger from Iran. Facebook announced last month that it had removed 652 pages, groups and accounts linked to Iran for "coordinated inauthentic behavior"
But Burr also warned that big social media platforms are open to corruption and misuse.
The information your platform disseminates changes minds, hardens opinions, helps people make sense of the world. When you control that or you influence that a little of it, youre in positions to win wars without firing a shot, Burr said.
Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. expressed concern that in attempting to keep platforms in other countries, tech companies agree to the demands of authoritarian regimes like those in China, Vietnam and Turkey.
Because their definition of disinformation or misinformation could actually be the truth. Their discord or what they define as discord could be defending human rights," he said. "Interfering in their internal affairs they would define as advocating for democracy."
As examples, he said that Vietnam is demanding companies store and share data of those accused of anti-state activity. He also said that Pakistan has asked Twitter to block sites that breach blasphemy laws, and that Turkey has requested the blocking of 12,000 accounts since 2014 -- and that 700 have been blocked.
Republicans, meanwhile, have been more focused on the alleged censoring or shadowbanning of conservatives, particularly on Twitter. Twitter has repeatedly denied it shadowbans, saying examples that were uncovered were part of an algorithm glitch that have since been fixed.
President Trump has weighed in in the past on alleged censorship and has promised to act if companies do not act themselves.
Social Media is totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices. Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we wont let that happen, he tweeted last month. "They are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others.
Democrats, however, zeroed in on what they see as the continued threat from Russia. Vice Chair Mark Warner, D-Va., said it is obvious that serious mistakes were made by both Facebook and Twitter.
He said that while there has been positive actions from the companies, but warned the Russians are getting better as well and agreed with Burr that other actors, like Iran are using the Russians playbook.
While Republicans were cautious about possible regulation of social media companies, Democrats seemed much more gung-ho.
The era of the Wild West in social media is coming to an end, Warner, who has proposed a series of regulations, said. Where we go from here though is an open question.
Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, warned the execs: "There are lots of people who would love to help you run your organizations through the regulatory system."
Dorsey will appear at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing Wednesday afternoon, focused on alleged bias and Twitters algorithms.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
As the second day of Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court confirmation hearings got underway, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took to social media to allege he would help gut or overturn Roe v. Wade if confirmed to the nations highest court.
Kavanaugh, who was appointed by President Trump earlier this year, has never expressed outright opposition to abortion, but his nomination set off warning bells from liberals and womens rights groups who warned he could vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the U.S.
Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee for president, echoed those concerns in a series of tweets Wednesday morning as the Senate Judiciary Committee began its questioning of Kavanaugh.
If Brett Kavanaugh becomes a Supreme Court justice, will he help gut or overturn Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in America? Yes, of course he will, Clinton said.
ABORTION, ROE V. WADE AT CENTER OF SUPREME COURT NOMINEE DEBATE: WHAT COULD HAPPEN TO THE LANDMARK LAW?
Clinton pointed to Kavanaughs involvement in a case of an undocumented teenager who sought to be released from custody to have an abortion. While the court eventually allowed her to have the procedure, Kavanaugh disapproved. He argued if the government helped the 17-year-old get the procedure, then it ignores its permissible interest in favoring fetal life, protecting the best interests of a minor and refraining from facilitating abortion.
Anti-abortion groups have endorsed Kavanaugh, considering him a reliable vote to overturn Roe. His confirmation would be a victory for activists who want to end a womans right to make her own health decisions, the former New York senator said. Its remarkable that we have to keep repeating this, even in 2018: Womens rights are human rights, and human rights are womens rights.
One of the most fundamental human rights is the right to make the most personal decisions about ones own body, she continued. To deny women that is to rob them of the ability to decide their own futures.
KAVANAUGH CONFIRMATION HEARING LIKELY TO FOCUS ON ABORTION, GUN RIGHTS AND MORE
Even if Kavanaugh considered to be more conservative is appointed to the bench, the court probably wouldnt have an impact on Roe anytime soon, Carol Sanger, a Columbia Law School professor, previously told Fox News.
The court cant decide to change a case until it has a case before it, Sanger pointed out. And the court chooses its own docket so it gets to pick what cases it hears. We dont know whether they think there is a good case coming up to rule on Roe. They might not want to do that right away.
If such a case did come up, and the court decided to overturn Roe, abortion wouldnt necessarily become automatically illegal in the U.S. Instead, it would leave the issue up to the states.
Some states, however, do have more restrictive laws or fewer clinics equipped to provide the procedure already. A full repeal of Roe could lead to more regulations in more conservative states, said Aziza Ahmed, a Northwestern University School of Law professor who has done extensive research on abortion and health law.
Four states do have so-called trigger laws in place that would make abortion almost automatically illegal if Roe is overturned: Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota and South Dakota. But still other states such as New York already have laws already on the books, pre-dating Roe, which legalizes abortion.
According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, 12 states had banned abortion prior to the 1973 decision that could potentially be reinstated should Roe be overturned; 21 states had pre-viability bans.
KAVANAUGH DOCUMENTS TAKE CENTER STAGE IN CONFIRMATION HEARING: WHAT DO DEMS WANT?
Kavanaughs hearing got off to a contentious start on Sept. 4, with dozens of protesters and lawmakers interrupting the opening statements. U.S. Capitol Police arrested 70 people and charged them with disorderly conduct or with crowding, obstructing, or incommoding, police said.
Among those arrested was UltraViolet executive director Shaunna Thomas, the women's organization confirmed Fox News. Thomas, who co-founded the group focused on reproductive rights and combating sexism, said, Senators, on behalf of the millions of women across the country whose rights will be stripped by a Kavanaugh court, I demand you reject this nomination, according to an UltraViolet spokesperson.
Clinton concluded her Wednesday Twitter thread by encouraging those to contact their senators to tell them to vote against confirming Kavanaugh.
On the first day of Kavanaughs hearing, Clinton also took to Twitter to oppose the judge. She said those who have a pre-existing condition or care about someone who has one should encourage their senators to oppose Kavanaugh. She said he would be a threat to ObamaCare.
This is as serious as it gets. Its up to us to save health care for millions of our fellow Americans again, she said.
Republicans currently command a narrow 50-49 Senate majority, though it will return to 51-49 once Jon Kyl, the selected replacement for late Arizona Sen. John McCain, is officially sworn in Wednesday.
If all goes according to Republicans plans, Kavanaugh could be sitting on the bench when the Supreme Court begins its new term on Oct. 1.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A federal judge on Wednesday rejected ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manaforts effort to have his second trial moved to a venue outside Washington D.C.
During a court hearing, District Court Judge Amy Jackson told Manaforts defense team and prosecutors that she was not convinced by the defense argument that they wouldn't be able to find a fair jury in D.C.
Jackson said party affiliation is not necessarily a predictor of bias," referring to the Manafort teams assertion that Manafort could not get a fair trial in the District of Columbia, which is overwhelmingly populated by Democrats.
Jackson also signaled Wednesday that she will not allow any discussion of "Russian collusion" during the 2016 campaign into the upcoming trial, though she would allow some mention of Manafort's role as the campaign manager of "a presidential campaign."
The case was brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team, which is probing potential crimes related to the 2016 election. But Manafort has not been charged with anything related to the campaign.
Manafort defense attorney Kevin Downing shot back, "You can't exclude politics ... Mr. Manafort is here because he was the manager of the Trump campaign."
Jackson agreed that there could be some explanation of Manafort's position in the campaign as the investigation began but, "I don't want to dwell on his position in the campaign."
Manafort, in the upcoming trial, is facing seven counts of foreign lobbying violations and witness tampering. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Opening arguments are scheduled to begin Sept. 24.
In August, in a separate trial, a federal jury in Virginia found Manafort guilty on eight counts of federal tax and banking crimes.
The Justice Department on Wednesday announced Attorney General Jeff Sessions will convene a meeting with state attorneys general this month to discuss long-standing concerns by conservatives that social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are "stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms."
The announcement came after a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing involving top officials from Facebook and Twitter, and ahead of a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on alleged bias and lack of transparency, where Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testified.
The Attorney General has convened a meeting with a number of state attorneys general this month to discuss a growing concern that these companies may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms, the statement said.
There was no date set for the meeting. And it was not immediately clear how many attorneys general would attend the meeting.
The Senate hearing focused primarily on the use of social media by Russia and other foreign actors in the 2016 election, with executives promising to do more to combat such meddling in the future.
But President Trump and a number of Republicans have prioritized concern that tech companies discriminate against conservatives with bias in treatment and so-called shadow banning.
FACEBOOK, TWITTER ISSUE MEA CULPAS ON FAILURE TO SPOT RUSSIAN MEDDLING
What were concerned about is how Twitter has in some ways it looks like selectively, adversely affected conservatives, Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., said at the House hearing.
He used the example of Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who he said had her Senate campaign announcement video taken down by Twitter. Dorsey said that action was a mistake, which was corrected, and prompted an apology from Twitter.
In his opening remarks, Dorsey pushed back against the idea Twitter was biased by its creators personal opinions. But he conceded mistakes were made in terms of its algorithms.
I want to start by making something clear: we don't consider political viewpoints, perspectives, or party affiliation in any of our policies or enforcement decisions. Period, he said. Impartiality is our guiding principle.
Trump has repeatedly claimed social media platforms are biased against Republicans and conservatives. In an interview with The Daily Caller this week, he said social media companies had backed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
Maybe I did a better job because Im good with the Twitter and Im good at social media, but the truth is they were all on Hillary Clintons side, and if you look at what was going on with Facebook and with Google and all of it, they were very much on her side, he said.
Fox News Jake Gibson contributed to this report.
It would be tempting to call the Brett Kavanaugh hearing a circus, but that would be unfair to clowns and jugglers.
The thing totally spun out of control from the first moments yesterday, a combination of Democrats going into all-out resistance mode and screaming protestors who, for some reason, Capitol police took roughly forever to remove.
And the confirmation hearing began on a day when President Trump drew flak for an extraordinary tweet raising questions about the nonpartisan mission of the Justice Department.
The backdrop for the Senate hearing is that everyone knows the Republicans have the votes to put Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, since the filibuster has been abolished. And the Democrats are still angry about the mistreatment of Merrick Garland in 2016.
So the Democrats, as a minority, are really only able to accomplish two things: Play to their base in aggressively opposing the nomination and perhaps slow down the show. They simply lack the power to do anything else.
So it was that Kamala Harris, with an eye on 2020, immediately demanded that Chairman Chuck Grassley adjourn the Judiciary Committee hearing. Her argument, echoed by her Democratic colleagues, is that they'd just gotten 42,000 pages of documents the night before, and there were reams of other Kavanaugh papers that the White House was withholding on grounds of executive privilege.
Democrat Richard Blumenthal called the session a "charade" and a "mockery."
But Grassley, who patiently allowed the Dems to air their objections, said the panel had received more material than for any other high court nominee in history. Republican John Cornyn said the hearing, punctuated by screaming spectators, had degenerated into "mob rule."
One reality that undercuts the document demands is that all the committee Democrats have already announced their opposition to Kavanaugh. So whatever the validity of their request, it's not going to change their minds about elevating the appeals court judge.
In the end, it was the worst of Congress on display. An entire day was devoted to procedural wrangling and then endless bombast as senators made their opening statements, some slamming the nominee or asking him questions while Kavauaugh had to sit there, stone-faced, unable to respond. Only after enduring hours of this split-screen speechifying did Kavanaugh get to deliver his opening remarks. It was a high-profile display of talking without listening.
Meanwhile, the man who nominated Brett Kavanaugh tweeted the following:
"Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff."
So this is nothing short of remarkable. One of those lawmakers, Chris Collins, faces well-documented charges of insider trading (and the case did not begin under Obama). The other, Duncan Hunter, has been accused of misusing, along with his wife, $250,000 in campaign funds on lavish personal expenses.
So what is the president saying? That Sessions should have delayed the charges until after the midterms to help the GOP? That the DOJ shouldn't have brought the charges at all because the House members are Republicans?
When Trump taunts his attorney general over the Russia probe, I get the larger strategy, which is trying to discredit the investigation.
As a former Justice Department reporter who has watched career prosecutors bring cases against Democratic and Republican politicians in every administration, I don't understand, in this case, what message the president is trying to send.
During Wednesday's Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Brett Kavanaugh warned he wouldnt answer certain hypothetical questions from lawmakers, citing the so-called Ginsburg rule.
Kavanaugh said he studied past hearings of Supreme Court nominees, including those of the eight current justices, and how they reacted when asked about specific cases. He pointed specifically to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who during her 1993 confirmation hearing said it would be wrong for her to preview in this legislative chamber how I would cast my vote on questions the Supreme Court may be called upon to decide" a move that has since been dubbed the Ginsburg rule.
Kavanaugh told lawmakers that, keeping in line with that nominee precedent, he will give no hints, no forecasts, no previews during the hearings with a possible exception of questions about older cases.
He also cited Justice Elena Kagan, saying she was opposed to giving a thumbs up or thumbs down on a case.
KAVANAUGH GRILLED BY DEMOCRATS ON ABORTION AND GUNS, AS PROTESTERS DISRUPT HEARING
During questioning by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Kavanaugh declined to answer a question about whether a president should be required to respond to a subpoena.
So thats a hypothetical question about what would be an elaboration or difference from US v. Nixons precise holding, and I think going with the Justice Ginsburg principle which is really not the Justice Ginsburg alone principle; its everyones principle on the current Supreme Court and as a matter of the canons of judicial independence, I cant give you an answer on that hypothetical question, Kavanaugh said.
Kavanaugh has often praised US v. Nixon, the landmark Supreme Court decision which required then-President Richard Nixon to comply with a subpoena from a special prosecutor who sought tapes and documents pertaining to the Watergate scandal.
When Feinstein pressed, Kavanaugh again said he did not want to give my view on a potential hypothetical because each of the eight justices currently sitting on the Supreme Court, when they were sitting in my seat, declined to decide potential hypothetical cases.
KAVANAUGHS STAUNCH GUN-RIGHTS DEFENSE AMONG HUNDREDS OF DECISIONS IN SPOTLIGHT
Kavanaugh has maintained he was not asked about how he would rule on certain cases, specifically Roe v. Wade, before his nomination.
This is the second day of Kavanaughs confirmation hearing and the first when members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are able to ask the judge questions. The contentious hearing has been marked with numerous protests from those in the audience and from Democratic senators who spent much of the first day calling for a delay in the hearing.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The chaotic start to Judge Brett Kavanaughs confirmation hearing was coordinated from the top by Democratic senators who wanted to stall the Supreme Court nomination process amid complaints about access to documents.
Kavanaugh returns before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday for the start of formal questioning. He has delivered only his opening statement so far, vowing Tuesday to be a neutral and impartial arbiter after enduring a morning and afternoon of blistering statements from Democrats warning about the implications of his potential confirmation. Many of those Democrats repeatedly tried to object, delay and even adjourn the hearing amid requests for more documents and more time to review the files they had.
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., seemed to acknowledge the show was coordinated when asked by GOP Sen. Thom Tillis during Tuesdays hearing to respond to reports that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., led a phone call over the holiday weekend discussing protest plans.
Durbin said there was a phone conference yesterday, where many issues were raised.
He said this included concerns that over 100,000 documents related to Judge Kavanaugh had been characterized by the chairman of the committee as committee confidential and questions of whether the committee should hear the nominee without access to basic information about his public record.
Politico, citing unnamed sources, reported that Democrats discussed going even further than their strategy of rapid-fire disruptions. According to the report, they considered staging a mass walkout during the confirmation hearing.
But the partys top lawmakers ultimately decided against such a course of action, in part fearing the backlash from a made-for-TV moment would only help the Republican Party, and impede any chances to stop the nomination of Kavanaugh, the report said.
The consideration of such a drastic move revealed a split between the partys more liberal wing, who wish to stop the confirmation of Kavanaugh by all means necessary, and more senior Democrats, who believe the nomination should be defeated only by following rules and norms.
The Democrats ultimately came to a compromise a disruptive and chaotic hearing, Politico reported.
Younger Democrats, such as California Sen. Kamala Harris, hijacked Tuesdays hearing almost as soon as it started and urged the committee to delay the hearing amid protests by liberal activists, some of whom were arrested.
Harris received praise for her defiance of the chambers norms. This was a big step forward, and Kamala Harris showed real leadership by going first in interrupting the hearing. Now we need other Democrats who aren't on the committee to speak up and oppose this nominee, too, Brian Fallon, director of Demand Justice, an anti-Kavanaugh group, told the outlet.
By not staging a walkout, however, Democrats also allowed themselves to become part of the process and grill Kavanaugh in the upcoming hearings, hoping to mobilize opposition to his candidacy.
The obstructionist tactics, which will surely boost some lawmakers reputations among the increasingly liberal base, may still backfire when it comes to the confirmation of Kavanaugh.
Democrats ultimately need to convince moderate Republicans to vote against Kavanaughs confirmation. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of the swing votes that could stop the nomination, dismissed Tuesdays protests as a lot of drama, according to the outlet.
Meanwhile, another viral moment from Tuesdays hearing when Fred Guttenberg, father of Jaime Guttenberg who was killed in the Parkland shooting, was seen approaching Kavanaugh for a handshake, only for the nominee to walk away also was the result of some planning.
The committees top Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, tweeted that she invited Guttenberg to sit in the audience.
He knows firsthand how Brett Kavanaughs extreme views on guns could lead to more massacres, tweeted Feinstein, who has long championed gun control measures.
But Guttenberg said it was his decision to approach Kavanaugh.
I initiated an effort to introduce myself to Kavanaugh. It was my decison and I own it. Anyone trying to come up with some politial master plan is simply wrong, he tweeted.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh praised Chief Judge Merrick Garland who was nominated to the nations highest court by former President Barack Obama as hardworking and a great judge.
During Kavanaughs confirmation hearing Wednesday, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, noted that Kavanaugh and Garland have a very similar record on issues they voted on together while on the D.C. Circuit Court. Cruz claimed the two voted together 93 percent of the time; he also said Garland joined about 96 percent of the published opinions authored by Kavanaugh when they were on the same panel.
Senate Republicans infamously declined to consider Garlands confirmation to the Supreme Court after he was nominated by Obama following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016. As the vacancy was at the very end of Obamas term, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the decision of a new Supreme Court justice should be left up to the next president Donald Trump.
The refusal to consider Garlands confirmation is still a point of contention for Democrats, many of whom have vociferously protested Kavanaughs own hearing.
GOP SENATOR SAYS DEMOCRATS INTERRUPTING KAVANAUGH HEARING WOULD BE IN CONTEMPT OF COURT
Of the similarities between the two judges noted by Cruz, Kavanaugh said, I think were trying hard to find common ground.
As Ive said before, [Garland is] a great judge a great chief judge and hes very careful and very hardworking, and we work well together and try to read the statute as written, read the precedent as written, Kavanaugh said. Hes a judge like I try to be as well a judge whos not trying to impose any personal preferences onto the decision but take the law as written, and thats what Ive tried to do in those cases and that probably explains some of that.
I think it also goes back to I think judges are distinct from policymakers, and I think that shows up when you dig into the actual details of how courts operate and go about their business, he continued.
KAVANAUGH CITES 'GINSBURG RULE' IN DECLINING CERTAIN QUESTIONS DURING CONFIRMATION HEARING: WHAT IS IT?
Garland was appointed to the powerful federal appeals court in the District of Columbia by former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, in 1997; he was elevated to chief judge of the court in 2013.
Kavanaugh was appointed to the court by former President George W. Bush, a Republican, in 2006.
Fireworks erupted at the start of Kavanaughs confirmation hearing as Democrats continuously interrupted and spoke over Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican, to ask for more time to review some 42,000 documents the committee received last-minute.
Democrats have seen thousands of those documents but wanted time to review even more. They also said theyve been denied access to many more documents they claim is needed to properly vet Kavanaugh.
Additionally, 70 people were arrested on the first day of the hearing as protesters shouted down lawmakers and disrupted the hearing. Police removed more demonstrators Wednesday as well, but it is unclear exactly how many arrests have been made.
With two months left to go until midterm Election Day in North Dakota, GOP Senate candidate Kevin Cramer released an ad attacking incumbent Democrat Heidi Heitkamp on her late-term abortion stance.
In the 30-second ad released by Cramer's campaign, titled "Respecting Life," the candidate's two daughters one of whom is pregnant argue that Heitkamp doesn't support their father's "strong commitment to life."
Heitkamp, according to the daughters, "disagrees" and "even high fived another senator after voting yes to allow late-term abortions" alongside footage of the senator cheerfully high fiving Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
Politifact, however, reported that after Heitkamp voted no on proceeding to a motion that would make almost all abortions after 20 weeks illegal, she was chatting with fellow Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, of New Jersey.
Schumer appeared, and the two waved hello and the grabbed their hands in a "very gradual meeting of awkwardly waving hands."
"They were greeting each other to say hello," Heitkamp's communications director told Politifact at the time. "As senators often do during votes."
Heitkamp, a former state attorney general, won her seat in the State Senate in 2012 by less than one percentage point.
A Republican Senate candidate is facing criticism after his campaign released an ad on gun rights that misattributed the Constitution.
In the since-deleted ad, Matt Rosendale who is challenging Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Tester in Montana is standing near a sign that says, The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
The problem? That line is attributed in the campaign spot to Article II, a part of the Constitution that refers to executive power. The phrase in the ad is actually part of the Second Amendment.
Theres two ways folks look at gun rights. Some folks, like me, shoot straight. Support the Second Amendment, Rosendale said in the ad, pointing to the sign behind him.
FOX NEWS MIDTERM ELECTION HEADQUARTERS
Rosendales campaign has since re-released a corrected version of the ad which attributes the line to Amendment II.
A spokesperson for Rosendales campaign acknowledged to KULR-TV the original ad was posted to YouTube by mistake. It still remains online, however, as its been uploaded to YouTube by another user.
Some social media users are still calling out Rosendale for the mistaken ad. One Twitter user encouraged the campaign to "work on your Photoshop skills." Another criticized Rosendale for his willingness to "support amending commercials but not the Constitution."
MONTANA REPUBLICANS TAP ROSENDALE TO TAKE ON VULNERABLE DEMOCRAT TESTER
Rosendale, Montanas state auditor, beat out three other Republicans in the states June primary. A former state senator, Rosendale has billed himself as a Trump conservative and had the support of GOP Sens. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Rand Paul in the primary.
He is running against Tester, a Democrat who has held the seat since 2007. Although Trump won the state in the 2016 presidential election with 56 percent of the vote, Fox News has ranked the Senate race as leaning Democrat.
U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Pakistan Wednesday where he is expected to meet with the countrys new prime minster in an effort to curb strained relations between the two countries.
Pompeos goal to reset the uneasy relationship could be complicated by the appointment of veteran diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad as the special advisor on reconciliation in Afghanistan.
An Afghan native, Khalilzads job will be to bring the Taliban and Afghan government together toward rapprochement.
He has been very critical of Pakistan in the past and his appointment will not help move things forward, said Zahid Hussain, a defense analyst and author of two books on militancy in the region.
Khalilzad previously served under George W. Bush as the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq and as a U.N. ambassador.
While in Pakistan, Pompeo will meet with Prime Minister Imran Khan as well as the countrys foreign minister and army chief.
Later in the day, he will leave for India where Afghanistan and bringing an end to the war are likely to be discussed.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
A former Trump administration official was accused by liberal activists on Tuesday of being a white supremacist over an unintentional hand gesture she made during the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Zina Gelman Bash, a former Kavanaugh clerk who now works in Texas Attorney General Ken Paxtons administration, was attacked by liberal activist on social media for holding her hand in an OK gesture as she was sitting behind Kavanaugh. Many on social media believed it was a so-called white power hate symbol.
What fresh hell is this!!!??? Kavanaughs assistant Zina Bash giving the white power sign right behind him during the hearing? This alone should be disqualify!!! Amy Siskind, president and co-founder of the female advocacy group New Agenda, wrote in a now-deleted tweet.
She later backtracked, saying that her comment became a distraction, though urged the media to ask Bash about the gesture, noting that it's not a natural resting position.
The conspiracy didnt slow down even after some pointed out that Bash had a Mexican mother and a Jewish father, while her grandparents only narrowly escaped the Holocaust.
This neo-nazi is Zina Bash. Shes intentionally throwin up White Power signs at a Supreme Court Justice confirmation hearing. On national TV. She works for Kavanaugh & is also one of the writers for Trumps immigration policy. This is their new Amerikkka, tweeted actress Kelly Mantle.
The Anti-Defamation League previously noted that the OK gesture isnt a hate symbol. Has the simple thumb-and-forefinger OK hand gesture become a white supremacist hand sign? Well, no, it hasnt, but you are likely to hear just the opposite from social media, thanks to the latest hoax from members of notorious website 4chan, read a post from the anti-racism group.
Kavanaughs former law clerk Zina Bash is flashing a white power sign behind him during his Senate confirmation hearing. They literally want to bring white supremacy to the Supreme Court. What a national outrage and a disgrace to the rule of law, wrote Dr. Eugene Gu, attracting over 12 thousand retweets.
U.S. Attorney John Bash, her husband, came to the defense his wife on social media, posting a series of comments regarding the false accusations leveled against Bash.
The attacks today on my wife are repulsive. Everyone tweeting this vicious conspiracy theory should be ashamed of themselves. We werent even familiar with the hateful symbol being attributed to her for the random way she rested her hand during a long hearing, he wrote.
Zina is Mexican on her mothers side and Jewish on her fathers side. She was born in Mexico. Her grandparents were Holocaust survivors. We of course have nothing to do with hate groups, which aim to terrorize and demean other people never have and never would, he continued.
Some of the Twitter comments have even referred to our baby daughter. I know that there are good folks on both sides of the political divide. I hope that people will clearly condemn this idiotic and sickening accusation, he posted.
President Trump's top personal lawyer said Tuesday that his legal team is still deciding whether to "accept the proposition" of responding to the special counsel's request for written answers regarding the Russia investigation.
Jay Sekulows comments came after a New York Times reportciting two people briefed on the matter-- said that Special Counsel Robert Mueller would accept written answers on questions about whether the president's campaign conspired with Russia's election interference.
But I will tell you this, Im not concerned about the President of the United States responding, if we decide to accept the proposition of responding to written questions, responding to questions about Russia and interference with the election, Sekulow told Fox News Hannity.
Sekulow said Trumps lawyers and Muellers team have an ongoing dialogue." He said that hes not going to discuss the contents of what has been agreed to or not agreed to.
Sources told Fox News, though, that Muellers team has come closer to the conditions Trumps attorneys have been seeking and they will respond to the latest letter.
Mueller did not say he would be giving up on an interview altogether, including on questions of obstruction of justice, according to The Times. Mueller also reportedly did not ask for written responses on the obstruction investigation.
Sekulow did not address the obstruction investigation, but primarily discussed the Russia investigation portion, saying Im not worried about questions on Russia.
The President is committed. Theres no crime here, no underlying crime that the president was involved in. Im not concerned about where that goes. Look, if they ask questions, and we think theyre appropriate, we would respond, Sekulow said.
He pointed out that Trumps legal team has handed over 1.4 million pages of documents to the special counsels office.
This White House has been the most transparent in history when it comes to investigations or inquiries like this, Sekulow said. This needs to come to an end.
He said he doesn't give specific times or dates as to when he thinks the investigation should end, but that it needs to happen sooner than later.
Because at the end of the day as I said, its a process of negotiation, Sekulow said.
Fox News' John Roberts contributed to this report.
After winning her primary election, Ayanna Pressley became yet another progressive woman who upset an incumbent congressman on her way to make history.
Pressley, 46, upset longtime Rep. Michael Capuano in Massachusetts Democratic primary on Sept. 4 all but ensuring her a spot in the history books as the states first black woman elected to Congress. No Republicans ran in the race.
This is a fight for the soul of our party and the future of our democracy, she said after her win. This is a disruptive candidacy, a grassroots coalition. It is broad and diverse and deep. People of every walk of life.
In her primary campaign, Pressley was endorsed by and compared to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a young Democratic socialist who rose to prominence when she ousted longtime Democratic Rep. Joseph Crowley in New Yorks primaries earlier this year.
Like Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley tapped into growing cries within the Democratic Party for newer and more diverse leadership. Capuano, 68, has only served the 7th congressional district since 2013, but had represented the 8th district for 14 years prior.
Read on for a look at what to know about Pressley.
She became the first black congresswoman from Massachusetts
With no Republican running in the general election, Pressley ultimately became the first black congresswoman from Massachusetts. But she has stated prior, thats not what her campaign was about.
I am black and a woman and unapologetically proud to be both. But Ive never asked anyone to vote for me because Im black and a woman, she told Elle magazine. Im asking people to consider me because Im pledging to be a vote, a voice, and a partner. Im asking people to vote for me because Im an activist leader and a problem solver.
FOX NEWS MIDTERM ELECTIONS HEADQUARTERS
The last time an upset occurred in a Democratic primary in Massachusetts was in 2014 when Seth Moulton defeated Rep. John Tierney in the 6th congressional district.
Pressley served on the Boston City Council
Pressley was first elected to the Boston City Council in 2009, becoming the first woman of color to be elected to that legislative body, according to her campaign website.
While on the council, Pressley established and chairs the Committee on Healthy Women, Families, and Communities, a group which addresses public health concerns, particularly pertaining to youth, families, seniors and women. It also addresses domestic and sexual violence, human trafficking, reproductive health and child abuse.
On her campaign website, Pressley notes that she is a survivor, but The New York Times reported that while she focuses on helping others who are victims of sexual assault, she doesnt talk much about her own experience.
Ive just kept going, like millions of people do every day, because life does not allow them to do anything else, Pressley told the newspaper, adding, The people closest to the pain should be closest to the power.
WHO IS JAHANA HAYES, THE CONNECTICUT CANDIDATE WHO COULD MAKE HISTORY?
She has also worked to establish a pregnant and parenting teen policy as well as a sexual health education curriculum for Boston Public Schools, according to her campaign website.
She wants to abolish ICE
Pressley has joined a growing list of Democrats who have called for the abolishment of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency especially under President Trumps administration. This decision garnered her the support of Maura Healey, Massachusetts popular attorney general who has repeatedly sued the Trump administration in an attempt to block certain policies, including on immigration.
My mother did not raise me to ask for permission to lead. Ayanna Pressley
We have to be disruptive in our democracy and our policymaking and how we run and win elections, Pressley told The Associated Press, adding, My mother did not raise me to ask for permission to lead.
Her mom is the catalyst for her campaign
In interviews and campaign materials, Pressley credits her mother for the reason why she got into politics. Pressley was raised by a single mom in Chicago who instilled in her the value of civic participation, according to her campaign website.
Raising me as a single parent, my mother held many jobs. Most of them had to do with the betterment and the achievement of our community and society at large, Pressley told Elle magazine. I grew up seeing her active in ministries at our church, with the homeless, as a social worker, with elderly, with youth, as a childrens rights organizer with the Urban League of Chicago. She took me with her to vote in every election.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT MASSACHUSETTS PRIMARY ELECTIONS
Public service and community organizing and movement building is such a part of my DNA that its really hard to separate it. Its just all Ive ever known and the only way that Ive ever really wanted to make a contribution to the world, she said.
Pressley has worked for other famous Massachusetts politicians
Before being elected to the Boston City Council, Pressley worked for former Rep. Joseph Kennedy II as a senior aide, according to her biography. Kennedy, a Democrat, represented Massachusetts in Congress until 1999. He was succeeded by Capuano.
She also formerly worked for John Kerry, a former Massachusetts senator, secretary of state and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee. According to The New York Times, she was Kerrys Massachusetts political director during his presidential bid.
And when she ran for city council, Kerry knocked on doors for her, The Times reported.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
In August 1946, a Maryland man went to his usual lunch spot for a bite to eat. Finding the diner full, he asked a man sitting alone if he could share his table.
The man, as it supposedly turned out, was Adolf Hitler.
The dictator was dressed cheaply and very nervous, according to the witness. Hitler fidgeted and played with his napkin. His lunchmate called the authorities.
In 1948, a letter arrived at a Spanish-language newspaper. The writer claimed hed last seen Hitler in Bogota, Colombia, 10 days previously and that he was in perfect health. The Fuehrer had plans to conquer the moon and Mars.
Conspiracy theories regarding the death of Hitler are legion. Tales about his escape from a German bunker began cropping up just a few hours after his supposed death on April 30, 1945.
Now a new book claims to put the kibosh on all the rumors and definitively solve the mystery of what happened to the Nazi monster.
The Death of Hitler: The Final Word (Da Capo Press) is written by French journalist Jean-Christophe Brisard and Russian documentary maker Lana Parshina.
The duo ventured to Moscow to comb historical documents stored in secret archives. They were also allowed to examine a skull fragment containing a bullet hole and teeth supposedly taken from the German leaders body stored at the library belonging to Russias notorious Federal Security Services.
The authors spent months negotiating for access to the depositories presided over by stern former-Soviet librarians and humorless guards wearing severe black uniforms.
How foreigners even Lana with her perfect Russian and her old Russian passport like us could get official access, that was the biggest challenge, Brisard tells The Post.
Among the 7 million documents stored in the Russian archives, the authors found top-secret accounts detailing the interrogations of members of Hitlers inner circle, who were captured when Soviet troops took Berlin.
What emerged was a detailed, if sometimes frustratingly contradictory, chronicle of Hitlers final days.
By April 1945, the Fuehrer had retreated to a heavily fortified underground bunker near the Reich Chancellery at 77 Wilhelmstrasse. On April 29, with Russian troops just blocks away, Hitler married girlfriend Eva Braun in a 10-minute ceremony. Just before the union, Hitler dictated his will to his private secretary. The document stated that he and Braun had chosen death and that their bodies should be burned upon discovery.
Hitler tested cyanide on his dog, Blondi, preparing for the end.
The next afternoon, he emerged from his room and quietly said goodbye to his closest aides. What happened next is unclear.
Hitlers valet, Heinz Linge, was stationed outside the door and told the Russians he heard a gunshot. He ran to alert Hitlers secretary Martin Bormann, and the two entered the room to find their leader and his wife dead.
The bodies were wrapped in blankets, carried upstairs, doused with gasoline and burned.
The Russian files reveal that the Soviets collected numerous accounts (often under extreme duress) of the events from other bunker dwellers, and the interrogators grew irritated by the disparities, believing they were being lied to.
Some Nazis reported hearing a shot, others didnt. Some reported seeing a bullet wound in Hitlers head, others didnt. Had Hitler shot himself in the mouth or the temple? Or had he not shot himself at all and instead taken cyanide?
The Soviets preferred the latter narrative, because they believed it showed cowardice on Hitlers part.
A 1945 Russian autopsy performed on the burned corpses recovered near the entrance to the bunker backed up the cyanide hypothesis. A crushed glass capsule was found in the mans mouth and the smell of bitter almond was strong, indicating the poison.
The bodies were then buried, although they were later exhumed and cremated. But fragments of the jawbone were saved.
The skull piece was discovered by the Soviets in 1946, near where the burned bodies were found. It was stored in an archival safe, uncataloged until stumbled upon by a librarian in 1975.
To examine this physical evidence, the authors brought in Philippe Charlier, a French forensic pathologist who was nicknamed the Indiana Jones of graveyards for his role in identifying high-profile historical bodies.
Charlier was acceptable to the Russians, not just because of his reputation, but because he was not American. Anything but an American.
The cautious Russians allowed only a visual analysis of the skull piece, and Charlier was able to determine that it belonged to an adult male and that it had been burned. But was it Hitlers? The doctor couldnt say.
Hitlers teeth provided more clarity. Charlier was able to compare the jawbone with X-rays taken of Hitler in 1944. His conclusion? It was a match. No doubt. There was perfect agreement.
Hitler did not escape Berlin in 1945. He died in that bunker.
But the how of Hitlers demise remained a mystery.
Charlier was also allowed to analyze the teeth with a microscope, and discovered strange blue stains. Charlier was stumped. Could cyanide have caused the discoloration?
One of the bigger breakthroughs came completely by accident. Once Charlier had returned to France after the initial examination, he discovered some nearly microscopic pieces of dental tartar from Hitlers teeth stuck to the rubber gloves he wore for the examination.
He examined these grains by electron microscope and found more evidence strengthening the case. Within the sample, he discovered vegetable fibers but no meat, indicating the teeth belonged to a vegetarian, as Hitler was.
The tartar also was scanned for traces of three metallic elements that would indicate that Hitler had shot himself in the mouth, as his chauffeur, Erich Kempka, had told the British in 1945.
No traces were found, meaning Hitler almost certainly shot himself in the temple, as some witnesses stated.
As for the cyanide? Charlier was unable to come to any conclusion and is still unsure what caused the blue stains on the teeth.
Without a more thorough examination, they will remain a mystery.
And Russia apparently isnt exactly welcoming any new inquiries. The teeth among the most fascinating historical artifacts of the 20th century were returned to the repurposed cigarillo box in which theyve been casually stored, wheeled deep into the archives and dropped onto a shelf alongside God knows what other relics. It is unclear when, or if, they will ever be seen again.
This story originally appeared in the New York Post.
Three horses and two dogs that were found dead in Monroe County, Ky., on Sunday morning were possibly killed by a large cat," the sheriffs department said.
Officials with the Monroe County Sheriffs Department and the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife were called to a home in Tompkinsville on reports of dead animals, the sheriffs department said in an online statement.
When they arrived, officials found three deceased horses, as well as the bodies of a pit bull and a husky.
SHARK IN SHALLOW WATER REPORTEDLY SPOOKS BEACHGOERS ON NORTH CAROLINA'S BALD HEAD ISLAND
It is believed that this occurred in the wee hours of the morning and all sign show that it possibly could have been done by a large cat/animal, the statement continued, adding that members of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlifes diagnostics team were called to examine the animal carcasses.
MOOSE DROWNS IN VERMONT LAKE AFTER BEING SPOOKED BY ONLOOKERS SNAPPING PHOTOS
A spokesperson for the sheriffs department told Fox News on Wednesday the investigation is ongoing," adding officials still believe a large cat is responsible for the deaths.
No others animals have been killed at this time.
We highly advise you to please keep a close eye on small children and animals when they are let outside and use caution and be aware of your surroundings, the sheriffs department warned in the statement.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is starting to earnestly evaluate space resources for future mining.
Since its establishment in the 1870s, the USGS has focused pretty much solely on Earth. But now it's also investigating what benefits may or may not exist in tapping extraterrestrial water, minerals and metals.
The agency seeks to portray accurately how humanity could exploit off-Earth assets a no-nonsense approach that contrasts with the pie-in-the-sky estimates of trillions of dollars of profit proffered by some less scientifically minded space-mining advocates. [Photos: The Search for Water on the Moon]
Proven expertise
This past June, several USGS experts took part in a Space Resources Roundtable held at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado.
"The space-resources community will benefit greatly from working together with the USGS to assess the location and value of minerals, energy and water on the moon, Mars and asteroids," said Angel Abbud-Madrid, director of the Center for Space Resources at the Colorado School of Mines.
The USGS offers proven expertise and an unbiased, quantitative approach to characterizing terrestrial resources, Abbud-Madrid told Space.com. That know-how "can also lead to reliable and much-needed geological maps for more precise landing-site and resource-deposit selection," he said.
It's also worth noting that the new director of the USGS, Jim Reilly, is a geoscientist and former NASA astronaut. During his 13-year NASA career, Reilly flew on three space shuttle missions, conducted five spacewalks and racked up a total of more than 856 hours in orbit.
Multifaceted issue
The exploitation of space resources is a fascinating and multifaceted issue, said Laszlo Kestay, a research geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.
"The USGS has been paying steadily increasing attention to the issue of space resources for the last several years," Kestay told Space.com. The drivers for this are diverse, he said. For example, the U.S. human space program seems to be focusing on missions to deep space, where space resources are extremely valuable. Furthermore, commercial efforts to extract space resources are growing in maturity.
Kestay pointed to the USGS' increased responsibility for the Landsat satellites, a venerable series of Earth-observing spacecraft. The USGS is now considered one of the U.S. space agencies, he said.
"The USGS realized that our congressional mandate to assess natural resources extends to space," Kestay said.
At this time, the USGS does not have a funded program to conduct full-scale assessments of space resources. "But we are anticipating that the USGS may be directed to do so soon, and we are taking a number of steps to be prepared for that possibility," he said.
Confidence building
Kestay pointed to the USGS' participation in space-resource workshops. In addition, there's the 2017 "Feasibility Study for the Quantitative Assessment of Mineral Resources in Asteroids" led by Kestay, which found that the water and metal resources of near-Earth asteroids are sufficient to support humanity should it become a fully spacefaring species.
"At this point, we have done enough work to feel confident that the methods the USGS uses to assess mineral, energy and water resources on Earth can be used to assess space resources with minimal modification," Kestay said. "We have also done enough preliminary work to identify some areas where humanity's lack of knowledge will result in exceedingly large uncertainties in assessments undertaken today."
Follow the water
"Lunar ice would be a good example of a resource that we do not understand well enough to provide estimates with much precision," Kestay said.
Attempting such an assessment could still be "useful," he said, because it can identify the most critical information that future missions need to collect.
"It is also perhaps counterintuitive that we have a much better understanding of ice on Mars than on our own moon, but NASA's 'follow the water' strategy [on the Red Planet] has provided a wealth of knowledge," Kestay said. "Finally, it is clear, even before we undertake a full-blown assessment, that there are significant resources in space to assess!" [Photos: The Search for Water on Mars]
Lessons learned
No major mining company would undertake the huge cost of developing a new mine on Earth without a detailed resource model, Lawrence Meinert, scientist emeritus for the USGS, told the School of Mines attendees.
"Given the even higher costs of space travel and development, new space resource models and assessment techniques are a prerequisite for practical development of space resources," Meinert said.
Lessons learned from terrestrial exploration, mining and assessment can be applied to space resources, Meinert said. "So it's not just the excitement of new knowledge; there are certain things you need to do. One of them is characterizing what it is you're going to develop," he told Space.com.
Policy, investment decision making
Space-resource assessments will require a combination of remote sensing and physical sampling to better constrain actual asteroid, moon and planetary compositions, at a scale appropriate for resource classification and potential utilization, Meinert said.
"This information can then be used to inform resource-assessment models that have been developed and successfully utilized on Earth," Meinert concluded. "Such model assessments will be foundational to guide policy and investment decisions concerning the emerging field of space resources."
This version of the story published on Space.com.
Google was given "the empty chair treatment" at the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday, a sign lawmakers are fuming that neither CEO Sundar Pichai or Larry Page, chairman of parent company Alphabet, chose to attend the event to discuss election interference.
Instead of Pichai or Page, Mountain View, Calif.-based Google offered its top lawyer, Kent Walker, to the committee, an offer that was declined. Facebook sent its Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter sent its CEO Jack Dorsey.
REPORT REVEALS GOOGLE IS TRACKING YOU IF YOU LIKE IT OR NOT
Alphabet is the holding company, founded in 2015, that holds Google, along with several other businesses, including autonomous cars.
Lawmakers are unhappy
News of a "empty chair treatment" first emerged when Sen. Mark Warner (D.-Va.) told CNBC last week it could be a possibility.
"Chances are there's going to be an empty chair there," Sen. Warner told the financial news outlet last week. "I think there will be a lot more questions raised that could have been actually dealt with if they sent a senior decision-maker and not simply their counsel."
In his opening statement, Warner again expressed his dismay that Google did not send its top executives.
"Im deeply disappointed that Google one of the most influential digital platforms in the world chose not to send its own top corporate leadership to engage this committee," Warner said.
Warner continued: "I know our members have a series of difficult questions about structural vulnerabilities on a number of Googles platforms that we will need answered. From Google Search, which continues to have problems surfacing absurd conspiracies.To YouTube, where Russian-backed disinformation agents promoted hundreds of divisive videos.To Gmail, where state-sponsored operatives attempt countless hacking attempts, Google has an immense responsibility in this space. Given its size and influence, I would have thought the leadership at Google would want to demonstrate how seriously it takes these challenges and to lead this important public discussion."
Google did not respond to Fox News' request on Pichai or Page's whereabouts. It did however offer a statement, noting that over the past 18 months, it has met with "dozens of Committee Members and briefed major Congreessional Committees numerous times" on its work to prevent foreign interference in U.S. elections.
A Google spokesman said that Walker, its SVP of Global Affairs and Chief Legal Officer, is in Washington D.C. today to deliver "written testimony, brief Members of Congress on our work and answer any questions they have," before adding the company understood Walker would be "an appropriate witness for this hearing" when it discussed this in late July.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr said Tuesday that Google doesn't "understand the problem" if it doesn't want to work with the government to find solutions.
HOW TO FIND AND DELETE WHERE GOOGLE KNOWS YOU'VE BEEN
Google's rocky relationship with Washington
The back-and-forth with Google is the latest in a year's worth of attempts by Congress to force the companies to focus more sharply on the Russian interference issue. While Burr says he believes Facebook and Twitter do understand the problem, it took both companies several months last year to acknowledge they had been manipulated.
It also underscores how difficult the problem may be to solve. While the companies have made many changes around their policies and have caught and banned hordes of malicious accounts over the past year, their business models free services that rely on attracting as many users as possible for as long as possible and finding out as much about them as possible remain the same. Some critics have charged that unless they change this, they will continue to contend with bad actors taking advantage of their systems.
The company has come under pressure from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in recent weeks. President Trump also accused the tech giant of snubbing his State of the Union address.
Google refuted the accusation that it snubbed his State of the Union address after years of promoting President Obamas addresses.
On January 30 2018, we highlighted the livestream of President Trumps State of the Union on the google.com homepage," a Google spokesperson told Fox News. "We have historically not promoted the first address to Congress by a new President, which is technically not a State of the Union address. As a result, we didnt include a promotion on google.com for this address in either 2009 or 2017.
GOOGLE IS FINED $5B BY EU IN ANDROID ANTITRUST CASE
A widely circulated screenshot from the Internet Archives Wayback Machine shows Googles promotion of President Trumps 2018 State of the Union address dated Jan. 31, 2018. On Twitter, @WrockBro said that the date discrepancy is because the Wayback Machine follows GMT.
Trumps 2018 State of the Union address began at 9:15 p.m. ET on Jan 30, which was 2:10 a.m. GMT on Jan 31.
The Internet Archives Wayback Machine documents more than 336 billion Web pages.
The claims were made in a 24-second video posted on Twitter by Trump on Wednesday. The president also tweeted the hashtag #StopTheBias.
Last month, the president said Google and other tech companies are "treading on very, very troubled territory." Trump's chief economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, also said the administration is looking at "regulating" Google.
The company has also come under pressure from human rights groups, as well as its own employees about a potential search engine in China, which would be censored to the needs of the Chinese government.
This story has been updated to include Google's response.
Fox News' Kristin Brown, James Rogers, Chad Pergram and the Associated Press contributed to this report. Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_Ciaccia
The Navy is making an aggressive push to explore and refine the new combat tactics, offensive weaponry and networking technologies needed for modern warfare on the open seas - as part of a service-wide strategic initiative to prepare the fleet for major ocean combat against increasingly high-tech enemies.
The San Diego-based Naval Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center is moving quickly on new ocean warfare training to help the US Navy regain sea control in great power competition, Lt. Cmdr. Seth Powell, program manager, Warfare Tactics Instructor Program, told Warrior Maven in an interview.
The 15-to-17 week courses place sailors on surface ships in combat-like scenarios intended to mirror the most advanced current and future enemy threats they are likely to encounter. Course leaders say the training involves a concentrated, in depth focus on weapons systems likely to be used by potential enemies.
One of the big things we focus on is exactly what tactics we have to take into account, given the capabilities of the enemy, Powell said.
Adjusting to a fast-evolving threat environment, involving technologically sophisticated adversaries, requires course participants to experiment with new Tactics, Techniques and Procedures necessary to meet as-of-yet unprecedented kinds of attacks.
How do we take ready ships and turn them into more lethal ships? We put everything they have learned on the ships and out at sea, Powell said.
The current courses have in part been put together through Warfighter Tactics Instructor training, preparations aimed at breaking the training down into specific warfare focus areas including integrated air and missile defense, surface warfare and amphibious warfare; the Navy plans to stand up a mine warfare program next year.
Lessons learned and findings from the Naval Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center training are expected to inform the development of Navy doctrine as well as the acquisition priorities needed for future war scenarios, Powell added.
As we bring advanced systems online, we are thinking about how to utilize them with advanced tactical training, he said.
Some of the particular kinds of enemy weapons these courses anticipate for the future include a range of emerging new systems - to include lasers, rail-guns and long-range missiles, among other technologies.
Not surprisingly, these courses appear as somewhat of a linear outgrowth or tactical manifestation of the Navys 2016 Surface Force Strategy document. Tilted Return to Sea Control, the strategy paper lists a number of specific enemy threat areas of concern focused upon by course trainers.
Examples of threats cited by the strategy paper include anti-ship ballistic and cruise missiles, integrated and layered sensor systems, targeting networks, long-range bombers, advanced fighter aircraft, submarines, mines, advanced integrated air defenses, electronic warfare and cyber and space technologies.
Much like the training courses and the Surface Force Strategy, the Navys Distributed Maritime Operations Concept also builds upon the Navys much-discussed distributed lethality strategy, in place now for a number of years. This strategic approach emphasizes the need to more fully arm the fleet with offensive and defensive weapons and disperse forces as needed.
Having cyber, space and missile weapons - along with over-the-horizon ship and air-launched weapons - are relevant to offensive attack as well as the distributed portion of the strategy. Having an ability to defend against a wider range of attacks and strike from long-distances enables the fleet to spread out and conduct dis-aggregated operations, making US Navy forces less vulnerable to enemy firepower.
Interestingly, the pressing need to emphasize offensive attack in the Navy fleet appears to have roots in previous Navy strategic thinking.
Part of the overall strategic rationale is to move the force back toward open or blue water combat capability against near peer competitors, such as that which was emphasized during the Cold War. While the importance of this kind of strategic and tactical thinking never disappeared, these things were emphasized less during the last 15-plus years of ground wars wherein the Navy focused on counter-terrorism, securing the international waterways, counter-piracy and things like Visit Board Search and Seizure.
These missions are, of course, still important, however the Navy seeks to substantially increase its offensive lethality given that rivals such as Russia and China have precision-guided anti-ship missiles able to hit targets at ranges greater than 900 miles in some cases. The advent of new cyber and electronic warfare attack technologies, enemy drones and the rapid global proliferation of sea mines all present uniquely modern nuances when compared to previous Cold-War strategic paradigms.
Nevertheless, the most current Naval Surface Warfare Strategy does, by design, appear to be somewhat of a higher-tech, modern adaptation of some fundamental elements of the Navys Cold-War-era approach - a time when major naval warfare against a Soviet force was envisioned as a realistic contingency.
A 1987 essay titled Strategy Concept of the US Navy, published by Naval History and Heritage Command, cites the importance of long-range offensive firepower and targeting sensors in a geographically dispersed or expansive open ocean warfare environment. The paper goes so far as to say the very survivability of US Naval Forces and the accomplishment of their missions depends upon offensive firepower.
Integrated forces may be geographically distant, but their movements, sensors, and weapons are coordinated to provide maximum mutual support and offensive capability, the paper writes.
The Cold War-era Strategic Concepts document also specifies that Naval defensive capability should include long-range detection systems such as airborne early warning, quick reacting command and control systems and effective defensive weapons systems.
More Weapons and Technology - WARRIOR MAVEN (CLICK HERE)--
An Israeli man was arrested at Newark Liberty International Airport for bringing a fake bomb, via his carry-on bag, into the air hub, triggering a serious scare and the temporary closure of six Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening lanes.
On the morning of Sept. 4, after the item was spotted on an X-ray monitor, Alon Felman told police he had brought the replica improvised explosive device into Newark Airport for a police training seminar he was attending in Florida, News 12 New Jersey reports. Felman had just arrived in Newark from Tel Aviv, according to NBC.
TRAVELER'S LIMBO TRICK AT PHILADELPHIA AIRPORT GOES VIRAL
A TSA spokesperson confirmed to Fox News that TSA officials alerted Port Authority Police, who responded to the scene and called in the Essex County Bomb Squad to verify that the device was not a real bomb.
In the interim, six checkpoint security screening lanes were temporarily closed to keep travelers at a safe distance from the device. The third level of Terminal C also remained closed for a time during the investigation.
Felman was subsequently arrested by Port Authority Police, charged with creating a false public alarm and interference with transportation, News 12 reported.
"The terror threat is real and we do not take chances when it comes to protecting the lives of travelers." Tom Carter, TSA New Jersey Federal Security Director
Security is no joke. Our TSA Officer who was staffing the X-ray monitor identified what appeared to be a fully assembled IED and reported it to her supervisor, said TSAs New Jersey Federal Security Director Tom Carter in a statement obtained by Fox News.
Everyone reacted to the event properly. Law enforcement was called in and a safety perimeter was established until such time as it was deemed safe to resume normal operations, he added.
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS
The item was built to look exactly like an explosive device. The terror threat is real and we do not take chances when it comes to protecting the lives of travelers, TSA's Carter continued. We have a great working relationship with our law enforcement partners and we thank them for their response to this unfortunate incident.
The individual who brought this device to the checkpoint knew he had a replica bomb with him and as such, he should have known better than to bring it to an active checkpoint. His foolish actions inconvenienced hundreds of passengers today, he added.
The incident occured just one week before the 17th anniversary of September 11.
A gay couple is claiming they were separated during priority boarding while straight families were allowed to board together.
Jeff Cobb and his husband were flying from San Francisco to Taipei, Taiwan with their 19-month-old child on Saturday when Cobb says an airline crew member told the men they could not both board in the family boarding group.
AMERICAN AIRLINES APOLOGIZES TO PASSENGER FOR 'SHREDDED' SUITCASE, MISSING ITEMS
My husband and I were told only one of us could join our 19-month-old in the family boarding group of EVA Air 27 from SFO on 9/1/18," Cobb wrote on Twitter. I explained we were both the fathers of the child, and they said it was their policy that only one parent can board and the other has to wait in the normal line. Not having flown EVA before, I accepted it and let my husband and child go while I boarded later.
Cobb said when he finally boarded the plane, his husband told him straight families had been allowed to board all together.
When I met him on the plane, he said there were many other (straight) families all boarding together, Cobb said, International Business Times reports. Im very disappointed that the EVA ground staff at SFO thinks its OK to separate same-sex families during boarding. I will definitely not be flying this airline again after this incident.
UNITED AIRLINES APOLOGIZES AFTER FLIGHT ATTENDANT FORCED INFANT TO SIT IN A DANGEROUS POSITION
The airlines family boarding policy is not available on the website and Eva Air did not immediately respond to Fox News request for comment, but a representative told the International Business Times the incident was a misunderstanding.
EVA Air and most especially our San Francisco International Airport team sincerely apologize to all the passengers affected by this incident. It is our policy that passengers traveling with infants can have priority boarding," a representative said.
The policy does not limit the number of accompanying adults or specify the relationship to the infant. This unfortunate incident was due to misunderstanding," the statement continued. Our San Francisco ground-handling agent understood that only one parent could board with an infant. We have apologized to our passengers and reminded our airport staff and agents about our priority boarding policy so that we can prevent this kind of incident from happening again.
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS
Those on Twitter called the airline shameful and asked for better staff training.
This is not the first airline to be accused of separating a gay couple while keeping straight couples together. In July, Alaska Airlines apologized to a gay couple after one of the men said an airline flight attendant gave preferential treatment to a straight couple.
Alaska Airlines said the incident was because of a seating mistake involving another couple in Premium Class.
A Norwegian Cruise Liner sailing to the Caribbean and Mexico from Florida stopped almost as soon as it departed on Sunday to rescue four distressed Cuban nationals spotted in the middle of the ocean, a representative for the cruise liner confirmed to Fox News.
On Sunday, September 2, after departing Miami, Norwegian Getaway rescued four distressed individuals, the liner said in a statement.
FURIOUS NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE PASSENGERS SLAM SHIP'S HORRIBLE, NONSTOP CONSTRUCTION ZONE
According to a passenger on Twitter, the men were spotted by others on board by a flash in the middle of the ocean.
I am currently on Norwegian Getaway and some passengers noticed a flash in the middle of the ocean," the passenger, who goes by Pico on Twitter, wrote. "They then told the cruise workers and they stopped and it turned out to be four people from Cuba which they rescued."
WORLD'S NEW LARGEST CRUISE SHIP SETS SAIL
He later shared footage of what he believed to be the people rescued, and claimed they were wearing Norwegian Cruise Line staff uniforms.
A representative for the cruise line told Fox News the men were immediately taken to the ships medical facility for care.
The individuals, who are Cuban nationals, were safely brought on board, immediately taken to the ship's medical facility for evaluation and provided with clothing and food. The Bahamas Maritime Authority and the U.S. Coast Guard were notified by the ship's Captain, who was advised to disembark the rescued individuals at the next port of call in Costa Maya, Mexico on September 4.
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS
The liner praised the crew for the rescue mission.
We are very proud of our team for executing a successful rescue of these individuals.
The ship reportedly continued on its seven-day journey, arriving at Costa Maya, Mexico, on Tuesday before departing for Belize the next day.
It is currently unknown how the men came to be stranded in the ocean.
A tiny Alaska Native village has experienced a boom in tourism in recent years as polar bears spend more time on land than on diminishing Arctic sea ice.
More than 2,000 people visited the northern Alaska village of Kaktovik on the Beaufort Sea last year to see polar bears in the wild, Alaska's Energy Desk reported Monday.
PHOTOS: TOURISTS IN ENGLAND SPOTTED TAKING SELFIES AT EDGE OF CLIFF
The far north community is located on north shore of Barter Island on the Beaufort Sea coast in an area where rapid global warming has sped up the movement of sea ice, the primary habitat of polar bears. As ice has receded to deep water beyond the continental shelf, more bears are remaining on land to look for food.
The village had less than 50 visitors annually before 2011, said Jennifer Reed, of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
"Today we're talking about hundreds and hundreds of visitors, many from around the world each year," Reed said.
Polar bears have always been a common sight on sea ice near Kaktovik, but residents started noticing a change in the mid-1990s. More bears seemed to stay on land, and researchers began taking note of more female bears making dens in the snow on land instead of on the ice.
WATCH: TOURISTS NUZZLED, LICKED BY LOOSE LION AT SAFARI PARK WEEKS AFTER WOMAN WAS MAULED
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists began hearing reports of increasing numbers of polar bears in the area in the early 2000s, Reed said. As more attention was given to the plight of polar bears about a decade ago, more tourists stated heading to Kaktovik.
Most tourists visit in the fall, when bears are forced toward land because sea ice is the farthest away from the shore. Some bears become stranded near Kaktovik until the sea freezes again in October or November.
The fall is also when residents of Kaktovik kill three bowhead whales. Bruce Inglangasak, an Inupiaq subsistence hunter who offers wildlife viewing tours, said residents were unsure how tourists would react to whaling.
"The community was scared about, you know, activists that [were] going to try to get us to shut down the whaling subsistence whaling," Inglangasak said. "But that's not true."
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX TRAVEL NEWS
Inglangasak said he's been offering polar bear tours since 2003 or 2004.
Most of his clients are from China and Europe, as well as from the Lower 48 U.S. states and arrive in Katovik on charter planes from Anchorage and Fairbanks.
Many tourists stay several days in the village, which has two small hotels, Inglangasak said.
The roof atop a Florida home appeared to suffer considerable damage after photos from fire officials showed it split apart by a fallen crane.
The Orlando Fire Department on Tuesday shared photos from the crane accident on Facebook, adding that Luckily, no one was injured.
SCAFFOLDING COLLAPSE NEAR WALT DISNEY WORLD RESORT KILLS 2 WORKERS
One image, appearing to be from the front of the house, showed the area cordoned off with caution tape and a truck carrying the base of the crane leaning on its front tire as the equipment lay inside the torn damage.
WORKERS SEEN ON FLORIDA BRIDGE BEFORE DEADLY COLLAPSE IN TIME-LAPSE VIDEO
A second photo showed a different angle of the home, showing the other side of the crane visible through the roof.
Details of what caused the incident were not available, a spokesperson for the fire department told Fox News. An additional crane was requested to help clear the fallen one, the spokesperson said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The mother of missing two-year-old Florida boy Jordan Belliveau was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, authorities announced Tuesday.
Charisse Stinson, 21, had told police that she was walking home with her young son Saturday night when a mystery man called "Antwan" picked her up in his car and violently attacked her, knocking her unconscious.
Stinson said that she came to in a park early Sunday and her son was nowhere to be seen. She reported him missing hours later.
Jordan's body was found in a wooded area in Largo earlier Tuesday. An Amber Alert for the boy was canceled.
Authorities had released a composite sketch of "Antwan," as well as surveillance video of a man they described as a "possible witness" who may have spoken to Jordan's mother.
At a news conference Tuesday evening, authorities said Stinson had been arrested earlier in the day, but declined to provide further details, citing the ongoing investigation. More information was due to be released Wednesday.
Click for more from Fox13News.com.
A Steller sea lion in Sitka, Alaska was reportedly rescued by officials on Monday after he spent four days trapped on land, dehydrated and hungry.
The sea creature was first spotted around 2 a.m. on Friday morning, running down a road in southeast Alaska, the chief of the Sitka Volunteer Fire Department told the Anchorage Daily News.
Estimated to be roughly 8-feet long, the animal was later spotted near a high school around a quarter mile away from water.
On Sunday, the sea lion was "hiding out in the woods ... likely stressed, dehydrated and hungry," according to Julie Speegle, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
She said the animal's presence so far inland was "unusual," and that he appeared to be "scared and confused." The sea lion seemed to be scared of the road, which separated the woods from the ocean.
Eventually, scientists felt their best option was to sedate the animal, the news outlet reported.
Volunteers cleared a line in the trees to the sea lion, and a NOAA veterinarian darted the creature around 1 p.m. on Monday.
The sea lion was rolled onto a front-end loader, then onto the back of a flatbed truck, before being driven to a harbor in Sitka.
Kim Raum-Suryan, of NOAA's Protected Resources division, said that after the sea lion woke up, he was spotted swimming in the harbor.
Officials hope that "if he's healthy he'll go off and be a regular sea lion again."
Tropical Storm Gordon made landfall west of the Alabama-Mississippi border late Tuesday night spawning multiple possible tornadoes from powerful winds that have already claimed one life in Florida, FOX 10 reported, citing officials.
The National Weather Service issued several tornado warnings in south Alabama and Northwest Florida after radar indicated possible twisters associated with Gordon. The storm reportedly downed trees and flooded highways as it moved inland but no damage was immediately reported.
Around 8:40 p.m. in Floridas Escambia County, emergency responders received a call of a downed tree that slammed into a mobile home in Pensacola. The Escambia County Sheriffs office said its deputies found a deceased child, whose name and age was not released.
No others were injured. The Escambia County Sheriffs Office is investigating.
Gordon struck land around 10 p.m. and is expected to lose strength as it makes its way inland across the lower Mississippi Valley through Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. It did not reach hurricane status.
The National Weather Service in Mobile cautioned that the Styx River near Elsanor could reach a flood stage later Wednesday.
Gordon had moved from 70 miles south of Mobile, Ala., and roughly 75 miles southeast of Biloxi, garnering maximum sustained winds of 70 mph "with higher gusts" before moving northwest toward the north-central Gulf Coast at 14 mph, where it was forecasted to hit land, the NHC said in a 8 p.m. ET update.
The NHC said Gordons tight core was about 30 miles southeast of Biloxi, Mississippi, or 35 miles south of Mobile, Ala. where heavy rains and winds picked up shortly before nightfall.
The storm quickly blasted Alabama's Dauphin Island with powerful winds and storm surge, as photos and video from the area showed.
On the forecast track, the center of Gordon will make landfall along the north-central Gulf Coast within the hurricane warning area this evening or tonight, and move inland over the lower Mississippi Valley through Wednesday, the NHC update said. Gordon could still become a hurricane before landfall occurs along the north-central Gulf Coast.
TROPICAL STORM GORDON THREATENS GULF COAST, HURRICANE WARNING IN PLACE
The hurricane warning remained in effect for the area stretching from the mouth of the Pearl River in Mississippi to the Alabama-Florida border, the NHC said. As much as 8 inches of rain could fall in some parts of the Gulf states through late Thursday, which could trigger flash flooding in some areas.
A storm surge warning also remained for Shell Beach, Louisiana to Dauphin Island, which could see water levels reach up to five feet, the NHC said. The warning indicates a danger of life-threatening inundations, from rising water moving inland from the coastline.
This is a life-threatening situation, the update warned. Persons located within these areas should take all necessary actions to protect life and property from rising water and the potential for other dangerous conditions.
A storm surge watch also was in place for areas located west of Shell Beach to the mouth of the Mississippi River, as well as areas east of Dauphin Island to Navarre, the NHC said.
President Trump on Tuesday urged residents to adhere to guidance from officials, adding that the government stands ready to assist.
Everyone in the path of #Gordon please heed the advice of State and local officials and follow @NHC_Atlantic for updates, Trump tweeted. The Federal Government stands ready to assist. Be safe!
TROPICAL STORM GORDON DRENCHES SOUTHERN FLORIDA
Governors in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana all declared states of emergency, allowing them to quickly mobilize state resources and National Guard troops to help during and after the storm.
Roughly 200 members of the Louisiana National Guard were activated for the storm, the National Guard tweeted Tuesday.
Fox News Paulina Dedaj, Travis Fedschun, Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A mother and father in Wisconsin were charged on Tuesday after their 15-year-old son reportedly died during a 40-day religious fast.
Kehinde Omosebi, 49, and Titilayo Omosebi, 48, of Reedsburg, face charges of child neglect causing death and child neglect causing great bodily harm, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.
MOTHER'S BOYFRIEND ARRESTED IN DEATH OF 10-YEAR-OLD BOY WHO COMPLAINED ABOUT ABUSE: POLICE
On Sunday, Kehinde allegedly walked to the Reedburg police station to report his son had died on Friday, Chief Timothy Becker said. Friday wouldve been the 44th day of the fast.
Investigators who went to the Omosebi home reportedly had to force their way in, as the doors was padlocked on the inside. No food was discovered in the home. They found the extremely emaciated and deceased teenager, and also found a gaunt 11-year-old child, along with his mother, Titilayo, who was also undernourished, according to the report.
The father, Kehinde, told authorities that the family began fasting on July 19, and that he was a religious minister affiliated with Cornerstone Reformation Ministries, which is believed by police to have been made up.
MOTHER ARRESTED, CHARGED WITH MURDER OF FLORIDA BOY JORDAN BELLIVEAU
The mother and 11-year-old were transported to a hospital. The mother reportedly refused medical treatment due to religious reasons, and was taken to the Sauk County Jail.
The child remains in protective custody at Childrens Hospital in Madison, while, according to Becker, the parents are eating while in jail.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The $400,000 raised through a GoFundMe account to support a homeless veteran in Philadelphia after he gave his last bit of money to help a stranded motorist is reportedly drained.
A lawyer representing Johnny Bobbitt, whose story garnered national attention last year after he gave Kate McClure his last $20 to fill up her gas tank, told the Philadelphia Inquirer on Tuesday that news of the depleted account came as a complete surprise.
Chris Fallon, the lawyer, said he became aware of the financial standing of his clients account after a conference call with attorneys for McClure and her boyfriend Mark DAmico the couple who started the GoFundMe account for Bobbitt after his kind gesture, promising him a home.
"It completely shocked me when I heard," Fallon told the paper.
Bobbitts attorneys requested that the couple remain in New Jersey, surrender their passports, post a bond and restrict access to their bank accounts after they failed to meet a court-ordered deadline to deliver any remaining money from the GoFundMe account, according to the paper.
Last week, Superior Court Judge Paula T. Dow ordered the couple to wire the remaining funds to a trust for Bobbitt, and submit an accounting report of the donated money within 24 hours.
Bobbitt has received roughly $75,000 dollars of the funds, which he used to purchase a camper and SUV both of which he no longer has, the paper reported.
DAmico told the paper during an interview in August that he controls the money in the account and that he would dispense the funds when Bobbitt gets a job and stops using drugs.
"Giving him all that money, it's never going to happen. I'll burn it in front of him," he said, adding that giving an "addict" the money would be like "giving him a loaded gun."
Bobbitt admitted to the paper that the couple once gave him $25,000 and he spent it on giving it to relatives and friends, and some on drugs.
Fallon told the paper on Tuesday that his client hopes to enter a residential detoxification program.
Bobbitt, who questions the couple's motives and fears they may have squandered the money, claims they used the funds to buy a new BMW and take lavish vacations. He also questions if the couple has the legal authority to deny him the money.
Three lawyers are representing Bobbitt pro bono.
Jacqueline Promislo, another lawyer for Bobbitt said the couples lawyer, Ernest E. Badway, never responded regarding the request to transfer the remaining GoFundMe funds or if the money had been moved, according to the paper.
The paper could not reach McLure or DAmico for comment.
Badway declined to comment to Fox News late Tuesday.
The couple earlier said the new car was paid for with their own money. McLure, who is a receptionist, and DAmico, who is a carpenter, said they have done nothing wrong and did everything they could to help Bobbitt.
Badway claimed in court last week that Bobbitt stole at least $200,000 of the funds since the account was created, the paper reported. He also argued the court order to wire the money within 24 hours was a harsh remedy.
A hearing regarding the disputed funds is scheduled to take place Wednesday at 10 a.m., the paper reported.
GoFundMe has donated $20,000 into an escrow account created by Bobbitts attorneys to help with housing and goods as the legal proceedings continue, a spokesman told the paper on Tuesday.
The company also said it is cooperating with the investigation.
A California police officers life changed after he met a homeless, pregnant woman who asked for his help.
Santa Rosa Police Officer Jason Whitten, 33, responded to the call from a woman who said she needed a home for her unborn baby. The baby's father told Good Morning America the woman was suffering from drug addiction.
"Like a lot of people I've talked to, I heard about her life and her story," he said. "I knew her [other] two children from the camp I had worked at for foster youth. When she started talking about them, I had an immediate connection with her just by knowing who her wonderful children were."
GEORGIA OFFICER WOUNDED IN WALMART SHOOTOUT IN SERIOUS CONDITION, MOUTHED TO HIS WIFE: I LOVE YOU
The officer said he drove the pregnant woman to a rehab facility. The woman asked Whitten if he wanted to adopt her baby, but he said wasnt sure if she was serious. In February, the woman gave birth but couldnt get clean. The baby girl had heroin in her system when she was born, and the county asked the woman if she wanted to place her daughter in foster care. She told officials to contact Whitten.
"She said: 'I knew you had daughters. I knew you were firm, but you were fair,'" Whitten recalled. "She had this vision of her daughters playing in tutus with her sisters. That's what she said she wanted."
On Aug. 30, the Whitten family adopted the baby girl and named her Harlow Maisey Whitten. The little girl now has three older sisters.
POLICE OFFICER PUMPS, PAYS FOR ELDERLY WOMANS GAS, VIRAL FACEBOOK POST SHOWS
"I fell in love right away," Whitten said. "She's so adorable. She will cry if she needs something, obviously as babies do, but as soon as we would touch her, she'd immediately stop crying. She knew right away that she was safe."
The police department congratulated Whitten in a Facebook post.
Congratulations, Whitten family, and welcome, baby, to the SRPD family! the post read.
Two Catholic priests were arrested Monday after police said they were caught performing sex acts on each other in a parked car near a Miami Beach playground, reports said.
Diego Berrio, 39, and Edwin Giraldo Cortez, 30, face charges of lewd and lascivious behavior after a passerby spotted the alleged rendezvous in a rented Volkswagen Beetle in broad daylight, the New York Post reported.
Giraldo Cortes also faces an indecent exposure charge.
The car did not have tinted windows, so officers said they were able to witness the sexual acts upon arrival, the newspaper reported. The two Chicago-area priests apparently didnt notice the police until officers knocked on the window to get their attention, the report said.
I parked my vehicle and approached the passenger side of the vehicle on foot, an officer wrote on the arrest report, according to The Miami Herald. I observed defendant Berrio in the passenger seat, performing oral sex on defendant Giraldo who was seated in the drivers seat. Giraldos pants were unzipped and his genitals exposed.
Berrio and Cortez are from Arlington Heights, a suburb of Chicago.
Berrio served as a priest at the Mission of San Juan Diego and Cortez at the St. Aloysius Parish in Chicago.
In a statement Tuesday, the Archdiocese of Chicago said both priests will no longer serve as priests in the archdiocese.
Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, has removed Fr. Berrio from ministry and withdrawn his faculties to minister in the Archdiocese of Chicago, effective immediately, the statement read. The archdiocese will appoint an administrator for the Mission San Juan Diego as soon as possible.
Berrio was released from police custody Tuesday, the Post reported.
The Colorado man accused of killing his wife and two daughters last month is under suicide watch, reports said Tuesday.
Chris Watts, 33, is reportedly under "Close Watch Protocol," at the Weld County Jail, which is about 60 miles north of Denver.
While under Close Watch Protocol the technical name for suicide watch Watts spends 23 hours a day in his jail cell and guards must check on him every five to 10 minutes to make sure he is still alive and in custody, People magazine reported.
Fox News has reached out to the jail for confirmation.
Watts is accused of killing wife Shanann, 34, and their daughters Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3.
Their bodies were found on property owned by Andarko Petroleum, one of Colorado's largest oil and gas drillers, and where Watts worked as an operator. The girls had been submerged in crude oil for four days, court documents filed by defense lawyer James Merson said.
Watts allegedly told police that his wife strangled their children after he asked for a separation. Police said they learned that Watts was having an affair with a co-worker.
While under suicide watch, he is not allowed the same privileges as other people at the jail, including no access to weights, reading material and television, People magazine reported. He is allowed to leave his cell for one hour a day to shower and make phone calls to his family or to counsel.
The magazine cited that a source at the jail also confirmed it to HLN.
Watts is charged with three counts of first-degree murder.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Cities can't prosecute people for sleeping on the streets if they have nowhere else to go because it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, which is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court said Tuesday.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with six homeless people from Boise, Idaho, who sued the city in 2009 over a local ordinance that banned sleeping in public spaces. The ruling could affect several other cities across the U.S. West that have similar laws.
It comes as many places across the West Coast are struggling with homelessness brought on by rising housing costs and income inequality.
When the Boise lawsuit was filed, attorneys for the homeless residents said as many as 4,500 people didn't have a place to sleep in Idaho's capital city and homeless shelters only had about 700 available beds or mats. The case bounced back and forth in the courts for years, and Boise modified its rules in 2014 to say homeless people couldn't be prosecuted for sleeping outside when shelters were full.
But that didn't solve the problem, the attorneys said, because Boise's shelters limit the number of days that homeless residents can stay. Two of the city's three shelters also require some form of religious participation for some programs, making those shelters unsuitable for people with different beliefs, the homeless residents said.
The three-judge panel for the 9th Circuit found that the shelter rules meant homeless people would still be at risk of prosecution even on days when beds were open. The judges also said the religious programming woven into some shelter programs was a problem.
"A city cannot, via the threat of prosecution, coerce an individual to attend religion-based treatment programs consistently with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment," Judge Marsha Berzon wrote.
The biggest issue was that the city's rule violated the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment, the court found. The amendment limits what the government can criminalize, it said.
"As a result, just as the state may not criminalize the state of being 'homeless in public places,' the state may not 'criminalize conduct that is an unavoidable consequence of being homeless namely sitting, lying, or sleeping on the streets,'" Berzon wrote.
The ruling shows it's time for Boise officials to start proposing "real solutions," said Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, whose attorneys were among those representing the homeless residents.
In 2007, the 9th Circuit ruled in favor of homeless residents of Los Angeles, finding that as long as there are more homeless residents than there are shelter beds, a law outlawing sleeping outside was unconstitutional. Both sides later reached an agreement and the entire case was eventually thrown out.
In 2009, a federal judge said a Portland, Oregon, policy designed to prevent people from sitting or lying on public sidewalks was unconstitutional. Portland officials now must also give campers at least 24 hours' notice before cleaning up or moving unsanctioned camps.
A state judge rejected a similar anti-camping law in Everett, Washington.
Sara Rankin, a professor at the Seattle University School of Law and director of its Homeless Rights Advocacy Project, said the ruling will serve as a wake-up call to local governments, forcing them to invest in adequate supportive housing for the chronically homeless.
"I think it's finally common sense," Rankin said of the ruling. "There are certain life-sustaining activities that people can't survive without doing. It's a really important recognition that people have to be able to legally exist and survive somewhere."
A conservative student group at a Wisconsin-based college claims they were told their 9/11 Never Forget poster violates the schools bias policy because it exclusively targets Islamic terrorism, but the college says that's simply not true.
By focusing relentlessly on one religious organization, one religious group, one religious identity, Ripon Colleges bias incident team allegedly told the Young Americas Foundation that their posters remembering September 11th create an environment where students from a Muslim background would feel singled out and/or harassed.
9/11 MEMORIAL NEARS COMPLETION 17 YEARS AFTER TERRORIST ATTACK
The schools claim that the posters may make Muslim students feel harassed is absurd, YAF spokesman Spencer Brown told Fox News. [It] ignores the fact that innocent Muslims also died at the hands of radical Islamists on 9/11, and continue to suffer under the same evil ideology around the world.
Ripon College spokewoman, Melissa Anderson, told Fox News the posters were never ruled against or told they violated any bias policy, which doesn't exist. She added posters don't even need to be pre-approved on campus.
"The Bias Protocol Board doesnt have any disciplinary authority at Ripon," Anderson said. "There would never have been a meeting last Tuesday if local YAF had not requested it."
YAFs 9/11: Never Forget Project, which started in 2003, is made up of 2,977 American flags, one for each of the victims who died that day, and Never Forget posters, both of which have been desecrated and defaced at college campuses across the nation.
Last year many posters were torn down and destroyed, Hannah Krueger, YAF Ripon chapter president, told The College Fix. The posters went before the student judiciary board and they found them to be in compliance with the poster posting policy. It is only this bias protocol team that finds them to be inappropriate and racist.
9/11 VICTIM REPORTEDLY ID'ED 17 YEARS LATER DUE TO DNA TESTING
Krueger said the bias team informed them that their posters were offensive at the end of the spring semester, but she was unable to meet with them until last week, giving them little notice before the 17th anniversary.
Kreuger said the bias team heavily implied the current posters could not be put up.
Anderson said the university offered up its student marketing resources to create a new poster.
"There was no ban," Anderson said of the 9/11 memorial, adding that the school has received several threats after it was reported the private school was blocking the posters. "The meeting did not result in any action."
Brown told Fox News that Ripon is trying to pretend that the spirit of their bias teams ruling wasnt to dissuade students from displaying the posters this year, when it clearly was.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A New Jersey couple who raised $400,000 online for a homeless Good Samaritan must give sworn testimony detailing what happened to the money, a judge said Wednesday.
Superior Court Judge Paula Dow said that Katie McClure and Mark DAmico must appear Monday for a deposition in a suit filed by Johnny Bobbitt over the whereabouts of the hundreds of thousands of dollars raised for him via GoFundMe.
Dow chastised the pairs attorney over grandstanding and said his clients have to appear in person to assert their right against self-incrimination. Bobbitt was also ordered to be deposed.
In court, McClure and D'Amico's attorney, Ernest Badway, said about $200,000 had gone to Bobbitt, but Dow said Badway indicated he was "misadvised" by his clients and that later the court learned there was no money left. She said she wants them to appear in person. Neither the couple nor Bobbit was in court Wednesday.
"I am not allowing you to be their voice anymore," said Dow, a former state attorney general.
Bobbitts story went viral in late 2017 after he gave McClure his last $20 for gas when she was stranded. She set up a GoFundMe page for him, which raised $400,000.
Eventually, the relationship soured sometime after Bobbitt received roughly $75,000 of the funds. He used the money to purchase a camper and SUV, but he has admitted he squandered some of on drugs. He no longer has the camper or SUV, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Tuesday.
Bobbitt accused McClure and DAmico of mismanaging the donations raised. The couple deny the claims.
Last month, DAmico claimed that he controls the funds in the account and that he would dispense the money when Bobbitt gets a job and stops using drugs.
Last month, Dow ordered the couple to wire the remaining funds to a trust for Bobbitt by Friday, and submit an accounting report of the donated money.
The money will be transferred to an account controlled by Bobbitts lawyers but cant be used until the judge determines how it will be managed.
However, it seems that the account has been drained.
The newspaper reported that the lawyer representing Bobbitt learned of the depleted account after a conference call with attorneys for the pair.
It completely shocked me when I heard, Chris Fallon, Bobbitts attorney, told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Fallon said in court on Wednesday that Bobbitt is entering a 30-day residential treatment program. He has earlier said Bobbitt has a drug addiction.
GoFundMe spokesman Bobby Whithorne said the company is working with law enforcement to ensure that Johnny Bobbitt gets all the money raised for him.
While we assist law enforcement with their ongoing investigation, GoFundMe is also working with Johnnys legal team to ensure hes receiving support while the remaining funds are being recovered, Whithorne said in a statement.
He also said the company gave $20,000 to an account set up by Bobbitts attorney to provide assistance to him during the investigation.
During an appearance on NBC's "Megyn Kelly Today" show, D'Amico told Kelly there was well over $150,000 left of the donations.
Fox News' Benjamin Brown and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ten people were taken to the hospital Wednesday after an Emirates Airline plane from Dubai carrying more than 500 passengers and apparently rapper Vanilla Ice landed in New York City with about 100 passengers and crew members feeling ill, officials said.
Nine others who were sickened were evaluated and refused further medical attention, Eric Phillips, spokesman for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, said.
Influenza is believed to be the culprit, as patients have demonstrated flu-like symptoms, a New York City health official said.
"Given the symptoms that we are seeing in the patients and given the history that they present, it looks like this is probably influenza," Acting New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot said. "But again, until we have our final results late tonight we won't be able to give a final determination on what the underlying cause is of this illness."
Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local authorities arrived at John F. Kennedy airport around 9 a.m. shortly before Emirates Flight 203 landed with 520 people on board. The plane was quarantined as authorities evaluated the situation.
Vanilla Ice appeared to be one of the passengers on the plane. He tweeted around 1:40 p.m. that he was seated on the top floor of the Emirates flight and landed at the New York City airport with tons of ambulances and fire trucks and police all over the place.
This is crazy. Apparently there is over 100 people sick on the bottom floor, so happy Im up top, its a double-decker plane 380, the Ice Ice Baby rapper tweeted hours after the morning incident.
The CDC said 100 passengers and some crew members on the flight complained of feeling sick. Some reported symptoms of a cough and fever.
CDC public health officers are working with port authority, EMS, and CBP officials to evaluate passengers including taking temperatures and making arrangements for transport to local hospitals those that need care, the CDC said in an initial statement. Passengers who are not ill will be allowed to continue with their travel plans, and if necessary will be followed up with by health officials.
By 12:30 p.m., all passengers and crew members were off the aircraft after undergoing evaluation.
All passengers were screened by the local health authorities prior to disembarkation, and three passengers and seven crew members were transferred to the hospital for further medical care and evaluation. Nine passengers underwent additional medical screening at the site near the aircraft and were released afterwards. The rest of the passengers were allowed to leave and clear customs, the airline told reporters.
We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience caused. The safety and well-being of our customers and crew is always our top priority.
Phillips said health officials were conducting tests to determine what caused the sickness.
The spokesman also initially tweeted that the flight from Dubai stopped in Mecca, where there's a flu outbreak. He later clarified that some of the passengers came from Mecca and the flight was a direct one from Dubai to New York City.
Fox News' Elizabeth Zwirz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A two-year-old girl was shot in the head in an Indiana home on Tuesday evening, police said.
The toddler was rushed to a hospital in Gary, Ind., about 30 miles southeast of Chicago.
Police said the girl was stabilized and in critical condition. She was being transferred to a children's hospital in Chicago, The Chicago Tribune reported.
Investigators are determining whether the girl obtained ahold of a gun or if someone shot her, according to NBC Chicago.
Police are questioning two adults who were with the girl during the incident, Fox 32 Chicago reported.
The shooting occurred at around 6:51 p.m. local time, police said.
Neighbor Marethia Burnett told NBC Chicago that she's seen too many shootings in the area.
Its just sad. Its just really sad," she said. "I just feel for the family. The mother of this baby."
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
A man told a Kansas court on Tuesday that he chopped up his wifes body in a hotel after she killed herself to protect his family.
Justin Todd Rey, 36, appeared in front a Johnson County judge to explain during his preliminary hearing why he spent eight hours hacking Jessica Reys body into pieces last October, The Kansas City Star reported.
Its something I had to do, Rey said in court. My family is very dear to me. Its something I had to do to protect my family.
Jessica Rey gave birth to a baby in a bathtub at a Kansas City, Mo., hotel and then killed herself. Justin Rey, instead of calling police for help, dismembered his wifes body so he could take her remains to Arizona while caring for his newborn and two-year-old daughter.
Authorities located the body parts in bags at a storage shed in Lenexa, Kansas.
MAN IN '15 MOST WANTED' FUGITIVE LIST CAPTURED AFTER 16 YEARS ON THE RUN FOR MURDERS
Rey, who is not charged in his wifes death, entered a not guilty plea Tuesday for charges of two counts of aggravated child endangerment and two counts of contributing to a child's misconduct. He was also charged with abandonment of a corpse in Missouri.
Rey had initially provided officials with conflicting reports on what happened the day his wife died. He previously said she died in childbirth, but Lenexa police detective Shannon Murphy testified that Rey told her his wife had killed herself.
After having his children pose for photographs with her body, Rey said he "skinned her like a fish," according to Murphy. She said Rey flushed body parts that would not fit in containers down the toilet.
Police discovered Rey and his children at a storage facility after receiving calls. The officer said Reys daughter almost looked like she had cancer with bags under her eyes and thinning hair. Several witnesses said the newborn also had a serious eye infection.
CANADA MAN GETS PRISON TIME FOR SMUGGLING GUNS IN LIBRARY ON BORDER
On Tuesday, Rey denied putting his children at risk and living at the storage facility, as some witnesses claimed. He said they had been at the facility for about 11 hours and was preparing the family for a trip to Arizona, where he intended to give his wife a proper burial.
"I didn't endanger my children," he testified. "My children were perfectly healthy."
Rey also denied flushing anything but a placenta down the toilet.
His trial on the Kansas charges was scheduled for Nov. 5.
Separately, Rey was charged in November in California in the death of Sean Ty Ferel, a Palm Springs resident who disappeared after vacationing with Rey in 2016. Ferel's body hasn't been found, but his blood was detected in the trunk of his vehicle after Rey was involved in an accident months after Ferel disappeared.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Latest on a prison inmate charged with raping a woman at a Utah wildfire (all times local):
1 p.m.
An Idaho prison inmate charged with raping a woman while working at a wildfire base camp in Utah has invoked his right to a speedy trial.
Prosecutor Kevin Daniels said 27-year-old Ruben Hernandez made his first court appearance in Utah's Sanpete County in a short hearing on Wednesday.
Daniels says he did not formally enter a plea, but the request to move quickly typically indicates a defendant disputes a charge. He is due in court for an evidence hearing next week.
A defense attorney newly appointed to the case did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Hernandez was part of a program common in Western states where minimum-security prison inmates are released to help fight wildfires. He is accused of assaulting a base-camp worker Aug. 29 after she rejected his advances.
__
8 a.m.
Idaho is scrutinizing its program allowing prison inmates to help battle wildfires after one was charged with raping a woman working at a remote base camp in Utah.
Idaho Department of Correction spokesman Jeff Ray says they've returned five crews to prison as they review which inmates are allowed to serve, the training they receive and how they are deployed.
Meanwhile, inmate Ruben Hernandez is set make his first court appearance Wednesday on a felony rape charge alleging he assaulted the woman after she rejected his advances.
He was part of a 10-person crew who cooked and did janitorial work. They were supervised by two Idaho correctional officers.
Most states in the U.S. West have similar programs allowing low-level offenders to be temporarily released to aid in firefighting efforts.
A man named one of U.S. Marshals 15 most wanted fugitives was captured Wednesday 16 years after he allegedly killed his sister and an ex-girlfriend in New York City.
Andre Neverson, 54, was arrested after U.S. Marshals and police received information that he was hiding in a house in Bridgeport, Conn., authorities said. U.S. Marshals closed in when Neverson was spotted leaving the home.
He was taken into custody and will be transferred to New York City, where hes accused of murdering two women in 2002.
The United States Marshals Service is extremely pleased to have a violent criminal, who murdered two women in New York, off the streets of Connecticut after 16 years on the run, U.S. Marshal Brian Taylor, District of Connecticut said in a news release.
HAUNTING STORIES BEHIND MISSING POSTERS OF NATIVE WOMEN
Neverson allegedly killed his sister by shooting her in the head and stomach in Brooklyn on July 8, 2002. The Trinidad and Tobago native had entered the U.S. illegally months after he was deported in 2000 for shooting his then-girlfriends uncle five times, PIX11 reported.
A day after gunning down his sister, Neverson abducted his former girlfriend, who was found dead two days later, officials said.
At the time of murders, Neverson was on parole for attempted murder, assault and criminal possession of the firearm.
Neverson was seen again in November 2002 when he went to the home of another ex-girlfriends home to see his daughter. He eventually fled the house when the girlfriends brother interrupted him. New York City police searched for him, but to no avail.
The U.S. Marshals added Neverson to 15 Most Wanted fugitives list in 2004. Authorities previously described him as an "armed and dangerous" man who spoke several languages and wore wigs to disguise himself.
A man who was upset about an officer-involved shooting intentionally crashed his truck into the side of the studios for FOX 4 in Dallas early Wednesday before jumping out of the vehicle and started "ranting" before he was arrested, officials said.
In a Twitter post, FOX 4 said that after crashing the vehicle in the building, the man got out and "started ranting."
Dallas police investigated for several hours to make sure nothing was in a bag left outside. No injuries were reported as a result of the incident, which took place just before 7 a.m. ET.
Dallas Police Public Information Officer Debra Webb said that officers made contact with the suspect and took the man into custody "without incident."
The suspect, identified as 34-year-old Michael Chadwick Fry, was described as being an "agitated mental state," will face charges for criminal mischief. Fry was previously arrested in 2016 in Denton County, located outside of Dallas. He was also arrested in Dallas County in 2011, according to FOX 4.
"It's just concerning to matter what the building is or who is outside," Webb said, responding to a question if the man was targeting a media organization. "We're really lucky today no one was injured."
Webb said that Fry appeared to be upset about an officer-involved shooting elsewhere and left numerous flyers that were "mostly rambling."
Photojournalists from the station filmed Fry placing numerous boxes next to the side of the building "filled with stacks of paper." The papers were then strewn along the sidewalk and adjacent to the building.
FOX4 reporter Brandon Todd said that Fry stood outside the building saying something about "high treason," ranted about a sheriff's department and then held up papers against windows. Webb had no further details about the man's motivation, other than other than they don't believe he was targeting the media.
Pictures posted by the television station showed boxes of paper strewn throughout the parking lot, in addition to broken windows and the man in handcuffs.
The station reported that most of the people inside have been evacuated, but few are continued to work to "keep the news on air from a secure location" until police cleared the scene.
"Scary moment this morning when a man drove his truck into our building," reporter Shannon Murray said on Twitter. "We evacuated while the bomb squad is investigating."
The incident drew a large amount of emergency responders surrounding the building downtown as authorities investigated, interrupting service for Dallas Area Rapid Transit nearby.
The man was crying when he was taken into custody, Todd said. Authorities said he was taken to a hospital for examination and is now at the Dallas County jail.
A mistrial was declared Wednesday in the retrial of a former Blackwater security guard convicted of murder in 2014 for his role in a mass shooting of unarmed Iraqi civilians that touched off an international firestorm.
Nicholas Slatten, 34, a decorated former Army sniper from Sparta, Tenn., who served two tours in Iraq, went on trial for a second time in June.
The latest decision is a setback for the Justice Department, which had long sought to hold Slatten and the three other employees of the military contracting firm accountable for the incident.
Slatten and three other guards, Paul Slough, a decorated Army and National Guard veteran; Dustin Heard and Evan Liberty, both Marine veterans, were all working for Blackwater, at the time under contract by the State Department.
ERIK PRINCE FIGHTS ACCUSATIONS HE TRIED TO HELP SET UP RUSSIA BACK CHANNEL AT SECRET SEYCHELLES MEETING
On Sept. 16, 2007, in the midst of President George W Bushs surge, Slattens convoy traveled to downtown Baghdad as part of an effort to evacuate a U.S. diplomat.
At some point during the trip, the guards began opening fire with machine guns and grenade launchers, fearing they were under attack from a potential car bomb. No evidence of a bomb was ever found.
As a result of the firefight, some 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians were killed, and another 17 were injured.
During the first trial in 2014, prosecutors had argued Slatten fired the first shots without provocation, spurring a fusillade of machine gun and grenade fire. They also claimed he harbored deep-seated hatred of Iraqis.
Slattons attorneys argued he was innocent, citing the confession of Slough, who told investigators he in fact fired the opening shots.
FIRST IRAQ ELECTION SINCE ISIS TOPPLED DRAWS LOW TURNOUT OF 10M VOTERS
Sloughs testimony was never presented to the jury during Slattens trial and Slatten was convicted of first-degree murder. He had been serving a life sentence in Sumterville, Fla., before being moved to Virginia and D.C. for the retrial.
Slatten's original sentence of life in prison for first-degree murder was overturned in 2017 by the U.S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia Circuit after they ruled a lower court had erred by not allowing him to be tried separately from his three co-defendants in 2014.
But jurors in the subsequent retrial were deadlocked on the 16th day of deliberations. Jurors had indicated in a note to the judge last week that it had reached an impasse, the Washington Post reported. They had been sent home for the weekend and asked to return to court Tuesday.
Speaking after the mistrial was declared, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth for D.C., told the jurors: I commend you for your efforts. You strove to be good jurors.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office told Fox News: "A mistrial was declared today, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia is reviewing the matter and have no further comment at this time."
It is unclear if prosecutors will attempt to retry the case.
Slattens attorneys did not return a request for comment.
The three other convicted defendants, Slough, 38, of Sanger, Tx., Heard, 37, of Maryville, Tenn., and Liberty, 36, of Rochester, NH., still face resentencing.
The U.S. Court of Appeals that ordered Slattens retrial, also threw out the sentences of the other trio, saying they violated the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
An illegal immigrant from Mexico accused of murdering 20-year-old Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts over the summer reportedly went by a different name during his time working at a dairy farm.
Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 24, was known as John Budd while he was employed at Yarrabee Farms, according to The Associated Press.
Three individuals with information pertaining to the suspects employment confirmed the name used to hire and pay him during his time at the farm. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information during an ongoing criminal investigation.
Official government documents also showed the John Budd alias, one source told the outlet.
MOLLIE TIBBETTS MURDER SUSPECT IDD AS CRISTHIAN RIVERA, 24, LIVING IN US ILLEGALLY
News of the reported pseudonym comes weeks after Tibbetts body was found in an Iowa cornfield and Rivera was charged in her murder. She had been missing since July 18.
Amid the Aug. 21st discovery, authorities said Rivera, who lived in the rural Poweshiek County area, was being held on a federal immigration detainer. Hes believed to have been in the area for four to seven years.
Yarrabee Farms, which previously said Rivera was employed there for the past four years, would not confirm to The Associated Press whether or not he went by John Budd at work.
Upon his hiring at the farm in 2014, Rivera showed an out-of-state photo I.D. and social security number, farm officials have said, adding that up until his apprehension, they thought the documents were his.
FARM THAT HIRED CRISTHIAN RIVERA, MOLLIE TIBBETTS SUSPECTED KILLER, DID NOT USE E-VERIFY SYSTEM, OFFICIAL SAYS
We learned that our employee was not who he said he is, Yarrabee Farms co-owner and manager Dane Lang said on Aug. 22.
The farm followed legal requirements to examine the documents and determined "that they appeared genuine on their face and related to the person presenting them," Lori Chesser, an immigration employment lawyer advising the farm, told The Associated Press. "Questioning a name or other characteristic would violate the anti-discrimination provisions of the law."
Over the course of his employment, the suspect also was called and responded to the name he used in the hiring process, Chesser said.
The farm did not use a federal E-Verify check on Rivera, Lang previously said, clarifying an earlier comment that they had. The E-Verify system allows companies to confirm the identity and eligibility of employees to work in the U.S.
Fox News Nicole Darrah, Lucia I. Suarez Sang and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More than 6,000 fraternity chapters in the United States and Canada will be forced to implement a ban on any alcohol with more than 15 percent alcohol by volume, officials said.
The North American Interfraternity Conference (NIC) released a statement Tuesday that its fraternity members would be adopting a new standard prohibiting hard alcohol from fraternity chapter facilities and events.
Under the ban, any alcohol above 15 percent ABV will be prohibited from any chapter facility or event. The NIC is ordering over 6,100 chapters on 800 campus in the U.S. and Canada to implement the ban by Sept. 1, 2019.
At their core, fraternities are about brotherhood, personal development and providing a community of support, NIC President and CEO Judson Horras said in a press release. Alcohol abuse and its serious consequences endanger this very purpose.
The new rule comes after fraternity pledges suffered alcohol-related deaths at Louisiana State University and Penn State University last year.
EX-PENN STATE FRATERNITY MEMBER SENTECED TO HOUSE ARREST, PROBATION IN PLEDGES DEATH
One Penn State pledge, 19-year-old Tim Piazza, died in February 2017 after a night of heavy drinking and a series of falls that left him with a fractured skull and severe abdominal injuries.
Ryan Burke, a former fraternity brother, was the first of more than 20 defendants to plead guilty to four counts of hazing and five alcohol violations in Piazzas death. He was sentenced in July to three months house arrest.
Maxwell Gruver, an 18-year-old Louisiana State University fraternity pledge, died at a Baton Rouge hospital on Sept. 14, 2017 after fraternity members found him lying on a couch at the fraternity house and couldn't tell if he was breathing, police said.
TEN ARRESTED IN LSU FRAT PLEDGES DRINKING DEATH
An autopsy report revealed that Gruvers blood-alcohol content level at the time of his death was 0.495, nearly six times the states legal limit for driving. The coroner concluded that he died of acute alcohol intoxication with aspiration.
The Distilled Spirits Council issued a statement Wednesday attributed to its interim CEO, Clarkson Hine, commending the NIC for taking steps to address alcohol abuse among fraternity members but adding that such policies should treat all forms of alcohol equally.
"Such an approach sends a misleading message that some forms of alcohol are 'softer' than others, and undercuts equivalence information in the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, and the majority of college alcohol education materials, which teach students that 12 ounces of regular beer, 5 ounces of wine and a cocktail with 1.5 fluid ounces of distilled spirits each contains the same amount of alcohol," Hine said.
While the NICs ban looks to enhance the safety of its members, it may not be tough enough.
There is no mention of any means to limit the amount of alochol consumed.
Chapter facilities and events will be allowed to serve alcohol with more than 15 percent ABV under the new standard if it is served by a licensed third-party vendor.
The ban also targets hard alcohol but ignores beer, which is more common on campuses. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 12 ounces of a regular beer contains 5 percent alcohol.
Horras is hopeful for the new measure, saying that it shows fraternities clear commitment and leadership to further their focus on the safety pf members and all in our communities.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A roughly 10-month old dog in Houston, Texas, made headlines this week after he was found with a shoelace around his neck, causing his head to swell to an enormous size.
The dog, named Gus by his rescuers, was first spotted roaming a busy street last Wednesday, Anna Barbosa, president of Houston K-911 Rescue, which has now taken responsibility for Gus, told Fox News.
Once captured, rescuers took Gus to an emergency veterinary clinic. Veterinarians removed a shoestring that had been wrapped around the pups neck and was deeply embedded into the tissue. Barbosa said the shoestring was likely placed on Gus neck as a puppy, but was never removed. As a result, the lack of circulation caused his head to fill with fluid.
Its really awful, the way these homeless dogs have to live, Barbosa said, noting Gus is the second dog her organization has rescued in recent months thats suffered from a similar condition (that dog, Ralph, which was found with a wire chain around his neck, has since recovered and was adopted by a family in Wisconsin).
DOG MISSING NEARLY A YEAR IN NEW HAMPSHIRE WOODS REUNITES WITH OWNERS: 'HE IS ONE TRUE SURVIVOR'
Due to heavy scarring around the circumference of Gus neck, the pup was later sent to a soft tissue specialist at the Texas A&M Small Animal Clinic in College Station. There, veterinarians were better equipped to treat the scarring, especially around his jugular vein.
Since arriving at the hospital, Gus has undergone a surgery to remove the scar tissue. However, surgeons were forced to stop partway through the procedure because Gus lost too much blood, Barbosa said. He was given a blood transfusion, but will likely need another surgery to remove the remaining scar tissue.
An X-ray revealed Gus had at least 28 pellets throughout his body. Local law enforcement officials have since opened a case to further investigate who may have injured the dog, Barbosa said.
There is so much cruelty. Some people [shoot] because they want the dogs off their property or they do it for grins; you never know why people do this stuff, she said.
Gus is currently recovering at the clinic, where he has also undergone both cold laser therapy and massage therapy to help reduce swelling in his head.
Hes looking great, Barbosa said, adding Gus nose has become more visible as some of the swelling has gone down. He's afraid of everything, but hes so gentle.
MOOSE DROWNS IN VERMONT LAKE AFTER BEING SPOOKED BY ONLOOKERS SNAPPING PHOTOS
The dog has been in "so much pain" that he "doesnt really have a personality yet, Barbosa said, but he'll lift his head when someone says his name.
So I think hes starting to make the connection, she added.
We as rescuers are overwhelmed with the situation here in Houston, if this helps the animals get a voice then his story will be worth it, Barbosa said, citing the roughly 1.2 million stray dogs in the city. A large number of those dogs are found Houstons Fifth Ward, a notoriously low-income neighborhood, The Boston Globe previously reported.
Hes a representation of the homeless animal crisis that we have, she added.
Eventually, like with any rescue animal, Barbosa hopes Gus will find a loving home.
[Hes in] survivor mode. Hopefully with time, he will be a different dog than the one we took up there," she said, adding that a Facebook page has been set up for Gus as he continues his journey to recovery.
President Donald Trump is holding out the possibility of a federal government shutdown this fall if Congress doesn't act to secure the nation's borders.
Trump tells reporters: "If it happens, it happens. If it's about border security, I'm willing to do anything."
The president has previously suggested to lawmakers that he would not allow a government shutdown before the November midterm elections.
Trump was meeting with Republican congressional leaders at the White House to address the fall agenda. He says they were discussing "how we can responsibly fund the government, protect American taxpayers and defend American security."
Lawmakers face a Sept. 30 deadline to pass spending bills to keep the government open.
Trump says the lawmakers have made tremendous progress.
President Donald Trump will mark the 17th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by participating in a ceremony at the 9/11 memorial in Pennsylvania.
The White House says the president will be accompanied at Tuesday's ceremony in Shanksville by first lady Melania Trump.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed on Sept. 11, 2001, when hijackers flew commercial airplanes into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania field.
Trump observed the solemn anniversary for the first time as president last year. He and the first lady led a moment of silence at the White House surrounded by aides and administration officials at the exact time that hijackers rammed the first of two airplanes into the Twin Towers.
Trump also participated in a 9/11 observance at the Pentagon last year.
The Trump administration is investigating the FBI into how it handled sexual-abuse allegations against former U.S. gymnastic national-team doctor Larry Nassar following accusations that agents failed to respond to claims made by gymnasts in 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The Department of Justice's inspector generals probe stems from an internal FBI review into the bureaus handling of the allegations against Nassar. It reportedly took at least nine months before the FBI officially opened a probe in the disgraced doctor.
Nassar pleaded guilty last year to state sexual-abuse and federal child-pornography charges, though none of the charges included national-team gymnasts 2015 allegations, and was sentenced in January to 60 years in federal prison.
The FBI will also face scrutiny from other bodies of government, including Congress and its Senate Judiciary and Senate Commerce committees, which urged in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray to provide information and materials related to the bureaus handling of the allegations.
The DOJ probe will focus on how numerous FBI officials acted on or potentially failed to act on the allegations raised by gymnasts against Nassar and why it took at least nine months until a formal investigation into Nassar was opened.
According to the Journal, the DOJ investigators have already interviewed several people, including athletes and gymnastics officials, as part of their probe efforts. The investigation could potentially lead to criminal charges or disciplinary action.
The investigators are looking into the Indianapolis FBI offices 2015 handling of the gymnasts allegations, the newspaper reported. Former Olympian McKayla Maroney reportedly spoke with a local bureau agent over the phone, rather than in person, concerning the allegations against Nassar, yet the interview didnt lead to the opening of a formal investigation.
This prompted the DOJ to seek for correspondence between former USA Gymnastics Chief Executive Steve Penny and officials at FBI field offices in Indianapolis and Los Angeles. Pennys correspondence with the former special agent in charge of the Indianapolis office, W. Jay Abbott, are also being looked at.
Abbott previously told the New York Times that the allegations against Nassar were complicated due to the sensitivity of child sexual-abuse allegations and because there was a vigorous debate about whether Nassars techniques constituted a legitimate medical procedure, as Nassar said himself.
A homeowner in Sandston, Virginia is tired of students coming onto his property while theyre waiting at a nearby bus stop. So he chose to erect an electrified fence to ensure they would get the message.
They dont respect other peoples land, the man told WTVR-News. I pick up trash every day.
Thats when the man, identified by ABC 8 as Bryan Tucker, decided to set up an electric fence, which WTVR-News reported is powered by a battery.
FORMER VIRGINIA POLICE CHIEF CHARGED WITH RAPE, ABDUCTION, COPS SAY
The fence separates the mans front yard from a school bus stop, according to the news station. He took the measure because he claims simple no trespassing signs didnt do the trick.
Nothing stops people, he told WTVR-News.
On Tuesday, when many children were waiting to take the bus to the first day of school, people began to raise concerns.
"I touched it, I got a slight shock, it wasn't that great," James Mehfoud, who lives in the neighborhood, told WTVR-News. "I understand his concern. I just don't think he understood the neighbors' concern about their kids. One of them could touch it, fall into it, and get shocked."
VIRGINIA POLICE OFFICER CHARGED IN DEATH OF 6-MONTH-OLD DAUGHTER
"What, you don't like kids?" Wayne Milby, a local parent, asked. "Me, I'm a parent and I don't want any children to get electrocuted."
Outraged parents called officials with the Henrico County Police Department, ABC 8 reported.
Tucker was later told to remove the fence because it was technically placed on county property. However, he can reinstate the fence as long as it stays on his property line, according to the news station.
The message has gotten across. Parents are posting and talking about it, Tucker said.
An attack on U.S. troops in Afghanistan that killed one American was carried out by a member of the Afghan national police who is now in Afghan government custody, a U.S. official said Tuesday. It was the second so-called insider attack there this summer.
Lt. Col. Martin O'Donnell, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Kabul, said in a telephone interview Tuesday that the American was killed in eastern Afghanistan by an Afghan policeman. Another U.S. service member was wounded; O'Donnell said that person's wounds are not life-threatening.
On Tuesday evening the Pentagon said the soldier killed was Army Command Sgt. Maj. Timothy A. Bolyard, 42, of Thornton, West Virginia. It said he died of wounds sustained from small arms fire in Logar Province, but it provided no other details about the incident.
Bolyard was assigned to 3rd Squadron, 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade, based at Fort Benning, Georgia. His brigade was sent to Afghanistan early this year as part of a revamped American strategy to bolster the Afghan security forces by placing U.S. military advisers with Afghan troops closer to the front lines.
When the Monday attack was announced, the coalition termed it an apparent insider attack. The new U.S. commander of coalition forces, Army Gen. Scott Miller, called the death "a tragic loss for all who knew and all who will now never know him."
O'Donnell said in a telephone interview Tuesday that it now has been "definitely" determined that the attacker was an Afghan policeman. The shooter fled the scene but was apprehended by Afghans, he added.
Separately, the U.S.-led coalition in Kabul announced that a U.S. service member died in a "non-combat incident" Tuesday, also in eastern Afghanistan. That service member's name has not yet been released.
U.S. SERVICE MEMBER IN AFGHANISTAN DEAD IN APPARENT 'INSIDER ATTACK'
The threat of attacks on U.S. and coalition troops by Afghan soldiers and police is a persistent worry, although such violence is far less common than several years ago. There was an epidemic of attacks in 2012, with dozens of Americans killed and wounded in shootings almost weekly by the very troops the U.S. was fighting alongside. U.S. troops since 2014 have been mainly in an advisory and training roles, rather than combat.
The 2012 rash of killings led to the development of new procedures and precautions by coalition forces, including the use of "guardian angels" -- armed U.S. forces keeping watch whenever their fellow soldiers interact with Afghan forces. The reasons for such attacks are often not determined conclusively, but officials have said they sometimes reflect resentment by Afghans of the presence of foreign forces. U.S. troops have been in Afghanistan since 2001.
TALIBAN: FOUNDER OF HAQQANI NETWORK DEAD IN AFGHANISTAN
The previous insider attack this summer was against one such U.S. protective soldier, Cpl. Joseph Maciel of South Gate, California. He was killed and two other Americans were wounded in an attack July 7 by an Afghan security force member at an airfield on the military base at Tarin Kowt in southern Uruzgan province, a Taliban hotbed.
As a medic for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Jhony Guependo saved a comrade who stepped on a land mine from bleeding to death. He also stitched up guerrilla fighters who had injured themselves with machetes while building camps deep in Colombia's rainforest.
But Guependo, 25, says he never had any formal medical training. The former rebel is now trying to fix that, and build a new life for himself, by studying medicine in Cuba.
"I was always known for being good at healing people," Guependo said, just a few hours before departing for Havana on his first ever international flight. "Now I want to become a doctor so that I can help vulnerable people."
Two hundred young Colombians will travel this year to Cuba to pursue medical degrees, including 22 former FARC rebels, as part of a scholarship program that is financed by the island's communist government. The first batch of scholarship recipients left on a flight for Cuba on Tuesday.
It is being rolled out as Colombia strives to find new occupations for former rebel fighters, who in many cases lack formal schooling and have spent most of their lives in guerrilla camps.
"It's a tough transition," says Guependo, who joined the guerrillas 10 years ago when he was 15. "But I would encourage my comrades to stick with this, because war doesn't offer us any solutions now."
More than 6,000 rebels laid down their guns after Colombia and the FARC signed a peace deal that includes reduced sentences or legal benefits for guerrilla leaders and guaranteed representation in the country's congress.
But finding jobs for the rank and file has been a challenge and in some areas of the country former rebels have reportedly abandoned transition camps to join criminal organizations.
Participants in the Cuban government's medical scholarship scheme have said they would like to return to Colombia after completing their degrees, and serve in remote communities where doctors are few and far between.
Scholarships were also offered to dozens of young men and women from remote areas of the country who were not combatants, but whose families do not have enough money to send them to universities in Colombia.
"I want to be the first person in my family with a college degree," said Johan Arenas, a 19-year-old from the southern province of Meta who was admitted into the program.
Arenas says his family was forced to flee their hometown at the turn of the century due to fighting between the guerrillas and paramilitary groups. But he said he had no problems with having former guerrilla members as his new colleagues, because "resentment doesn't mix well with peace."
For Guependo, the former FARC medic, it will be his first time leaving Colombia.
"It will be sad to leave everyone behind," Guependo said. "But in life you have to make sacrifices to become someone and chart a new path for yourself."
United States U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley told reporters that President Trumps deal of the century in solving the Israeli-Palestinian situation can happen but only if Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas agrees to it. Haley was speaking to reporters at a press conference marking the United States presidency of this months U.N. Security Council.
Haley in response to a question if the deal of the century was attainable said, Only if Abbas comes to the table. We have ensured that (Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin) Netanyahu will come to the table. Abbas, for the good of his people, needs to come to the table. The Palestinian leadership cut off all contacts with the Trump administration when the U.S. recognized Jerusalem as Israels capital in December.
While many critics of the Trump administration have claimed there is no peace plan, Haley said she had read it, but told reporters that it would not be rolled out during this months United Nations General Assembly debate when Trump and other world leaders will address the global body.
I can tell you that (White House senior adviser) Jared Kushner and (Trumps special envoy for international negotiations) Jason Greenblatt have done unbelievably detailed work in it. I have read the plan. It is thoroughly done. It is well-thought-out from both sides, the Palestinians and the Israelis.
She continued, The presidents full intent is to completely do everything he can with the peace plan.
Haley, who has made defending close U.S. ally Israel a top priority at the U.N., told reporters that Abbas must do more to help the Palestinian people.
I will tell you again, for the good of the Palestinian people, the region, the international community, we have to put pressure on Abbas, and say, its time. Its time for a better life for Palestinians. And only he can deliver that. And we have to acknowledge that Hamas is part of the problem.
As for United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the agency that the Trump administration cut all funding to last Friday, Haley criticized it for being a political organization.
She said the U.S. up until last year had given had given $6 billion to the Palestinians.
UNRWA is a political arm that claims to serve Palestinians. We have, for two years, asked UNRWA to reform itself because it has this ongoing number of refugees that is unsustainable. We cant sustain and the world knows. Everybody knows it. Every year, they come and say the schools arent going to open. But they keep adding numbers of refugees to where were never going to be able to sustain that.
Haley noted that the U.S. was not cutting aid to the Palestinians just UNRWA. She called upon other countries in the region to put their money where their mouth is.
Dont blame us for cutting aid. Dont blame us for saying that we think UNRWA is political, and that it needs to be reformed. If you think its fine, go: you pay for it. But dont blame the United States for a faulty political organization that I dont think is doing justice to the people of the Palestinian community.
Haley also outlined the U.S. plans for its Security Council presidency for the month of September. That includes Trump chairing a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Iran. The meeting will address Irans continued violations of international law, and the Islamic regimes meddling throughout the Middle East. Haley said she would not oppose Iranian President Hassan Rouhani attending the meeting.
Asked whether the Trump administration had a strategy for Iran, and if that included regime change, Haley told reporters that the administrations strategy was very simple.
Haley said that, Were going to stand with the Iranian people. This is not about a regime change, and whos the next leader. This is everything about standing with the Iranian people, and say they have every right to be heard in their government, and they have every right to change it if its not being led the right way. And were going to continue to expose all the violations that Iran does. And we think the international community should join us with that because it is an issue for the future and it is a future an issue that affects every country in the world.
Trump also will preside over a meeting to counter narcotics. Haley said the issue is very important to him, and is a topic that has hit nearly all countries in the world. At that meeting, the president will issue a global call to action to the world leaders assembled in New York.
Authorities in Britain charged two Russian men on Wednesday with the nerve agent poisoning of ex-Russian spy and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury earlier this year, saying the pair used a fake perfume bottle involved in another poisoning that left a woman dead but offered little hope to bring them to justice.
The Crown Prosecution Service said the men, identified as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, are charged with conspiracy to murder, attempted murder and use of the nerve agent Novichok for the March attacks.
Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a public bench in the city of Salisbury on March 4, and spent weeks in critical condition. Officials suspect the father and daughter were poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-engineered nerve agent.
Prime Minister Theresa May told lawmakers that British intelligence has concluded that the two men are officers of Russia's GRU military intelligence service.
May said the attack "was not a rogue operation" and was almost certainly approved at a "senior level of the Russian state."
Prosecutor Sue Hemming said the U.K. is not asking Moscow to extradite the men because Russian law forbids extradition of the country's citizens.
We have, however, obtained a European Arrest Warrant which means that if either man travels to a country where an EAW is valid, they will be arrested and face extradition on these charges for which there is no statute of limitations," Hemming said in a statement.
Police said the men, both about 40, flew from Moscow to London on Russian passports two days before the Skripals were poisoned. Assistant police commissioner Neil Basu said the men were probably using aliases. He appealed the public "to come forward and tell us who they are," but conceded it was "very very unlikely" police would be in a position to arrest them any time soon.
The nerve agent used to poison the Skripals was smuggled to Britain in a counterfeit Nina Ricci perfume bottle and applied to the front door of Sergei Skripal's house, according to Metropolitan Police.
UK MAN POISONED BY NOVICHOK NERVE AGENT NOT LOOKING GOOD, BROTHER SAYS
More than three months later, the bottle was found by a local man, Charlie Rowley. He was hospitalized and his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess died after being exposed to the contents. Met Police said it did not believe the pair were deliberately targeted, but "became victims as a result of the recklessness in which such a toxic nerve agent was disposed of."
"Let me be clear, we have no doubt these incidents are connected," Basu said during a news conference on Wednesday.
Police released a series of images of the men as they traveled through London and Salisbury between March 2 and March 4. Police say the two men flew back to Moscow from Heathrow Airport on the evening of March 4, hours after the Skripals were found collapsed on a park bench in Salisbury.
EX-RUSSIAN SPY SERGEI SKRIPAL'S POISONING: WHAT TO KNOW
Yulia, 33, recovered more quickly and was discharged in April. Her father was released from the hospital in May. The police officer who came to their assistance, and was hospitalized, has also been released.
The Skripals have been taken to an undisclosed location for their safety.
After the announcement by British authorities, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the names of the two suspects "do not mean anything to us," according to Sky News. Britain later summoned a Russian diplomat in London after naming the two suspects, according the RIA news agency reported.
Sergei Skripal served with Russias military intelligence agency, often known by its Russian-language acronym GRU, and retired in 1999. He then worked at the Foreign Ministry until 2003, and later became involved in business.
DAUGHTER OF POISONED SPY SERGEI SKRIPAL TURNS DOWN RUSSIAN HELP
Skripal was arrested in 2004 in Moscow and later confessed to having been recruited by British intelligence in 1995. He also said at the time that he provided information about GRU agents in Europe, receiving over $100,000 in return.
In 2006, Skripal was convicted on charges of spying for Britain and sentenced to 13 years. However, he later was pardoned and released from custody in July 2010 as part of a U.S.-Russian spy swap, which followed the exposure of a ring of Russian sleeper agents in the U.S.
He had been living quietly in the cathedral city of Salisbury, 90 miles southwest of London, when he was struck down.
Britain blamed Russia for the attack while Moscow denied all allegations. In response, more than two dozen Western allies, including the U.S., ordered out over 150 Russian diplomats in a show of solidarity. In response, Russia ordered out 60 U.S. diplomats and closed the consulate in St. Petersburg in a tit-for-tat response.
Fox News Kathleen Joyce and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Three people have been charged in the death of a 68-year-old Missouri woman who scraped together all she had," and retired in the Central American nation of Belize, authorities said Monday.
Two men, both 18, and a 16-year-old minor face murder charges after the body of Sherris Stringham was found Friday near a river in Pomona, about 50 miles from the village of Hopkins where she lived, according to the Associated Press.
The suspects are also from Hopkins.
Stringham, a native of Blue Springs, Mo., was last heard from Aug. 25, and had missed several appointments with friends and her house was found in disarray with her wallet empty and car missing, the AP reported.
She was reported missing Aug. 27 and her vehicle was found abandoned several days later hundreds of miles away in the northern Orange Walk District.
No motive was confirmed, but robbery was suspected, the AP reported.
Stringhams family hired a private investigator to search for her and investigate her case, The Kansas City Star reported. A GoFundMe page was set up to cover their costs.
The page said Stringham had recently retired to Hopkins after two decades of driving a school bus and working at a local grocery store and had scraped together all she had and bravely struck out and retired to Hopkins.
As of Tuesday night, $15,540 had been raised.
Danish submarine inventor Peter Madsen, who was found guilty of the torture, sexual assault, murder and dismemberment of a Swedish reporter, appeared before an appeals court Wednesday to fight against his life sentence.
The three-day session at the Eastern High Court in Copenhagen will not deal with the April 25 guilty ruling. Madsen still denies murdering Kim Wall but wants to move on, according to his lawyer, so has accepted the verdict.
In Denmark, life is on average 16 years, but it can be extended if necessary.
Madsen, who claims Wall died accidentally inside the submarine in August 2017, wants a time-limited sentence, not an open-ended term. He has confessed to throwing her body parts into the Baltic Sea.
Wearing a dark blazer, a black T-shirt and jeans, Madsen listened quietly as prosecutor Kristian Kirk read out the April verdict to present the case.
The Copenhagen City Court had ruled unanimously that Madsen, 47, had lured Wall, 30, onto his home-made submarine on Aug. 10 with the promise of an interview.
The court ruled the murder was sexually motivated and premeditated, with the prosecution using Madsen's shifting explanations against him and quoting a court-ordered psychiatric report that described him as "emotionally impaired with severe lack of empathy, anger and guilt" and having "psychopathic tendencies."
Madsen's lawyer Betina Hald Engmark, on Wednesday said the prosecution case was based "on undocumented claims."
Clearly, she said, Madsen did something "horrible" by cutting Wall into pieces, but he should only be sentenced for that, noting that the cause of death has never been established. Under Danish law, indecent handling of a corpse carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail.
The Egyptian resort where a British couple died last month was found to have a "high level of E. coli and staphylococcus bacteria," a travel company said Wednesday.
Thomas Cook, a British-based travel company that operates around the world, said that specialists investigating the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada found that "food and hygiene standards identified a high level of the potentially fatal bacteria, according to Sky News.
"It is clear from these results that something went wrong in August at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in Hurghada and that standards fell below what we expect from our hotel partners," the company, which books travelers at the hotel, said in a statement. "It is likely that the presence of E. coli and staphylococcus would explain the raised level of illness reported among guests at the hotel during this time."
The results of the tests, however, do not reveal what caused the deaths of John, 69, and Susan Cooper, 63, on Aug. 21 while on vacation. The deaths prompted the travel company to evacuate 300 guests from the hotel as a precaution.
The couple's daughter, Kelly Ormerod, has said she is suspicious because her parents had been in perfect health hours before they died. She previously told Sky News that her father, John Cooper, died in his room while her mother died after she was taken to the hospital.
HOTEL ROOM WHERE BRITISH COUPLE FOUND DEAD HAD 'STRANGE ODOR,' EGYPTIAN OFFICIAL SAYS
"I think when they went back to that room that evening there was something in that room that's actually killed them whether they've inhaled something that poisoned them, I don't know," she told Sky News last month. "I can only have my opinion on what's gone on, but there's something that happened in that room that killed my parents."
BRITISH COUPLE DIES IN EGYPT HOTEL, DAUGHTER SAYS 'SOMETHING IN THAT ROOM' KILLED PARENTS
The travel company said Wednesday that tests by experts showed normal carbon monoxide levels near the couple's room and normal levels of chlorine in the swimming pool, but that Egyptian authorities are still investigating the Cooper's hotel room.
Maj. Gen. Ahmed Abdullah, governor of Egypt's Red Sea region where the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel is located, previously said "there was a strange odor in the room."
Egyptian authorities dismissed criminal motives as being behind the deaths. An official statement by the Red Sea governorate after the deaths said an initial medical examination of John Cooper showed he had suffered acute circulatory collapse and a sudden cardiac arrest. It said Susan Cooper later fainted and was rushed to a hospital, where resuscitation attempts continued for a half-hour.
An ex-Russian spy and his adult daughter were critically injured after they were poisoned by a nerve agent back in March and now Russia is paying for the attack.
Sergei Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were found unconscious March 4 on a bench in a shopping mall in Salisbury, about 90 miles west of London. The pair were released from the hospital two months later and moved to a private, secure location.
On Aug. 8, the U.S. announced it was imposing sanctions on Russia for using a chemical weapon in violation of international law, though the Kremlin repeatedly denied involvement. Following a 15-day congressional notification period, the sanctions took effect on or around Aug. 22, according to a statement from the State Department.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said days after the poisoning that it was highly likely Russia was responsible. And the U.S., Germany and France all appeared to back her.
2 RUSSIANS CHARGED OVER NOVICHOK POISONING OF EX-SPY, USED FAKE PERFUME BOTTLE, BRITISH OFFICIALS SAY
Since the March attack, a British couple with no ties to Russia have also been poisoned by the substance in Salisbury.
Dawn Sturgess, 44, died more than a week after authorities believe she was exposed to Novichok the military-grade nerve agent also used in an attempt to assasinate Skripal. Charlie Rowley, 45, was also exposed to the agent and remains in critical but stable condition.
On Sept. 5, authorities in Britain charged two Russian men, identified as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, with the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter, as well as Sturgess.
The nerve agent used to poison the Skripals was smuggled to Britain in a counterfeit Nina Ricci perfume bottle and applied to the front door of their house, according to Metropolitan Police. Police believe the couple later found that same bottle, thus exposing them to the toxic nerve agent.
Heres what we know about Skripal, and the incident that nearly killed him.
His background as a spy
Skripal served with Russias military intelligence, often known by its Russian-language acronym GRU, and retired in 1999. He then worked at the Foreign Ministry until 2003, and later became involved in business.
Skripal was arrested in 2004 in Moscow and later confessed to having been recruited by British intelligence in 1995. He also said at the time that he provided information about GRU agents in Europe, receiving over $100,000 in return.
WHAT'S THE GRU, RUSSIA'S MILITARY INTELLIGENCE AGENCY? 3 THINGS TO KNOW
At the time of Skripals trial, the Russian media quoted the FSB domestic security agency as saying that the damage from his activities could be compared to harm inflicted by Oleg Penkovsky, a GRU colonel who spied for the United States and Britain. Penkovsky was executed in 1963.
In 2006, Skripal was convicted on charges of spying for Britain and sentenced to 13 years. However, he later was pardoned and released from custody in July 2010 as part of a U.S.-Russian spy swap, which followed the exposure of a ring of Russian sleeper agents in the U.S.
Skripals wife and son have both died in recent years.
Prior to his wifes death, however, she reportedly told police she feared for her husbands life, the New York Daily News reported.
How world leaders responded to the attack
On March 15, world leaders said in a joint statement they "abhor" the attack against Skripal.
"It is an assault on U.K. sovereignty and any such use by a State party is a clear violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and a breach of international law. It threatens the security of us all, the statement, signed by British Prime Minister Theresa May, President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, read.
The leaders called on Russia to "live up to its responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council to uphold international peace and security."
May had given Russia until midnight on March 13 to respond to the charges. When Moscow failed to respond, May expelled 23 Russian diplomats from the U.K. They were given a week to pack their belongings and head back to Russia.
This will be the single biggest expulsion for over 30 years and it will reflect the fact that this is not the first time the Russian state has acted against our country," May said at the time.
The U.S. also ordered 60 Russian diplomats to leave and announced it would close the Russian consulate in Seattle. In response, Russia then said it would expel 60 U.S. diplomats and close the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg.
Two dozen countries, including the U.S., ordered more than 150 Russian diplomats out within a one-week span in a show of solidarity with the U.K.
How Russia reacted to the allegations
On March 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would cooperate with the U.K. in an investigation of the poisonings, calling them a "tragedy." However, Putin said if the claims they were poisoned by the Soviet-designed nerve agent were true, the victims would've died instantly.
"Russia does not have such [nerve] agents," Putin said, according to The Guardian. "We destroyed all our chemical weapons under the supervision of international organizations and we did it first, unlike some of our partners who promised to do it, but unfortunately did not keep their promises.
Putin added that he thought "any sensible person would understand that it would be rubbish, drivel, nonsense, for Russia to embark on such an escapade on the eve of a presidential election."
Putin's remarks came after Russia earlier retaliated against the U.K.: Moscow announced March 17 that it also would expel 23 British diplomats, among other diplomatic measures.
Fox News' Travis Fedschun, Zoe Szathmary, Madeline Farber, Kathleen Joyce and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The American woman who was held captive with her husband by a Taliban-linked militant group claims her husband routinely physically and emotionally abused her while they were in captivity.
In new documents unsealed this week, Caitlan Coleman, 32, alleges that her husband Joshua Boyle regularly threatened to kill her by setting her on fire during their five-year ordeal as hostages by the Haqqani network.
The Ottawa Citizen reported that Coleman is seeking to gain sole custody of their three children who were all born in captivity.
Coleman claims that throughout their time as hostages, her husband became increasingly erratic and irrational, depicting me as an enemy of his life.
FORMER TALIBAN HOSTAGE CAITLAN COLEMAN SPEAKS OUT FOLLOWING RESCUE
[He] had uncontrolled rage, instituted corporal punishment of me, and struck me in a fit of rage, she said.
Coleman also accused her husband of having extremist ideologies that included the complete subservience of women. As evidence, she cited his previous marriage to Zaynab Khadr, the eldest daughter of Ahmed Said Khadr, a member of Usama bin Ladens inner circle.
In his own 23-page affidavit, Boyle, a native of Canada, denied the allegations of abuse against him and instead accused her of neglecting their children because of mental health issues.
The couple, who met online and married in July 2011, were taken hostage on October 2012 after they went on an overseas trip to Afghanistan.
They were rescued in October 2017 by Pakistani security forces.
FORMER TALIBAN HOSTAGE JOSHUA BOYLE ACCUSED OF USING ROPE DURING SEXUAL ASSAULT
In January 2018, Boyle was charged with numerous crimes including sexual assault and was released on bail.
In July, an Ontario judge granted Coleman temporary sole custody of their children and issued a restraining order prohibiting Boyle from contacting or coming near his wife and the children.
Coleman currently lives in Pennsylvania with the kids. She is due to give birth to the couples fourth child this month, the Ottawa Citizen reported.
Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito said he will take to heart how his father was mindful of Japan's history and tried to build closer ties during his upcoming visit to France, expected to be his last foreign trip before becoming emperor.
Naruhito, 58, told a news conference Wednesday that foreign visits, including his Sept. 7-15 trip to France, are a key role for the royal family in fostering friendship.
Emperor Akihito and his wife, Empress Michiko, always paid close attention to the history of the countries they visited and thought deeply about how they could promote mutual understanding and friendship in the future, Naruhito said.
"I've closely observed the emperor and the empress' way, and I will cherish their feelings as I make an effort to promote international goodwill," Naruhito said.
As next emperor, he said, "I hope to always seriously think about what I can do for the people of Japan and the rest of the world while praying for their happiness and reflecting on what the emperor has done up until now."
Naruhito's 84-year-old father, Akihito, will abdicate on April 30, handing the Chrysanthemum throne to his son the next day.
Akihito is seen as having devoted his life to make amends to victims of World War II, which was fought in his father Hirohito's name.
The crown prince said he also wants to interact with younger people who will play a key role in deepening understanding and friendship in the future.
The crown prince will join cultural events and visit schools during his upcoming trip, which marks 160 years of Japan-France diplomacy.
"I hope to directly get the feel of how Japanese traditional culture and pop culture are perceived in France," Naruhito said.
His wife, Masako, will not accompany him because she is still recovering from a stress-induced mental condition which she developed soon after giving birth to their only daughter, Aiko, now 16, following criticism that she failed to produce a boy. She has since largely withdrawn from public appearances, though her activities have slowly increased.
Masako, a Harvard-educated former diplomat, still has ups and downs and it would be difficult for her to immediately increase her official duties, Naruhito said.
He said foreign visits are not the only way of promoting international goodwill, and receiving foreign dignitaries or attending international events at home can be just as important. He added that he hopes Masako can gradually do more.
"I believe her experience of having lived overseas and worked in diplomacy will definitely help," he said.
___
Follow Mari Yamaguchi on Twitter at www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchi
Find her work at https://www.apnews.com/search/mari%20yamaguchi
A terminally ill Australian man had one last wish before he made his final trip to the hospital for palliative care last week: an ice cream sundae.
Paramedics from Queensland Ambulance Service learned that it had been a few days that Ron McCartney ate any food, and asked him, "if you could eat anything, what would it be?"
A caramel sundae, McCartney, 72, replied, according to a post on the Queensland Ambulance Services Facebook page on Tuesday.
His daughter, Danielle Smith wrote on her Facebook page that her dad enjoyed this so much and [it] was the last thing he was able to eat by himself, according to the BBC.
According to the Queensland Ambulance Service post, paramedics were left humbled and tinged with sadness after his wife thanked them for the swift and high level of care and compassion toward her husband.
Smith told the BBC that her father, who had spent the past 17 years in a fight against pancreatic cancer, died on Saturday.
Last November, the same ambulance service fulfilled a palliative care patients final wish to see the ocean one more time before she died.
A photo of a paramedic with a patient on a stretcher overlooking the ocean has since gone viral, being shared more than 20,000 times.
next Image 1 of 2
prev Image 2 of 2
The U.N. envoy for Yemen said Wednesday that he hopes Yemenis can draw a "flickering signal of hope" from peace talks set to resume after a two-year hiatus a new bid to end a grueling war that has spawned the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Martin Griffiths was preparing to start three days of "consultations" on Thursday with envoys from Yemen's Saudi-backed government and Iran-aligned Shiite rebels, the first U.N.-hosted talks since a previous round ended in Kuwait two years ago. Since then, fighting has put some parts of the country on the brink of famine, fomented a massive cholera outbreak and raised the war's death toll to over 10,000.
The meetings offer a faint hope of ending a conflict that started spiraling toward catastrophe in March 2015, when a Saudi-led, U.S.-backed coalition intervened in support of the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi against the Shiite rebels, known Houthis, who control the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen.
"We have all agreed the time has come to begin a new process, to relaunch the process, which will lead to a resolution of this conflict," Griffiths told reporters Wednesday. "It has been two years too long since the parties last met."
Griffiths, who was appointed in February, said he met with rebel leader Abdul-Malek al-Houthi in Sanaa, and that al-Houthi was "very positive" about the Geneva discussions and was "actually quite impatient, I think, for rapid progress."
The consultations were to focus on the reactivation of the peace process and confidence-building measures like the release of prisoners, the envoy said.
"People of Yemen, like in any other conflict, are desperately in need of a signal of hope. We'd like to think that the work we will do together in these next days will begin to send a flickering signal of hope to them," Griffiths said.
He couldn't predict whether the two sides would suspend fighting during the talks, but said he did not expect "major" military operations in the pivotal port city of Hodeida a crucial entry point for aid and imported goods as they go on.
"The one thing that can destroy any prospects for peace is war," Griffiths said, adding that he hoped at least for "no provocative military events."
The two sides are not expected to meet face-to-face, but will speak separately with Griffiths, who said he hoped they would eventually come together in a one room.
The participation of the Houthis remained in question. Rebel officials said their team refused to leave Sanaa on a U.N. flight, while demanding the evacuation of some injured people to neighboring Oman for treatment. The Saudi-led coalition controls Yemen's airspace and flights from rebel-held Sanaa have been rare to nonexistent in recent months.
Griffiths said he was meeting Wednesday with the government's chief envoy, Foreign Minister Khaled el-Yamani. The rebels were set to send Mohammed Abdel-Salam as their delegation chief. The U.N. envoy has also invited another separatist group, calling itself the Transitional Southern Council, to participate.
In Sanaa, residents expressed mixed views about the prospects for the talks.
"We hope these negotiations will lead to a basis on which an end to bloodshed can be built, because the Yemeni people have reached a state of exhaustion," said lawyer Ameen Al-Bareihi. "We hope that the two sides can calm down in order to reach a solution."
Others expressed concern about the pressure from abroad, and hope that Yemenis themselves would come to terms.
"If you could only see the situation here," said Said Mohamed Al-Senawy, an internally displaced person. "God willing, they will come out with a solution ... We are Yemeni, our blood is all one, and our land shouldn't be divided and our blood shouldn't be spilled especially for people with outside interests."
The U.N.'s World Food Program says some 18 million people, or two-thirds of Yemen's population, don't know where their next meal will come from and 8 million are "precariously close" to famine. The U.N. says Yemen is facing the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with supplies of food and water, health care and infrastructure damaged or in jeopardy.
Yemen's war is widely seen as a regional conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, eclipsed by the similarly devastating conflict in Syria, which has killed hundreds of thousands and carried greater geopolitical implications.
___
Associated Press writer Ahmed al-Haj and video journalist Saleh Maglam in Sanaa, Yemen, contributed.
The stepmother of a 9-year-old girl in India was accused of ordering her son and three others to rape and kill the child, while in her presence, officials said.
The stepmother, who was not named, was allegedly upset that the girl was favored by her father, the BBC reported. The girls body was found in a jungle on Sunday in the Baramulla district.
Officials said the girls body was burned with acid and she may have been tortured. She was missing for 10 days before her body was found, police told the BBC.
INDIAS MONSOON FLOODS LEAVE 800,000 DISPLACED, THOUSANDS STRANDED
Senior police officer Imtiyaz Hussain said the girl was killed with an axe after being raped. The girls stepmother was accused of strangling the victim as she was hit with an ax, NDTV News reported.
Six people have been arrested in connection with the girls murder and gang rape in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
INDIAN POLICE ARREST 4 IN RAPE OF MOTHER, TEENAGE DAUGHTER
The girls death comes after an 8-year-old girl was kidnapped and raped in April. Her mutilated body was found in the woods a week later.
After the fatal gang rape of a medical intern on a bus in 2012 in Delhi, hundreds of thousands of Indians took to the streets to demand stricter rape laws in the country.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource Games Press.]
London, United Kingdom - September 5th, 2018 - BAFTA Young Game Designer winner, Dan Smith, and publisher, Ripstone Games, are proud to bring its acclaimed sci-fi puzzler The Spectrum Retreat to the Nintendo Switch eShop on September 13th, where it will cost 9.99 / 12.99 / $12.99. The Spectrum Retreat will be available in Europe and North America, with a release in Germany and Russia to follow later in 2018. The Spectrum Retreat is the brainchild of Dan Smith, who won the BAFTA Young Game Designers Award in 2016 for his first-person puzzler prototype when he was only 18 years old. Since then, Ripstones internal development team has partnered with Smith to evolve his award-winning prototype into a trippy, art deco-inspired sci-fi adventure. The Spectrum Retreat puts players in the role of a guest at the peculiar, pristine hotel, The Penrose, where nothing is as it seems. Youve been here as long as you can remember, with no idea why, and its up to you to solve the mystery of this uncanny resort. To do this, youll have to solve a series of increasingly complex colour-coded puzzles in an effort to uncover the true purpose of The Penrose. Having launched on PS4, Xbox One, and PC in July, The Spectrum Retreat received rave reviews from Gamereactor, Trusted Reviews, and The Xbox Hub. Developing The Spectrum Retreat took up nearly a quarter of my life, said Developer and Designer Dan Smith. Launching it earlier this year was a massive moment for me and Im delighted that Nintendo Switch owners will finally get a chance to experience it." The Spectrum Retreat was a real labour of love for both Dan and everyone at Ripstone who believed in his vision said Matt Southern, Head of Development at Ripstone Games. What began as a clever puzzle game expanded into a rich, contemplative narrative about the role of technology in an ever complex society and were thrilled to bring it to Nintendo Switch. Visit The Spectrum Retreat webpage on the Ripstone website: https://ripstone.com/game/the-spectrum-retreat For more information about the BAFTA Young Game Designers please check out http://ygd.bafta.org About Dan Smith Dan Smith Studios is an independent game development studio, represented by Dan Smith. Founded in 2016, its first focus has been on the development of first person puzzle game The Spectrum Retreat, which is due for a 2018 release for PC and consoles. Dan Smith is a BAFTA YGD Game Making Award winner and Computer Science student at the University of Leeds. He is based mainly in Newcastle and Leeds, England. About Ripstone Games Ripstone is a global independent video games label founded in 2011 by game and film industry veterans. They fully fund the development, distribution and marketing of video games made by elite creative teams. They have financed and published 17 games across 45 SKUs, with global sales of over 10 million units. Ripstone's back catalogue includes Ironcast, Stick It To The Man, Pure Pool, Pure Holdem and Chess Ultra. At their home in Liverpool, England they also have a world-class internal development team, whose credits include Plague Inc, Chess Ultra and The Spectrum Retreat. The whole company focuses on providing a total, personal support service for developers, empowering them to make the very best PC and console games, ensuring gamers know about them, then rewarding the teams for success. They are particularly noted for their outstanding ability to nurture new and small developers. www.ripstone.com Media Contact Plan of Attack on behalf of Ripstone Games Jeffrey Matulef (North America) [email protected] Tom Davis (Europe) [email protected]
GINX Esports TV is pleased to announce that it has partnered up with Ping Zero for their next event, Ping Zero 51, which will be held in Auckland, New Zealand.
Held at Eden Park from 14-16 September, Ping Zero 51 will accommodate all game genres and styles from casual to competitive gaming. The most-anticipated three-day event is the largest LAN event in New-Zealand.
Solenne Lagrange, Marketing Director for GINX TV says: GINX TV is committed to support local esports scenes wherever the channel is available. Ping Zero is known for the quality of its events and we are very happy to be working with them to help the NZ esports scene grow."
GINX Esports TV, which is available in New-Zealand on SKY also announces its official support to the Waikato United Gaming Society. The channel is sponsoring eight of the Society players to participate in Ping Zero 51.
Lagrange continues: These grass-root events are perfect to connect with the community. We cant wait to see the audiences response to the channel.
The pop-up channel is available to SKY Starter customers at no additional costs, on channel 159 and channel 059 until November 12th.
About GINX Esports TV
GINX Esports TV is the worlds leading esports TV network and is available in over 40 countries in 55+ million homes internationallyincluding: UK, France, Scandinavia, Italy, Middle East, South Africa and a partnership with Super Channel in Canada.
The linear 24/7 channel aims to extend esports reach intotelevision and to provide a more mainstream voice in the esports ecosystem. GINX Esports TV is the home of esports on TV.
GINX Esports TV - Facebook / Twitter
For more information and images please contact:
Solenne Lagrange, Marketing Director, GINX Esports TV
Email: [email protected]
[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource Games Press.]
DENVER - Sep. 5, 2018 - Dire Wolf Digital and Renegade Game Studios today announced that Clank! In! Space! Apocalypse! is now available online and at select retailers. The first intergalactic expansion for hit deck-building game Clank! In! Space! features a new mechanic where players select one of eight new Scheme cards, each representing one of Lord Eradikuss dastardly plans to devastate the galaxy. Its up to players to stop the apocalypse and save the galaxy, or at least escape with the treasure before someone else does! Clank! In! Space! Apocalypse! includes the following contents: Two Double-sided Game Board Modules
35 Adventure Deck Cards
Eight Large Scheme Cards
One Haldos Boss Marker The tabletop game can also be enhanced through the Renegade Companion App, which allows players to keep score, save records, play single player, and spice up their multiplayer experience. The Companion App is available for free on iTunes and Google Play. This expansion retails for $25 MSRP and requires the Clank! In! Space! base game. To learn more about Clank! In! Space! Apocalypse!, please visit https://www.direwolfdigital.com/clank-in-space-apocalypse/ About Clank! In! Space! Apocalypse! Clank! In! Space! Apocalypse! is the first expansion to hit deck-building game Clank! In! Space! While the galaxy belongs to Lord Eradikus, small pockets of resistance continue to oppose him. With the evil cyborg turning his oculus implants to these ragtag heroes, it is up to you and your fellow thieves to aboard his ship and loot his valuable artifacts before his wicked scheme wipes out the entire universe. About Dire Wolf Digital Dire Wolf Digital is an independent game studio specializing in strategy card games. Based in Denver, Colorado, the Dire Wolf Digital team includes more than 100 designers, artists and engineers creating games for some of the worlds top brands, as well as original properties. Their games include Eternal, Pokemon TCG Online, Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure, Lanterns: The Harvest Festival and Lotus. For more information, please visit https://www.direwolfdigital.com/ About Renegade Game Studios Renegade Game Studios is a premier developer and publisher of original award winning board games, including Overlight, Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure, Lanterns: The Harvest Festival, and The Fox in the Forest. Our mission is to publish games that are fun, challenging, and unique. We believe that gaming is for everybody and that everybody is a gamer; you just have to find the right game!
Everyone under the age of 18 will need a consent from a parent or guardian to receive the shot.
Parking disc sometimes required : Long term parkers at supermarkets may face fines
Bonn More and more supermarkets are monitoring the use of their parking lots. There are fines for those who forget to put a parking disc in the window or who overstay the allowed parking time. Signage is key.
Teilen
Teilen Weiterleiten
Weiterleiten Tweeten
Tweeten Weiterleiten
Weiterleiten Drucken
Customers who park at many Bonn supermarkets are required to use a parking disc. Some examples are the Aldi, Lidl and Rewe supermarkets in Duisdorf. They use private firms to control the parking situation, issuing tickets where necessary. One of those firms, Fair Parken has recently raised the parking penalty to 25 euros. Many feel this is a rip-off but supermarkets say they are left without an alternative. Which is why the parking ticket business is booming.
Its Thursday midday and a man wearing a Fair Parken T-shirt is in the parking lot of a shopping center, taking pictures of cars which violate the parking regulations. "They always come infrequently, sometimes alone, sometimes in threes, sometimes several times a day," says a saleswoman who is out taking a smoking break. The parking lot monitors are thorough - anyone who has not placed a parking disc in the window, or who has exceeded the maximum time of two hours, must pay a fine of 24.90 euros. But the parking monitor is also helpful: When asked what to do if you do not have a parking disc, he pulls one out of his pants pocket. "You can keep this," he says in a friendly manner.
From a legal standpoint there is no problem
The business model of companies like Fair Parken is simple. They forge an agreement with the property owners, allowing them to impose fines - and guarantee in return that there are no problems with illegal parking. From a legal standpoint, this is acceptable because on private property, an owner can do what they want. A supermarket can let its customers park for free, or it can choose to exercise parking fees and maximum parking times.
Parking crunch has increased
Because the demand for parking has increased due to the ever growing number of vehicles, the parking lot monitor business has become successful. In 2017, Fair Parken had eight parking monitors located in Bonn, now there are 25. In all of Germany, they have around 650. A company spokeswoman said the growth can be attributed to the increasing pressure on existing parking areas.
This branch has really developed in the past years, as can be seen in the number of requests to register private parking lot monitors with the proper federal authorities. In 2010, there were around 53,000 inquiries, in 2016, 600,000 and in the past year around 850,000 inquiries.
"Fair Parking" claims to be active only in locations "that suffer significantly from illegal parking". The firm says it always tries to be accommodating, as do the supermarkets. No one wants to take the risk of alienating customers. But there is criticism about the fine being raised from 20 to 25 euros.
Susanne Bauer-Jautz of the Bonn consumer center, says she has been receiving more and more complaints about the parking tickets. The issue is usually the signage. "It must be clear before entering the car park that fines can be levied," she says. Otherwise, the parking penalties are not legitimate.
nametalkam at 5-09-2018 06:58 PM (3 years ago) (m)
A Pro Buhari group have stumped up the cash and paid for the Presidents nomination form for the APC primaries.
A Pro Buhari group have stumped up the cash and paid for the Presidents nomination form for the APC primaries.
The group, known as Nigeria Consolidation Ambassador Network (NCAN) presented a cheque for N45 million naira to chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole.
Yesterday, the APC released the timetable and the price list for the Expression of interest forms and Nomination forms for the Presidency.
The set price was N40 million for the Nomination form and N5 million for the Expression of interest form which brings the total to N45 million.
The price also covers the Vice President as there would be no extra charge and the APC also announced that there would be a 50 percent slash for Women and people with disabilities.
Sanusi Musa, coordinator of the group, presented the cheque and stated that they are fully behind Buhari and also noted the need to consolidate on the foundation for a better Nigeria
We cannot afford to go back to Egypt. We cannot afford to destroy the future of our children, Sanusi said.
The foundation laid by President Muhammadu Buhari must be reinforced. We believe in the leadership of President Buhari, we count on him to consolidate the good work he has started for another four more years.
It is for this reason Mr. Chairman, we have decided to pull our meagre resources together and purchase the expression of interest and nomination forms for President Buhari as he present himself to our party members to be chosen as its candidate for the 2019 general election.
Our members from various villages, local governments and states have contributed to making this happen.
We have no doubt that Mr. President has both in action and word being working lay a foundation for greater and prosperous nation that our generation and future generation will be proud of. Under his administration Nigeria has become a country sought after for investment in the world. Nigeria has assumed its leadership role in not just Africa but the world. The group, known as Nigeria Consolidation Ambassador Network (NCAN) presented a cheque for N45 million naira to chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole.Yesterday, the APC released the timetable and the price list for the Expression of interest forms and Nomination forms for the Presidency.The set price was N40 million for the Nomination form and N5 million for the Expression of interest form which brings the total to N45 million.The price also covers the Vice President as there would be no extra charge and the APC also announced that there would be a 50 percent slash for Women and people with disabilities.Sanusi Musa, coordinator of the group, presented the cheque and stated that they are fully behind Buhari and also noted the need to consolidate on the foundation for a better NigeriaWe cannot afford to go back to Egypt. We cannot afford to destroy the future of our children, Sanusi said.The foundation laid by President Muhammadu Buhari must be reinforced. We believe in the leadership of President Buhari, we count on him to consolidate the good work he has started for another four more years.It is for this reason Mr. Chairman, we have decided to pull our meagre resources together and purchase the expression of interest and nomination forms for President Buhari as he present himself to our party members to be chosen as its candidate for the 2019 general election.Our members from various villages, local governments and states have contributed to making this happen.We have no doubt that Mr. President has both in action and word being working lay a foundation for greater and prosperous nation that our generation and future generation will be proud of. Under his administration Nigeria has become a country sought after for investment in the world. Nigeria has assumed its leadership role in not just Africa but the world.
Post Reply I specialize in investigative reportage across several subject matter and sectors but mainly focus on metro events and investigation. Do leave your thoughts and opinion on my reports to let me know what you think about them. Thank you Posted: at 5-09-2018 06:58 PM (3 years ago) | Hero
In front of a rare sirloin steak (It cant be too rare according to the Congressman) and a bottle of domestic beer, the U.S. Representative for Montana Greg Gianforte talked through key issues and policy priorities with local leaders that included Mayor Becky Erickson, County Commissioners John Fahlgren and Paul Tweten, Chief of Glasgow Police Brien Gault and candidate for Sheriff Tom Boyer, among others.
In a fast-paced conversation riddled with interruptions, jokes and anecdotes, Gianforte keyed in on issues to include law enforcement and border enforcement, receiving information from local law enforcement on drugs and mental health issues, listening intently to the views of local officers, deputies and community leaders. While discussing drug courts and mental health with Mayor Erickson, Gianforte injected, We need to focus more on rehabilitation than incarceration.
At a different point in the conversation, local Chief Gault projected a grim outlook for law enforcement once the Keystone XL pipeline construction begins. Gault contrasted the Keystone XL assessment for potential protests with the past protest encampments along the Dakota Access Pipeline saying this will be, worse than what that was, and he exclaimed that there was, No possible way Valley County [Sheriffs Office] and the city [Glasgow Police Department] can deal with any of that. Gault finished his assessment of KXL by saying, Its going to be bad there is no doubt in my mind.
Gianforte responded to Gaults concerns discussing how he had been in contact with TransCanada (the parent company for Keystone XL) and the Fort Peck and Rocky Boy Tribal Governments. The fact is that the Tribes, local government and TransCanada do not benefit if we have a conflict, explained Gianforte, who went on to say that unspecified out of state forces wanted to create conflict with the pipeline.
When asked by Commissioner Fahlgren what measures could be taken to diffuse a possible protest, Gianforte focused on keeping dialogue going between the parties involved in the construction and governance. He responded to Fahlgrens question directly saying, I think conversations are really good.
Keystone XL is a massive international oil pipeline intended to transport tar sand oil from northern Alberta to refineries in Texas. Despite recent courtroom setbacks, the pipeline is set to begin construction in Valley County in the next couple of years with road access and employee encampments already under construction. The pipe will enter the United States along the Canadian, Philips County and Valley County borders.
Briefly discussed at the meeting was the current Farm Bill, which has been passed in the House with a separate version passed in the Senate, and is currently in a bicameral conference to reconcile the bills and, hopefully, be signed into law by the time the current bill expires in October. Gianforte described the timeline for the bill saying, We are going to try and put those [House and Senate farm bills] together in Sept. when we return after Labor Day. Gianforte insisted that if the two bills were not reconciled in time for the expiration of the current bill, Congess would pass an extension while the issues were resolved.
Currently, the key difference between the House and Senate versions are a requirement for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit recipients to work, volunteer, or train for no less than 20 hours a week. The House bill contains the requirement and the Senate failed to pass an amendment that would have included the measure in their version. It is unclear if the SNAP benefit work requirement could pass the Senate.
Chair of the Valley County Republican Committee, Sarah Swanson bent the Congressmans ear on issues of rural infrastructure expansion. Specifically, she railed against a federal AT&T contract to expand rural cellular coverage, claiming that AT&T was merely building competing towers exactly where current local cooperative towers already exist. She claimed that this did not help expand the cellular reception to areas currently lacking coverage, but facilitated AT&Ts expansion to the region with federal money. Another topic brought up by Swanson was the problem faced by weather forecasting in the region due to radar gaps in the National Weather Service radar coverage in the region.
Drug enforcement and border security became a key point of discussion for the group. Chief Gault lamented the narcotics situation and the trafficking of meth from Mexican cartels. Gianforte quickly responded with, Thats why we need to secure the border, before adding later on that, It is so much less expensive to secure the border than to deal with these things across all our communities.
Gianforte and company wrapped up the evening discussing the foster care crisis in Montana. Stacy Rhodes, a foster parent trainer and day care provider, lamented the current foster care system and the return of children to families just to have them come straight back to foster care. Rhodes specifically asked Gianforte about the need to fix the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA which she pronounced phonetically). In Rhodes view, ICWA has had negative consequences for permanently placing foster children with adoptive families.
In response to the question, the Congressman cited the example of a Kalispell based program called Child Bridge which he claimed places over 200 foster kids in permanent homes each year. We have to take care of the kids, said Gianforte adding, If we save one child weve done something.
Montanas sole representative to the House capped off the night discussing Washington D.C.s spending problem and asserting that balanced trade and growth would effectively balance the budget over time. He stated that the House was working on a bill which had been dubbed Tax Cuts 2.0 which would make improvements to recently passed tax cut legislation. Gianforte showed his support for the new tax cut bill commenting that, Better is always possible.
"Promise me, when you grow up, you'll use your brain instead of your back," a mother tells her daughter as they tiredly dig out a flooded ditch on the family farm. That daughter, Miranda (Yeska) Orr, followed her mother Carolyn's advice, and is now a VA research health scientist at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System, faculty member of the Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, faculty member with the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer's & Neurodegenerative Disease and instructor of pharmacology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas. She has spent a great deal of time studying how Alzheimer's affects the brain and is making strides in researching how to stop the progression with the eventual goal of curing Alzheimer's.
A 1998 graduate of Saco High School, Orr recently led research showing a type of cellular stress, that is known to be involved in cancer and aging, has now been implicated for the first time in Alzheimer's. The research also showed that with the right combination of medication, Alzheimer's can be managed. Her research was published in the journal Aging Cell on Aug. 20, with much popularity in the science and medical community. To put into perspective how successful her study is, 6,000 papers are published every day from various fields of science, and a couple of days after publication, Orr's research was trending at number 13. Since the publication of the study, Orr has received correspondence from all over the world, including Australia and China, praising her work in this medical breakthrough.
The team found that stress, called cellular senescence, is associated with harmful tau protein tangles, one of two proteins that are in the brain, which are hallmarks in 20 human brain diseases, including Alzheimer's and traumatic brain injury. According to Orr, cellular senescence allows the stressed cells to survive, but the cell becomes zombie-like, functioning abnormally and secreting substances that kill the cells around it. "When cells enter this stage, they change their genetic programming and become toxic," said Orr. "Their existence means the death of surrounding tissue, which then affects the functionality of the brain to control other parts of the body."
The discovery was found in four types of mice that model Alzheimer's disease. The researchers then used a combination of drugs, including a natural compound and a chemotherapy drug that is already FDA approved to treat leukemia, to clear the senescent cells from the brains of Alzheimer's mice, whose age was equivalent to 65-70 year-olds in human years. After three months of treatment, the findings were unlike anything the researchers anticipated. "The mice were 20 months old and had advanced brain disease when the therapy was started. After clearing the zombie cells, we saw improvements in brain structure and function. The treatment seems to have stopped the disease in its tracks," said Orr.
Even though this medical breakthrough has been discovered, Orr and her team are cautious about whether this research will be an ultimate cure. Currently, the scientists are testing younger mice to determine how early the drugs can be given to have an effect to slow down the progression of the disease. "We also have to determine how long it takes for new zombie cells to come back after being treated with the drugs," said Orr. Now that the research is out there and public, other scientists need to replicate the findings to ensure the reproducibility among many laboratories and maybe even have a new spin on what Orr and her team did. The team is already discussing whether it is time to proceed with a clinical study to test the combination of drugs in humans who have mild cognitive impairment, which according to Orr, can be a risk of developing Alzheimer's later in life.
It's hard to believe how far Orr has come since graduating from Saco High School. Upon graduation, she started at Montana State University-Bozeman majoring in art, and then noticed her roommate's pre-med textbooks. She quickly realized she found her roommate's textbooks more interesting than her own and changed her life course. She transferred to Montana State UniversityBillings where she graduated with her pre-med degree. While enrolled in college, her family went through a trying time after her grandmother, Vivian Siewing, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and knowing there is no cure. With the disease hitting so close to home, she made it her mission that after graduating from MSU-Billings, she was going to cure Alzheimer's in her lifetime.
After working at her uncle Gary Porter's embryo transfer company, which jumpstarted her scientific career, Orr applied to the Montana State University neuroscience graduate program in 2005. She attained a joint PhD between MSU-Bozeman and the McLaughlin Research Institute for Biomedical Sciences in Great Falls. Being a scientist was not even a thought to Orr until she was in college. "I wanted to become a doctor to cure Alzheimer's. It wasn't until my college advisor told me, 'If you want to cure Alzheimer's, you need to become a scientist, not a doctor.' I could not wrap my mind around what my advisor told me," said Orr. In 2007, she moved to Great Falls to complete her research at the McLaughlin Research Institute with then director, Dr. George Carlson, and then in 2010 moved to San Antonio and started her post-doc work in 2012. In 2016, she was promoted to faculty and has since received competitive grants to fund her research from both the VA and National Institute of Health.
To say her family is proud of her accomplishments is an understatement. "There are no words for how proud I am of her," stated her mother, Carolyn Yeska. "She has always been studious in school and keeps pushing forward, never stopping. I am thrilled she is making such strides in finding a cure for a disease that I will get later in life." Her uncle Gary shared the same sentiment stating "She was always easy to teach, intelligent. I am honored to have created an environment for her to flourish in her current field." Her father, Jay, beamed with pride stating "It impresses me that these findings can help cure other diseases. Everyone reading and looking at her study can use her research as a way to think outside of the box, which only will improve the field."
Orr's hope with this study and future studies is that in 10 years the findings she discovered in mice will work in humans and work to stop the disease. There are currently strides being made in other studies with Alzheimer's in mind, and Orr's study will only help those scientists with their research. With each new study published, new scientists entering the field with new ideas, and current scientists finding different angles, only more good things will come in finding a cure for the disease.
U.S. Senator Jon Tester is pushing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take an active role to help return Glasgows flood levee back to active status. In a letter sent to Chief Engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers Lt. General Todd T. Semonit...
Dear Editor,
I am excited to be a candidate for Valley County Commissioner. The primary campaign was a very positive experience for me because of the great group of candidates who were all focused on how to serve Valley County in the best way pos...
From commercial drones to the development of "flying cars" -- electrically powered vertical takeoff and landing vehicles -- we're experiencing a rapid transformation of the low-altitude aviation industry. Aerial innovation has implications for sectors that include not only aerospace and civil aviation but also construction, e-commerce, traditional ground transportation operations and regional planning. With household names like Boeing and Uber venturing into increasingly localized aviation operations, cities and states should be looking at their own regulations, policies and strategic positions with regard to these new technologies.Implementation of these technologies is accelerating quickly and, as is typical in the age of advanced transportation technology, has already outpaced the policymaking that governs it. And while significant work remains to be done in achieving true integration of drones into the national airspace, industry governance has improved significantly over the last few years. Drone policy, for example, has evolved rapidly since 2015 and stands to progress significantly in the next one to three years as programs like the Federal Aviation Administration's Unmanned Aircraft System Integration Pilot Program (IPP) provide new opportunities for experimental-use applications and new partnerships within the aerial innovation industry.These uses range from plane inspections at airports to medical-supplies delivery and mosquito-population monitoring. Key features of the IPP include the integration of public-private partnerships and the designation of state, local and tribal governments as the leaders of these programs. This indicates a shift in openness toward increased local participation and control over the regulation and implementation of lower-altitude airspace operations.For the most part, however, airspace is federally regulated. So why would states and local governments invest in aerial mobility and aviation innovation? One answer is jobs. That was a strong source of motivation for the 149 governmental organizations that applied to be part of the first 10 IPP project slots. And there is the enticing possibility of direct federal investment, such as the $3 million grant to Cape May County, N.J., by the Commerce Department, announced just last week, to help build a multi-tenant building at the county airport for the unmanned-aviation industry, which is expected to bring 130 jobs and $1.9 million in private investment.The value of the commercial drone industry rose from $40 million in 2012 to $1 billion in 2017, and is expected to exceed $30 billion by 2026, by conservative estimates. The average drone pilot makes $35 an hour, and specialist pilots can earn up to $100 an hour. There has been over $200 million invested in urban air mobility, with the promise of future services like low-noise, low-emissions air taxiing and ambulatory medical services. These jobs touch public and private organizations alike.And non-federal governments are catching on. In 2017, Los Angeles approved a drone pilot training program funded at a local community college by the local workforce development board, while the University of Louisiana at Monroe is among higher-education institutions developing drone-management programs for four-year degree students.Ohio recently made aggressive moves toward integrating drones into the Dayton-Springfield airport, in collaboration with local universities. A primary objective is the economic opportunity the state sees, especially as a historic manufacturing center for the aviation and automotive industries, whose manufacturing lines are being increasingly blended.And a Massachusetts-based company that is developing its own flying car, Terrafugia, recently signed a deal with the Nashua, N.H., airport to start building and testing its vehicles on site. The company gets the benefit of having industrial research and development and operations in the same place where it is testing, along with the opportunity to learn from its airport landlord.All three examples illustrate the power of government to positively influence their regions' strategic positioning within this burgeoning field, through workforce development, industrial-base revitalization and the activation of local aviation assets. Additional benefits for these early entrants will be new sources of revenue, spin-off innovation industries and increased control over the implementation of these technologies inside cities.At its core, aerial innovation provides a unique economic opportunity for cities in an age of agglomeration, innovation networks and decentralized production, wherein place-based economic- and business-development opportunities are increasingly difficult to realize without substantial tax-incentive packages. Moreover, cities can use their unique bargaining power to protect their citizens from potential risks posed by drones, including strategies like community engagement, clear policies and designated testing areas.Partnerships across multiple levels of governments, researchers, private industry and, most importantly, the public, will allow this industry to thrive. It's a great opportunity for cities and states to participate in the largest boom in aviation technology since the 1950s while guiding its implementation.
Governments around the nation are working to design the best vaccine policies that keep both their employees and their residents safe. Although the latest data shows a variety of polarizing perspectives, there are clear emerging best practices that leading governments are following to put trust first: creating policies that are flexible and provide a range of options, and being in tune with the needs and sentiments of their employees so that they are able to be dynamic and accommodate the rapidly changing situation.
Gov. Larry Hogan on Tuesday renewed his call for accountability in Maryland's local school systems, but Democratic challenger Ben Jealous said that what they really need is more funding.With two months to go before the Nov. 6 election, the two candidates both staked out education as their main issue on the first day of classes for most of Maryland's public school students -- except for many in the Baltimore region whose buildings lack air conditioning.At a State House news conference, the Republican governor pointed to a series of scandals in local school systems around the state while vowing to submit legislation for the second straight year creating an "investigator general" in the Maryland State Department of Education. He also signed an executive order creating an Office of Education Accountability under the Governor's Office for Children."Our children desperately need someone to fight for their civil rights," Hogan said.Meanwhile, Jealous visited a Baltimore school to call for establishing a fund to reimburse teachers who spend personal funds on school supplies. The Democrat said he would create the fund by allowing Maryland residents to donate a portion of their tax refunds to it.In an interview with The Baltimore Sun, the former NAACP president dismissed Hogan's accountability announcement."He would prefer to blame local leaders and bring in lawyers when first and foremost we should be focused on making sure every school gets the resources it needs to properly educate our children," Jealous said.The question of whether Maryland is spending enough to educate children in its public schools is one of the central issues in this year's gubernatorial race.As sweltering weather forced the closing of 10 Baltimore County schools Tuesday, Gov. Larry Hogan blamed local officials for the hot buildings while his Democratic challenger in this year's election said the Republican governor should take responsibility.The first day of classes became an occasion...Hogan insists he has fully funded schools under the state's current education formulas. Jealous insists that those formulas fall well short of what the schools need -- a position that has helped him win the support of the state's teachers unions.The governor said at his news conference that he believes teachers should be better paid. He said school systems were spending too much on administrative costs.Hogan also noted that he supports raising more money through the so-called "lockbox" proposal the General Assembly put on the November ballot in the form of a constitutional amendment. If it passes, the measure is expected by 2023 to reserve more than $500 million in annual casino revenue for education that now can be used for other purposes.The governor said routinely holding school administrators accountable would help to ensure that they are wisely spending the nearly $6.5 billion Maryland spends on education each year."We are continuing our fight to improve Maryland local schools, as well as our fight for accountability in local school systems because the status quo simply is not good enough for Maryland's children," he said.The governor said he would propose legislation when the General Assembly convenes in January to create the position of investigator general. The official would have the power to issue subpoenas and hold public hearings as part of an effort to weed out corruption and mismanagement in the state's 24 local school systems.The investigator general would not be a direct gubernatorial appointment under Hogan's new bill. The official would be chosen by a commission whose members would be chosen by the governor, the speaker of the House and the Senate president.A similar bill failed in this year's legislative session.The governor predicted his proposed legislation will pass next year -- if he wins the election -- under pressure from taxpayers.Hogan recounted a series of problems that have afflicted school systems in recent years -- the perjury conviction of former Baltimore County school superintendent Dallas Dance, alleged grade-tampering in Prince George's County and mold in Howard County schools.A heat wave will continue to upend the start of school for the more than 70 Baltimore city and county schools without adequate air conditioning on what was supposed to be their second day back from summer vacation.Baltimore City will close more than 60 schools three hours early on Wednesday, and...The governor said he was creating the accountability office now to immediately begin providing greater transparency. He named Valerie Radomsky as director of the new office. The former Baltimore County teacher had been serving as Comptroller Peter Franchot's chief education advisor.Hogan said the office's expenses would be covered out of the governor's office's existing budget. The position would not have the subpoena authority envisioned in the governor's proposed legislation.Del. Eric Luedtke, a Montgomery County Democrat who attended the news conference, said he shares Hogan's desire for accountability."I believe it stops at the governor's desk," Luedtke said.Like other Democrats, Luedtke sought to shift the debate to school funding, contending Hogan has fallen short in that area."This is a bunch of window-dressing," Luedtke said of the governor's announcements. "This is much ado about nothing new."
On the campaign trail, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan often talks about how he wants lower taxes for retirees -- including exempting 100 percent of retirement income from Maryland taxes.The Republican governor pitched a similar proposal to senior voters when he was running four years ago, including at a forum at the Charlestown retirement community in Catonsville where he said: "Our plan -- and we can't do it immediately -- will be to completely eliminate state income taxes for pensions and retirement income."But the idea has not happened in his first term.Now Hogan is making the pitch again. He rolled out the pledge in August while visiting Leisure World in Silver Spring, the massive senior housing complex where voting turnout has historically been among the highest in the state."We're not going to stop fighting for you until we exempt 100 percent of your retirement income from Maryland state taxes," Hogan said to loud applause, according to Bethesda Beat.Hogan has enacted tax cuts on the retirement income of veterans and law enforcement officers.But a blanket exemption for retirees has proved too costly.Gov. Larry Hogan marked Veterans Appreciation Month on Thursday by renewing his call for elimination of state income taxes on Maryland's military retirees.At a State House news conference, Hogan contended that such a move is needed to keep the state's military retirees from moving to states that...When Republicans introduced the plan in the General Assembly in 2014 it died in committee after the nonpartisan Department of Legislative Services said it would deprive the state of more than $1 billion of revenue per year.Asked about whether the governor planned to push for the proposal again, Hogan's campaign called the governor's comments an "aspirational" goal that can't be accomplished quickly."Gov. Hogan has consistently stated that, over time, he wants to eliminate retirement taxes, and that will require continuing to keep spending under control," Hogan campaign spokesman Scott Sloofman said. "He has taken targeted steps to chip away at retirement taxes by exempting the first $15,000 of retirement income from state taxes for veterans, correctional officers, firefighters, law enforcement officers, rescue, and emergency personnel. And as our budget situation continues to improve he expects to make more progress."Sloofman criticized Hogan's Democratic opponent Ben Jealous, who has proposed even more expensive initiatives without clear funding streams, such as a single-payer health care system.Jealous spokesman Steven Hershkowitz said Hogan, once again, is making promises he can't fulfill without busting the budget."Maryland could certainly be a more affordable place to live for seniors, but making the same broken promise from four years ago -- one that would require billions of dollars of cuts in education and health care -- is not the way to do it," Hershkowitz said.He added that Hogan hasn't done enough to stop seniors' prescription drug prices from rising under his watch."If Larry Hogan really wants to make it easier for seniors to pay their bills," Hershkowitz said, "he should stop taking contributions from pharmaceutical corporations and start taking action to bring down prescription drug prices."
The LePage administration complied with a court order Tuesday and finally submitted required documents to the federal government to expand Medicaid to 70,000 Mainers, but there's a catch. Gov. Paul LePage -- an expansion opponent -- is asking federal officials to deny the application."I strongly encourage CMS (U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) to reject the State Plan Amendment that may soon be submitted by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services pursuant to court order," LePage wrote in an Aug. 31 letter to Seema Verma, CMS administrator, and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. "If accepted, the SPA would commit Maine to expanding the Medicaid program to an additional 70,000 to 90,000 individuals. However, not one dime of the hundreds of millions of dollars that will be needed to pay for the state's share of the expansion has been appropriated."The State Plan Amendment is a required first step toward implementing expansion, and Maine's highest court on Aug. 23 ordered the LePage administration to file the plan. Maine DHHS filed the plan on Tuesday.LePage vetoed a $60 million Medicaid expansion funding bill that state lawmakers approved in June, arguing that the funding contained one-time budget gimmicks. Democratic lawmakers countered that $60 million was more than enough to fund the expansion, and that a permanent funding solution should be decided by the next governor and Legislature.LePage is finishing his final term, and will be out of office in January. Democratic Attorney General Janet Mills, Republican businessman Shawn Moody and independents Terry Hayes, the state treasurer, and businessman Alan Caron are running in the general election to succeed LePage.Mills noted Tuesday night that Medicaid expansion is supported by groups ranging from hospitals to the Maine State Chamber of Commerce and those "fighting the opioid epidemic.""Like a lot of Mainers, I've had enough of this administration standing in the way," Mills said in an emailed statement. "The money is there, and, as governor, I'll implement Medicaid expansion on day one. From the health of our people to the health of our economy, there's too much at stake not to."The other candidates had not responded to requests for comment.Voters approved Medicaid expansion by a 59 to 41 percent margin in November 2017, and the law passed at the ballot box required the state to file a State Plan Amendment in April. But the LePage administration has refused to implement it. The expansion, a key component of the Affordable Care Act, would provide health insurance for low-income Mainers earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty limit, or $34,638 for a family of three and $16,753 for a single person.Robyn Merrill, executive director of Maine Equal Justice Partners, which is suing the state for failing to expand Medicaid, said asking the federal government to reject the expansion plan is unprecedented."They submitted a plan, but said, 'Don't approve it.' This is not over," Merrill said. "The governor is doing everything he can to block the will of Maine voters, trying to stop 70,000 Mainers from having health insurance."Merrill said that given the stance of the LePage administration, the legal battle will continue.Maine Equal Justice Partners has so far won its court fights with the LePage administration, and in August the court ordered Maine DHHS to file the State Plan Amendment.Merrill has maintained that there is enough funding to start Medicaid expansion, and that the federal government does not get involved in how the state comes up with its share of dollars for the expansion.The federal government pays for 90 percent of the cost of expansion, so Maine would pay about $50 million per year, according to nonpartisan estimates, and would draw down more than $500 million in federal funds to expand Medicaid.LePage argued in his three-page letter that an "activist court" forced his administration to file the State Plan Amendment. He said the federal government will likely have to reject the application because of the lack of state funding, and that the "failure of the Legislature to provide any funding for additional staff leaves DHHS in serious jeopardy of being unable to meet its obligations to accurately make eligibility and program integrity determinations."LePage wrote that "if the SPA is approved, the state will become obligated under federal law to fund the full range of Medicaid services to tens of thousands of additional individuals. Until the necessary funding is in place, however, the federal government can take no assurance that Maine will be able to pay for its share of costs under the program."The Maine Supreme Judicial Court kicked the core issue in the lawsuit, whether the LePage administration could be forced to implement expansion without a specific funding source -- back to Superior Court. The Superior Court is still considering constitutional and other questions regarding the case.Also unresolved, Merrill said, is what happens to people who signed up for Medicaid under expansion starting on July 2. Maine issued denial letters to at least some of the applicants, according to documents provided by Maine Equal Justice, but according to the law voters approved, Mainers could begin applying for coverage in July.
Taking Away Polling Places
In the five years since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down key parts of the Voting Rights Act, nearly a thousand polling places have been shuttered across the country, many of them in southern black communities.The trend continues: This year alone, 10 counties with large black populations in Georgia closed polling spots after a white elections consultant recommended they do so to save money. When the consultant suggested a similar move in Randolph County, pushback was enough to keep its nine polling places open.But the closures come amid a tightening of voter ID laws in many states that critics view as an effort to make it harder for blacks and other minorities to vote and, in Georgia specifically, the high-profile gubernatorial bid by a black woman.The ballot in November features Stacey Abrams, a Democrat trying to become the first black woman elected governor in the United States, versus Brian Kemp, the Republican secretary of state who has led efforts in Georgia to purge voter rolls, slash early voting and close polling places.Local officials across the country shuttered 868 polling places in the three years after the Supreme Courts 2013 ruling, according to a 2016 report from the Leadership Conference Education Fund, the research arm of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of 200 civil rights groups.Arizona, Louisiana and Texas, the report said, have all made alarming reductions in polling places.We are now seeing the fallout of that ruling, said Kristen Clarke, the president and executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.Polling places have often been used as political tools to shape the outcome of elections. Officials can reduce the voter participation of certain groups by eliminating polling places, and increase participation in other groups by placing precincts in key neighborhoods.But its not just the number of polling places that affect voter outcomes. Moving voters to different voting environments also may affect how they vote.The number of polling places in a county can have a significant impact on who votes. And changing the location of a polling place, according to a 2011 study in the American Political Science Review, can lower voter turnout.Fewer polling places also can lead to longer lines, which may dissuade people from voting, the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, found. Knowing this, officials can change the outcome of an election by manipulating polling places.You can basically lessen the turnout of people who disagree with your position, said Abraham Rutchick, a psychology professor at California State University Northridge, who has studied the impact of polling placement.Officials in Florida might have used the tactic recently to target college students. A federal judge ruled in July that election officials, at the direction of Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott, reveal[ed] a stark pattern of discrimination by blocking early voting at the states college and university campuses.Many young people have registered to vote in the aftermath of the school mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, where student survivors have led registration drives throughout the state. Patricia Brigham, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, said state officials were trying to block these first-time voters from getting access to the ballot.Its jaw-dropping that they wouldnt be doing everything they can do to get those students to vote, Brigham said. It sends a very unfortunate message to our students that they arent doing so.The League of Women Voters joined students and the Andrew Goodman Foundation, a New Jersey-based advocacy group, in the successful lawsuit.In the days after the ruling, county officials who run elections at Florida State University, the University of Central Florida, the University of Florida and the University of South Florida all said they would set up early voting for upcoming elections.But Miami-Dade County, home to Florida International University, and Duval County, home to University of North Florida and Florida State College, wont allow early voting this year, which could impact voter turnout among those college students.Counties across the country continue to eliminate polling places. Just last month, Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson, a Republican, removed 170, mostly Democratic voting precincts from Lake County home to the states largest Latino and second-largest black communities.Lawsons office said her plan updates the map to reflect new demographic data and still puts polling places close to public transportation. Local Democrats said it keeps African Americans and Hispanic voters from the polls.There are other efforts underway in counties in Illinois, Kansas, Mississippi, Ohio and Wisconsin to move thousands of voters to new locations. The primary driver for closing some of these polling places is a tight local budget.Some voters in Barton County, Kansas, now will have to drive 18 miles to vote in Novembers election because of polling place consolidation. In the past three decades, the county has gone from 40 polling places to 11. The main reason, said County Clerk Donna Zimmerman, is cost.Its expensive, Zimmerman said. Its always hard when youre taking the ballot further from the vote. Its a hard decision, and one I take to heart.Voters in the rural county will be able to vote by mail, however.In Kankakee County, Illinois, officials reduced the number of polling places from 69 to 65 this year. County Clerk Dan Hendrickson said each closed polling place saves the county a thousand dollars.Hendrickson said he decided against closing a polling place in a predominantly black area in the city of Kankakee because of concerns from the community about transportation costs.We could move that polling place somewhere else, he said, but not a one of them could vote then.In Georgia, civil rights groups remain vigilant, observing each of the states 159 counties to make sure polling locations arent shuttered.This has become commonplace in the state. Nearly a dozen counties closed many of their polling places in 2016.Last year, Fulton County officials tried to close several polling places in predominantly black neighborhoods of South Atlanta, claiming they werent used enough to remain open. The American Civil Liberties Union sued, saying the county didnt give enough public notice before closing them. A month later, and after public pressure, the county decided to keep those precincts open.When local officials attempt to close polling places in majority-black neighborhoods, as they tried in Randolph County, Georgia, they force black voters to travel farther to vote, Rutchick said, and to vote in an environment they may find threatening, like in a majority-white neighborhood.Indeed, Andrea Young, the executive director of the Georgia chapter of the ACLU, said poll closings often target so-called super voters, who consistently vote and depend on routine and comfort in the voting process.It suppresses the African-American vote, she said.Pushing back against that notion, Mike Malone, the white election consultant hired in Randolph County, said in community meetings that the suggested closings were not racially motivated.Is this the right time? he asked at the August meeting, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The answer is no. Its not. The reason its not the right time? Its never the right time.Malone has since been fired by the county. The other 10 counties that closed polling places at Malones recommendation, however, will keep the locations shuttered ahead of the November election.At the time, Fulton County officials said the polling places they decided to close had declining popularity, and closing them would streamline the voting process.Richard Barron, the countys director of elections and registration, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in July 2017 that voters were relying more on early voting and wouldnt be as hurt by the move. In making the decision, he said, the county looked at several factors, including race, voters at the precincts and distances to make a fair decision.We dont like to move polling places, Barron told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. We like to have consistency so voters know where they go all the time.Polling place environments also can have a large impact on how people vote. Sometimes the influence can be overt, such as when a location is a church or a school.In mid-August, city officials in Medford, Massachusetts, moved a polling place from a Veterans of Foreign Wars building because of a large All Lives Matter sign on display at the location, which some residents claimed was racist. And during the Pennsylvania primaries in May, voters in Philadelphia accused poll workers of intimidation for putting Bibles on polling place tables.In June, the Supreme Court struck down a Minnesota law preventing political apparel at polling places, opening the door for more explicit political influencing there. Most states, however, have a 100-foot buffer zone around polling places to prevent electioneering, including stumping for candidates and issues and putting up campaign signs and posters.But often, the influence is subtle.Changing a polling location to an unfamiliar environment, said Marc Meredith, an associate professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, can be an effective tool of voter manipulation.While peoples partisanship is their biggest motivator, he said, the environment where you vote can influence how you vote.In 2006, Meredith and his studys co-authors found that people who voted at schools were more likely to support an education funding initiative. In 2010, Rutchick in a separate study found that people who voted in churches were more likely to vote conservatively on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage, finding the presence of Christian imagery activates Christian values and attitudes and can thereby influence voting.Both studies show that voting environments can unconsciously trigger specific voter behavior. And while the effect is minimal, Rutchick said, weve had enough close elections this year that those little things do matter.One way to shield certain groups from being targeted by discriminatory policies, such as closing polling locations, is to harness a vote-by-mail system, as is done in Colorado, Oregon and Washington, said Nina Kohn, a law professor at Syracuse University. It insulates voters from location biases so they can more accurately cast their ballot.But that sort of system, said Young of the ACLU, favors voters who are highly literate.If you mess up your ballot, she said, its not counted.Instead of dramatically changing voting systems, Kohn said, voters could instead focus on local boards of election, where decisions on voter procedure and polling places are often made.As we look to the midterms, we need to pay very close attention to where polling locations are located, she said. This is not just an issue of fairness, but it could affect tight races. It could be the difference between someone winning or someone losing.
Cities can't make it a crime to sleep on a public street or sidewalk when no homeless shelters are available, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in a case that could affect so-called "sit/lie" ordinances in San Francisco and elsewhere.The constitutional ban on "cruel and unusual punishment," under the Eighth Amendment, prohibits "criminal penalties for sitting, sleeping, or lying outside on public property for homeless individuals who cannot obtain shelter," said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The state, the court said, "may not criminalize conduct that is an unavoidable consequence of being homeless."The 3-0 ruling reinstated lawsuits by homeless people challenging ordinances in Boise, Idaho, that made it a crime to sleep on a sidewalk or to use any sidewalk or public property as a "camping place." The court's decisions apply to federal cases in nine Western states, including California. Tuesday's ruling will become a binding precedent unless it is successfully appealed."Our hope, not just for Boise but for cities like San Francisco and cities across the country, is that it causes them to take a look at the laws they have on the books and have conversations about how to stop relying on those policies," said a lawyer in the case, Eric Tars of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty."Our real goal is not to protect the right of people to sleep on the streets," Tars said, "but a conversation about how we can address the core of the problem, that people don't have a place to sleep."Advocates for the homeless were joined in the case by the U.S. Justice Department, which filed arguments in the Boise case in 2015 saying laws against sleeping on public property, when no shelter space was available, unconstitutionally punished people for being homeless. The filing was issued by President Barack Obama's administration and has not been withdrawn by President Trump's Justice Department.The Justice Department arguments were also a warning to communities throughout the nation that the criminalization of homeless camping should be discouraged. Many communities, including Oakland and San Francisco, still take that as a guideline even while they have anti-camping laws on their books.While the court said a city could not outlaw sleeping on a sidewalk at all hours, it was less clear about partial bans, like the ordinance approved by 54 percent of San Francisco voters in 2010. That made it a misdemeanor to sit or lie down on a public sidewalk, or on a mattress or other object on a sidewalk, between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m.Without referring directly to the San Francisco measure, Judge Marsha Berzon said in Tuesday's ruling that a city's ban on "sitting, lying, or sleeping outside at particular times or in particular locations might well be constitutionally permissible." She did not indicate whether a 7 a.m.-to-11 p.m. prohibition would be considered a "particular time."In a followup measure, 52 percent of San Francisco voters in 2016 approved a 24-hour prohibition on putting tents on public sidewalks. But before enforcing that ban, officials would have to offer the homeless person shelter and, if available, a bus ticket to another city where a friend or relative could provide housing.That measure would not violate Tuesday's ruling, which said cities that made housing available could penalize conduct by those who refused to accept it. But the court said an ordinance that flatly prohibited sleeping on the sidewalk could not be salvaged by a Police Department policy -- like one announced by the Boise police chief -- to enforce it only when housing is available.Such a policy, Berzon observed, "could be amended or reversed at any time."John Cote, spokesman for San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, said Herrera's office was analyzing the ruling to see whether the local ordinances fit the court's standards. "Aspects of this ruling are already reflected in the laws we have on the books," he said.San Francisco issues citations for at least 14 laws prohibiting camping or resting on the streets, but since the Justice Department took its position against criminalizing homelessness in 2015, the number of citations has dropped by about 50 percent to about 10,000 a year, according to the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness.That's still too many, said the coalition's director, Jennifer Friedenbach."Moving people from place to place, and citing them under these laws, does no good and it just makes it harder to get off the street," Friedenbach said.She and other homeless advocates around the nation have said for many years that, instead of criminalizing homeless people, cities and counties should simply provide enough housing, drug or mental rehabilitation, and shelter for people depending on their needs. Proposition C, a November ballot measure in San Francisco that Friedenbach helped craft, would tax businesses $300 million a year to raise money for homeless programs.Alameda County homeless-aid officials were also examining the ruling to see how it might affect the way they manage street populations, but policies throughout the county already emphasize shelter and services over criminalization."People may be taken to task for things that are illegal, like prostitution or possessing stolen goods, but they're not really being cited for camping," said Elaine deColigny, executive director of EveryOne Home, the county's main homeless-aid coordination agency. "There are camps that are so dirty or vermin-infested that they have to be moved so the sites can be cleaned, but the intention is always to offer people other places to go, like the Tuff Shed locations, or programs."
For years, public-sector unions have been keenly aware of the possibility that their influence could take a hit if a court decision reversed the rules that govern their funding. That day came this summer, when the Supreme Court declared in Janus v. AFSCME that unions could no longer require non-members they represent to pay agency fees covering collective bargaining expenses. The decision, which overturned longstanding legal precedent, is widely expected to cut into union budgets and suppress membership.But just how the ruling will play out remains uncertain, as does its effect on unions political power.To assess public-sector unions current political spending,reviewed data on state election contributions reported by the National Institute on Money in State Politics . Nationally, union spending pales in comparison to that of large corporations and major industries. In 2016 and in the limited number of state contests of 2017, public-sector unions contributed $82 million to state-level candidates and party committees, an amount thats just over 3 percent of total contributions to these campaigns.In select states , however, unions are more significant spenders. Between 2014 and last year, Minnesotas public-sector unions contributed $73 million to state candidates and committees, accounting for nearly 8 percent of total contributions within the state -- the highest share nationally. As one might expect, unions in blue states tend to spend the most. But there are exceptions. In Alabama, a red state with a right-to-work law, they represented almost 7 percent of total contributions over the four-year period.Its tempting to look to the effects of existing right-to-work laws for clues as to how the Janus decision might unfold. One often-cited study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) compared counties in states enacting such laws with neighboring counties in adjacent states that dont have those laws. Researchers found a 2 to 3 percentage-point drop in voter turnout and poorer performance for Democrats following the passage of right-to-work laws.Its unknown, however, whether the Janus ruling will produce comparable results in states that are generally union strongholds. Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, who co-authored the NBER study, says it would be a mistake to assume the effects of Janus will be of a similar magnitude. In the short run, unions are going to take a hit in their organizational clout and their political clout, he says. But in the longer term, its really up to the unions themselves as to whether or not theyre able to re-engage their members and restructure themselves in ways that make membership appealing to more workers.Much of the political strength of public-sector labor will depend on how well theyre able to retain members. One study by the liberal-leaning Illinois Economic Policy Institute and a University of Illinois professor predicted that the Janus decision would reduce union membership among state and local government employees by 8.2 percentage points, or 726,000 workers. Just over half the total loss would come from California, Illinois and New York.Unions frequently respond to unfavorable court rulings by allocating more money for recruitment activities and member services, leaving less for campaigns. The NBER study found unions political spending was negatively correlated with spending on member services. Teachers unions in Michigan and Wisconsin reported steep declines in political spending following enactment of right-to-work laws.But unions dont always need deep pockets to wield significant influence. Take the wave of recent teachers strikes in several conservative states that yielded pay raises for educators. Instead of buying costly TV airtime, unions might invest more on grassroots activities, such as in-person canvassing and phone banks. Where unions have had the greatest political impact, says Ken Jacobs of the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California, Berkeley, has been in their ability to move their membership to vote and engage in public policy.The response of state legislatures to the Janus decision will further determine, at least in part, the amount of influence unions retain. California lawmakers recently passed one measure ensuring that unions could meet with new hires to discuss the benefits of membership, and an additional measure restricting how public employers communicate to employees the advantages and disadvantages of unions. Several other states controlled by Democrats have approved or are considering various measures designed to mitigate the effects of the Supreme Court decision.At the same time, conservative groups backed by the billionaire Koch brothers and other corporate interests are ramping up outreach efforts in California and other states encouraging workers to drop their union membership. Were going to see quite a bit of trench warfare in the coming years, Jacobs says.If theres one key difference between the Janus decision and right-to-work laws , its that public-sector unions have had years to prepare for the court ruling. Education Minnesota, with about 90,000 teachers and administrators, has conducted conversations with members about what they want from the union. We anticipated Janus and knew that now, more than ever, we were going to need to amplify the voices of educators, says Denise Specht, the unions president.Union leaders learned, for example, that many teachers were struggling to pay off student loan debt, so they started a training initiative on loan forgiveness programs and budgeting expenses. Since January 2016, the union has organized 23 new locals. We are finding more and more people signing up to be political advocates at the workplace or in their neighborhoods because they know what the 2018 election means, Specht says.In a 2014 precursor to the Janus case, Harris v. Quinn, the Supreme Court ruled that unions couldnt collect agency fees from quasi-public employees who werent members. Unions representing home care workers responded by strengthening ties with their membership. The United Domestic Workers of America, which represents mostly low-income caregivers, reports its dues-paying membership initially dropped from 68,000 to 48,000 following the ruling, but has since rebounded to about 75,000.In solidly blue California, Jacobs doesnt expect a big short-term impact on the participation of public-sector unions in politics, but labors role in the long run remains an open question. We could see a lot more where public policy influence comes through both engagement of members and engagement of the community, he says, because thats what unions will have to do to maintain their membership. They could come out stronger in the end.
Description
GIS 05 September, 2018: Mauritius participated on 4 September 2018 in a mock tsunami exercise in the Indian Ocean. The National Emergency Operations Command (NEOC) triggered level 3 warning at around 11 00 hrs.
Simulated tsunami waves were generated by an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 on the Richter scale on the Makran Trench off the southern coast of Iran which were expected to spread through the whole of the Indian Ocean. As at 12 30 hrs, some 2 170 persons had already been evacuated around Mauritius for the purpose of the mock exercise.
All relevant stakeholders comprising members of the Operation cell and the Planning cell were gathered at the headquarters of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Centre (NDRRMC) in Port Louis. The Minister of Social Security, National Solidarity, and Environment and Sustainable Development, Mr Etienne Sinatambou, and the Officer in Charge of the NDRRMC, Mr Servansingh, were also present.
In a statement to the press, Minister Sinatambou highlighted that Mauritius along with 25 countries around the Indian Ocean were participating in the Indian Ocean Wave 2018 exercise while recalling that Mauritius was at its third participation in such exercise since 2014. The purpose of this exercise, he pointed out, is to increase tsunami preparedness, evaluate response capabilities in each country and improve coordination throughout the region. It also tests the Standard Operating Procedures and communication links at all levels of the warning chain, he said.
The Minister observed that in the course of the exercise, three Tsunami Service Providers from Australia, India and Indonesia provided simulated tsunami threat information to all National Tsunami Warning Centres in the Indian Ocean region. The Mauritius Meteorological Services, which is the National Tsunami Warning Centre for the country, evaluated the information and formulated test national tsunami warnings, which were disseminated to the NEOC/ NDRRMC, the Police Information and Operations Room and the public.
According to the scenario, waves of 1.09 metres height were expected to crash on Agalega at 15 42 hrs, waves of 1.6 metres would reach Rodrigues at 17 06 hrs, and Mauritius would be hit by 1.42 metres high waves at 17 22 hrs.
For his part, the Officer in Charge of the NDRRMC, Mr Servansingh underscored that the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and subsequent events in the Indian and Pacific Oceans brought to the worlds attention the urgent need to be more prepared for such events. He underlined that the Indian Ocean Wave exercise is an effective tool for evaluating the readiness of the end-to-end Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigations System and for identifying changes that can improve its effectiveness.
According to him, this important exercise not only tests the current procedures of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System, but also helps to identify operational strengths and weaknesses in Mauritius. He also stated that an Inundation Map for Mauritius prepared by the Mauritius Oceanography Institute was expected to give an indication as to the areas and regions affected by the tsunami.
In the course of the IOWave18 exercise, partial evacuation was carried out by local authorities at Baie du Tombeau public beach, Grand Baie public beach, Bois des Amourettes, Providence (south) as well as in Rodrigues, Agalega and St Brandon. All beaches were closed and sanitisation was carried out on islets, he added. He concluded by saying that after the mock exercise, a debriefing session with all stakeholders would be held whereby improvements and changes to be made will be discussed.
Exercise IOWave18
Exercise IOWave18 simulated Indian Ocean countries being put in a tsunami warning situation and require the National Tsunami Warning Centre and the National and/or Local Disaster Management Offices in each country to implement their Standard Operating Procedures. Exercise IOWave18 comprised two scenarios on successive days: one in the north western Indian Ocean off the coast of Iran, and the other in the eastern Indian Ocean off the west coast of northern Sumatra.
The first scenario commenced on 4 September and simulated a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Iran. The second scenario will be held on 5 September and will simulate a magnitude 9.3 earthquake off the west coast of Northern Sumatra. Both scenarios would generate simulated tsunami waves travelling across the Indian Ocean basin.
This exercise is carried out in the second week of September every two years. Previous Indian Ocean exercises were conducted in 2009 (IOWave09), 2011 (IOWave11), 2014 (IOWave14) and 2016 (IOWave16), including local tsunami warning exercises carried in Mauritius.
(TNS) - School districts across the county are doing their part in making sure their students are safe on campus.Alvarado ISDIn Alvarado ISD, the district has added two more school resource officers from the Johnson County Sheriffs Office to bring their total number to four, AISD Public Information Officer Tommy Brown said.They also added an enclosed vestibule at Alvarado High School and are converting analog cameras to high resolution digital cameras, storing all information in a reliable, central location.Burleson ISDIn Burleson ISD, officials said they have implemented several programs to enhance security at their campuses.In partnership with local first responders, the district is implementing the Standard Response Protocol developed by the I Love You Guys Foundation, which provides a common vocabulary, an understanding of what to do and common expectations of behavior during a crisis.The SRP defines specific actions in the event of a crisis: Lockout: Used when a threat is outside of the building. Everyone is brought inside the building and school continues as normal. Exterior doors are locked and staff are asked to increase situational awareness. Lockdown: Used when a threat is inside the building. Classroom doors are locked, lights are turned off and students and staff move out of sight. Evacuate: Used when students and staff need to leave the building. Shelter: Used when specific protective actions are necessary. This could be due to severe weather. Hold: Used when students need to be out of the halls or any reason to restrict movement in the building.For more information about the program, visit iloveuguys.org/srp.html.The district also partners with CrisisGo, providing access to emergency plans, evacuation maps, class rosters, checklists and more. This mobile app provides a digital version of emergency management procedures with the SRP integrated for emergency responses.Using the app, campus staff members can send a panic out to notify the appropriate personnel. Administrators may then send out an alert immediately notifying local first responders as well as campus and district staff of the incident.Godley ISDIn Godley ISD, Superintendent Rich Dear said they cant discuss much about their safety protocols because they dont want anyone working around it.I can tell you we have monthly emergency and safety drills, updated emergency action plans, visitor management systems and have recently updated our school radio and camera system district-wide, Dear said. We utilize the Stay Alert program which allows students, parents or community members to anonymously report bullying or questionable behavior via email or 800 number. We have created a district safety team of GISD parents to give feedback for district safety needs.We also know that our students play a big role in keeping our schools safe. We empower our students to become ethical, responsible and caring young people by modeling and teaching good character through the Leader In Me [program].He said they believe that positive relationships combined with a safe and friendly environment are essential to students' learning.We want our kids to look forward to being in an encouraging environment that empowers them to explore, learn and grow, he said. Keeping our schools safe allows students and teachers to focus on learning the skills needed for a successful education and future.Grandview ISDIn Grandview ISD, Superintendent Joe Perrin said this year they are requiring all staff along with their junior and high school students to wear ID badges.All outside doors will be locked throughout the district, and visitors will have to be buzzed in at the front doors, Perrin said. We have installed video doorbells that will allow visitors to be seen and heard before entering a building. We have also added additional swipe card readers and cameras around the district.In October, he said all administrators will receive ALICE training covering active shooter response. The administrators will then train their staff the following week, he said.ALICE Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate is a set of proactive, options-based strategies that increase your chances of survival during a violent intruder or active shooter event.The two-day instructor training course is designed to teach law enforcement, as well as school, church, hospital and workplace administrators and employees skills and strategies that bridge the gap between the time a violent event begins and law enforcement arrives.Perrin said the safety of their students and staff is extremely important to them.It is something that we are always trying to improve upon and is a focus for the district, he said. We want to make sure that we do everything we can to provide a safe environment at Grandview ISD.Joshua ISDIn Joshua ISD, the district implemented its police department this year. The department is made up of Chief David Hoschar and four officers who patrol all campuses.The district is the second in Johnson County to create its own department, with Keene ISD creating theirs in August 2015.The district had been looking to create their own department after ending their contract with the Johnson County Sheriffs Office, which provided them with four school resource officers.JISD Superintendent Fran Marek said safety is their No. 1 goal.While we received amazing service from the Johnson County Sheriffs Office, I feel having our own police department will give us ownership to be able to implement additional safety procedures which are necessary in our current society, Marek said.Keene ISDIn Keene ISD, officials have been very busy enhancing its security measures.In August 2015, the district created its own police department.The first chief, Tim Kosar, was there for one year before he was replaced by the current Chief Ronny Potts, whos been in his position for two years.In December 2015, the board of trustees approved the districts guardian program allowing certified personnel to be armed on campus. In June 2017, district administrators and staff also participated in the ALICE program.This year, KISD Superintendent Ricky Stephens said they have wrapped the windows and doors of their entrances in an effort to buy time in case a shooter tries to shoot their way past their locked doors.Also, we just approved the WAVE security button system, he said. Throughout the offices and the hallways will be push buttons that automatically alert our administrators, teachers, county and local law enforcement if an active shooter is present.Stephens said safety is the very first thing you have to provide a child before you can ever hope to educate them.If a child comes to school feeling safe, he is way more likely to learn. Keene ISD takes safety very seriously, Stephens said.Rio Vista ISDIn Rio Vista ISD, Superintendent Tim Wright said they cant discuss most of the things they are doing to enhance security, but they are working on a plan.They have enhanced campus entrances, and he said he also encourages all his teachers and staff to keep their doors locked at all times.Venus ISDIn Venus ISD, Superintendent James Hopper said based on feedback from their staff members and in accordance with guidance from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, they have adopted a proactive stance with respect to violent critical incidents.All instructional staff members have received scenario based training on the numerous options available to them during a crisis, and they are equipped and empowered to make decisions in order to ensure the safety of the students placed in their care, Hopper said. The Venus ISD board of trustees has been more than supportive in terms of campus security and is ensuring that resources are available to meet campus safety needs as they arise.He said safeguarding the lives of their students and staff is the utmost priority.Effective learning cannot take place in an unsafe environment, and we will provide a safe, secure, learning environment where our students can thrive, he said.2018 the Cleburne Times-Review (Cleburne, Texas)Visit the Cleburne Times-Review (Cleburne, Texas) at www.cleburnetimesreview.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
What will change
file-20180829-195304-31p8lq.JPG The Bloede Dam in March. The obsolete fish ladder is in the foreground. Matthew Baker/UMBC
Why sediment movement?
file-20180829-195316-7u39dz.JPG Aerial image of the Patapsco River channel showing gravel, cobble and sand deposits. Matthew Baker/UMBC
New ways to track changes
file-20180831-195316-1d4yzog.jpeg 3D view of a Patapsco River channel point cloud. Matthew Baker/UMBC
3D view of the Patapsco River point cloud.
This month, the Bloede Dam will be removed from the Lower Patapsco River near Ilchester, Maryland.The restoration is a one-of-a-kind natural experiment that will help test how relatively inexpensive drones can help scientists like me understand the integrity of streams and rivers.My collaborators include students and researchers from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Maryland Geological Survey, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Geological Survey.If our approach works, it will allow us to track sediment movement more completely and accurately than ever before, at a fraction of the expense.Completed in 1907 and operational for 30 years, the Bloede Dam contained the first submerged hydroelectric plant in the U.S. At 26.5 feet high, it represents one of the largest dam removals on the Eastern Seaboard.Why remove the dam? The state , federal agencies and nonprofit American Rivers hope to eliminate a derelict public safety hazard.Taking out the dam will also complement restoration from previous dam removals upstream and expand connected habitat for fish and other aquatic creatures. The Patapsco once hosted major freshwater runs of shad, alewife and American eel, which were blocked by the dam. A fish ladder has proven ineffective at connecting upstream sections of the river with the downstream estuary and the Chesapeake Bay.Despite a prominent role in early U.S. manufacturing, the Patapsco Valley has suffered its share of environmental challenges. Colonial shipping was forced to relocate to Baltimore after the original port at Elkridge Landing was choked by sediment from shipping ballast, river bank mining and upstream forest clearing. Once a 10-foot channel surrounded by a saltwater marsh, today the site is fresh and the channel less than two feet deep. Periodic floods have also wreaked havoc in the narrow gorge, occasionally with catastrophic results. In the past few years, flash floods just upstream in Ellicott City have ruptured the sewer main that runs along the valley bottom and reorganized large quantities of sand, wood and rock in the downstream channel.Today, the dam stores approximately 2.6 million cubic feet of stratified silt and sand less than eight miles from Chesapeake Bay tidewater. When the dam is removed, we want to know how this much sediment is going to move and how fast.Understanding sediment movement is critical for river management in every jurisdiction of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.Sediment helps balance water flow to maintain channel shape and stable habitats for aquatic plants, invertebrates and fish. River sediment is necessary to help estuarine coastlines combat sea level rise. However, fine sediment can also be a pollutant in, or carry nutrients and heavy metals to, downstream estuaries.Although its easy to observe evidence of sediment erosion from riverbanks or hillsides, its often unclear where and how much of that sediment is redeposited and stored. Management of sediment storage, particularly behind dams, can be somewhat controversial After studying several other dam removals , we expect sediment trapped behind the dam to rapidly evacuate and redistribute downstream over a period of several years.However, theres still much we dont know. Floods following intense storms can move huge quantities of sediment, altering the valley bottom in just hours. Will such storms redeposit sediment elsewhere in the gorge or the coastal floodplain, or deliver it to the bay?Its logistically difficult to accurately measure large and potentially rapid channel changes.In a typical field survey, technicians measure water depth, flow, bottom substrate and other information at specific locations. Though stream channels can vary tremendously over space as well as through time, we scientists are rarely able to represent such variability in our measurements. Instead, we collect isolated snapshots in time. That leaves us with less understanding of dynamic sediment movement, devastation wrought by flood waves or the diversity of conditions necessary to support aquatic life.Gauging stations located upstream and downstream of the dam measure water flow and estimate suspended material like fine silts and clays, but not coarser sands and gravels moving along the channel bottom. Surveys of 30 cross-sections distributed over eight miles provide information about how channel shape and composition vary as one crosses the channel, but relatively little about the thousands of feet in between each transect.Whats more, after a major flood, scientists must conduct new cross-sectional surveys, taking up to a month in occasionally in risky conditions.Our team is attempting to add to our measurements by deploying small, off-the-shelf drones that photograph the entire valley bottom. Repeat photographs before, during and after removal can help us track the location of a sediment plume as it moves downstream. They also allow new perspectives of the river.Relying solely on overlapping photos collected both before and after dam removal, we will create 3D computer models of the channel bottom and water depth not just at the surveyed cross-sections, but every few inches along the channel. Although this technology works best in shallow water, our models should allow us to vastly improve estimates of both the amount and location of channel change as sediment moves downstream.With the new approach, our team collects a photo set of all eight miles in just a few days, and further work occurs within a desktop computer. That means measurements can be repeated or made anew at any time using archived images.Although we are certainly curious to see how this much sediment moves, we are especially interested in how well we can capture it. If it works, this technology will likely change the way scientists collect measurements and monitor rivers.
(TNS) Lawmakers on Capitol Hill questioned top executives at Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday about their companies ability to thwart foreign interference, and hinted that industry regulations may be coming.The size and reach of your platforms demand that we, as policymakers, do our job, to ensure proper oversight, transparency and protections for American users and for our democratic institutions, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in his opening remarks. The era of the Wild West in social media is coming to an end.After the hearing, the Department of Justice issued a statement saying Attorney General Jeff Sessions would meet with a number of state attorneys general this month to discuss a growing concern that these companies may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms.Shares of Twitter fell nearly 5 percent after the hearing concluded. Facebook shares declined about 1.5 percent.The hearing attended by Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook Inc.s chief operating officer, and Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Jack Dorsey was designed to address foreign influence, but included a sprawling list of grievances against the nations biggest and most influential social networks. Senators asked about user privacy, misinformation and services in nondemocratic countries.Google was conspicuously absent from the hearing. The Senate committee had invited Larry Page, chief executive of Googles parent company Alphabet Inc. But Google declined and countered by offering to send its chief legal officer, Kent Walker. The committee rejected Pages replacement and Google submitted written testimony instead that focused on security measures.Members of the committee wanted to ask about reports that Google was working on a censored search engine for China. The company has also been criticized for its handling of YouTube, which has also been exploited for foreign propaganda.Im deeply disappointed that Google, one of the most influential digital platforms in the world, chose not to send its own top corporate leadership to engage this committee, Warner said in his prepared remarks.Other senators also expressed disappointment in Google, which was represented at the hearing by an empty chair. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., used the companys absence as the impetus to ask Sandberg and Dorsey about whether they retain their company values in foreign markets with nondemocratic leadership.He cited Twitters willingness to block government critics in Turkey and reports that Facebook had worked on a program that would restrict certain content depending on a users geography.We support our principles all around the world, Sandberg responded.Dorsey said Twitter has to comply with local laws. He said people in Turkey are still able to read banned accounts by using virtual private network software.Rubio appeared to have gotten into an altercation with conspiracy theorist and InfoWars host Alex Jones outside the hearing, video shows. Jones, whose content has been taken down by YouTube and Facebook, wanted Rubio to address allegations that the platforms are censoring conservatives.Dont touch me again, Rubio told Jones after the host patted the senator on the shoulder during an interview with reporters. Jones called Rubio a frat boy as the senator walked away.Dorsey faced the House Energy and Commerce Committee later in the day to address charges of political bias on Twitter. Conservatives, led by President Donald Trump, have accused Twitter of stifling right-wing voices on the platform. Twitter has vehemently denied censoring conservatives and has even angered critics on the left for allowing Jones back onto the social network after a brief suspension.I want to start by making something clear: We dont consider political viewpoints, perspectives, or party affiliation in any of our policies or enforcement decisions, Dorsey said during his opening remarks. Impartiality is our guiding principle.However, Dorsey gave some credence to the belief that Twitter was suppressing conservative accounts in its search field a charge dubbed shadow banning.Recently we failed our intended impartiality, Dorsey said. Our algorithms were unfairly filtering 600,000 accounts, including some members of Congress, from our search auto-complete and latest results. We fixed it.Dorsey said the companys algorithm did this because it weighed the behavior of people following the accounts.Still, critics called charges of censorship dubious. The hearing, they said, was political theater. Twitter has no obligation to uphold the First Amendment; free-speech laws apply only to government entities.Other than election-related activity of non-U.S. actors, there is almost nothing Congress can do when it comes to policing speech in any medium, as Congress surely knows, said Larry Downes, project director at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy.The platforms can voluntarily police their sites all they want, but as weve seen in the last few years, starting down that path never leads to a destination that anyone thinks is better than where we started. These hearings are almost entirely for show.Sandbergs appearance before the Senate comes five months after her boss, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, faced Congress in hearings that mostly underscored how ill-equipped lawmakers were dealing with the complexity of foreign influence and data privacy.In prepared remarks, Sandberg reiterated Facebooks regret for not acting more swiftly to prevent foreign meddling on its networks in the lead-up to the 2016 election, and highlighted how much the company has done since.Facebook has doubled the number of workers focused on security and safety issues to 20,000. And its shutting down more accounts it calls inauthentic, including a recent batch tied to Iranian and Russian authorities.Were shutting down fake accounts and reducing the spread of false news, Sandberg said in the remarks. Weve put in place new ad transparency policies, ad content restrictions, and documentation requirements for political ad buyers. Were getting better at anticipating risks and taking a broader view of our responsibilities. And were working closely with law enforcement and our industry peers to share information and make progress together.The company has also increased transparency in its advertising, allowing users to see all ads a particular Facebook page is running as well as disclosing who paid for any political ad.Those efforts have come at a considerable cost. Facebook, which has 2 billion users to Twitters 300 million, reported disappointing second-quarter financial results that sparked a massive sell-off.In addition to its controversy with Russian meddling, the company has had to weather the Cambridge Analytica scandal and strict new European privacy rules that have both highlighted the vulnerability of the user data Facebook hoards.Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked Sandberg and Dorsey if they agreed that protecting user data is a national security issue (they agreed) and pressed Facebook to share internal audits showing how the company shared user information with cellphone manufacturers, particularly with Chinese brands with ties to the Chinese military, Huawei and ZTE. Sandberg could not commit to sharing the audit.Personal data is now the weapon of choice for political influence campaigns and we must not make it easier for adversaries to seize these weapons against us, Wyden said.Social media experts said fake foreign accounts remain a threat, but warned that authentic domestic accounts that spread propaganda also need to be addressed. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a broadcasting group funded by the federal government that is intended for foreign audiences, was found to be buying ads on Facebook targeting Americans.There was a lot of focus on inauthentic account activity, both foreign and domestic, but no discussion of the risks of authentic domestic activity here in the United States, said Jennifer M. Grygiel, a professor of communications at Syracuse University. Both Facebook and Twitter are unprepared to address U.S. propaganda threats.
Robert Kubica sounds only mildly interested in stepping up to the Williams race seat in 2018.
It is expected that Lance Stroll will shortly quit the struggling British team in order to join his billionaire father Lawrence at Force India.
Williams boss Paddy Lowe says reserve driver Kubica will step up to the race role if that happens.
"For me it is more speculation than emotion," Kubica told Poland's Przeglad Sportowy.
"A lot happened in formula one in August, but for me it's not like a lot of doors suddenly opened or closed."
Another name being potentially linked with the soon-to-be-vacant Williams seat is Esteban Ocon, but Kubica warned the Frenchman not to get too excited.
"If I was him, I would not be pushing too much for it," he laughed. "But I just do my own thing."
Kubica said he didn't take the reserve role at Williams with the hope of getting an opportunity to race within 2018.
"No. What I was trying to do was drive a formula one car. Currently the regulations are not favourable because there is almost no testing.
"So my priority was to sit behind the wheel, but of course by signing a contract you have to be professional and in case something happens get in the car and do your job," he said.
"But the fact that I could get into the car does not automatically mean that I will be able to do all the races. On the one hand it would be the accomplishment of a dream, but on the other it may not have the happy end that I want."
(GMM)
Dr Helmut Marko says Red Bull will quit formula one if the Honda project doesn't work out.
Disenchanted with its customer Renault relationship, the energy drink owned team is joining its junior outfit Toro Rosso in using works Honda power from 2019.
Marko, Red Bull's top F1 official, told Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper that a lot is riding on it.
"We are happy to have a great partner in Honda for the next few years. But if this cooperation does not work as expected, Red Bull as a company will leave formula one.
"As Mercedes and Ferrari do not want to supply Red Bull and no new manufacturer is coming, only the exit remains," Marko added.
However, the Austrian said he is confident.
"The partnership with Honda is going well for Toro Rosso so far and will work well with Red Bull Racing as well," he said.
"After the McLaren disaster, Honda was close to leaving F1 again at the end of 2017. We had to convince them in some intensive talks to try with us," Marko revealed.
(GMM)
Stoffel Vandoorne is not yet commenting to the media about McLaren's decision to dump him for 2019.
Once McLaren's highly promising development driver, the 26-year-old is reportedly now pinning his hopes on a Toro Rosso seat after being replaced by Lando Norris.
McLaren issued a positively worded statement about Vandoorne's impending departure, but when contacted by La Derniere Heure, all the Belgian driver said was: "No comment."
His manager Alessandro Alunni Bravi explained: "Stoffel needs to stay professional and enjoy the last seven grands prix with McLaren to confirm he's a great driver."
McLaren boss Zak Brown told Speed Week it had been a difficult choice, given that Lando Norris was highly sought after by rival teams.
"There was great interest in him," he said. "Lando probably would have ended at Toro Rosso."
As for Vandoorne, Brown said Toro Rosso should now consider signing him up.
"I definitely think he's a formula one driver. If I was Toro Rosso and I had two free seats, I would put Stoffel in one without hesitation," he is quoted by Marca.
"Whatever we can do to help Stoffel, we will do it in the blink of an eye. We consider him a part of the family. It has been exceptional to work with him," Brown added.
(GMM)
A recent mobility study by ABI Research on regional ride-hailing markets found that 16 billion ride-hailing trips were completed worldwide in 2017. ABI forecasts that 24 billion completed trips by the end of 2018.
In the report, ABI Research analyzed the number of ride-hailing trips completed by users in different regions and evaluated market shares for each region. The results showed that just more than 70% of ride-hailing trips were completed in Asia alone, with the next biggest markets being North America and Latin America, with only 5% of trips being completed in Western Europe due to stricter regulation.
The sheer size of the Asian ride-hailing market has prompted numerous companies, both local and foreign, to try and establish a foothold in the local markets. In direct contrast to Western Europe and North America, vehicle ownership is relatively low in Asian markets due to the large expense and impracticality for consumers in large cities. This has spurred the growth of dynamic ride-hailing services, where the average cost of a trip can be as low as US$0.10 per mile. This low cost combined with a favorable regulatory environment has really helped foster the use of ride-hailing services. Shiv Patel, Research Analyst at ABI Research
It hasnt been all success stories for those operating in Asia, however. Some foreign companies, such as Uber, have struggled in the region, leading to its exit out of China and South-East Asia. Ubers withdrawal from the region, however, has helped create extra opportunities for local players, as they look to establish themselves and expand within the region and globally.
Didi Chuxing has used Ubers exit to establish a strong leading market position in China, with more than 90% market share of the largest ride-hailing market in the world.
Players in South-East Asia such as GO-JEK and Grab have used the withdrawal of Uber to step up investment and expansion in the area. Ride-hailing in Indonesia, the largest market in South-East Asia and the fourth largest market ride-hailing globally, after China, India and the United States, has recently seen fierce competition driven by increasing investment and expansion in the country.
The Indonesia market was once a three-way race between Uber, GO-JEK, and Grab. However, with a slowly decreasing market share in the region, Uber decided to withdraw from the market, selling its assets to Grab. Grab used aggressive investment over 2017 and the acquisition of Ubers South-East-Asian operations to develop a dominant market-leading position (by the number of trips) in the Indonesian ride-hailing market. Our research showed that at the beginning of 2017, Grab had just 30% market share of the Indonesian ride-hailing market, while local rival GO-JEK had a commanding 58% of the market. By the end of June 2018, Grab had made an impressive turnaround, establishing a 62% market share of the ride-hailing marketa direct result of its aggressive investment and expansion in Indonesia over 2017, which was further helped by its acquisition of Ubers business in the region in 2018. Shiv Patel
However, Uber still has a strong market share in India, the third-largest ride-hailing market globally. Uber was found to have a 46% market share in the country, just behind local rival Ola Cabs, who recently announced it was taking on Uber in the U.K, one of Ubers strongest markets.
Overall, the results showed that ride-hailing is growing at a remarkable pace and that Asia is the key market underpinning this growth. Ubers exit out of the large Asian ride-hailing markets will be a painful pill to them to swallow. Despite this setback, Uber is still the only company to have leading market positions across different global markets (Latin America, North America, and Western Europe). However, as Asian ride-hailing players start to build significant scale on their Asian operations, Uber must be prepared to face competition from not only local players in European and Latin America markets but also from the likes of Ola Cabs, Didi Chuxing, and Grab as they look to expand beyond their core home markets. Shiv Patel
These findings are from ABI Researchs Vehicle and Mobility Market Data report. This report is part of the companys Smart Mobility & Automotive research service, which includes research, data, and Executive Foresights.
Business
Mahira Khan, Ahad Raza named Pakistan Pavilion's official Ambassadors at Expo 2020 Dubai
Mahira said, I feel so proud to be the official Pavilion Ambassador. Its been such a pleasure going around the Pavilion from the landscapes to the rich history and the diversity you see, you will be amazed at what all Pakistan has to offer. It really is a Hidden Treasure.
Haiti - FLASH : Extension of registrations to the UEH for 5 entities
The Rectorate of the State University of Haiti informs the public in general, the applicants in particular that enrollment in the entrance exams for the academic year 2018-2019 are extended until Sunday, September 30, 2018 for the following 4 entities [which had already been extended for the first time until 31 August 2018 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25345-haiti-flash-extension-of-registrations-to-the-ueh.html ] :
1 - School of Law and Economics of Caves (EDSEC);
2 - School of Law and Economics of Fort Liberte (EDSEFL);
3 - School of Law and Economics of Port-de-Paix (EDEPP);
4 - Faculty of Law, Economics and Management of Cap-Haitien.
5 - For the School of Law and Economics of Gonaives (EDSEG), the extension will be until October 10, 2018.
All the details for the contests and how to register : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25033-haiti-flash-admission-contest-of-the-state-university-of-haiti-registrations-open.html
See also :
https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25345-haiti-flash-extension-of-registrations-to-the-ueh.html
HL/ HaitiLibre
Haiti - Security : Luggage theft at the International Airport, the AAN denies the rumor
Tuesday in front of the media, the General Direction of the National Airport Authority the AAN has wanted to deny the information that there would be cases of theft of passenger baggage at the International Airport Toussaint Louverture, assimilating these false information to rumors to tarnish the image of the airport, saying it was almost impossible to steal luggage in the airport.
In order to demonstrate this "near impossibility", he invited the journalists to observe the embarkation and disembarkation of the luggage and to see for themselves the impossibility of stealing luggage on a journey of less than 100m, between the site of landing of the hold of the plane and the arrival of luggage in the reception room, all under the surveillance of several cameras and a police presence.
The Director of Security, Dimitri Bastien, said that the standards and procedures applied at Toussaint Louverture International Airport are the same as those used in the member countries of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and asserted that the institution had so far received no formal complaint from alleged victims of baggage theft.
People who are victims of theft at the airport must file a complaint with the officials of the airline who transported their luggage, explained Herve Mouscardy, Manager of a tour operator. As for the officials of the AAN, while acknowledging in the past one or two cases of theft before security measures were reinforced, they suggest that these rumors could be fueled by baggage flights that take place outside the airport and not inside the airport.
S/ HaitiLibre
DAMASCUS, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Israeli warplanes infiltrated the Syrian airspace on a low altitude on Tuesday, targeting Syrian military sites in the central province of Hama and northwestern province of Tartus, the Syrian army said.
The Israeli warplanes penetrated the Syrian airspace coming from over the Lebanese territories, more specifically from the western side of Beirut city in Lebanon and moved north into Syria, said the statement.
The Syrian air defenses intercepted much of the Israeli missiles and forced the Israeli warplanes to flee, said the army statement, stopping short of specifically identifying the targeted facilities.
The state-run TV said the Israeli attack targeted the Wadi al-Oyoun area in Hama province while activists said that a scientific research center in the city of Baniyas in Tartus was also targeted.
In July, the Israelis targeted the scientific research center in the town of Masyaf in Hama countryside.
A month later, Aziz Asber, a senior Syrian scientist running the research centers in Masyaf, was assassinated in the same area. The assassination was blamed on Israel as Asber was reportedly running a missile program with the help of the Iranians.
Israel repeatedly claimed it was targeting Iranian positions in Syria with its official stressing that Israel will not tolerate Iranian presence in Syria.
The fresh escalation comes as the U.S. and its Western allies were threatening the Syrian side with the use of force over allegations that the government side is planning a chemical attack in Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria.
Damascus read the threats as the Western powers' way to hinder the government forces' planned assault in Idlib under false pretexts of chemical weapons' use.
(Hedgeweek) North American hedge funds which launched in 2018 are charging 1.46 per cent management fees on average, marginally higher than the global industry average of 1.40 per cent, according to data released by EurekaHedge. The last two years have seen average management fees moving higher, following five consecutive years of decline. North American hedge fund managers utilising long short equities strategy have successfully traded their way through the first seven months of 2018 to remain in the positive territory, returning 3.91 per cent despite the volatile market situation. On the other hand, their peers focusing on Greater China mandate struggled under the escalation of the global trade friction. The Eurekahedge Greater China Long Short Equities Hedge Fund Index is down 2.58 per cent year-to-date.
To read this article:
The suspension is due to new guidelines on the situation in the conflict-ridden country issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Migri stated that it will examine the guidelines and, if necessary, make adjustments to its asylum policy in regards to Afghanistan.
The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) announced yesterday it has suspended the processing of applications from asylum seekers from Afghanistan.
In the meantime, we will not be making any decisions on asylum applications submitted by Afghans. We will provide further information as soon as we have examined the issue thoroughly, a Migri spokesperson said on Twitter.
The forced removals of unsuccessful asylum seekers to Afghanistan have recently stirred up widespread debate in Finland and other parts of Europe.
Migri issued a total of 1,147 decisions to asylum applicants from Afghanistan between May 2017 and May 2018, according to Helsingin Sanomat. Its statistics indicate that fewer than one-fifth (196) of the applications were granted and roughly four-tenths (465) of the applications were denied, while the rest of the applicants were, for example, granted subsidiary protection (170).
Migri said in August it is closely monitoring the security situation in Afghanistan. The situation, it said, has deteriorated particularly in Ghazni, after an offensive launched by the Taliban in April, but also in Faryab.
Up-to-date information is always used when making asylum decisions, and the agency is constantly assessing the situation in Afghanistan, assured Migri.
Aleksi Teivainen HT
Source: Uusi Suomi
SANAA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi forces on Tuesday fired four ballistic missiles at the facilities of Saudi oil giant Aramco in the border city of Jizan, the Houthi-controlled Saba news agency reported.
Meanwhile, the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV reported that the Saudi air defenses intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles over Jizan.
The Saudi TV did not provide details about the other missiles claimed by the Houthi militias.
On Monday, the Houthis said they launched a ballistic missile at economic targets in Jizan.
Yemen has been locked in a civil war since late 2014, when the Houthi rebels overran much of the country and seized all northern provinces, including the capital Sanaa.
Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab military coalition that has intervened in the Yemeni war since 2015 to support the Yemeni elected government of exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
The war has so far killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and displaced about 3 million others.
A TEENAGE boy from Henley completed a 123-mile kayaking challenge along the River Thames.
Elliot Fielder, 15, set off from Lechlade in Gloucestershire on Monday last week and paddled about 20 miles each day until he arrived at Teddington Lock in London early on Saturday evening.
Elliot, who lives in St Andrews Road with his parents Justin and Jo and siblings Tom, 14, and Robyn, eight, was raising money for a volunteering trip to India next year.
The Gillotts School student spent about seven hours a day in his kayak, which was provided by Henley Canoe Hire.
He decided to take on the challenge despite his only experience being two canoeing holidays on the River Wye in Wales.
Elliot was joined in the boat on each day of the challenge by family and friends including his parents, uncle Stephen Davies and godparents Steve Dance, former Upper Thames rowing club rower Ian Neville and Olympic rowing champion Dame Katherine Grainger. He said: It was good having a fresh pair of arms every day and nice to have someone to talk to.
They were all impressed with how I was doing but for most of the time we talked about other things. At the end they all said how impressed they were.
Elliot was cheered on from the bank by supporters including his sister and best friend Leo Allen, who joined him in the kayak on the final day. Family members held up homemade signs telling him how many miles of the challenge he had completed which helped when he was struggling with tiredness.
He said: The first day was all right and I wasnt tired at all but the second day was tiring and days three and four felt like they were dragging on.
It got easier towards the end because I knew I was getting closer. The support on the banks also really helped.
When I got to Teddington I was just relieved, to be honest. I was too knackered to think much at the time but now Im proud that I did it.
Elliot raised about 1,000, which will go towards his visit to northern India and Uttarakhand in the Himalayas after he completes his GCSEs in July next year.
He will be going with World Challenge, which runs educational expeditions for schools where students provide support to local communities. The students are expected to raise the full cost of their expedition, which is about 3,000.
Elliot said: Ive never been to a place like India. I asked a lot of people who have been what its like and they said it would be a totally different experience.
Mrs Fielder, who paddled with Elliot on one day and spent the rest of the challenge following from the bank, said: Im incredibly impressed with his determination and resilience he didnt complain at all.
He just got his head down and got on with it, which is very impressive for someone who is only 15.
I was broken on Tuesday night and couldnt have got back in to the boat on Wednesday. All his godparents are rowers but they were the same.
The fund-raising is going really well. I asked all the adults to pay for the privilege of going in the boat with him and also had it on Facebook, so weve had quite a lot of donations.
Meanwhile, Elliot doesnt plan to get back in a kayak any time soon. He said: It has not put me off but I probably wouldnt do it along the Thames again.
To make a donation, visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/
elliot-kayak-challenge
BEIRUT, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) will continue its cooperation with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to ensure security in South Lebanon, LAF Commander Joseph Aoun said on Tuesday.
"Our continuous cooperation preserves stability and security in the south while reflecting positively on the stability of Lebanon in general," Aoun said during a meeting with UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Stefano Del Col at the UNIFIL headquarters in south Lebanon.
Aoun pledged the LAF's "full support" to Del Col for the success of his mission, the UNIFIL website.
"The excellent cooperation and coordination between the two forces has dramatically improved the security situation and been instrumental in providing the stability to UNIFIL's area of operations," Aoun said.
For his part, Del Col emphasized the importance of building on the momentum of an already enhanced presence of UNIFIL and LAF coordination, noting that a priority for the international community and UNIFIL is to further build the capacity of LAF in southern Lebanon.
"The establishment of the (LAF) Model Regiment, for example, is an important step forward to extend state authority and security, and preserve stability," Del Col said.
He added that the two sides have "a common intent" to ensure stability in the area of operations and ensure that the area is free of unauthorized weapons and hostile activities of any kind.
China has played a constructive role in safeguarding and promoting peace and security of Africa in recent years, while sparing no effort to support the continents economic progress.
China has contributed to Africas peace and security affairs in an active and constructive way, and put into place its military aid plan for Africa, Special Representative of the Chinese Government on African Affairs Xu Jinghu said when elaborating on the four highlights of China-Africa cooperation on peace and security.
China has also mediated the hot-spot issues of Africa, promoted peace talks, and supported Africans to solve problems in their own way, she told a press conference of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on Sept. 1, adding that what China did has been recognized and welcomed by countries involved.
China also made proactive contribution to Africas maritime security, Xu said, citing the fleets sent by China to Somalia waters and the escort mission under the UN framework.
Besides, China has dispatched the most peacekeepers to Africa among the permanent members of the UN Security Council, and it is also the second largest financial contributor to the UN peacekeeping missions, the representative said.
With the rising Sino-African political and economic relations, China has promoted win-win economic cooperation, mutual assistance in security matters, and solidarity in international affairs, said an article published on Quartz Africa.
The article gave a high recognition on Chinas efforts to find an effective solution to Africas security issues through promoting the latters development.
China appointed the Special Representative of the Chinese Government on African Affairs since May 2007 to mediate hop-spot issues of Africa. The practice has made unique and constructive contribution to the continents peace and security.
At each UN ministerial conference on African construction and peace, China has called on the international community to help the continent enhance the capability of peace and security, by firmly supporting Africa in counter-terrorism moves, helping Africa address the root causes of conflicts, and playing actively the role of regional organizations.
At present, around 2,000 Chinese peacemakers are deployed at 5 African mission zones, and Chinese Navy has sent a total of 30 batches of escort formation to conduct missions in the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia, protecting more than 6,000 Chinese and foreign vessels.
Sudan Tribune hailed China as a reliable friend and key cooperation partner of Africa, saying that Chinas moves are open and transparent without other intentions, and its proposals have been well accepted by all sides.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chinese medical units on UN peacekeeping operations have established friendship pairs with local SOS Children's Villages. Every batch of peacekeepers would have a handover at the villages when they finish their shift at the mission zone.
In Liberia, Chinese peacekeeping engineering unit stuck to their posts even during the Ebola burst, and finally completed the countrys first foreign-aided Ebola treatment center after working 28 days consecutively.
In Mali where the temperature goes up to nearly 50 degrees Celsius in dry season, Chinese peacekeepers constructed a second-level hospital in less than four months.
Besides, the anti-explosion, patrol and guarding courses offered by Chinese peacekeeping infantry battalion in South Sudan have been made into textbooks for the peacekeeping troops of each country.
China supports African countries' efforts in independently resolving their continent's issues in their own way, China pledged, adding that based on the principles of respecting the wills of African countries, not interfering in African countries' internal affairs and observing the basic norms governing international relations, China will play a constructive role in maintaining and promoting peace and security in Africa.
The solemn commitments made by China are transforming into practical actions to deepen the China-Africa cooperation on peace and security.
FROM APRIL 1933when Hitlers government issued its first anti-Jewish lawuntil early 1944, the United States government did virtually nothing to aid those persecuted by the Nazis. An anti-immigration majority in Congress in the 1930s and a need to devote all available funds and materiel to pursuing the war once the U.S. had entered arguably made American silence defensible.
But on January 22, 1944, after a Treasury Department report showed that the State Department had been actively suppressing news of the Holocaust, President Franklin D. Roosevelt set up the War Refugee Board (WRB). Many dismissed the boards efforts as too little and too late, and the WRB worked in such shadowy ways that its impact is hard to measure. However, within its 21 months of existence, the board helped save hundreds of thousands of those targeted for Nazi extermination. With a broad mandate and the freedom to function independently, it was an effort that has never been tried before or since then.
It is also an effort that some historians have highlighted as a subject in need of scholarly attention. Rebecca Erbelding, an archivist at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and co-curator of its latest exhibit, Americans and the Holocaust (reviewed at right), heeded their call, and chose the WRB as the topic of her doctoral research. Rescue Board is a readable version of her dissertation.
Erbelding quotes historian Yehuda Bauers assessment that what made the WRB unique was that it was officially permitted to break practically every important law of a nation at war in the name of outraged humanity. The board worked on a number of fronts, from conducting psychological warfare on those who took part in the exterminations, warning of dire consequences, to funneling money to anti-Nazi allies in Europeamong them, Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who helped thousands of Jews escape occupied Hungary. It also helped falsify papers for those in danger of deportation, transport escapees to safe havens, and set up top-secret ransom negotiations with Kurt Becher, the Nazi commissar of all concentration camps.
Erbelding has mined storehouses of public and private records, and tells the stories of the WRBs exploitsits successes and failuresin a clear and compelling way. While some readers might find the book too painstakingly detailed, it is a must-read for those looking for answers in the renewed debate over whether the U.S. should have taken stronger steps to stem the Holocaust. Washington, DC-based writer Daniel B. Moskowitz is a frequent contributor to World War II.
This review was originally published in the October 2018 issue of World War II magazine. Subscribe here.
When the USS Indianapolis sank in shark-infested waters, the navy unjustly held its captain responsible. It took more than 50 years to clear his name
Monday, July 30, 1945
The Philippine Sea
Just after midnight
Captain Charles B. McVay III helped see his ship through a devastating kamikaze attack in late March 1945. (Bettmann/Getty Images) Captain Charles B. McVay III helped see his ship through a devastating kamikaze attack in late March 1945. (Bettmann/Getty Images)
THE FIRST TORPEDO slammed into the heavy cruiser USS Indianapoliss starboard bow, killing dozens of men in an instant. The violent explosion ejected Captain Charles B. McVay III, 47, from his bunk in the emergency cabin just aft of the bridge. The ship whipped beneath him and set up a rattling vibration that took him back to Okinawa four months earlier.
Had they been hit by another suicider?
No, McVay thought. Impossible.
Another shattering concussion rocked Indy amidships. Acrid white smoke immediately filled McVays cabin. He picked himself up off the deck, felt his way to the cabin door, swung around the bulkhead, and appeared on the lightless bridge, stark naked. At that moment, there were 13 men on the bridge; only three would survive. For the captain and many others, a nightmare that would span decades was just beginning.
Fifteen hundred yards from Indianapolis, aboard the Imperial Japanese submarine I-58, Lieutenant Commander Mochitsura Hashimoto peered through his night periscope at the scene of destruction unfolding quickly before him.
A hit! A hit! he shouted. His elated crew improvised a victory dance.
To ensure he struck the American cruiser even if it had zigzaggeda maneuver for evading torpedoes the ship was almost sure to makeHashimoto had fired six Type 95 oxygen torpedoes in a fanwise spread. His tactic had worked. Now, on the targets main and after-turrets, skyscrapers of silver water shot toward the moon. Red tongues of flame followed immediately after, tasting the night.
Hashimoto had watched the enemy send many of his fellow submarine commanders down to salty underwater graves and feared that he would fail to take a prize for Japan before the war was lost. Filled with joy, Hashimoto prepared to send a message to his commander in chief: I-58 had torpedoed a large American warship.
Aboard Indianapolis, Captain McVay was trying to verify that a distress signal had been transmitted when a wall of water swept him from the ship along with hundreds of his men. From the sea, they saw the flagship of the Pacific Fleet standing on end, its stern towering over them. McVay and his men stared spellbound as Indys massive screws kept up a lazy turning, while all around them the phosphorescent water glowed like green fire.
Only 12 minutes had passed since the torpedo blasts. Now, amid a roar like waves pounding the beach in a storm, Indianapolis plunged straight down. McVay looked up to see men still leaping from the stern and the giant silhouettes of Indys port screws falling directly toward his head. As he pivoted and began to swim, hot fuel oil slid up the back of his neck, and soon he heard a loud churning sound behind him. When McVay looked again, his ship was gone.
Of the 1,195 men aboard Indianapolis, some 300 had gone down with the ship, including McVays executive officer, Commander Joseph Flynn, and the ships dentist, Lieutenant Commander Earl Henry Sr., whose wife had just had a baby boy. Now in the ink-black center of the Philippine Sea, 280 miles from the nearest land, McVay swiveled his head in the liquid darkness. He could hear men calling out as he floated alone in a thick layer of fuel oil, which rocked on the surface in a gooey slab, its tarry stench climbing down his throat like the caustic fumes of road construction. McVay found a pair of emergency rafts and soon after heard his quartermaster, Vince Allard, calling out in the dark. The last time McVay had seen Quartermaster Third Class Vincent Allard was on the deck, when Allard logged the captains order to cease zigzagging and return the ship to base course. Allard was struggling to support two young sailors who were in such bad shape that McVay thought they were dead. Both men, in fact, survived.
North of McVays position and far out of sight, Seaman Second Class L. D. Cox swam into another young sailor, Seaman Second Class Clifford Josey, who was covered in flash burns. In the dim moonlight, it looked to Cox as if Joseys face was melting off. Cox stayed with Josey, held him, and soothed him with talk about what it was going to be like when they both got home to Texas. Within an hour, Josey was dead.
Over the next five nights and four days, many such quiet heroicsalong with acts of cruelty and cowardicewould spin out across the survivor groups. Roughly 300 of the 880 men in the ocean coalesced into a single large mass. Some of these men only had life jackets; others, nothing at all. Other survivors were fortunate enough to find floater nets and rafts equipped with meager rations, flares, fishing supplies, and flashlights.
Japanese submarine I-58 (above), helmed by Lieutenant Commander Mochitsura Hashimoto, launched the torpedoes that sank the heavy cruiser. (U.S. Marine Corps/Naval History and Heritage Command) Japanese submarine I-58 (above), helmed by Lieutenant Commander Mochitsura Hashimoto, launched the torpedoes that sank the heavy cruiser. (U.S. Marine Corps/Naval History and Heritage Command)
At first, the men held out hope for rescue. But hours turned into days because the navy did not even realize the ship was missing. After delivering components to Tinian for the atomic bomb to be dropped on Hiroshima, Indianapolis regrouped at the nearby base at Guam before departing for Leyte, Philippinesan 1,100-mile straight shot across the Philippine Sea. Afterward, officers at Guam had done nothing other than move Indy westward on a plotting board according to her planned speed of advancethis despite confirmed reports of an enemy sub chase dead ahead of the heavy cruisers track. At Leyte, meanwhile, when Indys estimated time of arrival came and went, naval personnel noticed her absence, but also did nothing. Furthermore, intelligence personnel had intercepted the message Hashimoto sent about sinking a large warship and had transmitted it to high-ranking officers at Guam and Pearl Harbor, along with intelligence officers working for Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King. The message was missing the location and type of ship sunk, but previous intel had placed Hashimotos boat, I-58, in the same area where Indy and her men were known to be. Again, no one took action.
As the days passed, hundreds of men died of their wounds or gave up hope and drowned themselves. Many sailors were taken by sharks. One moment, these predators behaved like gentle and curious giants, nosing up close to inspect the men with black, unblinking eyes. The next, they attacked, their steel-trap jaws snuffing out a mans life before he could draw a breath to scream.
Thursday, August 2, 1945
Over the Philippine Sea
By the morning of Thursday, August 2, the men had been in the water for four nights and three days. Wilbur Chuck Gwinn, a navy pilot, was flying over the Philippine Sea in his Lockheed PV-1 Ventura bomber. It was just after 11 a.m., and Gwinn was 350 miles north of Palau, cruising at 3,000 feet. At this altitude, he could see 20 square miles at a glance, and the sea below appeared as smooth and reflective as a foil sheet.
His crew was testing a new trailing antenna that had become tangled for the third time. Frustrated, Gwinn turned the controls over to his copilot and ducked into the Venturas belly to help. Gwinn bent to take a look through a window in the deckand almost as quickly leapt to his feet and dashed for the cockpit.
Whats the matter? his aviation ordnanceman shouted over the propeller noise.
Gwinn shouted back, Look down and youll see!
He had spotted an oil slick, which he took for the telltale trail of an enemy submarine. When he descended for his attack run, though, Gwinn saw the last the thing he expectedpeople.
The pilot alerted his squadron commander at Peleliu, who dispatched a PBY-5A Catalina, or Dumbo, with Lieutenant Adrian Marks at the controls. When Marks reached the survivors, he saw that many would not last until a ship could arrive to fish them out of the sea. Then his crew saw a shark take another man; Marks, against regulations, decided to make an open-sea landing.
Survivors of the sinking included Willie Hatfield and Cozell Smith, whose left arm was bandaged from a shark bite. (U.S. Navy/ National Archives) Survivors of the sinking included Willie Hatfield and Cozell Smith, whose left arm was bandaged from a shark bite. (U.S. Navy/ National Archives)
Shortly after 5 p.m., against a lowering sun, Marks executed a power stall into the wind and slammed his airplane belly-first into the back of a huge swell. The Dumbos hull screeched in fury, emitting all the sounds of a crash. The crew pitched forward, safety harnesses crushing their chests. The sea rejected the plane, batting it 15 feet back into the air. Fighting physics, Marks gripped the control column with both hands. The Dumbos belly again smashed into a wave and again bouncedbut not as high this time. Marks wrestled the controls, willing the plane to obey. Finally, the Dumbo breached the swells shining skin.
Marks and his crew saved 53 men. Near midnight of the mens fifth night in the water, rescue ships finally arrived and hauled aboard 263 more, though men continued to die even after rescue operations began. The ships transported survivors to base hospitals around the Philippine Sea before eventually bringing them all to Guam. While the navy encouraged the men to write letters home, it prohibited them from mentioning their whereabouts, the fact that Indianapolis had sunk, their nurses or doctors, or to refer in any way to the ordeal they had just survived.
August 13, 1945
Mayfield, Kentucky
Eleven days had passed since the rescue when Jane Henry, the wife of Indianapoliss dentist, hurried to the upstairs phone to answer it before the ringing woke up the baby. Jane and two-month-old Little Earl were staying with her parents, George and Bessie Covington. In his last letter, Earl Sr. had gushed about the photos of the son he had yet to meet. Wouldnt it be wonderful, he wrote, if the war was over by the time Indianapolis returned to the States?
Jane Henry, wife of Indianapolis dentist Earl Henry Sr., cradles son Earl Jr. Little Earl was six weeks old when his father was lost at sea. (Courtesy of Earl ODell Henry Jr. www.earlhenrybirdprints.com) Jane Henry, wife of Indianapolis dentist Earl Henry Sr., cradles son Earl Jr. Little Earl was six weeks old when his father was lost at sea. (Courtesy of Earl ODell Henry Jr. www.earlhenrybirdprints.com)
Jane snatched up the phone and heard voices already on the extension.
George, we are so sorry to hear the news.
What news? Jane heard her father say.
The other voice paused. Horace and Arletta just got a telegram today from the navy, he said, referring to Earls parents. It says Earls missing in action.
Janes insides went cold. She raised a hand to brace herself against the wall.
The next day, Jane received her own version of the dreaded telegram, which she read through a curtain of tears:
I DEEPLY REGRET TO INFORM YOU THAT YOUR HUSBAND, EARL ODELL HENRY, LIEUTENANT COMMANDER USNR, IS MISSING IN ACTION 30 JULY 1945 IN THE SERVICE OF HIS COUNTRY. YOUR GREAT ANXIETY IS APPRECIATED AND YOU WILL BE FURNISHED WITH DETAILS WHEN RECEIVED.
Later that morning, a town church bell began ringing, its insistent peal floating down the street in joyous song. Another bell joined, and another, until it seemed every church tower in Mayfield had joined in some kind of rapturous chorus. George opened the door to see people spilling out of their homes, laughing and crying and embracing. Even inside the house, Jane could hear their words: Japan surrendered! The war is over! She looked down at the wrinkled telegram still clutched in her hand and wept.
December 3, 1945
Washington Navy Yard
Washington, DC
During his court-martial, McVay detailed his whereabouts directly after the initial explosion on the night Indianapolis went down. (Bettmann/Getty Images) During his court-martial, McVay detailed his whereabouts directly after the initial explosion on the night Indianapolis went down. (Bettmann/Getty Images)
Four months after being pulled from the sea, Captain Charles McVay walked into the courtroom in Building 57 at Washington Navy Yard.
A week-long naval court of inquiry had recommended that McVay be tried by court-martial, the primary charge being he had endangered his ship by failing to zigzag despite the fact that, with no known submarine threat, it was standard procedure to cease zigzagging at night when visibility was poor. On September 25, Admiral Ernest King concurred. King also ordered what would come to be called a supplemental investigation. This probe roved far and deep, and the officers conducting it did not hesitate to report facts that might expose the navys failures in Indys sinking. These men sent regular updates to King. One of these updates may have sealed McVays doom.
On November 9, Kings inspector general, Admiral Charles Snyder, said McVay felt the new investigation might produce evidence favorable to his case and suggested the court-martial be delayed until that investigation was complete. That would be sometime in mid-December. King first agreed to the delay, but quickly reversed himself after learning that the men conducting the investigation wished to interrogate the leading lights of the Pacific Warincluding admirals so senior they had personally accepted the Japanese surrender. On November 12, King ordered the court-martial to proceed at once. In doing so, he would ensure that the admirals testimonyand accounts of the navys inactionwould not reach the public ear.
December 10, 1945
Washington, DC
Sub commander Mochitsura Hashimoto stood atop a run of aircraft loading stairs and looked out at a foreign land: Washington, DC. The victor had summoned the vanquished: the U.S. Navy had called Hashimoto to testify at McVays court-martial. Already, a procession of witnesses had testified about such topics as visibility, moonlight, abandoning ship, and whether the Indianapolis crew knew of the protracted submarine chase ahead of its track, while reporters scribbled furiously. But when Hashimoto arrived, American newspapers began calling him a star witness.
In a highly unusual move, the navy called Hashimoto, a defeated enemy commander, from Japan to testify at McVays court-martial. (AP Photo) In a highly unusual move, the navy called Hashimoto, a defeated enemy commander, from Japan to testify at McVays court-martial. (AP Photo)
McVays attorney and his supporters ob-jected vigorously to an enemy commander testifying against an American officer. But Hashimoto ended up testifying that zigzagging would not have saved Indianapolis. Or he tried to: fatefully, an interpreter mistranslated his words, giving the opposite impression.
Defense witness Captain Glynn Robert Donaho, a 15-year submarine veteran, did testify, initially, that zigzagging would not save a target from a torpedo strike. With this, momentum seemed to have swung in McVays favor. But after enduring more than 50 sometimes-condescending questions from prosecutor Captain Thomas J. Ryan, Donaho undercut all he had said by admitting that when a target ship zigzags, it can be disconcerting for a submarine commander, as it throws off his calculations.
With that, a wrecking ball smashed into the defense. The military court found McVay guilty of hazarding Indy by failing to zigzag. He was sentenced to lose 200 numbers toward his advancement to commodoremeaning 200 men of McVays rank would move ahead of him for promotionwith a recommendation for clemency.
McVay knew his career was over and carried his fate with stoic resignation. But grief did not fade for the families of the lost, and many undertook a campaign to never let McVay forget it. While their son or brother or father or husband had disappeared into the deep, McVay, in their view, had received a slap on the wrist and a lifetime pension.
For 23 years, letters from the families of those lost, like the Joseys and the Flynns, arrived in his mailbox in envelopes that seemed sealed with venom.
If it werent for you, my son would be 25 years old today!
If it werent for you, Id be celebrating Christmas with my husband!
If it werent for you, my girls would have a father!
At first these rants came weekly. Then they tapered down and came mainly around Christmas and other milestone dates. But they never stopped.
McVay bore silently the torture of those 879 Indianapolis deaths, his sense of guilt and grief swelling in that eternal river of hateful letters. Finally, it was too much. On November 6, 1968, he dressed in his usual navy uniform of a pressed khaki shirt and matching pants. At 12:30 p.m., he walked out the front door of his home in Litchfield, Connecticut, sat down on a stone step, put a .38 revolver to his temple, and pulled the trigger.
McVay was not the only Indianapolis survivor to end his own life. At least a dozen more committed suicide within a few years after the sinking. Even among those who lived, no man who went into the water came out the same.
June 1999
Offices of Senator Bob Smith
Washington, DC
When salvation came, it came 31 years later, and from an improbable source.
Look, Bob, I respect you, Im on the committee with you, but come on, Senator John Warner of Virginia was saying. This is some kids school project. Is this really worth a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee?
Warners response was typical of the uphill battle New Hampshire senator Bob Smith had been fighting for a year. Thats how long it had been since he had first spied a line item on his daily agenda that stopped him cold.
Whats this? Smith had said, shooting a quizzical look at his legislative assistant, John Luddy. USS Indianapolis and Hunter Scott?
Its a meeting with the survivors of USS Indianapolis, sir, Luddy said.
Hunter Scott is an eighth grader, Luddy added. Hes a constituent of Joe Scarborough, a congressman representing Floridas 1st Congressional District.
From all the material the 14-year-old had collected, one theme emerged. To a man, the survivors were still outraged over the treatment of their captain. Hunter Scott rallied to their cause.
Also outraged was U.S. Navy Commander Bill Toti, the last captain of a nuclear attack submarinealso named USS Indianapolisdecommissioned the year before. Having extensively studied the navys position, Toti found their treatment of the captain offensive. At the Pentagon, he worked tirelessly on the survivors behalf. He published a new analysis of McVays role in the Indy disaster in the prestigious journal, Proceedings. As both a friend to the survivors and an aide to the vice chief of naval operations, Toti found himself uniquely positioned to influence the navys final word on McVays culpability for the disaster.
To secure the Senate hearing, there was only one man Smith needed to convince: Warner, the committee chair. But Warner was opposed to reopening the issue.
The navys already decided this, Warner said. Were going to stir up a hornets nest that doesnt need to be stirred up.
Were going to listen, Smith said. Thats all were going to do. Exoneration comes later, if you agree with it. If you dont agree with it, we wont do it.
After months of wrangling, Smith finally secured his hearing.
September 14, 1999
Senate Armed Services Committee
Washington, DC
Three months later Senator Warner brought the hearing to order. He praised the courage of the men aboard Indianapolis that fateful night 54 years earlier, particularly those survivors present in the hearing room.
Among the witnesses were the young Hunter Scott; survivor Paul Murphy, who argued that the navy had blamed McVay to avoid admitting its own mistakes; and journalist Dan Kurzman, who spotlighted his discovery of a smoking gun. Kurzman had found a memorandum buried deep in the National Archives. From the former special assistant to the navy secretary in 1945, it read: The causal nexus between the failure to zigzag and the loss of the ship appears not to have a solid foundation.
In the end, however, the man who finally persuaded Warner was the same one who sank Indianapolis. In November 1999 Japanese commander Mochitsura Hashimoto of submarine I-58, then 90 years old, wrote a letter to the senator expressing his dismay over the fact that McVay was ever tried in court:
I HAVE MET MANY OF YOUR BRAVE MEN WHO SURVIVED THE SINKING OF INDIANAPOLIS. I WOULD LIKE TO JOIN THEM IN URGING THAT YOUR NATIONAL LEGISLATURE CLEAR THE CAPTAINS NAME. OUR PEOPLES HAVE FORGIVEN EACH OTHER FOR THAT TERRIBLE WAR AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. PERHAPS IT IS TIME YOUR PEOPLES FORGAVE CAPTAIN MCVAY FOR THE HUMILIATION OF HIS UNJUST CONVICTION.
For Warner, it was the final weight on the scale. He decided to take the exoneration resolution to the Senate floor. On October 12, 2000, the measure passed.
House Joint Resolution 48 also passed, and with stronger exoneration language: that the American people should now recognize Captain McVays lack of culpability for the tragic loss of USS Indianapolis and the lives of the men who died as a result of the sinking of that vessel; and that Captain McVays military record should now reflect that he is exonerated for the loss of USS Indianapolis and so many of her crew.
Finally, Captain Charles McVays record reflected his innocence.
August 19, 2017
The Philippine Sea
A look at Louisianas World War II training grounds
A long-neglected road leads through old Camp Claiborne. (Courtesy William R. Coulson) A long-neglected road leads through old Camp Claiborne. (Courtesy William R. Coulson)
IN SEPTEMBER 1941, as German troops raced toward Moscow and Japan extended its reach across the East, the United States was still playing war games. Throughout that month, the U.S. Army staged the Louisiana Maneuvers, the most extensive field exercises in its history. Thousands of nascent GIs in World War Istyle helmets fought sham battles across central Louisianas prairies, cotton fields, and pine-covered hills. Today travelers come to the region to see antebellum plantations and Civil War sites, but for me it was the Second World War that beckoned. Seventy-six Septembers after the 1941 maneuvers, I rented a car and explored the battlefields of Louisiana.
The outbreak of war in Europe in 1939 forced preparedness on America, and in 1940 the army selected central Louisiana as a training ground. The warm climate allowed year-round operations, and the remote woodlands of Kisatchie National Forest offered plenty of space. Camp Beauregard, a mothballed World War I camp just north of Alexandria, sprang back to life. In 194041 the army carved three more facilities out of national forest lands: Camp Livingston, 10 miles north of Alexandria; Camp Claiborne, 18 miles south of Alexandria; and Camp Polk, eight miles southeast of Leesville.
The maneuver area was vast, ranging from East Texas to Louisianas eastern border, with the Red River bisecting it. The action occurred in two phases, pitting Lieutenant General Benjamin Lears Second Army against Lieutenant General Walter Kruegers Third Army. Participants included a veritable whos who of future World War II commanders. Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower was Kruegers chief of staff. Major General George S. Patton led the 2nd Armored Division. General Headquarters Chief of Staff Lesley McNair, known as the brains of the army, supervised the exercises. All were under the watchful eye of U.S. Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall.
Nearly half a million troops participated. In light of Hitlers blitzkrieg across Europe, McNair was especially keen to test Americas armored forces, with the armys M2 and M3 tanks playing the lead roles. Infantry, artillery, air forces, paratroopers, and even cavalry troopers on horseback took part as wellnot to mention critical support troops. McNair trucked in mountains of blank rounds and even played recorded battle noises to add authenticity. Obviously, some actions had to be simulated, such as airstrikes and the destruction of bridges. Equipment shortages also hindered realism. Antitank guns, to give just one example, were often made of logs.
Just as the first exercise was about to begin, on September 15, a tropical storm soaked the troops in the field. But the training went on: General Lear, based north of the Red River, attacked Kruegers forces to the south, camped on the flat prairies between Lake Charles and Lafayette. Lear planned an armored sweep around Kruegers left flank, but his slow advance allowed Krueger to blunt the attack, reposition his forces, and grab the initiative.
Major General George S. Patton inspects 2nd Armored Division field exercises during the war games. (National Archives) Major General George S. Patton inspects 2nd Armored Division field exercises during the war games. (National Archives)
The second exercise, nicknamed the Battle of the Bridges, commenced on September 24 with another drenching storm. In this scenario, Lear defended Shreveport from Kruegers forces attacking from the south. Lear traded space for time, destroying bridges (in simulated fashion, of course) as he retreated northwesterly up Red River Valley, forcing Kruegers engineers to construct hundreds of pontoon bridgesright alongside those already declared destroyed. The most dramatic event was Pattons armored sweep through East Texas, getting behind Lear and approaching Shreveport from the north.
Though the fighting may have been simulated, the casualties sometimes were real. A pilot died in a midair collision on the first day. In another incident, two soldiers drowned trying to cross the rain-swollen Cane River near Natchitoches. But there were moments of levity, too. According to one oft-told story, maneuver umpires declared a bridge wrecked, only to see soldiers walking across it. Cant you see that bridge is destroyed?, yelled the umpire. Of course, one soldier responded. Cant you see were swimming?
By the time the maneuvers ended on September 28, the soldiers had gained some insight into the rigors of a war campaign. Commanders got experience, tooand many who were found lacking the necessary skills lost their jobs.
Louisiana remained an important training ground once the U.S. entered the war. The famed 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, for example, were reactivated at Camp Claiborne in 1942. After the war, Polk and Beauregard remained in army hands. Claiborne and Livingston were abandoned, and the Kisatchie National Forest swallowed them up.
Tourists today will find most maneuver-related sites within an hours drive of Alexandria. Perhaps the best place to begin your explorations is the Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum at Camp Beauregard, which houses artifacts from the war years, including uniforms, equipment, weapons, and maps.
But for me, the ruins of the abandoned camps held greater allure. My first stop is Camp Livingston. There is no interpretive signage at the site, but fortunately the director of the Louisiana Maneuvers museum, Richard Moran, offers to show me around. He takes me down a nondescript rural road and, before long, broken concrete slabs and crumbling vestiges of warehouses and loading docks begin to appear among the tall, fragrant pines and tangled underbrush. The shady streets have not been maintained since Roosevelt was in office and are riddled with heaves and potholes. Everything is covered with pine needles, except for a narrow path down the main road where a few vehicles occasionally pass. The war feels distant; it is hard to imagine these streets crammed with soldiers and trucks or the sound of Reveille in the morning.
Among the spots Richard shows me is the old camp recreation area. The swimming pool is overgrown with brush, the deep end filled with stagnant green water. Nearby stand pillars that once supported the gymnasium walls, rising ghost-like from the forest floor. Graffiti artists have tagged the ruins, while discarded clothing, beer cans, and multicolored shotgun shells lay on the ground among the pinecones.
Next I visit Camp Claiborne, the ruins of which stretch a couple of miles along State Highway 112. A few information panels mark the site of the old camp headquarters, where the 82nd and 101st Divisions were rebranded as airborne units. As at Camp Livingston, enigmatic concrete ruins dot the forest. Weathered sidewalks lead to nowhere. The woods are eerily quiet, sounds muffled by 70 years of accumulated pine needles.
Nature has swallowed most of Camp Livingston, but concrete pillars from the old gymnasium remain. (Courtesy William R. Coulson) Nature has swallowed most of Camp Livingston, but concrete pillars from the old gymnasium remain. (Courtesy William R. Coulson)
One sunny morning, I drive along the south bank of the Red River from Alexandria toward Natchitoches, about 50 miles northwest. Several tributary rivers and streams cross my path, most notably the Cane River, which meanders through snow-white cotton fields that seem ready to burst. The river runs slow and lazynot like the storm-swollen torrent of 1941but I nonetheless think about the two soldiers who died trying to cross it, and the hard work of the engineers during the Battle of the Bridges.
I then turn westward and drive through the wooded uplands, sharing the road with rumbling trucks hauling timber stacked like giant matchsticks. A portion of State Highway 118 between Florien and Kisatchie, an area that saw considerable action in the first maneuver, is now designated the Louisiana Maneuvers Highway. A historical marker along the road at Peason Ridge highlights the impact of the war on that rural community. In 1941 the army forced its 25 resident families off their lands to create a permanent training ground. Small weather-beaten display cases poignantly exhibit memorabilia about life there before the war. There are numerous photographssmiling families, proud couples, a bearded Confederate veteran, and a local boxer, fists up, ready to fight. Soldiers still train at Peason Ridge today.
As the hazy orange sun sinks into the west, I head toward New Orleans, where the next day I pay a visit to the impressive National World War II Museum. I walk through its exhibitsnumerous and marvelousbut my mind drifts back to the countryside, just a few hours to the north, where the woods and fields have their own stories to tell.
WHEN YOU GO Alexandria is the best base for exploring the maneuvers area. Alexandria International Airport is served by American, Delta, and United airlines. In addition to Camp Beauregards Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum (geauxguardmuseums.com), the Fort Polk Museum (jrtc-polk.army.mil/museum.html) and Long Leafs Southern Forest Heritage Museum (longleaf.la) also have exhibits about the maneuvers. WHERE TO STAY AND EAT Alexandrias Hotel Bentley (hotelbentleyandcondos.com) offers the areas most elegant lodging option. The likes of Eisenhower and Patton once walked its fine mosaic floors and marbled hallways. Inside is a small exhibit of the war years. Louisiana is noted for its unique Cajun cuisine. The southern edge of the maneuvers area between Lake Charles and Lafayette offers the best options for tasty boudin, crawfish, and gumbo. WHAT ELSE TO SEE AND DO Camp or hike Kisatchie National Forest (fs.usda.gov/kisatchie), but bring your bug spray. The maneuvers passed through what is today the Cane River Creole National Heritage Area (nps.gov/crha), south of Natchitoches, which preserves the areas multicultural history. During the Civil War, real battles raged in Red River Valley: Mansfield battlefield and Forts Randolph and Buhlow are both maintained by Louisiana State Parks (crt.state.la.us/Louisiana-state-parks).
This column was originally published in the October 2018 issue of World War II magazine. Subscribe here.
COULD THE UNITED STATES have stopped the Holocaust? The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum attempts to answer this question with a major exhibit, Americans and the Holocaust, that explores the countrys response to Nazism.
Following the rise of Hitler, many Jews in Germany attempted to seek refuge in the States. But when they arrived by ship at American ports, restrictive immigration policies implemented by Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long turned them away.
Long, who supervised the State Departments visa division, cited national security concerns in actively seeking to reduce the number of Jewish refugees immigrating to the States. Longand many Americansbelieved the fleeing refugees could include spies or saboteurs. To suppress aid and rescue efforts, he deliberately misrepresented records of U.S. refugee acceptance numbers and even stifled incoming reports to Washington about the mass murder of Jews in Europe.
Beyond Longs sabotage, Americans and the Holocaust highlights evidence of American apathy and racism toward not only Jews but African and Asian Americans within its own bordersincluding legalized segregation, Jim Crow laws, and Japanese American internmentas well as indifference to news reports of the Nazis increasingly violent anti-Semitic rule.
Through interconnecting rooms, visitors can explore a timeline of historical displays featuring coverage of Nazism through American newpapers, newsreels, and film that evidence the mounting pressure for Washington to respond as Hitlers bloody campaign peaked. Each section contains interactive displays, photos, videos, documents, and short documentaries on wartime views of Nazism.
As news headlines spotlighted Nazi Germanys ill treatment of its own citizens throughout the 1930s, the Roosevelt administration stayed uncomfortably silent. One possible reason for that is shown in a display of a 1938 poll revealing that two-thirds of Americans believed that German Jews were either entirely or partly to blame for their own persecution.
While the museum unmasks the reasons for Washingtons silence, it also provokes questions about why Roosevelt, despite early knowledge of Germanys atrocities, took no action, and why Americans remained skeptical even when confronted with reports of the death camps. Can America be held responsible? The United States alone could not have prevented the Holocaust, the museums website explains, but more could have been done to save some of the six million Jews who were killed.
In trying to provide an overview of complex answers to complex questions, Americans and the Holocaust uncovers the unpleasant truth of what happens when those with the power to help fail to reach out to the most vulnerable of our earthly population. Rasheeda Smith is associate editor of World War II.
This review was originally published in the October 2018 issue of World War II magazine. Subscribe here.
THE AVERAGE MILITARY ENTHUSIAST or student of African American history knows little about the life and struggles of the first black national hero of World War II, Doris Dorie Miller. The popular depiction of Miller is that of a cook aboard a battleship anchored at Pearl Harbor who leaps into action to save his mortally wounded captain during the Japanese attack. Miller then mans a .50-caliber machine gun and, although he has had no formal training, shoots down enemy aircraft. For his bravery, he is awarded the Navy Cross and receives national recognition. At that moment in American history, Dorie Miller represents the inefficiency and irrationality of racial segregation in the U.S. Armed Forces.
For most individuals, this is where Millers story ends, but for authors Cutrer and Parrish, this is where it begins. The authors successfully highlight just how much Miller reflects the average African American serviceman in World War II. He was an improbable hero from a rural community in Texas, whose parents were farmers and grandparents were former slaves, much like my grandfather, and many others. Miller joins the navy at 19 to help support his family and escape the poverty, racism, and disenfranchisement typical of the African American experience. His race and lack of education relegate him to the position of a messman, charged with making beds and shining shoes for white sailors and officers.
After Pearl Harbor, a war bond tour thrusts Miller into the national scene, where his newfound celebrity becomes a burden and a source of anxiety for him and he grows increasingly depressed about his chances to live a prosperous life postwar. After receiving the Navy Cross, he tells his brother, my life is a holy hell. The white folks never did like me because Im colored. Now the colored guys aboard ship do not like me because they say I think Im somebody special. Miller convinces himself that his next active duty assignment will be a suicide mission. And, sure enough, when he returns to duty, a Japanese submarine sinks his ship. Two years to the day of his heroism, on December 7, 1943, the Navy Department notifies his parents that he is missing in action and presumed dead.
While the book is thoroughly researched and well written, the authors fall short in their desire to demonstrate that Millers entrance on the national scene reflects the birth of the civil rights movement. In fact, the civil rights movement and its connection to African American military bravery and service predate the American Revolution.
The authors also share the romantic notion that Miller and others like him had a moral or ethical impact on Washington and the U.S. Armed Forces that led to greater awareness and sensitivity to the talents and loyalties of black men and women. But changes in equal opportunity for blacks in the service were motivated by the need for military efficiency and to serve the political interest of national leaders. The fact remains that despite countless examples of African American sacrifice and heroism for the first 300 years of our nations history, blacks were denied civil liberties and experienced racial violence without judicial recourse until relatively recently. Marcus S. Cox is the associate dean of graduate programs and professor of history at Xavier University of Louisiana.
This review was originally published in the October 2018 issue of World War II magazine. Subscribe here.
Chairman of the Senate of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (L) shakes hands with visiting Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission (CMC) Xu Qiliang in Astana, Kazakhstan, Sept. 4, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Xiaowei)
ASTANA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chairman of the Senate of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev met with visiting Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission (CMC) Xu Qiliang here on Tuesday, pledging to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with China in various fields.
Kazakhstan and China are friendly neighbors and important cooperation partners, Tokayev said, adding that Kazakhstan greatly values its long friendship with China and supports the Belt and Road Initiative.
Kazakhstan firmly supports China on international issues and is willing to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with China in such fields as politics, economy, culture and security, the Senate chairman said.
The two countries would jointly fight against the "three forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism and improve the livelihood of both peoples, Tokayev said.
Xu, also member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said China and Kazakhstan have established a stable comprehensive strategic partnership thanks to the efforts of the two countries' heads of state, and are enjoying a further development of bilateral ties.
Noting the alignment of China's Silk Road Economic Belt and Kazakhstan's Nurly Zhol (Bright Path) economic program, as well as the "Chinese dream" and the "Kazakhstan dream," Xu said this would bring more welfare to the peoples of the two countries.
Together with Kazakhstan, China is ready to fulfill the important consensuses reached by the two heads of state, deepen the pragmatic cooperation and exchanges between the two militaries as well as strategic mutual trust, and secure regional peace and stability with joint efforts, Xu said.
During his visit to the Central Asian country, Xu also met with Defense Minister of Kazakhstan Nurlan Ermekbaev.
Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print.
Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition.
If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create.
Our Dual Focus PhD series tracks the working lives of our part-time PhD fellows. Many work at the highest of levels, both nationally and internationally, including for other parts of the UN System. They come to Maastricht for our unique PhD Dual Career Training Programme in Governance and Policy Analysis ( GPAC ). This time Dr. Mindel van de Laar speaks to Atsuko Okuda , who is pursuing a PhD alongside working as Chief, ICT and Development Section at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific ( ESCAP )
Midsummer, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) published the E-Governance A powerful tool toward resilient, inclusive and sustainable disaster risk management. You contributed as an author on e-resilience and e-government. Can you please elaborate what the survey and publication are about?
The UN E-Government Survey is one of DESAs flagship publications. The report is published every other year under a specific theme of emerging e-government issues. The report is the only e-government report which covers 193 countries along the three components of telecommunication infrastructure, online service and human capital. It provides policymakers, academics and practitioners with valuable data, insights and analysis on different dimensions of e-government across the globe.
The E-Government Survey 2018: Gearing E-Government to Support Transformation towards Sustainable and Resilient Societies addresses risks and vulnerabilities in society. In Asia and the Pacific where I work, natural disasters, ranging from earthquakes, cyclones, floods, droughts, volcanic eruptions to glacier lake outbursts, destroy hard-won development gains. How to maximize the use of ICT to better prepare and manage disaster risks is a development imperative.
We at the UN ESCAP promote the concept and operationalization of e-resilience, as part and parcel of e-government. E-resilience encompasses a spectrum of ICT applications and infrastructure, defined as the use of ICTs during all phases of disaster risk management prevention, reduction, preparedness, response and recovery towards reducing risk and impact and maintaining the gains made towards sustainable development, including through e-government. The operationalization has been taking place as part of the implementation of the Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway (AP-IS), a regional broadband connectivity initiative which was developed and launched by ESCAPs 62 member countries.
The significant momentum for e-resilience has been built based on good practices and lessons learned emanating from regions major disasters. The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake cut fibre optic cables which affected the emergency and rescue operations. Learning from the lessons, the government and telecom operators introduced various measures and systems which helped provide resilient emergency communication which was later found effective in the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquakes in the western part of Japan.
Against this background, we gladly accepted the invitation from DESA to contribute a chapter on e-resilience. Our contributions have also reflected emerging technology trends, covering artificial intelligence, social media integration, space applications and geo-referenced systems to build resilient societies.
How do you think e-governance can contribute to faster, more efficient and more effective responses by governments in case of emergencies? And how can we make governments more resilient, and better able to manage the e-developments?
The Chapter illustrates how e-government solutions have been helping governments enhance the effectiveness of emergency responses and reduce disaster risks across the world. In Bhutan, for example, the Department of Hydro Med Services developed a meteorological, hydrological and glacier lake outburst warning system. Equipped with sensors and real time data, the system generates actionable information to alert people to evacuate in time.
Resilient governments can save peoples lives and critical assets and at the same time facilitate e-developments. For instance, a resilient government should be able to maintain and protect vital information, such as civil registration records of the population. School enrolment, employment, financial transaction, land registrations and other transactions depend on the existence and integrity of such information. Although we take it for granted, a resilient government provides the basis for e-developments by ensuring the authenticity of such information and providing critical services to citizens even at a time of crisis and emergency. In order to materialize the vision of resilient government, all the components should be in place, including 24/7 telecommunications services, backups of data and applications, emergency power supply and human and institutional capacity, just to name a few.
Can you tell us what you do on a daily basis, and how governments benefit from the ESCAPs involvement?
As mentioned earlier, we are promoting the regional broadband connectivity initiative, called Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway (AP-IS). E-resilience and inclusive broadband are two main pillars of the initiative. We believe that in order to advance e-resilience, we need to address the digital divide as a matter of urgency. According to our analysis, the broadband access gap between developing and developed countries is widening, leaving the majority of people behind in the digital transformation. All the above e-resilience initiatives and new capabilities depend on the availability, resilience and affordability of broadband connectivity not only in urban but also rural areas.
Our team is undertaking research and analyses to identify root causes of the digital divide and assess the uptake and impact of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and blockchain. The findings form the basis for policy recommendations, regional policy dialogues and regional cooperation to address the challenges and find solutions collectively. For that purpose, we invite all the member countries, partners, research institutes and civil society organizations to our intergovernmental meetings.
In 2017, you started your PhD in the GPAC2 programme. Your topic of study is e-governance compliance, with a particular case study of a country to be implemented. Can you share your PhD topic, and why that is particularly relevant for e-governance implementation?
My daily work inspired me to study deeper into e-governance, in particular how people interact with technologies such as e-governance in the developing country context.
E-governance initiatives are designed to offer an unprecedented amount and visibility of data and information which can be aggregated, disaggregated and analysed to identify patterns and help improve policies, procedures, and processes. Despite the fact that similar e-governance functions and initiatives have been implemented across the world, the evidenced outcomes seem to vary markedly. My research explores the relationships between e-governance institutional instruments and compliance among government users as a conduit to explain the variation. It answers the question: How and in what situations do e-governance institutional instruments lead to a change in the type of e-governance compliance among government users?
I hope that this research will provide empirical evidence of factors and processes critical to e-governance compliance among government employee users in the process of e-governance implementation, which has not been researched adequately in the past. Additionally, the practical implication and application for policy making are expected to be significant. The findings, I hope, will help improve the design of e-governance initiatives, considering the roles of identified key factors, for more effective development interventions and accelerated achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Source: https://www.merit.unu.edu/e-governance-is-helping-us-build-more-resilient-societies/
Andrea Harrington is cheered as she arrives at Flavours of Malaysia on Tuesday night. Sheriff Thomas Bowler and Paul Caccaviello. Third-place finisher Judith Knight was disappointed by cheerful. Harrington supporters cheer as numbers come in. City Councilor Melissa Mazzeo and Paul Caccaviello at the polls. Tom Sakshaug and former City Councilor Jonathan Lothrop at the polls in support of Harrington. Former District Attorney David Capeless at Mazzeo's. Paul Caccaviello telling supporters around 10 p.m. that the race isn't over. City Councilor John Krol at the Harrington party. State Rep. John Barrett and Andrea Harrington. John Barrett III. Andrea Harrington with her family after claiming victory. Harrington supporters cheer the results. PreviousNext
Harrington Claims Victory in Tight District Attorney Race
Harrington takes the stage to thank her supporters. PITTSFIELD, Mass. The race for the district attorney post turned into long slog into the evening as incumbent Paul Caccaviello attempted to fend off prime challenger Andrea Harrington.
The lead between the candidates shifted as the votes in the two cities were recorded but narrowed as ballots from the smaller towns came streaming in. Harrington opened up a lead that couldn't be overcome.
It was after 11 p.m. before Harrington, a defense attorney, claimed victory, her supporters chanting "Andrea, Andrea" as she took the microphone to thank them.
But she and her followers were already primed as she spoke them at Flavours of Malaysia, earlier in the evening her message filled with hope.
"We fight and we fight and we don't win," she said, referring to the often disenfranchised. "But it looks like tonight we may have changed that story ...
"It looks like this county has chosen hope over fear. Our best days in Berkshire County are in front of us not behind us."
While the winner is going on to the general election, there's no one on the ballot to oppose the Democratic nominee.
Caccaviello, the handpicked successor for District Attorney David Capeless, conceded not long after 11 p.m. when it became apparent he couldn't overcome the widening gap in the polls.
"I called her earlier and conceded the primary. She ran a tenacious campaign," Caccaviello said. "You watch the numbers and percentages as far as who called in and it gets to that point."
The 30-year veteran prosecutor won his hometown of Dalton by nearly the double the votes of Harrington but was only able to stay 600 votes ahead of her in the big prize of Pittsfield.
Harrington, meanwhile, saw her investment in North County pay off by taking all five of North Adams' wards and pummeling Caccaviello and third candidate Judith Knight in Williamstown nearly four to one. The incumbent, however, was able to hold the more conservative Adams and Cheshire but not enough to wipe out Harrington's lead.
Around 10 p.m., Caccaviello addressed his supporters at Mazzeo's and warned them it wasn't over yet.
"It's obviously a very tight race, a very close race," he said to the cheering crowd. "I would tell you that the effort of everyone in this room and beyond supporting me in this candidacy has been overwhelming ... I think it's going to be a long night. Let's hope that we get the numbers this campaign deserves ...
"This is a county that deserves public safety, public service and people that want to do the work and do justice for the people we serve."
And it still might not be over yet. Caccaviello is planning to take a couple of days to reflect on the campaign but at this point, he wouldn't rule out a write-in campaign in the November general election.
"It is really to evaluate options and maybe consider a write-in campaign. You have to think about that if it is this close," Caccaviello said.
Caccaviello supporters had an up-and-down evening at Mazzeo's as they were elated with early reported wins in various Pittsfield wards. The city is the largest voting section and a large win there is difficult to overcome.
But, soon, Williamstown's numbers came in and brought a damper to the party as that lead established in Pittsfield was wiped away with Harrington making up just about all of the difference. That was shortly followed by news that Harrington had won in North Adams. But, the roars of applause went up when a number of towns tipped Caccaviello's way.
Paul Caccaviello was surrounded by supporters when he watched the results come in. Those at that event included Capeless, Sheriff Thomas Bowler, City Councilors Melissa Mazzeo, Anthony Simonelli, and Kevin Morandi.
But Harrington still kept a lead with only a few towns left to report and the unofficial results became more clear. At Flavours in Pittsfield, Harrington supporters were collecting the outstanding numbers.
Then after Lee's numbers arrived, former City Councilor Barry Clairmont made an announcement to supporters that Harrington had enough votes to declare a victory.
Cheers erupted and in the Harrington camp were the likes of state Reps. John Barrett III and Tricia Farley-Bouvier, Mayor Linda Tyer, City Councilors Peter Marchetti, John Krol, Helen Moon, and Pete White.
Tyer and Barrett then took the stage to announce Harrington as the next district attorney. And that's when Harrington got the call. Unsure if there would be a concession given how close of a race it was, Harrington was on stage ready to declare when Caccaviello called.
Meanwhile, Knight, who trailed in third place, conceded early in the evening that her campaign had "been a long shot."
"All things considered I did pretty well and if I had more time and more able to go further, I think it would have turned things," she said. "I got my message out, which is the most important."
Knight claimed both the progressive mantle and the experience, having worked as prosecutor, public defender and defense attorney. Programs she was talking about in her first run for the district attorney's office were now coming to fruition and she said she isn't about to see the winner drop the ball and that she'll be watching what unfolds in the coming years carefully.
The campaigning, she said, was a little too political and less about issues. Knight believes Harrington had gotten a big boost of support from the Pittsfield mayor's office and that Caccaviello had been a little late in realizing he'd have to fight for his job.
"I feel I stayed true to what I know. I stayed true to my heart," Knight said, laughing as she didn't rule out another try if the next district attorney doesn't live up to expectations.
Town and city clerks were happy with the turnout, saying it was higher than normal for a primary. In many towns, the turnout for this primary exceeded that of the last presidential primary.
North Adams City Clerk Marilyn Gomeau didn't have final numbers on the voting the new machines apparently don't total quite the same as the old ones but believed it had been a good, steady turnout.
"The new machines are working great," Gomeau said. The city had pegged turnout at about 13.6 percent at 4:30, prior to the after-work rush. Last year's state representative primary saw a 28 percent turnout.
In Lenox, the turnout was 33 percent, with 1,477 votes cast out of 3,178 registered voters.
Cheshire Town Clerk Christine Emerson was also pleased with the primary voting. "We had a very good 597, just about double what we do for a primary," she said.
That voter turnout may have helped push Harrington to victory. It was all smiles and cheers at Harrington's victory party, as she thanked family, friends and supporters for the effort that put into her campaign.
"We have worked harder and smarter than ever thought possible," she said, adding that "campaigns aren't won by complicated strategies" but by phone calls, emails, house meetings and knocking on doors.
"I told her she had to produce a ground game ... she produced a ground game second to none," said Barrett, an early supporter.
Harrington took time to applaud the work of Caccaviello, saying she'd heard from victims across the county how he had fought for them. Her husband, Tim Walsh, reminded them that "there's no dancing in the end zone for us, there's a lot of work to be done."
"To everybody who voted for me, who believed in me, who believed together we can build a new future for Berkshire County," Harrington said. "For all the people who did not vote for me, I promise I will work just as hard for you as I work for everybody else."
On Tuesday night, Harrington and her supporters celebrated but she is prepared to start working on changing the direction of the office right away. Dennis Powell, president of the local NAACP branch and a member of the School Committee, told supporters that "we voted her in and now we have to support her."
Meanwhile, Caccaviello compared the campaign to a trial: he made his best case and the jury - or in this case the voters - decided.
Source: Jane's 360
Chinas Wuchang Shipbuilding has held a first steel cutting ceremony for the Royal Thai Navys (RTNs) first S26T (Thailand) diesel-electric submarine (SSK).
Steel for the vessel was cut on 4 September at Wuhan, China, in a ceremony attended by senior officials from the RTN.
The RTN signed a contract with the China Shipbuilding and Offshore International Company (CSOC) in May 2017 for one S26T SSK. The government-to-government contract is worth THB13.5 billion (USD410 million), and calls for the delivery of the boat by 2023.
The S26T SSK is derived from the Peoples Liberation Army Navys Yuan-class (Type 041) submarine, but neither the RTN nor CSOC has given further details of the platform.
Gonzalez Wins Primary to Take on Charlie Baker
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. The local district attorney's race was the hottest ticket in Tuesday's primary but there were plenty of other races on the ballots for both parties.
On the Democratic side, Jay Gonzalez outpolled Bob Massie by nearly double to move onto the general election. A former administrator under Gov. Deval Patrick, he'll face popular Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, who's pursuing a third term.
For lieutenant governor, Quentin Palfrey bested Jimmy Tingle to win the nomination with nearly 60 percent of the vote. Palfrey's been in the Berkshires fairly frequently over the past months.
William Galvin easily swept challenger Josh Zakim to for the Democratic nomination for secretary of state. Galvin, who's been in office since 1995, has no competition in the general election.
Veteran Congressman Richard Neal easily fended off his opponent Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, a Springfield attorney, to move onto the general election for the 1st Massachusetts District for which he faces no competition. Though he outpolled Amatul-Wadud by nearly 70 percent, she was a known figure in Berkshire County, coming within 70 votes of him in Williamstown and was doing better comparably to some other towns.
The only other local race was for state senator in which incumbent Adam Hinds won easily over challenger Thomas Wickham with nearly 90 percent of the vote.
There was more jockeying on the Republic side as candidates vied to take on their Democratic compatriots.
Baker easily outpolled his primary opponent Scott Lively in a light election. Only about 227,000 votes were cast in the Republican gubernatorial primary compared to 467,000 in the Democratic. Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito had no primary opponent.
James McMahon won more than 60 percent of the vote against Daniel Shores for the Republican nomination for attorney general. He will face off with incumbent Democrat Maura Healey, who had no primary opponent.
Geoff Diehl, a state representative, won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate over John Kingston and Beth Lindstrom. Democrat Elizabeth Warren, the state's senior senator, immediately accepted three televised debates with Diehl in the coming months: one on Oct. 21 at the Western Mass Consortium with local news; one on Oct. 30, in Boston on WCVB; and a third on WBZ to be announced.
The Museum of Dog is needs more room to run.
Museum of Dog Planning Move to Larger Quarters in Pittsfield
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. The Museum of Dog needs a bigger doghouse.
Owner David York had plans to rehabilitate the former Quinn's Paint & Wallpaper building at the corner of Canal and Union streets but now says the historic building isn't large enough for his collection of dog artifacts and art and to do the programming he's planning.
"We are averaging over 800 visitors per week and we are out of room," York wrote in an email about putting the building on the market. "People are driving 2 to 3 hours for experiences at Museum of Dog with their dogs."
York opened his collection in the 8,000-square-foot building earlier this year. The museum has received an enormous amount of fanfare in articles across the country, including in Parade and The Boston Globe.
Plans have been to restore the building to its original condition since the closure of Quinn's it's seen several uses, most recently as a bar and an antiques store.
"The Union Street building has been great due to its history, location and character," York wrote. "We certainly need more [square] footage on one or 2 levels to accommodate Nat Geo and Sundance dog short films and a few other new collections I've acquired."
He purchased the building almost a year ago for $220,000 and has listed the property for $299,000 with Burnham Gold Real Estate
York made his fortune in real estate and opened Atlanta's first doggy day-care facility and a couple facilities in Texas. He also had been active with animal rescues in the Atlanta area.
Since arriving in North Adams, York has become more invested in the city. He recently opened Bowlin' on the River, a salad and coffee shop on Marshall Street, and has plans for a second coffee shop on Main Street.
He's also become involved with local dog and humane shelter activities, most recently judging the grand marshal for the Fall Foliage Festival Parade. This year's theme is "Year of the Dog" based largely on his museum.
York said the decision of where to move the Museum of Dog has so far been narrowed to two locations but did not yet indicate where those buildings are.
Update 3:27 p.m.: While York did not respond to a query earlier in the day about whether he was leaving North Adams, he later told The Berkshire Eagle that he was looking in Pittsfield because he could not find anything suitably sized in downtown North Adams or that would not require rezoning.
Soldiers from China, Australia and the US conduct a whitewater rafting exercise at Tully River in Cairns, Australia. (Photo by Sheng Chuyi) By Sheng Chuyi and Zhang Huaiying
CAIRNS, Sep. 5 (ChinaMil) -- Exercise Kowari-2018, a trilateral survival training exercise among China, Australia and the US, was held from Aug. 29 to Sept. 5 in Cairns, Australia.
Mixed into three combined teams, thirty soldiers from the Chinese Marine Corps, the Australian Army, the US Army and the US Marine Corps carried out joint exercises including such subjects as mountain marching, sea kayaking, canyon crossing and whitewater rafting.
The Kowari joint exercise is an important platform for the militaries of China, Australia and the US to maintain positive interaction, deepen mutual understanding and enhance mutual trust. This is the fifth Kowari joint exercise hosted in Australia. It is also the first time that China sends its Marines to participate in the joint exercise.
The exercises were carried out in the dangerous terrain and virgin forest around Cairns. The participants have to deal with waves, rapids, whirlpools, crocodiles, cliffs and other dangers, which is the good test and training of military skills, psychological quality, will and team spirit.
China, Australia and the US also sent high-level delegations to observe the exercise on site.
Senior Captain Chen Weidong, deputy chief of staff of the Chinese Marine Corps, said in an interview that the Chinese participating soldiers, through exchanges with the Australian and US forces, have further understood the direction and goals of military construction in other countries and improved the skills for survival and extreme challenges in the wild.
The joint exercise has also deepened mutual trust, provided a bridge for future training exchanges and promoted friendly exchanges between the Chinese and Australian, as well as Chinese and American militaries, Senior Captain Chen added.
The US Marine Corps Col. James Schnelle, commanding officer of Marine Rotational Force-Darwin, said that the Chinese participating soldiers have strong capabilities in overcoming difficulties and are very united during the joint exercise.
The eight male and two female soldiers representing the Chinese Marines in the joint exercise have won wide praise for their superb skills, excellent conduct and self-confidence.
Soldiers from China, Australia and the US conduct whitewater rafting exercise at Tully River in Cairns, Australia. (Photo by Zhang Huaiying)
iWorld | Telecom 60% ad inventory for 'Bigg Boss' 12 sold The launch of the festive season in India generally coincides with the start of the most popular reality show on TV - Big Boss. Produced by Endemol Shine and broadcast on Colors, the show is in its twelfth successful run.
continue reading...
iWorld | Telecom New telecom policy may go to Cabinet in 2 weeks: DoT's Sundararajan The new telecom policy -- branded as the National Digital Communications Policy -- is expected to be placed before the Indian Cabinet for approval in two weeks, a top official said on Tuesday.
continue reading...
iWorld | Social Media India one of the fastest growing AR markets: Facebook India is one of the fastest growing regions for augmented reality (AR) technology and Facebook is providing tools like AR Studio for developers and creators in the country to help them create unique experiences, according to ET.
continue reading...
We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!
Go to form
Actor Luv Sinha, who debuted in 2010, will be seen after eight years in Paltan. Sinha told India-West that signing the J.P. Dutta war drama was his best birthday gift. (photo provided)
Stellar IT Solutions has filed a lawsuit on behalf of one of its Indian American workers, whose H-1B renewal application was denied by USCIS. The agency has dramatically increased its number of Requests for Evidence and has been denying a greater number of applications from Indian nationals. (Stellar Software Networks photo)
The World Hindu Congress is set to hold its second conference in Chicago. The three-day conference, expected to draw a large Indian American audience as well, will be held from Sept. 7 through Sept. 9. (photo provided)
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying speaks at a daily briefing in this file photo. [Photo/fmprc.gov.cn]
The Philippines moved the BRP Gregorio del Pilar from the Banyue Shoal early on Tuesday morning, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said, adding that China hasn't found any environmental damage, such as an oil spill.
The Philippine military vessel ran aground near the Banyue Shoal in the Nansha Islands on Aug 29.
China has followed the incident closely and has kept in contact with the Philippines, Hua told a news conference on Wednesday.
The Philippines informed China of the incident and its rescue plan after the stranding happened, and both sides had discussions over China's assistance, Hua said.
China's coast guard, on duty in the waters, had good interaction with the Philippine ships, and the Philippines expressed appreciation for China's goodwill, Hua said.
Home Search ICH IDF Confirms: Israel Provided Weapons, Cash to Syrian "Rebels" Editors Note September 05, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The article below was published by the Jerusalem Post On September 04, 2018 . It has since been removed and is no longer available as the screen grab below shows. A search on Google confirms that the article was available Thankfully the article was archived here and is reproduced below. ====== IDF Confirms: Israel Provided Light-weapons to Syrian Rebels
Bashar Assad claimed that Israel had been providing arms to terror groups and its forces had regularly seized arms and munitions with inscriptions in Hebrew.
By Anna Ahronheim IDF gives urgent treatment to Syria refugees, June 30, 2018.. (photo credit: IDF SPOKESMANS UNIT) The Israeli army has admitted, for the first time, that it provided large amounts of cash, weapons and ammunition to Syrian rebels in the Golan Heights.
While the IDF maintains that it was not intervening in Syrias civil war, on Monday it confirmed that as part of Operation Good Neighbor Israel had been regularly supplying Syrian rebels near its border with light weapons and ammunition in order to defend themselves from attacks and a substantial amount of cash to buy additional arms. Through Operation Good Neighbor, which was launched in 2016 the Israeli military had provided over 1524 tons of food, 250 tons of clothes, 947,520 liters of fuel, 21 generators, 24,900 palettes of medical equipment and medicine.
Reports first surfaced of Israel providing arms and cash to rebel groups several years ago, with the regime of Bashar Assad claiming that Israel had been providing arms to terror groups and its forces had regularly seized arms and munitions with inscriptions in Hebrew.
According to reports Israel had been arming at least seven different rebel groups in Syrias Golan Heights, including the Fursan al-Joulan rebel group which had around 400 fighters and had been given an estimated $5,000 per month by Israel.
Israel stood by our side in a heroic way, the group's spokesperson, Moatasem al-Golani, told the The Wall Street Journal in a January 2017 report. We wouldn't have survived without Israel's assistance. The army believes that the decision to provide weapons and cash to the rebel groups along the border with Israels Golan Heights was the right decision.
Israels aim in providing the weapons and cash to rebel groups throughout Operation Good Neighbor which shut down once the Assad regime retook control of the Golan Heights in July, was to keep troops belonging to Hezbollah and Iran away from Israels Golan Heights.
The Syrian army, backed by Russian air power and Iranian backed Shiite militia fighters, have been recapturing large swathes of territory and is now believed to have control over 70% of the war-torn country.
While Syrian troops have once again been deployed to the border with Israel, in order to prevent an escalation between the two enemy countries, Russian military police have been deployed along the Golan Heights border along with UN Peacekeepers.
Israel has warned against Irans entrenchment in Syria and has stressed time and again that Syrian soil can not serve as a forward operating base by Iran and that the war-torn country cannot be a waystation for arms smuggling to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
While Israels military had been carrying out operation against Iranian targets in Syria for several years, its extent only became public after an Israeli Air Force F-16 which was taking part in retaliatory strikes was downed by Syrian air defenses in February.
Last year Former Israel Air Force head Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amir Eshel stated that the IAF carried out 100 airstrikes in Syria over the past five years.
On Monday the military announced that in the past year and half alone, Israel has carried out 202 strikes against Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter ==See Also== Jerusalem Post to RT: Report on IDF funding Syrian rebels pulled on request of army's censor' IDF has forced the Jerusalem Post to remove its explosive report on the Israeli military giving weapons to the Syrian rebels, the newspapers managing editor confirmed to RT. We were told by the armys military censor to remove that part of the story, David Brinn, the managing editor of the Jerusalem Post told RT as he replied to a request for comment. The report, IDF confirms: Israel provided light-weapons to Syrian rebels, which claimed that the Israeli military acknowledged for the first time that it had provided money, weapons and ammunition to the Syrian militants, was removed just hours after being published without any explanation. According to Brinn, the story was removed for security reasons evidently. The IDF told RT that it would not comment on the issue. ===== Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy Search Information Clearing House === Click Here To Support Information Clearing House Your support has kept ICH free on the Web since 2002. Click for Spanish , German , Dutch , Danish , French , translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load.
September 05, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Andrei Martyanov has answered my question.
I agree with everything Martyanov says . But I believe my question remains unanswered.
Probably it is my fault. Perhaps I framed the question so sharply that it came across as an attack on Putins level-headed policy. Also, my use of the phrase turning the other cheek could have implied denigration of Putin rather than my admiration for his level-headedness and humane approach to his great responsibility.
I understand Putins policy. I agree with Martyanov that it is the only policy that makes sense. I also agree with Martyanov that the correlation of forces has changed dramatically in Russias favor. But to use another phrase, I am concerned about the slip between the cup and the lip. I think something needs to be done to halt Washingtons provocations before they become so extreme that matters get out of hand.
Historically, provocations do tend to get out of hand, more often than not.
Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter
Perhaps Russia has prevented, by exposing it in advance, the false flag chemical attack that Washington had in the works in order to have an excuse for another missile attack on Syria, an attack designed by Washington to disrupt Syrias elimination of the last stronghold of Washingtons proxy army in Syria. That Washington would actually use an obvious false flag chemical incident to attack Syria a second time in defiance of Russia does not indicate that Washington understands that its power is not what it was. I agree with Martyanov that Washington should understand that, but I am not sure Washington does.
Further evidence that Washington does not understand the new correlation of power is the political, academic, and media treatment of Professor Stephen Cohen, perhaps Americas premier Russian scholar. Cohen sees all the dangers in the current level of tensions that I see, and he is denigrated as a Putin stooge for his balanced analysis. I am on the CIA- or George Soros- or National Endowment for Democracy- or Israel Lobby-funded PropOrNot list of Russian agents/dupes. Indeed, Martyanovs own excellent book, which I recently reviewed, explains the extraordinary myths in which Washington lives. I doubt Washington escaped, as Martyanov seems to think, from its self-made Matrix between 2014 and 2018. Countries as full of themselves as America is dont sober up in four years without a revealing military defeat or an economic collapse for which no fix is available. Indeed, Martyanov begins his excellent book with Alexis de Tocquevilles analysis of American hubris in 1837. Hubis is the definition of American existence.
Or consider this for example: The open wound of Novorussia is festering. Washington is pouring arms into Ukraine https://russia-insider.com/en/trumps-envoy-kurt-volker-us-eager-drastically-expand-military-aid-ukraine/ri24663 . I think that Putin left this wound open, because he did not want to enable Washingtons propaganda to inflame Europes fears of more annexations on top of the alleged annexation of Crimea. This was a sound decision consistent with Martyanovs explanation, but it is an opportunity for the neoconservatives who Martyanov correcly understands to have a tendency to be unrealistic. It is those unrealistic times that are dangerous.
I dont think Washington has yet lost its hubris. My reference to Napoleon and Hitler is meant only as examples of the extraordinary mistakes that people lost in their hubris can make. Ordinary peoples probably do not perceive the limitations on American power that Martyanov describes. What they hear are belligerent US accusations and threats against Russia and the presentation of their own president as a traitor who has to be impeached because he wants peace with Russia and is involved in a conspiracy with Putin against America. With their own perceptions influenced by Washingtons propaganda, populations in the US and Europe cannot serve as constraints on their governments belligerence toward Russia. When we read in the British press that the militarily impotent UK is preparing for war with Russia, where is there realization of the real correlation of forces? To say that the UK is preparing for war against Russia is like saying that the local Boy Scout troop is preparing for war against Russia. It makes no sense, and this absence of sense is a big concern.
It seems to me that some decisive response by Russia that signaled a clear defeat for Washington would bring awareness to Western populations that their governments are risking all of our lives by provoking incidents in which Washington does not hold a winning hand. The idea that the militarily impotent European countries, who are incapable of preventing themselves from being overrun by refugees from Washingtons wars in behalf of Israel in the Middle East and North Africa, serve as any sort of NATO constraint on Russian military power is totally absurd. Jean Raspails The Camp of the Saints is happening before our eyes. Europe is ceasing to exist. Already London, England, has a Muslim Mayor.
There are a lot of things Putin could do short of the easy task of sinking US shipsevery one of which is totally indefensible against Russian hypersonic missiles. The US Navy is poised to attack Syria. Syria is a Russian ally that Putin has spent Russian lives, money, and prestige helping to clear Syria of the insurgents Washington sent to overthrow Syria in order to establish chaos in place of an organized country. Putin could have equipped Syria with the S-300 and/or S-400 air defense system. Russia (and China) could enter into an alliance with Syria and Iran that suggests or implies, without declaring it, mutual defense provisions. This would introduce an element of caution in the West that is missing. The more the West has caution, the less the risk of war. If Russia stands aside or accepts attacks on Syria and Novorussia, Russia tells Washington that there is no need for caution.
My concern is that there are many ways to end up in war. Unanswered provocations and unaddressed open wounds are two ways of getting there. All that I am suggesting is that some thought be given to these possibilities. If provocations produce an unintended showdown, a mistake made with nuclear weapons would be the last mistake of the human race.
The Saker intends to answer my question. We will see where he takes this issue. I will say that this discussion has risks for each of us, because those we are attempting to alert, warn, and to bring out of their insouciance will characterize us as Russian agents and Putin stooges for doubting US primacy. We will be accused of trying to protect Russia with a peace campaign.
What I think tells most against Martyanovs optimism is that it is he, The Saker, Stephen Cohen, Pat Buchanan, and myself who are marginalized, not the crazies who are responsible for the dangerous and irresponsible provocations of the worlds most capable and best armed nuclear powerRussia. The crazies are in control of the US National Security Council, office of Homeland Security, office of National Intelligence, CIA, US Department of State, Pentagon, the US media, and the US Democratic Party. Republican Senator John McCain is being made into a hero for his hatred of Russia and support for war. The National Endowment for Democracy, the private foundations, the Council on Foreign Relatons, NPR, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, Washington Postthe entirety of monied and loudspeaker America is organized for the demonization of Russia and any American who questions this demonization. Who could have ever imagined that a candidate for President of the United StatesHillary Clintonwould declare the elected president of Russia, elected with a majority vote never achieved by any American president, to be the new Hitler? Hillarys accusation breached all known diplomatic protocols, yet she was not held accountable.
In contrast, what is controlled by Martyanov, The Saker, Professor Cohen, Pat Buchanan, and myself? Perhaps we are buttressed by truth, but the truth is not widely acknowledged and few hear it. In an important way, Putins strategy relies on the recognition of truth and on good will, whose prospects are not favorable in the West. Indeed, the United States government and the interests that control it have turned a deaf ear to all facts and all truth.
We also need to consider that for centuries Germanic and other tribes continued to attack Roman legions that they had no prospect and no success for the longest time in defeating. Humans do crazy things, and there are no more crazy humans than American neoconservatives. It is these crazy humans who are in control of the US government, its foreign policy, its military policy, its media, and its organizations such as the National Endowment for Democracy that are its tools for the destabilization of targeted countries.
Whatever the correlation of forces, the Russian government is so insouciant that it permits Washington-funded NGOs inside Russia to operate against the Russian government; it permits Washington-funded newspapers inside Russia to demonize Putin and the Russian government; it permits Russian oligarchs and Russian companies to keep money abroad where it can be seized, thus creating animosity against the Russian government from holders of wealth. The Russian government continues to describe its current enemy, which is far more dangerous than Hitler ever was, as our partner. Imagine the consciousness-changing effect if Putin and/or Lavrov used the words our enemy.
Martyanov is correct. Russia holds the correlation of forces, but it doesnt know what to do with it. The Russian government permits attacks on itself from an inferior power. It is this that is the danger.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West , How America Was Lost , and The Neoconservative Threat to World Order .
==See Also==
Note To ICH Community
We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites.
Thank you for your support.
Peace and joy
Ellsberg Says Assange, as a Journalist, Cant Be Tried Under Espionage Act
By Consortium News
September 05, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - In an interview with Consortium News Editor-in-Chief Joe Lauria, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg says the Espionage Act, under which he was indicted, cannot apply to Julian Assange because he is a journalist.
Speaking during an online vigil for Assange organized by Unity4J.com, Ellsberg told Lauria that the motive for U.S. leaders to protect their secrets and go after Assange has nothing to do with their mantra of national security.
The purpose is not to protect national security, but to protect the asses of the people who wrote the directives of classified material, most of which should never have been classified, Ellsberg said.
Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter
Ellsberg, 87, said that as a publisher and journalist, the Espionage Act cannot be applied to Assange, as it should not have been applied to Ellsberg for non-spying activities when he released the Pentagon Papers revealing that the U.S. government long knew it was losing the Vietnam War but continued lying to the American public.
Julian is not a whistle blower per se, but a facilitator of whistleblowing, Ellsberg said, the point being that as a journalist, he can not fairly be tried under the Espionage Act.
As one who only received classified material and published it, It is essential that Julian Assange not be indicted, be convicted, or be extradited to the United States, Ellsberg said.
This article was originally published by " Consortium News " -
==See Also==
Note To ICH Community
We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites.
Thank you for your support.
Peace and joy
By Finian Cunningham
September 05, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Well, thats precious. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this week says he shares Russias concern about Syrias Idlib Province being a haven for terrorists but nevertheless he is urging diplomacy to solve the problem.
Pompeo's pumping of diplomacy sounds decidedly like a lot of deceitful hot air.
Why didn't the Americans think of diplomacy when their warplanes were obliterating the Syrian city of Raqqa last year, with thousands of civilians blown to pieces? And even in spite of all that carnage, the terror groups were reportedly given safe passage out of Raqqa by US forces to regroup elsewhere in Syria.
Thus the belated call for diplomacy from Pompeo has a huge credibility deficit. This is the same Pompeo who as the former CIA chief once said he wanted the lawless spy agency to become even meaner in its methods of extrajudicial violence.
Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter
Pompeo has also previously justified the use of torture against terror suspects, despite the violation of international law. During a visit to the US-run Guantanamo Bay concentration camp, he notoriously rebuffed hunger-striking inmates by callously quipping that they had appeared to put on weight.
So let's get this straight. Mike Pompeo may officially be the US' "top diplomat". But evidently diplomacy isn't really his forte when brute military force seems to be a preferred option.
It seems curious therefore that the Secretary of State has suddenly developed a sensitivity for diplomacy and humanitarian law. Pompeo is admonishing Russia to seek a diplomatic solution to the latest phase of the Syrian war being played out in the northwest province of Idlib.
"It is not the way to do that [fight terrorism] to put the lives of all these innocent civilians at risk and create a humanitarian crisis We are hoping that this can be resolved diplomatically," Pompeo told reporters this week.
His comments followed a warning from President Donald Trump who cautioned Syria, Russia and Iran to not launch a military offensive to retake control of Idlib. The province is the last remaining stronghold of illegally armed militants in Syria. Victory over the militants there could spell the definitive end to the nearly eight-year war in the country. A war that has cost up to half a million lives, and caused millions of families to be displaced, their homes shattered.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is not buying Pompeo's appeals. Lavrov rightly says it is the sovereign right of Syria to eradicate the illegally armed groups and to assert its control over the entire country.
Those armed groups are mendaciously referred to as "rebels" by Western news media in an attempt to disguise the fact that the militants are dominated by internationally outlawed terror groups, primarily Nusra Front and the so-called Islamic State (Daesh).
It is revealing of the moral turpitude in Western governments and news media, as well as the United Nations' chiefs, when they are strenuously pleading for restraint to be shown towards the "rebels" when in fact these armed groups are the most vile terrorist plague to have inflicted Syria.
The estimated 10,000 militants holding out in Idlib comprise terror groups which have shown no mercy to Syrian civilians over the past eight years. Horror stories include decapitating sons in front of mothers and burning children alive.
Sergei Lavrov and his Syrian and Iranian counterparts are absolutely correct. Syria cannot be returned to full peaceful normality until these psychopaths have been liquidated. They are the ones refusing to lay down their weapons.
Yet while Western media cover for these criminals with euphemisms like "rebels", Mike Pompeo actually acknowledged the real, odious nature of the Idlib militants.
But, as noted, he then goes on to apparently advocate the use of "diplomacy to resolve the problem".
If Washington's calming words sound incongruous that is because they are barefaced lies.
What is really concerning the US is that the terror army it has steadfastly and covertly built up, sponsored, armed and directed to illegally overthrow the Syrian government is now facing a spectacular defeat.
The Syrian army, with its Russian, Iranian and Hezbollah comrades, is moving in for the final retribution against the US-backed terror proxies. These proxies, also supported by Britain, France, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey, were orchestrated to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar al Assad. But thanks to the military intervention by Russia, the nefarious endgame was averted.
The victorious endgame is that the US-led regime war has been vanquished. The belated clamor for restraint and diplomacy out of Washington is really about salvaging its "terrorist investment" in Syria which has been depleted to the province of Idlib.
A recent article in the Washington Post quoted a Trump administration official as giving the game away.
"Right now, our job is to help create quagmires [for Russia and the Syrian regime] until we get what we want," the official said in reference to the attempts by Washington to obstruct the final offensive on Idlib.
What the US planners want is to keep Syria in a state of instability and weakness by preventing the Assad government gaining full sovereign control over its territory.
Pompeo's risible contradiction is this: he admits there are terrorists in Idlib, not fuzzy-sounding "rebels", but he is urging diplomacy as a solution to deal with terrorists.
The explanation for this apparent discovery of American probity and diplomacy is that it is completely disingenuous. The motive has nothing to do with humanitarian concerns or peaceful resolution. It is all to do with Washington trying to find a way to spare its terror assets so that they can fight another day.
Finian Cunningham has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. He is a Masters graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. He is also a musician and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent.
This article was originally published by " Sputnik " -
==See Also==
Note To ICH Community
We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites.
Thank you for your support.
Peace and joy
I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration
I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.
By Anonymous - The writer is a senior official in the Trump administration The Times today is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers. We invite you to submit a question about the essay or our vetting process here. President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader. Its not just that the special counsel looms large. Or that the country is bitterly divided over Mr. Trumps leadership. Or even that his party might well lose the House to an opposition hellbent on his downfall. The dilemma which he does not fully grasp is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. I would know. I am one of them. To be clear, ours is not the popular resistance of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous. But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trumps more misguided impulses until he is out of office. The root of the problem is the presidents amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making. Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these ideals in scripted settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright. In addition to his mass-marketing of the notion that the press is the enemy of the people, President Trumps impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic. Dont get me wrong. There are bright spots that the near-ceaseless negative coverage of the administration fails to capture: effective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military and more. But these successes have come despite not because of the presidents leadership style, which is impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective. From the White House to executive branch departments and agencies, senior officials will privately admit their daily disbelief at the commander in chiefs comments and actions. Most are working to insulate their operations from his whims. Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back. There is literally no telling whether he might change his mind from one minute to the next, a top official complained to me recently, exasperated by an Oval Office meeting at which the president flip-flopped on a major policy decision hed made only a week earlier. The erratic behavior would be more concerning if it werent for unsung heroes in and around the White House. Some of his aides have been cast as villains by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, though they are clearly not always successful. It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do whats right even when Donald Trump wont. The result is a two-track presidency. Take foreign policy: In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Koreas leader, Kim Jong-un, and displays little genuine appreciation for the ties that bind us to allied, like-minded nations. Astute observers have noted, though, that the rest of the administration is operating on another track, one where countries like Russia are called out for meddling and punished accordingly, and where allies around the world are engaged as peers rather than ridiculed as rivals. On Russia, for instance, the president was reluctant to expel so many of Mr. Putins spies as punishment for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. He complained for weeks about senior staff members letting him get boxed into further confrontation with Russia, and he expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on the country for its malign behavior. But his national security team knew better such actions had to be taken, to hold Moscow accountable. This isnt the work of the so-called deep state. Its the work of the steady state. Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until one way or another its over. The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but rather what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our discourse to be stripped of civility. Senator John McCain put it best in his farewell letter. All Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, with the high aim of uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation. We may no longer have Senator McCain. But we will always have his example a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue. Mr. Trump may fear such honorable men, but we should revere them. There is a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing to put country first. But the real difference will be made by everyday citizens rising above politics, reaching across the aisle and resolving to shed the labels in favor of a single one: Americans. The writer is a senior official in the Trump administration. This article was originally published by " NYT " - ==See Also== Former Congressman Claims The DEEP STATE Is Real In New Book In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information ClearingHouse endorsed or sponsored by the originator.) Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy
Russia's Alleged Skripal 'Assassins' Caught Breaking The Laws Of Physics By Tyler Durden September 05, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - As we detailed earlier, in what appears to be the latest escalation in the UK government's campaign to blame Russia for the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia Skripal and three other seemingly random Britons (one of whom succumbed to the deadly Novichok nerve agent used in the attacks), British prosecutors are saying they have "sufficient evidence" to charge Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, both Russian nationals, with conspiracy to murder Skripal, as well as the attempted murder of his daughter and police detective Nick Bailey, according to Reuters. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter The news comes nearly two months after investigators said they had identified the suspected perpetrators of the Novichok attack by crossing referencing CCTV feeds with records of people who entered the country around that time. There's just one thing... About that CCTV feed! Authored by Craig Murray, Russia has apparently developed an astonishing new technology enabling its secret agents to occupy precisely the same space at precisely the same time. These CCTV images released by Scotland yard today allegedly show Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Borishov both occupying exactly the same space at Gatwick airport at precisely the same second. 16.22.43 on 2 March 2018. Note neither photo shows the other following less than a second behind. There is no physically possible explanation for this. You can see ten yards behind each of them, and neither has anybody behind for at least ten yards. Yet they were both photographed in the same spot at the same second. The only possible explanations are: 1) One of the two is traveling faster than Usain Bolt can sprint 2) Scotland Yard has issued doctored CCTV images/timeline. Will any mainstream media organizations question this publicly? This article was originally published by " Zero Hedge " - ==See Also== The Strange Timestamp In The New Novichok 'Evidence' By Moon Of Alabama Today, in a politically convenient moment, the British government released new information about the poisoning of the British spy Sergej Skripal, his daughter, and three other persons. It claims to have identified two men with Russian passports who arrived in London from Moscow on March 2, went to Salisbury on March 3 on a 'reconnaissance' trip, came back to Salisbury on March 4 to put Novichok poison on the doorknob of Skripal's home and flew back from London to Moscow on the same day. The names of the men were given as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov which are Russian language equivalents of Joe Smith and Sam Jones. These names are likely false. The police says that CCTV pictures were taken at several steps of the men's travel. The British news agency Reuters seem to distribute these. Several media have picked up copies. Here are screenshots of two CCTV pictures, taken from an 18 picture gallery in a report by The Independent headlined Salisbury poisoning suspects are Russian state assassins, Theresa May tells MPs. These are pictures 7 and 8 of a 18 picture gallery within that piece. ,
Pic 7 of 18 - full, uncropped screenshot ,
Pic 8 of 18 - full, uncropped screenshot (Update: The pics are also available at the Metropolitan police site: 1, 2.) Notice that the time stamp on both pics is identical, 02/03/2018 16:22:43. But the pictures show two different men, each walking alone through the same part of a jet bridge as they arrive in Britain. How can it be that both of these pictures were taken at the exactly same second? And who tilted the permanently installed CCTV camera between the two shots? How did the camera angle change between pic 1 and two which were apparently taken at the very same place and at the very same time? If these two pictures can not be trusted how much can one trust the other CCTV pictures the Met showed to support its claims? The full statement of the Metropolitan police is here. Excerpts of Prime Minister Theresa May's statement are here. While May claims the two men were send by Russia's military spy service GRU, the Metropolitan police makes no such claims. Theresa May did not say on what evidence she based her conclusion. There seems to be none. It also seems a bit curious that a 'Russian assassin' team, allegedly from a highly professional secret service, would travel together and use direct flights from Moscow to London and back. That seems extraordinary careless. Why not fly separate and via a third country? And why would a professional assassin team drop a cellophane wrapped, unopened perfume bottle with the same poison into a charity bin behind shops in Catherine Street in Salisbury where Charlie Rowley would find it some 14 weeks(!?) later? The police says that it found traces of Novichok in the crappy hotel the 'Russian agents' stayed in between March 2 and March 4. It found those traces on May 4 but it waited until today to publicly ask other guests at the hotel to contact the police? If the incident was a professional assassination attempt with a highly potent 'Novichok' compound why did 4 out of 5 people who came into contact with it survive? The 80% failure rate is inconsistent with the scary tale about the highly potent 'Russian' Novichok poison. A decent dose of Megachok is probably more lethal. ,
bigger Sergej Skripal has not been seen in the public or even on video since the incident happened. His daughter Yulia Skripal appeared in a British government hostage video but then vanished. The Russian Embassy in London says that it has no access to them. The policeman, who allegedly was also injured during the incident, also never reappeared in public. Why are these people held incommunicado and under arrest? This article was originally published by " Moon Of Alabama " - ==See Also== https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/09/the-impossible-photo/ Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy
Cristiano Ronaldo is the highest-paid player in Serie A and earns three times more than any other player in the entire Italian league, according to a report published by Tuttosport.
The Portuguese star has been in the headlines in Italy since his 100m (88m/$117m) move to the Bianconeri in the summer.
Despite his failure to score after 3 games which has attracted lots of criticism it comes as no surprise that Ronaldo is top of the rankings when it comes to earnings, but the wage gap between the Juventus star and the rest of the league is mind-boggling to say the least.
Italian newspaper, Tuttosport, have revealed the wages of all Serie A players, with the 33-year-old taking home far more than any of his team-mates or rivals.
Ronaldo is earning an astonishing 31 million (28m/$36m) per season in Turin and is on a four-year deal with the reigning Serie A champions.
This makes the five-time Ballon dOr and Champions League winner the biggest earner in the league, and he earns more than three times as much as anyone else.
In a distant second place is Gonzalo Higuain, who joined AC Milan from Juve after Ronaldo arrived in Turin, raking in 9.5 million (9m/$11m) per season.
After Higuain, it is fellow Argentine attacker and Juventus star Paulo Dybala on 7m (6m/$8m), with Italys Miralem Pjanic not far behind on 6.5m.
Unsurprisingly, Juventus wage budget is far greater than any other teams in the division.
Massimiliano Allegris men are currently spending a whopping 219m (197m/$253m) per season on player salaries alone, while AC Milan are next as they hand out 140m (126m/$162m) per year.
Roma are in third place, with their spending reaching 116m and 100m (90m/$116m) respectively.
Empoli are the lowest spending team in the league with modest expenses of just 16m a season.
How some northerners prevented Azikiwe, Ekwueme from being president PDP presidential aspirant Bafarawa
Director-general of president Muhammadu Buhari re-election campaign, Festus Keyamo(SAN) has thrown a subtle shade at former Vice president Atiku Abubakar. Atiku, a presidential aspirant has been a heated argument with Vice president yemi Osinbajo over restructuring.
Atiku, who has promised to restructure Nigeria, if he is elected president in 2019, had criticised Osinbajos stance on restructuring, saying Osinbajo got it wrong, a publication the present VP has since replied.
Human rights lawyer has fired some shots at the former Vice president saying he never mentioned the first letter of restructuring, while he was in office but now pretends to be a champion.
Keyamo, in a Twitter post on Wednesday, further said that Atiku, while in office, was preoccupied with restructuring his party in order to take control of it to become president.
He wrote:
Nollywood actress, Anita Joseph has said she is not only a snack but also a full bakery.
The curvy actress said this as she shared some new and lovely photos on her Instagram page. Sharing the photos, Anita Joseph wrote;
Some women areOnce in a lifetime
Type of Females,there is no upgrade after her
tag dat strong woman if you agree
blessings
See photos below;
https://instagram.com/p/BnTgadalqhu/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_loading_state_control
Anita Joseph was recently linked to Sugar Daddy in a viral report that he bought her a house in South Africa.
According to online report, the owner and CEO of All Seasons Hotel Owerri has built a solid love nest for himself and his love interest Anita. The two have been alleged to be in a romantically linked relationship for the past 6 months despite series of attempts to cover it up from the prying eyes of the public
The Hotelier and the actress have been recently spotted in Johannesburg, South Africa at a wine tasting event and the lover boy with Instagram handle @mykeikoku has been lavishing his money on Anita and their love nest is in a paid for secret location in Johannesburg.
It was gathered that Anita Joseph recently confided in a close friend that she is enjoying the luxury of the love with Mr Lover boy, because of his generosity and kindness and whispered about the house he recently bought her, a penthouse apartment in Sandton, South Africa .
It is also whispered that the actress receives luxury gift or steady bank alert from the smitten lover boy, every passing week.
A Nigerian woman has become a graduate at the age of 61 and social media users have been impressed by the development.
A photo of the woman in her academic gown was shared online by her son who announced that she had become a graduate.
Sharing the photo on Twitter, the son identified as Palizawa Yasuke, told his followers that his mother is 61 years old. He also congratulated her for achieving the incredible feat.
He wrote: Congrats to my Momma for graduating with a Biology Degree at 61
Many followers who were clearly impressed by the womans achievement, have joined her son, Palizawa, in congratulating her.
Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe(R) meets with Singapore's Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant-General Melvyn Ong(L) in Beijing on Sept. 5, 2018. (mod.gov.cn/Mu Ruilin)
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe met with Singapore's Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant-General Melvyn Ong Wednesday in Beijing.
Wei, who said relations between China and Singapore have been steadily consolidated and deepened, expressed China's willingness to work with Singapore to strengthen high-level strategic communication as well as push forward practical cooperation in fields such as joint exercises and training and exchanges between think tanks.
He also said China stands ready to make joint efforts with Singapore to promote the two countries' partnership of comprehensive cooperation and actively safeguard regional peace and stability.
Ong said Singapore values China's role in international and regional affairs and is willing to strengthen cooperation with China, increase strategic trust between the two sides, and boost the development of the two countries' military relations.
Police officers allegedly from a unit called the Inspector General of Polices Special Tactical Squad, were said to have invaded the home of elder statesman, Edwin Clark on Tuesday, with a warrant to search for weapons. According to Mr Clark, while recounting the incidence said At about 12:30 pm when they came to me that policemen were waiting for me, I asked, what for? They said they had a warrant to search my house. I asked them to come in.
Some were outside and I learned they came with two vans.
I asked them, do you know me? I am an old man going to 92, I have been a Federal Minister of Information, been a senator and you think that Im piling weapons?
I told them to go ahead with their search. They searched all the rooms but found nothing. They wrote their report and asked three of my people to sign and they left.
Although, the IGP Idris Ibrahim has apologised to Clark over the Tuesdays raid of his Abuja home, Nigerians have continued to drop their two cents on the matter.
PRESS RELEASE
RE- SEARCH OF THE HOUSE OF ELDER STATESMAN, CHIEF EDWIN CLARK BY THE POLICE TODAY, 4TH SEPTEMBER, 2018.
IGP sends high powered delegation of a DIG and other Senior Police Officers to apologize to the Elder statesmanhttps://t.co/GLobHnePSW pic.twitter.com/RR0fPdCrhS Nigeria Police Force (@PoliceNG) September 5, 2018
Many lambasted the present administration and the IGP for always feigning ignorance whenever something they should have a grip on, occurs. According to them, someone gives these orders, saying it only shows leadership failure when top government officials deny having any knowledge about something that they clearly should.
See reactions below
Sometimes I wonder how gullible Buharists are. Now some Buharists are saying that @bukolasaraki sent the police to invade Chief Edwin Clarks residence, to score cheap political gain. These people are brainwashed. Im hung up on this!!! ije1 (@ije12002) September 5, 2018
https://twitter.com/TWEETORACLE/status/1037287336143466497
The truth is that the #IGPIdris can't deny d fact that he's not aware of the embarrassment towards Edwin Clark,d apology means nothing because the deeds has been done ,shame to @PoliceNG who don't see the political thieves to go aft,wht abt @HMKemiAdeosun ? Wiser Marshall (@WiserMarshall) September 5, 2018
Big question.. so what if Edwin Clark was killed, they will end up saying, they didn't give orders, and they don't know who gave orders.
Who is actually this unseen commander? MR BASSEY (@donjossy) September 5, 2018
IGp is always feigning oblivion whenever he carries out his dirty works and it goes south
He doesn't know about Saraki's blockage
He doesn't know about Edwin Clark's home raid
So many transmissions with no source Mr Copacetic (@Needl_es) September 5, 2018
IGP Idris didn't send the Police to block Saraki's convoy
IGP Idris didn't send the Police to invade the Benue State House of Assembly
IGP Idris didn't send the Police to raid the home of Pa Edwin Clark
IGP Idris should honorably resign since he's not in control of the Police CAPTAIN (@UtohPaul) September 5, 2018
Reno Omokri, a former aide of former president Goodluck Jonathan has reacted to the high cost of the All Progressives Congress(APC) nomination form. The APC announced that its expression of interest form for presidency is N5,000,000 while its N45,000,000 for nomination form for the same category.
Reacting to the cost, Mr Omokri has said that the presidential nomination form of the ruling party is too expensive and as such, mocks the #NotTooYoungToRun Act, that was recently signed by president Muhammadu Buhari.
Omokri, in a Twitter post on Wednesday stressed that Nigeria needs a #NotTooPoorToRun Bill following the high cost of the APC nomination form for presidency.
He Wrote:
Dear @OfficialAPCNg 45 million for a Presidential nomination form is too expensive. You make mockery of the #NotTooYoungToRun Act. Your nomination forms cost 4 times what @OfficialPDPNig charges. Nigeria needs a #NotTooPoorToRun Bill because of what you are doing #RenosDarts Reno Omokri (@renoomokri) September 5, 2018
Also reacting is Kola Ologbondiyan, National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP). Ologbondiyan says such huge amount to purshase nomination forms in the ruling party would definitely encourage corruption.
According the National secretary of the main opposition party, writing via Twitter on Wednesday said, the candidates, if elected would do all they can, to recoup their investment. He wrote:
A couple who met in secondary school got married over the weekend, more than a decade after they first met, and theirs seem to be an interesting and unique love story.
The groom, Udeh Vincent Chukwunonso, revealed that he met his bride in secondary school when her elder sister handed her over to him, asking him to be her school father and watch over her. He fulfilled the promise he made to watch over his school daughter until he graduated.
They remained friends after they graduated and got married on Saturday, September 1, 2018.
Sharing photos of them as kids in secondary school and as adults getting married, the groom wrote :
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a step. We started as innocent friends, school father and daughter. Today, we stand as man and wife in what seem like a script written by God & foretold by the prophets. I am eternally grateful to Adanna Immaculate Osahon who requested that I watch over her younger sister in school. I have fulfilled my promise and will do so forever.
See photos below.
Speaking at a town hall meeting in Minnesota, the United States of America, Nigerian Vice president, Osinbajo had said the problem of Nigeria was not geographical restructuring but prudent management of national resources.
The Vice President had also noted that the prudent management of the nations resources and the provision of essential needs of the people were better ways of addressing Nigerias development challenges.
Problem with our country is not a matter of restructuringand we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into the argument that our problems stem from some geographical restructuring, he had said.
But Abubakar on Saturday faulted the stance of his successor, stressing that the current Vice President got it wrong on restructuring.
In an open letter he personally signed and sent to DAILY POST, Osinbajo insisted that restructuring in whatever shape or form, will not mean much if our political leaders see public resources as an extension of their bank accounts.Speaking at a town hall meeting in Minnesota, the United States of America, Osinbajo had said the problem of Nigeria was not geographical restructuring but prudent management of national resources.
The Vice President had also noted that the prudent management of the nations resources and the provision of essential needs of the people were better ways of addressing Nigerias development challenges.
Problem with our country is not a matter of restructuringand we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into the argument that our problems stem from some geographical restructuring, he had said.
But Abubakar on Saturday faulted the stance of his successor, stressing that the current Vice President got it wrong on restructuring.
In an open letter he personally signed and sent to DAILY POST, Osinbajo insisted that restructuring in whatever shape or form, will not mean much if our political leaders see public resources as an extension of their bank accounts.
A mother of three, Ronke Olanrewaju, has threatened to poison her husband if a customary court fails to dissolve their marriage.
The aggrieved wife had approached the Oja-Oba Customary Court, Mapo, Ibadan, Oyo State, seeking divorce from her husband, who she described as abusive and violent.
Ronke told the court that her husband, Sunday Olanrewaju, beat her up anytime he saw her with male customers, adding that each time the police were brought in, he would boast that he was a prominent politician.
A mother of three, Ronke Olanrewaju, has threatened to poison her husband if a customary court fails to dissolve their marriage.
The aggrieved wife had approached the Oja-Oba Customary Court, Mapo, Ibadan, Oyo State, seeking divorce from her husband, who she described as abusive and violent.
Ronke told the court that her husband, Sunday Olanrewaju, beat her up anytime he saw her with male customers, adding that each time the police were brought in, he would boast that he was a prominent politician.
She said, My lord, he also beat up my mother like a baby. Separate us now, or else, I will poison him. Each time I discuss business with male customers, he would beat me and say they were my lovers.
However, the husband, Sunday, begged the court to sustain the marriage, saying his wife was like a mother to him.
The President of the court, Chief Henry Agbaje, fixed September 18, 2018, for ruling.
(Geary, NB September 4th, 2018) As the adage goes, it aint over til its over.
Nathan Blackburn (Timberlea, NS) can attest to that as he led a half lap en route to his first Maritime League of Legends Tour win of his young career. Blackburn won the King Freight Lines 50 INEX National Qualifier on Saturday evening at Speedway 660, becoming the fourth different winner and first Fleet Brake Atlantic Rookie of the Year contender to win an overall feature in 2018.
Craig MacDonald (Waverley, NS) was well on his way to a fifth Tour win of 2018 at a venue he wanted to win at more than any other on the schedule. MacDonald had a trailing arm bracket break with just two laps remaining in the event, sending the No. 98 car into the Turn Three beach and out of the event.
While MacDonald and his fans were heartbroken and deflated after the parts failure, in turn, it set up one of the wildest finishes in Maritime League of Legends Tour history.
Michael Cormier (Grand-Barachois, NB) ran strong all night and kept MacDonald on his toes over the waning laps. When MacDonald broke, it appeared that Cormier would race his way to his first Maritime League of Legends Tour victory. Cormier would lead the final restart to green with Blackburn to his outside and Sam Rogers (Lower Onslow, NS) to his back bumper. They raced hard into the first two corners, with Rogers able to get to the inside and pass Cormier coming to the white flag. Rogers would slip up the track in the second corner on the last lap enough for Blackburn to position his car to the inside of the No. 12. The two raced side by side through the final corners with Blackburn edging Rogers by a half car length for the win.
This is unbelievable, said an excited Blackburn in victory lane. Sam and I raced clean and I came out with my first win. We couldnt have done this without the opportunity from Bryan Naugle, his team and our sponsors.
Rogers and Cormier completed the all Fleet Brake Atlantic Rookie podium at Speedway 660 in the King Freight Lines 50. Point leader Shelby Baker (Fall River, NS) finished fourth and expanded his point lead with one race to go in the Series. Austin MacDonald (Pictou, NS) came home fifth in the 14-car field.
Austin MacDonald and Craig MacDonald drove to victory lane in heat race action for the Maritime League of Legends Tour.
Sam Rogers swept Bandolero competition on the weekend to win his third consecutive Tims Corner Motorsports Bandolero Blast. Rogers won the 20-lap INEX National Qualifier on Saturday from behind after the car shut off on the pace lap and failed to fire. Once the field took the green, Rogers was a half lap behind the field but was able to catch up and pass Owen Mahar (Hubley, NS) for the lead prior to a caution with three laps to go in the race.
Rogers, after winning his heat race on Sunday, started scratch on the six car field and wasted little time getting to the front to sweep the action on the weekend. Mahar was second again on Sunday while Dylan Dowe (Bedford, NS) was third. Chase MacKay (Bear Cove, NS) was strong in his first appearance to Speedway 660, finishing a close fourth on both races while Nyk Pothier (Halifax, NS) and Ayden Christensen (Windsor Junction, NS) rounded out the field.
The Maritime League of Legends will close their 2018 season with the Atlantic Fleet Completion Centre 50 at Scotia Speedworld on Saturday, September 15th.
For complete information on the Maritime League of Legends Tour, please visit MaritimeLegends.ca.
About King Freight Lines:
In 1975 President, Mr. Roland (Rollie) MacDonald formed MacDonalds Excavating as primarily an excavating company. Growth into the transportation side of the business was progressive and in 1986 the name of the company was changed to King Freight Lines Limited to better reflect the now dominant transportation side of the business. King Freight Lines, based out of Pictou NS, now operates throughout Canada and the United States with a fleet of modern equipment. For more information please visit www.kingfreight.com or call toll free 902.485.8077
About The Maritime League of Legends:
The Maritime League of Legends Association was formed in 2005 by a group of racers wanting to grow the Legends Cars division in the Maritime Provinces of Canada. In 2018, the Maritime League of Legends Tour will visit five venues throughout Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island between May and September during its ten race season. For more information on the Maritime League of Legends, please visit www.maritimelegends.ca.
About Speedway 660:
Speedway 660 is one of Canadas premier stock car racing facilities. Located in New Brunswicks Fredericton region, it attracts race teams and fans from the Maritimes, New England and Quebec. The Speedway 660 racing season runs from mid May until Labour Day Weekend. SpeedWeekend, one of the most prestigious short track events in eastern North America, wraps up Speedway 660s racing season.
Arthur J. Gallagher (AJG) has acquired Super Advice Corporate Services and Personal Advice Services, collectively known as Super-Advice, in a move that is aimed at fortifying the global insurance brokers presence in Australia. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Established in 2002, Super-Advice offers employee-benefits consulting and corporate-advisory services with a special focus on corporate superannuation and employee-group insurance.
Could what happened in Brazil happen here? In some ways, absolutely, Krmpotich told The Canadian Press.
If we think about shifting weather and climate change, absolutely this is something we should be thinking about in Canada.
Associate chief librarian Loryl MacDonald of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto said the institution receives enough support from donors. Although the risk of damage always exists when it comes to handling some of the worlds rarest books, MacDonald said that the university is well-prepared for such uncertainties.
I believe a lot of the issues in Brazil revolved around not getting the financial resources they need, so knock on parchment paper that we wouldnt have the same incidents here, she remarked.
Fortunately for big institutions such as the University of Toronto, they have reasonable access to funding. But the same cannot be said of smaller museums and municipal heritage sites, Krmpotich pointed out.
Its hard to convince funders, whether its government funding bodies or philanthropists or government funding agencies, to fund basic core operations, she noted.
Smaller institutions also lack conservation staff, which are badly needed following a disaster.
When a fire broke out years ago at a First Nations cultural community centre on Vancouver Island, archival institutions across the province pitched in to help preserve the collection.
Thanks to the incident, an initiative to create a province-wide network of conservation responders was born. The initiative has yet to handle an archival crisis, but Heidi Swierenga of the Museum of Anthropology says the network gives archivists more confidence.
Weve not had any incidents, but what we have is peace of mind, Swierenga commented.
Lets just say MOA had a big flood, I would be able to pick up the phone and call conservators and theyd be able to say, Yeah, well be there right away.
Related stories:
Chubb strives to go above and beyond with disaster response
Art insurance needs brokers to think outside the box
In a recent feature, The New York Times reported that only 13% of California homeowners have earthquake insurance, despite the states aggressive advertising campaign to push for the coverage. Citing data from the California Department of Insurance, the news outlet also noted that less than one out of 10 commercial buildings are insured these buildings range from low-rise office buildings to high-rise towers.
Most new buildings are not buying it all, said Arthur J. Gallagher area vice president for San Francisco Justin Dove. He added that some companies are self-insured, but many think earthquake insurance is too pricey.
Scientists say the big one is a certainty, especially since California lies in an area with multiple geological faults the most infamous being the San Andreas Fault, which scientists say the mega quake will originate from.
But even scientists are stumped as to why many Californians continue to ignore earthquake insurance.
What are we going to do when no-one has insurance and everyone has damage? remarked University of California, Berkeley earthquake expert Mary Comerio. Im terrified of whats going to happen.
Earthquake insurance is not part of standard homeowner policies in California, and only a few banks require homeowners to purchase the coverage.
Swiss Re disaster specialist Alex Kaplan has called earthquakes the largest uninsured exposure from a natural disaster in the US.
According to the New York Times, the median price of a home in California is now above $500,000 estimates of the potential uninsured damages following an earthquake could hit hundreds of billions of dollars.
Kuala Lumpur cityscape
Im trying to see us maintain our competition, said an experienced indirect tax manager at a multinational oil company, who said she had been working weekends to get ready in time for SST, which replaced the unpopular goods and services tax (GST).
We dont want to be any less competitive from our competitors [and] we want to make sure we are in line with the legislation, she told International Tax Review.
It is difficult for businesses to be patient when profits, reputation and market share are on the line.
As well as the uncertainty around how legislation and included/excluded item lists will develop, companies are struggling with a lack of guidance and having to make changes very quickly.
Adding to the uncertainty is the fact that much of the legislation is still in draft form. Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng has said that the government could still change its mind on whether some goods will be subject to the SST, but businesses are having to muddle through regardless.
We will study all of these, he said, referring to prawns, bicycles and motorcycles under 250cc. We have been going around listening to feedback from the people. Some are asking that certain items affected by the SST be taken off the list. As a concerned government, we will do the needful.
Be patient, added Lim, after a briefing on SST on September 1. Give us some time and we will make the necessary changes by years end.
Will companies be better or worse off?
The most immediate action companies should take, if they have not done so already, is to analyse whether or not they need to be registered for SST.
The SST framework is a more targeted regime that only applies to manufacturers of taxable goods or persons providing specific taxable services, said Yvonne Beh, partner in the tax practice group of Wong & Partners, which is a member firm of Baker McKenzie. Hence, not all businesses who were previously registered under the GST would need to be registered under the SST regime.
Many businesses will find that fewer, or even none, of their products are subject to SST. For those that were subject to GST, this will save a lot of time on compliance and allow for more competitive pricing as tax does not need to be applied.
Beh pointed out that the SST will bring in MYR 21 billion ($5 billion) less than GST did for the Malaysian government. Industries that will benefit include real estate and construction because SST does not apply to the sale of properties and may not apply to the leasing of heavy machinery.
The scope of the SST is narrower than the GST, said Saravana Kumar Segaran, partner at Lee Hishammuddin Allen & Gledhill. Almost 60% of goods under the consumer price indexare exempted from sales tax while only a prescribed list of exhaustive services are taxable. For instance, consultancy, IT, management and engineering services are all taxable services but there is no guidance under legislation as to the scope of such services.
However, most businesses expect to be worse off. While GST has an input tax credit mechanism effectively allowing the tax burden to move down the supply chain and ultimately be passed to the end consumer SST has no such mechanism.
A particular industry which will likely be impacted will be the automotive industry as there will be a 10% sales tax rate for most imported motor vehicles and vehicles manufactured in Malaysia, said Beh. The retail sector will also likely see some impact from sales tax, in particular, imported luxury goods.
The oil industry tax manager said: As an individual I am very, very sad because coming from a tax background I know the consequences. From a business perspective, as well, its definitely hitting the businesses because now service or sales tax has become a cost to the business.
Its affected our pricing, she added. Weve needed to renegotiate a lot of contracts.
Similarities to the old SST
The new SST regime, as it exists upon implementation and before any change, is largely similar to the old, pre-2015 SST. That is to say, it is two taxes sales tax and services tax and only listed items are subject to the tax, as opposed to GST where only listed items were excluded from the tax.
Irene Yong, partner at Shearn Delamore, said the difficulties for companies is the current period of transition from the GST regime to the SST, given the short time frame within which companies have to adjust.
However, there is a positive aspect. As far as software and IT systems are concerned, those which had been used for GST can be migrated and adapted for SST, hence some cost savings can be expected, she said.
Confusion
Such is the confusion around the re-introduction of SST that even customs officials have confronted restaurant workers, demanding to know why they are imposing SST, reported Malaysian news outlet New Straits Times.
All eateries making more than MYR 1.5 million per year must pay SST, unless they are situated in a free trade zone, special or tax-free area.
Dont fault these outlets, said Lim. They are just being responsible and abiding by the law.
The situation is in stark contrast to the 2015 introduction of GST, which was conducted smoothly for businesses at least, but there were individuals rioting in protest and with plenty of lead time.
The law has been brought out very, very hastily, said the oil industry indirect tax manager. Its the same body, the same tax authority that was [administrating] GST. When they rolled out GST I thought they did a very good job, I thought they were very organised.
The Malaysian tax authority did a great job because there was a lot of information available on the website, there had a lot of programmes where people were able to have sessions and dialogue, [the authorities would] speak to them, get their view and clarify their position.
The very quick switch from GST back to SST is necessary for political reasons. The now-ruling Pakatan Harapan party, led by Mahathir Mohamad, swept to an unprecedented victory. Key to its success was a promise to repeal GST, which was deeply unpopular with poorer Malaysians, and replace it with SST.
The tax authority now, moving from GST to SST, we can see that they are rushing because they have a deadline, the indirect tax manager added.
The bills received Royal Assent on August 28, just four days before becoming effective and further tinkering is likely until the end of the year, as Lim has stated.
Up-to-date versions of the proposed legislation, in both English and Malay, can be found on the dedicated Malaysia Sales & Service Tax website. The website also includes full lists of which goods and services are affected, and which regions are exempt for which aspects of the sales and services taxes.
The material on this site is for financial institutions, professional investors and their professional advisers. It is for information only. Please read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy before using the site. All material subject to strictly enforced copyright laws. 2021 Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. For help please see our FAQ.
Share this article
Germany, seeking to rein in internet giants like Google and Facebook, plans to bolster the powers of its competition watchdog to prevent such companies from becoming monopolies even before they achieve scale.
The initiative, announced on Tuesday, could include blocking big players from taking over smaller rivals and follows up on a pledge by Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition to curb big U.S. internet companies which, in the eyes of many German lawmakers, have become too powerful.
"My goal is to make our competition law more effective," said Economy Minister Peter Altmaier. "In doing so we must find the right balance between the growth chances of German and European platforms and preventing the abuse of market power."
A 173-page study commissioned by Altmaier calls for the German antitrust regulator to be given powers to act before a company reaches a critical 'tipping point' on the way to becoming a monopoly -- something that can happen quickly on the internet due to the way it functions as a network.
This could, for example, include cracking down on attempts to prevent 'multihoming,' where a platform company requires its business partners to work exclusively with it, but not with any of its competitors.
In a second proposal, the study's authors argue that the regulator should be able to stop big players from taking over smaller rivals as part of a strategy to sideline competitors.
College of Agriculture and Life Science's first candidate for Dean Daniel Robison gives his presentation on his plan for Iowa State in the Cardinal Room of the Memorial Union. "I want to be a part of your team," said Robison.
While Apple prepares itself to launch the 2018 iPhone XS lineup next week, Samsung is seemingly preparing itself to unveil its foldable smartphone to the public later this year.
The Korean companys CEO DJ Koh told CNBC that the company will provide more details on its foldable smartphone later this year. There have been plenty of rumors claiming that Samsung will release its first foldable smartphone this year.
DJ Koh said that its time to deliver on a foldable device after consumer surveys carried out by Samsung showed that there is a market for that kind of handset.
Samsungs mobile chief, however, failed to provide any more information about the foldable smartphone and how the foldable display will function. He only said that while the development process of the foldable smartphone is complicated, Samsung is nearly done with it.
Samsung is now expected to provide more details about its foldable smartphone at its Samsung Developer Conference in November. However, it is entirely possible that we will only see Samsung provide details and a glimpse at its foldable smartphone at its developer conference. The company can also do a limited launch, with the device being available in limited quantities and only in certain markets. Samsung used a similar tactic with the Galaxy Note Edge before the curved OLED technology became a part of its flagship Galaxy S and Note handsets.
At IFA 2018 last week, Koh said that the foldable smartphone should offer a meaningful experience otherwise it will not find any takers. It remains to be seen how Samsungs first foldable smartphone is going to be like and how the foldable display will be implemented.
You can use most of the uses on foldable status. But when you need to browse or see something, then you may need to unfold it. But even unfolded, what kind of benefit does that give compared to the tablet? If the unfolded experience is the same as the tablet, why would they (consumers) buy it?, Koh said at the IFA electronics show in Berlin last week.
Are you excited about Samsungs first foldable smartphone? Do you think it will live up to the hype or it is just going to be a gimmick just like the companys curved OLED displays?
[Via CNBC
The United States promises to "respond swiftly and appropriately" if Syria uses chemical weapons in Idlib province, the last rebel stronghold in Syria.
The White House said Tuesday it is "closely monitoring" the fate of Idlib, where it said "millions of innocent civilians are under threat of an imminent... attack" by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. It said President Donald Trump "has warned that such an attack would be a reckless escalation of an already tragic conflict."
The White House said it "will continue to work tirelessly with its allies to find a lasting diplomatic solution to resolve the hostilities in Syria" under a United Nations Security Council resolution.
Russia and Iran back the Assad regime and say they support Syria's efforts to retake Idlib. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Idlib is a pocket of terrorism and that the situation there is undermining efforts to find a political resolution to the Syrian conflict.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry said Idlib should be cleared of "terrorists" and that reconstruction efforts and the return of refugees should go forward. Syria, Russia and Iran use the word "terrorists" when talking about Syrian rebels.
There are about 3 million people in Idlib, and the UN said it is worried about the potential humanitarian toll that may come with a Syrian military campaign there. Trump warned Syria in a tweet Monday night to not "recklessly attack" Idlib. He also called on Russia and Iran to show restraint.
Gilgit Baltistan Council Secretariat Jobs 2018 in Islamabad
Latest Gilgit Baltistan Secretariat Management Posts Islamabad 2021 Gilgit Baltistan GB Council Secretariat requires the services of highly qualified, dedicated and well educated individuals for various position in Islamabad Pakistan 2018.
How to Apply on Gilgit Baltistan Secretariat 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.
Telephone: 051-9217028
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.
Muslim Hands Pakistan NGO Job 2018 in Sargodha
Latest Muslim Hands NGO Posts Sargodha 2021 Muslim Hands Pakistan NGO required highly qualified and well educated candidate for the posts of Program Officer Education & Sponsorship in Sargodha District Punjab 2018.
How to Apply on Muslim Hands 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.
President Moon Jae-in talked with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump for about 50 minutes on the phone on Tuesday evening to discuss Wednesday's trip to Pyongyang by five senior South Korean officials.
"Improvements in inter-Korean relations and reduction of tensions on the Korean Peninsula will contribute to achieving denuclearization and building a permanent peace framework on the peninsula," Moon said according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom.
The trip comes as Trump's vague agreements with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are unraveling and Trump canceled a trip to Pyongyang by his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last month.
Trump expressed hope that another inter-Korean summit will not only improve ties but lead to the implementation of his agreements with Kim and future talks.
They agreed to meet at the UN General Assembly in late September, which Kim is not expected to attend despite an earlier invitation from Trump.
North Korean scientists have published a computer system research paper in a South Korean journal, a first time for North Korean scholars.
The August issue of the English-language journal Transactions on Internet and Information System of the Korean Society for Internet Information carries the paper by six North Korean authors led by Prof. Ri Il-nam of Kim Il-sung University and Prof. Choe Song-il of Huichon University of Technology.
Titled "Improved Hybrid Symbiotic Organism Search Task-Scheduling Algorithm for Cloud Computing," it discusses how to increase the speed of performance of cloud technology to store files.
The North Koreans agreed to publish the paper here in an e-mail in April. They sent the paper on July 4 after overseas peer review and editing.
The KSII notified the Unification Ministry of the plan since the law requires all contacts to be reported.
In the e-mail, the North Korean scientists also expressed hope of future joint research in the field.
North Korea operates a dedicated army of hackers who have repeatedly attacked South Korean and other international websites.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will miss North Korea's founding anniversary on Sunday and send instead Li Zhanshu, the chairman of the National People's Congress and the third-highest official in the politburo.
The Chinese Communist Party on Tuesday said Li will head a delegation arriving in Pyongyang on Saturday.
Li ranks just below Premier Li Keqiang in the party hierarchy and is considered to be Xi's right-hand man, so sending him relieves Xi of the burden of visiting North Korea at a time when denuclearization talks have hit a fresh impasse while allowing North Korea to save face.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has disappeared from public view for the time being and his moment in the limelight of international diplomacy seems to have come to an end.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that there are no plans for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim to meet at the Eastern Economic Forum scheduled in Vladivostok next week, to which Kim was invited.
Kim also has no plans to attend the UN General Assembly late this month despite an earlier invite from U.S. President Donald Trump.
A government source here said, "If he planned to travel to the UN, that would have been confirmed by now and his de facto chief of staff Kim Chang-son would have traveled to the U.S. already."
The last time he was seen in public was on Aug. 20.
Every time we talk about electric vehicles, theres one question spring into our mind: "How far is the cruising range?" In fact, many people have a misunderstanding in this respect, that is, a vehicle with high rated cruising range is not necessarily able to run far. Especially in the extremely cold, extremely hot and high-altitude environment, the actual cruising range of electric vehicles will be attenuated. Turpan, located in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwestern China, is the largest dry and hot environment exposure test site in China. In the test area in August, the temperature reaches 44 C, and the land surface temperature exceeds 60 C, which is a huge challenge to the performance of EV. And today I will work with engineers from BAIC BJEV to see what kind of answers they will make after receiving the tough challenges of their products in the high temperature of 45 C in Turpan in midsummer.
The high-temperature test in China is usually conducted in Hainan province and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, which are located in the southernmost area and the northwest of China respectively. This time, BAIC BJEV chose to test its models in Turpan where the annual average temperature and the annual maximum temperature are the highest and longest-lasting, and where the annual rainfall is the least.
What is the aim of testing vehicles in high temperature?
Compared to fuel vehicles, the motor, battery, and electronic control system of pure electric vehicles is more sensitive to temperature. Especially in a high-temperature environment, the working status of the battery and the performance of the vehicle will be greatly affected, and even the charging speed will be greatly slowed down. Once the battery continues to overheat, there is even a risk of spontaneous combustion. Therefore, it is vital for EVs to control their own temperature in a high-temperature environment.
How is the test being conducted?
After some detailed and efficient training, we can't wait to come to the test site to start testing. The protagonist of this time is the upcoming model of BAIC BJEV. (currently, is the engineering test car)
Turpan is also called Flaming State where the high temperature and drought has caused the grass and trees to be difficult to grow. On the testing day, the land surface temperature reached 64.2 .
The sun's exposure heats the land surface to an extremely high temperature, enabling eggs to be fried without fire under this kind of environment.
Since the local traffic control department does not allow the test vehicles to enter the downtown area of Turpan, it is necessary to apply for a pass in the on-site test.
The high-temperature test is not simply expose vehicles under the sun blindly. It has to use devices to test the sunlight intensity.
The sensors on the body are used for thermal balance tests to test the performance of the vehicle under high temperature conditions and whether some parts will have other changes or be invalid in the high-temperature environment.
The sensors used to test the internal temperature are placed at the center console, the rear seats', the feet area and the roof.
Sensors are also placed outside the body and in the engine compartment to record real-time temperatures.
Since the temperature is varying inside the car, in order to check the temperature of the passenger's possible position, sometimes the temperature sensors were had to be placed on the engineer's head, left and right shoulders, left and right hands, left and right knees and legs. And at this time, the total number of sensors placed will reach more than 100.
Regardless of quick charge or slow charge, starting and charging in a high-temperature condition is an indispensable test for NEVs.
The thermometer was placed inside the car for 5 minutes and the reading showed that the temperature inside the car reached an astonishing 72.2. Sitting in the car in such an environment, only 3-5 seconds will the passengers feel uncomfortable and even unable to breathe.
Engineers of BAIC told us that the high-temperature test of BAIC BJEV will last 40 days, the hottest time from July to August. The road test is about 8000 kilometers in total, that means driving almost five or six hundred kilometers a day under the hot environment is needed. Sometimes, air conditioners are not allowed to be turned on for testing accuracy.
Pulling & Sand and Dust Test
Even though there is beautiful scenery at Gobi deserts, engineers have no time to enjoy it. They need to travel to and from such sections of roads every day for carrying out various tests, data collection, and inspection of vehicles rigorously. What they can feel most is tedious work.
Pulling test refers to using a tow rope to connect the front and rear vehicles. During the driving process, the rear car brakes intermittently which is to quickly increase the load and heat up the motor to check the working conditions of the front vehicle in such situations.
Meanwhile, engineers need to bring GPS devices to record the real-time location of the vehicle, and the recorded driving track also helps engineers to troubleshoot the fault.
Although the air conditioner was turned on during the driving process, as long as it was off, the inside temperature would rise from more than 30 to more than 40 in a few minutes. The big internal and external temperature difference makes passengers easy to catch a cold.
When the vehicle is driving in a high-temperature condition, the discharge power of the battery pack, the motor temperature and the output power of the motor will be affected. In order that the system can better adapt to a high-temperature environment, it is essential to test the best condition and operating efficiency of the vehicle in high-temperature conditions.
At the same time, Turpan is also a best site for sand and dust test. The sand here is thinner than that in other places which can be used to examine the sealability of the vehicle.
When conducting sand and dust test, the smell of the dust will not be noticed inside the car when air conditioners are in closed-loop. After the test, no obvious sand and dust can be seen at air vents, interior door frame and floor margins.
Summary
The safety of EVs is the result of complex technologies and technological achievements, and it is also a comprehensive test for the overall integrated R&D system of automotive manufacturers. As a veteran new energy company, it can be seen that BAIC has a completed high-temperature test system to verify and calibrate its own products. Through this test in Turpan, we can see that how a pure electric vehicle maintains its stable performance in an extremely hot environment. The cruising range and the safety performance of a vehicle in extreme environments are all important inspection indexes for EVs.
GRANTS PASS, Ore. Josephine County's lawsuit against the state of Oregon over an ongoing marijuana debate has been dismissed, according to a statement from the County released on Tuesday.
The County filed suit at the beginning of April following their defeat at the Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA)where local pot farmers fought back against a new ordinance that would have restricted growing for certain property owners. The defining factor in that case, however, hinged on the County's failure to properly inform property owners of the new ordinance.
Following the LUBA loss, the County drew up their lawsuit against the stateand argued, essentially, that Oregon could not enforce marijuana's legality in Josephine County when the federal government continues to prohibit the substance.
County legal Counsel Wally Hicks said on Tuesday that the County was "seeking answers to significant legal questions that had been the subject of vast speculation" when they filed the lawsuit.
Federal magistrate judge Mark D. Clarke's dismissal of the case represents a resounding refusal to hear the argument:
"Finally...the Court is unpersuaded by Josephine County's argument that the State is 'requiring' it to 'aid and abet a federal felony.' The County has provided no evidence to the Court that it has attempted to ban any and all marijuana use and production," the judge wrote in his dismissal opinion.
"Apparently the County is only worried about aiding and abetting federal felonies on certain kinds of land and not others," wrote Judge Clarke.
Judge Clarke also wrote that the LUBA decision against the County had little to do with marijuana and did not represent the state intervening on behalf of marijuana, since the ruling hinged on the County's failure to adequately notify constituents of the new ordinance.
In other, similar cases, Clarke wrote, LUBA has frequently sided with countieswith no dispute from the state.
However, County legal counsel Wally Hicks put a positive spin on the decision.
For basically the cost of a $400.00 filing fee and staff time, Josephine County has obtained invaluable clarity on the subjects of marijuana legalization and Home Rule in Oregon," said Hicks. "The courts ruling seems to extend much further than the single topic of marijuana regulation. But this decision could be writing on the wall that the federal government will soon drop marijuana to a lower schedule.
"While the courts may, at some point in the future, have to grapple with the conflict between state and federal laws regarding marijuana," concluded Judge Clarke in his opinion, "the issue must be properly presented and ripe for adjudication. Such is not the case in this instance."
Daayitwa completed their 8th cohort of the fellowship program marking the end of their summer program that started in June. The concluding event was held at Yala Maya Kendra and was graced by the presence of Tham Maya Thapa, Minister for Women, Children and Senior Citizen.
Speaking on the occasion Minister Thapa said If we want to make inclusive economic development in Nepal it is impossible to fulfil that dream- without the participation and determination of youth. I want to congratulate Daayitwa for endeavouring in an intervention that gives youth a platform to interact with the government.
The Daayitwa Nepal Public Service Fellowship Symposium celebrated the journey of the eleven fellows who worked with the Government of Nepal during the summer to produce meaningful research on Access to Investment, Womens Economic Empowerment, Enterprise Value Chain, Youth Employment and Governance and Bureaucracy Reform. The fellows had exhibited the findings of their research at the Yala Maya hall.
A panel discussion was also conducted during the event which talked about research and significance of evidence-based policy which was moderated by Apurba K.C, Leadership Research Officer at Daayitwa while the panellists consisted of Neha Rajbhandari and Nischal S. Bhandari both Daayitwa fellows of 2018 and Shalini Gupta, Research Officer.
It also organized two cafe conversation in Womens economic empowerment and Youth Employment participated by the various guests present at the program.
Since, 2013, 89 Daayitwa fellows have worked with 20 public agencies and 25 parliamentarians to support high-priority projects. The organization has been partnering with the Government of Nepal to identify and apply innovative methods of research to find evidence for promoting entrepreneurship and strengthening governance.
The Daayitwa fellowship program is still one of the few fellowship programs available for students and young professionals in Nepal. The application for the Daayitwa Fellowship program will begin again early next summer.
Sebelum Anda bermain, Anda perlu mengetahui apa yang Anda butuhkan untuk masuk ke dalam permainan roulette kasino online ini. Jika Anda sudah mendaftar di situs judi casino online dan sudah memberikan user ID, login terlebih dahulu dan pilih menu live casino yang tertera di situs judi tersebut. Pertama pilih dealer dan putuskan sendiri, lalu pilih meja atau kursi di dalam ruangan. Jika namanya tertera dan berwarna coklat, maka kursi tersebut sudah ditempati oleh pemain lain, dan pilihlah kursi kosong berwarna hitam.
Kasino Roulette adalah salah satu permainan paling populer di situs perjudian kasino. Jadi dalam permainan ini kamu harus menebak angka berapa yang akan keluar. Ada 36 nomor berbeda dalam permainan populer ini di mana sebuah bola kecil diputar dan dilemparkan ke dalam mesin roulette. Anda harus menebak dari mana bola kecil itu masuk dan di nomor berapa ia berhenti. Ada banyak jenis pilihan angka dari 0-36, dan mereka dihitung secara berbeda. Sebagai agen casino terpercaya, panduan permainan roulette ini juga memberikan informasi tentang jenis pilihan dan nama permainan roulette casino online sebagai berikut:
Jika Anda ingin bermain roulette di situs kasino online, caranya sangat sederhana. Anda dapat bermain di Kasino ION, Kasino Sbobet, dan Situs Kasino. Di bawah ini adalah artikel panduan bermain di mana Anda dapat mempelajari roulette langsung dan memainkannya di situs judi online mana pun.
tangkapan layar
Sebelum Anda bermain, Anda perlu mengetahui apa yang Anda butuhkan untuk masuk ke dalam permainan roulette kasino online ini. Jika Anda sudah mendaftar di situs judi casino online dan sudah memberikan user ID, login terlebih dahulu dan pilih menu live casino yang tertera di situs judi online tersebut. Pertama pilih dealer dan putuskan sendiri, lalu pilih meja atau kursi di dalam ruangan. Jika namanya tertera dan berwarna coklat, maka kursi tersebut sudah ditempati oleh pemain lain, dan pilihlah kursi kosong berwarna hitam.
Panduan Bermain Online Kasino Roulette
Kasino Roulette adalah salah satu permainan paling populer di situs perjudian kasino. Jadi dalam permainan ini kamu harus menebak angka berapa yang akan keluar. Ada 36 nomor berbeda dalam permainan populer ini di mana sebuah bola kecil diputar dan dilemparkan ke dalam mesin roulette. Anda harus menebak dari mana bola kecil itu masuk dan di nomor berapa ia berhenti. Ada banyak jenis pilihan angka dari 0-36, dan mereka dihitung secara berbeda. Sebagai agen casino terpercaya, panduan permainan roulette ini juga memberikan informasi tentang jenis pilihan dan nama permainan roulette casino online sebagai berikut:
1. Straight Up: Penempatan angka tunggal dari 0 hingga 36. Contoh perhitungan straight up adalah mengalikan taruhan dengan 35. Ini adalah jenis taruhan tertinggi dalam permainan roulette kasino, jadi 50 dikalikan dengan 35 memberi Anda 1750, mengapa jenis taruhan ini menghasilkan pengembalian yang begitu tinggi? Hal ini karena tidak mudah untuk memenangkan pilihan nomor dengan memilih hanya satu nomor dari banyak.
2. Taruhan split: Jenis taruhan yang ditempatkan pada dua angka atau di antara dua angka yang berbeda. Misalnya, menempatkan di sela-sela angka 9 dan 12 atau 13d dan 14 dihitung sebagai jenis taruhan split. Setiap nomor dapat ditempatkan dalam jenis ini selama nomor tersebut berdekatan dan persis seperti Gambar A dan B. Untuk taruhan ini, jika Anda memenangkan contoh dan mengalikannya dengan 850, Anda akan menerima jumlah taruhan yang dikalikan dengan 17. .
3. Taruhan jalanan: bertaruh dengan 3 angka ke bawah, misalnya 1,2,3 atau 10,11,12. Semua taruhan jalan akan menerima kemenangan dikalikan dengan 11. Misalnya, 50 dikalikan 550.
4. Taruhan sudut: Jenis taruhan di mana empat angka ditempatkan saling berhadapan, seperti 13,14,16,17 atau 19,20,22,23. Semua angka valid karena terdiri dari 4 angka yang diisi seperti kotak dan taruhan dikalikan 8 (misalnya 50 kali 800).
5. Taruhan baris: Atau, Anda dapat mengatakan bahwa ada 6 jenis taruhan yang terdiri dari 2 baris, tetapi 6 poin dengan 2 peregangan, seperti taruhan jalanan. Misalnya, jika Anda memilih angka 7 hingga 12 dan 13 hingga 18, taruhan 50 adalah 5 kali dan kemudian dikalikan dengan 250 kemenangan.
6. Kolom Inner Bet: Jenis taruhan vertikal dengan 12 poin berturut-turut, seperti kolom numerik 1,4,7,10,13,19,22,25,25,28,22,24,34 atau kolom lainnya. Dan jika dia memenangkan kolom, 50 taruhan digandakan dan 100 taruhan.
7. Lusin : Jenis taruhan menempatkan 12 angka tetapi menempatkannya pada kotak berbentuk seperti contoh Kolom A dengan angka 1 sampai 12 dan odds dengan kolom lain untuk dipilih dengan memilih 1 kotak pertama untuk Kolom A. Kalikan dengan 2, 50 taruhan 100.
8. Zero part : Cara bertaruh 0.1,2,3 sama persis seperti di gambar, karena berdekatan dengan angka 0, anda hanya bisa bertaruh 0.1,2,3. Menempatkan taruhan ini mengalikannya dengan 50. hingga 8.
9. Zero Corner: Bertaruh pada angka 0.1,2 atau 0.2,3 adalah dua pilihan karena Anda hanya bertaruh mendekati angka nol. Jenis taruhan ini dikalikan 11 jika taruhan menang.
10. Two Dozen: Jenis taruhan dengan hanya dua pilihan: 1-18 atau 19-36. Jika taruhan Anda adalah 50, itu dikalikan dengan 1 hingga 50 jika Anda menang.
11. Merah atau Hitam: Masukkan taruhan Anda dengan memilih Merah atau Hitam sebagai warna angka yang muncul saat taruhan 50.
12. Genap/Ganjil: Pilih angka yang menghasilkan jumlah jenis taruhan ganjil.
Many of major Nepali and English broadsheet dailies published from Kathmandu on Wednesday have given the top priority to the statement of Nepal Communist Party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal that his party is closely watching the performance of ministers, hinting his partys another Chairman and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is likely to reshuffle the Cabinet soon. On the other hand, some newspapers have made the lead story from statements of Prime Minister Oli during the House of Representatives meeting yesterday.
Statements made by Minister for Federal Affairs and General Administration Lalbabu Pandit during a meeting of a parliamentary committee yesterday about the staff adjustment in the federal structure have also been prioritised.
Meanwhile, some other sociocultural and economic issues have also been featured on the cover pages of Kathmandu broadsheets today.
Important
Dahal hints at Cabinet reshuffle
Two chairpersons of the ruling Nepal Communist PartyOli and Dahalare reviewing performance of the ministers in the Cabinet in a bid to reshuffle it so as to increase efficiency, according to newspaper reports.
Dahal informed about the preparations during a press meeting he organised in Khumaltar of Lalitpur yesterday.
We are not thinking that some ministers should not be removed, Rajdhani quotes him to say, We will take strong initiatives if the ministers make people hopeless and the party a failure.
TU cancels exams after question leak
Lead stories in Naya Patrika and Nagarik have reported that the Tribhuvan University on Tuesday cancelled the examinations of Foundations of Education and Advanced Educational Psychology conducted this Sunday and Tuesday respectively after finding that the questions were leaked before the tests.
In a conversation with Naya Patrika, Professor Hom Nath Bhattarai accepted that he was responsible for the leak and expressed readiness to face action.
Controversial persons also get national awards
President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Tuesday conferred various awards and medals on total 344 persons which were announced on this years Republic Day, according to Gorkhapatra.
Republica adds that some of the persons receiving the award are controversial and notorious. They include former Chief Justice Gopal Parajuli, suspended SP Bidyananda Majhi, tainted businessman Rajendra Khetan, plagiarism accused TU Vice Chancellor Tirtha Khaniya and former Chief Secretary Som Lal Subedi.
Naya Patrika has also carried a story about Majhi.
Ignored
Speaker leaving for China while Parliament is under pressure
Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara is leaving for a China trip this Friday while the Federal Parliament is under pressure to adopt various laws so as to ensure implementation of provisions of fundamental rights by September 19, Nepal Samacharpatra reports in a four column story.
The Speaker is scheduled to stay in China for one week and it will directly affects meeting of the House of Representatives, the report adds.
Govt rejects Nepali Armys investment proposal
Karobar reports that the Ministry of Defence has rejected the proposal of Nepali Army to make investments in profitable industries through its welfare fund citing such activities will tarnish the professional image of the national military organisation.
Earlier, media had reported that the Nepali Army wants to amend the Army Act so as to expand its business activities in multiple sectors.
Gold smuggling probe report gathers dust
It has been more than one month since a committee formed by the Ministry of Home Affairs formed to investigate into the smuggling and disappearance of 33.5 kg gold and subsequent murder of one of the mules submitted its report to the government. However, the report has not been forwarded to any agency for implementation. It has been kept at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, according to Nagarik.
Demonetised Indian banknotes unlikely to get exchanged
As the central bank of India is preparing to close the chapter of demonetised banknotes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations, the notes worth INR 100 million are likely to remain unused in Nepal, The Himalayan Times reports in its anchor story.
The Reserve Bank of Indias report released recently mentions that 99.3 per cent of scrapped notes have been returned to the formal banking system, suggesting the exchange process will stop now.
Govt adopts soft approach to NGOs
Owing to criticisms from various walks of life, the government has withdrew from its position about activities of national and international non-government organisations, Republica claims in a four column story.
In a plan to woo NGOs and civil society organisations, the National Planning Commission on Tuesday organised a consultative meeting with them and assured the government will work together with them incorporating their suggestions, according to the report.
Interesting
Chitwan police offer chocolates to traffic rule violators
A four column anchor story in Kantipur reports that traffic police in Chitwan district have begun distributing chocolates and snacks to people violating road discipline. Police have claimed it will make them feel embarrassed and consequently they will change their behaviours.
It is negligence to violate rules even when you know them. Therefore, we have distributed chocolates to embarrass you, the report quotes Bed Prasad Gautam, Chief of the District Police Office.
GLENDALE, Ore. -- The city of Glendale is using a new historic marker to honor its Jewish past in hopes that it makes an impact on the citys future.
The historical marker was donated by the Jewish-American Society for Historic Preservation and was installed in Memorial Park just a few weeks ago.
City Recorder Dawn Russ said even before it was put in place, the history of the town was obvious.
You cant mistake it around the town, Russ said. Theres Montgomery Avenue, Sol Abraham -- the streets are named after a lot of his family and everything. Theres a lot of history, and people are very aware of the history. It wasnt a surprise. It was just an added bonus.
According to an article by Jewish-American Society President Jerry Klinger, historical documents show the Glendale area was once a settlement called New Odessa.
Settled by Russian-Jewish immigrants escaping the rule of Alexander III, Solomon Abraham and others established the New Odessa settlement.
City Councilor Ted Grissom said he hopes the historical marker helps educate more people about the citys rich history.
I think it brings the awareness of the people working together, understanding the history and the background, Grissom said. A lot of us didnt really understand it or know it as well as we can now.
The settlement disbanded by 1888 due to religious and political differences, and Glendale was later established.
City Councilor Judy Cass said theyre looking forward to their upcoming dedication ceremony.
Solomon Abrahams great-granddaughter is going to be with us for the celebration next week, and were excited about that, Cass said. Were excited that shes able to make the trip, and maybe she can even add things that we dont know about.
The city is holding an official dedication ceremony for their new historical marker Sept. 12 at 1 p.m. in Memorial Park across from the post office.
JUNCTION CITY, Ore. -- Governor Kate Brown visited students at Junction City High School Tuesday to learn more about their career and technical education programs.
One of the highlights of the tour was the newly remodeled culinary arts classroom. This was thanks to the CTE Revitalization Grant from the Oregon Department of Education. Students said they are excited to learn in a kitchen thats even nicer than some of theirs at home.
Learning how to cook and even how to clean the kitchen properly afterwards is one thing that you really need to learn, and the ins and outs of a kitchen, said Leah Eley, a senior at Junction City High School.
Eley said she wants to own her own restaurant someday, so a program like this really helps her feel ready to move forward with that dream. Brown said so many other students also realize their path through CTE programs, and because of that those programs drive up graduation rates.
The students said to us, 'I didn't know what I wanted to do. I came into this class, I'm learning how to weld, and now I know what I want to do.' It gives them the encouragement and the motivation to graduate from high school, Brown said.
Along with that, Brown said these kinds of programs help fill Oregon's need for skilled trade workers.
I think it's really important that there be a level of coordination between the private sector and our high schools to make sure that the career and technical education programs are meeting employers needs, Brown said.
Brown also got to tour the construction of a brand new building at Junction City High School. This building will house several new CTE programs, including a media center.
WASHINGTON -- President Trump described Attorney General Jeff Sessions as a "traitor" and "mentally retarded" to aides, according to excerpts published from an explosive new book by veteran journalist Bob Woodward.
It's just one anecdote from Woodward's 448-page book, "Fear: Trump in the White House," based on hundreds of hours of interviews with current and past administration officials and documents, which gives a behind the scenes look at the Trump presidency, according to excerpts published Tuesday in the Washington Post.
While Woodward says the book comes from firsthand reporting, in a process he calls "deep background" he does not directly identify many sources for the quotes he includes. ABC News has not independently obtained a copy of the book, which is set for release on September 11.
The account of the book by the Post depicts the president as angry, frustrated, and paranoid about special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. The president reportedly lashed out at Sessions to former staff secretary Rob Porter for Sessions recusing himself from the Russia probe.
"This guy is mentally retarded. He's this dumb Southerner," Trump reportedly told Porter about Sessions. "He couldn't even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama."
The book says the president's former attorney, John Dowd, was concerned that the president would commit perjury if he sat for an interview with Mueller, according to the Post.
Woodward reports that Dowd told Mueller he was not going to let the president "sit there and look like an idiot." He was especially concerned about a transcript of the interview getting leaked and revealed to leaders overseas, Woodward wrote.
Dowd is quoted as telling the president, "Don't testify. It's either that or an orange jumpsuit."
Still, the president is quoted as telling Dowd he would be "a real good witness" despite later losing his cool during a practice session, according to the Post account, and saying, "This thing's a goddamn hoax," and "I don't really want to testify," according to the published excerpts.
Dowd issued a statement denying excerpts of Woodward's book in which he is included, saying he was inaccurately characterized and that he never called the president a liar.
"I have not read Bob Woodward's book, which appears to be the most recent in an endless cycle of accusations and misrepresentations based on anonymous statements from unknown malcontents," Dowd said. "I do not intend to address every inaccurate statement attributed to me but I do want to make this clear: there was no so-called 'practice session' or 're-enactment' of a mock interview at the Special Counsel's office," he said. "Further, I did not refer to the President as a "liar" and did not say that he was likely to end up in an 'orange jumpsuit." It was a great honor and distinct privilege to serve President Trump."
CNN, which said it also obtained an advance copy of the book, reports that Trump's attorneys believe him incapable of telling the truth.
"He just made something up. That's his nature," Dowd said to Mueller, according to CNN's account.
The book paints a picture of the president constantly at odds with his own advisers, including Secretary of Defense James Mattis and White House chief of staff John Kelly.
In a statement, the White House pushed back. "This book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. In her statement, she went on to list administration accomplishments and predicted a Trump win in 2020.
The White House was hard at work reaching out to many former aides who were mentioned in the book, encouraging them to issue statements to the media pushing back on the claims made by Woodward, multiple current and former White House aides told ABC News. Some of the aides out right declined those requests, sources said.
President Trump told Woodward in a phone call that he would have spoken to Woodward for the book, but he was not told about an interview request.
In a transcript of the call between Trump and Woodward released by the Washington Post, Woodward told the president that he spoke to "six or seven" people about getting an interview and put in a request with presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway and asked Trump ally, Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, to put in a good word for him as well.
Trump later acknowledges in the call that Graham briefly mentioned it to him. Woodward also says he sat down with Conway to discuss a Trump interview, according to the phone call transcript.
"It's really too bad, because nobody told me about it, and I would've loved to have spoken to you. You know I'm very open to you. I think you've always been fair. We'll see what happens," Trump said.
In the book, Woodward writes about Mattis and Kelly's frustrations about working with the president, at times defying his demands.
The Post writes that the president dismissed the importance of a military presence in the Korean Peninsula following a National Security Council meeting in January. Mattis became frustrated by the president's response, according to Woodward. "Mattis was particularly exasperated and alarmed, telling close associates that the president acted like and had the understanding of 'a fifth- or sixth-grader,'" Woodward writes.
Kelly also questioned the president's ability intelligence, according to Woodward.
"He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in Crazytown," Woodward reports Kelly as saying. "I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had."
But in a statement released by the White House, Kelly denied calling Trump an "idiot."
"The idea I ever called the President an idiot is not true," Kelly said. He added, "I spend more time with the President than anyone else, and we have an incredibly candid and strong relationship. He always knows where I stand, and he and I both know this story is total BS."
Woodward reports that aides tried to hide documents or information from the president that they felt could endanger national security.
"A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren't such good ideas," said Porter, according to CNN.
In one case, Mattis simply ignored the president's request. Following Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad's brutal chemical attack on his own people, the president reportedly told Mattis, "Let's f------ kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f------ lot of them."
After telling the president he would "get right on it," according to the Post, he then turned to an aide and said, "We're not going to do any of that. We're going to be much more measured."
Late Tuesday, Mattis, who was en route to India, also issued a statement.
"The contemptuous words about the President attributed to me in Woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence. While I generally enjoy reading fiction, this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility," Mattis said.
"In serving in this administration, the idea that I would show contempt for the elected Commander-in-Chief, President Trump, or tolerate disrespect to the office of the President from within our Department of Defense, is a product of someone's rich imagination," the statement said.
Home Just In Minister Pun off to Bangladesh to attend Energy Week events
Kathmandu, September 5
Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Barshaman Pun has left for Bangladesh to attend the Energy Week.
Minister Pun, who is leading the Nepali delegation, is scheduled to address the event and hold bilateral talks on energy exchange with Bangladeshi officials.
During the visit, he will also pay a courtesy call on Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and will meet the political leadership there. The delegation will return home on Saturday, September 8.
Kathmandu, September 5
The Indian consultant hired to preare the DPR for the Pancheswor Multipurpose Project has submitted a fresh repor to the Nepal-India joint authority overseeing the operations.
This comes two years after Nepal rejected the DPR prepared by WAPCOS saying that if implemented, the proposal would allow India to use almost all of the Mahakali waters to its advantage, at the expense of Nepal.
Pancheswor Development Authority CEO Chiranjivi Chataut said that the report was part of an ongoing process to reach an agreement to start work on the project. WAPCOS also says that the new DPR addresses the concerns of the Nepali side. However, it is not clear what changes have been made to the DPR.
The earlier report, presented in April, 2016, recommended that India be allowed to use have 78 per cent of Mahakali waters. both Nepal and India.
The Ministry of Energy had formed a committee under former secretary Sriranjan Lakaul to study the DPR and make recommendations. The committee reported to the Ministry in the last week of November, and the ministry to the authority on November 29, 2016.
The committee had noted three reservations:
AUSTIN, Minn. - While some schools are already back in session, others are heading back for their first day after Labor Day weekend, including Austin Public School students.
Neveln Elementary School student Lefrenomar Mungia is excited to be a fourth grader. "I'm also excited to see my friends," she says.
Austin Public Schools always start after Labor Day.
MASON CITY, Iowa - The November Election could get a little smoother at some local polling places.
At today's Cerro Gordo County Board of Supervisors meeting, interim auditor Pat Wright explained how RBM Election Support Services will be used after the auditor's office approved of retaining their services.
During the election, RBM will troubleshoot issues during ballot processing, assisting poll workers, result posting, post-election processing, and assisting with equipment that processes ballots that former auditor Riley Dirksen purchased before he resigned last month.
Mark Suby of Mason City says the $4,425 price tag for the three days worth of support is worth it.
"It's a good use of taxpayer dollars to make sure our elections are good and clean elections. It's imperative to democracy."
And he's also a supporter of the work that has been done.
"Ken Kline started all of this years ago, and everybody has a lot of faith in Ken, and it's continued on with the Cerro Gordo County Courthouse now."
Wright says that the expense for the three days worth of support has already been included in the budget, knowing that Election Day could be a 17 hour day.
CLEAR LAKE, Iowa A Cerro Gordo County man is facing charges for first-degree burglary and domestic assault.
Aaron Mitchell, 24, is being held in the Cerro Gordo County Jail on $25,000 bond.
Mitchell is accused of first-degree burglary stemming from a March 24 incident.
He is accused of entering a residence in the 400 block of Main Ave. in Clear Lake and intentionally assaulting the victim.
The domestic abuse charge stems from an alleged incident Sept. 3 in Mason City at 290th St. and N. Carolina Ave. where Mitchell is accused of strangling the victim and causing her to have difficulty breathing. The woman also suffered scratch marks on her neck, according to court documents.
Flood Warning
Areas Affected: Faribault; Freeborn
NWS Minneapolis (Southern Minnesota)
...A FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 200 PM CDT WEDNESDAY FOR FREEBORN...EASTERN FARIBAULT...STEELE AND EASTERN WASECA COUNTIES... At 415 AM CDT, Doppler radar had shown a decrease in rainfall since midnight. Since Tuesday morning, rainfall amounts of three to five inches fell across the warned area. This had led to rising creeks, streams and rivers across the warned area. Although no additional heavy rainfall is expected this morning, runoff is not complete. Therefore, area streams, creeks and rivers will remain high.
Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. Be especially cautious at night when it is harder to recognize the dangers of flooding.
Flood Warning
Areas Affected: Floyd
NWS LaCrosse (Southwestern Wisconsin, Southeastern Minnesota, and Northeast Iowa)
.Recent heavy rain will cause significant rises along the Cedar River. River forecasts take into account both observed and forecast precipitation. The Flood Warning continues for The Cedar River at Charles City.
* from this evening to Friday evening...Or until the warning is cancelled.
* At 2:30 AM Wednesday the stage was 5.9 feet.
* Flood stage is 12.0 feet.
* Minor flooding is forecast.
* Forecast...Rise above flood stage by this evening and continue to rise to near 14.9 feet by Thursday morning. The river will fall below flood stage by Friday morning.
* Impact...At 15.0 feet...Leland Avenue floods, and flooding on Park Drive and 19th Avenue is likely. &&
Do not drive cars into flooded areas. Remember, it only takes two feet of water to float most automobiles, including sport utility vehicles. Turn Around, Don't Drown! Additional river and weather information is available at... http://www.weather.gov/lacrosse .
Flood Warning
Areas Affected: Franklin
NWS DesMoines (Central Iowa)
The National Weather Service in Des Moines has issued a
* Flood Warning for... Southeastern Wright County in north central Iowa... Franklin County in north central Iowa... Northwestern Butler County in north central Iowa...
* Until 345 PM CDT.
* In the past 24 hours, a widespread 2 to 4 inches of rain has fallen across the warned area. Local Emergency Management and Law Enforcement officials have reported several road closures due to water over the roadways.
* Some locations that will experience flooding include... Hampton, Sheffield, Greene, Big Wall Lake, Dumont, Dows, Latimer, Coulter, Alexander, Geneva, Bristow, Rowan, Bradford, Hansell, Chapin, Popejoy, Aredale, Galt, Beeds Lake State Park and Hampton Municipal Airport. Additional rainfall amounts of one tenth of an inch is possible in the warned area through this afternoon.
Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. Please report flooding to your local law enforcement agency when you can do so safely.
Flood Warning
Areas Affected: Mower
NWS LaCrosse (Southwestern Wisconsin, Southeastern Minnesota, and Northeast Iowa)
.Recent heavy rain will cause significant rises along the Cedar...Turkey and Root rivers. River forecasts take into account both observed and forecast precipitation. The Flood Warning continues for The Turtle Creek Near Austin 3NW.
* from Wednesday morning to Friday morning...Or until the warning is cancelled.
* At 9:30 PM Tuesday the stage was 5.1 feet.
* Flood stage is 10.5 feet.
* Minor flooding is forecast.
* Forecast...Rise above flood stage Wednesday morning and continue to rise to near 11.5 feet Wednesday evening.
* Impact...At 10.5 feet...Minor flooding begins along the creek in Austin. &&
Do not drive cars into flooded areas. Remember, it only takes two feet of water to float most automobiles, including sport utility vehicles. Turn Around, Don't Drown! Additional river and weather information is available at... http://www.weather.gov/lacrosse .
ALBERT LEA, Minn. Freeborn County and mayo Clinic Health System representatives are still not seeing eye-to-eye on why services are being consolidated between Albert Lea and Austin.
At a public meeting on Tuesday, Mayo representatives updated the board on the project. They told the board theyre working on getting observation hospital beds in Albert Lea. They also are working with the county on opening a mental health care center.
But county commissioners and citizens who came to the public meeting are still unsatisfied with answers surrounding the labor and delivery and nursery services moving to Austin in 2020.
I just wish somebody would be honest and tell me why this decision was made, Glen Mathiason, 1st District Commissioner, said. I got my feelings on why it was made. But that's the way I feel about it, I had to say it. Because it really hurts this community.
Mathiason said for his constituents on the western side of Albert Lea, driving to Austin to deliver a baby, could be about 55 miles of travel.
Mayo representatives said one birthing center is more reasonable for services to continue in the future. They said recruiting and retaining physicians in the area is difficult. According to them, it takes about three years to recruit one OBGYN.
A new graduate from an OB wants to be busier. They want to maintain their skills and see complex cases as well, Dr. Sumit Bharga said.
I don't buy that, Dan Belshan, 2nd District Commissioner said. If they don't want to deliver babies here maybe we'll get someone who will from a different hospital.
The group Save our Healthcare also weighed in on the conversation. The group, formerly known as Save Our Hospital, spearheaded the effort to keep all of Mayos services in Albert Lea. SOH is now focused on restoring services, reducing healthcare costs, and taking back control of healthcare in the region.
Brad Arends is the chair of SOH and thanked the commission for hosting the public meeting. He also encouraged them to consider healthcare costs when talking to Mayo, in addition to access to services.
We have the highest health insurance rates in the state of Minnesota, Arends said. And it's only because of one reason. It's not because we're less healthy. It's because we pay more.
After the meeting Arends told KIMT the meeting went as he expected, saying no new information was offered.
In a statement following the meeting, Mayo representatives sent KIMT this statement:
We thank the county commissioners for the opportunity to speak with them today. We look forward to ongoing discussions with the county, city and community groups about the future of health care for residents of Albert Lea, Austin and surrounding counties in Minnesota and northern Iowa.
To learn more on what services can be found at each campus, updated information can be found here.
GARNER, Iowa A not guilty plea is entered in a case of drugs and identity theft.
Julian Taylor Washington, 20 of Garner, is pleading not guilty to possession with intent to deliver LSD, identity theft, and failure to use a drug tax stamp.
Police say they found roughly 42.5 grams of a substance containing LSD when they searched Washingtons home on August 3. Officers say the substance had been split into 104 doses. Washington is accused of using the name of a previous resident of his home to order the substance online.
His trial is scheduled to begin on November 28.
MASON CITY, Iowa Leaving a residential treatment facility is sending a Clear Lake man back to jail.
Matthew Ernest Andersen, 29, was serving time at BeJe Clark in Mason City for a domestic abuse assault conviction. He was admitted to the work release facility on February 27 and did not return to it on August 1. Andersen was recaptured on August 7.
He pleaded guilty to absence from custody, a serious misdemeanor, and has been sentenced to 180 days in jail. That time will be served after he now finishes serving his sentence for domestic abuse. Andersen must also pay a $315 fine.
CHARLES CITY, Iowa A man arrested three and months after police thought they caught him with methamphetamine is pleading not guilty.
Jeremy John Round, 35 of Mason City, was stopped for driving while suspended on May 4. Charles City police officers say they found a vial full of a liquid and nearly 50 grams of a substance they thought was meth. After tests at the Iowa Division of Criminal investigation confirmed they were meth, Round was arrested on August 15.
Hes pleaded not guilty to possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine. Rounds trial is set to begin on October 30.
ALBERT LEA, Minn. - An armed robbery from over the weekend at the Americinn (811 Plaza St.) is under investigation.
Albert Lea police said it happened at 8:54 p.m. Saturday when an unknown male brandished a handgun and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash.
Officers were not able to locate the suspect and no injuries were reported.
The suspect is described as a white male in his 20s and around 6-foot tall.
Another armed robbery in Freeborn County occurred Monday night.
County and city detectives are working together on a couple pieces of evidence to see if the armed robberies are linked.
ROCHESTER, Minn. - Rain damage is closing the eastbound lane of 2nd Street SW between 14th Avenue and 15th Avenue.
Rochester Public Works says heavy rains Tuesday damaged the Berkman Apartments construction site and the lane is being closed to allow the contractor to make repairs.
A temporary curb is being installed and the lane will reopen once city officials confirm it is safe for traffic.
One eastbound lane on 2nd Street SW remains open.
Previous story below
ROCHESTER, Minn. A construction site has partially caved in.
It happened Tuesday evening in the 1400 block of 2nd Street SW in Rochester, near the McDonalds.
Police say the sand/gravel was washed away by heavy rain, causing the cement barricades around the site to sink. The gravel was also washed out from underneath a 15 foot long section of the road. With the sinking of the barricades, water flowed into the construction site.
Rochester Public Works is blocking off the southern most lane of traffic for safety reasons.
AfricaRice is a CGIAR Research Center part of a global research partnership for a food-secure future. It is also an intergovernmental association of African member countries. For more information visit: www.AfricaRice.org
A propos dAfricaRice
AfricaRice est un Centre de recherche du CGIAR un partenariat mondial de la recherche agricole pour un futur sans faim. AfricaRice est aussi une association intergouvernementale composee de pays membres africains. Pour plus dinformations, visiter : www.AfricaRice.org
Kathmandu, September 5
Poland has proposed that a joint military drill be organised for capacity enhancement of the Nepali Army.
The proposal was made by Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Baszczak before Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Iswar Pokharel, who is currently on an official visit to Poland.
In response, Minister Pokharel said the Nepali government and the army were ready to provide staff commando training, mountain warfare training and para basic training to the Polish army, according to the DPMs press coordinator Lokendra KC.
On the occasion, DPM Pokharel also requested the Polish government to ease visa application procedure for the Nepalis traveling to Poland. He urged the Polish government to resume the MBBS scholarship that it had been granting to Nepali students until 1993.
OSAGE, Iowa - As students are heading back to school, one North Iowa school district is reminding drivers to watch out for children, or they could face some serious penalties.
The Osage School District has cameras mounted on the outside on the driver's side of each bus in order to catch drivers who may pass the extended stop sign arm when in use. The cameras are able to help get information such as a license plate number, make and model of the passing vehicle, and a brief description of the driver, with footage then given to law enforcement.
John Morische is a full-time bus driver for district, and says that he's noticed some careless drivers in the 13 years he's been behind the wheel for the district.
"Anybody driving through is too much. We've all had motorists that decide to drive through the red, and it's not good. We've been fortunate we haven't had injuries at our district, and I hope it stays that way."
While the cameras can be an expense, Moriche says the investment is worth it.
"It's a very important tool that we've used quite a few times. I would highly recommend it. I know they're not cheap, but it's another tool in the tool box."
In both Iowa and Minnesota, it is illegal to pass a stopped school bus (with the exception of a four-lane roadway in Iowa, or a roadway that is separated by a safety isle or zone in Minnesota). In Iowa, drivers are required to stop no less than 15 feet from the rear of the bus, and in Minnesota, drivers must stop at least 20 feet away.
In addition, both Iowa and Minnesota have recently passed or updated legislation regarding stopped school buses and motorists. In 2012, then Iowa Governor Terry Branstad signed into law Kadyn's Law after Kadyn Halverson of rural Kensett was hit and killed while crossing a road to get on a bus. Last year, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety enacted increased fines for those failing to stop.
ROCHESTER, Minn. - The task force formulated new boundary lines for Rochester Public Schools elementary students and presented their recommendation to the school board to receive feedback.
These boundaries would move three neighborhood areas currently attending Jefferson and Elton Hills, which are the two schools the most over-capacity, to attend Hoover and Churchill, which are under-capacity. Their goals are to try to keep students who walk to school at their neighborhood school as much as possible, and "attempt to relieve schools that are at a greater than 110% utilization level to schools that are at a less than 90% utilization level."
"That's just to get us through until something is built," explains Superintendent Michael Munoz. "They just want to get the boundary temporary fix done first, and then they'll start looking at options to address the overcapacity at our elementary and middle schools"
Now that the committee has received feedback, they'll bring their recommendation back to the school board to be briefed on September 18, and the board will vote on October 2.
Some concerns about the recommendations mentioned at the meeting include maintaining an economic and racial balance in their schools, and fairness in moving students around. Board members were also concerned about Franklin, which is also over-capacity. The task force explained that because the other schools near Franklin are also over-capacity, changing Franklin's boundaries would only shift the problem to a different school.
The boundaries will go into effect next school year. If the recommendation is approved, students currently attending a District Wide Option school will continue, and students who are currently transferring from their home school to another boundary school will also be able to continue to do so.
As of now, the boundaries will not affect middle or high schools, but one of the task force's next steps is looking at high school capacities.
After the new boundaries are established, Superintendent Munoz tells KIMT the task force will begin formulating a recommendation to build a new school or add on to existing schools to address RPS's overcrowding problem in a more long-term manner. They will be looking at sites and locations, options to increase capacity, and a referendum scope. Munoz expects they will present that plan to the school board in November.
FOREST CITY, Iowa - A woman is accused of embezzling more than $50,000 from a Forest City business.
Amy Lynn Richter, 49 of Titonka, is charged with 1st degree theft and two counts of forgery. The criminal complaint alleges that Richter used company credit cards, house charge accounts, payroll cash advances, and company checking accounts to steal $51,408.51 from Eddy's Glass and Door.
The crimes reportedly took place between May 23, 2017, and June 30, 2018. The forgery counts are for two company checks Richter is accused of issuing on May 26, 2017, without permission. The checks totalled $1,425.
Charges were filed against Richter on August 30 and she was picked up on a warrant in Forest City on August 31.
GARNER, Iowa - An accused Hancock County meth dealer is pleading guilty.
Carol Ann Hugo Daniels, 50 of Ventura, was arrested in June after law enforcement searched a home in Woden where Daniels was staying and says it found multiple pieces of drug lab equipment. Authorities said Daniels played a "large role" in Hancock County drug traffic.
She entered guilty pleas to possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine and distributing a meth precursor.
Daniels was sentenced to three to five years of supervised probation and must complete substance abuse and mental health treatment.
Exchange operator CME Group reports that metals volume averaged 626,000 contracts per day in August, which was up 1% from 622,000 in August 2017. Among the highlights, copper futures and options average daily volume increased 16% to 149,000 contracts. Average daily volume in gold options rose 29% to 57,000 contracts. On a rolling three-month basis, metals volume averaged 644,000 contracts during the period ending in August. This was down from 661,000 for the three-month period ending in July, 674,000 for the period ending in June and 680,000 for the period ending in May.
By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com
Metals Focus: U.S. Silver Powder Exports Strong But To Ease
U.S. silver powder exports were little changed year-on-year in June but were strong during the first six months of the year, says the consultancy Metals Focus. However, they are likely to wane in the second half of 2018. The first-half strength was in large part due to photovoltaic demand in China as companies rushed to finalize installations before feed-in tariffs were reduced at the beginning of June as a part of the governments policy announced earlier this year, Metals Focus says. However, the impetus this created has now led to a mismatch between PV demand and supply, which in turn has resulted in downward price pressure for finished cells, the consultancy continues. Meanwhile, other government policies now are weighing on the global PV industry, particularly U.S. import tariffs, Metals Focus explains. In the context of U.S. silver powder offtake, it therefore looks as though the second half of this year will see a much slower pace of fabrication demand, Metals Focus says. To put this into perspective, during [the first half], the volume of reported U.S. gross exports totaled 518t [tonnes], an increase of 29% y/y [year-over-year]. Furthermore, this was the highest half-yearly level since H1.11, when gross exports reached 714t. For calendar 2018, we therefore expect to see solid growth, but well below the H1.18 performance.
By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com
Commerzbank: Gold/Silver Ratio Hits Highest Level In Decade
Gold has been outperforming silver and platinum, with the gold/silver ratio this week climbing to its highest level in a decade, says Commerzbank. The ratio measures how many ounces of silver it takes to buy an ounce of gold, with a rising number meaning outperformance by gold, and vice-versa. Both metals were hurt Tuesday by a stronger U.S. dollar. The silver price dropped to $14 per troy ounce and the platinum price to below $770 per troy ounce, Commerzbank says. Besides a falling gold price, silver and platinum were dragged down by the weak base metals prices. As a result, the gold/silver ratio increased to over 84, its highest level in almost 10 years. The price gap between gold and platinum has widened to $415 per troy ounce.
Editor's Note: The article was updated to reflect a change in prices.
(Kitco News) - Gold and silver prices are modestly up and near their daily highs in early U.S. trading Wednesday. A sell off in the U.S. dollar index today is working in favor of the precious metals market bulls. December gold futures were last up $3.40 an ounce at $1,202.60. December Comex silver was last up $0.045 at $14.22 an ounce.
World stock markets were mostly lower overnight. U.S. stock indexes are also pointed toward lower openings when the New York day session begins. Global trade worries and the potential drag on the major economies of the world are weighing on equities this week. The U.S. and Canada are deadlocked on trade negotiations, while there are concerns the U.S. will slap more trade sanctions on China. Asian stock markets were also pressured today by weak economic data coming out of China.
Secondary currency markets, including the Argentine peso and Turkish lira, remain under pressure against the U.S. dollar. There are still worries this matter could turn into something more serious that impacts the global financial system.
In overnight news, the Euro zone composite purchasing managers index (PMI) came in at 54.4 in August versus 54.2 in July. The August reading was right in line with market expectations. A number above 50.0 suggests growth in the sector.
The key outside markets today find the U.S. dollar index lower after holding slight overnight gains. Meantime, Nymex crude oil prices are lower on a corrective pullback after hitting a 3.5-month high on Tuesday. Also, the storm in the Gulf of Mexico did not reach hurricane status, as some initially reckoned it would.
U.S. economic data due for release Wednesday includes the weekly MBA mortgage applications survey, the weekly Johnson Redbook and Goldman Sachs retail sales reports, the international trade in goods and services report, and the ISM New York report on business.
Technically, gold bears have the solid overall near-term technical advantage. Gold bulls' next upside near-term price breakout objective is to produce a close in December futures above solid resistance at last week's high of $1,220.70. Bears' next near-term downside price breakout objective is pushing prices below solid technical support at the August low of $1,167.10. First resistance is seen at Tuesday's high of $1,209.70 and then at $1,215.00. First support is seen at Tuesday's low of $1,195.10 and then at $1,189.50. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 2.0
December silver futures bears have the solid overall near-term technical advantage. Silver bulls' next upside price breakout objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at $15.00 an ounce. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid support at $14.00. First resistance is seen at $14.405 and then at Tuesday's high of $14.59. Next support is seen at Tuesday's low of $14.035 and then at $14.00. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 1.0.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A government shutdown for lack of funds will be avoided in coming weeks and the U.S. House of Representatives will vote in September on another round of tax cuts, Speaker Paul Ryan said on Wednesday.
Thats not in anyones interest, Ryan told reporters when asked about the possibility of a government shutdown, to which President Donald Trump has alluded.
Ryan also said the House will vote this month on legislation to make permanent the $1.1 trillion in temporary cuts for individuals, families and private businesses that are set to expire in 2025.
The House and Senate have been working on spending bills for fiscal year 2019, which begins on Oct. 1, in the hope of funding agencies and programs and avoiding the closure of some federal activities.
I think the results will prove itself, Ryan said.
In the past, Trump has expressed support for forcing a government shutdown in order to force Congress to approve full funding for a wall that he wants to build on the U.S. border with Mexico.
But in an interview with the Daily Caller on Tuesday, Trump was quoted as backing off on that threat.
Congress approved nearly $1.6 billion for wall construction this year and the House is pushing for an additional $1.8 billion next year - far below the estimated $25 billion needed for the project that is opposed by Democrats and many Republicans.
On taxes, Congress handed Trump a major, deficit-financed tax cut bill at the end of last year that is a central feature of Republicans bid to win the Nov. 6 congressional elections.
That law provided deep tax cuts for corporations on a permanent basis. A move by the House to make more of the cuts permanent could have a difficult time clearing the Senate.
Reporting By Richard Cowan and Susan Cornwell; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Alistair Bell
By Dong Sun-hwa
Taiwanese actor, musician and model Jasper Liu, also known as Liu Yihao, revealed that he is learning Korean so he can appear in Korean shows.
"If I have a chance, I want to work in Korea as well. Since there could be a language barrier, I am steadily learning Korean," the actor, 32, was quoted as saying before the "Seoul International Drama Awards" Monday.
Liu came to the festival as a presenter.
This is the third time he has visited Korea this year. He said he was glad to revisit Korea with his improved Korean.
Liu featured in the KBS 2TV reality show "The Return of Superman" in June. In it he met a three-year-old Korean boy, the son of a celebrity, in Taiwan.
"I had difficulty communicating with the boy," Liu said. "Through such an experience, I learnt the significance of language and began studying Korean."
Pronunciation is his biggest challenge. He has a private tutor, but sometimes has to take a rest midway in a lesson because it is so demanding.
"I am willing to take a role for a character that speaks both Korean and Chinese," Liu said.
The actor is a Taiwanese heartthrob who debuted in the drama "In Time with You" in 2011. He was catapulted to fame in Korea thanks to the film "Take Me to the Moon" in 2017.
There is speculation he might appear at the 23rd Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) that begins on Oct. 4.
A view of Powerlong Museum in Shanghai, China / Courtesy of Powerlong Museum
Director Xu pursues cultural dialogue through art
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Wendy Xu, executive administrator of Powerlong Culture / Courtesy of Powerlong Museum
By Dong Sun-hwa
My friends and colleagues, especially males, were envious when they were told I would have an extended interview over two days with Kim Soo-min, the 2018 Miss Korea. Some of them joked that they would do anything to trade roles with me. Of course, I rejected such proposals.
Three historic Catholic locations in central Seoul will be officially authorized by the Vatican as new world Catholic pilgrimage destinations, the Catholic Church's Seoul archdiocese said Wednesday.
They will be the first Asian sites to be added to the list of world Catholic pilgrimage destinations when the Vatican officially bestows the recognition on Sept. 14 in a ceremony near Seosomun Park in central Seoul, which is currently under construction.
The park area is one of the most symbolic Catholic sites in South Korea, as the greatest number of Catholics were martyred there in the final decades of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910).
The site is the starting point of the 5.9-kilometer "Pathway of Life" that leads up to the Gahoedong Catholic Church where the first Catholic mass was held in Korea.
The route, along with two other pathways in central Seoul, respectively 8.7 km and 29.5 km in length, will be granted Vatican recognition later this month, according to the Archdiocese of Seoul.
The three routes were initially designated in 2013 by Korean Roman Catholic Archbishop of Seoul Andrew Yeom Soo-jung ahead of Pope Francis' landmark visit to South Korea in 2014.
The Catholic Church's Archdiocese of Seoul will celebrate next week as "Korea Pilgrimage Week" and host 32 Catholic leaders from 13 Asian countries as part of the event. (Yonhap)
In this file photo taken on November 9, 2017 shows U.S. President Donald Trump (L) and China's President Xi Jinping leaving a business leaders event at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Trump on August 24, 2018 announced the cancellation of his top diplomat's upcoming visit to North Korea, while taking a swipe at China over efforts to disarm the nuclear state. Trump says China is not 'helping' with North Korea. AFP
China on Saturday lashed out at President Donald Trump for accusing Beijing of not being supportive in efforts to denuclearize North Korea, while South Korea called the U.S. decision to call off a trip to the North by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ''unfortunate.''
The reaction in Seoul and Beijing came hours after President Donald Trump directed Pompeo to delay his trip because of what he saw as a lack of progress on nuclear disarmament talks with the North. Trump also said the nuclear negotiations with North Korea have been hampered by a lack of support from China, which is the North's only major ally and is engaged in an intensifying trade dispute with the United States.
The Chinese foreign ministry blasted Trump's comments.
''The U.S. statement violates basic facts and is irresponsible,'' the ministry said on its website. ''We are seriously concerned about it and have made solemn representations to the U.S. side.''
Beijing supports ''advancing the process of a political settlement'' following the Trump-Kim meeting in Singapore, the statement said.
It appealed to both sides to ''show more sincerity and flexibility'' instead of ''being capricious and overly prejudiced.''
Meanwhile, while describing the postponement of Pompeo's trip as a setback, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said it expects China to continue serving a ''constructive role'' in international efforts to solve the nuclear crisis and noted that Beijing continues to express commitment to fully implement sanctions against the North.
''It's most important to maintain a long-term view while maintaining a momentum for dialogue and concentrate diplomatic efforts to faithfully implement the agreements from the summits between South Korea and North Korea and between North Korea and the United States, instead of attaching meaning to each change in the situation,'' the ministry said in a statement.
''While we consider the delay of the visit to North Korea as unfortunate, we believe it's most important for the North Korea-U.S. dialogue including Secretary Pompeo's visits to North Korea to contribute to substantial progress in complete denuclearization and the establishment of a permanent peace regime in the Korean Peninsula,'' the statement said.
South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa spoke with Pompeo over the phone and agreed that the allies should work to keep the atmosphere of dialogue alive, it said.
Trump's surprise announcement appeared to mark a concession by the president to widespread concerns that his prior claims of world-altering progress on the Korean Peninsula had been strikingly premature. Ending a period of animosity over North Korea's nuclear and missile development, Trump made history by meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore in June. But the meeting only produced a vague statement on a nuclear-free peninsula without describing how and when it would occur.
Post-summit nuclear talks got off to a rocky start, with North Korea accusing the United States of making unilateral demands on denuclearization. The North has been demanding that the United States ease or lift the sanctions that are crippling its economy. It also wants the United States to fast-track discussions to formally declare an end the 1950-53 Korean War, which stopped on an armistice and not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula technically at war.
Pompeo and other administration officials have suggested some concessions short of easing or lifting sanctions are possible before verified denuclearization, but have refused to be specific about what they could be. And they have been skeptical about an end-of-war declaration in the absence of any progress on the nuclear matter.
Trump's decision to call off Pompeo's trip is clearly a frustrating development for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who continues to push for inter-Korean engagement. Moon, who lobbied hard for the meeting between Trump and Kim, plans to visit Pyongyang in September for his third summit with Kim this year. Moon says improving relations between the rivals would be an important part of the global diplomatic efforts to resolve the nuclear standoff because Kim wouldn't give up his arsenal unless he feels safe.
The summitry has led to a variety of conciliatory steps between the Koreas, which have held military talks to reduce tensions across the border, agreed to open a South Korean liaison office in the North, and are currently holding highly emotional reunions between elderly war-separated relatives in North Korea's Diamond Mountain resort.
Moon has also proposed more ambitious ideas, such as reconnecting railways and highways between the Koreas, but the fate of such projects hinges on progress in negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang to denuclearize the North. (AP)
A chartered flight carrying President Moon Jae-in's special envoys takes off from Seoul Air Base early Wednesday. They will return later today. / Yonhap
South Korean President Moon Jae-in's special envoy headed to North Korea on Wednesday for talks on a proposed summit between Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, as well as ways to move forward stalled talks on ridding the North of its nuclear weapons.
Chung Eui-yong, head of the presidential National Security Office, left Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, along with four other delegates including National Intelligence Service Director Suh Hoon and Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung.
The same five members visited Pyongyang on March 5-6 for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that eventually led to the historic summit between Moon and Kim in the border village of Panmunjom on April 27, followed by a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader in Singapore on June 12.
Their trip to Pyongyang is aimed at making arrangements for what would be a third Moon-Kim summit. The leaders of the divided Koreas held their second bilateral summit in Panmunjom on May 26. The countries have agreed to hold the third Moon-Kim summit in Pyongyang this month.
"First, the delegation will seek to set a specific date for the South-North summit that the countries have already agreed to hold in Pyongyang in September," Chung told a press briefing Tuesday.
"Second, it will discuss ways to develop South-North Korean relations by implementing the Panmunjom Declaration," the top security adviser to Moon added.
The South Korean officials will also seek to remove an apparent stumbling block in denuclearization talks between the United States and North Korea.
Chung Eui-yong, third from right, head of the presidential National Security Office, poses with four other delegates before boarding the flight. On Chung's left is National Intelligence Service Director Suh Hoon and one his right is Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung. / Yonhap
Chung Eui-yong, front left, head of the presidential National Security Office, Suh Hoon, front right, chief of the National Intelligence Service, and other South Korean delegates walk to an aircraft at a military airport in Seongnam, south of Seoul, for a flight to Pyongyang on Wednesday. AP
By Park Si-soo
High-stakes talks between South Korean President Moon Jae-in's special envoys and their North Korean counterparts started in Pyongyang on Wednesday.
Cheong Wa Dae said a chartered flight carrying the delegates landed in the North Korean capital at 9 a.m.
The presidential office said the envoys were greeted by Ri Sun-kwon, chief of the North's unification committee, at Pyongyang International Airport and escorted to the Koryo Hotel in downtown Pyongyang. They had a tea meeting with Ri and Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the North's ruling Workers' Party Central Committee.
The tea started at 9:35 a.m. and ended at 10:14 a.m. The envoys were then taken to an unidentified location for a meeting around 10:22 a.m.
North Korean scientists wave the national flag during a military parade in Pyongyang's Kim Il-sung Square on September 9, 2013, to mark the 65th anniversary of the country's founding. AP-Yonhap.
By Jung Da-min
North Korea has pushed its achievements and highlighted the festive mood in the country four days before its Sept. 9 foundation day celebration.
The ruling Workers' Party of Korea mouthpiece Rodong Sinmun on Wednesday reported on the country's internal and external politics, economic and educational performance and the various events to mark foundation day.
In particular, the newspaper devoted two-thirds of its Wednesday edition four pages to highlighting the country's self-reliant economy and the greatness of its education systems, revealing national policy directions to strengthen the country's socialist economy.
Kim Jong-un's visit to the bier of Ju Kyu-chang, who was a key figure in the country's missile and nuclear weapons development, was covered on the front page, but there were no other reports on the country's military policy.
In April, Kim vowed to abolish the dual military-economic policy of "Byeongjin," which had dominated for the past five years, putting more of the nation's focus on pursuing economic strategies so it will be recognized as a "normal country" in the international community.
The decision, adopted at the third plenary meeting of the seventh Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee, stated that North Korea would stop nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests from April 21. This has been seen as part of moves for reconciliation with the South and the United States.
Since then there have been hurdles in discussions between the North and the U.S. over denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and declaration of the official end of the 1950-53 Korean War. But the North is not expected to provoke the U.S. by showing off ICBMs at the Sept. 9 military parade.
The newspaper also emphasized that the country's economy has performed well despite "appalling conditions," thanks to its people's unity and technologies, and encouraged them to unite against international sanctions.
Kim has been on a tour to point out what is wrong with the North's industries and factories, encouraging them to improve to increase output.
The paper also gave examples of mining and factory colleges to highlight the excellence of the national education system.
Li Zhangshu, chairman of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee and the third-ranking official in the ruling Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, will lead a delegation to the North for foundation day, the paper reported. The Russian delegation will be led by Valentina Matvienko, chairwoman of the Russian Federation Council.
By Lee Min-hyung
North Korea has repeated a call for the South and the United States to walk on similiar paths to speed up the declaration of the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, the regime's foreign ministry said Tuesday.
"The first step to build trust between Pyongyang and Washington is to declare the end to the war, as this will help establish a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula," Kim Yong-guk, head of Pyongyang's Disarmament and Peace Institute of its foreign ministry, stated on the institute's homepage.
He urged the U.S. to sign the declaration as soon as possible, as this will make smooth progress in the ongoing denuclearization dialogue between both sides.
"If both sides have the political willingness, it is reasonable for them to end the technical state of war on the peninsula first," the regime said.
The demand came a day before a five-member South Korean special envoy made their way to Pyongyang Wednesday to discuss timelines and agenda for the upcoming inter-Korean summit between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Nothing has been confirmed about whether they have met with the regime's young leader. But Cheong Wa Dae said the special envoys arrived in Pyongyang, Wednesday morning, and had a discussion with Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the regime's ruling Workers' Party Central Committee.
South Korea is in a position to play a role as a mediator between the ongoing denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang.
The regime called for the need to declare an end to the war as a priority to take the next phased steps for its complete denuclearization. But Washington is stepping up its diplomatic pressure against Pyongyang to take more sincere and verifiable denuclearization steps before calling for the declaration.
The regime's foreign ministry went on denouncing Washington for continuing to take a hostile policy against Pyongyang, which the regime says is the backbone of the ongoing nuclear problems on the peninsula.
"Without establishing a firm peace system on the peninsula, the relations between Pyongyang and Washington can never be improved," the North's ranking official said.
With Washington and Pyongyang standing in a political stalemate, the role for President Moon is escalating.
Expectations are that Moon and Kim Jong-un will hold their third summit this year in Pyongyang later this month. Both sides are expected to narrow their differences about the ongoing peace talks on the peninsula. No specific timeline has been fixed for their meeting.
President Moon Jae-in's special envoy delegation, led by National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong, second from left, with chief of the National Intelligence Service Suh Hoon by his side, arrive at Seoul Airport in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday evening, after visiting Pyongyang earlier in the day to deliver a letter from the President to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Yonhap
By Kim Bo-eun
President Moon Jae-in's special envoys visited Pyongyang, Wednesday, for crucial discussions with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un over a scheduled inter-Korean summit this month, as well as the North's denuclearization.
The delegation led by National Security Office (NSO) chief Chung Eui-yong delivered a personal letter from Moon to Kim, Cheong Wa Dae said. The envoys were greeted by top officials Kim Yong-chol and Ri Son-gwon after arriving at Pyongyang's Sunan International Airport early Wednesday, and returned to Seoul around 9:50 p.m. after a dinner reception.
Cheong Wa Dae did not elaborate on the content of the letter, stating it would brief the press today.
Chung told the press Tuesday that the envoys would "reach a specific deal based on the Panmunjeom Declaration." The declaration is a set of agreements reached between Moon and the North Korean leader in their first summit in April, where they agreed to work to declare an end to the 1950-53 Korean War within this year.
The presidential advisor said declaring an end to the war was a highly necessary step in achieving peace on the Korean Peninsula and denuclearization. "We will continue efforts to end the Korean War within the year," he said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, speaks to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Dalian in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, in this May 7 file photo. / AP-Yonhap
By Lee Min-hyung
With Chinese President Xi Jinping's reported Pyongyang visit this month canceled, expectations for smooth progress of North Korea's denuclearization has been brought back to square one.
On Tuesday, North Korean media outlets reported China's No. 3-ranked official, Li Zhanshu, will make a Pyongyang visit on Saturday as a special envoy of Xi.
Xi's non-attendance dampens erstwhile expectations that his visit may have served as a breakthrough to end the ongoing deadlock for denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.
"Li will pay a visit to North Korea to celebrate the 70th anniversary of its founding," the regime's Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
"He will lead China's special delegation by visiting North Korea on Saturday," it said without elaborating how long the envoys will stay in the regime.
Last month, a sign of hope prevailed here that September will be a "month of opportunity" to resolve the stalled denuclearization progress, as Xi as well as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were reportedly planning to visit Pyongyang.
But Pompeo's planned Pyongyang visit fell through at a time when the U.S. and the North continue to engage in a war of words for failing to come to terms with details in their denuclearization dialogue.
The absences of Xi and Pompeo are expected to pose a growing burden for President Moon who plans to visit the regime's capital city sometime later this month for a summit with Kim Jong-un.
On Wednesday, Moon's special five-member envoy led by National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong visited Pyongyang to discuss the summit agenda and its timeline.
Nothing has been confirmed about whether they held a meeting with Kim Jong-un.
For this reason, Moon is holding the key to find a breakthrough in the ongoing political stalemate between Washington and Pyongyang.
During the upcoming summit, Moon is expected to play a mediating role by listening to Kim Jong-un's message about the progress of the ongoing denuclearization and delivering it to U.S. President Donald Trump.
It remains to be seen whether Kim will maintain his peace posture at a time when Washington-Pyongyang relations show little sign of progress since the historic June 12 summit between Trump and Kim.
By Jung Min-ho
A Seoul appellate court on Monday upheld a lower court's three-year prison sentence for Hyosung Group Honorary Chairman Cho Seok-rae for evading taxes, among other crimes.
The Seoul High Court also ordered Cho, 82, to pay a fine of 135.2 billion won ($120 million). In January 2016, the Seoul Central District Court fined him 136.5 billion won.
The prosecution indicted him in 2014 on charges of misappropriating nearly 800 billion won in company assets through embezzlement, accounting fraud and tax evasion for almost 10 years from 2003.
For Cho Hyun-joon, his son and the group's current chairman, the court confirmed the lower court's 18-month suspended prison sentence for embezzling 1.6 billion won.
A performer plays at the floating stage at Yeouido Hangang Park. / Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government
By Lee Suh-yoon
Visitors to the Han River this month will be able to lie back along the river banks to enjoy outdoor evening concerts free of charge, as part of the city government's ongoing projects to benefit Seoul residents.
Every Friday and Saturday evening at the Mulbit (water light) Stage, a floating platform at Yeouido Hangang Park, the city will host music concerts of varying genres, including pop, R&B, jazz, rock and modern renditions of Korean traditional music, known as gukak.
The Han River, which runs through the middle of the capital, is the center of leisure and outdoor activities for Seoul residents.
The performances will start at 7 p.m. Fridays and 6 p.m. Saturdays, except for the last Saturday of September when the shows are scheduled from 4 p.m.
Some of the most anticipated events are gukak performances scheduled for Sept. 22 and 28, which will feature traditional instruments such as the gayageum and haegeum. The stage will also host a standup comedy show Sept. 21.
Residents can enjoy the outdoor performance lying down, as bean bags will be provided. Visitors can also bring along their own bean bags or picnic mats.
The music concerts will be followed by a screening of short K-drama clips entered in this year's Seoul International Drama Awards.
Visitors using public transportation can use exit two of Yeouinaru Station of subway Line 5 to reach the stage area.
On the same days, a set of smaller indoor concerts will take place further west along the river in a hall tucked beneath Gwangjin Bridge.
Inside the concert hall under Gwangjin Bridge, western Seoul. /Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government
By Lee Suh-yoon
Multicultural Family Music Broadcasting, run by Woongjin Foundation, celebrated its 10th anniversary at its studio in Mapo, northwestern Seoul, Wednesday.
The radio station was set up in August 2008 to cater to some 2 million foreign residents in Korea. According to the foundation, around 50 million listeners tune into the station every year through the internet.
The anniversary was attended by Raul S. Hernandez, Nguyen Vu Tu, Singtong Lapisatepun, ambassadors to Korea from the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand, respectively. Shin Hyon-ung, former deputy minister of culture and chairman of Woonjin Foundation, was also present.
The ambassadors directly participated in the radio broadcast on the day, and congratulated the radio station on its achievement.
The station is currently operated 24/7 in eight languages Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Thai, Japanese, Mongolian, Arab, and Russian by native speakers of each language.
The broadcast was set up with the intent of helping foreign migrants and exchange students feel included in Korean society. It provides listeners with news and music from their home countries, as well as Korean lessons and tips for living in Korea.
Starting in 2010, the station began broadcasting a popular series of children's stories from the eight different countries to help biracial children better understand their migrant parents' cultural backgrounds.
By Park Si-soo
President Moon Jae-in and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump plan to meet later this month in New York, the White House said on Tuesday (local time).
The leaders agreed during a phone conversation Tuesday to meet while both are attending the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly.
"They agreed to meet later this month on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said.
She said the two leaders discussed developments on the Korean Peninsula, including efforts to achieve the ''final, fully verified denuclearization'' of North Korea. North Korea agreed to denuclearize following a June summit with Trump in Singapore, but progress has been slow to non-existent.
Education Minister nominee Rep. Yoo Eun-hae of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea answers reporters' questions in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap
By Park Ji-won
The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) vowed Wednesday to hold a tough confirmation hearing for Education Minister nominee Rep. Yoo Eun-hae of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK).
LKP lawmaker Kwak Sang-do claimed in a radio interview that Yoo was not appropriate for the position because she lacks experience in education.
"About 50,000 citizens have signed a petition asking for withdrawal of Yoo's nomination. They have a reason," Kwak said during a radio interview with Christian Broadcasting System (CBS), Wednesday.
Kwak also raised the allegation that she abused her power by running her office at facilities under the supervision of lawmakers.
In a Cabinet shakeup, Yoo was nominated as education minister and deputy prime minister for social affairs. Other changes included Defense Minister Song Young-moo being replaced by Jeong Kyeong-doo, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; while Korea Intellectual Property Office Commissioner Sung Yun-mo was named the minister of trade, industry and energy. Lee Jae-kap, former chief of the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service, was appointed as minister of employment and labor. And the DPK's Rep. Jin Sun-mi has been named head of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.
Yoo has served as a member of the National Assembly Education Committee for the past seven years while serving as a spokeswoman for Moon's presidential campaign.
Regarding the LKP's attacks, Yoo said, "Serving as a chief of the education committee in the Assembly, I have been coming up with education policies by listening to people from various educational fields."
Other LKP lawmakers also condemned Yoo's nomination saying they were poised to launch a fierce attack on her at interpellation sessions which will be held soon.
"Rep. Yoo, who abused her power against the weak, was nominated as a minister. It is a huge challenge against the people," LKP floor leader Rep. Kim Sung-tae said.
"We will remove the easygoing custom of soft-handed hearings for lawmakers nominated for ministerial jobs."
His remarks referred to lawmakers refraining from aggressively attacking co-lawmakers in confirmation hearings.
"Yoo's nomination is stirring controversy over her education policies against public opinion such as the ban on English classes for after-school activities, and the employment of education officials as teacher," said Rep. Kim Han-pyo, chief of the LKP Education Committee. "I am going to question her thoroughly at the Assembly hearing."
Chung Eui-yong, center, national security advisor to the President Moon Jae-in, walks with South Korea's spy chief Suh Hoon, right, as they prepare for a visit to Pyongyang in a military air base in Seongnam, outskirt of Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap
By Kim Yoo-chul
President Moon Jae-in is not a distant bystander. He is taking the role of mediator as Seoul is desperate to revive the momentum for denuclearization talks by sending a five-member delegation to Pyongyang.
The special envoys arrived in Pyongyang at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday after an 80-minute flight from Seoul Air Base. The South's delegation used the West Sea in direct air route.
The envoys were welcomed in the North Korean capital by Ri Son-gwon, chairman of the North Korean committee in charge of inter-Korean affairs. The delegation held a 20-minute meeting with Ri and Kim Yong-chol, the North's counterpart of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in arranging the June summit in Singapore, presidential press secretary Yoon Young-chan said.
The envoys moved to another place for "an official meeting," but the delegation didn't inform Seoul when and where, press secretary Yoon said, adding no information was available as of 4:30 p.m. Wednesday on whether or not the delegation would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
"Sending the envoys was President Moon's decision because he believes it's something he can do to help break the current impasse in North Korea's nuclear disarmament talks with the United States," a Cheong Wa Dae source said, asking not to be identified.
Seo Jae-chul, second from right, with the Green Korea United workers / Courtesy of Green Korea United
By Park Ji-won
Amid the fast changing political landscape on the Korean Peninsula, an environmental activist has become one of most cited persons in the media and at seminars when it comes to talking about the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
"I am spending of the busiest days of my life participating in seminars to talk about the DMZ recently," Seo Jae-chul, a senior ecological activist with Green Korea United with about 20 years of experience, told The Korea Times at the National Assembly, Tuesday.
He was visiting the legislature to take part in a seminar on preserving species of wild animals.
As one of the civilians who has visited the DMZ more than 200 times from the end of 1990s up to the present, and the only person who has walked along the DMZ from end to end, he has become one of the most summoned experts when talking about unification and peace.
Since April 27 when leaders of two Koreas signed the Panmunjeom Declaration which seeks to end the war on the Korean Peninsula, a peace agenda has been attracting public attention, getting people to be involved in discussions to come up with measures to implement the agreement.
Under the changing atmosphere, Seo has been stressing the preservation of the DMZ as a symbol of peace for many years.
"The DMZ symbolizes the result of the Cold War and separation. It is one of the most curious places in the world."
Civilians have been restricted from entering the 250-kilometer border barrier that divides the Korean Peninsula, according to the armistice between the two Koreas. In order to visit the DMZ, an individual must obtain permission from the government.
One of the executives of the 27-year-old Green Korea United since Seo joined it in 1996, he has been focusing on the environmental protection of mountains, the DMZ and species of wild animals; and providing the government with results of environment assessments and proposals to improve it.
He emphasized the importance of the DMZ's environmental and historical value as it has been sealed off from the rest of the country for many years, without people's intervention.
"If people touch nature, it is destroyed. The DMZ's creatures don't avoid people as they haven't been exposed to them. The zone is a rare place where nature restores itself."
He highlighted the rarity of the DMZ's existence. There was a similar restricted demilitarized zone, the "Grunes Band" in Germany, but he noted that "it didn't experience a killing war between the same people as we did for three years during the Korean War which broke out in 1950."
Seo added that's why it is meaningful to designate the area, not only because it is a secret place but also because it holds many undiscovered stories of the Korean War.
"I wonder what happened in the land from the past war to the present; what the U.S. and the two Koreas did there."
When asked about the government's role, he said that it must make it a tourist site under the condition of preserving the area as it is.
"When you think about tourism, people construct buildings first. It is a waste of taxes and devalues the DMZ. The Gyeonggi provincial government should help the local people participate in tourism. Also, the tourists should be responsible in the area."
He is now paying attention to how climate change, with the deadly hot weather this summer, has affected the DMZ.
"People never experienced this kind of hot weather. But there was an omen in the past. Needle leaf trees are dying in the national park in the South. It is the beginning of the effects of climate change. But, there is no countermeasures for them. We just keep recording the changes."
A group of South Korean special envoys led by Chung Eui-yong, the top security adviser to President Moon Jae-in, departed for NorthKorea on Wednesday (September 5) to discuss the leaders' third summit later this month.
Chung said on Tuesday (September 4) he would deliver a letter from Moon to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un when he visits the North, without elaborating on its contents.
The planned inter-Korean summit follows Trump's cancellation of a visit to Pyongyang by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last month after Pompeo received a belligerent letter from a senior North Korean official.
By John J. Metzler
UNITED NATIONS Myanmar's minority Rohingya population faces a "climate of fear and persecution" as a year of unrelenting human rights abuses and forced expulsions continues by the country's Beijing-backed military rulers.
As U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres told a stunned Security Council meeting, "The massive refugee emergency that began one year ago in Rakhine state, Myanmar, has become one of the world's worst humanitarian and human rights crises."
Much of the world is still not watching. Perhaps it's crisis overload, perhaps it's resignation.
In an impassioned address to delegates, Guterres, himself a former U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, warned, "Last month, I visited Cox's Bazaar in Bangladesh and heard stories of horrendous persecution and suffering."
The special meeting came just a day after the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva issued a withering report on Myanmar's ruthless campaign against the Rohingya minority which highlighted "patterns of gross human rights violations and abuses" committed by the security forces, which "undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law."
The U.N. report says that six senior military officials in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, should be investigated for genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority. The document equally faults the country's de factor leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Prize laureate, for failing to stop the attacks.
The Buddhist majority military regime denies formal citizenship rights to the Rohingya.
In the past year over 700,000 Rohingya have been forcibly displaced from their homes in Myanmar and into neighboring Bangladesh. Mass killings and burning of villages triggered what U.S. U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley called "ethnic cleansing."
In a memorable and compelling address, actress Cate Blanchett, a U.N. goodwill ambassador who recently visited the world's largest refugee camp in Bangladesh, stated, "I am not here as an expert. I stand before you today only as a witness. As someone who has seen and cannot look away."
She recounted, "Nothing could have prepared me for the extent and depth of the suffering I saw."
"The many refugees that I spoke with consider Myanmar their home but they have real, deep fears about returning there Refugees move back home when it is safe and secure to do so," added Blanchett.
Indeed as the United Kingdom's Minister of State for Commonwealth Affairs Lord Ahmad intoned, "But the solution to this crisis, let us be clear, lies in Burma. The Rohingya deserve justice."
He added, "The Rohingya must be able to return home to Rakhine safely, voluntarily and importantly, with dignity. That means more than returning to IDP camps on the Burmese side of the border, but real progress towards a more just long-term solution and state of affairs in Rakhine."
Myanmar's military has suggested that Rohingya are free to return under specific conditions.
Presently there are over 700,000 Rohingya refugees, who join an additional 300,000 displaced persons from previous rounds of fighting. Myanmar, a country of 55 million people, has long battled various minority groups including the Christian Shan and Karen people and more recently the Muslim Rohingya.
Current U.N. humanitarian and reconstruction plans are woefully underfunded.
Secretary General Guterres warned, "It is clear that conditions are not yet met for the safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable return of the Rohingya refugees to their places of origin or choice."
Since seizing power in 1962, the Myanmar military has been supported by China allowing for a climate of human right abuses, economic corruption and a dutiful deference to China.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Laureate and once the "goddess of democracy" who won reasonably fair elections in 2015, remains the country's de facto leader, though true power rests with the generals who have placed the once revered politician into political checkmate. China calls the shots in this resource rich Southeast Asian state.
Back in 2007, both China and Russia used a rare double veto to torpedo a human rights draft resolution on Myanmar. Moreover getting a serious human rights resolution through the Security Council is near impossible given Beijing's diplomatic cover fire for Myanmar's rulers.
Myanmar's delegate blamed the current tragedy on domestic terrorists; "These events were well planned and executed with the support of foreign terrorist organizations."
U.S. Ambassador Haley stated forcefully, "We are now all armed with the devastating eyewitness accounts of the Rohingya the attacks were planned, premeditated and coordinated. The perpetrator was the Burmese military and security forces."
Amb. Haley added, "The whole world is watching what we will do next, and if we will act."
Washington must keep the pressure on Myanmar's generals.
John J. Metzler (
jjmcolumn@earthlink.net ) is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of Divided Dynamism: The Diplomacy of Separated Nations: Germany, Korea, China."
By Doug Bandow
John McCain was a brave man, from his time spent as a POW in Vietnam to his final battle against cancer. May he rest in peace.
However, his public career warrants a harsher judgment. Indeed, we should bury his aggressive, militarized foreign policy along with him. Had he been elected president in 2008 many more Americans and foreigners likely would have died unnecessarily.
McCain was one of the Senate's most ferocious advocates of military intervention, almost irrespective of circumstance.
Over the last quarter century McCain favored aggressive war against Serbia, an endless democracy crusade in Afghanistan, the disastrous invasion of Iraq, the equally counterproductive destruction of Libya, a combat role in Syria's horrific civil war, and military aid for Saudi Arabia in its brutal aggression against Yemen.
He recklessly promoted Georgia against Russia in their short-lived war, advocated striking North Korea militarily, and sang about bombing Iran in a little ditty set to the Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann."
McCain suggested that support for terrorism could justify attacking Iran, Libya, Syria, and even North Korea. He proposed creating a "no-fly" zone in Sudan and intervening in Nigeria against the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram.
Last year he urged the Trump administration to "choose the Kurds" against Iran and Iraq, since for decades America "has protected them from attacks, both from within and outside Iraq." Ukraine was a disappointment, causing him to lament: "I do not see a military option and that is tragic."
His militaristic vision was flawed in multiple ways. First, he treated war as just another policy option, an answer to any number of problems from the mundane to the monstrous. He exhibited no reluctance to visiting death and destruction on other peoples and nations.
In none of the conflicts he backed was the nation's security seriously threatened. In most U.S. intervention actually increased the resulting humanitarian tragedy.
McCain also failed to appreciate the ill consequences of promiscuous intervention. For instance, the Iraq War predictably unleashed a virulent insurgency and sectarian conflict.
These, in turn, spawned ISIS, which spread death and failed to understand that the American people believed wars should have a point. As Iraq imploded, he advocated years more of combat despite what he admitted would be the high cost in lives and wealth; he later urged an occupation of 100 years if necessary.
McCain defined success in Afghanistan and Iraq as "the establishment of peaceful, stable, prosperous, democratic states that pose no threat to neighbors and contribute to the defeat of terrorists."
Yet a few locals with AK-47s and IEDs had a different vision, and after years of war Washington still has failed to meet McCain's test. Good intentions are not enough to transcend history, culture, religion, ethnicity, geography, and ideology, as well as other people's determination to rule oneself.
McCain's support for democracy and human rights was largely rhetorical. McCain promoted a potpourri of dubious opposition/insurgent groups. After fomenting war in Libya, he acknowledged human rights abuses by the victorious rebels, who he previously termed "my heroes."
He was a particular partisan of repressive Saudi Arabia, regurgitating Saudi talking points absolving Riyadh of the well-documented slaughter of civilians in Yemen. He was lauded for his fierce support for Israel, but showed little concern for millions of Palestinians living under military occupation.
In 2011 McCain predictably advocated war against Libya. Yet two years earlier he enjoyed a pleasant visit with Moammar Gadhafi, discussing potential rewards for the regime's shift westward. McCain reported his "interesting meeting with an interesting man" in a tweet.
Despite his exaggerated support for military action, McCain was otherwise quite conventional in his foreign policy approach. Most importantly, he did not recognize how American policy might result in blowback, encouraging the very behavior which he claimed threatened America.
For instance, the only reason North Korea might target the U.S., which McCain argued would justify a preventive attack, is because the U.S. is in Northeast Asia, threatening the North. Yet the Korean War ended 65 years ago and South Korea has raced past the North, giving it the means to defend itself.
Sen. John McCain has been lauded as a foreign policy giant by more than his usual press advocates. However, he invariably chose the most confrontational position, resulting in almost inevitable failure and war.
Celebrate John McCain's courage and fortitude. But reject his foreign policy. There is no better way to commemorate the life of yet another American serviceman who suffered in an unnecessary, counterproductive war.
Doug Bandow (
chessset@aol.com ) is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. A former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is author of "Foreign Follies: America's New Global Empire."
By Mark Peterson
The process by which Korea came to be the "most-Confucianized" country in the world was a long, drawn-out process that requires careful observation and careful definitions of terms.
Confucianism, as an alien ideology, came into Korea from China in the Three Kingdoms Period. Its introduction was not as dramatic, nor as successful as was that of Buddhism Buddhism had many more adherents in the early days. But gradually, over the centuries, Confucianism grew until, with the founding of the Joseon Kingdom in 1392, Confucianism was the ideology openly advocated by the new rulers.
Confucianism is good for rulers. It is mainly a set of "governing" principles and is concerned with engendering a happy and harmonious society. Confucianism is concerned with the here-and-now, unlike Buddhism that is focused on the next life. Confucianism is not much concerned with a god or with heaven; it is society and government in the present that is most important. If Confucius had had a name card printed up for himself, on the line where it would say one's position (president, CEO, chairman, etc.), his would likely have said "political consultant," or "moral advisor," or "social critic." It would not have said "religious leader" or "God's spokesman." Confucius himself, as well as his followers, was concerned with creating a good social order with good governance.
Like all great religions, there lies therein great contradictions. Confucius was asked about "spirits" and he said, "Stay away from spirits" implying to stay away from spiritual worship and rituals. Yet, the primary ritual in Confucianism is the offering of a sacrifice to ancestors. The ancestors had been assumed to have gone on to another place, a heaven perhaps. But when Confucius was asked about the next life, he said to pay attention first (and last and always) to this life. Therefore, Confucianism is called a "this worldly" religion (and there are those who quickly add that it's more of a philosophy than a religion), whereas Buddhism is called an "other worldly" religion.
Confucianism came with its own baggage. The society in which Confucius lived was one where inheritance, and all the family practices that came with it, were governed by the rule of primogeniture. In other words, the eldest son played a major role, sometimes the only role, in social behavior in Confucianism this included the hosting and conducting of ancestor ceremonies. Such a society was male dominant in many ways, such as where marriages were held and in which household the newlyweds would live the husband's house, and that of his father and sometimes grandfather.
When Confucianism came to Korea, it found a completely different setting. Korean society, unlike Confucius' Chinese society, was not male-dominant. Inheritances were divided equally between sons and daughters. Marriages and the place where the newlyweds would live, was not pre-determined to be that of the husband's house and that of his father, but rather marriages could be held at either the husband's house or the wife's house, and the newlywed couple could live at either place, according to which was better on a number of criteria sometimes the wife's house was better suited for the couple, sometimes the husband's house was better.
When Confucianism first came to Korea in the Three Kingdoms Period, Korea made all kinds of accommodations and in effect, created "Korean-style Confucianism." Ancestor ceremonies were not hosted by the eldest son, but rather all sons, and even the daughters, took turns hosting the ceremonies.
As an American, I can understand that. When we have holidays in America, we go to different houses to celebrate sometimes to an aunt's house, sometimes to an uncle's, sometimes on the father's side, sometimes on the mother's side. We don't have ancestor ceremonies, but we have family celebrations and the place they are held is in a kind of rotation.
In Korea, they had a word for hosting the ceremonies in rotation, it was yunhaeng (). When, in the late 17th century, families began to accept patrlilinealism (), male dominance, they began to write in their inheritance documents, that the largest share was going to the eldest son, for he had to take responsibility for the ceremonies, and no longer would "yunhaeng," or taking turns in rotation, be acceptable.
There was a sea change. It affected inheritance and ancestor ceremonies, but it also affected marriage practices, residence practices, and even the recording of the genealogical tables changed in all these areas women were either left out, or started to play a greatly diminished role.
That this all happened is knowable. It is not a mystery. There was a full-scale acceptance of Confucian ideology, whereas prior to this, Korean Confucianism was just that a Korean version of Confucianism, without all the features of male dominance. This is a documentable, knowable fact. There is no mystery about when Korea fully immersed in Confucian practice.
The mystery is why this is not taught in schools? Why is it not in the textbooks?
Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah.
Economic revitalization should be top priority
Korea's second-quarter economic growth data are raising concerns the economy might have lost steam. The Bank of Korea said Tuesday the country's gross domestic product (GDP) edged up 0.6 percent in the April-June period this year.
The GDP growth rate certainly dealt a setback to the already sluggish economy. It was down from 1 percent growth in the first quarter. It also paled in comparison to a 2.8 percent rise in the second quarter of last year.
The central bank attributed the poor performance to a sizable fall in facility investment and sluggish private consumption. Facility investment plunged by 5.7 percent, the worst since the first quarter of 2016. Private consumption increased slightly by 0.3 percent, an 18-month low.
Another negative factor is exports which rose by a mere 0.4 percent in the second quarter, a sharp fall from 4.4 percent growth in the first quarter. If exports, which account for around 50 percent of the GDP, continue to slide, the country could suffer a further setback to its economic growth down the road.
Asia's fourth-largest economy will likely find it difficult to meet its 2018 growth target of 2.9 percent. The government and the central bank are under mounting pressure to lower the figure again after they revised it down from 3 percent.
More worrisome is that there is little sign of an economic turnaround anytime soon. It is also hard to expect the country's exports to swing back to robust growth in the coming months. The nation's GDP growth has relied too heavily on a few industrial sectors such as semiconductors, which may slow down in the face of fluctuating global demand.
An escalating trade war between the U.S. and China, the currency turmoil in Turkey and other emerging economies, and soaring oil prices are adding insult to injury. Domestically, President Moon Jae-in's income-led growth initiative has also contributed to the economic slump although he and his policymakers are only trying to defend the ill-timed inclusive growth policy.
As many economists point out, it is much more difficult to see the economy regain growth momentum once it has lost steam. In this regard, it is imperative for the Moon administration to change its policies in a bid to prevent the economy from sliding into recession.
In fact, the Korean economy has already been mired in low-growth trap because it has increasingly lost competitiveness. Thus, it is urgent to regain this by finding new growth engines. For this, the Moon government should promote entrepreneurship and innovation.
Most of all, Moon and his policymakers must take the current economic situation more seriously. They should not ignore the warning signs of an economic recession, and not believe that the income-led growth drive is the only policy option to achieve sustainable growth. Arrogance and bigotry are only a recipe for failure.
Felix Heck, left, who heads Samsung Design Europe, and Yeo Hong-ku, deputy head, explain the design of the Samsung Odyssey gaming PC during a meeting with Korean reporters at the office in London, Monday. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics
By Jun Ji-hye
LONDON Samsung Electronics has operated a design lab in London the heart of fashion, culture and economics since 2000 with the aim of looking for new value to be reflected in the firm's various products.
Yeo Hong-ku, deputy head of Samsung Design Europe, said London, which was rebuilt after the large fire in 1666, is a city where designs of the past, present and future all meet.
"London has become a gathering of many different cultures and ethnicities," he told Korean reporters who visited the office, Monday. "There are a number of world-class design schools here as well."
Yeo said the office, in which about 40 designers are working, studies the lifestyles of consumers in Europe and reflect it in the designs of Samsung products. The office analyzes the trend of diverse areas ranging from architecture to anthropology to forecasting the demand of future consumers, he noted.
The representative products of the office include the Samsung Odyssey gaming PC and the Family Hub refrigerator 3.0.
Samsung Design Europe is one of the seven global design offices operated by Samsung Electronics, including those in San Francisco and China.
Especially, Samsung opened the trend lab within Samsung Design Europe in 2013 after recognizing that consumer electronics are now fashionable products that reflect personality. Technology has evolved to become something beyond functionality, said Camille Hammerer, who heads the Trend Experience Group.
"The value of understanding cultural and lifestyle trends have never been more critical in the design of a product," she said.
Citing a socio-cultural survey conducted by her group this year, Hammerer said the group noticed behavioral changes among the young generations.
"In this new digitized and dematerialized paradigm, we saw these users play effortlessly between physical and digital realities," she said. "They were building their personal worlds with their own rules and relationships with this technology, we called them transformers in day to day life."
She noted that the generation called "millennials," referring to those who were born between 1980 and 2000, are significantly affecting industries including the one for games.
"One of the key trends we are seeing is people living in flux," she said. "People are valuing experience over ownership and that will impact how we design our products."
Felix Heck, who heads Samsung Design Europe, explained the strengths of designs of the Samsung Odyssey gaming PC and the Family Hub refrigerator 3.0, saying the design of the Odyssey gaming PC is not aggressive and male-centered but stresses androgynous appeal.
The office keenly cooperated with the PC business team of Samsung Electronics to produce the gaming PC, he added.
"The Screensaver (of Family Hub 3.0) is similar to that of the frame of TV," he said. "Instead of a black, cold black screen in your kitchen, the screen can show different modes such as a clock or calendar that blend into the environment."
Evan after the concept approval stage, the offices continued to work together to implement it in the actual production model, he said, adding, "We even created some of the actual assets for clocks, calendars or visual imagery used today."
By Baek Byung-yeul
Samsung SDI will supply cylindrical cell batteries to Jaguar Land Rover's electric vehicles (EVs), industry sources said Wednesday.
To supply its cylindrical cell batteries to the British carmaker, industry sources said the Korean battery maker will construct a production line for producing "21700" cylindrical batteries at its plant in Hungary.
Samsung SDI fiercely competed with other battery makers including LG Chem and Panasonic to win a contract from the British carmaker since last year. The company declined to confirm, saying "we cannot offer information related with our customer companies."
Jaguar Land Rover will use the 21700 batteries for its next EVs scheduled to be on the market in 2020. The 21700 battery is next-generation battery technology. It is 21 millimeters in diameter and 70 millimeters in height with the capacity that is 50 percent larger than 18650 battery technology.
Samsung SDI is expected to initially supply EV cells of 5 gigawatt hours (GWh) a year, which will be about 300 million cylindrical cells. Samsung SDI is known to have battery manufacturing capacity of about 80 million cells a month.
Compared to the pouch or prismatic batteries, a cylindrical cell battery has its strength in power efficiency.
The cylindrical cell battery is gaining popularity as Tesla began adopting it in its EVs. Also there have been growing demands for the cylindrical cell battery as more products such as electric power tools and electric vehicles go cordless.
According to market researcher B3, the demand for cylindrical batteries last year was 3.75 billion, accounting for 55 percent of the entire small battery market, and the figure is expected to surpass 4.6 billion this year.
Samsung SDI, the leading player in the small battery market, is expected to post an operating profit of more than 400 billion won ($356 million) in its small battery business, according to reports from Samsung Securities and Mirae Asset Daewoo.
In Alaska, the dangers that can be found in the wilderness are readily discussed, with mention of bears, moose and tough topography and weather often at the forefront of the conversation.
For Michailia Massong, though, a simple walk along a trail - no bears or moose in sight - was what landed her and her best friend in an awfully precarious position.
"It was very, very scary," Massong said. "I was trying really hard to hold it together when she was in there."
The 'she' Massong was referring to is her 13-year-old horse Luna, who managed to get stuck in a Chugiak-area swamp a few days ago.
"We were just riding around on trails we ride on all the time," Massong said. "We stepped in a mud puddle, like usual, and all of a sudden she froze and then took off."
Luna and Massong, who happens to be Miss Rodeo Alaska 2017 and has been riding horses for 20 years or so, landed in a deep, boggy pool about 30 feet from the main trail they had been on.
"She was thrashing around," Massong said, "and I ran out there and grabbed her head and tried to get her better situated and see if I could help push her out. But she was in a bit too deep at that point."
While Massong was able to jump off of Luna before being entangled in roots and other threats of nature, Luna - weighing in at more than 1,000 pounds - was completely stuck.
"At one point, she closed her eyes and she almost quit breathing on us," Massong said. "She was really lethargic and shocked and not really moving too good."
This story, though, doesn't end there, in large part because of Good Samaritans from across the community who answered Massong's distress calls.
"We just had so many people I had never met before just show up when they heard that call for help," she said.
Local fire and rescue crews, neighbors and even total strangers from well outside of town flocked to Massong and Luna's spot on the trail to help free the horse by hoisting her out of the mud.
"Horse rescue is not something we usually do," said Chris Steeves, an area firefighter. "But we built a pad to put the excavator down in the mud, and then we used fire hose to rig up a harness to put around the horse's chest."
After three hours or so, Luna was freed from her boggy trap.
"Everyone just rallied together," Massong said. "They're all heroes. They all saved her life."
Because of that teamwork, Luna is back home, safe and sound.
"I'm amazed," Massong said. "That's a God thing. I had so many angels showing up in flesh form, saving her... She had angels watching over her in the other realm, making sure she didn't break anything.
"It is a miracle," she continued. "She's healing up good now. Very happy to be alive and safe, thanks to our amazing community."
South Korea's new coronavirus cases spiked to over 2,600 on Wednesday, two days after the country began its "living with COVID-19" scheme as part of a broader plan to gradually lif...
It is common for companies to organize various informal events where workers can come with their partners. One of those...
Harry Crosby is the longest current resident of La Jolla. At 83 years and counting, frankly, he may be the longest this town has ever had. (His parents moved here from Seattle in September 1935, when he was 9, into a house that still stands at 215 Avenida Cortez.)
But thats not nearly Crosbys greatest distinction. It isnt even on his list of Top 20.
In 1963, Crosby was a chemistry teacher at La Jolla High School, from which he graduated in 1944. It was a job he had grown bored of after five years and wanted to quit. So he did.
Crosby enjoyed taking photographs especially on the extracurricular trips to Mexico he took with his chemistry students. So he bought some professional gear, and some books about photography, and trained himself. By 1967, he was hired to illustrate the book The Call to California by the Commission of the Californias. Retracig the route of the original Portola missionary expedition of 1769, Crosby rode 600 miles on a mule.
Being involved in compiling that book made Crosby realize he wanted to write his own books and become a historian. So he did those things, too. His four books address the missionary history and cave paintings of Baja, California. He even published a novel, 2001s Portrait of Paloma, which he said he spent three months doing in his spare time.
Harry has the character of Abraham Lincoln and the folksy humor of Will Rogers, says his friend Dennis Willis, owner of D.G. Wills Books. But also, we may as well throw in Lewis and Clark. Hes an honest-to-goodness explorer.
Were not even close to finished mentioning the fields in which Crosby made a name for himself. In 1979, he designed and built his own house in La Jolla, on a portion of the lot on which George Webster Heald built the very first house in La Jolla in 1887.
Yes, an amateur architect designed his own house. Its the one he greets the Light out the window from on Prospect Street, where he still lives with his wife of 68 years, Joanne.
Not to mention Crosbys stint hybridizing orchids or coming within one heat of making the U.S. swim team at the 1948 Olympics, because other stories need to fit in this newspaper issue, too.
Harry is many people, Wills says.
Harry Crosby greats the 'Light' from the window of the La Jolla house he designed and built in 1979. COREY LEVITAN
Crosby even has a place in pop culture by blood association. Hes no relation to Bing Crosby, but his only son was the late guitarist for the multiplatinum hair-metal group Ratt. (Robbin Crosby died in 2002 at age 42, from what was reported to be a heroin overdose and pneumonia with complications from AIDS.)
To get this interview, the Light had to spend the day walking all around La Jolla with Crosby lunching at Barbarella, stopping at D.G. Wills Books (which stocks all of Crosbys books), and getting his six-week trim at Alex Salon because, even at age 92, sitting in one place too long bores him.
I might not look good walking, Crosby says defiantly, but I can still walk.
How do you feel about being called a Renaissance Man?
Whatever you wish to call me.
So you became a historian just because you just decided to become one?
I became one not because I was thinking about it, but in order to write the captions for all the photos I was taking for the book about the expedition that founded San Diego and Monterey. Nobody else had been to those places Id been to.
And you designed and built your house with absolutely no experience?
Well, I have to admit that I had already designed and built a house before that, at 6996 Via Valverde, around 1970. I based it on two of those houses Id seen in Mexico. Frankly, I dont really see what the problem is with designing a house when you have photographs and you know what you want.
Its not a problem. But it is unusual. You chose to ignore the barriers that most people see when it comes to what to dedicate their lives to. Most people say, I cant do that, I dont have the training or the experience. You said, Whats so hard about that? and then trained yourself.
Well ... I had help. I was lucky enough to be friends with (architects) Bob Mosher, Fred Liebhardt and Gene Weston, and I could go and look at house plans of every kind you can think of. They would encourage me. Whats funny is that one of them would usually explain to me why they wouldnt do something one of the other architects I knew had suggested.
Did you know Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss)?
No, but my parents did, I dont remember how. But I remember going to his place several times up on Mt. Soledad in the 40s or 50s. Back then, it was the only house for blocks. He was amusing and outgoing as a host. But I wasnt very aware of his world. I mean, I had read some Dr. Seuss and thought it was kind of a kick, but I was into other things.
What do you miss most about La Jolla the way it used to be?
Well, I dont regard some of the buildings that have been torn down as being inferior to the ones that have taken their places. Im not saying theres anything wrong with the new buildings. The younger generations will appreciate them, but I wont. In certain ways, I liked it much better the first 20 or 30 years we were here. But you have to remember, when I moved here, La Jolla had 3,500 people, less than a tenth of the population it has now.
But there also have been elements added that have been significant. The change is continuous. Its been changing ever since I came here. Its sort of like living in a progression of places.
Crosby gets his six-week haircut from Alex Ashirob, owner of Alex Salon. COREY LEVITAN
Is there anything you blame yourself for regarding Robbins death?
I dont know. Robbin was very complicated. He was a character and everyone always loved him at school, but he lived in his own world. He confessed to having done stupid things. It was sad but it was also rewarding to have had a family member who was so smart. He was very devoted to the idea of doing everything that he wanted to do and accomplishing what he set out to accomplish.
He got that from you, didnt he?
Well, it would have been in an entirely different way.
How does it feel to be 92?
Im finding out whats it all about, this business of coming unglued. Theres all kinds of things Ive taken for granted that now, for all practical purposes, I cant do. Im realizing that a huge amount of what I was able to do, I cant do anymore.
But Ive never been a pessimist. Ive never thought of suicide or any other negative action. Its more like, well, if that wont work, then what will? So what I tend to concentrate on is family. I have two daughters, four grandchildren two boys and two girls and three great-grandchildren that I think the world of.
How would you like to be remembered?
I guess it would be as someone who encouraged everyone to know more about where they live. What I, unfortunately, have discovered in a lot of people Ive met over the years is not really knowing that much about their town, and not even caring to learn.
Despite the passage of an ordinance regulating short-term vacation rentals (STVR) that was cleared by the San Diego City Council in July, the battle over the controversial home-sharing practice might not be over. In the days following the ordinances passage on July 16 and approved second reading Aug. 1 those opposed to the regulation took to the streets with petitions in hand to nullify the ordinance. This effort could result in the ordinance being scrapped or putting the fate of short-term rentals into the hands of San Diego voters.
Those organizing the effort had 30 days from second reading to collect 35,000 legitimate signatures from San Diego voters. They submitted 62,000 signatures to the City Registrars office for verification on Aug. 30.
But the methods by which these signatures were collected raised eyebrows. A press conference was held Aug. 28 in Point Loma with representatives from short-term regulation advocates Save San Diego Neighborhoods and City Council members Barbara Bry and Lorie Zapf, at which they accused the signature-gatherers of using false information to mislead signers.
Save San Diego Neighborhoods president Ronan Gray (at podium) speaks about the negative impact rescinding the ordinance may have. Ashley Mackin-Solomon
The ordinance in question was drafted by San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, and amended by District 1 City Council member Bry. The amendment she said she was proud to make restricted short-term rental to ones primary residence only. It passed 6-3 and is slated to go into effect July 1, 2019.
Bry explained: You can rent out a room in your house every night of the year as long as you are on site. The ordinance allows you to rent out your whole house when you go on vacation, up to six months a year. In addition, the ordinance has (mechanisms for) enforcements, fines and the requirement that home-sharing services share their data with us. This has legalized the home-sharing economy in San Diego.
Any alternative, she argued, would create open season for investors to snap up properties in residential neighborhoods and turn them into mini-hotels.
Questionable methods
Accusations of fraudulent signature-gathering have been reported locally and to the Secretary of State in a request to have these signatures thrown out.
At the press conference, Save San Diego Neighborhoods president Ronan Gray said: Now that this ordinance has passed, Airbnb has a problem. Instead of accepting the outcome of our democratic process, Airbnb has launched this fraudulent campaign to rescind the ordinance. Airbnb has hired these out-of-town petitioners whove been tricking people into signing the petition. We have received hundreds of e-mails and phone calls about this.
Zapf added that she personally has witnessed it: Ive approached signature-gatherers and asked them questions; one was here from Florida and just staying for the month to make money gathering signatures. He gave me completely false information. If your side has merit, you should not have to lie to get signatures.
Some reported hearing that gatherers said the petition was to support affordable housing, others said they heard it was to overturn the City Council ban on short-term rentals.
Zapf added the California Election Code imposes criminal penalties for abuses related to the circulation of petitions and prohibits circulators from misrepresenting the purpose or content of the petition to potential signers.
The local San Diego Community Working Group on STVR, an umbrella organization that includes the San Diego Coalition of Town Councils (Clairemont, La Jolla, Mission Beach and Ocean Beach), Neighborhoods for Residents, University City Community Association and Pacific Beach Planning Group, sent a letter to the California Secretary of State asking for an investigation into the matter.
According to Elections Code 18600-18602, a circulator is breaking the law and can be fined or put in jail if he misrepresents the contents and purpose of the petition. It is imperative that these underhanded petition signature gathering tactics be shut down and all illegally obtained signatures be thrown out, the letter states. We humbly ask your office and its election fraud investigation to conduct an immediate investigation into this matter and take swift action to correct this injustice.
Claims are completely absurd
Speaking for the coalition between Airbnb, HomeAway and Share San Diego spearheading the effort to overturn the ordinance, La Jolla resident Jonah Mechanic said he sees the regulations as a de facto ban on short-term rentals.
The opposition is painting all the signature-gatherers as being from out-of-state and paid. There are paid signature-gatherers out there, which is quite common, but there are numerous volunteers out there, he said.
As for the claims that signature-gatherers are using fraudulent information to get enough John Hancocks, its completely absurd, he said. We have not seen any evidence of this happening, and in a day and age where everyone has a camera on their phone, the fact that we havent seen any evidence leads me to believe this is just a claim.
Further, Mechanic said all the signature- gatherers paid or volunteer are trained in what to say and how to gather signatures, and carry a booklet with the ordinance in for anyone who asks to see it. If the signers want to sign without doing research, we cant stop them from doing that, he said.
City Council member Scott Sherman poses with the signatures gathered to overturn the short-term vacation rental ordinance. Courtesy
Whats next?
Once the signatures are submitted and verified, the City Clerk will send a notice of sufficiency (or insufficiency) to the proponents of the effort. For a sufficient petition, the City Clerk must present it, with certification, to the City Council at the next regular meeting at which the matter can be heard.
The City Council must reconsider the issue within 10 business days.
"Practical achievement of the target of a world free of cluster munitions demands great dedication, concerted vision and collective initiatives and responses", stated Ambassador A.L.A Azeez, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to UNO in Geneva, at the closing session of the 8th Meeting of the State Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Geneva today, in acceptance of the Presidency of the 9th Meeting of the States Parties (9 MSP-2019).
During the three-day meeting that commenced on 3rd September 2018, Sri Lanka was specially commended for joining this key humanitarian disarmament Convention aimed at banning production, storage, transfer and use of cluster munitions. Sri Lanka acceded to the Convention on 1 March 2018, as the 103rd State Party.
Referring to the progress achieved in advancing reconciliation and sustainable peace in the country, following a three-decade long armed conflict, that ended in May 2009, Ambassador Azeez stressed;
"Our leadership, built on the strength of national accomplishments, could serve as a catalyst for and inspire other countries to appreciate the value of peacebuilding and national advancement in realizing sustainable, peaceful and inclusive societies."
Ambassador Azeez was elected the President of the 9th Meeting of State Parties, in an year that marks the 10th Anniversary of the adoption of the Convention. The year of Sri Lankas leadership is an important transitioning point, building momentum for the Second Review Conference to the Convention to be held in 2020. The presidency of Sri Lanka will run through till September 2019, involving an intensive process of advocacy, consultation, coordination and strategic direction, on a multi-stakeholder platform, consisting of civil society and defense establishments in the promotion of the objectives and norms of the Convention.
Highlighting the policy initiatives taken by the Government of Sri Lanka since 2015 in the humanitarian disarmament arena, Ambassador Azeez emphasized that accession to the Ottawa Convention on Anti-personal Landmines further strengthened the positive image of Sri Lanka worldwide, as a country balancing civilian needs and national security imperatives.
Sri Lanka delegation included Major General Kumara Peiris, Chief Field Engineer, Mrs. Samantha Jayasuriya, Deputy Permanent Representative and Ms. Shashika Somaratne, Minister Counsellor. Sri Lankan Civil Society was represented by Mr. Vidya Abeygunawardena, Coordinator, and Ms. Yanitra Kumaraguru, Campaigner for Sri Lanka Campaign to Ban Landmines.
The Convention on Cluster Munition (CCM) is a humanitarian imperative-driven legal instrument with 104 States Parties as of date, that prohibits all use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions. In addition, it establishes a framework for cooperation and assistance to ensure adequate assistance to survivors and their communities, clearance of contaminated areas, risk reduction education and destruction of stockpiles.
Statement delivered by Ambassador Azeez
Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka
Geneva
5th September 2018
CBS Corp. board members and controlling shareholder Shari Redstone have engaged in on-again, off-again settlement talks in recent weeks to resolve a nasty legal dispute and pave the way for the departure of longtime Chief Executive Leslie Moonves, according to several knowledgeable people.
The settlement would end a lawsuit over control of CBS that has consumed the media company since it was filed in May. It would also hand a victory to Redstone, who has been agitating for change at the top of CBS, and mark a stunning reversal of fortune for one of Hollywoods most prominent and successful executives.
Moonves, 68, has run the CBS broadcast network since 1995 and has been the media companys chief executive since 2006 during a period of upheaval in the media industry. Moonves, a former actor and former Broadway producer, transformed CBS from a laggard to a leader it has been the nations most-watched TV network for more than a decade with such fan-favorite fare as Survivor, NCIS and The Big Bang Theory.
Discussions have focused on the size of a severance package for Moonves a payout could be in excess of $200 million and whether he would segue into a producer role, two people familiar with the talks said. His contract, which was renegotiated last year, was due to expire in June 2021. It contains a provision that would allow Moonves to remain affiliated with CBS with a production deal financed by the company.
Advertisement
The talks, however, have been complicated by allegations contained in a New Yorker article in late July that Moonves made unwanted sexual advances toward several women decades ago. Moonves has expressed regret for past behavior but has denied forcing himself on women or hurting their careers.
After that report, CBS hired two high-profile attorneys former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Jo White, whos now with Debevoise & Plimpton, and Nancy Kestenbaum of Covington & Burling to investigate the allegations and complaints about CBS workplace culture.
The findings of the investigation could determine how large a settlement Moonves receives.
Who knows what these two law firms are going to come up with but [Moonves] may well suspect that it is not going to be good, said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management. It would be wise for him to step down before any certification of misconduct by one or both of the firms. It is certainly time for a change.
CBS and a representative for Redstone declined to comment.
Redstone and CBS independent board members have been at odds since May, when the board took the extraordinary step of filing a lawsuit in Delaware to strip the Redstone family of its voting control. The board members were worried that Shari Redstone was angling to replace several of them in an effort to merge CBS with the weaker media company Viacom Inc., which her family also controls. The board members approved a special dividend to dilute the Redstones voting control of CBS to 17% from nearly 80%.
In addition to the broadcast network, the company owns a string of television stations, a growing television production studio, the Showtime premium channel, the Simon & Schuster publishing house and a 50% stake in the CW network.
The Redstone family investment vehicle, National Amusements Inc., quickly changed CBS bylaws to require that any major board vote receive the approval of 90% of the board. Because Shari Redstone has two allies on the board, the move ensured that Redstone would have effective control.
The lawsuit was headed for an October trial, which has given urgency to the settlement discussions. Any settlement would probably provide a dramatic overhaul of CBS board by installing new directors who might be more closely aligned with Redstone.
CBS board currently is divided over how any settlement with Redstone would be structured, according to two people familiar with the matter. There is a chance that no deal could be reached.
Another person familiar with the matter said the parties were interested in crafting a global settlement that would end the disputes that have consumed the company for much of this year. Finding a solution to the thorny disputes has added to the complexity of reaching a deal, that person said.
Redstone, who is vice chair of CBS, has been pushing for several board members to step down as part of the settlement, another person said.
As part of any deal, CBS board members want a commitment from Redstone that she would not force a merger with Viacom unless CBS board agrees that it would be in the best interests of the company, another person said. The board, in turn, would abandon its effort to strip the Redstone family of their voting control.
A resolution will only occur with a global settlement of all of these issues, said C. Kerry Fields, a finance professor at the USC Marshall School of Business. Its clear that Moonves will be out, the independent directors will mostly be out and there will be a stand-down agreement between CBS and National Amusements, in which National Amusements agrees to leave CBS alone for a period of perhaps two to three years.
The Redstones have good reason to avoid a trial that would invite more scrutiny into the condition of the ailing 95-year-old Sumner Redstone, who still controls National Amusements.
The Delaware judge has already expressed skepticism about the moguls mental state, concerns that were heightened after he viewed a video taken in January by a CBS board member. The video showed that Redstone could not answer such basic question as who controls CBS.
meg.james@latimes.com
Twitter: @MegJamesLAT
UPDATES:
4:50 p.m.: This article was updated to include more information about settlement talks and add analyst commentary.
This article was originally published at 2:05 p.m.
Sacha Baron Cohen, CBS Corp. and Showtime Networks were sued by former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who claims the satirist tricked him into appearing on his Who Is America? show and made Moore look like a pedophile and sex offender.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in federal court in Washington with claims of defamation and fraud. It seeks $95 million in damages.
Moore says in his complaint that he has suffered extreme emotional distress by being falsely portrayed, mocked and defamed as a sex offender and pedophile.
In Who Is America? Baron Cohen adopted personas such as a far-right conspiracy theorist and an ex-convict while interviewing political figures, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, former presidential candidate Jill Stein and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa). Many of the interview subjects later criticized Baron Cohen for misleading them.
Advertisement
Showtime, a CBS unit, didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.
Moore alleges that Baron Cohen and his agents lured him onto the program in February just two months after the Republican judge was narrowly defeated in his race for the U.S. Senate seat in Alabama. He was dogged by allegations in the election that hed inappropriately touched underage girls while he was in his 30s, allegations that he denied.
Moore claims he was told that the appearance was sought by an Israeli program called Yerushalayim TV and that during it hed receive an award for his strong support of Israel, spurring him and his wife to fly to Washington. Yerushalayim TV turned out to be fictional.
Once there, Baron Cohen in character as former Israeli anti-terrorism agent Erran Morad mocked Moore and even subjected him to scanning with a fake army device that he said was meant to detect pedophiles. The program, which aired July 29, was televised over Moores subsequent protests to CBS once he learned the truth.
Baron Cohen is no stranger to controversy. The British comedian has had his greatest successes inhabiting personas such as wannabe rapper Ali G, Kazakh journalist Borat and gay Austrian fashionista Bruno. Two college students sued Baron Cohen over his film Borat, and a charity worker sued him over his film Bruno.
Moore is represented by conservative political activist and lawyer Larry Klayman.
Small business owners could avoid a new federal limit on state and local tax deductions after the Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday that rules it released last month to prevent efforts in California and other states to circumvent the cap apply only to individuals.
Businesses will be allowed to claim a full federal tax deduction for contributions to charities or government programs particularly those offering school choice scholarships that offer state tax credits, the IRS said.
The IRS Aug. 23 rules cracked down on that option for individual filers after some high-tax states moved to turn state and local tax payments into deductible charitable contributions so residents could avoid the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions in the Republican tax law that took effect Jan. 1.
Those states which also include New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are controlled by Democrats, and officials there objected to the cap as a partisan move to penalize their residents.
Advertisement
But the IRS ran into problems from a Republican constituency when it issued the rules last month.
There are more than 100 charitable tax-credit programs in dozens of states including red ones such as Alabama, Arizona, Georgia and South Carolina that could be adversely affected by the new rules. Many of those programs offer tax credits for contributions to fund private school scholarships.
School choice advocates objected to the IRS rules, which reduced the federal tax incentive for contributions to such programs.
On Wednesday, the IRS clarified that so-called pass-through businesses, whose owners file taxes through the individual code, could take a full deduction for such contributions because they still qualify as a business expense.
The IRS rules, likely to be in place by the end of the year, said individual filers had to reduce the federal charitable tax deduction they would claim by the amount of any credit they receive on their state and local taxes.
The IRS clarification makes clear that the long-standing rule allowing businesses to deduct payments to charities as business expenses remains unchanged under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said Wednesday.
The recent proposed rule concerning the cap on state and local tax deductions has no impact on federal tax benefits for business-related donations to school choice programs, he said.
The clarification means that pass-through business owners now could use contributions to those types of tax-credit programs to reduce their federal tax liability in a way that individuals cannot. The $10,000 cap does not apply to corporations.
Pass-throughs include small businesses such as mom-and-pop operations, but also privately held manufacturers and large partnerships such as law firms and hedge funds.
Theres potentially the opportunity for partnerships or some other pass-through businesses to claim deductions above what theyd be able to do with the capped state and local tax deduction, said Jared Walczak, a senior policy analyst at the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation.
California state Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles), who has been pushing legislation allowing residents to work around the cap, criticized the latest IRS move.
This just shows how poorly thought out this proposed regulation is and whats really driving it, partisan efforts to punish states like California that didnt vote for [President] Trump, he said. Worse, they seem to be encouraging private school donations while denying those same benefits to our public schools and universities. Mr. Mnuchin is making such a mess of this, Congress may have no alternative but to step in and repeal the state and local tax deduction cap.
De Leons bill, which passed the state Legislature and awaits Gov. Jerry Browns signature, would allow California residents to circumvent the $10,000 deduction limit through a 75% tax credit for donations to an existing state program that funds college tuition scholarships.
Similar legislation has been enacted in New York and other states. De Leon and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, also a Democrat, have threatened to sue to block the IRS rules.
jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com
Twitter: @JimPuzzanghera
House GOP leaders are forging ahead with a plan to vote on a second phase of tax cuts this month, despite dissension from Republicans in high-tax states who say the measure would hurt their voters.
The legislation would make permanent all the individual changes in the 2017 tax law, including the $10,000 annual cap on the federal income tax deduction for paying state and local taxes.
The decision to hold the vote shows leaders have decided they can sacrifice the support of some Republican lawmakers in New York, New Jersey and other high-tax states and dont mind putting them in the tricky spot of having to either support the cap or vote against tax cuts backed by their party.
Bloomberg News reported Tuesday that largely because of that dilemma, House Republicans were hitting the pause button on tax reform 2.0 legislation, according to three GOP aides who requested anonymity to speak about the matter. The lawmakers had wanted to weigh the political benefits and risks of a vote.
Advertisement
On Wednesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., responded yes when reporters asked if the vote was still planned for later this month.
Ryans comment signals House leaders believe using a second bill to highlight the tax cuts in the two months leading up to the midterms will do more good than harm, even though some Republicans have steered away from campaigning on the law. The tax laws approval has consistently hovered below 40% in recent polls.
Were not resting on our laurels, said House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. Were seeing this great economic growth, and so were starting to put together tax cuts 2.0.
House Republicans have enough members to pass the bill without the support of the 11 lawmakers from high-tax states who voted no on the 2017 tax overhaul and are likely to do so again. The legislation isnt expected to win over any Democrats, who unanimously opposed last years tax bill. And it has slim chances of passing the Senate, where it would need Democratic support which is why the effort has largely been viewed as a political messaging tool for Republicans.
Some Republican lawmakers in New York and New Jersey have urged leaders to strip the provision on state and local tax deductions known as SALT from the bill so they wouldnt have to take a difficult vote ahead of the midterm elections. Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) said Tuesday: Im hoping to just let it sunset. I think a lot of other members would be open to that.
So far theres no sign House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady would support the effort. Doing so could open the floodgates for members to start requesting tweaks to other tax breaks that the 2017 law scaled back and which are set to expire in 2026, such as decreasing the cap on the home mortgage interest deduction.
Fixing the provision
Several House GOP members from high-tax states weighed in to show their displeasure.
I will not vote for anything that makes the SALT cap permanent, Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said Tuesday. Others I have spoken to feel the same way. They are more against it now than they were last November and December.
Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) said he would look at the tax cut 2.0 legislation only if they fix SALT. New Jersey has the highest property taxes in the country.
Still, most voters have state tax bills that fall under the $10,000 threshold and dont feel the pain of the provision, according to Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-Ill.).
Its tough. Im in a high-tax state, Hultgren said. But there are just a few high-tax states.
Brady is scheduled to brief members on the legislation Thursday, and his panel is set to start making up the legislation next week.
Davison, Basu and Versprille write for Bloomberg.
Theranos Inc., the Silicon Valley blood-testing company accused of defrauding investors, will formally dissolve, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The company will seek to pay unsecured creditors its remaining cash in coming months, the Journal said, citing a shareholder email. The move comes after founder Elizabeth Holmes settled a shareholder lawsuit in July aimed at recovering whatever can be salvaged from the fallen blood-testing start-up.
Holmes, who reigned briefly as the worlds youngest female self-made billionaire over her promise to revolutionize blood testing, was criminally charged in June with defrauding investors along with the Palo Alto-based companys former president, Ramesh Sunny Balwani. Both executives have denied the charges, according to the Journal.
The indictment by the U.S. attorney in San Francisco alleging wire fraud follows claims by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that Theranos, Holmes and Balwani lied about its technology while raising more than $700 million to build the medical-testing start-up.
Alphabet Inc.s Google posted what it called testimony for a Wednesday congressional hearing on social media companies efforts to thwart election meddling in advance of Novembers midterm races only it doesnt appear anyone will be there to deliver it.
The Senate Intelligence Committee has said it rejected Google Chief Legal Officer Kent Walker as a witness because he wasnt high-level enough in the company to testify at Wednesdays hearing, which will feature testimony from Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Jack Dorsey and Facebook Inc. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg.
Walkers prepared testimony lists the four new types of disclosure the company promised concerning election advertising in his last congressional appearance in the fall of 2017. Those include databases listing election ads on Google search, YouTube and across the web, as well as a verification program and disclosures on political ads.
Google has insisted that Alphabet CEO Larry Page and Google CEO Sundar Pichai wouldnt be the best officials to appear despite the Intelligence committees desire to hear from decision makers.
Advertisement
Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said in a tweet Tuesday that Dorsey and Sandberg will testify and that Larry Page should be there, too. Its not too late for @Google to step up.
The result appears to be a stalemate and testimony that no one will deliver. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have increased pressure on technology companies after Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign and other election meddling as well as issues including alleged anti-conservative bias and antitrust questions.
Google said in a statement that Walker will be in Washington on Wednesday, where he will deliver written testimony, brief members of Congress on our work, and answer any questions they have.
We had informed the Senate Intelligence Committee of this in late July and had understood that he would be an appropriate witness for this hearing, Google said.
Walkers prepared testimony focuses on security measures that Google rolled out in the last year, such as a tool to prevent email phishing scams and a program, from the Alphabet unit Jigsaw, to protect political campaigns from cyberattacks.
Walker has assumed increasing responsibility at Google, where the lawyer oversees the companys sprawling legal and policy efforts. Earlier this summer, Google promoted Walker to oversee a larger portfolio, including the units that monitor security and abuse on its services, what Google calls trust and safety.
Walkers ascent came under the tenure of CEO Pichai, who has focused more on Google products and shied away from addressing political issues. Eric Schmidt, Googles former CEO and chairman, was far more willing to be the companys political ambassador. He previously testified before the committee. Schmidt stepped down from his role as chairman of Google parent Alphabet last year.
Facebook and Twitter
In her prepared testimony for the Intelligence Committee, Facebooks Sandberg highlighted efforts by Facebook to prevent election interference, including the use of artificial intelligence to detect bad content and bad actors, removing fake accounts and implementing stricter policies for advertising.
We were too slow to spot this and too slow to act, Sandberg said of Facebooks performance in 2016. Thats on us. This interference was completely unacceptable. It violated the values of our company and of the country we love.
In prepared testimony for a hearing later Wednesday of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Twitters Dorsey emphasized his companys role as a global town square and the importance of a diversity of voices.
We know the way to earn more trust around how we make decisions on our platform is to be as transparent as possible, Dorsey said. He said the Twitter platform itself does not take sides, even as President Trump and some Republicans are asserting a bias against conservatives on social media platforms.
Dorsey said Twitters data scientists did a study of all tweets sent by House and Senate members for the 30-day period that ended Aug. 13. While Democrats on average sent more tweets and had more active followers, after adjusting for that, he said, a single tweet by a Republican will be viewed as many times as a single tweet by a Democrat, even after all filtering and algorithms have been applied by Twitter.
Serial, the wildly popular investigative journalism podcast hosted by Sarah Koenig, will return for a third season on Sept. 20, producers announced Wednesday morning. The first two episodes will drop on various podcast apps, including Apple and Google, and additional episodes will be released weekly on Thursdays.
This seasons subject matter is much broader than in previous seasons, as Koenig and reporter Emmanuel Dzotsi delve into the Cleveland criminal court system, telling multiples stories at once, instead of just one.
Serial has been downloaded more than 340 million times across two previous seasons an ongoing record. Season 1, released in 2014, unleashed a fan frenzy when it scrupulously told the tale of the 1999 murder of Baltimore high school student Hae Min Lee and the subsequent murder trial of her onetime classmate and boyfriend, Adnan Syed.
Syed was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, but Koenigs reporting and the Serial podcast resulted in a public outcry that justice had not been served and that the real killer had not been found.
Advertisement
The show went on to become the first podcast to win a Peabody Award. It also won a National Edward R. Murrow Award.
Season 2 was released in 2015 and focused on the court-martial of Sgt. Bowe Bergdhal, who was held captive by the Taliban for five years and was later charged with desertion.
From its inception, Serial has explored themes of justice: What it is, who gets to decide it, and how it looks when it is fair or miscarried.
For Season 3, the shows creators are taking those notions one step further by examining the many ordinary cases that flow through a typical criminal court on a regular basis from minor criminal proceedings like drug possession and disorderly conduct to serious felonies like murder and armed robbery.
Koenig, a former Baltimore Sun reporter, and Dzotsi, a former fellow at This American Life, were given extraordinary access to record inside courtrooms, judges chambers and attorneys offices. The result, they say in a news release, is a show that examines an often troubled system where large gaps can often be found between the crimes people commit and what they ended up being punished for.
Every case Emmanuel and I followed, there came a point where we thought: No, this cant be how it works, Koenig said in a statement. And then we were like, Oh! Oh my god. This is how it works! This is how it happens! People who work in the system, or have been through the system, they know this. But millions more people do not. And for the past year Ive had this urgent feeling of wanting to kind of hold open the courthouse door, and wave people inside. Because things are happening shocking things, fascinating things in plain sight.
jessica.gelt@latimes.com
@jessicagelt
ALSO:
Day 7: Alfonso Cuarons Roma and other riches from Venice enthrall TIFF
A scene from the film Roma. (Netflix)
You could feel the excitement in the air before the packed Toronto premiere of Roma, the much-anticipated new movie directed by Alfonso Cuaron. A beautifully composed memory piece that conjures the faded Mexico City of the directors 1970s childhood, the film was easily one of this 10-day events most breathlessly anticipated attractions. Roma arrived having already earned rapturous reviews at festivals in Telluride, Colo., and Venice, where, mere days earlier, it had won the Golden Lion, the top prize.
The bestower of that prize was the director Guillermo del Toro, Cuarons pal and countryman, who served as the president of the Venice competition jury. (Del Toro promised beforehand not to do any friendly favors for Cuarons film, and Romas unanimously glowing reception certainly made the choice beyond reproach.) Notably, Del Toro himself had won the Golden Lion just a year earlier for his period fantasy The Shape of Water, the first piece of hardware he collected en route to winning the Academy Award for best picture.
None of this necessarily means that the Golden Lion has suddenly become some hot new harbinger of awards-season glory; this is a prize, after all, that has in the past gone to more recondite pictures such as Alexander Sokurovs Faust, Gianfranco Rosis Sacro GRA and Lav Diazs The Woman Who Left, none of which were made with dreams of Oscar in mind.
Read more
If you are feeling particularly anxious, concerned or upset by the cultural and political moment, the Toronto International Film Festival is here for you. Though perhaps not exactly to mellow any troubled minds.
This years festival, which runs Sept. 6-16 and has a longstanding reputation as an awards season launching pad, brims over with movies that reflect a charged sense of unease and uncertainty. These films may not provide easy answers, but they do give voice to questions that audiences are already asking themselves.
And as the first edition of the festival to convene since the revelations of the #MeToo/TimesUp era began, the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival feels mobilized and making the effort to properly read the moment.
Among the most anticipated world premieres at Toronto is Widows, director Steve McQueens first film since the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave, adapted from a 1980s British TV drama by McQueen and Sharp Objects author Gillian Flynn.
Advertisement
With a deep cast that includes Viola Davis, Colin Farrell, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez, Cynthia Erivo, Daniel Kaluuya, Robert Duvall and Liam Neeson, the film manages to be both a sharp, sleek crime thriller and a deeply nuanced take on the intersections of gender, race and class in modern life. Few films are likely to hit the target of feeling more exactingly 2018.
We very much wanted to keep things very current, we wanted to make a film about our times, said producer Iain Canning.
Every detail in there is about being set in 2018, Canning added, noting the work of production designer Adam Stockhausen. I think the film does feel very contemporary, and thats a real special aspect of it.
Elizabeth Debicki, left, Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Erivo in a scene from Steve McQueens Widows. (TIFF)
The sense of social engagement and political awareness pulses through numerous other world premieres across the festival, including the special presentation of Barry Jenkins adaptation of James Baldwins If Beale Street Could Talk. The film, about an African American woman fighting to free her falsely accused husband from prison, serves as Jenkins follow-up to the Oscar-winning Moonlight.
Also among the special presentations are Gloria Bell, Sebastian Lelios English-language remake of his own Chilean film about a mature womans path to self-discovery, starring Julianne Moore, and Amma Asantes World War II coming-of-age interracial romance Where Hands Touch.
Nicole Holofceners piercing comic-tragic examination of class privilege, The Land of Steady Habits, starring Ben Mendelsohn, will play as a gala, as will Green Book, directed by Peter Farrelly, the story of an African American concert pianist (Mahershala Ali) being driven on tour through the 1960s American South by a white chauffeur (Viggo Mortensen).
The discovery-oriented Platform section opens with Tim Suttons Donnybrook, a brawling thriller starring Jamie Bell, Margaret Qualley and Frank Grillo that explores the devastating effect of drugs and poverty on a rural community.
Even the genre-oriented Midnight Madness section will include films such as Peter Stricklands macabre take on loneliness and consumerism, In Fabric, and David Gordon Greens new sequel to Halloween, with Jamie Lee Curtis returning to the franchise for what has been billed as a story about grappling with the aftermath of trauma and abuse.
Michael Moores much-hyped Fahrenheit 11/9, about the buildup to and fallout from the 2016 presidential election, is only one of the charged movies debuting in the documentary section, along with Alexis Blooms Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes. Errol Morris American Dharma, based on an extended interview with controversial former Trump advisor Stephen K. Bannon, will come to Toronto after premiering in Venice.
Algee Smith and Amandla Stenberg in The Hate U Give. (TIFF)
Playing as a gala presentation, The Hate U Give is directed by George Tillman Jr. and adapted by Audrey Wells from the popular young adult novel by Angie Thomas, involving an African American high school girl named Starr (Amandla Stenberg) who finds her life turned upside down when she witnesses the shooting death of a friend at the hands of a police officer.
I always felt like its so great to tell a story that has something to do with whats happening now, Tillman said, but finding the way that you can still do what you expect when you go to the theater, to be entertained and to laugh and to find emotion in the material.
We just dont really see it from an African American teenage girls perspective, dealing with these kind of things that you see on the news every day, said Tillman. And as a filmmaker, thats what you love, to be in the now.
TIFF has also long been a key stop for foreign-language films looking to make their way to theaters across North America, and this years themes of social awareness and political awakening have crossed borders all around the globe.
There will be a world premiere of a new, combined version of Oscar-winner Paolo Sorrentinos two-part Loro, in which The Great Beauty star Toni Servillo plays controversial Italian politician Silvio Berlusconi. (Parallel connections to any current American elected officials are likely invited.)
Another world premiere is Maya, from French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Lve, the story of a war correspondent (Roman Kolinka) who was held hostage in Syria. After his release he heads to India, where he rebuilds his spirit with the help of a young woman (Aarshi Banerjee).
Aarshi Banerjee and Roman Kolinka in Maya. (TIFF)
Hansen-Lve has attended Toronto multiple times and has come to appreciate the encouragement from audiences who know and support her work.
Its not the same as when you are somewhere and it just feels like people dont know about anything youve been doing before, Hansen-Lve said. When Im there I started feeling some kind of link between my films and the audience in Toronto. Even though I dont know who these people are exactly or where they come from, I feel some kind of connection to the audience there.
In a year when the festivals selections feel particularly aware of their social and political aspects, organizers also have acknowledged the ways in which the press corps and industry attendees have a role to play in how those films are received, discussed and disseminated to the world.
Ahead of the festival, TIFF launched an initiative to increase diversity in its press corps, with a goal of accrediting 200 new journalists from underrepresented groups. The festival also has signed a pledge for 50% gender parity and inclusion by 2020. (This year 122 films in the festival are directed or co-directed by women, making up 36% of the program.)
There will be an official womens rally on Sept. 8, featuring Asante, Geena Davis, Stacy L. Smith, Keri Putnam and other prominent industry figures as speakers and guests.
I think it was a number of things happening in fairly close sequence, said Cameron Bailey, artistic director and co-head of the festival, of Torontos more activist stance this year.
Bailey said that he and other TIFF organizers had begun to notice a disconnect between the way films were being discussed by the select press attending festivals and the way those same titles were being talked about and received once they reached a more diverse general audience upon wider release.
And the more you notice that disconnect, Bailey said, the more you notice that what happens at festivals maybe needs to shift and get a little bit closer to the general reaction to movies.
So we thought, Lets try to bring these things together more, Bailey noted. We like when there are a real range of opinions and conflicting opinions on movies. We think that debate is really healthy. But lets have it be one debate as much as possible, not one that happens at festivals and then a different one that happens afterwards.
And just as TIFF itself is changing, a slate of films that does not shy from downbeat reflection, angered realizations and flashpoints of friction also reveals a desire to move forward to something else, something better.
When asked if movies can actually make a difference in the world, American Dharma director Morris pointed toward his own earlier The Thin Blue Line, which screened at TIFF in 1988 and eventually resulted in its subject being released from prison.
I made a movie that overturned the conviction of an innocent man from murder. Clearly, movies can make an enormous difference, Morris said. Some movies are investigations into the real world and, hopefully, we can learn something something that can help us think about whats going on in the world. And if we dont like it, what we could do about it.
SIGN UP for the free Indie Focus movies newsletter
Mark.Olsen@latimes.com
Follow on Twitter: @IndieFocus
On a cool night in August 2016, two UCLA students went to a fraternity party, got drunk and hooked up.
The young woman said that the young man had sexually assaulted her, and she pushed his fraternity to take action. Six months later, she filed a Title IX complaint with UCLA. The university corroborated her claims, expelled him and in February rejected his appeal.
To the young woman, UCLA had removed an immediate campus danger. But she wanted to do something that would force campus fraternities to do much more to change what she saw as a culture of alcohol abuse and sexual transgression.
So last month, as Jane Doe, she filed a civil complaint, naming her alleged abuser. Her lawsuit sues not only Blake Lobato for assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress but also three fraternity organizations for negligence. She says Zeta Beta Tau, Sigma Alpha Epsilon and the UCLA Interfraternity Council, a student-led governing body for 22 social fraternities with more than 1,600 members, routinely failed to protect her against sexual assault.
Advertisement
Lobatos attorney, Mark M. Hathaway, is seeking a court order to remove his clients name from the complaint though it already has appeared in articles in the Daily Bruin and other newspapers. He says the sex was consensual and the UCLA investigation flawed, and last week asked a Superior Court judge to order the University of California to overturn the findings and sanctions against him.
The three Greek life organizations declined to comment on the litigation but said they had beefed up safeguards against misconduct.
The womans complaint alleges that Zeta Beta Tau and Sigma Alpha Epsilon are particularly notorious. Chapters nationwide, it says, have been repeatedly sanctioned or closed for incidents involving alcohol abuse, sexual assault, racism and underage drinking at campuses including Cal State Long Beach, UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, USC, Stanford, Yale, Cornell and Northwestern.
Despite that history, the complaint alleges, fraternities do little-to-nothing to protect their members and guests from harm, failing to adequately train their members about the risks of sexual and alcohol abuse, to warn their guests about potential dangers or to intervene in dicey situations.
The complaint alleges that Sigma Alpha Epsilon members continued to ply Jane Doe with booze although she was visibly drunk at the fraternitys house party on Aug.12, 2016. It also alleges that the fraternity failed to provide security or supervision.
When she ended up at Zeta Beta Tau early the next morning and ultimately wound up in bed with Lobato, members failed to intervene, the complaint alleges, even though she obviously was intoxicated. She says Lobato sexually assaulted her despite her pleas for him to stop; his attorney maintains that she consented.
UCLAs Zeta Beta Tau fraternity house is also named in the lawsuit. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Text messages included in the petition to make UCLA reverse its decision show she complained later that day and the next day that he had bruised her entire body and taken advantage of her. Hathaway confirmed the messages were between Jane Doe and his client.
You physically hurt me and I am messed up from this, read her Aug. 15 text message. We were both seriously intoxicated. I have bruises where you grabbed me. You need to accept what happened and what you did.
I know you would never actually mean to hurt me or anyone, she added.
She did not file a police report, said her attorney, Keith A. Fink. He later advised her that a Title IX proceeding would be more expeditious in removing Lobato from campus and protecting other women from possible harm.
The UCLA Title IX investigator, after interviewing both students and 16 witnesses, concluded that Lobato overcame Jane Does will by use of force, and by intentionally taking advantage of her incapacitation, touching her breasts and penetrating her without her consent.
Hathaway said UCLA didnt provide evidence of the alleged assault to his client before making its finding or allow questioning of Jane Doe. UCLA spokesman Tod Tamberg declined comment on the case, saying Title IX investigations are confidential, but that all sexual misconduct allegations are handled carefully and impartially under the UC systems transparent, consistent process to ensure fairness.
Fink and others say broader and stronger action is needed to protect students. David Easlick, a Virginia-based lawyer who specializes in risk management involving fraternities, said universities need to step in with stricter oversight and discipline. As at UCLA, most fraternities are governed by independent, student-run councils.
Other universities have taken stronger steps than UCLA, Easlick said.
More colleges, he said, should follow the example of Penn State, which took over disciplinary oversight from the Greek governing council after a 19-year-old student died last year during a pledge night party at the Beta Theta Pi house. Penn State also publicly posts annual scorecards for all sororities and fraternities, listing violations of rules involving sexual abuse, alcohol and other misconduct.
You need to have some kind of school enforcement because youre not going to get it out of fraternities, Easlick said.
Fink said fraternities should hire house managers to oversee conduct one of more than two dozen reforms being considered by Louisiana State University after a student died from binge drinking while pledging Phi Delta Theta last year. Outside security guards should be required at parties to police underage and excessive drinking, he said, and pregaming getting drunk before a party should be discouraged if not banned.
UCLA also should widely publicize sexual assaults that occur at fraternities to warn students, Fink said: You cant have an entirely safe campus, but you can take rational, sane measures to protect the student body.
A UCLA spokesman said university staff trains all fraternity and sorority members to identify and prevent sexual assault and harassment, holds workshops on healthy drinking habits and provides education on how to intervene in potentially harmful situations.
The UCLA Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life works closely with the Interfraternity Council (IFC) to integrate UCLA student conduct policies and True Bruin values into their respective councils and chapters. The goal is to continually strengthen student safety within the Greek community, Ricardo Vazquez said in a statement.
UCLA could not provide data on how many sexual misconduct claims there have involved Greek life organizations. The Title IX office received 601 complaints between July 2016 and June 2017, about half of them from students and three-fourths of them involving allegations of sexual harassment or sexual violence. UCLA launched formal investigations in 41 cases and substantiated violations of university policy in just over half of them, with a handful more still in process.
Noah Mayer, president of the UCLA Interfraternity Council, said his organization launched several reforms this year to strengthen student safety. Following an alleged sexual assault by a fraternity member, the council in January imposed a six-week ban on alcohol at house events while it created a new risk management policy.
The council now requires fraternities to hire licensed third-party security guards to check IDs at the doors of house parties and issue wristbands to those who are legally allowed to drink. The new policy bars house members from taking visitors to private quarters unless preregistered. At least two fraternity members must patrol each party as sober monitors to take care of those who are drunk and make sure that rules are being followed and food and nonalcoholic beverages are available, Mayer said.
The council also requires new fraternity members to attend seminars on such topics as sexual misconduct prevention, the dangers of toxic masculinity and how to prevent hazing. Mayer said the council has worked with campus sexual assault specialists on a new guide that tells fraternity presidents the steps they must take when they receive complaints of sexual misconduct.
The reforms have created a new line of accountability for fraternity parties as well as created a safer environment, Mayer said. They are a large step in the right direction for the fraternity community at UCLA.
Last week, the North-American Interfraternity Conference approved a ban on hard liquor at house events unless served by a licensed third-party vendor, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported. The conferences 66 members, which includes Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Zeta Beta Tau, voted to implement the ban by September 2019.
One UCLA sorority member, who asked for anonymity because she was not authorized to speak publicly, said the fraternity sexual assault issue was overblown. During her two years at UCLA, she said, no one has ever pushed drinks on her or sexually harassed her during any of the beach outings, parties, tailgaters or dinners her sorority has held with fraternities. She said she doesnt know anyone who has been sexually assaulted and only occasionally hears stories.
These are really rare incidents and its not fair to assume this is a regular thing in Greek life, she said.
She conceded that recent reforms are easy to get around. Despite the door checks, she said, younger students can get drinks from older ones once inside. They can drink outside which could be worse, she said, because they might arrive at parties already drunk and vulnerable to predators.
The best defense against sexual assault, she said, is for women to attend parties in groups and watch out for each other.
Its pretty easy to prevent it by staying with friends, she said. It just falls on girls shoulders.
Other students are pushing for stronger action. In an editorial last month, the Daily Bruin student newspaper, citing the recent lawsuit, urged the university to ban Greek life houses that repeatedly violate Title IX policies, starting with Zeta Beta Tau.
The time for lip service is over, the editorial said. UCLA can either take a firm stance against a brutish culture of sexual assault and sexual harassment or sit on its hands as it has done before.
teresa.watanabe@latimes.com
Twitter: @teresawatanabe
Times staff writers Sonali Kohli and Alejandra Reyes-Velarde contributed to this report.
UPDATES:
8:10 a.m.: This article was updated with details about a ban on hard liquor at house events.
This article was originally published at 5 a.m.
Actress Asia Argento, who is under investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department following allegations she had sex with a minor, is now accusing the young actor of sexually attacking her in 2013.
Mark Jay Heller, Argentos lawyer, said in a statement that the Italian actress was the real victim of the sexual encounter, contradicting accusations made by Jimmy Bennett, who said he was 17 when Argento had sex with him in a Marina del Rey hotel.
For the record: An earlier version of this article misspelled Rain Dove Dubilewskis last name as Dubliewski.
Asia at no time initiated a sexual encounter with Bennett and in fact as she stated in her response to the New York Times article, concerning their past history, I have never had any sexual relationship with Bennett but rather the relationship was a long distance friendship over many years, Heller said.
The lawyer said the encounter with Bennett in May 2013 was not consensual for his client. Asia chose at the time not to prosecute Bennett for sexually attacking her, he said.
Advertisement
A New York Times story in August revealed that Bennett was paid a $380,000 settlement after accusing Argento last fall of sexually assaulting him in 2013 when he was 17. In California, the age of consent is 18.
The Times story said that on May 9, 2013, a teenage Bennett arrived with a family member for a reunion with Argento at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey, and Argento asked the family member to leave. When the two were alone, she kissed him, removed his pants and performed oral sex before having intercourse with him, Bennetts lawyer said.
The actress issued a statement after the story, saying she had not had a sexual relationship with Bennett and she agreed to the settlement only after her boyfriend, Anthony Bourdain the culinary and travel personality who killed himself in June put up the money and made the arrangements.
The actress is characterizing the incident that led to the settlement in a different light.
In text messages provided to TMZ.com, Argento, who was 37 at the time of the alleged encounter, reportedly said, The horny kid jumped me. I had sex with him and it felt weird.
In the texts, which were sent to model Rain Dove Dubilewski, Argento also said, I didnt know he was a minor until the shakedown letter. It wasnt raped but I was frozen, according to TMZ.
Dubilewski said she turned the messages over to law enforcement.
A sheriffs spokeswoman said the department has not had contact with either Argento or Bennett regarding the latest allegations.
Heller said his client will cooperate with any investigation. Bennett could not be reached for comment Wednesday but previously said he was traumatized by having sex with the actress when he was so young.
I did not initially speak out about my story because I chose to handle it in private with the person who wronged me. My trauma resurfaced as she came out as a victim herself, Bennett said in a statement about the settlement. I have not made a public statement in the past days and hours because I was ashamed and afraid to be part of the public narrative.
I didnt think that people would understand the event that took place from the eyes of a teenage boy.
On the day of the alleged encounter, Argento posted a photo on Instagram showing her hugging Bennett, referring to him as My son, my love, and included the month and year.
Argento insisted the settlement was paid last year at the behest of Bourdain to avoid bad publicity. Bennetts lawyers had threatened to sue Argento, who had become a leading figure in the #MeToo movement after she said last fall that she was raped by producer Harvey Weinstein when she was a young actress.
Weinsteins attorney Benjamin Brafman has said that all of the relationships between the former Hollywood mogul and his accusers were consensual.
As part of a potential lawsuit, Bennetts attorney sent photos of the pair in bed together. In the settlement, the copyright for the pictures was secured so he could not use or show them to others.
The payout to Bennett, which was made in small portions, has now stopped, Heller said.
The lawyer said, This is the Phase Two of the #MeToo movement, and he called for victims with a negative history to have the courage to come forward and say me too, I was a victim of sexual assault.
Asia believes no sexual predator should be granted a pass simply because the victim has some gray area in their background. The statement accuses the media of giving an unfair impression of the victim.
richard.winton@latimes.com
Twitter: @lacrimes
Even as it cracked down on immigration from predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East and Africa, the Trump administration stressed that the safety of Christians in the region would be a priority.
In recent months, however, dozens of religious minorities from Iran have seen their asylum claims denied despite a decades-old program designed to help them. Many have been left stranded in Austria, unable to go home and unsure whether theyll ever make it to the U.S.
The administration in February rejected the cases of 87 Iranian refugees an unprecedented move for a program with a near 100% acceptance rate, attorneys said. The government did not provide a reason for the denials, saying it was a matter of discretion.
Some of the refugees, who had traveled to Vienna as part of the asylum process, and family members in the United States filed a class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. In July, a judge ordered the government to reconsider those cases and said it must disclose individual reasons for the denials, which would allow the applicants to file an appeal. The government estimates it will make final decisions in the reopened cases this month.
Advertisement
Our clients have faced serious persecution in Iran due to their religion, said Kate Meyer, an attorney with the International Refugee Assistance Project. Its impacted their ability to work, to go to school, to seek medical care for themselves or their children.
Applications under the Lautenberg-Specter program began stalling in late 2016, Meyer said.
Enacted in 1989 to facilitate resettlement of Jews from what was then the Soviet Union, the program later was expanded to include non-Muslims from Iran. Run in partnership with the Austrian government, it requires refugees to have a U.S. sponsor who will cover the costs associated with their travel as well as the typical three- to six-month stay in Vienna. Many eventually move to California, advocates said, because of the large Iranian and Armenian diaspora.
More than 10,100 Iranian religious minorities have resettled under the Lautenberg program since the 2004 fiscal year, the government said.
Although admissions from Iran to the U.S. have not completely come to a halt under the Trump administration, they have slowed from 1,061 in the first quarter of the 2017 fiscal year to 29 in the first quarter of fiscal 2018, court records show.
A total of 35 Iranian refugees have been admitted this fiscal year as of July 31, according to data from the Refugee Processing Center.
Goharek Garmemasihi shares a photograph of family members she sponsored to come to the U.S., covering their faces to protect their identity. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Februarys denials left Goharek Garmemasihis family separated.
She moved her brother, sister-in-law and niece to Los Angeles last year. But her nephew, who had traveled from Iran with them, is stuck in Vienna.
You let the father, mother and sister come, but you tell the son, No, you have to stay? Garmemasihi said, amazed.
In 2007 she helped her sister resettle in Southern California, using the same program without issue.
I wouldnt have ever thought it would be this hard, Garmemasihi said of the familys latest effort.
Last year, in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Trump said that it was easier for Muslims to enter the U.S. than for Christians and that he planned to make a change. Asked whether persecuted Christians overseas would be a priority, the president said, Yes, theyve been horribly treated. We are going to help them.
The greater number of Lautenberg denials is the result of changes to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program made under President Obama in 2016, according to a State Department official who declined to give further details. It has nothing to do with Trumps executive orders on immigration, the official said, adding that the administration remains committed to supporting the Iranian people.
In court filings, according to the International Refugee Assistance Project, the government has said that enhancements to security check techniques led to the increase in denials.
But the religious refugees limbo has drawn bipartisan concern.
In a letter to Vice President Mike Pence earlier this year, Reps. Randy Hultgren (R-Ill.) and Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said that the situation makes no sense.
The co-chairmen of the Houses Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission told Pence that he had been eloquent in his defense of Christians in Iran and throughout the Middle East. The vice president had made it clear that the administration would take the lead in helping to end their persecution, they noted. But they said the case of the Iranian refugees was reaching a crisis point.
The law is clear: These applicants should be presumed eligible for refugee status, they said.
Matt Saria, one of a handful of USC law students who helped the International Refugee Assistance Project with research during the lawsuit, said the Iranians he spoke with in Austria had let their guard down and assumed they would make it to America.
Then they face a whole other nightmare in Vienna and they dont know what to do, because theyre separated but cant go back because theyve been outed as refugees, Saria said.
Garmemasihi said the separation had taken a toll on her 24-year-old nephew, a student who hopes to pursue a career as a veterinarian in the U.S. When they video chat, he tells her that two years of his life have gone to waste.
He says, My life is going by without me having accomplished anything, she said.
In addition to Armenian Christians such as Garmemasihi, others resettled under the program include Jews, Zoroastrians, Bahais and Mandaeans.
One Mandaean applicant has been waiting in Vienna for 16 months, court documents show.
In a sworn statement, she said she and her son fled Iran because of constant persecution. Mandaeans, who are followers of John the Baptist, face discrimination in many ways, she said including having people throw rocks at them during baptisms. Her son was expelled from school because of his faith and was unable to enroll in another for nearly two years, she said.
The woman, who did not want her name used for fear of retribution, left her husband behind in Iran. She hoped to move to San Jose, where much of her family has been resettled. Her status as a refugee and her ties to the lawsuit would only increase her chances of being retaliated against by the Iranian government should she be forced to return, she said.
Before she left the Islamic Republic, the woman and her husband gave up the apartment they were renting and sold their appliances. Her husband now lives with his family.
I have no home left in Iran, she said.
sarah.parvini@latimes.com
For more California news follow me on Twitter: @sarahparvini
#LASD Seek Publics Help in Loc Missing Person, Adam Michael Buckley. 27 year-old White male, 510, 165lbs, brown hair, & brown eyes. Last seen Tue, 8/28/18, in LA, wearing a brown and white plaid shirt, with gray pants. HIs family very worried. pic.twitter.com/JolfRsD49c LA County Sheriff's (@LASDHQ) September 4, 2018
The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department is asking for the publics help in finding a missing man after he was misidentified as dead by the Los Angeles County Coroners office.
Adam Buckley was last seen Aug. 28 after he was released from the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles, according to a Twitter post from the Sheriffs Department.
A few days after Buckley was released, the L.A. County Coroners office issued a statement about the misidentification.
Advertisement
We would like to publicly apologize to the family of the man who was misidentified as the decedent, and also express our regrets to the community we serve, the statement read, before going on to chronicle the events that led to the error.
The Sheriffs Department alerted the coroners office about a body found in Lancaster on July 2. The coroners office said it was unable to identify the remains because they had been badly burned.
About a week later, the coroners office determined the body was male, but it still couldnt obtain fingerprints or bone DNA.
On July 26, sheriffs deputies told the coroners office the remains could be those of Buckley, who according to a Facebook post, had been missing since June 12.
After X-ray comparisons, the coroners office said the body was Buckleys, according to the statement, and notified his family.
Buckley, however, was arrested and booked into a downtown L.A. jail on Aug. 25. He was released three days later, at which time an unnamed agency alerted the coroners office that Buckley had been located and was alive, according to the statement.
As forensic tools and strategies continue to be developed, we are reevaluating our processes in identification to help keep incidents like this from happening again in the future, the coroners statement said. These types of mistakes are unacceptable to us and run counter to our mission of looking after and protecting the decedents of Los Angeles County.
The body still has not been positively identified.
Buckley disappeared from a group home, according to a Facebook post on the page of his mother, Angela Winters.
Friends and family members started two online funding campaigns one after he was reported dead to raise money for his funeral, which is now closed, and the second on Go Fund Me to offer a reward for anyone with information about his whereabouts.
Buckley suffers from schizophrenia and could be in the Los Angeles or Santa Clarita areas, according to the Sheriffs Department.
Authorities launched a homicide investigation early Wednesday after a mans body was discovered inside a burned car in an industrial complex in Westminster.
Orange County Fire Authority and Westminster police were called to a parking lot in the 6400 block of Industry Way shortly before 3 a.m. because a Honda Civic was on fire, police told reporters at the scene.
After firefighters extinguished the blaze, they discovered the body between the trunk and the back seat, said Cmdr. Cameron Knauerhaze.
Homicide investigators are canvassing the area for witnesses and other evidence, Knauerhaze said.
Advertisement
Anyone with information is asked to call the Westminster Police Departments detective bureau at (714) 898-3315 or Orange County Crime Stoppers at (855) 847-6227.
hannah.fry@latimes.com
Twitter: @Hannahnfry
UPDATES:
6:55 a.m.: This article was updated with news that a homicide investigation has been launched.
This article was originally published at 6:15 a.m.
Three years ago, Angelenos voted overwhelmingly to switch their local elections to even-numbered years, part of a larger effort to reverse years of dismal voter turnout.
Voters agreed to hold a June 2020 primary and a November 2020 runoff for City Council and school board elections, combining those races with state and national contests. But then state lawmakers moved the 2020 primary to March 2020, leaving the city once again out of sync.
Now the council is looking to change the schedule again, sending voters two more election schedule ballot measures to bring L.A.s 2020 primary back in line with the state. Doing that, however, will cost taxpayers an estimated $3.1 million.
City Clerk Holly Wolcott said thats the price of placing the two measures on Los Angeles Countys Nov. 6 election ballot.
Advertisement
David A. Holtzman, who heads the group Los Angeles Voters For Instant Runoff Elections, called the expensive do-over vote the result of an obvious drafting error by city leaders in 2015. Charter Amendments 1 and 2, which moved local elections from odd- to even-numbered years, should have been written in a way that did not tie the 2020 primary election to a particular month, he said.
Instead of specifying a specific date, they should have said, We will always have the primary election when the state has them, he said.
Holtzman opposes Charter Amendments E and EE, which would move the city and school board primary to March 2020, arguing that city lawmakers should have come up with more comprehensive changes, such as ranked-choice voting. He warned the date change will cause the citys runoff campaigns to last much longer than they did under the previous system.
Under L.A.s odd-year election schedule, primary elections were held in March and a runoff, if needed, was conducted in mid-May. If voters pass E and EE, any runoff campaign would last eight months and provide an advantage to establishment candidates and well-funded incumbents, Holtzman said.
In addition, any candidates who win the March 2020 primary outright would then have to wait nine months before they are seated.
Kathay Feng, who co-chaired the 2015 campaign for even-year elections, acknowledged the city had made an expensive mistake by putting a specific month in Charter Amendments 1 and 2. But she argued that Charter Amendments E and EE will ensure that the voters original intent boosting voter participation in local elections is carried out.
Little did we know the state Legislature was going to move the primary to March, said Feng, who is the executive director of California Common Cause, a nonprofit election watchdog group. So really this is a cleanup bill to synchronize the election with the state election.
Feng said Charter Amendments E and EE have been written so that if the Legislature moves the primary back to June in 2022, the council could do the same without having to consult voters again. Political science professor Fernando Guerra, another backer of the two measures, questioned the notion that an eight-month runoff election campaign would benefit better-funded candidates.
Having a longer runoff campaign would give challengers more time to reach voters without having to raise money, said Guerra, who is director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University and also a registered City Hall lobbyist.
The push to change the citys election schedule was spearheaded by Council President Herb Wesson and featured one major side benefit for the citys elected officials: an extra year and a half in office.
Vanessa Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for Wesson, referred questions about the 2015 ballot language to City Atty. Mike Feuer. Rob Wilcox, a Feuer spokesman, said the state Legislature changed the date two years after L.A. voters had rescheduled its elections.
State lawmakers changed the date of the primary in hopes of increasing Californias clout in the next presidential campaign.
Asked about the $3.1-million cost of an election date do-over, Rodriguez said in an email that engaging the citizenry is the most important element of a functioning democracy.
L.A.s 2020 election ballot will offer races for seven council seats and four school board seats. At least two city campaigns are expected to be highly competitive one in Wessons district, the other in the downtown-to-Eagle Rock district represented by Councilman Jose Huizar. Both men are being forced out by term limits.
Huizars wife, Richelle Huizar, is widely expected to run for the seat held by her husband. For more than a year, shes been appearing with her husband at district events and popped up regularly in the councilmans social media messages.
Richelle Huizar did not return calls from The Times. But Jose Huizar, while declining to describe her plans, noted that a lot of support is coming her way.
People are excited about having her be the next council person, he said.
Huizars seat has also drawn interest from Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), who lives in Boyle Heights. Santiago chief of staff Jackie Koenig said her boss will make a decision in November.
In Council District 10, which stretches from Koreatown to Leimert Park, Wessons son, political aide Justin Wesson, has been considering a campaign. Another possible candidate is Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), who previously worked at City Hall in the Department of General Services.
A campaign consultant for Jones-Sawyer said his client is keeping all options open after the November election.
Attorney Grace Yoo, who waged an unsuccessful challenge against Wesson in 2015, said she intends to run for the seat again in the 2020 election.
david.zahniser@latimes.com
Twitter: @DavidZahniser
UPDATES:
2:30 p.m.: This article was updated to say that Richelle Huizar did not return calls from The Times.
This article was originally published at 5 a.m.
Brothel owner and Republican Nevada Assembly nominee Dennis Hof is being investigated by state authorities in connection with sexual assault and rape allegations made over Labor Day weekend.
The Nevada Department of Public Safety confirmed the investigation Wednesday, but wouldnt comment on any specifics.
Based on a request from the Carson City Sheriffs Office, the Nevada Department of Public Safety, Investigation Division, is conducting an investigation into sexual assault allegations against Dennis Hof, the department said in a statement. As this is an ongoing investigation, no further information can be provided at this time.
But Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said his detective interviewed a woman who showed up at a local hospital Sunday alleging Hof had raped her.
Advertisement
Furlong said that after the detective conducted an initial interview with the woman, the department turned the case over to state authorities to investigate.
Hof locked up the Republican nomination for a seat in the Assembly, Nevadas lower legislative house, in a district that spans three rural counties when he upset incumbent James Oscarson in the June primary. In November, he will face Lesia Romanov, a Democrat who is considered an underdog in this deeply Republican area of the state.
But his nomination has been fraught with controversy, including revelations from former sex workers who contend that Hof sexually assaulted them while working in his brothels in the past.
Hofs campaign released a statement Wednesday saying the candidate has spoken with investigators and is cooperating fully with state authorities.
While he has his suspicions, at this time Mr. Hof does not know exactly what the allegations are, who made them or when the alleged incident supposedly took place, the statement read. Nevertheless he completely and totally denies that any such incident occurred and believes the allegations are groundless and politically motivated.
Hof said via text message that he couldnt comment further on the new allegations.
The brothel owner and reality TV personality on Cathouse has billed himself as the Trump of Pahrump, the town west of Las Vegas, and has run as a political outsider. He has been at odds with some of the established Republican candidates in Nevada, several of whom have refused to endorse his candidacy.
U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, the Republican incumbent locked in a tight race with Democrat Jacky Rosen, refused to endorse him, as has Adam Laxalt, the Republican candidate for governor. Still, Hof recently hired trucks to drive around Pahrump with billboards that read, Laxalt. Hof. Heller. The winning team.
Hof, 71, has also regularly battled with officials in Nye County, where his Love Ranch brothel is located.
Last month, the Love Ranch was closed after the county determined he had been late paying his brothel license fees. But a federal judge ordered the county to restore Hofs license and reopen the business after he decided the countys actions were in retaliation for an existing 1st Amendment lawsuit Hof had filed against two county commissioners.
The Nevada Independent, an online publication, first reported the rape investigation Tuesday night.
david.montero@latimes.com | Twitter: @davemontero
Tropical Storm Gordon barreled toward the north-central Gulf Coast late Tuesday, unleashing torrential rain and gusty winds as it threatened to pick up enough power to become the first hurricane to strike the mainland United States in 2018.
By Tuesday evening, Gordon was about 75 miles southeast of Biloxi, Miss., moving northwest at about 14 mph with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph just 4 mph short of hurricane strength.
A roughly 150-mile stretch of the Gulf Coast from the mouth of the Pearl River near the Louisiana-Mississippi border to Alabamas border with Florida was under a hurricane warning as the center of Gordon was forecast to make landfall Tuesday night before moving inland over the lower Mississippi Valley on Wednesday.
Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory.
Advertisement
In addition to the hurricane warning, a storm surge warning is in effect from Shell Beach, La., to Dauphin Island, Ala. Stretches on both sides of that area are under a less serious storm surge watch.
The governors of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi have declared states of emergency as the storm lurched toward their coasts.
This storm will produce 70-80 mph winds and 3-6 feet of surge, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant warned residents on Twitter. Be prepared.
Although the center of Gordon is on track to reach the Mississippi coast, large bands of rainfall are spanning out to the east, National Hurricane Center director Ken Graham said in a video presentation.
Gordon is expected to drop about 4 to 8 inches of rain over the western Florida Panhandle, southwest Alabama, southern and central Mississippi, northeastern Louisiana, and southern Arkansas, the Hurricane Center said. Officials warned of flash flooding, with some coastal areas potentially seeing up to 12 inches of rain through late Thursday.
Florida is not under a hurricane warning, but tropical storm warnings were in effect for Escambia County and coastal portions of Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties. With heavy rainfall and isolated tornadoes expected in the western Florida Panhandle, Florida Gov. Rick Scott urged coastal residents to be prepared.
It is critical for everyone to listen to local news reports and weather alerts, Scott said in a statement. We are now in the peak of hurricane season. It is time to get a disaster plan in place. Stay vigilant and stay safe.
This years hurricane season is expected to be less active than the one in 2017, when Harvey, Irma and Maria caused widespread destruction in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Climate Prediction Center recently downgraded its May forecast, saying conditions in the ocean and atmosphere had changed. The center lowered its forecast for the Atlantic hurricane season, saying it expected nine to 13 named storms and zero to two major hurricanes for the year.
The Gulf Coast experienced its last hurricane in October, when Hurricane Nate, a Category 1 storm, made landfall at the mouth of the Mississippi River. A combination of winds, storm surge, flooding and tornadoes caused about $225 million in damage to property and agriculture, mostly in southwest Alabama.
Many schools along the Gulf Coast were shuttered Tuesday and prepared to remain closed on Wednesday.
In New Orleans, Mayor LaToya Cantrell ordered City Hall and city government offices to close Wednesday morning for nonessential personnel, and urged residents to stay off the roads and shelter in place in their homes.
In August last year, storms overwhelmed New Orleans drainage system and caused widespread flooding. But the low-lying citys Sewerage and Water Board said this week that 116 out of 120 pumps were available and that it had more power than it needed to run the citys entire drainage system.
We are all in this together, Cantrell said in a statement, urging residents to check on neighbors, family and friends. Im asking all residents to do their part in getting ready for this storm. The citys absolute, number one priority is to ensure the safety of our residents. Weve worked all weekend to ensure that were prepared. Together, were ready for Gordon.
jenny.jarvie@latimes.com
@jennyjarvie
Police detained a ranting man accused of crashing a pickup truck into a Fox affiliate television station building Wednesday morning in downtown Dallas during a live newscast.
KDFW posted details on Facebook showing photos of the front of the vehicle rammed into windows near an entrance. The man paced and scattered numerous handwritten papers outside. He was not able to enter the building and was soon arrested.
Anchors who continued on the air through the 7 a.m. newscast, despite the crash, say nobody was hurt. The truck hit an unoccupied administrative side of the building before office workers arrived for the day.
A KDFW statement says, a man crashed a truck into the side of our building this morning and jumped out and started ranting.
Advertisement
Anchor and reporter Brandon Todd, who witnessed the man pacing outside the station before he was arrested, said the man was yelling about high treason, and that he believed he had clearly been wronged and that someone was trying to kill him.
Its not real clear to what his message was, according to Todd.
The man started crying when police took him into custody, Todd said.
Police havent replied to phone messages seeking further details, including a possible motive. A remote-controlled police robot later Wednesday searched the area near the station, which was closed to the usual downtown business foot and vehicle traffic, following the incident.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh will be back for a second day before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and its expected to be even more contentious.
TOP STORIES
Your Guide to the Kavanaugh Fireworks
Day 1 of the confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh, President Trumps Supreme Court nominee, was not the sleepy affair typical of such openings. Instead, Senate Democrats repeatedly tried to halt the hearing, saying the process has been hurried and unfair, and shouting protesters were escorted from the audience. One moment that went viral: a failed attempt by a Parkland, Fla., school shooting victims father to shake Kavanaughs hand. What will todays action bring? Here are 10 things to watch for from the Democrats, Republicans and Kavanaugh himself. Plus, follow along with our live chat featuring The Times experts.
Advertisement
Judge Brett Kavanaugh arrives for his hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
Peace Through Punishment?
Trump has called it the ultimate deal: a plan for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Two months ago, its unveiling seemed imminent. Instead, the proposal hit a wall of opposition from Persian Gulf Arab states, which have called it pro-Israel and out of line with traditional U.S. policy and international law. The latest Trump strategy: punishing Palestinians in an effort to change their tune, including cutting off U.S. funding for the United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees.
Curiouser and Curiouser
Rep. Duncan Hunter of San Diego County and his wife stand accused of spending $250,000 in campaign funds on family fun and extravagance, including paying to fly their pet rabbit to Washington, D.C., for vacation. But that hasnt stopped the Republican from continuing to run for Congress, leading in the polls and getting a supportive tweet from Trump. Columnist Steve Lopez goes down the rabbit hole.
More Politics
-- Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III told Trumps lawyers in a letter Friday that he will accept at least some written answers from Trump to questions about whether his campaign coordinated with Russia to tilt the 2016 election in his favor, according to two people briefed on the communication.
-- Bob Woodwards new book paints a harrowing portrait of the Trump presidency. Trump has claimed its possibly made up or the product of embittered aides.
-- Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has appointed fellow Republican Jon Kyl, a retired three-term U.S. senator, to fill the seat of the late John McCain. But Kyl wants to do it only until January.
Irans Stranded Religious Refugees
Early in Trumps presidency, he said persecuted Christians overseas would be given a priority to enter the United States. (At the time it created an uproar about a religious test.) Yet in recent months, dozens of religious minorities from Iran, including Christians, have seen their asylum claims denied despite a decades-old program designed to help them. Whats going on? Read on.
Taking Scooters for a Spin
Depending on your point of view, electric scooters are either amazing or awful or perhaps a bit of both. In the same way, policing their use has been like the Wild West. Now, the L.A. City Council has approved its first set of temporary rules for the companies that have plopped thousands of scooters on the streets. The rules include a 15-mph speed limit and encourage use in low-income areas.
Sign up to get Todays Headlines delivered to your inbox.
MUST-WATCH VIDEO
-- The sounds of Mexico City, which sings or screams depending on your mood.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
During a drought 30 years ago this week, the water level in the Bridgeport Reservoir in Mono County dropped so low, anglers used archery equipment for their catch. Meanwhile, the Department of Fish and Game tried to rescue as many fish as possible, but thousands perished.
Sept. 1, 1988: Angler Jim Reed uses a bow and arrow to fish for carp from the drain of the Bridgeport Reservoir. As an indication of the droughts severity, the drain was often 40 feet underwater. (Thomas Kelsey / Los Angeles Times)
CALIFORNIA
-- A federal appeals court has ruled that prosecuting homeless people for sleeping on public property when they have no access to shelter violates the Constitutions ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
-- The L.A. County district attorneys office has declined to file charges against actors Kevin Spacey, Steven Seagal and Anthony Anderson, who were accused of sexual abuse with the arrival of the #MeToo movement.
--Former President Obama will drop into Southern California on Saturday, holding a rally to boost seven Democratic candidates.
HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS
-- After 25 years, The Joy Luck Club is still a captivating Hollywood movie about Asian American identity. And finally, film critic Justin Chang writes, its no longer the only one.
-- Beyond the joke: Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner discuss the origins of modern comedy and the new home video set Sid Caesar: The Works.
-- Members of Aretha Franklins family have criticized the Rev. Jasper Williams Jr., saying he did not properly eulogize the Queen of Soul at her funeral last week.
-- Danny Elfman will reprise his live performance as Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas at the Hollywood Bowl in October.
NATION-WORLD
-- Russian jets began an intense barrage on Syrias northwest, pounding rebel-held areas in Idlib province, hours after Trump warned in a tweet that Syrian President Bashar Assad must not recklessly attack Idlib Province.
-- Tropical Storm Gordon could gain strength to become the first hurricane to strike the mainland United States in 2018 as it heads toward the Gulf Coast.
-- Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeos expected visit to Pakistan this week may have prompted the Taliban to report the death of a leading militant.
-- Seven years after Libya was liberated, the only thing certain there is the uncertainty.
-- Much of Brazils National Museum was destroyed by fire. Here is a glimpse of what was lost.
BUSINESS
-- A new deal to collaborate on an inhalable hypertension drug will let Southern California drugmaker MannKind breathe a little easier about its finances.
-- Tesla shares fell after Mercedes unveiled an all-electric SUV and a Goldman Sachs stock analyst gave Elon Musks company a sell rating.
SPORTS
-- The Lakers have set themselves up to add another superstar to join LeBron James. How? Columnist Bill Plaschke says it was so quiet, you may have missed it.
-- At the U.S. Open, defending womens champ Sloane Stephens fell. On the mens side, Rafael Nadal prevailed in a five-set tiebreaker with Dominic Thiem to reach the semifinal.
OPINION
-- Want the Purple Line, a.k.a. the subway to the sea, running by the 2028 Olympics? The feds need to show us the money.
-- Gustavo Arellano says he used to be a skeptic of Chicano studies, before he taught a class and learned its real agenda.
WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING
-- Listen to Bob Woodward speak with President Trump about the book Fear: Trump in the White House before its publication. (Washington Post/YouTube)
-- The biblical basis for investigative reporting: How a reporters Christian faith made him a better journalist. (ProPublica)
-- How Indian Americans came to dominate the motel business in the U.S. (National Geographic)
ONLY IN L.A.
In the capital of car culture, some people could use reassurance its not weird not to drive. For them, theres BUSted, a monthly showcase of storytellers recounting tales from the front lines of L.A.s buses, trains and sidewalks. The cast of characters is diverse, with stories that include humor and pathos. But organizer Scott Schultz says one thing unites them: taking pride in being a non-motorist.
If you like this newsletter, please share it with friends. Comments or ideas? Email us at headlines@latimes.com.
Once again a Supreme Court nominee has insulted the intelligence of the American public by likening justices to umpires. Echoing the language used by John Roberts at his confirmation hearings in 2005, Brett Kavanaugh declared Tuesday before the Senate: A good judge must be an umpire a neutral and impartial arbiter who favors no litigant or policy. I dont decide cases based on personal or policy preferences.
But justices are not umpires at all. Umpires apply rules and have little leeway in determining how those rules should be interpreted. The Supreme Court creates the rules and justices have enormous discretion how to interpret the law. By likening himself to an umpire, Kavanaugh was contending that his views dont matter at all. That is false.
How a justice votes is very much a result of his or her ideology and views. Justices Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor disagree in virtually every major case entirely because of their differing ideologies. This is not new; Supreme Court decisions have always been a product of those sitting on the bench.
How a justice votes is very much a result of his or her ideology and views.
Advertisement
The Constitution was written intentionally in broad, open-ended language that rarely provides guidance for issues that must be resolved by the Supreme Court. Justices are obligated to give meaning to ambiguous words written almost 230 years ago. What is speech? For example, should spending money in an election campaign be regarded as a form of speech? This is the issue at the heart of whether campaign spending limits violate the 1st Amendment. The text of the Constitution cannot answer the question of whether spending money is speech. Nor did the founders think about this in 1789, when campaign spending did not exist as it does today.
One of the most controversial parts of the Constitution, the 2nd Amendment reads: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. Is this a right to have guns only for militia service or does it create a more general right of individuals to possess firearms? On this question, the court split 5-4 exactly along ideological lines in District of Columbia vs. Heller in 2008 and declared unconstitutional a 32-year-old ordinance prohibiting ownership or possession of handguns. The conservative majority chose to read the 2nd Amendment as a right of individuals to possess handguns in their homes for the sake of security, while the liberals argued that the 2nd Amendment is a right to have guns solely for the purpose of militia service. Either is a plausible reading of the text supportable by the amendments history.
No constitutional right is absolute and constitutional cases constantly involve balancing of the governments interest against the claim of a right. A justices own ideology and life experiences inevitably determine how he or she strikes the balance.
To pick an easy example, the 4th Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and arrests. But what is reasonable or unreasonable cannot be answered from the text of the Constitution or any original understanding. When the court considered whether the police can take a DNA sample from a person arrested for a serious crime to see if it matches DNA from an unsolved crime in a police database, the court explicitly balanced the benefit to law enforcement of obtaining the information against the intrusion to privacy and ruled, 5-4, in favor of the government.
Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion
Under constitutional law, the court frequently weighs whether the government has a compelling or important or a legitimate interest. For example, in cases involving affirmative action in college admissions, the central question is whether diversity in the classroom is a compelling government interest. In deciding the constitutionality of laws prohibiting same-sex marriage, the court had to decide, at a minimum, whether they serve a legitimate interest. But whether something is a compelling or an important or a legitimate government interest demands a value choice. It never can be answered by the text of the Constitution or its original understanding.
President Trump, senators and the public all know that justices are not like umpires, which is exactly why the confirmation of Supreme Court nominees are so contentious. Kavanaugh obviously knows this, too, and should not have presented such a misleading sense of constitutional law to the Senate Judiciary Committee or the American public.
Erwin Chemerinsky is dean and Jesse H. Choper distinguished professor of law at UC Berkeley School of Law.
Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook
The Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh began at least a three-day run on Tuesday, and just as detractors warned, it was the congressional version of kabuki drama: plenty of ritual but not much suspense.
Each side played its assigned role. Democrats demanded that the proceedings be suspended until the Senate Judiciary Committee had more documents about Kavanaughs political career. Republicans denounced the Democrats as obstructionists. Pink-clad protesters shrieked until they were led away. Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the dyspeptic chairman, lost his temper (as usual). Amid it all, Judge Kavanaugh sat silent and stone-faced, except for the occasional trace of a smile.
It was the kind of day that led Elena Kagan, when she was a law professor, to call judicial confirmations a vapid and hollow charade.
But Justice Kagan was only half right. This weeks hearings, like the entire confirmation process, are hollow: The outcome is in no doubt. The Senate will confirm Kavanaugh on party lines; the only question is how many endangered red-state Democrats will join the Republican majority.
Advertisement
If nothing else, we will get a fair idea about whether Republicans can effectively use Kavanaughs ascension to mobilize their voters in November.
But the debate along the way will still be well worth watching, not only on the substance of the issues but on the political fallout as well. If nothing else, we will get a fair idea about whether Republicans can effectively use Kavanaughs ascension to mobilize their voters in November, or whether Democrats will find that the new justice adds oxygen to the fire fueling their base instead.
And which of the many rising stars on the Senate committee, including at least four potential Democratic presidential candidates, will succeed at using their turn on the hearings national stage to audition for higher office? (Tip sheet: Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California made good use of their time on Tuesday, but keep an eye on two brainy dark horses, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.)
The substantive stakes are high. If when confirmed, Kavanaugh will replace Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the courts unpredictable swing vote. Kavanaugh is a far more reliable conservative. He will push the court well to the right. The hearings should prepare Americans for significant changes in important legal questions.
Abortion: Last fall, Kavanaugh praised one of his mentors, the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, for his dissent against Roe vs. Wade. Rehnquist believed that court decisions had to be rooted in the traditions and conscience of our people, Kavanaugh said, and given the prevalence of abortion regulations [Rehnquist] could not reach such a conclusion about abortion. So does Kavanaugh agree that Roe was a bad decision even though he has also reportedly called it settled law?
Guns: In 2011, Kavanaugh, as an appeals court judge, voted to strike down a District of Columbia law banning military-style semiautomatic rifles because, he said, such guns have not traditionally been banned. The majority on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit disagreed with his ruling and his reasoning, and so did nine other appeals courts.
Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion
Regulation: This one is wonky but important: Since 1984, under a decision involving the Chevron oil company, courts have generally allowed regulatory agencies to determine the bounds of their powers as long as their interpretations are reasonable. Kavanaugh doesnt like it. The Chevron doctrine encourages agency aggressiveness on a large scale, he said in a speech last year. Democrats fear he would turn the courts into a tool for wholesale deregulation. (This is what corporate capture of the courts looks like, Whitehouse said on Tuesday.)
Presidential immunity: After working for the independent counsel who investigated President Clinton, Kavanaugh concluded that no president should be subjected to criminal prosecution while in office. He has even questioned whether a president can be investigated at all, except by Congress under its impeachment power. He may not believe a prosecutor has the power to compel a president to hand over evidence in a criminal inquiry as the Supreme Court unanimously decided Richard M. Nixon must do during the Watergate inquiry in 1974.
Democratic and some Republican senators will struggle to force Kavanaugh to reveal his legal thinking on these issues. The nominee will claim that he shouldnt be asked such questions, but a skilled questioner can sometimes elicit useful clues. There wont be a Perry Mason moment, but viewers who pay attention will get a preview of where the Supreme Court is headed. Last week, Variety called the hearings must-see TV. I might not go that far, but even though we know how the plot turns out, the drama is worth watching. Theres nothing vapid about the process at all.
Doyle McManus is a contributing writer to Opinion. mcmanus.columns@gmail.com. Twitter: @DoyleMcManus
Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook
Californias new law, Senate Bill 10, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last week, abolishes money bail but actually undermines genuine criminal justice reform. Because it depends on risk assessment tools that use opaque algorithms, the law may increase pretrial incarceration and even exacerbate racial and class biases in the current system.
The risk assessment tools purport to estimate the likelihood of a person getting re-arrested, or missing a court date. They draw on facts about that person without considering context to create a profile. Exactly what facts the tools take into account isnt defined in the new law, but presumably they will include arrest records. The tools produce a score based on the past behavior of others with matching profiles.
Jailing someone because others with some similar characteristics have failed in the past is wrong, especially because this process will perpetuate discrimination in the criminal justice system. Police bias in stops, searches and arrests is well documented so tools that use previous arrests to estimate the likelihood of re-arrest will assign higher risk to people of color and poor people.
This inherent bias is reason enough to reject these tools and seek fairer ways to reform the bail system. And there are other reasons to fear them.
Advertisement
Along with other community representatives, we attended a presentation to Los Angeles County policymakers by UC Irvine criminology professor Susan Turner, who designs these types of risk-assessment tools. She acknowledged that bias in policing and society can be embedded in the scoring system. Moreover, she pointed out, policymakers must divide the scores into low-, medium- and high-risk buckets. The big question for judges and administrators in every jurisdiction will be how big to make the buckets.
Real reform would uphold the presumption of innocence by reserving pretrial detention only for those accused of serious crimes.
The implications of the adjustability of the scoring are troubling. The tools yield a score, but it doesnt categorize that score; the size of each bucket is a policy decision. If judges and court administrators want to decrease incarceration, they can shrink the high-risk bucket; if they want to jail more people, they can make it bigger. Under the new California legislation, nothing prevents courts from putting 90% of all presumptively innocent people awaiting trial in the high-risk bucket and thus in jail.
This danger is not hypothetical it is essentially what the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency did under the Trump administrations zero tolerance immigration policy. ICE used risk assessment tools and adjusted them to score all detainees as ineligible for release: It put everyone crossing the border into the high-risk bucket.
Californias new law provides no meaningful oversight or checks against manipulation of the scoring. It provides no definition of what factors the tools may consider in estimating risk and no effective way to mitigate their bias. There is no mechanism to even see the risk scores and the data behind them, let alone to challenge the scores.
Politicians say we need to trust the judges, who will control the process. But judges are the ones who have long misused money bail to keep people in custody and pressure them to plead guilty quickly.
Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion
Human Rights Watch has documented that between 70% and 90% of people in custody accused of misdemeanors and low-level felonies plead guilty before their first possible trial date. While it is impossible to quantify how many of these people are wrongly convicted, every one of them faced the choice: If you say you are guilty, you can go home, but if you assert your innocence you stay in jail, often for months at a time, losing jobs, leaving children and other responsibilities unattended. These people get criminal records, with lifelong consequences, but not because courts fairly judged them.
SB 10s use of risk assessment tools gives judges a powerful method to continue the coercion, while pretending their decisions are based on science.
Instead of replacing one unfair system with SB 10, pretrial incarceration must be thoroughly revised. Real reform would uphold the presumption of innocence by reserving pretrial detention only for those accused of serious crimes who are proven to be dangers to the community or flight risks. Proof would come through hearings with defined standards that must be met with evidence, with facts considered in context, and with fair procedures, not through biased statistical estimates.
California can do better than SB 10. Other states considering much-needed bail reform should reject this dangerous example and these biased risk assessment tools.
John Raphling is senior researcher on criminal justice for Human Rights Watch, and Pete White is executive director of Los Angeles Community Action Network.
Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook
To the editor: Critics of Senate Bill 10, Californias new law ending cash bail, are correct that many risk-averse judges, concerned about election challenges by ambitious prosecutors, may substitute preventive detention orders for the current practice of setting high amounts that violate the constitutional prohibition on excessive bail.
However, the state Judicial Council will prepare Rules of Court that establish preventive detention protocols, and the Legislature will adopt amendments that reduce the likelihood that defendants who do not present a flight risk or threat to public safety will remain in custody prior to the adjudication of charges.
The regressive ballot initiative by the bail bond empire to repeal this landmark law should be rejected.
George Eskin, Santa Barbara
Advertisement
The writer, a retired Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge, served on the Judicial Councils Pretrial Detention Reform Workgroup.
..
To the editor: The Times editorial board is under the delusion that pretrial detention will be the exception to the rule. Do you honestly think the vast majority of judges are going to feel comfortable simply releasing people who are accused of crimes? That should bode well for their reelection campaigns.
I suggest you spend one morning in arraignment court in downtown Los Angeles and see how often judges are releasing people on their own recognizance rather than setting monetary bail.
Furthermore, the suggestion that now is the time for everyone to work together on a law that has already passed is absurd. The time to do that was when it was being drafted. You dont build a house and then draw up the plans for it.
You heard it here first: This rushed and unjust law will be repealed, because as Woodrow Wilson famously said: Liberty has never come from government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it.
Lou Shapiro, Los Angeles
The writer is a criminal defense attorney.
Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
To the editor: The Republican rush to secure the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court before the midterm election, despite Democrats requests for more information and more time, is not well thought out. While on the Supreme Court, Kavanaugh will be under a cloud of suspicion.
Sooner or later, a Democrat will be president and the documents will come out. If the papers from Kavanaughs time in the George W. Bush administration are innocuous, why not release them now? Either way, the Republicans could still confirm President Trumps nominee. If what we already know about Kavanaugh isnt enough to cause a few Republican senators to vote against him, what will?
Besides, delaying the Kavanaugh hearings doesnt have to hurt the Republicans. Even if they lost the Senate, something thought to be unlikely, they would have time to confirm the nominee before the new senators are sworn in.
Rick Dunn, San Diego
Advertisement
..
To the editor: While holding confirmation hearings may seem unfair to Democrats, it is not a threat to democracy, contrary to what one loud and terribly misinformed protester shouted.
Our duly elected president (hate him or not) has the legal authority to select Supreme Court justices. Then, it is up to the Senate to either approve or reject his nominee.
There is no threat to democracy here. The only possible threat is to the liberal agenda of appointing activist judges who love reinterpreting the Constitution and making the judiciary the most powerful branch of the government.
Rick Solomon, Lake Balboa
..
To the editor: Most of us are aware that life is full of surprises. Kavanaughs development as a Supreme Court justice may very well turn out to be one of those surprises.
Watching his two daughters grow up as he sits on the court may change him on womens issues. Kavanaughs intellect is widely acclaimed, and knowing that he has a life-long appointment, that for all intents and purposes cannot be rescinded, gives him the freedom and flexibility to grow his thinking.
Kavanaugh may very well surprise us all, as Chief Justice Earl Warren did in his time; hopefully, we are in for many pleasant surprises.
J. David Knobler, Winnetka
..
To the editor: If anyone still doubts the incivility and derangement of the Democratic Party, all one has to do is watch the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to see it for themselves.
The Democrats have made a mockery of Senate decorum and embarrassed themselves and their country in front of the entire world. What shameful and inexcusable grandstanding.
Bob Wallace, Las Vegas
..
To the editor: I am watching with disgust and horror as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his colleagues hijack the judiciary.
There should be no confirmation hearings for anyone until after the November election. Thats the way McConnell played it in the last full year of Barack Obamas presidency, and thats what should happen now.
Susan Broder, Encino
Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
To the editor: As I read Michael Longs piece on the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshalls unflattering view of the framers of our Constitution, vis-a-vis todays debate on originalism, it occurred to me that an originalist is akin to a fundamentalist Christian who believes in the literal interpretation of the Bible.
Scholars have long taught that the Bible was never meant to be read literally, and yet many Christians today insist on doing just that. Originalists are making similar errors.
The Constitution needs to be a living document free to be responsive to the demands of an ever-changing nation, lest we remain mired in the past. Rigidity does not allow for the creativity needed to serve the diverse citizenry that makes up our country today.
John Beckman, Chino Hills
Advertisement
..
To the editor: If Marshall were one of our framers, we never would have had a Constitution.
Of course the Constitution was defective from the start what document isnt? However, better to have a defective Constitution than no Constitution at all.
One brilliance of our Constitution is that it allows for change not by a couple of activist judges, but by amendment. Thus, the 13th Amendment removed the defect of slavery that Marshall used to denigrate the Constitution.
Finally, Marshall did not seem to understand the nature of our rights. The Constitution enumerates most of our rights; it doesnt grant them. Rights are natural and thus not dependent on the actions of others. My right to free speech does not depend on others doing anything. However, a right to healthcare implies I should have the power to force someone to give it to me.
One may think it is a great idea to have universal healthcare, but that does not make it a right.
P.J. Gendell, Beverly Hills
..
To the editor: Originalist is a misnomer because no sane person would say that things are to be the same today as they were in the late 1700s. Rather, the thinking that created the Constitution was based on pragmatism.
Womens rights did not exist then, and slavery did a stroke of the pen could not change those facts of life. Trying to upend longstanding norms in the late 18th century would have resulted in such tumult that the very purpose of enacting a Constitution would have been undermined.
So, the only way to get a Constitution ratified by the states was to accept largely what was already in place while also providing for an amendment process that could add to or change the original document.
Larry Kirschenbaum, Newport Beach
..
To the editor: In Longs telling, Marshall was indeed a respecter of the Constitution. Interpreting it as meaning just what the framers intended, he judged it to be badly in need of a corrective, the 14th Amendment.
This is a far cry from the postmodern approach, in which an ameboid document changes shape with the times. Presto chango, jurists can pull rights and authorizations out of a hat, no amendment necessary.
I would say this wasnt what Marshall had in mind.
William D. Eisenhower, Beaumont
Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
In a political stunner, Democratic U.S. Rep. Michael E. Capuano conceded defeat in Tuesdays primary to Ayanna Pressley, a Boston city councilor who is virtually assured of becoming the first black woman to serve Massachusetts in Congress.
Republican Gov. Charlie Baker won his partys nomination for a second term, defeating Scott Lively, a conservative minister and staunch supporter of President Trump who frequently called Baker a frequent critic of the president a RINO, or Republican in Name Only. Baker will face Democrat Jay Gonzalez.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren sailed through the primary unopposed. Shell face Geoff Diehl, a state representative who served as co-chair of Trumps 2016 campaign in the state and defeated two other Republicans for his partys nomination.
The race between Capuano and Pressley was perhaps the most closely watched contest in Massachusetts. The challenge from Pressley, the first black woman to serve on the council, had drawn some comparisons to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who defeated 10-term New York Rep. Joe Crowley in a stunning upset in a Democratic primary in June. Both races highlight rifts within the Democratic Party, with many younger voters embracing new and more diverse political leadership.
Advertisement
The Associated Press has not yet officially called the race based on partial results. The congressional district is the only one in the state where minorities make up a majority of the population.
This is a fight for the soul of our party and the future of our democracy, Pressley said Tuesday while campaigning in the district. And a reliable vote is not good enough.
MORE: The latest political news from Essential Washington
Capuano is considered one of the most liberal members of the Massachusetts delegation, and Pressley had acknowledged she had few major policy quarrels with him.
There is no Republican on the November ballot in the district, meaning Pressley is virtually assured of entering Congress in January.
Another veteran congressman, Democratic Rep. Richard E. Neal, faced a spirited primary challenge from Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, a black attorney from Springfield who, if elected, would be the first Muslim to serve in Congress from Massachusetts. Neal, the dean of the states House delegation, was first elected in 1989.
Two other Democratic House incumbents, William Keating and Joseph P. Kennedy III, fended off primary challenges Tuesday. Kennedy, the grandson of the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, delivered the Democratic response to Trumps State of the Union address this year.
Another Democrat, U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, is retiring at the end of this term, and the open seat touched off a political scramble with 10 candidates on the Democratic primary ballot.
Baker, a moderate who has been popular with voters in what is perceived as one of the nations bluest states, will face Gonzalez, who served as secretary of administration and finance under Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick.
Neither Gonzales nor his primary opponent, Robert Massie, a longtime political and environmental activist, was well known outside party activist circles. Both contended that Bakers support among voters was soft and that his administration had failed to make significant strides in many areas, particularly the problems besetting the Boston-area transit system known as the T.
Diehl defeated John Kingston, a businessman who once tried to fund a third-party challenge to Trump, and Beth Lindstrom, who served in Republican Gov. Mitt Romneys administration.
The Republican nominee probably will try to suggest that Warren is out of touch with Massachusetts voters as she mulls over a possible bid for president in 2020.
Secretary of State William Galvin, the longest-serving constitutional officer in state history, held off his strongest Democratic primary challenge in years from Boston City Councilor Josh Zakim.
Among other races, comedian Jimmy Tingle was trying to shift from political humor to political office as he runs for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor against Quentin Palfrey, a onetime aide to President Obama.
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III told President Trumps lawyers in a letter Friday that he will accept written answers from Trump to questions about whether his campaign coordinated with Russia to tilt the 2016 election in his favor, according to two people briefed on the communication.
Mueller did not rule out interviewing the president as part of his wide-ranging inquiry. His letter indicated that he may revisit his long-running request to pose questions to Trump directly about Russias activities during the campaign after reviewing his answers.
And the special counsel left open the possibility that he may still try to press Trump in person about a second piece of his investigation: whether the president has sought to block the probe since taking office.
On potential obstruction of justice issues, he said hed assess it down the road, said one person familiar with Muellers letter who requested anonymity to discuss private communications. Theyre essentially saying, Well deal with this at a later date.
Advertisement
Trumps personal attorneys, Rudolph W. Giuliani and Jay Sekulow, declined to comment. Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsels office, declined to comment.
Muellers decision to accept at least some written responses represents a concession to Trumps legal team, which since December has resisted the special counsels efforts to interview the president. In March, Mueller raised the prospect of subpoenaing Trump if he refused to be questioned voluntarily.
MORE: Follow the latest news of the Trump administration on Essential Washington
Some of Trumps advisors viewed Muellers new letter as a sign of begrudging acceptance that he would lose a legal battle to compel the president to testify. But others saw it as just another volley in a 10-month-long legal tussle.
The White House counsels office, led by attorney Emmet Flood, has been girding to fight a subpoena for Trumps testimony under oath. The team has argued that the executive has broad powers he is allowed to exercise without fear of prosecution and without risk of being subject to a grand jury investigation.
In his letter, Mueller did not address whether he had ruled out the idea of subpoenaing Trump or might push for a voluntary interview later. The letter was first reported by the New York Times.
Mueller has been seeking to press Trump about two broad topics: what his campaign knew about efforts by Russian operatives to disrupt the 2016 campaign and whether actions he has taken as president, including the firing of FBI Director James B. Comey, were aimed at thwarting the investigation of Russian interference.
Mueller first indicated to Trumps lawyers in December 2017 that he wanted to interview the president in a face-to-face session to complete his investigation. After weeks of back-and-forth, Mueller warned Trumps legal team in a tense March meeting that he could subpoena Trump if he refused to grant an interview voluntarily.
This month, Trumps attorneys rejected Muellers proposal to ask Trump questions he had about his actions as president and said they would consider having him answer some questions about the campaign period in writing.
Trumps lawyers said that they fear Mueller could accuse Trump of perjury because the president remembers key events differently than other witnesses.
The most important discrepancy relates to a meeting he had with Comey. Giuliani has said Trump does not recall asking Comey to drop an investigation into former national security advisor Michael Flynn, and Giuliani does not want the president to be accused of lying about the episode.
A federal judge in Texas on Wednesday rejected a request from a group of Republican-led states to suspend the Affordable Care Act, but he extensively quizzed attorneys involved in the latest challenge to the 2010 healthcare law about which provisions should survive.
That raised the prospect that U.S. District Judge Reed OConnor, a conservative appointed by President George W. Bush, may seek to roll back at least some of the consumer protections at the core of the law, often called Obamacare.
At the same time, by signaling he would issue a ruling soon, OConnor ensured that the lawsuit Texas vs. Azar and its attempt to wipe out the 2010 law would continue to shadow political campaigns ahead of Novembers midterm congressional election.
The foundation of the lawsuit brought by 20 mostly conservative-leaning states, led by Texas and Wisconsin, is a provision in last years mammoth tax bill that eliminated the penalty on Americans who dont have health insurance, but still preserved the technical requirement that people have coverage.
Advertisement
The requirement and the penalty were once considered integral parts of the healthcare law. Insurers, state regulators and other experts believed that unless there was a penalty for going uninsured, younger and healthier people would not buy health plans until they got sick, leading insurance markets to collapse.
The penalty was also critical to the healthcare laws survival when it first came before the Supreme Court in 2012 in a lawsuit that alleged the laws insurance requirement was unconstitutional.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joined the courts four liberal justices to uphold the law, but only after concluding that the requirement could stand because it was enforced with a tax penalty.
Now in the Texas case, the 20 governors and attorneys general argue the requirement is no longer constitutional because the tax penalty has been eliminated.
And, they continue, because the requirement is so central to healthcare law, the whole law cannot survive without it.
The entire ACA should fall, Wisconsin Solicitor Gen. Misha Tseytlin told the judge Wednesday in a federal courtroom in Fort Worth.
Tseytlin and an attorney for the state of Texas further urged OConnor to immediately enjoin the law, arguing that it is causing widespread damage to states and undermining their authority to regulate health insurance.
OConnor did not issue a preliminary injunction, which even the Trump administration had opposed, even though it supports some elements of the Republican states case.
OConnor appeared most interested in whether at least some parts of the law should be invalidated if the insurance mandate is deemed unconstitutional because it is no longer a tax.
During the hearing, OConnor returned repeatedly to arguments that architects of the healthcare law made in 2010 and afterward that requiring people to have insurance was crucial to the popular consumer protections in the law, including bans on insurance companies turning away sick customers or charging them higher premiums, practices that were commonplace before the law was enacted.
OConnor noted that the Supreme Court had relied on those arguments both times the healthcare law came before the court.
Every single justice looked at this, OConnor said.
At another point, he asked whether the Obama administration had been wrong to argue that the mandate was essential to the consumer protections.
The Trump administration earlier this year elected not to defend the law, an unusual departure from the Justice Departments traditional responsibility to safeguard federal law.
But attorneys for the state of California which has joined with 15 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia to defend the Affordable Care Act urged OConnor to instead focus on the intent of the lawmakers who wrote the 2017 tax law.
Those lawmakers chose to eliminate only the tax penalty, while preserving protections for Americans with preexisting medical conditions, noted California Deputy Atty. Gen. Nimrod Elias.
Congress wished to leave this law in place, Elias said, quoting several senior Republican lawmakers who said during debate over the tax law that they did not want to eliminate patient protections. That should be the guidepost.
The consumer protections are among the most popular parts of the healthcare law, with three-quarters of Americans in one recent nationwide poll saying they believe it is very important to preserve the guarantee that people who are sick can get coverage.
If successful, however, the Texas suit would also eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars in federal assistance that has made it possible to extend coverage to some 20 million previously uninsured Americans through expansions to state Medicaid programs and through subsidies available to low- and middle-income people who buy coverage on insurance marketplaces around the country.
Scores of patient advocates, physicians and hospital groups and other healthcare experts have warned that such a retrenchment would be catastrophic.
Invalidating the guaranteed-issue and community rating provisions or the entire ACA would have a devastating impact on doctors, patients and the American healthcare system as a whole, said a coalition of physician groups that included the American Medical Assn., the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Also opposing the lawsuit are leading national groups representing patients, including the American Diabetes Assn., the American Lung Assn., the American Heart Assn., the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the advocacy arm of the American Cancer Society.
OConnor did not say Wednesday when he would issue a ruling, but promised action as quickly as I can.
Obamacare 101: A primer on key issues in the debate over repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.
The latest from Washington
More stories from Noam N. Levey
noam.levey@latimes.com
Twitter: @noamlevey
Judge Brett Kavanaugh on Wednesday defended his broad view of gun rights and skepticism of federal regulatory agencies, but left uncertain his position on abortion and refused to detail his views on executive power, including whether a president can be ordered to answer questions in a criminal investigation.
Facing senators during a second day of his confirmation hearing that began in the morning and stretched well into the night, President Trumps Supreme Court nominee proved adept at giving lengthy answers without fully revealing his views on matters of controversy.
Youre learning to filibuster, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) told him when he steered around her question on whether the president is shielded from being investigated or questioned while in office.
As the evening wore on, none of the exchanges seemed to have changed the vote count in favor of Kavanaughs narrow confirmation. At only one point during the hearing faced with questions about his knowledge of emails allegedly stolen from Democratic senators during the George W. Bush administration did the otherwise well-prepared nominee appear flustered.
Advertisement
On presidential power, in particular, Kavanaugh seemed to come armed with a well-honed set of responses to questions about his previous writings.
In law review articles in 1998 and 2009, Kavanaugh said the president should be excused from some of the burdens of ordinary citizenship while serving in office and should not be subject to investigations or questioning. The Constitution seems to dictate that Congress, not a special prosecutor, should investigate a president for lawbreaking, he wrote.
But when pressed repeatedly by Democrats on Wednesday, Kavanaugh contended that he has never taken a position on whether the Constitution allows for indicting or investigating a sitting president for criminal wrongdoing. He did say a president could be tried and convicted after leaving office, whether at the end of a term or because of impeachment.
I dont think anyone thinks of immunity for a president, he said.
The issue has taken on new significance because Trump is caught up in special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and could be called to answer questions from a grand jury.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), joining other Republicans in trying to help the nominee articulate his views, asked Kavanaugh whether you have any trouble ruling against a president who appointed you.
Youre correct. No one is above the law in our constitutional system, Kavanaugh said. The executive branch is subject to the law, subject to the court system.
Kavanaugh passed up a chance to show his independence from Trump when Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) asked him whether he thought it was appropriate for the president to attack Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions for his prosecutors indictments of two GOP congressmen Reps. Chris Collins of New York and Duncan Hunter of Alpine ahead of the November election. Trump said it might endanger their reelection, ignoring the serious criminal charges against the men. Kavanaugh declined to offer his opinion. He also rebuffed a request from one Democratic senator that he recuse himself from any future cases involving the Mueller investigation of Trump and his campaign.
When Feinstein asked, Can a sitting a president be required to respond to a subpoena? Kavanaugh would not answer. Thats a hypothetical question, he said. I cant give you an answer to a hypothetical question.
Kavanaugh did endorse as correct the Supreme Courts 1974 ruling in United States vs. Nixon, which required President Nixon to turn over the Watergate tapes. It was one of the greatest moments in American judicial history, he said.
But he refused to give a similar endorsement for the 1973 ruling in Roe vs. Wade, which established a womans right to abortion. Feinstein tried to get him to say whether the ruling was correct; Kavanaugh said only that it was entitled to respect as a precedent.
Most legal experts predict that Kavanaugh, if confirmed, will provide the fifth conservative vote on the court to at least restrict abortion rights, if not overturn Roe. During his campaign, Trump promised to appoint only judges who would vote to overturn the abortion ruling.
But Kavanaugh seemed eager to raise some doubts about those predictions.
I understand the significance on the issue, he said Wednesday. I dont live in a bubble. I live in the real world.
Kavanaugh noted several times that the 1973 abortion decision had been repeatedly affirmed, and that a 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood vs. Casey, which affirmed much of Roe, in effect created a precedent on precedent.
And he made an analogy to the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquists decision not to overturn the so-called Miranda rights disclosure requirement for criminal suspects. Rehnquist had long opposed the Miranda ruling, but then decided it was too late to overturn it, he noted. Its also true, however, that Rehnquist found ways to narrow the rulings impact.
Kavanaughs remarks about Roe may have been largely directed at two female Republican senators, who support abortion rights and whose votes will be key to his confirmation. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have not announced how they will vote.
But Kavanaugh gave no assurances about how he might vote, and nothing he said committed him to any particular outcome. In the past, some Supreme Court nominees have spoken about the importance of respecting precedents, and then once on the court voted to overturn them.
Feinstein, for one, seem unsatisfied. We cant accept vague promises from Brett Kavanaugh when womens reproductive freedom is at stake, she said on Twitter.
Live chat: Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings in the Senate
Last fall, Kavanaugh was involved in a dispute over whether a migrant teenager in Texas could be released from immigration custody to obtain an abortion. A federal judge cleared the way, but Kavanaugh wrote a 2-1 decision siding with Trump administration lawyers and blocking the abortion for up to 10 more days. The full appeals court intervened and overturned his ruling.
In dissent, Kavanaugh faulted his more liberal colleagues for wrongly creating a new right for unlawful immigrant minors in U.S. government detention to obtain abortion on demand.
He defended that ruling Wednesday, stressing that the girl was 17 and not yet an adult. If she had been an adult, she would have had a right to obtain an abortion immediately, he told Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.).
Durbin rejected the distinction, noting that the teenager had appeared before a state judge in Texas who decided she was sufficiently mature to make the decision on her own.
On guns, Kavanaugh stuck fast to his support of a broad 2nd Amendment right to possess many types of weapons, including a semiautomatic rifle with a large magazine of ammunition.
He dissented alone in 2011 when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a D.C. ordinance that prohibited semiautomatic assault weapons.
Three years before, the Supreme Court in District of Columbia vs. Heller struck down a law prohibiting possession of a handgun at home and established a 2nd Amendment individual right for gun ownership.
Feinstein asked why Kavanaugh believed semiautomatic weapons could not be banned, when appellate judges across the country had upheld such restrictions.
I had to follow precedent, Kavanaugh replied. He said the late Justice Antonin Scalia said the 2nd Amendment did not protect weapons that are dangerous and unusual, and semiautomatic rifles are not unusual, he said. They are widely possessed by millions of gun owners, he said.
Kavanaugh did not back off, even when Feinstein spoke about the wave of mass shootings at schools using assault weapons. He stuck to the same position later when pressed by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.
On the question of presidential power, Kavanaugh said that no one is above the law, a standard response by nominees.
But he declined to answer questions about whether Trump could pardon himself or pardon someone in exchange for an agreement not to testify against him, saying those were hypothetical questions that he couldnt answer without potentially prejudging issues that might come before the courts.
The one issue that seemed to throw the nominee came from Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), who confronted him with what the senator said was evidence that a Republican staff member during George W. Bushs administration had supplied Kavanaugh who was then helping to confirm judges with information that had been stolen from Democratic files. Leahy said the information detailed what the senator planned to ask nominees during confirmation hearings.
Leahy, whose emails were stolen, quizzed Kavanaugh on whether he knowingly used the stolen documents, noting that Kavanaugh was included in an email chain discussing the information. Kavanaugh said he did not recall. I dont really have a specific recollection of any of this, he told lawmakers.
Leahy said later Wednesday that Grassley agreed to release documents related to the materials he said were stolen, which are now confined only to lawmakers on the committee.
Grassleys office didnt make the same pledge. Spokesman Taylor Foy said Grassley would do his best to accommodate this last-minute request, adding that waiving the classification would require input from the White House and former President Bush.
Some of the most robust exchanges came near the end from Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who has developed a reputation for her tough questioning of Trump nominees during confirmation hearings.
Harris referred back to Kavanaughs remark about a precedent on precedent concerning Roe vs. Wade, and asked if it were not true that any five justices could overturn a precedent if they wanted.
Theres a reason why the Supreme Court doesnt do that, Kavanaugh responded. There are times when the justices do, he said, but its rare.
She also pressed Kavanaugh on whether he had any conversations about the Mueller investigation with anyone at a law firm founded by one of the presidents lawyers. Kavanaugh avoided answering the question several times, finally saying he remembered no such conversation. A Democratic aide said that Harris staff was continuing to investigate the matter.
Kavanaugh was pressed repeatedly to explain his relationship with Judge Alex Kozinski, the former chief judge of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals who retired last December after he was accused of sexually harassing female law clerks.
In 1991, Kavanaugh moved to Pasadena to work for one year as a law clerk for Kozinski. And he continued to consult with Kozinski over the years.
Kavanaugh said he had never heard of Kozinski harassing laws clerks or engaging in improper behavior until it was revealed last year in news stories. It was a gut punch for me, he said.
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) said she was skeptical of his response. It was an open secret, and it went on for 30 years, she said.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) had a combative exchange with Kavanaugh while trying to pin the nominee down about his views on affirmative action. Booker asked if Kavanaugh believed that having a diverse student body is a compelling government interest that would justify considering race in admissions. Kavanaugh would not comment on his views, instead focusing on the Supreme Courts precedent on affirmative action.
I know what the law is now, Booker said. Im worried about what the law is going to be when you get on the court.
david.savage@latimes.com
jennifer.haberkorn@latimes.com
sarah.wire@latimes.com
UPDATES:
7:05 p.m.: This article was updated after Harris spoke.
5:30 p.m.: This article was updated with Bookers comments and other new details.
4:55 p.m.: This article was updated with more details from the hearing.
3:30 p.m.: This article was updated with more comments from Feinstein, Kavanaugh and others.
9:50 a.m.: This article was updated with details about Miranda, presidential power and Leahys questions.
8:15 a.m.: This article was updated with Kavanaughs comments about gun rights.
This article was originally published at 8 a.m.
Nearly 30 years after California became the first state to ban the sale of assault weapons and embarked on a path toward the strictest firearm laws in the nation, legislators have sent Gov. Jerry Brown nine new gun-control bills in response to a surge in mass shootings.
The action by the Legislature was applauded more than 3,000 miles away in Parkland, Fla., where a 19-year-old gunman killed 17 students and employees at a high school in February. Among the legislation waiting approval by Brown are proposals to lift the age for buying rifles and shotguns from 18 to 21, and to prohibit the purchase of more than one long gun a month.
If we had these bills in place in Florida, then I would not have had to go through this tragedy and lose some of my friends, said Sari Kaufman, 16, a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who is now an activist with Students Demand Action, a part of the national group Everytown for Gun Safety.
Im proud to see California pass this kind of legislation, and I hope to see other states follow suit, she said.
Advertisement
Legislators also approved bills that would create lifetime bans on gun ownership for those convicted of domestic violence or who are involuntarily hospitalized for mental illness twice in a year; make it tougher to be licensed to carry a concealed firearm; and strengthen a law prohibiting multi-burst trigger devices called bump stocks, used in 2017 by a gunman in Las Vegas who killed 58 people and injured hundreds more.
Lawmakers also approved a bill that would allow teachers and employers to petition the courts to have guns confiscated from people who are a danger to themselves and others.
Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) said lessons learned after the Parkland shooting helped him draft that bill.
Coverage of California politics
Prior to Februarys mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, teachers and administrators expressed increasing concern about the gunmans behavior at school, Ting said. We need to give California schools more tools to prevent another campus tragedy.
Republican lawmakers advocating for gun owners said the proposed laws were an overreaction to isolated incidents that will not reduce gun violence, and will infringe on constitutional rights.
State Sen. Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber) said during one floor debate that the majority party was engaging in a larger campaign to disarm the law-abiding. He was particularly opposed to Tings bill.
Nielsen said the proposal raises the possibility that people will seek restraining orders based on bias or irrational fear of a co-worker. I view this as another attack on our 2nd Amendment rights, he said.
Sen. Joel Anderson (R-Alpine) said he agrees with concerns raised by the American Civil Liberties Union that the proposal failed to give gun owners a right to first argue their case for keeping firearms to a court.
This bill poses a significant threat to our civil liberties, Anderson said.
The bill that would prohibit Californians from buying more than one rifle or shotgun in any 30-day period drew opposition from groups including the National Rifle Assn. and Outdoor Sportsmens Coalition.
Firearms ownership by individuals is a constitutionally protected right of all adults, the coalition said in a statement to lawmakers. Limiting all adults to a maximum of one rifle or shotgun purchase per month will not solve crime and mental health problems.
A measure sent to the governor that would require those seeking concealed weapon permits to complete at least eight hours of safety classes and pass a live-fire test was denounced by the Firearms Policy Coalition, which advocates for gun owners.
The requirement casually enacts a burdensome new mandate and then leaves it up to hundreds of different law enforcement agencies to determine how it should be interpreted and applied, the policy coalition said.
California has the strictest gun laws in the country and has pioneered many rules, becoming the first state to ban assault weapons in 1989 after a shooting at a Stockton elementary school left five students dead.
In 2016, lawmakers expanded restrictions on assault weapons amid public outrage over a terrorist attack a year earlier that left 14 dead and 24 injured in San Bernardino.
Brown, who has acknowledged owning a rifle, has approved stricter rules in the past on assault rifles and large-capacity ammunition magazines, but he vetoed a bill in 2015 that would have barred the purchase of more than one long gun a month.
Given Californias stringent laws restricting gun ownership, I do not believe this additional restriction is needed, he wrote that year.
During hours of debate by the two legislative houses on the various bills, California legislators specifically credited the student activists from Parkland and elsewhere who marched in Washington, D.C., and at statehouses across the country to demand that more be done to reduce gun violence.
In introducing the bill that would raise the age limit for buying long guns, Sen. Anthony Portantino (D- La Canada Flintridge) gave credit to the activists such as Sari.
Out of respect for young people across our country who are demanding action we must answer their plea for help, he said.
The rifle used in the Parkland shooting is already restricted in California as an assault weapon.
The approval of the age limit bill followed the lead of Florida, which enacted a similar law in March, shortly after the Parkland shooting.
Sari was part of a group of Parkland students who went to the Florida state Capitol in Tallahassee and successfully lobbied legislators to pass the new age limit for gun purchases.
She said she hopes Brown, who is a Democrat, follows the lead of Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott in enacting stricter gun laws.
My message to [Brown] would be that he should encourage other states to the do the same and be sure that he signs the bills because its really how to increase safety, Sari said.
patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com
Twitter: @mcgreevy99
In his first major foray on the campaign trail ahead of Novembers midterm election, former President Obama will drop into Southern California on Saturday, holding a rally to boost seven Democratic candidates running in competitive House districts across the state.
His appearance, one of just a few overtly political events hes held since leaving the White House, is a sign of the high stakes in this years election as Democrats try to wrest back control of the House.
Its also an indication of Californias considerable role in Democrats hoped-for path to victory, with all seven Democrats competing in Republican-held districts that supported Hillary Clinton in 2016. Democrats need to capture 23 seats to take back the House. Details of the time and location of the rally have not yet been released.
Obama had already thrown his weight behind most of the candidates in August, when he released an early wave of endorsements.
Advertisement
Since leaving office, Obama has attended about half a dozen high-dollar fundraisers for groups such as the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He has also hit the campaign trail to help Democrats win governors seats in Virginia and New Jersey last year and recorded a robocall to help underdog Democrat Doug Jones capture a U.S. Senate seat in an Alabama special election.
But this weekends rally will mark his first stump speech this election season. A spokeswoman for Obama said Saturdays event was just the beginning of a focused, strategic lineup of fall campaign appearances.
Aside from battleground House districts, spokeswoman Katie Hill said, Obama will also campaign in down-ballot races and contests crucial to the next round of redrawing political districts.
Potential stops include Ohio and his home state of Illinois, both holding competitive gubernatorial campaigns, and Pennsylvania, where newly drawn congressional districts have opened up a slew of opportunities for Democrats this fall.
Obamas plans are notable in part because of criticism he did too little as president to bolster the Democratic Party and its candidates. During his two terms, Democrats lost control of both the House and Senate and more than 1,000 legislative seats nationwide, leaving the party at its lowest standing in statehouses since 1920.
Obama plans to appear in Orange County on Saturday alongside Democrats Josh Harder, who is running against Rep. Jeff Denham of Turlock; T.J. Cox, whos challenging Rep. David Valadao of Hanford; and Katie Hill, who is opposing Rep. Steve Knight of Palmdale. Hill is no relation to Obamas spokeswoman.
Also planning to attend are Democrats Gil Cisneros, whos looking to replace retiring Rep. Ed Royce of Fullerton; Katie Porter, whos challenging Rep. Mimi Walters of Laguna Beach; Harley Rouda, whos opposing Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa; and Mike Levin, whos hoping to replace retiring Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista.
Like most past presidents, Obama has largely stayed above the political fray, though his pointed remarks last weekend eulogizing the late Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona seemed obviously aimed at President Trump.
So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty, trafficking in bombast and insult and phony controversies and manufactured outrage, Obama said. Its a politics that pretends to be brave and tough, but in fact is born of fear.
Also like many presidents, he has enjoyed a post-presidency bump in popularity, something that could help fellow Democrats this fall.
Times staff writer Mark Z. Barabak contributed to this report.
Coverage of California politics
christine.maiduc@latimes.com
For more on California politics, follow @cmaiduc.
Irvine will receive police helicopter services from Huntington Beach under a three-year contract.
The Huntington Beach City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved providing air support on a per-call basis at an hourly rate starting at $770 for the first year. Rates will adjust annually.
The contract could generate $300,000 a year for Huntington Beach, according to a city staff report.
Huntington Beachs Air Support Unit helps with patrol and traffic operations, search and rescue, aerial photography and more, according to the city website.
Huntington Beach also provides the service to Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.
Police Department is awarded $550,000 grant
The City Council also approved a $550,000 grant to the Police Department from the California Office of Traffic Safety to reimburse costs associated with sobriety and drivers license checkpoints, a full-time DUI officer, traffic enforcement and computers for motor officers.
The one-year grant will help the department implement progressive and innovative enforcement techniques to step up efforts against driving under the influence, according to Police Chief Robert Handy.
Councilman Patrick Brenden said he was happy that money is available to us and put to good use in Huntington Beach.
Permit parking approved for Royalist Drive and Willett Lane
The council also approved adding 27 addresses along Royalist Drive and Willett Lane to a residential permit parking district.
Some residents petitioned the city to be included in the district because they said vehicles were blocking their driveways and their ability to park in front of their homes.
City staff investigated the issue and determined that unrestricted parking hinders the availability of on-street parking for residents and guests.
Three residents urged the council to table the matter to collect more input from community members.
Linda Tierno said parking is a huge issue but that designating the area for permit parking would affect residents of a nearby apartment building.
The area is near Circle View Elementary School, Marina High School and an apartment complex.
Priscella.Vega@latimes.com
Twitter: @vegapriscella
An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that there is enough evidence for Newport Beach resident Samuel Woodward to stand trial on a charge of murder in the January stabbing death of his former high school classmate Blaze Bernstein.
Judge Karen Robinsons decision followed an hours-long hearing at Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach in which prosecution witnesses detailed evidence against Woodward, 21, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge and has denied sentencing enhancement allegations of a hate crime and personal use of a knife.
The evidence presented includes DNA that prosecutors say links Woodward to the crime, a blood-spotted knife found in Woodwards bedroom and the presence of several anti-gay messages and images on his cellphone, as well as material related to a neo-Nazi organization.
Prosecutors believe Woodward killed Bernstein, 19, because Bernstein was gay.
Woodward clean-shaven and wearing a blue suit and white button-down shirt was in the courtroom throughout Tuesdays testimony, occasionally scribbling something on a notepad or exchanging words with his attorney, Edward Munoz.
Craig Goldsmith, an investigator with the Orange County Sheriffs Department, testified that investigators recovered quite a few images from Woodwards phone that were homophobic in nature.
Goldsmith also said investigators found more than 100 items on his phone related to Atomwaffen Division, which authorities say is an armed fascist organization that seeks to overthrow the U.S. government using terrorism and guerrilla tactics. The wallpaper on Woodwards phone was an insignia for the group, Goldsmith added.
According to a report published in January by nonprofit news organization ProPublica, three people who knew Woodward said he was part of Atomwaffen Division.
However, Munoz said Tuesday that it is not a crime to have reprehensible or objectionable material in a persons diary. It is not a crime to download literature that is offensive or, in some cases, despicable.
Prosecutors allege Woodward stabbed Bernstein and buried him in a shallow grave at Borrego Park in Foothill Ranch in early January. Bernsteins body was found Jan. 9 with more than 20 stab wounds, including 19 to his neck area, according to testimony Tuesday.
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.
On Tuesday, investigators testified that Woodward told them he picked up Bernstein from his parents house around 11 p.m. Jan. 2 after a conversation on Snapchat and drove him to the parking lot of a shopping center in Foothill Ranch. Woodward later drove Bernstein to Borrego Park, according to authorities.
Investigator Dylan Jantzen testified that Woodward said Bernstein kissed him that night while they were sitting in the parked car.
Jantzen said Woodward told him the kiss was unwanted and that he pushed Bernstein away. Woodward added that he wanted to call Bernstein a faggot, Jantzen testified.
According to Jantzen, Woodward told investigators that after he and Bernstein arrived at Borrego Park, Bernstein walked off alone, ostensibly to find another, unidentified person.
Woodward told investigators he waited for Bernstein for some time but eventually grew frustrated and left to see his girlfriend in Tustin.
When pressed, however, Woodward could not provide the last name or address of the woman he said he visited, Jantzen said.
After a court hearing last month, Munoz said his client has been diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome a developmental disorder that can hinder a persons ability to socialize or communicate and claimed theres going to be some evidence that comes out to say hes very confused about both his sexual identity and his own identity.
Woodward is being held in Orange County Jail with bail set at $5 million. If convicted as charged, he could face up to life in state prison without parole.
His next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 17.
luke.money@latimes.com
Twitter @LukeMMoney
The 1st Amendment reads: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
We forget, sometimes, how grateful we should be for those words. This is perhaps one of those times, as our highly polarized political climate has called into question how deeply committed we are to the open expression of differing points of view and the importance of an independent press.
There is a reason these most-basic of human rights have been clearly enumerated and enshrined in the Constitution since 1791. Even in our nations earliest days, the framers understood the need to check those who would use their authority to try to silence dissent, muzzle critics and stifle the free flow of information.
For the past few years, my work on the forthcoming book, A Boy Named Courage: A Surgeons Memoir of Apartheid, has made me more keenly aware of just how precious is our right to free speech and how crucial it is that we protect this right from our own worst impulses.
The book chronicles the story of my friend and coauthor, Dr. Himmet Dajee, a Newport Beach resident who struggled against the scourge of institutional racism in his native South Africa, to achieve his dream of becoming a cardiac surgeon and American citizen.
If anyone understands what its like to live without the freedoms that we hold so dear, it is someone who experienced life under apartheid.
In South Africa, growing up, we were told you cant talk to this person or that person because they might be a spy, Himmet told me. You could be in a crowd and be afraid to talk.
The only nonwhite student in his class at the University of Cape Town, Himmet was plagued by anxiety that he might inadvertently say something that would jeopardize his academic standing or land him in trouble with authorities.
At university, no matter how friendly the other students were, every word you said had be very calculated to make sure you didnt slip into a political arena, he recalled. There was always the fear that you would be reported to the authorities, called up, questioned, put under house arrest, or put in jail for expressing anti-apartheid or anti-government viewpoints.
Living like that puts a lot of stress on you.
The press in apartheid South Africa was also subject to government censorship.
Book, magazine and newspaper publishers operated under constant threat of government ban. They werent allowed to quote banned organizations, report on conditions inside prisons or expose information on security forces. Reports on demonstrations and other anti-apartheid activities were also restricted.
Only government-controlled radio stations were allowed to broadcast, and television was outlawed for many years under apartheid. Journalists were censored or subject to outright bans, and foreign reporters were routinely denied visas.
In spite of this suppression, books, magazines and newspapers became a lifeline for Himmet and his family. They consumed every foreign publication they could get their hands on, such as Life magazine; subscribed to the Indian Opinion, a publication founded by Mohandas Gandhi; listened to BBC radio broadcasts and became adept at reading between the lines in domestic reports.
A lot of papers toed the line so they wouldnt be banned, Himmet explained.
Because of this, rumors were rampant; often news of political arrests and nefarious government activities came by way of hushed whispers in dark corners.
The fear of being caught was ever present. That fear led Himmet and his brothers to burn about 200 books they had hidden away in an attic crawl space. All the books had been banned by the government for their political themes and being found with them could have led to dire consequences.
Even individual people could be banned. This was akin to a house arrest without walls, a way to silence protestors by prohibiting them from being quoted in the press or attending meetings. Himmet knew people who had endured such a fate, and it was crushing.
After he left South Africa, Himmet attended medical school in Ireland and continued his medical and surgical training in Canada.
But the United States always beckoned. Despite its complicated and frequently compromised history, America stood as the beacon of freedom that he so desperately sought.
Himmet tells me that when he first arrived in the U.S. in the 1980s, he feasted upon the many publications that were abundantly available, attended lectures and films, avidly watched television newscasts and engaged in vibrant discussions and debates over politics and history all the activities that hed been restricted from in South Africa.
It was like an overflowing banquet of information to rival the copious servings of food on American plates.
After all this time, he has never lost his sense of gratitude for the ability to speak his mind without fear.
Its critical that we recognize, now and always, that we must not take for granted this liberty, this foundation upon which all other freedoms stand.
As George Washington said, If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.
This is a truth that my friend Himmet knows all too well.
Patrice Apodaca is a former Newport-Mesa public school parent and former Los Angeles Times staff writer. She lives in Newport Beach.
A nonprofit supporting the Glendale Public Library is halting used-book donations through the end of the year as it attempts to reduce its backlog through monthly sales.
We want to stay current for the community and in order to do that, we cant have a large surplus of older material, according to Maria Sundeen, Glendales principal library, arts and culture administrator. Its all about expanding our collection.
The Friends of the Glendale Library had been accepting donations daily until Sept. 1, Sundeen said, adding that books and other materials began piling up faster than they could be sold.
Purchasing books and DVDs at the recurring sales, typically held the second Saturday of every month, will allow the library to turn over its older collections to the community, so it can begin replenishing and refreshing its offerings.
Shoppers can buy books and films individually or buy a tote bag from the Friends for $10 and fill it up with items of their choice.
Sundeen said she nabbed a copy of The Short and Bloody History of Knights, Spies and Pirates by John Farman for her daughter at a recent sale, as well as a book about film.
Funds generated go back to library programming, including its childrens summer reading program as well as author and artist talks.
Thats the great thing its all going toward useful, vibrant cultural programming, Sundeen said.
Recent speakers at the library have included Los Angeles Times writer Chris Erskine and actor Bryan Cranston.
Until the Friends group begins accepting books again, residents can take donations to other local nonprofits, including Goodwill or Salvation Army, Friends administrators suggested.
The next Friends sale is slated from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. this Saturday at the loading dock area of the Downtown Central Library, located at 222 E. Harvard St. A concurrent sale will be held at the Central Park Paseo, located at 216 S. Brand Blvd., next to the Museum of Neon Art.
The Glendale sale doubles as a live music event, furthering the Friends mission to promote arts and culture, Sundeen said.
A special sale spotlighting art and music books will be held Sept. 29 at the Brand Library and Art Center, located at 1601 W. Mountain St.
lila.seidman@latimes.com
Twitter: @lila_seidman
On Saturday, medical professionals and motivational speakers will address the stigma surrounding the topic of suicide and shed light on Californias End of Life Option Act, as USC Verdugo Hills Hospital hosts its third annual Suicide Awareness and Prevention Conference.
Held in conjunction with Worldwide Suicide Prevention Day, which falls on Sept. 10, the inaugural event was started in 2016 to respond to community members grieving the deaths of local teens in La Canada and La Crescenta who took their lives, according to hospital officials.
Every three years we do a needs assessment to determine the needs of the community, and behavioral health is generally in the top five issues that affect our community, said Keith Hobbs, chief executive of USC Verdugo Hills Hospital. When we did the first one, we were surprised by the turnout we were basically at capacity.
Today, the conference draws hundreds who take part in discussions led by health experts and professionals who work with at-risk individuals. This years talks focus on the theme Communities Fight Stigma Together: Having Courageous Conversations about Preventing Suicide.
The program begins with an 8 a.m. registration and continental breakfast. At 9 a.m., Dr. Alex Crosby, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will discuss using data to reduce suicides. Author and teen motivational speaker Jeff Yalden follows with his discussion, Why teens die of suicide, from 10 to 10:50 a.m.
Robert Stohr, from the Loss and Healing Council for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, will speak on suicide and loss in the LGBTQ community from 11 to 11:50 a.m.
Following a free lunch, an afternoon panel discussion from 1:15 to 3 p.m. will discuss Californias End of Life Option Act, a 2016 law that allows certain terminally ill adult patients to be prescribed an aid-in-dying medication if certain conditions are met. Intended mainly for medical professionals, the panel will be led by USC Verdugo Hills Hospitals Dr. Talin Dadoyan, who specializes in psychiatry and neurology.
Hobbs said the event should be informative and uplifting.
Its a packed house the energy is high and people are very concerned about the topics and how they can use [this information] in their lives, he said.
Space is limited and attendees must RSVP by calling seminar coordinator Purnima Panchal at (818) 952-3592.
sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
Major earthquakes and lava eruptions from the Kilauea volcano have kept most of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park temporarily off limits to visitors for the last three months. Now that volcanic activity has subsided, and the park on Hawaii Island plans to reopen in a few weeks time.
Volcanic activity has trailed off in recent weeks, leaving park superintendent Cindy Orlando optimistic that portions of the park closed since early May will reopen Sept. 22 in time for National Public Lands Day when admission is free.
I expect opening weekend well be swamped, Orlando said. She expects visitors will be eager to see the incredible changes that have happened here.
The lava lake within Halemaumau Crater within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park has disappeared amid recent volcanic activity. Left behind is a massive caldera as much as 1,500 feet deep in places. (U.S. Geological Survey)
Advertisement
The prime attraction will be Halemaumau Crater, which consistently has drawn large crowds to witness its glowing, sputtering lava lake. With the red-hot lava sucked out in recent months, a massive, gaping hole 1,500 feet deep in places has formed.
The reopening will mark the first time in many years that visitors will not see molten lava. Viewing of the crater will shift from the west to the east side, since the overlook at Jaggar Museum, and the museum itself, were badly damaged by volcano-related earthquakes.
Orlando said the rim will be accessible by a one-mile walk along a road that has been closed to vehicles for several years.
A National Park Service scientist, left, evaluates earthquake damage along Crater Rim Trail. The park superintendent said some trails will reopen Sept. 22, but others may never reopen because of safety concerns. (National Park Service)
There are very large cracks throughout the road, so well be determining how best to bridge those gaps so that people can walk out to see the view, she said.
Chain of Craters Road, a winding road that passes through old fields of hardened, black lava, will be open all the way to the Pacific Ocean. However, most of Crater Rim Drive will be off-limits due to major damage. Vehicles weighing more than 15,000 pounds will not be allowed in the park.
Huge masses of cooled lava rock have created a new land mass at the point at which rivers of red-hot lava splashed into the sea for nearly three months this summer. (U.S. Geological Center)
Fissure 8, the crack in the earths surface from which huge amounts of molten rock flowed beginning in early May, has been mostly quiet since early August. Geologists using drones have seen only slight amounts of bubbling lava within the large cinder cone that has formed. It is only visible on tours operated by various helicopter companies.
Its an amazing, amazing landscape, the entire park, Orlando said. Id like for visitors to come and have a much more contemplative experience than driving up to an overlook, looking over and getting back in your car and leaving.
Hopes are high that tourists who canceled plans at resorts as far as 100 miles away from the volcano will return. The Hawaii Tourism Authority recently released figures that show hotel occupancy on Hawaii Island dropped 4.7% in July.
ALSO
But why cant you sit in that empty premium-class seat? Maybe because its stealing
Viking makes it official: Kids no longer welcome on cruises
Cosmopolitans new Las Vegas food hall shuns mainstream eateries in favor of regional gems
travel@latimes.com
@latimestravel
Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo used face-to-face meetings with Pakistani leaders on Wednesday to renew demands that they do more to stamp out Islamist militants and support a fledgling U.S. peace effort with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
In a six-hour visit to Islamabad, Pompeo and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tried to shore up a troubled relationship that has been further strained by the Trump administrations suspension of hundreds of millions of dollars in security assistance.
Pompeo met with Pakistans new prime minister, Imran Khan a longtime critic of U.S. military policy in the region who recently said he would seek a mutually beneficial relationship as well as with the foreign minister and army chief.
Im hopeful that the foundation that we laid today will set the conditions for continued success as we start to move forward, Pompeo told reporters after the meeting.
Advertisement
But the meetings were brief less than half an hour at Khans official residence and an additional 40 minutes at the Foreign Ministry and appeared to have achieved little of substance.
Asked whether Pakistani leaders had made any firm promises that would allow for the resumption of security assistance, Pompeo said, Weve still got a long way to go, lots more discussion to be had.
As the Trump administration attempts for the first time to open direct talks with the Taliban on ending the war in Afghanistan, it has sharpened demands for cooperation from Pakistan, which it accuses of covertly supporting the insurgent group. Pakistan denies the allegations and says the U.S. is attempting to deflect blame for its failures in Afghanistan.
The Pakistani Foreign Ministry issued a conciliatory statement after Pompeo left.
The two sides agreed that present conditions in Afghanistan were conducive to intensifying efforts for a political settlement, it read, adding that the Taliban leadership should seize the opportunity for talks.
For the first time in 17 years, there seems to be momentum toward a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has offered amnesty to Taliban leaders who sit down for peace talks, and declared two temporary cease-fires with the militant group this year, one of which the Taliban reciprocated.
In July, the Taliban said it met with Alice Wells, the top State Department official for South Asia, in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar, the highest-level contact between the U.S. government and the militant group it has been battling since 2001. The talks were described as preliminary but useful.
But the most challenging factor in any peace bid remains Pakistan, where the powerful military establishment is widely believed to have orchestrated the neophyte Khans election victory to ensure it retains authority over security affairs, including any resolution in Afghanistan.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Pompeo emphasized the important role Pakistan could play in bringing about a negotiated peace in Afghanistan, and conveyed the need for Pakistan to take sustained and decisive measures against terrorists and militants threatening regional peace and stability.
Despite the rancor toward Pakistan displayed by President Trump who accused the country of lies & deceit in a New Years Day tweet Pakistani officials described the visit as cordial.
There was nothing negative in todays meetings, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters afterward. There was an environment of understanding and it is a great step, in light of the relationship during the past year.
Other Foreign Ministry officials said that Pakistani leaders pushed back when Pompeo asked them to take more serious steps to crack down on militant groups based on their soil. Pakistan has long used proxy Islamist groups to enforce its strategic interests in Afghanistan and India.
We have categorically told them that Pakistan is not simply surrendering to the Americans demands only, said one Foreign Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in discussing the private meeting.
Pakistan has been stung by the reduction in security assistance, part of which it describes as reimbursement for costs it has incurred in supporting the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan. Some commentators noted that when Pompeo and Dunford landed at the airport, they were greeted not by their counterparts but by a lower-level Pakistani Foreign Ministry official.
US SoS Pompeo not received by the PM or President but some low ranking official from the Foreign Office.
I don't even see the Pakistani Foreign Minister in this photo.
Obvious messaging by Pakistani govt.. pic.twitter.com/nyYwO316EM F. Jeffery (@Natsecjeff) September 5, 2018
Pompeo said before arriving in Islamabad that the U.S. hasnt seen Pakistan take actions that would be sufficient for us to have advocated for turning back on that financial support.
Hamayun Khan, a foreign policy analyst in Islamabad, said Pompeos visit was about little more than theatrics.
It was a repetition of the same old from the U.S., and Pakistan reiterated its stances and sacrifices its made in the war on terror, and its help in Afghanistan, Khan said. In my opinion we should have not very high hopes from this visit.
Special correspondent Sahi reported from Islamabad and Times staff writer Bengali from Mumbai, India. Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Washington contributed to this report.
shashank.bengali@latimes.com
Shashank Bengali is South Asia correspondent for The Times. Follow him on Twitter at @SBengali
Russian jets began an intense barrage on Syrias northwest, pounding rebel-held areas on Tuesday in Idlib province and surrounding regions that have become the last sanctuary for the opposition to President Bashar Assad, activists and a war monitor said.
The onslaught came hours after President Trump warned in a tweet that Assad must not recklessly attack Idlib Province.
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Dont let that happen! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2018
Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, also tweeted: All eyes on the actions of Assad, Russia, and Iran in Idlib. #NoChemicalWeapons, a reference to the Syrian governments use of chemical weapons against its rebel adversaries.
Advertisement
The White House later issued a statement saying that if Assad chooses to again use chemical weapons, the United States and its Allies will respond swiftly and appropriately.
Russia is Assads top international backer; its support, including aircraft, special forces and mercenaries, enabled him to reverse the course of his countrys seven-year civil war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions more.
Iran has long dispatched military advisors and paramilitary cadres to bolster the Syrian governments exhausted troops.
Successive Russian-backed campaigns over the last two years have seen the government retake every major opposition bastion, offering fighters who refused to lay down their arms safe passage to Idlib.
But with no other enclaves remaining, the government has massed its forces in recent weeks for a campaign to retake the province, which is dominated by hard-line Islamist groups, including an estimated 10,000 Al Qaeda affiliated local and foreign jihadis, and others factions under Turkeys control.
Smoke billows from buildings that were hit by reported Russian airstrikes in the rebel-held town of Muhambal, southwest of Idlib city in Syria, on Sept. 4, 2018. (Omar Haj Kadour / AFP/Getty Images)
Tuesdays strikes, the first in 22 days, were seen as the routine escalation that precedes every ground offensive on rebel enclaves, endangering what the United Nations estimates are Idlibs 2.9 million residents.
More than half of the province have already been displaced at least once before. Hundreds of thousands are expected to flee, but with Idlibs border with Turkey sealed, there is no exit except to government-controlled areas.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition U.K.-based monitoring group with a network of activists in Syria, said Russian warplanes had conducted about 45 strikes on rebel areas in Idlib, the Ghab plains and the mountains of neighboring Latakia province.
The attacks had killed 12 people, including a number of children, and wounded 30 others, the Syrian Observatory group said.
In recent weeks, Russia and Turkey have engaged in intense discussions to avert what the U.N. special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said would be a bloodbath in Idlib.
On Tuesday, he appealed to Turkey and Russia to find a soft solution that would protect civilians, according to a U.N. report of a news briefing in Geneva.
He added that news reports indicated the assault would begin Monday, and securing protection for residents was urgent.
Meanwhile, the Syrian pro-government Al Watan newspaper reported fresh troop movements, with convoys of new T-72 tanks and armored vehicles positioning themselves for what Damascus has dubbed Operation Idlib Dawn.
Moscow has dispatched additional ships to Syrias Mediterranean coast, where a Russian flotilla ran naval drills this week.
Ankara has bolstered its presence in Idlib as well, sending in tanks to reinforce two Turkish army observation posts, many of them set close to the jihadis positions.
Turkey, fearing additional refugees, is adamant that an offensive be averted.
Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo spoke on Tuesday with Turkeys foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, according to a statement by State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, and agreed that any Assad regime military offensive in Idlib would be an unacceptable, reckless escalation of the conflict in Syria.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed Trumps warning in a news briefing, according to Russia Today, the state-funded English-language news broadcaster.
A nest of terrorism has formed there, Peskov said.
This leads to general destabilization and undermines the attempts to steer the situation to diplomatic and political settlement.
He added that rebel groups had launched drone attacks on Russias air base in Latakia and posed a substantial threat.
Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Washington contributed to this report.
nabih.bulos@latimes.com
Twitter: @nabihbulos
Dozens of people have been killed after days of violent clashes in the suburbs of Tripoli, with rival militias fighting fierce street battles for control of the Libyan capital.
The upheaval is the latest setback in the long running and highly chaotic effort to cobble together a government and restore stability after strongman Moammar Kadafi was toppled from power during the height of the Arab Spring in 2011.
Since Kadafi was ousted, dozens of militias and an Islamic State affiliate have engaged in turf wars for control of Libyas cities, even as countries including France, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey and Egypt tried to intervene their efforts usually only fueling the turmoil.
But the latest conflict is less about government authority than a power play for resources.
Advertisement
A Libyan police officer walks through the now-empty Mitiga International Airport on Tuesday in Tripoli. (Mahmud Turkia / AFP/Getty Images)
WHATS HAPPENING NOW
Last week, a militia calling itself the 7th Brigade mobilized from its base in Tarhunah, a city about 40 miles southeast of Tripoli, and stormed the capitals southern suburbs.
Billing itself as Libyas national army, it attacked local militias working with the internationally recognized Government of National Accord, or GNA, and accused them of taking public money and stealing peoples livelihoods.
In response, the GNA ordered factions from neighboring towns to come to its defense. It also declared a state of emergency, saying the attacks threatened the security of the capital and safety of its citizens.
Despite two truce agreements (which were almost immediately violated), the fighting left almost 50 people dead and 130 others injured in the last week, the World Health Organization said Monday.
More than 1,800 families have fled their homes and thousands more are expected to follow if the clashes intensify, the countrys Ministry of Displaced Peoples Affairs reported. Those who remain risk being trapped in the midst of the violence.
Adding to the chaos, 400 inmates on Sunday broke out of Ain Zara, a prison in Tripoli, and the citys only functioning airport was closed.
On Saturday, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the U.N.s secretary general, decried the violence around the capital and the indiscriminate shelling by armed groups that seemed to be targeting civilians, including children.
Echoing the U.N., the United States, France, Italy and Britain issued a joint statement Saturday condemning the attacks.
These attempts to weaken the legitimate Libyan authorities and hamper the course of the political process are not acceptable, the statement read. We urge armed groups to immediately cease all military actions and warn those who tamper with security in Tripoli or elsewhere in Libya that they will be held accountable for any such actions.
A day later, the U.N. invited concerned parties to hold an urgent dialog on Tuesday.
Ghassan Salame, the representative of the U.N.s secretary general in the country, arrived on Tuesday for what the U.N. described as a meeting on the security situation. Later, it declared Salame had brokered a cease-fire agreement to end all hostilities, protect civilians, safeguard public and private property + reopen [Mitiga] Airport in #Tripoli #Libya.
But its unclear how long the truce will hold up.
HOW DID IT COME TO THIS
Little has been straightforward in Libya since the overthrow of Kadafi, who ruled the country for almost 42 years before he was pushed from power in a revolt backed by a North Atlantic Treaty Organization bombing campaign, with the U.S., France and Britain in the lead.
Kadafi was later killed and the rebels declared Libyas total liberation.
Instead, the country descended into chaos. Various groups, divided by tribal, regional, ideological and linguistic considerations, vied for power and frustrated repeated attempts to pull together a functioning government.
Eventually, two rival authorities emerged, each with its own state institutions.
The GNA, which has U.N. backing, controls the countrys western regions while the east is in the hands of the House of Representatives, the other government led by strongman Khalifa Haftar. (Islamic State also had a presence near the town of Surt and a slice of the countrys Mediterranean coast until 2015, when Haftar launched an offensive and scattered the jihadis.)
Last year, France shepherded a political plan that called for both governments to establish a framework for elections that would be held this December. It is unclear whether the elections will held.
In the meantime, the lawlessness in the country and its proximity to Europe, have made it a transit point for thousands of migrants.
Libyans swim to cool off in the Mediterranean Sea in Tripoli, where power outages are frequent and daily hardships mount. (Mahmud Turkia / AFP/Getty Images)
WHATS IT LIKE IN TRIPOLI?
In Tripoli, multiple rounds of fighting have resulted in four militias affiliated with the GNA being put in charge of the capitals security. But that relative stability has come at a price. According to a recent report by the Small Arms Survey, the de facto security forces have now morphed into a functioning cartel with powerful links to politicians and influential business executives.
The effect on Tripolis residents has been profound, with the militia controlling ports, airports, oil infrastructure and banks. It also impacted the availability of food, medicines and even currency.
Withdrawing what is worth $50 of money from a bank has become a dream for citizens, wrote Libyan commentator Abdul Razzaq Sarqan on the Libya al Khabar website on Tuesday.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
As rival forces continue to assemble around Tripoli and its environs, European governments, particularly Italy, fear the unrest could unleash another wave of migrants.
Meanwhile, the GNA is desperate to safeguard its presence, even from some of its supposed allies; GNA head Fayez Serraj has given militias loyal to his government until the end of the month to help secure Tripoli and then leave the capital.
But Haftar, with Egypt behind him, may take advantage of the chaos to sweep away his opponents and take over the government, analysts say.
nabih.bulos@latimes.com
Twitter: @nabihbulos
The community is invited to travel to various Caribbean islands at the Lehigh Acres Senior Center through tasting food and listening to music of the islands.
Its going to be a lot of fun. Everyone is welcome, Ana Quesada, who is organizing Island Affair, said. We had one before and it was a lot of fun. A lot of music and food, it was great.
The event will be held at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept, 6, at the Senior Center, 219 Plaza Drive.
We are providing the food and the music. Everything is free, Quesada said.
Attendees will have the opportunity to taste cuisine from such areas as Puerto Rico, Haiti, Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, Virgin Islands and Barbados.
People have signed up to bring food. They are members that either are born in those countries and migrated to the United States, or born here and their parents were born in that country, she explained. We are having music from those countries and food tasting from different countries.
Quesada, who is originally from Cuba, said she will be preparing an authentic Cuban dish for the event.
Ive been here since I was 12 years old. I cook what my mom used to, she explained.
Quesada said they are planning on doing an international event sometime this winter when the snowbirds are in town.
For more information, call (239) 369-5355.
Join the Greater Lehigh Acres Chamber of Commerce and the Lehigh Acres Senior Center for an Expo featuring local businesses and nonprofit organizations, as well as a job fair.
The Expo will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 22, at the Lehigh Senior Center, 219 Plaza Drive. The Expo has free admission.
Greater Lehigh Acres Chamber of Commerce Chairman Ed Moore said the annual event is held to gather members, nonmembers and anyone who wants to set up a table and display information for the community.
Its a good way for all the businesses to get to know each other and what each other provides . . . different types of services. The community can come in and meet a bunch of different businesses all at the same time, Moore said. Its kind of a one stop shop. Kind of like window shopping without all the windows.
Those interested can do so by visiting the chambers website, at lehighacreschamber.org. Vendor pricing is $50 for Chamber members, $85 for nonmembers and $25 for nonprofit organizations. Moore said they will continue to sign up businesses three, or four days prior to the Expo.
In addition, it also gives employers the opportunity to participate in a job fair.
We set up rooms for a job fair, so some employers can come to do interviews with anyone who wants a job, Moore said.
Although the number of businesses who participate in the job fair changes from year to year, he said last year Seminole Casino was the sole business. Moore said he would venture to say that there will be more businesses looking to do interviews.
It is hard to find good people these days with the job market the way it is, he said of why he believes there will be more employers.
He said last year they held a resume writing class during the expo, and this year they are offering a class where individuals can learn how to build their own affordable website.
There will be a lot of different pieces of information, Moore said.
The event will also feature raffles, and prizes given away every 30 minutes. The Senior Center will provide lunch for a nominal fee with all the proceeds going back to the center.
Moore said the Expo will most likely feature between 30 to 40 businesses.
We should have a good turnout. I would be shocked if we didnt, he said.
For more information, call 239-369-3322.
The first Bank of America Community Financial Center in Lehigh Acres had a grand opening, ribbon cutting ceremony last week.
Bank of America Senior Vice President Market Manager Carina Guillard said they held a ribbon cutting last Wednesday morning for their Bank of America Lehigh Acres Community Financial Center, which opened approximately three weeks ago. She said the capabilities of the center are endless, which allows them to really be able to service their customers.
The Bank of America Lehigh Acres Community Financial Center is located at 1360 Homestead Road North. Although this is the first one located in Lehigh Acres, Bank of America has 23 financial centers in Lee County.
The center is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.
The center aligns with our strategy to connect all of our capabilities and financial solutions to the clients we serve in this community, she said.
The financial centers are unique because they cater towards the communities that have more needs.
One of the features are interactive touchscreens equipped with Better Money Habits, which are located in each lobby. The touchscreens, Guillard explained can take the client through a learning session of how to save, budget for college and own a home.
We provide them the tools to be able to walk through everything they possibly need, she explained, adding that there are always associates there to help guide them.
So far, the feedback has been all positive, with the interactive screens being a favorite
Another service includes Wi-Fi for clients, providing them with the opportunity to download and access the Bank of America mobile app without using their own personal data plans.
The center also includes new ATMS with such updated features as cardless access, cashing checks, making credit card payments, as well as selecting bill mix with withdrawing cash. She said associates are nearby showing the customers how to use them if needed.
There are also online banking kiosks inside the lobby, providing access to accounts, check balances and paying bills.
Guillard said they center will offer quarterly classes where financial literacy will be taught. She said associates will offer the classes in Spanish as well, on topics the community has shared they want to learn more about.
We would love for them to come in, she said of anyone in the community. Even if they are not a client we will help with financial literacy to help them with the tools they need. We want to help them meet their financial goals.
Guillard said the center also has a community wall where it highlights different activities going on in Lehigh Acres, as well as art by local artists.
The Lehigh Acres Community Councils monthly meeting held on Aug. 20 focused on an agenda item that pertained to the Lehigh Acres Municipal Services and Improvement Districts upcoming public vote on their right to take over signage powers. Council President Rick Anglickis reported that the board met with LA-MSID Chair David Deetscreek and District Manager, David Lindsay in regards to the wording in the agreement with the county.
The resolution was supposed to only allow for five monumental welcome signs to be placed on Lee Boulevard also on Homestead Road. David Deetscreek said he would provide the council with the agreement signed by the county commissioners confirming this agreement, said Anglickis.
Anglickis went on to report that the agreement had been received and did not limit the signage powers as reported during the executive board meeting.
The resolution, which will be on the November ballot, brought out a discussion on how the residents of the community might be confused by the language used.
We met with in an executive session with the chairman of LA-MSID. They did not word the things on the ballot as explained during meetings. The council took the position to not let them do all the signs. There are many concerns such as where is all the money going to come from to pay for it, said Council Vice President Mohammed Yasin.
A motion was set forth by the majority of the members to stand against the resolution. The motion passed unanimously. The motion was aimed towards the council taking action to inform the residents of Lehigh Acres behind the true meaning and impact of the resolution.
I encourage people to vote against it. Eventually we will be taxed. Currently the county is paying this fee. We are not a city yet, said Yasin.
The monthly meeting opened with a public hearing for the proposed construction and development order to construct a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah Witnesses Worship Center on Lee Blvd.
TDM Consulting and JW Congregation supporters presented the council with a complete and detailed plan on the sites construction and landscape designs. While there were a few questions in regards to traffic, buffering, need, and location, the project was eventually approved.
There were a few questions in regards to the use of the space, but in the end council members approved the motion on the project, explained Yasin.
The council recommended the approval of the development order for the construction of a 3793 square foot Kingdom Hall of Jehovah Witnesses Worship Center to be located at 4716 Lee Boulevard in Lehigh Acres. This space is currently zoned within a 22,000 square foot parcel of land for commercial/retail use.
According Anglickis and other council members, the recommendation for approval was based on the presentation made at the meeting and that the project aligns with all county codes including zoning, construction, landscaping and setbacks.
In the end we decided to approve the project. They met all the requirements currently held by the county, said Yasin
Lee County District 5 Commissioner Frank Mann was in attendance to swear in two new members. Gwyn Gittens and Robert Antiewica are now seated on to the councils board.
The council will hold its next meeting on Sept. 17 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Lee County Sheriffs Office East District substation, at 1301 Homestead Road N. All meetings are open to the public.
For more information, visit online at: www.lehighacrescommunitycouncil.com.
The race for the U.S. Representative District 17 seat produced two primaries for the first time in years.
Democrat April Freeman and Republican Greg Steube both won their primaries easily, sending them on a collision course in the Nov. 6 General Election to fill the seat being vacated by Tom Rooney, who chose not to seek re-election.
Freeman, who was the Democratic choice to run against Rooney two years ago and who ran in 2014 in D-19, got an unexpected primary challenge from Bill Pollard. She still won by a more than 3-to-1 margin, taking 76.94 percent of the vote (32,683) to Pollards 23.06 percent (9,798).
Its truly an honor and privilege to have earned the votes from so many Democrats throughout this vast nine-county district. This didnt come easy, this is the result of hard work years in the making. Now, the real hard work starts as we begin to change this longtime Republican district to give it the overdue Democratic representation it deserves in November, Freeman said in a statement.
Steube, currently a state senator in the 23rd District who fought a rather brutal campaign against Julio Gonzalez and Bill Akins, was an easy winner in taking 62.21 percent (47,349), more than triple of Akins 19.33 percent (14,711) and Gonzalez, who took up the rear at 18.46 percent (14,048).
U.S Congressional District 17 encompasses northern Lee County including North Fort Myers, Babcock Ranch, Alva and parts of Lehigh Acres and Buckingham as well as parts of Polk, Highlands, Hardee, Hillsborough, DeSoto, Okeechobee, Charlotte, Manatee, and Glades counties, making it one of the largest districts in the state in terms of geography.
Steube supports the agenda of President Trump. He supports the Second Amendment, supports an immigration policy that does away with chain migration, backs the effort to build a border wall and seeks to end the visa lottery system.
Freeman has a more progressive agenda, with her focus on the environment, education, tax reform and getting dark money out of politics.
In 2002, Florida voters approved what sounded like a great thing for children.
Reducing class sizes to prescribed caps, advocates said, would increase student achievement and create more manageable classrooms for teachers. By many measures, the class size amendment has been a resounding success as Florida climbed in academic rankings and school classrooms were no longer packed wall-to-wall with students.
However, the class size reduction initiative created a financial problem Florida school districts didnt have the cash on-hand to build thousands of new classrooms.
Through the 2007-08 school year, the Florida Legislature covered operating and facilities costs to keep school districts in line with the class size amendment. Then in 2008, facilities funding stopped, and it has remained at zero for the past decade. That amounts to billions of dollars that school districts have paid from their own pockets to be compliant with a state law.
Unfortunately, Lee Countys pockets are empty. According to the school districts tentative budget, Lee is heading into the 2018-19 school year with $412 million in outstanding debt. Borrowing money to build new schools helped Lee comply with class size requirements, but now the district is bogged down with debt. Lees problem is much more severe than other counties because of the districts steady enrollment growth, about 2 percent annually for the past decade. The district forecasts enrollment this fall to eclipse 94,000 students.
District leadership will continue finding ways to build new schools, and the new Bonita Springs High School is a shining example of that commitment to a strong educational environment for students. But there is only so much money to go around, and if the district is devoting its limited capital dollars toward new school construction, thats leaving less money for renovations, routine maintenance, school security and technology.
The proposal to increase the sales tax from 6 percent to 6.5 percent would ensure its not an either-or proposition. Lee County could build new schools AND maintain the facilities it currently has. Vehicle owners recognize that regularly scheduled maintenance like changing oil, replacing air filters and checking fluids will help extend the life of a car. The same holds true for a school building, and even your house. Regular maintenance is critical in maximizing a facilitys use and preventing roof leaks, equipment breakdowns and malfunctions to air conditioning systems. The extra sales tax also would provide funding for technology upgrades, furniture replacement and security features, including new camera systems, lockdown panels and hardened doors that are critically important in ensuring school safety.
I encourage all voters to educate themselves about the proposed sales tax increase by visiting leeschools.net/change-for-change. We are on the path to providing a high-quality education system for the children and taxpayers or Lee County, and we need facilities to match.
-Bill Tubb is principal at Tubb & Associates in Cape Coral, and previously served as executive director of financial services for the School District of Lee County.
Once, the site of the Mound House was home to an ancient people.
Now, the jewel of Fort Myers Beach is home to hands-on education.
The entire sixth-grade class of Oasis Middle School spent the last two weeks visiting the Mound House in groups to learn more about the colorful history of this area.
Dexter Norris, an education program coordinator, said Oasis students started coming to the Mound House for a field trip last year when one of the sixth-grade teachers wanted to bring her class. The school administration liked it so much, Oasis sent all of its sixth-graders. There are about 300 sixth-grade students at Oasis; they visited in groups of 45 to 50.
On Aug. 29, Ceel Spuhler led the tour to the Beneath Our Feet exhibit. Becky Werner led a talk about archaeology. Norris spoke to the students about Calusa jewelry and artwork, using some of the replicas. The highlight for most of the students was trying their hand at the atlatl the spear-throwing tool the Calusa used for hunting.
It was Nikita Shchevyers first visit to the Mound House. He said it was amazing. His favorite parts were the underground exhibit and the atlatl-throwing.
Jill Frank also liked the archeological exhibit underground.
You could see where people used to live, she said. They explained it really well.
Matt Clark, the sixth-grade teacher at Wednesdays trip, said making a visit to the Mound House aligns with the students curriculum.
Its really cool. They can see it hands-on, he said. They can see how archeology works and learn about ancient people with no written record.
Amelia Koralik appreciated the creativeness of the Mound Houses programming, and said it was tons of fun to experience how the Calusa may have lived.
It was very educational, Koralik said. I recommend people coming here, its pretty darn cool.
Marshall's football team got its most complete effort of the 2021 season, taking care of the football and limiting big plays in a 38-0 win over FIU on Saturday afternoon at Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
On June 28 2018 the Zimbabwean authorities published a document entitled the Zimbabwe Intellectual Property Policy and Implementation Strategy.
For those who have witnessed the economic decline of Zimbabwe, the document is almost plaintive. It acknowledges that Zimbabwe is in "dire need of a National Intellectual Property Policy and Strategy." It puts extraordinary faith in intellectual property. According to the document, IP will "turn around the economic fortunes of the country" and "transform Zimbabwe from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy."
The policy will create a country with "high levels of IP awareness, IP consciousness and IP literacy." It will create a country that has a "culture of creativity, innovation and inventiveness." It will ensure that there are "reliable IP laws and enforcement measures."
Zimbabwe is not the first country to publish an official IP policy. In 2016, Ghana published its National Intellectual Property Policy and Strategy (NIPPS). This document recognises that "globalization and technological advancement are changing the landscape of the world economy." It recognises that "trade in high-value added and intensive goods and services has become central to many economies." It recognises that "knowledge-based industries are becoming the drivers of economies."
It shows ambition too. The policy will bring Ghana's IP system in line with "international best practices." It will place Ghana "amongst the leading countries in the utilization of IP as a tool for rapid national development." It will allow Ghana to achieve the status of "an advanced human society with a better quality of life reflected in all aspects of socio-economic and environmental conditions."
The IP policy that really made the headlines was the one in South Africa, first introduced in 2013. Unlike the two described above, this one had a far stronger developing world flavour to it, with suggestions that South Africa should follow developments in "similar economies such as Brazil, India and Egypt". This issue attracted criticism from a leading IP judge, who suggested that this would do little to "engender confidence and attract investment." He also suggested that some joined-up thinking was in order, alleging that the Department of Science and Technology was pro-IP, whereas the Department of Health and the Department of Education were anti-IP.
Much water has flowed under the bridge and now one of the central pillars of that policy, patent examination, an issue strongly linked to concerns about evergreening of pharmaceutical patents, is seemingly imminent. In February 2018, three trainee patent searchers employed by the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC), published an article in a South African legal magazine. In it, they confirmed that South Africa would be phasing in patent examination, starting with certain sectors as well as local applications. They said that this would lead to an increase in costs, but promised that "the quality of the patents granted by the CIPC will increase as well."
It is quite clear that a number of African governments now take IP very seriously.
Margaret Le Galle
The material on this site is for law firms, companies and other IP specialists. It is for information only. Please read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Notice before using the site. All material subject to strictly enforced copyright laws. 2021 Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. For help please see our FAQs.
Share this article
Africa House, Castle StreetSt Helier, Jersey JE4 9TWChannel IslandsTel: +44 1534 838000Fax: +44 1534 838001 info@spoor.co.uk www.spoor.com
Thiruvananthapuram : Finance Minister Thomas Issac has made it clear that the government employees in Kerala will have to contribute a month's salary for flood relief. He also added that those who don't accept the government decision will have to give their objection in writing.
Meanwhile, the organisations allied with the opposition United Democratic Front argued that the government should deduct an amount that the employees have consented to. The Minister also said that those who are willing to contribute the leave surrender money can opt for that.
Option is available also for donating a month's pay in 10 installments.
The Philippines and Israel have signed three fundamental agreements on labor, science, and trade as a way of strengthening their bilateral ties. They signed the deals even as Malacanang said Tuesday the Philippine government was scheduled to sign an agreement with the Israeli oil firm Ratio Petroleum Ltd. that would cover energy exploration in Palawan. We are expecting an agreement on exploration to be signed between the Philippines and a company in Israel, Ratio Petroleum Limited, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque told reporters in Israel. Its another foreign investor helping us to explore for energy in an effort to provide energy security. In a speech, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu highlighted the signing of the three bilateral agreements as he expressed gratitude to the historic visit of President Rodrigo Duterte. Were going to sign here today three important agreements in trade, in science and, no less important, in caregiving, Netanyahu told Duterte, adding his father had received compassionate care from a Filipino caregiver. There has been a remarkable phenomenon in Israel where thousands and thousands of families have taken heart from the support given by Filipino care workers to the elderly. I am one of those families, Mr. President. I, like many, many Israeli families, am deeply moved by this show of humanity. And today were going to sign an agreement that will knock off as much as $12,000 from the cost of every caregiver.This is money that is taken away from the caregivers and the families, the Israeli families who so want their service. This is an exceptional agreement and I think it heralds the kind of friendship that we are developing. Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III signed the Bilateral Agreement on the Temporary Employment of Filipino Home-Based Caregivers in Israel. According to a statement posted online on the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, the labor agreement will completely cancel all fees paid to agents and save thousands of shekels. Meanwhile, the Memorandum of Understanding on Scientific Cooperation, signed by Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis and Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, will encourage and establish scientific cooperation programs between Israels Ministry of Science and Technology and the countrys Department of Science and Technology. Lastly, the Memorandum of Intent on the Collaboration on Promotion of Bilateral Direct Investments, signed by Economy and Industry Minister Eli Cohen and Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez, encourages bilateral investments between the two countries. With the forged agreements, the Philippines expects a more suitable employment of Filipino caregivers in Israel, a further cooperation on the field of science and a progressive economy through investments.
President Rodrigo Duterte said Wednesday he anticipates more terrorist attacks in the south following the two deadly bombing incidents in Isulan town, Sultan Kudarat. Theres a lot of terror attacks going on, not only here but all over the world and my country is not an exception, Duterte said as he and Philippine Red Cross chairman Senator Richard Gordon witnessed Magen David Adoms response demonstration to a terror attack. We just had about two explosions in one of the provinces in Mindanao, and we expect more, Duterte told Israels national emergency service. Im sure your government would be willing to help us. Duterte highlighted the importance of developing the countrys emergency response to calamities and attacks. On Sunday, a bomb was detonated inside an Internet shop in Barangay Kalawag 2, in the town of Isulan, Sultan Kudarat, at past seven in the evening, leaving two people dead and several others wounded.On Aug. 28, an improvised explosive device was also detonated during the Isulans Hamungaya Festival, killing three people and injuring more than 30 others. Following the recent bombings in the south, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said there was a possibility martial law would be extended in Mindanao. He said the extension was an option. Malacanang has already assured the local government of Isulan that it is in control of the situation, saying the government will defend democracy and the public. Following the back-to-back incident of bombing under their watch, Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde has already ordered the relief of the provincial police officials.
Private holdings block public access to nearly 10 million acres of federal land in the West, hampering growth in the recreation economy, a new report says. The federal program that could help purchase access expires September 30.
By Bryce Oates
***
Unlocking The Wests Inaccessible Public Lands Off Limits, But Within Reach In partnership with onXMaps http://www.matr.net/article-84489.html
Public Access being locked up in Montana: In Litigation and Behind Gates http://www.matr.net/article-84265.html
Montanas public lands drive economic growth, give state recruiting advantage http://www.matr.net/article-83310.html
Video of run-in revives worries caused by Texas billionaires Idaho land purchase http://www.matr.net/article-78200.html
Class war in the American west: the rich landowners blocking access to public lands http://www.matr.net/article-81002.html
Montana Governor Steve Bullock Increasing Access to Your Public Lands http://www.matr.net/article-80437.html
Texas Billionaire Brothers Offer a Cautionary Tale for Public Lands http://www.matr.net/article-79992.html
2018-09-10 16:00:00
Social Science Building Room 344
Contact:
The University of Montana will host three Vietnamese delegates who will present a special seminar on Monday, Sept. 10, about tourism, reforestation and human-wildlife conflicts in their country.
"Conservation and Education in the Dong Nai Biosphere Reserve, Vietnam" will be held at 4 p.m. in Social Science Building Room 344. The seminar is free and open to the public. Presenters will be Dr. Huoung Tu Vu, director of the Vietnam Forestry University, and the vice directors of the Dong Nai Biosphere Reserve, Huong Lan Dinh and Tam Minh.
A potluck dinner with the delegation will follow at 6 p.m. at 2300 Hilda Ave.
The seminar is sponsored by the Drollinger-Dial Family Foundation, UMs Broader Impacts Group, the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, the W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation, and Environmental Studies.
http://news.umt.edu/2018/09/090518viet.php
High school students in the Magic Valley are participating in apprenticeships to help them learn manufacturing skills.
Similar to the software engineering apprenticeship program and the healthcare apprenticeship program the Department of Labor also offers, the manufacturing apprenticeship program focused on the food processing industry in the Magic Valley is intended to help those industries find skilled workers, especially during historically low unemployment rates.
By: Sharon Fisher
KABUL Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, H.E. Salahuddin Rabbani met with the Ambassador of the Peoples Republic of China to Kabul, Mr. Liu Jinsong.
Mr. Jinsong informed of the increase in the number of Afghan soldiers to be trained by China and talked about the mechanism of border security between the two countries.
Hinting at the importance of Chinese cooperation in various areas, Minister Rabbani stressed the expansion of ties between the two countries.
Both sides discussed and exchanged views on: the trilateral meeting between Afghanistan-China-Pakistan, bilateral relations, the peace process and regional cooperation.
KABUL Foreign Minister H.E Salahuddin Rabbani met with Mr. Tadamichi Yamamoto the UN Special Representative for Afghanistan.
Mr. Tadamichi Yamamoto provided information on the international meeting in Geneva for Afghanistan and emphasized UNs continuous cooperation with Afghanistan.
The Foreign Minister appreciated UNs efforts for stability and development of Afghanistan.
Both sides exchanged views on the political and security situation of the country, holding of elections, the Peace Process, and sideline meetings of the Afghan Delegation to New York in the UN General Assembly.
Photographer: Ray Boren
Summary Author: Ray Boren
Visible over vast distances, Montanas Chief Mountain rises like a sentinel where the Great Plains of mid-North America meet the Rocky Mountains and also just south of the topographic boundary shared by the United States and Canada, along the 49th Parallel. The blocky peak, shown here in a photograph taken on the stormy evening of June 15, 2018, from rolling foothills and ranch lands to the north in the Canadian province of Alberta, also marks a boundary between Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, and is just a hop and a skip from Canadas Waterton Lakes National Park.
The mountain, which summits at 9,085 feet (2,769 m.), is described geologically as a klippe structure, an isolated erosional remnant that has tectonically shifted from its original location. The National Park Service reports that this is due primarily to thrust faulting, in this case by way of the 200-mile-long (320 km) Lewis Overthrust underlying mountains in Montana and Alberta. Because of this type of tectonic shifting and slipping, remarkably old rocks have been forced over considerably younger ones at Chief Mountain. The blocky upper layers, primarily limestone and dolomite, are composed of ocean sediments of the Precambrian (600 million years ago). They're piled atop Cretaceous sedimentary formations that are younger by 400 to 500 million years.
Chief Mountain, called Ninaistako, with much the same meaning, by the Blackfeet people, is considered sacred by them and by other Native American and First Nations peoples and is said to possess great power. Ritual ceremonies have been performed there for thousands of years by members of the Blackfoot Confederacy, which includes the Siksika, or Blackfoot; the Kainah, or Blood; and the Pikuni, or Blackfeet. The Blackfeet in Montana jointly manage the mountain with Glacier National Park, though the parks eastern boundary is disputed by them.
Photo Details: Camera: NIKON D3200; Exposure Time: 0.0025s (1/400); Aperture: /11.0; ISO equivalent: 400; Focal Length (35mm): 360.
KABUL Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, H.E. Salahuddin Rabbani met with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr. Filippo Grandi and his accompanying delegation.
Mr. Grandi expressed his satisfaction of the reduction of pressure on Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran in terms of forcefully returning them, and informed of the preparations made for providing support to returnees. He also appreciated the initiative of Afghanistans Ministry of Foreign Affairs for registering and issuing passports to Afghan refugees in Iran.
Hinting at the ongoing severe drought in the country, the Foreign Minister said: We have the highest number of refugees in the two countries Iran and Pakistan - considering the sensitive situation in Afghanistan, return of refugees should be on voluntary basis and in consideration of their dignity.
Mr. Rabbani deemed the travel of Mr. Grandi and his delegation of high significance and called for further cooperation of UNHCR with regards to Afghan Refugees in the neighboring countries as well as the internally displaced persons.
Both sides discussed and exchanged views on the holding of the international meeting in Geneva on Afghanistan, UNHCRs future activities in the country and emergency humanitarian aid provision.
KABUL Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, H.E. Salahuddin Rabbani met with the Ambassador of the United States of America to Kabul, Mr. John Bass.
In this meeting, Mr. Rabbani talked about the international meeting in Geneva and the possibility of putting the issue of peace as the main agenda of this meeting.
The US Ambassador also mentioned that peace was a larger regional debate and stressed the need for serious cooperation of the countries in the region for realizing peace in Afghanistan. Similarly, the Foreign Minister emphasized the free and fair holding of elections that is followed with satisfaction of the people.
[September 05, 2018] KORE to Provide Insight on Navigating the Complexities of IoT at Mobile World Congress Americas KORE today announced the details of its significant presence at Mobile World Congress Americas (MWCA), occurring September 12-14 in Los Angeles, CA (News - Alert). The organization will exhibit at stand S.2536. KORE President and Chief Executive Officer Romil Bahl will deliver the keynote address for MWCA's flagship IoT event, IoT 101 - Digital Transformation University, on Thursday, September 13. Romil will share insight on how enterprises of all sizes can utilize IoT to maximize ROI from their investments. Based on his insight working with KORE's 6,200 customers and their approximately nine million devices around the world, Romil will provide attendees with thoughts on overcoming the challenges of IoT deployments, accelerating time-to-market, generating new revenue opportunities, and gaining additional competitive advantages through IoT.
What: The Importance of Managed Services in IoT Who: Romil Bahl, President and Chief Executive Officer, KORE When: Thursday, September 13, 2018, from 1:00 p.m. - 1:20 p.m. PT Where: Mobile World Congress (News - Alert) Americas JW Marriott LIVE! LA Gold Ballroom 1 KORE Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Sue Holub will also speak at MWCA, participating in a panel discussion titled "Delivering Mobile IoT at Scale" on Wednesday, September 12. With the rapid growth of IoT solutions and deployments, there is increased pressure on network operators to deliver affordable, low-power connectivity solutions. For IoT to truly scale around the world, enterprises need a network that is designed for IoT applications - global, simple to integrate, and very secure. The panel, part of MWCA's Fourth Industrial Revolution theme and its day-long IoT Conference, will discuss how enterprises need a global, secure network designed for IoT applications. What: Delivering Mobile IoT at Scale Who: Moderator Ricardo Tavares, CEO, Techpolis Speakers Sue Holub, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, KORE Dave Mayo, Senior Vice President and Business Chief of 5G and IoT, T-Mobile (News - Alert) Steve Szabo, Head of Global Products and Solutions, Verizon Ludovico Fassati, Head of IoT, Vodafone (News - Alert) Americas When: Wednesday, September 12, 2018, from 2:15 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. PT Where: Mobile World Congress Americas Los Angeles Convention Center Room Petree C For those not attending MWCA, KORE will provide live updates from the event on its Twitter and LinkedIn channels as well as through its blogs on www.korewireless.com. About KORE
KORE Wireless Group ("KORE") delivers transformative business performance through the Internet of Things (IoT). KORE is the largest independent provider of secure managed IoT networks, application enablement, and location based services, and focuses on combining our capabilities and expertise into business-centric IoT solutions. With operations in the USA, Canada, Australia, Singapore, UK, Netherlands, Brazil and the Dominican Republic, KORE serves as our customers' trusted advisor and partner-of-choice for simplifying the complexities of IoT. KORE serves thousands of customers and partners who integrate our services into diverse, industry-specific applications including fleet management, healthcare, utilities, field services, asset management and tracking, and many more. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005133/en/
[ Back To www.mobilitytechzone.com\LTE's Homepage ]
The off-year elections for governor in Virginia and New Jersey tend to receive outsize attention, and the results are mined for deeper meaning about what they portend for the midterm elections the following year that determine which party controls Congress.
Rox United U12 Raiders get tripped up by Palumbo
September 05, 2018
The Strange Timestamp In The New Novichok 'Evidence' - UPDATED
Please read the Update highlighted below.
---
Today, in a politically convenient moment, the British government released new information about the poisoning of the British spy Sergej Skripal, his daughter, and three other persons. It claims to have identified two men with Russian passports who arrived in London from Moscow on March 2, went to Salisbury on March 3 on a 'reconnaissance' trip, came back to Salisbury on March 4 to put Novichok poison on the doorknob of Skripal's home and flew back from London to Moscow on the same day. The names of the men were given as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov which are Russian language equivalents of Joe Smith and Sam Jones. These names are likely false.
The police says that CCTV pictures were taken at several steps of the men's travel. The British news agency Reuters seem to distribute these. Several media have picked up copies.
Here are screenshots of two CCTV pictures, taken from an 18 picture gallery in a report by The Independent headlined Salisbury poisoning suspects are Russian state assassins, Theresa May tells MPs.
These are pictures 7 and 8 of a 18 picture gallery within that piece.
,
Pic 7 of 18 - full, uncropped screenshot
,
Pic 8 of 18 - full, uncropped screenshot
The pics are also available at the Metropolitan police site: 1, 2.
Notice that the time stamp on both pics is identical, 02/03/2018 16:22:43. But the pictures show two different men, each walking alone through the same part of a jet bridge as they arrive in Britain. How can it be that both of these pictures were taken at the exactly same second? And who tilted the permanently installed CCTV camera between the two shots? How did the camera angle change between picture one and two which were apparently taken at the very same place and at the very same time?
If these two pictures can not be trusted how much can one trust the other CCTV pictures the Met showed to support its claims?
---
UPDATE Sept 6 - 5:20 UTC
Here is the answer to the above questions. In the North Terminal of Gatwick Airport, at the northern end of arrival level zero, there are several parallel and apparently identical gates leading into the airport. Each of these has a camera.
,
Thanks to Bruce Leidl who found the above picture in Google maps.
The two pictures above with identical timestamps were taken in two of these gates with each of the 'Russian assassins' passing through one of them at the same time. Aeroflot flights from Moscow are serviced at the North Terminal.
End of the Update - the original text continues below.
---
The full statement of the Metropolitan police is here. Excerpts of Prime Minister Theresa May's statement are here.
While May claims the two men were send by Russia's military spy service GRU, the Metropolitan police makes no such claims. Theresa May does not say on what evidence she based her conclusion. There seems to be none.
It also seems a bit curious that a 'Russian assassin' team, allegedly from a highly professional secret service, would travel together and use direct flights from Moscow to London and back. That seems extraordinary careless. Why not fly separate and via a third country?
And why would a professional assassin team drop a cellophane wrapped, unopened perfume bottle with the same poison into a charity bin behind shops in Catherine Street in Salisbury where Charlie Rowley would find it some 14 weeks(!?) later?
The police says that it found traces of Novichok in the crappy hotel the 'Russian agents' stayed in between March 2 and March 4. It found those traces on May 4 but it waited until today to publicly ask other guests at the hotel to contact the police?
If the incident was a professional assassination attempt with a highly potent 'Novichok' compound why did 4 out of 5 people who came into contact with it survive? The 80% failure rate is inconsistent with the scary tale about the highly potent 'Russian' Novichok poison. A decent dose of Megachok is probably more lethal.
Sergej Skripal has not been seen in the public or even on video since the incident happened. His daughter Yulia Skripal appeared in a British government hostage video but then vanished. The Russian Embassy in London says that it has no access to them. The policeman, who allegedly was also injured during the incident, also never reappeared in public. Why are these people held incommunicado and under arrest?
---
Previous Moon of Alabama posts on the Skripal case:
Posted by b on September 5, 2018 at 17:33 UTC | Permalink
Comments
next page
Welcome to Morningstar.co.uk!
You have been redirected here from Hemscott.com as we are merging our websites to provide you with a one-stop shop for all your investment research needs.To search for a security, type the name or ticker in the search box at the top of the page and select from the dropdown results.Registered Hemscott users can log in to Morningstar using the same login details. Similarly, if you are a Hemscott Premium user, you now have a Morningstar Premium account which you can access using the same login details.
Yelp Reviews Helping Home Prices?
Will appraisals soon need to indicate a home's driving distance to the nearest cold-brew drive-through? Could be. According to a new study by the Harvard Business School, when an outlet for Starbucks opens in a community, home prices in that ZIP code rise by 0.5 percent within one year.
The information emerged from a larger study on gentrification which was conducted using census data as well as data from Yelp.
The study's authors say that Yelp may be a potential new tool for policymakers to monitor gentrification, the process of rebuilding homes and businesses in an area followed by an influx of more affluent residents. As this is often at the expense of earlier, often less well-off residents, it tends to be a volatile subject. The researchers say one big issue is the lack of consistent data to determine the ultimate effects of the trend, positive or negative.
According to Harvard professor Edward Glaeser, it isn't clear whether housing prices are rising due to the Starbucks opening itself or simply because more affluent customers that would go to the coffee chain have moved into the area.
While the price increase associated with a new Starbucks is modest, the study found that for every 10 reviews posted on Yelp there appeared to be 1.4 percent appreciation within the ZIP code. The paper states, "The most natural hypothesis to us is that restaurants respond to exogenous changes in neighborhood composition, not that restaurant availability is driving neighborhood change," and that gentrification is associated with increased numbers of grocery stores, cafes, and bars.
The Business Schools Michael Luca told CNBC's Thomas Franck that Yelp has advantages over the government data from the Census Bureau or the Bureau of Labor Statistics usually employed in such studies. While the app isn't a replacement, it can augment older methods with real-time updates on local stores as well as ways in which neighborhoods change during gentrification. It also provides data on things like menus, prices, and ratings not otherwise available.
It doesn't really seem as though the near-by availability of Pumpkin Spice Latte is driving home price increases, but Glaeser notes that causality is somewhat uncertain. Designer coffee probably isn't causing gentrification, but a new store may confirm the trend. In fact, he says, "This variable is likely to be a proxy for gentrification itself.
Berlin Reporter A week of rescues keeps local first responders busy
by Jody Houle REGION New Hampshire Fish and Game and other responders had a busy week with a number of rescues last week. Two OHRV accidents occurred in Berlin, and rescues occurred in Randolph and Franconia.
On Sunday, Aug. 26, a 14-year-old male was injured in a dirt bike accident. At around 1:30 p.m., the teen, from Pembroke, was operating his dirt bike on the Brook Road Trail in Jericho Mountain State Park when he crashed into the back of another dirt bike operated by someone in his riding party. He was ejected from the dirt bike and sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries according to Fish and Game.
Members of his riding group and an off duty Emergency Medical Technician attended to the teen first and a call was made to a third party. Berlin Fire, Berlin EMS, Berlin Police and Fish and Game conservation officers all arrived at the scene. The teen was transported by Berlin Ambulance to the Androscoggin Valley Hospital for treatment of his injuries.
Fish and Game said in a statement that, upon investigation, inattention appears to be the main contributor of the crash.
A hiker was rescued in Franconia on, Tuesday, Aug. 27.
At about 2 p.m., Fish and Game received a report of a man who was injured on the Falling Waters Trail in Franconia.
Karl Hurtubise, 30, of Kennebunk, Maine, sustained an injury to his leg which prevented him from hiking back down the trail. 25 rescue members, including Fish and Game conservation officers and members of the Pemi Valley Search and Rescue Team located him at about 5 p.m. in the vicinity of Shining Rock which is almost three miles from the trailhead. After medical attention was given to his leg, he was carried out the trail which is very steep and slippery said Fish and Game. The crew arrived at the trailhead with Hurtubise at around 9:45 p.m. He was taken by family members to a hospital in Maine for treatment.
"Outdoor enthusiasts are encouraged to purchase a Hike Safe card at wildnh.com/safe.,"Fish and Game encouraged in a statement. "The card helps support Fish and Game search and rescue activities. For safe hiking tips and a list of essential gear, visit hikesafe.com."
On Tuesday, Aug. 28, a woman was serious injured in Berlin due to an ATV accident. At around 10:30 a.m., Jonathan Gesin, 23, of Alexandria, Va., was operating an ATV on the Lake Loop Trail and tried to turn around but miscalculated the turn and he struck a tree. His passenger, Brittany Gesin, 22, also of Alexandria, Va., was ejected from the ATV and sustained injuries.
Members of their riding group called 911. Berlin Police, Berlin Fire, Berlin EMS, a Coos County Sheriff's Deputy, and a Fish and Game conservation officer all responded to the scene. Brittany Gesin was taken to the Androscoggin Valley Hospital for treatment of her injuries.
The next day, on Wednesday, Aug. 29, a woman was rescued from Mount Madison in Randolph.
At about 1:41 p.m., a call was made to 911 concerning a hiker, Caroline G. Eyman, 22, of Manchester, Vt., was found by a hiking partner about a mile up from the Appalachia Trailhead and Eyman was unconscious and unresponsive. The location is at the intersection of the Beechwood May Trail and Airline Trail.
Three Fish and Game conservation officers ran up the hill and Conservation Officer James Cyr arrived at the scene first at around 2:29 p.m. Gorham EMS was next to arrive. Gorham EMS and and the conservation officers gave Eyman first aid and stabilized her. She was carried out by Fish and Game and by a Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue crew, and members of the Appalachian Mountain Club. The crews brought her down the trail in about 12 minutes.
"This is a great example of a team of rescuers recognizing a potential life threatening issue and working together to complete the mission effectively and timely," Fish and Game stated in a press release.
Eyman was taken to the Androscoggin Valley Hospital for treatment.
There was also a rescue after an UTV accident occurred on the Webster Highway in Temple on Aug. 26. REGION New Hampshire Fish and Game and other responders had a busy week with a number of rescues last week. Two OHRV accidents occurred in Berlin, and rescues occurred in Randolph and Franconia.On Sunday, Aug. 26, a 14-year-old male was injured in a dirt bike accident. At around 1:30 p.m., the teen, from Pembroke, was operating his dirt bike on the Brook Road Trail in Jericho Mountain State Park when he crashed into the back of another dirt bike operated by someone in his riding party. He was ejected from the dirt bike and sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries according to Fish and Game.Members of his riding group and an off duty Emergency Medical Technician attended to the teen first and a call was made to a third party. Berlin Fire, Berlin EMS, Berlin Police and Fish and Game conservation officers all arrived at the scene. The teen was transported by Berlin Ambulance to the Androscoggin Valley Hospital for treatment of his injuries.Fish and Game said in a statement that, upon investigation, inattention appears to be the main contributor of the crash.A hiker was rescued in Franconia on, Tuesday, Aug. 27.At about 2 p.m., Fish and Game received a report of a man who was injured on the Falling Waters Trail in Franconia.Karl Hurtubise, 30, of Kennebunk, Maine, sustained an injury to his leg which prevented him from hiking back down the trail. 25 rescue members, including Fish and Game conservation officers and members of the Pemi Valley Search and Rescue Team located him at about 5 p.m. in the vicinity of Shining Rock which is almost three miles from the trailhead. After medical attention was given to his leg, he was carried out the trail which is very steep and slippery said Fish and Game. The crew arrived at the trailhead with Hurtubise at around 9:45 p.m. He was taken by family members to a hospital in Maine for treatment."Outdoor enthusiasts are encouraged to purchase a Hike Safe card at wildnh.com/safe.,"Fish and Game encouraged in a statement. "The card helps support Fish and Game search and rescue activities. For safe hiking tips and a list of essential gear, visit hikesafe.com."On Tuesday, Aug. 28, a woman was serious injured in Berlin due to an ATV accident. At around 10:30 a.m., Jonathan Gesin, 23, of Alexandria, Va., was operating an ATV on the Lake Loop Trail and tried to turn around but miscalculated the turn and he struck a tree. His passenger, Brittany Gesin, 22, also of Alexandria, Va., was ejected from the ATV and sustained injuries.Members of their riding group called 911. Berlin Police, Berlin Fire, Berlin EMS, a Coos County Sheriff's Deputy, and a Fish and Game conservation officer all responded to the scene. Brittany Gesin was taken to the Androscoggin Valley Hospital for treatment of her injuries.The next day, on Wednesday, Aug. 29, a woman was rescued from Mount Madison in Randolph.At about 1:41 p.m., a call was made to 911 concerning a hiker, Caroline G. Eyman, 22, of Manchester, Vt., was found by a hiking partner about a mile up from the Appalachia Trailhead and Eyman was unconscious and unresponsive. The location is at the intersection of the Beechwood May Trail and Airline Trail.Three Fish and Game conservation officers ran up the hill and Conservation Officer James Cyr arrived at the scene first at around 2:29 p.m. Gorham EMS was next to arrive. Gorham EMS and and the conservation officers gave Eyman first aid and stabilized her. She was carried out by Fish and Game and by a Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue crew, and members of the Appalachian Mountain Club. The crews brought her down the trail in about 12 minutes."This is a great example of a team of rescuers recognizing a potential life threatening issue and working together to complete the mission effectively and timely," Fish and Game stated in a press release.Eyman was taken to the Androscoggin Valley Hospital for treatment.There was also a rescue after an UTV accident occurred on the Webster Highway in Temple on Aug. 26.
Berlin Reporter Soccer boys win on senior day, look ahead to playoffs Housing needs discussed at North Country Council's annual commission meeting Recent Jody Houle State funding cuts force closure of Brown School
2019-Jan-23 Grenier testifies in support of House Bill aimed at overturning education cuts
2019-Jan-23 Film made in Berlin now available for purchase
2019-Jan-17 School board continues to discuss reorganization of grades
2019-Jan-17 AVH hosting forum on addiction treatment services
2019-Jan-09 Police apprehend armed man following standoff
2019-Jan-09 More... Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com
Coos County Democrat WSPA marks 35th anniversary by memorializing two members
by Edith Tucker
WSPA board member Kathi Govatski, left, of Jefferson dedicated the newly installed granite bench to key volunteer, the late Iris Baird of Lancaster, on Thursday, Aug. 24, at Weeks State Park in Lancaster. WSPA president, Sally Pratt of Lancaster, served as the evening's master of ceremonies. (Photo by Edith Tucker) (click for larger version) LANCASTER The important contributions of two key members of the Weeks State Park Association (WSPA) were permanently commemorated on Thursday evening, Aug. 23, at an outdoor ceremony in the shadow of the stone Fire Lookout Tower on Mt. Prospect (elevation 2,058 feet) in Weeks State Park.
WSPA president Sally Pratt of Lancaster served as master of ceremonies at its annual meeting, this year designed both to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the nonprofit organization's first annual meeting and to honor the late Philip F. Quinn, Jr. of Whitefield and the late Iris Baird of Lancaster.
Quinn founded the WSPA, and a plaque will now inform visitors his leadership role in having the Park avoid what likely would have been its permanent shuttering.
When a 20 percent state Parks budget cut was put in place under Gov. Hugh Gallen of Littleton, Quinn mobilized a group of local citizens and negotiated with the-then Division of Parks Director Paul Doherty of Gorham to kept the Park open. This ultimately resulted in the creation of the all-volunteer WSPA, formalized in 1983, which continues to play an important role as an advocate and a financial supporter of on-site programs and amenities.
A granite bench with a sweeping view to the east was dedicated to Baird, who worked tirelessly to advance the Park's well-being. Baird worked hard to gain the fire tower's entry into the National Historic Lookout Register. She and her husband, Bill, had a deep affection for Mt. Prospect, and both enthusiastically carried out many volunteer activities. Baird was a wildflower expert and could identify any plant in the Park. The back of the bench not only has her name etched into it but also pictures of both the fire tower and (yellow) lady slippers.
The evening also included the 10th and last indoor summer program, featuring the Comfort Country Band. The annual autumn wildflower walk is set from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 9.
Besides organizing the summer program schedules, the WSPA provided $15,000 to help pay for the much-needed stucco repair work and other expenses: $1,400 to restore and frame photographs in the Lodge and $500 to print a new geology brochure. The WSPA also paid for new wooden guard rails, assisted by the Coos Economic Development Corporation (CEDC).
Pratt noted that the financial support of over 30 area businesses has played a very big part in keeping the WSPA in good financial shape. UNH Cooperative Extension provides considerable logistical support.
Both Director Phil Bryce of the state Parks and Recreation Department and Director Ben Wilson of the Bureau of Historic Sites within that Division were on hand on Thursday evening along with Parks manager Rachel Bruce, several state employees and WSPA board members.
Governor and Council will meet in the Weeks Lodge at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 5, at the request of District I Executive Councilor Joe Kenney of Wakefield. LANCASTER The important contributions of two key members of the Weeks State Park Association (WSPA) were permanently commemorated on Thursday evening, Aug. 23, at an outdoor ceremony in the shadow of the stone Fire Lookout Tower on Mt. Prospect (elevation 2,058 feet) in Weeks State Park.WSPA president Sally Pratt of Lancaster served as master of ceremonies at its annual meeting, this year designed both to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the nonprofit organization's first annual meeting and to honor the late Philip F. Quinn, Jr. of Whitefield and the late Iris Baird of Lancaster.Quinn founded the WSPA, and a plaque will now inform visitors his leadership role in having the Park avoid what likely would have been its permanent shuttering.When a 20 percent state Parks budget cut was put in place under Gov. Hugh Gallen of Littleton, Quinn mobilized a group of local citizens and negotiated with the-then Division of Parks Director Paul Doherty of Gorham to kept the Park open. This ultimately resulted in the creation of the all-volunteer WSPA, formalized in 1983, which continues to play an important role as an advocate and a financial supporter of on-site programs and amenities.A granite bench with a sweeping view to the east was dedicated to Baird, who worked tirelessly to advance the Park's well-being. Baird worked hard to gain the fire tower's entry into the National Historic Lookout Register. She and her husband, Bill, had a deep affection for Mt. Prospect, and both enthusiastically carried out many volunteer activities. Baird was a wildflower expert and could identify any plant in the Park. The back of the bench not only has her name etched into it but also pictures of both the fire tower and (yellow) lady slippers.The evening also included the 10th and last indoor summer program, featuring the Comfort Country Band. The annual autumn wildflower walk is set from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 9.Besides organizing the summer program schedules, the WSPA provided $15,000 to help pay for the much-needed stucco repair work and other expenses: $1,400 to restore and frame photographs in the Lodge and $500 to print a new geology brochure. The WSPA also paid for new wooden guard rails, assisted by the Coos Economic Development Corporation (CEDC).Pratt noted that the financial support of over 30 area businesses has played a very big part in keeping the WSPA in good financial shape. UNH Cooperative Extension provides considerable logistical support.Both Director Phil Bryce of the state Parks and Recreation Department and Director Ben Wilson of the Bureau of Historic Sites within that Division were on hand on Thursday evening along with Parks manager Rachel Bruce, several state employees and WSPA board members.Governor and Council will meet in the Weeks Lodge at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 5, at the request of District I Executive Councilor Joe Kenney of Wakefield.
Winnisquam Echo Hundreds turn out for annual celebration of Native American heritage
by Donna Rhodes write the author
Gerard Dulac was pleased to welcome Chris, "The Butterfly Man," to the 48th year of the Laconia Indian Heritage Association's Labor Day Weekend Powwow, which is held at the Dulac Land Trust in Sanbornton each year. (Photo by Donna Rhodes) (click for larger version) SANBORNTON The Laconia Indian Heritage Association held its annual Labor Day Powwow in Sanbornton last weekend, and among the hundreds of participants and guests was none other than Sanbornton resident Gerard Dulac himself, the owner of the approximately 100-acre Dulac Land Trust where the Powwows and other Native American events organized by LIHA have now been held for 48 years.
Both of Dulac's grandmothers were of Indian descent, he said, and when his offering for use of the property to other local civic groups was turned down, he jumped on a suggestion that he allow LIHA to utilize the land.
"I was so happy when someone mentioned them. There's so much beauty out here, and I wanted some group to just come out here and enjoy it. This was the best I could ever ask for," he said.
Throughout the years, that offer has been greatly appreciated by LIHA, which then shares that appreciation with others. Scouting groups are invited to hold special activities on the property and in the early summer LIHA also hosts a Learner's Weekend for people interested in discovering more about the Native American culture. People who are members of the organization are able to camp seasonally on the property, and then of course, there is the annual Labor Day Powwow in September.
Richie Corso of Meredith is the vice-president of LIHA, and was excited about the upturn in the organization this year.
"We've been so active this year and hitting the fundraising aspect hard," he said. "We have our 50th anniversary coming up here soon and we want to be ready for it."
Among those initiatives was LIHA's sponsorship of the concession stand at two of the Hartwell Summer Concert Series events in Tilton this summer.
In addition to that and other fundraising, he said the group is always working on the land that Dulac has provided. There are the Arbor and vendor areas available for Powwow weekends, a kitchen, craft buildings and bath facilities that all require regular maintenance. In addition to that the property includes numerous campsites, memorials walking paths, roadways and a pond that must be kept up to snuff.
Those countless hours of maintenance are worth it all, though, Corso said.
During the Labor Day Powwow each year, they have not only attracted many Native Americans from near and far, they have also drawn in hundreds of others who simply want to learn more about their ancient culture.
"It's amazing! Through the years, we've seen over 4,000 license plates come through here from all over," said Corso.
Last weekend's annual Powwow once again attracted interested individuals and families from near and far. Among the many events they observed or took part in were a Mourner's Feast on Friday that included a candlelight vigil for loved ones lost. There was a Grand Entry each day at noon, dancing under the Arbor to the sounds of Four Wind Drums, along with vendors offering countless Native American crafts, books, hand-woven goods, rhythmic instruments and traditional regalia.
From 9 a.m. until noon on Saturday and Sunday, children were also invited to take part in a wide array of craft projects. Under the guidance of LIHA members, boys and girls could learn to make things such as models of tipis, dance sticks, dream catchers and leg bells. They were even given lessons on how to do intricate beadwork.
Each night over the weekend a second session of drum/dance sessions were held once again and on Sunday, all in attendance were welcomed to join together for a turkey feast.
Russ Shetenhelm and his wife Elly-O of Atkinson were dressed in beautiful Native American regalia, Russ's made by his grandmother he revealed, and were among the many who took part in this year's Powwow.
"We support all their activities and their Powwow each year because it helps preserve the heritage and keep the traditions alive," Elly-O said.
Corsi, who is not of Native American descent himself, said the traditions of Native Americans is the real focus of LIHA and anyone interested in their culture is invited to join them.
"I got involved in this through my wife and fell in love with it. The one thing I do now every year is make sure I get out there for at least one session of the dancing," he said. "It's an amazing culture. We have a good crew and a great board of directors who are working hard to preserve the Native American culture."
For those who want to learn more about LIHA, its history, scholarship programs that are open to all, or any upcoming events, please visit their Web site, SANBORNTON The Laconia Indian Heritage Association held its annual Labor Day Powwow in Sanbornton last weekend, and among the hundreds of participants and guests was none other than Sanbornton resident Gerard Dulac himself, the owner of the approximately 100-acre Dulac Land Trust where the Powwows and other Native American events organized by LIHA have now been held for 48 years.Both of Dulac's grandmothers were of Indian descent, he said, and when his offering for use of the property to other local civic groups was turned down, he jumped on a suggestion that he allow LIHA to utilize the land."I was so happy when someone mentioned them. There's so much beauty out here, and I wanted some group to just come out here and enjoy it. This was the best I could ever ask for," he said.Throughout the years, that offer has been greatly appreciated by LIHA, which then shares that appreciation with others. Scouting groups are invited to hold special activities on the property and in the early summer LIHA also hosts a Learner's Weekend for people interested in discovering more about the Native American culture. People who are members of the organization are able to camp seasonally on the property, and then of course, there is the annual Labor Day Powwow in September.Richie Corso of Meredith is the vice-president of LIHA, and was excited about the upturn in the organization this year."We've been so active this year and hitting the fundraising aspect hard," he said. "We have our 50th anniversary coming up here soon and we want to be ready for it."Among those initiatives was LIHA's sponsorship of the concession stand at two of the Hartwell Summer Concert Series events in Tilton this summer.In addition to that and other fundraising, he said the group is always working on the land that Dulac has provided. There are the Arbor and vendor areas available for Powwow weekends, a kitchen, craft buildings and bath facilities that all require regular maintenance. In addition to that the property includes numerous campsites, memorials walking paths, roadways and a pond that must be kept up to snuff.Those countless hours of maintenance are worth it all, though, Corso said.During the Labor Day Powwow each year, they have not only attracted many Native Americans from near and far, they have also drawn in hundreds of others who simply want to learn more about their ancient culture."It's amazing! Through the years, we've seen over 4,000 license plates come through here from all over," said Corso.Last weekend's annual Powwow once again attracted interested individuals and families from near and far. Among the many events they observed or took part in were a Mourner's Feast on Friday that included a candlelight vigil for loved ones lost. There was a Grand Entry each day at noon, dancing under the Arbor to the sounds of Four Wind Drums, along with vendors offering countless Native American crafts, books, hand-woven goods, rhythmic instruments and traditional regalia.From 9 a.m. until noon on Saturday and Sunday, children were also invited to take part in a wide array of craft projects. Under the guidance of LIHA members, boys and girls could learn to make things such as models of tipis, dance sticks, dream catchers and leg bells. They were even given lessons on how to do intricate beadwork.Each night over the weekend a second session of drum/dance sessions were held once again and on Sunday, all in attendance were welcomed to join together for a turkey feast.Russ Shetenhelm and his wife Elly-O of Atkinson were dressed in beautiful Native American regalia, Russ's made by his grandmother he revealed, and were among the many who took part in this year's Powwow."We support all their activities and their Powwow each year because it helps preserve the heritage and keep the traditions alive," Elly-O said.Corsi, who is not of Native American descent himself, said the traditions of Native Americans is the real focus of LIHA and anyone interested in their culture is invited to join them."I got involved in this through my wife and fell in love with it. The one thing I do now every year is make sure I get out there for at least one session of the dancing," he said. "It's an amazing culture. We have a good crew and a great board of directors who are working hard to preserve the Native American culture."For those who want to learn more about LIHA, its history, scholarship programs that are open to all, or any upcoming events, please visit their Web site, www.lihanh.org
Winnisquam Echo Winnisquam falls in playoff battle of the field hockey Bears Police investigate untimely death in Sanbornton Recent Donna Rhodes Fundraiser celebrates former Alexandria residents love for animals
2021-Oct-29 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 More... Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com
Winnisquam Echo Public feedback sought on efforts to revitalize downtown Tilton
by Donna Rhodes write the author TILTON Selectmen heard last week from Juliet Harvey-Bolia, a representative from the town's recently formed First Impressions Committee, which is working with the UNH Cooperative Extension on ways to improve the look and atmosphere of downtown Tilton. The committee, Harvey-Bolia told the board last Thursday, will be holding an update on their research on Sept. 27, and will open a conversation up to the public in hopes of getting not only feedback on their findings but fresh ideas for the improvement of the downtown business district.
First Impressions is under the umbrella of the UNH Cooperative's Vibrant Community project, which seeks to assist communities in finding new ways to draw more people and more business to their downtown sectors.
"It's a tested and vetted national program that I think can really help our town," said Harvey-Bolia.
The Tilton committee, she said, was formed early this year and has been working hard over the past several months to gather as much information as they can.
In the initial phase of the First Impressions initiative, Tilton was to be paired up with a similar local community. The Co-op determined that the Town of Pittsfield, which had also reached out to the Cooperative for assistance, was a suitable match due to size and other logistics. Each town's First Impressions committee then sent Secret Shoppers to the alternate community. While there, committee members recorded their thoughts and reactions to the experiences they had in the other town's business district.
"We each noted the strengths and weakness on the downtown area then submitted the data we collected," said Harvey-Bolia.
That data will be revealed at the upcoming Community Conversation and people in attendance will also be asked to express their own thoughts on downtown Tilton. Following the open discussions, smaller groups will then be formed to discuss how the town might improve a variety of the aspects of Main Street Tilton.
"This is open to anyone, whether they live in Tilton or not. If they live here, shop here, work here or come here for any other reasons, we'd love to hear their thoughts and ideas," Harvey-Bolia said. "It all happens here (at the Community Conversation). If you have issues, if you have ideas, this is the place where it will all be recorded."
Town Planner Dari Sassan also attended the meeting with selectmen, and said his hope is that the Downtown Conversation will help the committee identify the next steps that need to be taken.
"This is also something we can talk to Jeanie Forrester about," he said.
Forrester is a former New Hampshire State Senator, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and on the local level, helped the towns of Meredith and Plymouth achieve a Main Street U.S.A. status. Next month she will take over the role of Town Administrator in Tilton.
"She'll be a great help to the town," Harvey-Bolia agreed after the meeting.
The First Impressions committee is made up of 12 local residents from all walks of life, she added. Among them are the Chief of Police, town staff members, three youth representatives and other residents.
The Downtown Tilton Update and Community Conversation is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 27 in the Tilton School Chapel on School Street. The event will begin at 5:30 for a valuable Networking/Greeting session while the meeting itself is scheduled to take place from 6-7:30 p.m. There will be complimentary refreshments and coffee served and people from all walks of life, from not only Tilton but surrounding communities, are encouraged to attend. TILTON Selectmen heard last week from Juliet Harvey-Bolia, a representative from the town's recently formed First Impressions Committee, which is working with the UNH Cooperative Extension on ways to improve the look and atmosphere of downtown Tilton. The committee, Harvey-Bolia told the board last Thursday, will be holding an update on their research on Sept. 27, and will open a conversation up to the public in hopes of getting not only feedback on their findings but fresh ideas for the improvement of the downtown business district.First Impressions is under the umbrella of the UNH Cooperative's Vibrant Community project, which seeks to assist communities in finding new ways to draw more people and more business to their downtown sectors."It's a tested and vetted national program that I think can really help our town," said Harvey-Bolia.The Tilton committee, she said, was formed early this year and has been working hard over the past several months to gather as much information as they can.In the initial phase of the First Impressions initiative, Tilton was to be paired up with a similar local community. The Co-op determined that the Town of Pittsfield, which had also reached out to the Cooperative for assistance, was a suitable match due to size and other logistics. Each town's First Impressions committee then sent Secret Shoppers to the alternate community. While there, committee members recorded their thoughts and reactions to the experiences they had in the other town's business district."We each noted the strengths and weakness on the downtown area then submitted the data we collected," said Harvey-Bolia.That data will be revealed at the upcoming Community Conversation and people in attendance will also be asked to express their own thoughts on downtown Tilton. Following the open discussions, smaller groups will then be formed to discuss how the town might improve a variety of the aspects of Main Street Tilton."This is open to anyone, whether they live in Tilton or not. If they live here, shop here, work here or come here for any other reasons, we'd love to hear their thoughts and ideas," Harvey-Bolia said. "It all happens here (at the Community Conversation). If you have issues, if you have ideas, this is the place where it will all be recorded."Town Planner Dari Sassan also attended the meeting with selectmen, and said his hope is that the Downtown Conversation will help the committee identify the next steps that need to be taken."This is also something we can talk to Jeanie Forrester about," he said.Forrester is a former New Hampshire State Senator, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and on the local level, helped the towns of Meredith and Plymouth achieve a Main Street U.S.A. status. Next month she will take over the role of Town Administrator in Tilton."She'll be a great help to the town," Harvey-Bolia agreed after the meeting.The First Impressions committee is made up of 12 local residents from all walks of life, she added. Among them are the Chief of Police, town staff members, three youth representatives and other residents.The Downtown Tilton Update and Community Conversation is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 27 in the Tilton School Chapel on School Street. The event will begin at 5:30 for a valuable Networking/Greeting session while the meeting itself is scheduled to take place from 6-7:30 p.m. There will be complimentary refreshments and coffee served and people from all walks of life, from not only Tilton but surrounding communities, are encouraged to attend.
By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The Civil Aviation Ministry on Tuesday announced that the Central government is working on a relief package for crisis-ridden domestic airlines, which would focus on reducing the carriers operational costs.
Air India will raise Rs 2,100 crore in government-guaranteed borrowing. The loan will be extended by the State Bank of India. The government has approved Rs 860 crore as equity infusion for the state-owned carrier for the ongoing financial year, Civil Aviation Secretary R N Chaubey told reporters on the sidelines of an event in New Delhi.
According to sources, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu had met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley last week and deliberated at length about the financial health of domestic airlines, including that of Air India. Officials said that both the ministries had put rising prices of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) as one of the reasons behind mounting losses.
As bringing ATF under the GST slab had not been possible so far, the ministers had talked of reducing excise duty from 14 per cent to 8 per cent. Moreover, the aviation ministry also wanted to allow overseas loans for working capital requirements.
Rising oil prices and a weak rupee have badly affected the financial health of domestic airline companies in the country. Many airlines have reported losses in their recent financial results.
While Jet Airways posted a loss of Rs 1,323 crore in the June quarter of the current financial year, budget carrier SpiceJet, after seeing profits for 13 consecutive quarters, reported a loss of Rs 38 crore during the same period. Similarly, IndiGo, the countrys largest commercial airline, reported 97 per cent decline in profits during the quarter.
The Civil Aviation Ministry, which has closely observed the results, is of the view that bringing ATF under GST would help the loss-making carriers.
According to Sydney-based Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, the Indian airline sector is expected to report $1.65 billion-1.90 billion in losses in FY 2018-19, up from its own previous estimate of $430 million-$460 million.
Sources said Prabhu had also talked about growth plans for the aviation sector, including construction of 100 airports at an estimated cost of $60 billion (about Rs 4.2 lakh crore) in the next 10-15 years through public private partnership.
Burdensome policies
IATA chief Alexandre de Juniac on Tuesday said government policies are imposing excessive costs on airlines in India and infrastructure constraints are limiting growth. He said GST on international air tickets violates ICAO principles.
By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The Board of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), which met on Tuesday to decide on the modalities and timelines for increasing stake in the debt-ridden IDBI Bank to 51 per cent, is seeking market regulator SEBIs approval for making an open offer to minority shareholders of the bank.
Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, who is also a member on the LIC Board, said that the time table has been decided and an open offer is being explored.
They (LIC) are exploring an open offer. It will either be an exemption or an open offer, Garg told reporters after the Board meeting, adding that SEBI will take a call on the same.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India will decide whether it (open offer) has to be accepted or if an exception will be granted, Garg added.
Meanwhile, LIC is in the process of picking up additional 7 per cent stake in IDBI Bank through preferential shares. With this, its total holding in the bank would rise to 14.9 per cent. At present, LIC holds 7.98 per cent stake in the public sector bank.
The stake hike will help IDBI Bank meet the immediate capital requirement that will enable it to meet the regulatory norms at the end of second quarter. In August, the Union Cabinet had approved LICs proposed acquisition of up to 51 per cent stake in the debt-ridden lender.
The bank, in which the government holds 85.96 per cent stake, had posted a net loss of `2,409.89 crore in the quarter ended June 2018. It had posted gross non-performing assets to the tune of `57,807 crore.
By PTI
MUMBAI: In the largest ever flash sale, cash-strapped private carrier Jet Airways Tuesday put 25 lakh seats up for grabs at almost one-third of the normal fares for travel across its domestic and international network under a limited period offer.
The bookings of flights under the six-day offer starts Tuesday and covers both business and economy class travel, Jet Airways said in a statement.
The travel period starts from September 10 onwards, it added.
"Jet Airways offers an up to 30 per cent savings on 25 lakh (2.5 million) seats on travel within India and beyond to and from the UK/Europe and Canada, Gulf and South Asian countries," the airline said.
The offer will be available through all booking channels of the airline till September 7, the airline said, adding customers bookings their tickets through the company's website and mobile can avail it till September 9.
Selling inventory in advance helps an airline generate working capital.
Naresh Goyal-promoted Jet Airways, which posted a whopping Rs 1,300 crore loss in June quarter owing to high jet fuel prices, rupee depreciation and lower fares, is facing cash crunch and looking for ways and means to raise capital.
"Guests can explore a whole gamut of destinations across the globe using this travel opportunity, as also make considerable savings on their bookings," said Raj Sivakumar, senior vice-president for worldwide sales and distribution, Jet Airways.
The Jet Airways offer comes a day after budget carrier IndiGo announced sale of 10 lakh seats at fares starting Rs 999 for its domestic and international flights.
In a similar move, Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia Berhad had Saturday offered fares as low as Rs 1,399 for the group airlines international network and Rs 999 for travel within India on its subsidiary, AirAsia India, flights.
The Jet Airways' global fare sale is available to guests booking their one-way and return tickets, for either business or economy travel, the statement said.
Guests from India can choose to travel to any of the airline's 66 destinations, including international ones, the airline said, adding guests booking their tickets from cities in the Gulf can book their travel to destinations in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Far East.
By UNI
BENGALURU: Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy today launched a new portal that will remove the hurdles that students face in accessing scholarships in time.
The newly developed State Scholarship Portal (SSP), which replaces the old Scholarship Management Information System (SIMS), will ensure that over 3 lakh students in schools and colleges across the state get their State funding directly in their bank account.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Kumaraswamy said "We in Karnataka realise that the education system needs to be upgraded to meet the challenges of today, and to deliver better quality education to students.
As befits the most technologically advanced state, our government has created the new State Scholarship Portal.
I am confident this will ensure no deserving student or beneficiary is left behind.
" The SSP has been developed by the Department of e-Governance.
The portal has incorporated the Student Achievement Tracking System (SATS) - a unique id given by the Department of Primary and Secondary education, to all school children from Class 1 to 10 at the time of admission.
The Chief Minister also said that the new portal will cover all welfare departments - namely Social Welfare, Tribal Welfare, Backward Classes Welfare, Minority Welfare, as well as the Education department.
Scholarships will be disbursed through implementation of DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer), as per the Government of India norms.
Deputy Chief Minister, Dr G Parameshwara, who is also Minister for Bengaluru Development, in a message said "Every year, bright students from across this state face a hard choice: whether to continue education, or drop out for lack of support or delay in support.
It is heartening to know that with the help of our government these students will never have to face that dilemma again.
" The Deputy Chief Minister noted that the first scholarship to be disbursed will be the Pre-matric scholarship, and further programmes and schemes will be rolled out soon.
He also expressed desire that every department works pro-actively to identify and bring more deserving students and citizens into the scholarship ambit.
Minister for Social Welfare said Social Welfare Department Priyank Kharge distributed total of Rs.62736 lakhs scholarships to 16.02 lakhs students in the year 2017-18.
Out of this 11.56 lakhs students belonging to SC and 14947 students belonging to ST community.
Rs.47789 lakhs to SC and Rs, 14947 lakhs has distributed in the year 2017-18, through RTGS and the old SIMS.
"We would like to see this number go up, and more students benefit, once we fully roll out the SSP," he added.
By PTI
NEW DELHI: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has asserted that schools cannot refuse admission to students for lack of Aadhaar, and termed denial on such grounds as "invalid".
It has also exhorted schools to co-ordinate with local banks, post offices, state education department and district administration, to facilitate special camps in their premises for Aadhaar enrolment and updation.
According to an official circular addressed to the Chief Secretaries of States, the UIDAI has said that it is aware of instances where some schools are refusing admission in absence of Aadhaar.
"It must be ensured that no children are deprived/denied of their due benefits or rights for want of Aadhaar," said the circular seen by PTI.
Warning that such denials are "invalid and not permitted under the law", the Aadhaar-issuing body has said that "no child should be denied admission and other facilities for lack of Aadhaar".
The move by UIDAI is expected to come as a major relief to parents and students who have been facing difficulties due to schools insisting on Aadhaar number during admission.
"Till Aadhaar number is assigned or biometrics are updated for such students all facilities should be extended through alternate means of identification.," UIDAI has said.
Ashwini M Sripad By
Express News Service
BENGALURU: Two years ago, most of the children studying at the BBMP Higher Primary School in Shivajinagar were struggling to write words and some even struggled with alphabets. Today, they can not only read and write difficult words, but can pronounce them with a proper accent, all thanks to the efforts of their teacher.
Meet Radha Kumari K S , English teacher at BBMP Higher Primary School at Tasker Town in Shivajinagar where 121 students are studying from Classes 1 to 7. Her teaching methods go out of the textbook so that every single child recognises words and understands the meaning.
A Bachelors degree holder in Arts (BA) with English Major, followed by a Diploma in Education, Radha studied in Kannada medium till PU II, all through in government schools and colleges at Kolar. Radha just learnt English like any of her classmates to read, write and pass exams.
When I opted for BA with English Major, I was scared. Initially, it was very difficult to understand. But then slowly, I started reading with the help of a dictionary and I started enjoying the language, she said.
Radha adores her teacher Deepa who taught her while she was studying DEd.
Deepa would teach us English teaching methodology with a passion. I then decided to take tips from her. This is my seventh year at the BBMP school. I make sure the children like me first. Once they like the teacher, they will start loving the toughest of subject, she added.
When this reporter visited the school, she was teaching the chapter How do Bees Make Honey to Class 6 students. Instead of just reading and explaining the meaning, Radha had drawings of the bee on the blackboard.
She even got her students to make beehives using cardboard and asking them to cut it in hexagonal shapes while another set of children drew honeybees. Children learnt the word hexa (six) and even started explaining how honey is made. Needless to say, they explained in English.
Chose profession to help kids achieve their dreams
Radha uses simple methods. She teaches English words along with Kannada meaning. She also teaches them rhyming words which help children recognise different words with similar pronunciation.
What makes her job all the more challenging is that the children studying here, who are from an economically poor background, speak different languages Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil and Urdu. This is the most challenging when I am teaching them pronunciations, she says.
I too had dreams like these children to become a doctor engineer or lawyer, but could not become one. But I have chosen a profession that can lay the foundation to help these children achieve their dreams, she beams.
Twelve-year-old Steven told TNIE that his father is a cab driver and mother a domestic help. He wants to become a lawyer and travel across the globe.
I need to learn English to study law. If I travel to different countries, I need English again. I like the way Radha maam teaches us.
Mogan Kumar, who speaks Tamil at home, wants to become a software engineer. Both his parents are tailors.
After Radha maams class, I try to converse in English with my friends to improve my language, he says.
Ganesh, a Class 7 student whose father works as a watchman at a shop on Cunningham Road, said, Radha maam makes us feel that English is an easy language, he said.
By Express News Service
BENGALURU: The HAL police have solved a civil dispute case within 24 hours, after a 30-year woman techie approached Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy during his Janatha Darshan. The woman had purchased a flat in an apartment and the owners of VKC Builders were called to the police station to settle the issue.
The police officer said that Vandana Kukreja, who hails from Madhya Pradesh, working as a software engineer, was residing in Kaverappa Layout in Marathalli and had purchased a flat from VKC Builders at Panathur and paid full payment of `65 lakh in January 2018. The owners Vijay Kumar Chaurasia and his brother Vijay Prakash Chaurasia had assured her that they would give possession before August 28 this year. When Vandana went to meet the builders repeatedly, they started avoiding her. Upset over this, she finally decided to meet the CM and on Saturday Kumaraswamy asked the city police commissioner to look into the matter.
Abdul Ahad, DCP-Whitefield directed the Marathahalli police to take up the case on priority. The inspector brought the brothers to the station and filed a case of cheating against them. According to police, the builders had pledged the flat to some other buyer. On Monday, the police took them to jurisdictional sub registrar office and got the property registered in the name of Vandana literally handing over the ownership of the flat to her.
Ramah Srinivasan By
Express News Service
CHENNAI: The name Mahabalipuram on a backflip brings back the memories of school picnics that were spent meanininglessly amongst endless sculptures and stone carvings on hot and grimy days.
However, having committed to taking my cousin Kalpana and her children Sanjana and Shreya and my daughter Sharanyah from abroad on a site seeing tour of Mahabalipuram last week, it was with great hesitation that I started gathering material about the history of the famous tourist spot of the Chennaites.
I went about pulling out my old history books and UNESCO related material to bring myself abreast of Mahabalipurams fame and name.
It was with great astonishment and surprise that I realised how fortunate we are to own this tourist spot which is a treasure trove of sculptures and carvings all steeped in ancient history.
The place was named after the Demon King, Mahabali. The city flourished and was brought to limelight only in the 7th to 9th Century under the Pallava Rule.
The city was renamed Mamallapuram after the Pallava King, NarsimhaVarman I who was also known as Mamallan because of his wrestling skills.
The Pallava kings made Mamallapuram their capital and adorned the city with countless artistic styles of stone carved sculptures, stunning rock carved temples and unbelievable man-made carvings.
With this preface, we made our entry into Mamallapuram by having a darshan of the Sthala Sayana Perumal Koil in the city. It happens to be one of the 108 Divya Desams.
We entered the temple on Thiruvaadi Puram day when the famous Azhvar Aandaal was born. The temple was teaming with devotees and the Aandaal Sannaddhi was beautifully decorated. Having had a splendorous darshan of Sthala Sayana Perumal who is in a sleeping posture, Thayaar, Aandal, Narasimha Perumal, Aanjaneyar and Boodhathazhvar the second of the first three Alwars, was born here, we began our site seeing tour.
We first visited the Shore Temple on the shores of the Bay of Bengal. You are simply smothered by the vastness, spread and size of the temple.
Though barricaded, we were able to catch a glimpse of the broken Shiva Linga in one temple. The Sayana Perumal temple has been cordoned off, fearing vandalism by tourists. The nandhis, horses, elephants and the variety of sculptures and carvings on every rock there is breathtaking and mesmerizing.
If only you can visualize King Narsimha Varman I, periodically sauntering around the unfolding sculptures and encouraging the sculptors by his very physical presence there, you will realize the enormity of those sculptures and carvings and the attention he paid in turning them out best in the Country, which they really are till date.
We then moved on to the Descent of the Ganges and the Arjunas Tapas sculpture. The ancient story about Rishi Bhageerathan praying and doing penance for the holy Ganges to descend on earth and enrich the Indian sub-continent is well portrayed here.
The Descent of the Ganges and Arjunas Penance are portrayed in stone at the Pallava heritage site. The relief is more of a canvas of Indian rock cut sculpture at its best and not seen anywhere in India. It is one of the Group of Monuments at Mamallapuramthat were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984. It is astonishing that the entire sweep of the carving is on a single rock.
The intricate detailing and sculpting leaves one dumbfounded. There are rishis in yogic posture, animals and birds in their natural habitat, men and women also meditating or praying.
I was also drawn to the hairdo of the rishis and men in these sculptures which bear very close resemblance to the Buddhist hairstyle. This made me wonder about the underlying influence of Buddhism on the later dynasties.
In one corner away from all the frenetic activity, sits one monkey holding another monkey in an affectionate posture.
From here, we climbed up to the Rock cut Ganesha Ratha
The final ratha is the Dharma ratha which is also very artistically carved. Just outside the Draupadi Ratha is the Nakula Sahadeva Ratha with a circular body and a curved dome similar to the back of an elephant. There is also the sculpture of a huge elephant near it, carved with such minute details that you are almost fooled into seeing a real elephant.
I would like to end with a note that Mamallapuram holds so many mysterious secrets of cruel plundering, brave wars and successful reinstatements of the Pallava Raj. If only we had the patience and time to sieve through all the history and schemes and struggles that went into the building up of this great Dynasty and go there to behold their toil and sweat, then we are the winners.
For nothing but your actual physical presence there, can let you experience the struggle and passion that has gone into the making of this iconic Pallava city and great legends and sad battles that speak volumes about the people behind it.
(The writer is a journalist and the wife of K Srinivasan, Assistant Commissioner GST)
By Express News Service
CHENNAI: Five classrooms of the Department of Geology in Presidency College have turned to smart classrooms with financial support from Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Cauvery Basin, as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme.
ONGC has offered Rs 8.09 lakh to the department. The classrooms have projectors, screens, ceiling mount kits, HDMI Cables, almirahs, laptops, PA systems, electrical accessories, and their installation. The smart classrooms will enable the department to adopt modern and effective multimedia-based teaching methodologies.
In the last seven financial years, ONGC has spent more than Rs 30 crore on CSR programmes in Tamil Nadu and contributed Rs 2,364 crore as royalty and VAT to Tamil Nadu states exchequer. ONGC also provides support for the welfare of most deserving sections of the society through its special component plans and scholarship schemes.
Jayanthi Pawar By
Express News Service
CHENNAI: On August 31, 15-year-old Karthik was seated inside the Secretariat Colony police station wondering why he was brought there. A few minutes later, Balamurugan, the Ayanavaram Assistant Commissioner of Police, with a choking voice, informed the boy that his mother had been murdered. Karthik broke down. He lost his only hope. His father had died 10 years ago. But sometimes, goodness and help comes from the most unexpected quarters.
The ACP on Monday along with his wife Kala Rani,15-year-old son Vishal studying in class 8, and daughter Jeeva Sri studying in class 2, met the boy and offered to be his guardians. Though we cannot legally adopt him, we will sponsor his education and everything else required for him. For now, he is admitted to a childrens home in Raja Annamalaipuram and is studying in class 8 in a nearby school, said the officer.
On August 31 midnight, Secretariat Colony police station received a call that a woman was murdered by her neighbour. As in any murder case, I visited the spot and conducted inquiries and informed the police to call the son to inform him about the news. The next day, as I entered the station, I saw the boy seated on the chair staring at the roof. He walked up to my table.
I had to break the news of his mothers death. Though, I could not tell him anything the same day. I returned home but had a sleepless night. I informed my wife and we decided to foster the boy, he said.
The entire family bought clothes, books and other necessary items for him and dropped him at the hospital. The officer said that from now he would be the point of contact for any decisions regarding Karthiks life.
On August 31, Karthiks mother, Parimala, was alone at her house on the first floor when her neighbour from the ground floor came to her house and tried to make sexual advances. When she refused, he was angry. They both got into a verbal duel. In a fit of rage, he stabbed her ten times and tried to escape, said a police source.
Hearing screams, the neighbours rushed to the spot and found Parimala dead. They immediately informed the police who arrived and recovered the body, which was sent to Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital. A few hours later, the police arrested the suspect Surya.
Parimala lived alone and her 15-year-old son who studied in a boarding school in the city would visit her often. Recently, Suryas mother Bagyalakshmi had a fight with Parimala and on Friday the man had come to Parimalas house and picked up a fight and later tried to make sexual advances, said a police officer.
The police suspect the accused is under the influence of drugs. A case has been registered. Meanwhile, Surya has been remanded in judicial custody by a magistrate court.
By IANS
NEW DELHI: A Delhi woman has alleged that a Kashmiri man, purportedly a Jammu and Kashmir Police Constable, raped her and robbed her of Rs 14 lakh after a false promise of marrying her, police said on Wednesday.
According to the complaint details filed with the Vasant Kunj police station, the two first met through a dating site, BigoLive, in January 2017 and quickly fell in love with each other after Adil Hasssan told her that he was a businessman from Kashmir and traded in shawls and crafts from the valley.
They then exchanged numbers and began chatting over WhatsApp messenger. The accused expressed his desire to marry her after seeing her pictures and promised to meet her in Delhi once he talked to his family members.
He came down to Delhi in April 2017 and stayed at a hotel in Mahipalpur. The two met for the first time and got physically intimate.
They kept meeting in Delhi on his every visit to Delhi till February 2018. She alleged that he told her that his family was not willing to allow him to marry a Hindu woman.
But he promised her that he would still marry her even if he had to leave his parents but wanted to set up his business first.
He sought financial help from her to start up and took her credit card details and asked her to transfer her savings to his bank account. He also took some of her gold ornaments.
The total amount, including that of ornaments, was Rs 14 lakh, according to the FIR details.
However, the woman, who lives in Chhattarpur area of south Delhi, got suspicious during one of their meetings in Delhi when she saw him talking to other women on his phone.
She noted down the phone numbers and spoke to the women, unravelling his other secrets. She found that he had been cheating quite a few women in Mumbai, Dehradun, Bengaluru and Delhi.
When she questioned him about it, Hassan refused straight answers and asked her not to call him again. He also tried blackmailing her, saying he had her personal pictures with him that he would leak on social media.
The woman found that Hassan was actually a Kashmiri policeman. She learnt about this from another woman he had promised to marry.
Along with the chat details, the complainant has also submitted Hassan's police I-Card signed by the Anantnag district police chief in south Kashmir. His designation is shown as Constable, bearing belt number EXK-098156.
"We are verifying with Jammu and Kashmir police about Hassan details," a police officer told IANS.
By PTI
NEW DELHI: A 38-year-old man, who was absconding for 14 years, was arrested here, police said Wednesday.
The man, identified as Laxmi Prasad, was arrested from his brother's residence in Delhi's Madanpur Khadar on charges of cheating and forgery, they said.
During interrogation, the accused revealed that in February 1996 while working as an office boy in a bank at Nehru Place, he fraudulently prepared a forged letter of his employer regarding application to the assistant manager of the bank for issuing a new cheque book, said Chinmoy Biswal, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (southeast).
The bank staff confirmed from the employer of the accused and it was learnt that no such request was made by the employer, he said.
Subsequently, when the accused went to withdraw money from the bank he was arrested on charges of cheating and forgery, the DCP said.
After a month, he was released on bail.
During trial, the accused stopped attending court proceedings following which he was declared as a proclaimed offender by the Patiala House Court on January 8, 2004.
The accused told the police that he was staying at his in-laws place at Chatra in Madhya Pradesh.
By Express News Service
HYDERABAD: In a chilling incident, a 25-year-old woman tried to set herself ablaze in broad daylight in front of the Bowenpally police station on Tuesday. Mother of two children, M Babitha has been hospitalised with over 45 per cent burns. Visuals from CCTV cameras showed Babitha running towards the police station carrying fuel in a bottle. She is then seen flinging her handbag, dousing herself in the liquid and setting fire.
From the handbag, police have reportedly recovered a note in which she said that she would kill herself and one Venkatesh should be punished for torturing her and ruining her life. Police say Babitha was in love with Dinesh and married him four years back and the couple has two daughters.
Few months ago, one Venkatesh started stalking her and allegedly took pictures of her while bathing. He then blackmailed her with the pictures and demanded sexual favours. He forced her into a sexual relationship that continued for more than two months, till her husband found out about it. This led to disputes and Dinesh allegedly assaulted Babitha on a couple of occasions.
Babitha then lodged a complaint against Dinesh at Begumpet police station. The couple were counselled and things went back to normal between them, but that did not last long. Once again Venkatesh started blackmailing her for sexual favours. Again, Dinesh noticed it and Babitha took her daughters and went away to her maternal home about two months ago.
What pushed Babitha to take the extreme step on Tuesday still remains unclear. On noticing her in flames, cops tried to douse it. A suicide case has been registered and based on her declaration, probe will proceed. She is still under observation, inspector P Vijay Kumar said.
Aihik Sur By
Express News Service
HYDERABAD: The theft of the Nizams artifacts from the Nizams museum has taken the State by storm and made people question whether the States treasures were safe. As soon as the news broke, museum officials were blamed for letting such a brazen burglary happen. On Tuesday, speaking to Express, security officials at the museum agreed that the current protection detail was not enough, perhaps indicating the inevitability of what happened.
READ | Diamond-studded gold tiffin box, other priceless antiques stolen from Nizam's Museum
A security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that they had been asking the Nizams Jubilee Pavillion Trust, which manages the museum, to beef up security but to no avail. We have been asking the trust for better security infrastructure for a while now. We need at least 30 CCTV cameras, as opposed to the 10 we have now, he said.
Moreover, there should be solar fencing along the wall and near the openings to ward off future intruders, he said. Solar fencing, as the name suggests, works on solar energy and zaps any object or animal that touches the fence with an electric shock. Also, presently there are eight security guards and we have to hire more. The management has always been noncommittal about our demands, he said adding that a meeting would be held soon to discuss how many more security guards should be hired.
Mohammed Rubab, a security guard at the museum said that the museum needed to be technologically equipped considering the vast amount of priceless treasures housed in the museum.
Rubab, who mans the gallery where the wardrobes of the Nizam VI Mahbub Ali Khan are displayed, pointed towards the ventilators and said, These ventilators are not even steel guarded like the ones in the gallery from where the artifacts got stolen. These are barricaded by wood and are easily breakable.
By Express News Service
HYDERABAD: Swedish furniture brand Ikea has temporarily suspended the sale of vegetarian biryani and samosa at its store in Hitec City. The move comes after social media was abuzz with pictures of caterpillar being found in biryani sold at the Ikea store.
In a statement, Ikea spokesperson said the brand was voluntarily stopping sales of two of its most appreciated products. It added that this was in view of food quality and customer health because a customer had encountered a foreign object in the dish he ordered. It further said: IKEA follows strong internal processes to secure quality and takes full responsibility for its supply chain. IKEA India has initiated an internal review in order to take any corrective actions as needed.
Our team of health inspectors and other officials inspected the food court at Ikea. Food samples have been collected and will be sent for testing, informed V Mamatha, Deputy Commissioner, Serilingampally zone, GHMC, had then told Express. Even plastic used in the food court were less than 50 microns, which is a violation and we imposed a fine of `11,500, she had said.
E Sudershan Reddy, assistant food controller - GHMC, had then observed that the food court had no mechanism to segregate waste generated in its kitchen. The dry and wet waste is being dumped together which also amounts to violation of our waste segregation regulations. The company has shown negligence and we will be issuing a show cause notice after analysis, he said. Even the food handlers were found to be unhygienic according to GHMC as they did not trim their nails.
By PTI
KOLKATA: Some people could still be trapped under the debris of the fallen Majerhat bridge, officials said Wednesday, stepping up search and rescue operations a day after a portion of the 50-year-old structure in south Kolkata collapsed.
A part of the bridge on the arterial Diamond Harbour Road caved in Tuesday evening, killing one person, trapping several people and crushing many vehicles.
Rescuers used drillers and cutting machines to barrel through concrete slabs and engaged sniffer dogs to ensure that they reach out and rescue anybody who might be trapped under the rubble.
"There could be a few trapped underneath the collapsed bridge. We are trying to locate them. We are using cutters and drill machines to cut through the concrete slabs of the bridge. Till now, we have been unable to locate anybody. We are trying our best," an official of the rescue team said.
The area near the site has been dug up for a metro railway project and construction material is strewn all over the place.
Labourers working on the metro project claimed two of their co-workers, who were probably inside a temporary shelter underneath the bridge, are missing.
Rescue work by the Kolkata Disaster Management Department, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the state fire department continued through the night.
The bridge in crowded Alipore area runs over the Majerhat Railway Station and connects the city centre with the heavily populated Behala, vast areas of the southwest suburbs and neighbouring South 24 Parganas district.
Police said Tuesday evening that 27-year-old Soumendu Bag had died in the collapse while 21 people, including three women, were injured.
An official of the Kolkata Traffic Police said, "We expect traffic jams because the Majherhat bridge has collapsed.
It is the main link between Behala and the further south areas of South 24 Parganas district.
"To avoid traffic congestion, Behala-bound buses and other vehicles availing Diamond Harbour Road from Hastings crossing will be diverted via Khidderpore crossing CGR Road, Hide Road, Brace Bridge, Taratala Road Taratala crossing further South."
Tram services have been completely suspended along CGR Road-DH Road and Judges Court Road, he said.
With the area virtually out of bounds, traffic was diverted away from the Diamond Harbour Road, affecting thousands of people.
Traffic snarls were reported at various points.
The situation is likely to worsen as the day progresses.
Train movement was also partially hit.
West Bengal Transport Principal Secretary B P Gopalika said additional state buses have been pressed into service to mitigate the problems being faced by the people in these areas.
"Wherever there will be need for more buses, we will provide," he said.
Oishiki Mukherjee, who travels to her college at Park Street from Behala, said the longer distance and excess travel time that may continue for months, will impact her studies.
BJP MP Roopa Ganguly visited the site Wednesday morning.
Blaming the Trinamool Congress-led government for the collapse, she alleged the bridge was not maintained properly.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is now in Darjeeling, is expected to return the city today and visit the site.
This is the third bridge collapse in the city since 2013.
A flyover under construction had collapsed in crowded Burrabazar area, the wholesale business hub of the city, on March 31, 2016, claiming 26 lives.
On March 4, 2013, a road bridge had collapsed in Ultadanga area in the northern part of the city.
There were no casualties.
Phanindra Papasani By
Express News Service
VIJAYAWADA: With three chain-snatching incidents having been reported in just two days, residents of Vijayawada, especially women and elders, are very concerned about their safety while walking on roads.
Though the Vijayawada cops claim that the crime rate has reduced in the city with their effective policing initiatives, they have pressed the panic button and are on the hunt to nab the chain-snatching gangs.
Sources in the police say the gangs operate in a precise and discreet manner. They commit crimes during odd hours of the day when the police are less active. While a member of the gang conducts recce of an area, others zero in on a person, follow him/her and snatch ornaments and valuables. They communicate with each other through mobile apps, a source says.
On Sunday afternoon, two men on a motorcycle snatched a gold chain from an elderly woman while she was walking alone on the busy BRTS Road under Satyanarayanapuram police limits. However, the entire incident was recorded as a CCTV camera installed in the vicinity. The cops have sent their photos to all police stations and media for the early identification of the accused.
In another incident that took place in Gollapudi on Monday night, two men robbed a gold chain from a 60-year-old man, Kandula Satyanarayana. I was sitting on a chair in front of my house. All of a sudden, two men, in their 20s, approached me and asked the address of MLA Gadde Rammohana Rao. When I told them that the MLA lives in Patamata, they left only to return a few minutes later and snatched my gold chain, Satyanarayana says.
Shilajit Mitra By
BNS
The maze-like city walls of Old Delhi form the setting of Manoj Bajpayee's upcoming film, Gali Guleiyan. Directed by LA-based filmmaker Dipesh Jain, the film follows a lone wolf electrician named Khuddoos (Bajpayee) who places clandestine CCTV cameras to observe the lives of his neighbours. One day, he discovers the violent cries of a young boy suffering abuse at the hands of his father.
And thus begins an atmospheric and deeply psychological drama about a loner's struggle to free a child from oppression. In this interview with Express, Manoj Bajpayee opens up about his love for playing intense characters and his need to balance commercial outings with artistic endeavours:
The space of a psychological thriller is home ground for you. Your roles in Aks and Kaun are considered landmarks in the genre. Did Gali Guleiyan take you back to the same zone?
It was a little different, as the film is more of a psychological drama than a thriller. We are not playing with the mind of the audience but with the mind of a character. He is mentally entrapped in his own world. There are endless thoughts and questions colliding in his mind; he is constantly questioning his reality. And then, he hears the cries of a small boy and feels compelled to rescue the child. It was a very difficult character to play, perhaps the most difficult of my life.
Internalisation is a big challenge for any actor. You are known to explore your characters from within, sometimes at the risk of your own sanity.
That's a journey every actor has to take. Internationally, we see great actors going very deep into their characters and later visiting a rehab to come out of it. In India though, chaos is a part of everyday life. So you are naturally trained to deal with complex mental situations and come out unscathed.
But was there ever a specific character you played that took a toll on your mental well-being?
(Ram Gopal Varma's) Shool left me in intense psychological turmoil. I couldn't sleep for days after doing the film. A psychiatrist friend of mine warned me against using such a method ever again. But since I come from theatre, method acting comes very instinctively to me. I applied it in Gali Guleiyan too, but I managed to snap out of it later.
When a serious actor of your stature does films like Baaghi 2 and Satyameva Jayate, there's criticism that you have sold out.
You must understand that one Satyameva Jayate enables me to do five films like Gali Guleiyan. More importantly, I thoroughly enjoy working with a filmmaker like Milap Zaveri who is so convinced about making massy, entertaining films. He even took me to theatres to see people whistling at my dialogues. That's a very gratifying feeling for an actor. I enjoy playing to the gallery from time to time and then returning to my own zone.
Your co-star in Gali Guleiyan, Neeraj Kabi, has received widespread acclaim for Sacred Games. His roles in Hichki, Detective Byomkesh Bakshi and Ship of Theseus have also been appreciated. How was the experience of working with another powerhouse actor in this film?
Neeraj has an impeccable method towards his craft. He picks his parts carefully and delves very deep into them. He is interested in challenging himself and putting out a performance that is remembered. These are the actors who will be counted among the greats of Indian cinema.
On the whole, how would you describe the cinematic experience of Gali Guleiyan?
Our director, Dipesh, is a creator of pure and compelling cinema. He gives importance to each and every department, which shows in the film. It has been edited by Chris Witt (Kavi, Catching Fireflies) and mixed at Skywalker Sound in Hollywood. It has an immersive and experiential feeling to it that youll experience only in theatres.
A Sharadhaa By
Express News Service
Achyuth Kumar is getting a first-hand experience of the working of a kitchen, and not to mention a chance to sample some traditional Iyengar goodies, never mind that he was watching his weight for his upcoming film Bheema Sena Nala Maharaja, directed by Karthik Saragur.
The director, whose film is themed around food, will see Achyuth donning the role of an Iyengar bakery owner. Besides getting a first-hand experience about the kitchen tales, he tells us that he also sampled.
Bheema Sena... chronicles the history of the Iyengar bakery. My portions were shot in a 150-year-old historical bungalow that belonged to John Taylor, the founder of the KGF Factory. The film also brings back the history of the Imperial Bakery, a British brand. When I went to these locations, I got to see the old-time kitchens. Secondly, being a Tamil Iyengar, I had to bring in Tamil to make it look authentic, says the actor.
Achyuths character in the film will represent Bitter taste. The father figure is often misunderstood in the family, because he is looked at as a patriarch whose word is final. I play the role of an authoritarian father whose child perceives him to be Hitler. By the time, they understand the reason for the behaviour, they are fathers themselves. Thats an interesting part of Bheema Sena..., which the director has layered well through his narration, explains Achyuth.
The film, a joint between Pushkar Mallikarjuanaiah, Rakshit Shetty and Hemanth M Rao stars Aravinnd Iyer, Priyanka Thimmesh and Aarohi Narayan Bheema Sena... has music by Charan Raj and cinematography by Ravindranath
Sajin Shrijith By
Express News Service
A casting coup of this sort was last witnessed a decade back, in Joshi's Twenty: 20. In what is seen as his biggest project yet, director Aashiq Abu has assembled some of the most incredibly talented and well-known names working today in Malayalam cinema for his next titled, Virus.Revathy leads a distinguished cast comprising Parvathy Thiruvoth, Tovino Thomas, Asif Ali, Rima Kallingal, Kalidas Jayaram, Remya Nambeesan, Soubin Shahir, Dileesh Pothan, and Chemban Vinod Jose.
The film, which is not an anthology, will revolve around multiple characters dealing with the Nipah outbreak. The script is jointly written by Muhsin Parari (co-writer of Sudani from Nigeria) and Suhas and Sharafu (writers of the upcoming Amal Neerad film Varathan). Suhas and Sharafu have worked as assistant directors on Sudani from Nigeria.
Muhsin Parari, who made his directorial debut with KL10 Pathu, has assisted Aashiq on 5 Sundarikal. He was working on another project titled Kaakka921 (with Sudani... director Zakariya) when Aashiq suggested the idea of Virus. "Me and Zakariya were in Kozhikode around the time of the outbreak. We got a good sense of the city's mood at the time."
Muhsin managed to get a first-hand account of the situations that happened in Kozhikode city from some of his doctor friends. "I've always held a fascination for those in the medical profession. We felt we could structure a narrative around the Nipah outbreak based on the things we heard from the medicos I knew," says Muhsin.
Virus is essentially a survival drama, reveals Muhsin. "It explores human psychology when faced with a phenomenon we have no clue about. How do we deal with something that tests our survival mechanism, knowledge and endurance levels? How much can our own ignorance scare us? How do we overcome a disaster of that magnitude? It poses a lot of thought-provoking questions."
Virus is produced by Aashiq Abu under the banner of OPM. Sushin Shyam (Maradona, Varathan) will be composing the music while Sameera Saneesh (Mayaanadhi, Kammara Sambhavam) will be handling the costumes and Saiju Sreedharan (Mayaanadhi, Maheshinte Prathikaram) the editing.
Rajeev Ravi has been roped in as the cinematographer. The Kammattipadam director, who is known for his long and fruitful association with director Anurag Kashyap, told us he wasn't aware of the film's subject when Aashiq approached him about it. "Aashiq had asked me whether I can shoot a film for him and I said yes," says Rajeev.
Namita Bajpai By
Express News Service
LUCKNOW: In an incident of brutal attack, a retired cop was mercilessly beaten up with sticks by three persons on a street with passersby remaining mute spectators to the assault in Allahabad on Tuesday.
However, the incident was caught on CCTV installed in an adjoining house. When the culprits left the victim lying beside the road thinking him to be dead, someone informed his family which rushed him to the hospital where the doctors declared him dead upon arrival.
The daughter of the deceased retired cop lodged an FIR and named 10 persons in the attack case. Taking the cognizance of the video which went viral and the media reports, the Allahabad High Court treated it as a Public Interest Litigation and asked the state government to explain what action was taken in the case.
Notably, after court's intervention, the district police swung into action and had arrested four accused by the time of filing this report. The video footage of the incident shows retired sub-inspector Abdul Samad Khan entering a street in Teliyarganj locality of Allahabad on a bicycle when he was confronted by a man in red shirt who came from behind.
He attacked the cop with the stick raining blows on him merciless following which 70-year-old Khan slumped to the ground in the narrow lane. As per a count, the retired cops was hit around 49 times in the 90-second video.
Initially, the retired policeman resisted the attack but when the attacker was joined by two more persons, he gave up. In the CCTV video clip, several people on foot, cycles and on two-wheelers were seen passing by but no one came to the rescue of Khan being assaulted.
The footage shows the attackers escaping after the assault. Khan was later taken to hospital where he succumbed to injuries. According to city police chief Brijesh Srivastava, the case was registered on a complaint of Khan's daughter who had implicated 10 people in the case and four persons were arrested by the evening. All those held were accomplices of the prime suspect Junaid Kamal, who had several cases registered against him.
"The issue is related to land dispute between both the parties who are neighbours. The history-sheeter Junaid Kamal and his brother Javed, named in the FIR, are among those on the run. Teams of Crime Branch and Shivkuti police are carrying out raids to nab all accused," Srivastava added.
Meanwhile, the division bench of Allahabad High Court comprising Chief justice DB Bhosale and Justice CD Singh, took notice of the media reports regarding the incident and issued notice to state government to explain to the court through Additional Advocate General Manish Goel as to what action was taken in the case. The police were ordered to submit a report on Wednesday outlining the steps taken to arrest all the accused named in the FIR.
Anand ST Das By
Express News Service
PATNA: A new dress code approved for convocation ceremonies in the universities of Bihar has bid goodbye to the "colonial legacy" of black gowns and caps in favour of the Malaviya pagdi (turban), kurta-pyjama and shalwar-kameez.
In a move that has prompted the Opposition RJD and some educationists to cry "saffronisation of higher education," the office of Bihar Governor Lalji Tandon has ordered that all universities in the state must adopt the new set of attire during convocation ceremonies.
As the state's Governor, Tandon is the ex-officio chancellor of all universities in Bihar. As per the notified guidelines, everyone attending the convocation ceremony - chancellor, guests and passing-out students - has to wear a Malaviya turban.
While the chancellor will wear a white turban, the guests and students will wear turbans of lemon-yellow shade. The new dress code for gentlemen graduates has to be either white kurta pajama or white dhoti kurta. For lady graduates, it has to be either white salwar and lemon-yellow kurta or a lemon-yellow sari. A yellow angavastram has been made mandatory for everyone on the convocation podium - chancellor, vice-chancellor, chief guest and the graduating students.
This new set of attire was recommended by a three-member committee that was formed by Tandon's predecessor, Satya Pal Malik, in July to suggest a "swadeshi dress code" for convocation ceremonies. Sources said Malik could not peruse the recommendations as he got transferred as the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir last month. Tandon, who took his place on August 23, approved the new dress code and ordered for its implementation.
Sources said the Malaviya turban was the idea of Malik, which the committee retained. Madan Mohan Malaviya, eminent educationist and founder of Banaras Hindu University (BHU), always wore the turban. He was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna in 2014 by the NDA government.
The committee, comprising vice-chancellors of three varsities in Bihar, reportedly arrived at the final list of attires after several rounds of consultations with the faculty members of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Patna."The idea behind this dress code is to Indianise the convocation ceremony attire by giving up the sartorial baggage of the colonial era. The Malaviya turbans may sport motifs from Sujani artwork that originated in Bihar," said a senior official of the Governor's office.
Opposition RJD leader Bhai Birendra termed the order for the new dress code as a "Talibani diktat". "Such interferences indicate that the government is going forward with its formula for saffronisation of higher education. They are keen to implement the agenda of RSS," he said. While BJP leaders unanimously praised the new dress code, JD(U) appeared to have reservations.
"Although there is no harm in wearing Malaviya turbans during convocations, the chancellor's office should focus more on the development of higher education in the state," said senior JD(U) leader and MLA Shyam Razak.
By PTI
NEW DELHI: The armed forces and the Defence Ministry are steadfastly behind all officers who have conducted operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, Army Chief Bipin Rawat said Tuesday.
His comments come in the backdrop of nearly 700 Army officers and soldiers approaching the Supreme Court against the alleged dilution of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, also known as AFSPA.
Sources said if the officials lose the case, it will be a major embarrassment.
They said the Army chief, during an interaction with officers last week, had disapproved of the Army personnel approaching the apex court.
When asked about this, Rawat declined to comment, saying the matter was sub judice.
"This case is sub-judice and I would not like to speak on that," he told reporters in response to a question.
"The armed forces and the government, the Defence Ministry and everybody are steadfast behind all the officers who have conducted operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast or anywhere we are countering terrorism or insurgency," he said.
Rawat said the Army will support them in whatever way it can.
By PTI
NEW DELHI: The Congress Tuesday demanded a court-monitored probe into the alleged leak of a letter purportedly written by Communist hardliners with 'Naxal-links', which the BJP has cited to accused the opposition party of compromising national security for political gains.
Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari termed the matter "very serious".
"There has to be an independent court-monitored investigation, that even before the alleged papers are presented in a court of law, how come they become instruments of vilification in the hands of a blind BJP," he told reporters here.
He said the BJP is "trying to run a narrative, which they find will not be substantiated in a court of law."
Tewari alleged that all norms and traditions of governance have collapsed under this NDA government.
"It seems that the BJP has become the police in this country. How come papers which are allegedly with an investigating agency leaked. God alone knows whether they are true or untrue, correct, incorrect, for all you may know they may be fabricated and contrived planted papers," he said.
Tewari wondered when the documents have not been presented in a court in the form of chargesheet, how come they are with the BJP.
"This is what needs to be investigated. This is what fascism is all about. This is what an undeclared emergency is all about. This is when there has been a collapse of the Chinese wall which separates state from the political party," he said.
Earlier Tuesday, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra accused the Congress of compromising national security for political opportunism.
He said the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council was a "supporting ground for Naxalites" during the UPA government and some party leaders "romanticised" Naxalism.
He sought to question opposition party leaders such as Digvijaya Singh and Jairam Ramesh for what the BJP said was indicative of their alleged support to people with "Naxal links".
Patra also alleged the Congress tried to "mainstream maoism and Naxalism" during its rule amd the party should, therefore, call itself the "Congress Party of Maoists" or the Indian National Congress (Maoists).
Showing a letter, which, he said, was written by one 'comrade' to another, Patra said it talked about the Congress willing to fund their activities and contacting Singh for assistance.
By Express News Service
MUMBAI: Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray came down heavily against the BJP on Wednesday over one of its party MLA's remarks and took a sarcastic swipe at Prime Minister's "Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao" slogan, wanting to know whether it has been turned into "Beti Bhagao" by the party workers.
Thackeray interacted with media after conducting a meeting of party leaders from all over the state. While he indicated that the party would not quit the governments at the centre as well as the state, he criticized the BJP over issues ranging from demonetizations, urban Naxalism to BJP MLA Ram Kadam's statement that he would help a youth rejected by a girl abduct her.
Thackeray termed Kadam as low level person and demanded that Chief Minister and the BJP should take action against him and deny him ticket. No other political party should offer him ticket, he added. Thackeray also referred to similar incidents in the past wherein BJP MLC Prashant Paricharak and BJP's Ahmednagar deputy Mayor Shripad Chindam got their party into trouble with their uncontrolled tongue.
"Nitin Gadkari had boasted that the BJP has a capacity to turn 'Valya' (the dacoit) in to 'Valmiki' (the Sage). But, after all these incidents it appears that the BJP is insulting Valmiki," Thackeray said.
"If the new Ramayan by these new Valmikis is to be considered, the BJP should now change their program. I'd like to know whether they have given any new program named "Beti Bhagao"," he added. Thackeray also supported Hardik Patel.
"Today is the 12th day of Hardik's fast. I've appealed him to end his fast. I also appeal the BJP government to speak to him. The government that is ready for talks with Pakistan should have no inhibitions to speak to young men from our own country like Hardik," Thackeray said.
While replying to questions on Sanatan and Urban Naxalism, Thackeray appealed police to, "produce viable proofs than to just addressing press conferences." Talk of Hindu Terrorism during the tenure of this government is unfortunate, he commented.
"Whether the government would take the responsibility for the failure of demonetization," Thackeray asked adding that the RBI statement regarding going through the process of demonetization again if needed, won't be tolerated by the people.
While replying to questions regarding Shiv Sena accepting appointments of its leaders on the state run corporations, Thackeray said that the list was over one and a half year old.
"We are not expecting anything. We are resolving more issues by staying in the power than we could have done by being an opposition party," Thackeray said indicating that the party is unlikely to quit the government soon. Regarding the meeting, Thackeray said that after touring Vidarbha, he felt like it would give a clear picture of the political situation if leaders from all across the state come together in a single meeting.
By PTI
NEW DELHI: India and the US will aim to further solidify their global strategic partnership in the inaugural two-plus-two dialogue on Thursday with a focus on significantly boosting military ties and ironing out differences over India's defence engagement with Russia and crude oil import from Iran, official sources said.
The two sides will also seek to finalise a pact on encrypted defence technologies, deliberate on ways to boost counter-terror cooperation, look for increasing engagement between their navies in the Indo-Pacific region and try to resolve tariff-related issues.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will hold the twice-postponed talks with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford will also be part of the US delegation.
As Secretary Pompeo arrives here tomorrow from Islamabad, India will also try to get his view about his engagement with the new government in Pakistan headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, the sources said.
They said the focus of the talks will be to lift the strategic engagement between the two countries to a "whole of government approach" covering a wide range of areas for cooperation.
"The two-plus-two dialogue is core of the whole of the government approach and is the highest level political engagement between the two countries this year," said a source.
In the talks, the sources said, India will also try to "sensitise" the US that any cut in import of Iranian oil in compliance with the US sanctions may impact the country's overall economy as the crude oil from that country is much cheaper.
India is also expected to apprise the US about the importance of the Rs 40,000 crore deal it is about to finalise with Russia to procure a batch of S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems.
The US has been indicating that it does not want India to finalise the deal with Russia.
The sources said both sides will also discuss the long-pending Communications, Compatibility, Security Agreement (COMCASA).
The COMCASA will help India obtain critical and encrypted defence technologies for Indian defence platforms from the US.
"Both sides are discussing the COMCASA. We cannot prejudge the outcome," said a source.
The two sides are also likely to deliberate on overcoming differences over issues relating to tariffs on still and aluminium besides trying to evolve ways to bridge trade deficit.
Talking about deepening trade ties, the sources said India is expected to procure oil and gas worth USD 2.5 billion in the current calendar year.
India is also expected to raise its concerns over the Trump administration's decision to make changes in the H1B visa programme.
The sources said the US delegation will arrive here on Wednesday.
Swaraj will have a separate bilateral meeting with Pompeo while Sitharaman will have a one-on-one meeting with Mattis on Thursday morning before the delegation-level two-plus-two talks.
Twelve officials from each side are expected to attend the talks which will be followed by a working lunch.
In the afternoon, Swaraj, Sitharaman, Pompeo and Mattis will call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On import of Iranian oil, the sources said India may also convey to the US that some of its refineries are dependent on certain kind of crude oil and making technical adjustments in them may require huge investments as well as time.
"We will take an independent decision on import of Iranian oil. It will not be under any compulsion. We are in touch with many other countries. We are examining various instrument for continuing to import petroleum products from Iran," said a source.
After withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, the US has imposed sanctions on Iran.
It has told India and other countries to cut oil imports from the Gulf nation to "zero" by November 4 or face sanctions.
As ports in Iran also comes under the ambit of US sanctions, the sources said India was hopeful that it will be allowed to continue its engagement in the development of the Chabahar port as it is a major link for trade with war-ravaged Afghanistan.
Iran is India's third-largest oil supplier after Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
The US's sanctions on the import of Iranian petroleum products will be effective from November 4.
On the possibility of the US granting a waiver to India on S-400 missile deal, the sources said it was for the Trump administration to take a call on it considering the strategic dimension of its relationship with the country concerned.
The US has imposed military sanctions against Russia under the stringent CAATSA (Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act) law for its annexation of Crimea.
India's position on the issue has been that it will go ahead with the deal notwithstanding American sanctions on military transactions with Moscow.
Namita Bajpai By
Express News Service
LUCKNOW: An IPS officer posted in Kanpur as Superintendent of Police (SP), City, was rushed to a hospital after he allegedly consumed a poisonous substance on early Wednesday morning. Surendra Kumar Das, who is SP (east) of Kanpur Nagar, was taken to the Regency hospital in a critical condition. As per the hospital sources, his condition was stated to be "very critical" and the doctors had given 48 hours' time to observe him.
The reason behind the alleged consumption of poison is so far unknown. While the sources attributed it to the discord in the family, DIG (Law & Order) Praveen Kumar refrained from divulging further details saying it would be known only after the hospital released a bulletin."We have got this information that Das is admitted to a hospital. However, we are not able to comment anything on this as we don't know if it was a poison or anything else. Wait for the hospital report to come. The hospital might release a bulletin and only after that we would know what exactly has happened to Das," DIG Kumar said.
Das was a 2014 batch IPS officer and was posted in Kanpur as SP (east) only last month on August 3. Das is also an Electrical Engineer and is known to be an upright officer. However, as per the local sources, doctors at a Regency hospital said Das had been put on ventilation for respiratory support in ICU and that the next 48 hours would prove to be very critical for the officer. Das allegedly attempted suicide at his official residence and was rushed to the hospital by his staff.
The parents of the officer, who hails from Ballia district in eastern UP, live in Lucknow and have since rushed to Kanpur to be with Das. Das has been admitted to the hospital where his wife is a doctor.
According to Kanpur SSP Sanjiv Suman Das's health had deteriorated in the last few hours. He also claimed that the IPS officer was tense for the last few days possibly due to some issues in the family. -"We got information around four in the morning today. His health deteriorated suddenly. Medical reports are awaited," said the SSP.
Prasanta Mazumdar By
Express News Service
GUWAHATI: At least three died and 20 others were reported missing after a machine boat sank in the Brahmaputra river on Wednesday.
According to survivors, the mishap occurred at around 1:30 pm when the boat hit a concrete structure of an ongoing water project. Over 30 people, including students, were on board the boat which was sailing from Guwahati to North Guwahati.
Three persons are confirmed dead. We have retrieved their bodies. There are reports that another body is lying somewhere. We are heading to the site, Kamrup (rural) deputy commissioner (district magistrate), Kamal Kumar Baishya told TNIE.
He said that a dozen people were either rescued or they managed to swim ashore. Four of them were rushed to Gauhati Medical College and Hospital for treatment.
Officially, there were 22 people on board. However, we learnt that more than 30 people were travelling, Baishya said.
National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) are carrying out search and rescue operations.
Earlier in the day, nearly 90 hours after a car went missing with five people aboard in Dikhow river in Upper Assams Sivasagar district, the rescuers retrieved the vehicle and the bodies of the victims.
The recovery was made by a joint team of divers from Indian Navy, NDRF and SDRF.
At 9 on Saturday night, the car went missing with Guwahati businessman Haren Bora (52), his wife Phunu (45), mother Punou (85) and the couple's two daughters Simpi (21) and Munmi (18). It was recovered from a place close to the site of the mishap at around 11:30 am on Wednesday. Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had sent SOS to the Prime Ministers Office and the Defence Ministry to help the Assam government in tracing the vehicle.
The search team used modern technologies including side scan sonar and magnet in the operations. The vehicles presence at a depth of 20 ft was detected with the help of a magnet, a senior SDRF official told TNIE.
By PTI
JAMMU: Terming resumption of dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad as "inevitable" for peace in south Asia, former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti Tuesday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend the hand of friendship to his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan for skae of Kashmir.
The Peoples Democratic Party president also appealed to the Prime Minister to follow the steps of late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee to revive the peace process between the two neighbours.
Peace in south Asia will only be possible if it is ensured in Jammu and Kashmir, the PDP president said, addressing a public meeting in border district of Rajauri.
Urging Modi to extend the hand of friendship to Khan and pick up the peace process from where Vajpayee had to leave it, Mehbooba said, "It will usher a new era of growth and tranquillity in the two countries."
If it's done, the people would no longer live in constant fears and heave a sigh of relief, she said.
She said opening new roads between "divided Jammu and Kashmir" and strengthening the people-to-people contact would lower the tension across the border.
Terming dialogue and reconciliation between India and Pakistan as "inevitable for the resolution of the Kashmir issue, Mehbooba said, "The two countries need to rise above ego and exhibit the political astuteness to help realise the people's dream of a peaceful and tranquil Jammu and Kashmir."
Asserting that economic packages alone would not usher peace in the Valley, she said consistent and earnest efforts aimed at taking youths into confidence are needed "to stop them from going adrift".
The economic packages alone are not going to resolve the issue. The roads, bridges and electricity are vital for the people, but unless there is dialogue aimed at the resolution of the conflict, no relief can be ensured for the masses, she said.
She said after the 2014 polls yielded fragmented mandate, PDP founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed decided to form government with the BJP with "the sole motive to reincarnate the Vajpayee era" in the state and to stop the vicious cycle of unabated killings and violence.
As I told my father that the decision to join hands with the BJP has more risks than rewards and would decline party's popularity, he said he was ready to sacrifice everything including his life, if that resolves the decades-old conflict, Mehbooba said.
Her father was confident that the reconciliation and dialogue would be initiated, and the measures taken during Vajpayee's era would be replicated once again, she added.
However, when Prime Minister Modi addressed a rally in Srinagar on November 7, 2015 , he announced Rs 80,000 crore package but exhibited no willingness for a thaw between India and Pakistan for the peace in the state.
This disheartened everyone including the people who had come from far-flung areas to listen to him," she said.
The PDP chief said even after witnessing hurdles in his way, her father remained adamant to get the two countries closer and always pitched for the dialogue which were desperately needed for peace in the state.
When I took over as the Chief Minister and headed the state for two years and two months, I did not compromise on my stand and stood like a rock before the Central government to protect state's special interests.
Had I shown any laxity in my approach, the BJP would not have toppled the government. They did not succeed in any way to make me barter the interests of the state for petty power and I can tell you with all certainty that I kept the honour and dignity of my people intact," she said.
Referring to the rape and murder of a minor girl in Kathua district in January this year, Mehbooba said she went to New Delhi and made it clear that the PDP cannot be the part of the government unless the two ministers who had openly supported the rapists were sacked and a transparent probe was allowed.
As the Chief Minister of the state, I remained in the forefront to thwart attempts to intimidate Gujjars and Bakerwals in the state and took every measure to ensure that no one harms them, she said.
Mehbooba said preserving the secular character of the state has been the top most priority of the PDP since its inception.
By PTI
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Wednesday agreed to hear next week a plea seeking a stay on the Rafale fighter jet deal between India and France.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud considered the submissions of advocate M L Sharma that his plea be listed for urgent hearing.
In his petition, Sharma has alleged discrepancies in the fighter jet deal with France and sought a stay on it.
Sharma has claimed in his plea that the inter-government agreement to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets must be quashed as it was an "outcome of corruption" and not ratified by Parliament under Article 253 (Parliament has the power to make any law for implementing any inter-government agreement) of the Constitution.
The petition has also sought FIR and prosecution of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former defence Minister and present Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, business tycoon Anil Ambani and French armament firm Dassault with the recovery of the amount.
A similar plea was filed in the apex court in March this year seeking an independent probe into the Rafale deal and disclosure of the cost involved in the deal before Parliament.
The plea, filed by Congress leader Tehseen S Poonawalla, had sought issuance of a direction against the Centre as to why the Union Cabinet's approval was not sought as part of the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) before signing the procurement deal with France on September 23, 2016.
Rafale deal is a defence agreement signed between the governments of India and France for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircrafts in a fly-away condition as a part of the upgrading process of Indian Air Force equipment.
The Rafale fighter is a twin-engine Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) manufactured by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation.
Indian Air Force had advanced a proposal to buy 126 fighter aircraft in August 2007 and floated a tender.
Following this, an invitation was sent to various aviation companies to participate in the bidding process.
Poonawalla had claimed in his plea that the MoD had withdrawn the 2007 tender for procurement of 126 fighter planes, while the deal announced for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft was altogether a fresh procurement.
His plea said that in 2012, the deal for 126 fighter aircrafts was proposed by the then UPA government, and out of the total of 126 number, 18 Rafale fighter jets were to be delivered by Dassault Aviation company in a fly-away condition, while the remaining 108 were to be manufactured in India at the public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) under a transfer of technology agreement.
By PTI
NEW DELHI: The Rafale is a beautiful aircraft which will give India "unprecedented" combat capabilities, the Indian Air Force said Wednesday amid escalating controversy over the Rs 58,000 crore deal.
Vice Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal S B Deo also said those criticising the Rafale deal must understand the laid down norms and procurement procedure.
"It is a beautiful aircraft...It is a very capable aircraft and we are waiting to fly it," he said on the sidelines of an event when asked about the controversy surrounding the Rafale deal.
The air marshal said Rafale jets will give India unprecedented advantage over its adversaries in the region.
India had inked an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore.
The delivery of the jets is scheduled to begin from September 2019. The Congress has raised several questions about the deal, including rates of the aircraft, while the government has rejected the charges.
By IANS
NEW DELHI: Claiming that the crackdown on rights activists was a result of the "fascist Modi governments desperation", activists on Wednesday demanded the immediate release of all political prisoners and the repeal of the "draconian" laws like the UAPA and the AFSPA.
Speaking at the "Campaign Against State Repression on Right Activists" event here, they called the Modi government fascist and demanded that 10 activists arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence on January 1 as also wheelchair-bound Delhi University Professor G.N. Saibaba, among others, be released.
Speaking on the occasion, Delhi University Professor S.A.R. Geelani said there was a "pattern" behind the arrests and it was done with an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
"There is a pattern to what is happening, it's not haphazard. First, they arrested Saibaba on fake charges, then came the arrests of five activists including lawyer Surendra Gadling and activist Rona Wilson who were endeavouring to get Saibaba released," said Geelani, associated with the Committee for Release of Political Prisoners.
"After the second round of arrests of five activists in June, they have gone for more arrests. Arun Ferreira and Vernon Fernandes and others were ensuring legal help to Gadling and others," he said.
Geelani, convicted in the Parliament attack case by the lower courts but acquitted by the Supreme Court, said the crackdown on rights activists was aimed at polarising society and stifle dissent before the 2019 polls.
Kavita Srivastava of the People's Union for Civil Liberties alleged that an emergency under a fascist regime was in force wherein every dissenting voice is being thrown into jail.
She claimed that the arrests were meant to discredit the growing Dalit uprising in the country as well as divert the country's attention from the failures of the Modi government.
"As much as to put down dissent, this is also being done to cover the Modi government's gross incompetence, its failure to fulfil poll promises and divert public attention from burning issues like economic mismanagement, growing unemployment and increasing agrarian crisis," said Srivastava.
Expressing alarm over the abuse of law to stifle dissent, the activists demanded immediate repealing of what they said were draconian laws.
They also dismissed the "urban naxals" term used for political dissenters, saying that the government was desperately trying to use such labels for those opposed to it.
Rajesh Asnani By
Express News Service
JAIPUR: In a huge embarrassment to the Vasundhara Raje government, the Rajasthan High Court has ordered that no government functions should be carried out simultaneously with the Chief Minister's 'Gaurav Yatra'. The High Court had earlier heard the petition involving exchequer's money being wasted in the Gaurav Yatra but had reserved its decision. On Teacher's Day, however, the Chief Justice's bench ordered an immediate stop to all government programs taking place along with Raje's poll Yatra.
The court verdict comes on a PIL filed by advocate Vibhuti Bhushan Sharma and social activist Sawai Singh. The PIL had argued that the 'Gaurav Yatra' was being carried out by the Chief Minister to promote the BJP's electoral fortunes but its expenditure was being passed on to taxpayers money. The petitioner, Sawai Singh claimed that government PROs were appointed during the Chief Minister's rallies which meant further misuse of government money and even though the matter is in court, the BJP government continues to spend lavishly on its Yatra.
The controversy over misuse of public funds has persisted right since the start of Raje's yatra, touted as the 'poll yatra'. The Congress Chief in the state, Sachin Pilot, accused the BJP government of wasting public funds for organizing this political rally.
Pilot had shared a copy of the PWD order with the media which stated that the Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department( PWD ) was instructed to arrange tents, loudspeakers, podiums etc. for all of Raje's 40-day tour. The Congress had alleged that despite High Court reservations, the PWD Department had gone ahead and issued a high-valued tender for the Yatra.
Earlier on 16th August, the Raje Government had cleared its position on the matter with a statement which claimed that the Yatra was being conducted by the BJP party funds and that there was no misappropriation of official funds as the Yatra had nothing to do with the Government.
It was a rally taken out to make the public aware of various schemes of their tenure and as the Chief Minister was a part of it, the security and other protocols needed had to be taken care of. "Our Chief Minister's security protocol arrangements had to be made by the government departments. As such, it is not possible to keep 'Gaurav Yatra' separate from other government programs", state government's Attorney General, N M Lodha, had said.
The case related to the alleged misuse of government funds was heard by the bench headed by Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and it had ordered the BJP to submit a detailed account of the Yatra expenses. In the last hearing BJP had presented the affidavit of its expenses in the court.
After the High Court order, the opposition Congress has hit out against the Raje government and said that if they have any shred of morality, they must apologise to the people of Rajasthan for wasting public funds for their political gains. Rajasthan state Congress president, Sachin Pilot, said at the 'Sankalp' rally in Barmer, "High Court has shown a mirror to the government by telling them that no government functions can take place with 'Guarav Yatra' . I want to thank the High Court and the people of the state."
Chief minister Vasundhra Raje's Gaurav Yatra is being conducted to galvanize party workers for the upcoming assembly polls. The yatra was flagged off by the national party president Amit Shah on 4th August from Jaipur.
By PTI
LUCKNOW: Taking strong note of frequent competitive exam question paper leakages, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed investigating bodies to invoke the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against those involved in such acts and "blacklist" agencies responsible.
"The exams should be transparent and corruption-free. The government will not tolerate those trying to play with the future of youths. Strict action will be taken against those who pollute the examination process," an official spokesman said Wednesday quoting the chief minister.
"The NSA will be invoked against those involved in paper leaks and if discrepancies are committed by the agencies involved in the process, they will be blacklisted and legal action will be taken against them," said the chief minister, according to the spokesperson.
The CM is of the view that the exam system should be made foolproof and directed officials heading recruitment boards to ensure vacancies in their departments are filled without much delay.
"The posts in any department should not remain vacant for longer duration. They should be filled timely," the CM said.
Last week, the UP Pradesh Special Task Force had arrested 11 people for their alleged roles in the leakage of questions papers for tubewell operators recruitment tests, which is organised by the UP Subordinate Services Selection Commission (UPSSSC).
The leakages led to the cancellation of the examination and the UPSSSC had said it will prepare "at least two sets of question papers" as a corrective measure.
"We are planning to have at least two sets of question papers so that in case of leakage of a particular set another set of questions can be given to the examinees," UPSSSC Chairman CB Paliwal said.
"A proposal will be sent to the state government suggesting two examinations -- screening and mains. This will help in weeding out chances of possible leakage of question papers in the future," Paliwal had said.
In the past, leakages of questions papers of various examinations were reported from the most populous state of the country, earning it a bad name and giving tough time to both the job aspirants and the cops.
On July 29, as many as 51 people were arrested by the UP Police from different parts of the state for facilitating cheating during a recruitment examination for assistant teachers.
On June 18 this year, 19 people were arrested for allegedly aiding cheating through hi-tech devices, such as spy-mics, and placing "solvers" impersonating aspirants in the Uttar Pradesh police constable recruitment examination.
On August 23, 2017, seven members of a gang allegedly involved in leaking a question paper of the online examination for sub-inspectors (SI) were arrested by the STF.
Express News Service By
NEW DELHI: With the Congress trying to build a narrative around alleged corruption in the Rafale deal, the government on Wednesday rejected the Opposition demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the purchase of the fighter jets, with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely saying its not an option just to satisfy the ego of an ill-informed gentleman (meaning Congress president Rahul Gandhi).
Jaitelys remarks came after Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval made a detailed presentation at a Cabinet meeting, presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Rafale deal. The presentation came in the backdrop of BJPs strategy to arm party leaders with adequate information to counter the Congress campaign on the issue.
Jaitley, who refused to reveal the details of the presentation, launched a scathing attack on the Congress saying the party had proved that ignorance is contagious in a dynastic party.
One individuals innocence and lack of knowledge have led to the whole party becoming ignorant. I gave out statistics and posed questions to them. Its very unfortunate for the president of a national party to launch into a debate while giving figures from `500 crore to `1,600 crore (cost of each jet), he added, reiterating that the NDA government had been able to get the jets cheaper.
At a meeting called by party chief Amit Shah on Tuesday, the BJP had decided to counter the Congress campaign on Rafale. The meeting was attended by Jaitely, Ravi Shankar Prasad and other senior leaders. With top officials briefing ministers on the Rafale deal, the BJP will be better equipped to counter the Congress campaign, said a party source.
K Jayakumar By
Though waters have receded in the districts of Kerala, normalcy is yet to return to the lives of tens of thousands of people affected by the floods. The week-long rescue operations were a testimony to the innate willingness of the people to save others while risking their own lives: the daring fishermen who ventured into dangerous waters and the selfless service of our armed forces and police. The commendable role of political leadership and civil administration cannot be overlooked.
The relief operations that started simultaneously brought to fore dedication of the millennial generation in organising and dispatching relief materials. Without a demur, the youth worked night and day, making full use of their social media networks to bring succour to those in distress. Generous offers of help came in from people from all walks of life, from within the state, from all over India and from several other countries. Kerala is overwhelmed by this solidarity.
Each stage in the process of rescue, relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction makes the preceding one look simple. Rehabilitation and reconstruction pose greater challenges than rescue and relief. The task of rehabilitation poses a web of problems that defy standardisation.
To appreciate the complexity of rehabilitation, it would be useful to visualise the reality of the night when floodwaters gushed through the hitherto-safe havens of houses. Within a few minutes, the water not only carried away the possessions acquired over decades, but invalidated the peoples idea of the future. The flood made no distinction between classes, castes or social positions. Some losses can be made good but there are several that cannot be compensated.
In assessing the damage and losses, governments tend to follow certain norms and standardisation. In a situation like this, assessing the damage becomes so complicated that any attempt at standardisation will be a mockery. There could be claims which the government has no means to verify. A middle-class family could have lost all their possessions worth many lakhs, but the losses of a relatively poor family in the neighbourhood may be much less. When the government decides on compensation, there could be allegations of unfairness, corruption and partisanship.
There are instances where currency and gold could be lost. New houses constructed with borrowed money have been destroyed. Older people who need their medication and sometimes valuable medical equipment find themselves totally helpless. How do we assess, leave alone compensate, the small, accumulated savings, prized possessions bought with hard-earned money, cattle, crops, vehicles, furniture, clothes, books and documentsall gone in a jiffy? Small and medium traders who had stocked their shops with merchandise, some paid-for and some bought on credit, in anticipation of Onam sales have lost it all.
Leo Tolstoy has made this insightful observation in the opening sentence in Anna Karenina that all happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Nothing could convey the situation of post-floods Kerala better than this. The floods have impoverished families in diverse ways. It ranges from losses that can be compensated to those that cannot be. Every family has many issues to tackle. And every problem calls for a different response. The effectiveness of rehabilitation can be judged only by the extent to which the post-rehabilitation state approximates the pre-calamity situation. Unless the complex mix of the problem is fully understood and empathised with, rehabilitation will be an unfinished or shoddy work.
How to minimise the trauma of every family in distress is the question. Government action by definition is characterised by insensitive procedures, lengthy waiting periods and cruel rejections. Delays can make any boon a curse. Condescending attitudes of officials can convert any assistance to alms. Corruption can exacerbate the situation; rigidities can make it impossible to resolve. With the best of intentions, the governments usual methods have to be discarded in favour of a responsive and flexible approach.
But flexibility is a dreaded word. It is common knowledge in bureaucracy that flexibility is the Achilles heel responsible for corruption. So even when the value of flexibility is understood, the fear of the possibility of corruption that flexibility might cause (or at least the fear of allegations of corruption), makes governments cringe at the suggestion of a flexible approach. So in the interest of safety, flexibility is sacrificed at the altar of efficiency.
The moot question is whether such thinking can be allowed to spoil the show. Is not the scale of this calamity so colossal that the small risk of corruptibility should be taken? Bureaucracy is not an alien entity but consists of people belonging to this very society. But when organised into a system, it is trained to play safe. Yet the corrupt ones take all precautions and safely engage in corruption; while the non-corrupt, out of fear of being targeted with corruption allegations, become almost pathologically rule-bound and rigid. Essentially, this leads to the deadening of our sense of compassion.
Transparency in decision making is an effective antidote to insulate honest officers from allegations. The system should have the mandate to take any decision necessary for total rehabilitation, within a set of broad parameters, in a transparent fashion. It should have the freedom to seek the help of specialists, follow innovative practices, offer packages that will hasten rehabilitation, engage civil society and voluntary organisations. It is in the chrysalis of compassion a new Kerala waits to be born.
K Jayakumar
Former Chief Secretary to Government of Kerala and currently Director of Institute of Management in Government at Thiruvananthapuram
Email: k.jayakumar123@gmail.com
By Express News Service
VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has said the State is marching ahead on all fronts despite getting a raw deal from the BJP-led Union government. The Centre has done grave injustice to the State by denying special category status, giving only `3,900 crore against `16,000 cr towards revenue deficit, releasing meagre funds for capital city construction and delaying implementation of the AP Reorganisation Act, Naidu alleged.
We are number 1 in ease of doing business and several investors are coming forward to set up shop in the State, he said.Participating in the Grama Darshini, Grama Vikasam programme at Chintalapudi in West Godavari district on Tuesday, Naidu launched a broadside against the Centre over Vizag railway zone and Kadapa steel plant.
In the same breath, he took potshots at the YSRC and Janasena, which, he said, were working at the behest of the saffron party. Describing Polavaram project as a boon to the twin Godavari districts and a lifeline to the State, he asserted that completion of the project was his life ambition and that he would complete the project at any cost and dedicate it to the nation.
Claiming that his government is committed to the welfare and development of Kapus, he said his government had already passed a Bill in the Assembly extending 5 per cent BC reservation to Kapus and sent the same to the Centre for approval. The TDP government will stand by the Kapus to ensure that they get BC reservation, he asserted. On the debt redemption scheme, he said the government had already cleared three instalments by depositing money in the accounts of farmers, adding it would soon clear the remaining two instalments.
Dont take extreme step, defeat BJP
Expressing concern over the suicide of a youth for the cause of SCS, the Chief Minister appealed to people not to take such extreme steps. We will have to show our wrath by defeating the BJP in the coming elections, he said. Despite odds, the government is focusing on development, welfare and infrastructure, he said, adding, When the government is working for people, you should also reciprocate accordingly.
For Chintalapudi
By Express News Service
VISAKHAPATNAM: Farmers in the villages surrounding the Raiwada reservoir took their problems to the notice of Opposition Leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy during his Praja Sankalpa Yatra on Tuesday. The YSRC supremos padayatra resumed at Jogannapalem village in Madugula area and passed through Ramachandrapuram, Bottavanipalem, K Santhapalem, Chandrayyapeta, Sudivalasada cross road, Ayyannapalem and reached Pendurthi constituency by evening.
A large number of people came to see Jagan on the 254th day of his padayatra. When the Opposition Leader reached Raiwada, farmers informed him that even though reservoir is in their area, it is not catering to their irrigation needs.
They said there is severe water crisis. Meanwhile, a few outsourcing employees working in water supplies department at Raiwada told Jagan that even though they had been working for the last 21 years, their jobs have not been regularised. When Jagan entered Ramachandrapuram, a few TDP leaders, including former sarpanch Aadireddy Ramu Naidu joined YSRC.
Chetana Belagere By
Express News Service
BENGALURU: On September 5, 2017, four bullets were pumped into journalist Gauri Lankesh. Now, a year on, the Karnataka police claim to have almost cracked the case. With 14 arrests so far across Karnataka and Maharashtra, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of about 23 officers is set to submit its official report to the Karnataka government.
READ | SITs done well in pretty much cracking Gauri Lankesh case, says former husband Chidanand Rajghatta
After the crime was committed, police recovered a few CCTV camera footages of two bike-borne men wearing a black jacket and a helmet. While the images showed one man pumping bullets at Gauri, the other waited for his accomplice to be back. The government soon after constituted an SIT to investigate the case.
To rule out any professional or personal rivalry, police began to interrogate different people. Once this was ruled out, a team of about 200 SIT officers and others began to track right-wing groups to look for the link between Gauris killing and the Kalburgi case.
READ | Gait analysis helps nail Parashuram Waghmare as Gauri Lankesh killer
The CID team, which had worked on Kalburgis case, was also made part of the probe and asked to compile a list of all the possible men from right-wing groups operating in Karnataka. The list threw up over 300 people. A majority of them were from groups like Sri Rama Sene, Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Janajagruti Samiti operating in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa. Police then set out to track the killers and soon realised there must be a link to the killings of Gauri, Kalburgi, rationalist Narendra Dabholkar and author Govind Pansare.
READ | I have lost my lifeline with her death, says Gauri's mother Indira Lankesh
We analysed over 1.5 crore calls but got nothing. It was then we realised that Gauris killers were not using mobiles. Our interception of phone calls around that time did give one important lead, said an SIT officer.
The first lead
On November 2017, we picked up a conversation between one K T Naveen Kumar (37) alias Hotte Manja and a friend, said an SIT officer. Naveen, based in Chikkamagaluru district and the founder of Hindu Yuva Sene, had participated in programmes of the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti and the Sanatan Sanstha. He had told his friend that he had gone underground after Gauris murder.
READ | Gauri Lankesh Patrike renamed; to be relaunched on death anniversary
They tracked his activities and monitored his calls from mid-November, 2017 to February 2018. They found that he was talking to another friend Praveen, who used only coin booths to talk to Naveen.
The police, during the interception of calls, realised that the next target was Mysuru-based rationalist K S Bhagawan. The SIT, however, wanted to wait till both the men met and then arrest them. But once the plan to kill Bhagawan was set in motion, the SIT was forced to arrest Naveen.
Meanwhile, Praveen was supposed to attend a wedding of an activist, Mohan Gowda, of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti in Brahmavar on February 25. Unfortunately, a media channel broke the story of Naveens arrest and the SITs plan to arrest the other accused at the wedding. Or else, we would have cracked the case at least three months earlier, an officer said.
The vital diaries
A police inspector with Upparpet police station arrested Praveen alias Sujeet Kumar in connection with an illegal arms case in May, 2018.
This was the major breakthrough after Naveens arrest in February, said a police source.
A diary was recovered from Praveen in which police found several phone numbers and code names alluding to others involved in the plot. The diary also had sketches of routes to Gauris house. and other bits of information mentioning Amol Kale alias bhaisab, Amit Degwekar alias tamatar and Manohar Edave.
READ | Gauri Lankesh is no more, but her words are etched in our minds: Prof VS Sreedhara
Based on a tip-off that they were travelling in a Toyota Innova from Pune towards Karnataka, police chased and arrested the trio in Davangere. All three were unknown to the police. Naveen Kumar, according to SIT, met Kale and Edave at the Sanatan Sanstha conference in Goa where he reportedly claimed to have ammunition and guts to do anything for the sake of Hindutva. When Kale found that Naveen didnt have ammunition, he was assigned to do a recce of Gauris house.
READ | SIT gets clinching evidence against Parashuram Waghmore
Police were shocked to find nearly 28 mobile handsets, all dismantled, in Amol Kales car. They also found two diaries: one from Kale and the other from Edave. These diaries led to major arrests and also helped the Maharashtra ATS and local police crack the killings of Dhabolkar and Pansare and arrests of five right-wing leaders who had allegedly planned terror attacks in Mumbai.
Kale, along with dada, who is yet to be arrested, would look for innocent young boys who are fanatical about Hindutva, but are not so popular amongst police. The men went to Sindagi to meet Parashuram Waghmare, 26, who was out of prison after being accused of hoisting a Pakistani flag in Sindagi. He was shown videos of Gauri and was indoctrinated that she is anti-Hindu and should be killed. He was trained along with others at a resort in the jungles of Chikkale and Kanakumbi.
Accused in Gauri Lankesh case being taken to Magistrate Court (File | EPS)
After Waghmares arrest on June 11, police were surprised to see that he wasnt shocked at all. He told us I knew you would come for me and yes, I was the one who killed Gauri, recalled the officer. It was then that all four murders were linked and the CBI investigating Dabholkars killing and the Maharashtra SIT probing Pansares murder, were involved along with Karnatakas CID probing Kalburgis killing and Gauri murder case by Karnataka SIT began working together.
Later, Sachin Prakashrao Andure from Maharashtra was arrested. Later came the arrests of five right wingers in Maharashtra wherein a huge cache of explosives were recovered. Following this arrest, Dabholkars murder was reportedly cracked. The CBI now has taken custody of Kale.
The SIT has recovered 17 pistols along with one black pistol, which they suspect could be the weapon used for the killings of Gauri, Kalburgi and Dhabolkar. One bike was also recovered from Pune.
By Express News Service
KOCHI: Pointing out discrepancies in the government order fixing compensation for flood victims, the Kerala High Court on Tuesday suggested devising a scientific formula for determining minimum amount for them.A Division Bench issued the directive on a petition filed by Youth League leader P K Firoz seeking to set up a special tribunal for effective distribution of compensation to flood victims.
According to the petitioner, it was imperative that a proper mechanism is put in place to ensure the magnanimity and benevolence of the donors are not short-changed and the amounts collected reach the actual victims.
ALSO READ | Kerala Floods: Reliance Foundation donates relief worth Rs 71 crore
As per the government order, officers of the revenue department have been authorised to carry out the distribution of compensation to the affected people. It also empowers them to ascertain the damages and determine the quantum of compensation payable. This was not a foolproof mechanism. Hence, it was highly necessary the state was directed to constitute tribunals district wise for the settlement of the claims of victims. The Bench orally observed the government should pay minimum compensation to the victims so as to start lives afresh.
Lepto surge: Health Sec blames docs
A fortnight after the first reported case of leptospirosis and 13 confirmed deaths later, Health Secretary Rajeev Sadanandan told our reporter Gopika I S on Tuesday the scourge surged because doctors failed to follow the treatment protocols and erred in prescribing prophylaxis in time.
Ex-irrigation mins call for judicial inquiry
TPuram:Former water resources ministers N K Premachandran, P J Joseph and Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan have called for a judicial inquiry to find out the reason for the floods in the state. They made the call while jointly addressing the media at Cantonment House on Tuesday. The former ministers blamed dam mismanagement for the floods, which wreaked havoc across the state. They alleged that the government had procrastinated in regulating the release of water from dams.
By Express News Service
KOCHI: A tweet by actor Mohanlal about his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set rumour mills spinning hard about his political entry. The actor met the Prime Minister on Monday to invite him to a function organised by Viswa Shanti Foundation set up by Mohanlal in memory of his father Viswanathan Nair and mother Shanta Kumari, to launch various projects, including a Cancer Care Institute in Wayanad. The foundation has been actively involved in flood relief and rehabilitation work along with Seva Bharati, the social service wing of the Sangh.
Modi also acknowledged his meeting with Mohanlal through his Twitter handle. Yesterday I had a wonderful meeting with Mohanlal Ji. His humility is endearing. His wide range of social service initiatives are commendable and extremely inspiring, Modi wrote.
As the pictures of Mohanlal meeting Modi appeared, social media was rife with discussions about his possible political entry. There were claims RSS was pushing him to contest Lok Sabha polls on a BJP ticket from Thiruvananthapuram, where BJP stands a chance to win.
However, party sources said they were unaware of the development. The Viswa Shanti Foundation has been actively involved in social activities in Wayanad along with Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, a voluntary organisation of the RSS. But I am not aware of any discussion within the party regarding his joining politics, said BJP state general secretary K Surendran.
Toby Antony By
Express News Service
KOCHI: Since the floods, 219.7 tonnes of relief materials worth Rs 25.5 crore have arrived from foreign countries via airports in the state by availing of Customs duty exemption. As the Cochin International Airport, Nedumbassery, was closed following the floods, a majority of the relief goods from foreign countries reached the state via the Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode airports.
The data provided by the Customs Department said 200 tonnes of relief materials worth Rs 25. 29 crore arrived through Thiruvananthapuram till September 4, while 19.7 tonnes worth Rs 28.93 lakh arrived from the Kozhikode airport.The relief goods have been classified into two categories based on the notification by the Central and state governments.
ALSO READ | Imported relief materials piling up at airports
The Central notification (148/94) waives off Customs duty on food, blanket, medicines and clothing brought for relief. The state government notification (59/2018) permits only the Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode District Collectors to receive such imported relief materials and distribute it among people in distress.
The state government notification (59/18) said 192.71 tonnes of relief materials worth Rs 25.19 crore landed in Thiruvananthapuram. Under the Centres notification food, blankets, clothing and medicines worth Rs 50 lakh were received from private agencies.
Our units are working round-the-clock at airports to clear the relief consignments. The Customs duty exemption is already provided on relief goods. We are clearing the consignments and handing them over to representatives of the district administrations posted at Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode airports. Since the Cochin airport has restarted operations, we have deployed our personnel to clear relief goods received there, said Sumit Kumar, Customs Commissioner.
ALSO READ | Kerala floods: Kochi airport suffers estimated loss of over Rs 220 crore
Another Customs officer said since the state government notification directed handing over relief consignments availing of the exemption to District Collectors only, some agencies decided to pay Customs duty.
Some private agencies wanted to distribute the relief goods which availed of the duty directly. Since the state government notification bars them from doing so, they paid Customs duty for the import of relief goods. So the exact quantity of relief goods arriving from abroad would be a little higher, he said.
17 tonnes of materials at Cochin airport
Since the reopening of Cochin airport on August 29, 17 tonnes of relief materials arrived there till September 4. Of them, water pumps sent from Dubai to pump out water from Kuttanad was received after paying Customs duty. The water pumps alone weigh around 16 tonnes. Seven foreign consignments reached through the airport, including three from Dubai, two from Kuwait one each from Bahrain and Germany.
By Express News Service
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Amid heated debate over whether ministers should travel abroad or not to mobilise funds for post-flood reconstruction, Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran is all set to tour Japan, Singapore and China to attend travel and tourism expos. The General Administration Department had issued orders on September 1 sanctioning the ministers triple trips which will be spread over September, October and November.
The government order further states that the full expense of the official trips will be borne by the state.
From September 20 to 23, the minister will be in Tokyo, Japan, for the JATA Tourism Expo which boasts the tagline The Power of Travel. From October 17 to 19, the minister will fly to Singapore for ITB Asia, a leading travel trade show slated to be held at the Marine Bay Sands.In November, the minister will again leave Kerala, this time for the China International Travel Mart. The mammoth tourism fair is slated to be held in the city of Shanghai from November 16 to November 18.
ALSO READ | Government will follow Central norms on ministers trips: Industries Minister E P Jayarajan
The Tourism Minister called the trips routine affair and justified them saying that the direct presence of the government was desirable in view of the sharp hit taken by the states tourism sector in the aftermath of the Ockhi cyclone, Nipah virus outbreak and, lately, the flood calamity.Personally, I have no wish to go. But there is immense pressure from the industry which is ailing. Fifteen lakh people are employed in the tourism sector contributing a large chunk to the GDP. But whether I should go or not will be decided after talking with the Chief Minister, said Kadakampally.
The minister said he had only left the country twice before on official trips, though numerous invitations had come his way. Moreover, after Tuesdays order banning government-sponsored celebration came out, Kadakampally was quick to respond that the Kerala Travel Mart planned for September end in Kochi was not a celebration, but a business enterprise.
ALSO READ | Tuning the notes of compassion to those ravaged by the floods
Nevertheless, on Wednesday, the ministers travel plans drew criticism from Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala. There is no problem in going, but ministers should think twice about leaving the state in such a situation, he said, referring to the state of affairs after the flood. Kadakampallys foreign trips are also coming at a time when such journeys themselves have been hit by controversy.
Recently, CPI minister K Raju had drawn flak from the public and his own party for choosing to fly to Germany while the state was battling the disastrous floods. Raju subsequently faced a public censure from the CPI.
Ministers itinerary
September 20-23
JATA Tourism Expo, Tokyo
October 17-19
ITB Asia, Singapore
November 16-18
China International Travel Mart, Shanghai
By Express News Service
TIRUCHY: Following a request from the State government, a team of Army engineers from Bengaluru on Tuesday inspected the regulator across Kollidam at Mukkombu.
Sources said Army engineers were satisfied with the progress in the work done by PWD in plugging the breach and that they would primarily advise the district administration in providing connectivity to people in villages situated on both sides of the river as the bridge on regulator used to serve as a road link.
Since the collapse of Upper Anaicut a fortnight ago, people in villages situated on Namakkal road and Karur road could not reach either side. They have to travel to Tiruchy to reach the other side. Many college students used to cross the bridge on a daily basis. In order to provide them with transportation facility, the Army engineers may be suggesting ways like construction of steel bridge or other temporary structures, sources added.
It has been two weeks since the structure across Kollidam collapsed and PWD officials are grappling to arrest the water flow. Work on building a sand-bag bund is on round the clock and PWD officials hope the work will be completed by Wednesday night and water flow arrested. The Butterfly Park in Melur near Srirangam is still closed for public as PWD has taken over the road enroute to the park for transporting boulders.
A steady stream of trucks and earth movers have been transporting mammoth sized boulders used to reinforce the bund. Mounds of boulders have been lined up till the department have filled rock piles the tenth pier of the regulator. With this, the restoration works are nearing completion and there are just three more vents left to be shut with boulders. Sources in PWD said Army engineers hailed the restoration works. Once the breach is plugged, farmers relying on Cauvery would be assured of copious water flow for irrigation.
Ministers Vellamandi N Natarajan and S Valarmathi during their visit to Mukkombu on Tuesday said the works to plug the breach would be completed within Wednesday night. CPI(M) state secretary K Balakrishnan who visited Mukkombu on Tuesday charged the State government with failing to manage water resources, adding several old regulators are still left unattended by the government.
By Express News Service
CHENNAI: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Tuesday received the first copy of the Tamil publication of the book Exam Warrior, written by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Governor Banwarilal Purohit released the book at the Raj Bhavan.
The book is written in simple language that everyone can understand and will help students crack the State and Central competitive exams, said Palaniswami speaking at the launch. He added that the book would play the role of a mother who counsels her ward during stressful exam time.
In the introduction of the book, the PM has elaborated why he wrote the book, why the PM of a country has to write a book like this, he said adding that this shows Modis interest in children and youth of India.
Releasing the Tamil version of Exam Warrior, Purohit said, It is a matter of great happiness for me to be releasing the Tamil publication of the book Exam Warriors. The book drives home the point that when it comes to examinations, there is no need to worry excessively or become nervous.
The book is a collection of strategies called mantras meant to ease stress and improve performance. One will also find a repository of information on yogasanas and breathing exercises which can be used while preparing for exams, Purohit said, adding that the book offers solutions for students experiencing nervousness, stress and breakdowns.
The book targets a very important sector of the society: children and youth, said Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam commending Modis efforts.
Pon Radhakrishnan, Minister of State for Finance and Shipping, P Dhanapal, Assembly Speaker, KA Sengottaiyan, Minister for School Education, KP Anbalagan, Minister for Higher Education, Girija Vaidyanathan, Chief Secretary, R Rajagopal, Additional Chief Secretary to the Governor, Pradeep Yadav, Principal Secretary, and Srinivasan from Alliance Publications were also present.
By Express News Service
CHENNAI: Defending her complaint against S Lois Sofia, hailing from Thoothukudi and pursuing higher studies in Canada, who raised slogans against BJP government on the flight to Thoothukudi on Monday, BJP State president Tamilisai Soundararajan on Tuesday raised suspicions that some movement might be behind Sofia and it should be investigated.
The way Sofia expressed herself and the way she conducted herself was not that of a common passenger. So I had a suspicion that some movement might be behind her. So, I lodged a complaint with the airport authorities about the slogan-raising incident, Tamilisai told mediapersons at the Chennai airport.
ALSO READ | Unconditional bail granted for jailed scholar S Lois Sofia who raised 'anti-BJP' slogan at Tamilisai
She said, I went to Thoothukudi by the 10.20 am flight to take part in the event where more than 1,000 Devendrakula Vellalas joined the BJP. The flight landed. My seat No was 3 and Sophias seat No. was 8. When I crossed her seat, she stood up, raised her hands and shouted a slogan, fascist BJP govt down down. First time, I just ignored her slogan. But she raised the same slogan again. But I kept quiet.
Tamilisai said when she came to the airport reception, Sofia passed through that way staring at her.
At that time, I asked her whether it was proper to raise slogan within the flight and she said she had freedom of expression to do that. I asked her if it was proper to express that freedom within the flight, she added.
On the charge that only because of the pressure given by Tamilisai, Sofia was arrested, Tamilisai denied that, saying Had I thought of exerting pressure, I could have done that through some other means too."
Condemning DMK president M K Stalins tweet in support of Sofia, Tamilisai recalled Stalin slapped a person in Metro train last year.
Would all political leaders agree to such slogans raised against them on flights? I did not violate any rules. I have the same rights like them as a woman leader. Can leaders of two political parties having differing views quarrel in the flight because they have freedom of expression ?
Had it been a slogan against me, I would have ignored it
Q: Would you be OK if Sofia had raised the slogan somewhere else?
A: Yes. Had Sofia raised this slogan somewhere else, I would have ignored it. See, very often we go for public meetings and there are such incidents and we just leave it at that. She should not have raised the slogan within the flight. Further, I strongly feel that it is not an emotional outburst. Within flight, such slogan-raising should not be encouraged. I suspected that Sofias slogan-raising would have been a preplanned one. Now, it has been proved with her tweet. The way she behaved created suspicion that she may be associated with some organisation.
Q: How does saying fascist BJP down become a personal attack on you?
A: If she had raised a slogan against me, I would have ignored it. I am the State president of the BJP and any attack on the party is personal to me. People are posting umpteen number of memes against me every day. I am not fighting with them.
Q: Wont this incident affect the image of their party in Tamil Nadu?
A: Definitely not. I have not done anything to damage the image of my party. When someone is belittling my party, I have the right to protect my party.
By Express News Service
HYDERABAD: The State Cabinet is likely to meet on September 6 and recommend the dissolution of the State Assembly. After the Cabinet meeting on Thursday, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is expected to meet the Governor to hand over the copy of the Cabinet resolution.
A series of fast-paced developments took place on Tuesday indicating that the State is heading for early polls to the Assembly.
Governor ESL Narasimhan had a meeting with Chief Secretary SK Joshi and other officials and discussed the Constitutional procedure to be initiated in case the Council of Ministers recommend dissolution of the House.
Sources said, the Governor reportedly enquired whether any Legislative business was pending with the Assembly and the officials informed him that nothing was pending.
Tuesdays developments started with Chief Secretary meeting the State Legislature secretary followed by some more meetings. During his meeting with the Chief Secretary at the Secretariat, State Legislature secretary V Narasimha Charyulu reportedly discussed issues relating to the dissolution of the Assembly and others.
State governments chief advisor Rajiv Sharma and Chief Ministers secretary S Narsing Rao were also present at the meeting. Rajiv Sharma recently met Chief Election Commissioner in Delhi with regard to early polls.
Later, Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar also called on the Chief Secretary. Both of them discussed the preparation of electoral rolls. After the meetings, the Chief Secretary along with Rajiv Sharma and Narsing Rao called on the Governor at Raj Bhavan.
Who will present Budget?
When the then AP CM N Chandrababu Naidu had dissolved the Assembly on November 14, 2003, the EC did not conduct elections immediately. The caretaker government under the leadership of Naidu approved the Budget and sent the same to the Governor who issued an ordinance approving the Budget.
In case, the polls are not held in TS before March 31 after the Assembly dissolution, TS may have to face a similar situation in presenting the Budget. But, the sources averred that the EC may conduct the polls before March 2019 and there will be no problem for presenting the 2019-20 Budget
Ramananda Sengupta By
Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Two days before the 2+2 dialogue with the US begins September 6, sources in New Delhi described it as the biggest diplomatic engagement of the year.
The dialogue, which has been postponed twice earlier, will see External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman holding extensive talks with their US counterparts Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Secretary of Defence James Mattis.
"This is the highest level of political engagement that we have with the US, and it will be an annual affair, replacing the earlier strategic and commercial dialogue, though coincidentally on the Indian side, the people have remained the same, with Nirmala Sitharaman being commerce minister earlier," said a senior source in New Delhi.
"This dialogue, which the US has with its key strategic partners like the Australia and Japan, reflects the strategic importance that we have for the US, and from the Indian side, it reflects the pre-eminent position that US has in global affairs," he said.
"It is a recognition that we are an independent and independent player. So while there is convergence in several areas, there are differences in other areas, and hence the need to engage with us on a regular basis."According to the source, bilaterally the main issues on the agenda would be counterterrorism, defence and trade cooperation and immigration-related issues, while the two sides would also share perspectives on important global and regional issues like the Indo-Pacific region.
Noting that Prime Minister Modi had made India's position on the Indo-Pacific clear in his address at the Shangri La Security Dialogue in Singapore June 1, the source said that while the Americans had made several public pronouncements on the subject, "We have not heard directly from either of them on this, so we are awaiting their thoughts on the Indo-Pacific. Pompeo is coming from Islamabad, so we would want to hear his views on engagement with the new government in Pakistan. Issues like national security and terror straddle both ministries, so 2+2 helps bridge that gap. The four leaders will discuss all these issues in a period of great global change," he said.
Insisting that India did not usually discuss its bilateral dealings with other nations with third parties, the source said that the implications of US sanctions on arms purchases from Russia as well as oil purchases from Iran would be discussed since it impacted other nations as well.
However, the final decision would be taken "independently by the government of India, and it's not going to be made by US or Iran compulsions on us."Box: The two US secretaries, as well as the chairman of the US Join Chiefs of Staff Gen Joseph F. Dunford, will arrive separately in New Delhi Wednesday evening. Pompeo will arrive from Islamabad, after talks with Pakistan's newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan.
On Thursday, there will be bilateral meetings between Swaraj and Sitharaman with their counterparts at their respective ministries in South and North Block, which will be followed by a delegation level meeting at the MEA office in Jawaharlal Nehru Bhavan. This will be followed by joint press conferences, after which Pompeo will leave for Washington. Mattis will stay on for a dinner hosted by Sitharaman, and leave early Friday.
By PTI
BEIRUT: Israeli missile strikes targeted Iranian military positions in the Syrian provinces of Hama and Tartus on Tuesday, killing three Syrian soldiers, a monitoring group said.
Syria's state news agency SANA said its air defence systems downed several missiles launched from Israeli warplanes.
The Observatory said missiles struck Wadi al-Oyoun in the central province of Hama, near a scientific research centre which was already targeted by Israeli strikes in July and last year.
Iranian military positions in the coastal region of Banias, in the province of Tartus, were also targeted, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.
Three Syrian soldiers were killed and 23 people injured -- 14 Syrian and nine Iranians, according to the Observatory.
"The air defence system responded to an Israeli aggression carried out by aircraft that targeted some of our military positions in the provinces of Tartus and Hama," SANA said, quoting a military source.
"Some of the missiles" were downed, the agency said, reporting an initial casualty toll of one dead and four wounded.
A spokesman for the Israeli army refused to comment on the new raids, but an Israeli military official, in a rare confirmation, said the army had carried out some 200 strikes in Syria over the past 18 months against mainly Iranian targets.
Israel has pledged to prevent its main enemy Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria, where Tehran is backing President Bashar al-Assad in the ongoing civil war.
A series of strikes that have killed Iranians in Syria have been attributed to Israel in recent months, but the Israeli military rarely confirms them.
By PTI
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's election commission Wednesday officially declared Dr Arif Alvi as the 13th president of the country after an official count showed he had secured 352 votes -- 44 more than his two rivals could collectively obtain.
Dr Arif Alvi, a close ally of Prime Minister Imran Khan and one of the founding members of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, defeated Pakistan Peoples Party candidate Aitzaz Ahsan and the Pakistan Muslim League-N nominee Maulana Fazl ur Rehman in a three-way contest.
The 69-year-old dentist secured 352 votes while his rivals Rehman and Ahsan clinched 184 and 124 votes respectively, Dawn reported, citing the Form VII issued by the returning officer.
The results of Tuesday's election were prepared in the presence of the representatives of the three candidates at the election commission headquarters Wednesday, with Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Sardar Muhammad Raza serving as the returning officer, the paper said.
The election commission has sent the official results to the federal government, which will notify Dr Alvi as the 13th president of Pakistan.
The newly elected president will take oath of the office on September 9. Outgoing President Mamnoon Hussain's five-year tenure ends on September 8.
Of the 430 votes cast via a secret ballot in the National Assembly and Senate, Alvi received 212 votes, Rehman bagged 131 and Ahsan garnered 81; six votes were rejected.
Alvi is one of the founding members of PTI. He served as the party's secretary general from 2006 to 2013. He won the National Assembly elections from NA-247 (Karachi) during the July 25 polls.
He was also elected member of the National Assembly in the 2013 general election. In Pakistan, the President is considered as a symbol of the federation and head of the state and exercises all powers on the recommendations of the prime minister.
Prime Minister Khan, who is said to have the backing of the powerful military establishment, has consolidated his grip over power by nominating the governors of the all four provinces and appointing his key ally as the chief minister of the most populous and politically crucial state of Punjab.
With his close ally Alvi as President, Khan can smoothly implement his agenda, according to observers.
By PTI
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the formation of a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe the alleged involvement of former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister in a Rs 3,500 crore money laundering and fake bank accounts case, according to a media report.
In July, the Supreme Court listed Zardari, 63, and his sister Faryal Talpur as beneficiaries in the alleged scam "running into billions of rupees" that led to the arrest of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman's close aide and famous banker Hussain Lawai.
While hearing the case regarding a delay in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) probe into the case, the apex court had earlier deliberated over the formation of an investigation team, but said that it would only be constituted once the defence and prosecution lawyers concluded their arguments, Dawn newspaper reported.
The three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar, however, has not decided who will be a part of the JIT. The apex court is also in favour of halting the proceedings in the trial court.
The case has been described as a "big corruption case", the report said.
"It is necessary to have a mega corruption case probed by a JIT," Nisar said while noting that the court had constituted JITs to probe a number of similar cases.
A Federal Investigation Agency JIT has been investigating the 2015 case regarding the fake accounts and fictitious transactions conducted through 29 'benami' accounts in the Summit Bank, the Sindh Bank and the United Bank Limited, the report said.
Seven individuals, including Zardari and Talpur, were said to be involved in using those accounts for suspicious transactions which were initially found to have totalled Rs 3,500 crore.
The accounts were allegedly used to channel funds received through kickbacks.
Earlier, Nisar had hinted at constituting a high-power JIT- similar to the one formed in the Panama Papers case against Nawaz Sharif - to probe the money laundering allegations against Zardari and his sister.
By AFP
MANILA: A Philippine mayor on President Rodrigo Duterte's list of allegedly narcotics-linked officials was shot dead in his own office on Wednesday, police said.
Mariano Blanco, mayor of the southern town of Ronda, is the latest in a spate of local officials to be slain in recent months, some with and some without alleged links to the illegal drug trade.
The Philippines has a violent and often deadly political culture, but watchdogs have expressed concern Duterte's narcotics crackdown may be emboldening assailants.
Blanco, 59, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen after midnight in his office, the local police chief said.
"Witnesses said four armed persons alighted from a white van and entered the municipal hall... The mayor was there as he was sleeping in his office," Senior Inspector Jayr Palcon told AFP.
It was unclear why Blanco had decided to stay in his office overnight.
The mayor was pronounced dead at the hospital and the motive for the killing is under investigation.
Palcon said the mayor was on Duterte's so-called narco-list of officials involved in drugs, which was confirmed by a spokesman for the Philippines' Drug Enforcement Agency.
Blanco's killing comes nearly a year after the National Police Commission stripped him of control over the local police for allegedly being "engaged in illegal drug trade activities," the agency said.
Another recent high profile killing came in July when mayor Antonio Halili was shot by a sniper during a flag raising ceremony at the town hall in Tanauan, south of Manila.
Blanco and Halili are among at least six mayors or vice mayors killed in the Philippines since May.
Blanco's nephew and town vice mayor Jonah John Ungab was also shot dead by unidentified gunmen in February after attending a court hearing, police said.
The killings come as authorities are pursuing Duterte's deadly crackdown on narcotics.
Police say 4,410 alleged drug dealers or users have been killed as part of the anti-drug campaign that Duterte launched since winning elections in mid-2016.
Rights groups charge that the actual death toll is three times higher and that the police and shadowy vigilantes are murdering people even without proof they are linked to drugs.
By PTI
SOFIA: India and Bulgaria on Wednesday signed four MoUs, including one on civil nuclear cooperation, as President Ram Nath Kovind held talks with his Bulgarian counterpart Rumen Radev and invited the Balkan nation to become a key partner of India in the defence sector.
Kovind arrived here on Tuesday from Cyprus on the second leg of his eight-day three-nation visit to Europe to continue India's high-level engagements with European countries.
The President held detailed talks with Radev and later the two leaders witnessed signing of four MoUs between India and Bulgaria on investment, tourism, civil nuclear cooperation and the establishment of Hindi Chair at Sofia University, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.
A programme of cooperation was also signed to enhance scientific cooperation, he said Kovind also invited Bulgaria to become a key partner of India in defence sector, IT sector under 'Make In India' programme, the MEA spokesperson said.
Bulgaria is a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) member country with a large indigenous defence industry. It is ranked as a "medium" small arms exporter according to the Small Arms Survey.
Bilateral trade between India and Bulgaria has grown 76 per cent during 2016-17, but there is a lot of scope for expanding the current bilateral trade basket as well as for enhancing the quantum in the existing items of export and import, the Indian Embassy in Bulgaria said on its website.
Last night, Kovind hailed the Indian diaspora in Bulgaria for acting as a "living bridge" between the two nations and welcomed the community's participation in India's transformative journey.
Addressing the Indian Community here, the president also said there is a "new vigour" in India's diaspora policy and outreach.
Praising the Indian community, Kovind said, "The Indian Diaspora in Bulgaria constitutes a living bridge between our countries. Your numbers may be small but you have made appreciable contribution to fostering bilateral ties."
The Indian community in Bulgaria is very small numbering around 250 permanent residents who are engaged in small business or work in companies.
In addition, there are around 400 other Indians, mostly students and IT professionals, who come on a temporary basis and leave the country when their courses or job assignments are over.
By PTI
WASHINGTON: Arizona's governor on Tuesday named former US senator Jon Kyl as the temporary successor to late senator John McCain, appointing a respected and powerful former Republican lawmaker to the post.
"There is no one in Arizona with the stature of senator Jon Kyl. He is a man without comparable peer," Governor Doug Ducey told reporters in Phoenix, with Kyl at his side.
"Senator Kyl is prepared to hit the ground running."
Kyl, 76, was to fly to Washington to be sworn in possibly just days before a high-stakes Senate vote on the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's pick to be the next US Supreme Court justice.
Ducey insisted his appointment was not political, despite Kyl working closely with the White House in recent months on getting Kavanaugh confirmed in the Senate, where Republicans hold a razor-thin one-vote majority.
"Now, senator Kyl can cast a vote for Kavanaugh's confirmation."
Kyl, 76, served for 18 years alongside McCain in the Senate, until 2013, and said he would be "honored" to return to the chamber.
But he only committed to serve until January 2019, raising the prospect of requiring Ducey to again appoint a replacement until the seat is up for re-election in November 2020.
"I'm hoping that the senator will consider serving longer" than this year, Ducey said.
Widow Cindy McCain said it was a "great tribute" to her late husband that their close friend Kyl will return to public service by assuming McCain's seat.
McCain died late last month at age 81 following a yearlong battle with brain cancer.
His funeral service Saturday at Washington National Cathedral was in many ways a stern rebuke of Trump, with presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama eulogizing McCain as an iconic statesman who embodied passionate but civil debate, bipartisan compromise and a commitment to American values.
By PTI
YANGON: US Vice President Mike Pence called on Myanmar to immediately release two journalists who were sentenced to seven years' imprisonment on charges of possessing state secrets in connection with their reporting on massacres against Rohingya Muslims.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo from the Reuters news agency were sentenced Monday in proceedings that were widely decried as unfair.
ALSO READ | UN calls for release of jailed journalists; Reuters denounces 'false charges'
They had reported about the army's brutal counterinsurgency campaign that drove 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh.
The subject is sensitive in Myanmar because of worldwide condemnation of the military's human rights abuses, which it denies.
Pence on Tuesday tweeted the two should be "commended -- not imprisoned -- for their work exposing human rights violations & mass killings."
"Freedom of religion & freedom of the press are essential to a strong democracy," he wrote in back-to-back tweets.
"We call on the Gov't of Burma to reverse this ruling & release them immediately."
Wa Lone & Kyaw Soe Oo shd be commendednot imprisonedfor their work exposing human rights violations & mass killings. Freedom of religion & freedom of the press are essential to a strong democracy. We call on the Govt of Burma to reverse this ruling & release them immediately. Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) September 4, 2018
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also urged Myanmar authorities to review their decision, noting with concern the conviction and sentencing of the two.
"The right to freedom of expression and information is a cornerstone of any democracy.
It is unacceptable that these journalists were prosecuted for reporting on major human rights violations against the Rohingya in Rakhine state," Guterres' spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement.
The case drew worldwide attention as an example of how democratic reforms in long-isolated Myanmar have stalled under Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government, which took power in 2016.
Although the military, which ruled Myanmar for a half-century, maintains control of several key ministries, Suu Kyi's rise to government leader had raised hopes for an accelerated transition to full democracy, and her stance on the Rohingya crisis has disappointed many former admirers.
Wa Lone's wife, Pan Ei Mon, told reporters that she was saddened and hurt that Suu Kyi had taken a legalistic position in a June interview with Japanese broadcaster NHK by saying that the two reporters were arrested for breaking the Official Secret Act, not because they exposed the army's abuses.
"I am very sad about what she answered because she was the one whom we always admired and respected," Pan Ei Mon said Tuesday.
"We loved and respected her so much," she said.
"We feel very sad as our respected person has the wrong opinion about us."
She said that she never expected such a harsh punishment "because everyone knows that they didn't do anything wrong."
The two men testified that they had been framed by the police.
Pan Ei Mon gave birth to the couple's first child in Yangon on August 10, but her husband has not seen their daughter.
"After I gave birth, I continued to keep strong with the hope that my daughter and her father will meet soon.
But I felt like my hope was broken after the verdict yesterday. I am hopeless now," she said.
Kyaw Soe Oo's wife, Chit Su, also said she had expected her husband would be coming home.
They have a 3-year-old daughter.
"I believed he would be free, he felt the same," she said.
"But it didn't happen, I felt like I am a crazy person."
She said she still hopes for mercy from the state.
At the same time, she remains proud that her husband did his duty as a journalist.
The lawyers for the journalists told the news conference that they would do whatever they could to get their clients freed.
They can file an appeal or ask for a pardon, or hope the reporters could be freed under a general amnesty for prisoners.
Reporter/Columnist
Julie Wurth is a reporter covering the University of Illinois at The News-Gazette. Her email is jwurth@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@jawurth).
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).
Reporter
Debra Pressey is a reporter covering health care at The News-Gazette. Her email is dpressey@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@DLPressey).
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Reporter
Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk).
One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021
Cobb makes W-W history On Friday October 29, during the gritty game against the Commerce Tigers, Washington-Wilkes football quarterback Dalen Cobb made Wilkes County football history as the first player to ever have 1,000...
Anderson achieves sweeping win; Cullars and Hill retain seats Despite a relatively low voter turnout for this years city council election, Colonel Andy Anderson managed to sweep District Two, winning by a large margin. Larry Hill and Nathaniel Cullars...
Monument unveiled at Smyrna Methodist Church honoring past Wilkes County patriots On October 30, after many delays, the Sons of the American Revolution and company unveiled a monument at Smyrna Methodist Church cemetary honoring four men who served in the American...
He said as the speaker responsible for receiving motions he has always been ready to get any proposal on electoral reforms but the only attempt that was ever made towards electoral reforms came from the Zimbabwe Elections Support Network (ZESN) which sadly had no concrete clauses on what needed to be changed and how the changed clauses should read.
ZIMBABWE is looking to secure at least $2,5 billion in lines of credit from major Chinese banks for on-lending to the private sector, Finance and Economic Planning Minister Patrick Chinamasa has said.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation (FOCAC), Minister Chimanasa, who is part of the Presidential delegation attending the conference, said the lines of credit are for on-lending to critical sectors of the economy.
We are looking for lines of credit, and we have been having those discussions on the sidelines of 2018 FOCAC, but there is nothing that we can tell until they have come to fruition.
We are looking at $2, 5 billion lines of credit to support the entirety of the productive sectors, tourism, mining, industry, agriculture and manufacturing among others.
We (Minister Chinamasa and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Dr John Mangudya) did not go to FOCAC today, we have spent the day engaging a number of Chinese financial institutions. For instance, we have met ICBC and others, which we would not want to mention at the moment, said Minister Chinamasa.
We have also met Afrixembank officials who are here. Notwithstanding the move to secure new lines of credit, Minister Chinamasa said Zimbabwe was looking to take advantage of the $60 billion facility for African countries announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping during the official opening of FOCAC 2018 on Monday.
The $60 billion facility will be provided in the form of Government assistance as well as investment and financing by financial institutions and companies.
He said the concessionary loans will help grow the economy as they do not increase the countrys level of indebtness.
We have to come up with bankable plans (to access the $60 billion facility). The lines of credit will build our capacity to honour our obligations, so yes, temporarily it will have an effect on our indebtedness but what our economy is looking for right now is foreign currency to retool our manufacturing sector, to supply raw materials, to re-equip our mines, to modernise our agriculture through mechanisation.
Once that is done then you have more production and with more production, these problems fall by the wayside, said Minister Chinamasa.
Meanwhile, FOCAC 2018 closed yesterday (Tuesday).
Today, President Mnangagwa is set to have bilateral meetings, first with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, to be followed by meetings with some African Heads of State. Herald
'Today Is a Monumental Day In
the Course of This Pandemic'
We use cookies. By Clicking "OK" or any content on this site, you agree to allow cookies to be placed. Read more in our privacy policy
(Newser) Viking Cruises says it has listened to its customers and given them what they asked for: no children. The Switzerland-based company, which restricted its ocean voyages to people over 18 when it launched the service in 2015, says it will no longer accept bookings for children on its river cruises, which had previously allowed those 12 and over. This gives the company one of the strictest age policies in the industry, though since it already had very few children on its cruises, which are generally marketed to people over 50, it is unlikely to cost it much business, Orlando Weekly reports.
story continues below
"Viking has always offered experiences that are designed for travelers who are 50 and older, with interests in history, art, culture and exploration. Its what were known for," a company spokesperson said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. "Previously, we had allowed a degree of flexibility in the minimum age for travel, but increasingly our guests have told us how much they appreciate an environment where they can travel without children." (Read more cruise ships stories.)
(Newser) The lawyer for a homeless man in Philadelphia whose selflessness led to donations of over $400,000 said Tuesday that all the money is gone. Johnny Bobbitt's attorney, Chris Fallon, said he learned that the cash was gone during a call with lawyers for Kate McClure and Mark D'Amico, the couple accused in a lawsuit brought by Bobbitt of mismanaging donations they raised for him through GoFundMe. Fallon said he was "shocked. Shocked." "They raised this money to help Johnny Bobbitt get money for food." The couple, who started the campaign after Bobbitt used his last $20 to help McClure get gas after she ran out late at night, deny the claims in the suit, saying they're wary of giving Bobbitt large sums because they fear he will buy drugs. GoFundMe rep Bobby Whithorne says the company is working with law enforcement to ensure that Bobbitt gets the money raised for him, the AP reports. The crowdfunding site says it will guarantee any misspent money, 6 ABC reports.
story continues below
"While we assist law enforcement with their ongoing investigation, GoFundMe is also working with Johnny's legal team to ensure he's receiving support while the remaining funds are being recovered," Whithorne said in a statement, adding that the company gave $20,000 to an account set up by Bobbitt's attorney "to provide assistance" to him during the investigation. McClure and D'Amico's attorney, Ernest Badway, told the AP they have no comment. They have repeatedly denied wrongdoing. D'Amico has said Bobbitt, a Marine veteran, spent $25,000 in less than two weeks in December on drugs, in addition to paying overdue legal bills and sending his family money. They say they've given Bobbitt about half the money raised, but Fallon says Bobbitt has only received about $75,000, including a camper and a 1999 Ford Ranger. The New Jersey judge in the case ordered the couple to transfer the money into an escrow account by Friday and hire an accountant to review records within 10 days; per NJ 101.5, they missed that deadline. A hearing is set for Wednesday.
(Read more GoFundMe stories.)
(Newser) The NYPD has been accused of "testilying" in the past, and now a Harlem restaurant owner and two of his workers are suing over an incident last year. Clyde Pemberton, who owns the high-end MIST Harlem, says in his lawsuit that he was arrested June 1, 2017, for being "a conscientious business owner while black," along with employees Christian Baptiste and Thomas Debnam, per the New York Times. It started when Pemberton, now 68, saw two women in his eatery dragging a third, unconscious woman (the suit says cops noted she was drunk or on drugs) out of the bathroom, spurring him to ask what was going on and suggest they put her in a chair. One woman uttered a racial slur and punched him, per his complaint, while the second hit Baptiste in the head with her purse. When the cops arrived after a 911 call, the three men faced more trouble than the three white women.
story continues below
One of the women was arrested and charged with assault, among other infractions, but the three men were charged with unlawful imprisonment: One cop said he saw them blocking the exit and that they told him they were trying to keep the women from getting out, which the men deny in full. Pemberton and his workers "did nothing wrong, and no reasonable police officer would have believed they did anything wrong," the suit says. In addition to the $15,000 the men say they've paid in legal fees, Pemberton says since the arrest ICE has given him grief while traveling and cops have increased their presence at his restaurant. The men remain "deeply shaken," the suit notes, per the New York Post. The charges against them were dropped in November. An attorney for the men tells the Times, "You don't just arrest everybody on the scene and sort it out later." (Read more Harlem stories.)
(Newser) British prosecutors charged two Russian men Wednesday with the nerve agent poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury. The Crown Prosecution Service said the men, known to British investigators as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, are charged in absentia with conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, and use of the nerve agent Novichok, reports the AP. Russian law forbids extradition of its own citizens, but Britain has issued a European Arrest Warrant, meaning the suspects can be detained if they leave Russia for another European country. Assistant police commissioner Neil Basu conceded it was "very very unlikely" police would be in a position to arrest them any time soon. Police say the men, both about 40, flew to London on Russian passports two days before the Skripals were poisoned March 4. Basu said they were probably using aliases.
story continues below
Basu appealed to the public "to come forward and tell us who they are." Police released images of the men as they traveled through London and Salisbury between March 2 and March 4. Police say the two men flew back to Moscow from Heathrow on the evening of March 4, hours after the Skripals were found collapsed on a park bench. Police believe the nerve agent used to poison the Skripals was smuggled to Britain in a perfume bottle and applied to Skripal's front door of Sergei Skripal's house. The bottle was found by a local man, Charlie Rowley, in June; he was hospitalized and his girlfriend, Dawn Sturgess, died. Police haven't determined where the bottle was between poisonings, and aren't ready to bring charges in the second poisoning. Basu wouldn't say whether cops believe the suspects worked for Russian security services but called it "a sophisticated attack across borders." (Read more Sergei Skripal stories.)
(Newser) Asia Argento has already strongly denied the story of Jimmy Bennett, the man who says she sexually abused him when he was a teenand now she says Bennett was the abuser, not the victim. Mark Jay Heller, the #MeToo advocate's lawyer, tells TMZ it was Bennett who sexually assaulted Argento five years ago, when he was just 17 and she was 37, and that text messages from Argento publicized by TMZ prove it. "The horny kid jumped me I had sex with him it felt weird," read one Argento message to a friend, ostensibly about the alleged 2015 encounter between Argento and Bennett at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Marina del Rey, Calif. "I was frozen. He was on top of me," she wrote in another message, though she noted, "It wasn't [rape]." "Asia chose at the time not to prosecute Bennett for sexually attacking her," Heller tells TMZ.
story continues below
He adds the $380,000 payout offered to Bennett by Argento's boyfriend, Anthony Bourdain, was because Bennett tried to extort Argento, and Bourdain simply wanted to protect her, even though the pair contended Argento did nothing wrong. Per E! News, Heller also notes in a statement that Bourdain paid Bennett $250,000 before he died earlier this year, and that Bennett won't be seeing a cent more from Argento. Also in Heller's statement: accusations that the 22-year-old himself was charged by the LAPD in 2014 with "stalking" and "unlawful sex with a minor"though, per what Heller calls "Phase Two" of the #MeToo movement, Bennett should still have the right to accuse others of sexual misconduct, even if some of his own alleged behavior has been inappropriate. Meanwhile, per Deadline, Rose McGowan made the rounds in UK media this week, saying she felt "betrayed" by Argento. (Read more Asia Argento stories.)
(Newser) The injustice of it all is staggering: A Northwestern University PhD student who survived lymphoma as a teen was shot dead in Chicago on Sunday evening just four hours after landing in the city; Shane Colombo was in the Rogers Park neighborhood on the city's north side buying hangers, his mother tells ABC News. Chicago police say the 25-year-old was essentially in the wrong place at the wrong time: He was struck once in the abdomen as two males engaged in a gunfight just before 8:30pm, reports the Daily Northwestern. No arrests have been made. "I put him on a plane that morning at 10am [California time] and I kissed him good-bye, and that was the last time I saw him alive," says mother Tonya Colombo. "He was killed within four hours of being in the city, four hours of stepping off that plane."
story continues below
ABC News reports the San Francisco State University grad had spent the past two years doing research at Columbia University's Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab in New York and planned to get his PhD in clinical psychology. The Chicago Tribune reports he had been in a long-distance relationship with his fiance, Vincent Perez, while he was in New York and Perez in California. The men, who met in a fraternity, were to live together in a condo they had just purchased. Perez tells the Tribune he discovered Colombo was in the hospital by tracking Colombo's cellphone: It showed he was at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, and an ER doctor ultimately told him Colombo had died. A GoFundMe campaign has raised $15,000 to help send Colombo's body back to his native California. (Read more Chicago stories.)
(Newser) Bill Cosby's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was found vandalized early Tuesday, the words "serial rapist" written on it with black marker. Los Angeles police are investigating, reports the Los Angeles Times, which has a picture of the defaced star. Cosby, 81, received the star in 1977. In 2014, amid a number of allegations of sexual assault at his hands, someone wrote "rapist" three times across the star; after he was convicted in April of drugging and molesting Andrea Constand, notes reading "guilty on all 3 counts!" were taped to the star, Mic reports. Even so, the star isn't going anywhere: As the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce president explained in 2015, "Once a star has been added to the Walk, it is considered a part of the historic fabric of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Because of this, we have never removed a star from the Walk." (Read more Bill Cosby stories.)
(Newser) It costs nearly $50,000 a year to send your kid to Friends Seminary, a private Quaker school in Manhattan founded in 1786. Two words uttered there cost Ben Frisch much more. While teaching a Feb. 14 pre-calculus class, he lifted his right arm up and down during a demonstration on angles of depression and elevation. Realizing his movement was mimicking the Nazi salute, he was "mortified," writes Jonathan Mahler for the New York Times Magazine; Mahler notes that two of Frisch's great-grandmothers died at Auschwitz. Fumbling for a way to bring levity to the situation, Frisch settled on two poorly-chosen words: "Heil Hitler!" Mahler writes that Frisch, seeing his students' surprised reaction, realized his "stab at Mel Brooks-style parody" had flopped and he tried to explain that jokes about Nazis were once not so taboo.
story continues below
That was then, this is now: After 12 days of meetings, Frisch was told by school principal Bo Lauder and a number of board members that he could resign or be fired; he ultimately refused to resign. The case is now in arbitration, with a decision in the coming weeks as to whether to return Frisch to his position or stick with the termination. But Mahler's piece is about much more than just the various schools of thought on Frisch's case: It's about being a Quaker institution that is increasingly going toe-to-toe with other posh NYC schoolsand possibly sacrificing its Quaker values in the process. With Frisch being the only Quaker teacher at the school and one whose firing didn't involve the community at large (as Quaker decisions are historically made), "the fight over Frischs termination became a proxy battle in this larger war," writes Mahler. Read his full piece here. (Read more Longform stories.)
New Delhi:
Online shopping giant company Amazon.com on Tuesday became the second US company after Apple to reached 1 trillion US dollar milestone in stock market value, according to sources.
Amazon shares traded at $ 2,050.27 on Tuesday afternoon, which gave the worlds dominant online retailers market valuation over $ one trillion, said sources.
Apple topped the worlds $ one trillion mark early this August.
Also Read | Typhoon Jebi hit western Japan, eight killed, several injured
The Seattle-based company which started as selling books online, has over the years cemented customers loyalty through its services like echo voice devices Alexa and the Prime membership program, that offers fast and free shipping as well as music and video streaming perks.
From a profitless bookseller to a disruptive force of commerce, Amazon joined the trillion-dollar club in just 21 years, whereas it took Apple 38 years, sources said.
Meanwhile, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, a top American daily, was recently named this years worlds no. one on Forbes billionaires list.
Read More | Reliance Home Finance in exclusive talks with an overseas investor for equity investment
According to reports, Amazon has also emerged one of the major FDI investors in India in the past few years.
This year alone, Amazon stocks have jumped 75 per cent adding $ 435 billion to its market capitalization. This is combined market capitalization of Americas top three retail stores - Walmart, Costco and Target.
The Wall Street Journal said investors rewarded Amazon because of it demonstrating better financial discipline in recent quarters.
(With PTI inputs)
For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:
In a major breakthrough to a month-old murder and extortion case in Sant Nagar area, the Special Cell of Delhi police on Wednesday arrested three wanted members of Sunil alias Tillu Tajpuria gang. The visuals from the site of the encounter between Delhi police and miscreants went viral on social networking sites.
"Delhi: Visuals from the site of encounter between Special Cell of Delhi police and criminals which took place in Alipur area, earlier this morning. 3 members of Sunil alias Tillu gang, wanted in the murder case of a member of a rival gang and extortion cases, have been arrested," the news agency ANI reported.
Delhi: Visuals from the site of encounter between Special Cell of Delhi police and criminals which took place in Alipur area, earlier this morning. 3 members of Sunil alias Tillu gang, wanted in the murder case of a member of a rival gang & extortion cases, have been arrested. pic.twitter.com/UKicz1s1iT ANI (@ANI) September 5, 2018
Read | Uttar Pradesh BSP leader Dilshad shot in Delhis Batla House
Earlier in June, in a shocking incident, a shoot-out between two rival gangs left three dead and two injured in Delhi's Sant Nagar area. According to reports, the miscreants involved in the shootings were part of rivals Jitendra Gogi gang and Tillu Tajpuria gang.
While Sunny and Raju - two members of Tillu and Gogi gang lost their lives in the incident, an innocent bystander identified as Sangeeta also became a victim of the gunfight. The bullets also hit two more bystanders while another person was injured during the stampede caused by the shoot-out.
New Delhi:
In yet another tragic incident, a section of the 50-year-old Majerhat bridge on the arterial Diamond Harbour Road in south Kolkata collapsed on Tuesday evening, leaving one dead, trapping several people and crushing many a vehicle. The search and rescue operation is still underway to clear the place.
The Majerhat bridge, which runs over the Majerhat Railway Station and connects the city centre with the heavily populated Behala, vast areas of the southwest suburbs and neighbouring South 24 Parganas district, caved at around 4.45 pm during rush hour.
Following the mishap, police confirmed the death of one person while declared 21 others, including three women injured.
Read | Mumbai: Part of bridge collapses at Andheri station, five injured
Here are the highlights on Majerhat bridge collapse:
# 01:36 pm: Suo-motu case registered at Alipur police station against unknown responsible persons (maintenance agency) under sections 304, 308, 427 and 34 of IPC.
Kolkata's Majerhat bridge collapse: Suo-motu case registered at Alipur police station against unknown responsible persons (maintenance agency) under sections 304, 308, 427 and 34 of IPC. #WestBengal (file pic) pic.twitter.com/HDMRmV2w2T ANI (@ANI) September 5, 2018
# 01:07 pm: 1 death is confirmed. 2 people are feared trapped in debris. Rescue operations underway. Beams of flyover are really heavy so it's taking time to cut them and rescue people. Case will be registered against those responsible: DC (south) Meeraj Khalid on Majerhat bridge collapse.
1 death is confirmed. 2 people are feared trapped in debris. Rescue operations underway. Beams of flyover are really heavy so it's taking time to cut them&rescue ppl. Case will be registered against those responsible: DC (south) Meeraj Khalid on Majerhat bridge collapse. #Kolkata pic.twitter.com/BmmxvMV26V ANI (@ANI) September 5, 2018
# 11:12 am: My brother worked here. 2 people, including him, are trapped under debris. I told the police officers about it but they have not taken any step: Partho Deb, brother of a metro construction worker allegedly trapped under the debris of Majerhat bridge in South Kolkata.
# 07:05 am: Latest visuals of search and rescue operations at the spot where part of Majerhat bridge collapsed yesterday. Clearance work is also underway.
Kolkata: Latest visuals of search & rescue operations at the spot where part of Majerhat bridge collapsed yesterday. Clearance work is also underway. #WestBengal pic.twitter.com/E4GcegtQDR ANI (@ANI) September 5, 2018
The victim, who has been identified as Soumen Bag, was a resident of Thakurpukur Bag and returning home from College Street in central Kolkata when the tragedy took place. The injured, on the other hand, have been shifted to nearby SSKM and CMRI hospitals.
One minibus, four cars and a few motorbikes were also hit by the Majerhat bridge collapse in the crowded Alipore area.
Read | Himachal Pradesh: 6 injured after bridge collapses in Chamba
Meanwhile, chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who is currently in Darjeeling, ordered a probe into the incident. She has also announced a compensation of Rs five lakh to the family of the dead and Rs 50,00 each to the injured.
Banerjee said she will cut shot her Darjeeling tour and flew to Kolkata to take a stock of the situation.
New Delhi:
Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday released a book Experiential Learning Gandhijis Nai Talim, in the national capital, marking the occasion of Teachers Day. The book, which was released simultaneously in 13 languages, contains basic principles of Gandhis Nai Talim, along with the work and education curriculum for schools, D.Ed, B.Ed and faculty development programmes for teachers, according to a government statement.
The Curriculum was brought out in 13 languagesAssamese, Tamil, Bengali, Odiya, Kannada, Malyalam, Punjabi, Marathi, Telugu, Gujarati, Urdu, Hindi and Englishin consultation with the state councils of educational research and training.
Also Read | Millennials ditching corporate jobs for teaching: Study
Javadekar, speaking on the occasion said, We would like to take experiential learning to all levels of education involving all states and all stakeholders, adding Gandhijis Nai Talim or basic education was a holistic approach of developing body, mind and soul, by making a productive art, craft or community engagement activity as the centre of learning.
The HRD minister lauded the efforts of Mahatma Gandhi National Council of Rural Education for having involved all stakeholders in bringing out the curriculum.
The book seeks to supplement the efforts of a movement which is being carried out across educational institutes to promote Nai Talim, work education and experiential learning, the statement said.
This book is expected to inspire this movement to cover progressively 25 crore students of educational institutes at different levels in the country covering 80 lakh primary school teachers and 20 lakh secondary school teachers, spread over 17.5 lakh primary schools and 2.5 lakh secondary schools across the country, the statement added.
Also Read | On Teachers Day over 6,000 Punjab college teachers go on mass leave
The book and the project were a joint effort of the Universities in the state, state SCERT and Mahatma Gandhi National Council of Rural Education (MGNCRE), under the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
For all the Latest Education News, Books News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:
Over 6,000 Punjab government and non-government college teachers under Punjab Federation of University and College Teachers Organisations (PFUCTO) proceeded on mass casual leave on Teachers Day protesting against the "apathetic attitude" of the Congress-led government towards their long pending demands, including raise in pay scale, on Wednesday.
"We have been demanding implementation of recommendations of the University Grants Commission (UGC) with regard to the seventh pay commission report. Several states, including Haryana, have given the UGC pay scale to teachers of colleges and universities but the Punjab government has failed to do so yet," General Secretary of PFUCTO, Jagwant Singh said.
Also Read | Teachers Day 2018: History of the celebration in India
The agitating teachers also condemned the state government for not hiring regular teachers in the government colleges.
The PFUCTO general secretary also demanded that the services of 1,925 contractual college teachers who were hired in 2015 be regularised.
"With fresh recruitment not being made, imparting education in government colleges has been hit. Only 30 per cent regular teachers, including professors, have been working in the government colleges," Singh said adding that more than 1,300 posts of teaching staff in 60 government colleges were lying vacant.
Also Read | 10 Bollywood films that celebrate teachers who challenge, motivate and inspire us
"According to UGC guidelines, 90 per cent of the teaching staff should be regular, but in Punjab the situation is different," Singh added.
(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi:
Millennials in India are increasingly saying goodbye to their high-flying corporate jobs and taking the teaching route to utilise their skills and impart knowledge to young students, a study has found.
The study conducted by Bengaluru-based education technology start-up, Cuemath, on over 3,000 teachers reveals that there has been an upswing in the number of millennials opting for a career as an educator, especially by the workforce in corporate jobs.
Millennials are those born after 1980 and the first generation to come of age in the new millennium.
According to the analysis, 50 per cent of the teachers come from experience in a corporate job.
Also Read | UK universities group calls for new post-study visa to attract Indian students
The data further reveals that over 58 per cent of teachers fall in the 20-35-year age bracket, a drastic change from the scenario a decade ago.
The study also shows a majority of the teachers list ME, M.Tech, M.Com, MBA and PhD as either their first or highest qualification (53 per cent) followed by BE, B.Tech, B.Sc (44 per cent).
A lot of working professionals are turning to teaching today because of the satisfaction teaching as a career can offer, said Manan Khurma, Founder & CEO, Cuemath.
Read More | Teachers Day 2018: History of the celebration in India
In fact, in our study, a mere three per cent of the teachers actually chose to do a B.Ed initially, reflecting how teaching might not have been their plan A but is a career of a choice today, Khurma said.
The millennial workforce returning to the classrooms brings with them the realities common to their generation, such as flexible learner-centred models, researchers said.
These teachers are more likely to support situations that allow students to pace their learning outcomes, they said.
For all the Latest Education News, Jobs News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:
Actor Daniel Craig has signed on as a lead in the murder mystery, Knives Out. The indie thriller will be directed by Star Wars: The Last Jedi fame Helmer Rian Johnson, reported Deadline.
Craig, 50, best known for playing famed British spy James Bond in four films, will portray a detective who is assigned to solve a murder case in the new movie. The script has been penned by Johnson who will also produce the project alongside partner Ram Bergman.
The new film will mean that Craig's fifth outing as James Bond in another film will be delayed further. The as-yet-untitled film is likely to miss its release date of November 8, 2019 in the US after the departure of director Danny Boyle over "creative differences".
Johnson said Boyle's exit from Bond 25 gave him the opportunity to pursue Craig for his film. "I have been a huge fan and always wanted to work with him and as I worked on the script, trying to get it right, Ram and I were wringing our hands over who could be the detective," Johnson said. "Then, serendipitously, we heard Daniel might have a small window, and it worked out. He's an actor of extraordinary range, and we are looking forward to the fun of finding that modern detective, and collaborating with Daniel on creating a new Poirot," he added.
Knives Out will begin shooting in November this year.
For all the Latest Entertainment News, Hollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Mumbai:
Adil Hussain has been an acclaimed actor within Bollywood but now he's garnering praise for his out of the box film roles all around the globe. Hussain has announced that his film What Will People Say has been declared as the official entry of Norway for the 2019 Academy Awards.
Iram Haq-directed film has made it among the nominations for best foreign language film at the prestigious Academy Awards.
The 54-year-old actor took to Facebook to share the news. "Our film #WhatWillPeopleSay is just been declared as the #Norwegian official entry into #Oscars 2019.
"Big Congratulations to Iram Haq, Maria Mozhdah, Ekavali Khanna and cast and Crew members! We hope that our film will finally be one of the films to be Nominated in Foreign Film Category at the Oscars in 2019," Adil wrote.
The film, which is a joint production of Norway, Germany, Sweden, France and Denmark, had its world premiere last year at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The story plot revolves around a 16-year-old girl Nisha who is caught with her Norwegian boyfriend by her conservative parents and sent against her will to a small town in Pakistan to live with the extended family.
For all the Latest Entertainment News, Hollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:
Bigg Boss 12 is all set to return to Indian television with new surprises. The show features celebrity as well as common contestants locked inside a luxurious house with no contact with the outer world. But, the main attraction of the show remains its host Salman Khan, who has been a key player of the Bigg Boss show since the last eight years.
At a press conference of Bigg Boss 12 in Goa, Salman revealed that the one who was considered to sign 'Bigg Boss' before him was Shah Rukh Khan. He didn't know about this. ''Shah Rukh was the original choice for 'Bigg Boss''.
Also Read | Happy Teacher's Day: Five Bollywood flicks that depict special teacher-student bond
"Earlier he had shoulder injury and he was shooting somewhere in Prague so, he couldn't make it... and he couldn't do the show. That's how I got 'Bigg Boss'', he added.
Both Salman and Shah Rukh recently appeared on Dus Ka Dum's finale episode and their fans loved it.
Salman Khan spoke about working together with Shah Rukh Khan in a project and said, "We will work together if we get a good script. He was generous to appear in 'Tubelight'. You will also see me in 'Zero'''.
New Delhi:
The Maharashtra government, which has been criticised for its crackdown on five rights activists over their alleged link with Bhima Koregaon violence, on Wednesday filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court, saying the activists were not arrested for their dissenting views but due to the cogent evidence linking them with the banned CPI (Maoist) party.
"They are involved in not only planning and preparing for violence but were in the process of creating large-scale violence, destruction of property resulting into chaos in the society as per the agenda prepared by the Communist Party of India (Maoist)," the affidavit added.
The affidavit also states 'They are involved in not only planning and preparing for violence but were in the process of creating large scale violence, destruction of property resulting into chaos in the society as per the agenda prepared by the Communist Party of India [Maoist].' https://t.co/5mWqYDf3nf ANI (@ANI) September 5, 2018
Earlier on August 29, the apex court while ordering the house arrest of the five activists till September 6, had categorically said that dissent is the safety valve of democracy.
The counter affidavit, filed by the Maharashtra police on a plea of historian Romila Thapar and others challenging the arrest of these activists in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, alleged that they were planning to carry out violence in the country and ambush the security forces.
Read | Bhima Koregaon violence: Court grants three-month extension to Pune Police to file charge sheet
The state police said there was sufficient evidence to dispel the claim that they were arrested for their dissenting views. It also questioned the locus of the petitioners, Thapar and economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devika Jain, sociologist Satish Deshpande and legal expert Maja Daruwala, and said they were strangers to the investigation in the matter.
On August 28, Maharashtra Police in a coordinated raid across India arrested five prominent Left-wing activists for suspected Maoist links, sparking a chorus of outraged protests from human rights defenders. While prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao was arrested from Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Ferreira from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj from Faridabad and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha was arrested from Delhi.
Read | Claims of PM Modis assassination plot an attempt to gain sympathy: Congress
The raids were carried out as part of a probe into an event called Elgar Parishad, or conclave, on December 31 last year, which had later triggered violence at Maharashtra's Bhima-Koregaon village during the 200th birth anniversary celebration of a British-era war.
For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:
Parts of Delhi turned red on Wednesday as thousands of farmers, demanding loan waivers and increase in minimum wages, hit the streets in the national capital. The massive Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally, organised by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and the All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU), began from Ramlila Maidan and culminated at Parliament Street.
The protests by farmers have increased sharply over the last four years. The most recent one was in Maharashtra where farmers marched to Mumbai from Nasik, covering a distance of 180 km on foot over five days. However, the Central government has been claiming that its policies are pro-farmers.
The farmers plight in India - how deep is Indias farm crisis?
India is an agrarian country. Over 50 per cent of Indians are into farming. According to estimates, the agriculture sector accounts for 18 per cent of Indias total Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, this trend is declining and if you go and talk to a farmer and ask him about agriculture, he will say it is no more profitable as it used to be.
Also Read | DMK Family Feud: Miffed Alagiri all out to wreck Stalin's prospects in Tamil Nadu politics
According to a study by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), farming in India is not profitable for over two decades. And this is one of the reasons farmers across the country are forced to leave their fields and take to the streets every now and then.
The OECD is a grouping of 26 countries and India is the only nation among them where the agriculture sector is not profitable. Its is not because the country is alien to farming. The history of agriculture in India dates back to as early as the Indus Valley Civilisation. Despite it, the country is still lagging in agriculture growth.
In 2016, the National Commission of Farmers headed by MS Swaminathan had said that something very serious and terribly wrong is happening in the countryside.
In 2012-13, the agriculture growth rate of India was 1.5 per cent and rose to as high as 5.6 per cent during the UPA rule. However, it dropped to 0.2 per cent in 2014-15 after the Narendra Modi government came to power in the Centre in 2014-15. In 2015-16 the agriculture growth rate was at 0.7 per cent, a sharp 4.9 per cent fall from the year 2014-15.
Also Read | Modi government on GDP high must take care of pitfalls ahead of polls
One cant deny the pressure of rapidly rising population as one of the major issues for Indias agrarian crisis. According to government data, Indias average farm size was very small at 1.15 hectare in 1970 and since then the landholding has been declining steadily.
Seventy-two per cent farmers in India are small and marginal landholders with less than two hectares of the farm field. Unlike big farmers who own big lands, they have a little bargaining power and almost no say over prices.
And if their crop production gets affected due to weather and disaster, pests, diseases or shortage of inputs like seeds and irrigation, they are left with indebtedness that leads to suicides. Another major issue the farmers face is the absence of marketing infrastructure due to which they are forced to approach middlemen which adds salt to injury.
Both the BJP and the Congress had governed the country for almost equal period in the last two decades, so none of them can blame the other and the poor state of agriculture is their collective failure. The farming sector is the backbone of the Indian economy but it is vulnerable like any other sector and the government needs to make sure the farmers get sufficient and deserving prices for their produces.
For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a coordinated raid at around 40 locations across Tamil Nadu, on Wednesday, carried out searches at the residences of state's health minister and the director general of police, in connection with a multi-crore Gutka scam case. However, police did not reveal the exact locations of the raids, saying it may hamper the ongoing investigation process into the case.
Health Minister C Vijayabaskar, DGP TK Rajendran, and a former senior police officer are among the people, raided by the CBI in the gutka scam involving bribes given at the top to skirt a ban on chewing tobacco. Besides that, the residences of several food-safety department officials are being searched in connection to the same.
Tamil Nadu: CBI has launched a massive search operation in 40 places in Chennai in connection with Gutkha scam. Houses of Tamil Nadu DGP TK Rajendran at Mogappair, ex-DGP S George near Maduravoyal, Health Minister C Vijayabaskar & other police officers are also being searched. ANI (@ANI) September 5, 2018
Read | In Dawood Gutka business CBI sends judicial request to pakistan
The multi-crore Gutka scam came to notice last year in July after income tax sleuths raided the godown, offices and residences of a pan masala and gutka manufacturer in Tamil Nadu, who had been facing charges of tax evasion to the tune of Rs 250 crore.
During the raids, the department had seized a diary containing names of those who allegedly took bribes from the gutka manufacturers. Post that the case was sent to the CBI by the Madras High Court in April this year on the plea of a DMK leader.
In 2013, the Tamil Nadu government prohibited the manufacture, storage and sale of the chewable forms of tobacco, including gutka and pan masala.
Read | Trendy hookahs not safer than cigarettes, can trigger heart problems | Know what experts say
The agency had registered an FIR against unidentified officials of the Tamil Nadu government, Central Excise Department and the Food Safety Department in May.
(With inputs from agencies)
For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:
In a major breakthrough of law and security in Jammu and Kashmir, one hardcore over-ground worker of Hizbul Mujahideen was on Wednesday arrested in Kishtwar district, a police official said.
Touseef Ahmad Gudna alias Abu Bakar, a hardcore motivator of youth to join the terror group, was nabbed following specific information, a police spokesman said.
Also Read | Delhi police arrests two members of Tillu Tajpuria gang
A police team headed by Manoj Kumar, Dy SP DAR under the supervision of SSP Rajinder Gupta raided a hideout and arrested Gudna, the police said.
Gudnas name came to the fore after a case was registered against him on July 1 following the arrest of his associates along with arms and explosive devices, and a terror plan was thwarted.
With his (Gudna) arrest, there is likelihood of decrease in terrorist activities and reduction in the number of youth indulging in anti-national activities, the spokesman said.
Read More | Hyderabad Twin Blast Verdict: Aneeq Sayeed, Ismail Chaudhary convicted; two set free
Gudna, a close associate of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Mohammad Amin alias Jehangir, was also involved in a militancy-related case registered in police station Parimpora in Srinagar last year, the police said. Gudna was also in contact with another terrorist named Latti in 2017 as well as was a conduit for transferring money to Jehangirs wife, the official added.
(With PTI inputs)
For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:
The Supreme Court on Thursday (September 6) will pronounce a crucial verdict on Article 377 - a controversial provision in the Indian Penal Code (IPC), that states homosexuality and consensual gay sex a punishable offence in India.
During the hearing, the Supreme Court had observed that "societal morality changes from age to age and no one should live in fear due to their sexuality."
A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra had asked a larger bench to review the constitutionality of Section 377, a British-era law that criminalises consensual sexual activities "against the order of nature".
The SC washearing a bunch pleas challenging Section 377 filed by prominent petitioners. They argued that they were living in fear of being punished due to the discriminatory law.
Also Read | Centre leaves validity of Section 377 on 'wisdom' of Supreme Court
The apex court had also pointed out that "choice can't be allowed to cross the boundaries of law but the confines of law can't trample or curtail the inherent right embedded in an individual under Article 21, the right to life and liberty."
What is Article 377? All about the law that makes homosexuality a criminal offence
Section 377 of the IPC refers to unnatural offences and makes carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, a punishable offence. Those found guilty of violating the law shall be punished with imprisonment for life or up to 10 years and a fine.
As the apex court hears the petitions challenging Section 377, a look back at the history of the timeline of the case.
Also Read | Veteran actor Dilip Kumar hospitalised due to chest infection
Introduction of Section 377
Section 377 which makes homosexuality a criminal offence was first introduced by British India in 1861 and was modelled on Buggery (anal intercourse) Act of 1533. Section 377 of the act was drafted by Thomas Macaulay in 1938 but was brought into effect after 22 years in 1860. The act described buggery as a criminal offence against the will of God. The act made anal penetration, bestiality and homosexuality a crime.
Naz Foundations challenge to Section 377
In 2001, Naz Foundation, an NGO which provides various services to gays, lesbians, transgenders, filed a petition against the Section 377 before the Delhi High Court. The NGA had challenged the constitutionality of Section 377. The NGA had sought the courts order to allow consensual homosexual relations between two adults.
Also Read | On rising fuel prices, Congress gives it back to BJP - Bahut Hui Mahangai Ki Maar
Delhi High Court decriminalises homosexuality
In a historic judgment, the Delhi High Court in 2009 decriminalised homosexuality among consenting adults. The court, in its landmark judgment, had said that Section 377 was illegal and unconstitutional and violated Article 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution of India.
Supreme Court reverses Delhi High Court order
The landmark verdict of Delhi Court didnt go down well with a section of our society and various petitions were filed before the Supreme Court, challenging the formers authority to change a law. The Supreme Court, however, reversed the high courts order and homosexuality again became a punishable offence in India. The apex court found HCs order legally unsustainable and said that the court had overlooked the fact that a minuscule fraction of the countrys population constitutes LGBT.
For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:
Days after Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader MK Stalin was elected the party president, MK Alagiri, the elder son of late Karunanidhi on Thursday hold a silent rally to pay homage to the former Tamil Nadu chief minister at Marina beach in Chennai. In 2014, Alagiri was expelled from the party at the height of his fight with Stalin over establishing supremacy in the party.
Meanwhile, hours before Alagiri's silent rally in Chennai, thousands of his supporters gathered at Wallahjah Road to participate in the march to Karunanidhi's memorial at Marina Beach.
With Karunanidhi's memorial decked up for popularity contest between Stalin and Alagiri security has been tightened and police personnel in strong numbers have been deployed at Marina beach.
Here are the highlights onA MK Alagiri silent rally:
# 01:10 pm:A One Lakh people came here to support me today. Will they send all of them out? You ask them and let me know: MK Alagiri.
One Lakh people came here to support me today. Will they send all of them out? You ask them and let me know: MK Alagiri, Expelled DMK leader when asked 'people who support you are being removed from the party...' #Chennai pic.twitter.com/fyeNaouxLz a ANI (@ANI) September 5, 2018
# 12:44 pm:A Expelled DMK leader MK Alagiri pays tribute at Karunanidhi memorial in Chennai.
Tamil Nadu: Expelled DMK leader MK Alagiri pays tribute at Karunanidhi memorial in Chennai. pic.twitter.com/39AsYaJlLD a ANI (@ANI) September 5, 2018
# 11:34 am: Expelled DMK leader MK Alagiri and his supporters hold a rally to the Karunanidhi memorial at Marina Beach in Chennai.
Tamil Nadu: Expelled DMK leader MK Alagiri and his supporters hold a rally to the Karunanidhi memorial at Marina Beach in Chennai. pic.twitter.com/XxuycTIKyh a ANI (@ANI) September 5, 2018
# 11:15 am:A DMK cadres who received Alagiri at the airport were suspended from the party. Today lakhs of cadres are here to attend the peace march, how many will be sacked? Although we've been sacked we'll be DMK cadres only: PM Mannan, Madurai Corporation Ex-Dy mayor and aide of MK Alagiri.
DMK cadres who received Alagiri at airport were suspended from party. Today lakhs of cadres are here to attend the peace march, how many will be sacked? Although we've been sacked we'll be DMK cadres only: PM Mannan, Madurai Corporation Ex-Dy mayor&aide of MK Alagiri #TamilNadu pic.twitter.com/44VZFCbXBB a ANI (@ANI) September 5, 2018
# 10:16 am:A Supporters of expelled DMK leader MK Alagiri gather at Wallahjah Road in Chennai to participate in the march to Karunanidhi memorial at Marina Beach.
Tamil Nadu: Supporters of expelled DMK leader MK Alagiri gather at Wallahjah Road in Chennai to participate in the march to Karunanidhi memorial at Marina Beach. MK Alagiri will hold a rally at the memorial today. pic.twitter.com/YnoEODjzTg a ANI (@ANI) September 5, 2018
# 09:27 am: Visuals from M Karunanidhi's memorial at Chennai's Marina beach. Expelled DMK leader and M Karunanidhi's son MK Alagiri will hold a rally at the memorial today.
Tamil Nadu: Visuals from M Karunanidhi's memorial at Chennai's Marina beach. Expelled DMK leader & M Karunanidhi's son MK Alagiri will hold a rally at the memorial today. pic.twitter.com/M4pjPxTfWm a ANI (@ANI) September 5, 2018
The clash between the two brothers over DMK's succession came to light ever since Alagiri threw an open challenge to his brotheras leadership skill days after Karunanidhi's death on August 7. Despite Karunanidhias decision to elevate Stalin as his successor, Alagiri claimed that time would prove that he had the backing of his fatheras 'true loyalists'.
However, in a move to make a peace offering, Alagiri later expressed his willingness to accept DMK president MK Stalin's leadership with a rider to readmit him into the party.
Alagiri's silent rally, which will pay homage to his late father at Marina breach on Wednesday, is also a show of strength by his supporters.
For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:
National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval has triggered a controversy with his remark on Jammu and Kashmirs constitution. Speaking at the launch of a book on Vallabhbhai Patel, Doval on Tuesday said that having a separate constitution for Jammu and Kashmir was an aberration.
"The thing was that, to make a sovereign state in which there was the sovereignty of the people, was established in the Constitution, which is applicable to the whole of it. Probably with Jammu and Kashmir, where the Constitution was... in a truncated form... another constitution of J&K continued to exist, which is an aberration," Doval said.
The remarks of the countrys National Security Advisor has come in the backdrop of the Supreme Courts hearing on pleas challenging the constitutional validity of Article 35-A, which provides special privileges to the residents of Jammu and Kashmir.
Also Read | On rising fuel prices, Congress gives it back to BJP - Bahut Hui Mahangai Ki Maar
Dovals remarks didnt go down well with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the National Conference two regional parties of the Kashmir, which asked if the statement was at the behest of the central government.
"If the government does not take notice, it will be proved that Doval is saying this at the behest of the government," NDTV quoted National Conference leader Mustafa Kamal as saying.
PDP leader Rafi Ahmad Mir termed Dovals remarks irresponsible and said that such statements were altering people mindset in the Valley.
Suggested Read | Then and now: BJP leaders on fall of rupee
"I think for a person in such a responsible position, Ajit Doval's statement is irresponsible. Statements like this are altering the mindsets of the general public about Kashmir," Mir said.
For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Cyprus:
President Ram Nath Kovind took time off from official business during his visit to the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus to go to the beach. The president strolled along the shore with his daughter at Fig Tree Bay, one of the islands most beautiful beaches, as a police helicopter and snipers maintained security, according to reports. One of the ministers accompanying Kovind took a dip in the turquoise waters of Fig Tree Bay designated a Blue Flag beach because of its clear sea reports said, without identifying the swimmer.
Read | India-US 2+2 dialogue holds hope of good beginning in ties
Twenty sunbeds were reserved for the Indian entourage although it was not immediately clear if any in the party took or were afforded -- the opportunity to lounge around.
Away from the beach, Kovind held what were described as wide-ranging talks with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, who said the two countries shared a vision of peace and democracy and historical bonds of friendship.
The bonds between our countries stretch back to the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus, following the end of Indias and Cyprus struggle against colonialism, Anastasiades said.
During the visit, the two countries signed two memorandums of understanding one on combatting money laundering and the other on the environment. Kovind, in an address to a special session of the House of Representatives, hailed the joint values and close relations between India and Cyprus.
Cyprus is not only a friend but one of our staunchest supporters, he said.
The president spoke glowingly of the friendship between late Cypriot leader Archbishop Makarios and Mahatma Gandhi, while inviting Cypriots to invest in India.
India has opened for business. It is open to Cyprus. Come and come quickly, he said.
Also Read | Rising from fathers shadows, Stalin chooses to fight for secularism
Kovind also laid a wreath at a bust of Mahatma Gandhi, which was installed at the legislature in 1972 during the visit of President V V Giri.
The three-day stop-over in Cyprus marks the first leg of Kovinds three-nation tour of Europe, which will also take him to Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.
On the final day of his visit on , Kovind unveiled at the University of Cyprus a bust of eminent Indian poet and Nobel literature laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, before giving a lecture to students entitled Youth, technology and ideas: shaping the contours of the 21st century.
The president in his address told students that although technology has opened a new world of learning and has made it easier to accomplish tasks, they should continue to work hard without expectation of immediate reward in pursuit of excellence, the Cyprus Mail reported
Kovind said that Tagores bust will give students the opportunity to learn about the first non-European to win the Nobel prize in Literature.
It will be a stimulus for discussion of literature, social sciences and the importance of culture in general, he said.
Read More | Rahul's Kailash Mansarovar yatra: Promises to keep and miles to go
Kovind is the first Indian president to visit Cyprus since Pratibha Patil in 2009. It follows a visit last year to India by Anastasiades. Relations between the two countries go back to 1962, when they established diplomatic ties.
Bilateral trade is weighted heavily in Indias favour, with figures given by the Indian High Commission in Nicosia showing that Indian exports to Cyprus in 2015 totalled $51.11 million, and imports from Cyprus totalling $22.82 million. No more recent figures were immediately available.
Major items of exports from India include organic chemicals, oil seed, oleagi fruits, fish, vehicles and iron and steel. Imports from Cyprus include aluminium, wood pulp, machinery, boilers and plastics. The high commission listed Cyprus as the seventh largest FDI investor in India, mainly in the construction and real estate activity sectors.
On a personal front, Lilla Erulkar, daughter of Abraham Erulkar, an Indian-born Jew and personal physician to Mahatma Gandhi, became the first lady of Cyprus, married to Glafcos Clerides, who was Cypriot president between 1993 and 2003.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited Cyprus in 1983 while Atal Bihari Vajpayee followed in 2002. President R Venkataraman also briefly visited the strategically-placed island in 1988.
There is no record of any of these illustrious leaders taking time off, as Kovind has, to enjoy Cypruss main attraction: its pristine beaches.
Read more Opinion
New Delhi:
It is not all hunky dory as India and the US sit down for the twice-postponed 2+2 dialogue in New Delhi on Thursday with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman representing the India side and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis the US side.
The main bone of contention will predictably be Indian import of oil from Iran in the light of the US imposing fresh sanctions on Iran over the countrys nuclear programme. Crude oil imports are a dominant element in the Indo-Iran bilateral relationship and India will seek to sensitise the US on how energy import-reliant country India is.
ALSO READ: Sunbeds and snipers as President Kovind goes to the beach in Cyprus
The development of Chabahar port in Iran with active Indian participation has heightened Indias interest in dealing with that country because New Delhi sees the Iranian port as a counterpoise to the Gwadar port in Pakistan with Chinese help as an outlet for exports.
Since the Chinese thrust in developing strategic ports is aimed at establishing hegemony over key trade routes, India hopes that the Trump administration in the US would appreciate the need to build Chabahar to ensure freedom of the seas for vessels carrying goods to locations in the rest of the world.
Considering that if India snaps oil import deals with Iran, the Chabahar venture would be jeopardised, it would indeed be in US interest too to let India continue with oil trade within certain set limits. What stand the two key representatives of President Trump would take on Iran is, however, steeped in uncertainty.
ALSO READ: Modi government on GDP high must take care of pitfalls ahead of polls
Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region and counter-terrorism efforts will form the fulcrum of the positive side of the dialogue in which there is strong mutuality of interests. Indeed, the Americans aver that Global Strategic Partnership between India and the US has got a fresh impetus under Trump and the dialogue will show how far this is true.
The 2+2 dialogue replaces the earlier strategic and commercial dialogue and is set to become an annual affair which is happy augury. The 2+2 dialogue is followed by the US with Australia and Japan too so Indias inclusion in that process enhances its strategic importance.
ALSO READ: Show of warmth between Pranab and Khattar may greatly amuse Congress
While US has labelled leaders of Pakistan-based terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad as specially designated global terrorists, much to Indias satisfaction, New Delhi has likewise labelled al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent and the Islam State-Khorasan as terrorist organizations.
On Indo-Pacific cooperation, India would like to know the US perspective and how India can step in more proactively.
India has also started oil and gas imports from the US after many years with an import target of $2.5 billion, and is expected to address the bilateral trade deficit issue which is largely tilted in Indias favour.
Defence has also emerged as an important pillar of bilateral ties, with the US designating India as a major defence partner in 2016. However, India has signed only one of three foundational agreements needed for interoperability with the USthe Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement in 2016 -- and not the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) and the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement. These agreements are likely to come up for assessment and deliberation during the 2+2 dialogue.
According to a report by Bloomberg, there are prospects of a potential deal to build advanced Lockheed Martin Corps F-16 fighter jets in India. Sale of US arms, associated parts and logistics support to India have grown from zero in 2008 to $15 billion in 2018. The amount could rise by an additional $3 billion by 2019, as per the report.
Indias purchase of four S-400 missile systems from Russia at a cost of more that Rs 40,000 crore is likely to come up in the talks but India is firm that this countrys deals with third countries cannot be questioned at an Indo-US bilateral forum.
Ahead of the dialogue, top homeland security officials of the two countries have worked on a draft plan related to six areas, including anti-terror cooperation in intelligence sharing, terror financing and cyber security.
All in all, the 2+2 dialogue would hopefully be a good beginning which can be built upon.
Bengaluru:
The war in the DMK first family has been simmering since the passing away of M Karunanidhi. It escalated after ousted Alagiri's pleadings to rejoin the party failed to cut any ice with younger brother Stalin. Failing to make a breakthrough, Alagiri on Wednesday mounted his mega show of strength with a silent rally at Marina Beach in Chennai. It was a successful rally in an attempt to prove his relevance, with some 10,000 supporters joining the two-km-long march. Earlier too, there were instances where Alagiri proved his relevance and strong support for him ever since the family feud in the DMK began.
In 2016, given the cyclical nature of electoral outcomes in Tamil Nadu, it was the turn of the DMK to enjoy power for the next five years. But the then Chief Minister late J Jayalalithaa, with a clever strategy, pipped the DMK to the winning post. The margin was close, a mere two percentage points in vote difference between the AIADMK and the DMK. Jayalalithaa sprung a superior strategy and got vote against her splintered in many directions and scraped through, albeit the numbers in assembly gave her absolute majority.
Also Read | Homosexuality a crime or not? Supreme Court verdict on Section 377 tomorrow
The War in the DMK Family
One of the reasons for the electoral defeat of the DMK, which was guided by its patriarch M Karunanidhis chosen political heir MK Stalin, were its inability to forge alliances with forces ranged against Jayalalithaa. In fact, Stalin had by 2016 taken complete control of the party organisation and his brother was expelled from the party by his father just before the Lok Sabha general elections in 2014.
A smarting Alagiri then took his revenge when he frustrated the DMK by fielding candidates in the Assembly elections and ate into what could have only been DMK vote. In an election where at least 10 seats were won with a margin of less than 500 votes, Alagiri showed he was relevant. Besides where were another 10 assembly seats that saw margin of victories that were narrow.
As Alagiri has some support, in southern districts, his nuisance potential was immense as Stalin and DMK found out. With this playing in the background, it comes as no surprise that Stalin refused to entertain any pleas of his sisters on behalf of Alagiri to be allowed to rejoin the party. So, Alagiri mounted the mega show of strength in a rally in Chennai on Wednesday.
The estranged elder brother had pleaded with Stalin to take him back into the party. But a close associate of Stalin told NewsNation that the door is firmly shut and there was no question of taking him back into the party.
Every supporter interviewed by media persons had only one request: that Annan (Alagiri) be taken back into the party. Alagiri himself told media persons that he wanted to join the DMK to strengthen the party ahead of elections. I am ready to work under Stalins leadership, he had said but to no avail. In fact, Stalin had ordered party leaders and cadres not to have anything to do with his elder brother or his activities.
Also Read | Sunbeds and snipers as President Kovind goes to the beach in Cyprus
Which is why a DMK Chennai city functionary M Ravi was suspended for receiving Alagiri at the Chennai airport on Wednesday morning. Even Alagiri knows that as far as the DMK was concerned, it was a closed chapter, but he still has to make a show of it to stay relevant in Tamil Nadu politics. Helping him do just that were forces opposed to a resurgent DMK. The party sources suspect the BJP, the AIADMK and even rebel AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran to have supported Alagiri to weaken the DMK.
It may be recalled that even in 2014 after Alagiri was expelled from the DMK, many leaders of political parties like the BJP, VCK and even Congress had called on him in Madurai. Alagiri had then also met superstar Rajinikanth, sparking of rumours, but it was only in connection with a film deal.
The importance of being Alagiri was very clear.
In multi-cornered assembly election contests in Tamil Nadu there are at least six parties in fray and three more getting added in future assembly elections any person with say few thousand supporters here and there can make or mar the chances of candidates. Political analyst Prof Ramu Manivannan of Madras University believes that even after depletion of strength, Alagiri could be having 500 to 1000 supporters in different assembly segments and could cause damage to the DMK.
Read More | Rahul's Kailash Mansarovar yatra: Promises to keep and miles to go
In 2001, Alagiri had fielded rebel candidates and sabotaged the chances of the DMK in several constituencies that added to the victory of the AIADMK in the elections then.
What was predicted by political analyst Cho Ramaswamy in 2014 general elections, This family feud will cost the DMK dear, could be as relevant today as it was then. In 2014 Lok Sabha general elections, the DMK drew a blank.
But in the last four years, Stalin has covered much more ground and captured the DMK completely. And today, there is no more any confusion. A confident looking and sounding Stalin has brushed aside Alagiri and his challenge and is concentrating his energies on mounting a big challenge to the AIADMK and the BJP-led central government. As per the assessment of senior DMK leaders, Alagiri is now a spent force.
So, for the present, the doors are completely shut for Alagiri's return to the DMK.
We have passed another major turning point in our noble anti-geoengineering movement. Chalk up another huge W for Dane Wigington at GeoengineeringWatch.org. The man is on a tear.On the 16th of last month, Dane published an interview with a retired U.S. Air Force Major General named Richard H. Roellig. Major General Roellig expressed that he is aware of and concerned about the current, ongoing large-scale uncontrolled climate geoengineering experiments.Outdoing even this, on the 21st of last month, Dane posted an interview with a former employee of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) named Michael Davis. Mr. Davis is an expert who has firsthand knowledge of the hard scientific evidence proving that we are being sprayed with massively destructive substances that work synergistically with the so-called fluoride in our drinking water to make us die and ruin our planet.Davis expounds upon the abject cowardice and selfishness of the legions of chair-warmers at the EPA who are willing to watch the world burn so that they may receive a big paycheck. People like that are anathema to a healthy and prosperous society. Television controls their minds. The corporate superstate is their mother and father. Complimenting Davis revelations, Wigington breaks protocol and names names of people in important positions of power who are fully aware of the geoengineering situation, but do nothing about it. Listen to the tension in their voices and how carefully they choose their words. They are both fully aware of just how crucial this information is.I dont want to hear any more complaints about cuts to the EPAs budget. The EPA does not protect us. They protect the corporate establishment and make sure that the citizen is effectively murdered. The entire agency should be abolished.Im so glad I never ever said a bad word about Dane Wigington. Ive heard lots of them spoken about him to me by fellow anti-geoengineering activists; people I trust and respect. There may still be some validity to what they say, but the proof is in the pudding. My response to criticism of the man has always been to say that the bottom line is that he is doing good work by raising awareness. Before I cancelled my account, I criticized Alex Jones on Twitter for only ever having Dane as a guest to the exclusion of all other anti-geoengineering activists, but that was a criticism of Jones only, not Wigington. And everybody knows Alex Jones is an asshole anyway, so who cares?Im kind of jealous to tell you the truth. Dont worry, though, my upcoming essay Chemtrails Exposed: The Deep State and the New Manhattan Project is on track and poised to be the definitive work exposing exactly WHO is currently responsible for this wholesale, industrial strength wrecking of our environment. Brennans disclosure at Pratt House was particularly telling. God willing, the article will be made available before the end of the year.See morehttps://www.activistpost.com/2018/09/epa-whistleblower-exposes-the-ongoing-geoengineering-omnicide-audio.html
A Bahraini citizens heroic act saved the lives of five members of a family, who were on the verge of drowning off Demistan coast. However, the life of four-yearold Fatima Jaffer Aali could not be saved as she died later at the hospital following complications after the incident.
The child was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at Salmaniya Medical Complex. Her condition suddenly started deteriorating and we could not save her life, medical sources at the hospital said. Meanwhile, Bahraini sailor Jaffer Ahmed Yousef was showered with praises for his valiant act across all social media networks. Many commented on social media that the authorities should honour him with a medal for bravery. Sources said the sailor was on the beach when he saw the family being thrown into sea by strong currents of water.
He instantly swung into action and began rescuing one by one, the sources added.
Blockchain technology is a true mark of progress and Bahraini talents and companies must take full advantage of it, a senior minister has pointed out.
The blockchain technology is one of the most important advancements in recent years and Bahraini talents must familiarise themselves with it and companies must take advantage of it, said Minister of Electricity and Water Affairs, Dr Abdulhussain Mirza who is also part of the Supreme Committee for Information and Communication Technology.
He was speaking as he inaugurated the SmartSec Cyber Security and Blockchain Conference 2018 yesterday at the Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay. Cyber-security issues facing the region as well as the threats and opportunities from the development of the blockchain technology are being discussed during the conference which will extend till today.
Technologies such as blockchain take us a huge step forward in finding a secure way to facilitate transactions. Blockchains ability to protect users data is a true mark of progress, especially due to the fact that it can be applied in different companies from different industries including cyber security, he said.
This is the kind of initiative that we would like Bahraini companies to have so that innovation can arise amongst the great minds of this community. Cyber-security is an essential part of our lives because most of our daily lives involve the use of technology in one way or another.
He said that the threat of international global cyber-attacks must not be taken lightly. These global cyber-attacks affected more than 60 countries including Bahrain last year and the Central Bank of Bahrain recently issued a warning to banks and financial institutions of orchestrated attacks planned at ATMs around the world.
The question of information security is very important when we conduct more of our lives digitally, we must ensure that the electricity supply that makes all this digital technology work safely and immune against cyber-attacks.
The Yemeni woman sentenced after being convicted of torturing her husbands nine-year-old girl to death will hear the verdict on her appeal on September 25.
The woman was earlier sentenced to seven years behind bars for committing the crime. The sentence handed down to the Yemeni woman was the maximum punishment for the charge of death caused by beating. Nine-year-old Zahra Al Hasisi was pronounced dead at the King Hamad University Hospital on July 30 last year after suffering internal bleeding from being brutally assaulted. She also had injuries that suggested she had suffered during the years of abuse, including burns to her back and neck.
The medical examiner who carried out Zahras autopsy previously revealed horrific details of the abuse in court, saying that the injuries the child suffered suggested she endured years of mistreatment. Zahra lived with her father, stepmother, three siblings and two step-siblings at an apartment in Hidd since 2013, after the father was granted custody by a Yemeni court. The girls father, a Bahraini of Yemeni origin, was also put on trial for the same charge, but judges acquitted him due to lack of evidence.
Mohammed Shahid, President of Brave Combat Federation awarded Fans Fight of the Night for Brave 14 hosted in Tangier, Morocco.
In an epic fight night which marked the entry of the first global mixed martial arts promotion to the continent of Africa, seven of the nine fights ended in the very first round with three of the fights ending within the very first minute. Ottman Azaitar, Jeremy Kennedy, Felipe Efrain and Djamil Chan were shortlisted in the final list of nominees.
The final phase of the winner was made by the audience of Brave Combat Federation who voted for their favourite athlete over the social media. Felipe Efrain received the highest number of nominations there by claiming the peoples choice with a clear margin. This marks the second time the bantamweight fighter from Brazil has claimed the fight of the night accolade.
Earlier, Efrain had claimed the fight of the night bonus at Brave 9: The Kingdom of Champions hosted in Bahrain. During Brave 14, Efrain faced Arnold Quero in the bantamweight division. Efrain was making his return after the first round loss at the hands of Frans Mlambo.
The Financial Sector is the second largest contributor to Bahrains GDP, estimated at around 16%, second only to the oil and gas sector. As of 2016, the estimated value of the Banking sector assets was close to $193 billion. The Financial Sector being crucial to Bahrains economy, it becomes pertinent to assess the impact VAT will have on the industry. The GCC VAT Agreement (the Agreement) prescribes a VAT exempt treatment of financial services performed by banks and financial institutions in the GCC region. Based on the Agreement, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and United Arab Emirates (UAE) VAT legislations have exempted the financial services subject to certain exceptions. As per the VAT laws of the 2 countries (KSA and UAE), financial services are subject to VAT where the consideration in respect of a service is by way of an explicit fee, commission or commercial discount. Thus, only those cases where consideration is received based on an implicit margin or spread or interest, financial services will be exempt from VAT. An illustrative list outlining the VAT treatment in KSA and UAE has been provided hereinbelow: Impact on the Financial sector:
One of the clear impact is that the financial services sector will have a mixed bag of taxable and exempted products (revenue streams). So, the first step is to identify the taxable products out of the total list of products / services provided by the Bank / financial institutions.
As regards the exempted products, at first glance this may seem beneficial for the sector, as no VAT is applicable when services are provided to the customer. However, on the flip side since suppliers of exempt services cannot avail the benefit of claiming an input tax deduction, whatever VAT is paid by the banks / financial institutions on services or goods purchased for the exempted business, will become a cost for the companies. Further, since financial institutions will be engaged in both taxable and exempted services, the companies will have to come up with a method to apportion the input tax deduction in relation to their taxable and non-taxable activities. Such processes can be highly cumbersome depending on the size/scale of operations which a financial institution undertakes. Accordingly, it is advisable that appropriate measures to account for the same be made prior to the introduction of VAT.
One of a very interesting point is whether Bahrain will follow what KSA or UAE has done as regards the VAT treatment of specified financial services (exempt status). While the GCC agreement prescribes the exempt treatment, it also leaves the discretion in the hand of each country to decide the taxability of such services in their own country. Bahrain, conceptually, can provide a better treatment (such as zero rated supplies) for the financial services. This will make it a more attractive destination for Financial sector organisations to base their operations in Bahrain.
VAT is a transaction tax and is based on billings done to the customer. However, in the beginning there will be revenues billed and / or collected in pre-VAT period but the service period extending beyond the VAT implementation date. For instance, a credit card provider charges an annual fee to its customer for a one-year period, i.e. October 2018 to September 2019. Assuming VAT is introduced from 1st January 2019; the service provider will have to ascertain the taxable amount from Jan19 to Sep19, and accordingly pay VAT on the same. Similar for motor or general insurance products. One challenge will be how will these companies able to collect the VAT from customer for the post VAT period?
The other interesting aspect is taxability of Islamic products. The law states that its taxability will be based on the effective result these products seek to achieve when compare with the conventional banking products. Hence each product needs to be examined and its taxability determined. What will happen in case of Hire purchase or Murabahah products. It is likely be exempted due to implicit margin or interest. If yes, the how will the VAT charged by the vendor from whom the equipment/ machine / car is bought will it be cost or can be passed on the final customer who is effectively the buyer?
A major issue for the financial sector will be the invoicing requirement for all fees/commission/charges which are subject to a standard rate of VAT (i.e. 5%). For instance, currently no separate invoices are raised for late fees on credit cards/fees for electronic money transfer/ATM withdrawal fees, etc. All these services will now need proper documentation for VAT purposes. Further, when such fees/commission/charges are levied on B2B transactions, raising of invoice to the recipient becomes important, since the VAT paid on the fees/commission/charge will be available as input tax deduction to the recipient. Therefore, requisite changes would have to be made in the IT-systems/ERP of financial institutions for invoicing of such fees/commission/ charges. The abovementioned issues clearly showcase the mammoth task which financial institutions have ahead of them as the date for implementation of VAT nears. In such circumstances, the industry must ensure that their IT-infrastructure is ready for facing the challenges which will be posed by the coming VAT regime. In addition, sufficient representations before the Ministry of Finance must be made by the industry to bring out the practical difficulties which will be faced during the implementation of VAT, and accordingly seek appropriate remedies for the same. This would be in the mutual benefit of both the Government and the taxpayers, as the financial sector plays such a vital role in the countrys economy.
Riyadh : Qatar attempted to lobby 250 individuals whom they deemed influential in the Trump administration by offering them trips to Doha, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The newspaper reported that New York restaurateur Joey Allaham and his lobbying business partner Nick Muzin courted those individuals, including Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and attorney Alan Dershowitz who travelled to Doha. Dershowitz had written a column supporting Qatar after his trip there, which was funded by the Qatari Amir, although he did say in the article that he was reluctant to accept because he has heard that Qatar was contributing to Hamas, which is a terrorist group, and that it was supporting Iran.
Dershowitz told The Journal that he felt tricked because he was unaware that the purpose of the trip would be to use him for political gain. If I had known their purpose with me was maybe to impact the president, I would not have gone, Dershowitz told the Journal. Huckabee was reportedly paid $50,000 by Allaham.He did not respond to a request for comment.
Mucat : Dr. Mohammed bin Hamad Al Rumhy, Minister of Oil & Gas of the Sultanate of Oman, and Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Minister of Oil of the Kingdom of Bahrain, officially opened the 2018 edition of the World Heavy Oil Congress and Exhibition (WHOC) at the Oman Convention & Exhibition Centre, Muscat, yesterday. More than 3,000 industry professionals are deliberating on the transformation of the heavy oil value chain and the future of the worlds energy mix during the three-day event.
In his opening remarks, Al Rumhy said, Oman did not slow down during the 2014-2018 oil drop. The fear was always that the reduction in investment, specifically in exploration, was going to hit us hard but we stayed the course and proceeded with our previous plans with the support of the government, shareholders, and oil and gas companies operating in the country. As a country, we took the right decision to focus on investment and that has helped us in the end. He added, Both the public and private sector have a responsibility. With greater private sector participation and the optimization of ecosystems of our economy versus prioritizing profits, we can together further advance our industry forward.
Shaikh Al Khalifa said, Within the region, Oman was the first to invest in heavy oil and we have a lot to learn from them. Heavy oil could be in heavy demand, at least in the short term, as a result of implications of the light tight oil phenomenon in North America.
The Ministers along with a high-level delegation from WHOC toured the exhibition, which will run until Wednesday, where regional and international NOCs, IOCs, service and technology providers are showcasing the best technologies, products and services for the heavy oil sector. Notable exhibitors include Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), Eni SPA, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, Bahrain Petroleum Company, Kitsnet, Badr EOR, Albpetrol, RGL Reservoir Management Ltd, SoluForce, HP Well Screen, and Salamander to name but a few.
More than 3,000 stranded people are spending the night at Kansai International Airport in western Japan after a typhoon caused a tanker to crash into a bridge connecting the airport with the mainland.
The airport operator says about 2,600 people are staying in the 2 terminals and 350 are in commercial facilities and hotels. The passengers have been given snacks.
Several hundred airport workers are also unable to go home.
The operator says it will inspect the bridge on Wednesday morning and if no problems are found, it will transport the passengers by bus.
The airport, which is built on a manmade island, has been closed since Tuesday afternoon because of flooding.
Workers will inspect the runways and taxiways throughout the night. But the operator says the airport will remain closed on Wednesday. - NHK
The number of rubella patients reported by medical institutions in Japan in the week through Aug. 26 stood at 84, nearly twice the 47 reported for the preceding week, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases said Tuesday.
The cumulative number of patients since the beginning of the year came to 273, which is almost three times the 93 for the whole of last year, the institute said.
Warning that the infectious disease may spread further, the health ministry urged people to consider vaccination if they have never contracted rubella or been inoculated.
Patients in Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures--Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama--accounted for over 70 pct of the year-to-date total. The number of patients stood at 84 in Chiba, 72 in Tokyo, 24 in Kanagawa and 18 in Saitama.
Elsewhere, Hiroshima had 10 cases, Aichi and Fukuoka nine, and Hokkaido and Hyogo seven.
There is something very romantic about the Far East, especially Japan.
To travelers from the west, it represents a culture which mimics so many aspects they may be familiar with in terms of fashion, technology, and architecture. But it also retains a lot of mystique, with ancient customs such as the tea ceremony, temples set against tranquil surroundings, beautiful art and traditional cuisine. There are so many interesting and charming locations for any visiting couple. So if you met on a singles site and are keen to explore Japanese dating by immersing yourself in different culture, here are some of the more romantic things to do in Japan.
Disneyland in Tokyo
Sprawling for over 115 acres, Tokyo Disneyland is a captivating theme park situated near Japan's capital city. The first Disney outlet to be opened outside the USA, it is designed along the same styles as its counterparts in Florida and California. There are seven themed areas, each offering a multitude of rides which accommodate the tastes of visitors young and old.
Tokyo Tower
Rising over 300 m above ground level, Tokyo Tower was inspired by the Eiffel Tower, it's lattice structure painted in eye-catching white and orange. When you visit this stunning location, you will be following in the footsteps of more than 150 million visitors who have already been drawn to the tower's museums, shops and eating outlets. The observation decks offer stunning views of the surrounding area.
Visit Mount Fuji
The highest mountain in Japan, rising to 3,700 meters, the snow-capped peaks of Mount Fuji are one of Japan's most iconic images. This scene of outstanding beauty has featured prominently in numerous films over the years and has inspired artists and poets the world over for centuries. As a romantic location, it is second to none in this part of the world. There are numerous trails to be explored with your loved one, and if you are feeling truly adventurous you can even go paragliding here.
Sunbathe or snorkel in Okinawa
Okinawa is another romantic destination which is crying out to be visited. This coastal location is popular for all sorts of watersports, from kayaking to swimming, but because the water is here is so clear it is most widely known as a paradise for snorkeling. You and your partner can hire the appropriate kit and then immerse yourself in a truly wondrous underwater dimension. The tropical fish which glide around the reefs in vast shoals come in every color under the sun, and you can also wonder at the majestic sea turtles. www.globosurfer.com
Enjoy a spa on Enoshima
If you want to escape hustle and bustle of Tokyo, a recommended romantic location is Enoshima Island. Here you can truly get back and relax, enjoying a variety of spa treatments. With the white peak of Mount Fuji dominating the horizon, you and your partner can enjoy aromatherapy treatment, shiatsu-type massages, all the time benefiting from the island's mineral-rich natural hot springs, pumped to this location from 1000 meters below the surface of the sea. With firework events and a choice of dining experiences, this is the perfect location for any romantic couple visiting Japan.
Go-karting in Chiba City
While Japan is bursting at the seams with what could be termed traditionally romantic locations such as Mount Fuji, there is nothing wrong with reawakening your inner child! At Chiba City, you can hire a go-kart and then spend the next while careering around an indoor circuit at breakneck speeds. The white-knuckle ride is perfect for those moments when you just feel like some out and out escapism.
Typhoon Jebi forced Kansai airport to shut down on Tuesday. Concerns are mounting that if the closure continues, it could have a significant economic impact.
The airport is a major hub for both travelers and cargo. It connects Japan with at least 80 cities worldwide.
Its operator says an average day in the last fiscal year that ended in March saw about 460 passenger flights land and take off there. That's more than 78,000 domestic and international passengers per day.
The number for fiscal 2017 hit a record high, up 12 percent year-on-year to more than 28 million.
This comes as the Kinki region, including Kyoto, is attracting a growing number of foreign tourists.
A low-cost carrier that flies to destinations in Thailand and Hawaii has expressed concerns. AirAsia Group officials say it's unclear when the airport will open again. - NHK
The Coalition of 39 United Political Parties has alleged that President Muhammadu Buharis rejection to sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill into law is a deliberate ploy to derail the 2019 general elections.The CUPP in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday by its Spokesman, Mr.Ikenga Ugochinyere said Buhari and the All Progressives Congress were afraid of losing the election and were against the bill.He said, The CUPP views the deliberate last-minute rejection of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill by the President Buhari-led APC government as a clear indication that Buhari and the APC want to destroy the chances of free and fair election in Nigeria simply because they are afraid of losing the 2019 general election.Buhari and APC are scared of the compulsory use of card readers for accreditation and transmission of election results which the new electoral law provides for.The CUPP urges National Assembly to use a joint sitting whenever they return from recess to handle the INEC budget issue and Electoral Act observations and send the clean copy back to President Buhari so that he will have no excuse to ruin our desire for credible elections.
Elder statesman and former Federal Minister of Information, Edwin Clark, has threatened to take legal action over the raid on his home by ...
Elder statesman and former Federal Minister of Information, Edwin Clark, has threatened to take legal action over the raid on his home by men of the Nigeria Police on Tuesday.
Recall that officers from a unit called the IGPs Special Tactical Squad, stormed his residence in Abuja, with a warrant to search for weapons.
Giving an account of the incident, Clark said, At about 12:30 pm some people came to me that policemen were waiting for me, I asked, what for? They said they had a warrant to search my house. I asked them to come in.
Some were outside and I learned they came with two vans.
I asked them, do you know me? I am an old man going to 92, I have been a Federal Minister of Information, been a senator and you think that Im piling weapons?
I told them to go ahead with their search. They searched all the rooms but found nothing. They wrote their report and asked three of my people to sign and they left, he said.
Clark described the incident as an embarrassment, adding that he would not be intimidated by anyone.
Presidential aspirant of the Africa Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore has promised to legalise marijuana, popularly known as Igbo, if he...
Presidential aspirant of the Africa Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore has promised to legalise marijuana, popularly known as Igbo, if he is elected president in 2019.
He said he would make the plant a major export commodity that would contribute to the growth of the countrys economy
Speaking at a function recently, the SaharaReporters publisher said that his promise should serve as an advance notice to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to stop its clampdown on citizens growing the popular weed.
His words: We have to start taking care of our weed, Igbo, such that we can also contribute to the GDP of the world. Some of the best weed in the world are grown in Ekiti State. And people are making billions out of that particular plant that is very potent in Nigeria. We should be focusing on it.
The Nigeria police have apologised to Edwin Clark, an elder statesman, over the unauthorised raid of his residence in Abuja by four police...
The Nigeria police have apologised to Edwin Clark, an elder statesman, over the unauthorised raid of his residence in Abuja by four policemen.
NAN reports that Jimoh Moshood, police spokesman, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja.
Moshood said a police delegation had been sent to Clarks house, comprising of the DIG operations and some commissioners of police.
Recall that on Tuesday, NigerianEye reported that policemen invaded Clarks residence around 1:30pm, after presenting a search warrant to the elder statesman.
The Niger Delta leader said that nothing incriminating was found in his house.
There was no notice before the search. The policemen just walked in and demanded to search the house, he had said.
After the incident, Ibrahim Idris, inspector-general of police, had ordered the detention of the policemen responsible for the invasion.
Moshood had said the policemen acted without approval.
There is a lot going on at the Lee County Arts Center. It just had a very successful inaugural Art Walk, is planning for another one in October, and this past week got some very good news in that it has received designation as a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization from the IRS.
The 501(c) (3) status, which the arts center has been working on for nearly a year, will allow for donations made to it to be tax deductible, which makes fundraising easier.
Previously it had been a 501(c) (4), which meant donations were not tax deductible.
The Lee County Arts Center has numerous events planned for the next few months. It has scheduled its second Art Walk for Saturday, Oct. 13, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Hancock Bridge Square Shopping Center.
Maryanne Howard, president of the Lee County Arts Center, said the change in hours was something the vendors suggested.
They said the last one was too long and that they wanted to start up and finish earlier because of weather conditions, Howard said.
Hancock Bridge Square hosted the first event, which was a success, with 33 vendors and hundreds of patrons coming to see the artists works.
Howard said she hopes more artists will come as it gets closer to season and rain becomes less of a factor.
Were also going to be contacting the colleges and schools in the area. Ive reached out to North Fort Myers High School and the Academy for the Arts to let them know about the event to see if any students would be interested in painting on our campus material, Howard said.
Howard said she is looking for another venue in the future. She contacted Marinatown for an event in February, but was told parking would be an issue.
She is now looking at Merchants Crossing, which has plenty of parking as well as new stores and greater visibility now that all the trees have been cut down.
In the meantime, the arts center is going to hold an event where children can create ornaments for the community Christmas Tree at the North Fort Myers Recreation Center on the first weekend of November from 1 to 2:30 p.m. All supplies will be provided.
Howard also said they plan on holding a cocktail reception in January as a fundraiser for the Lee County Arts Center Building Fund. A location has yet to be determined.
After a lifetime of serving churches all over the country, Les Morgan decided it was time to come home to his roots to not only serve his church but also those who may need a little of Gods word to help them through the tough stretches.
Morgan was named the new pastor at North Fort Myers First Baptist Church at 75 Evergreen Road in May. He brings 30 years of experience and knowledge of Gods word to a small but growing flock.
I wasnt surprised because I grew up in the area. We have some great things happening at the church and we have great potential with three buildings and eight acres of land, Morgan said.
He also helps others solve their problems through the word of God as a pastoral counselor, which he has done for the past 30 years.
He also wrote weekly religious columns in local newspapers for many years.
Morgan is a fourth-generation Floridian. It was his great grandfather who built the pier for Thomas Edison.
After growing up in the area, Morgan left for about 30 years, serving in Georgia and the Ashville, N.C. area before coming home in 2007 to take over a church in Labelle for around eight years.
Morgan, who was also working at the Christian Counseling Center, helped out another pastor in Felda for a little while before the opening came up in North Fort Myers.
Morgan said the church has great potential and has a three-point plan for success; love the people, love the people, and love the people.
We have a lot of work to do because the church is a little run down. It needs to be painted and cleaned up and have yardwork done, Morgan said. Were getting things more presentable and then will find creative ways to share the love of Christ.
When Morgan started, the church had 40 members. It now has 60, which isnt bad during a time when people tend to go north.
People know we are very concerned about them. Its contagious and thats what we intend to do, Morgan said. We share the love of Christ and encouraging them to bring people and so far people are responding well, for which we are grateful.
Morgan currently works for Royal Palm Christian Counseling in Fort Myers, where he works with people on everything from addictions to marital and family issues and much more.
Morgan received his Bachelor of Science degree from Toccoa Falls College in Georgia, a Master of Arts in Christian Ministry from Simpson Graduate School in California, and a Doctor of Ministries from Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale.
He also successfully finished the biblical counseling training program at Royal Palm Ministries.
His hobbies include bicycle riding. He has done two long-distance rides, from Georgia to Vermont and then on another from North Carolina to Colorado. He also enjoys playing piano and guitar in worship services.
Well, the primary election is behind us and now, on to the general election. While Nov. 6 seems a long way off, the vote by mail (formerly absentee) ballots go out 45 days before that, Sept. 22. So I know its hard to believe we are less than three weeks away from casting a ballot. That is, if you registered to vote by mail.
I recommend it.
The ballot will be long with a variety of offices up for grabs as well as several Constitutional Amendments, and you never know about the weather or long lines. Our Lee County Supervisor of Elections encourages it. For you voters, getting the ballot at home gives you time to read it, including the complex amendments, get information from friends, family, political parties, Google or wherever, and make an informed decision.
I expect that will be better than throwing a dart into a chart or guessing.
For the Supervisor of Elections, fewer poll workers are required and lines are shorter. It is a win-win and recommended. And, if you decide at the last minute you really want to vote at the polls you can exchange your mail ballot at your polling place and pick up a regular ballot, go into the booth, and vote!
Tip: You may want to fill out your mail ballot, make a copy for your reference, and take the copy into the booth. Thats not cheating! It is encouraged. So, you keep open all options when you register to vote by mail.
Any questions call the Supervisor of Elections at 239-533-8683.
Next meeting of your North Fort Myers Civic Association is Sept. 10. The Civic Association will consider what can be done to extend LeeTrans service out to Tara Woods. There are a host of retirees who do not drive and transit service would be invaluable. Of course the Civic association has no power to make it happen but can reach out to those that can. It is certainly a discussion that needs to be had.
Sidestepping to the Lee County Arts Center (LCAC), two things. The LCAC will hold its second Art Walk Oct. 13. Again at Hancock Bridge Square. The owner has kindly given permission. And the Arts Center is still looking for a home in that shopping center, possibly at the Quilt Lovers space, as it is relocating across the street. Ill tell you a little more about the Art Walk and progress renting a space for the Arts Center in my column end of September. If you missed the first event you definitely have to come Oct. 13. If you came out in July and spent some time (and money) I know youll be back!
Second thing. The LCAC is now a 501(c) (3) tax exempt organization. The IRS moved the application along quickly, given its workload, and was very helpful clearing up an overlooked issue. Ive been filing for tax exemptions over 40 years and can say this IRS analyst was professional, supportive, and easy to work with. We filed end of February and it usually takes a minimum of six months. The LCACs exemption was granted slightly under that wire. And now, any donations will be tax deductible.
The NFM Civic Association will be filing its application shortly. So, one down, one to go.
All good news.
The North Fort Myers Community Pool is no longer. The pool was closed for repair and renovations in March, but the County decided a new one was in order. Now it is gone! But not forgotten. If youre about to shed a tear or two, do it quickly since a new pool will be built in the (hopefully) not too, distant future.
And it may be part of a twofer, including a new boat ramp.
The county is in negotiations for 1.8 acres adjacent to the southbound span of the Edison Bridge on U.S. Business 41 if youre interested in checking it out. Please remember I said negotiations. So, time will tell if we get a new boat ramp.
But the pool, thats going forward, a done deal!
Talking about new things, were still waiting for the new library. Sure, some walls are up but construction seems to move in fits and starts, hardly at gangbusters speed.
Our County Commissioners announced they had so much money collected for its construction wed get a small (tiny) tax reduction on our county taxes; $20, maybe $30 on your next tax bill.
So theyve got the money.
Lets get a roof up and finish the project.
Please.
Thats it for now. Next meeting, and I hope to see you all there, is Sept. 10 -yeah, I know I said that up above at 6:30. 2000 N. Recreation Park Way, North Fort Myers (the North Fort Myers Recreation Center).
To the editor:
Florida needs Open Primaries. An effort was made to add a referendum to the 2018 election ballot to establish Open Primaries in Florida. Unfortunately, the current Constitutional Revision Commission failed to approve the measure. So we are at it again for the 2020 election cycle.
Currently, Florida is one of only 14 states that have closed primaries. In closed primaries, the parties hold independent elections for their partys candidates. Only registered Republican or Democratic voters may participate in their respective balloting. Independents are not allowed to voice their selections, although Independent registered voters make up almost 30 percent of the voting public.
In Open Primaries, all candidates are placed on a single ballot in the Primary. The candidates can be identified by their party affiliation, but all are included. And Independent voters get to be included in the final ballot choices. Generally, the top two vote getters in the Primary for each office are included in the final election.
There is a group currently working to gain the necessary petition signatures to get the proposal on the 2020 ballot. Everyone should agree that all Floridians, regardless of their party affiliation, or lack thereof, should be allowed to participate in the primary election process. So the first petition seeks to establish open primaries. The second petition is considered only if the first fails to get enacted. Since primaries in Florida are publicly funded, but nearly 30 percent of the public cannot participate, the second petition says if the open Primaries fails, then public funds may not be used to fund the primaries.
I urge everyone to go to FloridaFairAndOpenPrimaries.org and get involved. Go to the Petitions tab and read over the petitions there. If you agree, print them out, sign and send them in. We need your help to bring Florida into line with most other states. And if you agree with this effort, we ask your help to make it happen. This is a totally volunteer effort, so please sign the petitions and ask all of your friends and contacts to do the same. And if so inclined, please volunteer or donate to support this cause. We need your help.
Jon Hale
Cape Coral
05/09/2018 - Finland should offer labour-market-oriented integration support to all migrants, strengthen efforts to identify and address early vulnerabilities, and work more closely with employers according to a new OECD report.
Working together Skills and labour market integration of immigrants and their children finds that, over the last 25 years, Finland has seen one of the fastest growth rates in the migrant population recorded in an OECD country. In parallel, the gap in the labour market outcomes of native- and foreign-born has diverged. And, with limited opportunities for low-skilled employment, labour market integration is increasingly challenging.
Women, in particular, are struggling to integrate; many are locked into inactivity, and face incentives to stay in the home. Early integration support in Finland sends the inactive, including many immigrant women, down a separate track from those who are actively seeking employment. This is unusual among OECD countries and risks increasing the distance between the inactive and the labour force, locking them into inactivity. On top of this, women eligible for the Child Home Care Allowance may find that staying at home is as financially advantageous as engaging in training or paid employment. The OECD recommends that the incentives engendered by these policies be re-examined.
The employment gap between migrant and native women is substantially larger among those with children under 18 than among those without. Even after five years in Finland, migrant women with children see employment rates that trail 47 percentage points behind those of native-born women with children. Policy needs to do more to support the early integration of immigrant women said Mari Kiviniemi, Deputy Secretary General of the OECD, presenting the report in Helsinki with Finlands Minister for Labour, Jari Lindstrom.
Since 2015, we have implemented a number of measures to improve the integration of immigrants, said Mr Lindstrom. I am glad to notice that the OECD, too, recognises that we are on the right track. However, the work continues. We must find better ways to promote especially the integration of women and children.
If immigrant mothers stay at home for many years there may be long-term consequences for their children; in terms of reduced enrolment in preschool during the critical early years, limited exposure to the Finnish language, and the concomitant implications for their chances of succeeding in school. As in many OECD countries, the children of immigrants do worse in school in Finland than children with native-born parents. In Finland, however, these differences are particularly striking. According to the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment, mathematics performance among native-born children with foreign-born parents lags that among those with native-born parents by equivalent to close to two years of schooling. Alongside Mexico, this is the largest gap of all surveyed countries. Efforts should be enhanced, says the OECD, to identify and address early language and learning difficulties before initial setbacks have the chance to compound.
The large number of asylum seekers that arrived in Finland in 2015 put integration squarely on the agenda, and the country was quick to develop a number of innovative integration policies in response. In particular, the report stresses Finlands commitment to policy innovation and rigorous evaluation, such as the Social Impact Bond; a programme, funded through private investment, with the ambitious goal of moving recent migrants into employment within four months of the beginning of their participation.
With a recovering economy and an integration infrastructure that has been modernised into a modular and more flexible structure, Finland is rather well equipped to integrate recently arrived migrants with heterogeneous needs. According to the report, it is important that this flexibility is accompanied by monitoring and exchange of information on training and outcomes to ensure that no migrant falls through the cracks and resources are targeted to where they are most needed.
Across the OECD, knowledge of the host-country language is a key factor in determining the speed and success of integration. The Finnish language, in particular, is both highly complex and rarely spoken outside Finland. In this context, Finland has placed much emphasis on language training and taken the unusual step of publicly financing language courses for all new migrants who are outside employment.
However, more should be done to combine language learning with workplace experience, and the report suggests that there is more scope to work with employers to facilitate early labour market contact. Enabling employers to offer apprenticeship should be a priority in this context. The OECD report also recommends that authorities share information on migrant skills and widen eligibility to wage subsidies to make them available to migrants immediately upon finishing their integration training.
The report is available at http://www.oecd.org/finland/working-together-skills-and-labour-market-integration-of-immigrants-and-their-children-in-finland-9789264305250-en.htm.
For more information on Working together Skills and labour market integration of immigrants and their children - Finland, journalists should contact Thomas.Liebig@oecd.org or Emily.Farchy@oecd.org of the OECDs International Migration Division.
Working with over 100 countries, the OECD is a global policy forum that promotes policies to improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world.
- : ,
- , ,
: - , () ?
: - , 1930 . , . , . , , . : - . , , 2030 . . . - . - , - . - . , - -. -.
: - ?
: , , . 6 . , , - , . - . , , . , , . , , 17 . 1978 - , , . , , , , . - . . , , . - .. . , 10-12 , . - , , , .
: ?
: - . , , - ? - . , . , - , . 1801 . , . - 1801. , .
, , 24 , 5 . , , 12 . . - , , , - , - . .
: ?
: . - . , - , , . , , - . - , , , . , , , , 8, , , . , , , . - . , , New horisont, .
: ?
: , , - . , , , . , , , . . . : 800 , , . , . , , , . , , , , . , , , .
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.
Graphic Packaging Holding Company Publishes Sustainability and Social Responsibility Report The 2017 Sustainability and Social Responsibility Report provides an extensive overview of Graphic Packaging's activities with references to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Standards. Sept. 4, 2018 (Press Release) - Graphic Packaging Holding Company (NYSE: GPK), (the "Company"), a leading provider of packaging solutions to food, beverage, foodservice, and other consumer products companies, today released its 2017 Sustainability and Social Responsibility Report. The report highlights the robust initiatives the Company has implemented and is continually pursuing to preserve the environment and invest in the communities where it operates. The report is available on the Sustainability tab at www.graphicpkg.com . Since establishing sustainability goals in 2008, the Company has made significant progress on its initiatives. The 2017 Sustainability and Social Responsibility Report provides an extensive overview of the Company's activities with references to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Standards. In preparing the report, the Company engaged third parties to generate the energy, carbon emissions and water metrics. The Company also responds to the CDP's (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project) Supply Chain, Climate Change, Water and Forestry questionnaires each year. The report outlines three key community pillars on which the Company is focused: Preserving the Environment, Putting Food on the Table, and Investing in Education. The report also highlights Graphic Packaging's Sustainability Vision 2025, which notes both the historical progress toward reducing the Company's environmental footprint and the goals Graphic Packaging is committed to achieving by 2025. The report includes numerous examples of the accomplishments the Company is making with environmental and social initiatives as well. "We are proud to formally present our 2017 Sustainability and Social Responsibility Report, which clearly lays out the strides Graphic Packaging has made on key sustainability and social initiatives and what we will continue to focus on for many years into the future," said President and CEO Michael Doss. "Sustainability and social responsibility are at the heart of what we do at Graphic Packaging. This includes the renewable and recyclable paperboard-based cartons and foodservice containers we produce for our customers from renewable wood fiber, our focus on continually reducing our raw material consumption and environmental footprint, and our significant involvement in the communities where we operate. We look forward to keeping our stakeholders updated on our continued progress on these initiatives in the future." Graphic Packaging Holding Company, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is a leading provider of packaging solutions for a wide variety of products to food, beverage and other consumer products companies. The company is one of the largest producers of folding cartons and holds a leading market position in coated-unbleached kraft and coated-recycled board. To learn more about Graphic Packaging, please visit: www.graphicpkg.com . SOURCE: Graphic Packaging Holding Company
In the chess game of front row seating there is one undisputed queen: Vogue EIC, Anna Wintour. Everyone else, mere pawns. Famous or otherwise, an attendee's proximity to AW is a measure of their standing at that very particular (and fleeting) moment in time. Usually, Wintour's direct seatmates are her Vogue colleagues Grace Coddington, Hamish Bowles, Tonne Goodman or occasionally an actress who happens to be on the cover that month. Often it's usually an actress or celebrity the brand showing is promoting; which is to say, all highly orchestrated.
However, for as many shows as Wintour has attended in her 30 years at the helm of Vogue probably in the 10s of thousands there are bound to be some surprises (or pairings that are, shall we say, outliers). Some, like Nicki Minaj at Carolina Herrera in 2011, are now iconic images; there are others though, with the benefit of hindsight, that strike a much stranger tone (Donald Trump at Marc Jacobs). Herewith some of the most memorable and major moments of Anna's + 1s.
Queen Recognize Queen Photo via Getty
The most recent one for the books was at last season's Richard Quinn show in London where none other than Queen Elizabeth II was seated next to (Dame) Anna Wintour. The two had met at least once before in 2017 when Her Majesty The Queen presented AW with the Order of the British Empire. It was one of those moments, looking at the two, where one can say with absolutely certainty... yes this makes complete sense. Rare anymore at a fashion show.
Related | The New Royals
Anna, Cardi. Cardi, Anna Photo via BFA
The best part about this picture is imagining Anna listening to "Bodack Yellow" for the first time, which is what we guess happened right after she met Cardi B at Alexander Wang last season. Despite Cardi's predilection for Louboutins and Anna's unwavering allegiance to Manolos, it seems like they were able to put their differences aside for the duration of the Wang show.
Related | Cardi B Is Still Real
Same TBH Photo via Getty
It was an admirable (if ambitious) gesture of mom Kim Kardashian to think that her 2-year-old (at the time) North West would be able to withstand the sensory overload of a fashion show and the hurry up and wait confines of a crowded venue. Seated between Anna and Beyonce at the Fall 2015 Yeezy show, naturally North got a little antsy, and like any toddler, eventually had enough and let everyone know with a mini tantrum. Been there! AW and Queen B remained characteristically unbothered.
Hey Yo, Anna! Photo via Getty
The strangest part about this picture to me is that it took place at... Carolina Herrera? Anyway, it's truly iconic. Also... Nicki is still waiting on that Vogue cover 7 years later. Book the bad guy!
Our Hearts Go On Photo via Getty
Remember that couture season that Celine took Paris by storm and we were never the same? Well, of course, she was seated next to Anna at Dior and there was a glimmer of hope there would be a Celine (in Celine) cover but alas...
Drizzy at Serena Williams for HSN Photo via Getty
In your feelings? Can't relate.
The Donald Photo via Getty
Kim Kardashian West might be an unlikely political lobbyist, but you can't argue she's an ineffective one. In June, President Trump commuted the life sentence of Alice Marie Johnson basically because Kim told him to. Now the KKW mogul has returned to Washington, campaigning for the release of another non-violent drug offender facing a lifetime behind bars.
Kardashian's new cause is 30-year-old Chris Young, who received a life sentence after three arrests for marijuana and cocaine possession. He's already served ten years. "His prior conviction to get him to his three strikes was marijuana, and then marijuana with less than half a gram of cocaine," Kardashian explained to podcast host Jason Flom on an episode of his show Wrongful Conviction, released yesterday. "It was just a crazy there's so many people like him."
Today Kim shared photos of a White House "listening session" on clemency and prison reform headed up by Trump's son-in-law and self-proclaimed prison reform enthusiast Jared Kushner. Other activists attending included former Obama adviser Van Jones and human rights attorney Jessica Jackson Sloan.
Would this news story have seemed normal a year ago? No. But actually we're pretty glad Kim's on the case. If her last visit to DC is any indication, Young has reason to feel optimistic about a shortened sentence. According to Vanity Fair, she's been making "near daily contact" with the White House to push for more commutations.
More generally, her return invite ignites an ember of hope that prison reform legislation could pass sooner rather than later. Especially as Jared Kushner has indicated that new laws are a priority.
It isn't confirmed whether Kim will meet with Trump himself this time around which means we might not get a recreation of this creepy photo.
Photo via Twitter
The Coyote Ugly and Covert Affairs actress, Piper Perabo, was reportedly arrested today while protesting the Supreme Court Nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.
Perabo announced on Twitter, that she had been arrested for "civil disobedience" while at the hearing and posted a clip of her and other women being forcefully escorted out of the chamber by police. Perabo has been an outspoken critic of Kavanaugh's nomination since it was announced in July and attended today's hearings with organizers of the Women's March. Related | Women Show Up at Brett Kavanaugh's Hearing Dressed as Handmaids
"Many citizens before me have fought for the equal rights of women" Perabo tweeted, "I can't be silent when someone is nominated to the Supreme Court who would take our equal rights away."
I was just arrested for civil disobedience in the Kavanaugh hearings.
Many citizens before me have fought for the equal rights of women. I cant be silent when someone is nominated to the Supreme Court who would take our equal rights away.#StopKavanaghpic.twitter.com/f3SG7gmVam Piper Perabo (@PiperPerabo) September 4, 2018
Kavanaugh's nomination for Supreme Court judge has been highly contested due to his record on women's reproductive rights. Kavanaugh in the past ruled to deny the right to an abortion for an undocumented teenager and has been critical of criminal investigations into sitting presidents (like the one he was a part of that investigated Bill Clinton). Before the hearing began today, 40,000 documents that had previously been withheld were released to Senate Democrats causing even more outrage at what appears to be a rush to confirm Kavanaugh before the fall mid-terms.
Photo via Getty Images
According to retired founder and CEO of TSMC, Apple's supplier of processors, the global chip industry risks losing out to Chinese rivals who are exploiting generous government subsidies to invest in emerging technologies.
In his first major public appearance since stepping down from the world's largest contract manufacturer semiconductor in June, the industry veteran warned that only massive investment in major innovations would guarantee that today's chipmakers would still be relevant tomorrow.
Dr. Chang stated during his keynote at the annual SEMICON Taiwan fair earlier today that "We see innovative business models heavily subsidized by governments such as China's, even without knowing if they are sustainable." He identified 3D chip packaging, extreme ultraviolet chip equipment, artificial intelligence and machine learning as among technologies that could create new opportunities for the semiconductor industry.
In the bigger picture, Dr. Chang was upbeat about the outlook for the industry, saying he expected growth to be double that of the world economy over the next 20 years.
"I think global GDP growth will be around 2.5% to 3%, while the semiconductor industry could continue to grow faster, at around 5% to 6% over the next two decades," said Chang.
Chang's sentiments come as the industry finds itself under scrutiny by countries concerned about national security, notably evident in the current U.S.-China trade dispute, which is escalating into a technology cold war between the two powers.
China has been using government funds to bolster its semiconductor sector to reduce dependence on foreign chipmakers, a key component of its "Made in China 2025" initiative. The U.S. hopes to curb this through tariffs and by closely monitoring Chinese investments in American tech companies. For more on this, read the full Nikkei Asian Review report here.
In January, Patently Apple posted a report titled "U.S. Government Attempting to Stop Apple Smartphone Competitor Huawei from Entering the U.S. Market via AT&T." It was noted in that report that two congressional aides had told Reuters that the "U.S. lawmakers are urging AT&T to cut commercial ties to Chinese phone maker Huawei and oppose plans by telecom operator China Mobile Ltd to enter the U.S. market because of national security concerns."
This week it was reported that the Trump administration could hit China with $200 Billion worth of new tariffs on Chinese goods while China eases economic pressure on North Korea to undercut the U.S.. China's state media has warned that China could use Apple as a bargaining chip to help curb the proposed U.S. tariffs.That's what nervous Apple investors are keeping an eye on.
While the U.S.- China cold war may be necessary to put the U.S. on a fairer playing field with China, the short term pain will have the media and tech companies endlessly complaining. For now it's good to hear that the retired founder and CEO of TSMC is making the Chinese threat real for those attending the SEMICON Taiwan trade show.
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.
Earlier today Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple Won 49 Patents Today Covering a Major one for a Folding iPhone," wherein it was noted that Samsung's mobile chief had told the press in August that they were close to launching the world's first dual display smartphone. Now we're learning that Samsung will unveil details of a foldable smartphone later this year, the CEO of its mobile division told CNBC.
DJ Koh said that "it's time to deliver" on a foldable device after consumer surveys carried out by Samsung showed that there is a market for that kind of handset.
After watching CNBC's technology correspondent talk about his chat with Samsung's mobile chief Koh above, I'm not sure whether Arjun Kharpal got the story right or if Koh just can't keep his story straight.
In the report that we linked to above, Koh very specifically talked about a dual display smartphone in the press scrum in New York after the Samsung Note 9 was unveiled not a bendable display. He made that point very clear. Yet that contradicts the CNBC reporter's tale of Koh describing a single bendable display for a smartphone.
The NBC report further noted that Koh has hinted (not confirmed) that "more details of the device could be unveiled this year at the Samsung Developer Conference in November in San Francisco, but gave no indication of when a full launch would take place or when it might go on sale." How vague a statement can you get?
Why is Koh forecasting a foldable smartphone display when the company has just created a task force to examine mass production of such a phone? More importantly, why is a Samsung official contradicting Samsung's mobile chief on this front?
Further into the CNBC's written report, Samsung's mobile CEO reportedly admitted to NBC's Kharpal that while the development process is "complicated," the company has "nearly concluded" it.
Nearly concluded it? This has been an ongoing rumor since 2017 and yet Samsung is only at the phase of "nearly concluding" it?
The funny thing is that I would like to see a dual display infotainment smartphone come to market to shake things up. Yet until we hear more from Samsung's November 2018 developer conference, confusion still remains as to what Samsung may or may not do.
While NBC's latest video report is an excitable one with more guessing than facts, yesterday's NBC report by the same reporter titled "Samsung is packing more tech into its mid-priced smartphones to appeal to millennials," seems to represent a more realistic Samsung strategy.
While Samsung has clearly been under pressure by Chinese smartphone makers Xiaomi and Huawei for most of 2018, they've gotten the message loud and clear. The mid-market is where millennials are living and Samsung is about fine turn their focus on this market with new mid-range smartphones with high-end features to that market back from the Chinese vendors.
CNBC's technology correspondent Arjun Kharpal noted that "Instead of introducing new technology into the flagship Galaxy S and Note series of devices, Koh said Samsung will look to bring in cutting-edge features to its cheaper models first. The first of these devices will come later this year.
In the end, new smartphones based on those parameters are more likely to become a reality later this year than a dual display model in the coming months ahead.
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.
News and commentary on organized crime, street crime, white collar crime, cyber crime, sex crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, espionage and terrorism.
Professor Ehsan Yarshater, founder of Encyclopedia Iranica: April 3, 1920 - September 2, 2018
09/04/18
Joint announcement by
The Ehsan Yarshater Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University;
The Persian Heritage Foundation; and
The Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation
It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Professor Ehsan Yarshater on September 2, 2018 in Fresno, California.
Endowed with a rare combination of a bold and broad scholarly vision, immense erudition, and unfailing determination, Professor Ehsan Yarshater transformed Iranian studies, creating an enduring legacy at Columbia University which advanced the scholarship and understanding of the histories, cultures and accomplishments of Iranian peoples.
Ehsan Yarshater was Hagop Kevorkian Professor Emeritus of Iranian Studies at Columbia University and Director of its Center for Iranian Studies until 2016. He was born in Hamadan on April 3, 1920, but grew up mostly in Tehran, where he finished his secondary education at the top of his class. This earned him a scholarship to study at the Faculty of Literature and the Teacher's College of the University of Tehran, from which he graduated in 1941. He entered the service of the Ministry of Education in 1942 as a teacher at Elmieh High School in Tehran and two years later was appointed Deputy Director of the Preparatory Educational College (Danesh-sara-ye Moqaddamati) in Tehran. In the meantime, he studied at the Faculty of Law and received a B.A. at the Legal Branch from that Faculty. At the same time he pursued his study of Persian literature at the University of Tehran and received a Doctorate in this field in 1947.
A year later, he received a scholarship from the British Council to continue his study in England. He opted to study Old and Middle Iranian Languages with the great German scholar W.B. Henning, received an M.A. in 1953 and returned to Iran the same year. He began to work on his doctoral dissertation and received his second Ph.D. from the University of London in 1960 by defending his dissertation, titled Southern Tati Dialects, during the meeting of the Congress of the Orientalists held in Moscow that year.
In 1953, he founded The [Royal] Institute for Translation and Publication (Bongah-e Tarjomeh va Nashr-e Ketab - BTNK), which went on to publish some 500 volumes of books before the Islamic Revolution of 1979, consisting of the Persian text series; the Iranology series, comprising translations of major works of Iranologists into Persian; translations of world classics works intended for young people and books for kindergarten children; and a series of books offering general knowledge in various fields. Many innovations of the BTNK were adopted by other publishers, such as the use of a logo and blurbs on all its publications. The BTNK was the most important publisher to come into being in Iran and continued in that role as long as it operated.
Upon his return to Tehran in 1953, Dr. Yarshater was appointed first as an Assistant Professor of Persian Literature and the following year of Old Persian. In 1958, he was invited by Columbia University as Visiting Associate Professor of Indo-Iranian for two consecutive years. In 1960, he succeeded Professor Ebrahim Pourdavoud as Professor of Ancient Iranian Culture at the University of Tehran. In 1961 he was invited back by Columbia University to occupy the newly founded Chair of Iranian Studies, endowed by Hagop Kevorkian, a well-known Armenian art collector, and to develop the field. In 1968, he founded the Center for Iranian Studies at that University.
Professor Yarshater authored several books and served as the Editor or General Editor of numerous scholarly works. His books include Persian Poetry in the Second Half of the 15th Century (in Persian, 1953), and Southern Tati Dialects(1970). He edited the third volume of Cambridge History of Iran, in two parts, covering the Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian periods (1983, 1986), and Persian Literature (1988). He was the Founding General Editor of the Persian Text Series, the Persian Heritage Series, the Persian Studies Series, and the Modern Persian Literature Series. The annotated translation of Tabari's History in 40 volumes was completed under his General Editorship.
He was also the Founding Editor of the Encyclopdia Iranica, arguably the world's most extensive scholarly, groundbreaking, and comprehensive reference work authored by multiple scholars. It is dedicated to the broad and inclusive study of all aspects of Iranian civilization in the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent, offering a comprehensive and detailed overview of its subject.
He was also the Founding Editor of A History of Persian Literature. This 22-volume, authoritative survey was designed to reflect the status and significance of Persian literature as the single most important accomplishment of the Iranian people through its long history. It includes extensive, and carefully selected specimens of poetry and prose with translations and commentary by prominent scholars.
Professor Yarshater was an honorary member of Societas Iranologica Europaea and of the Association for Iranian Studies, which he served as President as well. He was also a life member of the American Institute of Iranian Studies.
Lecture series in his name have been instituted at the University of London, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Paris, the University of Maryland and existed, up to 2005, at Harvard University.
In 2012, he established the Ehsan Yarshater Fellowship Fund at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University. In 2014 Yale University established a Lecture Series on Iranian Studies in his name.
In August 15, 2018 Columbia University received a $10 million gift from the Persian Heritage Foundation to endow the Ehsan Yarshater Center for Iranian Studies.
We offer our deepest condolences to his niece, Ms. Mojdeh Yarshater, and her husband, Mr. Tony Jebian, and to his millions of admirers around the world.
Read related article by Iranian daily Ghanoon
Zarif, Assad say Western pressure will fail to stop Iran-Syria terror fight
09/04/18
Source: Press TV
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif say Western pressure on Tehran and Damascus will fail to deter them from fighting terrorism.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (R) with Iranian FM Mohammad Javad Zarif
In a meeting in Damascus on Monday, Zarif and Assad asserted that Western countries would not be able to deter Iran and Syria from defending their principles, the interests of the two nations, and the security and stability of the entire region.
The two sides emphasized that Western policy of threat and pressure against Syria and Iran shows the West's failure to achieve its goals in the Middle East.
The Syrian president and Iranian foreign minister hailed the current level of relations between the two countries in various fields and agreed to further continue consultations and coordination, particularly in the light of the rapidly-shifting regional and international issues.
They also discussed the latest developments in Syria and other regional countries as well as a planned summit of Iranian, Russian and Turkish presidents in Tehran.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will host his Turkish and Russian counterparts Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin, respectively, on September 7 in an attempt to find ways to end the ongoing crisis in Syria.
The three presidents have previously held summits in the Russian resort city of Sochi in November 2017 and in the Turkish capital, Ankara, in April.
Earlier in the day, the top Iranian diplomat held separate meetings with his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Muallem and Prime Minister Imad Khamis.
Zarif and Muallem discussed regional issues and the latest developments in Syria, including the return of the displaced people to their homeland.
The top Iranian and Syrian diplomats stressed the importance of strengthening economic cooperation and the participation of Iranian firms in the reconstruction of war-ravaged Syria as well as cooperation in international organizations, particularly the United Nations.
Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami on August 26 hailed the steadfastness of the Syrian people and government forces in their battle against terrorism, expressing confidence that they will achieve a final victory in this path.
"Not only regional people, but people around the world are indebted to the fight carried out against terrorists in Syria," Hatami said in a meeting with President Assad in Damascus.
Also in a meeting with Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi in Damascus in May, the Syrian president said the development of economic cooperation with Iran and all the countries that insist on defending their sovereignty and independence is one of the most important ways to confront Western plots.
He added that Western powers are resorting to sanctions and coercive economic measures as a means to impose restrictions on nations and obliging them to bow to their hegemonic policies.
Related News: Kremlin Rejects Trump's Warning Against New Offensive In Syria
UK minister: We seek no covert operation in Iran, plan to build ties
09/04/18
By Mohammad Ghaderi & Payman Yazdani, Tehran Times
TEHRAN - UK's Minister of State for the Middle East, Alistair Burt, in an exclusive interview with the Tehran Times, reaffirms his country's support to the 2015 nuclear deal following the U.S. unilateral withdrawal from the agreement, saying the UK, along with the European Union, are doing all they can to provide the mechanism by which they can continue trade transactions with Iran.
UK's Minister of State for the Middle East, Alistair Burt
He also stressed that the UK is prepared to pay the costs of maintaining economic relations with Iran in the face of U.S. extraterritorial sanctions, noting the importance of having an independent foreign policy from that of Washington.
"We will make our own decision," he said. However, he added, finding a technical mechanism to allow the continuation of banking transactions with Iran would not be an easy task and it would take time.
The British diplomat further maintained that the EU and the U.S. will remain "good friends", but the UK is committed to maintaining a relationship with Iran.
About a belief among Iranians that Britain is seeking to stir up unrest in Iran, especially through media outlets such as the BBC Persian, Burt said the UK is not seeking to do "covert operation" in Iran. Instead, Burt said he is being given the mission by the prime minister and foreign secretary to "build relationship" with Iran.
The following is the text of Tehran Times' interview with Burt:
Would you please tell us that what issues were raised during your talks with Iranian officials in Tehran?
This is my third visit to Tehran in round about a year. The fact that I've been here three times means that the relationships I'm building gets stronger each time. I have lost count of the number of meetings I had with Deputy Foreign Minister Araghchi because we meet here, we meet in Europe, and we speak on the phone. Dr. Kharrazi, whom I met again this morning, I met him before. And I met, for the first time, the chairman of foreign relations committee. So the familiarity that we gain with each other is important to the United Kingdom and my approaches on behalf of the prime minister and foreign secretary are much about building relationship and being able to have through that relationship and the ability to look at those things that we share in common which are more than what people would think sometimes. And also provide the right platform for what we do disagree to be able to talk it through. And this is a region that matters a great deal to the United Kingdom, and Iran matters to United Kingdom. In terms of the questions that they covered, as you would imagine, they covered JCPOA and United Kingdom's position and relations to that, bilateral relationships which covers issues like consular matters, visas and issues such as that a look around in the region and what's happening in terms of events in Syria, Yemen, the Middle East peace process. I was able to see a little bit of culture when I met the director of the national museum because the cultural relationship between the United Kingdom and Iran is very good. At a very sensitive time in our relationship indeed, when we did not have diplomatic relations, I was responsible for signing the order to release the Cyrus Cylinder for the exhibition here. Because for me, personally, it was very important to our cultural relations continued even at a difficult time between nations. So the questions on the discussions and international issues came up; these were the main topics of conversations as we went round the discussions.
Any special achievements? How successful do you assess your visit?
I don't think you build a relationship on a series of outputs. The fact that I count my contacts as friends, those who I would meet in street anywhere and exchange word with. I think it is extremely important the fact that we understand each other. I think trust is important. And we will say things about which we disagree. That's inevitable. But that we say those things with sincerity, and the position is accepted as not being hostile but in explanation of position, I think is important. Now if you measure success in terms of building relationships, then those are positive outcomes and achievements from the conversations we have here, I go away with a clear sense of what is very much on the mind of the government and I hope my interlocutors have a clear sense of the responses of the United Kingdom. And we have all channels open as we look at a region and look forward to what we can do to deescalate tensions in the region and build on things that we can work on together.
What is the approach of London toward the JCPOA and President Trump's withdrawal from the agreement?
We made very clear both before the American announcement and after, that we regarded the JCPOA as a commitment to honor. We recognized that Iran has met the compliance conditions in relation to its nuclear program. We strongly support the work of the IAEA. We regarded as significant that Iran has met its obligations. I'm also regarded that it's extremely important that Iran continues to meets its obligations; that's fundamental to relationships built around it. We are doing all we can in the European Union to make sure we can provide the mechanisms by which our trade can continue. This is not easy. We know that there is frustration. It is not an easy time for the economy in Iran, we understand this. There are other issues going on, there are reforms that are needed in banking. The decision of the United States doesn't make it easier. We are very determined in the European Union to find mechanisms and at the same time we are still encouraging our businesses to be involved. They have difficult commercial decisions to make; I understand that but our determination remains as it was when we signed JCPOA. This matters and when you give support to something, then you should stick to it.
What are the economic, political and security importance of the JCPOA for the UK and EU?
It is very important. We are all aware that this was not an agreement signed in haste as a whim; it took years of negotiation. There were difficult calculations on both sides but nuclear proliferation is fundamental to the security of the world. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has been a success at a time when the world is looking for international norms to cling on to, like the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons which of course must mean a great deal to Iran having suffered from that during the Iran-Iraq war. So the Non-Proliferation Treaty is important. Making sure that nations abide by it, to have access to peaceful use of nuclear energy but do not do anything else, is really important. So for us the signing of this treaty was very important and I know that for my EU colleagues as well. The meetings we had since the American decision and recently in Vienna with Foreign Minister Zarif and Deputy Foreign Minister Araghchi where we recommitted our political determination to keep things going. So it is of great importance to us both in economic and security terms.
To what extent is the UK ready to pay for the costs of keeping the JCPOA alive despite the U.S. pressure?
On this issue the UK as the U.S. ally pays the costs of the disagreement. It is very clear that the U.S. would like all to follow their lead and abandon the JCPOA and we are pressed to do so. It is not our view so we are very clear that we will make our own decision and we are very determined to do so. We are working on the economic side of it. We are working to find a technical mechanism that will allow the banking system to continue. This is not an easy process. It does take time. It cannot be achieved very quickly. We are working very honestly on that. We have realized that there is cost in our relationship but we are prepared to pay the cost because it is the independence of foreign policy matter.
Why do you think that this process is not easy?
I am not a technical expert to talk about this. They are trying to put together a banking mechanism in Europe. And remember that the world banking system is interconnected, and the reach of American financial institutions is very long, and people have mutual obligations trying to find a path through those that secures those banking arrangements to make sure that they can be fulfilled in relation to European, and Iranian connections outside the reach of any U.S. sanctions is not technically easy.
Does the UK exit from the EU affect the UK relations with the U.S.?
Not really. There is a difference of opinion and difference of policies between the United Kingdom and the EU and the United States. It is not the end of relationship between the EU, the UK and the United States. It must not be considered as a possibility of that. We disagree with our partners on important issues. The United States is still a great partner of the United Kingdom in a whole variety of ways. But when we think something is wrong, say the example of United States' moving of its embassy to Jerusalem. At a time when there is not a conclusion to the Middle East peace process, we thought that it was wrong. We are prepared to say so. But the EU and the United States will remain good friends. But this is not a zero sum game. Remaining in a close relationship with the United States is not at the expense of the relationship we wished to have with Iran. And we will work on that. That relationship is dependent on the whole series of other things. So, do not confuse the two. We can maintain relationships with the United States and relationship with Iran. And that is what we will continue to do.
How do you see the future of the JCPOA and relations between Iran and the EU, especially with the UK?
Firstly, my sense is that there is a determination all around to work to keep the JCPOA in place. I think it is understood here as in London how important it is. It is under pressures and restraints; we know that.
Iranians are doubtful of the will of the EU to keep the JCPOA alive. Given all these obstacles that are on the way, how feasible is it to keep it alive? And, how do you see the future of the agreement?
I would suggest your readers, if they doubt the sincerity of the EU. We had weeks to walk away. We could simply have accepted the Americans' leaving the agreement and it would have no longer mattered. We could have said there and then, well we are very sorry there we are. We did not, we have had time over the last few weeks. We could have said, well we worked very hard, we are not going to continue. But we have not. There is no reason to doubt the sincerity and the determination of the EU to fulfill as China and Russia. But it remains fundamental. We must all do our best to fulfill the provisions. That includes compliance with the nuclear arrangements as certified by the IAEA. But there is no reason to doubt the sincerity and the determination of the EU to continue with this. I see no evidence; I see a lot of hard work by my colleagues trying to find the mechanism that will assist in terms of the economies. I do not see any lack of will. I do not think that will be detected by any of your readers.
Germany and France have announced that they are going to establish a new financial mechanism to deal with Iran. Does the UK support it too?
We are working collectively to find mechanisms to support our businesses. Yes.
How do you see the future of the relations between Iran and the UK? In which way do you think it can be much better than now?
Good, remember it is not that long ago I could not have been sitting here to have this interview as you know. It has been within my time as a foreign minister that we have been up and down and back up again. So it is good that I am here. I like my conversations here. I like an opportunity to discuss with a state with a country that has such an extraordinary history, three thousand years of history and influence in the region. How it sees the region and how that history is used in contemporary sense, bearing in mind the nature of the government here and the nature of the government in state roundabout. I have colleagues in the parliament who have been here regularly. The Anglo-Iranian business and corporation, we have the cultural relationship. And, you know, we have a first rate ambassadorial team and colleagues who work right across the board in the things that we can do together. These are all fundamental of relationship.
So the short answer to your question is that "how do I see the relationship": good. If we could not talk about things we do not see the same way, well that would be illustration of poor relationship. It is not illustration of poor relationship to have disagreement. It is the illustration of poor relationship if you cannot talk about them. And we can. But we should not magnify those, we should look at those areas of conflict in the region and say what we can all do to try to deescalate the conflict and the risks that we share together.
As you know the relations between Iran and the UK has had ups and downs and this relationship has been suffering from historical distrust. In recent years, many believe that the UK tries secretly to affect Iranian internal affairs in different ways like supporting unrest in Iran by media outlets like the BBC Persian to weaken Iranian establishment and pave the way for regime change. What do you think of this? Is there a program in London to boost trust between London and Tehran?
Well, firstly, let me give a short answer to the allegations that are made and be very clear. We do not do what was alleged in your question. We have no plans to do so and we have no covert operation to do it. And we reject very fundamentally allegations in relation to specifically BBC Persian Service. It does a first rate job. It works to convey the news to people. And there is no evidence and no desire in the United Kingdom to do anything that would fuel these concerns that people have, quite the contrary. So you ask "what's our program to build up trust". You know, I suppose you can. My engagement, the engagement of Boris Johnson and when he was the foreign secretary to make a visit here and see foreign minister Zarif. There is the upcoming visit of my own foreign secretary who would be coming in here with the opportunities in New York when people get together. These are opportunities where people meet up and discuss their opportunities to build trust. And we should all do our best and try to deescalate the allegations of mistrust that are too easy to run these days. We live in a world of fake news and everything else where it is easy to run suspicions. Let's look at facts and evidence and I would ask readers to say. There is no evidence to suggest that this sort of worries, that people may have, have any foundation.
Are there any differences between the U.S. and the UK regarding the developments in the Middle East, I mean Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Bahrain and the Deal of Century?
Well, look! We can have half an hour on each one of those. There are, to trying answer it shortly, differences of policy between United Kingdom and United States but there are many areas of agreement. We'll want to see a stable and secure Middle East. We are very aware of the potentials of confrontations now between different elements in the region. And we all want to work actively to deescalate those tensions. And they are different in each place. Two or three as an example; Syria: Syria will come to a conclusion. The fighting is likely to be ended relatively soon. We strongly support a political agreement and settlement that would mean the future of Syria for its people and those refugees returning will be secure. That would mean the present regime cannot operate as it did prior to 2011, and has got to operate in a way which its people feel secure and safe, and we would look to friends to support that in Yemen. It's essential that conflict comes to an end as quickly as possible. We strongly support the efforts of the UN special envoy, Martin Griffiths, and again, everyone knows the conflict has been deeply distressing for the people of Yemen, and we must do all we can to end the conflict. All of us with influence on different parties there should seek to do so. Middle East peace process is fundamental to the United Kingdom. Of course, we have a long engagement with Israel and the Palestinians, as is well known. So it matters to us fundamentally that there is a just settlement to the issues between them. We support the two-state solution. The issue of Jerusalem is for negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel. We do not accept the United States position that is somehow off the table. We will continue our support to the Palestinian people through bilateral programs. But we don't regard the Middle East peace process as something that has been going on a long time and can go on forever; it's essential to us that it comes to an early conclusion, and we will work really hard for that.
Now in each of these areas, we join with the United States in a broad determination that these areas should be secure and conflict should end. We may have some differences in position, but essentially we see that the same. But we don't see that our partners in Iran are fundamentally in a different place. We all want to see a resolution of the conflict, and an opportunity where extremism and terrorism does not flourish, as it threatens us all. And we want to work together. And we are very keen to see when that can be done.
You talked about Yemen, but I know that the UK government continues to sell weapons to the Saudi regime. There is a difference between the statements of the UK regarding Yemen and the human rights issues and the European country's behavior. And what is the general approach of London toward the developments in Bahrain and the democratic demands of its people?
Bahrain has been in the process of reform for many years and prior to the events of 2011; since 2011, we have worked with the government of Bahrain on this reform program with providing technical assistance; we believe it is important how that reform program goes on; it is important that the process goes without violence being directed against the Bahraini government and against the Bahraini people; and we will continue to work with Bahrain as a good partner and strong partner of the United Kingdom; and we want the reform program will continue to make sure that Bahrain's government works with all its people who count on their identity strongly as Bahraini rather than anything else; we will continue to support that.
Is there anything else that you like to add at the end of this interview?
No. I think you asked a good question at the beginning that gave me the opportunity to express my thanks to our interlocutors here in the government; they have been very generous as I see a lot your minister in different places and I appreciate that and that's good and I was also able to make references to the other meetings that I had here; so I am going to see the programs in Iran to talk about the works done here for the Afghans which again is not easy for your government. So you gave me good opportunity to answer your questions, thanks you very much.
The Deputy Managing Director of Fidelity Bank Ghana, Julian Kingsley Opuni, has reiterated the banks support for healthcare delivery in the country.
The health sector is very important to Fidelity Bank as we have been engaged in various healthcare related partnerships through USAID, funding of the Medical Credit Fund, various hospitals, and the pharmaceutical industry, he stated.
Speaking at the presentation of ventilators to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital by Fidelity Bank, Mr. Julian Opuni said it is impossible to make inroads in the health sector if the bank does not partner with an institution like KATH.
We engaged the management of KATH and identified that ventilators were urgently needed by the hospital. We have come to present the ventilators and also find out what other assistance we can give to the hospital.
He disclosed that a few years ago the bank partnered KATH with the aim to collaborate and assist to create uniformity and structure around collection of monies and also make it easier to monitor funds. In addition, he said the bank also had customer service training for the hospital to help in the delivery of service to patients.
Receiving the ventilators, The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KATH, Dr. Oheneba Owusu-Danso, stated, The hospital currently needs six ventilators and this noble gesture from Fidelity Bank comes at the right time and we very much appreciate it.
He continued that we will deepen our relationship with the bank and also request them to give more support to the hospital.
Aside the health sector, Fidelity Bank has over the years initiated projects to support other key areas of the economy like the education and agricultural sectors.
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
Government has indicated that it will offer incentives to both local and foreign carmakers in Ghana to access the ECOWAS market.
Government recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with VW to establish an assembly plant in Ghana.
Yaw Osafo Maafo, Senior Minister disclosed this at the opening of the two-day Ghana Economic Forum (GEF), which started yesterday in Accra.
We shall offer identical incentives to all such initiatives in the country whether foreign-owned or locally-owned. Thus, whatever incentives that are advanced to support VW shall be advanced to local initiatives such as Kantanka Automobile Company Limited.
Mr Osafo Maafo, therefore, appealed to local operators to take advantage of governments initiatives and find innovative ways of being competitive.
Fiscal responsibility council
The senior minister revealed that Ghana had experienced inconsistent growth in her development over the years, saying We make progress at certain times but fail to consolidate the gains.
As a result of the fiscal slippages and inconsistencies in growth, government is working on establishing the Fiscal Responsibility Council to implement the Fiscal Responsibility Act to be enacted. The objective is to ensure that government pegs its deficit to a maximum of 5 percent of GDP. The law is also to prescribe possible sanctions for violating the provisions of the Act.
Achievements so far
Mr Osafo Maafo trumpeted governments achievement since coming into office. These include a reduction in the inflation to 9.6 percent in July, this year (the lowest since December 2012; cedi depreciation of 2.4 percent from January to June (the lowest in the first 18 months of every government in the fourth republic) and the first-ever positive primary balance of 0.7 percent in 2017 (the first time in a decade).
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 President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has told the business community in China that their preferred investment destination in Africa should be Ghana, because the country is a haven of peace, security and stability, and because she protects legitimate investments.
Speaking at the Ghana-China Investment Forum, on Wednesday, 5th September, 2018, in Shangdong Province, President Akufo-Addo urged the Chinese business community to take advantage of the growing business-friendly climate in the country to invest in Ghana.
Our flagship agricultural programme, Planting for Food and Jobs, our renewable energy sector and ICT growth are all areas of considerable opportunity. These are all sectors you can profitably partner with Ghanaian companies, some of whose representatives have come all the way from Ghana to be here with me, he said.
Having taken the decision to walk hand-in-hand with China and her business community, because we desire to walk far, President Akufo-Addo told the gathering that China has, since 2015, been Ghanas largest trading partner, with total trade amounting to some $6.7 billion in 2017.
However, with the majority of exports from Ghana to Shangdong, for example, being crude oil, bauxite and its concentrates, sawn timber, i.e. raw materials, the President told the Chinese business community that we want to stop being mere producers and exporters of raw materials, and, thereby, deal with China, and, indeed, Shangdong province, on the basis of things we make.
It is for this reason that he commended to Chinese business community his governments flagship policy of 1-District-1-Factory.
Thus far, companies that have established factories in Ghana, under this policy, are importing machinery and equipment duty-free, are not paying import duty on raw materials imported for production, and are enjoying a corporate income tax holiday for five years, the President said.
He indicated that, additionally, the Ministry of Trade and Industry has attached two technical experts to provide free advisory services to these companies.
Touching on the countrys infrastructural deficit, President Akufo-Addo said his government is embarking on an aggressive public private partnership programme to attract investment in the development of both the countrys road and railway infrastructure.
We are hopeful that, with solid private sector participation, we can develop a modern railway network with strong production centre linkages and with the potential to connect us to our neighbours to the north, i.e. Burkina Faso, to the west, i.e. Cote dIvoire, and to the east, i.e. Togo, he said.
The President continued, We believe that this is an area where Chinese technology and expertise would be very welcome, and we are happy to note that some important Chinese companies are, in fact, making efforts to enter the rail sector of our economy. We will know the result shortly, but I am confident that there will be Chinese participation in the development of the Ghanaian rail sector.
He told the business community that there are several projects in roads, water, housing, transport, industry, manufacturing, agriculture, petroleum and gas, the exploitation of Ghanas mineral wealth of bauxite, iron ore and gold, amongst others, which are being structured to attract private sector financing.
President Akufo-Addo, thus, urged them to invest in Ghana either through the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre or set up as a Free Zones enterprise.
Regardless of where the investment is, government has instituted a number of incentives for the investor, depending on the nature of the activity, or the location of the investment, the President added.
These incentives, he said, include exemption from payment of import duty for plant and machinery; 25 per cent tax rebate for companies located in regional capitals; 50 per cent tax rebate for companies investing outside regional capitals in the regions; and 0% corporate tax for ten (10) years, and, thereafter, 8% for companies in the Free Zones enclave.
President Akufo-Addo, in conclusion, stressed to the Chinese business community in future, when you are deciding to invest in any part of the world, certainly in Africa, Ghana should be your preferred investment destination.
As I have said, we are keen on establishing a business-friendly economy to attract foreign direct investments to exploit our countrys great potential on mutually satisfactory terms. I can assure you, once again, that your investments will be protected in fact and in law.
Source: Peacefmonline.com
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
Featured Video
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has stated that Ghana aims to replicate Chinas development model in the last three decades that has led to the creation of progress and prosperity for its people.
Chinas aggressive development of the market economy on the wheels of industrialisation has lifted over half a billion people out of poverty, thereby creating the world's largest middle class in the process.
The President said this when he addressed a roundtable meeting of Presidents and Heads of State at the third Summit of the Forum on China Africa Co-operation (FOCAC) in Beijing, China on Tuesday.
Ghana inspired
President Akufo-Addo said Ghana was inspired by the Chinese model and was trying to replicate same through its industrialisation policy of One district One factory, and an increase in agricultural productivity through the Planting for Food and Jobs pragramme.
He congratulated President Xi Jinping for holding the summit and noted that both China and Africa recognised that a win-win situation for their respective peoples would be the desired outcome.
The President indicated that China was the largest trading partner of Ghana and most countries in Africa.
He added that the continent was grateful for the support of China, especially financial and technical, given to African countries over the years, and the implementation of the commitments made by China at recent FOCAC Summits, which had benefitted the peoples of Africa considerably.
We believe that the Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by President Xi Jinping, will further intensify Chinese commitment to Africas development. Last nights message from President Xi, in his opening statement at this years summit, involving the allocation of a comprehensive package of support for Africas development, including a $60 billion fund, is a powerful reinforcement of that commitment.
I have urged others not to ignore Africa, and I am glad that China is, most certainly, not ignoring our continent," the President added.
Value addition
President Akufo-Addo explained that the resolve of his government was to build a value-added, industrialised economy with a modernised agriculture, trading in the global marketplace on the basis of products produced, and chart its own self-reliant, independent path within the world economic order.
We believe that effective co-operation with China will help us attain this goal. Indeed, we want our relations with China to be characterised by an increase in trade and investment co-operation, and not by the export and import of raw materials, he said.
The President believed that the way foward was to develop healthy relations between Ghana and China to put Ghana at the high end of the value chain and create jobs for the teeming masses of Ghanaians, particularly the youth.
President Akufo-Addo told his colleague Presidents that, We are determined that this new era of Ghana-China and Africa-China relations will reaffirm the principles of solidarity, mutual trust and respect, which have anchored those relations, and which will assist us deliver progress and prosperity for our peoples.
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
Mr John Peter Amewu, the Energy Minister, on Tuesday, assured domestic and commercial power consumers that, government would provide the requisite infrastructure and conducive business environment for Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to meet their power generation capacity.
He said energy was an important component in every countrys industrialisation drive and gave the assurance that the government would provide reliable and affordable natural gas supply for generation of electricity.
He said government was aware of the frequent gas interruption from Nigeria, which affected the IPPs daily power generation, saying; Government has, therefore, decided to make gas available as one of the cheapest sources of fuel for power generation.
Currently, Sunon Asogli Power Plant receives averagely between 58 and 60 million standard cubic feet of gas/per day (scfd) from Nigeria, which is far below its daily requirement of 120 million scfd, which makes the plant to perform below its maximum generation capacity.
Mr Amewu gave the assurance when he led a delegation from the Energy Ministry to visit some Independent Power Producers in the Tema power enclave on Tuesday, to familiarise himself with their work and challenges.
The Minister visited the Sunon Asogli Power Plant Station, Cenpower Generation Power Plant, West African Gas Pipeline Gas Interconnection Facility and Offices of the West African Gas Pipeline Company.
He was accompanied by Mr William Owuraku Aidoo, a Deputy Minister of Energy in charge of Power, Dr Benjamin Asante, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Gas Company and some engineers and technocrats from the Ministry.
Mr Amewu said it was governments priority to ensure regular and reliable supply of electricity at all times and promised to work collaboratively with the power producers to meet their targets.
He said a team had been formed to ensure re-direction or reverse flow of natural gas from the ENI Oilfield in the Western Region to the Tema power enclave so that there would be sufficient gas for power generation.
This will bring in about 70 to 80 million standard cubic feet of gas/per day from Takoradi to Tema and I think its going to help most of the power plants, and I ask for your collaboration so that this thing is done promptly.
Governments role is to make sure that we create the infrastructure and business environment friendly for people of your nature to invest in Ghana.
For any developing country like Ghana to achieve its target and make the people comfortable, energy is key because when you talk about industrialisation, education and social lives of the people, energy is very key, Mr Amewu emphasised.
The Energy Minister said there was between 170 and 175 million scfd surplus of natural gas from the ENI Oilfield and assured that, in the next three to four months, the gas would be made available.
Mr Amewu said the Karpower Plants, which is currently located in Tema would be relocated to Takoradi so that they would be fed on natural gas and to reduce the cost involved in buying light crude oil for power generation.
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
Mr Daniel Nii Kwartei Titus-Glover, the Deputy Minister of Transport has called on all stakeholders in the shipping industry to help mobilse the requisite revenue for the country to enhance her development efforts.
He said to ensure port efficiency, there was the need to allow tracking devices and other efficient administrative systems to operate in order to avert diversion of containers and evasion of duties.
Mr Titus-Glover gave the advice at the Sixth Maritime Seminar for Journalists and was jointly organised by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and Ghana Shippers Authority (GSA) in Accra on Tuesday.
The event was held on theme: Contemporary trends and developments in Ghanas Shipping Industry.
Topics treated were The implementation of paperless transaction in Ghana: An impact assessment on cargo clearance at the ports, The effects of demurrage on the cost of doing business at the port, Improving trade facilitation via port expansion and port efficiency and Transit trade through Ghanas corridor-implication for the economy.
The seminar brought together media practitioners, representatives from the Custom Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders, Ghana Shippers Authority and Ghana Maritime Authority.
Mr Titus-Glover advised importers to disclose and pay the right amount of duties to avoid paying multiple penalties.
He cautioned that he would not shield importers who would be caught up in fraudulent dealings but would allow the law to take its cause.
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
Sinotruk International, Chinas first heavy duty truck manufacturer, has signed an agreement with the Government of Ghana to establish an assembly plant in Ghana, to serve both Ghanaian and West African markets.
This was after the Ministry of Trade and Industry, on behalf of the Government of Ghana, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Sinotruk International, on Wednesday, 5th September, 2018, at the Ghana-Shangdong Business Conference, for the establishment of the plant.
Speaking to the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, after the signing ceremony, Mr. Zhang Yuzong, the General Representative of Sinotruk International, indicated that the company has a proud history of being manufacturers of a wide range of heavy duty trucks, buses, special trucks, engines and their sets, parts and special chassis.
The assembly plant in Ghana, when established, Mr. Zhang Yuzong said, will, initially, have the capacity to assemble some 1,500 trucks per year for sale in Ghana and West Africa.
Having produced some three hundred thousand (300,000) trucks in 2017, and possessing an employee strength of forty thousand (40,000) people, the Sinotruk Representative was confident that the establishment of the plant in Ghana will create jobs for Ghanaians, as well as rake in significant amounts of revenue for the country.
The establishment of the assembly plant, he added, will result in the training of Ghanaians to assemble the trucks, and the transfer of technology.
On his part, President Akufo-Addo expressed his delight about Sinotruk Internationals decision to establish the assembly plant in Ghana.
We are very appreciative of your interest in our country and its development, and whatever we need to do to grow your business in Ghana, we are prepared to do it, the President said.
He assured Sinotruk International that Ghana is a peaceful and stable country, and we are strong believers in the rule of law, adding that the agreements that have been reached between the Government of Ghana and Sinotruk will be respected.
With West Africas current population of some 350 million people set to reach some 500 million in 20 years, President Akufo-Addo described Ghana as an ideal place to have your base for reaching the West African market.
Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
Featured Video
Apart from your freedom that is denied you, life in Ghana prison is like living in hell, says ex-convict Emmanuel Odoom.
The food you are given in the prison isnt food that you eat at home; it is food that is cooked by prison standards..and as for meat and fish, we eat them once in a blue moon, Emmanuel narrated on The Sonto Show on Agoo TV.
Emmanuel explained he was arrested for stealing a car he has no idea about; a fellow left the vehicle in his care which later turned out to be a stolen vehicle and was arrested for that.
He ended up in prison after the fellow told the police the stolen vehicle is with him.
Emmanuel revealed some intriguing things to host Akua Sonto about his stay in prison.
The food served there was so terrible that it was not fit for a dog. The banku had no salt and the soups were so light that you could see your reflection in it," Emmanuel stated.
For a little comfort and some money to get by, one had to make the hard choice of sacrificing their anus for their fellow mens pleasure he explained. An older man or serving inmate with money will have sexual intercourse with an inmate who allows it in exchange for giving him good food and basically providing a comfortable life for him.
He furthered said that the state of the prison is a very disturbing sight to the eye, people are arranged like sardines making it difficult to breathe. He noted that, the prisons are overcrowded and he has video recordings of it.
In short Ghana prisons are overcrowded making it difficult to breathe and I have video recordings of it, you can just imagine when there is disease outbreak," he added.
Gambo, Another ex-convicts confessions on The Sonto show will give you a glimpse of life in Ghanas prisons and ultimately, the schemes and activities of an armed robber.
Wee in the prison cells, yes, the hard drug wee and other illegal materials prohibited in the cells were smuggled somehow by inmates into the cells.
Asked whether he has evidence to what he is saying he answered emphatically yes and will provide them upon request.
He furthered that, the Prisons are a place where little or no attention is paid to inmates health; inmates are left to their own fate when they fall ill.
Gambo recounts how he his manhood no longer erect as a result of excessive beatings from the prison officers.
He stated that, he called a journalist friend to narrate the ordeal they go through as inmates and unfortunately for him, after the stories was aired the officers find out what he did and as a result of that, he was beaten mercilessly and this left him impotent.
He added that Nurses and Health Aides who operate infirmaries and clinics within the prison facility are quack and not qualified.
Nurses and Health aides who operate infirmaries and clinics are quack and unqualified, thats how I will like to call them. They are inexperience and dont know drugs very well, I was once given a bad injection and that worsen my situation resulting in chronic pains all over my body, Gambo noted.
He indicated that, he sometimes had to prescribe drugs for himself.
Speaking to host Akua Sonto on the issue, human right lawyer, Lawyer Mary Ohenewaa Afful noted that, its unlawful and illegal for a prison officer to brutalize or assault an inmate thus an action can be taken against such officers and the inmates be compensated.
Lawyer Afful added that, inmates through their families can sue prison officers, the prison center, and the ministry of health, among others bodies who take the law into their own hands.
She indicated that, there are competent human rights lawyers who will be willing to carry the case. She furthered that, she will also avail herself for the justice and fair treatment of inmates should she be called upon.
Source: Kasapafmonline.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 government has initiated processes to lift the ban on the export of labour to countries in the Gulf Region, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, has stated.
He said proposals for bilateral agreements for the lifting of the moratorium had been presented to the Attorney-Generals Department for scrutiny before it would be forwarded to the Cabinet for approval.
Currently, we are developing bilateral agreements with countries in the Gulf Region because some of them have brought proposals for better labour relations. But we have forwarded the proposals to the Attorney-Generals Department.
Given the work that has been done so far, I believe that when a memoir is sent to the Cabinet, it will be approved so that the ban can be lifted to enable us to send some of our labour to other countries, he said.
Job fair
Mr Awuah made this known when he spoke to journalists at a two-day job fair organised by the German Development Co-operation and the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations in Accra on Monday.
The job fair formed part of the Ghanaian-German Centre for Jobs, Migration and Reintegration (MAC), an initiative to tackle unemployment among the youth which has been identified as a major cause of irregular migration of the youth to the Gulf countries.
Scores of unemployed youth are participating in the job fair that will see about 100 of them get ready employment, while others will also be trained in entrepreneurial development and linked with industry players.
Present at the fair were representatives of the Ghana Employers Association (GEA), the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC), as well as ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
No compromise
In July last year, the government placed a ban on the export of local labour to countries such as Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar because of widespread reports of maltreatment of Ghanaians in those countries.
Some of the migrants, who were mostly females, were made to do caretaking and service jobs, during which some of them were subjected to all forms of maltreatment, leading to loss of lives in some cases.
Mr Awuah observed that even though bilateral agreements were being considered towards the lifting of the ban, the government would not compromise the safety of Ghanaian workers both locally and abroad.
We believe in the dignity of Ghanaian workers in the country and in other parts of the world, so we will ensure that they are accorded decent work ethics, dignity and decency in line with International Labour Organisations (ILO) standards, he stressed.
Consolidated Bank brouhaha
Touching on the laying off of some workers by the Consolidated Bank, Mr Awuah said he would engage officials of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and other key stakeholders this week, to look at the plan for workers of the bank, who were reportedly being laid off, following the merger of five local banks.
I will meet officials of the BoG, the Consolidated Bank, worker unions and other relevant stakeholders this week to think about what should be done.
My duty will be to get information on the way forward from the horses own mouth on what the labour plans are for the Consolidated Bank. If there is the need for any labour restructuring, I would want to know how it will be done to ensure that no one is unfairly treated, he said.
German support
The German Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Christoph Retslaff, in his remarks, reiterated the commitment of the German Government to support Ghana to create more employment opportunities for the youth.
He said efforts would be made to support the country to implement initiatives that would help achieve the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda.
One of the big challenges for this country that has to be tackled is the high rate of unemployment, especially among the youth, since it is sparking the transnational migration of young people, he said.
Source: Daily Graphic
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
Featured Video
Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central Constituency, Isaac Adongo, has boycotted parliaments probe into the collapse of some seven local banks.
Parliament scheduled Wednesday, 5 September 2018 to begin investigations into the circumstances that led to the collapse of the banks.
However, Mr Adongo, a member of the Finance Committee of Parliament decided to walk out of the first meeting.
According to him, the parliamentary probe is a rubber stamp process, it will deliver no value [and] I am not willing to be part of it.
The Minority MP pointed out that the documents that the committee members were given were statements from the banking sector and press releases by the Bank of Ghana (BoG).
He further stated that documents from audit firm, KPMG, only contain conditions and opinions on uniBank.
There were five asset quality reviews at uniBank, there were four of them in one month; we dont even have the report. They claim that there was a preliminary work done by KPMG to take a decision to go into it [but] we dont have that report, he added.
He further revealed that the committee members do not know the terms of reference of the job that KPMG did, and we dont even know the full report of Boulders [Advisors], except an executive summary of Boulders work.
For him, the committee has not been provided with all the relevant documents and other materials to constitute an independent and credible work, hence his decision not to take part in rubber stamp meetings.
Officials of the BoG and the Finance Ministry are expected to be questioned by parliaments Finance Committee about the roles they played in the collapse of the banks.
In August 2017, UT Bank and Capital Bank went under, and all their assets and liabilities were taken over by state-owned GCB Bank.
A year later, Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG) Limited was formed after the central bank fused the Sovereign Bank, The Construction Bank, The Beige Bank, The Royal Bank and uniBank together after they all ran into liquidity problems.
Chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr Mark Assibey Yeboah, had told Class News earlier that the committee will meet first with PricewaterhouseCoopers and then with KPMG and then the new Consolidated Bank officials.
On Friday, the committee will meet other regulators like the Security and Exchanges Commission and the National Insurance Commission.
Dr Assibey noted that: We have to get firsthand information, we cannot rely on media commentaries to make informed opinions, so, were meeting with the institutions.
Source: classfmonline.com
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
Featured Video
Former Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Ejisu Juaben Municipality Afrifa Yamoah Ponkoh has served notice that the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) when it comes to power in 2021, will deliberately collapse Databank Financial Services, which is owned by Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta.
The firebrand politician, has accused the NPP government of deliberately collapsing uniBank owned by former Finance Minister Dr. Kwabena Duffour all because he is a member of the opposition NDC party.
The BoG on August 1, announced that it had merged Unibank and four other banks under a new name Consolidated Bank of Ghana (CBG), with government committing 450 million cedis to support these banks.
According to the governor of the Central Bank Ernest Addison, the merger was crucial because the five banks including Unibank were in critical financial distress and that it will help ensure that the banking sector maintains a strong indigenous presence.
But speaking on Abusua FM, Afrifa Yamoah Ponkoh slammed Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta and the NPP government for dealing with Dr. Kwabena Duffour as an enemy as far as the collapsed of Unibank is concerned.
He indicated that the Finance Minister will have a taste of his own bitter medicine given to Dr. Kwame Duffuor when the NDC returns to power in 2021, where he [Ofori Atta] will see his Databank financial services going down.
Im sure Ken Ofori Attas Data Bank is still there, tell him that I say in 2021, we will collapse Databank, come what may in 2021, Databank will be collapsed. If a policeman is burnt on arresting you, he will ensure that out of the 99 laws, you fall guilty of one of them.
As we speak over 800 staff have been sacked over the collapse of the bank. When we talk of performance, Databank comes no where near uniBank, you talk of assets, etcetera, and yet someone who feels powerful in government has caused uniBanks collapse. And hes sitting there jubilating over the collapse of uniBank, he eats and laughs beating his belly. I tell you, [Ken Ofori Atta] well also collapse your Databank when we come to power.
Source: kasapafmonline.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
What would have passed out as a bragging right for the Akufo-Addo government was on Wednesday, boycotted by senior ministers in-charge of the countrys security, as well as the top hierarchy of the Police administration, including the Inspector General of Police (IGP), David Asante-Appeatu.
Government three days ago, presented a total of 105 vehicles as part of retooling the Ghana Police Service to combat crime in the country, but there are fears that government, as well as the Police administration, would rather leave the cars to gather dust and rust, while the state finds money to settle its US$9.1 million indebtedness to Amalgamated Security Service Limited owned by one Joseph Kwabena Boateng-Aidoo.
The presentation of the car to the Police Service, was done by a jittery looking-Deputy Minister of Information with the Minister of Interior, Ambrose Dery and his Deputy, Henry Quartey, the Minister of National Security, Albert Kan-Dapaah, Bryan Acheampong, minister of State at the National Security and Brigadier General Emmanuel Okyere, National Security Advisor, staying away from the event.
The Director-General /Public Affairs Directorate, ACP David Senanu Eklu, who received the vehicles from Nana Dokua Asiamah-Adjei on behalf of the Police Administration at the Police Headquarters Operations in Accra, stated that the vehicles would be used as expected of the Service.
The Deputy Minister of Information, announced that 95 more of the vehicles would be arriving this evening, making a total of 200 vehicles for the Ghana Police service.
The 105 vehicles supplied made up of Toyota Corolla and Camry, The Herald is informed were part of the vehicles gotten from the renegotiated 43 specialized security cars bought for President Akufo-Addo, Vice-President Dr. Bawumia, their spouses and security details.
But strangely, both the Presidency and the Police Service, refused to take delivery of the cars until Wednesday, when the police did after a long battle between it and the suppliers, although same institution, had been complaining about lack of tools to fight crime.
The police cars since March this year, were left at the Tema Habour, because the government does not want to go near it.
Strangely, the 34 vehicles, including bullet proof ones some of which have been allotted to the First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo and the Second Lady, Samira Bawumia, have also been left at the car park of the National Security Secretariat popularly called Castle Annex or Blue Gate rusting away.
The cars, including Mercedes Benz saloon cars, arrived on a Global African Airlines cargo plane many months ago, but The Herald is informed that, the President was also yet to use any of them for his official duties.
In February this year, then-Minister of Information, Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, explained to journalists at a press conference that the Akufo-Addo government renegotiated the terms of purchase of some 43 VIP fleet meant for the Presidency, to make room for the purchase of 100 Toyota Corollas.
The Mahama administration upon agreement with the incoming Akufo-Addo government, ordered the bullet-proof cars at a cost of $9.1 million on January 3, 2017, days before handing over power after the 2016 polls. This was because conventionally a new President, hardly use the official vehicle used by his predecessor.
There was, however, a storm after the Akufo-Addo government refused to use the cars, following a public outcry because it had promised austerity measures. The deal was renegotiated with the police administration cars getting 200 cars to fight crime but strangely, they have refused to take the cars and use them.
It is not clear, whether the 105 police Toyata cars attracted demurrage at the Tema Habour and who pays for them.
At that press conference last year, Dr Abdul-Hamid said: I hereby report to the Ghanaian people, through you, that government has accepted the VIP fleet, having come to the conclusion that: 1. Government is bound by the terms of the contract signed with Amalgamated Securities Limited.
2. Abrogating the contract may incur significant liabilities for government. In doing so, government has, however, made sure to obtain maximum gain for the public purse and also for ensuring the security of the state.
He said: We have renegotiated the terms of the contract in the following manner: 1. We have reduced the number of vehicles ordered from 43 to 34, which is nine short of the original number. 2. In place of the nine, we have acquired 100 Toyota Corolla cars for use by the Police Service in line with our commitment to retool the Police Service to enable them play effectively, their role of protecting the Ghanaian people. 3. We have done all this with a total amount of 8.8 million United States Dollars.
Dr. Hamid, explained that, with the risk of a judgement debt hanging over its head, government renegotiated with Amalgamated Securities Limited, purchasing only 34 of the initially agreed 43 cars, saving about three hundred thousand dollars in the process.
With the vehicle not in use, it is clear government might not pay Amalgamated Security Service Limned, thus landing itself in a lawsuit and huge judgment debt awarded the company.
Source: The Herald
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
Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Joseph Ade Coker, is proposing a rather outlandish idea that he wants the Chinese government to take up in dealing with its nationals who abuse their rights when they travel to other countries, most especially Ghana.
He wants the Chinese government to create a compulsory exit visa for its citizens who travel to Ghana as a sign of their commitment in the fight against galamsey practices.
They [Chinese government] sometimes direct us to deal with their citizens who go against the laws of our country, but I know they will fight us in a silent way should we adopt such a strategy, he said.
Chinese nationals are known to be one of the main culprits in illegal mining in Ghana.
Scores of them have been arrested in the last 18 months after the government launched a significantly more intense campaign against illegal mining than in previous years.
Despite scores of Chinese being arrested for illegal mining, President Akufo-Addo assured that Chinese nationals were not being stereotyped.
We are not acting against Chinese. There is no anti-Chinese policy in Ghana. But we do have a quarrel with those who will get involved in this illegal mining.
Speaking at a meeting with the Ghanaian community in China as part of his visit to that country, President Akufo-Addo said he had been able to hold frank discussions with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the matter. He further revealed that the Chinese government is fully backing the countrys uncompromising stance towards illegal mining.
Tensions over reportage
In April 2017, the Chinese mission in Ghana expressed its displeasure with the way Ghana was dealing with the issue of illegal mining.
It also criticized the media for targeting China in their reportage on the matter.
The mission in a letter addressed to John Peter Amewu, the Ghanas Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, said if nothing changes about the nature of campaigns against illegal mining in the country, bilateral relations between Ghana and China would be affected.
NDC Regional Elections
Ade Coker, who was retained for a record third time in the NDCs regional elections held over the weekend, dismissed suggestions during a panel discussion on UTVs Adekye Nsroma show, that his popularity has waned since the margin of his electoral victory compared to previous elections decreased.
the number of votes does not matter for now because i would as well be the winner had i won with a single vote.
The end of the matter is that I had the greater portion of the votes amongst my other three contestants making me the winner in the race, he pointed out.
Source: Elizabeth Semiheva/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
Brong Ahafo Regional Representative for this year's Ghana's Most Beautiful, Lisa Ahenkan with the stage name Ohema, is confident that she will win the crown for her region.
For 11 consecutive times, since the inception of the GMB pageant, the Brong Ahafo region has never received the first place.
However, Ohema stated that she is hopeful to win this year's event.
Ohema, who hails from Techiman in the Brong Ahafo region, will be battling with nine other beauty Queens from the other regions of Ghana who are also eyeing the crown.
In a brief but encouraging message during a grand durbar in her honour, Lisa Ahenkan said, I encourage all my partners, who are hungry for change, to support me with your votes to help Brong Ahafo win the crown this time around," she said.
Addressing the chiefs and townfolks at the durbar, Lisa Ahenkan promised to make good use of the opportunity to showcase the rich culture and goodwill of the people of Brong Ahafo Region.
She added that her main project will focus on road safety campaign which others have taken the lead but believes with the GMB platform she will help with the campaign adding that she will constitute a fund to deal with accident victims
Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
Featured Video
TORONTO, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CO2 GRO Inc. (CO2GRO or GROW) (TSX-V:GROW) announces that it has entered into an agreement with Dr. Luc Duchesne (Duchesne). Dr. Duchesne, PhD., Plant Biochemistry, is the former Chief Scientific Officer and Quality Assurance Person for WeedMD as well as the Lead Scientific Advisor, Board of Advisors for illumiPure Corp. Dr. Duchesne, with 85 peer-reviewed publications and 30 years of experience in the research, production, and commercialization of natural products, possesses a unique understanding of regulatory compliance, production and experimental research matters.
Duchesne has been retained by GROW to review and complete the analysis of the effect of GROWs CO2 foliar spray on cannabis plants. Duchesne will review GROWs research, documentation and ongoing trials to assist in discussions with legal cannabis plant growers.
As compensation for his services, subject to TSXV approval, Duchesne will be paid with the issuance of up to $100,000 of common shares of the Company.
About CO2GRO (GROW.TSXV) or "GROW"
GROW's mission is to accelerate all indoor and outdoor value plant growth naturally, safely, and economically using its patented advanced CO2 foliar technologies. GROW's global target plant markets are retail food at $8 trillion per year (Plunkett Mar 2017), retail non-food plants at an estimated $1 trillion per year and legal retail cannabis that may reach $50 billion per year by 2022 (Bay St Analyst estimates). GROW's sole focus is working with its plant grower and Agri-industrial partners in proving and adopting its CO2 technologies for specific growers plant yield needs.
The CO2 technologies work by transferring CO2 gas into water and foliar spraying across the entire plant leaf surface area, which is a semi permeable membrane. The dissolved concentrated CO2 then penetrates a leaf's surface area naturally like nicotine naturally dissolves through human skin from a nicotine patch.
Foliar spraying natural nutrients and chemicals on plant leaves has been used for over 60 years by millions of indoor and outdoor plant growers. To date, outdoor growers have not had any way to enhance plant CO2-gas uptake for faster growth.
Indoor use of CO2 gassing has enhanced plant yields for over 60 years. However, over 50% of the CO2 gas is typically lost through ventilation. Current greenhouse CO2 gassing levels of up to 1500 PPM are also not ideal for worker health and safety. GROW's safer dissolved CO2 foliar spray can be used by indoor and outdoor plant growers with minimal CO2 gas lost.
GROW's CO2 technologies are commercially proven, scalable and easily adopted into existing irrigation systems. GROW's proven crop yield enhancements and revenue model is compelling for growers and Agri-industrial partners.
Forward-Looking Statements This news release may contain forward-looking statements that are based on GROW's expectations, estimates and projections regarding its business and the economic environment in which it operates. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to control or predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements and readers should not place undue reliance on such statements. Statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update them publicly to reflect new information or the occurrence of future events or circumstances, unless otherwise required to do so by law.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
FILE - This June 11, 2012 file photo shows former Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward speaking during an event to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Watergate in Washington. Details are starting to come out from journalist Bob WoodwardAos forthcoming book on President Donald TrumpAos first 18 months in office. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file)
To the editor:
As I begin this message, I want to offer my sincere thanks to the community, which supported my reelection to the District 1 seat on the Lee County School Board! I am honored and humbled to continue to serve. Education is such a dynamic process I call it my adventure!
With this appreciation comes my commitment to continue to advocate for our students, staff and our partners in education, while supporting our mission: to ensure that each student achieves his/her highest personal potential and our vision: to be a world-class school system.
The world of our business survives on leadership skills and even more on the commitment and dedication of amazing students, passionate employees, involved parents and supportive community partners.
John F. Kennedy once said, Children are the worlds most valuable resource and its best hope for the future. Lets appreciate our kids, teach them to appreciate their opportunities, and provide them with a safe place to learn while involving them in their own goal setting.
We need to thank our employees. Just a few words are enough to boost employee morale and overall productivity. Taking responsibility for our own attitude is the first step to success. Creating a school culture of respect starts with the well-being of all along with continued development of relationships.
Here in Lee County, we continue to be honored to partner with parents and other stakeholders in the education of our children. Thank you for your continued interest in education.
Board members make a commitment to set policy to make system changes to meet the evolving needs of the community. Rituals and traditions celebrate student accomplishment, teacher innovation, and parental commitment.
Look at the School District of Lee County and you will note that there is a balance of strengths and success: great students, highly qualified educators, state of the art equipment but also many challenges: budget shortfalls and social issues.
In essence, our schools are a reflection of the diverse general society!
Education is the key economic driver for our community, therefore it is incumbent upon us to focus on the education of youth, and this must be done in collaboration with parents and community. The synergy resulting from such partnerships creates greater benefits than each group working individually. Towards this end, we welcome students, parents, along with business and arts community members to join with us as we focus on success.
I will continue to lead in advocating for students and staff to have the tools they need to succeed. It is my goal to eliminate waste, to spend your tax dollars wisely and for every student to be safe, healthy and ready to learn!
My motto, Connecting School, Family and Community, is my commitment to working together with you to keep the focus on our youth who hold the key to the future.
Mary Fischer
Lee County School Board
District 1
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- We are advised by Kiip that journalists and other readers should disregard the news release "Kiip Receives Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) Certification as It Continues to Fight Mobile Ad Fraud" issued September 04, 2018 over GlobeNewswire.
Jon Adler, President of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association Foundation
Look, up in the sky, it ain't a bird, a plane, or Superman; it's a remotely piloted aerial video crime fighting thing-a-ma-jig. It's capable of supporting many vital law enforcement functions, and doesn't cost much. In fact, they're so cheap the bad guys are using them, too.
The bad guys are exploiting this technology for criminal purposes at an unrestricted pace, undeterred by laws, costs, or public perception. Law enforcement must put on its cape with the big "S" and prevail in this video star wars.
The Kryptonite for police remotely piloted aerial video isn't bad guy jamming devices, training complexity, or legal hurdles. It's potentially treacherous optics. You will note that I have not called these aerial devices "drones" or "unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)." The optics associated with these names are negative. There is public distrust of drones, and critics see them as death from above or Big Brother spying from the sky. Branding is important, and it is important for the name of these aerial law enforcement vehicles to reflect their positive police mission.
Unlike the bad guys, law enforcement must be mindful of the imperative of winning community trust. Yes, program transparency and strong agency policies are important, as well as thorough training. But in the end, law enforcement must conquer the optics challenge and win the trust of the American citizenry.
A good example of how to accomplish this was illustrated in Michael Hamann's "How to Implement and Justify a Drone Program" (POLICE, January 2018). In his opening paragraph, Hamann describes a real example of how a remotely piloted aerial video vehicle was used to quickly locate children that went missing in a park. Positive life-saving stories can conquer a thousand criticisms.
As POLICE Magazine Editor David Griffith discussed in his article "Drone Vs Drone" (POLICE, January 2018), drones can be used against law enforcement." While Griffith advocates correctly for police capacity to counter bad guy drone use, it is also important that these examples be cataloged and shared with the community. Law enforcement needs to illustrate the dire consequences of the good guys doing nothing in response to criminal aerial video engagement.
The Police Foundation has created a guide for law enforcement agencies seeking to build strong aerial video programs. And the International Association of Chiefs of Police has issued Recommended Guidelines for the Use of Unmanned Aircraft. These resources are invaluable when building department aerial video programs. They properly stress the need to be mindful of public Fourth Amendment and privacy concerns, as well as the need to implement strong policy for aerial video use.
As technology continues to evolve, and as criminals seek to exploit it, law enforcement needs to be out front and not in the rear. Reference books and guidelines are critical for sharing best practices for building integrity-driven programs, but they have a limited purpose. Once an agency launches its aerial video program, it has to sustain and constantly validate it. Given the relatively low cost of aerial video vehicle acquisition and officer training and certification, all departments will inevitably initiate a remotely piloted aerial video program. This isn't a passing fad.
How does law enforcement sustain public confidence in how it administers a public safety aerial video program? To help guide a unified law enforcement approach to administering unmanned aerial video services, I recommend the creation of a national center for police aerial video engagement. This resource could support department efforts to both stand up and sustain aerial video programs.
A national center would have the capacity to catalog all positive instances of law enforcement deploying life-saving aerial video. Of equal importance, the center could capture real incidents that disclose criminal schemes that are exploiting this technology. The center could provide guidance on sustained community engagement, and arm departments with a library of aerial video life-saving success stories. The center would help law enforcement overcome public distrust with real examples in support of their program.
If law enforcement can convince communities that their aerial video program is for saving lives and not Big Brother spying, they can advance their public safety missions. With the real-time support of a national center, law enforcement can defeat optics challenges and sustain community trust.
With the right support, police can clip the bad guys' video wings, and use this technology to keep communities safe.
Jon Adler is the president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association Foundation.
A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the city of Phoenix and Chief Jeri Williams, claiming officers violated the rights of thousands of people who were protesting outside President Donald Trump's August 2017 downtown rally.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix on behalf of activist groups Puente Arizona and Poder in Action, and four named residents, claims police used excessive force while dispersing crowds outside of the Phoenix Convention Center on Aug. 22, 2017.
Officers fired more than 590 projectiles "indiscriminately" into a crowd that "included children, elderly people, disabled people, and pregnant women," the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit was filed by the Arizona chapter of the ACLU, Los Angeles-based law firm Hadsell Stormer & Renick LLP and civil rights attorney Dan Pochoda. Plaintiffs are requesting a court bar Phoenix police from using excessive force against protesters in the future and are also seeking financial rewards.
A Phoenix police internal investigation found officers could have better communicated with protesters, and Williams said she accepted the community criticism that followed the event, AZCentral reports.
Officer Keith Baggett of the Jonesboro (AR) Police Department helped save a 1-year-old hit by a car over the weekend. (Photo: Jonesboro PD)
A Jonesboro, AR, infant is fighting for his life after being struck by a car this weekend. That fight may have ended days ago had it not been for the actions of a Jonesboro police officer.
The little boy was playing in his yard and in a split second got away from his mother and ran out to the road. Thats when a car hit the baby.
Officer Keith Baggett was dispatched to the 1-year-olds home Saturday. I did a quick assessment on the child and determined he was not breathing and did not have a pulse, so I immediately began CPR, said Baggett.
It was the officers first time to perform CPR on a baby in his career.
I was told sometime in transit to the hospital or after he arrived at the hospital they were able to resuscitate him, said Baggett.
Dallas police arrested Michael Fry after he reportedly rammed a Fox TV station with a truck. (Photo: Dallas PD)
A man is in custody Wednesday after slamming his pickup truck into the Dallas FOX television station, ranting and throwing leaflets before surrendering to officers, police say.
At about 6:15 a.m., a man, identified by police as Michael Fry, crashed his pickup into the downtown Dallas TV station multiple times before he jumped out of the truck and began yelling, police said.
Fry then grabbed a bag out of the truck and placed it near the building, police said, which prompted a bomb squad investigation.
Fry eventually surrendered to police and his bag and truck were later cleared with no threatening devices found, police told NBCDFW.
Dallas police later said the papers Fry had with him were about an officer-involved shooting in another city and that he wasn't directly targeting the media with his attack.
An off-duty California Highway Patrol officer fatally shot his wife before killing himself after an altercation in a strip mall in Martell, Calif., the Amador County Sheriffs Office reported Tuesday.
Sheriffs deputies received a call about 10:45 p.m. Monday from the owner of Get Ripped Nutrition, a vitamin and supplement store, who said a man he knew to be a CHP officer and later identified as Brad Wheat was banging on the door, demanding to be let in, authorities said. The owner of the business was inside the store with Mary Wheat, 42, the mans wife.
Brad Wheat, 45, shot through the window to get inside the business, and an altercation between the Wheats and the shop owner began, sheriffs officials said. During the struggle, the business owner was shot in the shoulder, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The Wheats continued arguing and moved into the parking lot, where Brad Wheat shot his wife multiple times before turning the gun on himself, the sheriffs office reported.
Bitcoins, although called "coins," are not objects, merely lines of encrypted data. (Photo: Getty Images)
Many times an investigation has been solved by using the strategy of "Follow the money." That' s now much more difficult because of cryptocurrencies.
A cryptocurrency is an encrypted piece of data that can only be read by someone with the "keys," which are usually kept in a digital wallet on a phone. There's a reason why these coded currencies are so popular with crooks: They are pretty much untraceable unless you have the public and private keys or specialized knowledge about the blockchain.
The most famous cryptocurrency is Bitcoin, which last year experienced a near exponential runup in value before stabilizing this year in a range of around $6,500 per coin.
A decade ago cryptocurrencies were nothing more than curiosities for computer geeks. Now they are going legitimate, but despite all of the moves toward legitimacy, cryptocurrencies remain the favored money for criminal activity online and especially on the Dark Web. They have become the financial instrument of choice for ransomware attack payments; scams; money laundering; sale of stolen, counterfeit, or illegal merchandise; human trafficking; selling of illegal drugs; sale of unlawful weapons; financing of terrorism, and many other criminal acts.
Cybersecurity subject matter expert Eric Janson recently told me, "Clearly there is a marriage between cybercrime and cryptocurrencies. Their use has and will continue to grow as cryptocurrencies, ransomware, and the Dark Web rapidly evolve."
Criminals are drawn to cryptocurrencies because they are widely thought of as being untraceable. To some extent, there is truth to that belief. But since cryptocurrencies are not issued by banks or nations, their authenticity must be determined through a complex ledger of encrypted transactions called a blockchain. A blockchain records every cryptocurrency transaction, so the transfer of cryptocurrencies can be traced by skilled digital forensics specialists.
Last year more than 400 investigators who work cybercrime, cybersecurity, and money laundering gathered in Doha, Qatar, specifically to discuss the growing popularity and use of cryptocurrencies. Their report stated that "all countries should increase training initiatives in this field."
Currently, many in American law enforcement are behind the curve when it comes to understanding cryptocurrencies, their current state, and the implications of this digital money being used in illegal transactions. "Law enforcement needs to stay abreast of all cryptocurrencies, knowing how they are being used and manipulated," says Marty Cheliak, retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) chief superintendent.
In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last October, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions expressed his concern over the use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in criminal activity. In fact, he called Bitcoin "a big problem." He went on to mention the Dark Web marketplaces and how cryptocurrency is used in those online e-commerce sites.
There is no doubt that this is a growing problem and it impacts law enforcement at all levels. The question has been raised, is law enforcement prepared? And the answer is clearly: No.
Every law enforcement officer must stay well informed these days about the rapid and dramatic changes that are projected to accompany the multiple emerging technologies that will become mainstream in the next few years. It is now essential that organizations more rapidly respond to developments like cryptocurrencies. The criminal use of cryptocurrencies is in its early stages and growing. Its future expansion is a sure thing. That expansion brings with it the risk of cryptocurrencies being used in more and more criminal and terrorist activities.
Many believe law enforcement must rapidly come up to speed on this subject matter. Clearly, that is the major reason why Law Enforcement Learning recently announced a virtual course on the subject (that I teach). "As cryptocurrencies become the value transfer mechanism of choice for an increasing number of criminals and criminal groups, law enforcement officers must understand cryptocurrency basics and recognize when these virtual currencies are used in furtherance of fraud, theft, extortion, drug and weapons sales, and other criminal acts," says Timothy Bonadies of Law Enforcement Learning. "Our course provides officers with an essential foundation that will enable them to recognize how criminals are currently using cryptocurrencies, how these uses can be investigated, and what laws govern this rapidly evolving area."
While meaningful metrics that reasonably measure the criminal use of cryptocurrencies currently don't exist, looking at the projected growth rate of the blockchain and cryptocurrencies, we know it is significant and will grow. There have been two substantial criminal cases involving Dark Web marketplaces, one involving $4 billion in cryptocurrencies and the other $1 billion in cryptocurrencies. These clearly are indicative of a trend.
But don't think that just because the owner of a Dark Web marketplace that delivers illegal items in return for cryptocurrency is being prosecuted that the problem is solved. As fast as one criminal cryptocurrency marketplace is shut down, one or two more open up on the Dark Web and that perpetuates the value of this digital money.
Michael Coleman is a 30-year technology industry veteran with a wide range of business and government experience. His passion is working with new technologies to create solutions to the issues facing professional users.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Veritas Pharma Inc. (CSE: VRT; OTC: VRTHF; and Frankfurt: 2VP) (Veritas or the Company) is pleased to announce the appointment of Lorne Mark Roseborough as a Director of the Company.
Lui Franciosi commented: We are very pleased to welcome Mr. Roseborough to Veritas Board of Directors. He has knowledge of our growing industry and his experience in equity markets will be a significant asset to us as we continue to advance our corporate objectives.
Mr. Roseborough brings a wealth of talent and expertise to the Company. Hes currently the CEO of SunVault Energy Inc. (OTCBB: SVLT) in Kelowna, B.C., which focuses on bringing cost effective energy generation and storage to the solar industry. He previously held the position as a Start-up Lead Executive for Dow Cornings $1.2 billion Semiconductor plant in Clarksville, Tennessee. Mr. Roseborough was a director of EPOD Solar Inc. from October 2007 to January 2010. He also held management positions with EPOD Solar from 2003 and was promoted to vice-president and held that position from June 2008 until July 2009. From 1992 to 2003, Mr. Roseborough worked at Belkorp Industries, Inc. where he was vice-president of Manufacturing, having direct responsibility for the operations of three pulp and paper mills and one small oil refinery. These operations had approximately 350 employees and $300 million in revenues. From November 1999 to 2003, he also held the position as President and CEO of Bluewater Fiber in Port Huron, Michigan (on behalf of owners Merrill Lynch and Cerberus Capital Partners) which was a large recycle pulp mill.
Mr. Roseborough commented: I am pleased with Veritas mission and vision in addressing the critical need for scientific evidence in the medical cannabis industry. I am especially looking forward to sharing my experience from a different research industry with the Companys team of scientists.
The Company wishes to announce that it has accepted the resignation of Linda Sampson from its Board of Directors. The Company would like to thank Linda for her services and wishes her success in her present and future endeavors.
About Veritas Pharma Inc.
Veritas Pharma Inc. is an emerging pharmaceutical and IP development company, who, through its 100% owned subsidiary Cannevert Therapeutics Ltd. (CTL), is advancing the science behind medical cannabis. It is the Companys aim, through its investment in CTL, to develop the most effective cannabis strains (cultivars) specific to pain, nausea, epilepsy and PTSD, solving the critical need for clinical data to support medical marijuana claims. CTLs unique value proposition uses a low-cost research and development model to help drive shareholder value, and speed-to-market. Veritas investment in CTL is led by a strong management team, bringing together veteran academic pharmacologists, anesthetists & chemists. The companys commercial mission is to patent protect IP (cultivars & strains) and sell or license to cancer clinics, insurance industry and pharma, targeting multi-billion-dollar markets according to Deloittes Insights and Opportunities.
Veritas Pharma Inc. is a publicly traded company in Canada, on the Canadian Stock Exchange under the ticker VRT; in the United States, on the OTC under the ticker VRTHF; and in Germany, on the Frankfurt exchange under the ticker 2VP.
For more information, please visit our website: veritaspharmainc.com
On behalf of the Board of Directors
" Dr. Lui Franciosi"
Dr. Lui Franciosi
President and Chief Executive Officer
Further information about the Company is available on our website at www.veritaspharmainc.com or under our profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the CSE website at www.thecse.com.
Investor and Public Relations Contact
Veritas Pharma Inc.
Sam Eskandari
Telephone: +1.416.918.6785
Email: ir@veritaspharmainc.com
Website: www.veritaspharmainc.com
The CSE has not reviewed, nor approved or disapproved the content of this press release.
TORONTO, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Neo Lithium Corp. (Neo Lithium or the Company) (TSXV: NLC; OTCQX:NTTHF; FSE:NE2) is pleased to announce that, further to its news release dated July 19, 2018, the Company has filed a National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) technical report in connection with its updated resource estimate for the Tres Quebradas lithium brine project in Catamarca Province, Argentina (the 3Q Project).
Waldo Perez, President and CEO of Neo Lithium, commented on the +227% resource upgrade for the 3Q Project: In just over two and half years since discovery and with only two seasons of drilling, we have demonstrated that the 3Q Project is one of the largest lithium brine discoveries with one of the best brine chemistries in the world.
Resource upgrade confirms the 3Q Project as one of the largest and highest-grade lithium brine deposits in the world with potential for resource expansion at depth:
Significant resource estimate at 400 mg/L Lithium cut-off: Measured and indicated resource estimate of 4,005,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent at an average grade of 614 mg/L Lithium Inferred resource estimate of 2,917,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent at an average grade of 584 mg/L Lithium
High-Grade Resource at 800 mg/L Lithium cut off in the northern portion of the salar: Measured and indicated resource estimate of 746,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent at an average grade of 1,007 mg/L Lithium Inferred resource estimate of 186,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent at an average grade of 1,239 mg/L Lithium
Average combined impurities for Magnesium/Lithium and Sulphate/Lithium continue to be among the lowest in the world
The independent NI 43-101 technical report entitled Updated Mineral Resource Estimate Technical Report on the Tres Quebradas Lithium Project, Catamarca Province, Argentina was prepared by Canadian-based Groundwater Insight, Inc. The technical report is available for review on SEDAR at www.sedar.com under the Companys profile and will soon be available on its website at www.neolithium.ca.
In October 2017, the Company announced the positive results of a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) conducted on the 3Q Project, based on the Companys initial resource estimate. The Company has not yet completed an economic study of the 3Q Project taking the new, larger mineral resource estimate into account. The Company continues to advance the project in terms of process refinement, weather data collection and hydrogeological model completion. New information from this ongoing work, combined with the increase in the mineral resource estimate and developments in the lithium market from the effective date of the Companys previously filed technical report to the date hereof, may result in the re-evaluation of certain economic and other parameters that apply to the PEA.
While the Company believes that the PEA may still provide an indication that the 3Q Project has potentially positive economic parameters based on the assumptions and parameters applicable thereto, for the reasons described above, the Company is not treating the PEA as a current preliminary economic assessment of the 3Q Project or as material information relevant to the 3Q Project. The Company advises that investors should do likewise.
Mark King, Ph.D., P. Geo., Geologist, of Groundwater Insight Inc., has read and approved the contents of this release related to preparation of the resource estimate. Mr. Perez, Ph.D. and P.Geo., and a qualified person for the purposes of NI 43-101, supervised the preparation of and approved the contents of this news release.
About Neo Lithium Corp.
Neo Lithium Corp. has quickly become a prominent new name in lithium brine exploration by virtue of its high quality 3Q Project and experienced team. Already well capitalized, Neo Lithium is rapidly advancing its newly discovered 3Q Project - a unique high-grade lithium brine lake and salar complex in Latin Americas Lithium Triangle.
The 3Q Project is located in the Province of Catamarca, the largest lithium producing area in Argentina. The project covers approximately 35,000 ha and the salar complex within this area is approximately 160 km2. Surface exploration results indicate a high-grade lithium target in the northern portion of the salar complex extending for approximately 20 by 5 km with low magnesium and sulphate impurities. Low impurities are a key factor in traditional low-cost evaporation techniques for final lithium carbonate production. Hot springs on the property with elevated lithium content are part of the recharge system of the salar complex.
The technical team that discovered this unique salar complex is one of the most experienced in lithium salars, having discovered and led the technical work, including resource definition and full feasibility study, that established the Cauchari lithium salar as one of the largest lithium brine resources in the world.
Additional information regarding Neo Lithium Corp. is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com under the Company's profile and at its website at www.neolithium.ca, including various pictures of ongoing work at the project.
For further information, please contact:
Neo Lithium Corp.
Carlos Vicens
cvicens@neolithium.ca
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has in no way approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements - Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements. Such statements include but are not limited to, statements as to lithium brine grades at depth being consistent with surface results, the potential for resource expansion at depth, the potential of the northern salar sediments, and deeper sediments, for hosting brine, the ability to proceed to scoping studies quickly, proceeding with continued work for additional economic studies the potential for production expansion in the Companys assessment of the economic potential of the 3Q Project and that test results are indicative of future results. Generally, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as plans, expects or is expected, scheduled, estimates intends, anticipates, believes, or variations of such words and phrases, or statements that certain actions, events or results can, may, could, would, should, might or will, occur or be achieved, or the negative connotations thereof. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company, which could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from the future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. These risks include, without limitation, risks related to failure to obtain adequate financing on a timely basis and on acceptable terms, political and regulatory risks associated with mining and exploration activities, including environmental regulation, risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of drill and sample results, risks related to the uncertainty of cost and time estimation and the potential for unexpected delays, costs and expenses, risks related to metal price fluctuations, the market for lithium products, and other risks and uncertainties related to the Company's prospects, properties and business detailed elsewhere in the Companys disclosure record. Although the Company believes its expectations are based upon reasonable assumptions and has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended and undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements.
MELBOURNE, Australia, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A new Israel-Australia research centre involving a major collaboration with Monash University will be officially launched today in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The Sagol Center for Epigenetics of Metabolism and Aging cements the relationship between Monash University and the Tel Aviv Medical Center, Israel's largest health institution, where the centre will be based. The initiative was made possible by the generosity of the Sagol family in Israel and is the vision of philanthropist Sami Sagol.
It is part of a collaboration that began last year, and will embed scientists from Monash's Department of Diabetes, while Israeli scientists will be trained at Monash.
Paul Zimmet AO, Professor of Diabetes at Monash, will become the centre's Co-director (honorary) with Professor Naftali Stern, Director of the Institute of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Hypertension at Tel Aviv Medical Center.
Epigenetics, a burgeoning new field, refers to changes in the genetic material surrounding genes that are induced by the environment.
Professor Zimmet, an international leader in diabetes research, believes some of these translate into adult disorders such as ageing, obesity and type 2 diabetes and may be passed down between generations or acquired during a lifetime.
"If you think of type 2 diabetes, for example, everyone thinks it's all genetic," Professor Zimmet said.
"But only about 20 per cent of risk of type 2 diabetes has been shown to be associated with genes. There's a whole belief now that the role of environment makes up a considerable part of that risk."
The centre will aim to reveal epigenetic changes in body organs that contribute to ageing and disease, attempt to discover which changes are experimentally reversible then strive to develop practical therapies to reverse such changes to delay ageing and diseases such as type 2 diabetes.
It is part of a network of research centres established in academic and medical centres by the Sagol family, focusing on the advancement of research on longevity and quality of life.
Ambassador of Israel to Australia, Mark Sofer said the project catapults Australian-Israeli scientific medical collaboration into a new era.
"One cannot commend highly enough the initiative of the Sagol Family and the amazing professionalism of Professors Paul Zimmet and Mark Cooper and their team at Monash University in Melbourne and of Professor Naftali Stern and his team at the Tel Aviv Medical Center," Mr Sofer said.
Victorian Minister for Innovation and the Digital Economy, Philip Dalidakis, said it was wonderful to see Monash University spreading its knowledge and expertise all over the world.
"Monash is a world leader in medical research and we're proud to see this great University collaborating with other world leaders and further strengthening our relationship with Tel Aviv," Mr Dalidakis said.
The initiative was made possible by the generosity of the Sagol family in Israel and is the vision of philanthropist Sami Sagol.
"Sami Sagol is a visionary philanthropist and a strong believer in the interchange of information and research between nations to strengthen relations between nations, as well as to improve scientific knowledge," Professor Zimmet said.
"We are now trying to raise funds from Australian philanthropic donors here to further support the Monash side of the program."
Dignitaries attending the opening include:
Professor Ronni Gamzu , Director General, Tel Aviv Medical Center
, Director General, Tel Aviv Medical Center Mr Ron Huldai , Mayor of Tel Aviv
, Mayor of Mr Chris Cannan , Australian Ambassador to Israel
, Australian Ambassador to Mr Yuval Rotem , Director General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the former Israeli Ambassador to Australia
, Director General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the former Israeli Ambassador to Mr Ken Ryan AM Agent to the United Kingdom Commissioner to Europe and Israel
Commissioner to and Professor Naftali Stern , Director of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Hypertension, Tel Aviv Medical Center
, Director of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Hypertension, Tel Aviv Medical Center Professor Paul Zimmet AO, Monash University and Honorary President, International Diabetes Federation
Professor Mark Cooper AO, Head of Department of Diabetes, Monash University
Professor Stephen Jane , Head of Monash University's Central Clinical School
, Head of Monash University's Central Clinical School Professor Sam El-Osta , Department of Diabetes, Monash University. Professor El-Osta, recognised internationally for his work in epigenetics, will play a large role in overseeing the research
The Monash professors, and scientists from Tel Aviv University, will speak at a scientific symposium held after the opening ceremony.
Professor Stephen Jane said, "This represents a wonderful opportunity for Monash University to establish meaningful collaborations with Tel Aviv Medical Center and Tel Aviv University, further enriching the rich relationships between Israel and Australia. Professors Zimmet and Cooper have been instrumental in this process, and further discovery into the causation of diabetes through the study of epigenetics has enormous therapeutic potential."
-ENDS-
MEDIA ENQUIRIES
Tel Aviv, Israel
Professor Paul Zimmet AO
Contact details: +61 439 651 502 or Paul.Zimmet@monash.edu
Australia
Media, Monash University
Contact details: +61 3 9903 4840 or media@monash.edu
For more Monash media stories, visit our news and events site
Looking for a Monash expert? Search Expertline
Related Links
https://www.monash.edu
SOURCE Monash University
NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of CV Sciences, Inc. ("CV Sciences" or the "Company") (OTCMKTS: CVSI). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980.
The investigation concerns whether CV Sciences 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 August 20, 2018, Citron Research ("Citron") published a report addressing a CV Sciences patent application for CVSI-007 titled "Pharmaceutical Formulations Containing Cannabidiol and Nicotine For Treating Smokeless Tobacco Addiction" (the "Patent"). According to the Citron report, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") made a non-final rejection decision and mailed CV Sciences a letter indicating the non-final rejection status of its Patent on June 6, 2017, and then made a final rejection decision and mailed CV Sciences a letter indicating the final rejection status of its Patent on December 20, 2017. The Citron report alleged that CV Sciences never disclosed to investors the USPTO's decisions concerning the Company's Patent.
On this news, CV Sciences' stock price fell $2.40, or 36.31%, to close at $4.21 on August 20, 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
rswilloughby@pomlaw.com
888-476-6529 ext. 9980
Related Links
http://www.pomerantzlaw.com
SOURCE Pomerantz LLP
NEW YORK, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of JD.com, Inc.. ("JD" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: JD). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980.
The investigation concerns whether JD 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 August 31, 2018, JD's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Qiangdong Liu was arrested in Minnesota for alleged sexual misconduct. Following this news, JD's American depositary receipt price fell $1.87 per share, or 5.97%, to close at $29.43 per share on September 4, 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
rswilloughby@pomlaw.com
888-476-6529 ext. 9980
Related Links
http://www.pomerantzlaw.com
SOURCE Pomerantz LLP
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Naturally Splendid Enterprises Ltd. ("Naturally Splendid", NSE or the Company) (FRANKFURT:50N) (TSX-V:NSP) (OTC:NSPDF) announces it has reached out to Clearstream Banking AG (Clearstream) to request that they remove NSE from Clearstreams restricted cannabis related securities list.
Clearstream previously announced that, effective September 28, 2018, they would no longer be settling and safekeeping securities whose main business is connected directly or indirectly to cannabis and other narcotics products.
Naturally Splendids current business activities are limited to hemp-based food and health products for people and pets. Naturally Splendid does not deal in marijuana or marijuana related products. Industrial hemp products are currently permitted in Canada pursuant to the Industrial Hemp Regulations (Canada). Although Naturally Splendid is exploring the development and distribution of cannabinoid (CBD) based products, it is limiting its activities in this area only in those jurisdictions where such products are legally permitted. Naturally Splendid is not in the business of producing, distributing, or dealing with high THC (above 0.3% in Canada) products, either for medicinal or recreational purposes.
As such, Naturally Splendid has requested that Clearstream remove NSE from its list of restricted cannabis related securities. This follows after the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) has independently reached out to Clearstream similarly requesting that Naturally Splendid, along with four other industrial hemp companies, be removed from Clearstreams restricted list.
Naturally Splendid CEO and Director Douglas Mason states, "We immensely value our German and European shareholders that have been affected by the Clearstream decision to delist cannabis related securities, and we are taking every possible step to address this issue. NSE will provide further updates as they develop."
About Naturally Splendid Enterprises Ltd.
Naturally Splendid is a biotechnology and consumer products company that is developing, producing, commercializing, and licensing an entirely new generation of plant-derived, bioactive ingredients, nutrient dense foods, and related products. Naturally Splendid is building an expanding portfolio of patents (issued and pending) and proprietary intellectual property focused on the commercial uses of industrial hemp cannabinoid compounds in a broad spectrum of applications.
Naturally Splendid currently has four innovative divisions:
(1) BIOTECHNOLOGY Focused on three major platforms:
Proprietary HempOmega encapsulation
Extraction and formulation with Cannabidiol (CBD)
Hemp and plant-based proteins
(2) CONSUMER PRODUCTS
NATERA - brand of retail hemp and superfood products distributed throughout North America, Asia and Europe.
- brand of retail hemp and superfood products distributed throughout North America, Asia and Europe. NATERA Sport - brand of plant-based performance focused products.
- brand of plant-based performance focused products. NATERA FX - a practitioner focused line of health & wellness products.
- a practitioner focused line of health & wellness products. The Bar Makers (Prosnack Natural Foods Inc.) makers of (Elevate Me) - lifestyle brand of healthy meal replacement products distributed throughout North America.
(Prosnack Natural Foods Inc.) makers of (Elevate Me) - lifestyle brand of healthy meal replacement products distributed throughout North America. Chi Hemp Industries Inc. (CHII) - e-commerce platform for natural and organic hemp products.
(CHII) - e-commerce platform for natural and organic hemp products. PawsitiveFX - pet care and food products.
- pet care and food products. NATERACBD - retail hemp-based cannabinoid nutraceutical and cosmeceutical products distributed in Asia.
- retail hemp-based cannabinoid nutraceutical and cosmeceutical products distributed in Asia. NATERASkincare - brand of retail hemp based cosmeceutical products.
(3) NATERA Ingredients - bulk ingredients including HempOmega.
Naturally Splendid Hemp Processors Ltd. - is a science-based, industrial hemp seed processing business located in Abbotsford, BC. Listed as the only strictly organic hemp seed processor in North America.
(4) Co-Packaging/Toll-Processing - packaging for house-brands (NATERA,CHII and Elevate Me ) and third-party partners.
For more information e-mail info@naturallysplendid.com or call Investor Relations at 604-673-9573
On Behalf of the Board of Directors
Mr. Douglas Mason
CEO, Director
Contact Information
Naturally Splendid Enterprises Ltd.
(NSP TSX Venture; NSPDF OTCQB; 50N Frankfurt)
#108-19100 Airport Way
Pitt Meadows, BC, V3Y 0E2
Office: (604) 465-0548
Fax: (604) 465-1128
E-mail: info@naturallysplendid.com
Website: www.naturallysplendid.com
Forward-Looking Statements
Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. Naturally Splendid cautions that all forward looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond Naturally Splendid's control including, Naturally Splendid's ability to compete with large food and beverage companies; sales of any potential products developed will be profitable; sales of shelled hemp seed will continue at existing rates or increase; the ability to complete the sales of all bulk hemp seed purchase orders; and the risk that any of the potential applications may not receive all required regulatory or legal approval. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, Naturally Splendid undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.
NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.
TORONTO, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MacDonald Mines Exploration Ltd. (TSX-V: BMK) ("MacDonald Mines" or the "Company") has received assay results from 24 grab samples taken on its Jovan Property, located near Sudbury, Ontario. The sampling was conducted to validate the metal content of the known showings on the property and to test the surrounding geology.
Highlights:
High-grade mineralization exists on the property with gold equivalent (AuEq) grades up to 83.8 g/t in selective grab samples*;
Some of the mineralized zones of the property are polymetallic with enrichments in silver (Ag), gold (Au) cobalt (Co), copper (Cu) and nickel (Ni); and
Multiple mineralization corridors exist on the Jovan Property.
Table 1 Highlights of grab sample* assays at the Jovan Property
Sample No Rock Type Area X Y Ag (g/t) Au (g/t) Co (wt. %) Cu (wt. %) Ni (wt. %) AuEq (g/t) 712001 Brecciated albitite Brady showing 536253 5165232 26.1 8.69 0.01 3.78 0.016 15.03 712002 Albitite Brady showing 536253 5165232 3.2 0.855 0.015 0.2 0.005 1.48 712003 Brecciated albitite Brady showing 536253 5165232 15.3 4.76 0.064 4.52 0.034 13.25 712004 Brecciated albitite Brady showing 536253 5165232 19 24.2 3.44 0.73 0.32 83.8 712005 Albitite Brady showing 536253 5165232 1.22 0.33 0.013 0.17 0.002 0.85 712007 Pyroxenite Brady showing 536243 5165195 1.06 4.78 0.008 0.12 0.06 5.32 712010 Brecciated albitite Palkovitcs Showing 536599 5165906 2.93 0.041 0.029 0.049 3.83 712011 Massive sulfide Palkovitcs Showing 536595 5165872 1.33 0.012 0.046 0.17 2.19 712023 Brecciated albitite Powerline South 528328 5162774 0.023 0.051
*The reader is cautioned that grab samples are selective by nature and do not represent the true metal content of the mineralized zone. The AuEq grade was calculated using metal prices from the London Metal Exchange on August 29th, 2018 - cobalt $64,500 US/tonne, copper $6118 US/tonne, gold $1208.3 US/oz, nickel $13460 US/tonne and silver $14.88 US/oz.
Geology of the Jovan Property
MacDonald Mines sampling at the Jovan Property and the compilation of exploration data from historic operators suggest that multiple kilometre-long corridors of mineralization exist on the property. These corridors are structurally controlled and were identified using a combination of various sources of data: aeromagnetic surveys, grabs samples from historic operators and MacDonald Mines, historic drilling, Ontario Geological Survey Mapping and localized soil surveys.
Across the Jovan Property, the available geological data indicates that the potential corridors of mineralization are characterized by the presence of albitites with variable amounts of structural deformation and brecciation. Mineralization appears to be typically hosted in disseminated sulfides and sulfarsenides within quartz, iron carbonate and chlorite in brecciated albitites.
The characteristic attributes of the mineralized zones of the Jovan Property are similar to the mineralization zones at the historic Norstar Mine (57,150 tonnes @ 7.2 g/t gold and 0.9% copper), located approximately 525 metres north of Macdonald Mines Jovan Property. The rich gold mineralization at the Norstar Mine is also hosted in brecciated albitites with chalcopyrite and arsenopyrite. The reader is cautioned that the mineralization observed in the Norstar Mine may not be representative of the mineralization present on MacDonalds Jovan Property.
MacDonald Mines is earning a 100% interest in the Jovan Property. Under the terms of the option agreement, the Company is earning the 100% interest over a three-year period by making cash payments of $140,000, issuing commons shares valued at $80,000 and incurring exploration expenditures on the Jovan Property of $400,000 over the option period.
Update on the Wawa Holdsworth Project
Oxide Sands update at the Wawa-Holdsworth Project
An acid-based accounting (ABA) evaluation of the Oxide Sands is required in order to receive a certificate of approval to process the sands. MacDonald Mines has engaged SGS and Golder Associates to conduct the analysis.
Sage Gold Property
On July 30, 2018 the Ontario Superior Court of Justice Commercial List (the Court) issued a Court Order (the Order) against Sage Gold Inc. and appointed Deloitte Restructuring Inc. as receiver over all its assets, undertakings and properties. This order effectively puts on hold the option between MacDonald Mines and Sage Gold Inc., announced on July 4, 2017, to purchase the Soocana Claims (Sage holdings).
Until a resolution is issued on the standing of these grounds, MacDonald Mines will cease all exploration in this area. The planned drilling and trenching programs have been cancelled and the Companys focus will now be directed to its newly optioned and staked grounds east of Sudbury, Ontario the Jovan and Powerline Properties.
On-site Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) Measures
Grab samples were transported in security-sealed bags for analyses to Activation Laboratories Ltd. in Ancaster, Ontario. Individual samples are labeled, placed in plastic sample bags and sealed. Groups of samples are then placed into durable rice bags and then shipped. The remaining coarse reject portions of the samples remain in storage if further work or verification is needed.
Qualified Person
Quentin Yarie, P Geo. is the qualified person responsible for preparing, supervising and approving the scientific and technical content of this news release.
About MacDonald Mines Exploration Ltd.
MacDonald Mines Exploration Ltd. is a mineral exploration company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario focused on gold exploration in Canada. The Company has built a portfolio of safe-jurisdiction, infrastructure-rich projects that demonstrate the greatest market potential for return.
The Company's common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "BMK".
To learn more about MacDonald Mines, please visit www.macdonaldmines.com
For more information, please contact:
Quentin Yarie, President & CEO, (416) 364-4986, qyarie@macdonaldmines.com
Or Mia Boiridy, Investor Relations, (416) 364-4986, mboiridy@macdonaldmines.com
Cautionary Statement:
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. The foregoing information may contain forward-looking statements relating to the future performance of the Company. Forward-looking statements, specifically those concerning future performance, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from the Companys plans and expectations. These plans, expectations, risks and uncertainties are detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with the TSX Venture Exchange and securities regulators. MacDonald Mines does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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
From the Introduction
Religious conversion goes to the heart of the Pietist movement and exemplifies the value it placed on lived experience in the Christian faith. Conversion aimed to distinguish the true Christian from the lukewarm believer, the ardent follower of Christ from the nominal adherent. Yet, almost from the start, conversion experiences and their accounts were fraught with difficulty for Pietists. Questions about their authenticity, orthodoxy, and stability proliferated, as did attempts to control and even constrain the process and narration of conversion. Conversion plays such a prominent role in the historical imagination surrounding Pietism that it is tempting to see such experiences as a neat resolution that both provided confirmation and assurance to those who doubted their salvation and allowed Pietists to separate neatly the unconverted from the converted. Yet in practice, conversion and conversion narratives proved deeply problematic in eighteenth-century Germany, not only for Pietist leaders but also for everyday Christians. This book is an account of that uneasy history.Emerging in the second half of the seventeenth century, Pietism became the most important renewal movement within German Protestantism after the Reformation. Pietists sought to revitalize Christianity through renewed emphasis on the Christian life and innovative practices of devotion and community. Most Pietists chose to remain inside the existing Protestant churches and reform them from within, though some left and formed new communities of faith. Even at the height of the movement in the eighteenth century, Pietism never encompassed a majority of Protestants in any German territory or region, but the movement did leave profound marks on modern Protestantism. It shaped how people read the Bible, interpreted religious experiences, and judged authentic Christianity. And central to much Pietist discourse on the Christian life was discussion of conversion and related terms of regeneration and rebirth.We will deal predominantly with how Pietists described the experience of conversion. Accounts of conversion appeared quite late in German Protestantism, especially when compared with the English Puritan tradition. In part, this had doctrinal roots. Early German Protestantism, especially Lutheranism, understood conversion not as a discrete event in the believers life, but as a lifelong process tied closely to repentance, a view that tended to preclude narrative description until Pietists reframed the understanding of regeneration, repentance, and conversion at the end of the seventeenth century.The dramatic story of August Hermann Franckes conversion in 1687 dominates descriptions of Pietist conversion and often stands as the paradigmatic case. In the turning point of his autobiographical account, Francke described how, amid many tears and atheistic doubts, he fell to his knees in intense spiritual travail and suddenly found himself transformed: My doubt vanished as quickly as one turns ones hand; I was assured in my heart of the grace of God in Christ Jesus and I knew God not only as God but as my Father. All sadness and unrest of my heart was taken away at once, and I was immediately overwhelmed as with a stream of joy so that with full joy I praised and gave honor to God who had shown me such great grace. I arose a completely different person from the one who had knelt down. Yet, although no history of conversion narratives in Pietism can avoid dealing with Franckes narrativeone of the most compelling from the early Pietist movementit is unlikely that Franckes experience was well known during his lifetime or indeed during much of the eighteenth century, and its current prominence in the historiography obscures other ways of describing conversion in Pietist periodicals and publications. These other narratives recounted experiences that occurred in places ranging from the gallows in Wernigerode to conventicles in Pomerania and had far greater currency in the eighteenth century than did Franckes narrative. What do we mean by conversion in this early modern context? At its most basic, religious conversion refers to a profound turn or change in ones life, a reorientation with regard to the world as well as to the divine. Language of conversion has deep roots in Christian scriptures and tradition. In the modern study of religion, especially after William James, it has become one of the central terms for exploring fundamental changes in a persons affiliation and experience. Yet the semantic field of conversion is extraordinarily broad, and historians employ the term to describe a wide swath of religious changes and transformations that often have little apparent affinity.There are three overarching categories of conversion in early modern studies. First, conversion can refer to the change in religious identity from one tradition to another, as when a Jew is baptized and adopts Christianity, or when a Christian becomes Muslim. In the Middle Ages, this form of conversion could be a mass phenomenon, as rulers and missionaries induced entire communities to adopt Christianity, sometimes with the threat of force. By the early modern era, conversion in Europe had largely become synonymous with individual religious experiences, though the expansion of Western Christianity beyond Europe afforded new opportunities for group or mass conversion, at least in the Western imagination.Second, the Reformation in the sixteenth century and the ensuing division of Western Christendom created a new mode for religious conversionthe cross- confessional conversion. Here an individual could reject a previous Christian identity and affiliate with a new confessional group, as when a Lutheran became Roman Catholic or a Catholic was rebaptized and joined an Anabaptist community. Turning from one Christian confessional community to another often entailed dramatic social or political consequences for prominent figures as well as ordinary laypeople. Conversion in this sense almost never refers to changes among the major Protestant confessions, from Lutheran to Reformed, for instance, but rather signifies more fundamental changes in affiliations that contemporaries perceived as incompatible with one another.Third, conversion can represent an inward change of heart or powerful transformation in a nominal Christian, whose faith subsequently becomes qualitatively different. This type of conversion shared elements of the medieval understanding of the conversio in se, which signaled profound growth in interiority and spirituality, but such conversions could also manifest themselves in marked changes in morality and comportment in the life of a Christian that echoed a conversio vitae. Protestants obviously lacked the opportunity to enter religious orders, a decision that often signaled a conversio vitae in the Middle Ages. Puritan conversions, with their long- standing tradition of published narratives, are the best- known Protestant variety of this mode of conversion, and this is the form most often associated with Pietism. Yet German Pietists would have described all three modes as Bekehrungen (conversions).Modern scholars of religion have created typologies that can help historians categorize conversion in the early modern world. Lewis Rambo, for instance, identifies five types of religious conversion: (1) tradition transition, the move from one worldview, ritual system, or symbolic universe to another; (2) institutional transition, movement from one community to another within a tradition; (3) affiliation, in which one who has minimal or no commitment becomes involved with a community of faith or institution; (4) intensification, in which one who has a previous affiliation undergoes a revitalized commitment within this faith; and finally (5) apostasy or defection, the rejection of one religious tradition without the acceptance of another.Without great difficulty, Rambos typology can encompass the three aforementioned forms of conversion as tradition transition, institutional transition, and intensification. Given the compulsory nature of religious identity in the early modern period, the mode Rambo describes as affiliation would have little significance and could be incorporated as part of intensification. Historians rarely treat apostasy or defection as a form of conversion in the early modern period, but the rise of un-conversion narratives in the eighteenth centurysuch as the autobiography of Johann Christoph Edelmann, who described his rejection of Christianity in favor of reason as a form of conversionsuggests that Rambos last type may also have historical utility.Rambo recognizes the limitations of his typology for the modern context, and the difficulties for the historian are even greater. Categorization of conversion can depend largely on ones point of view. Many Pietists would have rejected an interpretation of their personal conversion as merely a kind of intensification, instead seeing it as a fundamental move away from their former atheism and unbelief to true faith and complete rebirth, even though they remained in the same tradition and confession. Indeed, a trope in a number of Pietist conversion narratives was the rejection of a prior atheism in favor of true Christianity. For many Pietists, conversion from utter unbelief would have represented a transition as significant as that of a Jew baptized into Christianity. Likewise, both Protestants and Catholics viewed the conversion to or from Catholicism not as a matter of selecting a new institutional expression for their faith, but rather as a statement about the nature of true Christianity and interior conviction. For others in the early modern world, the gap between Protestant and Catholic ritual systems and their symbolic universes may have appeared as large as the gap many twenty-first- century observers perceive between distinct religions today. This does not invalidate the usefulness of a typology, but it does suggest that we should recognize their analytical limits and avoid reifying these as discrete types that have little to do with one another, at least in the eyes of historical subjects.Studies of early modern conversion often focus on one type of conversion to the exclusion of others. Even in collections on conversion broadly conceived, individual contributions tend to treat one specific form of conversion. In recent years, examinations of cross-confessional conversion in early modern Germany have been especially prominent. A major study by Duane Corpis, along with an extensive collection of essays edited by Ute Lotz- Heumann and others, have given this aspect of conversion detailed attention in the historiography on early modern Germany, though both explicitly exclude from their analysis the intensification form of conversion typical of Pietism. JewishChristian conversion in early modern Europe in both directions has received attention, but conversion among Pietists much less so.Dealing with a distinct variety of conversion has a methodological clarity that can yield strong conclusions, but the exclusion of the intensifi cation mode of conversion typical of Pietism is striking. In part, this reflects a linguistic division in contemporary German between Konversion and Bekehrung that does not exist in English. Th ere has been a semantic shift in the term Bekehrung since the early modern period, and today it carries connotations in German that conversion does not in English. Scholars frequently employ the term Konversion for the alternation between Protestant and Catholic adherenceand now increasingly between Judaism and Christianitywhereas they tend to reserve Bekehrung for the inward form of Christian transformation and intensifi cation of religious sensibility. There are, of course, confessional connotations to these terms, but Konversion appears in recent years to be gaining ground as the accepted term to cover all forms of conversion in a social-scientific contextapart from the Pietist variety. Historians of Christianity as well as Germanists continue to use Bekehrung to designate conversion within a Christian tradition, especially the tradition associated with Pietism, although some recent studies seem to use the two terms synonymously. It is telling, perhaps, of the conceptual fuzziness in Germany that some Protestant German pastoral theologians today are hesitant to apply Bekehrung to the process of inner- Christian transformation, identifying it as tainted, trying, [and] diseased, and preferring the ostensibly more neutral and less loaded term Konversion.[Excerpt ends here.]
VANCOUVER, Washington, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CytoDyn Inc. (OTC.QB: CYDY), a biotechnology company developing a novel humanized CCR5 monoclonal antibody for multiple therapeutic indications, announces its plan to develop PRO 140 (leronlimab) as a therapy for triple-negative breast cancer that has metastasized as its initial cancer indication. Previously announced findings from preclinical studies showed the ability of PRO 140 to block human breast cancer cellular invasion in a surrogate assay for metastatic breast cancer.
Triple-negative breast cells test negative for estrogen receptors (ER-), progesterone receptors (PR-) and HER2 (HER2-) and thus do not respond to hormonal therapy or therapies that target HER2 receptors. Women with this breast cancer subtype typically have a very poor prognosis and new therapies are needed, said Richard G. Pestell, Ph.D., M.D., Interim Chief Medical Officer of CytoDyn. Our findings indicate that CCR5 is a crucial receptor in the growth and invasiveness of human malignancies and CCR5 antagonists such as PRO 140 may play a vital role in inhibiting cancer cell invasion and metastasis. PRO 140 may offer an important new therapy for women with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer who have limited therapeutic options.
We plan to aggressively pursue the development of PRO 140 as a therapy for women with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, which is in keeping with our strategy to evaluate PRO 140 in certain cancers and immunological indications where CCR5 antagonism has shown initial promise, said Nader Pourhassan, Ph.D., CytoDyns President and Chief Executive Officer. In addition, we are continuing to move forward with plans to assess PRO 140 in metastatic colon cancer and remain committed to concurrently advancing our clinical programs with PRO 140 in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD). We are pleased with our recent progress toward filing a Biologics License Application (BLA) for PRO 140 as a combination therapy for HIV and are confident that two thirds of our BLA submission will be completed by the end of 2018 and the last section, Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls (CMC), by first quarter of 2019.
About PRO 140
PRO 140 is a humanized IgG4 monoclonal antibody that blocks CCR5, a cellular receptor that plays multiple roles with implications in HIV infection, tumor metastasis, and immune signaling.
In the setting of HIV/AIDS, PRO 140 belongs to a new class of therapeutics called viral-entry inhibitors; it masks CCR5, thus protecting healthy T cells from viral infection by blocking the predominant HIV (R5) subtype from entering those cells. At the same time, PRO 140 does not appear to interfere with the normal function of CCR5 in mediating immune responses. PRO 140 has been the subject of seven clinical trials, each demonstrating efficacy by significantly reducing or controlling HIV viral load in human test subjects. PRO 140 has been designated a fast track product by the FDA. The PRO 140 antibody appears to be a powerful antiviral agent leading to potentially fewer side effects and less frequent dosing requirements compared with daily drug therapies currently in use.
In the setting of cancer, research has shown that CCR5 plays a central role in tumor invasion and metastasis and that an increased CCR5 is an indicator of disease status in several cancers. Moreover, researchers have shown that drugs that block CCR5, can block tumor metastases in laboratory and animal models of aggressive breast and prostate cancer. CytoDyn is conducting additional research with PRO 140 in the cancer setting and plans to initiate Phase 2 human clinical trials when appropriate.
The CCR5 receptor also plays a central role in modulating immune cell trafficking to sites of inflammation and it is crucial for the development of acute graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) and other inflammatory conditions. Clinical studies by others have shown that blocking CCR5 using a chemical inhibitor can reduce the clinical impact of acute GvHD without significantly affecting the engraftment of transplanted bone marrow stem cells. CytoDyn is currently conducting a Phase 2 clinical study with PRO 140 to further support the concept that the CCR5 receptor on engrafted cells is critical for the development of acute GvHD and that blocking this receptor from recognizing certain immune signaling molecules is a viable approach to mitigating acute GvHD. The FDA has granted orphan drug designation to PRO 140 for the prevention of graft-versus-host disease (GvHD).
About CytoDyn
CytoDyn is a biotechnology company focused on the clinical development and potential commercialization of humanized monoclonal antibodies for the treatment and prevention of HIV infection. The Company has one of the leading monoclonal antibodies under development for HIV infection, PRO 140, which has completed Phase 2 clinical trials with demonstrated antiviral activity in humans and is currently in Phase 3 development. PRO 140 blocks the HIV co-receptor CCR5 on T cells, which prevents viral entry. Clinical trial results thus far indicate that PRO 140 does not negatively affect the normal immune functions that are mediated by CCR5. Results from seven Phase 1 and Phase 2 human clinical trials have shown that PRO 140 can significantly reduce viral burden in people infected with HIV. A recent Phase 2b clinical trial demonstrated that PRO 140 can prevent viral escape in patients during several months of interruption from conventional drug therapy. CytoDyn intends to continue to develop PRO 140 as a therapeutic anti-viral agent in persons infected with HIV and to pursue non-HIV, inflammatory indications where CCR5 and its ligand CCL5 may be involved. For more information on the Company, please visit http://www.cytodyn.com .
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict, including statements regarding the proposed transaction with ProstaGene, the likelihood of closing the proposed transaction with ProstaGene, the Companys clinical focus, and the Companys current and proposed trials. Words and expressions reflecting optimism, satisfaction or disappointment with current prospects, as well as words such as believes, hopes, intends, estimates, expects, projects, plans, anticipates and variations thereof, or the use of future tense, identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. The Companys forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance and actual results could differ materially from those contained in or expressed by such statements. In evaluating all such statements, the Company urges investors to specifically consider the various risk factors identified in the Companys Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2018 in the section titled Risk Factors in Part I, Item 1A, any of which could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the Companys forward-looking statements.
The Companys forward-looking statements reflect its current views with respect to future events and are based on currently available financial, economic, scientific, and competitive data and information on current business plans. Investors should not place undue reliance on the Companys forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties relating to, among other things: (i) the sufficiency of the Companys cash position and the Companys ongoing ability to raise additional capital to fund its operations, (ii) the Companys ability to complete its Phase 2b/3 pivotal combination therapy trial for PRO 140 (CD02) and to meet the FDAs requirements with respect to safety and efficacy to support the filing of a Biologics License Application, (iii) the Companys ability to meet its debt obligations, if any, (iv) the Companys ability to identify patients to enroll in its clinical trials in a timely fashion, (v) the Companys ability to achieve approval of a marketable product, (vi) design, implementation and conduct of clinical trials, (vii) the results of the Companys clinical trials, including the possibility of unfavorable clinical trial results, (viii) the market for, and marketability of, any product that is approved, (ix) the existence or development of vaccines, drugs, or other treatments for infection with HIV that are viewed by medical professionals or patients as superior to the Companys products, (x) regulatory initiatives, compliance with governmental regulations and the regulatory approval process, (xi) general economic and business conditions, (xii) changes in foreign, political, and social conditions, and (xiii) various other matters, many of which are beyond the Companys control. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties develop, or should underlying assumptions prove to be incorrect, actual results may vary materially and adversely from those anticipated, believed, estimated, or otherwise indicated by the Companys forward-looking statements.
The Company intends that all forward-looking statements made in this press release will be subject to the safe harbor protection of the federal securities laws pursuant to Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, to the extent applicable. Except as required by law, the Company does not undertake any responsibility to update these forward-looking statements to take into account events or circumstances that occur after the date of this press release. Additionally, the Company does not undertake any responsibility to update investors upon the occurrence of any unanticipated events which may cause actual results to differ from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.
CONTACTS:
Investors:
LHA Investor Relations
Jody Cain
310-691-7100
jcain@lhai.com
Mount Sinai Queens Opening New Infusion Center The last week of October was marked by an expansion of health care capacity in the borough, as Mount Sinai Queens celebrated the opening of...
The Unofficial Election Results The unofficial election results from the general election on November 2, 2021, with well over 90% of scanners reported: MAYOR: Eric Adams (D) decisively...
Batty Over Halloween Celebration Was A Treat! The Central Astoria LDCs 6th annual Batty Over Halloween Celebration held on Sunday, October 24 was a real treat for everyone who came out. Excited...
Pune, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global conveyor systems sales market was valued at around $12,500 million in 2016 and is expected to grow up to $13,225 million, growing at a CAGR of about 5.80% by 2022, according to Progressive Markets report, Global Conveyor Systems Sales Market Report 2017.
Request Sample Report: https://www.progressivemarkets.com/request-sample/conveyor-systems-market
The report provides a thorough study of the conveyor sales industry, incorporating the market size, market share, market dynamics, market forecast, and market trends for the period, 2016-2022. It discusses the scope of the market, key segments, regional analysis, revenue comparison, manufacturers profit analysis, cost analysis, marketing strategies, and the challenges in the market. This analysis is important for entry-level organizations, stakeholders, and business players as it helps gain a profound knowledge of the industry and turn their investments into profits. The report provides a detailed analysis of present market trends and forecasts, vital marketing strategies, and exclusive summary of the conveyor system market.
An executive summary of the global conveyor market is provided based on the latest trends, main attractions, and chronological assessment. The market drivers and challenges help evaluate the factors impacting the global conveyor systems industry. The study assesses the level of competition in the market and helps figure out various strategies to enhance business growth. The market share analysis assists in gauging how the players are performing as compared to their competitors.
The report includes the drivers and challenges of the global conveyor system sales market. The market is growing due to advancements in big data analysis and increased efficiency of the machinery. As the conveyors reduce human involvement and hence human error, they are widely accepted in the transportation industry. A constant digitalization of information and processes, the introduction of the internet of things (IoT), and machine-to-machine communication and coordination are the prime factors contributing to the growth of the conveyor systems sales market. On the other hand, there are some factors which are restraining the growth of the market. They include economic fluctuations in China, U.S., and other key markets, recent market risks, reduction in cost, and commercialization.
Get 20% Discount On Customization:
The report includes the segmentation of global conveyor systems based on product type, application, and geography. Based on product type, the market is divided into roller conveyors, belt conveyors, overhead conveyors, and pallet conveyors. According to the report, belt conveyors were responsible for the maximum market share of more than 28% in 2016. Geographically, the report splits the conveyor systems market into regions such as North America, China, Europe, Japan, and South America. In 2016, a revenue of over $2,000 million was solely generated by China, and it is predicted that the country will give a return of more than $3,050 million by 2022. The in-depth analysis of the region-wise market growth plays an important part in determining the opportunities in the market. The report provides a clear growth comparison of the market based on its applications in automotive, food & beverages, engineering machinery, and retail. The global conveyor systems sales market revenue is expected to reach over $16,000 million by 2022.
The study offers a detailed analysis of the key market players in the global conveyor sales market. It includes a comprehensive analysis of each key player to identify new opportunities and investments in the market. In addition, financial & business segments and their recent developments are offered in the study. The key market players of the conveyor systems industry include Daifuku, Ssi Schaefer, Dematic Group, Bosch Rexroth, Caterpillar, Murata Machinery, Vanderlande, Swisslog, Hytrol, Buhler Group, Shuttleworth, Siemens, BEUMER Group, Eisenmann, Emerson, Flexlink, Interroll, and Dorner Conveyors.
Alleged murderer of Moscow police officer detained for 2 months
TASS, Maxim Grigoryev
14:34 05/09/2018
MOSCOW, September 5 (RAPSI) Moscows Cheremushkinsky District Court on Wednesday ordered detention of Nurlan Muratov, who had allegedly killed a police officer at a Moscow metro station, until November 3, RAPSI reported from the courtroom.
The defendant pleaded not guilty and asked the court not to detain him, while investigators petitioned for placing Muratov in jail for 2 months.
Muratov is charged with infringement on the life of a law enforcement officer.
According to investigators, late in the evening on September 2, a police officer stopped a person for checking documents. Later, the policemans body with a firearm wound to the head was found in one of maintenance rooms at the Kurskaya metro station.
The suspect was identified, a criminal case over the murder was opened. Several examinations including physical and chemical, ballistic and dactyloscopic are to be conducted as part of the case, the Investigative Committee said.
Freelance labor leader arrested on suspicion of $60,000 embezzlement
RIA Novosti, Sergey Pyatakov
15:53 05/09/2018
ST. PETERSBURG, September 5 (RAPSI) The leader of the Labor union of freelancers Vladimir Soloshenko has been arrested on suspicion of stealing 4 million rubles ($60,000) belonging to the organization, the St. Petersburg Directorate of Russia's Investigative Committee has told RAPSI.
According to the press office of the Federal Security Services Directorate for St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region, Soloshenko is also a founder of OneShopWorld company registered in Great Britain.
Investigators claim that between May 2016 and July 2017 the defendant acting as a founder and chairman of the freelance labor union embezzled the organizations funds worth at least 4 million rubles.
Searches were conducted as part of the case in the unions office and premises of Soloshenko and his alleged accomplices.
Moscow Commercial Court refuses to seize ex-Probusinessbank managers assets
RIA Novosti, Maksim Blinov
16:42 05/09/2018
MOSCOW, September 5 (RAPSI) The Moscow Commercial Court has dismissed a motion filed by the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) seeking the seizure of assets of nine former governing board members of Probusinessbank totaling to 68.5 billion rubles ($1 billion), according to court records.
The asset seizure motion has been lodged by the DIA as part of a petition for recovery of the banks debts from ex-top managers. The court ruled that the claimant had not furnished proof of necessity to adopt seize the defendants assets.
According to the DIA, the banks bankruptcy examination revealed that Probusinessbank top managers funneled fluid assets out of the organization by lending companies, which did not carry on business consistent with credit levels and did not have their own property and corresponding incomes. Moreover, the bank management did not take measures to prevent the financial organizations bankruptcy.
In August 2015, the Russian Central Bank revoked the license of Probusinessbank, acting upon the results of an inspection revealing that the banks management carried out large scale operations having markings of assets stripping of the bank.
In April 2017, ex-chief of the banks corporate finances department Nikolay Alekseyev was given 4 years in prison for embezzling 2.4 billion rubles (about $35 million at the current exchange rate) from the bank. Additionally, he was fined 1 million rubles (nearly $15,000). A court also granted a lawsuit filed by Probusinessbank seeking to collect over 2.4 billion rubles from the defendant.
In June 2017, ex-head of Probusinessbank department responsible for interaction with shareholders and subsidiary companies Marina Krylova was sentenced to 3.5 years in a penal colony for assisting with embezzlement of 2.4 billion rubles.
In December, Moscows Ostankinsky District Court returned the case against former vice-president of Probusinessbank Vyacheslav Kazantsev and 7 other persons allegedly involved in embezzlement to prosecutors.
According to investigators, from September 2014 to July 2015, the defendants conspired to embezzle funds belonging to Probusinessbank. Accomplices are believed to be unidentified managers and employees of the bank. They allegedly used their office positions to enroll their subordinates, employees of the financial group Life, and heads of sham companies.
Ex-manager of Moscow recreation park receives suspended sentence for abuse of office
flickr.com/Blogtrepreneur
17:44 05/09/2018
MOSCOW, September 5 (RAPSI) Ex-director of Moscows Fili park for recreation and leisure Pavel Strizhov has received a 2-year suspended sentence for abuse of authority, the press service of the Moscow prosecutors office reports Wednesday.
The Dorogomilovsky District Court of Moscow has also prohibited Strizhov from holding senior positions in state-financed institutions for 2 years, the statement reads.
According to investigators, Fili concluded contracts with contracting companies on work performance in the park on a long-term basis. However, required equipment was not supplied and the works were not fulfilled. Nevertheless, Strizhov acting as the parks director paid delivery of equipment and performance of work in excess of 26 million rubles ($380,400).
Russian Communications Ministry proposes punishment for altered e-signature
RAPSI
13:25 05/09/2018
MOSCOW, September 5 (RAPSI) Russias Ministry of Communications and Mass Media has drafted a bill on punishment for forgery of digital signature. The document has been published on the federal website of draft laws and regulations.
Amendments are proposed to the Criminal Code, the Code of Administrative Offenses and the law on electronic signature.
The bill has been drafted because of stepped-up cases of creating and using encrypted digital signature without its owner's knowledge or consent.
The initiative stipulates introducing to the Criminal Code fines of up to 300,000 rubles ($4,400), community service for up to 2 years and ban on holding certain positions for 3 years for officials of qualified trust service providers found guilty of violating a procedure of issuing a qualified certificate of the key for verification of digital signature.
Moreover, prison terms of up to 5 years are proposed for intentional issuance of a qualified certificate containing knowingly false information on its owner and deliberate violation by officials of procedures of digital signature key storage and e-signature creation with the use of that key by the order of the certificates owner.
Amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses envisage fines of up to 500,000 rubles ($7,300) for qualified trust service providers guilty of violating the order of storage and creation of e-signature. Fines of up to 50,000 rubles ($730) are proposed for officials refusing to accept electronic documents with an appropriate qualified electronic signature.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Equinox Gold Corp. (TSX-V: EQX, OTC: EQXFF) (Equinox Gold or the Company) is pleased to announce positive exploration drill results from the Tatajuba target (Tatajuba) at the Companys 100%-owned Aurizona Gold Mine (Aurizona) in Brazil.
Tatajuba is the western extension of the main Piaba Trend that hosts Aurizona. Previous exploration work has defined a target more than 4 kilometres in length. This drill program focused on a 600-metre (m) long portion of Tatajuba where historical drilling identified significant gold mineralization in the shallow saprolite zone. Each of the 12 drill holes (1,804 m) intersected the gold zone, extending gold mineralization to depths up to 150 m from surface and confirming continuity of mineralization into the deeper fresh rock.
Tatajuba Drill Highlights
1.25 grams per tonne gold (g/t Au) over 44.0 m and 4.37 g/t Au over 38 m in hole D644
1.36 g/t Au over 37.0 m in hole D645
1.17 g/t Au over 29.0 m and 2.06 g/t Au over 5.0 m in hole D646
1.96 g/t Au over 35.0 m in hole D647
1.11 g/t Au over 22.2 m in hole D648
2.18 g/t Au over 8.0 m in hole D650
1.42 g/t Au over 19.0 m in hole D651
2.55 g/t Au over 10.4 m, 1.07 g/t Au over 9.8 m, and 1.66 g/t Au over 6.0 m in hole D652
1.11 g/t Au over 28.4 m in hole D653
2.09 g/t Au over 20.0 m in hole D654
For a map of Tatajuba drill results, click here
For two cross sections of Tatajuba drill holes, click here
For a table of Tatajuba drill results, click here
Tatajuba drilling has delivered excellent results with continuity and grades typical of the Piaba gold deposit, said Scott Heffernan, EVP Exploration for Equinox Gold. Only about 15% of the 4-kilometre-long target has been tested to date, highlighting the potential for significant resource expansion along strike from existing reserves and confirming our belief in the potential of the Aurizona camp.
Gold mineralization at Tatajuba is characteristically the same as that at the Piaba gold deposit that is currently being mined. North-northeast crosscutting structures appear to enhance gold grades and add a new structural control in this portion of the Piaba Trend. The Aurizona exploration team is undertaking detailed surface mapping to integrate with oriented core data collected during this recent program to update the Tatajuba structural model and plan for additional exploration in 2019.
On behalf of the Board of Equinox Gold Corp.
Christian Milau
CEO & Director
About Equinox Gold
Equinox Gold is a Canadian mining company with a multi-million-ounce gold resource base and near-term and growing gold production from two past-producing mines. Construction is well advanced at the Companys Aurizona Gold Mine in Brazil with the target of pouring gold by year-end 2018, and the Company is advancing its Castle Mountain Gold Mine in California with the objective of commissioning Stage 1 operations by the end of 2019. Further information about Equinox Golds current portfolio of assets and long-term growth strategy is available at www.equinoxgold.com or by email at ir@equinoxgold.com.
Equinox Gold Contacts
Christian Milau, CEO
Rhylin Bailie, Vice President Investor Relations
Tel: +1 604-558-0560
Email: ir@equinoxgold.com
Qualified Person and Disclosure Statement
Scott Heffernan, M.Sc., P.Geo., the Companys EVP Exploration and Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and verified that the technical information contained in this news release is accurate and approves the written disclosure of the same. Drill composites were calculated using cut-off values of 0.3 g/t, 1.0 g/t or 5.0 g/t gold as specified in the drill table and contain no more than 5 metres of internal waste. Drill intersections are calculated using uncut assays and are reported as drilled thicknesses. True widths of the mineralized intervals are interpreted to be 60 to 90 percent of the reported lengths. All samples were submitted to ALS Chemex in Belo Horizonte, Brazil for sample preparation. Sample pulps were then sent to ALS Chemex in Lima, Peru for geochemical analysis for gold by fire assay of a 30-gram charge with an Atomic Absorption finish (AA) and for a 33 multi-element geochemical suite by 4-acid digestion and Inductively-Coupled Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Samples with AA gold values over 10.0 g/t are re-assayed by Screen Metallics fire assay. Control samples (accredited standards, blanks and duplicate samples at the field and preparation stages) were inserted on a regular basis. Results were monitored upon receipt of assays.
Cautionary Notes and Forward-looking Statements
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as such term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
This document contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation (collectively forward-looking statements). The use of the words will, potential, objective, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release include statements regarding planned exploration and development activities at the Companys projects. Although Equinox Gold believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements and/or information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements since Equinox Gold can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements, including the risks, uncertainties and other factors identified in Equinox Golds periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators, and assumptions made with regard to the Companys ability to complete construction at Aurizona and commence production, the timing to achieve production at Aurizona, and the ability to achieve the results anticipated in the Aurizona feasibility study; the ability to restart production at Castle Mountain, timing of the anticipated restart of production, and the ability to achieve the results anticipated in the Castle Mountain prefeasibility study; the impact of current and future exploration at Aurizona, and the ability to expand the Aurizona resource base and extend the mine life with exploration success. Furthermore, the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as at the date of this news release and Equinox Gold does not undertake any obligations to publicly update and/or revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of additional information, future events and/or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities laws.
'If India has to emerge as the world's laboratory and a global innovation hub, the minds of our youngsters must get an opportunity to flourish.'
'Their new ideas need to be encouraged; more importantly, they have to be provided with a comprehensive ecosystem to convert their ideas into world-class products.'
'And this is where the Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements framework comes in, says Dr Abhay Jere, Chief Innovation Officer, Union HRD ministry.
The Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements framework, which was recently launched by the human resource development ministry to rank higher education institutions based primarily on their ability to innovate, is truly unique, apart from having a great potential and a huge futuristic value.
By measuring institutions on the quality and quantum of support they offer for building an innovation ecosystem, both for faculty and students, the ARIIA framework can transform India's higher and technical education landscape by compelling all major institutions to make 'innovation' their primary focus.
In doing this, ARIIA will reorient the institutions' focus and encourage them to invest more in ideas, projects and technologies that can be patented, licensed and commercialised, thus earning revenue.
In other words, a true 'Sangam of Lakshmi and Saraswati'!
India currently ranks 57th among 130 nations on the Global Innovation Index, moving up from 81 a few years ago, but this is still quite low.
Purely as a comparison, China ranks 17th, with even countries like Malta, Croatia, Mongolia, Cyprus, etc way ahead of us. The most innovative country in the world, of course, is Switzerland.
India has 1.3 billion people; in other words, we have 2.6 billion hands and, more importantly, 1.3 billion brains, so the billion rupee question is, despite this wealth, why does India still rank so low on innovation?
Why are we not producing disruptive, game-changing technologies?
One reason for this could be our education system that places less emphasis on creativity, new ideas generation and innovation.
If India has to emerge as the world's laboratory and a global innovation hub, the minds of our youngsters must get an opportunity to flourish.
Their new ideas need to be encouraged; more importantly, they have to be provided with a comprehensive ecosystem to convert their ideas into world-class products.
To achieve this, our systems need to be reoriented, and every stakeholder must be sensitised to support innovation.
Although a concerted effort is being made through initiatives like Atal Tinkering Labs, Higher Education Funding Agency, Smart India Hackathon etc, much still needs to be done to promote a culture of innovation.
The ARIIA framework is another major, concrete, step in this direction. It will measure the achievements of each stakeholder -- the institution, management, faculty and students.
Globally, the ranking systems used for education institutions only focus on the 'outcome', but in India, where the innovation ecosystem is still evolving, we need to measure our institutions using three parameters:
Input The quantum of investment and infrastructure offered to support innovation.
Processes The mechanism for ensuring ideas generation, along with systematic pre-incubation and incubation support.
Actual Outcome The number of technologies transferred for commercialisation, the revenue generated by licensing patents to industry, the number of sustainable start-ups created, etc.
The ARIIA framework will analyse the support offered by an institution's management for promoting innovation, support in the form of investments and infrastructure created to support the ecosystem.
It will also consider innovations done by the management in the day-to-day governance of the institution, along with special courses and electives offered in areas such as IPR and entrepreneurship development.
For measuring the ability of faculties to support an innovation ecosystem, ARIIA gives special weightage to faculties involved in creating and nurturing start-ups.
Although ARIIA measures inputs and processes, it also places a high emphasis on 'output' and, more importantly, on 'outcome'.
The outcome is measured in terms of quality and quantity of innovation, for which the key matrix is the revenue generated by an institution by licensing patents to industry, exits from successfully incubated start-ups, and technology transferred for commercialisation.
Some thought leaders may ask if a majority of our institutions are ready for an ARIIA-like assessment The answer is, they need to get ready very soon.
The ARIIA framework will ensure that the culture of innovation penetrates deep into every educational institution's DNA in the next few years.
In a competitive education market, market forces will give only two options to institutions: Innovate, or perish.
Dr Abhay Jere is Chief Innovation Officer with the Union ministry of human resource development, Government of India.
Sowing had started on a sluggish note in several parts of the country because of delay in the onset of the monsoon but has picked up pace subsequently as the rains progressed and performed appreciably well in August.
The retreat of the southwest monsoon might be delayed this year, for the third year in the row, because of a lot of moisture in the air in west Rajasthan, where the withdrawal begins, said Met official.
A fresh low-pressure area is developing over the Bay of Bengal. This might also cause rain over north India, if its moves along the monsoon trough.
At least for the next 3-4 days, the monsoon withdrawal might not start from the western part of Rajasthan, as there is considerable moisture in the atmosphere there, though it might not be raining. Also, there is a possibility of rain in the north, said D S Pai, director of long-range forecast, India Meteorological Department (IMD).
He said though the delay might be beneficial for the coming rabi sowing season, as the soil would retain the moisture, more rain over north India in the next few days might adversely affect the standing kharif crop, which is ready to be harvested.
The Central Water Commission (CWC) has issued heavy to very heavy rain alerts for some districts of Uttarakhand and western Uttar Pradesh, including Ghaziabad and Balrampur.
Usually, southwest monsoon starts withdrawing from September 1, from the farthest part of west Rajasthan. The process is usually complete by end-October, but for the past few years, the process has been delayed.
Withdrawal signals the end of the four-month-long monsoon that starts from June.
I feel the monsoon will start withdrawing from September 10-12 this year, said IMD director general K J Ramesh.
In the days to come, humidity levels would go down and monsoon withdrawal will start, Mahesh Palawat, chief meteorologist at private weather forecasting agency, Skymet, said.
Till now, southwest monsoon has been around 6 per cent deficient. There is little chance of this being reversed.
The rains have been fairly normal in 26 out of the 36 meteorological subdivisions and deficient in the remaining 10, including west Rajasthan, Saurashtra and Kutch, Jharkhand, north interior Karnataka, and Rayalseema.
Sowing of kharif crops concluded with less than 1 per cent drop in acreage, as compared to last year, which was a record.
The water levels in 91 major reservoirs across the country were 134 per cent more than last year and 114 per cent more than the 10-year average.
On a cumulative basis, the southwest monsoon has been fairly normal this year. It has been well-distributed, as has been predicted by IMD in its April forecast.
"The water level in reservoirs and the acreage of kharif crops is a testimony to that, Ramesh said.
Among major crops, the area under rice was 0.57 per cent more than last year, pulses was 2.55 per cent less than last year, coarse cereals were 3.85 per cent less, oilseeds were about 2.51 per cent more than last year.
Sowing had started on a sluggish note in several parts of the country because of delay in the onset of the monsoon but has picked up pace subsequently as the rains progressed and performed appreciably well in August.
Photograph: Reuters
Only 50 per cent land acquisition consent received by August 31 deadline, despite state government's offer of thrice the circle rate
The Jewar International Airport project in Gautam Budh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh continues to hang fire as farmers in six villages of Jewar tehsil play the hardball over land acquisition.
The project, estimated to cost around Rs 16,000 crore, needs about 5,000 hectares, and the airport alone would need more than 1,300 hectares to become operational by 2022-23.
So far, 1,700 landowners have submitted their consent letters, and 650 hectares have been acquired even five days after the tentative deadline of August 31 from the concerned farmers.
Recently, chief minister Yogi Adityanath has also advised farmers to cooperate with the state government for the project, which is touted to give a major fillip to the socioeconomic development of the region, lest it is forced to be shifted to some other state such as Haryana.
While the state government has offered about three times the applicable circle rate for the land, amounting to Rs 2,300 per sq mt, the farmers have been pressing for at least four times the circle rate, apart from other benefits.
Last week, the Adityanath government had allocated Rs 8 billion for land acquisition in the supplementary budget, which was tabled and later approved by the state legislature.
The proposed airport is one of the state's flagship projects, apart from the Bundelkhand Defence Corridor, Purvanchal Expressway, Bundelkhand Expressway.
Meanwhile, considering the importance of the project, Jewar legislator Dhirendra Singh has joined the district administration and the Yamuna Expressway Authority officials to negotiate with the farmers.
District magistrate B N Singh told Business Standard talks were on with the landowners.
While, most landowners have been supportive, the compensation amount continues to be a thorny issue since farmers expect the prices of surrounding land to increase exponentially once the mega project becomes operational.
Therefore, they want to be adequately compensated to secure their future.
The administration had already identified plots for resettling the farmers, especially those who are set to lose their entire land and property for the project.
The project, to be developed under the public-private partnership (PPP) model, had been in limbo over the last 17 years after it was first conceived in 2000, owing to regulatory and clearances issues.
Photograph: Davi Pinheiro/Reuters
'Everything will be decided by the Centre.'
'Universities will have no autonomy to start a new course or introduce a new syllabus.'
IMAGE: With the Higher Education Commission of India Act 2018, the central government is aiming to redraw the map of higher education in India. Photograph: Ravikumar/Reuters
The ministry of human resources recently came up with a draft of the Higher Education Commission of India Act 2018 to replace the University Grants Commission Act.
But many educationists like Professor M Ananthakrishnan, former vice-chancellor, Anna University, and former chairman, IIT-Kanpur, are strongly against the new Act.
"Higher education in India will be controlled by a single agency at the Centre. After Independence, it was believed that higher education will flourish as an intellectual enterprise in the country, independent of bureaucracy and other controls. All that will be gone now," Professor Ananthakrishnan tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.
Will replacing the University Grants Commission with the Higher Education Commission of India be a cosmetic change or do you see a lot of changes happening if the new Act is implemented?
No, it is not just a change of name; it has deeper implications.
What the government is planning is going to be quite significant for higher education in the country.
Will it be good or bad?
It is bad because the powers the states have over higher education will be taken away by the new Act.
Until 1976, education used to be a state subject as per our Constitution. In 1976, with the 42nd Amendment, it became a concurrent subject.
What this government wants to do is to take away the concurrent status and make higher education a central subject.
IMAGE: The Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. Photograph: Kind courtesy Sheeju Chandran/Wikimedia Commons
Some educationists feel the new Act will result in centralising and bureaucratising higher education.
I will tell you in what way.
Nobody will be able to establish a private or public university like they are able to do now.
If the Act is implemented, you will have to get permission from the central government.
Not only can the state not start an institution, but without permission from the central government, they can't even start a new course.
Also, all institutions including those supported by the Centre will have to now disclose everything about the courses, plans, etc.
Any falsification will attract a jail term and even closure of the institution.
The bill proposes an advisory council chaired by the HRD minister, with representatives from state councils of higher education.
This body will meet once in six months to identify issues for co-ordination and, in case of any disagreement, the central government's decision will be final.
That means the central government is taking over all the functions relating to higher education. So, from being a concurrent subject, higher education will now be totally under the Centre.
Does that mean the states will not be able to take a decision even about the syllabus?
Yes. Everything will be decided by the Centre.
The universities will no longer have the autonomy to start a new course or introduce a new syllabus.
Another issue is that the Higher Education Commission will have the authority to give degree-granting powers to colleges if they satisfy certain conditions. Today, only universities can give degrees.
Just imagine, today we have 40,000 colleges in India and even if half of them satisfy the conditions, the proliferation of degrees in India will become enormous.
IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi chats with Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani. The Reliance Foundation's yet-to-be-launched Jio Institute is among the three private institutes granted 'eminence' status by the HRD ministry. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters
Today, we hear everyone complaining about the quality of students that come out of Indian universities. Do you feel that, with colleges granting degrees, it will deteriorate further?
Yes, the quality will go down even further.
Then comes the question of giving grants to the universities.
The UGC was the regulatory and funding body, giving grants to both central and state institutions and, in some cases, to some private institutions too.
With the new bill, funding has been removed from the purview of the Higher Education Commission.
How are the universities going to get funds?
On July 23, there were many questions in Parliament about what happens to the funding of universities once the Higher Education Commission comes to existence.
The HRD minister said there would be a concurrent body called the Higher Education Funding Agency to give funds to universities. This will be a non-banking financial institution that will raise about Rs 10,000 crores (Rs 100 billion) from banks, the private sector and corporate bodies.
The catch is, this body will provide funds to universities as loans and not as grants like the UGC used to do. This loan has to be paid back by the institution.
Are universities supposed to raise money only through fees?
This aspect is not very clear. They don't talk about how the institutions are supposed to raise the money.
Also, the loan amount can only be used for development purposes like building a stadium or a library and not to pay salaries.
While the principal amount will be repaid by the institution, the interest will be borne by the central government.
Here, too, there is a hitch.
The state universities will not be able to avail this loan unless they get the permission of their state government.
The state governments may not easily give the permission as they will have to repay the loan in case the universities fail to do so.
This means the state universities will not benefit from HEFA.
So, eventually, there is going to be a regulatory body called the Higher Education Commission of India and a funding body called the Higher Education Funding Agency.
Unnecessarily, a lot of confusion has been created.
The HECI's governing body will consist of bureaucrats, not educationists. That is why we feel higher education will be bureaucratised.
IMAGE: 'Powers the states have over higher education will be taken away by the new Act.' Photograph: Larry Downing/Reuters
why does the government want to abolish the UGC when it has been functioning quite well?
The UGC was functioning as an autonomous, independent body. It does not bow down to the dictates of the central government as it functions by a Parliamentary Act.
They could not control the UGC the way they wanted to, so they wanted a body that would obey their wishes.
Do you feel the government is trying to hijack higher education in India?
Exactly. The autonomy of all universities will be totally gone with the new Act.
With the private sector and corporate bodies as members in the HEFA, do you feel there would be more cooperation between academia and industry?
What will happen is that the corporate players in the funding agency will dictate which university will get the loan and which university will not.
In other words, the interests of the private agencies will play a role in the funding of higher education.
In what way will this affect the higher education scene in India?
Higher education in India will be controlled by a single agency at the Centre.
After Independence, it was believed that higher education will flourish as an intellectual enterprise in the country, independent of bureaucracy and other controls.
All that will be gone now.
IMAGE: 'They could not control the UGC the way they wanted to, so they wanted a body that would obey their wishes.' Photograph: PTI Photo
Doesn't this bill need approval in Parliament?
Of course, Parliament will have to pass the bill. I hope it will not.
So far, the state governments have not reacted to the bill.
Only the chief minister of Tamil Nadu has written a letter to the prime minister that the UGC should not be abolished.
Do you feel no debate is happening in the country?
No debate. No pressure.
I think the state governments have not realised the implications of the bill.
They have not understood that an invasion of the central government into the powers of state government will happen with this bill.
As an academician, what is in your mind?
I hope by the time it comes to Parliament, there will be more awareness in the country.
My feeling is that it will not become an Act.
IMAGE: Social activist-lawyer Arun Ferreira brought back to his residence and placed under house arrest, in Thane. Photograph: PTI Photo
Five rights activists were arrested due to the cogent evidence linking them with Maoists and not because of their dissenting views, Maharashtra government claimed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The apex court while ordering the house arrest of the five activists on August 29 till Thursday had categorically said that dissent is the safety valve of democracy.
The counter affidavit, filed by the Maharashtra police on a plea of historian Romila Thapar and four others challenging the arrest of these activists in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, alleged that they were planning to carry out violence in the country and ambush the security forces.
The state police said there was sufficient evidence to dispel the claim that they were arrested for their dissenting views.
It also questioned the locus of the petitioners, Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociologist Satish Deshpande and legal expert Maja Daruwala, and said they were strangers to the investigation in the matter.
Maharashtra Police had on August 28 raided the homes of the prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested at least five of them for their alleged Maoist links, sparking a chorus of outrage from human rights defenders.
While prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao was arrested from Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha was arrested from Delhi.
The raids were carried out as part of a probe into an event called Elgar Parishad, or conclave, on December 31 last year, which had later triggered violence at Bhima-Koregaon village.
The apex court had on August 29 directed to keep them under house arrest at their homes till tomorrow. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra will hear the matter on Thursday.
Contrary to expectations, not a single DMK functionary was present.
Sacked Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader M K Alagiri's rally, billed as a 'massive show of strength' to press for his re-induction, was a tame affair on Wednesday with the usually abrasive son of M Karunanidhi sparing party chief M K Stalin any criticism, a move seen as extending an olive branch to his younger brother.
Alagiri, a former Union minister who was expelled from the party by his father and the then DMK boss Karunanidhi in 2014 at the height of the siblings' tussle for supremacy, was expected to breathe fire and brimstone at the rally ostensibly called to show his strength but the event ended not with a bang but a whimper.
The once strongman of Madurai, clad in a black shirt and dhoti as a mark of mourning for his father, was said to have mustered around 10,000 people for the rally that began from Wallajah Road junction and concluded at Karunanidhi's mausoleum on the Marina beach, 1.5 km away.
He stood on an open-top van with his loyalists holding banners hailing him as 'Anjanenjar' (braveheart).
Alagiri's close family members -- son Durai Dayanidhi and daughter Kayalvizhi -- besides a few hardcore loyalists, including former deputy mayor of Madurai Corporation P M Mannan, also wore black for the occasion, and followed him to Karunanidhi's grave where they paid floral tributes to the DMK stalwart.
Contrary to expectations, not a single DMK functionary was present. The DMK had recently sacked a village-level leader Ravi for shaking hands with Alagiri.
No speeches were delivered nor any grand action plan announced, but Alagiri showed some of his characteristic belligerence when he dared the DMK leadership to sack partymen supporting him.
"Over 1.5 lakh people attended the rally. You ask them (the DMK) if they will act against all of them," Alagiri told reporters.
"There is no intention behind the rally other than paying homage to Kalaignar," he said.
Karunanidhi was often referred to as 'Kalaignar' (the artiste) or 'Thalaivar' (the leader) by his ardent supporters.
Days ahead of the rally, Alagiri, locked in a running feud with Stalin over succession, had made a climbdown and said he was ready to accept his younger sibling as his leader if the party re-inducted him.
The Karunanidhi family projected a united picture when the DMK chief was fighting a battle for life in a Chennai hospital for 11 days before his death on August 7.
However, days after his death the bitter succession war erupted again with Alagiri claiming 'all true and loyal supporters of Kalaignar' were with him.
Alagiri, who was leading a life of political exile in Madurai away from media glare, had even warned that the DMK will dig its own 'grave' if it did not take him back.
However, Stalin's election as DMK president on August 28 apparently made Alagiri rethink his plans and end political grandstanding.
Sending out a signal that he was prepared to bury the hatchet just two days after Stalin's elevation, Alagiri said he was ready to accept the leadership of his younger brother if he was readmitted into the party.
"When we desire to be inducted into the party, we must then accept the (Stalin's) leadership. Isn't it?" Alagiri had told reporters.
He, however, blew hot and cold and seemed to question Stalin's elevation in the same breath.
"Is the general council alone the party? Do 1,500 members of the council alone represent the DMK? The cadres are on my side. After next month's rally more will come to my side," he said.
Before his expulsion at the height of his succession battle with his brother, Alagiri, known for his mercurial temper, had famously questioned if the DMK was a 'mutt' where the pontiff could anoint his successor, an apparent reference to their father.
Though Alagiri was effectively out of politics since his expulsion, few had any doubt about the leader trying to reclaim the space he once had in Tamil Nadu politics after his father's death.
Alagiri wielded considerable clout in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu as the DMK organisation secretary for the region. Whether he retains that clout after four years of political hibernation remains to be seen.
The DMK had failed to open its account in the last Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and lost to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in the assembly polls in 2016 when Stalin helmed the campaign after Karunanidhi began keeping indifferent health.
Now, as he leads the party into the Lok Sabha polls next year, he is up against a formidable opponent in the ruling AIADMK besides the fledgling Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) of former AIADMK leader T T V Dinakaran.
Actor Kamal Haasan's 'Makkal Needhi Maiam' is likely to make its election debut, and so possibly would the proposed party of superstar Rajinikant.
With so many claimants for a share in the electoral pie, Stalin would have to strain every sinew to ensure the DMK finishes at the top of the table.
If Alagiri succeeds in mobilising even a chunk of DMK cadre in his favour in southern Tamil Nadu or persuade them to be passive during the polls, he could mar the party's chances at the hustings.
TORONTO, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Platinex Inc. (CSE:PTX) (Platinex or the "Company") announces the appointment of Robert Blake as Co-CEO and Director, subject to standard regulatory approvals.
Following the Companys press release August 2, 2018, where Robert Blake III was announced as a Director of the Company, the Company Board of Directors is please to announce the appointment of Bob Blake as Co CEO. Walter Henry, President and Co-CEO stated, "We are pleased to add a seasoned businessman with the breadth and depth of business experience that Bob holds across many states in the U.S.A particularly Oregon. We look forward to Bobs knowledge of the business environment in Oregon, to his input and direction given his impressive hands-on businesses successes as the Company evaluates alternatives to the mining segment.
Bob Blake has been an advisor to physicians, manager of health care operations, and a health care investor for more than thirty (30) years. In 2013 with the passage of new legislation and after months of research regarding the medicinal benefits off cannabinoids, Bob invested in the Oregon cannabis industry. His investments began with vertically integrated operations of a grow facility, an extraction processor, and a dispensary. His Oregon cannabis holdings now include multiple grow facilities and dispensaries, an extraction processor, and a wholesale operation.
Bob was raised in New York City where he graduated from The Collegiate School. He has a B.A. Economics degree from Brown University and an M.B.A. in finance from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
About Platinex Inc.
Platinex is focused on developing various strategies to capitalize on the lucrative growth of the cannabis sector in North America. At the same time, Platinex has been focusing its mining business efforts in assembling a very large property in the Shining Tree gold camp, which has received little modern exploration compared to other gold camps in the Abitibi greenstone Belt. Shares of Platinex are listed for trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol "PTX".
For further information, please contact:
Walter Henry, President and CEO
416-414-5825
Email: info@platinex.com
David Posner
647-985-6727
Email: dposner44@gmail.com
To receive Company press releases, please email lparadis@platinex.com and
mention Platinex press release on the subject line.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS:
This news release may contain forward-looking statements and information based on current expectations. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. Such statements include submission of the relevant documentation within the required timeframe and to the satisfaction of the relevant regulators, completing the acquisition of the applicable assets and raising sufficient financing to complete the Company's business strategy. There is no certainty that any of these events will occur. Although such statements are based on management's reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be correct. We assume no responsibility to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances.
Investing into early stage companies, inherently carries a high degree of risk and investment into securities of the Company shall be considered highly speculative. Furthermore, the Company seeks to enter the cannabis market in the United States, where some states have legalized cannabis for medical or adult recreational use, while cannabis remain illegal under United States Federal law. As such, the Company may become subject to additional government regulation and legal uncertainties that could restrict the demand for its services or increase its cost of doing business, thereby adversely affecting its financial results.
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any province in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The securities issued, or to be issued, under the Private Placement have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements.
Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
A year after Gauri Lankesh was shot dead outside her home in Bengaluru, many other journalists continue to face death threats, attacks and false charges, Amnesty International India said on Wednesday, asserting it is a 'dangerous' time to speak truth to authorities in India.
Meanwhile, a senior Special Investigation Team officer probing the murder case said the investigation is in final stage and a chargesheet will be filed in two months.
The Special Investigation Team, under the leadership of Additional Commissioner of Police (West) B K Singh, has arrested 12 people in connection with the killing of Lankesh, known for her strong anti-Hindutva stand.
Some of the people arrested in the case are allegedly linked to Sanatan Sanstha and its allied outfit Hindu Janajagruti Samiti.
"The case is in final stage of investigation. We will file a chargesheet in the case in two months," Investigating Officer M N Anucheth said.
The Gauri Memorial Trust and her supporters organised a series of events in Bengaluru to mark the first anniversary of her death.
The Gauri Balaga and Gauri Lankesh Memorial Trust submitted a joint six-point memorandum to Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala.
The memorandum demanded that Sanatan Sanstha and its affiliates be declared 'terror organisations'.
Earlier, a large number of activists led by Lankesh's sister Kavitha and playwright Girish Karnad staged a march to Raj Bhavan to mark the journalist-activist's first death anniversary.
Other activists, who participated in the march, were freedom fighter H S Doreswamy, social activist Swami Agnivesh Gujarat MLA and Dalit activist Jignesh Mewani and lawyer Teesta Setalvad, among others.
A 'Freedom of Expression' meet was held on the occasion.
The Trust also released a pen with a photograph and signature of Lankesh.
Mevani alleged that there was a connect between the killings of four progressive and rationalist writers.
He also alleged that without the involvement of state machinery, such murders could not happen.
Wife of late professor M M Kalburgi, Gauri Lankesh's mother Indira, and Meghna Pansare, daughter of Communist Party of India leader Govind Pansare also addressed the gathering.
Writers, thinkers and journalists released a copy of newly launched Kannada tabloid Nyaya Patha during the meet. Lankesh was shot dead on the night of September 5, 2017, from close range in front of her Rajarajeshwari Nagar house around 8 pm.
Amnesty International India said attacks on journalism not only stifle the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression but also have a 'profound silencing effect'.
It cited the house arrest of civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha and Left-leaning poet Varavara Rao on charges of having ties with Maoists as examples of crackdown on free speech.
"Gauri Lankesh's death anniversary is an occasion for us to introspect on how people who expose the truth, including journalists and whistle-blowers, are increasingly under attack in India.
"While it is heartening that the investigation into Gauri Lankesh's murder seems to be progressing, investigations into several other attacks on journalists and whistle-blowers have yielded precious little. It is a dangerous time for anyone who speaks truth to power in India," said Aakar Patel of Amnesty India.
According to Reporters Without Borders, in the first six months of 2018, at least four journalists have been killed in India and at least three more have been physically attacked.
Several other journalists have received threats for journalism that is critical of the State. In August, two journalists were arrested in a nationwide crackdown on human rights defenders, Amnesty India said in a statement.
"Journalism cannot be suppressed by those refusing to acknowledge the truth," Patel said, adding, "This occasion is also a good time to call for investigations into all attacks on journalists."
Amnesty India said Lankesh's killing is part of a growing pattern of attacks on journalists in the country.
The SIT got a breakthrough in its probe when a Gujarat-based forensic lab confirmed that Parashuram Waghmare shot and killed her.
The SIT, formed by then chief minister Siddaramaiah, has arrested suspected mastermind Amol Kale and shooter Parashuram Waghmare, among others.
A few others are yet to be nabbed. Sanatan Sanstha has claimed that those arrested were not its members.
Investigations revealed that Lankesh was among 26 people including Prof K S Bhagwan, Girish Karnad and Chandrashekar Patil, were in rightwing extremists' list, as they were critical of Hindutva ideology.
Kavitha Lankesh has said rightwing outfit Sanatan Sanstha should be treated like any other terrorist organisation if its involvement in killings of rationalists, including that of Narendra Dabholkar, was proved.
In a counter move, members of Hindu Vidhidnya Parishad, some of them lawyers fighting for the accused, have criticised the SIT for invoking Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act against the accused.
The issues around trade gaps, especially around steel and aluminium tariffs imposed by the US, will be addressed separately, reports Subhayan Chakraborty.
The United States and India will give a wide berth to trade in the 2+2 dialogue beginning on Thursday, and instead focus on defence and foreign affairs.
The issues around trade gaps between the two countries will be addressed separately.
The inaugural edition in New Delhi will have US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis meeting Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
The ministry of external affairs has refused to include some trade issues in the talks.
Both nations have decided to keep trade issues separate, and plan to discuss them under their trade agencies. Some grievances on trade, from both sides, might come up during the talks, but the discourse will firmly be about foreign policy and defence, a senior MEA official said.
The predecessor to the current talks, India-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue, had started in 2015. However, after two annual rounds, a decision was taken to carve out trade issues into a separate annual discussion -- India-US Commercial Dialogue.
In the first edition of the trade talks, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu had gone to Washington, DC, in October last year. No plan for talks this year has materialised as yet.
This year, US President Donald Trumps administration has dragged India to the World Trade Organization multiple times over New Delhis export-promotion schemes and restrictions on solar cell imports. India, too, has lodged a case against steel and aluminium tariffs imposed by the US.
In July, US tariffs led to India announcing retaliatory duties on 29 key agricultural products. This will come into effect on September 18, and will add $240 million (Rs 1,725 crore) to the exchequer. This is the exact amount India will lose because of the US tariff hikes on steel and aluminium. Apples, almonds and walnuts from the US will attract 50 per cent higher tax. Some industrial products and steel will also be hit. India is the largest destination for these goods.
Despite three trade talks between the two nations, no deal has been reached.
We are discussing the tariff, as well as other issues with the US on a regular basis. That will continue separately, a senior commerce department official said, adding a broad consensus on annual trade talks has not been reached because of current tensions.
Trade experts have advised India to be cautious while responding to the US tariffs. Imports will become unaffordable because of increase in Customs duties. With the new trade barriers, this increase will make domestic manufacturing more attractive, said M S Mani, indirect tax partner, Deloitte India.
During his election campaign, Trump had targeted white-collar technical workers from India immigrating to the US and working for software and information technology companies. The resulting visa issues will be discussed in the talks.
A senior US diplomat said removing trade issues, which often lead to difference of opinion provided space for strengthening the strategic interests of both nations, which are mostly aligned.
China is increasingly leveraging its economic and military assets across the Asia-Pacific region to gain strategic advantage. The talks will help to co-ordinate more closely on Afghanistan, the Indian Ocean and also in the Middle East (West Asia), he added.
Chief Justice Of India Dipak Misra will retire on October 2 this year.
However, in the span of less than a month that he has in office, Justice Misra is expected to pronounce verdict on several crucial cases, which, if not disposed of by the incumbent CJI, will have to be heard afresh by a new bench.
Apart from high-profile cases like the validity of Aadhaar Act in light of the right to privacy judgment and Ayodhya land dispute, the CJI is also heading various benches that are expected to decide cases related reservations to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in promotion in government jobs, the alleged dilution of Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code -- which stipulates punishment against harassment of women by husband and in-laws -- and framing of guidelines to check violence and vandalism by a protesting mob.
Here's a list of big cases that the incumbent CJI is likely to decide:
1) Ayodhya land dispute and whether offering namaz in mosques is an integral part of Islam
A three-judge bench headed by the CJI had reserved its order on whether to refer to a larger Constitutional Bench its 1994 order which said that 'offering namaz at mosques is not an integral part of Islam'.
This is part of the court's judgment on pleas against the 2010 verdict of the Allahabad high court that divided the disputed land into three parts.
However, a plea by Sunni Waqf Board sought the SC to reconsider its 1994 judgment as the Allahabad HC verdict was based on observations in that case.
All parties have so far maintained that the decision of the top court on the land dispute would be acceptable to them.
2) Validity of Aadhaar Act
The verdict in this case also has been reserved by a five-judge bench headed by the CJI.
The original pleas were filed in 2015 challenging collection of biometrics by the Unique Identification Authority of India.
However, as the Adhaar Act was passed in Parliament, after being categorised as a Money Bill, fresh petitions were filed challenging the constitutionality of the Act and its passage as a Money Bill.
The verdict of nine-judge Constitutional Bench declaring privacy a Fundamental Right will certainly have a bearing on this case.
3) Entry of women in Sabarimala Temple
Interestingly, the lawyer representing People for Dharma and NGO Chetna in this case relied on the right to privacy judgment to argue that allowing women inside the temple of the 'eternal celibate' deity would be a violation of his right to privacy.
The lawyer said that Lord Ayyappa of the Sabarimala is a 'juristic person' for the purposes of property ownership and taxes and hence, he equally has rights under Article 21 (protection of life and personal liberty), 25 (freedom to practice religion) and 26 (freedom to manage religious affair) of the Constitution.
Though the SC termed the arguments 'impressive', it maintained that women have a Constitutional right to enter the temple.
The case an interesting conflict between the right to religious practise under Article 25 or prohibition of gender-based discrimination under Articles 14 and 15.
The verdict was reserved on August 1.
4) Punishment for adultery
Responding to the case against Section 497 of the IPC, which punishes a man for having extra-martial sexual ties with the wife of another man, the Centre had said that scrapping the section would 'destroy the sanctity of marriage'.
The SC, however, disagreed with the Centre, saying that though matrimonial sanctity is an issue, the penal provision on adultery is apparently violative of the right to equality under the Constitution as it treats married men and married women differently.
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.'
The bench termed this aspect of Section 497 'manifestly arbitrary' and said it treated married women as 'chattel' on the ground that their relationship with other married persons depends on the 'consent or connivance of her husband'.
However, the Centre's affidavit sought the dismissal of the plea challenging, saying that Section 497 'supports, safeguards and protects the institution of marriage'.
The verdict was reserved on August 8.
5) Decriminalisation of homosexuality
It is another case in which the right to privacy verdict will play a crucial role.
The SC had reinstated Section 377 of the IPC, which punishes homosexuality, in 2013, reversing the Delhi high court order which struck down the section in 2009.
During the hearing, the SC said the right to sexual orientation is not a fundamental right but indicated that the right to choose a sexual partner is a fundamental right.
Hence, it is widely expected that the SC may strike down the section in its judgment that was reserved on July 17.
Other important cases in which judgments have been reserved by benches headed by the CJI involve disqualification of charge-sheeted politicians from contesting elections, live-streaming of proceedings of the apex court and plea seeking to restrict elected legislators from practising law.
NSA Doval, defence top brass brief Union ministers on the deal to help them counter Opposition charges.
The Vice Chief of the Indian Air Force on Wednesday gave a strong endorsement of the Rafale fighter jets, saying it will give India an 'unprecedented' combat advantage, as the Supreme Court agreed to hear next week a plea seeking a stay on the controversial deal with France.
As the government remained under attack from the Congress and other opposition parties on the escalating Rafale row, the country's top security brass also gave a briefing to the Union Council of Ministers in a bid to provide the National Democratic Alliance leaders with facts to counter the allegations of favouritism and corruption levelled against it.
Describing Rafale as a 'beautiful' aircraft, Air Marshal S B Deo, the Vice Chief of the IAF, said those criticising the deal must understand the procurement norms.
Deo said 'all discussions on the deal' were taking place as people do not have adequate information about the procurement procedure.
"We are waiting for the aircraft to come. It is a beautiful aircraft. It is a very capable aircraft. It is a capability that we need quickly," he said on the sidelines of an event when asked about the controversy surrounding the Rafale deal.
Asked about allegations relating to the Rs 58,000 crore deal, Deo said 'all the discussions are taking place as people do not have information'.
"They should read DPP (defence procurement procedure) and offset policy," he said, adding the jets will give India 'unprecedented' combat advantage.
India had inked an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore. The delivery of the jets is scheduled to begin from September 2019.
The Congress has been alleging massive irregularities in the deal, claiming the government was procuring each aircraft at a cost of over Rs 1,600 crore as against Rs 526 crore finalised by the UPA government. The government has rejected the charges.
At the Supreme Court, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud considered the submissions of advocate M L Sharma that his plea on the Rafale deal be listed for urgent hearing.
In his petition, Sharma has alleged discrepancies in the jet deal and sought a stay on it.
Sharma claimed in his plea that the inter-governmental agreement to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets must be quashed as it was an 'outcome of corruption' and not ratified by Parliament under Article 253 (Parliament has power to make any law for implementing any inter-government agreement) of the Constitution.
The Rafale fighter is a twin-engine Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) manufactured by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation.
During their briefing at the meeting of the Union Council of Ministers, the country's top security brass said the cost of the Rafale jet is based on equipment and weapons that will be married to the jet.
A senior official said National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Secretary, Defence Production, Ajay Kumar highlighted various aspects of the deal at the meeting, which lasted nearly three hours.
The ministers were informed that the Rafale contract was a deal between two governments involving no private party, leaving little scope for corruption.
The security brass also highlighted the aircraft's capability which would strengthen the IAF and make the fighter jets an asset for it.
The presentation underscores Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to take all his allies, who are represented in the council of ministers, on board as the government works to counter the opposition on the issue with the Lok Sabha election being less than eight months away.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi accused the Modi government of adopting 'double standards' in approving offset contracts for defence deals asking why it did not adopt the same yardstick in the Rafale deal when it had disapproved Russia's move to grant offset contracts to a private player for AK-103 rifles.
Singhvi said a 'fallacious argument' of the Modi government on Rafale has been nipped in the bud by its own recent negotiations in another defence deal with Russia for manufacturing AK-rifles.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while refusing to get into the details of what transpired in the meeting, took a dig at the Congress and its chief Rahul Gandhi over the fighter jet deal.
Responding to a question, he said, "Congress has proved that in a dynastic party, ignorance is contagious... if one lacks information, all are ignorant."
Jaitley said questioning the deal is the 'biggest ignorance'.
He said a basic aircraft is of 'no use' as it can only fly the pilot. He said cost escalation and currency variations between 2007 and 2016 have to be considered.
He also pointed out that a weaponised jet is 20 per cent cheaper now after the negotiations. Since it is a government-to-government deal, no private party or a PSU is involved.
"The 36 jets will come in a fly away condition and not even a bolt will be fitted here ... during UPA (rule), they did not believe in transfer of technology but preferred to buy (hardware) from foreign buyers ...," he said.
Referring to Bofors howitzer gun deal, he said while bribes can be taken, the weapons could not be manufactured here.
Jaitley said after increasing Foreign Direct Investment to 49 per cent several international defence major are tying up with Indian companies to manufacture defence hardware here.
He said the government has also ensured that defence PSUs get sufficient orders. He said side by side the government also believes in helping the private sector.
The functionary, meanwhile, said the presentation in the meeting also underscored Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to take all his allies, who are represented in the council of ministers, on board, as the government works to counter the opposition on the issue in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections which are less than eight months away.
The presentation was made before the ministers and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, who will reach out to the people all across the country on the achievements of the government under a week-long campaign.
***
IAF carries out first ever mid-air refuelling of Tejas light combat jet
The Indian Air Force said on Wednesday it has successfully carried out the first ever mid air refuelling of the indigenously developed Tejas light combat aircraft, a major milestone in its development cycle.
A Russian-built IL-78 MKI tanker transferred fuel to a Tejas MK I aircraft on Tuesday.
"The tanker was launched from IAF's base in Agra while the fighter was launched from Gwalior. The specially modified Tejas aircraft carried out a series of test profiles including a 'dry contact' with the tanker," the IAF said.
It said a second Tejas aircraft was deployed to observe the exercise closely.
The mid-air refueling of Tejas came three months after it successfully fired an air-to-air beyond visual (BVR) range missile.
The IAF had ordered 40 Tejas Mark-1 version and a request for proposal (RFP) was issued to HAL by the IAF in December for procurement of another batch of 83 Tejas at a cost of around Rs 50,000 crore.
"All flight parameters of Tejas aircraft were transmitted live to a ground control unit set-up at Gwalior airbase, wherein ADA (Aeronautical Development Agency) scientists constantly monitored the technical parameters of the mission," it said.
Prior to the test flight, extensive ground trials were conducted in all possible conditions under the supervision of ADA scientists.
"The success of these trials is a major leap for the indigenous fighter.The ability to carry out air-to-air refuelling is one of the critical requirements for Tejas to achieve 'final operational clearance'," said the IAF.
From Typhoons soaring over the snowy mountains of the Falkland Islands to Red Arrows flying over Buckingham Palace, the images submitted in the Royal Air Force Photographic Competition captures the heroics and skills of Britains frontline fighters.
Over 1,000 photos and 25 videos were submitted by military and civilian photographers alike across 13 categories before being whittled down by a panel of judges.
Here are some of the favourites.
For those who would like to cast their vote, visit the RAF website.
Selfie
RAF photographer Cpl Tim Laurence captured a Selfie during a routine training sortie over the coast of Anglesey, Wales in an RAF Hawk T2, from IV Squadron based at RAF Valley. Photograph: Cpl Tim Laurence/Crown Copyright 2016
Flaring up
A RAF Puma HC2 flying over the city of Kabul, Afghanistan as part of a sortie in support of Operation TORAL. The Puma is the main source of transport between different camps within Kabul. Photograph: Cpl Lee Matthews/Crown Copyright 2016
Perfection
A pair of Typhoon FGR4 aircraft from the RAF Typhoon Display Team, 29 Squadron, RAF Coningsby. The aircraft are performing a dynamic crossover on their arrival at the RAF Cosford Air Show. Photograph: Sgt Paul Oldfield/Crown Copyright 2016
Parallels
Image taken during the transit from Kuwait City to Doha, Qatar as part of the RAFAT Eastern Hawk Tour 2017. Photograph: SAC Hannah Smoker/Crown Copyright 2016
RAF Centenary
The RAF100 parade and flypast took place over London on July 10, 2018 in the Royal Air Forces centenary year. Thousands of people gathered along the Mall and around Buckingham Palace to witness over 100 aircraft take part in the flypast. The finale was the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, The Red Arrows. Photograph: Cpl Tim Laurence/Crown Copyright 2016
Remembrance
East Kirkby Aviation Museum in Lincolnshire was the venue for a night shoot with Lancaster Just Jane and a group of re-enactors to re-create a wintery night scene. The event is a tribute to the airmen who gave their lives carrying out the bombing missions during WWII. Photograph: Cpl Tim Laurence/Crown Copyright 2016
OP RUMAN- First in
Sergeant Stephen Hardwick, a Medic from RAF Brize Norton based Tactical Medical Wing embarking on-board a Boeing C-17 Globemaster aircraft. The TMW is destined for Barbados as part of the UK Government Task Group deployment which travelled to help those affected by Hurricane Irma in the Caribbean. Photograph: Paul Crouch/Crown Copyright 2016
This Way Up
A Chinook CH-47 Weapons System Operator from 27 Squadron, RAF Odiham preparing his aircraft for the loading of military troops during a training exercise in Lorient, France as part of a joint UK-French interoperability exercise. Photograph: ACSSU/Crown Copyright 2016
Tunnel Vision
RAF engineer Sergeant Danny Wass, inspecting an engine on a Tornado GR4, from IX Squadron in support. RAF Tornados are currently deployed on Operation SHADER. Photograph: SAC Phil Dye/Crown Copyright 2016
Fire
Corporal Emma Pook, one of two female Fire Fighters at RAF Benson Fire Section. The photo was taken during section fire training. RAF Fire Fighters provide 24/7 fire and crash rescue protection. Photograph: Fire Sgt Rachel Malthouse/Crown Copyright 2016
Avro Legacy
The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight from RAF Coningsby practice over Lincolnshire the evening before the RAF100 parade and flypast. Pictured here is their Avro Lancaster Bomber. Photograph: Cpl Tim Laurence/Crown Copyright 2016
Smoke In The Sun
Thousands of farmers and labourers from across the country held a massive protest in the national capital on Wednesday against what they called 'anti-people' policies of the Modi government, and demanded higher prices for farm produce, waiver of loans and better wages.
IMAGE: Workers and farmers of various unions raise slogans during Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally at Parliament Street. Photograph: Arun Sharma/PTI Photo
The protesters, holding placards and shouting anti-government slogans, marched from Ramlila Maidan to Parliament in Central Delhi, and warned the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party that it will have to pay a 'heavy price' in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls for 'ignoring' the demands of the disadvantaged people.
The 'Mazdoor Kishan Sangharsh Rally', organised by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and All-India Agricultural Workers' Union (AIAWU), also demanded concrete measures to generate jobs, minimum monthly wage of Rs 18,000 for workers, halting 'forcible' land acquisition and stopping changes in labour laws.
The organisers claimed nearly 1.5 lakh farmers and labourers from at least 23 states have participated in the protests, preparation for which had started several months back. The protest has thrown the traffic out of gear in several parts of Delhi.
"The massive protest is a warning to the BJP government ahead of the Lok Sabha elections as for the last four years it has ignored the demands of the farmers and the workers. The BJP will have to pay a heavy price for it," said Tapan Sen, general secretary of CITU, a leading trade union.
IMAGE: The workers marched from Ramlila Maidan to Parliament Street, carrying red flags and chanting slogans against the government. Photograph: Arun Sharma/PTI Photo
Carrying red flags and wearing red caps, the marchers raised slogans against the policies of the BJP government and assailed the ruling party's 'communal and divisive' agenda.
The organisers said this was the first time after Independence that farmers and workers jointly participated in a rally against the government.
The farmers in various parts of the country have been holding protests demanding loan waiver and better prices for farm produce.
Addressing the rally, AIKS leader Vijoo Krishnan claimed 36,000 farmers have committed suicide over the last few years and said the BJP government is piling up miseries on the marginalised section.
IMAGE: CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury looks on during the Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally. Photograph: Arun Sharma/PTI Photo
"For the last four years, this BJP government has fooled us. It has never done anything for the farmers. The government should give farmers remunerative price as per the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee. The government policies are anti-people and we will not tolerate this any further," AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah said.
"We will continue our struggle till our demands are met," he said, adding the struggle will continue till 'we change the central government'.
He said all other farmers' organisations will hold a long march and come to Delhi on November 30.
"Trade unions will also hold a two-day strike by the end of the year," he said.
The rally was also supported by a large number of artists, academicians and left-wing intellectuals.
A large number of protesters arrived in Delhi around three-four days ago.
"Workers and farmers coming together has enthused the other sections of the society. Now the Youth Federation has decided to organise a rally on November 3 protesting against unemployment in the country. Before that, they will hold a 24-hour dharna in front of all central government offices in all districts," said Sen.
One body was recovered from the debris of the collapsed Majerhat bridge in south Kolkata on Wednesday, taking the toll in the incident to two.
IMAGE: Rescuers clear the debris at the site of a bridge that collapsed. Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who visited the site after returning from Darjeeling, told reporters that two persons were missing and one body was recovered from the debris.
Police said the body recovered might be of one of the missing persons.
Operations to locate those who might still be trapped in the debris were stepped up. Police and National Disaster Response Force personnel continued their rescue work at the accident site with cranes, earthmovers and drilling machines.
"It may take another two days to cut through the concrete slabs. The people engaged in the work are trying hard to cut them," said Meeraj Khalid, DC South, Kolkata Police.
"It is God's grace that many people were not killed," Banerjee said, adding a committee headed by Chief Secretary Malay De will investigate the cause of the collapse.
One person, identified as Soumen Bag, was killed when a part of the 50-year-old bridge on the arterial Diamond Harbour Road caved in on Tuesday evening trapping several people and crushing many vehicles.
Banerjee said the police and administration have done well in carrying out the rescue work and an emergency meeting has been convened on Thursday to take stock of the situation.
She said papers of old bridges were not available.
"Still we are trying to conduct regular survey of those bridges with available technical experts," she said, adding work by Metro Railways in the area during the past nine years had caused vibration and resulted in many problems there.
IMAGE: People stand next to the wreckage of vehicles at the site of a bridge that collapsed in Kolkata. Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters
The area near the site had been dug up for a Metro Rail project and construction material is strewn all over the place.
Opposition parties in the state have alleged that the Trinamool Congress government's 'callousness' towards the repair of old bridges was the main reason behind the collapse.
Banerjee sought cooperation of the people in the area and said that they might face hardships due to collapse of the bridge.
Those who did good work during the rescue operations would be rewarded, she added.
The bridge in Alipore area in south Kolkata runs over the Majerhat Railway Station and connects the city centre with the heavily populated Behala, vast areas of the southwest suburbs and neighbouring South 24 Parganas district.
With the Diamond Harbour Road being closed, thousands of commuters were stuck in jams.
A traffic police officer said vehicles that usually move to and from the city through Majerhat bridge have been diverted through various other roads.
Train movement below the Majerhat bridge was normal on Wednesday after being stopped as a precautionary measure on Tuesday, Eastern Railway spokesman R N Mahapatra said.
"Train services of Circular Railway from Dum Dum to Majerhat have resumed this morning," he said.
However, services in the Circular Railway portion of railway track between New Alipore and Majerhat stations that passes under the bridge are temporarily suspended, he added.
Eastern Railway had stopped movement of trains on the track on Tuesday as a precautionary measure.
Tram services have been completely suspended along CGR Road-DH Road and Judges Court Road, a Kolkata Traffic Police source said.
The Kolkata Disaster Management Department, the NDRF and the state fire department conducted search operations through the night, officials said.
IMAGE: Local residents and rescue workers clear the debris at the site of the bridge. Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters
The rescuers tried drilling the concrete slabs, used sophisticated cameras and engaged sniffer dogs to ensure anybody trapped under the rubble could be reached and rescued. Intermittent rains complicated the operation.
Additional lighting arrangements were made to aid rescue work at night, the officials said.
A team of senior officials of CESC, responsible for power supply in the city, visited the site last night to ensure adequate power supply in the area.
A mini bus, four cars and a few motorcycles that were damaged in the bridge collapse were removed using cranes, the official said.
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Roopa Ganguly, who visited the site Wednesday morning, held the TMC-led state government responsible for the collapse and alleged that the bridge was not maintained properly.
The police lodged a suo motu case against unknown persons in connection with their involvement in the mishap, a police officer said.
This is a third bridge collapse in the city since 2013.
The railways had alerted the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) about weak support beams, exposed reinforcements and even cracks on piers of the 50-year-old bridge.
IMAGE: An injured victim is carried to SSKM hospital after a section of Majerhat bridge collapsed in Kolkata. Photograph: PTI Photo
The road bridge runs over the Majherhat Railway Station on the Sealdah-Budge Budge line.
In the letter to KMDA, dated July 27, the Eastern Railway Zone's Deputy Chief Engineer had highlighted the need for inspection of sections of the bridge, flagging several concerns regarding its structural efficacy.
A copy of the letter was marked to the railway Senior Deputy Engineer, Sealdah.
KMDA is the statutory planning and development authority for Kolkata metropolitan area and state Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim is the chairman of its board.
'The condition of RCC beams of the bridge which supports utility services, are not in good condition and it requires suitable replacement in a programmed manner at the earliest,' the letter to the Superintending Engineer, South Circle, KMDA said.
A copy of the letter is with PTI. Sources in the railway ministry said soon after the collapse of the Gokhale Bridge in Mumbai in July, an inspection of a section of the Majerhat Bridge above the Sealdah-Budge Budge line was conducted which revealed these deficiencies.
The letter urged the KMDA to make preparations at their end so that railway could initiate maintenance work.
It also raised concerns over a nearby span of the bridge towards Mominpur, which they found to be 'visibly deflected'.
'This needs to be a complete inspection from your side and necessary action thereof,' wrote the Eastern Railway Zone's Deputy Chief Engineer.
Further, the bridge engineer listed out the anomalies detected in the road over bridge -- weak RCC and steel beams which needed replacement, locations with exposed reinforcements, and some cracks in piers over isolated locations.
After the collapse of the Vivekanada flyover in the city in March 2016, the state government had mandated Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RiTES) to survey the conditions of different bridges in Kolkata.
The under-construction flyover came crashing down in crowded Burrabazar area, the wholesale business hub of the city, on March 31, 2016 claiming 26 lives.
After the tragedy, the KMDA and the state PWD had entrusted a team of consulting engineers with the task of auditing flyovers and rail overbridges in the city.
IMAGE: United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Pakistan. Photograph: Kind courtesy @SecPompeo/Twitter
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Pakistan's new Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday and pressed him to take 'sustained and decisive measures' against terrorists threatening the regional peace and stability, days after the United Sates cancelled $300 million in military aid to Islamabad for failing to rein in the terror groups operating from its soil.
Pompeo, Mattis arrive for 2+2 dialogue US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in New Delhi on Wednesday to hold the inaugural two-plus-two talks with their Indian counterparts, focus of which will be to deepen strategic ties and resolve differences over India's defence engagement with Russia and crude oil import from Iran. Reflecting the importance of the talks to be held on Thursday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj received Pompeo, while Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman welcomed her US counterpart Jim Mattis at the Palam airport. Swaraj and Sitharaman will hold the twice-postponed dialogue with Pompeo and Mattis. Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford is also part of the US delegation. 'In a special gesture symbolising our warm and friendly relationship, EAM @SushmaSwaraj received United States Secretary of State @SecPompeo at the airport on his first visit to India,' MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet. The external affairs minister will have a separate bilateral meeting with Pompeo while Sitharaman will have a one-on-one meeting with Mattis on Thursday morning before the delegation-level two-plus-two talks. 12 officials from each side are expected to attend the talks which will be followed by a working lunch. In the afternoon, Swaraj, Sitharaman, Pompeo and Mattis will call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As Secretary Pompeo arrived in New Delhi from Islamabad, India will also try to get his view about his engagement with the new government in Pakistan headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, official sources said. In the talks, the sources said, India will also try to 'sensitise' the US that any cut in import of Iranian oil in compliance with the US sanctions may impact the country's overall economy as the crude oil from that country is much cheaper. India is also expected to apprise the US about the importance of the Rs 40,000 crore deal it is about to finalise with Russia to procure a batch of S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems. The US has been indicating that it does not want India to go ahead with the deal. The sources said both sides will also discuss the long-pending Communications, Compatibility, Security Agreement. The COMCASA will help India obtain critical and encrypted defence technologies for Indian defence platforms from the US. The sources said text of the agreement is almost ready. They said both sides will also explore ways to enhance engagement between their navies in the Indo-Pacific region and try to resolve tariff-related issues. On import of Iranian oil, the sources said India may also convey to the US that some of its refineries are dependent on certain kind of crude oil and making technical adjustments in them may require huge investments as well as time.
Pompeo, the former Central Intelligence Agency chief who was on his first visit to Pakistan as the top American diplomat, told Khan that he was 'pleased' with his meeting with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi earlier in the day.
But at the same time, Pompeo asked Khan 'to do more' at the meeting, which was also attended by Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Foreign Minister Qureshi, Geo TV reported, citing diplomatic sources.
This was the US' first high-level dialogue with Pakistan since the new government of Prime Minister Khan assumed office after the July 25 elections and comes days after the US cancelled $300 million in military aid to Islamabad for not doing enough against terror groups active on its soil.
Talking to reporters travelling with him, Pompeo said, "We made clear to them that -- and they agreed -- it's time for us to begin to deliver on our joint commitments, right."
"So we've had lots of times where we've talked and made agreements, but we haven't been able to actually execute those.
"And so there was broad agreement between myself and Foreign Minister Qureshi, as well as with the prime minister, that we need to begin to do things that will begin to actually, on the ground, deliver outcomes so that we can begin to build confidence and trust between the two countries," he added.
State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said that in all of his meetings, Secretary Pompeo conveyed the need for Pakistan to take 'sustained and decisive measures against terrorists and militants threatening regional peace and stability'.
Later, Qureshi told reporters that the Pakistani perspective was presented responsibly to the US delegation.
"We tried to understand their wishes and put forth our own expectations and concerns," he said, adding, "Ice has been thawed."
"Today, we felt that we have created an atmosphere to reset our relations, and the lack of trust that was present has been broken which is a very positive development.
"Believe me, if our narrative had not set in with them, the atmosphere would have been different...," he said.
"I told them that if you want to proceed with Pakistan, the foundation lies in trust, frank and candid conversation. And until and unless we address concerns from both the sides, progress is not possible," he said.
Regarding the US delegation's meeting with Prime Minister Khan, Qureshi said: "During the meeting at the PM House we all sat down and exchanged views. In the past, they used to come, meet the PM and then went to the GHQ (Army headquarters). Today's meeting sent a clear message that we are all on the same page."
Qureshi said he decided against raising the US decision to scrap the $300 million in aid.
"That decision was taken before this govt took charge. I gave this matter some thought then I decided against raising it because free nations think along the lines of self-sufficiency. We will take a new direction," he said.
"The meeting has created environment to reset the relations and removed the hiatus," he added.
The two sides also discussed the Afghan peace process.
Pompeo, who along with US Joint Chief of Staff Chairman Gen Joseph Dunford had arrived on an official visit to Pakistan, earlier met Qureshi and discussed 'bilateral, regional and international issues'.
In a statement, the Foreign Office said Qureshi highlighted that the priority of the new Government was socio-economic development and for the success of people centered agenda and economic reforms, an enabling regional security environment was imperative.
He said improving relations with neighbours was a priority, in an apparent reference to strained ties with India and Afghanistan, which often accuses Pakistan of providing safe havens to militants to conduct cross border attacks.
Qureshi also reaffirmed Pakistan's commitment to continue efforts for promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan.
'The two sides agreed that present conditions in Afghanistan were conducive to intensifying efforts for a political settlement. They underscored the need for the Taliban to seize the opportunity for talks in response to President Ghani's offer for an unconditional dialogue,' the statement said.
Pompeo stated that US fully supported the reform agenda of Prime Minister Khan and wished the government success in its implementation, it said, adding that Pompeo conveyed the US desire to work with Pakistan in furthering the shared objectives of peace and stability in Afghanistan.
The ties between the two sides strained after President Donald Trump, while announcing his Afghanistan and South Asia policy in August last year, hit out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to 'agents of chaos' that kill Americans in Afghanistan and warned Islamabad that it has 'much to lose' by harbouring terrorists.
He had also slammed Pakistan for its support to terror groups and warned Islamabad of consequences if it continues to do so.
In January, Trump suspended all military assistance to Pakistan accusing it of rewarding past assistance with 'nothing but lies and deceit'.
The ties between the two 'allies' are passing through a difficult period as the US is upset over what it calls lack of cooperation from Islamabad.
Pak seeks US help to ease tensions with India
Pakistan on Wednesday sought US help to ease tensions with India, saying it wanted peace on the Eastern border in order to concentrate on the Western border with Afghanistan.
"We want ease on the Eastern border if we have to look towards the Western side," Qureshi told reporters while briefing them on the outcome of his talks with Pompeo.
Stating that people suffer due to ceasefire violations along the Line of Control, he said, it was 'important that we should look at it and see how we can improve that who can help us to bring the improvement (on Eastern border)'.
He reiterated that Pakistan wanted peace with all its neighbours and had never shied away from negotiations, but 'we need two hands to clap'.
Qureshi said the LoC ceasefire was a very good Confidence Building Measure but when it gets violated, people suffer.
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.
India has made it clear to Pakistan that terror and talks cannot go together.
Qureshi said that the visiting US delegation indicated to have direct talks with the Afghan Taliban and Pakistan offered its full support for a negotiated solution of the Afghan issue.
"Pompeo said the State Department will lead the peace effort in Afghanistan. The impression we get is that there is space for (US) direct talks with the Taliban," he said.
He said Pompeo assured that the US did not want to keep its foot print for unlimited period in Afghanistan, though there was no timeline for America to pullout from the strife-torn country.
"US wants that Pakistan should help to move forward the talks. And we will do and we have offered full support as it is according to our policy. We want peace (in Afghanistan)," he said.
Sunshine Schools are looking to attract interest from members of the urban 'aspirational' class -- vegetable vendors, security guards, drivers, etc -- who cannot afford the fees charged by budget private schools.
Anjuli Bhargava reports.
IMAGE: It wasn't only the middle-class and the rich who were moving from the government school system to the private sector; the poor, too, had woken up to the value of a quality education. Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters
At 30, with a degree in liberal arts, a satisfactory job in the United States, a green card and the great American dream staring him in the face, Vikas Jhunjhunwala found himself in the midst of a mid-life crisis -- a decade earlier than he would have perhaps liked.
While in the US, Jhunjhunwala had been studying, absorbing and finding himself more and more drawn towards what economists and visionaries such as C K Prahalad and Muhammad Yunus were advocating: focusing on the base of the pyramid.
The double bottom line concept -- doing well and doing good both at the same time -- was a powerful magnet for Jhunjhunwala. A Marwari baniya by birth, he felt some "defective gene" was playing up.
So, in 2005, Jhunjhunwala headed back to India and joined the micro finance sector. He worked with Unitus and learnt the ins and outs of a sector that was in its infancy at the time.
"The micro finance sector in India -- the way it unfolded -- was like the poster boy of the double bottom line theory," he says, adding that there was much to learn from being a part of this wave.
After eight years in the sector, Jhunjhunwala quit in 2013 and worked with the Aam Aadmi Party for a year.
Those were heady days for the party and, like many others, he believed that being a part of it was like being involved in a "second freedom movement".
IMAGE: Sunshine School Co-founders Vikas Jhunjhunwala and Joanna Sundharam. Photograph: Kind courtesy Unlimited Delhi
Once the nascent frenzy around AAP dissipated, Jhunjhunwala left the political outfit and started eyeing the affordable education sector.
On conducting further research on the subject, he soon realised that two fundamental shifts had taken place.
One, it wasn't only the middle-class and the rich who were moving from the government school system to the private sector; the poor, too, had woken up to the value of a quality education and were as likely to move their children out of free government schools if they found a better option -- even if it wasn't free.
Two, unlike the 1960s and the 1970s when even senior bureaucrats and other successful persons graduated from government schools and the quality of education that they offered was deemed decent enough, this was by and large no longer true.
"The system was and is broken," says Jhunjhunwala, now 43.
To make things worse, private budget schools, when compared to their private counterparts, weren't doing too well, either -- simply because the bar was so low.
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: %perl> 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(0x7f3fd6b1c198)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6bab928)', '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(0x7f3fd6b1c198)') 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(0x7f3fd6bab928)') 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(0x7f3fd6b3ef28)') 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(0x7f3fd6bab928)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6bab928)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6221af0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd6be09a8)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd6be09a8)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
Title of Security CUSIP/ISIN Acceptance Priority Level Principal Amount Tendered after Early Tender Time Principal Amount Accepted after Early Tender Time Tender Consideration(3) 7.000% notes due 2039 03938LAP9/US03938LAP94 1 $3,530,000(1) $3,530,000 $1,120.00 6.750% notes due 2041 03938LAS3/US03938LAS34 2 $188,000(2) $188,000 $1,103.00
Excludes $428,331,000 aggregate principal amount of the 2039 Notes that were tendered at or prior to the Early Tender Time (as defined below) and accepted for purchase by the Company, for which the Company paid the Total Consideration, plus any accrued interest, on the Early Settlement Date (as defined below). Excludes $194,412,000 aggregate principal amount of the 2041 Notes that were tendered at or prior to the Early Tender Time and accepted for purchase by the Company, for which the Company paid the Total Consideration, plus any accrued interest, on the Early Settlement Date. Per $1,000 principal amount of Notes validly tendered after the Early Tender Time and at or prior to the Expiration Time. Does not include Accrued Interest (as defined below).
September 5, 2018 - ArcelorMittal (the "Company" or "ArcelorMittal") announces the expiration and the final results of its tender offers (the "Offers") to purchase for cash, for a combined aggregate purchase price (exclusive of Accrued Interest (as defined herein)) of up to $750,000,000 (the "Maximum Tender Cap"), its outstanding 7.000% notes due 2039 (CUSIP 03938LAP9/ISIN US03938LAP94) (the "2039 Notes") and 6.750% notes due 2041 (CUSIP 03938LAS3/ISIN US03938LAS34) (the "2041 Notes" and, together with the 2039 Notes, the "Notes").
The Offers were made pursuant to an offer to purchase dated August 7, 2018 (the "Offer to Purchase") which contains the full terms and conditions of the Offers. The Offers expired at 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on September 4, 2018 (the "Expiration Time").
On August 22, 2018 (the "Early Settlement Date"), the Company made a payment in cash for all Notes tendered at or prior to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on August 20, 2018 (such time, the "Early Tender Time") and not validly withdrawn. Taking into account $725,304,306 (excluding related fees and accrued interest) spent on Notes accepted for purchase as of the Early Tender Time pursuant to the Offers, the portion of the Maximum Tender Cap available for Notes tendered after the Early Tender Time and at or prior to the Expiration Time was equal to $24,695,694.
After the Early Tender Time and at or prior to the Expiration Time, the Company received valid tenders in respect of $3,530,000 aggregate principal amount of 2039 Notes and $188,000 aggregate principal amount of 2041 Notes.
Considering the $24,695,694 portion of the Maximum Tender Cap available for Notes tendered after the Early Tender Time and at or prior to the Expiration Time, all Notes tendered after the Early Tender Time and at or prior to the Expiration Time are expected to be accepted for purchase pursuant to the Offers.
Subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Offer to Purchase, with respect to Notes validly tendered after the Early Tender Time but at or prior to the Expiration Time and accepted for purchase pursuant to the Offers, the Company expects to pay the Tender Consideration, together with any accrued and unpaid interest from, and including, the immediately preceding interest payment date applicable to the Notes to, but excluding, the Final Settlement Date (the "Accrued Interest"), to the Holders thereof on the second Business Day after the Expiration Time, expected to be September 6, 2018 (the "Final Settlement Date").
All Notes that are purchased by the Company in the Offers will be retired and cancelled and no longer remain outstanding obligations, and no interest will be payable on such Notes following such cancellation.
Citigroup Global Markets Limited, Credit Agricole Securities (USA) Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Merrill Lynch International acted as dealer managers for the Offers. D.F. King acted as the information agent and tender agent in connection with the Offers.
For additional information regarding the terms of the Offers, please contact Citigroup Global Markets Limited by e-mail at liabilitymanagement.europe@citi.com or by telephone at +44 20 7986 8969 (London) or +1 800 558 3745 (toll free within the U.S.) or collect at +1 212 723 6106, Credit Agricole Securities (USA) Inc. by telephone at +1 866 807 6030 (toll free within the U.S.) or collect at +1 212 261 7802, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC by telephone at +1 866 834 4666 (toll free within the U.S.) or collect at +1 212 834 3424 and Merrill Lynch International by e-mail at DG.LM_EMEA@baml.com or by telephone at +44 20 7996 5420 (London) or +1 888 292 0070 (toll free within the U.S.) or collect at +1 980 387 3907. Requests for documents and questions regarding the tender of Notes may be directed to D.F. King via e-mail: arcelor@dfking.com or telephone: New York: +1 800 499 8410 (toll free within U.S.) or collect at + 1 212 269 5550 and London: +44 20 7920 9700.
Capitalized terms used and not defined herein have the meanings ascribed to them in the Offer to Purchase.
Important Information
This press release is neither an offer to purchase nor a solicitation to buy any Notes nor is it a solicitation for acceptance of the Offers. This announcement must be read in conjunction with the Offer to Purchase and the announcement dated August 21, 2018. The distribution of this announcement and the Offer to Purchase in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law. Persons into whose possession this announcement or the Offer to Purchase comes are required by each of the Company, the Dealer Managers and the Information and Tender Agent to inform themselves about and to observe any such restrictions.
###
About ArcelorMittal
ArcelorMittal is the world's leading steel and mining company, with a presence in 60 countries and an industrial footprint in 18 countries. Guided by a philosophy to produce safe, sustainable steel, we are the leading supplier of quality steel in the major global steel markets including automotive, construction, household appliances and packaging, with world-class research and development and outstanding distribution networks.
Through our core values of sustainability, quality and leadership, we operate responsibly with respect to the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees, contractors and the communities in which we operate.
For us, steel is the fabric of life, as it is at the heart of the modern world from railways to cars and washing machines. We are actively researching and producing steel-based technologies and solutions that make many of the products and components people use in their everyday lives more energy efficient.
We are one of the world's five largest producers of iron ore and metallurgical coal. With a geographically diversified portfolio of iron ore and coal assets, we are strategically positioned to serve our network of steel plants and the external global market. While our steel operations are important customers, our supply to the external market is increasing as we grow.
In 2017, ArcelorMittal had revenues of $68.7 billion and crude steel production of 93.1 million tonnes, while own iron ore production reached 57.4 million tonnes.
ArcelorMittal is listed on the stock exchanges of New York (MT), Amsterdam (MT), Paris (MT), Luxembourg (MT) and on the Spanish stock exchanges of Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid and Valencia (MTS).
For more information about ArcelorMittal please visit: http://corporate.arcelormittal.com/
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: %method> 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: %perl> 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(0x7f3fd6b51898)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6c98658)', '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(0x7f3fd6b51898)') 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(0x7f3fd6c98658)') 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(0x7f3fd6a52a70)') 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(0x7f3fd6c98658)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6c98658)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd62214a8)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd6c1e048)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd6c1e048)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
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: %method> 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: %perl> 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(0x7f3fd6a56240)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd69efd10)', '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(0x7f3fd6a56240)') 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(0x7f3fd69efd10)') 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(0x7f3fd6a538f8)') 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(0x7f3fd69efd10)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd69efd10)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6221910)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd6b645d8)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd6b645d8)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
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: %method> 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: %perl> 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(0x7f3fd6ed15b8)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd75baa80)', '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(0x7f3fd6ed15b8)') 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(0x7f3fd75baa80)') 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(0x7f3fd7545738)') 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(0x7f3fd75baa80)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd75baa80)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6222390)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd7624ef8)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd7624ef8)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
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: %method> 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: %perl> 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(0x7f3fd6a36800)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6c3afd0)', '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(0x7f3fd6a36800)') 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(0x7f3fd6c3afd0)') 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(0x7f3fd6b06158)') 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(0x7f3fd6c3afd0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6c3afd0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd62219a0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd6b65488)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd6b65488)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
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: %method> 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: %perl> 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(0x7f3fd6b51718)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6b6a1d0)', '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(0x7f3fd6b51718)') 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(0x7f3fd6b6a1d0)') 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(0x7f3fd6b4e300)') 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(0x7f3fd6b6a1d0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6b6a1d0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd62219a0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd6a254b0)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd6a254b0)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
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: %method> 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: %perl> 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(0x7f3fd66f49c8)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6890100)', '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(0x7f3fd66f49c8)') 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(0x7f3fd6890100)') 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(0x7f3fd6703de8)') 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(0x7f3fd6890100)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6890100)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6221bc8)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd6b6b2b0)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd6b6b2b0)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
English French
MONTREAL, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cogeco Communications Inc. (TSX: CCA) announced today that it will be participating in BMO Capital Markets 19th Annual Media & Telecom Conference to be held in Toronto, Ontario, September 12, 2018. Louis Audet, Executive Chair of the Board of Directors of Cogeco Communications Inc., will participate in an interactive discussion at 11:15 a.m. (EDT).
A live audio webcast of the discussion will be available on Cogeco Communications Inc.s website at http://corpo.cogeco.com/cca/en/investors/investor-relations/ .
ABOUT COGECO COMMUNICATIONS INC.
Cogeco Communications Inc. is a communications corporation. It is the 8th largest cable operator in North America, operating in Canada under the Cogeco Connexion name in Quebec and Ontario, and in the United States under the Atlantic Broadband name in 11 states along the East Coast, from Maine to Florida, providing its residential and business customers with Internet, video and telephony services through its two-way broadband fibre networks. Through its subsidiary Cogeco Peer 1, Cogeco Communications Inc. provides its business customers with a suite of information technology services (colocation, network connectivity, hosting, cloud and managed services), through its 16 data centres, extensive FastFiber Network and more than 50 points of presence in North America and Europe. Cogeco Communications Inc.s subordinate voting shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: CCA).
INFORMATION:
Nancy Bouffard
Corporate Communications Director
Cogeco Communications Inc.
(514) 764-4613
nancy.bouffard@cogeco.com
MAPLE GROVE, Minn., Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TopLine Federal Credit Union , a Twin Cities-based member-owned financial cooperative, hosted our 3rd summer youth intern through BrookLynk , a youth employment program responding to community needs, a youth work-readiness training program. BrookLynk bridges the gaps between the needs of our local employers and the opportunities that our young people need to develop their pathway to college and career.
BrookLynk connects youth ages 14-21 that live or attend school in Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, who face barriers to employment, with local business partners for a 6-8 week internship. All youth receive work readiness training and the program offers youth ages 16 and older the opportunity to learn essential job skills, gain valuable work experience, develop a professional social network to help develop pathways to college and career and prepare for tomorrows skilled workforce.
BrookLynk launched the program in 2015, and has successfully increased participation in the program each year. In 2018 nearly 300 young people were trained with essential job skills and 105 young people were matched to paid summer internships.
2018 was a big year for us, we had nearly 200 young people attended our youth job fair, placed over a 100 students with paid internships and introduced a job board and an alumni network to support our over 200 former interns, said Luis Salado-Herrera, Program Coordinator for BrookLynk. We are extremely fortunate to have so many supportive community business partners willing to help our youth explore various career fields, and are thankful for TopLine as our financial services business partner.
TopLine hosted its BrookLynk intern, who graduated this past year from Park Center Senior High School, from mid-June through August, culminating in an achievement celebration at the Earle Brown Heritage Center with the programs other interns, families, employers, community partners and local government leaders. TopLines intern assisted in multiple departments, including marketing, human resources, branch operations, lending, plus had the opportunity to job shadow across various other departments to learn about education and career paths. The intern also had the chance to work on a capstone project, which focused on how to better prepare young adults for their financial futures by learning about the basics of personal finance and how to best select a financial institution partner.
Each week of the TopLine internship focused on honing professional skills including professional attitude, time management, team work ethics, problem solving, verbal communication and a skill of the interns choice. TopLine also included the opportunity for the intern to participate in a community volunteer give-back event to provide a glimpse of the importance of volunteering and supporting our communities.
We were once again thrilled to host another BrookLynk summer intern and observe his personal and professional growth over the internship, said Vicki Roscoe Erickson, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Communications, TopLine Federal Credit Union. TopLine is committed to giving back to our community partners, and especially the BrookLynk program, to help inspire and prepare young adults for their next journey with post-secondary education and career exploration, along with providing basic financial knowledge . We look forward to being involved again next year.
BrookLynk and its business partners are committed to building pathways to college and careers. Their mission is to coordinate partnerships that prepare employers to engage the next generation of workers and to connect young people in the Brooklyns facing barriers to employment with the skills, experience, and professional social networks needed to develop their pathway to college and career. For more information, visit https://www.brooklynk.works or https://www.facebook.com/BrookLynkWorks .
TopLine Federal Credit Union , a Twin Cities-based credit union, is Minnesotas 13th largest, with assets of more than $450 million. Established in 1935, the not-for-profit cooperative offers a complete line of financial services, as well as auto and home insurance, from its five branch locations in Bloomington, Brooklyn Park, Maple Grove, Plymouth and in St. Pauls Como Park as well as by phone, mobile app and online at www.TopLinecu.com . Membership is available to anyone who lives, works, worships, attends school or volunteers in Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott or Washington Counties and their immediate family members. Visit us on our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TopLineFederalCreditUnion . To learn more about TopLines Youth Financial Literacy sessions, visit https://www.toplinecu.com/financial-education/youth-financial-literacy .
CONTACT:
Vicki Roscoe Erickson
Senior Vice President, Marketing & Communications
TopLine Federal Credit Union
verickson@toplinecu.com
763.391.0872
Bethany Beach, DE, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Legum & Norman, an Associa company, will be hosting an educational board member seminar on Monday, October 8, 2018 from 8:00AM12:30PM at the Bethany Beach Ocean Suites Residence Inn by Marriott in Bethany Beach, Delaware.
The event will include presentations from Chad Toms and Ray Via with Whiteford Taylor Preston as well as Reese Cropper and Trish Walsh with Insurance Management Group. They will provide attendees with important information on industry topics including:
Collections
Amending governing documents
Rentals
Legislative updates
Insurance coverage
Legum & Norman believes that community success begins with board education, stated Linda Fulkersin, Legum & Norman senior vice president. As part of our continued commitment to our communities and residents, we are offering a free seminar that will outline the basics for maintaining a successful community. The panel of industry experts will provide attendees with the most up-to-date information available and answer questions from the audience.
The event will begin with a networking breakfast and vendor expo. Please RSVP to Lisa Meck at LMeck@legumnorman.com or call 410.524.5577 by September 30th, as space is limited.
With more than 180 branch offices across North America, Associa delivers unsurpassed management and lifestyle services to nearly five million residents worldwide. Our 10,000+ team members lead the industry with unrivaled education, expertise and trailblazing innovation. For more than 40 years, Associa has provided solutions designed to help communities achieve their vision. To learn more, visit www.associaonline.com.
Stay Connected:
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/associa
Subscribe to the Blog: https://hub.associaonline.com/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/associa
Join us on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/associa
Amazon hits trillion-dollar milestone with focus on the long game
San Francisco, Sept 4 (AFP) Sep 04, 2018
Amazon's market value hit $1 trillion on Tuesday, the second company after Apple to hit the milestone, following an incredible journey for the internet giant which has kept a long-term focus since launching as an online bookseller two decades ago.
Early gains lifted Amazon's value to $1 trillion only briefly, with the final close at $2,039.51 giving it a value of $995 billion.
Amazon's journey from an online bookseller in a garage to a global e-commerce powerhouse has centered on obsession with the long road.
The company initially incorporated as "Cadabra" by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and backed with money borrowed from his parents joined Apple as the second US technology firm to be valued at $1 trillion on Tuesday.
Apple crossed the trillion-dollar value threshold a month ago and has remained above it. Amazon became the second US company at that eye-popping value.
GlobalData Retail managing director Neil Saunders called Amazon's valuation achievement "extraordinary" and considered it a sign of the company's potential.
"Despite its size and scale, there is still something young about Amazon," Saunders said.
"Amazon is really only just getting started."
Created in a garage in a suburb of Seattle, Washington, the company renamed "Amazon" sold its first book -- Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought by Douglas Hofstadter -- in mid-1995.
By the end of that year, Amazon was selling books online throughout the US. Amazon went public in early 1997.
The company for more than a decade put growth over profit, investing heavily in warehouses, distribution networks, and data centers.
"Every cent they made they put back in the company," said independent technology analyst Rob Enderle.
"They kept their eye on the prize, which was initially to take over most of commerce."
- Innovation sans scandal -
Saunders said Amazon's success comes from the fact that it innovates unlike any other.
"This heady pace of creativity is the key reason why it stays several steps ahead of the market and is able to generate so much growth," Saunders said.
Bezos has kept firm control of Amazon, steering clear of hedge fund investors inclined to short-term tactics aimed at getting share prices to jump.
The founder and chief executive also avoided scandals or other distractions, keeping revenue and costs close enough to manage and easing into "adjacent markets" that play into Amazon strengths or interests, according to Enderle.
For example, Amazon's lucrative cloud computing business is built on technology infrastructure that the company needed to run its own operations.
Investing in warehouses, trucking, drones, shipping and other distribution systems not only enables Amazon to drive down costs they position the company to compete with the likes of FedEx and UPS.
Buying the Whole Foods grocery chain last year got Amazon established real world outlets while putting its delivery and retail smarts and systems to work in the brick-and-mortar world.
- Drugs and digital ads -
Prescription medicine would be a natural market for Amazon to expand into, according to Enderle. Meanwhile, Amazon is reportedly beefing up its digital advertising business to better compete in an online ad market dominated by Google and Facebook.
In the past quarter, Amazon posted its best-ever profit of $2.5 billion as Bezos, whose stake in the company has made him the richest person, highlighted the importance of digital assistant Alexa that powers Amazon electronics along with cars, appliances and other connected devices.
According to the research firm eMarketer, Amazon's e-commerce revenue will grow more than 28 percent this year to reach $394 billion, and will account for 49 percent of US online retail sales and nearly five percent of all retail spending.
One of Amazon's revenue drivers is its Prime subscription service which offers streaming video and music, free delivery and other perks and which has more than 100 million members worldwide.
- Arrogance trap -
Some fear Amazon is becoming too dominant a force, especially in retail, sparking antitrust discussion even as the company keeps expanding globally and searches for a second headquarters in North America.
"It wasn't that long ago that people were freaking out about Walmart, and Amazon basically stepped on Walmart," analyst Enderle said.
"What Amazon means is disruption and people don't like to be disrupted."
Critics of the company include US President Donald Trump, who has expressed ire at the Bezos-owned Washington Post newspaper that has published stories the president didn't like.
Bezos bought the Washington Post five years ago for $250 million from his personal funds.
While his skills could be advantageous in the content-oriented business, getting into news comes with the risk of displeasing politicians.
"The Post was a mistake because it results in him going to war with people he wouldn't otherwise go to war with," Enderle said.
Amazon's huge cloud computing segment powers systems for government clients, and contracts could be influenced by politics.
Amazon must also guard against the kind of arrogance that can undo companies that come to dominate markets, according to the analyst.
"If Amazon does have a downfall, it will be arrogance in dealing with the customer," Enderle said.
Twitter chief says was unprepared for 'weaponized' social media efforts
Washington, Sept 5 (AFP) Sep 05, 2018
Twitter was "unprepared and ill-equipped" for the vast campaigns of manipulation that affected social media in the past few years, chief executive Jack Dorsey told lawmakers Wednesday.
Dorsey, appearing before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on foreign influence campaigns on social media, said the messaging service was set up to function as a "public square" but failed to deal with "abuse, harassment, troll armies, propaganda through bots."
"We aren't proud of how that free and open exchange has been weaponized and used to distract and divide people, and our nation," he told senators.
"We found ourselves unprepared and ill-equipped for the immensity of the problems we've acknowledged."
Dorsey said Twitter has stepped up its effort to protect what he called a "healthy public square" but that the challenges were daunting.
"We've learned from 2016 and more recently from other nation's elections how to help protect the integrity of our elections," he said.
"But we all have to think a lot bigger, and decades past today. We must ask the question 'what is Twitter incentivizing people to do (or not do), and why?' The answers will lead to tectonic shifts in how Twitter, and our industry, operates. Required changes won't be fast or easy."
- Facebook and Google -
The hearing also included Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, who repeated the leading social network's acknowledgements about failing to crack down on influence campaigns stemming from Russia.
"We were too slow to spot this and too slow to act," Sandberg told the panel. "That's on us. This interference was completely unacceptable. It violated the values of our company and of the country we love."
Senator Mark Warner told the hearing that social media firms "were caught flat-footed by the brazen attacks on our election" and questioned whether Silicon Valley is capable of confronting the problem of foreign influence.
"I'm skeptical that, ultimately, you'll be able to truly address this challenge on your own," he told the hearing with Dorsey and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg. "Congress is going to have to take action here."
Google was also invited to attend the Senate hearing but declined to send its chief executive Sundar Pichai or parent firm Alphabet chief Larry Page.
In a written statement, Google chief legal officer Kent Walker promised to maintain efforts to thwart foreign interference in US elections.
"Google remains deeply concerned about attempts to undermine democratic elections," Walker said. "As we promised the committee last year, we have now fulfilled all four of our commitments to provide increased transparency in election advertising."
The Senate hearing was the first of two on Capitol Hill focusing on social media, ahead of a House panel session where Dorsey was to speak on "transparency and accountability."
In prepared remarks, Dorsey rejected claims that Twitter operates on the basis of political bias.
"Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules," Dorsey said in his written testimony.
"We believe strongly in being impartial, and we strive to enforce our rules impartially."
Dorsey's comments come days after President Donald Trump accused technology firms of "censorship" and suppressing conservative voices.
Social networks in Congress hot seat over foreign manipulation
Washington, Sept 5 (AFP) Sep 05, 2018
Twitter was "unprepared and ill-equipped" for the vast campaigns of manipulation that affected social media in the past few years, chief executive Jack Dorsey said Wednesday as US lawmakers called for stronger efforts to curb foreign influence campaigns.
Dorsey, appearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on foreign influence campaigns on social media, said the messaging service was set up to function as a "public square" but had failed to deal with "abuse, harassment, troll armies, propaganda through bots."
"We aren't proud of how that free and open exchange has been weaponized and used to distract and divide people, and our nation," he told senators, who also heard from Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg.
"We found ourselves unprepared and ill-equipped for the immensity of the problems we've acknowledged."
Dorsey said Twitter had stepped up its effort to protect what he called a "healthy public square" but that the challenges were daunting.
"We've learned from 2016 and more recently from other nations' elections how to help protect the integrity of our elections," he said.
"But we all have to think a lot bigger, and decades past today. We must ask the question, 'What is Twitter incentivizing people to do (or not do), and why?' The answers will lead to tectonic shifts in how Twitter, and our industry, operates. Required changes won't be fast or easy."
- Facebook and Google -
Sandberg repeated Facebook's acknowledgements about failing to crack down on influence campaigns stemming from Russia that interfered with the 2016 US presidential election.
"We were too slow to spot this and too slow to act," Sandberg told the panel. "That's on us. This interference was completely unacceptable. It violated the values of our company and of the country we love."
Lawmakers welcomed the comments but expressed concern about whether enough was being done.
"We have identified the problem -- now it is time to identify the solution," Senator Richard Burr, the committee chairman, said.
"If the answer is regulation, let's have an honest dialogue about what that looks like. If the key is more resourcing, or legislation that facilitates information sharing and government cooperation, let's get that out there."
Senator Mark Warner told the hearing that social media firms "were caught flat-footed by the brazen attacks on our election" and questioned whether Silicon Valley is capable of confronting the problem of foreign influence.
Warner said that "Russia has not stopped" and that "Russian-linked information warfare" is still being propagated
"I'm skeptical that, ultimately, you'll be able to truly address this challenge on your own," he told the hearing. "Congress is going to have to take action here."
Google was also invited to attend the Senate hearing but declined to send its chief executive Sundar Pichai or Larry Page, the head of its parent firm Alphabet.
In a written statement, Google chief legal officer Kent Walker promised to maintain efforts to thwart foreign interference in US elections.
"Google remains deeply concerned about attempts to undermine democratic elections," Walker said. "As we promised the committee last year, we have now fulfilled all four of our commitments to provide increased transparency in election advertising."
The Senate hearing was the first of two on Capitol Hill focusing on social media, ahead of a House panel session where Dorsey was to speak on "transparency and accountability."
In prepared remarks, Dorsey rejected claims that Twitter operates on the basis of political bias.
"Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules," Dorsey said in his written testimony.
"We believe strongly in being impartial, and we strive to enforce our rules impartially."
Dorsey's comments come days after President Donald Trump accused technology firms of "censorship" and suppressing conservative voices.
Outside the hearing, right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones criticized tech firms for curbing his social media efforts.
Jones, whose Infowars site has been praised by Trump, denounced what he called "a plan to deplatform conservatives, just like communist China," adding, "this is dangerous, authoritarianism."
US to probe Big Tech on 'stifling' free speech
Washington, Sept 5 (AFP) Sep 05, 2018
President Donald Trump's administration warned Wednesday of a possible legal crackdown on big technology companies over competition or political bias, in a bombshell announcement that came as social media executives were defending their policies before lawmakers.
The Justice Department statement appeared to escalate a war between the administration and Silicon Valley after a series of attacks by Trump claiming tech firms were biased against conservatives.
According to the statement, Attorney General Jeff Sessions convened a meeting of state attorneys general later this month "to discuss a growing concern that these companies may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms."
The suggestions of legal or regulatory action caught many tech industry observers by surprise and came as lawmakers were holding hearings on foreign influence campaigns on social media and "transparency."
Daniel Castro, of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, said the intent of the statement was not clear but that it was worrisome.
"Social media platforms have the right to determine what types of legal speech they will permit on their platforms," Castro told AFP.
"The federal government should not use the threat of law enforcement to limit companies from exercising this right. In particular, law enforcement should not threaten social media companies with unfounded investigations."
- Regulation or censorship? -
Legal analysts have noted the government would have little recourse against any political bias even if proven because of constitutional free speech guarantees.
While antitrust concerns against Google and Facebook are to be expected, Eric Goldman of the High-Tech Law Institute of Santa Clara University said it would be troublesome to use antitrust law as a guise for regulating speech.
"This (statement) makes me think antitrust is not the real goal, that the real goal is censorship," Goldman said.
"This could be broad action by the government to try to subvert the First Amendment."
Matt Schruers of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, a trade group that includes Google and Facebook, said tech firms "compete aggressively with one another as well as those outside of the technology sector" and that "consumers have many choices for information services and news sources online."
- Collegial atmosphere -
The administration statement came at the conclusion of a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing at which Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg testified.
The hearing offered a largely collegial atmosphere in which the executives and senators spoke of the need for further efforts to thwart foreign influence campaigns on social media.
Dorsey said the messaging service was set up to function as a "public square" but had failed to deal with "abuse, harassment, troll armies, propaganda through bots."
"We aren't proud of how that free and open exchange has been weaponized and used to distract and divide people, and our nation," he told senators.
"We found ourselves unprepared and ill-equipped for the immensity of the problems we've acknowledged."
Sandberg repeated Facebook's acknowledgements about failing to crack down on influence campaigns stemming from Russia that interfered with the 2016 US presidential election.
"We were too slow to spot this and too slow to act," Sandberg told the panel. "That's on us. This interference was completely unacceptable. It violated the values of our company and of the country we love."
Lawmakers welcomed the comments but expressed concern about whether enough was being done.
"If the answer is regulation, let's have an honest dialogue about what that looks like," said Senator Richard Burr, the committee chairman.
Senator Mark Warner told the hearing that social media firms "were caught flat-footed by the brazen attacks on our election" and added: "I'm skeptical that, ultimately, you'll be able to truly address this challenge on your own."
Google was invited to attend the Senate hearing but declined to send its chief executive Sundar Pichai or Larry Page, the head of its parent firm Alphabet.
In a written statement, Google chief legal officer Kent Walker promised to maintain efforts to thwart foreign interference in US elections.
The Senate was followed by a House panel session on "transparency and accountability," where Dorsey rejected claims of political bias.
"Twitter cannot rightly serve as a public square if it's constructed around the personal opinions of its makers," he told the panel. "We believe a key driver of a thriving public square is the fundamental human right of freedom of opinion and expression."
Outside the Senate hearing, right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones criticized tech firms for curbing his social media efforts.
Jones, whose Infowars site has been praised by Trump, denounced what he called "a plan to deplatform conservatives, just like communist China," adding, "this is dangerous, authoritarianism."
MIAMI and ATLANTA, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kaseya , the leading provider of complete IT infrastructure management solutions for managed service providers (MSPs) and internal IT organizations, today announced its latest acquisition of RapidFire Tools . RapidFire Tools provides a powerful suite of IT assessment, internal threat detection, and compliance products. Headquartered in Atlanta, GA, the company will continue to operate as a stand-alone, independent business-unit under Kaseya.
The combination of RapidFire Tools industry-leading, award-winning suite of productsincluding Audit Guru , which helps users automate, document and achieve compliancewith Kaseyas market-leading IT Complete suite of management solutions empowers both MSPs and internal IT teams with a single solution that meets all their critical security, compliance, and assessment needs. In addition to Audit Guru, RapidFire Tools offerings include Network Detective , the gold standard trusted by over 6,000 MSPs for network and security assessments, and Cyber Hawk for continuous cyber security threat detection and alerting.
Kaseya has been knocking it out of the park thus far in 2018, helping our MSPs grow at rates two times that of the industry. The acquisition of RapidFire Tools is a very strategic win for us and for our customersone of many strategic wins this year that demonstrates our continued commitment to do all we can to help our MSPs become successful, said Fred Voccola, CEO of Kaseya.
Added Voccola, Over the past several years, small and mid-sized businesses, who are the customers of our MSPs, have experienced the same pains and challenges of dealing with various compliance requirements that the enterprise has had to deal with over the past decade. These small and mid-sized businesses are looking to MSPs to help them manage and address the growing compliance requirements they face, including things like GDPR, HIPAA, PCI, ISO, and others.
With this acquisition, and the integration of RapidFire Tools compliance solutions into the IT Complete suite, we are now able to offer our MSPs a solution for them to build a compliance managed service offering, ensuring that a Kaseya MSP offers their customers the most complete solution possible.
As a result of ongoing development between Kaseya and RapidFire Tools, Kaseya also announces its Kaseya Compliance Manager (KCM), a new product that is fully integrated with the Kaseya IT Complete platform and Virtual Systems Administrator ( VSA ) product. KCM is an all-in-one, comprehensive compliance management solution that allows both MSPs and internal IT organizations to monitor and manage compliance for all regulations and requirements, including GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI.
The marriage of Kaseya and RapidFire Tools is the right strategy for both companies, said Mark Shaw, CEO of StoredTech, a leading managed service provider with hundreds of clients in the healthcare, municipal government, manufacturing, services, and non-profit sectors. The onus of IT compliance is tremendous with the potential for significant operational and financial consequences for both MSPs and their customers. The ability to oversee compliance requirements and easily provide documentation and evidence to auditors from a single platform, means IT professionals and their customers can have peace of mind.
As is the case with all Kaseya solutions, RapidFire Tools will continue to be an open platform, working with and continuing to integrate with all the vendors in the MSP community to ensure the success of MSPs leveraging their solutions.
Unlike the business models of some competing providers, users dont have to worry about RapidFire Tools being exclusive to Kaseya customers, said Voccola. We would never do that to the IT community. Many of our customers use multiple products from other vendors, so to try and lock them in to the Kaseya ecosystem goes against what we stand for. Our approach has always been to put our customers first and provide them with the best-in-breed solutions they need to run their business. The addition of RapidFire Tools is the latest of many great proof points in our roadmap for this year and beyond to further the success and innovation of the IT Complete platform.
One of RapidFire Tools greatest strengths is our strong partnerships with other IT management platform providers. It cannot be overstated the importance of becoming a part of the Kaseya family and knowing with confidence that our customers can continue to effectively run their businesses because of Kaseyas open ecosystem, said Michael Mittel, founder and CEO of RapidFire Tools. This deal took some time to complete but both sides easily recognized the benefits that joining forces offers our customers. The RapidFire Tools brand will remain unchanged and our existing customers can rest assured knowing that they will continue to receive the same high caliber products, services, and support. This is an exciting time for all of us. By being a part of Kaseya, we can now broaden the reach of RapidFire Tools to the scale we envisioned when we launched the company.
About Kaseya
Kaseya is the leading provider of complete IT infrastructure management solutions for managed service providers (MSPs) and internal IT organizations. Through its open platform and customer-centric approach, Kaseya delivers best in breed technologies that allow organizations to efficiently manage, secure, and backup IT. The Kaseya IT Complete platform is the industrys most comprehensive, integrated solution suite purposely engineered to help IT both run and grow the business. It empowers businesses to command all of IT centrally, easily manage remote and distributed environments, simplify backup and disaster recovery, and automate across IT management functions. Kaseya solutions manage over 10 million endpoints worldwide. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, Kaseya is privately held with a presence in over 20 countries. To learn more, visit www.kaseya.com .
About RapidFire Tools
RapidFire Tools Inc. is the leading global supplier of business-building technology tools for MSPs to help them close more business, offer more services, keep more customers, and make more money. The companys offerings include a complete set of IT Assessment, Documentation and Reporting tools; tools for IT Compliance Process Automation; and tools for Insider Cyber Threat Detection & Alerting. To learn more visit: www.rapidfiretools.com .
South Korean envoy meets Kim in Pyongyang amid nuclear deadlock
Seoul, Sept 5 (AFP) Sep 05, 2018
A high-level South Korean delegation met with Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang on Wednesday, as Seoul plans a new summit with the North Korean leader to break a deadlock in denuclearisation talks.
The South's President Moon Jae-in's special envoy Chung Eui-yong, who is leading the five-member delegation, earlier said he would discuss ways to "completely denuclearise" the Korean peninsula and establish "lasting peace".
His delegation "met with Chairman Kim Jong Un and delivered a personal letter (from Moon) and exchanged opinions," a presidential office spokesman in Seoul said.
The spokesman added that officials would fly back to Seoul later tonight after a dinner banquet but did not provide further details.
US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reached a vague agreement at a landmark summit in June to work towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, but there has been little movement since.
Talks reached an impasse last month when Trump abruptly cancelled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to North Korea, citing a lack of progress.
The stated aim of the South Korean delegation's day-long visit to Pyongyang is to finalise details of a third summit between the leaders of the two Koreas, due later this month.
But observers said that Moon's personal letter to Kim will likely be a proposal aimed at breaking the denuclearisation impasse.
The envoy was likely to suggest "that Kim gives a firm commitment to presenting a list of nuclear weapons and fissile materials demanded by the US in return for a declaration of the end of the Korean War," Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies told AFP.
Despite the deadlock with the North, Trump expressed his hopes for the success of the next inter-Korean summit in a phone conversation with Moon on Tuesday.
Pyongyang has slammed Washington's "gangster-like" demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament, and accused it of failing to reciprocate the North's "goodwill measures", including the handover of the remains of US troops killed in the 1950-53 Korean War.
When Kim and Moon met in April for their first summit, they agreed to push for a declaration from Washington of an end to the Korean War, to replace the 1953 armistice.
But US officials say the North must be rid of its nuclear weapons before that can happen.
The International Atomic Energy Agency reported last month that there is no indication North Korea has stopped its nuclear activities.
'Zero' evidence Syria rebels will use chemical weapons: Mattis
New Delhi, Sept 5 (AFP) Sep 05, 2018
The Pentagon has seen "zero" evidence to suggest that opposition groups in Syria's Idlib province could use chemical weapons, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday, despite Russian claims to the contrary.
Speaking to reporters as he headed for talks in New Delhi on Thursday, Mattis rebuffed suggestions that the US may facilitate a chemical attack, then blame Russia and the Syrian regime and use this as a pretext for air strikes.
The US military has already twice conducted strikes against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime following two alleged chemical weapons attacks, most recently in mid-April with French and British help.
"We have zero intelligence that shows the opposition has any chemical capability," Mattis said.
"We have made very clear that by putting out innuendo that somehow any chemical weapon use coming up in the future could be ascribed to the opposition, well ... we cannot see anything that indicates the opposition has that capability."
Among the Russian reports, the Sputnik state news outlet said the Russian defence ministry claimed militants from the Tahrir al-Sham group were getting reading to stage a "provocation" and had kidnapped 44 children for use in a "false-flag" attack.
Mattis would not say if the Pentagon was seeing any signs the Syrian regime might be preparing to use chemical weapons in Idlib.
"I would prefer not to answer that right now," he said. "We are very alert."
On Monday President Donald Trump warned Assad against "recklessly" attacking Idlib.
Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the last major chunk of territory still in rebel hands.
The Syrian military has been deploying reinforcements to the zone for more than a month. Russia, which on Tuesday conducted air strikes in the region, has stepped up its war rhetoric ahead of an anticipated government offensive.
Mattis on Thursday is meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Delhi for talks with their Indian counterparts on a range of defence and trade issues.
Austria to appeal EU court ruling on UK nuclear plant
Vienna, Sept 5 (AFP) Sep 05, 2018
Austria said Wednesday it would appeal an EU court's dismissal of its case against Europe-approved, British subsidies for a new nuclear power plant in England.
The General Court, Europe's second highest, in July confirmed a decision of the European Commission to approve UK government aid for the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.
The tribunal ruled it was up to each individual EU state to decide which type of energy technology to pursue, even if fellow members disagreed.
Anti-nuclear Austria challenged the commission's green light for the project before the General Court in 2015. The court ruled against Vienna in July this year.
Austria was backed by Luxembourg and nuclear activists, while Britain had the support of the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
On Wednesday, an Austrian cabinet meeting agreed to lodge an appeal against the July ruling, the ministry in charge of sustainability said.
"Austria continues to have the viewpoint that nuclear energy is not the technology of the future and that it gives the wrong sign to present subsidies for the construction of nuclear power plants as harmless," the ministry said in a submission to the cabinet.
The British government says Hinkley is vital for the country's energy security, as most existing nuclear stations are due to close before 2023.
The pound19.6-billion ($25-billion, 22-billion-euro) project, to be built by French energy giant EDF and the China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN), is highly symbolic of Britain's nuclear renewal.
Austria has long campaigned against nuclear power, bolstered by a referendum in 1978 rejecting atomic energy.
jza/mlr
EDF - ELECTRICITE DE FRANCE
Trump leaves door open to meeting Iran's Rouhani at UN
Washington, Sept 5 (AFP) Sep 05, 2018
President Donald Trump left the door open Wednesday to meeting with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly -- even as the United States ramps up the pressure on a regime it accuses of destabilizing the Middle East.
"It's possible, anything is possible," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about the possibility of a face-to-face with Rouhani during the gathering later this month.
"We'll see what happens with Iran. Whether they want to talk or not, that's up to them, not up to me," said the US leader, who decided in May to pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal between world powers and Iran.
"Iran is a much different place than when I took over the presidency," Trump added, describing the country as "in turmoil."
"When I took office it was just a question of how long until they took over the entire Middle East. Now they are just worrying about their own survival as a country."
Trump is due to lead September 26 meeting of heads of state of the UN Security Council, with the goal of ramping up pressure on Tehran over its alleged violations of council resolutions.
English04/09/2018
DODIK: BANJALUKA WILL NOT PROVIDE SHELTER FOR EXECUTIONERS OF SERBIAN PEOPLE
BANJALUKA, September 4 /SRNA/ - Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik has told SRNA that it is important that the Foreign Minister of self-declared Kossovo, Behgjet Pacolli, gave up his planned visit to Banjaluka, which supports Serbia and hopes for a peaceful solution to the Kossovo problem, and that Srpska will not provide shelter to executioners of the Serbian people.
Pacolli understood my statement that he is not welcome in Banjaluka as a threat. He couldnt possibly think that Srpska will prepare a red carpet for the foreign minister of the false state of Kossovo, Dodik has said.
He sent a message to Pacolli to interpret statements the way he likes and feel the way he likes and said that it is important that he gave up his visit to Banjaluka since it is a duty of the Republika Srpska president to take care of the needs and feelings of Srpskas citizens.
I am concerned that he found associates in Sarajevo among people who also should take care of Serbs in BiH, but one can expect all sort of things from /BiH Foreign Minister Igor/ Crnadak and /BiH Presidency member Mladen/ Ivanic, including inviting those who work against their people to visit their home. Milorad Dodik will not do this and neither Pacolli, /Ramus/ Haradinaj, /Hasim/ Taci nor their new friends in Sarajevo should expect this, Dodik has said.
However, Dodik has said that he must respond to one of Pacollis statements.
When such people say you are a main problem for peace and stability in the Balkans, it makes me want to laugh scornfully, Dodik has said.
According to him, not a single non-Albanian, particularly Serb, feels that they or their children are safe in the false state of Kossovo.
Killers of Serbs are still walking freely, Orthodox churches are jeopardized, people are being expelled under the auspices of Pacolli, and Dodik is the main threat to peace. Why? Because he cares for the interests of Serbs and Serbia against which Pacolli works every day, Dodik has said.
He has said that Banjaluka supports Serbia.
We in Banjaluka give support to Serbia and hope for a peaceful solution to the Kossovo problem, but we will not provide a shelter to executioners of our people. Look for allies somewhere else. I see that Washington also is gradually turning its back on you so I kind of understand your schizophrenic moves, the Republika Srpska President has said.
The Foreign Minister in the provisional Kossovo government, Behgjet Pacolli, has cancelled his announced visit to Banjaluka where he should have taken part in an informal meeting of foreign ministers of member states of the SE European Cooperation Process that will be held tomorrow. /end/sg
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Boomtowns: How Photography Shaped Los Angeles and San Francisco will be on view at the California Historical Society (678 Mission Street, San Francisco) October 12, 2018 through March 10, 2019. The galleries are open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 am5 pm.
The new medium of photography arrived in California just in time to witness the period of rapid, nearly unimaginable growth ushered in by the states official entry into the Union in 1850. Boomtowns: How Photography Shaped Los Angeles and San Francisco considers the significant role photography played in defining how the rest of the country saw Californias two most prominent cities.
Almost as instantly as San Francisco boomed following the Gold Rush, it became the photogenic muse of enterprising view makers. A few decades later, Los Angeles began growing dramatically with the arrival of the railroad and booster campaigns that relied heavily on photography to tout the citys year-round sunshine and abundant, fertile land. By the turn of the twentieth century, both cities were among the most photographed places in the world.
The transformation of the place we know as California in the 1850s into a densely urban part of our country happened in front of a camera, says Erin Garcia, managing curator of exhibitions at the California Historical Society. The photographic record of San Francisco and Los Angelescities that were seemingly built from scratch not that long agoshows us that the meaning and significance of a place is always shifting.
Boomtowns looks at some of the earliest views of these places, who these cities were for, what forces shaped them, and how photography promoted and contributed to their growth. The exhibition invites visitors to look critically at photographs made for a broad range of purposes, from civic boosterism to real estate development, industry, and art. It also examines places where the competing interests of different groups led to layers of development and redevelopmentsites such as Union Station in Los Angeles, which was once Chinatown, or Washerwomans Lagoon in San Francisco, which became the Panama-Pacific International Exposition site and later the Marina District.
The exhibition features important photographic work from the California Historical Societys permanent collection by both anonymous photographers and well-known artists such as Ansel Adams, Laura Adams Armer, Arnold Genthe, Eadweard Muybridge, Carleton Watkins, and Minor White.
The earliest work on view is a unique and extremely rare 1851 daguerreotype panorama by an unknown photographer picturing San Franciscos shoreline. For audiences who paid to see it on display back East, the panorama made visible all the opportunities and natural resources that the push westward promised. Among the later selections is a group of photographs taken by German geographer Anton Wagner, who traversed Depression-era Los Angeles on foot with his Zeiss Ikon camera. The hundreds of photographs he made were research material for his 1935 bookthe first study of the sprawling metropolisin which he marveled that the city appeared to have no beginning nor end.
From pictures of San Francisco on fire following the 1906 earthquake, to photographs taken in the 1920s of the nascent Hollywoodland housing development (which bequeathed the city its iconic sign), this exhibition draws exclusively from the California Historical Societys extensive photographic holdings.
California Historical Society is the steward of a vast collection of photographs, including examples of some of the earliest photographs of the American West, says Dr. Anthea Hartig, California Historical Society executive director and CEO. These images visually share the complicated, contested, and beautiful stories of the states two major cities. They also prompt us to consider what forces today shape the places where we live, and what our role might be within that inevitable, continuing transformation.
About the California Historical Society
Founded in 1871, the California Historical Society (CHS) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to inspire and empower people to make Californias richly diverse past a meaningful part of their contemporary lives. In 1979 Governor Jerry Brown designated CHS the official historical society of the State of California. Today, CHS enacts its mission with a wide range of library, exhibition, publication, education, and public outreach programs that explore the complex and continuing history of the state and represent the diversity of the California experience, past and present. Our treasured collectiondocumenting the history of the entire state from the Spanish Era to the present dayis brought to life through these innovative public history projects that expand and diversify our audience and broaden our public impact. Learn more at californiahistoricalsociety.org.
Attachments
If a fifth face were added to Mount Rushmore, which president would you choose?
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Ronald Reagan
John F. Kennedy
Someone in the Civil Rights or Women's Rights movement would be more appropriate. View Results
English French
Press release
Inside and regulated information
5 September 2018, 19:15 (CEST)
Seneffe, Belgium, September 05, 2018. The board of directors of Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG SA (BEBIG) and the board of directors of Eckert & Ziegler Strahlen- und Medizintechnik AG (EZAG) are currently assessing the opportunity of proposing to their shareholders the merger of the two companies.
The contemplated operation would be a cross-border merger by absorption of BEBIG by EZAG, pursuant to which the absorbed company (BEBIG) would be absorbed by the absorbing company (EZAG) and all assets and liabilities of BEBIG would be transferred to EZAG. As a consequence of the merger, BEBIG shares would be delisted from Euronext Brussels (and cancelled) and BEBIG's shareholders would be allocated EZAG shares, which are listed on Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
EZAG is the parent company of a group of companies (EZAG group). BEBIG is part of the EZAG Group and operates as the sub-holding company of the radiotherapy division of the EZAG Group. Currently, EZAG is BEBIG's largest shareholder, holding 80.84% of the shares in BEBIG and 84.22% of the voting rights in BEBIG. As a consequence of the contemplated merger, BEBIG would be dissolved and EZAG would pursue the activities currently performed by BEBIG through a Belgian branch. The group structure would hence be simplified and such simplification should allow cost savings, which should ultimately result in the creation of value for the shareholders.
As indicated above, the boards of directors of BEBIG and EZAG are currently assessing the consequences of such a project for all stakeholders involved and are valuating both BEBIG and EZAG in order to determine the exchange ratio that could be proposed for the contemplated merger.
Based on preliminary assessments, the proposed exchange ratio should range between 1:4.15 and 1:5.90, so that between 4.15 to 5.90 shares of BEBIG would be entitled to one share of EZAG (based on an enterprise value of EZAG of between 8.9 and 12.6 time the value of BEBIG). This is however only a preliminary and indicative range of exchange ratio, which is subject to further analysis and discussion between BEBIG and EZAG and the application by BEBIG of the procedure of conflict of interests provided for by article 524 of the Companies Code pursuant to which a committee of independent directors (assisted by an independent expert) will render a motived opinion with respect to the proposed merger.
Additional information (including the final exchange ratio) and the supporting documents (joint terms of merger and special reports) will be disclosed and made available to the shareholders of the merging companies provided a final decision on the proposed merger would be reached.
If any the proposed merger will be subject to the approval of the general meetings of shareholders of BEBIG and EZAG (with specific conditions in respect of attendance and majority votes).
About Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG
My partner in brachytherapy and radiation therapy
Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG is a European-based group active in the medical device segment of the healthcare industry. Its core business is the production and distribution of medical products for the treatment of cancer, using brachytherapy. The company's headquarters are in Belgium, with production facilities in Germany and the USA, as well as subsidiaries throughout Europe, the USA, India and Brazil. In addition, Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG has a worldwide network of distributors and agents to support the international marketing and distribution of its product line. The company's products and equipment are intended for use by oncologists, radiotherapists, urologists, ophthalmologists and medical physicists. Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG employs approximately 145 people. The company has been listed on the Euronext stock exchange since April 1997.
Contact:
Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG s.a.
Att. Investor Relations & Communications
Tel: +32 64 520 808
Fax: +32 64 520 801
E-mail: ir@bebig.com
Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG and Eckert & Ziegler Strahlen- und Medizintechnik AG are currently assessing the possibility of a merger between the two companies
Press release
Inside and regulated information
5 September 2018, 19:15 (CEST)
Seneffe, Belgium, September 05, 2018. The board of directors of Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG SA (BEBIG) and the board of directors of Eckert & Ziegler Strahlen- und Medizintechnik AG (EZAG) are currently assessing the opportunity of proposing to their shareholders the merger of the two companies.
The contemplated operation would be a cross-border merger by absorption of BEBIG by EZAG, pursuant to which the absorbed company (BEBIG) would be absorbed by the absorbing company (EZAG) and all assets and liabilities of BEBIG would be transferred to EZAG. As a consequence of the merger, BEBIG shares would be delisted from Euronext Brussels (and cancelled) and BEBIG's shareholders would be allocated EZAG shares, which are listed on Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
EZAG is the parent company of a group of companies (EZAG group). BEBIG is part of the EZAG Group and operates as the sub-holding company of the radiotherapy division of the EZAG Group. Currently, EZAG is BEBIG's largest shareholder, holding 80.84% of the shares in BEBIG and 84.22% of the voting rights in BEBIG. As a consequence of the contemplated merger, BEBIG would be dissolved and EZAG would pursue the activities currently performed by BEBIG through a Belgian branch. The group structure would hence be simplified and such simplification should allow cost savings, which should ultimately result in the creation of value for the shareholders.
As indicated above, the boards of directors of BEBIG and EZAG are currently assessing the consequences of such a project for all stakeholders involved and are valuating both BEBIG and EZAG in order to determine the exchange ratio that could be proposed for the contemplated merger.
Based on preliminary assessments, the proposed exchange ratio should range between 1:4.15 and 1:5.90, so that between 4.15 to 5.90 shares of BEBIG would be entitled to one share of EZAG (based on an enterprise value of EZAG of between 8.9 and 12.6 time the value of BEBIG). This is however only a preliminary and indicative range of exchange ratio, which is subject to further analysis and discussion between BEBIG and EZAG and the application by BEBIG of the procedure of conflict of interests provided for by article 524 of the Companies Code pursuant to which a committee of independent directors (assisted by an independent expert) will render a motived opinion with respect to the proposed merger.
Additional information (including the final exchange ratio) and the supporting documents (joint terms of merger and special reports) will be disclosed and made available to the shareholders of the merging companies provided a final decision on the proposed merger would be reached.
If any the proposed merger will be subject to the approval of the general meetings of shareholders of BEBIG and EZAG (with specific conditions in respect of attendance and majority votes).
About Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG
My partner in brachytherapy and radiation therapy
Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG is a European-based group active in the medical device segment of the healthcare industry. Its core business is the production and distribution of medical products for the treatment of cancer, using brachytherapy. The company's headquarters are in Belgium, with production facilities in Germany and the USA, as well as subsidiaries throughout Europe, the USA, India and Brazil. In addition, Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG has a worldwide network of distributors and agents to support the international marketing and distribution of its product line. The company's products and equipment are intended for use by oncologists, radiotherapists, urologists, ophthalmologists and medical physicists. Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG employs approximately 145 people. The company has been listed on the Euronext stock exchange since April 1997.
Contact:
Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG s.a.
Att. Investor Relations & Communications
Tel: +32 64 520 808
Fax: +32 64 520 801
E-mail: ir@bebig.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: Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG 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.
In 2017 the U.S. Navy 7th fleet lost three ships to navigation error within an eight month period. The January incident, involving the cruiser Antietam, was a grounding while leaving an anchorage in Tokyo Bay. The damage to the ship was not great and Antietam was repaired and back in service by the end of 2017. The captain was relieved and there was some mention of poor training for the crew members on the bridge who were in charge of lifting anchor and heading for sea. In June and August, it got worse with two 7th Fleet destroyers colliding with commercial ships at sea. These two collisions left 17 sailors dead and all were apparently related to lower readiness levels and overwork (and subsequent crew fatigue) in the ships of the 7th Fleet. The two Burke class destroyers (the Fitzgerald and McCain) that suffered fatal collisions had some of the worst readiness and training ratings in the entire fleet. These ratings exist to spotlight ships, and their crews, that need the most attention from senior leadership, especially the fleet commander. That was not happening and since the new Secretary of Defense is a retired (in 2013) marine general with firsthand experience with what was going wrong in the navy, the admiral responsible was held accountable in the traditional way and within weeks of the August collision, it was decided to relieve the 7th Fleet commander. Note that while both the Marine Corps and the Navy are part of the Department of the Navy the two organizations have evolved into separate services. The Marines have always been different and that meant marine generals could get away with being more traditional and hard ass than navy admirals.
The most severely damaged of the three ships was the Fitzgerald which wont be back in service until 2020 and will consume most of the nearly one billion dollars it cost to repair the three ships. The McCain damage is being repaired in a Japanese shipyard and while the work could have been completed by the end of 2018 it was decided to keep the McCain in the yard into 2019 to undertake some other work that would have to be done eventually and it would save time and money to do it now.
Less easy to deal with was the problems with leadership and training that the three accidents made rather obvious. In 2017 it was no secret that these problems existed throughout the navy but were most acute in the 7th Fleet which has been the busiest for over decade because it has to deal with growing Chinese naval power and more frequent crises with North Korea. One could say the problem was navy-wide but most intense in the 7th Fleet and not enough of the admirals were willing to speak up and admit to the politicians and voters what was going on and why it was not being addressed. One reason was that the politicians wanted admirals who would keep quiet and those admirals who spoke out got forced into retirement and replaced by younger officers willing to play by the new rules. This is not unique in American history or military history in general. But this occurrence is another aftereffect of the Cold War ending and attitudes changing with regard to responsibility and military readiness.
The immediate problem, in short, was that the navy has been getting smaller since the Cold War ended in 1991 and that process continued after 2001 because the increased defense spending went to the Army, SOCOM (Special Operations Command) and marine operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The navy and air force had to get by on a lot less. For example, the number of ships in the navy went from 333 in 1998 to 277 in 2017. Yet the navy kept the same number of ships (about a hundred) deployed overseas despite there being 17 percent fewer ships. Worse the newer ships, and some of the older ones were experimenting with smaller crews (and more automation). This is still a work in progress but meanwhile, lots of 7th Fleet ships were operating at a wartime tempo. This was wearing down the crews as well as the ships.
The ships overseas are also kept busier even though crew sizes have been reduced as well and although the navy knew this was going on not a lot was done to deal with what was obviously a growing problem. For example in the two years before the accidents the number of warships in the 7th fleet not certified as ready for combat increased five-fold (to 37 percent). The reasons why were no secret either. Many sailors were working over 100 hours a week when at sea, often double the standard 70-81 hours a week. Ships were more frequently unable to go to sea because of deferred (caused by manpower shortages) maintenance. The most serious shortages were in training, which apparently contributed to the three serious accidents and many more events that could have gotten very ugly.
Its an old naval tradition to punish (it used to be by hanging) an admiral if you wanted to get the attention, or just motivate, the others. This refers back to British Admiral John Byng, who was executed in 1757 for not trying hard enough to dislodge the French from the island of Minorca. This execution was later described as done to "encourage the others (admirals)." In fact, Byng died because of bad publicity surrounding the earlier execution of a junior officer for the same "offense," while senior officers got less lethal punishment. Byng was the victim of a leadership problem that keeps reoccurring.
Nevertheless, navies have always been rather harsher about inadequate leadership. It is an ancient naval tradition that someone must take responsibility and be punished when things go wrong. This attitude developed over the centuries because the seas are an unforgiving environment. Those put in charge of ships have absolute power and absolute responsibility. So, to this day, in most navies, the senior officers can quickly (or, in this case eventually) lose their jobs if things go wrong.
Admiral Byngs demise was, historically, not all that unusual. In centuries past, many navy commanders have been executed for not doing all their boss expected of them. But 18th century Britain considered itself to be in a kinder and gentler age, thus the outcry after Byng was executed, instead of simply being dismissed (or exonerated, something his descendants still call for). Now, in the 21st century, the trend continues, as do the punishments.
Hanging went out of fashion by the 20th century but getting fired apparently has the same impact. The sailors and junior officers who take a more realistic attitude towards this bad leadership (and suffer the most from it) have been demanding more accountability for over a decade, and not staying in the navy long when senior leadership did not improve. That may change if the complacent and compliant admirals are replaced with competent and accountable ones. This was not just a navy problem, the army, air force and, to a lesser extent, the marines all suffered from it. Unlike combat which is loud, involves real bullets that focus attention and responsibility. In peacetime bureaucratic battles back home are often kept out of sight and boldness by military leaders is less common because the paper bullets are quiet and can kill a career quickly. The damage can be substantial as the 2017 7th Fleet collisions demonstrated. There is no easy fix for this because the military is, by design and necessity subordinate to the elected officials who often do a lot of damage with the best of intentions and little scrutiny from anyone outside the military.
Russia has moved 25 warships to the Syrian coast, apparently in support of the Syrian offensive against Idlib, the last rebel held province. The naval force includes submarines, destroyers, frigates, smaller warships an several support ships. This is the largest number of warships Russia has ever deployed to the Syrian coast and this is officially an effort to deter the U.S. Navy from attacking the Syrian forces (which the U.S. said it would do if the Syrians used chemical weapons in Idlib). Russia has also moved more warplanes to Syria and has some heavy bombers ready to fly from southern Russia to launch cruise missiles at targets in Idlib.
Some of the rebel groups in Idlib have been seen digging trenches and destroying bridges, or installing remotely controlled explosives, in preparation for the expected battle. The Turkish border is heavily guarded by the Turks but traffic is allowed, especially supplies coming in from Turkey. The fortified Turkish border is meant to keep Islamic terrorists out, as well as refugees trying to flee the expected fighting in Idlib.
Russia warned that the rebels are preparing to use chemical weapons while the United States pointed out that the available evidence indicates that the Syrian Assad forces are more likely to use chemical weapons. So far the Syrian Army has moved about 2,000 armored vehicles (visible from the air) to the Idlib border. Russia and Syria will provide air support for the Idlib offensive and Turkey will maintain control of its border. No Iranian mercenaries are being used in Idlib, something Turkey insisted on and Russia and Syria persuaded Iran to accept. Iran repeated its determination to keep military forces in Syria despite Israeli refusal to accept that and willingness to keep bombing Iranian facilities. So far Iran has not been able to prevent these air strikes and Israeli officials agree (with commercially available satellite photos and eyewitness reports from Syria) that Iranian military activity has decreased considerably since July. This reduction in activity is apparently linked with unrest back in Iran.
Meanwhile
Elsewhere in the north (and the rest of Syria) there is not much violence at all, especially in Kurdish controlled territory (everything east of the Euphrates River). The Assads and Kurds are still negotiating the post-war form of government the Kurds will have. The Kurds want autonomy for their northeastern homeland and believe they have earned it. Although technically rebels after 2011 the Kurds were actually frenemies with the Assads throughout the civil war. Assad is inclined to grant it but Iran is pressuring the Syrians to take a hard line on the Kurds.
The Assads note that in neighboring Lebanon the recent national elections returned Christian billionaire Saad Hariri to his post as prime minister. Despite that Hariri has limited power as prime minister because Iran backed Hezbollah dominates the government to the point where they not only have a veto over anything the majority (which does not support Hezbollah) wants but can also push through nearly any new laws they (or Iran) wants. Most Lebanese do not want another civil war (like the devastating 1975-90 one) and Hezbollah and Iran take full advantage of that. The Assads fear they will end of like Lebanon if Iran is allowed to build a Syrian branch of Hezbollah. Putting that in perspective Hariri recently commented that he would rather deal with the Russians (about local matters) than the Assads.
Israel has warned that it will not allow a Syrian Hezbollah to be created and will attack Iranian forces in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. This is especially true as Iran seeks to establish their shorter range ballistic missiles in these three countries and threaten Saudi Arabia as well as Israel with them.
ISIL
ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) has gone guerilla and has no large base areas where it can operate openly, especially in Syria. Yet many ISIL gunmen still have their families (wives and children) with them. These can hide in plain sight as refugees or live among pro-ISIL civilians. Such communities provide some support for the ISIL fighters but must remain unknown to police or the many (the majority) Iraqis and Syrians who are hostile to ISIL. Guerilla tactics were always an ISIL staple, especially in Iraq where ISIL operated (as an al Qaeda offshoot) before it changed its name to ISIL. The name change was the result of the unexpected success of some of these Iraqi terrorists at establishing themselves in Syria. There the civil war was intensifying and the Assad government was losing. Now that ISIL has lost control (by early 2018) of Mosul and other Iraqi towns they have no choice but to start all over. In Syria, ISIL lost control of Raqqa (to the Kurds) at the end of 2017.
As ISIL personnel are now generally in hiding it is difficult to get an accurate count. Official mid-2018 estimates were about 17,000 in Iraq and 13,000 in Syria. But that implies that the number of armed men ISIL had in Iraq by 2014 is the same as mid-2018. How can that be given the relatively low level of ISIL activity since early 2018? The answer is that the official estimates include a lot of unarmed supporters, including family members. Captured ISIL members will often exaggerate the size of the group he belongs to as will ISIL members delivering threats to local civilians who the Islamic terrorists are trying to intimidate into compliance (not informing on ISIL). Cooperative civilians are immune to ISIL attacks so there is that. But the ability of ISIL to enforce the cooperation is often an illusion because ISIL tries to appear more omnipresent than they actually are.
A population of cooperative civilians is essential for ISIL to survive as guerillas and that is why there are probably more ISIL operating in Iraq than in Syria. The civilians not only provide some cover but are also a source of supplies (which ISIL strives to pay for, in order to build some loyalty.) This is all basic guerilla tradecraft that is made more difficult when there are a lot of cell phones around. That increases the risk of some angry (or not even local) civilian making a call to the police to report possible ISIL activity. ISIL leaders noted that a key factor in the loss of control in an area was the local civilians retaining some access to Internet and cell phone service as well as satellite TV receivers. ISIL (and other Islamic radicals) have long tried to control the use of all three of these items but have been unable to completely eliminate them from populations they control. Once ISIL was driven out of an area the cell phone companies were eager to rebuild their cell phone and Internet service and as people in those areas of restored cell phone service became more confident that reporting on remaining ISIL activity would not get them killed the calls started coming. These phone calls have become more frequent and has led to the growing number of arrests or discovery of ISIL hideouts and the destruction of active ISIL terrorists. This has led to a decline in terror related deaths and more violent encounters between security forces and the many sleeper cells ISIL deliberately left behind when they lost control of an area. What has kept ISIL going are Sunni Arab areas where they still have some support, at least as someone who will fighting hack against the Kurds and Shia Arabs. There are fewer Sunni majority areas in Syria for ISIL to get support from.
The civil war that began it was always about Syrian Shia (the Assads) and other minorities against the Sunni Arab majority. The Assads deliberately and successfully drove most of the Sunni Arabs most opposed to them out of the country. The Sunni Arabs are still a majority but they have been terrorized by the Assads and convinced that support for groups like ISIL would bring swift and severe punishment. There are more opportunities to find sanctuary in Iraq. There are some areas along the Iraqi border where ISIL can hide on the Syrian side, but once discovered they are subject to attack by Iraqi or American airstrikes (or artillery fired from Iraq) as well as Kurdish and Assad ground forces in Syria (as well as some Iran backed mercenaries). ISIL is still around in Syria and Iraq but as hunted killers, not rulers of vast areas in both countries.
September 3, 2018: The United States warned Russia, Syria and Iran not to attack Idlib province, the last rebel held area in Syria. This warning was mainly meant for Syria and its use of chemical weapons. Russia is mainly there to provide air support of the Syrians do attack. Russia is also trying to intimidate the Americans. Iran is sitting this one out and while Turkey supports clearing the Islamic terrorists out of Idlib the Turks are just going to defend their border against the expected million or more refugees fleeing the fighting. Turkey wont let them in. France also protested the offensive and also threatened to retaliate militarily. In the last two years, the U.S. has twice bombed Syrian forces in retaliation for Syrians using chemical weapons and threatens to do so again if the Syrians use chemical weapons in Idlib. Syria apparently plans to do so in order to reduce casualties among their own troops.
September 1, 2018: In the south (Damascus) there were several large explosions at the Mazzen airbase outside the capital. There were two fatalities. Syria blamed Israel, saying several rockets were launched from northern Israel against the Republican Guard base. Israel did not comment. Initial attempts by Syria claim the explosions were because of an accident, not an attack, were quickly withdrawn. There were too many witnesses and missile attacks leave missile fragments behind in the target area (which was right outside the base at a weapons and ammo storage area).
In the east (Homs province) an Iranian military convoy was hit by an airstrike. This killed four Syrians, one Iranian and three foreign mercenaries. At least eleven people were wounded. The airstrike may have occurred because the convoy was too close to the American special operations base of Tanf, on the Syrian side of the Iraqi border near the Jordan border. The American forces there reported they had been fired on by unknown forces but there was no damage and they did not return fire. So it remains a mystery whose warplanes did the deed. The Americans have some support from Sunni tribes in Syria and Iraq and that is mainly to keep informed on what is going on in the area around Tanf. Iran has assisted (with its mercenaries) Assad forces in trying to eliminate the Tanf base but these efforts have failed. The Americans have too much airpower and too much aerial and ground surveillance around Tanf. The U.S. has declared a free fire zone that means any Assad/Iranian forces getting within 30 kilometers of Tanf are automatically attacked. Iranian and Assad forces rarely test this free-fire zone. They know it works. While no one took credit for the airstrike it is now believed to be Israeli, but the Israelis often try to hide their involvement.
Off the Syrian coast 25 Russian Navy ships (most of them warships the rest support) and 30 aircraft held training exercises.
August 28, 2018: Russia, Turkey and Syria agreed on a plan to attack and destroy the Islamic terrorist groups in Idlib province, particularly HTS/al Nusra. Idlib is the last Islamic terrorist stronghold and is in the northwest, on the Turkish border. Idlib is currently controlled by various rebel groups. Over half of Idlib is controlled by the HTS (Hayat Tahrir al Sham) coalition. This is the main al Qaeda organization which evolved from al Nusra by absorbing (willingly or otherwise) many other like-minded groups over the years. About a third of the province is controlled by several other Islamic terrorist groups. Last week the largest six of these factions merged to form the NLF (National Liberation Front). This merger was arranged by Ahrar al Sham, a longtime rival of HTS. About ten percent of the province is controlled by Turkey (in the north along the hundred kilometer long border with Turkey) and Assad forces (several towns and villages in the southeast).
August 27, 2018: Israeli satellite photos show a new ballistic missile assembly facility being built on the Mediterranean coast at Baniyas. The new facility is similar in layout to existing missile assembly plants in Iran. The one in Syria appears to be about six months from completion. Iran is believed to be building or planning to build a similar facility in Iraq. These assembly plants would use Iran made components to produced solid fuel ballistic missiles including the Zolfaghar (700 kilometer range), the Fateh 110 which can be launched from trucks that carry them and have a range of 300 kilometers. There are also truck mounted Zelzal-3s with a range of up to 250 kilometers. All three of these can reach Saudi Arabian and Israeli targets from Iraq and Syria.
August 26, 2018: Syria and Iran signed a military cooperation deal. Details were not revealed although there was talk of Iran assisting in reconstruction efforts. That will be difficult considering the economic crises back in Iran and the growing popular protests against expensive overseas efforts Syria.
August 22, 2018: ISIL leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi issued his first recorded message in a year. The 55 minute speech admitted that ISIL had lost all the cities and major towns it controlled a year ago in the Syria and Iraq but urged his followers to continue attacking the enemy, which dozens of small groups of ISIL members have been doing with some success. Baghdadi had recently been reported killed (by an airstrike). These claims have been regular occurrences because so many people want the ISIL founder dead. Eyewitness reports from those who have seen Baghdadi in the last year report that he seems tired and dejected but still in charge whenever he met with his dwindling loyalists. Much like Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, if you make enough enemies they will eventually catch up with you.
Russia revealed that their air force had launched about 39,000 sorties against enemy (rebels and Islamic terrorists) forces in Syria since September 2015. Some 121,000 targets were hit, killing 86,000 hostile personnel. The last major effort by Russian warplanes in Syria will soon take place in the northwestern province of Idlib. Russia, Turkey and the Assad government are trying to negotiate a peaceful surrender of the remaining rebels in Idlib but that is not expected to include all the rebel factions, most of them connected with one Islamic terror group or another. Syria is expecting some major air support from Russia in Idlib in order to keep casualties down for the Syrian ground forces. Iran has been persuaded to keep its mercenaries and IRGC forces out of this fight.
August 19, 2018: An American official confirmed that the United States, Israel and Russia agreed that Iran must not be allowed to establish a permanent military presence in Syria. Apparently, the Syrian government agrees with this as there have been some recent clashes between Assad forces and Iranian mercenaries.
August 18, 2018: In northern Syria, an army intelligence officer working for the Syrian Army Palestinian Department was assassinated by gunfire. Israeli involvement was suspected.
August 16, 2018: In the east (Deir Ezzor province) an Iraqi Air Force airstrike near the Iraq border killed 18 ISIL men at what was described as an ISIL headquarters for ISIL forces in Iraq. Most of the victim of this strike were not Syrian.
August 15, 2018: Russian military police are expanding the number of outposts on Golan Heights from four to eight. The Russian military police are there to keep rebels and Iranian forces out of the areas so the UN can resume outpost and patrol duty to the satisfaction of the of the Israelis. Syria is offering amnesty to most local rebels but the Russians are not interfering with Syrian police arresting or raiding the homes of locals suspected of still being rebels.
August 14, 2018: In the east (Deir Ezzor province) Iranian mercenaries have been fighting with Syrian Army (Assad) troops for control of the Al Bukamal crossing into Iraq. Apparently, there is a dispute between the Assads and Iran over who will control border crossings for routes that are part of the Iran to the Mediterranean land route. This route is essential to support any Iranian military expansion in Syria and Lebanon.
August 12, 2018: In the northwest (Idlib province) a rebel weapons storage site, filling the basement of an apartment building, exploded. Fifteen rebels died along with 52 civilians. Two five story buildings were destroyed.
August 11, 2018: Israel released satellite photos showing the massive damage done by a July 22nd attack on an Iranian run missile assembly plant in northwest Syria.
August 9, 2018: Russia, Turkey and Iran announced that they would do all they could to avoid a bloodbath in the in northwest Syria where Russian warplanes are bombing rebel positions in the province and Iranian mercenary troops are preparing to accompany Syrian troops for an advance into Idlib. The three allies did not reveal how they planned to deal with Turkish concerns that combat in Idlib would drive over a million refugees into Turkey.
Miami, FL, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On January 5, 2021, luxury travelers will embark on one of Crystal Cruises most extensive World Cruise journeys ever, as Crystal Serenity sets sail on a 139-day odyssey from Miami to London. The companys 26th annual World Cruise Ancient Dynasties & World Wonders will follow a route through the Caribbean, Hawaiian Islands, South Pacific, Australia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, the Far East, India, the UAE and the Mediterranean, featuring transit of the Panama Canal, visits to Egypts mysterious Valley of Kings, and the winelands of Western Europe. Offered in nine focused segments of 12 to 21 days, the sailing explores iconic locales and less visited destinations alike, allowing guests to explore wild shorelines and landscapes, remote villages and untouched natural beauty, historically profound sites and monuments, and epicenters of modern culture and commerce.
The 2021 World Cruise is a truly comprehensive odyssey of grand scale, importantly showcasing the ever-evolving lands and diverse cultures across the globe, says Carmen Roig, Crystals senior vice president of marketing and sales. Our guests know that a Crystal World Cruise is always rich with extraordinary experiences on board and ashore, and the Ancient Dynasties & World Wonders voyage embodies this spirit of discovery, offering travelers a larger-than-life journey with Crystals celebrated luxury and increased flexibility.
Highlights of Crystals 2021 Ancient Dynasties & World Wonders World Cruise include:
Maiden calls in Townsville, Australia; Banda Neira and Ambon, Indonesia;
Overnight stays in 17 global cities, with at least two overnights featured on all but one World Cruise segment;
Exploration of Australias Great Barrier Reef and adventurous coastlines, as well as the tropics of the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei;
An intensive early spring journey through Japan, with additional calls in Hong Kong and Taiwan;
Far East discoveries in China and South Korea, with an overnight in Shanghai and two nights in Beijing;
Concentration in Southeast Asia and Vietnam, with overnights in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, as well as Singapore and Shanghai;
An exotic journey across the Bay of Bengal and along the Arabian Gulf, with two nights in Myanmar, calls in Sri Lanka and India en route to Dubai;
A voyage along the gulfs of Oman and Aden, with calls in Oman and an overnight in Safaga, affording access to the Valley of Kings, then on to the picturesque Mediterranean coast;
Sun-drenched discoveries in the postcard-worthy ports of Europe, with overnights in wine havens like Lisbon and Bordeaux (two nights), as well as Rome, Sardinia and Ibiza.
The 2021 World Cruise offers alternate embark and debark port and date options for travelers, giving guests considerable flexibility while still receiving the full World Cruise benefits. Guests can choose to sail the complete itinerary from Miami to London (January 5 to May 24, 139 days); from Los Angeles to London (January 21 to May 24, 123 days); Miami to Rome (January 5 to May 12, 127 days); or Los Angeles to Rome (January 21 to May 12, 111 days). Guests booking any of these full World Cruise options enjoy special benefits and amenities, including a welcome celebration dinner aboard Crystal Serenity in Miami or in Los Angeles, As You Wish shipboard spending credits of up to $2,500 per guest; complimentary private car and driver transfers between the ship and airport; a gala dinner World Cruise Extravaganza Event; an exclusive shore-side event; special World Cruise-themed onboard events; and specially curated gifts.
Crystals 2021 World Cruise will first be open for 2018, 2019 and 2020 Full World Cruise guests for booking between September 5 and September 11, 2018. All other Crystal Society members will enjoy a pre-booking window from September 12 through September 18, 2018. Full World Cruise guests and Crystal Society members can receive full itinerary details by contacting their travel professionals or calling 888.799.2437. The cruise will be open to the public for booking on September 19, 2018 with Book Now Savings fares for the Full World Cruise starting at $46,199 per person (expiring October 31, 2018).
About Crystal
The world-renowned Crystal Experience featuring global journeys with Crystal Cruises, Crystal River Cruises, Crystal Yacht Expedition Cruises, Crystal AirCruises and Crystal Luxury Air continues to be the distinctive choice of the worlds most discerning travelers.
For more information and Crystal reservations, contact a travel professional, call 888.799.2437, or visit www.crystalcruises.com. Join the hundreds of thousands who subscribe to the Crystal Insider blog, follow Crystal Cruises Facebook page and @crystalcruises on Twitter and Instagram, and engage in the conversation with #crystalcruises.
###
Attachment
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Foundry Commercial, the multi-city commercial real estate firm with offices across the Southeast and Texas, announces today the addition of Keely Hines to the companys Charlotte office. Hines will be leading the brokerage and marketing efforts on over one million square feet of retail assets throughout the Carolinas and Georgia for Foundry Commercial.
Hines joins the Foundry Commercial team as an established and respected industry veteran with a background in retail brokerage, including third party shopping center leasing, tenant representation, outparcel sales and disposition of surplus properties. Prior to joining the Foundry team, Hines worked for MPV Properties, after completing long stints with Fitzhugh Stout & Associates and Core Properties. Throughout her career, Hines has leased high-profile development projects in the Charlotte region including RedStone, Riverbend Village, StoneCrest, Toringdon Circle, Metropolitan at Midtown, Providence Plaza, and Carmel Village.
Keely is one of the most respected and successful real estate brokers in the southeast, and I could not be more delighted to have her join Foundry Commercial, said Susan McGuire, Partner and Retail Platform Leader at Foundry. This business is about serving others and building trusted relationships I have nothing but gratitude and excitement for having her onboard, and I know that shell do fantastic things for our clients.
Hines earned a Bachelor of Science in History from the University of Virginia. She is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers and is a licensed real estate broker in North Carolina and South Carolina.
About Foundry Commercial
Foundry Commercial is a full-service real estate services and investment company with 300 employees and more than 50 million square feet of management and leasing across the Southeast and Texas. Foundry provides corporate services, brokerage, leasing, building management and project management services, and is the largest real estate service provider to religious and not-for-profit organizations in the Country. Foundry also includes a development and investment platform that is fully integrated into its services business, leveraging its local market expertise to control more than one billion in advantaged investment opportunities with their JV partners. Foundry Commercial was founded as CNL Commercial Real Estate in 2007 and launched as Foundry in 2015 through a management-led buyout. For more information, visit www.foundrycommercial.com .
Media Contact:
Lauren Leetun, APR
lleetun@findsomewinmore.com
(407) 592-7923
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0df12fca-11b2-4dba-bb62-f989f4afd3d9
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Evolving Gold Corp. (CSE: EVG) (FSE: EV7) (OTCB: EVOGF) (the Company or EVG) announces that it has executed a non-binding Letter of Intent (LOI) to acquire Bocana Resources Ltd. (Bocana), a private company with mineral property interests in South America.
The acquisition of Bocana will constitute a fundamental change for EVG under CSE policies; and consequently:
EVG has halted trading of its common shares on the CSE. Unless the transaction with Bocana fails to close, the Company does not expect its shares will resume trading again until the transaction has been accepted by the CSE; and
EVG may be required to call a special meeting of its shareholders to approve the acquisition.
In conjunction with the acquisition of Bocana, and as conditions to closing:
EVG will consolidate its 15,722,378 currently issued and outstanding common shares on a 3 to 2 basis, to have approximately 10,481,585 common shares outstanding and will continue under the Canada Business Corporations Act;
Certain EVG management contracts and compensation agreements with directors and officers will be cancelled;
EVGs Board of Directors will resign and be replaced with representatives nominated by Bocana; and new management will be appointed;
Bocana will complete a non-brokered private placement to raise up to $1,200,000 through the issuance of up to 12,000,000 units at $0.10 per Unit (the Bocana Offering). Each Unit will be comprised of one Bocana common share and one-half of one Bocana share purchase warrant exercisable at $0.25 for 24 months. The proceeds of the private placement will be used towards anticipated costs of the transaction with EVG, the settlement of certain of Bocanas debts, and a proposed work program on properties that Bocana is currently negotiating with certain governmental entities in South America;
Bocana will reduce its debt to $600,000 which debt will bear interest at 3% per year and be payable on the earlier of 24 months or the date that $4,000,000 in debt or equity is raised;
all outstanding stock options in the capital of EVG will continue for the balance of their term (as adjusted for the consolidation);
EVG will obtain all necessary regulatory and shareholder approvals. EVG expects to call a special meeting of its shareholders as soon as it has received prospectus level disclosure from Bocana regarding it, its mineral properties and its management. Full details of the transactions will be set out in the information circular pertaining to such meeting and will be posted on SEDAR;
EVG will change its name to Trillion Minerals Corporation; and
EVG and Bocana will enter into a definitive formal agreement (share exchange agreement, plan of arrangement, amalgamation or such other form of agreement as may be determined); with closing thereunder to occur by November 30, 2018.
New Directors and Officers
After closing the transaction, the Company expects to appoint the following officers and directors:
Daniel Kunz - Executive Chairman & Director
Senior mining engineer and MBA with more than 35 years of experience in engineering, mine operations, management, accounting, and finance. Mr. Kunz was Director and President of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd, and was part of the team that discovered the massive Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold deposit in Mongolia. During his seven-year tenure, the market capitalization value of Ivanhoe Mines increased from $400 million to $4.4 billion. He was a founder of and served as CEO and President of MK Gold Company, a mine owner, producer and mining contractor. He was CEO & President of Jinshan Gold Mines during the construction and a Director during startup of the CSH Mine in China. He founded and for 10 years was CEO of US$110 million U.S. Geothermal, Inc.
Tim Turner President and Director
Currently is President and CEO of Bocana Investments, S.A., an investment vehicle that has reviewed, invested in and worked on several mining opportunities in South America. Mr. Turner has a BBA in Petroleum Land Management from the University of Texas at Austin and has over 37 years of varied oil, gas and mineral development experience including complex joint venture agreements; business partner operations and negotiating legal agreements involving acquisitions, joint operating agreements and the disposition of assets.
Tim Barry Independent Director
Currently President & CEO of Silver Bull Resources - exploring a zinc/silver project in Mexico. Mr. Barry has over 19 years of exploration and management experience and has worked as a Consulting Geologist and manager on projects in Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Mongolia and West and Central Africa. Mr. Barry currently serves as a director for Sanatana Resources Inc. Mr. Barry is a Chartered Professional Geologist (CPAusIMM). Mr. Barry holds a BSc in Geology from the University of Otago in New Zealand.
Charles E. Jenkins, BA, CPA, CGA - Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Jenkins will stay with the Company in his current role as Chief Financial Officer.
Peter Parsley Vice President - Senior Geologist
Senior Geologist with over 32 years of experience in field exploration, drilling, sampling, logging, mine permitting, development, compliance and mine disturbance reclamation. Experience includes gold deposits in North America, Africa, Asia, and South America. He has a Masters Degree in Geology, is a registered Professional Geologist, and has been working with Daniel Kunz & Associates from Boise, Idaho for the last 4 years.
Other directors will be added prior to the resumption of trading, and will be disclosed in subsequent news releases.
Terms of the Agreement
Pursuant to the LOI, EVG will issue post-consolidated common shares, on a one-for-one basis, to acquire all outstanding shares of Bocana. Following closing of the Bocana Offering (assuming it is fully subscribed), Bocana will have 66,500,000 shares outstanding. In accordance with CSE policies, EVG shares held by new principals (officers, directors, control persons) will be subject to escrow, to be released as to 10% on closing, with an additional 15% released every six months thereafter over 36 months.
About Bocanas South American Prospects
Bocana, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, currently holds and anticipates securing a 100% interest in several new mineral concessions in South America. These concessions are currently being negotiated and finalized with the respective governmental and regulatory entities that issue these agreements. Full disclosure of Bocanas mineral property interests will be provided upon settlement of all concessions.
On Behalf of the Board of Directors
EVOLVING GOLD CORP.
R. Bruce Duncan
President, CEO and Director
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Investor Relations:
Tel: 604.685.6375
TF: 866.604.3864
info@evolvinggold.com
Neither Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Early morning on Thursday, Aug. 30, law enforcement obtained a search warrant to search the residence of Jarred Neuhalfen, 26, at 3080 County Road 83, Potter.
Law enforcement attempted to enter the residence, but Neuhalfen refused entry.
His wife left the residence.
Neuhalfen remained inside and refused to leave. A crisis negotiator with the Nebraska State Patrol was on scene and maintained contact with Neuhalfen.
Law enforcement searched a nearby garage and located several firearms. Neuhalfen was previously convicted of a felony. An arrest warrant was obtained for Possession of a Firearm by a Prohibited Person, Possession of a Short Shotgun, and Possession of a Stolen Firearm. About seven hours after attempting to execute the search warrant, Neuhalfen agreed to leave the residence. He was placed under arrest and taken into custody.
The incident started Aug. 24 when Cheyenne County Sheriffs Department Chief Deputy Fred Wiedeburg received a message from a Nebraska State Trooper of a suspicious vehicle near Potter. The Trooper received a report from a Kimball County resident of a suspicious vehicle that had been frequenting farmsteads in the area of eastern Kimball County and western Cheyenne County. According to the arrest warrant, Nebraska State Patrol received photos of an un-plated vehicle. Witnesses reported the vehicle was occupied by two men and a woman.
The Cheyenne County Sheriffs Office is investigating a number of burglaries north of Potter, according to the arrest affidavit. The burglaries include the area west of County Road 99 in Cheyenne County and an incident on Aug. 28. Chief Deputy Wiedeburg was dispatched to Cheyenne County Road 81 north of Potter. Upon arrival, Wiedeburg discovered significant damage to the roll-up door of the garage.
At that time, the only thing determined to be missing was a yellow and white 1996 Suzuki 250cc motorcycle. The home was also forcibly entered, according to the affidavit. Taken from the home was a solar powered LED light and a clear tote with several knives in it. A Cabelas game camera was taken from outside of the house as well.
The following agencies were involved: Cheyenne County Sheriffs Office, Cheyenne County SWAT Team, Sidney Police Department, Nebraska State Patrol, Nebraska State Patrol SWAT Team, Nebraska Game & Parks officials, Potter Volunteer Fire Department, Regional West Medical Center Ambulance, Cheyenne County Citizens Emergency Response Team (providing food and water to law enforcement on scene), and High West Energy Pine Bluffs.
Visits to Cheyenne County are showing numbers on both sides of the line. They are down, but they're also going up.
A Nebraska Tourism Commission press release dated Aug. 30 says tourism in Nebraska is going up. The report offers numbers including February, March and May setting all-time high records. The report adds that the total Nebraska lodging tax collection from July 2017 to June 2018 amounts to almost $5.7 million for a growth rate of nearly 7 percent.
Cheyenne County's numbers aren't quite so rosy, but they do offer a mixed picture.
Tourism Director Kevin Howard said tourism for 2018 is down compared to 2017 by 14 percent. However, June 2018 is up compared to June 2017, he said.
I was very encouraged by our June lodging tax figures, Howard said. It was encouraging to see we had an increase.
Howard said while the numbers are encouraging, the battle isn't over.
We have a long ways to go, he said.
The goal, he said, is heads in beds. The more people who use hotels and motels, the more others businesses benefit. The more businesses benefit, the more people will frequent hotels.
It is a snowball effect, he said.
In the state tourism report, Nebraska tourism Commission executive director John Ricks noted events and specific themes that could have resulted in the higher numbers.
The record setting lodging tax collection shows us that when you invite people from out of state, they will come, said Ricks. We targeted out-of-state markets for the crane migration and 2018 summer campaign, the Nebraska Passport Program continues to grow and the Solar Eclipse took place in this fiscal year, all things that factored into our 6.98 percent growth rate.
The press release says statewide the months of February, March and May set all-time high records. Cheyenne County also recorded high numbers in those months.
The Nebraska Tourism Commission identifies tourism as the third largest industry in Nebraska. The press release quotes the U.S. Travel Association that domestic and international travelers to the state spent $4.9 billion in 2016 and generated $735.1 million in federal, state and local governments.
Howard says Cheyenne County continues to work with Blue SoHo and their research. He says there are campaigns being considered, but they may not be implemented until 2019.
I want to do it right, he said.
Howard said he wants to invest in the community, not just buy ads.
He said a philosophical change is necessary for Cheyenne County. Some of the historic draws to the Sidney area do not have the same magnetism, according to Howard, at least not enough to generate overnight stays. He compared the effort to a successful restaurant. The food is good but the location is known for its customer service. In the same way, people are drawn to how they are received.
It's not hard. We be ourselves, our natural selves and welcome them, and they come back, he said.
He said billboards are important in promoting Cheyenne County also. The challenge is including the right message with the limited words that can be printed on a billboard.
There's so many facets to tourism, he said.
The partnership will see a new and permanent Dior corner being set-up within the store, where a range of Dior jewellery will be on display.
Among the pieces to be on show at the boutique will be a Swiss-made timepiece, an exclusive gold-adorned breastplate, and several other selections from Diors Tete de Mort collection.
Other notable inclusions will be the new Dior timepiece, Dior Grand Bal Plume Blanche, which comes in pure white and features centrally adorned feathers and decorations in yellow gold threads and scattered diamonds.
Another Harrods exclusive, the Rose Des Vents breastplate, boasts stunning multi-chain yellow gold, diamond and mother of pearl necklace decorated with Diors signature lucky stars.
Designed by Diors maverick artistic director, Victoire de Castellane, the new Tete de Mort collection is said to have been inspired by the brand's eponymous founder Christian Diors love of life.
Each pastel-hued piece in the collection pays tribute to De Castellanes debut collection La Fiancee du Vampire, introduced in 2001.
The exclusive Dior boutique will open at Harrods this month.
NEW YORK, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP announces that a federal securities class action lawsuit has been filed in the United States District for the District of Nevada against CV Sciences, Inc. ("CV Sciences" or the "Company") (OTCMKT: CVSI) and certain of its officers, on behalf of shareholders who purchased or otherwise acquired CV Sciences securities between June 19, 2017 and August 20, 2018, both dates inclusive (the Class Period).
Investors who have incurred losses in the shares of CV Sciences, Inc. are urged to contact the firm immediately at classmember@whafh.com or (800) 575-0735 or (212) 545-4774. You may obtain additional information concerning the action on our website, www.whafh.com.
If you have incurred losses in the shares of CV Sciences, Inc., you may, no later than October 23, 2018, request that the Court appoint you lead plaintiff of the proposed class. Please contact Wolf Haldenstein to learn more about your rights as an investor in CV Sciences, Inc.
The filed Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that its Patent #15/426,617:
received a non-final rejection from the USPTO on April 27, 2017;
a final rejection from the USPTO on December 14, 2017; and
consequently, Defendants' statements about CV Sciences' business, operations, and prospects, were materially false and/or misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.
On August 20, 2018, Citron Research alleged that CV Sciences misrepresented the status of one of its key patents. Citron Research said that the Company failed to disclose a rejected patent that the Company "continued to hype."
Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP has extensive experience in the prosecution of securities class actions and derivative litigation in state and federal trial and appellate courts across the country. The firm has attorneys in various practice areas; and offices in New York, Chicago and San Diego. The reputation and expertise of this firm in shareholder and other class litigation has been repeatedly recognized by the courts, which have appointed it to major positions in complex securities multi-district and consolidated litigation.
If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions regarding your rights and interests in this case, please immediately contact Wolf Haldenstein by telephone at (800) 575-0735, via e-mail at classmember@whafh.com , or visit our website at www.whafh.com.
## Follow the firm and learn about newly filed cases on Twitter and Facebook. ##
Contact:
Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP
Kevin Cooper, Esq.
Gregory Stone, Director of Case and Financial Analysis
Email: gstone@whafh.com , kcooper@whafh.com or classmember@whafh.com
Tel: (800) 575-0735 or (212) 545-4774
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Veritas Pharma Inc. (CSE: VRT; OTC: VRTHF; and Frankfurt: 2VP) (Veritas or the Company) is pleased to announce that its subsidiary, 3 Carbon Extractions Inc. (3 CARBON), has completed an exclusive marketing rights relationship with ExtractionTek Solutions Inc. (ETS) located in Denver, Colorado, U.S.
ETS is a recognized international leader in closed loop hydrocarbon extraction equipment. Their lines of closed loop extractors are designed for the safe and legal extraction of botanical materials utilizing propane, butane or blend of each. Since 2011, ETS has placed over 500 Closed Loop Hydrocarbon Extractors in the field. ETS is proud to offer three approved for market, closed loop extraction machines with industry leading processing speeds and simultaneously offering a wider range of runs sizes, than the rest. The-1300, The Modular Extraction Platform (The MeP), and The miniMeP.
For more information about ETS, please visit their website: extractiontek.com
3 Carbons CEO Phillip Kwong said, We are excited to be collaborating with one of the most highly-regarded extraction companies in the United States. We look forward to building on ETSs track record of successful collaboration with clients and regulatory agencies as 3 Carbon prepares for the legalization of cannabis in Canada and the introduction of draft regulations over the coming year by Health Canada for edible cannabis products and derivatives.
Veritas CEO, Dr. Lui Franciosi commented: I am pleased to see 3 Carbon successfully secure exclusive marketing rights with ETS. Their solutions will enable 3 Carbon to provide Cannevert scientists with high quality, efficient extractions for products that were developing on the medicinal side.
About Veritas Pharma Inc.
Veritas Pharma Inc. is an emerging pharmaceutical and IP development company, who, through its 100% owned subsidiary Cannevert Therapeutics Ltd. (CTL), is advancing the science behind medical cannabis. It is the Companys aim, through its investment in CTL, to develop the most effective cannabis strains (cultivars) specific to pain, nausea, epilepsy and PTSD, solving the critical need for clinical data to support medical marijuana claims. CTLs unique value proposition uses a low-cost research and development model to help drive shareholder value, and speed-to-market. Veritas investment in CTL is led by a strong management team, bringing together veteran academic pharmacologists, anesthetists & chemists. The companys commercial mission is to patent protect IP (cultivars & strains) and sell or license to cancer clinics, insurance industry and pharma, targeting multi-billion-dollar markets according to Deloittes Insights and Opportunities.
Veritas Pharma Inc. is a publicly traded company in Canada, on the Canadian Stock Exchange under the ticker VRT; in the United States, on the OTC under the ticker VRTHF; and in Germany, on the Frankfurt exchange under the ticker 2VP.
For more information, please visit our website: veritaspharmainc.com
On behalf of the Board of Directors
" Dr. Lui Franciosi"
Dr. Lui Franciosi
President and Chief Executive Officer
Further information about the Company is available on our website at www.veritaspharmainc.com or under our profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the CSE website at www.thecse.com.
Investor and Public Relations Contact
Veritas Pharma Inc.
Sam Eskandari
Telephone: +1.416.918.6785
Email: ir@veritaspharmainc.com
Website: www.veritaspharmainc.com
The CSE has not reviewed, nor approved or disapproved the content of this press release.
TORONTO, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nutritional High International Inc. (the Company or Nutritional High) (CSE: EAT, OTCQB: SPLIF, FRANKFURT: 2NU) would like to announce that it has filed a revised and restated Managements Discussion and Analysis (Revised MD&A) as at, and for, the three and nine-month periods ended April 30th, 2018.
The Revised MD&A supersedes the previous MD&A for the same period (the Original MD&A).
The Ontario Securities Commission (the OSC), in connection with a staff review of the Companys filings requested the below revisions to the Original MD&A.
The Revised MD&A provides additional disclosures related to the Companys operations in the United States cannabis industry and provides further guidance on the regulatory regimes of each of the Companys respective states of operation. These additional disclosures were included to conform to the guidance provided in CSA Staff Notice 51-352 (Revised) Issuers with U.S. Marijuana-Related Activities (the Staff Notice).
The Revised MD&A includes enhanced disclosure regarding each of the Companys material assets and investments in the United States, including describing whether each asset or investment constitutes direct, indirect or ancillary involvement in the United States marijuana industry (as such concepts are defined in the Staff Notice). The Revised MD&A also includes disclosures regarding the regulatory framework in each United States jurisdiction in which the Company operates, as well as disclosures regarding its compliance with applicable laws and regulatory requirements in such jurisdictions. The Revised MD&A includes a description of the Companys systems for monitoring compliance with applicable laws and the regulatory requirements in each applicable United States jurisdiction. The Company, in this disclosure, has expanded the risk factor disclosure relating to the Companys involvement in the United States cannabis industry.
The Revised MD&A also includes updates and clarifications regarding the Companys Financial Statements for the nine months ended April 30th, 2018.
Other than as expressly set forth above, the Revised MD&A does not reflect any events that occurred after the date of the filing of the Original MD&A.
The Revised MD&A was filed simultaneously with this press release on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .
About Nutritional High International Inc.
Nutritional High is focused on developing, manufacturing and distributing products under recognized brands in the cannabis products industry, with a specific focus on edibles and oil extracts for medical and adult recreational use. The Company works exclusively through licensed facilities in jurisdictions where such activity is permitted and regulated by state law.
The Company follows a vertically integrated model with a fully developed strategy for acquisitions in extraction, production, sales, and distribution sectors of the cannabis industry. Nutritional High has brought its flagship FLI edibles and extracts product line from production to market in California through its wholly owned distributor Calyx Brands Inc., and Colorado where its products are manufactured by a licensed producer. The Company also owns a 50% interest in The Clinic Effingham (an Illinois dispensary), and is entering the Nevada, Washington State, Oregon and Canadian markets in the near future.
For updates on the Companys activities and highlights of the Companys press releases and other media coverage, please follow Nutritional High on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram and Google+ or visit www.nutritionalhigh.com .
For further information, please contact:
David Posner
Chairman of the Board
Nutritional High International Inc.
647-985-6727
Email: dposner@nutritionalhigh.com
NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR OTC MARKETS GROUP INC., NOR THEIR REGULATIONS SERVICES PROVIDERS HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.
This news release may contain forward-looking statements and information based on current expectations. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. The statements relate to potential market expansion and the use of the proceeds of the Offering. Risks that may have an impact on the ability for these events to be achieved include completion of due diligence, negotiation of definitive agreements and receipt of applicable approvals. Although such statements are based on managements reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be correct. We assume no responsibility to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances.
The Companys securities have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the U.S. Securities Act), or applicable state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold to, or for the account or benefit of, persons in the United States or U.S. Persons, as such term is defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act, absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in the United States or any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.
Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause the Companys actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein. All forward-looking information herein is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement, and the Company disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking information or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except as required by law. Some of the risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking information expressed in this press release include, but are not limited to: obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals including acquiring and renewing U.S. state, local or other licenses, the uncertainty of existing protection from U.S. federal or other prosecution, regulatory or political change such as changes in applicable laws and regulations, including U.S. state-law legalization, market and general economic conditions of the cannabis sector or otherwise.
Our trip began mid August which was right around the start of lobster season, so obviously you have to order that at least once (every meal). Everybody knows about lobster, but I also highly suggest Hogfish for it's scallop-y flavor and thick meaty flesh as well as the delicate Yellowtail Snapper for the buttery mild flavor. In October, dive into one of my personal favorites: Stone Crabs.
You might also remember from my stories that I was on a mission to try all of the Key Lime Pies we could during our trip? It was tough. But I muscled through it and managed to narrow it down to three places. See the winners at the bottom of the post, of course where dessert should be, after you read about my favorite places to eat in the Florida Keys and what to order when you get there...
Now that we're officially back from the Keys all I can think about is all the food we ate during our 8 day trek. I honestly don't think I've ever been so overwhelmed with such delicious options in my life. Somehow I was able to narrow it down to 10 spots from Key Largo all the way to Key West that I can highly recommend you stop by and have yourself a nibble (or feast!).Our trip began mid August which was right around the start of lobster season, so obviously you have to order that at least once (every meal). Everybody knows about lobster, but I also highly suggest Hogfish for it's scallop-y flavor and thick meaty flesh as well as the delicate Yellowtail Snapper for the buttery mild flavor. In October, dive into one of my personal favorites: Stone Crabs.You might also remember from my stories that I was on a mission to try all of the Key Lime Pies we could during our trip? It was tough. But I muscled through it and managed to narrow it down to three places. See the winners at the bottom of the post, of course where dessert should be, after you read about my favorite places to eat in the Florida Keys and what to order when you get there...
Sundowners - Key Largo, Florida
Located in the heart of Key Largo, this waterfront restaurant has a gorgeous end of day view that lives right up to it's name and then some. I highly suggest you plan your meal around sunset to catch a peel of the sun going down while you eat. So bring your shades! Aside from the views, they also served up the best conch fritters I've ever had, with a delicious homemade cocktail sauce and curry mustard. We dove into a huge plate of their specialty, the Key Lime Seafood with Blue Crab, Lobstertail and Shrimp. It was hard to save room for their massive Key Lime Pie with Meringue.. Located in the heart of Key Largo, this waterfront restaurant has a gorgeous end of day view that lives right up to it's name and then some. I highly suggest you plan your meal around sunset to catch a peel of the sun going down while you eat. So bring your shades! Aside from the views, they also served up the best conch fritters I've ever had, with a delicious homemade cocktail sauce and curry mustard. We dove into a huge plate of their specialty, the Key Lime Seafood with Blue Crab, Lobstertail and Shrimp. It was hard to save room for their massive Key Lime Pie with Meringue..
What to Order: The Conch Fritters & Key Lime Seafood
Mrs. Macs Kitchen - Key Largo, Florida
If you're looking to go super casual for breakfast, lunch and/or dinner in an authentic setting, Mrs. Mac's Kitchen is for you. The tables and walls are dressed to the nines with license plates and Florida Keys memorabilia. It's a quirky setting and the food is great- including their award winning conch chowder. Definitely stop in, It's a must-see and eat in Key Largo. If you're looking to go super casual for breakfast, lunch and/or dinner in an authentic setting, Mrs. Mac's Kitchen is for you. The tables and walls are dressed to the nines with license plates and Florida Keys memorabilia. It's a quirky setting and the food is great- including their award winning conch chowder. Definitely stop in, It's a must-see and eat in Key Largo.
What to Order: The Fresh Fish Trio, The Famous Homemade Chili & "Konk" Chowder
The Hungry Tarpon - Islamorada, Florida
Make an afternoon of it. Make an afternoon of it. Stop by Robbie's Pier to feed the tarpon (they will literally jump out of the water and grab food out of your hand), shop local artist or schedule one of the many activities they have to offer (parasailing, sunset cruises and snorkeling) before working up an appetite for the waterfront restaurant, The Hungry Tarpon. Sit waterfront and enjoy the breeze with a fruity drink in hand. Order their famous Ahi Tuna Tacos or the Mango Key Lime Pie.
What to Order: Ahi Tuna Tacos & Florida Keys Hogfish Sandwich. Also: order the sweet potato waffle fries and Mango Key Lime Pie!
Marker88 - Islamorada, Florida
For our last meal in the Upper Keys we were seated front and center for the sunset at Marker88. Definitely the money-shot of the entire grounds, where we ended up playing photographer for a few groups of friends who had to get "the shot" together. In their defense, it was an amazing sunset that night and had to be captured. Our table also came with a huge resident iguana who waited patiently for snacks that never came. I have to say this was probably the most romantic setting and meal of our trip. The food was incredible, the view was beautiful, the breeze was perfect - it was definitely the whole package. We ordered a handful of menu items and naturally none disappointed. Favorites were easily the crab cake, cracked conch and the alligator reef salad. Because they share owners with the Sundowners, Chef Bobby Stoky, they also have the delicious meringue key lime pie - so you're going to have to order that as well. Remember, ask for a little extra key lime drizzle if you like a little more tart flavor.
The View:
For our last meal in the Upper Keys we were seated front and center for the sunset at Marker88. Definitely the money-shot of the entire grounds, where we ended up playing photographer for a few groups of friends who had to get "the shot" together. In their defense, it was an amazing sunset that night and had to be captured. Our table also came with a huge resident iguana who waited patiently for snacks that never came. I have to say this was probably the most romantic setting and meal of our trip. The food was incredible, the view was beautiful, the breeze was perfect - it was definitely the whole package. We ordered a handful of menu items and naturally none disappointed. Favorites were easily the crab cake, cracked conch and the alligator reef salad. Because they share owners with the Sundowners,they also have the delicious meringue key lime pie - so you're going to have to order that as well. Remember, ask for a little extra key lime drizzle if you like a little more tart flavor.The Food:
What to Order: Alligator Reef Salad, Crab Cakes, Cracked Conch & Pistachio Crusted Yellowtail
The Stoned Crab - Key West, Florida
If you find yourself in Key West with a hankering for a meal that wows, stop by the Stoned Crab. Start off your experience by feeding the resident nurse shark family at the dock or by saying hi to the friendly macaws and tortoises that all live right out front. Then settle into your seats with one of their eco-friendly drinks from the bar and tackle the menu. We ordered the seafood tower after our (awesome) waiter's recommendation and we could not have been more happy with our selection. Be warned, it says it serves two but easily could feed a family of four. After you finish your meal, you can try your hand at night paddling and/or kayaking right out front. Like I said, a meal that wows and is ready to post on the gram'. If you find yourself in Key West with a hankering for a meal that wows, stop by the Stoned Crab. Start off your experience by feeding the resident nurse shark family at the dock or by saying hi to the friendly macaws and tortoises that all live right out front. Then settle into your seats with one of their eco-friendly drinks from the bar and tackle the menu. We ordered the seafood tower after our (awesome) waiter's recommendation and we could not have been more happy with our selection. Be warned, it says it serves two but easily could feed a family of four. After you finish your meal, you can try your hand at night paddling and/or kayaking right out front. Like I said, a meal that wows and is ready to post on the gram'.
What to Order: Seafood Tower & Key Lime Pie
Hogfish Grille - Key West, Florida
My dad would not stop talking about this famous spot on the way to Key West. He insisted it was the must-stop-spot in Key West, so we did. He wasn't wrong. It lives up to it's name and has one of the most delicious hogfish sandwiches in the Keys. My dad would not stop talking about this famous spot on the way to Key West. He insisted it was the must-stop-spot in Key West, so we did. He wasn't wrong. It lives up to it's name and has one of the most delicious hogfish sandwiches in the Keys.
What to Order: The Hogfish Sandwich (obviously)
Kermit's Kitchen Cafe - Key West, Florida
We walked past his this cafe a few times going to and from our hotel but finally stopped in when we were too tired to go anywhere else. Honestly, the super casual vibe was exactly what we needed and the food was actually really good. You walk up to the window, order and they bring it out. It's probably one of the most reasonably priced spots on the island. We walked past his this cafe a few times going to and from our hotel but finally stopped in when we were too tired to go anywhere else. Honestly, the super casual vibe was exactly what we needed and the food was actually really good. You walk up to the window, order and they bring it out. It's probably one of the most reasonably priced spots on the island.
What to Order: The Key West Shrimp Po'Boy
Pepe's Cafe - Key West, Florida
Don't let the hole in the wall vibe scare you away, this place is legit. I highly recommend you stop in especially if you're in the Historic Seaport District. We popped in for lunch and were pleasantly surprised by the options from both land and sea (our middle isn't a seafood fanatic like the rest of the family and was pretty excited with his grilled cheese and overflowing fruit cup). Instantly fell in love with the Blackened Yellowtail Salad with fresh strawberries and balsamic glaze. Swoon. Don't let the hole in the wall vibe scare you away, this place is legit. I highly recommend you stop in especially if you're in the Historic Seaport District. We popped in for lunch and were pleasantly surprised by the options from both land and sea (our middle isn't a seafood fanatic like the rest of the family and was pretty excited with his grilled cheese and overflowing fruit cup). Instantly fell in love with the Blackened Yellowtail Salad with fresh strawberries and balsamic glaze. Swoon.
What to Order: Yellowtail Snapper Salad (Blackened) & Portobello Mushroom Sandwich
Cero Bodega at The Marker Resort - Key West, Florida
I'm not usually one for hotel food but Cero Bodega won me over with their Cuban Nachos. They are delicious and will have you going back for more (I definitely ordered them 3x during our stay). If you like Cuban Sandwiches and Nachos - try this ASAP. Bonus perk: you get to eat them poolside in your own little cabana. Definitely doesn't hurt your day. They also have their version of homemade pizza which the kids loved and I thought it was pretty good. If you're looking for something light & healthy go for the watermelon salad. It's delish. I'm not usually one for hotel food but Cero Bodega won me over with their Cuban Nachos. They are delicious and will have you going back for more (I definitely ordered them 3x during our stay). If you like Cuban Sandwiches and Nachos - try this ASAP. Bonus perk: you get to eat them poolside in your own little cabana. Definitely doesn't hurt your day. They also have their version of homemade pizza which the kids loved and I thought it was pretty good. If you're looking for something light & healthy go for the watermelon salad. It's delish.
What to Order: Cuban Nachos & Watermelon Salad
Key Largo Chocolates & Ice Cream - Key Largo, Florida
Give me a colorful wall and I'm sure to give you a shot. After the sign's promise of delicious fudge, key lime pie and ice cream there was no stopping me. We all agreed the ice cream & fudge was great. I definitely favored the Chocolate Dipped Frozen Key Lime Pie on a Stick. It's a great spot to take a break from the heat and cool down with something sweet. Give me a colorful wall and I'm sure to give you a shot. After the sign's promise of delicious fudge, key lime pie and ice cream there was no stopping me. We all agreed the ice cream & fudge was great. I definitely favored the Chocolate Dipped Frozen Key Lime Pie on a Stick. It's a great spot to take a break from the heat and cool down with something sweet.
What to Order: Frozen Key Lime Pie on A Stick & They Have Excellent Ice Cream.
Coffee Plantation - Key West, Florida
Need caffeine and not feeling Starbucks? Stop in to this adorable little spot in the Historic District for your caffeine fix. We had a lazy morning and popped in for pastries and coffee before heading out on one of our adventures and were pleasantly surprised by the snacks & beverage options. Everything was fresh and the barista was super friendly. Take your goodies outside to the porch where you can people watch... Need caffeine and not feeling Starbucks? Stop in to this adorable little spot in the Historic District for your caffeine fix. We had a lazy morning and popped in for pastries and coffee before heading out on one of our adventures and were pleasantly surprised by the snacks & beverage options. Everything was fresh and the barista was super friendly. Take your goodies outside to the porch where you can people watch...
Estimados amigos,
Les doy cordialmente la bienvenida a este Blog informativo con articulos, analisis y comentarios de publicaciones especializadas y especialmente seleccionadas, principalmente sobre temas economicos, financieros y politicos de actualidad, que esperamos y deseamos, sean de su maximo interes, utilidad y conveniencia.
Pensamos que solo comprendiendo cabalmente el presente, es que podemos proyectarnos acertadamente hacia el futuro.
Gonzalo Raffo de Lavalle
Las convicciones son mas peligrosos enemigos de la verdad que las mentiras.
Quien no lo ha dado todo no ha dado nada.
Helenio Herrera
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.
Karl Marx
If you know the other and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
Sun Tzu
We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share.This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.
Paulo Coelho
The early interactions between Sanjay Johnson and Jamal "Doe" (a pseudonym) might sound familiar to many gay men across the United States. In separate interviews with TheBody, the Little Rock residents described how they exchanged messages on the hook-up app Jack'd in October 2015, then met at Johnson's apartment for a one-night stand.
"He messaged me and was like, 'Hey, what's up, do you want to come over?'" said Doe, 21, who was an 18-year-old freshman studying sociology at the University of Central Arkansas in 2015. "After we had sex, we talked for a few moments, and then I left."
Johnson was 22 years old at the time of the encounter and has similar memories. "There was no trying to vibe or anything, we just got to it. Once we were done, he left and that was it."
The young men didn't maintain contact after that night, but they reconnected about a year and a half later, at which time they learned each other's names and a friendship developed.
"We started hanging out, not trying to pursue a relationship, not anything sexual, just genuinely hanging out," Johnson, now 25, said. "We went out to a couple of movies together, maybe ate out once or twice, and he hung out over my house."
Doe fondly recalled his growing bond with Johnson. "Sanjay was someone I considered a friend because we spent so much time together," he said.
However, the next interaction between the two men is expected to be in a Pulaski County courtroom in early October, when Doe is scheduled to testify on behalf of the state of Arkansas as it attempts to send Johnson to jail for up to 30 years, a sentence equivalent to that for negligent homicide.
"That's Not Me, I Wouldn't Do That"
On Aug. 9, 2017, Johnson received a call from a Little Rock detective asking him to come in for questioning related to allegations that he had sex with someone without first disclosing that he was HIV positive. Alarmed and convinced he would be arrested if he went to the police station, Johnson reached out to Cheryl Maples, the mother of a friend and an attorney who has worked on LGBT issues in Arkansas, including challenging the state's ban on same-sex marriage. The next morning, around the time Johnson would usually be getting ready for his job as an operator at a hospital appointment center, police arrived at his apartment with a warrant and took him into custody.
Doe was among the 314 new HIV diagnoses in Arkansas in 2016, the most recent year of available data. (Arkansas ranks 30th among states in HIV prevalence.) According to an Arkansas law enacted in 1989, "[a] person commits the offense of exposing another person to [HIV] if the person knows he or she has tested positive for [HIV] and exposes another person to [HIV] infection through ... sexual penetration with another person without first having informed the other person of the presence of [HIV]." Johnson is one of about a dozen Little Rock residents to be charged under this HIV disclosure law within the last five years, and if found guilty of the Class A felony at his Oct. 4 trial, he faces between six and 30 years in prison.
"That was my first time ever being in the legal system," Johnson recalled about the week he spent in the Pulaski County jail in August 2017. "When I got out, I experienced every emotion you could feel, good and bad: [I felt] fear; I try to make myself feel happy; [I was also] sad, very angry, depressed, you know, anxious, calm -- basically I had no choice but to feel everything.
"The next day, my mug shot was plastered all over social media," he said. "Of course, with the charges, with people not wanting to dig into the story to find out what's going on, they just saw what was in front of them and left evil, nasty comments. They see the mug shot and what the charges are, and they automatically think that I'm just passing it around, and it makes me so angry, because y'all don't know the situation or anything. Y'all just going based off what you see and don't even know the details of this story. Thankfully, people who actually knew me, like family and friends, knew that's not me; I wouldn't do that."
The initial meeting between Johnson and Doe was too brief and unremarkable for Johnson to remember the details three years later, and he is unsure whether the two discussed HIV status or safer sex prior to their encounter.
"Honestly, no, I do not [remember]," Johnson said. "That was three years ago, just a one-time hook-up. All those important details that are important when you're having sex with someone, I don't remember them."
Still, Johnson is convinced he did not pass the virus to Doe, and court records show that within a week of their encounter, Johnson's viral load was undetectable. As part of an emerging scientific consensus about how HIV is spread, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed last fall that HIV-positive individuals who "maintain an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to an HIV-negative partner."
"Sanjay Johnson could not have passed on and exposed anyone to this virus due to his medical condition; therefore, he cannot be guilty of this particular statute," said Maples, Johnson's attorney. "Sanjay deserves his fair day in court, but there's a law the state of Arkansas has, and he may never get it."
Arkansas is one of 34 states that have specific criminal laws on HIV-disclosure, and there is growing advocacy to have these laws -- some of which criminalize the spit and urine of HIV-positive individuals, despite neither of these bodily fluids being a carrier for the disease -- repealed or amended to catch up to modern science.
"They're really the norm rather than the exception," said Kate Boulton, a staff attorney at the Center for HIV Law and Policy, a national group that tracks legal developments and advocates for reforming of HIV criminal laws. "Many of the states passed these laws in the early days of the epidemic and have not really revisited them since," she said.
Related: Undetectable = Uninfectious. So Why Are People With HIV Still Being Criminalized for Having Sex?
While advocates have helped amend these laws in states such as California, Iowa, Colorado, and North Carolina, neither Arkansas legislators nor the legal arena seems receptive to arguments that the laws are unscientific. Prosecutors have argued in legal pleadings that Johnson and other HIV-positive individuals remain "a public health threat," and claimed the CDC has "walked back" its assertion that being undetectable equals being untransmittable.
"The CDC warned that 'these data can't statistically rule out the possibility that the true risk is not zero,'" Michael Cantrell, assistant solicitor general in the Arkansas attorney general's office, wrote in response to a motion to dismiss filed by Maples. However, the same CDC statement Cantrell cited notes: "The statement reflects the fact that there have been no linked infections observed in studies among thousands of sexually active HIV-discordant couples engaging in female-male and male-male sex without a condom or [pre-exposure prophylaxis] while the HIV-positive person is virally suppressed."
The prosecutors' strategy and language, specifically labeling Johnson a "public health threat," have Johnson supporters worried as he readies for a jury trial.
"That kind of characterization is unfounded and needs to be addressed," said Cornelius Mabin, who has known Johnson for about a decade and started a fundraising effort for Johnson's legal defense. "The way he was being characterized and the way this is being framed, to me, it ignored medical facts about the current realities of HIV transmission and care."
Mabin is also the founder and CEO of the non-profit Arkansas RAPPS, and based on his longtime work in HIV/AIDS advocacy, he fears the average juror's understanding of the disease is as outdated as the state's disclosure law.
"[The average juror is] certainly not able to discern undetectable and/or virally suppressed, probably not knowing what those terms are and never hearing those terms," Mabin said. "Also, just the general stigma, homophobia, and fear that continue to exist. Even when I'm out lecturing or doing workshops, I continue to hear so much misinformation, especially from people who I would think would have more aptitude, and I would think would be more learned about it -- and that would include some clinicians."
During a June hearing on Maples's motion to dismiss, Nathaniel Smith, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Arkansas Department of Public Health and Sanjay Johnson's personal physician, testified that Johnson was undetectable during his sexual encounter with Doe, and he offered the mounting evidence that someone who is undetectable cannot pass the virus along to others. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson was unconvinced.
"The state really did not put on any evidence at all at that hearing, and we had real solid testimony," Maples said. "The prosecutors got the words out of the mouth of the doctor that even though there's no cases showing you can catch it from someone who is undetectable, there is this teeny-tiny possibility, and the judge grabbed that and said there's a possibility, and ruled against us."
"I Was Basically Dying"
Despite the plethora of scientific knowledge on the issue, the notion that there remains a miniscule possibility of someone who is undetectable passing the disease on to others is considered significant enough for Johnson's accuser to pursue charges against Johnson.
"Here's the thing with being undetectable: It lowers the chance to transmit the disease; it doesn't just put it at zero," Doe said. "I even talked to my doctor about it, and they're like, it's not a definite that you're not going to transmit it to someone else."
Whereas Johnson does not remember the details of any conversation they had prior to their hook-up, Doe said he specifically asked Johnson whether he had any sexually transmitted diseases before they had sex.
"I asked him, 'Hey, do you have anything?' -- the usual question that you would ask somebody -- or if he had a condom," Doe said. "What Sanjay told me is that he didn't use condoms. I didn't really think too much that it was a possibility that he had something, but kind of taking his word for it, which probably was not the best thing to do."
A month after his encounter with Johnson, Doe was back at school when he began to get ill. "A lot of my friends noticed I was losing a lot of weight," Doe said. "I started having night sweats; I started having joint pain in my right knee; I wasn't eating; I would lose my breath quick, and my heart would start pounding."
At the urging of his parents, Doe went to his school's health clinic and learned he was HIV positive. "It was alarming since I never knew too much about HIV, and the first thought was, 'I am going to die soon,'" he said. "What was the point of living anymore since I had HIV? What are people going to think about me now that I have this? Of course, I would have to tell people in my future relationships that I have this disease, and what if I'm not accepted or what if I'm going to be alone?"
Doe was forced to medically withdraw from school, struggled with depression, and believes he was weeks away from death before getting on treatment.
"My CD4 was so low that they actually considered me to have AIDS until my viral load went down and my CD4 went up," Doe said.
While not commenting on the specifics of this case, Smith with the Arkansas Department of Public Health told TheBody in an emailed statement, "It would be very unusual for someone to progress to AIDS after just one month of HIV infection." He added: "Sometimes the CD4 count will dip down shortly after infection and then come back up. If a CD4 count was done during that dip, it might be less than 200 and meet the case definition for AIDS."
This, together with the fact that Johnson was undetectable just a week before their encounter, gives Johnson's defense lawyer reason to question whether Johnson could have possibly been the person from whom Doe contracted HIV.
Doe believes he endured unnecessary suffering because someone did not disclose his HIV-positive status. "It was really, really bad, and I was basically dying," Doe said. "I had mono on top of a [urinary tract infection], and it was awful. If you're not given a choice or a chance, or at least are told, 'Hey, I have X, Y, and Z, are you still interested?' or 'This is what we need to do to so you can protect yourself.' If you're just going to give everybody HIV, people are going to die and people are going to get sick. Not a lot of people show symptoms as fast as I did."
Once Doe started medication and his health recovered, he reinstalled Jack'd and received a message from Johnson. Doe said he continued to accept Johnson's initial denial of having HIV, so it didn't occur to him that Johnson could have been the person who infected him.
"I rarely had unprotected sex with people, and I would ask them," said Doe, who added that he had sex without a condom with only one person other than Johnson. "When I found out I had HIV, I was told that I needed to go to the health department and disclose to them who I had sex with, or who I had unprotected sex with. So I was like, it's one of these two people, which one is it? But Sanjay was, he was the one where he came back, and we had contact."
When asked in a deposition for the name of the second individual that he had condomless sex with, Doe answered: "I have no idea. It was the same situation off of Jack'd. Before I even knew who Sanjay was [by reconnecting with him], I didn't even really know his name or anything."
About a month into their friendship, Doe said he again asked Johnson whether he was HIV positive, and at that time, Johnson admitted he was and had been undetectable during their sexual encounter.
"He asked me if I was mad, and I told him, no; I just told him that I was hurt," Doe said. "If you knew that you had something, it would have helped a lot if you just told me. You didn't have to lie to me. I'm not the type of person that would judge somebody based off their status; I would just make sure there was precaution taken. So, I didn't really get my chance. It's like my choice was taken from me."
A few days after their conversation, Doe visited a Little Rock police department to file a complaint against Johnson, and a few days later, detectives interviewed Doe.
"Since he told me he doesn't usually use a condom, and he failed to disclose to me, I was just like, I don't want this to happen to somebody else," Doe said. "The only reason I went to the police [was] not to put Sanjay in jail or to make sure that, 'You need to pay for what you did to me.' No. I just don't want him to do it to someone else."
Doe wasn't aware of the results of his conversations with police "until I was at work one day and people were talking about it, and I didn't know who they were talking about until I saw [Johnson's] picture."
"There Has to Be Some Other Option"
Doe believes Johnson's lack of disclosure denied him the choice of protecting himself, but Johnson and many advocates believe the HIV disclosure law makes HIV-positive individuals criminally liable for other people's behavior.
"I believe the responsibility shouldn't be put all on me as the person who is positive," Johnson said. "For one, I'm not in control of another person's body; I'm not in charge of you or make you lay down with me. Anyone has the right to decline. Whether you're positive or not, man or woman, gay or straight or transgender, white or black, you have the right to ask to protect yourself."
In addition to seeking to exonerate Johnson, Maples said she hopes to abolish the state's HIV disclosure law, which would likely require a U.S. Supreme Court ruling given the conservative makeup of the Arkansas Supreme Court.
"The statute itself is unconstitutional," Maples said. "It's the only law in Arkansas that punishes someone for having a medical condition. The language is understandable for the time that the statute was enacted, but that's no longer the status, and the laws have not kept up with medical science, and it desperately needs to be changed."
Doe is opposed to eliminating HIV disclosure laws, but he believes they should be amended to include nuanced "criteria" related to intent and evidence.
"If they're going to have laws that put people in jail for not disclosing, there should be some type of criteria for that," Doe said. "I think it should be based off more than just somebody's word; there has to be factual evidence to put somebody in jail for transmitting the disease."
When discussing what justice would look like at the Oct. 4 trial, Doe's voice was weighted with uncertainty.
"Even with the prosecuting attorney, they would ask me a bunch of questions, and I would just tell them that I don't hate Sanjay; I don't dislike him; I just wish he would have gave me my choice," Doe said. "A lot of the time, whenever somebody is exposed to HIV, it's seen as the person that is transmitting is trying to be spiteful. Since I had that friendship with Sanjay, and I actually got to know him, I don't believe that he is a spiteful person. Of course, the [prosecutors] are going to have what they believe is right. Honestly, I would be satisfied if there were a way just to make sure this didn't happen to somebody else. I'm not the type of person that is spiteful or that wants to see somebody's life completely ruined."
While he didn't express regret about contacting police, Doe has detached himself from the litigation beyond being subpoenaed as a witness for the prosecution, and it's clear he feels the situation is out of his hands.
"The case is not my case," Doe said. "It is, you know, the state against him -- it's not me." He added: "Whenever somebody is going to court, and it's the state against him, my opinion as far as everything goes doesn't matter too much. There has to be something else than giving him 30 years. There has to be some other option. I understand that he made a mistake as far as not disclosing and not doing what he's supposed to do, but I do believe there should be another option."
Born in the mid-'90s, Johnson and Doe are both part of the first generation of gay men to come of age after the advent of effective medications for HIV/AIDS, which transformed the disease from a death sentence that created a sense of urgency to a chronic illness that most of society no longer discusses. The type of encounter they had takes place hundreds of times per day on Jack'd and other hook-up apps, and Mabin worries that many of the Little Rock residents he serves are oblivious to how a one-night stand could lead to more than a quarter century in prison.
"After this happened to Sanjay, I went on a heightened [outreach effort], where I did workshops with HIV providers in the area," Mabin said. "After each workshop that I did, I determined that most of the participants in those classes -- who are living with HIV -- had no clue about this law, and did not know how it could impact them, and that alarmed me."
In the years since, Israel has tried several approaches to limit Hamas capability to attack it. It fought three wars with Hamas in Gaza every time the group got too powerful, Israel intervened. It invested heavily in missile-defense technology, like Iron Dome and Davids Sling. It leaned on Egypt to put pressure on Hamas, even approving large Egyptian military deployments in the Sinai Peninsula so that Egypt might help crack down on weapons smuggling into and out of the Gaza Strip. And in recent years, Israel has even had quiet, unofficial contacts with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states, all of which (except Qatar) see Iran as an enemy and therefore are willing to work with Israel to curtail Iranian influence in Gaza.
Were it not for Irans deployment of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps soldiers and advanced weaponry in Syria to defend the Assad regime, this state of affairs might have continued indefinitely. The occasional outburst from Hamas was manageable when the threats on Israels borders were dormant. But the turning of the tide in the Syrian civil war in 2015 changed matters for Israel, and the threat to the north is no longer dormant. Hezbollah, which was greatly weakened by its participation in the Syrian war, is now pulling back and trying to recuperate. Iranian military bases, soldiers and weapons are now present throughout Syria and are especially prevalent on the Israel-Syria border.
Given this state of affairs to the north, Israel can no longer afford to have an Iranian proxy in the south capable of creating a second front. Rather than invade Gaza, however, Israel is attempting to quarantine the problem. Israel has discussed building an advanced border wall around Gaza since 2014. In October, Israel stopped talking and started digging, approving the use of around $800 million to construct a new barrier around Gaza. At the time, estimates suggested it would take two years for Israel to complete. In January, however, Israel announced it was accelerating construction with an eye toward completion by the end of the year.
The new barrier also extends deep into the ground to neutralize attack tunnels that Hamas has dug under both the Israeli and Egyptian borders. In addition, Israel is building a maritime obstacle between itself and Gaza, all while installing new sensitive detection systems, investing in naval capabilities and training Israeli military forces to prevent both infiltration into Israel and smuggling into Gaza by land and sea. Israels goal is not simply to make it harder for weapons and money to reach Gaza it wants to cut off the supply entirely. In the past, Israel has knocked out Hamas rockets and missiles, only for Hamas to find ways to resupply itself. The next time Israel intervenes in Gaza, it aims to make it the last.
In effect, the walls are closing in on Hamas. The Gaza Strip borders two states Israel and Egypt and both distrust Hamas, and Iran even more. (Egypt, which is dependent on Saudi Arabia for its economic livelihood, has subordinated much of its policy on Iran to Riyadhs desires.) This is why Hamas, via the United Nations, Egypt and Qatar, has been loudly trumpeting that it is interested in a long-term cease-fire with Israel. Hamas realized that if Israel can complete its various obstacles and make Iranian support for Hamas rhetorical, it will be only a matter of time before Hamas is destroyed either by Israeli intervention or Gazan popular revolt against worsening conditions and tactical impotence against the enemy Hamas is sworn to defeat. Hamas can no longer afford to be an Iranian proxy if it wants to survive.
Hamas officials claimed on Aug. 3 that they had accepted a long-term truce with Israel. Details remain hazy, but most reports suggest that they involve easing restrictions on goods in and out of Gaza, reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas , a surrendering of Hamas weapons and a prisoner exchange. Israel has not confirmed that an agreement was reached, though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a trip to South America scheduled for Aug. 6-9 to convene his security Cabinet and discuss possible new developments. The Jerusalem Post and other Israeli newspapers reported on Aug. 4 that Hamas and Israel were close to an agreement on a long-term truce. It seemed as if Israel might be on the verge of neutralizing Hamas without firing a shot.
But progress hit a roadblock on Aug. 7, when Israeli forces shelled a Hamas position and killed two Hamas fighters. The Israel Defense Forces said Israeli tanks mistook a Hamas naval exercise for an attack against Israel. The exercise was intended to show off Hamas military forces to a visiting delegation of Lebanon-based Hamas political leaders who had traveled to Gaza specifically to discuss the truce with local leaders. An Al-Monitor report said even Egypt had assured the Hamas leaders that Israel would not try to assassinate them during the visit as they tried to sell the truce to officials in Gaza. Hamas retaliated by firing almost 200 rockets at Israeli targets on Aug. 8, and Israel responded in kind with airstrikes on key Hamas positions throughout the Gaza Strip.
Hamas declared a unilateral cease-fire, effective Aug. 10, while U.N. officials traveled to the region over the weekend attempting to put the broader truce back together. Israel, however, maintains it has not agreed to any cease-fires not to the current round of hostilities or to the longer-term deal that has been in the works for months. Netanyahu convened his security Cabinet again on Sunday, and before the meeting, he told the media that Israel was now in the midst of a wider campaign against Hamas in Gaza. As for a cease-fire, Netanyahu said Israel had one demand a complete cease-fire and that as long as Israeli demands were unmet, Israel would continue its operational preparations for an extended campaign.
Israel has not called up any reserves, nor does it appear Israel is preparing to go in on the ground despite the harsh rhetoric coming out of the security Cabinet. Even so, Israel is indeed engaged in a wider campaign against Hamas. Israel can no longer tolerate an Iranian proxy on its southern border. Whether by blockade, diplomacy, invasion or some combination, Israel aims to cripple Hamas and any other potential threat emanating from the Gaza Strip as quickly as possible so it can focus on the emerging threat to the north. As for Hamas, it is out of options. The harder it gets for Hamas to receive weapons and money from Iran, the more Hamas is forced to seek a face-saving compromise with Egypt and Israel. Israel may be willing to let Hamas save face, but it cant let Hamas save its missiles. Either way, Hamas days as a credible Iranian proxy group are numbered.
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin Ary Hermawan (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, September 5, 2018 09:52 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877168f5d 1 Opinion #2019gantipresiden,#commentary,democracy,Indonesian-politics,anti-jokowi,hashtag,Jokowi,#2019PresidentialElection,2019-presidential-election Free
First of all, no, I do not condone any attempts by the state apparatus, let alone angry mobs, to restrict the #2019GantiPresiden ( 2019ChangePresident ) movement.
People may disagree with its premise or its purpose, but the political hashtag is speech that should be protected, and the people supporting it should be granted the right to assemble, as stipulated by the Constitution.
The hashtag movement, however, is extremely problematic. It may not be treasonous or subversive, as President Joko Jokowi Widodos backers claim, but it does show everything that is wrong with our democracy.
Jokowi has all the reason to be concerned about the movement, but the President should know he also played a role in midwifing its birth. It is, metaphorically speaking, a Frankensteins monster that Jokowi helped create.
The movement began as an online hashtag initiated by Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) politician Mardani Ali Sera. Catchy and easy to remember, the hashtag swiftly went viral on social media and later metastasized into a much bigger and more potent offline political movement that caught Jokowi by surprise.
The President responded to the hashtag way too early, snidely saying to a national audience that the #2019GantiPresident T-shirts could never topple him. I do not think that you can replace a president by wearing T-shirts, he said.
A staff member of a t-shirt shop in Yogyakartas Umbulharjo district, where a number of tourist sites are located, waits for customers to buy t-shirts displaying the pun #2019GantiBojo (2019 change your spouse). The t-shirt slogan is a play on #2019GantiPresiden (2019 change the President), which has gone viral on social media ahead of the 2019 presidential election. The T-shirts are sold for Rp 125,000 (US$9.08). (JP/Tarko Sudiarno)
Despite his disparaging comment, Jokowis social media team came up with #2019TetapJokowi ( 2019StillJokowi ) to counter the movement, giving it more credibility and making it even more popular than before.
In his latest blunder, Jokowi lauded the polices attempts to suppress the#GantiPresiden movement, to the cheers of his opponents who badly need a legitimate cause to oust him and to the chagrin of those who fear Jokowis illiberal turn.
The movement has thrived even more.
There is no denying the latter hashtag is an effective political slogan, but we also know it is basically an act of desperation from a fractured opposition camp that has struggled to find a worthy candidate to justify the very reason the hashtag was created in the first place.
And that is not entirely their fault. The elites, including Jokowi himself, have favored a political system designed to limit the number of presidential contenders sans a transparent and democratic nomination process.
Jokowi supported the 20 percent election threshold for parties to field a presidential candidate, a policy that critics say would only deprive voters from having more choices during the election and would encourage parties to engage in elitist and costly backroom dealings in nominating a candidate.
The opposition camp spent months of political jockeying to find the best candidate to fight Jokowi, only to come up with Prabowo, who is backed by the largest opposition party, and Sandiaga Uno, a successful businessman that could help finance their campaign throughout the election.
In a last-minute decision, Jokowi picked senior cleric Maruf Amin as his running mate allegedly to prevent the National Awakening Party (PKB) from creating a third coalition with the Democratic Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN).
Indeed, making the presidential nomination process transparent is no guarantee we will not have a populist running for office, but it could increase the chance of having more and better options in presidential elections.
More importantly, it could prevent the emergence of a rather absurd political movement like #2019GantiPresiden, which could easily devolve into an orgy of hate against Jokowi without an alternative candidate to offer.
Mardani admitted he continued to rally for the hashtag because not all people opposed to Jokowi supported Prabowo, particularly those likely to vote based on religious considerations, and believe that neither Prabowo nor his running mate Sandiaga has adequate Islamic credentials.
The hashtag has been massively campaigned without mentioning the only alternative candidate to Jokowi in 2019 Prabowo and gained the support of anti-Jokowi activists like Muslim preacher Neno Warisman.
In her political orations, Neno has often invoked God and recited Quranic verses to rile up the masses. While she also mentions Jokowis unfulfilled promises as a reason why the incumbent should be replaced, her political activism seems to be motivated more by her religious conviction.
During a rally in Medan, footage of which is available on YouTube, Neno called on her supporters to vote against Jokowi to prevent their children from becoming homosexuals. The movement does smack of sectarianism and is widely popular among voters with irrational fears of Jokowi.
The hashtag campaign is clearly unfair to the President. It forces him to fight his own shadow and perennially places him as the more secular candidate vis-a-vis an imagined Muslim candidate that neither Jokowi nor the voters could ever assess or scrutinize.
In the name of democracy, the #2019GantiPresiden movement should not be restricted, but this is certainly not a democracy we wished to have when thousands of students staged rallies and risked their lives to end the New Order.
It is bad enough to have the same options in two presidential elections. The last thing we need is a political movement that offers nothing but the vague idea that literally everyone but the incumbent is a better president.
We deserve better than this.
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, September 5, 2018 08:45 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877163858 4 Editorial 2019-legislative-election,#2019-elections,graft-convict,Bawaslu,legislative-seats,KPU,anti-corruption,democracy,Indonesian-politics Free
The successful Asian Games have given rise to hopes that some sense of unity may prevail ahead of next years simultaneous elections. Nevertheless, we are bracing for heightened tension in a virtual rematch of 2014, with the same presidential candidates running for the top seats.
Much of the hope for a cool-as-possible campaign period and election lies with Indonesias election institutions including the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu). Their experience, insight, capability of innovation and many lessons learned throughout the Reform Era are expected to increase the commissioners professionalism.
Hence, the outcry over Bawaslus decision to give the green light to aspiring legislative members who were graft convicts though they were ruled out by the KPU.
The KPU ruling states prospective legislative nominees must not be former drug dealing, child sexual assault or corruption convicts, as those crimes are extraordinary and thus have damaging effects on society.
However, Bawaslu has cited the graft convicts constitutional rights and Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly stated that the KPU rule violated the Elections Law, which allows former graft convicts to run as long as they openly and honestly announced their status to the public.
The KPU said it was delaying its decision on one such candidate, Muhammad Taufik, the leader of the Jakarta chapter of the Gerindra Party and deputy in the Jakarta Legislative Council, pending the Supreme Courts outcome of his appeal. The KPU had earlier demanded Gerindra replace Taufik, who had served 18 months in prison for abusing Rp 488 million (US$33,687) in, ironically, the procurement of election materials.
One drive of the Reform Era has been a public yearning for substance over technicalities in necessary reforms. True, as Bawaslu said, Taufik and several others have met all requirements. But the KPU issued the ruling to avoid repeated corrupt practices by politicians given the proven vulnerability of the elected to such practices, as their clout includes budget planning, its spending and distribution.
Alarmingly, Bawaslu said on Tuesday it would likely verify a number of other former graft convicts apart from at least 12 on the list, including those from Jakarta, Bangka Belitung, Aceh, South Sulawesi and Central Java.
Political parties that field former graft convicts, who have served their sentences, raise questions as to the seriousness of the parties efforts in seeking out individuals with integrity. Echoing many peoples reactions to graft convicts making it to the candidacy list, young politicians of the new and perhaps naive Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) questioned whether the parties did not have any better candidates. PSI chairperson Tsamara Amany Alatas tweeted that it was tragic that former graft convicts were allowed to run in the elections. The high cost of politics has indeed made political parties turn to the more experienced among them in accessing valuable resources. This ultimate objective has indeed robbed the people of their right, as Tsamara said, to elect their best representatives.
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin - (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta, Indonesia Wed, September 5, 2018 09:58 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877169b48 4 Inforial Free
The visa approval process is a part of a nation's sovereignty, according to Agung Sampurno, who is head of public relations at the Immigration Directorate General at the Law and Human Rights Ministry.
This statement was made in response to viral social media news of Israeli citizens who applied for a visa to Indonesia but were rejected.
Immigration officials, according to Agung, are responsible for carrying out the task of handling the traffic of people going in and out of Indonesia. As such, proper supervision of this traffic is important to ensure national sovereignty.
Visa applications may be refused for a number of reasons. These reasons include not having the required amount for living expenses, being at risk of carrying infectious diseases, involvement in critical acts and others. A foreign national may not always meet the required provisions to enter Indonesia. If a foreign national is denied their visa, it is an aspect of Indonesian sovereignty to reject anyone wishing to enter Indonesian territory.
A visa agreement can be likened to a host stopping individuals whenever they attempt to enter his house. People are not allowed to enter someone's home without the homeowner's permission. Likewise, with visas, nobody is allowed to intervene in these decisions. Even public officials can be denied entry. Rejections, as a result, are natural.
Indonesia adheres to a selective policy in order to protect its national interests. Only foreigners who are considered useful and will not endanger national security or public order are allowed into Indonesia.
In accordance with Article 1, Paragraph 18 of Law No. 6/2011 on immigration, foreign citizens are required to have a visa that is still valid in order to travel to Indonesia. The visa will then serve as a basis for issuance of a stay permit. There are exceptions for foreigners who are included as part of visa-free countries or international agreements who are free from visa requirements.
Visas are given and signed by immigration officers at Indonesian representative offices abroad. In accordance with ministerial regulations, visas can also be given upon arrival at an immigration checkpoint.
A huge pay rise, eight free trips home a year and a heavily subsidized apartment. It was a dream job offer that a Taiwanese engineer simply could not refuse.
A veteran of Taiwans top-tier chipmakers, including United Microelectronics Corp (UMC), the engineer took up the offer from a Chinese state-backed chipmaker last year and now oversees a small team at a wafer foundry in eastern China.
The engineer joined a growing band of senior Taiwan professionals working in Chinas booming and fast-developing semiconductor industry.
Attracting such talent from Taiwan has become a key part of an effort by China to put the industry into overdrive and reduce the countrys dependence on overseas firms for the prized chips that power everything from smartphones to military satellites.
That drive, which started in 2014, intensified this year as U.S.-China trade tensions escalated, according to recruiters and industry insiders, exposing what China feels is an over-reliance on foreign-made chips.
China imported $260 billion worth of semiconductors in 2017, more than its imports of crude oil. Home-made chips made up less than 20 percent of domestic demand in the same year, according to China Semiconductor Industry Association.
More than 300 senior engineers from Taiwan have moved to Chinese chipmakers so far this year, joining nearly 1,000 others who have relocated since Beijing set up a $22 billion fund to develop the chip industry in 2014, according to estimates from H&L Management Consultants, a Taipei-based recruitment firm.
The battle for skilled engineers has raised concerns in Taiwan that the island could lose a key economic engine to its political foe, China. Analysts say China is still years behind Taiwan in terms of chip design and manufacturing, however, even as it moves ahead in terms of the production of lower-end chips.
Read also: Tech Investors warm to this booming but overlooked Asian market
Chinas semiconductor plans accelerated this year after the United States banned sales of chips to the Chinese phone vendor ZTE (0763.HK), senior Chinese officials familiar with the matter told Reuters in April.
Tariffs imposed by Washington on $16 billion worth of Chinas imports have hit Chinese semiconductors, which are now subject to tariff rates of 25 percent.
That will make Chinese chips less competitive compared to those from Taiwan and South Korea, and could disrupt Chinas semiconductor ambitions. Beijings aim is to have local chips comprise at least 40 percent of Chinas semiconductor needs by 2025.
Underscoring the talent crunch, two state-run institutions said in August that about 400,000 professionals were working in Chinas integrated circuit sector at the end of 2017, far short of the estimated 720,000 workers needed by 2020.
While China has also targeted engineers from South Korea and Japan to address that shortage, it has had the most success in Taiwan thanks to a common language and culture, recruiters say.
Lin Yu-Hsuan, a manager at the recruitment firm H&L, said engineers from Taiwan were lured by high pay, perks and more senior positions at Chinese chipmakers like Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) that are flush with cash from Chinas multi-billion chip fund.
Many of them said: the money I will earn in China in three years is equivalent to what I could get in Taiwan in 10 years. I could retire earlier, Lin said.
Steve Wang, the vice chairman and president of Novatek Microelectronics, a Taiwanese integrated chip designer, said a small percentage of its employees had left for China over the past two years, and acknowledged that it would be difficult to match offers from Chinese rivals.
The engineer at the wafer foundry, who declined to be named as the details of his contract were not public, said his Chinese employer offered him a new three-bedroom apartment with a 40 percent discount on the condition that he worked for the company for more than five years, in addition to a 50 percent pay rise. He declined to give the exact figure.
China dares to burn money, whereas Taiwan companies have limited resources, he said.
Read also: Are tech titans teetering atop the market?
Counter-offer
A senior executive at a newly-established chipmaker in northeastern China, SiEn (QingDao) Integrated Circuits Company Ltd, said about one-third of its recently recruited 120 engineers were from Taiwan.
There is not a lack of money. What we need is talent, said the person, who declined to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
He said the company, led by Richard Chang, the founder of SMIC, Chinas leading chipmaker, offers new hires discounted property and attractive subsidies for bilingual schools in the port city of Qingdao.
Taiwanese engineers are most experienced and could help us cultivate local talents, the executive said. The movement will continue to escalate.
Industry watchers said Taiwans widely respected chip design houses and foundries have been among the hardest hit by the outflow of engineers, and have been forced to ramp up spending to lure workers.
The islands leading integrated circuit designers and chipmakers have seen a 35 percent jump in labor costs, including salary and benefits from two years ago, compared with a 21 percent hike in revenue, according to Reuters calculations based on corporate filings from Taiwans 10 largest listed companies by market value.
Trade secret
Taiwan has been watching the Chinese recruitment efforts with growing anxiety.
It has long barred chipmakers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, a key supplier to Apple Inc, from moving their most advanced technology to manufacturing operations in China to keep it from falling into the hands of Chinese rivals.
Many in Taiwan are also concerned that the rapid development of Chinas chip industry could lead to the sort of oversupply and plunging prices that came with Chinese efforts to develop other key industries like solar panels and liquid crystal displays.
Read also: JPMorgan is hiring more tech and math grads in Asia
Chinas integrated circuit design firms have already surpassed their Taiwan rivals in terms of revenue, with $31 billion in 2017, compared with Taiwans $22 billion, according to Mark Li, an analyst at Bernstein.
The fears are that the battle for talent will widen that gap further.
In a move to retain top talent, Taiwans cabinet in July pledged to relax tax regulations on employee stock ownership.
The Chinese Communist Party has been poaching our talent, said Chen Mei-ling, minister of Taiwans policy-planning National Development Council. The government has amended regulations to help companies keep talent.
Ho Chan-cheng, legal affairs director at Taiwans Intellectual Property Office, said inappropriate poaching could lead to the leaking of trade secrets and that the government was working to protect the islands core technology - namely the capacity to increase chip yield per wafer.
Taiwan companies are also trying to offer their own incentives.
Antonio Yu, spokesman for the Taiwan-based chip design house Phison Electronics Corp, said that while the company does not have the capital to play such a money game, it has tried to create a reassuring environment for its employees.
He cited long-standing cash bonuses and programs such as free legal counseling, as well as a monthly town hall meeting with Phisons chairman, Khein-Seng Pua.
We treat our employees like family, he said.
Despite such efforts, Taiwanese engineers are finding incentives from China hard to resist.
Tommy Huang, a 37-year-old Taiwanese chip engineer who in 2016 joined United Semiconductor in southern China - a joint venture between Taiwans UMC and Chinese state-backed partners - said Taiwanese efforts to retain talent did not work for him.
You dont have any chance if you stay in Taiwan, said Huang, whose Chinese employer offered him an annual school subsidy of up to 60,000 yuan ($8,689) for his five-year-old child and a salary more than double what he earned in Taiwan.
We are buying hope by coming to China.
Members of Aretha Franklins family felt the eulogy for the Queen of Soul delivered by a pastor at her funeral last week was offensive and distasteful, they said on Monday.
Rev. Jasper Williams Jr., the pastor at Salem Baptist Church in Atlanta, spent his time at the podium raising social issues he said were critical to the black community.
Williams used the platform to push his negative agenda which Franklins family does not agree with, family members said in a statement emailed to Reuters.
We found the comments to be offensive and distasteful, the family said. Rev. Jasper Williams spent more than 50 minutes speaking and at no time did he properly eulogize her.
Family, friends and fans of Franklin offered a rousing farewell on Friday at an eight-hour service featuring tributes from former U.S. President Bill Clinton and civil rights leaders, as well as emotional performances by entertainers Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson and Gladys Knight.
Williams, picked because of past eulogies for family members, said in his remarks that single black mothers alone could not raise black boys to become men and that black lives would not matter until black people start respecting black lives and stop killing ourselves.
Read also: Aretha Franklin funeral bishop apologizes for 'groping' Grande
He defended his comments at a news conference on Sunday.
Respect for each other is the key to us changing the road we are on as a race, he said.
Franklin died at her Detroit home on Aug. 16 from pancreatic cancer. Having sung at the inaugurations of three presidents, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, she was an American institution, receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from then President George W. Bush in 2005.
Detroit treated Franklins death like that of royalty, with people filing past her body in the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History for two days to pay their respects.
The Communications and Information Ministry has included an allocation of Rp 38 billion (US$2.5 million) in the 2019 budget to future-proof the young generation with technology skills.
Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara has repeatedly stressed the importance of developing human resources to face technological challenges.
"Our human resource development still falls behind the development of technology itself. As a result, many of our unicorn startups look to talent from abroad, mostly from India," Rudiantara said on the sidelines of a meeting at the House of Representatives (DPR) in Jakarta, as quoted by kompas.com.
The term unicorn refers to a startup valued at more than US$1 billion, which in Indonesia includes ride-hailing app Go-Jek, online booking platform Traveloka and e-commerce platforms Tokopedia and Bukalapak.
The funds would be used to provide training scholarships for high school and vocational training graduates. The goal is to equip them with the skills to work as developers for technology companies.
"We are not in the process of creating engineers, but technicians who are ready to work directly in the digital world," Rudiantara said.
Read also: Warung Pintar gets $4m from Temasek-backed funds, Line
The ministry has set itself a target getting 20,000 people trained for free. The full terms and conditions will be announced to the public on Sept. 21.
"The participants can be from anywhere, those from the eastern region are also invited, but like it or not there are many from Java," Rudiantara said.
"There are minimum standards for entering this class. The digital infrastructure is also the most abundant in Java," he added.
The ministry is working together with five Indonesian universities. Cooperation is also being established with startups, so that domestic talent can contribute to the country's digital ecosystem.
The human resource development is part of the ministry's efforts to advance the digital ecosystem in Indonesia.
Other government programs in the digital technology industry include "1000 Startup", "Nexticorn", "UMKM Go Online", "Go Online Farmers and Fishermen" as well as the establishment of digital certification and an e-commerce roadmap.
"We as the government no longer act as a regulator, but also as an accelerator and facilitator," he said. (liz/kes)
Alvin Tjitrowirjo is set to present products designed under his brand alvinT at the upcoming Maison&Objet, a lifestyle trade fair to be held at the Paris-Nord Villepinte convention center, Paris, on Sept. 7-11.
Among the items to be showcased by alvinT are the Lumping rocking horse, Malya chair, Loop stool and bench. All of these items are made of a new kind of rattan called karuun, developed by a German manufacturing company.
Karuun is actually a new coloring technique for rattan. So usually rattan is sprayed with a coloring agent from the outside. But this [karuun] is sort of injected with color, so when you cut it you can see that the inside is also full of solid color, Alvin told The Jakarta Post shortly before he left for Paris on Tuesday.
Alvin went on to say that the new coloring technology had been patented and that the company made sure the rattan was sustainably sourced from Aceh and Kalimantan.
Basically the name karuun refers to the material, said Alvin, and I design [products] using the material.
The products that Alvin designed are in pastel colors, aiming for a contemporary look.
Loop stool by alvinT (JP/Handout)
Read also: Bali hammock manufacturer to present premium line for Maison&Objet
This is Alvins third time showcasing his designs at Maison&Objet, where he shares booth N20 at Hall 5A with Dutch textile designer Nikkie Wester. Earlier in January, Alvin also showcased his designs at Maison&Objet, in Yamakawas [rattan] booth.
Alvin previously collaborated with Indonesian fashion brand Sejauh Mata Memandang to exhibit in Maison&Objet in 2017.
When The Post asked how Alvin made it to the prestigious trade fair, he said that he had to go through a challenging selection process.
The selection process, as this was the second time for me, was easier. The first time we had to propose how our booth was going to be designed, explain our products, state the price range and they followed up with an inspection, said Alvin.
Does the designer intend to increase product sales through the exhibition?
We are focusing more on introducing our brand to this market. We would like to be known. This is a long process. Coming from Indonesia is really not an added value, therefore we want to build our image first. We hope to meet distributors, representatives, agents who will later sell our products in the [Maison&Objet] market, said Alvin.
Ninety elephant carcasses have been discovered in Botswana with their tusks hacked off, a charity said Tuesday, in figures fiercely contested by the government.
Elephants Without Borders said the grim discovery of scores of elephant carcasses, made over several weeks during an aerial survey, is believed to be one of Africa's worst mass poaching sprees.
The charity's scientists, who carried out the assessment with Botswana's Department of Wildlife and National Parks, found most of the dead animals were large bulls, which would have had heavy tusks.
"We started flying the survey on July 10, and we have counted 90 elephant carcasses since the survey commenced," Mike Chase, the charity's director, told AFP.
"Each day we are counting dead elephants," he added.
The wild pachyderms were shot with heavy-calibre rifles at watering spots near a popular wildlife sanctuary in the Okavango Delta.
According to Chase, the carcasses' skulls were "chopped open by presumably very sharp axes, to remove their tusks". In some cases the trunks were also removed.
'False and misleading'
"The scale of elephant poaching is by far the largest I have seen or read about in Africa to date," Chase said, adding that the poaching coincided with Botswana's rangers being reportedly disarmed earlier this year.
But the Botswana government later rejected the charity's tally of the carcasses as well as their explanation for the deaths.
"These statistics are false and misleading," said a statement on the official government Twitter account, which added that "at no point in the last months or recently were 87 or 90 elephants killed in one incident in any place in Botswana".
Read also: Visitors warned against departing Japan with souvenirs made from ivory
It said the EWB had counted 53 carcasses during the survey, adding that it had verified that most of these animals had died of "natural causes".
The statement confirmed that authorities had withdrawn weapons from rangers, but denied the move had "created any vacuum in anti-poaching operations".
"Government wishes to reiterate the fact that wildlife remains a national heritage and our citizens will protect it at all costs," it said.
Botswana had previously had a zero-tolerance approach to poaching, with a "shoot-to-kill" policy against poachers.
The landlocked country with its unfenced parks and wide open spaces has the largest elephant population in Africa at over 135,000.
'A huge worry'
Earlier Botswana Tourism Minister Tshekedi Khama confirmed to AFP that elephants had been poached.
"I am very concerned, it's a huge worry," he said. "I'm aware that the numbers are in double digits, and for Botswana they are high.
"Because we had been spared poaching for a long time, I think now we are realising the sophistication of these poachers.
"Unfortunately sometimes we learn these lessons the hard way," he said.
Chase said elephants in Zambia and Angola, north of Botswana, "have been poached to the verge of local extinction, and poachers have now turned to Botswana".
The number of African elephants has fallen by around 111,000 to 415,000 in the past decade, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Read also: Singapore uproar over store selling ivory jewellery
The killing continues at a dizzying pace of about 30,000 elephants a year to meet demand for ivory in Asia, where tusks sell for around $1,000 (864 euros) a kilo (2.2 pounds).
The Botswana poaching occurred just months after former president Ian Khama, deeply passionate about protecting wildlife, stepped down, handing power to his chosen successor Mokgweetsi Masisi.
Global conservationist International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) expressed shock at the slaughter.
"Until now Botswana's elephant herds have largely been left in peace, but clearly Botswana is now in the cross-hairs," said Jason Bell, IFAW's vice president for conservation.
Poachers have also targeted rhino in Botswana, with six white rhino carcasses were found in recent months.
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, September 5, 2018 08:21 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877162130 4 Business bank-indonesia,measures,rupiah-against-dollar,weakening,perry-warjiyo Free
Bank Indonesia Governor Perry Warjoyo said on Tuesday the central bank had spent Rp 7.1 trillion (US$476 million) since last Friday to help the rupiah, which stood at Rp 14,930 per US dollar at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Last Friday, we spent Rp 4.1 trillion to buy government debt papers sold by foreigners. Yesterday [Monday], we spent Rp 3 trillion, said Perry in the House Representatives building as reported by kontan.co.id.
He stressed the bank would always intervene in both the foreign exchange market and the secondary market to help the rupiah from strong external pressure in recent months.
He added the central bank had also increased its seven-day reserve repo rate (7DRRR) to 5.5 percent to keep the currency at its acceptable rate.
We hope that [with the intervention], financial assets like government debt papers remain attractive, Perry said, claiming that with the 7DRRR increase, there was still capital inflow in the period between June and August.
Previously, head of BI monetary management department Nanang Hendarsyah said the rupiah weakening was not only sparked by global pressure, but also because corporations needed to buy US dollars to finance their imports.
But he stressed the main factor of the rupiah weakening was the revision of US GDP from 4.1 to 4.2 percent, the move of the People's Bank of China to weaken renminbi value amid the Chinas trade war with the US and the drop of Argentinas peso and Turkeys lira. (bbn)
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, September 5, 2018 08:05 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877161154 1 City religious-teacher,allowance,addition,jakarta Free
The Jakarta administration has issued a regulation that will allow religious teachers to receive an additional monthly salary of Rp 1 million (US$67).
The new regulation is stipulated under Gubernatorial Regulation No. 84/2018, and it applies to all teachers with civil servant status that teach at all levels, from kindergarten to senior high school.
Jakarta Education Agency head Bowo Irianto said the money would come from the citys grant fund.
The regulation was signed by Governor Anies Baswedan on Aug. 15 and was passed into law on Aug. 24. However, Bowo said the additional salaries had been given since January through the Indonesian Teachers Union (PGRI). The grants, he added, had also been channeled to contract teachers at private schools.
It has been disbursed for five months from January to May before the Idul Fitri holiday, Bowo said as quoted by tempo.co on Tuesday.
There are 3,023 religious teachers in Jakarta entitled to receiving the grant. The teachers have to have been active for at least two years to be able to receive the grants. They are also required to undergo a selection process held by the Religious Affairs Ministry.
The additional salary will be cut Rp 25,000 per day of absence, while teachers who are absent for a month will be exempt from receiving it during the corresponding period. (fac)
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin Rizal Harahap (The Jakarta Post) Pekanbaru Wed, September 5, 2018 07:43 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877161044 1 National Riau,KPK,Corruption-court,graft Free
A panel of judges at the Pekanbaru Corruption Court in Riau handed down on Monday 17-month to three-year sentences to defendants found guilty in a corruption case related to the construction of an anticorruption monument park, which is supposed to serve as a reminder of the importance of upholding integrity, in the provincial capital a case seen as highly ironic amid the countrys ongoing fight against corruption.
Presiding judge Bambang Myanto read out the verdicts against the three defendants Riau Cipta Karya Public Works Agency head Dwi Agus Sumarno, project supervisory consultant Rinaldi Mugni and contractor Yuliana J. Bagaskoro finding them guilty of committing graft causing state financial losses.
Dwi was sentenced to 17 months' imprisonment, while Rinaldi and Yuliana received 22 month and three year sentences respectively.
According to the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP), the crime resulted in Rp 1.1 billion (US$73,731) in losses from the project's total value of Rp 8 billion. The funds for the project, called the Integrity Monument Park, were taken from the 2016 Riau province regional budget.
In addition to the prison sentences, all defendants were required to pay Rp 50 million in fines as well as restitution amounting to Rp 80 million for Dwi, Rp 163 million for Rinaldi and Rp 755 million for Yuliana.
Should they fail to pay the restitution fees, they will serve an additional six months' imprisonment by default, Bambang said while reading out the verdict.
Dwi and Rinaldi accepted the verdict, while Yuliana and prosecutors from the Pekanbaru Prosecutors Office have decided to wait for one week before announcing whether they will file an appeal.
The sentences have been criticized for being too lenient, as they were lighter than the prosecutors demands for two years behind bars for Dwi, two-and-a-half years for Rinaldi and three-and-a-half years for Yuliana.
Unfortunately, the prosecutors were focused on punishing the people rather than the object of the crime. They should look not only at the material losses, but also the social losses felt by the people, which could be counted against the defendants, said Erwin Natosmal Oemar, a member of the Coalition of Anti-Corruption Societies.
Inaugurated by Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chairman Agus Rahardjo in 2016, the monument was meant to serve as a reminder to people about the importance of upholding integrity, and especially for officials to provide the best service possible to the public. The message was also aimed specifically toward Riau, as three of its governors have been arrested by the agency over graft cases.
A total of 15 people have been named suspects in the case, with the rest still awaiting prosecution. (kuk)
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, September 5, 2018 10:45 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087716b944 4 Business bank-indonesia,rupiah,fundamental-value Free
Bank Indonesia Governor Perry Warjiyo has said the rupiah, which was quoted at Rp 14,954 per US dollar on Tuesday, is away from its fundamental value.
It is true that the rupiah exchange rate depends on market sentiments. Based on its fundamental calculation, the currency is not weakening, Perry said at the House of Representatives in Jakarta as quoted by kontan.co.id.
He said rupiah depreciation was affected by negative sentiments, from both domestic and external factors.
Domestically, the rupiah weakening was caused by the purchase of the rupiah by corporations and importers to pay debts and finance imports, while, externally, the rupiah was affected by speculation of an increase in the Fed Fund Rate and the currency crises in Argentina and Turkey, Perry said.
Therefore, he called on corporations in the country to not stockpile dollars because it would negatively affect the market.
We called on the importers and corporations to not stockpile dollars. We have prepared the swap. On Friday, the swap target was at US$400 million, but the realization was at $850 million. We are also committed to stabilizing the rupiah and intensifying our intervention, Perry said.
The central bank had spent Rp 7.1 trillion since last Friday to purchase government debt papers sold by foreigners, Perry said, adding that BIs move to increase the seven-day reserve repo rate to 5.5 percent was also to help make the debt papers more attractive.
Since January, the rupiah has depreciated by more than 7 percent. (bbn)
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, September 5, 2018 16:58 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877183d89 1 City Bekasi,river-pollution,water,PDAM Free
The Bekasi River in West Java is so badly polluted the water cannot be processed for drinking water anymore, according to the city administration.
"The Bekasi River has been polluted for a long time, Bekasi Environment Agency head Jumhana Luthfi told kompas.com. In 2017 I said that this river was no longer safe for drinking-water processing. I have told Bekasi regional drinking water company [PDAM] this. Bekasi PDAM relies on the river for raw water supply.
The agency has also reported the polluted river to the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry and the ministry's Ciliwung-Cisadane Flood Control Office, he added.
The point on the Bekasi River at Jl. M Hasibuan has to be dredged to reduce sediment and clean the river, Jumhana said. Factories and their industrial waste will be supervised by the agency divers. Frogmen will monitor the river, Jumhana said. We will check on the waste from all factories.
On Monday, Bekasi River was coated in foam and produced a foul smell. The fish in the river were dead as well, according to Tengku Imam Qobul, a member of the Ciliwung-Cisadane Water Resources Management Coordination Team. (stu)
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, September 5, 2018 13:33 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877172c3b 1 Politics Indonesian-Army,Indonesian-Military,TNI,Prabowo-Subianto,Sandiaga-Uno,2019-presidential-election Free
Democratic Party secretary-general Hinca Panjaitan has confirmed that Gerindra Party politician and former Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Djoko Santoso will head the Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno campaign team.
About Pak Djoko, its not about claims [anymore]. This is a fact and we have conducted meetings with him. Its only a matter of time before we announce it, Hinca said on Tuesday.
Previously, several candidates were rumored to be the campaigns team chairman, including Democratic chairman and former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his son Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono and National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman Zulkifli Hasan.
Prabowos coalition, however, seems to have settled on Djoko, who was the commander of the TNI under Yudhoyono, thanks to his lobbying ability.
Prabowo confirmed that his campaign team would be led by Djoko.
Born in Surakarta on Sept. 8, 1952, Djoko served as Kodam Jaya military commander and army chief of staff before being appointed TNI chief in 2007 by then-president Yudhoyono. After he retired, he joined Gerindra.
Read also: Djoko Santoso says he is ready to run for president
Hinca said the structure of the campaign team had been deliberated by members of the coalition.
Its all complete. All political parties have prepared [a list of people who will join the team] and we will report it soon, he added.
The official campaign period for the election starts on Sept. 23. (kuk)
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin Kharishar Kahfi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, September 5, 2018 10:26 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087716ab51 1 National extreme-weather,BMKG,madden-julian-oscillation Free
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has warned residents across the archipelago about the potential of extreme weather ahead of the rainy season in October.
Agency head Dwikorita Karnawati said in a statement on Tuesday that the rainy season was expected to start between October and December depending on the region, with the peak to occur from January to February 2019.
The agency has been monitoring a weather phenomenon called Madden Julian Oscillation, which occurs in the air surrounding the archipelago, bringing extra water vapor to form clouds in the sky. A decrease in dry and cold air movement from Australia will also affect the upcoming weather.
Such a phenomenon will push for an increase in the potential of rain clouds forming, Dwikorita said.
She warned people living in nine provinces Aceh, West Sumatra, Bengkulu, North Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, Maluku, West Papua and Papua to prepare for heavy rains accompanied by thunder and strong winds in the next three days.
Moreover, the BMKG also warned fisherfolk and those living in coastal regions to watch for high waves with a height between 2.5 to 4 meters from September to December.
During the rainy season, people should also be on the look out for natural disasters, such as floods, landfalls, strong winds and tornadoes, Dwikorita said.
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, September 5, 2018 15:02 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087717955f 1 Business Garuda-Indonesia,jakarta,London,routes,closure Free
National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will cease all non-stop flights serving its Jakarta-London route on Oct. 28, the airline has announced on its Twitter account (@Garuda_UK).
With regret, we inform you that starting Oct. 28, Garuda Indonesia will no longer serve the non-stop London-Jakarta and Jakarta-London routes, the airline posted.
Garuda also said it was coordinating with its partners to assist passengers who were affected by the service's termination, including rerouting them on flights through Amsterdam and other alternative routes.
The London-Heatrow-Amsterdam-Jakarta [route] will continue to operate six times a week," the airline tweeted. It also advised passengers seeking to reschedule or to cancel their flights to contact the agency or outlet where they originally purchased the tickets.
For passengers who bought tickets through UK Garuda Indonesia website, please email to: e-booking@garuda-indonesia.com or call to 0062 212 3519999," the post said.
The Jakarta-London-Jakarta non-stop service opened in October 2017. (bbn)
A plane with an unconfirmed number of sick passengers has been quarantined after landing at JFK Airport on Wednesday morning.
Airport sources tell NBC that around 100 passengers fell ill aboard an Emirates flight, which landed at the airport just after 9 a.m. on Wednesday. The double-deck plane was carrying around 500 people from Dubai to New Yorka 14 hour journey. [UPDATES BELOW]
According to Emirates, just 10 peoplenot 100were sick at the time of landing.
Statement: Emirates can confirm that about 10 passengers on #EK203 from Dubai to New York were taken ill. On arrival, as a precaution, they were attended to by local health authorities. All others will disembark shortly. The safety & care of our customers is our first priority. Emirates Airline (@emirates) September 5, 2018
One passenger, Erin Sykes, tweeted "People were sick before we even took off from Dubai. Like really nasty colds. I asked stewardess for a mask bf we even took off but there were none."
Another person aboard the plane shared a photo of emergency vehicles outside the plane, adding, "We are hearing over 100 people on board w/fever and vomiting."
A dozen protesters police cars meeting my retienen flight to JFK. Whats up @emirates ? pic.twitter.com/qjpbQbfF4K Larry Coben (@LarryCoben) September 5, 2018
At around 10 a.m., flight crews were reportedly being transferred to ambulances, some of them with temperatures over 100 degrees.
Emirates flight crew being loaded into Ambulances at JFK Airport after about 100 become ill with temperatures over 100 degrees on flight from Dubai. Aircraft remains quarantined. pic.twitter.com/5zXrgGpBu3 Sam Sweeney (@SweeneyABC) September 5, 2018
The Mayor's Office has confirmed the quarantine, and Port Authority police and Center for Disease Control and Prevention officials are at the scene, according to the Post. The Port Authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this summer, a Spirit airlines flight out of LaGuardia was diverted due to a potentially hazardous "dirty socks" smell, which apparently caused chest pains and complaints of burning throats in some passengers.
This is an ongoing story and we'll update as more information becomes available.
Update 10:45 a.m.: CDC personnel are aboard the plane, and FDNY ambulances are waiting on the tarmac to transport sick passengers.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has been briefed, according to his press secretary. He added that the flight stopped in Mecca, which is currently experiencing a flu outbreak. [edit: never mind]
*EDIT*: the flight was direct from Dubai. It appears some of the ill passengers came from Mecca before getting on in Dubai. https://t.co/53AnFS2Ygk Eric Phillips (@EricFPhillips) September 5, 2018
Update 11:00 a.m.: A spokesperson for the FDNY confirmed that 10 people are en route to Jamaica Hospital, all of them with non-life-threatening injuries. A spokesperson for the mayor added that "a few others" are showing symptoms and may still be transported to the hospital.
Around 40 people have been cleared to go through customs, the spokesperson said. Those who did deplane were placed on a bus after having their temperatures checked by health officials. There now appears to be some confusion about whether those passengers should be allowed in the airport.
Folks at passport control debating whether we should be allowed off the bus. Ten minutes so far pic.twitter.com/4AsammlJe5 Larry Coben (@LarryCoben) September 5, 2018
Deplaning and having temperature taken pic.twitter.com/MVxWqJPLTe Larry Coben (@LarryCoben) September 5, 2018
Update 11:30 a.m.: Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton provided the following statement:
At 9:12 a.m. today, Emirates Flight 203 from Dubai landed at JFK Airport with a report of multiple sick passengers. The plane was taken to a location away from the terminal so that medical personnel from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could board the aircraft to evaluate the situation and provide immediate assistance before passengers deplane and are processed by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. The PAPD and Port Authority airport operations staff are coordinating closely and providing support to the CDC and CBP as necessary. The CDC will provide further updates as they become available.
Update 12:45 p.m.: All passengers on the flight have been evaluated and permitted to leave the plane. Nineteen people found to be sick, though only ten were transported to the hospital, according to the mayor's spokesperson. "Symptoms still pointing to the flu," he added.
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, September 5 2018
A tilted, disjointed pedestrian bridge by a Transjakarta bus stop on Jl. Daan Mogot in West Jakarta has caused concern among pedestrians since being hit by a truck in the early morning on Sunday.
On Monday, bus passengers were forced to climb over a bus stop fence using a small chair provided by the bus stop management, while a staff member was assigned to assist arriving and departing passengers in crossing the busy road.
The bridges entrance from the north side of Jl. Daan Mogot was blocked with bamboo because the bridge was leaning to one side and its stairs disconnected from the upper walkway. Its metal parts were also heavily rusted, wartakota.tribunnews.com reported.
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, September 5, 2018 13:55 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087717448a 1 National family,Family-Hope-Program,welfare,family,Family-Hope-Program,welfare,BKKBN,Africa,BKKBN,Africa Free
Indonesias National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) recently met its counterparts from the Seychelles to explore cooperation in family welfare development.
An Indonesian delegation led by Muhammad Rizal Martua Damanik was received by Seychelles Vice President Vincent Meriton at the Presidential Palace in Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles, on Monday.
At the meeting, both parties discussed areas to forge bilateral cooperation, like the establishment of a center of excellence in the field of family welfare development.
The bilateral cooperation is not only meant to support [family welfare] development between the two countries, it is also aims to cater to the interests of other countries, especially in the east and south of Africa thanks to the Seychelles strategic location in the region, the BKKBN said in a statement.
As a follow-up to the meeting, the two governments were scheduled to sign a memorandum of understanding during the upcoming International Conference on South-South and Triangular Cooperation in Denpasar, Bali, from Sept. 18 to 20, it added.
Indonesia has been playing an active role in south-south cooperation since 1955 when it hosted the first south-south cooperation framework as part of the Asian-African Conference in Bandung, West Java.
Among the Indonesian delegates taking part in the meeting in the Seychelles were the BKKBN's planning head, Siti Fathonah, and Foreign Ministry cooperation head Ukik Kusuma. (dmr)
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, September 5, 2018 18:57 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877188634 1 City low-cost-apartment,Jakarta-police,Rusun Free
Five low-cost apartment buildings for Jakarta Police officers will be built this year, an officer has stated.
Jakarta Police facility and construction department head Adj. Sr. Comr. Ariyanto G. said the number of police officers was rising, as was the demand for housing.
"Well build low-cost apartments in five locations, Ariyanto said on Tuesday, citing Ulujami in South Jakarta, Cikarang in West Java, Soekarno-Hatta Airport Police in Tangerang, Banten and Lido in Bogor, West Java among other locations. Their construction was allocated in the 2018 state budget (APBN).
He added that the low-cost apartments would be home to police officers with families from non-commissioned officers (bintara) to officers (perwira).
"In 2016, the budget was managed by the Public Works and Housing Ministry, he said, as quoted by kompas.com. But since 2017, this has been managed directly by the regional police to build official residences.
Each apartment building can house up to 30 families, and each apartment has two rooms. The budget for the low-cost apartment is Rp 11 billion [US$737,000], and theres also one for Rp 13 billion," he said. (stu)
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin News Desk (Bloomberg News) Beijing, China Wed, September 5, 2018 18:06 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877185aaf 2 World #Crime Free
The arrest of a Chinese billionaire in Minnesota over the weekend was for suspicion of rape, according to local police, increasing the seriousness of the potential legal charges against one of the countrys most prominent and wealthy businessmen.
JD.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Liu Qiangdong was taken into custody Friday evening and released just more than 16 hours later on an accusation of what was originally disclosed only as criminal sexual conduct, according to county records. The police then released a report that specified the suspected offense as criminal sexual conduct - rape - completed.
Minneapolis Police Department spokesman John Elder said police responded Friday night, found Liu and another individual, took photos and arrested the CEO, without specifying the location. The case is being investigated as a rape, he said, but authorities decided not to keep Liu in custody and havent imposed any travel restrictions while conducting their investigation. Authorities may decide not to charge Liu at all, he added.
Liu, 45, has returned to China and his work at JD.com, the countrys largest e-commerce company after Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The $42 billion business is backed by investors including social media titan Tencent Holdings Ltd., Walmart Inc. and Alphabet Inc.s Google. But Liu, who uses the English name Richard, has led JD.com since its founding and controls it through special voting rights. Its unclear how or whether his legal issues will affect the business.
Its hard to see this as anything but bad for Richard Liu and bad for JD.com. Even if it turns out that the charges were completely groundless, its a lot of bad press, Isaac Stone Fish, an Asia Society senior fellow, told Bloomberg Television. It will certainly be a big distraction.
JD.coms U.S.-traded shares fell 6 percent in New York Tuesday and have dropped 29 percent this year.
Lius plight set Chinese social media afire, ranking among the 10 most popular topics on social media since Sunday. His orange-clad mugshot, memes and more than a million direct comments on the Twitter-like Weibo service have pushed important national events into the background, such as a much-vaunted Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing this week intended to tout the countrys achievements and investments on the continent. Even pictures of a woman purported to be the alleged victim were allowed to proliferate in a country where the barest hint of political dissent invokes a widespread online censorship campaign.
Read More: Why a Chinese CEO Was Studying in the U.S. Before his Arrest
Elder, the police spokesman, said the investigation is in its early stages. Though Liu was released from custody, they are confident they can reach Liu when necessary, he added.
The police report lists the potential charge as a felony and says the arrest was not from a warrant, but a local arrest. The polices body-worn camera was active at the time, it said.
Local attorney Joseph Friedberg, who JD confirmed as representing the billionaire, said Liu was neither questioned nor told why he was under arrest. Elder, the police spokesman, said it was absolutely standard practice to tell people what they were accused of when arrested and labeled Friedbergs claim preposterous.
Liu is a student in the universitys Carlson School of Management and was in Minneapolis to complete the American residency of a doctorate of business administration program. The course takes place mainly in Beijing with a cohort of students whose average age is 50 and include many captains of industry.
Im very confident that there will be no criminal charges, Friedberg said. They realized that this whole thing was ridiculous and they turned him loose. They didnt ask for his passport, they didnt ask for any bail.
Earlier this year, a guest at a party Liu hosted in downtown Sydney was convicted of sexually assaulting a fellow guest after the event. There was no accusation of any misconduct by Liu. The billionaire lost a legal attempt to keep his name out of the records. Over the weekend, JD said it will take legal action against the publishing of untrue reports or rumors.
If hes charged, reputation damage will definitely be possible because Richard Liu is known to be a role model for many young people, said Eric Wen, founder of the Blue Lotus Research Institute. Even if he isnt charged, the photos of Liu in prison garb would likely mar his reputation abroad, Wen added. That will be permanent and it will affect the reputation of the business globally. But the effect on business in China would be limited.
Liu became one of Chinas best-known self-made billionaires by turning a chain of electronics goods stores into an online powerhouse selling everything from mobile gadgets to fresh seafood. Its Walmarts partner in the country and its largest shareholder is WeChat operator and games giant Tencent. The CEO has amassed a fortune of about $7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin Liz Lee and Joseph Sipalan (Reuters) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Wed, September 5, 2018 20:08 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087718bdca 2 World #Malaysia,#singapore,Malaysia,Singapore,agreement,railway,project,postponement,1MDB Free
Malaysia and Singapore on Wednesday agreed to defer the construction of a planned high-speed rail link between the two countries to 2020, ending months of uncertainty surrounding a project that analysts expect to cost around $17 billion.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, after an unexpected election win in May, said he intended to cancel the project in an effort to reduce the country's debt, but later said his government would negotiate a deferment.
Mahathir's administration is reviewing several multi-billion dollar projects approved by the previous government of Najib Razak, and has so far paused over $20 billion worth of projects awarded to Chinese companies.
In a joint statement, Malaysia and Singapore said they have agreed to suspend the construction of the high-speed rail link for a period up to May 31, 2020, and will look for ways to reduce costs.
Malaysia will pay Singapore about S$15 million ($10.88 million) by January 2019 for the deferment, its economic affairs minister, Azmin Ali, said at a news conference in Kuala Lumpur.
It would be liable to pay more if the project does not resume in two years.
"By end of May 2020, we hope to see the resumption of the high-speed rail construction," Singapore Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said. "If not, the project would be deemed to have been terminated and Malaysia would reimburse Singapore for the wasted cost that we have incurred."
In July, Singapore said it would seek to recover over S$250 million in costs incurred to date should Malaysia cancel the project.
Azmin said Malaysia was committed to continue with the project after 2020.
The rail link, which will connect Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, is scheduled to commence services by January 2031 if construction starts by May 2020. It was originally expected to begin operating in December 2026.
Companies from China, Japan, South Korea and Europe have expressed interest in winning contracts to build, operate and finance the trains and rail assets, people close to the bidding process previously told Reuters.
The joint tender process will now be called off.
About 90 percent of the rail network is set to be in Malaysia, including a terminal in Bandar Malaysia, a property development owned by state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), which is currently subject to a money-laundering investigation in Malaysia and elsewhere.
A $1.7 billion deal to sell a majority stake in Bandar Malaysia to a Malaysian-Chinese consortium fell through in May 2017. A year on, the project has failed to attract any buyers.
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin Tony Gamal-Gabriel (Agence France-Presse) Beirut, Lebanon Wed, September 5, 2018 20:28 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087718c788 2 World #Syria,#SyriaWar,Syria,massacre,warning,Idlib,#Idlib Free
International calls mounted Wednesday to avoid a "massacre" by regime forces in Syria's last rebel-held province of Idlib, two days before a summit between key powers backing the government and opposition.
Troops have been massing on the edges of the northwestern province on the border with Turkey for weeks, raising fears of a humanitarian disaster on a scale not yet seen in Syria's seven-year conflict.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday was the latest to warn Damascus against an all-out offensive against a region the United Nations says is home to nearly three million people.
"God forbid, a serious massacre could take place if there is a rain of missiles there," said Erdogan, whose country has supported Syrian rebels.
He spoke two days before he is set to meet the presidents of regime backers Iran and Russia in Tehran to discuss the future of the province.
Global concern has risen in recent days over a threatened regime assault to oust rebels and jihadists from Idlib province and surrounding areas, the last major chunk of Syria still in opposition hands.
On Tuesday, the UN peace envoy for Syria urged Erdogan and Russia's President Vladimir Putin to speak on the phone before Friday's summit.
Staffan de Mistura called for efforts "to avoid that the last probably major battle of the Syrian territorial conflict... ends in a bloodbath".
- 'Human tragedy' -
More than half of Idlib is controlled by jihadists from Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), while much of the rest is held by rebels backed by Turkey.
The regime holds a small southeastern sliver.
The United Nations and aid groups have warned a military campaign could spark one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in a war that has already killed more than 350,000 people and displaced millions.
Some 2.9 million people live in Idlib and surrounding areas, among them one million children.
An elderly woman and children sit in front of a tent in a camp for the displaced from Idlib's southern province and Hama's northern provice, in Kafr Dariyan situated at a short distance from Syria's border with Turkey, on August 26, 2018. OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP (AFP/Omar Haj Kadour)
Many are rebels and civilians who were bussed out of their hometowns in other parts of the country that have come back under regime control.
Late Monday, US President Donald Trump also warned against a full scale assault on Idlib, which he said could trigger a "human tragedy".
Turkey, Russia and Iran last year designated Idlib a so-called "de-escalation zone", but that deal did not cover former Al-Qaeda affiliate HTS.
On Tuesday, Russian warplanes resumed air strikes on Idlib after a 22-day pause.
Air raids across the province killed at least 13 civilians, including six children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Moscow said four of its jets "inflicted strikes by high-precision weapons" on targets belonging to HTS.
On Wednesday, regime artillery and rocket fire targeted several areas of the province including the HTS-held town of Jisr al-Shughur, the Britain-based war monitor said.
President Bashar al-Assad's regime has retaken large swathes of the country from rebels and jihadists since Russia intervened militarily on its side in 2015.
- 'Pocket of terrorism' -
Russian planes are based at the Hmeimim airbase in Latakia province, a coastal regime stronghold adjacent to Idlib.
Moscow has accused armed groups in Idlib of sending weaponized drones to attack Hmeimim.
On Wednesday, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Idlib was the "subject of increased concern and worry" and was the focus of a flurry of diplomacy.
Just a day earlier, Peskov had slammed Idlib as a "pocket of terrorism", and said "Syrian armed forces are getting ready to solve this problem".
Friday's summit in Tehran between key power brokers Erdogan, Putin and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani is expected to determine the scope and timing of any assault on Idlib.
A UN Security Council meeting is also set to be held the same day to discuss Idlib, US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has said.
She warned on Tuesday against the use of any chemical weapons in Idlib, after the White House pledged to "respond swiftly and appropriately" to any such attack.
Since the start of the conflict in 2011, Assad's regime has repeatedly been accused of using chemical weapons, including in its battle this year to retake the former rebel bastion of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus.
Rescue workers accused regime forces of using "poisonous chlorine gas" in the town of Douma in April that killed more than 40 people.
In response, the United States, France and Britain unleashed missiles on three regime chemical weapons facilities.
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Wed, September 5 2018
Myanmar has, as of this week, officially returned to its former status as a pariah state, sending two Reuters journalists to jail to signal an end to press freedom. Without the protective shield that critical and independent journalists provided, all other freedoms the Myanmarese people enjoyed are in peril today.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, two Myanmarese journalists working for Reuters, received on Monday seven-year jail terms for breaching a law on state secrets, even though the evidence presented at court was flimsy at best. The pair had been investigating allegations of genocide against the Rohingya in Rakhine state when they were arrested.
The tragedy of the Muslim Rohingya is widely told outside Myanmar, thanks to journalists like Wa and Kyaw who work for international media. But the story is rarely told within the country, not because of government restrictions per se, but primarily because the local media, like their government, mostly tend to look the other way. As do the Myanmar people.
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin Aman Rochman (The Jakarta Post) Probolinggo, East Java Wed, September 5 2018
The Probolinggo Tourism and Culture Agency has turned to local tradition, a regular bull racing competition called Karapan Sapi Brujul, to boost tourism and lure more visitors to the East Javanese city.
The bull race was traditionally held to welcome a new planting season, turning the act of field plowing into an exhilarating bull race that lifts the farmers spirits.
Local authorities have adjusted some of the practices, making sure that the competition uses appropriate equipment that will not hurt the animals, and inserted the event into its official tourism agenda, the Visit Probolinggo week held in September.
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin Zainab Fattah (Bloomberg) Dubai, United Arab Emirates Wed, September 5, 2018 21:20 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087718fa4b 2 World Qatar,expatriate,residents,foreigners Free
Qatar has officially made permanent residency an option for a limited number of foreigners, a landmark development in the energy-rich Gulf.
Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani issued a decree allowing a maximum of 100 expatriates to gain permanent residency each year, giving them access to a generous welfare system and commercial rights previously reserved for citizens of the worlds biggest exporter of natural gas.
The Ministry of Interior will decide on applications, according to the Sept. 4 decree. A yearlong boycott of Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt has lent added urgency to encouraging expatriates to stay in the country by granting some of them more rights.
Permanent residency for foreigners has been a controversial issue in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, where citizens privileges are guarded zealously. Expatriates make up more than 90 percent of Qatars 2.7 million people.To be eligible, residents born in Qatar must have lived in the country for 10 years, while those born abroad would need to have lived there 20 years, according to the decree.
A passing command of the Arabic language, proof of sufficient income and sound legal standing are also required.Read more: Game-Changing Qatar Law to Grant Expats Permanent Residency.
Children of Qatari women married to foreigners, spouses of citizens and the children of naturalized Qataris will automatically become permanent residents. Exempt from the eligibility requirements are people who rendered significant service to the state and who possess special skills.
Permanent residents will be able to establish commercial companies without needing a local partner and will be able to take part in national economic projects. Permanent residency permits can be withdrawn in certain cases.
Qatar is abolishing the exit visa required before expatriate workers are allowed to leave the country, according to a decree published in Al Raya newspaper. Employers can ask that some employees be barred from leaving without prior approval due to work necessities, however such waivers cant account for more than five percent of a workforce.
Those prevented from traveling by employers can appeal to a committee, which must take a decision within three working days.
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin Panca Nugraha (The Jakarta Post) Mataram Wed, September 5, 2018 12:49 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087716ff87 1 National Lombok,Lombok-earthquake,reconstruction Free
The rehabilitation and reconstruction of buildings on Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, after a series of earthquakes in July and August has started, but with a lack of excavators, progress in debris cleanup is moving slower than expected.
A lack of heavy equipment hampers the demolition [process] and debris cleanup. Now, only 8 to 10 percent [of all damaged buildings] has been cleaned up, the governments joint task force chief of earthquake mitigation in Lombok, Maj. Gen. Madsuni, said on Tuesday.
Madsuni said an additional 20 excavators were needed to accelerate the cleanup process at 71,000 damaged houses and buildings. Forty-eight excavators have been deployed, 28 of which are privately owned while the remaining 20 are owned by the Indonesian Military (TNI).
Read also: Quake survivors use salvaged materials to build better shelters, rebuild lives
He also said that his side had asked the military for an additional excavator as well as an additional 600 personnel.
Some local people have been participating [in the rehabilitation process] but probably due to society's limited knowledge, they think it is only the responsibility of the police and the military," said Madsuni.
The government has disbursed Rp 10 million (US$668.6) to Rp 50 million, depending on the level of damage, for each household. The households are expected to build an earthquake-resistant house under the guidance and supervision of the Public Works and Housing Ministry. (sau)
The Jewish High Holidays begin next week, which means the ultra-Orthodox ritual of kaporos, in which thousands of chickens are ritually slaughtered on city sidewalks, is just around the corner. For years, some Brooklyn-based advocates have demanded an end to the practice, and three years ago they filed a lawsuit accusing the NYPD of turning a blind eye to the illegal butchering, sanitary violations, and animal abuse that they say is endemic to the festival.
A group known as the Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos is leading the suit, which was previously dismissed by a Manhattan Supreme Court judge, and is now pending before the New York Court of Appeals. On Wednesday, the Animal Legal Defense Fund joined the effort, filling a "friend of the court" brief arguing that the tradition is a clear violation of the state's Agriculture and Markets Law.
"Leaving chickens outdoors without food, water, or protection from the elements, denying injured chickens medical care, and disposing of their bodies in the streets are precisely the types of actions prohibited under New York law," according to the brief.
In years past, members of the alliance say they've witnessed crates full of chickens kept outside without food or water for more than 15 hours. They've documented instances in which the hungry birds have resorted to cannibalism, and watched as police officers refused to intervene. During an unseasonably hot kapparot five years ago, around 2,000 chickens reportedly overheated and died outside a yeshiva in Borough Park.
Practitioners of kaporos say that their legal right to perform the ritual has been upheld multiple times in court. During confrontations with protesters, they point out that far worse abuses happen in slaughterhouses everyday, and accuse activists of singling out the ultra-Orthodox faith.
"My great grandfather did this in Russia. He did nothing wrong," said Moishe Levy, a Chabad follower, during a 2015 event. "All the evil forces in the world don't want the Jews to have their tradition."
But the goal of Wednesday's brief, according to ALDF staff attorney Cristina Stella, is to "highlight the distinction between the religious rituala bird swung over the headand the other parts of the festival that constitute animal abuse."
Tossing half-dead chickens into trash bags, or leaving the animals outside without any food or water, amount to little more than "incidental acts of cruelty," she argues, and have little to do with the ritual of atonement. The custom is practiced in certain Orthodox circles, and is intended to absolve a person of sin in the days leading up to Yom Kippur.
Conceivably, the attorney added, a judge could order the NYPD to issue summonses for specific acts of cruelty, without putting an end to the ritual slaughtering as a whole. "Our feeling is that under the law, the NYPD should be required to take action when there are acts of cruelty taking place," she said.
The NYPD and the NYC Health Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Oral arguments will be heard in the case next month. The kaporos festival is slated to begin on September 15th.
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin Dian Septiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, September 5 2018
Indonesia has chipped in US$1.36 million this year to a United Nations agency helping Palestinian refugees that is facing huge deficiencies in the wake of the United States decision to cut all funding after decades of being a donor.
Indonesian Ambassador to Jordan Andy Rachmianto said Indonesias contribution to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) had been increased this year.
The Indonesian government has just increased its contribution to UNRWA to US$200,000 from $100,000, he said, adding that most of the contribution to the UN agency came from non-governmental sources such as non-profit organizations, universities and philanthropists in Indonesia.
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, September 5, 2018 15:27 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087717aba8 1 National environment,biodiversity,animal-trading,Riau,cockatoo Free
The Indragiri Hilir Police in Riau have thwarted an attempt to smuggle 38 parrots worth an estimated Rp 380 million (US$25,340) to Singapore.
The police handed over the cockatoos to the Riau chapter of the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BBKSDA) on Tuesday.
The agencys head, Suharyono, said on Tuesday that the cockatoos were of various species, including the palm cockatoo, the white cockatoo and the yellow-crested cockatoo.
He explained that the police received information from the community about plans to smuggle cockatoos from Jambi to Riau earlier this week. The police then managed to arrest the suspect in Tembilahan subdistrict, Indragiri Hilir regency, on Sunday.
Suharyono reported that one cockatoo died en route to Indragiri Hilir from Pekanbaru, Riau.
The cockatoos are temporarily being kept in transit cages owned by the agency as they recover. Suharyono said he suspected that the cockatoos had been domesticated, so the habituation process might take a long time.
If they cannot survive in nature, we will entrust them to people who own a valid care permit, he said, adding that the agency was also willing to return the protected animal back to its habitat in Papua.
The cockatoos' [natural] habitat is located only in the eastern part of Indonesia, he said. (sau)
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin Jon Afrizal (The Jakarta Post) Jambi Wed, September 5, 2018 15:36 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087717bbb8 1 National public-health,MR-immunization,rubella,measles-rubella,MUI,MUI-edict,vaccination Free
A baby in Batanghari regency, Jambi, reportedly died due to the rubella virus as a vaccination campaign in the predominantly Muslim area meets public resistance.
Batanghari Health Agency head Elfie Yennie confirmed the report to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday, saying that the mother was found to be rubella positive after a toxoplasma rubella cytomegalo virus herpes simplex (TORCH) test.
The baby was born with defects and passed away, said Elfie.
The mother contracted the rubella during pregnancy and infected the baby.
Rubella, also known as German measles, is caused by the rubella virus and usually only lasts about three days. But infections in pregnant women can lead to miscarriages or permanent deformities.
The government is currently promoting a measles-rubella (MR) immunization campaign for children aged 9 months to under 15 years old in provinces outside Java Island from August to September this year with a coverage rate target of 95 percent.
The government hopes that the immunization coverage targeting children will also protect people, who are older, from rubella. Pregnant women are not included in the program.
Read also: Govt targets 95% coverage in MR immunization
The Batanghari regency recorded 57 cases of rubella over the past 20 months. Some cases caused miscarriages, infected pregnant women and saw babies being born with defects.
Elfie said the recent death is one of two cases of babies born with defects who had the rubella virus. The other baby is still alive.
The vaccination program is lagging behind in Batanghari, reaching only 38.2 percent coverage after five weeks of implementation. Nationwide, the program, which is being implemented in provinces outside Java, only averaged 39.3 percent as of Wednesday afternoon.
Concerns that the vaccine contains pork gelatine has raised the ire of Muslim residents as pork is considered forbidden in Islam.
Read also: MR vaccine contains haram substance, but Muslims may use it
The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has issued an edict declaring the MR vaccine to be mubah (permitted for Muslims) despite containing the prohibited substance. But more people decided to opt out of the program after the edict, especially in predominantly conservative Muslim regions.
In Aceh, a conservative Muslim province that implements sharia, vaccination coverage only reached 6.8 percent, the lowest in the country. (sau)
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan and Hotli Simanjuntak (The Jakarta Post) Banda Aceh Wed, September 5, 2018 17:13 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308771848d5 1 National aceh,sharia,coffee,restaurant Free
The Bireuen regency administration in Aceh province has issued a circular asking coffee shops, cafes and restaurants to ensure that male and female customers who are not married or related to one another do not sit at the same table together.
The circular is meant to serve as a guideline for business owners to abide by sharia, which prohibits khalwat (physical displays of affection between unmarried couples).
The circular was meant to keep the relationship between men and women in Bireuen in line with sharia rather than oppress them, so they wont get caught violating qanun jinayat [Islamic criminal code], Bireuen sharia agency head Jufliwan told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
The circular has 13 points, including a restriction for food sellers to serve women after 9 p.m., except if she arrives with a spouses or relative.
Jufliwan added that people were still caught violating the circular, which was first issued in late 2016 and had been revised twice.
However, we cant punish them as this is only a suggestion, not a regulation that carries a punishment.
However, the Bireuen administration plans to propose to the provincial council to turn the circular into a bylaw that carries legal penalties if needed.
Local activists have expressed concerns about the circular, saying that some of the points were discriminatory toward women.
We are concerned that some parties could interpret the circular according to their own wishes, said Arabiyani, a local womens activist.
The administration, she added, must ensure that the circular would not discourage the public from visiting coffee shops because of possible raids.
Can the big buses that pass through Bireuen still enjoy its culinary offerings at night?
Aceh is the only region in the country with the authority to implement sharia as mandated by a 1999 law on Acehs status as a special region, coupled with the 2001 law on special autonomy for Aceh and Papua.
In 2009, Acehs legislative councillors enacted their first fully pledged qanun jinayat. The law was later revised in 2014 and came into effect in October 2015.
While Acehs lawmakers believe sharia is legal, human rights activists argue that its bylaws should not contradict the 1945 Constitution and national laws, as a number of provisions might be considered discriminatory. (kuk/ahw)
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin Riza Roidila Mufti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, September 5, 2018 16:09 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877180cd6 1 Business Toyota,car,shipment,Jokowi,Airlangga-Hartarto Free
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indonesia (TMMIN) marked on Wednesday its one millionth car export over the last 30 years with its shipment of 1,879 completely built up (CBU) cars from the IPC car terminal at North Jakarta's Tanjung Priok port.
TMMIN, a subsidiary of Toyota Indonesia, has a 2018 export target of 217,000 CBU cars.
Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto expressed his appreciation for Toyota's contributions in developing the national automotive industry and exporting locally built products to the global market.
It is the first time that [TMMIN] will export more than 200,000 cars [in a year], which is worth US$3 billion, he said in a speech to mark the record shipment. Toyota has exported [CBUs] with 75 to 94 percent local components to more than 80 countries.
The company has supplied local car models like the Fortuner SUV and Yaris sedan to export markets such as Bahrain, Bangladesh, Laos, Myanmar, Peru and Qatar.
TMMIN president director Andang Warih Tjahjono said the company had produced 85 percent of Indonesias automotive exports and shipped 199,000 CBU cars of the country's 231,169 total car exports in 2017.
Currently, the top-selling model is the SUV [Fortuner], followed by the MPV [Kijang Innova] and the sedan [Vios]. Each country has its preferred model, Andang said, adding that it had exported up to 117,000 CBU cars by July 2018.
Toyota dispatched its first shipment of CBU cars from Indonesia in 1987, shipping the Kijang Super to Brunei Darussalam. (bbn)
Share this article Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Tokyo, Japan Wed, September 5, 2018 17:45 1155 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087718524b 2 Business Toyota,hybrids,recall,electric-car Free
Japanese car giant Toyota on Wednesday recalled more than one million hybrid cars globally due to a technical problem which could in the worst case cause a fire in the vehicles.
About 1.03 million vehicles built between June 2015 and May 2018 will be recalled for safety checks, the Toyota said. The affected models include Prius, Prius PHV and C-HR.
Of the 1.03 million, 554,000 are in Japan, 217,000 in North America and 219,000 in Europe.
"The electrical wiring... could short circuit and generate heat as it wears down due to vibrations during driving," the company said in a recall document submitted to the transport ministry.
"In the worst case, this could lead to a fire in the vehicle."
A spokeswoman for Toyota Japan said she had no knowledge of any injuries occurring in Japan as a result of the possible defect.
"It is difficult to know if and how many times exactly such an incident has occurred," she told AFP.
Toyota has sold more than 10 million hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles globally, including the Prius, since 1997.
In 2016, Toyota announced the recall of 3.37 million vehicles globally over problems with air bags and a fuel emission control unit.
The biggest recall ever for the Prius was in February 2014, with 1.9 million vehicles involved.
Low-cost carrier AirAsia has been named Asia's Leading Low-Cost Airline at the 2018 World Travel Awards Asia and Australia, marking its sixth consecutive year nabbing the title.
According to a statement, the airline at the event was voted best in the category by travel and tourism professionals worldwide for its commitment to excellence in service, putting it ahead of similar airlines, such as JetStar Airways, Scoot and Firefly.
AirAsia also won the award for Asia's Leading Low-Cost Airline Cabin Crew, surpassing other airlines such as Air India Express, GoAir and SpiceJet.
AirAsia Hong Kong and Macao CEO Celia Lao accepted the awards on behalf of AirAsia at the ceremony held in Hong Kong on Monday.
Read also: AirAsia named worlds best low-cost airline
AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes in a statement expressed his enthusiasm at the awards received by the airline.
"We have been working hard to elevate our guest experience through greater digitalization, from check-in and boarding to online shopping to customer service, while maintaining our uniquely ASEAN hospitality, and this is recognition of our unceasing efforts to set the standard for low-cost air travel in the region," Fernandes said.
The World Travel Awards was established in 1993 and has grown to become one of the most prestigious and comprehensive awards program in the tourist industry. (liz)
For those of you residing in Jakarta, do you find yourself continually pondering over the same weekend getaway spots? Between Bogor, Bandung and the Thousand Islands, we have heard them all.
If you are looking for an fresh adventure within driving distance of the capital, Sukabumi, West Java potentially the next Bandung might be your best bet. The city is approximately 100 kilometers south of Jakarta, or a three to five hour drive away.
Pasir Datar
Situated in Caringin district, Gunung Gede zone, the hilly highlands offer visitors a breathtaking panorama of pine forests, tea farms and extensive plantations. There are various affordable accommodation and villa options suitable for weekend nights with your loved ones.
Kasepuhan Ciptagelar
Kampung Gede Kasepuhan Ciptagelar, previously called Kampung Ciptarasa, sits on the steep slopes of Mount Salak in Cisolok district. Enrapture yourself in its well-retained and established historical ambiance and cultural traditions. Various geothermal explorations and projects have been set in this district due to its well-known hot springs and geysers. The Cisolok Hot Springs are located about 10 minutes from the village.
There are several routes to get to the village. A common one goes through Sukabumi toward Pelabuhan Ratu. Travelers must be in shape as there are bound to be rocky roads along the way.
Ciletuh-Palabuhanratu Geopark
Recognized by UNESCO in 2015 as a national geopark, this place boasts an enchanting and panoramic view of twin waterfalls that stand 19 meters tall, basins that resemble caves and an abundance of flora and wildlife.
The Curug Sodong twin waterfalls at Ciletuh Geopark, Sukabumi. (Shutterstock/File)
There are ample public facilities and amenities parking lots, toilets, prayer rooms and convenience stores are accessible in the area. You are also encouraged to visit the nearby Palangpang Beach, which offers scenic coastlines.
Curug Sentral
Sukabumi is known for being a haven of waterfalls. Curug Sentral is a popular site that offers a beautiful view of water cascades, making this mountainous area a must-visit site. Curug Sentral is situated in Kampung Pondok Beureum, Jalan Jayanegara Indah Kabandungan.
We recommend that travelers take private vehicles as public transportation that heads to the site is hard to find.
Situ Gunung Lake
A less than three-hour drive from Jakarta will bring you to this very Instagrammable lake located at the foot of Mount Gede and right among the lush forests of Mount Gede Pangrango National Park. The park is a must-visit for hikers and nature lovers as it offers various hiking trails, spacious camping grounds, the Curug Sawer waterfall and, of course, the majestic Mount Gede itself.
While you are there, venture into the expanse of the lake by renting a bamboo raft.
Ready to pack your backpack now?
***
Chicha Francisca is an avid writer and travel enthusiast who enjoys sharing many of her thoughtful experiences while traveling.
Giovanna Santoso is an avid conversationalist who founded and currently manages the Library at Trikora, a non-profit children's library on Bintan Island.
France will impose a daily cap of 214 climbers on Mont Blanc next year, one of several measures taken to limit overcrowding on Europe's highest peak, a local official said Tuesday.
"It's a tough decision but a very good one, because Mont Blanc is a climb unlike any other. You have to be prepared," Mayor Jean-Marc Peillex of Saint Gervais, the Alpine town where the most popular route to the top of the mountain begins, told AFP.
More than 300 people have been pitting their wits against the mountain each day this summer season despite the growing risk of rockfall as high temperatures thaw more ground at higher altitudes.
At least 16 have died so far this year, though just one has occurred on the busy "Royal Route".
Police this summer began requiring aspiring climbers to have a reservation at one of the refuges on the route before letting them proceed.
Peillex said he was considering the creation of a "snow brigade" of officers to enforce the new rules.
Read also: Winter greetings from the glaciers of Chamonix Mont-Blanc
Officials say the scramble to summit the 4,810-metre peak has caused tensions among climbers, some of whom are ill-prepared (wearing trainers, for example) or unfamiliar with mountaineering etiquette.
Peillex reported a tourist setting up a tent at the very top of the mountain -- not the landscape most people climbed all that way to see.
Skirmishes have been reported among climbers jostling for position on key sections of the trail, while fake guides have also been found leading tourists up.
The new limits were announced after a series of meetings over the weekend between local officials, France's mountain police brigade, the French mountaineering federation and guide associations.
Kenya plans discussions with low-cost airlines such as Ryanair Holdings Plc and easyJet Plc to begin flying to the East African nation famous for its beaches and safaris, its tourism minister said.
Tourism is one of the countrys biggest generators of foreign exchange after remittances and agricultural exports, and earned the nation 119.9 billion shillings ($1.2 billion) last year, according to the Kenya Tourism Board.
We are developing a strategy to encourage low-cost carriers from the U.K. to fly here, Najib Balala said in an interview in the Indian Ocean city of Mombasa on Tuesday. I will be looking to start discussions with Ryanair and easyJet.
Mombasas airport is the countrys second-biggest after Nairobis, with many tourists seeking the regions sun and sand. Kenya is also famed for its wildlife.
Read also: Kenya's Lake Turkana put on World Heritage danger list
The U.K., a hub for both carriers, is Kenyas biggest source of tourists so far this year after the U.S., Balala said, followed by India, China and Germany. As many as 16 percent of arrivals are now from other African countries, he said.
Kenya expects visitor numbers to climb by 18 percent this year, boosted by improved security, infrastructure such as a new railway and global hotel brands expanding there, Balala said. In 2017, the number of arrivals grew 10 percent to almost 1 million tourists, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.
Kenya Airways Plc, sub-Saharan Africas third-biggest, will introduce direct flights to U.S. later next month, and plans to add as many as 20 new destinations in the next five years.
A former ballet student is suing New York City Ballet for creating a "frat-like" environment that led her boyfriend, a principal dancer with the company, to share naked pictures and videos of her in intimate situations with fellow dancers, NYC Ballet employees and donors.
The complaint was filed on behalf of Alexandra Waterbury, against NYC Ballet and her former boyfriend Chase Finlay, and alleges, "For several years, defendant New York City Ballet, Inc. has condoned, encouraged, fostered, and permitted an environment where its agents, servants, employees, donors, principals, and/or others affiliated with it abused, degraded and mistreated alcohol, drugs and women. This fraternity-like atmosphere permeates the Ballet and its dancers and emboldens them to disregard the law and violate the basic rights of women."
In late August, the ballet announced that Finlay had left the company, while two other principals, Amar Ramasar and Zachary Catazaro were suspended. The NY Times reported, "In a statement, Charles W. Scharf, chairman of the City Ballet board, said the company had several weeks ago 'received a letter alleging inappropriate communications made via personal text and email by three members of the company.' The letter did not come from someone in the company, and the communications were 'personal in nature.' But, after an investigation, the company 'determined that each man had violated the norms of conduct that New York City Ballet expects from its employees.'"
Waterbury and Finlay met at NYC Balletshe was a student and he was a principaland had been dating for a year. According to the lawsuit, Waterbury found out on May 15 of this year that Finlay "had been secretly recording and saving explicit photographs and videos of her while she was without clothing and/or while the two were engaged in sexual activities." She also discovered that they had been shared with many other people. The lawsuit maintains that Waterbury never consented to any of the photographs.
The lawsuit details instances of Finlay's texts. In September 2017, he allegedly sent a naked picture of her to colleagues, writing, "You have any pictures of girls you've f*cked?" which started a group text of them sharing explicit photos. Then, in May, he is accused of sharing another photo, and weeks later, Ramasar texted him, "I love you! Text me those photos/videos!! ;)" Finlay allegedly complied, sending "one 'live' (i.e. short-second video burst)" of him and Waterbury engaged in a sexual act, then demanded that Ramasar send one in exchange. After they shared multiple images of various Ballet members, Finlay allegedly wrote, "Already seen that one. I know you have more."
The lawsuit also claims that Finlay asked another male NYC Ballet principal for explicit photographs of a female ballet member. He also allegedly texted with a donor who suggested they just "violate" female members"I bet we could tie some of them up and abuse them... Like farm animals," to which Finlay allegedly responded, "Or like the sluts they are."
Finlay also allegedly talked about how he could sell recordings of Waterbury engaged in sexual acts.
While Finlay's alleged actions are recounted in the lawsuit, the complaint also repeatedly draws attention to how NYC Ballet allowed this kind of behavior to "fester," resulting in "serious and severe psychological and emotional distress, mental anguish, embarrassment, and humiliation" for Waterbury, with her being confined to her bed at home "and/or various medical institutions." The organization is also accused of turning a blind eye to other claims of sexual assault and not taking substance abuse issues seriously (allegedly allowing a male principal to return to work a week after the police were called for a domestic violence incident), sending the message "to Mr. Finlay and other NYC Ballet Inc. male dancers and others that it was acceptable to NYC Ballet Inc. to abuse substances and degrade, demean, dehumanize, and sexually abuse, assault and batter women."
Waterbury is suing both NYC Ballet and Finlay for intentional affliction of emotional distress, assault, and battery. Her attorney, Jordan Merson, said, "This lawsuit is to hold accountable those responsible for the unknowing and unlawful dissemination of Ms. Waterbury's most private and intimate images. Today, Ms. Waterbury is standing up to those who have degraded and humiliated her."
Update: NYC Ballet released a statement, "New York City Ballet is confident that there is no basis for this lawsuit, and vehemently denies the allegations that the Company has condoned, encouraged, or fostered the kind of activity that Mr. Finlay and the others named have participated in, which were off-hours activities that were not known, approved, or facilitated by NYCB. Despite that, once NYCB was made aware of the allegations we investigated them and found that the actions had violated the Companys norms of conduct, and immediate and appropriate action was taken. NYCB learned of this matter directly from the plaintiffs attorney, Jordan Merson, in June of this year. Merson had contacted NYCB to try to negotiate a payment from the Company to settle the matter to avoid adverse publicity, but NYCB refused the demand. NYCB has no liability for the actions specified in the complaint and has taken the appropriate disciplinary actions for the dancers involved."
Merson countered, "This lawsuit has nothing to do with Ms. Waterbury's rebuffed attempt to obtain peace and closure with the Ballet, and has nothing to do with the Ballet 'avoiding adverse publicity' and has everything to do with her seeking redress from the Ballet. The suggestion by the Ballet that Ms. Waterburys claims are not meritorious further strengthens her resolve to vindicate her rights in this lawsuit."
Three Russian tourists were robbed of thousands of dollars' worth of jewelry and luxury clothing shortly after landing at a Paris airport for private jets, police sources told AFP on Tuesday.
The tourists were in a taxi leaving the Bourget airport north of Paris at around 10:30 pm (0830 GMT) on Monday when they were struck by a car carrying four people wearing ski masks, the sources said.
The thieves made off with three suitcases that the victims said contained items worth $500,000 to $1 million (430,000 to 864,000 euros). Nobody was injured.
Hit-and-run as well as "snatching" robberies targeting taxis and other cars heading to and from Paris airports have become a common tactic in recent years by thieves hoping to strike big-spending tourists.
On April 15, 2015, three thieves made off with a handbag containing four million euros worth of Chanel jewels in a smash-and-grab attack on a taxi carrying a Taiwanese art collector.
Read also: Tips for staying safe while traveling overseas this summer
In February, 2017, a Russia couple were robbed of jewellery and luxury goods worth some 100,000 euros when their chauffeur-driven car was forced off the road by robbers near Le Bourget airport.
In March, 14 youths suspected of carrying out 88 such attacks over little more than a year were arrested by French police.
Chinese tourists staying in hotels near the capital's two main airports, Charles de Gaulle-Roissy and Orly, are often targeted in particular given their reputation for carrying large amounts of cash.
The Bourget airport serves only corporate and private jets favoured by wealthy travellers.
The Sail Moyo Tambora 2018 is to proceed according to schedule from Sept. 9 to 23 in Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), the Transportation Ministry has announced, in its capacity of managing the sailing event under Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan.
"The 2018 Sail Moyo Tambora will be held according to schedule. This marks a spirit to revive NTB's tourism sector after the earthquake [disaster]," the ministry's sea transportation secretary Arif Toha Tjahjagama said on Aug. 29 during a coordination meeting in Mataram, the province's capital city. He was referring to the earthquakes that struck Lombok and Sumbawa in early August.
Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi has reportedly visited Sumbawa's Badas Port, the event's host port.
Sail Moyo Tambora 2018 is part of Sail Indonesia, an annual rally that usually departs from Darwin to Indonesia and visits several ports across the archipelago.
Read also: Sail Moyo Tambora 2018 to be launched in Jakarta
This year's rally, which is highlighting Sail Moyo Tambora after previously promoting the Sabang, Karimata and Bunaken legs, expects hundreds of yachts from around the world to participate as they depart from two locations: Darwin, Australia, and Singapore.
The yachts are to gather in early September in the Labuan Bajo area of Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, and then sail together to Badas Port, where Sail Moyo Tambora 2018 opens on Sept. 9.
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and First Lady Iriana Jokowi are expected to attend the opening ceremony, when they would symbolically plant seeds of the kelincungand gaharu (agarwood), endemic tree species of the region.
NTB Tourism Agency head Lalu Mohammad Faozal said around 140 yachts were expected to sail the Moyo Tambora route this year. With each yacht carrying a crew of two to four sailors, the province was looking at welcoming around 500 foreign visitors during the event.
"The peak of the event will be held at Badas Port, Sumbawa, on Sept. 9. [...] around 140 yachts from more than 35 countries will sail through our waters, especially in Sumbawa," said Lalu, and that the event aimed to promote the marine ecology of Sumbawa Island and NTB.
Lalu said the five regencies of Sumbawa, West Sumbawa, Dompu and Bima and the city of Bima on Sumbawa Island would take part in promoting their local tourism.
He added that some of the event's activities were being adjusted following the recent earthquakes, including community service and fundraising events for the disaster victims.
The event's stopovers include the Medana Resort Yacht Port in Medana village, North Lombok, where the yachts were expected to call in mid-September.
A few days were allowed for yacht crews to explore each stopover, which was expected to boost the local tourism as well as economy. (kes)
The Tanjung Puting National Park in West Kotawaringin regency, Central Kalimantan, has been proposed as a priority tourist destination to diversity the industry and alleviate its heavy reliance on Bali.
The park is home to tropical forest that serves as the original habitat of orangutans in Indonesia.
"The Tanjung Puting National Park is currently assessed to be designated as the 11th New Bali. The [so-called] 10 New Balis consist of [destinations with] mountains, islands, ocean and beaches, but not yet forest," said East Kalimantan provincial secretary Fahrizal Fitri in Jakarta on Monday, as quoted by kompas.com. "Kalimantan has forests that serve as the 'lungs of the world', particularly Central Kalimantan. It is not only forest, but also home to protected species, [such as] orangutans."
Last year, the park reportedly welcomed 25,145 tourists, including 15,170 foreigners. Meanwhile, by April this year, the number of visitors had reached 16,778, of which 10,518 came from abroad.
"The Tanjung Puting National Park is a global-level tourist destination. Visitors can explore natural forest that stands on peatland. This place also has a 500,000-hectare orangutan conservation area, where around 5,000 orangutans are being cared for," Fahrizal added.
Read also: Yacht travelers to visit orangutans at Tanjung Puting National Park
Dwisuryo Indroyono Soesilo as the Tourism Ministry's head of the marine tourism development team, said plans were in store to highlight Tanjung Puting at various events, including the 2018 Wonderful Sail to Indonesia. He is hopeful that the event's participants would have a direct impact on the local economy and effectively promote the destination to the world.
The addition of Tanjung Puting in the 'New Bali' list would complement the attractions offered by the 10 New Bali destinations: Lake Toba in North Sumatra, Bangka Belitung, Tanjung Lesung in Banten, Thousand Islands in Jakarta, Mandalika in West Nusa Tenggara, Komodo Island in East Nusa Tenggara, Wakatobi National Park in Southeast Sulawesi, Morotai in North Maluku, Mount Bromo in East Java and the Borobudur temple in Central Java.
"Tanjung Puting [National Park] will be the only destination in Kalimantan among the [New Balis]," said the head of the ministry's expert staff for Central Kalimantan tourism development, Marsetio. (kes)
The tributes have been pouring in during the past couple of days for Kenny Shopsin, the brash, big-hearted creative force behind Shopsins General Store in the Essex Street Market. Shopsin died on Sunday at the age of 76. While the cafe was temporarily closed, Tamara Shopsin (one of Kennys five children) announced that it will be back in business today (Wednesday). My dad wont be there in body, she wrote on her Instagram page, but he will be there. I love you dad.
The Shopsin family moved their restaurant to the Lower East Side in 2008, after facing eviction from a space on Carmine Street. Like all of the other vendors in the Essex Street Market, they have been preparing to move into the newly expanded market on the south side of Delancey Street in October. Over the weekend, the family told a large circle of friends that Kenny Shopsins legacy would live on for years to come. The kids have been running the business during the past few months, as Kenny dealt with a series of health setbacks.
Heres a sampling of yesterdays coverage of Shopsins passing. The New York Times:
Kenny Shopsin, the colorful proprietor of a fabled Manhattan restaurant where the menu is vast and the customer has never been king, died on Sunday at his home in the West Village (Shopsins) is now on the Lower East Side, but wherever it has been it has reflected the curmudgeonly, curse-word-employing personality of Mr. Shopsin, a man who was rarely written about without having the word eccentric appended to his name.
The New Yorker:
Cranky, nonconformist, uninhibited, seemingly driven by an internal engine of profane irascibility, (Shopsin) was a New York legend, part of the social architecture of the city, a wild-haired totem of a lower Manhattan that once was, before the degradation of Greenwich Village into a place of vacant luxury storefronts waiting to be reanimated by businesses able to pay five- or six-figure monthly rents.
Grub Street:
Kenny Shopsin was the philosopher king of short-order cooks, a master of eggs, and a man for whom the word opinionated does not quite cut it Its a big loss for the city, since Shopsin was vulgar and gruff, with a boiling anger that was easily let loose and one of the most admired chefs in New York.
Eater:
Shopsin was the beating heart of the restaurant, often kicking customers out for minor infractions and creating arbitrary rules such as no ordering the same thing as anyone at the table, no tables larger than four, one child per customer, and no cellphones. He became famous for it. To dine at his restaurant was to submit to Shopsins whims, which resulted in a legendary 900-item menu, most known for its wacky pancake options such as one with mac and cheese.
Kenny and his wife, Eve, turned their West Village grocery into a restaurant in 1983. As the Times reported, he was born in the Bronx in 1942, and was completely self-trained as a chef. Eve died in 2003. In 2002, Calvin Trillin was granted special permission to write about Shopsins in the New Yorker. Its a great read, if youve never seen the story.
We never dared violate the no photos rule at Shopsins! So thanks to Melinda Shopsin for allowing us to use the photo in this story.
The Shopsin family is encouraging people to share their memories of Kenny. You can do that here. One of the best ways to pay your respects is to continue eating at Shopsins. The restaurant is open in the Essex Street Market Wednesday-Saturday 9 a.m.-2 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Rebel is Rebecca Carroll's regular conversation on race and pop culture. You can hear Rebecca talk about these issues with guests on Wednesday mornings on WNYC.
In August 2014, following the fatal shooting death of Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, DeRay Mckesson took to the streets in protest of police violence. He joined a cadre of young black folks, who went on to become the Black Lives Matter movement.
BLM commanded national attention, but Mckessonwith his signature blue vest and bright, charismatic energybecame the face of the movement. From guesting on "The Colbert Show" to high-profile Twitter feuds and a run for the Mayor of Baltimore, Mckesson was suddenly everywhere.
"We were in the street to focus on things people didn't want to talk about. If we hadn't shut down the streets in St Louis, people would act like we didn't exist, " Mckesson said. But, he added, once that awareness was created, leaders of the movement turned from marching in the streets to trying to change the system through policy work.
Four years later, Mckesson has written a book, "On The Other Side of Freedom," in which he reflects on his work with the movement and his hopes for its future. I spoke with him for this week's Rebel about the book, how he thinks about activism now, and Steve Bannon.
"Only a straight white man could be as devilish as he is, could espouse things that are just white supremacist... and people are still like, what an interesting perspective," Mckesson said. "If I just attacked the FBI the way [Trump] did it, they'd be at my house again."
Listen to Rebecca Carroll talk about Black Lives Matter on WNYC with DeRay Mckesson, below.
Rebecca Carroll is a cultural critic and Editor of Special Projects at WNYC, where she develops, produces and hosts a broad array of multi-platform content, including podcasts, live events and on-air broadcasts. Rebecca is also a critic at large for the Los Angeles Times, and a regular columnist at Shondaland in addition to Gothamist. She is the author of several interview-based books about race and blackness in America, including the award-winning Sugar in the Raw, and her personal essays, cultural commentary and opinion pieces have been published widely.
name,
recognise
Women protest Judge Kavanaugh's nomination to SCOTUS over Roe v. Wade in handmaids tale costumes pic.twitter.com/MRR1EMKcGz Alexandra Limon (@AlexLimonNews) September 4, 2018
property
A pregnant handmaid ready to stop Kav. #CancelKavanaugh pic.twitter.com/LI5AyvCgG3 melissa byrne (@mcbyrne) September 4, 2018
Protesters with Demand Justice dressed as handmaids stand outside Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing room. They are protesting his views on abortion. #SCOTUSKavanaugh pic.twitter.com/oQY7CN3fYD Lydia Wheeler (@WheelerLydia) September 4, 2018
release
organisation
ROSA
(Niall Carson/PA)
(Yui Mok/PA)
decriminalised
Fans of Margaret Atwoods 1985 novel The Handmaids Tale, and the recent Emmy-award winning series of the samewillthese protesters as handmaids. The distinctive look was visible on Tuesday at the Senate Building in Washington DC, as hearings began for Brett Kavanaughs bid to join the Supreme Court following his nomination by Donald Trump.The Supreme Court is the highest court in the US and Kavanaugh, 53, is a controversial nomination, particularly due to his views on abortion last year writing a dissenting opinion that would have denied an abortion for an immigrant teenager in federal custody. It is against this factor of Kavanaughs appointment that women have been wearing the clothes of The Handmaids Tale. Atwoods novel is set in a dystopian future where the United States has become Gilead, a totalitarian society where women are treated asof the state and forced into sexual servitude.The harrowing subjugation depicted in The Handmaids Tale is now being used by women to protest against abortion laws across the world.The red cloak and white bonnet have become an international symbol for womens rights, particularly with regards to abortion. As far back as May 2017, just a month after thethe first series of Hulus screen adaptation, protesters gathered in the red garb in Texas state Capitol to protest against anti-abortion bills.A month later, more women gathered outside the Capitol Building in Washington amidst funding cuts to Planned Parenthood, the US reproductive healthcare. The symbol was also used in Ireland by members of(Reproductive rights, against Oppression, Sexism & Austerity) prior to the nations historic referendum vote on abortion in 2018.Handmaids again appeared in London in June 2018, as part of protests against Trumps visit to the UK.Thousands of miles away, women in Buenos Aires wore the same dress in July as they called for abortion to bein Argentina. One of the protesters even read from a letter written by Atwood herself, who supports the Argentinians efforts. Nobody likes abortion, even when safe and legal, the Canadian author wrote. But nobody likes women bleeding to death on the bathroom floor from illegal abortions, either. What to do? Where will the handmaids appear next?
Here, The National Student speaks to student entrepreneur Brandon Taylorian about how his booze-free lifestyle and enviable work ethic helped him launch a booming business from his bedroom - and why he hopes hell be the next big thing in philosophy
Most creatives try to avoid the world of business, and most business leaders arent strictly creative. They are typically mutually exclusive. How have you managed to juggle the two?
It is a difficult combination between business and creativity, because the former focuses on profit and the latter focuses on the imagination - its all about balancing the two, though for me, creativity seems to always prevail.
I go through periods of time when I am focused on business strategy and marketing and how I intend to apply my knowledge to my ideas, and during other periods, I tend to focus much more on the creative aspect - and it is during these times I will think of a multitude of ideas in one single day. This, of course, means that one day I might have my business head on and others I might have a creative focus.
Infusing these two aspects of business and creativity has definitely given a sense of realism to my literary work especially in the way that I have structured it; I have made sure that everything I have written is commercially suitable. For this reason, mixing business and creativity has definitely worked well, and as long as I make the right balance between the two, they can work well together.
You sacrificed some of your teenage years setting the foundations of your current businesses. Do you have any regrets?
I dont have any regrets. I consider myself the luckiest person in the world to be given such an intense focus and even though I have had to give up certain aspects of my teenage life, such as partying every weekend, I wouldnt be interested in those things anyway.
Its about a lifestyle and we all have different approaches to the way we wish to live, and it just so happens that my lifestyle is structured on my career for now, and more specifically, it is structured on my writing. By this, I mean that all day every day, my mind is constantly seeking new material to apply my writing to, whether this be in a literary sense or a philosophical sense.
I do, however, admit that the idea of Jesse Millette (his fictional teenage detective) came to me very young at the age of just 15 years old, and I have had idea after idea every single day since. One thing I do need to do more is appreciate this time of my life - but I think I will only appreciate it once it has past, although I do try my best to do so.
Name the five items youd take to a desert island.
1. My laptop. My laptop is my life at present. It goes pretty much everywhere I go because whenever I have an idea, as soon as I can I type it up on my laptop. When Im in what I call my writing mode, or in a period of creativity, I spend all my time on my laptop, typing up the ideas that I have presented themselves to me.
2. My piano, together with a pencil and manuscript paper for composing. That just sounds like paradise to me to be able to play and compose piano music without any interruptions.
3. A chest filled with some of my favourite books as reading never fails to inspire me and is an excellent activity in order to initiate creativity.
4. A lifetime supply of my favourite dessert, Ben & Jerrys ice cream.
5. My writing desk for all the work I intend to do.
What does the future hold for you, and where do you see yourself in 10, 20 and 50 years time?
Honestly, I really dont know what the future truly holds for me, but that is the most exciting part about the future - if we know what is coming in our lives we would be just as excited as we were terrified. I do have my dreams, of course, some of which I have allured to, but perhaps not so clearly yet as I think one should be cautious in how they address their future as it will certainly not happen the way they intend it to.
In terms of my career, Id like all the world to know my characters and myself and the journey I have been on and am still going through now.
For my philosophical ambitions, I really do hope to contribute to the philosophical world in a way that nobody else has done before. I want my ideas to become known and to help the world in any way they can.
Primarily though, Id like to be known as a great thinker and as someone who can inspire others and although I am determined to reach that point, whether I will ever get there is a matter of whether I am meant to get there; it is important that I remain humble and accept what life intends to throw my way.
Brandons latest book, Jesse Millette and The Phantom's Curse, is out now on Amazon, priced 7.60 in paperback and 2.99 as an eBook. For further inspiration, go to www.brandontaylorian.com
Cyprus is a destination with mesmerising cultural and natural sights: a photographers paradise. Its quaint mountainside villages and mystical waters are undeniably photogenic, stage to moments that are sure to transform anyones Instagram profile.
In a list of the most hash-tagged destinations, the Mediterranean isle recently ranked third place, with more than 249,000 mentions from Instagram users in only the first quarter of 2018.
As the third largest island in the Mediterranean, drawing more than two million visitors annually, Cyprus draws in people from all tastes and lifestyles. Nature-lovers, wine enthusiasts, and even bird-watchers are enticed to snap photographs of Cyprus natural mountainous paradises and extensive coastline.
To celebrate its Instagram popularity, the Cyprus Tourism Organisation has compiled a list of the top locations in Cyprus to share on Instagram
Spectacular mountains
The Troodos Mountains, the largest mountain range in Cyprus, gives visitors the opportunity to gaze over the natural beauty of the countryside. If they decide to make the climb to the peak, they can witness extensive green peaks and, in the distance, the Byzantine monasteries in all their glory. Not only is there natural art but the many villages dotted across the range all have individual characteristics, offering new experiences in each town. , the largest mountain range in Cyprus, gives visitors the opportunity to gaze over the natural beauty of the countryside. If they decide to make the climb to the peak, they can witness extensive green peaks and, in the distance, thein all their glory. Not only is there natural art but the many villages dotted across the range all have individual characteristics, offering new experiences in each town.
Mythical wonders
rumoured to have been born at Paphos majestic cluster of rocks. Aphrodite's Rock, skimming the shallow waters of Paphos, is a popular place for photography, astounding onlookers with its sheer size and giving an opportunity to gaze over the sea rising and breaking, dependent upon weather conditions. Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of love and beauty, isto have been born at Paphos majestic cluster of rocks., skimming the shallow waters of Paphos, is a popular place for photography, astounding onlookers with its sheer size and giving an opportunity to gaze over the sea rising and breaking, dependent upon weather conditions.
Magical sunsets
Akamas Peninsula has the power to do so at any given time. With rare and diverse flora and fauna and stunning coastlines and rolling hills, it is no surprise why. Akamas Peninsula could be mistaken for heaven during its tranquil sunsets, an unmissable moment in your visit to Cyprus. It is rare for moments to take a person's breath away buthas the power to do so at any given time. With rare and diverse flora and fauna and stunning coastlines and rolling hills, it is no surprise why. Akamas Peninsula could be mistaken for heaven during its tranquil sunsets, an unmissable moment in your visit to Cyprus.
Remarkable cuisine
It is not merely the taste of the food, although that is very much important, but the sight of Cyrpus cuisine that is astonishing in itself. Traditions are a source of pride for Cyprus: from well-crafted bread and meze platters to freshly-prepared halloumi and mouth-watering moussaka, food in Cyprus is an art in itself.
Hidden gems
Omodos, Tochni, and Lefkara. All highly idyllic, each village has quirks which makes it remarkable. The stone houses, historical architecture, and narrow cobbled streets are well worth a share on Instagram. What makes Cyprus memorable are the hidden gems waiting to be discovered by both locals and tourists from around the world. Granted, there are beachside resorts that bring great popularity - but visitors must not forget the concealed charms that Cyprus holds dear. This includes but is not limited to the hillside villages which each have their own charm:and. All highly idyllic, each village has quirks which makes it remarkable. The stone houses, historical architecture, and narrow cobbled streets are well worth a share on Instagram.
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
Winning the endorsement and support of New Yorks two-term governor should be a huge boost for any political campaign. With Governor Andrew Cuomos help, Public Advocate Letitia James raised more than $1 million two months after she announced her run to be New Yorks next Attorney General, and picked up the endorsements of major labor unions and a slew of other elected officials throughout the state. Early polling gave her double-digit leads over her three opponentsCongressman Sean Patrick Maloney, Zephyr Teachout, and Leecia Evealbeit with a large number of voters still undecided.
Now almost four months later, Jamess momentum appears to be flagging. This shift was most apparent during last weeks debate, when Teachout, not James, bore the brunt of questioning and criticisms from her rivalsthe kind of focus normally placed on someone who has pulled ahead of the pack. On Tuesday, Teachout was also endorsed by Chirlane McCray, first lady of New York City, in her first solo endorsement independent of Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Because of the hyper scrutiny on [James], on her fundraising, on her strategy, this is the textbook case that I would teach in my intro to politics class on the perils of being a frontrunner, Christina Greer, associate professor of political science at Fordham University, told Gothamist.
With each candidate qualified in their own way, its become difficult to distinguish their actual policy differences. All of them have promised to take on Donald Trumps administration and all of them have pledged to look into the states pervasive corruption problem.
But Jamess decision to align with Cuomo has specifically created an opening for Teachout, a law professor and former gubernatorial and Congressional candidate. Teachout has pitched herself as the most independent candidatefrom the governor, from big donors, and from special interestsand she has refused to take any money from corporations or limited liability companies. While Teachout had only pulled in $551,000 in the first two months of the race (about half of what James and Maloney had raised, but more than what Eve had brought in) 97 percent of that came from small donors, according to her campaign.
Its a strategy that Teachout believes will connect not only with the insurgent left, but with New Yorkers across the state. Democrats across the board really care that Im not taking corporate money, and understand what corporate money does to politics in general, Teachout recently told Gothamist. I think many people support me because they know Im going to be really serious about looking under every rock in Albany, even if its big donors or people closely connected to power, and not be scared to investigate.
All of this has led many organizations with close ties to both James and Teachout, like New York Communities for Change (NYCC), which could have stayed neutral, to end up endorsing Teachout.
We were going to stay out of it, but the thing that put our members over the edge was the real estate money that Tish was taking, said Jonathan Westin, executive director of NYCC. In August, The Real Deal reported that 19 percent of Jamess most recent $1.6 million fundraising total came from the real estate industry, despite the fact that she has historically been an outspoken critic against landlords. Maloney took in 23 percent of his $1.8 million fundraising total from real estate, and is also a favorite of Wall Street donors.
That was the breaking point for us, taking money from landlords and developers that are displacing our people, thats where we had to made a decision," Westin said. "We need someone independent of the real estate industry, since the attorney general is responsible for all of the rent regulation laws in New York and making sure landlords are being held accountable for them."
Another progressive group, Indivisible Brooklyn, had all four candidates come and speak to their members. They also ended up endorsing Teachout. You cant have a cozy relationship with people you have oversight over, Adelle McElveen, a member of Indivisible Brooklyn, told Gothamist.
McElveen recalled a moment when Teachout walked into the Indivisible meeting and asked her about some letters she was clearing away. McElveen explained that the group had been writing them to wealthy DCCC donors, asking them to push the party to stop taking sides in primary races to the disadvantage of progressive candidates.
She was like oh cool, Ill sign it, McElveen said. And she can because shes not worried who gives her money. I was like, oh my gosh, shes really not afraid of anybody.
At the start of her bid, James made a political calculation that gave many progressives pauseshe decided to forego the Working Families Party line, reportedly under pressure from Cuomo, who has a long history of feuding with the WFP. James, however, won her first election in 2003 with the progressive third-partys support, making her the first official to have ever been elected solely on its line. James recently explained her decision to Times-Union, saying that the impetus wasnt Cuomo (although they did speak about it) but rather because she felt like she needed the backing of the Democratic Party.
I think its pretty clear that Tish not taking our line has hurt her a lot, said Bill Lipton, state director of New York WFP. I think theres a lot of recognition across the state that the way Andrew Cuomo does his politics and governing is deeply intertwined and that is to the detriment of New York.
Perhaps the most visible repercussion of Jamess embrace of Cuomo and his donors came when The New York Times, hardly a bastion of the insurgent left, ended up backing Teachout in August. James didnt even end up as the Times second choicethat honor went to Eve. A few days later, the New York Daily News also endorsed Teachout, calling her the puzzle-piece fit of candidate and moment and warning that James is a credible candidate, but shes the pick of party power brokers, and that should set off alarm bells.
For people who are marginally paying attention or paying attention and are just are really tornafter all, youve got three really strong women, youve got candidates with years and years of public service in different waysI think The New York Times endorsement definitely helps as a shortcut for a lot of people, Greer says. Teachout also saw a fundraising boost in the wake of the endorsement, with more than 3,000 contributions totaling $200,000 in five days, according to her campaign.
When asked about whether she still stood by her strategic decisions when it came to not seeking WFPs support, James told Gothamist Yeah, without a doubt. She asserted that she is still close with the WFP, believes in their values, and is confident she will be on their line in November. But at the time, it was about securing the Democratic nomination, and as an attorney general, individuals have to make difficult decisions, James said. And all throughout my career, Ive had to make difficult decisions, because its really about getting things done.
Zephyr Teachout and gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon in August. (JUSTIN LANE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
Its still far from clear that Cuomos endorsement will end up being a net negative for James. With his help, James has been able to drum up more money, an essential boost given the fact that black women face many more obstacles when it comes to fundraising, something that even those who chose not to endorse James have acknowledged. Not to mention that outside of the progressive circle, Cuomos name recognitionalong with the endorsements of labor unions and other elected officialscould still matter a lot.
Jeanne Zaino, a political science professor at Iona College, still believes that James has the upper hand at the moment. The reality is that nine times out of ten, the person with the most money and the person with most name recognition is going to win almost every election, Zaino said. But Zaino added the caveat that a low turnout on a Thursday primary in September could still push it in the direction of Teachout, with the most active progressive members of the party coming out to vote. It is a perfect recipe for that kind of upset if there is going to be one.
And the results of New Yorks Congressional primaries in Junenot just with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezs upset victory over establishment candidate Joe Crowley, but with progressive challengers to Carolyn Maloney and Yvette Clarke both garnering over 40 percent of the votealso bode well for Teachout. Taking all of that in account it seems as though that theres somewhat of an anti-establishment wind growing, Greer says. Im not necessarily saying thats enough to knock out Cuomo and Tish, but I do think progressive voters are feeling very inspired. The challenge for Teachout will be to get those voters to show up this month, whereas for James, it will be to assert her independence to her supporters over the next week.
Theres also the question about how things will play out in the suburbs and upstate, where Maloney, who pulled ahead of James in August for total fundraising numbers, but still has less cash-on-hand, could siphon off voters. Teachout had a strong showing upstate during her 2014 gubernatorial run, and James could struggle with name recognition outside of the city. But Zaino noted that establishment support might put [James] a little bit up as you move upstate.
James has consistently insisted that Cuomos endorsement, and the big donors it comes with, wont compromise her independence. The notion that Im somehow a wholly owned subsidiary of Governor Cuomo is laughable but also offensive at the same time, James told Gothamist. When asked about the real estate donations, she said, I do not want to unilaterally disarm at a time when my opponents have deep ties to Wall Street and to special interests.
James also pointed out that more than 60 percent of her funds are from small donors and that she has significant backing from labor. She asserted that if anyone thinks that any contributions are going to influence my progressive bent, then they just dont know Tish James.
And not all progressive groups are aligned with Teachout. Michael McKee, treasurer of Tenants PAC, told Gothamist that the decision to endorse James was unanimous. Shes somebody weve known and trusted for years and years, McKee said. Shes always been right there for tenants. When asked about whether he was concerned that Cuomos endorsement would compromise her independence, McKee didnt hesitate to shut that possibility down. Not at all, theres no way she would ever kowtow to Andrew Cuomo.
Downtown Independent Democrats endorsed James early on, before the Cuomo-WFP incident. Jeanne Wilcke, treasurer of DID, said that many of their members knew James personally, because she had made a point of coming to community meetings for years. She would often stay for the whole meeting, she wasnt one of those flyby people. People felt like she was steeped in the issues. When I asked if anything had changed after Cuomos endorsement, Wilcke said that many members were disappointed, especially when it came to the LLC donations.
But still you look at the overall person and theres a lot of muck with campaigns and theres missteps, or you might not see why somebody took a step until you look back. Wilcke said. Shes a really strong candidate.
Even those critical of Jamess decision mainly place the blame on Cuomo for putting her between a rock and a hard place. Our members were deeply excited about both of these choices, were really angered by the way Cuomo made this outrageous demand that Tish not take our line, Lipton said. To us it was reminiscent of the way he puts his own interests ahead of others time and time again.
Its not hard to see that in certain ways, Cuomo and Jamess alliance benefits him more than it does her. The governor is facing his own primary challenge from Cynthia Nixon, and while polls have him ahead, its likely that his real end goal is a much bigger seat in 2020 (although he consistently denies it). It will be harder for Cuomo to be seriously considered as a presidential candidate if he barely scrapes by in his gubernatorial primary. Having Jamesa credible and popular black progressive figureon his side will only help him shore up his base.
Greer pointed out that if Cuomo really cared about James winning, he could have deployed some of his infamous backdoor dealmaking to her benefit. I think he would have asked or negotiated with Leecia to get out of the race or vice versa, Greer says. You have two very qualified black women, one upstate, one downstate. Having both Leecia and Tish in the race helps Cuomo tremendously, because she brings out black Brooklyn and Leecia brings out black Buffalo, and possibly splitting their votes and neither of them getting elected.
The truth is, with little data available, the race could still end up going any which way come September 13th. Zaino noted that because turnout is so difficult to determine in an odd calendar year and because the few public polls out show a large number of undecided voters, that this race, unlike most, could really be fluid. Overall, given that all four candidates are not particularly well-known, it will be a matter of getting known to the voters and giving them a reason to support you, said Steven Greenberg, a Siena College pollster.
As James put it herself to Gothamist, I find it hypocritical that individuals are questioning my independence when it was never an issue less than four months ago. But the question come September 13th is whether her biggest mistake might end up being a failure to see how big of an issue it would become.
There will be a final Attorney General Democratic primary debate at Cooper Union at 7 p.m. this Thursday, September 6th. It will be moderated by former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and WNYC's Brian Lehrer. The debate is sold out but it will be broadcast live on WNYC 93.9 FM and AM 820, and livestreamed on www.Facebook.com/cooperunion, www.youtube.com/cooperunion, and CAFE.com.
Clio Chang is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn.
In good times or bad, Wyandotte Goodfellows come through for children in need
Southern Pines, NC (28387)
Today
Cloudy with occasional showers overnight. Low 41F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..
Tonight
Cloudy with occasional showers overnight. Low 41F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
City_news
featured
Citizens coalition sends demand to all party leaders to commit to riding equity and equality
Left to right: TMR councillor Erin Kennedy representing Mayor Philippe Roy; CSL councillor Ruth Kovac; Montreal West Mayor Beny Masella; former DArcy McGee MNA the Hon. Lawrence Bergman; Montreal City Council Dean Marvin Rotrand; Editor of The Suburban and Co-Chair of the Citizens Coalition Beryl Wajsman; CSL Mayor Mitchell Brownstein; Hampstead Mayor William Steinberg; Hampstead councillor Jack Edery.
A coalition of private citizens and politicians called on Quebecs party leaders Tuesday to commit during the current campaign to reforming Quebecs electoral law so that the huge disparity in the number of voters per riding is redressed.
The group sought a court ruling to prevent the Oct. 1 provincial election from going ahead with an electoral map changed last year by the Director-General of Elections, but the court declined to make the case a priority and the case will be heard next year. Thus, this years election will go ahead with, amongst others, a merged Mont Royal-Outremont, an enlarged DArcy McGee riding and Mont-Royal eliminated. The coalition is calling for changes that would take effect in the election after this one.
A press conference was held Tuesday on this issue at at a packed Cote St. Luc City Hall council chamber with most major media and dozens of community activists present. It was led by Montreal City Council Dean Marvin Rotrand, citizens coalition co-chair Suburban editor-in-chief Beryl Wajsman, Mayors Mitchell Brownstein (CSL), William Steinberg (Hampstead) and Beny Masella (Montreal West), former MNA Lawrence Bergman and many other elected officials from the island of Montreal.
Wajsman underlined the urgency of restoring the importance of a voice for non-francophone communities and vulnerable populations. What is the point of Quebec giving more money and power to the City of Montreal, and spending money on cultural communities, when the 50.3 percent on the island of Montreal who are non-francophones, have had their voice diminished by four ridings lost? he added. Its time we equalized the ridings in Montreal.... We want a commitment to a new electoral map [throughout the province] where the differences in population shall not be more than 10 percent one way or the other, not the current 25 percent.
He stressed that, Urban voters need equality and equity of votes as demanded by Section 10 of the Quebec Charter, or we cannot call ourselves a proper democracy and make fun of the Americans on voter suppression. We institutionally and legally suppress the votes of minorities.
Wajsman also cited a 2017 ruling by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal which overturned a new electoral distribution that cut the representation of Acadians in three ridings, saying that it violated the Charter rights of representation and respect for natural communities.
Rotrand said, as far as were concerned, a commitment by the party leaders [to reform Quebecs electoral law] can resolve the situation, should the parties especially the main ones commit to something most Quebecers would see as fairer, more democratic and respecting the rights of everyone, regardless of where they live.
It was also revealed Tuesday that the court case to reverse the riding changes, being handled by constitutional rights lawyer Julius Grey, will be heard next year. The coalition vowed to continue until a final judgment is rendered.
Rotrand further said that several other jurisdictions whose electoral maps were changed reverted to their original maps, in Nova Scotia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
The councillor also expanded on the argument involving what current electoral law allows, pointing out ridings can have populations 25 percent more or less than the 48,952 average, a maximum of 60,414 or a minimum of 36,290 voters.
This legal disparity of up to 24,124 voters or up to a 72 percent legal difference of voters per riding gives some voters in Quebec far more power than others, he added.
There are also six ridings Abitibi-Est, Abitibi Ouest, Bonaventure, Gaspe, Rene Levesque and Ungava with even smaller populations that have been granted exceptions. The plaintiffs are arguing that such disparities should only be allowed in the rarest cases. The plaintiffs also argue that the practices of jurisdictions like Manitoba and New Brunswick should be emulated.
Manitoba does not allow any electoral district to be more or less than 10 percent of the norm while New Brunswick, while striving for parity, uses a variation that assures electoral districts are no more than 15 percent above or below the average, says a statement by the plaintiffs. Quebec allows a variation of up to 25 percent.
Coalition members are hoping to meet with the major party leaders in the days to come and win their assurance that Quebec will ultimately have a fairer electoral map based on fairer criteria.
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.
remaining of
Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading.
Based in the heart of London's financial district, Matt sits at his office desk watching line upon line of numbers and letters flash up on the two computer screens in front of him.
To the uneducated eye, it looks like the sort of scrambled code you might see in the film The Matrix. But in fact, the blinking screens contain reams of information about hundreds of thousands of online banking customers.
Welcome to the front line in the fight against Britain's fraud epidemic that is costing victims around 1 billion a year.
Threat: As fraudsters are becoming ever-more adept at bypassing their security measures, the banking industry has been forced to invest millions in new technology
Matt is part of a 2,500-strong fraud team at Lloyds Banking Group. As a fraud investigator, it is his job to monitor customers' every move and spot the criminals operating among the bank's 22 million current accounts.
The volume of data he scrutinises each day is staggering. He is looking for anything out of the ordinary, be it a customer logging in from an unusual location or even just typing more slowly than usual.
But with around 7,000 customers from across the group's three banks Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland logging into their online and mobile accounts every minute, it is like trying to find a needle in a haystack, Matt admits.
Here, Money Mail reveals for the first time exactly what the banks are doing behind the scenes to tackle fraud and how you can join the fight.
They are watching your every move
As fraudsters are becoming ever-more adept at bypassing their security measures, the banking industry has been forced to invest millions in new technology that will help stop the criminals in their tracks.
To help protect customers, Lloyds has built a sophisticated fraud monitoring system that records your every move when using your online account.
The system can detect how you behave physically how quickly you type your password or move the cursor around the computer screen. It records how often you typically log in to your account and at what time of day.
And it can track which mobile phone or computer you use to access your account and where in the country you are when you do so.
The bank also knows your income, where you shop and how much you normally spend at a time. All of this information is used to compile a secret profile of each customer detailing their typical behaviour.
It sounds scarily like Big Brother, but building a picture of the normal behaviour of each customer means it is much easier for banks to spot that 'needle in a haystack' fraudster who might be accessing your account without your knowledge.
To help protect customers, Lloyds has built a sophisticated fraud monitoring system that records your every move when using your online account
Boffins in T-shirts and jeans
At the bank's digital headquarters in Central London a short walk from where Matt is watching his screens online fraud expert Nihal explains exactly how it all works.
The digital office seems more suited to the likes of Google or Facebook than one of Britain's oldest banks.
It is full of brightly coloured, coffee-stained sofas, garish green wallpaper and groups of young men clad in T-shirts and jeans talking excitedly in huddled groups over computer screens.
If a fraudster is able to trick you into disclosing your log-in details by sending an email pretending to be from your bank or installing software on your computer that tracks your keystrokes, for example they can access your account easily, Nihal tells me.
But once they log in, the bank's computer system called the Risk Engine will be waiting to catch them out. It is looking for any suspicious activity that seems out of character for that customer.
So if, for example, someone logs into your account from a computer in Manchester when you live in London, or types the password far more slowly than usual, the system will put an alert on the account.
If nothing suspicious happens next, the alert could be downgraded after all, it might just be that you're trying to check your balance from a friend's house and are struggling to remember your password. In this case you probably wouldn't even know anything had happened.
But if a more risky act is carried out such as setting up a new payee or transferring money out of your savings account the alert will be upgraded.
In this instance your account may be frozen until the bank carries out further investigations. This may involve texting the customer to find out if they had meant to make a transaction.
'The trick for us is finding the balance between supporting customers to make genuine transactions, without the annoyance of their account being frozen, and stopping the bad guys,' Nihal says.
The need for this balance means the system will not always automatically block a payment just because it is slightly out-of-character.
For example, it is programmed to expect a spike in unusual purchases in the run-up to Christmas and on Black Friday. And it will even take into account major product launches such as a new iPhone.
Last year, British banks and card companies stopped more than 1.4 billion of attempted fraud. But cyber criminals still get away with 1 in every 3 they target
Searching out the money mules
Back at Lloyds' fraud headquarters, Matt also relies on technology to root out accounts he suspects are being used fraudulently.
He uses a custom-built anti-fraud system that gathers data on every customer logging in, such as their name, age and address, transaction history and whether they are linked to any other customers.
It also records which internet service provider they use and their computer's IP address which can pinpoint where a computer is located to within a 25-mile radius.
The system then uses all of this information to spot combinations of activity most commonly associated with fraudsters. The exact details of how the fraud-fighting system works are top secret but Matt is happy to show it off in action.
He points to a log-in ID number on the screen that has been suddenly highlighted in red. 'When criminals get hold of genuine customers' account details, they often try to use their own smartphones to log in.
This log-in has been flagged because it comes from a phone which has been used for fraud before,' he says.
'When anyone uses a suspicious phone to log into to any of our accounts, we get an alert and the account is frozen while one of our investigators looks into it,' he adds.
He clicks on the ID number which opens up a record showing that the same phone has logged into accounts owned by three different customers in the past three months. This is a classic sign of a fraudster and Matt immediately freezes the account.
All the details of this account including information on how, when and where the fraudster accessed it will be fed into the system, which uses artificial intelligence to 'learn' and recognise similar activity in future. Matt explains that some banks have started sharing this data to help them stop fraud before it happens.
He pulls up details of an account which has just been blocked for receiving money paid by an unwitting scam victim.
The owner of the now-blocked account is a French national living in Britain who had banked with Lloyds for five years with no problems.
He seemed to be a genuine customer who paid a weekly wage into the account and had no history of fraud. But in June, NatWest sent out a warning to banks about a man with similar details who had been caught handling money for scammers.
This generated a warning flag in the Lloyds system, triggering a higher level of monitoring for suspicious activity on his account.
So when he suddenly received a 90,000 payment from an American bank account two months later, the fraud team was immediately alerted and could freeze the account before he had a chance to move the money again.
Matt and the team believe the Frenchman was acting as a money mule someone who agrees to let their account be used by criminals in return for a fee. Fraudsters use mules to quickly move money through the banking system so it is difficult to trace.
How to protect young adults from becoming money mules Fraud experts have warned of a rise in money mules allowing cash to be moved through their account. The problem is so great that Lloyds has formed a 'money mule hunting squad' and is planning to share its secrets with rivals. Those caught acting as money mules have their bank accounts closed and will struggle to open one for years to come - and get products such as mortgages and credit cards. Find out more and how to protect young people from being tricked in the This is Money podcast. Press play to listen to the show above, or listen (and please subscribe if you like the podcast) at Apple Podcasts, Acast and Audioboom or visit our This is Money Podcast page.
At the start of this year, Lloyds launched a new team of 20 people to detect and stop money mules. Since then, it has uncovered 13,000 mule accounts and stopped 3.3 million from falling into the hands of fraudsters.
Matt's boss, head of fraud investigations Simon Jobson, tells me it has become an increasing problem in recent months, with criminals targeting students and young people on Facebook with promises of making quick, easy cash. Many do not realise it is illegal or that it can leave them barred from opening any bank account in the UK.
'Mules are now one of the main issues we deal with,' he says. 'A lot of the people involved were perfectly good customers who had not been in trouble before, but they meet someone at a party or see a post on Facebook or Instagram promising easy money which draws them in.'
If someone logs into your account from Manchester when you live in London, Lloyds's system will put an alert on the account
Always think before you click
Last year, British banks and card companies stopped more than 1.4 billion of attempted fraud. But cyber criminals still get away with 1 in every 3 they target.
While advanced technology might be able to spot a suspicious payment or a fraudster logging into your account, it is much harder for it to tell if you have been tricked into sending funds at a scammer's request.
This type of scam is known as 'social engineering'. A common scheme sees fraudsters posing as police or bank staff calling customers to tell them their account has been compromised and they need to transfer their money into a 'safe' account.
These scams can be incredibly convincing so Lloyds has launched a Fraud Checkpoint system that asks customers two security questions before they can make certain payments, such as sending money to a new account. The aim is to force people to stop and think for a second about what they are doing.
First customers are asked if they have been told to make the transaction by the police or bank staff, with a warning stating that they would never do this.
The next question varies, but one example is: 'Did you receive a phone call or email telling you to make this payment?'
Customers are again reminded that no bank would contact customers in this way to suggest they move money.
If there is ever a real problem with your account, your bank would most likely text or call and ask you to get in touch.
Never ring the number given in case it is a scam. Instead, call back using the phone number on the back of your debit card or go straight into a branch and speak to a staff member.
The most devastating blow when falling victim to this type of scam is that you are unlikely to get your money back.
Under existing banking rules, if a fraudster steals someone's card details and takes money from their account without their permission, their bank must refund the customer unless they have been negligent with their personal details by telling someone else their password or PIN, for example.
However, there is currently no such protection for people who have been duped into handing over their cash known as authorised fraud. In this instance, you will typically only get your money back if you can prove the bank made a mistake.
Paul Davis, retail fraud director at Lloyds Banking Group, says: 'Fraudsters can be incredibly convincing and even the most educated people can feel panicked when they are told their money is under threat and it needs to be moved.
'The important thing is to stop and ask yourself who is getting in touch with you and what they are asking you to do?'
Report any cases of fraud even if you weren't left out of pocket to Action Fraud online at actionfraud.police.uk or call 0300 123 2040.
Some names have been changed to protect identities.
money.mail@dailymail.co.uk
Fitness fanatic: Former TSB boss Paul Pester
The departure of TSBs overtly evangelical boss Paul Pester would preferably have come several weeks sooner for some of his staff.
It would have spared them from the banks annual triathlon last month in which they were expected to take part. Surfer dude Pester, 54, is a dedicated fitness fanatic.
During his hot youth he trained with lissom Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies, 55, a yarn he trots out frequently to anyone prepared to listen.
Terra Firma boss Guy Hands says hed have gone into politics but for his sensible wife Julia, who threatened him with divorce on their wedding day should he ever consider it.
He tells Spears Magazine: She was very insistent and after 34 years of marriage she hasnt changed her mind.
Probably just as well. Portly Hands grannypants bouffant and Ken Dodd gnashers might spook even the most open-minded floating voter.
Twinkly-eyed ex-WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrells remarks to Campaign that his successor Mark Read should run his old company as a twosome with chief operating officer, Andrew Scott, are unedifying.
It arrogantly implies the job he carried out for 33 years is beyond just one man.
Still, Im sure Sir Martin, 73, has his former proteges best interests at heart. They worked so closely together a former colleague describes Read as Igor to Sorrells Frankenstein.
Mark Carneys desire to remain as Bank of England governor surprisingly fails to impress the Financial Times, which urges the Treasury to consider other candidates.
Might the paper still be smarting about the last time Carney decided to lengthen his tenure back in 2016?
Hours before he announced he was be extending his contract by a year, the FT confidently informed readers hed be staying on for another four years.
La-di-da department store Harvey Nichols has rebranded itself Holly Nichols for the rest of the month.
Their marketing bods claim this is in celebration of female empowerment. Zzzz. Dont patronising, back-of-fag-packet stunts such as these always carry the faint whiff of desperation?
I dont know if its relevant but Harvey sorry, Holly Nicks posted a 6.7million loss last year.
An email popped into my inbox last week telling me the thing no investor wants to hear.
One of the investments Id sold had actually done rather well since I dumped it.
Well, that was bound to happen, wasnt it? When you sell a stack of investments, you cant get them all right.
What you try to do is bring a better balance to your portfolio and increase your chances of improved returns over the longer term.
Hard to take: It is never easy to learn an investment you dumped has since soared
Threadneedle UK Equity Alpha Income is the fund in question. So congratulations if you hold it.
At the end of June 2014, I invested at a cost of 130.71p per unit. I sold on February 22 for 133.68p.
In the six months since then someone must have put a rocket under it, because the price has risen to 147.45p. That 10.3 per cent increase will have turned a 10,000 investment into 11,030.
The financial adviser who had taken a brief break from fly fishing to send the email promised his intention wasnt to gloat he merely thought I would be interested.
And I was. His email made me realise it was high time I took another thorough look at the changes I had made to the Hazells pensions and Isas had they actually left me better off after all?
At the beginning of this year, I had looked at our investments and thrown up my arms in despair. They needed to deliver better returns to keep up with Mrs Hazells never-ending round of home improvements.
While it wasnt all bad news, my portfolio was showing clear signs of neglect.
My overhaul started towards the end of February, followed by some more juggling in June.
I had three objectives to cut the number of funds, produce a better balance of investments and, most of all, to improve my returns.
So what happened to the other funds I sold in the initial cull? Invesco Perpetual High Income has risen by 9.2 per cent, so would have turned 10,000 into 10,920, while Quilter Global Best Ideas has risen by 8.2 per cent.
Those are the best performers, other than the Threadneedle fund. Others leave me with no regrets whatsoever.
Woodford Equity Income has crawled up 3.8 per cent, Man GLG Balanced Fund is up 2 per cent, Troy Trojan is up 1.9 per cent, FP Argonaut European Alpha has fallen by 2.4 per cent and Jupiter Absolute Return is down 0.7 per cent.
Long-term game: If every fund was zooming ahead I would definitely be questioning whether my portfolio was balanced sensibly
Im most relieved to be rid of Templeton Emerging Markets, which is down by 8.7 per cent, and Jupiter New Europe, down 11.2 per cent this latter would have taken 10,000 and reduced it to 8,880.
Of course, the key thing is whether the funds I have replaced them with have done any better.
Lets start with a benchmark. I bought more units of a cheap tracker fund, Vanguard FTSE UK All Share, on February 9, which shadows the UK stock market.
This has increased by 9.4 per cent every 1,000 is now worth 1,094.So this computer-run drone fund has beaten all of the expert-run funds I sold, bar one.
This in itself shows the value of trackers as core holdings, especially if you do not have the time, expertise or inclination to manage your own money.
My biggest success is Scottish Mortgage, for which I paid 4.39 per share on February 13. It is now worth 5.62. So thats a gain of around 28 per cent.
Scottish Mortgage looks to invest in growing companies and is currently heavily weighted towards technology/retail companies such as Amazon, biotech firm Illumina, Alibaba (the Chinese equivalent of Amazon) and Tencent (another Chinese tech company).
Part of my reorganising has been to boost my holdings in global growth companies.
Lindsell Train Global Equity has also proved a winner, growing by around 18 per cent since I bought it on February 22. Fundsmith Equity another flexible worldwide investment fund has also increased by 15 per cent since I added to my holding at the end of February.
Jupiter European has advanced nearly 19 per cent in just under six months since my purchase on March 13.
However, other funds have shown more modest gains. Since I added to my holding of FP Crux European Special Situations in February, it has increased by a mere 4 per cent. But over the longer-term, manager Richard Pease has provided fantastic returns.
When I originally bought into an earlier version of this fund in mid-2012, I paid 114.02 per unit.
Now its price is 294p, so Ive seen a 157 per cent return in little more than six years. To put this into pounds and pence, every 1,000 invested has grown to 2,570.This is definitely a fund I will be sticking with.
Remember, investment is a long-term game, and if every fund was zooming ahead I would definitely be questioning whether my portfolio was balanced sensibly. So, overall, I feel that I am on the right track.
Its far too soon to make judgments on my summer juggling, but Ive recorded the data and will let you know about my successes and clangers in a few months time.
t.hazell@dailymail.co.uk
WPP boss Mark Read said the empire built by his predecessor had become too unwieldy
WPPs boss has called for a radical overhaul of the group as he seeks to move on from the reign of founder Sir Martin Sorrell.
Just 24 hours after he was made chief executive, Mark Read said the advertising empire built by his predecessor had become too unwieldy and needed to revamp its image to attract talented young recruits.
The 51-year-old also insisted the worlds largest ad agency was not in decline and was well-placed for a fight back against consultancies and Silicon Valley firms which have eaten into its business.
But his comments came as the challenge facing the company was laid bare, with a return to sales growth overshadowed by a squeeze on profits and lacklustre performance in America.
Spooked investors sent WPPs shares down more than 6 per centr, or 80p, to 1196.5p, wiping 1billion off the firms value.
Shares have lost more than a third of their value since early last year.
Read said he did not want a wholesale break-up up of WPPs 400 companies. But in a sign changes are afoot, he blamed problems in America, where he has spent much of the summer, on a lack of talent.
He said the firm needed to attract more of the millennials flocking to tech giants such as Google and Facebook.
This was partly why WPPs London offices were moving from Mayfair to a more modern site on Londons South Bank, he said, also pointing to a reorganisation in Portugal which saw 30 of the groups offices consolidated into one building housing 600 staff.
Read said: If we look at the parts of the business that are not performing as wed like them to, talent is, in many cases, at the heart of it.
So we need to make WPP a destination for the millennial talent that is going to Google and Facebook. We can be a much more modern, contemporary company.
WPP owns some of the biggest names in advertising, including JWT, Ogilvy, Grey and Y&R, employing some 130,000 staff worldwide. But it has been hit by changing attitudes in the industry, with more clients buying internet advertising from Google and Facebook.
Many of WPPs customers have also called for it to simplify its structure so that its various agencies work better together.
Sales grew by 2.4 per cent in the three months to June 30, its first quarterly growth since the start of 2017, but it lowered its profit margin forecast for the year.
There was also a 7.4 per cent drop in profits, to 735million, when the one-off sale of its software business Globant was stripped out.
Read, whose appointment followed Sorrells exit in April, said he would spell out details of his turnaround plans for the group by the end of the year.
Earlier this year Gaucho fell victim to tough trading conditions on UK High Streets, but there may be a light at the end of the tunnel for the collapsed Argentine steakhouse chain.
Two of its lenders - Investec and SC Lowy - have struck a deal to buy Gaucho out of administration, securing the future of 750 jobs and its 16 restaurants.
But there's a catch, because the purchase hinges on the successful delivery of a company voluntary arrangement, administrator Deloitte said on Wednesday.
Gaucho slumped into administration in July this year, putting the future of 1,500 jobs at risk
The new suitors wish to dump liabilities linked to Gaucho's sister restaurant chain Cau, which collapsed in July with the loss of 540 jobs.
In order for the rescue deal to go ahead, creditors, including landlords, must give the CVA the green light in a crunch vote on September 19.
An Investec spokesman said: 'We believe the creditor group will support the necessary CVA allowing Gaucho shortly to exit administration so we can take the business forward.'
He added: 'We have supported Gaucho since 2016 and continued to provide support to the business through the difficult conditions experienced in 2018.
'We know the Gaucho team well and have significant confidence they can reinvigorate and grow the Gaucho brand.'
The Argentine steakhouse's 'Gaucho burgers'
As part of the deal, chief executive Oliver Meakin will step down after less than a year in the role.
Meakin previously ran High Street chain Maplin but parted ways with the electricals firm before it hit the buffers in February this year.
Martin Williams, founder of the group of M branded dining venues, will work alongside Investec and SC Lowry to oversee the next stage of Gaucho's development.
The sale is expected to complete in mid-October following approval of the CVA.
Gaucho is one of a number of restaurant chains in trouble, with Prezzo, Byron and Jamie's Italian all shutting restaurants and axing hundreds of jobs this year.
Hummus Bros, a London food chain, also went into administration this summer and Gourmet Burger Kitchen is embarking on a store closure plan.
Mortgage interest rates already started going up today amid warnings that Britain's homeowners face soaring payments in the coming year - with brokers advising them to make overpayments now while rates are still low. Barclays said today it was hiking rates by up to 0.35 percentage points on a range of fixed-rate mortgages and Halifax today announced rises of up to 0.20 percentage points on a handful of products from November 1. HSBC also said its rates would go up, and NatWest has increased rates on a range of its fixed deals by 0.1 per cent since Chancellor Rishi Sunak (top left, at Bury Market in Greater Manchester today) spoke yesterday, and TSB said they would be increasing their rates tomorrow. One expert said it was 'another, unwanted squeeze on the family budget', while another said homeowners should get on a fixed rate now, with those on a variable rate expected to feel the impact of inflation the greatest. Forecasts produced by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) alongside Rishi Sunak's Budget yesterday suggested homeowners will have to prepare for the biggest hike in interest payments since the financial crisis. This is because, according to the Treasury-funded public body, rising inflation may prompt the Bank of England to put up interest rates from the current 0.1 per cent to 0.75 per cent by the end of 2023 (centre). The OBR also said that in a worst-case scenario, interest rates would hit 3.5 per cent by then. The forecasters said even a 0.75 per cent interest rate would have a huge knock on effect on the amount of interest mortgage payers have to pay. They said that it would see the amount paid in mortgage interest soar by 13 per cent in 2023 (top right) - followed by another rise of 5.4 per cent the year after.
A gang of fraudsters conned 170 savers out of 2.8million by selling fake development land on the Portuguese island of Madeira.
The six scammers used fictional companies with false brochures to tempt investors, and even adopted disguises to convince them the scheme was genuine.
Five of the group have been sentenced to more than 17 years in prison between them after one of the biggest investigations in City history and a 51-day trial at Southwark Crown Court.
The judge described the gang as repellent for targeting the vulnerable and elderly.
Sunshine scam: Six criminals used fictional companies with false brochures to con savers into buying fake development land on Madeira (pictured)
The sixth gang member, and its ringleader, former bouncer Michael Nascimento, will be sentenced next week.
Those jailed yesterday were sales chief Charanjit Sandhu, 28, Hugh Edwards, 36, and Stuart Rea, 50, who both served as senior lieutenants in the gang, and Nascimentos 50-year-old assistant Jeannine Lewis. Ryan Parker, 25, a junior member, was given a two-year suspended sentence.
It is the second biggest prosecution ever undertaken by the Financial Conduct Authority watchdog, with key evidence seized following a raid on the gangs offices near Canary Wharf.
Mark Steward, FCA enforcement director, said: These fraudsters callously targeted investors who were often elderly and vulnerable, lying to them to get them to part with significant sums of money.
Nascimento, 41, is originally from Portugal and had bought 4.3 acres of land on Madeira, previously used for growing potatoes.
Although the plot could never legally be built on, he claimed it was a prime development site.
Investors were sold shares in the land and wrongly told it would generate returns of as much as 228 per cent on their nest eggs, with salesmen pointing out that big banks have offered only tiny savings rates for years.
Clockwise from to left: Hugh Edwards, Charanjit Sandhu, Jeannine Lewis, Stuart Rea, Ryan Parker and Michael Nascimento
Nascimento operated through a network of different companies and produced glossy brochures claiming his business was one of the worlds top wealth managers.
He even invented a fictional chairman called David Gregory, using a stolen picture from an innocent businessmans Linkedin profile.
The fraudster blew 76,000 on fees for his daughters private primary school, 23,000 on VIP season tickets for Arsenal where he was pictured meeting manager Arsene Wenger and 43,000 on a years rent for a house in Chislehurst, Kent.
The FCA is seeking to recoup money lost by the victims, but their investments are not covered by any compensation scheme and they are likely to get little back.
Investigators repeatedly shut down companies set up by Nascimento but he kept opening new ones. They eventually cracked the case through a raid on the companys offices.
A separate raid at Nascimentos house uncovered 1,850 in cash stashed among his DVD collection. The gang was arrested and released on bail, but Nascimento, Edwards and Sandhu were later remanded in custody after setting up further scams.
Sentencing the five, Judge Hehir said: Some victims have lost everything they had. These were scams from start to finish.
The FCA is investigating 29 similar scams and urged savers to be careful if offered an investment that seems too good to be true.
Parents can more than double returns by switching their cash from a Child Trust Fund to a Junior Isa.
Moving your cash also means you avoid a potential pitfall when your child reaches 18.
Child Trust Fund accounts were launched in 2005 to encourage parents to save for their childrens future.
Child Trust Fund accounts were launched in 2005 to encourage parents to save for their childrens future
This month more than 75,000 children who were eligible for the account will turn 16, according to OneFamily, the largest provider of them.
At this age, children can take control of the fund and decide where to invest their money although they cant take it out for another two years.
The now-defunct Child Trust Fund scheme gave children born from September 2002 onwards cash vouchers of 250 or 500 depending on the parents income. A second payment was given to them when they turned seven.
This could be invested in cash or stocks and shares. Parents could top up the account each year by a certain amount.
More than six million trust funds were set up. The scheme was scrapped in 2010 as it proved too expensive.
Many providers then refused to take transfers, hindering parents who wanted to switch accounts for a better rate. Firms focused on the new Junior Isa, often paying higher rates on these.
Money Mail campaigned for years for the Government to let parents move money from Child Trust Funds to the new products.
For example, a child with a Nationwide cash trust fund at the time could earn 1.1 per cent (11 interest on 1,000), but a younger sibling could get 3.25 per cent (32.50) with their Junior Isa.
In 2015, after a two-and-a half year campaign by Money Mail, the Government let savers to switch the money in their trust fund to a Junior Isa.
You should encourage your child to move their money now for a better rate. Coventry BS currently pays the best Junior Isa rate at 3.6 per cent, while Nationwide offers 3.25 per cent.
OneFamily, which looks after nearly 210,000 Santander Child Trust Funds after the bank handed over the administration of its accounts in 2009, pays 0.85 per cent on balances up to 750, 1.25 per cent up to 1,500 and 1.75 per cent if there is more than 1,500 in the account.
Leeds BS trust fund pays 2.15 per cent; at Skipton the rate is 2.5 per cent or 2.25 per cent, depending on the issue. At Yorkshire BS, you earn as little as 1.95 per cent and Britannia, now part of Co-op Bank, 0.8 per cent.
You can also still add money to Junior Isas for your child. The current limit this tax year is 4,260, the same as for a Child Trust Fund.
Once children turn 18, they can switch a Junior Isa into an adult Isa and keep earning tax-free interest. Keeping the tax-free account going could be handy if they want to carry on saving or dip into the money over the next few years for university fees or a house deposit.
If their cash is still in a Child Trust Fund, they have to withdraw it before moving it to an adult Isa, and would only be able to reinvest the maximum annual Isa limit (now 20,000). HM Revenue & Customs says it is considering what it needs to do to change the rules, but there is no guarantee it will.
sy.morris@dailymail.co.uk
MBABANE A 28-year-old man of Mankayane failed to beat the intelligence of the police at Ngwenya Border Gate.
Ngcweliso Msibi was arrested at the border gate after 15 blocks of dagga weighing 3.6kg were discovered inside a petrol tank of a car he was travelling in.
Appearing for trial before Magistrate Lenhle Zulu at the Mbabane Magistrates Court, Msibi pleaded guilty to the charge.
Testifying against Msibi, Constable Kuphala informed the court that the illegal herb was discovered during the search at the border gate.
He said their previous experience led to the discovery of the dagga which was floating inside the petrol tank which was full.
This, he said, was because dagga was not easily detected inside a petrol tank.
Kuphala said the discovery of the illegal substance was the second incident at the border gate.
In the first incident, he said a man from South Africa was caught at the same border gate using the same modus operandi.
Msibi was sentenced to two years imprisonment with an option to pay a E2 000 fine.
Information gathered from some dagga dealers was that science was involved when stuffing dagga inside a petrol tank.
LUDZIDZINI Maidens have said Ludzidzini Royal Residence was a better place to be. In random interviews after the thousands of maidens received their farewell gifts from Their Majesties, they said they were not prepared to leave the place as yet, due to the welcoming environment.
They received chicken portions, bread and juice. Just last week during the start of the annual ceremony, the young girls received sneakers, T-shirts and sanitary pads before their commissioning by His Majesty King Mswati III.
We thought we would spend another week with Their Majesties for Independence Day. You are hardly homesick if you are treated with warm hands. We will always remember this place, said the maidens as they left with their food parcels. The maidens returned to their various royal kraals after partaking in the seven-day ceremony. While at the event, the maidens were provided with showers and meals. They arrived at Ludzidzini and Ngabezweeni Royal Residences on Tuesday, where they registered for the annual Umhlanga Reed Dance Ceremony.
They were ferried to the royal residences by 80 buses which were hired by government. On Wednesday, they assembled at Ngabezweni Royal Residence where they were commissioned by the King to cut the reed at the swamps at Bhamusakhe and Mpisi Farm.
The reed which was cut on Thursday was kept at the camps. It was then taken back to Ludzidzini Royal Residence on Friday, after which the maidens relaxed on Saturday. The regiment delivered the reed at Ludzidzini Royal Residence on Sunday, where they then proceeded to the arena to showcase their chastity before Their Majesties. Monday was a public holiday which was strictly reserved for dancing.
In an interview at 5:33pm yesterday, acting Imbali Overseer Sijabuliso Ndzinisa said some maidens remained at camp because it was late for them to travel.
Some maidens will be transported tomorrow (today) because its late. We have since stopped all the buses from transporting the maidens for safety reasons, Ndzinisa said.
A Siphofaneni businessman popularly known as Dumisani, also made a huge contribution to the maidens. He donated fizzy drinks and loaves of bread for the girls.
MBABANE -She is bringing up a contrived and false notion that I am not the legal wife of my late husband, Victor Gamedze and that the two children are not his biological children.
This was the submission of Lungile Gamedze, the wife of the late businessman (Victor) who is currently embroiled in a legal battle with a woman who claims to be his daughter.
Lungile wants the court to compel Nosipho Gamedze to undergo a paternity test to establish whether she was indeed the late businessmans daughter.
Nosipho, who wants to benefit from the businessmans multimillion estate, is vigorously opposing the application.
According to Lungile, Nosipho now alleges that she (Lungile) was not the lawful wife of the late businessman and that the two children, Tiyandza and Temalungelo, were not his.
In her replying affidavit, Lungile averred that Nosiphos answering affidavit was so convoluted and replete with distortion.
There are a lot of irrelevant, embarrassing and repugnant averments in the affidavit of the first respondent (Nosipho), submitted Lungile.
She told the court that it was embarrassing and extremely belittling for the first respondent to allege that she was not the lawful wife of the businessman and that the two children were not his. Lungile averred that Victor never disputed the paternity of the two children.
According to Lungile, Nosipho was only trying to spite them. She submitted that Tiyandza and Temalungelo were Victors children and he never disputed their paternity.
I would like to submit that I and the late Victor Mfana Gamedze got married through Swazi Law and Custom on June 11, 1994 at his parental home in Siteki, argued the first applicant (Lungile).
She went on to inform the court that, they also got married through civil rites at Mater Dolorosa Catholic Church.
Lungile highlighted that the marriage was solemnised by Father Jochoniya Thayela Mahazule. Annexed to Lungiles replying papers is a copy of an affidavit by Father Mahazule and a supporting affidavit of Qethuka Dlamini, who was reportedly the leader of all matrimonial royal delegations. She submitted that Qethuka had the mandate from the King to oversee both civil and customary weddings. She went on to state that from her marriage with Victor, two children were born and they were Tiyandza Tinfombi Gamedze and Temalungelo Tandzile Gamedze.
Lungile averred that her intention was to ascertain the paternity of Nosipho and not necessarily to cause her any undue embarrassment. She argued that it was therefore scurrilous to allege that her overriding intention was to embarrass Nosipho.
We simply requested the first respondent (Nosipho) to do a DNA test. Further, by analogy, there is a minor child, Wandile Zyn Littler, who has recently undergone a DNA test, the result of which will determine his paternity, submitted Lungile.
She stated that if the results proved that the minor child was indeed the biological son of her late husband, his inheritance and maintenance by the estate would be adversely affected if Nosiphos paternity was not imminently determined.
Lungile pointed out that since Nosipho had declined to do a paternity test, she (Lungile) had instructed her lawyer to inform the executor of the estate that they were objecting to her inclusion as a beneficiary in the estate until she imminently undergoes thepaternity test.
The matter is still pending at the High Court and appearing for Lungile is Mlungisi Khumalo of Khumalo Attorneys.
It is Greek tradition to name your child or children after your parents or grandparents, which is considered a gesture of respect, honour, and love
BabyCentre, a leading baby blog, has recently compiled the 100 most popular names with Greek origin, to assist parents who are looking for name ideas for their little prince or princess.
It is Greek tradition to name your child or children after your parents or grandparents, which is considered a gesture of respect, honour, and love. This tradition is followed differently by people depending on personal preference. Sometimes the first born baby is named after the fathers parents or grandparents regardless of whether the baby is a boy or girl or sometimes the baby boy is named after the husbands father or grandfather and the firstborn girl is named after the wifes mother or grandmother, passing down the names from one generation to the next.
Today though, some parents elect to use their parents or grandparents names as the childs middle name or decide on a name that has no family connection.
If you are looking for some baby name inspiration, here is the current list of most popular names with Greek origin in alphabetical order:
Baby Boy Names
Alex Alexander Christopher Elias Luca Nicholas Sebastian Theodore
Baby girls names
Alexa Arianna Chloe Clara Cora Eleanor Elena Ellie Kaylee Lily Madelyn Olivia Penelope Sophia Sophie Stella Zoe
Read more at greekcitytimes.com
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: Marsyas License: CC-BY-SA
The principal focus of the US guest will be digital economy and innovation (with the participation of cutting-edge technology companies, such as Facebook, Microsoft, Google and Cisco), giving Greek start-uppers the chance for significant contacts
Within the scope of the 83rd International Fair of Thessaloniki, the Ministry of Digital Policy, Telecommunications and Media is organizing a theme park entitled Digital Greece that will host more than 100 start-ups. The theme park will operate throughout the Fair (September, 8-16) next to the stand of the United States, the honored guest of this years Fair.
The principal focus of the US guest will be digital economy and innovation (with the participation of cutting-edge technology companies, such as Facebook, Microsoft, Google and Cisco), giving Greek start-uppers the chance for significant contacts.
In Digital Greece, Greek entrepreneurs will be able to present their innovative ideas, as well as exchange views and experiences with prominent businessmen and academics, the priority being the finding of financing sources and signing contacts with investors.
Read more at int.ert.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 Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) and BIBF will hold their third joint IFSB-BIBF Islamic Finance Executive Programme (IFEP) series covering topics on fintech, Regtech and Islamic finance on October 17 and 18 in Manama, Bahrain.
Themed Fintech, Regtech and Islamic Finance, the third edition of the event will focus on the role of fintech in the Islamic finance industry, the threats and regulatory challenges that fintech impose on the industry.
This Islamic Finance Executive Programme aims to address the rise of fintech in the Islamic finance industry, highlighting both the opportunities and challenges of new fintech products in the market. The programme will shed light on the new innovative digital products in Islamic finance, the application of blockchain technology and Shariah opinion in cryptocurrencies.
It will also discusses the role of regulatory and supervisory authorities (RSAs) in regulating fintech and the need for a wide-ranging reconceptualisation of financial regulation in an era of technology-enabled finance, cybersecurity threats, consumer protection measures along with risk management practices by Fintech providers are among the topics that will deliberated by panellists on this programme.
The panel session, as a key feature of this Islamic Finance Executive Programme will highlight key issues and challenges in Islamic capital markets relating to the Shariah framework, the resilience of its infrastructures as well as develop policy recommendations drawing on the views and experiences of both supervisors and market practitioners.
Among the topics which will be covered are:
Digital Products and Islamic Finance
Application of Blockchain in Islamic Finance
Moderated Session: Regulatory and Legal Framework for Fintech
Fintech and Risk Management
Cybersecurity Threats and Protection of Financial Assets and Consumer Protection in Fintech
Panel Discussion on Digitisation of the insurance industry and learnings for the Takaful industry
The IFSB is an international standard-setting organisation that promotes and enhances the soundness and stability of the Islamic financial services industry by issuing global prudential standards and guiding principles for the industry, broadly defined to include banking, capital markets and insurance sectors.
The BIBF was established in 1981, and operates under the Central Bank of Bahrain as its main training arm serving the Banking & Finance sectors of Bahrain. TradeArabia News Service
A consortium of three contracting companies - WTE Water Technology, Azmeel Contracting Company and Tekton Engineering and Construction - has been awarded the deal for the expansion of Tubli Wastewater Treatment Plant.
This is the fourth expansion process since the plant was launched in the early 1980s. It will help boost the performance of Tubli Plant in addition to increasing the production of the treated water used for irrigation and agricultural beautification, said a statement from the Ministry of Works, Municipalties Affairs and Urban Planning.
The BD138 million ($364 million) expansion project will also include the construction of residue disposal facilities, it stated.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Minister of Works, Municipalties Affairs and Urban Planning, Issam bin Abdullah Khalaf said it is aimed at upgrading the sewage facilities to meet the needs of urban development and population boom by increasing the capacity from 200,000 cu m to 400,000 cu m per day.
Khalaf said the project is being funded by Saudi Fund for Development and the Kuwait Fund for Economic Development within the GCC Development Programme for Bahrain.
The project will be implemented within the next three years followed by two months of operational testing, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
The Ministry of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning has announced that it has completed the construction of the new access-way to Salmabad Industrial and Commercial Area in Bahrain.
This enhancement process will facilitate the traffic movement, thus enabling drivers easy access to West Salmabad area. The road will serve Bahrain IKEA Showroom as well as future commercial projects in the area, said the statement from the ministry.
The ministry affirmed that the project is a new access-way into the area and will contribute to smoothening the traffic flow as it includes two lanes for entering West Salmabad area from Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Avenue and one lane to exit into Shaikh Isa Bin Salman Avenue, it stated.
Moreover, the project includes the construction of a dual road to link between Shaikh Isa Bin Salman Avenue and Avenue 100.
The ministry said that the intake capacity of the road reaches approximately 3,000 vehicles per hour in both directions, adding, that the project will contribute to boosting the roads network that serve the new Salmabad Commercial and Industrial Area.
More exit/entry access-ways will constructed in the area after finalisation of the land interventions and adjustment of their status within the general new plan of the area resulting in a fully-integrated road network in West Salmabad, said the statement from the ministry.
The project constitutes part of the comprehensive plan undertaken by the ministry to develop the commercial projects service infrastructure and further boosting the kingdoms attractive economic and investment sectors and achievement of easy shuttling of customers as well as frequenters of vital and commercial projects, it added.-TradeArabia News Service
Honeywell, a global software-industrial leader, today organised a technology symposium in Kuwait in support of the countrys long-term vision to drive sustainable development and build smarter cities.
The Honeywell Technology Symposium 2018 was held under the theme Experience the IoT Evolution in Kuwaits Future Smart Buildings, at the Radisson Blu Hotel.
The event brought together building owners and operators from key industries, as well as thought leaders, end users and sector stakeholders.
Attendees discussed the latest technologies, business trends and Internet of Things (IoT) innovations driving the adoption of smart buildings and smart cities in Kuwait and around the world, said a statement from Honeywell.
The symposium also outlined the evolution of digital transformation in Kuwait, with a focus on the significant impact data analytics, IoT and cloud solutions have on the development of buildings, cities and real estate projects, it added.
Honeywell's President (Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon) George Bou Mitri said: Kuwait is modernising its national infrastructure and focusing on smart city developments under the ambitious Kuwait National Development Plan 2035.
Driven by these initiatives, buildings are becoming increasingly online and connected, presenting building owners and operators with an unparalleled opportunity to harness the power of the IoT and realise previously unobtainable levels of safety, productivity and efficiency, stated Mitri.
Through this symposium we are demonstrating how Kuwaits building owners and operators can capitalise on the IoT revolution to meet their objectives, and underscoring our commitment to supporting the country as it embarks on transforming its national infrastructure through cutting-edge innovation, he added.
During the symposium Honeywell's top officials showcased key solutions which are making buildings smarter and more connected across several industry verticals, including healthcare, airports and premium commercial facilities.
Spending on the technologies that enable smart city initiatives is forecasted to reach $1.26 billion for the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region in 2018. Security and energy efficiency were also high on the agenda, in line with the Kuwaiti governments objective to ensure greater safety and sustainability across industries, it said.
Paolo Cervini, president for Honeywell Building Solutions, Middle East, Russia, Turkey and Africa, added: Our customers in Kuwait and across the region are highly innovative, and are focused on becoming even more data-driven.
They are looking for ways to not only generate more data from their buildings, but turn that data into business insight that helps them drive safety, productivity and efficiency improvements, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
The CEO of NGN, a full-fledged systems integrator and IT consultant, has called to attract leading investors and entrepreneurs to develop a national plan to optimise the investment in Blockchain at the ongoing SmartSec summit in Bahrain.
Yaccob Al Awadhi cited the need for cooperation between public and private sectors, to support the growth and diversification of economy, as the central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) in partnership with Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) and other partners are cooperating to develop FinTech in Bahrain.
Al Awadhi assured the importance of keeping pace with Bahraini institutions for global development to use Blockchain technology, enabling registering transactions between users without the need for third parties.
He stressed the importance of harnessing this technology in the re-formulation of many concepts and transactions in various fields such as economy, energy, medical care, education, government services and banking.
Blockchain is booming in digital economy, where business and logistic sectors are using this technology to deliver their products and follow-up with their clients. Blockchain is also used to enable the huge multiply of e-commerce worldwide Al-Awadhi said.
Moreover, Al-Awadhi called for investing in the advantages of Blockchain technology in the implementation of national plans to diversify the national economy away from oil as the main source of income, noting that the amount of investments of technological and financial companies in this technology during the past year reached $ 1.4 billion.
Nearly 90 per cent of global banks in Europe and banks in North America are exploring and investing Blockchain technology to reduce the cost of banking infrastructure by up to 30 per cent, Al-Awadhi added.
He stressed the importance of supporting Bahraini initiatives aimed at identifying the latest international applications in advanced technical fields such as cybersecurity and Blockchain, and harnessing them to accelerate performance and raise the productivity and competitiveness of Bahraini public and private institutions.
Moreover, Al-Awadhi stressed the importance of developing cybersecurity for the current and future phases, based on international experiences and technical developments in various fields, providing secure electronic transactions, data protection, freedom and classification, which reflect positively on Bahrain's ranking in relevant international indicators.
NGN International is the diamond sponsor of SmartSec Conference, together with Kaspersky and Vectra. NGN is keen to support Bahraini initiatives aimed at identifying the latest international applications in the fields of advanced technology such as cybersecurity and Blockchain, and harnessing them to accelerate performance and increase productivity and competitiveness in Bahraini governmental and private institutions.
NGN will aim to provide Bahrain and Saudi Arabia enterprise customers with business solutions for complex information, computing, telecom, and engineering systems. In addition, the company provides consulting, implementation and support services with the focus on information and network security, virtual reality and 3D solutions, Internet of Things and Blockchain technologies, Building Information Modelling (BIM), IT infrastructure, and cloud services. TradeArabia News Service
Huawei Technologies saw its top official share the vision of a new frontier for cybersecurity regulations on the sidelines of SmartSec, Bahrain's leading cyber security and blockchain conference.
SmartSec, a two-day conference on the topics of cybersecurity and blockchain, is being held under the patronage of AbdulHussain bin Ali Mirza, the Minister of Electricity and Water Authority.
The event aims to bring leading international professionals in the field of Cybersecurity and Blockchain and provide attendees with a unique opportunity to get acquainted with the latest trends, innovation, and solutions in the industry.
Giving his key note address at SmartSec, Mika Lauhde, Vice-President of Cyber Security and Privacy, Global Public Affairs at Huawei Technologies, said: "As our society becomes increasingly dependent on the internet, cyber security has become an issue of common concern. Emerging technologies, while creating fresh opportunities for economic development, are also leading to new cybersecurity vulnerabilities."
"This is a trend affecting the entire globe: from hackers stealing $81 million from Bangladeshs national bank in a matter of hours, to the Equifax Data Breach that left the sensitive information of 143 million consumers exposed in the US," he added.
He called for increased international co-operation between policy-makers, governments, and private organizations to build an open and collaborative cyberspace capable of fighting new threats.
Lauhde identified two challenges to effectively combating these threats: the first is a global trend for each country to generate their own set of policies, resulting in a lack of coherence in international laws and practices, an issue further compounded by conflicting national interests hindering cooperation.
The second is a lack of understanding about technologies like Artificial Intelligent (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain making it difficult for regulators to formulate cogent and effective laws that protect users while continuing to foster the growth of new technologies.
The top Huawei official then shared a new vision for cyber regulations: to build a trustworthy, transparent, collaborative and open cyberspace, and thereby increase cybersecurity globally.
He called upon governments, industries, and users to reach out, work together, and through greater international cooperation enable organizations worldwide to more effectively combat cybersecurity threats.
"This issue is particularly relevant to the Middle East today, as the region prepares for the rollout of 5G networks. 5G will bring with it a dramatic expansion of a range of emerging technologies, from IoT to autonomous vehicles to AR/VR," stated Lauhde.
"As such, it is vital for authorities to set the regulatory scene right from the start. The impact of decisions made today will be felt in the coming years and even decades, according to Lauhde. By increasing collaboration between governments and private organizations and encouraging public-private partnerships, the region can lay down strong foundations to build out 5G while enhancing the security of all," he added.
Addressing the gathering, Lauhde said: Developing effective strategies to cope with cybersecurity threats is a core priority for countries in the Middle East, and globally, as digitalization continues to transform every facet of society."
"Huawei has always been a collaborative partner with private and public organizations in the Middle East, and we are committed to supporting the region as it pursues its vision of diversified, knowledge-based economies through digital transformation,." he noted.
"By increasing international collaboration and fostering trust and transparency globally, we believe we can effectively combat cyber threats and lay down the groundwork for a fully-connected, intelligent - and secure - world," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Rotana, a leading hospitality group in the Middle East, has appointed global airline and tourism representative Aviareps as its sales market representative in Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
The representation, which came into effect from August 10, sees Aviareps promote increased consumer demand for the Abu Dhabi-based hospitality brand which manages properties across 26 cities located throughout the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey.
Declan Hurley, Rotana corporate vice president - sales, said: The main responsibilities of these new offices will be to grow our client base, introduce our brands to new clients, and promote, market, and sell our properties within the dedicated European markets. Rotana has appointed Aviareps as its GSA (General Sales Agent), owing to their experience, reputation, and presence across key markets.
We are pleased with how our relationship has got off the ground and we have compiled a solid sales and marketing plan with a wide range of sales activities to roll out during the remainder of 2018 and throughout 2019, Hurley said.
Rotana is managing an ambitious expansion that will see its portfolio of operational properties increase from two in 1993 to 100 by 2020.
Thomas Drechsler, chief operating officer Tourism, Aviareps said: Its an honour to have Rotana join our portfolio of esteemed hospitality brands as we grow our clients businesses internationally through our well-established travel industry networks. Rotana shares our common values and goals of achieving industry excellence through growth, passion and delivery of concrete results. We look forward to further developing a long and mutually fruitful relationship.
Rotana offers industry partners and guests exceptional hospitality, which is delivered through their five main brands: Rotana Hotels & Resorts, Centro Hotels by Rotana, Rayhaan Hotels & Resorts by Rotana, Arjaan Hotel Apartments by Rotana and The Residences by Rotana. - TradeArabia News Service
Etihad Guest, the loyalty programme of Etihad Airways, has partnered with Abu Dhabi Mall, giving shoppers the chance to win up to 1.5 million Etihad Guest Miles between now and September 26.
For every Dh200 ($54.4) spent at the mall, shoppers will be eligible to enter the weekly draw to win 300,000 Etihad Guest Miles, enough for 10 flights to Sri Lanka, five flights to Seychelles or two flights to Los Angeles.
Yasser Al Yousuf, Etihad Guest managing director, said: For the back to school shopping season, we are proud to join Abu Dhabi Mall to provide shoppers with additional rewards for their purchases. The lucky winners of the weekly 300,000 miles will have a vast choice of how to use their winnings from flights, hotel stays and cars rentals to hundreds of products in the Reward Shop and donating to charity.
Additionally, Etihad Guest members can further earn Etihad Guest Miles by shopping at partner stores in Abu Dhabi Mall including Montblanc, Damas and Al Jaber Optical.
Etihad Guest members who pay with an Adib, Fab or ADCB partner credit or debit card, earn miles faster through their everyday spends, with up to three Etihad Guest Miles for every $1 spent.
With a strong commitment to creating a personalised travel experience for Arab-speaking members, last month, the Etihad Guest Arabic website was launched to deliver an improved experience for local customers. - TradeArabia News Service
The Federation of Carrier and Forwarder Associations of the countries participating in the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program held its ninth annual meeting in Ashgabat. Representatives of Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Georgia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as well as a number of international organizations attended the meeting.
The meeting participants discussed issues related to development of partnership in the transport and transit sphere within the framework of the CAREC Program. Development of trade among the regional countries, harmonization of the tariff policy and optimization of customs procedures were the focus of discussions.
TURKMENISTAN.RU, 2021
Driven from his land by conflict in South Sudan, farmer Singira Mirihewari traveled for 18 hours to tell leaders negotiating peace in Sudan what millions of refugees like him need.
We have suffered. We have been worst affected. The country is practically empty. Hardly anybody can stay there, he said after arriving in the capital, Khartoum, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to meet face-to-face with parties involved in revived peace talks.
If the leaders of South Sudan want us to go back, they have to first start by showing us that the peace is serious, he added.
Since conflict erupted in South Sudan in 2013, some 2.5 million people like Singira have fled extreme violence, rights abuses and unimaginable suffering as refugees, while nearly two million others are internally displaced inside the worlds youngest country.
He is among 16 refugee representatives who traveled from the DRC, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan to share their views, hopes and expectations with leaders of political factions who negotiated a peace agreement in Khartoum late last month.
We have suffered. We have been worst affected. The country is practically empty."
Known as the Revitalised Peace Agreement, the accord promises the rights of refugees to return in safety and dignity to South Sudan, and to be given physical, legal and psychological protection.
It guarantees their right to return to their places of origin or to live in areas of their choice. It also protects their rights to citizenship and documentation. But some of the refugees who travelled to Khartoum are worried about South Sudans ability to deliver on those promises.
We definitely want to go back. South Sudan is a rich country. We have everything, oil, gold, minerals. We can survive. But the leaders have to stop fighting, said Margaret Wani Ambi, a 62-year-old grandmother of five.
Margaret travelled to the meeting from Bentiue, an informal refugee settlement on the outskirts of Khartoum, with over 24,000 inhabitants, with another delegate. She wanted to hear more details of how the peace agreement would be implemented, including a clear role for refugees themselves.
I want to know the exact process of achieving peace. [Refugees] must have a say in the laws and in the structure of the country so there is no more war. We are outside the country but its our country and we have to have a role.
South Sudanese refugee delegates Singira Mirihewari (right) and Cecilia Elia Ofowa (left) attend peace talks in Khartoum, Sudan. UNHCR/Katharina Von Schroeder
For his part, Simon Marot Touloung, a married father of two who traveled from Uganda where he has lived since fleeing his home five years ago, wanted assurances from leaders that refugees would have a functional country to return to.
During the meeting I explained to them that no refugee will go back to South Sudan until things are working. They will have to fix the roads, build schools, get the economy working again. The judiciary. Everything has to start over again and that is going to take a long time, he said.
While many displaced were weary of living as refugees, he said: We will not go back to suffer a worse life. None of our women will return because in Uganda at least they can feed their children So I want to hear the plan to fix things. I will then go back to Uganda and tell other refugees what I heard.
Peter Kuany Garang was a chief in his community of Renk in South Sudan when fighting broke out in 2014. Amid indiscriminate killing and maiming, he led 24,000 of his people on foot to the safety of White Nile State in Sudan, where he has been a refugee ever since.
I explained to them that no refugee will go back to South Sudan until things are working."
I came today. I listened. I heard. We heard about the deal. In the camp where we live in White Nile we celebrated. Refugees want peace. Refugees want to go back to South Sudan, he said.
But I am a bit sceptical about the other side. I am a bit sceptical about how committed they are to peace. But we are willing to try and see. If this peace deal works, we can go back to tomorrow.
All parties to the agreement, from the government and opposition groups, were present at the meeting and listened to the views of refugees. They say they are serious about the role of refugees in the peace process, which they urged them to trust.
The Regional Refugee Co-ordinator and Special Adviser to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees for the South Sudan Situation, Arnauld Akodjenou, stressed the importance of refugee participation in the event.
Refugee representatives in Khartoum will serve to remind the countrys leaders and the world of the human toll that continues every day there is not peace in South Sudan, he said.
They "can also become strong peace advocates by spreading the word to refugee communities where they live, or upon return to South Sudan if they do decide to go back voluntarily.
Published: September 05, 2018
UT Honors Program Fall Symposia Series Begins Sept. 10
The University of Tampas Fall 2018 Honors Program Symposia series will begin on Monday, Sept. 10, with Michael Coon, UT assistant professor of economics. His talk, "Local Immigration Enforcement and Public Safety," will begin at 4 p.m. in the Trustees Boardroom in the Vaughn Center and is free and open to the public.
Coons research focuses on the economics of immigration, international economics and economic development.
In addition to Coon, speakers in the series include Jennifer L. Burton, UT assistant professor of marketing; Jeffery Fasick, UT assistant professor of biology; John Capouya, UT associate professor of journalism; Lorie Fridell, professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida; Alisha Menzies, UT assistant professor of communication; and Saul Cornell, a leading authority on early American constitutional thought and the Second Amendment.
All lectures are free, open to the public and held on the UT campus. See below for a full schedule:
Monday, Sept. 10, 4 p.m. Trustees Boardroom, Vaughn Center, Local Immigration Enforcement and Public Safety, Michael Coon, UT assistant professor of economics.
Tuesday, Sept. 25, noon. Trustees Boardroom, Vaughn Center, The Role of Affect and Cognitions on the Relationship Between Ad Frequency and Purchase Intentions, Jennifer L. Burton, UT assistant professor of marketing.
Tuesday Oct. 2, 4 p.m. Crescent Club, Vaughn Center, The Urban Whale, Jeffery Fasick, UT assistant professor of biology.
Monday, Oct. 8, 4 p.m. Trustees Boardroom, Vaughn Center, Black Music Mattered, John Capouya, UT associate professor of journalism, and Suzanne Williamson, photographer and installation artist.
Thursday, Oct. 25, 6 p.m. Grand Salon, Plant Hall, Implicit Bias and Policing, Lorie Fridell, a faculty member in the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida.
Friday, Nov. 30, 8 p.m. Trustees Boardroom, Vaughn Center, History of the Second Amendment, Saul Cornell, the Paul and Diane Guenther Chair in American History at Fordham University and a leading authority on early American constitutional thought and the Second Amendment.
Please note that dates and locations are subject to change. For more information, contact the Honors Program at (813) 257-3545 or honors@ut.edu.
Governor Appoints New UW Trustee
Laura Schmid-Pizzato
A University of Wyoming graduate and licensed clinical social worker from Sweetwater County has been appointed to fill an opening on the UW Board of Trustees.
Gov. Matt Mead Tuesday afternoon announced the appointment of Laura Schmid-Pizzato to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of John MacPherson, of Saratoga.
I am pleased Laura has accepted an appointment to the UW Board of Trustees, the governor says. She has been active in the Rock Springs community for 26 years in both professional and volunteer capacities, including involvement in her local K-12 school district and Western Wyoming Community College. Her unique background and points of view make her a good fit for the Board of Trustees. I am confident she will represent the University of Wyoming well in this role.
Schmid-Pizzato earned a bachelors degree in Spanish from UW and a masters degree in social work from the University of Utah. She is a licensed clinical social worker and is the recovery services manager for Southwest Counseling Service in Rock Springs. She also is president of the Wyoming Congressional Award Council and has maintained connections to UW through the UW Alumni Association, UW Foundation, Cowboy Joe Club and as professional mentor for UW students.
As a graduate and lifelong supporter of UW, I am honored to serve my university and state in this capacity, Schmid-Pizzato says. I truly believe the positive future of our state and university are interconnected. And I strongly believe that UWs importance is not only in educating our citizens, but that the university also is an essential community partner furthering research and initiatives around the state.
Appointed by the governor with consent of the Wyoming State Senate, the UW Board of Trustees consists of 12 members appointed to six-year, staggered terms. As the institutions governing body, the trustees have a broad range of responsibilities, including major policy and budgetary matters affecting the university.
We welcome Trustee Schmid-Pizzato to the board and look forward to working with her toward the continued betterment of our states university, Board of Trustees President Dave True says.
Schmid-Pizzato and her husband, Bret Pizzato, are the parents of three children, including one who attends UW.
AEON will sell its 30 per cent stake in Fivimart, but will not divest from Citimart
In AEONs Japanese-language press release, AEON Co., Ltd said that it has dissolved its partnership with Hanoi-based Fivimart, getting rid of its 30 per cent stake in Fivimart.However, there is no information about who will take over this stake yet.
With the aim to help AEON set up a distribution network of goods and reduce the amount of initial capital outlay while laying the groundwork for its plan to construct a series of shopping malls in Vietnam in the future, AEON acquired 30 per cent of Fivimart and 49 per cent of Citimart.
AEON decided to terminate the partnership believing that it will not prove fruitful due to the stark differences in their management strategies, including ways to open outlets. This means AEON will withdraw from 23 Fivimart stores, while maintaining its partnership with Ho Chi Minh City-based Citimart.
AEON said that this movement will not affect its operations in Vietnam.
AEON Group is preparing to open more small stores in emerging Asian markets like Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam. In particular, it aims to raise the number of its stores in Vietnam almost nine-fold to 500 by 2025.
AEON Group has four shopping malls in Hanoi, Binh Duong, and Ho Chi Minh City and is regarded as a major competitor on the Vietnamese retail scene. It plans to build a new mall in Hanoi and another in Haiphong in the short run, and have 20 malls across the country by 2020.
Meanwhile, AEON Group has been in partnership with Japans Sojitz Corporation to develop Ministop convenience stores. The two firms aim to raise the number of their joint outlets to 800 in the next eight years.
The Paris Agreement has promised poor nations US$100 billion annually from 2020 to cope with the impacts of climate change. (Photo: AFP/Nicolas Asfouri)
The six-day UN conference opened with an urgent plea from delegates to finalise a "rule book" governing the Paris Agreement, the most ambitious global pact yet, to address the impacts of climate change.
The rule book will have guidelines for the treaty's 197 signatories on how to provide support to developing countries worst affected, and manage the impact of climate change.
If nations cannot reach an agreement by a December summit in Poland - known as COP24 - the Paris Agreement, carved out in 2015, will be at risk.
"The credibility of the process... is at stake," Michal Kurtyka, president designate of COP24, said at the opening of Tuesday's meeting.
"We are not moving as swiftly as we can," he added. "We need concrete propositions and solutions now."
Money is at the heart of issue. The Paris Agreement has promised US$100 billion annually from 2020 to poor nations already coping with floods, heatwaves, rising sea levels and super storms made worse by climate change.
Developing countries favour grants from public sources and demand visibility on how donor nations intend to scale up this amount.
Rich countries want more private capital in the mix and prefer projects with profit potential.
Pressure is mounting on developed nations to take on more long-term financial responsibility given that their progress has exacerbated climate change.
As the impacts get worse, "the poorest and most vulnerable, who have contributed almost nothing to the problem, suffer more," said Patricia Espinosa of UN Climate Change, in a statement.
The Paris Agreement promises to cap the rise in global temperatures at "well below" two degrees Celsius.
But current pledges by countries would allow it to climb by more than three degrees.
The talks have also been marked by high-profile exits.
President Donald Trump announced last year that the US was leaving the agreement, and has refused to honour a US$2-billion pledge.
Environmental activists called for more accountability by richer countries in a protest outside Bangkok's UN building on Tuesday.
The lack of movement in the talks presses "developing countries to shoulder the undue burden of the triple costs of loss and damage, adaptation and mitigation on their own," said ActionAid International's Harjeet Singh in a press release.
Besides foreign brokers who have more than 15 years of operating experience in Vietnam, such as Savills and CBRE or Colliers International and Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) who came somewhat later, the Vietnam real estate market has drawn many new arrivals to the field.
Most recently, real estate agency PropNex has entered into a master franchise agreement with PropNex Realty Vietnam to grow its business in Vietnam.
New foreign faces are appearing in the Vietnamese real estate market
According to the agreement, Singapore-based PropNex gets a 25 per cent stake in the Vietnamese franchisee for a nominal sum of $1.
According to Ismail Gafoor, CEO of PropNex, with its growing economy and positive forecast for the real estate market, Vietnam will be an important place for PropNex to establish its brand.
Vietnam is the latest office of ProNex, following Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
The new franchisee occupies a 2,637 square feet (800,000 square metres) office space in Ho Chi Minh City and employs a sales staff of more than 70. PropNex has more than 7,454 salesmen in Singapore, 800 in Indonesia, and 100 in Malaysia.
Previously, ERA Asia-Pacific, another real estate broker, has expanded its footprint to Vietnam via setting up ERA Vietnam through a master franchise agreement with Eurocapital JSC, the property arm of Eurocapital Group, a private investment company based in Vietnam.
According to Jack Chua, chief executive for ERA Asia-Pacific, Vietnam is an up-and-coming country that saw tremendous growth in home sales last year, due in large part to government measures to improve urbanisation.
ERA Vietnam will benefit from strong referral channels with its ERA operations in Singapore, a popular target for Vietnamese residents purchasing properties abroad, Chua said.
ERA Vietnam is now one of eight markets in which ERA Asia-Pacific operates, joining Singapore, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
Huttons Vietnam, a joint venture between Huttons Internationalthe third largest broker in Singaporehas teamed up with Vietnamese company So Mot Realty.
Huttons International currently has more than 3,000 real estate salespersons and over a decade of project marketing experience, holding a significant 60 per cent market share in the sale of primary stock in Singapore. Huttons Vietnam's office was set up in a network spanning across Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Indonesia.
The development of the Vietnamese real estate market has been gaining traction. Major cities such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Danang, and Nha Trang are the primary targets of foreign brokers.
Together with the new arrivals, long-standing market participants like Savills Vietnam, CBRE Vietnam, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), Cushman & Wakefield, and Colliers International are executing services in all ranges from property brokerage, research and consulting, valuation and advisory, project marketing, and management to asset services.
At stake is access to rich stocks of scallops in waters near the mouth of the Seine River. (Photo: AFP/Charly Triballeau)
Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert told CNews television the navy was "ready to intervene in case of clashes".
Fishermen around 12 nautical miles off the Normandy coast last week hurled stones and insults in what has been dubbed a "Scallops War".
A British government source said it was France's "responsibility under international law to respond" since the clashes broke out in French waters.
"It's not our jurisdiction. The Navy are available if asked. It has not been asked," said the official, who asked not to be named.
At stake is access to rich stocks of the pricey delicacy in waters near the mouth of the Seine River.
French boats are allowed to fish there only between October to May to protect stocks.
But a deal struck years ago exempts British boats less than 15 metres (50 feet) long from the restrictions.
French fishermen want that loophole to be closed when representatives of the two sides meet for talks on Wednesday.
Mike Park, chief executive of the Scottish White Fish Producers Association, attending the meeting, said it was "difficult to be optimistic" on the prospects for an agreement.
"We hope to strike a deal but that would be down to the French, because they have rejected the terms we've had in previous years," he told AFP.
Tensions boiled over last Tuesday when five British boats sparred with dozens of French vessels in the waters off the French coast.
Some of the boats rammed each other, video footage showed.
"We're going to have to work on this, because this situation cannot continue, we can't have clashes like this," Travert said.
He said a new deal was needed to ensure "a sustainable and efficient management of scallop stocks."
But he said British fishermen should not expect a separate deal with France as the UK prepares to leave the European Union in March next year.
Travert said "tensions were rising" as the scheduled date for Brexit approaches.
"We want a global accord, and do not want to see fishing treated separately, because fishing should not be a variable for adjusting Brexit," he said.
Investors at FPT Securities JSCs trading house in Ha Noi. VNS Photo Truong Vi
The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange lost 1.37 per cent to close at 975.94 points. The southern market index gained total 0.25 per cent last week.
The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange fell 1.39 per cent to end at 111.23 points. It added 1 per cent in the previous week.
The VN Index has lost total 2.22 per cent in the last two sessions from Friday and the HNX Index has slipped 2.08 per cent in the same period.
Nearly VND4.74 trillion (US$210.6 million) worth of 231 million shares was exchanged on the two trading bourses.
The market breadth was negative with 175 gaining stocks against 271 declining while 107 others ended flat.
The decline was due to high investors caution as they worried about a market correction after the VN Index failed to beat the 1,000 point landmark last week, Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities JSC (SHS) said in its daily report.
Trading liquidity fell from Fridays figures and it proved investors were hesitant to buy in stocks, SHS said, adding it was difficult to define whether the VN Index just stepped back a little or it was on the way down from 1,000 points.
Investors caution spread among all stocks and forced 13 of the 20 sectors to go down, including key industries like banks, real estate firms, securities companies, retailers and construction contractors.
Large-cap VN30 Index recorded an even worse fall, losing 1.87 per cent to 951.14 points at the end of the day, with 24 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the basket declining.
Among declining stocks in the VN30 basket were budget carrier Vietjet Air (VJC), Vietinbank (CTG), Vincom Retail (VRE), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) and MBBank (MBB).
Given the signals, the market may still suffer strong correction and the VN Index is likely to drop to the support zone of 970 points in the next session, Bao Viet Securities JSC (BVSC) said in a note.
In case the VN Index broke down the support zone of 970 points, the market may experience a sharper downtrend on a weekly chart, BVSC added.
The August 15 press conference of IREC 2018
This is the first time that the Vietnam National Real Estate Association and the US National Association of Realtors agreed to organise IREC 2018 in Vietnam. The conference was held in the Philippines in 2015, South Korea in 2016, and Thailand in 2017.
IREC 2018 is taking place between September 5 and 7 at the National Convention Centre in Hanoi with the theme VietnamA world of opportunities.
In addition to Chairman of the Hanoi Peoples Committee Nguyen Duc Chung, Minister of Construction Pham Hong Ha, US Ambassador to Vietnam Dan Kritenbrink, and Chairman of the US National Association of Realtor Vince Malta, and leaders of the government will also attend and speak at the conference.
The conference is a good chance for state authorities, experts, and businesses to discuss topics like smart city and happy city, new global trends of construction and architecture, affordable and social housing, as well as the impacts of blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) on real estate.
There are also workshops on investment promotion and international real estate exhibitions on the sidelines of IREC 2018. Opportunities of investment connection will enable Vietnamese businesses to affirm their position and reputation on the world market.
Vietnam will further cement its relations with Russia, photo: VNA
It is expected that Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong will pay an official visit to Russia in the time to come. The visit, the Party chiefs second to Russia, is aimed at creating positive co-operative momentum in all sectors, especially the economic, trade, and investment fields, expanding the market share of Vietnamese goods in Russia.
It is expected that in addition to meeting with Russian leaders, Party General Secretary Trong will also meet with leaders of Russias oil and gas groups and visit the economic special zone of Kaluga oblast, where he will also likely attend the ground-breaking ceremony of Vietnamese TH Groups high-tech concentrated dairy and fresh milk production project.
According to Russias Presidential Executive Offices Information Office, an agreement has been reached by Vietnam and Russia on more than 20 major joint investment programmes worth a total of around $10 billion.
Vietnam and Russia have agreed to continue deepening their co-operation in oil refining, petrochemicals, and production and sale of gas engine fuel on the Vietnamese market. Russia will also supply liquefied natural gas to the Vietnamese market. In addition, the Russian-Vietnamese Investment Fund (RFPI) plans to invest up to $500 million in promising non-commodities projects, above all in pharmaceuticals and agriculture.
According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, there are many possibilities for the two countries to boost co-operation in the electricity sector. A Russian company, Siloviye Mashiny, is already building the Long Phu 1 thermal power plant in Vietnam. Our companies are ready to take part in modernising facilities built during the Soviet period and to build new facilities, President Putin said.
He added that the oil and gas sector remains a priority co-operation area. The joint venture Vietsovpetro accounts for around a third of oil production in Vietnam. The number of actors taking part in this co-operation continues to grow.
Russian companies Rosneft and Gazprom have started working on developing Vietnams continental shelf. In Russia, our companies are working with their Vietnamese colleagues to develop fields in the Nenets Autonomous Area, on the Yamal Peninsula, and in the Orenburg region, he said.
The two countries will also jointly implement projects to assemble Russian GAZ, KAMAZ, and UAZ vehicles in Vietnam. In addition, Mosmetrostroy and Russian Railways are ready to take part in building metro systems in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and in modernising Vietnams railway network.
Nearly two weeks ago, Chairman of the Danang Peoples Committee Huynh Duc Tho travelled to Russia to meet with GAZ Group, one of Russias largest truck manufacturers, to discuss a project to develop an assembly and manufacturing factory for its vehicles in the central city. A GAZ leader will visit Danang this December.
Russia is expanding its investment presence in Vietnam. Thus, we have begun implementing a bilateral deal on constructing automobile manufacturing and assembly plants in Vietnam with famous Russian brands like KAMAZ and GAZ. Hopefully, in the near future, these automobiles will approach the majority of Vietnamese consumers, Russias Ambassador to Vietnam, K.V. Vnukov, told VIR.
As of August 20, Russia had 117 investment projects in Vietnam, registered at $931.6 million.
Meanwhile, Vietnam has 13 projects worth about $3 billion in Russia. The largest projects include oil and gas joint ventures Rusvietpetro and Gazpromviet, the Hanoi-Moscow multi-functional cultural and business centre, and the TH agricultural-industrial complex in Moscow, Kaluga, Primorsky, and Bashkortostan. Notably, TH Group inked a deal worth over $630 million with RFPI in May 2018 in order to produce fresh milk in Russia.
After the free trade agreement between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union took effect in October 2016, the bilateral trade turnover between the two nations has soared annually by an average 30 per cent, reaching $3.55 billion last year.
WEF ASEAN 2018 will provide vast opportunities for enterprises to learn experience and improve their competitiveness, Photo: Le Toan
For years, Truong Gia Binh, chairman of FPT Group Vietnams IT leader has participated at almost all events within the World Economic Forum (WEF), which is considered a global forum for great ideas by global economic leaders.
More accurately, the WEF should be regarded as a market of ideas, in which FPT can look for partners who are global corporations with new products and novel ideas like Airbus. FPT have seen lots of opportunities from the WEF, Binh said.
Last month, FPT and Intellinet, a US-based purpose-driven management consulting and technology services firm, reached an agreement for FPT to become its major shareholder, expanding FPTs footprint in the US.
This partnership enables both firms to deliver end-to-end strategic IT services on a global scale, helping clients to accelerate their digital transformation journey. With a team of 150 Intellinet consultants joining FPTs taskforce, the two companies can provide a full range of technology solutions to clients worldwide, including consultancy, requirement definition, system design, development, implementation, and maintenance.
Becoming a technology partner of global enterprises in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we realise that there exists a huge demand for digital transformation consultancy and implementation services. By making a strategic investment in Intellinet, FPT is now more than ready to provide comprehensive digital transformation solutions for top companies, elevating Vietnams position on the global technology map, Binh said.
Currently, FPT is preparing to partake in the WEF on ASEAN 2018 (WEF ASEAN 2018) scheduled to take place in Hanoi on September 11-13.
This event will be like a big market where investment and business ideas are exchanged, which will help FPT seek new partners, Binh said.
Businesses and investors in Vietnam can learn from the experience of global companies. In some cases, your company can change its business strategy completely thanks to a single word of wisdom from a foreign partner. Then your companys future will be quite different from what you currently envisage, he said.
A dynamic economy
At a press conference on the WEF ASEAN 2018 held late last month in Hanoi, the WEFs president Borge Brende stressed that the Vietnamese economy has grown from strength to strength over the past few years, making the country one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
Vietnam grew by nearly 7 per cent last year, which is an impressive achievement, Brende said. Vietnam has been highly valued by many international organisations thanks to its unceasing efforts in improving its business climate.
Justin Wood, head of Asia Pacific and member of the executive committee at the WEF, told VIR that Vietnam has been opening up and engaging in the international community on many fronts, but particularly from an economic perspective.
If you look at the countrys trade, youll see that Vietnams trade volume has grown significantly. The Vietnamese government is also pursuing many free trade agreements, which have and will give many opportunities to Vietnam, Wood said.
Also, if you look at foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam, it has increased to a record level. So I think its clear that over recent years, Vietnams position in the world has become much more integrated and much more connected.
Vietnams total export-import turnover hit a record figure of $425 billion last year, and $308.07 billion in in the first eight months of this year, when the country enjoyed a trade surplus of $2.75 billion. As of August 20, 129 nations and territories invested in Vietnam, with the total registered capital of over $333.83 billion.
Vietnams position has been improving in the international arena. Vietnam has made steady progress in improving its investment climate, as evidenced by higher scores on the WEFs competitiveness index (up five points to 55th in the world), and the 2018 World Bank ease of doing business ranking (68th in the world, up 31 places since 2014).
All of this shows that Vietnams business and investment climate is improving, Wood said.
I believe that by bringing the global business community to Vietnam, it provides a fantastic opportunity for the country to talk about its reform process, the way to steer the economy in a new direction, and efforts by the government on improving the business and investment landscape, he continued.
Forum for ideas
The Vietnamese government and the WEF will jointly organise the WEF ASEAN 2018, which will welcome eight ASEAN heads of state or government and top public figures from South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The event will take place under the theme ASEAN 4.0: Entrepreneurship and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
According to WEF leaders, there will be lots of strong, positive stories about Vietnam at this event, and the global business community will have an opportunity to hear these stories and share them with the world.
There are many startup businesses in Vietnam, and we will have opportunities to meet and connect them with global companies at the WEF ASEAN 2018, Brende said. We will bring more than 100 successful ASEAN businesses to the event this time. Hopefully, this will inspire all startup businesses there.
Issues to be discussed at the meeting include Asias new balance of power, Asias next frontier, the future of jobs in ASEAN, Asias economic outlook, accelerating the ASEAN Economic Community, ASEAN pluralism, and designing cities 4.0.
Topics surrounding Industry 4.0, including emerging technologies like autonomous vehicles, blockchain, drones, and fintech, will also be highlighted. The meeting will also include workplace sessions on topics such as sexual harassment at work, and workplace 4.0.
Vietnam has become one of the strong points of interest at the WEF ASEAN 2018 event, because the global business community has recognised the rising influence and importance of Vietnam. They want to come here. They want to understand what the country is doing. They want to understand how Vietnam is integrating into the ASEAN region and the world, Wood said.
One of the ideas the WEF leaders want to share with Vietnam is the need for the country to invest more into education and training, and application of technologies related to artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, the Internet of Things, and blockchain, in a bid to develop itself into a digital economy in line with Industry 4.0.
If you want to visualise everything in the 21st century, you would need all these technologies, which means adequate research and development resources have to be provided. Please invest more in students, universities, and technology, Brende said.
Binh of FPT said that the group, along with hundreds of thousands of other Vietnamese companies, wishes to play a bigger role on the global playing field. One of the most important things is that we need a spirit of innovation and big thinking. The WEF ASEAN 2018 will offer great opportunities not only to FPT, but to all businesses in Vietnam, Binh said.
AmeriaBank and a host of business figures are players in this tangled web of give and take
This is the story of how former Armenian Chief of Police Vladimir Gasparyan was able to purchase the private home appearing above for US$ 200,000 when its market value at the time ranged between $3-4 million.
One of the questions to be answered is whether he influenced an Armenian bank to auction off the house, thus allowing its purchase at a price much lower than its market value.
Gasparyan, who was ousted from the post of Armenias top cop after Nikol Pashinyan came to power in May, now lives in the three-story house, located on a 2,836 square meter plot of land near Victory Park overlooking downtown Yerevan, with his family.
The house boasts an outdoor swimming pool, huge garage, and adjoining playground.
Hetqs investigation reveals that Gasparyan was able to snatch the house, which was put up as collateral at AmeriaBank at a liquidation value of $1.8 million in 2013, at a fraction of its market value due to the intervention of several notable players Arshak Hakobyan (former chief of Gasparyans security squad), Hayk Stepanyan (Gasparyans main adviser), businesswoman Silva Hambardzumyan, and various AmeriaBank officials.
Its a tangled story of relatives and bank transactions, but Ill simplify as much as possible.
The house was first purchased by Gasparyans mother-in-law Heghoush Galstyan. The owner of the house, Aghasi Danielyan, was never paid the AMD 900 million he was promised. Gasparyans mother-in-law Heghoush Galstyan took out a mortgage with America Bank but failed to make the payments. The bank then seized the house and put it up for auction.
Emil Zouloyan, a relative of Gasparyans wife and a former deputy director of the Police Educational Complex, then purchased the house, appraised at $1.8 million for $200,000. A few days later, he gifted the house to Police Chief Gasparyans son.
According to Armenias State Cadastre, the wife of Albert Yeritsyan (a prominent businessman in Armenia mostly known for the Father and Son Yeritsyan Supermarket), owned the house in 2012. It was obtained in 2013 by Yeritsyans friend Aghasi Danielyan. Heghoush Galstyan was the owner in 2014, followed by Emil Zouloyan in 2015 and then by Gasparyans son, also named Vladimir.
Yeritsyan decided to sell the house in 2012 because the family business empire had been faltering ever since it was alleged that he played a role in the attempted murder of Gagik Khachatryan, who was President of the State Revenue Committee at the time. This, and the scandals involving his son Robert, turned the local authorities against the family.
Albert Yeritsyan told Hetq that spoke to brokers about putting the house up for sale. His friend, Aghasi Danielyan, another businessman, purchased the house that had been collateralized at HSBC Bank. Danielyan reached a deal with Yeritsyan and took out a $1.6 million loan from the bank, which he used to buy the house.
Yeritsyan then recalled that the house was sold for AMD 900 million.
Danielyan told Hetq that it was Yeritsyan who approached him, requesting that he buy the house. He says that Yeritsyan told him that if he found a buyer willing to pay more, hed sell it to the newcomer. Danielyan says he agreed to the purchase because he wanted to help his friend. He took the $1.6 million loan (in equivalent AMD) and purchased the house which remained as collateral at the bank.
Later, according to Danielyan, Yeritsyan said that he had found a buyer willing to pay more, but that the house would have to be rebuilt. In 2013, Danielyan received an architectural assignment permit from the Yerevan Municipality.
Danielyan says that Yeritsyan found other buyers and wound up selling the house to two people.
This is when Silva Hambardzumyan comes into the picture. She had just purchased Three bread factories from Yeritsyan and, according to Danielyan, served as an intermediary in the transaction.
When an actual buyer was found, Yeritsyan said Silva was the go-between, says Danielyan, adding that the buyer was former Police Chief Vladimir Gasparyan.
Prior to this, AmeriaBank proposed to Danielyan that it assume his mortgage loan at HSBC. Universam Avan Ltd., a company owned by Danielyan, became the debtor and Danielyan was listed as the guarantor.
According to Danielyan, Silva Hambardzumyan was supposed to purchase the house for Gasparyan for $2 million. Hambardzumyans role ended when Gasparyans representatives found out that the house belonged to Danielyan, not Yeritsyan, as Hambardzumyan believed.
Danielyan says that before finding out who the house belonged to, they had already paid Yeritsyan $2 million. Hambardzumyan, in a taped interview with Hetq, also confirmed that Gasparyans reps had paid Yeritsyan a $2 million down payment and that the sale price was $3.2 million.
Yeritsyan has denied receiving any money.
Gasparyan issues threats
Danielyan says that Gasparyans reps got in touch with him in 2013 and negotiations started. Getting nowhere, the two met in 2014. Danielyan claims that Gasparyan told him that the money had been paid to Yeritsyan, but that he would get it back.
He said Id get my money back personally and pay me, Danielyan recalls.
At the urging of Gasparyan, and after being threatened by him, Danielyan sold the house to Gasparyans mother-in-law Heghoush Galstyan at a contract price of AMD 900 million. When Danielyan demanded the money, he says the Gasparyan family started to threaten him.
Danielyan says they threatened to turn his kids into drug addicts, among other things.
At the same time, Danielyan sold Universam Avan to Silva Hambardzumyan. Thus, the company remained the debtor but Hambardzumyan was the new guarantor of the loan. The house itself remained as collateral, now under the name of Heghoush Galstyan, and two other properties were collateralized one under the name of Danielyans son and the other under Hambardzumyans sister.
According to an agreement reached between Aghasi Danielyan and Heghoush Galstyan, the former never received the AMD 900 million.
In 2016, Danielyan lodged a formal complaint against Yeritsyan, and not Gasparyan, who was police chief at the time, arguing that Yeritsyan had deceived him and sold the house to Galstyan.
A criminal case was never launched based on Danielyans complaint. Appeals to higher courts proved fruitless.
AmeriaBanks role in the transaction
Realizing that hed both lost the house and the money, Danielyan stopped payments on the loan. AmeriaBank again had the house, with a 2014 market value of $1.8 million, appraised again. This time, it was valued at AMD 500 million ($1 million).
Danielyan says the bank illegally organized several auctions in 2015. With no potential buyers, the house was devalued and eventually sold for AMD 100 million to Emil Zouloyan.
After registering the house in his name, Zouloyan gifted it to Gasparyans son Vladimir Jr. Since the son was a minor at the time, the transaction papers were signed by Zouloyan, Vladimir Gasparyan Sr., and his wife Sousanna.
In 2015, AmeriaBank sued Danielyan for $1.256 million. Danielyan says he never received court date notices and he was absent for most of the trial. The court found in favor of AmeriaBank.
Danielyan filed a countersuit against the bank, demanding that he been freed from all loan obligations. A lower court found in his favor, but the decision was overturned by the Court of Appeals. The Court of Cassation threw out Danielyans appeal.
Danielyan says that AmeriaBank representative Artak Avanesyan swung the Court of Cassation against him since Avanesyan is the son of Vardan Avanesyan, a member of the courts civilian chamber.
AmeriaBank wrote to Hetq saying that the bank saw no conflict in Artak Avanesyans actions and said that under the law it is not legally required to notify the former owner of the property or its current guarantor of any upcoming auctions. Thus, the bank claims that there were no secret auctions as argued by Danielyan.
AmeriaBank also denies that Gasparyan played any role, or intervened, to have the house put up for auction.
As things stand today, the house is under the control of the Gasparyan family. Aghasi Danielyans bank accounts and those of Universam Avan Ltd. have been frozen for non-payment of loan obligations. Danielyan has also not received the AMD 900 million Heghoush Galstyan paid Yeritsyan for the house.
None of Vladimir Gasparyans financial disclosures ever mentioned the house at 2/5 Papazyan Street. The fact that the house was gifted to Gasparyans under age son was by no means accidental. The law does not require the minor child of a government official to declare gifts received, even if they are million-dollar homes.
China has a history of around 5,000 years, but prior to the Qin Dynasty that began in 221 B.C., the concept of China was totally different than the one with which we are now familiar.
Much like Europe during the Middle Ages, China was run according to feudalism. One king reigned in the capital, while dukes provided him tribute and respect in exchange for the right to rule their own vassal states.
The Zhou Dynasty was the last of the feudal Chinese kingdoms. It began over 3,000 years ago and lasted around 800 years. By the second half of the dynasty, however, the Zhou royals no longer wielded any political authority. Real power was in the hands of the dukes, who began to call themselves kings. Bigger states conquered smaller states, and after hundreds of years, China was controlled by seven kingdoms the Warring States.
Unifying the Seven States
In the 300s B.C., the state of Qin, located in western China, implemented a massive reform according to the ideology of Legalism. In successive wars and diplomatic schemes, Qin expanded in all directions.
But a great nation still needs great leaders to see it through to victory. In the year 246 B.C., 13-year-old Ying Zheng ascended to the Qin throne, while his mother Queen Zhao and her old lover, the merchant Lu Buwei, ran politics behind the scenes. More disturbingly, Queen Zhao conspired with her new lover, the fake eunuch Lao Ai, to usurp power completely and turn the throne over to Lao Ais illegitimate children.
Despite this treatment, Ying Zheng bided his time. Nine years later, at the age of 22, he had Lao Ai executed and put Queen Zhao under house arrest. Finally, he could rule in his own right.
Ying Zheng continued the sound Legalist policies that raised his country to greatness over a century earlier. In addition, he resisted the xenophobic opinions held by some of his officials and hired whoever was willing and capable of making Qin stronger no matter where they were born.
As mighty Qin armies crushed the states of central China, a man acting on orders of the crown prince of Yan State paid a visit to Ying Zheng in the capital of Qin. The ambassador, Jing Ke, brought the head of a fugitive Qin general, as well as a map showing all the territories that Yan would cede to Qin in exchange for peace.
But at the very last moment, Jing Ke produced a hidden dagger and tried to kill Ying Zheng. The Qin king was able to dodge his blade, and, drawing his own sword, slew Jing Ke in the throne room.
A few years after Jing Kes failed assassination, in 221 B.C., Qin had conquered the rest of China.
Imperial tradition
King Ying Zheng now reigned unopposed over tianxia () under heaven, or the entire world known to the Chinese. With no more states or dukes, he felt that the title of king was no longer enough to express the majesty of his position. His attention turned to two Chinese characters, huang () and di (). These were terms of ultimate respect reserved for the ancient rulers of China, as well as the gods. Ying Zheng combined these into one word, huangdi, and declared himself Qin Shi Huangdi (), or the First Emperor of Qin.
Qin Shi Huang worried about the future of his empire and did what he could to prevent its disintegration. In the process, he united not only the territory of China and created a strong central government, but also mandated standardization of the Chinese language. Whatever their spoken dialect, the characters people used to write would be the same wherever they went.
The law under Qin was extremely strict. Even minor violations could be punished severely. In 210 B.C., Qin Shi Huang died. His enlightened son Fu Su should have succeeded him, but after generations of war, Qins officials were hardened men who lusted after profit and power. They usurped the throne and forced Fu Su to commit suicide.
The Qin Dynasty soon collapsed, lasting just 15 years. But the central authority, imperial majesty, and cultural unity that it created lasted for over two millennia. The foreign name China comes from the ch pronunciation of the q in Qin, and historians still remember Ying Zheng as Qin Shi Huang the First Emperor.
Follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our weekly email
In October 2017, the UN under-secretary for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, secretly drew up a list of instructions for all UN agencies about the attitude they should adopt concerning the conflict in Syria.
None of the member-States of the Organisation, not even the members of the Security Council, were informed of the existence of these instructions. At least, not until the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Serguei Lavrov, revealed them on 20 August last [1].
We have just acquired a copy of the list [2].
This document betrays the United Nations Charter [3] by inverting its priorities. While the UNs main objective is to maintain peace and international security , Feltmans instructions place the respect for human rights above this goal. In this way, those rights become an instrument which work against peace.
The expression human rights existed well before it was given a legal definition (in other words before it became opposable in court). In the 19th century, the British Minister for Foreign Affairs made frequent use of the phrase in order to justify certain of its wars. It was in order to defend the populations, he declared, that he was ready to wage war against the Ottoman Empire. In reality, it was nothing other than a clash between the British Empire and the Sublime Porte. The People who had allegedly been liberated by London were never made more comfortable under this master than any other. In the 20th century, the term human rights was first of all the trade mark of the no frontiers NGOs, and then the slogan of the Trotskyists allied with CIA, the neo-conservatives.
Although the UN Charter uses the expression human rights six times, it does not make it an ideal in itself. Respect for these rights can only exist in times of peace. Do we need reminding that war is a period of trauma during which individual rights are shattered? It is a terrible situation where, in order to save a People, we have to accept that some of them will be forfeit.
This is why we make a distinction between the police and the army. The police protects individual rights, while the army protects collective rights. The police must respect human rights , while the army can ignore them. It seems that our contemporaries, imprisoned by their comforts, have lost the sense of these elementary distinctions.
If human rights-ism was initially a mask for territorial conquest taken to the extreme, it has become the ideology of the destruction of national state structures. For our rights to be respected, we have to be citizens of the world and accept an open society , without frontiers , administrated by a world government .
This is to scorn the history and culture of each of these citizens of the world , and impose on them what seems to be best for us and therefore for them.
In this new document by Jeffrey Feltman, human rights are once again a pretext. This personality participated in the government of Iraq by a private company designed on the model of the East India Company, the badly-named Coalition Provisional Authority [4], thus showing how little respect he had for the rights of the Iraqis. He expressed his true goal for Syria in a series of documents known as the Feltman Plan [5]. In these documents, he proposes to cancel the sovereignty of the Syrian People and install a foreign government, just as he did in Iraq.
Self-assured, he writes - The Plan for humanitarian action must remain humanitarian in order to guarantee that the UNO will be able to bring to a successful conclusion the essential humanitarian activities necessary for saving lives and guaranteeing the essential needs of the populations. Apart from that, development or reconstruction activities should be reflected in other contexts which, by their nature, will involve longer periods of negotiation with the governments. This is essential, given the complex legal and political questions in play . In other words, feed the refugees, but do not fight the starvation which is wasting them it should remain an argument we could use in our negotiations with the Syrian state.
The Jordanians, the Lebanese, the Turks and the Europeans will be surprised to read - The UNO does not favour the return of refugees or displaced people, but will support the repatriated with a view to guarantee the safe, dignified, informed, voluntary and durable character of return and reintegration, as well as the rights of Syrians to seek asylum . Borrowing from the theory of Professor Kelly Greenhill [6], Feltman does not want to help the exiles to return to their homes, but intends to use their exodus in order to weaken their country.
UN assistance must not help those who have committed war crimes or crimes against humanity , he specifies, forbidding, as a conservative measure, all aid to any power at all.
He states - It is only when a true and inclusive political transition has been negotiated by the parties concerned that the UNO will be prepared to facilitate reconstruction . We are a long way from the ideal of the Charter.
The politico-media tornado lifted by the confrontation between the Europeists and the Sovereignists hides what the reality actually is a Europeism without Europe and a sovereignism without sovereignty.
The politician who is brandishing the banner of Europeism at the moment is President Emmanuel Macron, in an attempt to advance French power not only in Europe, but also in Africa. France, co-promoter with the USA of NATOs war which in 2011 demolished the Libyan State (a war in which Italy played a major role), is trying by any means possible to control Libya and her rich resources - enormous reserves of oil, natural gas and fossil water not to mention its territory, which is of great geostrategic importance.
For this purpose, Macron is supporting the militias who are fighting the government of Fayez al Serraj, also supported by Italy, which, with ENI (National Hydrocarbon Company) holds major interests in the country.
This is only one example of the way in which the European Union, founded on the interests of the economic and financial oligarchies of the great powers, is beginning to crumble under the assaults of its economic and political oppositions, of which the migrant question is only the tip of the iceberg.
Faced with the predominance of France and Germany, the Italian 5 Stars-League government has made a specific choice to increase the weight of Italy by linking itself even more strongly to the United States. Thus the meeting between Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte and President Donald Trump, to which the media paid little attention. And yet in this meeting, a number of decisions were taken which have a notable influence on the international position of Italy.
Above all, it was decided to create a permanent Italy-USA chamber of operations in the Greater Mediterranean , in other words in the area which, in US / NATO strategy, stretches from the Atlantic to the Black Sea and, to the South, to the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean.
In reality, this chamber of operations is in the hands of the USA, or more specifically, the Pentagon, while Italy is only awarded a secondary role as assistant, and generally, the role of extra.
According to Conte, on the contrary, this is a strategic cooperation, almost a twin position, by which Italy becomes a pont of reference in Europe, and the privileged interlocutor of the United States for the main challenges we will have to face . This announces a later reinforcement of the strategic cooperation with the United States, in other words, a privileged role for Italy as the launching point for US forces, including nuclear forces, to the East as well as the South.
The American administration recognises that Italy has a leadership role as a nation which promotes the stabilisation of Libya , declared Conte, implicitly announcing that Italy, and not France (less trustworthy in the eyes of Washington), had received from the White House the mission of stabilising Libya.
All we need now is to work out how to do that.
The International Conference on Libya will not be enough this was supposed to be held in Italy in the autumn, before the Libyan elections sponsored by France, which should be held in December. It will also need a military engagement directly on the ground, and a cost in human lives and material as well as unexpected outcomes.
The sovereignist choice by the Conte government will therefore reduce national sovereignty, by making Italy even more dependent to what is decided in Washington, not only the White House, but the Pentagon and the Intelligence Community, composed of the 17 federal agencies which specialise inspying and secret operations.
The true sovereignist choice would be the genuine application of the constitutional principle according to which Italy repudiates war as an instrument of offense to the liberty of other peoples and as a means for the resolution of international conflicts.
Lawyers for former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan say that yesterdays decision by the Special Investigative Service (SIS) to prevent their client from leaving the country, by having him sign an affidavit to that effect, is illegal given an August 13 Court of Appeals ruling that Kocharyan has immunity and cannot be prosecuted for the March 1, 2008 post- election violence in Yerevan that killed ten.
Kocharyan, the outgoing president in 2008, was charged on July 26 of usurping state power to quell the mass protests that followed the contested February 2008 presidential election that ushered in the ten-year reign of Serzh Sargsyan as present.
The lawyers, Aram Orbelyan and Hovhannes Khudoyan, told reporters today in Yerevan that they have written to the Border Forces of the SIS to find out the details regarding the restrictions placed on Kocharyan's freedom of movement.
As to rumors that the SIS has seized Sargsyans passport, Orbelyan said that a law on the books allowing an investigative body to hold a defendants passport during a case was found unconstitutional in 2017 and cannot be applied in this case.
This clause cannot be applied and the body conducting the case has no right to hold the passport if there is no corresponding detainment measure, said Orbelyan.
The lawyer said that the decision by the Court of Appeals must be executed and that the SIS must cease its prosecution of Kocharyan.
Theres the decision of the Court of Appeals that Kocharyan has immunity from prosecution. This doesnt mean that he enjoys total immunity. It means that the charge cannot be investigated since the actions were those of the president, one can say, of the state, Orbelyan said.
Chief Minister Congratulates GJBS on 30th Anniversary
Chief Minister Fabian Picardo joined the management and staff of Gibraltar Joinery & Building Services on Saturday evening at a function to mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the company.
Mr Picardo told those present that, as representative of the shareholder in GJBS, he thanked the men and women of the company for the great work they have done for three successive administrations in the three decades since the company was established. Mr Picardo said he extends thanks to the work force and management of GJBS on behalf of the three Chief Ministers that the company had served to date, Hon Sir Joe Bossano and Hon Sir Peter Caruana QC, in additional to himself.
The Chief Minister said that the quality of the work done by GJBS in the past 30 years was of the highest standards and had contributed, as the company's slogan specifically states, to building a better Gibraltar.
"I thanked the men and women of GJBS on Saturday night for their work over the past three decades, for their dedication to delivering for the Government and in the work they do so successfully when they compete in the private sector. I extend thanks on behalf of Sir Joe, Sir Peter and myself for the work done for each successive administration since 1988. I also praised the quality of the work of GJBS and then led those present in raising three cheers for the workforce to celebrate the first three great decades of this great Gibraltarian company. I was honoured indeed to have been invited to the event as the current Chief Minister, and thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the men and women of GJBS."
Fall Preview The most anticipated releases of the season ahead. Kiernan Shipka. Photo: Amanda Demme
Kiernan Shipka is only 18, and she has already given up coffee. This is me getting cray, she says as she breaks her own rule and orders a macadamia-nut latte at one of her favorite Los Angeles breakfast spots. While she usually favors a homemade drink made of matcha and mushrooms, today shes in the mood for something stronger. My body has been under more stress than ever before, she says. I dont think the adaptogens are helping, I really dont. Every morning after I drink my drink, Im like, Im still so stressed out! Come on, chaga, pull your weight over here.
Talking about herbal stress relievers with Shipka has the uncanny quality of going out for drinks with a cousin you used to babysit, or running into your now grown-up kid neighbor on Tinder. For nearly nine years, Shipka was TVs embodiment of girlhood in transition. We watched her grow up in front of us as Mad Mens Sally Draper, from a neglected 6-year-old with a dry-cleaning bag on her head to a world-weary 15-year-old grappling with the imminent loss of one parent and seeing another through new eyes. But over sneaky lattes on this sunny August morning, Shipka looks, for once, like a thoroughly modern teen. Her shoulder-length blonde hair usually coiffed into a 60s-style bob for her period turns on Mad Men and Ryan Murphys Feud is straight and pinned back. She radiates that freckly, makeup-free glow that Glossier has tried so hard to bottle but is best obtained by being a teenage girl on a sunny summer day in California.
While her name is liable to provoke misty-eyed nostalgia in a certain generation of AMC viewers, Shipka has never really been a celebrity among her peers. Most people who were my fans were my friends parents, she says with a shrug. That is very likely to change when Chilling Adventures of Sabrina rolls out on Netflix on October 26. A sister show to the immensely popular Riverdale, Sabrina seems tailor-made to spur the kind of frenzied teenage fandom that has turned Riverdales first couple, Lili Reinhart and Cole Sprouse (a.k.a. Betty and Jughead), into the Gen-Z Brangelina. With Sabrina, not only does Shipka stand to finally find a fan base her own age, she is also taking on the role of a teenage blonde so iconic that it might just unseat Sally Draper as her primary TV alter ego. Sometimes you need an icon to play an icon, says showrunner and Archie Comics chief creative officer Roberto AguirreSacasa, who also developed Riverdale. And she was more than ready to be No. 1 on the call sheet.
Modeled after Aguirre-Sacasas 2013 Archie Horror comics, the new Sabrina takes a beloved half-hour comedy from the late 90s and reimagines it as an occult story in the vein of Rosemarys Baby or The Omen. Aunties Hilda (Lucy Davis) and Zelda (Miranda Otto) arent the jovial fairy godmothers of Melissa Joan Harts Sabrina the Teenage Witch theyre bona fide Devil worshippers whose version of a sweet 16 is something called a dark baptism, in which you sign your name in Satans book and pledge eternal fealty to the Dark Lord. In the pilot, we meet the half-witch, half-human Sabrina on the eve of her 16th birthday, when she is expected to renounce her mortal life (and her cute mortal boyfriend, Harvey) and embrace the spell-casting gig full time. But as she prepares to undergo this initiation, she is confronted with some ugly truths about her community and the worldview shes expected to uphold. Its sort of like The Sopranos, as if you were telling it from Meadows point of view, Aguirre-Sacasa says.
When Mad Men ended, in 2015, Shipka had been on the show for more than half her life and had never been to a normal school. The show was her education and show creator Matthew Weiner her homeroom teacher. You know how you get stress dreams about showing up to your AP Bio exam having forgotten to study? Shipka has her own version for Mad Men: I had one recently where I was with January [Jones] in a boat and I didnt know any of my lines and I was really stressed out. And Matt Weiner was like driving by in a car looking at us.
Shipkas feminist Sabrina on the Devil: I have reservations about saving myself for the Dark Lord.
In the past few years, Shipka has taken on smaller projects playing Bette Daviss daughter on Feud, opposite Susan Sarandon; a cameo in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt; an indie horror movie called The Blackcoats Daughter but nothing she could really sink deeply into. I was sort of like a frustrated actor, she says. When Sabrina came along, I was like, Oh my God, this is heaven. Im obsessed with everything about it.
Well, almost everything. The cat is the one cast member I dont get along with, Shipka says. She found out she was allergic during her first month on set, when she broke out in hives after picking up one of the five feline actors who play the cat named Salem. The cats are like Bobby Draper, she jokes, referring to the passel of kids enlisted to play Sallys little brother over the years.
When Shipka was cast, Aguirre-Sacasa had written only the pilot, and the pair had many conversations about the shows tone and themes. Shipka was especially drawn to its feminist aspects, which Aguirre-Sacasa took and ran with. Unlike Mad Men, a tale of womens empowerment disguised as a macho anti-hero story, theres nothing subtle about Sabrinas feminist allegory. The club Sabrina forms at her mortal high school is called WICCA (for Womens Intersectional Cultural and Creative Association), while Satan is described as an abusive patriarch. (I have reservations about saving myself for the Dark Lord. Why does he get to decide what I do or dont do with my body? Sabrina asks at one point.) Its also very much a teen show, mixing the campy melodrama of Buffy with Riverdales penchant for snappy dialogue and teenage intrigue.
Despite her close relationships with onscreen parents Jon Hamm and January Jones, Shipka acknowledges that its been nice to finally have some co-stars her own age. In addition to the other teens on the show, the cast of Riverdale shoots five minutes away from them in Vancouver and has come to form the sort of extended friend group most young people have in high school. Im like, Oh my God, this is like my dorm! Its the whole thing, she exclaims. Shipkas recent Instagram posts have the ebullient energy of a college freshman on a first-semester friend-making spree; in a recent video shot during a cast game night, she and her co-stars dance it out to Drakes viral In My Feelings challenge, with Shipka as the centerpiece. Its cause everyone calls her Kiki, explains 22-year-old Ross Lynch, who plays her boyfriend, Harvey Kinkle. Right when the song came out, she was like, Hey, guys, Drake loves me.
Lynch was also a child actor, which is something he and Shipka have bonded over on set. Shes super-professional and way beyond her years as far as her maturity goes, but shes also younger in some ways than your average 18-year-old, he says. We relate in that way. We dont have normal lives. We never had regular relationships as far as boyfriends and girlfriends.
Thats the one thing that is all acting I do not have a relationship, Shipka says, laughing. Im too busy, man. Still, she recounts Sabrinas onscreen dalliances including a love triangle with Harvey and a warlock boy with a glint in her eye. Its not very hard to like either of those boys, to be honest. Theyre really cute.
Tomorrow, shes returning to Vancouver to shoot the next ten episodes of Sabrina (the show was picked up for a two-season order). Its gonna be great, and people are gonna love it, she declares with true-believer conviction. Sure, Shipka knows the newfound attention will be an adjustment, but she seems better poised than most to handle the pressures of being a teen icon. Unlike Millie Bobby Brown and her ilks, Shipkas rise through the industry has been remarkably free from trolling and tabloids and shes hardly a social-media lightning rod, boasting a modest 450,000 Instagram followers to the Riverdalers multimillions. And yet, after spending almost a decade on the prestige-iest of prestige dramas, shes eager not to be the kid on the adult show anymore. [Shooting] Mad Men, I actually had a lot of normalcy and stability and a lot of being in one place, she says. Now Im like, Send me anywhere. Ill do it!
I ask if shed ever consider being a mentor to the Stranger Things kids of the world, those other impressionable youngsters navigating the grueling slog of being a child actor in Hollywood. If they want to slide into my DMs, any day! she says. Though, as an industry old fogey, she says shes the one wholl probably need tips from them. Like, what time should I post things? I probably need their advice when it comes to the gram.
Production Credits Styling by Rebecca Ramsey
Hair by Dritan Vushaj at Forward Artists
Makeup by Lauren Gott
Jacket by Miu Miu
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina premieres on Netflix on October 26.
*This article appears in the September 3, 2018, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!
Fall Preview The most anticipated releases of the season ahead. Lucas Hedges. Photo: Amanda Demme
Yesterday was my first tough day, and the first tough day on any project is like the end of the world, says Lucas Hedges, sinking into his seat. The 21-year-old actor has met me for pizza after a rehearsal for The Waverly Gallery, a new Broadway staging of Kenneth Lonergans 1999 play that casts Hedges as a young man relating the tale of his Alzheimers-stricken grandmother, played by Elaine May. The first two days of rehearsal were good ones, Hedges tells me. The third, however, triggered a minor existential crisis.
I just felt like, Im letting everybody down, Ill never know how to play this part, its gonna be six months of misery, Hedges says, his sentences floating to earth in a native New Yorkers weary, what-are-ya-gonna-do cadences. With The Waverly Gallery, he had resolved to commit the words to memory much later in the rehearsal process, so as not to get too married to his line readings. Now, though, Hedges fears everyone else in the cast must think hes unprepared. Like every great project, he says, its one of those things where I honestly dont know if Ill survive.
Photo: Amanda Demme
Hedges doesnt sound gloomy about his neuroses he carries them around, matter-of-factly, like a backpack hes been wearing for years. Youd hardly know from talking to him that his last three movies had all been nominated for Best Picture and that he has been nominated for an Oscar himself, or that every director in Hollywood seems to have Hedges on the top of their must-cast list. Hes charming, funny, smart, emotional, and versatile, says Lonergan, whose 2016 film Manchester by the Sea gave Hedges his breakout role as an orphaned smart-ass. Who wouldnt want to work with him?
Last fall, that included Greta Gerwig, who picked Hedges to play Saoirse Ronans closeted boyfriend in Lady Bird, and Martin McDonagh, who cast him in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri as Frances McDormands son, the only person in that town her character could not intimidate. This fall, as Hedges takes the stage in The Waverly Gallery, youll also see him onscreen as an abusive older brother in Jonah Hills Mid90s and playing his first lead roles in Joel Edgertons Boy Erased and Ben Is Back, directed by his father, Peter.
Theres a real Everyman, or Every-young-man, quality to him, says Edgerton, who calls what Hedges has a beautiful regularness. In person, Hedges is slight, with close-cropped hair, a sly gaze, and blond eyelashes that glint in the light, but his is a human-sized handsome, built for human-sized movies. I think there are certain actors who resemble people more than actors, Hedges says. Growing up, he identified with character actors three or four times his age, like Alan Arkin and John Turturro men who could play anybody and be anything. Maybe hes more like them than his contemporaries, Timothee Chalamet and Tom Holland, young heartthrobs who can inspire breathless BuzzFeed articles simply by walking outside. Or maybe that will soon come for Hedges, too.
He is curious about that, just as he is curious about how he will come across in the profile Im writing. At this stage, not many profiles have been written yet, and that has afforded him the freedom to try on new identities, both onscreen and off. I feel like Im a million different things, he says. It makes me feel, at least, that I belong in what I do for a living but it terrifies me because it makes me feel like Im not a person. This was true in school, where Hedges could flit between cliques with an ease that startled him, and it is true now, when each project calls for him to make himself over yet still, in some way, remain authentic. But it is not easy to remain a million different things in an industry and a world that would ultimately prefer you to just pick one.
Photo: Amanda Demme
Though he changes, Hedges tells me, based on whomever he is around, some of his qualities seem to be innate, like the self-doubt he cant seem to shake. At this point, I dont even watch my movies just because of how problematic they make me feel, says Hedges. Mostly because I felt like every movie I did, I was the worst part of it. Even his Oscar-nominated performance in Manchester by the Sea? I genuinely thought I ruined the movie, he says. I remember thinking, The movie could have been good, but it isnt because Im in it. But Hedges cant stand talking about how he cant stand watching himself, because he thinks it makes him sound like the sort of cliched male thespian who revels in self-inflicted pain. Some artists believe its a part of what they need to be in order to be good at what they do, he says. I think thats actually bullshit, but it just so happens to be my experience.
He came in [for Manchester] half-nervous and half-confident, recalls Lonergan. The confident half disappeared in seconds. He worked very hard to get it back. Edgerton corroborates: Hes incredibly tough on himself. But I would rather meet someone who thinks theyre terrible and is actually wonderful than somebody who thinks that theyre wonderful and isnt.
Boy Erased, which Edgerton wrote and directed, stars Hedges as a gay teenager who is sent to conversion therapy by his religious parents, played by Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman. Its based on the memoir by Garrard Conley, and Hedges quickly keyed into Conleys difficult journey toward self-acceptance. I recognized that sense of anticipating and waiting for anyone and everyone to be like, Theres something wrong with you, he says. Its a story about shame, which felt to me like the governing factor of my life and my childhood.
Photo: Amanda Demme
It might sound unlikely for Hedges to state such a thing, or to be so self-doubting in the first place: After all, he was raised in a happy, artistic Brooklyn household by his father Peter, a filmmaker, and mother Susan, an actress and poet. Still, Hedges grew up convinced that there was something wrong with him. I remember becoming obsessive, he says. I had this compulsion to confess all my thoughts to my mother, any bad thought I had.
Once, in third grade, Hedges told her he had a crush on a boy at day camp. I felt terrible about it, he says. I remember her being very comforting, and she understood that something was distressing me, and she said, You dont have to go back to camp today. He pauses. Im sorry, I cant help but feel a little self-conscious, only because Im talking to you and the world at the same time.
Hedges knows that since hes starring in Boy Erased, people will ask him about his own sexuality. I owe it to this part to speak as honestly as possible, he says. In the early stages of my life, some of the people I was most infatuated with were my closest male friends. That was the case through high school, and I think I was always aware that while for the most part I was attracted to women, I existed on a spectrum.
He remembers a sixth-grade health teacher describing sexuality as a broad range where many people may fall in some difficult-to-define space between straight and gay. I felt ashamed that I wasnt 100 percent, because it was clear that one side of sexuality presents issues, and the other doesnt as much, he says. I recognize myself as existing on that spectrum: Not totally straight, but also not gay and not necessarily bisexual.
Hedges envies people who can speak about such things with more certainty. People expect you as an actor to have a voice thats set in some way, and thats really not what I am, he says. Im very much within the conflict and confusion of my own life, still, and I definitely feel a pressure to step up in a way. I prefer to step up in my art, and I dont entirely know how to in my life.
Photo: Amanda Demme
Occasionally, art and life overlap. His father Peter, who directed Pieces of April and The Odd Life of Timothy Green, wrote Ben Is Back with Lucas in mind for the title role, a recovering heroin addict who surprises his mother (Julia Roberts) by dropping in on Christmas Eve. Hedges was initially reluctant to do the film, worrying that his casting would look like nepotism and knowing that every note his father gave him would feel as though he was being sent to his room.
Yet the script, once he read it, was too good to pass up. The more I sat with it, the more it occurred to me that having him as my father might actually inform my artistic process in a positive way, Hedges says. He could either trigger me a lot, which would be useful, or he would inspire me. And addiction is a big thing in my family, so I thought maybe we could confront something as a family. I believe that when things are confronted with ceremony, they can be expelled.
Was he able to lose himself in the role, given that his father was directing him? After all, when most of us are around our parents, we cant help but revert to some earlier version of ourselves. I dont know that I did, Hedges says finally, but I dont know that I could have, and I dont know if it was wrong that I didnt. The movie helped him to know himself better. That, at the moment, is why he does what he does.
And if the ground should shift tomorrow, and he becomes someone else? Hes learning to be okay with that, too. Earlier this year, Hedges met a psychic who told him that his malleability is an asset, and lately hes been inspired by The Mystic in the Theatre, a book about the legendary 19th-century actress Eleonora Duse, who was famous for her ability to blush at will in whatever part she was playing. Theres this passage in the book that brought me a lot of comfort, where she says that she didnt have to be one thing, that the truth about her is that she was a million different things and that was okay. His smile is small but hopeful. I think thats kind of beautiful, he says.
The Waverly Gallery opens at the John Golden Theatre on October 25.
Production Credits Styling by Rebecca Ramsey
Grooming by Sonia Lee for Exclusive Artists Management
Shirt by Bottega Veneta
Pants by Thom Browne
*This article appears in the September 3, 2018, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!
I was just arrested for civil disobedience in the Kavanaugh hearings.
Many citizens before me have fought for the equal rights of women. I cant be silent when someone is nominated to the Supreme Court who would take our equal rights away.#StopKavanaghpic.twitter.com/f3SG7gmVam Piper Perabo (@PiperPerabo) September 4, 2018
More than 20 people have been arrested today for protesting the Supreme Court confirmation hearing of nominee Brett Kavanaugh in Washington D.C., and Piper Perabo was one of them. The actress posted a clip of her and several other women being forcefully escorted from the room where Kavanaugh was being questioned by lawmakers. On social media, Perabo has been very clear about her opposition to Kavanaughs nomination, and attended the hearing today with organizers of the Womens March. It seems she is free enough now to be tweeting, so watch out for more civil disobedience.
Photo: Moth Studio and Adam Maida/Courtesy of SERIAL
Serial will officially return for its third season later this month, and this time, the hit investigative podcast is switching things up. Instead of focusing on a single case a murder in Baltimore in season one, a soldiers desertion in season two the upcoming season will dive into the infinitely complicated topic of the American criminal justice system by delivering weekly stories from inside the courts of Cleveland, Ohio. Its one courthouse, week by week, according to a press release.
The first two episodes of Serial season three will debut on September 20, with new episodes released every Thursday. Julie Snyder once again serves as executive producer, and host Sarah Koenig will be joined by reporter Emmanuel Dzotsi, who was raised in Ohio. Koenig and Dzotsi spent a year embedded in Clevelands court system, examining a wide range of cases and documenting the citys process of judgment. Cleveland was chosen for the significant access the team was granted to record from within courtrooms, judges chambers, and attorney offices.
The choice to focus on the American criminal justice system appears to be in some part a response to unexpected legacies of Serials first season, which investigated the 2000 conviction of Adnan Syed for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee in Baltimore. People have asked Sarah Koenig and the Serial team: What does that case Adnan Syeds murder conviction tell us about the criminal justice system? But cases like that one are not typical: a defendant with no criminal record, a private defense attorney, a six-week trial the fact that it went to trial at all! the press release says. Extraordinary cases like Adnan Syeds are not whats filling Americas courtrooms. To tackle the criminal justice system, Serial would need to look at something different: ordinary cases.
You can listen to the trailer on the Serial website.
This season, were tackling the whole criminal justice system. Hear the trailer and subscribe today to get the first episode the moment it drops. https://t.co/TscuRSdBuO pic.twitter.com/YdyDeggnaK Serial (@serial) September 5, 2018
Debuting in October 2014, the first season of Serial was an unexpected sensation that had a wide cultural impact: Besides inspiring obsession, debate, controversy, backlash, a Saturday Night Live parody, and a veritable generation of true-crime podcasts, that debut run was also deeply invested in the consequences of an individual, Adnan Syed, potentially done wrong by the justice system. Koenigs investigation even ended up sparking a new trial for Syed.
Serials sophomore effort featured a shift in environment and a step up in scale. Released in December 2015, that second season revolved around Bowe Bergdahl, a soldier who deserted his base in eastern Afghanistan and ended up being captured by the Taliban. I liked that season more than most people despite the fact it never matched the cultural explosion of its predecessor, believing its examination of the overlaps between individual psychology, American warfare, and the military ecosystem to be an ambitious effort matched by very few within podcasting.
This third season seems poised to meld together elements from its two preceding efforts: the crime-reporting roots of its first with the ambition of its second. And its choice of topic seems to further push the production away from associations with the true-crime genre an affiliation, it should be noted, that was never actually intended. When the podcast was first announced as a spinoff of This American Life back in the summer of 2014, its pitch was almost generic. Whats different about Serial is that its a story that takes a dozen or so episodes to tell, This American Life chief Ira Glass wrote in a blog post from the time. So each new episode brings you the next chapter of this amazing, unfolding story. Serials a podcast, not a radio show, because a podcast seems like a better place for a long story that you need to hear from the beginning.
These days, the serialized narrative podcast structure has become ubiquitous, and it has been utilized by a range of shows including Gimlets Mogul, ESPNs 30 for 30 Podcast, Slates Slow Burn, an expansive universe of modern audio dramas, and even improvisational comedy podcasts like Hello From the Magic Tavern, Mission to Zyxx, and The Adventure Zone. At this writing, Serial has been downloaded over 340 million times across its two seasons.
The true-crime affiliation continues to stick strongly to Serial even looming over S-Town, the novelistic spinoff by Brian Reed that was distributed under the Serial Productions banner, and which turned out to be an unconventional act of biography as opposed to anything resembling Making a Murderer but for Glass, Koenig, and the Serial team, the point was always to use podcastings on-demand audio format to increase the depth of story that This American Life can tell. Our hope is to give you the same experience you get from a great HBO or Netflix series, where you get caught up with the characters and the thing unfolds week after week, and you just have to hear what happens next, but with a story thats true, Glass wrote in another blog post from 2014. And no pictures. Like House of Cards or Game of Thrones but you can enjoy it while youre driving.
With its system-level focus on justice in America, this upcoming third season of Serial may well have a shot at evoking The Wire, only with a story thats true.
Post-Comedy All week long, Vulture is exploring the many ways modern comedy has tapped into its serious side. Hannah Gadsby, Kristen Schaal, and Kevin Hart. Photo: Netflix/Comedy Central/Universal Pictures
Netflix is changing the way we watch comedy specials, and the comics are doing their part, too. Where once HBO and Comedy Central dominated the stand-up field, the streaming service has since convinced household names like Jerry Seinfeld, Ricky Gervais, Sarah Silverman, and Ellen DeGeneres to premiere their new material on a laptop screen. In 2017, Netflix released a new special each week, and its also slated to debut a whopping 47 specials on one day sometime next year. Which begs the question: How do comics squeeze into your play queue when everyone including superstars like Dave Chappelle competes in one expanding, scrollable category?
The solution, for many, is to experiment with the form. Hence the recent spurt of nontraditional specials, each with a visual device to punch up, not distract from, the humor. Thats not to say stand-ups havent deviated from the same tried and over-tested formula in the past. If you go back a few years, outliers start to pop up. For instance, Chris Rock: Kill the Messenger (2008) consists of three performances in London, New York, and Johannesburg stitched together, sometimes within the same bit, to highlight contrasting energies. Elsewhere, Zach Galifianakis: Live at the Purple Onion (2006) rarely lasts five minutes without a sketch, leaving the theater, or meeting the legend that is Seth Galifianakis.
But now, in 2018, were witnessing real momentum in the genre. So much so that Hannah Gadsbys Nanette and Drew Michaels audience-less HBO hour are challenging what we consider the medium to even be. Ill settle this: my show is not standup because I got jack off an art form designed by men for men, Gadsby tweeted. Female artists often defy genre. And if it werent eye-catching enough that Bo Burnham directed Chris Rocks Tamborine, did you know that Adam Sandlers upcoming Netflix special boasts the involvement of Paul Thomas Anderson?
Basically, in the age of streaming, the smartest stand-ups are playing to the back of the living room. Along with Gadsby and Michael, here are the comics who are experimenting and expanding on the nontraditional special format:
Kevin Hart: Laugh at My Pain (2011) & What Now? (2016)
Some stand-ups never return once Hollywood comes knocking on the greenroom door. Kudos to Hart, then, for combining his passions and kicking off What Now? with a 20-minute spy parody. Simply put, its Hart playing to his strengths: Hes a bona fide action-movie star with the budget and persona to pull off a lengthy, star-studded James Bond audition, in which Halle Berry, Don Cheadle, and Ed Helms also suit up. Similarly, Laugh at My Pain opens with a 15-minute tongue-in-cheek doc and closes with a 20-minute bank heist sequence. Say what you will about Harts material, but the presentation attempts something fresh and cinematic.
Maria Bamford: The Special Special Special (2012) & Old Baby (2017)
In what counts as extreme family bonding, The Special Special Special consists of Bamford dishing out jokes in a living room to just her parents. The reason I decided to do the special here, she deadpans, is because its free to perform in your home. But whereas those viewers were invited onto her sofa, the inimitable comic meets various crowds halfway around town for Old Baby. In the 2017 special, a shape-shifting series of gigs occur indoors, outdoors, at a bowling alley, in a bookshop, at a park bench, in a living room, in more traditional L.A. theaters, and so on. All in all, theyre venues that guarantee its something you havent seen before unless youre on Bamfords bowling team, that is.
Kristen Schaal: Live at the Fillmore (2013)
The day before her Comedy Central special aired, Schaal warned us, I just cant even believe theyre going to air it. The vague statement starts to make sense around the shows midpoint, when Schaal stumbles over a gag and abandons the stage. In theory, comics use TV exposure to exhibit their greatest strengths. Live at the Fillmore is no different. Schaal returns a few minutes later, jokes that whats in right now is autobiographical humor like Louis C.K. or Michael Richards, and is then heckled by a little girl in the crowd. Once the child actor is reciting roast material into the mic, it should be obvious to everyone that its a tightly scripted Andy Kaufmanesque bit. Some viewers, however, were fooled including The Hollywood Reporter, which wondered if its a meltdown for the ages.
Todd Barry: The Crowd Work Tour (2014)
My personal favorite is Barrys special, a partial travel doc that, through its gimmick no material, just audience interaction devotes substantial time to the comics POV, peering into a sea of expectant punters. Sometimes theyre drunk loudmouths, or hopefully theyre amateur musicians with a thick skin. Why shoot these five camera angles and cut to the crowd every time to prove people are laughing? asked Lance Bangs, the specials director. And maybe it could be Todd Barry in different cities and you dont spend the money on one giant theater. Even better is Barry in cars and temporary accommodation, explaining the minutiae of a touring comic. Come for the off-the-cuff jokes, stay for tips on surviving hotel bathrooms.
Chelsea Peretti: One of the Greats (2014)
Within minutes, Peretti revs up a motorbike a nod to Eddie Murphys Raw outfit and exuberantly sends up decades of stand-up tropes in a fake self-mythologizing montage. And thats just the prologue. A backstage clown, an invading leaf blower, and Moshe Kasher heckling from the crowd are among the surreal inserts during the actual performance. Its always driven me nuts when Im watching stand-up specials, the reaction shots that they insert into them, Peretti said on the special. It takes me out every single time so I wanted to play with that. Even the dogs in the theater stalls seem to appreciate the subversion on display.
Garfunkel and Oates: Trying to Be Special (2016)
Welcome to the musical comedy of Garfunkel and Oates, announces Anthony Jeselnik, the warm-up comic. Or as I like to call it: music. The mini-roast not only establishes Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci as good sports, it chimes in with the meta conceit: What youre watching is the fundraiser show needed to raise money for the special itself. Even without pretending to be failures, the singing duo punctuate their show with other fun distractions. Theres a music video (basically a YouTube-ready sketch), a genuine flub is left in (Micucci runs offstage to sort out a backing track), and an occasional De Palmastyle split screen shakes up the visuals.
Bo Burnham: Make Happy (2016)
As a former YouTube sensation, Burnham possesses a knack for engaging online viewers, and his proclivity for pre-prepared material does wonders in Make Happy. (Im trying to immortalize something Ive worked on for a long time, he tells a heckler.) Bookended with snapshots of a depressed, existential comic on tour, the show consists of Burnham playing the stage as if its a musical instrument. He refers to the piano as a prop and mines humor from light choreography, sound effects, and smoke cannons ($200 for one expensive gag). By cutting from the encore to a solo song in his hotel room, hes keenly aware of Netflixs reach: Though theres a sold-out theater cheering him on, the real audience is at home.
Reggie Watts: Spatial (2016)
Musical comedians have the luxury of operating a more traditional set-list that allows for palate cleansers in between songs. So when Watts isnt singing or rambling in his 2016 special Spatial, he cuts to Crowes Nest, a fake sitcom starring him, Kate Berlant, and Rory Scovel. Working without a script (Crowes Nest was improvised in front of a live studio audience), the trio spiral into absurdist dead-ends until theyre a completely physical, non-verbal act. More importantly, the segments add breathing space to the music and are a reason to log into Netflix rather than, say, searching for Watts on YouTube.
Neal Brennan: 3 Mics (2017)
The premise is simple yet ingenious: Brennan alternates been a trio of microphones depending on whether the bit belongs to one-liners, emotional stuff, or stand-up. Of course, it requires a comic capable of shifting gears, and Brennan ultimately delivers a three-man show thats touching, raucous, and always personal. Though he physically adjusts his body for each voice, it still feels like one complete, thought-out package. The thing I like about 3 Mics is that it was everything, said Brennan, who also serves as producer and director. Even the art, I knew what it should be, and thats what it ended up being on Netflix.
Todd Glass: Act Happy (2018)
This is a small room of 75 people, Glass instructs his band. But play like its 80. That Glass has a backing group at all is indicative of his shows chaotic atmosphere. As such, Glass performs an act that may, at any point, be drowned out by The Battle Hymn of the Republic, or be heckled by his onstage musicians a routine familiar to listeners of his podcast. More impressively, the 75 audience members are in on the joke, too, chanting Fuck Rory Scovel! on cue to a faux-shocked Glass. Some recordings want you to feel part of the room; here, Glass lets you know theyre having more fun than you.
Fred Armisen: Standup for Drummers (2018)
As the bandleader for Seth Meyers, Armisen has mastered delivering gags from behind a hi-hat. His special goes farther, though, by filling the audience with drummers (hello Dinosaur Jr.s J Mascis) and converting the stage into a percussionists wet dream. Switching instruments at a rapid tempo, the Portlandia star is practically a prop comic just with cymbals instead of watermelons. And it works! So much so, a Seinfeld-ian riff on Burger King, spoken without a backing track, feels like B-side material. Elsewhere, theres a non-verbal impression of Meg White, a demonstration of drumming through the decades, and a cameo from Green Days Tre Cool. The crowd cant help but nod and stroke their chin in appreciation.
James Acaster: Repertoire (2018)
Repertoire is a stand-up special designed for binge-watching. All recorded in a single week, the package includes four separate hour-long performances: Three are drawn from Acasters past touring shows (Recognise, Represent, Reset), while a fourth chapter (Recap), a sort of remix, ties them all together. Its intended, then, to be digested in the same manner as a Netflix series like Altered Carbon (i.e. you stop after four episodes), and it rewards viewers with an overwhelming number of callbacks. As a Netflix-specific gimmick, it seems to be popular: Moshe Kasher and Natasha Leggeros The Honeymoon Standup Special arrived in three parts, and Dave Chappelles recent releases were effectively four specials for the price of two.
Hannah Gadsby: Nanette (2018)
The Sydney Opera House isnt a typical comedy venue, but Nanette isnt a typical comedy special, either. On a stage usually reserved for orchestras, Gadsby stands alone, performing intimate material to a crowd that observes from a distance. In other words, this is very much a one-woman show. The camera focuses on Gadsby, not the dimly lit audience, and the raw anger of her material builds to a furious crescendo. Its powerful enough that even a Netflix viewer can sense the rooms collective discomfort. These are all deliberate decisions in the direction, of course, and if youre dismissing Nanette as a TED Talk, then perhaps that says more about you than the show itself.
Stewart Lee: Content Provider (2018)
Not everyone gets a Netflix special. Lee, probably the U.K.s most critically acclaimed comic, had his latest two-hour show, Content Provider, rejected by the streaming service for being too parochial. Perhaps Netflix wasnt aware that Lee would eventually punctuate the filmed performance with a hostile interrogator, a role carried on from his TV series, Stewart Lees Comedy Vehicle. On season two it was Armando Iannucci, then Chris Morris for season three and four. For Content Provider, its graphic novelist Alan Moore, who takes on bullying duties. Youre in the worst physical condition of your life, Moore informs Lee during a cutaway. Its going to kill you. Netflixs loss is the BBCs gain.
Demetri Martin: The Overthinker (2018)
Before his latest special, Martin part octopus, part comedian already had a habit of juggling jokes with guitar strums, sketch pads, and PowerPoint presentations. As a new layer, The Overthinker is crammed with post-production gags aimed squarely at home viewers. For instance, hand-drawn illustrations regularly pop up onscreen as bonus material, and a self-referential voiceover (again, just for streamers) ponders, Whats next? Maybe Ill do some drawings. Of course, what complements Martins brand of humor may not suit, say, Marc Maron. But some comics, especially those eager to escape controversy, might appreciate Martins use of subtitles; after a gender-related punchline, a disclaimer appears at the bottom: That joke was not offensive.
Drew Michael: Drew Michael (2018)
If a comic tells a joke and no one is around to hear it, does it count as stand-up? Thats the boundary-pushing premise for Michaels new HBO special, an hour-long show performed in front of zero people. Directed by Jerrod Carmichael, Drew Michael eschews traditional joke-telling rhythms for free-flowing monologues and occasional cutaways to Suki Waterhouse doing something arty. Watch the trailer on mute and it may as well be a Michel Gondry music video. I dont even know if youd call this a stand-up special, Carmichael laughs in a behind-the-scenes preview. If sitcoms can thrive without a studio audience, can live comedy follow suit?
The Purge What Is America? Season 1 Episode 1 Editors Rating 3 stars * * * Previous Next Photo: USA Network/Patti Perret/USA Network
The Purge earned mixed reviews when it arrived in theaters in June 2013, but those on both ends of the spectrum tended to echo the same complaint: Why concoct an ingenious, dystopian premise and then only use it as the background of a pretty familiar home-invasion thriller? What they couldnt have known was that the franchise was thinking long, and had plans to show more in subsequent installments. Creator James DeMonaco has put out three follow-ups (so far): The Purge: Anarchy, The Purge: Election Year, and this summers The First Purge, each revealing a little more of a grim near-future world.
DeMonaco wrote and directed the first three Purge films, then handed directorial reins to Gerard McMurray for the most recent entry, no doubt partly because hes also serving as the creator and executive producer of USAs The Purge TV series, which brings the films dark, violent world to the small screen. Its premise means politics are never far from the surface, even if the franchise has only gradually begun to admit that. If it sparks any kind of discourse about violence in society, I think thats a good thing. If people just enjoy it, great, DeMonaco said of the first film back in 2013. But each subsequent entry has come closer and closer to making the subtext text, revealing that the New Founding Fathers of America explicitly use the Purge to thin out the mostly minority underclass to make America safe again for rich white people. The First Purge stopped playing coy about what the movies were really about, pitting the residents of Staten Island against government forces dressed up like the Klan and ending with Kendrick Lamars Alright, a protest fixture pretty much from the moment of its release.
That gave The First Purge the most upbeat ending of any entry except for one small detail: Its a prequel, which means its righteous call to arms ultimately went nowhere, or else none of the other Purge movies and now this TV series could have happened. In DeMonacos world, every silver lining comes attached to massive storm clouds.
The Purge comes to television trailed by two questions: Can what works in two-hour movies work when stretched across ten episodes? And will The Purge continue to try to say something with its darkest timeline of America? The series premiere suggests the answer is yes.
For those just tuning in, here are the basics of The Purges world: At some point in the recent past when is tricky to nail down because the chronology can be a little fluid the New Founding Fathers of America assumed control of the U.S. government. Ultraright wing (and increasingly resembling the Trump/MAGA contingent in the last two entries), they wrap themselves in patriotic iconography and boast of a thriving economy and plummeting unemployment as proof theyve turned America around. (See above re: resemblance to Trump, MAGA, etc.) One of the cornerstones of their government is the Purge. Every year on Purge Night all crime is legal for a 12-hour period, with a few small restrictions involving Purge-free zones like hospitals and some limitations on the weaponry those participating in the Purge can employ.
Where The First Purge covers, well, the first Purge, and Purge: Election Year depicts what might be the final Purge, The Purge TV series takes place after the Purge has been around for a few years, almost to the point of having been normalized. Its not business as usual, exactly, but most of America has figured out they have only limited options during the Purge: hole up, die at the hands of a Purge participant, or hit the streets and raise hell.
What Is America? unfolds much like the first act of a Purge film, introducing seemingly unrelated characters who, its a safe bet, will end up meeting each other over the course of the series. Currently, the series is weaving together three narrative stands.
We first meet Miguel (Gabriel Chavarria), a Marine whos returned from an unnamed war in search of Penelope (Jessica Garza), whos disappeared after sending a cryptic letter making vague reference to losing their parents in a past Purge and even vaguer references to some New Age-y sounding concepts. Well learn, when Miguel visits the cult center after first beating the hell out of some rough characters living in an abandoned housing project, that shes joined a cult whose members offer themselves up as sacrifices to Purge participants, an act they refer to the as the Giving, in order to join the Invisible. But, in this episode at least, Miguel remains one step behind his sister, whos boarded a bus that makes periodic stops to unload members who happily let themselves be killed. Or maybe not so happily: The episode ends with one member whose face betrays hes having second thoughts shortly before he gets taken down. On the bus, Penelope seems to be having some misgivings too.
Across town and 38 stories above ground, Jane (Amanda Warren), is spending the night trying to close a deal before international markets open. We first meet her visiting her mother in a hospital, a Purge Night safe zone. And though her mom asks her to stay, work beckons. But, no worries, since everyone on the 38th floor of Janes high-rise office building has agreed not to participate in the Purge and has security to protect them. But theres a loophole in the system: As the Purge nears, Jane leaves the 38th floor for a shady assignation with a stern, severe-looking woman shes hiring to do something, most likely something to do with her boss Don (William Baldwin), who Skypes in to make sure everythings going well and to make some tense, kidding-but-not-really jokes that suggest he and Jane have an unpleasant history. And, speaking of unpleasantness, whats up with Janes underlings Mark (Adam Stephenson) and Alison (Jessica Miesel)? Theres no way these rivalries could find some kind of violent expression on Purge night, is there?
Finally, theres Rick (Colin Woodell) and Jenna (Hannah Anderson), a young, happily married couple who arent into the Purge but plan to spend the evening at an upper-crust Purge party anyway, in hopes of securing financing for a charity that will provide housing to the underprivileged. Their plan: Get in, make the deal, mingle as little as possible, and by all means resist their hosts pitches to join the NFFA. Theyre not that sort of people. Theyre kind, they want to help others, and theyre definitely not rich. Only, relatively speaking, they are, as their car service driver tells them. Hes going home to board himself in, even if other drivers are going to try for that Purge Surge money. They have the luxury of going somewhere safe. He doesnt call it white privilege, but he might as well. Not everyone is equal when the Purge siren sounds, as Jennas interactions with Catalina (Paulina Galvez), one of her hosts servants, reminds her.
But Rick and Jenna might face a different sort of peril. As the 7 p.m. start of the Purge nears, they quickly discover 1) theyll be getting a hard sell on joining the NFFA, 2) a mysterious woman (Lili Simmons) with whom they once had a threesome (depicted in some steamy-but-basic-cable-friendly flashbacks) and whom they now hope to avoid for unknown reasons is also at the party, and 3) everyone attending will be wearing paper masks with the faces of mass murderers like David Berkowitz and various Manson Family killers on them. We wear these masks, on of their hosts explains, to commemorate those who paved the way and Purged before it was legal. They risked their freedom because they knew the incredible, life changing, healing power of violence. Of killing! Now thats a party. Cue Klaxons. And so the long night begins.
This first episode gives the series much on which to build, but so far the Rick and Jenna branch seems to be the most intriguing. It promises the most revelations about the NFFA and the true motivations of the Purge, while Jennas interactions with Catalina suggest an upstairs/downstairs element that will touch on some of the racial and political tensions at the heart of Purge night. (Unless I missed someone, the masked revelers are all white.) Then there are those flashbacks, which suggest a deeper mystery set to emerge over future episodes. Right now they look like good people caught in a bad situation, but are they? Or is that just what they tell themselves to live with the compromises theyve made?
Janes storyline, on the other hand, starts exploring moral ambiguity from the jump. She might have her reasons, but shes clearly plotting something so dastardly she could only get away with it during the Purge. Meanwhile, although Miguel seems genuinely heroic (if not particularly reluctant to beat others up), his journey could take him into the heart of Purge-inspired weirdness. Presumably well find out just what sort of weirdness in future episodes, assuming we all make it to sunrise.
Survival tips
The Purge is shot in New Orleans, and though its keeping its setting ambiguous, its not really trying to disguise that fact too much either. On their way to the NFFA party, Rick and Jenna pass through streets that look like nowhere else. Beyond that, the abandoned apartment building where Miguel beats up the toughs holding a woman hostage is a well-known New Orleans location. Its an abandoned complex covered in the murals of local artist/activist Brandan Odums, a.k.a. B-mike.
Some of the best parts of the Purge films come in the form of fleeting details, particularly the gallows humor of some of the Purge participants costumes. This week we see a bunch of Purgers dressed up in bunny costumes and a mask with the words Free Hugs written on it. But the episodes best (really only) laugh comes when Jane, on her way to make her shady deal, spots a man sharpening a machete. Dont worry, he assures her. Its not for you.
Fiona Dourif plays the cult leader. Shes the daughter of Brad Dourif, a talented character actor best known for his work in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and as the voice of Chucky in the Childs Play movies. Good to see shes inherited his talent for playing charismatic weirdos.
How safe are schools around the world? That's a question that a new report from the United Nations Children's Fund helps answer, and it suggests that schools could and should be much safer.
The report, released Wednesday, finds that about half of 13- to 15-year-old students worldwide -- or 150 million of them -- have said they experience violence, such as physical fights or forms of bullying, from their peers in and around school.
Demographic groups Families and children Family members and relatives Non-profit and NGO organizations Population and demographics School violence Society Teenagers UNICEF Violence in society Bullying Children Continents and regions Education North America Students and student life Teachers and teaching The Americas United States Unrest, conflicts and war
In addition, the report notes that students experience other forms of violence at school, such as attacks on classrooms or physical punishment by teachers.
Globally, about 720 million school-age children live in countries where they are not fully protected by law against forms of physical punishment at school, according to the report.
"Schools are not as safe as they should be, because of bullying, because of corporal punishment by teachers, because of attacks on schools," said Claudia Cappa, a senior adviser on statistics at UNICEF and a contributor to the new report.
"Schools should be a safe place for children to go and learn, but what we know from the report is that about half of teen students experience peer violence while in school on a regular basis," she said.
The report is based on data from the Health Behavior in School-aged Children cross-national study and the Global School-based Student Health Surveys. The data include 122 countries, representing 51% of the global population of children between 13 and 15.
Globally, the estimated cost of all violence against children is $7 trillion, according to the report. It also references some previously published research on school violence.
Yet the data are not all grim, and there seems to be growing awareness of the harmful health impacts that school violence can have on children and adolescents, Cappa said.
"There are more children speaking up against violence in schools and more teachers are getting trained," she said. "We have reasons to be optimistic that violence will be recognized as a problem in schools and addressed very soon."
According to the data, most countries appear to show similar rates of self-reported peer violence in schools, Cappa said.
"What is interesting is that most of the countries are exactly around this average of 50%, so it's statistically a very concentrated distribution," she said. "It's 48% in the United States of children who experience peer violence, including bullying, in or around school."
As for bullying alone, 27.8% of US students ages 12 through 18 reported being bullied at school between 2010 and 2011, according to a 2011 National Center for Education Statistics report.
Globally, slightly more than one in three students between 13 and 15 have said they experience bullying, according to the report, and about one in three has been involved in physical fights.
On the other hand, 17 million young adolescents in 39 industrialized countries have admitted bullying others at school, according to the report.
"The ability to report depends on awareness, willingness and the ability to overcome fears," Cappa said. "Then there are cultural interpretations and values that might affect the willingness and ability to report the experience of violence. So there might be a certain level of underestimation."
Sexual violence also can occur in schools and between peers, the report notes. For instance, in Kenya, about one in five women and men who reported experiencing sexual violence before age 18 said that the first incident was at school, according to the report.
In a survey conducted in Mexico in 2013, 7% of boys and 5% of girls in upper-secondary school said that they had experienced sexual insults from their classmates in the previous year, according to the report.
In its most extreme form, violence in and around schools -- such as in war-torn areas -- can have a significant impact on the violence that school-age children experience, according to the report, which notes that about 158 million children and adolescents between 6 and 17 live in conflict-affected areas.
Attacks against schools are one of the six grave violations frequently perpetrated in armed conflict and condemned by the United Nations Security Council, according to the report.
Last year, the United Nations verified 396 schools under attack in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 26 attacks on schools in South Sudan, 67 attacks in Syria and 20 attacks in Yemen, according to the report.
As for when violence occurs as a part of the school system, some evidence suggests that younger students are more at risk of physical punishment from teachers than adolescent students, according to the report.
For instance, in the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states of India, 78% of 8-year-old students -- compared with 34% of 15-year-old students -- said that they had been physically punished by teachers at school at least once in the previous week, according to the report.
"Witnessing corporal punishment by teachers sends a message to children themselves that violence is acceptable in schools, which it is not," Cappa said.
The report calls for governments around the world to develop and enforce laws that fully prohibit corporal punishment, establish effective and accessible response systems to violent acts, and provide resources to school staff members to help them address violence.
Other safety measures include ensuring that all bathrooms are separate and well-lit, using positive and child-centered approaches to discipline, and tailoring curricula to promote peace-building in schools and communities, according to the report.
"UNICEF is working with partners all over the world to implement a number of measures, with an emphasis on placing children themselves at the center of this change by supporting children to speak up against violence in schools and to learn themselves how to treat each other with kindness and respect," Cappa said.
"We are witnessing in many places around the world a bigger recognition of school violence being a problem," she said. "There are more countries introducing policies to address this issue."
Ron Avi Astor, a professor of school behavioral health at the University of Southern California, called the new UNICEF report "important" and "brave."
"They're highlighting the great needs within school settings across the world, and what I particularly liked about this report is that they're not focusing specifically only on the US, Canada and Europe," said Astor, who was not involved in the report but co-authored a book on bullying, school violence and climate that will be published in November.
"The rest of the world is not really represented in any of the policy or research literature or discussions on issues like the role of schools," he said. "More thought needs to be put into schools that are in conflict zones and war zones, and if they're being used as either a pawn or as a political tool to cause harm to teachers or children in the schools. That's something that the world should be thinking about."
Astor added that the new report could have focused more closely on how such political issues and other factors could drive violence in schools.
For instance, "there are still countries around the world that don't educate girls or miseducate girls or actually promote ideas that are harmful, not just on a political level or social level but on an interpersonal level. It would be nice down the line if there were reports that actually went into detail on that," Astor said.
"We also see worldwide that certain groups and even governments use schools for propaganda reasons -- and they actually create schools that instill hate in children towards other groups," he said.
The new report "didn't quite go there, but I think this is a good first step," he said.
Astor noted that vast migrations between countries are not mentioned in the report as possible factors behind school violence, but they too play a vital role.
"They impact strongly the schools, not only in the host countries but in the receiving countries," Astor said, adding that when refugee children enter a new school in a new community, they might experience violence due to prejudice or bullying.
"We hear about that in the field quite a bit, that it's not just about the bullying piece, it's about integrating the various cultures," he said.
"In the United States, it's a little bit more quiet, but it's there. We hear it in the discussions about building a wall," he said. "Those kinds of political comments and views and feelings, we're pretty certain, infiltrate themselves into the classroom and into schools."
An Alabama man who reported his roommate missing this month is now charged in the roommate's death. News outlets report 47-year-old James Darrell Tabor, also known as Kevin Kirby is charged with murder in the death of 39-year-old Michael Shane Osborn. Colbert County Sheriff Frank Williamson says Kirby was arrested following the discovery of Osborn's body.
According to a report, authorities say Kirby reported Osborn missing on Friday. Williamson says Osborn's body was found the next day in a wooden area near the men's shared home. Williamson says Osborn's body has been seen to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences in Huntsville for an autopsy. He says more information about the case will be released Tuesday morning.It's unclear if Kirby has a lawyer to contact for comment.
Our ABC station in Pensacola, Florida, WEAR, reports the incident happened around 8:45 Monday night in Escambia County.
According to WEAR, a big tree fell on a mobile home, killing the unidentified child.
Nobody else inside the home was hurt.
WAAY 31 reached out to Escambia County officials for new information. They tell us they cannot release the child's age or name right now but plan to release new details by the afternoon.
Armenias Special Investigative Service (SIS) has refuted a charge made earlier today by lawyers for former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan that it is illegal for an investigative body to hold a defendants passport during an ongoing case.
The SIS, referring to the April 4, 2017 decision of Armenias Constitutional Court cited by the lawyers as proving their argument, says the courts decision did not find unconstitutional the law allowing for the temporary seizure of a defendants or suspects passport by an investigative body.
The SIS, in a statement, charged the lawyers with either ignorance of the court's decision or deliberate misrepresentation of the facts. The SIS called on Kocharyan'sdefense team to refrain from ssuch measures.
The SIS had nothing to say regarding the lawyers argument that Kocharyan had been granted immunity from criminal prosecution by the Court of Appeals, and thus, should have no restrictions placed on his freedom of movement.
WAAY31 is looking into how a person can claim mental illness as a defense in the court of law. This comes after Jimmy Spencer, the man accused of brutally murdering three people in Guntersville, pleaded not guilty at an arraignment hearing on Tuesday, citing mental disease or defect.
Myron Gargis is the Director of the Mountain Lakes Behavioral Healthcare center in Guntersville and says an individual must pass the M'Naghten Rule to use mental illness as a defense in the court of law.
"Basically two things, that they didn't understand the nature of the crime that was committed and secondly that they didn't understand right from wrong," Gargis said.
Those are the two things a person must prove to the court in order to use successfully use mental illness as a defense. Gargis has been keeping up with the case against Jimmy Spencer and says arguing mental illness will be difficult.
"In this type of case, the mental illness would have to be so severe that he basically was completely out of touch with reality and didn't know what he was doing," Gargis said.
The District Attorney told WAAY31 the no mental evaluation has been conducted on Spencer, but they plan to do so after Tuesday's plea. Gargis says Spencer will most likely undergo tests and questioning by forensic psychologists, where they will decide if Spencer is in fact mentally unstable. Robert Law has lived in Guntersville his entire life, and says he doesn't buy the defense.
"Anybody that'll do that has mental issues, but he is not insane, the man had planning, thinking," Law said.
In Spencer's particular case, Gargin doesn't like his chances.
"The odds of it working out that way are probably pretty slim."
If Spencer is ruled mentally unstable, he will most likely be sent to a secure medical facility in Tuscaloosa instead of prison.
WAAY31 learned teachers could be the ones to pay the price because Huntsville City Schools budget is short millions of dollars. The district's new budget shows it still falls short of funding a one-month reserve the state requires of all school districts that covers all operating expenses.
"It's concerning that we are in this situation, the biggest problem I have is this didn't happen over night," Adam Keller of the Alabama Education Association said.
On Tuesday, the 2019 proposed budget was presented to the Huntsville City School Board of Education, and while the proposal projects an overall gain, the district still would fall three million dollars below funding the one month reserve. Keller says it could force changes in the classroom.
"I think it's going to be harder for teachers to get supplies and materials from the district, Keller said. "...which was already in pretty short supply."
WAAY31 reached out to the Alabama Department of Education about how the state law is enforced and we received this response:
"The budgets are not reviewed for compliance with the one-month calculation. If an lea's financial statement fund balance is less than one month... The ending balance in the budget or budget amendment will be calculated for compliance with or at least progress towards one month."
At this time it is unclear what the Board of Education's plan is. Martha Kimbrough had her children go through Huntsville City Schools and is concerned.
"We don't know what's ahead and the concern is if we are behind on that, do we have what we need today?"
Keller says this just adds an extra pressure to teachers.
"There's not a lot of room for error and that's something that teachers and support staff and all employees are going to have to keep in the back of their head," Keller said. "Finances are strapped in the district."
As of right now, at the end of September, the district is looking to be five million dollars short of filling that one month reserve.
In an effort to be fiscally responsible, the Huntsville City Council District 2 candidate who fell short at the polls has decided against a recount.
Frances Akridge said statistics generally show recounts rarely change the outcome of elections and she doesn't think it'll be worth the time and money, around $8,200, to recount the ballots. Akridge told us instead of recounting the votes she will focus her efforts on preparing for the run-off election. Referring to Huntsville as the star of Alabama, the candidate said citizens deserve a fair and clean election.
"I issue a direct challenge to my opponent and her entire campaign team. The challenge is this: we both run clean campaigns focused on our city's priorities and our individual qualifications," said Akridge.
Vo continued:
Akridge will face off against Mary Jane Caylor in the run-off election on October 9th. That election is estimated to cost taxpayers $45,000.
WAAY 31 was in the packed courtroom to learn more about the man charged with brutally killing his ex-girlfriend and two teenage girls. Investigators say Rodney Geddes killed Iris Bynum, her daughter Heaven Hines and Hines friend Xzariah Rice. The Madison County Courthouse where she talked to the victims family after they heard some of the evidence in the case.
Rodney Geddes spent about 45 minutes in court today. Only one investigator with Huntsville Police testified. He walked us through what police believe happened before and after the murders.
"I don't know what happened but like I said domestic violence is bad," said the victims' family member Janice Bowling.
She was one of many family members in the court room during Rodney Geddes preliminary hearing.
A sole investigator explained police knew about a history of domestic violence between Iris Bynum and Rodney Geddes because they had been called to the house before. According to the Investigator, when investigators entered the home in June they found Bynum, her daughter 17-year-old daughter Heaven Hines, and 16- year-old Xzariah Rice bodies in different areas of Bynum's house on Knollbrook Drive.
The Investigator testified the two teens were shot multiple times. Bynum was found dead in her bedroom from a single shot. Family was emotional hearing how the three were killed, but told us they are relying on their faith.
"We are holding on and what god is in charge of. We are asking god to help us everyday," Bowling added.
During the hearing, the Investigator testified police believe Geddes traded one of Bynums cars for drugs after the murders and drove her other car to Tennessee where investigators initially arrested him on a drug charge.
After the hearing, Geddes attorney stressed there are no witnesses to the crime, and as of now, nobody came forward to say they heard gun shots on a street well known to Huntsville Police.
"It's obviously an area well known to the police department. We don't know who the residences of the other house are. We have no eyewitnesses to this particular crime, so it's interesting that it's in this type of neighborhood," said Geddes' attorney Bruce Gardner.
Bynum's sister said although Geddes is accused of killing the three, they are working on moving on from what happened.
"If I could say anything it would be I forgive you. God is in charge. God is in charge," Bowling added.
The case will go before the Grand Jury. It has not been announced when that will happen.
A Madison County Community Center will soon be demolished because engineers have determined it's not safe for the community to use. Berkley Community Center is located off Old Highway 431 and is next door to the Berkley Senior Center.
Madison County Commissioner Craig Hill said needs to happen to keep the people in his district safe.
"The overall safety of the facility is not good and we know it's lived its life and it's time for us to work with the community and improve what they have," he said.
Justine Hawkins was sad to learn her childhood hangout would soon be torn down, and she hopes whatever is built in it's place puts an emphasis on helping kids.
"It used to be full of kids. It used to be the Boys and Girls Club. We used to go down there and learn. If we are going to redo it, then I want it be like it used to be. A place for kids to get away from the house," she said.
Hill said the senior center next door recently renovated, and that center isn't going anywhere..
Hawkins wants her son to have a community center to go to use like she did growing up.
"I want my son to meet new people. New kids around the area. Not just at school but I built a lot of friendships when I was going down there," she said.
Although she's sad to see it go, she's excited to see what's to come.
"It's bittersweet. You don't want to tear it down because it's been there for so long, but if it's going to be something better than I'm happy for it," she said.
In the coming months, Hill said he will work with the people that live near this community center to decide what's built in it's place.
A dangerous Madison County Intersection could soon become safer. Workers are extending one road in order to change the traffic pattern on another nearby. Jordan Road will soon intersect with Highway 72 East. The road currently ends at Ryland Pike. With the expansion, changes will happen at the Ryland Pike intersection that currently meets the highway. The new road could open in the coming months, as long as the Alabama Department of Transportation permits the County to extend all the way to the state road.
Randy Cowart who lives and works in the area is excited to hear all left turns at the Ryland Pike and Highway 72 East intersection will soon be eliminated.
"Now it's hustle and bustle. Everybody's in a hurry to go no where," he said.
Commissioner Craig hill, the commissioner for the area, told WAAY 31 construction is underway to extend Jordan Road and create clearer sightlines for drivers.
"It's definitely going to be more flat where it's coming out. It's not going to be a blind turn over that hill," Cowart added.
He told us he's been in the area for almost 15 years and knows how to approach the Ryland Pike and Highway 72 East intersection.
"People that live out here they know those things to watch for especially when they're trying to pull out. They try not to make costly mistakes. They don't try to gamble," Cowart said.
That's not the case for everyone, and with the holidays approaching he hopes to see the work finished soon.
"People who are not familiar with this area are not so much sure on exactly how the flow of the traffic goes. It can be caught in a predicament," he said.
Commissioner Hill told us the project could be done as soon as December for the holiday season which will bring travelers to the area.
VALIER, Mont. (AP) The searchers rummage through the abandoned trailer, flipping over a battered couch, unfurling a stained sheet, looking for clues. Its blistering hot and a grizzly bear lurking in the brush unleashes a menacing growl. But they cant stop.
Not when a loved one is still missing.
The group moves outside into knee-deep weeds, checking out a rusted garbage can, an old washing machine and a surprise: bones.
Ashley HeavyRunner Loring, a 20-year-old member of the Blackfeet Nation, was last heard from around June 8, 2017. Since then her older sister, Kimberly, has been looking for her.
She has logged about 40 searches, with family from afar sometimes using Google Earth to guide her around closed roads. Shes hiked in mountains, shouting her sisters name. Shes trekked through fields, gingerly stepping around snakes. Shes trudged through snow, rain and mud, but she cant cover the entire 1.5 million-acre reservation, an expanse larger than Delaware.
Im the older sister. I need to do this, says 24-year-old Kimberly, swatting away bugs, her hair matted from the heat. I dont want to search until Im 80. But if I have to, I will.
Searchers pause against the scenery while looking for clues in the disappearance of Ashley HeavyRunner Loring.
Ashleys disappearance is one small chapter in the unsettling story of missing and murdered Native American women and girls. No one knows precisely how many there are because some cases go unreported, others arent documented thoroughly and there isnt a specific government database tracking these cases. But one U.S. senator with victims in her home state calls this an epidemic, a long-standing problem linked to inadequate resources, outright indifference and a confusing jurisdictional maze.
Now, in the era of #MeToo, this issue is gaining political traction as an expanding activist movement focuses on Native women a population known to experience some of the nations highest rates of murder, sexual violence and domestic abuse.
Just the fact were making policymakers acknowledge this is an issue that requires government response, thats progress in itself, says Annita Lucchesi, a cartographer and member of the Southern Cheyenne Tribe who is building a database of missing and murdered indigenous women in the U.S. and Canada a list of some 2,700 names so far.
As her endless hunt goes on, Ashleys sister is joined on this day by a cousin, Lissa, and four others, including a family friend armed with a rifle and pistols. They scour the trailer where two no trespassing signs are posted and a broken telescope looks out the kitchen window. One of Ashleys cousins lived here, and there are reports its among the last places she was seen.
Were following every rumor there is, even if it sounds ridiculous, Lissa Loring says.
This search is motivated, in part, by the familys disappointment with the reservation police force a common sentiment for many relatives of missing Native Americans.
Outside, the group stumbles upon something intriguing: the bones, one small and straight, the other larger and shaped like a saddle. Its enough to alert police, who respond in five squad cars, rumbling across the ragged field, kicking up clouds of dust. After studying the bones, one officer breaks the news: Theyre much too large for a human; they could belong to a deer.
There will be no breakthrough today. Tomorrow the searchers head to the mountains.
___
For many in Native American communities across the nation, the problem of missing and murdered women is deeply personal.
I cant think of a single person that I know ... who doesnt have some sort of experience, says Ivan MacDonald, a member of the Blackfeet Nation and a filmmaker. These women arent just statistics. These are grandma, these are mom. This is an aunt, this is a daughter. This is someone who was loved ... and didnt get the justice that they so desperately needed.
MacDonald and his sister, Ivy, recently produced a documentary on Native American women in Montana who vanished or were killed. One story hits particularly close to home. Their 7-year-old cousin, Monica, disappeared from a reservation school in 1979. Her body was found frozen on a mountain 20 miles away. No one has ever been arrested.
Roxanne White, whose aunt was murdered in 1996, sings and drums a womens warrior and honor song created for missing and murdered indigenous women.
There are many similar mysteries that follow a pattern: A woman or girl goes missing, theres a community outcry, a search is launched, a reward may be offered. There may be a quick resolution. But often, theres frustration with tribal police and federal authorities, and a feeling many cases arent handled urgently or thoroughly.
So why does this happen? MacDonald offers his own harsh assessment.
It boils down to racism, he argues. You could sort of tie it into poverty or drug use or some of those factors ... (but) the federal government doesnt really give a crap at the end of the day.
Tribal police and investigators from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs serve as law enforcement on reservations, which are sovereign nations. But the FBI investigates certain offenses and, if theres ample evidence, the U.S. Department of Justice prosecutes major felonies such as murder, kidnapping and rape if they happen on tribal lands.
Lissa Loring points Blackfeet law enforcement officers to a trailer in Valier, Mont., where she believes clues have been found during a search for her cousin.
Former North Dakota federal prosecutor Tim Purdon calls it a jurisdictional thicket of overlapping authority and different laws depending on the crime, where it occurred (on a reservation or not) and whether a tribal member is the victim or perpetrator. Missing person cases on reservations can be especially tricky. Some people run away, but if a crime is suspected, its difficult to know how to get help.
Where do I go to file a missing persons report? Purdon asks. Do I go to the tribal police? ... In some places theyre underfunded and undertrained. The Bureau of Indian Affairs? The FBI? They might want to help, but a missing person case without more is not a crime, so they may not be able to open an investigation. ... Do I go to one of the county sheriffs? ... If that sounds like a horribly complicated mishmash of law enforcement jurisdictions that would tremendously complicate how I would try to find help, its because thats what it is.
Sarah Deer, a University of Kansas professor, author of a book on sexual violence in Indian Country and member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, offers another explanation for the missing and murdered: Native women, she says, have long been considered invisible and disposable in society, and those vulnerabilities attract predators.
Its made us more of a target, particularly for the women who have addiction issues, PTSD and other kinds of maladies, she says. You have a very marginalized group, and the legal system doesnt seem to take proactive attempts to protect Native women in some cases.
Those attitudes permeate reservations where tribal police are frequently stretched thin and lack training and families complain officers dont take reports of missing women seriously, delaying searches in the first critical hours.
They almost shame the people that are reporting, (and say), Well, shes out drinking. Well, she probably took up with some man, says Carmen OLeary, director of the Native Womens Society of the Great Plains. A lot of times families internalize that kind of shame, (thinking) that its her fault somehow.
The result: Some families spearhead their own investigations.
Kimberly Loring touches her forehead to her little sister, Jonnilyn, as she says goodbye before heading out on a search for their missing sister Ashley.
Matthew Lone Bear spent nine months looking for his older sister, Olivia using drones and four-wheelers, fending off snakes and crisscrossing nearly a million acres, often on foot. The 32-year-old mother of five had last been seen driving a Chevy Silverado on Oct. 25, 2017, in downtown New Town, on the oil-rich terrain of North Dakotas Fort Berthold Reservation.
On July 31, volunteers using sonar found the truck with Olivia inside submerged in a lake less than a mile from her home. Its a body of water that had been searched before, her brother says, but obviously not as thoroughly, or they would have found it a long time ago.
Lone Bear says authorities were slow in launching their search it took days to get underway and didnt get boats in the water until December, despite his frequent pleas. Hes working to develop a protocol for missing person cases for North Dakotas tribes that gets the red tape and bureaucracy out of the way, he says.
The FBI is investigating Olivias death. Shes home, her brother adds, but how did she get there? We dont have any of those answers.
Other families have been waiting for decades.
Carolyn DeFords mother, Leona LeClair Kinsey, a member of the Puyallup Tribe, vanished nearly 20 years ago in La Grande, Oregon. There was no search party. There was no, Lets tear her house apart and find a clue, DeFord says. I just felt hopeless and helpless. She ended up creating her own missing persons poster.
Theres no way to process the kind of loss that doesnt stop, says DeFord, who lives outside Tacoma, Washington. Somebody asked me awhile back, What would you do if you found her? What would that mean?... It would mean she can come home. Shes a human being who deserves to be honored and have her children and her grandchildren get to remember her and celebrate her life.
Its another Native American woman whose name is attached to a federal bill aimed at addressing this issue. Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, 22, was murdered in 2017 while eight months pregnant. Her body was found in a river, wrapped in plastic and duct tape. A neighbor in Fargo, North Dakota, cut her baby girl from her womb. The child survived and lives with her father. The neighbor, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to life without parole; her boyfriends trial is set to start in September.
In a speech on the Senate floor last fall, North Dakota Democrat Heidi Heitkamp told the stories of four other Native American women from her state whose deaths were unsolved. Displaying a giant board featuring their photos, she decried disproportionate incidences of violence that go unnoticed, unreported or underreported.
Her bill, Savannas Act, aims to improve tribal access to federal crime information databases. It would also require the Department of Justice to develop a protocol to respond to cases of missing and murdered Native Americans and the federal government to provide an annual report on the numbers.
At the end of 2017, Native Americans and Alaska Natives made up 1.8 percent of ongoing missing cases in the FBIs National Crime Information Center database, even though they represent 0.8 percent of the U.S. population. These cases include those lingering and open from year to year, but experts say the figure is low, given that many tribes dont have access to the database. Native women accounted for more than 0.7 percent of the missing cases 633 in all though they represent about 0.4 percent of the U.S. population.
Violence against Native American women has not been prosecuted, Heitkamp said in an interview. We have not really seen the urgency in closing cold cases. We havent seen the urgency when someone goes missing. ... We dont have the clear lines of authority that need to be established to prevent these tragedies.
In August, Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, asked the leaders of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to hold a hearing to address the problem.
Lawmakers in a handful of states also are responding. In Montana, a legislative tribal relations committee has proposals for five bills to deal with missing persons. In July 2017, 22 of 72 missing girls or women or about 30 percent were Native American, according to Montanas Department of Justice. But Native females comprise only 3.3 percent of the states population.
Its one of many statistics that reveal a grim reality.
On some reservations, Native American women are murdered at a rate more than 10 times the national average and more than half of Alaska Native and Native women have experienced sexual violence at some point, according to the U.S. Justice Department. A 2016 study found more than 80 percent of Native women experience violence in their lifetimes.
Randy Ortiz wears a shirt with the names of missing and murdered indigenous women as he searches for Ashley HeavyRunner Loring in the mountains of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
Yet another federal report on violence against women included some startling anecdotes from tribal leaders. Sadie Young Bird, who heads victim services for the Three Affiliated Tribes at Fort Berthold, described how in 1 years, her program had dealt with five cases of murdered or missing women, resulting in 18 children losing their mothers; two cases were due to intimate partner violence.
Our people go missing at an alarming rate, and we would not hear about many of these cases without Facebook, she said in the report.
Canada has been wrestling with this issue for decades and recently extended a government inquiry that began in 2016 into missing and murdered indigenous women. A report by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police concluded that from 1980 to 2012 there were 1,181 indigenous women murdered or whose missing person cases were unresolved. Lucchesi, the researcher, says she found an additional 400 to 500 cases in her database work.
Despite some high-profile cases in the U.S., many more get scant attention, Lucchesi adds.
Ashley has been the face of this movement, she says. But this movement started before Ashley was born. For every Ashley, there are 200 more.
__
Browning is the heart of the Blackfeet Nation, a distinctly Western town with calf-roping competitions, the occasional horseback rider ambling down the street and a hardscrabble reality. Nearly 40 percent of the residents live in poverty. The down-and-out loiter on corners. Shuttered homes with Meth Unit scrawled on wooden boards convey the damage caused by drugs.
A couple walks through the main business district on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Mont.
With just about 1,000 residents, many folks are related and secrets have a way of spilling out.
Theres always somebody talking, says Ashleys cousin, Lissa, and it seems like to us since she disappeared, everybody got quiet. I dont know if theyre scared, but so are we. Thats why we need people to speak up.
Missing posters of Ashley are displayed in grocery stores and the occasional sandwich shop. They show a fresh-faced, grinning woman, flashing the peace sign. In one, she gazes into the camera, her long hair blowing in the wind.
One of nine children, including half-siblings, Ashley had lived with her grandmother outside town. Kimberly remembers her sister as funny and feisty, the keeper of the family photo albums who always carried a camera. She learned to ride a horse before a bike and liked to whip up breakfasts of biscuits and gravy that could feed an army.
She was interested in environmental science and was completing her studies at Blackfeet Community College, with plans to attend the University of Montana.
Kimberly says Ashley contacted her asking for money. Days later, she was gone.
At first, her relatives say, tribal police suggested Ashley was old enough to take off on her own. The Bureau of Indian Affairs investigated, teaming up with reservation police, and interviewed 55 people and conducted 38 searches. There are persons of interest, spokeswoman Nedra Darling says, but she wouldnt elaborate. A $10,000 reward is being offered.
The FBI took over the case in January after a lead steered investigators off the reservation and into another state. The agency declined comment.
Ashleys disappearance is just the latest trauma for the Blackfeet Nation.
A missing poster for Ashley HeavyRunner Loring is posted to the entrance of a grocery store on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
Theda New Breast, a founder of the Native Wellness Institute, has compiled a list of missing and murdered women in the Blackfoot Confederacy four tribes in the U.S. and Canada. Long-forgotten names are added as families break generations of silence. A few months ago, a woman revealed her grandmother had been killed in the 1950s by her husband and left in a shallow grave.
Everybody knew about it, but nobody talked about it, New Breast says, and others keep coming forward perhaps, in part, because of the #MeToo movement. Every time I bring out the list, more women tell their secret. I think that they find their voice.
Though these crimes have shaken the community, there is a tendency to be desensitized to violence, says MacDonald, the filmmaker. I wouldnt call it avoidance. But if we would feel the full emotions, there would be people crying in the streets.
His aunt, Mabel Wells, would be among them.
Nearly 40 years have passed since that December day when her daughter, Monica, vanished. Wells remembers every terrible moment: The police handing her Monicas boot after it was found by a hunter and the silent scream in her head: Its hers! Its hers! Her brother describing the little girls coat flapping in the wind after her daughters body was found frozen on a mountain. The pastors large hands that held hers as he solemnly declared: Monicas with the Lord.
Monicas father, Kenny Still Smoking, recalls that a medicine man told him his daughters abductor was a man who favored Western-style clothes and lived in a red house in a nearby town, but there was no practical way to pursue that suggestion.
Kenny Still Smoking wipes his eye while talking about his 7-year-old daughter, Monica, who disappeared from school in 1979 and was found frozen on a mountain.
He recently visited Monicas grave, kneeling next to a white cross peeking out from tall grass, studying his daughters smiling photo, cracked with age. He gently placed his palm on her name etched into a headstone. I let her know that Im still kicking, he says.
Wells visits the gravesite, too every June 2, Monicas birthday. She still hopes to see the perpetrator caught. I want to sit with them and say, Why? Why did you choose my daughter?
Even now, she cant help but think of Monica alone on that mountain. I wonder if she was hollering for me, saying, Mom, help!
___
Ash-lee! Ash-lee!! Ash-lee! Ash-lee!!
Some 20 miles northwest of Browning, the searchers have navigated a rugged road lined with barren trees scorched from an old forest fire. They have a panoramic view of majestic snowcapped mountains. A womans stained sweater was found here months ago, making the location worthy of another search. Its not known whether the garment may be Ashleys.
First Kimberly, then Lissa Loring, call Ashleys name in different directions. The repetition four times by each woman is a ritual designed to beckon someones spirit.
Lissa says Ashleys disappearance constantly weighs on her. All that plays in my head is where do we look? Whos going to tell us the next lead?
That weekend at the annual North American Indian Days in Browning, the family marched in a parade with a red banner honoring missing and murdered indigenous women. They wore T-shirts with an image of Ashley and the words: We will never give up.
Friends and family members of Ashley HeavyRunner Loring hold a traditional blanket dance before the crowd at the North American Indian Days celebration to raise awareness and funds for her search.
Then Ashleys grandmother and others took to a small arena for whats known as a blanket dance, to raise money for the search. As drums throbbed, they grasped the edges of a blue blanket. Friends stepped forward, dropping in cash, some tearfully embracing Ashleys relatives.
The past few days reminded Kimberly of a promise shed made to Ashley when their mother was wrestling with substance abuse problems and the girls were briefly in a foster home. Kimberly was 8 then; Ashley was just 5.
A woman performs a traditional Native American dance during the North American Indian Days celebration on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
We have to stick together, shed told her little sister.
I told her I would never leave her. And if she was going to go anywhere, I would find her.
__
Photographer David Goldman, reporter Mary Hudetz and data journalist Angeliki Kastanis contributed to this report. Sharon Cohen, a Chicago-based national writer, can be reached at scohen@ap.org or on Twitter @scohenAP. Read APs full coverage of #MMIW: https://apnews.com/tag/MissingInIndianCountry
The 2019 proposed budget for Huntsville City Schools calls for cutting millions in spending throughout the district.
For the time being those cuts do not impact people's jobs.
The budget was presented to the board of education Tuesday night in the first of two meetings.
Patricia Marr is a sixth grade teacher in the district. She likes the budget including promised teacher raises, but the other issues make her and her fellow teachers in the meeting worry.
"We're unsure about how they're going to do it and where the cuts are going to come from, so we're looking about; everybody's job could be at stake and we just don't know," said Marr.
The budget numbers have firmed up over the past month, but at the end of September the district is still looking to be roughly $5 million short on their state required one month operating balance.
At the end of the 2019 fiscal year projections show the district will still be short $3 million.
Superintendent Christie Finley said millions in cuts to the non personnel spending accounts for the district making up ground on the budget.
The board of education will decide whether to approve the budget and send it to the state for approval.
"Moving forward what we need to do is show a plan of how we're trying to achieve that one month operating expense," said Finley.
The Chief Financial Officer for the district said in the meeting the district has over two hundred staff members in the district not paid for by the state.
Some are teachers, some are assistant principals, and all of the central officer staff are included in that number.
When pressed several times on future cuts, to make up the remaining $3 million deficit at the end of the 2019 fiscal year, Finley shied away from saying people will lose their jobs.
"I think we have to look at everything. We have to look at programs, personnel; we have to make sure what we're doing makes sense and what we're doing makes sense for students," said Finley.
Marr is still worried, but likes the well thought out way the district seems to be handling the situation instead of making snap decisions.
"People's lives are at stake. You know, this is how we take care of our family, so going about it and taking a slow approach would be a good thing," said Marr.
Finley said the district and board of education can make changes to the budget during the year to help address the problem.
The next budget hearing is next thursday after which the board of education will decide to approve it, or vote it down.
Right now, Sheffield city officials are looking for an affordable way to build a gravel walking trail.
City engineer Don Price told WAAY 31 the trail will connect with the Tennessee River Walkway on Alabama Avenue to another trail on Montomgery Avenue.
Price said the bid for the walking trail came out to over $300,000. He doesn't know why the bid is so high, but it's way above the city's budget.
The city only recieved one bid this round and they're going to try to negotiate it with the contrator to get a lower price. The city has a $100,000 grant for the recreation trails program. They're willing to spend up to $150,000.
The recreation center director Ricky Canup told WAAY 31 the walking trails could improve the outdoor experience in the city.
"If they wanted to come and enjoy the river, they could come down and walk out on the river and park their cars on Montgomery Avenue and walk straight out to their cars. The way it is stands now, they can't do that. they're not going to want to walk through the woods," said Ricky Canup.
City Engineer Price also said when they got a previus bid back in November, the cost was too high as well.
If the city can't get a lower bid with the current contractor, they'll send a request to the state for another bid.
We're learning more about the University of Alabama Huntsville's record high enrollment numbers. In a report released this morning, the school shared almost 10,000 students are enrolled in classes this semester -- that's up 7% from last year. Now the school is projecting another 7% increase next fall.
WAAY 31 went to the school to learn how the growth will impact students and the campus.
Dorms on the campus of University of Huntsville Alabama. Dorms on the campus of University of Huntsville Alabama.
This is the fourth year in a row the school has seen enrollment increase. If the current trend of 7% increase continues the school will see just over 10,000 students next fall. Not only is the school thrilled about the growth, but students told us they are too.
"I love how much it's growing. I love how much of an influence UAH is having," said sophomore education major Emily Cusker.
That's what Cusker told us she thinks about more students enrolling at the University of Alabama Huntsville. While the education major welcomes the jump in attendance she hopes the campus is up to the challenge. Especially when it comes to things such as parking.
"Maybe if they put in a little bit more parking with the increase of students that would probably help," said Cusker. Sophomore Alex Lantigua agreed. "Parking's kinda hard to find if you wanna find it close to where your class is at."
The University of Alabama Huntsville Director of Community Relations told us students won't have to worry about that. He said the school is already creating more parking spaces. As for housing there are two new dorms plus off campus housing. And the school started hiring more instructors to accommodate more students.
"We did have a slight increase from 16 to 1 to 17 to 1, which is not a bad increase when considering the growth we're experiencing," said Ray Garner the Chief of Staff and Community Relations Director at the college.
Garner told us the school has already purchased 58 acres of land across the street from campus which may be used to build apartments for both students and the general public if needed.
The high enrollment wasn't the only record broke this year. The incoming freshmen class has the highest ACT average in school history with a 28.5.
Social conservatives understand the stakes in filling the Supreme Court vacancy created by Justice Anthony Kennedys retirement. President Trump, who has excelled in his judicial nominations to date, has the opportunity to transform the Court for a generation to come. This is no time for a gamble. As social conservatives know from bitter experience, a judicial record is the best really, the only accurate predictor of a prospective justices philosophy on the issues that matter most to us. On the vital issues of protecting religious liberty and enforcing restrictions on abortion, no court-of-appeals judge in the nation has a stronger, more consistent record than Judge Brett Kavanaugh. On these issues, as on so many others, he has fought for his principles and stood firm against pressure. He would do the same on the Supreme Court.
Start with a case argued before the D.C. Circuit this March, a case still under submission. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (i.e., the Metro) bans issue-oriented advertising, which it interprets to include religious ads. So when the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington wanted to run an ad with the words Find the Perfect Gift and an image of shepherds following a star in the sky during the Christmas season, Metro vetoed the ad. The archdiocese sued Metro for violating the First Amendment speech and religion clauses, as well as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The district court ruled for Metro, and the archdiocese appealed to the D.C. Circuit, where the oral argument pitted Paul Clement (representing the archdiocese), a solicitor general in the George W. Bush administration, against Donald Verrilli (representing the Metro), a solicitor general under Obama. Kavanaugh hammered Verrilli with what the Washington Post called unrelenting questioning about the Christmas-ad ban, which the judge described as pure discrimination and odious to the Constitution.
WATERFORD is marking time with a new museum in the Viking Triangle. The Irish Museum of Time is the first of its kind in the...
The football community in Waterford is in mourning following the sad passing of Roy Butler, who was aged just 23. An employee at Bausch &...
WATERFORD has added a bright new museum to the range of Treasures in the Viking Triangle. Two weeks after the opening of the Museum of...
Getting together as a group and setting aside time and energy to do something for others in need is inspiring. That's what I found when my home church - Lakeview Presbyterian Church PC in Mundelein - organized a . group of volunteers to assist the local Christian non-profit organization, Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) in Libertyville.
Signing in 15 minutes early with my church group as instructions to do on Thursday afternoon, August 16, 2018, for our scheduled volunteer time of 2:30 - 4:30 pm, hair nets were handed out as a sanitary measure for packing food (white latex gloves also had to be worn by all food handlers), after which we were directed to take seats in the auditorium to a wait orientation. Two short film were shown, one to acquaint volunteers with the FMSC program, and the second to instruct volunteers how each work station was set up for packing food.
It was sobering to learn that 1 in 9 children go hungry every day and that 6,200 children die each day because of malnutrition and hunger-related diseases. I was amazed to learn that each meal costs less than a quarter to make, and that FMSC devotes more than 90% of total donations directly to feeding kids. FMSC receives no government aid.
The Libertyville, Illinois site is one of 8 permanent packing sites in the US that works to feed hungry and malnourished kids around the world, so they can go to school and are able to learn. In 2017, more than 333 million meals were packed with the help of over 1.2 million volunteers and then distributed to nearly 70 countries around the world. Over 779,000 children were fed daily. This year's goal of Feed My Starving Children is to produce 365 million meals, 30 million more than last year.
In addition to the Libertyville Packing site for volunteering here in IL, there are two more sites in Schaumburg and Aurora. There are also two packing sites in MN (Coon Rapids, Chanhassen, and Eagan), one in Mesa, Arizona, and mobile pack sites nationwide. Each year volunteers from families, churches, businesses, and civic group hand-pack meals working as teams in two hour shifts to fill and seal bags in assembly line fashion. I can attest to the fun atmosphere that exists and the satisfaction that comes from helping to transform the futures of children, families, communities and nations.
Founded in 1987, FMSC is the original and largest supplier of nutritionally complete, packaged dry meals, as an independent organization not associated with the UN. The all-vegetarian MannaPack used by FMSC was developed by food scientists to quickly reverse and prevent malnutrition so children can grow and thrive. Each MannaPack contains 20 vitamins and minerals that are added to dried vegetables, soy protein, and rice (the last ingredient) before being sealed and placed in boxes to ready for shipment. Each bag must weigh between 380 and 400 grams. Rice is either added or taken out of each MannaPack so the weight requirement is met.
MannaPack ingredients are produced here in the U.S. and paid for by donations: Rice comes from Louisiana; soy, Illinois; New Jersey, veggies, and vitamins, MN. Volunteers work two-hour shifts in teams at work stations that are set up with all that is needed to make and seal MannaPacks. I was amazed to learn that each meal costs less than a quarter to make and that FMSC devotes more than 90 of total donations directly to feeding kids. FMSC receives no government aid.
At the finish of our 2-hour shift, the day was not yet over at the Libertyville site. The packing schedule for each FMSC packing site offers five two-hour time slots Tuesday through Saturday and two on a Monday for volunteers to sign up for. Such an operation requires a huge number of volunteers. Go here to sign up to volunteer at one of the FMSC packing sites. Check here to find where and when a MobilePack site is scheduled for your state.
We were to learn that the food packed during the Lakeview Presbyterian Church PC two-hour shift was destined for Nicaragua. When all the food going to Nicaragua assembled and ready to be shipped, the recipient of the food will be On Eagles Wings Ministry in Arizona, a partner organization, who has assumed the cost of shipping the packed food containers filled with MannaPacks to Nicaragua.
Having traveled to several of the countries where FMSC meals are being sent, I have seen and bought some of the craft items that are indigenous to the countries. As such I was amazed at the quality of the handmade goods purchased from hardworking artisans in communities receiving FMSC meals. Each packing site has a gift shop where handicraft items are sold. They are also for sale at Mobile Pack event and online at this site.
Thinking ahead to Christmas, I couldn't resist buying numerous items such as beaded bracelets and necklaces from Kenya; lawn ornaments from Haiti made from oil drums, decorative plant ornaments, and colorful mugs fashioned from clay; grass woven purses from Uganda; and a pine needle basket from Nicaragua and a hand sewn scarf. Every item has a tag telling where it was made, who the artisan was, and the number of meals the purchase of an item provides.
Feed the Hungry Children receives no help from government and depends on donations to operation. You can help children who would otherwise die of malnutrition and hunger-related diseases by contributing at this site.
Also consider volunteering as an individual or as part of a group effort by a church or business. All will be enriched by helping to turn hunger into hope with your own two hands.
The World Customs Organization (WCO) conducted a Sub-Regional Workshop on Special Customs Zones /Free Zones (SCZs) in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic from 30 to 31 August 2018. The Workshop was hosted by the Customs Administration of the Dominican Republic (DGA: Direccion General de Aduanas), with the financial support of the Japan Customs Cooperation Fund (CCF Japan).
The representatives of the Argentinean and Guatemalan Customs along with the colleagues from the Dominican Republic, as well as the wide range of public and private stakeholders of the free zones, notably the Dominican Free Zones Association (ADOZONA), the National Council of Export Processing Zones (CNZFE), the Dominican Logistic Center Association, and Las Americas Industrial Free Zone (AZFA) participated in the event.
The Workshop aimed to learn about the strategic and operational aspects related to the management of the SCZs, including the modes of cooperation with the private sector.
During his opening remarks, the Director General of the DGA, Mr. Enrique Ramirez stressed the importance of this topic for the Customs administrations and thanked the WCO for organizing this Workshop in the Dominican Republic. Mr. Jose Benedict Hernandez, the Deputy Director of Free Zones in the DGA also emphasized the necessity of the cooperation between Customs and the private sector for the sustainable development of the SCZs.
The Dominican Republic has benefitted from the SCZs regime for over 50 years and now operates 71 SCZs. The stakeholders shared the history and the development of the SCZs in the Dominican Republic, as well as the economic benefits of the SCZs such as promoting jobs and contributing economic growth. Some logistic operators of the SCZs shared their experience on business operations in the SCZs and challenges related to the Customs procedures and controls.
The DGA explained that the establishment of the special department within DGA dedicated to the SCZs has significantly contributed to its operations. Participants from Guatemala Customs and Argentina Customs also shared their practices in this domain.
During the Workshop, two field visits to DP World Caucedo Logistics Center and Las Americas Free Zone took place. These field visits allowed participants to better understand the dynamics, diversity and complexity of the business operations in the SCZs.
In the conclusion of the Workshop, the participants raised several important points that need to be addressed in the future: the importance of the definition of the SCZs in the national legislation in order to provide adequate Customs controls and supervision; the necessity of strengthening cooperation with the private sector especially logistic operators in the SCZs; digitalization of Customs procedures and use of modern inspections technologies such as GPS seals and container scanners; and the need of awareness raising on the role of Customs in SCZs.
In the framework of the WCO-WACAM Project funded by Sweden, the WCO provides support to the ECOWAS region with the implementation of the regional Customs Training Strategy. One of the key elements of this strategy is the design and piloting of the ECOWAS Regional Customs Training Curriculum.
In April 2018, the project hence gathered regional experts and an ECOWAS representative in Dakar (Senegal) to initiate the work on the Customs Training Curriculum. At the end of this session in Dakar, a work plan was designed, which included a follow-up session to consolidate and finalize the training curriculum.
As a result, 21 regional experts from West African States gathered from the 27 of August to 01 September 2018 at the Regional Training Centre located in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) to complete the work started in Dakar.
During the 6 days, the regional experts benefited from the guidance of two WCO experts in the area of competency-based human resource management and training with a specific focus on adult learning cycle, blended learning approach, design of training material, evaluation of training sessions and facilitation techniques. Throughout this activity, the regional experts were able to consolidate training modules in key customs areas such as Customs Clearance Procedures, Regional Customs Code, Valuation, Classification, Rules of Origin, Risk Management or Intelligence.
The material will now be presented in the wider West and Central Africa context at the occasion of the 8th meeting of the regional working group of HR and Training Managers, which will be held in Bamako (Mali), and the material will be piloted by the National Customs School of Burkina Faso as of October 2018.
For more information about the WCO-WACAM Project generally and this activity in particular, please contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org
Email To : Multiple e-mail addresses must be separated with a comma character(maximum 200 characters) Email To is required.
Your Full Name: (optional)
Your Email Address: Your Email Address is required.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Sep. 05, 2018 | 12:33 PM | PADUCAH
The man driving a vehicle that struck and killed former McCracken County Judge-Executive Van Newberry in October 2016 was sentenced Tuesday in McCracken Circuit Court.McCracken County Commonwealth's Attorney Dan Boaz told West Kentucky Star that Judge Tony Kitchen sentenced Willie G. Holsapple to 25 months in prison for reckless homicide. Holsapple had been indicted for 2nd degree manslaughter in March 2017, but plead guilty to the lesser charge this past May.Boaz said Holsapple was given credit for the time served in jail, the Kentucky State Reformatory and in-home incarceration. He said Holsapple will likely be released from jail after his case is processed by the Kentucky Department of Corrections. The recommended sentence for the homicide charge is reportedly 2 years in prison.Boaz said his office had two goals in prosecuting this case."One, to make sure that Mr. Holsapple had a felony as a result of the death of Judge Newberry, and secondly, that he never operate a motor vehicle again," Boaz said.He also said he hopes this case helps everyone understand that physical impairments should be seriously considered before driving or allowing a loved one to drive.Boaz, said, "I understand how significant the ability to drive is, in our lifestyles today. But, there are just some people that just shouldn't be driving, and while it's a difficult decision to make, we hope that this case will indicate that it's an easier decision to make than going to jail and being a convicted felon."Holsapple had initially been released on bond after his indictment, but bond was revoked after he got pulled over a few months later for driving on a suspended license.
On the Net:
Advertisement
By West Kentucky Star Staff
Sep. 04, 2018 | PADUCAH, KY
By West Kentucky Star Staff Sep. 04, 2018 | 05:14 PM | PADUCAH, KY
A Kevil man was arrested Tuesday after he allegedly pointed a gun at a cab driver.
The Paducah Police Department responded at 12:30 am to the parking lot of Auto Zone on Jackson Street. A Blue Dot Taxi driver told officers he pulled over after a woman in his cab vomited in the car. The driver said he told the man and woman to get out and pay their fare, but the man pulled a gun and pointed it at him - once in the car, and once after they were outside.
The cab driver told police the man, identified as Shane A. Roeller, racked the slide on the gun twice but no rounds came out, so he believed the gun was not loaded.
When an officer arrived, he ordered Roeller to his knees and found the 9mm pistol in the back waistband of his pants. Police say there was no magazine in the gun and no bullet in the chamber, but there were four rounds in Roeller's pocket.
Police say Roeller's speech was slurred and he smelled strongly of alcohol. He was arrested for public intoxication, carrying a concealed weapon, and theft of services. He was taken to McCracken County Jail.
Advertisement
By West Kentucky Star Staff
Sep. 04, 2018 | CALLOWAY COUNTY
By West Kentucky Star Staff Sep. 04, 2018 | 08:26 PM | CALLOWAY COUNTY
An investigation of a burglary in Calloway County has resulted in four arrests.
According to the Calloway County Sheriff's Office, they received a call of a burglary in progress shortly before 8:00 am on August 24th. Deputies report that a vehicle was found at the scene that was thought to be that of the burglars, and was impounded.
The homeowner advised deputies that at least three people had fled into a nearby woods. During a search of the area, one of the alleged burglars, Sara Harper, was found by deputies and arrested. The others were identified, and warrants for their arrest were issued.
The other three alleged burglars, were also located and arrested. Billy Reed, on August 27th, Chris Kirks, on September 2nd, and Lorna Carrico, on September 3rd.
All four were taken to the Calloway County Jail and charged with 2nd degree burglary, a class C felony.
Man injured after travel app confusion on I-24 results in another accident
By West Kentucky Star Staff Sep. 04, 2018 | 08:58 PM | MAYFIELD
A traffic stop Monday in Mayfield led to a man's arrest on methamphetamine charges.
According to the Mayfield Police Department, 44-year-old Edward Ellegood, of Mayfield, was stopped because of expired registration plates. Police later learned that Ellegood had an active arrest warrant out of McCracken County.
When Ellegood got out of his vehicle, officers say he busted a glass smoking pipe, and cut his hand in the process. Ellegood was placed under arrest and transported to the Graves County Jail.
Ellegood was charged with no registration plates, possession of methamphetamine, tampering with physical evidence and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was also served the McCracken County warrant for failure to appear.
According to New Martinsville Police Chief Tim Cecil, Spencer Sarver, Jesse Glow, and Megan Thompson have been arrested by law enforcement for drug-related offenses.
Chief Cecil said Thompson was arrested by Officer Michael Owens, while Sarver and Glow were arrested by the Monroe County Sheriffs Office.
Chief Cecil said the arrests occurred after a week-long investigation.
According to the Monroe County Sheriffs Office, via its official Facebook page, detectives became involved in an investigation on Aug. 31 which primarily involved Thompson, who was knowingly distributing large amounts of methamphetamine into the area.
According to MCSO, investigators apprehended Glow and Sarver into custody in Hannibal, Ohio as both subjects were complicit in delivering 30 grams of methamphetamine to Monroe County Detectives. MCSO then assisted NMPD in locating Thompson at a New Martinsville hotel, where she was allegedly found to be in possession of an additional 30 grams of methamphetamine.
According to MCSO, Thompson is currently being held at the Northern Regional Jail where she is being held on charges of bulk possession of Methamphetamines and Trafficking in Methamphetamines in both Ohio and West Virginia. Glow and Sarver are currently being held in the Monroe County Jail on charges for bulk possession of Methamphetamines & Trafficking in Methamphetamines.
Those arrests occurred in the early morning hours of Sept. 5.
According to MCSO, several other individuals were arrested in the late hours of Sept. 4.
A welfare check was conducted after a vehicle was seen on state property. The welfare check yielded 67 grams of meth and the arrests of Hannah Thomas and Gregory Matthews. Thomas and Matthews were arrested and transported to Monroe County Jail. The two are being held on charges of Bulk Possession of Methamphetamine, and Possession of Drug Abuse Instruments.
Also on Sept. 4, a MCSO sergeant performed a traffic stop on Joseph Lomax for a marked lane violation. According to MCSO, more than three grams of heroin were also obtained. Lomax was arrested for possession of heroin; he was transported to Monroe County Jail.
The Sept. 5 collaborative effort between NMPD and MCSO yielded 60 grams of methamphetamine, while the Sept. 4 arrests yielded 67 grams of methamphetamine and three grams of heroin.
Fuji Xerox Australia Pty Limited has announced the appointment of Takayuki Togo to the position of managing director, effective October 1, 2018. His prior position was senior general manager, Marketing, Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific Pte Ltd.
Togo has extensive experience serving in leadership roles such as marketing and corporate strategy, and his leadership is essential in Fuji Xerox Australias growth path. Australia is a market of enormous potential, Togo says. Im thrilled to be leading Fuji Xerox Australia and will make it a growth driver for the entire Fuji Xerox organisation. I also want to thank Sunil who led this company to be leading other operating companies in providing best solutions and services that meet customer needs.
Former FXA MD Sunil Gupta (second from left) at PacPrint 2017 in Melbourne.
The former managing director of Fuji Xerox Australia, Sunil Gupta, has completed his assignment and will be returning to the United States of America, his home country. He has been pivotal in Fuji Xerox Australias business transformation over the past two years. This turnaround effort has put the company back on the path to a bright future financially and operationally. Now in a position of strength the organisation is focused on delivering exceptional results for employees, customers and all stakeholders.
Fuji Xerox Australia
www.fujixerox.com.au
By: Paige Cline Sometimes I am asked to reprint a column from the past. Here[Read More]
Medical anthropologist provokes new thinking about water
Distinguished Professor Lenore Manderson created WATERSHED: Art, Science and Elemental Politics, a programme to provoke new thinking about water.
WATERSHED: Art, Science and Elemental Politics runs from 10-21 September 2018 at venues across Wits campuses, in Braam, and in Newtown and includes interactive art installations and performances, engineering, humanities and science displays, and interdisciplinary scholarly panels. It aims to facilitate conversation and build collaborations across creative arts practice and theory, the humanities, and the social, natural and physical sciences.
The sound of a forest
If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, does it make a noise? This philosophical question about a natural phenomenon reflects how disciplines can merge. Similarly, acoustic ecologists map environmental sounds. Take that forest, for example. What is the impact on a local ecology if you remove not all the trees, but only a few?
Bernie Krause recorded the sounds of a forest continually for a year. After a year, there were massive changes in the biodiversity. We tend to privilege the visual over audio, but sound is often more sensitive than the visual, says Lenore Manderson, Distinguished Professor of Public Health and Medical Anthropology in the School of Public Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits.
Manderson is also a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Environmental Studies at the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES), Brown University, USA, an honorary professor at Khon Kaen University, Thailand, and Adjunct Professor at Monash University.
What does a polluted river sound like? Its actually quite noisy, says Manderson.
The point is that the absence of visual evidence doesnt mean there isnt any impact.
And so it is with water.
Manderson conceptualised and directs WATERSHED: This is a unique, topical, and important programme of exhibitions and academic symposia to provoke new thinking about water.
The artwork is about getting people working outside the academy to engage with water in a way that they havent before. If youre a dancer, for example, you may never go to a seminar by an earth scientist on palaeogeology, but finding ways to bring together artists and scientists opens up how you understand the world and what you understand to be the issues, says Manderson, who lives in Melbourne, Australia; Rhode Island, USA; and Johannesburg, South Africa.
A social historian of medicine
As a qualified medical anthropologist, social historian of medicine, author, National Research Foundation A-rated scientist, and occasional actor, Manderson is uniquely positioned to interrogate global issues. She trained in Asian Studies, conducting early field research in Peninsular Malaysia. Her fields of research include questions of gender, sexuality and reproductive health; infectious and chronic disease; access to and ideologies of medical and healthcare; and disability and inequality.
Over the past four decades, she has worked as a medical anthropologist and social historian of medicine on questions of public health among diverse populations in Australia, east and Southeast Asia, and increasingly in Africa. She has collaborated continually with the World Health Organization Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Disease since 1988.
Advancing research capacity in resource-poor settings
Manderson was an honorary professor at Wits from 2004-2013 and a Hillel Friedland Senior Fellow at the University in 2008. During the fellowship, she collaborated with Wits colleagues to develop a PhD programme in the School of Public Health, and concurrently, worked with her Wits colleagues to develop the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA). She continues to be actively involved in CARTA, and in supporting the supervisory and research skills of academics throughout Africa. Globally, Manderson has supervised over 90 PhDs and some 65 honours/masters students.
Health, healing and illness amidst inequality
A member of Faculty at Wits since 2014, Manderson has since 2016 been teaching a course entitled Medical Anthropology in a Global World. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in South Africa and elsewhere, the course explores and analyses health, healing, and illness in relation to inequality and structural vulnerability, bio-sociality and identity, agency and power.
In her research, Manderson is especially interested in the complex health problems facing South Africa and the region. Her current research project in Johannesburg concerns antimicrobial resistance, prescribing practices, and antibiotic use, as well as a study on womens experiences of cervical cancer in Indonesia.
These projects are part of a larger project on Technologies of Equity, Access and Health Outcomes, using a broad definition of technology to explore decisions around health and medical care, public health interventions, the structure of health services, diagnosis and care, and the implications of this in relation to social justice.
Provocative interdisciplinary collaborations
Mandersons broad interests extend to interdisciplinary collaborations in the social and biosciences, humanities and creative arts, for social justice, human rights, and sustainability hence WATERSHED: Art, Science and Elemental Politics.
The artists are all in one way or the other engaging with water they stimulate new ways of thinking about the issues. By people getting together from very different fields and interacting across different academic disciplines, we begin to play with how we understand the environment, water security, and governance, identify priorities, and determine where the research might go, says Manderson.
Download the official Watershed report.
Art and science collide to provoke new thinking about water
What does a polluted river sound like? How does sand-filtered water taste? Will acid mine drainage scald your skin? Do oceans echo?
Wits University presents WATERSHED: Art, Science, Elemental Politics, a unique, topical, and important programme of exhibitions and academic symposia to provoke new thinking about water.
Water remains topical and the interdisciplinary approach of WATERSHED challenges the public to think about water in new ways.
From yarn bombs and sonically digitizing pollution, through bacteria-infused water purification, to artworks evoking both discomfort and inspiration, WATERSHED includes interactive art installations and performances, engineering, humanities and science displays, and interdisciplinary scholarly panels:
Theres an acoustic ecologist with a background in computer science and noise music who digitized the sound of pollution in a river and turned it into an art installation
An engineering student from Mpumalanga is researching a slow sand water filtration system for domestic use
An artist from India is creatively interpreting the impact of mining
Theres a seminar on how Joburg can avoid a Day Zero and a symposium on how big data and digitally generated visuals can provide policymakers with climate change and water security models in the future.
WATERSHED aims to facilitate conversation and build collaborations across creative arts practice and theory, the humanities, and the social, natural and physical sciences.
Professor Lenore Manderson conceptualised and directs WATERSHED. Manderson is a National Research Foundation A-rated Distinguished Professor of Public Health and Medical Anthropology in the School of Public Health at Wits, and a Visiting Professor of Environmental Studies at the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES) at Brown, USA.
The artwork is about getting people working outside the academy to engage with water in a way that they havent before. If youre a dancer, for example, you may never go to a seminar by an earth scientist on palaeogeology, but finding ways to bring together artists and scientists opens up how you understand the world and what you understand to be the issues, says Manderson.
Several artists participating in WATERSHED are visiting fellows in Digital Arts, Fine Arts, and Theatre and Performance in the Wits School of Arts. Artists include:
Atul Bhalla, Associate Professor, Department of Art Design and Performing Arts, Shiv Nadar University, Delhi whose work, Looking for Lost Water (Explorations at the Cradle) examines water as a repository of history, meaning and myth within the Johannesburg gold mining context taking references of land and water from historical contexts.
Brian House (PhD, Columbia) is an acoustic ecologist with a background in computer science and noise music. His work, Acid Love, is a case study sound installation featuring acid mine drainage. He digitised the sound of pollution in a river and created an art installation from the data.
Christine Dixie is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Fine Art, Rhodes University. Her work, Under the Sediments, superimposes two visual languages to represent art history and fracking.
Lucia Monge is a Peruvian artist working at the Rhode Island School of Design and at Brown. She is based at the Centre in Water Research and Development (CiWARD) at Wits, which informs her work at WATERSHED, Mi nino, your dry spell, their waterfall. This plant-inspired design that focuses on the tools used to collect, treat and transport water in different parts of the world.
WATERSHED includes a scholarly programme and participating Wits academics include:
The presentation of posters exhibited for the duration of WATERSHED takes place on 13 September at 12:00 in the Anthropology Museum. Posters by Wits students include:
An installation by Busisiwe Mashiane, a fourth-year student in the School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, demonstrates Slow Sand Water Filtration for Domestic Use in the Atrium of the Chamber of Mines Building on West Campus for the duration of WATERSHED.
Alumni in the news August 2018
Be inspired by the Witsies in the August round-up of appointments, achievements, awards and ideas
Books:
African Literature postgraduate student Mapule Mohulatsi (BA 2016, BA Hons 2018) has written a childrens book, Mizz President.
Here is an ENCA video of another Witsie childrens book author, Refiloe Moahloli (BCom 2009).
Panashe Chigumadzi (BAccSci 2013, BA Hons 2016, MA 2017) has published her second book, These Bones Will Rise Again, an account of Zimbabwes history.
Wits University Press has a line-up of interesting titles, including Shadow State by alumni Ivor Chipkin (BA 1992, BA Hons 1993, MA 1998) and Mark Swilling (BA 1982, BA Hons 1983).
The latest horse-related novel by Nicola Hayward (BSc 1985, BSc Hons 1986) is out: Master Jack.
Awards and appointments:
Five Wits alumni, all professors, won South African Medical Research Council Scientific Merit Awards in August:
Maureen Coetzee (MSc 1982, PhD 1987)
Charles Feldman (MBBCh 1975, PhD 1991, DSc Med 2009)
Bavesh Kana (BSc 1997, BSc Hons 1998, PhD 2002)
Penny Moore (BSc 1996, BSc Hons 1997, MSc 2000)
Lucille Blumberg (MBBCh 1974, MMed 2003, DTM&H 1987, DOH 1991).
Professor Peter van Heerden (MBBCh 1983, MMed 1992, PhD 2000) has been awarded the College Medal of the College of Intensive Care Medicine of Australia and New Zealand. He is the director of the General Intensive Care Unit at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.
The South African Medical Journal published a festschrift in honour of Professor Michael Kew (MBBCh 1961, DMed 1968, PhD 1974, DSc Med 1982), physician-scientist, teacher and role model extraordinaire.
Professor Loyiso Nongxa (BSc Hons 1976, MSc 1978, PhD 1982), former Wits Vice-Chancellor, has been elected as a Vice-President of the International Mathematical Union.
Senior lecturer Dr Jennifer Fitchett (BSc Hons 2012, MSc 2013, PhD 2015) was elected to the Society of South African Geographers Council.
In other news ideas, innovations, personal stories and places
Haematologist Dr Johnny Mahlangu (BSc Lab Med 1988, MBBCh 1994, MMed 2008) is the lead author in research set to revolutionise the treatment of haemophilia, a genetic blood disorder.
Professor Imraan Valodia, Dean of Commerce, Law and Management, and Business Leadership SA CEO Bonang Mohale co-wrote an opinion piece for Business Live about how technological advances are reshaping our lives. They made the point that technology should support and empower, rather than replace, workers. We should consider policies that will manage these transitions in the labour market so that society, rather than individual workers, bears the costs of adjustment. Responses to change should not assume that one size fits all but should seek to address inequality in the labour market.
Wits Enterprise, the commercialisation company for the Universitys intellectual capital, has a new unit, The Entrepreneurial Wayz (TEWZ). It provides insights, skills, tools and mentoring to young entrepreneurs. Anyone with an interest in problem-solving and innovation not just business people can benefit from its services. The other three units in Wits Enterprise are innovation support, research support and short courses.
Dr Max Price (MBBCh 1979, DOH 1983) came to the end of his term as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town recently, and handed over to another Witsie, Prof Mamokgethi Phakeng (BEd 1993, MEd 1996, PhD 2002). Jewish Report looked at Dr Prices legacy.
Rock Art Research Institute director Prof David Pearce (BSc 2000, BSc Hons 2001, MSc 2002, PhD 2008) helped the Sunday Times Lifestyle magazine to understand the Lascaux cave paintings, which were recreated in an exhibition at Sci-Bono in Johannesburg.
Scriptwriter and film director Lwazi Mvusis (BA Hons 2012, MA 2013) full-length feature, Farewell Ella Bella, opened on South African screens in August.
To mark Womens Month, Barbara Hogan (BA 1977, BA Hons 1979) visited the Womens Jail at Constitution Hill, where she was once imprisoned for her anti-apartheid activism. She spoke about understanding the systems that turn people into oppressors.
Delve, a research consultancy led by Dr Katie Mooney (BA 1995, BA Hons 1996, PhD 2006), is doing work for the new Museum and Archive of the Constitution at the Hill. MARCH is calling on all South Africans to share objects that tell the story of the impact of apartheid and the making of the Constitution. We are especially seeking objects that tell ordinary and everyday stories and that will allow visitors to touch and feel history. Please contact +27 (0) 66 441 0417 or email marchjhb@gmail.com and the curators will get back to you.
Geophysicist Dr Musa Manzi (BSc 2008, BSc Hons 2009, PhD 2013) told his inspiring personal story to Bongi Gwala on SAfm.
Advocate Thuli Madonsela (LLB 1991, LLD honoris causa 2017) spoke on ETVs The Morning Show about falling in love with law.
Honours student Nazia Wadee (BA 2018) is a semi-finalist in the Miss Earth competition. The student newspaper, Vuvuzela, interviewed her about her goals.
South Africa: The Good News carried the story of Godfrey Tshehla (BSc 2017, BSc Hons 2018), who excelled at Wits with the support of the Tomorrow Trust.
House & Leisure published a guide to the thriving art scene in Braamfontein. Wits Art Museum topped the list of great places to visit.
If, as Bob Woodward alleges and is being reported in early extracts of his tell-all book about the Trump White House, President Trump called his Attorney General Jeff Sessions, an Alabama resident, a "dumb Southerner," he may have finally done something he has long been unable to do: unite black and white Southerners.
We may not agree politically; actually, we disagree passionately on most issues. We don't see eye-to-eye on the issue of race and Confederate monuments and memorials. Even our views of Jesus and Christianity are diverging and increasingly at odds. But boy are we tired of having to contend with the stereotype that we are slow and unintelligent.
This side of the n-word, "dumb Southerner" is maybe the most impactful epithet you can throw at someone in the South. "Mentally retarded," another term Trump reportedly used to describe Sessions, is also high on the list. Trump has since tweeted a denial of using either term.
Calling Southerners some version of dumb is so effective that even Southerners do it to get under each other's skin.
Residents of South Carolina rejoice by thanking God they aren't Mississippians, who often show up at the bottom of good rankings and the top of bad ones, with South Carolina usually one rung above.
Alabamians are happy they have South Carolina to kick around.
North Carolinians are proud to be home to the New South city Charlotte and the Research Triangle that includes high-profile universities, which makes it easier for the state to claim world-class status and deny that this stereotype applies to them, too.
Such slurs pick at an open scab, that of school districts in the South repeatedly showing up at the bottom of educational lists and too high on lists about heart disease. It is a scab that is reopened every time an A-list Hollywood actor speaks in a distorted, haunting drawl to try to sound genuine when portraying down-on-their-luck, unsophisticated Southern-based characters on the big screen.
It stings us all, black and white. We are tired of having to remind people that we don't "talk different" any more than do Bostonians or Bronx residents, that the pace of the words that flow from our mouths is not indicative of the intellectual activity taking place inside our heads.
That's why even Trump ally Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia, said "I resent that" when asked about Trump's use of the epithet.
A version of the slur was used in 2000 by a high-profile South Carolina state senator, Arthur Ravenel, for whom one of the longest cable-stayed bridges in North America is named, because the National Association of Colored People initiated an economic boycott of South Carolina to protest the flying of the Confederate flag at the Statehouse.
Ravenel caught heat for referring to the NAACP as the National Association of Retarded People -- then doubled down by apologizing to retarded people. He also later said he had mixed up his words because he was scheduled to meet with the SC Association for Retarded Citizens.
It was a way to put black Southerners in their place, to remind them that they would never be as good as white Southerners. Trump has turned even that racial divide on its head because he allegedly used the term to refer to a Trump-voting and supporting white evangelical Christian who served in the US Senate, was a captain in the US Army, received a law degree from the University of Alabama and is now the nation's top law enforcement official.
If Trump thinks that about a white Southerner with such a long list of credentials, there's little reason to believe he doesn't think the same thing about many of the white Southerners who always show up at his rallies to passionately praise and cheer him. What's worse is that the slur comes courtesy of a fast-talking New Yorker who never showed any concern for white Southerners, rich or poor, before he ran for president. And yet, I suspect, while black and white Southerners will be united in our outrage about the slur, many white Southerners will stick with Trump.
Just days after he announced his intentions to run for the presidency, I spent time reminding white members of the Tea Party in the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, area that they had more in common with me, a black Southern native, than they did with Trump. Our parents and friends struggled to stay safe doing dangerous work at nearby factories and were struggling to find a new way forward as those factories were closing. We spent a lot of time praying for each other. We needed a better healthcare and more adequate educational system. We shopped, side-by-side, in Walmart and cashed our checks at local credit unions. We ate at the Southern-style buffet restaurants.
Trump knew nothing about any of that, I said. It didn't matter. They flocked to him anyway, led by men like Sessions, the first sitting US senator to endorse Trump. That's why though I empathize with Sessions, and others like him who have to endure unfair slurs from men like Trump, I likely won't be shedding too many tears. I've been all cried out since the night of the 2016 presidential election.
LITTLE FALLS, NY The Little Falls fire department had a special visitor Tuesday.
Joerg Richter from Germany is spending the night there while he travels from San Francisco to New York City.
On his bike.
Richter started his journey in April and is riding on behalf of the Care for Rare Foundation.
Hes trying to raise awareness of the many rare diseases that affect children in the U.S. and around the world.
Along the way, hes making frequent stops at childrens hospitals to talk with doctors and meet with the families of sick children.
He also has a special teddy bear that he presents to the children.
Our main offices are in Munich, and the childrens hospital is there, but the foundation is working world wide because one hospital alone cant cover the research and cure. There are about 7,000known rare diseases, leave alone all the ones we dont know about where kids die, even without a diagnosis.
Richter was a former firefighter in Germany, and once a firefighter always a firefighter, so hes been sleeping at various fire stations across the U.S. while he makes his journey.
You can follow Richter on his journey and learn more about the Care for Rare Foundation by clicking here.
As kids are heading back to school this week, driving safety is on the minds of many locally.
According to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, the leading cause of injury and death for school-age children is pedestrian crashes, and the most dangerous time is now as kids are heading back to school.
Oneida County Sheriff Rob Maciol and AAA are reminding drivers to slow down and stay alert in local neighborhoods and school zones, and to watch out for pedestrians before and after school hours.
Theyre also reminding drivers that it is illegal to pass a school bus.
Now is the time for drivers to refresh and practice patience and safe driving practices as buses are on local routes again, and its also a time for parents to remind kids of safety precautions when making their way to school.
We ask parents to tell their kids, hey, remember all the safety lessons they received for crossing streets, said Ed Welsh of AAA. Make sure that they look both ways, in fact look two, three times before they cross. Make sure that they walk, don't run across intersections.
Technology has improved an awful lot; a lot of school buses now are equipped with cameras on the arms that come out, Maciol said. So not only will the bus driver be able to capture a description of the driver, but the camera's going to grab a snap shot of the license plate.
Maciol says that in New York State alone, 50,000 school buses are passed each day. A person convicted of passing a school bus could get five points added to their license.
AAA and Sheriff Maciol offer the following tips on how to keep kids safe this school year:
- Slow down. Speed limits in school zones are reduced for a reason. A pedestrian struck by a vehicle traveling 25 mph is nearly two-thirds less likely to be killed compared to a pedestrian struck by a vehicle traveling just 10 mph faster.
- Eliminate distractions. Children often cross the road unexpectedly and may emerge suddenly between two parked cars. Research shows that taking your eyes off the road for just two seconds doubles your chances of crashing.
- Reverse responsibly. Every vehicle has blind spots. Check for children on the sidewalk, driveway and around your vehicle before slowly backing up. Teach your children never to play in, under or around vehicles even those that are parked.
- Talk to your teen. Car crashes are the leading cause of death for teens in the United States, and more than one-quarter of fatal crashes involving teen drivers occur during the after-school hours of 3 to 7 p.m. Parents can get information and tips to pass on to their children at www.TeenDriving.AAA.com.
- Come to a complete stop. Research shows that more than one-third of drivers roll through stop signs in school zones or neighborhoods. Always come to a complete stop, checking carefully for children on sidewalks and in crosswalks before proceeding.
- Watch for bicycles. Children on bikes are often inexperienced, unsteady and unpredictable. Slow down and allow at least three feet of passing distance between your vehicle and the bicycle. If your child rides a bicycle to school, require that they wear a properly fitted bicycle helmet on every ride.
(CNN) -- A number of key senators in both parties are sounding positive about Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court, a clear sign that President Donald Trump's nominee stands a strong chance of winning a pivotal seat on the highest court in the land.
"Not so far," Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a North Dakota Democrat, told CNN Wednesday afternoon when asked if anything she's heard so far would be considered disqualifying.
"No, I haven't seen anything from that standpoint," Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, said when asked if he's heard anything that would lead him to vote no. "He's handled himself very professionally."
The two red-state Democrats, who face tough re-election battles this fall, cautioned that they would wait until this week's hearings to conclude to ultimately make a decision. But they are hardly the only swing votes who may provide critical support to ensure Kavanaugh's confirmation to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy. One swing-vote senator is likely to support Kavanaugh, something that would almost certainly ensure his confirmation, a source with direct knowledge told CNN.
To win confirmation, Republicans can only afford to lose one of their own if all Democrats vote against Kavanaugh. But not only are there signs that some Democrats may ultimately support Kavanaugh, but no Republicans appear to be wavering either. The two most likely GOP defectors, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, both have sounded positive about Kavanaugh.
And Collins suggested she wasn't concerned when asked Tuesday evening about Democratic complaints over the Trump administration's decision to withhold more than 100,000 pages of documents from the Senate Judiciary Committee over claims of privilege.
"I don't really understand their level of outrage when they had already made clear they were going to vote against any nominee that the President put forward," Collins told CNN, echoing Republican criticism of their Democratic counterparts.
Other GOP senators are unlikely to defect, including some of the most persistent Trump critics, like Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake.
Asked if he would register his long-standing objections with Trump by opposing Kavanaugh, Flake said: "I don't think who nominates him should be disqualifying. ... Some people want me to become a liberal because I disagree with President Trump. I disagree with him mostly because I'm a conservative; conservatives believe in the rule of law."
The vote over Kavanaugh comes at a crucial juncture in the campaign season -- and presents a huge risk for Democrats no matter what they do. If the vulnerable Democrats support Kavanaugh, they are likely to infuriate their base and could turn off their most die-hard supporters in an election where turnout will be critical. But if they oppose Kavanaugh, they would undercut their arguments of being bipartisan-minded senators in states with a large number of Republican voters.
The votes of several other Democrats also will be heavily courted, including Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly, who is another endangered senator and voted last year to confirm Trump's other Supreme Court pick, Neil Gorsuch. Moreover, Sens. Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Jon Tester of Montana are both under scrutiny, though they both voted against Gorsuch even as they're locked in difficult re-election battles this fall.
Sen. Doug Jones, the Democrat from Alabama who won his special election after Gorsuch was confirmed, was non-committal when asked about Kavanaugh on Wednesday.
"I'm still going through my process," he told CNN.
Other Democrats voiced criticism at the process so far, including Manchin, who lashed out at both parties for their handling of this Supreme Court fight and other recent battles.
"Both sides have been deplorable in how they've handled themselves," Manchin said. "That's what makes people sick."
Manchin also took a shot at Republicans for refusing to even meet with then-President Barack Obama's Supreme Court choice, Merrick Garland -- and at some of his Democratic colleagues for announcing their opposition to Kavanaugh before he was nominated.
"Anybody who announces how they're going to vote before a President makes their appointment, there's no commonsense or reasoning in that whatsoever," Manchin said.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh faces questioning from the Senate Judiciary Committee before Congress votes to confirm his nomination by President Donald Trump to the United States Supreme Court. If confirmed, Kavanaugh will replace recently retired Justice Anthony Kennedy.
You can watch the hearing live here:
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
A farmer of the Miao ethnic group picks coffee beans at a coffee plantation in Simao, Yunnan province. [Photo/Xinhua]
China lifted 740 million people in rural areas out of poverty from 1978 to 2017, roughly 19 million each year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Monday.
The poverty ratio in rural areas dropped 94.4 percentage points during the same time period with an average annual decrease of 2.4 percentage points, according to the NBS.
NBS data shows that China's poverty relief achievements have contributed more than 70 percent to global poverty alleviation work in the past 40 years.
The average annual income of rural residents in impoverished areas rose an average of 10.4 percent each year from 2012 to 2017, up 2.5 percentage points from the average for rural residents.
Over the past five years, over 68 million people were lifted out of poverty in China. The country aims to further lift 10 million people out of poverty this year and eradicate poverty by 2020.
China recently released guidelines on winning the battle against poverty in the next three years in order to prepare the nation for eradicating poverty by 2020.
According to the guidelines, the impoverished people should be guaranteed food and clothing, and children from poor families should be guaranteed a nine-year compulsory education. Basic medical needs and living conditions of the impoverished should also be guaranteed.
People whose annual income is lower than 2,300 yuan (337.3 U.S. dollars) are defined as living below the poverty line in China.
(Source: Xinhua)
Email Sign Up For Our Free Weekly Newsletter
London still top target market for Asian property investors
According to new data from CBRE, Asian outbound capital deployment remains robust amid a recent slowdown of Chinese outbound real estate investment. In the first half of 2018, outbound investment activity totaled $25.3 billion, led by Singaporean capital, which accounted for 36% of the region's total.
This year, London continued to be a preferred channel for Asian investors, accounting for 26% of the region's total outflows. Substantial funds flowed from both Hong Kong and Singapore into London to capitalize on the more favorable yields and longer rental periods presented by commercial properties that are unattainable domestically.
Singaporean investors favored Europe as a location for portfolio diversification, investing $3.4billion into the region in the first half of 2018. Singaporean investors were also active in the U.S logistics sector, building a portfolio to the tune of $2.27 billion during the period.
Despite the deceleration in Chinese outbound activity, it is expected that Asian investors will continue to be active abroad. Tom Moffat, Head of Capital Markets, Asia at CBRE believes: "Asia Pacific investors are becoming increasingly recognized players and continue to expand portfolios strategically. The slowing of Chinese investment has prompted the emergence of more diverse capital sources, which illustrates the depth of liquidity and appetite for offshore deployment."
In the first half of 2018, Chinese investors decelerated acquisition of overseas assets and began disposals, particularly in the US and Europe, to improve balance sheets and to lock in profit for their early investment. Disposals are expected to continue with some Chinese investors under finance strain looking to strengthen their balance sheet.
Property companies were the most active investor class and accounted for half of total Asian outbound investment, compared to 27% in the first half of 2017. REITs also accelerated outbound investment with two Singaporean REITs had their first investment in Europe. On the contrary, institutional investors, who accounted for 45% of the region's total outbound activity in the first half of 2017, were less active this year and comprised 13% of the total.
"Overall, we anticipate that Singaporean, Korean and Hong Kong investors' strong investment appetite, particularly in Europe and the U.S, will continue to be a key propellant of Asian outbound investment in the medium to long term," added Henry Chin, Head of Research, Asia Pacific at CBRE.
Sign Up Free | The WPJ Weekly Newsletter Relevant real estate news.
Actionable market intelligence.
Right to your inbox every week. Go Thank you for your interest!
You will now be receiving our Weekly Real Estate Newsletter.
New Council Chief Executive wants to build united approach to achieve for Wrexham
This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Sep 5th, 2018
Wrexham.com yesterday had an opportunity to meet and put a few questions to Ian Bancroft, Wrexham Councils new chief executive, on what was his fourth day in his new job.
We opened by referring to the initial press release from Wrexham Council that noted he had been leading on changes to a number of big, strategic programmes over in Flintshire, so we enquired how Wrexham would benefit from that experience.
One thing I have said early on, and said at interview, is that it is really really important that Wrexham acts as one council, explained Mr Bancroft.
So that with Members and Officers we have a clear set of core priorities we want to achieve. The starting point of big programmes of change is that we are all agreed what they are, and that we put all our resources in to deliver those.
When we say we will do major programmes of change, we have agreed that as a Council politically, and Officers, and have put the resources in. We do that work with residents and communities, and we deliver against the promises we make.
Mr Bancroft added: It is too early to give practical examples of this is what we are going to do , but did point to the budget process later in the year as a point where the key priorities could emerge.
Talking about budgets, we contrasted the climate of when his predecessor joined to now in 2018 where the formal austerity programme from Westminster has seen further and more significant budget cuts for local authorities.
We asked Mr Bancroft for his thoughts on balancing books now while providing services, and several years into the future where the finances are projected to be even tighter.
The line I would often quote is I am an absolutely committed public servant. It is a calling to do this sort of a job, because it is an honour and privilege to work on behalf of local residents, even more in an area where I live and where I call my home.
I dont think public servants would necessarily choose this time to be a public servant as it has lots of challenges. But, along side that there are a lot of opportunities, and we need to make the most of those.
The difference to my predecessor is we are reaching a tipping point in terms of the level of cuts we have had to make as public services and as local authorities. It is really important in the future that we get a balance between being prudent and efficient as a council and protecting services that are of value to local residents.
What we must not be doing is making cuts to services that are critical for local communities and residents and ultimately means we are not meeting the local need. Clearly obvious areas are education, children social care, adult social care, the absolutely critical services.
On the other hand there are key preventative services, that help peoples public health are also critical, and the danger is we eat into those discretionary services and create bigger problems in education and social care. I think we need to look really long and hard at any budgetary impacts on our services.
In light of that we need to be lobbying nationally to get a fair funding deal. We are low funded as a council if you look at the per head funding that we get. We need to be articulating that back to Welsh Government and saying it is critical we get our fair share of funding.
There are substantial amounts of consequential funding coming from the UK Government to the Welsh Government in terms of health funding, so there is the ability to make a budget allocation in this years settlement.
We need a balanced approach to our budget. Again, to achieve that we need to make sure as a Council, as residents, as different political groupings we are absolutely united in what are the right things to do. None of these things are easy, and it is really really critical we do the things that are right for the residents of Wrexham.
Council Leader Mark Pritchard said: Ian and I are on the same page, we both believe in protecting frontline and public services.
He added: Ian mentioned a tipping point, I believe we are at that tipping point. I feel the next few years will be the most difficult time in history of this council through the austerity measures.
I will make this plea today, it cant continue. It needs to stop. Westminster and Cardiff need to understand that whatever we do across Wales now with the settlement will be reducing or stopping services. We are at that point. We have no option.
Cllr Pritchard also spoke on the language used, bluntly saying that it was no longer about making savings, it is cuts.
Mr Bancroft agreed: Being a public servant, our moral responsibility now is even greater. If we were not articulating the risk to local services for local residents back nationally, and the implications, we would be failing the moral obligation and moral duty.
We had heard on the grapevine that Mr Bancroft had experience with alternative delivery models, council-speak that covers outsourcing services to social enterprises, third sector providers, or even creating trading companies themselves (like Wrexham has already) or even getting private companies to run services. With the experience in Flintshire we were keen to know what could be copied over in this area.
Context is important, Wrexham is unique as a place, it is different to anywhere else in the world. I think it is an absolutely magical place. We have many of the components of a city in terms of the institutions we have got, for me to be thinking you apply templates or best practice to a unique place would be the wrong approach, he explained.
We want to look at what is the right approach for individual services, in their individual situation. As Officers we ought to be bringing back recommendations to members saying the best way to protect a service moving forward is this.
If that is in-house delivery or alternative model, an efficiency approach, or cutting of service. My starting point is always what is right for the residents for this area, and provide the best service, and the model that can do that is what we as Officers should be recommending to politicians to make the decisions.
We had looked back at the praise given to Mr Bancrofts predecessor when she left Wrexham, that saw improvements to governance and standards widely applauded as a legacy, and despite being very important they might seem not that relevant to the person in the street. We apologised to be thinking about his valedictory meetings on day four of his new job, but we enquired what he would hope to see as his goals and achievements.
To use one word, it would be relationships, which is a word that is contrasting to governance.
My starting priority is to ensure we have a common purpose for what we want to achieve in Wrexham.
That is a common purpose as Officers, with politicians, as a Council as a whole. It is not just as a council, it is working with the hospital, it is working with other public services, the voluntary sector, our social enterprises that we have a number of really strong ones in the area, and our communities.
Being able to articulate what we want to achieve in Wrexham in the future, getting collective agreement on that, and then actually then delivering that together with those constituent parts of Wrexham is really critical.
For me, signs of success will be when we have that united approach to what we want to achieve in the area.
There are so many constituent parts of Wrexham, and being able to unite them, and delivering things that are city like in what we do is really critical, and we cant do that without that united approach.
With limited time, we thought we should ask about his other new job that of Returning Officer for Wrexham. The Returning Officer has a key place in the proper execution of democracy locally, with the most public part of that being making the formal declarations of the winners and losers of the elections.
As readers will know Wrexham.com has covered several elections locally, but also helped out with Deeside.coms coverage so with the formal job title being fixed, yet different styles evident we asked his overview thoughts, as there is no election (yet) on the horizon.
There are very few definitions on what the role of a Chief Executive is actually, Head of Paid Service is one, and the other is the role of Returning Officer. It has a level of statutory definition, as you say in terms of style that can be done in very very different ways. said Mr Bancroft.
It is about recognising it is a civic role, announcements at elections are high profile with a high level of interest from a number of people, and we ought to be increasing the interest in democracy.
It is something that is really important, and I really respect the role that politicians play, it is never easy. We need to be encouraging people to think about taking on those roles in the future.
My style as Returning Officer is about making sure it is being seen in a civic light, and it is seen in an open an accessible way that encourages people to be part of the democratic process.
With Cllr Pritchard in the room, we could not resist revisiting comments he made last year during the recruitment process where he defended criticism on the advertising, saying Wrexham Council had to cast our net as wide as we can. We noted the net has landed about six miles away in Ruabon, and asked if headhunting could be better in the future.
Cllr Pritchard told us: I think it has been a very successful process. I will be careful about what I say, as I think last time what I said was misunderstood and became political. What I said at the time and will say again, we should cast our net as wide as we can hopefully to get the best individual, and what is right for Wrexham.
On this occasion we went through two processes, on the first intake we didnt make a decision and voted to go back out. On the second process we had a fantastic field, and were fortunate to get the group of individuals who applied, and had an excellent outcome because we have Ian today.
I do believe it was unfair how it was portrayed in the press, if anyone who knows me knows how much passion and pride and love I have for this town, and if we can get someone from Wrexham who lives in Wrexham for me that is a bonus, however I couldnt say anything at the time because it was going through due process.
Mr Bancroft added a comment on the process, It is all about timing, you cant control time, and I feel it is a joint choosing. It is a choosing of a council by a person, and a choosing of a person by a council.
For me it feels that the time is right.
(We also have spotted Mr Bancroft tweeting from the Racecourse, so enquired if he thought the reds were going up he said he is optimistic and was looking forward to the game later!)
New North Wales Police Chief Constable to be confirmed next week
This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Sep 5th, 2018
North Wales new Chief Constable could be confirmed in his job next week.
A meeting of the North Wales Police and Crime Panel on Monday will hold a hearing to appoint the new police chief, who will take over from Mark Polin after he left the post in July.
The panel will meet with Gulf War veteran Carl Foulkes, who is the choice of Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones to fill the role.
The meeting will be the final hurdle before the appointment of the new chief constable can take place.
He will be replacing Mr Polin, who left the force to become the new chairman of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.
Mr Foulkes, 47, who hails originally from Caergwrle, is currently the Deputy Chief Constable of Merseyside Police.
He joined the British Transport Police in 1993, having previously served in the Royal Navy and seeing active service in the first Gulf War.
Mr Foulkes left the force as a Chief Inspector to join West Midlands Police as a Detective Chief Inspector. In 2008, he was promoted to the position of Solihull Commander and two years later he assumed command of Force Intelligence, before moving on to head Force CID, the largest single department in the force.
As head of Force CID, he managed the forces response to serious organised crime, homicide and acquisitive crime.
The meeting will take place next Monday in Conwy.
By Shane Brennan BBC Local Democracy Reporter (more here on the LDR scheme).
Regeneration project helps ex-serviceman put eyesore property to good use
This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Sep 5th, 2018
An eyesore property that has stood vacant for several years have been given a fresh lease of life thanks to the work of a former serviceman.
Shaun Stocker, 27, redeveloped the property on Manley Road thanks to the Welsh Governments Vibrant and Viable Places (VVP) Empty Property Loan scheme.
Over the years the empty property has attracted concerns from neighbours and the wider community due to being an eyesore and attracting antisocial behaviour.
Following the purchase of the property by a local property developer, and thanks to help from VVP Loan, the old building was demolished making way for eight, high quality self-contained flats.
Shaun suffered serious injuries while serving with the Army in Afghanistan, and has subsequently developed a career as a property developer.
Hes also a keen fundraiser for Blind Veterans UK and has raised thousands for the charity.
Speaking about the redevelopment, Shaun said: Im very proud of this achievement and very grateful to Wrexham council for the loan without this help, it would have been very hard to complete.
Im also grateful to my friend Tony Thackeray, who managed the build.
Its amazing to see such a beautiful building that was once an idea come to life, and its an added bonus to have made such a difference in the local area.
Cllr Terry Evans, lead member for economic performance and regeneration, added: Im very pleased to see this work complete, and Im very grateful to Mr Stocker for all the work he has put into the regeneration of this site.
VVP funding has played a key part in the regeneration of parts of Wrexham and I know residents will be very pleased to see the site of what was once an eyesore building put to good use.
Five people, including a volunteer firefighter in Braxton County, face charges in connection with the sexual assault of a 7-year-old girl, West Virginia State Police say.
The alleged incidents happened on several occasions, according to a WVSP news release. The investigation began in early July.
Troopers say some of the incidents were recorded for others to see, including some that were allegedly shown on Homeland Security issued computers.
According to the news release, troopers obtained videos of Zachary Bailey, 27, of Gassaway, West Virginia, sexually assaulting the victim when she was left in his care.
Troopers say Bailey also told them it happened at least five times and that the victims family members, Joshua and Jessica Whitesel, requested that he video record the incidents.
Investigators say Bailey had been living in that household for about 16 months.
Jessica Whitesel told investigators that Joshua Whitesel would leave children in Baileys care when Joshua Whitesel took calls for the Gassaway Volunteer Fire Department.
Additionally, Jessica Whitesel told investigators that her husbands brother, Jonathan JD, Whitesel, and his wife, Kimberly Dawn Whitesel, made copies of the videos for their work computers.
Both Jonathan and Kimberly Whitesel were questioned by troopers, who they say admitted to making and transferring copies of the videos to their Homeland Security issued work computers.
Bailey is charged with five counts of first-degree sexual assault, five counts of attempted sexual abuse by a guardian or custodian and five counts of filming a minor in sexual explicit conduct. He is being held in the Central Regional Jail on a $100,000 cash only bond.
Joshua Whitesel is charged with two counts of use of minors in child pornography, 30 counts of distribution of child pornography, one count of gross neglect of a child creating substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury and one count of Conspiracy. His bond is set at $65,000 cash only.
Jessica Whitesel is charged with one count of gross neglect of a child creating substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury and one count of conspiracy. She has a cash only bond set at $5,000.
Jonathan JD and Kimberly Dawn Whitesel are both charged with 30 counts of distribution of child pornography and one count of conspiracy. Both have a $50,000 cash-only bond.
Along with Bailey, all of the Whitesels are currently in the Central Regional Jail.
A state spokesperson says Jonathan and Kimberly Whitesel are no longer employed by the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. He said DHSEM had alerted state police to evidence in this case and cooperated with the investigation. Both were suspended before they were arrested and charged.
The state spokesperson say Jonathan Whitesel was a mitigation project officer, and Kimberly Whitesel was an emergency services specialist. They had each been with DHSEM since early 2017.
Some readers of the World Socialist Web Site have written comments expressing concern that the August 31 perspective, Reject the anti-Semitism slurs against Jeremy Corbyn! Drive out the Labour Party right wing! represents an adaptation to Corbyn, the Labour left and the Labour Party.
The most extensive critique is offered by altacomposicionorganica. He warns that the perspective goes against the programme of the International Committee of the Fourth International and marks a significant difference with the line pursued by the Socialist Equality Party in the US.
The call for a struggle to drive out the right-wing, he writes, diverges from the fundamental fight of the Party against the pseudo-left, adding, If the US SEP were to follow Britains SEP line, it would be fighting for driving out of Clintons faction of the Democrats, because [Bernie] Sanders, [Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez and the DSA [Democratic Socialists of America] do not fight enough against it, and they would be exposed by our more militant position towards this rightist faction.
He proposes as an alternative a turn to the raw mass, of rank-and-file workers, who may or may not vote for Corbyn, but in which the class instinct is most present in the fight against zero-hour contracts, contract labour, gig economy, trade union dictatorship, etc.
The critique offered is a mixture of scholastic formalism and an ahistorical approach, which does not address political developments in the UK from the standpoint of the class issues involved in the offensive against Corbyn, or the problems posed in raising the political consciousness of the working class to its revolutionary tasks. The political endpoint is one of sectarian abstentionism.
Nowhere in the perspective published by the WSWS is there a capitulation to Corbyn, nor any retreat from criticisms we have made since he became Labour leader in 2015.
We warn that Labour is a right-wing bourgeois party complicit in all the crimes of British imperialism and has functioned as the principal political opponent of socialism for more than a century. We make clear that Corbyn is a bourgeois politician whose loyalty to British imperialism has been expressed time and againin his retreats on issues such as support for NATO, maintaining the Trident nuclear deterrent and his determined opposition to any struggle by his supporters against the pro-big business, pro-austerity, pro-war Labour MPs seeking his removal.
Based on the fact that Corbyn is a bourgeois politician with a pro-capitalist perspective, our reader advocates an abstentionist policy that would genuinely be a capitulation to both wings of the Labour Party. The orientation of the WSWS is not to Corbyn. It is to the thousands of working people and youth who have joined the Labour Party in the mistaken belief that his victory will lead to the formation of a left and even socialist government.
We do not cede leadership to Corbyn, nor stand aside from a political fight that is pitching tens of thousands of workers and young people against a rightist cabal of pro-austerity and pro-war criminals. We offer a way to fight back, armed with the socialist policies necessary for victory.
Corbyns election as Labour leader in 2015, we explained, was the distorted expression of a shift to the left in the working class and indicated a broad desire for a fight against the Tories, their Blairite allies and the major corporations, banks and the super-rich, in whose interests they have imposed savage austerity, destroyed vital social services and pursued repeated criminal wars. That is why Labour membership before Corbyn became party leader was 201,000 and now stands at over 560,000an increase of 10,000 in the past month alone, in direct opposition to the right-wing witch-hunt.
The ruling class and its political agents see things in these terms. No retreat by Corbyn has reconciled them to his leadership of the Labour Party because they see below him the seething mass of social and political discontent in the working class. Their aim is to criminalise and suppress all opposition to the dictates of the financial oligarchy. And they will stop at nothing to do so. That is why we warned, in the August 31 perspective, of the involvement of the secret services of Britain, Israel and the United States and of the threats by the military to respond to a Corbyn-led government with a military coup.
We say to those workers and young people within the Labour Party who want to take on the Blairites and Zionists: take up the demand, Drive out the right wing! Call branch meetings. Deselect them as MPs and expel them from the party. Demand the implementation of socialist policies!
We will lend critical support to such a struggle, but we insist that the working class needs a new and genuinely socialist party. We warn that those who take up such a fight will inevitably find themselves in conflict with Corbyn, whose pro-capitalist politics ensure that he and his clique will continue to appease, capitulate and otherwise sabotage the struggle against the right-wing.
Events will vindicate our assessment. Under such conditions, the demand to kick out the right-wing can not only provide a mechanism for advancing the class struggle, but the means for educating the working class on the difference between opportunist and revolutionary socialist policies. Our implacable opposition to the right-wing and clear call for action against the conspirators will build the credibility of our party and lay the foundation for its growth.
That is also why counterposing an orientation to the raw mass of rank-and-file workers and their struggles, to a turn to Labour Party members is false and syndicalist in character.
The UK SEPs defence of Corbyn does not place it in conflict with our American co-thinkers and their focus on the fundamental struggle against the pseudo-left. The struggle waged by the SEP and all the sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International against the pseudo-left groups is not a factional conflict, but the means through which we seek to secure the political independence of the working class and take forward the genuinely fundamental struggle against capitalism and for socialism.
A central role played by the pseudo-left groups internationally is their efforts to tie the working class to the old Stalinist and social democratic parties, either by boosting their supposed left-wing or by supporting broad-left formations such as Syriza in Greece or Podemos in Spainthat are led by ex-Stalinists and social democrats. Only last month, the Socialist Party in Britain declared an end to its own electoral activity because Building on Jeremy Corbyns leadership bridgehead is the clearest route, at this point, through which workers could achieve a mass party of our own.
There are, of course, important differences in the historical origins of the Labour Party and the Democratic Party that, as our reader indicates, precludes any tactical utilisation of the demand to drive out Clinton et al. But the US SEP nevertheless wrote extensively to expose the political issues behind the scheming by the Hilary Clinton faction of the Democrats against Bernie Sanders.
Moreover, there are clear parallels between the position taken today by the SEP in calling for action against the right-wing conspiracy against Corbyn, and how our American comrades opposed the 1998 attempt to impeach President Bill Clinton. Without evincing the slightest political sympathy for Clinton and the Democrats, the SEP warned that the forces behind the Lewinsky affair were seeking the overturn of an elected leader to carry out a sharp shift to the right in US politics. Indeed, the SEP castigated the pseudo-left groups for their indifference to the threat posed to working people from the anti-democratic measures employed by the Republican right.
We also stand firmly in line with Trotskys writings in Where is Britain Going? referenced by our reader. First published in 1926 on the eve of the General Strike, Trotskys polemic seeks to alert the revolutionary vanguard to the emergence of a revolutionary crisis and the necessity to advance a programme on which to interveneabove all by breaking workers from the Labour Party and its left-wing.
Anticipating that the radicalization of the British working class will proceed apace and possibly prepare the coming to power of the Labour Party, Trotsky states that the capitalist tiger would soon stop purring about gradualness and start to show its claws.
This would generate a further sharpening of relations between the right and the so-called left wings of the Labour Party and, what is far more important, a strengthening of revolutionary tendencies in the masses
The Conservatives would have behind them not only the official state apparatus but also the unofficial gangs of fascism. They will begin the bloody work of the provocateur The Labour government would have to either shamefully capitulate or crush the opposition, while the revolutionary wing would inevitably grow and the most far-sighted resolute and revolutionary elements of the working class would come to the top.
The situation would develop where a new explosion of civil war is inevitable, a sharp collision between the classes all along the line. For the revolutionary party, the imperative was: The masses must be educated and tempered in a revolutionary way. The first condition for this is an intransigent struggle against the corrupting spirit of MacDonaldism.
That is the spirit in which the SEP conceives of our intervention in the present profound political crisis in the UKto prepare the working class for the revolutionary tasks now on the agenda.
A meeting of key cabinet members from the US-led Five Eyes global spying network, held in Australia on August 28-29, shed light on the ousting of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull three days earlier, as well as the intensifying social media censorship.
Despite the high-profile character of the gathering, the event received almost no publicity. Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton hosted the summit. Leading the other delegations were US Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid, along with Canadas Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale and New Zealand Justice Minister Andrew Little.
As exposed by ex-US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013, the five-country intelligence web conducts bugging, hacking and other forms of mass surveillance over the worlds population, as well as targeted governments. Its cyber warfare operations are dedicated to tracking and suppressing political and social discontent and preparing for wars to reassert US global hegemony.
The annual summit of Five Eyes ministers was no doubt scheduled months before Turnbulls removal on August 24, yet the timing and the contents of the communique issued by the meeting point to the escalating demand from Washington for the Australian government and its other partners to commit themselves to front line involvement in any military conflict launched by the US, as well as to taking greater control over the internet.
Dutton, an extreme right-wing figure, notorious for his xenophobic anti-immigrant demagogy, anti-refugee operations and militarism, chaired the gathering just after failing to replace Turnbull as prime minister. After months of destabilisation of Turnbull by the most right-wing and pro-US elements in the Liberal Party, Dutton was narrowly defeated by Scott Morrison in a party room leadership ballot.
Despite Dutton falling short in his leadership bid, Morrison quickly reinstated him as home affairs minister, presiding over the central repressive apparatus of the capitalist statethe federal police, intelligence and Border Force agencies. In fact, the governor-general swore Dutton back into office at a special ceremony on August 27, a day before the rest of Morrisons new ministry, so he could host the Five Eyes meeting.
In the meantime, Morrison, himself a right-wing militarist, had distanced himself from Turnbull by holding a warm conversation with US President Donald Trump, who rang to congratulate Morrison a day after he was installed.
During Turnbulls three years in office, he had repeatedly assured US leaders of his commitment to the US military and intelligence alliance but his government had baulked at US requests to send warships and planes to challenge Chinas activities in the South China Sea. Moreover, two weeks before he was ousted, Turnbull had given a reset speech calling for closer relations with China, Australian capitalisms biggest export market.
At the two-day summit, the five countries firstly pledged their unity, specifically referring to its foundation through the US victory in World War II. We reaffirmed that the close and enduring five country partnership, developed following the Second World War, remains fundamental to the security and prosperity of our nations, the communique stated.
Next, the meeting agreed to jointly respond to severe foreign interference and publicly brand the governments responsible. Russia and China were not named, but they are clearly the focus of the declaration, coming amid a barrage of unsubstantiated accusations by the intelligence, political and media establishments against the two countries.
We condemned foreign interference, being the coercive, deceptive and clandestine activities of foreign governments, actors, and their proxies, to sow discord, manipulate public discourse, bias the development of policy, or disrupt markets for the purpose of undermining our nations and our allies, the communique said.
Under pressure from Washington, Turnbulls government, backed by the opposition Labor Party, recently pushed through parliament unprecedented foreign interference laws, outlawing alleged links to China and many forms of anti-war and other political dissent, particularly involving international campaigns. Morrisons government will now be expected to launch prosecutions.
The communique also denounced tech companies for not meeting with Five Eyes officials to discuss clamping down further on social media. An accompanying Joint Statement on Countering the Illicit Use of Online Spaces demanded that the internet conglomerates work more closely with the intelligence and police agencies to detect, identify and urgently and immediately remove illicit content, including sources of disinformation and forms of malicious foreign interference.
The meeting insisted that social media companies act on previous commitments to invest in automated capabilities and techniques (including photo DNA tools) to detect, remove and prevent reupload of illegal and illicit content.
Unless the companies cooperated, the five governments would work together to force companies to allow law enforcement agencies to access user data. We may pursue technological, enforcement, legislative or other measures to achieve lawful access solutions, the statement declared.
As the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) has proven, these governments and their European counterparts are already collaborating with social media companies to implement massive restrictions on internet access. In April 2017, Google announced new algorithms, aimed at limiting or blocking access to the WSWS and other left wing, anti-war and progressive websites. Facebook and Twitter have adopted similar measures.
The WSWS has taken the lead in exposing this conspiracy to censor the internet and called for the formation of an International Coalition of Socialist, Anti-War and Progressive Websites to fight back against this attack on freedom of speech and basic democratic rights.
The Five Eyes edicts signal an even more draconian offensive. A statement on combatting ubiquitous encryption declared the necessity to crack open end-to-end encryption tools allegedly used for terrorist and criminal activities.
Aware of the importance of encryption for online retail, banking and other corporate and financial purposes, the statement denied any intention to weaken encryption mechanisms. Nevertheless, the five governments agreed to the urgent need for law enforcement to gain targeted access to data, subject to further discussion with industry.
Under Turnbull, Australias Liberal-National government had already unveiled such legislation, tabled in parliament last month. Telcos, internet companies and device manufacturers that refuse to facilitate access to secret data face fines of up to $10 million.
The intelligence and police forces will have powers to compel any company, via a Technical Capability Notice issued by the attorney-general, to build a capability or functionality to provide the information required by agencies.
These powers will be far-reaching, potentially affecting any website. According to government ministers, they will apply to encrypted messaging services such as WhatsApp, as well as any entity operating a website.
The Five Eyes summit underscores the need to develop the struggle against this ever-increasing internet censorship, together with the drive toward war and police-state rule, and to root it in the working class, the only social force capable of defending fundamental democratic rights and freedom of expression.
The author also recommends:
One year of Edward Snowdens revelations
[6 June 2014]
More on the campaign against Internet censorship
The Senate Judiciary Committee began hearings Tuesday on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court, the second nomination by President Donald Trump to fill a seat on the high court. The panel is scheduled to take testimony on the nomination over four days, but given the disruptions that accompanied the first day, the hearings could drag on longer.
Kavanaugh did not even deliver his opening statement until nearly eight hours had passed, with the rest of the time absorbed by the statements of Republican and Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee, interruptions by protesters, and wrangling between Chairman Charles Grassley and the Democratic minority over a series of procedural challenges to even taking up the nomination.
At least 70 people were dragged out of the hearing and arrested by Capitol Police after they began shouting, usually in ones and twos, during statements by Republican senators in support of the Kavanaugh nomination. Most of the protesters were opposed to Kavanaughs right-wing Catholic views on abortion and gay rights, and his long record supporting corporations against workers.
The Trump nominee would replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, the so-called swing vote on the court because he occasionally broke with the five-member right-wing majority to side with the courts four liberals, although less and less frequently. Kavanaughs judicial record suggests no such tendency: he would be a solid vote against the separation of church and state, to overturn Roe v. Wade and the Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage, as well as siding with business against government regulation and workers rights.
Democratic senators began posturing as intransigent opponents of Kavanaugh as soon as the hearing opened. Senator Kamala Harris of California, one of several potential 2020 presidential candidates on the panel, interrupted Chairman Charles Grassley as he opened the hearing, demanding a delay to allow senators to review 42,000 pages of new documents released the night before, dealing with Kavanaughs six years in the Bush White House.
Kavanaugh served as an associate general counsel and then as staff secretary, a powerful position in control of the flow of documents to the Oval Office, from 2001 to 2006, before he was confirmed to a seat on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the second-highest US court and a traditional launching pad for Supreme Court justices.
During confirmation hearings in 2006, Kavanaugh flatly denied any role in the Bush White House deliberations on torture, during which Bush authorized the CIA to torture detainees at secret black site prisons in Thailand, Eastern Europe and elsewhere. The newly released documents could shed light on whether Kavanaugh lied at his previous confirmation hearing, as some Democrats claim.
More generally, they would shed light on Kavanaughs political views, which he has sought to conceal, as nearly every Supreme Court nominee has done since the defeat of Robert Bork in 1987, who expressed his own ultra-right views too openly, both in the press and at his confirmation hearing.
The Trump White House has barred the release of another 100,000 pages of documents relating to Kavanaughs tenure in the Bush administration, claiming executive privilege, even though there is no legal basis for one administration retroactively claiming privilege on behalf of another. No such privilege was claimed for previous White House officials nominated to the high court, including John Roberts, nominated by Bush, and Elena Kagan, nominated by Obama.
The ranking Democrat on the committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, said, Ninety-three percent of the records from Kavanaughs tenure in the White House as counsel and staff secretary have not been provided to the Senate and 96 percent are hidden to the public. She added, We go to these hearings under protest.
Such protests, however, will do nothing at all to stop the nomination of Kavanaugh, who at this point is assured of the votes of all 51 Senate Republicans, with a half dozen or more Democrats prepared to confirm, mainly those running for re-election in states carried by Trump in 2016, including Montana, Missouri, West Virginia and North Dakota.
Arizonas Republican Governor Douglas Ducey locked down the last Republican vote by naming former Senator Jon Kyl to replace the late John McCain for the remainder of his term, through 2020. Kyl, who retired in 2012, has been back in Washington for the past few weeks, working as the chief lobbyist for Kavanaughs confirmation. He will now be able to cast a vote for confirmation on the Senate floor.
The two-faced character of the Democratic Party posturing on Kavanaugh was demonstrated most clearly by Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, the minority whip (deputy leader), and a member of the Judiciary Committee. He rebuked one Republican who described the protests as mob rule, declaring that it was instead the noise of democracy." He added, "This is what happens in a free country when people can stand up and speak and not be jailed, imprisoned, tortured, or killed because of it.
He went on to declare that the protests were the product of widespread fear of authoritarian forces threatening our democracy, and that Trumps nomination of Kavanaugh was part of that trend. It is that president, who has decided you are his man, he said. You are the person he wants on the Supreme Court. You are his personal choice.
But Durbin offered no means to oppose Kavanaugh except an appeal to the nominee himself to urge the postponement of his own confirmation hearing until all White House documents relevant to his nomination were made public. This ludicrous suggestion encapsulates the impotence of the Democrats, who are unwilling to engage in the type of political and procedural warfare that Republican senators would engage in readily if the roles were reversed.
The posturing at the Judiciary Committee is for the sole purpose of giving the Democrats a left cover for the 2018 election campaign, while Trump and the Republicans are allowed to push the Supreme Court even further to the right.
The author also recommends:
Mutiny on their knees: The Democratic Partys phony opposition to the Kavanaugh nomination
[11 July 2018]
As executives from Facebook and Twitter prepare to testify Wednesday on Capitol Hill, the social media monopolies are scrambling to demonstrate how far they have gone to implement censorship measures demanded by the intelligence agencies and dominant sections of the political establishment.
These actions are inevitably couched in the language of combatting foreign interference and meddling in American democracy via the promotion of fake news. However, the real target is the growth of social opposition among millions of workers and young people.
Throughout the United States, hundreds of thousands of workers are entering into struggle against low wages, the attack on social programs and the decay of social infrastructure. As the school year begins, teachers in the state of Washington have launched strike action, as the unions seek desperately to contain the anger of educators. There is overwhelming opposition among 230,000 US-based UPS workers to a new concessions contract demanded by their employers and the Teamsters union. The ruling class knows that any eruption of class struggle, in any sector, could set off a social explosion.
At the same time, popular support for socialism is growing. A recent Gallup poll showed that, for the first time, fewer than half of young people aged 18-29 have a positive view of capitalism, while more than half have a positive view of socialism.
To combat what they call extreme political views, the major technology companies have massively accelerated their efforts to monitor, police and control the flow of information online.
Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebooks product manager of Civic Engagement, told NBC News Monday that the company is building a war room to monitor its users statements on the 2018 US elections, allowing the social media monopoly to take quick and decisive action.
Weve been building this war room, a physical war room, Chakrabarti said. Continuing the military metaphor, Chakrabarti told NBC, Every single corner of this company has mobilized to remove what he called fake accounts and to stop the spread of misinformation and fake news.
What the company means by fake news and misinformation is shown in practice. Among the pages removed by Facebook was the official event page for last months anniversary protest against a neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia. The most recent batch of fake pages taken down by the company all expressed left-wing political views, including opposition to US and Israeli foreign policy and police violence.
The scope of the companys enforcement actions is vast. The executive boasted that, over a six-month period, Facebook detected, blocked and removed, over a billion fake accounts before they could do anything like spread fake news or misinformation.
The company has doubled its security and enforcement team, from 10,000 people a year ago to 20,000 today, meaning that the majority of the companys employees work to police its users statements. These include thousands of individuals with police and intelligence backgrounds. We basically have some of the best intelligence analysts from around the world, Chakrabarti said.
Facebook is far from the only organization to use the analogy of war to describe the future of the internet. The cover story of this months edition of Foreign Affairs, the influential foreign policy magazine, is entitled World War Web. Its lead editorial argues that the Internet open to all is being transformed into something different from, and in many ways worse than, what we have now. The internet, as one article argues, has turned into an active battlefield.
By allowing propagandists and extremists to push misleading or outright false content, the internet is robbing citizens of a basic understanding of reality, claims Karen Kornbluh, a senior fellow for digital policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and US ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development under Obama. It is hard to escape the conclusion that the technology that promised to give power to the powerless has ended up also hurting the very people it was supposed to help, she writes.
The conclusion is clear. If the internet is robbing citizens of a basic understanding of reality, and hurting the very people it was supposed to help, wouldnt they be better without it? Or, at the very least, aggressive measures must be taken by the state to enforce its own basic understanding of realitythat is, censorship.
The fundamental concern of the American ruling elite is not supposed campaigns originating in St. Petersburg or Tehran, but the growing political opposition by the working class, which is increasingly hungry for socialist politics.
And it is precisely left-wing, anti-war, and socialist organizations that have been the central targets of censorship by the technology giants.
In April of last year, Google announced measures to promote authoritative content over alternative viewpoints, leading to a massive drop in search traffic to left-wing websites. Search traffic to the World Socialist Web Site dropped 75 percent in the months following the changes, and has continued to trend downwards.
The US media has maintained almost total silence on Googles censorship of left-wing political viewpoints. However, US President Trumps claims last month that conservative news outlets were being silenced by Google has been met with a series of denials by Google, the print and broadcast media, and large sections of the US political establishment.
In responding to Trumps claims, however, Senator Mark Warner, the leading figure in the Democrats' drive to censor the internet, gave a Wired reporter a revealing response regarding how Google treats extreme periodicals.
There are genuine concerns about some of the algorithms that almost create addiction tendencies, but those are generally about if you have a personal profile of searches, and you search a left-leaning story, theyre going to give you another, usually more extreme story, to keep feeding the beast.
In other words, if people search for social inequality and strike on Google, they just might stumble onto socialism and the extreme periodicals on the left that advocate it.
What Warner is describing, in other words, is the exact method by which Google has targeted the World Socialist Web Site: by down-ranking its pages in searches on the topics it principally covers.
The growth of working class struggle also provides the way forward to defend the freedom of expression on the internet. As workers throughout the United States and internationally enter into struggle against the employers and their union lackeys they must take up the fight against internet censorship as a central political demand.
On August 29, Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time came out openly in support of a widely hated pension reform, which will raise the retirement age for both men and women. The reform is opposed by more than 90 percent of the population. Just a little over a week earlier, a Duma hearing had ended with an approval of the reform. It is likely to be pushed through in the next few weeks.
The initial bill provides for a raising of the retirement age for women from 55 to 63, and for men from 60 to 65, an age that over a third of Russian men do not even reach. The raising of the retirement age will have far-reaching social implications for the entire working class, as substantial sections of workers rely on the meager pension payments to their parents as an addition to their salaries to sustain their families. About a third of Russian pensioners already work because they cannot live on their pension, which is on average only about 13,300 rubles ($210) per month.
While some media outlets, including the New York Times, have focused on the limited concessions that Putin made to the widespread hostility toward the reform, the main signal the Russian president sent is that he and his government will not budge on this issue in any substantial way.
In his 3,100-word address, Putin outlined the demographic problems facing Russian society, focusing on the devastating impact of the Second World War, which killed up to 40 million Soviet citizens, and of the total economic and social collapse of the 1990s following the Stalinist bureaucracys dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Stating that he had been forced by objective circumstances to change his position on the pension reformever since 2005, he had insisted he would never agree to raising the retirement agehe argued that the state budget did not have the resources to pay for pensions, under conditions in which the numbers of pensioners is rapidly growing, while the working-age population is shrinking. Putin added that Russia had come out of the economic and social crisis that still marked the 2000s and was now in a position to demand more concessions from the population.
He proposed a number of changes to the original pension reform draft: Instead of raising the retirement age for women by eight years from 55 to 63, it should be raised by five years, from 55 to 60.
Putin also argued for incentives for businesses so that they would keep people in pre-retirement age on the job, and for the maintenance of some benefits and exceptions for specific groups of workers.
He concluded: I will emphasize again that we are faced with a very difficult, but necessary decision. I ask you to understand this.
The argument that there is no choice but raising the retirement age is a lie.
Resources to pay for pensions, and increase living standards for both workers and pensioners, exist in abundance: They are concentrated in the hands of oligarchs close to Putin and a whole layer of other oligarchs who are in or close to the liberal opposition. They all have gained their fortunes through social plunder: the reckless destruction of the Soviet economy and welfare system, and the ongoing exploitation of Russias raw material resources and working class.
As of 2017, the countrys top decile owned 89 percent of all household wealth. The country is home to some 96 billionaires and 79,000 dollar millionaires. Among Russias wealthiest billionaires are Alisher Usmanov with $12.3 billion, Viktor Vekselberg, who is worth over $13 billion, Vladimir Potanin ($14.8 billion), Alexei Mordashov ($18.4 billion) and Leonid Mikhelson (over $20 billion).
The riches of the oligarchs and their origins are, of course, widely known in Russia. This is why no one believes or supports the official argument in favor of the pension reform.
Moreover, Putins argument that the social situation for Russians has become more stable flies in the face of the reality that Russian workers, youth and intellectuals are facing on a daily basis.
Especially since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis and the Western sanctions, which triggered another economic crisis in Russia in 2015-2016, and led to a dramatic devaluation of the ruble, living standards have steeply declined. The number of extremely poor, who live on 9,828 rubles (less than $174) has risen to almost 20 million. Many of the extremely poor are pensioners.
A recent article in the Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported that the population will face a steep increase in payments for utilities in 2019, which would lead to a growth in the already high consumer debt. According to one expert, the debts of Russians for utilities rose by 5.3 percent over the past year, and are now 35 percent higher than in 2015. The average debt of Russians in terms of utility payments is over 46,000 rubles ($682). Consumer debt this year has risen twice as fast as real income.
This year has already seen multiple expressions of extreme social anger over the horrendous social and working conditions. Earlier this year, a teacher was fired (and later reinstated) for protesting against poverty wages for teachers in his region, which placed them in the income bracket of those counted as extremely poor. For several months in the late winter and early spring of this year, paramedics in Voronezh were engaged in a work-to-rule action (a full strike by paramedics is banned by law) to protest against new regulations that force them to drive to patients on their own time. Paramedics in the region receive a monthly salary of some 19,000 rubles ($282). In August, workers at the Russian VW plant in Kaluga also staged a work-to-rule action.
The so-far limited strikes and protests will no doubt grow in the coming months. The pension reform, with or without Putins proposed changes, constitutes an aggressive move by the oligarchy in its warfare against the working class. Like the bourgeoisie internationally, the oligarchy in Russia is determined to make the working class pay for the very crisis it itself has produced.
On September 2, several thousand people protested again against the pension reform. The protests had been mainly organized by the Stalinist KPRF, the largest opposition party in the Russian parliament. At the biggest rally in Moscow, which attracted some 10,000 people, Gennady Zyuganov, the long-time head of the KPRF, described the pension reform as cannibalistic but only mildly criticized Putin. His speech tried to whip up Russian nationalism and was filled with anti-American and anti-Ukrainian remarks. At other rallies, protesters raised demands for Putin to step down.
The politics of the forces that currently organize the protests, ranging from the KPRF, other Stalinist parties and various pseudo-left groups, to fascist forces and the far-right liberal politician Alexei Navalny, constitute a dangerous dead-end. Their aim is to divert social anger into reactionary nationalist channels and thus block the emergence of any genuine working class opposition movement to the reform.
Such a movement would have to be linked up with the growing class struggles of workers internationally on a socialist basis and take up a fight not only against Putin and the current government, but against the entire political establishment that has emerged out of the destruction of the Soviet Union and the restoration of capitalism.
Authorities find more than 500 pigs on a farm in Northern Kentucky, some of which were malnourished.
Posted: Sep 4, 2018 11:14 AM
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - The man who foiled a terror attack in France will be speaking soon at Indiana State University.
Former Air Force Staff Sergeant Spencer Stone tackled an assailant on a Paris-bound train.
Stone will be talking to people about what makes a hero and the importance of taking action.
He will start the ISU Speaker Series for this school year.
Stone will speak on Tuesday, September 25th at 7:00 p.m.
The presentation is free and open to the public.
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Voters are, once again, preparing to head to the ballot box as concerns over election tampering persist.
Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson says she is taking steps to ensure every vote is protected but her opponent Jim Harper insists more should be done.
The Republican incumbent recently announced plans to use more than $7.5 million in federal funding to beef up election security but the Democrat challenger says it's a mistake the plan does not include improvements to voting machines.
News 10 spoke with candidate Jim Harper while he was in Terre Haute speaking with voters and stumping with other Democrat candidates.
Harper says voting machines should be replaced so there is a "paper trail." He explains votes should be cast on paper ballots or voters should be given a verified receipt. Not every Indiana election machine issues receipts.
Secretary Lawson says there is not enough money to replace machines statewide.
Jim Harper says, "We have important elections coming up in Indiana in two and a half months and we should be focusing on securing our elections this year and if the money that's available isn't enough to fix the problem in every county, we should at least be using is to fix the problem in as many counties as possible."
Secretary Lawson is assuring voters their ballots are safe.
"We take great care to prepare our election administrators for each cycle, and in partnership with counties, other states, and the federal government we are developing new answers to security concerns and election policy."
Secretary Lawson explains election equipment like machines and tabulators are not connected to the internet and everything is tested before votes are cast.
Indiana was one of five states to earn a failing grade in an election security assessment this year.
Election Day is November 6th. People can register to vote by October 9th.
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Indiana's Department of Homeland Security and National Guard are touring the state together.
It's called Operation Force Multiplier.
The tour kicked off this morning at the 181st Intelligence Wing in Terre Haute.
They're working to improve relationships between the state and local agencies.
This is so everyone can work together in the event of an emergency.
"Time is of the essence, and people looking for assistance don't want to slow them down. That is why we are here today is to let people know what we have, what resources are available, understand our limitations and ensure we have a plan in place," Brian Langley, from Indiana Homeland Security said.
The state will stop in 10 Indiana cities altogether, including asper, Bloomington, and Lafayette.
SULLIVAN COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - A lawsuit against a local school corporation has still not been settled.
Back in February, we told you two students sued the Northeast School Corporation.
That's after they say the school mishandled a rape allegation.
LINK | STUDENTS FILE FEDERAL LAWSUIT AGAINST NORTHEAST SCHOOL CORP. AND NORTH CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL
In the lawsuit, one student said she was raped.
The school system was later notified, but court documents say the male student still remained in her class.
Students say that led to bullying.
News 10 spoke with Superintendent Mark Baker on Tuesday.
He told us the lawsuit has not been settled yet.
Baker said the Office for Civil Rights found the school was not at fault.
However, they did offer suggestions for changes.
Baker added the school corporation is now looking into training on how to handle cases like this in the future.
https://www.hhs.gov/ocr/index.html
CRAWFORD COUNTY, Ill. (WTHI) - A Wabash Valley Sheriff is looking back on a recent murder case. He says there could've been a different outcome.
We're talking about the murder of Sandra Kendall. We first told you about the case back in July. Officials say the murder took place in the small town of Bellair, Illinois, which is north of Oblong.
The two suspects in the murder are Kendall's daughter Kristine Phillippe and Phillippe's boyfriend, Jason Strawbridge. Both Phillippe and Strawbridge have pleaded not guilty to Kendall's murder.
News 10 spoke with Crawford County Sheriff Will Rutan. He says if conditions were different for his department, the day of Kendall's murder could've played out differently.
The Sheriff says, It doesn't happen in Crawford County very often, but you know it still happens. You know one time is too many. One time is too many."
In July, law enforcement officials found Sandra Kendall dead with a gunshot wound in her home.
Rutan shares, "Between that whole family, it was a common occurrence for law enforcement to be called to that residence for domestic issues."
But Sheriff Rutan thinks things didn't have to end the way they did that day.
When asked if things mightve been different if the department had more man power, Rutan answers, It's a very good possibility it would've."
Rutan says the family members lived on the same property. He says Phillippe lived in a camper separate from her mother's home. The property is in rural Crawford County.
He shares, "Its a long time to get there, 15 minutes is a lot of time when something bad is going on. It just makes it difficult to patrol the area we have."
Rutan says officers had already been to Bellair once the day of Kendall's murder. They were serving an order of protection from Kendall to her daughter.
The order details a strained relationship. Kendall stated her daughter had "physically abused her." She'd done so by kicking her in the stomach, biting her, pulling her hair, and spitting in her face. Kendall went on to say she was extremely scared of her daughter. She even mentions Phillippe threatening her nephew with a gun the day before.
The Sheriff says his department is like many across the nation. They are striving to put public safety first, but are battling low patrol numbers to do so.
He says, "It's difficult to police such a large area with the amount of people that we do have. An unfortunate situation that happens."
Rutan says since this incident, the department has changed how it responds to certain situations.
Both Phillippe and Strawbridge will appear in court later this month.
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Some neighbors say "it's about time" something was done to remove more than two hundred guns and a hundred thousand rounds of ammunition from a Vigo County home.
55-year-old Gary Diana of Terre Haute was in court Monday. He was arrested last Friday for Felony Intimidation. According to court records, a nurse said Diana threatened to shoot her while she treated him in his home. She also told police she saw hundreds of guns inside.
Vigo County Sheriff Greg Ewing said Friday Diana had the means to act on his threat.
LINK | POLICE, FEDS SEIZE HUNDREDS OF GUNS AND OVER 100,000 ROUNDS OF AMMO DURING FRIDAY RAID
"I'm not suggesting that that was his intent but again, the red-flag law allows us to at least freeze the moment and have that time to do that evaluation."
Federal, state and local authorities removed the firearms from Diana's home after he was taken into custody.
Indiana was one of the first states to enact what is often referred to as a red-flag or extreme-risk protection order law. It's been on the books in the Hoosier state since 2005.
It allows police to take weapons from a person showing red-flags they may hurt themselves or others.
According to a Probable Cause Affidavit, authorities found handguns, shotguns, rifles, at least one fully automatic rifle and parts for a fully automatic .50 caliber machine gun. They seized more than a hundred thousand rounds of ammunition, a hundred pounds of black powder and explosive materials. Hand and leg restraints, three bulletproof vests and a bomb vest were also found.
One neighbor says she was fearful of Diana and is relieved the guns and ammo have been removed.
LINK | VIGO COUNTY MAN ARRESTED FOR THREATENING HEALTH CARE WORKER, ATF, FBI CALLED AFTER WEAPONS AND EXPLOSIVES FOUND IN HIS HOME
"I knew that he had all these guns and ammunition in the house and I was afraid that maybe if he had a fire it would set off all this. I had been told that it would probably blow the whole neighborhood up because of the amount that he had."
Other neighbors say they did not have any problems with Diana but feel better knowing the items were seized.
According to state law, police will have to keep the guns they've removed until a judge orders they are returned or destroyed. Individuals, like Diana, can petition to get the guns back. They can also ask that the items be sent to auction instead of destroyed so they can keep the proceeds.
Neighbors say they do not think Diana is fit to own any firearms but hope he gets the help he needs. He'll be back in court Thursday for his initial hearing.
INDIANAPOLIS The unofficial end to summer means the unofficial start to campaigning ahead of the November mid-term elections.
Indianas U.S. Senate race will be one of the most expensive and closely-watched in the country. Incumbent Democrat Joe Donnelly is trying to hold onto his seat, as Democrats try to take control of the Senate, while Republican businessman Mike Braun with the backing of President Donald Trump is looking to unseat him.
A vote for Mike Braun is a vote for did you ever hear this before Make America Great Again? Trump said at a rally last week in Evansville.
In a red state like Indiana, both candidates in one aspect or another are trying to align themselves with the president.
My focus is to work on the issues, Donnelly said in a recent interview. To work with my partners Republican and Democrat whoever wants to move the ball forward.
Braun appeared on stage with Trump at last weeks rally, aligning his outsider approach to that of the presidents.
When you send me there youre going to get a guy whos not afraid to speak up, thats solved problems in the real world, Braun said.
Our IN Focus panelists agreed the race will be tight, meaning more ads, more high-profile visits in an attempt to sway Indiana votes.
I would put it slightly slighting being within the margin of error for Donnelly at this point, Mike Murphy said, a GOP strategist and former Republican state lawmaker. But were still a lifetime away from November 6th.
Former Democratic lawmaker Christina Hale agreed, saying we live in crazy times.
Anything can happen, she said. Its the wild west of politics.
This story was orgionally posted on CBS4Indy.com
Millions of years ago, precious gem stones from the heart of southern Africa washed westward along the Orange River and emptied into the Atlantic Ocean.
While some swept up on the beaches along the Namibian coast, spurring a diamond rush in 1908, others came to rest on the ocean floor. For a little while at least.
Africa Business and industry sectors Business, economy and trade Companies Consumer products Continents and regions De Beers Group Diamond mining Environment and natural resources Landforms and ecosystems Luxury goods Mining and minerals Namibia Oceans Southern Africa
Today, six ships comb the ocean, sucking sediment from the seabed. The immense vessels are operated by Debmarine Namibia, a joint venture between the Namibian Government and diamond giant De Beers.
Last year the marine diamond mining company produced 1.378 million carats of diamonds, at a time when the country's land operations are waning.
To ramp up production, Debmarine Namibia plans to construct a $142 million ship-cum-tanker, which it says will be the world's largest custom-built diamond mining vessel, measuring 577 feet long. It hopes this new vessel will join the fleet by 2021.
This type of vehicle called a crawler ship has a 280-ton mechanical arm that moves in a horizontal arc, dredging material from just beneath the sea floor, at depths of around 400 feet.
Diamonds are then sifted from the dredged gravel in a sophisticated treatment plant onboard the ship. The gravel is returned to the ocean and the gems are securely sealed in containers, loaded into steel briefcases, and flown by helicopter to shore.
No human hands touch the diamonds during the entire production process at sea.
Read more: Drones tackle illegal fishing in African waters
Gems in a haystack
Debmarine Namibia has a license to operate off the coast of Namibia until 2035 within a 2,316 square mile area just under half the size of Jamaica.
But, while the ships mine 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, they're not scouring every last square mile, explains Otto Shikongo, CEO of Debmarine Namibia.
"You only mine areas which are mineable and profitable," Shikongo tells CNN. "It doesn't mean that every place that you find diamonds you go mine."
He says Debmarine Namibia has depleted a total of 50 square miles since production began in 2002, just two percent of the license area.
"The resource is patchy and not homogenous," he says, adding that the future of the mining will depend on their understanding of the seabed and technological advances.
"It's not the same as a land-based resource which you can see with your eyes... this one is 120 meters [393 feet] under the water," he says.
Every so often Debmarine Namibia sends out unmanned, autonomous vehicles much like underwater drones -- to survey the seabed using sonar technology.
The team also makes use of a two-person submarine to examine the geology of the seafloor.
Next, a 12,000 ton exploration vessel scoops large samples from areas that are believed to hold diamonds.
To date these combined technologies have identified a mineralized area or an area containing diamonds -- of 617 square miles. This makes up just over a quarter of the total license area.
The hope is to discover more diamond-containing areas through further exploration and sampling, explains Shikongo.
Survival of the fittest
While marine diamonds may be difficult to find, they're certainly worth the hunt.
Shikongo explains how nature ensured that only the "fittest" diamonds survived the journey along the Orange River, while weaker, imperfect stones were destroyed.
"Because the diamonds went through a high energy process, almost like a tumbling effect, only the best, high quality diamonds survived and made it to the sea," he says.
As a result, Shikongo estimates that 95% of diamonds recovered from the sea are of "gem quality," compared to just 40-60% of diamonds from land operations.
Read more: What's behind our obsessions with gems?
Environmental cost?
But, in the search for these precious gems, thousands of tons of sediment is dredged up and then dumped overboard.
Marine scientists argue that seabed mining degrades the marine environment, potentially impacting marine species.
"The waters off the coast of Namibia are an important area for a high diversity of resident and migratory species, such as sharks, whales, dolphins and seals," Kirsten Thompson, a marine scientist from the University of Exeter, tells CNN over email.
"Marine mining removes parts of the seabed with heavy machinery and habitat recovery from this type of disturbance can take decades."
But Shikongo says Debmarine Namibia continually monitors its footprint.
According to Shikongo, the company's environmental monitoring program found that it takes between two to 10 years for the seabed, and associated marine life, to recover.
However, in rockier terrains natural recovery could take more than 10 years.
Thompson adds that diamond mining can impact ocean life through increased ship traffic, noise, light and pollution, and is just one of many activities degrading the marine environment.
"Marine species are already experiencing profound changes due to climate change and other human-related activities, such as fishing, plastic pollution and shipping," she says.
"Some species and habitats are simply not resilient enough to cope with these multiple stresses simultaneously."
Offshore mining is increasingly important for the diamond industry in Namibia, as land-based production begins to tail off.
"Land operations have been there since 1908," explains Shikongo. "So these resources are not finite as we know and as time goes ... production tends to taper down."
Debmarine Namibia commenced marine mining operations in 2002, with a haul of approximately 500,000 carats. At the time, sister company Namdeb's land operations were producing around a million carats.
But over the years the tables have turned and marine operations now account for close to 75% of total diamond production in the country, according to Namibia's Chamber of Mines.
With all eyes on the Atlantic, the question remains: How soon will we exhaust this precious underwater resource?
Shikongo believes there are probably enough stones scattered across the Atlantic seabed for Debmarine Namibia to continue mining for at least the next 20 years.
The only challenge is finding them.
William Happer, a Princeton atomic physicist and prominent skeptic questioning whether humans are causing rapid climate change, is joining the National Security Council as senior director for emerging technologies, according to NSC officials.
Happer, 79, is an emeritus professor of physics at Princeton who served in the Department of Energy under President George H.W. Bush in the early 1990s. He did not respond to CNN's requests for comment.
Business and industry sectors Business, economy and trade Climate change Donald Trump Energy and environment Energy and utilities Environment and natural resources Government and public administration Government bodies and offices Political Figures - US Science Technology US federal government White House
His public stance on climate change is in opposition to near universally accepted science.
He told CNN in April 2017 that carbon dioxide is not the toxic "pollutant" it's made out to be and "the temperature is not rising nearly as fast as the alarmist computer models predicted." He compared the Paris climate agreement, signed in 2015 by the US under President Barack Obama and 194 nations, to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler in the 1930s and said it was "silly" and "should be canceled."
President Donald Trump announced in 2017 that the US was withdrawing from the agreement, which aims to address and attempt to mitigate the consequences of greenhouse-gas emissions.
Happer, who is not a climate expert, specialized in atomic physics and the study of optics at Princeton. His research helped pioneer "adaptive optics," technology that helps eliminate distortion and fuzziness when using telescopes, microscopes or other imaging systems, breakthroughs that drew interest for their military applications.
Happer has said he is not a "climate denier." He told Foreign Policy magazine in May 2017 that "climate has been with us forever" and it's ridiculous to "deny" it.
However, he said he would advocate for a rigorous public review of the science of climate change and its causes were he to return to public service.
"If it's this important, why haven't we had a public review of it," he questioned. "We have that all the time in defense programs ... if you're going to put in a new fighter jet, you have a red team that tries to find something wrong with it," he told Foreign Policy.
Happer was part of discussions on participating in an administration exercise to debate climate change. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced in October 2017 that he was working on a "red team-blue team" approach where competing teams of scientists would hold a public debate on climate science research. Happer was courted to be part of the red team, according to emails obtained by CNN from the Sierra Club, which filed a lawsuit resulting in the release of the emails. The plan was abandoned before Pruitt resigned in July.
'I'm a scientist'
Happer, who met with Trump during the presidential transition, told The Scientist magazine he had spoken to the President about the importance of having scientists working in the White House so he could listen to their advice.
Happer also said they agreed that climate change science has become like a "cult movement," and that they had bonded over the President's uncle, John Trump, a former physicist, as well as over a shared interest in making the US more competitive in science and technology.
When it was rumored in 2017 that he would be appointed to a role in the White House, Happer was asked how he would respond to resistance over his appointment from Democrats and fellow scientists. He said he would do his best to provide the best technical advice.
"I'm a scientist; I know a lot about some areas, and I know how to find out about others. I know how to reach out to people who really do know," he told The Scientist. "And I think I could provide the best possible advice, technically related and scientifically related advice, for the administration for policy decisions that really need to get the science and technology right."
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) A Confederate heritage group has no special status to try block the University of Mississippi from adding historical context to Old South symbols, a state appeals court said Tuesday.
Sons of Confederate Veterans sued the university in September 2014 in chancery court, weeks after Ole Miss administrators announced the university was taking steps to distance itself from plantation-era images on the Oxford campus.
In an effort to promote racial diversity, the school renamed a street that had been called Confederate Drive and installed plaques to provide historical background, including on a Confederate soldier statue that has stood for generations in a prominent spot on campus.
A chancery judge moved the lawsuit to state circuit court, and a circuit judge dismissed it in March 2017.
The Mississippi Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld the dismissal, saying Sons of Confederate Veterans has "no interest separate from or in excess of that of the general public" in the university's actions.
"This matter affects the public interest and may be brought, if at all, only by the Attorney General or a district attorney," the appeals court judges wrote. "We find that SCV's members have no private right that entitles them to require that UM refrain from implementing its diversity plan."
In July 2017, the university announced it would put up signs acknowledging that some buildings on campus were built with slave labor. The university also announced then that it would remove the name of James K. Vardaman from a building. Vardaman, a white supremacist, was Mississippi's governor from 1904 to 1908 and a U.S. senator from 1913 to 1919.
The move to add historical context to some places and to rename others at Ole Miss has been happening amid debate in many parts of the U.S. about how to deal with the public display of symbols and monuments tied to slavery and the Confederacy. New Orleans is among the places that have recently removed Confederate monuments. Harvard University last year acknowledged its ties to colonial-era slavery, and Yale University rebranded a residential college that had been named for a 19th century U.S. vice president who supported slavery.
Update 09/05/18 9:39 a.m.
All those taken to the hospital have been released. All had non-life-threatening.
See the original post below.
STARKVILLE, Miss. (WTVA) - A school bus carrying Nanih Waiya cheerleaders was involved in an accident Tuesday sending 14 people to the hospital.
The Mississippi Highway Patrol says the Louisville school bus was heading west on Highway 490 around 5 p.m. for a junior high game at Sebastopol when an eastbound Dodge Charger struck the bus.
MHP Master Sergeant Criss Turnipseed says of the 17 on the bus, two were taken by ambulance to Winston Medical Center in Louisville with minor injuries.
Bus driver William White, 51, of Louisville, was among 11 people from the bus taken to the same hospital to be checked out.
Beason Cooper, 20, of Louisville, was identified as the driver of the car. Turnipseed says Cooper was taken by ambulance to the same hospital with moderate injuries.
TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) - Sharp backlash is following a recent announcement by Nike.
Its 30th anniversary of the "Just Do It" campaign will feature former San Francisco 49er player Colin Kaepernick.
Critics took to social media calling for a boycott, including Sheriff Jim Johnson. The sheriff posted on his personal page a video of him throwing away his own Nike shoes.
Kaepernick came more into the spotlight after kneeling to the national anthem to raise awareness about police brutality against African-Americans.
Everybody ought to have a right to their opinion about things," said Jackie Field, a Booneville resident. "I think the world has gotten so dramatic.
People in the Tupelo area say Nike should not be teaming up with Kaepernick but others disagreed.
I think hes doing what he needs to do, I think Nikes doing what they need to do, said Field.
UPDATE 9/11/18
Dennis Deon Hicks, Jr., 31, of Columbus, has turned himself in, according to Columbus Police.
He is currently being held at the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center and has no bond set.
Hicks is still under investigation and could face additional charges, Chief Fred Shelton said.
See the original post below.
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WTVA) - Columbus police are asking for the publics help locating a wanted man.
The man is identified as Dennis Deon Hicks, Jr., 31, of Columbus.
Police say he is wanted for several active warrants including burglary, phone harassment, stalking and trespassing.
His last known address was on Alabama Street in Columbus.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Columbus police at 662-244-3500 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-530-7151
Update 09/05/18 11:42 a.m.
According to EMCC Board of Trustees Chairman Jimmie Moore, Young stated he felt there was a lack of confidence in his leadership ability and the best option was to step down.
Moore says the Board has reached out to a person to temporarily fill the position until a permanent solution is found.
See the original post below.
SCOOBA, Miss. (WTVA) - Dr. Rick Young has resigned as East Mississippi Community Colleges interim president.
The school made the announcement Wednesday.
Young's letter of resignation was submitted on Tuesday. His resignation is effective immediately.
Young assumed the role on May 18 following the resignation of former EMCC President Dr. Thomas Huebner.
The school did not release the reasoning behind Youngs decision.
This is a developing story.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - The Capital City has seen six shootings over the past 18 days.
The violence in the city comes as students are starting classes. Community leaders are now calling for stronger solutions to stopping crime.
The numbers speak for themself: Eight people shot in the Capital City from six shootings since August 18.
"It's very tragic what is taking place right now in our city," said Reverend Derrick Mercer with Bethel Missionary Baptist Church.
"It's gut-wrenching," said Jaworski Vance, a community activist. "Yeah, it's disturbing."
The shootings have been more or less concentrated in the city's westside, some at apartment complexes for students. Some of the suspects are in their early 20s. Reaching young adults is Reverend Derrick Mercer's ministry at Bethel Missionary Baptist Church.
"The greatest decision that you can make at this age is who you surround yourself with, your friends, and I try to tell them to be very intentional about their friends," said Reverend Mercer.
Reverend Mercer said it's not just finding strong peers but mentors who motivate young people to handle conflicts without violence.
"We do live in that culture of having to prove ourselves, you know?" Reverend Mercer explained. "Don't mess with -- I have to make sure people know that I'm not someone to mess with."
When it comes to stopping crime, some say it's holding elected officials accountable. Others say it has to come from within the community, but one activist says there's something more fundamental.
"Yeah, there is a solution to it, and it's called love," said Vance.
Jaworski Vance says not everyone who lives here has the same opportunities, and sometimes, not having those resources leads to crime. But the deeper issue, he says, is understanding where the violence comes from.
Vance said, "Fear begets fear, right? So, if you're walking around afraid, then that person you're afraid of walks around afraid, and then, they do something out of fear."
Finding the right ways to channel that fear, a small but important step in the fight against crime.
SUWANNEE COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - Police have arrested a Georgia man in Suwannee County after he told them he beat a victim unconscious because he "had been trying him all night."
Jeffery Tworoger, 27, of Union Point, Ga. was arrested by the Suwannee County Sheriff's Office on Sept. 1.
On Sept. 1, at about 10:50 p.m., deputies responded to the 12600 block of 235th Road in response to someone being beaten unconscious.
When deputies arrived on scene, they found the victim, unconscious on the ground, with his face badly swollen and bleeding.
SCSO says the victim was taken to a local hospital by ambulance.
Witnesses told deputies that Tworoger attacked the victim without provocation while he was in the process of leaving the home.
When deputies spoke to Tworoger, he admitted to beating the victim, because he "had been trying him all night."
Tworoger said the victim never said anything to him or tried to start a physical altercation with him, but Tworoger stated he just had a feeling the victim "was trying him."
Based on the evidence, Tworoger was taken to the Suwannee County Jail and is being charged with aggravated battery.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare has become the first hospital in the Big Bend region to be designated a Baby-Friendly Hospital as part of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative.
In Florida, 19 hospitals have earned the recognition for the global program sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF).
Baby-Friendly Hospitals are recognized for offering optimal care for mother/baby bonding and infant feeding, a news release said.
"In 2014, TMH began the Baby-Friendly process, which is more than just earning a designation, said Connie Styons, administrator, Womens & Childrens Services, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.
"Over the past four years, we have worked to change processes and procedures for our entire organization, and provided a tremendous amount of education to medical professionals and the general public. It has been a beneficial shift for our organization and, most importantly, the babies born here at TMH."
Families who come to the Tallahassee Memorial Alexander D. Brickler, MD Womens Pavilion, can expect to experience skin-to-skin contact after their baby is born.
During this process, the baby is placed directly on a parents chest and covered with a warm blanket. Babies who experience skin-to-skin have less stress, reduced crying, enhanced bonding and improved brain development.
Each baby also experiences a delayed bath, typically delayed up to 24 hours after birth, to help reduce stress and to serve as a teachable moment so the whole family can be involved in the bathing process.
In the Womens Pavilion, a mom and her baby also share a room. This rooming in model allows for better bonding and increased breastfeeding rates while also helping moms to feel more relaxed with their babies close by.
Since launching in 1991, the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative has grown to include more than 500 designated facilities across the country and 20,000 worldwide. In 2018, about 25 percent of births in the US took place in Baby-Friendly designated facilities.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 01:04:58|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
by Alessandra Cardone
ROME, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Italy's grape harvest is registering a 15-percent increase in volume in 2018 compared to the previous year, which would make the country the world's largest wine producer, according to official estimates unveiled on Tuesday.
"A good harvest will allow the national wine sector to recover after a difficult year (2017)," the Institute of Services for Agricultural and Food Markets (ISMEA) and association Unione Italiana Vini (UIV) said during a conference at the agriculture ministry.
The annual production was estimated in 49 million hectoliters against 42.5 million in 2017.
Such volume would bring Italy "close again to the average (production levels) registered before 2017, which was the poorest year of the decade," the two bodies stressed.
ISMEA also said France -- Italy's major direct competitor -- was expected to reach 46.1 million hectoliters, according to forecasts by the French agriculture ministry's statistical service Agreste.
In 2017, France produced 36 million hectoliters, and Spain 35.5 million hectoliters, ISMEA also stated in a previous report in August.
The three countries are the largest producers within the European Union (EU), which reached an overall production of 143.8 million hectoliters last year, data from the EU Commission showed.
Another good sign for this year's national production came from Italian Coldiretti farmers' association, which said that wine exports were expected to grow by at least 4.0 percent compared to last year, based on National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) data for the first five months of 2018.
Sales of Italian wines abroad were worth some six billion euros (6.9 billion U.S. dollars) last year, representing the largest export of Italy's agrifood industry.
"The current picture of the harvest suggests a positive trend, which bodes well for the whole sector," agriculture minister Gian Marco Centinaio said at the conference.
"In order to fully exploit the market's potential, and make our companies increasingly competitive on international markets, however, we need to further boost the sector with research and innovation investments, and focus on simplification," he added.
Voices from the field -- where the harvest is ongoing -- seem to confirm the positive picture provided by the official estimates. Yet wine producers said it was still too early for a final judgment.
"The harvest yields seem to be very high indeed... yet we are into the second day of grape picking, too early to make a forecast, and especially for red wines," Giovanni Correggia told Xinhua.
The 26-year-old wine maker runs a winery with his family in Canale d'Alba, a small town in northwest Piedmont region that is renowned for the quality of its wines. The vineyard has 20 hectares and produces an annual average of some 150,000 bottles.
Despite his caution, Correggia said "the outlook appears more than positive."
"We have had a very hot summer, preceded by a really rainy spring, and still in the last two weeks it rained. As such, our vines have not been thirsty."
In its report in August, ISMEA sounded an alarm related to a possible climate impact on grapes. The growth of vineyards started auspiciously across the country, it said, but "it was affected through the year by bizarre weather in which frost, rain, and humidity alternated."
"Frequent rainfalls and particularly humid weather provide fertile ground for the development of vine diseases," the institute warned.
This means that, while a good production in volume was ensured this year, in terms of quality "the winemaker's ability (and care of grapes) will make the difference on the final result."
On the opposite end of the Italian boot, Sicily, the Planeta winery is also through its first phase of the harvest. The winery has vineyards scattered over 360 hectares around the island, producing some 2.3 million bottles per year.
"We are at around 30 percent of the pick, and even less for some of our grapes. It is definitely too early to say what kind of harvest it would be," Planeta's oenologist Patricia Toth told Xinhua.
Sicily has performed increasingly well in the last decade, positioning itself among Italy's top regions in terms of production.
It ranked fourth in terms of volume with 4.1 million hectoliters last year, behind northeast Veneto (9.67 million), southeast Apulia (8.13 million), and central Emilia Romagna (6.62 million), according to ISMEA.
A further estimate on 2018 export trends in major markets is not yet possible, although Coldiretti expects a growth in the United States -- which would remain Italy's market of reference -- Germany and even France.
Italy's wine industry involves 310,000 companies and some 46,000 wine producers. Considering all the satellites activities -- such as the growing wine tourism -- the sector provides 1.3 million jobs.
The sector posted a 10.6-billion-euro turnover in 2017, with a 5-percent increase against the previous year. Exports made up a large part of this wealth.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 02:00:13|Editor: Shi Yinglun
Video Player Close
BERLIN, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The traditional Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Germany has slipped behind the upcoming right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD), an opinion poll by the political research institute INSA-CONSULERE (INSA) published in newspaper BILD on Tuesday shows.
With only 16 percent of voters' support, the SPD lost half a percentage point in one week while the AfD gained half a percent and is now a full percentage point ahead of Germany's governing junior coalition party. According to the poll, the AfD is thus Germany's largest political power, relegating the SPD to third place again. In July, the right-wing populist party already overtook the SPD for the first time.
However, an analysis of the poll by INSA shows that the SPD could potentially get 25 percent more votes from other parties' voters and also the lowest level of overall rejection. "Our analysis shows that the SPD has a much higher additional potential, but the AfD has more reliable votes," INSA director Binkert told Xinhua on Tuesday.
Chancellor Merkel's alliance of Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) is increasing in popularity by half a percent and now stands at 28.5 percent.
INSA managing director Hermann Binkert said that the "position of the SPD as the second strongest political force in the federal government is in danger." According to the survey, the coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD would currently not reach the required parliamentary majority of 44.5 percent.
"The AfD has become part of a violence-oriented and sometimes violent right-wing popular front in the east [of Germany]. This has already been demonstrated in the cities of Cottbus as well as Chemnitz," political scientist Hajo Funke told the newspaper BILD.
In the Saxon city of Chemnitz, violent demonstrations took place after the alleged murder of the 35-year-old Daniel H. by refugees last week. The AfD and the right-wing movement PEGIDA had subsequently promoted a joint "funeral march". It was the first time that the AfD had publically showed itself together with PEGIDA so prominently.
The AfD and their supporters could feel encouraged because the German government was showing weakness in dealing with the events surrounding the Chemnitz murder, according to political scientist Funke. The Saxon police has been criticized for underestimated the number of participants at the first demonstrations after Daniel H.'s death, which ended in chaotic and violent scenes in Chemnitz. "That may add one or two percent in the East of Germany in the next polls. But in the medium term this will harm the AfD," Funke explains.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 02:15:19|Editor: Shi Yinglun
Video Player Close
MADRID, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell confirmed on Tuesday that Spain will double its aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in the wake of the decision taken by the U.S. government to end its contributions to the organization which was created in 1949.
Borrell made his announcement after meeting Riyad al-Maliki, Palestinian foreign minister, who is currently visiting Spain.
Borrell admitted that the decision to increase Spain's contribution to UNRWA from one million to two million euros a year was "a symbolic gesture," which would be confirmed during Friday's cabinet meeting.
"It is a substantial increase, although it falls a long way short of replacing the funds that the United States have cut," commented the minister.
The announcement comes just two days after the Spanish government issued a communique lamenting the "serious decision" taken by the United States to end contributing to UNRWA.
The United States has contributed 60 million dollars this year, already a sharp reduction from the 65 million dollars donated in 2017.
The communique rejected the U.S. accusation that the UNWRA was corrupt, saying that, "during its almost 70 years of existence in conditions of extreme difficulty, the UNRWA has loyally fulfilled its mandate of giving emergency social aid to the refugee Palestinian population."
The Spanish government believes the American decision "seriously threatens the continuity of special programs in questions of health, education and food, which directly benefit Palestinian refugees in the Middle East" and adds that "the suppression of basic services to 3 million Palestinian refugees could have serious consequences for the stability of the region; especially in the Gaza strip."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 02:35:24|Editor: Yang Yi
Video Player Close
Sloane Stephens of the United States hits a return during the women's singles quarterfinal match against Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia at the 2018 US Open tennis championships in New York, the United States, Sept. 4, 2018. Sevastova won 2-0. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)
NEW YORK, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The 19th seed Anastasija Sevastova from Latvia stunned defending champion Sloane Stephens from the United States 6-2, 6-3 in the U.S. Open women's singles quarterfinals here on Tuesday.
Stephens had beaten Sevastova in the same round last year en route to her first Grand Slam title. But her serve was the bigger problem today as the third seed was broken five times in the 84-minute match.
Sevastova advanced to the first major semifinal of her career and will play either Serena Williams or 2016 U.S. Open runner-up Karolina Pliskova in the semis.
The match was played when the temperature pushed above 32 degrees Celsius, prompting tournament officials to implement the extreme heat policy, which has been in effect for most of the tournament.
"It was very physical today. It's so hot in here," the 28-year-old Sevastova said. "It was important that I won the first set."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 02:45:28|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
GENEVA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Swiss environmental and farming groups issued a petition on Tuesday, urging their government to come to the rescue of insects which they said have been disappearing in neighboring Germany.
"We still do not know exactly how much Switzerland is affected today. But anyone who pays attention, notices that both during the day and at night it hums much less than before," said the petitioners in their message.
They launched their petition in the capital Bern demanding a thorough analysis of insect deaths and rapid measures to deal with them, noting that "almost nothing" flits around street lamps anymore.
The petition calls on the Swiss Government and the Parliament to immediately provide an explanation for insect decimation and to take effective measures to stem insect disappearance.
The committee that launched the petition is made up of the Swiss Federation of Nature Friends, Dark-Sky Switzerland, the Swiss Farmers' Union and Apisuisse.
It hopes to collect 50,000 signatures by the end of November.
"Probably more than half of all insects have disappeared in the last 30 years," said the petitioners, citing research conducted in Germany.
They are demanding to know reasons for the disappearance of insects in different regions of Switzerland and call for the extent to which this is happening to be brought to light scientifically.
The petitioners call for sufficient financial resources being made available "without delay".
"Birds, frogs, fish, hedgehogs, bats and many other animals feed on insects. Without insects, they also disappear quickly," says the petition.
It notes that the same applies to wild and cultivated plants that rely on pollination by insects.
"Insect killing endangers food production, entire ecosystems and thus our own livelihood," states the petition.
Globally, the action of pollinating insects is estimated in financial terms at about 172 billion Swiss francs (176.5 billion U.S. dollars), the Swiss News Agency SDA-ATS reported, citing a 2016 Franco-German study mentioned by the petitioners.
File Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump (L) welcomes South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on June 30, 2017. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)
WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The White House said on Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump earlier on the same day spoke with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in, when they agreed to meet later at the UN General Assembly.
According to a statement issued by the White House press secretary, Trump and Moon "discussed the latest developments on the Korean Peninsula, including our ongoing efforts to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea," which refers to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
"President Moon briefed the President that he was sending a Special Envoy to Pyongyang tomorrow (September 5) to meet with Chairman Kim, and promised a readout of that meeting," the White House said, adding that the two presidents "agreed to meet later this month on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York."
Last month, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he would travel to Pyongyang "to make further diplomatic progress towards our objective."
However, Trump tweeted a day later that he asked Pompeo to cancel the trip, citing the lack of progress on the peninsula's denuclearization.
Besides the pace and scale of denuclearization, Washington and Pyongyang have disagreed on whether to issue a war-ending declaration.
The DPRK has argued that such a document is the first step towards peace on the peninsula, whereas Washington has said it is too early to discuss the topic.
At the conclusion of the historic summit between Trump and DPRK top leader Kim Jong Un in June, the two sides issued a joint statement, in which they agreed to improve bilateral relations and work together to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the peninsula.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 03:30:38|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
RIYADH, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia intercepted on Tuesday two ballistic missiles shot by Houthi militias towards border city Jazan, Al Arabiya local news reported.
The Houthis have stepped up missiles attacks on Saudi Arabia in recent months, in which the Saudi-led coalition involved in a war in Yemen announced on Monday that the militias have attacked the kingdom with 186 missiles since the beginning of the war in 2015.
The coalition has requested the international community to tackle the crisis in Yemen by opposing the role of Iran in backing the militias with weapons and missiles to destabilize the regional stability.
The Houthis' missile attacks were a response to the coalition's airstrikes that target the areas under their control in Yemen.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 04:30:50|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Governor of the U.S. state of Arizona, Doug Ducey, announced Tuesday that he has appointed former Republican Senator Jon Kyl to fill the Senate seat vacated by Senator John McCain, who died last month.
"There is no one in Arizona with the stature of Senator Jon Kyl," Ducey told reporters in Phoenix, with Kyl at his side. "He is a man without comparable peer."
Kyl, 76, served from 1995 to 2013 in the U.S. senate, where he worked alongside McCain, who died late last month at the age of 81 following a yearlong battle with brain cancer.
Kyl said he would be "honored" to return to the chamber, while adding that he doesn't intend to run for the seat in the future, for any other seat.
Widow Cindy McCain said it was a "great tribute" to her late husband that their close friend Kyl will return to public service by assuming McCain's seat.
Kyl is also one of the "sherpas" escorting Brett Kavanaugh, U.S. President Donald Trump's pick to be the next U.S. Supreme Court justice, through the Senate confirmation process.
The Senate confirmation hearing for Kavanaugh began Tuesday, which has descended into chaos as Democrats protested about Republicans blocking access to documents concerning the judge.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 04:35:51|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
JERUSALEM, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Almost half of the Jewish-Israelis (47 percent) think that the Palestinians deserve an independent state, according to the monthly Peace Index of the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University published Tuesday.
Among Arab-Israelis, 73 percent support such an agreement.
On the other hand, 56 percent of Jewish and Arab Israelis believe, according to the survey, that if a peace agreement is to be signed based on the two-state solution, it would be impossible to implement.
Analysis of the Jewish sample by age shows that support for a Palestinian state increases with age: among those aged 18-34 only a minority (35 percent) support the Palestinians' right to a state, 54 percent of those aged 35-54 support it, and in the oldest age group a 61 percent majority support it.
Arab-Israelis believe unanimously (94 percent) that Palestinians are entitled in principle to an independent state of their own.
In addition, 83 percent of Jewish-Israelis think that "the Palestinians must recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people before peace talks with them can be revived," while 72 percent of Arab-Israelis oppose this demand.
According to the data, 66 percent of Jewish-Israelis agree that "most of the Palestinians have not come to terms with Israel's existence and would destroy it if they could."
As the Jewish New Year approaches next week, 64 percent of Jewish-Israelis think that it was a good year for their state, and 85 percent look forward to spending holiday meals with their family.
In the coming year, the Jewish-Israelis want the government to focus on closing socioeconomic gaps (22 percent), improving the economic situation (18 percent) and reducing corruption (16 percent).
Among Arab-Israelis, in first place comes the goal of reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians (22 percent) and just beneath it is improving the economic situation (19 percent).
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 04:55:55|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
by Mohamed al-Azaki
SANAA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Wijdan Mohammed Hussein is only four years old, but her face looks ten times older than age. With a tiny and skeletal body, she cannot even sit by herself.
Wijdan is among the 1.8 million malnourished children who are struggling to survive in the war-torn Yemen, where the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned that the number of malnourished children is increasing daily.
Wijdan was brought by her mother to the Al-Sabeen Maternity and Child Hospital in the rebel-held capital Sanaa, after a long journey from al-Mahathirah, a remote village in the faraway northern province of Saada.
"Her father died from hunger two months ago," Karimah Hussein, Wijdan's mother, told Xinhua.
"She is always sick with flu, stomachache, vomiting and diarrhea," the mother said.
She said, in a low voice, that the war and continued airstrikes had damaged every farm and all kinds of business in and around her village.
"I have sold everything to pay taxi fee to bring my daughter to the hospital because most health centers in Saada had been destroyed," the mother said.
Doctor Elham Abdulaziz said Wijdan has acute malnutrition, amoebiasis and inflammation in the chest.
"She is in critical condition," Abdulaziz said, while examining Wijdan.
"The number of malnourished children is increasing daily as long as the war and economic blockade continue," the doctor said, adding that the hospital receives up to 90 similar cases every day.
Inside the corridor of the Al-Sabeen Maternity and Child Hospital, another 20 families, carrying their visibly malnourished children, were waiting for treatment.
Most of the children came from remote villages from faraway provinces of Hajjah, Bayda, Raymah, Hodeidah, Jawf, Amran and Mahweet.
Mohammed Hasan al-Mazi, who is one and half years old, has been suffering malnutrition for eight months. The child arrived at the hospital along with his parents after a seven-hour travel from Bast village in Abs district of the northwestern province of Hajjah.
"Worsening economic situation, war, and salary cut are key reasons behind our child's illness," Hasan al-Mazi, father of Mohammed, said in angry voice.
Asriyah Faysal, a four-month-old baby girl, came from a remote village in the western mountainous province of Raymah.
"We had travelled seven hours on ragged roads and two hours on a paved road until we arrived at the hospital," said the girl's father.
"I have no money or job ... I want to treat my daughter from malnutrition," the desperate father said.
As a public health center in the capital Sanaa, the capital lacks the most basic medical supplies. All the medicines were bought from pharmacies outside the hospital.
Civil war erupted in Yemen in March 2015 between the Yemeni government backed by the Saudi Arabia-led Sunni military coalition and the Iranian-allied Shiite Houthi rebels which seized much of the north, including the capital Sanaa.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has reported that more than 160 attacks against medical facilities in Yemen have been carried out by the warring parties, damaging 45 percent of the country's medical facilities.
The naval blockade has "significantly restricted" imports of food, medicines and fuel, according to the ICRC and Save the Children Organization.
Power cuts have forced hospitals to rely on generators, while salary cuts have forced most of the state medical employees to leave.
Last week, Peter Salama, deputy director-general of emergency preparedness and response of the World Health Organization, warned of possible "third wave" of cholera epidemic. Since April last year, the disease has already killed 2,300 people, mostly children.
The war has killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and displaced over 3 million others, according to the data recently released by United Nations humanitarian agencies.
Nearly 25 million Yemenis have no access to clean drinking water since the war erupted.
Yemen, the poorest Arab country, is now on the brink of mass famine, with about half of the children under five chronically malnourished, the UN has warned.
Still, there is no sign of a quick end to the war, despite the peacemaking efforts made by the UN, which is to host a new round of peace talks on Yemen in Geneva on Sept. 6.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 05:46:12|Editor: ZD
Video Player Close
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, whose country is taking over the presidency of the Security Council for September, briefs the press at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 4, 2018. The UN Security Council will discuss the situation in Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria, on Friday, said Nikki Haley. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council will discuss the situation in Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria, on Friday, said U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
Haley, whose country is taking over the presidency of the Security Council for September, on Tuesday warned against the use of chemical weapons in Idlib, saying U.S. President Donald Trump has made it clear that the country will respond if chemical weapons are used.
"This is a tragic situation, and if they want to continue to go the route of taking over Syria, they can do that. But they cannot do it with chemical weapons. They can't do it assaulting their people and we're not going to fall for it," Haley told reporters when presenting the Security Council's program of work for September.
She said a Security Council meeting has been scheduled for Friday morning so that the council will be acting before a chemical weapons attack would take place.
"What you are seeing is the Security Council come together and say: we will not kind of sit by and wait until after the chemical weapons attack. We want to have a meeting now to discuss what should not happen," said Haley.
The United States and its Western allies were threatening Syria with the use of force over allegations that the Syrian government is planning a chemical attack in Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold in the Arab country.
Damascus read the threats as the Western powers' way to hinder the government forces' planned assault in Idlib under false pretexts of chemical weapons' use.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 09:01:39|Editor: Yamei
Video Player Close
SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in's special delegation left Wednesday morning for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to discuss a detailed schedule and agenda for the upcoming summit between Moon and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un.
The passenger jet, carrying the five-member delegation, departed from an airport outside of Seoul at around 7:40 a.m. local time. It will take an air route over the western inter-Korean sea boundary to Pyongyang.
The delegation, led by Chung Eui-yong, Moon's top national security adviser, was scheduled to return home later in the day.
The other four delegates are Suh Hoon, chief of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), the country's spy agency, NIS deputy chief Kim Sang-gyun, Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung and Yun Kun-young, a Blue House official.
The South Korean delegation planned to talk with their DPRK counterparts about schedule and agenda for the third Moon-Kim summit, which the two sides agreed to hold in Pyongyang before the end of September.
The chief South Korean delegate planned to deliver Moon's letter to the top DPRK leader. Whether Kim would meet the visiting South Korean delegation had yet to be announced.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 09:11:41|Editor: Liangyu
Video Player Close
by Xinhua writer Luo Jun
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) witnessed African leaders denounce accusations of "neo-colonialism" against China, reiterating the existence of a strong partnership between the continent and the world's second largest economy.
This week, more than 3,200 leaders and representatives from Africa and regional organizations gathered in Beijing to plan the next step in the win-win relationship between China and Africa.
China-Africa relations are gaining global attention, as their practical cooperation has brought about dramatic changes in the economic landscape across Africa and real benefits to both peoples.
For those who accuse China of "neo-colonialism," "plundering resources" and creating a "debt trap" in Africa, the Beijing summit has proven them wrong.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa dismissed allegations of China acting in a colonialist fashion in Africa, saying China instead has been a partner in boosting social and economic development on the continent.
Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh also said that the Africa-China partnership is based on win-win cooperation and mutual benefits, in contrast to those allegations.
The continent's leaders sent out a clear signal that Africans are fully capable of deciding what's in their best interest.
It is patronizing to assume that Africans need to be "taken care of" because they don't know better.
Africans have had enough of the coddling and are expressing their frustrations online. They "categorically reject being cared for" by the West and are fed up with "constantly being belittled."
"Sorry to say this but the West treats Africans as objects of pity that need to be controlled like kids," said Danette Morara, whose comment on the question-and-answer website Quora was widely upvoted.
"The difference between the Chinese and any other country is their honesty," wrote Stone Atwine on the same thread. "They don't show up with a holier than thou attitude. They come for business, mutually beneficial business ... Some people show up with aid and 1,000 strings attached. We do not need aid, we need business."
"China wants markets, we have it," said Richard Ali. "Africa wants technological expertise, China has it. Give me China any day."
These African voices deserve to be heard. That's why China has taken a different approach to its partnership with Africa, one defined by equality, sincerity and real results.
During the summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward eight initiatives.
Among the measures are imports of more non-resource products from Africa, increased corporate investment, more direct flights, an environmental cooperation center, an African studies institute, and security programs fighting pirates and terrorists.
These projects are aimed at the continent's sustainable, long-term economic and social development, as well as cultural and environmental preservation, to create a strong Africa for the future. Both China and Africa stand to benefit from this common effort.
Africa is a "land of great promise" and "full of hope" as President Xi said, and no one can hold back the Chinese and African people from realizing the continent's potential.
A barber uses fire to cut hair at a hair salon in Dhaka, Bangladesh on Aug. 29, 2018. (Xinhua/Naim-ul-karim)
by Naim-Ul-Karim
DHAKA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- To the uninitiated, the unusual technique that uses fire to set and cut men's hair might seem shocking.
Adonis Makeover Salon, a famous barber shop in Bangladesh's capital city of Dhaka, introduced the new trend last year. It has attracted the attention of more and more youngsters.
The hair burning frenzy has since spread elsewhere in the city with more salons offering the same fiery hair service.
Adonis Makeover Salon located in Dhaka's upper market Dhanmondi is now a well-known destination for hairstyle lovers.
The salon's barbers have been trained in the technique of spraying flammable liquid on their clients' hair before setting it alight.
They use combs to brush the hair while it is still burning and smoking. The salon's barbers said there is nothing to be worried about regarding any negative effects of using fire for styling hair.
They said the chemicals they use are totally safe.
Hairstylist Mohammad Hossain, also the owner of the salon, told Xinhua that such hair burning techniques have long been used in stylish hair cutting salons in various parts of the world, especially in Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Pakistan and Turkey.
He said the technique is mainly used for setting the hair properly and giving it shape for further styling.
"I always look for something new to impress my young customers. Keeping that in mind, we introduced this new hairstyling technique using fire last year," Mohammad Hossain said.
Sazzad Hossain, a young architect, said he had such a haircut and was told that it looked really stylish by his friends who are also now flocking to the barbers to have the same cut.
"Look at my hair style now. You can easily see how much cooler I look now and the spikes look perfect," said the architect.
Traditionally the hair burning technique was used centuries earlier as a way of burning away lice when there was no cure and it was also used to style and smooth hair as there were no hair dryers at the time.
Barbers here use this technique to expertly tame frizzy hair and burn away dead ends, while the healthy hair remains unaffected.
Mohammad Hossain said they sent their barbers abroad for training.
He said they have received a great response from their customers. Dozens of customers specifically request the fire cut every day at a cost of about 5 U.S. dollars depending on the type of style.
Wednesday, September 05, 2018 On the Trail: First Guv TV Debate Set, Herrell's Cash Count Questioned, R's Think Lyons Has Good Shot And Jimmie Hall Has Troubles
Mark your calendars for 6 p.m. September 19, political junkies. Because that's the time and date of the first televised gubernatorial debate and it could be pivotal. Fox Channel 2 will host the 60 minute face-off, to be followed by two more in October on KOB and KOAT. But the first debate usually draws the most attention and it comes early enough to have a substantial impact on the campaign--especially if someone messes up or if one candidate clearly dominates the event.
Republican Steve Pearce and Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham are both congressional reps with debate experience. Even so, we imagine both will have a few butterflies as they enter the debate arena with one another for the first time.
Republicans watching the campaign of southern congressional contender and GOP State Rep. Yvette Herrell tell us they are breathing easier. They say her campaign has had a successful fund-raising summer and money will not be an issue in her contest with Dem hopeful Xochitl Torres Small. Torres Small didn't have much of a primary contest and at the
Really, really watch the ABQ state House race featuring GOP incumbent Rep. Jimmie Hall and Dem challenger Melanie Stansbury, advise the GOP Alligators. Hall's district went for Hillary Clinton in the '16 prez race and Stansbury is working it hard. Hall is a well-respected lawmaker but the demographics of the NE Heights district have changed and the Gators say Hall is now actually the underdog in that contest.
Keeping it with the R's, some of their top strategists are now predicting that former two term State Land Commissioner Pat Lyons, who is wrapping up his service on the Public Regulation Commission, will defeat Dem nominee and State Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard. That would be a big R win in what is expected to be a Dem leaning election. One reason the R's are confident? They think the oil and gas industry will go all in for Lyons with big PAC spending. Garcia Richard wants the state to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy and Lyons is already going after her on the stump. The Dems push back that in the year of the woman Garcia Richard is well positioned. They also aren't shy about reminding you of Lyons' past
REPLACING LARRY
First, the name of the attorney who was one of two candidates to lose the GOP nomination Sunday to retired ICE agent Bob Godshall to replace Larry was Brian Williams, not Greg Williams as we first reported. Greg Williams is a well-known lawyer but not a Republican (nd Brian Williams is not the guy on TV. BernCo GOP central committee members made the pick and the story is on our Monday blog.
Second, several readers ask about
Third, Dr. Pratt is 83 years old. If he pulled off the upset and defeated Republican nominee Godshall, would he be the oldest person ever to win election (not re-election) to the state House?
HISTORIC CHANGE
Historic change may come to New Mexico public education as the result of a recent court ruling. Here's
For Wilhelmina Yazzie, joining the groundbreaking lawsuit against New Mexico wasnt an easy thing to do. It was the only thing to do. The Navajo mother of three says shes no different from the dozens of other parents who were party to Yazzie v. New Mexico, which declared the states public education system unconstitutional. By most accounts, she is no different from tens of thousands of New Mexico parents in general. I want the same things that every parent wants for their children, the 39-year-old legal administrator said. Yazzie lives in Gallup, on the edge of the Navajo Nation, where schools in the Gallup-McKinley district lack everything from funding and qualified teachers to counselors, tutors, social workers and computers. . .
THE BOTTOM LINES
Bill Daily I am sad to report the death of our old friend, neighbor and well-known comedy actor
Bill acted and directed in many plays at the ABQ Little Theatre and appeared regularly on local radio, all the while touring nationally and making more TV sitcoms. He even served for a brief time as the director of the NM film commission under Gov. Bill Richardson.
Bill was a man blessed with a great attitude who loved life and people. A native of Chicago, he was an accomplished jazz musician who loved the music of Sinatra, the comedy of Carson and the beauty of New Mexico. Most of all he was an effervescent, self-described "happy man" whose upbeat spirit was contagious. Word of his death came from his son Patrick in Santa Fe where Bill had recently moved. Thanks for the memories and the years of friendship, Bill.
Bill Daily was 91.
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 We're out on the campaign trail in search of the latest developments, and here they are.Mark your calendars for 6 p.m. September 19, political junkies. Because that's the time and date of the first televised gubernatorial debate and it could be pivotal. Fox Channel 2 will host the 60 minute face-off, to be followed by two more in October on KOB and KOAT. But the first debate usually draws the most attention and it comes early enough to have a substantial impact on the campaign--especially if someone messes up or if one candidate clearly dominates the event.Republican Steve Pearce and Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham are both congressional reps with debate experience. Even so, we imagine both will have a few butterflies as they enter the debate arena with one another for the first time.Republicans watching the campaign of southern congressional contender and GOP State Rep. Yvette Herrell tell us they are breathing easier. They say her campaign has had a successful fund-raising summer and money will not be an issue in her contest with Dem hopeful Xochitl Torres Small. Torres Small didn't have much of a primary contest and at the last reporting period had over $495,00 in cash on hand compared to Herrell's $100,000. Herrell had an intense primary battle with former Hobbs Mayor Monty Newman. The R insiders say the money gap has largely been overcome. Herrell has also brought in some new staff for the final stretch. Torres Small is on the air with TV. Herrell is expected to join her soon. The race is rated "Lean R."Really, really watch the ABQ state House race featuring GOP incumbent Rep. Jimmie Hall and Dem challenger Melanie Stansbury, advise the GOP Alligators. Hall's district went for Hillary Clinton in the '16 prez race and Stansbury is working it hard. Hall is a well-respected lawmaker but the demographics of the NE Heights district have changed and the Gators say Hall is now actually the underdog in that contest.Keeping it with the R's, some of their top strategists are now predicting that former two term State Land Commissioner Pat Lyons, who is wrapping up his service on the Public Regulation Commission, will defeat Dem nominee and State Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard. That would be a big R win in what is expected to be a Dem leaning election. One reason the R's are confident? They think the oil and gas industry will go all in for Lyons with big PAC spending. Garcia Richard wants the state to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy and Lyons is already going after her on the stump. The Dems push back that in the year of the woman Garcia Richard is well positioned. They also aren't shy about reminding you of Lyons' past ethics problems . Add this one to your list of races to watch list. A couple of notes on the race to replace retiring ABQ GOP State Rep. Larry Larranaga.First, the name of the attorney who was one of two candidates to lose the GOP nomination Sunday to retired ICE agent Bob Godshall to replace Larry was Brian Williams, not Greg Williams as we first reported. Greg Williams is a well-known lawyer but not a Republican (nd Brian Williams is not the guy on TV. BernCo GOP central committee members made the pick and the story is on our Monday blog.Second, several readers ask about Bill Pratt , the retired physician who is the Dem nominee for the GOP leaning seat. He's a New Jersey native who was an orthopaedic surgeon at the UNM School of Medicine and Albuquerque and the VA Medical Center from 1976-1985 and served in the same capacity at the Alaska Native Medical Center from 1985-1987.Third, Dr. Pratt is 83 years old. If he pulled off the upset and defeated Republican nominee Godshall, would he be the oldest person ever to win election (not re-election) to the state House?Historic change may come to New Mexico public education as the result of a recent court ruling. Here's a story about the woman behind the big story:I am sad to report the death of our old friend, neighbor and well-known comedy actor Bill Daily . He made a name for himself in Hollywood in the 60's and 70's starring in the "I Dream of Jeannie" and "Bob Newhart" shows. He settled in New Mexico in the 80's and adopted the state as his own.Bill acted and directed in many plays at the ABQ Little Theatre and appeared regularly on local radio, all the while touring nationally and making more TV sitcoms. He even served for a brief time as the director of the NM film commission under Gov. Bill Richardson.Bill was a man blessed with a great attitude who loved life and people. A native of Chicago, he was an accomplished jazz musician who loved the music of Sinatra, the comedy of Carson and the beauty of New Mexico. Most of all he was an effervescent, self-described "happy man" whose upbeat spirit was contagious. Word of his death came from his son Patrick in Santa Fe where Bill had recently moved. Thanks for the memories and the years of friendship, Bill.Bill Daily was 91.This is the home of New Mexico politics. E-mail your news and comments. (jmonahan@ix.netcom.com)
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 10:01:56|Editor: Liangyu
Video Player Close
by Victoria Arguello
BUENOS AIRES, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- China's participation and investment in infrastructure projects have made it a key partner in Argentina's development, said Guillermo Fiad, president of Argentinian Train Infrastructure.
Joint projects under construction include the renovation of 1,700 km of cargo rails that will strategically improve connectivity between Argentina's northern agricultural provinces and the export hub of Rosario, in central Santa Fe province, Fiad told Xinhua.
Modernizing Argentina's Belgrano Cargas rail network will "energize the regional economies" and provide them with a "new opportunity for development," he said.
China's contribution goes beyond upgrading infrastructure to improving transport efficiency, Fiad said.
"We are working to reduce the time it takes to reach the markets, optimizing the train's commercial speed ... we're working with Chinese companies to improve that," said Fiad.
Officials have another rail renovation project in the wings -- the North Patagonia railway through southern Argentina's Patagonian region -- and hope it will also attract Chinese investors.
"We hope Chinese companies will participate in the North Patagonia train we're developing, and which we hope to launch through a public-private partnership. It's a very attractive project, a project that will energize (regional) economies in Argentina's north Patagonia," said Fiad.
"China's support, in this case, would be essential, and we are confident it's going to stay that way," said Fiad.
In addition to cargo, China is helping to mobilize people by revamping a central passenger rail network serving the capital Buenos Aires and surrounding areas, Fiad noted.
"I have no doubt that China has a lot of capacity, both financial and technical, and the know-how to continue to support Argentina as it develops," he said.
Ties between the two countries are "just getting started," and have been strengthened with each joint initiative, he said.
Other bilateral projects include the construction of the twin hydroelectric dams in the south to supply the national grid and developing solar panels to curb the use of polluting fossil fuels in the north.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 10:06:58|Editor: Yamei
Video Player Close
BRASILIA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Sao Paulo state public prosecutor's office on Tuesday filed a complaint against Workers' Party (PT) vice presidential candidate Fernando Haddad for corruption.
Prosecutors accused Haddad of receiving 2.6 million reals (about 640,000 U.S. dollars) illegally from the company UTC Ingenieria. The money was to pay off a debt incurred during Haddad's campaign for mayor of Sao Paulo in 2012.
Haddad is seen as the person who will replace former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as the PT's presidential candidate.
Last week, the country's Superior Electoral Court ruled Lula ineligible to run for president. Lula is currently serving a 12-year jail sentence for corruption and money laundering.
The prosecutor's office accused Haddad of administrative improbability and illicit enrichment. According to the prosecutor's office, the PT's former treasurer, Joao Vaccari Neto asked Ricardo Pessoa, then president of UTC, to make debt payments in exchange for future construction contracts.
Haddad denies the claims and referred to the accusation as a lie. In addition, he said the action of prosecutors is intended to influence the October presidential election.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 10:11:59|Editor: Yamei
Video Player Close
CANBERRA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Australia's new F-35A fighter jets are the "most lethal" in the world, said the nation's Minister for Defence Christopher Pyne on Wednesday.
Pyne on Wednesday responded to criticism of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, under which the Australian government has committed to paying Lockheed Martin 17 billion Australian dollars (12.2 billion U.S. dollars) for 72 aircraft, which claimed that the fighters were already out-dated.
Peter Goon, a former Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) test-flight engineer, has been critical of the program since it was announced; going as far as to run simulations he said prove the new jets could be outrun and outflown by other models.
Pyne denied those claims, saying that critics did not have access to all the information made available to the government.
"Every advice I have received, every briefing, from the chief of the air force to the airmen that fly the F-35A has been unanimous: this platform is the most lethal and inter-operable with other platforms in the same battle space in the world," he told News Corp Australia on Wednesday.
"I certainly don't intend to put that advice below the opinions of those who are not privy to the same level of intelligence-sharing as the chiefs who advise the Australian government."
The program has been plagued by problems since Australia announced it would participate in the "system development and demonstration phase" of the JSF in 2002.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in December 2017 that the cost blowout associated with the program was "out of control."
The RAAF has six aircraft available at a U.S. airforce base to train pilots and ground crew with the first two due to be delivered to a RAAF base in December. They are expected to enter service in 2020.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 10:37:03|Editor: ZD
Video Player Close
CHANGSHA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Su Lirong, a 54-year-old Chinese agricultural expert, has recently received a laudatory title from his old friends in Liberia. The title "Tamba Foya" is a local name used exclusively for those who are considered very respected and honorable guests.
Su formed ties with Liberia in 2016 after the company he works for, Yuan Longping High-tech Agriculture Co. Ltd. (LPHT), became the contractor of China's second agricultural assistance program in Liberia, where he is based as an expert in hybrid rice.
In the past two years, Su and his colleagues worked together to grow China's hybrid rice in Liberia. The area of planted hybrid rice reaches 130 hectares, and grain yields more than quadrupled compared with the local rice variety.
Liberia is one of the world's poorest countries, with a population of nearly 5 million. "Liberia has to import 60 percent of grain because its own output can only meet 40 percent of its 1-million-tonne demand every year," Su said.
Moreover, border closures and quarantines in the wake of the outbreak of Ebola in 2015 further disrupted the grain market and processing chain, making it more difficult to get food, Su said.
Experts like Su are only a small sample of China's agricultural support in Africa. Since 2008, China has signed agreements with Liberia to provide not only food aid but also agricultural technology assistance.
In May 2013, the Chinese Academy of Sciences set up a China-Africa research center to help relieve the grain shortage of African countries through China's wisdom and experience.
The center has introduced China's high-yield and quicker-growing crop varieties in corn, hybrid rice and sweet sorghum to countries including Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda.
The assistance programs not only increase grain output but also help locals bring in more income.
Before growing hybrid rice from China, many Liberians like Mulbah could hardly make ends meet.
Mulbah, now chief of an agricultural cooperative in Liberia, recently bought a second-hand car and helped one of the members of the cooperative build a new house after they planted 10 hectares of hybrid rice.
Saturday Flomo, 27, used to be a taxi driver in Liberia, but he has now been trained to drive various types of farm machinery.
As the first Chinese firm authorized to provide training courses on hybrid rice planting for overseas students, LPHT trains a large number of overseas agricultural technicians each year.
"Many of the trainees have become high-level officials and policymakers in their countries, and their vast understanding of China's agriculture can help promote further cooperation with China," said Zhang Ke, deputy general manager of LPHT.
"Our aid to Africa will continue in the future, and the younger generation who were born in the 1990s is becoming the backbone of the aid program," said Zhang."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 10:37:03|Editor: ZD
Video Player Close
CANBERRA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- A controversial funding grant handed to Australia's Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF) will be rescinded if the opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) wins victory in the next election.
The Australian government in April handed the GBRF a 443.8 million Australian dollar (318.5 million U.S. dollars) grant, the largest donation by a private foundation from the Australian government in history, without first subjecting the organization to a competitive tender process.
Tony Burke, the ALP's environment spokesperson, on Wednesday wrote to John Schubert, chairman of the foundation, warning him that he had found a process by which the government can compel the GBRF to return the money.
Under clause 25.1.1 of the grant agreement between the GBRF and the government, the department of the environment and energy can terminate the agreement if there is "a material change in Australian government policy."
Burke said that an ALP government would change environment policy to fulfil the "material grounds" set out in the agreement.
"We can't fix what's happened right now, but if Labor wins the election there'll be an immediate policy change and the obligation will be for the foundation, the money that hasn't been spent, they have to return every single dollar," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
"It would be an extraordinary abuse if they were to start to commit future years of funding beyond the election date so that they can try to contract money away and get to spend it themselves, regardless of what the Australian people decide at the next poll.
Schubert and fellow board members of the organization are due to give evidence to a Senate inquiry on the circumstances surrounding the grant on Sept. 18.
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who made the decision, is also expected to front the inquiry.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 10:47:04|Editor: ZD
Video Player Close
CARACAS, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela on Tuesday test-launched a gasoline sales system to thwart rampant fuel smuggling, mainly into its neighbor Colombia.
"Today we are testing the payment mechanism in 44 towns in the country's border region," Communication and Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said.
The pilot program, which took effect in eight bordering states, relies on additional identification measures to ensure gasoline is being purchased by normal customers, not smugglers.
To fill up at a gas station, motorists have to present their national ID cards and register their fingerprints, as well as information of their vehicles.
On Monday, President Nicolas Maduro called for cooperation of the general public so "the new gasoline payment mechanism in border states goes well."
The pilot program will also subsidize gasoline purchases by motorists who join in, in a bid to offset the impact of possible domestic fuel price hikes in the future.
Venezuela's subsidized gasoline prices, much lower than the international levels, have generated a booming black market at the border, with smugglers buying fuel at low prices to sell for huge profits abroad.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 10:57:07|Editor: zh
Video Player Close
Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni (C, front) leaves the National Assembly in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Sept. 5, 2018. Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni presided over the opening of the new National Assembly on Wednesday after a recent general election that handed a landslide victory to incumbent Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen's party.(Xinhua/Sovannara)
PHNOM PENH, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni presided over the opening of the new National Assembly on Wednesday after a recent general election that handed a landslide victory to incumbent Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen's party.
The prime minister's Cambodian People's Party (CPP) won all 125 parliamentary seats in the sixth general election on July 29.
All the lawmakers-elect were present at the opening session, and foreign ambassadors and international organization representatives to the kingdom were also invited for the historic event.
Addressing the opening session, Sihamoni expressed his warmest congratulations to all members of the National Assembly, who were newly elected by the wills and trust of the people in the general election.
The monarch had strong conviction that the National Assembly would continue fulfilling its duty as stipulated in the constitution in order to ensure political, socio-economic and cultural sustainability and to build a firm and modernized kingdom based on laws.
He said it was essential "to ensure that all citizens are equal before the law, while their rights and freedoms are protected and uplifted."
The king also encouraged the lawmakers-elect to spend more vigorous efforts on helping people to enjoy equal access to religious belief, education and decent jobs.
He also had firm belief that the government in the new mandate would fulfil its duty in consistency with its political platform in beefing up economic growth, elevating the livelihoods of the people, and expanding social protection system for all citizens.
"To achieve this supreme duty, our nation must stand united and show strong national solidarity based on the spirit of national unity," Sihamoni said.
After the opening session, the monarch posed for photos with all lawmakers-elect in front of the National Assembly before returning to the Royal Palace.
According to official schedules, all the lawmakers-elect are expected to take an oath of allegiance at the Royal Palace on Wednesday afternoon.
And on Thursday, the National Assembly is due to vote for its leadership and then give a vote of confidence to the new government.
Hun Sen will continue to lead the government for another five years through the election victory.
Some Western countries, particularly the United States, have decried the election and questioned the legitimacy of the new parliament and government, citing the now-dissolved main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party was banned from contesting in the election.
However, experts say that the legitimacy of the new parliament and government depended on the country's king and the Cambodian people's satisfaction.
"The legitimacy of the new parliament and government relies on their performance and people's satisfaction," Chheang Vannarith, vice-chairman of the Cambodian Institute for Strategic Studies, told Xinhua.
"No country can lend legitimacy to Cambodia besides the Cambodian people," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 11:12:09|Editor: Yamei
Video Player Close
WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday spoke with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu over the phone, and agreed that Syria's possible attack in its rebel-held Idlib Province is unacceptable.
According to a statement issued by U.S. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, Pompeo and Cavusoglu agreed that any military offensive by Syrian government troops in Idlib would be "an unacceptable, reckless escalation" of the conflict.
Pompeo "also stressed the importance of Turkey releasing Pastor Andrew Brunson," the statement read, referring to the U.S. pastor who was detained on spying charges.
Earlier on Tuesday, the White House said that it would "respond swiftly and appropriately" if Syria uses chemical weapons in the expected attack.
U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted Monday that "the Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!"
The Kremlin responded later that Trump's warning to Syria not to attack the rebel-held Syrian province ignored the danger terrorists pose there.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Idlib will be one of the main issues on the agenda of the Russia-Turkey-Iran summit to be held in Tehran on Friday.
Since earlier this year, the Syrian rebels were driven out of key areas in the capital Damascus, the central province of Homs and the southern region.
The government's army has been amassing forces and military gears around Idlib in recent weeks, as the last major battle against the rebels in Syria looms.
Brookings Institution senior fellow Darrell West told Xinhua that "there is a high likelihood that the U.S. would launch counter-attacks against the Syrian military in order to stop the casualties."
"An American move would make an already tense region even more tense," West said. "It would run the risk of direct confrontation between the U.S. and Russian or Iranian forces, and that situation could escalate dramatically."
Idlib, with a population of about 2.5 million, is strategically important as it shares a border with Turkey to the north, and also hosts a Russian-operated air base. It is close to the coastal province of Latakia, home of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 11:12:09|Editor: Yamei
Video Player Close
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The White House-prepared peace plan to settle Israeli-Palestinian conflicts was ready, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told reporters here at the UN Headquarters on Tuesday.
"I have read the plan. It is thoroughly done," Haley said at a briefing in her role as this month's president of the Security Council, adding that Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt have "detailed work in it."
Kushner is the son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump and senior advisor on the Middle East, and Greenblatt is the Middle East peace envoy and the White House Special Representative for International Negotiations.
There have been reports that the White House is preparing to release its long-promised Middle East peace deal, which was called by Trump the "deal of the Century."
When asked when Trump was going to present the peace deal, the Washington envoy replied: "Only if a boss comes to the table."
"We have insured (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu will come to the table ... Palestinian (National) Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, for the good of his people, needs to come to the table," she said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 11:52:14|Editor: ZD
Video Player Close
HANOI, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- As more than 23 million students in Vietnam started a new academic year on Wednesday, the education sector plans to take steps to improve the quality of education at all levels, Vietnam News Agency reported on Wednesday.
In the 2018-2019 academic year, the education sector will focus on developing pre-schools at industrial parks and export-processing zones, while finalizing preparations for the launching of new education program and textbook, especially for first-grade students.
The sector will take steps to continue enhancing the quality of the national high-school examination, while reforming the management mechanisms at high schools.
At the same time, tertiary education will concentrate on standardizing the quality of students to meet the requirement of the fourth industrial revolution.
The efficiency of community-based education facilities as well as vocational training centers will also be improved.
The sector will work to complete targets in a bid to build a learning society, the agency reported.
Who Condemns Celebrity Violence,
and Who Benefits from It?
By Rob Morse. August 31st, 2018
Article Source
These places sound too familiar; Columbine, Aurora, Sandy Hook, Orlando, Las Vegas, Parkland, Santa Fe. Each place saw a murder, but not just any kind. These were mass murders, and the bitter fruit born from our age of celebrity. Kids..and some adults.. murdered to become famous. Our mass media filled the air with the murderers face and the murderers name. That media coverage lasts for days. That compelling media coverage sure sells a lot of advertising. Unfortunately, that sensationalized coverage does more than make money for the networks. The media exposure rewards the murderer with fame. That fame sows the seeds of the next mass murder. Together, the murderers and the news media are a match made in hell, and their union is killing our kids. Some of us want to stop it before it happens again.
The best time to stop a mass murder is before the attacker enters a church or a school. As bold as that sounds, it has been done many times. We learned that lesson with celebrity suicides where young men and women would kill themselves for the notoriety they receive after their death. We put media guidelines in place to stop it, or at least greatly reduce it. We learned not to give suicides the wave of publicity that caused a cluster of copycat deaths. We almost learned the lesson to deny suicides the notariety they crave..unless they kill some of their classmates before they kill themselves.
We get the mass murders we pay for. Today, each mass murder is followed by a billion dollar advertising campaign that grows the next narcissistic murderer. Fortunately, the media guidelines to stop celebrity violence are already in place. The guidelines are so simple that even a hurried editor can understand them.
Refrain from gratuitous or repetitious portrayal
of mass murderers names and images.
Who condemns this cycle of senseless violence fueled by media publicity? Media watchdog organizations are advocating for reform. Also, organizations representing doctors, lawyers, law enforcement, criminologists, behavioral scientists, religious leaders, and some foreign news agencies have signed on. That is certainly a good start, but it is only a start. We know for a fact that mass murderers study their predecessors and intend to gain fame by surpassing the death toll of prior killers. The Sandy Hook killer had written studies and made spreadsheets of prior massacres that investigators said would have qualified as a Masters Degree paper! Murderers are learning as they go, and we have to learn faster.
Our major news networks have not signed up to the new guidelines. Companies like ABC, MSNBC, PBS, NPR, CBS and CNN have not signed on to any of the efforts to stop celebrity violence. That seems unbelievable given the concerned faces these network reporters wore while they talked about the murderer day after day. Dont they want to save even one life? Maybe they just want to sell advertising with if it bleeds, it leads.
Groups who advocate for armed defense have for years endorsed media guidelines asking for restraint after a mass murder. Those groups include the National Rifle Association, the Second Amendment Foundation, and Gun Owners of America. The organizations who train first responders in our schools and churches, including FASTER Ohio and FASTER Colorado, supported these media guidelines to help control celebrity violence.
I searched the list of supporters and I noticed that several organizations were conspicuous by their absence. They include the gun control groups Everytown for Gun Safety, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, and Giffords Courage to Fight Gun Violence. Time and again, these groups said we should take action even if it only saves one life.. but not this time. Like the major media, these gun control groups need more mass murder to get the public attention they crave. Like the murderers themselves, without mass murders who would know their name?
Dont tell us how much you care: Show us! Actions today speak louder than weepy interviews after the next mass murder.
Back to Top
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 12:17:17|Editor: ZD
Video Player Close
ISLAMABAD, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Arif Alvi, a senior leader of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), was elected as the new president of the South Asian country on Tuesday, according to a statement from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The ECP announced at its website that the official result count shall be prepared and forwarded to the federal government on Wednesday after receipt of the original record for issuance of formal notification.
Three candidates competed for the slot of the 13th president of the country for the next five-year term.
On the basis of initial counting, the ECP said that Arif Alvi received a total of 353 votes in both houses of the country's parliament and four provincial assemblies.
The statement said that Fazal-ur-Rehman, a joint candidate of five opposition parties, bagged 185 votes while Aitzaz Ahsan of opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) got 124 votes.
Alvi managed to get a healthy vote count from all five polling stations established in the parliament and four provincial assemblies.
Alvi secured 212 votes in the joint session of the two houses of the parliament, including the Senate and the National Assembly, 45 votes from southwest Balochistan province, 41 from northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 33 votes from eastern Punjab province and 22 votes from southern Sindh province.
The trio has been asked to appear in person or through their agents in the ECP Secretariat in Islamabad on Wednesday to witness the tabulation process, after which the official result will be announced.
Alvi will replace the country's incumbent President Mamnoon Hussain, who will complete his five-year term on Saturday.
The newly-elected president can be sworn in at any time after the federal government issues a notification, but he would be able to assume the office once Hussain's term concludes.
Alvi, a founding member of PTI, was elected member of the National Assembly in the general elections on July 25 from his home constituency in the southern port city of Karachi, and is considered very close to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.
He served as secretary general of the PTI for several years.
Before taking oath as president of the country, he will have to resign from the national assembly, according to the country's constitution.
Although the presidency in Pakistan is currently symbolic, Alvi's overwhelming election will strengthen the ruling PTI's governance. The ruling party now holds all the top government positions.
It was almost a walkover for the PTI candidate to win the election as the opposition parties failed to agree on a joint candidate.
Fazal-ur-Rehman reportedly met with the PPP's co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and requested him to withdraw in his favor but the latter refused. The opposition parties were also divided during the last month election of the prime minister.
President of the major opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Shehbaz Sharif had refused to accept Aitzaz Ahsan as the joint opposition candidate for Tuesday's election as the PPP refused to vote for Shehbaz Sharif when he contested election for the slot of the country's prime minister last month.
Local political watchers said that even the two groups of the opposition got united, their combined votes were much lower than that of Alvi.
In his victory speech after witnessing the initial results at the parliament, Alvi said, "I am grateful to God that the PTI-nominated candidate has been successful in the presidential race. From today I am not just a president that was nominated by the PTI but I am the president of the entire nation and all parties."
The 69-year-old Alvi said he would play the best possible role to improve the living standard of common Pakistanis by providing them with health facilities, justice and shelter.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 12:22:19|Editor: ZD
Video Player Close
MANILA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Unidentified men shot dead a town mayor on Wednesday in his office building in central Philippines, police said.
Police identified the victim as Mariano Blanco, mayor of Ronda town about 82 kms southwest of Cebu City in central Philippines. He was gunned down around 1:30 a.m. local time early on Wednesday while asleep in his office at the municipal hall, police said.
Before the shooting, the hall's watchmen told police investigators that four gunmen aboard a white van broke into his office and shot him.
The watchmen added that the gunmen ordered them to drop on the ground before breaking into the mayor's office, police said.
Police said they have yet to identify the suspects and are investigating the cause of the shooting.
Blanco is one of the local officials that President Rodrigo Duterte accused of involvement in illegal drug activities.
Seven months ago, Blanco's nephew, Ronda Vice Mayor Jonnah John Ungab, was also gunned down outside Cebu City's courthouse.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 12:42:21|Editor: Yamei
Video Player Close
HAVANA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- A senior Cuban official on Tuesday denied U.S. allegations of so-called "sonic attacks" on its diplomatic personnel, calling them as fabricated.
"There has been no attack or deliberate act against any American diplomat, and the (U.S.) State Department knows it," Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, director for U.S. affairs at the Cuban Foreign Ministry, said in an interview published by state daily Granma.
He said Cuban and American experts investigating the matter support what authorities in Havana have said from the beginning: the attacks never happened.
De Cossio said the initial theory of sonic attacks could not withstand the analysis of the scientific community and police investigations carried out by both countries.
"For months they have been saying that four diplomats suffered brain concussions but without a concussion taking place," De Cossio said.
A recent article in The New York Times, he said, cited "new, unnamed witnesses," including the alleged vehicles circling the residences of the diplomats, which could have "possibly emitted microwaves that caused brain damage."
According to De Cossio, describing the mysterious afflictions reportedly suffered by U.S. diplomats as "attacks" serves to undermine bilateral ties.
In October 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump said he believed Cuba was responsible for the attacks, but offered no evidence to back up his claim. Washington thereafter reduced its personnel at the embassy in Havana and expelled Cuban diplomats.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 13:07:24|Editor: Yamei
Video Player Close
CAPE TOWN, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The South African National Assembly on Tuesday agreed not to approve the Expropriation Bill for land expropriation without compensation so that it may be re-introduced at a later stage.
The Portfolio Committee on Public Works recommended that the National Assembly not approve the Expropriation Bill, pending the conclusion of the process regarding the possible review of Section 25 of the Constitution to pave way for land expropriation without compensation, parliamentary spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said.
The committee said earlier that it wants the bill to give more clarity on how South Africans should deal with the land and property issue that today the minority is still favored at the expense of the majority of South Africans, in particular black people.
The latest development came after Parliament's joint Constitutional Review Committee has just completed public hearings on whether a review of section 25 of the Constitution and other clauses is necessary to make it possible for the state to expropriate land in the public interest without compensation.
Minister of Public Works Thulas Nxesi tabled the Expropriation Bill in Parliament in February 2015. The bill went through all relevant statutory processes and was sent to the then president for approval. The former president returned the bill to Parliament on procedural grounds twice on July 20, 2016 and on Feb. 14, 2017 seperately.
As a national debate on land expropriation without compensation is gaining momentum, the government is advocating bold steps that will transform the economy including land ownership and reform.
Since taking power in 1994, the government, led by the African National Congress (ANC), has made land redistribution from whites to blacks without compensation one of its main policies.
Opponents say compulsory purchases of land would kill jobs and threaten food security.
Following the withdrawal of the bill on Tuesday, the ANC said it is committed to the expropriation of land without compensation.
"We are confident that the withdrawal of the bill, and its reintroduction, will align all necessary legislative processes Parliament needs to undertake in order to implement this important resolution," the party said in a statement emailed to Xinhua.
Section 25 of the Constitution is currently being reviewed by Parliament, which will add clarity to the issue of land expropriation without compensation, ANC spokesperson in Parliament Nonceba Mhlauli said.
"Therefore, the withdrawal of the Expropriation Bill by the Portfolio Committee on Public Works is logical, as it allows the legislature to focus on one process dealing with this important issue," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 13:37:35|Editor: Yamei
Video Player Close
ISLAMABAD, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to hold talks with senior Pakistani civil and military leaders later on Wednesday, officials and diplomatic sources said.
Sources familiar with the visit told Xinhua that Pompeo will lead his side in official talks with the Pakistani delegation led by Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi at the Foreign Ministry.
Pompeo is also expected to call on Prime Minister Imran Khan and the country's army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
The visit comes at a time when bilateral relations are at odds and days after the United States announced cancellation of 300 million U.S. dollars aid to Pakistan over what the American claims the country's "lack of cooperation" with President Donald Trump's South Asia strategy.
Qureshi strongly disputed the claim over the aid cancellation, insisting that it was the money Pakistan has spent on the war on terror from own resources and it should be reimbursed by Washington from the Coalition Support Funds (CSF).
The United States established the CSF in 2002, which is eligible to be used to reimburse coalition partners for logistical and military support to U.S. military operations in support of counter-terrorism efforts.
Washington had also blocked another 500 million U.S. dollars in the CSF earlier this year that has brought cancellation of a total of 800 million U.S. dollars to Islamabad.
"We will listen to his (Pomepo) point of views and will also share with him our position on how to normalize bilateral relations," Qureshi told reporters in Islamabad on Sunday.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 13:42:37|Editor: ZX
Video Player Close
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Madagascar's President Hery Rajaonarimampianina at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday met with Madagascar's President Hery Rajaonarimampianina after the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.
Xi said China-Madagascar relations are at their best in history, showing strong vitality with broad prospects.
China supports Madagascar in its efforts to maintain stability, grow the economy and follow a development path suited to its national conditions, Xi said, pledging support to Madagascar in achieving economically sustainable self-development.
Xi spoke of the need for China and Madagascar to strengthen communication and coordination in major international and regional issues such as climate change, the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the peace and security issues in Africa to safeguard the common interests of the two countries and those of the developing countries.
For his part, Rajaonarimampianina said Madagascar fully supports Xi's important proposal for building an even stronger China-Africa community with a shared future and the various measures that follow.
He said China supports Africa with real actions, which is very important to Africa.
Madagascar stands ready to take an active part in jointly building the Belt and Road and is willing to be an important gateway for China's exchanges and cooperation with Africa, he added.
After the meeting, the two leaders witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 15:02:55|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
HERAT, Afghanistan, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- A district police chief has been killed following a Taliban bomb attack in Afghanistan's western province of Badghis, the latest in a string of attacks against officials, local police said Wednesday.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 15:22:59|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
HERAT, Afghanistan, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- A district police chief has been killed following a Taliban bomb attack in Afghanistan's western province of Badghis, the latest in a string of attacks against officials, local police said Wednesday.
"Ismail Khan Shukori, police chief of Muqur district, together with a police constable, was killed following a roadside bomb blast against his vehicle in Miranzayee area in south of the district late on Tuesday," Naqibullah Amini, provincial police spokesman, told Xinhua.
Shukori was inspecting security checkpoints before the blast in the province, 555 km northwest of Kabul.
The province has been the scene of clashes between security forces and Taliban militants from time to time.
On Tuesday, two police officers and 11 militants were killed and four police and 16 militants wounded in fierce clashes after Taliban attacked a security checkpoint in Badghis.
The Taliban-led insurgency has been on the rampage since the beginning of 2015 when the Afghan security forces assumed full responsibilities of security from the United States and NATO troops.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 15:23:00|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
QALA-E-NAW, Afghanistan, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Seven militants including a Taliban key commander Mullah Ghousuding, nickname Sia Khan, have been killed in a blast outside Qala-e-Naw, the capital of Afghanistan's western Badghis province, provincial police spokesman Naqibullah Amini said Wednesday.
"The notorious Taliban commander Mullah Ghousuding nickname Sia Khan along with his men were busy in subversive activities to terrorize people outside Qala-e-Naw city in the wee hours of today, but an explosive device suddenly went off killing him and six others on the spot," Amini told Xinhua, but did not provide more details.
Describing the commander as a "dreadful terrorist," the official said that the physical elimination of Sia Khan could prove a major blow to the Taliban militants in Badghis province and adjoining areas.
Taliban militants are yet to make comment.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 15:48:07|Editor: Lu Hui
Video Player Close
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday met with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari who had attended the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
Thanks to the joint efforts by China and Africa, the summit concluded successfully, further enriching the China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership. It was a meeting with historic significance to China-Africa solidarity and cooperation, Xi said.
Noting that Nigeria is a major African country and an essential partner to China in Africa, Xi said he attaches great importance to the development of China-Nigeria relations, which have reached a stage of growth unmatched in history.
China appreciates the Nigerian government's commitment to the one-China policy and is ready to continue its mutual understanding and support with the Nigerian side on issues involving each other's core interests and major concerns, Xi said.
Nigeria is welcome to participate in the Belt and Road construction. China is willing to deepen cooperation with Nigeria in fields such as infrastructure, agriculture and production capacity, enhance people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and support Nigeria's economic and social development so that the bilateral cooperation can become a model for China-Africa cooperation, Xi said. Buhari congratulated China on the success of the FOCAC Beijing summit.
The FOCAC has become an important platform for creating a brighter future for 2.6 billion African and Chinese. Nigeria will work with other FOCAC members to implement the outcomes of the summit, he said.
Buhari expressed gratitude to China for its concrete assistance to Nigeria's economic and social development.
With China's help, Nigeria obtained a light rail, the first of its kind in West Africa, which fully reflected China's technology, quality and speed, he said.
The Nigerian side appreciates the Belt and Road Initiative, which will lay an important foundation for Africa and China to achieve win-win cooperation and common development. Nigeria is willing to participate in the Belt and Road cooperation, he said.
After the meeting, the two presidents witnessed the signing of cooperation documents.
2-year-old drowns in bucket
A two-year-old child drowned in a bucket filled with water at Jhaukhel, Changunarayan Municipality-3, Bhaktapur, on Tuesday.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 15:48:08|Editor: Lu Hui
Video Player Close
BEIJING, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislator Li Zhanshu on Sunday met with Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno who attended the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
Li, chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, said the summit marked the start of a new journey of solidarity and cooperation between the largest developing country and the continent with the most developing countries. China will work with Chad in strengthening cooperation in areas including energy, infrastructure and desertification control, said Li.
Noting the success of the summit, Deby said Chad looks forward to strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation with China under the forum's framework to promote common development.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 15:58:10|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
TAIPEI, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan's electric bicycle industry is seeing rapid growth, according to the island's economic affairs authority.
Thanks to rising environmental awareness, electric bicycles, which help decrease carbon emissions and require no driver's license, have seen an increase in production in Taiwan. From January to June, more than 6 billion new Taiwan dollars (195 million U.S. dollars) worth of electric bicycles were produced in Taiwan, a year-on-year increase of 74.4 percent.
Last year, the industry saw a production of electric bicycles worth 7.28 billion new Taiwan dollars, a record high. Authorities expect this year's total production value to exceed 10 billion new Taiwan dollars.
Taiwan's electric bicycles are mainly exported to Europe and the United States. As demand rises, the island's electric bicycle export value rose from about 16.7 million U.S. dollars in 2012 to 250 million U.S. dollars in 2017, with the electric bicycles mainly sold to the Netherlands, Germany and the United States. Last year, the export value accounted for 96.4 percent of the total production value.
The European Union is one of the biggest markets thanks to the leisure tourism industry and the rise in the aging population there. In 2017, Taiwan's electric bicycles accounted for 23.4 percent in the EU's imports of electric bicycles, second only to the Chinese mainland.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 16:08:12|Editor: Lu Hui
Video Player Close
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- As the continent with the most developing countries is finding its rightful place in the world, China's actions show what it means to be a responsible contributor to Africa's success.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has outlined the new blueprint for China-Africa cooperation, including eight cooperation initiatives, which was warmly welcomed by those attending the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Beijing Summit from Sept. 3 to 4.
In the theme that it promotes, the measures it rolls out, and the impacts it has on African countries, the summit reaffirms the true friendship between China and Africa and their shared commitment to world development.
Viewing Africa as a great continent full of hope and with great potential, China is sincerely helping Africa explore its path toward revitalization. China respects the core interests of African countries, and, in the new era, links the Belt and Road Initiative with the African Union's Agenda 2063 and African countries' development strategies.
China's involvement in Africa is beneficial to the combined 2.6 billion Chinese and African people, over one-third of the world's population.
Giving top priority to the interests of the Chinese and African peoples, China complements Africa's development through its own growth. The country has been helping Africa alleviate poverty, increase employment and incomes, and improve the lives of the people.
It is up to the people in China and Africa to judge the nature and the performance of China-Africa cooperation. Citing a report, Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh said 89 percent of the employees of the Chinese companies operating in Africa are Africans, which translates into several million jobs across the continent.
Throughout its cooperation with Africa, China has always acted responsibly, with concrete actions.
China has pledged to support Africa in achieving general food security by 2030, open more direct flights between China and Africa, seek to expand exchanges and cooperation in addressing climate change, create a China-Africa peace and security fund, and provide more assistance for youth, healthcare, and people-to-people exchanges, among other measures.
The eight cooperation initiatives precisely target the bottlenecks in development in Africa. To achieve these goals, China has pledged a new 60-billion-U.S. dollar financing plan.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said China-Africa partnerships "will be contributing to the expansion of Africa's productive capacity and the creation of new industries."
Rwandan President Paul Kagame rejected misinterpretations of China-Africa ties, saying "Africa is not a zero-sum game and our growing ties with China do not come at anyone's expense. Indeed the gains are enjoyed by everyone who does business on our continent."
When Xi invited African countries to board the express train of China's development in his keynote speech, the warm applause from African guests at the Great Hall of the People came as evidence that China's actions are in line with its commitment to Africa.
China-Africa cooperation has deepened South-South cooperation and boosted efforts to improve the global governance system. As United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, the Beijing summit "exemplifies the win-win globalization that is necessary for the future world."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 16:13:14|Editor: ZX
Video Player Close
A Chinese private company sends a suborbital rocket into space at 1:00 p.m. from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, Sept. 5, 2018. The SQX-1Z was developed by iSpace, a Beijing-based private rocket developer, founded in 2016 with a research center in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. (Xinhua/Wang Jiangbo)
JIUQUAN, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese private company sent a suborbital rocket into space at 1:00 p.m. Wednesday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.
The SQX-1Z was developed by iSpace, a Beijing-based private rocket developer, founded in 2016 with a research center in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province.
The rocket carried three CubeSats, miniature satellites, for two Chinese commercial companies. After entering its preset orbit, the rocket will release two satellites for testing, and the other satellite will be parachuted to Earth, according to a statement by the company.
The SQX-1Z rocket will provide minisatellite and constellation launch services for clients, said Yao Bowen, spokesperson for the company.
A suborbital rocket usually has a flight path of less than one complete orbit of the Earth. It can reach an altitude of more than 100 km above sea level and then falls back to Earth. Suborbital rockets or satellites are primarily used for scientific experiments.
The 9.5-meter-long rocket can reach a maximum altitude of 175 kilometers and has a top speed of 1,600 meters per second. It can travel for 450 seconds.
This was the company's second launch this year. In April, it launched a suborbital rocket, the Hyperbola-1S, from a launch center in the southern province of Hainan.
The company also plans to launch a carrier rocket in 2019.
China's aerospace exploration was dominated by state-owned companies and institutes until 2014 when private companies were allowed to develop and launch rockets.
China has more than 60 private companies in the commercial space industry. They are growing fast and competing for launches of small satellites and rockets.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 16:13:16|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
NEW DELHI, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least 222 positive cases of swine flu have been reported in India's western state of Maharashtra, officials said Wednesday.
"As of now 222 positive cases of swine flu have been detected in the state this season and out of them 179 were detected after Aug. 1," a local government official said.
The officials said swine flu claimed 48 lives in the state this year.
"Forty eight people died because of swine flu, out of which 18 were from Pune and adjoining area," the official said.
Health officials attributed the higher number of positive cases in the past month to wet conditions that prevailed in the state, which is said to have created favourable condition for the H1N1 virus.
Authorities have asked health officials to intensified surveillance and asked doctors to administer Oseltamivir within 48 hours if a patient has swine flu-like symptoms.
Swine flu is a respiratory disease caused by a strain of the influenza type A virus, H1N1.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 16:28:21|Editor: zh
Video Player Close
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday outlined principles to aid in the creation of the world's first-ever legally-binding treaty addressing biodiversity in the high seas, defined as open ocean far from a coastline.
At the first session of the negotiations on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ), Deputy Director-General of the Department of Treaty and Law of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ma Xinmin, who headed the Chinese delegation, emphasized four principles.
As the first principle, Ma said negotiations on the instrument should be based on consensus and that parties should avoid decision-making by taking votes.
"Experience has shown that an international instrument that emerges from voting may fail to fully accommodate the concerns of all parties, unable to be widely accepted and would be difficult to interpret, apply and implement after its entry into force," he explained.
Ma went on to stress the talks should be based on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), adopted in 1982, in line with the 2017 UN General Assembly resolution which set stage for the meeting.
"It (the instrument) should supplement and improve on the Convention, not depart from its principles and spirit, jeopardize the institutional framework of the Convention, or contradict existing international laws and global, regional mechanisms governing the ocean," he said.
Thirdly, the treaty should strive to maintain common interests, as "we are a community of shared future and share common interests regarding the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction," Ma said.
Last but not least, the institutional design of the treaty should balance the interests of all parties and all sides to avoid favoring one over the other.
Ma said the Chinese government attaches great importance to the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction and will continue to conduct in-depth discussion and consultation with all parties on the relevant issues in a constructive and open manner.
According to a policy brief circulated at the session, areas beyond national jurisdiction make up 64 percent of the oceans, nearly half of the planet's surface and over 90 percent of its habitable volume; it plays a critical role in the international community's efforts to achieve objectives prescribed in the Sustainable Development Agenda of the UN.
In 2002, a UN informal consultative process discussed the protection of marine environment, setting off a journey toward formal treaty negotiations under the UNCLOS.
Last December, the UN General Assembly adopted a modality resolution that set the stage for Tuesday's meeting.
Rena Lee, president of the conference, said in her opening remarks "this day has been a long time in coming for many who have been working on these issues for many years," expressing her hope that "we can work together as a whole to move the process along to a successful conclusion."
Miguel de Serpa Soares, the UN under-secretary-general for legal affairs and the secretary-general of the conference, expressed confidence that the first session will be fruitful and lead to the development of an instrument that all delegations can agree to.
"There is ample evidence of increasing pressures on oceans," he said. "If such pressures and their impacts are not addressed, their cumulative effect will lead to a destructive cycle in which the oceans will no longer be able to provide many services that humans and other life on this planet depend on."
"Sustainable oceans and seas can contribute to poverty eradication, sustained economic growth, food security and creation of sustainable livelihoods," Soares said, adding that protecting the marine environment will also help build resilience to the impacts of climate change.
Lee also expressed hope that the delegations will move towards to "a fair, balanced and effective outcome," which "reflects our varying concerns and interests."
The conference will meet initially for four sessions, with the second and third taking place in 2019 and the fourth in the first half of 2020.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 16:38:23|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
LILONGWE, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Malawian government has issued a ban on slaughter of all livestock and has suspended meat markets following an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in some areas of the country's capital city Lilongwe, a statement released on Tuesday said.
At least 217 clinical cases had been confirmed in four Extension Planning Areas (EPAs) as of Tuesday, the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development said in the statement.
"On-going preliminary investigations conducted by Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development have established a total of 217 clinical cases, and the affected EPAs have an estimated population of 45,000 cattle," the ministry's official Gray Nyandule Phiri said in the statement.
The government has also restricted movement of livestock and livestock products from and into the affected areas, added the statement.
The ban also extends to issuance of livestock movement permits from the affected areas and roadblocks and patrols in strategic points have since been instituted, according to the statement.
Foot and mouth disease is a highly contagious viral disease that attacks livestock, especially cattle.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 16:38:24|Editor: zh
Video Player Close
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- An intelligent monitoring system is being used to manage manhole covers in Beijing, Beijing Daily reported Wednesday.
The system, developed by the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC), is comprised of a monitoring device that is attached to manhole covers, a data concentrator and a software platform. The device has been installed in 500 manhole covers in the city's Xicheng District.
A large number of manhole covers, which are widely distributed throughout the city, are hard to supervise. The loss or damage of manhole covers might influence the drainage facilities and pose a threat to the safety of pedestrians.
The intelligent system can monitor manhole covers in real time, and if it detects an abnormal opening, it will transfer the data to the urban management monitoring network for instant action.
CASIC will also develop intelligent management systems for other public facilities and promote data sharing among different city management departments, facilitating the building of smart cities, according to the newspaper.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 16:48:26|Editor: Lu Hui
Video Player Close
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the African Union Commission, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday met with Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission after the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) which concluded Tuesday.
Xi expressed thanks to the chairperson for making important contributions to the successful hosting of the FOCAC Beijing Summit.
Noting that the AU is a flag guiding Africa's unity and self-strengthening, Xi said China consistently supports the role of the AU in the process of Africa integration and supports the AU in playing a more constructive role in the development of China-Africa relations and FOCAC affairs.
In recent years, China and the AU have reaped fruitful results in cooperation and conducted stronger communication and coordination in international affairs, Xi said.
China is ready to use the success of the Beijing summit as an opportunity to enhance alignment of strategies with the AU, jointly build the Belt and Road, deepen pragmatic cooperation, expand security cooperation and promote capability building, Xi said.
China firmly supports the AU and African countries in solving African problems in African ways, supports boosting capabilities in peacekeeping and maintaining stability, and supports the AU in playing a greater role of guidance and coordination in transnational and trans-regional cooperation, Xi said.
With the success of the Beijing summit and under the leadership of President Xi, Africa-China relations have found out the right direction and chosen the right path, Faki said.
Noting that the eight major initiatives proposed by President Xi highly match the Belt and Road Initiative, the chairperson said the eight initiatives will help the AU realize its Agenda 2063 and will surely promote peace and development in Africa.
African people are thirsty for happiness, which will be impossible without peace and development, he said.
China has won the hearts of African people, and African people will never forget that, said the chairperson.
The AU is ready to work with China and African members of the FOCAC to implement the consensus reached during the Beijing summit and bring benefits to African and Chinese peoples, Faki said.
The AU is committed to integration in Africa, opposes protectionism and unilateralism and is willing to enhance coordination and cooperation with China in international and regional affairs, the chairperson said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 16:58:29|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
Photo taken on Sept. 4, 2018 shows the site of a train collision accident in Bibala, Namibe Province in southern Angola. At least 18 people, including two Chinese, were killed in a train collision in Bibala, Namibe Province in southern Angola on Tuesday, local authorities said. (Xinhua/Chen Xueyi)
MOCAMEDES, Angola, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least 18 people, including two Chinese, were killed in a train collision in Bibala, Namibe Province in southern Angola on Tuesday, local authorities said.
The collision involved a rail maintenance train and a freight train. The two killed Chinese citizens were members of a rail maintenance team. The Chinese Embassy to Angola also confirmed the mishap.
The number of injured people rose to 14, among whom 10 were in critical condition, said Simao Joao Faisca, second commander of the civil and fire protection service in Namibe Province.
He said the freight train was carrying black granite of the Mocamedes Railway Company (CFM), while the maintenance train belonged to a Chinese company.
The CFM's CEO Daniel Quipaxe told reporters that the disaster happened at around 6:30 a.m. local time (0530 GMT), and he said that the number of deaths may rise as some people were seriously injured.
The National Institute of Railways of Angola is investigating the accident.
A source from the local railway administration said that an official in charge failed to report the maintenance work on the railway track in time.
BB Airways seeks permit to scrap its Boeing 757
BB Airways has sought permission from the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) to scrap its vintage Boeing 757 as it has not been able to obtain an air operators certificate (AOC) to begin commercial service.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 17:08:32|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
SHENZHEN, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- China has called for beefing up global cooperation and increasing investment for better protection of snow leopards.
Li Chunliang, deputy director of China's State Forestry and Grassland Administration, made the call at an International Conference for Snow Leopard Conservation that opened in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen Tuesday.
Representatives from 12 countries, including China, India and Russia, and relevant international organizations are attending the three-day event.
Li called on the countries to increase attention and investment on protection efforts and asked the international community to provide funds and technical assistance.
"China will continue to boost protection of snow leopards and their habitats," said Li, adding that the country will explore establishing more cross-border nature reserves for the rare species.
Snow leopards and their habitats still face threats including habitat fragmentation, climate change, human activities, poaching and illegal trading, said Li.
Meanwhile, most snow leopards live in plateau mountains where economies are lacking, causing a shortage of funds and staff, Li said.
In addition to the 26 existing nature reserves, China has been exploring building national parks since 2017 to protect snow leopards and other wild animals further, he said.
The Sanjiangyuan and Mount Qilian national parks currently under construction will provide a combined protected area of 200,000 square kilometers, helping to expand and improve the species, said Li.
Koustubh Sharma, the International Coordinator of the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program Secretariat, said he hopes the conference will boost international cooperation on the protection of snow leopards.
The snow leopard is a Class-A protected animal in China and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies it as vulnerable. There is an estimated population of 4,500 to 7,500 living in the wild globally, according to IUCN.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 17:28:38|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- S&P Global Ratings said Wednesday that the cohesiveness of the Malaysian government will remain a prime interest for investors.
The rating agency said in a report that a stable policy environment is an important factor that affects Malaysia's sovereign creditworthiness, while the other factor is its future fiscal performance.
"Political stability is an important question, since this is the first time that the Pakatan Harapan constituent parties are governing together," said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst KimEng Tan, adding that the ability of these parties to formulate and implement policies in a timely and effective manner is untested.
The bigger test of leadership transition lies ahead, according to the report. The 93-year-old Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has promised to hand over power to his former deputy Anwar Ibrahim in two years.
The agency highlighted that Malaysia's matured bureaucracy is likely to be a key stabilizer in any potential scenario of political instability.
"It has helped to keep the economy performing well through the major shocks of the past two decades," it said.
The coalition government's focus on governance is likely to take a while to benefit the policy and business environments in the country, the report added.
"We expect the government's decision to change the reporting structure of several important agencies to increase the independence and transparency of government agencies and state-owned enterprises," Tan said.
For a real change in behavior, the report opined that Malaysia will have to sustain these reform efforts, and it should even widen those measures to the civil service.
It does not expect Malaysia's fiscal performance to deteriorate materially in the next few years mainly because of the government's strong focus on fiscal stability.
Nevertheless, risks to fiscal performance have risen even if the government spends carefully, according to the report.
"With a narrow revenue base that is dependent on volatile revenue sources, the country's budget performance is more vulnerable to negative economic conditions than most others," it said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 17:33:39|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
SUVA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Fiji's Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum met on Wednesday with visiting Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) Hongjoo Hahm and discussed areas in which Fiji could play a more active leadership role in the Pacific region.
According to a press release by the Fijian Department of Information, looking to a more resilient and sustainable future for Fiji and its Pacific neighbors, the two leaders spoke of the importance of climate financing for the region.
Praising the Fijian government for the issue of its widely-acclaimed sovereign green bonds, Hahm said the UNESCAP will build on this success by exploring similar innovative financing instruments that could be developed for Fiji with a hope of creating a replicable model for other Pacific island nations.
In October 2017, Fiji became the first emerging market to issue a sovereign green bond, raising 100 million Fijian dollars (about 50 million U.S dollars) to support climate change mitigation and adaption.
Home to more than 880,000 people, Fiji's over 300 volcanic islands include low-lying atolls that are highly susceptible to cyclones and floods. In 2016, Tropical Cyclone Winston, the most intense tropical cyclone in the Southern Hemisphere on record, passed directly over Fiji, causing economic losses that amounted to almost one third of the country's Gross Domestic Product.
Green bonds are fixed income, liquid financial instruments that are used to raise funds dedicated to climate-mitigation, adaptation, and other environment-friendly projects. This provides investors an attractive investment proposition as well as an opportunity to support environmentally sound projects.
Khaiyum, who is also the Fijian minister for finance, outlined the island nation's plan to continue this progress, including through the Fijian government's partnership with the Singaporean government for Fiji's Digital Government Transformation.
The meeting served as a preview for later this year, when a team from UNESCAP will visit Fiji to further strengthen the organization's partnership with the country.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 17:43:44|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in's special envoys met Wednesday with Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), in their one-day visit to Pyongyang, the presidential Blue House of South Korea said.
The five-member special delegation, led by Chung Eui-yong, Moon's top national security adviser, flew via the west air route over the inter-Korean sea border to the DPRK's capital city earlier in the day.
The delegation delivered Moon's letter to Kim, exchanging opinions on the Korean Peninsula situations, according to the Blue House.
The special emissaries were scheduled to return home later in the day after having dinner there.
The Blue House planned to hold a press briefing Thursday on the outcome of the special envoys' visit to Pyongyang.
Moon's special envoys went to Pyongyang to discuss with the DPRK side a detailed schedule and agenda for the third Moon-Kim summit, which the two Koreas agreed to hold in Pyongyang before the end of this month.
The Korean Peninsula's denuclearization and the improved inter-Korean relations were also the issues which Moon's special emissaries planned to consult with the DPRK side, according to the Blue House.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 17:48:45|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
SUVA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Farmers of Drasa in Lautoka, the second largest city of Fiji, have been advised to consider multi-cropping for better soil utilization and improved yields.
According to a government statement on Wednesday, this was relayed to the members of the Warabetia and Marasa Herbs and Vegetable Cluster Farmers by Fiji's Minister for Agriculture Inia Seruiratu during a recent visit to farmers in the western part of the island nation.
"Farmers need to practice multi-cropping which is very important due to the changes in climatic conditions currently being experienced. This will sustain farmers during such conditions," Seruiratu said.
He also encouraged sugarcane farmers to work smartly by utilizing their vacant land for either vegetable or livestock farming.
"Farmers need to plant according to the market demand. You also need to make full use of the available land," he said.
Seruiratu reiterated the importance of forming clusters as it would foster partnership between farmers and could further enhance individual farmers' productivity through the cluster model.
"When farmers are grouped together into clusters, it is easier for the Ministry of Agriculture to assist, advise, organize and determine the mode of collection for production in collection centers for the benefit of farmers," he added.
More than 100,000 households in Fiji engage in agricultural activities such as growing crops, raising livestock, fishing, freshwater aquaculture or marine aquaculture.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 18:23:58|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
JERUSALEM, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Israel closed on Wednesday Erez crossing with the Gaza Strip after "riots" near the border, with only the exception of urgent humanitarian cases.
Israeli military said the closure was due to "riots" of protesters, who hurled rocks and damaged the infrastructure of the crossing on the Palestinian side.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Health Ministry said that in the protest, which took place on Tuesday, several Palestinians were injured by the Israeli fire.
An Israeli military spokesperson said in a statement that the crossing will be closed until the damage is repaired, adding that the closure does not include humanitarian cases, which will be approved on a case-by-case basis.
Israel sporadically closes its crossings with Gaza as a punitive measure.
In August, Israel closed the Erez crossing for about a week following violence along the fence separating Israel and Gaza.
Gazans have been staging rallies near the border since March 30 to protest the crippling blockade on the enclave starting in 2007, while Israel blames Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian movement that runs Gaza, for orchestrating the protest.
Israeli forces have killed at least 166 Palestinians, including 125 protestors in the rallies, while a Israeli soldier was killed by a Palestinian sniper.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 18:39:00|Editor: ZX
Video Player Close
KUNMING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Police in southwest China's Yunnan Province arrested a drug trafficker and seized more than 200 kg of methamphetamine, said a local police source Wednesday.
In late July, the police in the city of Lincang got a tip-off saying that someone was planning to transport large amounts of drugs across the border into China.
On Aug. 13, a Myanmar man was nabbed by the police, who allegedly carried 317 bags of methamphetamine, with a combined weight of 215.7 kg, hidden in a pickup truck.
The case is under further investigation.
Yunnan is a major front in China's battle against drug crime as it borders the Golden Triangle, known for drug trafficking in southeast Asia.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 18:49:04|Editor: Liangyu
Video Player Close
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday met with Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno who attended the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.
Xi stressed the complete success of the just-concluded summit and thanked Deby for his important contribution to that success.
Recalling his previous meetings with Chadian president and many important consensuses they have reached, Xi called on both sides to build on the achievements and seize the opportunity of implementing the consensuses of the summit to expand cooperation areas for more outcomes.
Both sides should maintain the momentum of high-level exchanges, strengthen exchanges in various areas at all levels, and continue to support each other on issues involving their core interests, said Xi.
Xi said China stands ready to work with Chad in promoting the implementation of infrastructure projects, expand cooperation on energy exploration and exploitation, and help Chad advance its industrialization.
China would also like to assist Chad in strengthening its capacities in counter-terrorism, and safeguarding peace and stability, according to Xi.
Deby extended congratulations on the success of the Beijing summit, saying it was impressive to see so many African leaders attending a summit and exchanging ideas on working together towards a China-Africa community with a shared future in a fraternal and friendly way. He said it reflected Africa's trust in President Xi and China, as well as their expectations for and confidence in the Africa-China partnership.
The eight major initiatives proposed by Xi are forward-looking and adhere to the principle of sincerity, real results, affinity, and good faith, Deby said.
Highlighting the tangible outcomes from Chad-China cooperation, he also expressed gratitude for the help from China in the development of Chad over the years.
Chad hopes to learn from China's development experience and welcomes Chinese investment and technology, so as to continue deepening cooperation between the two countries in various areas, said Deby.
After the meeting, the two leaders witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 18:54:07|Editor: zh
Video Player Close
BANGKOK, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's political parties will have "plenty of time" from December to run electoral campaigns nationwide, said Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam on Wednesday.
The deputy premier referred to the "unlocking" of all political restrictions to the extent that all political parties are able to launch nationwide campaigns for the next race to parliament, tentatively scheduled for Feb. 24, 2019.
Last week, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said that he would "unlock" some, and not all, of the political restrictions "shortly."
Wissanu assured that all parties with intent to contest the polls will be given "plenty of time" to set policies and campaign, after a 90-day interval following an approval to organic laws on the election of MPs and the naming of senators by King Maha Vajiralongkorn and the promulgation of the laws in the Royal Gazette.
The Thai monarch's approval or disapproval to the organic laws is expected sooner or later this month, so that Prayut would subsequently lift some of the political restrictions.
According to Wissanu, the parties will likely be free to campaign from December until mid-February.
"Political parties will certainly have plenty of time to set policies and run electoral campaigns, given a period of over 70 days as of December," said Wissanu.
Prayut is largely expected to exercise his executive power under Section 44 of the interim constitution to lift some of the political restrictions, imposed by the ruling military council.
Prayut earlier said he will make it known to the public his own political future after he has lifted some of the restrictions. It remains to be seen whether or not he will join a certain party and contest the polls.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 19:14:13|Editor: zh
Video Player Close
WELLINGTON, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and the New Zealand Forest Owners Association are joining forces under the Government Industry Agreement (GIA) to improve forest biosecurity preparedness.
The first jointly-funded initiative under this partnership will be a forest biosecurity surveillance program designed to detect unwanted forest pests and pathogens in high-risk places, an MPI statement said on Wednesday.
The association and MPI recently signed the Commercial Plantation Forestry Sector Operational Agreement for Readiness under the GIA. This agreement establishes a new way of working in partnership between the two organizations and will see a doubling of efforts to improve forest biosecurity readiness, said Andrew Spelman, MPI's acting director of biosecurity readiness.
"This continuing partnership will build on the considerable contribution the forest industry has made to biosecurity to date, and we look forward to collaborating to improve biosecurity processes and outcomes for New Zealand," Spelman said.
Existing biosecurity readiness work in the sector includes an annual forest health survey, which the government started in the 1950s, but has been fully funded by industry since the 1990s.
It also includes MPI's High-Risk Site Surveillance Program, which looks for pests and diseases that could affect a range of native and exotic trees, including production species, according to the MPI.
BIMSTEC war games
Nepal should dispel any unease the exercise may have aroused among neighbours
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 19:19:13|Editor: zh
Video Player Close
NEW DELHI, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Indian police have launched a nation-wide manhunt to track down the perpetrators of a heist in the museum of the southern city of Hyderabad's last king.
A gold and diamond-studded lunchbox, along with a ruby and gold teacup, saucer and teaspoon -- all belonging to Mir Osman Ali Khan, formerly princely state of Hyderabad's last Nizam (king), and valued at 7 million U.S. dollars -- was stolen from Nizam museum earlier this week.
"Though the theft of items belonging to the city's last king and once world's richest man was discovered Monday morning, we suspect it was carried out the previous night. Thieves broke open the wooden ventilator of the museum to get inside," a police official said Wednesday.
"The burglars had also tampered with the museum's closed-circuit TV cameras to avoid being detected. It was a well-planned crime. Earlier it was a localized probe only, but now we have expanded our manhunt nation-wide to nab the burglars and restore the museum's pride," he added.
The Nizam museum was opened to the public 18 years ago, though Khan died in 1967 after ruling then largest princely state of Hyderabad from 1911 to 1948.
During his rule, Khan was labelled the richest man in the world, having an estimated fortune of 2 billion U.S. dollars in early 1940s or 2 percent of U.S. economy back then, while treasury of the newly formed Indian government recorded an annual revenue of 1 billion U.S. dollars only.
His museum houses over 450 artefacts which were gifted to the last king as presents. It also comprises some expensive gifts given to his father, Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, the sixth Nizam.
Other costly displays at the museum included the world-famous Jacob's Diamond, which was the size of an egg, several of Nizam's cars, including a 1930 Rolls Royce, and a 150-year-old manually operated elevator.
A sword belonging to the same royal family was stolen from another museum in Hyderabad a decade ago.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 19:29:15|Editor: ZX
Video Player Close
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday sent a congratulatory message to Arif Alvi on his election as Pakistan's new president.
China and Pakistan are good neighbors, good friends and good brothers that treat each other with all sincerity and share weal and woe, and the friendship between the two countries has remained solid and kept growing despite the fluctuating international situation, Xi said in the message.
Xi recalled that China and Pakistan jointly decided to enhance their bilateral relations to an all-weather strategic cooperative partnership when he visited Pakistan in 2015.
In recent years, with the joint efforts made by both sides, mutual political trust is stronger, and the construction of the China-Pakistan economic corridor is fruitful, which has not only benefited the two countries and the two peoples, but made positive contribution to peace and development in the region, Xi said.
The Chinese president noted that the strategic significance of the China-Pakistan relations is more prominent under the current circumstances, and the two countries should support each other more staunchly and conduct deeper cooperation.
Xi said that he highly values the development of the China-Pakistan relations and is willing to join hands with Alvi to further enhance the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership and build a closer China-Pakistan community of shared future.
Arif Alvi, a senior leader of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), was elected president of the South Asian country on Tuesday, according to a statement from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 19:34:16|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
BERLIN, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Wednesday that he will use his first official visit to Turkey as an opportunity to reiterate demands to release German citizens who have been imprisoned there on political grounds.
Speaking ahead of meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and foreign minister Mevluet Cavusoglu in Ankara, Maas highlighted that it was "no secret" that recent developments had "cast a shadow" over traditionally close diplomatic ties between Germany and Turkey.
"Not least, the still high number of imprisonments testifies to this circumstance," Maas told reporters, adding that there could be no normalization of bilateral relations until the last seven German prisoners in Turkey were freed.
At least 35 German citizens have been jailed in the wake of a failed military coup against Erdogan in 2016, most of whom were charged with supporting illegal Kurdish and/or left-wing organizations.
Deniz Yuecel, a journalist for German WELT newspaper and one of the most prominent Germans to have been temporarily arrested in Turkey, recently complained that local judicial authorities were prosecuting suspects "illegally and without proper proof".
Yuecel claimed that he had consequently filed a compensation lawsuit against Ankara after his own release in the hope of setting a precedent for other prisoners.
According to a report by German public broadcasters WDR and NDR on Tuesday night, a further German citizen has been remanded in custody in the European Union (EU) member state of Bulgaria as a result of an international arrest warrant issued by Ankara.
The 44-year-old is accused by a Turkish court of being a member of the country's banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
In spite of the incident, Maas insisted on Wednesday that Germany's strategic interests mandated for him to "continue to work hard on an improvement of the relationship".
"Turkey is more than a large neighbor, it is an important partner of Germany," he added.
The German government has yet to take an official position on the spiraling currency crisis which has gripped Turkey since U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a raft of new sanctions against the country.
Berlin merely made informal suggestions for Ankara to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for assistance, a move which Erdogan rejects due to the resulting need to accept the Washington-based fund's demands for economic re-structuring.
Maas' trip on Wednesday marks the start of an intensive program of diplomatic exchange between Germany and Turkey which will take place over the next months. Amongst others, Erdogan is scheduled to be received by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin for an official visit in three weeks, according to German media reports.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 19:39:19|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
FRANKFURT, Sept. 5 (Xinhua)-- Chancellor Angela Merkel sent a message of strengthening Germany's position as a financial center on Tuesday evening, when attending an event by German marketplace organizer for securities trading Deutsche Boerse in Frankfurt.
"We will do everything we can to support the state of Hesse, to enable attractive conditions for Germany as a financial center," the German Chancellor said.
As the largest city in German state of Hesse, with around 63,000 people working here in approximately 200 financial institutions, Frankfurt is one of the world's most important financial centers and the gateway to Europe's largest economy.
It is widely believed that Frankfurt will significantly benefit from Brexit even if the city obviously is in fierce competition with other metropolis in the European Union (EU) like Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin etc. However, the "harsh" legal framework and regulation affect markedly interest of financial institutions in migration of their business and staff from Britain to Germany.
"Work is already underway on this regulation," said Merkel. In fact, progress has been made in the easing of dismissal protection for top earners in banks, which has been taken into consideration in the "grand coalition" agreement between Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and German Social Democrats(SPD).
In addition, Merkel underlined the great potential for Frankfurt in euro clearing.
"Politically, I can explain to everyone that euro clearing is taking place in the Eurozone, and then, of course, Frankfurt is the outstanding place," she said.
As regards Brexit negotiations, Merkel reiterated her stance that the goal to reach an agreement with Britain must be achieved on the condition that "a non-EU member can not have the same rights and obligations as a member of the EU."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 19:44:20|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
WELLINGTON, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Wednesday announced a 9 million NZ dollars (5.9 million U.S. dollars) package to make it easier for Pacific students to access education.
"Pacific governments face significant challenges in delivering joined-up education services over a vast geographic area," Ardern said in a statement.
This initiative will leverage high-speed internet connectivity to ensure more Pacific students have access to high quality education and learning opportunities, Ardern said.
At the ongoing Pacific Islands Forum in Nauru, Ardern announced the package, which includes a 5 million NZ dollars (3.28 million U.S. dollars) project to support teachers to deliver an interactive e-learning science curriculum for Year 10 students in Samoa, Vanuatu, Cook Islands and Solomon Islands.
"Pacific Island countries want to lift the quality of science education without needing physical access to laboratories. New Zealand's experience in this area will be a useful contribution to these partnerships," the prime minister said.
As part of the package, Ardern also announced a partnership with Fiji's University of the South Pacific and the Commonwealth of Learning to expand open, distance and flexible learning opportunities at secondary and tertiary levels.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 19:44:20|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
JUBA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan's warring factions have agreed on a matrix for the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement, paving way for signing a final accord in the near future, government spokesman Michael Makuei said on Wednesday.
Makuei told state-run radio, South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation, that the ongoing talks in neighboring Sudan will soon conclude after the warring factions agreed on key unresolved issues in the initial peace proposal.
He said cease-fire monitors from the regional bloc, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), have organized a three-day orientation workshop for the parties to the conflict to better understand the pact and that will mark the end of the negotiations on the peace agreement.
"The sub-committees that were working on the matrix have completed their tasks and today the matrix is completed and is ready now for assembling into one document," Makuei said.
South Sudan descended into civil war in late 2013, and the conflict has created one of the fastest growing refugee crises in the world.
The UN estimates that about 4 million South Sudanese have been displaced internally and externally.
A peace deal signed in August 2015 between the rival leaders under United Nations pressure led to the establishment of a transitional unity government, but was shattered by renewed fighting in July 2016.
He said the final peace treaty will be delivered to the IGAD council of ministers and it is expected to be signed in Khartoum during the upcoming IGAD heads of states summit.
Several warring factions have been engaged in protracted negotiations since January seeking to revive the shattered peace deal.
"The agreement will be compiled together by the chief negotiator and will be presented to the IGAD council of ministers and then the IGAD summit will be followed by the final signing ceremony," he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 19:49:21|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
Malaysia's Economic Affairs Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali (C) and Khaw Boon Wan (L), Singaporean coordinating minister for infrastructure and minister for transport, attend a joint press conference in Putrajaya, Malaysia, Sept. 5, 2018. The government of Malaysia and Singapore signed an agreement on Wednesday to defer the construction of the high speed rail (HSR) project linking the two countries by two years till 2020. (Xinhua/Chong Voon Chung)
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The government of Malaysia and Singapore signed an agreement on Wednesday to defer the construction of the high speed rail (HSR) project linking the two countries by two years till 2020.
At Malaysia's request and in the spirit of bilateral cooperation, Singapore has agreed to suspend the construction of the HSR project for a period up to May 31, 2020, according to the joint statement issued by the two countries.
The agreement was the result of weeks of "intense negotiations," said Malaysia's Economic Affairs Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali, adding that "we have come to an agreement and we met all the concerns from Singapore and Malaysia."
Azmin signed and exchanged the legal documents on the deferment with Khaw Boon Wan, Singaporean coordinating minister for infrastructure and minister for transport in Malaysia's administration center of Putrajaya, witnessed by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and visiting Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean.
"Many Singaporeans have been looking forward to the realization of this project, and we remain committed to this project," Khaw told a joint press conference with Azmin after the signing ceremony.
"But we understand why Malaysia needs to temporarily suspend the construction of the HSR project," he said. "So even though the HSR bilateral agreement has no provisions for such a project suspension, but in the spirit of bilateral cooperation, Singapore has given Malaysia's request serious consideration," he added.
The deferment period till May 2020 is a negotiated figure between the two sides, said Khaw.
"From Singapore's point of view, there is a limit as to how far we can postpone the project," said Khaw, citing uncertainty in cost projection. "We think this is sort of a suspension period which we can try to manage," he said.
The governments of Malaysia and Singapore signed a legally-binding pact on the project in 2016 to build a high speed rail linking Malaysia's capital of Kuala Lumpur to the city state, which would cut travel time to 90 minutes once in operation.
However, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir announced shortly after taking office in May that the high speed rail would be dropped, citing high cost and low usage. He later changed tone that his country would seek deferment on the project, saying it has to pay a penalty of around 500 million ringgit (123.1 million U.S. dollars) to Singapore for the cancellation.
According to the agreement, Malaysia will bear the agreed cost in suspending the HSR project, despite earlier media report that Malaysia would not need to compensate Singapore.
"As suspension will involve some abortive costs, Malaysia will reimburse Singapore for the abortive costs," said Khaw.
If the project is not resumed after the suspension period, Malaysia will reimburse the cost incurred by Singapore in fulfilling the HSR project, he added.
Azmin said both parties agreed that the abortive costs that need to be paid by Malaysia government amounted to 15 million Singapore dollars (10.88 million U.S. dollars) and need to be paid before end of January 2019.
Although the agreed postponed period is two years, the commencement date of HSR service is expected to be pushed back to Jan. 1, 2031, instead of the original plan of Dec. 31, 2026.
Given the length of the suspension period, both sides will be calling off the ongoing international joint tender for the HSR Asset Company, which would be responsible for designing, building, financing, operating and maintaining all assets for the HSR project, according to the joint statement.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 19:49:24|Editor: Li Xia
Video Player Close
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev (L) and his Indian counterpart Ram Nath Kovind take part in a ceremony in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Sept. 5, 2018. Bulgarian President Rumen Radev met here on Wednesday with his Indian counterpart Ram Nath Kovind, who came to the Balkan country to boost bilateral ties. Kovind was the first Indian president to visit Bulgaria in 15 years. (Xinhua/Wang Xinran)
SOFIA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Bulgarian President Rumen Radev met here on Wednesday with his Indian counterpart Ram Nath Kovind, who came to the Balkan country to boost bilateral ties.
Kovind was the first Indian president to visit Bulgaria in 15 years.
At a joint press conference after talks, Radev called the visit a "landmark political event" because it was a prerequisite for the development of bilateral relations in all areas of mutual interest -- trade, economy, science and education, investment, tourism, and cultural exchange.
The two presidents reviewed the bilateral relations, especially in the area of economics and trade, where the legal framework was satisfactory, "but the results definitely do not satisfy us", Radev said. "Trade turnover of 200-250 million U.S. dollars a year is far from our capabilities," Radev said.
Memoranda of cooperation in tourism, nuclear energy and Hindi teaching, as well as a Science and Technology Cooperation Program for the period 2018-2021 were signed in the presence of the two presidents just before the press conference.
These agreements were important because they were in key areas that contributed to intensifying the contacts between the two countries, Radev said.
"We reaffirmed our commitment to expand our partnership in the fields of politics, economics, defense, science, technology, education, culture and personal contacts," Kovind said.
Kovind noted that the Science and Technology Cooperation Program would improve cooperation in areas such as nanotechnology, traditional medicine and oceanology.
Later on Wednesday, the two presidents would address a Bulgarian-Indian business forum, involving representatives from over 300 companies from both countries.
Kovind said he hoped that successful business cooperation in fields such as information and communication technologies, pharmacy, infrastructure, agriculture, defense and tourism would be achieved at this forum.
During his three-day state visit ending on Thursday, Kovind will meet also with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 19:54:25|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
TOKYO, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- A civil group in Japan's Okinawa, having collected the signatures of some 93,000 people, demanded on Wednesday a local referendum to be held on the central government's controversial plan to relocate a U.S. military base within the island prefecture.
Deputy Okinawa Governor Kiichiro Jahana, who took charge following the death of Governor Takeshi Onaga last month, said that he would convene a prefectural assembly meeting later this month on the referendum proposal.
According to the local autonomy law, citizens could request a referendum after collecting valid signatures from one-50th of all voters, which means 23,000 signatures in Okinawa.
However, whether the referendum could be held will still depend on the decision of the new Okinawa governor who is expected to be elected on Sept. 30.
Okinawa prefecture retracted last Friday its approval of landfill work for the controversial relocation project, according to late governor Onaga's wish.
Onaga, elected governor of Okinawa in 2014, was well known for his hard-line stance against the over-abundance of U.S. bases and personnel in Okinawa, Japan's southernmost prefecture.
He was also a firm opponent of the central government's plan to transfer the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to the Henoko coastal area of Nago from a crowded residential district in Ginowan, Okinawa.
Onaga died on Aug. 8 at the age of 67 after cancer metastasized to the liver despite a pancreatic surgery in April.
Before he died, Onaga had ordered procedures to be started again to retract landfill work approval of the Futenma base relocation project, which was seen by the public as a last resort for the governor to stop the relocation plan.
The central government, however, has said that its intention to proceed with the relocation construction was unchanged.
Okinawa hosts the bulk of U.S. bases in Japan while accounting for only 0.6 percent of the country's total land mass.
Japan's central government had said that the relocation plan is "the only solution" for removing the dangers posed by the Futenma base to the crowded residential area of Ginowan without undermining the Japan-U.S. alliance.
The Okinawa people, however, have called for the base to be removed from the prefecture, complaining of sufferings caused by aircraft noise, crimes committed by the U.S. servicemen as well as safety concerns.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 19:59:27|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
JUBA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Virginia Gamba, UN special representative of the secretary-general for children and armed conflict, on Wednesday started her four-day visit to South Sudan for the first time since taking office in 2017.
The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said Gamba will hold meetings with political actors, non-governmental organizations and religious leaders as well as members of the UN family to discuss opportunities to strengthen the protection of children.
It disclosed that a particular focus will be the importance of strong reintegration programs for demobilized children and the need for donor funding to support such initiatives.
"The SRSG will discuss the challenges of implementing two Action Plans in Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA-2012) and SPLA-in opposition (SPLA-IO-2015) which are designed to end and prevent the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict and other grave violations," UNMISS said in a statement issued in Juba.
UNMISS said Gamba will also travel to Yambio, located South of the capital in the Western Equatoria region to see first-hand the challenges created by ongoing violations perpetrated against children by parties to the conflict.
Over 900 children have been released from armed groups since February in the Yambio area and are receiving counseling and psychosocial support as part of the reintegration program, which is implemented by UNICEF and partners.
In 2001, the UN Security Council through its Resolution 1379 requested the Secretary-General to attach an annex to his report on children and armed conflict, in which he would list parties to conflict who recruit and use children in situations on the Security Council's agenda.
In his latest Annual Report (2017), the UN Secretary-General has listed three parties in South Sudan including the SPLA listed for recruitment and use, killing and maiming, rape and other forms of sexual violence and abduction of children, the SPLA-IO rebels allied to former First Vice President Riek Machar for recruitment and use and killing and maiming of children.
The White Army, a local militia largely composed of Nuer youth fighting alongside SPLA-IO, are listed for the recruitment and use of children.
South Sudan signed an action plan in 2012 to end and prevent the recruitment and use of children by the SPLA to which it recommitted in 2014 with additional commitments to end all grave violations against children.
In December 2015, the SPLA-IO signed an Action Plan to end and prevent child recruitment and use as well as killing and maiming of children.
An action plan is a written, signed commitment between the UN and parties to conflict listed in the secretary-general's annual report on children and armed conflict.
Tika R Pradhan is a senior political correspondent for the Post, covering politics, parliament, judiciary and social affairs. Pradhan joined the Post in 2016 after working at The Himalayan Times for more than a decade.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 19:59:27|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
ISLAMABAD, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan on Wednesday summoned a senior Indian diplomat over cross-border shelling, which killed a civilian along the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed Kashmir region, officials said.
The Foreign Ministry here said India forces resorted to "unprovoked ceasefire violations" in the Kotkotera Sector along the LoC on Tuesday.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal who heads the desk of South Asia and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation at the ministry, summoned Indian Deputy High Commissioner and "condemned" the unprovoked ceasefire violations by the Indian forces.
Pakistan and India had declared ceasefire in 2003 along the LoC but both sides routinely accuse each other of violations.
Faisal told the Indian diplomat that the "deliberate targeting of civilian population areas is indeed deplorable and contrary to human dignity and 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 urged the Indian side to respect the 2003 ceasefire arrangement, investigate the ceasefire violations, instruct the Indian forces to respect the ceasefire, in letter and spirit and maintain peace on the LoC.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 20:14:31|Editor: ZX
Video Player Close
SHANGHAI, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The 20th China International Industry Fair will open in Shanghai on Sept. 19, the municipal government announced on Wednesday.
The exhibition will be attended by more than 2,600 companies from 27 countries and regions, including the United States, Germany, and France.
There will be eight exhibition areas including industrial automation, new energy, and robots. The number of visitors is expected to exceed 170,000, according to the municipal government.
"The exhibition has offered a platform for the Chinese enterprises to communicate and cooperate with foreign companies," said Rong Zhiqin, deputy head of the municipal committee on economics and information technology.
The fair will run for five days at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 20:29:34|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
LONDON, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday accused Russian intelligence officers of attempted murder of a former spy and his daughter with a nerve agent.
She told the parliament that the two men identified as suspects in the Salisbury poisonings are members of Russia's military intelligence service and the poisonings were almost certainly approved outside the service at a senior level.
Two Russian men were on Wednesday named as suspects in the attempted murder of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March.
Russia has been denying any involvement in the event.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 20:29:34|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
BEIRUT, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese General Labor Union called upon officials on Wednesday to work on improving public schools to ensure that all citizens have access to decent education, local media reported.
"We want authorities to be fair to public schools teachers when it comes to salaries in addition to equipping these establishments with the needed modern tools while improving the quality of education," said a statement by the labor union published in the National News Agency.
The statement said it cannot be acceptable that 70 percent of Lebanese students chose to go to expensive and private schools in a bid to access good quality of education.
A study by Bankmed, a Lebanese commercial bank, stated that 68 percent of the students in Beirut are enrolled in private schools while about one-fifth are enrolled in public schools.
It is similar in Beirut suburbs and Mount Lebanon region where private schools accommodate 76 percent and 66 percent of total students, respectively, it said.
Meanwhile, another study published in 2017 by Annahar newspaper maintained that some schools have raised their tuition fees from 4 million Lebanese pounds (about 2,645 U.S. dollars) in 2011 to 8 million Lebanese pounds in 2016, adding that Lebanese parents who have children in private schools are financially incapable of paying such tuitions.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 20:39:36|Editor: zh
Video Player Close
JAKARTA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian security authorities will dispatch at least 10,000 security personnel to secure the forthcoming Asian Paralympic Games in the country's capital later this year.
Jakarta metropolitan police Chief Inspector General Idham Aziz revealed that the security for the multi-sport event will involve police personnel and soldiers.
In addition to the total figure, scores of military personnel from the Jakarta military command will also back up the forces, the police chief said. "We have prepared personnel to secure the upcoming Asian Para Games. They will also be supported by military personnel in Jakarta," he added.
The police chief promised to provide security for the event scheduled to be held in the country's capital from Oct 6 - Oct 13, during which a total of 2,800 athletes and 1,800 officials from 41 countries and regions will take part in 18 events.
"We have already had experience in undertaking such a task during the recent Asian Games. Hopefully this event will run well. The police and military will collaborate to provide maximum security," Aziz added.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 20:59:40|Editor: zh
Video Player Close
BEIRUT, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's Beirut International Film Festival (BIFF) announced Wednesday postponement for a few months due to the difficult economic situation prevailing in the country, local media reported.
The festival's administration said the postponement is due to "the difficult economic situation and the complicated regional political situation."
The administration said it hopes to set a new date for launching its activities at the beginning of 2019.
"We have a wide new selection of films in our portfolio and the most prominent event is our partnership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which organizes the Oscars Awards," said the organizer.
The first edition of the BIFF was held in October 1997.
The festival screens Lebanese feature film along with international and Arab short films, documentaries, video clips and advertisements.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 20:59:40|Editor: Liangyu
Video Player Close
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) holds talks with President of the Republic of the Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday held talks with his counterpart of the Republic of the Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso, agreeing to promote the bilateral ties with greater and more substantial measures.
Sassou Nguesso attended the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on Sept. 3-4.
Xi said the bilateral relationship is at its best in history, adding that China regards the Republic of the Congo as an all-weather friend and is willing to consolidate and deepen political mutual trust, expand high-level and all-level exchanges, boost experience sharing in governance, and strengthen communication on policies, concepts and strategies.
China will firmly grasp the right direction of the Sino-Congolese relationship and continue mutual support on issues concerning each other's core interests and major concerns, and further substantiate the comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership between the two countries, said Xi.
Xi called for enhanced coordination and collaboration on key global issues and make the global governance system and the international order more just and equitable.
China will unswervingly enhance mutually beneficial cooperation and welcomes the Republic of the Congo to join the Belt and Road construction, said Xi.
Sassou Nguesso said his country fully supports the Beijing Declaration and the FOCAC Beijing Action Plan adopted at the summit.
The Republic of the Congo is grateful for China's long-term support and highly appreciates the Belt and Road Initiative and the concept of a community with a shared future for humanity as well as the eight initiatives proposed by President Xi, said Sassou Nguesso.
He said the country will align its development strategy with the Belt and Road Initiative to accelerate the growth.
The Congolese-Chinese friendship is unbreakable, said Sassou Nguesso, adding that his country will not be disturbed by those noises on Africa-China relations, and will be committed to enhancing the Republic of the Congo-China and Africa-China comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnerships.
After the talks, the two leaders witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 20:59:40|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
RAMALLAH, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian Authority slammed Wednesday the ruling of Israel's top court in favor of the demolition of a Bedouin community after evicting its residents.
Head of the Palestinian Authority Wall and Settlements Colonization Resistance Committee Walid Assaf told Xinhua that the Israeli court has also rejected an appeal by the residents of Al-Khan Al-Ahmar Bedouin community located east of Jerusalem.
Assaf said the court decision "is a reiteration of the crime of forced displacement, ethnic cleansing and collective demolition practiced by Israel against Palestinian communities."
Residents of Al-Khan Al-Ahmar called for a popular solidarity sit-in in the community in an attempt to prevent the demolition of the village homes and structures.
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) also slammed the ruling of Israeli High Court of Justice.
PLO member of executive committee Ahmad Tamimi warned in a press statement that harming the Bedouin community can be considered a war crime and a breach of international humanitarian law and all relevant laws, norms and conventions.
Tamimi said "the Israeli high court's decision is a politicized decision that misleads the international public opinion in order to conceal the premeditated intentions of the Israeli government to demolish the community and displace its people."
He said that the "project aims at isolating the city of Jerusalem from the West Bank."
Former governor of Jerusalem and member of PLO executive committee, Adnan Husseini, said the Palestinian leadership "is determined to confront the decision by all possible means."
Over the past few months, a legal battle at the Israeli top court has delayed the Israeli military from placing the entire community at imminent risk of forcible transfer.
Over 200 homes and community structures are slated for demolition in the area, where nearly 1,400 Palestinians reside. The area suffers a lack of basic services and infrastructure, such as an electricity network, a sewage system and proper roads.
The area has the only school for the Bedouin communities, a mosque and a healthcare unit as well as several homes that are all at risk of demolition by Israel.
Residents said they are offered no alternative or shelters to stay.
The community in Al-Khan Al-Ahmar is one of the 46 Bedouin communities in central West Bank that the UN considers at risk of forcible transfer.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 21:04:42|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
LONDON, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Traces of the deadly nerve agent Novichok used in an attack on a former Russian agent and his daughter in Salisbury have been found in a London hotel, Prime Minister Theresa May told MPs Wednesday in the House of Commons.
In an official statement, May said the British police and intelligence agencies have identified two Russian nationals they believe were responsible for the attack in March which left Sergey and Yulia Skripal fighting for their lives.
Both survived, but the same agent led to the poisoning near Salisbury of friends Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley. Sturgess died as a result of the poisoning.
May said since the Salisbury attack around 250 detectives have trawled through more than 11,000 hours of closed circuit television tapes and taken more than 1,400 statements.
"Working around the clock they have carried out painstaking and methodical work to ascertain exactly which individuals were responsible and the methods they used to carry out this attack," said May.
May named two Russians and told MPs how after their arrival at London's Gatwick Airport they traveled by train to London Victoria, then on to Waterloo before going to the City Stay Hotel in Bow Road East London.
"They stayed there on both Friday and Saturday evenings and traces of Novichok were found in their hotel room," said May.
May said the forensic investigation has produced sufficient evidence for the independent Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to bring charges against two Russian nationals for the murder and attempted murder, conspiracy to murder, possession and use of Novichok and causing grievous bodily harm.
The prime minister named the two suspects as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, adding that London's Metropolitan Police believe to be aliases.
Police in London issued photographs of the two men the British authorities want to be arrested.
May said the two men visited Salisbury on March 3 for what police are confident was a reconnaissance exercise. They made the same journey the following day before leaving Britain.
Police have released CCTV footage of the two men which clearly places them in the immediate vicinity of the Skripals' house in Salisbury moments before the attack on the former Russian agent and his daughter.
May told the House of Commons: "Based on a body of intelligence, the government has concluded that the two individuals named by the police and CPS are officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU. The GRU is a highly disciplined organization with a well-established chain of command.
"This was not a rogue operation. It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state," she said.
May said the CPS has obtained a European Arrest Warrant for the two men and will shortly issue an Interpol red notice.
She added: "Should either of these individuals ever again travel outside Russia, we will take every possible step to detain them, to extradite them and to bring them to face justice here in the United Kingdom."
Russia has been denying any involvement in the event.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 21:04:42|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
KIGALI, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- African governments should go beyond talk of the potentials Africa has and implement strategies needed to move agriculture forward, officials said here on Wednesday.
Speaking at the opening of African Green Revolution Forum in the Rwandan capital Kigali, Rwanda's Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Gerardine Mukeshimana, said by accelerating the transformation of agriculture in Africa together, countries can drive better livelihoods of the people, and prosperity of the continent.
The meeting is meant to seek practical actions and share lessons that can move African agriculture forward.
"Though we're facing the climate change challenges, we have accumulated more evidence and data, and we have greater tools and means so we can go faster. And purposely, we make African agriculture beyond just guaranteeing food security and nutrition to the farming community," Mukeshimana said.
She reminded the audience that the sector has to create jobs for young and growing population across value chains.
"It is set to drive the continental and international trades, it is set to be a trillion dollar business by 2030 if we do our job right, generate wealth for our communities and nations," she added.
Speaking at the forum, Rwanda's Prime Minister, Edouard Ngirente observed that despite enormous potential for agricultural production on the continent, Africa still lags behind in terms of agriculture production.
"Challenges include limited use of modern agro-inputs, limited access to finance, weak access to market, limited mechanization," he said.
He said that taking Africa's agriculture to next level will require among others, strong measures to translate existing strategies into tangible actions.
Taking place on September 5-8, the African Green Revolution Forum is to take stock, evaluate actions, and learn from compelling evidence across the continent, according to Rwanda's ministry of agriculture.
It is also looking at how Africa can meet its development goals by tapping into the full potential of its smallholder farmers and the agribusiness sector.
The meeting attracted about 2,000 delegates from across the continent and beyond.
Now in its 7th edition, the forum is arguably the world's most important and impactful forum for African agriculture.
The forum rotates annually to new host countries with themes crafted to highlight a key area of focus in driving progress.
Achyut Wagle holds PhD in economics and is currently a professor at the Kathmandu University School of Management. He is an econo-political analyst, writing for The Kathmandu Post for many years.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 21:04:43|Editor: ZX
Video Player Close
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday met with Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa who had attended the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
Xi thanked President Mnangagwa and the Zimbabwean government for making important contributions to the success of the FOCAC Beijing Summit and appreciated that President Mnangagwa had expressed the willingness to jointly develop the Belt and Road with China at the summit.
"China and Zimbabwe have always been good friends, good partners, and good brothers," Xi said, noting that China always supports Zimbabwe in safeguarding sovereignty, security, and development interests, and in opposing foreign interference and independently choosing its development path.
Xi called on both sides to continue to strengthen political mutual trust, firmly support each other on issues involving their respective core interests and major concerns, and further enhance exchanges of governance experience of the ruling party.
China will continue to support Zimbabwe's efforts to develop and reinvigorate the economy and allow it to improve by itself, Xi said.
The two countries should actively explore new models and areas to push for sustainable development of their economic and trade cooperation, the president said.
He also urged the two sides to strengthen communication and coordination on international affairs and better protect the common interests of developing countries.
Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe and China have a unique friendship and that the Zimbabwean government and people appreciate China's precious assistance to help improve the country's economy and its people's livelihood for years.
Zimbabwe fully supports the cooperation measures proposed by China under the Belt and Road Initiative and the FOCAC framework, and expects to strengthen cooperation with China in investment, financing, infrastructure, agriculture, telecommunications, electricity, among other areas, Mnangagwa said.
After the meeting, the two leaders witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 21:04:44|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
NAIROBI, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The amount of foreign currency in Kenyan banks has risen considerably as institutions diversify their reserves by embracing the Chinese yuan.
The East African nation's banks foreign currency deposits rose from 5.14 billion U.S. dollars in May to 5.74 billion dollars in June, Central Bank of Kenya data showed Wednesday.
The foreign reserves have been on an upward trend in the second quarter where they crossed the 5 billion dollars mark in May. In April, the reserves stood at 4.7 billion dollars.
Initially, Kenyan banks kept their foreign reserves mainly in dollars, British pound and euro.
However, increased bilateral ties between Kenya and China has seen a number of the 42 commercial banks in the East African nation adopt the yuan, which analysts cite as part of the reason for the surge in foreign deposits.
Last month, the Kenyan Bankers Association (KBA) asked members to raise their stock of the Chinese currency to cater for the increased China-Kenya trade.
KBA chief executive Habil Olaka said the yuan has become important in settling financial transactions, prompting Kenyan banks to set up China-dedicated desks and increase stock.
Banks with yuan desks include Equity Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Stanbic Bank and National Bank.
"There is a lot of trade now and the Chinese currency is becoming medium of transacting between entities," he said. Other sources of the foreign exchange deposits by banks include diaspora remittances.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 21:04:45|Editor: ZX
Video Player Close
ZHENGZHOU, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- China will dispatch a battalion of 268 peacekeepers to South Sudan for a one-year mission.
Officially formed on Wednesday, the battalion will depart from Zhengzhou, Henan Province, in two groups on Sept. 11 and Sept. 23, respectively.
The peacekeepers will be tasked with repairing roads, bridges, and airports, building facilities for water, power and heating supplies, and providing engineering support in mission areas.
To fulfill the mission in South Sudan, the troops have not only conducted training exercises under combat conditions, but also studied international law, diplomatic protocol, the mission area situation, and basic English expressions.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 21:09:46|Editor: ZX
Video Player Close
PHNOM PENH, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- About 50 pieces of paintings, photos, and embroidery featuring the intangible cultural heritage of ethnic minorities in southwest China are on display for the first time at the China Cultural Center here on Wednesday.
Khlot Thyda, an advisor to Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen, presided over the opening ceremony of the event. Tibetan Thangka paintings and embroidery made by Qiang ethnic minority people are among artworks exhibited at the event.
Visitors said the exhibition not only promoted the colorful culture of ethnic minorities in southwest China, but also contributed to deepening people-to-people relations between China and Cambodia.
"The paintings on display here are unique, amazing and attractive," Chhan Sopheara, a 19-year-old female visitor, told Xinhua.
"It's good, we can better understand the culture of ethnic minorities in China," said another 19-year-old exhibition-goer Tim Liza.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 21:09:47|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
DAMASCUS, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Wednesday that the United States has adopted the policies of threats, imposing sanctions and supporting terrorism, according to presidential media office in Syria.
His remarks were made during his meeting with the Richard Black, a member of the Virginia State Senate, who has arrived in Damascus for the meeting with Assad.
The meeting touched upon the latest developments and the policies undertaken by the United States in the region.
Assad said that a change in the U.S. role toward achieving peace instead of continuing to inflame wars would be more beneficial for the United States and its people.
For his part, Black said the consecutive policies of the United States toward the Middle East have caused the people of the region to lose all trust in the U.S. policies.
The U.S. senator also expressed admiration of what he has seen in Syria in terms of the return of life to many places that had been liberated from the rebels, according to the report by the presidential media office.
The meeting comes at a time the administration of President Donald Trump is warning the Assad government against launching a massive offensive on the last major rebel stronghold in Idlib province in northwestern Syria.
The United States, Britain, and France have recently said the government forces in Syria were possibly planning a chemical attack in Idlib, a claim that has been completely slammed by Damascus and its allies of Russia and Iran.
The officials in Damascus and its allies said the provocations of the chemical weapons use are being planned by the rebels to justify a U.S. strike on Syria, accusing the Western countries of plotting to strike Syria under false claims.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 21:14:49|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
KIGALI, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Rwanda ruling party, Rwanda patriotic Front (RPF) has maintained its dominance in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house, National Electoral Commission (NEC) provisional results from the Monday parliamentary elections have shown.
The results released by NEC on late Tuesday evening indicates that the RPF -led coalition, which also includes six smaller parties, had garnered 40 seats out of 53 seats in the parliamentary polls.
The elections of the lower house use one single nationwide constituency, where 53 seats are directly elected by proportional representation. The other 27 seats reserved for special interest groups including women, the young and the disabled are elected indirectly.
More than 7 million registered voters participated in the legislative elections that ran from Sept. 2 to 4, according to NEC.
"The elections were peaceful, free and fair. The turn up was good. Tomorrow evening we shall release final results including those of youth, women and the disabled," Mbanda said.
According to NEC, in the next parliament, women will occupy 67.5 percent of the total seats.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 21:29:52|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
NAIROBI, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Kenya and the civil society organization on Wednesday launched a platform to curb violent extremism.
Mutuma Ruteere, the director of the Center for Human Rights and Policy Studies (CHRIPS), told a media briefing in Nairobi that the government funded Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Research Hub will enhance the response to the changing threat of violent extremism.
"The CVE Research Hub is a worthwhile investment as it will provide research information and data to policy actors working on this field with the overall goal to improve national security," Ruteere said.
He said the online platform is designed as a one-stop shop for researchers and policy actors working on CVE in Kenya to support and facilitate high-quality research, and evidence-based policy work to curb the problem.
"Currently one of the biggest problems in reducing the threat of terrorism is the lack of up to date data on emerging trends in attacks, radicalization and recruitment," he added.
He noted that violent extremism is a national, regional and global challenge due to its complex nature in terms of drivers for the vice.
Ruteere added that the terror threat is constantly evolving making it difficult to develop effective response mechanisms.
The CHRIPS director said they have witnessed an increase in online recruitment of terrorists yet there are not enough tools that government can use to curb use of technology to conduct terror attacks.
He said Kenya's military approach has resulted in the reduction of the Somalia-based terror group, al-Shabab's capabilities to conduct terror activities except in Kenya-Somalia border towns.
Patrick Mutahi, a research fellow at the CHRIPS, said the threat of violent extremism can only be reduced through closer collaboration between security agencies and local communities.
Mutahi said terrorism is a complex problem which a single strategy is not sufficient enough to eliminate.
He noted that terror groups often use ideological reasons to gain new recruits in their violent campaign.
The research fellow observed that other ways that terrorist organizations gain followers is to make false promise of jobs or quick riches.
The research fellow said that the most important response to violent extremism should be to address the root cause of the vice.
He called for strengthening of the partnership between state agencies and civil society through sharing of information on violent extremism.
In order to accelerate the progress toward eliminating the security threat, CHRIPS recommends continuous monitoring of the trends in terror attacks and activities.
Mutahi said that in Kenya, the major challenge of terrorism has been the al-Shabab which has routinely launched attacks in both the border regions and urban areas.
He observed that violent extremism is more prevalent in the coastal and northeastern regions where it has also emerged as a social problem for communities and families that have seen their young men and women embrace the extremist ideologies.
Mutahi said one step to reduce the likelihood of youth from being victims of online radicalization and recruitment is to increase employment opportunities for the young adults.
A soldier loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad's forces is seen in Quneitra, Syria July 22, 2018. (Reuters photo)
DAMASCUS, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Wednesday that the United States has adopted the policies of threats, imposing sanctions and supporting terrorism, according to presidential media office in Syria.
His remarks were made during his meeting with the Richard Black, a member of the Virginia State Senate, who has arrived in Damascus for the meeting with Assad.
The meeting touched upon the latest developments and the policies undertaken by the United States in the region.
Assad said that a change in the U.S. role toward achieving peace instead of continuing to inflame wars would be more beneficial for the United States and its people.
For his part, Black said the consecutive policies of the United States toward the Middle East have caused the people of the region to lose all trust in the U.S. policies.
The U.S. senator also expressed admiration of what he has seen in Syria in terms of the return of life to many places that had been liberated from the rebels, according to the report by the presidential media office.
The meeting comes at a time the administration of President Donald Trump is warning the Assad government against launching a massive offensive on the last major rebel stronghold in Idlib province in northwestern Syria.
The United States, Britain, and France have recently said the government forces in Syria were possibly planning a chemical attack in Idlib, a claim that has been completely slammed by Damascus and its allies of Russia and Iran.
The officials in Damascus and its allies said the provocations of the chemical weapons use are being planned by the rebels to justify a U.S. strike on Syria, accusing the Western countries of plotting to strike Syria under false claims.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 21:34:57|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
CAIRO, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Arab League (AL) Secretary General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit welcomed on Wednesday efforts exerted by UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame to reach a cease-fire between warring groups in Tripoli.
"AL secretary general lauded the UN envoy's role in securing the cease-fire deal on Tuesday," said Aboul-Gheit's spokesman Mahmoud Afifi in a statement.
Aboul-Gheit called for taking all arrangements to guarantee that all sides end hostile acts and reopen Meitiga airport.
He highlighted those arrangements should also pave the way for reaching a lasting and comprehensive solution to the problem of militias and armed groups that threatens political transition in Libya.
Southern Tripoli has witnessed violent clashes since last week between government forces and armed militias.
The clashes have killed and injured many people, and forced more than 1800 families to flee their homes.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 21:39:57|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
BEIRUT, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri urged on Wednesday all political parties to compromise in a bid to reach a consensus in government formation amid economic deterioration, local TV Channel Al Jadeed reported.
"Lebanon's economy is in dire situation and everybody should compromise in a bid to reach a consensus and save the country's economic sectors from further deterioration," Berri was quoted as saying.
Prime Minister Designate Saad Hariri has been facing various hurdles in his attempt to form a 30-member national unity government caused by the rifts among rival politicians over the representation of the main Christian parties, as well as the Druze sect and the question of Sunni representation from outside Hariri's Future Movement.
Hariri presented Monday a new proposal to President Michel Aoun on the government formation.
Aoun made a few reservations over the new formula causing pessimism to loom again over the cabinet formation.
On another front, Berri also expressed his worries about Israel's intention to start oil exploration in July 2019 in the Karish field, which is very close to the Lebanese waters.
The report quoted Berri as saying that he will get in touch with Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil and ask him to contact the Greek company in charge of oil exploration in this field in a bid to protect Lebanon's sovereignty.
Meanwhile, Lebanon's search for its first oil and gas reserves began in May after authorities approved an exploration plan submitted by a consortium of France's Total, Italy's Eni and Russia's Novatek.
One of the Lebanese blocks being explored, Block 9, borders Israel's maritime zone and contains waters claimed by both countries. This has led to years of brinkmanship with officials on both sides promising to protect their resources and warning about encroachment.
Maoist leader Bishwokarma taken to Bhojpur
Communist Party of Nepal Spokesperson Khadga Bahadur Bishwokarma was transported to Bhojpur on Tuesday, a day after he was released by the authorities in Kathmandu at the orders of the Supreme Court.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 21:44:58|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
BERLIN, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Bayer will achieve higher revenue and profits than previously expected in 2018 following its successfully-concluded merger with Monsanto, the DAX-listed German pharmaceutical and agrochemical giant announced on Wednesday.
Bayer now expects to record gross revenue of more than 39 billion euros (45 billion U.S. dollars) this year in spite of having had to divest business units worth billions of euros in order to obtain regulatory approval for the fusion with Monsanto. Chief executive officer Werner Baumann had previously set a lower target of under 35 billion euros for 2018 sales.
The Leverkusen-based company also revised its forecast for earnings before interest taxes and depreciation (Ebidta) in 2018 upwards. Earnings figures for the second quarter (Q2) showed that Ebidta, adjusted for one-off effects, rose faster than expected by 3.9 percent to 2.3 billion euros.
As of mid-August, Bayer has officially completed its acquisition of Monsanto by fulfilling all requirements set by antitrust regulators in the 63-billion-euro agrochemical industry merger. Towards this end, the company sold business units with combined revenue of 2.2 billion euros to German rival BASF for 7.6 billion euros.
After clearing all regulatory hurdles in the deal, Baumann told press that Bayer would focus on achieving synergy effects anticipated from the merger. The CEO described the takeover as a "strategic milestone" but warned that its success would hinge on "developing a joint corporate culture."
Baumann has said that he wants to "double" Bayer's business in the agriculture sector as a result of the corporate fusion with Monsanto. Thanks to the deal, Bayer is set to become the world's largest producer of seeds, pesticides and herbicides with gross revenue of 23 billion euros recorded from agriculture-related business alone.
Even after taking the necessary divestments into account, the new corporate entity will employ a global total of 115,000 staff. The company expects to achieve annual savings on its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBIDTA) of 1.2 billion dollars due to synergies.
However, Bayer's share price recently slumped by more than 10 percent in a day following a ruling by a U.S. court that the glyphosate-based "Roundup" pesticide produced by Monsanto was the likely cause of cancer in a terminally-ill groundskeeper. Monsanto was ordered to pay a total of 298 million dollars in damages for selling a carcinogenic weed killer without adequate consumer warning.
Bayer subsequently issued a statement which described the court ruling as running "contrary to existing scientific knowledge, as well as practical experiences and assessments of regulatory authorities."
Following the formal integration of the U.S. acquisition target as a Bayer subsidiary which began in August, Monsanto will cease to exist as a company name. Critics of the Bayer-Monsanto merger have repeatedly cautioned that Bayer could suffer reputational damage from the move given that Monsanto is mainly known as the producer of the controversial pesticide glyphosate in Europe.
Earlier, Baumann emphasized in response to such concerns that his company was aware of the "heightened responsibility" which it will shoulder with a globally "leading position in the agricultural sector". The Bayer-Monsanto merger is not just the largest acquisition made in Bayer's history but also the most expensive foreign takeover to date conducted by a German firm in general.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 21:50:01|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
RIYADH, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia announced on Wednesday various positive economic indications last year, despite the 0.86-percent GDP contraction, Saudi Press Agency reported.
The slight decline in the GDP resulted from the decline of the oil sector by 3.09 percent, however, the non-oil sector registered a growth of 1.05 percent, according to the 54th annual report of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA).
Besides, the average consumer price index fell by 0.9 percent in 2017 compared with a rise of 2 percent in 2016, the report revealed.
SAMA Governor Ahmed bin Abdul Karim Al-Khulaifi said that among the positive indicators of the national economy is the remarkable improvement in the kingdom's current account of the balance of payments, which recorded a surplus of 15.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2017 compared with a deficit of 23.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2016.
He hoped that the local economy would continue to gradually adjust to the reforms adopted during the last two years by achieving good growth and contributing to the goals of the kingdom's Vision 2030.
He pointed out that the economic policies in Saudi Arabia have recently witnessed many developments aimed at strengthening the economic structure and moving towards a diversified and sustainable economy.
He also noted that in early 2018, a plan was adopted to diversify and increase the effectiveness of the financial sector, through stimulating savings, finance and investment.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 21:55:01|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Guinea-Bissau's President Jose Mario Vaz at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday met with Guinea-Bissau's President Jose Mario Vaz after the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
Xi expressed thanks to Vaz for his contribution to the success of the summit and spoke highly of his support for strengthening China-Africa cooperation and jointly building the Belt and Road.
Peoples of the two countries forged profound friendships when Guinea-Bissau struggled for national independence and liberation, Xi said, adding China is glad to see recent positive progress in Guinea-Bissau's situation.
China appreciates Guinea-Bissau's firm stance on the one-China policy, supports it in exploring a development path suited to national conditions, and respects its people's independent choice, Xi said.
Xi said China will work with Guinea-Bissau to continue mutual support, expand agricultural and health and medical cooperation, and make full use of FOCAC and the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries in a bid to translate friendship into more cooperation outcomes.
The Belt and Road Initiative creates fresh opportunities for China, especially central and western provinces and cities, to step up external exchanges, Xi said, adding the regions will be encouraged to strengthen cooperation with countries including Guinea-Bissau.
Vaz said he appreciates China's consistent and precious support for Guinea-Bissau.
During his visit to China, Vaz learned about rice cultivation from Academician Yuan Longping in Hunan Province, as China is helping the country achieve food self-sufficiency. He also visited Chongqing for the second time in 14 years and found a tremendous amount of new development in the city.
Vaz said he admires China's development achievements and hopes Guinea-Bissau will develop like China.
Guinea-Bissau is willing to use China's experience in governance and poverty reduction as a reference, and seize the opportunity of the summit to actively participate in the Belt and Road construction and expand cooperation with China.
After the meeting, the two leaders witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 21:55:02|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
ISTANBUL, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish Red Crescent Society is speeding up preparations both inside Turkey and in northern Syria to cope with a possible flow of refugees that could be triggered by a military offensive against the rebel-held Syrian province of Idlib, the organization said on Wednesday.
"First of all, we are making assessments with our Health Ministry to increase our current healthcare services in the region and meet urgent sanitary needs of possible displaced people," Kerem Kinik, the agency's president, told Xinhua.
Kinik said his organization would soon deliver all the needed medical equipment and supplies to the three major hospitals in the region and increase the number of mobile health units in the field.
"We are also making efforts to create new camping areas and increase our humanitarian aid on both sides of the border," he added.
Kinik stated that the Turkish aid agency is currently rendering support to around 40 camps in the region and managing 11 others with a total capacity of 30,000 tents. He said his organization had started to deliver additional tents for possible newcomers.
There are around 3.5 million people around Idlib region, with many migrating from other parts of Syria, including Hama, Homs, Aleppo and Daraa, said the aid agency chief.
Some 7,000 are staying in 400 makeshift camps in the area with conditions far from being satisfactory, he said.
Kinik expects 1.5 million people to be at risk from being displaced following a military assault on Idlib by the Syrian military.
Underlying that a new wave of migration into Turkey would be extremely difficult to handle, Kinik stated that his organization is continuously providing information to international institutions, including the United Nations, about the humanitarian situation in the region.
Turkey, now hosting some 3.5 million Syrian refugees on its soil, is doing its best to fend off an impending attack on Idlib, as Russian planes on Tuesday reportedly bombed some targets in Idlib.
Ankara has established 12 observation posts in Idlib, one of the four areas under rebel control which were designated as de-escalation zones last year.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 21:55:02|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
Li Zhanshu (R), chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, meets with Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan)
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislator Li Zhanshu on Wednesday met with Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa after the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
Li, chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, said China is willing to work with Zimbabwe to implement the important consensus reached by the two countries' leaders and the outcomes of the FOCAC Beijing summit, deepen cooperation in areas including infrastructure, energy, and finance, strengthen inter-party communication, and continuously enrich the China-Zimbabwe comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership.
Noting that the fruitful outcomes of the summit will benefit African countries, Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe will seize the opportunity to deepen pragmatic cooperation with China in various fields in an all-around way.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 21:55:02|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
BERLIN, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The German government has signed off a legislative proposal by Justice Minister Katarina Barley on Wednesday to toughen the country's rent control regulations.
The changes mainly concern additional information which landlords must now disclose prior to charging a rent which is more than 10 percent higher than the comparable customary rate paid by tenants in the area.
Germany first introduced rent control legislation which limits the additional costs which landlords can demand when signing new tenancy agreements back in 2015.
The policy is intended to alleviate financial pressures on German tenants in fast-growing urban centers where it is not uncommon for average rents to have doubled since 2008.
However, exemptions from the rent control are granted to landlords when the previous tenant already paid an above average rent and newer units built after October 2014 are excluded entirely from the legislative limitations.
Under the cabinet motion passed on Wednesday, landlords must automatically inform new tenants of the rate charged to their predecessors when they seek to obtain an exemption from rent control laws.
Additionally, the permissible rent increase which can be charged for modernization efforts will be lowered from 11 percent to eight percent in regions in which housing is especially scarce.
"High rents are the new social question. Inner cities must continue to be affordable for normal income earners as well," Barley argued on Wednesday.
Speaking to German media group Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland, she expressed confidence that the measures passed by the cabinet would "give tenants back some of their power" in this context.
Aside from enhancing protections for renters, Barley announced that the German government would make more funding available for social housing construction. The justice minister also emphasized that new builds were still exempted form rent controls in order to encourage private investment in the sector.
The changes agreed in Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet on Wednesday are subject to approval by the federal parliament (Bundestag).
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 22:00:03|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
BERLIN, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Several hundred security officers have been deployed to the Hambach forest in Western Germany on Wednesday in order to prevent violent clashes between the energy company RWE and environmental activists who have occupied parts of the area.
A police spokesperson told the press that its objective was to protect RWE workers in clearing obstacles and "obvious trash", as well as to collect evidence on the construction of illegal fortifications. The Hambach forest in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia forms part of the property owned by RWE which comprises Europe's largest open-pit brown coal mine.
RWE plans to cut down 100 out of a remaining 200 hectares of forest shortly at a still unspecified date from October 2018 onwards in order for the site to be used for mining operations. However, environmental activists have vehemently resisted the development which has already received governmental approval. Some individuals have camped out in around 60 treehouses in the forest for years in a bid to prevent it from being felled.
Writing on Twitter on Wednesday, police emphasized that they had not come to clear out protestors from their forest dwellings. The security authorities appealed to campers to "remain peaceful" and "follow the orders of police officers."
According to police, attempts to enter the Hambach forest on previous occasions were impeded by makeshift barricades and booby-traps built by the environmental activists. Herbert Reul (CDU), the regional interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia has recently described the group as being comprised of "extremely violent left-wing extremists" who had traveled to Hambach forest from across Germany and Europe.
"These self-declared environmental activists do not want to save trees, but rather seek to abolish the state", Reul warned. The CDU politician argued that Essen-based RWE had the right to fell the forest as its lawful proprietor.
"We don't know exactly when it will be, but when the day comes the police will have to ensure that this right can be enforced", Reul said.
The activists themselves rejected this characterization of their protest. Speaking to the German press agency (dpa), Emil Freytag of the "Operation Undergrowth" complained that police were purposefully trying to "criminalize and defame" the entire movement. Freytag noted that security authorities had already defined the Hambach Forest as a "dangerous location" in order to enable officers to conduct identity checks of individuals whenever they saw fit.
Aside from the members of "Operation Undergrowth" based locally at the site, several German environmental organizations have urged Berlin to impose a moratorium on the felling of forests for coal power generation throughout the ongoing work of a federal commission on Germany's national exit from the technology. Prior to the commencement of mining activities, the 12,000-year-old Hambach Forest stretched across an area of 4,100 hectares.
Speaking to Xinhua on Wednesday, Jan Peter Cirkel, a press spokesperson for RWE, stressed that the company had a legal obligation under Germany's federal forest law to clear the area "regularly of material alien to the forest." Cirkel added that it had "not yet been determined" when exactly the felling would begin.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 22:00:04|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
ALGIERS, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- More than nine million Algerian students joined pres and elementary schools, middle schools, and secondary schools Wednesday after a three-month summer break, amid concerns by some parents over the outbreak of cholera in schools.
These schoolchildren and students study at 27,351 institutions of the three school levels. They are supervised by 749,232 officials, 89.9 percent of whom are teachers, according to figures provided by the Ministry of Education.
The official kick-off of the 2018-2019 school year was announced by Education Minister, Nouria Benghebrit, from the province of Mascara, 375 km southwest Algiers.
In her first day school speech, the minister reassured that special measures have been taken to prevent the outbreak of cholera in schools, saying all water tanks and sanitary sites have been cleaned.
The minister was responding to fears expressed by parents that their children may become victims of the epidemic disease which hit several provinces recently in northern Algeria.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 22:05:06|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
BERLIN, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The German government adopted a motion on Wednesday which seeks to promote the development of cutting-edge technologies in the country with a multi-billion-euro research spending program.
The "grand coalition" formed by Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU/CSU bloc and German Social Democrats (SPD) agreed to enact a "High-Tech Strategy 2025" which will extend and expand a similar initiative currently in place.
The strategy will witness a total public investment of 15 billion euros (17.4 billion U.S. dollars) in specific research areas to which Berlin attaches a key technological priority.
Commenting on the motion, German research minister Anja Karliczek said that it was a declared goal of Merkel's government that resulting innovations benefited as many citizens as possible. "We can enhance societal cohesion by gearing the program to the needs of people," Karliczek said.
The minister pointed to areas such as cancer research and ways to reduce marine pollution as promising fields for the funding in question to be applied to in this context.
Further examples including developing a German battery cell production, technologies to protect ecological diversity, green mobility solutions and artificial intelligence (AI).
Karliczek highlighted that a previous official High-Tech Strategy had already enabled Germany to become one of only a few European Union (EU) members for whom a goal to spend 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on research and development was now within grasp.
By 2025, Berlin hopes to increase the ratio of research investment to GDP further to 3.5 percent.
While welcoming the government initiative on Wednesday, the Federation of German Industries (BDI) urged policymakers to give businesses a bigger role in the strategy as actors who could translate research findings into innovation.
The federal ministry for research said that creating private sector tax incentives formed a "second pillar" of its strategy to promote innovation which it would now turn its attention to.
File Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara to the White House on March 5, 2018 in Washington,D.C. (Xinhua/AFP)
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The White House-prepared peace plan to settle Israeli-Palestinian conflicts was ready, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told reporters here at the UN Headquarters on Tuesday.
"I have read the plan. It is thoroughly done," Haley said at a briefing in her role as this month's president of the Security Council, adding that Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt have "detailed work in it."
Kushner is the son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump and senior advisor on the Middle East, and Greenblatt is the Middle East peace envoy and the White House Special Representative for International Negotiations.
There have been reports that the White House is preparing to release its long-promised Middle East peace deal, which was called by Trump the "deal of the Century."
When asked when Trump was going to present the peace deal, the Washington envoy replied: "Only if a boss comes to the table."
"We have insured (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu will come to the table ... Palestinian (National) Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, for the good of his people, needs to come to the table," she said.
Nepal-China transit talks today
Officials from Nepal and China are meeting in Kathmandu on Wednesday and Thursday to finalise the text of Protocol to Nepal-China Transit and Transportation. This is the third senior official-level meeting after Prime Minister KP Oli signed the landmark Transit and Transportation Agreement during his first premiership in 2016.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 22:15:09|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
ADDIS ABABA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia plans to attract 5.1 billion U.S. dollars in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) during the current Ethiopian Fiscal Year 2018/19, which started on July 8, an Ethiopian official said on Wednesday.
Speaking to Xinhua, Mekonen Hailu, Communications Director, Ethiopia Investment Commission (EIC), said the government decision to open the logistics sector to foreign investors and the expected commissioning of four Chinese built industrial parks during the fiscal year is expected to help achieve the 2018/19 FDI revenue goal.
Jimma Industrial Park, Adama industrial Park, Dire Dawa Industrial Park and Arerti Industrial Park are expected to be commissioned before the end of 2018.
Jimma and Arerti industrial parks are being constructed by China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) while Dire Dawa and Adama industrial parks are being constructed by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC).
Hailu further said with the easing of political unrest in Ethiopia which had affected the East African country for almost three years starting in 2015, and measures being taken to solve the country's foreign currency shortage, EIC is hopeful the 5.1 billion U.S. dollars FDI target for 2018/19, will be achieved.
"Ethiopia was only able to attract 3.75 billion U.S. dollars during the previous fiscal year 2017/18, but we expect a reinforced FDI inflow from Chinese and other Asian companies in the current fiscal year 2018/19, will help Ethiopia achieve its 5.1 billion U.S. dollars target." said Hailu.
Ethiopia plans to utilize FDI as a catalyst to increase the manufacturing share of the country's GDP from the current 5 percent to 20 percent by 2025, as part of plans to become an industrialized middle income economy by 2025.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 22:15:10|Editor: ZX
Video Player Close
WUHAN, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Shen Ali started his training Tuesday before he heads for his second medical assistance mission to Algeria.
The 38-year-old anesthesiologist has joined the 26th medical team to the north African country from central China's Hubei Province. In the next six months, he will take courses on the local language, customs and medical practices.
More than a year ago, Shen was busy rushing between operating tables day in and day out with his African colleagues during his first medical mission to Algeria.
"I miss those days. Although the workload was heavy, our efforts made a difference," said Shen from the city of Yingcheng.
Shen said his grandfather, who used to work in Algeria with a Chinese medical aid group in 1978, chose the name "Ali" for him because it is the abbreviation of Algeria in Chinese, foretelling his bond with the country.
"My grandfather had a close bond with Algeria that triggered my affection for the country," said Shen.
In early 1963, China became the first country to respond to Algeria's call for emergency relief from the international community. A team of 24 Chinese medical workers, mostly from Hubei, was set up and hastened to the newly independent state.
Since then, China has sent medical aid teams to dozens of countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and Oceania.
"In the past 55 years, Hubei alone has sent over 3,000 medical workers overseas, treating about 2.2 million in-patients and performing nearly 1.66 million operations," said Zou Xia, an official with the Health and Family Planning Commission of Hubei Province.
In the 1980s, many Algerians chose the name "Chinois" for their babies. It's the French transliteration of the word "Chinese." In this way, parents of these newborns expressed their gratitude to the Chinese medical workers coming from afar, said Zou.
Shen's uncle joined medical teams in Algeria five times as a chef. "I've always wanted to go back to Algeria if my health allows. I'm impressed by the bond between the people of the two countries," said the retiree.
Back in 2015, Shen was shocked by what he saw when he first arrived in Algeria. "There were only two operating rooms in the maternity hospital I worked for, hardly enough to accommodate over 20 operations each day," Shen recalled. His Algerian counterparts were overloaded with long lines of patients. "I wanted to try my best to relive their pressure," Shen said.
During his two years in Algeria, Shen provided anesthesia for over 3,000 surgeries in addition to helping train local nurses in anesthesia.
Shen said he could always feel the locals' deep appreciation for the doctors' work. "Wherever we went, we would hear 'thanks,'" he said.
Once he and his colleagues rescued a patient from severe conditions, and the patient's family later brought local cuisine to the hospital to express their gratitude, he recalled.
Hubei health authorities will continue to push forward medical cooperation with Algeria regarding gynecology and obstetrics.
"Next spring, I will again set foot on Africa. I will remember my grandfather's words to go to where I am most needed as a doctor," Shen said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 22:20:13|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
MOSCOW, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Four Russian jets of the Hmeymim airbase in Syria bombed positions of Nusra Front in Idlib province on Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday.
Two Su-34 fighter-bombers struck a precise blow to a workshop where Nusra Front fighters were assembling attack drones and a warehouse of explosives for the drones, the ministry's spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.
A Su-35S fighter destroyed with high-precision ammunition a warehouse of portable air defense systems, Konashenkov said.
All the attacks were carried out "exclusively on the objects of terrorist groups identified and confirmed through several channels and far from populated areas," he said.
Also on Tuesday, Russia destroyed two drones launched by militants to attack the Hmeymim airbase, raising the number of downed drones to 47 in a month, Konashenkov said.
Idlib, a city in northwestern Syria controlled by "ultra-radical groups" as Russia calls, has a population of about 2.5 million and is strategically important as it borders Turkey.
It is close to the coastal province of Latakia, home of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which also hosts the Russia-operated Hmeymim airbase.
The Syrian government army has been amassing forces and military gears around Idlib in recent weeks.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday spoke with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu by phone and agreed that Syria's possible offensive in Idlib is unacceptable.
Russia is conducting large-scale military drills in the Mediterranean on Sept. 1-8 involving more than 25 battleships and 30 warplanes.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 22:20:15|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
TEHRAN, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Europe should accept the cost of standing up to U.S. sanctions pressures against the Islamic republic, Iran's deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was quoted as saying by the state TV on Wednesday.
In order to save the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement following Washington's unilateral pullout, "the Europeans should stand against the United States politically," said Araqchi.
He urged the Europeans to take practical measures to secure Iran's interests under the deal and keep the country in the nuclear deal, internationally recognized as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Araqchi warned that Tehran would likely to withdraw from the nuclear deal if the Europeans fail to design a mechanism to safeguard Iran's oil sales and banking transactions by Nov. 4.
U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to sign an executive order on Nov. 4 to snap back U.S. sanctions on Iran's energy exports and international financial transactions.
Trump has also warned the Iranian international energy and financial partners of the punitive measures if they do not cease deals with Iran.
If the European states fail to put these mechanisms in action by Nov. 4, "it is natural that remaining in the JCPOA would be fruitless," Araqchi stressed.
It only makes sense for Iran to stay in the deal as long as it can continue to sell its oil, he added.
Last week, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that Iran will quit the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal if the interests of his country are not secured.
The Iranian top leader also expressed dismay over the EU, saying the Islamic republic "pins no hope on Europeans over JCPOA and economic issues."
Iran and six world powers, namely China, Russia, Britain, France, the United States and Germany, struck a deal over Iran's nuclear program in 2015.
However, Trump decided to withdraw Washington from the deal earlier this year and re-impose sanctions on Iran.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 22:20:16|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
by Jon Day, Yan Lei
TOKYO, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Stranded passengers may be gearing up to spend a second night at Japan's Kansai International Airport in Osaka, airport officials said Wednesday evening, as evacuations in the wake of the damage caused by Typhoon Jebi which struck a day earlier, are still ongoing.
Kansai International Airport, Japan's third-largest, located on a man-made island in Osaka bay, was flooded Tuesday owing to Jebi, which caused vicious waves to inundate a runway and a terminal building, with the only way out for passengers being a bridge with road and rail access connecting the terminal to the main island.
The bridge, however, was stricken as the powerful typhoon ripped a tanker from its moorings and rammed it into the bridge, causing great damages to both and also leading to 5,000 people being forced to spend a hellish night at the airport with limited food, information and in uncomfortably humid conditions.
Of the 5,000, 3,000 were passengers and 2,000 were airport staff. The evacuations by boat began on Wednesday morning but will continue through Thursday, airport officials said.
According to China's consulate-general in Osaka, among the people stranded at the airport in Osaka, some 750 were Chinese citizens.
As of 9:00 p.m. (local time), some 550 Chinese citizens had been evacuated to Osaka City, according to the consulate-general.
The consulate-general is still providing assistance to the evacuation work of the remaining stranded passengers.
It also warned tourists and passengers to pay attention to news releases and make proper adjustments to their itineraries as the airport could remain closed for as long as a week, according the airport's authorities.
Some of those unfortunate passengers may be looking at spending a second night there, according to the latest reports, as while 4,600 people have been evacuated, 2,500 people still remain stranded at the airport as of 9:30 p.m. (local time).
Of those that were evacuated earlier in the day, their unexpected overnight stay at the airport was less than comfortable.
"The vending machines that are supposed to work and distribute food and drinks in an emergency were not working," said Sayaka Kikuchi, 48, who was intending to fly with her sister to San Francisco in the United States for a short break.
"At one point I remember being too hungry and worried to sleep," she said, adding that the airport should have done more to take care of the passengers.
More than 200 flights were canceled at the airport on Wednesday with around 30,000 people affected, airline operators said.
Some fortunate passengers, once evacuated, could make their way to Kobe Airport and reschedule their flights for the same day, but this was not the case for everyone.
Naomi Goto, 35, and a friend of a similar age were planning to spend a fortnight in paradise before Naomi's wedding a month later.
"We were planning to travel around Thailand and Cambodia with a sense of freedom and wonder. The purpose of the trip was to relax and refresh and to get rid of all our stress, particularly mine before my wedding," she said.
Goto went on to explain that she had saved really hard for the trip that wasn't to be and when she was finally able to talk with her carrier, was not able to reschedule her flight or get a refund.
"I'm utterly devastated," she said. "I may have to postpone my wedding."
There were other tales of woe from those stranded at the airport, reported to local media by the earlier evacuees and on social media sites by those lucky enough to be able to connect to the internet.
Shotaro Imai, a 32-year-old businessperson, said he was due in Singapore for a very important meeting with one of his firm's biggest clients, but Typhoon Jebi had different plans for him that could have career-damaging affects.
"I was picked by my boss to lead the sales pitch because my senior had become ill and needed a few days off work," said Imai. "This was my chance to prove to the sales team and my company in general that I could lead the team and was ready for a promotion, but because of the typhoon, I've no idea when the next chance will come."
Of all of those stranded at the airport, a few complaints were universal. A lack of food, information and humid conditions.
"I couldn't connect to the internet for some reason, this was the scariest thing for me, because the airport staff were not giving us much information," Keita Ono, a 76-year old retiree said. "Actually I was more worried about my wife at home in Hyogo Prefecture as I had no way of calling her as there was no telephone signal either."
"I think in emergencies at large public places like these, they (authorities) need to think more about the public's communication needs and have backup servers, providers and suchlike," said Ono, who had once worked for a major mobile carrier in Japan.
For many, being deprived of food and information is like being in hell, but add to that the fact that the airport's air-conditioning system failed to make the situation even worse.
"It was so humid. The air-conditioning wasn't working. It was almost as if the building was running out of oxygen, this made me feel like panicking even more. I couldn't use my phone, the staff had no information and I was dripping in sweat and struggling to breathe," Keiko Shimada, 23, recalled.
"When I arrive by boat at Kobe Airport, I've never felt so relieved. The experience was so surreal and I'm sure the airport and local authorities could have done more to evacuate us earlier or make our forced overnight stay more comfortable," she lamented.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 22:20:17|Editor: Yurou
Video Player Close
LUSAKA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- A Zambian national has died after being shot by unknown people at his business premise in South Africa, a statement released by the Zambian embassy in that country said on Wednesday.
The 54-year-old Zambian was shot dead in Germiston seven times by two assailants last week at his business premise in the presence of clients and friends.
According to the statement, the assailants entered the business premise and closed the door before shooting him and fled the scene without robbing the premise of anything.
Police have since launched a man-hunt and instituted investigations to ascertain the motive of his killing, the statement added.
Emmanuel Mwamba, Zambia's High Commissioner to South Africa expressed concern over the incident, adding that the slain businessman survived another attack a few months ago.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 22:35:20|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
COLOMBO, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of police and special forces were deployed across Sri Lanka's capital Colombo on Wednesday as an opposition protest, headed by former President Mahinda Rajapakse got underway.
Local police said troops were deployed outside several key places such as the Prime Minister's Office, the President's official residence, Ministries and the Parliament complex in order to ensure that law and order was maintained.
A police spokesperson told Xinhua that while protesters had planned to remain overnight, security would remain in place till such time the protest was called off.
The protest titled "People's Power to Colombo" was organised by Rajapakse's eldest son and parliamentarian, Namal Rajapakse and legislators from the Joint Opposition party against the rising cost of living, the government's economic policies and calling for a snap parliamentary poll.
Joint Opposition legislators on late Wednesday said that thousands had attended the rally but an exact figure could not be confirmed.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in a statement that while the protesters had been granted the freedom to hold the protest, the government would not allow it to hinder the public.
Many schools and business establishments closed early on Wednesday.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 22:35:20|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
NAIROBI, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Economic analysts on Wednesday urged Kenya to tap the rapid urbanization in order to boost the manufacturing sector.
Kwame Owino, the chief executive officer of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), told Xinhua in Nairobi that the rate of urbanization growth is estimated at an annual rate of 5 percent.
"Urbanization has created a large labor force that can power the country's industrial agenda," Owino said during the launch of the Kenya Urban Areas Performance Index Report.
The first of its kind research aims to assess the performance of Kenya's urban areas. The overall purpose of the assessment is to incentivize good decisions by urban centers.
Owino said urban areas are generally engines of growth due to high population density which promotes efficient use of resources, including electricity.
According to IEA, Kenya is still largely an agro based society with the bulk of the population residing in rural areas.
Owino said labor productivity of small-scale farmers is typically lower as compared to that of workers in urban areas.
"So, the movement of people from rural to urban centers is generally associated with economic growth especially if the people move to work for the manufacturing sector," he said.
The think tank noted that people in rural areas are often lured to urban centers in search for better economic opportunities.
"However, the challenge is for government to be able to provide adequate social services to the growing urban population," Owino added.
He urged the government to develop policies that will ensure that rapid urbanization does not lead to expansion of informal settlements.
Owino said the government should prioritize and scale up investment in the provision of networked infrastructure and services.
He observed that the majority of urban areas do not have public transport policies and legislation.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 22:45:26|Editor: Liangyu
Video Player Close
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Prime Minister of Sao Tome and Principe Patrice Trovoada at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday met with Prime Minister of Sao Tome and Principe Patrice Trovoada after the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
The success of the FOCAC Beijing Summit was strong proof that almost all African countries are China's good friends, Xi said.
"We welcome Sao Tome and Principe back to the China-Africa big family of friendly cooperation," Xi said.
Since China and Sao Tome and Principe resumed diplomatic relations in December 2016, bilateral cooperation in various areas has brought fruitful results, which demonstrated that the resumption of diplomatic relations was completely in line with the fundamental interests of the two peoples, Xi said.
China appreciates Prime Minister Trovoada's commitment to the one-China principle and his active role in pushing friendly cooperation with China, Xi said.
China will be a trustworthy friend and partner of Sao Tome and Principe on its development path, Xi said, adding that China is willing to support the economic and social development of Sao Tome and Principe and to work with the country to support each other on issues involving their respective core interests and major concerns.
"We believe bilateral ties will continue to make new progress on the basis of the one-China principle, benefiting people of both sides," Xi said.
Trovoada congratulated the success of the summit. This was the first time that Sao Tome and Principe participated in a FOCAC summit, and the country hopes to work with all sides to make contributions to building an even stronger China-Africa community with a shared future, Trovoada said.
Sao Tome and Principe thinks highly of the new initiatives on China-Africa cooperation proposed by President Xi, and appreciates that China has always stood together with Africa, Trovoada said.
It's been proved that Sao Tome and Principe's decision to resume diplomatic relations with China was exactly correct, Trovoada said.
Sao Tome and Principe firmly upholds the one-China principle, and is committed to establishing close ties with China, Trovoada said, adding that the country is willing to deepen win-win cooperation with China in economic and social fields, which will help Sao Tome and Principe's development.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 22:50:27|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese central bank governor has said that the country will enhance support for small and micro-sized enterprises with better policy coordination.
Monetary, fiscal and supervisory policies should be coordinated to raise the willingness of financial institutions to support small companies, said governor Yi Gang in a statement released Wednesday by the People's Bank of China.
The country should treat state-owned companies and private companies equally in terms of financial policies, including lending and bond issuance policies, Yi said at a meeting with commercial banks and companies.
"[China] should capitalize on the functions of a socialist market economy, and provide higher quality financial services to private firms and small and micro-sized firms through market competition," he added.
Meanwhile, the financial system should build a sustainable business model to serve small companies and enhance risk prevention, with an accurate understanding of the facts of a short average life cycle, difficulties in getting loans for the first time, and high-risk premiums, the governor said.
Companies at the meeting mentioned problems including difficulties in getting financing and high financing costs, which have been chronic problems haunting their development.
The country has taken measures to enhance support for those companies by further improving financing services and alleviating operational burdens.
Never-ending projects
Road construction is locked in a perpetual cycle of incompetence
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 23:00:30|Editor: zh
Video Player Close
Flights to Kansai are shown cancelled on the electronic board in the wake of Typhoon Jebi at Haneda airport in Tokyo, Japan, on Sept. 5, 2018. Death toll rose to 11 on Wednesday after Typhoon Jebi, the most powerful hitting Japan in 25 years, struck west Japan and wreaked havoc on infrastructures and transportation systems on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Du Xiaoyi)
TOKYO, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Death toll has risen to 11 on Wednesday after Typhoon Jebi, the most powerful typhoon that made landfall in Japan in 25 years, struck western Japan and wreaked havoc on infrastructure and transportation systems one day before.
More than 400 people had been injured, and thousands of passengers that had been stranded at the Kansai International Airport in Osaka were evacuated on Wednesday, according to local reports.
Kansai International Airport, Japan's third-largest, located on a man-made island in Osaka bay, was flooded on Tuesday owing to the typhoon, with the only way out for passengers being a bridge with road and rail access connecting the terminal to the main island.
The bridge, however, became stricken as the powerful typhoon ripped a tanker from its moorings and rammed it into the bridge, causing great damages to both and leading to 5,000 people being forced to spend a hellish night at the airport.
Of the 5,000, 3,000 were passengers and 2,000 were airport staff. The evacuations by boat began on Wednesday morning but will continue through Thursday, airport officials said.
According to China's consulate-general in Osaka, among the people stranded at the airport in Osaka, some 750 were Chinese citizens.
As of 9:00 p.m. local time, some 550 Chinese citizens had been evacuated to Osaka City, according to the consulate-general.
The consulate-general is still providing assistance to the evacuation work of the remaining stranded passengers.
It also warned tourists and passengers to pay attention to news releases and make proper adjustments to their itineraries.
Japan has been battered by a number of typhoons recently, with western regions being particularly hard hit with 220 people killed in July alone.
The powerful typhoon on Tuesday has heavily disrupted transportation services, causing flights and rail services to be canceled, as well as some commercial facilities' operations.
More than 200 flights were canceled at the airport on Wednesday with around 30,000 people affected, airline operators said.
The number of flights affected is expected to further rise as the Kansai International Airport could remain closed for as long as a week, according the airport's authorities.
Local economy is also expected to suffer a blow as the airport is a major hub for tourists and for shipping cargo overseas and manufacturers had to find alternatives for transportation while the airport remains closed.
In prefectures in western Japan served by Kansai Electric Power Co., some 357,000 households were still without power as of 7:00 p.m. Wednesday.
Retailers and restaurant chains have been forced to close some of their outlets due to the power outage in the aftermath of the typhoon.
In Kyoto, some 160 elementary school pupils have been evacuated by 8:00 p.m. after being stranded in a facility during a school trip after typhoon brought down trees and blocked the surrounding roads on Tuesday.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 23:20:34|Editor: Li Xia
Video Player Close
A demonstrator raises his hands after blocking a main road with burning tyres during a protest in Aden, Yemen, on Sept. 5, 2018. Demonstrations demanding economic reforms escalated across the country's southern provinces controlled by the government including the port city of Aden for the fourth consecutive day. (Xinhua/Murad Abdu)
ADEN, Yemen, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Delegation of the internationally-recognized Yemeni government arrived Wednesday in Switzerland's Geneva to participate in a new round of talks sponsored by the United Nations to end a four- year-old military conflict with the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
A government official told Xinhua that a high-ranking team led by the country's Foreign Minister Khaled Yamani arrived in Switzerland to attend the UN-backed negotiations with the Houthis team.
He confirmed that the delegations representing the two-warring sides will hold meetings separately inside closed rooms and won't sit together during the negotiations period.
The official said that the talks will mainly focus on the humanitarian situation and releasing the prisoners, but political issues regarding the country's crisis and the ongoing civil war will be postponed for unspecified time.
Yemen's presidency is insisting that the release of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh's body and other political detainees from the Houthis' custody is a main priority for its negotiating team, according to the government official.
Both the Yemeni government and the Iranian-backed Houthis announced the delegates names and confirmed their participation in the next talks following four rounds of similar previous talks that failed to reach common ground.
Yemen's Vice President General Ali Mohsen affirmed that the government is entering peace talks for the fourth time in good faith, giving precedence to the interest of the Yemeni people over all other considerations.
According to the state-run Saba news agency, "Yemen's vice president expressed his hope that the Houthi militants will, likewise, give precedence to the interests of the Yemenis who endured an unprecedented suffering as a result of the Houthi coup in 2014."
A source close to Houthi officials confirmed to Xinhua by phone saying that "the issue of the strategic port city of Hodeidah will be included during Thursday's negotiations in Geneva."
"Houthis place a great significance for Red Sea port of Hodeidah and might insist on discussing the withdrawal of government forces from Hodeidah as condition to release detainees from their prisons," the source said.
Yemenis across the war-torn Arab country remain pessimistic ahead of the new negotiations, as the country's economy is collapsing and leaving already poor people more destitute.
The Yemeni riyal continued in sinking faster and faster in recent days after four nearly years of deadly military conflict. In the street markets in the southern port city of Aden, where the Saudi-backed government is officially based, one U.S. dollar was traded for 623 riyals, up from 215 riyals the rate set before the war.
On Sunday, Yemen's President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi chaired an emergency meeting and agreed to raise the salaries of thousands of public-sector employees and pensioners to reduce the impact of the currency devaluation.
President Hadi ordered the government to take effective and urgent measures to restore the stability of food and services supply following this week's further devaluation of the riyal against the U.S. dollar and the soar of prices of basic commodities.
But Hadi's decisions and promises apparently failed to cease the mounting anger against the Saudi-backed government as demonstrations spread to include the southeastern province of Hadramout, according to local observers.
Earlier in the day, demonstrations demanding economic reforms escalated across the country's southern provinces controlled by the government including the port city of Aden for the fourth consecutive day.
Stores, government institutions, banks and universities were shut down as civil disobedience continues to hit Aden, paralyzing daily life in the southern main city, where the government is based.
The impoverished Arab country has been locked into a civil war since the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels overran much of the country militarily and seized all northern provinces, including capital Sanaa, in 2014.
The internal military conflict between the Iranian-backed Houthis and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government recently entered its fourth year, aggravating the suffering of Yemenis and deepening the world's worst humanitarian crisis in the country.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 23:25:37|Editor: Liangyu
Video Player Close
CAIRO, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian archaeological mission discovered an ancient rocky cemetery near the pyramid of Senusret I in Lisht village of Ayyat district in Giza province, south of the capital Cairo, the Ministry of Antiquities said in a statement on Wednesday.
"The cemetery was unearthed 300 meters northeastern the pyramid of Senusret I in Lisht," said the statement.
The cemetery consists of two parts, the first of which is an open courtyard with a passage containing hieroglyphic inscriptions and leading to a hall.
The second part of the cemetery consists of a three-meter deep well whose western inner side has a passage leading to the first burial chamber whose southern wall has an entrance to another chamber.
Each chamber has a distinguished empty limestone coffin with unique inscriptions, according to the statement.
The southern inner side of the well has an entrance to other chambers that will be soon discovered during the mission's work.
"The owner of the cemetery is still unknown, for there are no inscriptions referring to his identity," said Yasser Hassan Abdel-Fattah, General Director of Dahshur and Lisht Antiquities, noting that further studies will enable the mission to reveal more information about him.
The village of Lisht in Giza is known for being a site of the Middle Kingdom royal and elite burials, including the two pyramids built by ancient kings Senusert I and Amenemhat I.
Adel Okasha, head of the Central Administration for Cairo and Giza Antiquities, said that the excavation works carried out in Lisht region are done in line with the ministry's excavation plan for promising archeological sites.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 23:25:39|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
DUBAI, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Flight EK203 of the United Arab Emirates' (UAE's) international carrier Emirates Airlines, flying from Dubai to New York, was isolated in New York, as ten passengers onboard felt sick, Emirates Airline announced on Twitter Wednesday.
The plane was isolated by U.S. authorities at the JFK airport in New York, said the UAE's carrier in a statement on Twitter.
The statement added "on arrival, as a precaution, they were attended to by local health authorities. All others will disembark shortly. The safety and care of our customers is our first priority."
Passengers on the plane tweeted photos of the New York airport showing scores of police cars, ambulances and civil defense cars.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 23:30:41|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
HONG KONG, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The food safety authority of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) said Wednesday it was investigating a case of illegal food import from two Japanese prefectures that were hit by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
The Center for Food Safety (CFS) of the HKSAR government's Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said it inspected a consignment of food imported from Japan and found 50 cartons of sweet potato from Chiba Prefecture and 10 cartons of yam from Gunma Prefecture were not accompanied with radiation certificates and exporter certificates issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) of Japan, breaching the relevant Food Safety Order.
In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown, the CFS imposed import restrictions on vegetables, fruits and diary products from five Japanese prefectures, Fukushima and nearby Ibaraki, Tochigi, Chiba and Gunma.
According to a Food Safety Order issued in July by the HKSAR government, with effect from July 24, the food import from Ibaraki, Tochigi, Chiba and Gunma into Hong Kong are permitted with conditions, while the import ban on products from Fukushima will remain in force.
According to the Food Safety Order, the import of food from the four prefectures must be accompanied with radiation certificates and exporter certificates issued by the MAFF.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 23:35:41|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Tropical storm Gordon has weakened into a tropical depression over U.S. state of Mississippi as threats of heavy rains and flooding continue, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Wednesday.
The depression is located about 40 km south-southeast of Jackson, Mississippi with maximum sustained winds of 55 kilometers per hour, the NHC said.
Additional weakening is expected as Gordon moves farther inland, the agency added.
Gordon made landfall late Tuesday near the Alabama-Mississippi border with near-hurricane level winds, killing a child when a tree fell on her family's mobile home in Pensacola, Florida.
Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant said more than 3,000 state residents were without power. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey encouraged "everyone across south AL to be weather aware and heed warnings from local authorities."
Gordon is expected to produce rain accumulations of 4 to 8 inches (10-20 cm) over parts of Florida Panhandle, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, southern Iowa and Illinois, with isolated maximum amounts of 12 inches (30cm) through early Saturday.
The rainfall will cause flash flooding across portions of these areas.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 23:35:42|Editor: Liangyu
Video Player Close
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday met with Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia after the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on Sept. 3-4.
Xi asked Ouyahia to convey his cordial greetings and good wishes to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and thanked Algeria for its contribution to the success of the Beijing summit.
Having maintained a traditional friendship that is deep and firm, China and Algeria saw rapid growth of their comprehensive strategic partnership, and fruitful cooperation in various areas, Xi said, adding that deepening the China-Algeria strategic mutual trust and coordination is in the common interests of the two countries.
Noting that this year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic ties, Xi said China is willing to work with Algeria to implement the outcomes of the FOCAC Beijing Summit, and continue deepening cooperation in infrastructure and other areas under the framework of jointly building the Belt and Road.
He said China will enhance cooperation with Algeria in the health sector to benefit the Algerian people.
Ouyahia said he had reported the Beijing summit's achievements to President Bouteflika, who expressed congratulations to President Xi and his heartfelt gratitude to China for its support to Africa.
Ouyahia said the Algeria-China relations have a time-honored history as Algeria received precious support of China during its struggle for independence and national development and the two sides have always been coordinating closely in international affairs.
Ouyahia said Algeria is willing to take the signing of the Belt and Road cooperation agreements as an opportunity to deepen bilateral pragmatic cooperation.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 23:45:45|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
MOGADISHU, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Somali National Army (SNA) have arrested 32 al-Shabab militants after conducting military operations in Marka town in Lower Shabelle region southern Somalia.
SNA commander Odowa Yusuf Rage told the state-owned radio on Wednesday that the operations took around the port town of Marka on Monday and Tuesday.
"Somali National Army arrested 32 al-Shabab militants during military operations in Marka in the past two days. Some of them were caught while fighting, the rest are amniyat (secret spy units), bomb experts and tax collectors," Rage said.
He said the suspects will be taken to military court to face changes of belonging to terror group
The Somali National Army, backed by the African Union Mission troops, re-captured the town from al-Shabab fighters on Aug. 19.
Meanwhile, al-Shabab militants on Tuesday abducted 62 elders from locations between Guri'el and Mataban towns in Galgudud and Hiiraan regions respectively.
Ahmed Duale Gele, president of Galmudug State, confirmed that the militants took the elders to Elbur town in Galgadud region, a stronghold for the group, telling the group's intention is to force them to pay annual taxes (Zakawat) and bring boys to them for fight.
The al-Qaida-allied militants group has not commented yet on the latest abduction.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 23:45:46|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
DAMASCUS, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian government forces have raised the level of alert, as part of the preparations for the anticipated military campaign on the Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria, a monitor group reported on Wednesday.
Citing what it called "trustworthy sources," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the army raised the level of alert at it has gathered all officers of the operation of Idlib.
It said the reinforcements have been brought to the frontline areas in the countryside of Idlib, the northwestern province of Latakia and Hama province in central Syria.
All three provinces share a triangle of areas that are under the rebels' control.
The Russia- and Iran-backed Syrian army is preparing a wide-scale offensive against the rebels of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, or the Levant Liberation Committee (LLC), in Idlib.
The presidents of Iran, Russia, and Turkey are set to hold a summit in Iran's capital Tehran on Friday to discuss the situation in Idlib, where Turkey holds considerable sway over an array of rebel groups.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 23:50:48|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The 10 elected members of the Security Council, informally known as the E10, on Wednesday called for restraint in the Idlib governorate of Syria and for the protection of civilians.
The E10 expressed deep concern about a humanitarian catastrophe in the event of a full-scale military operation in Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria, said Joanna Wronecka, Polish ambassador to the United Nations, whose country is the coordinator of the E10 group for the month of September.
The non-permanent members of the Security Council called for more efforts from all relevant actors with influence on the ground to find a peaceful solution to the situation in Idlib, she said.
The E10 reiterated the urgent appeal of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to the Syrian government and all other parties to exercise restraint and to prioritize the protection of civilians, she said.
The 10 countries urged all parties to take all necessary measures to safeguard civilians, allow freedom of movement and protect civilian infrastructure, including medical and educational facilities, said the ambassador, who was flanked by the representatives of other E10 members.
The 10 countries called for the full implementation of relevant Security Council resolutions, including Resolution 2401, which calls for a cease-fire across Syria for 30 days, she said. Resolution 2401, adopted unanimously in February 2018, was never implemented.
Oli defends BIMSTEC joint military exercise
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has defended the joint military exercise among the armies of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) member countries as a friendly gesture amid growing criticism of the drill from within the party and the opposition.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 00:05:53|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
WINDHOEK, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Namibian President Hage Geingob on Tuesday commended China for its pledge to assist Africa in industrializing and boosting infrastructure in the next three years.
In a statement released by his office after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Geingob described China as an all-weather friend.
"We are here, at this FOCAC Summit, to continue enhancing the unbreakable solidarity and cooperation that exists between China and Africa," the president said, referring to the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
"In Namibia, we have always espoused the principles of Unity, Liberty and Justice. Unity enabled us to fight for our liberty, but we are still struggling for justice; that of economic equality and social justice," Geingob said.
"Furthermore, we note, with appreciation, China's announcement that it will implement eight major initiatives with African countries in the next three years and beyond," the president said.
The eight major initiatives include industrial promotion, infrastructure connectivity, trade facilitation, green development, capacity building, health care, people-to-people exchange, peace and security.
"We stand ready, to collaborate with our Chinese brothers and sisters to develop tangible projects in these areas, which will result in the enhanced prosperity of the African and Chinese people," Geingob said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 00:05:54|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
NAIROBI, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Transformation of agriculture sector in Africa is dependent on a robust vision from the continent's political leaders and not just availability of improved seeds, technologies and healthy soils, says the 2018 African Agriculture Status Report (AASR) launched in Nairobi on Wednesday.
The report titled "Catalyzing State Capacity to Drive Agricultural Transformation", said political good will is required to revolutionize food production systems in the world's second largest continent.
"Existing data suggest that the political will to support agriculture transformation is likely lower in Africa than in other regions of the developing world," says the report compiled by Nairobi-based Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
Agnes Kalibata, president of AGRA, said African countries can realize agricultural transformation subject to visionary leadership coupled with state led policy and institutional reforms.
"Governments are definitely central to driving an inclusive agriculture transformation agenda," Kalibata remarked adding that better planning and a conducive regulatory environment is key to attract private sector investments in African agriculture.
The 2018 African agriculture status report noted that China and some other countries present successful models of transformation of this critical sector that African countries should emulate.
The report cites Rwanda and Ethiopia as two African countries where visionary political leadership has catalyzed agriculture transformation to address rural poverty and achieve food security.
Experts stressed that Africa must harness political energy, robust policies and targeted investments to ensure that small-holders reap from benefits of agricultural modernization.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 00:05:55|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
MOSCOW, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet and discuss the situation in Syria's Idlib, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Wednesday.
Syria is one of the main topics of their meeting on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly that will open on Sept. 18 in New York, Ryabkov said.
He said that the preservation of the terrorist-dominated enclave in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib will always create new threats, including those using chemical weapons.
Ryabkov added that Western countries understand perfectly well that without liberating Idlib from terrorists, it would be impossible to expect a settlement in Syria.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that the situation in Idlib is a matter of great concern and that the Russian side maintains contacts with foreign counterparts at all levels.
Idlib, controlled by "ultra-radical groups" as Russia calls, has a population of about 2.5 million and is strategically important as it borders Turkey.
It is close to the coastal province of Latakia, home of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which also hosts the Russia-operated Hmeymim airbase.
The Syrian government army has been amassing forces and military gears around Idlib in recent weeks.
Pompeo told reporters on Tuesday that the United States shares Russia's concern of terrorism threat emanating from Idlib.
"We absolutely agree with them there are terrorists in those locations and they need to be taken care of so that they don't export terror around the world," Pompeo said.
But Washington fears that an attack on terrorists in the province could put the lives of civilians at risk and create a humanitarian crisis, he said.
Four Russian jets of the Hmeymim airbase bombed positions of Nusra Front in Idlib on Tuesday, destroying a workshop for drone manufacturing, a warehouse of explosives for the drones and a warehouse of man-portable air defense systems.
Russia is conducting large-scale military drills in the Mediterranean on Sept. 1-8 involving more than 25 battleships and 30 warplanes.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 00:05:57|Editor: xuxin
Video Player Close
Photo taken on Sept. 7, 2018 shows a bulletin board at a terminal of Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France. 147 Passengers had been held on a plane coming from Algeria after it landed in Perpignan, southern France, on Wednesday over a suspicious case of cholera, according to local report. (Xinhua/Chen Yichen)
PARIS, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- 147 Passengers had been held on a plane coming from Algeria after it landed in Perpignan, southern France, on Wednesday over a suspicious case of cholera, according to local report.
"It is likely a child would have carrying cholera. He as well as his parents were deeply examined. They were taken to the hospital for other medical exams," BFMTV news channel cited Denis Leluc, president of Sud de France-Perpignan airport, as saying.
"We can not confirm if it's a cholera case or not," he said.
The plane had travelled from Oran in Algeria, where a cholera outbreak has left three dead and over 70 people contaminated.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 00:11:00|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday commended the people of Mauritania for the peaceful conduct of elections in their country, which saw broad participation of political parties.
In a statement through his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, Guterres encouraged all parties to continue to act in a peaceful manner during and after the announcement of the results.
He further called on political leaders and electoral contestants to resolve disputes through dialogue and in accordance with the law.
On Saturday, about 1.4 million Mauritanians went to the polls for legislative, regional and municipal elections, which would position the West African nation for the presidential vote in 2019.
Some 100 political parties had contesting candidates, with about 5,000 of them running for the National Assembly. The African Union had sent observers to monitor the elections.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 00:11:01|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
TEHRAN, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC) signed two contracts to contain Associated petroleum gas (APG) from oilfields in the east Karoun region, located in Iran's southwestern Khuzestan Province, EghtesadOnline news website reported on Wednesday.
The contract signed between NISOC, a subsidiary of state-owned National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), and two domestic companies on Tuesday is worth 1.2 billion U.S. dollars.
Based on the contracts, the two companies of Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company and Marun Petrochemical Company will implement 32 plans to renovate and upgrade NISOC's installations for flare gas collection in the next two and a half years, the report said.
The venture is aimed to save 22 million cubic meters of natural gas per day.
The collected APG natural gas will be supplied to the under-construction Bidboland-2 Gas Refinery and Marun Petrochemical Company, Mohammad Mostafavi, an official with NIOC said.
In addition, NISOC's output of natural gas liquids will increase by 38,000 barrels per day, which will be delivered to Bandar Imam Petrochemical Company as feedstock, Mostafavi added.
"Thus, petrochemical plants will receive 1.6 million tons of ethane and other heavier gaseous compounds per year, which is a big leap toward alleviating the shortage of feedstock," Mostafavi said.
Natural gas liquids are components of gas separated in the form of liquids. This separation occurs in a field facility or in a gas processing plant through absorption, condensation or other method.
Mostafavi also said that another plan is underway to collect gases in Masjed Soleiman oilfields in Khuzestan Province.
APG is found in deposits of petroleum. It is often released as a waste product and burnt off as flare gas.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 00:16:03|Editor: huaxia
Video Player Close
ADDIS ABABA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopian air traffic controllers on Wednesday returned to their jobs amid the arrest of nine people on suspicion of attempting to disrupt international flights and coordinating strike.
As the Ethiopian Aviation Authority confirmed on Wednesday the return of air traffic controllers to their duties, the nine arrested are currently under investigation concerning their involvement in the strike, which the Ethiopian Aviation Authority affirmed was "illegal."
Despite reports that the strike has affected flights to and from Ethiopia's Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, one of Africa's busiest airports, the Ethiopian Aviation Authority and the Ethiopian Airlines Group have downplayed similar reports.
Amid the strike of Ethiopian air controllers, their Kenyan counterparts had raised safety concerns concerning international flight bound to Ethiopia's airspace.
"Aircraft operating in and out of Addis Ababa are in grave danger as the situation continues to deteriorate," Kenyan Air Traffic Controllers Association said as their Ethiopian counterparts commenced the week-long strike.
Ethiopia's Civil Aviation Authority, however, rejected concerns regarding the safety of Ethiopian airspace despite the strike.
The authority said in a press statement that it "fully and categorically rejects the false and baseless statements circulated by the Kenyan Air Traffic Controllers Association in their circular of 30 August 2018 regarding the safety of Ethiopian airspace following the illegal strike of air traffic controllers (ATCs) in Ethiopia."
"The Area Control Center (ACC) in Addis Ababa is being manned by adequate number of well-trained, highly capable instructors and professionals," the authority said.
A similar strike by Ethiopian air traffic controllers in April led to the suspension of scores of flights in and out of the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport.
Ethiopian Airlines Group also on Monday reassured that "the Ethiopian airspace remains very safe and highly secured even after the illegal strike of the Ethiopian Civil Aviation air traffic controllers."
Ethiopia's flag carrier further stressed that all its scheduled and unscheduled flights and other airlines operating to and from Ethiopia have been operating smoothly. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 00:16:06|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The members of the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday expressed their full support for the UN-led political process in Yemen.
In a statement, they expressed their full support for the efforts of the special envoy of the secretary-general "to bring about a political settlement."
"The members of the Security Council reiterated that there can only be a political solution to the conflict in Yemen. They reiterated their call for full implementation of Security Council resolutions and statements, including resolution 2216 (2015)," said the statement.
It also said that members of the Security Council welcomed the UN-led consultations with representatives from the Yemeni parties scheduled for Sept. 6 in Geneva. "These initial consultations will be a necessary and important step towards the comprehensive and inclusive security and political agreements that will be required to resolve the conflict, improve the humanitarian situation, and bring peace, prosperity and security to all Yemenis."
"On the eve of the Geneva consultations, the members of the Security Council urged the Yemeni parties to seize this opportunity to de-escalate tensions and to participate fully, constructively and in good faith in order to build confidence between them and take a first step towards ending a conflict that has brought severe pain and humanitarian suffering to the Yemeni people," said the statement.
"They called on the international community, including regional neighbors, to support actively these consultations," it said.
Yemen's warring parties are to meet in Geneva on Thursday for a new round of peace talks. They are the first public meetings between the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and Yemen's powerful Houthi rebels since 2016, when 108 days of negotiations in Kuwait failed to broker a power-sharing deal.
The talks, overseen by UN envoy Martin Griffiths, are aimed at charting a path towards reviving formal UN-backed negotiations.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 00:16:07|Editor: huaxia
Video Player Close
ABUJA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Nine people have so far been killed and five others hospitalized following a recent flood disaster in Nigeria's northwestern state of Kano, the government confirmed on Wednesday.
More than 4,475 people from nine districts of Kano have been affected by the flood since Aug. 27, according to government data.
Head of the Kano State Emergency Relief and Rehabilitation Agency Ali Bashir told reporters that a total of 14 districts were hit by the disaster.
Bashir said government officials are still assessing the extent of damage and casualty figures.
Last week, Nigeria's Hydrological Services Agency issued a red alert on flooding in seven states across Nigeria, citing increasingly high river levels.
At least three major dams have started releasing water as high flow from the upper catchment of the Niger basin continues to move downstream to Nigeria. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 00:21:08|Editor: Liangyu
Video Player Close
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday met with Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani after the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.
Noting that this year marks the 60th anniversary of bilateral ties, Xi said China stands ready to work with Morocco to promote the strategic partnership to achieve new and greater development.
Xi said China will continue to give firm support to Morocco in its efforts to maintain stability and achieve economic and social development.
China considers Morocco as an important partner in the building of the Belt and Road, said Xi.
He called on the two countries to strengthen communication and coordination on major international and regional issues, so as to safeguard the common interests of the two countries as well as other developing countries.
El Othmani said Morocco appreciates China's commitment to the world's peace and stability as well as the well-being of the people of all countries. He congratulated China on the success of the Beijing summit, which he said is very important for the future of Africa.
The speech made by President Xi at the summit, which is extremely important and pragmatic, has caused great responses in Africa and will strongly promote the development of Africa as well as Africa-China cooperation, the prime minister said.
Morocco supports the Africa-China cooperation initiatives proposed by the Chinese side, and appreciates China's long-term assistance and support, said El Othmani, adding that Morocco firmly adheres to the one-China policy.
Phone app for local governments
All the local governments will have their own mobile phone app within this fiscal year where they will get to share information on their services as well as receive and address the complaints of local people.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 00:21:09|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe met with Singapore's Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant-General Melvyn Ong Wednesday in Beijing.
Wei, who said relations between China and Singapore have been steadily consolidated and deepened, expressed China's willingness to work with Singapore to strengthen high-level strategic communication as well as push forward practical cooperation in fields such as joint exercises and training and exchanges between think tanks.
He also said China stands ready to make joint efforts with Singapore to promote the two countries' partnership of comprehensive cooperation and actively safeguard regional peace and stability.
Ong said Singapore values China's role in international and regional affairs and is willing to strengthen cooperation with China, increase strategic trust between the two sides, and boost the development of the two countries' military relations.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 00:36:11|Editor: huaxia
Video Player Close
JOHANNESBURG, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Johannesburg Stock Exchange remained its downward slide on Wednesday at the close of the session, with South Africa's rand extending recent losses.
Banks and retailers were most affected, with the former index now having fallen 7.5 percent so far this week.
The local currency was at R15.47 to the U.S. dollar and R19.89 to the British pound at 5: 00 p.m, local time, registering its worst level since May 2016.
"While the Rand has been under pressure with the EM crisis currently in the market, the release of the second quarter GDP number only increased the negative sentiment on the rand," said Andre Botha, of TreasuryONE in a statement.
At the same time, the all share was down 1.36 percent to 57,102.13 points and the top 40 had lost 1.66 percent. Banks had fallen 2.85 percent, financials 1.53 percent and general retailers 2.07 percent. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 00:36:12|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
ULAN BATOR, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Gombojav Zandanshatar, head of the Mongolian cabinet secretariat, has asked social media giant Facebook to close fake accounts which disturb public order by spreading disinformation, the government's press office said Wednesday.
Zandanshatar made the request when meeting with a Facebook delegation led by George Chen, head of public policy for Mongolia and Chinese Hong Kong and Taiwan regions, and Jeff Wu, head of trust and safety for the Asia-Pacific region.
"Facebook is a platform where everyone could all share ideas, exchange views and also obstacles. But some people have been disturbing public order by spreading disinformation and rumors through fake accounts they have created," he said.
"Therefore, Facebook needs to control its users and close fake accounts," he added.
According to the Mongolian government's press office, the country with a population of just over three million has more than 1.5 million Facebook users.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 00:56:16|Editor: huaxia
Video Player Close
NICOSIA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Cyprus has decided to apply stricter measures aimed at containing the increased inflow of migrants and refugees coming mostly from Syria, an official statement said on Wednesday.
A special committee of four ministers discussed the issue following a spike in arrivals of refugees, mostly in small boats that sail either from Turkey, or more recently Lebanon.
A total of about 150 refugees arrived in the past 10 days in what the government said was a significant spike in irregular immigration.
Cyprus, an island with a population of about a million, is already dealing with over 15,000 asylum seekers, mostly from Syria, with about 5,000 asylum applications still pending.
Syrians are at the forefront of irregular arrivals to Cyprus, followed by Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Indians, Iraqis and Egyptians.
Interior minister Constantinos Petrides said foreign minister Nikos Christodoulides will discuss the issue with EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Federica Mogherini, and Dimitris Avramopoulos, EU Commissioner for migration, home affairs and citizenship.
"There will be a round of meetings with our European counterparts, especially from Mediterranean countries, which face the same problem, so as to better coordinate actions at a European level," the minister said.
Press reports said Cyprus would seek to forge a readmission agreement with neighboring Lebanon.
The meeting decided that surveillance would also be stepped up at certain locations of the buffer zone, which irregular immigrants use to jump over into government controlled areas.
The Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot communities have been divided since 1974 with a buffer zone in between. The buffer zone is under the control of a UN peace keeping force. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 00:56:17|Editor: Li Xia
Video Player Close
Photo released by Press Information Department (PID) of Pakistan on Sept. 5, 2018 shows Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi (R) shaking hands with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday called for the political solution to the Afghan issue and the two sides agreed that "present conditions in Afghanistan were conducive to intensifying efforts for a political settlement," according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry here. (Xinhua/PID)
ISLAMABAD, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday called for the political solution to the Afghan issue and the two sides agreed that "present conditions in Afghanistan were conducive to intensifying efforts for a political settlement," according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry here.
Pompeo, accompanied by U.S. Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford and Zalmay Khalilzad, the newly appointed U.S. advisor to Afghanistan, arrived here Wednesday and also held talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
"Both sides underscored the need for the Taliban to seize the opportunity for talks in response to (Afghan) President Ashraf Ghani's offer for an unconditional dialogue," the statement said.
The Pakistani foreign minister told a press conference after their meeting that his country would help in the peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan for Pakistan's interests and he added that he would make his first foreign visit to Afghanistan.
Qureshi said that he had noted during the talks that the U.S. has created space for "direct talks with the Taliban as the U.S. does not want unnecessary footprint in Afghanistan," adding that, however, Washington can not give a time-frame about the withdrawal of the troops in view of the situation in Afghanistan.
In the meeting with the U.S. secretary, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan "shared Pakistan's perspective on the situation in the region and reiterated its desire for peace and stability in Afghanistan," the prime minister's office said in a statement.
Pompeo also emphasized "the important role Pakistan could play in bringing about a negotiated peace in Afghanistan," a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said.
A combination of photos show Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
MOSCOW, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet and discuss the situation in Syria's Idlib, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Wednesday.
Syria is one of the main topics of their meeting on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly that will open on Sept. 18 in New York, Ryabkov said.
He said that the preservation of the terrorist-dominated enclave in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib will always create new threats, including those using chemical weapons.
Ryabkov added that Western countries understand perfectly well that without liberating Idlib from terrorists, it would be impossible to expect a settlement in Syria.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that the situation in Idlib is a matter of great concern and that the Russian side maintains contacts with foreign counterparts at all levels.
Idlib, controlled by "ultra-radical groups" as Russia calls, has a population of about 2.5 million and is strategically important as it borders Turkey.
It is close to the coastal province of Latakia, home of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which also hosts the Russia-operated Hmeymim airbase.
The Syrian government army has been amassing forces and military gears around Idlib in recent weeks.
Pompeo told reporters on Tuesday that the United States shares Russia's concern of terrorism threat emanating from Idlib.
"We absolutely agree with them there are terrorists in those locations and they need to be taken care of so that they don't export terror around the world," Pompeo said.
But Washington fears that an attack on terrorists in the province could put the lives of civilians at risk and create a humanitarian crisis, he said.
Four Russian jets of the Hmeymim airbase bombed positions of Nusra Front in Idlib on Tuesday, destroying a workshop for drone manufacturing, a warehouse of explosives for the drones and a warehouse of man-portable air defense systems.
Russia is conducting large-scale military drills in the Mediterranean on Sept. 1-8 involving more than 25 battleships and 30 warplanes.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 01:26:21|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
JERUSALEM, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel will act harshly against attempts by other Middle Eastern countries to obtain precision weapons.
"We are determined to prevent Iran and its proxies from establishing a military presence in Syria," he said at the start of Israel's weekly cabinet meeting, according to a statement released on his behalf.
"We are taking strong actions against these attempts and against the attempts to produce precision weaponry in all sectors, near and far," he added without elaborating.
Israel has been increasingly concerned by Iran's efforts to establish a permanent military presence in Syria. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials have been urging Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump to force Iran to completely withdraw its forces from Syria.
Last month, amidst talks of a possible peace agreement in Syria, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced that Israel will not be obliged to any possible international peace agreement in Syria and might continue to carry out airstrikes in its war-torn northern neighbor.
Israel, which shares a disputed border with Syria, officially claims it is not part of the war in Syria. However, Israel's air force has carried out dozens of fatal airstrikes in Syria, usually targeting allegedly Iranian sites or weapons convoys to the Lebanese-based military of Hezbollah.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 01:41:24|Editor: huaxia
Video Player Close
DAR ES SALAAM, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania's attorney general said Wednesday the government was in the process of translating all Tanzanian laws written in English into Kiswahili, the national language, to enable more people to understand the laws.
Adelardus Kilangi told the National Assembly in the capital Dodoma that the process to translate the laws into Kiswahili has begun with great precaution.
However, Kilangi said the undertaking was facing two major challenges of poor funding and lack of enough and qualified translators.
The attorney general was responding to a lawmaker's question why the government continued to table in Parliament bills written in English, regardless of the fact that majority Tanzanians did not understand English.
The lawmaker said continued enactment of laws in English defied President John Magufuli's efforts to promote Kiswahili as the national language. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 01:41:25|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Department of Defense on Wednesday announced the death of an American soldier who had been supporting Operation Freedom's Sentinel in Afghanistan, the second identified in two days.
In a statement, the Pentagon said that "Staff Sgt. Diobanjo S. Sanagustin, 32, from National City, California, died Sept. 4, 2018, from a non-combat related injury at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan."
"The incident is under investigation," the Pentagon said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Department of Defense said that Command Sgt. Maj. Timothy A. Bolyard had been killed. He was also supporting Operation Freedom's Sentinel in Afghanistan.
The U.S. forces in the Asian country said on Monday in a statement that an American soldier was killed and another wounded earlier on the same day in an "apparent insider attack" in eastern Afghanistan.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 01:51:27|Editor: Li Xia
Video Player Close
DAR ES SALAAM, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in Tanzania said on Wednesday they will consult their Kenyan counterparts over major projects that Kenya plans to implement along the shared Mara River.
This follows the reports that the neighboring country will construct dams on the 400-kilometer river which originates from the Mau Forest in Kenya and flows to Tanzania.
"We will consult them to see if such reports are true. And if so we will find out if the planned projects fall within the framework of our bilateral cooperation," said January Makamba, the Minister of State in the Vice President's Office responsible for Environment, in a news conference held in Arusha.
Makamba said so far there was no dispute between Tanzania and Kenya over the utilization and abstraction of water and other resources from the river.
"Mara River is one of the shared trans-boundary resources between our two countries, others being lakes Chala, Jipe, Natron and Victoria," he said.
Both countries are members of the six-member East African Community (EAC). Other members of the regional bloc are Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.
He added that besides being bound by the EAC protocols, there were bilateral protocols between Tanzania and Kenya on sustainable utilization and conservation of Mara River and other trans-boundary resources.
Mara River empties into Lake Victoria, a shared lake whose conservation, utilization and exploitation for economic resources is administered through a host of EAC protocols.
The river, with a drainage area covering 13,504 square kilometers, is also considered the lifeline of millions of wild animals in the Serengeti ecosystem and the tourism industry in both countries. Enditem
Police clueless about 7-year-old double murder
Police are still clueless about the 2011 double murder case of Indira Bhusal, district committee member of the erstwhile CPN-UML, and the supposed witness Ramkali Sunar.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 02:01:28|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
by Marwa Yahya
CAIRO, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- "The Egypt-China ties are in their best era," said Mostafa Ibrahim, chairman of the Egyptian Chinese Business Council (ECBC), citing that the two sides have just signed a number of cooperation deals worth 18.3 billion U.S. dollars.
China and Egypt signed the deals during a just-concluded visit to China by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who participated in the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on Sept. 3-4.
Among the deals include the construction of a pumping and storage station in the Mount Ataka area in northeast of Egypt, and a clean coal-fired power station in Hamrawein on the Red Sea coast, according to a statement by the Egyptian presidency.
"The signing of these contracts for major projects in Egypt is a leap in the volume of cooperation between the two countries," Ibrahim told Xinhua in an interview.
The Chinese investments also include a textile industrial project, a refinery and a petrochemicals complex in the Suez Canal corridor area.
"The expected investments to be pumped in the projects will lift the bilateral cooperation to a new level," Ibrahim said.
He said that Egypt, with its population exceeding 100 million, is certainly a promising market for the Chinese investments.
Ibrahim said that China, which is seeking opportunities for more investments in foreign markets, is qualified to be part of Egypt's plan to develop its manufacturing sector by constructing new roads and factories.
He hailed the mutual ties between Egypt and China as "important and in continuous progress," noting that the latest visit of President Sisi to Beijing has added more assets to the relations.
The China-Egypt relations have witnessed steady development over the years, especially since they were upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2014.
Sisi's participation in the FOCAC summit is his fifth visit to China since assuming office in 2014.
More than 1,500 Chinese companies are operating in Egypt, including 702 in the industrial sector, 432 in the services sector, 70 in construction, 79 in communication and information technology, 47 in agriculture, and six in tourism, the state-run Ahram newspaper reported citing Egypt General Authority for Investment and Free Zones.
The Chinese companies are participating in several major projects in Egypt, like the construction of the new administrative capital, Ibrahim said.
"Definitely the ties with China are special and Egypt undoubtedly desires to further promote it," he said.
"Egypt is the basic partner for China in Africa and the Middle East, and Beijing realizes that Cairo is the gate to Africa," he added.
Ibrahim believes the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative will raise the efficiency of trade between China and other countries, including China.
The initiative, proposed by China in 2013, aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Africa and Europe by reviving the ancient Silk Road trade routes.
"Egypt will benefit the most in light of its unique geographic position, as well as the Suez Canal," he said.
He said the FOCAC summit in Beijing "is a golden opportunity for Africa to promote its ties with China. Africa should use the forum for achieving important benefits by cooperating with China."
Ibrahim lauded China's promise at the summit to provide 60 billion U.S. dollars in free aid, loans and special funds to support Africa's development as "a great move for achieving development in Africa."
Egypt will certainly be part of that progress, he said.
"That package of aid that doesn't seek political conditions will boost the relations between the two sides," said Ibrahim.
"What made the China-Africa ties special is that China aims at developing the African countries without intervention in their domestic affairs," he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 02:11:30|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The 10 elected members of the Security Council, informally known as the E10, on Wednesday called for restraint in the Idlib governorate of Syria and for the protection of civilians.
The E10 expressed deep concern about a humanitarian catastrophe in the event of a full-scale military operation in Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria, said Joanna Wronecka, Polish ambassador to the United Nations, whose country is the coordinator of the E10 group for September.
The non-permanent members of the Security Council called for efforts to be stepped up by all relevant actors with influence on the ground to find a peaceful solution to the situation in Idlib, she said.
The E10 reiterated the urgent appeal of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to the Syrian government and all other parties to exercise restraint and to prioritize the protection of civilians, she said.
The 10 countries urged all parties to take all necessary measures to safeguard civilians, allow freedom of movement and protect civilian infrastructure, including medical and educational facilities, said the ambassador, who was flanked by representatives of other E10 members.
The 10 countries called for the full implementation of relevant Security Council resolutions, including Resolution 2401, which calls for a cease-fire across Syria for 30 days, she said. Resolution 2401, adopted unanimously in February 2018, was never implemented.
The E10 made their position known ahead of a Security Council meeting on Idlib scheduled for Friday.
Announcing the Friday meeting, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Tuesday warned against the use of chemical weapons in Idlib, saying U.S. President Donald Trump had made it clear that the country would respond if chemical weapons were used.
"This is a tragic situation, and if they want to continue to go the route of taking over Syria, they can do that. But they cannot do it with chemical weapons. They can't do it assaulting their people and we're not going to fall for it," Haley told reporters.
She said a Security Council meeting had been scheduled for Friday morning so that the council would be acting before a chemical weapons attack would take place.
The United States and its Western allies were threatening Syria with the use of force over allegations that the Syrian government is planning a chemical attack in Idlib.
Damascus read the threats as the Western powers' way to hinder the government forces' planned assault in Idlib under false pretexts of chemical weapons use.
A malnourished 4-year girl sits on a bed as she waits to be weighed while she receives treatment at a malnutrition department in a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen, on Sept. 2, 2018. Millions of people in the war-torn Yemen are unable to secure one meal a day. (Xinhua/Mohammed Mohammed)
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The members of the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday expressed their full support for the UN-led political process in Yemen.
In a statement, they expressed their full support for the efforts of the special envoy of the secretary-general "to bring about a political settlement."
"The members of the Security Council reiterated that there can only be a political solution to the conflict in Yemen. They reiterated their call for full implementation of Security Council resolutions and statements, including resolution 2216 (2015)," said the statement.
It also said that members of the Security Council welcomed the UN-led consultations with representatives from the Yemeni parties scheduled for Sept. 6 in Geneva. "These initial consultations will be a necessary and important step towards the comprehensive and inclusive security and political agreements that will be required to resolve the conflict, improve the humanitarian situation, and bring peace, prosperity and security to all Yemenis."
"On the eve of the Geneva consultations, the members of the Security Council urged the Yemeni parties to seize this opportunity to de-escalate tensions and to participate fully, constructively and in good faith in order to build confidence between them and take a first step towards ending a conflict that has brought severe pain and humanitarian suffering to the Yemeni people," said the statement.
"They called on the international community, including regional neighbors, to support actively these consultations," it said.
Yemen's warring parties are to meet in Geneva on Thursday for a new round of peace talks. They are the first public meetings between the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and Yemen's powerful Houthi rebels since 2016, when 108 days of negotiations in Kuwait failed to broker a power-sharing deal.
The talks, overseen by UN envoy Martin Griffiths, are aimed at charting a path towards reviving formal UN-backed negotiations.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 02:26:35|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
LISBON, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Portuguese Judiciary Police (PJ) has seized about 840 kg of cocaine from a recreational boat in the Azores archipelago and arrested four people, police said in a statement on Wednesday.
In addition to the drugs and the vessel, several navigation and satellite communication devices, mobile phones, a computer, cash and various documents were also seized.
The vessel, flying a foreign flag, was initially located sailing off the Azores archipelago, then entered the marina of the city of Horta on the island of Faial where it was searched.
The PJ, with the support of the Maritime Police in the city of Horta, detected five compartments specially created in the structure of the vessel for the transportation of narcotics. A total of 700 cocaine tablets and 35,000 euros (40,676 U.S. dollars) were found.
The two men and two women on board, all foreigners and aged between 21 and 36 years, were detained. They belong to a criminal organization established in different European countries and Latin America, according to the statement.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 02:41:38|Editor: Li Xia
Video Player Close
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland (C, Front) speaks to reporters before a new round of trade talks at Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in Washington D.C., the United States, on Sept. 5, 2018. Negotiators from the United States and Canada on Wednesday resumed trade talks here to bridge their differences on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) after the two sides failed to reach a deal last week. (Xinhua/Yang Chenglin)
WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Negotiators from the United States and Canada on Wednesday resumed trade talks here to bridge their differences on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) after the two sides failed to reach a deal last week.
"Our officials have continued to work hard and constructively over the weekend and we are looking forward to constructive conversations today," Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters on Wednesday in Washington.
The trade talks came after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that there is "no political necessity" to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal.
"If we don't make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out," Trump said via Twitter, threatening to terminate the 24-year-old trilateral trade deal.
The White House has pressured Canada to accept the preliminary agreement it struck with Mexico last Monday to update the trilateral trade deal. But Canada insisted that it would only sign a new agreement that is good for the country.
One of the major sticking points in the talks is a so-called dispute resolution system, contained in Chapter 19 of the original NAFTA agreement. The United States has proposed to scrap the dispute resolution system that Canada regard as crucial.
"We' ve said from the very beginning that we need a dispute resolution mechanism like Chapter 19 and we will hold firm on that," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday.
"As I've said, we will not sign a deal that is bad for Canadians and, quite frankly, not having a Chapter 19 to ensure that the rules are followed would be bad for Canadians," he said.
While U.S. officials have indicated that they are prepared to go ahead and sign a NAFTA deal only with Mexico, the U.S. business community and many lawmakers have insisted that the NAFTA deal should remain a trilateral pact.
"Anything other than a trilateral agreement won't win congressional approval and would lose business support," President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Thomas Donohue said last week.
Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden on Tuesday also refuted Trump's assertion that he could unilaterally withdraw from NAFTA without congressional approval.
"The president needs to take a look at the Constitution - it gives Congress authority over trade. The president cannot pull America out of NAFTA without Congress's permission," Wyden said in a statement.
Talks on renegotiating the NAFTA began in August 2017 as Trump threatened to withdraw from the trilateral trade deal, which he claimed harmed U.S. industries and jobs.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 02:51:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
ABUJA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria's hydrological body Wednesday issued an alert over possible flooding due to the high intensity of rainfall across the country.
The warning became imperative due to the flooding incidents being experienced in some parts of the country, Ahmed Bashar, acting director-general of Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), said in Abuja, the nation's capital.
The months of July, August and September, otherwise known as "JAS months," remained a critical period of flooding in the country, he said.
The 2018 Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP) released earlier this year by the agency gave Sept. 28 as the earliest cessation date of rainfall in northwest Sokoto and Katsina states.
He said December remained the earliest cessation date for the southern coastal cities.
Bashar said the flood level and the discharge of River Niger had continued to increase, adding that the public must take caution to avert any serious losses.
He said the earlier warning that some states -- Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, Kogi, Edo, Anambra, Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa -- stood the risk of experiencing river flooding remained unchanged.
The water levels were rising on both Rivers Niger and Benue respectively, he added, noting that the report should not pose widespread panic as the Cameroonian government had yet to release water from Lagdo Dam.
Earlier this year, heavy rains and thunderstorms caused havoc in Lagos, Nigeria's economic nerve center and one of Africa's most populous cities.
Some of the worst flooding in recent memory happened five years ago in March 2012 when 32 of Nigeria's 36 states were affected, 24 severely. More than 360 people were killed and almost 2 million people were displaced.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 02:51:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
SKOPJE, Sept.5 (Xinhua) -- Six Macedonian municipalities received from the World Bank Municipal Services Improvement Project the amount of 290 million Macedonian Denar (5.5 million U.S. dollars) for the realization of construction projects, local media reported on Wednesday.
The agreements were signed by the mayors of the municipalities of Kisela Vosa, Kavadarci, Ilinden, Studenicani, Zelino and Centar Zupa with the Macedonian Minister of Finance Dragan Tevdovski and the World Bank country director Marco Mantovanelli.
The projects include the construction and reconstruction of local roads, storm water systems and reconstruction of elementary schools.
"The signing of these projects aim at providing better services to citizens and develop local economy," underlined Tevdovski.
Mantovanelli declared that this is a long-term program and these agreements are the first to be signed.
Over 70 projects in more than 40 municipalities in Macedonia have been realized so far under the framework of the Municipal Services Improvement Project implemented but the Finance ministry in Macedonia and funded by the World Bank and supported by European Union.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 03:01:43|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Britain has requested a Security Council meeting for Thursday on new developments concerning the poisoning of a former Russian spy in southern England in March 2018.
"We have asked for a Security Council meeting so that we can update council members as we have undertaken to do. And we expect that session to be scheduled for tomorrow morning," Karen Pierce, the British ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters on Wednesday.
Britain has charged two Russians in absentia with the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal, a 66-year-old former Russian spy who became a double agent for Britain, with a military-grade nerve agent in Salisbury, England, in March.
Russia has denied any involvement in the poisoning incident.
The Salisbury poisoning triggered a diplomatic war between Russia and the West, resulting in the mutual expulsion of dozens of diplomats.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 03:06:44|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
LONDON, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- A call for the age of marriage in Britain to be raised to 18 was proposed Wednesday in the House of Commons.
Lawmaker Mrs Pauline Latham, a member of the ruling Conservative Party, put forward a new bill calling on British Prime Minister Theresa May's government to make the change.
Currently in Britain, people are allowed to marry without consent of their parents at the age of 18, but if their parents agree, teens can marry at the age of 16.
For centuries it has led to hundreds of young couples eloping across the English border to Scotland to marry in the blacksmith's workshop at the world famous Gretna Green. At the time 16 and 17 years old did not need parental approval if they married in Scotland.
Many people over the age of consent still head to Gretna Green because of its long-standing link with romance and runaway lovers.
Latham told MPs at Westminster that young people in Britain have to stay in education or training until they are 18, although they can marry before that, at the age of 16, but only with parental consent.
She said UNICEF believes that marriage before the age of 18 is a fundamental violation of human rights.
"I agree, and believe that it should be banned in this country," she said.
Britain's Department for International Development has already allocated 50 million U.S. dollars to support global efforts in preventing child marriages.
"By its proactive contribution, the UK recognised that child marriages resulted in early pregnancy and girls facing social isolation, interrupted schooling, limited career and vocational opportunities, as well as the increased risk of domestic violence. So why are we not leading the way by increasing the legal age of marriage in this country from 16 to 18--the recognised age of adulthood?" she told MPs.
She said under UN sustainable development goals, states around the world have pledged to end by 2030 marriages in which one or both spouses are under 18, but many Commonwealth countries still follow the legal lead of Britain.
Latham recalled how campaigners fought for a marriages law in Britain in the 1920s, saying that until then there was no defined minimum age at which people could marry.
"90 years ago, most young people would have been wage earners, unlike now when, in England, they must stay in full-time education, training or start an apprenticeship. None of these is compatible with a married environment. My own mother, along with very many others, began her working life after leaving school at 14. Life was very different in those days," she said.
She added: "Marriage is a major life decision for which children are not emotionally and physically ready. Setting the minimum age of marriage at 18 provides an objective, rather than subjective, standard of maturity, which safeguards a child from being married when they are not physically, mentally or emotionally ready."
Her proposed government bill is scheduled to return to the House of Commons on October 26.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi attends the roundtable meeting of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 4, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)
by Marwa Yahya
CAIRO, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- "The Egypt-China ties are in their best era," said Mostafa Ibrahim, chairman of the Egyptian Chinese Business Council (ECBC), citing that the two sides have just signed a number of cooperation deals worth 18.3 billion U.S. dollars.
China and Egypt signed the deals during a just-concluded visit to China by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who participated in the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on Sept. 3-4.
Among the deals include the construction of a pumping and storage station in the Mount Ataka area in northeast of Egypt, and a clean coal-fired power station in Hamrawein on the Red Sea coast, according to a statement by the Egyptian presidency.
"The signing of these contracts for major projects in Egypt is a leap in the volume of cooperation between the two countries," Ibrahim told Xinhua in an interview.
The Chinese investments also include a textile industrial project, a refinery and a petrochemicals complex in the Suez Canal corridor area.
"The expected investments to be pumped in the projects will lift the bilateral cooperation to a new level," Ibrahim said.
He said that Egypt, with its population exceeding 100 million, is certainly a promising market for the Chinese investments.
Ibrahim said that China, which is seeking opportunities for more investments in foreign markets, is qualified to be part of Egypt's plan to develop its manufacturing sector by constructing new roads and factories.
He hailed the mutual ties between Egypt and China as "important and in continuous progress," noting that the latest visit of President Sisi to Beijing has added more assets to the relations.
The China-Egypt relations have witnessed steady development over the years, especially since they were upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2014.
Sisi's participation in the FOCAC summit is his fifth visit to China since assuming office in 2014.
More than 1,500 Chinese companies are operating in Egypt, including 702 in the industrial sector, 432 in the services sector, 70 in construction, 79 in communication and information technology, 47 in agriculture, and six in tourism, the state-run Ahram newspaper reported citing Egypt General Authority for Investment and Free Zones.
The Chinese companies are participating in several major projects in Egypt, like the construction of the new administrative capital, Ibrahim said.
"Definitely the ties with China are special and Egypt undoubtedly desires to further promote it," he said.
"Egypt is the basic partner for China in Africa and the Middle East, and Beijing realizes that Cairo is the gate to Africa," he added.
Ibrahim believes the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative will raise the efficiency of trade between China and other countries, including China.
The initiative, proposed by China in 2013, aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Africa and Europe by reviving the ancient Silk Road trade routes.
"Egypt will benefit the most in light of its unique geographic position, as well as the Suez Canal," he said.
He said the FOCAC summit in Beijing "is a golden opportunity for Africa to promote its ties with China. Africa should use the forum for achieving important benefits by cooperating with China."
Ibrahim lauded China's promise at the summit to provide 60 billion U.S. dollars in free aid, loans and special funds to support Africa's development as "a great move for achieving development in Africa."
Egypt will certainly be part of that progress, he said.
"That package of aid that doesn't seek political conditions will boost the relations between the two sides," said Ibrahim.
"What made the China-Africa ties special is that China aims at developing the African countries without intervention in their domestic affairs," he added.
Udayapur District Court orders jail term for 2 rapists
The District Court Udayapur has convicted a youth to 12 years in prison on the charge of raping a minor.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 03:31:49|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
BEIRUT, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's economic bodies said Wednesday to take escalated measures if authorities do not accelerate the formation of the government, said a statement issued by the Chamber of Commerce, Agriculture and Industry in Beirut.
"We will not spare any efforts to take the necessary measures to stop the economy from deteriorating further," said the statement.
Economic bodies vowed to hold a series of discussions with General Labor Union and other syndicates in a bid to agree on the measures that should be taken next.
Lebanese Prime Minister designate Saad Hariri has been facing various hurdles to form a 30-member national unity government over the representations of the main Christian parties, the Druze sect and the Sunni representations from outside Hariri's Future Movement.
Local analysts warned on several occasions against the negative repercussions of any delay in cabinet formation.
Ghazi Wazne, a Lebanese independent economist, told Xinhua that the delay formation of government is sending a negative message to both investors and tourists.
"The unstable political and economic situation is affecting the arrival of tourists to Lebanon in addition to consumption by expatriates," the economist noted.
Moreover, Lebanese traders are appealing for quicker government formation to save the deteriorating retail sectors over the past year.
Retail shops in Lebanon suffered a 30-percent to 40-percent drop in sales in 2017, prompting many owners to shut down business to limit losses, Adnan Rammal, a member of Beirut's Merchants Association, told Xinhua.
Rammal said all retail sectors have witnessed a drop in sales except for basic items such as food and fuel.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 03:31:49|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
PRAGUE, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- A small Robinson helicopter crashed on Wednesday afternoon in Plzen, Czech Republic, killing three men and one woman, said Martin Brejcha, spokesman for the emergency service.
The accident occurred at 5:20 p.m. Wednesday. Two persons suffered injuries incompatible with life and died at the site. Another two members of the crew died despite all the efforts of the rescuers, said Brejcha.
The helicopter crashed on a production shop, fortunately there was no one in the shop and the company plant at the time of the crash, said firefighters spokesman Petr Poncar.
The helicopter remained hanging on the construction of the shop and partly falling through it. Poncar said some liquids leaked from the helicopter, but the leak was not big, and there would not be any danger for a fire. He said the firefighters, after consultation with the Institute for Air Accident Investigation, will stabilize the building and then rescue the helicopter.
A statics expert, who has checked the building, said there was no threat that the construction might fall.
File Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump (2nd L) welcomes visiting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (1st L) at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on Oct. 11, 2017. Trump met with Trudeau amid new NAFTA negotiations. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)
WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Negotiators from the United States and Canada on Wednesday resumed trade talks here to bridge their differences on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) after the two sides failed to reach a deal last week.
"Our officials have continued to work hard and constructively over the weekend and we are looking forward to constructive conversations today," Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters on Wednesday in Washington.
The trade talks came after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that there is "no political necessity" to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal.
"If we don't make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out," Trump said via Twitter, threatening to terminate the 24-year-old trilateral trade deal.
The White House has pressured Canada to accept the preliminary agreement it struck with Mexico last Monday to update the trilateral trade deal. But Canada insisted that it would only sign a new agreement that is good for the country.
One of the major sticking points in the talks is a so-called dispute resolution system, contained in Chapter 19 of the original NAFTA agreement. The United States has proposed to scrap the dispute resolution system that Canada regard as crucial.
"We've said from the very beginning that we need a dispute resolution mechanism like Chapter 19 and we will hold firm on that," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday.
"As I've said, we will not sign a deal that is bad for Canadians and, quite frankly, not having a Chapter 19 to ensure that the rules are followed would be bad for Canadians," he said.
While U.S. officials have indicated that they are prepared to go ahead and sign a NAFTA deal only with Mexico, the U.S. business community and many lawmakers have insisted that the NAFTA deal should remain a trilateral pact.
"Anything other than a trilateral agreement won't win congressional approval and would lose business support," President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Thomas Donohue said last week.
Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden on Tuesday also refuted Trump's assertion that he could unilaterally withdraw from NAFTA without congressional approval.
"The president needs to take a look at the Constitution - it gives Congress authority over trade. The president cannot pull America out of NAFTA without Congress's permission," Wyden said in a statement.
Talks on renegotiating the NAFTA began in August 2017 as Trump threatened to withdraw from the trilateral trade deal, which he claimed harmed U.S. industries and jobs.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 03:56:55|Editor: huaxia
Video Player Close
HARARE, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's legislators were on Wednesday sworn in for five-year terms following their election in the July 30 polls.
The members of the ninth parliament took oath of office before Clerk of Parliament Kennedy Chokuda.
The swearing-in of the 350 law makers is expected to pave the way for appointment of a new cabinet by President Emmerson Mnangagwa who was inaugurated on Aug. 26.
Zimbabwean law stipulates that cabinet ministers should be appointed from among legislators, but it also allows for up to five to be picked from outside parliament for their professional skills and competence.
Zimbabwe's parliament is made up of 270 Members of the National Assembly and 80 Senators.
The ruling ZANU-PF party won a two-thirds majority after garnering 145 seats of the 210 contested seats in the National Assembly against opposition MDC Alliance's 63.
Two other seats were won by an independent candidate and a member of the opposition National Patriotic Front.
In addition, ZANU-PF got 35 women quota seats, the MDC Alliance 24 while the splinter MDC-T party got one seat.
In the Senate, ZANU-PF has 36 seats, MDC alliance 23, MDC-T one while traditional chiefs and people living with disabilities have 18 and two seats respectively.
President Mnangagwa has set Sept. 11 as the date for the first sitting of parliament specifically for both houses to elect their respective presiding officers.
According to legal think-tank Veritas, both houses will then adjourn for about two weeks to allow time for induction of the large-number of first-time members who constitute approximately 60 percent of the total membership. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 04:26:59|Editor: Liangyu
Video Player Close
Wu Haitao (front), China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, speaks at a Security Council open debate on the situation in Nicaragua at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 5, 2018. China reiterated on Wednesday its stance that all countries' sovereignty should be respected at a United Nations Security Council open debate on the situation in Nicaragua. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- China reiterated on Wednesday its stance that all countries' sovereignty should be respected at a United Nations Security Council open debate on the situation in Nicaragua.
Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, said China has consistently called for the respect for countries' sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity as well as adherence to the non-interference in internal affairs principle.
Wu also said in his brief remarks that China holds the view that the situation in Nicaragua does not constitute a threat to international peace and security and the Security Council should not get involved.
At the debate marked by evident divide, the United States led the accusation against Nicaragua of declining "into a failed, corrupt, and dictatorial state," while some others rejected the discussion on the matter.
Mostly notably, Russia questioned if the council's mandate includes exerting pressure on a sovereign state to "negotiate certain changes thereby conceding to anti-government forces."
The agenda of the debate was put forward by the United States upon assuming presidency of the Security Council for September.
Nicaragua has been in turmoil since anti-government protests erupted on April 18. The government's countermeasures and ensuing violence have resulted in some 300 deaths and 2,000 injury casualties, according to a report released last week by the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 04:32:01|Editor: Li Xia
Video Player Close
TEL AVIV, Israel, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of high-tech professionals, including delegations from China, gathered at the Israeli Digital Life Design (DLD) festival, which started on Wednesday in central Israel's Tel-Aviv.
The professionals, including just-getting-started entrepreneurs and seasoned investors, arrived in Tel Aviv for the annual festival, the biggest high-tech gathering in the country.
Chairman of DLD festival Yossi Vardi said that "13 delegations from China arrived to participate in the high-tech festival. I wish more and more Chinese entrepreneurs will come in the coming years."
In recent years, Chinese companies have become active in making investment in Israel from traditional sectors to medical services, clean technology and internet. Some leading Chinese firms such as Huawei, Legend and Xiaomi have set up R&D centers in Israel.
"Over 80 Israeli companies has already raised capital from China," said Chairman of Israel innovation Authority Amiram Appelbaum. He hopes the cooperation between China and Israel will continue and go deeper.
Events such as discussions, workshops, topical breakouts and networking opportunities will be carried out during the two-day conference.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 04:42:02|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
CAIRO, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) signed a loan agreement of 600 million U.S. dollars with China Development Bank (CDB) in the Chinese capital Beijing, the NBE announced in a statement on Wednesday.
NBE Chairman Hisham Okasha said that the loan aimed at "financing the working capital of NBE's clients."
He added that the loan's approval reflected confidence of the international institutions in the Egyptian economy under the ongoing reform program as well as in the financial position of the NBE.
Okasha underscored strong cooperation between NBE and CDB over the past six years that led to financing infrastructure projects as well as small and medium enterprises in Egypt.
CDB is the largest Chinese bank for foreign investment and financing cooperation. It has previously provided loans to Egyptian major financial institutions including SAIBANK and Banque Misr.
Egypt has been going through a strict three-year economic reform program since late 2016.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 04:57:07|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
RAMALLAH, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinians condemned on Wednesday the Israeli Supreme Court's decision to demolish the Bedouin Village of al-Khan al-Ahmar in east of Jerusalem.
The Israeli court rejected the appeal of the village residents to stop their deportation and demolition of their facilities, said Walid Assaf, head of the Palestinian Authority Wall and Settlements Colonization Resistance Committee.
He said that the court has finally decided to proceed with the demolition within a week, adding that an alert was announced in the village.
"The Court's decision affirms the crime of forced displacement, ethnic cleansing and mass destruction practiced by Israel against Palestinian communities and isolating them in cantons," said Assaf.
Adnan Husseini, in charge of Jerusalem affairs in Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told Xinhua that "the decision of the Israeli court is a proof that the Israeli judiciary is one of the tools of the occupation."
The decision will not change the Palestinian position to reject the plan of demolishing the village of Al-Khan Al-Ahmar and Palestinians are determined to confront it by all available means, the PLO official stressed.
He warned that the plan to demolish the village falls within the framework of a settlement plan to strangle the city of Jerusalem and isolate it from the West Bank.
Al-Khan Al-Ahmar is a Bedouin area near the Ma'aleh Adumim and Kfar Adumim settlements, east of Jerusalem, whose residents live in tents and tin shacks.
Approximately 200 Palestinian Bedouins live in this gathering, 53 percent of whom are children and 95 percent are Palestinian refugees registered within the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
On May, the Israeli Supreme Court decided to demolish the village, which has a school serving 170 pupils in the area.
The village is surrounded by a number of Israeli settlements. It is part of the land that the Israeli authorities are targeting for the implementation of its "E1" settlement project, which is to undermine prospects for a two-state solution.
Palestinian government spokesperson Yousef al-Mahmoud said that the court's verdict "is an aggression on the principles of human rights and the abolition of agreements between human beings to preserve their rights to their property, homes and lives."
President Abbas Fatah Party spokesman Osama al-Qawasmeh called on the Palestinian people "to go to the village and defend it from the barbaric decision to demolish the village and deport its people."
In Gaza, Islamic Hamas movement said in a press statement that the Israeli court's decision is "a crime," adding that "The courts are tools that implement the policy of the Israeli authorities."
Hamas held Israel responsible for the consequences "of the new crime," calling on the Palestinian people "to revolt in the face of the occupier and resist it to stop its crimes and topple its settlement schemes."
The Palestinians accuse Israel of launching an attack on the Bedouin communities adjacent to the eastern part of Jerusalem and practicing "ethnic cleansing" in favor of settlement construction.
Israel usually justifies its demolitions because of construction without a permit, but Palestinian and international human rights organizations say Israel rarely issues building permits.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 05:07:09|Editor: Liangyu
Video Player Close
by Eric J. Lyman
ROME, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Italy, until recently among the European states pushing hardest for a comprehensive development policy in Africa, can now describe its strategy for the second largest continent with one word "migration", according to some analysts.
The new Italian government under Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, installed June 1, has taken a strict stance against allowing asylum seekers to land on Italian shores. Part of that strategy involves funneling money and ships to the Libyan Coast Guard in an effort to keep would-be migrants on African shores.
"Right now, from the standpoint of Italy, look south to Africa and all you see is Libya," Andrea Dessi, a researcher with the Instituto Affari Internazionale (Institute for Foreign Affairs), told Xinhua. "Libya is the broken piece of the puzzle."
In recent years, Paolo Gentiloni, who was Italy's prime minister for the two years ending when the Conte government took power in June, and minister for foreign affairs from 2014 to 2016, was among the European leaders pushing hardest for development aid in Africa.
In 2016, then-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi became the first sitting Italian head of government in more than 70 years to visit Africa saying the relationship between Europe and the continent to its south represented "an enormous opportunity for both sides."
"The idea at the time was to help the poorest Africans in their house so they didn't want to come to our house," Dessi said.
It is questionable how effective those efforts were. But even in that context, Italy's new government represents a dramatic departure from previous governments, analysts say.
"The migrant issue is like a loud noise that drowns out every other sound," Alfonso Giordano, a professor of political geography at Rome's LUISS University, said in an interview. "Ask Matteo Salvini (Italy's minister of the interior) and he will say migration is the only priority for Italy in Africa."
That does not mean Italian companies don't continue to be active in Africa. The country maintains more than a dozen active chambers of commerce on the continent.
But government investment and attention are another matter: Dessi said that while the government has deployed some Italian troops in Niger and has increased its funding for the United Nations Trust Fund for Africa, even those moves are related to slowing migration. Niger, he said, is emerging as a "key choke point" for migrants traveling from other parts of the continent en route to Libya.
"There was a time when Italian leaders would talk about humanitarian aid, development projects, even of a kind of Marshall Plan for Africa," Dessi said, referring to the United States-funded program in the late 1940s and early 1950s to help rebuild Europe after World War II. "That kind of discussion is long gone now. Everything is about border security, terrorism, and migration now."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 05:27:16|Editor: huaxia
Video Player Close
RABAT, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Morocco has joined the global compact for Universal Health Coverage 2030 (UHC 2030), Morocco's Health Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Morocco joined the compact after signing it on the sidelines of a World Health Organization ministerial meeting on "the Road to UHC in the Eastern Mediterranean," held on Sept. 3 to 5 in Oman, the statement said.
This convention consolidates the commitment of Morocco in favor of the generalization of medical coverage by 2030, it said.
According to the ministry, Morocco is considering effective implementation of the health coverage system for self-employed workers exercising a liberal activity at the beginning of 2019.
The UHC 2030 Global Compact aims to build a political momentum and advocate for sufficient, appropriate and well-coordinated resource allocations to health systems.
By joining UHC2030, signatories will have access to a network of global health experts and the chance to share experiences and work collectively to strengthen health systems. Enditem
Wives of Reuters reporters jailed in Myanmar call for their release
The wives of two Reuters journalists in Myanmar jailed for seven years on official secrets charges insisted on Tuesday that the men were innocent and called for them to be released and reunited with their young families as soon as possible, Reuters reported.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 05:37:18|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
RABAT, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Eleventh Arab Energy Conference will be convened in the Moroccan city of Marrakech on October 1-4 under the theme "Energy and Arab Cooperation."
Organized by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) and the League of Arab States, the conference aims at establishing an Arab institutional framework to review oil and energy issues in order to develop a pan-Arab perspective.
It also meant to harmonizing energy policies with development issues, assessing energy resources existing in the Arab countries and coordinating efforts towards developing these resources.
According to a statement from OAPEC, discussions will cover the transformations in global oil and gas markets and their implications for Arab oil exports, energy security as a global partnership, investment requirements to develop the energy sector in Arab Countries.
Discussions will also include Arab and world energy resources, petroleum downstream industries in Arab countries and the world, Arab cooperation in electric power field and energy demand management in Arab countries.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 05:52:20|Editor: Yang Yi
Video Player Close
by Stefania Fumo
VENICE, Italy, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Italian actress and director Valeria Bruni Tedeschi presented her sixth directorial effort, The Summer House, out of competition at the Venice film Festival on Wednesday.
An intimate and personal story played by an ensemble cast of award-winning French and Italian actors, the movie tells the story of a woman on holiday on the French Riviera, where she grapples with a break-up and the writing of her next film amidst the intersecting fears, desires, and power relations of her family, friends and house staff.
The trademark of Bruni Tedeschi as both an actress and a director is her light, tender, intelligent and complex touch in her portrayal of relationships.
"In this movie I found a musical, agreeable, new and musical form of expression," said Bruni Tedeschi.
The movie is Bruni Tedeschi's third feature in a semi-autobiographical trilogy that includes It's Easier for a Camel... (2003), about the flight to France of her wealthy family after it was targeted by leftwing terrorists, and Actresses (2007), in which she examines the conflict between being an artist and the desire for motherhood.
Bruni Tedeschi, who turns 54 in November, has 89 acting credits and dozens of awards her belt, and knows how to make actors feel both challenged and at ease.
"Working with (Bruni Tedeschi) means being free and protected at the same time," said Italy's award-winning Valeria Golino, who was in the cast along with French actor Pierre Arditi, Riccardo Scamarcio from Italy, and celebrated American documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman.
"I entrust myself to her, and she can ask me to do anything," Golino continued. "I can be at my worst with her, without feeling ashamed."
Golino was echoed by Scamarcio, who explained that he was so afraid to be in Bruni Tedeschi's movie that he failed twice to show up for the audition.
"I am completely disarmed with her -- knowing this about myself, I tried as hard as I could to avoid making this movie," he said.
"I hadn't read the script, so I didn't know that this is exactly what my character does -- he runs away. By not going to the audition, I got the part."
The Venice Film Festival, now in its 75th edition, will end on Sept. 8.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 06:02:23|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
LONDON, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Opposition politicians rounded on Prime Minister Theresa May Wednesday over her handling of Britain's departure from the European Union (EU).
May faced an avalanche of questions during the first session of Prime Ministers Questions following the summer closure of the Houses of Parliament.
The fiercest attacks came from the main opposition leader, Labour's Jeremy Corbyn.
But it was the Scottish Nationalist Party's leader at Westminster, Ian Blackford, who slammed her Brexit blueprint she unveiled after a summit at her Chequers summer retreat.
"Why is the Prime Minister gambling with Scotland's future by taking us out of the EU against our will with her disastrous Chequers plan," he asked May.
Blackford said the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has said her Chequers plan is "not acceptable" while former Bank of England chief Mervyn King has called the government's preparations "incompetent".
"With the clock ticking down, will the Prime Minister finally concede that backing the single market and customs union is the only option to protect jobs, the economy and the Northern Ireland Good Friday agreement," he stormed.
May told Blackford: "The only people gambling with Scotland's future are those in the Scottish National party, who want to take Scotland out of the United Kingdom."
May repeated what she had already told Labour's Corbyn, adding "We have put forward a proposal, under the Chequers plan, that protects jobs and livelihoods, that ensures that we deliver on the vote of the British people and that ensures that we deliver on no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland and maintain the Union of the United Kingdom."
She said Barnier has put forward another proposal, which creates a border down the Irish sea. "I have said that it is unacceptable to me as Prime Minister."
Corbyn in his attack said to May: "The International Trade Secretary (Liam Fox) has said that he is unfazed by no deal; the new Foreign Secretary (Jeremy Hunt) said no deal would be a "huge geostrategic mistake"; and the Chancellor (Philip Hammond) wrote to the Treasury Committee stating that a no deal Brexit would slash GDP by almost 8 percent which is comparable with the global financial crash."
He asked May: "Which assessment does she agree with?"
May responded by saying the director of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) said that no deal would not be a "walk in the park" but it would not be the "end of the world".
"The government are right to make the necessary preparations for no deal while working for a good deal to ensure that we deliver on the vote of the British people, that we come out of the European Union on 29 March 2019, and that we do so in a way that protects jobs and livelihoods, ensures no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland and maintains the precious Union of our United Kingdom. On one thing I am clear: we are working for that outcome and we will not have a second referendum."
Earlier in a session on Northern Ireland, Labour politician Kerry McCarthy said a poll this week said that people in Northern Ireland would vote for a united Ireland if a hard border was put in place on the island of Ireland.
"Are not the government sacrificing the Union (Great Britain) on this altar? Would not the best solution be to move forward with plans to stay in the single market, stay in the customs union, avoid a hard border, and protect the people of Northern Ireland from Brexit?" McCarthy asked.
Northern Ireland minister Shailesh Vara replied: "It is our intention that there will be no hard border and no physical infrastructure. The people of this country voted in the referendum, and this government's intention is to make sure that we are not part of the single market or the customs union. The whole United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, will be leaving those two institutions."
Although across Britain people voted in the 2016 referendum by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent to leave the EU, there was a majority for remain in Northern Ireland.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 06:07:25|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
DUBAI, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) international carrier Emirates Airlines issued an apology to its passengers for the inconvenience as dozens of passengers fell sick on flight EK203 from Dubai to New York on Wednesday.
According to the Dubai government-controlled carrier, the cause of the illness remained unclear yet. It said that "the safety and care of customers are our first priority."
The UAE daily The National quoted passenger Erin Sykes saying "the ill passengers were coughing and were sick to their stomachs."
"Emirates can confirm that all passengers have disembarked from flight EK203 and were screened by local health authorities prior to disembarkation. Three passengers and seven crew members were transferred to the hospital for further medical care and evaluation," Emirates tweeted.
The carrier added that "all other passengers were allowed to leave. Our crew and on-ground staff extended full cooperation with the authorities. The aircraft is now handed back to Emirates."
The airline said further that "due to the delay with EK203, the return flight EK204 from New York JFK Airport to Dubai will be delayed by approximate 3 hours. Passengers with connecting flights in Dubai who are impacted by the delay will be assisted with rebookings by our local ground staff."
The flight duration from the Gulf Arab emirate of Dubai to New York is approximately 14 hours.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an event honoring the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection services in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Aug. 20, 2018. ( AFP Photo)
WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump continued his attacks Wednesday on an explosive book about his administration.
Trump said the book, written by U.S. veteran investigative journalist Bob Woodward, "means nothing" and called it "a work of fiction" during a photo op with visiting Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah at the White House.
Woodward's book -- "Fear: Trump in the White House" -- is to be released next week.
According to excerpts obtained by media outlets, Trump's aides describe him as a "liar" and an "idiot" who is running a "crazytown."
"Isn't it a shame that someone can write an article or book, totally make up stories and form a picture of a person that is literally the exact opposite of the fact, and get away with it without retribution or cost," Trump tweeted earlier in the day.
He also tweeted out written statements of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Secretary of Defense James Mattis, both of whom denied uttering quoted criticisms of the president in the book.
In a statement to The Washington Post, Woodward said, "I stand by my reporting."
The book was based on hundreds of hours of conversations with direct players, according to the author.
Woodward has been a reporter at the The Washington Post since 1971 and remains an associate editor there.
He is most famous for breaking the story of the Watergate scandal, which promoted the resignation of Richard Nixon from the presidency in 1974.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 06:27:28|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video Player Close
LONDON, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Britain criticized U.S. policy in the Middle East and announced that it was increasing its share of funding to a UN relief agency that helps Palestinians, The Times newspaper reported Wednesday.
Alistair Burt, British minister for the Middle East, told members of the British parliament that the British government did not believe that the U.S. decision to scrap funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which helps Palestinians, was correct.
Last week the U.S. government, which contributed about a quarter of the UN agency's budget 900 million pounds (1,161 million U.S. dollars) last year, said that it would stop its contributions.
Burt said that the UK would raise funding by 7 million pounds (9.03 million U.S. dollars).
British sources hinted that a further rise in contributions was likely, according to the major newspaper. The additional funding is to ensure that the UN agency can maintain services such as healthcare and schools in the immediate future, as well as encouraging other countries to increase their budget.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 07:02:38|Editor: Li Xia
Video Player Close
LIMA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Peruvian authorities have arrested 30 suspected members of a criminal ring involved in drug trafficking and murder, Interior Minister Mauro Medina said on Wednesday.
Known as the "San Martin Executioners," the gang operated in the northern department of San Martin, hiring out members as hitmen, and running extortion, robbery and bribery schemes, as well as trafficking drugs and money laundering, the official said.
Alleged gang leader Segundo Quispe, who was caught in the northern city of Moyobamba, has been linked to at least nine cases of homicide since 2016 and 26 aggravated robberies, Medina said via Twitter.
The minister said 10 months of investigative work led to the arrests, which dealt a "significant blow" to organized crime in the region.
The arrests were made as part of a massive dragnet carried out with the help of the national police force.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 07:12:39|Editor: Li Xia
Video Player Close
WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said here on Wednesday that it is possible for him to meet with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani later at the United Nations.
Speaking before a bilateral meeting with Kuwait's visiting Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Trump said "anything is possible" regarding the meeting.
"Whether they want to talk or not, that's up to them, not up to me," he said. "I will always be available ... we'll see what happens."
Trump said on July 30 that he is ready to meet with Rouhani without preconditions.
"I'd meet with anybody. I believe in meeting," Trump said. "They want to meet, I'll meet. Any time they want. Good for the country. Good for them. Good for us. And good for the world."
However, the United States in August re-imposed sanctions on Iran that had been suspended under a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.
Rouhani said in response that the Iranians would make the United States "regretful" for its renewal of sanctions.
He also said that the U.S. administration "is not trustworthy for any negotiations" after its withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal, since "negotiations with sanctions don't make sense."
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also said lately that any negotiation with the United States to solve the existing problems is an "obvious mistake."
U.S.-Iranian relations have been at odds 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.
Calling UK Nationals living in Hungary, and Hungarians and other EU nationals interested in Brexit: Her Majestys Ambassador to Hungary has fresh news and helpful advice for you about the UKs departure from the EU.
Iain Lindsay OBE: Over the last few months I have met many UK nationals here in Hungary and have discussed what the UKs departure from the European Union means for UK nationals living here. I am writing now to set out where negotiations have got to and to let you know how you can best stay informed.
What has happened in the negotiations between the EU and the UK?
From the beginning of this process, the Prime Minister has been clear that safeguarding the rights of UK nationals living in the EU and EU citizens living in the UK is her first priority for the negotiations. In December last year the UK and the European Commission reached a comprehensive agreement on reciprocal protection of UK and EU citizens rights.
In March this year, the Commission and the UK announced that the commitments made in December had been translated into legal text. We also agreed the terms of a time-limited implementation period until 31 December 2020, which will give citizens like you more time to make any preparations.
During the implementation period, UK nationals will be able to visit, live and work in the EU broadly as they do now. UK nationals currently living in the EU who want to move to a different Member State will be able to continue to do so during the implementation period. This marks an important step towards finalising the full Withdrawal Agreement.
What does that mean in practice?
The agreement means that as UK nationals living in Hungary, you and your family members will be able to carry on living your lives as you do now. You will be able to carry on living, working or studying in Hungary for as long as you want to.
Your rights to remain in Hungary will be protected now, during the implementation period and beyond. You will continue (now and in the future) to be able to access entitlements to social security on the same basis as Hungarian citizens living in Hungary.
You will be entitled to have your social security contributions made before and after exit in the UK, or in another Member State, count towards a future UK or EU Member State pension. Your children will continue to enjoy access to education on the same basis that Hungarian children do. In short, most of what you do (or are entitled to do) on a daily basis will not change.
What is still to be agreed?
Citizens Rights remains an important issue in our discussions about our future relationship with the EU. We have secured the right for you to continue living your life as you do now. But we would also like to discuss with the EU27 future life choices.
For example the right to onward free movement should you wish to move to another EU Member State and ambitious future provisions for wider use of mutual recognition of qualifications.
Arrangements for travel between the UK and EU beyond 2020 are also being discussed during the second phase of the negotiations. But we already know that up to 31 December 2020 you and your EU family members will continue to be able to travel to the UK as you do now.
In some cases where you have resided in an EU Member State for at least three months, your non-EU family members may also travel with you to the UK (please see the links below for more information).
Some UK nationals have raised concerns about what happens if an overall deal between the EU and the UK is not reached. It is important to say that we do not want or expect a no deal outcome.
It is also important to highlight the UK Government and the Commission have both stated that providing certainty for citizens is a priority. We believe it would be very unlikely for any agreed deal on citizens rights to be reopened.
On 12 July, the British Government published further information on our vision for the future relationship between the UK and the EU.
Free movement of people will end as the UK leaves the EU, but given the depth of the relationship and close ties between the peoples of the UK and the EU, the UK will seek reciprocal mobility arrangements with the EU in a defined number of areas, such as:
- supporting businesses to provide services and to move their talented people; allowing citizens to travel freely, without a visa, for tourism and temporary business activity;
- facilitating mobility for students and young people, enabling them to continue to benefit from world leading universities and the cultural experiences the UK and the EU have to offer; and
- providing arrangements to ensure that UK citizens living in the EU, in future, continue to benefit from their pension entitlements and associated healthcare.
What preparations should you make for the future?
The British Government has been clear that we will leave the European Union in March 2019 and that there will be a time-limited implementation period until 31 December 2020. We have agreed with the Commission that you will have a further 6 months after that period (i.e. until 30 June 2021) to make any necessary preparations according to what is required in the final Withdrawal Agreement.
If you have not done so already, I would strongly urge you to register with the Hungarian authorities. All UK nationals who have been residing in Hungary for 3 months and wish to continue to live here through self-sufficient means, or wish to continue studying or working here, must register with the relevant regional directorate of the Hungarian Immigration and Asylum Office. This is a long-standing requirement. The application fee is HUF 1,000. For further information, visit the website of the Immigration and Asylum Office.
The Hungarian Government along with other Member States are now making plans for the practical aspects of applying the Withdrawal Agreement. This includes any administrative procedures UK nationals will need to follow after our departure from the EU.
At our Town Hall event in January for UK nationals living in Hungary, many of you asked whether your residence documentation would remain the same.
We do not yet know, but are working closely with the Hungarian Government to ensure information is provided to UK nationals in a timely manner. We will publicise information provided by the Hungarian Government when this becomes available.
Your questions
During our discussions with you some common questions have arisen. Here is the most up-to-date information we have in response to the most pressing issues you have raised:
What if I/my family decide to move back to the UK?
If you wish to move back to the UK, you and your family members (both EU citizens and, in some cases, non-EU citizens) will be able to do so, broadly as now, until 31 December 2020. After that date, the UK Immigration Rules will apply where your family member is not a UK national. We are aware that this is an important issue for you.
The British Government is carefully considering a range of options for the UKs future immigration system. The UKs departure from the EU does not change nationality law and therefore the processes for registering children and applying for British passports remain the same. UK nationals are able to travel or return to the UK at any time, including after 31 December 2020.
Will I be able to move to another EU Member State after 29 March 2019?
During the implementation period (30 March 2019 until 31 December 2020), UK nationals will be able to move to another EU Member State as they can now. You will have until at least June 2021 to apply for a residence status in Hungary or any other Member State as necessary.
The Prime Minister has been clear that we want UK nationals living in the EU to continue their life broadly as they do now this includes the rights to onward movement.
Some of these UK nationals have chosen to make their lives in the EU, and this should be respected in the opportunities available to them if they decide to change their Member State of residence.
The UK Government will continue to seek to secure onward movement opportunities for UK nationals in the EU during the second phase of negotiations.
Will I have to pay tax in two countries?
The UKs exit from the European Union will not change existing double taxation arrangements. Double taxation agreements ensure that any individual (not just a British citizen) who is living in a country which has a treaty with the UK will not pay tax in two countries on the same income/gain and determines which country has primary taxing rights. The UK has a double taxation agreement with all EU Member States, which will continue to apply on withdrawal.
I am a lawyer. Will I be able to continue practising in Hungary?
We have agreed with the European Commission on the continued recognition of qualifications, where recognition decisions were received, or where recognition procedures were ongoing, before the end of the implementation period.
This will cover the European Professional Card; qualifications recognised under the Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications directive for the purpose of establishment (but not for the temporary and occasional provision of services); lawyers practising under host State title; approved statutory auditors; and persons engaged in the trade and distribution of toxic products.
This means lawyers within scope of the agreement (UK nationals living lawfully in the EU and EU lawyers living lawfully in the UK) who have become part of the host profession in the Member State where they are resident, should have that recognition grandfathered.
We recognise the importance of the right to practise under home title. Talks on this issue will continue into the next phase of negotiations, and we will seek to reach an agreement with the EU on this point as part of those further discussions.
Where can you find out more information
The UK Government website has a range of documents that concern the UKs departure from the EU, including a section on what you need to know as a British citizen living in the EU
The online Do I Need a Visa tool will be useful for those who are thinking of going on holiday to the UK with family members who are not British or EU citizens.
For those thinking about returning to the UK with family members who are not British or EU citizens
If you are unsure if your family member is a British Citizen
You can also find out more information about processes while in Hungary, including applying for a British passport or naturalisation
Our contact with UK nationals has shown that some of you are not sure what your entitlements and obligations are as EU citizens living in another Member State. It is impossible to put in writing detailed information that would reflect all of your individual circumstances and situations.
I would, however, encourage you to use the resources of the European Unions website, which has a whole range of easy-to-follow explanations of how pensions, social security payments, driving licences, education and a whole range of other topics in the EU work. The Your Europe website is available in all community languages.
One particular area of interest is how state pensions are calculated, particularly where you have been making contributions in more than one Member State, for example both in the UK and in Hungary. The above website explains how the relevant departments in EU Member States calculate entitlements. HM Revenue and Customs also have an online portal that allows you to check your National Insurance record.
A number of Champagne bars will operate inside Budapest restaurants in the near future, with the concept set to debut at this weekends Budapest Wine Festival.
"The Champagne Bar," a new franchise owned by Peter Barany, was created as a response to growing market demand, according to a press release sent to the Budapest Business Journal.
The franchises kiosk at the Budapest Wine Festival will feature 16 brands of Champagne alongside three kinds of sparkling wine from Hungarian producer Brebis, made exclusively with technology from Champagne.
"The demand for sparkling wines and Champagne is growing constantly, while nobody serves the whole selection available in Hungary," says Barany. "The main reason is that most distributors prefer one brand.
The speciality of The Champagne Bar is that it brings the different largest Champagne houses to the same place. The establishment of an independent catering spot is not a necessity, as the unit can be built in anywhere, easily."
Only expert sommeliers are allowed to stand behind the companys bars, and will occasionally hold tastings, workshops, and even Champagne dinners, according to the press release.
"Our aim is to cater to both guests with finer tastes and consumers who are only getting to know Champagne," adds Barany. "Therefore, we make quality Champagne and sparkling wines from the highest number of distributors accessible on the menu, alongside the traditional assortment."
The first separate Champagne bar will open in October at Jaszai Mari ter, with another already existing establishment to be remodeled at Liszt Ferenc ter in late fall.
According to the owners plans, two further popular downtown catering spots will be fitted with a bar next spring, with expansion to Debrecen and Szeged also planned.
At the 42nd Montreal World Film Festival, the prize for best film was awarded to Tamas Yvan Topolanszkys Curtiz, while Attila Szasz received the best directors prize for Eternal Winter.
The festival was held between August 23 and September 3, with 23 films from all over the world competing.
Curtiz is a biopic on Mihaly Kertesz, who directed the Oscar-winning Casablanca, one of the best-known films of Hollywoods Golden Era.
Kertesz changed his name to Michael Curtiz when he moved to the US.
The film shows the difficulties of production, while Curtiz also fears the possible risks of making an anti-Nazi film to his loved ones lives in Nazi-occupied Hungary.
Szaszs Eternal Winter tells the story of ethnic Germans in Hungary, who have been deported to Soviet labour camps in 1944.
Directors Orsi Nagypals Open and Mihaly Schwechtjes I hope you manage to die next time :), both the directors first feature films, also premiered at the festival.
Click here to learn more about Montreal Film Festival
Photo: Eternal Winter's web page
International civil groups have called on MEPs to vote for launching the European Unions Article 7 procedure against Hungary later this month, saying that the countrys leadership disregards the core values of the bloc.
The European Parliament is expected to vote on a report criticising the state of the rule of law in Hungary prepared by its civil liberties committee (LIBE) next Wednesday.
The report, authored by Green MEP Judith Sargentini, says there is a clear risk of a serious breach by Hungary of the values of the European Union, and calls for launching the Article 7 procedure, which suspends a member states voting rights.
In an open letter to MEPs, civil groups including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Civil Society Europe, the European Policy Institute of the Open Society Foundations, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and Climate Action Europe voiced their concerns over what they believe is Hungarys straying from the common path of the European Union built on respect by all member states for human rights, the rule of law and fundamental freedoms.
They said the current Hungarian government has stepped off this common path, curbing media freedom, freedom of association and undermining the independence of its courts.
If unchecked, the deterioration of respect for fundamental rights and the rule of law in Hungary will continue and spread further across Europe, they wrote. European leaders have accommodated, coaxed and warned the government of Hungary. Those efforts have proven futile. In fact, the lack of clear action has emboldened Hungarys increasingly autocratic leadership, they said.
Analysts say next weeks vote is likely to be close, as the LIBE reports approval will require a two-thirds majority of those present and an absolute majority among all MEPs. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will participate in the debate on the report on Sept. 11.
Ruling Fidesz said in response that US financier George Soross allies attacked Hungary again, wanting revenge on Hungarians. Hungary has halted the flow of migrants at its borders and demonstrated that migration is not an inevitable phenomenon that has to be accepted, Balazs Hidveghi, the partys communication chief, told public media.
The NGOs signing the letter want to flood Europe with migrants and are on Soross payroll, he said. Balazs Orban, state secretary of the Prime Ministers Office, said that the report is a patchwork resulting from a show trial motivated by political reasons.
It is part of the European parliamentary election campaign, which will be defined by the parties approach to migration, with the future of Europe at stake.
The state secretary said that the government had recently prolonged the state of emergency due to mass migration which was first introduced in September 2015.
There are continued attempts to enter the country illegally, the police regularly identify illegal immigrants, and thousands of migrants have been stranded on the Balkan route, waiting to enter the European Union, he said.
Hungary is the worlds seventh most favoured investment target, according to IBM Global Location Trends, a government official said. Commenting on the 2017 report, Tamas Menczer, state secretary for communications, said that in terms of high value-added foreign investments, Hungary is also at the forefront, ranking 16th.
At a press conference in Budapest, he noted a favourable economic environment for investors, one of the lowest personal income tax rates in Europe and its lowest corporation tax. Based on data recorded in 2017 Serbia came in first, followed by Lithuania then Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Not adjusted for the size of population the United States was first, China took second place and Mexico third. Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA) head Robert Esik said in 2017 IBM registered 121 investments in Hungary by foreigners, which created 17,500 jobs.
Around 5,500 jobs were created in Budapest, putting it in 6th place among European capitals. Esik noted that in the first half of 2018 HIPA helped attract 46 investments to Hungary valued at more than 2 billion euros in total and creating 7,000 jobs.
David B. Cornstein, the US ambassador to Hungary, at a business forum organised by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hungary (AmCham), described Hungarys workforce as exceptional and highly intelligent.
Cornstein highlighted Hungarys low corporate tax rate and said the governments measures encourage business activity.
He said it was terrible that Hungary receives 80% of its energy supply from a single other country. The ambassador said he believed the Hungarian government shares this sentiment, adding that they were working to have the US supply 40% of the countrys energy needs. Cornstein called Russia a disruptive nation.
On another subject, the ambassador called the situation of Budapests Central European University an emotional affair. He said it would be unfortunate if the CEU moved to Vienna, adding, at the same time, that he believed a solution to the problem was near.
Laszlo Szabo, Hungarys ambassador to the US, said many aspects of the two countries relations have changed over the past year.
He noted that US President Donald Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban spoke on the phone for the second time shortly before Cornstein had taken up his post in Budapest this past summer and thanked the ambassador for his support.
Szabo said the two countries trade relations have never been better. Hungarian exports to the US increased by more than 6%, while imports rose by 4% in Q2 of this year, he said.
Though bilateral relations went through some difficulties during the Obama administration, the two countries were allies in many ways, Szabo said.
Over 1,000 Hungarian troops participated in NATO missions in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan as well as in the fight against the Islamic State terrorist organisation. Szabo announced that Hungary will open a new incubator in Washington.
Last year, US companies made numerous significant investments in Hungary, he said, adding that US-based firms employ over 100,000 people in Hungary.
He said significant progress had been made in getting American liquefied natural gas to Hungary and voiced hope that once this goal is accomplished, Russias dominance of the natural gas market would come to an end.
MTI Photo: Mathe Zoltan
By RICHARD JENKINS
[email protected]
HOUGHTON Gogebic County Circuit Judge Michael Pope can continue to preside over the case of an inmate accused of escaping from the Gogebic County Jail, after 12th Circuit County Judge Charles Gibson affirmed Popes denial of a defense motion that he recuse himself.
Daniel G. Ferguson, 27, of Mercer, is facing three breaking and entering charges and one count of escaping jail while awaiting trial on a felony after authorities say he escaped from the Gogebic County Jail the evening of June 19, 2017.
Ferguson pleaded guilty to the escape charge and one breaking and entering charge in August 2017 and was sentenced in October. His plea was withdrawn in May, as Gogebic County Prosecutor Nick Jacobs explained Fergusons attorney successfully challenged procedural aspects of the sentence.
At an Aug. 7 hearing, Pope rejected the motion a new judge preside over the rest of the case due to Pope hearing Fergusons guilty plea and sentencing.
Judge Popes prior involvement in this matter has resulted in his knowledge of defendants guilty pleas and further the stated factual basis for such pleas, Goodman writes, summarizing the defenses position in his order upholding Popes decision. Based upon Judge Popes prior involvement he cannot be unbiased toward this defendant and should not preside over any further trials or post-verdict matters.
Both Popes decision and Goodmans order said case law required actual bias or personal prejudice be established to disqualify a judge which wasnt established in the case.
Both Jacobs and Fergusons new attorney, Jim McKenzie, explained Goodman reviewed the matter as part of the states procedure of having a second judge review recusal decisions.
Ferguson also faces several misdemeanor driving-related charges he was originally arrested on. However, Jacobs said Ferguson has already served more jail or prison time than the maximum sentences for those charges so it is unlikely he will serve any additional time behind bars on those counts.
Ferguson still has an active hold on his record from the state of Wisconsin, according to Jacobs, where Ferguson was on probation at the time of his arrest.
Ferguson was on probation in Iron County, Wis., for felony false imprisonment and misdemeanor battery stemming from a 2015 domestic violence case. According to online Wisconsin court records, Ferguson was sentenced to two years in prison which was stayed and three years extended supervision on the charge in July 2015.
Jacobs said any new consequences in Wisconsin for violating his probation will wait until after Ferguson serves any sentence in Michigan.
With the issue of who is presiding over the case going forward settled, it can now move forward with a motion hearing scheduled for today and a trial scheduled to begin Oct. 30.
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...
The Red Panda cubs, like many of the zoos other animals, were named to honor the land that they are native to. Red Pandas are indigenous to the Himalayan mountain region that includes parts of Nepal, Myanmar, China and northern regions of India. Zeya is derived from the Burmese language, which is the official language of Myanmar. Ila can be translated as earth and comes from the ancient Sanskrit language from which many modern languages spoken in India are derived.
Zeyas name was chosen by more than 1,600 participants in online voting between three names selected by the zookeepers. Ilas name was chosen by the Rosauer family (longtime friends and of the zoo).
The first fuzzy cub is now known as Zeya (ZAY-uh), meaning success in Burmese, and the second cub has been named Ila (EE-la), meaning earth in Sanskrit.
The results are in! Names have been chosen for Woodland Park Zoo s Red Panda sisters.
The twin cubs were born in June to 2-year-old first-time mom, Hazel, and 13-year-old dad, Yukiko. This was the first successful birth of Red Pandas at the zoo in nearly three decades the last successful birth was in 1989.
Mom, Hazel, lives in a private, indoor climate-controlled den where she can continue to nurse and bond with her babies in a calm and quiet environment; the den is off view to zoo guests. Yukiko does not yet have contact with his new family, but introductions may be planned in the near future.
The zoo anticipates putting Hazel and her cubs in the outdoor public exhibit in mid-October to late November.
Red Pandas share the name of Giant Pandas, but more closely resemble raccoons. Recent studies suggest they are closely related to skunks, raccoons and weasels. Red Pandas are an endangered species native to the bamboo forests of China, the Himalayas and Myanmar. Because of deforestation, increased agriculture and cattle grazing, and continued pressure from growing local populations, fewer than 10,000 Red Pandas remain in the wild.
Woodland Park Zoo supports the Red Panda Network, whose multi-prong approach aims to conserve this flagship species in Nepal. The public can help support the project by adopting a Red Panda through Woodland Park Zoos ZooParent Adoption Program.
The Endangered Species Act protects endangered animals, like Red Pandas, and is under threat by proposed changes that would significantly weaken protections for endangered species. These changes are open to public comment. For more information and to join Woodland Park Zoo in urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to rescind the proposed rule changes, visit: https://www.zoo.org/esa
Prosecutors in St. Louis have withdrawn a misdemeanor sexual abuse charge against Gregory Allen Floyd, the former top IRS agent in Philadelphia.
In a one-sentence Aug. 28 court filing, assistant prosecutor Kyra H. Short said the "state elects not to prosecute."
Police initially said that when Floyd was visiting St. Louis in September 2017, he grabbed a woman around the waist and groped her buttocks and vagina through her clothes. The woman told police that she had been socializing with Floyd and other IRS employees.
In an email, Floyd's Missouri attorney, Joseph W. Flees, said the dismissal was "likely due to the weak evidence."
Floyd was with the IRS for more than two decades. After his arrest, he left the federal tax agency.
JDog Junk Removal, a Paoli-based company started by and for veterans, is partnering with MVP to make financing available to new franchisees (Credit: JDog) Read more
Military Veteran Partners will invest $20 million into seven franchisees of JDog Junk & Hauling, a fast-growing Berwyn-based moving and junk removal company started by and for veterans, MVP said Tuesday.
MVP, a venture capital and investment management firm based in Malvern, launched in January of this year, was founded by Steve Cloetingh and Kevin Traynor, who saw it as a way to invest in businesses employing veterans.
As part of the deal, MVP will lend capital to the seven new franchisees in new markets, and help them invest in training, technology and expansion.
Cloetingh is chief executive of MVP and serves on various boards including as a trustee of Malvern Preparatory School in Malvern. He and his brother sold their wireless insurance company, Signal Holdings, in 2008 for a reported $250 million.
MVP will invest in only the seven JDog franchise owners, simultaneously providing capital and services to these franchisees, and not in JDog, the franchisor, itself.
In line with the MVP's goal of improving veteran employment, their investment will support the hiring of 250 veterans, military spouses, and military family members by the end of 2018.
"By 2020, this number will grow to 5,000 veterans, military spouses, and military family members hired," Cloetingh said.
So far, JDog franchises are the firm's first investment, but "we'll have others," he said.
"JDog represents the perfect case study in how MVP plans to accelerate the growth of veteran-owned businesses along with the entrepreneurial development of their owners," said Traynor, president of MVP, in a statement.
Founded by Jerry Flanagan and his wife, Tracy, JDog Junk Removal began with two Philadelphia-area franchises in 2012 and has grown to more than 200 active franchises nationwide, Flanagan said.
"Steve Cloetingh was an original investor in our franchise company," Flanagan said.
That was a personal investment by Cloetingh in 2014, separate from the new $20 million investment, which Cloetingh called "a brand new model of investing."
JDog has signed an additional 350 territory agreements with new franchisees, and "there's still 700 additional territories we've identified around the country," Flanagan said.
JDog also recently launched a new price model for smaller markets, a $10,000 franchise fee for markets under 50,000 people, $20,000 fees for markets up to 100,000 people, and the current franchisee price of $35,000 for markets of more than 100,000.
"We created the smaller price models because it works well for people who want extra income. We also partner with V.A. hospitals to help mom-and-pop franchisees to hire veterans," he said.
JDog's revenues are estimated to grow to $2.5 million for the full year 2018, Flanagan said, compared with $200,000 in its first year of operations in 2012.
Fresh off his weekend performance at Made in America here in Philadelphia, Meek Mill stopped by the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday to discuss criminal justice reform alongside 76ers co-owner Michael Rubin.
"People like myself, we actually get the bad end of the stick," Meek, 31, told Fallon. "I'm not saying that we shouldn't be punished for criminal activity, or you should not go to jail if you commit a crime, but probation was designed for one to help better themselves."
Mill's most recent appearance on the Tonight Show is his first since Aug. 2017. After a taping of the program, the rapper was charged with reckless endangerment after being arrested for riding dirt bikes on city streets in New York, but the charge was later dropped. Instead, he was charged with reckless driving, and spent five months in prison because he was on probation at the time, and has been since he was 19 due to a 2008 drug and conviction. He was released from Chester SCI on bail in April.
"I come from a neighborhood where, you know, young black males lose their lives on a daily basis," Mill said. "Families lose their lives or are broken up because of the system. I've been going to jail for a traffic ticket. I left this show, popped a wheelie, and I was in jail since."
Since his release from prison earlier this year, Mill has partnered with Rubin to highlight criminal justice reform in appearances and interviews. The rapper is also the focus of an upcoming, six-part documentary series produced by Jay-Z's Roc Nation in collaboration with Amazon Studios that is scheduled for release next year.
"We have about 6.7 million people in the criminal justice system today in the U.S.," Mill said Tuesday. "That's five times the rate of the rest of the world. I'm fortunate to have everyone helping me, but how do we help others?"
Mill's Tonight Show appearance came following a well-received set at Made In America here in Philly, which served as the rapper's first Philly performance since his stint in prison. While the performance was not the biggest or best of the day, as Inquirer music critic Dan DeLuca wrote, it did prove that the day "unquestionably belonged to Mill."
Mill carried that momentum over to the Tonight Show on Tuesday, where he also performed his track "Dangerous," a track from his recently released Legends of the Summer EP, alongside fellow Philly rapper PnB Rock and Chicago's Jerimih.
Former NBC10 meteorologist Sheena Parveen is moving on from her position at the Washington, DC TV station she left Philly for back in late 2016 and heading to San Diego.
There, Parveen will work as NBC7's weekday morning and midday news meteorologist, according to a post from the station. She will begin appearing on-air in the San Diego area on Oct. 17 alongside anchors Marianne Kushi and Greg Bledsoe.
Parveen, a Florida native, joins the station from her gig at Washington, D.C.'s NBC4, where she also worked as a weekday morning meteorologist. Prior to her run in D.C. Parveen worked as the weekday evening meteorologist for Philly's NBC10, where she inspired a deep level of devotion from many local viewers.
Parveen joined NBC10 in 2011, prompting the Daily News to dub the meteorologist Philly local news' "It Girl." Her departure from NBC10 in Dec. 2016 inspired a flood of well-wishers online, and was one of several high-profile exits from Philly TV news that year, alongside Renee Chenault-Fattah, Lisa Thomas-Laury, Howard Eskin, and Walt Hunter.
"I am sad to leave the Philadelphia area and our passionate and loyal viewers," Parveen wrote of leaving Philly on Facebook in 2016. "I have enjoyed forecasting the weather here for almost 5 years, and helping to keep our viewers (you) safe. I will miss working with our amazing NBC10 First Alert Weather Team as they continue to keep you safe during times of severe weather."
While there is no replacing Parveen for many Philadelphians, the meteorologist's role at NBC10 has since been filled by Tammie Souza, a Pittsburgh native and Emmy-winning meteorologist who took over Parveen's former role at the station in Jan. 2017.
"While I've appreciated the opportunity to forecast all different types of weather events in different parts of the country, I'm excited to finally make my way to beautiful Southern California; an area I have dreamed of moving to," Parveen said of leaving D.C., NBC7 reports. "I'm thrilled to be working at NBC7 with such a great morning team and I hope San Diego will wake up with us every morning so I can help people have their best day!"
In a dramatic showdown on the Senate floor, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., stunned his colleagues by joining two other Republicans to reject the latest attempt to rewrite the ACA. Read more
When Sen. John McCain died on Aug. 25, the Arizona Republican was hailed for his courage and tenacity as a POW during the Vietnam War, political battles in the decades since, and his fight against the brain cancer that took his life.
It was a glioblastoma, one of the most difficult brain tumors to treat, and one of the deadliest.
Researchers are working to unlock its secrets. Among them are Donald M. O'Rourke, the John Templeton Jr., M.D associate professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine.
At his O'Rourke Lab in the Abramson Cancer Center, he and other researchers are dedicated to finding better treatment options for glioblastoma. One of the promising areas involves T cells, the workhorses of the immune system. In a Penn-pioneered treatment already in use for childhood leukemia, T cells can be extracted from a patient, altered genetically to increase their ability to fight the cancer, and then returned to the body.
Will it work for glioblastoma? We recently spoke with O'Rourke about his research and his reasons for hope.
What is glioblastoma and why is it so difficult to treat?
It's called a primary brain tumor, as distinguished from a metastatic tumor. It's a tumor that started in the brain, rather than traveling to the brain from a different part of the body. There's a spectrum of these tumors. Glioblastoma is the most common primary brain tumor in adults.
It has a high level of invasion, of blood vessel recruitment, and atypical cellular architecture its cells are dividing faster and have an atypical configuration. The important thing about why this is challenging and why this is different from other tumors is its capacity to be invasive in the brain. It doesn't grow in the form of a sphere, or a nodule. It infiltrates normal brain tissue. It sort of mixes and integrates with that tissue. That makes the neurological component of this tumor difficult. It also makes surgical and radiation treatment challenging. It's a challenge to separate the normal tissue from the abnormal tissue. In contrast, a tumor that metastasizes to the brain from, say, a breast or a lung, doesn't grow the way a glioblastoma does. Those tumors grow in a more obviously separable way. They're easier to treat surgically, more easily targeted by radiation therapy.
This is simplifying things, but the capacity for a glioblastoma to infiltrate with the normal brain is the main aspect making treatment difficult.
>> READ MORE: A husband's final days fighting glioblastoma
What is typical treatment after surgery?
The standard-of-care treatment for this is an oral chemotherapy regimen with radiation therapy. After radiation therapy, oral therapy is continued for six months. That's a standard that was established in 2005, so it's getting a bit old now. There are no standards for the experimental care we like to provide at Penn. We're investigating new combinations in order to improve the survival. Right now, survival is in the range of 15-18 months, as an average. But glioblastoma is not thought to be the same from one patient to the next. The survival can be very different.
Is there anything on the horizon that would make glioblastoma less of a death sentence?
At Penn, we're part of the immunotherapy group, a world-leading group in terms of using T-cell therapy, which has already shown significant benefits in pediatric leukemia. We're adopting some of those approaches to treat glioblastoma. We have done one clinical trial and will be initiating several new trials in the upcoming year.
I think there's a consensus in the field that using the immune system to moderate glioblastoma will be an effective strategy. It's very complex. The components of the immune system are complex. There are various ways to manipulate that immune response. Right now, no one knows what the best one is. For the next few years, we'll be working on discovering the most effective combinations for immunotherapy for glioblastoma. We don't know what the best strategy will be ultimately, but we believe we've identified a strategy that will be more effective. One of the approaches we have been using is engineering a patient's T cells and then intravenously infusing them like a pint of blood. That may change. We may be putting those T cells directly into the brain. That's a big area of potential work.
The best examples of the use of immunotherapy are in pediatric leukemia and adult melanoma. We're borrowing some of that and making some adjustments. We have quite a bit of work to do in this area. But I do think people feel this is a promising maybe the most promising strategy that the field has identified over the last several decades.
But clinical trial work moves slowly. The general public doesn't have a real sense of the regulatory hurdles. I fully understand that people want progress. I think there's been pretty remarkable scientific progress dramatic progress but it hasn't translated to clinical application. I hope that in the next three to five years we'll have a better idea of whether we've identified the right combinations.
Are there other advances?
Yes. The standard elements of care surgery, chemotherapy and radiation have improved over the last several years, mainly with advances in MRI technology. Our MRI navigation systems for surgery are better. Our options for focused radiation are better. That's always going on. At the same time, the options for experimental care will be improving.
>> READ MORE: Electric cap shows promise against deadly brain cancer
What reassurance can you give patients?
There's hope.
What I tell patients is, first, that they need to be treated at a major center. Second, they have to have the best standard of care. And they have to have experimental care. The level of progress is not linear; it's exponential. We believe that even in the next 12 months there will be changes to care. My message is to have faith in the scientific process.
There's nothing I can tell them to take away the life-altering diagnosis. It's a game-changer for a functional person and their family. So they have to latch on to hope. I think we're going to deliver on this hope. But it's not going to be immediate. It's going to be in that three- to five-year window.
It's not because people aren't trying. There's an enormous team that's been mobilized at the Abramson Center. But the process of clinical trial work and regulatory hurdles to allow treatments to move forward has an inherent slowness. It takes time. The slow pace of discovery and innovation is not a lack of motivation.
sandybauers10@gmail.com
At the Academy of Natural Sciences, invertebrate specialist Karen Verderame holds a Hercules Beetle, one of the types of weird, large insects that require federal government permits to own. Read more
Karen Verderame, who takes care of live insects and spiders at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, got the call from the security desk:
"Somebody dropped off these beetles," the guard told her one day a few years ago. "Do you want to come down and take them?"
They were not just any beetles. Upon opening the lid of the container, Verderame gaped at a pair of female Dynastes hercules, each more than 4 inches long, native to South America, and illegal to own without a special permit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Also in the box: a dozen tiny, white, spherical eggs.
The beetle donors were gone from the museum by the time Verderame went to the security desk to investigate. But she has little doubt that, even if the mystery visitors had the best of intentions, the insects they delivered had originated on the black market.
Giant beetles, tarantulas, scorpions, and other crawly creatures are big business, sought after by collectors who pay hundreds of dollars for certain specimens an enduring fascination that allegedly fueled two recent criminal enterprises.
On Aug. 18, federal prosecutors arrested a Metuchen, N.J., man on charges of smuggling protected scorpions and giant millipedes to this country from Tanzania a case that began when a startled U.S. postal employee discovered some of the critters loose inside a mail truck, escaped from their parcel.
A few days later, thousands of bugs, lizards, and other beasts were stolen from the Philadelphia Insectarium and Butterfly Pavilion, a museum on Frankford Avenue. Police said at least three current or former employees are suspects in the theft of the items, with an estimated value of more than $40,000. As of Friday, no arrests had been made and the specimens had not been recovered.
There have been no such issues at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, but Verderame, an invertebrate specialist, said she and her colleagues at the redbrick museum are keenly aware of how creature trafficking can wreak havoc on the environment.
In the case of the mystery beetles at the security desk, she contacted federal agriculture officials to get the insects added to the museum's official permit. That type of authorization is granted to institutions that demonstrate they have the proper facilities and know-how to care for exotic beings.
"The USDA representative was very happy we had them," she said. "There was one pair less out there in the field."
At hobby shows and on websites where insects, spiders, and other beasts are sold, plenty of the species are legit. But some of them, perhaps exchanged in transactions after a show has closed for the day, are not either because the seller or purchaser lacks the proper permit, or because the creature is threatened in the wild and thus protected by international agreement. In some cases, the buyers are unaware they are breaking the law, Verderame said.
The critter trade poses several risks, she said. If non-native creatures get loose, they could multiply unchecked if the conditions are right, threatening native plants and animals. On the flip side, the environment where the creatures were taken from a rain forest, say can suffer.
The trade in such creatures has been around for years, she said.
"Sometimes it's almost like an ego thing," she said. "As in, 'Can I have this really cool animal?' "
In some Asian countries, certain beetle species are prized for their fighting ability and pitted against one another.
There is no telling why the Hercules beetles were left at the Academy of Natural Sciences a few years ago. Perhaps the owner could not find a buyer, as the females command a lower price than their horned male counterparts. Or maybe the donor simply lost interest.
The natural history museum was not equipped to hatch the eggs, so those were sent to another facility. But the beetles were a welcome addition, used in educational programs until they died a few months later.
More than 33,500 gallons of gasoline spilled from a Sunoco pipeline along Darby Creek in Tinicum Township near Philadelphia International Airport in June, according to recently released federal data.
The release created a sheen on the creek and crews were sent to contain the spill from a 12-inch pipeline that Sunoco plans to use as it constructs the Mariner East 2 pipeline for natural gas tapped from the Marcellus Shale. The pipeline was manufactured in 1937.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration released a spreadsheet last week containing data on the accident, classifying it as a significant but not serious spill. The data were supplied by Sunoco. Until then, there were few publicly available details of the incident. The release of the new data was first reported by State Impact Pennsylvania.
Sunoco Pipeline LP is owned by Energy Transfer of Houston. Representatives from Energy Transfer could not immediately be reached for comment.
"This happened on a pipeline that Sunoco now proposes to repurpose to carry more dangerous hazardous highly volatile liquids," said Eric Friedman of Del-Chesco United for Pipeline Safety, a coalition of grassroots groups opposing the Mariner East 2. "It strikes me as the height of recklessness."
The spill, according to Friedman, was initially reported by operators on a passing Conrail train. He said the spill is "one of four known accidents on this same 1930s-era pipeline."
The report says that Sunoco was notified at 6:05 p.m. on June 19 of a petroleum odor near Darby Creek. Crews sent by Sunoco to investigate confirmed the odor and sheen along the creek. More workers were sent to rig a boom to contain the spill by 9:45 p.m. and set up a command team. Despite pressure testing two pipelines, crews could not initially locate the source.
The company filed a report June 21 saying the source was still unknown. It wasn't until June 26 that crews identified the source as the 12-inch line that runs from Point Breeze in Philadelphia to Montello in Berks County. The steel pipeline was buried four feet below pavement and just offshore. The failed portion of the pipe was dug up and replaced.
In all, 798 barrels of gasoline were spilled or 33,516 gallons. Of that, about 7,220 gallons were released into the creek.
The spill contaminated soil, as well as groundwater and surface water. But Sunoco reported that it began remediating the spill and no wildlife was affected. In the cleanup, which cost $3.6 million, 21,378 gallons were recovered. Remediation continues.
The spill is still under investigation. Sunoco said it will file a report on the cause once metallurgical testing of the pipe is complete.
THE PARENTS: Rachelle Schneider, 38, and Megan Schneider, 36, of South Philadelphia
THE CHILD: Avi Wolfe Schneider, born January 13, 2018
HOW THEY FINANCED THEIR QUEST FOR PREGNANCY: Health insurance covered a portion of the IUI procedures; grants from Jewish Family and Children's Service and an organization called Hasidah (which means "stork" in Hebrew) also helped; so did "being frugal and saving," the women say.
Rachelle didn't have to say a word.
She showed up at Megan's office unannounced, bearing her wife's favorite Philly foods fries from Hip City Veg, a tahini shake from Goldie Falafel and a card whose message she'd scribbled hastily with a borrowed pen.
Megan, a physician assistant, shut her office door. The two hugged, cried, and danced to "Finally" by CeCe Peniston:
Finally it has happened to me right in front of my face / My feelings can't describe it.
They were pregnant. After three-and-a-half years, 17 intrauterine inseminations, four IVF cycles, 219 doctors' appointments and bills that amounted to twice the down payment on their house.
They didn't tell anyone right away; early in their quest, Rachelle had had a miscarriage, so they knew conception was no guarantee. "But every night we would huddle on the couch, giddy, and talk about our future," Rachelle says.
From the start, it was conversation that bound the pair. "The first time we ever hung out solo, we stayed up all night and watched the sunrise and wandered through the fountains around the city," Rachelle recalls. "I remember thinking how comfortable I was. We could just talk and talk and talk."
In 2013, the couple quit their jobs, rented their house, and backpacked around Central and South America for seven months: Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia.
"We thought there would be times when we'd get sick of each other, but it made us closer. We had to rely on each other so much," Megan says. During hours-long bus rides, they talked about the life they wanted to build: Jobs with nights and weekends off. Membership in a Jewish community. Children.
"I used to joke that I didn't want to be a young person with kids I wanted to have a free, exciting life but I didn't want to be an old person without kids," Rachelle says. The two thought about asking a friend to donate sperm but felt wary of the unpredictable relationships that would entail.
"You can control the legal aspect of that relationship, but it's very hard to control for the emotional aspect. We definitely didn't want a third parent," Megan says. Ultimately, they decided on an anonymous donor who would allow his contact information to be shared with any offspring once the child turned 18. The plan was for Rachelle to carry the baby.
Their first IUI was in July 2014, Rachelle's birthday weekend. Then three more IUIs. A pregnancy; a miscarriage; six more tries. "Then we said, well, maybe we should switch up the plan, and I would try doing IUIs," Megan says. Meantime, Rachelle tried once more. Megan did six IUIs, including one with sperm from a different donor, before the two decided, on the advice of their fertility specialist at RMA of Philadelphia, to up the ante with IVF.
"We never gave up hope that we would have a child; it was just how would we get this child into our lives?" Rachelle says. "Friends and family were having children all around us. It was emotionally and financially and physically draining."
Rachelle published a photo essay book, Speaking OUT: Queer Youth in Focus, and did 100 speaking appearances, exhibitions, and workshops connected with the project. The two joined a synagogue. Rachelle converted to Judaism.
It anchored her to keep track of the numbers: three egg retrieval cycles, 120 eggs in all, two that were viable, two pregnancy losses shortly after implantation. "I had quantity but not quality," she says.
Their fertility doctor recommended they use an egg donor. Rachelle, after months of injections, blood draws, and failure to conceive, still longed to be pregnant. Megan was a few years younger. What if the egg came from her?
"We were nervous that it would not work, but we figured: we've gone this far; why not give it a shot?" Megan remembers. A retrieval cycle yielded exactly one viable embryo. "I think you should try to carry it," she told her partner.
That was IVF cycle No. 4. That was their son. And because they hope to have another child, Megan went through one more retrieval cycle for eggs that could be fertilized, frozen, and banked for the future. "Siblings on ice," the women call them.
It was April 27, 2017 another number Rachelle will never forget when she stepped away from her desk at the University of the Arts, where she was an administrator, and returned to the voicemail from RMA.
She hoped for a natural, unmedicated birth. But when she found herself hospitalized for a nasty gastrointestinal bug near the end of December her due date was Jan. 4 she found herself thinking, "Just take the baby, and we'll get the tax credit."
That wasn't Avi's plan. He arrived nine days late: seven hours of labor at home, then 11 hours more in the hallway and in a delivery room at Pennsylvania Hospital. "One thing that stands out: I didn't make a noise," Rachelle recalls. "It was definitely the most pain I've ever experienced. But the next day, I totally forgot all of it."
Megan, despite her medical training, felt light-headed during the birth. Suddenly, she leaned heavily on Rachelle and slid down the side of the bed. Nurses said it was the most graceful faint they'd ever seen.
"They put her on the couch and gave her apple juice and told her to lie there," Rachelle recalls. "But she said, 'I'm not going to miss the birth of our kid.' "
They named him for Megan's grandfather, Arthur, and Rachelle's uncle, William; "Wolfe" is also Rachelle's mother's maiden name. And when they consider their arduous route to parenthood, it all makes sense.
"Everything in our life has been such a team effort," Rachelle says. "Our journey was hard, and nothing we would ever want to relive. But it feels really nice to say that we both had a physical part in making him."
1. Yes. If a city of 150,000 cant provide safe drinking water for 10 days, a probe is needed.
2. Yes. Not only should there be a state investigation, but customers should get a rebate.
3. No. The city will be working with TCEQ to develop an after-action plan. That will suffice.
4. No. The whole episode was just an annoyance. An outside investigaton is unnecessary.
5. Unsure. Its hard to say without knowing more details about the issue.
Vote
View Results
Philadelphia police are seeking help in identifying the person who fatally shot a 30-year-old woman in Hunting Park early Wednesday.
Police identified the victim as Shante Tucker of Philadelphia. The transgender woman's first name was spelled Shantee by friends and on her own Facebook page.
Although friends and activists in the transgender community believe Tucker's gender was a motive behind her killing, Homicide Capt. John Ryan said Wednesday that police do not agree with that conclusion.
Tucker was on the 4300 block of Old York Road about 1 a.m. when she had an argument with a person in a black pickup truck, possibly a Ford, Ryan said at an afternoon news conference. Police believe the driver of the truck shot her at least once in the back as she was running away, Ryan said. Police recovered eight 9mm fired cartridge casings at the scene, he said.
"The motive for this killing at this time is unknown," Ryan said. Police believe that Tucker knew the shooter, but Ryan declined to elaborate.
Asked if Tucker's gender might have had anything to do with the crime, Ryan said he didn't think so. "She wasn't targeted because of her gender affiliation or lifestyle," he said.
Tucker was taken to Temple University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead about five hours after the shooting, Ryan said. He said the black pickup was known to have frequented that area of Old York Road, although he declined to elaborate. The older-model truck had no tailgate and had items in the truck bed, he said.
Ryan said that Tucker was also known to frequent that area of Old York Road, but he declined to elaborate.
Tatyana Woodard, a friend of Tucker's, said by phone that Tucker "was a very genuine person, a very real person, down-to-earth." She said Tucker worked in a beauty-supply store in North Philadelphia.
Woodard, a community-health engagement coordinator for the trans community at the Mazzoni Center, Philadelphia's largest LGBT health-care provider, said she believes Tucker was targeted because she was a transgender woman.
Christian Lovehall, a trans equity program coordinator at Galaei, a social-justice organization, said he didn't know Tucker personally, but said the trans community is "definitely grieving at this time."
He said the organization would honor Tucker at a sign-making event from 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at its North Philadelphia office. The event had already been scheduled to make signs for the annual Philly Trans March on Oct. 6, he said.
The public needs to realize that these "women are daughters, moms, aunties, people with families," he said. They should be "able to live their authentic lives without being murdered for it," he said.
Dennis Payne from Renegade Theater Co.,(far right) helps tells his story of the Kensington neighborhood as he see's it through storytelling, music and drama on Aug. 30, 2018. Read more
Part of an occasional series on the Kensington Storefront, an art-based intervention on the front lines of Philadelphia's opioid epidemic.
As the setting sun did what it could to enchant the litter-strewn landscape of Allegheny Avenue, Darlene Ramage, 55, found her mark on the gas-station-parking-lot-turned-stage, kicked a Pepsi can out of the way, and raised her voice above the din of street traffic.
"When you see me, you see one version of me, but I'm so much more," she began her monologue. "I'm a lion. A lion is strong, loud, and truthful. I take no crap from nobody anymore. It's called boundaries."
Ramage was in final rehearsals for (Kensington) Streetplay, a new theater work developed by the Renegade Company that draws its cast, subject matter, and scenery from a neighborhood that has come to serve as a shorthand for the opioid crisis that claimed 1,217 lives in Philadelphia last year. This blunt call for close-looking an opportunity to examine a struggling, complicated neighborhood as you would an artist's masterpiece opens Thursday, Sept. 6, as part of the Fringe Festival.
The aim, said artistic director Mike Durkin, is to help residents reclaim their own narrative, beyond the bleak portrayals of Kensington seen in media like The Dr. Oz Show. Sure, the play will address familiar themes open-air drug markets, crime, prostitution, homelessness, poverty but it will also probe the joyous and playful moments in between.
"The goal of this project is to show all those different perspectives," he said. "I'm asking people to come to Kensington with open minds and open hearts."
More from this series: Can this tiny storefront save Philly's most drug-ravaged neighborhood? | Making art on the front lines of the opioid epidemic | A coat of paint and a beacon of hope in Kensington | Mural arts as harm reduction
That's essential, given the unpredictable nature of the performance. Most of the cast members have no acting experience, and many have struggled with addiction or homelessness. Some still do. And, as far as stage sets go, the corner of Kensington and Allegheny falls somewhere between challenging and hostile, what with the roar of the El above and spent syringes crunching underfoot.
"These people out there are so doped up, they don't know where their mind is," warned Eddie Ramage, 50, Darlene's brother, during rehearsals one weekend. "That's my main concern. They can just come at you."
Durkin assured him that he had the security issue in hand. After all, he's been making his way up and down Allegheny Avenue for two years now, getting to know the businesses, the regulars, trying to build trust in this neighborhood.
>> READ MORE: Philly Fringe 2018: The 25 must-see productions
Streetplay developed out of workshops Durkin's been running for the past year at the Kensington Storefront, a Mural Arts Philadelphia hub that embraces the concept of harm reduction. In that time, he's grown used to starting late, adjusting on the fly, navigating past bumps, and creating flexibility within his work to accommodate a fluid cast. Some of the performers in the show have been working with him for a year, others for just a few weeks. "There were folks early on who were involved for a couple months, then overdosed and passed away," he said.
Dani Bryant, a drama therapist who's working on the show, said the trick was finding a balance between therapy and theater: "It's about sharing with the audience, without it ever feeling unsafe or uncomfortable."
The evolving, interactive work is a mix of poetry, storytelling, improvisation, and visual art. One day, a man who busks around Jefferson Station showed up with a guitar and offered to contribute a musical number. Even a few weeks before the premiere, Durkin said, "It's hard to articulate what it will actually look like, because it's all dependent on who's there in the moment."
The structure, however, is set: It's a deeply personal walking tour that begins at K&A and rambles toward Port Richmond's leafy Campbell Square, where performers will man a series of stations exploring universal themes like home, kids, or food. (Eddie Ramage, for example, may wax ecstatic over his Top Ramen Special, a concoction that involves barbecue chips, melted cheese, banana peppers and summer sausage. "Don't knock it till you tried it," he told critics at a recent rehearsal.) The set changes are subtle: vacant lots and overgrown trestles, graceful old churches and humble rowhouses. The soundtrack is provided by wheezing trucks and shrieking dirt bikes, the shouts of wheelie kids and the how-you-doing-beautifuls of bored men sitting on stoops.
>> READ MORE: 'Fly Eagles Fly' brings your Super Bowl mania to stage at the Philly Fringe
On a recent afternoon, Dennis Payne, 57, was working with Logan Schulman, the dramaturge, on his talking points.
"Kensington has a very racist past," Payne said. It's multicultural now, he said: "We've been over-invaded." He's not proud of the history, but he feels in many ways the neighborhood was better off back then. The way he remembers it, there was just one homeless man when he was a kid. Payne would sneak him cigarettes.
Schulman pushed back: "It's very easy to be positive about the past as nostalgia sets in."
In some ways, the play is designed for the neighborhood itself. The actors passed out fliers in McPherson Square, and invited area residents to attend the preview performances and provide feedback.
But it's also intended for a wider audience as a plea for understanding, not exploitation.
"Kensington is full of crumbling beauty: buildings, people, me," Kathryn Wylde, 40, said in her monologue. "What we need is your support. Kensington doesn't want your lofts."
(Kensington) Streetplay: Sept. 6-9 and Sept. 13-16 at 6 p.m.; free; tickets at https://fringearts.com/event/kensington-streetplay/
At a news conference last month, law enforcement officials and Camden County Police Chief Scott Thomson (right) release photos of the three men charged with the attempted murder of two Camden County undercover detectives in August.. ELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer Read more
A judge on Tuesday ordered one of three suspects charged with shooting two Camden County police detectives during an ambush last month held without bail pending trial.
Juan Figueroa, 20, of Camden, was brought handcuffed into court for a detention hearing before Superior Court Judge Edward McBride Jr. in Camden. He has been in custody since his Aug. 18 arrest at a hotel in Gloucester City.
Assistant County Prosecutor Victoria Shilton outlined a largely circumstantial case including nearly three dozen surveillance videos that linked him to a van involved in the shooting.
Defense attorney Robin Lord argued that there was insufficient evidence to charge Figueroa.
"Don't keep a man hostage on pure speculation and conjecture," Lord told the judge. Figueroa, wearing a dark blue prison jumpsuit, sat quietly during the hour-long hearing.
McBride said he found probable cause that Figueroa was involved in the shooting. He rejected a defense request to release him on bail, citing in part prior drug and weapons convictions and failure to appear in court for previous hearings.
Authorities say that Figueroa and two others opened fire on the detectives on Aug. 7 while the officers were in an unmarked police vehicle stopped at a traffic light in Camden. The officers were in plainclothes, working surveillance in the Bergen Square neighborhood, authorities said.
Authorities have said the three men were in a white van when they pulled behind the detectives, and that two of the men stepped out and fired 10 to 25 rounds from semiautomatic weapons in seven seconds.
A possible motive for the attack has not been disclosed.
>>READ MORE: Manhunt continues for suspects in ambush shootings
One of the detectives returned fire as the suspects fled. Both detectives were wounded and are recovering from their injuries. Their names have not been released. They remain on administrative leave pending a review of the shooting.
Two other suspects, Alexander DeJesus, 19, of Philadelphia, and Ammar Hall, 26, of Camden, were arrested in Philadelphia on Aug. 21 and are awaiting extradition. All three are charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, and weapons offenses.
In court Tuesday, Lord argued that there was no evidence linking Figueroa to the crime or the defendants. She dismissed an unnamed jail informant who identified Figueroa from a photograph taken earlier on the day of the shooting as a "professional rat" who was only interested in the reward money.
"What happened to these officers is horrible. But he didn't do it," Lord said. "They have the wrong guy."
While acknowledging that there was no video or eyewitness testimony that put Figueroa at the shooting scene, the prosecutor said Figueroa was seen in South Camden, where the van involved in the shooting, now identified as a 2006 Chevrolet Uplander, was parked shortly before the attack. Figueroa was seen again in the area when the van returned after the shooting, the prosecutor said.
"You cannot get any higher demonstration of a total lack of regard for the safety of the public," Shilton said in reference to the shooting.
The attack occurred on National Night Out and drew support from law enforcement officers from around the country. A $60,000 reward was offered in exchange for information that led to suspects' arrests.
More than three dozen Camden County officers were in the courtroom Tuesday. Rick Kunkel, president of Camden County Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 218, said law enforcement wanted to show support for the two detectives.
"They're dangerous individuals," Kunkel said of the suspects. "It's clear that they were attempting to assassinate the people that were in the car. "
Ernest E. Badway, right, who is the lawyer for the Kate McClure and Mark D'Amico, agrues during a hearing on missing funds in the Johnny Bobbitt case in the Olde Historic Courthouse in Mt. Holly, NJ, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. McClure and D'Amico are accused of mismanaging the money raised for Bobbitt. Read more
Editors Note: On Nov. 15, 2018, the Burlington County Prosecutors Office announced that the three central figures in this story had been arrested and charged with second-degree theft by deception and other offenses. Prosecutors concluded that their dramatic tale of rescue and redemption had been completely made up. Story detailing the findings can be found here.
A judge on Wednesday ordered a Burlington County couple to testify under oath next week about what happened to the $400,000 they raised in a GoFundMe campaign to help a homeless man, Johnny Bobbitt Jr. money their lawyer says is gone and that Bobbitt says they squandered.
Superior Court Judge Paula T. Dow directed Bobbitt's team of pro bono lawyers to request financial statements from the pair before the court closed on Wednesday.
At the hearing, the couple's lawyer told the judge they wanted to invoke their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
At issue is whether the couple misappropriated money donated by more than 14,000 people in a campaign to help Bobbitt, who made national headlines when he spent his last $20 to help a stranger, Kate McClure, when she ran out of gas on the I-95 ramp in Kensington. In gratitude, McClure and her boyfriend, Mark D'Amico, started the GoFundMe campaign in November to help Bobbitt get off the street. But that effort dissolved into discord as Bobbitt accused the couple of spending the money for personal gain.
In court Wednesday, the judge ordered McClure and D'Amico to meet with Bobbitt and his lawyers on Monday to give depositions about their stewardship of the GoFundMe money. The meeting will take place at a residential detoxification facility in New Jersey where Bobbitt is seeking drug treatment.
The judge ordered McClure and D'Amico to testify after they failed to comply with her order to move any remaining funds into an escrow account controlled by Bobbitt's legal team.
"You should advise your clients that they are directed by the court to appear," Dow told the couple's attorney, Ernest E. Badway.
Last week, lawyers debated the amount of GoFundMe money left in the account. Badway previously said the couple gave Bobbitt $200,000 of the money, while his lawyers said he was given about $75,000.
Then, on Tuesday, Bobbitt's lawyer, Christopher Fallon, said Badway had told him that all of the money was gone.
In court Wednesday, Dow called Badway's previous statements on the donations "totally inaccurate."
Fallon said he still wants a forensic accounting of the funds because he is not convinced all of the money was spent.
"We would be very foolish if we didn't look," Fallon said after the hearing.
In court-ordered depositions scheduled to be held Monday, the couple will testify under oath about their handling of the money.
At one point, Badway sought to buy his clients time by asking that the case be put on hold until Bobbitt finishes his month-long treatment program. Judge Dow called the proposal "ludicrous."
"We already had money disappear," Dow said. "I think that's a ludicrous request."
Bobbitt's lawyers contend that the couple fraudulently used donations intended for him in order to "enjoy a lifestyle they could not afford." Bobbitt has questioned how McClure, a receptionist, and D'Amico, a carpenter, were able to afford lavish vacations and a new BMW, while he said they bought him a used SUV and camper, both registered in McClure's name and later sold.
Badway said his clients withheld much of the money from Bobbitt because they worried that he would use it to buy drugs.
"The idea that my clients are the bad guys is completely not true," Badway said at a hearing last week.
In establishing the GoFundMe campaign, D'Amico, 39, and McClure, 28, told donors they would use the money to buy him a home and set up two trusts to ensure his financial future. Instead, Bobbitt said, the couple put the money into their savings account and spent much of the money on vacations and a new car.
Appearing on Megyn Kelly Today last week, the pair told the NBC talk show host that $150,000 of the money remained. Days earlier, they told the Inquirer and Daily News that $200,000 was left from the fund. GoFundMe took about $30,000 from the overall donations, D'Amico said.
After the television appearance, D'Amico sent Bobbitt a text message suggesting that Bobbitt abandon his lawyers in exchange for a check.
"I say I get rid of my team of lawyers you get rid of yours and Kate and I write you a check," D'Amico wrote in the message, which was displayed in court Wednesday. "Seriously no bull."
On Tuesday, Bobbitt's lawyers asked Dow to hold the couple in contempt of court for missing a 24-hour deadline to transfer any remaining GoFundMe money into an escrow account.
Bobbitt had been living in a camper on property the McClure family owns in rural Burlington County, but in June, he said, D'Amico told him to leave. Bobbitt ended up back on the streets, drug-addicted, homeless and panhandling for food.
GoFundMe spokesman Bobby Whithorne said GoFundMe has deposited $20,000 into the escrow account to assist Bobbitt while an investigation into misuse of the funds continues. If fraud is revealed, donors can get a refund of up to $1,000.
Yamie Reyes, 7, inside of the First United Methodist Church of Germantown, his immigrant family took sanctuary inside this church on Wednesday, September 5, 2018. Read more
Two immigrant families both with children who are American citizens have taken sanctuary inside a Philadelphia church, desperate to block imminent deportations that they say could lead to their being killed in their homelands.
Now sheltered within the towering stone walls of the First United Methodist Church of Germantown, both families swear they'll stay until the U.S. government agrees to let them live and work here, as they have done for years.
The families, from Honduras and Jamaica, recently had long-standing pleas for asylum turned down.
They are the second and third families to take sanctuary in Philadelphia in the last 10 months, part of a national movement to protect undocumented immigrants who are at risk of deportation. It's unclear how many people are in sanctuary nationwide, although Colorado and North Carolina each have several families living in churches.
"Whatever it takes, I will do for my children. I am father and mother to them, and I don't want them to be separated from me." - Suyapa Reyes, mother of 4
The move into the Germantown church, the families' supporters say, reflects that the Trump administration seeks to divide children from parents not just at the southern border, but in cities and towns elsewhere.
"Whatever it takes, I will do for my children," said Suyapa Reyes, 35, who came to the United States from Honduras in 2014. "I am father and mother to them, and I don't want them to be separated from me."
She's living in the church with children: Jennifer, 13; Yamie, 7; Jeison, 2; and Junior, 10 months. The toddler and the baby are U.S. citizens and were not ordered to be deported with the rest of the family, Reyes said.
Also in sanctuary are Clive and Oneita Thompson, who lived in South Jersey after coming to America from Jamaica in 2004. They entered sanctuary with 15-year-old daughter Christine and 12-year-old son Timothy. Both children are American citizens.
>> IMAGE GALLERY: Two families take sanctuary in Germantown church
"I know it's going to be difficult for me," Christine said. "But everything is not about me. I know everything is going to work out."
Both families have notified U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) that they have taken sanctuary in the church. They are not hiding, they said, but are challenging a federal immigration system that they regard as unfair.
"It gives them a safe place to pursue their options," said the Rev. Robert Coombe, senior pastor, "but it also provides time where we as a society can see the injustice of separating children from parents."
About a hundred supporters gathered on the church steps in the baking heat Wednesday morning to formally welcome the families with speeches, songs, and prayers. Guitarist Lauren Moyer played "In the Eye of the Storm," and the crowd sang along, raising placards reading "No human is illegal and "Families belong together."
Two people held a line hung with baby clothes, symbolizing the children who have been separated from their families.
"They are defending the most precious treasure they have, their families," said Blanca Pacheco, co-director of New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia, which provides support services to immigrants.
The crowd moved into the church, where Coombe gave a Bible reading from Luke and Isaiah, explaining how prophets take people beyond established borders, offering hospitality and healing to those who are deemed "the other."
First United Methodist declared itself a sanctuary church going back to the 1980s, when the federal government prosecuted 18 priests, nuns, and lay people it accused of aiding undocumented migrants escaping civil wars in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala.
In 1984, the church provided sanctuary to a Guatemalan couple fleeing persecution, and organized its congregation to challenge government policy.
The Reyes and Thompson families are being supported by New Sanctuary Movement.
In an interview at the church on Tuesday, Pacheco and co-director Peter Pedemonti said that when the families came seeking help and sanctuary, the only question for the organization was how to make it work.
Carmela Apolonio Hernandez and her four children have lived nearly 10 months in the Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia to avoid having to return to Mexico, where gangsters killed her brother and two nephews.
So far, the family has not been touched by federal authorities, though the children travel to school each day.
ICE guidelines dissuade agents from taking action at "sensitive locations," such as churches, schools, and hospitals. But the agency asserts the right to detain undocumented immigrants anywhere at any time, and arrests have occurred near churches and schools.
People in sanctuary depend on a concept that goes back to the Bible and its "six cities of refuge." The tenet of sanctuary also ran through the societies of ancient Greece and Rome, and became widely known through Victor Hugo's 1831 novel, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
Groups such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in Washington say sanctuary thwarts federal law and blocks police from carrying out their duties. A church setting doesn't exempt anyone from the law, FAIR officials say, and religious leaders who harbor undocumented immigrants could face charges.
The time in sanctuary can easily stretch to a year or more.
Reyes said she came to this country to escape the violence and drug trafficking that has enveloped Honduras and the certainty that her growing children would face the choice of joining a gang or being killed for refusing.
Honduras is one of the three "Northern Triangle" nations, along with El Salvador and Guatemala, where unending violence has driven a stream of asylum seekers to the U.S. Asylum is a specific immigration status that allows people to stay in the country. Migrants can be granted safe haven if they have a reasonable fear of being persecuted in their homeland.
Reyes' request was turned down in 2017, but she was not immediately ordered to leave, she said. In August, ICE directed her to be out of the country by Sept. 14.
"Whatever it takes, I will do for my children," said Reyes, who worked in a restaurant before taking sanctuary. "Why separate the families?"
>> READ MORE: In Philly and across the nation, more immigrants take church sanctuary to block deportation
The Thompsons have lived in the U.S. even longer.
Oneita, 45, came seeking asylum after a gang burned the family farm and murdered her brother. Her husband, Clive, 59, came later. Christine was born in the U.S. during an earlier family visit.
Their asylum plea was denied in 2009, and the family appealed. That filing was denied last month, and the family was ordered quickly deported.
Until taking sanctuary, Oneita worked as a nursing assistant at Friends Village, a continuing care retirement community in Woodstown, N.J. Her husband worked as a machine operator at Cumberland Dairy in Bridgeton, N.J.
The Thompsons say they built a life in this country. They own a house and a car, pay taxes and work hard. Their children know nothing of Jamaica. And the family would be in danger if forced back, they said.
"It's an injustice to treat families like this," Clive Thompson said. "We deserve a chance, after so many years of living here. I'm asking ICE to stay the deportation. I'm asking the administration to give us a chance to stay with our families."
How long will his family be willing to stay in sanctuary?
"As long as it takes," Oneita said. "As long as it takes."
Former Lower Southampton Public Safety Director Robert Hoopes pleaded guilty Wednesday to taking part in a money-laundering scheme with a Bucks County judge and a constable, calling it "the first thing that I truly regret that I ever did in my life."
As he sat next to his attorney in a Philadelphia federal courtroom, Hoopes admitted his role in the corruption scheme, which shook the Bucks County township he once served when he, Magisterial District Judge John Waltman, and Deputy Constable Bernard T. Rafferty were charged with money laundering and extortion in 2016.
Judge Gene E.K. Pratter asked him: Why decide to enter the plea now?
"Because I did it," Hoopes said. "I did the things that are in [the indictment]. It was the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life."
"Right after my arrest," he added, "I was ready to admit my guilt."
In a long-running federal probe, authorities found that the three Bucks County officials had run a money-laundering scheme involving $400,000 in cash, money that undercover agents portrayed as the product of drug smuggling and fraud.
A superseding indictment later painted an even more corrupt picture. Between 2014 and 2016, authorities say, Hoopes, Waltman, and Rafferty shook down several businessmen, with Hoopes often serving as the front man in negotiations.
A former police officer and attorney, Hoopes had been in charge of Lower Southampton's police department, rescue squad, and two fire departments for less than a year when he was charged and subsequently fired by the township.
Hoopes said he has since separated from his wife, who now lives in California, and retired from his law practice. He lives alone in his family's Doylestown home, he said, and has struggled with alcohol and post-traumatic stress disorder, which he developed serving in Vietnam.
When Pratter asked how he was feeling now, Hoopes said: "I feel fine, your honor. I feel sad and I feel embarrassed and minorly depressed. But other than that, I feel fine."
He stressed to Pratter that he "never had a blemish" on his records as a police officer or lawyer and that he regretted his actions.
But "I'm not worried about myself," he said. "I'm worried about my family."
Three of Hoopes' five daughters attended the hearing and wiped away tears as they sat behind him in court.
Hoopes, 71, of Doylestown, and his attorney, William Winning, declined further comment after the hearing.
Hoopes previously had pleaded not guilty. With Hoopes' change of plea Wednesday, Waltman, 60, of Lower Southampton, remains the only defendant in the case who has not entered a guilty plea. Waltman awaits trial, scheduled for later this fall, on charges related to the scheme. Rafferty, 63, of Lower Southampton, pleaded guilty in the spring.
At the end of Wednesday's proceeding, Pratter asked Hoopes whether he ever socializes with anyone allegedly involved in the scheme.
"No, I've never seen them or talked to them" since charges were filed, Hoopes said.
Hoopes' sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 17. He faces a maximum sentence of 100 years in prison.
Sen. Cory Booker (D., N.J.) and Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.), right, and other Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee appealed to Chairman Chuck Grassley, (R., Iowa), to delay the confirmation hearing of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday. Read more
When Cory Booker arrived in Washington, he dined with Ted Cruz, talked criminal justice reform with Rand Paul, and tried to make good on a campaign pledge to pursue common ground and choose "pragmatism over partisanship."
Times have changed, and now the first-term New Jersey Democrat and former Newark mayor who built his political brand on positivity and the power of love has put on the gloves. As the nation tunes in to the confirmation hearings for Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court, Booker has at times adopted a confrontational approach likely to resonate with a resistance-fueled Democratic base.
On Tuesday, he helped Democrats blow up the comity often associated with the Senate Judiciary Committee: interrupting the committee chairman, declaring the process "absurd," hoping to sink the nomination, or at least delay proceedings until more records from Kavanaugh's background are released.
Republicans said that the Senate had enough documents and that a number of Democrats, including Booker, had already announced their opposition to Kavanaugh.
"What is the rush? What are we hiding by not letting those documents come out?" Booker said near the start of Tuesday's hearing to Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa), the committee chairman. Appealing to Grassley's "sense of fairness and decency," Booker said: "Sir, this committee is [in] violation of the values that we as a committee have striven for: transparency."
The chairman accused Booker of "taking advantage of my decency and integrity."
The televised confirmation hearings come as Booker considers a presidential bid in 2020, when he'd need to win over a Democratic primary electorate that has demanded defiance of Trump.
Many Democratic activists are seething with anger, and it isn't clear they'd be satisfied with Booker's lofty talk of Maya Angelou and Gandhi.
The battle over the direction of the Supreme Court is particularly frustrating for Democrats, who accuse the GOP of stealing a seat from former President Barack Obama by refusing to consider his chosen replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in 2016.
Trump replaced Scalia last year with the conservative judge Neil Gorsuch.
Kavanaugh, a federal appellate judge in Washington who is likely to be confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate, would replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Reagan appointee long seen as the court's swing vote.
His appointment could cement a conservative majority on the court for a generation, and influence health care, abortion rights, voting rights, labor laws, and more; the judge also could have a potentially decisive role in the investigation of Trump. Kavanaugh has written about his skepticism of such inquiries.
"It seems so clear that in your court the same folks seem to win over and over again: the powerful, the privileged, big corporations, special interests," Booker told the judge Tuesday during opening statements. "This is why so much is at stake."
On Wednesday, Booker got another bite at the apple, as each senator was getting to question Kavanaugh at length.
Booker wanted to ask about an email during Kavanaugh's time in the Bush White House that the senator said showed Kavanaugh was at least open to racial profiling by police. Booker said he was limited in his questioning because the email was labeled "committee confidential" available to senators but not the public. He called for the email's release.
Republican senators, without naming individuals, have accused Democrats of protesting with an eye on their 2020 presidential ambitions. Booker, Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.), and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) all participated in the verbal fireworks, and all are seen as potential candidates. Some conservatives took umbrage with an email Booker sent to supporters during the hearing that looked like a fund-raising solicitation.
Cruz, a Texas Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said the Democrats' push to delay was really about "trying to relitigate the 2016 election and just as importantly, working to begin litigating the 2020 presidential election."
Other Republicans pounced on Booker's suggestion in July that those who support Kavanaugh were "complicit in evil" evidence, they said, of Democratic derangement.
But Booker won praise from some in his party pushing for a more aggressive posture.
"I think it's great that Booker's standing up, and Democrats are playing it right," said former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who ran for president in 2004. Dean called the Kavanaugh nomination a "travesty."
"I think he's been pretty much on fire for a year or two," Dean in an interview said of Booker.
In the weeks leading up to the hearings, some liberals had been underwhelmed by their party's seeming resignation to the inevitability of Kavanaugh's confirmation. Even though the GOP majority is slim, some Democratic senators running for reelection in states Trump won in 2016 are under pressure to back the nominee.
As Grassley gaveled in the start of the hearing Tuesday, Harris immediately moved to postpone it. Protesters repeatedly interrupted, were arrested and hauled away. And Democrats warned that because Kavanaugh has written that presidents should be exempt from prosecution while in office, his confirmation could effectively shield Trump from the special counsel investigation.
Booker's role in the fray followed other recent moments of intense opposition from the normally sunny senator. He broke with precedent in testifying against a fellow senator, Jeff Sessions, during his confirmation hearings to be attorney general.
And he blasted Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in January after she denied hearing Trump use vulgar words to denigrate African countries. "Your silence and your amnesia is complicity," he told Nielsen, recalling the "tears of rage" he shed when he learned of Trump's comments from news reports.
That remark prompted ridicule from conservatives but thrilled the left.
The Kavanaugh hearings may mark Booker's highest-profile confrontation with Trump to date.
"A lot of people think of him as being incredibly positive and uplifting, and may be surprised to learn that he also has this kind of tough, steady mettle internally," said Brigid Harrison, a professor of law and political science at Montclair State University.
Asked if his actions Tuesday betrayed his reputation, Booker said: "My record of working across the aisle is incredibly solid."
He and other Democrats argue the stakes are too high to go down quietly.
Still, the senator of uplifting quotes showed signs he's not entirely comfortable as an attack dog.
"I do hope you understand that I value your friendship," Booker said to Grassley, with whom he has worked on criminal justice reform. "I've come to have a deep respect for you, sir."
"If you worry about our friendship being affected," Grassley responded, "it will not be."
Yamie Reyes, 7, looks out the front door from the inside of the First United Methodist Church of Germantown, seeing the crowd that gathered outside to welcome him, his family and the Thompson family from Jamaica. Read more
Temperatures and passions soared at First United Methodist Church of Germantown on Wednesday, as about 100 people gathered to formally welcome two immigrant families who have taken sanctuary there to block their deportations.
Supporters massed on the front steps, raising placards that read, "No human is illegal," and, "Families belong together," then moved into the church for speeches, songs, and prayers.
Both families, one from Honduras, the other from Jamaica, have children who are American citizens. Their long-standing pleas for asylum were recently turned down, but the families say deportation could get them killed in their homelands.
"You all have stepped into the heat, not just the heat outside, but the heat of sanctuary," Rabbi Shawn Zevit told the families and the crowd. "We want to stand by you in the heat. We will stay with you all the way, until you can wake up one morning and say, 'I am a secure citizen of the country.' "
In sanctuary are Clive and Oneita Thompson, who lived in South Jersey after coming to America from Jamaica in 2004. They entered sanctuary with 15-year-old daughter Christine and 12-year-old son Timothy. Both children are U.S. citizens.
On Wednesday, Oneita was asked what remains for the family in Jamaica.
"Nothing," she said. "This is my home. This is America, which I love."
A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement that Oneita and Clive Thompson have overstayed the terms of their admission to the United States by nearly 14 years.
In September 2009, ICE said, an immigration judge ordered them removed from the country. They appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which dismissed their petition, the agency said.
"ICE has granted them numerous stays of removal to allow them to make arrangements to depart the United States, but even so, they failed to depart," the statement said. "They are currently immigration fugitives and subject to arrest and removal from the country once encountered by ICE."
>>READ MORE: Two more immigrant families take church sanctuary in Philly
The second family is Suyapa Reyes, 35, who came from Honduras in 2014, and her children, Jennifer, 13; Yamie, 7; Jeison, 2; and Junior, 10 months. The toddler and the baby are U.S. citizens and were not ordered to be deported with the rest of the family, Reyes said.
ICE said it could not comment on the Reyes family "due to pending legal issues."
The families are the second and third to take sanctuary in Philadelphia in the last 10 months, part of a national movement to protect undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation. Fourteen men, women, and children are now living in city churches, including the Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia. A Mexican man who spent nearly 11 months inside Arch Street United Methodist Church in Center City was able to leave in October.
"It's disheartening that people feel like they have to take such steps to protect their families," said Philadelphia First Deputy Managing Director Brian Abernathy. "It speaks to the deep-seated fear our president has sown and the impact that ICE's aggressive enforcement actions have had."
Mayor Kenney routinely speaks up for immigrants, and the city government recently fought and won a "sanctuary city" lawsuit against the Trump administration. A federal judge ruled in June that the city's refusal to help enforce federal immigration laws was legal, and that the administration could not withhold about $1.5 million in law-enforcement grant money.
>>READ MORE: For children in Philly church sanctuary, a risky ride to school
At the church on Wednesday, two people held a line hung with baby clothes, symbolizing children who have been separated from their families by the federal government. Guitarist Lauren Moyer played "In the Eye of the Storm" and people sang along.
"Friends," the Rev. Bob Coombe, pastor of First United Methodist, told those gathered in the pews, "we're in it for the long haul. However long it takes."
"Yes!" people called back to him.
The move into the Germantown church, the families' supporters said, reflects the Trump administration's desire to divide children from parents not just at the southern border, but in larger cities and towns elsewhere.
"They are defending the most precious treasure they have, their families," said Blanca Pacheco, co-director of New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia, an advocacy group supporting the family.
Both families notified ICE that they have taken sanctuary in the church. They are not hiding, they said, but are challenging a federal immigration system they regard as unfair. The families say they'll stay until the government agrees to let them live and work here.
Eddie Howard, a canvasser with Community Marketing Concepts, a marketing consultant group contracted by the city's Department of Revenue, goes door-to-door in Ogontz August 23, 2018 leaving information packets and talking to homeowners about tax relief programs. TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer Read more
Almost 4,000 city residents opened their doors this summer to an unexpected visitor: a canvasser sent by the Department of Revenue telling them ways they can decrease their property tax bill. The city deserves kudos for this important effort. But if Philadelphia was already invested in getting canvassers to knock on doors, why not take the outreach one step further and register people to vote?
The outreach had an important purpose: bringing information about potential savings to homeowners who may have been surprised to see their 2019 property tax bill significantly increase in April, following the city's new assessment process.
When the city overhauled the property tax and assessment system during the Mayor Nutter administration, it put in place programs to help homeowners pay their property taxes. The programs, however, are underutilized. For example, even though every owner-occupied house can exempt $40,000 from their home's value for tax purposes by filling out a simple form, only 77.5 percent of eligible households claimed the Homestead Exemption in 2018, according to the Department of Revenue. That means more than 62,000 households could have saved an average of $550 on their property tax bill but didn't.
To increase the participation rate in these programs, the Department of Revenue hired a marketing consultant to run a pilot program and visit six neighborhoods Cobbs Creek, Lower Moyamensing, Feltonville, West Oak Lane, Kensington, and Harrowgate. A team of people has been knocking on doors, offering homeowners information about assistance programs, all summer, ahead of the Sept. 13 registration deadline.
According to the Department of Revenue, it was important to keep the conversation focused on the assistance programs to be able to evaluate the pilot. If the pilot proves successful, more topics should be added to the canvassers' script including voter registration.
Voting is a right, and all citizens should be able to participate on election days. Philadelphia could become a city in which any city employee who comes in contact with the public will be able to offer voter registration information from the Water Department service representative to the person helping you save money on your tax bill.
As of May's primary election, there were 1,035,420 registered voters in Philadelphia about 60,000 fewer than on the eve of the 2016 general election. At the time, Billy Penn estimated that more than 200,000 eligible Philadelphians were not registered to vote.
The city has made efforts to register voters. Both the Mayor's Office of Public Engagement and the Office of the City Commissioners register voters who recently moved to senior citizens homes; they also reach out to high school students and hold registration drives.
Just like the Department of Revenue decided that more can be done to increase participation in property tax assistance programs, more can be done to increase participation in elections. The first step is being registered.
The shooting of Bhojpuri film 'Dulhaniya London Wali's shoot has been wrapped up, reports Bhojpurixp.com. The shooting of the romantic comedy film was going on in Gujarat and the film has been presented by Vivan Entertainment with Guddu Jafri as the director. Amrish Singh, who will play the lead actor in the film was quite excited post wrapping up the shoot.
Bhojpurixp.com quotes Amrish as saying that the film is rich in entertainment and has a great story. The actor also said that along with romance, the film has a dash of comedy as well.
The report further says that Amrish believes the movie will provide a dose of laughter to the audience and will introduce them to a different kind of romance. The report further says that the film has all ingredients of entertainment and has been kept away from obscenity.
Besides Amrish, the film also stars Shweta Mishra and Sushil Singh in the lead roles.
Shikha Chaube, Vishnu Shanker Velu, Ayaz Khan, Zubair Ali Khan, Dr. Sudesh Kumar, Ratnakar Pathak and Islam Ali will play pivotal roles in the rom-com.
The story of the film is written by Vijay Sahni and the co-directors are Rahul Bhise and Nityanand Pandey.
Noida (UP): A man hailing from Bihar was found dead with his throat slit near a drainage in Noida Sector 168, police said Tuesday.
The deceased has been identified as Ishrafil, who belonged to Katihar district in Bihar, and was an auto-rickshaw driver here, the police said.
Officials at the Expressway police station were alerted about an unidentified body being found near a drainage in Sector 168 Monday night, a senior official said.
"When the body was checked a wallet was found which had some documents, voter identity card, and phone numbers written on papers," Circle Officer, City 1st, Avneesh Kumar said.
"We have managed to contact his brother. The family, which hails from Bihar, lives here in Baraula village in Sector 49," he said.
Kumar said post-mortem has been conducted on the body which confirmed that the victim's throat was slit.
"A case has been registered under Indian Penal Code sections 301 (culpable homicide) and 302 (murder)," the CO said.
The case is being probed further, he added.
New Delhi: Actor Sonu Soon was at the centre of attention last week when he announced his exit from Kangana Ranaut's 'Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi'. The actor's spokesperson told media persons that Sood's exit from the much-anticipated project reportedly took place due to some scheduling conflict.
Later, Bollywoodlife.com quoted Kangana as saying that Sood left the project as he did not want to work under a female director. And now, Sood has reacted to Kangana's comment while justifying his exit from the project at last minute in an exclusive chat with HT.
The actor told the website that he never had a problem of working under a female director as he has worked with Farah Khan in 'Happy New Year'. "That was not my statement. I never said that I dont want to work with a female director because I have already done a movie with a female director. I only said I can't be working with two directors on one set," he said.
The 'Dabangg' actor further clarifies his stand and says that in his entire career, he never worked with two directors at a time for a project and he will stick to it. "I will always maintain that stand and in a span of all these years, whatever films I have done, 80-90 movies, I have worked with one director at a time. So that is my stand and I will always stick to it," he said.
Sonu has been replaced by Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub. In the meantime, after his exit from the film, Kangana is doing major reshoots for 'Manikarnika', which has added Rs 20 crore as additional cost to the total budget.
Last week, Sonu's spokesperson said that the actor, who has also been simultaneously shooting for Rohit Shetty's 'Simmba', asked to reshoot some portions for 'Manikarnika' by Kangana. The 45-year-old actor has been sporting a beard for the Ranveer Singh-starrer, but for 'Manikarnika' he was asked to go clean-shaven. Sonu asked the makers of the biopic to finish the reshoots after he completes his schedule for 'Simmba' but things did not work out and he decided to quit the project.
"Sonu has always been a thorough professional and honoured all his commitments. He had informed the makers of Manikarnika about his dates and schedule well in advance. Inconveniencing the team of his current film to accommodate the demands of another are against his professional principles. Sonu has taken the higher road ahead and wishes the team of Manikarnika all the best," the spokesperson said in a statement.
On the other hand, Kangana, in a statement to Pinkvilla last week, had said, "Sonu and I haven't even met since the last shot with Krish (director) last year. He is busy filming 'Simmba'. He couldn't even give us tentative dates to match combinations with other actors. The producers showed him the film and writers narrated the patchwork to him...he refused to meet me. He vehemently denied to work under a woman director, which is kind of amusing because Sonu is a dear friend and I have even launched the music of a film that he produced on his request, even though the team suggested that they have full faith in me, it seems, Sonu had neither dates nor faith."
Earlier, there were reports that filmmaker Krish Jagarlamudi, who has directed the historical drama, has left the project. The news surfaced online after a picture of a clapboard featuring Kangana's name as the director of the film went viral. This set social media on fire with a discussion on whether the actress herself has directed the entire project.
However, it was later clarified by the national award-winning actor's team that she was just shooting the patchwork in absence of Krish, who is currently busy fulfilling his commitments for another project.
New Delhi: Come September 5 and you know it's time to say 'thank you' to your beloved mentors and gurus. The day is special because no matter where you are, you know it's the bunch of people who made you what you are today. Your teachers or gurus spent that extra hour on you so that you excel in life and yes if not everyday at least today is the time to give it back in your own sweet way. The Guru Dakshina can be a simple 'thank you' or an elaborate giftwhatever be it, the feeling is what matters the most.
So, our celebrities too thronged social media to say 'thank you' to their mentors or gurus in their own special way. Check it out here:
I want to thank all my teachers today who have taught me everything I know & most of all my mother who has taught me to be humble, down to earth, to pray, to forgive & to be spiritual #TeachersDay #Mom #Thankyou pic.twitter.com/rd9CiinKUc Preity G Zinta (@realpreityzinta) September 5, 2018
Remembering an exemplary teacher, great philosopher and former President of India Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan on his birth anniversary.
Happy #TeachersDay to all respected teachers. One of my SandArt. pic.twitter.com/60wqrtyCnW Sudarsan Pattnaik (@sudarsansand) September 5, 2018
Without teachers, our lives wouldn't have been the same. So lets continue to appreciate their contribution in making us who we are today. Happy #TeachersDay! Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) September 5, 2018
Teaching should not be a profession it must be a passion. Only then can education move from imposition of facts to exploration of truth. #SadhguruQuotes #TeachersDay pic.twitter.com/7YsVAP65Py Sadhguru (@SadhguruJV) September 5, 2018
Teachers' Day is celebrated on different dates in various countries. In India, Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan's birthday which happens to be on September 5 is marked as Teachers' Day since 1962.
More commonly, the day is celebrated as a mark of respect to any educator or a personality who has achieved a great milestone in education. This is the reason why Teachers' Day is celebrated on different days across the globe, revering their own respective educator or an achiever in the field of education.
In India, Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was the first Vice President and the second President of the country (1962-1967).
Here's wishing our teachers a very happy Teachers' Day and a big 'thank you'!
In a move against Additional Director General (ADG) of Maharashtra Police Param Bir Singh, a petition was filed in the Bombay High Court on Tuesday seeking action against him under contempt of court for disobeying the order of the magistrate and disclosing evidence related to the Bhima-Koregaon violence in media.
According to the petition filed by social activist Sanjay Bhalerao, the police read out parts of letters, which were "crucial evidence" in the case, in a press conference before submitting it to the court in Pune.
Bhalerao is being represented in the Bombay High Court by his lawyer Nitin Satpute. The matter has been slated for a hearing on September 7 -- the same day when the court will hear the petition of the alleged victim of the Bhima Koregaon violence, Satish Gaikwad, who wants the case to be handed over to the National Investigative Agency (NIA). Gaikwad is also being represented in the High Court by the same lawyer.
On Monday, the Bombay High Court had come down heavily on the Maharashtra Police for holding a press conference and elaborating on the evidence against activists arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case.
The court questioned the police for holding a media interaction when the case is sub-judice and criticised him for disclosing details of the matter, even after the police themselves had sought strict confidentiality in the proceedings.
Maharashtra Police, on August 28, had arrested five activists, claiming they had links to the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist). The raids triggered strong criticism against the police, leading the cops to defend and claim that they had strong evidence against the arrested activists.
The arrests can be traced to the violence that erupted between the Dalit and Maratha groups, earlier this year near Pune, during the bicentenary anniversary of the Bhima Koregaon battle. The clashes killed one person and left several injured, including 10 policemen.
The Congress party has said that if it is voted to power in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it will ensure that all middlemen and beneficiaries of the Rafale deal are penalised and sent to jail. Addressing a press conference in Kanpur on Wednesday, Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said that the Rafale fighter jets deal caused a loss of Rs 41,000 crore to the country.
Furnishing documents related to the deal between Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government and the French government, Priyanka asked that if the company manufacturing Rafale jets can reveal the value of the deal, why was the Centre refraining from addressing Parliament over the same.
The Congress leader also questioned the BJP-led NDA government over not accepting the demand of a Joint Parliamentary Committee, raised in the past by Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
When the UPA was in power, they used to raise the demand for the constitution of JPC on every other issue. You came to power with the promise of becoming a chowkidar, how did you become a scamster? said Priyanka Chaturvedi.
She referred to the Modi government as a dictator government. Whenever questions were raised on any minister during the UPA government, Prime Minister used to take cognisance of it. Now Modi government is destroying the democratic traditions.
Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi also attacked the NDA government over the Rafale deal. He cited that Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had turned down a request from Russia to make another private Indian entity its partner for the joint manufacture of Rs 3,000-crore worth of AK-103 assault rifles for the Indian Army.
Pointing that the Narendra Modi government had reportedly advised Russia that its firm Kalashnikov Concern should tie up with the state-run Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) if it wants its proposal to manufacture the AK-103 assault rifles in India to be considered by the Defence Ministry, the Congress asked as to why the same norm was not applied in the Rafale Scam. Why did Modi government not advise Dassault Aviation to negotiate further with government run HAL? read the statement.
(With inputs from Rajesh N Agarwal, Zee Media)
Ahmedabad: Former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt was arrested Wednesday by the Gujarat CID in connection with a 22-year-old case of alleged planting of drugs to arrest a man, police said. Bhatt and seven others, including some former policemen attached with the Banaskantha Police, were initially detained for questioning in the case.
Shortly after being questioned, Bhatt was arrested by the Crime Investigation Department while others are still kept under detention, Director General of Police, CID, Ashish Bhatia said. Bhatt was the Banaskantha district superintendent of police in 1996. He was dismissed from the service in 2015.
As per the case details, the Banaskantha Police under Bhatt had arrested one Sumersingh Rajpurohit, an advocate, in 1996 on charges of possessing around one kg of drugs.
At that time, the Banaskantha Police had claimed that drugs were found in a hotel room occupied by Rajpurohit in the district's Palanpur town. However, a probe by the Rajasthan Police had revealed that Rajpurohit was allegedly falsely implicated by the Banaskantha Police to compel him to transfer a disputed property at Pali in Rajasthan.
It had also found that Rajpurohit was allegedly abducted by the Banaskantha Police from his residence at Pali in Rajasthan.
Following the Rajasthan Police's investigation, former police inspector of Banaskantha, I B Vyas, had moved the Gujarat High Court in 1999 demanding a thorough inquiry into the matter. In June this year, the high court had handed over the probe in the case to the CID while hearing the petition.
The high court had asked the CID to complete the probe in three months. Bhatt was in August 2015 sacked by the union home ministry on grounds of "unauthorised absence" from service.He has been a vocal critic of the ruling BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media platforms.
Bhatt had last week met Patidar leader Hardik Patel, who is on an indefinite fast since August 25 at his residence demanding reservation for his community and farm loan waiver.
Recently, the BJP-ruled Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation razed illegal construction at Bhatt's residence here after the Supreme Court dismissed his plea seeking a stay on the demolition. Bhatt had several run-ins with the BJP government in the past over the issue of the 2002 post Godhra riots.
In a bid to press demands for fair wages, remunerative crop prices and debt waiver, thousands of farmers, farm workers and labourers from across the country on Wednesday are holding a Left-organised mega-rally in the national capital from Ramlila Maidan to Parliament.
The Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally is the "first combined" rally by Left-oriented organisations -- the All India Agricultural Workers` Union (AIAWU), the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, and the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), organisers had said on Tuesday.
Kisan, Mazdoor, KhetMazdoor Ekta Zindabad Slogans ring out in #MazdoorKisanSangharshRally Camp in Delhi.
Join them as tomorrow on their Historic march to the Parliament! pic.twitter.com/Ikc7ALH73x CPI (M) (@cpimspeak) September 4, 2018
AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah had said the government policies were hurting the interest of farmers, farmworkers and labourers who were the producers but hardly get any benefit or fair returns.
"We are holding a joint demonstration for the first time to raise voice against the common enemy. This government`s policies are beneficial to corporates and not the people. We want the government to change its policies," Mollah told reporters.
The protesters have put before the government 15 demands. They have asked for curbing price rise, universalising the Public Distribution System, employment creation, minimum wage of not less than Rs 18,000 per month and banning labour law amendments.
Debt waiver, redistributive land reforms, a ban of forcible land acquisition, reversing neo-liberal policies, and a ban on `contract` employment are among the other demands.
CITU general secretary Tapan Sen had said the next course of action would be announced after the rally reaches near Parliament.
"The protests will be intensified if the demands are not considered by the government," he had said.
In addition to the Left organisations, many trade unions, employee unions and teacher federations have extended their support to the rally, Sen had said. Anganwadi and ASHA workers are also expected to join the march, he added. AIKS president Ashok Dhawale said many participants were not affiliated to his organisation, but they had come to Delhi as they were "victims of government`s anti-people policies".
Raghunath Chaudhary, a farmer from Maharashtra`s Nashik, who was a part of `Long March` to Mumbai in March this year, had said he felt betrayed as the Maharashtra government had not fulfilled its promises despite a written assurance.
Ramesh Singh Armo from Chhattisgarh`s Pendra Road town had said wages under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) were delayed for months. "We hardly get work under the MGNREGS. Even if we get it, payments are delayed for months," Armo had said.
By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. You can find out more by clicking this link
NEW DELHI: India's indigenously built fighter aircraft Tejas touched yet another milestone as it successfully carried out out the first-ever mid-air refuelling, the Indian Air Force said on Wednesday.
''A Russian-built IL-78 MKI tanker transferred fuel to a Tejas MK I aircraft on Tuesday,'' the IAF said in a press release.
"The success of these trials is a major leap for the indigenous fighter, thus enhancing its mission capability by increasing its range and payload. The ability to carry out air-to-air refuelling is one of the critical requirements for the Light Combat Aircraft to achieve final operational clearance," the IAF said.
The tanker was launched from its base in Agra while the fighter was launched from Gwalior. The specially modified Tejas aircraft carried out a series of test profiles including a `Dry Contact` with the tanker.
A second Tejas aircraft flying in formation was used to observe the exercise closely.
Prior to the test flight, extensive ground trials were conducted in all possible conditions under the supervision of ADA scientists.
"All flight parameters of Tejas aircraft were transmitted live to a ground control unit set-up at the Gwalior airbase, wherein Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) scientists constantly monitored the technical parameters of the mission.
The mid-air refuelling of Tejas came three months after it successfully fired an air-to-air beyond visual (BVR) range missile.
The indigenous supersonic fourth-generation fighter has been inducted by the Indian Air Force into the No 45 Squadron 'The Flying Daggers', based at Sulur Air Force Station at Kangayampalayam in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) had in late 2017 cleared the acquisition of 83 LCA Tejas Mk1A aircraft and the HAL has also ramped up the production of the jet from eight per year to 16.
The 83 Tejas Mk1A will come for Rs 50,000 crore and help the IAF which has been struggling with the depleting number of fighter squadrons.
India has also joined the select club of US, Europe, Russia and China having the capability of Deck Landing of fighter aircraft.
The LCA Tejas Naval Prototype 2 (NP2), piloted by Captain Shivnath Dahiya safely executed the first contact of the arrestor hook system with Arresting wire at moderate taxi-in speeds on location at the Shore Based Test Facility, INS Hansa, Goa on August 2.
NEW DELHI: Amid row over the deal between India and France to procure 36 Rafale jets, Air Force Vice Chief Air Marshal S B Deo on Wednesday said that they are waiting for the aircraft.
"We're waiting for the aircraft. Rafale is a beautiful and capable aircraft," the Vice Chief of Air Force said.
Air Marshal S B Deo, however, declined to comment on the ongoing political accusation over the deal. "I shouldn't comment but I can tell you all this discussion and all these things going on in Rafale..because we know a lot about how everything went, we find that, people dont have the information," he said.
His statement comes at a time when the Rafale deal is clouded in controversy with Congress alleging that the contract has been signed with France at a much higher price. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government has defended itself claiming that they have got the best price and in turn trained guns at the UPA for compromising with national security by not buying the jets during its term earlier.
The defence agreement has been signed between the governments of India and France to purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft in fly-away condition as a part of upgrading process of Indian Air Force equipment. Rafale fighter aircraft, a twin-engine Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), is manufactured by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation.
Ahead of the 2+2 dialogue between India and the US on Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday said India buying a missile defence system from Russia and oil from Iran would be part of the dialogue, but not the primary focus.
Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis are headed to India for the talks on Thursday with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. This is the inaugural 2+2 dialogue between the two countries.
"They are (missile system purchase from Russia and oil from Iran) part of the conversation. They will certainly come up, but I don't think they will be the primary focus of what it is we are trying to accomplish here. There are half-a-dozen things on the agenda that we are really intent on making progress on," Pompeo said on Tuesday to a question from reporters who are travelling with him to Pakistan and then to India.
Pompeo will be travelling first to Pakistan and from there he will come to India. Sources said that India is keen to hear US assessment of Pakistan.
"Those decisions are important, they are important to the relationship for sure, but I don't see us resolving those or have the intention to resolve those during this set of meetings of the strategic dialogue. They are really about things that are big and strategic and will go on for 20, 40, 50 years. Those are the kinds of topics that secretary Mattis and I are hoping to address not that those are not important, but they are not part of the structural relationship between the two countries," said Pompeo.
India is expected to convey to the US during the dialogue that it is going ahead with the Rs 40,000 crore deal with Russia to procure a batch of S-400 Triumf air defence missile system.
The key highlights of the dialogue is scheduled to be counter-terrorism, defence cooperation and trade. According to sources, bilateral meetings between Pompeo and Sushma Swaraj and between Mattis and Sitharaman will be held in respective ministries.
The bilateral meetings will be followed by the combined 2 +2 Dialogue.
Top sources told ANI that counter-terrorism will be discussed in detail which may include a follow-up discussion on recently held Homeland Security Dialogue and Designation Dialogue. In this regard, the sharing of information, designation of international terrorists and organisations are on the table.
The US has designated Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) as terrorist organisations on the recommendations of India. Similarly, India has also designated Al Qaeda and Islamic State (IS) as terrorist organisations which affect the US, sources said.
Washington and New Delhi will also discuss cooperation with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which has recently blacklisted Pakistan on charges of terror financing. Besides, talks will also cover exchange of intelligence and information.
On defence cooperation, sources told ANI that the leaders will take a stock of progress made during discussions on defence enabling agreements like COMCASA, military to military cooperation, specific partnership co-development, maritime security and other issues related to national security. The US has given India the status of major defence partner and has also accorded STA1 status.
Gowever, earlier reports said the specific issue of S-400 missile deal with Russia will not be on the table as it pertains to a third country. Sources added that CATSA is an internal US law and the country is expected to keep in mind its strategic relations with other countries while taking decisions.
Sources further said that India will also sensitise the US on oil imports and impact of sanctions on the Indian economy. "New Delhi will put it's case on how heavily dependent India is on Iran oil imports. It's refineries are used to Iranian crude, and cost of changing to other sources and the alternatives which are available," sources said.
New Delhi, at the same time, will also use this opportunity to understand from the US about its expectations from India. Other countries like Japan, China and South Korea are also holding discussions with the US on Iran sanctions.
After 2+2 Dialogue is concluded, all the four leaders will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, following which Pompeo will be flying back to Washington. Sitharaman will be hosting a dinner for Mattis.
India regards this as the highest institutional political engagement between the two countries, while terming the 2 +2 Dialogue as a major diplomatic event in the calendar. The US has similar dialogue formats with two other countries -- Australia and Japan.
Pompeo has regretted that the dialogue had to be postponed twice in the past. "I regret it was my fault the second time. I had to travel to Pyongyang. But secretary Mattis and I are both looking forward to this," he said.
The twice-delayed dialogue was earlier scheduled for July 6 in Washington, but was postponed by the US on June 27, citing "unavoidable reasons". "We have a true strategic partner who, frankly, is our only major defence partner, right, the only designated major defense partner, with whom we have a great relationship and who is very important to our success in our Indo-Pacific strategy enormous country with incredibly opportunity and capacity for wealth creation," Pompeo said.
"We hope we can find opportunities to continue to expand the relationship not only diplomatic and military-to-military but a good set of business relationships as well," he said.
As rescue and search operation continue at the site of the collapsed bridge in Kolkata, the political blame game began with leaders accusing each other of the incident.
The incident took place on Tuesday afternoon killing at least one person and injuring over 24 others after a part of a 40-year-old bridge collapsed in Majerhat area of Kolkata in West Bengal. The injured people have been shifted to three hospitals -- SSKM hospital , CMRI hospital and Vidyasagar hospital in Kolkata.
The Opposition leaders who visited the spot on Tuesday night questioned the maintenance of the by the West Bengal government and the BJP demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
After visiting the spot, BJP leader Rahul Sinha said, "This is an absolute failure of the government's maintenance. Mamata Banerjee should take the responsibility of the incident and resign from the post. We demand a high-level enquiry by the judge here."
Congress toed the same line as opposition leader Abdul Mannan visited the spot and saying, "What is the government up to in Kolkata where only you can see flyovers collapsing. This has happened due to the failure of the state government."
West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi who visited the spot questioned the role of the Public Works Department (PWD) department.
"The main question which is still kept in a state of confusion by the government is who was in charge of maintenance of this bridge. Kolkata port trust and rail clearly denied that they were in any way responsible for the maintenance," said (Boby) Firhad Hakim, Urban Development Minister.
Generally, PWD and Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority look after the maintenance of bridges but who was in charge to look after the collapsed bridge has not been made clear by the government. Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee kept mum when he was repeatedly asked this question.
The incident occurred at around 4.45 pm on Tuesday, following which fire tenders, ambulances and teams of NDRF and local police rushed to the spot. West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim also reached the spot soon after the information came in. He said that the priority was to conduct rescue operation to take those trapped out of the debris. Pointing that the bridge is 40-year-old, he added that a technical team would later look into the cause of the collapse.
West Bengal Chief Minister, who is in Darjeeling, said that though she wanted to head back to Kolkata immediately, but could not do so as flights were not operational after evening. She said that the governments focus was on relief and rescue operation.
We are very worried. We are receiving information from the rescue team on the ground. We want to go back as soon as possible. There are no flights in the evening, we are unable to do so, said Mamata Banerjee.
Our team is focused on relief and rescue work. Our priority is relief and rescue. Rest of the investigation will be done later, she further said.
The bridge, which passes over the Majerhat railway station, is an important bridge in Kolkata connecting Behala to areas which lie on the other side of the Sealdah railway line.
Teams of NDRF and local police are conducting the rescue operation at the collapse site. The Indian Army clarified that its personnel have not been called in yet but since the area is very close, Army field hospital detachment has been sent.
In 2016 one bridge collapsed in Posta and there too lots of questions came up for which government gave RITES responsibility to survey conditions of different bridges in Kolkata.
CHENNAI: Expelled Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader MK Alagiri on Wednesday held a show of strength at late father at party patriarch M Karunanidhi's memorial at the Marina beach in Chennai. Dressed in black, Stalin along with his supporters, took out a rally from Triplicane. After walking for a while, Alagiri hopped on to an open van, waving enthusiastically to cheer his cadres.
The expelled leader's followers from various districts held banners, which read "karam korpom kazhagam kappom,' (let us join hands and guard the party). The former Union minister's loyalists, including Madurai-based PM Mannan took part in the rally.
Alagiri had announced that he would be holding a 'peace rally' to mourn the death of his father.
After earlier threatening estranged brother MK Stalin of consequences if he is not accepted into DMK, Alagiri had recently said that he is ready to accept Stalin as the leader of the party. He added that he is ready to join the party but Stalin was not ready to take him into the fold. "We are ready to join with them (DMK), he (MK Stalin) is not ready to accept us," Alagiri had said in Madurai.
Revolting against his brother, Alagiri had said that he wants to join the party because he wants to save it. "Earlier Kalaignar was there. Now we have to save the party and we want to join it. If they don't include us in the party, they will have to face the consequences," the expelled DMK leader had said.
Soon after late DMK chief Karunanidhi's death, Alagiri had kicked up a storm by saying that the DMK cadres were with him. His statement was seen as an open challenge to Stalin before he was set to be appointed as the party chief.
However, despite Alagiri's revolt, Stalin was elected unopposed as the party chief as all the 65 district secretaries of the party proposed his name for the top post. Throughout the meeting of the DMK where Stalin was elevated, there was no mention of Alagiri. The party did not even care to give an official response to his claim of having the support of the DMK cadres.
A former minister, Alagiri was expelled in 2014 by Karunanidhi for indulging in anti-party activities and making derogatory remarks. Karunanidhi had then named Stalin as his political heir. The transition of power was formalised when Stalin was made the working president of the party in January 2017 after Karunanidhi's health did not permit him to preside over the affairs of the party.
NEW DELHI: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis arrived here Wednesday to hold the inaugural two-plus-two talks with their Indian counterparts, focus of which will be to deepen strategic ties and resolve differences over India's defence engagement with Russia and crude oil import from Iran.
Reflecting the importance of the talks to be held on Thursday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj received Pompeo, while Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman welcomed her US counterpart Jim Mattis at the Palam airport.
#WATCH: United States Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, arrives in India for 2+2 dialogue; received by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Delhi pic.twitter.com/OQMGR2W4cT ANI (@ANI) September 5, 2018
Swaraj and Sitharaman will hold the twice-postponed dialogue with Pompeo and Mattis. Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford is also part of the US delegation.
"In a special gesture symbolising our warm and friendly relationship, EAM @SushmaSwaraj received United States Secretary of State @SecPompeo at the airport on his first visit to India," MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet.
The External Affairs Minister will have a separate bilateral meeting with Pompeo while Sitharaman will have a one-on-one meeting with Mattis on Thursday morning before the delegation-level two-plus-two talks.
Twelve officials from each side are expected to attend the talks which will be followed by a working lunch. In the afternoon, Swaraj, Sitharaman, Pompeo and Mattis will call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
As Secretary Pompeo arrived here from Islamabad, India will also try to get his view about his engagement with the new government in Pakistan headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, official sources said.
In the talks, the sources said, India will also try to "sensitise" the US that any cut in the import of Iranian oil in compliance with the US sanctions may impact the country's overall economy as the crude oil from that country is much cheaper.
India is also expected to apprise the US about the importance of the Rs 40,000 crore deal it is about to finalise with Russia to procure a batch of S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems. The US has been indicating that it does not want India to go ahead with the deal.
The sources said both sides will also discuss the long-pending Communications, Compatibility, Security Agreement (COMCASA).
The COMCASA will help India obtain critical and encrypted defence technologies for Indian defence platforms from the US. The sources said the text of the agreement is almost ready.
They said both sides will also explore ways to enhance engagement between their navies in the Indo-Pacific region and try to resolve tariff-related issues.
On import of Iranian oil, the sources said India may also convey to the US that some of its refineries are dependent on certain kind of crude oil and making technical adjustments in them may require huge investments as well as time.
After withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, the US has imposed sanctions on Iran. It has told India and other countries to cut oil imports from the Gulf nation to "zero" by November 4 or face sanctions.
SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference will boycott the upcoming local body and panchayat elections in the state unless the Centre takes effective steps for protection of Article 35-A of the Constitution, the party said on Wednesday.
The announcement in this regard was made by NC president and former chief minister of J&K Farooq Abdullah.
The veteran NC leader said that a decision to this effect was taken following a meeting of the core group of the party during which it was decided that NC will not participate in these elections unless and until the government of India and the state government clarify their positions in this regard.
Abdullah said the core group had a detailed discussion about the prevailing situation in the state with particular reference to Article 35-A of the Constitution. "It was felt that any tinkering with Article 35-A would prove disastrous not only for our state but for the entire country".
Abdullah also demanded the Centre to take effective steps for protection of Article 35-A in and outside the courts.
J&K National Conference will not participate in these elections (panchayat), unless & until, the Government of India & the state government clears its position in this regard (35 A) & takes effective steps for the protection of Article 35 A in & inside the court: Farooq Abdullah pic.twitter.com/wpJ4ojrcEL ANI (@ANI) September 5, 2018
He alleged that the state administration took the decision to hold urban local body and panchayat elections in a "hurried manner" and without taking into consideration the prevailing situation "created by the powers that be by unnecessarily fiddling with Article 35-A".
The call to boycott the upcoming polls came a week after the state government announced the schedule for holding elections to local bodies and panchayats in the state.
While the urban local body polls are slated for the first week of October, the Panchayat elections are scheduled to be held in November-December this year.
He alleged that the stands of the Centre and the present dispensation in Jammu and Kashmir before the Supreme Court goes "clearly against the wishes and aspirations of the people of the state.
"They conveniently ignore that this provision was incorporated in the Constitution after thorough discussion between the then state government and the Government of India and was made part of the Delhi Agreement 1952," he said.
"It was also approved by the state's constituent assembly as envisaged under article 370 of the Constitution," he said.
The core group resolved that J&K National Conference would fight tooth and nail all "sinister" attempts aimed at interfering with this constitutional guarantee, Abdullah said.
"Such attempts, if allowed, shall strike at the very basis of the relationship between the state and the Union," he said.
(With PTI Inputs)
KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the person who died after a portion of Majerhat bridge in the West Bengal capital collapsed on Tuesday.
''Money and job can't compensate lives but still compensation of Rs 5 lakh has been announced for the person who died. Two people are critical,'' West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said.
The Trinamool Congress chief, who arrived here from Darjeeling, also inspected the incident site and held talks with top government officials.
''There are many more such bridges in West Bengal, so the state government is trying to get those records and take necessary steps,'' she said while talking to reporters.
Money & job can't compensate lives but still compensation of Rs 5 lakh has been announced for the person who died. 2 ppl are critical. There are many more such bridges in Bengal so govt is trying to get those records & take necessary steps: Mamata Banerjee.#MajerhatBridgeCollapse pic.twitter.com/bzB2GqjADZ ANI (@ANI) September 5, 2018
Mamata further informed that one more body was recovered on Wednesday. We are probing this incident from all the angles, no angle is less or more important for us. We are holding an emergency meeting on Thursday to chart future course of action.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people residing in the south-western suburbs and vast areas of South 24 Parganas district on Wednesday faced difficulties in commuting due to the closure of the arterial Diamond Harbour Road in view of the incident.
A traffic police officer said vehicles that usually move to and from the city through Majerhat Bridge have been diverted through various other roads.
Traffic snarls were reported at various points in the morning in the south-western parts as diversions in both direction were imposed leading to pressure on these roads.
Train movement below the Majerhat Road Over Bridge (ROB) in the Sealdah-Budge Budge section was normal, Eastern Railway spokesman R N Mahapatra said.
"Train services of Circular Railway from Dum Dum to Majerhat also resumed this morning," he said.
However, services in the Circular Railway portion of railway track between New Alipore and Majerhat stations that passes under the bridge is temporarily suspended, he said.
The closure of a part of the arterial Diamond Harbour Road that connects the city to the shores of Bay of Bengal at Frazerganj over 120 km away, linking many hamlets and towns, affected thousands of people travelling to work, schools and colleges and other purposes.
Patients from these places travelling to hospitals in the city would also have to face the woes of travelling a longer distance until the bridge is restored.
West Bengal Transport Principal Secretary B P Gopalika said that additional state buses have been pressed into service to mitigate the problems being faced by the people in these areas.
"Wherever there will be a need for more buses, we will provide," he said.
Meanwhile, a political slugfest erupted with the Opposition parties on Wednesday accusing the TMC government of "neglecting" repair and maintenance of bridges and only painting various installations blue and white.
The Trinamool Congress, however, dubbed the allegations baseless and said the state government had taken enough steps for repair of old and new bridges, which were in a dismal condition during the Left Front rule.
A section of a 50-year-old Majerhat bridge on the arterial Diamond Harbour Road in south Kolkata collapsed Tuesday evening, snuffing out one life, trapping several people and crushing many vehicles.
Mukul Roy, a former close aide of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and now a BJP leader said, "Painting the city blue and white, the favourite colours of Banerjee, tops the agenda of the PWD department. The repair and maintenance of bridges took a back seat."
"The state government and PWD department is solely responsible for the bridge collapse. The PWD minister Arup Biswas should take the responsibility," he said.
BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said, "Didi (Mamata Banerjee) is dreaming of becoming prime minister and her younger brothers (TMC leaders and ministers) are looting the state in the name of syndicate business. She should keep aside her prime ministerial ambitions and pay attention to the state."
Refuting the opposition charges, state Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim said the state government has taken enough steps to repair old bridges which were in a dilapidated state during the Left Front rule.
"Undertaking beautification work in the city is nothing wrong and it doesn't mean repair of bridges has been neglected. A portion of the bridge has collapsed and it is an unfortunate incident," he said.
According to a senior official of the state PWD department, the government was about to undertake repair work on the decrepit Majerhat bridge and a tender was floated in this regard but it got delayed due to bureaucratic wrangles.
This was the third bridge collapse in the city since 2013.
An under-construction flyover collapsed in crowded Burrabazar area, the wholesale business hub of the city, on March 31, 2016, claiming 26 lives, while on March 4, 2013, a road bridge had collapsed in Ultadanga area in the eastern part of the city, but there was no casualty.
(With PTI inputs)
BHOPAL: Elaborate security arrangements have been made and a high alert has been sounded by the authorities across the state of Madhya Pradesh in view of the 'Bharat Bandh' called by nearly 35 outfits linked to the upper caste on Thursday to protest against the amendment to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Bharat Bandh against SC/ST Act amendment: Live Updates
Ahead of the Bharat Bandh,' the police have beefed up security across the state and prohibitory orders have been imposed under Section 144 in sensitive areas.
Through the social media and pamphlets, we came to know that some organisations are planning a Bharat Bandh against the amendments in the Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, following which the security has been beefed up in the state, Makrand Deuskar, Inspector General of Police (Intelligence) said.
Following the shutdown call, the authorities have imposed Section 144 in Satna, Bhind, Shivpuri, Gwalior and other districts of MP.
Deuskar said orders prohibiting the gathering of people in large numbers have been imposed.
"The administration in most of the districts have clamped prohibitive orders under CrPC section 144 in view of the bandh on September 6," Deuskar said.
Thirty-four companies of the special armed force of police have been deployed in various districts, he said.
Jabalpur district collector Chhavi Bharadwaj has written to the state home department, seeking suspension of Internet services in the district till 6 pm on Thursday.
District Education Officer in Bhind has ordered that schools in the district will remain closed.
Anticipating more protests during 'Bharat Bandh', Madhya Pradesh ministers including Yashodhara Raje Scindia, Lalita Yadav, Narayan Singh Kushwaha and many others have cancelled their public functions on Thursday.
A large posse of policemen has been deployed in the Gwalior-Chambal region, which witnessed large-scale violence on April 2 during the bharat bandh called by scheduled caste groups in which four people were killed.
The police fear that members of the Schedule Castes may come out to streets to counter the protests by the upper castes.
Meanwhile, school holiday has been declared in one district and petrol pumps across the state will remain closed on Thursday in view of 'Bharat Bandh'.
All schools and colleges in Gwalior will remain closed on Thursday in the view of 'Bharat Bandh' called against amendments of SC/ST Act on September 6, reported ANI.
"We have decided to shut petrol pumps from 10 AM to 2 PM on Thursday due to security reasons as some organizations have given a call for Bharat Bandh," Madhya Pradesh Petrol Pump Owners Association president Ajay Singh said.
Meanwhile, protests against the amendment to the SC/ST Act were held in the state on Wednesday.
Protesters showed black flags to former Union minister and senior BJP leader Prahlad Patel at Tikamgarh when he was addressing the party's OBC workers.
Slogans were shouted by protesters outside the venue of BJP's OBC cell's meeting in Gwalior.
After the Supreme Court diluted the provision of mandatory arrests under the SC/ST Act, sparking protests by Dalit organisations, the Union government brought an amendment in the Monsoon Session of Parliament to override the apex court's order.
Brahma Samagam Sawarna Jankalyan Sangathan's national president Dharmendra Sharma said about 150 organisations of upper castes and OBCs would participate in the 'Bharat Bandh' against the alleged dilution of the SC/ST Act.
The Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, 2018 was passed in the Lok Sabha on August 6.
The Congress later alleged that the Centre has now passed the Bill in order to lure voters of the SC/ST community ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and Assembly elections in three states.
(With PTI Inputs)
Russia resumed airstrikes after a three-week hiatus with at least ten warplanes. Trump warns Moscow and Damascus. In the province, rebel groups prepare their resistance amid doubts about Turkish support. If the city falls, we'll all end up in the cemetery, said a source in the besieged city.
Damascus (AsiaNews) The joint Russian-Syrian offensive against rebel-held Idlib, in north-western Syria, began this morning with a series of Russian airstrikes.
Renewed fighting after a three-week hiatus is a signal that the Syrian regime and its allies are ready for a final push, raising concerns in the local Church and international organisations about the evolving situation, especially as it impacts on civilians.
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), "Russian warplanes resumed bombing Idlib province after a 22-day pause. This comes after rebel units in Idlib hit government positions in neighbouring Latakia province.
Tuesday's bombardment hit several areas held by the jihadist-led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance, among them the large town of Jisr al-Shughur, but also areas held by rival Turkish-backed rebels, including the town of Ariha. No details are available about casualties among anti-regime forces.
According to some diplomatic sources, the offensive against the rebel-held province is gearing up to be Russias largest air campaign of the year.
The mornings attack involved at least ten Sukhoi fighter planes carrying out more than 50 raids in the southern and eastern parts of the province, which is home to about three million people, a third of whom displaced from other parts of Syria.
Before the attack, US President Donald Trump issued a warning against Moscow and Damascus. On Twitter, the US leader warned Assad that he must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Dont let that happen!
For their part, rebel groups appear to be getting ready for the government attack and willing to fight until the end to defend their stronghold.
Contrary to previous cases in Aleppo, Ghouta or Deraa where rebels worked out a deal with the Syrian regime to leave through humanitarian corridors, Idlib is their final stand. There is no escape route to any other part of the country.
"We have no other place to go, so it's clear that we will defend ourselves," said a fighter named Abdelrahmane, speaking to Lebanese French-language daily L'Orient-Le Jour. In the area you can breathe an atmosphere that varies from anguish to optimism. I'm sure nothing will happen. The Turks are ready to send more reinforcements".
Despite such hope in Turkish support, Ankara is not likely to provide any military aid or even let the rebels cross into its territory given its current economic woes.
"Will there be a battle? When it happens, we will think about it and make provisions," said another rebel, Aya Fadel.
Today Idlib is home to displaced people from eastern Ghouta. One of them is Walid Awata, a doctor who lives in Afrin but provides his medical services throughout the province, including to rebel groups.
"Idlib is not like all other regions," he warns. "Today it is considered the soul of the revolution, because it is the last bastion, the last place on the chessboard. If it falls, we'll all end up in the cemetery."
BHOPAL: On September 5, the day which is celebrated as the Teachers' Day, a minister in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government in Madhya Pradesh courted a controversy by apparently mocking the transgenders as he insisted the students to clap for their teachers as a mark of respect for them.
While addressing a gathering of students on Wednesday, Madhya Pradesh Education Minister Kunwar Vijay Shah said if you don't clap for your teacher, you will go door to door and clap in your next life, in an apparent reference to eunuchs' clap.
"Agar guru ke samman mein apne taaliyan nahi bajayi to agle janam mein ghar ghar ja kar taaliyan bajani padengi," Shah said.
Shah's speech on the occasion was also recorded on camera.
#WATCH Madhya Pradesh Education Minister Kunwar Vijay Shah says 'Agar Guru ke samman mein apne taaliyan nahi bajayi to agle janam mein ghar ghar ja kar taaliyan bajani padengi' pic.twitter.com/2ofSTeubDT ANI (@ANI) September 5, 2018
In the video, the minister can be seen urging the students to give a big round of applause to their teachers in respect on the occasion of Teachers' Day.
Earlier today, President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid homage to the country's second President Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan on his birth anniversary, which is celebrated as Teachers' Day across the country.
Born on September 5, 1888, Dr Radhakrishnan was an Indian philosopher and a scholar. He had taught at different universities, the University of Mysore and the Oxford University being prominent among them. His areas of expertise were Philosophy and Moral Science and was a great and an inspiring individual.
His work dedicated towards education shaped the youth of the country in the early years of the democracy.
Dr S Radhakrishnan was very much admired by his students and when approached by them to observe his birthday as 'Radhakrishnan Day', he instead suggested that it would be a great privilege for him if the day is observed as 'Teachers' Day', a day to thank the teachers, mentors and educators around the world as a mark of respect.
Since then, September 5 is celebrated as 'Teachers' Day' every year.
MUMBAI: Maharashtra Police, which is probing the Koregaon-Bhima violence, has claimed that around 250 Twitter handles were created to spread misinformation about the last year's violence in Pune in which one person was killed and several others injured.
In a detailed report sent to the state home department, the Maharashtra Police claimed that the Twitter handles were created to mobilse support for allegedly holding demonstrations abroad to defame the Narendra Modi government.
The report states that an elaborate online campaign was launched to highlight the Koregaon-Bhima violence at international level.
"A deliberate mobilisation and misinformation campaign was carried out on social media by circulating videos and speeches on the Koregaon-Bhima violence," a senior police official said.
As a result of this campaign, there was "a large-scale mobilisation" in the UK and a "known group" supported these protests, the official said but declined to name the group.
The Maharashtra Police has found 'suspicious videos' of speeches in which activists from the UK can be heard talking about the Koregaon-Bhima violence, he said.
Protests were held in front of the Indian High Commission in London in mid-January to condemn the violence that broke out on January 1 during the 200th-anniversary celebrations of the Battle of Koregaon-Bhima in Pune district.
"We suspect that such demonstrations were held to ensure negative publicity and to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government," the official said.
In a related development, Maharashtra government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the five rights activists were arrested due to the cogent evidence linking them with the banned CPI(Maoist) and not because of their dissenting views.
The state's response came in the backdrop of the apex court ruling staying the arrest of the five activists on August 29 till September 6, categorically stating that "dissent is the safety valve of democracy".
The Maharashtra Police had filed an affidavit in response to a plea of historian Romila Thapar and four others challenging the arrest of the five activists in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case, claiming they were planning to carry out violence in the country and ambush the security forces.
The police said there was sufficient evidence to "dispel" the claim that they were arrested for their dissenting views.
While prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao was arrested from Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha was arrested from Delhi.
The raids were carried out as part of a probe into an event called Elgar Parishad, or conclave, on December 31 last year, which had later triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima village in Pune district of Maharashtra.
The police sought their custody and questioned the locus of Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociologist Satish Deshpande and legal expert Maja Daruwala, dubbing them as "strangers" to the investigation in the matter.
"The petitioners, who are strangers to the offence under investigation, are also praying for bail on behalf of the persons arrested during an ongoing investigation, strictly in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure after the investigating agencies having gathered requisite incriminating material against the said individuals," the affidavit said.
The police also told the court that the activists were part of the criminal conspiracy and active members of the banned CPI (Maoist), who had arranged public meetings under the banner of 'Elgaar Parishad'.
The affidavit said the state was committed to protecting fundamental rights of every citizen and a mere dissenting view, difference in ideology or vehement objections to political thinking, cannot only not be prohibited but should always be welcomed in any democratic country.
"Some of them have suggested training and laying of booby traps and directional mines. They are also found to be providing strategic inputs in furtherance of the objective of armed rebellion as per the strategic document of the banned terrorist organisation namely CPI (Maoist)," it said.
The affidavit said the house arrest of the activists merely restricted their physical movement and they can always ensure the destruction of evidence elsewhere while alerting other potential accused by being at home.
(With Agency Inputs)
JAIPUR: The Rajasthan High Court on Wednesday held that no government-sponsored functions should be held during Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's much-publicised 'Gaurav Yatra' across the state.
The order was passed by the division bench of the Rajasthan High Court led by Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajong.
In its ruling, the bench directed that no functions, for which funds are being disbursed by the state, will be carried on along the 'Gaurav Yatra'.
''To a common man, if during the 'Gaurav Yatra', which is a political event, the leader of the political party who happens to be the chief minister inaugurates public functions, the understanding would be the glorification of a political party and not the glorification of the achievements by the government,'' the court observed.
"We declare that no public functions sponsored and financed by the state would be held during the road-shows ie the 'Gaurav Yatra' undertaken by the BJP in the state of Rajasthan. Meaning thereby, on the day of the 'Gaurav Yatra', no government function would be held enroute when the Chief Minister and the functionaries of the BJP halt the 'Gaurav Yatra' for some time and re-commence the same after the break," the bench said in its ruling.
The bench passed the order while responding to a PIL filed by advocate Vibhuti Bhushan Sharma.
BJP chief Amit Shah had launched the 40-day 'Gaurav Yatra' on August 4 from Rajsamand.
Meanwhile, a political slugfest has started over the BJP's 'Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra'.
Raje had on Tuesday said that the Congress was nervous as her 'Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra' was evoking good response among the people and was trying to create disturbances, leading to stone pelting at her convoy in Jodhpur's Pipad area.
Speaking at a BJP legislators' meeting to discuss the strategy for the Monsoon Session of the assembly beginning Wednesday, Raje said stones were pelted during her campaign recently and that Congress workers also threw stones at Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's convoy in his state.
These incidents showed that the Congress is doing all these in a ''state of nervousness''.
(With PTI Inputs)
CHENNAI: Multiple teams of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday raided the residences of several persons including Tamil Nadu Health and Family Welfare Minister C Vijaya Bhaskar, Director General of Police (DGP) TK Rajendran in connection with a multi-crore gutkha scam.
''Raids were conducted by multiple teams of the CBI at nearly 40 locations across Tamil Nadu in the morning,'' its spokesperson Abhishek Dayal told reporters in the national capital.
News agency ANI reported that 35 locations of promoters and directors of Jayam Industries in Chennai, Tiruvallur, Thoothukudi, Puducherry, Bengaluru, Mumbai etc were raided by the agency on Wednesday.
This was the first time that a serving DGP`s residence in Tamil Nadu was also raided by the CBI.
Prominent among those who were raided include former Tamil Nadu Minister BV Ramanaa and retired Chennai Police Commissioner S George.
Sources told Zee News that the residence of Food Safety and Drug Administration's Senthil Murgan, Dr Laxmi Naryan and E Siva Kumara (food safety officer of Tamil Nadu), R Gulzar Begum (IRS, Custom Department) RK Pandiyan (Superintendent) and Sheshdari (Superintendent) of the Central Excise and Customs Department, Inspector Sampath Kumar, Paneeselvam (Assistant Commissioner) Kurnijiselvam (Deputy Commissioner) Ganesan (Sales Tax official) of the Sales Tax Department were raided by the CBI, which also recovered several crucial documents in connection with the Gutkha scam.
The CBI action prompted calls from MK Stalin, leader of the main opposition party DMK, to Governor Banwarilal Purohit to sack Vijaya Bhaskar and Rajendran if they do not resign on their own.
PMK founder S Ramadoss too demanded the removal of Vijaya Bhaskar and all other raided officials from their posts.
The CBI in May-end had registered a case in the scam against unknown officials of Central Excise, Tamil Nadu government, Food Safety Department, public servants and private persons on charges of criminal conspiracy and for corruption following a direction of the Madras High Court on April 26.
The agency has been investigating all aspects of the offence of illegal manufacture, import, supply, distribution and sale of gutkha and other forms of chewable tobacco which are banned in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
In April 2018, the Madras High Court ordered the CBI to probe the multi-crore scam, alleging Vijayabaskar, Rajendran and several other top police and other central and state government officials were said to be alleged.
The court ordered the CBI probe on a petition filed by DMK legislator J Anbazhagan.
"The probe seems to be proceeding on the right track under the CBI. Whether a case will be filed against the scamsters or not will have to be seen," Anbazhagan said.
"If no case is filed, then we may have to approach the Madras High Court again," he warned.
Several political parties had demanded a CBI probe into the issue, which was rejected by the AIADMK government.
In June 2018, the Enforcement Directorate registered a money laundering case against unnamed government officials in Tamil Nadu based on a first information report (FIR) registered by the CBI in May.
The case is related to an Income Tax Department raid in the offices, residences and godowns of a gutkha manufacturer Madhava Rao in Tamil Nadu in 2016 for evading about Rs 250 crore tax.
A diary was seized from Rao`s residence which listed alleged bribes paid to various officials amounting to about Rs 39.31 crore.
Stalin alleged that the AIADMK government had tried various measures to stall the investigation into the scam.
The IT department had sent a report to the Tamil Nadu government about the alleged payoffs to various persons.
The state government claimed it did not receive any report from the IT department. But a copy of the letter sent to the state government by the IT department was seized from the room occupied by V.K. Sasikala in the late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa`s residence in November 2017.
The Tamil Nadu government has banned the manufacture and storage of gutkha. However, the product was reportedly available in the market with the alleged connivance of police officers and others.
Despite objections from the opposition parties, Rajendran was given a two-year extension in 2018 by the AIADMK government.
(With Agency inputs)
Since 2015, Google has been celebrating the Teachers' Day with a doodle. This year has been no different.
Google dedicated the new doodle in the honour of educators on Wednesday, September 5, Teachers' Day 2018.
The doodle shows a circling blue globe, with little circles all around denoting various aspects of education.
Since 1962, teachers' day is celebrated on the birthday of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan he second President of India from 1962 to 1967. Dr Radhakrishnan believed that "teachers should be the best minds in the country".
On Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with the recipients of National Teachers' Awards and congratulated them for their efforts towards improving the quality of education in the country.
Schools across the country are celebrating the day with students and teachers.
Mumbai: Soon after the theme of Bigg Boss season 12 was revealed, speculations were rife that Katrina Kaif might join Salman Khan as the co-host of the show. However, the BB team never confirmed the same.
According to media reports, Salman revealed how Katrina's name might have emerged. During a recent media interaction, Salman displayed wit and said that Katrina might have spread those rumours herself.
Narrating Katrina's supposed conversation with him, Salman said that the actress even suggested that she would stick to the script while he could be impromptu as always. And when he asked how much she would charge to host the show, she said she would quote the same price as him.
Well, this is Salman for you!
Until the ninth season, only celebrities participated in the show. The tenth season witnessed a major twist with commoners competing with celebrities. The eleventh season too had commoners on board.
Bigg Boss, an Indian version of a Dutch reality show Big Brother has successfully completed 11 seasons. The first season of the show was hosted by Arshad Warsi, followed by Shilpa Shetty and Amitabh Bachchan in the second and third editions respectively. Salman has been hosting the show since Season 4.
Bigg Boss season 12 is expected to have its premiere on September 16, but the makers haven't yet issued a statement to confirm the same.
Islamabad: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to press Pakistan to target all terror groups on its soil and play a positive role in war-torn Afghanistan when he meets the country's new leadership here tomorrow in a bid to reset the strained bilateral ties, according to media reports.
Pompeo is arriving in Islamabad along with General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, days after the Trump administration cancelled USD 300 million in military aid to Pakistan as it was not doing enough against terrorist groups inside its borders, the latest controversy to hit Islamabad's troubled relationship with Washington.
He will be in Islamabad ahead of the maiden 2+2 Dialogue between India and the US in New Delhi on September 6. Pompeo's talks here will be the Trump administration's first high-level dialogue with Pakistan since the new government of Prime Minister Imran Khan assumed office after the July 25 elections.
In their talks with Pakistani officials, the US delegation will "make very clear what we have to do, all of our nations, in meeting our common foe, the terrorists," Defence Secretary James Mattis said last week in Washington. "And make that a primary part of the discussion," he was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper.
The Trump administration has made it clear to Pakistan that it will have to back the US strategy in Afghanistan if it wants good relations with Washington, the paper said in another report yesterday.
The strategy as defined by both the State Department and the Pentagon last week is to use a combination of military and diplomatic pressures to force the Taliban to work with Kabul for restoring peace in Afghanistan, it said.
The US believes that a working relationship between the Taliban and Kabul can lead to an honourable withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, the report said.
Washington sent its first clear message to Pakistan last week when Pompeo telephoned Prime Minister Khan and sought "decisive action against all terrorists operating in Pakistan".
Initially, Pakistan disputed the US version of this conversation, but later withdrew its objection, the report said on Monday. Then on Saturday, the Pentagon announced that it was seeking to reallocate the USD 300 million in aid to Pakistan due to Islamabad's lack of "decisive actions" in support of America's Afghan strategy.
Though Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi downplayed suggestions the funding row has led to mutual tensions, he dismissed as "incorrect" the reports the US has cancelled USD 300 million in military aid to the country, saying Washington owed the money to Islamabad for expenses incurred on fighting terrorism.
"It is not a cut in any [US] aid, it is not assistance. This is our own money which we have used for improving regional security situation and they had to reimburse it to us," Qureshi asserted.
Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner on Saturday said the plan to reallocate USD 300 million will be submitted to Congress for approval and it will bring the total amount withheld from Pakistan under the Coalition Support Funds to USD 800 million since early this year.
The cancellation of the Coalition Support Funds was a move to put pressure on Islamabad to prevent Taliban insurgents from using Pakistani soil for plotting attacks inside Afghanistan, the Voice of America (VoA) quoted observers as saying.
In January, US President Donald Trump suspended all military assistance to Pakistan accusing it of rewarding past assistance with "nothing but lies and deceit."
Senator Mushahid Hussain, who heads the foreign affairs committee of the Senate, told the VoA that the stoppage of USD 300 million will undermine Pompeo's visit. "On the eve of the most important visit to Pakistan by an official American [delegation] since the new government took office, Pakistan-American relations are hanging by a thread," Hussain was quoted as saying.
Islamabad: Pakistan's newly elected President Dr Arif Alvi shares an interesting connection with India as his father was a dentist to India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, according to the short biography of the President on the website of his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party.
Alvi, a close ally of Prime Minister Imran Khan and one of the founding members of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, was elected as the new President of Pakistan Tuesday.
The 69-year-old former dentist defeated Pakistan Peoples Party candidate Aitzaz Ahsan and the Pakistan Muslim League-N nominee Maulana Fazl ur Rehman in a three-way contest to become the 13th president.
Being a son of Nehru's dentist is not the only connection that Alvi has with India. He is yet another Pakistani president whose family migrated to Pakistan from India after partition.
Alvi's predecessors Mamnoon Hussain's family came from Agra and Pervez Musharraf's parents migrated from New Delhi.
His father Dr Habib ur Rehman Elahi Alvi was a dentist to Nehru before partition, according to short biography of the new president on the website of his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party.
"Dr Elahi Alvi was a dentist to Jawaharlal Nehru and the family has letters from Mr Nehru to Dr Alvi in their possession," according to the website.
Alvi, whose full name is Dr Arif ur Rehman Alvi, was born in Karachi in 1947 where his father settled after partition. He inherited the profession of a dentist from his father who practised dentistry in India before partition and opened a dental practice in Saddar, Karachi after migration.
His father was also connected with the Jinnah family and was made a Trustee of the trust established by Shirinbai Jinnah (Quaid-e-Azam's siter) to which she gift all her worldly belongings including the Mohatta Palace in Karachi.
Alvi started his political career about five decades ago when he was a student of de'Montmonrency College of Dentistry, an affiliate of University of Punjab in Lahore. He was part of the students' wing of Jamaat-i-Islami and protested against military ruler Ayub Khan.
"During one of the protests on the Mall Road in Lahore he was shot and wounded and still proudly carries a bullet embedded in his right arm as a mark of his struggle for democracy in Pakistan," according to the PTI website.
He also participated in elections from the platform of Jamaat-i-Islami in 1979 but lost. Later he became disillusioned with the politics of Jamaat-i-Islami and joined PTI as its founding member in 1996. He also helped in writing the Constitution of the new party.
Alvi contested his first election for PTI in 1997 but lost it. His affiliation with the party continued and he steadily rose in its ranks.
He was the Secretary-General of the party from 2006 till 2013. In 2013 he was elected as a Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from Constituency NA-250 Karachi and was re-elected in July 2018.
Apart from his political struggle, Alvi is also through professional dentist.
He acquired his dental degree BDS (Dentistry) from de'Montmonrency College of Dentistry, Lahore and Master of Science degree in Prosthodontics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1975 and Master of Science in Orthodontics in 1984 from University of the Pacific, San Francisco.
In 1997, Alvi was declared a Diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics. He was the primary author of the constitution of the Pakistan Dental Association and has been the elected President of the Pakistan Dental Association.
He was also Chairman of the first Pakistan International Dental Conference in 1981 and also elected Chairman of the 28th Asia Pacific Dental Congress.
He also served as Dean of the Faculty of Orthodontics of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan. In 2006, he was elected as the President of Asia Pacific Dental Federation.
In 2007, he was elected as a Councillor of the FDI World Dental Federation, the first time a Pakistani had been elected.
The new President is married with Samina Alvi and the couple has four children.
What the "Big Treaty" really is, what is written in it, how the comments on this agreement evolved in Ukraine over the past six months and how exactly it is planned to stop its operation
Open source
The topic of the Friendship Treaty between Ukraine and Russia periodically rises in the last four years, since the Russian annexation of Crimean peninsula.
Last time the idea of breaking the treaty was actively discussed is April this year, when Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced plans to submit to the Verkhovna Rada a bill on suspending the operation of certain provisions of the treaty on friendship with Russia.
"In these circumstances, the next step will be the introduction of a draft law on the immediate unilateral termination of certain provisions of the treaty on friendship, cooperation and partnership between Ukraine and Russia insofar as the operation of this treaty is incompatible with the national interests of the state and the realization of our Ukrainian law for self-defense, "Poroshenko said at the time.
With this, Poroshenko stressed that it is impossible to completely abolish the treaty:
"Why cannot this treaty be canceled, and we only suspend the operation of individual articles? Because there are important provisions for Ukraine in which the parties, I quote, "respect the territorial integrity of each other, the parties confirm the inviolability of the existing borders between them."
Earlier, in January 2018, the representative of the Ukrainian president for the settlement in Donbas, Iryna Gerashchenko, stated the following:
"It was very strange to hear the representatives of the opposition just now, who again urge, imagine, to break off the state treaty of friendship with the Russian Federation. All in all, the State Duma of the Russian Federation is saying this word-for-word. And we must demand from the Russian Federation to return to the norms of international law and to implement the law, including the friendship treaty, which recognizes the territorial integrity, sovereignty and respect for our borders within the internationally defined borders, and this is Donbas and Crimea."
Now back to the present. End of August, 2018.
Poroshenko instructs the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to prepare for the termination of the treaty of friendship and cooperation with Russia. Termination of the TOTAL AGREEMENT, NOT SEPARATE PROVISIONS.
"At last today we, sufficiently prepared and legally protected, have approached to the next step: the termination of the treaty on friendship, cooperation and partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, which has already become an anachronism through Moscow's fault. In the near future, I expect the necessary documents from the Foreign Ministry to begin implementation of this process, "he said.
Important information
Open source
What exactly is written in Article 40 of the "Big Treaty"?
This Agreement is concluded for a period of ten years. Its validity will then automatically be renewed for subsequent ten-year periods if none of the High Contracting Parties notifies the other High Contracting Party of its desire to terminate it by written notification no less than six months before the end of the next ten-year period.
The first ten-year period, the starting date of which began from the date of entry into force of the treaty (April 1, 1999), ended on April 1, 2009.
Then neither Ukraine nor Russia wanted to terminate the document, so it was automatically extended for another 10 years.
Thus, it is necessary to notify Russia of the refusal to extend the contract until September 30.
Now about what is written in the contract.
There are many points, we will describe a brief essence:
Both sides undertake to respect the territorial integrity and borders of each other.
Both countries guarantee to citizens of another country rights and freedoms on the same grounds and in the same amount as their citizens, except in cases established by the law of states or international treaties.
Cooperation in the economy.
Interaction in politics, including support for each other in joining international organizations.
That is, cooperation and support for each other wherever possible.
Who signed it and when?
Open source
Russias opinion
The head of the LDPR party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, offered Russian President Vladimir Putin to notify the Ukrainian authorities of the termination of the Treaty.
"After almost 20 years since the entry into force of the Treaty of Friendship, many of his articles are grossly violated by Ukraine and ignored, and some articles have completely lost relevance."
Russian senator Alexei Pushkov on Twitter:
"Poroshenko continues his mission of the destroyer: he announced the beginning of the break of the 1997 treaty on friendship with Russia. Kyiv again acts to the detriment of itself: the treaty recognizes the territorial integrity and borders of Ukraine. In case of its break, Russia is freed from all obligations."
Head of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots Leonid Kalashnikov:
"There is no special meaning for this treaty, there will be no real practical consequences, on the other hand, there will be no moral and political obligations on Russia to implement certain agreements."
Consequences
"I plan to hold a meeting of the NSDC in the near future, after submitting proposals by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and send a message to the Russian Federation on non-renewal of the agreement until September 30. It does not require a vote in the parliament, but certainly I want to hold consultations on this issue in order to take into account the position, the opinion of the parliament, "said Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
That is, the discussion (especially since the autumn season in the Rada officially started) is yet to be done, but given the tone of the statements, it is very likely that the decision has already been taken.
Open source
Since Tuesday morning, pro-Kremlin militants have attacked Ukrainian military positions 24 times. None of the Ukrainian servicemen were wounded or killed in action. The Joint Forces Operation HQ reported that on Facebook.
'Russian occupants opened fire 24 times. The enemy did not use the Minsk-banned weaponry', the message says.
The militants opened adjusted fire from RPGs, large-caliber machineguns and small arms. In one case, the illegal armed units used anti-tank missile launchers. They attacked Schastya, Tryokhizbenka, Krymske, Mayorsk, Novhorodske, Pisky, Krasnohorivka, Mariinka, Bohdanivka, Hnutove, Lebedynske, Vodyane and Shyrokyne.
According to the Ukrainian intelligence, one Russian militant was killed, two more sustained combat wounds.
On Wednesday morning, the enemy attacked Ukrainian emplacements near Vodyane, using the large-caliber machineguns and small arms. No losses among Ukrainian soldiers were reported.
Earlier, media reported that Russia sent its investigators to Donbas to work on Zakharchenko's murder which is a violation of Ukraine's and Russia's law
At the meeting of the Humanitarian Subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group, Russian representatives refused to provide the Ukrainian side and OSCE with information on sending the investigators to Donbas to work on Zakharchenkos murder, which violated the laws of both states. Iryna Gerashchenko, First Vice-Spokesperson of the Verkhovna Rada, wrote it on her Facebook page.
The Ukrainian side demanded Russia to immediately give full information concerning the facts and statements which appeared in media that Russian side sent some investigators to the occupied Donbas to work on the murder of the militants head, Gerashchenko wrote.
She noted that such actions are a serious violation of the Ukrainian legislation as only Ukraines investigation bodies are allowed to work on the territory of Ukraine or other ones with the permission of the relevant agencies. Yet, Kyiv did not give any permissions.
Gerashchenko also noted that it is a violation of the Russian Criminal Code, which says that the investigation bodies can work only on the territory of Russian Federation.
Russians have categorically refused to provide OSCE and Ukraine with any information about this investigation. Moreover, the OSCE SMM reports recorded that Russians also refused to show the bodies of the militants who suffered in the explosion and did not let see the victims on the hospitals. Again, this demonstrates that Russia clears the sidekicks, Gerashchenko wrote.
At the same time, the Ukrainian side of the Trilateral Contact Group stated that today, the so-called ORDLO (Separated Districts of Donetsk and Luhansk Regions, -ed.) representatives tried to play a cheap vaudeville and carry out a provocation with the moment of silence for the terrorist.
Reportedly, on August 31, as a result of the explosion in the restaurant in the downtown of Donetsk, head of so-called DNR Aleksandr Zakharchenko died. The Russian mass media reported that Oleksandr Timofeyev, so-called "minister of revenue and duties" of so-called "DNR" has also died. The so-called law enforcers of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic stated that they detained Ukrainian saboteurs who are presumably involved in the assassination of Zakharchenko. Although, SBU hasnt approved the information.
ORDO, Separate district of Donetsk region, suspects one of the guards of Zakharchenko in his death. At the same time, the Russian MFA accused "Kyiv regime" in the death of Zakharchenko. It was reported on the closure of all crossing checkpoints along the Inter-Entity Boundary Line because of the incident. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences over the murder of Zakharchenko.
Related video:
New edition of Ukrainian spelling might return the Ukrainian language to the norms of 1928 or the so-called Skrypnykivka
This eventful summer would be marked by one unforgettable event. In mid-August, the National Commission on Spelling has introduced a draft new edition of Ukrainian spelling into public discussion. By September 15, 2018, everyone can send his comments and propositions.
Immediately, a wave of indignation, criticism, and luck has appeared. Someone believes that nothing needs to be changed because many still cannot learn the old rules; someone is defending the project. And, there are those for whom language issues are not on time.
Iryna Farion (far right politician and philologist, known for her xenophobic calls, member of Ukraines far-right Svoboda party; Farion was involved in major scandal over language issues as a regional Lviv deputy, she has criticized children in kindergarten for having wrong Russian-styled names ed.) called this project "a project of compromise, dualism, full schizophrenic uncertainty." In her opinion, it is necessary to return to the norms of 1928 (During the period of Ukrainization in Soviet Ukraine, the 1927 International Orthographic Conference was convened in Kharkiv. At the conference a standardized Ukrainian orthography and method for transliterating foreign words were established, a compromise between Galician and Soviet proposals, called the Kharkiv Orthography, or Skrypnykivka, after Ukrainian Commissar of Education Mykola Skrypnyk. It was officially recognized by the Council of People's Commissars in 1928 and adopted by the Ukrainian Diaspora. Ed.).
Experts at the same time explain that the project was developed "on the basis of the tradition of Ukrainian spelling taking into account the latest language phenomena."
In general, again we face this language issue, the "stumbling block" and "rock of offense."
I have familiarized myself with this project and I can say that I 90% agree with it. I believe that the authors hold a reasonable compromise: on the one hand, much is taken from the Kharkiv spelling of 1928, and on the other hand, copying these rules completely, to put it mildly, is wrong. Even though this was the last purely Ukrainian spelling and it was concluded by eminent and respected linguists. After all, this is not a static phenomenon. She is constantly undergoing change. And it is not about a violent Russification here. For 90 years our country has witnessed many events that have somehow affected the language. It is impossible to neglect this in any way.
There should be no compromises in the implementation of language policy, that is, one state language, no bilingualism, education only in Ukrainian. Germany, where more than one million Turks live, has no Turkish school. Children study in German schools and speak their own language at home. Some schools offer Turkish as a foreign language. In France, during the French Revolution, it was forbidden to keep records in French. Today, the fine for a song, documentation or signage is not in French, amounts to 750 to 570 thousand euros. We also have a lot of loopholes in order not to learn the language. It is important not to make any compromises. A girl from China, who decided to go to Kyiv for study, opened an encyclopedia, read that there is the Ukrainian language, which (logically!) is used in Ukraine. She was studying Ukrainian for a year she, and after she came here, it turned out that all the textbooks (Soviet-style textbooks, I mean) were published in Russian. And she did not understand Russian. She had a real cognitive dissonance!
In general, you need to create the conditions under which a person who does not know the language will not be able to learn it.
As Farion says, when it comes to "dualism," everything is clear here.
Defending the new project and responding to those who advocate the introduction of Skrypnykivka, I would like to bring such arguments.
You can often hear that if people in Donbas and Crimea spoke Ukrainian, then nothing would happen there.
Let me disagree with this.
Knowledge of language is not a guarantee of patriotism. Unfortunately, we know a lot of examples when Ukrainian-speaking citizens of the western regions did actions which, to put it mildly, were far from patriotism.
Yes, of course, this is an element and a factor in the national security of the country. Just like mathematics is the queen (and, probably, the servant) of all the sciences, because math per se is not necessary to anyone, and the language cannot exist exclusively "for the sake of language".
"To understand Japanese, one must think in Japanese," says the hero of Shogun novel by James Clavell. And this phrase contains more than just knowledge of the language. Here we will allow one more small comparison. Now many people are fond of yoga, namely physical exercises. But yoga is a whole system of philosophical and spiritual practices. Without this, physical exercises simply remain the same.
Language is not only a means of communication but also a special principal in the intellectual, spiritual and cultural field (folklore, music, literature, etc.). Of course, and this also does not give "a 100% guarantee of patriotism," but at least significantly reduces the place for maneuvering for other people's ideas and other people's heroes.
A number of historians believe that the main reason for separatism in Donbas is "hybrid identity": many of them still cannot decide for themselves, Russians or Ukrainians. On the one hand, the native language of their grandparents was Ukrainian. On the other hand, artificial Russification, borderline, close economic and family ties with the Russian Federation do not allow them to finally identify themselves as Ukrainians.
Therefore, one of the tasks of the teacher of the Ukrainian language is not only to teach the language but also through it to open the rich spiritual heritage of Ukraine, which will allow to form and strengthen national consciousness and to "refresh" the national memory.
Current teachers of the Ukrainian language (even the younger generation) have mastered their profession, not on the basis of Skrypnykivka spelling. Therefore, if you listen to its current apologists and implement this system, there will be complete confusion. Tell me who knows this Skrypnykivka writing today (some books are still translated into Ukrainian Skrypnykivka, for example Roman Tysa has translated Antonio Gramsci, Franz Fanon, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Karl Kautsky, Rosa Luxemburg, etc. into Skrypnykivka ed.)? Who will translate a huge array of materials into "new-old-Ukrainian"? Who will teach all the new rules? And, most importantly, when? After all, no one cancels the educational process at schools, and teachers will have to combine their training with students' learning, that is, to teach what they have not yet fully absorbed.
And the last thing here. Among let us remember the odious Valuev Circular of 1863 (a large portion of the publications religious, and literature used for school training in the Ukrainian language was forbidden, however, this circular has put the reason for the growing number of textbooks in Ukrainian, and beginner-level books in Ukrainian with "the Poles' political interests" and the "separatist intentions of some of the Little Russians" Ed.).
Therefore, the rules of spelling, in our opinion, are a wise compromise. So that nobody has any temptation to say: "It turns out that Valuev is right."
Read the original text at 112.ua.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or 112.International and its owners.
McCains wife called him as a dear friend, former Assistant of McCain considered that John would be pleased with the choice. American President Donald Trump claimed that Jon Kyl will become an extraordinary senator
(CNN) - Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey chose former US Sen. Jon Kyl to replace the late John McCain in the Senate, the governor said at a news conference Tuesday.
Kyl's appointment means the Republican attorney who had been guiding President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, through the confirmation process will now have a vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation.
In choosing Kyl, Ducey tapped a figure who is well-liked by both Trump's political team and McCain's family and allies. However, with Kyl saying he won't run for re-election, it also leaves open the possibility of a bruising primary in 2020.
Under Arizona law, Ducey is responsible for appointing a McCain replacement until a November 2020 special election. The winner of that special election will fill the remaining two years of McCain's term. Then, in 2022, the seat will be on the ballot for a full six-year term.
Ducey said at the news conference it's not clear whether Kyl will remain in the Senate through 2020. And Kyl said he won't run for re-election.
"I haven't been able to get that assurance from Sen. Kyl yet. What I have gotten is a commitment to serve Arizona through at least this session of Congress, and it's my hope that he serves longer," Ducey said. "I'm hoping that the senator will consider serving longer."
Kyl added: "I have committed to serving at least through the second session of the 115th Congress. I do know I will not seek this seat in 2020, nor any other office in the future."
The son of a former congressman, Kyl, who's now 76, was elected to the House in 1986 and the Senate in 1994, establishing a reputation as one of the Senate's most conservative members and rising to become the second-ranking Republican in the chamber and a top deputy to Mitch McConnell before retiring rather than seeking re-election in 2012.
McCain praised Kyl on the Senate floor when Kyl announced his resignation, touting Kyl's work ethic.
"I've tried to learn from his example, and I wish I could say I've emulated him, but regrettably, as Arizonans and my Senate colleagues can attest, I still possess a short supply of some of Jon's most conspicuous leadership qualities," McCain said in a tongue-in-cheek portion of his remarks. "His patience, for example, his meticulous preparation and thoroughness, are, I'm sorry to say, not qualities that I'll be remembered for, but they've been indispensable to the people of our state."
Senator John McCain on Senator Jon Kyl in 2012: "I've always looked up to Jon as my senior. He's been my leader, my senior partner in much of the work we've done in Arizona, my friend, and one of the people I most look up to in this place" pic.twitter.com/KUTZYOxwsm CSPAN (@cspan) September 4, 2018
Since leaving the Senate, Kyl has been a lobbyist at Covington & Burling.
McConnell did not push for Kyl's appointment to fill McCain's seat -- the decision was made by Ducey alone -- but is very supportive of the move, knowing it gives the GOP room to lose one Republican senator and still confirm Kavanaugh, two GOP sources with knowledge of the matter said.
Ducey, meanwhile, will placate Arizona Republicans through his own re-election bid this fall. He'll also have time to watch the Senate race to replace Jeff Flake -- who won Kyl's old seat in 2012 -- play out in November, with Republican Rep. Martha McSally facing Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.
Cindy McCain, the late senator's wife, praised the selection of Kyl on Twitter, calling him "a dear friend of mine and John's."
"It's a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona," she said.
Jon Kyl is a dear friend of mine and Johns. Its a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona. Cindy McCain (@cindymccain) September 4, 2018
Meghan McCain, the late senator's daughter, also praised the appointment, saying she "can think of no one better to keep fighting for the country and state he held so dear. He has always been a true statesman and a friend to my family."
Im very grateful to Jon Kyl for his willingness to return to public service to take my fathers seat in the Senate. I can think of no one better to keep fighting for the country and state he held so dear. He has always been a true statesman and a friend to my family. https://t.co/ukYYQrhekI Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) September 4, 2018
By Eric Bradner, CNN
Read the original text here.
According to him, the settlement of Donbas Conflict is possible within the Minsk Agreements
Vice President of the German Bundestag Wolfgang Kubicki claimed during the meeting with Olena Zerkal, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine for European Integration that Berlin is ready to continue great efforts to release Oleg Sentsov, Ukrainian political prisoner in Russia as the press service of the Foreign Ministry reported.
The German politicians expressed the concern about the illegal detention of the Ukrainian citizens by Russia and they constantly raise this issue in the dialogue with Russia, the message said.
Kubicki also assured about the support of Ukraine at the euro-integration way by Germany.
We are ready to support the reforms in Ukraine to make you country follow the way to the European Union, he said.
As is known, the native of Crimea, film director and political activist, Sentsov has been serving time in the Russian penal colony in Labytnangi since May 2014. This spring, he announced a hunger strike, demanding to release all Ukrainian political prisoners, illegally held by the Kremlin.
Oleg Sentsov was illegally detained in Crimea in 2014, then taken to Russia. They judged him and sentenced him to 20 years of imprisonment at a high-security penal colony. The prosecutors charged Sentsov with preparing terrorist acts in the occupied Crimea. Sentsov denies his guilt. Ukraine's government, common citizens and the international society - politicians, artists, public figures - urge the Kremlin to release him.
Sentsov enjoys the wide support of the many in Ukraine and abroad. Rallies, where participants urge to release him, are held worldwide - in Ukraine, Russia, the EU and the U.S.
Related video:
However, there are certain questions concerning joining the EU, Ihor Mosiychuk said during 'The Pulse', the big political show at 112 Ukraine TV channel
Open source
The pParliamentary faction of the Radical Party of Ukraine will support Ukraine's strategic course on joining the NATO, and fixing the respective principle in the Constitution. Ihor Mosiychuk, the MP from the Radical Party of Ukraine said that during 'The Pulse', the big political show at 112 Ukraine TV channel.
As the guests and experts discussed the bill submitted by President Petro Poroshenko, Mosiychuk claimed that it is clear that his party would support Ukraine's NATO membership, adding that 'this is a security matter'. 'As for the EU membership, we have discussions and questions, like this one - what kind of Ukraine would join the EU?', he said.
The draft law on Ukraine's European and Atlantic aspirations, submitted by President Petro Poroshenko, was registered in the Verkhovna Rada on Monday, September 3. The text was uploaded and released via the official website of the Ukrainian Parliament. The bill offers that the Parliament and the government achieve the authority to gain the membership of Ukraine in the EU and the NATO.
As we reported, 112 Ukraine TV channel launched a new political show called The Pulse. Hosts Volodymyr Poluyev and Anna Stepanets gather the audience, along with politicians and political experts - to talk on a wide variety of essential political and social issues. The audience is welcome to answer the questions announced by the hosts on the real-time basis.
Oleg Sentsov, the Ukrainian filmmaker and political prisoner wrote a letter to Oleksiy Hrytsenko, his friend and the member of Automaidan movement. There's a line where Sentsov says he is 'not going to surrender', Hrytsenko said.
'Me and Natalya Lukyanenko got a letter from Oleg. He's holding out fine. He is not going to surrender and he asks us not to give up in any case, either. He lost weight down to 72 kilograms', the activist wrote on Facebook.
The political prisoner asks people to send him the letters, too, because that's the only source of information he has access to.
'Oleg plans to see us and give us a hug at some good restaurant one day. But with all the positive mood, we should keep in mind that it is tough for Oleg now; his health is irrevocably damaged, and it remains unclear when he can return home and see his children,' reads the message.
Earlier, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated that Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian political prisoner, is in a critical condition. Guterres is concerned about his state, as Stephane Dujarric, the Spokesperson of UN Secretary-General, said.
'Secretary-General is concerned about Sentsovs state who has been on a hunger strike for 100 days, and who is in a critical condition. The Secretary-General raises this question when he contacts the Russian authorities,' Dujarric stated.
As is known, Oleg Sentsov, the Ukrainian political prisoner, has been starving in Russia penal colony of Labytnangi for 100 days now. He announced a hunger strike in May 2014, demanding to release him and the rest of Ukrainian political prisoners illegally held by the Kremlin. Sentsov already survived three health crises; the medics warn that the fourth one, which might involve the breakdown of the body's internal organs, could begin anytime.
Leader of the grouping Andrey Shyshko bragged about the combat experience of the soldiers who fought all over the world
Open source
The militants who fought at the territory of Ukraine entered the membership of the Slovenian parliamentarian grouping Starsky guard. Ex-candidate for the presidency and the head of the formation Andrey Shyshko claimed this as RTVslo reported.
During the speech before the journalists, Shyshko claimed that the members of the grouping are receiving the training for more than a year. There are the ex-soldiers of the Armed Forces of Slovenia and people with the combat experience among them.
People who participated in the armed conflicts all over the world from Afghanistan to Ukraine are among the members of the Starsky guard, he claimed.
It was also reported that the law enforcers have already begun the checks of the received data on the activity of the far-right formation, however, Shyshko states that the biggest part of the police and special service has taken his side.
As we reported Bratislav Zivkovic, the commander of the Chetnik paramilitary force in Serbia, has been arrested on suspicion of organizing a group of Serbs who joined Russia-backed separatists in their war against Ukraine's government.
Earlier, it was reported that the group of the mercenaries from Serbia arrived in occupied Donbas and joined militants of Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR). The group was headed by Deian Berych with the codename Deki that came to Donbas for many times and fought as the member of the militants groups.
Related video:
In 1910s-1920s, the Bolsheviks carried out the mass repressions against thousands of peaceful unarmed citizens, including the workers and peasants; the overall number of victims made up to 50,000
On Wednesday noon, the Ukrainian Parliament and some common citizens paid tribute to the victims of the Red Terror of 1917-1922.
The moment of silence was held for those repressed and murdered by the Bolshevik secret police; the Communists came to power after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, which eventually led to the creation of the Soviet Union, which included Ukraine.
As the Soviets were seizing more and more power, thousands of people, including workers and peasants were labeled either 'enemies of the people' or 'counter-revolutionary activists'. A lot of them were either imprisoned, deprived of their private property or killed.
Historians state that the overall number of victims of the Red Terror varies from at least 10,000 to 50,000 people; some claim even higher figures.
Ine Eriksen Sreide, the Foreign Minister of Norway, gave a positive feedback to the Ukrainian reforms and effectiveness of some commercial projects which can be implemented in Ukraine, as Government Portal reports.
"We are impressed by the results of reforms already achieved by Ukraine. The improvement of the investment climate can already be felt. That is why the prospects of investment cooperation are quite optimistic", Ine Eriksen Sreide said.
She noted that the energy projects which are on the development stage serve as multimillion investments, which are huge not only for Ukraine but for Norway as well. Therefore, the fact that the investment ideas are emerging, demonstrates the credibility to Ukraine and its economic policy.
Our bilateral relations are gaining momentum. We see the growing interest of Norwegian companies that want to work in Ukraine, and it gladdens us", the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway noted.
Ine Eriksen Sreide is the first woman to be the head of the diplomatic establishment in the Kingdom and one of those heads of the foreign diplomatic service which volunteered to visit Donbas to evaluate the situation in the region.
Related video:
The Police established more than 60 cases of the seizure of the weapons from the militants from the territory of the occupied Crimea
The Russian Federation equips the militants in Donbas with the weapons captured in the Ukrainian military units during the annexation of Crimea. By this, the Russian Government violated a number of international legal instruments, in particular, the Geneva Convention. Serhiy Knyazev, Head of the Ukrainian National Police claimed this, according to the press office of the Police.
In his words, according to the Ukrainian law on ensuring the rights and freedoms of citizens and the legal regime in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol city are considered as a temporary occupied. The Russian Federation is admitted as an aggressor country by the decrees of the Ukrainian Parliament.
Moreover, in December 2016, United Nations General Assembly on its session adopted a decision on admission the Russian Federation as an occupant. At the same time, the UN General Assembly condemned the transgressions of human rights and the illegal adoption of laws, jurisdiction, and administration by the Russian Federation in Crimea, The Police noted.
In accordance with international legal instruments, a government, which illegally annexed the territory of another country, is imposed with obligations associated with the maintenance of order on that particular territory.
Notwithstanding, the Russian Federation didnt provide the safety of the small arms and the ammunition on the territories of the captured military units of Ukraine and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol. Quite the opposite, the weapons captured on the territory of 14 military units and one military university were moved to the occupied territories of Donets and Luhansk regions.
Later, these weapons were conveyed to the illegal armed formations, which are acting on the East of Ukraine to conduct war against Ukraine.
After 2014, when the Russian occupational authority occupied Crimea, the firearms from more than ten military units, which belonged to the Armed Forces of Ukraine until 2014, and later was captured during the annexation were used on the territory of the Antiterrorist operation, Serhiy Knyazev claimed.
The Head of the Police claimed that the law enforcement officers established more than 60 cases of the confiscation of the weapons from the militants from the territory of the occupied Crimean peninsula. As of the moment of the annexation, these weapons were in the military units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the territory of Sevastopol, Feodosia, and Simferopol.
These facts indicate that precisely the Russian Federation equips the separatists in the east of our country, who are killing civilians and Ukrainian soldiers on the daily basis, the Head of the National Police stressed.
He stated on the seizure of 51 assault rifles, 15 pistols, two grenade launchers and one carbine on the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Nikki Haley, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, stated that the UN Security Council would have a meeting on Friday due to the situation in Idlib, as Reuters reports.
This is a tragic situation, and if they want to continue to go the route of taking over Syria, they can do that, Haley said at the press-conference referring to the Government of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies in Russia and Iran.
She added that if there are chemical weapons that are used, we know exactly whos going to use them.
Earlier, 13 people died as a result of airstrikes conducted by Russia in Syria. Washington warmed Assad about a quick response if a chemical weapon is used.
Related video:
Open source
B terminal of Boryspil Airport that was opened for the hosting of the Hasids coming to Ukraine will accept the first flight today on September 5 as 112 Ukraine reported.
Totally, 10 flights with the pilgrims who aim to Uman for the celebration of Rosh Hashanah are expected. This year the celebration starts on September 9 and will continue until September 11.
The officers of the National Guard will protect the terminal. In Uman, the security measures were also enhanced as the press service of Cherkassy region police reported. On September 3, 600 police officers from 12 regions of Ukraine arrived in the city, including the patrol police, operational staff, dog handlers and bomb experts.
Earlier, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said it would implement all necessary measures to provide the security during the celebration of Rosh Hashanah. Emergency Service Chairman claimed this during the meeting with Eliav Belotserkovsky, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Israel to Ukraine as the press service reported.
As it was reported last year, the Hasid pilgrims from around the globe keep coming to Ukraine to celebrate the New Year according to the Jewish calendar. In 2017, Uman hosted about 30,000 Hasidic Jews, who came to honor the memory of their spiritual leader Rabbi Nachman at his grave on the eve of Rosh Hashanah.
Related video:
The Ministry also calls the international community to increase pressure on Russia
Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs requires Russia to stop the repressions against Crimean Tatars in relation to the new cases of prosecution of Ukrainian citizens in temporarily occupied Crimea, according to the press office of the Ukrainian MFA.
The MFA expresses a protest in relation to the illegal searches of accommodations and judicial prosecutions of Ukrainians Zarema Kulametova, Riana Kulametova, Zekkiia Kulametova, and Marlen Mustafayev.
The dissemination of the symbols of Hizb ut-Tahrir organization on social media in 2014 was used as a pretext. Consequently, on September 4, Zekkiy Kulametov and Marlen Mustafayev were arrested for 15 and 12 days accordingly, Zareme and Riana Kulametova were fined, the Ministry claimed.
Ukrainian MFA calls the international community to increase pressure on Russia with a view to ending the transgression of human rights in the temporarily occupied Crimea and release illegally kept Ukrainian citizens.
We demand from the Russian Federation as the occupying power to abandon the discriminations and repressions against Ukrainian citizens. Marlen Mustafayev and Zekkiy Kulametov, and all illegally kept Ukrainian citizens by Russia have to be immediately released, the Ministry stressed.
As we reported the officers of Russias FSB held the searches of Crimean Tatar Marlen Mustafayev at Myasoidivska Street, Kamianka village, Simferopol district of occupied Crimea. Later Mustafayev was detained.
On February 21, 2017, the law enforcers searched the house of Mustafayev. Then, he was arrested for 11 days. He was accused of the posting of the banned information in the social networks in July 2014.
Also, the Russian law enforcers held the searches at Kurske village, Bilogorsk region at the houses of four underage Crimean Tatars and one more search took place in Kholodivka village, Sudak region.
The reports followed soon after the emission of a toxic substance in Armaynsk in the northern part of the occupied peninsula
Open source
Cases of Ukrainian border guards complaining about poisoning symptoms are reported on the administrative border with Crimea. Oleg Slobodyan, the assistant head of the State Border Guard said that in his commentary for 112 Ukraine TV channel.
According to him, the complaints followed soon after the media reported an emission of an unidentified toxic substance in Armyansk in the occupied peninsula.
'Our medics regularly check on the health conditions of our border guards serving not far from the factory. They reported dizziness, nausea, and headache, but after holding consultations and taking medications, these symptoms disappeared. These people get some time to rest and undergo careful checks', Slobodyan said.
He added that the emissions do not pose any threat for the Ukrainian citizens residing on the administrative border with Crimea.
'The situation did not change much. The wind continues to blow towards the occupied peninsula, so the Ukrainian citizens who reside on the administrative border in Kherson region face no actual threats for now. However, they also feel certain worsening of their own conditions and see the influence on the environment', he said.
The border checkpoints on the Ukrainian side continue to function normally, Slobodyan stressed.
'We're ready to assist the citizens who would like to go from the occupied peninsula to the mainland Ukraine, saving themselves from this disaster', he said.
Also, the Mayor called the Vice-President of Bundestag to reinforce the fight against the Russian propaganda in Germany
Ukraine is interested in the further economic cooperation with Germany and expects the increase of German investments. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko claimed this at the meeting with Vice-President of Bundestag Wolfgang Kubicki. Vitali Klitschko stressed that today Ukraine is a niche market, the press office of the Mayor reports.
He also noted that one of his objectives, as the mayor of the Ukrainian capital is for Kyiv to have as many as possible foreign representatives for the realization of important international projects. Vitali Klitschko expressed hope that Ukraine and Germany could implement many joint plans, in particular, in the economic realm, in machine-building, agricultural sector, and cultural projects.
Also, Vitali Klitschko and the Vice-President of Bundestag discussed the situation in Donbas. He stressed the need to increase sanctions against Russia, which is responsible for the continuation of the hostilities by supporting the terrorists with weapons and military. And the pressure of the world community on Russia will help to bring peace back and to restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
Our success will be the best reply for the actions of our enemies who are wishing the dissolution of Ukraine. More than 10 thousand Ukrainian lives are put in opposition to the political ambitions of Russia, - claimed Vitali Klitschko. It is nice that many MPs of the German Bundestag visited Ukraine over the last few months. Such visits help to the better understanding of the situation in my country, which is opposed to the military aggression from the Russian side and, despite this, embodies the reforms.
Also, he called the Vice-President of Bundestag to reinforce the fight against the Russian propaganda in Germany. In particular, it is about the media sources, which are disseminating distorted information about Ukraine.
During the talks, the Mayor of the capital proposed Kubicki to visit Donbas himself and to see the situation developed there.
The toxic substances did not get to Kherson region at the greatest concentration
The State Border Guard Service and Emergency Service held the analysis for the presence of the toxic substances in Kherson region after the chemical emission from the Crimean plant Tytan. Vadym Chernysh, the Minister of of Temporarily Occupied Territories and IDPs claimed this as 112 Ukraine reported.
The State Border Guard Service along with the Emergency Service held the quick analysis; the gas analyzers show the presence of the pollutants, including one of the hazardous sulfur dioxide that can make the sulfuric acid when it contacts with water. One of these factors we relatively easily monitor at the controlled territory. And this gap in the information field allowed by the occupation authorities during the week shows that they tried to hide the real situation as the wind was coming from the territory controlled by Ukraine to the uncontrolled territory, he said.
Chernysh noted that the toxic substances did not get to Kherson region at the greatest concentration.
Also, we will order the monitoring of the surface of this storage to see whether it increases or decreases, is there is water at the surface, does it preserve the evaporations or not. We do not know exactly, he noted.
According to him, the specialized commission holds the extended analysis: of the soil, water and air.
As we reported an unknown substance was discharged in the air in Armyansk, North Crimea. A greasy mud with a yellow shade appeared on metallic objects, roofs and leaves on the trees.
Later, Sergey Aksyonov, head of the annexed Crimea claimed that the situation with the discharge of the unknown substance in the air goes beyond the norms.
Moreover, toxic chemicals were detected in the air in the Kherson region, southern Ukraine.
Refat Chubarov, the Chairman of the Crimean Tatars Mejlis claimed that the evacuation of the children due to the emission of the unknown substance has begun in Armyansk.
Related video:
Kyrylo Vyshynsky was taken back to the court
Social media
The medical examination did not confirm that RIA News Head Kyrylo Vyshynsky had a heart attack. He will be returned to Kherson City Court on the court hearing, as Tetyana Tykhonchyk, Crimeas Prosecutors Office Spokesperson, said, Ukrainian News reported.
We checked his blood pressure, did the cardiogram. Everything is fine, she noted.
After the doctors revealed that Vyshynsky did not have heart attack, he was taken back to the court to continue considering the question on the extension of the preventive measure detention in custody.
Earlier, the court session was postponed, as Vyshynsky did not feel well. He said that under his feelings he had a heart attack.
On May 15, the SBU considered the detention of the head of RIA News Ukraine agencys office.
Kremlin has already responded to the incident and called the actions of the SBU outrageous. Also, Russia promised to assume reciprocal measures. Then, the state sent a protest note over searches at the mass media office.
Later it was reported that the actions of Vyshynsky were preliminarily qualified as the state treason. The same day the SBU reported that Kyrylo Vyshynsky is now officially suspected of state treason.
Recently, there are statements about his exchange for the convicted Ukrainians kept in Russia.
Related video:
The Committee on National Security and Defence recommended the Verkhovna Rada to support the bill #9036 on the introduction of a military greeting Glory to Ukraine and reply Glory to Heroes! as a basis with a speedy preparation to the second reading.
The decision was made unanimously. 112 Ukraine broadcasted the session.
As a Staff Sergeant, Deputy Commander of the platoon, I absolutely support this greeting, its very inspiring. Glory to Ukraine Follow the leader two commands now. That is why I want to support the offer of Mr. Teteruk to adopt the law as a basis and carry out a shortened procedure, Sergiy Pashynsky, the Head of the Committee, said.
12 peoples deputies voted for.
Earlier, the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko registered the bill on September 3.
Related video:
Ukrainian movie director Oleg Sentsov, who is kept in a Russian prison, wrote a letter to the Russian human rights activists Nikolay and Tatyana Shchur. The letter is dated August 29, the activists received it on September 4, as Tatyana Shchur stated on her Facebook page.
Dear friends! We got Sentsovs letter as of August 29. Rather quick response as he received our letter on August 29. Oleg wrote that lately kind of lost his patience. FSIN-pismo is working. The letters are delivered fast, several a day. He doesnt write anything about his health, though he always writes that there is no need to worry about him. Generally, everything is like always. But, here is whats important. He thanks to everyone who helps him, especially those who are doing something for the people, because of whom Sentsov is in prison, she stated.
In his letter, Sentsov also asks not to do anything wrong without his consent and cited several cases when things in wrappers and letters were seized as they were delivered with a violation of prison regime.
As we reported earlier, Oleg Sentsov, the Ukrainian political prisoner, has been starving in Russia penal colony of Labytnangi for 100 days now. He announced hunger strike in May 2014, demanding to release him and the rest of Ukrainian political prisoners illegally held by the Kremlin. Sentsov already survived three health crises; the medics warn that the fourth one, which might involve the breakdown of the body's internal organs, could begin anytime.
The native of Crimea, film director and political activist, Sentsov was illegally detained in Crimea in 2014, then taken to Russia. They judged him and sentenced him to 20 years of imprisonment at a high-security penal colony. The prosecutors charged Sentsov with preparing terrorist acts in the occupied Crimea. Sentsov denies his guilt. Ukraine's government, common citizens and the international society - politicians, artists, public figures - urge the Kremlin to release him.
Sentsov enjoys the wide support of the many in Ukraine and abroad. Rallies, where participants urge to release him, are held worldwide - in Ukraine, Russia, the EU and the U.S.
Related video:
It is expected that Kyiv will host 20 flights with 3,000 pilgrims in one day
The officers of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine has started to proceed the first Hasidic pilgrims who came to Ukraine for the celebration of the Jewish New Year Rosh Hashanah in Uman as the press service of the official body reported.
More than 130 pilgrims who aimed to Ukraine in a few organized groups for the celebration of the Jewish New Year were proceeded by the border guards of the Mostyska unit at the checkpoint Krakovets at the Ukrainian-Polish border, the message said.
Moreover, the proceeding of the pilgrims has begun at the detached checkpoint Kyiv. It is expected that Kyiv will host 20 flights with 3,000 pilgrims in one day.
The heaviest flow of the coming people is expected on Thursday and Friday, directly before the start of the celebration.
This year the celebration starts on September 9 and will continue until September 11.
Earlier, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said it would implement all necessary measures to provide the security during the celebration of Rosh Hashanah. Emergency Service Chairman claimed this during the meeting with Eliav Belotserkovsky, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Israel to Ukraine as the press service reported.
As it was reported last year, the Hasid pilgrims from around the globe keep coming to Ukraine to celebrate the New Year according to the Jewish calendar. In 2017, Uman hosted about 30,000 Hasidic Jews, who came to honor the memory of their spiritual leader Rabbi Nachman at his grave on the eve of Rosh Hashanah.
Related video:
The medical workers of Donetsk Reconstructive Surgery told the SMM team members that after the explosion on August 31, six people with different injured were hospitalize
The OSCE representatives were denied access the information about the victims of the explosion in Separ cafe (another way to call separatist in Russian, - ed.) in Donetsk, when the Head of the so-called DNR Alexander Zakharchenko died. It was mentioned in the report of OSCE SMM in Ukraine as of September 3.
The SMM followed up on reports of people injured in the above-mentioned explosion. While at the Kalinina morgue in Donetsk city on 3 September, the SMM was informed that the bodies of Aleksandr Zakharchenko and another member of the armed formations (a member of Zakharchenkos personal security detail) had been brought to the facility with fatal wounds from the explosion, the report reads.
Additionally, the medical workers of Donetsk Reconstructive Surgery told the SMM team members that after the explosion on August 31, six people with different injured were hospitalized.
The medical workers refused to provide the OSCE SMM with the information about the individuals who sustained injuries on the explosion without the permission of the leaders of the illegally armed formations, the representatives of the mission stated.
Earlier, Komsomolskaya Pravda correspondent Oleksandr Kots published a picture on Telegram which shows that the coffin with Zakharchenko was opened during the funeral on September 2.
As Novosti Donbassa reported, it was done so that the relatives of the terrorist could say goodbye to him. The funeral took place on Donetsk sea cemetery.
Earlier, Russian Federal Security Service was ready to help the investigation of the murder of the so-called DNR Head and sent its officers to Donbas.
Related video:
Enjoy the first large-scale museum exhibition dedicated to tramp art since 1975. More than 150 examples of tramp art, concentrating on works from the United States, with additional international examples.
For Immediate Release: October 24, 2016 (Santa Fe, NM) The Museum of International Folk Art presents No Idle Hands: The Myths & Meanings of Tramp Art, the first large-scale museum exhibition dedicated to tramp art since 1975. The exhibition will present more than 150 examples of tramp art, concentrating on works from the United States, with additional examples from France, Germany, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Canada, Mexico and Brazil to demonstrate the far reach this art form has had. Additionally, the show will analyze and dismantle the myths and misperceptions about tramp art, particularly as they relate to assumptions related to class, quality, and the anonymity of the makers.
Tramp art describes a particular type of chip-carved woodwork that was practiced in Europe and the United States between the 1870s and 1940s, making use of discarded cigar boxes or crates that were then notch-carved along the edges and layered. Objects made were primarily boxes and frames, but other household objects such as small private altars, crosses, medicine cabinets, wall pockets, clock cases, plant stands, and even furniture can be found.
"Tramp art's place in art history has been troublesome. It has had detractorspeople who regard it as 'the ugly duckling' of folk artbut also numerous champions," said Laura Addison, Curator of North American & European Folk Art at the Museum of International Folk Art, and the show's curator. "This exhibition will erase any doubts about the quality and craftsmanship of the work and situate tramp art as a practice at the crossroads of cultural transformation at the turn of the 20th century," she said. Addison also pointed out that by juxtaposing historic pieces with those by contemporary artists working in the tramp art style, the exhibition frames this art form as an ongoing tradition that continues to capture the public's imaginationmyths and all.
"The ingenious objects in the Tramp Art exhibition use recycled or repurposed wood, and highlight a moment in time a century ago when artisans, many of them immigrants to the US, created a new variety of folk art," said Khristaan D. Villela, Director of the Museum of International Folk Art. "They are a testament to the ability of untrained artists to produce objects of immense beauty and complexity," he said.
For many years, tramp art was believed to have been made by itinerants and hobos, thus its name. It has been demonstrated, however, that this belief, first put in print by Frances Lichten in a 1959 Pennsylvania Folklife article, is erroneous. Nonetheless, the name "tramp art" has remained the only terminology used for this practice, and the paucity of scholarly studies to dispel the mistaken notions about tramp art have allowed the myths to persist.
Whittling objects such as wood chains and ball-in-cage whimsies was a common pastime, including among railriding "hobos," and some examples of tramp art were likely by the hand of itinerant laborers or artisans. However, this style of carving was more commonly the practice of family men and blue-collar factory workers making functional domestic objects or gifts for the women in their lives. Efforts have been made in recent years to identify makers by name and unearth their biographies; these personal narratives illustrate a very different story of the makers of tramp art. As these makers and their stories come to light, it has become obvious that home and family are central to an understanding of the practice of tramp art.
No Idle Hands will present tramp art objects according to four primary areas: Introduction/historical context, home & nation, frames & boxes and devotional objects. Works in the exhibition will come from the Museum of International Folk Art permanent collection as well as loans from a number of private and museum collections across the country. An exhibition publication will accompany the exhibition, with essays by Laura Addison, Curator of North American & European Folk Art, Museum of International Folk Art; Leslie Umberger, a curator in the area of folk art and self-taught art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum; and Eric Zafran, a retired curator of European art, most recently at the Wadsworth Atheneum.
The Museum of International Folk Art Museum Shop is located in the museum at 706 Camino Lejo (Museum Hill just off Old Santa Fe Trail). 505-982-5186.
MUSEUM OF INTERNATIONAL FOLK ART
The Museum of International Folk Art is a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.
The Museum of International Folk Art's mission is "to enrich the human spirit by connecting people with the arts, traditions and cultures of the world." Founded in 1953 by Florence Dibell Bartlett, the museum holds the world's largest international folk art collection of more than 150,000 objects from six continents and over 150 nations.
The museum's collections represent a broad range of global artists whose artistic expressions make Santa Fe an international crossroads of culture. For many visitors, fascination with folk art begins upon seeing the whimsical toys and traditional objects within the Girard Collection. For others, the international textiles, ceramics, carvings and other cultural treasures in the Neutrogena Collection provide the allure. The museum's historic and contemporary Latino and Hispano folk art collections, spanning the Spanish Colonial period to modern-day New Mexico, reflect how artists respond to their time and place in ways both delightful and sobering. In 2010, the museum opened the Mark Naylor and Dale Gunn Gallery of Conscience, where exhibitions encourage visitors to exchange ideas on complex issues of human rights and social justice.
Over 90,000 national and international visitors visit the Museum International Folk Art every year. Through folk art, the museum encourages all to find a common ground upon which to craft better lives for all.
Museum exhibitions and programs are supported by donors to the Museum of New Mexico Foundation and its Director's Leadership Fund, Exhibitions Development Fund, and Fund for Museum Education, as well as by the International Folk Art Foundation, also established by museum founder Florence Dibell Bartlett.
PLEASE NOTE!
Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!
All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!
(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)
By Ruth Anderah.
The Anti-corruption court has issued criminal summons to the suspended Kampala South metropolitan police commander Siraje Bakaleke and 6 other police officers to appear and answer to charges of Abuse of office in relation to the kidnap , wrongful arrest and confinement of 3 Korean investors.
Bakaleke who is at the rank of Assistant commissioner of police is said to have used his office and connived with a city lawyer Mugoya Wanyoto to defraud 415000 US dollars from the 3 Koreans .
Court documents show that after the wrong full arrest of the Koreans , Wanyoto obtained another 30, 000 US Dollars from them on false pretense that it was legal fees to represent them on the criminal charges they were facing .
Now Bakaleke, Wanyoto , a one Samuel NabetaMulowooza and the other 6 police officers who were serving at different ranks as Deputy Assistant Superintendents of police and police constables face 12 counts of Abuse of office, kidnap and abducting with intent to confine a person, Embezzlement, obtaining money by false pretence and conspiracy to commit an offense .
However these except a one Samuel Mulowooza ; the managing Director of Eye power Engineering company did not turn up in court today as earlier ordered to plead to the charges and hence forth promoting grade one magistrate Moses Nabende to issue criminal summons requiring them to appear on the October 5th 2018 .
This is after a state attorney from the DPPs office Harriet Angom explained to him that there is no evidence on court record that Bakaleke and 7 others were served with the previous court summons
For Mulowooza, he has denied the offenses and has been granted a cash bail of 4 million shilings.
According to Fr Andrea Lembo, new technologies "block affectivity". Information is exchanged but communication is not very deep. But it is not all bad: the new tools make it possible to reach people outside Japan.
Tokyo (AsiaNews) One Japanese student in seven suffers from Internet addiction disorder, the Ministry of Health announced last Friday (31 August) with negative impact on their school results and day-to-day activities.
For Fr Andrea Lembo, PIME regional superior in Japan, the new technologies "block affectivity, and this gets amplified in Japan, becoming an excuse to avoid opening up."
A group of researchers led by Yoneatsu Osaki, professor of public health at Tottori University, last year surveyed 64,000 elementary and high school students in 103 schools.
Based on the data collected, some 930,000 students are addicted, mainly to online games or social networking sites, up by about 400,000 from the previous survey taken five years earlier. But the actual number could be higher because those absent from school were not among the respondents.
The results from the 2017 survey also show that Internet addiction is starting at a younger age, in early high school.
"In Japan, so many applications to communicate are available, said Fr Lembo, but there is a risk of isolation. This can be especially seen in kids who have a hard time connecting with others. Such tools are overused and this complicates interpersonal relations.
"Two thoughts come to mind. First, a lot of information is exchanged but little is shared. Chatrooms are highly developed but they require speed, short sentences and words are at a minimum. It is not very deep communication: it is only an exchange of information.
"I have reprimanded several of my kids who got together with a girl via chat and broke up via chat. They are afraid to look each other in the eye. Everything is exchanged online, but body language is lost.
"Humans are essentially the word, manifestation of a communication that is done through body language, visual, non-visual. This is diminished, and syndromes typical of the developed world in communication develop: isolation, shame, fear of public speaking, difficulty in expressing one's own feelings."
This becomes more complicated if we consider the Japanese language, "where the tone that is used is always the same", whilst "feelings are inscribed in the grammatical forms."
"The second thought is positive. The new means of communication are a world with its dangers, but one that makes possible broader networking and greater intercultural connections, outside ones country".
For the missionary, the new tools of communication should aim at "communication that makes sense".
For him, meetings between his guests and parish kids, separated by language, are one example. "Among young people, google translator can become a nice way to communicate, to overcome language barriers".
Topical issues of interaction in the format of the Eurasian Economic Union, as well as joint measures to combat the spread of COVID-19 and mitigate the consequences of the pandemic for the economies of the two countries were considered.
Images | life.ru
Facebook parent company Meta has granted the Kazakhstan government direct access to its content reporting system, as part of a joint agreement to work on removing content that is deemed harmful on social network platforms like Facebook and Instagram, zdnet.com reports.
In a joint statement, the Ministry of Information and Social Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the social media giant said the agreement, which is the first of its kind in Central Asia, would help increase the efficiency and effectiveness to counter the spread of illegal content.
Giving the Kazakhstan government access to its content reporting system will allow the government to report content that may violate Facebook's global content policy and local content laws in Kazakhstan, Facebook said.
Under the agreement, both parties will also set up regular communication, including having an authorised representative from Facebook's regional office work with the Ministry on various policy issues.
Facebook is delighted to work with the government of Kazakhstan together, particularly in the aspect of online safety for children," Facebook regional public policy director George Chen said in a statement.
To make the first step for our long-term cooperation with the government, we are delighted to provide the 'content reporting system' to the government of Kazakhstan, which we hope can help the government to deal with harmful content in a more efficient and effective manner. The Facebook team will also continue to provide training to Kazakhstan to keep its cyberspace safe".
According to the pair, in preparation for giving the ministry access to its content reporting system, Facebook provided training for the ministry's specialists last month on how to use the content reporting system, as well as Facebook's content policy and community standards.
Aidos Sarym, one of the deputies who introduced a Bill into the Kazakhstan parliament in September to protect children from cyberbullying, described the agreement as a "win-win" situation.
During these negotiations, everyone came to consensus. It's basically a classic win-win situation where our citizens will get more effective opportunities to protect their rights, and companies to grow their business," he wrote on his Facebook page.
At the same time, we were and will be consistent. We are ready to remove the toughest wording and together with the government to develop and introduce formulas that will work will not infringe on user interests or the interests of tech companies themselves".
Just last week, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen warned the UK Parliament about social media platforms that use opaque algorithms to spread harmful content should be reined in. She said these algorithms could trigger a growing number of violent events, such as the attacks on the US Capitol Building that occurred last January.
Haugen was speaking in London as part of an investigation into the draft Online Safety Bill that was put forward by the UK government earlier this year. This Bill proposes to force companies to protect their users from harmful content ranging from revenge porn to disinformation, through hate speech and racist abuse.
Parliamentarians were taking evidence from Haugen because it was recently revealed that she was the whistleblower behind bombshell leaked internal documents from Facebook.
Now known as the Facebook Files, the leaks were published by The Wall Street Journal and explored a variety of topics, including the use of different content moderation policies for high-profile users, the spread of misinformation, and the impact of Instagram on teenagers' mental health. The disclosures became a catalyst for a US Senate inquiry into Facebook's operations.
PNGAA's seeming imprimatur of an article that reflects adversely on the Territory of Papua New Guineas kiapsDistrict Commissioners, District Officers, Assistant District Officers and Patrol Officersand on the Australian government's administration of what was then a United Nations trust territory is astounding when one considers the Associations history, prestige and its membership.
SYDNEY - That slander, the third paragraph of Cooking: The Curious Culinary Secrets of PNGs Last Cannibalistic Tribe published in an online newspaper, The New Daily , on 9 March 2018, would probably have disappeared unnoticed if it had not been picked up and republished in the September 2018 edition of the Papua New Guinea Associations magazine, Una Voce .
"The last reported case of cannibalism in the Sepik was in 1964 when a group of men raided a neighbouring village for meat as their ancestors had for thousands of years. All seven offenders were hanged by kiaps Australian patrol officers who were the law of the land until PNGs independence in 1975" extract from an article in The New Daily republished in Una Voce
Until recently, the PNGAA was led by a series of former senior kiaps serving as Association presidents. One of the two current patrons Fred Kaad OBE, a former kiap, served in the Sepik as Assistant District Officer, District Officer and acting District Commissioner in the 1950s. (The other patron, Major-General Michael Jeffery AC, CVO, MC (retired), Australias 24th Governor-General, also served in the Sepik during 1966-69 with 1st Battalion, Pacific Islands Regiment.)
The author, Ian Lloyd Neubauer, has been described as a Sydney-based journalist, a stringer for Time Magazine, CNN, the BBC and Al-Jazeera, with expertise covering Papua New Guinea, East Timor, the South Pacific, Indochina and the Australian outback. Maybe the stringer was strung a line, misled, when he was gathering the information for the article.
No offenders were hanged, or otherwise put to death in Papua New Guinea in 1964, and no offenders were hanged or otherwise put to death in the Sepik District during the 29 years of Australian administration following World War 2.
Only three individuals, all convicted murderers, were hanged in the post-war years. In 1947 in Rabaul, a native policeman was executed by hanging for the bayonet murder of a local woman, and in Lae, a murderer was hanged in December 1954. Another murderer, Arno of Wapenamanda in the Western Highlands, was hanged in November 1957. The 1957 hanging was the last execution in the Territory.
Kiaps may have been engaged in the hangings of Sepik Rivers head hunters in Mandated Territory in the 1920s and 1930s, but they had no role in the hangings carried out in the post-war Territory of Papua New Guinea.
The allegation that unsophisticated New Guineans were put to death for cannibalism is false and is perhaps best refuted by an examination of the legal procedures, following the massacre at Telefomin when two kiaps and two police constables were murdered in 1953.
The savagery of those killings horrified the world. One kiaps body was butchered, and some body parts were not recovered, but, even so, the standard procedures were followed. Kiaps investigated the killings and arrested the accused. A coronial inquiry preceded a committal hearing followed by a Supreme Court trial. At the conclusion of the trial, the Judge acquitted one defendant and imposed the death sentence on the other thirty-two.
Finally, the Australian Government (Cabinet) commuted the sentence to ten years imprisonment after considering a file of documents that included District Commissioners report, the Defending Counsel's opinion, the Judges summing-up of each case and his conclusions and views regarding punishment.
Cannibalism made the headlines in Australia in August 1956 when the people from a Sepik tributary, the May, invited their neighbours from upstream to a feast. They slaughtered at least 29 of the guests from the Yellow River, cooked them, and then ate them.
ADO Frank Jones and PO George Oakes (from Lumi) and ADO Mert Brightwell (from Ambunti) were involved in the early investigations. PO Tony (AL) Redwood made the arrests and the alleged murderers were subject to the legal process. Forty men, convicted in the Supreme Court, were sentenced on 11 February 1957. Their sentences were commuted, and they were confined to Boram Corrective Institution until they were repatriated in December 1960.
In an unrelated event, in December 1956, members of the Mianmin group crossed the Sepik River headwaters and attacked, killed and butchered sixteen Atbalmins. In January acting Assistant District Officer Ron (RTD) Neville, Patrol Officers Geoffrey (GF) Booth and Paul (PCA) Conroy accompanied by a strong detachment of police spent fifty-one days on patrol to arrest twenty-five of the offenders, who were subsequently committed for trial.
The next foray may have been the one that occurred in 1959 when a party of Mianmins from Usage attacked the small settlement of Suwana in the Abaru group near May River. Allegedly, they killed three men and one woman, cut the bodies up and set off for their home village with seven female captives. One of those women had difficulty keeping up, so she was also killed, and parts of her body taken to be eaten. Another of the abducted women subsequently escaped.
A patrol led by Patrol Officers Jack (JH) Mater and Jim (PJ) Fenton apprehended the fifteen Usage men involved in the massacre, including the men who did the killings. After completion of their sentences, Patrol Officer Jock (GJ) McIntyre took a patrol from May River to Usage to escort the men back to their village in September 1962.
In 1964, twenty men (not seven) were charged with murders associated with cannibalism. Patrol Officer Tony (AD) Pitt, accompanied by Brian (BA) McCabe (ADO Ambunti), arrested thirteen men from the Naukwi group and seven men from Mumuvika, accused of killing and eating four victims from Amiufa.
Committed for trial on 26 June, nineteen of the accused were escorted back to their village from May River by PO Tony (AC) Plummer. The Crown took nine months to enter a nolle prosequi, deciding the accused were too primitive to prosecute, and that the language translation problems were too difficult to enable a successful prosecution.
In 1968, Plummer was stationed at Green River Patrol Post when District Commissioner John Wakeford instructed him to investigate a reported massacre in the West Range area, one of the boundaries between the East Sepik and West Sepik Districts.
The reports of the killings had filtered into the May River Post (in the East Sepik), and Wakeford was keen for a patrol from Green River to upstage the East Sepik officers.
Plummer set off down the Sepik downstream from Green River but is hazy on how he identified those responsible for the massacre. He thinks that he arrested seven after a minor scuffle; the victims were a family of three, and maybe there were others on the menu?
Patrol Officer McIntyre, in November 1962, describing the three factions in May River society stated "those referred to as ex-prisoners are men who have each served years in one of the Corrective Institutions. Without being facetious one may now consider them as being educated. The Institutions have done an excellent job, perhaps too good in the case of men returning to a depressed area. These men now carry influence and together with the traditionalists are pressing for advancement in the educational and economic spheres."
So much for kiaps hanging offenders!
Except for Plummers 1968 patrol, the details in this article can be verified from the relevant, online archives. The May River Patrol Post, Tony Redwood and Ors, and the Mianmin thread on exkiap.net provides a broader discussion as does a similar article in PNG Attitude here
____________
Bill Brown MBE - a kiap in Papua New Guinea for 26 years from 1949-75 - was stationed in the Sepik region from 1955-66. When in charge of the Ambunti Sub-District in 1957-58, he was responsible for the May River and Green River Patrol Posts. As Assistant District Commissioner Telefomin in 1959-60, he was the custodian of the older prisoners convicted of participation in the 1953 massacre. He now has reservations about the value of his membership of PNGAA - KJ
Username: Password: or Register
Back to
Forum
Reply to
This post
Post New
Thread Thread Rating: 2 Vote(s) - 5 Average
1
2
3
4
5
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 ... 7 'sonic attack' on US diplomats in Cuba likely microwave attack LoP Guest
lop guest
User ID: 460404
09-05-2018 12:23 AM
Post: #1 'sonic attack' on US diplomats in Cuba likely microwave attack
Advertisement https://gizmodo.com/sonic-attacks-on-u-s...1828766430
Quote: ...according to a report in the New York Times on Saturday, they have increasingly become convinced that unknown parties attacked the staff with some sort of microwave radiation emitter, possibly one small enough to truck around in a van. The Times wrote:
The medical team that examined 21 affected diplomats from Cuba made no mention of microwaves in its detailed report published in JAMA in March. But Douglas H. Smith, the studys lead author and director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a recent interview that microwaves were now considered a main suspect and that the team was increasingly sure the diplomats had suffered brain injury.
Everybody was relatively skeptical at first, he said, and everyone now agrees theres something there. Dr. Smith remarked that the diplomats and doctors ...
odd so far media doesn't connect attacks on diplomats with complains by citizens in western nations they are being tortured with mind control weapons which produce symptoms similar to what the diplomats have described
a German site
http://www.mikrowellenterror.de/artikel/munzert1.htm
more sites
http://www.mindjustice.org
http://mind-control-torture.blogspot.com..._9392.html odd so far media doesn't connect attacks on diplomats with complains by citizens in western nations they are being tortured with mind control weapons which produce symptoms similar to what the diplomats have describeda German sitemore sites LoP Guest
lop guest
User ID: 460404
09-05-2018 12:29 AM
Post: #2 RE: 'sonic attack' on US diplomats in Cuba likely microwave attack
two scenarios occur to me
1) us personnel stationed at embassies have been covertly using mind control weapons agains the host nation , and some of these host nations, not necessarily Cuba or china where the attacks took place, have gotten pissed off and decided to retaliate with rudimentary EM weapons of their own
2) someone with access to these weapons wants to discourage diplomatic engagement with these nations, china and Cuba ... Canadian diplomats have been attacked also. likely Israel because Israel is the only nation that can do it without fear of consequences, some kind of significant counter-attack (or Israeli controlled ops in America) LoP Guest
lop guest
User ID: 460389
09-05-2018 12:44 AM
Post: #3 RE: 'sonic attack' on US diplomats in Cuba likely microwave attack
That seems to be turned off on 25 december only.
http://lunaticoutpost.com/thread-56899.html The HUM many tormented sonically worldwide by strange HUM SOUNDThat seems to be turned off on 25 december only. LoP Guest
lop guest
User ID: 460404
09-05-2018 12:56 AM
Post: #4 RE: 'sonic attack' on US diplomats in Cuba likely microwave attack
how can the new media cover attacks on diplomats and continue to ignore attacks on western citizens ? Bao2
Banned
User ID: 422170
09-05-2018 04:20 AM
Posts: 12,562
Post: #5 RE: 'sonic attack' on US diplomats in Cuba likely microwave attack
and defective microwave
Probably someone was doing popcorn on a neighbour room on some very oldand defective microwave KingBum
Registered User
User ID: 447107
09-05-2018 04:36 AM
Posts: 4,200
Post: #6 RE: 'sonic attack' on US diplomats in Cuba likely microwave attack
LoP Guest Wrote: (09-05-2018 12:56 AM) how can the new media cover attacks on diplomats and continue to ignore attacks on western citizens ?
Because this is about letting the public know those weapons are there slowly, ask for forgiveness not permission. Because this is about letting the public know those weapons are there slowly, ask for forgiveness not permission. Idealism is the fools shepherd and the braggarts laurels.
Its time to stop pointing fingers, finger pointing gets us nowhere...Steve.
504100 - My number when not logged in. LoP Guest
lop guest
User ID: 460422
09-05-2018 04:40 AM
Post: #7 RE: 'sonic attack' on US diplomats in Cuba likely microwave attack
And NO ONE else that works at the building was affected ?????????
Pfffft ! LoP Guest
lop guest
User ID: 397600
09-05-2018 04:41 AM
Post: #8 RE: 'sonic attack' on US diplomats in Cuba likely microwave attack
KingBum Wrote: (09-05-2018 04:36 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (09-05-2018 12:56 AM) how can the new media cover attacks on diplomats and continue to ignore attacks on western citizens ?
Because this is about letting the public know those weapons are there slowly, ask for forgiveness not permission.
no they have to go public as warning to whatever nation or group that is attacking that it won't be tolerated
but they don't want to expose the use of mind control torture or other "non-lethal" weapons on their own citizens -- because they want to keep doing it
I honestly think the overt govt, including the generals, has little control ... have some idea of what is happening but don't know who is doing it, and just assume it must be the US govt is doing it but its "special access/need to know" so , they don't know, but its all under control
in reality Israel controls everything and our own govt is a pack of idiots no they have to go public as warning to whatever nation or group that is attacking that it won't be toleratedbut they don't want to expose the use of mind control torture or other "non-lethal" weapons on their own citizens -- because they want to keep doing itI honestly think the overt govt, including the generals, has little control ... have some idea of what is happening but don't know who is doing it, and just assume it must be the US govt is doing it but its "special access/need to know" so , they don't know, but its all under controlin reality Israel controls everything and our own govt is a pack of idiots LoP Guest
lop guest
User ID: 397600
09-05-2018 04:44 AM
Post: #9 RE: 'sonic attack' on US diplomats in Cuba likely microwave attack
LoP Guest Wrote: (09-05-2018 04:40 AM) And NO ONE else that works at the building was affected ?????????
Pfffft !
I imagine with a decent size dish microwaves can be beamed in a fairly tight beam .. well, u know, those kind of tight beams are used in microwave relay setups for communications
not to mention "maser" which is a microwave laser, with a maser you could target an individual from probably a mile away, microwave passes thru building material fairly well, at least if its of the right frequency
with infrared imaging you can see people inside a building, but there are many ways they could be targeted, the best and most reliable is if the target is IMPLANTED with a sensor that relays back detection of the attack beam as well as allowing the victim to be triangulated I imagine with a decent size dish microwaves can be beamed in a fairly tight beam .. well, u know, those kind of tight beams are used in microwave relay setups for communicationsnot to mention "maser" which is a microwave laser, with a maser you could target an individual from probably a mile away, microwave passes thru building material fairly well, at least if its of the right frequencywith infrared imaging you can see people inside a building, but there are many ways they could be targeted, the best and most reliable is if the target is IMPLANTED with a sensor that relays back detection of the attack beam as well as allowing the victim to be triangulated LoP Guest
lop guest
User ID: 445462
09-05-2018 04:46 AM
Post: #10 RE: 'sonic attack' on US diplomats in Cuba likely microwave attack
5G LoP Guest
lop guest
User ID: 397600
09-05-2018 04:47 AM
Post: #11 RE: 'sonic attack' on US diplomats in Cuba likely microwave attack
but I can't imagine Cuba would be doing it, how would that make sense ? unless American personnel stationed at the embassy were covertly attacking Cubas with mind control torture weapons, and they just got pissed off and concocted some rudimentary weapons to retaliate
cuba doesn't have anything to gain, attacks also happened in china, that could make a little more sense for china to do it LoP Guest
lop guest
User ID: 460422
09-05-2018 04:54 AM
Post: #12 RE: 'sonic attack' on US diplomats in Cuba likely microwave attack
When a country wants to "attack" someone, they KILL them ! They dont go to all this trouble to make their targets woozy ! LoP Guest
lop guest
User ID: 397600
09-05-2018 04:57 AM
Post: #13 RE: 'sonic attack' on US diplomats in Cuba likely microwave attack
I feel sometimes I've been poisoned
when I do contract work I'm always attacked more intensely to make successful completion more difficult, to reduce the quality of my work
you know, its crazy ... can't report any of it to the police, it would be pointless ( I know, long ago when I first became fully consciously aware, as opposed to just suspecting, I tried a number of things .. apart from that, there are a number of cases of people in the news who have tried to report being attacked with mind control torture, and its always futile )
what the f*#k kind of country is this ? I really don't know but wish I had some way to get the f*#k out LoP Guest
lop guest
User ID: 397600
09-05-2018 05:00 AM
Post: #14 RE: 'sonic attack' on US diplomats in Cuba likely microwave attack
LoP Guest Wrote: (09-05-2018 04:54 AM) When a country wants to "attack" someone, they KILL them ! They dont go to all this trouble to make their targets woozy !
to the contrary in political matters its almost always better to make your opponent and idiot than to kill them
because .. your opposition is left with idiots for leaders , you don't create martyrs
and the ONLY thing that creates a reaction is death .. you can beat someone half to death and it would barely make the news
no, secretly maiming is usually a lot better than killing
its how the jews took out the European aristocracy .. secretly poisoned them, not to mention it would seem a number of European renaissance greats like Beethoven, Isaac newton, others. galois they arranged to be killed in a duel to the contrary in political matters its almost always better to make your opponent and idiot than to kill thembecause .. your opposition is left with idiots for leaders , you don't create martyrsand the ONLY thing that creates a reaction is death .. you can beat someone half to death and it would barely make the newsno, secretly maiming is usually a lot better than killingits how the jews took out the European aristocracy .. secretly poisoned them, not to mention it would seem a number of European renaissance greats like Beethoven, Isaac newton, others. galois they arranged to be killed in a duel LoP Guest
lop guest
User ID: 460422
09-05-2018 05:00 AM
Post: #15 RE: 'sonic attack' on US diplomats in Cuba likely microwave attack
LoP Guest Wrote: (09-05-2018 04:57 AM) I feel sometimes I've been poisoned
when I do contract work I'm always attacked more intensely to make successful completion more difficult, to reduce the quality of my work
I will remember that excuse if I am ever reported for doing shitty work ! I will remember that excuse if I am ever reported for doing shitty work ! Advertisement
Back to
Forum
Reply to
This post
Post New
Thread
Globe Telecom Inc. said unit Innove Communications Inc. won contracts from the Department of Information and Communications Technology to provide internet connectivity to local government units nationwide. Globe said the DICT awarded three-year contracts to Innove to deliver 704 circuits composed of 615 circuits for the IP Transport Municipal (project, 74 circuits for the IP Transport Municipal Ph3 project, 2 circuits for IP Transport International project and 13 circuits for IP Transport Domestic project. Under the agreement, the company committed to deliver 704 circuits to some underserved municipalities across the Philippines, while the DICT would ensure that Innove could deploy these circuits by securing building permission from the respective local government units. Globe general counsel Froilan Castelo said the company could complete its project deliverables to DICT by the end of the month, depending on the resolution of some circuit deployment issues.We will deliver the remaining 212 circuits as soon as the deliverables of other parties are accomplished. This is in line with our commitment with the DICT to work with them hand in hand in bridging the digital divide in the country, Castelo said. Innove was able to deliver 492 of the 704 committed circuits as of Aug. 31 this year, which would route data from one node to another. These circuits will serve as a backbone and distribution hubs for internet connectivity for municipalities across the country. Globe earlier reported a net income of P9.78 billion in the first half, up 21 precent from P8.08 billion in the same period last year. Core net profit grew 25 percent to P9.98 billion from P7.97 billion, as consolidated service revenues reached P73.6 billion, up 11 percent from P66.54 billion a year ago.
Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano
Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano has welcomed the life imprisonment meted on three big-time drug pushers for violating Section 5 of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act in Taguig City. In a statement, Cayetano lauded Judge Antonio Olivete of Taguig Regional Trial Court Branch 267 for the conviction of Jose Vastine, Edilberto Ty and Alberto Joaquin Ong and also fined P500,000 each were guilty beyond reasonable doubt of violating Section 5 of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act on Monday.Ong and Vastine were also ordered to undergo rehabilitation for a minimum period of six months in a government center after they were found guilty beyond reasonable doubt for violation of Section 15 Article 2 of the same law. Olivete ordered the commitment of the three convicted drug pushers to the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City. This is a crucial victory in a crusade weve begun in 2010. The adverse effects of illegal drugs ripple from the individual to the community at large so weve maintained the offensive versus this industry. Each drug personality we pin down is definitely a win for the city, the mayor said. Weve always been confident that the people would win this litigation. This is a fitting conclusion. It is proof that the city is committed to the safety and well-being of Taguigenos, Cayetano added. Earlier, Tinga Drug Syndicate members Joel Tinga and Elisa Ely Tinga were also sentenced to reclusion perpetua for selling illegal drugs in September 2016 and February 2017, respectively.Elisa, wife of Noel Tinga and reportedly a cousin of former Taguig mayor Freddie Tinga, was the third most wanted person on the list of illegal drug personalities. She was the seventh member of the Tinga Drug Syndicate arrested and jailed. The Top 10 drug personalities in 2015Michael Butch Tan, Sancho Espiritu, Alfonso Dacquel, Richard Silvestre, Isidro Llagas, Mardie Talampas, Jackie Abone, Adonis Venus, Bags Malay and Rawie Castroare now behind bars, thanks to the continuous efforts of the police. Several initiatives were also introduced to curb the drug menace. In 2016, the Taguig Anti-Drug Abuse Council launched the drug-free community program for drug dependents. The two-month program aims to rehabilitate drug users and reintegrate them as productive members of society. Taguig, under the leadership of Mayor Cayetano, also implements a one-strike policy against business establishments allowing patrons and customers to use illegal drugs. The city government immediately revokes business permits even though establishments are first-time offenders. All these measures and convictions should be a clear warning to users, and pushers. We will not stop playing our part in making the nation drug-free, Cayetano noted.
Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno on Tuesday said the Nayong Filipino Foundation Inc. should be held responsible and accountable on the controversial casino theme park project in Paranaque City that was earlier scrapped by President Rodrigo Duterte due to the absence of a public bidding. According to Rudolf Jurado, former chief of the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel, Diokno, along with Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, removed the bidding process on [the] Nayong Pilipino contract. Jurado, who was sacked by Duterte last May, was blamed by Duterte over the controversy, saying Jurado agreed with a 75-year lease of the Nayong Pilipino property. We should not distract ourselves from the main issue here, Diokno said. Ultimately, it is the GOCC governing board that has full responsibility and accountability for its decisions, he said. The controversy stemmed from the contract review by the OGCC where Jurado cited GCG Memorandum Circular No. 2018-02 as the basis for allowing the Nayong Pilipino Foundation Inc. to lease the land even without public bidding. Diokno said a review of the facts and law on the matter contradicted Jurados position. He said that in fact, an investigation by the Department of Justice has concluded that the NFPI lease contract with Landing Resorts Philippines Development Corp. was void ab initio or has no legal effect from the beginning. According to the DOJ report, the contract is a build-operate-transfer contract disguised as a lease contract, the implication of which is that the same should comply with the BOT law, which includes public bidding, Diokno said. In the interview, Jurado cited GCG Memorandum Circular 2018-02 which revoked a prior Memorandum Circular No. 2013-03 (Re-Issued), which specifically provides for the public bidding requirement for land bigger than a hectare to be leased for more than 10 years. Diokno said the revocation of which was misconstrued by Jurado to mean that public bidding is no longer necessary. On the contrary, it only emphasized the applicability of Executive Order No. 301, s 1987 on the lease of government property for private use, which authorizes the heads of the agency, to determine the reasonableness of the terms of the lease and the rental rates and enter into such lease contracts, he said.Diokno said this was reiterated in GCG MC 2018-02, which expressly recognized that though the proposed Major Development Projects and Contracts of GOCCs lie within the sound business judgment of the respective governing boards of the GOCCs, they are still mandated by existing laws, rules, and regulations to exercise extraordinary diligence in the conduct of business and in dealing with the properties of their respective GOCCs. In fact, the Governing Boards of GOCCs are constituted under Republic Act No. 10149, or the GOCC Governance Act of 2011, as fiduciaries of the State, with the legal obligation and duty to always act in the best interest of the GOCC, with utmost good faith and who must exercise extraordinary diligence of a very cautious person with due regard for all the circumstances. Moreover, Diokno said GOCCs were required to secure a favorable legal opinion/contract review by the OGCC before entering into the said agreements and not merely rely on GCG MC No. 2018-02. As such, there is no such blame to be shifted in this instance; the NFPI Board and OGCC have the last say on the matter, Diokno said. Landing Resorts Philippines Development Corp., a local unit of the Hong Kong-based Landing International, was supposed to construct a $1.5-billion casino theme park on Nayong Pilipinos property in Paranaque City. Supposedly, the project would feature a casino, resort, water park and office space for NPFI. But President Duterte found the NPFI-Landing Resorts contract of lease anomalous due to the lack of public bidding. The Chief Executive also said the government would be on the losing end because the lease prices in the deal were much lower compared to the prices for similar properties in the area. On a groundbreaking day for the said project, Malacanang announced the sacking of Nayong Pilipino officials.
VARIOUS womens groups on Wednesday lauded the passage of the proposed 100-day expanded maternity leave in Congress on third and final reading, but told the Social Security System to improve its collection efficiency rate to be able to fund the bill once it is passed into a law. At a news conference in Quezon City, Bagong Henerasyon Rep. Bernadette Herrera, the bills sponsor, said she was looking forward to work with the Senate to finalize the version of the measure. The bicameral committee will meet to discuss and reconcile the versions of the Senate and House of Representatives, she said, adding they believe President Rodrigo Duterte would back the bill into its enactment into a law. Judy Miranda of Nagkaisa Labor Coalition, one of the co-convenors of Work4EML Coalition, said after 26 years, the women sector was able to hurdle [various] challenges at the House of Representatives. This time, we are just too happy that the proposed expanded maternity leave through Rep. Herrera is passed. We will continue to have close coordination with her office, she told the Manila Standard. But she raised concern over the reservations of the Social Security System of its incapability to fund the law on expanded maternity leave. During hearings, at first, the SSS had reservations toward funding. It feared it might not be able to catch up with the [new] additional benefits, she said. We have been working and talking to them [SSS]. Based on the data, the agency has a collection efficiency rate of 40 percent only, while 60 percent [of employees-employers contributions] remains uncollected. We told them to improve their collection efficiency. That 60 percent uncollected contributions could be used to allocate funds for the bill, if passed, she added. Meanwhile, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said it was only right that women workers be given ample time to take care of their newly born babies and avoid possible complications after giving birth.Miranda said the House version was just above the 98-day maternity leave recommended by the International Labor Organization but far lower than the levels in Asean. She added We know it can still be worked out in the bicam level. The longer the maternity leave, the better for mothers, their children, and their family members. Miranda noted that LPGMA Party-list Rep. Arnel Ty tried to derail the passage of the EML during the debates by taking the position of employers who are all opposed to the bill. We were aware of Rep. Tys position as he truly represented the interests of business in Congress. It is this kind of representation that defined his opposition to EML. He, of course, cannot stand as a businessman and a worker at the same time. This measure is for workers, especially women, Miranda added. Annie Enriquez-Geron, Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLink) vice president, said the Government Service Insurance System had assured them to make funds available for the implementation of House Bill No. 4114. Work4EML is a conglomeration of women and labor organizations from Akbayan Women, Building Woodworkers International, IndustriALL Philippines, Manggagawang Kababaihan Mithi ay Paglaya, Nagkaisa Labor Coalition and PSLink. Approved by the members of the House of Representatives with 191 affirmative votes, HB 4114 was recently passed on third and final reading that would expand the current policy of 60 days of paid maternal leave to 100 days for working women both in the private sector and government service. In March 2017, the Senate bill was approved to seek the expansion of paid maternity leave to 120 days. With Vito Barcelo
The Port of South Louisiana is one of the major ports in the U.S. FreightWaves Classics profiles the port and
Update 4.15pm: Sinn Fein is developing policy for a 32-county health service to protect Irish health services affected by Brexit.
Speaking on the second day of the partys think-in event in Co Cavan, Louise OReilly TD said that in the context of Brexit, the issue of how health services will be affected is one that keeps coming back.
She said: We are developing policy on a 32-county health service, which is available for all the citizens on this island.
Disease does not recognise borders, our health service shouldnt.
We have been discussing the level of cooperation that exists currently and how we can deepen and develop that.
We launched our 32-county womens health policy document recently, and last week we also launched policy related to nursing and how we will tackle recruitment and retention crisis.
We will not have a health service if we dont have the personnel to deliver it.
This government have failed time and time again, they have let our nurses down.
We see Fianna Fail protect the government and they believe nurses are very well paid.
We dont believe that, pay has to be central to recruitment and retention issue.
We also have to deal with role development, opportunities for promotion, time off for study, cover for maternity leave, all these issues have to be dealt with.
In context of a 32-county health service, what we want to see is the development of a health service for people when they need it, based on need and not on ability to pay.
The most recent report on recruitment and retention issues in the health sector found that in nursing and midwifery departments difficulties exist in meeting workforce requirements in specific areas.
The report also recommended that Specialist Qualification Allowance currently paid to nurses and midwives who acquire post-graduate qualifications should be increased by 20%.
Commenting on the release of the Report, the Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure & Reform, Paschal Donohoe said: There are many viewpoints on the issues.
There is a commitment between public service employers and staff representatives to meet within four weeks to discuss implementation of the Report.
It is important that this process is adhered to and that space is afforded to reflect on the details and engage in that process.
The announcement comes after Sinn Fein members gathered to discuss their vision of a new Ireland what that means in terms of Brexit, the economy and Irish Unity at the partys annual think-in.
Over the course of the two days, party representatives discussed the upcoming budget in the 26 counties and how the partys alternative budget might bring about shared prosperity, lift the burden from ordinary people and address the health and housing crises.
Also addressed is the issue of powersharing in the North, of which Sinn Feins Conor Murphy has accused the British government of adopting a policy of drift in order to protect their interests in the confidence and supply agreement with the DUP.
- Press Association
Earlier: Sinn Fein open to flying Union Jack over Leinster House to achieve united Ireland
Sinn Fein remain open to the suggestion of flying the Union Jack over Leinster House to achieve a united Ireland.
Asked if he could envisage the day when the Union Jack would fly over Leinster House, Pearse Doherty said he doesn't think it would come to that but that a discussion was needed to accommodate those of a Unionist tradition in a new Ireland.
Speaking in Irish at his party's think-in in Cavan, the Sinn Fein deputy Dail leader said: We need a conversation about symbolism, for the million people who identify as British and who believe deeply in their identity.
In this new Ireland, it is important that those symbols are part of this new Ireland.
He added: "This is not just a question for Sinn Fein, but other parties in the South should come together to discuss this what kind of united Ireland there will be.
He also said polls show there is a majority in favour of a united Ireland in the context of Brexit negotiations.
Earlier: Sinn Fein predict 'inevitable' United Ireland could cost island 500,000 jobs
Update 9.54am: Thousands of public sector jobs would be lost if there is a United Ireland.
That is according to a draft document from Sinn Fein, which says unity across the island is inevitable.
New details in their 'Irish Unity - An Activists Guide' predict that as many as 200,000 jobs in the north and 300,000 in the south would go.
Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald
However, the document also claims it would lead to a more efficient service under one agency dealing with Government instead of two.
Sinn Fein's David Cullinane says it is an exciting opportunity for people to debate what kind of society we want.
"I think it's inevitable that we will have a United Ireland," he said.
"All of the social changes, demographic changes show that we're moving in that direction, opinion polls show that we're moving in that direction, and we have to start planning.
We have to start planning for not just a United Ireland but the type of United Ireland that collectively we want.
Digital Desk
In the presence of entrepreneurial and political leaders, the Head of State pointed out his satisfaction with the outcome of the over 4-hour National Agreement Forum meeting.
consensus During the gathering, he noticed there was about the optimism and hope that the Inca country will overcome the problems it currently faces.
"() All of us have the opportunity to make an effort in order to improve the institutions ," the President expressed in this sense.
"Let's seek dialogue. I agree with you. If we have to make changes, then we will make them. We're aiming for a national goal, we possess enough clarity and humility," he added.
The conditions to reach an agreement are present. Unlike past years when change was not considered a necessity nor given importance nowadays the nation has a civic consciousness, and citizens are involved in it.
"This is an opportunity that can't be wasted. We will soften any edges that may cause disagreements, I'm willing to do that ()," the Head of State affirmed.
According to the President, feedback must not distort the reform bills submitted by the Executive Branch to Congress , nor lose the sense of urgency.
Remarks were made during the closing speech of the 3rd Forum Dialogues for Development on Tuesday night.
(END) FHG/DTK/MVB
Loading...
Opening a dialogue will result in better decision-making, Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra affirmed.Publicado: 5/9/2018
Health Secretary Francisco Duque said measures to increase the tax on tobacco is a win-win policy for Universal Health Care and the Filipino people. We need to ensure that there is sustained funding to achieve the intentions of the reform, also said Duque. We encourage our legislators, especially those supporting UHC, to also push for the increase of tobacco taxes, Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III explained. Duque assured that the Department of Health strongly supports the bills filed by Senator Emmanuel Pacquiao (SB 1599) and Senator JV Ejercito (SB 1605), seeking to further increase the unitary excise tax of cigarettes. With the passage of the Sin Tax Law of 2012, tobacco use prevalence significantly decreased among adults from 29.7 percent in 2009 to 23.8 percent in 2015 (Global Adult Tobacco Survey). The proposed increase in tobacco taxes is expected to reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases by further decreasing smoking prevalence among Filipino adults up to 18.6 percent -15.7percent. Aside from the greater health benefits of substantially increasing tobacco taxes, additional revenues to be generated from the proposed increase are in a bid to support and fund the UHC reform in the country. We encourage our legislators, especially those supporting UHC, to also push for the increase of tobacco taxes, Duque said. He noted that the proposed UHC and tobacco tax reform would comprehensively address health needs of the population. Last 23 July 2018, the UHC bill was declared as a priority of the Duterte administration during the Presidents State of the Nation Address. Its passage will help address the pressing issues on the access to quality and affordable health services by the Filipino people. The proposed reform particularly intends to protect all Filipinos from the high cost of care through PhilHealth, enhance service delivery by strengthening primary care, and improve regulatory and governance capacities within the health sector.The DOH also thanked legislators from both the Senate and House of Representatives who expressed their support to immediately pass the UHC bill while also emphasizing the need to increase tobacco tax as a major source of funding to make UHC feasible. Ejercito, meanwhile, said that all Filipinos will soon be covered by free health insurance that would result to savings for households in terms of medical expenses and better facilities in state hospitals. Ejercito, who chairs the committee on health and demography, said the Senate is expected to approve the Universal Healthcare Bill anytime this month after President Duterte appealed to Congress to pass the measure. Its a great honor to craft this landmark bill--along with our fellow servants in government--in the name of each Filipino, who deserve to receive efficient, sufficient, accessible, and affordable health care from the government, Ejercito said. He said under the bill, each Filipino is automatically covered or in the National Health Insurance Program as a direct or indirect contributor. The bill also expanded the service coverage and strengthened the preventive and promotive aspects of health service. Our primary objective is to guarantee equal access to quality and affordable health services for each Filipino, along with ensuring that such will not be a financial burden. He said the committee conducted hearings and consultations throughout the country, including Pangasinan, Davao and Albay provinces to learn from our people of their true needs. Citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), he said the health expenditure of each Filipino rose by 8.7 percent in 2016. This means each Filipino spent more than P6,345 for his or her health that year compared to P5,840 in 2015.
Ruth Behar
Anthropologist as poet
by Keith Taylor
From the September, 2018 issue
Ruth Behar is an anthropologist who has always reached out beyond her discipline. She was one of the first U-M professors-and the first Latina of any scholarly or artistic endeavor-to win one of the MacArthur "genius" grants. In the early 1990s she published Translated Woman, a book where she, the observer, was an intimate part of the narrative, which recounted the life of Esperanza, a Mexican street peddler. It was a major step in Behar's exploration of the nature of storytelling and how it can change both the teller and the listener.
Now Behar has published a collection of prose poems she has worked on for several decades. Everything I Kept/Todo Lo Que Guarde was written in English then translated by Behar into her native Spanish. The poems in the two languages appear en face throughout the collection. Behar's family emigrated from Cuba when she was a child, and she grew up speaking Spanish at home. That sense of displacement, and her reconnection with Cuba, are themes that animate this collection. The poems are urgent; they often feel as if they have to be written: "This is why I must rush. I write with a gun to my temple. I write like a prisoner."
Poems in Spanish are much more comfortable with explicit metaphors than some American poetry. Behar relishes that tradition, and her poems are often shaped by the pleasure of metaphors, even if the meaning approaches the reader obliquely. The very short prose poem "Balcony" allows Behar to bring the heat of Andalusia into an Ann Arbor winter:
Federico Garcia Lorca wrote "If I die, leave the balcony open."
I don't have a balcony, only a window shut against the bitter gray skies and
biting winds of winter.
If I die, leave the window closed!
...continued below...
A memory of desire.
A memory of the dry, dusty, sun-parched roads we've traveled."
A longer poem, "Errand," begins, "I watch you from my window setting off with a monk's devotion on another errand-to buy our bread, to put my poems in the mail." The poet watchesher partner move out on the snow-covered street, clearly in Ann Arbor,"As I am watching, you step down from the curb. There's a patch of ice frozen hard to the ground where you are about to slide your foot. I don't know why, but I fear you will slip. And you do. You slip, and then you catch yourself.And as I watch, something wants to come from me. No words. Not even a gasp. Nothing banal like tears. More like the crackle of memory.Ruth Behar reads fromat Literati Bookstore on Friday, September 7, and discusses her work at the Kerrytown BookFest on Sunday, September 9. [Originally published in September, 2018.]
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes to improve the relations with several European countries, including Germany, in the nearest future, Sabah reported.
Turkeys relations with the European Union, except from several countries, have an opportunity to improve. We will have a chance to discuss numerous topics of the Turkish-German relations with Chancellor Angela Merkel in late September. Germany has a very important, really leading position in the EU, Erdogan told reporters.
At the same time the Turkish leader criticized the EU for not fulfilling its promise concerning refugees. He called on the Union to fulfill the promises in accordance with the agreements reached.
Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of the Parliament of Armenia Ara Babloyan on September 4 received OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger, the Parliament told Armenpress.
During the meeting Speaker Babloyan said Armenia attaches great importance to the cooperation with the OSCE and expressed hope that Gremingers visit will contribute to developing and deepening the mutual partnership.
The Speaker highlighted the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process, as the main format of the negotiation process. The Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement is based on the recognition and exercise of the Artsakh peoples right to self-determination, Ara Babloyan said.
He expressed concern over the closure of the OSCE Yerevan Office.
Talking about the domestic developments in Armenia, the Parliament Speaker said he earlier expressed his concerns over some domestic political issues and had meetings with the Prime Minister, the President and the Ombudsman in this context.
Ara Babloyan stated that the issues should be solved in accordance with the Constitution.
In his turn the OSCE Secretary General thanked for the reception and stated that the visit aims at expanding and strengthening the relations and cooperation with Armenia. Thomas Greminger said despite the closure of the OSCE Yerevan Office, the organization will continue to move forward the cooperation with Armenia with all possible forms.
Attaching importance to the effective cooperation between Armenia and the OSCE/ODIHR, Greminger said the latter is ready to assist Armenia in electoral reforms.
As for the settlement of the NK conflict, the OSCE Secretary General said he is ready to support the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs as much as possible.
The officials also discussed the fight against corruption, regional issues, as well as other issues of bilateral interest.
Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. The United States shares Russias concerns over the presence of terrorists in Syrias Idlib Governorate and is ready to work on solving this issue, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters on Tuesday, TASS reports.
Pompeo agreed with Russias remarks that terrorists are based in Idlib. "That is a true statement. We share their concern about terrorism emanating from northern, northwest Syria. We absolutely agree with them [Russia] there are terrorists in those locations and they need to be taken care of such that they dont export terror around the world," he said.
"Were happy to work on the terrorism issue in this place," Pompeo stressed.
The Russian defense ministry earlier warned about a provocation with the hoax use of chemical weapons against civilians that was being staged by militants in the Idlib Governorate under control of the British special services.
Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. 347 492 passengers were served at the two airports of Armenia in August 2018 exceeding the same month of 2017 by 18.5%, Armenia International Airports CJSC told Armenpress.
1 872 998 passengers were served at the two airports of Armenia in January-August this year, which is more than the same period last year by 12.3%.
It is noteworthy that the passenger traffic registered at Zvartnots International Airport in August was a record - 329 665 passengers were served.
Another record was recorded on August 1. That day Zvartnots Airport served 11 337 passengers.
In January-August 2018, Zvartnots and Shirak airports also recorded an increase of takeoffs and landings by 11% as compared to the same month of the previous year.
Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills commented on the Armenian-American trade relations, Armenpress reports.
The Ambassador believes that there are great opportunities for the US and Armenian businesses to work together and prosper. We believe that there are real opportunities for the business and trade that will benefit both sides, and we encourage the Armenian government to continue the work aimed at improving the business climate. The investment climate can be fragile: any bad decision, bad law can scare investors. And I hope that the government will keep in its spotlight the works to improve the business climate, the Ambassador said during a conference dedicated to business opportunities.
As for the Franchising conference organized by the US Embassy, the Ambassador said it creates ties between the American businessmen and Armenian investors. The American franchising companies and Armenian investors have gathered here. The conference from Armenia is attended by more than 50 business and governmental representatives, as well as several American businessmen: they came here to talk about franchising activity, he said.
Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. Ambassador of Brazil to Armenia Agemar de Mendonca Sanctos considers Armenia more open country for investments and the world in general after the revolution, reports Armenpress.
We have always had good relations with the Armenian government as we have good relationships with Armenians. And the Armenian government is the tool which connects us with the Armenian people. The revolution addresses the message that Armenia is more open before the world and investments. During the revolution many were interested in the investment field of the future, I didnt know what to answer at that time, but now we see that the government is more open, the Ambassador told reporters.
Armenia and Brazil have signed two contracts in education and technical spheres. The Ambassador said the Brazil Senate has already ratified the education contract. Within the frames of the contract, teachers, lecturers will arrive in Armenia to exchange experience.
The Ambassador said the Brazil-Armenians have been very active and continue making investments, as well as provide support to Armenia.
Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. The State Migration Service of the Armenian ministry of territorial administration and development is aware of the expected deportation of two ethnic Armenian children, Lily (12) and Howick (13), by the Netherlands.
Armina Hambartsjumian, the mother of the two kids, was sent back to Armenia earlier by the Dutch migration service.
Nelli Davtyan, PR specialist at the State Migration Service, told Armenpress that the Service has been notified that the kids will be deported to Armenia in the future.
She said Armenias State Migration Service will provide assistance to the kids with all possible integration programs if their mother doesnt take care of them. Nelli Davtyan said they have no ties with the mother of the kids, they even dont know whether she will be at the airport to welcome the kids or not. If their mother doesnt take care of them, we will make the kids beneficiaries with all possible programs in partnership with international organizations. There are many organizations, and we will assist the kids with the programs of these organizations, but if the mother takes care of them, we have nothing to do in that case. If they apply for any integration program, there is no problem, we will assist even if they do not apply, she said.
Lily (12) and Howick (13) moved to Netherlands from Russia together with their mother Armina Hambartsjumian in 2008. They asked for asylum and received the response 9 years later which was negative as a decision was made to deport them to Armenia. Armina Hambartsjumian was deported, but the kids stayed in the Netherlands as the authorities had no information about the location: the mother sent the children to a secret address. The kids re-emerged from hiding. The kids have never lived in Armenia, they were born in Russia, but spent the past ten years in the Netherlands. Their mother was born in Azerbaijan, lived in Russia, but is a citizen of Armenia.
Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands recently commented on this case, calling on the government to allow the kids to stay in the Netherlands. I cant and dont want to judge the situation, but I have a great deal of sympathy for what these children are going through, she said as quoted by Dutch News.
The Dutch government in its turn announced that the kids should be reunited with their mother. According to Dutch News, some reports say the mother cannot look after the kids.
Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. Permanent representatives of 28 EU countries approved a decision to extend individual sanctions against Russia for another 6 months on Wednesday, a source in the European Council told TASS.
"At the scheduled Coreper meeting today the ambassadors approved extending individual restrictive measures for the next six months," the source said, according to TASS.
The source also said that the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic Alexander Zakharchenko, who was killed on August 31, was excluded from the blacklist. Thus, EU sanctions apply to 154 individuals and 44 organizations.
According to the diplomat, today's decision will formally be approved by the European Council in the coming days, then it will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and will come into force.
Currently, several EU sanctions packages are in force against Russia: economic, individual restrictive measures and sanctions on Crimea.
Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
The camp of Solicitor General Jose Calida on Wednesday insisted on the regularity of the contracts that his familys security agency has with several government offices. In a four-page letter to the Senate committee on civil service led by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, Calidas lawyer Jose Bernas conveyed that there is no need for the Solicitor General to appear during the hearing on Senate Bill No. 1924 that seeks to amend the provision on conflict of interest under Republic Act. 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees. Bernas also told the Senate committee which started hearing the proposed law last Tuesday that the Solicitor General did not violate any law as the contracts of his familys Vigilant Investigative and Security Agency Inc. were aboveboard and did not violate the rule against conflict of interest. We reiterate that based on textual reading of R.A. 6713, and as confirmed by jurisprudence, the Solicitor General is not in conflict of interest, stated Calidas letter sent to the committee also last Tuesday. Bernas said that the appearance of Calida in the hearings is not necessary - contrary to the pronouncement of the committee in its summons last August 30. Our client is not an expert on matters involving conflicts of interest. He does not administer R.A. 6713 and did not practice in that area of law prior to his appointment as solicitor general, Bernas said. It seems to use that the issue sought to be explored by the hearing is whether the solicitor general or his family or other public officials should be absolutely prohibited from having an interest in government transaction, directly or indirectly. Under current jurisprudence and law, there is no such prohibition and it would be unfair to carry out the hearings premised upon the existence of such a prohibition, he added. Calidas camp also informed the Senate committee of his petition before the Supreme Court seeking to stop the hearings on the issue involving his familys security firm that he said: lacks legislative intent and is, therefore, unconstitutional. Bernas explained why his client did not attend the hearing because he must take a position consistent with his petition before the SC. Besides, the lawyer said the scheduled hearing coincided with the High Courts oral arguments on the petition challenging the governments withdrawal from the International Criminal Court. For these reasons, Calida asked to be excused from the committees hearings.Bernas suggested to the committee to consider looking into other government transactions involving government officials, including the controversial Hacienda Luisita stock distribution plan and the acquisition of assets sequestered by the Presidential Commission on Good Government, in the next hearings. Nonetheless, the Solicitor General still submitted to the Senate committee his position on the proposed amendment in R.A. 6713 by adding undue influence to the definition conflict of interest. In his view, the proposed amendment to the definition of conflict of interest under R.A. 6713 is unnecessary. From an academic viewpoint, conflict of interest and undue influence are two distinct matters and must not be classified as one and the same, read the letter. Exertion of undue influence by a public officer to another officer in government dealings for personal gain is covered by Section 3 (a) of Republic Act no. 3019 of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act... Thus, amending the conflict of interest provision under R.A. 6713 may be, in our clients opinion, superfluous, it added. Earlier, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said that he reviewed the contract of VISA and his department and found that it was aboveboard. Calida emerged at the center of controversy after it was discovered that his familys security firm bagged P150-million contracts in at least 10 government agencies. Apart from DOJ, Calidas security agency also bagged contracts with the National Parks Development Committee (NPDC), the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. A complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman accused Calida of conflict of interest in violation of Republic Act No. 6713. But Calida denied any violation of the law, saying there was no conflict of interest because he already resigned as president of the security firm prior to joining the government in 2016.
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan and the U.S. Commercial Service in Moscow, in partnership with IDBank, organized a one-day conference focused on franchise business opportunities on September 5 in Yerevan. The event is part of an ongoing effort to foster trade and investment between the United States and Armenia. The conference gave participants rare and valuable early access to well-known American brands eager to enter the Armenian market, the US embassy said.
I know there are many success stories waiting to be written here today, Ambassador Richard M. Mills, Jr. said at the events opening. It is my hope that we, at the U.S. Embassy, can set the stage for success by connecting Armenian and American companies. Then we can step back and let you do what you do best and build your businesses.
The franchise conference brought U.S. and Armenian businesses together, helping to forge new partnerships in various sectors, including hospitality, retail, and tourism. More than 50 Armenian business leaders and government officials attended the conference, along with representatives from three U.S. corporations: Papa Johns Pizza, Baskin Robbins, and Dominos Pizza. The American business representatives presented their franchise concepts and learned about the Armenian business environment.
Along with presentations from each of the American franchise businesses, participants heard from well-known Armenian organizations about business, financial, and legal considerations, including the importance of intellectual property rights as franchising in Armenia develops further.
The event builds on the success of a similar event in 2015 which resulted in Tutti Frutti Frozen Yogurt opening two franchises with local partners in the region, the US Embassy said in a press release.
Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. British prosecutors on Wednesday charged two Russians for the attempted murder of a former Russian spy and his daughter with a nerve agent, naming suspects for the first time in a case that has caused one of the biggest East-West rifts in decades, Reuters reports.
Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer, was found unconscious with his daughter Yulia on a public bench in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.
British police released CCTV images of two Russian men they said flew in to Britain for a weekend to commit murder. Moscow said it had no idea who the men were.
Britain has blamed Russia for the poisonings and identified the poison as Novichok, a nerve agent developed by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s.
Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attack. Britain and dozens of other countries have kicked out Russian diplomats over the incident, and Moscow has responded tit-for-tat in the biggest diplomatic expulsions since the Cold War.
A European arrest warrant has been issued for the two Russians, British prosecutors said, but Britain will not ask Moscow to extradite them because Russias constitution does not allow its citizens to be extradited.
Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. Russia expects an honest and serious conversation during the upcoming September 8 meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, numerous questions have been accumulated on both sides, Putins aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters, according to RIA Novosti.
Many questions have accumulated from both our side and the Armenian side, therefore we expect an honest and serious conversation around all those issues which relate to both bilateral cooperation, as well as cooperation in terms of EEU and CSTO, Ushakov said.
The Kremlins press service added that it is expected that the development of the allied Armenian-Russian relations, as well as cooperation in the integration unions of the Eurasian territory will be discussed at the meeting.
Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, 5 SEPTEMBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 5 September, USD exchange rate is up by 0.37 drams to 484.10 drams. EUR exchange rate is up by 1.25 drams to 560.35 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate is down by 0.02 drams to 7.07 drams. GBP exchange rate is down by 0.45 drams to 619.60 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price is down by 128.91 drams to 18534.6 drams. Silver price is down by 4.11 drams to 221.79 drams. Platinum price is down by 239.66 drams to 12015.54 drams.
A dramatic seaweed invasion has hit coastlines across Florida and the Caribbean, killing wildlife here's what it looks like on the ground
Shorelines around Florida and the Caribbean have been choked with invaders over the past month. No, it's not tourists - it's seaweed.
Sargassum seaweed, which originates in the Gulf of Mexico and is actually a type of algae, has been washing up on beaches and coastlines in vacation-heavy hotspots like Miami and Cancun since July.
The weeds have wreaked havoc on local fauna, choking coral reefs and destroying habitats for birds, sea turtles, and fish. The seaweed deluge has also made life difficult for fisherman, since it is capable of wrecking boat propellers, fishing nets, and engines.
Sargassum seaweed is usually pushed by currents into the Sargasso Sea - a large gyre off the coast of North America - where the floating mats serve as an important habitat for marine organisms.
Researchers are struggling to figure out why the weeds have started washing up on Caribbean coastlines. Some experts say the influx of Sargassum could be fuelled by a combination of increased nitrogen pollution from agricultural runoff and rising ocean temperatures, according to The New Republic.
In some extreme cases, resorts have had to close beaches during the busy summer season to remove the seaweed. Here's what the invasion looks like:
The first Sargassum invasion in the Caribbean was recorded in 2011, according to the BBC.
Source: BBC
The most recent invasions began in July, and experts say they may last through September.
Source: BBC
The island of Barbados declared a national emergency in August because of the seaweed invasion.
The seaweed can pile up to 7 meters thick (over 22 feet) on coastlines.
"We've had mass mortality of sea turtles that have gotten trapped under ever-thickening piles," Hazel Oxenford, a Barbados-based fisheries biologist at the University of the West Indies, told The New Republic. "When the turtles try to come up for air, they drown."
Source: The New Republic
In its natural habitat in the Sargasso Sea, the floating algae provides a habitat for fish and crustaceans, which seabirds and sharks then feed on.
Story continues
Researchers struggling to understand these Sargassum blooms have said more research is needed, especially into the role of nitrogen pollution and ocean acidification.
Source: BBC
"The issue is that we never know what it's going to be like we can have a week or two weeks where it's very clear and then all of a sudden overnight it washes in," Larry Basham, chief operating officer of Elite Island Resorts, told the BBC.
Source: BBC
"Its yet another man-made problem thats been thrown at the Caribbean that isnt our doing," Oxenford told The New Republic.
Source: The New Republic
Photos show the devastation caused by Typhoon Jebi in Japan
Japan began to clean up on Wednesday, the morning after Typhoon Jebi hit the main island near Osaka, causing widespread damage from severe winds and flooding.
So far, at least 11 people have been confirmed dead and 470 people injured, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday. Meanwhile, some 530,000 households are still without power.
The most powerful storm to hit Japan in 25 years left much devastation in its wake.
For more Typhoon Jebi coverage, click here.
Kansai International Airport, one of the country's busiest airports, remained closed on Wednesday after the storm left the runways flooded.
The airport is located on an artificial island in Osaka Bay and is a key airport for both tourism and trade. It could take several days to a week to reopen the airport.
Source: KYODO/Reuters
The bridge that connects Kansai Airport to Japan's main island was seriously damaged when an unmoored 2,591-ton tanker crashed into it during the storm.
Source: KYODO/Reuters
Some 3,000 passengers were stranded at Kansai Airport overnight. Passengers said the airport got hot at night when the power was knocked out.
Source: KYODO/Reuters
By Wednesday afternoon, most of the stranded passengers were evacuated off the island by either bus or boat.
Source: KYODO/Reuters
A large commercial ship hit a breakwater, causing shipping containers to spill out into the sea.
Source: KYODO/Reuters
When the typhoon made landfall on Tuesday, it brought with it 100-miles-per-hour winds that toppled shipping containers in the industrial areas of Kobe, Japan.
Source: KYODO/Reuters
The region damaged by Jebi is huge for exporting semiconductors. There's a fear that the economy could take a hit if Kansai Airport isn't reopened soon.
Source: KYODO/Reuters
Some of the winds recorded on Tuesday were the strongest to ever hit Japan, according to the Japanese Meteorological Agency.
Source: KYODO/Reuters
About 100 cars at a coastal dealership in Nishinomiya caught fire during the storm on Tuesday after the flooding caused them to short circuit.
Source: KYODO/Reuters
The Taliban leader responsible for the kidnappings of Bowe Bergdahl and reporter David Rohde is dead
A Taliban spokesperson confirmed the death this morning of Jalaluddin Haqqani, the founder of one of the Taliban's most sophisticated networks in Afghanistan.
The Haqqani network was once considered instrumental in assisting the U.S. in fighting against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
In the current conflict, the network is also considered responsible for multiple, highly profile kidnappings, including Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held captive for five years.
Jalaluddin Haqqani, the founder of one of the Taliban's most sophisticated networks and a former US ally, died this morning, according to an Associated Press report. The Haqqani network, once instrumental in the US's campaign to help Afghans defeat the Soviet Union, is considered responsible for the kidnappings of multiple American and Canadian citizens.
Haqqani was a lifelong friend of Osama bin Laden, and his network, declared a terrorist organisation by the United States in 2012, became one of Afghanistan's "most experienced and sophisticated insurgent operations," according to the Institute for the Study of War.
According to a report published by the institute, Haqqani's rise to infamy began in the 1970s and became solidified in the '80s, when he gained power and influence as a leader of the anti-Soviet movement. His friendship with Bin Laden also formed during this era, when Haqqani supervised training grounds of the newly-formed al-Qaeda. It was during this era that he became a US asset; seen as an ally in the U.S. effort to counter the Soviet threat in Afghanistan, he was described as "goodness personified" by then-Congressman Charlie Wilson.
As relations between the U.S. and the Taliban shifted, Haqqani passed control of his network to his son, Siraj. Under the younger Haqqani, the network reportedly perpetrated multiple highly publicized kidnappings, including New York Times reporter David Rohde, American University professor Kevin King, and Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
According to the Associated Press report, rumours of Jalaluddin Haqqani's death had been circulating since 2015. His death this morning was confirmed via telephone by Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahed, who hailed Haqqani as both a "religious scholar and exemplary warrior."
A $1 million reward has been offered as police continue a cold case investigation into the beating death of Melbourne concrete company boss Salvatore Rotiroti in 1988.
Police suspect a member of Melbournes Calabrian community committed the crime but believe those who may know something are too afraid to speak out, The Herald Sun reported on Wednesday.
Members of the Rotiroti, Zangari and Iannuzzi families have been urged to come forward and have been offered protection by the head of the Victoria Police homicide squads cold case team, Detective Senior Sergeant Peter Trichias said.
Salvatore, who was also known as Sam, was found dead in the driveway of his home about 12.25am on Tuesday, September 6.
He was located by his son, Vince, who was returning home after a night out with his girlfriend.
When I got to him I noticed that his head was all beaten around, there was blood everywhere, Vince told the Geelong Advertiser.
I touched him on the right shoulder and said, Dad, Dad, and he didnt answer. I knew he was dead.
(Left to right) Salvatore, wife Giuseppina, daughter Maria (now known as Natasha), son Tony, daughter Elisabeth, then Giuseppe (behind) and Vince. Image: Victoria Police
Detectives believe Salvatore had been assaulted outside his Manifold Heights home, where he lived with his wife and five children, around 10.25pm on September, 5 only hours before his son found him dead.
On September 29 1988, police charged a then 21-year-old man with his murder, however those charges were later withdrawn. That man remains a person of interest in this investigation.
Officer in charge of the Homicide Squad, Detective Inspector Tim Day, said there appeared to be several different motivations for Salvatores murder.
We strongly believe that the person responsible for Salvatores death was motivated by financial gain, however this may not be the only reason, he said.
It appears that someone may have also been trying to take control of his family in some way.
We believe that Salvatores family has direct knowledge of what happened to him and why.
However, while there are no other known suspects at this time, detectives are not ruling anything out in this investigation. This includes the possibility that a number of people were involved in planning and carrying out Salvatores murder.
Story continues
Detective Inspector Day said that even after 30 years, he believed there were still people out there who have information critical to this investigation.
Were hoping that by announcing a $1 million dollar reward today, some people may be motivated to finally come forward and tell us the truth about why this murder happened and who was involved, he said.
Thirty years is a long time to think about why you might be covering up for someone and if that is still worth it.
I would strongly encourage anyone with information to come forward and speak to police now because as the reward shows, this investigation is far from over.
Anyone with information about the murder of Salvatore Rotiroti is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
More than 50 of the 144 migrants recently allowed into Italy after being stranded for days on a coastguard vessel have disappeared without trace from reception centres, the country's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Wednesday. These migrants "were so in need of protection, a roof and a blanket that they decided to leave and disappear," Salvini said on Facebook. "This is the umpteenth confirmation that those who arrive in Italy are not skeletons fleeing war and famine," he added. The migrants were picked up by the Diciotti coastguard ship on the night of August 15 and were left stranded at sea for 10 days as Salvini refused to allow the vessel to dock in an Italian port. Salvini, head of the far-right League party, finally relented after Ireland, Albania and the Italian Catholic church agreed to lake most of them in. Reacting to the disappearance of 50 of those taken in, Giorgia Meloni -- leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party -- asked on Twitter who would be responsible if one of them committed a crime in Italy, calling for an end to "uncontrolled immigration" and an immediate naval blockade. Most of those aboard the Diciotti were Eritreans, along with a small number of Somalians, Syrians, Sudanese and Comorans. Since the start of the year, 3,000 migrants from the former Italian colony of Eritrea have arrived in Italy but less than a thousand have applied for asylum, according to interior ministry figures. Many Eritreans prefer to continue by land to Germany, Sweden or Britain, despite the heavy controls encountered at the French, Swiss and Austrian borders as well as the EU's Dublin regulation under which a migrant can only make an asylum claim in the first European country the reach. Meanwhile in Spain the bodies of five migrants were recovered off the southern coast, according to emergency services who also rescued around 500 others on Wednesday . A spokesman told AFP that the bodies of four men and a woman were picked up during an operation to save a vessel in difficulty in the Mediterranean between Spain and Morocco. According to the International Organization for Migration more than 28,500 migrants have arrived by sea in Spain this year, while another 313 have perished attempting to make the crossing. According to Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, the migrants allowed on shore from the Italian Coast Guard vessel "Diciotti" (pictured August 2018) were "so in need of protection, a roof and a blanket that they decided to leave and disappear"
Decades after forging reputations as anti-Soviet fighters during the Cold War, many of Afghanistan's former mujahideen commanders still wield influence in the war-torn country, despite claims of gross human rights violations on their march to power. Among them was former CIA asset turned brutal militant leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, who founded the eponymous Haqqani network that is now a top US target. His death was announced Tuesday by the Taliban. Jalaluddin was among several mujahideen commanders who rose to prominence during the Soviet occupation of 1979-89. The survivors still have significant clout in Afghanistan's ethnic and tribal-driven politics. Their bravery and battlefield skills won them fame and assistance from the United States and Pakistan. Some, such as the resistance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud who was assassinated in 2001, attained folk hero status. But after the Russians left, Afghanistan slipped into civil war as the mujahideen commanders sought to topple the pro-communist government and then turned on each other. Figures little known in the West but etched into the memory of ordinary Afghans are accused of killing thousands of people during the bloody chaos of the early 1990s that fuelled the flow of millions of Afghans across the border into Pakistan. After the Taliban was overthrown by a US-led invasion in 2001, several controversial figures from the previous two decades were brought into mainstream politics in hopes of ensuring a smooth transition to democracy. The power and wealth garnered over decades of constant conflict helped the battle-hardened commanders in their new political careers -- but also made them difficult to control. Some kept private militias even as they ascended the political ranks, enabling them to enrich themselves and operate with impunity. Here are four key figures: - Hekmatyar - The former prime minister is one of the most notorious warlords in Afghanistan's history. A prominent anti-Soviet commander in the 1980s, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is accused of killing thousands in Kabul during the 1992-1996 civil war. Following the 2001 US-led invasion and the fall of the Taliban government, the US State Department designated him a terrorist, accusing him of taking part in and supporting attacks by Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. He returned to Kabul and mainstream political life in May 2017 following a peace deal between his dormant Hezb-i-Islami militant group and President Ashraf Ghani. The deal sparked revulsion from human rights groups and Kabul residents. - Sayyaf - The former anti-Soviet resistance leader and ally of Osama Bin Laden was a strident opponent of the Taliban and after 2001 went on to become a high-profile politician. Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf contested the 2014 presidential election before endorsing front-runner Abdullah Abdullah, who lost to Ashraf Ghani in a controversial vote. Sayyaf, a religious scholar who remains influential despite retiring from politics, is said to have been the "mentor" of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the main plotter of the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. Sayyaf also ran militant training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan throughout the 1980s and 1990s, which Mohammed attended. - Mohaqiq - Mohammad Mohaqiq fought the Soviet occupation before becoming embroiled in Afghanistan's brutal civil war in the 1990s. The most senior politician from the minority Hazara ethnic group, Mohaqiq contested the 2004 presidential election before becoming the second deputy to Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah in 2014. Mohaqiq has been an outspoken critic of President Ashraf Ghani's government, accusing it, among other things, of trying to sideline mujahideen leaders. - Dostum - Abdul Rashid Dostum, a powerful ethnic Uzbek leader, is notorious for extreme barbarities and for repeatedly switching loyalties over 40 years of conflict. While he fought on the side of the Soviets against the US-backed mujahideen in the 1980s, he played a key role in helping US Special Forces topple the Taliban in 2001. Despite a catalogue of war crimes attached to his name and accusations of organising the rape and torture of a political rival, Dostum became Afghanistan's first vice president in 2014. He received a hero's welcome when he returned to Kabul in July after more than a year in exile. File picture taken in 2001 of Jalaluddin Haqqani Hekmatyar: accused of killing thousands Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah (C) and vice-presidential candidates Mohammad Mohaqiq (2nd R) and Mohammad Khan (2L) wave to supporters during a campaign rally in 2014 Dostum (C) arrives at Kabul airport in July
Members of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations on Wednesday expressed hopes that the Senate will pass as soon as possible the bill providing for a P1.161-billion supplemental budget to provide assistance to Dengvaxia victims. The lawmakers led by Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles, the panels chairman, said he is optimistic the Department of Health could appeal to the Senate to fast-track the budget approval for the benefit of the Dengvaxia victims. The House approved the proposal embodied in House Bill 7449 last May 30, while the Senate version is still at the period of interpellation. Right now, the Department of Health is forced to good to use present budget of 2018 because the supplemental budget [for Dengvaxia victims] has not yet available. We will not have any problem if only we have passed this budget measure because that will really be the budget that would concentrate on helping the victims nu'ng Dengvaxia, he said. Nograles made the appeal as his panel deliberated on the DoHs proposed budget for 2019. Currently, the DoH is using funds from the 2018 budget for the vaccinees, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III. Duque told the Nograles panel that his office had already written the Senate a letter urging senators to pass the supplemental budget. DoH officials also go to the Senate every week to monitor the progress of its approval, said Duque. Nograles raised the concerns of affected families to the DOH, which include the following: one, steps to take following the profiling and physical exam of the Dengvaxia victims, two, monthly check-up that could reduce casualties, and three, financial and medical assistance. During the DOH budget hearing, Health Undersecretary Rolando Enrique Domingo said there will be continuous monitoring of the vaccinees after their profiling. However, he said the issue is on the limited number of nurses who will do the monitoring.Domingo added that the Dengvaxia express lanes will always be open to the vaccinees who may develop ailments, which may or may not have been caused by the vaccine. Thus, the victims need monthly check-ups. Duque assured the committee that the express lanes shall be maintained in the coming years. With regard to the financial and medical assistance provided for the victims, Duque said that DOH is still using the 2018 budget while waiting for the approval of the supplemental budget. Nograles asked Duque if it is the time is ripe for a declaration of an emergency health crisis for the vaccinees. Duque answered it is not appropriate to declare an emergency as it might just spawn fear and spur more uncertainties, which can be unsettling for the families. When asked by Rep. Magnolia Antonino Nadres of Nueva Ecija why he is hesitant to declare an emergency health crisis, Duque said the casualties for the past two years are relatively low compared to that of leptospirosis and dengue, among others. Duque also explained that 98 percent of the vaccinees have recovered already, while the recorded deaths of the 2 percent were associated with other ailments including dengue, heart diseases, pneumonia, leukemia, and asthma. There have not been many deaths so far, but there is a projection. I have seen numbers come out to hundreds of thousands that could have died. Considering thats the figure that cropped up during studies, it is but natural for parents to concerned, said Antonino. Duque said the DOH is committed to execute surveillance that is why they are currently doing the profiling of the vaccinees, which is set to be completed by the end of 2018. This will help the DOH in observing the condition of the victims as well as attend to their needs. He reiterated that the funds needed for these shall be charged from the proposed supplemental Dengvaxia budget.
Tourists could be fined up to $800 if they are caught snacking on a sandwich in particular streets in Florence.
Businesses in the Italian city have complained at people gathering outside their retail shops to eat food items bought from next door, including from the popular delicatessen in the city centre All Antico Vinaio.
Mayor Dario Nardella signed an ordinance to last until January 6 banning visitors from eating sandwiches and pizza on the pavement or on shop doorsteps, the Telegraph reported.
The fines range from $240 to $800.
Businesses in Florence have complained at people gathering outside to eat food items bought from next door, including from the popular delicatessen All Antico Vinaio. Photo: Getty
Its not a punitive measure but a deterrent, Mr Nardella said.
If tourists behave in Florence as they would at home then they will always be welcome, especially if they want to try our gastronomic specialities.
Tourists are often forced to squat or sit on the street if they wish to stop to eat their lunch due to a lack of public benches in Florence.
More than 10 million tourists visited the Italian city in 2017.
A desperate search continues as police look for a woman who went missing after a deadly boat crash.
California woman Raegan Heitzig has been missing since 8pm on Saturday after a boat she was on crashed head-on with another vessel in the Colorado river in California.
A police search of the area has located the bodies of three other victims, Christine Lewis, 51, Brian Grabowski, 50 and Ms Heitzigs friend Kirra Drury.
The tragic crash ejected all passengers and both vessels sank, according a Facebook statement from the Mohave County Sheriffs Office. The crash involved a boat containing 10 people and another containing six people.
Kirra Drury (right) has been found while her friend Raegan Heitzig (left) is still missing. Source: Instagram/kirradrury
Both boats were travelling at 80 km/h and the passengers were not wearing life jackets, according to ABC News.
Following the crash, four people were missing while 10 were transported to hospital and others were pulled from the water by passing boaters.
Officials have not publicly identified Ms Heitzig, but according to People Magazine loved ones have released her identity in a bid to find her.
They loving the crew, Ms Drury (centre) posted on Instagram with a picture of her and friends on the boat before the incident. Source: Instagram/kirradrury
Police divers searching the Colorado river (pictured). Source: Facebook/Mohave County Sheriffs Office
A GoFundMe page to support Ms Heitzigs family has already raised $54,000.
We are asking for prayers and support for Raegan and the search efforts, the page said.
The search paused on Tuesday night, but police divers will resume the search of the Colorado river on Wednesday morning.
The Mohave County Sheriffs Office will continue to patrol the Colorado River until all the unaccounted for passengers are located, the Mohave County Sheriffs Office said in a Facebook statement.
An Egyptian court has sentenced four people to 14 years in prison for the 2013 killings of four Shiite men outside Cairo by an angry mob. A mob of several hundred residents attacked a group of Shiites gathered at a house in the town of Abu Musallam in June 2013, after hearing a senior Shiite cleric, Hassan Shehata, was inside. Villages threw Molotov cocktails and attacked Shehata and the other three victims, killing them with sticks and knives. A previous group of 23 defendants were sentenced in 2015 to 14 years in prison for the killings. Those sentenced on Wednesday had previously been tried in absentia and handed the same sentence, before being arrested. Shiites are a tiny minority in mainly Sunni Muslim Egypt, making up less than one percent of the population. Radical Islamist preachers have often targeted the Shiite community in sermons, accusing them of being under the influence of Shiite Iran. A mob of several hundred Egyptians attacked a group of Shiites gathered in a hosue in the town of Abu Musallam in June 2013 (pictured), after hearing a senior Shiite cleric was inside
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that dropping bombs and missiles on Syria's last rebel-held province of Idlib could cause a "massacre," in remarks published Wednesday. "God forbid, a serious massacre could take place if there is a rain of missiles there," Erdogan told journalists on his plane after an official visit to the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan, Hurriyet daily reported. His comments come as Syrian troops mass near the northwestern region of Idlib for a major assault that is raising fears of a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale not yet seen in the seven-year-old conflict. Damascus and its main backer Moscow have vowed to root out the jihadist groups that dominate Idlib province. Russia, an ally of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, on Tuesday resumed air strikes on Idlib after a 22-day pause. Turkey, which backs some of the rebels, has held several rounds of talks with Russia aimed at averting an assault on Idlib, as well as with Washington. "Our cooperation with Russia now is very important. The United States sends the ball into the corner of Russia and Russia into the corner of the US," he said. Erdogan talked of a "very merciless process" unfolding in Idlib, warning of the risk that heavy fighting would trigger an influx of refugees. "3.5 million people live there. God forbid, it is again Turkey where those people will flee in case of a disaster," Erdogan said. Idlib is one of the so-called "de-escalation" zones set up as a result of talks by Russia, Turkey and Iran last year as Damascus regained control of more of the country. Erdogan as well as the presidents of Iran and Russia will meet on Friday in Tehran for a summit expected to focus on Idlib. "God willing we will succeed in averting the extreme actions of the regime there by getting a positive result from the Tehran summit," he said. The UN Security Council is also due to meet Friday to address the situation in Idlib amid growing fears of an attack and the possible use of chemical weapons. Washington warned Tuesday that if Damascus were to use chemical weapons, it would respond. Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, on Tuesday resumed air strikes on Idlib after a 22-day pause
Five people have been arrested in Rwanda for allegedly seeking to bribe and intimidate witnesses in order to overturn a genocide conviction at the UN tribunal in neighbouring Tanzania, the court said Wednesday. Contempt of court warrants for Maximilien Turinabo, Anselme Nzabonimpa, Jean de Dieu Ndagijimana, Marie Rose Fatuma and Dick Prudence Munyeshuli were issued under seal on August 24, and the five were arrested in Rwanda on Monday. The UN's International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals has, since 2010, handled outstanding and ongoing cases from the former International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) that tried suspects in the 1994 genocide that killed around 800,000 people, mainly minority Tutsis. The court said in a statement that the five had "offered bribes and exerted pressure to influence the evidence of protected witnesses" in the case of Augustin Ngirabatware, a former Rwanda government minister whose appeal against a 30-year sentence is due to be heard later this month. "The alleged aim of these efforts was to secure the reversal of Augustin Ngirabatware's conviction... for direct and public incitement to commit genocide, instigating genocide and aiding and abetting genocide," the statement read. "I wish to express our gratitude to the Rwandan authorities for promptly executing the... arrest warrants and apprehending the five accused," said chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz. "My office underscores our determination to stand against all efforts to interfere with witnesses and the proper administration of justice," he added. The five accused are due to be transferred to the court's branch in Arusha, Tanzania. The UN's International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals has, since 2010, handled outstanding and ongoing cases from the former International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (pictured 2014) that tried suspects in the 1994 genocide
Privacy and human rights organizations expressed concern Tuesday after a coalition of intelligence agencies renewed a call for technology companies to allow so-called "backdoor" access to encrypted content and devices. The reaction came following a weekend statement from the "Five Eyes" intelligence agencies calling on "industry partners" to provide a way for law enforcement to access encrypted content that may not be available even with a search warrant. The call by the agencies from the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand threatens to reignite a long-simmering debate on encryption. "Many of the same means of encryption that are being used to protect personal, commercial and government information are also being used by criminals, including child sex offenders, terrorists and organized crime groups to frustrate investigations and avoid detection and prosecution," said the statement from the five countries issued by Australia's Department of Home Affairs. Without voluntary cooperation, the agencies said, "we may pursue technological, enforcement, legislative or other measures to achieve lawful access solutions." While some law enforcement agencies contend that encryption is being used to shield criminal activity, tech firms and privacy activists argue that any weakening of encryption would harm security for all users. "The risk is that these countries will compel providers to build a backdoor that not only governments will exploit but hackers, criminals and other bad guys will use as well," said Greg Nojeim of the Washington-based Center for Democracy & Technology. "It would weaken cybersecurity at the same time governments are preaching that cybersecurity needs to be addressed." Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, called the latest effort "a short-sighted and counterproductive proposal" and added that "it has become clear that encryption is vital for both privacy and public safety." Similar concerns were voiced by Amnesty International, which said in a tweet, "This won't make us safer -- it will just weaken security for everyone." - Debate on 'going dark' - Encryption has been a hot-button issue in the United States for years, and came to a head in 2016 when Apple challenged the FBI's request to create software that would enable investigators to access an iPhone used by an attacker in a 2015 mass shooting in San Bernardino, California. The US government eventually dropped its demand after finding another means to access the device, but a number of law enforcement officials have complained that they are "going dark" with the use of encrypted apps and devices that cannot be accessed by traditional wiretaps. Nojeim said the claim of "going dark" is vastly exaggerated. "There has never been more electronic information available to assist criminal and intelligence investigations," he said. "We leave a digital footprint with virtually everything we do online and most of those footprints can be collected without the hindrance of encryption." But James Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who supports better law enforcement access, said tech firms may face more pressure than in the past. "It's part of the bigger public move to rein in the tech companies and make them more socially responsible," Lewis said. "The old laissez-faire arguments are losing ground." Intelligence agencies from the United States and its allies have stepped up a call for better access to encrypted communications, prompting criticism from privacy and rights activists Apple challenged a US government request in 2016 to weaken iPhone encryption, prompting a court showdown that rallied privacy activists
The Israeli army said Wednesday it was closing its sole crossing for people with the Gaza Strip following a violent demonstration the previous day, just 10 days after it reopened it. "Yesterday, a violent riot was instigated in the area of the Erez crossing, with the participation of hundreds of Palestinian rioters," the army said in a statement. "Subsequently, it was decided to close the Erez crossing until the damage caused by the rioters will be repaired." The Palestinians were protesting against a US announcement on Friday that it would cease all funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) which helps some three million needy refugees. Washington, which until last year was by far the biggest contributor to the UNRWA, had already plunged the nearly 70-year-old agency into financial crisis in January with its announcement of a $300 million funding freeze. In Gaza, most children attend UNRWA-run schools whose funding beyond the end of this month is now in doubt, along with that of the agency's network of clinics and food distribution centres. The army said Tuesday's protesters had damaged the infrastructure of the crossing with rocks thrown from the Gaza side. It said it would remain open for "individually approved humanitarian cases". An AFP correspondent said several thousand Gazans passed the Palestinian Authority checkpoint at Erez during Tuesday's protest and headed to the Israeli side, where they caused damage to lights and the road surface. The Israeli army eventually forced them back, using tear gas and live ammunition. Five Palestinians suffered gunshot wounds, the Gaza health ministry said. Israel reopened Erez on August 27 after an 11-day closure following previous clashes, as part of its policy of easing its decade-long air, land and sea blockade on the Gaza Strip when calm is maintained. The sole goods crossing between Israel and Gaza, Kerem Shalom, remains open. There have been months of tension along the border and several military flare-ups, but recent weeks have seen relative calm. Egyptian and United Nations officials have been mediating indirect negotiations on a long-term truce between Israel and Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas, who have fought three wars since 2008. A Palestinian holds a national flag he runs from tear gas fired by Israeli forces during a protest against Washington's ending of all funding for the UN Palestinian refugee agency at the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel on September 4, 2018 Palestinian schoolgirls pose near a UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) tractor in Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, on September 1, 2018 following Washington's announcement it was ending all funding
A man has been charged with his wifes murder after the 32-year-old Perth woman disappeared on Friday.
Police allege Fahima Yusufs husband led them to her body, which was buried in the backyard of their family home, after they arrived to perform a welfare check.
What began as a missing persons case has now become a homicide investigation, with forensic teams preventing anyone going in or out of the cordoned-off property in Carlisle.
Fahima Yusuf, 32, went missing on Friday and concerned interstate relatives reported her missing on Tuesday. Source: 7 News
Mrs Yusufs worried family interstate reported her disappearance to police on Tuesday after being unable to contact her for several days.
When police arrived to do a welfare check, they realise something was very wrong.
Mrs Yusufs 36-year-old husband spent the day talking to police and allegedly showed them where to look for his wifes body.
A carpet cleaner who arrived at the crime scene said he had been booked on Tuesday to steam clean two bedrooms in the house.
On Wednesday afternoon forensic officers began digging up the backyard of the Carlisle home. Source: 7 News
On Wednesday afternoon forensic officers began digging up the backyard, recovering the womans remains from a shallow dirt grave at the side of the familys home.
A large police presence is expected at the residence for days to come as detectives process the crime scene and finish gathering evidence.
Mrs Yusufs husband has been refused bail and is due to appear at Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday.
Anyone with information is encouraged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or use the Crime Stoppers online reporting page.
The Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday reminded Filipinos in Libya anew to take the necessary precautions after a state of emergency was declared in Tripoli amid the ongoing conflict in the capital. According to latest reports, at least 47 people were killed and about a hundred of others were wounded as a result of fierce battles between factions in Tripoli. Aside from the fighting, the Philippine Embassy in Tripoli has reported instances of looting, robbery, car theft and other crimes. The DFA is urging Filipinos, particularly those in Tripoli, to remain indoors and avoid unnecessary movement as the situation in the Libyan capital is tense, DFA Assistant Secretary Elmer Cato said in a statement. They should also prepare for disruptions in power supply and internet connectivity, Cato added. From the Embassy, Charge dAffaires Mardomel Melicor called on the estimated 1,800 Filipinos in Tripoli to make sure they have enough food and water to last a few days. There are about 3,500 Filipinos in the whole of Libya based on the records of the embassy. About 1,850 Filipinos are in the area of Tripoli. Melicor also made an assurance that the Embassy remains ready to respond to any request for assistance from the Filipino Community. In the event of emergencies, the Embassy could be contacted at: +218 91 824 4208 and +218 94 454 1283. Clashes raged Monday on the outskirts of Libyas capital Tripoli trapping residents indoors and hampering rescue efforts, as the UN called for talks after more than a week of deadly violence. Fighting since August 27 between rival militias in the southern suburbs has killed at least 47 people and wounded 129 others, most of them civilians, according to an updated toll put out by the health ministry Sunday night. Following a failed ceasefire on Friday, the United Nations mission to Libya invited the various Libyan parties to Tuesday talks for an urgent dialogue on the current security situation in Tripoli.UNSMIL did not give further information on the guest list, but analysts said the chaos of changing alliances on the ground made it difficult to predict who would be at the table. The situation is too fluid and the alliances are still volatile and changing, said Jalel Harchaoui, a Libya expert at the University of Paris 8. The Libyan capital has been at the center of a battle for influence between armed groups since the ouster and killing of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011. Libyas UN-backed Government of National Unity on Sunday declared a state of emergency in Tripoli and its surroundings, as the violence cast doubt on general elections set for the end of the year. The clashes initially pitted GNA-linked groups in the capital against the so-called 7th Brigade, a militia from the town of Tarhuna southeast of Tripoli the GNA says it presented with orders in April to disband. In statements and videos, the 7th Brigade has claimed to be the true army and said it is carrying out an operation to liberate Tripoli from militias. Since the fighting broke out, other armed groups championing the same cause as the 7th Brigade have been drawn into the clashes against pro-GNA security forces. Those groups include militias from Misrata, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Tripoli. On Monday, armed groups had cut roads leading to their positions, blocking access to aid and relief and trapping families in the area, emergency services spokesman Osama Ali said.
A man testified Tuesday that he spent about eight hours cutting up his wifes body following her death, after she gave birth at a hotel, because he was afraid authorities would take away his children.
Justin Rey, 36, said protecting his family was the reason he didnt call for medical help after his wife delivered a baby at a hotel in the US state of Missouri in October and then killed herself, The Kansas City Star reported.
Investigators later found Rey with his newborn and two-year-old daughter, along with bags of body parts, at a storage shed in the town of Lenexa, Kansas.
Justin Rey initially told police his wife Jessica Monteiro Rey killed herself, and he chopped up her body so authorities wouldnt take his children away. Source: Fox 4 News
Justin Rey testified Tuesday that he spent about eight hours cutting up his wifes body. Source: Johnson County Sheriffs Office
Rey is not charged in his wifes death, but faces child endangerment charges and is charged with abandonment of a corpse.
After Tuesdays hearing, a not guilty plea was entered for Rey to Johnson County, Kansas, charges of two counts of aggravated child endangerment and two counts of contributing to a childs misconduct.
Its something I had to do. My family is very dear to me. Its something I had to do to protect my family, Rey testified.
One officer who met Rey at the storage unit said the two-year-old appeared unhealthy and almost looked like she had cancer.
Investigators later found Rey with his newborn and two-year-old daughter, along with bags of body parts, at a storage shed in Lenexa, Kansas. Source: Fox 4 News
The baby had a serious eye infection, according to several witnesses. The children were put in protective custody.
Rey has said in the past that his wife died in childbirth, but Lenexa police detective Shannon Murphy testified that Rey told her his wife had killed herself.
After having his children pose for photographs with her body, Rey said he skinned her like a fish, Murphy testified.
A court heard that Rey made his children pose for photographs with his wifes body. Source: Jill Toyoshiba/ Kansas City Star/ TNS via Getty Images
Murphy said Rey flushed body parts that would not fit in containers down the toilet.
Deputy Johnson County Coroner Charles Glenn testified that a number of stab were wounds found on some parts of Jessica Reys body but that it wasnt possible to tell whether the injuries were inflicted before or after she died.
Story continues
Rey told an officer his wife killed herself after giving birth in a hotel, a detective told the court. Source: Jill Toyoshiba/ Kansas City Star/ TNS via Getty Images
Rey told the court that he and the children had not been living at the storage locker, as witnesses said, but had been there for only about 11 hours while preparing to travel to Arizona, where he said he intended to give his wife a proper burial. He also said his children were well cared for.
I didnt endanger my children, he testified. My children were perfectly healthy.
Rey also denied flushing anything but a placenta down the toilet.
His trial on the Kansas charges was scheduled for November 5.
Italy's Alessandro De Marchi held off the challenge of Colombian Jhonatan Restrepo to win the 11th stage of the Tour of Spain on Wednesday, as Britain's Simon Yates held onto the overall lead. Yates, of Mitchelton-Scott, withstood a series of late attacks, in particular from Movistar's Nairo Quintana. BMC's De Marchi and Katusha-Alpecin rider Restrepo both pulled clear of a large breakaway group, which had been spearheaded by France's Thibaut Pinot with around 80 kilometres to go. De Marchi then outlasted Restrepo on the final ascent to finish on his own for a third stage victory in this event, following up those he won in 2013 and 2014. "If I waited for the sprint, I think for sure I would have been second," De Marchi said. "The only option I had was to try everything on the last climb and honestly I didn't feel the best (in my) legs, it was just about the mind." De Marchi crossed the line, with his arms outstretched, 28 seconds ahead of Restrepo. Italy's Franco Pellizotti was 59 seconds back in third at the end of the longest stage of the race at 207.8 kilometres. Yates had to dig deep to stay clear of Movistar pair Quintana and Alejandro Valverde heading into Thursday's 12th stage between Mondonedo and Manon. The 26-year-old, who led this year's Giro d'Italia for long periods before a dramatic late collapse, holds a one-second lead over 38-year-old veteran Valverde, with 2016 champion Quintana only 13 seconds further adrift. "It was a really crazy race today and the boys rode great again, they're going to be tired now," Yates told his team's website. "It was ok for me, I was in the peloton just trying to save energy. We worked hard over the first 100km marking and closing the moves, trying to control it, but there comes a point when you can only control it for so long." Both Movistar leaders, who so often have produced Grand Tour podium finishes but struggled for wins, suggested that Mitchelton had been riding too defensively in the peloton as they tried to reel in Pinot and the other escapees. "Some other teams might not be racing for victory, but it's not our case," said the 2009 winner Valverde. "Mitchelton? It's their philosophy. They never push to defend a result, they push when they think they can inflict harm on their rivals." Colombian Quintana added: "Mitchelton not pushing with us? Well, they just chose to ride that way. It was their way of acting today ?- staying on the others' wheels, profiting from their work. "We thought we had a responsibility here; maybe the others don't care, but we felt we had to work." The 12th stage is another hilly affair, before the riders head back into the mountains for three straight days from Friday. Alessandro De Marchi takes victory in stage 11 of the Vuelta
A moose has drowned after tourists crowded the animal trying to take pictures, forcing it into a lake in Vermont where it became exhausted and then drowned.
The animal had swum across Lake Champlain from New York to South Hero, Vermont, but a crowd gathered to snap photographs after it emerged on shore.
Officials believe it became spooked and threatened and returned to the water where it became tired, and then drowned.
A moose drowned after tourists scared it into a lake in Vermont. Source: AP
Wildlife officials told the public to keep their distance from animals.
Fish and Wildlife Warden Robert Currier told AP that wardens arrived when the animal was already struggling, and were waiting for a boat.
It was struggling pretty good at that point. We were waiting for a boat to respond to try to assist it, but before the boat arrived, it had drowned, Mr Currier said.
The moose drowned at Lake Champlain, Vermont (pictured). Source: Getty
It was really rough out there, probably four to five foot swells and high wind.
I would advise the public to keep their distance from the animal, give it a lot of space and notify the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The moment when a newborn baby is passed into the arms of its mother is meant to be one of lifes most magical experiences.
But when 23-year-old mum Jessica Hill, from St Marys in western Sydney, held her baby boy Khynan for the first time, she knew something wasnt quite right.
Little Khynan, it was discovered after five days of tests, had suffered a stroke at just one day old.
Father Shannon Wells, mum Jessica Hill and baby Khynan. Source: Supplied
There had been no warning signs, no difficulties during pregnancy to indicate that Jessicas first child was at risk of a stroke.
When he was placed on my chest he was very limp, didnt have much colour, wasnt crying or making any noise, Jessica told Yahoo7.
He came good after a couple of minutes and seemed to be ok. The doctors saw he was having some difficulty breathing, so they monitored that while we were in the birthing unit.
After being sent up to the postnatal ward, Khynan spent a very unsettled night, Jessica said.
In the morning, doctors were concerned about his breathing and took him into the neonatal intensive care unit.
After a series of blood tests, Khynan was diagnosed with an infection, but then he began having seizures. An MRI on day five revealed hed had a stroke.
Baby Khynan suffered a stroke just a day after he was born. Source: Supplied
The news was a massive shock to the system, Jessica said.
We had never even heard of it happening to a newborn baby. When you think of strokes, you tend to think of it happening to older people, so it was very confusing and a very emotional time.
Doctors have not been able to pinpoint exactly what causes strokes in newborn babies.
With Khynan it was a blood clot that travelled to the brain, but why that actually happened is not clear, Jessica said.
Now six months old, Khynans parents are closely monitoring his progress and development. Source: Supplied
Now six months old, Khynan is doing well, but Jessica and her partner Shannon Wells have been told theres a possibility their child could develop cerebral palsy.
It was a pretty significant stroke, it wasnt a small one, so we were told it could affect his development, from sitting to crawling and walking, his speech, feeding, eyesight, hearing, everything, Jessica said.
Story continues
At the moment he has physiotherapy and occupational therapy every week and he is slightly delayed in the use of his right arm and hand.
Were really trying to concentrate on building his strength up, but with everything else its really just a matter of waiting for certain milestones to see how much its affected him.
Jessica said she hoped her experience would raise awareness that strokes can affect babies and children, not just the elderly.
There wasnt a lot of information for us as parents, she said.
Every time I tell someone what happened, theyre so shocked that it happened to a newborn.
It needs to be talked about more if we can just start a conversation about it, thats a good thing.
Nearly 90 works from the Ebsworth collection of modern American masters, including rarely seen paintings by Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe and Jackson Pollock, will go under the hammer in November, auction house Christie's said Wednesday. Showings of highlights from "An American House: The Barney A. Ebsworth Collection", will kick off Thursday in Paris to coincide with the French capital's Biennale art fair. The works were amassed over several decades by Ebsworth, a pioneer in the luxury travel industry who died in April age 83. His interest in art was awakened by trips to the Louvre museum in Paris, where he met his first wife while stationed in France with the US Army. Christie's said the collection was expected to be sold for upwards of $300 million (260 million euros) at the New York auction. "His unique journey as a collector resonates with the influence and art historical connections of Gertrude Stein's Paris, and ultimately set a new high standard for the creation of a nuanced collection of 20th century art," Marc Porter, chairman of Christie's Americas, said in a statement. One of the stars of the show is "Chop Suey", a 1929 painting by Hopper thought to be his last major work still in private hands, with an estimate of $70 million. Hopper has become one of the most popular American artists for European audiences, with a 2012 showing of his seminal "Nighthawks" portrait of a late-night diner scene drawing one of the biggest crowds ever at the Grand Palais in Paris. Pollock's "Composition with Red Strokes" (1950), estimated at $50 million, and Willem de Kooning's "Woman as Landscape" (1955, $60 million), are among the other highlights of the sale. Several works by O'Keeffe, who was a witness as Ebsworth's second marriage, according to Seatrade Cruise News, will also be sold, including "Horn and Feathers" from 1937. Along with the three-day showing at Christie's gallery in Paris, works will also be displayed in New York, Hong Kong, London, San Francisco and Los Angeles. "Chop Suey", a 1929 work by Edward Hopper, on display in Paris on September 5, 2018, as part of a show of works from the Barney Ebsworth collection being auctioned by Christie's Jackson Pollock's "Composition with Red Strokes" (1950), will be one of the highlights of the November auction of of the Ebsworth Collection in New York and is estimated at $50 million dollars
Migrants and asylum-seekers rescued while trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe should not be sent back to Libya, where they risk "serious abuses," the UN's human rights agency has warned. In an update to its official position on returns to Libya, the UNHCR warned against any such move, mooted recently by Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini in a standoff with other EU nations on the migrant influx. "Insecurity and the lack of governance have enabled illicit activities such as corruption as well as people-smuggling and human trafficking to thrive, further fuelling instability in the country," the agency wrote this month. Proposals to set up processing centres for asylum applications in Libya and other North African countries, as called for in a deal struck by EU leaders in June, did not change its position, the UN's refugee body said. The UNHCR said this week that nearly 1,600 people have died trying to reach Europe by sea since the beginning of this year. It estimates that 679,000 migrants were registered living in Libya as at June 2018, though the actual number could be closer to a million. Those rescued by Libyan coastguard vessels are held in detention centres indefinitely, which currently contain some 8,000 people, the agency said. "In all facilities, detention conditions reportedly fail to meet international standards," with migrants at "very high risk of torture and other forms of ill-treatment, including rape and other forms of sexual violence, forced labour as well as extortion." In an update on its official position on returning migrants to Libya, the UNHCR warned against any such move, mooted recently by Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini (pictured August 2018) in a standoff with other EU nations on the migrant influx
Saudi King Salman's brother has played down controversial remarks he made to anti-Saudi protesters in London that sparked furious speculation about possible discord within the royal family. Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz al-Saud apparently told a crowd in London to stop chanting slogans against the Saudi royal family over the kingdom's involvement in the three-year conflict in Yemen. "What does the family have to do with it? Certain individuals are responsible... the king and the crown prince," he said, according to a widely-circulated online video of the incident in London. The comment was seen by many on social media as rare criticism from a royal family member of the kingdom's leadership as well as its role in the Yemen conflict, dubbed by the UN as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. But in a statement, the prince dismissed that interpretation as "inaccurate". "I have made it clear that the king and the crown prince are responsible for the state and its decisions," the prince said in the statement released by the official Saudi Press Agency late Tuesday. "This is true for the security and stability of the country and the people. Therefore, it is not possible to interpret what I said in any other way." In a bid to suggest unity within the royal family, multiple pro-Saudi social media accounts posted images of Prince Ahmed kissing the hand of King Salman. The internal affairs of the royal family are shrouded in secrecy and a public airing of disagreements is extremely rare. But Saudi expert James Dorsey said the London incident suggests "a long suspected greater degree of domestic questioning of Saudi Arabia's 3.5-year-old ill-fated war in Yemen than has been publicly evident until now". The remarks come as powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tightens his grip on power by cracking down on dissent with the imprisonment of prominent clerics, women and human rights activists. The crown prince, architect of the kingdom's 2015 intervention in Yemen, has also drawn criticism over the conflict that left nearly 10,000 people dead and pushed the impoverished country to the brink of famine. Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz al-Saud apparently told a crowd in London, similar to the one pictured in March 2018, to stop chanting slogans against the Saudi royal family over the kingdom's involvement in the Yemeni conflict
Lawyers for Danish inventor Peter Madsen on Wednesday argued that his life sentence for the premediated murder and sexual assault of Swedish journalist Kim Wall on his homemade submarine last year was too severe. Madsen is appealing his sentence for murdering 30-year-old Wall, chopping up her corpse and throwing her body parts into the sea in August 2017. Prosecutor Kristian Kirk told the first day of Madsen's appeal hearing in Copenhagen that the murder of Wall, whose parents were present in court, had been found to be "cynical and brutal" and merited a life sentence. But Hald Engmark for Madsen said the sentence was "disproportionate compared to legal precedent". "It's unusual to be sentenced to life in prison. What was decisive (for the court) was that it was a crime that was prepared and planned," prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen said when the sentence was handed down in April. On Wednesday, the prosecution presented evidence to the three court of appeal judges from the previous trial, including images of Wall's mutilated body, to justify the life sentence. The Copenhagen High Court has set aside two more days for the hearing on September 12 and 14. "We're not here to determine whether Peter Madsen is guilty, because he is," prosecutor Kirk said, facing Madsen, seated next to his lawyer and clad in a black blazer. The grisly case made headlines worldwide after Wall boarded the submarine on August 10, 2017 with the self-taught engineer -- a minor celebrity in Denmark -- to interview him for an article she was writing. Wall's boyfriend reported her missing when she failed to return home that night. Her dismembered body parts were later found on the seabed, weighted down in plastic bags. Madsen maintained throughout his trial that the journalist's death was accidental. His lawyer has insisted that his decision not to appeal the guilty verdict should "certainly not" be interpreted as an admission of guilt. It is not known if Madsen will take the stand during the appeal. - 'Psychopath' - Madsen changed his version of events several times, but ultimately testified that Wall died when the air pressure suddenly dropped and toxic fumes filled his vessel while he was up on deck. Despite the testimony of many experts, the lack of tangible evidence in the case and the decomposed state of Wall's remains made it impossible to determine an exact cause of death. A post-mortem report concluded she probably died as a result of suffocation or having her throat slit. Fourteen stab wounds and piercings were also found in and around her genital area. Madsen had argued that he stabbed her because he wanted to prevent gases from building up inside her body that would prevent it from sinking to the seabed. Psychiatric experts who evaluated Madsen -- who described himself to friends as "a psychopath, but a loving one" -- found him to be "a pathological liar" who poses "a danger to others" and who was likely to be a repeat offender. A life sentence in Denmark averages around 16 years. Only 25 inmates in Denmark are currently serving life sentences. After 12 years behind bars, an inmate with a life sentence can ask to be paroled, but the justice system can decide to keep him or her behind bars as long as he or she is considered a danger to society. The court of appeal's verdict is due on September 14. Madsen was convicted of murdering 30-year-old Wall, chopping up her corpse and throwing her body parts into the sea last year
Since news of the shortage of NFA rice meaning the edible and affordable variety, a good number of which were in the process of being unloaded in various ports across the countrygot even grimmer with reports of weevil infestation in certain areas, exacerbated by bad weather, everybody got into the wave and started asking: Whats happening? These questions came with prescriptions galore on how to avert a looming food crisis as some sectors call it. Well, at least the country is finally getting focused not only on the basic staple, rice, but on the state of our agricultural sector. For years on end, this has hardly been a sexy topic for decision makers in both public and private sectors for reasons which we will discuss in future columns. In the meantime, since we are focused on rice and soaring prices, the response of the Liberal Party is particularly worth looking into. So, what has the party led by VP Leni Robredo and her allies in Congress offered to ease the rising prices of basic commodities, principally rice, in their first ever press conference on any matter of significance to ordinary citizens like you and me? Nothing new. Just the tired, old solutions wrapped with the usual criticism of the administrations lack of foresight and competence. Joined by LP President Francis Pangilinan and other party leaders, Robredo presented a number of options to address the rice crisis and the rising prices of basic commodities in this wise: First, fire NFA Administrator Jason Aquino whom they identified as the root of the rice crisis (wow). Second, overhaul the NFA leadership (was she thinking of the entire NFA Council which has been at odds with Aquino to the point of blocking his earlier efforts to import rice to augment that agencys buffer? Or only those who blocked his scheme or those who allowed the use of NFA funds to pay off debt with the government banks instead of using the same to buy rice for stocking or all of the above?). Third, create a task force comprised of Cabinet members to address the rice emergency. Fourth, suspend the higher excise tax on fuel. Fifth, expand social protection measures and the scope of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. Sixth, certify as urgent and move for the passing of the bill filed by LP Representatives Quimbo, Banal and Belmonte which seeks the return to zero of the excise taxes on kerosene and diesel. Basically, the LP scheme consists of two parts: Fire Aquino, reform NFAs policies on buffer stocking and rice importation by creating a task force composed of Cabinet members to oversee the work (will these people have any time just to even organize themselves?) and slow down implementation of the TRAIN Law by suspending the excise tax on fuel. That is, presumably until the passage of the bill that seeks to suspend if not scrap altogether the increased tax on fuel, in particular kerosene and diesel. Well and good. The problem is these are the same tired, old and ultimately unresponsive solutions to the kind of problem we are presently facing. Yes, there may be a need to finally put an end to the open war between the NFA Council and Administrator Aquino which has contributed to the deadlocks, delays in buying rice locally and importation.But to suggest that Aquino alone was presiding over the incompetence and corruption at the NFA and that he is the root cause of the rice crisis as suggested by a leading light of the opposition is to over simplify the issue.It is as if it Aquinos removal will cast a spell and presto! Rice will then flood the markets all the way to Tawi-Tawi. It reminds us of the knee-jerk reactions in administrations past, especially those associated with the current LP leadership. Unresponsive and hypocritical. It only reinforces the view that these guys continue to live in a lie. What are they sniffing, anyway? It is a tired response, as tired a solution as can be thought of, and is guaranteed not to put even a grain of rice on our tables in this critical week or two of the contrived crisis we are going through which the Liberal Party hopes can be the tipping point in their bid to shove President Duterte before his term ends. The sooner, the better. Well, I am sorry to say that it will take more than that to hijack the Chief Executives term. But for now, that call for Aquinos head and overhaul of the NFA leadership can stay and possibly activated only after the situation stabilizes and rice that is eatable and affordable is already in place. Until such a time, maybe up to the end of October, hopefully earlier, we should get Aquino and the NFA Council with Agriculture Secretary Manny Pinol to get together and do what needs to be done to hold the line. They can start by coming together in peace and issuing a list of companies and persons whose warehouses are awash with rice but continue to withhold the same for whatever reason(s)OK, let us just agree that these bodegeros are into hoarding and profiteering. This kind of behavior has to stop and now. As President Duterte said there is really rice in those warehouses but greed has set in. It will take a tokhang-on-rice hoarders task force, not the Pangilinan contrivance to put the fear of the Almighty on these people and their allies in government. Then, with the release of those supplies to be paid and funded by a special window from the DBM and the government banks, they can secure more imports for immediate delivery. After things calm down, then the call for a total revamp of the NFA leadership, possibly even the ouster of Aquino if justified, can be revisited. But the problem of rice supply and pricing does not end there. As former NFA Administrator and now Meco president Lito Banayo said, we have to go back to our commitments under the World Trade Organization which essentially frames the manner by which NFA can import and operate. As Banayo noted, we are now the only WTO member country still under a quantitative restrictions regime which means we can restrict the amount of rice allowed to be imported into the country. That volume is determined by the NFA Council upon advice of the administrator. As it turned out, the tug of war between the NFA Council and Aquino prevented us from importing rice much, much earlier as the volume and other issues such as who will import, government or private, and under what conditions remained unanswered until May or June this year. Not enough time to avert an anticipated shortage. That continuing tug-of-war will probably be resolved soon with the rice tariffication scheme and with it whether the NFA as we know it today will survive. But again even with that, the problem of supply and pricing does not end there. We should take a serious look at how we have been handling our agricultural sector, especially that sub-sector dealing with rice and corn production.We do not need additional laws or even hearings to come out with a sustained, responsive and comprehensive plan. We only need to dust up and update all the studies which have been in place for years. Reinvention of this very critical sector will definitely require wise and proper orchestration of such critical components as land use, irrigation and related infrastructure, seeds, funding support, mechanization, post harvest facilities, price support, education and training of a new breed of farmers, new technology, etc. etc. The Liberal Party and its leaders, especially Senator Pangilinan who was the Presidential Adviser of Food Security and Modernization under the past administration, are well aware of these things. In fact, there was a well-orchestrated drive for self-sufficiency in rice and corn not too long ago under PNoy complete with annual budgetary allocations for six years. It was a pity we did not even hear a word about this program and how the billions of pesos in funding support was spent from Vice President Robredo and her allies in that press conference. Anyway, we will deal with that in our future columns. As for the second leg of the LP response to our current problemsuspension of the TRAIN Law particularly the excise tax on fuel (kerosene and diesel) we can only suggest that the group take a look at the transcripts of the proceedings in the congressional hearings on the subject specially the submissions of the agencies comprising the Cabinet economic cluster and the testimonies of the experts including those who opposed some provisions or even the entire original submitted bill. I hope that after reading, they would realize that suspension may only create more problems than offer solutions. And yes, if they are not satisfied with the earlier submissions, they can probably ask their colleague, Marikina Rep. and former Deputy Speaker Miro Quimbo, why all of a sudden he is reversing himself on this issue. Thats all for now.
The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey meet Friday in Tehran for a summit expected to shape the future of Idlib province, home to Syria's last major rebel bastion. The summit comes as Syrian forces look poised to launch a major assault that is raising fears of a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale not yet seen in the seven-year-old conflict. Damascus and its main backer Moscow have vowed to root out the jihadist groups that dominate Idlib province but the outcome of Friday's meeting could determine the scope and the timing of an offensive. "We know that the Syrian armed forces are getting ready to solve this problem," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday. Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the last major chunk of Syrian territory still in rebel hands. Turkey has limited sway over the jihadist groups that control an estimated 60 percent of Idlib but it backs rebel groups there and has 12 military "observation points" across the province. Russia, Turkey and Iran are the guarantors of the Astana process, a track of negotiations that has eclipsed the older Geneva process and de facto helps Syrian President Bashar al-Assad re-assert his authority on the country. In parallel to the Syrian government's military buildup, the recent weeks have seen intense diplomatic activity. Al-Watan, a Syrian daily close to the government, wrote on Monday that the result of the talks will be presented in Tehran for the three powers "to endorse it and decide on the 'zero hour' for the Syrian army's military operation, which is expected to immediately follow the summit." Idlib is a cul-de-sac for many rebels and civilians transferred there after previous regime assaults. - Inevitable assault? - The United Nations and aid groups have warned that a full assault could spark one of the worst disasters of a conflict that has already killed 350,000 people and displaced 11 million in seven years. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the armed groups in Idlib attacking Syrian government positions and Russia's air base in nearby Hmeimim should be eliminated. At stake in Tehran is the scope of the offensive and Lavrov said Tuesday that efforts were being made to separate "regular armed oppositionists from terrorists". The main target of an offensive would be the jihadist fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist alliance dominated by the former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda. Russia wants Turkey to use its influence on the ground in Idlib to rein in the rebels and the jihadists. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu appeared to suggest Monday there will still room for negotiation ahead of the summit and a promised offensive. "We are continuing contacts before the summit and preparing it to make sure it yields a good outcome," he said. The International Crisis Group insisted a devastating offensive in Idlib could and should still be averted, calling this week on all brokers to go back to negotiations. It said Russia needed to be convinced that backing an all-out Syria offensive risked undermining its own long-term objectives, which include the "re-legitimation" of Assad and his regime. The think tank said the three Astana guarantors should thrash out a plan that would satisfy some of Moscow's key demands. ICG cited "intensified Turkish efforts to rid the area of jihadists, an end to drone attacks on Russia's (Hmeimim) air base and regime control over Idlib's key highways." Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russia's President Vladimir Putin shake hands after a joint press conference as part of a tripartite summit on Syria, in Ankara, on April 4, 2018
Divers have recovered three bodies after a fatal, high-speed boat crash on Saturday while another woman remains missing.
The body of Californian woman Kirra Drury was the latest to be retrieved from the Colorado River when police divers pulled the 24-year-old out of the water at about 12.35pm on Tuesday (Californian time). The body of Brian Grabowski, 50, was found earlier on Tuesday while the body of Christine Lewis, 51, was found on Monday.
Police are still searching for Ms Drurys friend Raegan Heitzig, who is the only victim unaccounted for after two boats travelling at about 80km/h collided head-on.
Kirra Drury (pictured left, and right with friend Raegan Heitzig) was found dead on Tuesday. Source: Instagram/kirradrury
In the high-speed collision passengers were ejected and both vessels sunk, said the Mohave County Sheriffs Office.
The crash involved a boat containing 10 people and another containing six people. ABC News reports the passengers were not wearing life jackets.
Following the crash, four people were missing while 10 were transported to hospital and others were pulled from the water by passing boaters.
Two boats crashed head-on on the Colorado River in California. Source: Facebook/Mohave County Sheriffs Office
Police will continue the search for the final missing person, Ms Heitzig, on Wednesday morning.
Turkey on Wednesday insisted the government is trying to prevent an assault on Syria's rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib, as expectations rise of a regime offensive. Syrian regime troops have for weeks been massing on the edges of the province which borders Turkey, raising fears of a humanitarian disaster on a scale not yet seen in Syria's seven-year conflict. Ankara wants to "prevent attacks on Idlib" Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a press conference with German counterpart Heiko Maas. Idlib is one of the so-called "de-escalation" zones set up as a result of talks by Russia, Turkey and Iran last year as Damascus regained control of more of the country. "From the day that it was clear there could be an attack on Idlib, we have been working hard to prevent the regime violating the ceasefire and to stop the attacks on Idlib," Cavusoglu told reporters during the conference in Ankara. Maas said Germany shared Turkey's concern of a "looming humanitarian catastrophe" in Idlib. "We will continue our efforts to prevent it. Turkey is possibly better prepared than others to weigh in on these developments," the German minister said. Maas was in Ankara on Wednesday as the two countries seek to improve relations which have soured since the 2016 failed coup in Turkey, which resulted in a government crackdown on the opposition. Maas met with Cavusoglu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the presidential palace in Ankara. Germany's links with Turkey are of greater significance in Europe since three million ethnic Turks live in the continent's top economy, the largest diaspora abroad and a legacy of Germany's "guest worker" programme of the 1960s and 70s. Ankara has recently turned to Europe following a bitter row with Washington over the detention of an American pastor, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel giving her support to the Turkish economy after the Turkish lira's dramatic fall last month. Germany-Turkey relations improved recently especially after Turkey last month lifted an overseas travel ban on German journalist and translator Mesale Tolu on trial on terror-related charges. Although there have been releases of jailed Germans including well-known journalist Deniz Yucel, seven German citizens remain in jail for political reasons. During his two-day visit, Maas and Cavusoglu on Thursday will attend the opening ceremony of the German lycee in Istanbul on the school's 150th anniversary. Erdogan is expected to visit Berlin on September 28 and 29. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (pictured September 3, 2018) says that Ankara wants to "prevent attacks on Idlib," as Syrian regime troops have for weeks been massing on the edges of the province which borders Turkey
Prime Minister Theresa May said Wednesday that two Russian spies carried out a nerve agent attack on a former colleague in Britain, as prosecutors named the suspects and issued a warrant for their arrest. Prosecutors announced charges against Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov for trying to kill Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with Novichok in the city of Salisbury on March 4. May told MPs the pair "are officers of the Russian military intelligence service" -- the GRU -- adding that the attack had been sanctioned from higher up. "This was not a rogue operation. It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state," May said. London and its allies had previously blamed Moscow for the attack, which Russia angrily denied. The row sparked a wave of diplomatic expulsions on both sides, as well as fresh US sanctions against Moscow which again denied involvement on Wednesday. "Unfounded accusations are being levelled against Russia... and absurd demands are being made for explanations in connection with a situation which we have nothing to do with," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "Instead of conducting an independent, objective and transparent investigation... London continues to engage in anti-Russian megaphone diplomacy, continuing its propaganda show," the statement added. Britain requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council, expected on Thursday, to update members on the situation. The US ambassador to London, Woody Johnson, tweeted: "The US and UK stand firmly together in holding Russia accountable for its act of aggression on UK soil." - European Arrest Warrant - The Foreign Office summoned Russia's charge d'affaires in London to demand Petrov and Boshirov come to Britain to stand trial, a spokeswoman said. But prosecutors said they would not formally seek their extradition, as Russia has made clear in previous cases that it did not extradite its nationals. In 2007, Russia refused to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, the prime suspect in the murder by radioactive poisoning of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko in London. "We have, however, obtained a European arrest warrant (EAW)," said Sue Hemming of the Crown Prosecution Service. "(This) means that if either man travels to a country where an EAW is valid, they will be arrested and face extradition on these charges", which will never expire. Britain's top counter-terror police officer, Neil Basu, said the two suspects had probably travelled to Britain using aliases. Photos of the pair were being made public in the hope that someone would recognise them. He said the pair, who are in their 40s, flew into London two days before the attack and stayed in a hotel, where traces of Novichok were found in their room. They visited Salisbury the day before to carry out reconnaissance and were captured on security cameras near Skripal's house. Police believe they put Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, on the door handle. Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a park bench a few hours later. The suspects flew back to Moscow later that evening. Petrov and Boshirov face charges of conspiracy to murder Skripal and the attempted murder of him, his daughter, and Nick Bailey, a policeman injured in the aftermath, prosecutors said. They are also accused of using a banned chemical weapon and causing grievous bodily harm to Yulia Skripal and Bailey. Russia's embassy in London said it wanted access to the Skripals, claiming they were being held in "forcible isolation by the British authorities". "We have not seen any willingness on the British side to engage with a view to establishing the truth," it said. - Perfume bottle - Skripal was a colonel in the GRU who was jailed for betraying fellow agents to Britain's MI6 security service. He moved to England in 2010 as part of a spy swap. The Skripals and Bailey both recovered from their poisoning, but on June 30, a British couple fell ill from the same type of nerve agent in the nearby town of Amesbury. One of them, 44-year-old mother of three Dawn Sturgess, died on July 8. Her partner Charlie Rowley had found and given to her a perfume bottle, falsely labelled as "Premier Jour" by Nina Ricci, which police said contained a "significant amount of Novichok". Police identified Boshirov (L) and Petrov as the men who allegedly tried to kill Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with Novichok in March A handout picture taken on Fisherton Road in Salisbury, west of London on March 4, 2018, and released by the British Metropolitan Police Service in London on September 5, 2018, shows Alexander Petrov (R) and Ruslan Boshirov, who are wanted by British police in connection with the nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Novichok, the nerve agent used in the attack of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, and in the accidental fatal poisoning of 44-year-old mother of three, Dawn Sturgess near Salisbury in July. Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May briefed MPs on progress with the police investigation into the March 4 nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia The nerve agent was believed to have been smeared on the front door of his house in the sleepy southwestern English city of Salisbury
Britain's Brexit minister rejected claims Wednesday that the government's EU withdrawal plan was "dead" after opposition in Brussels and by MPs on all sides at home. Dominic Raab dismissed as "grumbles" the criticism of the so-called Chequers plan from the European Union's negotiator Michel Barnier. "We are not going to roll over just because there is some traction static on what we think is not just a good deal for the UK but a good deal for the EU," he told a committee of MPs. He added: "Of course, in a negotiation one side will try and resist certain aspects of it that they are uncomfortable with." Raab is due back in Brussels on Thursday for talks with Barnier, after the Frenchman told a German newspaper at the weekend that he "strongly opposes the British proposal". Barnier tweeted Wednesday that he was "looking forward" to "finding common ground". However, pro-European opposition lawmaker Stephen Kinnock said Barnier had told him and other British MPs during a visit to Brussels on Monday that the Chequers plan "was dead". The plan envisages Britain leaving the EU's single market but staying in a free trade area through a customs deal and common rulebook with the EU. It has drawn criticism from all sides in Britain for leaving the country half in, half out of the bloc. Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday her plan was "dead, already ripped apart by her own MPs". Eurosceptic Conservative MP Bill Cash, like Kinnock a member of the committee which grilled Raab on Wednesday, said it should be "put out of its misery". Some Brexit supporters are now pushing for a Canada-style free trade agreement with the EU after Brexit, which Barnier has previously raised as an alternative. However, Raab said the EU offer would involve accepting a back-up plan to avoid a hard border in Ireland, which risked splitting Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom. He said that the government's plan was "by far the most plausible and credible" one. Britain and the EU aim to agree a deal by a summit next month, but acknowledge the timetable may slip until November. The divisions in parliament have raised fears however there will be no deal at all agreed before Brexit on March 29. Facing May earlier in the House of Commons, Corbyn warned that uncertainty over Brexit was seeing big firms relocating out of Britain. On Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered her country's financial centre her support to attract new business after Brexit. Britain's Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told Prime Minister Theresa May her plan was "dead, already ripped apart by her own MPs"
Efforts to salvage the North American Free Trade Agreement as a three-country pact resumed at the ministerial level Wednesday, after Canadian and US officials continued the lower level technical talks over the weekend. But the talks will be dogged by President Donald Trump's repeated threats to leave Canada on the sidelines and proceed with Mexico, which reached a deal with Washington last week and could sign NAFTA 2.0 as soon as November 30. Amid rising optimism last week that an agreement would soon be finalized on a rewrite of the 25-year-old trade deal, inflammatory comments from Trump angered officials in Ottawa and the discussions ended Friday with no agreement. Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters Wednesday she is "looking forward to constructive conversations today" with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. "Our officials have continued to work hard and constructively over the weekend," she said. Trump, meanwhile, continued his tough talk throughout the weekend, and was unlikely to be in a more cooperative mood after trade data showed the US deficit with Canada expanded, and deficits with China and the European Union hit new records. "There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. If we don't make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out," Trump tweeted. "Congress should not interfere with these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off." The White House notified Congress on Friday of its "intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico -- and Canada, if it is willing -- 90 days from now." The White House has until September 30 before it must present the full text of the new agreement to Congress, which gives Ottawa and Washington time to iron out remaining differences. - Trilateral or bilateral? - But legislators and trade law experts have warned that Trump does not have the authority to supplant the three-nation NAFTA with a bilateral pact with Canada. Freeland and Lighthizer said there had been progress in the negotiations last week, which frequently went late into the night. But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stressed Tuesday that no NAFTA is better than a bad deal for Canada, and he will insist on retaining the dispute mechanism in Chapter 19 that provides binational panels to resolve disagreements. "We will hold firm on that," Trudeau said Tuesday. "We will not sign a deal that is bad for Canadians, and quite frankly, not having a Chapter 19 to ensure that the rules are followed would be bad for Canadians." Canada has used the mechanism to fight off US antidumping duties. After the US and Mexico reached an agreement on new rules for trade in autos, and tougher protections for workers and intellectual property, talks with Canada were hung up on the mechanisms used to resolve disputes among partners, and on Ottawa's strictly controlled dairy sector. Mexican officials stressed in a joint statement that they are "continuing to promote an agreement to which Canada is a party." But they also have said that either way they are protected with a bilateral deal with the United States, while Mexican businesses also have said they would support a two-nation deal. A deal without Canada "is not the ideal scenario, but it's better than ending up without any agreement at all, it's better than living in uncertainty," said Gustavo de Hoyos, the president of the Mexican Employers' Association (COPARMEX). But the US business sector strongly prefers that NAFTA remain a trilateral agreement. "Anything other than a trilateral agreement won't win Congressional approval and would lose business support," warned Thomas Donohue, president of the US Chamber of Commerce. And in a rare show of common cause with the business group, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka also supports a trilateral NAFTA. He said it was "pretty hard to see" how efforts to revamp the pact would work "without having Canada in the deal." Minutes later, Trump lashed out at the labor leader on Twitter for "poorly" representing his union and making comments that were "against the working men and women of our country, and the success of the U.S. itself." Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland says she is looking forward to "constructive conversations" in talks with US trade negotiators on a revamped North American Free Trade Agreement Progression in trade flows between Canada, Mexico and the United States, the members of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
The US and Canada are making "good progress" on the revision of the continental free trade deal but talks will continue to resolve remaining issues, Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said Wednesday. As the neighbors try to salvage the North American Free Trade Agreement as a three-country deal, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned he would stand firm on key issues as he questioned Donald Trump's respect for trade rules. Amid the charged political atmosphere, dogged by Trump's repeated threats to leave Canada out of the revised NAFTA, Freeland said she believes "a deal that is good for Canada, good for the United States and good for Mexico is absolutely possible." However, "The thing about trade negotiations is that nothing is done until everything is done," Freeland told reporters following a meeting with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. She said officials will meet late into the night to review additional issues, and the ministers will resume talks Thursday, noting that "all sides are committed to doing what it takes to get a good deal." That was a notable change from Friday, when inflammatory comments from Trump angered officials in Ottawa and the discussions ended with no agreement on a rewrite of the 25-year-old trade deal. Earlier on Wednesday, Trudeau once again stressed that he "will not sign an agreement that would be bad for Canada." "We'll walk away and not sign a deal rather than sign a bad deal." - Following the rules - One of the key sticking points in the talks has been a dispute mechanism in Chapter 19 of NAFTA that provides binational panels to resolve disagreements. Canada has used the mechanism to fight off US anti-dumping duties. Trudeau said this was a "red line" that Ottawa will insist on retaining to make sure NAFTA rules are enforced. "We need to keep the Chapter 19 dispute resolution because that ensures that the rules are actually followed. I mean, we have a president who doesn't always follow the rules as they're laid out," Trudeau said in the interview. Another issue is US complaints about Canada's strictly controlled dairy market, which Trump criticized again on Wednesday, blasting the tariffs that are as high as 300 percent. Trade analysts say his complaints are misleading because the US exports far more dairy goods to Canada than it imports, and American producers do not actually pay the high tariffs because they only apply when imports are above the set quota. But Trump told reporters that Canada "has walls up against us" and has been "taking advantage of the United States for many years," along with other countries. He again called NAFTA a "foolish" and "stupid" trade deal that he was moving to fix. - Trilateral or bilateral? - Trump has threatened repeatedly to leave Canada on the sidelines and proceed with Mexico, which reached a deal with Washington last week and could sign NAFTA 2.0 as soon as November 30. The White House notified Congress on Friday of its "intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico -- and Canada, if it is willing -- 90 days from now." The administration has until September 30 to present the full text of the new agreement to Congress, which gives Ottawa and Washington time to iron out remaining differences. Trump continued his tough talk throughout the weekend, and was unlikely to be in a more cooperative mood after trade data released Wednesday showed the US deficit with Canada expanded, and deficits with China and the European Union hit new records. "There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. If we don't make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out," Trump tweeted on Saturday. "Congress should not interfere with these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off." But legislators and trade law experts have warned that Trump does not have the authority to supplant the three-nation NAFTA with a bilateral pact. The US business sector strongly prefers that NAFTA remain a trilateral agreement. "Anything other than a trilateral agreement won't win Congressional approval and would lose business support," warned Thomas Donohue, president of the US Chamber of Commerce. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said US President Donald Trump does not always follows the rules, which makes it important to have strong dispute mechanisms in the new North American Free Trade Agreement Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland led an unusually large entourage to Washington for talks to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement Progression in trade flows between Canada, Mexico and the United States, the members of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
The United States told the UN's top court Wednesday it had "a duty" not to take a position on a bitter dispute over the British-ruled Chagos islands, home to a strategic joint US military base. Judges at the International Court of Justice are listening this week to arguments from various countries in a case brought by the United Nations over the future of the Indian Ocean archipelago, which is claimed by Mauritius. London split off the remote islands from Mauritius in 1965, three years before Port Louis gained independence. The archipelago's status has been at the centre of a bitter dispute spanning five decades since. US representative Jennifer Newstead said even though the UN request was for a "non-binding advisory opinion" on the row, the ICJ's 15 judges were in fact being asked to rule in a bilateral territorial dispute. "This places the court in an untenable position," said Newstead, a State Department legal advisor, because it asked the ICJ to rule in a sovereignty dispute, when it was only meant to give a legal opinion. Therefore "the court has a duty to decline to provide the opinion," Newstead said. In a diplomatic blow to Britain, the UN General Assembly last year adopted a resolution presented by Mauritius and backed by African countries asking the Hague-based ICJ to offer legal advice on the island chain's fate. The judges are asked to give an opinion whether the "process of decolonisation of Mauritius was lawfully completed" after Chagos was split off. They are also asked to give their view on the consequences of Britain's continued administration of the islands -- including the inability of thousands of Chagossians who were evicted in the 1970s, to return to their homes. - Military base - The African Union and 22 countries -- which also includes the US, Germany and several Asian and Latin American nations -- are making statements during the four-day hearing. After the hearings, the ICJ is expected to hand down a non-binding advisory opinion, but the judges' ruling may take several months or even years. However, an opinion still carries weight and a finding in favour of Mauritius may strengthen its hand in future negotiations. It could even lay the foundation for an eventual formal claim before the ICJ -- set up in 1946 to rule in disputes between countries. Mauritius, which declared independence in 1968 argues that it was illegal for London to break up its territory while still under colonial rule. Afterwards London established a combined military base with the US on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands. Britain said it would give back the islands to Mauritius "when no longer required for defence purposes." The Diego Garcia base still plays a key strategic role in US military operations, including serving as a staging ground for US bombing campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. The United States told the UN's top court Wednesday it had "a duty" not to take a position on a bitter dispute over the British-ruled Chagos islands, home to a strategic joint US military base
The United States told the UN's top court Wednesday it had "a duty" not to take a position on a bitter dispute over the British-ruled Chagos islands, home to a strategic joint US military base. Judges at the International Court of Justice in The Hague are listening to arguments from various countries in a case brought by the United Nations over the future of the Indian Ocean archipelago, which is claimed by Mauritius. London split off the remote islands from Mauritius in 1965, three years before Port Louis gained independence. Their status has since been at the centre of a bitter dispute spanning five decades. US representative Jennifer Newstead said even though the UN request was for a "non-binding advisory opinion" on the row, the ICJ's 15 judges were in fact being asked to rule in a bilateral territorial dispute. "This places the court in an untenable position," said Newstead, a State Department legal advisor, because it has been asked to rule in a sovereignty dispute when it was only meant to give a legal opinion. Therefore "the court has a duty to decline to provide the opinion," Newstead said. In a diplomatic blow to Britain, the UN General Assembly last year adopted a resolution presented by Mauritius and backed by African countries asking the ICJ to offer legal advice on the island chain's fate. The judges are tasked to give an opinion whether the "process of decolonisation of Mauritius was lawfully completed" after Chagos was split off. They are also to give their view on the consequences of Britain's continued administration of the islands -- including the inability of thousands of Chagossians who were evicted in the 1970s, to return to their homes. On Wednesday India's representative however told the ICJ that historically Chagos was "clearly part of Mauritian territory." "It is our understanding that the legal aspects (of the case) should root themselves in these historical facts," said India's representative Venu Rajamony. - Military base - The African Union and 22 countries -- which also includes the US, Germany and several Asian and Latin American nations -- are making statements during the four-day hearing. After the hearings, the ICJ is expected to hand down a non-binding advisory opinion, but the judges' ruling may take several months or even years. However, an opinion still carries weight and a finding in favour of Mauritius may strengthen its hand in future negotiations. It could also lay the foundation for an eventual formal claim before the ICJ -- set up after World War II in 1946 to rule in disputes between countries. Mauritius, which declared independence in 1968, argues that it was illegal for London to break up its territory while still under colonial rule. Afterwards as the Cold War heated up, London established a combined military base with the US on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands. Britain said it would give back the islands to Mauritius "when no longer required for defence purposes". Port Louis did acknowledge that Mauritius "recognises the existence of the base and accepts its continued and future functioning in accordance with international law." The Diego Garcia base remains important for US strategic military operations, including serving as a staging ground for bombing campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq and the fight against rampant piracy in the Indian Ocean. The base "continues to play a critical role in the peace and security of the Indian Ocean region and beyond," US representative Newstead said. The United States told the UN's top court Wednesday it had "a duty" not to take a position on a bitter dispute over the British-ruled Chagos islands, home to a strategic joint US military base
A woman has been found dead in a swimming pool while on holiday with her boyfriend who had planned to propose to her.
The family of 29-year-old Natalie Morris told Wales Online she was found unresponsive in a swimming pool in Bali.
Ms Morriss sister Janine Lloyd said the 29-year-old woke up in the night before her boyfriend Andrew Samuel got up hours later to find her dead in the pool.
She added Mr Samuel planned on proposing.
Natalie Morris (right), 29, has been found dead in a pool in Bali. Her sister said her boyfriend Andrew Samuel (left) was going to propose to her. Source: Facebook/ Natalie Morris
He was going to ask her to marry him, Ms Lloyd said.
She was just a lovely, vibrant person and the life and soul of a party.
Ms Lloyd added her sister planned on doing more travel and wanted to move to Australia.
Her friends are devastated, the woman said.
Ms Morris with her sister Janine Lloyd (left). Source: Facebook/ Janine Lloyd
A number of them posted tributes to her on Facebook.
A lovely, kind and funny lady, one man wrote.
Thoughts go to the family.
Another friend shared a video of Ms Morris taking a selfie with a flower before bursting into laughter.
I think we could all do with hearing your laugh today, Natalie Morris, he wrote.
Ms Morriss cause of death is still unknown with a post-mortem to be taken in the next few days.
The Pentagon has seen "zero" evidence to suggest that opposition groups in Syria's Idlib province could use chemical weapons, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday, despite Russian claims to the contrary. Speaking to reporters as he headed for talks in New Delhi on Thursday, Mattis rebuffed suggestions that the US may facilitate a chemical attack, then blame Russia and the Syrian regime and use this as a pretext for air strikes. The US military has already twice conducted strikes against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime following two alleged chemical weapons attacks, most recently in mid-April with French and British help. "We have zero intelligence that shows the opposition has any chemical capability," Mattis said. "We have made very clear that by putting out innuendo that somehow any chemical weapon use coming up in the future could be ascribed to the opposition, well ... we cannot see anything that indicates the opposition has that capability." Among the Russian reports, the Sputnik state news outlet said the Russian defence ministry claimed militants from the Tahrir al-Sham group were getting reading to stage a "provocation" and had kidnapped 44 children for use in a "false-flag" attack. Mattis would not say if the Pentagon was seeing any signs the Syrian regime might be preparing to use chemical weapons in Idlib. "I would prefer not to answer that right now," he said. "We are very alert." On Monday President Donald Trump warned Assad against "recklessly" attacking Idlib. Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the last major chunk of territory still in rebel hands. The Syrian military has been deploying reinforcements to the zone for more than a month. Russia, which on Tuesday conducted air strikes in the region, has stepped up its war rhetoric ahead of an anticipated government offensive. Mattis on Thursday is meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Delhi for talks with their Indian counterparts on a range of defence and trade issues. Mattis: 'zero evidence' of planned chemical attacks by Syrian rebels
A shuttered medium security prison in northern New York is back on the market.
The state Office of General Services announced a sealed-bid auction Wednesday for the former Chateaugay Correctional Facility in Franklin County. A sealed-bid auction is also known as a "blind" auction. The bids will be submitted to the state and anyone bidding on the property won't know the value of the other bids. The highest bid wins the auction.
The state opted for a sealed-bid auction after rejecting a winning bid made by Canadian-based Adar Investment, Inc., at a live auction July 24. The Office of General Services said the winning $600,000 bid was rejected "due to the failure of the bidder to meet contractual obligations."
Adar Investment planned to transform the former 99-acre prison into a summer camp.
For the new auction, bids are due by 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 17. The minimum bid is $200,000. The bids will be unsealed at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 18, in Albany.
More information about the auction can be found at nysstore.com. The required bidding documents can be obtained by emailing land.management@ogs.ny.gov or calling (518) 474-2195.
The property, which was one of four prisons closed by the state in 2014, is located along Route 11 in the town of Chateaugay. There are 30 structures on site with a combined 98,000 square feet of building area, according to the state Office of General Services.
The buildings housed administrative offices, dining areas and maintenance operations.
Chateaugay Correctional Facility is about 30 miles west of Interstate 87, a major thoroughfare that stretches from New York City to the Canadian border. The former prison is 40 miles west of Plattsburgh, 60 miles south of Montreal and 200 miles north of Albany.
Online producer Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding.
Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2
U.S. Rep. John Katko is aiming to ensure that only members of trusted traveler programs can use the Transportation Security Administration's PreCheck lanes at airports.
The PreCheck is PreCheck Act sponsored by Katko, R-Camillus, passed the House of Representatives by voice vote Tuesday. The bill was cosponsored by House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, and two Democrats U.S. Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and William Keating.
Katko, who chairs the Subcommittee on Transportation and Protective Security, introduced the bill to boost aviation security. The legislation would require that only members of the PreCheck will be allowed to use the PreCheck lanes at TSA checkpoints.
TSA offers five-year PreCheck memberships for $85. Prospective members must fill out an application online and then submit to a background check. Once they are approved for the program, they are permitted to receive expedited screening when passing through airport security checkpoints.
There are more than 7 million people enrolled in PreCheck, according to TSA's website.
However, Katko said TSA has allowed travelers who are not members of the PreCheck program to use the security lanes when passenger volume increases. Doing so, he explained, exposes airports and flights to security vulnerabilities.
"Rather than moving unscreened passengers through expedited screening lanes, this measure will ensure that the TSA enhances its enrollment processes and develops alternative methods to manage checkpoint wait times," Katko said in a statement.
There will be an exception for older and younger passengers who are traveling with PreCheck members. Under Katko's bill, anyone who is under the age of 12 over over the age of 75 may use the PreCheck security lanes if they're traveling with a member of the trusted traveler program.
Other provisions of the bill include directing TSA to launch a "risk-modified screening" program that would allow the agency to move low-risk passengers through security checkpoints and decrease wait times. And it would require TSA to implement a long-term strategy for increasing PreCheck enrollment.
The PreCheck is PreCheck Act is the 32nd Katko-sponsored bill passed by the House. Last month, President Donald Trump signed a bill authored by the congressman to delay a rule requiring biometric screening of workers at U.S. ports.
Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1
U.S. Rep. John Katko's campaign is calling on Democratic challenger Dana Balter to break ties with a progressive group that held a protest outside Lockheed Martin in Salina last week.
CNY Solidarity Coalition organized a rally outside Lockheed Martin to protest the bombing of a Yemeni school bus last month. CNN reported that a Saudi-led coalition dropped the bomb that killed 40 children.
Reports indicate the bomb was manufactured by Lockheed Martin. The firm is one of the leading U.S. defense contractors.
In a Facebook listing for the protest, the CNY Solidarity Coalition accused Lockheed Martin of "literally making a killing from killing." The group also notes that the company has donated $10,000 to support Katko's re-election bid.
Federal Election Commission records show that a Lockheed Martin political action committee has made 10 donations totaling $10,000 to Katko, R-Camillus, in the 2018 election cycle.
Katko's campaign urged Balter, D-Syracuse, to step down from the CNY Solidarity Coalition and "denounce its disturbing activism."
"Lockheed Martin is one of the largest employers in our region, providing good paying jobs and supporting hundreds of families," said Jeff Bishop, Katko's campaign manager, who also claimed that the group was founded by Balter. She wasn't a founding member of the organization.
Bishop added, "Central New Yorkers deserve to know if Dana Balter will stand up for this historic Syracuse employer, or if she'll stand with her radical, out-of-touch organization instead."
Balter was a member of CNY Solidarity Coalition and helped organize events for the group. She became one of its leading voices when the coalition pushed Katko to hold town hall meetings last year.
Balter responded to Katko's campaign in a statement Friday.
"If John Katko wants to ask questions about where I stand, he accept my invitation to a joint town hall instead of lobbing nasty characterizations from the safety of his office," she said. "Meanwhile, the Lockheed Martin families he's claiming to defend will be among the first to see their taxes go up thanks to the giant tax giveaway to the wealthy he touts as his top achievement."
Saudi Arabia's bombing of a Yemeni school bus was a topic at Katko's public forum in Auburn last week. He was asked by an attendee if he supports the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia. He said he does not oppose the U.S. selling arms to the Saudis.
He stressed the importance of supporting Saudi Arabia to keep Iran in check. Iran, he explained, is the largest backer of state-sponsored terrorism.
Katko acknowledged the bombing in Yemen "was terrible" and he doesn't agree with it, but he doesn't believe it was an intentional act.
"A strong military in Saudi Arabia is going to help keep Iran in check to some extent," he said, adding that Iran "unchecked is an extraordinarily dangerous thing."
Love 6 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 2 Angry 2
When three top officials in President Donald Trump's administration visited central New York in a seven-week span, U.S. Rep. John Katko viewed it as an opportunity to highlight some of his top legislative priorities.
But on a conference call with reporters last month, White House officials touted the political benefits of the trips, which came a few months before the midterm election in November.
The call in question was with members of the White House staff who, despite the president's disdain for anonymous sources, directed reporters to identify them as people familiar with Trump's thinking.
The White House staffers leading the call were asked if Trump planned to visit battleground House districts. In response, the officials cited examples of Cabinet officials and other top Trump administration officials who visited House districts in August.
One of the visits mentioned by the White House was Energy Secretary Rick Perry's tour of the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in Oswego County one of the nuclear plants in Katko's district. Katko, R-Camillus, joined Perry for the tour and a roundtable discussion at the facility. Both events were closed to the press.
Perry's appearance with Katko was billed as an official event. The Department of Energy issued a news release on the visit and Katko's congressional office notified media outlets in advance that Perry would be visiting the region.
On the conference call, the White House staffers were careful to note that the examples they cited were official events, not political gatherings. But they also pointed out how it may have political benefits.
"While these are official events, and I want to be clear about that," the unnamed staffer said, "official events obviously drive earned media attention."
The White House official added that the events occurred in "all targeted districts."
Perry was the third Trump administration official to appear with Katko at a central New York event. Vice President Mike Pence headlined a campaign fundraiser for Katko in Syracuse before touring Nucor Steel in Auburn. The fundraiser was a political event, while the Nucor tour was an official event.
In July, Katko welcomed Ivanka Trump to Syracuse for an education roundtable. It was considered an official event.
During an interview last week, Katko disputed the suggestion that Perry's visit to central New York was for political purposes.
"We didn't have him at a rally. We didn't have him at fundraisers. We're just talking issues," he said. "It was less political and more meat-and-potatoes of highlighting the issues that are important to me."
As for the appearances with other Trump administration officials, Katko said he didn't know if they help or hurt his re-election bid. He is seeking a third term representing the 24th Congressional District.
His opponent, Democratic challenger Dana Balter, accused the White House of misusing taxpayer dollars to support Katko's re-election. There are federal laws that prohibit the use of official resources for political purposes.
"The White House admitted that events with Secretary Rick Perry and Senior Advisor Ivanka Trump were high-profile campaign photo ops," Balter, D-Syracuse, said in a statement. "Congressman Katko's campaign should immediately reimburse the taxpayers for all travel and event expenses related to these visits, and there can be no doubt that Katko has fully embraced the culture of corruption in Washington."
Katko, though, maintains the visits by Trump administration officials "shine a light" on subject areas he wants to promote.
With Pence, he highlighted Nucor Steel and the company's growth in Auburn. At the education roundtable with Ivanka Trump, he discussed the importance of the P-TECH program in Syracuse. And with Perry, he reiterated his support for nuclear energy and why nuclear power is important from a national security standpoint.
It's unknown whether other Trump administration officials will visit central New York in the coming months. A poll released last week found Katko leading Balter by 15 points, 54 to 39 percent, in the 24th district race.
"When they're going to advance the issues that I care about, I will always have them up," Katko said.
Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1
AUBURN Cayuga Community College student Bethany Jorolemon gets jittery if she has to speak in front of more than five people, so she was blasted out of her comfort zone this summer when she was on stage in front of thousands of people staring at her.
But Jorolemon more than held her own, placing in third in the justice administration category for the business sorority Phi Beta Lambda's national competition in Baltimore. Jorolemon, from Weedsport, scored the best finish for a CCC student in the competition's history. She made it to the national level after coming in first at the New York state Phi Beta Lambda competition. Jorolemon, who is pursuing a business administration degree, is now an officer within CCC's group.
CCC associate professor Amy Valente, CCC's Phi Beta Lambda chapter co-adviser, said she has seen Jorolemon's confidence grow since she joined the sorority last semester. After Jorolemon went back to school, she took one of Valente's business classes. Jorolemon asked a lot of questions in class and and Valente was impressed by her work ethic, so she asked the student to join the sorority.
"She's an excellent student and she really cared about the work that she was doing in my class," Valente said. "I could tell that she would be a great fit and I could also tell that she had the capability to be an officer in the club. You can kind of sense it sometimes."
Jorolemon occupied the back of the room for her first two meetings, not uttering a word unless Valente spoke to her, as Jorolemon does not consider public speaking her strong suit. Gradually, she began taking a leadership role within the group.
CCC students Cayuga Community College student Bethany Jorolemon, holding the award, finished third this summer in a national Justice Administration competi
"They accepted me as a peer, but then they kind of looked up to me as well," Jorolemon said.
Getting to this point has been a long journey for Jorolemon. After graduating from high school, she got a bachelor's degree from CCC in the hopes of becoming a homicide investigator. She admits she didn't "want to start at the bottom and work my way up," and that career never really panned out.
After an array of civil service exams for positions with the state police and others and hitting wait list after wait list, she had a daughter. Jorolemon eventually finished earning a criminal justice bachelor's degree at SUNY Oswego, but after accumulating more job experience related to business than criminal justice, she went back to CCC. She believes her prior career ambitions and experience helped her take on the criminal justice category at the public speaking competition.
Valante convinced Jorolemon to take on the sorority competition after it became clear for her that the justice administration category would simply involve taking a test, without presenting in front of people.
After she took the national test and was up on stage with the justice administration finalists, calling their names by placement, she noticed others were being called before her.
"The longer I stood there without my name being called, I was like 'Oh, I obviously did better than I thought i was going to,'" Jorolemon said.
Jorolemon, who wants to get into forensic accounting after graduation, is taking an an active role at the sorority now. Valente is trying to convince Jorolemon to take on a competition category that involves public speaking next year. Valente believes Jorolemon's competition win will help her resume stand out.
"She has really shined. It's amazing how far she's come in just one semester of being with the group," Valente said.
Staff writer Kelly Rocheleau can be reached at (315) 282-2243 or kelly.rocheleau@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @KellyRocheleau.
Love 9 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0
Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading.
Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy
AUBURN With an opening date set for the end of October, city and state officials gathered at Auburn Public Theater Wednesday morning to give the public an update on the progress of the Equal Rights Heritage Center.
According to Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason, construction is still on schedule, despite some rainy weather in August. He said workers are in the process of finishing the roof and masonry work, which should take about a week and a half to complete. The floors are also being installed and plumbers and electricians are inside laying pipes and wires. Crews are also getting started on landscaping the grounds.
Most of the interior work needs to be completed by the end of September so the exhibition contractor, Hadley Exhibits Inc. from Buffalo, can begin to install the exhibits. That will take about three weeks, Mason said.
One of the primary design goals for the center, nArchitects senior associate Amanda Morgan said, was to draw visitors to other sites in Auburn. The center's large windows frame the city's surrounding historic buildings, including the Seward House, Westminster Church and Memorial City Hall.
The center is made up of four "volumes," or buildings, all connected, Morgan said. The first volume, which is the smallest, will act as the entry vestibule and will include visitor information and a large map of the city. The middle two structures will house local and regional exhibits, guest services, restrooms and the Taste NY market. The last volume, the one closest to William Street, will house the offices of the Auburn Downtown Business Improvement District and Cayuga County Tourism Office.
Julian Adams, the director of community preservation services for the state Office of Historic Preservation, said another goal of the center was to "be a good neighbor" to the existing buildings. The designers wanted the center to fit in comfortably to the surrounding architecture without vanishing.
"Every piece of architecture that was ever built, at one time, was modern," Adams said, noting that elements of the center, such as masonry work and windows, reflect surrounding historic buildings.
Adams said the history of Auburn and the Central New York region such as its role in the equal rights and suffrage movements and the Underground Railroad serve as the perfect backdrop to build the Equal Rights Heritage Center.
The center's South Street site, which many people think of as only a former parking lot, was once the home of Auburn's chapter of the Women's Education and Industrial Union, which was founded in the late 1870s by one of the country's first female doctors, he said.
"We have so many things in this area to celebrate and also to teach other people with about human rights and civil rights," Adams said. "This is the place to do it, right here in Auburn. And I firmly believe that."
Officials believe the center will be a big draw for tourists. Tourism is a multi-million-dollar industry in Cayuga County. According to 2017 statistics provided by ILoveNY, tourism brings over $200 million into the county annually and provides about 2,800 jobs. Taxes collected as a result of tourism provide a $418 tax relief for each Cayuga County household.
"Tourism is an export," Cayuga County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tracy Verrier said. "It's people coming in, spending money that is not generated here. It's generating wealth in our community. It's not just us circulating our own money in the community, this is new money coming into the community."
The idea of a welcome center in Auburn is not new. When the city's Historic and Cultural Sites Commission was formed over 20 years ago, one of its original goals was to build a welcome center. In 2016, the city included a proposal for a downtown welcome center in its Downtown Revitalization Initiative application. Auburn didn't win the DRI that year, but the day after Oswego was announced the winner, Gov. Cuomo personally called Mayor Michael Quill to talk about what the city had proposed in its application.
The $10 million center is being funded through the state's Upstate Revitalization Initiative. The Central New York region received $500 million through the URI in 2015 for "transformative, economic development projects," Verrier said.
Quill emphasized that the $10 million the city received from the state was to be used specifically to build the Equal Rights Heritage Center not to combat harmful algal blooms on Owasco Lake, for example.
"There's a misconception in our community that the $10 million that is building our heritage center was for anything the city of Auburn wanted to do with it," Quill said. "That is not the case. The governor said specifically that he wanted a heritage center built."
Quill added that the state is providing other resources and funding to the community for water-quality improvement projects. Owasco, Cayuga and Skaneateles lakes were included in Cuomo's $65 million initiative to fight HABs in New York's lakes.
Staff writer Natalie Brophy can be reached at (315)282-2239 or natalie.brophy@lee.net. Follow her on Twitter @brophy_natalie.
Love 5 Funny 3 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 8
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.
When it comes to harmful algal blooms, no message is more important than what has been pushed for multiple summers by state and local officials: "Know it, avoid it, report it."
It's vital that the public especially anyone who would use water bodies for recreational purposes such as swimming, boating or fishing become educated on what harmful blooms look like. And when anyone sees anything that raises any level of doubt, they should not go in that water. Finally, suspicious conditions should be reported to environmental authorities so they can further explore and possibly take samples for testing. We highly recommend everyone add the state Department of Environmental Conservation's HABs reporting email address to their contact: Habsinfo@dec.ny.gov.
But as important as public education is on what to do regarding suspected HABs, there's also a crucial role that government agencies should play in notifying the public about blooms that have been officially deemed suspicious or confirmed. In New York state, the current system for keeping the public updated on these test results can generously be described as scattered.
Take Owasco Lake, where in the past year primary responsibility for testing and notification has shifted from the government-run Owasco Lake Watershed Inspection Program to the nonprofit Owasco Watershed Lake Association. It's not easy to find any results from the locations sampled out on the lakes. When the first suspected blooms of this season surfaced early last month, it took several days for any type of official public announcement.
DEC looking to resolve Owasco Lake harmful algae monitoring problems The transition of Owasco Lake's harmful algal bloom surveillance program to a volunteer-led effort has allowed for a greatly expanded area of
To be clear, we're not referring to notifications regarding test results with public drinking water. That system, under the purview of the Cayuga County Health Department, has been rock solid in terms of consistent public notifications and access to test results.
But for people to be able to check whether any major body of water in our region may be experiencing an active bloom, the information is tough to track down. The state DEC has a HAB notification page, but that's updated just once per week (typically late on a Friday afternoon) and the details included are fairly minimal.
It can also be a source of confusion. The DEC site's update from Aug. 31, for example, had no HAB reports for Owasco or Skaneateles lakes. But a Cayuga County Health Department press release issued four days later said they "continue to be present and wide-spread" on both lakes.
Some of these issues with publicizing HAB testing results have become fodder for public discussion in recent weeks, and we were glad to hear from the DEC that officials there are looking into improving the process.
Our recommendation is for an online test results platform that's standardized throughout the state, and one that's consistently updated in a timely manner. The public needs a system that provides clear and thorough data, and that can be easily found on key agency home pages.
The Citizen Editorial Board includes publisher Rob Forcey, managing editor Mike Dowd and executive editor Jeremy Boyer.
Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
BERLINThe Seed, the new erotic film by Barcelona-born gay erotica director Noel Alejandro, brings the spotlight to Berlins daytime underground scene.
Once again, Noel Alejandro uses the language of sex to debate the undisclosed demons of todays society. With The Seed, he is willing to open a report on how easy and seductive is the drug life in European capitals, and how young people would fall in addiction while looking for companionship, only to leave even more detached, or secluded.
The film takes place in Lyon, France, and tells the story of Gaspar, a young French guy who escapes from the madness of urban life after work by heading to the city park and taking the trail for a quick dip in the late. He knows, as he walks in, that he is entering the woody oasis where sex is a matter of nature, as the park is known by everyone in Berlin. His pursuit ends the moment he sees Sebastian emerging from the water. With a vagabond attitude and a provocative Danish accent, Sebastian is the one to show Gaspar how a simple thought can grow like a seed and become a desire.
Always exploring the intersection between sex and emotional dramas, The Seed is a portrait of Noels own personal experience fading the drug work in Berlin and some other related situations he has had to deal with since his childhood.
It might be that drugs, despite what some would think, do not bring you closer to people, he said. More likely, thell put you far away and lock you up inside yourself.
The Seed stars Yann Andre and Vic Calentine. It was filmed and edited in Berlin and Barcelona.
The Seed will be available beginning Friday, Sept. 14, on NoelAlejandro.com.
CYBERSPACEOn September 4, 1998, Stanford University students Larry Page and Sergey Brin legally incorporated a new company headquartered in a friends garage and based around a new algorithm they had created in their dorm rooman algorithm that produced the most useful way to search the internet so far created at that time.
They called their new company Google, because their algorithm was able to organize massive amounts of data, and the number Googola one followed by 100 zerosrepresents a quantity greater than the total number of atoms on the universe. Except they somehow made a typographical error, so the name of their company came out spelled Google.
It is also interesting to note that when the two students first created the new search algorithm in 1996, their name for it was BackRub. Why? Because at that time internet search engines returned results based on how well they matched the keywords in a user search. But BackRub instead ranked results based on how often sites were linked from other sitesthat is, by backlinks.
Two decades after the two students incorporated Google, the company is the dominant force on the internet and one of the largest corporations in the word, with a market capitalization of over $850 million, according to Fortune Magazine.
Google actually has three anniversary dates, according to data journalist Felix Richter of the site Statista. In addition to September 4, 1998, the company could trace its beginnings to September 15, 1997, when Page and Brin registered the domain name Google.comor to September 27, 1998, when the first Google search engine was launched online.
According to Statista, the little company that incorporated in a garage took in $109.7 billion in revenue last year, with a net income of $12.7 billion. Google also controls a massive 90.9 percent of the internet search market, and its Google Chrome internet browser also dominates with a market share just short of 60 percent.
According to a brief history of Google by the Daily Mail newspaper, in 1998 the then-dominant search form Yahoo! made what could easily be considered one of the worst business blunders of all time, when Page and Brin offered to sell Google to Yahoo! for what now seems a paltry $1 million. But Yahoo! took a pass on the opportunity.
A year later, the students tried again to sell out, this time to Excite, a now-defunct internet search engine, but one which in the 1990s was among the most popular search services online. This time the Google founders wanted just $750,000 plus 1 percent of the Excite company. But when Page and Brin insisted that Excite replace its search technology with their Google software, the deal fell apart, according to the Internet History Podcast.
Five years later, in 2004, Google went public, selling shares at $85 apiece, according to the Daily Mail history. Google raised a cool $1.9 billion from the IPO. The friend who loaned Page and Brin her garage for their new company, Susan Wojcicki, became CEO of the Google-owned video site YouTube in 2014.
Photo by Jijithecat / Wikimedia Commons
Cotswolds bakery Huffkins has secured its first export contract, with its fruitcakes, shortbread and branded going on sale in Japan.
Its products are available in two high-end department stores in Tokyo and, as of this month, will be sold online through the website of Huffkins Japanese distributor. In November, the distributor will also be opening a shop in central Tokyo with a dedicated section for the bakerys goods.
Huffkins, established in 1890, secured the export deal following support from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department for International Trade (DIT) to attend the Foodex trade show in Tokyo last March. This was part of the Food is GREAT campaign that showcases British food and drink to foreign markets.
Following the trade show, Huffkins received strong interest from Japanese food and drink distributors, securing a partnership with one in October last year.
The businesss first order was for 1.7 tonnes of fruit cakes, shortbread and branded merchandise, and it has more orders secured for October this year and going into 2019.
Exporting has been a key element of Huffkins business strategy, and our new deal with Japan is a real opportunity for the business growth, said Natasha Whittaker, head of wholesale and export at Huffkins. The response we got from attending the Foodex trade show in Tokyo was incredible.
While there was a demand for the product in Japan, Huffkins had to overcome strict quarantine regulations, which required the company to list the origin of each of its ingredients. It worked with DITs international trade advisors, who support businesses looking to access new markets.
Paul Shand, DITs head of south west, said: Huffkins has been proactive in seeking out new business overseas, and are now reaping the rewards. There is currently huge demand for British food and drink overseas, with exports totalling 760m from the south west in the year to March 2018.
Although the demand is out there, we know there are a number of challenges that firms have to address. To help businesses tackle these issues, DIT has a dedicated team of international trade advisors across the south west to support ambitious and innovative businesses looking to access new markets and increase exports.
Over the next year, Huffkins will be looking to further expand its exports into Scandinavia and other European markets, and has been working with international trade advisors from DIT to carry out market research and identify new business opportunities. Through its attendance at trade shows, the business has also secured orders to Australia, Canada and Switzerland, which will be dispatched later this year.
Since the start of his papacy, Francis has infuriated Catholic traditionalists as he tries to nurture a more welcoming church and shift it away from culture war issues, whether abortion or homosexuality. "Who am I to judge?" the pope famously said, when asked about gay priests. Just how angry his political and doctrinal enemies are became clear this weekend, when a caustic letter published by the Vatican's former top diplomat in the United States blamed a "homosexual current" in the Vatican hierarchy for sexual abuse. It called for Francis' resignation, accusing him of covering up for a disgraced cardinal, Theodore E. McCarrick. With the letter - released in the middle of the pope's visit to Ireland - an ideologically motivated opposition has weaponized the church's sex abuse crisis to threaten not only Francis' agenda but his entire papacy.
There are now credible allegations that Pope Francis knew all about sexual misconduct allegations regarding disgraced Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, and that he attempted to cover them up and restore McCarrick to a public position. Those allegations, originally aired publicly by Cardinal Carlo Maria Vigano, have been supported by a variety of sources including the state attorney in Pennsylvania, who says the Vatican was aware of local abuses for years.Now, you'd imagine that the media would be all over these allegations. After all, the media coverage of Boston archdiocese sexual abuse made headlines the world over, and became such a glorious moment for the press that it won them an Oscar in Spotlight. But instead of tracking down Francis and his acolytes for answers on whether the church looked the other way regarding both homosexual activity within the church and abuse of minors, the media have rushed to Francis' defense. Why? Because Francis is widely perceived to share Leftist sensibilities regarding issues like climate change, illegal immigration, and homosexuality.That's why Cardinal Blaise Cupich hasn't been run out of town on a rail for openly stating that "The Pope has a bigger agenda. He's got to get on with other things, of talking about the environment and protecting migrants and carrying on the work of the church. We're not going to go down a rabbit hole on this." The media believe, like Cupich, that the abuse of children is of lower priority than climate change and illegal immigration. Furthermore, they fear that focus will be placed on a homosexual subculture within the church, some of whose participants have been linked with molestation; victims of church abuse have been disproportionately male, as Professor Katherine van Wormer wrote in 2010 at Psychology Today That's not to say that homosexuality is linked with child abuse; the data don't bear out the idea that self-identified homosexual men are more likely to molest than self-identified heterosexual men. But regardless of all facts, members of the media would rather put children in danger to defend Pope Francis than report the accusations against the Vatican objectively.This isn't speculation. The members of the media are openly saying as much.Take, for example, this headline from The New York Times: " Vatican Power Struggle Bursts Into Open as Conservatives Pounce ."The scandal, you see, isn't the head of the most powerful religious organization on the planet knowing about and covering for sexual abuses - it's conservatives within the church calling him on it. Francis' priorities must be maintained at all costs. The "news" piece opens this way:Yes, the anger is clearly at Francis' political positions, not the allegations that he covered for a child molester. Only the leftist press could come up with such a morally obtuse position. But the Left sees Francis as an actual weapon against doctrine within the Church, and so they'll prop him up no matter the moral consequences. Better to have a Pope who says soft things about homosexual practices than a Pope who stands up to doctrinal abuses, including the abuse of minors, after all. Priorities are priorities.It's not just the Times pushing the "conservatives pounce" narrative. It's Reuters as well. Here was their tweet:Yes, it's conservatives escalating the war, not the Pope allegedly covering for sexual abuse. If you ever thought the media's agenda was the protection of kids rather than the promotion of a specific political agenda, you thought wrong.
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 our providing a pathway for the "Browning of America".
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has committed $9 billion in funding in the Lake Chad region, which is suffering from the drop in water levels and attacks attributed to the terrorist group Boko Haram.
The announcement was made during the two-day High-Level Conference on the Lake Chad Region, organized in Berlin, September 3-4, by UNDP and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), together with the governments of Germany, Norway and Nigeria.
The OIC continues its support to the countries of Lake Chad region (Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria) that are facing the worrying dwindling of the lake due to the drop in the water level, which has drastically reduced the perimeter of the lake, and repeated attacks by the terrorist group Boko Haram.
The institution explained that the security, stability and development of the Lake Chad region remain priorities for the OIC.
The OIC $9 billion funding will finance projects in the region through institutions affiliated with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). Half of this amount will go to economic and social infrastructure and private sector development. These projects aim to support the resistance of the populations of the region to the terrorist group and to fight the effects of drought.
During the conference, 70 states, international financial institutions and non-governmental organizations pledged some $2.17 billion in support and about $467 million in concessional loans for the crisis-ridden region.
In this connection, the IDB has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Lake Chad Committee to save the lake, heavily affected by drought and the misuse of water resources.
Between 1963 and 2017, Lake Chad lost 90% of its surface area. A situation that has had dramatic consequences for the lives of local populations.
Thus, more than 17 million people across the four Lake Chad Basin countries Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger remain mired in a complex crisis driven by extreme poverty, climate change and violent conflict.
As a result, more than 2.4 million are displaced and over 10 million people need more assistance to meet their basic protection and humanitarian needs.
A flight of Abu Dhabi-based Etihad bound for the Indonesian capital returned to the Emirati capital airport Wednesday after a problem with one the engines was reported.
Flight EY474; an A330, was forced to return eight minutes into the long haul trip. The aircraft took off from the UAE capital at 2.57am on Wednesday, Gulf Business reports.
The airline in a statement said a technical problem in one of the engines led to return of aircraft. All passengers, whose number was not revealed, landed safely and deplaned, it added.
The aircraft has a capacity of 240 seats.
One passenger on Twitter indicated that he heard an explosion from the right engine soon after take-off and that the aircraft was unstable for few seconds.
Passengers were able to continue their journey on a replacement aircraft, the airline said.
This is the second time in just over two years that an Etihad flight to Jakarta has experienced issues while en route, Arabian Business comments.
In May 2016, an A330-200 faced severe and unexpected turbulence that left more than 30 passengers and crew injured, the Dubai-based media notes.
State of Sales Which overall trends are changing the role of sales? What challenges do sales teams face in the midst of these changes? What are the current and future roles of new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) as they relate to the sales profession?
Get More From Your Leads If you're in business-to-business (B2B) sales, you likely have one overarching goal: Acquire new customers. Leads are your starting point, your currency, your ticket to success.
AI Sales Forecasting Tools Changing Company Culture Sales forecasting vendors such as Clari extend reach into enterprise marketing, leveling the data and, with AI, solving an old problem: conflicting numbers on quarterly forecasts AI sales forecasting tools soothe sales-marketing rivalries
Key Pros and Cons of Salesforce Sales Cloud In this brief expert guide, explore the pros and cons of Salesforce Sales Cloud. Learn why some users praise Sales Cloud's usability and accuracy, while others mourn its mobile CRM capabilities.
Can Salesforce Einstein Catch the next AI Wave? Condemn AI's potential 20 years ago, and it seems obsolete. Credit the tool with the success of the IoT, and it seems innovative that's relativity, and how Salesforce Einstein plans to improve customer engagement. Read on to learn about Salesforce's new contribution to the AI resurgence from expert consultant Jeff Kaplan.
New Salesforce Feature Aimed to Improve Data Accuracy In this expert guide, learn how Salesforce Lightning Voice can automatically log customer interactions and display them for future callers. Explore ways to provide entire sales teams with a full history of customer call data, so they can sell intelligently.
What to Expect from the Salesforce Sales Cloud Platform In this expert guide, explore what you can expect from the Salesforce Sales Cloud Platform with account/contact management, marketing, lead management, sales, and analytics features. Learn about the five different editions of this platform, their value, and details about trial periods.
How to Create a Customer Service Process that Enhances Your Bottom Line Uncover the reality of customer behavior to enhance your revenue and increase your customer satisfaction in this e-book.
Six Keys to Small Business Success Small business owners all want to grow their business, and they create products, buils awareness, and target market in order to do that. But are you overlooking the role that technology can play in growing your small business?
5 Secrets: Build Your Sales Pipeline and Keep it Growing In this e-book, find out how to make a major shift in your sales approach for the better in order to both increase individual sales rep effectiveness and improve collaborative team selling.
2016 Gartner Magic Quadrant for the CRM Customer Engagement Center Salesforce has been recognized by Gartner as a leader in this report for the 8th year in a row.In the age of the customer, nothing is more important than customer service. Service Cloud customers agree.
Tips for Becoming a Successful Social Enterprise Read this presentation transcript to learn how Burberry, a luxury clothing brand, leveraged Force.com's cloud platform to extend their business to the social enterprise, broaden their audience reach, and enable mobile applications.
A Czech holidaymaker has published a video of "staged drowning of refugees", filmed in Crete. It was a lie
4. 9. 2018
cas cteni 3 minuty
Several Czech websites have recently shared a video made by Marek Chrastina, a Czech holidaymaker in Crete. Mr Chrastina argued that his video recorded the filming of "pretend-drowning refugees", an instance of fake news, made and disseminated by the establishment media to make the European public feel sorry for the immigrants who try to cross the Mediterranean. In fact what the Czech tourist recorded was the filming of a scene for a historical film dealing with the Turkish-Greek war of the 1920s.
The Czech's video, recorded on a beach in Crete, went viral on the web last month. A group of women in scarves walk into the water, carrying bundles containing things. They make their way towards some men who pretend to be drowning in the water. Then the video pans to show a cameraman and a film director who are instructing the actors in the sea what to do. Several Czech websites have recently shared a video made by Marek Chrastina, a Czech holidaymaker in Crete. Mr Chrastina argued that his video recorded the filming of "pretend-drowning refugees", an instance of fake news, made and disseminated by the establishment media to make the European public feel sorry for the immigrants who try to cross the Mediterranean. In fact what the Czech tourist recorded was the filming of a scene for a historical film dealing with the Turkish-Greek war of the 1920s.The Czech's video, recorded on a beach in Crete, went viral on the web last month. A group of women in scarves walk into the water, carrying bundles containing things. They make their way towards some men who pretend to be drowning in the water. Then the video pans to show a cameraman and a film director who are instructing the actors in the sea what to do.
The video was published by the Czech AntiKavarna Facebook page. Mr. Chrastina gives this commentary: "In Crete, in the town of Lerapetra, I have filmed an interesting video. Everyone will surely come to their own conclusions." The author adds that this is "how the media fake the alleged drownings of refugees. This is how we are manipulated by our TV stations."
Mr. Chrastina's video from Crete has been viewed more than 1,2 million people in the Czech Republic, in Poland, in Spain, in France and in the United Kingdom. There is even a version with English subtitles on YouTube. The video was shared on Facebook by Radim Fiala, the Deputy Chair of the extreme right wing Czech political party SPD. "This is how 'Mediterranean facts' are manufactured for the Western mainstream media," says the Czech-language pro-Russian website Aeronet. The video was shared by a number of Central European hate speech websites and it has provoked a wave of hate on social networks.
Independently of each other, the authenticity of the video was checked by the AFP news agency and by the German Correctiv.org website. Both these organisations quickly found the same facts: The video is mendacious. The director and the camera person who were filming the drowning scene in Crete do not work for the media. They are film makers, who were making a film about Greek migrants escaping from the Turkish-Greek war which took place in 1919-1922:
La realisatrice Eleni Vlassi tournait un documentaire historique sur une plage de Crete quand elle s'est retrouvee accusee par des sites et pages FB/Twitter de mettre en scene une noyade de migrants #AFP
https://t.co/AGTviXLVfq
Enquete par @RemiBanet via @AfpFactuel Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) August 22, 2018
0
12062
The film director's name is Eleni Vlassi. The filmed scene took place in Turkey in 1922 when Greeks were running to escape a large fire. They tried to save themselves in the sea and many people drowned.Eleni Vlassi wrote a long response for the Correctiv.org website. She strongly protested against the Czech video which she sees as an attempt to damage her reputation. She says that the video was made illegally and wants to take the case to court.Source in Czech HERE
Lawyers Sue Oregon State Bar for Free Speech Violations
On the heels of the Oregon State Bar issuing a $1.12 refund to members that requested one as a result of publishing political speech in the April issue of the bar's almost monthly "Bulletin," a pair of lawyers have filed a serious challenge to the Oregon Bar's collection of membership dues for political activity.
The lawyers' case relies on the recent SCOTUS decision in Janus v. American Federation, which held that public employees that opt-out of union membership cannot be compelled to pay dues. And while a state bar is not a union, per se, it's argued that it's similar enough, and the argument seems to be in line with Keller too.
From a $1.12 Refund to a First Amendment Challenge
In April of this year, the Oregon State Bar's "Bulletin" published two pieces, side-by-side, in response to the rising tensions surrounding white nationalism and extremism. One of the two pieces went as far as to document instances when President Trump was seen to be supporting hate groups.
Naturally, in these highly partisan times, a few attorneys were upset and complained about the publication. This led to the Bar issuing refunds of $1.12 to each member that requested one. The odd amount was determined by the cost of printing each issue. Curiously, only one of the two attorneys that filed suit claimed the nominal refund.
The lawsuit asserts that lawyers still need to be licensed, but that membership in the bar is (or should be) a different issue, particularly if the bar engages in political activities. The Oregon Bar has stated that it plans to defend this case as it believes that it has not crossed the line of its mission: protecting the public and promoting access to justice.
Despite the fact that these attorneys seemed to have had this response to the Bar denouncing extremism in favor of the rule of law (which seems reasonable for a public protection agency to do), this case courts a fascinating First Amendment issue.
Related Resources:
Jon Cog writes, "On the 30th anniversary of IRC, David Cassel pulls together his favorite memories from the 1990s, 'when there were all kinds of fun things to do.' It was an unexplored world of freedom and fun, where even Monty Python's fish-slapping dance got a shout-out in a popular IRC client prompting one reporter to describe IRC as 'the kind of place that slaps you around a bit with a large trout.' But the article describes the humble origins of IRC (as a Swedish college student's summer project), as well as the many weird and wonderful moments that followed including an IRC-themed music video from Sweden in 2006. And best of all, IRC is still popular among open source developers today.
On any channel, there was always the possibility of being ceremoniously kicked from the conversation if you offended the channel's creator. And then there was that time back in 1998 when America Online was kicked off IRC that is, de-linked from all non-AOL servers for internet-relayed chat. On a mailing list for IRC administrators of the EFNet which still calls itself "the original IRC Network" AOL had been urged to find more resources to handle abuse, to which their sys-admin had responded instead, "Life sucks. Buy a helmet."
The vote to de-link AOL's server was unanimous.
AOL's not the only major entity who's had to deal with angry operators. "Asking about Ubuntu on Debian's IRC channels is not considered nice" warns one 2014 web page explaining "how the FOSS Foundation and the Warsaw Hackerspace got (temporarily) banned from #debian at Freenode."
I've been fighting with voting machine vendors since Bush v Gore, when companies like Diebold brazenly sought to subvert the Supreme Court's order to standardize a secure design for US voting machines, going so far as to send out thousands of fraudulent copyright notices in a failed attempt to silence whistleblowers who'd reported defects in their systems.
It's been more than a decade and voting machines are worse than ever, cybersecurity dumpster-fires that are poorly defended by incompetent local officials and corrupt corporate vendors.
On the eve of the most significant midterm election in living memory, mere months after a series of hack attempts committed by foreign actors against US voting machines, the Senate Intelligence Committee has recommended that, at the very least, voting machines and tallying systems have their internet networking capabilities removed. That way, people who want to hack voting machines will have to physically visit polling places and attack the machines or waylay the people who are shuttling the voting records to centralized tallying points.
But the officials who run the voting machines and the vendors who sell them are refusing. The officials don't want to take heat from impatient voters who demand instantaneous tallies as soon as the polling closes, and the vendors, well, who knows why they think this is a good idea, but it fits in with their culture of recklessness and arrogant incompetence.
In the exchange with Vora earlier this year, an executive at Votem, a company that sells smartphone voting software, scoffed at the demand for a blanket ban on election-related wireless as "lazy," taking particular issue with "the idea that any of us in this discussion can possibly know enough about the future to say with certainty X technology should be banned or not." (In a Votem blog post published a month earlier, the executive, David Wallick, wrote that the company's "greatest challenge" was "pushing the envelope" with regard to technologies that make the public uncomfortable.) Piling on, Bernie Hirsch, an executive at e-voting firm MicroVote, suggested that just like Wi-Fi, e-voting paper trails could be "hacked" by some malicious mailman so why should one be forbidden while the other was left alone? Duncan Buell, a professor of computer science at the University of South Carolina, wasn't amused, calling Hirsch's response "at least hugely facetious and at worst a genuine troll." "Ballot corruption in a paper system involves complicit human actors on-site dealing with physical objects," Buell noted. "As is well-known to all of us, corruption/disruption of electronic systems (ballot or otherwise) can be done without detection by almost anyone from almost anywhere on the planet."
Are We Making Elections Less Secure Just to Save Time? [Sam Biddle/The Intercept]
Fox News 4 in Dallas reports that a man crashed his truck into the side of its building at least twice "then got out and started ranting."
A man crashed a truck into the side of our building this morning. He jumped out and started ranting. He's in custody now but the bomb squad is on its way. He left behind a suspicious bag. Most have been evacuated & a few are working to keep the news on air from a secure location. pic.twitter.com/X3UpLbYk85
FOX 4 Reporter Brandon Todd heard what happened and went to investigate. He saw the man through a window.
"You could see the man's pickup truck, the front of it clearly smashed. One of our employees told me he ran into the side of the building, backed up and then ran into it a second time. When we went into the office we saw him and he was in the bed of his truck and he was throwing boxes into the street and then just grabbing handfuls of paper and throwing handfuls of paper into the street as well," he said.
Brandon took out his cellphone and started recording the man. When he realized he had an audience he grabbed a few pieces of paper, slammed them up against the window and started pleading his case.
"Originally when he was in the bed of the truck he was yelling out 'High treason! High treason!' As he got over to the window he was trying to explain something that involved the Denton County Sheriff's Department," Brandon said.
Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have demonstrated that gene therapy can be effective without causing a dangerous side effect common to all gene therapy: an autoimmune reaction to the normal protein, which the patients immune system is encountering for the first time.
The researchers showed this in a mouse model that accurately recapitulates Duchenne muscular dystrophy. One in every 5,000 boys is born with this crippling disease, which leaves patients wheelchair-bound by mid-adolescence and is typically fatal by young adulthood. It stems from a genetic defect that deprives skeletal and cardiac muscles of a working version of a protein called dystrophin.
Gene therapy is on the cusp of becoming a mainstream approach for treating single-gene disorders, said Lawrence Steinman, MD, professor of neurology and neurological sciences and of pediatrics at Stanford. But theres a catch: If you give a gene thats a recipe for a normal protein to someone with a faulty version of the gene, whose body never made the normal protein before, that persons immune system will mount a reaction in some cases, a lethal one to the normal protein, just as it would to any foreign protein. We think weve solved that problem.
The findings are described in a study published online Sept. 3 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Steinman, who holds the George A. Zimmermann Professorship, is the studys senior author. The lead author is senior research scientist Peggy Ho, PhD.
Going viral
Duchenne muscular dystrophy is the result of a single defective gene, making it an excellent candidate for gene therapy, in which a patients faulty gene is replaced with the correct version. One way to do this is by co-opting viruses, which are simple entities that are adept at infecting cells and then forcing every invaded cells reproductive machinery to copy their own viral genes. For gene therapy, viruses are modified by ridding them of unwanted genes, retaining the ones necessary for infectivity and adding the therapeutic gene to be delivered to a patient.
The gene encoding dystrophin is far too big for a gene-hauling virus to take onboard. Fortunately, a mere fraction of the entire gene is enough to generate a reasonably functional version of dystrophin, called microdystrophin. The abridged gene fits snugly into a viral delivery vehicle designed some time ago by Jeffrey Chamberlain, PhD, a co-author of the study and a professor of neurology, medicine and biochemistry at the University of Washington.
Inducing tolerance
But theres still that sticky autoimmunity problem. To get around it, Steinman and his colleagues spliced the gene for microdystrophin into a different kind of delivery vehicle called a plasmid.
Plasmids are tiny rings of DNA that bacteria often trade back and forth to disseminate important traits, such as drug resistance, among one another. The particular bacterial plasmid the investigators co-opted ordinarily contains several short DNA sequences, or motifs, that the immune system recognizes as suspicious and to which it mounts a strong response.
But some years ago, Steinman and a few other Stanford scientists including Ho and study co-author William Robinson, MD, PhD, professor of immunology and rheumatology figured out how to replace those troublesome DNA motifs with another set of DNA sequences that, far from exacerbating the immune response, subdue it. This immune-tolerance-inducing plasmid has been deployed in clinical trials for two different autoimmune conditions, with promising results.
For the new study, the researchers used a one-two punch to deliver gene therapy and protection against autoimmunity to the mice: viral delivery of the microdystrophin gene, followed by the plasmid-assisted induction of tolerance to microdystrophin.
Gene therapy is on the cusp of becoming a mainstream approach for treating single-gene disorders.
Fifteen 6-week-old mice an age roughly equivalent to that of a young child bioengineered to lack functioning dystrophin were injected with the virus carrying microdystrophin. Starting a week later, they were divided into three groups and given weekly injections for 32 weeks of either a dummy solution; the dummy solution and the plasmid absent the microdystrophin gene; or the plasmid with the microdystrophin gene.
At the end of the 32-week period, by which time the mice were the human equivalent of young adults, the ones that got the microdystrophin-loaded plasmid had significantly greater muscular strength and substantially more dystrophin-producing muscle fibers. They had lower levels of key bloodborne signaling chemicals that carry inflammatory messages between immune cells, and they had weakened antibody responses to normally immunogenic portions of microdystrophin.
Its still early days here this was, after all, a mouse experiment but it seems we can induce tolerance to a wide assortment of formerly immunogenic proteins by inserting the gene for the protein of interest into the plasmid, Steinman said. Weve seen this with the insulin precursor, in people who have Type 1 diabetes, and with myelin, in people who have multiple sclerosis. It now looks as if the concept may hold for gene therapy, too.
Steinman is a member of Stanford Bio-X, the Stanford Child Health Research Institute and the Stanford Neurosciences Institute.
Steinman is also chair of the board of Tolerion Inc., a biotechnology company that shares rights to the tolerance-inducing plasmid with Stanford Universitys Office of Technology Licensing. He said he is seeking partners to move the tolerance-inducing plasmid into clinical trials as an adjunct to gene therapy.
Other Stanford co-authors of the study are graduate students Lauren Lahey and Klas Magnusson; senior research scientist Antonio Filareto, PhD; life science research professional Peggy Kraft; and Helen Blau, PhD, professor of microbiology and immunology.
Researchers at the University of Washington, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Mainz, in Germany, also contributed to the work.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (grant HL122332) and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Stanfords Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences also supported the work.
A few months back we bought a Nintendo Switch. The portable console gets shared between a 46 year-old dad and an 11 year-old daughter. The Switch sees a lot of playtime.
We had a long road trip planned, and my daughter wanted to be able to play while we drove. Gymnastics competition season was coming, and I wanted another distraction for the hours my daughter wasn't actually on the floor, or bars or whatever. There were lots of little mildly annoying places in life that felt like they'd be improved by playing Fortnite rather than sitting idly. I let the kid convince me a Nintendo Switch was the way to go.
Initially, I didn't touch the Switch very much and my daughter really loved the new MarioKart 8 and a game called Overcooked 2. MarioKart is MarioKart, she would disappear for hours into her room. The Switch with JoyCons attached is pretty perfect for curling up in bed, under a mountain of blankets and playing games til someone forces you to get up and do something with your life.
Overcooked is a fun puzzle game where you set up a production line and make food for hungry customers. Sort of a high action Lemonade Tycoon meets Tapper. I can churn through levels like butter, but for an 11 year-old the problem solving/puzzle management skills are new and it is fun to watch them develop in my daughter. I think she loves the madcap graphics and action as customers and food start to back up.
Then Fortnite came out on the Switch. I started to carry the Switch with me. The kid is a competitive gymnast, and her gym isn't exactly close to our home. Kiddo practices 3 hours a day 4, sometimes 5 days a week. Driving back and forth doesn't make a lot of sense, so I work out of my car in the parking lot an awful lot (I was working from a close-by BBQ place, but after a while I over-inflated.) Once work is done and I've had a long walk, there is usually 60 minutes or so to kill. Fortnite on Switch is pretty great.
Fortnite on the Switch is very darn close to Fortnite on my Xbox. The screen resolution is less, and the small size screen caused me some worry about my eyes, but once I figured out that taking my glasses off was better than keeping them on, I got into it. The tilt-look screen panning around is very helpful. The JoyCons are completely useable for 45-60 minutes of play in the car. Brightness and sound are adjustable well within what I need to play in moderate sun with headphones on. I usually work on challenges, not try for Solo wins but I've managed a few of those on the Switch.
Solo wins make me get up and dance. I've literally jumped out of the car and danced around a parking lot.
On a long road trip from San Francisco, CA to Vancouver, Canada the Switch was this summer's most favored toy. Super Mario Odyssey was her game of choice. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze became mine. Both play exactly as you'd expect; Nintendo's most popular characters on it's flagship platform. The challenge we were really presented with was battery-life. The Switch would slowly charge during play if on the VW's AC, but my USB battery pack wouldn't keep up with it while on, and would charge the device very slowly when not in use.
I would frequently look to play at the end of a long day driving only to find a dead battery. A full battery will usually give us about 75-90 minutes of full screen brightness while playing games on wifi. When not in use and on the car AC, or wall power, the Switch charges back up quickly. Make sure to click the JoyCons back on to the screen, if you were playing with them detached, so everything charges at once.
If I am traveling without the kid it is questionable if I'll drag the Switch along with me. Unlike a Kindle e-reader, the Switch isn't so small that it is no big deal to just leave in my carry-on travel bag. I try to travel pretty light and if I am not going to use it, it is extra weight and junk to have with me. The lack of a decent bluetooth sound solution forces me to carry wired headphones. If I only carry wired headphones, other complications arise. I also haven't found a small enough case to protect it in my bag, yet not be totally bulky. The screen protector I put on it is already chipped.
At home I still play on the Xbox. The screen is bigger, my eyes are happier, the controller is better for my hands. The Switch is surprisingly great for out-of-the-house situations where I'd otherwise be bored, like a gymnastics meet. My daughter plays with it a lot at home, she prefers the in bed and curled up play style to the big screen Xbox.
We've never bothered hooking the Switch up to the TV.
The Nintendo Switch is absolutely the best portable game machine I've ever had. I wish I'd had something like this on road trips with my family, as a kid.
Nintendo Switch Neon Blue and Red Joy-Con via Amazon
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Nintendo Switch via Amazon
Overcooked! 2 Nintendo Switch [Digital Code] via Amazon
In just one week, Members of the European Parliament will debate and vote on the new EU Copyright Directive, which contains two of the worst, most dangerous internet proposals in living memory.
One proposal, the Link Tax (Article 11), bans linking to news sites (but doesn't define "linking" or "news sites") unless the service you're using has paid for a license with all the "news sites" you might possibly link to.
The other, Censorship Machines (Article 13), forces online services to check everything a user wishes to publish against a database of "copyrighted works" (except anyone can add anything to these databases, regardless of whether they are copyrighted) and to censor anything that is a match or near-match for anything in the database.
The draft rules try to carve out an exception for Wikipedia it's nowhere near good enough but even with that exemption, Wikipedians are justifiably angry and scared about these proposals.
In a new post, Wikimedia Foundation Chair Maria Sefidari Huici describes the proposals as a threat to "the vibrant free web" that gave rise to Wikipedia and calls next week's vote the "last few moments of what could be our last opportunity to define what the internet looks like in the future."
The Foundation wants the EU to create copyright rules for the 21st century that take account of the "dramatically larger, more complex digital world and to remove cross-border barriers" not to continue the path of focusing only on "the market relationships between large rights holders and for-profit internet platforms."
Are you a European? Visit Save Your Internet right now. Do you know a European? Send them that link. There's only one internet and we all use it: if the EU breaks the internet, it will be broken for all of us, not just the 400+ million EU residents.
We urge EU representatives to support reform that adds critical protections for public domain works of art, history, and culture, and to limit new exclusive rights to existing works that are already free of copyright. The world should be concerned about new proposals to introduce a system that would automatically filter information before it appears online. Through pre-filtering obligations or increased liability for user uploads, platforms would be forced to create costly, often biased systems to automatically review and filter out potential copyright violations on their sites. We already know that these systems are historically faulty and often lead to false positives. For example, consider the experience of a German professor who repeatedly received copyright violation notices when using public domain music from Beethoven, Bartok, and Schubert in videos on YouTube.
Your internet is under threat. Here's why you should care about European Copyright Reform [Maria Sefidari Huici/Wikimedia Foundation]
Wikimedia warns EU copyright reform threatens the 'vibrant free web' [Natasha Lomas/TechCrunch]
Wikimedia Warns: EU Copyright Directive Could Drastically Change The Internet We Know And Love [Mike Masnick/Techdirt]
The tabloid worm has turned. After three years of deifying Donald Trump and lauding his every utterance, there is no clearer indication of the tabloids turning against Trump than the Globe magazine's cover tribute to "American hero" John McCain.
Trump famously said in 2015 that the Arizona senator was "not a war hero," and the Globe dutifully obliged with the headline: "Trump Is Right: McCain is NOT a War Hero." They followed up with the story of a dying McCain "sending tender goodbyes to his secret love" actress Connie Stevens.
But since Globe and National Enquirer chief David Pecker's recent agreement to cooperate with federal prosecutors in the Trump investigation, the tabloids are no longer slavishly following the ranter-in-chief's party line.
"John McCain FAREWELL!" screams the Globe cover, touting "his inspiring final words" ("Always believe in the promise and greatness of America") and his "surprising last regret" ("He lost his bid to become president" hardly a surprising regret, you'd think).
It's a clear slap in the face to the president, and possibly a harbinger of things to come from the tabloids that are believed to have a secret trove of damaging Trump stories locked away in their vaults.
Free from cult-like devotion to Trump's warped world vision, the tabloids are returning to their own warped version of reality.
And what could be more important than the loving reunion of former husband and wife Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, both finally free of their subsequent spouses? "Brad & Jen's Romantic Italian Dinner Date!" screams the Enquirer headline over an "Enquirer Exclusive" photo of the couple sharing a cozy dinner: Pitt in a black peaked cap, Aniston in large sunglasses. You have to search hard for the small print hidden in a corner: "Photo Re-Creation." Yes, it's a fake photo of a reunion that may never have happened. So good to have the tabloids back doing what they do best.
Equally edifying is the Enquirer two-page spread under the banner: "Death Yacht Skipper Solves Natalie Mystery!" The Enquirer returns yet again to its favorite celebrity death, with boat captain Dennis Davern having "broken his silence" to reveal why Robert Wagner allegedly killed wife Natalie Wood aboard the Splendor 37 years ago. Except that Davern has never been silent: he's spoken repeatedly to anyone who would listen, offering wild speculation that never rises to the level of evidence or proof.
How does Captain Davern "solve" the mystery of Wood's death? He says (as he has said many, many times before) that she was afraid of water and would "never, never, never" set off alone at night in the small dinghy from which she apparently fell and drowned. Therefore she must have been murdered. Inspector Clouseau couldn't have said it better. Murder mystery solved!
"George & Amal Clooney Named Royal Godparents!" declares the Globe headline above a story about Prince Harry and Meghan's choice for "their newly adopted baby girl." The Globe again runs a photo of Harry holding a baby boy taken in Barbados in 2010, with Markle Photoshopped into the image in place of a hospital nurse. It's a fantasy built on wild imaginings. Next week can we expect to read about the Royal couple's heartache as Angelina Jolie steps forward to adopt the baby that Harry and Meghan had set their heart on?
As actress Jennifer Garner takes estranged husband Ben Affleck to rehab (yet again), Us magazine's cover asks: "Why Jen Can't Let Go . . . Is it for LOVE or the CHILDREN!" The answer? "That unwavering loyalty is for the sake of their kids . . ." says an unnamed "insider." So why tease with the equivocal cover? Maybe Us readers enjoy being manipulated?
People mag devotes its cover to Michelle LeClair's "Escape From Scientology." You might reasonably ask: Michelle who . . ? She's the millionaire founder of a life insurance company, and while her tales of exploitation and abuse by the cult are horrifying, it's hard not to feel that we've heard this all before many times.
Fortunately we have the crack investigative team at Us mag to tell us that Victoria Justice wore it best, that Chrissy Metz is "double jointed in my fingers," that actress Serayah carries Beats headphones, Trophy Wife highlighter and fake lashes in her Yves Saint Lauren tote, and that the stars are just like us: they buy street food, hail taxis, and play ball. It's breaking news like this that keeps real journalism alive in these parlous times.
For real hard-hitting journalism, you can't beat the National Examiner story under the headline: "Senior Cat Holds Mailman Captive Until He Gives Her a Hug!" Aging feline Bijou in McKinleyville, California, reportedly "commandeers the local mailman's delivery truck each time she sees him, and won't budge until he gives her some serious cuddling!" Woodward and Bernstein, eat your heart out.
Onwards and downwards . . .
- South Africa was excluded from the list of countries given relief from steep aluminium and steel tariffs
- This comes after the US president said he wants land expropriation and the"large scale killing of farmers" to be investigated in SA
- The tariffs have a big influence on the industry and could hurt South Africa's economy in the long run
PAY ATTENTION: Click See First under the Following tab to see Briefly.co.za News on your News Feed!
It is believed that America's president signed proclamations that permit relief from aluminium and steel quotas to a number of countries.
However, South Africa was excluded from these countries. IOL News reports Argentina, South Korea, and Brazil will be receiving the planned relief.
South Africa was already affected by the tariffs on steel and aluminium imports introduced in March. Steel and aluminium got 25% and 10% tariffs respectively.
PAY ATTENTION: Save mobile data with FreeBasics: Briefly is now available on the app
Briefly.co.za learned that $375m (R5 719 470 000) worth of aluminium was exported by SA in 2017 and the tariffs imposed by the US will negatively affect these exports in the long run and even affect jobs in the steel and aluminium industry.
The American president is currently involved in trade disputes with Turkey and China, and he has recently ruffled South African feathers with a tweet.
Almost two weeks ago Briefly.co.za reported that President Trump said he wants land expropriation and the"large scale killing of farmers" to be investigated.
READ ALSO: Jacob Zuma doesnt think evidence given at #StateCaptureInquiry implicates him in crimes
Do you have a story to share with us? Inbox us on our Facebook page and we could feature your story.
To stay up to date with the latest news, download our news app on Google Play or iTunes today.
Top-5: How to be an African president - detailed guide and take a look at what else is happening on Briefly South Africa's YouTube channel.
Source: Briefly.co.za
- On Tuesday, Finance Minister Nhlanla Nene said he was confident that the current technical recession would not be long-lasting
- Nene said he felt confident that a stimulus package and structural economic reforms which are due to be tabled in October would restart the economy
- The finance minister said the cabinet was working on introducing a reform package which he was certain would boost the economy
PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see Briefly news on your News Feed!
On Tuesday, Finance Minister Nhlanla Nene said he was confident that the current technical recession would not be long-lasting. Nene said he felt confident that a stimulus package and structural economic reforms which are due to be tabled in October would restart the economy.
Nene said cabinet was working on the introduction of an economic reform package which will bring real structural and much-needed changes to the economy and in Nenes opinion restart the economy and lead to growth.
READ ALSO: AfriForum: Land expropriation a government plot to hand mineral resources to China
Nene said the economic figures which were released on Tuesday were disappointing and admitted that while the government was not totally surprised by the news it had been caught somewhat off-guard by the contraction in the second quarter.
Briefly.co.za gathered that Nene will deliver the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) in Parliament in October. This will be Nenes first major policy since being reappointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The MTBPS serves as a roadmap for the governments spending plans and economic vision for the next 36 months.
TimesLive.co.za reported that Nene admitted that the controversial VAT increased announced by former finance minister Malusi Gigaba earlier this year had played a role in the recession. Nene said the increased VAT rate had led to decreased consumer spending which had directly contributed to negative growth.
Nene is currently in China as part of Ramaphosas delegation at the Forum on China-Africa cooperation. The trip has also been used to secure investment deals with the Chinese government and Chinese corporations.
PAY ATTENTION: Save mobile data with FreeBasics: Briefly is now available on the app
Nene urged South Africans to remain calm and not to panic about the state of the economy. He said the government would unveil its counter-measures to the recession at the MTBPS.
EWN.co.za reported that Nene said he did not believe the economic contraction had anything to do with the uncertainty which has been caused by the current land reform debate which is raging in the country.
The technical recession means Ramaphosa has started his presidency in the same manner as former president Jacob Zuma who also had to deal with a technical recession within six months of taking office.
That was the last time the South African economy has been in a technical recession, although growth has been sluggish and relatively flat for some time. One of Ramaphosas key concerns upon taking power was restarting the stalled economy.
The rand has continued to plummet against the US dollar. According to Fin24.com figures the local currency was trading at R14.85 at the start of trading on Tuesday but dropped to R15.22 after the economic data was released.
The currency was trading at R15.57 at 10:00 on Wednesday.
READ ALSO: 6 Important facts about South Africas first technical recession since 2009
For more amazing, funny and informative videos, please visit Briefly South Africa's YouTube Channel.
Do you have a story to share with Briefly? Visit our Facebook page where you can send us a message or leave us a comment. Your story could be shared online.
To stay up to date with the latest news, download our news app on iTunes or GooglePlay today.
Source: Briefly.co.za
- Convicted drug kingpin and murder accused Radovan Krejcir has warned that it would be in the national interest for the government to send him home
- Krejcir is currently trying to secure an extradition deal back to his native Czech Republic
- His lawyer said if Krejcir was not extradited he would probably escape from prison
PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see Briefly news on your News Feed!
Convicted drug kingpin and murder accused Radovan Krejcir has warned that extraditing him to his native Czech Republic was in the national interest of South Africa. Krejcirs lawyer added that his client would probably escape prison if he was not extradited.
Krejcir issued an additional warning to the Department of Justice and Minister Michael Masutha that he would take legal action against the minister and the department if his extradition did not materialise.
READ ALSO: AfriForum: Land expropriation a government plot to hand mineral resources to China
Krejcir has in the past claimed that he was the victim of a political conspiracy which involved the son of a leading politician and some very high-ranking law enforcement officials. Krejcir claims revolve around a payment of R2.5 million to obtain asylum papers.
Briefly.co.za gathered that Krejcir claims once his relationship with the politicians son went south he fell victim to other people turning on him and making sure that he would remain in prison.
Krejcir has repeatedly complained about being the victim of abuse and even torture in prison. EWN.co.za reported that Krejcir described the conditions of South African prisons as inhuman.
His lawyer, Eric Mabuza, wrote a letter to Masutha recently in which he warned the minister that his client would probably remain a high-risk inmate for the entire time he remained behind bars.
SowetanLive.co.za reported that Mabuzas letter went on to say that it was highly likely that his client would cause the government considerable embarrassment with his eventual escape from prison.
PAY ATTENTION: Save mobile data with FreeBasics: Briefly is now available on the app
The justice department said the minister had received that letter and noted its contents but said he would not comment on the matter. The department said Masutha would instead wait for Krejcir to start legal proceedings.
In August, Krejcir managed to obtain a cell phone which he used to give a radio interview.
The department of correctional services confirmed the incident and said it had confiscated a cell phone and sim card from Krejcirs cell. The items are classified as contraband by the department and inmates are forbidden from possessing such items.
The department said it viewed the incident as an obvious security breach and would take steps to ensure a similar incident did not occur again.
READ ALSO: Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene says government has plan to deal with recession
For more amazing, funny and informative videos, please visit Briefly South Africa's YouTube Channel.
Do you have a story to share with Briefly? Visit our Facebook page where you can send us a message or leave us a comment. Your story could be shared online.
To stay up to date with the latest news, download our news app on iTunes or GooglePlay today.
Source: Briefly.co.za
News / National
by Staff reporter
THE United Kingdom has appointed a new Ambassador to Zimbabwe to replace Ms Catriona Laing in January next year.In a statement yesterday, the UK Government confirmed Ms Melanie Robinson's appointment as its country's new Ambassador to Zimbabwe from January 2019."Ms Melanie Robinson has been appointed Her Majesty's Ambassador to the Republic of Zimbabwe in succession to Ms Catriona Laing CB who will be transferring to another Diplomatic Service appointment. Ms Robinson will take up her appointment in January 2019," said the UK Government.Ms Laing, who has played a pivotal role in the country's re-engagement with Britain, has been Ambassador to Zimbabwe since 2014. The UK Government described Ms Robinson as a married mother of two with vast experience in the diplomatic service.In her detailed curriculum vitae, the UK Government said Ms Robinson has been serving as the Executive Director for the UK in the World Bank Group in Washington since 2015.It said from 2012 to 2015, she served in the Department for International Development (DFID) Addis Abba Head Office and between 2010 to 2012 she was the DFID principal private secretary to the Secretary of State.The UK Government said between 2009 and 2010, Ms Robinson was appointed head of international climate policy in the Department of Energy and Climate Change and prior to that she served as DFID team leader, Climate Change Adaptation from 2007 to 2009.It said Ms Robinson worked as private secretary to Secretary of State from 2005 to 2007 and between 2004 and 2005 she was the DFID Policy Analyst, lead on the UK G8 and European Union Presidencies. When she comes to Zimbabwe, Africa will not be new to her since she worked as the DFID's Senior Programme Officer in Mozambique from 2002 to 2004.
News / National
by Staff reporter
FOOT-and-mouth disease has wreaked havoc in Mashonaland Central province's eight districts after an outbreak, suspected to have originated in Mozambique, was recorded in June.Provincial veterinary officer Wiltmot Chikurunhe said Rushinga and Muzarabani districts were the worst affected."The province's eight districts are affected by foot-and-mouth. It entered Zimbabwe on June 25 this year from Mozambique and places close to Mozambique, that is Rushinga and Muzarabani are the most affected," Chikurunhe said.The department has placed all districts under quarantine and stopped the movement of livestock due to the outbreak of foot and mouth."We have quarantined all the districts, hence there is no movement of cattle, sheep or pigs in and out of Mashonaland Central," he said.Farmers in Muzarabani expressed dismay over the outbreak, saying their lives were now tougher as they relied on livestock sales."This outbreak is going to make our lives very difficult as we rely on farming here in Muzarabani. So it's our hope that the Vet Department will rectify the problem as early as possible," lamented Jimmy Suoguru.Chikurunhe urged farmers to visit their nearest veterinary offices to get assistance and avoid movement of livestock until the outbreak was contained.The Zimbabwe Republic Police is assisting in enforcing the quarantine in the province and has since mounted three roadblocks on major roads in Centenary, Rushinga and Bindura.
News / National
by Staff reporter
GOVERNMENT has failed to reimburse over $13 million to an Asian diamond investor, Pure Diam after cancelling its mining licence in 2016 to pave way for consolidation of diamond mining operations in Chiadzwa.Pure Diam was operating under Diamond Mining Corporation (DMC) in a joint venture deal with the Zimbabwe Mining Development Company (ZMDC).Its operating licence was cancelled in 2016 when government created the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC).The Asian company sued government seeking to recover $8,6 million which was a loan advanced to DMC in 2010 when the investor entered into the joint venture and $10,9 million being the value of the shares.But government only paid back $6 million in 2010 and since then, has been reneging on its agreement, citing lack of foreign currency, among other reasons. This forced Pure Diam to approach the courts demanding the outstanding amount.Summons were issued against the ZMDC and ZCDC. ZMDC did not defend the matter and judgment was entered against them, but ZCDC is still defending the matter."The first defendant (ZMDC) shall pay to plaintiff the sum of $13 175 000 together with interest thereon at the rate of 5% per annum from first of May 2018 to date of payment in full into the following account," part of the order by High Court judge Justice Edith Mushore dated July 4 read.Government would also be required to pay, according to the judgment, "interest accrued from August 31, 2017 to April 30, 2018 in the sum of $880 312 and costs of suit calculated at a legal practitioner and client scale".According the court papers, "in breach of the terms and conditions of the agreement, first and second defendant have failed to pay the amount owed in full in terms of and in the manner provided for in the agreement."The first and second defendant have paid the sum of $6 325 000 out of the cumulative indebtedness of $19 500 000 and consequently an amount of $13 175 000 excluding interest remains outstanding."In breach of the terms and conditions of the agreement, first and second defendant have failed to pay the amount owed in full in terms of and in the manner provided for into the agreement. The first and second defendant have paid the sum of $6 325 000 out of the cumulative indebtedness of $19 500 000 and consequently an amount of $13 175 000 excluding interest remains outstanding."
News / National
by Staff reporter
THREE security guards, who allegedly opened fire on gold panners near Arcturus Mine in Goromonzi on Sunday, injuring four, yesterday appeared before magistrate Florence Chakanyika facing four counts of attempted murder.Learnmore Matangira (29), Earnest Kavhu (39) and George Mahufa (57) all of Braising Security Company, were remanded in custody to September 18 for trial.According to court papers, on September 2 at around 8am, about 30 artisanal miners were panning gold at Goromonzi Rural District Council's Arcturus Mine compound when five armed Braising Security guards arrived in a Mazda B1800 pickup.The security guards approached the gold panners and when they were about 30 metres away, they allegedly opened fire and injured four panners. The accused persons immediately left the scene and retreated to their offices at Arcturus Mine.The injured were ferried by their colleagues to Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals for treatment where they are still being attended to.They were identified as Winston Mukandawire (26) of Council Compound, Tatenda Gukwe (30), Wilson Mural (29) all of Goromonzi and Tinashe Kanyemba of Epworth, Harare.Kanyemba's condition is said to be critical while the other three are reportedly stable.George Manhidza represented the State.
As he starts a second five-year term as President of Mali, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on Tuesday promised to address the deteriorating security situation because of the Islamist insurgency in the West African nation.
In his address to supporters and local politicians that attended his swearing-in ceremony in capital Bamako, Keita said the election is not the victory of one Malian against another, but the victory of all of Mali.
The poll was marred by armed attacks and other security incidents that disrupted about a fifth of polling places.
I reach out to all those who want Mali to succeed, all who want to believe in this beautiful nation, without exception, Keita told the audience.
Dressed in a flowing white boubou robe and matching cap, the 73-year-old leader promised to revive the stalled implementation of the 2015 peace deal with ethnic militias.
Mali, a landlocked nation home to at least 20 ethnic groups where most people live on less than $2 a day, has been battling a years-long Islamic revolt that has now fueled intercommunal violence.
Since 2012, the country has faced attacks by Islamic extremist groups linked to al-Qaida and Tuareg separatist rebels.
Civil society website Malilink recorded 932 attacks in the first half of 2018, almost double that for all of 2017 and triple of 2015.
News / National
by Staff reporter
Chinese and international investors are lining up to meet President Emmerson Mnangagwa who is in Beijing where he was attending the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit.Some of the companies with senior representatives, chief executives or founders who met and discussed investment opportunities available in Zimbabwe with President Mnangagwa and his team include a company called CCCC which is involved in designing and construction of infrastructure, dredging and heavy machinery manufacturing.Senior management from a company called TBE which specialises in electricity generation, transmission and distribution with 22 000 employees worldwide also had an audience with President Mnangagwa.Belt and Road Collaborative Innovation Centre whose chair met President Mnangagwa in April when he visited China and offered scholarships to Zimbabwean students, met the President to submit a memorandum of understanding to concretise her offer.Yantai JinAo Environmental Protection Technologies which is into gold mining also held a meeting with President Mnangagwa.Touchroad International Holdings Group which is involved in development of Special Economic Zones, resources exploitation, finance and trade, China Gezhouba Group Company Ltd and CGGC providers of comprehensive solutions in the power industry also met the President.Huawei a consumer electronics company specialising in smartphones, cellphone gear gadgets and tablets as well as China Gold which has expressed interest in investing in the country in the past but was not comfortable with some investment policies and Century Space Technology Company which manufactures building materials are some of the prospective investors that managed to meet with President Mnangagwa.The President's government has adopted some economic reforms to assist investors keen on starting businesses in Zimbabwe urging those interested to take the first mover advantage to explore the abundant investment opportunities in the country.President Mnangagwa is on record encouraging investors to visit Zimbabwe to get first-hand experience of the limitless investment and business opportunities and an insight into areas they would want the government to address.
News / National
by Staff reporter
Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has been dragged to court by one of its senior employees who is accusing the local authority of snubbing him after a higher post arose in his department.Nkanyiso Ndlovu, 35, who is a senior environmental health officer at BCC, this week approached the High Court seeking an order directing the council to nullify the previous appointment which he says was not done on merit.According to the court papers, Ndlovu who had applied for the assistant health services director is querying why his superiors defied recommendations made by the General Purposes Committee to have him upgraded after interviews.The management instead upgraded Charles Malaba who was working in the same department with Ndlovu.Ndlovu who is being represented by Ncube and Partners cited BCC and Malaba as respondents.He argued that he was the rightful candidate for the post judging by his history in the organisation as well as the fact that he met the requirement in terms of the post as advertised."This is a court application for a declaratur in terms of section 14 of the High Court Act and consequential relief in terms of section 4 of the Administrative Justice Act," Ndlovu said in his founding affidavit."I seek a declarature that the decision of the Bulawayo City Council's sitting at an ordinary meeting held on December 6, 2017 to decline to appoint me assistant director of health services, Grade 13 as recommended by the interviewing panel and the General Purposes Committee through the Town clerk and instead appoint the second respondent to that position is unreasonable, unfair and unlawful."According to his submission, Ndlovu says he came first in the interviews while Malaba who came third was appointed ahead of him, in the process raising questions.He dismissed the issues raised by the local authority that he was not yet ripe for the post."The council took the view that while I excelled in the interviews and had relevant qualification, I allegedly lacked experience and exposure," he said."Instead of appointing me as per results of the selection interviews and recommendations of the General Purposes Committee the council instead decided to appoint the second respondent to the vacant post without any recommendation."As a result, Ndlovu appealed for the post to be declared vacant and he be deservedly appointed as the assistant health service director.
Two Vancouver-area police officers who have been held in Cuba for nearly six months over an alleged sexual assault will face an investigation when they return to Canada even if they're cleared by Cuban investigators.
The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner of British Columbia (OPCC) will oversee the review, CBC News has confirmed.
Vancouver Const. Mark Simms, 29, and Port Moody Const. Jordan Long, 31, have been barred from leaving Cuba since mid-March, when they were arrested while on vacation in Varadero.
The arrests came after a fellow tourist, a 17-year-old from Ontario, reported she had been sexually assaulted. Few details of the case have been released, but in April, Port Moody Mayor Mike Clay said Simms was accused of the sexual assault while Long was being held as a material witness.
Both men maintain their innocence, according to their families. And it's unclear whether they've been formally charged with any crime.
The Cuban government has released no information about the case. The 17-year-old, who can't be identified under laws protecting underage individuals, returned to Canada shortly after the alleged incident.
The CBC has been unable to verify further details.
Simms and Long have since been released and are living in rental accommodations in the Varadero area as the case winds its way through the Cuban judicial system.
According to the OPCC, the case will be reviewed here because the province's police officers must adhere to professional standards even when on vacation.
"There will be an investigation into their conduct at some point whenever there's some outcome from whatever is happening in Cuba, or [when] the officers return to Canada," said deputy police complaint commissioner Rollie Woods.
"Because the complainant in this case is a Canadian citizen, certainly, we would be able to interview that person."
Officers want to tell 'their side of the story'
Story continues
The families of the two men spoke exclusively to CBC News, and say they're confident a Canadian investigation would help clear the men.
"The guys are desperate for this to happen," said Rebecca Simms, who is serving as the families' spokesperson. "They want to lay out every detail and tell their side of the story."
Simms said she has been in daily contact with her brother via text message, along with the odd phone call.
The government of Canada's travel advisory page for Cuba says that the criminal justice system in the country "differs significantly" from that of Canada.
"Charges are not laid until the investigations are complete, and the accused may be jailed during the entire period of the investigation," it reads. "Canadians who have been arrested, even for a minor incident, should expect long delays to resolve their cases and may not be allowed to leave the country."
When asked about the men's case, Global Affairs Canada said Canadian consular officials in Cuba remain in contact with local authorities but declined to comment further in order to protect the men's privacy.
Simms says she's been told the case is a "high priority." But after six months of waiting, she says "time speaks for itself."
"I would ask those in power in Ottawa, would the response or actions be good enough if this was their loved one? Their son? Their brother?"
'A complete nightmare'
According to Simms, the prolonged detention in Cuba has taken its toll on the men.
"We're very concerned about the guys and their mental [state] their physical, emotional, financial state," she said. "What was meant to be a one-week, much-needed vacation from a very challenging job has turned into a complete nightmare."
Six months of accommodation costs, legal fees and other expenses have cost the men's families between $150,000 and $200,000, she said.
Last month, the Vancouver-based Wilson Heights United Church, attended by the Simms family, set up a GoFundMe page entitled "Support for Mark and Jordan." It raised $10,000 of its $150,000 goal in four days before the page was pulled down by the crowdfunding site, and contributors were issued refunds.
Those who complained to GoFundMe about the removal of the page were told the campaign violated its terms and conditions, which prohibit "support of legal defence of alleged crimes."
Wilson Heights United then started its own fundraising drive on the church website and says it has raised thousands of dollars to date.
Reverend travelled to Cuba
The minister of the church, Rev. Blake Field, who is fluent in Spanish, has also flown to Cuba twice to visit the men.
On his most recent visit, Field stayed for almost four weeks to translate files related to the case for the two English-speaking officers. He says he also helped prepare their defence, translating their statements into Spanish for their state-appointed lawyers.
Field, who has no legal training, said that evidence convinced him the men are innocent.
"I am convinced, beyond any reasonable doubt, that Const. Mark Simms and Const. Jordan Long have been accused of a crime that they did not commit," he said.
As for Simms, she says the families just want an end to the uncertainty.
"It's a Twilight Zone," she says. "The excruciating waiting, waiting, waiting. We don't know how long this will go on for. We don't know how this will be resolved."
The Vancouver Police Department and the Port Moody Police Department both say they continue to monitor the situation as the case makes its way through the Cuban legal system but have not received any updates from local authorities.
Cuban authorities did not respond to interview requests.
Read more from CBC British Columbia
By Robin Pomeroy VENICE, Italy (Reuters) - Amos Gitai's "Letter to A Friend in Gaza" offers unflinching criticism of Israel's blockade of Gaza and its lethal response to Palestinian protesters, in which the filmmaker asks fellow Israelis to examine their conscience. In the non-fiction short, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival this week, Israeli and Palestinian actors read out stories and poetry, including a piece by journalist Amira Hass published in Haaretz called: "'I Was Just Following Orders': What Will You Tell Your Children?" "It's a very strong text," Gitai told Reuters in an interview. "This is a piece that she wrote to the Israelis, wanting them to be aware of what is happening a very few kilometers from their border where there are 2 million people kind of caged in Gaza." Gitai denied that the film drew any comparison to Nazi Germany, where people who committed crimes against humanity often justified their actions as only "following orders". "Amira Hass doesn't make the comparison, you're making it, its in your mind, maybe it was in her mind," Gitai said. "I'm for talking precisely. When we go beyond precision I don't think we help our argument. For more than a decade Gaza has been controlled by the Islamist group Hamas and subjected to an Israeli-Egyptian blockade that has caused deep economic hardship among its people. Israel says it has to enforce the blockade to defend itself against Hamas, which has called for its destruction. DIVIDED CITY Gitai also brought a feature film to Venice, "A Tramway in Jerusalem", which takes a lighthearted look at very diverse characters traveling together through the divided city. "It's a metaphor for what can be the relationship in a city as divided, as conflicted as Jerusalem when things get back to normality," he said. As the movies screened, the leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, was facing accusations of tolerating anti-Semitism, something he denies. Last month Corbyn apologized for hosting a 2010 event at which another speaker reportedly compared Israeli policy towards the Palestinians to the Nazis' policies towards the Jews. "I think that making this kind of comparison... helps right-wing tendencies within Israel," Gitai said. "So its better to be ... precise and not make generalities." Gitai will tackle the roots of anti-Semitism in his next film, set in the 16th century, which he said might feature one or more of the actresses he has directed before: Natalie Portman, Juliette Binoche or Lea Seydoux. "Some of them are in it I'll let you guess," he teased. Gitai's films were screened out-of-competition at the Venice Film Festival, which ends on Saturday. (Reporting by Robin Pomeroy; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Helicopters were called in to help tackle a wildfire sparked by a plane crash on Slide Mountain in Nevadas Washoe Valley on Sunday, September 2.
Fox 11 reported reported roads near the Slide fire had been closed and campers and hikers had been evacuated. Credit: Kris Swaczyna via Storyful
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley hopes to discuss the stalled Trans Mountain pipeline project when she meets with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Wednesday in Edmonton, CBC News has learned.
According to Trudeau's official itinerary, the meeting will take place Wednesday afternoon at Edmonton's Fairmont Hotel Macdonald.
"We hope to talk about the Trans Mountain pipeline project and a possible path forward," said Cheryl Oates, communications director for the premier's office.
Oates confirmed it will be the first discussion between the premier and the prime minister since a Federal Court of appeal ruling halted the project late last week.
Hours after last Thursday's court ruling, Notley told a news conference that Alberta will not be a party to the pan-Canadian climate-change framework until construction of the pipeline restarts.
In a terse rebuke of the federal government's handling of the project review process, Notley called on the prime minister to recall Parliament for an emergency session to deal with the uncertainty over the pipeline project.
She also called on the federal government to immediately appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Notley said of the federal climate-change framework: "And let's be clear, without Alberta that plan isn't worth the paper it's written on."
While the prime minister and Finance Minister Bill Morneau have said the federal government continues to strongly support the pipeline project, Trudeau has not responded to Notley's plea to recall Parliament, and has not asked Canada's highest court to review the ruling.
Trudeau is expected to attend several events in Edmonton, including a visit to NAIT and a Liberal fundraising function at the Delta Hotel Edmonton South on Wednesday evening.
A Liberal Party of Canada news release said Trudeau will deliver "remarks to supporters" during the event, which will be open to the media.
Story continues
Edmonton MP Amarjeet Sohi said Alberta's withdrawal from the national climate-change strategy may hurt the pipeline in the long run.
In an interview Friday with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM, Sohi said the courts have made it clear that an effective climate strategy is critical for the approval of major natural resources projects under federal jurisdiction.
"In order to build a large project such as a pipeline, you need to have a very effective climate action plan, and you need to be mindful of your obligations to consult Indigenous peoples," Sohi said.
"Without those, you will not get a pipeline built."
By Chris Michaud and Alicia Powell NEW YORK (Reuters) - Top designers, A-list stars and thousands of fashionistas will converge on New York this week for the annual week-long preview of Spring fashion, which officially kicks off on Thursday following a Wednesday evening show of creations by luxury brand maven Tom Ford. With well over 100 runway shows and presentations plus countless parties at venues around the city - including from top names such as Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs and Ralph Lauren, which is marking its 50th anniversary on Friday with a Central Park gala - buyers, media and fashion cognoscenti will be hard-pressed to fit in smaller, lesser-known houses. New York Fashion Week: The Shows returns to its full-week length after last year's curtailed six-day schedule ahead of London, Milan and Paris Fashion Weeks brought an even-more frenetic pace. The social media revolution has brought an immediacy and lighter touch to fashion, experts say, with many designers harking back this season to the free-wheeling 1980s for inspiration. The "80s are a big trend," said Julee Wilson, Essence magazine's fashion and beauty director. "Not only in the fall, but I think it will continue into the spring." Fashion Bible Vogue concurred, calling the 80s and 90s "the most-referenced decades in fashion at the moment." "We're getting nostalgic," Wilson said, "kind of crazy with the fashion" and "going back to having a lot of fun," she reflected, citing concepts like pairing socks with heels, sandals or sneakers. An 80s staple she sees coming back is the power suit -- not "boring power suits ... but bold, in-your-face," Wilson said. "You're going to stand out and make statement." In keeping with the decade's flash, metallics will feature heavily for spring. But Fashion Week will have both poignant and pointed notes as well, notably the first show by top handbag brand Kate Spade since its founder and namesake committed suicide in June. Similarly, Marchesa's Georgina Chapman, the estranged wife of disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein who is facing criminal rape and sexual assault charges, is returning after canceling her February presentation. But the show is "by appointment only." Pop superstar Rihanna will help close the week on a decidedly lighter note with a glitzy party featuring her Savage x Fenty lingerie line, much of it available online immediately after the show, unlike in the old days when shoppers would have to wait for the latest looks to hit store racks. (Editing by Chris Michaud)
Photo - Richard Kwon the New Zealand Youth Development Award
Four young writers have been awarded the 2018 Youth Development Awards at the young writer awards on Saturday held at the Christchurch Salvation Army Centre at the annual young writers conference.
Young writers came from Australia, New Zealand and around th world for the annual awards conference. Press Service International in conjunction with Christian Today established the young writer ministry in 2009 whereby each young writer is published in their own column 10 times a year, once every 5 weeks.
Mr Basil Sellers AM has provided the award funding along with a substantial sum each year for air-fare scholarships to aid their expenses getting to the annual conferences.
Photo - Cartia Moore the Australian Youth Development Award (s) who also were on the camera for the other annual awards.
2018 Youth Development Awards
Australia - Cartia Moore and Jesse Moore
New Zealand - Richard Kwon
International - Caitlyn Furler
Age is clearly a determinative factor in the Youth Development Awards. This award is based on a number of factors, their productive output in writing their articles, consistency of material and quality of writing, and service to the young writer ministry.
Cartia Moore - Sunshine Coast
Cartia Moore is a connoisseur of fine chocolate and a sword fighter, trained and skilled in the art of fencing. She is currently studying a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Screen & Media Studies, and minoring in Drama and Creative Writing. Her focus is film, television and swordfighting sequences.
Cartia Moores previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/cartia-moore.html
Photo - Caitlyn Furler the International Youth Development Award
Jesse Moore - Sunshine Coast
Jesse Moore draws from the Bible and classical literature for insight into lifes tough questions. He is currently studying at university to become a film-maker. He has developed the Young Writer Facebook page which hosts the Australian young writers each day with fresh articles.
Richard Kwon - Auckland
Richard Kwon is from Auckland, a regular lay person who just loves the Lord. Richard has engaged with Press Service International in the preparation and travel of Kiwi young writers to this Christchurch conference.
Caitlyn Furler - Sunshine Coast
Caitlyn Furler is a lover of writing, music and people. She is a first-year university student, studying music and literature. She is a worship leader in her church and is enjoying doing braver and braver things and spent quite a bit of time this year travelling overseas.
Caitlyn Furlers previous articles may be viewed at: http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/caitlyn-furler.html
Young people 18-30 years interested in writing for Christian Today with your own column please connect with Dr Mark Tronson timeout@bushorchestra.com 0419 917 713
Photo - Jesse Moore the Australian Youth Development Award (s) who also were on the camera for the other annual awards.
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 mentors young writers and 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
The Archbishop of Canterbury has called for a reshaping of Britain's tax system to raise more money for public services and reduce 'damaging wealth inequality'.
A report co-written by Justin Welby with the Institute for Public Policy Research proposes the scrapping of inheritance tax and for it to be replaced by a gifts tax. Total gifts received over 125,000 during a person's lifetime would be subject to income tax, replacing the current loophole that allows people to avoid death duties with gifts becoming tax-free after seven years.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has called for a reshaping of Britain's economy. (Lambeth Palace)
The report also calls for a 13-billion a year rise in corporation tax and the creation of a 186-billion 'Citizens Wealth Fund'.
It calls for higher taxes on capital gains and dividends, raising another 27 billion a year.
The increase in tax revenue would fund a higher minimum wage and grants to help young people buy homes.
In an article for the Daily Mail, Welby wrote that there was 'much of which we can be proud' in the UK's economic performance. However, he continued: 'Yet despite these strengths, it is evident that for many people, the economy is not working. It no longer fulfils the promise of rising living standards.'
Pointing out that wages have stagnated for a decade, he says: 'As the Bank of England has shown, for nearly 40 years the share of our national income going into people's pay has been falling while the share going to profits has been on the rise.
'Chronically low pay means that a hard day's work no longer keeps people out of poverty: today, a majority of the poor are working families.'
And he says bluntly: 'I do not believe we can continue with an economy that works so badly for so many.'
Stressing that his view is shaped by biblical values, he says the economy needs to be reformed on a scale similar to that after 1945 under Clement Atlee and in the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher.
Justice, he says, needs to be 'hard-wired' into the economy.
The report from the IPPR's Commission on Economic Justice calls for a boost to manufacturing and exporting sectors, an immediate increase in the minimum wage, and a reform to zero-hours contracts which can leave families relying on foodbanks to survive.
Welby concludes: 'In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is recorded as giving one of the greatest challenges possible to his disciples just before his arrest and crucifixion when he describes the judgment of God at the end of time. In that passage he explicitly says that judgment is linked to justice, namely, in the way in which we treat those who are most vulnerable and weakest. Out of that extraordinary passage comes the Christian call to work for the common good and for the welfare of everyone in our society.'
A government spokesman said: 'Since 2010, we've supported more people into work, introduced the National Living Wage worth 7.83 per hour, doubled free childcare and helped workers keep more of the money they earn at the end of every month by cutting taxes for 31 million people by an average of 1,000.'
This article was originally published in Christian Today and is re-published here with permission.
Mukhtarli Case Not Discussed by Georgian PM and Azerbaijani President
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
The notorious case of Azerbaijani journalist Afghan Mukhtarli, who disappeared from Tbilisi and re-emerged in Baku where he was scorned for his activities, was not among the topics discussed by Georgian PM Mamuka Bakhtadze and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku.The administration of the Georgian government says that the meeting held at the end of the last week mostly focused on economic issues."Georgia and Azerbaijan are strategic partners. We succeeded in implementing various projects of global significance" stated Bakhtadze, after his first official meeting with Aliyev."We discussed new projects, which we can implement jointly and which will further deepen our economic relations. At the same time, specific aims and goals have been defined. Trade volume will reach almost 1 billion this year, and we believe that in the coming two years we can improve this indicator by 50-60%.Besides, we agreed to scrutinize the possibility of establishing joint ventures. Georgia is the only country in the region, which has free trade regimes both with the European Union (EU) and China. Azerbaijan is one of the largest investors in Georgia, and of course there is a huge potential towards this end," Bakhtadze said.Bakhtadze believes that truly sound relations exist between Georgia and Azerbaijan in education, arts and culture; however some issues need to be improved and advanced further."We have also agreed that additional consultations will be held on financial aspects of these initiatives. Our current free trade regime does not cover services. We will conduct additional studies, and I believe that new free trade regime will facilitate a greater increase of cooperation between Georgia and Azerbaijan. It was an excellent, truly successful visit, which I am confident will give a new impulse to our economic cooperation, he said.Azerbaijani investigative journalist Mukhtarli, who disappeared from central Tbilisi in May last year, was sentenced to six years in prison by the Balakan district court in Azerbaijan on January 12.The court found him guilty of illegal crossing of the border, smuggling in money and resisting the border guards. Mukhtarli claims he was abducted from Tbilisi for his investigations into top figures of Azerbaijan, their businesses in Georgia and connections with the Georgian government.Mukhtarlis wife, Leyla Mustafayeva, who is also an investigative journalist, has stated that his husbands verdict was part of a joint deal between the Georgian and Azerbaijani leadership.My husband was abducted from Tbilisi. The charges he was sentenced for are invented. Mukhtarlis arrest is an international offense that was committed by the Georgian and Azerbaijani governments. Governments of both countries are responsible for the arrest, Mustafayeva said.Mustafayeva wrote that his husband was investigating Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyevs and his family businesses in Georgia and the business interests between the Aliyev family and the Georgian government members.His journalist activities were the reason of the arrest, Mustafayeva said and vowed she and her colleagues would complete the investigations launched by his husband.The US President Donald Trumps administration and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) have called for the release of the journalist.Georgian law enforcers are still investigating how Mukhtarlii appeared from Tbilisi in Baku.
The story of David and Bathsheba is well known. We know of Davids successes, we know of his failures and we know of Gods love and forgiveness for him. But did God love Bathsheba?
2 Samuel Chapter 11 tells us the story of David the king of Israel, whose army is out at war, being so confident that hell win that he decides to stay back and relax.
Verses 2 and 3:
One evening, David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof, he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.
Finding someone beautiful is not wrong. But then he finds out shes Uriahs wife and Uriah we know, is one of Davids mighty men out in the battle field. Now instead of David thinking, Im glad I found that out! lets see what David does.
Verse 4:
Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, I am pregnant.
David needs to cover this up so he calls Uriah back from battle, tells him to have a night with his wife, hoping that theyll sleep together and he will think its his child. But noble Uriah responds, how can I go home? when my mates are out fighting?
Plan B: David holds a feast and gets Uriah drunk, but Uriah still sleeps at Davids door, refusing to go home.
Plan C: David puts Uriah where the fighting is the heaviest, and Uriah gets killed. Bathsheba mourns, her dignity stolen and her honorable Uriah dead.
Davids today
Davids story should alarm us, because it shows us if a good guy like David can fall, then so can we. Gods kings were meant to represent Him, by ruling with justice and righteousness and until this episode, David did!
Many Christians blame Bathsheba incorrectly depicting her bathing for attention on the roof while the bible says it was only David watching from the roof. Victim blaming still happens today with questions like what was she was wearing? as if the amount of clothing she has on, is a valid excuse for someone to abuse her.
Abuse still happens from people we expect better of and who should represent God. Clergy abusing innocent children they were called to nurture while their colleagues turn a blind eye. Pastors abusing their wives. Outside the church its the voices of women and men crying out me too, victims of Hollywood actors who we once idolized.
Its easier to skip over this passage and keep the image of David as a hero. Its easier for us to pretend that bad things dont really happen in the bible. But when we do this, we fail victims of abuse. We fail when we only read out psalms of praise when the victims need to hear psalms of lament.
Although her words are not recorded, its not hard to imagine Bathsheba asking, Where are you God? But even, when it doesnt feel like it, God is there.
Verse 27 reads, but the thing David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord. But God doesnt just watch. Hes about to act.
In Chapter 12, Nathan the prophet arrives on the scene and tells David a story. There was a rich man, who kills a poor mans ewe, his beloved and only pet. This injustice pulls at Davids heart strings after all David was once a humble shepherd boy. David responds in anger, calling for the death of the rich man.
And Nathans simple response is, you are that man.
Davids conscience is awakened and he realises that the poor man is Uriah and the ewe is Bathsheba.
Nathan tells David that there will be consequences.
David comes to swift and thorough conviction. There are no excuses, just I have sinned against the Lord (verse 13). And just as swift, is Gods forgiveness Nathan relays the message, The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.
True repentance met with instant forgiveness and this is great news for us all.
But what about Bathsheba?
What about the fact, that when God punishes David by killing his child, this was Bathshebas child too?
Unfortunately, in our fallen world, sin affects the guilty and the innocent alike. Does that mean theres no hope for Bathsheba or for any of us who fall victim to abuse today?
Bathshebas redemption
The first answer to justice was when Nathan was sent by God to confront David. Nathan again arrives on the scene when David is on his death bed and his son Adonijah is trying to steal his kingdom. Nathan orchestrates a plan for Bathsheba, so that her and Davids son, Solomon, would become king instead.
In 1 Kings Chapter 2 verse 19, we see Bathsheba approaching King Solomon.
the king stood up to meet her, bowed down to her and sat down on his throne. He had a throne brought for the kings mother, and she sat down at his right hand.
Unheard of, the king of Israel, to whom everyone bows, unashamedly bows to honor his mother. Thus, he uplifts her worth above his throne. Bathsheba is placed at the right hand of Solomon; an esteemed place of power and authority. Just as Jesus, now sits at the right hand of God.
Solomon also installs a throne for Bathsheba in his counsel room. There she lives out the rest of her days as mother and trusted adviser to the one who we hail, as the wisest king
God can redeem even the most painful stories
Jesus is born through Bathshebas lineage. Her story continues in Matthew Chapter 1 verse 6 which reads, David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriahs wife. Yes, Davids sins were forgiven but Bathsheba is recorded in the gospels not as Davids wife but the wife of Uriah.
God did not forget Bathsheba and what happened to her. He is a God for the oppressed. While David did not rule with justice and righteousness, as kings ought to do, the son of David, Jesus, does.
Just as Bathsheba was the ewe in the story, Jesus is our lamb. Both led as sheep to the slaughter, silent in their suffering, awaiting God to resurrect and lift them up.
If you have been hurt, believe that God is fighting for your redemption. And for the rest of us, lets consider how we might be Nathans voice, in providing Gods justice, healing and hope, to those who are hurting.
Melissa Ramoo is a physiotherapist, student minister at St Annes in Strathfield and is studying Bachelor of Theology at Morling College in Sydney. She is married to her husband Roshan and has a Boston Terrier named Hercules who is completely doted on.
There is a saying: it takes a village to raise a child. While Ive heard this saying briefly before, it only recently became apparent to me what it really means. So, when Jacinda Adern made a post on Instagram introducing her new baby earlier in June this year with the caption welcome to our village wee one the comment simply passed over me.
The village
Fast forward to mid-August this year, I was scrolling Facebook and came across a post by the page Humans of New York. The post featured a beautiful portrait capturing a mother and her child. The caption contained a quote from the mother sharing her struggles of motherhood and feeling isolated in her responsibilities.
A comment by another Facebook user on the post referred to the village and that it was once normal to have help from all around in looking after a baby. Another user commented that she had no village and was facing similar struggles whilst raising a child.
These comments made me realise what this village really means. It used to take a village to raise a child. A whole extended family, neighbourhood would raise a child. Mothers and fathers would be surrounded with support. Each person in that village had a vested interest in raising the child, and supporting the wellbeing of both parents and child.
They understood the weight of the responsibility of bringing a new little human into the world. If it takes a village to raise a baby to a child, then to a teenager and into a young adulthood, then the village and its ability must have some significance.
The church village
Living out your faith in a world that can be so against it or so indifferent to it naturally comes with many challenges. Even without the challenges of the world, important aspects of our relationship with God can be difficult. We wouldnt need theologians or biblical scholars if the bible was straight forward to read and understand. While the mystery of the bible can be part of the very wonder of it, it certainly makes reading and comprehending it difficult at times.
Meeting together to study the word and ponder its value and teaching can be critical in grasping the significance of it. Grabbing someone after church on a Sunday to sit and pray with you over a current struggle or an upcoming event can be the difference between being overwhelmed by the situation or relieving your stress over it. Its not hard to see that the church community is so important to your faith.
Raising a child can be like growing and feeding your faith. Both require love and input from many people. Both require discipline and focus. Both require vulnerability and care. Both need attention, and a lot of it. It takes many things to raise and care for a child, and it can be easy to see that when you consider that a baby cannot do many things for itself.
Comparatively, it can be challenging to see which aspects of your faith and others faiths need some care. It is not always a tangible relationship. Furthermore, we sometimes consider our relationships with God to be so personal. We dont always share with our church community what we are struggling with out of embarrassment, shame, or pride. But it does not have to be that way. We can be the village for each other.
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews chapter 10, verses 24-25.
In these verses, the writer of Hebrews was possibly encouraging Jewish Christians who stopped meeting together. Arguably, it was so important that they met together that it was included in this letter. The importance of the village was relevant then and it remains relevant today. We are not called to walk this journey alone, and I dont think that we can really flourish without the input from others into our lives.
It takes a village to raise a child. It also takes a village to surround one another as we journey in our relationships with God. A village to teach and learn together; a village to pray and intercede for each other; a village to rejoice and proclaim together; a village to share and cry with each other.
Rebecca Hoverd studies at The University of Auckland and loves writing as a way to communicate with God and to express her thoughts. She loves coffee, conversations, and would love to hear your thoughts on the church village at rebeccahoverd@gmail.com.
Agile Cigar Reviews are cigar assessments where we use a lightweight, shorter format. These will never take the place of our comprehensive reviews. They are only used on blends we have previously assessed. This might be a blend we are re-scoring or giving a score for the first time. It might be a blend we are looking at in a different size. Today we look at the Villiger La Flor de Ynclan in the Lancero Especial size. This is a cigar we previously assessed back in August 2017 in the Churchill size.
Wrapper: Ecuadorian
Binder: Indonesian
Filler: Nicaraguan, Dominican
Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
Factory: ABAM
Lancero Especial: 6 3/4 x 43
In 2017, Villiger Cigars resurrected a brand known as La Flor de Ynclan. The origins of this brand trace back to Cuba. In the 1960s, Villiger acquired the trademark, but it wouldnt be until 2007 when Villiger would release its version of La Flor de Ynclan. After it was released, Villiger Chairman Heinrich Villiger was not satisfied with the blend and the decision was made to remove it from the market. Fast forward to 2017, Mr. Villiger and Master Blender Jose Martias Maragoto reworked the blend at the ABAM factory in Dominican Republic before re-launching it last year. The reworked La Flor de Ynclan garnered both commercial and critical acclaim. This year, the company opted to release a 6 3/4 x 43 line extension known as the Lancero Especial.
The La Flor de Ynclan features a four-country multi-national blend highlighted by an Ecuadorian wrapper, Indonesian wrapper and a combination of Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers. The Lancero Especial isnt a classic lancero. I would describe the 6 3/4 x 43 vitola as more of a Cazadores size, hence the name Lancero Especial. The cigars come packaged in 25-count boxes. Production has been limited to 500 boxes.
The Villiger La Flor de Ynclan Lancero Especial statted out with a mix of cream, wood, citrus, coffee bean, and black pepper. Early on the cream notes took over as the primary note with the citrus notes close behind. The black pepper was in the background on the tongue but more prominent on the retro-hale.
Later in the first third, the cream notes started to subside. There was an increase in the coffee bean and wood notes and some natural tobacco flavors developed. Toward the midway point, the citrus notes also diminished and this gave way for the coffee bean to take control. By this point the wood notes had more of a cedar quality.
The last third saw the coffee bean flavors hold. There was more in the way of cedar and black pepper, but it never overpowered the blend. There still was some citrus and cream present as well. This flavor profile held to the end and the resulting nub was cool in temperature and firm to the touch.
Throughout the smoking experience, La Flor de Ynclan delivered an excellent burn and draw. The cigar experience was medium in strength and body from start to finish. Both the strength and body balanced each other nicely.
OVERALL ASSESSMENT
Final Thoughts
When I first heard Villiger was doing a lancero of its La Flor de Ynclan blend, I was a little unsure how it was going to play out. While I thought the blend made a great return last year, I frankly wasnt sure how the combination of a Shade-grown Connecticut wrapper and an Indonesian binder was going to be good. I think the best thing that was done here is the cigar was put into a 43 ring gauge. This allowed more tobaccos to be a part of the smoke and in the end, this cigar delivered a very nice experience. This is a cigar I would recommend to a novice or experienced cigar enthusiast. Its also a cigar Id recommend to someone who isnt a lancero fan. As for myself, its something I would smoke again and pick up multiples for my humidor.
Summary
Key Flavors: Cream, Citrus, Coffee Bean, Wood, Cedar, Natural Tobacco
Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium to High
Strength: Medium
Body: Medium
Finish: Very Good
Rating
Value: Buy Multiples
Score: 91
References
Previous Assessment: La Flor de Ynclan Churchill (2017) by Villiger Cigars
News: Villiger La Flor De Ynclan Lancero Especial to Launch at 2018 IPCPR
Price: $11.00
Source: Villiger North America
Brand Reference: Villiger
Photo Credits: Cigar Coop
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 5, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Taking fish oil supplements during pregnancy might translate into healthier growth in children during their first six years of life, a new study suggests.
"This study highlights the fact that in utero exposure can have a profound effect on the fetus that lasts through childhood," said Dr. Jennifer Wu, an obstetrician-gynecologist from Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
"For the past decade, the importance of fish oil and the omega-3 fatty acids have been stressed to patients," explained Wu, who was not involved in the study.
"The use of fish oil in the latter part of the pregnancy has an impact on bone and muscle mass. Though these children are larger, they do not have increased rates of obesity," Wu added.
In the study, the researchers followed 736 pregnant women in Denmark who took either fish oil or olive oil supplements daily from week 24 of their pregnancy until one week after they gave birth.
The children were assessed 11 times between birth and the age of 6 years. Those whose mothers took the fish oil supplements during pregnancy sustained a higher body mass index (BMI) from the age of 1 to 6 years.
However, the higher BMI was not due to a higher percentage of fat, but rather to higher percentages of lean muscle and bone mass, the researchers found.
At age 6, children whose mothers took fish oil supplements while pregnant had a 395 grams higher total mass, 281 grams higher lean mass and 10 grams higher bone mineral content than children whose mothers who took olive oil during pregnancy, the findings showed.
"The body composition at age 6 years in children given fish oil supplementation was characterized by a proportional increase in lean, bone and fat mass, suggesting a general growth-stimulating effect," the researchers, who were led by Hans Bisgaard, from the University of Copenhagen, wrote in the report.
However, the findings only showed an association and did not prove that fish oil pills caused healthier growth in children.
According to Dr. Jill Rabin, co-chief of the division of ambulatory care, Women's Health Programs-PCAP Services at Northwell Health, in New Hyde Park, N.Y., "In pregnancy and beyond, adequate intake of fish is important for normal human development, and this paper certainly adds to the literature."
But Rabin, who was not involved in the study, did add a few caveats about the findings.
The population studied was relatively homogenous, and "the [body mass] findings were not the object of the study (wheezing or asthma in children was the primary objective), growth was a secondary finding," Rabin explained. "Certainly, however, this solid paper adds to the literature and paves the way for additional research on this interesting topic."
The report by Bisgaard and colleagues was published online Sept. 4 in the BMJ.
More information
The American Academy of Pediatrics has more on healthy growth.
Share this: Twitter
Facebook
WhatsApp
LinkedIn
Email
Telegram
Goma, September 5, 2018Authorities in Benin should immediately reverse an order to suspend indefinitely the privately owned daily, La Nouvelle Tribune, and allow it to continue operating without interference, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
The papers chief editor, Vincent Foly, told CPJ on August 15 that the countrys media regulator, the High Authority for Communication and Audiovisual, ordered La Nouvelle Tribune to be suspended until further notice on May 23, for publishing content deemed offensive, outrageous, and detrimental to the private life of the head of state.
The regulators decision, published by news outlets, listed several articles that it said were critical of the president, which were published between January and April. The decision said the paper violated Benins codes of information and ethics.
La Nouvelle Tribune has stopped printing, but its website remains online and accessible in Benin, Foly told CPJ.
The suspension of Benins La Nouvelle Tribune newspaper is a grave indication of the governments desire to curb freedom of the press and the Beninese populations access to information, said Angela Quintal, CPJs Africa program coordinator. Criticism of the powerful is no reason to suspend a newspaper and authorities should act swiftly to reverse their decision.
The articles listed by the media regulator criticized Benins president, Patrice Talon, and his leadership skills. The articles were published on January 18 and 31; February 2, 15, 21, and 23; March 6 and 8; and April 17, 2018, according to the regulators decision.
Foly said the paper was not told of any issue before receiving the suspension order. I was never warned. I did not receive a call to order. If there was an infringement, it is an offense punishable by law. The president of the republic could have filed a suit against me for defamation. I dont understand why the HAAC took this decision, Foly said.
CPJs repeated calls to the media regulators president, Adam Boni Tessi, went unanswered. The regulator is made up of nine members appointed by the president, parliament, and media professionals.
The presidents office did not immediately respond to CPJs telephone calls or return its message requesting comment.
Share this: Twitter
Facebook
WhatsApp
LinkedIn
Email
Telegram
Beirut, September 5, 2018 The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on the Syrian authorities to immediately release Omar Kalo, a news anchor for the Iraqi Kurdish satellite news broadcaster Rudaw.
Syrian military intelligence forces stopped and arrested Kalo at a checkpoint between the northern Syrian cities of Mambij and Aleppo on August 25 while he was on his way to Aleppo from his hometown Kobane to renew his passport, according to news reports and his employer.
Majeed Gly, New York bureau chief for Rudaw, told CPJ that Syrian authorities had not informed either Rudaw or Kalos family of any charges against Kalo or the reasons for his arrest.
Even when traveling on personal business, a journalist in Syria is at risk of arbitrary detention, said CPJ Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney from New York. We call on the Syrian authorities to release Omar Kalo immediately.
The Syrian Defense Ministry did not immediately reply to CPJs emailed request for comment.
A statement released by Rudaw, which is affiliated with the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq, on September 3 said that military intelligence officers manning the checkpoint separated Kalo from his wife and two children and told them they would release Kalo after asking him a few questions. Kalo was subsequently transferred to the military intelligence prison in Aleppo, where he is still being held, according to the Rudaw statement.
The statement cited Kalos relatives as saying that Kalo is expected to be transferred to the Syrian military intelligences Palestine Branch in Damascus.
Syria is one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists. At the time of CPJs most recent prison census, at least seven journalists were in Syrian state prisons. Many others are missing. At least 123 journalists have been killed covering the Syrian conflict, and government or military officials are suspected in more than half of those deaths. Several journalists, including Bilal Ahmed Bilal and Niraz Saeed, have died in state custody.
Kalo joined Rudaw in 2013 as a correspondent in the northern Syrian city of Kobane, where he covered the siege of the city by the militant group Islamic State and its aftermath, according to news reports and Gly. He subsequently moved to Erbil in 2015 to work as a news anchor, according to Gly.
Videos that he posted on his official Facebook account show that Kalo anchors Rudaws Rojava news bulletin, which covers news concerning Syrian Kurds and Syria. His broadcasts recently covered Saudi Arabias decision to contribute $100 million in aid to the coalition fighting the militant group Islamic State for post-war reconstruction of areas controlled by the U.S.-backed Syrian Defense Forces. On August 10, he conducted a live Skype interview with Ibrahim Idlibi, an Idlib-based spokesman for the Free Syrian Army, in which Idlibi discussed in detail the impact of Syrian airstrikes on Syrian cities, including Khan al-Shaikhun, and the fear of a large-scale offensive on the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib.
Share this: Twitter
Facebook
WhatsApp
LinkedIn
Email
Telegram
Washington, D.C., September 5, 2018At least two journalists were killed today in a double bombing in the Afghan capital, Kabul, according to news reports. TOLO News published that its reporter Samim Faramarz and cameraman Ramiz Ahmadi were killed by the second blast while covering the first, which occurred at a wrestling club in a Shiite neighborhood. No group immediately claimed responsibility, reports said.
This latest tragic killing of two TOLO News journalists, Samim Faramarz and Ramiz Ahmadi, underscores the extreme dangers facing Afghan journalists, said Steven Butler, CPJs Asia program coordinator. Afghan journalists have shown incredible bravery covering the news while being repeatedly targeted by a cynical enemy.
In April, at least nine journalists were among the civilians killed in Kabul when a suicide bomber disguised as a member of the media targeted a group of journalists who had arrived to cover an earlier blast, Agence France-Presse reported at the time. Afghanistan is the deadliest country for journalists in 2018, with at least 10 killed in relation to their work prior to todays attack, according to CPJ research.
McCain Street Proposal
By Vladimer Napetvaridze
Tbilisi City Assembly Faction European Georgia has the initiative to change one of the street's name in Tbilisi and name it after the American Senator John McCain. The faction members submitted the respective initiation to the City Assembly Chairperson.According to Goka Gabashvili, the Chairman of the Faction, it is necessary to hold consultations for this purpose and select a street that will be named after John McCain- "John McCain was one of the biggest supporters of our freedom, and political and defense capabilities on the international level. We all remember that he said: "Today we are all Georgians." We think we should have a street named after John McCain. We want to have multi-party support, and therefore, we appeal to the Chairman of the City Assembly, and other factions to negotiate this issue together," Gabashvili said. In response to this initiative, the Mayor of Tbilisi Kakha Kaladze stated that the topic is worthy of discussion and they should wait for the City Assemblys decision to start work on this issue.Senator McCain was known about his great sense of solidarity and support towards Georgia. He always stood by Georgia in the most difficult times. He continued to support Georgia in the aftermath of the 2008 war as well, constantly reaffirming his unequivocal support for Georgias Euro-Atlantic aspirations and democratic processes in all his public appearances and statements. He was one of the outstanding politicians, and his memory will always remain in our hearts reads the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia.Because of his support during the 2008 conflict, when Russia attacked Georgia, John McCain was awarded in 2010 with the Order of the National Hero - Georgias highest state honor. We are all Georgians now" stated the senator during the Russia Georgian war, thus addressing the international community to support Georgia against the Russian aggression.
The 6th East Asia Summit-Economic Ministers Meeting (EAS-EMM) and 15th India-ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting (AEM) was held in Singapore. Singapore is currently holding the Chair of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
6th EAS-EMM
It was attended by Economic Ministers from 10 ASEAN countries and their 8 dialogue partners Australia, China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Russia and United States. The meeting recognized importance of ongoing work to maximize opportunities of and address challenges presented by digital economy and rise of regional and global value chains as part of their efforts to promote economic growth and integration in the region.
EAS-EMM forum expressed hope that economic linkages among EAS members will enable them to address challenges due to disruptions in macro-economy that could affect overall market sentiments and global growth. It also took note of increasing importance of trade and investment relations among the EAS economies. It also agreed to importance of keeping markets open and fair as well as improving transparency and predictability of business environment.
15th India-ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting (AEM)
The 6th EASEMM was followed by the 15th India-ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting. It was co-chaired by Singapores Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing and Indias Minister of Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu,. The meeting attended by Economic Ministers from 10 ASEAN countries. It took stock of current level of trade and economic engagement between India and ASEAN. It also reaffirmed commitment to further strengthen ASEAN-India economic relations. ASEAN has emerged as second largest trade partner of India in 2017-18 with bilateral trade valued at US $81.33 billion, comprising 10.58% of Indias total trade with the world.
International Women Entrepreneurs Summit 2018 was held in Kathmandu, capital of Nepal from September 3 to 5, 2018. The summit was inaugurated by Vice President of Nepal Nanda Bahadur Pun. The theme of 3-day summit was Equality begins with Economic Empowerment. It was organised by the South Asian Women Development Forum
International Women Entrepreneurs Summit 2018
The main objective of the summit was to bring together achievers, women business leaders, professionals, international service providers, resource organizations, experts, government representatives and other stakeholders with a focus on innovative economic transformation through discussions and collaborations. It had seen participation of delegates from SAARC, ASEAN, EU, Africa, Arab countries and China.
South Asian Women Development Forum (SAWDF)
SAWDF is an autonomous, nonprofit organization based in Kathmandu, Nepal. It was granted the status of SAARC Recognized Body by 36th Session of SAARC Council Ministers at 18th SAARC Summit held in Kathmandu in 2014. It is first SAARC Recognized Body organisation working on women entrepreneurs issues. It represents national women entrepreneurs associations or organizations, institutions working towards economic issues of women entrepreneurs in SAARC Region. Its membership is based on organizations with extensive work around womens entrepreneurship.
India, Kazakhstan joint army exercise KAZIND will be conducted between Indian and Kazakhstan Army in Otar region, Kazakhstan from 10 to 23 September 2018. This will be third joint military exercise between two countries which have history of extensive cooperation in defence arena. The second edition of the exercise was held in India in 2017.
KAZIND 2018
The aim of the exercise is to build and promote bilateral army to army relations and exchange skills and experiences between armies of both countries. The exercise will also serve as platform for exchange of drills and procedures. It will also follow graduated continuum from orientation to full scale mock exercise win aim of achieving optimum integration among two armies through enhanced mutual comprehension of each others tactics, techniques and procedures. It will also set stage for greater defence cooperation and consequently manifest in stronger ties between two countries. Kazakhstan Army will also get vast knowledge from experience and expertise of Indian troops in counter insurgency operations.
Maharashtra: Mangrove Cell to submit proposal for conservation of Arabian Sea Humpback Whale
by BENITA CHACKO
September 05,2018 | Source: The Indian Express
The State Mangrove Cell will soon submit a proposal for the protection of the Arabian Sea Humpback Whale as part of the Centres Recovery Programme for Critically Endangered Species. The cell hopes this will be a timely step to protect the marine creature from extinction. We have prepared a proposal for the programme and will soon submit it. The Centre has taken a positive step towards conservation and we will do our bit to protect the species, said N Vasudevan, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Maharashtra Mangrove Cell.
Among other places, the Arabian Sea Humpback Whale is found along the Maharashtra coast, as it migrates from the Oman coast to the Sri Lanka coast. The state proposes to first study the pattern of migration, its population and distribution to plan their conservation. We will use noise monitoring machines underwater that will record sounds. This will include sounds they make during mating along with sounds of other marine creatures. The study of these sounds will help us understand their mating time, their migratory patterns and other details, said Vasudevan.
The minutes of the Standing Committee of the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) meeting, conducted on June 13, mentions that the species faces risks from shipping and fishing activities. Studies also indicate that only very few individuals are available in the Arabian Sea. Accidental entanglements in fishing gear, ship strikes and seismic exploration are the principal threats to the species, reads the minutes.
The species face the largest risk from shipping activity as they are often injured by the ship propeller. They are also affected by gillnet fishing and longline fishing as they get entangled in it and drown. They need to come out of the water to breathe. They are large mammals and there arent too many of them as they give birth only once in two years. They have a long gestation period and the calf remains with the mother for long, said Dr Deepak Apte, Marine Ecologist and Director, Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
Apte added that the inclusion of the species in the programme is well-timed and much-needed. Their inclusion will help conduct some studies on them, which will provide valuable inputs. We do not know much about them at present. If we do systematic mapping of the species and study their population and distribution, it will help us reduce their ship-based mortality. We can also study their genetic make-up, which will help us know which clan they belong to, he said.
The mangrove cell plans to work on conservation efforts for the species through these studies. Once we know their migration pattern and their mating time, we can direct ship companies from avoiding their path during these periods. We can also prevent fishing in those areas. This will help in reducing the mortality rates, said Vasudevan.
However, the whales being an offshore species makes the study challenging. They do not come very close to the shore. So, we will need to have a set-up for the study team to go into deep sea. The study will take at least 10 years to complete, said Apte.
Indias commitment to the protection of whales and their habitats in its waters also stems from the fact that it is a party to the International Whaling Commission. During the NBWL meeting, it was also decided to include Northern River Terrapin, Clouded Leopard and Red Panda in the recovery programme. Species such as Snow Leopard, Bustard (including Floricans), Dolphin, Nilgiri Tahr, Marine Turtles, Asian Wild Buffalo, Manipur Brow-antlered Deer, Vultures, Malabar Civet, Indian Rhinoceros, Asiatic Lion and Swamp Deer are already a part of the programme.
The 2018 Florida governor's race is set. Two outsiders bucked their respective political establishments and will now face each over in November: Democrat Andrew Gillum (left) will face Republican Ron DeSantis (right). [COLIN HACKLEY / TAILYR IRVINE | Times]
It's only been one week since Ron DeSantis and Andrew Gillum won their parties' nomination for governor, but already race has become a prevalent issue with only more news on the subject on Tuesday.
Via a statement from his campaign, DeSantis, a Republican, demanded that a member of the Orange County Republican Committee, Kathy Gibson, resign after she posted a racist meme on Facebook.
Gibson's post falsely accused Gillum of saying "his people" will get "paid back" for slavery if he is elected governor, according to Politico.
When Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee, won the Democratic primary last week, he became the first African-American to have ever been nominated for governor by a major party in Florida.
Gibson also added her own commentary to the post, saying: "If anyone living in Florida at this time was a slave holder, had family that were slave holders or committed acts against African Americans please let Mayor Gillum know so he can bill you & your Family," according to Politico.
"This campaign is about issues and creating a better Florida for everyone," DeSantis said in the statement. "Kathy Gibson should resign, and so should anyone else that subscribes to this sort of disgusting thinking."
Gillum's campaign spokesman, Geoff Burgan, similarly said in a statement that voters should focus on what matters.
"This race should be about the issues. This shouldn't be about the mayor's skin color," Burgan wrote. "This race should be about red tide. This race should be about toxic blue-green algae. This race should be about citrus greening. And it should be about real green dollar bills that should be going into people's pockets."
But earlier on Tueday, DeSantis' campaign was criticized by state Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Coral Springs, for his response to a highly racist, anti-Gillum robocall that went out to people in Tallahassee, which was paid for by an Idaho-based neo-Nazi website and went out on Friday.
After the news broke about the call, DeSantis' campaign condemned it in a statement.
"This is absolutely appalling and disgustingand hopefully whoever is behind this has to answer for this despicable action," wrote campaign spokesman Stephen Lawson on Friday. "Our campaign has and will continue to focus solely on the issues that Floridians care about and uniting our state as we continue to build on our success."
In a press release on Tuesday, Moskowitz said DeSantis should go farther and explicitly vow not to accept campaign help from hate groups.
"This is simple. Draft a press release, with your name attached to the quote instead of a spokesman that reads, I condemn these robocalls and I do not want, nor will I accept, the help of any Nazis,'" he said in the release. "If you are not capable of that, then I suggest listing an in-kind contribution from the Nazi Party on your next campaign finance report."
Additionally, Moskowitz alleged that DeSantis "opened the door" for neo-Nazis "with a remark in an interview on Fox News that made the stations own anchors uncomfortable."
He was referring to DeSantis' comment the day after the election that Florida shouldn't "monkey this up" by electing Gillum. DeSantis also called Gillum an "articulate spokesman" for the progressive movement.
Later that day, Fox News anchors read a statement on air that said they did "not condone" DeSantis' choice of words. His campaign said he was "obviously talking about Florida not making the wrong decision to embrace the socialist policies that Andrew Gillum espouses."
Moskowitz is a South Florida Democratic lawmaker who rose to prominence earlier this year after the Feb. 14 shooting in Parkland, which is in his district. Moskowitz was rumored to be in the running for Gillum's lieutenant governor pick, but he rejected the idea in a tweet, instead suggesting Gillum pick another Broward County lawmaker, Sen. Lauren Book.
The DeSantis campaign declined to comment on Moskowitz's criticism.
Sri Lanka: Navy assists to apprehend 24 persons for engaging in illegal acts
September 05,2018 | Source: Navy LK
Sri Lanka Navy assisted to apprehend 24 persons engaged in illegal acts at various locations in the island during the past few days. These suspects were held for engaging in illegal fishing, using explosive for fishing, treasure mining and selling expired drugs.
Accordingly, Naval personnel attached to the Eastern Naval Command apprehended 02 persons who engaged in illegal fishing in the seas 11 nautical miles north of Paul point, on last 27th Aug. Along with the suspects 12 colour fish caught by them, a dinghy and 03 banned nets were taken into Naval custody and they were handed over to Assistant Director of Fisheries-Trincomalee for onward action.
A troop of Naval personnel attached to the South Eastern Naval Command apprehended six persons (06) who engaged in fishing activities without fishing passes in the seas off Kalmunai on last 28th Aug. Two dinghies and two banned nets were also nabbed and they along with the suspects were handed over to the Assistant Director of Fisheries-Oluvil for legal proceedings.
Further on the same day, six persons who engaged in illegal fishing were nabbed by the Naval troops attached to the Eastern Naval Command. Along with the persons a dinghy, a banned net and two sticks of water gel were also held and the persons/items apprehended were handed over to the Fisheries Inspector -Muthur for legal action.
Meanwhile, Naval personnel attached to the Eastern Naval Command apprehended 09 persons who were trying to mine a treasure in Sinnaweli area, on 30th Aug. There, a three wheeler, motor bike and gears used for treasure mining were also taken into Naval custody. The held persons and other gears were handed over to Serunuwara Police for necessary legal action.
A troop of Naval personnel attached to Western Naval Command in coordination with the officials of Food and Drugs Investigation Unit in Gampaha apprehended a person who practiced the selling of various expired drugs at Alakanda area in wattala on 31st Aug. 1290 tablets of different types of medicines possessed by the suspect were also taken into Naval custody and they were handed over to Drugs Investigation Unit in Gampaha for legal action.
A troop of Naval personnel attached to the Eastern Naval Command on foot patrol in lagoon area of Batticoloa recovered 26 banned nets which were laid for fishing, on 1st Sep. and they were handed over to Assistant Director of Fisheries-Batticoloa for onward legal action.
Myanmar: Saudi marine products export to be discussed in Dubai Marine products Exhibition
September 05,2018 | Source: Eleven Myanmar
Vice-Chairman of Myanmar Fisheries Federation (MFF) Dr. Toe Nanda Tin said that Saudi Arabias postponement on import of Myanmar products will be discussed at the Marine products exhibition which will be held in October 30th to November 1st 2018 in Dubai.
The embassy of Saudi Arabia requested Department of Fisheries to answer all the questions posted in their website. They sent this in April. I couldnt answer the questions and transferred to Department of Fisheries. The Department sent the answers back in mid August. I think it will take time. If there is no reply till we go to Dubai, we will discuss with the responsible official when we get to Dubai. This must be done at a government to government level. If the questions were asked at the exhibition, government and private sectors will answer, Dr. Toe Nanda Tin.
Its been five months that Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) announced a temporary suspension on fish and prawn imports from Vietnam, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and India. The temporary suspension took effect on April 1. It is said that according to the announcement made by World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) that marine products from Myanmar carry white tail disease.
In the past, 30 percent of farm-raised fish were imported and 41 percent of carp were imported to Saudi Arabia. In local market, the price of carp is declining as there is no import to Saudi Arabia. Fishery products from Myanmar are directly distributed to Saudi Arabia or indirectly distributed through the UAE. Fishery exports to Saudi Arabia bring in between $ 25 million to $35 million yearly. More than 21,000 tonnes of Myanmar fish and prawns are shipped yearly to Saudi Arabia.
The temporary suspension of fishing imports can cause massive losses and damages to fishing businesses and the nations export revenue. There are some 480,000 acres of fish and prawn breeding farms across the county.
It has not been a good PR week for the police force in Indonesia.
The video, showing a Medan Police officer, identified by his initials TP, smoking the narcotics in a dingy home while still in uniform, quickly went viral and police investigators said that TP admitted that he is the person in the clip upon questioning.
Adjunct Police Inspector TP admitted to taking drugs at a drug dealers house, said Medan Internal Affairs head Arifin today as quoted by Detik
Arifin said police did a raid on the house in the video and said that the man and woman who owned the house were also arrested on narcotics charges.
Lockheed Martin will build wings for its F-16 combat plane in India with its local partner, Tata Advanced Systems Limited, an executive at the US company said on Tuesday. (Photo: AFP)
New Delhi: Lockheed Martin will build wings for its F-16 combat plane in India with its local partner, Tata Advanced Systems Limited, an executive at the US company said on Tuesday.
Lockheed is bidding for a contract to supply the Indian air force with 114 combat planes, which must be all manufactured locally under Prime Minister Narendra Modis flagship Make in India programme.
However, Vivek Lall, vice president of strategy and business development at Lockheed, said the proposed Indian production of the F-16 wings would not be contingent upon the company winning the order for the planes.
Producing F-16 wings in India will strengthen Lockheed Martin strategic partnership with Tata and support Make in India, the company said in a statement.
2+2 talks was meant to be held earlier in 2018 in Washington but was postponed by twice by the Trump administration. (Photo: File)
New Delhi: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis will be meeting Indias Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj on Thursday.
Under both Republican and Democratic administrations, the United States and India have drawn closer together and share a long and similar list of concerns from Chinas rise to maritime security and curbing terrorism.
But recently, US-India ties have faced frictions as India is dependent on Russia as a defence supplier and economic ties with Iran.
The United States never missed a chance to make the ties between the two nations stronger. Earlier in 2018, Pentagon changed the name of the Pacific Command to the Indo-Pacific Command. In July, US gave India the same status as members of NATO and other allies.
While on the other hand, India appreciated the Trump administrations decision to freeze USD 300 million in funds to Islamabad and tough approach towards Pakistan.
Arvind Gupta, who served as India's deputy national security adviser until last year said, "All of these changes are very much in a positive direction. The United States has started looking at India's security concerns quite sympathetically."
However, tension still continues in other areas. India is one of the many targets in Trumps trade war. India retaliated after the US imposed new tariffs on Indian steel and aluminium.
One of the major concerns India is having that how will Trump and his administration deal with Indias planned purchase of Russian missile defence and antiaircraft system called as S-400. However, the purchase would violate the sanctions imposed but US lawmakers later allowed some nations to receive Presidential waiver and India was among them.
Ashley Tellis, a former senior Bush administration official and longtime India expert said that Trump hasnt given any indication that he will or not exercise the waiver and would remain as a complication in US-India relationship.
Indias imports of oil from Iran is another complicating factor as the United States will be reimposing sanctions on Iranian oil in November and will be pushing buyers like India to reduce their purchases.
Both the countries want to demonstrate that they can work through their disagreements. The American delegation is also expected to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
2+2 talks was meant to be held earlier in 2018 in Washington but was postponed by twice by the Trump administration. Both the nations are expected to announce agreements which they have been negotiating for years.
The surge in cases comes after torrential rain beginning on August 8 flooded almost the entire state, killing hundreds of people, destroying thousands of homes and causing at least 200 billion rupees (USD 2.81 billion) worth of damage. (Photo: File | PTI)
New Delhi: Flood-ravaged Kerala is facing shortages of a drug that fights an infectious bacterial disease after the worst flooding in a century, forcing authorities to turn to other states to help ramp up supplies.
Suspected cases of leptospirosis, a waterborne disease known locally as rat fever, has climbed to 800 since mid-August, a health ministry spokesman said. Transmitted via the urine of infected animals, its symptoms include muscle pain and fever.
Confirmed deaths caused by leptospirosis so far total 12, while suspected deaths, pending full medical reports, number 41, the spokesman added.
The surge in cases comes after torrential rain beginning on August 8 flooded almost the entire state, killing hundreds of people, destroying thousands of homes and causing at least 200 billion rupees (USD 2.81 billion) worth of damage.
Kozhikode district, one of the worst hit by rat fever, is staring at supply shortages as demand for the preventive drug shot up, following a few deaths locally.
Kozhikode corporation needs about 3 million tablets over the next two months, but currently has about 500,000 in stock, said RS Gopakumar, its health officer.
We have got supplies, but the stocks have been depleting fast, Gopakumar said, as more people are demanding the preventive tablets, which need to be taken once a week for a month.
Supply shortages are being replenished. Of course the demand has shot up, but we are monitoring daily, said Saritha RL, the states director of health service.
The state government has sought help from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states, Gopakumar said.
The shortages are, however, not felt across the state.
Palakkad district, bordered on the east by Tamil Nadu, has plenty of stocks, as its proximity to the neighbouring state helped in faster transportation of medical supplies.
We have excess supply, said Reetha KP, district medical officer of Palakkad.
Reetha does not expect a major jump in leptospirosis cases locally, and the district is focusing on vector-borne diseases such as dengue fever instead, as stagnant water breeds mosquitoes.
We are busy with source reduction activities..., she said, adding that, unlike leptospirosis, dengue had no preventive vaccine. All we can do is to keep the intake of fluids high.
The USD 50 billion corridor that connects Kashgar in western China with Gwadar port in Pakistan, spanning 3,000 kilometres, passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. (Photo: ANI)
Washington: A group of US senators has warned that Pakistan is likely to face debt distress due to rising current account deficit and external obligations linked to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor or CPEC. The new government in Pakistan led by Prime Minister Imran Khan has already indicated it may pursue a bailout by the International Monetary Fund. Analysts have raised concerns that Pakistan may use the bailout money to repay CPEC debt.
Sixteen US senators including David A Perdue and Patrick Leahy have written to Secretary of State Michael R Pompeo and Secretary of Treasury Steven T Mnuchin expressing concern over bailout request by countries that fall in China's debt trap.
"These financial crisis illustrates the dangers of China's debt-trap diplomacy and its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to developing countries, as well as the national security threat they pose to the United States," the senators said in their letter.
The Centre for Global Development has estimated that of the 68 countries hosting BRI-funded projects, 23 are at risk of debt distress, and in eight of those countries, future BRI-related financing raises serious concerns about sovereign debt sustainability.
"It is also found that Chinese behaviour as a creditor has not been subject to the disciplines and standards that other major sovereigns and other multilateral creditors have adopted collectively, and in the process, debt levels and dependence on China are rising," the senators said, citing Sri Lanka as an example, which was promised a bailout of USD 1.5 billion by the IMF in 2016.
As financially strapped countries negotiate with China to free themselves of mounting debt, Beijing has extracted onerous concessions, including equity in strategically important assets.
The senators wrote: "In Djibouti, for instance, China has provided more than USD 1.4 billion in infrastructure funding, equivalent to 75 per cent of Djibouti's GDP. Most of that capital comes in the form of loans from the Export-Import Bank of China. The most recent IMF assessment stresses the extremely risky nature of Djibouti's borrowing program, noting that in just two years, public external debt has increased from 50 to 85 per cent of GDP, the highest of any low-income country."
"As Djibouti increases its dependence on China, there are fears that China will gain control of the Doraleh Container Terminal, further consolidating China's influence in the critically strategic region," the letter said.
Last year, the Sri Lankan government, after being unable to repay over USD 1 billion of Chinese debt for construction of Hambantota Port, granted a Chinese state company a 99-year lease on the facility.
There are concerns that given Pakistan's growing Chinese debt, the same could happen at Gwadar Port in Pakistan.
The USD 50 billion corridor that connects Kashgar in western China with Gwadar port in Pakistan, spanning 3,000 kilometres, passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Florida Gubernatorial Democratic nominee Andrew Gillum gives a campaign speech in front of his supporters with Bill Nelson in the back. [OCTAVIOR JONES | Tampa Bay Times]
Democratic nominee for governor Andrew Gillum on Tuesday released records relating to two trips he took with a Tallahassee lobbyist in 2016, following a meeting with a state ethics investigator.
The records shed some new light on Gillum's trips with lobbyist Adam Corey, a longtime friend of Gillum's who has been at the center of a long-running FBI investigation into city corruption.
The probe has not resulted in charges, and none of the subpoenas the FBI has issued to Tallahassee City Hall have mentioned Gillum.
But Gillum's close association with Corey and trips they took to New York City and Costa Rica in 2016 have been heavily scrutinized.
In August that year, Gillum took a three-night trip to New York on behalf of the People for the American Way Foundation, a nonprofit that Gillum used to work for.
However, part of his trip was organized by a mystery developer named "Mike Miller," who is now believed to have been an undercover FBI agent.
Miller tried to arrange a boat ride, tickets to a Mets game and tickets to the Broadway show "Hamilton" for Gillum, Gillum's brother, and Corey, records show.
Days before the trip, Corey laid out the plans in a calendar invite to Gillum, according to the Tallahassee Democrat: "Gents, Here is the plan from Mike Miller: We are going to do the Mets game Wednesday night. My buddy arranged another boat deal for us Thursday afternoon. Also, we have rooms arranged for everyone starting Wednesday night at the Millennial Hilton."
The timeline laid out by the campaign on Tuesday shows Corey's plans were slightly off.
Gillum's campaign released an unsigned hotel invoice showing he spent Tuesday and Wednesday night at a different hotel. The Open Society Foundation, another nonprofit, paid for the room, according to the campaign. On Thursday night, Gillum stayed at the Millennium hotel with his brother.
Gillum's campaign said Tuesday that Gillum did not attend the Mets game and did not meet up with the group until Thursday night, when Gillum's brother handed him a ticket to "Hamilton."
"After the trip, Mayor Gillum learned Marcus Gillum had obtained that ticket in a swap with Adam Corey for a concert ticket," Gillum's campaign said in a statement.
But Corey's lawyer, Christopher Kise, told the Associated Press Tuesday night that the idea that Corey swapped tickets with Marcus Gillum was "nonsense."
On Friday, the last day of the trip, Gillum took the boat ride around the Statue of Liberty with Corey and Miller. A photo of the three on the boat was published by Tallahassee television station WCTV.
Questions have also been raised about a trip Gillum and his wife took to Costa Rica with Corey and about 10 other people.
The campaign on Tuesday released copies of bank transactions and credit card statements to clear up details of the trip. The records show that Gillum took out $400 in cash the day before the trip, which he used to pay for their portion of a large villa the group shared.
"Mayor Gillum and his wife paid cash for their portions of the group lodging (similar to how someone might pay someone back if a reservation was booked on Airbnb), and paid by credit card for other outings," the campaign said.
After news of the New York trip surfaced last year, Tallahassee businessman Erwin Jackson filed an ethics complaint against Gillum. Gillum and his lawyer met with the investigator Tuesday morning, according to the campaign.
Gillum used the release of the receipts to take a shot at Republican Ron DeSantis, his opponent in November who has been a vocal critic of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into President Donald Trump.
Here in Florida, weve done everything we can to aide the agency, while Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump have done the exact opposite demonizing the FBI and making the case that collusion is not a crime," Gillum said in a statement.
In response, DeSantis spokesman Stephen Lawson dismissed the records.
"These receipts do nothing to shed light on his luxury trips to Costa Rica and New York City with lobbyists and undercover FBI agents," Lawson said. "In fact, they simply raise more questions about Gillums ongoing involvement."
A green sign on the door of a store in Nha Trang indicates that WeChat Pay, a Chinese digital wallet service, is available as a payment method. Photo by VnExpress/An Phuoc
The Vietnamese government wants to stop tourists from using Chinese electronic wallets, saying it results in tax evasion.
Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue has ordered ministries and other agencies to crack down on the use of WeChat Pay, AliPay and illegal points of sale devices at travel hotspots frequented by Chinese tourists.
He has also ordered the State Bank of Vietnam and the Ministry of Finance to consider international financial regulations and come up with solutions to prevent the use of foreign electronic wallets.
He also instructed them to put in place a legal framework to tax such payments.
According to some tour guides in tourist areas, many Vietnamese shop owners have bank accounts in China and payments made by Chinese visitors are transferred directly to those accounts.
Authorities in some tourist hubs frequented by Chinese had flagged difficulties in controlling payments since many used Chinese e-wallets, causing tax losses.
Authorities in Ha Long, Nha Trang and Da Nang beach cities called for technological solutions and specific regulations to stop these payments.
The deputy PM also ordered the Ministry of Planning and Investment to assess the impact of Chinese zero dollar tours on the economy and security.
He urged local authorities to carry out surprise checks of tourism companies, shopping malls and restaurants reportedly involved in zero dollar tours and publicly announce their penalties.
Huge numbers of Chinese tourists have been coming to Vietnam in recent years, many through zero dollar tours that enable them to get free accommodation and meals for shopping at Chinese customers only stores for prices a few times higher than the market rate.
These stores are owned by Vietnamese nationals but are actually operated by Chinese investors, and their operations are very hard for authorities to control, one official at the Mong Cai International Border recently told VnExpress.
Fifteen such stores were closed last year after Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc told Quang Ninh Province to verify media reports.
In the first half this year Vietnam received 2.5 million Chinese visitors, or 32 percent of all international arrivals, a year-on-year increase of 36 percent.
Improved PPP rules are expected to revitalize infrastructure investment in Vietnam, but legal entanglements continue to be a concern.
Vietnams infrastructure has struggled to keep up with its robust economic and population growth.
Rapid economic growth and urbanization are driving demand for roads, power, airports, ports, waste and water treatment, hospitals, and other public infrastructure for goods and services.
Meanwhile, public funding is unable to meet these needs. The gap would have to be made up from other sources including private investment in the form of public-private partnerships (PPPs).
To put it simply, the public sector has the users (or customers) and land and can provide other incentives such as tax breaks. The private sector can bring in technology, capital and efficiency through experience.
Other countries have successfully implemented PPPs. In Vietnam, a number of tools have been created to assist the government in its support for PPPs, aiming to create a much improved legal framework for PPP to revitalize investment in infrastructure projects.
Legal issues update
The new tools include the Project Development Facility to help make a rigorous assessment of potential projects and the Viability Gap Fund, which provides needed government support to make them financially viable if they are not otherwise.
The government has enacted several laws to promote infrastructure development, especially through private investment.
Decree 15/2015/ND-CP on PPP investment is very promising with regard to the forms of contracts, the various sectors targeted, state support or participation, projects bankability, and tender requirements.
However, in the process of implementation, there are conflicting legal issues that deter investors from choosing PPP as an investment mode, meaning there are few PPP projects thus far.
For instance, Decree 15 clearly allows project contracts to be governed by foreign laws, namely contracts involving a foreign party and government agency guarantee contracts.
But an issue arises when it comes to real-estate related matters, which are not yet finally decided under the Land Law which will be the governing law.
Moreover, as PPP laws are only at decree level, the regulatory framework for PPP projects mainly includes the Law on Enterprises, Law on Public Investment, Law on Bidding, etc., most of which regulate public investment, and not private, or investment cooperation between the government and private investors.
Investors are also concerned about the stability of PPP regulations since they are mainly decrees. Since a PPP project could take years to complete, regulations in decrees could change and cause investors confusion in the implementation of the laws.
State agencies also face certain difficulties in managing PPP projects. In an actual incident narrated by an officer at the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the government once signed a PPP contract with an investor, but later amended the contract value due to changes in policies. As a result, the land price increased 14 times from the previously agreed level, leading to a substantial loss for the investor.
According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, there will be an expected 598 registered PPP projects in 2016-20 with a total investment of VND250 trillion ($10.69 billion).
Given the shortcomings of Decree 15, it would be hard to achieve these numbers without its replacement by another decree.
In that context, Decree 63/2018/ND-CP was issued on May 4, 2018, to eliminate bottlenecks in PPP implementation.
Decree 63 - What is new?
Capital contribution responsibility
The investor is responsible for contributing and mobilizing capital for the project, with the ratio of the investors capital to the owners equity determined as follows:
For projects with a total investment amount of up to VND1.5 trillion ($64.13 million), the equity the investor must maintain is at least 20 percent of that amount;
In case of projects worth more than VND1.5 trillion, it must be at least 20 percent of the first VND1.5 trillion and 10 percent of the amount exceeding that.
There is no capital contribution requirement by the government, thus reducing the financial burden on the government.
Payment methods in BT projects
Investors are very interested in well-located lands when implementing build-transfer (BT) projects. However, when the lands gradually run out, BT projects do not seem to attract investors.
Decree 63 has added another method in addition to the exchange of land for infrastructure, so that investors have more options in terms of compensation.
Now investors may also receive payment in the form of transfer of rights to do business, exploit works/ services, etc.
Impact of CPTPP and EVFTA on PPP projects
Covered government entities and agencies
According to Decree 63, tenders for the selection of PPP investors will be governed by the Law on Public Procurement.
While the Law on Public Procurement still has some shortcomings, Vietnam will be bound by its commitments in the Government Procurement chapter in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTP) and the EU-Vietnam FTA (EVFTA), including procedures to carry out a tender and in what specific circumstances the Government must call for a public tender.
Investors now have the opportunity to participate in procurement by Vietnamese government entities and challenge the government if it does not grant them the opportunity to do so in qualified circumstances.
The CPTPP and the EVFTA both make a list of government entities and agencies whose procurement of particular goods and services at a particular amount must be subject to public tender.
While the CPTPP only allows expansion of the list within 5 years of the entry into force of the agreement, the EVFTA allows a longer period of 15 years.
How to appeal government tender decision?
The CPTPP and the EVFTA make it possible for foreign investors to sue the Vietnamese government for its tender decisions according to the dispute settlement by arbitration rules.
The violating party must take all necessary measures to promptly comply with the arbitral decision.
In case of non-compliance, as in the WTO, the CPTPP and the EVFTA allow temporary remedies (compensation) at the request of the complaining party.
Enforcement of arbitral awards
The final arbitral award is binding and enforceable without any question from the local courts regarding its validity. This is an advantage for investors considering the fact that the percentage of annulled foreign arbitral awards in Vietnam remains relatively high for various reasons.
Vietnams strong economic growth and its demand for infrastructure development are great opportunities for investors planning to invest in the country. The CPTPP and the EVFTA are effective tools to support foreign investment in Vietnams infrastructure sector in the form of PPP. Under these agreements, foreign investors could take recourse to arbitration proceedings and have the arbitral awards fully enforced in Vietnam.
*Oliver Massmann is general director of Duane Morris Vietnam LLC.
Dong Thap police have detained a member of a resistance organization for posting anti-state propaganda on social media.
Huynh Truong Ca, 47, was arrested on Tuesday in Tien Giang Province, a two-hour drive to the west of Dong Thap Province in southern Vietnam. Police said he was on his way to Ho Chi Minh City to instigate protests.
Huynh Truong Ca, 47, is being held at a police station in Dong Thap Province for carrying out anti-state propaganda.
They said Ca was part of a terrorist organization called Constitution.
He posted articles, video clips and livestream reports with distorted information that defamed the government, State leaders and local police, the police alleged.
They said he posted articles on social media recently to incite public protests on the occasion of Vietnams Independence Day, (September 2) but his plan was foiled by security forces.
Under Vietnams Penal Code, anti-government propaganda can be punished with up to 20 years in jail. Several people were imprisoned last year for the offense.
A court in Ho Chi Minh City last May sentenced Bui Hieu Vo, 56, to four years and six months in prison for "conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam."
In February, a Ho Chi Minh City court sentenced Facebooker Ho Van Hai, 54, to four years in jail for posting articles that it said slandered and distorted the policies of the Party and the state on his Facebook page and blog.
Half of Vietnams population are choosing to get their news on social media, a survey by the Pew Research Center has found.
Facebook is the country's most popular social network, with around 64 million active accounts, accounting for 3 percent of global Facebookers, according to a report released in July last year by social media marketing agency We Are Social.
Each migrant had paid 9,000 euros ($10,500) for the short trip from the French coast to Britain, the prosecutor said.
A 70-year-old retired British navy captain and two other Britons have been given jail sentences in France for trying to smuggle a dozen Vietnamese migrants across the Channel in a motorboat, prosecutors said Tuesday.
The three men were arrested last Thursday a few kilometers from the coast near the village of Wimereux in northern France after a tip-off from British authorities, local newspaper la Voix du Nord reported.
The retired naval captain, Ronald Scott, was sentenced to 30 months and given a 10-year ban from French territory on Monday, while the other two were given sentences of one and two years respectively, the local prosecutors' office in Boulogne-sur-Mer told AFP.
Each migrant had paid 9,000 euros ($10,500) for the short trip from the French coast to Britain, the prosecutor said.
France's northern coast remains a magnet for migrants looking to cross the Channel, with police and the coast guard fighting a constant battle against people smugglers.
In Style - Hong Kong, a mega promotion organized by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), will debut in HCMC this month.
Following its successful runs in Jakarta, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, this years campaign aims to showcase the citys branded, design-led products and world-class professional services, and how Vietnamese companies could leverage Hong Kongs advantages to expand globally.
In Style - Hong Kong in Ho Chi Minh City will include a full-day symposium on business services, a two-day trade expo and a high-level gala dinner, as well as a wide array of shopping and dining promotions in the city.
Symposium on Hong Kongs World-class Professional Services
The main symposium will be held on 20 September at GEM Center, highlighting Hong Kongs advantages in various services sectors, particularly cross-border logistics and creative branding and design.
Vincent HS Lo, Chairman of HKTDC; Paul Chan, Financial Secretary of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR); and a high-level local official will officiate in the opening ceremony.
The main symposium themed Hong Kong- Vietnam: Partnering for Prosperity, will be moderated by HKTDC Director of Research Nicholas Kwan, who will be joined by other business leaders from Hong Kong, including Jonathan Choi, chairman of Sunwah Group; John Cheh, vice chairman and CEO of Esquel Group, as well as Wallace Lam, managing director, co-head of Global Banking, Hong Kong, HSBC. The speakers will share practical insights on the opportunities brought by the Hong Kong-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement and discuss how both countries could collaborate to stay competitive and expand their global businesses together.
Navigating the Future of Retail
As e-commerce in Asia has experienced explosive growth over the years, the retail industry is facing vast opportunities and challenges at the same time, notably in delivery channels and cashless trading. A thematic session on Navigating the Future of Retail will highlight the growing trend of e-tailing, cross-border transactions, online payments, as well as their impacts on the supply-chain management and logistics.
Anthony Lau, chairman of Pacific Air (Hong Kong) Limited; Craig Price, senior vice president, International Projects HKT Global Development Services, PCCW Global Limited, and Gary Chan, executive director and chief operating officer, Giordano International Limited will share their experience and insights on how Vietnamese e-tailers can leverage Hong Kongs edge in logistics services to expand their online businesses in other markets.
From Ideas to Business
The steady growth of Asian economies offers Vietnamese companies new business opportunities. A session entitled From Ideas to Business will explore the latest trends in creative and innovative branding, interior design and licensing solutions. Distinguished speakers will share their experience on how various solutions helped upgrade their businesses in Asia. They include March Richardson, Group Director of Sedgwick Richardson (Hong Kong) Limited; David Lo, creative director of LOMATTERS Creative Studio; Steve Leung, founder of Steve Leung Design Group Limited and Eddie Hui, managing director and chief executive officer of Semk Products Limited, who will share their insights in terms of branding and design, product packaging, interior design and licensing.
In addition, the symposium will feature a Business Support Zone with 11 Hong Kong services providers from various fields, including design and branding, accounting, logistics, information technology, architecture and management consultancy. These services providers will deliver free on-site business consultation services to participants from Vietnam and other ASEAN countries.
In the fight over the Florida House of Representatives, Miami is a key battleground.
The campaign generals incoming House Speaker Jose Oliva and incoming minority leader Kionne McGhee are both from Miami-Dade County. And with 10 seats in play, their backyard is the territory that could determine which party comes out ahead in the numbers game.
If McGhee can claw back seats in the 120-member chamber this fall, Democrats will enter 2019 with a better shot at influencing legislation over the next two years. The conditions would appear to be ripe, with mid-term elections typically favoring the party on the outside of the White House and Democratic voter turnout up dramatically during the primary elections.
But even though Democrats outnumber Republicans in Miami, Dade County voters have steadily supported down-ballot Republicans, who have their own reasons to feel good about voter turnout during the primary election. And Oliva knows he has an opportunity, however unlikely, to head into the new year with a veto-proof super-majority that would enable him to vigorously pursue his agenda regardless of which party occupies the governors mansion.
Miami-Dade County is going to be ground zero, said McGhee.
Click here to read the rest.
Vietnam to try safer way to clean up Agent Orange hotspots
A new method will filter, wash and rinse contaminated soil at the Bien Hoa Airport to sponge dioxin out.
Dioxin, the toxic ingredient in the Agent Orange defoliant sprayed by the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, will float up and latch on to sponges after the contaminated soil filtered by the size of its particles, washed and rinsed.
The application of this new method was announced in a memorandum signed by the Ministry of Defense and Tokyo-based general contractor Shimizu Corporation on Tuesday.
It said that Shimizu Corp will finish building a decontamination factory at the Bien Hoa Airport in southern Dong Nai Province by December this year and begin operations next January.
The factory will have a maximum decontamination capacity being 40 tons of soil per hour.
It is claimed that the new method can remove over 90 percent of dioxin present in the contaminated soil, and that 70 percent of it can be reused normally.
Previously, the dioxin was removed from the soil through a heating method that was too costly and needed to meet stringent emission management requirements.
Applying the new method along with the old can cut decontamination costs by half and is less harmful to the environment, officials said.
Vietnam currently has 28 dioxin hotspots, including airports in several cities and provinces like central city of Da Nang that were heavily used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War.
Of these, the Bien Hoa Airport is considered the worst, with the total mass of contaminated soil reaching 850,000 tons.
The Vietnamese government hopes to complete dioxin decontamination of the countrys soil by 2030.
Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds (DLCs) are highly toxic organic pollutants in Agent Orange, which was sprayed by the U.S. militarys Operation Ranch Hand from 1961 to 1971. Some 80 million liters of Agent Orange are said to have been sprayed over 78,000 square kilometers (30,000 square miles) of Vietnamese territory.
The chemical, which stays in the soil and at the bottom of lakes and rivers for generations, was later found to be capable of damaging genes, which causes deformities in the offspring of exposed individuals.
The Vietnam Red Cross says that between 2.1 to 4.8 million Vietnamese were directly exposed to Agent Orange and other chemicals that have been linked to cancers, birth defects and other chronic diseases occurring through several generations.
A new food tour will take guests to many places that late chef Anthony Bourdain popularized in Vietnam.
Vietnamese travel firm Exotic Voyages has announced a new tour package called "A Tribute to Anthony Bourdain: Taste of Vietnam."
The tour will follow in the footsteps of Bourdain as he collected cuisine experiences across the country, from the north to the south.
The 14 day, 13 night tour will cover several cities and provinces including Saigon, Da Nang, Hoi An (Quang Nam province), Hue and Hanoi.
Food destinations like the Com Nieu Restaurant in Saigon, or the now-famous Huong Lien Restaurant in Hanoi, where Bourdain and former U.S. President Obama drank a beer and had a dish of Bun cha (noodle and grilled pork) in 2016, will be featured in the itinerary.
Other activities include a show at the Saigon Opera House, a cruise along the Chet Say River on the Mekong Delta, and a walk through the ancient Hoi An town.
A woman rides a bicycle past a typical yellow house of Hoi An. Photo by Christian Berg
Diep Nguyen, a Vietnamese travel expert who assisted Bourdain in 2016 when he traveled to northern Vietnam for an episode of the TV program "Parts Unknown," will lead the tour.
The experience of a lifetime not only helped me understand the man himself but how his love for my beautiful Vietnam developed over good food and conversation, she said.
She also said that the new tour package is a thank you and a tribute to the late chef, who committed suicide in June.
She hopes that guests would fall in love with Vietnam and its cuisine, just as Bourdain did, Nguyen added.
The tour package, which covers all food and accommodation expenses, starts at $3,755 per person.
Anthony Michael Bourdain, born 1956, was an American celebrity chef, author, travel documentarian and television personality.
He hosted and starred in several programs featuring international cuisine, culture and the human condition, including the travel and food show "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown," which uncovered the cultures and cuisines of several lesser-known places around the world.
Vietnam was featured on the programs fifth episode of the fourth season and the second episode of the eighth season.
In June, Bourdain was found dead in a hotel room in Kaysersberg, France. At 61, he had committed suicide by hanging, it was reported. While he is known to have suffered from depression, the reasons for committing suicide remain unknown.
Vietnam's Golden Bridge is selected as among best travel photos this year by CNN.
Vietnams new architectural masterpiece, the Golden Bridge, is one of CNNs best travel photographs of the year.
CNN has released its top travel photos from the first six months of 2018, and the image of the 150-meter-long bridge apparently held up in two giant palms and rising above the Truong Son mountain range in central Vietnam is in sixth place.
The American news site selected 85 top shots from around the world.
Designed by Vu Viet Anh, design principal at TA Landscape Architecture, the bridge opened to tourists last June and has quickly grabbed the worlds attention, becoming one of the most popular on Instagram, the world's top photo sharing network.
British newspaper Independent included it in the world's 10 most incredible bridges while The Time magazine has listed it in its list of top 100 Worlds Greatest Places for 2018.
Other top travel photos published by CNN were a 24-hour bookstore, Page One, in Beijing, an elevated glass walkway in New York, Jeju Island in South Korea, and the floating fishing village of Ko Panyi in Thailand.
A bridge in hand is worth photos galore Vietnams Golden Bridge among worlds top travel photos this year
Last year, CNN described colorful floating lanterns on the iconic Hoai river in the ancient Vietnamese town of Hoi An as being among the best global travel moments.
A Grab motor driver is seen in a street in Jakarta, Indonesia. Photo by Reuters
16 billion ride-hailing trips were completed worldwide in 2017 and 24 billion to be completed by the end of 2018, a recent study found.
The recent report by ABI Research, a market-foresight advisory firm providing strategic guidance on the most compelling transformative technologies, analyzed the number of ride-hailing trips completed by users in different regions and evaluated market shares for each region.
The results showed that just over 70 percent of ride-hailing trips were completed in Asia alone, with the next biggest markets being North America and Latin America, with only 5 percent of trips being completed in Western Europe due to stricter regulation.
"The sheer size of the Asian ride-hailing market has prompted numerous companies, both local and foreign, to try and establish a foothold in the local markets," says Shiv Patel, Research Analyst at ABI Research.
"In direct contrast to Western Europe and North America, vehicle ownership is relatively low in Asian markets due to the large expense and impracticality for consumers in large cities.
"This has spurred the growth of dynamic ride-hailing services, where the average cost of a trip can be as low as US$0.10 per mile. This low cost combined with a favorable regulatory environment has really helped foster the use of ride-hailing services."
It hasn't been all success stories for those operating in Asia, however. Some foreign companies, such as Uber, have struggled in the region, leading to its exit out of China and South-East Asia.
Uber's withdrawal from the region, however, has helped create extra opportunities for local players, as they look to establish themselves and expand within the region and globally.
For instance, Didi Chuxing has used Uber's exit to establish a strong leading market position in China, with over 90 percent market share of the largest ride-hailing market in the world.
Players in South-East Asia such as GO-JEK and Grab, have used the withdrawal of Uber to step up investment and expansion in the area.
Ride-hailing in Indonesia, the largest market in South-East Asia and the fourth largest market ride-hailing globally, after China, India and the United States, has recently seen fierce competition driven by increasing investment and expansion in the country.
"The Indonesia market was once a three-way race between Uber, GO-JEK, and Grab. However, with a slowly decreasing market share in the region, Uber decided to withdraw from the market, selling its assets to Grab," explained Patel.
"Grab used aggressive investment over 2017 and the acquisition of Uber's South-East-Asian operations to develop a dominant market-leading position (by the number of trips) in the Indonesian ride-hailing market.
"Our research showed that at the beginning of 2017, Grab had just 30 percent market share of the Indonesian ride-hailing market, while local rival GO-JEK had a commanding 58 percent of the market.
"By the end of June 2018, Grab had made an impressive turnaround, establishing a 62 percent market share of the ride-hailing market - a direct result of its aggressive investment and expansion in Indonesia over 2017, which was further helped by its acquisition of Uber's business in the region in 2018."
However, it's not all doom and gloom for Uber in the region. The company still has a strong market share in India, the third largest ride-hailing market globally.
Uber was found to have a 46 percent market share in the country, just behind local rival Ola Cabs, who recently announced it was taking on Uber in the U.K, one of Uber's strongest markets.
"Overall, the results showed that ride-hailing is growing at a remarkable pace and that Asia is the key market underpinning this growth," Patel said.
"Uber's exit out of the large Asian ride-hailing markets will be a painful pill to them to swallow. Despite this setback, Uber is still the only company to have leading market positions across different global markets (Latin America, North America, and Western Europe).
"However, as Asian ride-hailing players start to build significant scale on their Asian operations, Uber must be prepared to face competition from not only local players in European and Latin America markets but also from the likes of Ola Cabs, Didi Chuxing, and Grab as they look to expand beyond their core home markets," Patel concluded.
These findings are from ABI Research's Vehicle and Mobility Market Data report. This report is part of the company's Smart Mobility & Automotive research service, which includes research, data, and Executive Foresights.
Ukraine could quit daylight saving clock changes following EU
The economy ministry says it has no due diligence report on the actual reduction of power consumption as a result of changing the clocks.
If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter
Cabinet to up its game against shadow employment in Oct
Employers shall be informed within a month of penalties envisaged for failing to register employees.
If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter
Ukraine sees 2.9% decline in international reserves in Aug
The reserves totaled US$17.232 billion as of September 1, 2018.
If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter
Some 17 helicopters Mi-17 of the Turkish Gendarmerie will be repaired and modernized.
Ukrainian companies have won the $40 million tender for the repair and upgrade of Turkish Mi-17 helicopters, said in the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.
According to the statement of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the Ukrainian SE Konotop Aircraft Repair Plant "Aviakon" and aero-engine manufacturer "Motor Sich" won a tender for the repair and modernization of 17 helicopters Mi-17 of the Turkish Gendarmerie, Defence Blog reported.
"We have the agreements on the cooperation of the border guards, guards, police and rescuers. Also, I thank for cooperation in the military sphere. Now we implement the big project on the modernization of Mi-17 helicopters," said Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov during his visit to Turkey.
Read alsoPoland looking at Ukrainian modernization package for T-72 tanks
According to Arsen Avakov, this contract is the result of a six-month work with the Turkish Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Mi-17 military transport helicopters are among the most popular helicopters in their class. Mi-17V helicopters are designed for personnel transportation, and for carrying cargo internally or on the external sling. They can be used in search and rescue operations, and can also be equipped with weapons.
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 []
Ara Babloyan receives OSCE Secretary General
Speaker of the Parliament of Armenia Ara Babloyan on September 4 received OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger. During the meeting Speaker Babloyan said Armenia attaches great importance to the cooperation with the OSCE and expressed hope that Gremingers visit will contribute to developing and deepening the mutual partnership. The Speaker highlighted the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process, as the main format of the negotiation process. The Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement is based on the recognition and exercise of the Artsakh peoples right to self-determination, Ara Babloyan said. He expressed concern over the closure of the OSCE Yerevan Office. Talking about the domestic developments in Armenia, the Parliament Speaker said he earlier expressed his concerns over some domestic political issues and had meetings with the Prime Minister, the President and the Ombudsman in this context. Ara Babloyan stated that the issues should be solved in accordance with the Constitution. In his turn the OSCE Secretary General thanked for the reception and stated that the visit aims at expanding and strengthening the relations and cooperation with Armenia. Thomas Greminger said despite the closure of the OSCE Yerevan Office, the organization will continue to move forward the cooperation with Armenia with all possible forms. Attaching importance to the effective cooperation between Armenia and the OSCE/ODIHR, Greminger said the latter is ready to assist Armenia in electoral reforms. As for the settlement of the NK conflict, the OSCE Secretary General said he is ready to support the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs as much as possible. The officials also discussed the fight against corruption, regional issues, as well as other issues of bilateral interest.
Galaxy Group of Companies expands its activities in Belarus: a new TIME and Pandora store launched
I think its a good moment to invest in Armenia. Head of Markets at Symbiotics Vincent Lehner
Ameriabank has Raised USD 17.5M Tier 2 Capital
UNIGHT TO UNITE. UCOM CELEBRATED ITS REBIRTH
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
Google Ad
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
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
Galaxy Group of Companies expands its activities in Belarus: a new TIME and Pandora store launched
I think its a good moment to invest in Armenia. Head of Markets at Symbiotics Vincent Lehner
Ameriabank has Raised USD 17.5M Tier 2 Capital
UNIGHT TO UNITE. UCOM CELEBRATED ITS REBIRTH
Google Ad
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
Google Ad
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
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
The Supreme Court of Ukraine has ruled to terminate the execution of a ruling of the business court of Kyiv dated August 17, 2018, according to which accounts of Ukrgazvydobuvannia were arrested and the company's operations were blocked, the company's press service reported on Monday.
"Despite this Supreme Court decision and the fact that on August 31, the lawyers of Ukrgazvydobuvannia submitted all necessary documents to the Department of the State Enforcement Service of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine for the cancellation of the enforcement, the enforcement actions to implement the decision of the business court of Kyiv by the state enforcement officer have not been stopped," the company said.
The State Enforcement Service has blocked the accounts of Ukrgazvydobuvannia for recovery of UAH 261 million due to the violation of obligations under a leasing agreement to Financial Leasing Center LLC by Karpatygaz LLC as an operator under a joint venture (JV) agreement.
"When blocking the operation of Ukrgazvydobuvannia, seizing its accounts and collecting funds, the Ukrainian judicial and enforcement systems demonstrated remarkable dexterity. I hope that now, when this decision has been suspended by the court of higher instance, the state enforcement officers of the State Enforcement Service will demonstrate a state position and show equally high-quality and quick work in the execution of the Supreme Court decision and stop the execution of enforcement actions in the shortest possible time," Ukrgazvydobuvannia Head Oleh Prokhorenko said.
As reported, the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce issued a partial award in the case initiated by JSC Ukrgazvydobuvannia against Karpatygaz LLC and its shareholder Misen Enterprises AB (Sweden) regarding termination of a JV agreement.
The Tribunal found that the JV agreement had been violated by both Misen Enterprises AB (contributed only $ 3.9 million out of $ 12.5 million to the JV) and Karpatygaz (failure to supply metering stations as stipulated under the terms of the agreement).
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has dismissed acting Head of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine Myroslav Prodan on his own wish and announced a tender to select the head of the authority, acting Finance Minister of Ukraine Oksana Markarova has said.
"The issue that we have already discussed for a long time is the holding of a tender for the position of the head of the State Fiscal Service. The holding of an open and transparent tender is very important for further reform, including the State Fiscal Service reform. The government today decided to start and announce the tender," she said after a government meeting on Wednesday.
Markarova also said that Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman instructed the National Service for State Governance and the Ministry of Finance to begin procedures for holding the tender.
"To avoid conflicts of interest, the acting head of the State Fiscal Service decided to resign at his own will. The government backed this decision. Before the tender, Oleksandr Vlasov will act as head of the State Fiscal Service," she said, adding that Vlasov headed the Phantom special unit of tax police for three years.
"The government's steps to combat smuggling and electronic services in the State Fiscal Service will continue ... One of the main tasks is the preparation of a transparent tender to select the head of the State Fiscal Service," Vlasov said.
"I understand perfectly well that the attention of the, business and international partners of Ukraine will be attracted to the tender.. Perhaps we will see attempts to politicize the process... In order to avoid conflicts of interest and any speculation on this issue, I asked the government to appoint another acting head of the State Fiscal Service," Prodan wrote on Facebook social network.
The U.S. Embassy on the fourth anniversary of the signing of the Minsk Protocol has called on Russia to fulfill its obligations under the agreements and immediately cease hostilities in the east of Ukraine.
"The Minsk Protocol was signed four years ago today to bring peace to eastern Ukraine. But the fighting never stopped, threatening lives and livelihoods of innocent Ukrainians. Russia must live up to its commitments and end the fighting now! #Peace4Ukraine #UkraineNotForgotten," the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine said on Twitter.
The Minsk Protocol (Protocol on the results of consultations of the Trilateral Contact Group on joint steps aimed at the implementation of the Peace Plan of President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and the initiatives of Russian President Vladimir Putin) was signed in Minsk (Belarus) on September 5, 2014 and provided for the cessation of hostilities in the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.
Later, on February 11-12, 2015, the second Minsk agreement was signed (a set of measures to implement the Minsk agreements). The document was agreed by the leaders of Germany, France, Ukraine, and Russia in the format of the Normandy Four and signed by the Trilateral Contact Group.
Russian-backed militants have launched 24 attacks on positions of Ukrainian troops in the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) area in Donbas in last day with no casualties reported.
"The Russian mercenaries opened fire on the positions of our troops 24 times, while the enemy didn't use the weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements ... There have been no casualties among the Ukrainian troops," the staff said on Facebook on Wednesday morning.
Russian occupation forces opened aimed fire from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, and small arms and sometimes anti-tank guided weapons.
Our defenders were shelled in Schastia, Triokhizbenka, Krymske, Mayorske, Novhorodske, Pisky, Krasnohorivka, Maryinka, Bohdanivka, Hnutove, Lebedynske, Vodiane, and Shyrokyne.
According to intelligence, one militant was killed, another two were wounded.
Today, militants have already shelled Ukrainian troops near Vodiane.
"Since Wednesday midnight, Russian-led forces have already attacked the Ukrainian positions near Vodiane, using heavy machine guns and small arms. There have been no casualties among the Ukrainian troops," the message says.
The Council of the European Union has decided to extend for six months individual sanctions against Russia for more than 150 people and about 50 companies for aggression against Ukraine, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.
"I welcome the piece of news from Brussels about the logical decision of the EU ambassadors to extend individual sanctions against Russia for more than 150 people and about 50 companies for aggression against Ukraine for half a year," Poroshenko wrote on his Facebook page on Wednesday.
"We are moving ahead with one unwavering transatlantic front!" the president added.
The European Union has expressed concern about the deliberate prevention of passage of ships to Ukrainian ports in the Sea of Azov, and said it expects Russia will ensure unhindered access.
"Over the past months, Russia has increasingly and deliberately hindered and delayed the passage of vessels, including vessels from EU Member States, transiting through the Kerch Strait to and from Ukraine's ports in the Sea of Azov. We expect Russia to ensure unhindered access to Ukrainian ports in the Sea of Azov. The European Union fully supports Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and continue to condemn and not recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol," the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine told the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Wednesday.
The delegation said the EU fully supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and continues to condemn and not to recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol.
The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission has reported its failure to receive information about casualties of the Donetsk explosion that claimed the life of the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and his bodyguard.
"Following the explosion on Pushkina Boulevard in Donetsk city on 31 August, on 3 September, the SMM continued to observe a calm situation in the city center (non-government-controlled). The SMM followed up on reports of people injured in the above-mentioned explosion. While at the Kalinina morgue in Donetsk city on 3 September, the SMM was informed that the bodies of Aleksandr Zakharchenko and another member of the armed formations (a member of Zakharchenko's personal security detail) had been brought to the facility with fatal wounds from the explosion," the mission said.
"On the same day, at the Gusak Hospital in Donetsk city, medical staff told the SMM that after the explosion on 31 August six people had been admitted with various blast-related injuries, however, they refused to provide the Mission with further details," the mission said.
"On the same day, medical staff at the Kalinina Hospital in Donetsk city refused to provide the SMM information about people injured in the explosion on 31 August without permission from senior members of the armed formations," it said.
The OSCE said in its report on September 1 that monitors heard the sound of the explosion at the Separ restaurant in a park near 13, Pushkina Boulevard, in Donetsk at 5:27 p.m. on August 31.
The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine believes that the cause of chemical emissions in northern Crimea, occupied by Russia, was accidental shelling by Russian military units training in the area. The shells landed in so-called technological wastewater reservoirs, the directorate said.
"According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, on August 13-19 this year, during military exercises along the administrative border with Kherson region, Russian military units fired shots in the areas where chemical waste from the titanium and soda factories were located. This led to a significant deterioration of the ecological situation throughout the north of the occupied Crimea," Defense Ministry Spokesman Dmytro Hutsuliak said during a briefing on Wednesday.
Hutsuliak said Russian occupation forces are trying to hide the scale of the environmental problem and avoid responsibility for causing it by disseminating false and distorted media reports designed to misinform society about the environmental dangers in Crimea.
Russia refuses to provide Ukraine, OSCE with info on sending its investigators to Donbas in violation of all laws
Representatives of Russia at a meeting of the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) in Minsk on September 5 refused to provide the Ukrainian side and the OSCE with information on sending investigators to Donbas to investigate the death of DPR Head Alexander Zakharchenko in Donetsk in violation of Ukrainian and Russian laws, the First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the TCG Iryna Gerashchenko has stated.
"The Ukrainian side demanded that Russia immediately provide full information on the facts and statements that appeared in mass media that the Russian side sent some investigators to the occupied Donbas to investigate the murder of the leader of militants," Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook.
According to her, firstly, this is a gross violation of the Ukrainian legislation, since only Ukrainian investigative agencies can conduct investigative actions in the Ukrainian territory, or such actions can be carried out with the permission of the relevant structures, while Kyiv did not give such permits to Russia.
Secondly, this is a violation of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which provides that investigative bodies can work only in the territory of the federation.
The German Foreign Ministry is convinced the Normandy format (France, Germany, Ukraine, Russia) remains an important element in settling the situation in eastern Ukraine after the assassination of DPR Head Alexander Zakharchenko, German Federal Foreign Office Spokesperson Rainer Breul has stated.
"Without commenting on individual statements, I can say that we are convinced that the Normandy format can function. Of course, it implies that all those who take part are ready for negotiations. We are ready for this and we believe that continuation of work in this format will make a great deal of sense," he told reporters.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed that Russia does not abandon the "Normandy format," but believes that it is "inappropriate and blasphemous" to gather a meeting in this format after the assassination of Zakharchenko, especially "when neither Berlin nor Paris expressed their condemnation of this political assassination that occurred in Donetsk."
German Deputy Government Spokesperson Ulrike Demmer, in turn, noted that Berlin is closely monitoring the situation in Donbas after the assassination of Zakharchenko. She pointed out that any "use of violence will be condemned." Demmer also noted the need to avoid escalation.
The issue of a possible international investigation into the death of DPR Head Alexander Zakharchenko will be discussed in the near future, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group Martin Sajdik has told reporters in Minsk.
"Mr. Gryzlov [representative of the Russian Federation in the TCG Boris Gryzlov] raised this issue, and we decided to discuss it in the near future," Sajdik said.
Commenting on the death of Zakharchenko, the OSCE special representative noted that "any death and especially violent one deserves regret."
"I have always urged and today I urge you to make every possible effort to observe the ceasefire and avoid casualties," he said, adding that "unfortunately, from the very beginning the conflict caused too many victims."
On Friday, September 7, at 12.30, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a press conference entitled "Hot Season: Will It Bring Public Tranquility?" Participants include Director of the Institute for Global Strategies Vadym Karasiov, expert of the Gardarika Strategic Consulting Corporation Kostiantyn Matviyenko, and Director of the Ukrainian Barometer Sociological Service Viktor Nebozhenko (8/5-A Reitarska Street). Registration requires press accreditation.
On Thursday, September 6, at 11.00, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a press conference entitled "Decision is Final and cannot be Appealed: Pension Fund lost Case against IDPs in Court." Participants include Deputy Representative at UNHCR Ukraine Noel Calhoun (being specified), Legal Assistance Coordinator for the 'Right to Protection' Yulia Tralo, Senior Strategic Lawyer of the Foundation Right to Defense Oleh Tarasenko, discussion moderator - advocacy coordinator from 'Right to Protection' Daryna Tolkach (8/5-A Reitarska Street). Registration requires press accreditation. Details by phone: +38 (095) 175 7672, or at: i.romanova@r2p.org.ua (Ina Romanova).
By RFE/RL and Current Time TV
Israel's defense chief has warned that his country will seek to "destroy any Iranian military presence" in Syria, where Tehran has intervened to prop up its ally President Bashar al-Assad in a more than seven-year war.
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman spoke in interviews with RFE/RL's Radio Farda and Current Time TV on September 4 in Tel Aviv.
Israel has alleged that Iran plans to establish a permanent, broad military foothold in Syria, including advanced missile factories and air and naval bases. Tehran rejects the claim.
Israeli has carried out dozens of air strikes in Syria targeting suspected arms and troop movements by Iran and its proxy forces, including the Lebanese Shi'ite militant group Hizballah.
"We don't want to see Iran turning Syria into its outpost against Israel," Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Current Time, a Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.
"We will try to destroy any Iranian military presence on Syrian territory, be it an air base, a naval base, a missile production factory, or the Shi'ite militias that they are bringing there from Pakistan, Iraq, and all of the Middle East," he said.
Like Russia, Iran has backed Assad in the Syrian conflict and Iran's the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has played a crucial role on the ground.
The IRGC has recruited tens of thousands of Shi'ite fighters from the region to fight in Syria. More than 1,000 Iranians, including senior members of the elite IRGC, have been killed in Syria since 2012, according to Reuters.
Iranian officials say their military presence in Syria is at the invitation of the Damascus government and they have no immediate plans to withdraw.
Last week, Iran's defense minister travelled to Damascus and signed an agreement on military cooperation between the two countries.
Lieberman told Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on August 31 that Iran was reducing the scale of its military activities in Syria, attributing this to Israeli military intervention and an economic crisis gripping Tehran as U.S. sanctions are reinstated.
In the interview with Radio Farda, Lieberman said Tehran had adopted a "different approach" in Syria, although he did not reveal any specifics.
"They have adopted some other patterns of behavior in Syria because they understand that we are monitoring, we are watching, and we have all the political will and determination to prevent their desire to turn Syria into their forward base against Israel [from being fulfilled]," he said.
"They are careful and they understand that they have too many challenges," he added.
Israeli military strikes against Iranian targets in Syria have been mostly ignored by Russia, Damascus' backer, and Israel has attempted to persuade Moscow to pressure Tehran to withdraw its forces from Syria.
Lieberman said Israel was in constant dialogue with Moscow.
"Its Russian interest to keep stability in Syria," he said, adding that Iran's activities were jeopardizing Mos cow's efforts.
The United States has also urged Moscow to help end Irans military presence in the war-ravaged country.
Washington supports rebels fighting against Assads government.
After meeting with Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russian President Vladimir Putin's Security Council, Bolton said in Geneva on August 23 that the two had discussed a series of steps that would lead to the removal of Iran's military presence in Syria.
Before the meeting, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the U.S. insistence on the withdrawal of Iranian forces is a "reflection of the dominating aspiration in Washington to dictate to everyone else their own beliefs about what is good and what is bad."
Calls by Israel and the United States for Iran to pull out its forces in Syria have come as the conflict has turned heavily in Assads favor, with rebel forces being routed in many parts of the country.
Syrian pro-government forces are preparing to launch an assault on the northwestern province of Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold.
The war in Syria has killed hundreds of thousands of people and uprooted millions since it began with a government crackdown on protesters in March 2011.
Iran has given Europe until November 5 to deliver the practical mechanisms to buy oil from Iran and save the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA), or Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers, said Iran's deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, on September 4.
The second batch of U.S. sanctions re-imposed on Iran mainly targets its banking system and oil exports. It is expected to be implemented on November 4, a day before the deadline Tehran has set for Europe.
Speaking to state-run Channel 4 TV, Araghchi insisted that the Iranian side has made it clear to the Europeans they will have to provide the country with their practical mechanisms to translate their political statements into action before the new batch of sanctions takes effect in November.
In response to a question regarding concerns that exist in Iran about Europeans unwillingness to take practical steps to resist U.S. sanctions after its withdrawal from JCPOA, the Iranian deputy foreign minister said that our talks with Europe are tight and intense, but we believe we should separate their political positions from the practical steps that they want to offer," state-run Mehr News Agency (MNA) reported.
Meanwhile, Araghchi admitted that the Europeans have not taken practical steps to implement JCPOA, stressing that Iran has not solely relied on the talks with them since there is always the possibility that they might be killing time.
Responding to a question about the exit of European companies from Irans market, Araghchi said those companies are private companies that have left Iran based on their own cost and benefit analyses.
He also maintained that the talks with Europeans are only focused on the implementation of JCPOA and Irans missile program has never been on the agenda.
On August 29, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared any negotiations with U.S. representatives forbidden," while insisting that President Hassan Rouhanis government should not rely on Europe for tackling its economic problems.
Iran's authorities have repeatedly said that they expect the European Union to guarantee purchasing Iranian oil and provide facilities for Tehran's financial transactions.
Nevertheless, Iranian oil exports to the EU, nearly 740,000 barrels per day last March, dropped to 387,000 barrels per day in August.
On May 8, U.S. President Donald Trump declared the United States withdrawal from JCPOA) and the reimposition of sanctions.
Immediately after the first batch of U.S. sanctions came into effect on August 6, giant European companies including France's supermajor oil and gas company Frances Total and carmaker Renault suspended plans to invest in Iran. Days later, Air France, British Airways, and Dutch KLM announced that they were going to suspend their flights to Iran.
A second batch of U.S sanctions targeting Iran's oil sector and central bank are to be re-imposed on November 4, while many analysts have described it as a crushing blow to Irans already faltering economy.
Araghchi tried to downplay the impact of the second batch of sanctions. "We will not witness more intensified sanctions than what has been imposed so far by Americans on November 4," he said on Tuesday evening in his interview with Iranian state TV IRIB 4.
Americans are now executing the most amount of sanctions against Iran. They are going from one company to another, from one country to another, or even they go from an individual to another to force them into cutting off cooperation with Iran, MNA cited Araghchi as saying.
In the meantime, dozens of Iranian authorities have warned against a myriad of shortages, paving the way for storage and rationing different commodities.
Two reformist members of the Iranian Parliament have called for putting major domestic and foreign policy issues to a public vote.
In their speeches on September 4, Parvaneh Salahshouri and Gholamreza Heidari called for a referendum to solve problems regarding foreign policy, state TV, the Guardian Council's intervention in elections, and the Assembly of Experts' supervision of the supreme leader's behavior.
Salahsouri called on "military institutions to return to their garrisons" and demanded support for the underprivileged, putting an end to the house arrest of opposition leaders, releasing political prisoners from jail, and a declaration of amnesty for Iranians living abroad so that they can return home. She also called on the government to put an end to state TV's monopoly by allowing the private sector to operate networks.
These are the major issues that have caused political deadlock, and all of them are linked to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in one way or another. Iran's most significant foreign policy issue has remained unsolved as the leader has publicly forbidden negotiations with the United States about Tehran's nuclear program, missile program, or its intervention in the affairs of regional states.
Meanwhile, state TV, which is under Khamenei's supervision, has lost the nation's confidence in the government's information dissemination because of its biased and unilateral news coverage.
At the same time, critics inside and outside the government have been criticizing the Guardian Council's vetting of election candidates and the Assembly of Experts' failure in supervising Khamenei's behavior and the organizations linked to his office.
The two MPs strongly criticized the performance of the institutions operating under Khamenei's supervision.
Salahshouri also lambasted President Hassan Rouhani for saying Iran was not experiencing a crisis. "Everyone knows that we are dealing with super-challenges," she said.
Salahshouri added, "There is no trace of democracy left in Iran as a result of shutting up the critics, and corruption and unfair trials prevented the formation of the Islamic utopia we were hoping to restore."
she also criticized the IRGC for its lion's share of "power, wealth, and military force," adding that state TV, the Guardian Council, and the Assembly of Experts have harmed the nature of Iran's political system as a republic.
Salahshouri called on Khamenei to save the country by calling for a referendum to solve these problems.
Previous calls to change the constitutional law were frowned on by hard-liners close to Khamenei, even when they were made by Rouhani, who was accused of supporting a secular democracy after demanding a change in the constitution by holding a referendum.
Some 40 hard-line MPs called for disciplinary measures against Salahshouri and Heidari. Salahshouri tweeted that some conservative MPs have used "radical language" to caution her.
Heidari in his speech criticized Iran's "costly" nuclear and missile programs and said the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 led to international sanctions and eight years of war with Iraq.
In a related development, the surfacing of a 2006 interview published by the Assembly of Experts shed light on Khamenei's strong opposition to the assembly's inspection of organizations and institutions under his supervision.
In the interview, Ayatollah Ali Jannati, the current head of the assembly, who is also the Guardian Council's secretary, quoted Khamenei as having said that the assembly's supervision of the armed forces is "out of the question."
Meanwhile, according to Jannati, while a majority of assembly members wanted to inspect the organizations under his supervision, Khamenei opposed their views and they failed to seek his approval even after several meetings.
WASHINGTON, Sept 5 (Reuters)
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he could not predict what would happen with Iran and it did not matter to him if Iran's leaders wanted to talk to him or not.
Trump made the comments to reporters before a meeting with Kuwait's emir. In May, Trump withdrew the United States from a 2015 international agreement intended to stall Tehran's nuclear capabilities and has since reimposed sanctions suspended under the deal.
Trump, who will chair a Security Council meeting at the United Nations on Iran this month, said in July that he would be willing to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani without any preconditions to discuss how to improve relations.
Rouhani dismissed Trump's statement.
Trump suggested he remained open to the possibility of meeting Rouhani at the U.N. General Assembly.
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Makini Brice and Tim Ahmann; Editing by James Dalgleish and Lisa Shumaker)
U.S. President Donald Trump has warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies Iran and Russia not to "recklessly attack" Syria's last opposition-held province, Idlib, warning that hundreds of thousands of people could be killed.
"The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Dont let that happen!" Trump wrote on Twitter late on September 3.
But Moscow on September 4 rejected the warning, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying Trump's tweet demonstrated a limited approach toward the situation in Idlib Province.
"Just to speak out with some warnings, without taking into account the very dangerous, negative potential for the whole situation in Syria, is probably not a full, comprehensive approach," Peskov said.
"The Idlib situation continues to make us feel strongly concerned in Moscow, Damascus, Ankara, and Tehran," Peskov said, adding that the presence of militants in the province was undermining the Syrian peace process and making the region a base for attacks against Russian forces in Syria. "This is another hotbed of terrorism."
"There is no doubt that the issue should be dealt with," Peskov said. "We know that Syrian government forces are preparing to solve this problem."
Peskov also said the situation in and around Idlib Province will be a main item on the agenda when President Vladimir Putin meets in Tehran on September 7 with the leaders Iran and Turkey.
Syria has been preparing for a major assault on the province bordering Turkey, which is the last major enclave held by opposition fighters battling Assad and the Russian and Iranian forces that have played a critical role in backing him in the seven-year war.
Thousands of Syrian government troops and allied fighters have been massing in areas surrounding the province.
Meanwhile, monitors from the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on September 4 that Russian warplanes, in support of Assad's forces, had resumed air strikes in Idlib after a 22-day break.
Idlib is home to an estimated 3 million civilians and the United Nations has warned that some 800,000 people could be forced from their homes by any major government offensive. The war has already killed more than 400,000 people and displaced millions.
As signs of an impending assault have mounted, Washington and its allies have sought to put a spotlight on both Russia and Iran for backing Assad and his sometimes brutal tactics, including the alleged use of chemical weapons.
"All eyes on the actions of Assad, Russia, and Iran in Idlib. #NoChemicalWeapons," U.S. Ambassador of the United Nations Nikki Haley, wrote on Twitter minutes after Trump's tweet.
Their comments came after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on September 3 called for militants to be "cleaned out" of Idlib on a visit to Damascus ahead of an upcoming summit between the leaders of Iran, Russia, and Turkey in Tehran on September 7 to discuss Idlib.
"In order to start the peace process as well as the return of refugees and to allow the start of the reconstruction phase in Syria, the remaining terrorists in parts of Idlib must be cleaned out," Zarif said.
Iran, Russia, and Syria often describe all their armed opponents as "terrorists."
In the case of Idlib, an estimated 10,000 fighters with the Al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group are believed to be the dominant force among rebels in the province, and the Russian military has made a distinction between those forces and what it has described as more moderate "opposition" groups allied with Turkey, its negotiating partner.
The Russian state-run news agency TASS quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov as saying on September 3 that "no one wants active hostilities that can kill civilians" in Idlib and "efforts are being taken to find a solution, first of all, to separate the opposition from [Hayat Tahrir al-Sham]. This is probably the main thing. If it is done, a solution will be found."
Ahead of the Idlib assault, Turkey has stepped up efforts to negotiate with Russia and Iran to separate out and protect the rebel groups it backs, media have reported. Ankara also has stationed some troops in the province as part of an observation mission.
Zarif's visit to Syria comes a week after Iran's defense minister traveled to Damascus and signed a defense cooperation agreement, defying U.S. calls for Iran to withdraw its military advisers and fighters from the war-torn country.
With reporting by AP, AFP, dpa, and Reuters
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5
Trend:
Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have 83 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said Sept. 5.
Armenian armed forces were using heavy 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.
Details added (first version posted on 11:50)
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5
Trend:
The US charge d'affaires in Azerbaijan was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, spokesman of the ministry Hikmet Hajiyev told Trend Sept. 5.
The charge d'affaires was handed a note from the Foreign Ministry addressed to the US Department of State in connection with the illegal trip of a US citizen, named Dan Bilzerian, to Azerbaijan's occupied territories.
During the meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it was brought to attention that Dan Bilzerian, having violated the law on Azerbaijans state border and the Migration Code, without submitting the relevant documents, traveled from Armenia to Azerbaijans occupied territories, and while being in Khankendi city and other occupied territories of Azerbaijan, he encouraged the separatist regime.
It was also brought to the attention that Bilzerian illegally acquired firearms, openly and for provocative purposes opened fire at the positions of Azerbaijans Armed Forces. It was noted that this person, who is a US citizen, was making ignorant and obscene statements offending the dignity and spiritual values of the Azerbaijani people in front of the cameras, and it was also stressed that such actions are contrary to the spirit of friendly relations between Azerbaijan and the US.
At the meeting, it was brought to attention that the Prosecutor Generals Office of Azerbaijan launched a criminal case in connection with these illegal actions and the necessary measures are being taken to bring this person to justice.
The Azerbaijani side also said it is expecting that the US government will seriously take into account Azerbaijans concern regarding the unlawful actions of Bilzerian and take the necessary measures to warn US citizens against violating the laws, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, as well as international norms and principles.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5
By Frangiz Agalarova - Trend:
With the signing of the Convention on the status of the Caspian sea, a large number of projects that previously teetered on the verge of profitability, now have become profitable, Russian political scientist, General Director of the Institute of Political Studies non-profit partnership (NPP), Member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation Sergey Markov said at a press conference in Baku.
"Negotiations on the status of the Caspian sea have been going on for 20 years, and now the contradictions have been resolved. As a result of the signing of the Caspian Convention, a solid legal foundation for various economic development projects in the Caspian region has been formed. This means billions, perhaps tens of billions of profit," Markov said.
He noted that the signing of the Caspian Convention is specified as a historic, landmark event in Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. And there is a reason behind it.
"As long as there was no solid legal foundation in the form of a Convention, there was no clear idea of how to divide the bottom and the waters, lawyers of major international banks were forced to note some legal uncertainty. Now the risk of legal uncertainty goes away, and as a result, the interest at which the money can be borrowed from various consortia, has decreased," Markov said.
The Russian political scientist said that the US sanctions against Iran were to some extent the reason why the issue of the Convention was finally resolved. Iran, which was the main opponent of the model developed jointly by Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan and approved in the trilateral agreement between our countries a few years ago, had been resisting.
"We offered to divide the Caspian sea by the median line, and Iran offered to divide it by 20 percent. But if there were no American threats, Iran might have been negotiating for another 10 years. Now they have decided to secure all the back areas before a possible conflict with the Americans and quickly agreed, thanks to which the negotiations going on for 20 years have finally ended," Sergey Markov said.
According to the Convention, the seabed is divided between all states, so that the countries of the region can safely extract natural resources on their part of the sea, and the waters of the Caspian sea mostly remain common, except for those rather small areas that are considered coastal waters.
The exclusive fishing zone is also small, Markov said, adding that this has created conditions for cooperation in the issues of biological resources and the scope of implementation of oil and gas projects has been strictly distributed.
He also stressed the importance of another aspect related to the signing of the Caspian Convention. These are the provisions that no other states may have military forces, the infrastructure of the armed forces in the Caspian sea basin. Only five Caspian states have the right to do so.
"This agreement creates more confidence that external military forces will never appear here," Sergey Markov said.
On August 12, the heads of five Caspian states signed the Convention on the legal status of the Caspian sea at the 5th summit of the heads of Pre-Caspian states in Aktau - a historic document for the region, work over which has been carried out for two decades, since 1996.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5
By Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend:
Japan has decided to simplify the visa regime for Azerbaijani citizens, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono, who is on an official visit to Azerbaijan, said at a joint press conference with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov.
Taro Kono said that Japan wants to strengthen multifaceted relations with Azerbaijan.
He expressed hope that after his visit, the friendly relations between the two countries will develop even more.
The Japanese minister expressed satisfaction with the implementation of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) project in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, where Japan's Itochu Corporation holds a 3.65 percent stake.
A contract on the ACG was signed in 1994. A ceremony to sign a new contract for development of the ACG block of oil and gas fields was held in Baku Sept. 14, 2017.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5
By Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend:
A meeting of foreign ministers of GUAM member countries will take place at the UN General Assembly, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said at a press conference Sept. 5.
He noted that an agreement has been reached to hold the meeting in New York in the framework of the UN General Assembly.
The GUAM format was created by the post-Soviet countries in 1997 during the summit of the heads of states of the European Union in Strasbourg. Uzbekistan joined this format in 1999, but left it four years later. In 2006, at the first summit of this format in Kiev, it was decided to declare GUAM an international organization with a new name - the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development GUAM.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sep. 5
Trend:
Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS), which trains highly qualified English-speaking engineers, hits a new record among higher educational institutions in Azerbaijan. All thirteen prospective students who earned 700 points during the entrance exams to national universities for the first specialty group, which was conducted by State Examination Centre of the Azerbaijan Republic, selected to study at the Baku Higher Oil School. They are:
Khayal Farzaliyev information security
Elgun Zamanly information security
Asra Bayramova information security
Sheker Gadirli information security
Aslan Ashirov information security
Tapdig Maharramli information security
Vasif Asadov process automation engineering
Kenan Mahammadli process automation engineering
Azer Zeynalli process automation engineering
Sona Mehdizadeh process automation engineering
Ilgar Mammadov process automation engineering
Anar Abiyev process automation engineering
Rustam Garayev process automation engineering
Last year, all seven prospective students with the highest score received at the entrance exams to the national universities for the first specialty group also selected the Baku Higher Oil School. Apart from BHOS, none of the higher educational institution in Azerbaijan has achieved such a success.
Statistical data about choice of the students who earned 700 points at the entrance exams this year are provided below.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5
By Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend:
Azerbaijan and Japan may launch direct flights, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said Sept. 5 in Baku at the joint press conference with his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono.
Mammadyarov said bilateral cooperation was discussed at the meeting Sept. 5.
Relations between the two countries are at a high level, he noted. Thirty Japanese companies operate in Azerbaijan and so far Japan has invested about $7 billion in Azerbaijan, mainly in the oil sector. During the meeting, investments in various sectors of economy were discussed. The number of tourists arriving from Japan to Azerbaijan is also growing. We have also discussed launching direct flights between Japan and Azerbaijan in order to develop mutual tourist flow.
Mammadyarov added that Japanese companies are interested in participating in infrastructure projects in Azerbaijan, noting that Japan is showing great interest in the development of the North-South and East-West transport corridors.
The settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was one of the issues discussed at the meeting, he said.
Japans position on this issue is clear, Mammadyarov noted. The Japanese side believes that this conflict should find its solution in the near future.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5
By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:
Azerbaijan and Japan have started negotiations on an investment agreement, Deputy Press Secretary of the Japanese Foreign Ministry Mitsuko Shino said Sept. 5 at a briefing in Baku.
She said the agreement will enable Japanese companies to invest more in Azerbaijan and make it possible for Azerbaijani companies to invest more in Japan.
Shino added that creation of a working group is envisaged to implement the agreement.
So far, Japan has invested about $7 billion in the Azerbaijani economy.
Shino further told about the results and objectives of the visit of Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono to Azerbaijan.
This is Konos first visit as Japanese foreign minister to Azerbaijan (he first visited Azerbaijan in 1999 as a Member of the House of Representatives) and the visit's goal is to intensify relations with the countries of the Caucasus, she said.
Stability in the Caucasus means stability in the world, Shino noted, adding that Japan supports the development of the region. Therefore, Tokyo launched the Caucasus Initiative, she said.
This program includes two areas - supporting the development of human resources and maintaining efforts to increase the attractiveness of the region for Japanese companies, Shino noted, adding that the specific components for various countries are different.
Shino noted that unlike Azerbaijan, Japan has very limited natural resources.
Japan has only human resources and this is the main resource for sustainable development of the country, she said.
Shino noted that the two countries can cooperate on environmental issues as well as in the expansion of opportunities in logistics.
The second direction in the program is the strengthening of contacts between the two countries in such sectors as tourism and business, she noted.
Japan is also eyeing to simplify issuing the multiple-entry visas for the countries of the region, she added.
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5
Trend:
The Kyzylorda region of Kazakhstan is considering the possibility of increasing the share of exported oil from 20 percent to 50 percent, the official portal of the governorate of Kyzylorda region said in a statement.
At the meeting with subsoil users of the region, which was attended by mayor of Kyzylorda region Krymbek Kusherbayev, the issues of increasing the share of oil exports, the gas production and the development of new fields were discussed.
Krymbek Kusherbayev noted that 80 percent of the oil produced in the region is sold in the domestic market, where the price per barrel is $30, while the export price is $70.
Taking into account the discussed issues, the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan was charged to consider within a month together with the governorate of Kyzylorda region the possibility of ensuring the enhancement of ratio of oil exports by the oil companies of Kyzylorda region to the level not less than 50 percent.
In addition, as the governor noted, the volume of oil production will be reduced by 600,000 tons this year compared to last year and will amount to 6.2 million tons.
Also, the governor of the region noted that according to the data resulting from preliminary geological exploration activities, there is a prospect of increasing gas reserves by 50-70 billion cubic meters.
"In these conditions, the expansion of gas production is one of the points of "growth" and compensation for the fall in oil production in the region. However, the existing scheme of gas sales to one national operator at a low price does not cover even the cost of production," the governor said.
Meanwhile, the subsoil users of the region continue to pump gas into the reservoir or burn it at gas turbine plants, that is, they reduce the volume of gas production in every way.
"The economic motivation for the production of gas is necessary. In this regard, according to our proposal, the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan together with "KazMunaiGas" JSC and "KazTransGas" JSC have been instructed to consider within a month the possibility of making some changes in the principles of distribution of finished gas products, namely, to allow the gas producing companies participating in the project to sell 50 percent of commercial gas to the external market independently, and to oblige them to sell 50 percent of commercial gas to the national operator based on the on existing conditions," the governor said.
According to the Governor's office, measures to increase the share of oil exports and establish a favorable price for gas will allow oil and gas companies to increase revenue. In turn, the collected proceeds should be directed to the exploration and drilling of new fields and the introduction of new technologies.
Thus, the promising areas of search for new deposits are the Aral, Syrdarya and Shu-Sarysu basins.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5
By Ilkin Shafiyev Trend:
The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) is considering geographic diversification as one of the key areas of its investment strategy, SOFAZ told Trend.
In recent years, in order to create the most diversified global portfolio, as well as to increase profitability in the long-term investment period, the Fund is gradually increasing the share of more risky assets such as stocks and real estate.
"It should be noted that at the moment our investment portfolio is highly diversified not only at the level of types of assets, but also at the currency level. To date, the portfolio includes financial instruments denominated in approximately 20 currencies. In addition, the geographical diversification is also one of the key areas of the Fund's investment strategy. Thus, at the moment, the investments are spread across more than 45 countries", SOFAZ noted.
The Fund intends to continue passive investing in highly diversified indices.
"For example, the "MSCI World" index includes more than 1,600 shares of large and medium-sized companies in 23 developed countries, widely representing the developed financial markets. It is worth noting that the effectiveness of this type of investment is usually considered in the long term, as it is characterized by relatively high volatility, which means significant short-term declines and growth in profitability," SOFAZ said.
Regarding real estate, the strategy provides for the creation of a fully diversified sub-portfolio, in which the developed markets, as well as various types of real estate are widely represented, the Fund stated.
"For example, as mentioned earlier, for as long as three years, the Fund has already been gradually redirecting the focus on investment in foreign real estate funds, finding this type of investment the most attractive, as they increase purchasing power and can be diversified by strategies, sectors and countries. It should be noted that further investments in a particular financial instrument, expressed in the local currency of that or other country, will depend on the analysis of financial markets and economies of these countries", SOFAZ noted.
As for investments in gold, the Fund will continue to adhere to the five percent limit specified in the investment policy, SOFAZ stressed.
The projected total value (weighted average volume) of SOFAZ's investment portfolio for 2018 is determined at the level of 60.67 billion manats.
At the same time, SOFAZ's investment portfolio may consist of four sub-portfolios: the portfolio of debt obligations and money market instruments 60 percent of the total portfolio value (the Fund may invest a maximum of five percent in debt obligations of mutual investment funds that do not have a credit rating), the portfolio of shares 25 percent (in which case a maximum of five percent can be invested in shares of mutual investment funds), real estate portfolio 10 percent, gold portfolio - 5 percent.
The currency structure of SOFAZ's investment portfolio is as follows: up to 50 percent of assets can be denominated in US dollars, 35 percent in euros, five percent in British pounds, 10 percent in other currencies.
The State Oil Fund was established in 1999, and at that time its assets amounted to $271 million.
In the first half of 2018, the SOFAZs assets have increased by 6.22 percent compared to the beginning of this year ($35.806 billion), amounting to $38.036 billion.
According to the regulations on the State Oil Fund, the Fund's assets can be used for the construction and reconstruction of strategically important infrastructure facilities, as well as for solving important national problems.
The main objectives of SOFAZ are: accumulation of funds and placement of the Fund's assets abroad in order to minimize the negative impact on the economy, to prevent to some extent the "Dutch syndrome", the accumulation of funds for future generations and maintenance of the current socio-economic processes in the country.
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @IlkinShafiyev
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5
By Huseyn Valiyev Trend:
Azerbaijan is considering proposals regarding the optimization of legal regulation in the field of e-payments, a source in the country's financial market told Trend.
According to the source, the current legislation can not yet be called optimal because there are certain gaps in it, for example, gaps associated with "e-wallets", which are not fully indicated in the law.
"Moreover, there are certain issues related to virtual money and cryptocurrencies, the source said. Azerbaijans Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FIMSA) is currently considering these issues to indicate them in the legislation."
As for the cryptocurrencies, their status is proposed to be determined, that is, to be legalized, the source said. This concerns the use of both local cryptocurrency and other countries' cryptocurrencies.
"In this aspect, their issue and the holding of the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) are also proposed to be outlined, the source said. As is known, ICO in many countries is comparable to securities. All this should be regulated to obtain permission, and if necessary, a license.
Moreover, one of the important issues that is proposed to be indicated in the legislation is the simplification of opening a merchant account.
"Today, the only way for entrepreneurs engaged in e-commerce in Azerbaijan to receive money from a local bank is to acquire a merchant account to accept payment via Visa and MasterCard," the source said. The opening of a merchant account is a long process and often small businesses can not go through this procedure at all. The opening of a merchant account may take about three months while in many countries this process requires a couple of days. Therefore, this procedure is proposed to be simplified."
There is also another hitch in the issue related to a merchant account, the source said. For example, having obtained this account from a bank, it is impossible to accept payments from abroad. This requires additional guarantees, deposits, etc.
"We understand that credit card fraud is widespread in Azerbaijan and the world, the source said. For example, it is possible to get a merchant account from Russia during two days, from Ukraine a half day, while in Azerbaijan during 2 or 3 months, which is one of the main problems. The Central Bank of Azerbaijan tried to apply a new technology in some technological platforms. But this prevents the use of tokens, which prevents the use of such payment services as Google Pay, Samsung Pay and Apple pay."
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @h_veliyev
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5
Trend:
Kazakhstan, as a member of the UN Security Council, supports the early achievement of peace in Afghanistan and the improvement of the status of women in the country, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev said Sept. 5.
Nazarbayev made the remarks in the greeting speech addressed to the participants of the regional conference entitled as "Empowerment of women in Afghanistan" and held in Astana city, which was read by the Secretary of State of the country Gulshara Abdykalikova, TASS reported.
"With the active support of the world community, as a member of the UN Security Council, Kazakhstan pays special attention to security in Central Asia and Afghanistan. The empowerment of women in Afghanistan is crucial in this process. Appreciating the steps taken by the Afghan government to improve the status of women in the country and to ensure gender equality, we support the early achievement of peace on the Afghan land, in particular through the concept of "for Afghans and by efforts of the Afghans themselves," Nazarbayev said in his welcoming speech.
He believes that an important aspect of this work is the active use of the potential of the civil sector, international, regional and national non-governmental organizations, which are at the forefront of international efforts in this area.
"In this regard, the potential of international platforms, such as today's conference, allows for uniting the efforts of the entire international community, taking into account a wide range of views, for discussing the most important issues of current and effective work. I am convinced that today's conference will give an additional impetus to the effective search for ways of further development and rehabilitation of Afghanistan, improvement of the status of Afghan women, their wider involvement in the solution of political, economic and social issues in the country", Nazarbayev said.
The regional conference entitled as "Empowerment of women in Afghanistan" was initiated as part of the promotion of gender equality at the global level. The event was attended by delegations from Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, the European Union, India, China, Russia, US and UN.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sep. 5
Trend:
Trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is growing at an accelerated pace, Kazinform reported citing Kazakh Vice Minister of Finance Kanat Bayedilov.
He made the remarks at the expanded meeting of the Finance and Budget Committee of the Kazakh Parliament's Senate.
The draft law "On Ratification of the Protocol between the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Amendments and Additions to the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Avoiding Double Taxation of Income and Property dated June 12, 1996" was discussed at the committee meeting.
"In recent years, the trade turnover between the two countries has been developing at a good pace, in particular, only in 2017 the trade turnover amounted to $2 billion. The growth was 31.2 percent compared to 2016. When considering 1H2018, the turnover has increased by 35 percent. Growth has been observed in both imports and exports. The main export products are ferrous metals, oil products and wheat. Vegetables, fruits and nuts predominate in imports," Bayedilov said.
The Vice Minister also noted that Uzbek investments in Kazakhstan for the past 10 years amounted to $31.3 million, half of which was invested in 2016.
Kazakh investments in Uzbekistan amounted to $114.4 million over the past decade.
Bayedilov said in his report, that amendments to the Agreement on the avoidance of double taxation of income and property dated June 12, 1996 are introduced in connection with the changes made to the model convention of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The protocol between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan will introduce a number of changes to the current agreement and set several goals.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Sept. 5
By Huseyn Hasanov Trend:
Turkmenistan is among the important trade partners of Uzbekistan, and the dialogue in this sphere is characterized by dynamic and sustainable growth, reads an article by Akmaljon Kuchkarov, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Uzbekistan to Turkmenistan, the Turkmen media reported.
The article is dedicated to the celebration of the 27th anniversary of the state independence of Uzbekistan.
The diplomat notes that this year the parties held a number of meetings and negotiations to ensure the practical implementation of the Ashgabat agreement on the establishment of the Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Oman transport and transit corridor.
The work is underway to deepen intersectoral, interregional cooperation and expand direct contacts between representatives of business circles of the two countries, according to the article.
The established open and confidential dialogue between Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev is the basis for strengthening the multifaceted Uzbek-Turkmen cooperation at the present stage, the Uzbek diplomat said in his article.
This year, the countries celebrated the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations. On April 23-24, 2018, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov paid a state visit to Uzbekistan.
Following the talks at the highest level, a solid package of documents was signed. Besides, a monument to the great Turkmen poet and thinker Magtymguly Pyragy and the Ashgabat Park were opened in Tashkent city, while the House of Uzbek-Turkmen Friendship was opened in Urgench city.
The activity of the Uzbek-Turkmen intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation, special exhibitions organized in Ashgabat and Tashkent, as well as business forums give impetus to building up trade and economic relations, which have become more active.
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which have impressive reserves of hydrocarbon resources, are in favor of diversification of energy flows. The implementation of the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-KazakhstanChina gas pipeline project, which was put into operation in 2009, is a good example of this.
Recently Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov invited business circles of Uzbekistan to participate in the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project. Construction of the Turkmen section of that pipeline was started in December 2015.
Uzbekistan was also invited to start developing oil and gas fields on the Turkmen shelf of the Caspian Sea. Ashgabat is ready to intensify cooperation in the framework of the project on the supply of electricity from Central to South Asia through the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan route.
At this stage, the two countries are also discussing a project to establish the UzbekistanTurkmenistanIran-Oman transport route. This will significantly increase international transit traffic and provide a new communication corridor to world markets.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Sep. 5
By Huseyn Hasanov Trend:
On October 10-11, 2018, Turkmentel exhibition and conference will be held in Ashgabat with the participation of such companies as Sony, Huawei, Airbus, Iskratel, Thales, Rostelecom and others, said the organizers of the event - the Ministry of Communications and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Turkmenistan.
Foreign companies will present their products in the field of communications in various sections of the exhibition, such as telecommunications, information technology, telemetry and measuring equipment, wireless communications, professional audio and video recording equipment.
TV and radio broadcasting equipment, cable communications products and components, operators for providing various services in the field of communications, transport and special equipment will be presented as well.
The sphere of communication and telecommunications is one of the most promising and dynamically developing branches of the Turkmen economy.
The Ministry of Communications has developed partnerships with such companies as Sony, JVC, Siemens-Nokia, Shell & Wilcox, Tandberg, Rhode & Schwarz, NEC, Eurasia Trans Limited, Prima Telecom and others.
In recent years, the number of internet users has significantly increased and new communication standards are being introduced. A new stage in the way of innovative development of communications will be the development of a national model of an electronic document management system.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5
Trend:
A delegation of Turkmenistan's Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (UIET) arrived in Vienna, UIET said in a message.
During the Turkmen-Austrian business forum, it is planned to sign a number of documents on strengthening cooperation.
Representatives of leading companies from the EU will get familiarized with the fundamental transformations in Turkmenistan and the state support for Turkmen private sector.
During the forum, presentations of large investment projects implemented by UIET will be held and the opportunities for cooperation in industry, agriculture, animal husbandry, tourism and development of natural resources will be considered.
"Individual entrepreneurs are planning to explore the possibilities of exporting their products to the countries of the European Union," the message reads.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Sept. 5
By Huseyn Hasanov Trend:
Ashgabat city hosted a regular meeting of the Federation of Carriers and Freight Forwarders Associations of the countries participating in the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program, the Turkmen Altyn Asyr TV channel reported.
The delegations of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were the participants of the meeting.
The meeting was also attended by representatives of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Customs Organization (WCO), the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), major logistics companies and enterprises.
The meeting participants got acquainted with the initiatives implemented in the fields of logistics, facilitation of CAREC efforts by the Federation of Carriers and Freight Forwarders Associations in trade development, trade policy and energy, optimization of customs procedures.
In particular, the sides discussed proposals for standardization of CAREC Federation of Carriers and Freight Forwarders Associations, creation of a working group for coordination of this activity, coordinated actions to simplify customs procedures and tariffs, the report said.
The CAREC program is formed at the ADB initiative in partnership with the United Nations Development Program, the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB).
The main objective of this program is to assist in the implementation of investment projects in the field of transport, trade and energy aimed at accelerated socio-economic development of states of the Central Asian region.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sep. 5
Trend:
Russian Nordwind Airlines will launch flights to Uzbek cities in the winter of 2018/2019, the airline said in a message.
In particular, the planned flights will link Moscow with Uzbek cities, such as Karshi, Namangan, Samarkand, Urgench and Fergana.
It is also planned to launch a direct flight between Tashkent and Kazan.
In general, the airline plans to launch flights to 40 new domestic and international destinations.
Presently, Nordwind's fleet consists of 27 aircraft. Within eight months of 2018 the number of passengers carried on the airline's flights has reached the annual volume of transportation for entire 2017.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5
Trend:
The Chinese Hengshui Decheng Machinery and Equipment Co. Ltd company has signed an agreement for the construction of several cement and brick factories in Jizzakh region, Podrobno.uz reported.
"The Chinese investors also intend to establish basalt production in the region, to build a hotel, a greenhouse for growing fruits and vegetable products and a poultry farm," the State Investments Committee of Uzbekistan said in a statement.
The Chinese company was founded in 2008. It specializes in the production of manufacturing lines for the output of drywall, cement and finishing stone.
Uzbekistan and China intend to increase the volume of bilateral trade to $10 billion by 2020. At the end of 2016, the trade turnover between the two countries exceeded $4.2 billion. Last year, China ranked first in Uzbekistan's trade turnover with 18.4 percent, being ahead of Russia by just three tenths (18.1 percent). At the end of this year, this figure may exceed $5 billion.
Currently, more than 700 enterprises with Chinese investments including more than 80 enterprises with one hundred percent foreign capital are operating in Uzbekistan. In addition, the representative offices of more than 70 companies from China carry out their activities in the country.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sep. 5
Trend:
An international conference "Central Asia in the system of international transport corridors: strategic perspectives and unrealized opportunities" will be held in Tashkent on September 20-21, Foreign Trade Ministry of Uzbekistan said in a message.
Issues of effective and mutually beneficial use of international transport corridors, formation of a single, branched and outwardly integrated transport space to strengthen interrelations based on mutual trust and good-neighborliness in Central Asia will be discussed during the event.
The aim of the event will be further development of the dialogue with international financial institutions, organizations, transport unions, as well as representatives of transport and logistics companies to develop existing and form new transport corridors.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Mazda set a new record in Jan-Aug China sales with 188,805 vehicles delivered for the first eight months, a year-on-year increase of 2.5%. However, the company's August sales declined 12.7% from a year ago to 22,369 vehicles, according to the figure released by Mazda Motor (China) Co., Ltd.
Changan Mazda posted a year-on-year growth of 5.7% in year-to-date sales with 112,621 vehicles delivered in total. Besides, Changan Mazda said its August retail sales presented positive growth compared with the same period a year ago and a month ago. The China-made Mazda CX-8 was officially unveiled at the Chengdu Motor Show 2018. Reportedly, Changan Mazda aims to complete a product lineup featuring the SKYACTIV Technology in 2018, including 3 SUV models, namely, the locally-produced Mazda CX-8, the second-generation CX-5 and the imported new Mazda CX-3, and a car model, the Mazda Axela.
FAW Mazda saw its year-to-date sales edge down 1.9% to 76,184 units. The joint venture showcased the Atenza, the CX-4 and the MX-5 at the Chengdu Motor Show. Especially, the all-new version of the Mazda CX-4, priced at RMB169,800, hit the market at the show, aiming to further improve driving experience for users.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5
Trend:
Uzbekistan will arrange export of petrochemical products to Egypt, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said during the talks with Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Uzbekistans Tashkent city, the Uzbek presidential press-service reported Sept. 5.
Moreover, an agreement on the export of electrical and engineering products to Egypt was reached.
The Uzbek president stressed the availability of big opportunities and reserves to develop trade and economic relations and increase trade turnover, and also touched on promising directions for the expansion of exports of goods and services.
The sides agreed on the intensification of the Joint Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation and the establishment of the Uzbek-Egyptian Business Council.
Earlier, President Mirziyoyev called Abdel Fattah al-Sisis visit to the country as a historic event in the relations between the two countries.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5
Trend:
The National Bank for Foreign Economic Activity of Uzbekistan and the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) signed an agreement on cooperation worth $50 million.
The agreement envisages cooperation with Afreximbank in trade finance, as well as the opening of credit lines to finance the export of goods and services from Egypt and other African countries to Uzbekistan, National Bank for Foreign Economic Activity of Uzbekistan said Sept. 5.
According to the message, the signed agreement will strengthen bilateral cooperation and promote the development of trade and investment ties of Uzbekistan with Egypt and African countries.
Presently, Uzbekistan mainly exports textile products, food, transport and tourism services, while Egypt exports pharmaceutical products, agricultural products, household chemicals.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5
Trend:
The Uzbek Metallurgical Plant JSC has commissioned a new workshop for the production of ferroalloys, Uzbek media reported Sept. 5.
The construction of the new workshop was held with the participation of Posco Daewoo, a subsidiary of the South Korean steel giant POSCO.
The workshop will produce about 25,000 tons of ferrosilicon and ferro silico manganese per year, of which about 8,000 tons worth $12 million will be exported.
In general, investments in the new workshop are estimated at $60 million.
The Uzbek metallurgical factory was put into operation in 1944. In 1994, as a result of its association with the Shirin Mechanical Engineering Plant and the self-supporting management of the Vtorchermet plants, it was transformed into the Uzbek Metallurgical Plant JSC.
Tehran, Iran, Sept. 5
Trend:
A bill on the establishment of three special economic zones was approved in Irans parliament.
The parliamentary session on Tuesday saw lawmakers vote in favor of the bill, ISNA news agency reported.
Once the parliament and the Guardians Council give their final approvals, three SEZs will be created in Khalkhal, Kiashahr and Fereydan, located in the provinces of Ardabil, Gilan and Isfahan.
They were supposed to decide over the establishment of 8 free trade zones and 12 special economic zones.
Iran started to experiment with free trade zones in the early 1990s. As per Article 19 of the First Five-Year Economic Development Plan (1991-96), Irans first three FTZs were established.
Since then, the total number of such zones has grown to seven, namely Kish, Qeshm, Chabahar, Aras, Anzali, Arvand and Maku.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5
Trend:
Heading a high-ranking security-political delegation, Irans Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli left Tehran for Baghdad on Sept. 5, to hold talks with senior Iraqi officials.
Rahmani Fazli is scheduled to meet with his Iraqi counterpart during his one-day trip to discuss the issues of mutual interest, Irans state-run IRINN TV reported.
Border issues and better coordination of Arbaeen pilgrimage affairs as well as regional issues are among the topics that will be discussed during the visit.
Millions of Iranian pilgrims travel to Iraq during Arbaeen religious ceremony, which marks forty days after the Day of Ashura.
Last week Military Attache of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Baghdad Brigadier General Mostafa Moradian said that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be signed between the two sides in the presence of Iranian interior minister in Baghdad for better coordination of pilgrimage affairs and arrival and departure of Iranian pilgrims in Arbaeen.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5
Trend:
The Iranian presidents Chief of Staff, Mahmoud Vaezi, rejected claims that President Hassan Rouhani may meet his US counterpart Donal Trump in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, which will be held from September 18-25.
Vaezi seriously criticized Ahmad Jannati, Iranian Assembly of Experts Chairman, who raised the claim.
Iranian media outlets quoted Vaezi as saying Sept. 5 that claims about Iranian president intention to meet Trump in his upcoming New York trip is very strange and baseless.
On Sept. 4, Jannati warned against a possible meeting between President Rouhani and Trump in the New York, saying the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] has repeatedly said that no official has the right to negotiate with the US government and the cabinet members who will go to the United Nations should respect the Leaders guidelines.
Elsewhere in his remarks Vaezi said that Rouhani is scheduled to travel to New York at the first week of the next Iranian month (to start September 23) and hold meetings with heads of states and officials of other countries.
Earlier Vaezi claimed that the US president made eight requests to meet with Rouhani last September.
During Rouhanis last visit to New York for the UN General Assembly session, Trump asked the Iranian delegation eight times to have a meeting with him, Vaezi said.
Earlier in October, Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi, said that Rouhani rejected a meeting requested by US president while in New York for the 72nd UN General Assembly.
Such a meeting was suggested by the American side, but was not accepted by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Qassemi said.
The highest level of contact between the two countries in decades was in 2013 when Rouhani had a phone conversation with former US President Barack Obama. Iranian conservatives severely criticized Rouhani on the issue.
The US and Iran have not had diplomatic relations since US embassy personnel in Tehran was taken hostage for 444 days starting in late 1979.
In the absence of formal relations, Switzerland represents US interests in Tehran, and Pakistan represents Iranian interests in Washington. The only Iranian diplomatic presence in the US is its delegation to United Nations headquarters in New York.
Tehran, Iran, Sept. 5
Trend:
The Iranian president's chief of staff, Mahmoud Vaezi, said Tehran will look into recent remarks by US Ambassador Nikki Haley about President Hassan Rouhanis attending the United Nations Security Council meeting, scheduled to be held in late September.
We should evaluate their aim of raising such an issue, Vaezi told Young Journalist Club on September 5.
This is a very important issue and we need to take a decision after taking into account all aspects."
"We heard about it in the southern city of Assaluyeh and we have had no formal meeting about it to decide," he added.
On Tuesday, Haley announced US President Donald Trump intends to chair a session of the UN Security Council in late September to focus on Iran, and the Iranian president will have the option of attending the forum.
The country can speak if there is a Security Council meeting, Haley told reporters during a UN press briefing. So I think that would be up to [Rouhani] as to whether he would want to speak; but, I believe that, according to the rules, he would have that right.
Theres nothing we would love more than to have Iran come into the mainstream international community and be a valid country that wants to do good in the world. Were not seeing that, she further said.
On May 8, the US president pulled his country out of the JCPOA, which was achieved in Vienna in 2015 after years of negotiations among Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).
On August 6, he signed an executive order, re-imposing many sanctions on Iran. He said the US policy is to levy maximum economic pressure on the Islamic Republic.
Trump also restated his opinion that the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was a horrible, one-sided deal.
Tehran, Iran, Sept. 5
Trend:
Iranian Parliament speaker Ali Larijani said his visits to Russia and Belarus are aimed at boosting bilateral ties with the two countries.
Russia and Belarus have been always among Irans good friends, and through history we have had close cooperation with them, Larijani said before leaving Tehran for Moscow on September 5, ICANA reported.
Heading a parliamentary delegation, the Iranian speaker left Tehran for Moscow and Minsk to attend two joint commission meetings.
"During my two-day visit, I will take the opportunity to explore ways to enhance bilateral ties with the two nations in different fields, including oil, mine, and agriculture," he added.
Iran and Belarus have developed good relations in recent years, particularly in the economic and trade sectors, and have signed a number of agreements to shore up bilateral cooperation.
Iran and Russia have also formed a strong alliance in recent years, with both supporting the Syrian government against foreign-backed militancy.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5
By Matanat Nasibova - Trend:
Azerbaijan and Russia continue to strengthen bilateral relations, as also evidenced by quite frequent meetings between presidents Ilham Aliyev and Vladimir Putin in a short period of time, the expert of the Center for Post-Soviet Studies of the Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian political scientist Farhad Ibrahimov told Trend.
He noted that the leaders of the two countries have held three meetings in just three months, each of which has been held in a positive way and has had positive results for both Azerbaijan and Russia.
"Russia and Azerbaijan have the potential for closer cooperation, which is why presidents Ilham Aliyev and Vladimir Putin expressed a desire to increase the trade turnover between the two countries to $10 billion. Moreover, the key areas of cooperation are not only transport, economic and energy spheres, but also military-technical and humanitarian ones. Azerbaijan has purchased weapons from Russia worth just over $5 billion," he said.
"The Azerbaijani head of state stressed that Azerbaijan continues the modernization of the Armed forces, and Russia is the most important manufacturer and supplier of military products. This suggests that Baku is interested in developing relations with Moscow in this direction, which is especially important in the context of the difficult geopolitical situation in the region," Ibrahimov said.
He believes that the personal warm relations that exist between presidents Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev also contribute to stability and security in the region.
"Today, Azerbaijan is one of the safest and most stable states not only in the Caucasus, but also in the CIS and the Greater Middle East. Azerbaijan is a state that really has its principled foreign policy position and does not succumb to pressure, which is also important. Of course, Moscow knows and appreciates this, so relations with Baku will continue to strengthen in several areas at the same time," the expert said.
Ibrahimov drew attention to the fact that at the meeting of the two heads of state, the issue of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which is crucial for Azerbaijan, was not bypassed, and Russia continues to be a mediator in the issue.
The President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev visited Sochi on September 1, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the visit, the parties signed 15 documents that cover the issues of Azerbaijani-Russian cooperation in such areas as energy, economy, sports, tourism and others.
Italys ruling coalition has no intention of torpedoing state accounts and plans to phase in its economic program, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini reiterated on Wednesday ahead of a meeting to discuss the 2019 budget, Reuters reports.
Investors have dumped Italian bonds in droves since the government took office in June on concerns that the coalition which comprises the League and the 5-Star Movement, may implement budget plans that would put the already-huge debt pile under strain and breach EU fiscal rules.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte will chair a meeting of key ministers on Wednesday to review budget priorities.
Clearly we will not do everything in one shot, not even Italians expect that from us... If we want to run the country for a long period we cannot blow up its public accounts, Salvini said in an interview with Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper published on Wednesday.
On Tuesday Salvini sought to calm tensions after meeting senior League politicians to discuss the budget. Their various campaign promises, including watering down pension reform and introducing a flat tax, would be phased in over the course of the five-year legislature, he said.
The priority will be given to rolling back a 2011 pension reform that raised the minimum retirement age, Salvini told Il Sole, adding that the changes could cost 6-8 billion euros ($6.9- $9.2 billion) according to some calculations.
Salvini also said that tax cuts would be implemented gradually and initially favor small businesses.
The coalition is due to unveil Italys latest economic growth and public finance targets at the end of the month, with the 2019 budget scheduled to be presented in mid-October.
Under European Union rules, no country should have a budget deficit that is higher than 3 percent of gross domestic product or debt above 60 percent of output. Italys debt pile amounts to more than 130 percent, the second highest in Europe after Greece, making it vulnerable to market pressure.
Through Israel Railways, the Ministry of Transport published a tender for robot-assisted bicycle parking lots at railway stations as part of a pilot initiative by Minister of Transport and Intelligence Yisrael Katz. The pilot is aimed at encouraging passengers to use bicycles to reach railway stations without putting the bikes on the trains, Globes reports.
Putting bicycles into railway carriages sometimes affects passenger service on the trains and prevents people with disabilities from using trains, because bicycle riders usually put their bicycles on the carriage accessible to the disabled, causing train delays and difficulty in meeting timetables.
Robot-assisted bicycle parking lots exist in European countries, such as Germany, the Czech Republic, Spain, and the Netherlands. The use of robots facilitates optimal use of the space in the parking lot, prevents theft of and damage to bicycles, and facilitates rapid use of the parking lots without any human staff.
The franchise holders winning the tender will be responsible for building and operating the robot-assisted parking lots. Four parking lots, both elevated and underground, will be built in different places in Israel in the first stage: one underground parking lot each at the Savidor railway station in Tel Aviv and the Herzliya railway station and one elevated parking lot each in the Netanya and northern Beersheva railways stations.
Publication of the tender results is scheduled for early 2019. Construction of the elevated robot-assisted bicycle parking lots is to take a few weeks, while the underground parking lots depend on either existing or new infrastructure, and construction time is therefore not predetermined and will vary from one station to another.
The elevated robot-assisted parking lot can store up to 150 bicycles, while the underground parking lot can store over 200. Parking a bicycle on the robot-assisted parking lots will take only 15-20 seconds. Use of the lots will be through a special app, a website, or telephone customer service.
Bicycle owners will be identified through a personal transportation card or credit card. Cameras installed in the parking lots will document the deposit and release of the bicycles. Sensors will record the bicycles' dimensions and issue alerts of any possible disruption.
Katz said that the venture was designed to make the railway accessible to bicycle riders. He added that if the pilot is successful, the Ministry of Transport would publish tenders to build robot-assisted parking lots at other railway stations around Israel.
A group of Latin American nations called on Tuesday for increased aid to assist thousands of Venezuelan immigrants fleeing the economic collapse of their homeland, Reuters reported.
A group of 11 nations signed a declaration in the Ecuadorean capital of Quito urging substantially increased resources to grapple with the exodus of Venezuelans, which a U.N. agency recently described as reaching a crisis moment.
The declaration, signed by officials from Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, followed a two-day meeting of technical teams focused on the issue.
It urged increased spending on assistance for Venezuelan migrants by the countries themselves, as well as support from the United Nations and other specialized international organizations.
Ecuadors Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the declaration. But Ecuadors Deputy Minister of Human Mobility, Santiago Chavez, said aid from regional multilateral organizations was also being sought.
Delegations were still working to determine exactly how much aid they would request, Chavez said, adding that the figure would depend on the number of Venezuelans arriving in each country.
The statement also urged the government of President Nicolas Maduro to ensure that citizens have identification cards and travel documents in order to cross borders freely.
Venezuela did not participate in the Ecuador meeting despite being invited, organizers said.
Since 2015, more than 1.6 million Venezuelans have abandoned their country, with 90 percent arriving in neighboring South American countries, according to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR.
Maduro and other top officials of Venezuelas ruling Socialist Party have dismissed those migration figures as stemming from politically motivated alarmism and fake news meant to justify foreign intervention in the countrys affairs.
Maduro said on Monday night that no more than 600,000 Venezuelans had emigrated in the last two years.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Argentina reached a progress in the talks on the fund's financial aid to the Latin American state, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in a statement after the talks with Argentine Economy Minister Nicolas Dujovne and Central Bank Deputy Governor Gustavo Canonero, Sputnik reported.
Minister Dujovne, Deputy Governor Canonero, and I met today to initiate discussions about how the Fund can best support Argentina in the face of renewed financial volatility and a challenging economic environment. We made progress in our meeting and we will be working together to further strengthen the Argentine authorities IMF-backed program. Our discussions will now continue at a technical level and, as stated before, our common objective is to reach a rapid conclusion to present a proposal to the IMF Executive Board, Lagarde said.
Nicolas Dujovne expressed his satisfaction with the Tuesday talks with Christine Lagarde on the financial aid.
That was a very good meeting Dujovne told reporters without going into details about the date and the size of the possible IMF package of aid.
Argentina is facing a shard economic crisis with the exchange rate of the national currency, peso, having significantly fallen since the start of the year. In late August, country's President Mauricio Macri said that the country may need the $50 billion package of the IMF aid ahead of the schedule as Argentina could fail to meet its debt obligations for 2019.
National flag carrier Vietnam Airlines and low-cost Jetstar Pacific have canceled five flights between Vietnam's biggest cities to the Japanese city of Osaka on Wednesday to avoid Typhoon Jebi, Xinhua reported.
The two carriers also canceled five flights on Tuesday. The 10 canceled flights were scheduled to depart from Vietnam's Hanoi, Da Nang or Ho Chi Minh City to Osaka and vice versa.
Typhoon Jebi, the most powerful typhoon to make landfall in Japan in 25 years, struck western Japan on Tuesday and went on to wreak havoc on Thursday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
Japan has decided to ease visa requirements for Georgian citizens to promote people to people connections and deepen relations between the two countries, Agenda reports.
Foreign Affairs Minister of Japan Taro Kono announced the initiative at a joint press conference with Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani in Tbilisi today.
The ministers commented on several other issues discussed at the meeting.
Japan regards Georgia as an important partner, we share fundamental values such as freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. During the meeting with Minister Zalkaliani we discussed how Japan and Georgia can cooperate more closely to advance our bilateral relations."
"For example, Japan plans to cooperate with Georgia in fostering young diplomats, lawyers and other experts who are key players in state building through people to people exchanges. Japan has also decided to ease visa requirements for nationals of Georgia, underlined Taro Kono and stressed that his first visit to Georgia will strengthen relations between the two countries.
He also said that an agreement concerning a bilateral investment treaty between Japan and Georgia had been reached.
Kono and Zalkaliani also discussed Japans Caucasus initiative, with includes two key points: Assistance for human resource development for state building, Support for infrastructure and business environment improvement
The Caucasus region is a gateway connecting Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Stability in the Caucasus is not only a matter of concern at a regional level, but essential for peace and security of the international society as the whole, Kono stated, explaining the reason behind the Japanese governments special approach to the Caucasus region.
Japan will also allocate about $343 million to help Georgia develop its major transport artery, the East-West Highway. The agreement was signed today.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said on Wednesday that Moscow was keen to see four-way talks with Turkey, France and Germany take place to discuss the Syrian conflict, Reuters reports.
Ushakov said that, as far as he knows, all sides have agreed to hold the talks in Istanbul and advisers have been tasked with working out an appropriate date.
An offensive on Syria's northwestern Idlib province by Bashar Assad's regime forces will lead to a bloodbath for civilians and a humanitarian tragedy, Turksih President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday to journalists accompanying him during his three-day official visit to Kyrgyzstan, Daily Sabah reported.
"There are about 3.5 million people there [Idlib]. Russia and the United States pass the buck to each other. However, God forbid, if missiles target the area, a serious massacre will take place," Erdogan said, adding that a possible large-scale offensive would lead to a new wave of refugees toward Turkey. Since the breakout of the civil war in Syria, nearly 4 million Syrians have sought refuge in Turkey, causing a heavy economic and social burden on Turkey. Erdogan added that Turkey has been in coordination with its Russian and Iranian counterparts to avoid the calamity in Idlib and de-escalate tensions. "As a result of the efforts, at least a partial ceasefire was established during the [Qurban] Bayram. We have 12 monitoring posts there and our forces continue their work with resolve," the president said.
"Above all, our cooperation with Russia right now is really important," he said adding that Turkish National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and the Chief of National Intelligence Agency (MIT) have been meeting their counterparts in Russia to discuss the recent developments in Syria.
Russia and Iran are the main backers of Assad in the nearly 8-year-old conflict. Turkey, however, has been supporting the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in its cross border operations in Syria against Daesh and the PKK terrorist group's Syrian affiliate, the People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria.
In addition to meetings on Idlib, the president said that there have been ongoing efforts on Tal Rifaat in northwestern Syria, and Manbij in northeastern Syria.
"The third phase of meetings on Idlib have been completed and today [yesterday] the fourth phase is underway. We can overcome this period with an on-point outcome coming from the meetings," Erdogan said.
He added that a positive outcome is expected from the trilateral summit, scheduled for Sept. 7 in the Iranian capital Tehran, where Erdogan, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will be meeting. "Hopefully the Tehran Summit will lead to blocking the regime's aggression," Erdogan said. The summit in Tehran was announced during the last trilateral summit of the three guarantor countries, Turkey, Iran and Russia, in Istanbul, which was a follow-up of meetings of leaders in the Russian resort town of Sochi.
During the peace talks in Astana in May 2017, the three guarantor countries agreed to establish de-escalation zones in Idlib and parts of Aleppo, Latakia and Hama provinces. Observation posts help establish, monitor and sustain the current ceasefire in de-escalation zones, deliver humanitarian aid to persons in need and to ensure the secure return of displaced people.
Erdogan stated that the Astana process was not alternative to the U.N.-brokered Geneva peace talks on Syria.
Manbij deal with US not moving as desired
Erdogan also commented on Ankara and Washington's deal on the withdrawal of the YPG from Manbij and stability in the province, saying that the process is not proceeding as effective as it should be.
"I can say we are not on the same level as the time our Foreign Minister [Mevlut Cavusoglu] was meeting
with [U.S. Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo. The situation is being neglected. This is a reality we should acknowledge," Erdogan said, criticizing the U.S.
Currently, Turkey and the U.S. are in the process of conducting joint and independent patrolling and monitoring in the regions where the YPG has withdrawn, as part of the deal reached between Cavusoglu and Pompeo in early June.
Ankara argues that Manbij is a predominantly Arab-populated province before it was occupied by the PKK's Syrian affiliate group and that once the road map is completed, an administration reflecting the true demographics of the region should be in control.
Erdogan said he hopes to see more effective meetings between Turkish and the U.S. officials in the coming days to speed up the process in Manbij.
Judicial process takes precedence in Brunson case
The president also criticized Washington's approach to the ongoing judicial process on American pastor Andrew Brunson, saying the U.S. should not be expecting extrajudicial demands from Turkey.
In September 2016, Brunson, a pastor of 20 years at the Evangelic Resurrection Church in the western city of Izmir, was arrested in Turkey for his alleged links to the PKK and the Gulenist Terror Group (FETO), who orchestrated an attempted coup on July 15, 2016. The incident has caused tension between Turkey and the U.S. as the latter aimed to pressure the country and interfere into the judicial process to release Brunson. Currently, Brunson is under house arrest in the western province of Izmir.
"It is not possible for us to meet a demand that is out of the fold of legal processes. Turkey is a state of law. Whatever a state of law necessitates, that will be done," the president said. He also said the U.S.' threatening attitude against Turkey was not in accordance with principles of alliance between Turkey and the U.S., two historic NATO allies.
The president said the arrest of a senior official from Turkey's state-owned bank, Halkbank, was a reflection of Washington's politically motivated moves against Ankara.
He also accused Washington of acting arbitrarily against Turkey, posing threats and not acting in line with what is historically called as the "strategic partnership" between Ankara and Washington. He said Washington has lacked in providing support to Turkey and "even when Turkey wanted to purchase weapons from the U.S."
FETO still big threat in Kyrgyzstan
Commenting on the presence of the Gulenist Terror Group (FETO) in Kyrgyzstan, a country where the cult group has strongly established itself, Erdogan said the Turkish delegation voiced concerns and discussed the necessity of concrete steps against FETO with their counterparts in Bishkek.
"Unfortunately, there is a strong FETO foundation in Kyrgyzstan. They have infiltrated state institutions, beginning with the military and the judiciary. They have really frightened politicians here," Erdogan said, adding that he told Kyrgyz authorities FETO is not only a threat for Turkey but for any country the group is able to operate in. He said the educational activities of the group should be halted in the country, and their administrations should be transferred to Turkey's Maarif Foundation.
Currently, the Maarif Foundation, which is responsible for Turkey's education activities abroad in coordination with the Education Ministry and Foreign Affairs Ministry, is working to take over FETO-linked schools abroad.
The president said Turkey will continue to voice its concerns about FETO in the international arena and warn other countries. He said the group has been active in about 160 countries globally.
During Erdogan's visit, Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov had said his country has also acknowledged the threat of the group, which Turkey lists as a terrorist organization.
Erdogan also said Turkey will continue to support Bishkek, particularly in the health sector. He added, however, that the bilateral trade volume between the two countries could be higher. He said the $485 million of bilateral trade should be increased to $1 billion. Erdogan said 12 bilateral agreements were also signed during his visit to the country, where he also attended the 6th Summit Meeting of the Turkic Council, an international organization of Turkish-speaking countries.
Turkey-EU relations could be improved
Erdogan said Turkey's ties with the EU, apart from bilateral relations with a few select countries, had room for improvement.
The president said he would be attaching great importance to his meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the end of this month. "We will have an opportunity to discuss many issues in Turkish-German relations. Germany has a significant position, indeed leadership, in the EU," Erdogan said.
The recent thaw in bilateral relations between Ankara and Berlin has led to a number of upcoming high-level visits and increased dialogue. After German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas' visit to Turkey today, Erdogan will travel to Germany in late September.
The president also criticized the EU's reneged promises on the refugee deal, calling on the bloc to fulfill its obligations in accordance to the agreement.
Turkey and the EU signed an agreement on March 18, 2016 to stem the influx of refugees to Europe. The deal included a 6-billion-euro aid package to help Turkey care for millions of refugees hosted in the country. The EU promised to initially allocate 3 billion euros in its first tranche for projects to support Syrian refugees. The deal was also to provide visa-free travel for Turkish citizens to the Schengen area; however, this is yet to be implemented.
Erdogan also touched on the hostile attitude of some EU countries, particularly Austria, against Turkey, saying that Turkey has embraced a positive stance toward the bloc since 1963, when official talks were launched.
The association agreement between the EU and Turkey began in 1963 when Turkey and the European Economic Community (EEC) signed the Ankara Agreement, also known as the Agreement Creating an Association. It was aimed at Turkey's accession to the EEC and later paved the way for accession talks with the EU.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5
Trend:
Belarus and Turkey expect to switch to trade using national currencies, the Belarus Ambassador to Ankara Andrei Savinykh said, BelTA news agency reported.
I am sure that this year the trade turnover between Turkey and Belarus will exceed $1 billion, the diplomat said. It is time to switch to settlements in Turkish lira and Belarus ruble in trade.
He noted that the transition to settlements in the national currencies will contribute to the growth of trade turnover.
Savinykh said that one of the leading banks in Turkey is in talks on investing in the economy of Belarus.
The diplomat expressed hope for further development of trade and economic cooperation between the two countries.
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey said in a statement on Tuesday that former Senator Jon Kyl will return to Capitol Hill to serve in late Senator John McCain's seat at least through the rest of the year, Sputnik reported.
"I am deeply grateful to Senator Kyl for agreeing to succeed his friend and colleague of so many years," Ducey said in a Twitter message. "Every single day that Jon Kyl represents Arizona in the US Senate is a day our state is well-served."
In a press release, Ducey's office said Kyl will serve through at least the second session of the 115th Congress, which ends this year.
McCain's widow Cindy said in a statement it is "a great tribute to John that he [Kyl] is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona."
Kyl served in the US Senate from 1995-2013 and decided not to run for re-election in 2012.
McCain died on August 25 after battling a rare form of brain cancer.
Tropical Storm Gordon strengthens as it heads to the North-Central US Gulf Coast, Sputnik reported citing the US National Hurricane Center.
The US National Hurricane Center reported that additional strengthening of the Tropical Storm Gordon is possible, which means that the storm could become a hurricane before its landfall along the North-Central US Gulf Coast on Tuesday.
NHC reported that Gordon was some 90 miles (145 kilometres) south of Mobile, Alabama. There is a hurricane warning issued for the city. Maximum susteined winds were estimated to be 10 mph (110km/h)
Previously, NHC issued a hurricane warning for the territory from the mouth of the Pearl River eastward to the border between Alabama and Florida. The center also said that Gordon is expected to bring life-threatening storm surge to parts of the central Gulf Coast.
Apple farmers across the U.S. Northwest fear they will be the next victims of a U.S.-China trade war that left cherry growers in the same region with weak prices and having to scramble for alternative buyers because of prohibitive Chinese tariffs.
U.S. President Donald Trump has dealt a blow to farmers this year with strong-arm trade tactics that have prompted retaliation from key markets for U.S. products, including the sweet cherries and apples that speckle landscapes across the Western United States from summer through autumn.
Wed like this to be settled right away, but it doesnt seem like it will be, so were just holding on, said Ray Norwood, director of sales and marketing for Auvil Fruit Co, a Washington grower of cherries and apples.
The apple is the states top agricultural crop, representing some $2 billion to $2.5 billion in sales each year, according to the Washington Apple Commission. While the bulk of these apples are consumed domestically, about 30 percent are exported and are vulnerable to tariffs.
China is the worlds largest producer of the fruit, but it has also become a major destination for U.S.-grown varieties like Red Delicious and Gala apples, according to industry experts.
Cherry producers, which ship about a third of their fragile and highly perishable crop overseas, saw shipments held up at Chinese ports and ultimately slapped with prohibitive duties in the harvest, which ran through mid-August. That had a notable impact on Auvils bottom line, Norwood said.
Auvil had to lower prices and find alternative destinations as China is one of the top three export markets for about 80 percent of the farms cherry sales.
One Shanghai-based fruit retailer said many cherries went to Hong Kong instead of Mainland China. Prices there dropped from an average of HK$50 (US$6.40) per pound to as low as HK$30 per pound in a landmark century-old fruit market in Kowloons Yau Ma Tei district.
Growers of apples and other specialty crops are worried they may experience the same fate that cherry growers and shippers already faced: having to scramble for alternative buyers at lower prices because steep duties imposed by China, India and Mexico make their products too expensive for those markets.
The governments of those key destinations have countered Trumps tariffs with hefty levies of their own.
The same uncertainty is plaguing growers of almonds, pistachios, pears, peaches and other produce and high-value crops. The direct impact of the tariffs on U.S. fruit, vegetable and tree nut sales is expected to swell to more than $2.6 billion, according to a recent study conducted by University of California Davis economists.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue unveiled a $12 billion aid package last week that included $1.2 billion for the purchase of apples, pears, pistachios and other such crops, but farmers said it likely would not be enough.
Dennis Nuxoll, vice president of federal affairs for the Western Growers in Washington, DC, said the group never expected U.S. Department of Agriculture to make up for growers losses but had hoped for more direct assistance.
The group said in a statement that the aid program will fall substantially short.
Auvil is based in Orondo, a town nestled in Washington state, home to about 60 percent of U.S. fresh apple production.
Apple sellers like Auvil are bracing for the same downturn that hit cherries, just as U.S. orchards ramp up harvesting of some 4.7 million tonnes.
I dont know just how much itll be down, but we do think itll be drastic, said Rebecca Lyons, international marketing director of the Washington Apple Commission in Wenatchee, Washington, noting effective 50 percent levies on U.S. apples in China.
Mexico, India and China, which are expected to have duties in place during the shipping season, represent about half of total U.S. export volumes of the fruit, she said.
The global apple market is very competitive ... Even if the tariffs are lifted, itll be harder for us to get back into those markets.
Dupa inscrierea pe site-ul HotNews.ro, poti deschide sectiunea MyHotNews ca sa completezi sau sa schimbi profilul de utilizator.
Atentie! Logarea pe site se face cu adresa de email, nu cu nickname-ul. Adresa ta de email va ramane confidentiala si nu va fi niciodata data unor terte persoane sau institutii.
Inainte de a te inscrie pe site te rugam sa parcurgi termenii si conditiile atasate unui cont HotNews.ro.
KYODO NEWS - Sep 5, 2018 - 19:23 | World, All
North Korea has stepped up preparations for the 70th anniversary of the country's founding later this month, Kyodo News confirmed Wednesday.
Colorful signs with the words "Cerebrating the 70th anniversary of founding" have been put up along Pyongyang's main roads, with some high school and university students apparently practicing for torchlight marches and mass games toward Sunday's anniversary.
A large number of tourists as well as official delegations have arrived in the North Korean capital ahead of the anniversary. More than 100 foreign journalists are expected to cover related events, locals say.
At Pyongyang International Airport, many photographers of North Korean media have been waiting for dignitaries and celebrities to arrive from abroad. The Yanggakdo International Hotel, one of the main hotels in Pyongyang, has been crowded with visitors from foreign countries.
On the occasion of the anniversary, Li Zhanshu, the third-highest ranking official in the ruling Communist Party of China, will visit North Korea from Saturday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported.
From Russia, Valentina Matvienko, chairwoman of the Federation Council, will also pay an official visit to North Korea to participate in the events celebrating the 70th founding anniversary, the news agency said.
Among the events likely to be held on the anniversary are a military parade in the heart of the capital and a mass games display at the city's May Day Stadium.
KYODO NEWS - Sep 5, 2018 - 21:10 | World, All
A group of special envoys of South Korean President Moon Jae In met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday, while visiting Pyongyang to hammer out details of the next inter-Korean summit slated to take place this month in the North Korean capital.
The five envoys, led by Moon's top security adviser Chung Eui Yong, delivered a letter from Moon to Kim, South Korea's presidential office said.
The five-member delegation arrived earlier Wednesday by plane and met with Kim Yong Chol, the vice chairman of the ruling Workers' Party Central Committee, among other officials. They were due to return to Seoul within the day.
The envoys were expected to discuss such topics as a concrete schedule for the next summit, ways to improve inter-Korean relations, denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and the two Koreas' goal of reaching a peace settlement, according to the presidential office.
(South Korean envoys at Seoul airport)
[Pool photo]
The delegation also includes Suh Hoon, chief of the National Intelligence Service, Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae Sung, Yun Kun Young, presidential secretary for state affairs, and Kim Sang Gyun, a senior intelligence agency official.
On Tuesday, Moon and U.S. President Donald Trump held talks over the telephone.
Trump said he hoped for a fruitful result from the dispatch of the presidential envoys while Moon promised to brief Washington on their talks with North Korean officials, according to the South Korean and U.S. governments.
The two Koreas agreed in high-level talks on Aug. 13 to hold another inter-Korean summit sometime in September in Pyongyang, but specifics have yet to be discussed.
If held, the meeting will be the third summit between Moon and Kim following ones on April 27 and May 26.
(People in Seoul watch a live broadcast showing the first inter-Korean summit)
This October, Kerala received 589.9 millimetres, more than the previous high of 566 mm recorded in October 1999.
Investigators have reportedly flagged Sh320 million in suspicious transactions through various bank accounts operated by Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu.
A report by the detectives is based on the movement of huge sums and transactions that caused investigators to suspect that the top judge could be involved in money laundering.
The nature of the identified account transactions and properties indicate a high possibility of fraud and money laundering, the investigation report states as quoted by the Star.
The report indicates that Mwilu owns at least seven houses in upmarket Kilimani estate, one along Argwings Kodhek Road, two off Ndemi Road, and another property in Athi River.
On March 16, 2016 a few months before she joined the Supreme Court Mwilu allegedly bought a parcel of land LR3734/1129 from Mutunga and Company, a firm associated with ex-CJ Willy Mutunga, for Sh2.8 million.
However, barely two months after the purchase, DCJ Mwilu reportedly received Sh75 million from Forest Japan Hospital and Sh74 million from an unknown entity, allegedly from the sale of the same piece of land.
Theoretically, this implies that the subject bought the property at the price of Sh2.8 million on 16/3/2016 from Justice Mutungas company and sold it at a price of Sh75 million to Forest Japan Hospital and Sh74 million to another unknown entity, documents by DCI detectives read.
According to the analysis, cash transactions in Mwilus account between 2013-2016 amount to about Sh320.6 million.
The report indicates that Mwilu paid Sh15 million to Kibwezi West MP Patrick Musimba in 2013, which she told detectives was a refund for a failed purchase.
However, detectives noted that there was no evidence of any payment from the MP to Justice Mwilu.
At around the same time, Musimbas election had been nullified by Justice Majanja following a petition by former lawmaker Kalembe Ndile.
Also flagged are tranches of six payments totaling Sh86 million to Lucy Muthoni Magelo, wife to ex-Nairobi Speaker Alex Ole Magelo, the Star reports.
This was allegedly paid for the purchase of property in Lavington. But investigators say the property description, including LR numbers, was not provided.
During the same time, there were other cash and cheque deposits into Mwilus accounts totaling Sh95.6 million.
There was also a deposit of Sh40 million from a firm identified as Raei Investments Ltd.
The top judge operates six banks accounts, two at Standard Chartered Bank, another two at CFC Stanbic, one at Kenya Commercial Bank and the other at Commercial Bank of Africa.
Additional Reporting by the Star
Was John Brennan a traitor who allowed 9/11 terrorists to enter the United States and murder thousands?
Its no secret that Obamas CIA director, John Brennan, is no fan of POTUS Donald Trump, as he has made clear on Twitter and on cable news programs regularly.
Its also no secret to people who have taken the time to research Brennan that in the 1970s, as the Cold War with Russia was in full swing, Brennan actually voted for an American Communist Party candidate for president something that should have negated his ever becoming a staffer back in 1980, much less head of the countrys most powerful spy agency.
The president finally did justice and the American people a favor when he recently revoked Brennans security clearance. But according to a bombshell report, thats just the tip of the iceberg.
As noted by Teaparty.org, some believe that Brennan has been actively plotting against the United States for years, even allegedly playing a pivotal role in allowing the 9/11 hijackers inside the country:
Obama, Clinton, Kerry, Jarrettfar too many people in the previous administration had highly troubling ties to the terrorist state of Iran and in Obamas case, there is quite a bit of evidence pointing to the fact that he was a Muslim, a fact which remained in question throughout the entirety of his presidency and he did little to dispel by always referring to the Koran as The Holy Koran and the Bible simply as the Bible.
Obama points to his decades-long association with a Christian church in Chicago, where he lived and served as a state, then U.S., senator before becoming president. But the pastor of that church was Jeremiah Wright, whose fiery sermons can best be summed up as anti-white and anti-Republican, to say the least, and who was regularly critical of America in general.
There is even some speculation that Brennan may have converted to Islam at some point.
But theres more. According to Freedom Outpost, Brennan was the CIA station chief in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, when the 9/11 hijackers were given visas to travel to the United States. There are even reports he gave the final approval for those visas.
In September 2014, a whistleblower named Greg Ford, a former military intelligence officer, told Ground Zero Radios Clyde Lewis that Brennan actually overrode CIA objections to the approval of those visas.
Brennan the key?
Ford said on the show: All 19 high jackers? Where did they get their visas stamped before they came to this country to launch 9/11? They got their visas stamped in the CIA station in Jeddah. And the second in command said, No way, absolutely we are not going to stamp those visas. And the fellow who was in charge, his name was John Brennan. He was the person who overrode those concerns and cautions and ordered those visas stamped in Jeddah.
Bombshell.
Freedom Outpost noted further that Michael Springman was, at the time, head of the American visa bureau in Saudi Arabia, a post he held during the Reagan and Bush administrations, from September 1987 through March 1989. He said during his time there he was ordered by higher State Department officials to hand out visas to applicants who were not qualified. He said the applications were for recruits of Osama bin Laden, who was fighting against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, and who was sending recruits to the U.S. for training by the CIA.
Springman made his incredible claims during an appearance at the National Press Club on June 10, 2002.
The National Review subsequently reported that none of the 9/11 hijacker visas were completed in the proper manner, turning the U.S. government into a travel agency for terrorists.
The magazine, citing an August 2004 report[.pdf] from the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, said the visa applications for the 19 hijackers were replete with data fields left blank and questions that were not fully answered, and yet U.S. officials approved 22 of 23 visa applications for the hijackers.
Of the 15 Saudi terrorists, four of them received visas through the Visa Express Program in June 2001.
If it werent for John Brennan, 9/11 may never have happened, Freedom Outpost concluded.
Read more about Islamic terrorism against the U.S. at Terrorism.news.
Sources include:
TheNationalSentinel.com
TeaParty.org
FreedomOutpost.com
NationalReview.com
Rochester, MN, September 4, 2018 - There is a strong seasonal pattern in seeking cardiovascular health information on Google, with higher search activity during winter months, according to a new study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Investigators also found that US states with higher deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD) have higher CVD-related search volumes compared with regions with lower CVD mortality. By integrating artificial intelligence in healthcare research, the data generated by online cardiovascular health searches could be leveraged in the future to estimate disease activity in the community.
"By showing that seasonal and geographic interest in seeking CVD health information correlates with findings in real-world data, we show that Internet search-query data could potentially provide real-time information on CVD in the community," explains lead investigator Nilay Kumar, MD, of the Division of Hospital Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, USA.
CVD is the number one cause of death worldwide, and more than 600,000 people die from CVD in the United States every year. There is a clear seasonal trend of CVD, which has been described in many countries, with the highest incidence during the colder winter months. This pattern has been previously described for sudden cardiac death, heart failure, heart attacks, and abnormal heart rhythms. Similarly, it is well established that there are geographic differences in the rate of CVD and deaths due to CVD. For example, the southern US has higher rates of CVD-related mortality per unit population compared with other regions of the US. For this reason, in medical circles the Southern US is often referred to as the "stroke belt."
Investigators hypothesized that during seasons of high risk for CVD, Internet search activity to seek information on CVD would be higher than during seasons in which the risk of CVD was lower. Similarly, they hypothesized that areas of the US with the highest rates of CVD mortality would have a greater population-level interest in searching for information on CVD than areas with lower rates of CVD mortality.
To address these two questions, investigators obtained data from Google Trends, which is a repository of online search query data made publicly available by Google. Using over ten years of search query data for 28 search terms related to CVD, they found that search volumes were 15 percent higher in the winter compared with the summer in the US and nearly 50 percent higher in winter compared with summer in Australia. They also found that US states with higher rates of CVD mortality had higher Internet search activity with respect to CVD.
The significance of this research is that, in the current digital era, increasing rates of computer and smartphone ownership and increasing rates of high speed Internet access mean that vast amounts of data are generated as a result of everyday activities, such as searching the Internet and use of social media. When aggregated for the entire population, these data may provide insights into the population's interest in certain topics. Peaks in interest in certain healthcare-related topics may be driven by disease activity at the level of the community, say the investigators.
"The key is to use big data, such as search query volumes, to augment traditional methods of CVD surveillance by providing real-time insights into population interests and behaviors," adds senior investigator and co-author Carl J. Lavie, MD, of the John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute, Ochsner Clinical School, The University of Queensland School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA. "The failure of Google Flu Trends to predict the 2013 influenza outbreak should caution us not to fall victim to the so-called 'big data hubris,' but rather use it as one of the tools in our armamentarium for disease surveillance. Future artificial intelligence algorithms may incorporate passively generated data such as search query data or other forms of 'big data' to generate real-time predictions of CVD at the community level."
In an accompanying editorial, Joseph G. Murphy, MD, and R. Scott Wright, MD, of the Department of Cardiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA, equate these findings with a "canary in the coal mine" metaphor with the potential for using aggregated search data to alert public health authorities to trends in CVD mortality.
"The 21st century canary will not be an unfortunate caged bird used to alert humans to environmental toxins but instead will be a virtual reality program triggered by individual Web searches and social media postings collected in aggregate and analyzed by public health authorities to facilitate the early detection of symptoms and diseases gathered on a nearly instantaneous basis," they comment. "The use of such a program would allow better targeting of resources and tools designed to reduce morbidity and mortality and empower individuals to live healthier and more productive lives.
Dr. Murphy and Dr. Wright predict that Internet search engines and social media postings will not only act like the proverbial "canary in the coal mine" in the early detection of disease, but also "sing like a canary" in the dissemination of important public health warnings.
###
Louisiana State University is leveraging its expertise to improve coastal and environmental conditions in communities around the world. Experts are working to identify how small, coastal villages in the East African nation of Tanzania get caught in poverty traps, or mechanisms that cause poverty to persist in low-income communities. They are evaluating 13 different villages across the Pangani and Rufiji districts of Tanzania and analyzing the local mangrove ecosystems, including how humans influence and interact with these ecosystems.
Researchers from the LSU College of the Coast & Environment, in collaboration with the University of Rhode Island, the University of Dar es Salaam, Florida International University, and Sea Sense, intend to create a predictive socio-ecological model that could determine the ecosystem-wide environmental and economic effects of fishing and deforesting in a given sector along the resource rich Tanzania coastline.
While the other team members are focusing on the human systems piece of the puzzle, the LSU unit is analyzing the natural resources at play. Victor H. Rivera-Monroy, with his graduate student, Xiaochen Zhao, is studying the distribution of mangroves in wetlands and factors that regulate their ecosystem services, or how they benefit humans. Steve Midway and Michael Polito, along with their respective graduate students Matt Robertson and Mario Hernandez, are researching the local fish ecology and fisheries. Robert Rohli is examining how climate variability and change are linked to the local hydrology and resulting ecosystem productivity.
According to Rivera-Monroy, mangrove ecosystems are critical to the livelihoods of the coastal poor and provide a number of ecosystem services for humans such as providing a habitat for commercially valuable fish and other species, protecting coastal villages from flooding and storm surge, improving water quality, and absorbing carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) from the atmosphere. He says more than 35 percent of mangrove areas worldwide have degraded or been lost entirely in the past two decades, and most of those mangrove systems are located in developing countries.
Rivera-Monroy and Zhao are measuring the mangrove forest structure, species diversity, and current surface area in and around these Tanzanian villages and analyzing the natural and human influences on its reduction in size over the last 20 years.
"One of the most conspicuous impacts we detected in this coastal area is the illegal extraction of wood," Rivera-Monroy said. "We were surprised by how some of the mangrove forest species are targeted in small patches, but they add up to the total area being deforested on a large scale."
Midway and Robertson are collecting fish catch data provided by the local villages' Beach Management Units (BMUs) such as: methods used to catch fish, how many fish are caught, and the types of fish locals are catching. While the BMUs having been collecting this data for some time, this is the first time anyone attempted to analyze and synthesize their statistics and their utility in coastal management plans. Robertson recently published this work in the journal Ocean & Coastal Management.
Tanzania currently manages fisheries based on nationwide statistics, meaning blanket regulations for villages that use a variety of gear and catch a variety of species. Midway believes that in order to optimize fisheries management, Tanzanian officials need to be responsive to differences between regions. Midway plans to provide them with his research findings with the hope that they will improve regulations by adapting to that regional data.
"These fishermen are catching anything they can, including fish that are [very small]. That's not usually something that happens in more developed areas [because] we are more regulated. This is what you get when you have fished all the big ones down," Midway said.
In conjunction with overfishing, the tools and methods used by some Tanzanian fishermen to catch fish are harmful to fish habitats.
"We've seen multiple groups of men pulling these 300-meter trawls through seagrass habitats. They're dragging nets to catch these fish and I have not seen them catch anything larger than maybe a foot. You can see in the net that there are shards of coral all over the place, loads of seagrass, and fish that are not mature at all. It's really unfortunate," Hernandez said.
When fishermen drag these large nets through the sea grass habitats, they are destroying the habitat that juvenile fishes need to grow and reproduce, reducing the fish population and damaging their ability to replenish their numbers, meaning there are less fish available for the Tanzanians to use as a source of food or trade. While fishing is a large part of the local economy and large catches benefit fishermen in the short-term, it is creating a long-term scarcity.
The same can be applied to the mangroves in the area that are harvested to build houses and burned into charred wood, or wood chips, which are sold or used to heat homes. Like sea grasses, mangroves are also potential fish habitats. But if they are overharvested, this could further disrupt the life cycles of local fish and their food webs, compounding the villages' ecological and economic problems.
Additionally, Polito and Hernandez are analyzing where local fish in Tanzania fit into their ecosystem by analyzing what they eat. They analyze tissue samples taken from fish specimens and the surrounding habitats and use stable isotope analysis to determine the flow of nutrients throughout the entire food web.
They take a very small piece of a fish's white tissue, a sample about the size of a fingernail, and freeze and later dehydrate it before returning with it to the U.S. for analysis. In Polito's lab at LSU, they are able to use an isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS) to break the sample down into carbon and nitrogen.
Once they have the isotope ratios of nitrogen and carbon of a fish sample, they can match the ratio to sea grass or mangrove habitats in the region. Through this process, they can identify the fish's local habitat. This information could be instrumental in helping local Tanzanians determine where to fish or harvest mangroves and where not to fish or harvest mangroves in order to best sustain local fish populations.
By understanding the structural and functional attributes of the mangrove ecosystem, and its role in supporting fisheries and other vital resources, these experts are working to determine the monetary value of these mangrove systems and model how to recover and sustain them--allowing Tanzania to conserve mangroves and fisheries while also creating long-term economic stability in the region.
###
Additional Information:
This research is funded by a highly-competitive, multi-institutional grant from the National Science Foundation's Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems Program and is performed in collaboration with following:
Emi Uchida, Hirotsugu Uchida, and Todd Guilfoos from the Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, University of Rhode Island
Arthur Gold, Department of Natural Resources Science, University of Rhode Island
Cathy McNally, Mattana Wongsirikajorn and Elin Torell, Coastal Resources Center, University of Rhode Island
Mwita M. Mangora, Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Dar es Salaam
Razack Lokina, Department of Economics, University of Dar es Salaam
Lindsey West, Director, Sea Sense, Tanzania
Edward Castaneda-Moya, Southeast Environmental Research Center, Florida International University
The following is a list of LSU's College of the Coast & Environment contributors.
Steve Midway, Assistant Professor, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences
Victor Rivera-Monroy, Associate Professor, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences
Mike Polito, Assistant Professor, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences
Bob Rohli, Professor, Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences
Researchers from a Beijing university have helped farmers in two Tanzanian villages almost triple their corn yields by applying experiences from China.
By introducing simple techniques over the past six years, yields per hectare in Peapea and Mtego Wa Simba-both part of the Morogoro region-have risen from only about 1 metric ton to as much as 3 tons, according to a team from China Agricultural University.
The pilot project, which included increasing planting intensity and manpower, has benefited about 1,000 households in an area where hunger remains a problem, said Li Xiaoyun, the program leader and dean of the college's China Belt and Road Institute for Agricultural Cooperation.
"We helped locals improve production to solve food problems using experiences from China in the 1970s and '80s, rather than more-recent experiences of sophisticated technologies and capital investment, as the former is more applicable to the local reality," he said.
Like China more than three decades ago, Tanzania lacks capital but is rich in labor resources, which Li said is an advantage when developing intensive farming.
In many parts of the country, not enough laborers are engaged in cultivating corn, while basic techniques to improve the yield are not being used, such as removing weeds, he said.
"In the pilot program, we primarily encouraged farmers to increase the density of the planting area," Li said. "Before we came here, they only grew about 22,500 plants per hectare. Now those have been increased to more than 50,000."
With increased intensity, more villagers are now engaged in labor-intensive farming, greatly increasing yields without using synthetic fertilizers, which are not widely available in Tanzania.
"Using our methods, agricultural farming has brought more employment opportunities for locals, helping them get rid of poverty," Li said.
In addition, the university team also replicated China's success in making village chiefs responsible for helping residents solve problems and increasing yields in the two Tanzanian villages.
"Each village has assigned three people, including a chief and a technician, to help locals by providing technical guidance in farming," Li said.
Zhou Shengkun, an associate professor from the university's College of Humanities and Development Studies, said nearly 80 percent of people in Africa rely on agriculture to make a living, which means increasing output is key to reducing poverty and boosting economic development.
Modern agriculture is not suitable for many areas of Tanzania, including the villages taking part in the pilot project, due to a lack of infrastructure such as basic irrigation systems, he said.
In addition, unlike other continents, the soil in Africa is not polluted by fertilizers and pesticides, so agricultural production should not be increased at the cost of environment, Zhou added.
Li said his team has visited the villages three or four times a year to guide local farmers. However, he said poor roads and irrigation systems have greatly impeded agricultural development there.
To promote the experiences gained in the pilot program, China Agricultural University joined hands in March with the Morogoro regional government and Sokoine University of Agriculture to launch a new demonstration project that will cover another 1,000 households.
"Africa has a favorable environment for agricultural production, such as fertile, unpolluted soil, and adequate sunshine and rainfall," Li said. "With proper development Africans can feed themselves and other regions."
China Daily published on 5th Sptember,2018.
Microbes such as bacteria in the ocean, which mediate the microbial carbon pump (MCP), was reported to substantially influence the carbon cycle of the Earth system. These tiny unicellular organisms, probably smaller than 1 micrometer (1/150 of a single hair tip), are playing a disproportionately big role in a process so-call 'carbon sequestration'. In this process, they take up labile organic carbon produced by phytoplankton, transfer into the recalcitrant form that can resist from degradation for thousands of years, and eventually remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They act functionally as a "pump" in sucking anthropogenic greenhouse gases into the ocean interior as a butter and thus regulating the global climate. Therefore, the MCP is considered an "invisible hand" behind the vast oceanic dissolved carbon reservoir.
However, the MCP was yet to be fully understood. In particular, this important process has not been quantified using a comprehensive physical-biological coupled model of a regional ocean. A recent paper published in SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences, attempted to address this issue. A multidisciplinary group from Xiamen University, University of Delaware, and Fuzhou University conducted the study with the support from '973' project - 'Processes and mechanisms of carbon sequestration by microbial carbon pump in the ocean'.
In this research, a state-of-the-art regional ocean model was deployed, which was capable to simulate the physical and biological dynamics in the ocean. The MCP processes were explicitly simulated, and, henceforth, a variety of MCP properties in time and space can be better depicted and understood in the South China Sea. Averagely in the South China Sea, the carbon sequestration rate of MCP was estimated to be about 1/6 of another better-understood biological carbon sequestration process, namely the biological pump.
Moreover, one of the many benefits of such a modeling system is that the future state of the ocean can be projected quantitatively given the condition of a changing environment. In this case, the model was simulated with the scenario that sea surface temperature increased for two- and four-degree centigrade warmer than the current state. It is found that the importance of MCP in sequestrating oceanic carbon under global warming may be further highlighted because the smaller planktonic organisms favorable for MCP is less vulnerable to the reduced nutrient supply in the projection. In the four-degree warming scenario, the rate of carbon sequestration by MCP compared with that from biological pump may raise several (~2%) percent, which can be remarkable considering the delicate balance of the microbial food web and carbon cycle and the extremely long age of the recalcitrant carbon it produces. Since the oceanic dissolved organic carbon pool largely formed through MCP contents as much carbon as the atmosphere, the changes in MCP might significantly modify the balance between these two reservoirs. The results of this study even imply the potential of geoengineering with the concept of MCP. Surely, before any engineering on the earth system, furthermore studies on this big player in the carbon cycle should be carried out.
The first author, Dr. Wenfang Lu notes that this study is, as commented in the peer-review, the 'first' and a 'timely' attempt to simulate the MCP process in the China Sea. Although the simulation is somewhat in an early stage, the important message we can learn is the controlling environmental factors of the spatial and temporal distribution of MCP. It provides a groundwork upon which future studies can build.
###
This work was primarily supported by the National Basic Research Program (Grant No. 2013CB955704), and the National Program on Global Change and Air-Sea Interaction (Grant No. GASI-03-01-02-05). It was also partially supported by the SOA Global Change and Air-Sea Interaction Project (Grant No. GASI-IPOVAI-01-04), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41630963, 41476007 & 41476005).
See the article: http://engine.scichina.com/publisher/scp/journal/SSTe/doi/10.1360/N072018-00063
A person's brainstem controls some of the body's most important functions, including heart beat, respiration, blood pressure and swallowing. Tumor growth in this part of the brain is therefore twice as devastating. Not only can such a growth disrupt vital functions, but operating in this area is so risky, many medical professionals refuse to consider it as an option.
New, interdisciplinary research in Washington University in St. Louis has shown a way to target drug delivery to just that area of the brain using noninvasive measures, bolstered by a novel technology: focused ultrasound.
The research comes from the lab of Hong Chen, assistant professor of biomedical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science and assistant professor of radiation oncology at Washington University School of Medicine. Chen has developed a novel way in which ultrasound and its contrast agent -- consisting of tiny bubbles -- can be paired with intranasal administration, to direct a drug to the brainstem.
The research, which also included faculty from the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology and the Department of Pediatrics at the School of Medicine, along with the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, was published online this week and will be in the Sept. 28 issue of the Journal of Controlled Release.
This technique may bring medicine one step closer to curing brain-based diseases such as diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPG), a childhood brain cancer with a five-year survival rate of a scant two percent, a dismal prognosis that has remained unchanged over the past 40 years. (To add perspective, the most common childhood cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, has a five-year survival rate of nearly 90 percent).
"Each year in the United States, there are no more than 300 cases," Chen said. "All pediatric diseases are rare; luckily, this is even more rare. But we cannot count numbers in this way, because for kids that have this disease and their families, it is devastating."
Chen's technique combines Focused UltraSound with IntraNasal delivery, (FUSIN). The intranasal delivery takes advantage of a unique property of the olfactory and trigeminal nerves: they can carry nanoparticles directly to the brain, bypassing the blood brain barrier, an obstacle to drug delivery in the brain.
This unique capability of intranasal delivery was demonstrated last year by co-authors Ramesh Raliya, research scientist, and Pratim Biswas, assistant vice chancellor and chair of the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering and the Lucy & Stanley Lopata Professor, in their 2017 publication in Scientific Reports.
"At the beginning, I couldn't even believe this could work," Hong said of delivering drugs to the brain intranasally. "I thought our brains are fully protected. But these nerves actually directly connect with the brain and provide direct access to the brain."
While nasal brain drug delivery is a huge step forward, it isn't yet possible to target a drug to a specific area. Chen's targeted ultrasound technique is addressing that problem.
When doing an ultrasound scan, the contrast agent used to highlight images is composed of microbubbles. Once injected into the bloodstream, the microbubbles behave like red blood cells, traversing the body as the heart pumps.
Once they reach the site where the ultrasound wave is focused, they do something unusual.
"They start to expand and contract," Chen said. As they do so, they act as a pump to the surrounding blood vessels as well as the perivascular space -- the space surrounding the blood vessels.
"Consider the blood vessels like a river," Chen said. "The conventional way to deliver drugs is to dump them in the river." In other parts of the body, the banks of the river are a bit "leaky," Chen said, allowing the drugs to seep into the surrounding tissue. But the blood brain barrier, which forms a protective layer around blood vessels in the brain, prevents this leakage, particularly in the brains of young patients, such as those with with DIPG.
"We will deliver the drug from the nose to directly outside the river," Chen said, "in the perivascular space."
Then, once ultrasound is applied at the brain stem, the microbubbles will begin to expand and contract. The oscillating microbubbles push and pull, pumping the drug toward the brainstem. This technique also addresses the problem of drug toxicity -- the drugs will go directly to the brain instead of circulating through the whole body. In collaboration with Yongjian Liu, an associate professor of radiology, and Yuan-Chuan Tai, an associate professor of radiology, Chen used positron emission tomography (PET scan) to verify that there was minimal accumulation of intranasal-administered nanoparticles in major organs, including lungs, liver, spleen, kidney and heart.
So far, Chen's lab has had success using their technique in mice for the delivery of gold nanoclusters made by the team led by Liu.
"The next step is to demonstrate the therapeutic efficacy of FUSIN in the delivery of chemotherapy drugs for the treatment of DIPG," said Dezhuang Ye, lead author of the paper, who is Chen's graduate student from the Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science. The lab has also teamed up with Biswas to develop a new aerosol nasal delivery device to scale up the technique from a mouse to a large animal model.
Chen's lab collaborated on this research with pediatric neuro-oncologist Joshua Rubin, MD, PhD, a professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine who treats patients at St. Louis Children's Hospital. Chen said the team hopes to translate the findings of this study into clinical trials for children with DIPG.
There are difficulties ahead, but Chen believes researchers will need to continue to innovate when it comes to solving such a difficult problem as treating DIPG.
A targeted inspiration
Hong Chen's lab collaborated with Joshua Rubin, MD, PhD, a professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine on this research. And it all started with a couple of colleagues talking one day:
"My work in this field started with a conversation with him," Chen said. "He said, 'Wow, this would be a perfect technique for treating this deadly disease.' Without him to point me in this direction, I probably wouldn't have known this application existed.
"That's why I consider the Washington University environment, and the School of Engineering & Applied Science, so unique. It provides you so much opportunity to work with people from different backgrounds. It allowed me to expand my research scope and to be able to work on clinically relevant questions."
###
sheryl sandberg
Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg will testify before a US Senate select committee on election interference on Wednesday.
A copy of her opening statement has been released early.
Sandberg will apologise for Facebook's response to Russian interference during the 2016 US presidential election: "We were too slow to spot this and too slow to act."
It will be Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's turn in the Congressional hot seat on Wednesday, and she plans to offer an apologetic message: "We were too slow to spot this and too slow to act."
Ahead of a Senate intelligence select committee hearing that will also feature Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Business Insider has obtained a copy of the opening statement Sandberg plans to deliver to the assembled congresspeople.
"The threat we face is not new. America has always confronted attacks from opponents who wish to undermine our democracy. What is new are the tactics they use. That means it's going to take everyone including industry, governments, and experts from civil society working together to stay ahead," Sandberg will say, in part. Following her remarks, she and Dorsey will be subject to questions from the Senate.
The hearing comes after months of bruising scandals for Facebook, including the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which as many as 87 million users had their information improperly obtained, and further revelations around Russian misuse of the platform to interfere with the 2016 US presidential election. It's also just months before the 2018 midterm elections.
In recent weeks Facebook has revealed the existence of multiple influence operations intended to influence politics in a manner similar to Russia's 2016 intervention, aimed at the US, as well as other countries around the world.
The committee also invited Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Alphabet CEO Larry Page, but both declined to appear. Google offered to send Senior VP Kent Walker, but the Senate declined on the basis that he recently testified.
Story continues
Here are Sheryl Sandberg's full opening remarks:
NOW WATCH: What's going on with Elon Musk
See Also:
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. AJG recently acquired Wheatman Insurance Services LLC, which will enable the acquirer not only to expand but also improve its employee benefit consulting and brokerage services across the Southwest region of the United States. However, financial details of the transaction were kept under wraps.
Delving Deeper Into the Transaction
Established in 1989, Woodland Hills, CA-based Wheatman Insurance deals in retail property/casualty insurance brokerage services along with employee benefits consulting services. The company provides a comprehensive range of personal lines and financial services as well as commercial property/casualty and employee benefits insurance coverages. Wheatman Insurance caters to businesses as well as families and individuals throughout the state. On completion of the buyout, the acquired company will shift to Arthur J. Gallaghers Woodland Hills office and operate from there.
The latest integration is anticipated to be a substantial value addition to the acquirers already robust inorganic portfolio. Wheatman Insurance has built a reputation for itself in becoming the leading personal lines insurance specialist in Los Angeles, which in turn, will allow the acquirer to enhance and extend its capabilities pertaining to its growing private client offering in the southwest region. Apart from solidifying its footprint in the southwest region of the United States, the acquisition is expected to boost the acquirers employee benefits consulting services. Given the experience and goodwill created over the years, the insurance broker is likely to leverage this expertise and the strength offered by the acquired entity.
Therefore, the transaction will help Arthur J. Gallagher earn a substantial lift for its employee benefit consulting service profile, which not only offers a detailed knowledge on the employee benefits market but also helps meeting the clients fundamental business objectives most efficiently. Thus, the latest consolidation is expected to reinforce Arthur J. Gallaghers strong inorganic growth profile as well as add capabilities to its insurance brokerage service portfolio.
With respect to shoring up its existence in California and driving its property/casualty and employee benefits coverages and services, Arthur J. Gallagher acquired Binney, Chase & Van Horne, Inc. located in Pasadena, which is likely to strengthen the insurance brokers prevalent abilities in serving nonprofit organizations.
Arthur J. Gallaghers discreet M&A activity stands testament to its convincing inorganic growth strategy. Year to date, the company has successfully closed 26 mergers for an aggregate amount of approximately $240 million. It remains upbeat about its ability to tow in acquisition partners in its typical small tuck-in size at justifiable prices.
Over the past few years, Arthur J. Gallaghers impressive progress has been primarily cushioned by organic sales as well as intelligent buyouts and mergers. The company has been minutely monitoring its acquisition pipeline in the retail employee benefits brokerage and wholesale brokerage areas, which remains sturdy with about $300 million of revenues. Further, driven by the number and size of non-U.S. purchases, the companys top line, nurtured with international contribution, is likely to perk up.
Zacks Rank and Share Price Movement
Arthur J. Gallagher carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Shares of the company have rallied 15.3% year to date, outperforming its industrys rise of 5.3%. We expect top-line growth, smart acquisitions and a healthy capital position to push the shares up in the near term.
Story continues
Other Integrations in the Insurance Space
We have been noticing insurers embracing the inorganic approach to enhance their portfolio for a while now. The insurance industry has been on a conspicuous acquisition spree, attributable to its all-time high available capital resource.
Recently, Enstar Holdings (US) LLC, a unit of Enstar Group Limited ESGR, signed an agreement to acquire Maiden Reinsurance North America, a U.S. diversified business of Maiden Holdings, Ltd. MHLD. The buyout will further strengthen Enstar Groups supremacy in the market in relation with closing legacy acquisitions and also, ramping up its inorganic growth profile. Further in July, Brown & Brown, Inc.s BRO arm, The Advocator Group, LLC, announced buying Professional Disability Associates, LLC to provide service upgrade that will ultimately lead to empowering substantial carrier, customer and client relationships.
You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Looking for Stocks with Skyrocketing Upside?
Zacks has just released a Special Report on the booming investment opportunities of legal marijuana.
Ignited by new referendums and legislation, this industry is expected to blast from an already robust $6.7 billion to $20.2 billion in 2021. Early investors stand to make a killing, but you have to be ready to act and know just where to look.
See the pot trades we're targeting>>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (AJG) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Brown & Brown, Inc. (BRO) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Maiden Holdings, Ltd. (MHLD) : Free Stock Analysis Report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
By Jason Lange and David Ljunggren WASHINGTON/OTTAWA (Reuters) - The United States and Canada have made progress in talks to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement, and officials from the two sides will work together into the night to flesh out areas for further discussion, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Wednesday. Freeland sounded upbeat as she emerged from a day of talks with top U.S. trade negotiator Robert Lighthizer, although she cautioned that no trade deal was done until the last issue was nailed down. U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to push ahead with a bilateral deal with Mexico, effectively killing the almost 25-year-old three-country pact, which covers $1.2 trillion in trade. The United States and Mexico reached an agreement on overhauling NAFTA at the beginning of last week, turning up the pressure on Canada to agree to new terms. "We sent them (the officials) a number of issues to work on and they will report back to us in the morning, and we will then continue our negotiations," Freeland told reporters on leaving the U.S. Trade Representative's office in Washington on Wednesday. Trump sounded a more upbeat note earlier, and said he expected to know whether a deal could be struck to include Canada in the next few days. Neither Freeland nor Trump spelled out areas of disagreement and neither detailed the progress that had been made. Lighthizer did not speak to the press or issue a statement. Wednesday was the first day that talks between the two countries resumed after four intensive days of talks last week ended on Friday without a deal after the mood soured. Canada wants a permanent exemption from Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs and the threat of auto tariffs to be removed. It also wants to continue protections for its dairy industry and defend lumber exports to the United States, which have been hit with duties. As the two sides met for talks, new economic data showed that the U.S. trade deficit with Canada grew to $3.1 billion in July. This could provide ammunition to Trump, who has accused Canada of "cheating" Americans. Trump nearly tore up the NAFTA pact last year after visiting farmers in Wisconsin, a major U.S. dairy producer that Washington says has been hurt by Canadian protectionism. Trump charges that the 1994 pact has caused the loss of hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs, something that most economists dispute. Data released on Wednesday showed the U.S. trade deficit hit a five-month high of $50 billion. The shortfall with Canada shot up 57.6 percent. Trump has notified Congress that he intends to sign the trade deal reached last week with Mexico by the end of November, and officials said the text would be published by around Oct. 1. But Canadian officials, who note increasing political pressure on Trump from U.S. business and labor circles to keep NAFTA as a trilateral arrangement, said they were in no hurry. "We're not saying we don't want to move swiftly to try and get a deal. But I think certainly we were always intending to take as long as it was going to take," said a government source who declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the situation. "We're seeing goodwill on all sides and if we see some more flexibility, then I think we can start to see things moving in a good direction," added the source. Negotiators have blown through several deadlines since the talks started in August 2017. As the process grinds on, some in Washington insist Trump cannot pull out of NAFTA without the approval of Congress. "Trump is relying on bluster and bullying in a desperate attempt to get Congress to swallow his half-baked deal. You can't fix NAFTA without fixing issues with Canada," said Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees trade. (Reporting by Jason Lange and David Ljunggren; Writing by David Ljunggren and David Chance; editing by David Gregorio and Leslie Adler)
By Susan Taylor TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's Nevsun Resources Ltd has agreed to a buyout bid worth C$1.86 billion ($1.41 billion) from China's Zijin Mining Group Co, the companies said on Wednesday, in a deal trumping Lundin Mining Corp's earlier hostile offer. Zijin, which also has ventures with Canada's Barrick Gold and Ivanhoe Mines, said it plans to rapidly develop Nevsun's high-grade Timok copper project in Serbia and extend the life of an Eritrean copper and zinc mine. On Friday, Zijin emerged as the top bidder for a 63 percent stake in Serbian's RTB Bor copper complex, near the Timok deposit, after pledging a $1.26 billion investment in the operation. Vancouver-based Nevsun, which rejected multiple Lundin bids as inadequate, is recommending that shareholders accept Zijin's C$6.00 per share cash offer, 26 percent above Lundin's C$4.75 a share cash bid. Lundin, which took is C$1.4 billion bid directly to shareholders in July after earlier informal proposals were rejected, declined to comment on the matter. Nevsun shares were up 17 percent in early trade at C$5.80 on the Toronto Stock Exchange and Lundin shares added about 2 percent to C$6.26. "Although scarcity of copper development acquisition projects may entice Lundin to increase its offer, we believe Lundin is unlikely to proceed with a revised offer given the current price tag," Credit Suisse analyst Anita Soni said in a note to clients. In August, Nevsun said it would consider all strategic alternatives, including alternative buyers and four proposals from mining and smelting companies for investments of up to 19.9 percent in the company. Zijin's offer requires a minimum tender of two-thirds of Nevsun's shares and includes a $50 million break fee for both companies if the deal does not consummate for various reasons. Zijin has the right to match any competing offer. BMO Capital Markets advised Nevsun on the deal while Morgan Stanley advised Zijin. ($1 = 1.3180 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Susan Taylor in Toronto and Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier and Bill Trott)
Canadian dollar falls after Trump says no political necessity to keep Canada in new trade deal
Trump says there's "no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal," and says Congress "should not interfere" with the negotiations.
Trump's comments pushes the Canadian dollar down against its U.S. counterpart.
The Canadian dollar fell against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday after President Donald Trump said the U.S. and Mexico could move forward without Canada in a new NAFTA deal.
In a tweet Saturday, Trump said there is "no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal," and that Congress "should not interfere" with the negotiations.
Tweet
The U.S. dollar strengthened by 0.4 percent to 1.315 against the loonie on Tuesday.
Tuesday's moves and Trump's tweet come after the U.S. and Canada adjourned trade negotiations last week. The two countries are scheduled to resume talks on Wednesday.
The U.S. and Mexico struck a trade deal last week that did not include Canada. Officials from the U.S., Canada and Mexico had expressed optimism last week about Canada joining the new deal before the talks broke down.
Trump has repeatedly railed against NAFTA, calling it the worst trade deal ever. In another Saturday tweet, he said the deal which includes the U.S., Canada and Mexico should never have been signed.
Tweet
Canada is one of the United States' biggest trade partners. Last year, the two countries exchanged more than $670 billion in goods and services , according to data from the U.S. Trade Representative's office.
More From CNBC
By Julie Gordon
SURREY, British Columbia (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau indicated on Tuesday that Canada would not compromise on key demands at high-level talks this week with the United States to update the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Senior officials from both sides are due to meet in Washington on Wednesday in a bid to settle major differences amid pressure from Washington for a quick settlement.
"There are a number of things we absolutely must see in a renegotiated NAFTA," Trudeau told reporters in the Pacific province of British Columbia.
"No NAFTA is better than a bad NAFTA deal for Canadians and that's what we are going to stay with."
U.S. President Donald Trump - who signed a NAFTA side deal with Mexico last week - has threatened to impose auto tariffs on Canada or exclude it from the three-nation pact unless an agreement can be struck quickly.
Trudeau made clear, however, he would insist on keeping the so-called Chapter 19 dispute-resolution mechanism that Washington wants to scrap.
"We will not sign a deal that is bad for Canadians, and quiet frankly, not having a Chapter 19 to ensure the rules are followed would be bad for Canadians," he said.
He also said existing protections that ban U.S. media firms from buying Canadian cultural industries such as television stations and newspapers must be maintained.
(Writing by David Ljunggren; Editing by James Dalgleish and Peter Cooney)
The New Location Was Selected for its Close Proximity to the Booming Business Community in Scottsdale
NORTH MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / September 5, 2018 / Aleksandar "Sasha" Jovicic, CEO of Executive Digital, is pleased to announce that the company has moved into its new headquarters in Old Town Scottsdale, Arizona.
To learn more about Executive Digital and the digital marketing and related services that they offer their valued clients, please check out https://executive-digital.com/.
"Arizona is our home, this is where Executive Digital started, and we are beyond happy to continue to call Scottsdale home," Jovicic said.
"We chose Old Town Scottsdale due to its proximity to the ever-growing business community in Scottsdale. As our company has grown exponentially, we found a need to secure a more modern location in order to service our clients more efficiently across Arizona."
Charles Kim, the company's COO added, "We love Old Town Scottsdale, and as members of various groups and organizations in Scottsdale, the move to Old Town was the right choice for us."
The many satisfied clients who have worked with the talented team from Executive Digital can rest assured that they will continue to receive the same level of outstanding customer care at the new location, along with access to the company's many innovative and effective services.
From companies that need assistance with and support for their website and those who are looking to boost their online presence, to firms that need help with SEO, social media and more, Executive Digital continues to be a one-stop shop.
In regards to Executive Digital's social media marketing services, Jovicic said the Social Media team is well versed in effective techniques and are ready to assist new and existing clients.
"We understand that one size does not fit all. Our techniques are tailored and adjusted to what your company is, your product and service specialty, your company culture, and how you connect with your customers and local community," he said.
Story continues
About Executive Digital:
Executive Digital is a full-service, boutique digital marketing agency, focused on creating true value and ROI for their clients via digital strategies married with real-time business concepts. The leadership team of Executive Digital has been credited with conceptualization, creation and execution of Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Marketing and various Paid Media and Web Development programs for some of the largest Fortune 500 companies in the United States, and over $2.5 billion dollars of trackable, proven income as a result of their comprehensive systems approach. They pride themselves in full transparency and forward-thinking execution for every digital marketing campaign for their clients. For more information, please visit https://executive-digital.com/.
Executive Digital New Arizona Headquarters
4032 N. Miller Rd., Suite 104
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
Contact:
Shannon Horowitz
info@executive-digital.com
786.701.0775
SOURCE: Executive Digital
https://www.accesswire.com/511324/Executive-Digital-Announces-Its-New-Headquarters-in-Old-Town-Scottsdale-Arizona
Alexander Vinnik
A Russian citizen accused of running a cryptocurrency exchange that helped a billion dollar money laundering operation could be in possession of valuable information that could potentially expose how a group of Russians indicted recently by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller managed to hide their money trail using bitcoin.
Bloomberg reports that Alexander Vinnik, who is currently detained in a Greek prison was arrested in 2017 after being accused by US prosecutors of helping illicit money transfers using bitcoin, including transfers linked to a Russian military intelligence hacking unit called Fancy Bear. Officers from Fancy Bear are among the individuals indicted by Mueller of stealing Democratic Party email databases in an attempt to illegally influence the 2016 election.
Three-Way Tussle
Presently France and the US are fighting to extradite Vinnik on various charges related to cryptocurrency-aided money laundering and cybercrimes against their citizens. Russia is also fighting to have Vinnik extradited to his homeland, presumably in a bid to protect whatever secrets Vinnik may potentially hand over to NATO allies.
CCN reported in July that a Greek court granted an extradition request to Vinnik from France, sparking a furious reaction from Russia. Earlier in May, Greek police reportedly discovered a plot to murder Vinnik in prison.
On his part, Vinnik alleges that he has no knowledge of any money laundering operation and that he had no control over the $9 billion worth of bitcoin that flowed through BTC-e, the platform he managed. As a compromise however, he has agreed to work with French investigators from his location in Greece.
American investigators accuse Vinniks BTC-e exchange of completely sidestepping all KYC/AML guidelines by allowing customers move money anonymously, requiring only an email address and a password. Muellers investigation reported a similar pattern of transaction layering through crypto exchanges by Russian intelligence officers looking for anonymity.
Story continues
Data firm Elliptic used the details provided in the indictment to search the blockchain and flesh out a pattern of such activities by Russian agents.
Speaking to Bloomberg about the findings, Elliptic Chief Data Officer Tom Robinson said:
There was a strong link between much of the funds allegedly used by the Fancy Bear group and BTC-e. What I cant say for certain is whether Fancy Bear obtained them directly from BTC-e, or whether there was an intermediary.
Arkady Bukh, a lawyer representing Yengeniy Nikulin, a hacker accused alongside Vinnik says that the real aim of the US is to gain intelligence and insight on Russian state-backed hackers including information like emails, names and bank accounts.
CCN will bring more updates as the story develops.
Alexander Vinnik image from Shutterstock.
The post A Former Bitcoin Exchange Admin Could Be Key to Muellers Russia Investigation appeared first on CCN.
The former iPhone engineer who created autocorrect brainstorms about Apple's next smash hit
Augmented reality, or AR, will likely figure into Apple's next big product, says ex-Apple software engineer Ken Kocienda.
"You can take your phone and you could point its camera at something in the world" and get information delivered to your screen, says Kocienda.
AR is the technology used in Nintendo's popular mobile game "Pokemon Go."
The next smash-hit product by Apple AAPL , which could push the stock far above its $1 trillion market value, will probably surround augmented reality, former Apple software engineer Ken Kocienda told CNBC on Tuesday.
"You can take your phone and you could point its camera at something in the world," said Kocienda, the developer of the on-screen keyboard on the original iPhone and the autocorrect feature.
Then it would "tap into the network the hardware and software and would all collaborate" to give information to users' screens, he added.
Augmented reality, or AR, has become a major focus for technology companies , including Apple and Alphabet GOOGL 's Google, which are racing to release AR tools to attract software developers to their platforms.
AR allows viewers to see information superimposed on their surroundings via their smartphones or other devices. It's the technology used in Nintendo's popular mobile game "Pokemon Go."
According to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Apple AAPL 's move into augmented reality could boost iPhone and App Store sales, resulting in as much as $8 billion in revenue for the tech giant.
Kocienda, who spent 15 years at Apple, including a stint as the principal software engineer for the iPhone, said on " Squawk Box " there's a sort of "ebb and flow" to progressions in technology and the paradigm shifts often take a while.
Despite the time it takes for innovations, Kocienda said, Apple still has the ability command prices for its products that other companies cannot.
He mentioned the success of the Apple Watch, which was introduced in 2015 and carries a price tag of around $300 to $400 for its most recent model.
Story continues
Last quarter, Apple AAPL reported $3.74 billion in revenue from its " other products " division, which includes sales of Apple Watches, iPods and home products.
Last week, Apple announced it will reveal its latest lineup of products on Sept. 12, which will likely include a new line of iPhones and a new Apple Watch .
Kocienda joined CNBC following the release of his book "Creative Selection," which offers a behind-the-scenes look of Apple's creative process during the Steve Jobs era.
WATCH: CNBC puts the first-generation iPhone to the test
More From CNBC
Franco-Nevada (FNV) will benefit from a strong Oil & Gas segment aided by higher oil prices and acquisitions that will offset the impact of lower production from mining assets, mainly Candelaria.
On Sep 4, we issued an updated research report on Franco-Nevada Corporation FNV. In 2018, the companys performance will be driven by Oil & Gas portfolios performance, aided by acquisitions and higher oil prices. However, Gold Equivalent Ounces (GEO) production will remain affected in the year owing to the processing of lower grade materials at Candelaria mine.
Q2 Earnings Improve Despite Lower Revenues
Franco-Nevada reported net earnings of 29 cents per share for second-quarter 2018, up from 25 cents recorded a year ago. The company sold 107,333 GEOs in the reported quarter, down 12% from the prior-year quarter. The company recorded revenues of $161 million in the second quarter, declining 1% from the year-ago quarter. In the reported quarter, 84.5% of the revenues were sourced from precious metals (67.3% gold, 11.2% silver and 6% platinum group metals) compared with 91.9% in the prior-year quarter.
Lower Grade Production at Candelaria a Near-Term Concern
In the first half of 2018, 223,004 GEOs were sold, which was 12% lower year over year. Revenues earned from precious metals assets decreased year over year owing to lower average gold price and lower gold equivalent ounces. This can primarily be attributed to processing lower grade at Candelaria.
In November 2017, Lundin Mining Corp. LUNMF announced an updated mine plan in part to address localized pit wall instability. While decreased grades were expected in 2018, the impact on gold and silver production was greater than anticipated. Consequently, Franco-Nevada revised its GEO production to 440,000-470,000 GEOs from its mining assets in 2018 from the original 2018 mining asset guidance of 460,000-490,000 GEOs. Even though production is expected to recover in 2019, the processing of lower grade material at Candelaria is anticipated to continue for the remainder of 2018. The lower guidance is disappointing as the companys top-line will not benefit from rising metal prices.
Story continues
Higher Oil Prices to Support Oil & Gas Portfolio
The second quarter was robust for Oil & Gas with revenues surging 137% on stronger oil prices and increased production from the newly added U.S. assets. The company is beginning to realize the embedded growth of these U.S. assets. Backed by better-than-expected contribution from its previously acquired U.S. assets and stronger oil prices, Franco-Nevada now projects generating $65-$75 million in revenues from oil & gas for 2018, higher than the previous expectation of revenues of $50-$60 million.
Cobre Panama: A Catalyst Despite Near Term Uncertainty
For the Cobre Panama project, the company funded a total of $264.4 million in 2017. The company has so far invested $886 million of its $1 billion commitment. The company expects to fund the balance by 2018-end. As of the second-quarter end, the project is 76% complete and phased commissioning of the project is scheduled to commence in 2018 while ramp-up is slated for 2019. Cobre Panama is anticipated to contribute 25% of the companys NAV and is a key growth opportunity for the company.
Until actual gold and silver starts coming in, it is not clear how well the mine will produce. Considering the considerable investment in the project, uncertainty remains.
Strategic Relationship with Continental Resources a Game Changer
In August 2018, Franco-Nevada announced that it has entered into a strategic relationship with Continental Resources, Inc. to acquire Oil & Gas mineral rights in the SCOOP and STACK plays of Oklahoma two of the most economic and attractive plays in North America. Franco-Nevada will make an upfront payment of $220 million for the acquisition of existing mineral rights owned by a subsidiary of Continental. It has also committed, subject to satisfaction of agreed upon development thresholds, to spend up to $100 million per year over the next three years to acquire additional mineral rights through a newly-formed company.
This represents a new business development opportunity for Franco-Nevada. It gets an acquisition vehicle, which provides the ability to acquire assets at the grassroots level or directly from individual owners. This is a segment of the market previously inaccessible to Franco-Nevada due to a lack of staff or resources to carry out these smaller-scale acquisitions. More importantly, Franco-Nevada benefits from the operator's drill plans, along with their knowledge of local land title and geology.
Poised Well for the Long Term
Franco-Nevada strives to generate 80% of revenues from precious metals over long-term horizon which includes gold, silver and PGM. With around 86% of revenues earned from precious metals in the first half of 2018, the company has the flexibility to consider diversification opportunities outside of the precious metals space and increase exposure to other commodities while maintaining its long-term target.
Further, Franco-Nevada appears to be on a promising long-term trajectory thanks to a healthy portfolio of streaming and royalty agreements put in place years ago. With more mines coming online in the next several years, it will benefit from higher levels of precious metals sales as well as higher prices. Furthermore, Franco-Nevadas balance sheet remains debt free.
Shares of the company have declined 25% over the past year compared with the industrys slump of 30%.
Franco-Nevada currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Stocks to Consider
Some better-ranked stocks in the same sector include KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation KS and Ingevity Corporation NGVT. Both the stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
KapStone Paper has a long-term earnings growth rate of 10%. The stock has rallied 19% in a years time.
Ingevity has a long-term earnings growth rate of 10%. The stock has appreciated 61% in a years time.
Looking for Stocks with Skyrocketing Upside?
Zacks has just released a Special Report on the booming investment opportunities of legal marijuana.
Ignited by new referendums and legislation, this industry is expected to blast from an already robust $6.7 billion to $20.2 billion in 2021. Early investors stand to make a killing, but you have to be ready to act and know just where to look.
See the pot trades we're targeting>>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Ingevity Corporation (NGVT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Franco-Nevada Corporation (FNV) : Free Stock Analysis Report
KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation (KS) : Free Stock Analysis Report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Zacks Investment Research
* About a quarter of Frankfurt-registered cars affected
* Merkel under pressure to order automakers to retrofit cars
* Retrofits could cost industry billions of euros (Adds details, regional government comment)
By Ilona Wissenbach
WIESBADEN, Germany, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Frankfurt, Germany's financial centre, must ban highly-polluting, older diesel vehicles from the city centre from next February as part of a plan to improve air quality, the country's administrative court ruled on Wednesday.
The decision by the court in Wiesbaden on a case brought by environmental group Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) came after a landmark ruling by Germany' top administrative court in February opened the door to inner-city bans.
The ban would affect about a quarter of cars registered in Frankfurt and numerous commuters who live around the city.
DUH leader Juergen Resch said the decision would help accelerate the shift to electric cars and called on Chancellor Angela Merkel to force carmakers to pay to retrofit diesel vehicles with exhaust-cleaning systems to avoid a ban.
The regional government of Hessen also called for a speedy reaction from Berlin on retrofits, which the car industry has lobbied against because it could cost billions of euros.
"We want a fundamental solution to this problem, rather than driving bans," state premier Volker Bouffier and Environment Minister Priska Hinz said in a joint statement.
Merkel has said she will do everything possible to avoid driving bans but disagreements over how to tackle the problem of diesel cars with high nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions have strained her coalition with the Social Democrats.
The ruling comes a day after Mercedes-Benz unveiled its much-anticipated electric SUV, marking the start of a German onslaught against Tesla's dominance of the fast-growing market for premium battery cars.
The court ruled that Frankfurt must ban from next February diesel cars that meet Euro-4 and older emission standards, and petrol cars that meet Euro-1 and 2 standards, while Euro-5 diesels must be banned from next September.
Story continues
"The driving ban is necessary because all other measures considered by the state will not lead to a significant reduction of nitrogen dioxide emissions in an appropriate time," said presiding judge Rolf Hartmann.
The court also ordered other measures to cut pollution in Frankfurt such as more electric buses, higher parking fees and more park-and-ride places on the outskirts of the city.
DUH has argued that banning diesels is the only way for Frankfurt to meet European Union clean air rules which stipulate that nitrogen dioxide pollution should not exceed 40 micrograms per cubic meter of air on average.
"We need to understand that this is about a threat to our health," Hartmann said in his opening remarks, adding that this was not merely a niche matter for environmentalists.
Pollution levels have regularly exceeded the limit since 2010, the court heard.
The city of Hamburg this year voluntarily blocked diesel models that fail to meet the latest Euro-6 emissions standards from using selected trunk roads. Other cities including Aachen, Duesseldorf and Stuttgart, home to Daimler and Porsche, are also considering bans.
The threat of bans on diesel vehicles has already led to higher sales of petrol engine cars in Germany, which are less fuel efficient and cause more carbon dioxide pollution.
This in turn makes it harder for carmakers to cut emissions of greenhouse gases, increasing pressure on them to push electric or hybrid vehicles. (Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach; Writing by Edward Taylor and Emma Thomasson; Editing by Andrew Roche and Mark Potter)
Social attitudes to abortion are very conservative in fiercely religious Guatemala Social attitudes to abortion are very conservative in fiercely religious Guatemala (AFP Photo/Johan ORDONEZ)
Guatemala City (AFP) - Women's rights activists were forced into a hasty retreat Tuesday in the face of fierce church-led opposition to proposed legislation to loosen strict abortion laws.
Sponsors of the bill aimed at protecting underage victims of sexual abuse opted to remove a controversial clause that would decriminalize abortion for girls aged 14 or under who have been abused.
The influential Catholic and Evangelical churches organized a massive rally on Sunday to protest against the bill and in support of "life and the family."
"Taking into account the different positions, we prefer prioritizing" caring for the girls, Women Transforming the World activist Paula Barrios told AFP. "We're not ready to talk about" abortion in Guatemala, she added.
After a bill decriminalizing abortion made it through Argentina's lower house before being defeated in the upper house last month, the subject has become a hot topic in Latin America.
Other countries are either debating or mulling proposed changes to their usually strict abortion laws, such as Chile, which is considering universally allowing abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, or Brazil, which is weighing legalization in the first 12 weeks.
- Abortion totally banned -
But Central America is generally the most conservative in the region when it comes to terminating pregnancies. Abortion is totally banned in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.
In Guatemala, it is authorized only when there is a threat to the mother's life.
On Sunday, 20,000 protesters, backed by the Catholic and Evangelical churches, took to the streets to oppose the bill sponsored by the leftist Convergencia opposition party.
The bill "was never an abortion law, it was always a law about caring for girls," said Convergencia deputy Sandra Moran.
It aims to provide social and educational support for girls who become pregnant because in Guatemala they are expelled from school for doing so.
Story continues
Without the abortion clause, it is likely to be adopted by parliament.
However, a second bill proposed by right-wing opposition senator, Fernando Linares, aiming to increase punishments for abortion, will be debated by congress.
His "Life and Family Protection" bill proposes an increase in the punishment for intentional abortion from one to three years to five to 10 years.
Most controversially, though, it proposes sentences of two to four years for attempted and "negligent" abortion.
The measure has been widely denounced by feminist groups fearful it would criminalize miscarriages.
"It's a setback to the rights women have won," said Ada Valenzuela from the National Union of Guatemalan Women.
Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), says Linares's "bill could lead to absurd and discriminatory outcomes."
"A woman recovering from a miscarriage could find herself interrogated by law enforcement about the loss of her pregnancy," he added.
An HRW article on the subject last week quoted a study that claims that up to 30 percent of pregnancies end in early-term miscarriages, while at least 10 percent of clinically recognized pregnancies end in spontaneous abortion (miscarriage).
- 'Second-class citizens' -
Women are not alone in worrying about the consequences of the Linares bill, which also aims to change laws relating to the LGBT community.
It expressly prohibits same-sex marriage and defines family as being limited to a father, mother and children.
The bill also defines marriage as between people who are men and women by birth, potentially discriminating against the transgender community.
"If Congress passes this bill, it will send the message that women and LGBT people are second-class citizens in Guatemala," said Vivanco.
"The proposal lacks basic common sense and humanity and could even turn women and girls who miscarry into criminals."
DNA from shark tooth in boys leg used to ID species in New York bite incident
A small tooth fragment plucked from a 13-year-old boys leg after he was bitten by a shark off the coast of New York gave scientists the chance to test a new tactic: using DNA evidence to identify the species involved.
University of Florida researchers extracted a DNA sample from the tooth and compared it against a genetic dataset of common shark species to determine that a sand tiger shark was responsible for the bite.
This is the first time that a shark involved in a bite has been successfully identified using DNA, said Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Were as close to 100 percent sure as we can get that this shark was a sand tiger, he said.
The bite was one of a pair of unusual attacks that occurred just minutes and miles apart at Fire Island National Seashore in mid-July. A 12-year-old girl who was also bitten reported seeing a 3- to 4-foot orange-brown animal with a dorsal fin.
Naylor believes both bites were caused by juvenile sand tiger sharks following schools of bait fish inshore.
Reuters reported that the victims received emergency medical treatment for puncture wounds in their right legs, and both were expected to fully recover.
Naylor said sand tiger bites are uncommon, and no reported sand tiger bites have proven fatal.
If they really wanted to nobble you, they could, Naylor said. Sand tigers can weigh 500 pounds and have very sharp teeth. They have the potential to do real damage to humans but dont, which underscores the fact that these bites are accidental. Sharks are not hunting humans.
Shark attacks in New York are rare, but as large schools of bait fish head inshore, predators often follow, increasing the chance that they may bump into people swimming and playing in the water.
Naylor said that in the conditions at Fire Island turbulent surf, high light, schooling bait fish the sharks could easily have mistaken a solid object in the water, such as a human leg, for the fish they were pursuing. Unlike many shark species, sand tigers will feed during the day, he said, but they do not typically hunt when the surf is up, making the Fire Island bites exceptional.
Perhaps incorrectly, Im putting these in the bin of naive young sharks, he said. Im sure the children who were bitten were petrified, but the sharks probably were, too.
According to the International Shark Attack File based at the Florida Museum, the last reported sand tiger bites near New York occurred in 1988 and 1974. The most recent attacks in the area involved unidentified species in 2017 and 2015.
About 70 percent of shark bites are caused by unidentified species, Naylor said. Great whites, tiger sharks and bull sharks are often blamed for attacks because of their large size and the fact that they are responsible for the majority of identifiable bites, but maybe there are other species that are hard to identify or are not so conspicuous, he said. They could be hiding under the radar.
Using DNA evidence could help pin some species names on these anonymous bites.
People have talked about getting DNA out of teeth left behind in a bite, and we thought wed go ahead and do it, he said. We didnt know if it would work, but it did.
Lindsay French, program manager for the FPSR, arranged for the tooth fragment to be sent down from New York. Postdoctoral researchers Lei Yang and Shannon Corrigan cleaned it of any possible contamination and swabbed for DNA inside the pulp cavity. After extracting the DNA and removing unwanted cellular debris, they broke the purified DNA into small pieces and put molecular bookends on either side of each piece of the fragmented DNA, creating a genomic library. The team could then select any particular page or set of pages from the library using a process called target capture.
We chose to target a set of genes that we routinely use to identify different species of sharks, Naylor said. We determined their sequences and lined them up against a reference dataset that we maintain and found the sequences to have nearly a 100 percent match to sand tiger DNA.
He said the FPSR is well equipped for this kind of genetic sleuthing, and the team would gladly analyze other DNA samples from bites.
In the meantime, beachgoers should exercise caution, not fear, when enjoying the water, Naylor said.
It behooves us to be informed and understand these animals and take the appropriate precautions, he said. If bait fish are near shore, dont go in. If people are fishing nearby or visibility is low, dont go in. We share the ocean. I think its a good sign that theres a lot of life in it.
The research team published its findings in Nature Correspondence.
By Michael Erman
NEW YORK, Sept 4 (Reuters) - U.S. drug prices fell again in the second quarter, likely due to a new tactic insurers are using to limit financial assistance drugmakers provide directly to consumers, according to research firm Sector and Sovereign Research (SSR).
Real U.S. drug prices, including discounts and rebates drugmakers provide to insurers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), fell 5.8 percent in the quarter, compared with a 0.7 percent increase a year earlier, SSR analyst Richard Evans said in a research note on Tuesday. That is in line with how far prices fell in the first quarter, he said.
Lower "real" drug prices means drugmakers are receiving less revenue on sales, but does not necessarily translate into savings for patients as employers and payers are more likely to reap the benefit.
Evans believes "copay accumulator" programs, which effectively force drug companies to continue to assist patients with their copays, were to blame for the declining real drug prices.
"Unless manufacturers adapt their copay support programs fairly drastically, net price declines may worsen in 2019," Evans said.
Gilead Sciences Inc, Eli Lilly and Co, Novo Nordisk and GlaxoSmithKline Plc made the largest contribution to the real drug price decline in the quarter, according to the report.
"We continue to assess the impact of accumulators being offered in the health insurance market," GSK spokeswoman Ashley Mahoney said in an email, adding that the British drugmaker has faced pricing pressure in the U.S. market, particularly for its respiratory therapies.
In recent years, insurers have tried to guide patients toward less expensive treatments by making them pay a higher portion of a drug's costs. Drugmakers responded by raising the financial aid they offer in the form of "copay assistance" cards - similar to a debit card - that reduce consumer costs at the pharmacy.
PBMs, which manage prescription drug coverage for large U.S. employers, say these payments shield consumers from drug costs, making it easier for manufacturers to raise prices. Insurers have to make up the difference.
Story continues
Many PBMs introduced the copay accumulator approach for their corporate customers this year. The programs prevent copay card funds from counting toward a patient's required out-of-pocket spending before insurance kicks in on expensive specialty drugs.
Major pharmaceutical companies are trying to limit the damage from the tactic.
Evans said he believes more employers will add the programs next year. A recent survey of large corporate employers by the National Business Group on Health showed that around 25 percent of respondents already had copay accumulator programs in place, and another 3 percent will be adding them next year. An additional 21 percent is considering the programs for 2020 or 2021, the survey found.
Representatives for Gilead, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk could not be immediately reached for comment. (Reporting by Michael Erman and Caroline Humer; editing by Bill Berkrot)
A sign of China's e-commerce company JD.com is seen at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) Asia 2016 in Shanghai, China, May 12, 2016. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo
By Arjun Panchadar and Adam Jourdan
SHANGHAI/BENGALURU (Reuters) - Chinese retailer JD.com Inc's stock fell as much as 7 percent on Tuesday, hitting an 18-month low after the company's chief executive officer was arrested in the United States on suspicion of criminal sexual conduct and later released.
Richard Liu, who founded the firm in 1998, was arrested by police in the U.S. city of Minneapolis on Friday and released the next day before returning to China.
Minneapolis police said on Sunday that "an active investigation" was under way. A Minnesota-based lawyer for Liu said on Monday the Chinese magnate has denied any wrongdoing and that he did not expect his client to be charged.
The stock's decline underscores the uncertainty hanging over the fate of Liu, who holds a tight grip over decision making at China's second largest e-commerce firm.
JD.com's rules require Liu, who holds nearly 80 percent of the company's voting rights, to be present at board meetings for the board to make decisions, although it was not immediately clear if he has to be physically present or could participate by teleconference.
The company, backed by Walmart Inc, Alphabet Inc's Google and China's Tencent Holdings, is looking to bolster its international reach even as it faces stiff competition from rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd at home.
"The incident looks awful of course," analyst Rob Sanderson of MKM Partners said.
"If this spirals as a media focus, negative attention could offset some of the positives associated with endorsement by Walmart and Google," Sanderson said.
Story continues
"Negative publicity could also compromise JD.com's ability to attract international brands to its marketplace, which has been a top focus of the CEO over the past two years or so," Sanderson noted.
However, Sanderson said the risk of any disruption to the business on an incarceration seemed quite low, noting that authorities released Liu without bail and allowed him to return to China.
"This does, however, cast another shadow on credibility and ethics, especially after the 2015 incident in Australia," Sanderson said.
In July https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jd-com-ceo-profile/richard-liu-high-flying-ceo-of-jdcom-has-fostered-clean-reputation-idUSKCN1LJ0YJ, Liu lost a court battle in Australia to keep his name out of a sexual assault trial in which a guest at a party Liu had hosted at his luxury Sydney home in late 2015 accused another guest of sexually assaulting her at a hotel.
Liu was not accused of wrongdoing, according to a court document. The defendant was found guilty of seven offences.
JD.com's shares were currently trading down 5.5 percent at $29.58.
(Reporting by Adam Jourdan and Arjun Panchadar; editing by Patrick Graham, Bernard Orr)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Latest on executives from social media companies and their appearances before Congress (all times local):
3:30 p.m.
Lawmakers are sparring over whether a now-reversed change to auto-suggestions on Twitter unfairly hurt Democrats or Republicans more.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey isn't saying which, but says he'll follow up.
The storm over "shadow banning " of Republicans on Twitter broke out in July after Vice News reported that some politicians didn't show up in a drop-down menu of automatically suggested searches, even when typing in the politicians' names.
Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle says at a House hearing that those claims have no merit.
Dorsey had explained the hidden drop-down searches affected 600,000 accounts based on the activity of those accounts followers. Twitter fixed the issue in late July.
Under further questioning by Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton, Dorsey said he agreed the impact along partisan lines "was not impartial."
___
3:20 p.m.
A House hearing about social media censorship was briefly interrupted as a protester stood up and yelled at Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. A Republican congressman drowned her out using his auctioneering skills.
A woman stood up and started loudly yelling at Dorsey, complaining about bias and publicly pleading President Donald Trump to help.
As staff appeared to look for security to drag her out, Missouri Rep. Billy Long started speaking in the rapid pace of an auctioneer, pretending to auction something off.
Long, who owned an auctioneering company, finished to applause from his colleagues just as security reached the woman and took her out of the room.
The GOP-led House Energy and Commerce Committee is examining whether Twitter has censored conservatives.
___
2:50 p.m.
Story continues
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says Twitter "can't place the burden" on victims when it comes to reporting abuse on the service.
He says Twitter is committed to developing automated tools that would go all the way to deleting content even without an actual person making a complaint which is the only way it takes down content now.
Facebook already removes some objectionable content before people report it. But Twitter is behind in this regard.
Using artificial intelligence in this way is still difficult and in the early stages. It works well for some things for example images of child porn or beheadings. But when it comes to understanding the subtleties of language and when it's hate speech or abuse, machines still have a lot to learn.
Dorsey is appearing before a House committee.
___
2:40 p.m.
A congressional hearing on Twitter's "transparency and accountability" is kicking off with partisan rancor.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing was prompted by claims of censorship and suppression from conservatives.
The chairman, GOP Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, is citing recent complaints that Twitter had limited the visibility of prominent Republicans when searched on Twitter.
But the committee's top Democrat, Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, says the hearing appears to be "just one more mechanism" for Republicans to "raise money and generate outrage."
Pallone says claims of conservative suppression are "conspiracy theories" and he criticizing President Donald Trump for using Twitter to "bully and belittle people."
Pallone also is chiding Twitter for not doing enough to prevent the spread of propaganda and false information and for "chasing the latest headline" when it comes to enforcing rules.
___
1:10 p.m.
The Justice Department says it's convening a meeting later this month to discuss concerns that social media companies may be hurting competition and "intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms."
The statement comes as Facebook and Twitter executives appeared at congressional hearings Wednesday. Both companies pledged to better protect their social media platforms in the 2018 elections and beyond.
Justice Department spokesman Devin O'Malley says Attorney General Jeff Session will meet with a number of state attorneys general later this month to discuss the department's concerns.
Some Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have pushed the idea that Twitter is "shadow banning" some in the GOP because of the ways search results have appeared. Twitter denies that's happening.
___
11:10 a.m.
Google has skipped a Senate intelligence hearing on social media companies, and a lawmaker says it's "maybe because they're arrogant."
Sen. Marco Rubio is also citing questions raised in a new report by a watchdog group that had success buying ads while posing as Russia's Internet Research Agency. That's the propaganda machine accused of interfering in the 2016 U.S. election.
The watchdog group used the Russia's agency tax ID, bought ads in rubles and pointed to IRA-affiliated websites, and the report said Google approved the ads as soon as within 24 hours.
Rubio says he's sure that Google executives "don't want to be here to answer these questions."
Google offered to send its chief legal officer, but the committee issued specific invitations to Larry Page, CEO of Google parent Alphabet, and to Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
___
10:45 a.m.
Facebook and Twitter executives say they agree with Congress that strengthening privacy protections for their users is a "national security priority."
Critics have charged that the companies' business models, which are built on offering a free service and making money from advertising targeted using personal data, can conflict with efforts to oppose those who would abuse their systems.
The Senate intelligence committee is holding a hearing on social media and elections.
Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden says personal data is now the "weapon of choice" of political influence campaigns.
___
10:40 a.m.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has told Congress that Twitter has created better tools and stronger policies for combating election interference. He says Twitter has learned from the 2016 elections and from other elections around the world.
But he also tells the Senate intelligence committee that "we all have to think a lot bigger, and decades past today."
The committee is holding a hearing on social media and elections.
___
10:35 a.m.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has made a surprise appearance outside the Senate intelligence committee's hearing with Facebook and Twitter executives, and he tells reporters that he's there to "face my accusers."
The Infowars host was temporarily suspended from Twitter and Facebook last month. He says the "real election meddling" is the silencing of conservatives on social media.
The companies deny that's happening.
___
10:05 a.m.
Facebook's No. 2 executive has told a Senate committee that Facebook has made progress in addressing the issue of meddling by foreign interests in U.S. elections. But Sheryl Sandberg also says security efforts to combat such threats are never finished.
She tells the Senate intelligence committee that Facebook is "more determined" than adversaries seeking to interfere in American democracy. Sandberg says Facebook is working with outside experts, law enforcement and government, and she acknowledges that Facebook doesn't always have the expertise to determine the source of such threats.
Sandberg says "we are more determined than our opponents and we will keep fighting." She calls the fight an "arms race," as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has in the past.
___
9:58 a.m.
The Senate intelligence committee is holding a hearing on what it calls social media "influence operations" as the November elections near.
And while executives from Facebook and Twitter are testifying, there's an empty chair in place for Google's parent Alphabet, which has refused to send its top executive.
And committee leaders aren't happy about that.
The committee chairman Sen. Richard Burr is praising the companies for what they've done so far. But the North Carolina Republican says threats from countries beyond Russia aren't going away.
He notes that an outside security company had a large role in identifying the most recent threat the companies have disclosed. This was an attempt by Iran to meddle with politics using social media.
___
12:15 a.m.
Representatives from two leading social media companies are defending their efforts to crack down on foreign attempts at online meddling during this U.S. election year.
Twitter's CEO and Facebook's No. 2 executive are appearing before the Senate's intelligence committee to discuss foreign interference.
Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg says in prepared remarks that Facebook is addressing the problem but remains slow in spotting it. Sandberg says Facebook's overall understanding of Russian activity in 2016 is limited because it doesn't have access to the U.S. government's information or investigative tools.
In a separate hearing before a House committee, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is expected to hear from Republicans who claim Twitter shows evidence of bias against conservatives. Dorsey says in his prepared remarks that Twitter doesn't use political ideology to make decisions.
Ryanair Holdings plc RYAAY posted impressive August traffic numbers despite numerous flight cancellations due to ATC staff shortages and labor-unrest. Traffic in the month (including that from its LaudaMotion unit), rose 9% year over year to 13.8 million, while load factor remained fixed at 97% primarily owing to cheap air fares. The companys Laudamotion unit in Austria recorded a traffic of 0.5 million customers. However, excluding traffic from LaudaMotion unit, the European low-cost carriers passenger growth was only 5% in the month.
The carrier faced a major strike on Aug 10, when pilots across five of its European destinations walked out on failure to come to conclusive agreements with the unions. The labor-conflict coupled with ATC staff shortages in the UK, Germany and France caused approximately 550 flight cancellations in August, thereby affecting more than 100,000 passengers. In August 2017, there were only 27 flight cancellations.
To put an end to the labor-related issues, the carrier recently reached an agreement with the pilots' union (Forsa), representing the Irish pilots. In another development, the low-cost carrier inked a deal with its Italian pilots. Final ratification of the deals is pending.
The deals on materialization are anticipated to provide Ryanair a much-needed respite from long-standing labor-disputes, which significantly hampered operations.
Ryanair Holdings PLC Price
Ryanair Holdings PLC Price | Ryanair Holdings PLC Quote
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
Ryanair has a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).
Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Transportation sector include SkyWest, Inc SKYW, C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. CHRW and Trinity Industries, Inc. TRN. While, C.H. Robinson holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), SkyWest and Trinity sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Shares of SkyWest, C.H. Robinson and Trinity have rallied more than 80%, 32% and 24%, respectively, in a year.
Looking for Stocks with Skyrocketing Upside?
Zacks has just released a Special Report on the booming investment opportunities of legal marijuana.
Ignited by new referendums and legislation, this industry is expected to blast from an already robust $6.7 billion to $20.2 billion in 2021. Early investors stand to make a killing, but you have to be ready to act and know just where to look.
See the pot trades we're targeting>>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
SkyWest, Inc. (SKYW) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Ryanair Holdings PLC (RYAAY) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Trinity Industries, Inc. (TRN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (CHRW) : Free Stock Analysis Report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Zacks Investment Research
BUENOS AIRES, Sept 5 (Reuters) - A consortium that includes Italian builder Salini Impregilo SpA, Spain's FCC Construccion and AECOM won a contract for expanding the airport in Lima, Peru, the airport's operator, Lima Airport Partners (LAP), said on Wednesday.
The project is estimated to cost more than $1.5 billion, LAP added in an email.
The planned expansion will add a second runway and passenger terminal at the Jorge Chavez International airport in the Peruvian capital Lima, and will eventually be able to serve 30 million passengers a year, Salini said in a statement.
The tender for the project had faced delays due to disputes over the government's acquisition of land needed for the expansion. LAP said the delays cost $70 million.
Salini and LAP did not immediately respond to requests for comment about which company holds the controlling stake in the consortium. (Reporting By Mitra Taj; editing by Diane Craft)
FINEST KIND CLINIC AND FISHMARKET.... Discussing medicine, culture, and the joys of cooking Pansit.
An attack that killed one American soldier in eastern Afghanistan this week was carried out by a member of the Afghan national police, a U.S. official says.
A spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Lieutenant Colonel Martin O'Donnell, said on September 4 that the shooter fled scene after the attack but was later apprehended by Afghans.
When the NATO-led Resolute Support mission announced the September 3 attack, it said that a U.S. service member was killed in an apparent insider attack.
It also said that the soldier who died was the sixth American to be killed in the country this year.
The soldiers's name has not yet been made public.
O'Donnell said the wounds sustained by another U.S. service member in the attack were not life threatening.
Insider attacks, in which members of Afghan security forces or assailants dressed in Afghan uniforms fire on coalition troops, have become less common in recent years but remain a persistent worry.
The September 4 attack came nearly two months after a member of a U.S. Army training unit was shot dead by an Afghan soldier in the southern province of Oruzgan.
Two other U.S. soldiers were wounded in that attack.
Around 14,000 U.S. troops are currently stationed in Afghanistan, where the Western-backed government in Kabul has been struggling to fend off the Taliban and other militant groups.
Separately, NATO military headquarters in Kabul announced that a U.S. service member died in a "noncombat-related incident" in eastern Afghanistan on September 4.
A statement said the incident was under investigation.
It did not give the identity of the soldier.
With reporting by AP and Reuters
Mark Hough had barely taken a sip of his Friday afternoon margarita when he heard twigs snapping and leaves rustling in his lush Altadena, Cal
If you love desserts, youre going to fall for the Decadent Dessert Bar at 13375 Voyager Parkway.
Britni Nail, and her mother, Jenny Kottmeyer, decided to open the store when they moved from Castle Rock to Monument.
There was a Small Cakes cupcake store in Castle Rock that we loved, Nail said. There wasnt anything like that in Monument.
After some research, they discovered they could get a franchise for a Decadent Dessert Bar.
We are the third franchise to open, she said. When I saw one of the other stores in Overland, Kan.,, I knew this would be just the perfect fit for us.
Nail and her mom have hired three pastry chefs at their Colorado Springs shop to whip up everything you can think of that contains sugar: pies, cakes, gelato, cupcakes and cookies, to name a few. Espresso coffees are on the menu too. A wine and beer license is on its way. Hours are 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. Details: 800-2233, decadentco.com.
Wine experience
The French Kitchen Culinary Center, 4771 N. Academy Blvd., has added Kristal Alfonso, a certified sommelier with the International Sommelier Guild, to the staff. At a recent Italian wine class, she walked us through seven wines while we sampled small bites in an hour. Not such an easy task, but one she accomplished in a timely way with a cooking demonstration to boot. Her wine knowledge is extensive. Visit tfkcc.com.
KRDO Table Talk
Guests on the KRDO Table Talk radio show on 105.5 FM, 1240 AM and 92.5 FM at 1 p.m. Saturday:
Kelly Bubach, owner of Urban Steam, 1025 S. Sierra Madre St., is joined by Christi Nickey, chef at the eatery, to talk about new menu items at the craft coffee house, full table service and some renovations. Details: 473-7832, urbansteam.com.
Wendy Wilkinson, owner of Wilkinson Brown agency, is joined by Sharon Palmer, co-owner of Swirl, 717 Manitou Ave., Manitou Springs, to talk about Fall Wine Walk in Manitou Springs, 5 to 9 p.m. Sept. 20. Cost is $50 for nine short pours, light bites and some wine education at three destinations. Visit tinyurl.com/y94t7n3w for tickets.
Jay Gust, president and chef at Ascent Restaurant Group, talks about his restaurants: Tapateria, Pizzeria Rustica and Smrbrd. He will tell about the diverse menus offered at each place, wine and beer dinners and how his culinary career has progressed. A Goat Patch Brewing Co. beer-pairing dinner will be at Smrbrd, 2727 N. Cascade Ave., at 6 p.m. Sept. 20. For $45, enjoy a six-course dinner. Details: 634-2727, smorbrod.com.
Britni Nail, who with her mother, Jenny Kottmeyer, owns Decadent Dessert Bar, 13375 Voyager Parkway, talks about the chic new spot, which offers something sweet for every age.
Contact the writer: 636-0271.
Colorado Springs-area homebuilding fell last month for the first time in a little more than a year, but remains ahead of last years pace and still appears on track to reach a 13-year high, one industry expert said.
Permits issued by the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department for the construction of single-family homes totaled 298 in August, a 10.2 percent drop from the same month last year, a Regional Building report shows. It was the first year-over-year decline in single-family permits since June 2017.
Even so, the drop likely is a one-month downturn in an otherwise strong year in which building permits should top 4,000, said Mike DeGrant, board president of the Housing & Building Association of Colorado Springs and a vice president with Springs developer Schuck Communities.
Through the first eight months of 2018, single-family permits totaled 2,798, a 17.4 percent increase over the same period last year. If permits exceed 4,000 for the year, it would be the highest total since a record 5,314 were issued in 2005.
I think thats a minor blip on the radar, DeGrant said of the August building permit total. With school starting, we always know that August is a slower month than normal. So I think well pick up again throughout the rest of the year.
At the same time, some builders have said they havent been able to construct as many homes as theyd like because of a shortage of home sites and qualified labor.
The market is still there, DeGrant said. If we could continue on with lot development and (regulatory) approvals and availability, I dont think we would have seen that blip at all.
Regional Buildings report tracks permits for single-family homes being constructed in El Paso County, which includes Colorado Springs, municipalities such as Fountain and Monument and unincorporated areas.
Building industry officials and economists have credited a stronger local economy, more jobs, improved consumer confidence and historically low mortgage rates for the surge in home construction. A shortage of available homes on the resale side of Colorado Springs housing market also has prompted some buyers to purchase new homes, industry officials have said.
The homebuilding industry is a key part of the economy in the Pikes Peak region, and the pace of local home construction is watched closely by area economists, business people and government officials.
Thousands of people work in the homebuilding industry, including carpenters, framers, drywallers, electricians and plumbers. Sales taxes collected on the purchase of building materials, meanwhile, pump millions of dollars into local government coffers and help fund roads, parks and other basic services.
A former parent-teacher association president and treasurer accused of embezzling nearly $25,500 from Odyssey Elementary School accounts will face a jury trial in November, according to court documents.
Police arrested Michelle Dawson Owens, 44, in April on suspicion of stealing from two parent-teacher group accounts that benefited Odyssey Elementary in School District 49.
Her trial is scheduled for Nov. 14 in 4th Judicial District Court in Colorado Springs.
Owens pleaded not guilty at a July hearing to the charge of Class 4 felony theft.
In addition to having key roles with the PTA, Owens worked as a reading interventionist at Odyssey Elementary.
Shes suspected of siphoning money from the accounts over a period of nearly two years, from September 2015 to June 2017.
The money allegedly was stolen from revenue raised from a business the parent-teacher association had contracted with Booster-thon.
Owens told police she used the money for things around the house, as she and her husband keep separate bank accounts and her husband provides her with a periodic amount of money to run the household with.
Suspicion arose when the parent-teacher association bank account went into an overdraft, but the account was supposed to have been closed due to a restructuring of the group, according to the arrest affidavit.
Owens had been writing checks from the defunct account to herself, witnesses told police, above and beyond normal expenditures of the PTA, leading them to conclude she was pilfering funds.
Owens initially told the previous Odyssey parent-teacher association president and the vice president of the El Paso County PTA that it was hard for her to get the records together, and she always seemed to have an excuse for not providing an accounting for the account, the affidavit states.
Owens told police that the PTA records were kept in a box in a storage shed on the school grounds and the records had gotten mixed up with other groups paperwork.
Copies of Owens drivers license gave detectives a handwriting sample, leading them to determine that Owens had deposited some of the checks she had written to herself into her personal bank account.
Odyssey Principal Sarah McAfee said Owens confessed to her deeds in writing in January, according to the affidavit.
Owens told police that the money was deposited directly from the parent-teacher association into her personal bank account, and when the parent-teacher association disbanded and reorganized as a parent-teacher organization, she didnt know how to stop the direct deposit without drawing attention.
The association was an independently operating group, while the organization operated under the authority of the school.
Owens is accused of embezzling $13,945.13 from the parent-teacher association account and $11,512.93 from the parent-teacher organization account.
Class 4 felonies are punishable in Colorado by two to six years of imprisonment and a fine of $2,000 to $500,000.
Odyssey Elementary now has a Community in Action Parent Group, with its finances listed on the school website. The group had about $300 in its account as of its last posting in July.
California zinfandel has long been my favorite red wine. There are many reasons it should be yours, too. It can be made in different styles: f
City Editor
Tom Roeder is the Gazette's City Editor. In Colorado Springs since 2003, Tom has covered the military at home and overseas and has covered statehouses in Denver and Olympia, Wash. His main job, though, is being dad to two great kids.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Great Wall Motor (GWM) revealed the Haval F7 on Aug. 29 at the 2018 Moscow International Auto Show, even two days earlier than the 2018 Chengdu Motor Show. The Haval H6, H9 and HB-03 concept were also showed off at the motor show.
It is said that the Haval H7 will not only be manufactured and sold in China and Russia, but also is expected to export to South America and Europe, helping further expand GWM's overseas footprint.
Wang Shihui, general manager of international department of GWM, stated that Russia is one of GWM's largest overseas markets and also Haval's long-term strategic country. What's more, the Haval brand made its debut at the 2014 Moscow International Auto Show, and entered into the Russian market in 2015.
Currently, deliveries of GWM's Haval brand reached 1,822 units in 2017 in Russia. During the first half of 2018, Haval brand gained a YoY sales growth of 31% to 1,138 units in Russia. It is expected that GWM's sales in Russia will reach 20,000 units by 2020.
Wang Shihui added that GWM's largest overseas investment project, Haval Tula plant, will officially go operation in the first quarter of 2019. He also disclosed that GWM will invest RMB 500 million in the plant, which will achieve an annual production capacity of 150,000 units.
GWM's overseas plant will not only help the automaker cut cost, but also can provide abundant job posts in local city. As the growth of the Chinese vehicle market slows, globalization has become the core strategy of Chinese automakers which include GWM. The launch and local production of the Haval H7 signifies that Haval has entered into a new era of fast expansion in Russia and also symbolizes that GWM made a solid step of globalization.
Two people and a dog were killed when fire destroyed a house in Fremont County early Monday.
The fire was reported at 2:30 a.m. in the 1300 block of 34th Trail in Cotopaxi.
The bodies of two people and a dog were found, the Sheriffs Office reported, but the search was incomplete because the scene is still very hot.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation also is investigating.
Twitter: @lizmforster
Colorado Politics senior political reporter
Joey Bunch is the senior correspondent and deputy managing editor of Colorado Politics. His 32-year career includes the last 16 in Colorado. He was part of the Denver Post team that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013 and he is a two-time finalist.
The Air Force Academy has always had the perfect backdrop for mad scientists. Lasers, wind tunnels and bubbling chemistry labs are all part of the scenery at the academy, nationally renowned for its science and engineering program.
An Uber driver who picked up the suspect in a Colorado Springs police shooting shortly before the attack wants her car back. Carrie Ward said the gray sedan, seized after the Aug. 3 shooting of Officer Cem Duzel, is more than her only means of transportation. Im without a means to support my children, she said after a hearing for Karrar Noaman Al Khammasi, an Iraqi refugee charged with attempted murder.
In this Thursday, April 5, 2018, photo, Colorado State Treasurer Walker Stapleton, left, sits with his wife, Jenna, in court side seats to watch the Denver Nuggets host the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first half of an NBA basketball game in Denver. Walker Stapleton will be seeking the Republican nomination to run for the state's governorship Saturday, April 14 during the Republican State Assembly in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Because exploring space costs money, and providing that money isn't on the government's priority list, NASA is currently exploring the possibility of astronaut endorsements, as well as naming rights to missions and rockets. Obviously, if there's no-- "Geekologie mission to Uranus we've all failed as a people." Dammit, this was supposed to be my inspirational speech.
NASA's new leader is gung-ho on privatizing spaceflight, and that could lead to some new approaches to branding... like it or not. Administrator Jim Bridenstine has unveiled a NASA Advisory Council committee that will explore the feasibility of commercializing the agency's operations in low Earth orbit to lower its costs while its eyes turn toward the Moon and Mars. Some of these plans could include product endorsements from astronauts and even selling the naming rights to rockets and other spacecraft. You could see an astronaut on a box of Wheaties, or a Red Bull mission to the Red Planet.
Committee head Mike Gold indicated that the committee would also consider scrapping "obsolete" regulations to let American astronauts support private activities aboard the International Space Station. Companies shouldn't have to "turn to Russian cosmonauts" for private operations, he said, suggesting that astronauts could even be involved in filming ads.
What a time to be alive. And by alive I mean NASA in desperate need of cash to continue their plans of space exploration. Personally, I think the whole rocket game should just be privatized, if you know what I mean. "You mean letting private companies do it all." Wrong kind of privatized. "You mean using your penis as a reusable rocket." It's cheap and it's fast.
Thanks to Closet Nerd, who informed me he's got $20 on getting a rocket named Geekologie. Heck yeah, we're so close I can almost taste the exhaust plume.
An international panel kicked off a meeting in the southwestern Japan city of Fukuoka on Tuesday, chiefly to discuss whether to increase overall catch quotas for Pacific bluefin tuna as proposed by Japan.
The conference of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission's Northern Committee, tasked with discussing Pacific bluefin tuna resources management, will run through Friday.
In early August, Japan proposed a 15 pct expansion in the quotas on the grounds of a moderate stock recovery, apparently with the aim of easing dissatisfaction among domestic fishermen working to curb catches of the popular fish for sushi.
But an official of Japan's Fisheries Agency said, "Some member countries are cautious about expanding quotas during a recovery in stocks."
In her opening remarks, Kim Jung-re, vice chair of the WCPFC, noted that there were signs of stock recovery as a result of conservation efforts.
PEMBROKE, Bermuda, Sept. 03, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sompo International Holdings Ltd., a Bermuda based specialty provider of property and casualty insurance and reinsurance, announced today the launch of its new subsidiary, SI Insurance (Europe), SA. SI Insurance (Europe) is headquartered in Luxembourg with branches in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. Sompo International will maintain its presence in the Lloyds market, its London-based underwriting platform and its Zurich reinsurance operation.
SI Insurance (Europe) will issue insurance policies and reinsurance treaties for new and renewal business in Continental Europe. European Economic Area policy issuance for multi-national insurance clients will continue to be serviced from London via the UK branch of SI Insurance (Europe).
SI Insurance (Europe) will also provide Sompo International with a foundation for additional strategic growth initiatives across Europe. Earlier this year, the company introduced a European Specialty business to partner with brokers across Continental Europe, initially offering a suite of professional liability and transaction risk insurance products. Sompo International is committed to the European market and will continue to expand its offerings to European clients through SI Insurance (Europe).
Mr. John Charman, Chairman and CEO of Sompo International, commented, We continue to focus on delivering exceptional service to our international clients in areas where we can differentiate Sompo based on our specialty capabilities. It is critical that we have an established local presence in key Continental European markets as we introduce additional underwriting teams and innovative products to this region.
Mr. Graham Evans, CEO of London Market & Europe Insurance for Sompo International, commented, I am delighted to announce this exciting milestone which provides clear and timely definition of our post-Brexit capabilities for clients around the world. Our broker network can rest assured that they will have continued access to our full suite of Sompo International products and capabilities through their chosen channel of distribution.
Mr. Takashi Kurumisawa, CEO of SI Insurance (Europe), added, Our clients and brokers across Continental Europe are reacting very positively to Sompo Internationals commitment to the European market. With SI Insurance (Europe) beginning to operate well ahead of Brexit, we have a long-term solution in place to deliver consistently high quality service and uninterrupted capacity for clients across the European Economic Area.
About Sompo International
Sompo International Holdings Ltd. is a global specialty provider of property and casualty insurance and reinsurance, headquartered in Bermuda. Through its operating subsidiaries, Sompo International writes agriculture, professional lines, property, marine, energy, casualty and other specialty lines of insurance and catastrophe, property, casualty, professional lines, weather risk and specialty lines of reinsurance. Sompo International companies are wholly owned subsidiaries of Sompo Holdings, Inc., whose core business encompasses one of the largest property and casualty insurance groups in the Japanese domestic market. We maintain excellent financial strength as evidenced by the ratings of A+ (Superior) from A.M. Best (XV size category) and A+ (Strong) from Standard and Poors on our principal operating subsidiaries. Sompo Internationals headquarters are located at Waterloo House, 100 Pitts Bay Road, Pembroke HM 08, Bermuda and its mailing address is Sompo International, Suite No. 784, No. 48 Par-la-Ville Road, Hamilton HM 11, Bermuda. For more information about Sompo International, please visit www.sompo-intl.com.
Contact
Investor Relations
Phone: +1 441 278 0988
Email: investorrelations@sompo-intl.com
ACHESON, Alberta, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today SMS Equipment Inc. announced its dealership agreement with Takeuchi Manufacturing , a global leader in compact equipment.
Mike Granger, President and CEO of SMS Equipment says, We are pleased to sell and support Takeuchis line of compact equipment through our branches in Canada and Alaska. Takeuchi provides solutions in the compact market that are highly customizable for construction and utility applications.
Takeuchi, established in 1963, developed the world's first compact excavator and track loader . Continuous product innovations include hybrid technology on specific models including the TB216H mini excavator, which enables indoor use.
Clay Eubanks, President of Takeuchi Manufacturing says, SMS Equipments extensive branch network, focus on customer service and proven track record of growth makes them a natural fit to distribute the Takeuchi line of equipment.
SMS Equipment partners with world-renowned brands providing equipment sales and services to the utility, construction, forestry and mining industries through its network of over 35 branches across Canada, Alaska and Mongolia. SMS Equipment promotes advanced equipment technologies resulting in cleaner, more efficient ways to build communities, create infrastructure and develop resources.
For more information, visit https://www.smsequip.com and https://www.takeuchi-us.com/ .
Media Contact:
Shauna Weisgerber
Communications Specialist, SMS Equipment Inc
Phone: 780 948 2872, sweisgerber@smsequip.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ad8ac842-07e2-457f-89c1-ccea89bddceb
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Auryn Resources Inc. (TSX: AUG, NYSE AMERICAN: AUG, Auryn or the Company) is pleased to provide an update on its Sombrero copper-gold skarn project in southern Peru, where the Company has conducted extensive surface exploration programs over the past three months.
Auryns technical team has defined a significant copper-gold skarn target, beneath volcanic cover, along the contact zone between mineralized intrusives and the Ferrobamba limestone formation. The 3.5-kilometer-long drill target has been defined by copper-gold surface mineralization in trenches and well-developed copper-gold soil anomalies. Strong chargeability anomalies also indicate the potential for sulphide bodies along the contact zone between the Ferrobamba limestone and monzodiorite intrusives (Figure 1). Based on these results, Auryn is now working to obtain a drill permit for Sombreros first drill program, which is expected to start in Q1 of 2019.
A Message from Ivan Bebek, Executive Chairman & Director:
The opportunity for discovery at Sombrero is substantial. It is extremely well-situated with excellent access to infrastructure and all the results to date give us the confidence that major gold-copper skarn and/or porphyry bodies could be present.
The Sombrero concessions are approximately 200km northeast of some of the worlds largest skarn and porphyry deposits. Our program in Q1 of 2019 will be the first drilling this project has ever seen, which will be a very exciting time for Auryn shareholders.
Summary of Technical Results:
Additional trench results from the endo-skarn mineralization have yielded broad zones of copper and gold oxide mineralization in highly weathered intrusive rocks on the periphery of the contact with the Ferrobamba limestone exo-skarn target area (Figure 2) as presented below in Table 1. Detailed mapping of the endo-skarn area where these trenches (and those reported on June 19th, 2018) are located demonstrate that the mineralization is hosted within a deeply weathered setting where extensive leaching of copper mineralization has occurred.
Auryns technical team is anticipating higher copper grades within the primary sulphide mineralization, which could be located subsurface as observed in similar settings within copper skarn and porphyry bodies in Peru.
Table 1: Trench results
Sombrero Trench 2018 Copper & Gold Significant Intercepts* Trench From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Cu (%) Au (g/t) CuEQ (%) AuEQ (g/t) 18SRT-15 14 36 22 0.17 0.63 0.53 0.92 98 106 8 0.15 0.08 0.19 0.34 140 148 8 0.10 0.02 0.12 0.21 180 186 6 0.14 0.40 0.37 0.63 196 246 50 0.27 0.13 0.34 0.59 250 264 14 0.15 0.06 0.18 0.32 18SRT-16 14 78 64 0.22 0.08 0.27 0.46 92 100 8 0.14 0.07 0.18 0.31 111 121 10 0.14 0.76 0.58 1.00 135 139 4 0.14 0.72 0.56 0.96 169 175 6 0.14 0.02 0.15 0.26 181 247 66 0.25 0.06 0.28 0.49 *No less than 5m of >= 0.1 g/t Cu, maximum dilution 5m
Metal price used for Eq calculations: Au $1300/oz and Cu $3.28/lb, no adjustments for metallurgical recoveries have been made.
To further define the geochemical vectors as part of the targeting effort an extensive portable X-Ray fluorescence (pXRF) soil survey (5950 samples) was completed. The geochemistry of the soils has produced clear copper-rich zones in the area of the trenches over an approximate width of one kilometer (Figure 3). The copper values are strongest in the southern area of the intrusive bodies and are associated with elevated bismuth and tellurium encountered in ICP data from trenching and rock samples.
The strengthening of the copper, bismuth and tellurium values in soils and rocks demonstrate a clear vector towards the contact zone with Ferrobamba limestone. Along the northern margin of the Ferrobamba limestone, strong marble development can be observed, coinciding with a strong pXRF lead anomaly. These factors provide further evidence that the contact between the intrusive bodies and the limestone is potentially mineralized (Figures 4 & 5).
In addition to geological and geochemical studies, Auryn completed ground-based induced polarization (IP) and magnetics geophysical surveys. A total of 87 line kilometers were completed in an effort to image potential sulphide bodies under the shallow volcanic cover at the contact zone between the mineralized intrusives and the Ferrobamba limestone. The results illustrate a 3.5-kilometer-long chargeability anomaly that Auryn believes has the potential to host multiple coppergold bearing sulphide bodies (Figure 6). Importantly, the observed strength of the chargeability anomalies is consistent with other sulphide bodies measured in mineralized skarn and porphyry systems in the region.
A Message from Michael Henrichsen, COO & Chief Geologist:
The very clear target zone is extremely well-supported by geological, geochemical and geophysical lines of evidence and gives us a high degree of confidence for drilling significant copper-gold mineralization. The scale of the project and the clear mineral endowment in the region re-emphasizes our impression that Sombrero is the best pre-drilling project many of us have seen in our careers.
Michael Henrichsen, P.Geo, COO of Auryn, is the Qualified Person who assumes responsibility for the technical disclosures in this press release.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF AURYN RESOURCES INC.
Ivan Bebek
Executive Chairman
For further information on Auryn Resources Inc., please contact Natasha Frakes, Manager of Corporate Communications at (778) 729-0600 or info@aurynresources.com.
About Auryn
Auryn Resources is a technically driven junior mining exploration company focused on delivering shareholder value through project acquisition and development. The Companys management team is highly experienced with an impressive track record of success and has assembled an extensive technical team as well as a premier gold exploration portfolio. Auryn is focused on scalable high-grade gold deposits in established mining jurisdictions, which include the Committee Bay and Gibson MacQuoid gold projects located in Nunavut, the Homestake Ridge gold project in British Columbia and a portfolio of gold projects in southern Peru, through Corisur Peru SAC.
About Sombrero
This project consists of the North Sombrero and South Sombrero properties, comprising approximately 100,000 mineral claims owned or optioned by Auryn Resources. The copper-gold Sombrero mining concessions are located 340 kilometers SE of Lima in southern Peru and are hosted in the Andahuaylas-Yauri belt. This belt is interpreted to be on the north-western margins of this Eocene-Oligocene aged copper-gold porphyry and skarn belt that hosts the Las Bambas, Haquira, Los Chancas, Cotambambas, Constancia, Antapaccay and Tintaya deposits. The project is characterized by a strong structural control and significant copper and gold values from historical surface samples. The principle targets at Sombrero are copper-gold skarn and porphyry systems and precious metal epithermal deposits.
Forward Looking Information and additional cautionary language
This release includes certain statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements. Forward-looking information is information that includes implied future performance and/or forecast information including information relating to or associated with the acquisition and title to mineral concessions. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different (either positively or negatively) from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Readers should refer to the risks discussed in the Companys Annual Information Form and MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2017 and subsequent continuous disclosure filings with the Canadian Securities Administrators available at www.sedar.com and the Companys registration statement on Form 40-F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and available at www.sec.gov.
The Toronto Stock Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c7093778-6aec-41c1-96f9-c4f0d29d30c9
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/659236a6-5e91-40fc-b69e-d686ad0f5cfa
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ad09185e-0f06-4fe4-a671-a038be30d17e
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/51124d91-e731-4803-9a24-df4b90db73e1
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7640821e-a407-453e-8ccb-cb34b8faf3a9
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9e30337b-b5d6-41db-b09d-78b70fb82a62
lakshey1993 wrote:
A rare disease, malicitis, is being diagnosed with increasing frequency. The number of cases reported this year is more than double the number reported four years ago. The government should now allocate more funds for treatment and prevention of malicitis.
All of the following, if true, would weaken the conclusion except
A. funds already available for research in malicitis are currently under-utilized
B. a new test employed for the first time this year detects malicitis at a considerably earlier stage in the development of the disease
C. the number of cases reported this year represents the same fraction of the population as reported in all of the last five years
D. a committee of experts reviewed the funding four years ago
E. a private foundation has committed sufficient funds to cover treatment and prevention needs as well as research for the next five years
Please share your reviews about this OA!
Veritas Prep GMAT Instructor
Learn more about how Veritas Prep can help you achieve a great GMAT score by checking out their KarishmaVeritas Prep GMAT InstructorLearn more about how Veritas Prep can help you achieve a great GMAT score by checking out their GMAT Prep Options > Signature Read More
Premises:Malicitis is being diagnosed with increasing frequency.The number of cases reported this year is more than double the number reported four years ago.Conclusion:The government should now allocate more funds for treatment and prevention of malicitis.A. funds already available for research in malicitis are currently under-utilizedThere are already more than enough funds allocated so no point allocating more till the time the ones currently unused are used. It weakens the conclusion.B. a new test employed for the first time this year detects malicitis at a considerably earlier stage in the development of the diseaseSay in a population of 100,000 people, 10 people are suffering from the disease. Say 4 are at a very early stage, 2 at early stage and full blown stage. Till now, tests were available which could detect the disease at full blown stage only so only 4 cases were known. Now a new test can detect early stages too so all 10 cases are known. The number of known cases suddenly increase though the occurrence of disease is the same. So extra funds call may not be valid if sufficient funds are already allocated.C. the number of cases reported this year represents the same fraction of the population as reported in all of the last five yearsIf the population doubles, the number of cases may double too. Say in a population of 200,000, 20 people would be suffering from the disease. Note that it is still as rare as before - 1 in 10,000 gets it. Hence, the call for extra funds may not be in order (only from the point of our argument since our argument says that it is not as rare as before. The point of morality is not discussed)D. a committee of experts reviewed the funding four years agoCertainly has no impact on our argument.E. a private foundation has committed sufficient funds to cover treatment and prevention needs as well as research for the next five yearsThe conclusion says that the Govt needs to allocate more funds. But if a private foundation has already committed sufficient funds, the Govt may not need to add more.Answer (D)_________________
Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of the Economy, Etienne Schneider, and Secretary General and Executive Head of the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR), Marc Schiltz, signed an agreement to develop a program to support research for the commercial space industry in Luxembourg. The "Space Research Program" will provide funding for national public research institutions and Luxembourg based companies to collaborate with each other to advance knowledge, to attract and nurture top-tier talent, and to provide sustaining contributions to the Luxembourg space industry ecosystem.
Funded projects will need to be conducting research that supports the countrys space vision. Research results, new technologies and expertise will later be at the disposal of the local space and non-space industries. Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of the Economy, Etienne Schneider stated: "Since the 1980s, a strong R&D culture and cross-sector co-operation has been key to a thriving ecosystem that stimulates innovation and accelerates the evolution of business in space. The new research program will further encourage local space business players to team up with Luxembourgs research community to develop competencies and talent for a burgeoning space sector".
The FNR is the main funder of research activities in Luxembourg. Its Secretary General and Executive Head, Marc Schiltz, declared: "The 'Space Research Program' is in line with FNR's vision to establish Luxembourg as a leading knowledge-based society through science, research and innovation, thereby contributing to the countrys economic diversification in a key high-tech sector like the space industry".
In addition to the future "Luxembourg space fund", the implementation of the "Space Research Program" will be an essential part of the setting up of the "Luxembourg Space Agency" that will officially be launched on September 12th. The agency will facilitate the economic development of the commercial space industry while attracting businesses and talents, providing innovative financial solutions and supporting academic infrastructure.
Press release by the Ministry of the Economy/ Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR)
IceViking strongly condemns physical attacks and harassment directed towards them.
They are also often victims of the Islamic idea. This is true when it comes to the cruel and tragic treatment of Muslim women and children when it is in accord with the Koran, the example of Mohammed and Islamic law, Sharia, which may be applied regardless of where a Muslim male may find himself in the world, whether in a Muslim or non-Muslim country.
However, in no way, shape or form should one judge all Muslim men because of what is in Islamic scripture and what constitutes the Islamic law, Sharia.
"Race", ethnicity or basically anything that you are "merely" born with should never be a basis for bigotry and discrimination.
Apostates from Islam have been executed for 1400 years in accord with the Koran and the words and actions of the Islamic prophet Mohammed and Islamic law, Sharia.
They should be lovingly helped.
Furthermore, approximately as many as 11,000,000 Muslims may have been killed by other Muslims since 1948.
To quote the website The Religion of Peace (TROP), edited by Glen Roberts:
While it may be safe to say that a true Muslim would not intentionally kill another true Muslim ( 4:92-93 ), the Quran places no such value on the life of a Muslim who is not true. Consider verse 9:73 :
Strive hard against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and be harsh against them, their abode is Hell.
The Arabic for strive hard uses the same root as Jihad - and the context in this sura is holy war (see v. 86 and 91). Thus, there are two distinct classes of people that a true Muslim is to target with harshness: disbelievers and hypocrites.
A disbeliever obviously refers to a non-Muslim, so a "hypocrite" must be a Muslim of some sort. In fact, hypocrites are those who say they believe, but do not act as they should. In other words, they are "Muslims", but not true Muslims. They will go to hell just as unbelievers do, and so, according to the verse, their lives matter for naught.
The same sura says that a hypocrite can be recognized not just by lack of piety (reluctance to follow Sharia), but by fear of death ( 9:56 ), reluctance to fight ( 9:44-45 ) and even friendliness toward non-believers ( 9:67 ). A true Muslim would thus be a pious person who relishes martyrdom, is eager to fight, and shuns non-believers.
Even the Quranic passage that warns against killing "believers" ( 4:88-94 ) is more complicated than it first appears. It never says that a true Muslim is incapable of killing another Muslim, just that it should not be done. In fact, it makes exceptions for the unintentional killing of "believers" in war and mandates the killing of "hypocrites."
Verse 17:33 says, "Do not kill anyone which Allah has forbidden, except for a just cause" . The greatest cause of all is that Islam be superior ( 9:33 ), which is exactly what Islamic terrorists say is their goal. Thus believing Muslims are allowed to be collateral damage in the war on unbelievers.
There is sadly a phenomena that I`ve noticed in Sweden and elsewhere of people using true facts about Islamic doctrine and history as a cover for all sorts of irrational targeting of Muslims, ranging from xenophobia and racism to verbal abuse and physical attacks.
This is strongly condemned by this website and does not in any way serve serious criticism of orthodox Islam and other important work.
It`s also important that one tries to express oneself in a civilized way. Words matter.
In this bloggers humble opinion the root cause of the problem is the ancient doctrine of orthodox Islam.
In simple terms a non-Muslim is a Kafir.
" The Koran defines the kafir and kafir is not a neutral word. A kafir is not merely someone who does not agree with Islam, but a kafir is evil, disgusting, the lowest form of life."
An exact quote, as stated in the writings of Dr. Bill Warner in the article "Kafir" at http://www.politicalislam.com/kafir .
In the perfect Koran (Allah`s direct and literal word as revealed to Mohammed through the angel Jibril), Muslims are told 89 times to emulate Mohammed in all ways (see Koran 33:21 for instance).
Mohammed`s example, the Sunna, is found in the Hadith (stories of what Mohammed said and did) and the Sira (biographies of Mohammed).
Islamic law, Sharia , is directly derived from these unchanging scriptures. It is based on the Koran`s numerous commands to obey Allah and obey the Messenger, that is Mohammed (see Koran 4:59 for instance).
Islam is Sharia. Sharia is Islam.
It is a capital crime for Muslims to deny Sharia in any way.
A Muslim is someone who submits to Islam and submitting to Islam means obeying the Sharia of Allah.
Sharia law includes pronouncements for both Muslims and non-Muslims (Kafirs).
Islam is a "complete way of life", a "complete code of life", a "complete system of life".
Islam is not just a religion but also a comprehensive ideology.
Islam is a supremacist ideology.
Islam is a totalitarian and imperialistic ideology akin to Communism and Nazism.
Islam is a civilization.
Islamic law, Sharia, is a manual for a civilization.
Islamic law, Sharia, governs every aspect of life.
It has a say about every conceivable human act .
Non-Muslims are morally and legally inferior in Islam. Women are morally and legally inferior in Islam.
The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS by Robert Spencer is the first one-volume history of jihad in the English language and a great book on the topic.
Allah guarantees Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for him (Koran 9:111).
A hadith depicts a Muslim asking Muhammad: "Instruct me as to such a deed as equals Jihad (in reward)." Muhammad replied, "I do not find such a deed." (Bukhari 4.52.44)
Muhammad himself said:
I have been commanded to fight against people so long as they do not declare that there is no god but Allah, and he who professed it was guaranteed the protection of his property and life on my behalf except for the right affairs rest with Allah. (Sahih Muslim 30)
Freedom of speech, human rights, democracy, science and human lives are all at stake in the fight against the Islamic Jihad.
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
- Pambansang Bae Alden Richards admits he will do something that he has never done before on his concert
- Alden said there will be death-defying stunts in his performances
- He also shared that he is facing challenges in the making of his concert
PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed
Kapuso actor Alden Richards excitedly disclosed that he will be doing something he has never done before on his upcoming concert, Adrenaline Rush.
KAMI learned that the Pambansang Bae will have death-defying stunts on his performances.
Alden also revealed that his production numbers will not be the same as what viewers often see him doing on television.
Meron po, meron mahilig po ako sa mga ganyanbuwis-buhay, he said.
Yung performances ko po, hindi the usual na ginagawa ko, he added.
The actor even shared that the element to be used in his performances is air which will allow him to offer new scenes to the viewers.
Ang element po kasi ng previous concert is water. Ngayon naman po, nilagyan po natin ng element na air, he further explained.
So, yun naman po ang mga bagong performances na magagawa ko rito para makita naman po ng mga manonood, he added.
The Victor Magtanggol star, however, said that he is facing challenges regarding his much-anticipated concert.
He said his schedule is a major thing to consider because of his teleserye and other shows and his vocals should be prepared because he will have to sing while dancing.
May challenge po ng konti. Kasi yung concert ko before, yun lang po kasi ang kinabisihan ko last year, Alden shared.
Kasi, mahirap po yung body movements mo, hindi aligned sa singing. Hindi po siya madali. Kaya hands-down po ako run sa mga performers who do it flawlessly, he further remarked.
Aside from furnishing the performances, Alden and his team are working on new song genres, a bigger venue, and the possibility of having Maine Mendoza as a special guest.
PAY ATTENTION: Using free basics app to access internet for free? Now you can read KAMI news there too. Use the search option to find us. Read KAMI news while saving your data!
In a previous article by , the Kapuso heartthrob expressed his side on the issue of Victor Magtanggols low ratings during its pilot episode.
Alden, or Richard Reyes Faulkerson Jr. in real life, was born on January 2, 1992. He became more popular when his love team with Maine called AlDub regularly appeared in the Kalyeserye segment of Eat Bulaga.
POPULAR: Read more news about Alden Richards!
Imagine that youre walking down streets of the Philippines, thinking of your work, friends, and family. Suddenly a man walking in front of you drops his wallet. He continues walking, without realizing that he has just lost all his money. What would you do in this situation? Social Experiment: How Honest Are People Around You? on HumanMeter!
Source: Kami.com.ph
- Trillanes camp will file petition for temporary restraining order at the High Court
- He even warned everyone that what the President has been doing should alarm the countrys justices
- If the petition will be granted, this will be the first controversial issue handled by Dutertes appointee, Chief Justice De Castro
PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed
Sen. Trillanes has decided to file a petition for temporary restraining order to Supreme Court on Wednesday, September 5, 2018. The petition seeks to temporarily void the proclamation President Duterte has signed to revoke Trillanes amnesty.
According to Trillanes, Magfafile kami ng petition for temporary restraining order sa Korte Suprema,
This goes beyond political lines. That presidential declaration should alarm justices, he added.
PAY ATTENTION: Using free basics app to access internet for free? Now you can read KAMI news there too. Use the search option to find us. Read KAMI news while saving your data!
KAMI learned from ABS-CBN News that if this petition will be granted, this will be the first controversy that newly appointed Supreme Court chief justice Teresita Leonardo De Castro. In previous reports, De Castro stated that despite the issues, the Supreme Court will be independent when it comes to their decisions.
As previously reported by KAMI, under Proclamation No. 752, President Duterte declared for Sen. Trillanes amnesty to be revoked. The president even ordered the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines to arrest the senator. However, in Trillanes defense, Dutertes order was a warrantless arrest.
POPULAR: Read more about Sen. Trillanes here!
Today we are going to ask Tagalog strangers some very funny tricky questions! Do you think you can answer them correctly? These individuals from the Philippines have their answers! What do you think came first, the egg or the chicken? Can you cry under water? These questions might sound easy, but in reality, they are pretty tricky and it is easy to make a mistake! on KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel!
Source: Kami.com.ph
Calls for Respect for Black America at Franklin Funeral
DETROIT (AP) As Aretha Franklin was remembered at her funeral Friday as a proud black woman who also used her magnificent voice to stand up for the black community she loved, several speakers used the moment to continue to demand respect for black America.
Amid the gospel, personal reflections and grief were calls to register and turnout to vote in November and condemnation of President Donald Trump, who, upon her death, referred to Franklin as someone who worked for me a comment that rankled many African-Americans.
No she used to perform for you, the Rev. Al Sharpton said to cheers and applause from the crowd. She worked for us. Aretha never took orders from nobody but God.
ADVERTISEMENT
Franklins civil rights legacy was mentioned often during the eight-hour service, and was tied to her faith and roots in the black church. Many also mentioned her father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin, and his civil rights leadership, which influenced his daughter from a young age.
Late Friday, Franklin was laid to rest in a mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery, the final resting place of her father.
None of the politicians present including former President Bill Clinton and former Attorney General Eric Holder took the opportunity to turn the event partisan. Michigan Democratic House Rep. Brenda Lawrence took a moment to recognize Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, whose funeral is Saturday.
But others seized on Trumps comments and Franklins message of dignity to speak to the present social and political climate. In pointing out the long lines to pay tribute to Franklin this week, the Rev. Jesse Jackson lamented that the lines to vote often arent nearly as long.
Aretha was on the battleground for 60 years, Jackson told the audience. We have long lines to celebrate death, and short lines for voting. Something is missing. If you leave here today and dont register to vote, youre dishonoring Aretha.
Judge Greg Mathis, one of Franklins many friends who often talked politics with her, said that his last conversation with Franklin earlier this summer was about the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan, where government negligence has left residents living with lead-tainted water since 2014.
ADVERTISEMENT
Her last words to me were Go back up there and sock it to em!, Mathis told the crowd before vowing that he would in her memory.
Some made a statement without saying a word. When she was shouted out from the stage, California Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters who has called frequently for Trumps impeachment and is a campaign rally punching bag for the president acknowledged the crowd with the Wakanda salute, from the movie Black Panther, closing her fists and crossing her arms over her chest to applause.
Many in the audience, including President Clinton, stood and cheered.
Everybody just point over there and tell her, We got your back! said Bishop Charles H. Ellis III, pastor of Greater Grace Temple, which the audience shouted in Waters direction.
Georgetown University sociologist Michael Eric Dyson took several shots at Trump in his remarks, assigning the president several nicknames: orange apparition, lugubrious leech, doppleganger of deceit and deceit, lethal liar, dimwitted dictator, foolish facist.
She aint work for you, Dyson shouted over applause. She worked above you. She worked beyond you. Get your preposition right.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is providing $92 million in assistance in a new effort to help minority and low-income students succeed.
The assistance will come in the form of grants to 19 school programs across 13 American states. Many of the programs are in areas that have struggled with poverty and student performance issues.
The foundations announcement said the Networks for School Improvement program will center on middle and high school students. It is designed to have groups of schools work together to identify and solve common problems using methods that best fit their needs.
A statement said the foundation chose to invest in the schools as a way to help increase the number of black, Latino, and low-income students graduating from high school. In addition, the program is designed to prepare the students for college so they will have a better chance to succeed in life.
The grants will address several different areas to help students succeed in the classroom and prepare for college. These include basic academic skills like math, English and other subjects. But the program will also offer help in how to deal with things like school suspensions or the college application process.
Bob Hughes leads the K-12 education program for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He told reporters the organization drew heavily on past experiences when deciding on new program plans.
Were not inventing anything in this strategy. Were taking what we learned from research and experience, Hughes said.
Allan Golston is president of the foundations U.S. Program. In an opinion story for the education website The 74, Golston said the goal of the assistance is to help local school groups come up with their own solutions.
Once each network has identified a common barrier, schools will put in place strategies to tackle the problem based on what they know about their students, he wrote.
Golston said the foundations research shows that identifying and removing barriers faced by schools can make a great difference in how many students end up graduating.
He added that the main goal of the foundations education program has not changed over the years. All students, and especially low-income students and students of color, must have equal access to a great public education that prepares them for success in adulthood.
Golston said the latest assistance of $92 million is just the beginning. Over the next five years, the foundation expects to provide $460 million to aid dozens more schools and to help tens of thousands of students get the education they deserve.
Im Bryan Lynn.
Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on information from the Associated Press the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other online sources. 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 - Gates Foundation Announces $92 Million Assistance to Schools Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz
_______________________________________________________________
Words in This Story
grant n. amount of money provided by a government or organization for a special purpose
academic adj. related to subjects involving thinking and studying and not technical or practical skills
application n. official request for something
strategy n. plan used to achieve something
network n. system or group of connected parts
tackle v. try to deal with something difficult
access n. way of being able to use or get something
deserve v. do something or show qualities worthy of something
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Honda Motor saw its China sales drop 9.9% from the year-ago period to 117,188 units, according to the sales data released by Honda China. For the first eight months, the automaker delivered a total of 832,248 vehicles in the worlds largest auto market, a year-on-year decline of 7.1%.
GAC Honda suffered a slight year-on-year drop of 2.7% in August sales with 58,613 vehicles delivered. For the first eight months, the joint venture witnesses its cumulative sales edge down 0.4% compared with the same period a year ago.
The sales of Honda branded cars amounted to 57,953 units in total, edging down 1.6% over the previous year. The best seller was the VEZEL whose August sales slightly fell 3.5% from a year earlier to 13,510 units. The sales of the Accord, another hotter-selling model, evidently grew 16.6% to 12,445 units. However, the August sales of the City, the CRIDER, the VEZEL and the AVANCIER all presented year-on-year decrease to different degrees, which led to the downturn in overall monthly sales.
The premium brand Acura continued a depressed sales performance with only 660 vehicles delivered last month, a year-on-year slump of 51.9%.
Dongfeng Honda posted a year-on-year drop of 16.1% with 58,575 vehicles handed over in August. From January to August, the joint venture sold 381,402 vehicles with a year-on-year decline of 13.9%.
Apart from the CIVIC and the ELYSION, most models of Dongfeng Honda faced year-on-year reduction in August. The monthly sales of the CR-V, the second best seller, shrank 16.1% over the previous year to 13,196 units. However, the sales of the best seller CIVIC significantly jumped 43.1% from the year-ago period, which somewhat offset the overall sales downturn.
United States lawmakers began a hearing today on a new candidate for the Supreme Court. President Donald Trump has nominated Brett Kavanaugh to replace Anthony Kennedy, who retired earlier this year.
On the first day of the hearing, protestors shouted their disapprovals as Kavanaugh promised to be a team player on the court. The remark was notable because the nine justices on the Supreme Court can act like nine separate law firms. And, when the group decides cases, justices often split into the same two groups conservative and liberal.
But Kavanaugh appeared to reject the idea that he would be on either the conservative or liberal side. He said he would not decide cases on his personal views. Instead, he promised to decide cases according to the Constitution and laws of the United States.
However, independent observers note that Kavanaughs earlier rulings as a judge are generally considered conservative.
Kavanaugh is 53 years old. He has served for the past 12 years on the appeals court in Washington, DC. That court is believed to be the second most important court in the country, after the Supreme Court.
In the early 2000s, Kavanaugh worked in the White House under then-President George W. Bush. He was also part of the legal team that investigated then-President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s. That investigation led to Clintons impeachment.
However, since then Kavanaugh has said U.S. lawmakers might pass a law protecting presidents from investigations while they were in office. He has said that the work of defending themselves can interfere with the presidents job of leading the country.
As the hearing continues this week, lawmakers will ask Kavanaugh questions about his point of view on how much power presidents should have. They will also ask him his thoughts on legal issues related to abortion, gun rights and other issues.
Witnesses will also speak about Kavanaugh.
After the hearing this week, lawmakers will vote on whether to approve Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court. If he is accepted, he could begin work as early as October 1. And, since U.S. Supreme Court justices serve for life, Kavanaugh could influence laws for a long time to come.
Im Kelly Jean Kelly.
Kelly Jean Kelly wrote this story for VOA Learning English with reports from the Associated Press and VOA News. Hai Do was the editor.
We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. _______________________________________________________________
Words in This Story
justice - n. a judge in a court of law
firm - n. a business organization
view - n. an opinion or way of thinking about something
impeachment - n. to charge a public official with a crime done while in office
abortion - n. a medical procedure used to end a pregnancy and cause the death of the fetus
The memory of a beloved pet inspires one couple's fight against injustice.
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.
Ivan, 05 September 2018
ZTE just unveiled its much anticipated nubia Z18 flagship phone in China.
Highlighted by a near-bezelless front with a claimed 91.8% screen to body ratio, the nubia Z18 only has a tiny cutout notch on the front for the selfie camera.
The screen itself is a 5.99-inch 1080x2160px IPS LCD with very small top and bottom and nearly nonexistent side bezels.
The nubia Z18 is powered by a Snapdragon 845 chipset that's mated to either 6GB or 8GB of RAM and you can choose between 64GB and 128GB of non expandable storage.
There's a 3,450mAh battery with support for Qualcomm's Quick Charge 4.0 and something called Neo Power temperature control.
The selfie camera is an 8MP f/2.0 unit, which can do portrait selfie shots. The shooters on the rear go as follows: 16MP f/1.6 and 24MP f/1.6. They offer Portrait mode, advanced scene recognition and 960fps slow motion video recording.
The ZTE nubia Z18 can be pre-ordered now in China with the base 6GB/64GB model priced at CNY 2,799 (350) and the 8GB/128GB going for CNY 3,299 (415). The device will be available in either Black or Red but there's a special van Gogh edition that will set you back CNY 3,599(450). We do hope the nubia Z18 makes it out of China this time around.
Source
Botswana, long viewed as a rare refuge for African elephants, is coming under increasing threat from poachers.
Poachers are killing elephants in the southern African country in increasing numbers after wiping out large numbers of elephants in nearby Zambia and Angola, a conservation group said.
The Elephants Without Borders group and wildlife officials in Botswana have conducted half of a national elephant census and so far have counted nearly 90 fresh and recent carcasses of poached elephants, group director Mike Chase said in an email.
A similar census in 2014 found just nine carcasses, according to Chase. Botswana has an estimated 130,000 elephants, the most of any country in Africa.
The reported increase in elephant poaching in Botswana could reflect a trend in which poachers move into new territories as conditions become more difficult in regions where they usually operate.
Those conditions could include a dearth of elephants to kill after widespread poaching, or crackdowns on trafficking syndicates in some cases.
Tanzanias Selous region, for example, was heavily hit by elephant poachers but recent data indicates that the killing has slowed. Even so, killings intensified around the same time in Mozambiques Niassa reserve to the south, which is linked to the Selous by a wildlife corridor.
The fight against elephant poaching has made some gains, including a ban on the ivory trade in China, the worlds biggest consumer. But experts say the rate of annual elephant losses still exceeds the birth rate, and the encroachment of human settlements is reducing the animals range.
Botswana, with a population of just over 2 million people, suffers some human-wildlife conflict but has more space than many other countries for animals to roam. Kenya, for example, has a population 25 times larger and is almost as big as Botswana in geographical size.
Botswanas security forces have also had a reputation and faced criticism from neighboring countries for allegedly being quick to open fire on suspected poachers, including Namibians and Zimbabweans who were killed after illegally crossing the border.
President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who took office in Botswana this year, has taken steps to reduce the use of military weapons in operations against poachers, according to local media reports.
While the move may have alleviated tension with Botswanas neighbors, conservationists believe it could be providing an opening to emboldened ivory traffickers.
Poachers have targeted old bull elephants that presumably have the heaviest tusks, killing them when they go to drink at seasonal water sources, Chase said.
A clear order has been put out for tusks of a specific weight, and I suspect such large ivory is in heavy demand, considering that there are few large tuskers left in Africa, he said. Christopher Torchia, Johannesburg, AP
The developer of the Pearl Horizon project, Polytec group, has sued both a columnist and the director of the newspaper Son Pou for defamation.
The director of the Chinese newspaper, Chao Chong Peng, told the Times yesterday that the trial has been scheduled to start on October 3 in the Court of First Instance.
We are waiting for the courts verdict [and trial]. We have [only] been communicating [with Polytec] through our lawyers, he said.
Chao told the Times that Polytec wants the defendants to apologize and to issue a payment of MOP2 million.
Polytecs reason for the lawsuit is that writer Lei Kong [the defendant] commented on a column published on Son Pou last year stating that for the Pearl Horizon project, Polytec is suspected of fraud for not complying with the contract to hand the houses to buyers.
Chao subsequently wrote a column on Son Pous Facebook page, asserting that Polytecs legal action is exerting pressure on the newspaper and is an attempt to suppress freedom of speech.
This time, Polytecs lawsuit is in bad faith, and is an attempt to suppress freedom of speech. The column, in which Polytec is accused of being under suspicion of fraud, shows that the writer was commenting and analyzing the Pearl Horizon case objectively, and is also based on the perspective of an economist, Chao wrote. [The column] was even trying to provide a reasonable and legal solution to the settlement of the case, in particular, after [the developer] could not deliver the houses that had been already sold. During the short period between the approval [for the property projects development] and the land being taken back by the government, and that other parties believed [Pearl Horizon] would not be able to complete the construction, as an existing fact, the Son Pou director continued.
I thank [the columnist] for taking the pressure coming from the attempted suppression of freedom of speech. The [second] author is accused of defamation. [] The suppression of freedom of speech was clearly demonstrated, and is unprecedented in Macau, said Chao.
Lei has not been writing columns since he received the lawsuit notification, Chao informed the Times.
Everything thats written in the article is in accordance with the law and is in the best interests of the public, said Chao.
Contacted by the Times, writer Lei also commented that Polytecs move is to not let the media, whom they dislike, talk and criticize them.
Lei had been writing for Son Pou for approximately 30 years.
Because of this incident, I do not dare to write, and I cant write either, Lei told the Times.
In Leis opinion, this lawsuit is a serious incident, and it harms the freedom of press.
An Israeli businessman yesterday [Macau time] said he received calls and messages from senior Israeli and foreign military officials after he was assigned the former phone number of Israels military chief of staff.
Israeli Army Radio identified the man only as Yossi. Speaking to the radio station, he said he became alarmed when he began receiving what looked like very sensitive messages.
A red light went on if it got in the hands of another citizen I dont know what would happen, he said.
It wasnt entirely clear how Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkots number was passed on to a private citizen.
In a statement, the military said the phone number was changed more than a year ago as part of routine procedure coordinated with the supplier. It did not elaborate.
According to the radio report, the provider said the number was not classified and was reassigned to another customer.
I first visited Taiwan in the 1970s as a young officer serving in an American destroyer assigned to the Pacific Fleet. A small, dynamic nation at the northern edge of the strategically crucial South China Sea, the Republic of China (as Taiwan prefers to be known) was locked in a Cold War duel of geopolitics with its vastly larger cousin across the Taiwan Strait, the Peoples Republic of China.
I returned to Taiwan this week for meetings with senior officials President Tsai Ing-wen, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and the national security adviser, David Lee and enjoyed seeing the extraordinary progress.
At the time of my first visit, I had my doubts about how long the Taiwanese could hold out against the mainland Chinese. But I came away with a deep respect for the courage, ingenuity and independent spirit of the Republic of China.
Now, five decades along, Taiwan continues to seek a balance between an aggressive posture that could provoke Chinese military action and simply capitulating and taking a Hong Kong-style deal for incorporation with China but retaining some semblance of autonomy. It is an increasingly difficult balance to strike.
Taiwan is a vibrant nation of 23 million people and a GDP of more than half a trillion dollars, edging toward the top 20 economies in the world. The Taiwanese produce advanced electronics, are on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence research, have dynamic maritime and aviation entities, and boast a capable military that is in the process of shifting to an all-volunteer force.
The U.S. continues to support Taiwan diplomatically, although formally adhering to the One China Policy demanded by the Peoples Republic meaning that any nation desiring to do business with mainland China cannot have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. With the recent unfortunate defection of El Salvador, only 17 nations and the Holy See have formal diplomatic relations; although many including the U.S. have informal arrangements that are an effective substitute.
Beijing has been taking a wait- and-see approach to the issue of Taiwanese independence. While the Chinese could attempt a military action to force a merger, they would prefer a non-violent outcome. So long as Taiwan does not overtly declare independence, and other major actors (particularly the U.S.) follow the one-China policy, Beijing has been generally content to let time do the work for them.
But lately, there are increasing indications that China is less willing to wait: Its military has been operating around the sea and air approaches to the island; it has been putting very direct pressure on the nations that still recognize Taiwan to shift (especially in Latin America and the Caribbean); and it is increasing economic pressure on the Taiwanese. This fits with the more nationalistic style of President Xi Jinping and with Chinese ambitions to control the South China Sea, the northern gateway of which passes directly around the island of Taiwan.
What is the best U.S. strategy for dealing with this contentious issue?
First, the Washington must recognize that support for Taiwan is not a bargaining chip to be put on the table to obtain better outcomes with mainland China. The U.S. has significant disputes with the Peoples Republic over trade imbalances, cyber-intrusions, intellectual property theft, North Korean bad behavior, and Beijings territorial claims over the South China Sea. It is certainly tempting for the U.S. to use Taiwan as leverage in dealing with those issues, e.g. telling China to modulate its positions favorably for the U.S. in return for lessened U.S. support to the island. When he was president-elect, Donald Trump mused about doing exactly that, and as the trade dispute heats up, that temptation will grow.
That would be a significant mistake.
Taiwan has been a steadfast supporter of the U.S. for decades, and continues to perform as a staunch ally in a very turbulent and vital geopolitical arena. A betrayal of trust would have a ripple effect globally, further degrading U.S. credibility as an ally. It also misreads Beijings intent and attitude China has no interest in a deal involving Taiwan. The claim to the island is the ultimate red line in its foreign policy, and it is especially true that a nationalist government like Xis will not be part of a negotiation involving Taiwans status.
The Trump administration must come to understand the overarching importance China places on eventually incorporating Taiwan into its governance structure, and display sophistication and strategic patience with the situation.
This means following the approach to Taiwan that has been in place for decades with bipartisan support: helping Taiwan militarily with sensible levels of advanced military sales following the mandate of the Taiwan Relations Act; providing political support internationally, such as helping Taiwan participate in international organizations even though it is not universally recognized as a sovereign state; and encouraging robust economic exchanges between the two nations.
Good examples of this are the recent sale of $1.4 billion in advanced military hardware that was announced in 2017, and allowing high-level official visits between the Taiwan and the U.S. as permitted under the Taiwan Travel Act, which was passed this spring.
The U.S. should also encourage allies, partners and friends in the Indo-Pacific region to engage with Taiwan. Having better economic ties, and perhaps joint military training, between Taiwan and India, Japan and especially the nations around the littoral of the South China Sea would help maintain a balance between the Peoples Republic and Taiwan. So long as China sees that Taiwan has robust relations in the region it is unlikely to do anything precipitous that could provoke a military confrontation.
During my recent visit, which was sponsored by both a U.S. and a Taiwanese think tank, I met with many senior officials from the government, military and private sector. The general tone is that Taiwan wants to stay cautious, balanced and sensible in its approach, and is clearly looking for peaceful outcomes. I heard from Taiwanese leaders that they dont want to fight China, and they value a status quo that provides them the benefits of democracy and free markets. But they are nervous as they see China ratcheting up pressure militarily, diplomatically and economically.
Over time, the choices ahead about the status of Taiwan must be made by the people of Taiwan, without fear or favor in reaction to pressure from across the strait. The Trump administration is so far taking a sensible approach in supporting the island and providing advanced technology for defensive military systems. It must resist the temptation to use Taiwan as a bargaining chip with China.
While undermining Taiwan in that way could provide some short-term relief on knotty problems between the two superpowers, it would be self-defeating over the longer term. Keeping faith with a faithful ally is the right course of action, and offers the most benefit to U.S. objectives in the region and beyond. James Stavridis, Bloomberg
Tensions over China and refugees ran high yesterday at a meeting of Pacific leaders after host Nauru accused a Chinese official of bullying and temporarily detained a New Zealand journalist.
Nauru is hosting the Pacific Islands Forum, which is being attended this week by leaders from 18 member nations and delegations from other countries including the U.S. and China.
Nauru recognizes Taiwan and doesnt have diplomatic relations with China.
After a closed-door meeting at the forum yesterday, Nauru President Baron Waqa said a Chinese official had demanded to be heard when other leaders were due to speak.
And he insisted, and was very insolent about it, and created a big fuss and held up the meeting of leaders for a good number of minutes when he was only an official, Waqa said. Maybe because he was from a big country he wanted to bully us.
Even before the forum started there had been tensions with China after some other nations threatened to pull out following a dispute over whether Chinese officials could use their diplomatic passports to enter Nauru. Waqa said it had all been a misunderstanding, and that officials from both countries often traveled to the other country using ordinary passports.
Nauru has been eager to limit discussion during the forum of the more than 600 refugees who live on the tiny island, and has placed restrictions on visiting journalists reporting on topics outside the forum.
Nauru police detained 1 News journalist Barbara Dreaver for about three hours and revoked her forum accreditation after she was spotted interviewing a refugee outside a local restaurant.
Dreaver said she was just doing her job.
I was under the impression, and I know, we were allowed to talk to refugees, Dreaver said. I think it probably shows things are a wee bit sensitive here, in fact a lot sensitive.
Waqa disputed whether Dreaver was detained, saying shed been taken to the police station for questioning and had cooperated. He said she breached protocols by not asking permission to speak to refugees in the high-tension environment.
The media coming are not interested in the Pacific, but interested in something else, Waqa said. We knew this all along, and its sad.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a statement that she was pleased that Dreaver had been released.
This government believes in freedom of the press, throughout the world, and of course that includes the entire Pacific region, Ardern said.
Ardern is due to join the forum for its final day today. She has faced some criticism at home for the extra cost to taxpayers of flying her to Nauru separately after the rest of her delegation had arrived so she wouldnt have to be away as long from her infant daughter Neve. Nick Perry, Nauru, AP
Two men from the mainland, wanted for a series of fraudulent activities, were finally caught with the help of a supermarket worker in the San Kio district. The suspects were wanted for participation in at least three confirmed frauds and a few more failed attempts that had also been reported to the authorities, including fraudulent money changing while paying for goods at convenience stores and supermarkets.
A Public Security Police Force (PSP) spokesperson said this week during a press conference that the men used the same modus operandi to try to scam the shops. They entered the shops and tried to purchase cheap items using high value bank bills (MOP500 or MOP1,000). This would result in the cashiers asking them if they had smaller bills or coins, and they would take back the initial payment while pretending to search for coins. Upon not finding smaller change, they would request for change for the larger bank note.
According to three shops, the men had successfully defrauded them of close to MOP1,500. In other cases, the cashiers noted the scam and refused to give any change.
Warned already about the occurrence of such a scam in other shops, a worker from a supermarket located in the Rua de Inacio Pessoa tried to stall one of the criminals while attempting to inform his supervisor. Acknowledging he had been caught, the man ran from the supermarket but was immediately chased by the shop staff until they apprehended him and called for help from the police.
Taken into custody, the man then exposed his brother. Both were presented to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on September 3 for fraud.
In an unrelated case, a pair of Indonesian men were also caught after stealing a handbag and a mobile phone from a car seat.
According to the MP report, the men spotted a car parked in the street with one of the windows open. Inside the vehicle on the passenger seat was a handbag and a mobile phone belonging to a local woman.
After the victim filed a complaint to the police, officers sought and reviewed video footage from surveillance cameras from shops in the location and were able to identify the men.
They were finally caught by the police at their home located in Beco das Caixas in Central Macau, and presented to the MP on September 1, accused of theft.
In the south of Serbia, a Turkish car parts company has been hailed as a savior: its new plant created hundreds of jobs and breathed new life into a region that has long been underdeveloped and was devastated in the 1990s wars.
But with the dramatic plunge in the value of the Turkish currency this year as a result of investor concerns and a diplomatic dispute with the U.S., there are worries in Serbia and the rest of the Western Balkans that such investments from Turkey may dry up.
Analysts say that the countrys financial turmoil may slow future Turkish investments in Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo, where Ankara is vying for influence, both economic and political, together with the European Union, China and Russia.
We are worried, the crisis in Turkey cannot be without repercussions for us, Serbian Trade Minister Rasim Ljajic said recently as the Turkish lira fell.
Trade between the Western Balkans and Turkey has grown from USD430 million in 2002 to $3 billion in 2016, with Serbia accounting for nearly one third. Turkey is now among the top 10 trading partners for Serbia and top three for Kosovo.
Western European leaders worry about the expanding authoritarian influence of Turkish President Recept Tayyip Erdogan and are concerned that he may gain influence in the Balkans. The Western Balkan countries formally want to join the EU but their applications have virtually been put on hold because of the EUs internal problems like Brexit, and that has exposed the Balkans to additional economic and political influence from Turkey, China and Russia.
The Balkans had been under Ottoman occupation for 500 years, meaning there are also cultural ties for example, in Bosnias and Kosovos Muslim heritage that have helped Turkey gain a presence.
Some think that the Western Balkans are significant enough geopolitically for Erdogan that Turkey will try to retain its existing investments and trade.
Aleksandar Medjedovic, a board member of the Turkish-Serbian Business Council, says Turkey will likely maintain planned investments but that they may be delayed.
Fluctuations in the domestic currency rates always have an impact on the economy and they do impact on Turkish economy at the moment, said Medjedovic. But, he added, the Balkans is a strategic area for Turkish investors.
In the Muslim-dominated Bosnia, Turkish investments are so far modest, but its political influence has risen since the bloody war there in the 1990s. Turkish aid groups have been rebuilding bridges and old Ottoman mosques and financing education. They have provided some 300 million euros for non-profit projects in Bosnia.
Demonstrating the extent of Erdogans political influence in Bosnia, the Turkish president held a pre-election rally in May in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, after similar gatherings were banned in Germany and Austria.
While Turkey is not a major investor in Bosnia, Ankara last year pledged 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) in financing for the construction of a highway between Sarajevo and Belgrade, and officials expect that project to go ahead.
Medjedovic said Turkey sees the Balkans, particularly Serbia and EU member Croatia, primarily as a gateway for its goods to the European Union.
So while there are questions about new investments, that may bode well for existing ones, like the spare parts factory in Vladicin Han, a small, drab-looking Serbian town of some 20,000 people where unemployment is rife. It produces mainly rubber parts for cooling and heating systems for clients such as Volkswagen, Skoda, Audi or Porsche.
The plants Turkish manager, Fikret Aynibal, said that parent company Teklas Automotive has not taken any decision yet to stop investing in Serbia and the wider region because investment plans are based on five to ten years. If anything, Aynibal said, the company might invest more as turmoil reins at home.
We are thinking to expand also in the Serbian region. Jovana Gec & Dusan Stojanovic, Vladicin Han, AP
The Philippine navy extricated one of its largest warships from the shoal where it ran aground last week near a hotly disputed region in the South China Sea.
Two Philippine security officials told The Associated Press early yesterday that tugboats were used to pull the BRP Gregorio del Pilar from the shallow fringes of Half Moon Shoal, which the Philippines calls Hasa Hasa, before midnight. The military later confirmed the successful extrication.
The frigate, which was being towed back to a Philippine port, ran aground during a routine patrol Wednesday night, damaging some of its propellers. Its more than 100 crewmen were unhurt.
The barren shoal is on the eastern edge of the disputed Spratly archipelago, where tensions have run high in recent years after China built seven disputed reefs into man-made islands and reportedly installed missile defense systems.
Philippine defense officials notified their Chinese counterparts after the accidental grounding of the Philippine Navy frigate at the shoal, which Beijing claims, to avoid any misunderstanding, said the two Philippine officials, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue publicly.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said last week that China offered to help but that the Philippines would handle it.
A Chinese frigate ran aground on the shoal in 2012 and was pulled away by Chinese military ships.
Half Moon Shoal lies about 110 kilometers from the southern tip of the western Philippine island of Palawan and south of the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, where a Philippine navy transport ship was intentionally grounded in 1999 and has since served as a Philippine military outpost.
China has repeatedly demanded the now-rusty BRP Sierra Madre be removed from Second Thomas Shoal, which is claimed by the Philippines and China.
A military report seen by the AP said the propellers of the BRP Gregorio del Pilar were damaged by the grounding. The crew reported, however, that the frigate was not taking in water.
At least four Philippine Navy and Coast Guard ships were deployed to secure the BRP Gregorio del Pilar and provide food and other supplies to its sailors. Tugboats were hired to extricate the ship and tow it to a Philippine port for repairs, military spokesman Col. Edgard Arevalo said.
The frigate is one of three former U.S. Coast Guard cutters acquired by the Philippine military and now are the Philippines largest warships.
The United States and Asian governments which have claims in the disputed sea, including the Philippines, have raised alarms over Chinas island building and militarization of the strategic territory.
The Philippines has been one of the most vocal critics of Chinas assertive moves in the disputed waters. AP
The United Nations (UN) Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) recently issued a report where it concludes its observations on China as a member state, and reviews the performance of the Special Administrative Regions of Macau and Hong Kong on this topic.
The report from CERD compiles information and data submitted by groups based in Hong Kong.
One of the concerns and recommendations expressed in the report relates directly to Macau and has to do with the fact that Macau and China do not have a domestic law specifically defining and criminalizing racial discrimination fully in line with Article 1 of the Convention. This fact saw the committee recommending that China (as a member state) and by extension the SARs amend its domestic laws to expressly define and criminalize all forms of racial discrimination in full conformity with Article 1 of the Convention. It further recommends that China expressly prohibit both direct and indirect racial discrimination in all fields of public life, including law enforcement and other government powers.
Another of the topics addressed in the UN report is a complete absence of formal national human rights institutions, in Macau. Despite the functions fulfilled by the Commission against Corruption in Macau, China, it recommended, that Macau establish independent national human rights institutions in line with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles) to ensure their effective functioning. At the same time, it recommended that the governments (both central and local) provide these institutions with sufficient structural independence and financial and human resources.
Another area where Macau is failing is regarding the lack of data on administrative complaints. The report notes that the courts in Macau, China did not receive any cases relating to racial discrimination during the reporting period.
In this sense, the CERD recommends that the government conduct training programs for government officials and civil servants, including law enforcement officials, about anti-racial discrimination laws and related administrative and civil complaint mechanisms, to ensure that victims are aware of their rights.
According to the report, only two cases in Macau courts relate to racist hate speech and hate crimes, and in the last three years, no criminal complaints were received and no criminal investigations were conducted in relation to racial discrimination.
The Committee remarks that an absence or a low number of complaints does not signify the absence of racist hate crimes or expressions of racial hatred. Instead, it may indicate barriers in invoking the rights in the Convention, including a lack of public awareness of the rights under the Convention; a lack of access to, availability of or confidence in methods for seeking judicial recourse; fear of reprisals; and limited access to the police including due to language barriers or a lack of attention to or sensitivity to cases of racial discrimination.
Poverty reduction is another area of concern for the UN committee. In the region where a large number of foreign migrant workers reside, the official poverty rate is greatly increased when factoring in the high cost of living. The Committee urges the local government to take further steps to eliminate ethnic economic disparities, urging at the same time that Macau present results in its next periodic report updating poverty rate statistics and other statistic indicators, disaggregated by ethnic and national origin, revealing the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, and the effectiveness of measures taken, including through the National Human Rights Action Plan 2016-2020.
The Committee also expressed concerns over the low number of complaints filed by non-resident workers about employment agencies, noting, in between January 2015 and June 2018, only 11 complaints from non-resident workers about employment agencies were found to be substantiated.
The CERD recommends the government further strengthen monitoring of the employment and living conditions of domestic migrant workers, and their access to education and affordable health care, requesting once more that the government provide in their next periodic report statistics on complaints, self-initiated and other investigations, prosecutions, sanctions and remedies to protect domestic migrant workers.
The next report by the CERD will be released by 2023. RM
Facing widespread outrage, The New Yorker has dropped plans to interview Steve Bannon during its festival next month.
New Yorker editor David Remnick told The Associated Press in a statement shared yesterday [Macau time] with the magazines staff that he had changed his mind. The former Donald Trump aide and ex-chairman of Breitbart News was supposed to be a featured guest during a prestigious gathering that over the years has drawn some of the worlds most prominent artists and public figures. This years guests include Emily Blunt, Zadie Smith and Sally Yates, who Trump fired as deputy attorney general after she refused to back his initial ban on travelers from Muslim countries. The ban was advocated by Bannon, a senior White House adviser at the time.
Ive thought this through and talked to colleagues and Ive re-considered, Remnick, who has repeatedly denounced Trump and his administration, wrote of his decision on Bannon. There is a better way to do this. Our writers have interviewed Steve Bannon for The New Yorker before, and if the opportunity presents itself Ill interview him in a more traditionally journalistic setting as we first discussed, and not on stage.
Remnick also acknowledged that festival guests, unlike those interviewed on radio or for a print story, are paid an honorarium, along with money for travel and lodging.
In an email statement, Bannon wrote: After being contacted several months ago and with seven weeks of continual requests for this event, I accepted The New Yorkers invitation with no thought of an honorarium.
The reason for my acceptance was simple: I would be facing one of the most fearless journalists of his generation. In what I would call a defining moment, David Remnick showed he was gutless when confronted by the howling online mob, he added.
A letter from Remnick, dated June 28, details the invitation to Bannon.
I would like to invite you to sit down with me for an informal, free-ranging discussion of the political movements redefining international and local politics. This would include, of course, your work abroad as well the upcoming midterms. There would be no need for prepared remarks, as we intend these events to be unscripted, lively, and spontaneous, Remnick writes, adding: Naturally, the magazine would handle all your travel arrangements and accommodations; you would receive an honorarium; and you would also be invited to attend most other Festival events.
We would be honored to have you, he writes at the end.
The New Yorkers announcement on Bannon came earlier and was denounced by Roxane Gay, Jessica Valenti and many others. Gay tweeted that the intellectual class doesnt truly understand racism or xenophobia. They treat it like an intellectual project, where perhaps if we ask hard question and bandy about controversial ideas, good work is being done. Filmmaker Judd Apatow had tweeted he would not attend if Bannon was interviewed. Kathryn Schulz was among the New Yorker staff writers who tweeted that they had informed Remnick directly about their objections.
Tweeted Patton Oswalt: Im out. Sorry, @NewYorker. See if Milo Yiannopoulos is free? a reference to the far-right writer and speaker whose memoir was dropped last year by Simon & Schuster after numerous complaints. Hillel Italie, New York, AP
Spaulding Ridge LLC Adds Salesforce Practice Leadership
Spaulding Ridge, LLC, a management consulting company offering executive advisory and best-in-cloud IT solutions, announced today the recent hiring of Kyle Boston as Principal over its Salesforce practice, and Nancy Cook and Chris Schain as Vice Presidents within the Salesforce practice.
Kyle Boston co-leads Spaulding Ridge's Salesforce practice with focus on the growth and overall health of the business as well as instituting go-to-market business development strategies across a core group of industries and solutions.
"Kyle brings a proven track record and ability to create a strategic vision for practice growth, and develop best-in-cloud solutions for the SFDC marketplace. His commitment to client success aligns with Spaulding Ridge's core value and belief that all business is personal," said Spaulding Ridge CEO, Jay Laabs.
Boston is based in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to joining Spaulding Ridge, he served as a Director at Appirio, a Wipro (News - Alert) Company.
"There is a gap in te Salesforce partner ecosystem that we intend to explore with great intensity," said Boston. "I'm thrilled to be part of the leadership team and continue our rapid success."
Nancy Cook leads Delivery and Consultancy Management for the Salesforce practice. Prior to joining Spaulding Ridge, she served as Director of Consulting Services at Appirio, a Wipro Company, where she developed the vision and strategy for consultant development and practice growth. She has almost 20 years of experience working with Salesforce and in consulting. Cook is based in Baltimore, Maryland.
Chris Schain leads PMO and Delivery Operations for Spaulding Ridge's Salesforce practice. Chris is based in Miami and brings over 20 years of executive management experience in consulting and professional services from both Fortune 100 companies as well as venture-backed startups. Prior to joining Spaulding Ridge, he served as a Director of Portfolio Management for Appirio, a Wipro Company, where he maintained direct delivery oversight for a $100M+ Salesforce project portfolio.
Spaulding Ridge, LLC is a management consulting firm offering services including IT Strategy & Advisory, Cloud Implementation & Customer Engagement, and Business Transformation services. To learn more about Spaulding Ridge, please visit www.spauldingridge.com
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005629/en/
Her victory comes just two months after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez similarly defeated a top House leader in a primary for a NY congressional seat.
Capuano won Chelsea, Everett, Randolph and Somerville - though the former Somerville mayor only bested Pressley in that city by 122 votes.
It's not a sight you see every day, certainly not around Boston - a black woman mounting a plausible challenge to a 10-term white congressman from her own party, a politician with vast connections who votes the progressive line and opposes everything Trump.
Boston City Council member Ayanna Pressley has unseated ten-term incumbent Rep. Michael Capuano, in surprise upset in the Massachusetts Democratic primary Tuesday. Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday night tweeted a selfie of both women together and wrote, "In June, I won my primary".
In fact, Pressley was the first black woman elected to the city's council and now, running unopposed, will be the first black woman MA sends to Congress.
Pressley may be considered an outsider by virtue of who she is.
"We won, we won", Pressley says, as she is hugged by numerous people around her.
Rep. Michael Capuano, as his wife Barbara listens at left, concedes defeat to Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley in the 7th Congressional House Democratic primary, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018.
Capuano, who is now the fourth incumbent to lose a primary this year, conceded the race shortly before it was officially called by the Associated Press. Instead, the 44-year-old Pressley - already a rising star in Democratic politics - cast the race as about Democrats' need for a new, more assertive style in the Donald Trump era. "But Pressley is a proven advocate with an understanding of the needs of the district, and she would be a fresh voice in Congress. Pressley represents the present of the Seventh District and the future of the Democratic Party". She recently earned the endorsement of the Boston Globe. Plus, he had received the backing of local party officials, the Congressional Black Caucus PAC and even from Deval Patrick, the state's first African-American governor. Pressley's campaign emphasized her ethnic identification with the district and focused on inequality within the district, as she emphasized in video released early last month.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren sailed through her primary unopposed.
Rep. Lynch, who was first elected in 2001 and has represented Quincy, was one of several Democratic Congressman facing primary challenges from first-time candidates styling themselves after Vermont Sen.
Keating will take on Republican Peter Tedeschi in November.
Microwave strikes may be responsible for the mystery sonic illness caused by unusual noises that led the United States to evacuate several Americans from China and Cuba in the previous year, The New York Times has reported.
In 2016 more than 30 state department staff and their families reported hearing high-pitched sounds in their homes and hotel rooms near the embassy.
Douglas Smith, director of the Center for Brain Injury and fix at the University of Pennsylvania, told The New York Times that microwaves were likely behind the health incidents, some of which likely resulted in brain injury.
"Everybody was relatively skeptical at first and everyone now agrees there's something there", he told the Times.
It is still unclear who is responsible for the attacks.
Still, Allan Frey, a microwave radiation pioneer, told the Times he viewed it as highly plausible that microwave weapons had been used in the embassy attacks. As the Cuban-American outlet Babalu Blog notes, "in response to claims the American diplomats in Cuba were victims of some sort of "sonic attack, ' the media, academia, and the 'experts" insisted no such technology exists".
The Times said Frey was the first to discover that the human brain can perceive microwaves as sound, a revelation that led to experimentation with microwave weapons in both the Soviet Union and the United States.
Cuba has firmly denied any role in, or knowledge of, the incidents.
In June, the State Department expanded a health alert for China after a series of supposed acoustic incidents that left diplomatic personnel suffering injuries similar to their counterparts in Cuba.
It sounds like a tinfoil-hat idea from science fiction - but scientists now believe U.S. diplomats could have beentargeted with mysterious microwave ray guns. In the case of Cuba, he speculated that "Cubans aligned with Russian Federation. might have launched microwave strikes in attempts to undermine developing ties between Cuba and the United States".
The Times said the U.S. military also researched weapons applications of microwaves, with the U.S. Air Force registering a patent on an invention shown to beam comprehensible speech into someone's head.
A National Security Agency statement obtained by Washington lawyer Mark Zaid on behalf of a client described how a foreign power built a weapon "designed to bathe a target's living quarters in microwaves, causing numerous physical effects, including a damaged nervous system", the Times said. Navy researchers explored the use of the Frey effect to induce sounds powerful enough to cause pain and even immobilisation, the newspaper said.
ProPublica said in a February report that federal investigators were considering the possibility of a microwave attack, and at least two scientific papers have identified microwave weapons as a likely cause.
An estimated 5 million deaths per year in low and middle income countries (LMICs) are the result of poor quality care, with a further 3.6 million the result of insufficient access to care, according to the first study to quantify the burden of poor quality health systems worldwide.
While many LMICs have made significant progress in improving access to care, a new reality is at hand: poor quality care in the health system is now responsible for a greater number of deaths than insufficient access to care. The total number of deaths from poor-quality care per year is estimated to be five times higher than annual global deaths from HIV/AIDS (1 million), and over three times more than deaths from diabetes (1.4 million).
The findings come from a new analysis published in The Lancet, as part of The Lancet Global Health Commission on High Quality Health Systemsa two-year project bringing together 30 academics, policy-makers and health systems experts from 18 countries who examined how to measure and improve health system quality worldwide.
"Quality care should not be the purview of the elite, or an aspiration for some distant future; it should be the DNA of all health systems," said Commission Chair, Dr. Margaret E Kruk, of Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston. "The human right to health is meaningless without good quality care. High quality health systems put people first. They generate health, earn the public's trust, and can adapt when health needs change. Countries will know they are on the way towards high-quality, accountable health systems when health workers and policymakers choose to receive health care in their own public institutions."
The epidemic of poor-quality care
The over 8 million excess deaths due to poor quality health systems lead to economic welfare losses of US$ 6 trillion in 2015 alone. The Commission found systematic deficits in quality of care in multiple countries, across a range of health conditions and in both primary and hospital care. These include:
Approximately 1 million deaths from neonatal conditions and tuberculosis occurred in people who used the health system, but received poor care.
Poor-quality is a major driver of deaths amenable to health care across all conditions in LMICs, including 84% of cardiovascular deaths, 81% of vaccine preventable diseases, 61% of neonatal conditions and half of maternal, road injury, tuberculosis, HIV and other infectious disease deaths.
Insufficient access to care was a proportionally greater contributor to deaths from cancer (89%), mental and neurological conditions (85%), and chronic respiratory conditions (76%), highlighting the need to increase access to care for these conditions alongside improving quality.
Data from over 81000 consultations in 18 countries found that, on average, mothers and children receive less than half of the recommended clinical actions in a typical visit, including failures to do postpartum check-ups, incorrect management of diarrhoea or tuberculosis, and failures to monitor blood pressure during labour (see Commission figures 2, 3 & 4).
A third (34%) of people in LMICs report poor user experience, citing lack of respect, long wait times, and short consultations. Similarly, confidence and trust in health systems are low. For instance, in India, half of households report bypassing their nearby public facility, with 80% citing at least one quality concern (see Commission figure 8).
Poor-quality care is more common among the vulnerable in society. The wealthiest women attending antenatal care are four times more likely to report blood pressure measurements, and urine and blood tests compared to the poorest women; adolescent mothers are less likely to receive evidence-based care; and children from wealthier families are more likely to receive antibiotics. People with stigmatised health conditions, such as HIV/AIDS, mental health and substance abuse disorders, as well as other vulnerable groups such as refugees, prisoners and migrants are less likely to receive high quality care.
In India, an estimated 1.6 million deaths per year were due to poor quality care (and a further 838,000 deaths due to insufficient access to care); in China 630,000 deaths per year were due to poor quality care (and 653,000 deaths due to poor access); in Brazil, 153,000 deaths per year were due to poor quality care (and 51,000 due to insufficient access). In Nigeria 123,000 deaths per year were due to poor quality care, and 253,000 due to insufficient access [Country data provided in the Appendix]. These are conservative figures after subtracting cases of disease that should have been prevented by strong public health measures. "The impact of poor quality care goes well beyond mortality, but can lead to unnecessary suffering, persistent symptoms, loss of function, and a lack of trust in the health system. Other side effects are wasted resources and catastrophic health expenditures. Given our findings, it is not surprising that only one quarter of people in low and middle income countries believe that their health systems work well," adds Dr. Kruk.
The right to high quality care
The Commission proposes several ways to address health system quality, starting with public accountability for and transparency on health system performance.
The Commission found that many current improvement approaches have limited effectiveness. Additionally, commonly used health system metrics such as availability of medicines, equipment or the proportion of births with skilled attendants do not reflect quality of care and might lead to false complacency about progress. The Commission calls for fewer, but better measures of health systems quality, and proposes a dashboard of metrics that should be implemented by counties by 2021 to enable transparent measurement and reporting of quality care.
"The vast epidemic of low quality care suggests there is no quick fix, and policy makers must commit to reforming the foundations of health care systems. This includes adopting a clear quality strategy, organizing services to maximize outcomes not access alone, modernizing health worker education, and enlisting the public in demanding better quality care. For too long, the global health discourse has been focused on improving access to care, without sufficient emphasis on high quality care. Providing health services without guaranteeing a minimum level of quality is ineffective, wasteful and unethical," says Dr. Muhammad Pate, co-Chair of the Commission and Chief Executive of Big Win Philantropy and former Minister of State for Health in Nigeria.
In a linked Comment, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of WHO, adds: "Quality is not a given. It takes vision, planning, investment, compassion, meticulous execution, and rigorous monitoring, from the national level to the smallest, remotest clinic.... The strength of a country's core capacities under the International Health Regulations depends on the quality of its health services. The same nurse who vaccinates children and cares for new mothers will also need to detect an unusual communicable disease. Similarly, people and communities are at the heart of quality health service delivery. We cannot talk about quality without placing them at the centre. When people are actively engaged in their own health and care, they suffer fewer complications and enjoy better health and wellbeing."
Writing in support of the findings and recommendations from the Commission, 19 leading global health organisations including the World Bank's Health, Nutrition, and Population Department, Asian Development Bank, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, UNICEF, as well as the Ministries of Health of Argentina, Japan, Malawi, Indonesia, and South Africa, have signed the Bellagio Declaration on High Quality Health Systems, calling for action and state: "High quality health systems are at the heart of global equity. Quality care should not be a privilege for a lucky few, in a few facilities, in a few countries. Health systems must effectively protect, treat and respect all people, especially the vulnerable. As countries work to achieve universal health coverage let us use this moment to ignite a movement for high quality health systems."
Explore further Better care quality needed for universal health coverage
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
Burnout in doctors has devastating consequences on the quality of care they deliver, according to a large-scale systematic review and meta-analysis.
The study, by experts at the Universities of Manchester, Keele, Leeds, Birmingham and Westminster, looks at 47 papers which together analyse the responses of 43,000 doctors.
This NIHR School for Primary Care Research and NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre funded study is published today in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
It finds that doctors with burnout are twice as likely to make mistakes, such as incorrect diagnoses or wrong prescriptions. Preventable harmful medical errors occur in one in 20 patients according to a recent GMC report.
Burnout also doubles the likelihood of lower professional standards, such as not following NICE guidelines or malpractice. And burnout, argues Dr. Maria Panagioti from the University of Manchester, who led the study, may be impacting on dropping patient satisfaction.
The study found that patient satisfaction is three times more likely to be lower when doctors are physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted core signs by which experts identify burnout.
Existing research shows that though it has been traditionally considered high, public satisfaction with the NHS has dropped from 63 percent in 2016 to 57 percent in 2017 a drop of 6 percentage points.
Another worrying finding of the study is that in junior doctors in particular, burnout increases the likelihood of lower professional standards by 3.5 times. A recent General Medical Council survey of 52,000 UK trainee doctors which found than one in for trainees feel burnt out.
Dr. Maria Panagioti said "This meta-analysis provides a snapshot of what happens to patients when their doctors are burnt out.
"We show conclusively that the provision of safe, high quality patient care is severely compromised when doctors are physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted.
"Clearly, this is not is not the fault of doctors. It's caused by a combination of factors including high workload, the way teams work together and the absence of measures which improve wellbeing.
"But it's also about a performance culture which in recent years has become more prevalent in the medical profession.
"Doctors are increasingly being asked to be superhuman, when they are not. They need care and attention that anyone would need when under such enormous pressure and that is just not happening."
She added: "We urge NHS instructions to urgently rethink the environment in which doctors are often forced to work.
"NHS bodies need to look at workload, improved team working, and making time to meet with other doctors.
"Our previous studies show approaching individuals on case-by-case basis is not effective and the issue should instead be tackled with organisation-wide initiatives.
"Resilience training such as mindfulness courses which are time-protected and financially supported by healthcare organisations are helpful too."
Professor Carolyn Chew-Graham, Professor of General Practice Research at Keele University said: "As a GP, I am well aware of the impact of stress in clinicians on the individual and their colleagues.
"This study provides evidence that physician burnout potentially jeopardises patient care and patient safety.
"This reinforces the need for policy-makers to ensure that healthcare systems support clinicians, and that clinicians recognise symptoms of burnout in themselves and others, and either seek or offer help and support.
"A sick work force cannot provide good patient care."
Dr. Ruth Riley, of the University of Birmingham's Institute of Applied Health Research, said: "The findings from this meta-analysis show that investing in the wellbeing of doctors will pay dividends for patient safety.
"Caring for our care providers by preventing the causes of burnout and improving access to support will enhance the wellbeing of our doctors and is likely to confer benefits to patients."
More information: Association Between Physician Burnout and Patient Safety, Professionalism, and Patient Satisfaction: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Intern Med. September 4, 2018. Journal information: JAMA Internal Medicine Association Between Physician Burnout and Patient Safety, Professionalism, and Patient Satisfaction: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.. September 4, 2018. DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.3713
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
Imagine that, in the course of a single year, a ubiquitous household item was implicated in the death of every man, woman and child in the city of Glendale, Ariz., America's 87th largest city with a population of 251,269. The world would almost certainly take notice of such a loss.
That, in essence, was the global toll of humanity's obsession with firearms.
There are roughly 1 billion guns in the world, and new research finds that in 2016, they ended the lives of about 251,000 people in 195 countries and territories that kept reasonably detailed death records. Those deaths included homicides, suicides and accidents.
Just six countries that make up less than 10 percent of the world's populationBrazil, the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and Guatemalaaccounted for just over half of the world's gun-related deaths.
The new worldwide tally is a first-ever attempt to discern international patterns in gun access, gun ownership and fatalities caused by guns. The findings were published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Wars, mass shootings and terrorist attacks may loom large in our consciousness. But the new work makes clear that guns' worldwide death toll actually is driven by personal despair, interpersonal conflict and carelessness.
"This constitutes a major public health problem for humanity," a trio of firearms-research specialists wrote in an editorial that accompanies the new study.
The census of gun fatalities did not include people killed in armed conflict situations. Indeed, in almost every year between 1990 and 2016, the non-combat toll of firearms dwarfed the number of gun deaths stemming from wars and insurrections. In 2001, for instance, there were 15 civilian gun deaths for every military gun death. The only exception was 1994, when Rwandans engaged in organized slaughter along tribal lines.
Worldwide, 64 percent of gun-related deaths were considered a homicide.
But from country to country, there were stark differences in the motivations of people wielding guns.
In affluent countries such as Australia, Canada and Germany, suicides typically outnumbered homicides by considerable margins. In the United States, there were nearly twice as many gun-related suicides as gun-related homicides in 2016. That year, the United States accounted for 35 percent of all firearm suicides around the world.
In countries where drug trafficking and gang violence are pervasive scourges, gun-related homicides clearly dominated. In China and Saudi Arabia, deaths by firearm were usually unintentional.
The research team, a multinational consortium of public health experts called the Global Burden of Disease 2016 Injury Collaborators, estimated that there were 209,000 firearms deaths in 1990a figure that rose to 251,000 in 2016. But the global population expanded more rapidly during that period. As a result, between 1990 and 2016, worldwide rates of gun deaths decreased by close to 1 percent per year.
With no more than seven firearms-related deaths in 2016, tiny Singapore had the world's lowest rate of gun fatalitythe risk of being killed by a bullet was literally 1 in a million. Japan was a close second, with an estimated 455 gun deaths in 2016 and a risk of 2 in a million. Both countries have strict limits on gun ownership.
The United States, by comparison, had about 106 gun-related deaths per 1 million people.
In the Philippines and Australia, the annual incidence of firearm suicides declined by more than 5 percent during the study period. In Estonia and Taiwan, the annual incidence of firearm homicides decreased by 6 percent.
Eighteen countries bucked this trend, with gun fatality rates that either remained constant or increased. Fourteen of those were in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Across national boundaries with differing laws and wildly varying attitudes toward guns, the findings raise many questions for researchers to pursue. But they makes one point clearly: Firearms are "an important public health problem with social and economic costs that extend beyond the immediate loss of life," the study authors wrote.
They cut down peoplemen overwhelminglywho are in the prime of life, between the ages of 15 and 40. In 2016, they killed 7,220 children before they reached their 14th birthday. Boys in this age group died at 2 { times the rate of girls.
Guns cut short the lives of women too, with homicides vastly outnumbering suicides. Unintentional deaths involving women and guns are vanishingly rare.
Other research has found a link between firearms ownership and fatal "nonstranger" violence in the United States. The authors of the new report noted that "although men are most often the targets of firearm violence, they are also the most likely perpetrators, often in the context of domestic and relationship violence."
The study also makes clear that the United States has played a key role in setting the stage for gun-related deaths across the Americas, both by supplying the weapons and sustaining the drug trade that drives the mostly illegal use of guns in these countries. In many of these countries, few guns appear to be in the hands of legal owners.
By creating national baselines of gun deaths and showing trends over time, the new tally lays the foundation for cross-cultural comparisons. That could allow future researchers to explore why gun deaths have dropped so dramatically in some countries while rising in others, and to ask whether government policies played a role. It will permit them to study whether and how the circumstances of neighboring statessuch as gun behemoth the United Statessubvert or promote a country's efforts to drive down gun deaths.
It should also spur more and better data collection, according to the authors of the editorial.
"In addition to knowing how many people own guns, reliable estimates of how many people have easy access to guns would be valuable because this may be the strongest risk factor for firearm injury and death," wrote University of Washington pediatrician Dr. Frederick P. Rivara, Stanford Law School's David M. Studdert, and University of California, Davis emergency physician Dr. Garen J. Wintemute.
They added that future research must begin to explain why people keep firearms.
"Efforts to prevent firearm violence that do not proceed from a clear understanding of both why people own firearms and the perceived barriers to change will have limited success, as the experience to date demonstrates."
Explore further Six countries in the Americas account for half of all firearm deaths
2018 Los Angeles Times
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
The findings of a study led by the University of Birmingham suggests that exercise during the first few months of diagnosis of type 1 diabetes could delay the progression of the condition.
Study participants who continued an active exercise regime after type 1 diagnosis extended their partial remission, also known as the 'honeymoon' period, by five fold compared to those who didn't exercise.
The research, published in Diabetic Medicine, suggests that exercise during first few months of diagnosis may in the long term improve blood glucose levels, reduce hypoglycemic attacks and the risk of long-term complications, such as retinopathy and neuropathy.
The study was the first of its kind to examine the effects of physical exercise on the honeymoon period in people recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
It is believed that around 60 per cent of adults newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes experience a 'honeymoon' period. This means that some beta cells in their pancreas are still working and their body is still sensitive to insulin.
The researchers studied 17 people from three clinics in the UK, who had all been recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and who were doing significant levels of exercise. They were matched with people who had also being recently diagnosed and were the same age, sex and weight, but not doing any exercise.
They found that those who exercised had a 'honeymoon' period that lasted on average five times longer (33 months) than those who didn't exercise (6 months).
Type 1 diabetes is a serious, lifelong condition where the body can't make insulin. Without careful treatment, this can cause blood glucose levels to be too high and increase the risk of life-changing complications, such as sight loss and kidney disease. Currently 4.6 million people in the UK have diabetes, and around 10 per cent of these have type 1 diabetes.
Lead author of the study, Dr. Parth Narendran, of the University of Birmingham's Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, said: "Our data demonstrates exercise could play an important role for people newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
"We propose that exercise prolongs honeymoon through a combination of improving how the body responds to insulin, and also preserving the function of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.
"This could have important benefits in people with type 1 diabetes, including improved blood glucose control, less episodes of hypoglycaemia and a reduced risk of diabetes-related complications.
"There is now a need for clinical trials to investigate whether exercise can prolong the duration of honeymoon and to explore the mechanisms underlying this."
More information: M. R. Chetan et al. The Type 1 diabetes 'honeymoon' period is five times longer in men who exercise: a case-control study, Diabetic Medicine (2018). M. R. Chetan et al. The Type 1 diabetes 'honeymoon' period is five times longer in men who exercise: a case-control study,(2018). DOI: 10.1111/dme.13802
In this Monday, Aug. 13, 2018 photo, Brian Madeux interacts with research nurse Chrishauna Lacy at his home in New River, Ariz. Madeux was the first person in the world to participate in a gene editing attempt in his body, for the inherited disease Hunter syndrome. Early partial results from the study were released on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Matt York)
Early, partial results from a historic gene editing study give encouraging signs that the treatment may be safe and having at least some of its hoped-for effect, but it's too soon to know whether it ultimately will succeed.
The results announced Wednesday are from the first human test of gene editing in the body, an attempt to permanently change someone's DNA to cure a diseasein this case, a genetic disorder called Hunter syndrome that often kills people in their teens.
In two patients who got a medium dose of the treatment, urine levels of large sugar compounds that are hallmarks of Hunter syndrome had fallen by half, on average, four months latera possible sign the treatment is working. Two others who got a low dose have seen little change in these sugars so far.
There's no way to know yet whether the change in the middle-dose patients is due to the gene editing or something else, but the fact their sugars have declined consistently since treatment suggests it might be.
"I cannot absolutely say it's a treatment effect" but the drop is "really encouraging," said the study leader, Dr. Joseph Muenzer of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The main goal of early treatment studies is to test safety, though researchers also look for hints that the therapy is working. Muenzer gave the results at a conference in Greece and consults for the treatment's maker, California-based Sangamo Therapeutics.
In this Monday, Aug. 13, 2018 photo, Brian Madeux brushes his horse at his home in New River, Ariz. Madeux was the first person in the world to participate in a gene editing attempt in his body, for the inherited disease Hunter syndrome. Early partial results from the study were released on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Matt York)
The company's president, Dr. Sandy Macrae, said tests in about five months will reveal more, but the change in the middle-dose group so far "looks really good."
"The most rational explanation for this is that what we hoped was going to happen has happened," he said.
Several independent experts agreed.
"The results are exciting" and suggest that the gene editing is working to some degree, without safety concerns so far, said Dr. Howard Kaufman, a Boston scientist and member of a National Institutes of Health panel that reviewed the study before it began.
Dr. Matthew Porteus, a genetics expert at Stanford University who consults for two other companies developing gene therapies, said more time is needed to see how the patients' immune system continues to react to the treatment and whether the effects last, but added, "I would be excited about continuing to push along" based on these results.
In this Aug. 30, 2018 photo, Dr. Joseph Muenzer poses for a portrait at University of North Carolina Hospitals in Chapel Hill, N.C. He leads the first human tests of gene editing inside someone's body to try to cure an inherited disease. Early partial results from the study were released on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)
HOW IT WORKS
Gene editing is intended as a more precise way to do gene therapy, to knock out a bad gene or supply a good one that's missing. Doctors hope it will give a way to address a host of diseases that can't be treated well now.
In November, a Phoenix-area man with Hunter syndrome, Brian Madeux, became the first person to test this inside the body. He lacks a gene that makes an enzyme that breaks down certain large sugar compounds called GAGs. These build up in cells and cause havoc throughout the body.
Through an IV, Madeux received many copies of a corrective gene and a gene-editing tool called zinc finger nucleases to help put it in a precise spot in his DNA. He was one of the two patients given a very low dose of the treatment, because this first-in-human testing called for extreme caution.
EARLY RESULTS
In this Monday, Aug. 13, 2018 photo, Brian Madeux holds hand with his partner, Marcie Humphrey, at his home in New River, Ariz. Madeux was the first person in the world to participate in a gene editing attempt in his body, for the inherited disease Hunter syndrome. Early partial results from the study were released on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Matt York)
In Madeux and the other low-dose patient, levels of the tell-tale sugar compounds in urine rose 9 percent on average after four months. Muenzer said it's hard to know whether this is a significant change; little is known about the biology of these compounds, including whether they fluctuate during the day or before or after meals.
A liver biopsy on one patient given a low dose of the therapy found no evidence that the gene editing had occurred, but Sangamo scientists said this dose is far below the level at which such signs had been detected in research on primates.
Two other patients were given a middle dose that was twice what the first two patients received. Their GAG levels declined by 51 percent after four months, on average. Two of the main types of these sugars that accumulate in tissues declined 32 percent and 61 percent, respectively.
It is not yet known if declines like these can improve patients' health or slow the progression of the disease.
"This is not proof that this is a successful therapy yet, that these patients had enough gene editing to now supply them with the enzyme they need for the rest of their life," Muenzer said.
In this Monday, Aug. 13, 2018 photo, Brian Madeux prepares lunch at his home in New River, Ariz. Madeux was the first person in the world to participate in a gene editing attempt in his body, for the inherited disease Hunter syndrome. Early partial results from the study were released on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Matt York)
But he said an important goal was met: the treatment seems safe. There were two serious side effectsone patient was hospitalized for bronchitis and another for an irregular heartbeatbut those were deemed due to their disease and pre-existing conditions, not the gene treatment.
Blood tests did not detect the missing enzyme. Company scientists said this could be because any that was being made was rapidly used by cells rather than getting into the bloodstreaman explanation some outside experts agreed with. What counts, they said, was seeing the result of enzyme activity, the drop in sugars.
NEXT STEPS
Two more patients have been given the highest dose being tested10 times the starting dosefor a total of six patients in the study. The next step is to start taking patients off the weekly enzyme treatments they've been receiving to see if the gene therapy has changed their bodies so they make enough of the enzyme themselves.
More results are expected at a medical meeting in February.
In this Monday, Aug. 13, 2018 photo, Brian Madeux talks at his home in New River, Ariz. Madeux was the first person in the world to participate in a gene editing attempt in his body, for the inherited disease Hunter syndrome. Early partial results from the study were released on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Matt York)
"We need to see sustained levels for this to be practical. If this only works for six months, that's not very beneficial," Muenzer said. "Time's going to tell."
In an interview at his home in Arizona last month, Madeux, 45, told The Associated Press he volunteered for the study in hope of being able to stop the weekly, three-hour enzyme infusions, but also to help find a treatment for future generations with the disease.
"I'm old and having Hunter's has done a lot of damage to my body," Madeux said. "I'm actually pretty lucky I've lived this long."
Explore further Investigational genome editing therapy in clinical trial for Hunter syndrome
2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
Adult humans have many more blood-creating stem cells in their bone marrow than previously thought, ranging between 50,000 and 200,000 stem cells. Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and WellcomeMRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute developed a new approach for studying stem cells, based on methods used in ecology.
The results, published today (5 September) in Nature, present a new opportunity for studying, in humans, how stem cells throughout the body change during ageing and disease. Using whole genome sequencing to build and analyse a family tree of cells, this work could lead to insights into how cancers develop and why some stem cell therapies are more effective than others.
All of the organs in our body rely on stem cells in order to maintain their function. Adult stem cells found in tissues or organs are a self-sustaining population of cells whose offspring make all of the specialised cell types within a tissue.
Blood stem cells drive the production of blood, and are used in treatments and therapies such as bone marrow transplantationsa treatment for leukaemia that replaces cancerous blood cells with healthy blood stem cells.
However, blood stem cells in humans are not fully understood, with even some of the most basic questions, such as how many cells there are and how they change with age, not yet answered.
For the first time, scientists have been able to determine how many blood stem cells are actively contributing in a healthy human. Researchers adapted a method traditionally used in ecology for tracking population size to estimate that a healthy adult has between 50,000 and 200,000 stem cells contributing to their blood cells at any one time.
Dr. Peter Campbell, a joint senior author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "We discovered that healthy adults have between 50,000 and 200,000 blood stem cells, which is about ten times more than previously thought. Whereas previous estimates of blood stem cell numbers were extrapolated from studies in mice, cats or monkeys, this is the first time stem cell numbers have been directly quantified in humans. This new approach opens up avenues into studying stem cells in other human organs and how they change between health and disease, and as we age."
Scientists found the number of stem cells in the blood increases rapidly through childhood and reaches a plateau by adolescence. The number of stem cells stays relatively constant throughout adulthood.
In the study, researchers conducted whole genome sequencing on 140 blood stem cell colonies from a healthy 59 year-old man. The team adapted a capture-recapture method, traditionally used in ecology to monitor species populations, to 'tag' stem cells and compare them to the population of blood cells.
Henry Lee-Six, the first author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "We isolated a number of stem cells from the blood and bone marrow and sequenced their genomes to find mutations. The mutations act like barcodes, each of which uniquely tags a stem cell and its descendants. We then looked for these mutations in the rest of the blood to see what fraction of blood cells carry the same barcodes and from this, we could estimate how many stem cells there were in total."
Current methods for measuring stem cell population size typically involve genome engineering, meaning they are limited to model organisms, such as mice. By analysing naturally-occurring mutations in human cells, researchers can use the accumulation of mutations to track stem cells to see how stem cell dynamics change over a person's lifetime.
Dr. David Kent, a joint senior author from the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge, said: "This new approach is hugely flexible. Not only can we measure how many stem cells exist, we can also see how related they are to each other and what types of blood cells they produce. Applying this technique to samples from patients with blood cancers, we should now be able to learn how single cells outcompete normal cells to expand their numbers and drive a cancer. As the cost of genomic sequencing comes down, it is transforming scientific research such that studies previously thought to be impossibly large, are now becoming routine. It is a very exciting time to be working in this space."
Explore further Some blood stem cells are better than others
More information: Henry Lee-Six et al, Population dynamics of normal human blood inferred from somatic mutations, Nature (2018). Journal information: Nature Henry Lee-Six et al, Population dynamics of normal human blood inferred from somatic mutations,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0497-0
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
Home health care work is not only physically demanding, but also emotionally taxing. Home care workers do an enormous amount of emotional labor to keep clients feeling safe, calm and happy. This work can be rewarding but also very stressful. The stressful aspects often go unrecognized and are not reflected in job descriptions, training, or pay.
CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy researchers Emily Franzosa, a graduate of the doctoral program, and Assistant Professor Emma Tsui led a study examining home health workers' perceptions of the emotional effects of caring work, how they cope and how they would like to be supported by their employers. The findings were published in The Gerontologist.
The health care aides responded that more connection with their supervisors and the care team, as well as structural supports like paid time off, more control over their schedules, and access to counseling and mental health benefits would help them better cope with job-related stress.
Workers of all kinds are more likely to flourish on the job and stay productive when they are well-supported, Franzosa recently told Home Health Care News. Agencies should make this a priority, she said, especially as funding becomes more dependent on quality of care and patient satisfaction.
"Overwhelmingly, aides told us that they loved their jobs and their clients, but they needed more support. If we're going to retain a skilled, qualified workforce that can meet the needs of our aging population, we need to acknowledge aides' emotional labor, and build that into the way we train workers and supervisors, design care plans, and pay for care," Franzosa says.
Explore further Exercise program improves performance of daily activities for frail older adults
More information: Emily Franzosa et al. "Who's Caring for Us?": Understanding and Addressing the Effects of Emotional Labor on Home Health Aides' Well-being, The Gerontologist (2018). Emily Franzosa et al. "Who's Caring for Us?": Understanding and Addressing the Effects of Emotional Labor on Home Health Aides' Well-being,(2018). DOI: 10.1093/geront/gny099
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
It's hard to argue that hearing you have dementia is not deeply depressing. After all, most forms of dementia are progressive, fatal and, currently, untreatable.
But Philadelphia aging experts Laura Gitlin and Nancy Hodgson see hope. "There's always something you can do," said Hodgson, chair of gerontology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.
Gitlin, dean of the College of Nursing and Health Professions at Drexel University, said the lack of a medical cure doesn't mean that life for people with dementia and their caregivers can't be made better. She is appalled that primary-care doctors, who make most dementia diagnoses, are still telling patients there's nothing they can do for them. "That's just not acceptable," she said.
The duo, who previously worked together at Thomas Jefferson and Johns Hopkins Universities and the former Philadelphia Geriatric Center, collaborated on a new book, "Better Living with Dementia." It advocates for a multidisciplinary approach to dementia care that emphasizes helping patients find meaningful activities they can do at any stage of the disease. Gitlin and Hodgson say the book is meant for both professional and lay audiences, but the academic-press price tagonline it starts at $76will likely deter many family caregivers. Broadly, it calls for thinking in a systemic way about how professionals, family caregivers, and society can support people with dementiaand caregiversin their homes and communities.
Hodgson said that medical professionals are "typically very deficit-focused." They look for weaknesses that can be fixed. Given the lack of treatments for dementia, she said, it makes more sense to find "preserved strengths" and help patients use them as long as possible. Strategies that focus on using strengths to create meaningful activities can decrease social isolation, agitation, and boredom, Gitlin said. They work better than any drug now available. "There is no drug for boredom," she said. "There is no drug for resisting care."
While they sympathize about the time pressures many doctors face, Gitlin and Hodgson said newly diagnosed patients and their families need much better education than they're getting about dementia, an umbrella term for several types of progressive cognitive decline, including Alzheimer's disease. At the very least, they should be told how to contact the Alzheimer's Association, which has sound educational materials and support groups. Other organizations also support people with frontotemporal or Lewy body dementias.
Yes, many people can easily search for these things online, but, Gitlin and Hodgson said, some elderly caregivers can't and many others don't. If caregivers don't understand the disease and how it progresses, they have an especially hard time understanding a loved one's behavior and responding appropriately.
Gitlin suggests that caregivers who have the moneyinsurance likely won't cover thishire a geriatric social worker to assess their needs and help with long-term planning. Families need to think about safety, who will provide care, and where their loved one with dementia will live as the illness worsens.
Hodgson thinks families can also benefit from an evaluation by an occupational therapist who is specifically trained in cognitive function. Insurance might cover this if a doctor writes a prescription. This kind of therapist can help people know what someone with dementia can still do and what is no longer safe.
Families often learn the hard way that someone with dementia should no longer be driving or using the stove. Guns should be locked and monitored, if not banished from the house. Gitlin said families find it very hard to get rid of guns when, say, a former police officer gets dementia. "People struggle with this because they feel it's a way of taking away a person's identity," she said.
People with dementia often just sit around all day, Hodgson said.
This is where an evaluation can help families create meaningful activities. They may seem time-consuming, Hodgson said, but they pay off in better behavior.
Gitlin said an occupational therapist learned that an agitated man in an adult day center had been an accountant. The center workers gave him a desk and a spreadsheet. Then they gave him money from the previous day to count and sort. He began looking forward to helping out each day.
Another therapist helped a family set up a desk for an architect with dementia. They asked him to design a room each day. Other people might enjoy putting a salad together even if they can no longer follow a recipe or safely chop vegetables.
Gitlin said doctors need to stop saying there's nothing that can be done for dementia. "There's a lot you can do," she said, "and you can make life better."
Explore further Clinicians should address needs of family caregivers of persons with dementia
2018 The Philadelphia Inquirer
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
South African national currency plummeted under the pressure of emerging market jitters in Turkey and Argentina.
Nene says government's message is clear.
Economists consider two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth a "technical recession".
"The trade, catering and accommodation industry decreased by 1.9% and contributed -0,3 of a percentage point to GDP growth".
According to Statistics South Africa, agricultural production declined by 29.2 percent, while the transport, communication and storage sector dropped 4.9 percent.
Continued drought conditions in Western Cape and a severe hailstorm in Mpumalanga, resulting in extensive crop damage, also placed additional pressure on production in the second quarter.
The contraction was driven largely by the primary sector with agriculture offsetting the positive growth in the mining sector.
While the secondary sector, which is made up of manufacturing, electricity and construction saw some growth, this was damped by a 0.3% contraction in the manufacturing sector.
This is despite expectations from many economists that SA would narrowly miss a recession.
"In an election year, seeing the economy officially entering a recession for the first time since 2009 is probably the last thing that Ramaphosa wants", he said.
The South African rand lost 2.3 percent on Tuesday, nearing a two-year low.
The direction of travel of the economy now means the government can not afford to waste time in implementing market-friendly policies, while it would also do well to jettison those populist policies that diminish the view of South Africa as an attractive investment destination amongst global investors.
In addition, a softer global environment and an uptick in emerging market turmoil on the back of Turkey, Argentina and Russian Federation, have impacted negatively on South Africa and dragged the growth numbers down. Since assuming office, Mr Ramaphosa has been struggling with pulling the economy from the precipice after more than a decade of decline.
But he said that government is working on a plan to finalise the structural reform package. "For a consumer-based economy, where households contribute upwards of 66% to economic growth, this movement is notably worrying", Ackerman said.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
The HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis medication known as PrEP is currently recommended for the prevention of HIV acquisition in populations at higher risk such as gay and bisexual men (GBM). The number of eligible and recommended people taking PrEP, about 136,000 people as of mid-2017, is a significantly small percentage of the number at risk for HIV about 1.2 million individuals. Although the rate of adoption of PrEP has been increasing over the last several years, with prescriptions having increased 73 percent each year since 2012, there remain concerns that those who are on PrEP may not adhere to the regimen well enough to benefit from its protection. Adherence to a daily PrEP regimen ensures its maximum protective effect, so it is critical to understand how GBM respond and possibly adjust their behavior in the event of missed PrEP doses. In a paper published in the journal AIDS Education and Prevention, CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy Professor Christian Grov and colleagues examine how users respond when their PrEP regimen is interrupted.
Grov and a team of researchers conducted one-on-one qualitative interviews with 104 GBM in New York City who were on a daily PrEP regimen. Each participant was asked how they "made up" for missed doses, as well as their reflections on how having missed doses impacted their subsequent sexual behavior, if it did. Using thematic analysis, the researchers identified three distinct, but sometimes overlapping, behavioral responses to having missed a PrEP dose: 59 percent of participants reported continuing with their next dose as scheduled, 49 percent described 'making up' for a missed dose by taking the medication as soon as possible, within 24 hours of its scheduled dosing time, and 11 percent reported 'doubling' their next PrEP dose. When asked whether participants made adjustments to their sexual behavior in response to a missed dose of PrEP, participants provided varied narratives about their behavior after a PrEP regimen interruption. 54 percent reported making no changes to their sexual behavior, 49 percent described adjusting their sexual behavior to minimize risk, and 10 percent said the decision to adjust behavior would be contingent upon how many doses were missed. Many of the participants reported engaging in multiple behavioral responses.
The study found that, for the most part, participants took the PrEP medication in accordance to clinical guidelines. Even when missing a dose, their 'make up' methods paralleled recommended courses of action. Currently, CDC guidelines suggest that, in the event of a missed dose, patients should take their pill as soon as they rememberunless this would mean taking two pills within a few hours of each other, in which case patients are advised to wait until their next regularly scheduling dosing time. While participants' beliefs on how to medically mitigate the effect of a missed dose were in line with current guidelines, participants varied in their reports of how best to navigate sexual behavioral response to minimize HIV risk in after a missed dose, particularly in reference to specific sex acts (e.g., oral versus anal sex). In terms of sexual behavior, Grov explains that participants understood that PrEP was "forgiving" of the occasional missed dose and thus some said they would not change their sexual behavior. For those that did change their sexual behavior, it was always in a way to reduce HIV risk (e.g., abstain from sex, engage in oral sex instead of anal sex, use a condom) but there wasn't universal agreement on how "much" someone should change their sexual behavior.
The results of the study highlight that PrEP users make decisions about sexual behavior based on an assessment of their protection from PrEP. Though most participants understood that their protection from PrEP decreased with multiple missed doses, there was considerable variation in their beliefs about how much protection was retained for given sex acts. The paper points out that this ambiguity marks not only an important opportunity for healthcare providers serving GBM that are on a PrEP regimen to provide guidance, but also the need for clearer pharmacological data about how variations in PrEP blood concentrations protects against HIV across a variety of sex acts in the hours and days since a dosing lapse began.
Grov suggests that further research in this niche is necessary. "What messages do we need to send to people on PrEP about how safe or unsafe certain behaviors are should they miss one or more doses?" Grov says, suggesting the direction of future research.
Explore further The perception of PrEP as an excuse for promiscuity
More information: Christian Grov et al. How Do Gay and Bisexual Men Make Up for Missed PrEP Doses, and What Impact Does Missing a Dose Have on Their Subsequent Sexual Behavior?, AIDS Education and Prevention (2018). Journal information: AIDS Education and Prevention Christian Grov et al. How Do Gay and Bisexual Men Make Up for Missed PrEP Doses, and What Impact Does Missing a Dose Have on Their Subsequent Sexual Behavior?,(2018). DOI: 10.1521/aeap.2018.30.4.275
Credit: stock.adobe.com
Diagnostic errors occur in roughly 10%-15% of patient encounters and are a cause of significant morbidity and mortality. In a new study, Yale researchers found significant gaps in training and reporting of diagnostic errors among physicians in internal medicine.
The investigators, led by Dr. Thilan Wijesekera, surveyed residents and attending physicians practicing in Connecticut hospitals. They asked the physicians questions about both their education and experiences reporting diagnostic error, which is defined as "the failure to (a) establish an accurate and timely explanation of the patient's health problem(s) or (b) communicate that explanation to the patient." Among their findings:
One in five physicians were never taught how to discuss diagnostic errors with patients
Errors were most commonly addressed through informal feedback but in some cases (9%), they were not addressed at all
Many physicians (40.9%) were uncomfortable reporting errors
Nearly half (42.8%) found their current reporting system unhelpful
The survey results point to inconsistent training to report errors, no unified reporting system, and widespread discomfort with reporting. The researchers call for improving education and comfort with reporting in order to reduce errors and enhance patient care, they said.
Explore further Survey reveals reasons doctors avoid online error-reporting tools
More information: Education and Reporting of Diagnostic Errors Among Physicians in Internal Medicine Training Programs. JAMA Intern Med. September 4, 2018. Journal information: JAMA Internal Medicine Education and Reporting of Diagnostic Errors Among Physicians in Internal Medicine Training Programs.. September 4, 2018. DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.4184
Emma Baker, now 19, had a cardiac arrest in the 8th grade. Photo courtesy: Baker family
After correctly spelling the first word given to her at an eighth-grade spelling bee, Emma Baker walked back to her seat, sat down and promptly collapsed onto the shoulder of another young contestant.
Emma was in cardiac arrest.
The mother of another student was in the audience and happened to be an EMT. She immediately rushed to Emma's aid. So did her school principal, a former firefighter. The two administered CPR until paramedics arrived to continue the rescue efforts, including using an AED to shock her heart.
It took 45 minutes.
Emma's mom, Cate, was in Atlanta on business that day in January 2013. She was in her hotel room and had been texting with her daughter, who was excited about the spelling bee.
"Then, 15 minutes after texting with Emma, I get a phone call," she said. "Her vice principal says, 'Cate, there's been an incident.' And I said, 'What did Emma do?'"
At that point, the vice principal explained that Emma hadn't done anything wrong but was in medical distress. He asked Cate several questions about her daughter's health history.
But, Cate said, he left out some big details.
"He didn't tell me that she wasn't breathing. He didn't tell me that they were doing CPR," Cate said. "He said, 'You need to get someone here right away.' And then he got off the phone."
Cate contacted her company, which immediately put her on a private plane back home to Kansas. Emma went into a coma after the cardiac arrest.
"The doctors said there's going to be major organ damage for her not having a heartbeat for 45 minutes," Cate said. "They told us that if Emma did wake up, that she wouldn't be the same Emma."
Doctors also told the family that she would have to learn many things all over again, even simple tasks like eating.
This proved to be the low point because, soon enough, things reversed course and began heading in a more positive direction.
"The first thing I remember," said Emma, now 19, "is waking up in the hospital and them telling me I had to go to therapy."
Cate knew things were going to be OK when the doctor told Emma she had to learn how to eat again, and she asked for french fries.
She chewed and swallowed them like any hungry teenager.
"This is a miracle," the doctor said. "You're fine."
Other doctors would subsequently reach the same prognosis as Emma defied the odds.
A cardiologist told the family that Emma's cardiac arrest was caused by catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, a heart disease that has been linked to sudden infant death syndrome. The condition is characterized by an abnormal heartbeat, also known as an arrhythmia, that can be triggered by excessive physical activity or emotional stress.
An estimated 6,000 to 8,000 people under age 18and about 350,000 people in the U.S. overallsuffer cardiac arrests outside of hospitals each year. About one in 10 survives. However, their chances of survival can double or even triple if they receive CPR.
That's why the Bakers have been active in spreading the word about Hands-Only CPR, promoting the lifesaving technique at schools, festivals and more. Hands-Only CPR requires only two steps: If you see a teen or adult collapse, call 911, then push hard and fast in the center of the chest, preferably to the beat of the disco song "Stayin' Alive," until help arrives.
Emma also encouraged her state legislators to make CPR training a mandatory requirement for high school graduation. In December, a unanimous vote of the Kansas Board of Education made it the 38th state to require CPR training in school.
Explore further Performing CPR can double or triple a cardiac arrest victim's chance of survival
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: National Cancer Institute
After a week with a dry cough, 16-year-old Ian McCracken started experiencing middle-of-the-night coughing fits so severe, he couldn't talk. He returned home from his first trip to the urgent care clinic in mid-July with an inhaler and a five-day course of steroids.
The coughing fits didn't abate, and after a few days, Ian jumped out of bed and got his mom's attention by clapping his hands, unable to get any words out. The Decatur, Ga., teenager gasped for air, tears running down his face.
His mother, Karen Andes, took her son to another doctor, who suggested Ian may have reflux.
But a combination of Andes' medical background (she's an assistant professor of global health at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University) and a mother's intuition told her something else was tormenting her sonpertussis, also known as whooping cough.
Whooping cough, a potentially life-threatening childhood illness, all but disappeared in the 1940s after a vaccine was developed. But in recent decades, the illness has been making a comeback. Changes in the vaccine and waning immunity are likely contributing to the resurgence of the illness, according to experts.
In recent years, there have been outbreaks not seen since the 1950s.
In 2012, the United States had the highest number of whooping cough cases in more than 50 years with 48,277 reported cases and 20 deaths. Most of the deaths occurred among infants, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Georgia, there were 318 cases in 2012, which included no deaths. Since then, there have been three whooping cough-related deaths (two in 2013 and one in 2016) in Georgia, and all of the deaths involved babies.
Last year, there was a total of 163 reported cases of whooping cough in Georgia, according to the CDC. And this year through Aug. 21, there have been a total of 102 cases, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.
The highly contagious respiratory illness is not always on the radar of doctors and can be mistaken for a cold, bronchitis, reflux. The Georgia Department of Health said it's not uncommon for someone to see two, even three doctors before getting a proper diagnosis.
Andes insisted on getting her son tested for whooping cough. Results from a nose culture came back positive.
"At first, I felt relieved, and even a bit proud of myself," said Andes, "but then the reality sunk in that we may be in for more difficult nights."
The older vaccine for whooping cough was phased out in the late 1990s. It carried a high risk of serious but temporary side effects like pain and swelling at the site of injection, as well as serious complications such as febrile convulsions, which are fits or seizures caused by a sudden change in a child's body temperature, and loss of consciousness. One study by researchers at Kaiser Permanente's Vaccine Study Center in Oakland, Calif., found the newer pertussis vaccine, while safer and with fewer side effects than the older version, is not as effective.
The 2016 study from Kaiser Permanente's Vaccine Study Center found that the booster vaccine known as Tdap provides moderate protection against whooping cough during the first year after vaccination, but its effectiveness wanes to less than 9 percent after four years among teenagers who have received only a newer form of the whooping cough vaccine (known as acellular pertussis vaccine) as infants and children.
Pertussis can cause serious illness in people of all ages and can even be life-threatening, especially in babies. About half of babies under 1 year of age who get pertussis need treatment in a hospital, according to the CDC. The illness can have a lasting effect on lung function, leaving people with shortness of breath.
Meanwhile, a team of researchers, including scientists from the University of Georgia, found in a new study while some people lose immunity relatively quickly, the vaccine can be protective for many decades. The study, published in a March issue of Science Translational Medicine, also found the dwindling number of people still alive who survived pertussis infections in the days before vaccination and therefore gained lifelong immunity, is also playing a role in the resurgence. When the vaccine was first introduced in the 1940s, there were very high rates of vaccination, which led to an overall decrease in transmission.
Senior author Pejman Rohani, who has a joint appointment in the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine and the Odum School of Ecology, said the number of people who are susceptible to contracting pertussis is slowly risingsetting the stage for an increase in the number of new cases, especially in older individuals. This is known as the "end of the honeymoon" period, he said.
And even though the effectiveness of vaccines may wane over time, experts say people should still make sure to get them. Skipping the vaccines, Rohani said, "would be a terrible idea, especially the routine scheduled and maternal vaccination."
He added that researchers are still working on deciding whether people should get more frequent booster vaccinations.
Meanwhile, Ian, who was fully vaccinated against whooping cough, completed a round of antibiotics and is doing better. But he still has a lingering cough, and a full recovery could take months.
After Ian's diagnosis, Andes notified City of Decatur schools about her son's illness. It was over summer break, but Ian was participating in a high school band camp and was around other high school students. City of Decatur Schools spokesperson Courtney Burnett said a letter was sent to parents of students at Decatur High School informing them of the illness. Burnett said the school system is not aware of any other whooping cough cases.
Andes, who also got whooping cough (likely from her son) but was treated early before symptoms got severe, is sharing her family's story to help raise awareness about whooping cough.
She wants families to know the following: don't assume you can't get whooping cough because you've been vaccinated; whooping cough not only affects babies; early treatment is key (not only may it help reduce the severity or the length of the illness, it prevents spreading the illness to others); and whooping cough "doesn't always whoop," particularly in adolescents and adults. Her son burped for air after each attack. She checked his fingernailsand they were purplish-blue near the cuticles because he wasn't getting enough oxygen.
"Each episode was very scary. It was absolutely terrifying," she said. "Our journey is not over yet, but I have learned a lot."
VACCINATION RECOMMENDATIONS
The CDC recommends pertussis (also called whooping cough) vaccines for people of all ages. Babies and children should get five doses of DTaP for maximum protection. DTaP is a vaccine that helps children younger than age 7 develop immunity to three deadly diseases caused by bacteria: diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough (pertussis).
Healthcare professionals give a dose of DTaP at 2, 4 and 6 months, at 15 through 18 months, and again at 4 through 6 years. They give children a booster dose known as Tdap to preteens at 11 or 12 years old.
Teens or adults who didn't get Tdap as a preteen should get one dose. Getting Tdap is especially important for pregnant women during the third trimester of each pregnancy. It's also important that those who care for babies are up-to-date with pertussis vaccination.
You can get the Tdap booster dose no matter when you got your last regular tetanus and diphtheria booster shot (Td). Also, you need to get Tdap even if you got pertussis vaccines as a child or have been sick with pertussis in the past.
- The Impact of Anti-Vaxxers on the Comeback of Whooping Cough
Even though children who haven't received DTaP vaccines are at least eight times more likely to get whooping cough than children who received all five recommended doses of DTaP, they are not the driving force behind the large-scale outbreaks or epidemics, according to the CDC. Even so, their parents are putting their children at greater risk of getting whooping cough and possibly spreading the illness to others.
WHOOPING COUGHKNOW THE SIGNS
Whooping cough starts like the common cold, with a runny nose or congestion, sneezing, and maybe a mild cough or fever. But after one to two weeks, severe coughing can begin and can include many rapid coughs followed by a high-pitched "whoop" sound. It's important to note not everyone with pertussis will cough and many who cough will not "whoop." Babies may not cough at all though. Instead, they have trouble breathing.
Source: CDC
2018 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Atlanta, Ga.)
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The scientific team of the Zika virus study (from left to right): Pietro Scaturro, Prof. Andreas Pichlmair and Dr. Alexey Stukalov. Credit: Astrid Eckert / Technical University of Munich
In healthy individuals, the Zika virus causes flu-like symptoms. If a pregnant woman becomes infected, the unborn child can suffer from severe brain abnormalities as a result of mechanisms that have not yet been explained. A study by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (MPI-B) shows that Zika virus proteins bind to cellular proteins that are required for neural development.
A few years ago, Zika virus spread across South America, posing a health issue with global impact. A significant number of South American women who contracted the virus via mosquito bite at the start of their pregnancy subsequently gave birth to children with severe disabilities. The babies suffered from a condition known as microcephaly, causing the underdevelopment of the brain. This can lead to intellectual disabilities and other serious neurological disorders.
Scientists proved that these deformities are caused by Zika virus infections, but so far, they have been unable to explain why. Andreas Pichlmair, Chair for Viral Immunopathology at TUM, and his team from the TUM Institute of Virology and MPI-B have examined how Zika virus influences human brain cells. They identified the virus proteins with the potential to affect neuronal development in the developing brain.
Dangerous side-effect of virus replication
"Zika virus is closely related to the hepatitis C virus and certain tropical diseases such as Dengue and West Nile virus. It is, however, the only virus that causes brain damage in newborns," explains Pichlmair, who headed the recent study published in the science journal Nature.
The researchers discovered that the virus uses certain cellular proteins to replicate its own genome. These molecules are also important neurological factors in the process of stem cells developing into nerve cells. "Our findings suggest that the virus takes these factors away from brain development and uses them to replicate its genome, which prevents the brain from developing properly," explains the virologist.
When the team headed by Pichlmair removed the factors in the cells, it was harder for the virus to replicate. The researchers were able to demonstrate which virus proteins come in contact with these development factors, causing brain defects. "Previous studies revealed the virus proteins necessary for the packaging or replication of the viral genome, but it was enigmatic to understand how these proteins influence neuronal development. It appears that viral proteins are responsible for causing the serious defects in the unbornunintentionally, we presume," says Pichlmair.
Clear picture of the virus infection
In their comprehensive proteomics survey, the research team identified cellular proteins that were altered chemically or numerically by the virus or which bound to virus proteins. In this way, they were able to illustrate possible reasons for the caused deformities, and also obtained a very clear picture of how the virus reprograms the cell to use it for its own replication.
The influence of Zika virus on the cell was found to be dramatic: Nine percent of all cellular proteins were chemically altered, and virus proteins interacted with more than 380 cellular proteins. "Our comprehensive dataset will hopefully lead the way for other scientists to develop therapeutic approaches for the elimination of Zika or related viruses," says Pichlmair.
Explore further Zika, West Nile cases reported in Alabama
More information: Pietro Scaturro et al, An orthogonal proteomic survey uncovers novel Zika virus host factors, Nature (2018). Journal information: Nature Pietro Scaturro et al, An orthogonal proteomic survey uncovers novel Zika virus host factors,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0484-5
As per Mike Puma of the New York Post, New York Mets reliever Anthony Swarzak is likely to return on the Mets next homestand.
The Mets return home from their nine-game road trip on Friday when they begin a three-game set with the Philadelphia Phillies.
Swarzak, 32, signed a two-year, $14 million deal with the Mets this past offseason after splitting the 2017 season with the White Sox and the Brewers.
The right-hander has pitched in just 22 games in 2018 while dealing with injuries (oblique, shoulder), owning a 6.00 earned-run average, 10.3 strikeouts and 4.3 walks per nine innings, respectively.
Swarzak made a rehab appearance with Short Season-A Brooklyn on Monday night, pitching one inning with two strikeouts.
According to Reuters, there are about 500 passengers on board.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now investigating to see what could have caused the illness.
Officials from Emirates airline said 10 passengers had taken ill.
Sick passengers on an global flight that landed at Kennedy Airport Wednesday forced the plane to be quarantined while investigators determined the cause of possible illness.
Makki, a television host from Dubai, said she got "just a little bit scared" through the entire experience and was aware of reports of 100 people sick.
Seven crew members and five passengers were taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, a Port Authority source said.
'On arrival, as a precaution, they were attended to by local health authorities.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 100 of the 520 people aboard the plane had complained of illness, including cough and fever.
All of the passengers were screened by the local health authorities prior to disembarkation, with nine requiring additional medical screening, but were later released. The safety & care of our customers is our first priority.
Emirates announced Wednesday that 10 passengers were taken ill on a 14-hour flight from Dubai to NY, where the aircraft was met by USA health authorities.
He said that all passengers had their temperature taken as they deplaned.
Another passenger tweeted: "Worst flight ever Dubai to NYC; plane was basically a flying infirmary". "They should never had been allowed to board". Images of the plane shared by media and Twitter users show it in a standing area, away from any terminal, surrounded by ambulances and police. It was a direct flight from Dubai and did not make a stop in Mecca as the NY mayor's office erroneously reported earlier.
Factions fighting for the control of the Libyan capital have reached a ceasefire following over a week-long armed struggle that have killed dozens of people and displaced hundreds, the UN Special mission in the North African country said on Tuesday.
A ceasefire agreement was reached + signed today to end all hostilities, the U.N. mission in Libya said on Twitter.
According to the tweet, the agreement aims to end all hostilities, protect civilians, safeguard public and private property.
It is unclear if fighting have subdued.
Fighting erupted last week when the Seventh Brigade, militias which hail from Tarhouna, a town about 60 km south of Tripoli, attacked southern neighborhoods of the capital. The Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigades and the Nawasi Brigade militias supporting the UN-backed government have come to the citys defense.
Fighting have killed over 60 people and injured at least 150 people, according to the PC-aligned ministry of health. Some 1,800 people fled the area.
The UN-brokered ceasefire came after the Presidential Council (PC) declared the state of emergency in the capital early this week when fighting hit the capital airport and damaged the oil facilities.
The UN also Tuesday said the Mitiga airport, which was closed on Friday, would be reopened under the deal.
As fighting raged last week, France, the U.S., Britain and Italy issued a joint a statement calling for a ceasefire and threatening to hold accountable the warring factions for attempts to weaken the PC.
The European Union had also called on all Libyan parties to cease immediately the hostilities raging in Tripoli and surrounding areas, pointing out that the escalating violence is further undermining the already fragile situation in Libya and that only a political process can bring a comprehensive, stable and sustainable solution to the crisis in Libya.
The European Union will continue to work with the United Nations and other international and regional partners to strengthen Libyas sovereign institutions, to help implement elections based on an adequate and solid constitutional framework, and create professional security forces under civilian control, said High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini following a phone call Monday with UN Special EnvoyGhassan Salame.
Turkey also on Sunday voiced concern over the clashes. The Turkish foreign ministry said it supports all ceasefire efforts seeking to restore peace and security in Tripoli.
NOTICE:
TO BE CLEAR:
WE HAVE OUTLINED UNDER OUR RECORD MAINTENANCE POLICY WHAT WE BELIEVE TO BE A FAIR PROCESS FOR ALL. SIMPLY PUT: IF THE COURT SAW FIT TO EXPUNGE YOUR RECORD,SO WILL WE, FREE OF CHARGE. ARRESTS DO NOT IMPLY GUILT AND CRIMINAL CHARGES ARE MERELY ACCUSATIONS,EVERYONE IS PRESUMED INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY IN A COURT OF LAW AND CONVICTED. FCRA DISCLAIMER: MUGSHOTS.COM DOES NOT PROVIDE CONSUMER REPORTS AND IS NOT A CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCY. OUR DATABASE CANNOT BE USED TO MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT CONSUMER CREDIT, EMPLOYMENT, INSURANCE, TENANT SCREENING, OR ANY OTHER PURPOSES THAT WOULD REQUIRE FCRA COMPLIANCE. MUGSHOTS.COM PARTICIPATES IN AFFILIATE PROGRAMS WITH VARIOUS COMPANIES. WE MAY EARN A COMMISSION WHEN YOU CLICK ON OR MAKE PURCHASES VIA LINKS. MUGSHOTS.COM IS AN AGGREGATOR OF THE TODAYS CRIME NEWS. IN EACH FRONT-PAGE POST, THE HYPERLINK TO THE PRIMARY SOURCE IS SPECIFIED. ALL TRADEMARKS BELONG TO THEIR RIGHTFUL OWNERS, ALL MATERIALS TO THEIR AUTHORS. IF YOU ARE THE OWNER OF THE CONTENT AND DO NOT WANT US TO PUBLISH YOUR MATERIALS, PLEASE CONTACT US BY EMAIL mugshots.com1@gmail.com. THE CONTENT WILL BE DELETED WITHIN 48 HOURS.
MUGSHOTS.COM IS A NEWS ORGANIZATION. WE POST AND WRITE THOUSANDS OF NEWS STORIES A YEAR, MOST WANTED STORIES, EDITORIALS (UNDER CATEGORIES - BLOG) AND STORIES OF EXONERATIONS. OUR CONTENT REVOLVES AROUND CRIME, ARRESTS AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT. WE BELIEVE IN THE CONSTITUTION AND OUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT TO PUBLISH UNPOPULAR SPEECH. OPEN RECORD LAWS WERE WRITTEN TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC; BY INFORMING THE PUBLIC OF ARRESTS AND TO HOLD LAW ENFORCEMENT ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE HUMANE TREATMENT OF ARRESTEES. MOST OF, IF NOT ALL MUGSHOT LAWS WERE CRAFTED TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC FROM FEES FOR REMOVAL OF ONLINE MUGSHOTS AND TO FURTHER PROTECT THE PRESS FROM THOSE VERY SAME "MUGSHOT LAWS".WE DO NOT ACCEPT PAYMENT FOR REMOVAL OF ARREST INFORMATION AND/OR BOOKING PHOTOGRAPHS. MORE...
ARCHIVED - 318 migrant deaths in the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain this year
The figure has almost tripled in comparison to the same period in 2017
The flood of migrants attempting to enter EU territory by crossing the Mediterranean to Spain from northern Africa continues to reach record levels, with well over 20,000 having been intercepted so far this year, and at the same time another even more sobering statistic is that by the end of July at least 318 would-be immigrants had died while attempting the voyage.
This figure was made public earlier in the week to coincide with the third anniversary of the death of Alan Kurdi, the 3-year-old Syrian boy who drowned off the coast of Turkey and who made headlines when images of his lifeless body were published. Unfortunately it seems that three years later the huge outpouring of sadness and outrage which followed, the brave words spoken have led to little improvement in the situation, and the figure of migrant deaths between Africa and Spain this year is almost three times as high as in the same period in 2017.
At the same time, 1,095 people have died en route to Italy and 99 while attempting to reach Greece.
The data were published by the UNs refugee agency ACNUR, who also report that in the first seven months of this year 27,600 immigrants reached Spain, 23,800 of them by sea. This compares to just 12,100 in the equivalent period last year, and the latest total is higher than those reported in Greece (26,000) and Italy (18,500).
Among those reaching Spain 3,100 were of Guinean nationality, while 2,600 were Moroccans, 2,200 came from Mali, 1,200 from Ivory Coast and 1,000 from Syria.
Follow Murcia Today on Facebook to keep up to date with all the latest news, events and information in the Region of Murcia and the rest of Spain: https://www.facebook.com/MurciaToday/
-->
The Johannesburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE) announced that its Agile Africa 2018 conference will take place on 1-2 October 2018 at the Wanderers Club in Illovo, Johannesburg.
The conference will feature a number of South African, African and international speakers, including Sonja Blignaut, Selena Delesie, and Mitch Lacey.
JCSE director Prof. Barry Dwolatzky said that Agile Africa will be hosted by Wits Universitys JCSE for the sixth year in a row.
We will be the title sponsor for the sixth year and are very excited to host a conference that is a pivotal indicator of the importance of Agile in the digital economy, Dwolatzky said.
The super-early bird and early bird tickets are sold out for the conference and only a limited number of tickets are still available for sale.
You can sign up for the Agile Africa conference on the official website.
Now read: South African Linux and Postgres conferences planned for October
Free Wi-Fi has become a marketing tool for restaurants, shopping centers, and hotels to attract customers and create a better user experience.
While free Wi-Fi has value, many companies which offer such a service do it so poorly that many consumers would rather use their own mobile data, which costs them money.
Some of the biggest complaints when it comes to free Wi-Fi is the laborious process to use the service, and poor speeds.
Many companies require a lot of personal details before a user can use the service, which includes your name, surname, birthdate, email address, and mobile number.
This information is often used for direct marketing purposes, and people are understandably hesitant to share their details.
Poor speeds are another challenge, with some hotels and restaurants limiting downloads to 1Mbps to stop high-end users abusing the network.
These speeds are too low for a good online experience, however, and it is therefore no surprise that users avoid logging in.
Free Wi-Fi tested
To see which local companies do free Wi-Fi well, MyBroadband tested the services offered by well-known stores.
The tests showed that Starbucks easily came out on top.
Woolworths, Sandton City, and Brooklyn Mall, on the other hand, showed why people prefer to use their mobile data connections instead of free Wi-Fi services.
The difference between Starbucks and the rest is the simple sign-on process, and the great performance it offers users.
With most free Wi-Fi providers, including Woolworths and Sandton City, a long form awaits those who want to connect.
In comparison, Starbucks uses a simple page with a button which states Connect. After clicking this button, you can use their service without any further interaction.
Starbucks stores, with backhaul links between 100Mbps and 1Gbps, also offer much higher speeds than their rivals.
Free Wi-Fi test results
The screenshots below show the sign-on process and speed offered by several companies offering free Wi-Fi.
Starbucks
Woolworths
Sandton City and Brooklyn Mall
Heavy opposition from neighbors convinced the St. Helena Planning Commission on Tuesday to reject an application for a short-term rental on Kearney Street.
Eric and Erica Sklar applied for a short-term rental permit for their house at 1610 Kearney St. Erica Sklar told the commission that renters would be vetted to ensure that they will respect our home, our belongings and our neighborhood.
The residents of at least nine nearby homes wrote letters opposing the permit, citing concerns about safety, noise, traffic and limited parking in the neighborhood, which is close to St. Helena Elementary School and RLS Middle School. Six neighbors spoke against the project during Tuesdays hearing.
It just doesnt feel right to have a hotel on the corner where my children play, said Dagan Janev, who lives a few doors down.
A few letters also mentioned Eric Sklars involvement in Napa Valley Fume, a marijuana business.
The level of opposition convinced the commission to deny the Sklars application with a 3-0 vote.
I just think we need to listen to the neighborhood in this case, said Commissioner Bobbi Monnette, adding that the city should reevaluate its short-term rental ordinance.
In other action, the commission recommended that the City Council adopt changes to the citys zoning code that would broaden the types of businesses that can operate in the downtown and service-commercial zones without a use permit.
The changes, which the commission first reviewed in March, would add clothing stores, bakeries, furniture stores and ice cream shops to the list of permitted uses that dont require a use permit. It also creates broad new categories for General Retail and Office use, which would also be considered permitted uses.
The current list of permitted and conditional uses dates back to the 1993 General Plan and includes inconsistencies, outdated language involving video rental stores, and questionable policies such as allowing a tobacconist to operate without a use permit.
(Editors note: Eric Sklars Napa Valley Fume has no connection with the restaurant Fume Bistro in north Napa.)
The city of St. Helena has released a Downtown Economic Strategy with 20 recommendations on how to help downtown merchants.
The strategy, based on recommendations from the economic consulting firm Kosmont Companies, calls for improving physical infrastructure to make the downtown more attractive, simplifying the citys development review and permitting process, and using various methods to attract more potential shoppers downtown.
The strategy was posted on the citys website on Friday. City Manager Mark Prestwich will present it to the City Council on Tuesday, Sept. 11, and seek direction on prioritizing the recommendations as immediate (within six months), near-term (6-12 months) or longer-term (12 plus months).
Some of the recommendations are already in the works, including new sidewalks scheduled to be installed in spring 2021 and a public restroom on Money Way scheduled to break ground this fall. The city and the Chamber of Commerce are already working on more community events like the upcoming St. Helena Jingle All The Way and a potential Hometown Harvest Potluck modeled on the impromptu community potluck that followed last years fires.
The report also recommends expanding the types of businesses that can open without a use permit, which the Planning Commission was set to discuss on Tuesday night.
Other recommendations could be enacted quickly, like helping merchants improve their facades and make interior tenant improvements.
Weve taken a number of ideas that have been independently floating around and organized them into a single strategy, Prestwich said.
Many of the recommendations boil down to investing love in downtown, he said.
To address St. Helenas many vacant storefronts, the report advises the city to fund an online marketing portal to promote available spaces to a wider audience of real estate professionals, investors and businesses.
The report also proposes allowing Napa Valley Wine Train passengers to shop downtown, as part of a two-year pilot project. The train is already disembarking passengers in St. Helena, but they are immediately loaded onto buses and taken out of town.
The more expensive, long-term recommendations involve building infill housing on underutilized properties, rebuilding City Hall on its current parcel to establish a northern anchor for downtown, and asking the City Council to consider Kosmonts suggestion of a high-end hotel within walking distance of downtown.
The strategy mentions the Adams Street property and the citys Railroad Avenue property as possible hotel sites.
As with in-fill housing opportunities, a walkable hotel site presents the opportunity to help sustain downtown businesses that today already rely on a mix of local and visitor shoppers, the report states.
Aside from whether the city approves a new hotel, the city could help existing hotels pay for capital improvements to help them attract more guests, Prestwich said.
The reports recommendations are grouped in the categories Place, Process and People.
Place
Invest in public infrastructure improvements to enhance the pedestrian experience.
- Complete downtown sidewalk and streetscape improvement project (scheduled for spring 2021)
- Pursue pedestrian alley beautification
- Launch downtown facade and tenant improvement program
- Complete downtown restroom project
- Develop wayfinding sign program with local history
- Complete parking study to identify possible improvements
- Evaluate potential streetscape improvements to Money Way, Railroad Avenue and Oak Avenue
- Rebuild City Hall on current parcel
Process
Create a responsive and predictable development review process for business investment.
- Improve business certainty by identifying community-supported uses permitted by right in the Central Business and Service Commercial zoning districts
- Streamline the permit process by discontinuing discretionary review for certain permit types
- Allow for temporary pop-up retail uses
People
Cultivate and reinforce historic downtowns reputation as a distinctive destination.
- Reimagine under-utilized properties/promote infill housing
- Enhance community event programming in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce
- Refresh branding and reputation of downtown
- Fund online marketing portal for vacant commercial space and priority investment opportunities
- Provide technical assistance to businesses/landlords on experiential, destination and omni-channel retail strategies
- Explore possible Wine Train pilot project
- Consider a hotel within walking distance of downtown, and help existing downtown hotels grow or improve their businesses
- Develop a city parklets program policy and permit process
- Maintain a safe, clean and comfortable downtown environment.
Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
19442018
Thomas Michael Donnelly passed away August 14th, 2018 surrounded by his loving family after a difficult fight with cancer. He is survived by his wife of 39 years Ines Bonorino, his children Inesita and Bob Bargenquast, Tomas and Amira Donnelly, Sofia and Andy Lukaszewski as well as his sister Shelby de Quesada and his brother Christopher Donnelly. He is preceded in death by his parents Ruth Thomas and Ballard Cleveland and his sister Adriana.
After graduating from college and serving in the military he left the country with a one way ticket and lived in Europe for 7 years at the end of which he traveled to Argentina where he met the love of his life, Ines. They settled back in the United States where he worked in the car industry until he retired in 2016.
His spirit was one of a kind, he knew how to enjoy every moment to the fullest. He was kind, generous and a perfect joke teller. During his career he touched many lives becoming a mentor and a best friend to many. The world lost an example of a man, a husband, a father and a friend; he will be deeply missed.
Please join us to celebrate his life on Monday, September 10th at 11 a.m. at St. Apollinaris Church, 3600 Lassen St. in Napa.
DANBURY, Conn. - Francesca Curatilo attended three camps this summer: wilderness, martial arts and - in the final days before the start of school - cursive.
Yes, cursive.
On a sunny morning, Francesca sat in a windowless room practicing the majestic swoop of an F. And she was delighted.
"I love how, at the end of the day, you see all the amazing stuff we can do with letters," said Francesca, 6, who also answers to Cece. At home at night, she practiced her favorites: capital R, P, Z, Y, G and A. There was no assigned homework; Francesca did this for fun.
"When I'm older," she vowed, "I can sign my name on contracts in cursive."
Cursive in all its flowing permutations - the opal-shaped calligraphy of Spencerian, the simplified and precise Palmer Method; the spare D'Nealian, distinguished by its saucy "monkey tails"; the stolid and reliable Zaner-Bloser - was once a staple of American elementary education. In the classroom pantheon of Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, cursive was the writing.
In recent decades, cursive was declared moribund, if not dead, after it was shredded from the Common Core in most states, including Connecticut. Typewriters, copiers, computers, phones, a veritable "Murder on the Orient Express" of culprits, had conspired to kill it. By the mid-aughts, only 15 percent of SAT essays were submitted in script. Today, many adults utilize a mash-up of cursive and print that often can be deciphered only by the author.
Brigid Guertin, executive director of the Danbury Museum & Historical Society, has struggled to find interns capable of deciphering the sepia-tinted documents of their city's handwritten past. "The majority of our assets are in cursive and not transcribed," she said.
So three years ago she launched cursive camp, in hopes of training tomorrow's interns today. Surprisingly, children and parents flocked to it.
The campers, ages 6 to 14, spent their waning days of vacation under the guidance of third-grade teacher Kathleen Johnson creating their own ink (a mashing of berries, vinegar and salt), scratching their names on paper with Day-Glo quills, or with Q-Tips on paint-filled bags, or with their fingers in generous shmears of shaving cream.
They created hat ads in cursive (Danbury is "The Hat City," having produced a quarter of the nation's toppers a century ago) and pored over postcards from that era penned in script. Similar camps are popping up across the country and in Great Britain, generated by parents' Palmerian nostalgia, a desire for children to master the (literally) old-school arts and enhance their research and writing skills.
"Cursive," said Guertin, "is an artistic expression of who we want to be."
Which was ironic, considering cursive's historic reputation.
In the early 20th century, cursive was sometimes taught for an hour each day, and all the way through high school, as an almost military exercise. Handwriting drills were supervised by taskmaster penmanship supervisors, armed with awards and demerits.
Cursive was "all about conforming to rules, other people's rules," said Tamara Thornton, a University of Buffalo history professor and author of "Handwriting in America: A Cultural History." "Your signature was the one place where people could express themselves."
The Palmer Method dominated much of the century's teaching, said Thornton, though "it wasn't so much a particular script as a method of teaching" that deployed "your whole arm in penmanship calisthenics." It wasn't art; it was exercise.
Back then, the preferred handwriting of artistic-minded free spirits was good old block-letter printing, introduced into schools by progressive educators such as Maria Montessori and John Dewey, who "believed writing should be about expression and communication," Thornton said. Because cursive required a level of fine-motor skills not typically accessible before third grade, printing was embraced as a way to get younger children to express themselves through writing.
Now that technology has routed children to communicate via typing or (shudder!) emoji, experts are finding more to recommend about pencil and ink. Handwriting - print or cursive - increases development in three areas of the brain, according to a 2012 study, and "may facilitate reading acquisition in young children."
Any kind of writing "is going to have massive benefits for the brain," said Indiana University professor and co-author Karin James. Other studies demonstrate that students retain more information if they write their notes, instead of typing them. For all the challenges of cursive, young children acquire the skill "very fast, as soon as they get exposure," she said. "Visual recognition during childhood is so plastic and malleable."
A week will do. Campers seemed to luxuriate in the tactile activities, the way cursive allowed them to rarely raise their pens from paper, an entire word recorded in a few swooping strokes. By the end of the five-day program, Johnson said, "they read historical documents so much better," and were mesmerized to unlock their secrets. Benjamin and David Miller, 10-year-old twins, thrilled at being able to read a 1908 postcard written in pristine script, addressed to an earlier Miller. "I think we found a relative!" exclaimed David.
Janelle Minar drove almost two hours round-trip from Norwalk to Danbury so her sons, Davey Joe, 13, and Sparky, 8, could learn cursive. "I looked for well over a year for a program. It's important for their hand-eye development. It's very empowering to maximize their potential," she said.
Johnson isn't required to teach cursive during the school year but sometimes adds it to the curriculum after she's met the state testing requirements. "Now that we have email, no one writes letters anymore," she bemoaned. In camp, though, "I can teach it my own way. We can have fun and be messy the way you can't be in school. Someone would probably come in and worry about a shaving cream allergy."
Cursive's resurgence, Thornton argues, is - like so much else these days - tied to politics. "Society has gotten nervous about deviating from what is the norm," she said, and cursive "tends to make a comeback when conformity is threatened."
Still, "what's most important is that kids enjoy it, and some people find it a wonderful form of expression," she said. "Where is cursive really, really big? Christian home schooling and places like Louisiana." But also the New York City schools, which last year encouraged, but didn't mandate, teaching script.
"Handwriting is about nostalgia," Thornton said. "It's about the past, and how we feel about our present and the future."
Perhaps. Kayla Schweitzer, 7, just thought cursive was fancy and pretty and might be useful someday. "Like when you're older and you're famous," she said, "you'll know how to do your signature."
To children, "cursive is an unknown, a secret language," Guertin said. "If we don't build out a connection to history, and the study of history, how will we know where we came from?"
This fall, "due to overwhelming interest and demand." she will expand her mission: "Cocktails and Cursive," a Friday-night seminar for adults who have grown rusty or never truly learned.
Madrid has cancelled the sale of 400 laser-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia for fear that the arsenal could be used in the ongoing conflict in Yemen.
The announcement was made Tuesday by the Spanish Ministry of Defense, which said that the government decided to halt a military deal under which Spain was to supply 400 laser-guided bombs to the Gulf powerhouse.
Radio Cadena SER, which confirmed the cancellation, said it comes after a bombing in Yemen killed at least 66 children during raids in August.
This carnage sparked a wave of international reprobation. The UN Security Council called for a credible and transparent investigation.
According to Cadena SER, the government of socialist Pedro Sanchez, who came to power early June, started in July the procedure to cancel the contract signed in the summer of 2015 under his conservative predecessor Mariano Rajoy.
The defense ministry also announced that it will return the $10.6m installment received part of the deal.
The ministry said last month it had never sold arms that could be used against a civilian population and condemned the killing of non-combatants in Yemen, Al Jazeera reports.
The new Spanish administration has vowed to review military contracts signed by its predecessor.
Madrid has gone under criticism by rights groups that have accused it of supporting the Saudi-led coalition, which intervened in Yemen in 2015, in a move to roll back gains of Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
According to Amnesty International, Spain, Saudi Arabias fifth largest arm supplier, the U.S.A., and the UK have provided munitions and advice to the Saudi-led coalition.
AI castigated these western countries noting that the munitions have been used in attacks against hospitals, homes, and markets time and time again.
The Tuesday decision by the Spanish government followed similar moves by Sweden, Germany, Finland, Norway and Belgium to suspend the sale of arms that could be used in the Yemeni war, Middle East Eye reports.
Over 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in the Yemeni conflict that caused the worst humanitarian crisis in the world according to the UN.
American Canyon has become the first city in Napa County to authorize recreational marijuana businesses, though it stopped short of allowing retail dispensaries within the city.
The ordinance was approved 4-0 by the City Council Tuesday evening. Councilmember Mariam Aboudamous was absent from the meeting.
The new local law permits companies to open in the Green Island Industrial District to conducting indoor commercial cultivation, manufacturing, testing and delivery of cannabis products via non-storefront operations.
It does not allow dispensaries or storefront retail cannabis businesses in American Canyon.
The ordinance also bans outdoor cultivation, though residents can grow up to six marijuana plants inside their homes for personal use under Proposition 64, the 2016 statewide initiative that legalized recreational cannabis.
Aside from American Canyon, only the city of Napa and Yountville have passed cannabis-related ordinances to date. Napa has dealt with medicinal marijuana, not recreational. Yountville allows cannabis delivery with a permit.
Napa County officials are considering the possibility of allowing a recreational cannabis dispensary in an unincorporated area of the valley.
American Canyon officials decided to allow only certain cannabis operations after holding numerous community meetings and workshops, and conducting a survey that garnered 650 responses from those supporting and opposing recreational marijuana.
The feedback revealed a community divided on the issue, according to city officials, with many residents strongly opposing dispensaries on grounds that recreational cannabis might wind up in the hands of local youth.
Councilmember Mark Joseph said he wanted to emphasize that we looked at both sides of the issue and developed a fair compromise that allows some cannabis businesses, but not others.
Councilmember Kenneth Leary said it was important for the city to adopt its own ordinance because absent of that, state law would govern cannabis operations in American Canyon.
If we dont pass an ordinance, Leary said before voting yes, then anything could happen because the state will control what we do here in American Canyon.
Half a dozen individuals spoke on the issue during the public comment period. Longtime resident Beth Marcus said shes not opposed to marijuana in general, but I am against having a storefront here or delivery.
Anne Steinhauer with 6539 Consulting, who is working with the Napa Valley Cannabis Association, encouraged the council to approve the ordinance because it means bringing economic drivers into the community in the form of new businesses that can create jobs.
Following the passage of Prop. 64 in November of 2016, the City Council adopted an emergency moratorium banning all cannabis operations until a local ordinance could be established. The moratorium expires Nov. 14, but the ordinance is expected to go into effect on Oct. 18 as long as the council approves it again at their next meeting on Sept. 18.
The new ordinance creates a three-step process for businesses to obtain the necessary permits and licenses to perform indoor cultivation, manufacturing, testing, or delivery, or some combination of these permitted operations.
The ordinance allows individual businesses to offer one of the authorized operations, as well as microbusinesses that function as vertically integrated companies that can handle several cannabis-related operations under one roof.
A company will have to obtain from the city a local cannabis business license and a conditional use permit before approaching the state for a cannabis license. If they intend to operate as a microbusiness, the owners will have to obtain a microbusiness license from the city and state.
The licensing process will include a requirement that all employees of cannabis operations in American Canyon undergo a background check (Live Scan) through the Napa County Sherriffs Office.
State law imposes certain limitations on cannabis microbusinesses. They can have only 10,000 square feet of indoor cultivation, and if performing manufacturing, they cant use volatile solvents, including butane, hexane, propane and ethanol.
In addition to restricting cannabis operations to the citys industrial zone, the ordinance establishes a 600-foot buffer to prevent businesses from being too close to sensitive areas, including schools, daycare centers, public parks, youth centers or any parcel with residential zoning.
On top of that, the ordinance creates an additional 600-foot buffer zone in the southern portion of the Green Island area that bars the development of cannabis operations.
The ordinance does allow the delivery of cannabis products to American Canyon residences by businesses located in the city or from outside of it. For American Canyon-based businesses, these would be non-storefront retail operations that can sell products only via delivery.
The local law does not include provisions for taxing recreational cannabis operations.
However, city staff intends to bring to the City Council before the ordinance goes into effect a proposal for creating a permit application and fee program that would enable the city to recover costs for reviewing and issuing cannabis business applications.
They will also present options at a future council meeting for a potential new cannabis tax that would require voter approval.
The city may also establish reasonable standards for the indoor growing of six marijuana plants allowed under Prop. 64 that could address such things as water or electrical use for indoor cultivation, according to Cooper. He said Prop. 64 permits local jurisdictions to adopt such standards.
This story has been modified since posting to note Yountville's approval of cannabis delivery.
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.
ST. HELENA Heavy opposition from neighbors convinced the St. Helena Planning Commission on Tuesday to reject an application for a short-term rental on Kearney Street.
Eric and Erica Sklar applied for a short-term rental permit for their house at 1610 Kearney St. Erica Sklar told the commission that renters would be vetted to ensure that they will respect our home, our belongings and our neighborhood.
The residents of at least nine nearby homes wrote letters opposing the permit, citing concerns about safety, noise, traffic and limited parking in the neighborhood, which is close to St. Helena Elementary School and Robert Louis Stevenson Middle School. Six neighbors spoke against the project during Tuesdays hearing.
It just doesnt feel right to have a hotel on the corner where my children play, said Dagan Janev, who lives a few doors down.
A few letters also mentioned Eric Sklars involvement in Napa Valley Fume, a marijuana business.
The level of opposition convinced the commission to deny the Sklars application with a 3-0 vote.
I just think we need to listen to the neighborhood in this case, said Commissioner Bobbi Monnette, adding that the city should reevaluate its short-term rental ordinance.
(Editors note: Eric Sklars Napa Valley Fume has no connection with the restaurant Fume Bistro in north Napa.)
In a recent letter to the editor, Tom Voudy wonders whether I knew that his uncle, Lt. Cdr. (then Chief Quartermaster) Carl Quarterman was a member of the crew of the submarine USS Grenadier when it was damaged and scuttled off Penang, Malaysia. (mentioned in Lynne Champlin's column,Coffee, Tea, and Me: A Pacific Pilgrimage, Aug. 27).
No, I did not know of this Napa connection when I took the picture of the names of the crew members scrawled on the wall of the classroom at the Convent Light Street School in Penang, where the crew of the Grenadier were held captive. Nor did I realize that one of the names was Mr. Voudy's uncle from Napa.
Ironically, when Lt. Cdr. Quarterman was being held captive by the Japanese as a POW, I was living briefly at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. My father's ship was at the shipyard being repaired and my father and mother and I shared half a Quonset hut on the base for a brief period of time before his ship departed again for the Pacific. I was about 4 years old.
Little did I know then that 22 years later I would return to the San Francisco Bay Area to practice law in Napa.
I salute Lt. Cdr. Quarterman and all those who served for their sacrifice and devotion.
Philip A. Champlin
Napa
I enjoyed reading Evy Warshawski's column on Women's Equality Day and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Although Justice Ginsburg received her law degree from Columbia, she was a transfer student. She matriculated at Harvard Law in 1956 and was one of but nine women admitted, ultimately joining the Harvard Law Review before transferring.
Shortly after arriving at Harvard, the dean took her and the other women aside. He told them they really shouldn't be there because they were taking the place of a more deserving man. History proved him wrong.
One of Justice Ginsburg's Harvard classmates, Carol Brosnahan, resides in Berkeley and served with distinction as judge of the Alameda County Superior Court.
Chuck Dell'Ario
Napa
The Indian Navys expert divers after continuing day-long search operation in Dikhow River of Sivasagar district on Tuesday failed to trace the car and the bodies of the family members of victim Haren Bora.
Till the fourth day on Tuesday after the incident of mishap, the NDRF, SDRF and the Indian Navy have failed to achieve any success.
An 10-member well-equipped Indian Navys expert divers team started search operation in the river on Tuesday from 6 am.
Also read: Assams Dikhow tragedy: No trace of missing family yet; Naval divers on trail
The Indian Navy expert divers team tried for the whole day to locate the ill-fated car and the bodies of the victims with the help of Side Scan Sonar, Sivasagar Deputy Commissioner Pallab Gopal Jha told media persons after the end of the days operation.
They continued the search operation with Side Scan Sonar and confirmed that there is no trace of the car up to 3.5 km from the spot of the incident in river Dikhow, DC Jha added.
An Indian Navy official talking to media persons said that they would resume the search operation in the river on Wednesday morning at 5:30 from 3.5 km where they stopped the operation for the day on Tuesday.
Earlier on the day, Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, ADGP, Fire & Emergency Services, told the media persons that as the Indian Navy team has started operation with advanced and modern equipment, they are hopeful of success in the operation.
The Indian Navy official further informed that they are hopeful about the search operation as they have not faced any trouble during the operation. The current of the river has also slowed down with the water level receding and no mud has been found in the riverbed, he added.
Though the drivers team found some metal in the river during their operation, later it was confirmed as something else.
It may be mentioned that on Tuesdays operation, 14 boats, 137 personnel and 47 divers carried out the operation.
The five-member family of Haren Bora went missing after the Maruti Swift Dzire car, in which they were travelling, plunged into the Dikhow River at Dachial village of Dikhowmukh area in eastern Assams Sivasagar district on Saturday evening.
Armenian FM: Armenia stands for full resumption of Nagorno-Karabakh peace process
Russian government gives consent to signing of interregional cooperation plan with Armenian government
China records new outbreak of COVID-19
Prominent physicist Yuri Hovhannisyan becomes recipient of UNESCO-Russia International Prize
Armenia FM states how likely it is to cooperate with Russia in terms of military and 'open itself towards Europe'
Case of sale of child forwarded to Armenian court, an advocate is among the culprits
Afghan man sells 9-month-old daughter for $2,000 to maintain his family
International Committee of the Red Cross reps visit Armenian captives and hostages in Azerbaijan
Russia MFA on '3+3' regional advisory mechanism
Armenian political scientist: '3+3' format is only Turkey's attempt to enter region in field of diplomacy
Armenia FM: Ankara's rhetoric is having a negative impact on stability in the region
Armenian FM: Over 100 captives have been returned to Armenia after cessation of fire
Armenia PM discusses Karabakh conflict and regional issues with US Deputy Assistant Secretary
Relatives of missing soldiers and captives to meet with Armenia PM on Saturday
Armenia State Revenue Committee chairman meets with Head of EU Delegation
FM: Armenia hopes talks over nuclear program are successful and allow to lift sanctions against Iran
Armenia Ombudsman touches upon problems that arise during conscription
Opposition 'Armenia' Alliance inviting everyone to rally at Freedom Square on Nov. 8 at 6 p.m.
Armenia Anti-Corruption Committee chairman: Nearly 2,000 crimes will be investigated in 2022
Armenia Human Rights Defender's Office to receive more funding next year
Several political parties in Armenia will receive government funding
Dmitry Shugayev: Russia not violating international commitment with regard to supplies to Armenia and Azerbaijan
Aram Sargsyan's Republic Party and Samvel Babayan's Liberal Party sign coalition memorandum in Meghri
Armenia MOD ex-spokesperson to join parliamentary standing committee on defense and security as expert
NEWS.am daily digest: 03.11.21
National Hero of Armenia Tatul Krpeyan's daughter Aspram Krpeyan to become MP of opposition faction
Armenia justice minister: New penitentiary institutions to be built in 2022
Ombudsman: Some Armenia villages do not have water at all because of Azerbaijan
Armenia ombudsman: Do officials realize accountability for their statements about road sections?
Premier, IMF Mission Chief to Armenia confer on cooperation agenda
Dollar drops in Armenia
Belarus proposes creating roadmap for developing relations with Azerbaijan
Member of Armenian initiative Vahagn Chakhalyan apprehended again, declares sitting strike
Armenia Ombudsman: Azerbaijanis have opportunity to establish control over road leading to Kapan
Armenia obtains another consignment of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine from China
Georgia defense minister visits Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex
Armenia Supreme Judicial Council: Courts are overloaded
Missing soldiers families reopen street in front of Armenia government building
Numerous Azerbaijan criminals to be released from prison on anniversary of occupation of part of Artsakh
Armenia Security Council secretary should be held accountable for his statements, says ombudsman
Relatives of missing Armenian soldiers shut down street near government building
Armenia State Revenue Committee chief, Russia ambassador underscore active contacts between tax, customs authorities
Armenia justice minister: We have first death from Covid in penitentiary
102 new cases of coronavirus reported in Karabakh
Congressman Pallone: US must push Minsk process forward to achieve settlement that keeps Artsakh Armenian
Armenian PM staff chief says has no information on Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan leaders possible meeting
Armenia ombudsman: Security zone needed at all areas of contact with Azerbaijan
Head of Markets at Symbiotics: I think its good moment to invest in Armenia
How much funding will several Armenia state institutions get next year?
Armenia premiers office expenses to be reduced by 34.5% in 2022
2,045 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia
Armenia justice minister, World Bank official discuss collaboration
Russia peacekeepers ensure safe travel of about 1,000 transit vehicles in Karabakh in 1 month
Armenia PM, Artsakh President discuss Karabakh conflict
World oil prices falling
Newspaper: On what grounds Armenia prosecutors are being rewarded?
Newspaper: What Artsakh authorities are worried about?
2 high-ranking officers detained by NSS testified refuting charge against Armenia ex-defense minister, his lawyers say
Biden says not worried about possibility of armed conflict with China
ARF-D to run in local self-government elections in Armenia's communities
Attorney: Result of Robert Kocharyan's PCR test is negative
Russia Security Council Secretary meets with U.S. CIA Director
At least 19 killed after attack on military hospital in Kabul
Russia, Azerbaijan FMs discuss implementation of agreements on Karabakh
Armenia FM, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State underscore need for Karabakh conflict settlement
Body of teenager found under bridge in Yerevan
Armenia Deputy PM receives US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State-led delegation
Armenia Constitutional Court declares article dismissing ex-chief of army's General Staff constitutional
Deputy head of Yerevan's Nork-Marash district is arrested
Armenia State Revenue Committee envisages increase of ratio of tax and state duties to GDP in 2022
Dutch Ambassador presents embassy's programs and overriding directions in Armenia's Kotayk Province
Armenia sets up governmental commission for funeral of writer, statesman Vano Siradeghyan
Armenian official: Government plans to increase wine production by several times within 5 years
Karabakh Defense Army: Azerbaijani army opens irregular fire in direction of Karmir Shuka
NEWS.am daily digest: 02.11.21
Man run over by train and dies in Armenia's Armavir Province
One of 16 Armenian children with COVID-19 is in critical condition at university hospital
Armenia opposition faction MPs meet with Russia Ambassador
Armenian, Georgian defense ministers discuss cooperation
Deputy Mayor of Armenia's Goris: Azerbaijanis are building fortifications in Armenian territory
Pashinyan: There is high dynamics in Armenia-Georgia relations
Dollar continues losing value in Armenia
About 300 new apartments expected to be put into operation in Stepanakert by years end
Armenian official: According to 1920s map Al lakes are marked as Armenia territory
Ardshinbank clients can win AMD 10,000
Armenia to attend CSTO PA plenary session
Mishustin: Eurasian Intergovernmental Council to hold next session in mid-November in Yerevan
Possible reopening of Turkey border not taken into account in projected economic growth, says Armenia official
4 more persons die of coronavirus in Karabakh
Azerbaijan hands over 11 more remains to Armenian side
Azerbaijan is interested in purchasing Pakistani JF-17 Thunder fighters
Armenia minister: Construction of Yerevan-Gyumri highway will be almost fully ready by late 2022
Urgent court hearing on imprisoned Armenia opposition lawmakers health condition reconvenes
Armenia opposition MP meets with Finland Ambassador
More than 600 kg of cocaine seized in Guatemala
Armenia Finance Ministry considering possibility of increasing turnover tax for small businesses
Minister: Armenia government plans to change economy structure
Armenia deputy attorney general, EU-funded program representatives discuss collaboration
Turkish intellectual who fought for Armenian Genocide recognition, condemnation dies in Germany
Number of delayed and canceled flights at Moscow airports exceed 200
Ayanna Pressley gives a victory speech in Boston on September 4, 2018. Photo: Alena Kuzub/Getty Images
In a major upset, Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley defeated ten-term Congressman Michael Capuano in a Massachusetts House primary on Tuesday night. With no Republican running in the general election, Pressley is expected to become the first black woman to represent the state in Congress.
Capuano is the second veteran Democrat to lose a primary battle in 2018, after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez unseated New York congressman Joe Crowley in June. Pressley challenged Capuano from the left, and the race attracted national attention from journalists seeking out the next potential Ocasio-Cortez particularly after the Queens politician endorsed Pressley hours after her own upset victory. The two women shared campaign staff and appeared together at a campaign fundraiser.
A huge congrats to @Ocasio2018 for your victory tonight! You proved that when we stand up for what we believe in, we win. This is about more than one campaign or election. This is a movement. Together, we will change the world. Congratulations! #ChangeCantWait #Ocasio2018 pic.twitter.com/imORpc1jST Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) June 27, 2018
However, there were significant differences between the two races. While in both primaries a woman of color defeated an older white man who had been in Congress for decades, the Massachusetts race does not fit the narrative of progressive-political-newcomer-versus-Establishment-Democrat. As FiveThirtyEight notes, Capuano is a longtime progressive who backs Medicare for All, voted against the Iraq War, and refused to attend President Trumps inauguration. Pressley does not identify as a Democratic Socialist, and she was a congressional aide for 16 years, first to Representative Joe P. Kennedy II and then to Senator John Kerry, before becoming the first black woman elected to the Boston City Council.
Capuano and Pressley agreed that its likely they would vote the same way on most issues, but she argued that she was better positioned to represent the Seventh Congressional District the only one in the state in which minorities make up a majority of the population on matters that go beyond voting.
Representation does matter, Pressley said in an interview last week. Many would just say: Your job is the vote. Im saying that your vote is just one part of the job.
While Capuano had not faced a serious primary or general election challenge since 1998, when he won a 10-way race with 23 percent of the vote, he took the challenge from Pressley seriously (unlike Representative Crowley vis-a-vis Ocasio-Cortez). He built up a robust campaign operation, pointing to his history of fighting for progressive causes, and arguing that a freshman wouldnt be able to deliver as much for the district.
All politics is built on relationships, and Congress is no different, he said in a recent interview.
But Pressley was able to stake out a more progressive stance on a few key issues, calling for restoring voting rights to prisoners and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Capuano voted against the creation of ICE in 2002, but said the best way to reform immigration now is to get President Trump out of office). Pressley also scored points against Capuano when he said the Democratic Party was being balkanized by racial identity.
This is the speech about 'identity politics' every American needs to hear Posted by NowThis Politics on Wednesday, August 8, 2018
Capuano conceded 80 minutes after the polls closed, before the AP had even called the race. Pressley received 59 percent of the vote to Capuanos 41 percent, with 99 percent reporting.
Im sorry it didnt work out, but this is life, and this is okay. Americas going to be okay, Capuano said. Ayanna Pressley is going to be a good congresswoman, and I will tell you that Massachusetts will be well served.
Pressleys friend Jesse Mermell posted video of Pressleys shocked reaction when she learned that she had won.
While addressing her supporters on Tuesday night, Pressley called out Trump and said her victory is part of a larger change taking place in the Democratic Party.
You saw what I saw: that these times demanded more from our leaders and our party, Pressley said. Its not just good enough to see the Democrats back in power. It matters who those Democrats are.
WATCH: "While our president is a racist, misogynistic, truly empathy-bankrupt man," the conditions that made MA-07 one of most unequal in America was cemented in policy long before Trump, Ayanna Pressley says in primary election victory speech. pic.twitter.com/DGlnQMrFGC NBC News (@NBCNews) September 5, 2018
This post was updated throughout.
Chuck Grassley and Orrin Hatch have not had much to smile about on Tuesday. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court nomination hearings, which are expected to last four days and likely end in his confirmation, got off to a surprisingly raucous start on Tuesday morning, with protesters interrupting the presiding Republican Senators and Democratic lawmakers joining in on the disruption. Here are the highlights so far:
Kavanaugh Finally Speaks
After a day of sitting in silence as Senators alternately extolled his virtues and held him up as a grave threat to America, Judge Brett Kavanaugh delivered his opening statement on late Tuesday afternoon. He kept things simple and non-controversial. As Ed Kilgore writes, Kavanaugh did not delve deeply into constitutional theory beyond boilerplate conservative pledges to interpret rather than make law, and to serve (borrowing Chief Justice Robertss famous metaphor) as an impartial umpire in all cases. Nor did he weigh in on any of the contentious issues he will likely face questions about in the coming days. Instead, he offered a set of platitudes (I am an optimist. I live on the sunrise side of the mountain, not the sunset side of the mountain) meant to reassure sitting Senators and the television audience that he is no radical even if the truth is more complicated.
Dozens Charged With Disorderly Conduct
The final protester arrest numbers, according to the U.S. Capitol Police: 61 people were removed from the Judiciary Committee chambers and arrested for disorderly conduct, and another nine were charged with crowding and obstructing offenses amid protests on the second floor of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
President Trump Weighs In
Someone wasnt too happy with Tuesdays proceedings.
The Brett Kavanaugh hearings for the future Justice of the Supreme Court are truly a display of how mean, angry, and despicable the other side is. They will say anything, and are only.... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2018
....looking to inflict pain and embarrassment to one of the most highly renowned jurists to ever appear before Congress. So sad to see! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2018
Ben Sasse Decries Hysteria Directed at Kavanaugh
Its pretty obvious to people who are going about their work today that the deranged comments actually dont have anything to do with you, Sasse said, seemingly referring to the protesters and Democrats who had disrupted earlier sections of the hearing. Sasse went on to say that the Supreme Court nomination system had been broken since Robert Borks heated hearing in 1987, and that Tuesdays hysteria was part of a larger, disturbing trend of treating judges as partisan politicians.
Sen. Ben Sasse says the "deranged comments" criticizing Kavanaugh have nothing to do with him:
"The hysteria around Supreme Court confirmation hearings is coming from the fact that we have a fundamental misunderstanding of the role" of SCOTUS in America https://t.co/CvlhDQZlEX pic.twitter.com/qEJBPpZeYg ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) September 4, 2018
Mazie Hirono Tars Kavanaugh as Partisan Hack
The Hawaii Democrat went to town on the nominee, calling him a a pre-selected political ideologue, nominated precisely because he believes a sitting president should be shielded from civil lawsuits, criminal investigation, & prosecutionno matter the facts.
Mazie Hirono is flat-out trashing Kavanaugh to his face as hyper-partisan, ideological, dangerous, and a Trump patsy who'll lie at confirmation about what he'll do after being confirmed. No niceties and pretenses. Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 4, 2018
Grassley Tells Kavanaugh Not to Tip Hand on Abortion
Kavanaugh is expected to face pointed questions on abortion, which is likely to be the hottest-button topic of his hearings. With protestors dressed in Hamdmaids Tale garb assembled outside the Senate chamber, Senator Grassley advised Kavanaugh, who has said he admired William Rehnquists dissent in Roe v. Wade, not to reveal too much about his views on future cases. He told Kavanaugh to follow the so-called Ginsburg rule, after Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who famously declined to offer forecasts of her opinions on the matter during her 1993 confirmation hearing. As Irin Carmon has written, though, Ginsburg declared her support for abortion rights outright at those hearings, making for a strong contrast with the current nominee.
Sheldon Whitehouse Warns About the Direction of the Court
The Rhode Island Democrat said that the John Roberts-led Supreme Court already sided with Republican interests almost all the time, and that Kavanaughs appointment would just make things even more partisan, and more slanted toward corporate interests. Whitehouse labeled the five conservatives on the court in recent years including Anthony Kennedy, whom Kavanaugh would replace the Roberts five.
In 73 partisan decisions where theres a big Republican interest at stake, the big Republican interest wins every damned time, he said.
Orrin Hatch Says Kavanaugh Likes to Eat Pasta With Ketchup
The Utah Senator tried to inject a little levity into the proceedings.
Sen @OrrinHatch: "You volunteer in the community, coach youth basketball. You are the sort of person many of us would like to have as a friend and colleague. You also apparently like to eat pasta with ketchup. But nobody is perfect... you are a smart, decent, normal person." pic.twitter.com/OHCoDRk4Ft Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 4, 2018
Kavanaugh Writes that He Will be Pro-Law
In his opening statement to the committee, Kavanaugh will keep things anodyne, telling Senators that I am not a pro-plaintiff or pro-defendant judge. I am not a pro-prosecution or pro-defense judge. I am a pro-law judge, according to excerpts released by the White House. He will emphasize his willingness to work with others, assuring his audience that if confirmed to the Court, I would be part of a Team of Nine, committed to deciding cases according to the Constitution and laws of the United States. I would always strive to be a team player on the Team of Nine.
Kavanaugh will also broach Merrick Garland, President Obamas Supreme Court nominee whom Republicans refused to give a hearing. Garland is the chief justice of U.S. Court of Appeals Kavanaugh currently serves on; Kavanaugh will call him a superb boss.
Protests Punctuate the Hearings
Within the first few minutes of the hearings, protests began shouting over Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, forcing him to begin his opening statement an hour later than expected. Demonstrators yelled remarks like Cancel Brett Kavanaugh. Adjourn the hearing and An illegitimate president cannot make a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.
The original group of protestors at the #KavanaughHearing pic.twitter.com/p6M95Ynlzb Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) September 4, 2018
Kavanaugh hearing has already interrupted at least 3 times by protestors. Police escorted some out pic.twitter.com/DIow61maOR Blayne Alexander (@ReporterBlayne) September 4, 2018
Removing the first batch of disruptive audience members did little to stop the cacophony, which Republican Senator John Cornyn referred to as mob rule. The interruptions continued well into the second and third hour of the hearings.
Protesters repeatedly interrupting Republican senators as they speak during Kavanaugh hearings. Hatch visibly frustrated. "We ought to have this loudmouth removed." Greg Stohr (@GregStohr) September 4, 2018
As of late morning, 22 protestors had been arrested.
Democrats Demand the Hearing be Adjourned Over Lack of Transparency
In what was reportedly a pre-planned, coordinated effort, several Democratic Senators including Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Richard Blumenthal spoke over Grassley to demand that the hearing be adjourned so that they could more thorough vet documents related to Kavanaughs years of work as a lawyer for the George W. Bush administration.
Cory Booker: "We're about to proceed towards having a hearing on someone having a lifetime appointment on the most important court in the land ... only having access to 10% of the body of work of this man's career." (via Fox) pic.twitter.com/WG2Fst4jsK Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 4, 2018
Grassley declined to do so, and the hearings continued.
Last week, in an unprecedented maneuver, the White House invoked executive privilege to shield more than 100,000 pages of documents from Kavanaughs Bush years from public release. Then, on Monday night, the White House released 40,000 new pages of records, giving Democratic Senators almost no time to review them before Monday.
What are we trying to hide? Why are we rushing? said Senator Patrick Leahy, who called the hearing a sham.
Whatevers in the documents are unlikely to change the minds of the vast number of Democrats, who were already going to vote no.
YEREVAN. Formation of transitional justice bodies in Armenia depends on which of the three components of the Constitutional justice will be chosen, the deputy from the Republican Party of Armenia, head of the standing parliamentary committee on state and legal issues and human rights Gevorg Kostanyan told reporters on Wednesday.
According to him, constitutional justice has three components that replace the judicial system: carrying out justice, supporting justice, and compensation mechanisms for damages.
The creation of an appropriate body that replaces the judiciary is prohibited in the EU member states by the European Convention. Therefore, choosing this model, we will have serious problems with the European Convention on Human Rights, said Kostanyan, former Armenias Attorney General.
According to the deputy, the second component is a subsidiary body for the administration of justice. It is formed in the countries where there are no bodies carrying out the investigation, or the credibility of them is undermined in society.
The third component is the creation of mechanisms for compensating the damage conditioned by compensation for the damage caused earlier, as well as for wider work with the population, Kostanyan added.
According to Kostanyan, he does not know which of these three components is preferred by the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Two Armenian children will be deported from the Netherlands later this week, Dutch officials said.
Howick, 13, and his sister Lili, 12, will be sent to join their mother in Armenia's capital, Yerevan, before September 8, Al Jazeera reported.
Earlier, the court ruled the Justice Ministry may not grant a residence permit for Howick and Lily, whose mother was deported from the country last August. In a letter to Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, the children's mother said they were currently in hiding and in a safe place. However, they came out of their hiding in several days.
The children only have the right to asylum in the Netherlands if they fear they will be persecuted or endangered by the Armenian authorities and there is no question of this, the court ruled. In addition, help is available for the children when they return if their mother is unable to care for them, as has been claimed. The children will not end up on the streets, the court said.
Last yer it was decided to deport Armina Hambartsjumianthe mother of Lily, 11, and Howick, 12to Armenia from the migrant center, where they lived. The children were not at home when their mother was picked up and their whereabouts are unknown. She has also refused to say where they are. Armina was deported in August last year. Her children were found a week later.
Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
One oft-forgotten fact about of the rise of William Rehnquist, who endured two separate Supreme Court confirmation hearings, is that he broke the rules to reach the highest court in the land. As John Dean Richard Nixons former White House counsel and others would go on to document, the nations 16th chief justice got away with things that should have disqualified him, had they come to light when the Senate vetted him not once, but twice before he occupied his place on the Supreme Court.
Unless something dramatic happens at this weeks Senate confirmation hearings, Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trumps choice to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, is bound to repeat history. Not just because he and Rehnquist, whom hes called his judicial hero, are cut from the same partisan mold shaped by the ways of Republican politics and conservatives dogged pursuit of judicial supremacy. Its also because there are millions of records from his time in the White House under George W. Bush that the Trump administration is determined to keep a secret.
Thats not even counting records from Kavanaughs 35 months as staff secretary, a time the nominee himself has called formative for his views on law and policy. Kavanaughs handlers have determined those documents are categorically out of bounds.
Powerless to stop the hearings outright but keenly aware that theres a lot at stake with the Kavanaugh nomination, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee seem to have lost their patience. Merely seconds into the first day of hearings, just as committee chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa was getting started with preliminaries, it fell to Kamala Harris, the junior senator of California and the most junior member of the committee, to set the tone with an extraordinary interruption. The hearings couldnt continue without a complete record of the nominee, she pressed. We have not been given an opportunity to have a meaningful hearing on this nominee, she said. The body had just gotten a new document dump the night before, just hours before the hearing.
The proceedings never quite recovered after that. Minnesotas Amy Klobuchar, New Jerseys Cory Booker, Hawaiis Mazie Hirono, and Rhode Islands Sheldon Whitehouse all joined the protest. As tempers flared and Grassley had no option but to unenthusiastically pound his gavel and let Democrats complain, derailing his schedule Connecticuts Richard Blumenthal made and renewed a motion, under Senate rules, to adjourn the hearings until all the relevant records were received from the White House. At this, chaos erupted in the chamber as protesters cheered and stood to oppose Kavanaugh, then were arrested and hauled off the premises. More chaos in the chamber: Grassley never granted Blumenthals motion, insisting he had the better reading of the rules.
Ive covered five other Supreme Court confirmation hearings. None of them included anything like the chaos in the opening minutes of the Kavanaugh hearings this morning. Adam Liptak (@adamliptak) September 4, 2018
Acknowledging all of this, Illinoiss Dick Durbin, who for weeks has been sounding the alarm over Kavanaughs missing documents, said that what weve heard is the noise of democracy. Across the aisle, Texass John Cornyn called Democrats tactics mob rule, even though his party is the one moving with all deliberate speed. Durbin then made an eye-opening suggestion to the nominee: If you believe in and are willing to defend your record, you should ask the chairman that we postpone this whole thing. Kavanaugh never did, but letting the suggestion and the implication that the White House is hiding something hang in the air just might help move public sentiment.
Process arguments have rarely moved the needle with the electorate, and Democrats failed mightily when their process arguments over Republicans blockade of Merrick Garland didnt energize voters to punish Trump and Senate Republicans at the ballot box. But when an exasperated Grassley suggested that hes willing to extend the hearings into the weekend so as to let Democrats vent any frustrations and questions they may have, the minority, if only for a moment, won a symbolic victory.
Because, absent a major gaffe by Kavanaugh or an embarrassing revelation about his record in the days ahead, theres little doubt in progressives minds that the Supreme Court is all but a lost cause. Since they dont have the votes, theyre left to try long shots, like a tedious document request that might shed new light on Kavanaugh.
And stranger things have happened in the Trump era than stopping a Supreme Court nomination that seems like a fait accompli, such as Democrats successful resistance to a unified Republican government bent on repealing Obamacare. Can they pull it off again? Now the attention turns to what Harris, alluding to the late Senator Ted Kennedy, called a job interview with the American people the hours of grilling that senators, with the limited information and committee confidential documents they have at their fingertips, will subject the nominee. Will they drop more objections, motions, and bombshells in the days ahead? The burden is on them to make a big show. Grassley put them on notice near the end of Tuesdays spectacle that hes not going to let things get out of hand on Wednesday.
Kavanaugh, for his part, mostly nodded politely and on occasion looked despondent in the face of what was happening before his eyes. What might his wife, daughters, and supporters think about the shouting matches and interruptions? When he finally got around to his opening statement, close to 5 p.m., he went through all the motions. Notably, he credited Justice Kennedy and his mother as his judicial heroes, but said nothing about Rehnquist, his true model for how judges should rule in the cases that matter. The omission was probably more revealing than anything else that went down during Day One: Rehnquist, not long after joining the Supreme Court, was only one of two justices who disagreed that women had a constitutional right to choose.
Kavanaugh would have senators and the public believe that hed be, as he put it, pro-law and part of Team Nine. But Rehnquist was never quite that. And theres little evidence a Justice Kavanaugh, for more than a decade a proud dissenter or lone writer on Washingtons second-most powerful court, would ever be.
The State Migration Service of the Armenian ministry of territorial administration and development is aware of the deportation of two Armenian children, Lily (12) and Howick (13), from Netherlands, Nelly Davtyan, PR specialist at the State Migration Service told Armenpress.
According the her, Armenian State Migration Service will provide assistance to the kids with all possible integration programs if their mother doesnt take care of them. She added that they have no contact with their mother and they even do not know whether she will be at the airport to welcome children or not.
If their mother doesnt take care of them, we will make the kids beneficiaries with all possible programs in partnership with international organizations. There are many organizations, and we will assist the kids with the programs of these organizations, but if the mother takes care of them, we have nothing to do in that case. If they apply for any integration program, there is no problem, we will assist even if they do not apply,Armenpress quoted Nelly Davtyan.
As reported earlier, two Armenian children, whose mother was deported last year from Netherlands, have gone into hiding as they face imminent deportation. The children only have the right to asylum in the Netherlands if they fear they will be persecuted or endangered by the Armenian authorities and there is no question of this, the court ruled. In addition, help is available for the children when they return if their mother is unable to care for them, as has been claimed. The children will not end up on the streets, the court said.
Last year it was decided to deport Armina Hambartsjumianthe mother of Lily, and Howick, to Armenia from the migrant center, where they lived. The children were not at home when their mother was picked up and their whereabouts are unknown. She has also refused to say where they are. Armina was deported in August last year. Her children were found a week later. They came out of the hiding several days later.
Home | News | Crime/Legal | Fake soldier, dismissed lance corporals arrested for hijacking a truck
- Lagos state police command has arrested a fake soldier, two dismissed lance corporals and two other men
- The suspects were arrested for hijacking a vegetable oil laden truck in Epe, Lagos state
A fake soldier, two dismissed lance corporals and two others were arrested and paraded on Wednesday, September 5, by the Lagos state police command for hijacking a truck laden with vegetable oil on Epe road.
The police commissioner, Imohimi Edgal, gave the names and identities of the suspects as: Akintola Abiodun of the Nigerian Air Force (13NAF/89/8811), Moses Johnson of the army (13NA/69/8811), Monday Ayele, 42, Esowanne Emeka, 30, and the fake soldier Osegbu Chidi, 30
Edgal said the suspects were notorious highway armed robbers, who specialised in intercepting, diverting lorries in that axis. He said the suspects were arrested on Sunday night after they hijacked a Sterling truck with registration number LSR266XW carrying vegetable oil worth N13,250,000 million.
READ ALSO: Full list of PDP presidential aspirants and their profiles
He said: They stopped the Kano state bound truck close to Ijebu Ode and pushed the conductor and the driver out of the vehicle. However, as the duo were trekking towards Epe, Lagos, they came across a policeman and narrated their ordeal to him.
The policeman immediately contacted some of the police stations along the route taken by the robbers. At about 10:30pm, policemen on stop and search duty, saw the truck coming and intercepted it. In the process, Ayele and Emeka were arrested.
During interrogation, they mentioned the others as part of those who hijacked the truck. The truck and the goods were recovered intact and all the suspects have been identified by the victims. Suspects will be charged to court at the conclusion of investigation.
The two dismissed personnel who were dismissed for allegedly aiding Boko Haram denied involvement in the hijack. The two claimed they were hired as escort for the truck and had no idea it was stolen.
The driver of the hijacked truck, Rabiu Kazeem, while narrating his ordeal said: I saw a hilux with amber light. It flagged me down and I saw some men with soldiers uniform. I stopped and they told me to get down. I asked them what I have done but they brought out their gun.
My conductor jumped into the bush. Since I was alone, I could not do much. I stepped down but I didnt go far. I sat on an iron underneath the vehicle and clung to its arm rest because I wanted to know where they were taking the truck to.
PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app
But one of them who was on a bike saw me. I did not know he was their member. He told me to come down that he will help me pursue them, that it was dangerous for me to stay in that position.
I listened to him but instead of pursuing the truck, he became slow and so, I raised alarm. People in the community came out and I explained what happened, begged them to hold that man while I entered another vehicle to look for them."
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com earlier reported that six suspected members of a deadly armed robbery gang terrorising Imo state were arrested by operatives of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (F-SARS).
The suspects were arrested with two locally-made pistols, two locally-made revolver pistols with three live unexpended cartridges, one ammunition and a bag of weed suspected to be India hemp.
Robbers Return Firearms to Nigerian Police (Crime News in Nigeria) | NAIJ.com TV
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: Crime/Legal
Home | News | General | 2019: 13 PDP 'heavyweights' set to slug it out with Buhari (full list, profiles)
With about 164 days to the 2019 general elections, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is actively working on how to put its house together and send the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) out of the presidential villa.
The recent gale of defections that hit the APC seems to have bolstered the morale of the opposition party as it prepares for the 2019 presidential election.
With about six months into the election, so many heavyweight politicians have signified interest in running for the presidency on the platform of the umbrella-wielding opposition party.
In this piece, NAIJ.com provides a list of all the politicians who want to be the flag bearer of the PDP in the 2019 presidential election and their brief profiles.
1. Atiku Abubakar
Former vice president Atiku Abubakar is one of the prominent PDP presidential aspirants. He served as the second in command during the Obasanjo-led PDP government from 1999 to 2007.
However, in the buildup to the 2015 elections, Atiku left the PDP for the APC. He contested the APC presidential ticket but lost to President Muhammadu Buhari.
With an impossible chance of getting the APC presidential ticket in the 2019 election, Atiku switched back to the PDP.
Atiku stated that he has solutions to Nigeria numerous problems. He has aspired for the presidency four times, this being the fifth shot. He has since picked up his nomination and expression of interest forms.
READ ALSO: Edwin Clark reacts to polices raid on his house, reveals what they were looking for
2. Rabiu Kwankwaso
Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso is a two-time governor of Kano state. Like Atiku, Kwankwaso recently defected back to the PDP after a long-running superiority battle with Governor Abdullahi Ganduje who succeeded him as the governor of Kano state.
He is the leader of the popular political movement tagged Kwankwassiya movement. He officially declared his intention to run for the presidency in 2019 on the platform of the PDP in Abuja on Wednesday, August 29.
3. Sule Lamido
Sule Lamido, a two-time governor of Jigawa state, is another prominent member of the PDP with presidential ambition.
He served as Nigeria's foreign minister from 1999 to 2003. He was elected governor of Jigawa state in April 2007. He ran successfully for re-election on 26 April 2011.
In 2015 he and his sons were put on trial for embezzling state fund by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
At 70, Lamido insists he has the qualities needed to move Nigeria forward.
4. Ibrahim Shekarau
Ibrahim Shekarau is a former minister of education and two-term governor of Kano state. He was elected in April 2003 and re-elected in April 2007. Ibrahim Shakarau has publicly declared his ambition to run for the president under the umbrella of the PDP.
However, in a dramatic twist, reports reaching NAIJ.com has stated that Shekarau surprisingly left his presidential ambition and the PDP.
There are indications that he will pitch his tent with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as one of his aides confirmed that he has met with Governor Abdullah Ganduje of Kano state to discuss his next move.
5. Aminu Tambuwal
Tambuwal is the current governor of Sokoto State and former speaker of the House of Representatives.
He recently defected from the APC to the PDP. He has also picked the nomination form to contest the PDP presidential primary. Tambuwal has expressed optimism that he will emerge as the flag bearer of the opposition party, adding that he has all it takes to become the president of the most populous country in Africa.
6. Ahmed Makarfi
Ahmed Makarfi is a two-time governor of Kaduna state and has also spent eight years as a senator in the National Assembly.
He was appointed PDP National caretaker committee at a contentious national convention held in PortHarcourt, the Rivers state capital.
He handed over to Uche Secondus after a tumultuous regime characterized by a series of court cases.
The ex-governor, in a report by Premium Times, said he has what it takes to govern Nigeria, after successfully governing a complex state like Kaduna for eight years.
7. Bukola Saraki
Bukola Saraki is currently the Senate president of Nigeria and a two-time governor of Kwara state.
The embattled Senate president earlier revealed in an interview with Bloomberg that he was considering giving a shot at the presidency.
Shortly after, in a surprising move, he declared his intention to run for the presidency while delivering a keynote address at a town hall for youths and young aspirants organised by the Not Too Young To Run Movement in Abuja. The Not Too Young To Run movement has, however, distanced itself from Sarakis declaration.
8. Attahiru Bafarawa
Alhaji Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa was the governor of Sokoto stat from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007.
At 64, Bafarawa is bent on having another shot at the presidency after a failed first attempt in 2007. He ran under the platform of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) that he formed.
Bafarawa has declared that he will be running for president in 2019, this time under the PDP.
9. Ibrahim Dankwambo
Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo is the current governor of Gombe state. Declaring his ambition, the Gombe state governor said he accepted the call of the people across the country to run next year for the top post.
He said he decided to contest to consolidate on the gains of democracy and save the country from hunger and starvation.
Dankwambo said the northeast zone was long due for the presidency, saying its last shot was the regime of late Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.
10. Tanimu Turaki
Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, from Kebbi state, is a former minister of special duties and inter-governmental affairs between 2013 and 2015, former supervising minister, Ministry of Labour and Productivity between 2014 and 2015, and current chairman of PDP Former Ministers Forum of Nigeria.
Tanimu, after declaring for the presidency, stated that his knowledge, experience and dynamism stand him out from other aspirants in the party.
11. Datti Baba-Ahmed
Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed was elected a member of House of Representatives in 2003 under the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) representing Zaria federal constituency in Kaduna state. In 2011, he defeated Ahmed Makarfi, incumbent senator and former governor of Kaduna state, for the Kaduna North senatorial seat.
Baba-Ahmed boasted that he would demystify the power of incumbency and defeat President Buhari if he secures the ticket of his party.
12. Jonah David Jang
Jonah Jang is a former governor of Plateau state and a serving Senator of Nigeria. Submitting his letter of intent to the state chairman of the party at the partys secretariat in Jos, Jang said it is time for the Middle Belt to rule Nigeria.
Jang is facing a 12-count charge of diverting N6.3 billion alongside a former cashier in the office of the Secretary to the State Government, Yusuf Pam.
They were alleged to have committed the offence while Jang was governor of the state.
13. Senator David Mark
Senator David Mark, a former Senate president, is reportedly poised to join other aspirants on the platform of the PDP in the race for the 2019 presidential election as he is set to get the partys expression of interest form.
James Oche, the co-coordinator of Door2Door, a support platform for Mark, confirmed the development on Monday, September 3.
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Nigeria
Meanwhile, the PDP in an earlier reporthas urged the National Assembly to use their constitutional power to override President Muhammadu Buhari on the Electoral Act 2010 (Amendment) Bill.
The opposition party made the call in a statement issued by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Monday, September 3, in Abuja.
Ologbondiyan said that Buharis veto did not come as a surprise, since his commitment to a free and fair 2019 election was mere lip service.
PDP's Magnificent 7 For 2019 Election | NAIJ.com TV
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | 2019: Shehu Sani urges APC leadership to jettison indirect primaries
- Senator Shehu Sani has urged the leadership of the ruling APC not to allow indirect primaries
- He said indirect primary is a ploy to use public funds in bribing delegates to toe a pre-determined line of action
- He emphasised that direct primary is a transparent method which the ruling party should adopt to select its candidates
A National Assembly member, Senator Shehu Sani, has urged the leadership of All Progressives Congress (APC) to jettison indirect primary elections, describing it as breeding ground for corruption in the countrys democracy.
He stated this after submitting a petition to the partys national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, in Abuja on Tuesday, September 4, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
NAIJ.com gathers that the petition is on the imperative of adopting direct primaries to nominate its candidates that will contest the 2019 general elections.
READ ALSO: Edwin Clark reacts to polices raid on his house, reveals what they were looking for
Sani said the petition was sequel to the debate that came up after the APC sixth National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting adopted indirect primaries to elect its candidates for the forthcoming elections.
He said that indirect primary was a ploy to use public funds in bribing delegates to toe a pre-determined line of action.
The lawmaker, who represents Kaduna Central senatorial district in the Senate, also described indirect primaries as a factory for producing stooges and a labour room for corrupt practices.
He urged the partys leadership to deal with political corruption by eliminating indirect primaries.
The delegate system, otherwise called indirect primaries, will rely on the whims and caprices of the few that now control the party after emerging from the ward, local government and state congresses.
The congresses that have been widely rejected by party members as a sham.
We are particularly in opposition to indirect primaries because of the weakening effects of its corruptive tendencies.
The entire process begins and ends with vote-buying, and as it is always the case, where the will of the electorate is subverted, the best candidates for the task ahead, never get recruited.
It is our humble opinion that the forthcoming 2019 general election is too crucial for the APC and Kaduna state.
It is too strategic for us to confront the array of near formidable candidates of the opposition with anything less than our very best candidates, he said.
Sani maintained that indirect primaries stand as the direct antithesis to the commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari to fight corruption at all levels".
According to him, APC having promoted the change mantra must shine the light onto those dark places in the countrys electoral system where ill-gotten wealth is used to subvert the will of the electorate.
He said that ill-gotten wealth was also used to perpetuate the vicious circle of corruption, bad governance and weak and dysfunctional institutions and processes.
Sani pointed out that the proponents of indirect primaries, particularly the Kaduna state governor, were relying on the pretext that the current security situation in their respective states made direct primaries impracticable and risky.
This proposition, the senator said, out-rightly contradicted the claims by Governor Nasir el-Rufai that Kaduna state had overcome his security challenges.
He emphasised that direct primaries were the most transparent means through which the most popular candidates emerged and won general elections on the APC platform in Kaduna state.
PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that Lanre Tejuoso, a senator representing Ogun central senatorial district, told members of his constituency to disregard rumours that he had defected from the APC, adding that though he had wanted to leave with his co-senators recently, President Muhammadu Buhari convinced him to stay.
Tejuoso, who is the chairman of Senate committee on health, said this on Monday, September 3, in Abeokuta at a press conference where he informed members of the public that he would be seeking re-election to the same position come 2019.
News Nigeria Today: Will Senators, Lawmakers Defection from APC Change Power in 2019? | NAIJ.com TV
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | Innovative 21-year-old student creates light-censored home theatre set and a model car
A 21-year-old Senior High School (SHS) student has shown tremendous skill in the field of innovation by creating a light-censored home theatre set and a model car.
Daniel Amoah is a second-year student of the Don Bosco Technical Institute in Tema, Ghana and is currently studying Electronics.
Although underprivileged, he has refused to let that define him and is rather striving to make new things with his innovative mind.
Intriguingly, all of Amoahs devices are sensitive to darkness and are immediately powered on when light falls on them.
READ ALSO: Former BBNaija housemate pays tribute to her late baby daddy at the AMVCA
Daniel Amoah. Source: Citinewsroom.com
In an exclusive interview with Accra-based Citi FM, he revealed that he started shaping his talent at age 8.
According to him, he used to make his products from waste materials which he often picked from the streets.
His light-censored model car is made from card board, instead of metal and can be controlled by a remote.
Meanwhile, his home theatre also boasts standard specs, including a radio, pen drive, memory card and Bluetooth slots.
Another of Daniels innovations is a water level indicator poly tank that automatically gets filled when empty and blows an alarm when full to capacity.
Daniel Amoahs items displayed at the exhibition in Koforidua. Source: Citinewsroom.com
He is one of many brilliant but needy students whose educations have been fully sponsored as part of the Citi Opportunity Projects on Education (COPE).
Amoah is confident that he would be able to provide street lights for the streets of Ashaiman, where he currently lives with his brother.
According to him, any support from the public is welcome and that he is ready to collaborate with government in using his talents for more useful innovations.
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Aside the light-censored home theatre set and a model car, Amoah is also currently working on a flying car and an aeroplane.
PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigeria's #1 news app
CEO's Interview: Meet Nigerian Woman Who Quit Banking for Farming on NAIJ.com TV:
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | The more the poor earn, the less children they have - Senator Ben Bruce
Senator Ben Murray Bruce has suggested that the fastest way poverty can be defeated is for poor people to be educated.
In a couple of tweets on his page, the Bayelsa senator noted that his state has moved up the ladder due to its focus on education and urged the country to emulate the move.
READ ALSO: At 92 I am being accused of stockpiling weapons in my house - Edwin Clark speaks after police search
He wrote: "The fastest way to defeat poverty is by educating the poor. The more the poor learn, the more the poor earn. The more the poor earn, the less children they have, the longer they live and the healthier they are. Education has multiplier effects. It is a gift that keeps on giving.
"Bayelsa moved from the bottom of the education league to the top by constantly and consistently giving education the highest allocation in its budgets. This year, Bayelsa budgeted 22 billion Naira for education, almost 20% of the capital allocation. Nigeria must do they same."
Meanwhile, vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday, August 21, said the focus of the present administration is to take Nigerians out of poverty adding that all governments programmes and projects were geared towards achieving that objective.
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app
According to a statement signed by his senior special assistant on media and publicity, Laolu Akande, the vice president spoke during a town hall meeting held in Bariga/Somolu Local Council Development Area, Lagos state to felicitate with Lagosians on the Eid-el-Kabir celebrations.
The Punch reports that Osinbajo said the government was targeting those at the lowest level so that they can do better.
Senators, lawmakers defect from APC - on NAIJ.com TV:
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | 2019: Fayose receives Atiku, reveals what PDP must do to defeat Buhari
- Governor Fayose has charged members of the PDP to be united ahead of the 2019 elections
- He said the party needs to be united if it wants to defeat President Buhari
- The outgoing governor of Ekiti state made this known while receiving Atiku Abubakar
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has reportedly asked for the support of Ekiti state delegates in the coming national convention of the party, saying he has a programme to develop Nigeria.
Receiving the presidential hopeful in Ekiti, the state governor, Ayodele Fayose, admonished that the party must unite to be able to wrest power from President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019, Nigerian Tribune reports.
NAIJ.com gathered that Governor Fayose called for unity of the members of the party, saying Atiku has the requirements to aspire for the number one seat.
READ ALSO: Edwin Clark reacts to polices raid on his house, reveals what they were looking for
(You have) the shoulder, you have the height, you have the wherewithal. Our prayer is that it will not be an effort in futility, Governor Fayose was quoted to have said.
Charging the party on unity, Fayose noted that the greatest problem PDP may have is if we dont go to that election as brothers and sisters.
He said: The task before the PDP at this time is not about who has been in the party before and who is just joining. It is about rescuing Nigeria and its people from the calamity of this Buharis government.
While wishing Atiku well, the governor said: Come October 6th, this journey will fall in wonderful places for you.
Speaking earlier, Atiku lamented that the country had allegedly sunk into more corruption in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, and also claimed that even during the civil war, Nigeria had not been as insecure as the country was in this dispensation.
He told the delegates: I have come to appeal to you to support me in our partys convention. I have the programme that will best develop this country. I wish to appeal for your individual and collective support.
Addressing Fayose, he described his as brutally frank, saying: I like the way you do things. Youre brutally frank. You say your mind; its a very very rare quality. So, I commend for who you are. We will stand by you and the party in Ekiti until you retrieve your stolen mandate.
PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi who is also a PDP presidential aspirant said if he doesn't emerge as partys candidate for the 2019 election he would accept it in good faith.
The former Kaduna state governor in an interview with some journalists in Kaduna, said if he leaves PDP, he would politically go into semi retirement and not seek positions again.
PDP's Magnificent 7 For 2019 Election | Naij.com TV on NAIJ.com TV
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | I will support any candidate that emerges PDP presidential aspirant if I lose primary - Bafarawa
- PDP presidential aspirant Attahiru Bafarawa says he would support any presidential aspirant in the party if he loses the primary
- He urged Umahi and the PDP party members in Ebonyi state to support him
- He also claimed that votes from the south-east states and the entire northern part of the country would enable him win the presidential election
Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant has pledged to support any presidential aspirant in the party that wins the party primary election for the 2019 general elections.
This is, however, in the event he is not able to get the ticket of the party to contest the election
Bafarawa, a former governor of Sokoto state made the pledge on Tuesday, September 4, in Abakaliki during a courtesy visit to Gov. David Umahi as part of his visit to party faithful over his presidential ambition.
READ ALSO: At 92 I am being accused of stockpiling weapons in my house - Edwin Clark speaks after police search
He said:I am a democrat and therefore ready to support any aspirant who emerges as the partys flag-bearer in order to move the country forward.
We all, however, need to be screened before the final decision on the partys candidate is taken.
The other aspirants who visited Ebonyi before me must have promised to solve the economic, security and infrastructural challenges of Nigeria.
But I am presenting two books on my eight years stewardship as governor and what I will do as president, he said.
He urged Umahi and the party faithful in Ebonyi to support him, noting that his votes from the South-east states and the entire northern part of the country would enable him win the presidential election.
I didnt come into politics to make money but to serve and I remain the best choice for the south-east zone, due to my favourable disposition to its people.
I assisted several Igbo businessmen to become billionaires and ensured for instance, that no individual from that tribe was affected by the Sharia riots during my tenure as a governor.
Gov. Umahi, in response, extolled the virtues of Bafarawa, describing him as a man of humility, commitment to the develop the country.
One of the reasons why you achieved much in life was because you are a businessman.
Thank God for his vindication when the court declared you not guilty in a corruption charge, he said.
He noted that about 14 presidential aspirants had emerged under the PDP, describing the situation as heart warming.
All of you are eminently qualified for the position but some of you who spent eight years as governors would have the requisite experience to govern.
The south-east states, governed by PDP, would take a common stand on whom to support as the person would be ready to make certain concessions to accommodate the zone equitably.
Sen. Ben-Collins Ndu, the deputy director- general of the Bafarawa Campaign Organisation, urged party faithful in the state to support his principal due to his favourable disposition to the people.
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Nigeria
NAIJ.com had also reported that Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa declared that nobody can rule Nigeria without tapping the education and business ingenuity of Ndi Igbo.
Bafarawa, a two time governor of Sokoto state, made this known when Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi hosted him in Enugu on Tuesday, September 4.
Senator Kwankwaso Rabiu announces his Presidential Bid (Election 2019) on NAIJ.com TV:
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Chuka is an experienced certified web developer with an extensive background in computer science and 18+ years in web design &development. His previous experience ranges from redesigning existing website to solving complex technical problems with object-oriented programming. Very experienced with Microsoft SQL Server, PHP and advanced JavaScript. He loves to travel and watch movies.
Want to see Grassley really freak out? Photo: Melina Mara/The Washington Post/Getty Images
In the lead-up to Brett Kavanaughs confirmation hearings, Senate Democrats gave progressive activists little reason to hope that they would match their intensity in fighting to keep him off the Supreme Court. But they came out with guns blazing on Tuesday morning, speaking over Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassleys introduction to demand that the hearing be adjourned until they could thoroughly vet documents related to the judges time in the George W. Bush administration, which had only been released the night before. Democrats remained feisty, which combined with protester arrests, a viral handshake attempt, and a suspicious hand gesture made for a pretty wild display (for a Senate hearing).
Democratic senators had considered making an even more dramatic scene, according to a Politico report published Tuesday night. Sources said that during a conference call on the eve of the hearing, Senate Democrats debated staging a mass walkout, or refusing to show up at all. But with Judiciary Committee Democrats divided between younger upstarts and veterans hesitant to completely buck Senate norms, they settled on merely disrupting the proceedings for now.
There were reportedly concerns that a walkout might backfire, and this way Democratic voters got to watch their senators take Kavanaugh on, rather than stare at a half-empty chamber.
We considered a lot of different options yesterday. This was the agreed approach, said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin. It really singles this hearing out as something unusual.
If I thought that there was a way that we could stop the hearings from proceeding, I would participate in that. But the hearings are going to proceed. And therefore, we are there to do our job, said Senator Mazie Hirono.
The Hawaii senator may deliver another dramatic moment on Wednesday, as she plans to ask Kavanaugh what he knew about the behavior of his former boss Judge Alex Kozinski, who recently retired after being accused of touching or making unwanted sexual comments toward 15 women.
But those on the left who want their senators to deploy more dramatic, not-giving-Merrick Garland-a-hearing-level tactics should stay tuned. Per Politico:
Democrats havent ruled out a boycott or walkout in the future. Late Tuesday, a group of them huddled to hash out strategy in the office of Durbin, a senior member of the Judiciary panel, according to a Democratic aide.
Maybe Democrats cant match Mitch McConnells brazen obstructionism, but now theyre thinking about it or at least, they want their base to believe theyre thinking about it.
Home | News | General | Obaseki, Chinese companies seal deal on Gelegele port, refinery, Benin park
targets 30% Lagos ports cargo throughput
After months of intense engagements on the viability of a seaport in Benin City, the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has finally inked a deal with the vice president of China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), Li Yi, for the development of the Benin River Port in Gelegele area of the state.
Sitting: Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki (2nd right); and Mr Yang Hongtao of Peiyang Chemical Equipment Company of China (PCC) (2nd left); flanked by Nigerian officials at the signing of the investment agreement for the construction of a modular refinery in Benin City, in Beijing China.
Also signed are the final investment agreement to develop the Benin Industrial Park with CHEC as well as the pact to develop a modular refinery in the state.
The harvest of investment agreements by the Edo State government on the sidelines of the2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), further consolidates the existing relationship between China and Edo State and expands the scope of business opportunities for both parties.
Speaking to journalists at the Nigerian Embassy in Beijing, China, after signing the investment agreement on the development of the Benin River Port, a visibly elated Governor Obaseki, said the agreement includes the building of a port on the Benin River, dredging of the river which is a channel of about 40 kilometres, and the construction of a link road to the Benin bye-pass.
He explained that the Benin River when completed, will link the Lekki Deep Seaport, help decongest the ports in Lagos State, open up Edo State to the international market by serving as a platform for import and export trade.
The company we are working with is the largest investor in the Lekki Deep Seaport. The Benin River Port is going to be a sister port to the Lekki Deep Sea Port. We expect that up to 30 per cent cargo going to the Lekki Deep Seaport would be meant for Benin port, he said.
He added that the construction of the Benin River Port would also provide opportunities to export agricultural and manufactured products being produced in the state.
We are investing massively on agriculture particularly in areas like oil palm, rubber, cassava, fruits and all range of agricultural produce which need to be processed and exported outside the country.
There are companies operating in the state and are seeking to export their products. The port will provide opportunity not only to export agricultural produce but also some of the products that are now being manufactured in our area, Obaseki added.
Another advantage is that once you create the infrastructure, there is the possibility that other industries would spring up in the state. This opportunity is going to rapidly help in diversifying the economy of Nigeria, he explained.
The Benin Industrial Park is expected to create over 170,000 direct and indirect jobs on completion, and will be home to over 1000 companies and will generate an excess of over $3 billion annually.
Before departing Benin City for China, Obaseki approved the release of N700 million for the Benin Refinery project, as part of her contribution to the project.
With the latest agreement with Peiyang Chemical Equipment Company of China (PCC) in China, the coast is clear for the commencement of work on the modular refinery project.
According to Obaseki, his administrations investment drive in China and elsewhere, was conceived to steer the state away from dependence on oil and set it on the path of prosperity anchored on a solid industrial base.
We are excited about the Modular Refinery project and the project is going to transform the states economy and position us as a hub for fabrication of refinery parts with the setting up of fabrication yard to groom local capacity in that sector, the governor said.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | SARS operatives wont bear arms while on mufti, says IGP monitoring team
By Ola Ajayi
IBADANTHE monitoring team, set up by the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, continued its tour of facilities of the Special Anti Robbery Squad in the South West, warning that SARS operatives will no longer bear arms while on mufti.
The team led by ACP Adepojulo Ilori and ACP Abayomi Shogunle visited the SARS headquarters at Dugbe, Ibadan to monitor their activities.
He said: Henceforth, SARS must wear police uniform whenever they are going for operation. They would no longer be allowed to carry arms wearing mufti. Any of them you see in mufti carrying arms should be reported immediately. We are acting on the complaints of the public who said they found it difficult to identify them.
When asked if wearing police uniform would not expose the SARS operatives to danger particularly when they are on undercover assignments, ACP Ilori said there is a special unit of the police that carries out intelligence.
As for SARS operatives wearing dreadlocks, ear rings and tattoo, Ilori said: After this exercise, you will see reformed SARS. We are still going to other facilities in Oyo and Ogbomoso just to ensure things are done properly.
If there are bad eggs, we will take necessary actions against them. Those who are not ready to change will be shown the way out. There will be no sacred cow.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | Atikus apology, testimony of confidence Enweruzo
THE National Coordinator of Atikulated Agenda 2019, Dr. Victor Enweruzo has described former Vice President Atiku Abubakars apology to the South West as a testimony of confidence, noting that ex-VPs disposition showed a man who is ready to bring the positive change Nigerians need.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, candidate in the forthcoming primaries of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
Former Vice President and presidential aspirant under the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has pleaded with the South-West geo-political zone of Nigeria to forgive him of any wrong doing when he held the office of Vice President.
Addressing party faithful at the PDP secretariat in Ikeja, Lagos, Monday, Atiku reiterated his commitment to restructuring Nigeria if given the mandate to rule the country, adding that a restructured Nigeria would not only ensure equity, peace and justice, but would engender competition and even development.
Speaking at the venue, Enweruzo said: For Atiku to speak about need to correct the wrongs of the past administration shows a man who is ready to bring the positive change Nigerians need. He has demonstrated humility by prioritising a need to move the country forward by identifying a cause. He is a man to trust and thats why the group is intensifying effort to actualise his mandate.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | Photos: Osinbajo at Student Innovation Challenge in Kano
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said that Buharis government is optimistic that Nigerian universities will play vital roles as incubators and accelerators for small and emerging business ventures.
Osinbajo made this known at the Student Innovation Challenge in Bayero University, Kano on Tueday.
VP Osinbajo visits exhibition stands during the Student Innovation Challenge, Bayero University, Kano
VP Osinbajo visits exhibition stands during the Student Innovation Challenge, Bayero University, Kano
VP Osinbajo SAN, at the Student Innovation Challenge, Bayero University, Kano.
VP Osinbajo SAN, receives warm welcome from Kano.
VP Osinbajo SAN, welcomed into Kano by Governor of Kano, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje (1st left) and Secretary to the State Government, Usman Alhaji (2nd left).
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | University one of most fertile grounds for talents development Osinbajo
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said that Buharis government is optimistic that Nigerian universities will play vital roles as incubators and accelerators for small and emerging business ventures.
VP Osinbajo visits exhibition stands during the Student Innovation Challenge, Bayero University, Kano
Osinbajo made this known at the Student Innovation Challenge in Bayero University, Kano on Tueday.
He also said that he was pleased that a platform has been created in Nigeria, which allows students from all over the country to pitch their business ventures and ideas to a panel of expert judges and that each of the winning businesses will receive an investment of one million naira.
Read his full speech
About two months ago, I was in Lagos to attend the South-west regional finals of the Students Innovation Challenge, in the University of Lagos. At that event, I said, In the past, Nigerias billionaires were traders, and oil and gas moguls; but in the next few years, billionaires from Nigeria will be techies.
Listening to the great ideas you have pitched today, I am even more convinced, and have absolutely no doubt that a good number of tomorrows billionaires are seated here today.
The Student Innovation Challenge, an initiative of the Federal Government in collaboration with Private Sector players, offers a platform for us to identify and support innovative, technology-driven business ideas and ventures across Nigerian Universities. It allows young entrepreneurs to interface with the government, and with business mentors, and receive support to grow and groom their ideas.
I understand that of the 600 applications received from the Northern region, 52 that made the longlist were pitched to the Judges today. I would like to commend every one of the innovators who pitched.
The journey to the fulfilment of your dreams has started, and you should strive to enjoy every moment of that journey, with all its ups and downs.
And this advice also applies to those who didnt make the longlist. Setbacks and disappointments are part of the entrepreneurship life; indeed they are part and parcel of human existence. You should never ever give up, try again, and again.
As was the case in Lagos, the judges will select the best ideas from amongst todays participants, and this shortlist will then join those selected from Anambra during the South-eastern regional finals next weekend, at the Grand Finale in Abuja, later this month.
It is clear to all of us, that the university is one of the most fertile grounds for the development of talent. The story of the immense contributions of Stanford University to the emergence and development of Silicon Valley in California is a well-told one and an inspiration to the rest of the world.
Here in Nigeria, we are optimistic that Nigerian Universities will similarly play vital roles as incubators and accelerators for small and emerging business ventures. The Bayero University, Kano (BUK) is already taking a huge step in this direction in collaboration with the Dangote Business School, yet another example of impactful public-private collaboration.
The Student Innovation Challenge, as I noted earlier, is a public-private partnership, involving the Federal Government, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Bank of Industry (BOI), Civic Foundation for Innovation, and Access Bank.
I am pleased to note that this is the first time that a platform has been created in Nigeria, which allows students from all over the country to pitch their business ventures and ideas to a panel of expert judges. And I should mention again, that each of the winning businesses will receive an investment of one million naira.
I am very excited by this project, excited by what it means for innovation in Nigeria, what it means for our future as a country. And being here with you feels like taking a front seat next to the stage, onto which the next Andela, Flutterwave, Paga, Paystack, Jobberman and others are set to emerge. Interestingly, many of the founders of these great businesses were educated here in Nigeria.
You will all agree with me that the prospects are exciting; the future looks very promising. I wish you all, todays innovators, tomorrows billionaires, the very best, and safe travels back to your various homes and bases.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | Finally! APC reduces presidential ticket fee to N45 million, announces dates for party's activities
- The ruling party has fixed dates for its primary elections
- APC in its guidelines for the conduct of the process said the presidential candidate would emerge through direct primary
- The party has also announced the reduction of presidential ticket from N55 million to N45 million
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has fixed a date for its presidential primaries to elect a candidate for the 2019 presidential election.
The party's national working committee said the primaries for the ruling party would take place on Thursday, September 20.
The party in its guidelines for the conduct of the process said the presidential candidate would emerge through direct primary.
READ ALSO: There's an attack on principle of rule of law by Buhari - PDP writes May, Merkel, calls for help
It also fixed the governorship primaries for Monday, September 24 and Tuesday 25th, September,
APC in a statement signed by its national organising secretary, Emma Ibediro, the APC also indicated that the sale of expression of interest and nomination forms for all elective offices would begin on Wednesday, September 5.
The party also said each presidential aspirant will buy expression of interest form for N5 million, while nomination form will go for N40 million reducing the total amount to N45 million - N10 million less than its previous amount.
APC also said that the governorship aspirants will buy the expression off interest form for N2.5 million while nomination form will sell for N20 million totaling N22.5 million.
READ ALSO: 2019: Afenifere speaks about President Buharis age, give critical advice to Yorubas
On the other had the senatorial aspirants will pay N1 million for Expression of interest form for while nomination form attracts N6 million totaling N7m.
Subsequently, the House of Representatives expression of interest form is N350,000, while its nomination form attracts N3.5 million, totaling N3.85 million.
Also the State House of Assemblys expression of interest form for N100,000 its nomination form attracts N750,000 totaling N850,000.
However, the party's guideline for the sale of forms ruled out separate charges for deputy, added that female aspirants and physically challenged aspirants who are expected to pay 50% of the prescribed fees for each position.
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that a support group for President Muhammadu Buhari had decried the high cost of forms for aspirants ahead of the 2019 election.
The Buhari Youth Organisation (BYO) urged the All Progressives Congress (APC) to review the nomination and expression of interest fees for aspirants contesting the 2019 general elections.
According to the group, the fees being demanded by the ruling party from aspirants is a disenfranchisement weapon for genuine aspirants, especially youths.
PDP's Magnificent 7 For 2019 Election - on NAIJ.com TV
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | 2019: Why APC finally beat down price of presidential, governorship nomination forms, others (see new rates)
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has announced new rates for its various nomination forms including that of the presidency ahead of the 2019 general elections. The ruling political party also announced its activities that would culminate in the exercise.
This comes days after President Buhari reportedly cried out saying that he could not afford the amount.
Many Nigerians had also criticised the ruling party, which prides itself as progressives, as they questioned the rationale behind the prices for the forms.
Some also compared the prices with those of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as well as other opposition organisations like the Action Democratic Party (ADP) which amounts are either reduced or declared free for some sets of people.
According to a terse statement from the party, said its expression of interest form for the presidential election would now sell for N45 million down from the initial N55 million that was earlier speculated.
The party also announced that its governorship election forms would now cost N22.5 million with that of the Senate will cost N7 million.
READ ALSO: Full list of PDP presidential aspirants and their profiles
Also, its House of Representatives forms would cost N3.85 million while those of the House of Assembly will sell for N850,000.
The party also said all female aspirants and those who are physically challenged would have a 50 percent cut in the purchase of each of the forms for elective positions.
NAIJ.com earlier reported that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) proposed N55 million for the nomination and expression of interest forms for its presidential ticket.
Moreover, the national leadership of the ruling party proposed N22.5 million for its governorship ticket.
However, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party has rejected the proposals, as the NWC was asked to go and review the proposition downward.
In the proposal, the nomination form for the presidency costs N50 million, while the expression of interest form goes for N5 million.
PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app
For the governorship ticket of the party, the nomination fee costs N20 million, while the expression of interest form cost N2.5 million.
Also, other nomination and expression of interest forms for elective offices were reviewed upward, New Telegraph reports.
Nigeria Latest News: Atiku Abubakar - Exclusive Comments About The Elections | Naij.com TV
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | There's an attack on principle of rule of law by Buhari - PDP writes May, Merkel, calls for help
- The PDP has petitioned two female world leaders over activities in nigeria
- The party, in the petition, accused the president of abusing rule of law
- Uche Secondus called for an intervention from the world leaders on the matter
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has petitioned two female world leaders - Theresa May, the British prime minister and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.
The opposition party in their petition accused President Muhammadu Buhari of abusing the rule of law in Nigeria.
In the petition signed by its nation chairman, Uche Secondus, and made available to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, September 4, the PDP alleged that the president and the federal government were engaging in impunity and other anti-democratic vices.
It also accused the present administration led by President Buhari of of using the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to intimidate the members of the opposition.
READ ALSO: Full list of PDP presidential aspirants and their profiles
Punch reports that the party said there has been an alleged brazen attack on the principle of rule of law by President Buhari.
The petition read in parts: Sadly, the unfettered freedom and respect for human dignity entrenched by our party has been eroded in the last three years of the current administration.
An important institution like the EFCC, which was established by the PDP government under President Olusegun Obasanjo and graciously still supported by international friends of Nigeria, including the taxpayers of the European Union, to professionally deal with the scourge of corruption, has now lost its essence and original intentions of the founders to become the Buhari administrations tool for persecution of opposition members and perceived political opponents.
The EFCC, under this administration, has metamorphosed into a draconian agency, showing scant regard for the rule of law and respect for human rights.
READ ALSO: 2019: Afenifere speaks about President Buharis age, give critical advice to Yorubas
The commission has turned the process of investigation into a media event to embarrass and tarnish the image of key opposition figures and sub-national governments of the federation perceived to be averse to the whims and electoral interest of the ruling party.
The recent outburst by President Buhari that he will jail more looters, created national outrage and concern about the role of the judiciary and respect of our institutions.
Also, his recent declaration, at an event of the Nigerian Bar Association, that the rule of law will take second stage on issues involving alleged threat to national security, raises fresh concern about this administrations attitude and respect for constitutional rule," the petiton said.
It also noted that the statement by the president explains the licence behind the continued unlawful detention of a former national security adviser who is currently facing criminal charges at several court in Abuja.
The PDP further appealed to May and Merkel to prevail on the president and the federal government to stay away from the path of impunity and totalitarianism.
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Nigeria
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that the opposition party had earlier urged world leaders to prevail on President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to ensure that 2019 general elections is credible and violence-free.
The party said that the advice was critical following the alert by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) on the elections.
Who is Nigeria's greatest president ever? - on NAIJ.com TV
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | Sex, homosexuality stall MTNs music festival
Ugandas Nyege Nyege international music and arts festival sponsored by telecom giant, MTN, has been banned because of scheduled open sex, noise, homosexuality, LGBTI.
Let foreigners not come to Uganda for sex. If you are coming for sexual reasons worse still homosexuality and LGBTQ, stay away.
MTN Nyege Nyege will not be accepted it will not take place. I wanted Nyege Nyege cancelled last year but they escaped, Ugandas minister of Ethics and Integrity, Mr. Simon Lokodo warned.
The three-day festival slated to begin on Thursday, Sept. 6, has been banned Lokodo announced.
Lokodo said the government had information that open sex, noise, homosexuality, LGBTI will be part of the Nyege Nyege.
This ugly thing called MTN Nyege Nyege is not taking place this year.
We have already evaluated how much losses will come. We shall save the image of this country but not allow this to take place for the two days and one night, he said.
This years festival is sponsored by telecom firm MTN. Last year, Bell Lager the first Ugandan brewed beer by Uganda Breweries Limited sponsored the event.
The activity will be covered by alcohol and music. There will be drugs, toxicants not accepted by this country.
There will be nudity and sexuality done at any time of the hour. There will be open sex.
The very name of the festival is provocative. It means sex, sex or urge for sex. We have been informed its taking place near Owen Falls dam. This brings uncertainty and fear.
This is close to devil worshipping and not acceptable.
Mr Lokodo said he has written to the police to stop the event from taking place.
The festival had attracted over 300 artists from over 30 countries.
The venue was set on a six-acre forest on the banks of the River Nile, a kilometre away from the source of the river and Jinja town.
Source: East African
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | MTN faults AGF on $2bn tax debt
By Prince Osuagwu
Embattled telecom operator, MTN Nigeria, has faulted the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, on the $2billion tax debt which he alleged the telco owed the Federal Government, saying AGFs calculations were wrong.
MTN-Office
The telco, yesterday, said that the Attorney General had notified it that his office made a high-level calculation and arrived at approximately $2 billion in taxes relating to the importation of foreign equipment and payments to foreign suppliers over the last 10 years, which he said MTN Nigeria should have paid.
The company through its Public Relations Manager, Mr Funso Aina, also disclosed that after the notice, the AGF allowed it the opportunity to do a self-assessment of the taxes in this regard that had actually been paid.
Aina, said that MTN Nigeria in compliance to the request, submitted a comprehensive documentation to the office of the AGF in August 2018 detailing initial assessment of the full period which indicates that total payments made to the tax authorities in regard to these foreign imports and payments in aggregate are $700 million.
He, however, expressed shock that MTN was later notified by the office of the AG last week that they have not accepted the documentation presented and expressed intention to recover the $2 billion from MTN Nigeria.
Aina said that Based on the detailed review performed, MTN Nigeria believes it has fully settled all amount owed under the taxes in question.
Although he did not disclose details, he said: There are valid reasons for the differences between the actual payments and the AG high-level assessment.
MTN, has had several allegations against it in recent weeks including one from the Central bank of Nigeria, CBN on improper foreign exchange repatriation.
Speaking on the CBN allegations, MTN Corporate Relations Executive Mr Tobe Okigbo said that MTN continues to strenuously deny the allegations and had provided further clarity on the companys position.
He said MTN equally strenuously rejects the findings of the Attorney Generals investigation and believes it has fully settled all amounts owed under the taxes in question.
He said: It is both regrettable and disconcerting that despite the historic engagements with the Nigerian authorities by MTN Nigeria, the senate investigation into the CCI matter, and the multiple tax assessments done by the Nigerian tax authorities over many years that were satisfactorily concluded, these matters are being reopened.
From the CBNs own letter and subsequent statements, it is clear that there is no dispute that the capital captured in MTNs books and for which CCIs were issued was imported into Nigeria, and this is acknowledged explicitly by the CBN. It is equally clear that Nigerian law provides for guaranteed unconditional transferability of funds through an authorised dealer in freely convertible currency relating to dividends or profits attributable to the investment, payments and in respect of loan servicing where a foreign loan has been obtained.
All dividend repatriation done by MTN Nigeria to its shareholders was done on the basis of its equity capital and all the historic dividends were declared against valid equity CCIs and in fact no preference dividends were declared and no interest in respect of these preference shares was paid. This means that it is incorrect to suggest that the conversion of a shareholder loan to preference shares has any relation to the repatriation of dividends. The two are simply not connected and we are trying to understand this position that the Central Bank has taken, he added.
He promised that MTN Nigeria will continue to engage with the relevant authorities on all these matters and will remain resolute that it has not committed any offence and will vigorously defend its position.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Photo: Mackenzie Stroh
I am guilty by association, says Letitia James, weary in the broiling heat, as we sit on a park bench in Queens after a campaign stop at the Forest Hills Jewish Center. She has just given four elderly women playing mah-jongg a kiss, posed for pictures, and been endorsed by no fewer than 20 Democratic Party district leaders, city councilmembers, and state legislators. James is the citys public advocate first in line to succeed the mayor and was until recently considered a sure thing for the Democratic nomination for state attorney general. She has the support of nearly every labor union and every elected official in the state, includingand this is increasingly problematic, given how much the activist left now dislikes him Governor Cuomo. But now shes fighting for her political life against Congressman Sean Maloney and the insurgent candidacy of Fordham Law professor Zephyr Teachout, who has cleverly found a way to use Jamess long record and, more important, the warm embrace of the states political class against her. If Teachout wins, it might mean that the playbook for how to get elected in this state, and in this town, is no longer operable.
Its a situation James finds disconcerting. In May, I was the progressive darling, and now I am the Establishment, she says. Switching to her habit of referring to herself in the third person, as if trying to gain some objectivity, she adds, It is a case study about how the narrative has shifted about Tish James, about who she is and what she stands for.
An aide brings a mango smoothie. James worries that shes getting sick. (I probably shouldnt have kissed those ladies.) The last few weeks have been a nonstop slog: three senior centers in the Bronx one day, a union hall in Mineola the next. Teachout, who admittedly is quite pregnant, has kept a less brutal statewide schedule.
One of eight children of parents whod fled sharecropping in the South and eventually lived in a brownstone in Park Slope, James went to Lehman College and Howard Law School. She has climbed the political ladder, with steady focus, as a public defender, assistant attorney general, and city councilwoman. In May, after Eric Schneiderman resigned in the wake of reports that he abused several women he dated, James seemed like such an overwhelming favorite to replace him that for a moment it looked as if she would have no credible challenger. She would be the states first African-American AG and, Barbara Underwoods interim appointment aside, its first female.
But with many Democrats inspired by outsiders like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cynthia Nixon, James finds herself having to defend The System. You have to understand that not everyone in Albany is corrupt, she retorted to Teachout during a debate which may be true, but a bumper-sticker slogan it aint. On top of all that, the New York Times endorsed Teachout, an academic and activist who went to Yale and grew up in Vermont her father a law professor and her mother a judge who has previously lost bids for governor and Congress. Shes not a machine politician. As the Times put it: James has for decades been a standout fighter for tenants, children, and other vulnerable New Yorkers. But she has embraced political contributions from donors to Mr. Cuomo, who held a fund-raiser for her earlier this summer.
Of course, until recently, this just seemed like how you succeeded: work within the system, then make it work for your constituents. Yes, the governor has embraced me, but its because he respects me. He recognizes my independence, and he recognizes my hard work in 20 years of public service, James says. But these are strange times, and I got it.
James lost her first bid for City Council in 2001. Less than two years later, the councilman who won the seat, a gadfly named James Davis, was murdered in the councils chambers. Local Democrats wanted to hand the seat to Daviss brother, Geoffrey, but James ran in the general election on the left-wing Working Families Party line and won, becoming the first person in city history to do so.
In the City Council, James made her name as a fierce opponent of the Atlantic Yards project (nonetheless, Barclays Center got built). Bloomberg-administration officials recall her as a relentless advocate for her district who, for the most part, worked well with them, though she took the opportunity at her public-advocate inauguration to criticize departing mayor Bloomberg for governing too much for the wealthy and leaving the working class to struggle (he was sitting, grim-visaged, a few feet away). James also brought a homeless girl who had been the subject of a five-part Times story onstage with her, then later suggested that shed tipped off the paper to the girls plight, when in fact she hadnt. The Times blasted James for turning the girl into a prop.
Being public advocate is a little like being lieutenant governor: You are mainly angling for a promotion. James seemed to consider the gig something of a cross between councilmember-at large she introduced more legislation than any previous public advocate and leader of a public-interest law firm. She has rarely been openly critical of Mayor de Blasio, but her office has sued his administration about a dozen times, over everything from more transparency in the Eric Garner case to un-air-conditioned city school buses.
Its a novel use of the office, maybe too novel a number of those lawsuits were tossed out. Given that, under Schneiderman, the AGs office became a front-line fighter against the Trump administration, her legal moves would be greatly scrutinized.
There have been other missteps: She said she didnt want to be the sheriff on Wall Street, a comment she had to walk back. She declined this time to seek the backing of the Working Families Party, which many on the left found suspicious given that the WFP and Cuomo are feuding. James denies he had anything to do with it: The governor never forced me not to take the WFP line. Rather, she was responding in part to the concerns of (unnamed) elected officials who felt the WFP had become holier than thou and focused on issues they didnt care about. Not that she herself necessarily agrees with these critics, she assures me.
Meanwhile, the partys mood is restless. I no longer felt the need to settle for the status quo, says Ritchie Torres, a Bronx city councilman who first endorsed James, then said he will be voting for Teachout. I no longer feel the need to make decisions based on political relationships and realities.
There are a lot of individuals who want to tear down the system, James says. I want to reform the system. The system has done a lot for me and countless Americans and New Yorkers. I am not listening to the noise. There is a lot of cynicism out there. I am hearing it from people who want to gin up this notion that the Democratic Party is split 50,000 different ways. But I fought and clawed and scratched my way to the table, and now all of a sudden people want to question my independence. Its never been questioned before! And it wont be in the future, I guarantee you that.
She takes a sip of her smoothie.
I love campaigning. I just want my voice back.
*This article appears in the September 3, 2018, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!
Home | News | General | NUJ, CAN condemn attack on journalists, communities
By Marie-Therese Nanlong
JosPlateau State council of Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, has condemned Mondays attack on its members by youths in Dwei community, after Sunday evenings attack on the community by bandits which claimed 11 lives.
File: Photo Journalists discharging their duties. Note this image was extracted from Google
The union, in a statement yesterday in Jos by its Chairman, Paul Jatau, and Secretary, Peter Amine, called for restraint from the citizens, stressing that journalists are not in any way connected with the killings and must not be made to suffer the consequences.
The statement reads: While we share in the grief of those injured and the bereaved families, we wish to state, unequivocally, that the attack on journalists is uncalled for.
Journalists are in no way connected to the killings and must not be seen as such. Our members who were assaulted, harassed and injured were there to perform their duty of letting the world know of the incident.
Also, Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, in the 19 northern states and the FCT, Rev. Yakubu Pam, has called on security agencies to double their efforts to curtail the new form of attacks of hit-and-run in parts of the state.
Pam, in a press statement yesterday in Jos, called on security agents to locate the hideout of these criminals hell bent on making lives unbearable for citizens of the state.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | INEC says 93, 788 PVCs uncollected in Plateau
- 93, 788 Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) were still uncollected in Plateau state according to INEC
- The unclaimed PVCs were for persons who registered between January and December 2017
- INEC added that Jos North, Jos South, Wase, and Kanke local government areas of the state had the highest number of unclaimed PVCs
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that 93, 788 Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) were still uncollected in Plateau.
Mr Imahiyereobo Osaretin, head of voter education and publicity of the commission in the state, made the disclosure to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Jos.
According to him, the unclaimed PVCs were for persons who registered between January and December 2017.
READ ALSO: Full list of PDP presidential aspirants and their profiles
Between January and December 2017, we registered 133,007 new voters in Plateau and their PVCs have been ready long now.
But as I speak to you, only 39, 219 PVCs were collected, leaving 93, 788 unclaimed, he said.
Osaretin explained that Jos North, Jos South, Wase, and Kanke local government areas of the state had the highest number of unclaimed PVCs.
For example, Jos North has a total number of 11, 147 PVCs, but only 5, 706 are collected.
In Wase, we registered 10, 408 voters and their PVCs ready, but only 1,253 have so far been collected.
In Kanke, only 906 PVCs have been collected out of the 4,848 produced for the area, he explained.
The head of voter education said now that the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) had been suspended, more attention would be channelled to collection of PVCs.
He, therefore, urged registered voters who are yet to collect their PVCs to do so, adding that the personnel of the commission would be on ground at every collection point.
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday, July 23, began a five-day training programme for its personnel ahead of the 2019 general elections.
The national commissioner, INEC, Muhammed Haruna, while declaring the workshop open, said the training was with the support of the European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES).
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app
Haruna said the training was meant to sharpen and enhance skills and capacity of the staff to be able to represent the commission effectively ahead of the task in 2019.
Ekiti Election 2018: Water Tight Security in Ado-Ekiti as INEC Expects Election Materials on NAIJ.com TV
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | Disregard social media platforms operated in Yusuf Buhari's name; they're fake - Presidency advises Nigerians
- The presidency has frowned at acts of impersonation against the son of the president, Yusuf Muhammadu Buhari
- Femi Adesina, the special adviser to the president on media and publicity, in a statement said that some persons fraudulently use social media accounts in Yusuf's name
- Adesina said that the most recent is an Instagram account @ymbuhari, which has been used to express opinions in Yusuf's name without his knowledge
The presidency on Wednesday, September 5, dismissed social media accounts being used in the name of President Muhammadu Buharis son, Yusuf.
Femi Adesina, the special adviser to the president on media and publicity, in a statement made available to NAIJ.com said that Yusuf is not on any social media platform.
READ ALSO: Insurgency: NLC demands governors pay benefits of killed workers
Adesina said the social media handles and pages, including a recent Instagram account which had attracted thousands of followers, were being used to express opinions in Yusufs name without his consent and knowledge.
Consequently, Adesina advised the public to disregard such handles and pages and warned those operating the various accounts in the name of the president's son and other members of the family to stop the act.
The statement read: It has been observed that social media accounts are being run in the name of the son of the President, Yusuf Buhari.
The most recent is an Instagram account @ymbuhari, which has attracted thousands of followers, and which has been used to express opinions in Yusufs name without his knowledge. This is to inform the general public that Yusuf Muhammadu Buhari is not on any social media platform.
The public is therefore, advised to disregard such handles and pages, while those perpetrating the illegality are advised to stop forthwith, as it amounts to impersonation.
PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet!
"The same advice goes to those running other pages and handles impersonating other members of the family of the President.
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com reported that Yusuf, the son of President Muhammadu Buhari had returned to Nigeria following treatment abroad after a motorcycle accident.
In a picture shared on Facebook, Yusuf was seen thanking his father following his successful surgery.
President Buhari on 2019 Presidential Election: Will You Vote For Him? | NAIJ.com TV
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | Young graduate appreciates his trader mum for putting him through school, shares emotional photos
A young graduate has shown the world how much his mum means to him in a post shared on social media.
The young man identified as Joe Jay Madondo, praised his mother, who worked hard so that he could get a proper education and succeed in life. He revealed how the shero helped him achieve his goals through her hard work. The proud son appreciated her with an emotional post on Facebook.
His post immediately went viral with many people thanking his hardworking petty trader mum for her perseverance and sacrifice, just to make sure her son finds his bearing on the tall ladder of success.
Joe also got many social media users emotional as he shared photos of himself and his mother standing by her petty business. he proved that he is not ashamed of his sweet mother, who despite her meager earnings put her son through school.
READ ALSO: Comedian AY covers daughter with blood of Jesus from actress Angela Okorie sons charm
Madondo's post was reposted on Twitter by social media user NguLethu, who captioned it: "Our black mothers are superwomen!!!"
The post inspired social media users, who praised his mom for her hard work. So, NAIJ.com gathered some of the best responses to Madondo's story.
Here are some reactions below;
READ ALSO: Tiwa Savage reveals how much she reveres Don Jazzy
God bless her darling heart!
PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigeria's #1 news app
Mom's Blog New Episode: Q&A Session with Odunayo Adams-Oyebolu on NAIJ.com TV:
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | 2019: APC UK develops strategy to boost partys revenue collection and address funding challenges
- The UK chapter of the APC said it will create a mobile app for the ruling party
- It said the app will help in the management of members globally
- The mobile app, according the leader of the chapter, will also help in boosting the partys revenue collection and address its funding challenges
The United Kingdom chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) says it will create a technology to ensure effective management of the partys members across the world.
Ade Omole, the chapters leader, made this known in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday, September 5, in Abuja.
NAIJ.com gathered that Omole made the disclosure when he visited the APC national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the APC national leader to brief them on the partys diaspora issues.
READ ALSO: 2019: 13 PDP 'heavyweights' set to slug it out with Buhari (full list, profiles)
NAN reports that the proposal for the technology which would link all the partys chapters across the world was presented by Omole to Oshiomhole, after a two-hour closed-door meeting.
The APC multi-functional app will help in the management of members globally, and also help party agents at polling booths to send election results in real time to the party situation room during elections amongst other functionalities.
It will also help party members to pay registration fees, membership dues and help with the dissemination of information to members across the world, Omole said.
He said that this would boost the partys revenue collection and address its funding challenges.
Omole added that APC UK would also provide policy documentation on several national challenges and expertise to its Nigeria counterpart.
He said that few of the policies had been presented to President Muhammadu Buhari when he visited him recently, while more policies were presently being put together by the chapter.
Omole reiterated the diasporas commitment to ensuring the re-election of Buhari in 2019 because of his developmental stride.
He commended Tinubu for helping to steer the ship of the nation and contributions to the development of the country and his selfless service to the progress of the party.
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app
NAIJ.com previously reported that the APC had fixed a date for its presidential primaries to elect a candidate for the 2019 presidential election.
The party's national working committee said the primaries for the ruling party would take place on Thursday, September 20.
The party in its guidelines for the conduct of the process said the presidential candidate would emerge through a direct primary.
Nigeria Latest News: Buhari Reacts To APC Senators Betrayal | NAIJ.com TV
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | 2019: Uncertainty as 5 PDP governors reportedly seek new deal with Buhari
- Some PDP governors seeking a second term in office are reportedly making overtures to President Muhammadu Buhari
- The report says one of the governors sent a message to Buhari while the president was in China
- The report quotes a source as saying the defection of Godswill Akpabio also changed the political calculations in the south east and south south
As Nigerians prepare for the 2019 general elections, it has been learnt that five governors on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are seeking a deal with President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Nation reports that the deal is specifically to see the governors support the president for a second term while Buhari is expected to return the gesture so that they can retain their seats.
The report, which said the names of the governors could not be mentioned for strategic reasons, added that they had sent emissaries to Buhari.
READ ALSO: Full list of PDP presidential aspirants and their profiles
The emissaries sent to the president reportedly include two governors on the platform of the All progressives Congress (APC).
According to the report, one of the governors sent a message to the president in China through an APC governor, just as it added a belief that the governors fear they may not be reelected.
It added that the five governors are from the south south and the south east.
The five governors are lobbying APC leaders to help cut a deal with President Buhari by which the President will allow them to be re-elected in return for their support for Buhari to win the presidential election in those PDP states.
The arrowhead of the group (from the south south) has been talking to two APC governors. He is pleading with the governors to present the request of the five PDP governors to the president ahead of a likely face-to-face meeting, the report quoted a source as saying.
The idea of lobbying for some horse trading with President Buhari was first brought up by the arrowhead, who broached it with senior officials of the presidency last year when his relationship with PDP leaders and members in his state, including his godfather, became frosty, a source told the newspaper.
It also mentioned another source as saying Senator Godswill Akpabios defection and the inroad being made by the APC into the south south has caused a political upset in the geopolitical zone.
PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app
With the defection of Senator Akpabio on August 8, to the APC and the obvious rise in the electoral fortunes of the party in the zone, the arrowhead was mandated by the group to secure an audience with President Buhari for them to present their plan.
Should the meeting hold, the governors would be dangling before the Presidency the prospect of a win for President Buhari in the south south and Southeast zones, the two regions that have been the strongholds of the PDP, the source said.
NAIJ.com earlier reported that Chris Ngige, Nigerias labour and productivity minister, said it would be better for Igbo people to vote for President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 election because of favourable indications that he would win.
Ngige said this when he addressed reporters. He accused Igbo people of suffering from self-inflicted marginalization even when they have opportunity to redeem their predicament.
Nigeria News: President Buhari's Return Will Teach Nigerians Sense | Naij.com TV
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | Families of over 2,000 workers killed in insurgency yet to get benefits - NLC
- The NLC said the workers who lost their lives to insurgency in north east was over 2,000
- The congress called on the state governors to pay the benefits of killed workers to their families
- The NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, said he is not happy that the benefits have not been paid
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Tuesday, September 4, said that the families of more than 2,000 workers lost to the insurgency in north east, Nigeria were yet to get their benefits from their respective state governors.
The NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, said this while speaking at the Employment and Decent Work for Peace: National Feedback meeting organised by the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity in collaboration with the NLC in Abuja.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Wabba said the congress would write the affected state governors in the region to demand that workers who were killed in the region as a result of insurgency got their benefits.
READ ALSO: Full list of PDP presidential aspirants and their profiles
He said that the number of workers who lost their lives to insurgency in the region was over 2,000 put together.
Wabba said that years after workers who were breadwinners for their families were killed, their families were yet to be paid their benefits.
He said teachers, local government and health workers were the most affected, stressing that orphans and widows who are victims of the insurgency are merely surviving on contributions from unions.
According to him, 546 teachers, 101 health workers and six nurses have lost their lives in Borno alone since the commencement of the insurgency as at January 2016.
The labour leader said this figure was obtained from the American Solidarity Centre.
Wabba expressed disappointment that the benefits were yet to be paid to the distressed families, saying: I am not happy that their benefits have not been paid.
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Nigeria
He said: We have lost more than 2,000 workers, teachers, local government workers and health workers because they are usually the first line of casualties.
The ideology of the insurgents is that they dont believe in western education and therefore the first person to be the victim is the teacher, because he must be at the place of work to teach the pupil. According to him, most of them were killed in active service.
He, however, called on all the states that were affected to give priority to the benefit of those heroes that have died in active service.
the NLC president said: We will write a formal demand to those governors to say that those workers that have died in active service should be paid their benefit.
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that the organised labour called for the immediate passage of the National Minimum Wage bill into law as soon as the committee concludes negotiation.
Joe Ajaero, the president of the United Labour Congress (ULC) made the called at the end of its Central Working Committee meeting in Lagos.
The committee is expected to wrap up negotiation on the minimum wage bill in August.
Who should get higher salary - doctors or teachers? - on NAIJ.com TV:
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | PDP chieftain decries Buharis refusal to sign PIB, Electoral Law amendment bill
Abuja Mr Emmanuel Ogidi, Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) South South, has decried refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
President Buhari
Ogidi said in Abuja on Wednesday that the PIB was dear to the Niger Deltans.
According to him, the bill seeks to enhance transparency and accountability in the industry, enhance private sector investment and address issues affecting host communities.
Ogidi said that the bill had been on for many years and that the National Assembly had done all that was necessary to make it see the light of the day.
He also expressed worry over the presidents refusal to sign the Electoral Law Amendment Bill.
The chieftain said that the reasons put forward by the presidency for declining assent to the bills were not `acceptable.
The presidential aide on National Assembly Matters, Sen. Ita Enang had said that President Muhammadu Buhari withheld assent to PIGB for constitutional and legal reasons.
He also said that the president declined assent to the draft law initiated to update the outdated Petroleum Act to replace its provisions with a more comprehensive and current legal framework that aligned with global standards.
Ogidi said that the Electoral Law Amendment Bill was necessary to ensure a credible election in 2019 as it sought to give legal backing to the use of card readers.
He noted that Buhari promised credible elections come 2019, while receiving his counterparts from Germany and Britain but alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Police had been compromised.
He called on all the heads of security agencies to learn from the misfortunes of the recently sacked Director General of the Department of State Security Service (DSS) and live up to expectations.
The PDP stalwart said nobody is indispensable adding that there were capable Nigerians waiting for the opportunity to serve.
He said that security issues must be taken very seriously adding that there was urgent need for government to put an end to killings across the country.
Nigerians must engage the government and keep talking to be taken seriously, we are not comedians and we must prevent a repeat of what happened in the Ekiti Elections.
I urge elder statesmen to keep speaking out and attract the attention of the international community; Nigeria being the giant of Africa cannot afford to be brought low, he said.
According to Ogidi, Nigerians, have gone out in their numbers to get registered ahead of 2019 general elections in a bid to sustain democracy
He described reports alleging that some Nigerians were made to part with money to collect their Permanent Voter Card (PVCs) as `unfortunate.
The chieftain expressed confidence that the PDP would win the presidential election come 2019.
Speaking on the defection of the former Governor of Delta, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan from the PDP to the All Progressive Congress (APC), Ogidi said that it was of no consequence to the PDP.
He described the move as a quest for relevance saying that before Uduaghan left office as governor, members of the PDP had already deserted him for lack of performance.
Following the collapse of St. Paul Catholic Church in Adagbrasa-Ugolo community, Okpe Local Government Area of Delta State, Ogidi urged church leaders to always engage professionals.
He advised that, rather than engaging church members in building projects, it was safer and better to engage experienced professionals.
It is unfortunate that we lose lives daily to killings across the country, we cannot afford to loose lives to collapsed building as well, he said. (NAN)
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | Restructuring failed promise that I intend on redeeming Atiku
Former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar has said that restructuring of Nigeria is a failed promise that he wants to redeem.
This came as he took another swipe at President Muhammadu Buhari and his Vice Professor Yemi Osinbajo sayig that they both have asymmetrical views on restructuring.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar,
Atiku on his Tweeter handle said The President & his VP have asymmetrical views on restructuring. Thus, explains the lack of forthrightness on the matter by this government. This is a failed promise that I intend on redeeming.
The President & his VP have asymmetrical views on restructuring. Thus, explains the lack of forthrightness on the matter by this government. This is a failed promise that I intend on redeeming. https://t.co/En62aWoDZY Atiku Abubakar (@atiku) September 5, 2018
Recalled that yesterday Atiku has replied the Vice Presidents letter written to Premium Times in response to an essay on restructuring he authored
Atiki in his response on medium.com titled Restructuring Is a Necessity, Not an Option wrote
Faced with an avalanche of public condemnation for his 360-degree turn on the concept of restructuring, it is understandable that the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has written to Premium Times to douse the tension his comments created. However, in doing so, the Vice President should not attempt to revise history by saying that he spoke against geographic restructuring.
I have been in the forefront of the discourse on restructuring since the 1995 Abacha Constitutional Conference and to the best of my knowledge, there has not been any term like geographic restructuring. It is a strange concept, not only because it is not what the restructuring debate is all about, but also because the words of the Vice President, which prompted my response were clear, unambiguous and unequivocal.
Mr. Osinbajo said, the problem with our country is not a matter of restructuring. That I disagree with and so do many other Nigerians. If the Vice President has changed his stance, I welcome it, but we should not use one finger to hide behind semantics.
For the Vice President to say Alhaji Atikus concept of restructuring is understandably vague, because he seeks to cover every aspect of human existence in that definition, is most unfortunate.
I have been very clear, detailed, and unambiguous about my ideas for restructuring. At several occasions, including, but not limited to my speeches at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), and at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (made in April this year and July 2017, respectively), I gave very clear and concise ideas about administrative, political and economic restructuring as followss:
Devolution of powers and resources to the states.
No state will receive less Federal funds than today as a result of restructuring
Matching grants from the federal government to the states to help them grow their internally generated revenue position.
The privatisation of unviable federal Government-owned assets.
A truly free market economy driven by the laws of demand and supply.
Replacing state of origin with state of residence, and
Passing the PIGD so that our oil and gas sector will run as a business with minimal governmental interference.
I am hard pressed to see how these clear and specific ideas can be described as vague. One would have thought that if anything is vague, it would be the idea of geographic restructuring whose meaning is hanging in the air.
Be that as it may, in his letter, Vice President Osinbajo then jumps from the topic of restructuring and goes on to say:
Good governance involves, inter alia, transparency and prudence in public finance. It involves social justice, investing in the poor, and jobs for young people; which explains our School Feeding Programme, providing a meal a day to over 9 million public school children in 25 States as of today. Our NPower is now employing 500,000 graduates; our TraderMoni that will be giving microcredit to 2 million petty traders; our Conditional Cash Transfers giving monthly grants to over 400,000 of the poorest in Nigeria. The plan is to cover a million households.
While what Professor Osinbajo says may be true or false, I must say that his dovetailing into the area of the economy does not explain certain facts such as the fact that the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics reported in December 2017 that Nigeria lost 7.9 million jobs in the 21 month period under review.
If the Vice President cannot see that losing 7.9 million jobs in 21 months while creating 500,000 jobs is a deficit, then I do not know what to say to the honourable professor.
Professor Osinbajo also harps on about prudence in public finance, but he fails to show the wisdom in sharing out $322 million of Abacha funds to the poor only to take a loan of $328 million from the Chinese the very next month. Many Nigerians, myself included, see this as imprudence.
Finally, while the Vice President is not exactly correct when he says In four years from 2010 to 2014 the PDP government earned the highest oil revenues in Nigerias history, USD381.9billion. By contrast the Buhari Administration has earned USD121 billion from May 2015 to June 2018, let us for the sake of argument say that he is right.
My response to Vice President Osinbajo is that while I was Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2006, Nigerias Economic Management Team, of which I was a prominent member, paid off Nigerias entire foreign debt of $30 billion, at a time when we were earning one third of what the Buhari administration is currently earning from oil. So such arguments are puerile at best.
My advice to the Vice President is that he should choose whether he is for restructuring or whether he is against it and stick to his choice. This continuous prevarication, this approbation and reprobation, helps no one, least of all true progressives who know that Nigeria needs to be restructured and restructured soon.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | I may poison my husband, divorce-seeking wife tells court
An Ibadan-based housewife and mother of three, Ronke Olanrewaju, on Wednesday asked an Ile-Tuntun Customary Court to dissolve her union.
The petitioner also threatened to poison her husband, Sunday, if the court declined to grant her request due to the persistent battery she had been subjected to in her home.
In her petition to the court, Ronke, a trader, said that she was tired of her husbands incessant beatings and may be compelled to resort to self help
Sunday has continually made marriage a thing of regret and frustration for me.
Anytime men enter into my shop to buy goods, Sunday becomes offended and accuses me of having extra- marital affairs with them.
Then, he descends heavily on me, battering me mercilessly.
My lord, it would have been better if he had stopped at just beating me.
Sunday also treats my mother with disdain by beating her as well.
In fact, he treats her like a rag.
In his wickedness, he often locks me up in the belief that he is above the law as a politician
If this court refuses to grant my divorce prayer, I might poison him, Ronke said.
The respondent, who opposed the suit, admitted to the allegations levelled against him.
Sunday, who lives at Ona-Ara area of Ibadan with his wife, pleaded with the court to help preserve his marriage.
My lord, I am guilty of the allegation levelled against me and I am ready to turn a new leaf.
I dont know what usually comes over me before beating Ronke.
Please, help me to beg her not to leave me, I am ready to sign an undertaking never to lay my hands on her anymore.
There is nobody to take of the children if Ronke leaves me and I dont want my children to undergo the kind of hardship I experienced.
I dont think that I can ever get a loving wife like Ronke again, Sunday stated.
Chief Henry Agbaje, the courts President, advised the duo to maintain the status quo by embracing peace.
He adjourned the case till Sept. 18 for further hearing.
NAN
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
In deep-red Tennessee, Democrat Phil Bredesens pitch is hypercompetence and experience. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
One of the first things Phil Bredesen tells me is hes been ducking people like me for the last nine months, ever since he decided to try his hand at becoming a senator.
Were sitting next to each other at a round table in the wood-lined Oak Bar in the basement of Nashvilles ornate Beaux-Arts Hermitage Hotel, one of those grand southern hotels that feels happily trapped in the last century. Bredesen the former two-term governor of Tennessee, a two-term mayor of Nashville before that, and a health care management company executive before that keeps running into old friends.
Im trying to avoid the national press. You cant entirely, he admits, looking me, a member of the national press, in the eye. People come with this kind of narrative in mind that they keep trying to pop the race into, and it actually doesnt fit very well, I dont think. Number one, its very much a special situation. I mean, a generic well-qualified Democrat would not have much of a chance in a Senate race here.
But, he says, the people here know him and his moderate record. And thats why, he insists, even plenty of Tennessees more conservative voters, with their tendency to support just-get-it-done centrist Republicans, are giving this brand-name Democrat a real shot at replacing retiring GOP senator Bob Corker in Novembers midterm elections.
The narrative is, Oh, Trump won [Tennessee] by 26 points, so theres that many more people who are just, you know, devoted to the Trumpian view of the world, he says. Its just not right. Theres lots of people who voted for [Trump] because he was a Republican, lots of people who bought into the Trumpian view of the world, lots of people who didnt like Hillary Clinton, lots of people who wanted anybody but her any outsider trying to decide between Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. So I think it is a much more complex thing.
Got all that? Phil Bredesen refuses to fit in your box, and he doesnt want to hear about your box, even if its a vaguely Phil Bredesenshaped box.
After all, that complexity may be what gets him elected. From the outside, it sure looks like Tennessee is basically as red as it gets: Not only did Trump win it by 26 percentage points, but Mitt Romney won it by 20, and it hasnt elected a Democrat to the Senate since Al Gore, 28 years ago. Yet Bredesen is beloved: When he stood for reelection as governor in 2006, he won all of the states 95 counties.
The Democrats brand has tanked in Tennessee since then, and Bredesens opponents are making sure everyone knows about the D next to his name. So far, though, hes been careful to fly far underneath the national radar, garnering a tiny fraction of the headlines and online virality surrounding someone like Beto ORourke, the Texas congressman running a long-shot bid to take out Senator Ted Cruz. Thats Bredesens plan to avoid the national partys stain. He has proceeded with a purposeful calmness, quietly cementing front-runner status in the Senate race both in polls and among prognosticators even as national Democrats cultivate a campaign thats much louder, more combative, and more fractious.
So Bredesen isnt trying to be the bomb-thrower in the race, and he doesnt seem to mind when people call him boring. His pitch is hypercompetence and experience at a time of deep displeasure with D.C. dysfunction. He spends more political energy on the Tennessee Valley Authority, the states brutal opioid epidemic, and the local Asian carp problem than on any national issue, let alone Trump, whom he doesnt mention much. (Look, Im not running against Donald Trump, Bredesen says in one of his ads.) Its not a stretch to think hed fit right in on Capitol Hill hes already talked to a few former governors-turned-senators about that transition, he tells me. If he beats Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn in two months, Bredesen, 75 when sworn in, would be the oldest freshman to join the Senate since World War II. He orders a Caesar salad with grilled chicken, and softly tells me he loves the Senates famous bean soup.
That morning had offered a neat contrast between Bredesen and his opponent. Upstairs at the Hermitage, which is about a block from the state capitol, the pair talked to a group of health-care and education professionals, and local lawmakers, about opioids. Blackburn spoke first, standing in front of a quiet room and darting out immediately when she was finished. Bredesen, wearing a gray suit with a white shirt and a dark blue patterned tie, followed about an hour later, and was greeted with a standing ovation. He stood opposite the ballrooms portrait of Andrew Jackson and promised to roll back the 2016 drug-industry-backed legislation thats been widely blamed for weakening the federal governments ability to fight the crisis. He cupped his ear and took questions from the audience, and then met with local reporters in the hotel lobby, where one pointed out what Bredesen hadnt needed to say out loud: The law he was targeting had famously been co-sponsored by Blackburn.
Between bites of salad less than an hour later, Bredesen tells me he probably wouldnt have gotten into the race if his friend Corker had run for reelection, or if Bill Haslam, Bredesens Republican successor as governor, had stepped in. Im certainly far enough in life that I didnt get in this to keep somebody out of office, he says.
Blackburn is a unique figure in Tennessee politics. An outspoken tea party-er whose rise has been marked by feuds even with fellow GOP members at home, Blackburn has tied herself especially tight to Trump, telling the crowd at one of his rallies in May about his amazing 18 months.
Tennessee needs a senator whos gonna support President Donald Trump, and I am going to be there to stand with President Donald Trump, and take your Tennessee values to Washington, D.C., to fight with him to get the job done, she promised.
Bredesen, her side maintains, is really a left-winger masquerading as a centrist. When musicians Jason Isbell and Ben Folds campaigned for him this summer, Senate Republicans campaign arm said Bredesen was partnering with the unhinged left.
Thats been a tough case to make, largely thanks to the significant proportion of Republican and independent voters already supporting Bredesen, and because Corker, a Republican whos clashed with Trump, has refused to criticize Bredesen or praise Blackburn, effectively giving the Democrat a big boost. Nonetheless, the main local knock against Bredesen remains that his election could hand Democrats control of the Senate or at least get them close however unlikely that may be. When Trump visited Nashville, he said Bredesen is an absolute total tool of Chuck Schumer, leader of the Senate Democrats. (Then again, Trump also called Bredesen Philbert. Your guess is as good as mine.)
I ask Bredesen whats changed since he last ran for office, and he points to a great disaffectation, if thats a word, with the national Democratic Party and the way its acting.
I talk to somebody whos trying to make up their mind, okay? The conversation, 90 percent of the conversations, are, Oh, governor, we loved you as governor, I voted for you twice. Im not sure I want to send another Democratic vote, he says. This campaign is going to be about how well I answer that question. Thats just the disconnect between me as an individual and the national party.
He says the polling hes seen has been clear. Test my negatives, thats the biggest one: Chuck Schumer and Youre going to be another Democratic vote.
Its reminiscent of what Republicans tried doing to Doug Jones when he challenged Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate race in December. Bredesens far better known in-state than Jones was in his own conservative home, but when I talked to Jones later, he said the parallels were obvious, and that another southern Democrat who wins on a moderate competence-first platform would be a welcome addition to the Senate. (Its important to have another senator from the South, I believe, because its one more voice of moderation thats important in our party, but also the Republican Party, Jones told me.)
If it works, Bredesen will have convinced moderates and Republicans to back him. He isnt, and wont be, a darling or even adherent of the national left. Hes rarely asked to answer questions about democratic socialism, Medicare for All, or abolishing ICE. (I got asked for the first time, I think it was Monday, the abolish ICE, he notes. I just said I thought that was a really stupid idea, even though it was people in my party doing it.) Instead, he quietly admits hes hoping for the opposite for his moderate, heavy-on-experience campaign to pave a path for others on the left.
Look, I very much would like my party to sort of, you know, get back to being a muscular party focusing on opportunity for middle- and working-class voters, and actually have some ideas that are practical about how to go about doing that. And one of my secret hopes is that if I can be successful in a Trump plus-26 state, that there may be some people who will look at that and say, Well, maybe that could be a way we can connect with people who dont live within 100 miles of an ocean, he says.
This is a lot coming from a guy who tries not to talk about national politics, and especially party politics, most of the time. I hate what politics has become in both parties, because its got this, you know, its all about tribalism, and demographic groups, and identity politics on my side. And I just think some of that stuffs awful, Bredesen continues.
Surprised to hear him so expansive about national politics, I stay quiet as he sips his water.
Underneath it all, he starts, then he pauses for a beat. This is not something I say on the campaign trail, particularly, he offers, and the trio of campaign helpers listening into our conversation at this point each noticeably perk up, plainly not sure what to expect from a man whos hardly known for going off script. Weve already spent far more time together than the 20 minutes wed initially agreed on, but he hasnt looked at his watch once.
I really think that our country goes through these kind of existential moments every generation-and-a-half, or something like that, when theres something that happens thats really, fundamentally, changing the base of society, and how we react to it as a society determines a lot of things about how the future lays out, he says.
Hed already lived through one the civil-rights movement and the 60s he explains, identifying the two previous inflection points: the Great Depression and World War II, and the industrial revolution and Civil War.
I think were going through one right now. This combination of this globalism of the economy and what technology is doing, its fundamentally changing what it means to have a job, the way in which you plan your life out, and so on. I dont think weve responded to it yet, and I really do think that the way, the ways, we find to respond to this are going to have a huge influence on what happens 50 years from now. And Id like to be a part of it.
This isnt usually quite how interviews with candidates go. The table stays quiet save for the restaurants soft jazz butting its way in, and I ask if it isnt unrealistically idealistic to think that todays Senate might be the right venue for dealing with these problems.
Well, I think youre going to have to deal with it in some way, the former governor says, looking down at his half-eaten salad. If you ignore it, youre setting up society to have even more disparity of wealth, and an even more unhappy working- and middle-class, and so on. And maybe thats what the world will be like in 50 years. I hope not. Because thats ripe for revolution. And all sorts of stuff.
Home | News | General | 2019: What PDP should do to return to power - Governor Umahi
- David Umahi, the Ebonyi state governor, has charged both supporters and members of the PDP to brace up for victory in the 2019 general polls
- Umahi revealed that one of the strategies the party can adopt to broaden its support base is massive involvement of women and youths in its affairs
- He appealed to the party's supporters not to lose hope but join hands to retake power from the APC
David Umahi, the national vice chairman of the south-east of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has urged the executive members of the party in Anambra to work towards the partys bid to seize power in 2019.
Inaugurating a 19-member caretaker committee of the party for Anambra in Enugu, Umahi urged them by saying that unlike in the past when they operated on the surface as a result of contentions of their legitimacy, they now have the full right to administer the party, and must use it to work for the partys victory in 2019, This Day reports.
READ ALSO: If you detain suspect beyond 48 hours you can lose your job - IGP warns FSARS
Umahi further urged the members to open up the political arena by increasing sensitisation and mobilisation, especially through greater involvement of women and youths in the party's affairs.
He said: Action has started and there is no time to waste. You have all the rights to deal with every issue that has to do with the party in the state, starting from now.
We are not afraid to apologise to Nigerians where we have done wrong, we have realised our mistakes. That is why we have accepted to rebrand the party and reposition ourselves in order to regain power in 2019.
Umahi appealed to the party's supporters in Nigeria especially in Anambra state not to lose hope, but to rather pray and work for PDP to regain power from the current ruling despotic cabal and return it to the people, because power belongs to the people.
In his acceptance speech, the chairman of the caretaker committee, Chief Ndubuisi Nwobu, said that they were mindful of the crises which have bedevilled the party in the state, and are now poised to reconcile all interests and persons, in order to move the party forward.
Nwobu said: The committee would do all within their powers to reconcile all aggrieved persons within the party, in order to restore the massive support and overwhelming confidence the people of Anambra people.
Also speaking on behalf of other members of the committee, a former state secretary of the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the state, John Okoli-Akirika, insisted that with the maturity being displayed by the national chairman of the party, Prince Uche secondus, the PDP is braced up for victory come 2019 polls.
PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet!
Moreover, Valentine Ayika, a top member of the party, who was a former member of the state legislature, expressed satisfaction over the inauguration of the new party executive after a protracted leadership crises.
Ayika stated: PDP has decided to forge a common front, to go into the 2019 elections as one united family.
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com reported that five governors on the platform of the PDP were seeking a deal with President Muhammadu Buhari.
NAIJ.com gathered that the deal was specifically to see the governors support the president for a second term while he was expected to return the gesture so that they can retain their seats.
President Buhari on 2019 Presidential Election: Will You Vote For Him? | NAIJ.com TV
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | Police grill Fani-Kayode for 2 hours, release him on bail
By Kingsley Omonobi
ABUJAFORMER Aviation Minister, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, who honoured Police invitation to answer questions was yesterday released on bail by the Inspector General of Police Monitoring unit after two hours of interrogation.
Sources at the Police headquarters told Vanguard that Chief Fani-Kayode was invited for questioning following a petition submitted to the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris by an individual, whose identity was kept secret.
Fani-Kayode
The source disclosed that contrary to the belief in some quarters, the Police invitation had nothing to do with the government or witch-hunting, adding that all actions relating to the invitation and interaction were done in accordance with the rule of law.
The source said that following a request by Chief Fani-Kayode, the former minister will reappear before the IGP Monitoring unit on the 11th of September, (next week Tuesday) for more discussions.
The source said: He was with his team of lawyers and the police had no objections because that is his right. They were there with him all through the time he was with the CP in charge monitoring unit, CP Habu Sani.
The former minister arrived the Force Headquarters at about 12:15pm and headed straight to the monitoring unit. He surfaced at about 2:05pm after almost 2 hours chatting with the CP.
We had a professional discussion-Fani-Kayode
Speaking with Vanguard Fani-Kayode said: We had a friendly, thorough and professional discussion. There are one or two documents I need to get, so I will be back at a later date for more discussion with Police.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | NEMA Success story and echoes of triumph from abroad
In recent times, there has been an avalanche of criticism on the activities of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) concerning its Director General, Engr. Mustapha Maihaja. While some see him as a misfit, some also saw him as that thoroughbred professional whose experience which he has brought to bear in the running of NEMA since he was appointed in 2017.
Members of a rescue team gathering personal belongings from victims of a Dana Air plane crash, which occurred on June 4th, at the site of the crash in the densely populated Toyin Area of Iju Ishaga in Lagos. Nigerian aviation authorities have suspended Dana Airs licence after a flight operated by the commercial passenger carrier crashed in Lagos, killing at least 159 people, a spokesman said on June 5. AFP PHOTO
I subscribe to school of thought that have risen above sentiments to acknowledge that NEMA in the past two year has seen some tremendous improvements in its activities. And guess what? This much was corroborated recently with the Humanitarian Icon of the Year award conferred on Engr. Mustapha Maihaja by the TheNigerian News in the United Kingdom.
While this might seem ordinary in the eyes of some, to other critical stakeholders and me, it is indeed a testament to the result of hard work, purposefulness, dedication and a high sense of commitment to duty and fatherland. I say this for the apparent reason that NEMA as an agency plays a critical and vital role in the contemporary Nigerian society.
As a start, NEMA is not just an agency. NEMA is an attitude aimed at the common good of Nigerians. Why you might want to ask. I say this because of four reasons; NEMA is configured to avert disasters, it undertakes rescue operations, it provides relief measures and materials and conducts rehabilitation programmes. You might want to agree with me that these four components are critical for the survival of any country or society.
Now, back to the crux of this piece. I had to give a background to enable us to comprehend in full, why this award that was bestowed on the DG of NEMA is of exceeding joy to me. It is one thing to be able to read, and it is another thing to be able to read and comprehend. This analogy of reading and understanding is how I describe the commitment and dedication of Engr. Mustapha Maihaja to his work as the DG of NEMA.
The organizers of the awards corroborated this much. Hear them Because of your numerous achievements at NEMA in the past two years, we are proud to honour you with the Humanitarian Icon of the year. Your obligations and duties to the most vulnerable population are indeed commendable and worthy of emulation by all and sundry.
The above is not only commendable; it is also a justification for Engr. Mustapha Maihaja from all the litany of allegations levelled against him since he assumed leadership of NEMA. Even though we were aware that most of those agitations and protests were politically motivated by some of those who realized that a new Sherriff is in town and it was not going to be business as usual and also to those who saw how his profile continues rising on a daily basis owing to his work ethics. Despite all the distractions, he was undeterred. He was unperturbed and carried on his duties with so much vigour. And this attitude has indeed paid off with the recognition by a reliable platform such as TheNigerian News.
One of the strong points of Engr. Mustapha Maihajas stewardship is his penchant for doing the right thing. Those close to him would readily attest to this fact. He is also not one that suffers fools gladly. He hates workplace procrastination. This position of his might explains in a way why some members of staff availed themselves as willing tools in the attempt to distract him by some unscrupulous elements who have fed fat from the system in times past. I am sure these members of staff have nothing but regrets now as it stands.
Having stated the above, it is also instructive to highlight that the appointment of Engr. Mustapha Maihaja as the DG of NEMA by President Muhammdu Buhari was indeed timely and well intended because of the critical role of NEMA as I highlighted earlier and also an attempt to sanitize that important sector from years of abuse and mismanagement. And this much he has strived to do despite the ferocious opposition and resistance that were put up by some for selfish reasons and pecuniary gains, and at the detriment of national interest.
He is indeed a hero and what the world may still need to know about him is his strong character and uncommon devotion to humanity. This much he has exhibited and continued to do in the rendering of his invaluable services to his fatherland.
At a recent forum, he was also described as a man that matches words with action. It was stated that upon resumption at NEMA, he hit the ground running. Some say he came prepared for the job. Some also say his grasps of issues as it concerns the core objectives of NEMA are phenomenal. While all of these have been told and he has so been honoured. I am of the advice that he should not relent in his efforts as there is a tendency for public officials to be carried away by their exploits in office.
While this might not be the case in Engr. Mustapha Maihaja, it is only hoped that he continues in this tradition of excellence in the interest of country and humanity.
By Robert Audu
Audu is a civil servant at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and can be reached at robertoaudu@gmail.com
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Presidential aspirant of the Africa Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore has promised to legalise marijuana, popularly known as Igbo, if he is elected president in 2019.
He said he would make the plant a major export commodity that would contribute to the growth of the countrys economy
Speaking at a function recently, the SaharaReporters publisher said that his promise should serve as an advance notice to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to stop its clampdown on citizens growing the popular weed.
His words: We have to start taking care of our weed, Igbo, such that we can also contribute to the GDP of the world. Some of the best weed in the world are grown in Ekiti State. And people are making billions out of that particular plant that is very potent in Nigeria. We should be focusing on it.
Our NDLEA should get the notice Memo in advance that Nigeria will be exporting weed to cure cancer in other part of the world instead of chasing after people who are growing weed, whereas they are not chasing after politicians who are smoking cocaine in their house.
The Nigeria police have apologised to Edwin Clark, an elder statesman, over the unauthorised raid of his residence in Abuja by four policemen.
NAN reports that Jimoh Moshood, police spokesman, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja.
Moshood said a police delegation had been sent to Clarks house, comprising of the DIG operations and some commissioners of police.
Recall that on Tuesday, NigerianEye reported that policemen invaded Clarks residence around 1:30pm, after presenting a search warrant to the elder statesman.
The Niger Delta leader said that nothing incriminating was found in his house.
There was no notice before the search. The policemen just walked in and demanded to search the house, he had said.
After the incident, Ibrahim Idris, inspector-general of police, had ordered the detention of the policemen responsible for the invasion.
Moshood had said the policemen acted without approval.
The Inspector General of Police has directed the detention and investigation of the Four (4) Police personnel and the informant involved. The outcome of the investigation will definitely be made public, he said in a statement.
The Nigeria Labour Congress has said that the families of more than 2,000 workers lost to the insurgency in North East, Nigeria were yet to get their benefits from their respective state governors.
The NLC President, Mr Ayuba Wabba, said this while speaking at the Employment and Decent Work for Peace: National Feedback meeting organised by the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity in collaboration with the NLC on Tuesday in Abuja.
Wabba said the Congress would write the affected state governors in the region to demand that workers who were killed in the region as a result of insurgency got their benefits.
He said that the number of workers who lost their lives to insurgency in the region was over 2,000 put together.
READ ALSO: AFCON qualifier: Super Eagles begin training on Victoria beach
Wabba said that years after workers who were breadwinners for their families were killed, their families were yet to be paid their benefits.
He said teachers, local government and health workers were the most affected, stressing that orphans and widows who are victims of the insurgency are merely surviving on contributions from unions.
According to him, 546 teachers, 101 health workers and six nurses have lost their lives in Borno alone since the commencement of the insurgency as at January 2016.
The labour leader said this figure was obtained from the American Solidarity Centre.
Wabba expressed disappointment that the benefits were yet to be paid to the distressed families, saying: I am not happy that their benefits have not been paid.
We have lost more than 2,000 workers, teachers, local government workers and health workers because they are usually the first line of casualties.
The ideology of the insurgents is that they dont believe in western education and therefore the first person to be the victim is the teacher, because he must be at the place of work to teach the pupil, he said.
According to him, most of them were killed in active service.
He, however, called on all the states that were affected to give priority to the benefit of those heroes that have died in active service.
We will write a formal demand to those governors to say that those workers that have died in active service should be paid their benefit, the NLC president said.
Home | News | General | One of the last surviving Afro-American pilots of WWII celebrates 70th wedding anniversary
- One of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen, Lemuel Arthur Lewie and his artist wife, Reva Goodwin mark 70 years of blissful marriage
- The couple tied the knot in August 28, 1948 when the groom was 28 and the bride, 18
- Arthur is one of the last surviving first Afro-American military aviators in the U.S. Armed Forces
- Their love story has left many including their family members inspired
Seven decades ago, 28-year-old military pilot named Lemuel Arthur Lewie Jr. and his girlfriend, a beautiful 18-year-old Baltimore high school senior named Reva Goodwin eloped and tied the knot in a courthouse in South Carolina, US.
Like many young couples, they had a burning desire to spend the rest of their lives together as husband and wife. While Reva's parents thought she was too young, the love they have for each other proved that they knew what they both wanted on August 28, 1948.
Arthur on the other hand was a decade older than his wife but he was sure she was the one for him and 70 years later, they are both glad they took the bold decision to stick together since they knew early, their hearts were inseparable.
READ ALSO: I still get nervous around him - Tiwa Savage hails Don Jazzy
The Lewies, who are now 98 and 88, recently celebrated seven decades of marriage in a beautiful ceremony with family and friends and for the first time, the couple who renewed their vows, had a proper wedding ceremony.
Speaking to Baltimore Sun, now a grandma, Goodwin revealed: "My granddaughter once asked me, Grandma, where are the pictures of your wedding?, I just told her, There arent any, honey, we eloped! Todays the first time weve had it all - the pictures, the reception, everything. Its wonderful."
READ ALSO: Shaku Shaku is a slavery dance - Viral message scares Nigerians
One of the last surviving Afro-American pilots of WWII celebrates 70th wedding anniversary
Source: Depositphotos
They both dazzled in white as they showed the world what 70 years of love, respect and happiness looks like.
Interestingly, Arthur was a part of the first group of African American military aviators in the U.S. Armed Forces. He met Reva in 1947 and proposed to her just three days after. They went on to build a life for themselves in Baltimore. While Lemuel taught Science, his wife was an arts educator and the lived happily ever after.
READ ALSO: Davido narrates hilarious story of how his father sent police to arrest him after his first show
One of the last surviving Afro-American pilots of WWII celebrates 70th wedding anniversary
Source: Depositphotos
As the one of the last surviving Afro-American pilots of WWII, Lewie has come a long way. In fact, himself and his wife have lived and loved through 25,550 days, 13 presidents and five major U.S. wars.
Their daughter, Christel Thompson, a captain in the U.S. Army who was present at the event expressed appreciation for the love the couple share. She said: "Lets take a second to appreciate what 70 years of marriage looks like. The relationship is older than the microwave oven, cellphones, video games, ATMs, Kevlar, GPS and pacemakers."
One of the last surviving Afro-American pilots of WWII celebrates 70th wedding anniversary
Source: Depositphotos
Guests at the bash included children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and friends and family members from as far away as South Carolina, California and Hawaii.
When the beautiful ceremony came to a close, Arthur had tears in his eyes and said: "I'd do it all over again."
Congratulations to the couple!
PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigeria's #1 news app
Street GIST: Biggest Cause of Misundestending in Relationship on NAIJ.com TV:
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | EFCC boss Magu sends warning message to defecting politicians
- Acting chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, has sent a warning message to politicians who defect from one party to another
- He said no corrupt politician who be spared in his fight against corruption
- The EFCC boss also noted that he had never received any instruction from any quarter to stop any investigation
Acting chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, has said that politicians defecting from one party to another would not be shielded from prosecution by the anti-graft agency.
NAIJ.com gathered that while speaking during a parley with editors in Lagos on Wednesday, September 5, Magu said there is no hiding place for such politicians in the fight against corruption by EFCC.
The fact that a politician jumps from one party to another will not stop EFCC investigation; we dont stop investigation until it is concluded.
READ ALSO: Confusion in Benin as APC chieftain defects to PDP, places curse on anyone who goes back to APC
It is only the courts that have the powers to decide on whether to exonerate or convict any indicted politician, said the EFCC chairman.
Responding to alleged interference by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Magu said that he had never received any instruction to stop any investigation.
I am not the type youll ask to stop any investigation, Magu said.
The EFCC chairman said it had become fashionable for anyone being investigated for corruption by the commission to scream political persecution.
With the general elections fast approaching, the resistance has assumed even frightening dimension with political motives imputed to most of our activities, he said.
According to Magu, the media owes Nigeria a duty not to allow the corrupt to deploy their ill-gotten riches to corner the machinery of government.
The EFCC chief, therefore, urged the media not to lend their platforms to helping the cause of the corrupt that were shedding crocodile tears.
We must all do what is right for our country, which is ensuring that those who steal our common patrimony are brought to justice, Magu said.
According to him, the EFCC has so far revealed only about 10 per cent of the monumental corruption perpetrated in the past and urged all security agencies to prioritize anti-graft fight.
You have not seen anything yet, we have not even touched 10 per cent of corruption perpetrated in the past, he said.
The EFCC boss said banks needed to strengthen internal control and urged the Central Bank to re-appraise regulatory and ethical conduct of banks in order to win the fight against corruption.
According to him, EFCC has signed memorandum of understanding with the United Arab Emirates and Mauritius in its efforts to recover looted assets.
He expressed concern at the state of seized assets which were rotting away at various locations across the country.
On assets recovery, Magu said EFCC had recovered a total of N106.5 billion, $1.63 million, 629,000 British Pounds and 25,575 Euros this year.
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Nigeria
He expressed the hope that EFCC would surpass the record of 189 convictions achieved in 2017, going by over 158 convictions secured between January and August this year. (NAN)
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was alerted on an alleged corruption act ongoing in the country by foreign contractors. The alarm was raised by the Nigerian Young Professionals Forum (NYPF) and Connected Development (CODE).
Top Nigeria Corruption Scandals: Joshua Dariye, Olisa Metuh and Sambo Dasuki - on NAIJ.com TV
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | What I told President Xi about the Mambilla hydropower plant - President Buhari
- President Muhammadu Buhari is making progress in his trip to China
- Garba Shehu said the president has the support of his Chinese counterpart for the Mambilla project
- The power project is expected to boost Nigeria's electricity
President Muhammadu Buhari has reportedly won the support of the [resident of China, XI Jinping, for Nigerias plan to build the 3050 Megawatts Mambilla hydroelectric power project.
This is contained in a statement issued by Garba Shehu who is the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity on Wednesday, September 5.
The president informed his Chinese counterpart that the Mambilla project remains one of the key focuses of his administration.
President Buhari also sought additional Chinese funding for four airport terminal projects.
READ ALSO: Full list of PDP presidential aspirants and their profiles
Read the statement below:
President Muhammadu Buhari Wednesday in Beijing won the crucial support of the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, for the countrys aspiration to build the 3050 Megawatts Mambila hydroelectric power project, just as the two countries signed the agreement of $328m for the Information and Communication Technology Infrastructure Backbone Phase II (NICTIB II) project.
The concessional loan agreement between Galaxy Backbone Limited and Huawei Technologies Limited (HUAWEI) was signed by Nigerias Minister of Finance Kemi Adesoun and Wang Xiaotoa, Director-General, International Development Agency, in the presence of President Muhammadu Buhari and President Xi Jinping of China.
Nigeria and China also signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the One Belt One Road Initiative (OBOR).
Nigerias Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama and He Lifeng, Director, Chinas National Development and Reform Commission signed the OBOR- an initiative of President Xi which focuses on improving connectivity and cooperation among multiple countries spread across the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe.
Earlier during his meeting with President Xi, the Nigerian leader, while commending the Chinese government for successfully hosting the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) solicited support for the Mambilla hydropower project.
Noting that Mambilla project remains a key priority to Nigeria, the President also sought additional Chinese funding for four airport terminal projects as well as the Abuja light rail project.
President Buhari told his Chinese counterpart that since his last visit to China in 2016, the brotherly relationship between both countries had continued to flourish.
According to the President, in the past 24 months, the Chinese Government has provided humanitarian aid to our conflict-affected areas, scholarship to Nigerian youth, military training and security support to our personnel and agricultural modernization training.
President Buhari noted that in the period under review, China had provided concessionary loans to fund critical infrastructure projects in Nigeria, adding that these interventions have positively impacted millions of Nigerians and will continue to do so for generations to come.
Mr President, as we celebrate these successes, I would like to once again solicit your support for the Mambilla Hydropower Project which remains a key priority for my government. Our hope is to fund the project with concessionary loans from China as any alternative funding arrangement will adversely impact the projects viability.
We have been informed that our submission on this project is undergoing assessment by the relevant Chinese agencies. We hope with your kind intervention, this assessment will be expedited. Your Excellency, Mambilla is Nigerias equivalent of the three gorges dam. My wish is that you join me for the groundbreaking ceremony of this project in the not too distant future. President Buhari said.
On Lake Chad Basin, the President thanked China for accepting to support the international efforts to recharge the Lake.
The inclusion of this project in the FOCAC Action Plan 2019 to 2021 will go a long way in supporting our efforts to rehabilitate and resettle the conflict-impacted North East region, he said.
On people-to-people relations, President Buhari told his host that in the course of his visit, he interacted with Nigerian students and entrepreneurs living in different parts of China.
I was very pleased to hear about the positive experiences these hard working and law abiding citizens are having in their host communities. I also had the pleasure of meeting young Chinese students learning three Nigerian languages.
We must continue to support such exchange programmes to enhance our people-to-people contacts, he said.
Similarly, President Buhari noted that easy movement of citizens of both countries would complement the currency swap agreements recently signed by the central banks of both countries.
Since our last meeting two years ago, Nigeria has relaxed its visa requirements to Chinese citizens. Today, I am pleased to inform Your Excellency that Chinese citizens receive Nigerian visas in less than 48 hours.
Another measure that will improve our trade volumes will be to introduce import duty waivers on Nigerias commodity exports to China. Today, our commodities such as sesame seeds, hibiscus and cassava amongst others attract import duty in China, he said.
The Nigerian leader also lauded Chinas support for two permanent seats for Africa at the United Nations, noting that the reform of the Security Council would ensure equitable representation for the continent.
In his remarks, President Xi who commended Nigerias fight against terrorism and the progress that has been made so far, promised Chinas support in capacity building and intelligence sharing.
He also pledged 50 million Chinese Yuan support to Nigerias military, noting that Buhari is as decisive in dealing with terrorism as China.
President Xi said China would import more agricultural products from Nigeria and expressed gratitude to President Buhari on Nigerias interest to participate in the forthcoming Chinese Import Fair.
The relationship between Nigeria and China is as best as ever, especially given the deepening mutual trust. China will continue to stand with Nigeria, he said.
On Mambilla, the Chinese leader told President Buhari: We understand how critical the project is to your country and we will take a serious look at it and ensure that it succeeds because of its social and economic benefits.
Meanwhile, at a separate meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, President Buhari reaffirmed Nigeria's commitment to expanding mutually beneficial cooperation with China.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has purchased his form from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to enable him participate in the partys primary election ahead of the 2019 presidential election.
According to Bashir Ahmad who is the personal assistant to the president on new media, the form was purchased on behalf of the president by a group of good Nigerians.
Daily Trust reports that one of the presidents support groups, the Nigerian Consolidation Ambassadors Network, bough the form on Wednesday, September 5.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari purchased his form from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to enable him participate in the partys primary election ahead of the 2019 presidential election.
According to Bashir Ahmad who is the personal assistant to the president on new media, the form was purchased on behalf of the president by a group of good Nigerians.
Nigeria News: President Buhari's Return Will Teach Nigerians Sense | Naij.com TV
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | Tension as police says ISIS terrorists have infiltrated Borno IDP camps
- The Borno Police Command says ISIS spies are operating in IDP camps in the state
- According to the police, the terrorists usually station their stooges at the IDP camps to perpetrate chaos, without being noticed
- The police is urging members of the public to arrest any suspicious persons
The Borno Police Command said on Wednesday, September 5, that the Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP), a faction of ISIS, had its spies operating from Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in Borno.
Ahmed Bello, assistant commissioner of police, Borno command, disclosed this while giving an update on the security situation at a Humanitarian and Development Coordination Forum in Maiduguri, NAN reports.
READ ALSO: 2019: 259 aspirants jostle for 35 political seats in Ekiti
NAIJ.com gathers that Bello, who represented the commissioner of police, Demien Chukwu, said it was established that three among the 22 Boko-Haram insurgents arrested two months ago, were members of ISIS.
He disclosed that the terrorists usually station their stooges at the IDP camps to perpetrate chaos, without being noticed.
We had launched radio programmes aimed at sensitising the larger society on the need to be sensitive of their environment.
It will interest you to note that some of the affected victims in camps were not IDPs. We have our ways of rating them to the classes of A.B.C.
So if you find any suspicious person, do not just send him away, but arrest him because the terrorists have their sympathisers; they are the people that are giving them information, he said.
He explained that the arrest of the culprit had led to drastic reduction in cases of bomb blasts perpetrated by the insurgents, using Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Maiduguri metropolis.
In his remarks, Bashir Garga, NEMA north-east zonal coordinator, commended the police and other security agencies for providing protection to the IDPs and creating a safe working environment for humanitarian aid workers in the north-east.
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that the Defence Headquarters said that there was no concrete evidence to support the claim that the Islamic State (ISIS) was sending its members to Nigeria to train Boko Haram terrorists.
It is pertinent to state categorically that there is no concrete evidence on the ground to back the claim, Brig Gen John Agim, the acting director defence information said, in a Facebook post.
Lagos police commissioner parades suspected criminals - on NAIJ.com TV:
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Mission unaccomplished. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Donald Trump has spent most of this year trashing Americas diplomatic credibility, undermining one of his partys core business interests, and freaking out his beloved stock market all in service of one overriding policy goal: reducing our nations trade deficit.
So, exactly how much trade rebalancing did the president get out of antagonizing Americas core allies, Iowas soybean farmers, and Xi Jinping?
On Wednesday, the Commerce Department provided Trump with a grim answer: In July, the U.S. trade deficit soared by 9.5 percent to $50.1 billion, putting America on pace for its largest annual gap in a decade. Meanwhile, in spite of Trumps tariffs, our nations trade deficit with China swelled to a record $36.8 billion.
These numbers dont just undermine Trumps (largely irrational) goals for trade policy. They also suggest that GDP growth is likely to dip in the third quarter, despite Trumps predictions to the contrary. Last quarter, the U.S. economy grew at a 4.1 percent annual rate, its strongest showing since 2014. The president promptly announced that this was only the beginning, as were going to go a lot higher than these numbers in the coming months.
But that second-quarter GDP figure was inflated by a fleeting distortion in global trade patterns: When American producers increase their exports, GDP goes up, and ironically, Trumps various protectionist measures spurred a boom for U.S. exporters because foreign buyers were eager to stock up on American goods before their governments slapped retaliatory tariffs on such products. Thus, the U.S. exported 50 percent more soybeans in May 2018 than it had in May 2017. But since this increase was driven by trade-war fears (as opposed to an explosion in global demand for American agriculture), the U.S. effectively cashed in much of its annual export-driven growth in the second quarter. Thus, many economists expected exports to plunge in the second half of 2018 and take GDP growth down with it. Todays Commerce Department report affirms that assumption.
Still, one has to give Trump the benefit of the doubt. Surely, there must be a coherence to his trade policy that eludes the untrained eye. After all, as this one-line excerpt from Bob Woodwards new book makes clear, Trump has mapped out his global economic strategy in meticulous detail:
Home | News | General | More trouble hits PDP as Dankwanbo, Makarfi's coordinator set to dump party for APC
- Gombe chapter of PDP may soon face a massive defection of its member to APC
- The presidential coordinators of Governor Dankwambo and Senator Ahmed Makarfi in the state are set to dump the party
- Buhari Dankwanbo, a younger brother to Governor Dankwanbo, said he and his supporters would soon join the APC
There are indications that a massive wave of defection is about to hit the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Gombe state, following the plan defection of Buhari Dankwambo, the younger brother to Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo and Auwal Akko, the presidential coordinator of Senator Ahmed Makarfi in Gombe state to the rival All Progressives Congress (APC).
Leadership reports that the duo who enjoy massive support of the youths in their locality and around Gombe state, have concluded plans to move to the APC with thousands of their supporters.
NAIJ.com gathered that the younger Dankwambo popularly known as BMD while confirming the development to newsmen in Gombe on Wednesday, September 5, said he has finalised all plans to defect to APC, adding that what is delaying the public declaration is the insistence by some APC stakeholders that the event should be colourful since he is coming to the party with large number of supporters.
READ ALSO: Full list of PDP presidential aspirants and their profiles
We shall soon make our intention public as soon as we conclude plans with stakeholders of the APC, he said.
According to Leadership, BMD was very instrumental to the re-election of his elder brother in 2015, as was said to have spent a lot of resources in mobilizing the youths across the state to support Dankwambo, and no doubt his effort was widely visible.
It was gathered that besides BMD, another political general that is moving to the APC in the state, is Auwal Akko a renown educationist, political heavyweight in Akko local government area of the state and the coordinator of Makarfi's presidential election in the state.
The former secretary of PDP in Pindiga ward of the local government, Adamu Mamman, who is also following Akko to the APC said the exit of Auwal, a philanthropist and dogged politician and thousands of his supporters marks the end of PDP in Akko local government area of the state.
Speaking to Leadership, Mamman described the defector as a renowned politician and a serving general of PDP in the area.
He said that Auwals joining of the APC was a great loss and set back to the PDP and a big fish to the ruling APC which would boost the chances of APC in winning all elective positions in the area and the state at large.
With the defection of Gafakan Akko to APC, it marks the end of PDP not only in Akko local government area of the state but in Gombe state at large. Maman said.
He said they have resolved to work with Auwal in order to ensure the victory of APC come 2019 and beyond.
The Gafakan Akko, who earlier in the year rejected appointment to serve as special adviser to governor Dankwambo told the newspaper in a brief telephone chat that joining the APC would provide him the chance to contribute his quota to the development of his community, the state particular and the country at large.
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Nigeria
According to him, I choose to join the APC due to the deceptive character of Governor Dankwambo and to ensure we form an APC government in the state come 2019.
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant and governor of Gombe state, said that he is not desperate to become the candidate of the party in the 2019 presidential election.
PDP's magnificent 7 for 2019 - on NAIJ.com TV
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | Missing MH370 plane found?
Hope seems to be rising in search efforts of the missing Malaysia MH370 plane, as a British tech sleuth believes it has found the wreckage on Google Maps.
Ian Wilson of sleuth claims he has spotted the doomed jet, which vanished in 2014 with 239 people on board, lying in a high altitude area of the Cambodian jungle.
Images from Google Maps show the outline of a large plane which could simply be an aircraft flying directly below the satellite which photographed it.
Malaysia flight MH370
But video producer Ian is convinced of his findings and says he intends to visit the sight to solve one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.
He told the Daily Star: Measuring the Google sighting, youre looking at around 69 meters, but there looks to be a gap between the tail and the back of the plane.
Its just slightly bigger, but theres a gap that would probably account for that.
MH370 went missing with its passengers en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
Ian Wilson claims he found the wreckage of MH370 plane on Google Maps
In July this year, the Malaysian government released the findings of their investigation admitting they still do not know what happened to the passenger jet.
Despite millions of pounds being spent to find the plane, Ian believes he has uncovered the wreckage by spending hours searching online.
He said: I was on there (Google Earth), a few hours here, a few hours there. If you added it up I spent hours searching for places a plane could have gone down.
And in the end, as you can see the place where the plane is, is literally the greenest, darkest part you can see.
NAN
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | 2019: Nigerians tired of your Brand, APC tells Saraki
Says Senate President, an abysmal failure
By Omeiza Ajayi
ABUJA The All Progressives Congress APC has welcomed the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki into the 2019 Presidential Race on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, but with a reminder to him that Nigerians have become tired of his brand of politics.
Oshiomole and Saraki
Nigerians have had enough of Dr. Bukola Sarakis retrogressive and disruptive style of politics and deserve no more, the party declared.
In a statement Wednesday by its acting National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, APC also raised ethical issues regarding Sarakis bid for the nations top job.
At last the Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki has declared his intention to run for the Presidency of Nigeria. While the All Progressives Congress APC welcomes him to the race as it is his right to do so as a Nigerian Citizen, there are however many issues that border on his integrity, antecedents, competence and capability to preside over the affairs of the country, the party said.
APC noted that it was not unaware of reports that Sarakis presidential declaration is his tactic to deflect attention from the deluge of issues he deals with particularly ahead of the 2019 General Elections i.e. pressure to reconvene the National Assembly, a fast shifting political order in Kwara State, among others.
Saraki in his declaration speech had among other things said he had decided to heed the call of teeming youths who had asked him to run for the Presidency.
I have what it takes to secure inclusive growth for Nigeria. I will address our infrastructural deficiency through aggressive financial initiatives. Our fight against corruption will be on deterrence. I offer leadership driven by empathy, the Senate President had pledged.
But on these points, APC said; We are mindful of the popular axiom: by their fruits, we shall know them. By virtue of Sarakis antecedents, he is an abysmal failure and is totally incompetent to offer himself as a candidate for leadership of Nigeria. Saraki was a two-term Governor of Kwara State and Senate President in the last three years. What were his performance records in these two assignments? As Kwara State Governor, was his Shonga Agricultural Programme not a white elephant in which hundreds of millions of State funds were sunk? The infrastructure, particularly roads network in Kwara State in which the present administration remains under his tight grip and political machinations long after leaving office, remains deplorable while state resources are mismanaged through corrupt enrichment. A Presidential aspirant who promises to create jobs and turn around the economy at the national level, must have done so in a state he served as Governor for eight years. We challenge Saraki to give the nation his scorecard as a Kwara State.
As Senate President, how Saraki used the position to superintend over budget padding, sabotage of the executive by frustrating confirmation of presidential nominees, stalling legislative approvals for election budgets and his recent shadow boxing on the Electoral Act, among other treacherous actions against the APC (which he was then a member) in pursuit of his selfish political interests has been well reported. Was Sarakis Senate Presidency not a journey of shame and disgrace? moving from one Court or Tribunal to another over charges of forgery of Senate Rules, false declaration of assets, and being linked with armed robbers who brutally killed and maimed innocent residents in Offa recently.
Saraki says he is heeding the call of Nigerian youths to contest the Presidency. We are not aware of any meeting of Nigerian youths held during which they decided that. For the record, the #NotTooYoungToRun group berated Saraki for selfishly using their forum to make his presidential declaration. We are not surprised by Sarakis selfish actions as it has come to define his politics and persona.
Saraki says he will offer leadership driven by empathy. Coming from an incredibly selfish and self-opinionated politician this is indeed an irony. Sarakis Presidential aspiration is a huge joke and should not be taken seriously. He has repeatedly displayed his character as extremely selfish, deceitful, untrustworthy and unreliable. His only goal is to get to the top, stay at the top, ruin or wreck whatever he finds there or in the event of failure, collapse the system or process, the APC alleged.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | News | General | Nigeria Will Be Exporting Marijuana If I Become President Sowore
It appears Omoyele Sowere, a presidential aspirant is trying to sway the political support of the thousands of Indian Hemp smokers in Nigeria ahead of the 2019 presidential election.
Founder of SaharaReporters, Omoyele Sowore has promised to legalize the usage of Marijuana if he is voted president come 2019.
According to Sowore who is also convener of the Take It Back movement, the mass production of Marijuana in Nigeria will open a window of cash inflow for the country which is over-relying on petro-dollars presently.
Sowore who was once described as the latest comedian in town by a political pundit made these assertions at a conference amid laughter by the audience filled with youths.
In Sowores words:
We have to start taking care of our weed, Igbo, such that we can also contribute to the GDP of the world.
Some of the best weeds in the world are grown in Ekiti State. Im very serious. People are making billions out of that particular plant that is very potent in Nigeria. We should be focusing on it.
Our NDLEA should get the notice, memo in advance that
Nigeria will be exporting weed to cure cancer in other parts of the world.
Instead of chasing after people who are growing weeds, whereas, they are not chasing after politicians who are smoking cocaine in their houses.
That is my last words and I know this one is controversial. If you want to hear more from me about it, I will discuss it
Watch a video of Sowore boldly explaining his economic plan below:
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General
Home | Politics | Presidency speaks on uncompromising stance of Buhari
- Presidency has reacted to allegations by former vice president Atiku Abubakar accusing President Buhari of being power drunk and uncompromising
- Femi Adesina in reaction described Buhari as a democrat who has wielded power with decency
- He said the president has wielded power with decency, and as a means of serving the people
The Nigerian presidency on Wednesday, September 5, gave reasons behind the alleged uncompromising stance of President Muhammadu Buhari.
This was contained in a statement by the special adviser to the president on media and publicity, Femi Adesina in Abuja while reacting to allegations by the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar where he was said to have accused President Buhari of being power drunk and uncompromising.
According to the spokesperson, the president exhibits uncompromising posture when he discovers that some privileged people want to loot the commonwealth.
Adesina in the statement denied the allegation that the president is power drunk, describing him as a democrat who has wielded power with decency.
Atiku was specifically quoted by a foreign news medium as accusing President Muhammadu Buhari of being very uncompromising, also power drunk; (and) who will not be ready to leave power without a fight.
Adesina in his reply said: Rather than use the name of President Buhari to buoy his bid to get the presidential ticket of a party, whose flag has been flying at half-mast since it got roundly trounced at the polls in 2015, the former vice president needs be told that the President is truly uncompromising, but only when it comes to looting the common patrimony of Nigerians, and squandering their riches.
President Buhari is uncompromising in the quest to restore probity and accountability to public office. He is uncompromising in cleaning the rot Nigeria was consigned into pre-2015, thus the war against corruption is being fought without fear or favour. The President is equally resolute in the determination to ensure that Nigeria is no longer a mono-economy, depending only on oil.
Yes, President Buhari is single-minded in effecting change in every area of Nigerian life. So, Alhaji Abubakar is right, if that was what he meant by the President being uncompromising.
But power drunk? No! And being a man who will not be ready to leave power without a fight? Never! Not President Buhari, who has demonstrated in many ways that he is a committed democrat, though also a retired military general. He has no apologies about that. Through a sterling military career, he served Nigeria with his heart and might, before venturing into partisan politics.
In many ways, President Buhari has wielded power with decency, and as a means of serving the people, rather than for personal ends. If theres one person not intoxicated by power, it is President Buhari, and scores of millions of Nigerians know this. That is why they will invest him with power again next year, knowing that he wont misuse or misapply what has been entrusted to him.
Former VP Abubakar may want to borrow a leaf from the decorous language employed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, in answering his recent press statement on the restructuring debate. That is the hallmark of statesmen, and not crying wolf where none exists, which is what the allegation of being uncompromising and power drunk truly is. President Buhari is actuated by service to country, and nothing else. So, there couldnt be anything like 'not ready to leave power without a fight.'
Indeed, the insinuation of a fight is the mindset of a man who is either undemocratic, or has seen defeat staring him, and his party, in the face.
Let the former Vice President rest assured that there will be no fight over power in Nigeria. Not under President Buharis watch. The people dont want a fight. It is some political leaders we must beseech to eschew pugnacity, and mind their language.
In a previous report by NAIJ.com, former vice president Atiku Abubakar has called on Nigerians to support the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the 2019 elections and has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of corruption.
Premium Times reports that Atiku spoke in Abakaliki in Ebonyi state on Tuesday, July 10. The former vice president was there to further his presidential ambition.
Atiku said the only thing the APC can boast of is the fight against corruption but said he was determined to evict the party from power in 2019.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: Politics
Home | Gossips | Quadruplets conceived without IVF defy all odds to start pre-school in matching outfits
- British couple, Grace and James Slattery, conceived a set of quadruplets without IVF
- However, the were advised by doctors to terminate two of the quadruplets as they posed a high risk
- They ignored this advice and the beautiful kids are now starting pre-school with their matching uniforms
A 35-year old woman, Grace Slattery and her 37-year-old husband, James Slattery, have great reasons to be thankful to God as their set of quadruplets who were conceived without IVF have conquered all odds to start pre-school.
According to The Sun, the couple had struggled for three years with infertility and so they were dumbfounded when they discovered they'd naturally conceived quads. However, doctors advised them to terminate two of the quads as they posed a high risk.
Having lost four pregnancies, this was one advise the couple where not ready to take. Taking the risk eventually paid off for them as they had a successful delivery of their kids; Amelia, Lily-Grace, Mollie and Lucas who weighed between 2lbs and 4lbs.
The mother filled with joy as the quads start school Source: The Sun
Source: Depositphotos
Although Amelia was born with her organs in the wrong place, she is now as healthy as the other three.
Reports show that the odds of conceiving quads without fertility treatment is one in 700,000.
The adorable quads ready to start school Source: The Sun
Source: Depositphotos
READ ALSO: I still get nervous around him - Tiwa Savage hails Don Jazzy
The adorable inseparable set are a few years older and can't wait to start pre-school and are ready to go with their matching uniforms.
Speaking on the amazing turn of events, their mother Grace had this to say:: "They are definitely little miracles and we still can't believe we got four babies all at once. All of them love school and as they wear a uniform now it makes it a lot easier as trying to think of four outfits for them every day takes a long time.They are going to be in the same classes at school and they are inseparable when together."
The quads are said to be inseparable Source: The Sun
Source: Depositphotos
Going further, she added: "I couldn't be more proud of the quadruplets and seeing them in their school uniforms is amazing. When I fell pregnant naturally with quadruplets I couldn't believe it as we had struggled for three years and I'd suffered four miscarriages.
We couldn't afford IVF and when tests showed nothing was wrong I was baffled as to why we couldn't have children.I was over the moon when the quadruplets were born in May 2014, and despite being offered to abort two of them before they were even born as they were classed as high risk, we decided to let fate decide."
The mother filled with joy as the quads start school Source: The Sun
Source: Depositphotos
PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News on NAIJ.com News App
The parents are now preparing for school life and have bought 10 school uniforms to ensure the children have enough to last them each week.
When the miracle were born Source: The Sun
Source: Depositphotos
Get the hottest gist on Africa Love Aid
Nigeria News Today: Woman Delivers Quintuplets in Anambra, Asks Nigerians for Help | Naij.com TV
[embedded content]
Subscribe to watch new videos
Source: Naija.ng
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: Gossips
Home | World | Africa | Prisoner congratulates Mnangagwa
A prisoner at Chikurubi Maximum Prison has congratulated President ED Mnangagwa for winning the Presidential elections.
Forty two-year-old Jacob Harineki has been in prison since 1998 and was sentenced to life in prison after murdering his employer.
"I would want to congratulate our President ED for winning the elections. I was very happy as a prisoner hearing that someone who was once in our situation is now leading the country," he said.
"ED was once in prison but he managed to chase his dreams after he was released and now he is the President. We are in rehabilitation and have learnt our lessons and we hope we will be given a chance to be free again and be great like what he did.
"One thing that hurts me is that it seems like the government favours women because they are allowed to go back home after serving eight years and above but some of us have been here for 20 years.
"We also pray that we be given a chance to go back home.
"I am now a changed man and as you can see I have this red badge which shows that I'm well behaved here and that shows I can go out there and live with others with no problems."
Harineki shared his story.
"I was working for a white man in Marondera but we used to have problems about my salary, he gave me excuses all the time.
"This other day I got upset and decided to set his house on fire as revenge, when I did this this I thought he had travelled not knowing he was back and sleeping inside so he got burnt and died.
"I got into prison in 1998, on 15 September that year I was given a death sentence but I wrote a petition pleading with them to have mercy on me. On 22 October 2001 I was then sentenced to life in prison and I was happy because that gave me hope that maybe one day I will be free again."
On the 7th of November 2003 Harineki received heartbreaking news.
"My wife came to visit me with our son on the 6th and I was very happy to spend some time with them. We talked about a lot of things that were happening back home, it made me feel good catching up and they left.
"The following day my other relative came and told me that my wife and my child were involved in an accident on their way back home and they both died on the spot. I was hurt and I cried every day for years. It took me three years to heal," he said.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: Africa
Home | World | Africa | Mugabe, Mnangagwa relations improve
As the frosty relations between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his sulking predecessor Robert Mugabe get better, the government splashed hundreds of thousands of dollars last week hiring a charter plane for former first lady Grace - to allow her to fly from Singapore to Harare for her mother's burial, the Daily News reported.
Grace had been in Singapore receiving treatment for an undisclosed ailment when her mother Idah Marufu died last week prompting Mnangagwa and his government to scramble to find funds to charter the plane so that she could attend her mother's burial.
This comes as Mugabe, who until recently had been feuding with Mnangagwa and his colleagues in government, recently made a stunning about-turn moving to end his tiff with his former long-serving aide by congratulating him for winning the hotly-disputed July 30 presidential poll.
Mugabe who fell from power in November last year, on the back of a military intervention, had until last month not hidden his bitterness and disdain for Mnangagwa and his administration.
Well-placed sources confirmed to the Daily News yesterday that Grace had received "five-star treatment" from the government in her hour of need, after Mnangagwa dug deep into the country's coffers to bring her home in time for her mother's funeral.
"Yes, there was a plane that was sent specifically for her because we do not have a direct flight to Singapore. We were all amazed at the display of compassion from the president and the government.
"As a result, her trip was hustle-free, thanks to the government. They (Mugabes) received all the help befitting people of their status," one of the sources close to the former first family said.
Although the Daily News could not get the exact cost of the plane charter, other sources said this had likely run into hundreds of thousands of United States dollars.
Mnangagwa's spokesperson George Charamba, who is with the president in China this week, said he could not comment on the matter referring all questions to Regis Chikowore, the principal director in the ministry of Media, Information and Broadcasting Services, who was not available for comment.
But National Patriotic Front (NPF) spokesperson, Jealousy Mawarire who has lately acted as a media intermediary for the Mugabes confirmed the development by thanking Mnangagwa and his government for hiring the plane on micro-blogging site Twitter.
"I want 2 thank Mnangagwa and his presidium for facilitating the travel of former First Lady Dr Mugabe back home for the funeral of Ambuya Marufu.
"Such a gesture is very invaluable and much appreciated. May the Lord keep u, lift up His countenance upon u and give u peace," Mawarire said.
This comes after Mnangagwa sent a heartfelt condolence message to Mugabe and his family upon learning of the death of Marufu, in a move which was widely seen as a continuation of the mending of relations between him and the country's former long-ruling leader.
"I learnt with sadness of the death last night (Thursday) of Ambuya Marufu, mother to our former first lady Amai Grace Mugabe and mother-in-law to Cde RG Mugabe.
"The sorrowful development visits us at a time when the Mugabes are not well, with Amai Mugabe away in Singapore where she has been receiving medical attention. My heart goes out to the family.
"I urge our entire nation to stand with and rally behind the Marufu and Mugabe families, so their sorrows are assuaged and made bearable," Mnangagwa who had previously dropped the prefix comrade when referring to Mugabe said.
Until Mnangagwa's inauguration, Mugabe had been involved in an acrimonious relationship with his successor following his stunning fall from power late last year, which he described as an assault on constitutional governance by the military.
And on the eve of last month's national elections, the former president went on to throw the cat among the pigeons when he publicly endorsed opposition leader Nelson Chamisa before telling the nation that he would never vote for Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF.
"Today (July 29) is a better day, I hope it will still be a better day tomorrow. I'm sure the good Lord will help us to bring a better day tomorrow.
"Let tomorrow decide ... there should be a big no to guns directing politics. We shall never again experience a time when an army is used in politics.
"I have never met Chamisa. I wish to meet him if he wins. I can't vote for those who've caused me to be in this situation.
"I hope the voting which will be done tomorrow will thrash away the military form of government and bring us back to constitutionality," Mugabe told journalists at the time at his Borrowdale mansion which is popularly known as the Blue Roof.
Despite the fact that he had done all in his power to derail Mnangagwa's and the ruling Zanu-PF's electoral bids on the eve of the elections, Mugabe moved to end months of his acrimonious relationship with his former comrades by sending his daughter Bona and her husband Simba Chikore to deliver a special congratulatory message from him and Grace at the president's inauguration.
The sickly 94-year-old and Grace were unable to attend the big occasion due to their poor health, which had resulted in her flying to Singapore for medical attention.
Interestingly, Mnangagwa's government had listed the former first couple among the dignitaries who were slated to shake hands with Mnangagwa at the inauguration ceremony at the National Sports Stadium.
"Your Excellency, thank you for your invitation, my wife is not well in Singapore, I am also not well, so I am sending my daughter and son-in-law to represent us.
Congratulations," Mugabe said in his surprise message that was read by Mnangagwa as he delivered his main address to thousands of people who packed the giant stadium.
Mugabe resigned from office late last year, a few hours after Parliament had initiated proceedings to impeach him after he had refused to leave office during eight tense days that began with the military intervening in the governance of the country.
The operation also saw the nonagenarian and the unhinged Grace being placed under house arrest, while several Cabinet ministers linked to the Generation 40 faction which had coalesced around the Mugabes were also targeted.
The annihilated G40 was, before the military intervention, locked in a bitter war with Mnangagwa and his supporters for the control of both Zanu-PF and the country.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: Africa
Let them eat hate. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images
Earlier this year, the White House leaked word that it was mulling a new (and characteristically cruel) immigration rule that would allow the government to deny visa renewals, or green cards, to any immigrant who had participated in a means-tested social welfare program.
For more than a century, U.S. law has empowered the government to deny admission to immigrants whom they expect to be a burden on the state (a.k.a. a public charge). But the Executive branch has long held that this rule applied exclusively to those who would have a long-term need for cash benefits, or for institutional care. By contrast, the Trump administrations nativist hardliners want the power to deny legal status to immigrants who enroll their (often U.S.-born) children in Head Start; accept baby-formula subsidies through the Woman, Infants, and Children (WIC) program; or apply for food stamps, housing benefits, Medicaid, health-insurance subsidies, or home-heating aid.
This reconception of what it means to be a public charge is difficult to defend in policy terms, or even logical ones. Most working-age Medicaid recipients have jobs. Tens of millions of working Americans participate in at least one means-tested social program. There is no basis for assuming that an immigrant who sends her child to a public preschool is receiving more from American society than she is contributing to it, in even the most crassly economistic calculus.
Further, programs like Head Start, WIC, and food stamps are (at least arguably) as much public investments as they are welfare. A large body of research has demonstrated that alleviating childhood hunger, and providing early opportunities for education, can increase a childs prospects of growing up to be a healthy, employed, law-abiding adult and thus, reduce our societys long-term spending on health care, unemployment benefits, and incarceration. Denying the U.S.-born children of legal immigrants access to food stamps makes no more sense than discouraging them from entering libraries or walking on publicly funded sidewalks.
This incoherence might partially explain why the Trump administration still hasnt officially unveiled its new rule, more than six months after its plans fist leaked. Nevertheless, the idea has already had a devastating impact on many immigrants in the United States, including some of Americas youngest citizens. As Politico reports:
Local health providers say theyve received panicked phone calls from both documented and undocumented immigrant families demanding to be dropped from the rolls of WIC, a federal nutrition program aimed at pregnant women and children, after news reports that the White House is potentially planning to deny legal status to immigrants whove used public benefits. Agencies in at least 18 states say theyve seen drops of up to 20 percent in enrollment, and they attribute the change largely to fears about the immigration policy.
Its a stealth regulation, said Kathleen Campbell Walker, an immigration attorney at Dickinson Wright in El Paso, Texas. It doesnt really exist, but its being applied subliminally.
Health advocates say the policy change could put more babies who are U.S.-born citizens at risk of low birth weight and other problems undermining public health while also potentially fueling higher health care costs at taxpayer expense. WIC formally the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children serves about half of all babies born in the U.S by providing vouchers or benefit cards so pregnant women and families with small children can buy staple foods and infant formula.
To review: The White Houses policy proposal (which it has repeatedly confirmed is under serious consideration) would put the lives of some of Americas most vulnerable citizens at risk, undermine public health, increase child hunger, and, potentially, increase the long-term deficit. In an interview with Politico, a DHS official defended the proposal, on the grounds that it would ensure our immigration processes comport with [the] law. But no court has ever found that the Executive branchs failure to treat Medicaid recipients as public charges ran afoul of federal law.
Like so many of the Trump administrations other immigration policies, the new public charge rule is difficult to comprehend unless one stipulates that this White House sees inflicting suffering on immigrants (legal or otherwise) as an end in itself.
ICO
Millions of dollars are estimated to have been sunk by investors seeking a piece of the Russian treasure ship ICO fronted by a South Korean treasure-hunting firm.
According to South Korean police, it has been tentatively concluded that about 2,600 people invested around 9 billion won or slightly over US$8 million in Shinil Group which claimed to have discovered a shipwreck containing gold worth US$130 billion.
As initially reported by The Korea Herald, investors also poured money on a token known as Shinil Gold Coin which the South Korean firm claimed would be backed by the treasure from the wreckage of the Russian warship known as Dmitrii Donskoi. The Russian warship was run aground off the South Korean coast by her crew following severe damage during combat with the Japanese in the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese war.
There Could be More Victims Out There
Per the police, the investor losses could be larger since the estimates they have come up with are based only on the trading accounts which they have so far managed to track.
If we find more related accounts or confirm cases in which investors used cash, the amount could go up, the Sophisticated Crime Investigation Unit of Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said.
There is also a possibility that the victim count could fall according to the Seoul police: The number of victims could go down, however, if we exclude cases where the same person transferred money using different accounts.
As previously reported by CCN, plans by the Shinil Group to conduct an ICO were announced in mid-July after the company posted a video on YouTube alleging that had managed to find the Russian warships wreckage containing 200 tons of gold coins and 5,500 boxes of gold bars. Suspicions immediately arose primarily because this was not the first alleged discovery of the Russian warship.
Red Flags Everywhere
At the turn of the century, for instance, there were reports that the Korean Ocean Research and Development Institute, which had been contracted by construction firm Dong Ah Construction Industrial Co., had found the Dmitrii Donskoi shipwreck. The state-operated Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology also made similar claims in 2003.
Story continues
Also suspicious was the fact that Shinil Group did not apply for the salvage rights of the Russian cruiser wreckage from South Koreas Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. And besides having only been established a month prior to making the discovery, Shinil Group was also shrouded in secrecy as it operated without a website, lacked social media accounts and had no white paper.
Investigations were consequently launched and this culminated in the CEO of Shinil Group, Choi Yong-seok, being banned from leaving the country and firms offices being raided by Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency early last month.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The post Over US$8 Million Lost by 2,600 Investors in South Koreas Treasure Ship ICO appeared first on CCN.
Despite a discount of more than US$20 a barrel between Canadian crude and WTI, drillers in Alberta are upbeat about the immediate future and plan to boost their drilling budgets, the Canadian Press reported recently, citing industry insiders.
"A lot of us spent a fair bit of our capex for the year in the first quarter, and before spring break in the second quarter, during that four-month period," one of these insiders, the chief executive of Bonterra Energy told the news outlet. George Fink added that more companies will up their spending further if WTI stays between US$68 and US$70 a barrel.
This upbeat attitude is probably a little surprising: even though Canadian crude rises when WTI rises, it is still trading at a deep discount to the U.S. benchmark (about US$24 a barrel at the time of writing) because of the severe pipeline shortage in Canada. Since the portion of crude that is refined locally is small, Canadian drillers are forced to sell their crude more cheaply than they would have liked. This, as common sense would suggest, is hurting their bottom line.
Yet, judging by the spending numbers that the Canadian Press quoted50 percent of small drillers planned 2018 budget in the first half versus just 36 percent in H1 2016the effect of the price discount is not as severe as one might imagine based on the pipeline shortage facts.
In fact, as far as small producers are concerned, it looks like the pipeline shortage is not a dramatic problem. Several small and mid-sized companies in Alberta have already declared that they will increase their capex by the end of the year because they expect higher cash flow on the back of improved prices. Some are raising dividend payouts and buying back shares. Many expect even stronger cash flows next year. In this context, the discount of Canadian crude to WTI does not seem like a huge deal somehow. Related: Say Goodbye To Cheap Oil For Now
The fact that total Canadian oil production is growing supports this. The latest production figures from Statistics Canada reveal that the national total for oil and oil equivalents for May stood at 137.3 million barrels, a 13.5-percent increase on an annual basis. Whats more, the bulk of the increase came from higher bitumen production: it rose by 22.8 percent on the year in May. According to Statistics Canada, bitumen production is now close to capacity.
How does this fit with the pipeline shortage problem? Well, it seems the problem is not as big as some media reports are making it out to be. Yet it is a worsening problem because most forecasts see continued increases in Canadian crude oil production. At the same time, no new pipelines being built: the Canadian Court of Appeal recently overturned Ottawas approval of the controversial Trans Mountain expansion project, the only new pipeline project on the table in the country.
Now, the construction will be delayed by at least two years if Ottawa goes to the Supreme Court to seek an appeal of the ruling, and large producers such as Suncor have said they will curb new investment in the oil sands following the news. Meanwhile, a lot more oil will be transported by rail, which means longer pressure on producers profits since rail transport is costlier than pipelines. Is this cause for worry among Canadian drillers? Probably. But for now, smaller drillers at least can handle it.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
Mor Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Seven years after South Sudan became independent, leaving behind a sanguinary civil war, it finally reached the point where it places its bets on development and not on incessant internal conflict. The basis for this is this Augusts Khartoum agreement between President Salva Kiir and a former vice president-turned-rebel leader Riek Machar, putting in place a total ceasefire and opening up the way for economic development for the war-torn country. Ironically, the country from which South Sudan wanted to break away, Sudan, is now a crucial partner in rebuilding the worlds youngest nations shattered infrastructure and shut-in production wells. What does it mean for the international oil community, though?
The united Sudan was a relative newcomer to the oil sector, having started oil production in 1999. This, however, did not interfere in oil output increasing significantly in the first years of the 21st century, with production peaking at 520 kbpd in 2007. Of course, Sudans skyrocketing oil numbers were marred by a genocidal campaign in Darfur that left approximately 300 000 dead and millions displaced. Consequently, Western majors, adhering to their governments sanctioning Omar Bashirs government, were out of question when it came to invest in Sudans oil fields China (CNPC), Malaysia (Petronas) and India (ONGC) stepped in to fill the void and thoroughly enjoyed the full tax exemption of the oil industry. The commitment of Asian majors is often unjustly understated for them at the time, Sudan was the largest foreign producing asset and a highly profitable one at that.
(Click to enlarge)
The inclusion of Asian state-owned enterprises made life certainly easier for Sudan itself with no shareholders opinion to take into account apart from the respective state, the government could wage war or suppress dissent with no repercussion whatsoever to its oil production. The most prolific oil fields of the once-united nation are located across territorial boundaries, further complicating issues of ownership, yet even this could be overcome with slight legal maneuvering. The civil war, however, could not be circumvented. As a result, most of South Sudan before this August was temporarily shut-in. Related: Saudi Oil Income Could Reach $161B This Year
Oil production continued only in the Upper Nile states what was before 2015 a singular state are now three separate (Central, Northern and Western Upper Nile). Output in the central part, incorporating the Liech states, Ruweng and Tonj has been close to naught due to constant skirmishes. For it is there that the trans-Sudanese oil pipeline starts, at the Unity oil field next to the city of Bentiu and it is there where most of the Muglad rift basins reserves lie. Even from the point of view of trade economics, South Sudan ought to concentrate heavily on the safety and integrity of the Muglad Basin the quality of oil produced there significantly surpasses that of the Upper Nile provinces.
Sudan and South Sudan share the same crude blends Upper Nile states yield the Dar blend (26 API, 0.12% Sulphur), whilst the central part of the country is rich in a blend called Nile (32-33 API, 0.05% Sulphur). Both blends are notoriously problematic when it comes to their paraffinic and acidity content, especially so the Dar blend which also contains high levels of arsenium, making it very difficult to transport and refine. Thus, South Sudan needs not only its current output of Dar approximately 130 000 bpd but also its Nile volumes, superior in both reserves capacity and quality. For this, it has pinpointed a target to increase oil output by 80 000 bpd by the end of the year thanks to the unclamping of several Nile-producing assets. Lacking in both expertise and material possibilities, the South Sudanese have turned to the primordial foe, Khartoum, for help and in this lies the biggest weakness of the current political setup.
South Sudan has no refineries (as opposed to Sudan, which has one Chinese-operated 100 000 bpd refinery in Khartoum) and no export outlets other than the South Sudan-Sudan oil pipeline leading to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. Khartoum is interested in South Sudan pumping out as much as possible, largely because the pipeline transportation fee of $25 per barrel (an internationally mediated sum, out of it $16 were designed to compensate for the loss of South Sudan). Now, Khartoum has several more reasons to kick-start South Sudanese production, as the rehabilitation of shattered oil infrastructure, as well as guaranteeing the physical security of workers at South Sudanese production sites will from now on be under (North) Sudans control.
The intensification of Sudanese involvement within the upstream segment is in some ways logical, too the 2011 secession happened a relatively short time ago, so the thorough knowledge of the fields and their geology was one of Khartoums widely known secrets. Chinese, Malaysian and Indian investors will also return in force, seeking to remedy their nine-digit losses. Bringing back more than 200 000 bpd worth of production lost since 2011 would be tantamount to a heroic feat, however, its likelihood is quite small. Khartoum has been allegedly helping Riek Machar, the Nuer rebel leader, which in a country as susceptible to rumours as South Sudan might already be considered a fatal blow to national unity. All the more so now, when the Khartoum Accords have created a legal justification for the presence of the Sudanese military on the territory of South Sudan, much to the chagrin of the South Sudanese populace.
Previous ceasefires and seemingly viable reconciliation have failed in South Sudan an accord similar to the current one was signed on August 2015 and failed spectacularly (with Riek Machar fleeing to DR Congo). Fraught with an infinitude of internal conflicts, it will not be long until either the government of South Sudan or the rebel groups renege on their commitments. That is not to say the government will not try to lure foreign investment into the country the nation badly needs a refinery not to rely on foreign (read: Sudanese) assistance, moreover, it might seem fit to reach to Western majors with the necessary know-how of treating waxy and acidic crudes.
Related: Can We Expect An Oil Price Spike In November?
Moreover, the south of the country is largely unclaimed and, if the South Sudanese government fulfills its erstwhile promises, it will offer 12 exploration blocks for licensing with Western majors in view. Most notably, Blocks B1 and B2 will be up for offer by far the largest of the dozen with 44 000 and 48 000 km2, respectively which attracted the interest of Total and Tullow Oil, however, the discordance between the majors expectations and the governments willingness was too big to bridge. The risks for Western companies are manifold the travails of Chevron and Shell in Sudan are a conspicuous example of what dangers are there for leading firms.
Shell and Chevron were the first to discover oil in the country under Gaafar Nimeirys tenure in the mid 1970s. However, as the Presidents doctrinal makeup shifted from socialism to Islamism, precipitating a deadly civil war that was to last more than 21 years, they were all forced to leave (security concerns topped the list, as can be seen from the 1984 assassination of Chevron workers at the Unity field). Despite the conclusion of the Khartoum Accords, South Sudan remains a remarkably polarized society where power sharing arrangements seem to be implemented in an on-and-off mode until one of the sides claims a final victory. For companies keen on extreme risk and no shareholder liabilities, South Sudan might seem a tempting bet, however for the big ones the risks will turn out to be too big not to pay heed to.
By Viktor Katona for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
President Trump is the victim of a recurrent journalistic crime. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
After Bob Woodwards new book quoted a variety of high-ranking officials describing the president as an imbecile, the Trump administration sprang into what has become a practiced response for such an episode. The officials dutifully produced statements insisting they did not and would not say the things they were quoted as saying, accusing the reporters of making things up. And Trump, along with his spokespeople, highlighted their denials and energetically claimed the account had been debunked.
Statement from Secretary of Defense, James Mattis: pic.twitter.com/OneaxKCneV Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2018
Statement from White House Chief of Staff, General John Kelly: pic.twitter.com/LUN8cDr3N5 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2018
The Woodward book has already been refuted and discredited by General (Secretary of Defense) James Mattis and General (Chief of Staff) John Kelly. Their quotes were made up frauds, a con on the public. Likewise other stories and quotes. Woodward is a Dem operative? Notice timing? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2018
This has happened repeatedly. In the summer of 2017, Rex Tillerson reportedly called Trump a fucking moron. Tillerson eventually issued a quasi-denial, saying, Ive never questioned his mental fitness. I have no reason to question his mental fitness.
Later in 2017, five sources reported that National Security Adviser H..R. McMaster described Trump to his dining companions as an idiot, a dope, and compared his mental capacity to that of a kindergartner. Trump spokesperson Michael Anton insisted the report was a fabrication: Actual participants in the dinner deny that General McMaster made any of the comments attributed to him by anonymous sources. Those false comments represent the diametric opposite of General McMasters actual views.
In April 2018, NBC reported that chief of staff John kelly had called Trump an idiot, prompting Kelly to dismiss the report as total BS and another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administrations many successes.
And of course, Michael Wolffs book, Fire and Fury, contained multiple reports of Trump officials questioning the presidents intelligence. All of them were, naturally, lies according to the administration. Tom Barrack never said Trump is not only crazy hes stupid. (Its clear to anyone who knows me that those arent my words and inconsistent with anything Ive ever said, he told the New York Times.) National Economic Council director Gary Cohn most certainly did not call his boss dumb as shit, which the White House officially described as a ridiculous quote.
The White House believes there is an epidemic of journalists fabricating quotes from Trumps closest associates questioning his intelligence. Somehow a wide array of reporters and sources have conspired for over a year to concoct eerily similar lies about the very stable genius in the Oval Office.
The proposed Texas LNG project is now closer to becoming a reality. Last week, the 4 million tonne per annum (mtpa) two train project slated to build at the port in Brownsville, Texas said it received from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) a timeline for Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIA) and Federal Authorization Decision.
The FEIS and Federal Authorization Decision deadline are the final major steps in the FERC process before issuance of the FERC Order, the company said. Based on the FEIS date and timelines of other approved LNG export projects, Texas LNG expects to receive its Final FERC Order authorizing construction and operation of its facility in the second half of 2019.
The company said the development is an important milestone as it communicates the FERCs high confidence schedule for Texas LNGs completion of the National Environmental Policy Act process, and for all agencies involved in federal permitting approval to complete their review.
However, moving the project one step closer to final approval and construction comes at a dubious time for the U.S. LNG sector due to the ongoing trade dispute between Washington and Beijing. Amid President Donald Trumps dogged termination to bring China to task over trade imbalances and a possible extra $200 billion worth of extra tariffs on Chinese exports to the U.S., China has vowed to fight back by threatening to impose a 25 percent tariff on U.S. LNG exports into China.
Such a move is arguably self-defeating for China and would complicate Beijings mandate to have natural gas make up at least 10 percent of its energy mix by 2020, with further earmarks by 2030. However, it also presents serious hurdles for fledgling U.S. LNG projects still in the planning or approval stage, like Texas LNG. Related: Emerging Market Contagion Threatens Oil Market
Many of these newer projects will need both Chinese funding as well as long term off-take agreements with Chinese firms to ever have a chance of being built. The seeming quandary for Texas LNG is that it has already signed five MoUs with Chinese entities to sell volumes from its two production rains in the future. While the company hasnt yet disclosed which Chinese firms it reached deals with, Vivek Chandra, Texas LNG co-founder and CEO, told media in April on the sidelines of the LNG Asia Pacific Conference in Singapore that the Chinese customers are a mix of large provincials, independent companies and small local governments.
Convoluted outcome
Texas LNG has also singed non-binding MoUs with one firm in Europe and two in Southeast Asia. In Southeast Asia, one is with one of the state national gas companies and the other one is more of an entrepreneurial project of developing an integrated gas to power scheme, Chandra said. Of the eight firms, six of them either currently have LNG terminals or are in the process of setting up one.
How possible Chinese tariffs will impact the U.S. LNG sector depends on who you ask. Some, like Cheniere Energy have downplayed the development. Chenieres CEO Jack Fusco said recently that he did not expect proposed Chinese tariffs on U.S.-LNG to have an economic impact on the companys existing contracts. Related: The Collapse Of Venezuela's Imaginary Oil Currency
We dont foresee an economic impact to Cheniere as it relates to our existing long-term contracts with PetroChina, he said. In February, state-run CNPC inked a deal with Cheniere to buy around 1.2 mtpa of LNG beginning this year and running to 2043. Fusco added that he hoped the ongoing trade dispute could be resolved before the tariffs on American LNG were implemented.
Others, however, see more pain for the American LNG industry from possible Chinese tariffs on American LNG. China for its part has already started trimming its spot purchases of U.S.-sourced LNG.
When asked by OilPrice.com how possible Chinese tariffs on American LNG would impact the Texas LNG project, Chandra took the long view, downplaying their importance since production isnt projected to come online for several years.
At this point, we do not see any adverse reaction from our potential Chinese customers, he said. I think we are all hoping that this will blow over and since our production is not until 2023, we will not see any immediate impact.
By Tim Daiss for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Saudi Arabia is looking to manage the oil market in a way that would keep oil prices in the $70 to $80 band for the time being, as the Kingdom wants a floor under prices to monetize oil exports and at the same time keep a ceiling until at least the U.S. mid-term elections in November, Reuters reported on Wednesday, quoting sources at OPEC and the industry.
Early this year, Saudi Arabia was said to be aiming for oil at $80 a barrel and even higher in order to stoke up the valuation of oil giant Saudi Aramco ahead of what was hyped to be the worlds largest IPO ever.
In April, however, U.S. President Donald Trump started slamming OPEC for keeping oil prices artificially very high, and in the latest tweet aimed at OPEC in early July, he demanded that OPEC REDUCE PRICING NOW!
OPECs leading producer and de facto Saudi Arabiawhich early this year had vowed to keep the production cut pact intact until 2018, saying that If we have to err on over-balancing the market a little bit, so be itagreed in June with fellow OPEC members and the Russia-led group of non-OPEC producers part of the pact to ease compliance rates, in other words to boost production.
Then, last month reports surfaced that the Aramco IPO had been called off.
According to Reuters sources, even with the listing plans (probably) scrapped, Saudi Arabia aims to keep oil prices as high as it can without offending the U.S. Administration, with which it has built closer ties under President Trump. Related: The Bearish Case For Oil
They need cash. They have plans and reforms and now the IPO is delayed. But they dont want anyone else talking about oil prices now. Its all because of Trump, one source told Reuters.
The unofficial $70-80 Saudi price target for oil may have been the reason behind Saudi Arabias reporting of oil production over the past two months, an industry source following the Kingdoms oil production policies told Reuters.
As Brent Crude prices were heading to $80, Saudi Arabia told the market last week that it had raised production in August, sooner than the Saudis would have typically leaked such information, according to the industry source.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Despite the fact that production and export figures presented by Iraqi sources are showing a significant improvement, optimism should be tempered.
Iraq continues to head towards a major showdown between the two main political rival blocks, led by Prime Minister Al Abadi and former PM Al Maliki. Both are currently in a race to lead the country, while being confronted by internal and external threats.
Iraqi oil production and export figures are showing very positive developments, even though internally, the country is teetering on the brink. The latest data from the Iraqi ministry of oil shows that it has boosted its southern crude oil exports to 3.583 million b/d in August, 40,000 bpd higher than in July. Since the OPEC meeting in Vienna, Baghdad has been pushing to increase its total production to a three-month average of 3.549 million b/d, an increase of 109,000 b/d from the first five months of 2018.
It is surprising to see that even with continuing unrest in the Basra region, exports from its southern terminals are up. Loadings from the Khor al-Amaya terminal have been suspended since the start of 2018. Iraqs State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) reported that 2.727 million b/d of Basrah Light have been shipped from the terminals, along with 856,000 b/d of Basrah Heavy crude. At present another seven tankers have berthed, while four are waiting for their turn, with a total of around 7 million barrels.
Northern Iraqi oil figures are also promising, as exports from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan have been growing. Kurdish sources indicate that the KRG is currently exporting 445,000 bpd to Ceyhan, which is a 40 percent increase in comparison to July. Government oil production in the north however is still blocked, as there is no agreement between Baghdad and the KRG. A potential 200,000 bpd is currently not being exported due to this issue.
The future could, however, be less bright than the above data suggests. The country is facing a total shutdown if the competing political blocks are not able to reach a deal in the parliament soon. Several days ago the Iraqi parliament met for the first time since the May elections. At present, current Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is still trying to reach a majority coalition, but has, until now, been blocked by his rivals, led by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. After several heated discussions, no solution has been reached.
Al Abadi is fighting to stay in power, having already reached a coalition agreement with Muqtada Al Sadrs Sairoon movement. Al Sadr, a powerful Shiite cleric, has warned the government that his patience is running out. Al Sadr, mainly known for his hardline position and power hunger, could be the deciding factor in the current power struggle. He has also become one of the main supporters of the ongoing violent protests in and around the southern Iraqi city of Basra, where protesters are fighting Iraqi security forces in a bid to force the Baghdad-based government to take action on food, water and power shortages in the country. In recent weeks, dozens of protestors have been killed and many more have gotten injured in numerous protests that are now threatening to spill over into the whole southern part of Iraq. Related: Saudis Boosted Oil Production To 10.424 Million Bpd In August
Nouri Al Maliki, the former PM, has been able to form an alliance with militia commander Hadi al-Amiri, the leader of the Shia militia Hashd al Shaabi. The latter is strongly supported, and arguably led by, Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Tehran is not only trying to consolidate its power position in Iraq, but is also attempting to influence the government to move away from the Saudi led power block in the region.
Adding further fuel to the fire, the Hashd Al Shaabi stated that they will be targeting U.S. and other foreign forces in Iraq. The militia stated that they will take action if non-Iraqis attempt to form a pro-Washington and pro-Saudi government in Baghdad. Iraqi media sources report that the statements were signed by the Badr Brigade, Asayib Ahl al-Hagh, Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Kata'ib Jund al-Imam, Ansar Allah al-Awfiya, Saraya Ashura, Saraya Ansar al-Aqeeda, Saraya Khurasan, and Kataib Imam Ali. All these groups are known to be supported and directed by Iran.
The West has put its support behind Al Abadi, who is seen as a weaker politician than his predecessor Al Maliki. Several Western analysts have stated that Al Maliki has been much more focused on tribal and sectarian conflicts, while Al Abadi has a more open (or weaker) position. The U.S. and E.U. are still partly blaming Al Maliki for having supported the pro-Shia power struggle, leaving other sectarian and religious groups behind. In the eyes of the West, this pro-Shia policy has created a breeding ground for terrorism and was one of the reasons behind the rise and success of IS/Daesh in Iraq, as Sunni and other groups in the country were left behind.
Western analysts, however, need to keep an eye on the ongoing power struggle as the outcome will not ease the growing resentment among the Iraqi people. The distrust or outright hate of a growing group of voters has already led to unrest in the oil-rich Basra region. The fall-out of these ongoing clashes and violence between the Iraqi army and the protestors will almost certainly lead to a movement resisting any new government based on the old guard. Related: Can We Expect An Oil Price Spike In November?
At the same time, it will lead to a possible violent movement against Iranian backed political parties and militias in other regions. Clashes between these groups have already been reported, but a further increase in violence could lead to a new civil war, in which Iran will be engaged fully. Looking at the current situation in Syria and Lebanon (Hezbollah-Israel), Tehran will likely not be willing to remove part of its hold on Iraq. The link with Baghdad, the Hashd Al Shaabi and other militias, are of immense strategic importance to the struggling regime in Tehran. Renewed fighting is to be expected, especially if the ongoing power implosion in Baghdad will give Kurdish and Sunni groups the option to counter.
A further escalation on the ground between government security forces and protestors could lead to a shutdown of oil fields and ports. At the same time, increased bloodshed could lead to direct confrontations in Baghdad and other areas. Such an escalation could trigger Iranian militias and proxies to engage as the Iranian hold on the Iraqi government could be threatened.
In short, the current oil production numbers may look encouraging, but if the opposing parties in Baghdad fail to close a deal and address the problems in the South, oil exports could be seriously impacted.
By Cyril Widdershoven for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
China Development Bank has put up for sale a 4-percent interest in ADNOC owned by troubled conglomerate CEFC, which earlier this year became the target of a government investigation into its chief executive Ye Jianming as part of a wider crackdown on illicit business practices.
The ADNOC stake is part of a fire sale of assets owned by the heavily indebted company, the South China Morning Post reports, and the frontrunners are Hengli Group, the parent company of Hengi Petrochemical, and defense major Norinco.
Earlier this year, there were reports that Citic Group was doing due diligence on the ADNOC stake, but according to the sources who spoke to the SCMP, the company had quit the race. The company bought CEFCs assets in the Czech Republic earlier.
The stake in the UAEs biggest oil company, which CEFC bought for US$900 million in 2017, is only one of the assets that CEFCs creditors will try to sell. It represents some 2 million barrels per month in crude oil production that the owner has the right to market, Reuters reports. The inventory also includes a lot of real estate across the globe.
CEFC notably planned to buy a hefty stake in Rosneft for some US$9 billion, but the deal fell through amid the companys debt troubles.
It is widely believed that CEFCs chief executive, who stepped down in March, attracted the attention of financial regulators as part of a crackdown on large Chinese companies suspected of reckless spending, which heightens financial risk in the country.
After Ye stepped down, the SCMP recalls, CEFCs creditors stopped lending to the company, which had become Chinas largest private energy conglomerate, and it started disintegrating, pressured by a debt load of US$14.3 billion, of which US$4.39 billion was in the form of bonds (30 billion yuan). The first default came soon after, in May.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Anadarko has become the first oil producer to begin evacuating its employees from the Gulf of Mexico as a storm named Gordon approaches the area and is expected to develop into a hurricane before it reaches the coast.
Reuters reported that the company had evacuated workers from two platforms and has suspended production on them. The platformsHorn Mountain and Marlinare located 100 miles and 75 miles from the Louisiana coast, respectively.
For now, there is no news about any more planned evacuations and platform shut-ins. Gordon is expected to reach shore later today near the border between Louisiana and Mississippi. The Coast Guard has warned that three ports nearby may need to be closed, including New Orleans, and Gulfport and Pascagoula in Mississippi.
Chevron and Shell said, as quoted by Reuters, that they are watching the progress of the storm and are preparing their refineries in the area for the landfall. Chevron operates a 352,000-bpd facility in Pascagoula and Shell has a 218,200-bpd refinery in Norco, Louisiana. Other refinery operators in the area are also preparing for a storm.
Gordon is expected to reach the Louisiana coast this evening and continue northwest during the night. Heavy rains are expected for the next two days.
Related: Oil Could Jump To $95 This Winter
The U.S. Gulf Coast refineries represent more than 45 percent of the national refining capacity, and the Gulf of Mexico yields 17 percent of the countrys total oil production. As a result of the hurricane warning, West Texas Intermediate is enjoying an increase, with the U.S. benchmark jumping over US$70 a barrel.
Brent, meanwhile, slid down after it became clear that Indian refiners will continue to import Iranian crude using Iranian-arranged and insured tankers. Indias decision follows the same one that Beijing made, switching to tankers owned by the National Iranian Oil Company to secure continued shipments after the November 4 U.S. sanction start.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Europe is looking to open bank accounts in Europe for Iran to deposit oil revenues and secure Iranian oil exports, Iranian media quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi as saying.
Currently, we are holding close and intensive talks with Europe over their promises to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, Araqchi has said, according to the Iranian Fars news agency, reported by Azeri outlet Trend.
At the end of last month, Irans Foreign Minister was quoted as reminding the European Union that Iran was still waiting to receive guarantees that the EU would continue to buy Iranian oil even after U.S. sanctions kick in on November 4.
We are still waiting for Europe to take action on the sale of Iranian oil and the preservation of banking channels, Mohammad Javad Zarif said.
The EU has triggered legislation known as the blocking statute, which effectively prohibits European companies from complying with third-party sanctions.
In comments reported by Irans Tasnim News Agency, Araqchi said on Tuesday that the European parties to the Iranian nuclear deal have until November 4 to fulfill their pledges to offset the impact of the U.S. sanctions.
We have clearly announced to the Europeans that if our main interests in the JCPOA, (namely) the issue of oil sales, are not served, staying in the deal will not benefit us anymore, Araqchi said in a broadcast on Tuesday evening.
As long as we can sell our oil, it will be in our interest to stay in the JCPOA, and even if after the November 4, when the US sanctions are officially re-imposed, we could sell our oil, we might consider continuing the work with the JCPOA, the deputy foreign minister was quoted as saying.
Europe is expected to be one of the regions to which Iranian oil sales could considerably drop due to Western shipping companies, insurers, and refiners backing out of purchases from Iran over concerns that they could run afoul with the U.S. Administration.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Chinese teapot refineries imported 5.7 percent less crude oil in August than in July, a survey by S&P Global Platts has revealed, reinforcing a growing worry that a tax regime overhaul will affect Chinese crude oil demand negatively. On an annual basis, S&P Global Platts said, the August import figure was 12 percent lower.
The research company noted the lower import rates were related to a more active typhoon season in China, which forced a suspension of berthings for two weeks. "Typhoons hit Qingdao port four times in August, and vessels could not call at the berths for almost half a month," a source from one of the busiest Chinese ports told S&P Global Platts. This went against expectations for higher imports following refinery maintenance.
Yet teapot refiners have been having other problems since March, when Beijing tightened tax collection controls, closing loopholes that let the independent refiners make bigger profits. Now cash flows have slimmed, and as another source from Qingdao told S&P Global Platts, some refiners have had to delay the offloading of cargoes they had ordered earlier.
As of the end of August, independent refiners had used up 49 percent of their annual crude import quotas and now have the right to import another 61.59 million tons of crude until the end of the year. Whether or not they will fill these quotas remains to be seen as their financial position changes and amid the ongoing U.S.-China trade conflict that has also had the market worried about the future of Chinese oil demand.
OPEC is particularly worried about this as China is among their biggest buyers. Two OPEC oil ministers earlier this week told CNBC that the combination of a trade spat between Beijing and Washington, and a stronger dollar, could dampen Chinese oil demand in the near term. Other factors that will probably contribute to such a development are the shift to natural gas and gains in freight transportation efficiency, according to Wood Mackenzie.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a draw of 1.17 million barrels of United States crude oil inventories for the week ending September 1, compared to analyst expectations that this week would see a draw in crude oil inventories of 1.29 million barrels. Other analysts had anticipated a 2.9 million barrel draw.
Last week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a surprise build of 38,000 barrels of crude oil.
The API reported a build in gasoline inventories for week ending September 1 in the amount of 1 million barrels. Analysts predicted a draw of 81,000 barrels.
Oil prices were trading down in mid-afternoon trading prior to the release of the API data on inventories. At 3:43pm EDT, WTI was trading down 1.47% (-$1.03) at $68.84 per barrelrelatively flat week on week. Brent crude was also trading down 1.16% (-$0.91) at $77.26 per barrel--$1.00 over last weeks figures.
Wednesdays falling pricesthe lowest of the week, in factwere largely the result of tropical storm Gordon that ripped through the Gulf of Mexico without much disruption to energy infrastructure. Despite the fact that Gordon did claim at least one life, it managed to miss nearly every oil and gas operation in the GoM.
Also weighing on prices is Irans persistence in finding future markets for its oil come November when US sanctions against Tehran go into full effect. On Wednesday, Tehran reported that Europe was looking to open bank accounts in Europe for Iran to deposit oil revenues and secure Iranian oil exports.
US crude oil production as estimated by the Energy Information Administration was unchanged for the week at 11.0 million bpd for the week ending August 24.
Distillate inventories were also up this weekby 1.8 million barrels, compared to an expected build of 742,000 barrels. Inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma site increased this week by 613,000 barrels.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration report on crude oil inventories is due to be released on Thursday at 11:00a.m. EDT.
By 4:45pm EDT, WTI was trading at $68.66 and Brent was trading at $77.11.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
While media are reporting that Saudi Arabia has possibly called off the listing of its oil giant Saudi Aramco, officials from the Kingdom are affirming that the IPO will take place at a time when the government sees fit.
This week its the turn of Khalid Abdullah Al Hussan, the chief executive of the Saudi stock exchange Tadawul, to give assurances that what was tipped to be the worlds biggest IPO ever would still happen, despite the delays.
Im certain Aramco will join the market, Al Hussan told Bloomberg in an interview in Riyadh on Wednesday.
The decision has been made to take the company public, and the government has announced, several times, that they are looking at the proper time for listing Aramco, said the CEO of the Saudi stock market that was set to be the primary listing venue of Aramco.
Last month, reports emerged that Saudi Arabia had called off its highly anticipated, US$100-billion IPO, Reuters sources said, with even plans to list the state-run oil company on its domestic bourse, Tadawul, being scrapped. The listing was expected to be the worlds largest IPO, and the Saudis pegged a large part of the Vision 2030 economic agenda on proceeds from it.
Saudi Arabia immediately denied the reports that the listing was canceled, with Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih saying in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency:
The Government remains committed to the IPO of Saudi Aramco at a time of its own choosing when conditions are optimum. This timing will depend on multiple factors, including favorable market conditions, and a downstream acquisition which the Company will pursue in the next few months, as directed by its Board of Directors.
Then, reports emerged that it was Saudi Arabias King Salman who has demanded that the Aramco IPO be called off, stepping in to shelve the plans of his heir apparent, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Reuters reported last week, quoting three sources with ties to Saudi government insiders.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Paul Greengrass returns with a new docudrama about Norwegians deadliest terror attack.
22 July tells the story of the aftermath of the horrific attack carried out by far-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik and the survivors trying to carry on with their lives.
The film is set in 2011, when the terrible events took place and claimed the lives of 77 people. Breivik carried out two lone wolf attacks: a car bomb in Oslo followed by an attack at a Workers Youth League (AUF)-run summer camp, on the island of Utya, using multiple firearms and ammunition.
The Jason Bourne director is no stranger to making films about terrorist attacks having directed Bloody Sunday, United 93 and Captain Phillips.
The film centres on the Norwegian terror attack that took place in 2011
The film has its premiere at Venice Film Festival this year and will be available to stream on October 19, 2018 by Netflix.
Its not the only movie to be released this year and centred on the massacre; Norwegian filmmaker Norwegian drama film directed by Erik Poppe which reenacts the terror attack at the summer camp shot in one single take in real time.
According to the Guardian, Poppe worked closely with survivors from Utya island and used their testimonies in order to accurately and respectively tell the story.
READ MORE
Chloe Moretz could make Hit-Girl movie
Idris Elba: We have a multicultural society. Lets see some history
The Bodyguard slammed for bad Muslim stereotypes
Photo: Courtesy of the retailer.
Complete transparency has been all the rage these days, at least when it comes to fashion and design. Over the past few months, Ive thumbed past more and more clear things on Instagram than ever a plant stand here, a see-through beach tote there but Ive been most delighted by the jewelry: thick, glassy chokers (as pictured here on Solange), elegant blob earrings, and stacking rings that look like small ice sculptures.
You might say its part of the explosion of transparent things that popped up on runways this spring, but Corey Moranis a Canadian jewelry designer whos been working with Lucite exclusively for the past five years says clear Lucite jewelry is very much having its own moment this year. Similar to plastics like PVC, Lucite is a transparent thermoplastic thats often used as a lighter, shatterproof alternative to glass. Clear Lucite hoops made headlines when Alison Lous Loucite collection of enamel and Lucite earrings launched in April (it was seen on Selena Gomez, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Blake Lively, to name a few). And an even more accessible version made the rounds in May when Bella Hadid wore a pair of clear BaubleBar hoops ($38!) out on the town.
The material has certainly had many lives, dating back to its invention in the 30s. It was popularized in the 40s and 50s when women would double up on Art Deco Lucite bangles, chunky necklaces, and carved brooches but reared its head again in the 60s and 70s as rainbow rings, neon bangles, and colored beads. Thats why Garmentory co-founder Adele Tetangco says you may have spotted it first on your own grandmother. Shes the OG of Lucite jewelry. She sees this years resurgence in clear jewelry as a natural extension of Rachel Comeys hyperpopular line of earrings made from translucent acetate (which, while similar in appearance to Lucite, is actually a wood-pulp-based material). I first noticed Rachel Comey using it when she launched her very first earring collection a couple of years ago. But when we went to market for spring/summer 2018, there were a ton of clear pieces.
And while iterations of the past were more interested in color and costume, the new wave of Lucite jewelry is sculptural and completely devoid of color. Marie Foxall the owner of home and jewelry brand Wasted Effort says she was heavily influenced by retrofuturism and sci-fi in her Lucite designs.
As a minimalist who lives for a uniform (head-to-toe navy or black), I am all-in on the stark, futuristic vibe. Ive always been more interested in simple statement pieces because theyre punchy without looking overly flashy, minimalist and maximalist at the same time. Despite being completely clear, Lucite has the same heft as a vibrant accessory. It isnt quite as stuffy as metal jewelry, either, and androgynous enough that anyone can pull it off, which is why I see myself wearing it for a long time. Alison Lou designer Alison Chemla is with me: Its a material that transcends seasons.
Below, my favorite new Lucite (and not quite Lucite, but still see-through) jewelry designs.
Rachel Comey Factor Earrings $115 Photo: 18-02-06 Accessories AM1 B3 dylanremis W Large geometric Rachel Comeys in acetate if youre tempted to go bigger. $115 at Garmentory 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 acne treatments, rolling luggage, pillows for side sleepers, natural anxiety remedies, and bath towels. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
Every editorial product is independently selected. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission.
Northern Quoll. Credit: Nicolas Pakotopare
Protected areas alone are not enough to save Australia's threatened species, according to research from the Threatened Species Recovery Hub.
The research team, led by University of Queensland Ph.D. candidate Stephen Kearney, investigated major threats facing threatened species and considered how protected areas could alleviate such threats.
"The key finding is that simply reserving land will remove all threats to very few species only three per cent in fact," Mr Kearney said.
"It is not enough to just place land in a protected area and then walk away."
Australia is one of the first countries in the world to reach an international target of having 17 per cent of its land covered by protected areas such as national parks, as a strategy to halt biodiversity declines.
The researchers considered data for more than 1,500 species, including threatened plant, mammal, bird, fish, frog, reptile and insect species.
"We did discover that well managed protected areas would address all major threats facing almost half of our threatened species, and address at least one major threat for all threatened species," Mr Kearney said.
"But half of our threatened species present a serious need to look beyond protected areas to effectively deal with some of the major problems threatening their survival, such as the facial tumour disease facing Endangered Tasmanian Devils."
Green and golden bell frog. Credit: Adam Parsons
UQ's Professor James Watson said the only way to avoid future extinctions was to conduct broader conservation efforts, such as managing pest species and weeds and stopping land clearing.
"There is increasing evidence that Indigenous ranger programs and farm stewardship programs can play a vital role in managing habitat and threats to biodiversity outside protected areas.
"Governments should magnify these efforts."
The research is published in Oryx.
Explore further Cities support a greater number of threatened species than non-urban areas
More information: Stephen G. Kearney et al. Estimating the benefit of well-managed protected areas for threatened species conservation, Oryx (2018). Journal information: Oryx Stephen G. Kearney et al. Estimating the benefit of well-managed protected areas for threatened species conservation,(2018). DOI: 10.1017/S0030605317001739
Credit: shutterstock
Where do the Jewish people come from? This is a question that anthopologists, historians and theologists have studied for millennia.
According to mythology, the Judaeans descended from three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are buried in the Cave of the Patriarchs (Cave of Machpelah) in Hebron a Palestinian city and world heritage site located in the southern West Bank, 19 miles south of Jerusalem.
Buried alongside them are said to be Adam and Eve and the four Matriarchs Sara, Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel. The cave has never been excavated, but on top of it is a relatively modern building (mid first-century), which Herod the Great built likely to honour his ancestors.
For a more scientific take on the Jewish origin debate, recent DNA analysis of Ashkenazic Jews a Jewish ethnic group revealed that their maternal line is European. It has also been found that their DNA only has 3% ancient ancestry which links them with the Eastern Mediterranean (also known as the Middle East) namely Israel, Lebanon, parts of Syria, and western Jordan. This is the part of the world Jewish people are said to have originally come from according to the Old Testament. But 3% is a minuscule amount, and similar to what modern Europeans as a whole share with Neanderthals. So given that the genetic ancestry link is so low, Ashkenazic Jews most recent ancestors must be from elsewhere.
Not one, but many tribes
To understand why this is the case, we need to go back in time, to look at where these other ancestors came from. It starts in Persia (modern-day Iran) during the sixth century. This is where most of the world's Jews were living at this time.
The tolerance of the Persians encouraged the Jews to adopt Persian names, words, traditions, and religious practices, and climb up the social ladder gaining a monopoly on trade. They also converted other people who were living along the Black Sea, to their Jewish faith. This helped to expand their global network.
Among these converts were the Alans (Iranian nomadic pastoral people), Greeks, and Slavs who resided along the southern shores of the Black Sea. Upon conversion, they translated the Old Testament into Greek, built synagogues, and continued expanding the Jewish trade network.
These Jews adopted the name Ashkenaz, and the DNA of Ashkenazic Jews can be traced to "Ancient Ashkenaz" an intersection of trade routes in eastern Turkey.
DNA of Yiddish speakers could have originated from four ancient villages in northwest Turkey. Author provided
The rise of the Ashina
We now know that at the time these Jews adopted the name Ashkenaz, they also acquired unique Asian mutations on their Y chromosome. This is where another important group of people in our story come into play and they are called the Gok-Turks.
During the sixth century, these nomadic people were ruled by a Siberian Turkic tribe called the Ashina. They were forced by the Chinese Tang Empire who were in power in China at the time to migrate westwards toward the Black Sea.
Thanks to their organisational and military skills, the Ashina united many tribes in this area and a new empire called the "Khazar Khaganate" was born. Offering freedom of worship and taxing trade, these people quickly rose to power.
The Asian group of these DNA mutations, found in Ashkenazic Jews, likely originated from the Ashina elite and other Khazar clans, who converted from Shamanism to Judaism. This means that the Ashina and core Khazar clans were absorbed by the Ashkenazic Jews.
It was also around this time that the Jewish elite adopted many Slavic customs. And based on my previous research, I would suggest that Yiddish was developed as a secret language to assist in trade.
The next chapter
What happened next was that the Jewish empire began to collapse. By the tenth century, the Jews on the Black Sea migrated to Ukraine and Italy. Yiddish became the lingua franca of these Ashkenazic Jews and absorbed German words while maintaining the Slavic grammar. And as global trade moved to the hands of the Italians, Dutch and English, the Jews were pushed aside.
What this all shows is that by using modern genetic technology that enables scientists to track the past of modern-day people a new appreciation for Jewish ancestry can be discovered.
It has meant a greater understanding of the journeys these people took to arrive in Europe. It has also allowed for increased knowledge as to the significant role the Ashina and the Khazar clans from which some of the real Jewish patriarchs actually came from played.
Explore further DNA sat nav uncovers ancient Ashkenaz
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Fur seals. Credit: Phillip Island Nature Parks
A census of annual pup production by Australian fur seal populations revealed the first reduction since species-wide protection was implemented in 1975, according to a study published September 5 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Rebecca McIntosh of the Phillip Island Nature Parks in Victoria, Australia, and colleagues. The study also shows that the long-term monitoring program for the Australian fur seal has effectively tracked population trends over time.
In the marine environment, monitoring the abundance and population trends of a top predator can provide measures of ecosystem health and management success. Fur seals, Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus, are important upper trophic level predators that, in Australia, are a protected marine species facing specific challenges related to fisheries and aquaculture management, ecotourism, potential impacts on seabirds, and response planning for oil spills and other emergencies. For these reasons, it is important to obtain accurate information about their abundance and population changes. An ad-hoc monitoring program coordinated across multiple stakeholders conducted a range-wide census of live pups in the Austral summers of 2002, 2007 and 2013. In the new study, McIntosh and colleagues set out to assess whether the monitoring program for the Australian fur seal is achieving its goals of determining pup abundance and estimating population trends.
The findings reveal that monitoring of the Australian fur seal between the 1970s and 2013 has effectively recorded population changes. The census successfully tracked signs of population recovery up to 2007. In addition, the 2013 census identified the first pup population decline, estimated to be 4.2% per year since 2007, since species-wide protection was implemented. According to the authors, the study highlights the importance of regularly assessing long-term monitoring programs and provides valuable information on how to effectively design and improve these programs.
Roland Pick, of Phillip Island Nature Parks, notes: "As wildlife managers it is important for us to regularly review our monitoring programs to examine the reliability of the information we have collected, and also to identify enhancements which may assist in a greater understanding of any population changes detected. We are currently using drone technology and Citizen Science programs at Phillip Island Nature Parks to enhance our monitoring of Seal Rocks as the largest breeding colony for the species."
Fur seal pup. Credit: Phillip Island Nature Parks
Explore further Fur seal population bounces back while sea lions struggle
More information: McIntosh RR, Kirkman SP, Thalmann S, Sutherland DR, Mitchell A, Arnould JPY, et al. (2018) Understanding meta-population trends of the Australian fur seal, with insights for adaptive monitoring. PLoS ONE 13(9): e0200253. Journal information: PLoS ONE McIntosh RR, Kirkman SP, Thalmann S, Sutherland DR, Mitchell A, Arnould JPY, et al. (2018) Understanding meta-population trends of the Australian fur seal, with insights for adaptive monitoring.13(9): e0200253. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0200253
Black students who express an interest in racial justice are less likely to get a response from predominantly white, private liberal arts colleges, new research shows. Credit: AshTproductions/www.shutterstock.com
Back when I taught at a predominantly white, selective liberal arts college, I came across a book called "Acting White? Rethinking Race in 'Post-Racial' America."
In the book, legal scholars Devon Carbado and Mitu Gulati argue that in the "post-racial" era, white-controlled organizations prefer to hire "'good blacks' who will think of themselves as people first and black people second."
"They will neither 'play the race card' nor generate racial antagonism or tensions in the workplace," the book contends. "They will not let white people feel guilty about being white; and they will work hard to assimilate themselves into the firm's culture."
This lets an employer realize the benefits of diversity without having to deal with issues of race, Carbado and Gulati argue.
Their critique made me wonder: Do America's colleges and universities act the same way toward black students in the admissions process?
Based on a recent nationwide study that I conducted, the answer is: yes.
What I found is that historically and predominantly white institutions are more likely to embrace black students who don't profess interest in racial justice.
Preferences at play
In other words, similar to how the authors of "Acting White" argue that white employers like black employees who see themselves as people first, and black people second, my study found that white colleges like black students who see themselves as students first, and black students maybe second or third or fourth, if at all.
Why does this matter?
It matters because this is a time when issues of race and racism on campus and student-led efforts to fight racism continue to command considerable attention. Black students are demanding that white colleges hire more faculty of color, remove racist iconography, such as Confederate soldier statues and rename buildings that pay homage to slave owners.
My research suggests that black students who state that they plan to fight for these kinds of things might never get the chance to set foot on campus of the college of their choice.
Racial hostility on campus
It also matters because this is a time when black students are facing hostile environments on campus. At Yale, for instance, earlier this year a white student called police on a black student who was napping in a common area. I would argue this is a time when America's college campuses need more students eager to fight racism, not just acquiesce.
It's not that white colleges don't want black students many do. A 2014 report showed that nearly all enrollment leaders at hundreds of public and private historically and predominantly white institutions indicated a goal to enroll "diverse students." Research shows this often means black students.
However, what my study shows is that these institutions are more likely to screen out black students who vocalize opposition to racism.
I refer to this expectation of a public, post-racial posture and politics as the color-blind imperative. Deviating from it can result in negative consequences, especially for blacks, as such individuals are often seen among many whites as divisive, racial rabble-rousers, as I myself have been.
Portlands Resistance co-founder Gregory McKelvey speaks on why protest is important.
A closer look
To investigate whether white admissions counselors were screening black high school students who don't adhere to the color-blind imperative, I conducted a nationwide audit study. I began by generating and testing a list of distinctly black names, such as Lakisha Lewis and Keshawn Grant, that would signal to white admissions counselors that the students who were emailing them were black. I then created an email account for each name.
Next, I created four email templates that represented black students interested in 1) math and English, 2) environmental sustainability, 3) African-American history and culture, and 4) anti-racism. In each one the fictitious student asked if he or she would be a good "fit" for the school based on their interests and activities.
I sent a random sample of 500-plus white admissions counselors at the same number of private, historically and predominantly white colleges across the United States, two of the four emails from two fictitious black high school students approximately one month apart. I selected small or medium-sized colleges and universities from U.S. News & World Report's 2013 list of best colleges.
To identify white admissions counselors, a research assistant and I used profile pictures from college websites or websites such as LinkedIn and Facebook. Only those counselors who both of us independently agreed appeared white were classified as white.
My findings revealed that white admissions counselors were, on average, 26 percent less likely to respond to the emails of black students whose interests and involvements focused on anti-racism and racial justice. The gender of the counselor and the student also mattered. White male counselors were 37 percent less likely to respond to anti-racist black students. And when black women students committed to anti-racism were emailing white male counselors, they were 50 percent less likely to receive a response.
The most extreme finding was the difference in the response rate for white male counselors responding to black women. Black women interested in environmental sustainability got a response rate of 74 percent, while those who presented the anti-racist narrative got a response rate of 37 percent. Stated differently, white male admissions counselors were twice as likely to respond to black women if they were committed to fighting environmental degradation instead of white racism. This indicates that it was not activism that depressed the response rate of anti-racist black students, but rather the focus of their activism.
Degrees of race consciousness
Noteworthy, too, is the finding that white admissions counselors were just as responsive to moderately race conscious black students who participated in culturally resonant activities, such as a jazz band and gospel choir and who mentioned the phrase "cross-cultural understanding," as they were to black students who revealed no interest in racialized involvements. This suggests, in other words, that it was not simply race consciousness, but a critical race consciousness one that unequivocally challenges the validity of color-blind ideology that seemed to be unappealing to some white admissions counselors.
Importantly, the screening pattern I uncovered doesn't necessarily show that admissions counselors are purposefully discriminating against anti-racist black students, but it doesn't preclude it, either. Whatever the case may be, there are clear, concrete and immediate steps that administrators can take to curtail this racially discriminatory practice.
Policy solutions
Some may think the solution is for black students who actively fight racism to masquerade as something that they are not. One problem with that approach is it's difficult, if not impossible, to be vocal against racism and not leave evidence of one's anti-racist activism in their digital footprint. For that reason, I focus my solutions on what institutions can do, not how black students should comport themselves to fit into a white environment.
First, chief admissions administrators should familiarize themselves and their staff with the research on intra-racial discrimination.
Second, schools should institute policies requiring admissions counselors to respond to all inquiry emails. Currently, the National Association for College Admission Counseling doesn't have any best practices for email or inquiry response, according to an association official I spoke with for this article.
Third, the chief admissions administrator should develop a system whereby all admissions staff emails are randomly audited for responsiveness, content and tone.
Fourth, and most importantly, as with employment discrimination, there must be appropriate sanctions and consistent enforcement to maximize compliance. Such a system would incentivize admissions counselors to act in a non-discriminatory manner toward not only black students but all students committed to fighting against white racism and white supremacy.
Might this intervention come at a financial cost to colleges and universities? Perhaps. But it should not be a prohibitive one. Either way it is necessary. If some white admissions counselors don't even respond to an inquiry email due to a black student's commitment to racial justice, how can they be trusted to treat these students fairly at the application stage?
Explore further Racism on college campuses is rooted in the small things people say and do
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Chelsea Manning should be regarded as a whistleblower. Credit: Tim Travers Hawkins/Courtesy of Chelsea Manning
Chelsea Manning will appear via video link at events in Brisbane and Melbourne this month as the Australian government refuses to provide her a visa.
Without a visa, Manning was in Los Angeles when she appeared electronically on a giant screen at a weekend event speaking with journalist Peter Greste at the Sydney Opera House, where she received a standing ovation.
International and Australian organisations have called on the Australian government to give a visa to Manning in support of freedom of speech. Nearly 20,000 people have signed a petition calling on Australia to allow Manning to visit.
Whether you agree with Manning or not, public debate and discussion are essential for a healthy democracy. Any attempt to shut it down flies in the face of freedom of expression.
This is important as we enter an era of machines that make decisions for us, including autonomous weapons. Data ethics, transparency, accountability and avenues of recourse for injustice become even more important to explore in public forums. These are all relevant to Manning's story.
Manning the whistleblower
Manning was a US army intelligence analyst in 2010 when she leaked more than 700,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks. Her disclosures were a major milestone in the emergence of the digital age whistleblower.
First there was the explosive Collateral Murder video, published by WikiLeaks. It showed the US military gunning down civilians in Iraq. US soldiers fired on children and killed two Reuters staff, Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh along with ten other people. Former Reuters Iraq bureau chief Dean Yates, who sent his staff out that fateful day, wrote a personal piece on the impact of "moral injury" while being treated at Melbourne's Austin Health for trauma recovery.
The US military lied about the incident and tried to cover it up. To this day, no one has been charged or convicted for the killings, nor the lying.
Manning is the only person to go to prison linked with the incident, yet she is the one who brought the truth to the public.
The astonishing video, filmed from the gunsight of an Apache helicopter, illustrates the power of bringing together visual digital media and whistleblowing. The video has had more than 16 million views on Youtube alone.
Manning also disclosed a collection of war logs. These were records about daily events happening in two wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Politicians had promised the public these wars were progressing well. The data showed a different story.
The New York Times, publishing in partnership with WikiLeaks, described the Afghan war logs as "more grim than the official portrayal".
In Iraq, a leading independent UK-based charity Iraq Body Count, estimated 15,000 civilians were killed from 2003 to 2010, deaths that had not been previously been revealed.
Less than half of the deaths reported in the Wikileaks War Logs had been previously reported by Iraq Body Count, according to one study.
Bringing the two datasets together showed how the body count of the Iraq War had been higher than either set had initially documented.
This sort of analysis illustrates how big data and whistleblowing are drawn together in actual cases, and have exposed the truth of what is really happening on the ground.
Big data leaks are getting bigger
In the digital age, data sets are increasingly driving news stories. Large data sets show patterns and connectionsboth of which can be important for accountability of decision-making by government.
At the time, Manning's disclosures seemed like an enormous amount of data. Yet, the data size was small compared with what was to come.
Collateral Murder (646MB) and the Afghan War Logs (75MB) data sets, published in 2010, created a new model for whistleblower disclosures driving database journalism. The entire tranche of this data, plus the US diplomatic cables and the Iraq War Logs, was reported to total 1.73 gigabytes (GB) small enough to fit on a single DVD.
What followed in their footsteps was much larger disclosures in terms of total data size. These included the 2013 Offshore Leaks (260GB), the 2014 Luxembourg Leaks (4GB), the 2016 Panama Papers (2.6TB), the 2017 Paradise Papers (1.4TB), and Edward Snowden's 2013 disclosures, estimated to be at least 60GB (the total data size has not been publicly revealed).
Whistleblower protection
Strong public support in Australia and overseas for the protection of whistleblowers flowed from this torrent of revelations, and it has forced governments around the world to respond.
From Ireland to Lithuania to Nigeria, governments have been adopting whistleblower protection laws.
In April, the European Union announced its draft Directive on whistleblower protection which, when passed, will apply to all 28 member states.
Whistleblowers reveal unsafe or illegal practices in everything from food safety to hospital practice.
In 2017, US President Barack Obama released Manning by commuting her prison sentence. The world Chelsea Manning re-entered after seven years in prison was profoundly transformed.
Increased public recognition of both the importance of whistleblowing as a corrective mechanism to wrongdoing in society, and of datasets informing a new kind of journalism, are part of that changed landscape.
Manning has been a controversial yet central figure in that transformation. As such, she has interesting perspectives to contribute to the public debate.
Encourage debate
A country which prides itself on being a free, western democracy should encourage such public discussions. Australia's close allies Canada and New Zealand have recognised this.
The New Zealand government has granted Manning a visa to visit its shores for events in Auckland and Wellington.
Canada, which had initially turned her back at the border, also allowed her entry, in order to speak publicly earlier this year.
It's worth noting the Australian government allowed US General David Petraeus into Australia last year, despite the fact that he, like Manning, "leaked secrets". Petraeus was spared prison time after pleading guilty to mishandling classified information, but he was sentenced to two years probation and fined US$100,000.
Manning's disclosure did not cause any real harm to US interests, according to media analysis of a US Department of Defense review, released in 2017 under a 2015 Freedom of Information lawsuit.
By contrast, material leaked by Petraeus was highly sensitive and, according to Reuters, contained the identities of covert officers, code word information, war strategy, intelligence capabilities and diplomatic talks.
Manning poses no danger to Australia, she is neither violent nor a terrorist. Yet, if people will still hear what she has to say via video links at the Australian events, why not let her appear in person?
Debating ideas is a core value of our democracy and one the Australian government should embrace, not fear.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Schematic illustration and physical characterization of S, N co-doped carbon nanotubes encapsulated core-shell (CoS2@Co) nanoparticles. Credit: Science China Press
Electrochemical water splitting is favorable strategy to produce high-purity H 2 . The current mainstream catalysts for water electrolysis are precious metals (Pt, RuO 2 , IrO 2 ), which possess superior catalytic activity, relatively low over-potential and favorable catalytic kinetics, but their high cost and poor cycle stability is still unaffordable. Therefore, researchers seek a new type of hydrogen production catalyst with low cost, high catalytic activity and high stability.
Due to its low cost, high abundance, and good electrical conductivity, the transition metal Co and its derivatives have shown great promise in electrocatalysis. However, stability has been a big issue due to their high chemical activities. To address this issue, encapsulation of Co nanoparticles into a carbon shell has been proposed as an effective strategy to inherit the high electrocatalytic activity of the transition metal and further prevent its corrosion from the harsh electrolytic environment. By tuning the metal composition and structure of carbon layers, the catalytic properties of these composites can be regulated.
Recently, Liu Zhao-Qing's group of Guangzhou University reports a bifunctional catalyst: transition metal cobalt ions induced the self-growth of nitrogen doped carbon nanotubes, which are further vulcanized to incorporate sulfur into the carbon nanotubes framework. The obtained materials (S, N-CNTs/CoS 2 @Co) exhibit excellent HER and OER performance. As cathode and anode, S, N-CNTs/CoS 2 @Co can rapidly dissociate water molecules to produce hydrogen and oxygen gases, requiring only 1.633 V to reach a current density of 10 mA cm-2, and a strong stability under various operating currents is also observed.
Mechanism schematic illustration of overall water splitting with its catalytic performance and stability test. Credit: Science China Press
Explore further Rh ensemble catalyst for effective automobile exhaust treatment
More information: Jing-Yu Wang et al, S, N co-doped carbon nanotube-encapsulated core-shelled CoS 2 @Co nanoparticles: efficient and stable bifunctional catalysts for overall water splitting, Science Bulletin (2018). Jing-Yu Wang et al, S, N co-doped carbon nanotube-encapsulated core-shelled CoS@Co nanoparticles: efficient and stable bifunctional catalysts for overall water splitting,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2018.07.008
An estimated 400,000 migrant women have married men living in rural areas of Japan, including the regions around Tohoku (pictured). Many migrants become isolated due to language barriers and lack of social networks. Credit: Tohoku University
Media coverage following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami that caused widespread destruction in northeastern Japan helped raise the profile of a previously 'invisible' part of the populationwomen who come from other countries to marry Japanese men. The coverage led to some, but not all, women gaining more recognition from their communities, according to joint research from Japan and New Zealand.
There are an estimated 400,000 'marriage-migrant' women in Japan, according to government and academic reports. They are often recruited by international marriage agencies to fill population gaps in rural regions. Migrants use the opportunity to escape poverty and violence in their home countries, but can often become 'invisible' in their new country. The language barrier and lack of connection to their own ethnic groups cause isolation and loneliness. Existing research shows that the migrants report domestic violence to social service organisations more than Japanese women. However, policymakers have failed to take action, given that these issues take place within the household and marriage migrants are generally invisible.
Sunhee Lee of Tohoku University in Japan, and Shinya Uekusa of the University of Auckland in New Zealand interviewed 60 of these marriage migrants living in the regions hardest hit by the tsunami, including Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima. Their aim was to understand how visibility changed for the women after the disaster.
When the news media at home and abroad featured the migrants' unique struggles and efforts to support their family and community during that time, religious groups and ethnic organisations reached out with relief goods for the whole community. This in turn boosted the social recognition and resources for those migrants as they become the point of contact for aids, created their own networks, and received appreciation from villagers.
"Ironically, the devastating disasters have been empowering for them, and many of them became visible, particularly for their specific vulnerabilities and resilience," according to the study, now published in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.
While some migrant women gained recognition for helping their communities after the 2011 tsunami, others became even more isolated. Credit: Sunhee Lee
However, the spotlight also led to some backlash. One participant said that her neighbours would criticise her 'famous' status when journalists or researchers visited for an interviewa statement corroborated by a social worker.
The women interviewed for the study came from China, Korea and the Philippines, and ranged between 30 and 60 years old. They have lived in Japan between 11 years and 30 years, and had varying levels of Japanese language competency.
The researchers note it was "extremely difficult" to find Chinese and Korean wives to speak with after the disaster, such was their invisibility in Tohoku's rural communities. The team speculate that women with limited Japanese language skills became even more dependent on their Japanese families in an emergency, causing further isolation. The researchers plan to further investigate the experiences of women who remained invisible.
Of those Chinese and Korean women who they did interview, the researchers learned that a common survival strategy was to make themselves intentionally 'invisible' by using Japanese names, isolating themselves from their ethnic networks, and staying within their home and community. Other migrant wives from various backgrounds including China, Korea and the Philippines integrated with their host families by fulfilling gendered cultural norms, such as being submissive, taking care of children and elderly family members, doing housework and helping with the family business, typically farming and fishing.
Previous research has tended to attribute challenges faced by migrant women to their individual circumstances, rather than cultural norms, gender inequality and discrimination. The researchers hope that by further understanding how these broader societal factors disenfranchise migrant women, then policy makers can develop strategies to improve conditions for marriage migrants.
Explore further High numbers of elderly Japanese women will soon live in poverty, predicts new model
More information: Shinya Uekusa et al, Strategic invisibilization, hypervisibility and empowerment among marriage-migrant women in rural Japan, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (2018). Shinya Uekusa et al, Strategic invisibilization, hypervisibility and empowerment among marriage-migrant women in rural Japan,(2018). DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2018.1500885
Multiple grave in Niederstotzingen (Germany) -- detail red circle: comb with etui. Credit: Landesamt fur Denkmalpflege im RP Stuttgart
In 1962, an Alemannic burial site containing human skeletal remains was discovered in Niederstotzingen (Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany). Researchers at the Eurac Research Centre in Bozen-Bolzano, Italy, and at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, have now examined the DNA of these skeletal remains.
This has enabled them to determine not only the sex and the degree of kinship of those people, but also their ancestral origins, which provides new insights into societal structures in the Early Middle Ages. The results of this study demonstrate that genetic research can complement research made by archaeologists and anthropologists through more conventional methods. The research was featured on the front cover of the renowned academic journal Science Advances.
Archaeologists recovered 13 human skeletons, the remains of three horses and some very well-preserved grave goods of diverse origin. This burial, which was discovered near a Roman road not far from Ulm, is considered one of the most important Alemannic gravesites in Germany. The site consists of individual and multiple graves, from which it was hypothesised that the individuals had not all been buried at the same time. The molecular genetic investigations have now brought new details to light about the individuals and their final resting place in this high-ranking warrior type burial.
Frank Maixner, microbiologist at the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman at Eurac Research (Italy). Credit: Eurac Research/Marion Lafogler
Using DNA analysis, the researchers were able to reconstruct maternal as well as paternal kinship. On the basis of tooth samples, the scientists could ascertain that five of the individuals were either first- or second-degree relatives. In addition, the deceased displayed a variety of patterns of genetic origin, indicating Mediterranean and northern European roots. "These results prove the existence of remarkable transregional contacts. The fact that they were buried together also indicates a link between the families and their entourage, which went beyond death," explains Niall O'Sullivan, who did his doctorate at Eurac Research and carried out some of the analyses at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena.
In this context, the grave goods with which the multiple graves were adorned and which are of Frankish, Lombard and Byzantine origin, are also very interesting. Their diverse origin in combination with the new genetic data indicates cultural openness, and demonstrates that members of the same family were receptive to different cultures.
In addition to the kinship analysis, the researchers also determined the sex of the individuals using molecular testing. One of the skeletons had a gracile physique and thus could not be clearly classified as male or female. "Anthropologists determine the sex of skeletal remains by using specific physical sexual characteristics, but if the bones of certain body areas are missing, then this will make gender determination much more difficult. DNA analyses open new paths in this respectand in this specific case, we were able to identify the young individual molecularly as a male, and thus exclude the possibility that we were dealing with an early medieval female warrior," explains Frank Maixner, microbiologist at the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman at Eurac Research.
The considerable advances that have been made in molecular genetics in recent years allow thus far unanswered questions to be raised again. "This research into the burial site at Niederstotzingen is a textbook example of how we can support archaeologists and anthropologists with new methods, in order to delve deeper into unanswered questions in a regional context," says Maixner in conclusion.
Comb with etui. Credit: Landesmuseum Wurttemberg, P. Frankenstein / H. Zwietasch
Explore further Prehistoric mass graves may be linked to tsunamis, new research reveals
More information: N. O'Sullivan el al., "Ancient genome-wide analyses infer kinship structure in an Early Medieval Alemannic graveyard," Science Advances (2018). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aao1262 , Journal information: Science Advances N. O'Sullivan el al., "Ancient genome-wide analyses infer kinship structure in an Early Medieval Alemannic graveyard,"(2018). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aao1262 , advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/9/eaao1262
Provided by Eurac Research
Bloede Dam (ca. 2016) near Ilchester, Maryland. Credit: Matthew Baker/UMBC, CC BY-SA
This month, the Bloede Dam will be removed from the Lower Patapsco River near Ilchester, Maryland.
The restoration is a one-of-a-kind natural experiment that will help test how relatively inexpensive drones can help scientists like me understand the integrity of streams and rivers.
My collaborators include students and researchers from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Maryland Geological Survey, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Geological Survey.
If our approach works, it will allow us to track sediment movement more completely and accurately than ever before, at a fraction of the expense.
What will change
Completed in 1907 and operational for 30 years, the Bloede Dam contained the first submerged hydroelectric plant in the U.S. At 26.5 feet high, it represents one of the largest dam removals on the Eastern Seaboard.
Why remove the dam? The state, federal agencies and nonprofit American Rivers hope to eliminate a derelict public safety hazard.
Taking out the dam will also complement restoration from previous dam removals upstream and expand connected habitat for fish and other aquatic creatures. The Patapsco once hosted major freshwater runs of shad, alewife and American eel, which were blocked by the dam. A fish ladder has proven ineffective at connecting upstream sections of the river with the downstream estuary and the Chesapeake Bay.
The Bloede Dam in March. The obsolete fish ladder is in the foreground. Credit: Matthew Baker/UMBC
Despite a prominent role in early U.S. manufacturing, the Patapsco Valley has suffered its share of environmental challenges. Colonial shipping was forced to relocate to Baltimore after the original port at Elkridge Landing was choked by sediment from shipping ballast, river bank mining and upstream forest clearing. Once a 10-foot channel surrounded by a saltwater marsh, today the site is fresh and the channel less than two feet deep.
Periodic floods have also wreaked havoc in the narrow gorge, occasionally with catastrophic results. In the past few years, flash floods just upstream in Ellicott City have ruptured the sewer main that runs along the valley bottom and reorganized large quantities of sand, wood and rock in the downstream channel.
Today, the dam stores approximately 2.6 million cubic feet of stratified silt and sand less than eight miles from Chesapeake Bay tidewater. When the dam is removed, we want to know how this much sediment is going to move and how fast.
Why sediment movement?
Understanding sediment movement is critical for river management in every jurisdiction of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Aerial image of the Patapsco River channel showing gravel, cobble and sand deposits. Credit: Matthew Baker/UMBC
Sediment helps balance water flow to maintain channel shape and stable habitats for aquatic plants, invertebrates and fish. River sediment is necessary to help estuarine coastlines combat sea level rise. However, fine sediment can also be a pollutant in, or carry nutrients and heavy metals to, downstream estuaries.
Although it's easy to observe evidence of sediment erosion from riverbanks or hillsides, it's often unclear where and how much of that sediment is redeposited and stored. Management of sediment storage, particularly behind dams, can be somewhat controversial.
After studying several other dam removals, we expect sediment trapped behind the dam to rapidly evacuate and redistribute downstream over a period of several years.
However, there's still much we don't know. Floods following intense storms can move huge quantities of sediment, altering the valley bottom in just hours. Will such storms redeposit sediment elsewhere in the gorge or the coastal floodplain, or deliver it to the bay?
3D view of a Patapsco River channel point cloud. Credit: Matthew Baker/UMBC
New ways to track changes
It's logistically difficult to accurately measure large and potentially rapid channel changes.
In a typical field survey, technicians measure water depth, flow, bottom substrate and other information at specific locations. Though stream channels can vary tremendously over space as well as through time, we scientists are rarely able to represent such variability in our measurements. Instead, we collect isolated snapshots in time. That leaves us with less understanding of dynamic sediment movement, devastation wrought by flood waves or the diversity of conditions necessary to support aquatic life.
Gauging stations located upstream and downstream of the dam measure water flow and estimate suspended material like fine silts and clays, but not coarser sands and gravels moving along the channel bottom. Surveys of 30 cross-sections distributed over eight miles provide information about how channel shape and composition vary as one crosses the channel, but relatively little about the thousands of feet in between each transect.
What's more, after a major flood, scientists must conduct new cross-sectional surveys, taking up to a month in occasionally in risky conditions.
3-D view of the Patapsco River point cloud.
Our team is attempting to add to our measurements by deploying small, off-the-shelf drones that photograph the entire valley bottom. Repeat photographs before, during and after removal can help us track the location of a sediment plume as it moves downstream. They also allow new perspectives of the river.
Relying solely on overlapping photos collected both before and after dam removal, we will create 3-D computer models of the channel bottom and water depth not just at the surveyed cross-sections, but every few inches along the channel. Although this technology works best in shallow water, our models should allow us to vastly improve estimates of both the amount and location of channel change as sediment moves downstream.
With the new approach, our team collects a photo set of all eight miles in just a few days, and further work occurs within a desktop computer. That means measurements can be repeated or made anew at any time using archived images.
Although we are certainly curious to see how this much sediment moves, we are especially interested in how well we can capture it. If it works, this technology will likely change the way scientists collect measurements and monitor rivers.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
AgroPad: A set of circles on the back of the card provide colorimetric test results; the color of each circle represents the amount of a particular chemical in the sample. Credit: IBM
Agriculture consumes more than 70 percent of the world's annual water usage. With small farms producing nearly 80 percent of food for the developing world, ensuring the quality and safety of our water supply is critical. Environmental analysis for agriculture often relies on expensive and time-consuming laboratory tests performed far away from the farm. As a result, chemical analysis is quickly outdated and limited to small sample numbers.
My team set out to find a way to simplify the testing process and make it affordable for small farmers to monitor the health of their soil and water. Our prototype, the AgroPad, enables real-time, on-location, chemical analysis of a soil or water sample, using AI.
So how does it work?
A drop of water or soil sample is placed on the AgroPad, which is a paper device about the size of a business card. The microfluidics chip inside the card performs on-the-spot a chemical analysis of the sample, providing results in less than 10 seconds.
The set of circles on the back of the card provide colorimetric test results; the color of each circle represents the amount of a particular chemical in the sample. Using a smartphone, the farmer would then take a single snapshot of the AgroPad by using a dedicated mobile application and immediately receives a chemical test result.
AgroPad: "AI on the edge"
This "AI on the edge" computing approach uses machine learning and machine vision algorithms to translate the measured color composition and intensity into concentrations of chemicals in the sample, making it more reliable than tests based on human vision alone. Test data can be simultaneously streamed onto a cloud computing platform and labeled with a digital tag that uniquely identifies the time, location and results of the chemical analysis. The cloud platform allows management and integration of millions of individual tests performed at various times and locations. This is an important feature for monitoring, for example, the change in fertilizer concentration in a particular region throughout the year.
We currently have a five-parameter prototype solution for soil and water testing that measures pH, nitrogen dioxide, aluminum, magnesium and chlorine. We're continually extending the library of chemical indicators available for deployment; each AgroPad could be personalized based on the needs of the individual user.
Since the paper-based tests can be reliably performed by non-experts, public data collection with instant digitization in chemical sensing becomes a real possibility. Along with low cost, mass production of the paper based device and large scale deployment through mobile and cloud technologies, the exploratory prototype could revolutionize digital agriculture and environmental testing.
Explore further Database analysis more reliable than animal testing for toxic chemicals
This story is republished courtesy of IBM Research. Read the original story here.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says his country will continue exporting crude oil despite US efforts to stop it through sanctions.
International Brent crude futures fell 34 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $77.83 a barrel.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $69.34 per barrel at 0036 GMT, down 53 cents, or 0.8 percent, from their last settlement.
"Tropical storm Gordon made an uneventful landfall after dashing expectations that it would strengthen to a hurricane", said Stephen Brennock of oil broker PVM.
Iran's oil exports are tumbling again as the country's key buyers in Asia take fewer cargoes in the weeks before US sanctions take full effect. Even though Libya's recovery boosts OPEC's combined oil output, the country remains an unreliable supplier as civil strife continues to disrupt its petroleum industry.
"If there is a serious trade disagreement between the US and China, the Chinese consumption of energy will be impacted negatively, from our point of view and the ability to produce and export will be impacted", he said at the World Heavy Oil Congress.
Many global shippers have stopped loading Iranian oil as USA financial sanctions against Tehran prevents them from insuring its cargoes. Emirates NBD Bank analyst, Edward Bell has the same opinion. Oman is a principal supplier of oil to China with the Asian superpower buying nearly 90 percent of its exports in 2017, according to the news agency.
South Africa stumbles into a recession
SA has plunged into a recession with a surprise 0.7% contraction in the second quarter of the year. Economists consider two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth a "technical recession".
Output from the producer cartel of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) rose by 220,000 barrels per day (bpd) between July and August, to a 2018-high of 32.79 million bpd, a Reuters survey found.
Traders on Monday apparently also took note of Baker Hughes reporting an increase in US oil rigs for the first time in three weeks, adding two for a total of 862 rigs.
As a result, Japanese oil companies are preparing to halt imports of Iranian crude and researching ways to increase imports from elsewhere to make up the shortfall, the reports said.
USA light crude jumped $1.60 a barrel from Friday's close to a peak of $71.40, its highest since mid-July, before easing to around $70.65 by 1340 GMT.
Meanwhile, trade disputes between the United States and other major economies including China and the European Union are expected to hurt oil demand if they are not settled soon.
Over the last two weeks, the two crude oil benchmarks have been steadily rising and show no sign of stopping.
Whether you're cutting the cable cord or satellite TV subscriptions to save money, or you just need local channels during a weather emergency, I have a simple and easy solution with the Winegard FlatWave Amped indoor amplified HDTV antenna.
I'm being honest when I say it took less than five minutes from the time I opened the antenna box to having my local channels on my screen.
The antenna is just 12-by-13-by-.6-inches and is attached to your TV antenna port with the included 18.5-foot coax cable, which has a USB power supply built in.
The quick setup included attaching the antenna to a window with adhesive tape, connecting the coax cable to my TV and plugging the USB cable into a port on my TV. You can also connect to an AC power supply with the included 110-volt adapter.
Once everything is attached, put your TV remote in scan mode for a search of the local channels. The scan only takes a minute or so but do some experimenting with the placement of the antenna. I tried three different places and then scanned, with each one having somewhat different results. Just do the placement and scan until you have the channels you want or are critical to you in an emergency.
Once your signal is set, you'll receive local channels' content 4k Ultra HD and Dolby Digital Surround Sound within an amplified 50-mile range.
The flat antenna (imagine a small stack of letter-sized paper) has an ultra-low noise digital amplifier embedded directly in the antenna element, resulting in an unprecedented 100 percent signal boost that increases range and eliminates pixilation and dropout, according to Winegard.
winegard.com $59.99
-
Trulia is a site for homebuyers, which not only shows the homes for sale but also extensive information about the area you might be considering moving to. The site's goal is to help consumers discover a place where they will love to live.
Included are original photographs, drone footage, information on local safety, commutes, and parent reviews of nearby schools. Trulia already has enhanced photography and drone footage from more than 300 neighborhoods in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Austin, and Chicago with more than 1,100 more neighborhoods expected to be introduced this year.
Trulia content gives potential residents a feel for daily life including what they call "Inside the Neighborhood" stories of what life is like there with input from local residents of your search, including feedback on dog-friendly areas and parking.
With all the information, Trulia provides an informative feel for what it might be like to live in the neighborhood of the home you're interested in purchasing. The site compiles all the information consumers would search for on multiple sites all in one place.
trulia.com
-
BlackBerry, yes that same BlackBerry, is alive and well with the launch by TCL communications of the new, hot and slick looking BlackBerry Key2LE smartphone.
I haven't tried one, but as a former BlackBerry user for many years, the press release has me intrigued.
The touchscreen smartphone is available in three color variants Slate, Champagne and Atomic with a redesigned chassis for a more modern look and feel with a full-HD display.
The Android operating system inside includes support for Google Assistant and other Google applications. Speed Key is a new feature, giving you a customized shortcut experience. This gives you 52 customizable shortcuts, allowing each to be programmed to instantly bring up the contacts and apps you use most.
Other features include a lightweight polycarbonate frame and a newly designed soft textured back that provides better in-hand grip to prevent drops. There's a dual rear camera (13MP/5MP) and a front camera (8MP) with an LCD flash and many modes such as portrait, selfie and face beauty.
Next month, models with 32GB of storage will be on sale in the US for $399 or with 64GB for $449. Each model has expandable storage MicroSD support. The rechargeable battery is expected to last up to 22 hours.
blackberrymobile.com
Explore further Review: Tablo DVR and Winegard Flatwave antenna make cutting the cord a little easier
2018 Gregg Ellman
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
Parents always worry about whether their children will do well in school, but their kids probably were born with much of what they will need to succeed. A new study published in npj Science of Learning by researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and King's College London explains the substantial influence genes have on academic success, from the start of elementary school to the last day of high school.
For many years, research has linked educational achievement to life trajectories, such as occupational status, health or happiness. But if performing well in school predicts better life outcomes, what predicts how well someone will do throughout school?
"Around two-thirds of individual differences in school achievement are explained by differences in children's DNA," said Margherita Malanchini, a psychology postdoctoral fellow at the Population Research Center at UT Austin. "But less is known about how these factors contribute to an individual's academic success overtime."
Malanchini and Kaili Rimfeld, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London, analyzed test scores from primary through the end of compulsory education of more than 6,000 pairs of twins.
Researchers found educational achievement to be highly stable throughout schooling, meaning that most students who started off well in primary school continued to do well until graduation. Genetic factors explained about 70 percent of this stability, while the twins shared environment contributed to about 25 percent, and their nonshared environment, such as different friends or teachers, contributed to the remaining 5 percent.
That's not to say that an individual was simply born smart, researchers explained. Even after accounting for intelligence, genes still explained about 60 percent of the continuity of academic achievement.
"Academic achievement is driven by a range of cognitive and noncognitive traits," Malanchini said. "Previously, studies have linked it to personality, behavioral problems, motivation, health and many other factors that are partly heritable."
However, at times grades did change, such as a drop in grades between primary and secondary school. Those changes, researchers said, can be explained largely by nonshared environmental factors.
"Our findings should provide additional motivation to identify children in need of interventions as early as possible, as the problems are likely to remain throughout the school years," said Rimfeld.
Explore further Genes shown to influence how well children do throughout their time at school
More information: Kaili Rimfeld et al, The stability of educational achievement across school years is largely explained by genetic factors, npj Science of Learning (2018). Kaili Rimfeld et al, The stability of educational achievement across school years is largely explained by genetic factors,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41539-018-0030-0
Some financial institutions are pulling back from plans to get into bitcoin trading amid a sharp decline in value
International banking giant Goldman Sachs has pulled back from immediate plans to open a bitcoin trading desk, according to US media report Wednesday that sent bitcoin prices lower.
Faced with regulatory uncertainty over bitcoin, Goldman has suspended for now plans for the exchange in favor of other digital currency efforts, Business Insider reported, citing unnamed sources.
A Goldman Sachs spokesman did not directly comment on the report.
"In response to client interest in various digital products, we are exploring how best to serve them in the space," the spokesman said. "At this point, we have not reached a conclusion on the scope of our digital asset offering."
Near 1400 GMT, the cryptocurrency was trading at around $7,000, down about five percent from Tuesday's level.
Goldman Sachs has taken some steps in cryptocurrencies, including recruiting Justin Schmidt from hedge fund Seven Eight Capital. Schmidt has begun to prepare the bank for transactions involving bitcoin in case of a green light from regulators.
But some large financial firms have pulled back on digital money projects as bitcoin prices have plunged this year.
Explore further NYSE joins forces with Starbucks on bitcoin platform
2018 AFP
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
Wageningen University & Research uses computer models to develop sustainable management strategies in the control of potato late blight, caused by Phytophthora infestans. Francine Pacilly will receive her Ph.D. on this socially relevant topic on September 4. Her research provides important insights for farmers, breeders, potato traders, retailers and governments. Resistant varieties can play an important role in sustainable disease control, but cooperation between stakeholders in the whole potato sector is required.
Potato production, which is very important for the Dutch economy, has long been threatened by the aggressive disease. This has major consequences for trade but also for national and international consumption. Moreover, fungicides which are used in disease control have a negative effect on the environment.
At the moment, large amounts of fungicides are used to control the disease. Organic farmers face an additional challenge because they are not allowed to use these chemicals. From an environmental point of view, these chemicals are also very polluting and therefore sustainable late blight management strategies are needed.
The use of disease-resistant potato varieties is important, however, no structural solution has yet been achieved because the pathogen can easily adapt and as a result resistant varieties can get infected. Furthermore, the availability of resistant varieties is still limited, however, more new resistant varieties are entering the market the coming years. Last year organic farmers, breeders and supermarkets signed a covenant to upscale the use of resistant potato varieties the coming three years so that by 2020 the organic segment of potatoes will consist entirely of resistant varieties.
In Francine Pacilly's Ph.D. research, computer models have been used to investigate how the disease spreads in an agricultural landscape and to analyze the effect of growing resistant varieties. These models show that an increase in the number of potato fields with resistant varieties increases the risk that aggressive strains of the pathogen emerge and spread. This risk decreases if more than 50% of the acreage of potato fields consists of resistant varieties. So many resistant potatoes are not yet available so alertness is required. Various strategies are available to limit the consequences of a breakthrough, for example the spatial allocation of crops in combination with the use of small amounts of fungicides to limit the environmental impact. In addition, growing resistant varieties with multiple resistance genes reduces the risk of susceptibility to the potato disease. It is expected that these type of varieties will enter the market soon.
Last year workshops with farmers were organized to increase awareness about the risk of resistance breakdown. In these workshops, the computer model was used to present several model scenarios to conventional and organic farmers. These workshops were very useful for showing farmers how the disease spreads in a landscape over time and space and for showing the effects in the long term. After the workshop farmers agreed that resistance management is important to increase the durability of resistant varieties and that collaborative action is needed. The workshops were useful to bring farmers together and to discuss strategies in the control of late blight to reduce the impact of the disease.
In order to develop sustainable strategies it is important to consider all factors that influence late blight control such as the disease, the crop and control strategies of farmers. This research is part of the Complex Adaptive Systems program of Wageningen University where the goal is to identify these factors and to analyze how they influence each other. Potato late blight as one system brings a future without chemical control closer.
Explore further Durably resistant potatoes with wild potato genes offer 80% reduction in chemical control
This combination of two undated handout photos provided by Brazil's National Museum shows the skull of Luzia Woman, left, and a reconstruction of Luzia, right, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Discovered during an excavation in 1975 outside of the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, Luzia's fossilized remains sat in storage for two decades. In the mid-1990s, tests by scientists determined it was the oldest fossil in the Americas. It was given the name "Luzia," homage to "Lucy," the famous 3.2-million-year-old remains found in Africa. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
Brazil's National Museum said Wednesday that centuries-old Torah scrolls, considered to be some of Judaism's oldest documents, had been moved before a massive fire ravaged the place and gutted much of the largest collections of national history artifacts in Latin America.
Questions about the fate of the scrolls had swirled since Sunday night's blaze at the museum, which used to be the home of Brazil's royal family. Amid an ongoing investigation and unable to access much of the now destroyed museum, officials have been reluctant to give any account of how specific artifacts fared in the fire or disclose information on other material that may have been in other locations.
"The Torah is being kept in a safe place," according to a museum statement sent to The Associated Press on Wednesday, adding it had been removed nearly two years ago. The statement did not say where it had been transferred.
A spokesman at the Israeli Embassy in the capital Brasilia said it didn't have more information on the Torah, Judaism's holy book.
Brazilian scholars have said the scrolls originated in Yemen and possibly date back to the 13th century.
The museum's website says the nine scrolls, written in Hebrew, were acquired in the early 19th century by the country's last monarch, Dom Pedro II. The website, which had apparently not been updated, also said the scrolls were not part of an exhibit, but rather kept in a safe in the director's office.
Museum security guard Felipe Farias Silva shows the page of a book he found across the street from Brazil's National Museum, which he believes belongs to the institution in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
Avraham Beuthner, from the Jewish organization Beit Lubavitch in Rio de Janeiro, told the AP that university officials told him the Torah was being housed at a university library near the museum. The museum is part of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Beuthner said he had been fielding calls from Jews in Israel and several Latin American countries since the fire inquiring about the scrolls.
"Thank God it's safe," he said, adding that university officials had promised to soon allow Jewish community leaders to see where the Torah is being held.
The good news came as museum officials said they feared as much as 90 percent of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might have been lost in the fire. Aerial photos of the main building showed only heaps of rubble and ashes in the parts of the building where the roof collapsed.
The National Museum, seen from above, stands gutted after an overnight fire in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. A huge fire engulfed Brazil's 200-year-old museum, lighting up the night sky with towering flames as firefighters and museum workers raced to save historical relics from the blaze. (AP Photo/Mario Lobao)
Firefighters on Tuesday "found fragments of bones in a room where the museum kept many items, including skulls," said Cristiana Serejo, the museum's deputy director. "We still have to collect them and take them to the lab to know exactly what they are."
In its collection of about 20 million items, one of the most prized possessions is a skull called Luzia, which is among the oldest fossils ever found in the Americas.
Serejo told reporters Wednesday that several countries, including France and Germany, had offered help with recovery efforts and some rebuilding. She said that researchers could get into the museum as soon as next week, but it will depend on how fast federal police could finish their investigation.
"We are in line to get in there," she said.
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a mummified head produced by the Jivaro of the Ecuadorian Amazon, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. The famous heads shrunk by the so-called "people of the waterfall" were prepared in complex rituals and had a deep spiritual significance. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
With the cause of the fire still under investigation, the disaster has led to a series of recriminations amid accusations that successive governments haven't sufficiently funded the museum, and it has raised concerns that other institutions might be at risk. Officials have said it was well known that the building was vulnerable to fire and in need of extensive repair.
On Wednesday, state firefighting officials said in a statement the museum didn't have certification that it was up to codeanother indication of negligence.
"It's the responsibility of building administrators to comply with the laws," the statement read.
A UNESCO group of specialists in recovery and reconstruction are expected to arrive in Brazil next week, according Maria Edileuza Fontele Reis, the organization's ambassador in Brazil.
The group "has experience working with pieces of national heritage in areas of war, such as in Iraq, and areas impacted by fire," Fontele Reis told the AP in a phone interview.
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a representation of the Egyptian dwarf god Bes, circa 350 A.C., at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Bes the patron of childbirth was present in Egyptian homes, both rich and poor. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows wooden armor originating from Vancouver, British Columbia, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows an a speciman of the Macrodontia cervicornis beetle, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. The long-horned beetle, an endangered species, can exceed 6 inches in length. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a miniature Inca tunic worn by a silver or gold idol that served as an offering in sacrificial events, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. This type of garment was used exclusively in festivities known as capacochas, in which children were sacrificed. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a green stone frog pendant originating from Obidos, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. These common frogs have long been considered powerful amulets against all kinds of evil. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a nocturnal bird known as the giant potoo, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. These birds choose a trunk that resembles their body and spend the whole day absolutely still so that they go unnoticed by the daytime predators. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a priestess/princess Takushit statue dating to 730 B.C., at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, Sept. 2, 2018, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows an ancient Egyptian gold leaf funeral mask dating to 304 B.C., at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, Sept. 2, 2018, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows an Egyptian mummified cat, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, Sept. 2, 2018, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows an Owyhee cloak and necklace, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. The necklace was given to Dom Pedro I by the Sandwich Islands King Tamehameha II, in 1824, and the cloak from someone else in the traveling party. Owyhee is an early spelling of Hawaii. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows wooden masks from the Aweti, Waura and Mehinaku indigenous groups, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, Sept. 2, 2018, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a rare zoomorphic sculpture, probably in phyllite or shale, produced by Amazonian ceramic artisans, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. The two circular and parallel holes in the center of the piece are recurrent in the stone idols found in Trombetas River region. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Riotur shows the Egyptian section at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Alexandre Macieira/Riotur via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Riotur shows the main building of the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The palace in Quinta da Boa Vista, where the Brazilian royal family lived before the beginning of the Brazilian Republic, was the home of Latin America's biggest museum archive. Flames tore through the museum Sunday, Sept. 2, 2018, night, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Alexandre Macieira/Riotur via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a Yoruba Gelede mask at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Geledee - a female secret society of the Yoruba-Nago community that is spread over Benin, Nigeria and Togo. This mask was added to the museum collection in an exchange with the Berlin Museum in 1928. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows one of the Tikuna masks designed by Jean-Baptiste Debret, during the French Artistic Mission (1816-1831), at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, Sept. 2, 2018, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
Explore further Researchers hope some objects survived Brazil museum fire
2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Scientists are working out how cosmic dust turns into hard, spherical pebbles which can then develop into planets. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Detailed simulations of planetary formation are revealing how tiny grains of dust turn into giant planets and could shed light on where to find new Earth-like worlds.
Scientists theorise that planets form from rotating discs of gas that surround newly formed stars, known as proto-planetary discs. Pebble-sized objects in these discs then clump together to form cores of would-be planets.
Professor Anders Johansen from Lund University in Sweden, has gone right down to the level of atomic nuclei and molecules to try and work out how cosmic dust particles stick together in pebbles and then turn into baby planets, known as planetesimals.
"Planet formation takes place when these dust particles collide, and they grow to larger and larger sizes," he said. "This growth takes us then from micrometres, all the way up to 10,000 kilometres or so."
One clue to how this dust forms into pebbles can be found on Earth in meteorites pieces of asteroids that are leftovers from the formation of the solar system.
"There's a mystery in there," Prof. Johansen said. "If you look inside an asteroid, you do find millimetre-sized pebbles, which is fine. But the problem with those pebbles is they are not what we expect them to be. We would expect them to be fluffy dust aggregates, a bit like if you have a sandbox after it rains, and you can pick up a piece of dried out sand that is very fragile," he said.
Instead, the pebbles are spherical and hard, like they have been heated and cooled similar to objects that have been struck by lightning.
"Lightning takes place as thunderclouds discharge their electric charge to the ground," said Prof. Johansen. "This discharge is very similar to the shock you experience from the static electricity when you put on a jumper."
Prof. Johansen theorised that there must be a mechanism during planet formation that creates positively and negatively charged particles, and he and his team investigated what that was.
"While a thundercloud obtains a charge difference between its top and bottom by falling hail particles, we found that in the protoplanetary disc the decay of a radioactive element called Aluminium-26 is very efficient at charging dust clouds," he said.
Chemical composition
The finding was part of a project called PLANETESYS, which is using computer simulations to replicate the physical processes taking place when planets form all the way from dust to a planetary system. It includes details about the chemical composition of each pebble.
One thing Prof. Johansen can examine from looking at this chemical composition is how planets accrete water a vital ingredient for life.
"An obvious question is, "How much water does a planet get?" We can begin to speculate about if it's normal to get the Earth's amount of water, if it's a lot of water or a little bit. But maybe you can also get too much water, which may be good for life but not good for civilisations," he said.
Dr. Bertram Bitsch from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, says that understanding more about how planets arise would help identify potentially habitable planets elsewhere in the universe.
"If you understand more (about) the formation process of how we can make a system like the solar system, then we can maybe make predictions (about) how often these systems would exist and how common it would be to find Earth-like planets (orbiting) other stars."
"Then, if we see a certain composition of the system that might allow us to see that there might be habitable planets in those systems."
Recipe
Dr. Bitsch thinks he might know the recipe for how solar systems end up with Earth-like planets. With a careful blending of conditions, from where baby planets form, to their chemical composition and gravitational interactions, he can try to model the conditions to generate solar systems with habitable planets.
But figuring out the right recipe requires working backwards after running many simulations with complex supercomputing power, which he's doing in a project called PAMDORA which runs until 2022.
"I want to use computer simulations where we look at the gravitational interactions between multiple bodies to model the stages from planetesimals all the way to fully formed planetary systems with terrestrial planets, super Earths, and gas giants," he said.
In his simulations, Dr. Bitsch looks at the how pebbles in the swirling discs form into moon-size planetary embryos, which then develop into fully formed planets.
Altering the different mechanisms at work can influence what types of planets a solar system may end up with.
"There are many different pathways that can happen, and many different parameters that can influence the outcome of the simulations," he said. "For example, how big are the pebbles, how many would there be, and where would your initial planetesimals form that would then start to form proto-planets?"
To see which variables matter most, he runs hundreds of computer simulations that last weeks at a time and can simulate tens of millions of years to model the highly chaotic meetings of multiple objects.
For Earth-like planets, one key factor is how close baby planets form to their home star, since the difference in temperature can determine if planets accrete water directly during the gas-disc stage or from a late water delivery from asteroids or comets, like for our own Earth.
"One thing that is already in the code is looking at the composition of super-Earths. For example, are they rocky or dominated by water-ice?" Dr. Bitsch said.
Super-Earths, which are planets like the Earth, but maybe two to ten times more massive, don't exist in our solar system, but are relatively common among other stars.
"Lots of super-Earths have been found and detected, and the question is what are they made of? This can give us the answer to where they have been formed."
Explore further Astronomers explain the formation of seven exoplanets around Trappist-1
Protesters marching against Trans Mountain pipeline March 10, 2018 in British Columbia
A Canadian court has sparked the ire of the oil industry by suspending the expansion of a pipeline to the Pacific over environmental concernsand dealt a huge blow to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's climate plan.
The Federal Court of Appeal on August 30 ordered construction halted of the Trans Mountain pipeline connecting the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific coast, saying regulators had failed to consider the impact of increased tanker traffic to the port of Vancouver on local killer whales.
The Trudeau government, which regularly calls for global action to stem climate change, authorized the expansion of the pipeline in late 2016, along with two other new conduits.
"It was a compromise to convince oil-rich provinces to do more in the climate fight, not less," said an editorial in the daily La Presse on Monday.
Canada committed at a meeting in Paris in 2015 to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels, and by 80 percent by 2050.
In order to achieve this lofty goal, Ottawa set a national carbon price with incremental increases to Can$50 per tonne of CO2 pollution in 2022.
Alberta, which sits on the world's third largest oil reserve, bought into the plan, on condition new pipelines were built to reach new exports markets and ease its reliance on the United States.
As the oil sands are Canada's single largest source of carbon emissions, its participation in the national carbon scheme is crucial.
But after last week's court ruling, Alberta backed out of the deal. "Signing on to the federal climate plan can't happen without the Trans Mountain pipeline," Alberta Premier Rachel Notley told reporters.
"With the Trans Mountain halted and the work on it halted, until the federal government gets its act together, Alberta is pulling out of the federal climate plan. And let's be clear, without Alberta, that plan isn't worth the paper it's written on," she said.
In doing so, the province joins Ontario and Saskatchewan in vowing to fight a new carbon tax on strapped Canadians.
"The Trudeau government is losing an ally in promoting Canada's plan to fight global warming," Pierre-Olivier Pineau, chair of energy management at HEC Montreal, told AFP.
Greenpeace said Alberta's withdrawal "further weakens Canada's climate plan," which it contended was already insufficient to meet Canada's target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
Credibility concerns
Calling on Trudeau "not to be pulled further down by Alberta", the environmental NGO urged the prime minister to "turn 180 degrees and align his policies to respect the Paris Agreement."
Because Canada's provinces have jurisdiction over environmental matters, the federal government negotiated emissions targets with them last year.
But it warned it would step in and unilaterally impose a carbon price if the provinces failed to advance their respective climate plans.
Each had until September 1 to submit their plan to the federal environment ministry. British Columbia already had a carbon tax, while Quebec was part of a carbon market with California. Alberta, meanwhile, had set a CAn$30 per tonne carbon price in 2017.
Pineau noted that Notley's social democratic government was only cancelling future increases of its carbon tax over the next three years.
Trudeauwho was scheduled to meet with Notley on Wednesdayhas insisted that the Trans Mountain pipeline will be built.
His government bet big on Trans Mountain, buying it for Can$4.5 billion (US$3.5 billion) from Kinder Morgan, which had balked at the financial risks posed by interprovincial feuding and protests over its construction.
Trudeau could seek relief from the Supreme Court, but he has signalled that he intends to first try to assuage the environmental concerns of the indigenous tribes that brought the court challenge.
But the prime minister still faces significant obstaclesAlberta's skittishness, legal challenges by Saskatchewan and Ontario, and a vocal Conservative opposition that is promising to nix the carbon tax if it wins election next year.
"If Justin Trudeau continues to irrationally defend this pipeline, he will similarly defend his climate plan, he will press ahead if only to maintain his credibility," said Pineau.
Explore further Alberta pulls out of carbon tax initiative after pipeline ruling
2018 AFP
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
Cognitive scientists at Lund University and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have demonstrated that experimentally induced changes in political attitudes can last over time. Notably, participants who verbally motivated these "false attitudes" exhibited the largest changes. This is the first time a lasting effect of the choice blindness phenomenon has been observed.
In the study, a total of 372 participants completed a survey on health care, education, and environmental policy issues. Afterwards, half of them were asked to simply verify their answers, whereas the other half was asked to also give underlying arguments for their views. However, they were unaware that some of their answers had been manipulated by the experimenters and shifted to the opposite side of the spectrum. Only about 50 percent of these manipulated answers were corrected by the participants, and the rest were accepted as being their own.
"This is in line with previous results using choice blindness to influence ideological attitudes," says Petter Johansson, one of the researchers behind the study. "But a critical question of interest to us was whether this attitude shift would persist, despite us not giving any further arguments or encouragement for the new position."
To investigate this, at the end of the experiment, the participants were asked to complete a second survey with new questions, which also included the questions that were previously manipulated. They then returned after one full week to complete a follow up, again including the manipulated questions.
The results showed that when participants initially accepted the manipulated responses as their own, their attitudes later on shifted significantly in the direction of the manipulation. However, responses to questions that had not been manipulated kept the same position throughout all the questionnaires.
"This is of particular interest given that it's the first time lasting attitude change from choice blindness has been shown. Importantly, it shows how false beliefs, and feedback about those beliefs, can powerfully shape the interpretation and memories about one's political opinions." Philip Parnamets, researcher at Karolinska Institutet, points out.
"It seems that part of what it might mean to hold a political attitude is to be able to draw on memories of having stated that attitude. In a sense, me being against tax cuts might result from me remembering having expressed that attitude previously. Using our manipulation, we are able to alter the participants beliefs about themselves, and we find that this leads them to change their attitudes," he explains.
When comparing those participants that only verified their answers with those who also gave supporting arguments, the researchers found that both groups exhibited lasting opinion changes, but that the effect was much larger for the participants who provided arguments.
"When people argue for a manipulated answer, we know that regardless of what they say, it cannot possibly be the reason for their original choice. This type of confabulation has hardly been studied outside the clinical context, but perhaps it is something we constantly do in our ordinary lives," main author Thomas Strandberg says.
"We also found that people who started to argue for a manipulated answer, but then suddenly stopped to correct it, still modified their opinions somewhat. These smaller shifts need to be further investigated, but it suggests that even seemingly innocuous amounts of confabulation can impact our attitudes," he continues.
"On a more positive note, in the current political climate of increasing polarization and ideological hostility, our study shows that people truly have the potential to be flexible in their political views. All that is needed is a way, like choice blindness does, to invite people to reason openly, and unleash their own powers of argumentation," Thomas Strandberg concludes.
Footnote: The study was entirely anonymous. After the experiment, the researchers explained to the participants exactly how and why their answers had been swapped, and they gave their consent to be included in the study.
Explore further People change moral position without even realizing it
More information: Thomas Strandberg et al, False beliefs and confabulation can lead to lasting changes in political attitudes., Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (2018). Journal information: Journal of Experimental Psychology Thomas Strandberg et al, False beliefs and confabulation can lead to lasting changes in political attitudes.,(2018). DOI: 10.1037/xge0000489
The coral colonies sampled by Erler and his team. Credit: Dirk Erler
Groundwater containing excess nitrogen from agricultural fertilizers likely contaminated coral reefs on the Cook Islands during the second half of the 20th century, continuing for years after fertilizer use stopped, according to a new study. The finding suggests human activities have long-lasting impacts on coral reef communities and could be contributing to their decline.
Coral reefs are some of the most diverse and valuable ecosystems on Earth, supporting more species per unit area than any other marine environment, according to NOAA. Reefs buffer adjacent shorelines from waves and prevent erosion. About half a billion people in the world live within 100 kilometers (62 miles) of coral reefs and benefit from them. Reefs may provide goods and services worth $375 billion each year and are used to develop drugs for arthritis, bacterial infections and viruses.
Corals in the Pacific Islands have been declining over the past several decades due to predatory starfish outbreaks, cyclones and El Nino bleaching, according to 2013 surveys by the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation. In the South Pacific, coral reefs have declined by about 25 percent in the past two decades.
In many Pacific Island nations, rapid tourist growth and agricultural development since the 1960s led to concerns over the contamination of coastal aquifers with man-made nutrients. Scientists suspect groundwater polluted with excess nutrients from fertilizers contributed to the decline of coral reefs in the South Pacific over the past several decades but have not been able to accurately measure past patterns in groundwater nitrogen discharge.
"Going forward, our study shows that groundwater pollution today is a problem that will stretch far into the future," said Dirk Erler, a researcher at Southern Cross University's Centre for Coastal Biogeochemistry in Lismore, Australia, and lead author of the new study in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.
Reefs in Rarotonga
Erler and his team investigated the decline of coral reefs in the Cook Islands, which are located northeast of New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean, between French Polynesia and American Samoa. The self-governing country is comprised of 15 major islands spread over 2.2 million square kilometers (849,425 square miles).
In many Pacific Island nations, including the Cook Islands, tourism and agriculture picked up speed in the 1960s. As a result, surplus fertilizer nutrients like nitrogen percolated into the Cook Islands' coastal aquifers for many years.
Nitrogen is an essential nutrient in water that promotes strong plant and animal growth. However, in overabundance, nitrogen can shift the ecosystem to be dominated by algae. Excess algae can absorb too much oxygen, leaving an area in the ocean with depleted oxygen levels. The depleted area is hypoxic, which means there is not enough oxygen to support life, including fishes and corals, according to NOAA.
"It's mainly about competition with algae," Erler said. "These fertilizers have the same effect on marine plants as terrestrial plants, so in effect you are just promoting algal proliferation."
Coral reefs cover less than 0.5 percent of Earth's surface but support 25 percent of all marine species. If reefs were to decline, more than 1 million plant and animal species associated with them may decline too, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Tracing past nutrients
Erler and his team suspected deep groundwater on the Cook Islands still contained nitrogen from more than 40 years ago, but past nutrient concentrations are difficult to measure, he said.
In the new study, the researchers analyzed nitrogen fingerprints preserved in long-lived coral skeletons near Rarotonga, the largest of the Cook Islands. Nitrogen in corals contains a signature that can be used to trace it back to its source. The team collected coral cores from colonies at two fringing reef sites around Rarotonga. The cores were sectioned into 7-millimeter- (0.3-inch-) thick slabs and X-rayed to determine age and growth characteristics. The coral skeletons dated back to 1880 and contained well-preserved nitrogen within their skeletal architecture.
Using the nitrogen fingerprints trapped within the coral skeletons, researchers found nitrogen discharge in groundwater increased between 1960 and 2000, a period of heavy fertilizer usage in Rarotonga. Original documents from the Cook Islands Department of Agriculture report up to 10.7 tons of ureaa 46-percent-nitrogen fertilizerand 35 tons of nitrogen were used in Rarotonga in 1986, at the end of the agricultural boom. In the height of the boom, researchers estimate that application rate of nitrogen-rich fertilizers to be much higher. Researchers suspect nitrogen continued to leach into coral reefs around the Cook Islands until 2000, up to 15 years after the fertilizer use stopped.
This information allowed the researchers to determine the date range in which the corals were polluted. They found the groundwater was contaminated with excess nitrogen from 1963 to 1986, which began to leach into surrounding corals in 1980 until 2000. The research team pinpointed groundwater as the culprit after ruling out other sources, Erler said.
An example of algal issues in Rarotonga. Credit: Dirk Erler
Connecting nitrogen to agriculture
To pinpoint where the excess nitrogen was coming from, the researchers compared the coral nitrogen data to Rarotonga's historical agricultural data. Erler studied archived hard copy material from the island's Department of Agriculture.
"Using reports and other records, we were able to piece together information on the agricultural development in the 1960s and 1970s," he said. "Basically, the islands were heavily cropped as demand for tropical produce was high."
Rarotonga's main crops were oranges, pineapples and bananas. The demand for these fruits dissipated in the 1980s, and collapsed by 1986, Erler said.
The new study found the application of nitrogen-rich fertilizers to agricultural land during the boom in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, led to the infiltration of nutrients into shallow and deep aquifers. Even as the boom waned and nitrogen-rich fertilizers were withdrawn, the chemicals continued to affect the island's surrounding lagoon and coral reefs, according to Erler.
The researchers propose nitrogen and other nutrients continued to leach into the surrounding lagoon communities up until the turn of the century. This means groundwater discharge of agricultural nitrogen persisted for at least 15 years after the boom ended in the mid-1980s.
"Our results show that unregulated nitrogen inputs to tropical islands eventually leads to the discharge of this nitrogen to surrounding reefs," he said. "The important point is that the discharge can occur over many years after the cessation of the pollution."
Explore further Eradicate rats to bolster coral reefs
More information: Dirk V. Erler et al. Coral Skeletons Record Increasing Agriculture-Related Groundwater Nitrogen Inputs to a South Pacific Reef Over the Past Century, Geophysical Research Letters (2018). Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters Dirk V. Erler et al. Coral Skeletons Record Increasing Agriculture-Related Groundwater Nitrogen Inputs to a South Pacific Reef Over the Past Century,(2018). DOI: 10.1029/2018GL078656
This story is republished courtesy of AGU Blogs (http://blogs.agu.org), a community of Earth and space science blogs, hosted by the American Geophysical Union. Read the original story here.
President Donald Trump's administration warned Wednesday of a possible legal crackdown on big technology companies over competition or political bias, in a bombshell announcement that came as social media executives were defending their policies before lawmakers.
The Justice Department statement appeared to escalate a war between the administration and Silicon Valley after a series of attacks by Trump claiming tech firms were biased against conservatives.
According to the statement, Attorney General Jeff Sessions will convene a meeting of state attorneys general later this month "to discuss a growing concern that these companies may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms."
The suggestions of legal or regulatory action caught many tech industry observers by surprise and came as lawmakers were holding hearings on foreign influence campaigns on social media and "transparency."
Daniel Castro, of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, said the intent of the statement was not clear, but that it was worrisome.
"Social media platforms have the right to determine what types of legal speech they will permit on their platforms," Castro told AFP.
"The federal government should not use the threat of law enforcement to limit companies from exercising this right. In particular, law enforcement should not threaten social media companies with unfounded investigations."
Regulation or censorship?
Legal analysts have noted the government would have little recourse against any political bias even if proven because of constitutional free speech guarantees.
While antitrust concerns against Google and Facebook are to be expected, Eric Goldman of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University said it would be troublesome to use antitrust law as a guise for regulating speech.
"This (statement) makes me think antitrust is not the real goal, that the real goal is censorship," Goldman said.
"This could be broad action by the government to try to subvert the First Amendment."
Matt Schruers of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, a trade group that includes Google and Facebook, said tech firms "compete aggressively with one another as well as those outside of the technology sector" and that "consumers have many choices for information services and news sources online."
Collegial atmosphere
The administration statement came at the conclusion of a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing at which Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg testified.
The hearing offered a largely collegial atmosphere in which the executives and senators spoke of the need for further efforts to thwart foreign influence campaigns on social media.
Dorsey said the messaging service was set up to function as a "public square" but had failed to deal with "abuse, harassment, troll armies, propaganda through bots."
"We aren't proud of how that free and open exchange has been weaponized and used to distract and divide people, and our nation," he told senators.
Sandberg repeated Facebook's acknowledgements about failing to crack down on influence campaigns stemming from Russia that interfered with the 2016 US presidential election.
"We were too slow to spot this and too slow to act," Sandberg told the panel. "That's on us. This interference was completely unacceptable. It violated the values of our company and of the country we love."
Lawmakers welcomed the comments but expressed concern about whether enough was being done.
"If the answer is regulation, let's have an honest dialogue about what that looks like," said Senator Richard Burr, the committee chairman.
Senator Mark Warner told the hearing that social media firms "were caught flat-footed by the brazen attacks on our election" and added: "I'm skeptical that, ultimately, you'll be able to truly address this challenge on your own."
The Senate was followed by a House panel session on "transparency and accountability," where Dorsey rejected claims of political bias.
"Twitter cannot rightly serve as a public square if it's constructed around the personal opinions of its makers," he told the panel. "We believe a key driver of a thriving public square is the fundamental human right of freedom of opinion and expression."
In the House, Dorsey faced harsher comments from some lawmakers including Republican Billy Long of Missouri, who complained that his "personalized" feed was dominated by news from sources he disagreed with.
"They're all pretty much Trump-bashing," Long said of the recommended articles.
But Democrat Paul Tonko of New York expressed dismay "that our Republican colleaues have called this hearing to rile up their base and give credence to unsupported conspiracies."
Trump stepped up his criticism of social media in an interview with the right-wing Daily Caller, saying the companies "were all on Hillary Clinton's side, and if you look at what was going on with Facebook and with Google and all of it."
Outside the Senate hearing, right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones criticized tech firms for curbing his social media efforts.
Jones, whose Infowars site has been praised by Trump, denounced what he called "a plan to deplatform conservatives, just like communist China," adding, "this is dangerous, authoritarianism."
Explore further Twitter chief says was unprepared for 'weaponized' social media efforts
2018 AFP
Last October, when Facebook was facing heat over Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, the social media giant had told the Senate that it would double the number of employees working on sensitive security and community issues to 20,000 by end 2018.
Their job description includes content moderation, or sifting through online posts, articles and videos to flag off offensive, violent, fake, criminal and terror-related content. In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had announced that the company had already hired 5,000 of the promised employees. The search is now on for the remaining half to clean up Facebook.
And according to The Economic Times, Indian graduates are lining up to apply. "The teams working on safety and security at Facebook are doubling in size this year to 20,000 [globally]. This includes our growing team of 7,500 content reviewers - a mix of full-time employees, contractors and companies we partner with," a spokesperson for Facebook told the daily. "This lets us scale globally, covering every time zone and over 50 languages... we do not disclose the locations for security reasons."
Genpact, a professional services firm, reportedly won a contract to provide content management services to Facebook this year. Facebook directly employs content moderators but also outsources the task of screening posts in more than 50 languages across the globe to companies like Genpact. To that end, the latter is busy hiring content moderators across a slew of Indian languages - including Tamil, Kannada, Oriya, Chattisgarhi, Nepali, Marathi, Mizo and Punjabi.
The firm has put out advertisements on online employment platforms, saying: "Monitor and moderate user-generated content/video on one of the reputed Social Website to ensure that the online community is maintained as a safe and fun environment. Should be comfortable for any content Sexual Assault, Terrorism, Child Abuse, may be live suicidal videos and bloodshed." The daily added that Genpact even held walk-in interviews for these roles last month.
While the ads did not specify that the jobs are for Facebook, a correlation is highly likely given that Genpact is hiring for Hyderabad location, where the social media company has a large presence.
Though it is far from a cushy job - constantly reviewing unpalatable content could take a serious psychological toll on folks who do it for a living and hence leads to high attrition - there's no dearth of applicants. The report added that on jobs platform Naukri.com, over 3,000 people applied for 30 Genpact job openings for screening Kannada language content. The salary on offer helps too: Rs 2.25-4 lakh a year, plus monthly incentives.
But recognising that the job of a content moderator involves emotional stress, possibly even secondary trauma, Facebook is reportedly increasing focus on the health of employees doing this tough job. Citing a Facebook executive the daily reported that the company was implementing multiple measures to protect its reviewers. "There is an ongoing training for reviewers and a wellness programme as well [to look into the side effects of the exposure to violent content]," the source added.
If you had thought that the policing job had long been taken over by artificial intelligence, then you are partly correct. While machine leaning, which boasts the advantage of speed as well as none of the human frailties, is already being deployed to flag inappropriate content, the algorithms still aren't able to replace humans entirely. So human content moderators will be needed for quite a while longer.
Edited By Sushmita Choudhury Agarwal
This image of Earth taken by ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst from the International Space Station was shared on Alexander's social media channels in June 2018. Credit: ESA/NASAA. Gerst
You are on a rock speeding through space. On this rock called Earth every single mineral tells you something about planetary formation. This week astronauts and space engineers will unlock the mystery of those minerals as they start an ESA geology field training course to prepare for future exploration of the Moon, Mars and asteroids.
The third edition of the Pangaea campaign named after the ancient supercontinent will help participants build their understanding of planetary geology, collect and document interesting rock samples, and assess the most likely places to find traces of life on other planets.
Leading European planetary geologists will equip astronauts with a geologist's eye to see, feel and understand the building blocks of our Solar System.
From collecting samples to interpreting satellite images and working with robotic tools, the crew will learn how to best explore uncharted worlds.
"We want to equip future explorers with the best geological skills. But, even more importantly, we want to help them take informed decisions, simplify their work and qualify them to provide valuable data and samples to the scientists," explains Loredana Bessone, Pangaea's project leader.
"Each year we do more and better. We are developing and testing new tools to support spacewalk operations during geological sorties," she adds.
Three sites, three worlds
The third edition of the Pangaea campaign named after the ancient supercontinent will help participants build their understanding of planetary geology, collect and document interesting rock samples, and assess the most likely places to find traces of life on other planets. Credit: ESAS. Sechi
Background lessons are followed by field trips to unravel lunar, martian and asteroid-like features on Earth. This year's edition starts in the Ries crater, in Germany, providing greater relevance to impact cratering a key topic for lunar geological exploration.
Next week, the crew will move to the Italian Dolomites to study layers that reveal a past characterised by an abundance of running water. The veins in the terrain are similar to those found on Mars and suggest sedimentary processes on the Red Planet.
Pangaea's last stop will be the alien landscapes of Lanzarote, Spain, in November. This is one of the best areas on Earth to understand the geological interactions between volcanic activity and water two key factors in the search for life.
"We integrate science and operations, and try to find the right balance for missions in the near future," says course director Francesco Sauro.
An expedition of astronauts, planetary scientists and engineers collect samples in a lava tube in Lanzarote, Spain. Credit: ESAR. Shone
"We will implement live feedback and real time data sharing between astronauts and scientists allowing for a fast decision-making process. The geologic traverses will be also similar to future lunar missions," he adds.
Course participants include veteran ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and 'Spaceship EAC' lead Aidan Cowley.
Explore further Astronaut meets volcano
This combination of two undated handout photos provided by Brazil's National Museum shows the skull of Luzia Woman, left, and a reconstruction of Luzia, right, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Discovered during an excavation in 1975 outside of the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, Luzia's fossilized remains sat in storage for two decades. In the mid-1990s, tests by scientists determined it was the oldest fossil in the Americas. It was given the name "Luzia," homage to "Lucy," the famous 3.2-million-year-old remains found in Africa. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
Researchers held out hope that a famed skull and other valuable objects might somehow be recovered from the ashes of a massive blaze that tore through Brazil's National Museum after firefighters found bone fragments from the collection.
Officials have said as much as 90 percent of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might have been lost in a fire that broke out Sunday. Aerial photos of the main building showed only heaps of rubble and ashes in the parts of the building where the roof collapsed.
The firefighters "found fragments of bones in a room where the museum kept many items, including skulls," Cristiana Serejo, the museum's vice director, said Tuesday. "We still have to collect them and take them to the lab to know exactly what they are."
In its collection of about 20 million items, one of the most prized possessions is a skull called Luzia, which is among the oldest fossils ever found in the Americas.
Despite the evident loss, Serejo told journalists Tuesday that staff members were "reasonably optimistic about finding some more items inside."
Parts of the collection were saved when a professor rushed into the fire, and parts were held in other buildingsthough some of those were also at risk. For instance, the electricity went out in an annex on the site, causing some frozen specimens to begin to rot.
Museum security guard Felipe Farias Silva shows the page of a book he found across the street from Brazil's National Museum, which he believes belongs to the institution in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
Paulo Buckup, a professor of zoology at the museum, recounted Tuesday how he and a few other people pulled out mollusks and marine specimens as the fire gathered steam, going into and out of the building several times until it became too dangerous. He said the group tried to identify in the dark the most irreplaceable objects, but said they only saved a "minuscule portion of the heritage that was lost."
Many have already said that regardless of what is salvaged, the loss will be immeasurable. Marina Silva, a candidate for president in upcoming elections, called it a "lobotomy of Brazilian history."
The Globo newspaper wrote in an editorial published Tuesday: "The size of the catastrophe is vast: It struck the national memory, through the loss of the important historical collection; it affected the sciences, interrupting research; and it represents a cultural loss impossible to quantify. We only know that it is enormous."
The National Museum, seen from above, stands gutted after an overnight fire in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. A huge fire engulfed Brazil's 200-year-old museum, lighting up the night sky with towering flames as firefighters and museum workers raced to save historical relics from the blaze. (AP Photo/Mario Lobao)
With the cause still under investigation, the disaster has led to a series of recriminations amid accusations that successive governments haven't sufficiently funded the museum, and it has raised concerns that other institutions might be at risk. Officials have said it was well known that the building was vulnerable to fire and in need of extensive repair.
The national development bank announced Tuesday that it would make $6 million available for museums looking to upgrade their security or fire-prevention plans.
On Monday, government officials promised $2.4 million to the National Museum shore up its gutted building and vowed to rebuild the institution.
UNESCO, the U.N.'s cultural agency, has offered financial and technical assistance, and French and Egyptian officials also have offered help. The museum was home to Egyptian artifacts, and Egypt's ministries of foreign affairs and antiquities have expressed concern over the fate of those objects.
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a mummified head produced by the Jivaro of the Ecuadorian Amazon, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. The famous heads shrunk by the so-called "people of the waterfall" were prepared in complex rituals and had a deep spiritual significance. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a representation of the Egyptian dwarf god Bes, circa 350 A.C., at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Bes the patron of childbirth was present in Egyptian homes, both rich and poor. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows wooden armor originating from Vancouver, British Columbia, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows an a speciman of the Macrodontia cervicornis beetle, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. The long-horned beetle, an endangered species, can exceed 6 inches in length. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a miniature Inca tunic worn by a silver or gold idol that served as an offering in sacrificial events, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. This type of garment was used exclusively in festivities known as capacochas, in which children were sacrificed. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a green stone frog pendant originating from Obidos, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. These common frogs have long been considered powerful amulets against all kinds of evil. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a nocturnal bird known as the giant potoo, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. These birds choose a trunk that resembles their body and spend the whole day absolutely still so that they go unnoticed by the daytime predators. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a priestess/princess Takushit statue dating to 730 B.C., at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, Sept. 2, 2018, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows an ancient Egyptian gold leaf funeral mask dating to 304 B.C., at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, Sept. 2, 2018, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows an Egyptian mummified cat, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, Sept. 2, 2018, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows an Owyhee cloak and necklace, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. The necklace was given to Dom Pedro I by the Sandwich Islands King Tamehameha II, in 1824, and the cloak from someone else in the traveling party. Owyhee is an early spelling of Hawaii. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows wooden masks from the Aweti, Waura and Mehinaku indigenous groups, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, Sept. 2, 2018, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a rare zoomorphic sculpture, probably in phyllite or shale, produced by Amazonian ceramic artisans, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. The two circular and parallel holes in the center of the piece are recurrent in the stone idols found in Trombetas River region. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Riotur shows the Egyptian section at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Alexandre Macieira/Riotur via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Riotur shows the main building of the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The palace in Quinta da Boa Vista, where the Brazilian royal family lived before the beginning of the Brazilian Republic, was the home of Latin America's biggest museum archive. Flames tore through the museum Sunday, Sept. 2, 2018, night, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Alexandre Macieira/Riotur via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a Yoruba Gelede mask at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Geledee - a female secret society of the Yoruba-Nago community that is spread over Benin, Nigeria and Togo. This mask was added to the museum collection in an exchange with the Berlin Museum in 1928. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows one of the Tikuna masks designed by Jean-Baptiste Debret, during the French Artistic Mission (1816-1831), at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, Sept. 2, 2018, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)
Explore further Burned National Museum in Rio had relics from around world
More information: National Museum website: National Museum website: www.museunacional.ufrj.br/
2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
Bacteria in the ocean that mediate the microbial carbon pump (MCP), are reported to substantially influence the carbon cycle of the Earth system. These tiny unicellular organisms, probably smaller than 1 micrometer are playing a disproportionately large role in a process called carbon sequestration. In this process, they take up labile organic carbon produced by phytoplankton, and transfer it into the recalcitrant form that can resist from degradation for thousands of years, and eventually remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They act functionally as a "pump" by sucking anthropogenic greenhouse gases into the ocean interior, and thus regulating the global climate. Therefore, the MCP is considered an "invisible hand" behind the vast oceanic dissolved carbon reservoir.
However, the MCP has yet to be fully understood. In particular, this important process has not been quantified using a comprehensive physical-biological coupled model of a regional ocean. A recent paper published in Science China Earth Sciences, attempted to address this issue. A multidisciplinary group from Xiamen University, University of Delaware, and Fuzhou University conducted the study.
In this research, a state-of-the-art regional ocean model simulated the physical and biological dynamics in the ocean. The MCP processes were explicitly simulated, and a variety of MCP properties in time and space were better depicted and understood in the South China Sea. In the South China Sea, the carbon sequestration rate of MCP was estimated to be an average of about 1/6 of another better-understood biological carbon sequestration process, the biological pump.
Moreover, one of the many benefits of such a modeling system is that the future state of the ocean can be projected quantitatively given the condition of a changing environment. In this case, the model was simulated with a scenario in which sea surface temperature increased two- and four-degree centigrade above the current state.
The researchers found that the smaller planktonic organisms favorable for MCP are less vulnerable to the reduced nutrient supply in the projection. In the four-degree warming scenario, the rate of carbon sequestration by MCP may raise several (~2%) percent compared with that of the biological pump. This result is remarkable, considering the delicate balance of the microbial food web and carbon cycle and the extremely long age of the recalcitrant carbon it produces. Since the oceanic dissolved organic carbon pool largely formed through MCP contents as much carbon as the atmosphere, the changes in MCP might significantly modify the balance between these two reservoirs. The results of this study even imply the potential of geoengineering with the concept of MCP. Surely, before any engineering on the earth system, furthermore studies on this big player in the carbon cycle should be carried out.
The first author, Dr. Wenfang Lu, notes that this study is the first timely attempt to simulate the MCP process in the China Sea. Although the simulation is in an early stage, the important message is controlling environmental factors of the spatial and temporal distribution of MCP. It provides the groundwork for future climate studies.
Tanya Peres is an associate professor of anthropology at Florida State University. Credit: FSU
Turtles served as more than tasty treats for many Native American tribes throughout North America.
In fact, turtle shells were used as rattles and other musical instruments, said FSU Associate Professor of Anthropology Tanya Peres.
"Music is an important part of many cultures in ways we may not realize," Peres said. "Musical instruments have a deep ancient history in human society and are encoded with meanings beyond their sound making capabilities."
Peres and lead author Andrew Gillreath-Brown, a doctoral candidate from Washington State University, published their research in the academic journal PLOS One.
The researchers examined the use of turtle shells as percussion instruments in the southeastern United States. They identified and analyzed several partial Eastern box turtle shells from middle Tennessee archaeological sites that they believe were used as rattles.
In the past, turtle shells found at archaeological sites were often dismissed as food remains.
"It is important to explore and understand what other waysbesides foodprehistoric animal remains may have been used in the past," Gillreath-Brown said. "Turtle shell rattles provide deep insights into human-environment and -animal relationships."
Turtles play an important role in many indigenous populations but have not been explored in great detail by researchers. Many indigenous groups believe that the world was formed upon a turtle's back.
"This symbology and belief is imbued into the turtle shell rattles, which are meant to keep rhythm and thereby interjects powerful symbology and spiritual energy into dances and ceremonies," he said.
This research opens the door to re-examine some curated turtle remains from archaeological digs that may have been dismissed as food scraps.
The researchers noted that turtle shell rattles have been found throughout North America, ranging from Florida to the Northeast and into Canada. The meaning and importance of these rattles likely differs depending on the region, they said. But, their presence in all these areas demonstrates that turtle shells were important to keeping rhythm in ceremonies across prehistoric North America.
For Peres, the research shows there are still many questions for researchers to investigate regarding the role of turtles in indigenous populations.
"We need to continue to bring together multiple lines of evidence and viewpoints so we can attempt a more nuanced understanding of past human-animal relationships," she said.
Kerri M. Crawford, assistant professor of biology and biochemistry at the University of Houston, is studying how interactions between plants and soil microbes will influence plant growth and health in a warming climate. Credit: University of Houston
Scientists know plant growth is affected by microbes in the soil. How that will change as the climate warms and rainfall patterns shift raises questions about future plant diversity and the potential risk to native plants, wildlife and even agriculture.
Kerri M. Crawford, assistant professor of biology and biochemistry at the University of Houston's College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, has received a $647,023 grant from the National Science Foundation to determine how interactions between plants and soil microbes will influence plant growth and health in a warming climate.
"We are asking if a changing environment will shift the interaction in ways that will change plant survival," Crawford said. "If we understand the basic science of how climate change influences that interaction, then perhaps we can better prepare for and mitigate any changes."
The project has three components, each focused on determining how soil microbestiny organisms that provide nutrients to plants but can also cause diseasereact to varying amounts of moisture and how that reaction affects plant growth.
Changes in the weather, including more extreme drought and heavier rainfall, could affect which microbes thrive in the soil, which can affect which plant species thrive. But plant species themselves can determine which microbes are present in the soil, creating a feedback loop in which plants and microbes affect each other's survival.
Crawford will work with native prairie grasses and other plants, including little bluestem and black-eyed Susan, during a series of experiments in a greenhouse as well as in the field. The greenhouse experiments also will include non-native plant species, she said. That should yield information for the first time about whether changes in plant-soil feedback can predict how plant growth will change in reaction to changing rainfall patterns.
The third component will involve comparing plant and microbial communities in conditions that mimic the rainfall gradient across Texas to learn how native and non-native plant species interact with microbes in differing conditions.
Although people might think plants will do better in wetter conditions, Crawford said that's not necessarily true, as certain microbes that slow plant growth could be fueled by wetter and warmer conditions.
Knowing how future climate will affect both native and non-native plants will allow scientists and land managers to better prepare for the changes, Crawford said.
She will work with local and regional associations, including the Coastal Prairie Partnership, The Nature Conservancy and the Native Prairie Association, to share her findings.
Provided by University of Houston
Leading food delivery apps Zomato and Swiggy are delisting hundreds of restaurants without food regulator Food Safety and Standards Authority of India's (FSSAI) licence. This step has been taken by the companies to comply with a directive issued by the food regulator in July this year.
Making headway, Zomato has already delisted hundreds of restaurants from its platform for not complying with FSSAI's food safety and hygiene norms. On Tuesday, CEO Deepinder Goyal said on a blog post that as and when these restaurants provide them with their FSSAI licences they will enable them for online ordering services.
Similarly, Swiggy said that it began delisting restaurants soon after the FSSAI notice was sent across. A company spokesperson also said that they had set up an FSSAI Assist Program to help all the restaurants affected to procure their licence within the specified timeframe.
Zomato, too, is helping its restaurants in this regard. Top-rated restaurants on the platform or the ones that bring in high volume of orders but don't have the adequate licence have been given up till September end by the platform to comply with the norms.
FSSAI issued a directive to food service providers such as Swiggy, Zomato, UberEats, Foodpanda to delist businesses without FSSAI licence following complaints of sub-standard food being served through such platforms. FSSAI CEO Pawan Kumar Agarwal told The Economic Times that most of these online services have agreed to commit to ensure that the issue is tackled and have asked for time till end of September, by when, they believe, that 90-95% of the restaurants will turn compliant.
The earlier deadline for the same was July 31.
Currently, 30-40% of restaurants on these platforms have failed to comply with the norms and face the risk of delisting, as mentioned by Agarwal. FSSAI has also employed a third party audit firm to carry on checks on restaurants listed across all these platforms. It has also asked these food delivery firms to display hygiene ratings from hereon. Swiggy is already working with Equinox Labs, a food audit firm accredited by FSSAI/NABL. Such firms undertake audits to make sure that food is being prepared under hygienic conditions.
This purge is being carried out by Zomato and Swiggy across every city where they have a presence. Zomato has 50,000 restaurants on its platform, while Swiggy has 40,000.
(Edited by Anwesha Madhukalya)
Commuters in Kanpur, Agra and Meerut can look forward to improved means of transport as the Uttar Pradesh government is keen on starting metro rail services in these cities. In fact, a detailed project report has been sent to the Centre, as mentioned by CM Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday. For inspiration, the CM is looking closer home at Lucknow, where the metro services has helped commuters and eased the pressure on the city's roads.
During Lucknow Metro Diwas that marks a year of the city's metro services, the CM announced that the government plans to connect more cities with the metro.
"We have sent the DPR for starting metro rail in Kanpur, Agra and Meerut to the Centre. We are getting positive support and guidance from the Centre for expanding the metro network in other cities. Metro services have already started in Lucknow, Ghaziabad and Noida," the CM said.
He also said that metro is not merely a transport service but is associated with the status symbol of the city as well. Noting that initially they were of the view that Lucknow metro service would run into losses, the Chief Minister said, "After its operation started its income is under control. In a year 33 lakh passengers used the metro here. It has eased pressure on roads and helped people reach their destination."
He also said that he hopes that by 2019 the second phase of Lucknow Metro would start.
During the event, the CM also inaugurated a metro app that will enable commuters to recharge their Metro GoSmart cards. The app will also assist commuters to locate their nearest metro station and help with fares and train timings.
Acting as a guide for the city, the app has also been integrated with the Government of India's Chalo App.
(With PTI inputs; edited by Anwesha Madhukalya)
9 hours ago
CVS raises 2021 forecast again after strong third quarter
CVS Health and Wall Street share the same view of the drugstore chains growth potential as COVID-19s impact on the company begins to ease. Average analyst expectations for 2022 earnings of $8.20 per share fit within CVS Healths expected initial forecast for the new year, Chief Financial Officer Shawn Guertin said Wednesday morning, promising to provide more details at the companys annual investor meeting Dec.
Read Article
Global financial transactions are often difficult to track. Especially, when no standard identification of companies is followed around the world.
Unscrupulous businessmen running away with huge sums of taxpayer's money is not uncommon. Money is laundered through a web of companies located in different geographies, making it difficult to check such transactions. To fight this, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has introduced Legal Entity Identifier or LEI. Its key aim is to check and prevent banking frauds.
In fact, RBI has mandated a phase-wise implementation of LEI (Legal Entity Identifier) for all borrowers of banks in India. Entities without an LEI code will not be granted renewal / enhancement of credit facilities after a specified date.
What is LEI?
LEI is a 20 digit global reference number which uniquely identifies a company. Across the world LEI is conceived as a key measure to improve the quality and accuracy of financial data through improved risk management.
Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) is the regulator of LEI. The foundation is backed and overseen by the LEI Regulatory Oversight Committee, represented by public authorities from around the globe that have come together to jointly drive forward transparency within the global financial markets.
Advantages of LEI
1 Uniquely identifies parties to a transaction.
2 Improves accuracy and quality of financial data.
3 Enables transaction tracking.
1 Help banks to effectively monitor debt.
2 Prevent issuing multiple loans for the same collateral.
3 Facilitate assessment of aggregate borrowing by corporate groups.
4 Serves as a proof of identity for a firm.
5 Eases transaction reporting to regulators.
6 Corporate entity identification across financial markets.
An example of legal entity identification number and its breakup
The structure of LEI is determined by ISO standard 17442 and takes into account financial stability board stipulations.
How will this work?
Through LEI, key reference information can be connected that enables clear and unique identification of legal entities participating in a financial transaction.
Banks will be required to acquire LEI number from the borrower and report it to CRILC (Central Repository of Information on Large Credit), a database of loans where details of loans above Rs 5 crore is maintained. CRILC collects data on non-performing assets (NPA) from all Indian financial institutions and advises the state of impairment.
Timeline to adhere to LEI
RBI in its November 2, 2017 mandate has specified introducing LEI in a phased manner for large corporate borrowers having fund and non-fund exposure of Rs 5 crore and above. Below table cites the deadlines for corporates to get LEI issued.
How to get LEI for your business in India?
Legal Entity Identifier India Limited (LEIL) a wholly Owned Subsidiary of The Clearing Corporation of India Ltd. acts as a Local Operating Unit (LOU) for issuing globally compatible Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs) in India. LEIL has been recognised by the Reserve Bank of India as an "issuer" of Legal Entity Identifiers under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act 2007. Cost of obtaining LEI for your business is Rs 6,000 plus GST.
Till now 12,232 LEI's have been issued for Indian entities.
September 19, 2018 -- OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Desir has welcomed the September 18 interim measure adopted by European Court of Human Rights, demanding that Ukrainian authorities abstain from accessing the mobile telephone data of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) investigative reporter Natalia Sedletska.
Said Desir, "I welcome the swift action of the European Court of Human Rights to protect mobile phone data of an investigative journalist, pending full complaint to the court. Investigative journalism plays the essential role of a watchdog in societies and journalists must be able to protect their sources.
In addition, both The Independent and taz.de reported on the Sedletska case.
-----
September 5, 2018 -- The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned a Ukrainian court's decision granting the country's prosecutor-general's office permission to obtain over a year's worth of mobile phone data belonging to RFE/RL investigative journalist Natalia Sedletska.
CPJ called the ruling "an affront to the principle of press freedom that the Ukrainian government purports to uphold," and urged prosecutors "to stop this overreach so that journalists can safely do their work of holding the powerful to account."
Reporters Without Borders also condemned the Ukrainian court's action, noting that this decision seriously compromises the protection of journalistic sources, which is essential to investigative journalism and which is guaranteed by Ukrainian and European law.
Both the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine and Maja Kocijancic, the spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, have expressed concern about the court decision, as has OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Desir, who said investigative journalism plays the essential role of a watchdog in societies and journalists must be able to protect their sources. Desir added, I call on the Ukrainian authorities to ensure that all steps in line with international standards and OSCE commitments are taken to respect Natalia Sedletskas privilege to keep her sources confidential.
Sedletska, a reporter with RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, is the author and host of the award-winning investigative TV program Schemes, which investigates high-level corruption and the abuse of public office among Ukrainian officials.
Arif Alvi elected as13th President of Pakistan
A three-way race paved the way for an easy victory for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insafs (PTI) Arif Alvi in the presidential election on Tuesday.
In the National Assembly and Senate, 430 votes were polled, of which six were rejected. President-elect Alvi received 212 votes, while his opponents Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz led oppositions Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Pakistan Peoples Partys (PPP) Aitzaz Ahsan got 131 and 81 votes, respectively.
While the combined opposition vote in the Parliament equalled the votes polled by Alvi, the latter led the opposition candidates, even with their votes combined, in the final count of provincial legislatures.
Based on the Election Commission of Pakistans formula for calculation of the electoral college for the presidential election, Alvi got 141 votes from legislatures in all four provinces 33 of the 58.34 votes polled in the Punjab Assembly, 22 of the 60.74 in the Sindh Assembly, 41 of the 57.13 in the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Assembly and 45 of the 60 polled in the Balochistan Assembly.
PML-N led opposition alliance secured 55 votes 25 in Punjab, 1 in Sindh, 14 in KP, and 15 in Balochistan. PPPs Ahsan got 42 votes, 39 of which came from Sindh, just one from Punjab and two from KP. Even with their votes combined, the opposition candidates trailed Alvi with 44 votes.
In the Punjab Assembly, 16 of the 18 votes rejected were apparently cast by PML-N lawmakers. This led the partys leadership to hold a press conference after the announcement of the result in which they accused the PTI-led coalition of having once again stolen their mandate, implying that some of the partys lawmakers could have entered an understanding with the ruling party to deliberately cast their votes in a manner that they would be cancelled.
Earlier in the day, two polling booths were set up in the National Assembly. Chief Election Commissioner Sardar Raza and Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Anwar Kasi discharged their responsibilities as returning officer and presiding officer, respectively.
The polling began at the both at both houses of the Parliament and all four provincial assemblies at 10am and continued without break till 4pm. Prime Minister Imran Khan, Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari are among those who cast their ballots in the presidential election at the National Assembly.
Strict security arrangements were put in place to prevent any untoward incident.
Speaking to the media after his election as the 13th president, Alvi thanked Prime Minister Imran Khan for nominating him as the partys candidate. He also thanked allied parties who voted for him. He said that he would ensure through his conduct that he was the president of the entire country, and not a leader of a specific party.
Thank you for reading!
Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.
PM adviser Babar Awan resigned from his office
ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan resigned from his office on Tuesday. As corruption reference was put by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for his alleged involvement in inordinate delay in construction of the 525MW Nandipur power plant.
Fulfilling Imran Khans promise to the nation, I tender my resignation from the office of prime ministers adviser on parliamentary affairs, Mr Awan stated in a handwritten resignation in Urdu which he submitted to Prime Minister Imran Khan. I resign from my office so that I could prove wrong NABs allegations levelled against me, added the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader.
Mr Awan, who became a member of the prime ministers cabinet just 16 days ago (Aug 20), said that although he had (only) been accused of causing delay in execution of the power project, even then he did not want to stick to his position.
Following in the footsteps of Sahaba Karam [companions of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)], I am starting obeying the rule of law from myself, he said in the resignation.
Earlier in the day, NAB filed the corruption reference against Mr Awan for his alleged role in delaying the Nandipur power plant (Gujranwala) being the law minister (from 2008 to 2012).
Besides Mr Awan, former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf is also one of the main accused in the reference. He was serving as federal minister for water and power when his role was questioned. Other accused are: Retired Justice Riaz Kiyani, former law secretary; Shamila Mahmood, former research consultant at the Ministry of Law and Justice; Dr Riaz Mahmood, former senior joint secretary of law; and Shahid Rafi, former water and power secretary.
The Supreme Court had appointed a one-man commission of retired Justice Rahmat Hussain Jafferi to investigate the matter. The commission had examined the relevant documents, recorded the statements of witnesses and submitted its report on April 9, 2012.
The commission in its report held officers and officials of the Ministry of Law and Justice responsible for the delay in construction of the power project. The ministry later referred the matter to NAB in the light of the commissions report.
The Nandipur power project was approved by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet on Dec 27, 2007 at a cost $329 million. Its contract was signed on Jan 28, 2008 between the Northern Power Generation Company Limited (NPGCL) and Dong Fang Electric Corporation of China and two consortiums COFACE for 68.967 million euros and SINOSURE for $150.151m were established for financing the project.
At the last hearing on Aug 9, a three-judge SC bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had expressed its dismay over the delay in filing the reference and ordered NAB to provide a list of inquiries which remained dormant during the period when Qamaruzzamn Chaudhry was chairman of the bureau.
The case was initiated after the Supreme Court restored the 2011 petition filed by former defence minister Khawaja Asif regarding corruption in the Nandipur project. The court had issued notices to the Water and Power Development Authority and the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco).
In its fresh report, NAB stated that a ground check of the project had been conducted by the combined investigation teams of NAB and relevant records taken into possession from the ministries of law, water and power and finance.
During the course of investigation, NAB said, it came to record that the officers and officials of the law ministry had failed to exercise their lawful authorities by not issuing legal opinion, causing losses to the national exchequer, hence they committed the offence of corruption and corrupt practices under Section 9(a)(v) and (xii) of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO).
In its 94-page report, the commission said the national exchequer had suffered a colossal loss of Rs113 billion due to negligence of the then law minister for causing delay in giving necessary approval and completing documents for the execution of 950MW projects of Nandipur and Chichon-Ki-Malian. There was also negligence on part of executive authorities of the law ministry, which caused the delay in completion of the projects, it added. The law ministry did not clear the issuance of sovereign guarantee of the finance ministry to the contractor, resulting in termination of work.
After a slow start to the year, the stock markets are running riot again and taking out new highs every few days. With valuations sky-high, its time for investors to consider putting some of their money into budding technologies that are potential hotcakes.
The research arm of investment banker Citigroup Inc. has recommended a group of technologies that it believes are at an inflection point of accelerated adoption. Some like anti-aging medicines or floating wind farms appear like they belong more to the realm of science fiction, yet, Citi says they could become a reality in a decade or even less.
Heres a breakdown of some of the themes:
All-Solid-State Batteries
The current breed of electric vehicles features expensive Li-ion battery powertrains. They are also quite clunky and require frequent charging which limits their applications in heavy commercial vehicles and high-end models. These are the key reasons why EVs are still unable to compete an even keel with their dirtier but more versatile gasoline-powered cousins.
And now all-solid-state batteries are being touted as a replacement that will increase the appeal of EVs and accelerate their market uptake.
According to analyst Arifumi Yoshida, all-solid-state batteries selling points include long discharge cycles and short charge times compared to Li-ion batteries; higher energy density and power; miniaturization; better safety; resistance to leakage and combustion; resistance to degradation due to better temperature properties and better design flexibility. Related: Chinas Economic Boom Is Losing Momentum
Vacuum maker Dyson and high-end EV manufacturer Fisker Emotion are looking to use solid-state batteries in their EV lineups in a few years time.
Anti-Aging Medicines
Analyst Yigal Nochomovitz has highlighted very recent scientific breakthroughs that have given better insights into the human aging process. Such progress could spawn a host of FDA-approved therapeutics over the next decade with the primary objective of keeping people younger and alive longer.
"With scientific breakthroughs emerging this decade on the cellular origins of why the tissues in our body's age, novel anti-aging medicines may become one of the next big disruptions in the healthcare market," Nochomovitz wrote.
Unity Biotechnology and Calico (a Google venture) are some of the leading biotech companies leading the charge in developing therapies that will extend the human lifespan and enable a life free of age-related diseases.
5G Technology
Telecom titans are busy preparing for the advent of 5G in the current year, a technology that Citi says has the potential to change the way people work and interact both at the workplace and at home.
According to analyst Michael Rollins, machine to machine (M2M) connectivity as well as the Internet-of-Things have allowed wireless carriers to dream of tapping a much larger addressable market well beyond the smartphone market. Rollins says that with 5G technology, the current trend of creating small private networks thats augmented with limited wireless or Wi-Fi networks could be reversed due to its lower installation and maintenance costs.
Related: Facebook Two Years Away From 100% Renewable Energy
IoT is set to revolutionize global connectivity, with a 2015 McKinsey study predicting that the market will nearly triple in size from $4 trillion in 2015 to $11 trillion by 2025.
Membrane Filtration Technology
Though not one of Citis picks, its worth looking at a modern liquid separation technology as another potential game-changer that could make early-in investors rich.
Consider that every day U.S. companies consume vast amounts of energy to tease apart chemicals to manufacture food, beverages, fuel and drugs.
According to Shreya Dave, co-founder of Via Separations, that amounts to 12 percent of the countrys energy consumption and 80 percent of the cost of manufacturing a typical chemical. Thats the case because liquid separation has remained largely unchanged in more than a century, and typically involves using heat to boil and condense chemicals into a purer form in a wasteful and time-consuming process. Filtering liquids using a membrane is much more efficient.
The biggest challenge, however, has been finding one thats stable enough not to react with the liquids its supposed to filter. Via Separations says they have discovered a membrane made from oxidized graphite thats both pliable and chemically stable enough. MITs venture fund/accelerator/laboratory, The Engine, is working in collaboration with the startup to align their products with market needs and cut time-to-market.
By Michael Kern for Safehaven.com
More Top Reads From Safehaven.com
Researchers from security firm CrowdStrike have observed a new campaign associated with the GOBLIN PANDA APT group.
Experts from security firm CrowdStrike have uncovered a new campaign associated with the GOBLIN PANDA APT group.
The group also knows as Cycldek was first spotted in September 2013, it was mainly targeting entities in Southeast Asia using different malware variants mainly PlugX and HttpTunnel.
In 2014, experts noticed an intensification in the activity of the group that appeared interested in the dispute over the South China Sea.
GOBLIN PANDA was focused on Vietnam, most of the targets were in the defense, energy, and government sectors.
The group is back and is targeting once again Vietnam running a spear phishing campaign that uses weaponized documents featuring Vietnamese-language lures and themes
Last month, CrowdStrike Intelligence observed renewed activity from GOBLIN PANDA targeting Vietnam. As part of this campaign, new exploit documents were identified with Vietnamese-language lures and themes, as well as Vietnam-themed, adversary-controlled infrastructure. reads the analysis published by CrowdStrike.
Two exploit documents with Vietnamese-language file names were observed with file metadata unique to the GOBLIN PANDA adversary.
The researchers analyzed two weaponized documents written in Vietnamese-language and attributed them to GOBLIN PANDA based their metadata.
The decoy documents have training-related themes and trigger the Office vulnerability CVE-2012-0158 flaw to deliver a malware implant tracked as QCRat by CrowdStrike Falcon Intelligence.
The document did not specifically reference projects related to the Vietnamese government or departments, however, they could be used to trick Government of Vietnam personnel to open them.
According to CrowdStrike, the decoy documents use a previously identified legitimate executable, a side-loading implant Dynamic Link Library (DLL), and new implant configuration files stored as a .tlb file.
The analysis of command and control servers suggests that GOBLIN PANDA hackers are also targeting entities in Laos.
Analysis of command and control infrastructure suggests that GOBLIN PANDA is targeting entities in Laos, as well. CrowdStrike Intelligence has not directly observed Laotian targeting, and cannot confirm targets in Laos for this campaign, however, previous activity linked to GOBLIN PANDA has targeted this country. concludes the report.
Given major economic initiatives by China, such as the Belt and Road Initiative and continued dispute over the Paracel Islands, it is unlikely that GOBLIN PANDA will abandon efforts to collect intelligence from South East Asian neighbors and businesses operating in that region,
Share this...
Linkedin
Share this: Twitter
Print
LinkedIn
Facebook
More
Tumblr
Pocket
Share On
Historian Thum Ping Tjin (left) with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on 30 August, 2018. Activist Kirsten Han (centre, in specs), activist Jolovan Wham (in blue) and Thum (right) at a gathering after the meeting on the same day. ( PHOTOS: Pingtjin Thum,Kristen Han/Facebook)
Three Singaporean activists who met Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad last week have called on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods to look into highly irresponsible and unbecoming allegations made by MP Seah Kian Peng of the meeting.
According to a Facebook post by journalist Kirsten Han on Wednesday (5 September), she, together with historian Thum Ping Tjin and activist Jolovan Wham, had sent letters of complaints to PM Lee, who is also the Secretary-General of the Peoples Action Party, and Charles Chong, chairman of the Select Committee.
The letters, almost identical in content and dated Wednesday, were reproduced in full along with the Facebook post.
Mr Seah made serious accusations without substantiation. His Facebook post dog-whistled to online trolls and unleashed abusive online harassment although hes since called for civility, he has not retracted his claims nor provided evidence, and his allegations continue to provide fodder for personal attacks, said Han in the Facebook post.
Han also added that the accusations have been amplified by the PAP Facebook page, the mainstream media and other members of the PAP and Select Committee, such as Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam.
In the letter addressed to PM Lee, the trio urged the leader of the PAP to look into this issue, and take leadership in promoting responsible behaviour among members of the party.
The trio also called on Chong in a separate letter to take leadership in promoting responsible behaviour and engaging in evidence-based discussion.
We urge the Select Committee to look into the issue, and take into consideration as part of your deliberations on online falsehoods in Singapore, said the trio.
The trio also highlighted the irony that the members of the Select Committee, namely Seah and Shanmugam, are themselves making public allegations without adequate substantiation or evidence.
Story continues
In fact, this is one example of the sort of problem that the Select Committee was convened to address, they added. This episode also emphasises points previously made that any solution or penalty we ultimately adopt to counter falsehoods should also apply to the government, as states themselves can be a source of misinformation and disinformation.
Yahoo News Singapore has reached out to the Prime Ministers Office and Chong for comment.
Background to controversy
In his post referring to Thums 30 August meeting with Mahathir, Seah wrote, Dr Thum invited Dr Mahathir to bring democracy to Singapore.
Seahs claim appeared to be a wide departure from Thums own post on the meeting published on the same day, in which Thum said, I urged (Mahathir) to take leadership in Southeast Asia for the promotion of democracy, human rights, freedom of expression, and freedom of information.
Seah also took issue with Thums wishing Singaporeans a happy unofficial independence day in a post the latter posted the next day on 31 August, as well as a comment made by former political detainee Teo Soh Lung. Teo had said, Singapore is part of Malaya la.
Really? This is what PJ Thum and Teo Soh Lung and the SDP (Singapore Democratic Party) believe in their heart of hearts? said Seah.
The MP also commented that it was interesting that Han, Wham and graphic novelist Sonny Liew should associate themselves with Thum, saying that the latter does not wish Singapore well. Liew had also attended the meeting with Mahathir.
Seahs reference to the SDP prompted a response from the party later that day stating that Dr Thum and Ms Teo are not members of the SDP thus do not speak for the party or represent us in any way.
The MP later apologised for his comments. In response, SDP, in its acknowledgement of his apology posted on Facebook on Monday, said that politicians should not resort to questioning their opponents loyalty to our nation.
Let us move on and focus our attention on tackling the issues that affect the lives of our fellow citizens, said the SDP.
Related stories:
COMMENT: Mahathir the wily player and his Singapore playthings
MP Seah Kian Peng apologises to SDP over Facebook post
Activists want MP Seah Kian Peng to retract statement over Mahathir meeting
K Shanmugam: Serious allegations about Lee Kuan Yew by Thum Ping Tjin on Operation Coldstore
Decades after forging reputations as anti-Soviet fighters during the Cold War, many of Afghanistan's former mujahideen commanders still wield influence in the war-torn country, despite claims of gross human rights violations on their march to power. Among them was former CIA asset turned brutal militant leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, who founded the eponymous Haqqani network that is now a top US target. His death was announced Tuesday by the Taliban. Jalaluddin was among several mujahideen commanders who rose to prominence during the Soviet occupation of 1979-89. The survivors still have significant clout in Afghanistan's ethnic and tribal-driven politics. Their bravery and battlefield skills won them fame and assistance from the United States and Pakistan. Some, such as the resistance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud who was assassinated in 2001, attained folk hero status. But after the Russians left, Afghanistan slipped into civil war as the mujahideen commanders sought to topple the pro-communist government and then turned on each other. Figures little known in the West but etched into the memory of ordinary Afghans are accused of killing thousands of people during the bloody chaos of the early 1990s that fuelled the flow of millions of Afghans across the border into Pakistan. After the Taliban was overthrown by a US-led invasion in 2001, several controversial figures from the previous two decades were brought into mainstream politics in hopes of ensuring a smooth transition to democracy. The power and wealth garnered over decades of constant conflict helped the battle-hardened commanders in their new political careers -- but also made them difficult to control. Some kept private militias even as they ascended the political ranks, enabling them to enrich themselves and operate with impunity. Here are four key figures: - Hekmatyar - The former prime minister is one of the most notorious warlords in Afghanistan's history. A prominent anti-Soviet commander in the 1980s, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is accused of killing thousands in Kabul during the 1992-1996 civil war. Following the 2001 US-led invasion and the fall of the Taliban government, the US State Department designated him a terrorist, accusing him of taking part in and supporting attacks by Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. He returned to Kabul and mainstream political life in May 2017 following a peace deal between his dormant Hezb-i-Islami militant group and President Ashraf Ghani. The deal sparked revulsion from human rights groups and Kabul residents. - Sayyaf - The former anti-Soviet resistance leader and ally of Osama Bin Laden was a strident opponent of the Taliban and after 2001 went on to become a high-profile politician. Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf contested the 2014 presidential election before endorsing front-runner Abdullah Abdullah, who lost to Ashraf Ghani in a controversial vote. Sayyaf, a religious scholar who remains influential despite retiring from politics, is said to have been the "mentor" of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the main plotter of the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. Sayyaf also ran militant training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan throughout the 1980s and 1990s, which Mohammed attended. - Mohaqiq - Mohammad Mohaqiq fought the Soviet occupation before becoming embroiled in Afghanistan's brutal civil war in the 1990s. The most senior politician from the minority Hazara ethnic group, Mohaqiq contested the 2004 presidential election before becoming the second deputy to Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah in 2014. Mohaqiq has been an outspoken critic of President Ashraf Ghani's government, accusing it, among other things, of trying to sideline mujahideen leaders. - Dostum - Abdul Rashid Dostum, a powerful ethnic Uzbek leader, is notorious for extreme barbarities and for repeatedly switching loyalties over 40 years of conflict. While he fought on the side of the Soviets against the US-backed mujahideen in the 1980s, he played a key role in helping US Special Forces topple the Taliban in 2001. Despite a catalogue of war crimes attached to his name and accusations of organising the rape and torture of a political rival, Dostum became Afghanistan's first vice president in 2014. He received a hero's welcome when he returned to Kabul in July after more than a year in exile.
China has defended its decision to pledge another US$60 billion in funding to African nations amid criticism that the money should be spent at home.
Quick-fingered internet censors suspended comments on news reports about the funding on Weibo, Chinas Twitter equivalent, on Tuesday while state media outlets touted the tangible benefits of investing in Africa.
While Beijing fended off external accusations of neocolonialism, the enormous financing promise drew ire at home over Chinas expanding foreign investments, in the midst of an economic slowdown and the spectre of further battering from the escalating US-China trade war.
Chinese President Xi Jinping made the funding pledge at the start of the three-yearly Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing on Monday.
The commitment included an exemption for some nations existing debts and added to US$60 billion in loans and grants already promised to Africa in 2015.
In separate microblogging posts, online commenters angrily compared Mondays pledge with domestic spending on education and the disadvantaged.
You should first raise your own children, one commenter wrote. My God, there have been so many natural and man-made casualties recently, can you please take a look at our low-income people?
US$60 billion is money that we earned! another wrote. Tell me who is causing the suffering of Chinas everyday people?
In one biting meme on social media, netizens set Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yis comments that China would not waver in its economic commitment to Africa alongside Education Minister Chen Baoshengs quotes that the country had limited funds and could not exceed its own stage of development.
In reference to Xi, another commenter wrote: It is better to teach a person to fish than to fish for them. What Africa is lacking most is a wise leader. Maybe we can donate this one to Africa.
Story continues
In response to the criticism, state media outlets ran commentaries focusing on the win-win benefits of Chinas cooperation with Africa, noting the continents large market potential and abundant natural resources, such as crude oil, manganese and copper.
China is Africas largest trading partner, with Beijing expanding its presence on the continent in recent years beyond trade and investment to include military and political interests.
People often ask why China wants to partner with Africa, a post from Xiakedao, a social media platform run by the Communist Party mouthpiece Peoples Daily, said on Tuesday. China and Africa have very strong complementarity, and Africas development potential will bring a large market.
It added that China had imported more cotton and copper from Africa than it produced domestically, and that oilfield projects by Chinese enterprises in Africa greatly helped Chinas energy security.
A Peoples Daily article on Sunday said assistance to Africa gave China concrete rewards, since even though Chinas aid did not have any political preconditions, many African countries have consistently reciprocated by helping China.
The article also referenced African aid during the devastating 2008 Wenchuan earthquake and rhetorical support to Beijings claims in the South China Sea, saying: This brotherhood is not something that even money can buy.
Investment by China in Africa wins friends and trust of nations
For China-Africa cooperation, one cannot just look at the financial accounts, but must look towards the future from a developmental perspective.
But Hu Xingdou, a Beijing-based economics professor, said Beijing should at least consider the public outcry against the foreign financing, even if there were gains for China from energy cooperation and trade relations with Africa.
Trade numbers and industrial revenues are going down, and most Chinese still cannot afford proper medical care or education, he said.
There are many critically ill Chinese who cannot do anything but wait for death, so the scepticism online is quite natural Aid to Africa is necessary but needs to be done within Chinas capabilities.
Additional reporting by Jun Mai
This article China defends extra US$60 billion pledge to Africa from critics at home first appeared on South China Morning Post
For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.
Chinas land auction premiums drop to lowest levels in over three years as price curbs show effect
Chinas land market continued to cool in August as developers remained cautious over the outlook for the nations property sector.
The average land auction premium over starting bidding prices in 40 major Chinese cities monitored by E-house China R&D Institute fell to 17.3 per cent its lowest level since June 2015, during the last property downturn, and compared with 38.2 per cent a year ago.
Average land sale prices also dipped by 2.9 per cent from July to 4,472 yuan (US$654) per square metre, the fifth straight month-on-month decline.
Separately, another report by China Index Academy, which monitors a wider pool of 300 Chinese cities, found the average premium falling sharper to 9 per cent from 30 per cent a year ago, while average prices declining 9.8 per cent over July to 2,598 yuan per square metre.
The continuous fall in premiums [being paid] is mainly attributed to high land prices set by local governments. In many places stringent conditions are attached to sales that have slashed saleable areas, said E-house.
On the other hand developers remained subject to a home price cap and the prospect of tighter profitability, ebbing their interest [in buying].
Chinese developers profits are scant protection against worries ahead
Greater disparity is also starting to appear across different parts of the country.
Luoyang, a central Hunan province city in central China, registered the biggest premium of 104 per cent, while in Shenzhen and Qingdao where auction prices are controlled, the premium was rooted at zero.
In Shanghai all 16 parcels sold in August were also sold at a zero premium, except one bought at a marginal 0.1 per cent.
But in nearby Nanjing land sale prices more than quadrupled from July.
Industry watchers said the ongoing property curbs are now biting hard into developers appetite for land curbs that show no sign of easing.
The chief drivers of robust, in some cases spectacular, earnings by Chinese developers cheap land and rising selling prices are effectively disappearing, they say, as plots become increasingly expensive while homes being built on them face price caps.
Story continues
A number of mega-developers have already said in their interim results statements they will be much more prudent in their land acquisitions.
Yan Jianguo, chairman of China Overseas Land and Investment, for instance, said his team would rather miss a plot instead of investing in a wrong plot.
Xia Haijun, CEO of China Evergrande Group said the property giant would avoid third and fourth-tier cities while focusing on first, second-tier cities and their surrounding areas.
Appetite for China land plots drops the most since 2014
While Sun Hongbin, chairman of fellow heavyweight Sunac China Holdings, put it more bluntly: Developers are now anxious for two primary reasons: their strong moves on lower-tier cities, is now cooling quickly now; and plots acquired in the past two to three years would not have made a profit if sold at capped prices, he said at its result briefing last week.
He said Sunac, however, is not concerned by the conditions as it bought much of its land bank land at large discounted prices.
It has rarely bought plots through public auction since the end of 2016, and will prioritise financial prudency from now on, he added.
This article Chinas land auction premiums drop to lowest levels in over three years as price curbs show effect first appeared on South China Morning Post
For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.
More from South China Morning Post:
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
China is relieved to see a grounded Philippine Navy warship finally retrieved from a shoal in contested waters in the South China Sea, analysts said.
Two commercial tugboats were used late on Monday night to pull the BRP Gregorio del Pilar, the flagship of the Philippine Navy, from the shallow fringes of the Half Moon Shoal on the eastern edge of the disputed Spratly Islands, five days after it ran aground, the Philippine military said on Tuesday.
Maintaining the status quo in the South China Sea is Chinas key interest at the moment while the relationship with the US is strained, said Ni Lexiong, a Shanghai-based military commentator. This was a good ending for all parties.
Beijing had sent coastguard vessels and a rescue boat to the site from nearby artificial island bases soon after the Philippine vessel ran aground during a routine patrol last Wednesday night, damaging its propellers.
China was wary about a recurrence of the 1999 grounding of a Philippine navy transport ship that effectively allowed the Filipinos to occupy the Second Thomas Shoal, turning it into a Philippine military outpost, according to analysts.
China has repeatedly demanded the removal of the now rusty BRP Sierra Madre from Second Thomas Shoal, which is claimed by the Philippines and China and lies about 110km (70 miles) north of the Half Moon Shoal.
The Half Moon Shoal is yet to be controlled by any of the claimants. But many other contested islands and reefs of the Spratlys have been occupied by mainland China, the self-ruled island of Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.
Ni said sending the coastguard and rescue vessels was Chinas way of showing it controlled the regions administration. In addition, the combination of diplomatic efforts and putting Chinese forces on the site was designed to pressure the Philippines to retrieve its grounded warship as soon as possible.
Story continues
It was like saying to the Filipinos: if you dont take action quick enough, we will do it, Ni said.
Notably, the Chinese rescue boat Nan Hai Jiu 115 is one third larger by displacement than the BRP Gregorio del Pilar, a 3,250-tonne former US Hamilton-class high endurance cutter.
Declining Chinas offer of help, the Philippine Navy instead hired two commercial tugboats which spend 10 hours rescuing the vessel, which will be towed to Subic, a coastal municipality in the Philippines, northwest of the capital Manila.
Beijing sends coastguard vessels after Philippine warship runs aground
Inspection was ongoing as [of] this time in preparation for the towing of the vessel to Subic, said Colonel Edgard Arevalo, a Philippine Armed Forces spokesman.
Since the grounding of the BRP Sierra Madre 20 years ago, China has strived to keep stranded vessels from staying too long in contested territory.
In March 2016, Chinese authorities towed away a Philippine fishing boat soon after it ran aground on Jackson Atoll in the Spratlys.
In an effort to manage the disputes in the South China Sea, through which 60 per cent of global shipping trade passes, China and the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, reached a draft code of conduct last month.
Meanwhile, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has taken a softer view of the disputed region than his predecessor Benigno Aquino, who brought China before an international arbitration tribunal over the claims.
But the Philippines had not changed its position regarding Chinas and especially its militarys presence in the South China Sea, said Zhang Mingliang, a Southeast Asia specialist at Jinan University.
Even if the grounding was unintentional, to patrol in the region was a demonstration to China, Zhang said.
This article China relieved Philippine warship towed from shoal in disputed South China Sea, analysts say first appeared on South China Morning Post
For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.
China shakes up old order of Western donors with surge in aid to Africa
Chinas surge in financial support to Africa has upended the established order of global aid led by the United States, and other countries such as Japan and India are trying to counter Beijings growing influence in the region, analysts say.
As China continues to expand its footprint on the continent, which it sees as a key part of its global infrastructure drive, it has shaken up the old order dominated by Western donors and former colonial powers, and prompted a shift in Africas relations with other countries.
In a move that will add to Chinas increasing clout in the region, President Xi Jinping on Monday announced US$60 billion in support to the continent, as leaders from more than 50 African countries met in Beijing for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. That commitment comes on top of the US$60 billion pledged at the summit three years ago.
But it comes amid concerns over mounting debt and the trade imbalance between China and Africa, as well as scepticism from the West about Beijings intentions in the region and beyond under its signature Belt and Road Initiative.
Pang Zhongying, a foreign affairs specialist at the Ocean University of China, said Chinas foray into Africa over the last two decades had created tensions with traditional players in the region, particularly the United States and the European Union.
In the past, assistance given to Africa which has been led by the US usually goes through multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and related agencies under the United Nations, he said.
Pang added that Chinas increasing efforts to promote its approach in Africa had been a source of unease and wariness in the West.
Chinas approach has been donating the aid directly to countries instead of going through Western-led institutions, he said. In the past, Chinas attitude was to focus on its own path and to set itself apart from other powers. Now its trying to promote the idea that its approach represents the worlds future and thats really made the tensions with Europe more apparent.
Story continues
Chinas expanding presence and bigger financial pledge to African countries comes as US President Donald Trump is considering making cuts to foreign aid, and Africa would be affected the most with an expected reduction of 35 per cent.
Over the past 18 years, the US has given US$97.67 billion in official development assistance to sub-Saharan Africa, with infrastructure projects and humanitarian aid the top priorities.
China does not disclose its aid information, unlike countries in the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development. But a recent study by US-based research lab AidData, at the College of William & Mary, said China committed US$354.3 billion to foreign aid between 2000 and 2014 close to the US total of $394.6 billion. There was a clear emphasis on infrastructure, with funds going to projects across energy, transport and communications.
Japan is also putting more focus on Africa. In 2016, it pledged US$10 billion for farming, energy, roads and ports on the continent through 2019.
Ilaria Carrozza, a researcher on China-Africa relations in London, said Beijing had a broader interest in Africa than the US.
Theres definitely been a shift from policies that were mostly focused only on trade and investment to more military and political engagement, Carrozza said.
I think that sometimes we tend to overestimate US interest in the continent. The US is interested in very, very narrow strategic and military aspects of the continent.
Japan and India are among the growing list of countries looking to the resource-rich continent, signing an economic cooperation pact the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor with a number of African countries in 2016.
Despite having a far smaller influence than China, India and Japan have been seeking to counter China-Africa cooperation and the Belt and Road Initiative with the growth corridor, said Yao Guimei, a senior research fellow with the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
But there could also be room for cooperation between the three parties in third countries.
Additional reporting by Sarah Zheng
This article China shakes up old order of Western donors with surge in aid to Africa first appeared on South China Morning Post
For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.
The shutdown of mainland Chinas domestic ivory market last year may be shifting more of the trade across the border to Hong Kong where a citywide ban is to come into effect in three years, according to a study.
The mismatch in timing of the two bans may be inadvertently widening the window for illegal trading and smuggling, fuelling the poaching of elephants in Africa, researchers suggested.
Beijing implemented a nationwide ban on the ivory trade last year but Hong Kong has opted to phase out the trade gradually, with a complete ban coming into effect only on December 31, 2021.
Because China prohibited the ivory trade at the end of 2017, there are concerns that the trade will now shift to Hong Kong and records show this is already happening, the article, published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, read.
Statistics compiled by the researchers showed that more than seven tonnes of elephant ivory were seized from major shipments within Hong Kong last year, the largest amount seized in a year, and none in the mainland since the ban. Less than a tonne was seized in 2016.
University of Hong Kong biologist Dr Luke Gibson, one of the reports authors, conceded that one years worth of data may not confirm a long-term trend but there were was more than enough evidence to suggest an inverse correlation between seizures of elephant ivory in China and Hong Kong.
Over the past two decades, when there was more ivory confiscated in China, there was less confiscated in Hong Kong and vice versa, he added. The closure of Chinas market might push the trade to Hong Kong.
This was a high possibility given the existence of criminal syndicates moving ivory shipments between Hong Kong and China, the researchers said.
Ivory traders everywhere will always do whatever they can to evade detection by law enforcement, said co-author Alex Hofford of WildAid Hong Kong. Its like playing a game of whack-a-mole. If it closes down over here, up it pops over there. The Hong Kong authorities need to be ever vigilant to their tricks.
Story continues
Gibsons worry was that the seizures would increase. With three years left until the full ban traders would be encouraged to fully exploit what they could before the window closed, fuelling illegal poaching of elephants in Africa.
While Hong Kongs ivory trade is currently regulated by a licensing scheme, illegal ivory often makes its way into Hong Kong, gets mixed in with legal stocks to evade detection and then smuggled to China, the worlds biggest source of demand, according to activists.
According to studies, the population of savannah elephants goes down by about 8 per cent every year as a result of illegal poaching. Earlier this week, Elephants Without Borders found the carcasses of 87 poached elephants near a wildlife sanctuary in Botswana, the largest scale of poaching deaths ever seen in Africa.
We encourage the Hong Kong government to look into finding new and innovative ways to further restrict the domestic Hong Kong ivory trade ahead of the full ban which is over three long years away, said Hofford.
Judging by the recent news of the elephant massacre in Botswana, a lot of elephants can still be slaughtered in that time.
This article Delay on full ban of ivory trade in Hong Kong could encourage elephant poaching, study shows first appeared on South China Morning Post
For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.
A massive trade deal for the Asia-Pacific region designed to offset the impact of US protectionist policies could still be derailed by domestic political uncertainties in some of the key countries, regional trade and diplomatic observers have warned.
Key talks on establishing the China-dominated Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) poised to be the worlds largest economic bloc covering almost half of the global economy are expected to be held in November in Singapore.
The United States has decided not to attend the summit, which may provide extra impetus for China and 15 other nations to agree the deal.
China is pushing hard for the deal in light of its current trade war with the US and the decision by US President Donald Trump to pull out of the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement.
But Kotaro Tamura, Asia fellow at the Milken Institute and a former senator and parliamentary secretary in charge of economic and fiscal policy in Japans Cabinet Office, said it was possible that the deal would fail as different countries conflicting agendas emerged during the negotiations.
The deal would involve the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, which means it would cover countries that have wildly different levels of economic development.
Many emerging economies tend to protect their domestic industries, Tamura said, arguing this could mean that any agreement would not meet the expectations of highly developed economies such as Japan.
The deal may face further complications if the key elements cannot be agreed upon in November as Australia, India and Indonesia all face important elections next year.
Big elections are coming in countries like Australia, India and Indonesia and their populations tend to be reluctant about supporting globalism, Tamura said.
Story continues
Therefore, if member countries cannot agree on basic issues within this year, the RCEP dream might not come true.
Australia, which recently changed prime ministers and where the government is limping on without a parliamentary majority, will have to hold a federal election by May at the latest.
The countys relations with China have become increasingly fraught in recent years amid growing concerns among politicians and members of the public about Beijings influence.
Ralph Cossa, the president of the Pacific Forum CSIS in Honolulu, said that Chinas efforts to exert its influence in the Asia-Pacific region may be seen as a form of bad governance by Australians, who may also regard it as a threat to their national security.
Hopes high as China push likely to seal huge Asian free-trade deal
Indias general election due to be held in April or May may also act as an obstacle to its participation in the RCEP due to widely held concerns about the countrys trade deficit with China.
Sampa Kundu, a university professor in India who specialises in southeast Asian affairs, said that India had some concerns about the partnership, especially with regards to the liberalisation of its services sector.
India is worried that implementation of RCEP may increase its trade deficit with China, she said.
Indias trade deficit with China is already at a worrisome level for Indian industry, even without the free-trade deal.
Yet analysts agree that while countries may have reservations about signing up to the China-led deal, it would help offset the impact of Trumps protectionist trade policies.
According to a Korea Economic Research Institute report published this week, taking part in the RCEP would help stabilise the South Korean economy, which is one of the most exposed to the US-China trade war.
The study said that the countrys exports could fall by as much as 75 per cent due to the dispute, but joining RCEP would narrow this to 22 per cent.
The two countries account for over a third of South Korean exports, according to the Korea International Trade Association.
Its main export item, intermediate goods, are particularly vulnerable and retailers could see their operations in China suffering from any economic slowdown there.
Tamura also said RCEP may help insulate Japan from the impact of trade tensions, adding that the country was looking for real allies on free trade amid the spread of protectionist measures around the globe.
Japans biggest concern is ongoing protectionism in global trade led by the US he said. Japan carefully tries to put constructive pressure on the US to stop escalating its protectionist behaviour by working with China on building large-scale free trade schemes in Asia.
This article How domestic politics threatens Chinas dream of building Asia-Pacific free-trade bloc to offset US tensions first appeared on South China Morning Post
For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.
FILE PHOTO: Workers unloading imported NFA rice
QUEZON CITY, Philippines Weevil-infestation on imported rice from Thailand puts the National Food Authority (NFA) at the center of criticisms in the recent days.
There are around 300,000 sacks of rice left unloaded in shipping vessels at various ports in the country due to consecutive days of monsoon rain last month.
Some of the stocks have been infested with weevils or bukbok and are currently being treated through fumigation which will takes seven to 12 days.
The NFA maintains that the rice supply will still be safe for consumption as proven by Agriculture Secretary Manny Pinol when he ate weevil-infested rice on national television.
A weed science expert Dr. Pio Javier explained, however, that weevils come in a variety of species. The most common, according to him, is the saw-toothed beetle that lives up to three years. This species can survive high temperature and can produce 300 to 500 eggs at a time.
Javier said there is no harm in eating weevil-infested rice provided that it is properly washed and cooked. However, if the rice stock already shows the growth of molds or amag, that means severe infestation which could endanger human health when consumed.
Ang fumigants ay walang iniiwang residue sa grains. Hindi iyan kumakapit sa grains kaya safe iyong fumigation na ginagawa nila. Tapos ang mga insekto doon sa grains ay safe naman. Hindi ba sa mga exotic na restaurants ay kinakain nga ang mga insekto, iyong mga uod. So huwag kayong mag alala kapag may insekto ang ating bigas, explained Dr. Javier, an Adjunct Research Professor at the Institute of Weed Science, Entomology and Plant Pathology at the University of the Philippines in Los Banos.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III also shared the same information.
Unless massively infected iyong rice ng bukbok, wala naman talaga siyang peligro kapag kinain basta mapakuluan lang, mailuto lang ng tama. Kung industrial volume ang pinag- uusapan then you fumigate, he said.
Story continues
The insect expert says weevils also attack corn and flour stocks.
He suggests that the Bureau of Quarantine exercise strict monitoring of agricultural products being shipped into the country because foreign insect species migrated through these shipments could endanger the countrys agriculture sector.
An example he cited was the cocolisap, which scientists traced its origin to Indonesia, which infested thousands of coconut trees and left farmers with billions of pesos lost in potential revenue. The cocolisap was believed to have entered the country through imported ornamental plants.
Dr. Javier stressed that the impact of weevil-infestation still depends on the species. Therefore, it is not safe to say that weevils that come from other countries are safe.
Halimbawa nag-treat sila ng insekto doon sa Thailand. Tapos ang ginamit nilang insecticide ay matapang tapos nag develop ng resistance iyong insekto. Pagdating ng Pilipinas magti-treat din tayo ng insecticide. Kung resistant din sa insecticide iyong insekto, mahihirapan tayong i-control kung iyon ay resistant population ng bukbok, he warned.
He recommends a thorough cleaning of the storage before putting rice stocks to prevent the breeding and infestation of weevils and other insects. Rey Pelayo / Marje Pelayo
The post Entry of infested products poses danger to PH agriculture Expert appeared first on UNTV News.
By Aaron Maasho
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - An Ethiopian ship docked in an Eritrean port for the first time in two decades on Wednesday and Eritrea announced plans to upgrade a road to its neighbour, local media said, in further signs of strengthening ties between the former foes.
The announcements came as Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed met Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki in their second face-to-face encounter since a July peace deal ended two decades of enmity.
Abiy and Isaias travelled the entire 70-km (40-mile) road that links Assab's port along the Red Sea to the town of Bure just across the border in Ethiopia, which had not been used since a two-year war broke out between the neighbours in 1998.
"They were able to confirm that the existing road link was in good state," state-run EriTV said.
"There are (now) plans to modernise the port in Assab and enlarge the road linking it to Bure to four lanes (from one)," it added.
Landlocked Ethiopia's access to Assab and Eritrea's other port in Massawa were cut off in 1998, forcing Addis Ababa to turn to Djibouti for sea access.
The country of 100 million has been almost entirely dependent on tiny neighbour Djibouti ever since, but Ethiopia has also negotiated a deal with Sudan to hold equity in its Port Sudan.
Earlier on Wednesday, an Ethiopian commercial ship docked in an Eritrean port for the first time since 1998, entering Massawa. State outlets said it planned to carry 11,000 tonnes of Eritrean zinc exports to China.
Abiy and Isaias were due to hold a summit with Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo in Asmara on Thursday.
It was Abdullahi's second visit to Eritrea since July 30 and the latest sign of thawing relations across the Horn of Africa following Eritrea's rapprochement with Ethiopia.
Past Somali administrations had accused Eritrea of supplying weapons to anti-government Islamist insurgents. Asmara has repeatedly denied this, saying the accusations were concocted by Ethiopia.
In 2007, Eritrea walked out of the East African bloc IGAD in protest as Ethiopian forces entered Somalia to fight militants.
(Editing by Ingrid Melander and Janet Lawrence)
By Lisa Barrington and Dan Williams
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli planes targeted military positions in Syria on Tuesday, but Syrian air defences confronted and downed some of the rockets, Syrian state news agency SANA reported.
Citing a military source, SANA said that Israeli aircraft had targeted "our military positions in the provinces of Tartous and Hama".
"The enemy missiles were dealt with and some of them were shot down," SANA said.
An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment.
Israel has carried out scores of military strikes in Syria during the civil war there, against suspected arms transfers and deployments by Iranian forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies which are backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
On Tuesday a senior Israeli official said Israel has carried out more than 200 attacks against Iranian targets in Syria in the last two years. Israeli officials have rarely detailed specific operations.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said several explosions had been heard in the areas around Masyaf and Wadi al-Uyoun near Hama city and around the coastal city of Tartous, targeting areas with Iranian military facilities.
The Observatory's head Rami Abdulrahman said the attack had also targeted around the coastal city of Baniyas for the first time, with two rockets hitting around one kilometre from an oil refinery.
Syrian state television said air defences downed five rockets.
According to Syrian state television, the head of a hospital in Masyaf said one person had died and four had been wounded. The head of a hospital in Baniyas said eight had been injured as a result of the strikes.
SANA said the planes had come at a low altitude from west of neighbouring Lebanon's coastal capital Beirut.
Reuters journalists in Beirut heard unusually loud aircraft sounds shortly before the strikes were reported in Syrian media.
Lebanon's al-Mayadeen news said Israeli fighter planes released countermeasures against anti-aircraft fire "and withdrew towards the sea at the same time as the sounds of explosions were heard in Hama countryside."
(Reporting by Lisa Barrington and Dahlia Nehme in Beirut and Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Peter Graff)
The future of Hong Kongs much-delayed first outlet shopping centre near the Shenzhen border hangs in the balance, as its operator and tenants await a decision by planning officials this Friday on whether to renew its land-use permit.
Project advocate and lawmaker Wong Ting-kwong, who represents the import and export sector, admitted that business at San Tin Shopping City, also called The Boxes, had been stagnant, with losses of HK$2 million (US$254,000) per month or HK$18 million in total recorded over the past nine months.
Although the malls official launch was in early February, many shops had yet to open for business, he said.
We are seeking a three-year renewal from the Town Planning Board, which will make a decision on Friday, Wong explained. Because of this uncertainty, our tenants dont want to take a risk and waste their investment even for these few months.
Weve also put on hold our promotion plans to bring in mainland tour groups because we want to wait for the decision.
Wong noted that only 47 tenants had signed contracts with the mall, which has 216 shop lots, and only 27 shops had opened their doors during the spring season due to uncertainty over the projects temporary land-use permit, which is due to expire on September 16.
Because of this uncertainty, our tenants dont want to take a risk and waste their investment
Wong Ting-kwong, lawmaker and project advocate
He said tenants concerns had led to their rents being fully waived until this month, with the mall operator bearing the operating costs of about HK$2 million a month, or a total of HK$18 million.
The firm, Well Operation, has secured a HK$120 million bank loan. Its parent company, the San Tin Shopping City Foundation, is the guarantor. Wong is a member of the foundation.
Tenants include cosmetic firm Bonjour and food chain 759 Store. Fashion company G2000, owned by lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun, is also renting space at the pop-up shopping complex.
Story continues
Built to resemble a collection of individual containers, the mall has been plagued by repeated delays that spanned more than two years because of technical challenges posed by its design.
The development is intended to serve as an outlet mall with a dining area and attractions such as game booths. Wong came up with the idea to capitalise on an influx of mainland shoppers and traders who were buying baby milk powder, cosmetics and other necessities in Hong Kong and selling the items for a profit across the border.
But anti-China sentiments in 2015 resulted in fewer visitors coming to the city. Shenzhen residents are no longer allowed to make unlimited trips to Hong Kong; their visits are capped at once a week. The move was meant to deter parallel traders.
The malls 420,000 sq ft plot has been leased to its owner at a nominal fee of HK$1 by Sun Hung Kai Properties and Henderson Land Development.
Wong expressed confidence that the planning officials would renew the permit, giving the mall a boost.
I dont see any reason the Town Planning Board would refuse to grant us a renewal, he said. When the permit is renewed, we will sign new contracts with tenants, and actually a lot of prospective tenants will join us too. We will then start introducing a lot of initiatives such as bringing in inbound tour groups with our tour partners.
This article Hong Kong shopping centre The Boxes racks up HK$18 million in losses as operator awaits land-use permit renewal first appeared on South China Morning Post
For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.
The Bangladesh government on Wednesday turned a notorious jail into a courtroom to try ailing opposition leader Khaleda Zia on corruption charges. The 73-year-old former prime minister, already serving a five-year term in Dhaka Central Jail, was brought into the temporary courtroom in a wheelchair insisting she would not get a fair hearing, reports said. "I know I won't get justice. You can rule whatever you like. I am extremely ill. My hand and a leg are becoming paralysed," she told the court, according to the ntvbd.com news portal. "You can punish me however you want," the head of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party added. Zia's lawyers have condemned the decision to use the jail, where she is the only inmate, into a court. They have said they will seek a ruling from a higher court to get the move overturned. Zia was granted bail in a corruption case in May but remains in jail while she fights dozens of other violence and graft charges. The prison in the old Mughal district of Dhaka was built under British colonial rule in the 19th century and was Bangladesh's largest prison until it was declared abandoned in 2016. Four of Bangladesh's founding leaders were killed in the prison on the eve of a military coup in November 1975 while hundreds of death row inmates including politicians, coup plotters and Islamists were hanged there in the intervening decades. Law and Justice Minister Anisul Huq told AFP the decision to use the Central Prison as the venue for Zia's trial "has been done lawfully". Huq said there were other cases when prisoners had been tried in the same jail and the government had the constitutional right to set up a court anywhere by decree. The next hearing will be held on September 12 and 13. Zia was jailed for five years in February after being convicted of corruption, a sentence that triggered clashes between police and thousands of BNP supporters. She was found guilty then of embezzling money intended for an orphanage, a charge she dismissed as politically motivated. Zia is appealing against the verdict which bars her from standing in a general election to be held in December. In April, the BNP accused the government of putting the health of their jailed leader at risk by refusing her treatment in prison. She suffers from complications from arthritis and is struggling to walk, doctors said. Zia, who entered politics in the mid-1980s after her military dictator husband was assassinated in an abortive coup, is an ally-turned arch-foe of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The BNP boycotted the 2014 election in which Hasina returned to power but is expected to contest the upcoming election. sa/tw/amu
Marxist ELN rebels have released three soldiers kidnapped a month ago, just two days before a Colombian government deadline on deciding whether or not to resume peace talks with the guerrillas, the country's ombudsman said on Wednesday. The ELN is the last recognized rebel group fighting government forces in the South American country, which has been wracked by more than a half century of guerrilla insurrection and drug-trafficking violence. The three soldiers were handed over to a humanitarian commission made up of the country's ombudsman and the Catholic Church and "are now being transferred" to Arauca, close to the Venezuelan border in the northeast. Military trio Yair Vega, Juan Pablo Rojas and Eduardo Caro were unarmed and wearing civilian clothes when they were taken on August 8 in the restless northeastern region. The ELN had stated on Tuesday it would release the three unconditionally. In the first images released of the soldiers, they can be seen walking in a jungle area with an ELN banner visible in the background. The ELN is holding another six people: three police officers, two civilian contractors and another soldier, who were kidnapped a week before the three released military personnel. Colombia's right-wing President Ivan Duque reiterated last week his demand for the hostages to be released as a condition for restarting peace talks that were put on hold after his predecessor Juan Manuel Santos left office a month ago. Duque said he would only speak to the guerrillas if they "suspend all criminal activities" and agree to "demobilize, disarm and reinsert" into civilian life, but that "the liberation of hostages" was a prerequisite. "We cannot legitimize violence as a mechanism to put pressure on the state," he added. When he took power, Duque said he was giving the ELN a one-month deadline -- which expires on Friday -- to convince him to restart the peace talks. Following the historic December 2016 peace accord Santos signed with FARC guerrillas, the ELN remained the last notable left-wing rebel group refusing to lay down arms.
Indian authorities alerted their Malaysian counterparts over an illicit shipping container containing four tons of shark fins, and the cargo was offloaded onto our countrys shores yesterday.
Initially labeled as ray skin, the contraband left Chennai en route to Hong Kong, but was stopped at the request of Indias Directorate of Revenue Intelligence according to Times of India.
The massive haul is only half of another recent raid carried out by the IDR, who found eight tons of shark fins at two locations in Gujarat over the weekend, also labeled as dried ray skin.
Shark fin export has been prohibited in India since legislature was introduced banning the trade in 2015, with savvy smugglers resorting to labeling their hauls as dried ray skins, dried marine products, or fish maw to circumnavigate authorities.
Now authorities are curious to crackdown on who the consignee was on the Hong Kong end of the trade, and how goods were declared there to authorities.
Shark finning is seen by many as a cruel practice, with live sharks having their fins cut, and subsequently being tossed back into the ocean.
Hong Kong is one of the worlds biggest markets for shark fin often served as a soup at expensive Chinese banquets but it prohibits the trade in products taken from endangered species.
Companies including airlines Cathay Pacific and Virgin and shipping company Maersk have barred the transportation of shark fins following public outcry over the trade, which is blamed for the deaths of tens of millions of sharks every year.
The post Malaysian authorities intercept Hong Kong-bound container with four tons of shark fin appeared first on Coconuts.
National University of Singapore to spend US$18M to launch 250 deep-tech startups
This is part of the universitys new graduate research innovation initiative
The National University of Singapore (NUS) has announced it will put aside S$25 million (US$18 million) to co-finance up to 250 deep-tech startups over the next 5 years.
This part of its newly established Graduate Research Innovation Programme (GRIP), which aims to help its graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and research staff develop and run deep-tech companies.
The startups will undergo a three-month business validation and venture creation programme; founders will work alongside industry veterans develop an operational business model, IP licensing and development plan, and go-to-market strategies for their businesses.
After this process, the startups will be evaluated by a panel for the first tranche of investment of S$50,000 (US$36,000), which will be used to further develop their prototypes.
Also Read: Canadian startup Element AI to support AI Singapore in its Smart Nation initiatives
When the startup subsequently receives a further external investment or innovation grant, the second tranche of S$50,000 (US$36,000) will then be invested by NUS.
We hope to create a strong pipeline of research-based technology companies that will introduce innovative applications and technologies to Singapore and the global markets. Each of these tech-based startups would create innovation-based jobs, benefitting the Singapore economy in the long run, said NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye.
The startups will be incubated within i4.0, a new six-storey, 15,400 sqm building which will house research facilities dedicated for digital innovation R&D that will drive Singapores Smart Nation initiative.
These innovations include artificial intelligence (AI), data science, analytics, modelling, simulation and optimisation, as well as cybersecurity.
i4.0s facilities include open-concept workstations, interactive workspaces
a Makerspace for entrepreneurial activities, smart cafe, and double-volume lobby and atrium lounges.
Story continues
The building is expected to house more than 1,000 researchers, innovators and supporting staff once it is fully operational in two years time.
Image Credit:
The post National University of Singapore to spend US$18M to launch 250 deep-tech startups appeared first on e27.
Father Shannon Wells, mum Jessica Hill and baby Khynan. Source: Supplied
The moment when a newborn baby is passed into the arms of its mother is meant to be one of lifes most magical experiences.
But when 23-year-old mum Jessica Hill, from St Marys in western Sydney, held her baby boy Khynan for the first time, she knew something wasnt quite right.
Little Khynan, it was discovered after five days of tests, had suffered a stroke at just one day old.
There had been no warning signs, no difficulties during pregnancy to indicate that Jessicas first child was at risk of a stroke.
When he was placed on my chest he was very limp, didnt have much colour, wasnt crying or making any noise, Jessica told Yahoo.
He came good after a couple of minutes and seemed to be ok. The doctors saw he was having some difficulty breathing, so they monitored that while we were in the birthing unit.
Baby Khynan suffered a stroke just a day after he was born. Source: Supplied
After being sent up to the postnatal ward, Khynan spent a very unsettled night, Jessica said.
In the morning, doctors were concerned about his breathing and took him into the neonatal intensive care unit.
After a series of blood tests, Khynan was diagnosed with an infection, but then he began having seizures. An MRI on day five revealed hed had a stroke.
The news was a massive shock to the system, Jessica said.
We had never even heard of it happening to a newborn baby. When you think of strokes, you tend to think of it happening to older people, so it was very confusing and a very emotional time.
Doctors have not been able to pinpoint exactly what causes strokes in newborn babies.
With Khynan it was a blood clot that travelled to the brain, but why that actually happened is not clear, Jessica said.
Now six months old, Khynans parents are closely monitoring his progress and development. Source: Supplied
Now six months old, Khynan is doing well, but Jessica and her partner Shannon Wells have been told theres a possibility their child could develop cerebral palsy.
It was a pretty significant stroke, it wasnt a small one, so we were told it could affect his development, from sitting to crawling and walking, his speech, feeding, eyesight, hearing, everything, Jessica said.
Story continues
At the moment he has physiotherapy and occupational therapy every week and he is slightly delayed in the use of his right arm and hand.
Were really trying to concentrate on building his strength up, but with everything else its really just a matter of waiting for certain milestones to see how much its affected him.
READ MORE ON YAHOO NEWS UK:
Four out of five adults at risk of early death because their heart age is too high
Misogyny could be made a hate crime as MPs prepare for historic vote
2.6 million have changed their minds about supporting Brexit
Japan typhoon: Hundreds of cars left wrecked as worst storm in 25 years kills 10
Neglected cat covered in dreadlocked fur undergoes miracle transformation
Jessica said she hoped her experience would raise awareness that strokes can affect babies and children, not just the elderly.
There wasnt a lot of information for us as parents, she said.
Every time I tell someone what happened, theyre so shocked that it happened to a newborn.
It needs to be talked about more if we can just start a conversation about it, thats a good thing.
Core Capital pairs up with Gobi Partners to launch new US$10M fund for Philippines
The Philippines SEC is also expected to release a set of rules for launching an ICO in the country
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the Philippines is eyeing a plan to allow cryptocurrency exchange platforms to operate in the country, given they follow certain regulations, according to the Manila Times.
SEC Commissioner Ephyro Luis Amatong said the agency hopes to release draft rules in the coming weeks and that the goal is to regulate exchanges as trading platforms as quickly as possible.
The SEC will work with the Philippines Central Bank (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) to regulate the exchanges.
At the moment, the Central Bank is approving crypto exchange licenses on an ad hoc basis but has only approved one company, which is coins.ph.
The agency also addressed the rules around ICOs that were proposed a few months ago.
Also Read: Explainer: Chinas tech ecosystems and the barriers between them
The interesting rule is that a company filing an ICO should issue an initial request assessment which the SEC will read through and decide if the token should be treated as a security. The debate about whether or not an ICO token is a security is one of the more important discussions in the crypto universe because the choice will dramatically affect how cryptos are regulated.
Furthermore, Philippines companies issuing an ICO will need to register as a corporate while foreign companies will need to open a branch in the country.
The SEC also plans to release an official ICO framework next week.
Also Read: National University of Singapore to spend US$18M to launch 250 deep-tech startups
The proposition appears to be fairly progressive. It sets itself up to allow for exemptions (although only 20 in one given year) and the commission appears to be embracing what it views as an inevitable technology-driven investment tool.
The goal is not dampen the crypto space but to provide a safe avenue for small companies to raise investment.
Story continues
Copyright : fazon
The post Philippines increasingly likely to legalise cryptocurrency exchanges appeared first on e27.
FILE PHOTO:A general view taken with a drone shows part of the rebel-held Idlib city FILE PHOTO:A general view taken with a drone shows part of the rebel-held Idlib city, Syria June 8, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah/File Photo
By Angus McDowall
BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian military shelled the last stronghold of active rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday as a war monitor said insurgents blew up another bridge in anticipation of a government offensive.
Damascus, backed by allies Russia and Iran, has been preparing an assault to recover Idlib and adjacent areas of the northwest, and resumed air strikes along with Russia on Tuesday after weeks of lull.
Idlib's fate now appears likely to rest on the results of Friday's Tehran summit between the leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran - a meeting that Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov on Wednesday said would make the situation "clearer".
Russia's Defence Ministry said Tuesday's air strikes had only targeted militants and not struck populated areas. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said they had killed 13 civilians, including children, but no fighters.
The ministry said it had targeted buildings used to store weapons and explosives including a facility used to assemble explosive-packed drones that rebels have used to attack Russian planes stationed at Hmeymim air base.
Syrian state media and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that pro-government forces focused their shelling overnight and on Wednesday on the western and southern edges of the rebel enclave.
The countryside around Jisr al-Shughour in the west of the enclave was also the main target for Tuesday's air strikes, rescue workers, a rebel source and the British-based Observatory said.
Turkey, which has a small military presence in observation posts it has erected along the frontlines between rebels and government forces, reiterated its warnings against an offensive.
Its president, Tayyip Erdogan, was quoted by a Turkish newspaper saying an attack on Idlib would be "a serious massacre" and he hoped for a positive outcome from a summit with Russian and Iranian leaders on the matter on Friday.
Story continues
ALARM
The prospect of an offensive in Idlib has alarmed humanitarian agencies. The United Nations has said displaced people already make up about half of the 3 million people living in rebel-held areas of the northwest.
The human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement on Wednesday that the lives of "millions of people in Idlib are now in the hands of Russia, Turkey and Iran", and urged all parties not to attack civilians.
Idlib's rebel factions are divided, with a jihadist alliance that includes al Qaeda's former official Syrian affiliate holding most ground. The alliance, Tahrir al-Sham, is designated a terrorist organisation by the United Nations.
Russia has described Idlib as a "nest of terrorists" and a "festering abscess" that must be resolved. The United Nations Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura on Tuesday urged Russia and Turkey to find a solution and avert a bloodbath.
Several other factions in Idlib, including some that fought under the banner of the Free Syrian Army, this year joined together into a new alliance backed by Turkey.
This grouping, known as the National Liberation Front, also holds several important areas in and around Idlib. On Wednesday, one of the factions in it, the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham group, destroyed a bridge on the western side of the enclave, the Observatory said.
Two other bridges were destroyed last week in anticipation of a government offensive, which a source close to Damascus has said is ready, and will be carried out in phases.
(Reporting by Angus McDowall; additional reporting by Tom Balmforth, Andrew Osborn and Christian Lowe in Moscow and Ezgi Erkoyun in Istanbul; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Alison Williams)
Taiwans former president Chen Shui-bian calls for island to vote on whether it wants to be part of China
Taiwans disgraced former president Chen Shui-bian has called for a referendum on whether the self-ruled island wants to be a part of China.
Chen, whose comments were reported in a Japanese newspaper, also said that present leader Tsai Ing-wen, should not expect too much from US President Donald Trump, who is treating the island as a pawn.
Chen was taking part in what was described as a talk with Taiwanese residents of Japan in the presence of a reporter from Sankei newspaper.
However, the remarks made in the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung may have been a violation of the parole conditions under which he was released early from a 19-year jail sentence for corruption on medical grounds.
Chen said that Tsai, of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, should push for such a referendum to let the world know that Taiwanese people do not want to be a part of China.
Emphasising that Taipei faced serious challenges from Beijing, which has stepped up its military and diplomatic pressure on the island, he said it was time for Tsais government to take action rather than maintaining the status quo.
We do not have [strong] military forces, but what we can do is resort to democratic ways to counter [China], he was quoted as saying.
Beijing considers Taiwan a wayward province that must eventually be reunified with the mainland, if necessary by force.
It has targeted the island in various ways, ranging from peeling away its remaining diplomatic allies to demanding private businesses like airlines and international organisations refer to Taiwan as part of China in an effort to make Tsai accept the one-China principle.
Beijing has stressed that the principle is the political foundation for the resumption of cross-strait exchanges and communications but Tsai has refused to accept it since taking office in 2016.
On US-Taiwan relations, Chen said the Trump administration appeared to be friendly to Taiwan, but in reality Taiwan has long remained as a US card [to play] against China, adding that Tsai should not expect too much from the Trump administration.
Story continues
With Trump waging a trade war against China, relations between Taiwan and the US have warmed.
The US president has signed the Taiwan Travel Act to allow high-level official exchanges while the National Defence Authorisation Act allows for more and larger weapons sales as well as military exchanges.
Chen also called on the Tsai government to treat Japan better, saying it has not done strong enough to reciprocate the goodwill from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whom he said had been more friendly towards Taiwan than any other Japanese leader.
Chen, a former member of Tsais DPP, sharply criticised his successor Ma Ying-jeou from the mainland-friendly Kuomintang, saying his policy of engagement with mainland China has served only to hurt Taiwan.
Chen, who was released after serving five years in 2015, also said his jail sentence for corruption was the result of a political witch hunt, but he was willing to be nailed on this democratic cross for the sake of Taiwan.
Chens comments are expected to prompt allegations that he has violated the terms of his medical parole, which bar him from speaking to news media and making public speeches to any political event.
Sankei said the comments had been made while Chen was meeting friends from Japan.
Lee Chin-kuo, the deputy warden of Taichung Prison, where Chen had been incarcerated, said the former leader had not actively sought an interview with the media, adding that the prison authority would not take any further action, the Central News Agency reported.
The Justice Ministry said is was up to the prison to decide whether Chen had broken the conditions of his parole.
But Lee Yen-hsiu, a Kuomintang member of parliament, cried foul, saying the Tsai government was turning a blind eye to Chens activities and no other prisoners on medical parole were allowed to behave in a similar fashion.
He is on medical parole and is supposed to follow the regulations and stay quiet at home, but in the past few years, he has not only made a number of public appearances but has also stayed highly vocal on social media and other publications, she said.
This article Taiwans former president Chen Shui-bian calls for island to vote on whether it wants to be part of China first appeared on South China Morning Post
For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.
More from South China Morning Post:
A high-level South Korean delegation met with Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang on Wednesday, as Seoul plans a new summit with the North Korean leader to break a deadlock in denuclearisation talks. The South's President Moon Jae-in's special envoy Chung Eui-yong, who is leading the five-member delegation, earlier said he would discuss ways to "completely denuclearise" the Korean peninsula and establish "lasting peace". His delegation "met with Chairman Kim Jong Un and delivered a personal letter (from Moon) and exchanged opinions", a presidential office spokesman in Seoul said. The delegation flew back to Seoul after attending a dinner banquet but Chung and other officials declined to speak to the media. Details about their trip will be given during a press briefing on Thursday, Moon's office said. US President Donald Trump and Kim reached a vague agreement at a landmark summit in June to work towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, but there has been little movement since. Talks reached an impasse last month when Trump abruptly cancelled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to North Korea, citing a lack of progress. The stated aim of the South Korean delegation's day-long visit to Pyongyang is to finalise details of a third summit between the leaders of the two Koreas, due later this month. But observers said that Moon's personal letter to Kim will likely be a proposal aimed at breaking the denuclearisation impasse. The envoy was likely to suggest "that Kim gives a firm commitment to presenting a list of nuclear weapons and fissile materials demanded by the US in return for a declaration of the end of the Korean War," Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies told AFP. Despite the deadlock with the North, Trump expressed his hopes for the success of the next inter-Korean summit in a phone conversation with Moon on Tuesday. Pyongyang has slammed Washington's "gangster-like" demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament, and accused it of failing to reciprocate the North's "goodwill measures", including the handover of the remains of US troops killed in the 1950-53 Korean War. When Kim and Moon met in April for their first summit, they agreed to push for a declaration from Washington of an end to the Korean War, to replace the 1953 armistice. But US officials say the North must be rid of its nuclear weapons before that can happen. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported last month that there is no indication North Korea has stopped its nuclear activities.
The United States top envoy in Hong Kong has brushed aside a separatist partys call for the country to effectively apply its tariff and trade policies against China to the city and reaffirmed the very good relationship between Washington and the citys government.
The remarks by Kurt Tong, the US consul general in Hong Kong, came days after the Hong Kong National Party (HKNP) wrote to the US Department of State calling for the country to suspend the differential treatment between the city and China under the US-Hong Kong Policy Act, citing an erosion of the citys autonomy and freedom.
The US-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 has stipulated the White Houses policies on Hong Kong which include treating Hong Kong separately from China on trade since the citys handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997.
The US president can with an executive order suspend the special treatment if he or she determines Hong Kong is not sufficiently autonomous.
Weve already been very clear on that, Tong said after a consulate function on Wednesday.
The degree of autonomy which Hong Kong enjoys is still more than sufficient for the Hong Kong Policy Act to remain in force and thats our position and I dont anticipate any changes.
Tong also reaffirmed the very good relationship between the US and Hong Kong despite recent hiccups.
We look forward to maintaining that for many, many years to come in the future, he said.
The HKNP, which is currently facing a proposed ban and has until September 14 to register its opposition, had earlier made a similar appeal in an open letter to US President Donald Trump, as well as urging him to have both Hong Kong and China kicked out of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The letter sparked severe criticism from the Hong Kong government.
In its latest letter, to the US Department of State dated September 1, HKNP convenor Andy Chan Ho-tin argued that there was no longer any sufficient basis for the country to maintain differential treatment for Hong Kong from mainland China, citing the local governments bid in recent years to bar candidates from running in elections on grounds of their political views and to unseat popularly elected lawmakers for their oath-taking behaviour.
Story continues
The course of events concerning the Hong Kong legislature has revealed that a democratic Hong Kong under Chinese sovereignty is both logically and practically impossible, Chan wrote. An important basis of differential treatments between Hong Kong and China under the Policy Act Hong Kong is expected under the Joint Declaration to be democratised after the transfer of sovereignty has therefore proven to be no longer valid.
Meanwhile in Guangzhou, Huang Liuquan, the deputy director of the State Councils Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, reiterated Beijing had zero tolerance over any calls for Hong Kong independence.
He was responding to a recent argument where several student leaders of different universities had mentioned the notion in their inauguration speeches.
Wang added separatist calls should be handled in accordance with the relevant laws and the Basic Law, the citys mini-constitution, while young people should also learn more about the country and its history.
This article US Consul General Kurt Tong denies Hong Kong National Partys calls to punish city by applying US-China trade war tariffs first appeared on South China Morning Post
For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.
The United States told the UN's top court Wednesday it had "a duty" not to take a position on a bitter dispute over the British-ruled Chagos islands, home to a strategic joint US military base. Judges at the International Court of Justice are listening this week to arguments from various countries in a case brought by the United Nations over the future of the Indian Ocean archipelago, which is claimed by Mauritius. London split off the remote islands from Mauritius in 1965, three years before Port Louis gained independence. The archipelago's status has been at the centre of a bitter dispute spanning five decades since. US representative Jennifer Newstead said even though the UN request was for a "non-binding advisory opinion" on the row, the ICJ's 15 judges were in fact being asked to rule in a bilateral territorial dispute. "This places the court in an untenable position," said Newstead, a State Department legal advisor, because it asked the ICJ to rule in a sovereignty dispute, when it was only meant to give a legal opinion. Therefore "the court has a duty to decline to provide the opinion," Newstead said. In a diplomatic blow to Britain, the UN General Assembly last year adopted a resolution presented by Mauritius and backed by African countries asking the Hague-based ICJ to offer legal advice on the island chain's fate. The judges are asked to give an opinion whether the "process of decolonisation of Mauritius was lawfully completed" after Chagos was split off. They are also asked to give their view on the consequences of Britain's continued administration of the islands -- including the inability of thousands of Chagossians who were evicted in the 1970s, to return to their homes. - Military base - The African Union and 22 countries -- which also includes the US, Germany and several Asian and Latin American nations -- are making statements during the four-day hearing. After the hearings, the ICJ is expected to hand down a non-binding advisory opinion, but the judges' ruling may take several months or even years. However, an opinion still carries weight and a finding in favour of Mauritius may strengthen its hand in future negotiations. It could even lay the foundation for an eventual formal claim before the ICJ -- set up in 1946 to rule in disputes between countries. Mauritius, which declared independence in 1968 argues that it was illegal for London to break up its territory while still under colonial rule. Afterwards London established a combined military base with the US on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands. Britain said it would give back the islands to Mauritius "when no longer required for defence purposes." The Diego Garcia base still plays a key strategic role in US military operations, including serving as a staging ground for US bombing campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Reports have emerged that two suspects have been arrested to facilitate in on-going investigations into the June 14 death of Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd CEO Nazrin Hassan. Those two individuals are his wife, Samirah Muzaffar, and her ex-husband.
Police suspect that what was initially believed to be an accidental and tragic death, could in fact be murder.
Both were arrested in the early hours of Tuesday morning, and The Star reports that the male suspect was picked up first, with Ms Muzaffar being arrested an hour later. They will be in police remand for seven days.
Found dead after being trapped in a fire in an upstairs room of his Mutiara Damansara house, Nazrins widely mourned death had initially been reported as due to the blunt-force trauma and subsequent fire caused by an exploding mobile phone, with even his former company issuing a statement confirming as much.
However, in August Selangor Fire and Rescue issued a statement refuting such claims, clarifying that at no time did they conclude, or suggest this in their investigations. They added that the suggestion of a phone causing his death had come from the victims family.
Authorities went on to say that lab results taken from the scene of the crime suggest that foul play was at hand, after traces of petrol were found in various spots of the bedroom where Nazrin was found.
Speaking to Malay Mail, an inside source revealed that petrol was found on the victims head, along the bed-frame, the mattress, as well as his mobile phone. Police then began to investigate the case as murder.
Shortly after police spoke new developments in the case, Samirah Muzaffar released a lengthy statement to the media, contradicting the claims that were made as inconsistent with the findings of her husbands post-mortem, and also alleging that investigators largely kept her in the dark.
Outlining that forensic doctors at Kuala Lumpur Hospital confirmed that Nazrin sustained severe, blunt injuries to his head, she wrote that several smaller ones across his face, neck, chest, left shoulder, and to the back of his left hand were also logged all of which were consistent with the effects of shrapnel injuries (alluding to original claims that he had died due to an exploding mobile phone).
Story continues
The detailed report went on to conclude that her husband died from the severity of his injuries. There are no mentions of petrol traces found on his head, nor was he on any medication at the time two claims that have been floated since his death.
Saying that she and her family have been cooperative with officials, she wrote that they had not been forthcoming with updates, nor had they returned certain personal belongings that were missing after the incident.
Concluding that her husband lived a life of integrity and transparency, she asks that the investigations into his death be conducted in consistency with these principles.
Police have yet to elaborate on any new evidence in the case that would have lead to the arrest of the two suspects. Well keep you posted.
The post Wife of Cradle CEO who died from exploding mobile phone and her ex-husband arrested in on-going murder investigation appeared first on Coconuts.
Steve Bannon is the star of American Dharma, the new documentary from Errol Morris in which he turns his lens on the alt-right figure and Breitbart News co-founder who helped Trump win the presidential election. But at the Venice Film Festival, Bannon wasnt basking in the limelight: Variety reports that while he was expected to arrive at the premiere of American Dharma on the red carpet, he instead walked in through a side entrance just as the screening was about to start and sat in a balcony seat at the back. The outlet reports that he also slipped away before the lights came back on.
Advertisement
Variety confirmed Bannons attendance with Alberto Barbera, the festivals artistic director, who said that Bannons security detail had recommended he not attend. The timing of American Dharmas premiere puts it just a couple of days after Bannon was uninvited from the New Yorker Festival following several guests dropping out or threatening to drop out of the event over his involvement. Representatives from the Toronto and New York film festivals, where American Dharma is scheduled to screen next week and next month, respectively, told Indiewire that Bannon had not been invited, and a TIFF representative said there was no indication he plans to attend.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
A similar ethical question, about how Morris engages with Bannon while giving him a platform, is shaping some of American Dharmas first reviews. Morris has defended making Bannon the subject of his documentary, telling the Boston Review that theres a lot to be gained by interviewing him. I consider myself a journalist, proudly so, and the job of journalism is not to have five pundits sitting around a table on Fox News or CNN. The job of journalists is to reportto go out, look at stuff, and report on it, he said. I went out in the field and this is what I saw, and I would like to present it to you for your consideration.
Advertisement
Varietys Owen Gleiberman is not impressed with that defense, however, rejecting the idea that American Dharma is investigative journalism at all. In his review, Gleiberman calls the documentary a toothless bromance and says that Morris doesnt challenge his subjects most brazen lies, like downplaying the role of overt racism in Donald Trumps election. After watching the documentary, Gleiberman writes, youd probably find [Bannon] to be a fascinating, compelling, and at times even charming figure. If that sounds like a swipe against the movie, it is.
Advertisement
Over at the Hollywood Reporter, Deborah Young is slightly more generous with Morris, writing that while he may not have stood up to Bannon verbally, he ends the documentary with a visual bang, a metaphor of wanton destruction that leaves the viewer with goose bumps. If anyone has doubts about Morris own point of view, seeing that he never raises his voice to shout down his subject, this conclusive image should make it very clear where hes at. She also writes that Morris spends a significant amount of time addressing the rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which Bannon defends with a familiar refrain, that there were decent people on both sides.
As much as Bannon was apparently trying to go incongito at the Venice premiere, he didnt make much effort to disguise himself. According to Variety, he was sporting his signature style, dressed informally in a dark T-shirt and looked quite scruffy at the screening. At press time, Bannon could not be reached for comment, but another Venice attendee, Schmeve Schmannon, said, I think Steve Bannon is a fashion icon.
Daniel Mallory Ortberg is online weekly to chat live with readers. Heres an edited transcript of this weeks chat.
Daniel Mallory Ortberg: Good morning, everyone. Lets chat!
Q. Painful cleaning: Ive had the same cleaning lady, Billie, for a few years now. Shes always done a great job, and weve never had any problems before. Over the years a lot of my friends have also hired her, some on my recommendation. Yesterday, my good friend Karla told me that some of her codeine pills went missing after Billie came to clean. Karla had a prescription for them after some minor dental surgery two weeks ago, and she had 25 pills in the bottle. Karla always makes a big deal about being hardcore when it comes to pain, so she hadnt even taken any of the pills yet, just Tylenol, but she says she did count them when she first got the bottle. On Friday morning, Karla was going through her prescriptions and she noticed the bottle was almost empty. There were only 10 pills left. The thing is, Karla lives alone and shes been spending most of her time outside of work resting and recovering. I am literally the only other person whos been over to her house since she got the surgeryexcept when Billie came to clean this Monday. No one else has a key (Karla has a lockbox and Billie knows the code).
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
I was totally horrified. I never imagined Billie would do this, but I cant think what else could have happened. I also dont get why Billieor whoeverwould steal more than half the pills in the bottle, instead of just one or two. The real problem is I cant trust Billie in my house if she steals things, but I also cant be sure she did. I could confront her about it, but shell probably say she didnt do it, and we wont know if shes innocent or lying. Either way, Karla and I are going to have to tell all of our friends, which means Billies going to lose at least six clients. What can we do? I want to give Billie a chance to clear her name, but I dont know how.
Advertisement
A: If Karla thinks that Billie may have stolen from her while cleaning, then she should discuss it with Billie and not with you. If you have worked with Billie for years and never had any complaints before, then I think she deserves at least the benefit of the doubt before you start telling all of her other clients that she may have a pill addiction. Moreover, nothing of value has gone missing, and Karla was not in need of those 15 pills. Thats not to say she doesnt have a right to ask Billie about it, but the actual harm caused by the missing pills is minimal. As you do not believe Billie has stolen anything from you, you have no obligation to say anything to anyone else about it. Encourage Karla to have this discussion with Billie because shes not going to be able to learn anything from you.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Q. Co-workers asking about outside life: I am one of, if not the lowest paid low-level grunts in a large corporate law firm. Well-meaning co-workers often ask, Doing anything fun this weekend? The answer is always No, because I am paid so little that I have no money to play with on weekends. Every time I get that question, its like a reminder that most other people have both the money and an answer to that question. And in the unlikely event I do have plans, its always personal and cannot be shared.
Advertisement
A few times I have responded honestly, saying something like You know, I dont like that question and the answer will always be the same. My co-workers have pushed back immediately, suggesting that I am being antisocial. How do I politely tell my co-workers to stop asking me about my weekend? I have long since stopped asking about theirs.
Advertisement
A: There are a number of inappropriate questions co-workers can ask that require pushback, but I dont think that Doing anything fun this weekend? is one of them. It falls under the umbrella of pleasantries that are customary to exchange at work, and requires no more than Oh, nothing much or Getting some rest, I hope or I might see some friends in response. Its not an invasive attempt to decipher the intimate details of your private life, and it will likely come across as unprofessional and unnecessarily hostile if you tell people to stop asking you what youre up to over the weekend, especially because its generally understood to be a pretty surface-level question requiring no more than a generic answer. The more pressing issue, I think, is advocating for a raise within your firm, or looking for a better-paying job elsewhere, because I think that will be the most helpful outlet for yourunderstandable!frustrations in the long run.
Advertisement
Advertisement
How to Get Advice From Prudie:
Send questions for publication to prudence@slate.com. (Questions may be edited.)
Join the live chat Mondays at noon. Submit your questions and comments here before or during the discussion.
Call the voicemail of the Dear Prudence podcast at 401-371-DEAR (3327) to hear your question answered on a future episode of the show.
Q. My husband and kids hate my extended family: In a couple of weeks, my extended family will meet for our annual weekend away. More than 100 of us will be gathering to eat, drink, catch up, and celebrate our love for another. Sadly, my husband and children are firmly insisting that, for the second year in a row, they wont be coming. All three of them are relatively introverted and find all the chatter and some of the behaviors upsetting and overwhelming. On top of that, my husband hates having his picture taken and took serious offense when one of my cousins thought it would be amusing to pursue him with a camera, which ended in an extremely unpleasant and quite violent confrontation.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Family is important to me, and I really want my children in particular to build a strong relationship with their many cousins. The rest of my family are also very offended by what they rightly see as rejection, but my husband is standing firm and also insisting that our children get to make their own choices. Weve had many arguments over what he sees as me trying to guilt our kids into going (I think of it as trying to persuade them to do something that theyll regret not doing in future). Am I totally out of line here? Should I just give up? Or is there some way I can reconcile them to the horror of two whole days with a large group of people who love them and only wish them well?
Advertisement
Advertisement
A: I encourage you to request the same level of compromise from your extended family as you have been asking of your husband and children. You say your relatives only wish your family well, but that isnt exactly born out in your letter. If someone who knew I hated having my picture taken pursued me all over the place with a camera so intensely that things got physical, I would not believe they wished me well in the least. If your relatives response to your generally quiet and reserved family members has been to irritate, pry, and pester them, and you havent told them to stop and followed through with your request, then I think your husband and childrens decision to sit this year out is a good one, and you should respect it. You cannot ask your children to develop a strong relationship with their cousins if youre not willing to stand up for them when theyre being pushed around.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Q. Loss of mother, loss of happiness: My partner and I have been together eight years, married for almost three. Throughout these years, my partner has had the love and support of both their parents, but weve also lived six hours away from themwhich I appreciate. We live six hours from my family as well, which I also appreciate.
Advertisement
Advertisement
A few months ago, my partners mother passed very unexpectedly in a traumatic and gruesome death. Things havent been the same since, as she was the glue in the family and everyones rock. Ive been trying to play the supportive spouse, but recently thats become much harder. Their dad did everything people tell you not to do while dealing with the loss of a loved one, including selling his house and buying one three blocks away from me and my partner. Needless to say, I find this is very hard. Im surrounded by grief and now have my father-in-law around for every meal, every cup of coffee in the morning, etc. Hes very deep into his grief, he isnt seeing a therapist, and he takes all of that and dumps it on my partner.
Advertisement
I feel guilty about how I feel, but I cant stop feeling resentful and overwhelmed. I feel like I cant bring up my feelings to my partner, because grief and sadness are very valid things for them to be feeling. But I want some semblance of our life back. I want to have fun, and laugh, and not have my in-law mere feet away. Am I a terrible person? What should I do?
Advertisement
A: Oh, wow. I cant imagine what it must have felt like to learn that your father-in-law was buying a house just down the street from you. Are you seeing a therapist? I think your father-in-law and partner could benefit immensely from seeing someone, but whether they decide to or not, I think it would do you a world of good to talk through your own grief and frustrations, as well as to figure out compassionate, appropriate ways to set limits about your father-in-laws visits. I can imagine that mentioning this in any way to your partner, in the wake of his or her mothers sudden and traumatic death, might seem cold or unfeeling. But setting aside time to have a conversation about your father-in-laws presence, asking how your partner feels about it, and asking whether the two of you can occasionally have meals together, just the two of you, either in or out of the housetheres nothing terrible about that.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Q. I know I dont have to: I live across the country from where I grew up. I left as soon as I could after high school, studying, traveling, and then grounding myself in a big city very different from my hometown. My parents were not very interested in being parents and leaned a lot on my grandparents, who probably raised me and my brother as much as they did. About 10 years ago, my grandparents moved closer to my brother and father. My father moved away from them after that, and this summer my brother moved away with his spouse. I talk regularly on the phone with my grandmother, and its obvious that they feel lonely and abandoned. Theyre also becoming old and frail. She has been hinting for years that she wants me to move to where they live and leave my job and friends. After my brother moved away, she moved on to try and guilt me instead. I dont want to move closer to themat all. I hate visiting, and even though they helped raise me, we arent very close. I also love my life where I live now and have work that I really like. Still, its wrong for everyone in the family to disregard them in this way. Apart from my father and brother, they only have one other living relativemy uncle, who is an alcoholic sometime-criminal lacking interest in our family. I also dont feel like I can ask my brother to do what Im not willing to do myself. So, I know I dont have to, but should I move home?
Advertisement
Advertisement
A: Its possible to feel sympathy and compassion for your grandparents, and to simultaneously acknowledge that its not wrong of your father and brother to live far away, as you do. It may help to try to visualize what your life would look like if you moved back home on the strength of a few hints from your grandmother. You would have to look for a new job, and might possibly remain unemployed for a long time, which would damage your financial independence, as well as your peace of mind. You would have fewer friends you saw on a daily basis, and you might feel obligated to make the most of it by spending a great deal of time with your grandparents, trying to make them happy and cure their loneliness. You might become even more resentful of your father and brother because you decided to move closer after they moved away, and it might damage the relationship you have with them. Your grandmother would likely still complain to you about loneliness, and that would only increase your resentment further, especially because you would not have moved there out of a sincere desire to spend more time with her, but solely out of emotional obligation. I think a better option would be to continue talking with her, to listen to her feelings of loneliness without feeling like its your job to fix them, to schedule the occasional visit and make sure that your grandparents have plans in place for end-of-life care, and to continue to enjoy your work, your friends, and the life youve built for yourself.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Q. My rambling husband: I adore my husband Jasper, who is the sweetest man alive. Hes verbose and often rambles and gets sidetracked when telling stories. Sometimes its bothersome, but I knew who I was marrying, and his stories always make me laugh, so I chalk it up to no ones perfect/this is a quirk that wont change. Our children are nearing their teen years, when parents go from being amazing to embarrassing, and I can tell Jaspers stories are beginning to annoy our daughters. Even worse, Ive noticed some friends and relatives rolling their eyes when Jasper talks. Some people interrupt him and demand to know the point. Jasper knows he rambles. If you gently ask him to get to the point, he can. He hasnt noticed others becoming annoyed with him, and Im not sure whether to speak to the other parties or bring up what Ive noticed with him. I love him so much and hate it that others are being, in my mind, rude to him. Whats to be done?
Advertisement
A: I dont think its incumbent upon you to say to someone, Ive noticed you rolling your eyes at my husband, can I help you with that? Id also encourage you, in the moment, if you think you see someone losing interest, or find yourself hyperaware of how your husband is coming across, to ask yourself if theres anything you can let go of or stop taking responsibility for. If your husband is somewhat self-aware about his rambling tendencies and can already correct himself when people ask him to, then I think he might be open to additional feedback. Ask him if hes noticed some of the nonverbal cues that his listeners are sometimes losing interest, and if hed want any nudge from you if you notice them before he does; if he doesnt, I think this probably falls under the category of ordinary human foibles rather than a habit that seriously alienates people. (And good luck with those teenagers.)
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Q. One roommate too many: I live in a nice apartment with four roommates, one of whom is my partner. One of my roommates, Connor, wants his girlfriend to move in in next month. Our apartment is big enough for one more, but I have serious concerns about his girlfriend Sandy. Shes loud, inconsiderate, occasionally hurtful and rude, and they have almost broken up multiple times. Even more than that, this wasnt even run by everyone. Sandy was talked into it by Kyle (another roommate), and its now just become law. The apartment is split down the middle about approving this new addition, and I have no idea what to do or if I should say something. We have another year on our lease and Im not sure how worried I should be.
Advertisement
A: If she hasnt yet been added to the lease, then I think now is the time to ask to meet and discuss the issue as housemates, before she moves in. You have, I think, excellent reasons to be concerned, and theres no reason for Connor and Kyles decision to become law as long as theyre not the only people whose names are on the lease. Insist that everyone get together and discuss their concerns about Sandy moving in before committing to a full year with her.
Advertisement
Q. How do I help my co-worker?: I got hired right around the same time as my co-worker, and over three years weve become good friends. Were both young and moved up fairly quickly within the company. We have had great relationships with our boss, but for the past few months Ive noticed our boss picking on my co-worker more and moreasking her to retrieve unattainable financial reports, scolding her whenever her opinions disagree with our boss, promising her a bonus for over six months without delivering, just to name a few. Our boss even announced in our last meeting that she would be hiring a VP as my co-workers superior, and that my co-worker would be expected to train themall without even talking to my co-worker about it first. Shes not in a financial position to quit right now, so how can I best support her while she figures out her next move? Is it appropriate for me to say something to our boss? Do I say something to our rather unhelpful HR director? I love and care for my co-worker and just dont know what to do in this situation.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
A: This is a tricky situation, but I think your best strategy will be to encourage your co-worker to figure out what she wants to discuss with your boss, especially regarding the promised-then-withheld bonus and training her new supervisor, rather than to try to say something independently. If youre present when the boss asks something you know to be impossible of your co-worker, I think you have grounds to say Actually, we dont have reports on X, so that wont be possible; well have to find that information some other way. Or if your boss scolds your co-worker disproportionately or in an unduly harsh tone, you can also come to your co-workers defense and try to defuse things. But trying to speak to HR on your co-workers behalf wouldnt help the situation.
Advertisement
Q. Re: Painful cleaning: I disagree! While the missing pain pills may not have affected Karla that much, the fact that the majority of pills went missing in a clients home is a huge deal and major breach of trust. If I were a client of Billies because of my connection to the letter writer or Karla, I would want to know about this. I agree that Karla should be the only one to talk to Billie about the pills, but I also think it would be fair for the letter writer to let her friends know about the situation and allow them decide for themselves.
A: I do agree that talking to the other clients may be a possible option that the letter writer chooses in the near future, but that it should wait until after Karla speaks with Billie herself. Since Billie has not yet had a chance to defend or explain herself, it would be premature to involve others in the situation.
Discuss this column with Dear Prudence on his Facebook page!
More Dear Prudence
My Boyfriend Smokes Pot All Day, Every Day
My Sister-in-Law Disowned Her 13-Year-Old Son After He Came Out.
Are We Too Old to Adopt?
My Wife Doesnt Think Her Conspiracy-Theorist Dad Is a Danger to Our Kid. I Do.
And find even more letters in the Dear Prudie archive.
Insurgent challenger Ayanna Pressley pulled off a stunning primary upset on Tuesday, knocking off Democratic Rep. Mike Capuano in Massachusetts 7th Congressional District. Capuano becomes the second House Democrat to lose his nomination for re-election this year, after fellow 10-term incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley was bested by political newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York earlier this summer.
Capuano conceded the race a little more than an hour after the polls closed but well before the Associated Press was ready to make a call in the race. With about half of the vote counted, Pressley led Capuano by about 8 points, 54 percent to 46 percent.
Advertisement
Watch the moment when Ayanna Pressley learned she won the #MA7 primary. https://t.co/ZoQfKO02uD pic.twitter.com/o4b6C9H80x The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) September 5, 2018
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Obviously, this is not the side we wanted to be on, Capuano told supporters. Clearly, the district wanted a lot of change apparently the district is just very upset with lots of things that are going on. I dont blame them. Im just as upset as they are, but so be it. This is the way life goes. He then added: Ayanna Pressley is going to be a good congresswoman, and I can tell you that Massachusetts will be well served.
Advertisement
Pressley has been seen as a rising star within her party since she became the first black woman elected to the Boston City Council in 2009, but she entered this race a long shot against Capuano, who hadnt faced a competitive primary challenge since he was elected in 1998. The 7th is the most liberal district in the state, and Republicans havent bothered to contest it this century, so Pressley is now all but assured of becoming the first black woman elected to Congress in Massachusetts.
As I explained in the lead-up to the primary, this high-profile matchup stood out for both what was unusual and what was familiar. Both Capuano and Pressley are proud progressives, and there was never much daylight between the two on policy. And without a GOP opponent looming on the other side of the primary, the question of how best to win a general election was moot. With those usual fault lines absent, the contest became the most isolated test this year of a question being asked increasingly on the left in the age of Trump: What counts more to Democrats, political experience or lived experience?
Advertisement
Advertisement
In this Boston-area district, Democrats went with the 44-year-old Pressley, who put a premium on her personal experiencenot only as a person of color, but also as a woman, as a survivor of sexual assault, and as a daughter of a single mother and of a father who battled drug addiction and spent time in prisonto argue she was better suited to represent the only district in the state where most constituents are people of color. Representation does matter, Pressley told the Washington Post during the final days of the primary. Many would just say: Your job is the vote. Im saying that your vote is just one part of the job.
Advertisement
Making Pressleys victory all the more stunning was that Capuano was taking her challenge seriously well before Ocasio-Cortez shocked Crowley, who seemed to think he could coast to another term on name recognition and seniority alone. Capuano also had the support of the Democratic establishment, including civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis and the Congressional Black Caucus, and he raised about twice the campaign cash that Pressley did. Yes, a handful of establishment-backed candidates have lost nominations this year, but Crowley had been the only sitting House Democrat on that list before Tuesday night. Vulnerable incumbents simply survive far more often than they falljust ask seven-term Rep. Dan Lipinski, the Blue Dog Democrat who won his March primary despite a prolonged pile-on from the left and center of his party.
Advertisement
Advertisement
After Ocasio-Cortezs became an overnight folk hero on the left in June, many politicos and political journalists pointed to Pressley as someone who could make lightning strike twice. But while Ocasio-Cortez and Pressley both relied on their identities, plural, to connect with voters, the political and policy differences between the democratic socialist Ocasio-Cortez and the establishment Crowley were far more obvious that those between Pressley and Capuano, who is one of the most reliably liberal lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Pressleys performance is the latest evidence that the left has a growing desire to see people in power who know firsthand what it is like to live in this country as someone other than a white man. Thats a sentiment that will get less attention after everyone catches their breath from this one, since primary season is just about over. But its a theme were now sure to see resurface after the midterms, once Democrats shift their attention to who, exactly, is the best candidate to challenge Donald Trump in 2020.
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jamie was murdered during the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida earlier this year, says Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh refused to shake his hand when he approached before the lunch break at Kavanaughs confirmation hearing Tuesday. Much like the size of the crowd at Donald Trumps inauguration, the facts of the incident quickly became contested ground, as the Trump administration offered their own interpretation of events captured on camera. Guttenberg gave his account of what happened on Twitter:
Advertisement
Just walked up to Judge Kavanaugh as morning session ended. Put out my hand to introduce myself as Jaime Guttenberg's dad. He pulled his hand back, turned his back to me and walked away. I guess he did not want to deal with the reality of gun violence. Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) September 4, 2018
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Principal Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah had a different take, calling Guttenberg an unidentified individual who the Judge would have shaken hands with, if not for overzealous security guards:
Advertisement
As Judge Kavanaugh left for his lunch break, an unidentified individual approached him. Before the Judge was able to shake his hand, security had intervened. https://t.co/ylOhtA1s6G Raj Shah (@RajShah45) September 4, 2018
Guttenberg immediately disputed Shahs version on Twitter, which would have created an intractable Rashomon-type scenario, if not for the fact that their exchange was captured on video from multiple angles. Decide for yourself: Does this show a Supreme Court nominee realizing with alarm that hes talking to a citizen who disagrees with his beliefs about gun control, then whirling away and rushing off without shaking hands, or does it show a Supreme Court nominee whose eagerness to extend his condolences, father to father, was unfortunately interrupted by security? First, heres the version Raj Shah tweeted:
Advertisement
NEW VIDEO of hearing room clearly shows security intervened when Judge #Kavanaugh was approached. pic.twitter.com/ZGRRCcWroW Raj Shah (@RajShah45) September 4, 2018
Advertisement
Its strange that Shah chose an extreme long shot, in which the interaction between Guttenberg and Kavanaugh is barely discernable, but maybe its the only angle from which the gunman on the grassy knoll is visible. CNN was less coy:
Advertisement
Fred Guttenberg, the father of a Parkland shooting victim, says he tried to approach Brett Kavanaugh, but the Supreme Court nominee ignored him. The White House says security intervened before Kavanaugh could respond. https://t.co/IlArmECMFR pic.twitter.com/H5WSdRwrIj CNN (@CNN) September 4, 2018
Advertisement
The Washington Post captured the exchange from a slightly different angle, which shows more of Kavanaughs facial expressions. Guttenberg can be heard saying was murdered at Parkland, then, more loudly, saying Walking away? Have a nice day, as Kavanaugh walks away from him:
Advertisement
Advertisement
NBC News captured Guttenbergs facial expressions from an angle that makes it clear Kavanaugh ignored his handshake and turned away after he said Im Fred Guttenberg but possibly before he mentioned his daughters murder (although theres an inaudible sentence in between):
Advertisement
Fred Guttenberg, father of Parkland victim, Jaime, tries to shakes hands with Brett Kavanaugh: "My daughter was murdered at Parkland."
White House says an "unidentified individual approached" Kavanaugh, but "before the judge was able to shake his hand, security had intervened." pic.twitter.com/IerpDMOW0h NBC News (@NBCNews) September 4, 2018
Guttenberg, who was there as a guest of California Senator Dianne Feinstein, later told CNN hed gone to talk to Kavanaugh as a dad, adding, I dont go home to my complete family anymore.
Advertisement
"I went up to him as a dad ... I don't go home to my complete family anymore, my daughter was killed." - Fred Guttenberg, attempted to shake hands with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh https://t.co/jPvuoShuEr pic.twitter.com/eEwCAyU2tr OutFrontCNN (@OutFrontCNN) September 4, 2018
Advertisement
Finally, Paramount Picturesnormally not in the business of covering Supreme Court confirmation hearingshad no footage of Guttenberg and Kavanaugh, but were able to capture the moment when senatorial candidate Greg Stillson used a baby as a human shield at a rally in New Hampshire:
Advertisement
So it looks like its one of those intractable Rashomon-type scenarios after all. The only possible way to determine whether what happened between Kavanaugh and Guttenberg was a snub or an accident would be to somehow measure the relative credibility of Guttenberg, who has dedicated his life to the cause of gun safety after the murder of his teenage daughter, against that of Shah, a man who voluntarily took a job working for Donald Trump. Its a real pickle!
How did Steve Bannon taunt Ivanka Trump when he really wanted to get under her skin? He called her a staffer, according to CNNs summary of some of the revelations from Bob Woodwards new book on the Trump White House thats set to be released next week.
Youre nothing but a fucking staffer! Bannon screamed at Ivanka at a staff meeting, according to Woodward. You walk around this place and act like youre in charge, and youre not. Youre on staff! Im not a staffer! she shouted back. Ill never be a staffer. Im the first daughter she really used the title, Woodward writes and Im never going to be a staffer!
Advertisement
The open vitriol displayed here between two senior White House employees (if theyll pardon such a crude term) paints quite a picture of how dysfunctional a workplace the White House has been lately. But this detail also lays bare some interesting assumptions on the parts of Bannon and Ivanka. When he attacked her, she could have easily pushed back with the argument that, yes, she is a staffer, and proud of it. But instead, Ivanka accepts Bannons premise that theres something wrong with the title. Why do they both consider staffer such an insult?
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Because Donald Trumps executive branch operates under an almost feudal system of hierarchy. Ivanka probably wanted to assert her position in the pecking order and let it be known that while staffers are disposable, she, as family, isnt. This is curious considering all the criticism shes gotten for being the beneficiary of blatant nepotismshouldnt she want to be seen as a legitimate employee rather than someone whos only there because she got special treatment as first daughter? A normal public servant might. But Ivanka is a Trump through and through, which is to say she is unable to let anyone think, even for a minute, that shes like other people. Under the Trump worldview, hard work, or work in the service of something other than enriching and promoting oneself, is inherently suspect, and Ivanka is above it. As annoying and frankly gross as this may be, perhaps the upside is that we can all stop pretending that Ivanka brings anything to the table beyond her name.
Ben Sasse loves to wax poetic about the constitutional separation of powers, which is odd considering that he adamantly refuses to enforce them. Nevertheless, Sasses fixation is quaintly charming at a time when most Republican politicians prefer to skip the civics lectures and just own the libs. During Tuesdays confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, the Republican senator from Nebraska devoted his opening statement to a disquisition on the three branches of government, tying the politicization of Supreme Court nominations to the decline of legislative independence. The courts, Sasse insisted, have become political because Congress stopped passing laws, instead leaving lawmaking to power hungry executive branch bureaucrats with no democratic accountability.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Sasses theory is very interesting, but not because its original (its cobbled together from white papers belched out by conservative think tanks) or correct (it isnt). Rather, its worth highlighting because it aligns perfectly with Kavanaughs jurisprudence, as well as the Trump administrations agenda. Sasse and Kavanaugh believe the president cannot be questioned or restrained, but executive agencies must be ruthlessly crushed. Thats what separation of powers means to the GOP in 2018, and its what Kavanaugh is poised to enshrine in our Constitution.
Advertisement
To be sure, Americas founding charter creates stark divisions between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. And it undoubtedly expects Congress to act as a check upon the presidentnot just by passing those laws that the president must then enforce, but by conducting oversight into his exercise of executive authority. Sasse was absolutely correct when he declared on Tuesday that the legislative branch is supposed to be the locus of our politics. But it is puzzling to hear him express this sentiment when he has relinquished his own constitutional duties and pursued an approach of checking the executive branch via tweet and press release. Instead of pushing for legislation or hearings that might rein in Trumps excesses, Sasse issues strongly worded statements. That is not how the Framers envisioned Congress restraining the chief executive.
Advertisement
Advertisement
When Sasse perorates about separation of powers, then, he could not possibly be referring to legislative limitations on presidential excesses. So, what is he talking about? Heres how Sasse framed the putative problem on Tuesday:
Especially since the 1930s and then ramping up since the 1960s, a whole lot of the responsibility in this body has been kicked to a bunch of alphabet soup bureaucracies where most actual lawmaking is happening right now. Theres no verse of Schoolhouse Rock that says give a bunch of power to the alphabet soup agencies. The people dont have any way to fire the bureaucrats. A lot of the power delegation that happens from this branch is because the Congress has decided to self-neuter.
Advertisement
Advertisement
While Sasse is not troubled by an imperial president who amasses an unprecedented amount of power in a single branch and wields it with spite and caprice, he is upset that executive branch agencies exist and do things. That is the thrust of the senators statement: The administrative state, an entrenched and unsanctioned fourth branch of government, allegedly rules the people while Congress withers on the vine.
What, exactly, is this sinister administrative state? In short, it comprises those agencies that the Trump administration is trying to defang or destroy. There are dozens of them, but only a few are familiar to most Americans. The Departments of Education, Labor, Justice, State, and Transportation. The Environmental Protection Agency. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was established to regulate Wall Street in the wake of the 2008 crash. Congress passed laws creating these agencies, tasking them with implementing a complex set of regulations that legislators are too busy, lazy, or inexperienced to execute on a continual basis. The administrative state is what keeps mercury out of your air, discrimination out of your schools, and predatory lenders out of your wallet.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Or at least it did, until the Trump White House began slashing regulations and hobbling agencies to prevent them from carrying out their core missions. This administration shares Sasses belief that executive agencies are if not illegitimate, then inherently suspect, and that most of the rules they promulgate should be repealed. The true threat to the separation of powers, according to Sasse and the White House, isnt a legislative branch that kowtows to the executives every whim. Its the existence of agencies that attempt to interpret and enforce federal law in a coherent and consistent manner.
Justice Clarence Thomas also shares this opposition to the administrative state, which partly explains why so many of his clerks have gone on to serve in the Trump administration. So does Brett Kavanaugh. In one of his most famous dissents, Kavanaugh declared war on what he called a headless fourth branch of the U.S. Government. He asserted that the CFPB is unconstitutional because it is run by a single director who serves a five-year term and cannot be removed by the president without cause. Framing the case as one about executive power and individual liberty, Kavanaugh claimed that the president must be allowed to fire the CFPBs director at will. Along the way, he cast doubt on the constitutionality of a law creating a special counsel, a piece of legislation that the Supreme Court declared constitutional in a 71 ruling.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Sasses theory is music to the ears of plutocrat Republican donors and corporations who dislike regulations. It is also nonsensical.
The leitmotif of this dissentas well as his many other anti-regulatory opinionsis that the president himself has vast powers to govern the country as he sees fit, and may even refuse to enforce laws he dislikes. Meanwhile, executive agencies must have extremely limited authority to carry out the duties Congress assigned to them, lest they stray from the will of the president and bring about tyranny.
This theory is music to the ears of plutocrat Republican donors and corporations who dislike regulations. It is also nonsensical. Kavanaugh, like Sasse, thinks executive agencies are unaccountable. Yet their actions are governed by the Administrative Procedures Act, which requires them to publish proposed rules in advance, explain their justifications, and accept public comments. Once the agencies rules are formalized, they are subject to a range of court challengesas the Trump administration knows, since many of its rules have been invalidated for being arbitrary and capricious.
Advertisement
Moreover, the power hungry executive branch bureaucrats that Sasse condemned actually are pretty accountable. They are certainly more democratically accountable than life-tenured federal judges, to whom Sasse and Kavanaugh would prefer to give the final say on the meaning of ambiguous federal laws. Each president gets to appoint new Cabinet secretaries and stock agencies with bureaucrats who will carry out their mission. The president can also fire many of these top-ranking officials, as Trump has gleefully illustrated. If the people dont like the presidents choices, they can vote him out. Most agency heads are also Senate-confirmed; if the people dislike them, they can vote out the senators who approved them.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Sasse views these agencies as a fundamental threat to democracy. Kavanaugh appears to, as well, although he surely wont admit it during this weeks hearings. Their frustration is misplaced. True, the federal government is currently failing to live up to the Framers expectations, but thats not because of the CFPB (which Sasse loathes as much as Kavanaugh does). Its because Congress wont do its job and serve as a check on Trump. Unfortunately, neither Sasse nor Kavanaugh has any desire to change that. Once on the court, Kavanaugh will carry out Sasses agenda of crushing agencies while expanding presidential power. Sasse will call that a triumph for the Constitution. In reality, its just a victory for the Republican Party.
Prime Minister Theresa May identified two Russian men as suspects in the March chemical attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia and claimed they were officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU. They were charged with conspiracy to murder Skripal as well as attempted murder of Skripal and his daughter.
British prosecutors have charged two Russian men that they believe poisoned former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia. Police issued photographs of the suspects, while Russia continued to deny involvement. https://t.co/cBHGNDIUWS pic.twitter.com/1KbOl3EEeE Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (@RFERL) September 5, 2018
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
The attacks in Salisbury used the nerve agent Novichok and, British authorities say, used a perfume bottle to spray it on the Skripals door. A police officer was also physically affected after responding to the attack, and the two Russians were charged with attempting to murder him as well as illegal possession of Novichok.
Months after the attack, British authorities said, two more people were sickened by the Novichok in the nearby town of Amesbury when, the Washington Post reported, a British man found what appeared to be a bottle of perfume and gave it to his girlfriend, Dawn Sturgess. Sturgess died while Rowley survived.
We have now linked the attack on the Skripals and the events in Amesbury which affected Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley, Neil Basu, the head of counterterrorism for Scotland Yard, said at a press conference.
Advertisement
There is virtually no chance that Russia will extradite the two men, identified as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. The identities of the men do not mean anything to Moscow, the Russian foreign ministry said, according to the BBC.
Sue Hemming, the director of legal services for Britains Crown Prosecution Service, said in a statement, We will not be applying to Russia for the extradition of these men as the Russian Constitution does not permit extradition of its own nationals. Russia has made this clear following requests for extradition in other cases. Should this position change then an extradition request would be made.
In September 2012, police in Canadas Niagara region announced that they had busted a cross-border smuggling ring. The contraband? Cheese.
This international criminal conspiracy was not exactly sophisticated, as it came out at trial. It involved people buying cases of cheese in the United States, driving them back across the border into Canada without declaring the goods, and selling the ill-gotten product to local pizzerias. This Mozzarella Mafia scheme lasted for years, during which the ringleader, himself a police officer, pocketed an estimated U.S.$165,000 in profit. The reason this was so lucrative was Canadas agricultural policy known as supply management, which results in milk and cheese prices that are as much as three times higher in Canada than in the United States. If this rings a bell, it might be because President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked Canada during NAFTA talks over the past year for being unfair to American dairy farmers.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Canadas supply-management system dates back to the 1970s. It first encompassed dairy and was later expanded to eggs and poultry. Strict production quotas limit the domestic supply of these products and raise prices, while tariffs of about 250 percent to 300 percent keep cheaper American dairy effectively out of the market. Paying more for dairy isnt something voters clamor for, but the system has remained in place for decades thanks to the power of the Canadian dairy industry, widely acknowledged as the most fearsome lobby group in politics. Its deep pockets and ability to mobilize voters in key areas have made challenging supply management a politically risky bet. But this cozy arrangement could soon be coming to an end. Supply management is at the center of the biggest political shake-up in Canada in more than a decade, which could lead to the formation of a new breakaway political party that fractures the opposition Conservatives and all but guarantees Justin Trudeau another term as prime minister in next years elections. And the only person who could break the iron grip of the dairy cartel on Canadian politics could be Trump. Welcome to the strange world of Canadian dairy politics.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Federal elections in Canada usually come down to which party can win the two most populous provinces, Ontario and Quebec. It just so happens that the dairy industry is also centralized in those provinces, making politicians loath to challenge the system. And while the industrys PR depicts dairy farmers as running mom-and-pop operations, most dairy farmers are millionaires. All three major national political parties still fall over themselves to sing the praises of the quota system, from the socialist-leaning New Democratic Party through the centrist Liberals led by Trudeau and all the way to the supposedly free market Conservatives.
Advertisement
That is, until recently.
The only person who could break the iron grip of the dairy cartel on Canadian politics could be Trump.
After the Conservatives were kicked out of office in 2015 by Trudeaus Liberals, the party set about finding a new leader to replace former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who had managed to keep a fractious coalition of free marketeers, social conservatives, and old-line Tories more or less placated while sharing the spoils of government for a decade. But with the party out of power, those fractures came back to the fore. The race for party leader that followed in 2017 included 14 candidates from various wings of the party, conjuring images of the crowded GOP primary debates in the U.S. the previous year. There was even a reality-TV star turned candidate in the form of Shark Tank judge Kevin OLeary, although he fared significantly worse than Trump.
Advertisement
Advertisement
The surprise front-runner ended up being Maxime Bernier, a square-jawed French Canadian politician with a libertarian streak whose previous claim to fame was forgetting sensitive government documents at the home of a girlfriend who had links to organized crime. The central message for Berniers campaign was his ardent desire to scrap the supply-management system, and it seemed to resonate. Suddenly he was the man to beatand beaten he was.
In a party convention to elect the new leader, Bernier saw his early lead get whittled away in successive rounds of runoff voting. On the 13th and final ballot, he lost by a razor-thin margin of 51 percent to 49 percent to Andrew Scheer, the dimple-cheeked establishment candidate who mounted a come-from-behind victory with the backing of none other than the dairy lobby. Scheer later joked about the power of Big Milk at the annual Ottawa Parliamentary Press Gallery Dinner, the Canadian equivalent of the White House Correspondents Dinner, where party leaders are expected to deliver self-deprecating speeches to an insider crowd. His biggest laugh of the night came when he said that, despite rumors to the contrary, he was not beholden to any special-interest groups, then proceeded to chug from a carton of milk.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
While Bernier stayed quiet for a while, he soon became a thorn in the side of the new leader by continuing to voice his opposition to supply management, accusing dairy farmers of having infiltrated the Conservative Party to elect his rival. He also dabbled in some disturbing anti-immigration rhetoric. It all came to a head last month when Bernier dramatically announced he was quitting the Conservatives to form a new right-wing political party. A Conservative Party policy convention held that same weekend was thrown into chaos as a result, where delegates now wondered how Trudeau could possibly be stopped from re-election while the vote was split on the right. Meanwhile, in a comedic turn, a dairy lobbyists misplaced notes revealed an apparent backroom deal with the party leader to prevent any resolutions against supply management from ever becoming party policy, describing Scheer as a safety net against grassroots opposition. The briefing book even included a photo of Scheer drinking from that milk carton.
Advertisement
What all this means for Canadian politics is still unclear, but early polling suggests a new party led by Bernier could draw enough support to act as a spoiler for the Conservatives in next years federal election. More disturbingly, Mad Maxs pledge to reduce immigration to Canada could give voice to the countrys far-right forces, who see him a useful vehicle for their divisive politics. For now, Bernier is still mainly consumed by his opposition to the supply-management system, calling it a political hijacking in a recent newspaper opinion piece.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Surprisingly, the issue of the dairy lobbys power could end up being resolved by Donald Trump. Canadas dairy tariffs have been a key sticking point in ongoing talks between Canada and the U.S. over the renegotiation of NAFTA, and Trump has been attacking Canadas protectionist policies since late last year, specifically singling out the dairy industry. Its the perfect talking point for the president, who has upended numerous international relationships based on his belief that the United States is being taken for a ride. While Trump is usually wrong on the specifics of, say, NATO spending or trade deficits, hes right about Canadian dairy. Canada charges the U.S. a 270% tariff on Dairy Products! They didnt tell you that, did they? the president tweeted recently.
Many Canadian conservative pundits have been quietly hoping that Trump brings about the end of supply management once and for all, something the countrys leaders have been unable to do on their own. They might even escape the wrath of Big Milk by pinning the blame on an even more powerful force: the bullying American president.
Donald Trump, who is somehow the president, did an interview with the Daily Caller, a right-wing news outlet, andget thishe says some weird stuff in the interview. Like blaming his son for having endorsed losing gubernatorial primary candidate Foster Friess in Wyoming:
DAILY CALLER: So you have been batting almost 1000 on primary endorsements. You have to be pretty proud of that. TRUMP: And the one I didnt get was [Foster] Friess, I was asked to do that, by my son Don, and I did it but I did it I was asked the morning of and by the time I did it I guess 70 percent, almost 70 percent of the vote was already cast. So, I dont consider that to be, maybe Ill take a quarter of a loss on that one. But I think its 48 and a quarter, its 481 which is pretty good, right? Pretty good.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Its not clear where Trump got the 481 number; as Ballotpedia documents, hes endorsed several other losing candidates, not just Friess.
The best part, though, is this, about why special counsel Robert Mueller is biased against Trump:
Hes [former FBI Director James] Comeys best friend. And I could give you 100 pictures of him and Comey hugging and kissing each other. You know, hes Comeys best friend.
What?
Heres some bonus word salad:
NBC is very dishonest in its reporting of me. Very dishonest in its reporting of me. So, if theyre dishonest of me, now I think theyre more dishonest of me than they would be of most people because most people they dont care about, but they are very dishonest.
As of press time our fact-checkers have been unable to confirm whether NBC is, in fact, more dishonest of Trump than they would be of most people because most people they dont care about, but well update this post if more information becomes available.
Read More:
Trumps Incompetence Is an Open Secret in Washington. The Crisis Is Our Inability to Do Anything About It.
Mueller Is Looking for Proof of Corrupt Intent. Trump Provided It on Monday.
Senior Administration Official Says in Anonymous Op-Ed That He and Others Are Thwarting Trump From Within
Donald Trump has a habit of incriminating himself. No one understands this better than the people who work for him. In Bob Woodwards new book, Fear, Trumps aides reportedly describe how theyve scrambled again and again to stop him from exposing the extent of his paranoia and dishonesty. But the president has thwarted them. He cant stop talking about himself, especially on Twitter. And when he does, he broadcasts his corruption. The author whos going to bring down Trump isnt Woodward. Its Trump.
Advertisement
Woodwards book, as outlined in the Washington Post, adds to the pile of evidence that Trump has lied about and sought to obstruct the Russia investigation. The book reports that in May 2017, Trump erupted at the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, saying, Everybodys trying to get me. It says Trump called Attorney General Jeff Sessions a traitor for recusing himself from the investigation. This backs up previous reporting that Trump sought, by hounding and pressuring Sessions, to gain partisan control of the investigation.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
The book also reveals that Trumps lawyers tried to stop him from granting an interview to Mueller because they recognized that Trump couldnt keep his story straight. When the lawyers grilled Trump in a rehearsal, he responded with stumbles, contradictions and lies, according to the Posts summary. CNN, quoting another line from the book, says the lawyers later told Mueller that Trump couldnt go through with the interview because during their mock interrogation, He just made something up. Thats his nature.
Advertisement
Trumps attorneys worry that Mueller might recommend perjury charges against the president. But the more serious charge would be obstruction of justice. Trump is already implicated in a series of incidents that seem designed to impede the investigation: asking thenFBI Director James Comey to go easy on former national security adviser Michael Flynn, pressing Comey to lift the cloud of the Russia investigation, firing Comey, pressing Sessions to reclaim control of the investigation, and attempting twice to fire Mueller.
Together, these incidents could add up to obstruction. But to make that case, Mueller has to show that Trump acted with corrupt intent. As Trumps lawyers explained in a January memo to Mueller, the president is constitutionally entitled to fire the FBI director, the attorney general, and anyone in the Justice Department who refuses to get rid of a special counsel. Mueller has to show that Trump did or threatened these things not for the good of the country, but to shield himself or his friends from justice. According to Woodwards sources, Mueller has told Trumps lawyers that he needs the presidents testimony because I want to see if there was corrupt intent.
Advertisement
The incident Woodward reports, in which Trump allegedly called Sessions a traitor for his recusal, helps Mueller make that case. When combined with another episode cited in the bookTrump accusing theneconomic adviser Gary Cohn of treason for attempting to resignit suggests that Trump defined treason as betrayal of himself, not betrayal of the United States. But it doesnt establish Trumps motivation beyond doubt. To prove corrupt intent definitively, youd have to catch the president attacking the justice process specifically because it threatened him or his political allies.
Advertisement
Theres no handy way to spin this tweet.
On Monday, Mueller received that evidence. He didnt get it from Woodward or anyone quoted in the book. He got it from Trump. And it wasnt in an email or a secret audio recording. It was on Twitter. There, the president lambasted Sessions for allowing the Justice Department to indict two pro-Trump congressmen: Chris Collins, charged with insider trading, and Duncan Hunter, charged with stealing campaign money for personal use. Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department, Trump wrote. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff
Advertisement
Advertisement
Theres no handy way to spin this tweet. You cant argue, as Trumps attorneys have in the Comey case, that Trump fired an official for malfeasance and knew his replacement would continue the investigation. In the tweet, Trump explicitly denounced the Justice Department for bringing charges based on thorough investigations. He made clear his objection: that the charges hurt his party. And he complained that the indicted congressmen were very popular. Thats crucial. It shows that Trump wasnt saying he wished the congressmen had been indicted sooner so that other Republicans could have replaced them on the ballot. Trump was implying that he wished the congressmen had been allowed to carry the Republican banner through the election without being indicted at all.
Advertisement
This strengthens the case against Trump by broadening it. It shows a pattern of corrupt intent that goes beyond the Russia investigation. Trumps lawyers have long argued that Trump knows he didnt collude with Russia and therefore genuinely believes, correctly or not, that the investigation is a sham. But Trump, by all appearances, knows nothing about the Collins and Hunter cases. All he knows is that both men are Republicans, that they were the first two congressmen to endorse his candidacy, and that theyre under indictment. He has no plausibly innocent grounds on which to attack the indictments.
Advertisement
Advertisement
As the gravity of Trumps outburst becomes clear, youll hear his attorneys and surrogates brush it off. Theyll say that tweets prove nothing about obstruction of justice, because tweets are just wordsSessions still has his joband tweets are public, which is the opposite of a conspiracy. But none of that matters. Legally, the tweet sheds light on a specific question: Trumps attitude toward the administration of justice. It shows that his motivation in attacking investigations is corrupt. It illuminates everythingthe scramble to protect Flynn, the efforts to corrupt Comey, the hounding of Sessions, the attempts to fire Muellerthat happened behind closed doors.
The Senate Intelligence Committees hearing on Wednesday to examine foreign influence campaigns on social media was marked by a notable absence and a couple of odd cameos.
The committee had invited executives from Facebook, Twitter, and Google to testify on efforts to prevent bad actors from manipulating their platforms in the run up to the midterm elections. Facebook chose to send COO Sheryl Sandberg. Twitter sent CEO Jack Dorsey. And Google lacked a representative. After Alphabet CEO Larry Page and Google CEO Sundar Pichai both turned down the invite, Google offered up Senior Vice President of Global Affairs Kent Walker in their stead. The committee rebuffed this offer since Walker is not a C-suite executive. A Senate spokesperson told CNN, The purpose of this hearing is to hear from senior leadership making the decisions, not those operationalizing them.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Rather than have Walker sit beside Sandberg and Dorsey, the committee instead decided to place an empty chair at the dais in the hearing room. Sen. Mark Warner, vice chair of the Intelligence Committee, pounced on Google at the beginning of his opening remarks. Im deeply disappointed that Google, one of the most influential digital platforms in the world, chose not to send its own top corporate leadership to engage this committee, because I know our members have a series of difficult questions about structural vulnerabilities on a number of Googles platforms, Warner said. Given its size and influence, I would have thought that leadership at Google would have wanted to demonstrate how seriously it takes these challenges.
Advertisement
Though Googles absence was conspicuous, most of the buzz on social media at the start of the hearing had to do with surprise appearance of Infowars founder Alex Jones. Facebook and YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, have banned accounts run by Jones and Infowars in recent months for violating the platforms community standards. Among other falsehoods over the years, Jones has baselessly claimed that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax, which spurred harassment of the victims parents. Twitter also temporarily suspended Jones for inciting violence, though it has neglected to take a more definitive enforcement action.
I just walked thru security at the Senate building with Alex Jones. pic.twitter.com/eDUUAxRB9E Ryan Mac (@RMac18) September 5, 2018
Advertisement
Advertisement
Alex Jones is now done shouting outside and is in the Dirksen hearing room, sitting silently with a furious face, and the cameras are fixated on him, waiting for him to do something disruptive. Sarah Frier (@sarahfrier) September 5, 2018
Advertisement
Alex f'in Jones just sat down next to me David Dayen (@ddayen) September 5, 2018
Advertisement
The Infowars firebrand held a press conference outside the hearing room, in which he said, The real election meddling is by Facebook and Google and others that are shadow banning people. Jack Posobiec, another conspiracy theorist, was also reportedly present and complained in interviews that he had not been allowed to testify.
Update, 11:30 a.m. EDT: Jones repeatedly interrupted Florida Sen. Marco Rubios interview with reporters outside the hearing room, leading Rubio to threaten to take care of you myself. A video of the exchange is here:
Im here to convince you that the beaver should be Americas national mammal.
Im no beaver-come-lately. Ive believed in this cause for a long time. And trust me, Ive paid my dues. If youre an irony-challenged gay guy who loves to talk about beaversabout how beavers are just awesome and how theyve been your favorite critter ever since you were a little kid and how, when you first saw the movie The Naked Gun, you agreed with Leslie Nielsen that yes, that really was a nice beaverthen you have to accept that some folks will just snicker.
Advertisement
The case for the beaver as our national mammal isforgive mewatertight.
But a few people will share your enthusiasm for this remarkable rodent. A good friend might even give you the book Lily Pond by the naturalist Hope Ryden, who spent four years quietly observing the life and times of a beaver family.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
This book, which entranced and enriched none other than Jane Goodall, taught me some of the most marvelous facts Ive learned about any animal. I was blown away by Rydens descriptions of beavers quasi-human combination of socialness and engineering talent, such as how beavers walk upright in order to free their forepaws, dig canals in order to easily transport the wood they fell, and replaster the interior walls of their lodges just before the birth of kits. Since reading Lily Pond, Ive never walked a winter wood without looking out for the beaver-exhaled bubbles that can gather in lines beneath the frozen surface of a pond, allowing hot chocolatesipping humans on the waters edge to gaze out on a busy-as-a-you-know-what map of swimming routes beneath the ice.
Advertisement
Lily Pond was published in 1989. Now, nearly 30 years later, a different friend has given me a book thats a worthy successor to it. This new book is called Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, and its written by Ben Goldfarb, an environmental journalist. Eager deserves the high praise its received in the Washington Post and the Boston Globe. Its a lovely book, as fine a piece of nature writing as we could ask for.
Advertisement
Yet despite the lighthearted chapter titlesCalifornia Streaming, Realm of the DammedGoldfarbs book is more than a peaceful meditation on the aqua-hobbit folksiness of beavers. Goldfarb wants to show us what beavers did for us once and what they could do for us now. Indeed, his case for the beavers importance to Americas past, present, and future is so strong that his books publication is the perfect opportunity for Americas beaver lovers to stand up and let their call echo from pond to shining pond: The humble beaver should be our national mammal.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
But whats that, you say, about the beaver already being an official symbol of the sovereignty of Canada and even bearing a perfidious reference to that country in its scientific name, Castor canadensis? Pshaw. Our beavers will kick their sorry socialist beavers back to the North Pole. And whats that about Obama having signed a bill that bestowed national mammal status upon the bison, not the beaver, in 2016? An error, perhaps the most grievous of Obamas presidency. Theres no doubt in my mind that Trump would happily reverse it.
Advertisement
First, though, if this beaver-as-national-mammal campaign is going to take off, there are a few PR issues that campaigners need to get out ahead of. Specifically: Yes, beavers eat their own poop. As Goldfarb notes, beavers consume their own pudding-like excretions to extract every last iota of nutrition; by the time their feces reemerge a day later, theyre nearly sawdust. But I doubt James Carville or Karl Rove could improve on Goldfarbs spin on this habit: Thats beavers for you, thrifty as ever.
Its also true that beavers challenge once-commonplace stereotypes about gender, which is awesome, though I readily admit it isnt a topic that has the best track record of bringing Americans together. But it should, because its fascinating. For one thing, its hard to even distinguish between male and female beavers. Not because todays young beavers are rebelling against inherited, patriarchal notions of dress and deportment, but because their genitals are hidden behind fleshy vents that do triple duty in the departments of urine disposal, scent secretion, and reproduction. (Fun facts: Goldfarb notes that the Castor part of the beavers scientific name is related to castratum, which male beavers may appear to be, and which may have given rise to a lesser-known fable of Aesops, The Beaver and His Testicles.)
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Beavers might also divide Americans on religious grounds. The Catholic Church once determined that beavers are fish, so they dont count as meat for those who observe Lent.
Its a ruling that isnt so unreasonable when you consider beavers scaly tails, atypical sexual organs, and aquatic lifestyles, but it nevertheless has the makings of a doctrinal fissure. And then theres the tendency of beavers to go around spraying a mix of castoreum (a musky, vanilla-tinged oilsounds nice, right?) and urine across our homeland, behavior that challenges most every established moral code. Goldfarb, however, describes this as the beaver equivalent of erecting picket fences around property lines, which essentially frames it as a habit we humans could come to appreciate.
Advertisement
Thats about it for the potentially polarizing aspects of beaverdom. Now, among the many positives, lets start with the ways in which beavers embody a diverse set of aspirations for American society. Above all, in this moment of national self-doubt, its important to remember that at various points in our past, we Americans have been world-renowned for our eagerness, humility, and ingenuity. Sounds like a rodent you know, right?
Beavers also have family lives that are easy for humans to appreciate. They are generally monogamous and exhibit great devotion to kin. As Goldfarb noted in an email to me, female and male beavers divide child rearing, arboriculture (i.e., tree cutting), and civil engineering (i.e., dam work) roughly equally. Juvenile beavers work on the familys lodge and dams for a couple of years before they leave home to find their own fortune. Indeed, a beaver pond resembles that most widely beloved of American institutions: a small family business.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
In addition, much like Americans abroad, beavers enjoy a reputation for both excellent teeth and a strong work ethic. In a classroom at a wildlife sanctuary near my hometown where I once attended nature camp, there was a beaver skull that was said to highlight how important it was for beavers to keep, you know, busy: Without wood to work on, the beavers teeth had kept growing and curling back until the beavers very inactivity presumably caused its own gruesome demise. Metaphor-wise, its difficult to imagine a greater gift for conservatives. Yet beavers also seem to straddle the work-to-live vs. live-to-work divide better than many humans. In his email to me, Goldfarb referenced the naturalist Enos Mills, who wrote that a beavers life is full of industry and is rich in repose. Is there a better summary of the goals of the labor movement?
Advertisement
Advertisement
Im fine, as should be obvious by now, with essentially unlimited levels of beaver anthropomorphizing. But even without such unscientific indulgences, the case for the beaver as our national mammal isforgive mewatertight.
Perhaps the best reason to honor the beaver is the breathtaking scale of its presence in pre-Columbian North America. The upper end of one estimate that Goldfarb quotes of North Americas pre-European-contact beaver population is 400 million (a current estimate is around 15 million). Even more remarkable is how dramatically these creatures once sculpted our treasured landscapes. The traditional range of beavers encompassed portions of every state but Hawaii. I was floored by Goldfarbs rough estimate of the area of North America that was once submerged by beaver-engineered bodies of water: 234,000 square miles, or more than the combined area of Nevada and Arizona.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Beavers and their dams altered not just our continent, but the lives and the evolutionary paths of a veritable Noahs Ark of North Americas creatures. Indeed, the beaver is perhaps the best example of a keystone speciesthat is, one on which so many others depend. Songbirds, snow geese, otters, herons, pelicans, snakes, mink, raccoon, northern leopard frogs, sawflies, and trumpeter swans, to start. Even salmon, perhaps the last species youd expect to benefit from natures most famous dam builders, owe a debt to beavers (Goldfarb quoted a bumper sticker: Beavers taught salmon to jump). Long before Goldfarb describes the beavers teeth as evolutions most consequential dental sculptors, he should have you convinced.
The beaver may not have the soaring majesty of the bald eagle (Americas national animal) or the stateliness of the bison (our national mammal, for now). But in his email to me, Goldfarb pointed out that the bald eagle depends in part on beaver-made habitats that support salmon and other fish. In addition, as beavers raise water levels in ponds and wetlands, they kill surrounding trees and create snagsskeletal hunting perches from which eagles and other raptors scope their prey, which, be honest, is very cool and frankly underrated work. Even our incumbent national mammal traditionally relied on beaver-controlled water supplies. The Blackfeet and other Northern Plains tribes refused to kill beavers, Goldfarb wrote to me, largely because they recognized that beavers helped sustain the bison that they relied upon.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Much as they sculpted the natural world that a growing nation would subsume, beaversspecifically, their valuable, hat-friendly furalso helped shape the polities that became the United States. In his book, Goldfarb describes beaver furs, which Pilgrims used to repay their debts in England, as the wind in the sails of the Mayflower and quotes the historian James Truslow Adams: The Bible and the beaver were the two mainstays of the young colony. The acquisition of Manhattan (the real prizes were thousands of beaver skins, the island itself was little more than a pot-sweetener), the American Revolution, the Louisiana Purchase, the War of 1812Goldfarb argues that more than any other natural resource, beavers help explain just about every significant American geopolitical event between European arrival and the Civil War.
Advertisement
The beaver is also a living and (once again) commonplace reminder of some of the most unsavory aspects of Americas history. The fur trade devasted beaver populations and the many species that depended on them. I associate the mammal so strongly with the part of rural western Massachusetts where I grew up that I was dumbstruck to learn from Goldfarbs book that beavers were hunted to extinction in my home state by the 18th century. They returned only in the late 1920s. Even in the comparative vastness of New York state, by the 1890s the beaver population had fallen to just five individuals huddled in the Adirondacks. The plunder was continental in scale: In 1843, John James Audubon could journey along more than 2,000 miles of the Missouri River and see not one beaver.
Advertisement
In addition to upending ancient ecological balances, the fur trade also led, of course, to unnumbered human tragedies. Goldfarb describes some of the traditional roles of beavers in certain Native American cultures and notes that the fur trade, in addition to being one of American historys more reliable vectors for settlement, disease, and conflict, warped indigenous peoples relationship with beaver from subsistence and kinship to extraction. If were brave enough to embrace national symbols that help us confront the contradictions in our past, then the beaver is perhaps our finest candidate.
Advertisement
Aiming to ensure well-watered pastures for livestock and rich streams that draw wildlife, fishermen, and tourists? Call 1-800- BEAVERS .
In short, its hard not to look back at Americas cultural, ecological, economic, and political history without seeing Castor canadensis. But even a country that prides itself on looking mostly forward might find lessons in our current relationship with beavers, and reasons to be hopeful about our shared future on this continent.
Advertisement
Goldfarb notes that today America is sprawling deeper into its landscapes even as many of them are re-wilding, two seemingly contradictory trends that are producing more conflicts between us and a natural world that remains one of the greatest joys of living in this country. One consequence is that many Americans have been given new reasons to view beavers as pests. Goldfarb highlights flooded roads, chewed-through fiber optic cables, and disrupted weddings as just some of the fronts in the war that some may perceive beavers to be waging on our republic. I remember a weeks-long period of my western Massachusetts childhood when we had to boil all our drinking water because beavers had unleashed beaver fever, or giardiasis, into the town water supply.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Id urge beaver skeptics, especially those professionally involved in infrastructure and agriculture, to delve into the details of Goldfarbs book, much of which is devoted to explaining why many such conflicts can be managed with a combination of an open mind and the latest beaver-friendly technologies. Even the most dyed-in-the-fur beaver haters should do so, because Goldfarb describes new approaches to beaver management that may be cheaper and more efficient than traditional methods such as guns, traps, and infrastructure repairs.
Anyway, Goldfarb isnt out to show only that if were a little smarter about beavers, then we might peacefully coexist. He argues that our ever-greater power to shape the course of the natural world comes with ever-greater responsibilitiesand that beavers, world shapers themselves, are uniquely poised to help us.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Trying to inexpensively fix damaged streams and restore ecosystems that other species rely on? Beavers do so easily what you have to work so hard to accomplish, said one Forest Service biologist to Goldfarb. Aiming to ensure well-watered pastures for livestock and rich streams that draw wildlife, fishermen, and tourists, all of which are of particular importance to an increasingly water-challenged West? Call 1-800-BEAVERS (but maybe dont do that, exactly).
Advertisement
Then theres the specter of further climate change. Hoping to mitigate the impact not just on ecosystems, but on water supplies for cities and agriculture? By slowing, spreading, storing, and sinking meltwater and runoff, beavers can help us compensate, to some to-be-determined extent, for vast-vanishing glaciers and snowpack. Reworking the Alaskan tundra to help moose, songbirds, and other northward-fleeing species adapt to global warming? Theres a beaver for that. What about carbon sequestration in pond sediment? Forget trees: If you want to fight climate change, its entirely possible youre better off planting beavers.
Advertisement
In short, Goldfarb argues that it makes sense for Americans to reconsider our relationship with the beaver, not just because its right for us to let at least some beavers do what beavers will do, and not just because its so easy for nature romantics like myself to see in the lives of beavers many of the attributes that we most value. Goldfarb doesnt need to anthropomorphize beavers because he demonstrates that they really are like us: Theyre the only species that approaches our own in their potential to reshape and to steward, actively or inadvertently, the natural world. And our natural world needs some serious stewardship right now.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Let the rodent do the work. Thats what a geomorphologistwhose team devised a way for a Walmart in Logan, Utah, to coexist with the beavers in the stream next door, protecting not just the beavers, but fish, waterfowl, and an environment with just crazy levels of biodiversitytold Goldfarb. And let Americans, Id add, read Goldfarbs book, which makes it so beautifully clear why we should partner with beavers wherever and whenever we can, and why our nation should find a way to honor these creatures for what they are: the most remarkable of our fellow travelers.
This piece was originally published on Just Security, an online forum for analysis of U.S. national security law and policy.
Tech behemoths just cant catch a break these days. Just as they are struggling to meet calls to contain the spread of misinformation and hate speech online, they are being bashed by conservatives for allegedly suppressing right-wing voices. As is his habit, President Trump added fuel to the fire, taking to Twitter last week to complain that Google was rigging search results to hide positive stories about his administration. While the First Amendment almost certainly prevents Trump from directly regulating Google, the administration can exert pressure on tech companies to adjust their practices and achieve much the same result: manipulating what the public sees.
Advertisement
In response to Trumps recriminations, Google declared that its search algorithms are not used to set a political agenda, and we dont bias our results toward any particular ideology. While there is little evidence of political bias, we cant really evaluate how Googles algorithm surfaces particular resultsits secret. Regardless of whether search results are biased or not, a slew of federal courts have held that companies like Google and Facebook clearly engage in both speech and press activities when they display content created by third parties. In 2017, for example, a Florida federal court dismissed a challenge to Googles decision to delist particular sites. According to the court, Googles free speech rights protect its listing and delisting decisions whether they are fair or unfair, or motivated by profit or altruism.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Just last year, the Supreme Court made clear that it is wary of government attempts to interfere with the internet. It struck down a North Carolina law that made it a felony for registered sex offenders to access certain sites, declaring that cyberspace and particularly social media are the most important places for the exchange of views. And earlier this year, a federal court held that the presidents personal Twitter account was a constitutionally protected forum from which users couldnt be blocked. These cases may set up an eventual conflict between the speech rights of platforms and those of users, but they both point to judicial hostility to government interference.
While direct regulation is likely off the table, political pressure canand hasled companies to adjust what information is displayed on their sites. In 2016, congressional Republicans lambasted Facebook for allowing its employees to manipulate the Trending part of its news feed to demote conservative sources. Facebook bent over backwards to quell the uproar and eventually changed the way it selected Trending stories, replacing the curatorial team with engineers who had a more mechanical role in approving stories generated by the Trending algorithm.
Advertisement
In the last couple of years, platforms have succumbed to government calls to remove terrorist and extremist content, relying on internal standards about permissible speech. After initially claiming that there was no magic algorithm that allowed them to distinguish terrorist content, they now routinely tout how much material they have deleted with the help of algorithms. In April, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Congress that Facebook was able to flag 99 percent of the ISIS and Al Qaida content before any human sees it. The companys transparency report shows that it in the first quarter of 2018, it took action on 1.9 million pieces of content, such as posts, images, videos, or comments. Twitter claims that it has suspended over 1.2 million accounts for terrorist content since August 2015.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
But for all the companies (increasing) efforts at transparency, we cannot avoid the fact that these numbers reflect judgments made by Facebook and Twitter behind closed doors and we have no way of knowing whether they are reasonable or the extent to which they reflect biases. We do know that in their attempts to remove terrorists from their platforms, they have targeted all manner of political speech, from Palestinian journalists to Kashmiri activists.
In some ways, social media platforms have become a victim of their own claimed ability to find and remove speech. Germany recently passed the NetzDG law, which requires large social media platforms to remove a broad range of posts, ranging from insults of public office to real threats of violence, within 24 hours or face fines up to 50 million euros. A similar law is in the works at the European Union level.
Advertisement
Normally, democratic governments that wish to prevent speech must publicly identify the speech and speaker they wish to censor and convince a neutral decision-maker that they have met the applicable legal standarda tough sell under free speech principles. But governments are now incentivizing tech companies to remove certain speech, either directly through regulation or indirectly through political bullying. Government attempts to influence the information the public sees are being moved into mostly secret corporate processes. Equally important, the check provided by judicial review is eliminated. These moves exacerbate already serious concerns about the control that social media platforms and search engines already exercise over information and communication.
As governments find new ways to influence tech companies, all of us who find our information online and use social media platforms must pull in the opposite direction so that we maintain access to a range of sources and views and have true opportunities to express ourselves online.
US companies bring higher added value to Slovakia
The labour force shortage is also an issue for members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Slovakia.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Slovakia The American Chamber of Commerce in Slovakia is a service-oriented organisation. It was founded in 1993 in Bratislava and has since transformed into an international chamber. Out of its more than 330 member companies from 26 countries, about 40 percent are Slovak companies and approximately 23 percent are American companies. Today, it is one of the most active and professional foreign chambers of commerce in Slovakia. Its activities focus on improving the local business environment with stress on education, the fight against corruption, law enforcement, the building of a knowledge-based economy and development of innovations.
Slovakia remains an interesting investment destination for US investors, thanks to the favourable ratio of wage costs and performance of the labour force, but also because Slovaks do not go on strike very often and the political situation in the country, despite some turbulence, is stable. However, members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Slovakia (AmCham) have started to feel the heat of the labour market. Much like other companies, they are failing to find workers for their new projects.
Now, we are talking more about some missed opportunities, said Ronald Blasko, new executive director of AmCham, who replaced Jake Slegers after 17 years. But this is simultaneously a challenge and a threat for Slovakias economy.
The Slovak Spectator spoke with Blasko about tariffs imposed by the Trump administration and the threat of a trade war, the Rule of Law initiative and more.
The Slovak Spectator (TSS): The United States has imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium from Canada, Mexico and the European Union and threatened the EU with an increase of tariffs on imported cars. In your opinion, is a trade war between the US and the EU threatening?
5. Sep 2018 at 6:30 | Jana Liptakova
FAQ: How can foreigners vote in municipal elections in Slovakia?
Foreigners living in Slovakia can influence the results of the upcoming municipal elections. Here is what you need to know before visiting a polling station.
We have answered the frequently asked questions about voting in municipal elections with the kind help of the Human Rights League.
Do you have more questions about voting in Slovakia? Please let us know at spectator@spectator.sk.
Poll:
Will you cast ballots in the November 10 municipal election? No 2 Yes 8 Voted: 10
Anketa uz bola ukoncena.
Q: I am a foreigner living in Slovakia. Am I eligible to vote in municipal elections?
Q: Do I need to register for voting before I am allowed to vote?
Q: When will municipal elections take place?
Q: Which polling station can I vote at?
Q: What do I need to bring with me for voting?
Q: How will I choose the candidates?
Q: May I run for mayor of the town or for municipal council?
Q: Why should I vote in the municipal elections?
Q: I am a foreigner living in Slovakia. Am I eligible to vote in municipal elections?
A: Yes, if you are older than 18 and have permanent residence in a Slovak city, town or village. Besides municipal elections, you are also able to vote in the regional and European Parliamentary elections in Slovakia.
These purposes of stay are categorized under permanent residence:
-non-EU citizens: permanent residence for 5 years, unlimited permanent residence, long-term permanent residence, family member of EU citizen, permanent residence of family member of EU citizen and asylum seeker
-EU citizens: EU citizen and permanent residence of EU citizen
Q: Do I need to register for voting before I am allowed to vote?
A: No, the town or village where you have permanent residence is responsible for enrolling you in the permanent list of voters. If you find that you are not on the list when you turn up to vote, the district electoral committee will write your name down after identifying with your Foreigner Resident Card.
Q: When will municipal elections take place?
A: Saturday, November 10, 2018.
Q: Which polling station can I vote at?
A: You can only vote at the polling station in the town of your permanent residence. The location of your respective polling station will be announced to you in a letter from your municipal office that you should receive at your permanent address no later than 25 days before election day. The municipalities deliver one letter per household, even if several voters live in the household. It does not state your name. All the election documents and ballots are in Slovak only.
Q: What do I need to bring with me for voting?
A: You have to identify yourself with your Foreigner Resident Card.
Q: How will I choose the candidates?
A: The voters will receive two ballot papers: one with the candidates for municipal mayor and the other with candidates for municipal council. For the former, the voters can only circle one candidate, while for the latter they may circle more. The number of municipal deputies that can be elected in a certain district will be stated directly on the ballot. You can circle as many candidates as there are positions in your district. However, your vote will be still be valid even if you only circle one name.
The voters will then put both ballots into one envelope, which they will receive from the committee, and cast it into the ballot box.
In Bratislava and Kosice, voters receive 4 ballots:- One for election for local municipality- One for election of mayor of borough- One for election for municipal council- One for election of mayor of the town
Q: May I run for mayor of the town or for municipal parliament?
A: You are eligible to run for mayor or a member of municipal parliament if you have permanent residence in the town where you want to run for the post and meet the age requirement of at least 25 for mayor and 18 for municipal parliament, regardless of nationality. You are not eligible if you have ever been sentenced for a crime, imprisoned or deprived of legal capacities. The deadline for submitting candidacies is September 11, 2018.
Q: Why should I vote in the municipal elections?
A: Municipalities decide on the local economic activities, approve the municipal budget and control it, and plan development of various spheres of life in towns and villages. Follow The Slovak Spectator for more coverage in the weeks leading up to election day.
5. Sep 2018 at 11:35 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Parliamentary committee approved October 30 as one-time state holiday
The centenary of the adoption of the Declaration of the Slovak Nation prompted MPs of the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee to make October 30, 2018 a one-time holiday.
The second-but-last October of this year shall be a one-time state holiday, during which Slovakia will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of the Slovak Nation. This event took place on October 30, 1918 in Turciansky Sv. Martin, the TASR newswire wrote.
Read also:
Read also: Kiska recalls Czechoslovakias founding Read more
The draft amendment to the Act on State Holidays was approved by the MPs of the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee on September 4, and recommended to be passed at the September parliamentary session.
With this Declaration, representatives of the Slovak Nation owned up to the self-determinant right of nations and to the establishment of the independent Czechoslovak state.
Pros and cons
Originally, the junior coalition Slovak National Party-SNS disagreed with the proposal to declare a one-time state holiday. It identified with worries of employers who feared this would become a precedent.
Read also:
Read also: Czechoslovakia day proposed as national holiday again Read more
We see no reason for such extraordinary holidays to be introduced in the future, it argued in its statement. However, all present SNS MPs voted for the draft amendment to proceed to the second reading in parliament in the end, TASR wrote.
In the Czech Republic October 28 is a regular state holiday, when the first independent Czechoslovak state and split from the Austro-Hungarian Empire was announced.
5. Sep 2018 at 13:48 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Primary schools will get free lunches
Chairman of the ruling Smer party, Robert Fico, has promised free lunches for all pupils of primary schools and the last grades of nursery schools.
Pupils of primary schools and the last grades of nursery schools should get free lunches as of January 1, 2019, leader of the ruling Smer party and ex-prime minister, Robert Fico, informed. He added that this social measure will apply to about 516,000 children.
Each child should get 1.20 per day from the state for a meal, the TASR newswire quoted him as having said on September 4, which would be about 120 per child in a single school year. Thus, the measure will cost the state about 117 million in total.
Childrens participation in lunches in school canteens is very poor among students of the fifth to ninth grades of primary schools, amounting to 50-60 percent, Fico noted.
Success could make it continue
If free lunches are successful next year, the party will consider extending this measure to apply to secondary school students as well, he added.
About 381,000 pupils used the services of school canteens last year, according to Finance Minister Peter Kazimir.
I welcome this measure, as I believe it will be effective, said Labour Minister Jan Richter, as cited by TASR. Well provide 1.20 per pupil to school founders, namely municipalities and churches. Our duty ends with this, stated Richter.
Opposition MP opposes the idea
Free meals for pupils is a typical populist move aimed at buying voters, the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) partys MP Branislav Grohling reacted. According to him, a well-functioning government should create a system in which people don't have to rely on various unsystematic alms from the state. Grohling added that free meals for pupils is not what the Slovak education system really needs. Most pupils and parents dont need free meals, but they do need quality textbooks, well-equipped schools and good education for their children, he said.
5. Sep 2018 at 21:45 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Slovak Night Wolves returned historical equipment
The civic association Museum of Historical Vehicles has been sharing a venue with the Slovak branch of Night Wolves.
The complex of the Slovak "Night Wolves" in Dolna Krupa (Source: Sme - Jozef Jakubco)
The civic association Museum of Historical Vehicles Trnava, which is legally represented by Jozef Hambalek, has already returned the discarded military equipment to the Military History Institute, the Sme daily wrote.
Originally, the association that wants to open a military history museum borrowed it for the premises in Dolna Krupa where the Russian motorbike gang Night Wolves have been congregating.
Read also:
Read also: Biker gang complex in Dolna Krupa raises questions Read more
The head of the club, Aleksander Zaldostanov, a.k.a. Surgeon, is a crony of Russian President Vladimir Putin and sanctions of the European Union concern him as well.
Equipment is back
Hambalek returned the equipment between July 27 and 30, and on August 2, 2018, the Defence Ministry (under which the Military History Institute falls) spokesperson Danka Capakova confirmed for the SITA newswire.
Read also:
Read also: Petition urges public officials to take action against the Night Wolves Read more
The civic association was able to rent the equipment thanks to the head of Military History Institute, Miloslav Caplovic, who signed a contract with Hambalek allegedly without informing his superiors, or the top superior, Defence Minister Peter Gajdos.
Ministry did not know
In July, the ministry claimed not to have known about the contract being signed, and Capakova noted that Caplovic had failed to duly check on the background of the civic association.
Gajdos ordered the suspension of Caplovic's function as head of the Military History Institute without specifying whether he will get it back.
5. Sep 2018 at 21:53 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Coca-Cola is getting into the coffee game. No, Im not talking about Coke Plus Coffee, which saw a wider international release at the end of July. The Atlanta-based soft drink company announced of Friday their plans to purchase the UKs Costa Coffee for $5.1 billion. Cash.
According to the New York Times, this is Cokes largest-ever acquisition, edging out 2007s purchase of Vitaminwater. This now puts them in pretty direct competition with behemoths like Starbucks and JAB Holdings for global coffee domination. Costa was already making a push into China to compete with Starbucks and upstart Luckin Coffee, and the acquisition allows the brand to make an even greater push in global markets. Coca-Colas distribution muscle will no doubt help close the gap and boost sales significantly in the long run, GlobalData research analyst Jonathan Davison tells the New York Times.
Now the proud owner of nearly 4,000 retail locations worldwide, Coca-Cola plans to use their strong distribution channels to push Costa into more grocery stores and restaurants. The Costa brand has potential for expansion into ready-to-drink coffee across many markets globally, Cokes chief executive James Quincey stated in a blog post.
The $5.1 billion sales figure is 16 times Costas pro forma earnings for the 2018 fiscal year, which Alison Brittain, chief executive at Whitbreadthe British company that owned Costacalled an absolute stonking deal. Were pretty sure that means they liked it.
So you can expect to see Costa popping up a whole lot more now. Especially in America, presumably. The home of Costas new parent company is a relative unknown to the UK brand, so a US push seems imminent as this point. Hopefully well at least get some Coke Plus Costa out of it.
Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
Digital illustration by the author.
Considering that this track was three to four feet underwater about three weeks ago, the horsemen cant say enough to praise John Brokenshire and his crew at Bloomsburg for the outstanding job that has been done here.
That was said by Pennsylvania Harness Horsemen's Association president Sam Beegle after the Bloomsburg (Pa.) Fair racetrack and attendant areas had been worked back into masterful shape by Brokenshire, only in his second year in charge of the racing at Bloomsburg, and his co-workers, producing three track records and five sub-2:00 miles during the two-day Pennsylvania Fair Sire Stakes meet at the fairgrounds on Monday (Sept. 3) and Tuesday (Sept. 4).
The Dave Brickell stable, with Brickell as trainer-driver and co-owner with Mitchell York, produced two outstanding performances of the meet. The first came during Monday's card for two-year-olds, when Well Said-Chantal Hall pacing miss Crew Sock Hanover toured the Bloomsburg oval in 1:58 the fastest time ever produced by a two-year-old pacing filly at any Pennsylvania fair. Crew Sock Hanover is now undefeated in eight fair outings and victorious nine times overall.
Venier Hanover, who as a freshman set eight track records while the dominant force on the Keystone fair circuit, started off slowly this year but recently has been ablaze, taking his sixth straight start, in 1:55.1, reducing Alastor Hanovers 2006 local standard for three-year-old pacing colts of 1:56.4 dramatically.
The third track record notched at the Bloomsburg fairgrounds came from the Muscle MassiveMissing Dough two-year-old trotting filly Touch Of Dough, who reduced her mark by six full seconds to 2:01, a time also a fifth quicker than the 2006 local performance of Shesfastandfurious. Touch Of Dough has now won five of her last six starts for driver Eric Neal, trainer Randy Neal, and Beal Racing Stable LLC.
The fastest trotting mile of the meet overall came from the Donato Hanover sophomore gelding Show Me The Magic, a four-time fair winner who completed the mile in 2:00.1 for driver Tony Schadel and trainer-owner Bruce Schadel.
Todd Schadel and Roger Hammer each drove four winners during the two-day stand to tie atop the Bloomsburg driver standings; Schadel sent out five winners from his barn to lead all trainers.
(Pennsylvania Fair Harness Horsemen's Association)
Nanticoke Racing, Josh Parker and Barry Speddens Kaitlyn N ($4.40, Art Stafford Jr.) captured the $16,000 Mares Open in 1:53.3 on Tuesday (Sept. 4) at Harrington Raceway.
It was the eighth win of the year for the five-year-old American Ideal mare, who was an aggressive pocket sitter from post 7 behind pacesetter Artrageous, who was second. Purrfect Bags was third. Kaitlyn N had been racing against some of the top mares on the east coast in Pennsylvania and New York over the summer before returning to her home state. The Parker trainee has won 10 of 39 career starts.
Racing continues on a Monday through Wednesday schedule with a 5 p.m. post time.
(Harrington Raceway)
Distaffers dominated Week 14 of the 2018 Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown Poll, as the top four positions were occupied by females. Week 15 has seen a male crack the top three.
The Casie Coleman-trained McArdle warhorse McWicked dazzled fans at Woodbine Mohawk Park this past Saturday night (Sept. 1), as he shot past Down Under superstar Lazarus to capture the $600,000 Canadian Pacing Derby in 1:49.
The win added $300,000 to McWickeds bankroll, and it also shot him up from seventh to third on Week 15 of the 2018 Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown Poll, courtesy of 233 points.
The top two positions on the poll remain unchanged from Week 14, as 2018 Hambletonian winner Atlanta still occupies the top spot with 318 points, and Manchego, who recently defeated Atlanta in the Casual Breeze, remains at No. 2 with 301 points.
Shartin N (208) and Courtly Choice (171) round out the top five, respectively.
Atlanta and Manchego are scheduled to lock horns on Saturday, September 15 at Woodbine Mohawk Park in the $340,000 Elegantimage Stakes. Eliminations for the showdown were not required, as the connections of seven fillies entered their charges to contest the event. For more information, click here.
The results from Week 15 of the poll appear below.
(Rank Horse [first-place votes] Total Points Previous)
1 Atlanta (18) 318 1
2 Manchego (11) 301 2
3 McWicked (3) 233 7
4 Shartin N (1) 208 3
5 Courtly Choice (2) 171 5
6 Hannelore Hanover 126 4
7 Kissin In The Sand 109 10
8 Marion Marauder 107 6
9 Lazarus N 78 9
10 Ariana G 70 8
Also: Stay Hungry (41); Lather Up (40); Youaremycandygirl (22); Jimmy Freight (19); Mets Hall (17); Six Pack (15); Crazy Wow (8); Captain Ahab, Plunge Blue Chip (6); Crystal Fashion, Dont Letem, Homicide Hunter, Proof (5); Phaetosive, Western Joe (3); Beckhams Z Tam, Caviart Ally, De Los Cielos Deo, Dorsoduro Hanover (1).
The Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown poll is voted on by harness racing media representatives that cover North American Standardbred racing.
The rankings are based on the votes of harness racing media representatives on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
The Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown poll does not determine Horse of the Year. The U.S. Harness Writers Association votes in December on all Dan Patch Award division winners plus Trotter of the Year, Pacer of the Year and Horse of the Year. The Dan Patch Awards are separate from the O'Brien Awards, which recognize Canada's top Standardbreds of a given racing season.
On Wednesday (Sept. 5), New Zealand Police announced that they have arrested and charged a total of ten individuals in relation to Operation Inca, which is a National Organised Crime Group investigation into alleged corruption in harness racing.
The investigation has led to a total of 17 search warrants, the large majority of which were executed in Christchurch. The other warrants were executed in Invercargill and Manawatu.
News of the police operation have led to media reports regarding the situation, but authorities have yet to publicly name the ten individuals that have been charged as a result of the probe.
New Zealand Police have announced the following:
A 26-year-old man is due to appear in Christchurch District Court today (Wednesday, Sept. 5) on charges of deception by match-fixing, possessing Class B drugs for supply, and supplying Class B drugs.
Four men aged 34, 40, 41 and 44 are due to appear in Christchurch District Court on Tuesday, September 12 on match-fixing charges.
A 41-year-old woman is due to appear the same day (Tuesday, Sept. 12) on two counts of supplying Class B drugs.
A 47-year-old man has been charged with deception by match-fixing and is due to appear in Palmerston North District Court, also on Tuesday, September 12.
Three men, aged 30, 42 and 49, were due to appear in Christchurch District Court this afternoon (Wednesday, Sept. 5) on multiple drug-related charges. The 30-year-old man is also facing a charge of unlawful possession of a restricted weapon.
Anyone with information relevant to this investigation is urged to contact [email protected] or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
In light of the situation, Harness Racing New Zealand has issued the following release:
Media Release: Operation Inca
The Police and Racing Integrity Unit are investigating race fixing in harness racing. As a result of the investigation to date, the police have arrested a number of persons and charged them with race fixing.
In view of the serious nature of the charges the police have laid, the Racing Integrity Unit (RIU) has taken action under the Rules of Harness Racing to exclude all those charged by the police from entering a race course to attend race meetings, workouts and trials.
The RIU has also charged those concerned with Serious Racing Offences, Rule 1001 (1) (v) (i) of the Rules of Harness Racing.
The RIU can be contacted by the following means:
0800RIU123
[email protected]
09 529 7219
As the matter is now before the courts no further comment will be made.
(With files from New Zealand Police and Harness Racing New Zealand)
There will be a lot at stake for all the entrants of the New York Sire Stakes for three-year-old pacing colts and geldings at Batavia Downs on Wednesday (Sept. 5), as it will be the last race for the group before the $225,000 final at Yonkers Raceway on Saturday, September 22. The one division that all eyes will be on will feature a heavyweight match between Springsteen and Hitman Hill, who both need to win for the opportunity to make that final.
Springsteen is currently 10th in points with 100, while Hitman Hill is sitting behind him in 12th with 75. The majority of the horses currently in position to make the final will also be competing on Wednesday, so it all depends on how well everyone does.
There will be three $39,200 divisions of the NYSS, as they have been carded as Race 1, 5 and 6. Post time for the first race will be at 5 p.m.
Springsteen (Rock N Roll Heaven-American Charm) has had a huge year. He won the $500,000 Hempt at Mohegan Sun Pocono in a lifetime best 1:48.3 in June along with two NYSS divisions this year. But he failed to make the $400,000 Adios final and more recently finished seventh in the $400,000 Milstein. This past Saturday (Sept, 2) he had a rough outing, as he finished last in the $500,000 Messenger Stakes at Yonkers.
He currently sits eighth in North America among all three-year-olds for earnings with $341,175 and has the sixth fastest win time for that same group of 1:48.3
Louis-Philippe Roy has been tabbed to drive Springsteen by trainer Rene Allard, and the duo has been gauged as the morning line choice at 8-5 from Post 3.
Hitman Hill (American Ideal-Fox Valley Shaker) has had a full dance card this year as well and has put in stellar efforts in each one of his outings. He finished third in the Hempt (behind Springsteen), third in the Adios final, and fourth in the $272,025 Empire Breeders Classic. He finished one-two in his pair of NYSS events, and will return to Batavia Downs as the reigning track record holder for two-year-old pacing geldings with a mark of 1:52.4, which was taken in 2017.
For the year, Hitman Hill has recorded three wins and $200,387 in earnings with a seasonal and lifetime best mark of 1:49.3.
Akron, New York native Chris Oakes trains Hitman Hill and will have Brett Miller in the bike, as usual. They will depart from Post 6 and have been listed at 5-2.
The first divisions early 8-5 favourite is Topville Olympian (American Ideal-Our Sophia), who just finished a close third behind Stay Hungry and Jimmy Freight in the Messenger Stakes at Yonkers on Saturday. He has one NYSS win this year, but has never missed the board while competing in that series. Hes the top money earner in this race with $129,170 and has picked up the services of Brett Miller for the outing.
His main rivals appear to be Rockapelo (Rock N Roll Heaven), who scored his best win at Tioga Downs this year in the Geers Stakes (1:50.2), and the NYSS points leader Rootin Tootin (Roll With Joe-Wild Retreat), who has 180 and is 55 points ahead of his nearest rival.
Ideal Feeling (American Ideal-Feelinglikeastar) has received the track handicappers nod in the second division (he has been listed at 2-1). After taking an early season mark of 1:51.3 at Tioga, Ideal Feeling raced well in an elimination of the Meadowlands Pace in July that went in 1:49, although he missed the final. He then finished a strong second to Courtly Choice in an elimination of the Empire Breeders Classic before drawing Post 7 in the final, where he found himself chasing a 1:48.3 mile from the back of the pack. He has drawn Post 4 in a short field and will have Jason Bartlett along for the ride.
Also looking to get the win will be Real Surreal (So Surreal-Armbro Wallflower) who finished third in the Empire Breeders Classic, pacing in 1:50 in defeat and Ostro Hanover (Betterthancheddar-Ozmopolitan), who will be making his fourth start for his new trainer after winning a 1:52.4 NYSS race at Saratoga Raceway.
(Batavia Downs)
Post Time with Mike and Mike presented by BetAmerica is excited to announce its line-up for Thursday morning (August 30) at 10:30 a.m.
The duo will be joined by Mitchell Cushing, a regular driver on the Maine circuit; Casie Coleman, trainer of champion McWicked; Garrett Bell, general manager at Winbak Farm; and Darin Gagne, the track announcer at Running Aces Casino and Racetrack
Cushing became a household name on Monday when he scored during the Windsor Fair with world champion Foiled Again. Cushing will join the program to discuss how he got into the sport of harness racing and to take the duo through his trip with the big horse.
McWicked was able to score the upset over Lazarus N on Saturday night at Woodbine Mohawk Park in the Canadian Pacing Derby. Trainer Casie Coleman will join the program to talk about her star horse and what may be next for him.
Garrett Bell will talk about the upcoming Goshen Sale on Saturday, September 9. Winbak is currently second in wins and earnings for a breeder this season.
The Running Aces segment with track announcer Darin Gagne returns this week to discuss about the happenings at the Minnesota track. Gagne will highlight some of the big events coming up and recap last weeks events.
Post Time with Mike and Mike presented by BetAmerica can be heard live every Thursday at 10:30 a.m. via posttimewithmikeandmike.com or on the archive at betamerica.com/BARN.
(With files from Post Time)
Welcome Guest! You Are Here:
Mountain Shadows in Wayanad is just the place for a dreamy vacation
Turning the ship before it hits the iceberg
by Ramona Crasto
KUWAIT, SEP 4, 2018: To appreciate and celebrate the role of teachers in society, the Salmiya Parish Youth (SPY) organised a Teachers Day event at the St. Therese of Child Jesus Church on September 1.
Thirty-seven teachers from various schools in Kuwait attended the event, which followed the theme, 'a regular school day with a slight twist for the teachers'.
The event began with a prayer for teachers followed by a tailor-made pledge for every teacher, as they stood at arm's length from each other resembling a morning school assembly. The SPY core members led by Father Lionel Braganza performed a musical comedy to the tunes of Band in Kayano in orchestra style, imitating instruments with their mouth and gestures.
The teachers, joined by Father Blany Pinto and Father Derrick Misquitta, were then divided into groups namely - the legends, compass box, tiffin box, and cane. Youth members stood in as teachers for different subjects namely English, Social Sciences, Maths, Science and General Knowledge, and held a 'Are you smarter than a fifth grader?' quiz for each of those subjects.
Physical training is every student's delight. The youth kept the teachers warmed up and on their toes with a session of dance aerobics, rolling back the years to their own school days. "The teachers day programme was surely one to remember. Teachers, though being a pivotal part of our lives, are the most under-appreciated. So to be here and make this event an enjoyable one for them was a token of our gratitude," Sherissa Fernandes, a SPY youth member, said. "For me, the part which I will absolutely not forget was the quiz; it was funny to see our teachers on the answering side of the table."
Snacks were distributed in a tiffin box. Father Pinto, the parish priest, proposed the vote of thanks. The teachers were presented with a 'Teachers Survival Kit' - a little cloth bag filled with goodies. "As one of the organizers of Teachers Day, it was my privilege and pride to be able to give back to these teachers for the little things that they have taught us, that help us in our day to day lives," Paloma D'sa, a SPY animator, said.
Guwahati: An Inter-Ministerial team of Union government on Tuesday has arrived at Dimapur in Nagaland to assess the damages caused by floods and landslides in the state.
The Inter-Ministerial team headed by KB Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, will visit several worse affected areas in Dimapur, Tuensang, Kiphire, Wokha, Kohima and Phek districts for three days and will also interact with the affected people.
After Kerala, Nagaland witnessed severe natural disaster as several districts of the north eastern state affected in flood and massive landslides.
At least 12 people have died and over 3,000 families have been displaced in the state since July last.
About 50,000 people in Nagaland in over 530 villages have remained cut-off for a month and major roads have been damaged in flood and landslides.
Following the major natural disaster, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio took to social media last week and urging the nation for help Nagaland to rebuild the damaged infrastructure due to flood, landslides.
The Nagaland government requires around Rs 800 crore immediately for restoration of the damages caused by flood and landslides.
Last week, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had assured to help the state from the centre.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also spoke with the Nagaland CM on September 1 and assured all possible support from the centre to Nagaland.
According to the Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA), the state capital Kohima and Tuensang, Phek and Kiphire districts have been severely affected and Tuensang, Phek, Kiphire, bordering districts with Myanmar have been cut-off from the rest of the state since the rains became incessant from July 26 last.
About 359 locations of roads have been totally cut-off.
A top official of Nagaland government said that, many national and state highways have been cut-off and many district connectivity roads have become unmotorable.
Road communication and connectivity have been adversely impacted and even National Highway 29, connects to Manipur has been severely affected.
Junior Union Home minister Kiren Rijiju had visited the flood and landslide hit state and took stock of the situation.
On the other hand, villagers of several remote areas of the state facing food crisis after major roads have been damaged in massive landslides.
The Indian Air Force has air dropped essential materials in the worst-hit Tobu, Peren, Noklak, Wuzu, Noksen, Seyochurig, Pongro and some other areas of Indo-Myanmar border.
Guwahati, Sep 5 : After 100-hour long search and rescue operations, the Indian Navys deep-sea divers, Indian army, the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams had finally recovered the car and bodies of five members of a family, who went missing after their Swift Dzire car plunged into Dikhow river in upper Assams Sivasagar district on September 1 evening.
The rescue teams on Wednesday had recovered the drowned car from the river and the decomposed bodies of the five members of a Guwahati-based family were found inside the car.
The car was spotted in the river around 250 metres away from the spot where the car drowned.
The rescue teams had brought out the bodies inside the car.
Earlier, a 8-member diving team with equipments from the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam had reached in Sivasagar town on September 3 to help in the search and rescue operation.
Apart from the Indian Navys diver team, Indian army, SDRF and NDRF teams were also engaged in search operations.
Firstly, we havent found nothing during diving. Later, we had used our magnet process and searching in the river by using magnet and found some objects. Finally, we had recovered the car, a SDRF diver said.
Five members of a family went missing after a Swift Dzire car where they were travelled plunged into Dikhow river on September 1 evening.
The incident took place at Dikhowmukh area near Gaurisagar in the upper Assams district when the family was travelling from Guwahati to Sivasagar and their speeding car lost its control and fell into Dikhow river.
The five people have been identified as Haren Bora, his mother Phunu Bora, wife Ponou Bora and two daughters Simpi Bora and Munmi Bora.
UK actor John Simm has told British press he is open to the idea of more Life on Mars.
Nobodys mentioned it to me but Id certainly consider it. Other roles Ive played, in Prey and Trauma, are everymen, theyre normal guys and it wouldnt be fair for anything else to happen to them, he told Whats On TV.
Simm played DCI Sam Tyler opposite Philip Glenister as politically incorrect 70s cop DCI Gene Hunt for two seasons.
Writer Ashley Pharoah previously admitted that there was supposed to be a third series of the cult hit but it never happened.
Life on Mars is very different, because theres three years between that and Ashes to Ashes which we could mine. It would be do-able, says Simm.
Its about time travel so you can get away with anything I ended up back in Doctor Who and I never thought that was going to happen!
Life on Mars also had a US adaptation but Pharaoh previously told TV Tonight they ever got it right.
Our Life on Mars is essentially a love story between two blokes really. Theyre equal, a yin and yang that gives it its intensity. As soon as they cast Harvey, whos 70, they didnt do that two-hander. It was much more of an ensemble piece, because they knew they had to do so many episodes. I think they instantly watered it down a bit, he said.
Simm will next appear in White Dragon on BBC First.
UK crime documentary The Investigator, returns to Seven.
It features former police detective and criminologist Mark Williams-Thomas re-examining chilling murder cases that have baffled police for more than 30 years.
A look at the murders of Anna Kenny, Agnes Cooney and Hilda McAuley who were all abducted and brutally killed in similar circumstances within four months of each other in Glasgow in 1977.
10:15 Sunday on Seven.
Back in the early 1990s when low-rating Channel Nine soap Chances was cut from twice a week to a single episode in a late night slot, producers decided to go for broke.
Storylines infamously went for the outrageous, with sex, bondage, lesbians, an angel on a Harley Davidson motorcycle, an Egyptian Sun Goddess, laser-wielding vampires, man-eating plants, and neo-Nazis. It was so camp the show actually began to find a cult audience and its now all anybody remembers about a show that began with a lottery winning family.
Im reminded of this because since ABC announced Tonightly with Tom Ballard will end (tonight), the team has similarly gone for broke with its comedy. There have been flashes of brilliance in recent sketches and bold ideas, notably in its Conservatively and Tonightly2068 editions.
Last night Ballard delivered one of his most scathing monologues yet. His take on the whole sorry Climate Change saga and backdown on emission targets took aim at Malcolm Turnbull, Labor, the Greens, and the political system.
That the production team have been able to deliver this material daily is remarkable -US shows have teams and budgets light years ahead of Ballards. I get that the numbers currently dont work. You cant hire that many people to make a show rating that low without something eventually giving. Its a bit of joke it was ever expected to deliver.
ABC has a history of comedians who all pushed the envelope with firebrand comedy: from Aunty Jack and Norman Gunston to Max Gillies, John Clarke, John Safran, Andrew Denton, Wendy Harmer, Shaun Micallef, Judith Lucy, Chris Lilley, Kath & Kim, Doug Anthony All Stars, The Chaser and more. Many of them bucked the establishment, and Australians loved them all the more for it.
They also got their start before TV was in the silos that now exist (Pilot Week anyone?).
The youthful Ballard team have indeed made errors -including one sketch for which it will long be remembered but it also has to be given room to make mistakes. Creative endeavour should not be a victim of a cultural war between Ultimo and Canberra, nor Ultimo and Holt Street.
ABC needs to grow a spine and back its talent.
Look to your history. Make the numbers work as a weekly show on the primary channel, guys!
Now, before you watch this Climate Change monologue, a word of warning. the language is e-x-t-r-e-m-e. Ballard drops countless F-Bombs (which has been an ongoing problem, not because its offensive, but because soon it becomes all you end up hearing).
That aside, this is classic ABC anarchy biting, provocative and brilliant.
Isnt that exactly what ABC wanted?
Warning: language.
Guwahati : A local court in Assam on Tuesday had convicted the main accused of the horrific crime of rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl in central Assams Nagaon district.
The horrific incident took place at Dhaniabheti Lalung Gaon under Batadraba police station in the central Assam district on March 23 last, where the class-5 girl student was gang raped and then set on fire.
The main accused, Zakir Hussain and two others had committed the crime at the victims house when she was alone after returning from school.
The minor girl was gang raped and then the accused persons splashed kerosene on her body and bunt her to death.
The victim was immediately rushed to the hospital and admitted with 90 percent burn injury, injuries while she was shifted to Guwahati Medical College Hospital.
Before succumbing to injuries, she had given a dying declaration to police identifying the three criminals.
Later, Nagaon police had arrested main accused Zakir Hussain, another juvenile and thirs was absconding.
Following the incident, police had filed chargesheet before the court within a month and Zakir Hussain and the others were charged with rape and murder.
On Tuesday, the Session court of Nagaon district had pronounced the verdict convictingZakir Hussain.
The court acquitted the others in the case for lack of proper evidence.
The quantum of punishment will be announced on September 7.
Surprisingly to some, Stephen King doesnt just write gory horror novels, including scary clowns, vampires, crazy hotel managers and pets coming back from the dead. As reported earlier this year, a novella with the title "Elevation," set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine, is to be released in October 2018. Readers already know of the Hulu television series Castle Rock, which, while not penned by King himself, brings in so many elements of his many stories and books.
The story in his upcoming novel brings in elements of the current homophobia experienced across America, but its also a heartwarming story of a man with an unusual affliction, bringing the town of Castle Rock back together.
Horror author Stephen King branches out from horror
This isnt the first time Stephen King has written a heartwarming book The Green Mile is a perfect example. While that novel did include some elements of the supernatural, one of its main characters, John Coffey, moved both readers of the book and the ensuing and excellent film adaptation of the same name. King has also branched out into a hard-boiled detective series of books with a touch of sheer horror, beginning with the book and TV adaptation, Mr. Mercedes.
"Elevation" by @StephenKing (to be released on october 30th) will also have a purple variant exclusively available at @WHSmith
Details & pre-orders : https://t.co/o6iQXH8jYr pic.twitter.com/GxcfuFZtJT Club Stephen King (@ClubSTEPHENKING) August 20, 2018
'Elevation' a story of a town coming together
Kings new novel, Elevation, is still an eerie tale, but it is set in the current time where homophobia plays a huge role.
The eerie part is that one of the main characters, Scott Carey, is suffering from a strange affliction. He continues to steadily lose weight, no matter what he eats. What makes his affliction particularly weird is that Scott weighs the same, whether without his clothing or dressed in his heaviest outfits. The character seeks out the help of a trusted local doctor, Dr.
Bob Ellis.
However, the close-knit community of Castle Rock has a problem. A pair of married lesbians, who live next door to Scott, is attempting to open a restaurant. Prejudiced people in the town are set against the couple, making their lives very difficult. On top of this, the couples dog regularly does his business on Careys lawn.
When he confronts them, one of the lesbians is friendly, but the other is cold as ice.
Scott eventually understands the prejudices being faced by the couple (including his own) and sets out to try and help them. This unlikely alliance, as well as his mysterious affliction, then brings out the best in the people of Castle Rock.
On a side note, the cover of the upcoming novella Elevation was created by a Facebook photographer friend of mine, Wendy Stevenson.
Looking forward to October 30 when @StephenKing's ELEVATION ascends into bookstores. I know people who have read this and they assure me it's wonderful. pic.twitter.com/9HzRauh5dd Rio Youers (@Rio_Youers) August 30, 2018
Great reviews for new Stephen King novel
Simon & Schuster quotes a review by The Guardian, which cites King as being a precious renewable resource." That review dubs Elevation as being an antidote to our divisive culture, adding that the book is gloriously joyful, but that it also generates a twinge of deep sadness. The review then goes on to compare the novel to the well-known story in Its a Wonderful Life.
As reported by Den of Geek earlier this year, the new King novel Elevation is set to hit bookshelves on October 30 this year. While it airs around the time of Halloween, theres no big scare involved, just what that report describes as a feel-good story.
Salisbury, Wiltshire UK saw the poisoning by novichok of Sergei and Yulia Skripal. Sergei was a former Russian military officer and double agent working for the UK. In early March 2018, the two were poisoned by the deadly nerve agent. At the time the Guardian reported that Theresa May was furious and demanded accountability from Russia. In a later edition, the Guardian also noted that there were some people "of police interest." After investigating the case, police now say they have two suspects: Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.
Theresa May says it was not a rogue novichok operation
CBS News reported that British Prime Minister Theresa May said in Parliament that she did not believe it was a "rogue" poisoning attempt. She noted that police believe the two people are working the "Russian military intelligence service known as the GRU." The two people arrived in the UK using Russian passports on an Aeroflot flight. They arrived some days before the poisoning that left a police officer, Sergei, and Yulia very ill for weeks.
No repatriation for Petrov and Boshirov
The government believes they have enough evidence to prosecute the pair. However, as they are not in the UK at the moment they will be charged in absentia, according to the British Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
The charges are for conspiring to murder Skripal, "the attempted murder of both him and his daughter Yulia and police officer Nick Bailey." CPS also noted in their statement, that they would not apply for any type of repatriation. The government of Russia does not allow repatriation in terms of their constitution.
CCTV footage used to find suspects in Skripal poisoning
CCTV footage helped to identify the suspects. Investigators established that the men arrived at Gatwick Airport before booking into the City Stay hotel in east London. They also travelled to Salisbury ahead of the poisoning. The footage showed them near the home of Skripal.
The case leads police to suspect that after applying the novichok nerve agent poison to the door they left via train for Heathrow and departed the country.
USA stands by the UK in holding Russia accountable
Since the news broke, Woody Johnson, the US Ambassador to the UK tweeted that the USA would be "holding Russia accountable for its act of aggression on UK soil." Meanwhile, CBS reported that any use of chemical weapons is of concern to the USA.
Important statement from PM May. The U.S. & UK stand firmly together in holding Russia accountable for its act of aggression on UK soil. #Salisbury Ambassador Johnson (@USAmbUK) September 5, 2018
Pictures of the suspects were released to the media. The photo in the tweet below was posted by Daniel Sandford of the BBC.
These are the two suspected Salisbury Novichok poisoners and their aliases pic.twitter.com/GiTc0bRRZu Daniel Sandford (@BBCDanielS) September 5, 2018
The novichok poisoning case was investigated thoroughly and Theresa May noted in her statement to Parliament on September 5, that "around 250 detectives have trawled through more than 11,000 hours of CCTV and taken more than 1,400 statements."
The holidays may be over but the debate over young people and screen time continues. And as anxious parents prepare children for the start of a new school term, many will have concerns about what exposure to technology they will have in the classroom.
The UK education secretary Damian Hinds has challenged the technology industry to spearhead a classroom revolution. He wants more classrooms to take advantage of the gadgets and software available which enable pupils to go on virtual trips or control robots.
Hinds is right to see the potential that technology has to transform teaching and learning. High quality educational apps available on smart phones and tablets really can help raise attainment, and provide a unique learning experience.
Over the past five years, we have been conducting an international research project evaluating a series of educational apps developed by the British charity onebillion.
These interactive apps are designed specifically to support early years numeracy and literacy skills. They are available in different languages and enable children to learn independently and at their own pace. There is even an in-app teacher who guides them through the curriculum-based content.
Children interact with the apps by touching, dragging, and dropping objects to answer questions. Their learning levels are then assessed through quizzes.
So far, we have found many positive results from using these apps in early years education. Here are some of the things they can do:
Improve learning outcomes these apps significantly raise attainment in key skills such as mathematics and literacy (when used alongside standard teaching methods). Foster an inclusive learning environment children with special educational needs and disabilities can learn effectively with these apps. This gives teachers a tool for providing high quality education for children with specific needs alongside mainstream classroom peers. Support cognitive development when using educational apps to acquire specific skills, such as mathematics, core cognitive skills can also develop. When children in Malawi used interactive maths apps on a daily basis for eight weeks, their attention and concentration skills also improved. Promote development of non-cognitive skills teachers in Malawi and the UK using the same interactive apps to support early mathematical and literacy skills, reported that children become more confident and independent in their learning. Bridge home/school divides these apps are also available for parents to download and are easy to use, so can support learning at home. Equalise access as these apps are available in different languages, are easy to use by teachers and parents, and promote self-paced learning, they can be used in different settings, equalising access to high quality education for all.
The apps are currently being implemented by Voluntary Service Overseas in Malawi in their flagship international development programme, Unlocking Talent through Technology. They have also been implemented in 15 schools across Nottinghamshire with promising results. So far, children using the app for 12 weeks (for 30 minutes a day) were up to four months ahead of their peers. The app was particularly beneficial for children struggling with maths.
Story continues
Marc Faulder , Author provided
But its not just about numbers. Educational apps can also be used by teachers and children to create their own imaginative content, and connect classrooms worldwide. Stories of a Lifetime is a global literacy project run by Marc Faulder (in the UK) and Jason Milner (in Australia), which creates a library of local stories and myths, told by children in their own words and animations. Part of Apples Distinguished Educators programme, it enables teachers across the world to share their childrens stories in way which promotes digital literacy, communication skills and a sense of identity.
Teaching the teachers
But while tablets have considerable potential to transform teaching, teachers themselves need to be skilled and confident in using this technology creatively. To revolutionise learning through technology, greater opportunities for professional development of teachers is needed.
Tech giants such as Apple, Microsoft and Google already offer introductory and specialised training for teachers in using tablet technology effectively in the classroom. But for technology to enhance learning universally, training should be an integral part of professional development.
Those currently in the profession, and those studying to become teachers, would benefit from being taught how to use apps and tablets to improve learning in all subject areas even if that means the adults having a bit more screen time, too.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The Conversation
Nicola Pitchford receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, the Education Endowment Foundation, and the Royal Norwegian Embassy to support this research.
Laura A. Outhwaite receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council to support this research.
Bittrex, one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, has just bought a 10 percent stake in Palladium, a Malta-based blockchain company according to media reports.
Palladium was launched with much fanfare in July with Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat also making a speech during the event.
Bittrex, whose technology is designed to build and power crypto trading platforms to provide reliability and security, is based in the US and is a leader in the global blockchain revolution.
Speaking to CCN, Palladium Founder and Chairman, Prof. Paolo Catalfamo, Paolo Catalfamo was upbeat about this latest development and emphasized the importance of working with Malta to provide a fully regulated blockchain space.
Palladium has designed elegant and unique solutions to the largest problems facing blockchain technologies today, allowing it to provide a unified banking, investment and crypto interface within full regulatory compliance in the EU, he stated. We are well on our way to unlocking untold potential in crypto projects around the world, and we are working with the regulators in Malta to ensure it is ready at launch.
Catalfamo is no stranger to Maltese business having been chairman of the Maltese insurance giant Globalcapital plc for the past few years.
Speaking to CCN, Unikrn CEO and member of the board at Palladium, Rahul Sood said that the investment by Bittrex was one of the most important aspects of the project. Unikrn hold a 15% stake in Palladium.
Palladium is powered in partnership with the geniuses at Bittrex and is slated to become the worlds first regulated tokenized security (and blockchain security) exchange, which is a formative move for this emerging technology space, Sood said. Palladium will offer some of the most meaningful solutions to companies like Unikrn and other blockchain platforms, super simple access to our tokens from anywhere at anytime, the ability to bank crypto and fiat, and the option to offer securities down the road.
Story continues
Palladium made the news last month after it launched one of the worlds first fully regulated tokenised convertible warrant to give investors peace of mind and a stake in the future of virtual currencies.
Its issue of a tokenised convertible warrant is regulated by a prospectus approved by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) and subject to stringent EU rules. It will give investors the right to convert the tokens into shares of Palladium, three years after the issue date.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat who also spoke to CCN said that this development was yet another step to make Malta the Blockchain Island.
We have worked our fingers to the bone in order to live days like today and see companies such as Palladium launch. [Palladium] is not just a flash-in-the-pan. They have shown the commitment to our financial services industry and to our country as a whole.
Bittrex, which was founded in 2014 by three cybersecurity engineers, provides real-time trade execution, digital wallets and industry-leading security practices.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The post Cryptocurrency Exchange Bittrex Buys Stake in Malta Blockchain Startup appeared first on CCN.
Cars are parked outside the headquartes of Qatar Petroleum in Doha, Qatar, July 8, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Qatar Petroleum , the world's top supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG), is talking to German energy firms Uniper and RWE about cooperating on a potential local LNG terminal, its chief executive told a paper.
"We have a serious interest in participating in a German LNG terminal and are talking to Uniper and RWE," Saad Al-Kaabi told business daily Handelsblatt in an interview ahead of the Qatar Germany Business and Investment Forum in Berlin on Sept. 7.
Al-Kaabi said there were two ways of participating in an LNG terminal, either by securing capacity to open up supply, or by taking a stake in the terminal infrastructure.
"The builders of the terminal will have to think about which option they want, and we have to decide what suits us best," he said.
A spokeswoman for RWE, Germany's largest power producer, said talks with Qatar Petroleum were about potential gas deliveries to Germany, not about a shareholding in a potential German LNG terminal.
Germany, Europe's largest energy consumer, shelved plans for an LNG terminal of its own a few years ago, with major operators participating in foreign projects - including Rotterdam's Gate terminal - instead.
However, talks about installing an LNG terminal have been revived in the wake of increasingly dynamic global flows of the fuel and discussions about its use in shipping to meet looming requirements for cleaner fuels.
A consortium comprising Dutch gas network operator Gasunie , German tank storage provider Oiltanking and Dutch oil and chemical storage company Vopak , is currently trying to get such a project off the ground.
A funding decision by the consortium, dubbed German LNG Terminal, expected by the end of 2019.
Some policymakers favour LNG as a way of reducing Europe's dependence on gas from Russia, which is pressing ahead with its Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
Uniper said it has repeatedly pointed out that a German LNG terminal would be beneficial in light of declining gas resources in Europe, adding that Qatar Petroleum subsidiary, Qatargas, had been a strategic partner for years.
"We are in constant contact with them. Such discussions are, of course, confidential," the group said.
(Reporting by Christoph Steitz, Vera Eckert and Tom Kaeckenhoff; Editing by Maria Sheahan and Louise Heavens)
(Reuters) - The Chinese government is exploring a merger of two of the nation's top wireless carriers to speed up the development of 5G mobile services, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The country's top leaders are reviewing a proposal to combine China United Network Communications Group Co (China Unicom) and China Telecommunications Corp, Bloomberg reported, adding that no decision has been made and it's also possible that a merger may not happen. https://bloom.bg/2MO3Kps
State-controlled China Unicom, formally known as China United Network Communications, said it was not aware of the situation, in response to the report of a possible merger with China Telecom.
China Telecom referred to their response at the time of interim results briefing and said they still have not been notified of any such plans.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru and Sija Jiang in Hong Kong and Adam Jourdan in Shanghai; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)
See Also:
Russia launched checks on Tuesday after its space chief said an air leak discovered last week on the International Space Station could have been caused by deliberate sabotage.
Space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin said the hole detected Thursday in a Russian space craft docked at the orbiting station was caused by a drill and could have been done deliberately, either back on Earth or by astronauts in space.
Astronauts used tape to seal the leak after it caused a small loss of pressure that was not life-threatening.
"There were several attempts at drilling," Rogozin said late Monday in televised comments, adding that the drill appeared to have been held by a "wavering hand".
"What is this: a production defect or some premeditated actions?" he asked.
"We are checking the Earth version. But there is another version that we do not rule out: deliberate interference in space."
A state commission will seek to identify the culprit by name, Rogozin said, calling this a "matter of honour" for Russia's Energiya space manufacturing company that made the Soyuz.
Asked for comment on allegations of possible sabotage, a NASA spokeswoman referred all questions to the Russian space agency which is overseeing the commission's analysis.
'Strange stunt'
Rogozin had said the hole in the side of the ship used to ferry astronauts was most likely caused from outside by a tiny meteorite, but later admitted it had been ruled out.
A Russian MP who is a former cosmonaut suggested that a psychologically disturbed astronaut could have done it to force an early return home.
"We're all human, and anyone might want to go home, but this method is really low," Maxim Surayev of President Vladimir Putin's ruling party, told RIA Novosti state news agency,
"If a cosmonaut pulled this strange stunt -- and that can't be ruled out -- it's really bad," said Surayev, who spent two stints on the ISS.
Story continues
"I wish to God that this is a production defect, although that's very sad, too -- there's been nothing like this in the history of Soyuz ships."
Alexander Zheleznyakov, a former space industry engineer and author, told TASS state news agency however that drilling the hole in zero gravity would be nearly impossible in that part of the spacecraft.
"Why would cosmonauts do it?" he asked.
The hole is in a section of the Soyuz ship that will not be used to carry astronauts back to Earth.
Someone messed up and then got scared
A space industry source told TASS that the spacecraft could have been damaged during testing at Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan after passing initial checks and the mistake was then hastily covered up.
"Someone messed up and then got scared and sealed up the hole," the source speculated, but then the sealant "dried up and fell off" when the Soyuz reached the ISS.
Energiya will carry out checks for possible defects on all Soyuz ships and Progress unmanned ships used for cargo at its production site outside Moscow and at Baikonur, RIA Novosti reported Tuesday, citing a space industry source.
The ISS is one of the few areas of Russia-US cooperation that remains unaffected by the slump in relations and Washington's sanctions.
Russia's rockets used for launching spacecraft and satellites have suffered engine problems.
Currently on the ISS are two cosmonauts from Russia, three NASA astronauts and a German from the European Space Agency.
(AFP)
Guwahati : While the entire nation celebrated Teachers Day, thousands teachers in Assam on Wednesday observed Sikshak Pratarana Divas (Teachers Betrayal Day) and boycotted Teachers Day celebrations.
Demanding provincialisation of the venture schools and regularisation of the services of teachers, over 3000 teachers from different districts of the state on Wednesday had marched to the Raj Bhavan in Guwahati.
In protest against the non-regularisation of over 50,000 teachers in 7,771 venture schools, the Asom Sikshak Karmachari Aikyo Mancha took out the protest rally.
The teachers shouted against the BJP-led Assam government for their failure to fulfil the promises made during the assembly election campaign.
Heavy security personnel were deployed in the Raj Bhavan road to stop the protesters.
Teachers of venture schools are demanding that, the state government should take appropriate steps to regularize their jobs.
It is to be mentioned that, the Assam government had provicialized over 9,000 venture schools under the Assam Venture Educational Institutions (Provincialisation of Services) Act, 2011 and the state government had amended the act from 2012 to 2017, but over 50,000 teachers have been left out from the act and they have to live without salaries.
The BJP-led Assam government had introduced the Assam Education (Provincialisation of Services of Teachers and Reorganisation of Educational Institutions) Amendment Bill, 2018, which was passed in the Assam Assembly in April this year.
As many as 200 venture teachers had committed suicide across the state after they deprived from the state government.
Dr Sirumoni Baruah, president of Asom Sikshak Karmachari Aikyo Mancha said that, while the entire nation has celebrated Teachers Day, thousands venture school teachers have participated in the protest rally after they deprived year by years from the government.
The teachers have threatened to take more aggressive agitation if the state government not fulfil their demands
We have served as a teacher past 20-30 years, but we are still deprived. The Assam government had adopted the provincialisation act in 2011 and it was amended in 2012, 2013, but the teachers were not covered by the act. After the Gauhati High court verdict, the government had again introduced another act, Dr Sirumoni Baruah said.
FILE PHOTO: Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif smiles as he attends a bilateral meeting with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Singapore, August 3, 2018. REUTERS/Feline Lim/File Photo
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday of planning to "abuse" the presidency of the U.N. Security Council to criticise Tehran, Washington's arch-foe.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said on Tuesday that Trump would chair a U.N. Security Council meeting on Iran this month to spotlight its "violations of international law" during the annual gathering of world leaders in New York.
"He plans to abuse presidency of SC (Security Council) to divert a session ... to blame Iran for horrors US & clients have unleashed across M.E. (Middle East) #chutzpah," Zarif wrote in his tweet.
Trump in May withdrew from Iran's nuclear agreement with world powers which is aimed at stalling Tehrans nuclear capabilities in return for lifting some sanctions, and ordered the reimposition of U.S. sanctions suspended under the deal.
European powers have been scrambling to salvage the accord, but the spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said Tehran would relaunch its nuclear programme at a higher level than previously if the nuclear agreement collapsed.
"We are far more advanced than at the time of agreeing to the nuclear deal," spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi was quoted as saying by the state broadcaster IRIB.
"And we will never be able to return to the previous level of nuclear activity if we go out to the next, but we will step into more advanced levels," Kamalvandi said.
Tehran has also warned that it might quit a treaty designed to stop the spread of nuclear weapons if the agreement is abandoned.
In Washington, Trump said on Wednesday he remained open to the possibility of talks between Washington and Tehran, but said Iran was in turmoil and struggling to survive.
The United States, which holds the Security Council presidency for September, has unsuccessfully pushed the council to call out Iran. Haley has regularly attacked Iran, accusing it of meddling in the wars in Syria and Yemen.
Story continues
Haley said on Tuesday that Trump was chairing the Security Council meeting "to address Irans violations of international law and the general instability Iran sows throughout the entire Middle East region."
"There's only one UNSC resolution on Iran. .@realDonaldTrump is violating it & bullying others to do same," Zarif wrote on Twitter.
Iran is still subject to a U.N. arms embargo and other restrictions contained in the resolution, which enshrines the nuclear deal.
In February, Russia vetoed a U.S.-led bid for the Security Council to call out Tehran for failing to prevent its weapons from falling into the hands of Yemens Houthi group, a charge Tehran denies.
(Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by William Maclean and Leslie Adler)
Industrial fuel cell power company AFC Energy has been invited to join the Hydrogen Council as a supporting member, it announced on Wednesday.
The AIM-traded firm said its chief executive officer Adam Bond would be attending the councils third annual CEO event in San Francisco on 13 September.
It said the CEO coalition for hydrogen technologies was welcoming an additional 14 members - a second major wave of growth this year.
Eight companies were joining the group at steering member level - Airbus, Air Products, Cummins, EDF, Johnson Matthey, KOGAS, SINOPEC and thyssenkrupp, with six members joining at supporting level, including AFC Energy, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Re-Fire Technology, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Sumitomo Corporation, and SoCalGas.
In addition, Faurecia was upgrading its membership to steering level.
As a result, the Hydrogen Council now included 52 companies, accounting for 3.8 million jobs and 1.8trn in revenue from across 11 different countries.
The group had more than quadrupled in size since launching at the World Economic Forum 18 months ago.
I am delighted that AFC Energy is joining the Hydrogen Council, supporting what represents a first-of-its-kind global CEO initiative to foster the role of hydrogen technologies in the global energy transition to a sustainable, cleaner future," said chief executive officer Adam Bond.
AFC Energy looks forward to working alongside so many of our industry leading partners.
Investor concerns about Vodafone's lack of dividend cash cover are justified, said Bernstein, but upgraded its rating on the stock on the company's undervaluation in light of its agreed asset swap with Liberty Global.
Along with the announcement that Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao will step down later this year after ten years in charge, the group's need for higher investment spending to maintain its position in various markets has put the willies up investors, especially over the risk to cash flows and ultimately what has been a sacrosanct dividend.
These dividend concerns are fair, "but for a company that will soon cease to exist in its current form", said Bernstein, noting that the company's commitment to paying out "is almost religious".
Recent insurgencies in Italy have inflicted damage on Vodafone's European portfolio, while strength in Germany and improvements in the UK have been "insufficient" to pick up the slack, but this is "for a company that is on the cusp of major structural transformation".
The Liberty deal is expected to result around a third of operating cashflow coming from Germany, with Vodafone estimating cost and capex synergies of approximately 535m per year before integration costs by the fifth year post completion, with an estimated net present value of more than 6bn after integration costs.
Bernstein boosted its rating to 'outperform', pointing out that 'OldVod' is trading at a circa 20% discount to the sector and giving the pro-forma business a enterprise value of 17 times operating cash flow, around a 15% premium to sector multiples of 14.9x EV/OpCF on consensus 2019 estimates.
"Justifiable, as the implied multiple before integration costs represents a 7% premium to the sector, in line with Vodafone's five-year valuation history."
The catalyst will be EU approval of the asset swap for 18.4bn of Liberty Global's assets in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania, expected in the second quarter of 2019.
"The path to deleveraging despite the headwinds in Southern Europe and the transaction costs is convincing. Most crucially, dividend cash cover is set to improve," Bernstein said.
Sterling rocketed on Wednesday after Bloomberg reported that Germany and Britain were now both prepared to accept a less detailed agreement on the UK's future economic and trade ties with the European Union, hopefully leaving a deal on the Irish backstop as the last remaining bone of contention.
Nevertheless, given recent volatility in the pound on the back of headlines around Brexit, some analysts cautioned about reading too much into any headline, especially as Germany alone did not set policy for the entire EU.
Thus, as of 1720 BST the pound was just 0.05% ahead against the single currency to 1.1104, versus an intra-day high of 1.1166.
The picture was slightly improved when looked at against the US dollar, with the pound rising 0.43% to 1.2910, but also well off its intra-day high of 1.2984.
"If both sides are prepared to blink in order to avoid a no-deal outcome, with all this entails, then sanity may prevail. Perhaps the best strategy was to get past the actual deadline, and then accept that things would carry on broadly as normal until a sensible deal could be arranged," said IG's Chris Beauchamp.
"Still, those sterling bears that fled last week on the Barnier comments were proven wrong, and more than a few will be taking the 'once bitten, twice shy' approach here these signs of German conciliation could easily be contradicted soon enough."
For its part, the US dollar was moving lower against the currencies of its two major trading partners, dipping by 0.21% to 6.83 against the yuan, while euro/dollar was advancing 0.35% to 1.16222.
Triggering the move in the single currency, towards the middle of the session, perhaps the most outspoken proponent of fiscal largesse in Italy, deputy prime minister, Luigi di Maio, said that the upcoming 2019 budget Law would be "courageous" but keep state accounts in order.
In the background meanwhile, the Argentine peso and Turkish lira were both making slight inroads against the Greenback.
Russia's rouble on the other hand was not, with the US dollar adding 0.04% to 68.2130 after Westminster charged two Russian military intelligence officers with the attempted assassination last March of ex-spy Sergei Skripal.
Stocks across the Continent have started the morning lower, dragged down once more by ongoing concerns around international trade and emerging markets, with investors waiting on news, possibly later in the day, regarding the ongoing trade negotiations between Washington and Ottawa.
"The main preoccupation for investors continues to be on whether the US is serious about arriving at some form of deal with Canada over NAFTA in the wake of President Trump's tweets at the weekend, that it wasn't and isn't a political necessity to get a deal," said Michael Hewson at CMC Markets UK.
"In addition to that anxiety levels are growing ahead of the weekend and the possible imposition of another $200bn-worth of tariffs on Chinese goods later this week."
Against that backdrop, as of 0958 BST the benchmark Stoxx 600 was down by 0.73% or 2.79 points to 377.04, alongside a drop of 0.74% or 90.78 points to 12,119.64 for the German Dax.
The FTSE Mibtel on the other hand was being propped-up by another slide in longer-term Italian bond yields, with that on the benchmark 10-year Italian government note down by seven basis points at 2.94%.
Spain's Ibex 35 was also moving lower, slipping by 0.65% or 59.60 points to 9,316.80, amid reports of recent sharp outflows from exchange traded funds linked to the country's stocks, due to the country's vecinity to the likes of Italy and Turkey, as well as its exposure to Argentina and Brazil.
According to Bloomberg, on 31 August the US dollar priced iShares MSCI Spain ETF posted redemptions of $237.0m - the largest single day outflow since August 2000.
The fund reportedly had $1.1bn in assets.
Nevertheless, the Turkish lira, a recent bellwether for EMs more generally was off by just 0.24% versus the US dollar.
Economic data on Wednesday was mixed.
On the positive side of the ledger, IHS Markit confirmed that its Eurozone services sector Purchasing Managers' Index edged up from 54.2 for July to 54.4 for August, as expected.
Separately, Eurostat reported that euro area retail sales rose at a year-on-year pace of 1.1% in July when compared with the same period one year ago (consensus: 1.3%).
In corporate news, Bayer was among the top fallers in markets despite posting an 8.5% increase in half-year sales to 9.481bn, for a 3.9% increase in operating profits (EBITDA) to 2.335bn, thanks in part to the partial inclusion of its recent acquisition, Monsanto.
Elsewhere, reports overnight indicated that labour groups and a shareholders' lobby were opposed to the reappointment of David Bonderman as the chairman of Ryanair Holdings.
Barratt Developments aims to build 3-5% more houses over coming years and at higher margins in line with the rest of the sector thanks to new housing designs that are faster to build and reduce costs and waste.
The UK's largest housebuilder provided three new medium-term targets for investors alongside final results that were in line with detailed recent guidance, with profit before tax up 9.2% to 835.5m and earnings per share rising 8.5% to 66.5p in the year to 30 June.
Barratt said it would now only acquire land when it could guarantee a "minimum 23%" gross margin, increased from the previous "minimum 20%", and would now aim for a minimum 25% return on capital employed.
After delivering the company's highest volume of new homes in a decade, chief executive David Thomas said the management team's focus on operating efficiencies and margin initiatives was "starting to deliver", with a gross margin rising to 20.7% in the year from 20.0% last time, and said the new medium-term operational targets were "reflecting our confidence in the business going forward".
However, with other house builders targeting around 24% gross margins, analyst Robin Hardy at stockbroker Shore Capital said it had been "a mystery" as to why Barratt aimed lower and had seemed unwilling to change. He said it will take at least three years before the new target works through and is "unlikely to have any material impact before FY2021 by which point the new homes market could be a very different place", especially if there are major changes to the government's Help to Buy as recent reports have suggested.
Barratt's unit sales growth target of 3-5% was up from a previous 2-3%, but Hardy suggested this could be somewhat of an empty promise as the company had not been hitting its previous target and "had barely grown its private development sales across the last three years".
After completing 28.7% more houses over the last five years, with 17,579 units delivered in 2018, the FTSE 100 group has capacity to grow to 20,000 annual completions under the current operational structure.
Barratt said volumes and margins will be boosted by new housing ranges that "maintain our high standards of design whilst being faster to build", which are currently under construction at 101 sites and will be rolled out 86 more sites and "will increasingly benefit margin going forward".
The board proposed to pay a final ordinary dividend of 17.9p that gives a total for the year of 26.5p per share, up from 24.4p the year before.
Net cash balance of 791.3m (2017: 723.7m), ahead of expectations, driven by strong year end trading, and the new year to June 2019 is expected to end with net cash around 550m.
Thomas said the group started the new financial year "in a good position with a strong balance sheet, healthy forward sales and robust consumer demand supported by a positive mortgage environment".
However, while average selling prices increased 5.0% to 288,000 last year, they are expected to fall in the coming year due to the softer London market.
The first two months of the new financial year have seen net private reservations per active outlet per average week in line with the prior year at 0.75 versus 0.74, with forward sales up 11.1% as of 2 September at 3,054.0m.
Forward sales of the core private developments, however, were down 4.2% with all of the increase coming from affordable housing and joint ventures.
Shares in Barratt were searching for direction in early trading on Wednesday at 535.4p, having fallen more than 16% in the year to date and not too far off a quarter from highs late last year.
Analyst Neil Wilson at Markets.com noted that while ROCE 29.6% is a shade lower than 29.8% reported this time a year ago, it has risen markedly to almost 30% from 11.5% five years ago and is still well above the 25% target.
"Housebuilders have come off their highs on expected slower growth but the results weve seen so far from Redrow, Persimmon and Barratt dont really back that up," Wilson said, with Barratt continuing to trade at something of a discount to peers on around 8 times forward earnings.
"But with a healthy dividend there to be had, there is yet some upside potential, albeit there may be softness today as the figures were well flagged back in July. You can look to risks to the investment thesis from various angles not least a radical rethink of housing strategy - but past performance by successive governments over the last 40 years doesnt indicate well see any real shift that should worry investors unduly. However, the risk of a Labour-led government overhauling the sector is a consideration and is reflected in the discount we see applied to the sector."
Peel Hunt pointed out that shares have fallen in line with the sector in 2018 there are only down 4% in the last three months versus a 13% drop for the sector, to now trade on a price-NAV ratio of 1.43x for the current calendar year and 1.34x for 2019 - 10-15% less than the sector average, with a dividend yield, including special payouts, of 8.3% and 8.7% respectively.
"Given the likely upward pressure on forecasts we continue to think the shares look good value," analysts said, retaining their 'buy' recommendation.
Liberum said the gross margins target of 23% would generate an operating margin of 20% compared to the 18% reported for 2018, closing the gap to the sector making 22%. The broker said the new targets were "encouraging" but kept its 'hold' rating.
Randgold Resources ' Tongon gold mine in Ivory Coast was back in business on Wednesday after management lifted the lock-out imposed on workers following a protracted strike, with production guidance for the year revised lower.
"Negotiations between management, workers, community leaders and the government created an agreement under which workers are being re-employed in phases aligned to the start-up of the mine's various sections," the company said.
"The agreement also stipulates that the previous discussions, aimed at finally ending the occasional industrial unrest at the mine, should be resumed where they were interrupted by the strike in July."
During the lock-out period, management, senior employees and a skeleton crew prepared Tongon for resumed production by servicing the processing facilities, including relining the mills, and maintaining the tailings storage facility and access to the two open cast operations.
Randgold said the mine is now fully operational and the phased return of the full employee complement is expected to be complete by the weekend. However, it added that the work stoppage has necessitated a revision of its previous production guidance for the year which is now estimated at 230 000 ounces of gold.
The company said earlier this month that production for the year was expected to be 250,000 ounces, down from previous guidance of 290,000 because of the strike action that began in July.
Chief executive Mark Bristow said the company remained a committed partner to Cote d'Ivoire. He said that despite the setbacks at Tongon, the overall group production outlook remained within the guidance given at the start of the year, albeit towards the lower end of the range, supported by Loulo-Gounkoto remaining on target and the continued outperformance at Kibali.
At 1010 BST, the shares were flat at 4,950p.
Iran has set a 4 November deadline for European parties to its nuclear deal to find a way to offset US sanctions against the countrys oil industry, suggesting it may pull out of the deal if they fail.
On Tuesday, the nations deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on state television that if the sale of oil, which he called Irans main interest in the agreement, could not continue then it would no longer derive any benefit from remaining in the agreement.
The upcoming US sanctions on Irans vital oil industry accompany a ban on Iran buying dollars, trading gold and other precious metals, and sanctions on the nations automotive sector.
However, the EU has pledged to defend the nuclear deal to protect European companies with interests in Iran and allow alternative financing for Iranian investments, but has so far failed to find a way around the sanctions.
RBC Capital Markets oil market expert Helima Croft said on Wednesday said these measures could lead to an "unintended military escalation" but that the country was likely to avoid direct confrontation with regional US allies such as Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Croft and her team of analysts did maintain that military action was "one of the most underappreciated risks".
"We maintain that Iran 's response to the coercive measures will play an important role in determining the potential upward trajectory of prices," said Croft.
The UK has charged two Russian men over the nerve agent attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury earlier this year.
Police charged the Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, both Russian nationals, with offences including conspiracy to murder, attempted murder and illegal possession of the weapons-grade nerve agent novichok used in the March attack, Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service announced on Wednesday. Police said it was likely the suspects were traveling under aliases, and Petrov and Boshirov are not their real names.
A European Arrest Warrant has been issued but the government will not be applying to Russia for the extradition of these pair as the Russian constitution does not currently permit extradition of its own nationals.
Prosecutors at the CPS counter terrorism division considered details from an investigation by the Counter Terrorism Policing Network and have concluded there is "sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction and it is clearly in the public interest" to charge Petrov and Boshirov.
Counter-terrorism police chief Neil Basu told reporters in London on Wednesday the Russian pair, both believed to be aged around 40, entered the UK on an Aeroflot flight on 2 March and departed on 4 March, using a counterfeit Nina Ricci perfume bottle specially made to transport and dispense the nerve agent.
The two Russians stayed at the CityStay Hotel in Bow Road, London, assistant commissioner Basu said. He called for anyone who had also visited the hotel to contact his department but said there was no risk to members of the public who traveled on the same flights or stayed in the same room.
As well as conspiracy to murder Sergei Skripal, the charges include attempted murder of Sergei and Yulia Skripal and Nick Bailey, a Salisbury policeman who first attended the Skirpal's home, and causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Yulia Skripal and Bailey.
A realistic prospect of conviction means the CPS is satisfied on an objective assessment that the evidence can be used in court and that an objective, impartial and reasonable jury hearing the case, properly directed and acting in accordance with the law, is more likely than not to convict these two individuals of the charges," the CPS said in a statement, adding that a jury will need to decide whether the evidence is enough for them to be sure of the suspects' guilt.
The Metropolitan Police shared images of the accused Russian pair, saying it was releasing further information and a number of images "in the hope that the public can assist us further".
"I am, therefore, appealing for anyone who has information about the suspects named by the CPS today as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov to contact police. Both suspects are approximately 40 years old, and are Russian nationals who were traveling on Russian passports," Basu said in a statement.
He said the charges were a "significant moment" in "one of the most complex and intensive investigations we have undertaken in Counter Terrorism policing".
Theresa May is expected to make a statement on the developments after Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday afternoon.
SOURED UK-RUSSIA RELATIONS
The Russian foreign ministry called the UK's charges "informational manipulation", urging the UK to cooperate with its law enforcement agencies.
"London has received numerous relevant inquiries from the Russian side," foreign ministry official Maria Zakharova told reporters. "The investigation of such serious crimes, which have been repeatedly claimed by the United Kingdom, requires the most careful work, scrupulous analysis of data and close cooperation."
The charges come a day after the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said the chemical which left one person dead in Amesbury in Wiltshire in June was the same nerve agent used to poison Skripal and his daughter.
Police said on Wednesday could not yet guarantee that all of the novichok had been cleared from Salisbury.
After being used to spray the weapons-grade poison on the Skripal's front door, the perfume bottle of chemical agent was discarded and later picked up from a charity bin in Salisbury by a member of the public, Charlie Rowley, who gave it to his partner Dawn Sturgess, who subsequently died in July. Police said she had sprayed the contents of the bottle onto her wrists.
Since March, UK intelligence chiefs have singled out Russia as being behind the attack, resulting in the government expelling 23 Russian diplomats after the Kremlin failed to explain its involvement. The UK also has imposed increased checks on Russian flights, cracked down on visa applications and mulled new laws against "hostile state activity".
Last month the US government launched sanctions on Russia after its own investigations concurred that Moscow had been involved in the poisonings, accusing President Vladimir Putin's government of having used "chemical or biological weapons in violation of international law".
Kremlin officials have denied any responsibility and called the US sanctions "absolutely illegal", saying they "do not correspond to international law".
Guwahati: The first meeting of Assam State Capital Region Authority (ASCRA) was held in Guwahati on Tuesday.
During the meeting, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said that, rights of the tribal people falling within the jurisdiction of Assam State Capital Region Authority (ASCRA) would be fully protected.
Sonowal directed the Guwahati Development Department to take necessary steps to address the apprehensions raised by the leadership of Autonomous Councils regarding preservation of distinct identity of the tribal people and maintaining their rights over land.
Sonowal while chairing the first meeting of the ASCRA at his office conference hall at Janata Bhawan said that, the Capital Region Authority was created with a vision to make Guwahati as the hub of South East Asian countries.
He said that the government wanted to unleash faster development in the areas falling with the Authority by making the people important stakeholders of the development process.
Keeping in view the apprehensions raised by the CEM of Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council and Tiwa Autonomous Council, Sonowal agreed on the need for more clarity on certain provisions of the ASCRA Act concerning land rights of the tribal people.
Sonowal asked the GDD Department to effect suitable amendments to address their concerns.
The Assam CM also suggested the Council leadership to put forth the kind of modifications required in consultation with local organizations and people so that same can be suitably incorporated in the Act.
Moreover, the Assam CM directed the GDD Department to carry out a study to collect relevant data regarding land ownership, economic activity etc. for taking a holistic approach for preparing plan for the areas within the
Capital Region Authority as first step towards making the Authority operational.
Sonowal further emphasised on giving the people living within the region equal opportunity for voicing their concerns and views on the ASCRA and directed the department to convene public meetings in each of the districts falling within the Authority.
Earlier, Secretary GDD SS Meenakshi Sundaram while giving a broad overview of the ASCRA informed that 24 revenue circles of five districts, namely Kamrup (Metro), Kamrup, Nalbari, Darrang and Morigaon comprised the Authority with an area of 6137 sq km.
GDD Minister Siddhartha Bhattacharya, Minister for Town & Country Planning Atul Bora, Minister of State (independent charge) for Urban Development Pijush Hazarika, West Guwahati MLA Ramendra Narayan Kalitya, Nalbari MLA Ashok Sarma, Sipajhar MLA Binanda Saikia, Palasbari MLA Pranab Kalita, CEM of Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council Tankeswar Rabha, CEM of Tiwa Autonomous Council Paban Manta, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Sanjay Lohiya, Director of Institute of Architecture, Nirma University, Ahmedabad Prof. Utpal Sharma and other senior officials of the GDD Department were present in the meeting.
As "Star Wars Episode IX" is in production, set to conclude the Skywalker storyline, fans are wondering how they will close out the six film trilogy. Recently released set photos reveal a jungle environment, leaving fans to speculate on where the heroes have escaped to.
The photos show a new jungle world that our heroes have discovered. Cinema Blend first reported on the photos, saying that they were taken from Black Park, which is near Pinewood Studios, where most of the filming is being done. Black Park is mostly forest, but the film's crew have dressed up the trees to make it look more like a jungle.
While the shooting location is still being constructed, fans have spotted what appears to be the Millenium Falcon, which leads many to believe that the remaining Resistance force is there. Comic Book has said that there were plans for the film to be shot in Laos, which may have been scrapped and replaced with this recent shoot in Black Park.
Star Wars has filmed many times in extremely wooded areas. "The Return of the Jedi" filmed Endor among the giant redwoods in Northern California, which looks similar to Black Park.
Black Park often used by movie productions
Black Park is often used as a shooting location for those using Pinewood Studios. This location has been used in multiple James Bond films, the Harry Potter franchise, and "Captain America: The First Avenger."
It's still unclear what the plan is for this location, but there will probably be more leaks revealing more in terms of what this jungle-based planet will be for and why it's important in "Star Wars Episode IX." Some have suggested a cave on the planet that leads to a Rebel base.
Jungle planet photos not the only set photos to be leaked
The final film fell victim to set photo leaks last month, when photos were released showing Finn, Poe Dameron and Chewbacca on a mission. The photos did not reveal much in regard to spoilers, but showed that fans should be on the lookout for leaks during the filming process of J.J.
Discuss this news on Eunomia
Abrams' final Star Wars film.
Screen Rant has suggested that newly appointed Star Wars director Abrams could be doing a casual remake of "Return of the Jedi," but it's too early to take that suggestion seriously. Star Wars star Oscar Isaac commented on the current status of the Resistance, saying that they have become guerrilla fighters, coming out of hiding to do quick attacks while trying to hide from the Empire.
The latest updates and spoilers for "Spider-Man: Far From Home" reveal three MCU characters spotted on the set of the sequel. Reddit user Uhtred101 posted a behind-the-scenes video of Samuel L. Jackson and Colbie Smulders reprising their roles as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Nick Fury and Maria Hill. Twitter user Rochi Shion posted photos of the production and they featured "Iron Man" actor and director, Jon Favreau, hinting his return as Happy Hogan.
There is also a rumor that another Marvel villain will be added to the growing cast of the sequel. "Far From Home" will take place after the events of "Avengers 4" as Peter Parker and his friends go on a trip to Europe.
However, his vacation does not go smoothly as he tries to stop Mysterio from stealing Tony Stark's last invention.
MCU reunion in Spider-Man: Far From Home
According to Screen Rant, Untred101's video sees Nick Fury and Maria Hill walking out of a building and they are all geared, up hinting an action sequence. While the scene was short and uninteresting, Marvel fans are happy to see the two back together after their ordeal of being erased by Thanos during the events of "Avengers: Infinity War."
This new SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME set video from London gives us our first look at @SamuelLJackson's Nick Fury alongside @CobieSmulders' Maria Hill in the movie!
(via Reddit user Uhtred101) pic.twitter.com/w4GJYtvWDA MCU News & Tweets (@MCU_Tweets) September 4, 2018
Nick Fury will serve as Peter Parker's new mentor in the sequel after Tony's demise in their war against the Mad Titan.
Peter will also have a tough time coping with his experiences and tries to live up to Tony's legacy by getting back his last invention from Mysterio.
Aside from Nick Fury and Maria Hill, Happy Hogan will also return to the sequel as Jon Favreau was spotted during production. Happy served as Peter's handler after "Civil War" and has been keeping an eye out for him ever since.
Discuss this news on Eunomia
They're more interesting when consider they're set in a post-Avengers 4 world... or are they...#SpiderManFarFromHome pic.twitter.com/vMt4hcTL6S Rochi Shion (@Marvel_Freshman) September 4, 2018
Molten Man teased in the sequel
According to Geek Tyrant, an action figure of Molten Man was spotted in the "Far From Home" toy line hinting his possible appearance in the movie.
While Marvel Studios and Sony have not made a comment about it, Molten Man's participation could indicate that the film will have three villains. Jake Gyllenhaal has been cast to play Mysterio, while Turkish-born actor, Numan Acar, is hinted to play Dmitri Smerdyakov (a.k.a. Chameleon).
In the comics, Mark Raxton is exposed to an organic liquid allow that covers his whole body and has the appearance of a molten gold statue. His hands can create a flame-like substance and fires them as projectiles. His hands are so hot that they can melt steel in mere minutes.
"Spider-Man: Far From Home" will premiere in cinemas on July 5, 2019.
Amazon tabled Woody Allens movie A Rainy Day in New York, NPR reported on September 3. The #MeToo movement is responsible for the decision, according to several media agencies, such as Metro (UK). Elle Fanning is digesting the news that Amazon could place an indefinite hold on the movies release. Fanning is featured in Allens movie, which also stars Selena Gomez and Jude Law.
In relaying her thoughts about reports that the film might not be distributed, Fanning said that she has not been told anything directly, yet the reported news is something that she is trying to come to terms with, according to Metro.
For Fanning, the experience of making the movie counts the most. She seems disappointed that audiences may never see her work, however.
Stars distanced themselves from Allens project
Though Amazon Studios had the contract to distribute Allens movie, Harpers Bazaar also noted that its release is shelved. Actually, there has never been a slated release date. With attention on the #MeToo movement, Selena Gomez and stars Timothee Chalamet and Rebecca Hall distanced themselves from the project, Harpers Bazaar wrote on August 31.
Heightened attention on #MeToo movement affected Allens movie due to the 1992 sexual abuse allegations by his daughter Dylan Farrow that resurfaced among public conversation.
While Allen was not prosecuted for any claims that Dylan leveled against him when she was seven, her claim is not unsubstantiated either.
Abuse allegation against director resurfaced with #MeToo movement
As momentum for #MeToo was building in 2016, Dylan penned an open letter, reminding everyone of her sexual abuse accusation against Allen, who repeatedly denied the allegation.
Discuss this news on Eunomia
When law enforcement did not discover evidence supporting Dylans claim, the case did not move forward.
Both Gomez and Chalamet regretted working on Allens film, which wrapped in October 2017, according to Harpers Bazaar and the Guardian (UK). The two stars donated their salaries to Times Up, which is a legal defense fund for people who have been affected by workplace sexual harassment, abuse, or assault.
Woody Allen's new movie, "A Rainy Day in New York," reportedly shelved by Amazon and has no release plans. If so, 2018 will be the first year without an Allen film since 1982. https://t.co/z9LY3RWkYn pic.twitter.com/LtVmrSrElY IndieWire (@IndieWire) September 3, 2018
Scrapping release of film costs Amazon roughly $25 million
The cost to Amazon for shelving Allens film, a romantic comedy, is estimated at $25 million. NPR summarized factors that possibly contributed to Amazons pricey decision. A Washington Post archivist, for instance, exhumed Allens prior work and noted that he tends to have an unhealthy infatuation with very young women. Additionally, Allen also married Soon-Yi, his stepdaughter, whom he photographed nude when she was 16.
NRP reported that talent started to flee from him.
Allen has had a film released every year for the last 44 years, according to Harpers Bazaar. He will not have a project released, however, in 2018. He is taking a break from directing. Allen stated to The Guardian that his career has been adversely affected by the #MeToo movement.
Allen assessed: There are traumas in life that weaken us for the future. He further said: The various slings and arrows of life have not strengthened me.
An aspect of "A Rainy Day In New York" that might have hurt its chance for release is that the movie reportedly contains a scene depicting sexual flirtation involving an older man and a girl of 15, IndieWire pointed out. In the #MeToo era -- and with the awareness of Dylans accusations raised -- the films release has been shelved.
Be sure to follow Blasting News for the latest information.
With the passing of Senator John McCain, it fell to Arizona's governor, Doug Ducey, to appoint McCain's replacement. As many people deeply mourned, speculation also circled about who the new appointment would be. Much of the attention centered on McCain's widow, Cindy. But Ducey ultimately chose another familiar face in Jon Kyl, ABC News reported.
Kyl has a long political background
Jon Kyl's father, John Henry Kyl, started off the family's Congressional history. He served during six terms as a Republican from Iowa in the House of Representatives.
The younger Kyl later served four terms in the House from Arizona's 4th District.
Kyl was first elected to the U.S. Senate during the 1994 Republican wave. He was considered among the Senate's most conservative and most successful members. Kyl would hold key posts on the committees on finance and the judiciary.
Kyl was a key figure in the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. The legislation was a major development in the regulation of online gambling. With California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, he co-authored the Crime Victims' Rights Act in 2004. The act was designed to protect the rights of federal crime victims.
Following the resignation of Mississippi Senator Trent Lott, Kyl was chosen to be the minority whip.
In 2012, Kyl did not run for a fourth term. He was succeeded in his Arizona seat by Jeff Flake. John Cornyn of Texas was chosen as his successor as the minority whip. Since then, Republicans have achieved a majority in the Senate, elevating Cornyn to majority whip.
After retiring from the Senate, Kyl began working as a lobbyist for the powerful law firm Covington & Burling.
Discuss this news on Eunomia
His stay in the Senate is expected to be relatively brief
CNN reports that Kyl has only committed to hold the seat until early 2019. Likely his most high-profile duty in that time-frame would be voting on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Before his appointment, Kyl had been assisting Kavanaugh through the nomination process, according to ABC News.
A special election is to be held for it in 2020, and Kyl has ruled out running in it. The seat was last contested in 2016 and won easily by McCain. Its next regularly scheduled election is in 2022. If Kyl does not stay beyond 2019, it would likely lead to another appointed senator. It's not a guarantee that the same governor could be making the appointment. Though favored to win, Ducey is in a tough re-election race this year. However, Arizona law is specific on the matter. The new appointee must be of the same political party as their predecessor. Thus, even if the governor is a Democrat, they must appoint a Republican to the seat.
Guwahati : The Gauhati High Court has directed to shift the trial and hearing of Assams Karbi Anglong mob lynching case to Nagaon.
The Gauhati High Court on Tuesday ordered to shift the case to Nagaon from Diphu to avoid any local influence.
A division bench of Gauhati High Court comprised by Chief Justice Ajit Singh and Justice Manojit Bhuyan had directed the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Nagaon to begin the trial and to hear the case in the fast track court.
The Gauhati High Court has registered a suo-moto Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in connection with the lynching incident.
Earlier, the Assam Judicial department had proposed to shift the trial of the mob lynching case out from Karbi Anglong for free and fair and submitted opinions to the state Home department and the state Home department placed it before the High Court.
On June 8, two friends Nilotpal Das and Abhijeet Nath had gone to a picnic spot of Kangthilangso waterfalls under Dokmoka police station in Karbi
Anglong.
When they returned from the area, their black colour SUV, were stopped at Panjuri Kachari by a group of irate villagers.
The villagers had stopped the SUV after rumours spread that, two unknown young men had abducted a child and fled in a black car.
After stopping the car, a mob had attacked on the car and also dragged out the youths.
The youths were brutally beaten to death by the mob.
Following the incident, Karbi Anglong police had registered two cases (no 33/2018 and 34/2018) under section 302, 341, 427, 143, 144, 147, 148, 149, 109, 332, 186 of IPC at Dokmoka police station and arrested 48 persons for their alleged involvement in connection with it.
Assam police on Saturday had filed the chargesheet in the sensational Karbi Anglong mob lynching incident.
The chargesheet contained 844 pages of charges against the accused along with 104-page case diary and has as many as 71 witnesses including police personnel.
SEOUL, Sept 5: South Korean special envoys left Seoul on Wednesday for a one-day trip to North Korea to discuss a third summit to be held this month between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
South Korean officials hope the visit might revive momentum for talks on denuclearization between the United States and North Korea. Those talks have stalled since U.S. President Donald Trump canceled Secretary of State Mike Pompeos trip to Pyongyang last month after Pompeo received a belligerent letter from a senior North Korean official.
Trump and Moon spoke by telephone for 50 minutes on Tuesday, officials said, and plan to discuss North Korea during the U.N. General Assembly in New York later this month.
North Koreas Kim agreed in broad terms to work toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula at a historic summit with U.S. President Trump in Singapore in June.
However, the United States and North Korea disagree on whether denuclearization or a step toward the normalization of North Koreas international status by declaring the end of the Korean War should come first.
The 1950-53 Korean War was ended by an armistice, not a peace treaty, meaning the United States and North Korea are technically still at war.
The South Korean special envoys include chief of the national security office at Seouls presidential Blue House, Chung Eui-yong, and director of the National Intelligence Service spy agency, Suh Hoon.
It was not certain that the envoys would meet Kim, South Korean officials said. The North Korean leader met the Souths envoys on their previous trip in March.
Chung said on Tuesday he wanted to discuss with Pyongyang officials ways to achieve the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
Seoul would continue to push for a joint declaration with the United States of an end to the Korean War this year, Chung said.
The Norths Kim made his first public appearance in 16 days to pay respects at the funeral of Dr. Ju Kyu Chang, according to North Korean state media KCNA on Wednesday.
Ju was a leading contributor to North Koreas successful development of its nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles and space program, according to 38 North, a website that specializes in analysis of North Korea.
Rod McCullom in Nature:
In the middle of the day on 11 April 2014, a hooded gunman ambushed Gakirah Barnes on the streets of Chicagos South Side. A volley of bullets struck her in the chest, jaw and neck. The 17-year-old died in a hospital bed two hours later. To many, her death was just another grim statistic from a city that has been struggling with gun violence. Last year, around 3,500 people were shot in Chicago, Illinois, of which 246 were aged 16 or younger; 38 of those children never celebrated another birthday. But Barness death was unusual for several reasons. She was a young woman in an epidemic of violence that largely affects black men. She also had an Internet following. Barnes had a reputation as a hitta or killer with rumours of at least two dead bodies to her credit. Although never charged with murder, she embraced the persona, posing in photos and videos with guns in her hands and making threats against rival gangs on Twitter. In a morbid modern irony, its likely that she revealed her location in real time to her killer through a tweet. Police have yet to charge anyone in connection with her murder.
Desmond Upton Patton was sitting in his office at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor when he first saw the headlines about Barnes. The social worker had been studying Internet banging, or cyberbanging, the use of social media by gang-involved youths to challenge, taunt or threaten rivals1. The online disputes can often spill out into the streets as physical violence. Patton took a deep dive into Barness archived Twitter timeline and discovered a treasure trove of social-media data random thoughts as well as boasts, threats and violent imagery. But what surprised him most, he says, was the grief. My pain aint never been told, Barnes wrote after a friend was killed just weeks before her own death. What emerged from her timeline was a picture of a teenage girl who lived in a community steeped in violence, who was deeply hurt by it and who wanted revenge. Now at the Columbia School of Social Work in New York City, Patton thinks that social-media histories such as that of Barnes can offer ways to identify young people at risk of being involved in gun violence. He assembled an interdisciplinary group of researchers who use artificial-intelligence (AI) techniques to study the language and images in social-media posts to identify patterns of grieving and anger.
More here.
\Thank you for everything you've done for me in Aberdeen
CIAA Acting Chief Commissioner Nabin Kumar Ghimire
Kathmandu, Nepal: The Constitutional Council (CC) has on Wednesday recommended acting chief commissioner of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) Nabin Kumar Ghimire in the post of chief commissioner of the CIAA.
A meeting of the CC held at the Office of the Prime Ministers and Council of Ministers decided to recommend Ghimire in the post of CIAA chief. Ghimire, who was appointed as the CIAA commissioner on April 2, 2015, has been taking charge of CIAA as the acting chief since February 14 after the retirement of the then chief Commissioner Deep Basnyat.
In the CC meet, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, main opposition party leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara and National Assembly chair Ganesh Prasad Timilsina had attended.
Before his burial in Santa Fe late last month, Sgt. Alfonso Orlando Duran was one of nearly 73,000 American servicemembers still missing in action from World War II.
But he never would have made it home without dozens of people over two continents working tirelessly over the course of more than a decade to find him.
Duran, an El Rito native, was 22 and serving as a substitute nose gunner with the Army Air Forces when his B-24 Liberator, nicknamed Knock It Off, was shot down and crashed in what was then Yugoslavia on Feb. 25, 1944. He was the only member of the 10-person crew not to bail out, for unknown reasons.
Fellow crew members reported at the time that Alfonso appeared uninjured, but would not leave the aircraft.
A tail gunner on a nearby aircraft said he saw Knock It Off assailed by ack ack antiaircraft fire and struck on its right wing, according to his eyewitness statement.
It immediately passed out of sight below, and I did not see it again, he said.
Knock It Off was a part of the massive Operation Argument, that targeted enemy aircraft factories and sought to destroy their forces in the air.
The 15th Air Forces, of which the sergeant was a part, lost 89 heavy bombers during the operation.
According to the U.S. Defenses POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), Durans nine captured crewmates were interrogated by the Germans, who told them a body had been found at the crash site.
After the war ended in 1945, the U.S. spent six years actively recovering fallen American servicemembers in the ravaged lands in which the war was waged.
In 1951, the Department of Defense ceased active search and recovery operations from World War II, said Niall Brannigan, director of the DPAAs Europe detachment in Miesau, Germany. The American public accepted that at the time because there was still a lot of faith in the American government.
But during those few years of searching, efforts to access areas of eastern Europe, including Yugoslavia, had already been hampered by the descent of the Iron Curtain. Animosity between Slovenia and the U.S. prevented most recovery efforts for decades, Brannigan said.
Unfortunately, everything in places like Eastern Germany, Czech Republic and Poland, we just didnt have ready access to, he said. So this case and other cases in Yugoslavia would have literally been put on the back burner.
Alfonsos mother, Maria Duran, would receive her sons belongings in a box after he was lost: letters, socks, a mirror, a billfold.
His fate would not be known for more than 70 years, leaving his mother, father and siblings behind to wonder what had become of their beloved son and brother.
But though Alfonso was gone, he was not forgotten.
Help from Slovenia
Amateur researchers around Europe have made a hobby of sorts of tracking down and identifying WWII remains.
Along with his staff of eight, Brannigan said, they are critical to the work the DPAA does in Europe, though he said its impossible to respond to all the tips that pour in.
Slovenian citizens Raul Semenic and his wife, Renata Gutnik, spent more than a decade researching what became of Double Trouble, a B-24 that trained with Knock It Off and crashed just minutes before on the same day.
Their research led them to surmise that a mass grave next to a centuries-old church in the small town of Pokojisce had likely contained the remains of Alfonso Duran, though the headstone read that an unknown Australian airman was buried there along with four Slovenian partisans.
It never became clear why the villagers thought an Australian had been buried there.
While Gutnik and Semenic believed the body of Duran may have been buried there at some point, they were certain the U.S. had claimed the body and buried it elsewhere.
I believe it was in 2015 or 2014 when we visited the Knock It Off crash site and visited that grave at the church, Gutnik wrote in an email after Alfonsos burial. But we were convinced that there were only bodies of local guys and that Duran was long ago sent home.
Until the two saw Alfonsos name on the Tablets of the Missing, which contain the names of 1,409 MIA servicemembers at the Florence American Cemetery in Italy.
So Gutnik reached out in April 2016 through a genealogy website to Pat Duran of Maryland, Alfonso Durans niece, who had written briefly about her missing uncle on the website.
Pat Duran was in disbelief.
My first thought was that this had to be some sort of scam, she said.
Duran, the daughter of Alfonsos brother, had grown up hearing a few stories about her uncle and witnessed her grandmothers sadness whenever they were told.
But it wasnt a scam, and soon the two had teamed up in the search for Alfonso.
Duran reached out to several military organizations, but became frustrated with red tape, lost paperwork and poor communication, eventually contacting then-Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who pressured the military to hasten its efforts.
In Slovenia, Gutnik contacted the U.S. Embassy and set about obtaining permission from various Slovenian parties to excavate the grave, including from the families of the others supposedly buried there.
Our excavation would likely have been delayed until this year without (Gutniks) tenacious sense of initiative, Brannigan said.
Brannigan also had to work to convince the Australian government that the body most likely was not one of their men, another time-consuming endeavor.
Congressional directive
The military first began researching the possibility that Alfonsos remains had been found in 2006 after being contacted by researchers.
Over the next several years, a team would return to the village of Pokojisce many times, interviewing researchers and residents of the tiny town.
That was before Congress directed in 2010 that remains of WWII missing again be actively searched for.
Before that, Brannigan said the agencies responsible for recoveries largely operated in a reactive manner.
The effort was also slowed by a few years, Brannigan said, when the Department of Defense combined the three separate agencies responsible for searching for the missing into one in 2015.
At last, in July 2017, they were ready to dig.
Through interviews and research, Brannigan and his team believed that Alfonso had originally been buried on the side of the church before being reburied in a mass grave at the back of the church in the 1960s where the headstone was located.
An elderly woman who had cared for the original grave for many years told the team that she often had to recover the skeletal remains beside the church over the years.
Residents of Pokojisce believed Alfonsos remains had been placed in a box and placed atop the other four caskets of the partisans.
But when Brannigans team started digging at the headstone, their shovels quickly hit solid rock just a few inches below the surface.
Why this faux mass grave was put at the back of the church, I dont know, Brannigan said. At the end of the day, it probably should have been classified as a memorial rather than a grave.
So the team turned to where they believed the original grave site to be on the side of the church.
There, they recovered human bones.
The skeletal remains were sent to the DPAA lab at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., for DNA testing for comparison with DNA collected from Alfonsos nephew
Stanley Evans of Santa Fe, as well as another nephew and a cousin.
On May 22, the DPAA announced that Sgt. Alfonso O. Duran had officially been accounted for.
And after more than 70 years, he was back in the country he fought for all those years ago.
News too late for some
While Duran said she and her family are grateful for the DPAAs work in bringing her long-lost cousin home, she wishes the family would have been informed of the work being done along the way.
Alfonsos brother and sister, for example, were still alive when the investigation began in 2006.
Why didnt they reach out to the family to let them know, even if they werent positive? she said. It would have meant the world to my father and my aunt to know more about it.
Alfonso was buried Aug. 22 in the Santa Fe National Cemetery, his living family members crowded into a small chapel around Durans flag-draped coffin.
And at the military cemetery in Florence next to Alfonsos name, is a small, gold rosette at last.
That made my heart sing, Gutnik wrote. A rosette is a mark that this man was found.
SANTA FE Prosecutors now believe that 20-year-old Jordan Nunez, not his father Thomas Ferguson, is the one who killed 13-year-old Jeremiah Valencia last November, according to new court documents.
The documents also say that Nunez repeatedly tortured Jeremiah with a homemade spear and a button-controlled shock collar and that Jeremiahs mother, 36-year-old Tracy Ann Pena, and younger sister also may have taken part in the torture, although the girl may have done so against her own will.
Both Pena and Nunez, 20 who are charged with child abuse resulting in death and tampering with evidence in Jeremiahs death are expected in Santa Fe District Court Wednesday as prosecutors intend to argue that they should be held in jail until trial.
Nunezs father Thomas Ferguson, 42, was also charged in the boys death, but he hanged himself in the Santa Fe County jail in late April. Pena was Fergusons girlfriend when Jeremiah was killed at the family groups Nambe home last year.
Investigators believe Jeremiah was kept in a dog cage for long hours without food and water. After being killed Nov. 26, Ferguson, Nunez and Pena stuffed his body into a plastic storage bin and buried it off N.M. 503 near Nambe, police say. Jeremiahs autopsy indicated that he died from blunt force trauma and had some bone fractures that were healing and some that were more recent.
In an amended motion for pretrial detention for Nunez and Pena filed Friday, Santa Fe Deputy District Attorney Todd Bullion claims that Nunez killed Jeremiah whereas previous court documents indicated that it may have been Ferguson and that Nunez bragged about it to a friend on Facebook by saying that he took someone off the map and did some dirt.
Eyewitness testimony has the Defendant (Nunez) causing the fatal blow to the victim as he was trapped in a dog cage whimpering from a beating he had received the night prior, Bullion wrote.
The motion also says that on Aug. 29 the state learned Nunez tortured Jeremiah on a daily basis for a period of at least a month with a homemade spear and would stab it into various points on Jeremiahs body.
Bullion adds that Nunez would consistently shock Jeremiah. This was done by forcing Jeremiah to wear a shock collar, Bullion wrote. The collar would be triggered by a remote button. The motion says Jeremiahs sister, about a year younger than Jeremiah, said Jeremiah constantly wore the collar around his neck or on one of his legs.
Nunezs defense attorney, Mark Earnest, says in a repsonse motion that Nunez was under pressure from Ferguson to commit the abuse and did it to stay on Fergusons good side.
While the charged crimes are horrific the evidence shows that Thomas Ferguson, not Jordan, directed the abuse of Jeremiah Valencia and that Jordan, (Jeremiahs sister), and Tracy Pena participated in that abuse if at all under the threat of violence from Ferguson, Earnest wrote.
Earnests motion implies that Ferguson also made the girl to dish out some punishment on her brother. (Jeremiahs sister) said that Ferguson forced her poke Jeremiah with the spear although she didnt want to, Earnest wrote.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Padgett also filed an motion for pretrial detention against Pena. The prosecutor writes that Pena openly spoke with Ferguson about beating Jeremiah while Pena was in jail in August 2017.
Ive already gotten him like he pissed me off I (expletive) started to (expletive) him up the other day, Jordan saw me, I (expletive) slammed him into the kitchen floor, Padgett quotes Pena as saying. Like hes already pushing it, pushing it.
Penas lawyer has not responded to the motion as of press time. Jeremiahs sister is expected to testify at the hearing.
Special counsel Robert Muellers investigation was star-crossed from the start. His friend and successor as FBI director, James Comey, by his own admission prompted the investigation by deliberately leaking classified memos about his conversations with President Donald Trump to the press.
Mueller then unnecessarily stocked his team with what the press called his dream team of mostly Democratic partisans. One had defended a Hillary Clinton employee. Another had defended the Clinton Foundation.
Mueller did not at first announce to the press why he had dismissed Trump-hating FBI operatives Lisa Page and Peter Strzok from his investigative team. Instead, he staggered their departures to leave the impression they were routine reassignments.
But Muellers greatest problem was his original mandate to discover whether Trump colluded with the Russians in 2016 to tilt the election in his favor.
After 15 months, Mueller has indicted a number of Trump associates, but on charges having nothing to do with Russian collusion. They faced inordinately long prison sentences unless they flipped and testified against Trump.
We are left with the impression Mueller cannot find much to do with his original mandate of unearthing Russian collusion, but he still thinks Trump is guilty of something. In other words, Mueller has reversed the proper order of jurisprudence.
Instead of presuming Trump innocent unless he finds evidence of Russian collusion, Mueller started with the assumption the reckless raconteur Trump surely must be guilty of some lawbreaking. Thus, it is Muellers job to hunt for past crimes to prove it.
While Mueller so far has not found Trump involved in collusion with foreign citizens to warp a campaign, there is evidence that others most surely were colluding but are not of interest to Mueller.
It is likely that during the 2016 campaign, officials at the Department of Justice, FBI, CIA and National Security Agency broke laws to ensure outsider Trump lost to Hillary Clinton. FBI and DOJ officials misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in order to obtain warrants to surveil Trump associates. National security officials unmasked the names of those being monitored and likely leaked them to the press with the intent to spread unverified rumors detrimental to the Trump campaign.
A spy on the federal payroll was implanted into the Trump campaign. Hillary Clintons campaign team paid for research done by a former British intelligence officer working with Russian sources to compile a dossier on Trump. Clinton hid her investment in Christopher Steeles dossier by using intermediaries such as the Perkins Coie law firm and Fusion GPS to wipe away her fingerprints.
As a result of wrongful conduct, more than a dozen officials at the FBI and DOJ have resigned or retired, were fired or reassigned. Yet so far none of these miscreants has been indicted or has faced the same legal scrutiny Mueller applies to Trump associates.
Hillary Clinton is not facing legal trouble for destroying subpoenaed emails, for using an unlawful email server or for the expenditure of campaign money on the Steele dossier.
No president has ever faced impeachment for supposed wrongdoing alleged to have taken place before he took office not Andrew Johnson, not Richard Nixon, and not even Bill Clinton, who lied about his liaisons with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office. With the effort to go back years, if not decades, into Trumps business and personal life, we are now in uncharted territory.
The argument is not Trump committed crimes while president indeed, his record at home and abroad is winning praise. The allegations are about what he may have done as a private citizen, and whether it could have reversed the 2016 election.
The only way to clear up this messy saga is for Trump to immediately declassify all documents without redactions relating to the Mueller investigation, the FISA court warrants, the Clinton email investigation, and CIA and FBI involvement with the dossier and the use of informants.
Second, there needs to be another special counsel to investigate wrongdoing on the part of senior officials in these now nearly discredited agencies. The mandate should be to discover whether there was serial conflict of interest, chronic lying to federal officials, obstruction of justice, improper unmasking and leaking, misleading of federal courts and violation of campaign finance laws.
It is past time to stop the stonewalling, the redacting, the suppression, the leaking to the press and the media hysteria. The government must turn over all relevant documents to two special counsels and free each to discover who did what in 2016.
Americans need the whole truth to ensure equality under the law and to thereby set us free from this nearly two-year nightmare.
New Mexico is once again riding high with projections of $1.2 billion in new money for the coming budget year, due in large part to surging oil production in the Permian Basin.
Its certainly welcome news, particularly given our states many needs everything from skyrocketing crime and homelessness, to underfunded pension systems, to a judicial mandate the state start spending more on public education. But in all the exuberance over the windfall, state lawmakers and the new governor must resist the urge to spend it all because if history is any indication, this high wont last.
Like it or not, we have a volatile revenue stream (see above) that relies heavily on market fluctuations of the oil and gas industry, and our states fortunes frequently turn on a dime.
So when the legislative session begins in January, our new governor and lawmakers need to be prudent and sock away as much into reserves and the new rainy day fund as is prudent.
Lawmakers have had to go into reserves during downturns in oil and gas just to keep the state above the red ink in 2016, reserves were just 1 percent of the states annual general fund appropriations. That left virtually no cushion in the event of a further drop in revenues or an increase in mandated spending, such as Medicaid. And it damaged the states credit rating and made borrowing money for projects more expensive.
Lawmakers led by retiring state Rep. Larry Larranaga, R-Albuquerque, and joined by Gov. Susana Martinez last year created a true rainy day fund to help the state ride out some revenue lean years. Its now up to lawmakers and the next governor to put enough into reserves and that fund so they can make a meaningful difference when the need arises.
Its not as politically profitable as bringing home pork projects, but when the next revenue downturn hits, all will be glad for it. The alternative is a host of painful cuts as when state employees were handed furloughs, pay freezes and mandatory budget cuts. Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, vice chair of the powerful Legislative Finance Committee, cautioned colleagues after the revenue projections were unveiled: Hopefully, we wont foul this thing up. Its great news for the entire state, but we still have huge economic problems.
This is a huge opportunity for the state to get its fiscal house in order and create a buffer so when oil and gas revenues tank again and they always do New Mexico doesnt have to resort to the draconian austerity measures that have been implemented in the not-so-distant past.
Because the only thing worse than having to deal with those brutal budget cuts would be knowing they could have been avoided or at least made less painful if lawmakers and the governor had just been more fiscally responsible.
Of course, not every dollar of the new revenue should be put aside. State economists are recommending lawmakers maintain cash reserves of at least 20 percent of state spending roughly $1.2 billion. A lot of money, but NM is already on track to have $1.1 billion in reserves by the end of fiscal 2019.
The $1.2 billion economists are projecting in new money the difference between projected incoming revenue and current spending levels should allow state leaders to boost reserves to the suggested 20 percent, pump a little extra into the rainy day fund and then invest in state priorities.
In fact, lawmakers should invest part of this windfall into expanding early childhood education programs like pre-K and in-home visits. Best of all, they can do it without tampering with the state Constitution and going into the permanent fund, diminishing future payouts from that fund to schools.
They should also consider a one-time payment to the pension funds to help cover unfunded liabilities, but only if they are also willing to do the hard work of overhauling benefits for new workers to make the pension systems sustainable.
And they should finally tackle much-needed tax reform, again to ensure long-term financial stability for our state by leveling the paying field for residents and business owners, and ensuring tax breaks deliver a return on investment. They began that arduous task in the midst of the 2017 budget crisis, but havent been able to get it across the finish line.
The revenue projections offer a world of opportunities to make forward-thinking decisions. Or we can squander the money for pet projects and feel-good legislation that fail to move the needle. Its up to lawmakers and our next governor to decide.
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.
Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal
SANTA FE Some New Mexico county clerks are facing political pressure over Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Olivers decision to bring back straight-party voting for the November general election.
County commissioners in seven New Mexico counties were poised Tuesday to approve resolutions opposing straight-party voting and urging county clerks not to certify ballots with the straight-party option.
However, multiple clerks said they have little if any authority on the issue, which is already the subject of a Supreme Court challenge filed by the state Republican and Libertarian parties, along with other groups.
They kind of put us between a rock and a hard place, Eddy County Clerk Robin Van Natta told the Journal after county commissioners there approved an anti-straight-party voting resolution. Nobody really asked us our opinion.
In a Tuesday memo to county clerks statewide, the executive director of the Clerks Affiliate of the New Mexico Association of Counties said clerks do not have the authority to decide whether to include the straight-party voting option on the Nov. 6 ballot, even if instructed to do so by county commissioners.
Daniel Ivey-Soto, who is also a Democratic state senator, said the states highest court is the appropriate arbiter of whether Toulouse Oliver overstepped her authority by reinstating straight-ticket voting.
Attempts at local variations on a statewide issue are futile and counterproductive, he said. It is incumbent on each county clerk to abide by whatever decision is issued by the Supreme Court.
Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, said last week just over two months before Election Day that she was bringing back straight-ticket voting. The option allows voters to vote for a major partys entire slate of candidates by filling in a bubble at the top of the ballot.
The secretary of state, who is running for re-election this year to a four-year term, said straight-ticket voting provides more options to voters and makes it easier for them to cast ballots.
She also said state law gives her the authority to make the change, specifically citing a provision in law that allows the secretary of state to decide the format of the paper ballots used in the election.
However, the move quickly came under fire from top state Republicans and Libertarians, who claim Toulouse Oliver had overstepped her authority by bringing back straight-ticket voting without holding any public hearings. They also argue that Democrats stand to benefit from the move.
They then filed the petition with the Supreme Court, which is expected to act quickly to resolve the case. Supreme Court justices will hear arguments in the case next week and could announce a decision shortly thereafter.
With the Supreme Court case pending, Republican secretary of state candidate Gavin Clarkson, along with the Republican and Libertarian candidates for attorney general, called last weekend on county clerks statewide to refuse to certify for printing any ballot that contains the straight-party voting option.
The memo issued by Clarkson was then provided to county commissioners in the seven counties set to approve resolutions opposing straight-party voting Dona Ana, Eddy, Lea, Curry, Roosevelt, Chaves and San Juan.
But some county clerks said defying the secretary of state would be legally problematic.
Lea County Clerk Keith Manes said Tuesday that he opposes straight-ticket voting but that he and other clerks cant unilaterally reject components of the statewide ballot.
The ballots have to be uniform throughout the state, Manes said Tuesday. I have no authority there.
New Mexico previously used the straight-party voting option for decades, but then-Secretary of State Dianna Duran, a Republican, eliminated it in 2012, saying the state election code did not specifically allow the practice. Several bills were subsequently proposed in the Legislature to authorize it, but none was signed into law.
Roosevelt County Clerk DeAun Searl said shes concerned that reinstating straight-party voting this close to the election could cause widespread voter confusion, but she said its not up to her to make the legal determination.
I, by law, cannot pick and choose whats on a ballot, she said Were all waiting on the Supreme Court.
Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal
A Bernalillo police officer opened fire on a man police described as an armed shooting suspect at the KOA campground near U.S. 550 Monday evening.
After a standoff with police, the suspect and another man were found dead inside a trailer from apparent gunshot wounds, said New Mexico State Police spokeswoman Lt. Elizabeth Armijo.
The suspect was identified as 70-year-old Fernand Fred Lete, and the other man was identified as 55-year-old Michael LaPlante.
Around 6:30 p.m. Monday, Bernalillo police responded to a shots fired call at the KOA campground at 555 South Hill Road, near U.S. 550 and Interstate 25.
Armijo said callers reported that Lete had shot another man inside a camp trailer.
When the officers arrived at the camp trailer and announced their presence, Lete opened the door and was armed with a revolver, she said.
Armijo said one of the officers fired multiple shots and Lete retreated back inside the trailer.
She said police set up a perimeter, and State Police tactical units used equipment to look inside the trailer and could see the two men.
Armijo said officers went inside and found LaPlante, apparently shot to death, and Lete unresponsive. Lete died at the scene, and a .38-caliber revolver was found near his body.
State Police are investigating LaPlantes death as a homicide.
Armijo said there is no indication LaPlante was struck by the officers gunfire and police believe Lete shot him.
An autopsy will be conducted on both mens bodies. Both are from Rio Rancho, but their relationship is unclear.
Armijo would not identify the officer who opened fire or say how many times he or she fired.
Bernalillo police officials did not respond to phone calls from the Journal Tuesday.
By 4 p.m. Tuesday, there was no sign of police vehicles or investigators in the campground.
People could be seen going in and out of the trailer where the shooting occurred, but they declined to speak to a Journal reporter.
Several trailers away, a couple said they hadnt heard any gunshots or disturbances the night before and didnt know anything had happened until police showed up.
The couple said they knew the man who lived in the trailer as Mike, but didnt talk to him except for the occasional friendly hello.
Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal
SANTA FE An attorney who helped file a gender discrimination lawsuit against the State Police chief on behalf of three current or former officers has now accused the state of failing to turn over public records showing settlements involving the Governors Office and the Department of Public Safety.
Diane Garrity, a Santa Fe lawyer, is seeking settlements going back several years records that she expects will support the other lawsuit she filed, accusing State Police Chief Pete Kassetas of blatant, ongoing and systematic discrimination against officers based on gender and sexual orientation.
Garrity filed the initial public records request in April and she says she hasnt received all of the documents shes entitled to, according to her suit.
The state, in turn, says it has already turned over some documents and is still working on the rest of her request.
Dianne Garritys extremely voluminous (records) request for seven years of material requires extensive review of tens of thousands of records and documents before release in order to comply with state law, General Services Department spokesman Patrick Hall said in a written statement.
The state Inspection of Public Records Act requires records custodians to make public records available as soon as practical or within 15 days of a written request. They can seek a reasonable amount of extra time for excessively burdensome or broad requests.
In this case, Wyndham Kemsley, then the spokesman for the General Services Department, told Garrity that her request was quite broad in scope, and therefore significantly burdensome to fulfill, according to email exchanges attached to Garritys lawsuit.
An attorney in the department followed up by releasing some documents in July and said he would be in contact soon regarding additional responsive records, according to the emails.
Garrity, through her own attorneys, is now asking a judge to order the state to turn over the additional documents and to award damages.
In a separate lawsuit, Garrity represents Sgt. Monica Martinez-Jones, retired Lt. Julia Armendariz and retired Deputy Chief Michael Ryan Suggs who have accused the State Police chief of blatant, ongoing and systematic discrimination against officers based on gender and sexual orientation.
Attorneys representing the state are asking a judge to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that its filled with impossibly vague and ambiguous allegations and fails to comply with court rules.
SANTA FE A judge has ruled in favor of public use of several roads across private property that provide access to prime hunting territory on public land in the White Peak area of northeast New Mexico.
State District Court Judge Sarah Backus of Taos agreed with the state Attorney Generals Office that use of roads across the property of rancher David Stanley is protected by a federal law, dating back to the 19th century, that maintains for public use of historically established routes if the roads or trails existed when the surrounding property was owned by the federal government.
Citing testimony from area residents who said they had traveled into the White Peak area as far back as the 1940s, Backus said the state had provided sufficient proof that the roads were historical routes. Land patents dating back to the 1800s were discussed at trial earlier this year.
At issue is whether roads to more than 50,000 acres of state trust land in Colfax and Mora counties are public rights-of-way or are under the control of Stanley, the rancher. The lawsuit dates from 2011, but the fight over access to White Peak territory has been an issue for at least two decades.
The office of Attorney General Hector Balderas hailed Backus ruling from last week as a major court victory on behalf of millions of New Mexicans.
Access to and use of our states public lands is a crucial part of the cultural heritage of New Mexicans, Balderas said in the news release. New Mexicans have hunted, fished, camped and spent time on our public lands near White Peak for more than a century. Judge Backuss decision reaffirms the right of every New Mexican to enjoy the natural beauty of our state.
Attorneys for Stanley, in their final arguments, said a ruling against Stanley would set a dangerous precedent.
No matter how long youve owned your property, no matter if prior quiet title suits have been litigated on the property without contest for over 80 years, the State of New Mexico can always seek to establish (federal statute) Section 932 roads and public roads by prescription on your property without compensation, their court filing said.
The White Peak area is considered prime hunting territory for elk and other game. Various efforts to resolve the access dispute have failed in the past. In 2011, for instance, the state Supreme Court, nullified controversial land swaps engineered by former State Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons that were intended to facilitate access.
In 2015, current Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn proposed that the state Game and Fish Department buy 10,000 acres, valued at $27 million, from Stanley, then deed it to the State Land Office to give hunters and anglers unrestricted access for 20 years. But Game and Fish concluded the deal would be illegal.
Last year, Dunn announced completion of a 2.5 mile road that provides a way into part of the White Peak area. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation provided $20,000 to pay for the road, off Mora County Road 10. It traverses state trust land leased by Stanley and others, according to the Land Office.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services announced a $50,000 grant Wednesday to the New Mexico State Library for the project Libraries Lead: A Creative Economy Initiative which utilizes public libraries as economic development centers.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services announced a $50,000 grant last week to the New Mexico State Library for the project Libraries Lead: A Creative Economy Initiative, which utilizes public libraries as economic development centers.
This validation is significant recognition of the potential this innovative collaboration has to grow business in New Mexico and further establishing local libraries as necessary community anchors, Cultural Affairs Secretary Veronica Gonzales said in a statement.
The New Mexico State Library, 1209 Camino Carlos Rey in Santa Fe, is a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs.
The money is expected to allow for an analysis of needed entrepreneurial resources, technology suites and the development of an online education portal to be available exclusively at libraries.
The grant-winning proposal for Libraries as Launchpads calls for establishing rural and tribal libraries as hubs of business and economic empowerment, library officials said in a news release. The objective is to use them as knowledge centers and connectors between library users, budding entrepreneurs and business owners.
The initiative focuses on underserved and rural populations throughout New Mexico. It is a natural progression from the State Librarys Makerstate Initiative, which brought makerspace technologies to local libraries for STEM learning, officials said.
We are gratified, and frankly thrilled, that the Libraries as Launchpads program is being recognized and supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Gonzales said.
The New Mexico project was among 31 projects nationwide selected to receive just under $5 million.
We welcome suggestions for the daily Bright Spot. Send to newsroom@abqjournal.com.
The preliminary and detention hearings for five people connected to a Taos compound where a dead child was found was continued for one week.
Attorneys for the group requested the delay, saying after the hearing that they needed more time to prepare for the proceedings.
Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40, Lucas Morton, 40, Jany Leveille, 35, Hujrah Wahhaj, 37, and Subhanah Wahhaj, 35, have been charged in federal court with federal gun charges. The criminal complaints against them accuse Leveille, a native of Haiti, of being in the country illegally and the others of conspiring to get her a firearm.
The group will remain in federal custody until the hearing, which is scheduled for Sept. 12.
The is an unusual case, said Amy Sirignano, Mortons attorney.
Sirignano and Carey Bhalla, Hujrah Wahhajs attorney, said they had never encountered or defended a client who had faced similar charges.
The group was arrested last month on suspicion of child abuse charges after Taos County sheriffs deputies raided a compound where the group was living and found 11 malnourished children a dead 3-year-old boy, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj.
The FBI arrested the group on suspicion of the federal firearms charges after state charges were dismissed. Prosecutors in Taos didnt hold the preliminary hearing within the proper deadline, though authorities said they plan to present the case to a grand jury later this month.
Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal
The New Mexico Attorney Generals Office is seeking all documents related to potential abuse by priests and other clergy from all Catholic dioceses Santa Fe, Gallup and Las Cruces in New Mexico.
Attorney General (Hector) Balderas has sent investigative demands to all three dioceses in New Mexico requiring full disclosure and full transparency, AG spokesman David Carl said. The Catholic Church in New Mexico needs to fully reconcile and support survivors by revealing the magnitude of sexual abuse and subsequent cover-up by church leaders in order to restore faith and trust in the community, Carl said.
The Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces confirmed it received a letter from Balderas requesting documents in a review of possible cases of sexual abuse.
We welcome this opportunity to cooperate with Attorney General Balderas, Bishop Oscar Cantu said. Having an independent authority reviewing our files can foster greater confidence in the transparency and accountability of the Diocese of Las Cruces.
The attorney general sent letters Tuesday to Las Cruces Bishop Cantu, Gallup Bishop James Wall and Archbishop of Santa Fe John Wester seeking the documents.
I am writing to express my continued concern and assert that it is time to demand full disclosure and full transparency, I am focusing my efforts on assisting the victims of clergy sexual abuse, Balderas said in the letter.
The attorney general said the demand was in contemplation of litigation and insisted that all documents and/or data related to the investigation of sexual abuse by priest or clergy members be preserved.
The letter sought access to diocesan personnel files, including those of clergy members who had previously served in the diocese, to review any possible material related to the sexual abuse of minors, according to the Las Cruces Diocese.
The Las Cruces Diocese has begun the process of cooperating with their review of the files, according to a statement released by the diocese Wednesday.
The Diocese of Gallup said in a statement issued Wednesday that it is also cooperating.
In order to be proactive in the protection of children, the Diocese of Gallup is also reaching out to other potential interested parties, such as the Arizona Attorney General, as the diocese is located in both Arizona and New Mexico, the statement said.
The Archdiocese of Santa Fe said in a statement issued late Wednesday that it intends to fully cooperate with legitimate authorities. We look forward to working with the Office of the Attorney General. The statement also listed four significant reforms to ensure clergy abuse does not recur, including since 1993 removing priests with credible allegations from ministry and publishing a list of the names of priests, deacons, religious and seminarians credibly accused of sexual abuse of children in the archdiocese.
The inquiry in New Mexico follows a recent Pennsylvania grand jury investigation concluding that 300 priests had sexually abused children over seven decades. The grand jury reviewed more than 2 million church documents and reported that at least 1,000 children were victims of sexual abuse by clergy members. It also said several church leaders were involved in a cover-up.
The Pennsylvania investigation spanned 18 months and included six of the states dioceses. In his letter to bishops in New Mexico, Balderas noted the Pennsylvania grand jury report had revealed ties to New Mexico.
The report said bishops in Pennsylvania used the Servants of the Paraclete treatment center in Jemez Springs as a laundry for priests accused of sexual abuse so they could return home to their parishes.
The Law Offices of Brad D. Hall, LLC, in Albuquerque, which has represented more than 100 survivors of clerical sexual abuse, had asked Balderas to follow the lead of Pennsylvanias attorney general and impanel a grand jury to investigate the alleged cover-up of clergy sexual abuse.
Gallup police arrested a man Friday who is accused of sexually exploiting an immigrant out of an Albuquerque hotel room in 2015 and 2016.
Authorities say Fred Lewis, 59, allowed an immigrant woman to live with him in hotel rooms before beating her, threatening her life and forcing her to have sex with himself and others in exchange for drugs.
A warrant was issued for Lewis in January and officers found him at a home in Gallup on Friday afternoon.
Lewis is booked at the Metropolitan Detention Center on charges of human trafficking, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and assault with intent to commit a violent felony.
According to a criminal complaint filed in District Court, the New Mexico Attorney General began investigating in Sept. 2017 after the woman came forward and told agents she immigrated in early 2015 and ended up at a homeless shelter in Albuquerque, where she met Lewis.
Agents say the two moved into the Downtown Inn, near Central and 12th NW.
Lewis initially treated her well and allowed her to come and go as she pleased, an agent wrote. After about two months Lewis became more controlling and physically abusive.
The woman told agents Lewis forced her to have sex with him twice a week in exchange for being able to live with him.
Agents say Lewis began using drugs with a man named Patricio Sanchez and the two men were prostituting several women while living at the hotel.
The woman told agents Lewis also ordered her to have sex with Sanchez, and other men, in exchange for free drugs.
During this time, agents say Lewis threatened to kick the woman into the cold, strangled her and beat her if she tried to resist.
Agents say the woman called Albuquerque police in Oct. 2016 after she refused to have sex with Sanchez and Lewis beat her before grabbing a knife and threatening to kill her.
Albuquerque police arrested Lewis on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon but the case against him was later dropped for insufficient evidence.
The womans friend, Sergio Romero, told agents he allowed her to hide in his room at the Express Inn several times and even called 911 after a man came looking for her with a gun, banged on the door, and threatened to shoot Romero and the woman.
Agents say Romero recalled witnessing at least three prostitutes in and out of Lewis room frequently and he knew the women were prostitutes because of their dress attire.
The criminal complaint does not elaborate on the other women or any other allegations of prostitution against Lewis.
The OAG will present all relevant information to a grand jury at a later date, a spokesman for the Office of the Attorney General said Wednesday. We cannot comment beyond the public document at this time.
Chtrbox, Indias leading data-powered Influencer Marketing company, today announced the appointment of Ms. Arushi Sharma as the Head of Brand Partnerships & Strategy for Mumbai. In her new role, Arushi will be responsible for steering the growth of the firms specialized Influencer Marketing business in Mumbai, while also contributing towards team & culture building and product innovation. She will also work towards setting newer benchmarks for how strategically and creatively can social media influencers be leveraged for brands and agencies in India.
Arushi has over eight years of diverse social media marketing & leadership experience across the UK, Singapore, Indonesia and India. Most recently, she was leading the social media team, including the influencer marketing division, for Iris Worldwide in Indonesia, & was previously with them in Singapore where she led the APAC Digital Command Centre for Philips. Among her many achievements, the highlights of her career have been winning the Bronze Social Campaign of the Year Award for Philips as well as being invited to speak at the Cannes Lions Festival 2016 held in France. She also managed the PR & digital launch of Spotify across South East Asia which organically achieved #1 trending status for the brand worldwide.
Speaking about her association with Chtrbox, Arushi said, "In my experience across markets and sectors, the one thing that I have increasingly witnessed is the demand for authentic voices and storytelling in the social media space. It is exciting to work with a brilliant up-and-coming platform like Chtrbox that addresses the lack of consolidation on pricing and strong measurement models to give popular and emerging brands and influencers an effective and measurable way of partnering together. Together with this dynamic team, we are changing the way this space operates, and are excited to do more.
On Arushis appointment, Pranay Swarup, Co-Founder & CEO @Chatterbox said: Arushi and I had connected almost a decade ago as colleagues and have been 'Facebook Friends' ever since. We've witnessed each other grow as professionals over the years, and I'm glad that we're now doing some disruptive work together. With Arushi's experiences across international markets, and the clientele and scale of work that she has managed, we are certain that she would provide newer avenues for Chtrbox to grow. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Arushi again and wish her on a successful and fruitful journey with us at Chtrbox.
iCubesWire, Indias leading technology performance driven digital agency, today announced the launch of their Innovation Centre called NXT. The launch integrates new age solutions for the digital industry thereby offering diversified ad solutions to the clients and partners. The centre will incorporate futuristic solutions from the domain of Artificial Intelligence & Augmented Reality. Amongst other solutions, rich media for customized creative demands & software development kit for customized audience will be its beneficial components. The Innovation Centre is first of its kind which will give the brands numerous innovative ad solutions to pick & choose from, while planning for campaigns.
iCubesWire caters to 500+ clients and is optimistic about disrupting the industry with this avant-garde launch. Along with their flagship offerings on performance marketing & full-service digital agency solutions, iCubesWires Delta and Instatalk are also pacing up efficaciously in the market.
Expressing delight over the launch, Sahil Chopra, Founder & CEO, iCubesWire, says, This is a vital launch for the industry as an entity. There are ample agencies and networks granting overlapping services and the need to devise an innovation cropped up which incorporates them together towards a fresher approach. This requisite formed the base of developing NXT. We are excited and are asserting for it to be a game changer.
Aditya Singh, Chief Operating Officer, iCubesWire, adds, With cutting-edge modifications coming to a stall in the industry, innovation should be a pre-eminent & recurring process. We are enthusiastic about the launch and are certain that the brands will be equally excited to dive into the farsighted offerings that NXT promises to deliver.
New York is getting real this month.
Or rather, its getting NeoRealismo.
Beginning on Sept. 6 and running through Dec. 8 at New York Universitys Grey Art Gallery is NeoRealismo: The New Image in Italy, 1932-1960, the first major museum exhibition to spotlight key Italian photographers recording life during the era. The exhibition, curated by critic and journalist Enrica Vigano, pairs work from 60 Italian artists with the original publications in which their images circulated, from illustrated magazines and photography books to exhibition catalogs.
Also on view will be excerpts from important films from post-war neorealism directors Vittorio De Sica, Roberto Rossellini and Luchino Visconti, alongside related movie posters.
But wait, theres more!
On Sept. 12 New Yorks Howard Greenberg Gallery will open an exhibition featuring Italian photography from the era, while the Museum of Modern Art will begin featuring post-war Italian photography from its own collection.
A selection of the photographs will also be on view at NYUs Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo. Below is a video previewing the work:
The exhibition at the Grey Art Gallery has been traveling through Europe to acclaim; its American debut is accompanied by the publication of an English-language edition of Viganos catalog for the showwhich includes a forward by film director Martin Scorsese.
Thats only appropriate: What Vigano has done is to extend the idea of cinematic neorealism to a broader cultural universe: The term neorealism typically refers to post-war films (as well as literature) that depicted the lives of the poor and working classes in Italy not only their difficult economic conditions but also the moral choices people in dire conditions after the war were forced to make. Italian neorealism films had a significant impact on the French New Wave and, ultimately, on filmmaking in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Mario Cattaneo, From the series Alleys in Naples, Naples, 19511958
Tranquillo Casiraghi, People of the Torretta, Sesto San Giovanni, Milan, c. 1950
Alfredo Camisa, The sickle, Tuscany, 1955
NeoRealismo takes a unique approach to the period between 1932 and 1960 in bringing together various media and materials that have never before been grouped together in the same context, says Vigano.
Pasquale De Antonis, Rapino, lucky fishing, Abruzzo, 1935
Mario De Biasi, The Italians turn around, Milan, 1954
Mario De Biasi, Sunday in August, Milan, 1949
There are a number of panel discussions accompanying the Gray Art Gallery exhibition, including one titled Neorealism and Photography: The New Image in Italy (September 10, 6:007:30pm at the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo, 24 West 12th Street, NYC) and another titled Italian Humanist Photography (November 16, 6:00pm, at the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo).
And theres a scheduled day trip Magazzino Italian Art in Cold Harbor, New York, a private warehouse space that presents exhibitions on Postwar and Contemporary Italian Art (Saturday, September 15, 9:30 am5:00pm, trip via Metro North Railroad and bus). Go here for more information.
________________________________________
At top: Piergiorgio Branzi, Piazza Grande in Burano, Venice, 1957
Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier?
Sign up to receive news and updates from this site directly to your desktop.
Breaking News Columbia Breaking News Greenville Breaking News Myrtle Beach Breaking News Aiken Breaking News N Augusta Breaking News
Click on the bell icon to manage your notifications at any time.
Success! Please click the 'Allow' button in the 'Show Notifcations' alert in your browser if one is available. Thank you for signing up!
Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh made a second appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee today for his Supreme Court confirmation hearing. During questioning, Kavanaugh was asked about a controversial, but little-known, legal doctrine called Chevron deference.
Heres what you should know about Kavanaughs position and why you should care about Chevron deference.
What is the Chevron the Senate is referring to? The gas company?
Yes, though indirectly. Chevron, the corporation, was the plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court case Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. This case is one of the most important in administrative law and set the standard known as Chevron deference.
What was the case about?
The Clean Air Act, which regulates air pollution at the national level, includes a requirement that States establish a permit program regulating new or modified major stationary sources of air pollution. The Carter administration defined stationary source as any device in a manufacturing plant that produced pollution. But after Ronald Reagan was elected in 1981, his EPA (which was headed at the time by Judges Gorsuchs mother, Anne M. Gorsuch) said that source meant the entire plant.
The Natural Resources Defense Council challenged that redefinition in federal court and won. Chevron, which was affected, appealed and the case went to the Supreme Court. The Court ruled in 1984 that when Congress passed a law that did not have a clear meaning, the courts should defer to reasonable interpretations by the federal agency applying the law. The Court said, The EPAs interpretation of the statute here represents a reasonable accommodation of manifestly competing interests, and is entitled to deference. This standard has since been referred to as Chevron deference.
Wait, isnt the judiciary branch in charge of interpreting laws?
We often think that the judiciary is the branch of government responsible for interpreting the law. But because of Chevron deference the executive branch, through the various regulatory agencies, provides most interpretation of statutes. Regulatory agencies handle administrative law, primarily by codifying and enforcing rules and regulations. When Congress passes a new law it usually goes to a regulatory agency to determine how the law will be put in place. Because of the judiciary branch has established the Chevron deference, any interpretation that is deemed reasonable is likely to be the standard that is used.
Whats the problem with Chevron deference?
It depends on how you view the Constitution. If you believe the Constitution was put into place to provide checks-and-balances, then the judiciary deferring to the executive on almost all interpretations of administrative law might be a problem.
Whats Kavanaughs position?
Earlier today, Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) asked Kavanaugh about his view of the powers of administrative agencies. According to the New York Times, Kavanaugh touted several rulings in which he had upheld environmental regulations rather than striking them down, but he gave little sign of support for Chevron deference, insisting instead that executive branch agencies must not be permitted to rewrite laws passed by Congress to expand its authority.
Ive heard it said that Im a skeptic of regulation, said Kavanaugh. Im not a skeptic of regulation at all. Im a skeptic of unauthorized regulation, of illegal regulation, of regulation that is outside the bounds of what the laws passed by Congress have said.
Why should Christians be concerned about Chevron?
The main reason we should be concerned is because Chevron deference gives thousands of technocrats in federal agencies authorization to make decisions that affect our lives in the minutest ways. A prime example are the mandates that Obamas Health and Human Services was able to create by interpreting the law in ways that sometimes violated religious liberties. The agencies often interpret a statute in a way that was not intended by our elected representative.
Chevron deference is too powerful a tool to leave to an unelected administrative state that continues to encroach on the freedoms of Americans.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas continues to threaten severe consequences for Hamas if it pursues a truce with Israel that doesn't include the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Abbas said during closed talks Aug. 28 that he will not allow Israel and Hamas to sign a cease-fire agreement without the PA's approval, according to Israeli Channel 10.
Saeb Erekat, the secretary-general of the PLO's Executive Committee, warned during an Aug. 25 television interview on Al-Mayadeen that Hamas plans to sign the Egyptian-sponsored truce with Israel in the next two weeks. Erekat said leaders of a Palestinian delegation headed by Hamas and excluding the PLO will sign the pact. The PLO is an umbrella organization representing most Palestinian factions, but not Hamas, and has been considered the official negotiator on behalf of the Palestinians with Israel to resolve the conflict.
Egypt has tried for years to reconcile Abbas' Fatah political party, which leads the PA and administers the West Bank, with its rival Hamas, which administers the Gaza Strip. The two Palestinian factions split violently in 2007.
Previous agreements were approved by the PLO, which is the only legitimate and internationally recognized representative of the Palestinian people. It seems Hamas is trying to flex its muscles in the political and military arenas. The PLO has boycotted the current deliberations held in Cairo, and Erekat said Hamas monopolization of an agreement with Israel would destroy efforts to unite Hamas and Fatah. The PA will halt funding to the Gaza Strip if deals are signed that would widen the division or pave the way for the US peace proposal, Erekat said. "Signing the truce would entrench the rift between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and would destroy the Palestinian cause," he said.
Hamas senior spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri responded to Erekats statements, saying the threats to stop sending funds to the Gaza Strip reflect the PAs insistence on suffocating Gaza and preventing any chance to save it.
On Aug. 28, Fatah informed the Egyptian presidency that it rejects the truce and put forth conditions for a reconciliation with Hamas that the latter describes as impossible to achieve, such as Hamas halting appeasement negotiations with Israel and agreeing that its possession and use of weapons are subject to national consensus. Hamas refused.
Abbas has vowed to implement unprecedented punitive measures that would affect Hamas mainly, but also the United States and Israel, according to Al-Araby al-Jadeed website.
Yet political analyst Talal Okal told Al-Monitor, Abbas does not see his steps toward Gaza as punitive. He believes they are pressure measures to achieve reconciliation according to Fatahs conditions. Still, Okal warned that the Gaza Strip will suffer a huge crisis if Abbas implements those measures, which will depend on the progress of the current Cairo talks.
Abbas is sending a message to Hamas that maintaining rule over the Gaza Strip entails handling all responsibilities, solving all its financial and economic problems, and finding alternative funding methods to replace the PA.
Okal noted that Hamas does control the situation in the Gaza Strip and wants to end the blockade there, provide a sense of comfort to Gazans and resolve their crises. Therefore, Hamas responded to the proposed truce with Israel to avoid Fatahs reconciliation conditions.
The proposed Israel-Hamas truce includes provisions such as implementing a cease-fire between Gaza and Israel and halting the weekly Great March of Return protests in exchange for easing the Israeli siege on Gaza, opening the Rafah border crossing, inaugurating a maritime route between Gaza and Cyprus, and increasing the maritime fishing space for Gazans.
Okal stated that the current negotiations with Israel provoked the PA because Hamas has no authority to make a deal and prioritized the truce over the Palestinian reconciliation.
He added, The bilateral negotiations between Hamas and Israel are not led by Hamas only. Egypt is managing the issue with the US, too, and they both have the last word. Hamas is influential, but Egypt is trying to solve the reconciliation issue to set the stage for a truce.
Ibrahim al-Madhoun, a political analyst close to Hamas, told Al-Monitor that Abbas is being harsh with the Gaza Strip for political and moral reasons. Abbas is afraid to tackle Gazas thorny issues and is being strict because he knows that rapprochement with Gaza would bring out strong competitors with whom he would have to share power.
Madhoun added that Abbas is issuing threats because Israel, Egypt and the United States ignored the PA and led direct talks with Hamas, which gives the movement political weight that could pave the way for it to be recognized as an international and legitimate power. Madhoun believes the threats have nothing to do with Abbas reconciliation concerns.
About the political dimension of the agreement, Madhoun said the negotiations mark Hamas political development, which might enable it to bridge the gap where the PA failed. He ruled out the agreement being historical, however, as it wont go beyond a field and humanitarian truce. He expects the agreement to alleviate the PAs pressure on Gaza, and he noted that reconciliation with Abbas as head of the PA will be tough.
Israel wants to neutralize the Gaza front and avoid confrontation with Hamas because it has other plans, like establishing a new regional alliance," he said. "Israel is well-aware that a confrontation with Hamas would be costly.
Hani al-Masri, the director general of the Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies-Masarat, told Al-Monitor that Abbas tries to link calm in Gaza to toppling Hamas or forcing it to succumb to his demands that Hamas reconcile with Fatah. Masri said, Hamas and Israels second round of shuttle talks are going in the same direction as the Oslo Accords, although the movement considered those a national catastrophe and rejected them. These negotiations indicate that Hamas would tacitly recognize Israel.
He added, Hamas must think twice while negotiating with Israel, as the movement [had] claimed it was different from the PA and would not negotiate with Israel. But here it is leading the negotiations under the pretext of lifting the blockade.
Masri believes a truce is unlikely unless the PA leads it. Egypt cares about its relations with the PA and will not accept a signing without the PAs leading presence, he added.
He stated that the US administration prefers the return of the PA to negotiations but isn't insisting on it. Appeasement might happen, but not a truce. Masri called on Hamas to show flexibility in a potential reconciliation with Fatah, as the price it would pay for that rapprochement is much less than what a truce with Israel would cost in the long run.
Egypt's festival organizers have expressed concern about freedom of expression and artistic creativity in the wake of the first meeting of a new government committee tasked with authorizing and regulating the countrys festivals.
The committee, launched by a governmental decree in July, met Aug. 27. Presided by Culture Minister Enas Abdel Dayem, the committee includes representatives from the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior, Finance, Tourism, Antiquities, Civil Aviation, Youth and Sports, and Local Development.
Under the new decree, organizers of cultural activities will get their permits from the Culture Ministry after their request is approved by the multi-ministry committee.
Although Dayem said at the first meeting that the committee seeks to protect public funds through a clear map for all festivals funded and organized by the state, many artists say the regulations that are now put in place will mean the demise of many cultural events, particularly smaller festivals.
The decree that created the committee puts forward new rules on the conditions for authorization. To obtain a permit to hold a festival, the organizers must have a capital of 500,000 Egyptian pounds (roughly $28,000) and submit a yearlong agenda of events in advance.
The organizers are also worried about more red tape. Although they will get a single permission from the committee, the new platform allows eight different ministries to have a say on whether or not a festival could take place.
The regulations also include limiting the state financial support to festivals that are organized by civil society organizations to 40%. Previously, the government often financed 70% of festivals or even shouldered all expenses.
These regulations are disastrous, Amal Ramsis, founder and director of the Cairo International Womens Film Festival (CIWFF), said. With such requirements and rules, the state is strangling art activities of nongovernmental organizations and targeting free speech in Egypt, she told Al-Monitor.
The CIWFF is not sponsored by the state, so the concern Ramsis voiced has to do with the tougher and longer procedures necessary to apply for a festival permit.
Ramsis said very few Egyptian nongovernmental groups have a capital of 500,000 Egyptian pounds. These regulations put an end to cultural festivals and events organized by most NGOs as well as underground bands or any artistic events organized by young people as it will be very hard for them to find other funding sources or sponsors, she added.
The decisions are very tough and unfair to many festivals that greatly contribute to boosting Egypts tourism and promoting a favorable image of the country abroad, El-Amir Abaza, president of the Alexandria International Film Festival for Mediterranean Countries, told Al-Monitor.
The 2017 film festival in Alexandria received 70% state sponsorship. Under the new regulations, they will be forced to find private sponsors to continue organizing the film festival beyond this year's 34th edition.
The state should support these festivals rather than reduce financial assistance to them, especially when the country is trying to revive its tourism industry and lure tourists back to its tourist attractions, Abaza said.
He added that the Ministry of Culture should give festival organizers at least one year to prepare before the new rules which are expected to take effect in early 2019 are implemented.
Sayed Fouad, president of the Luxor African Film Festival, told Al-Monitor that the new rules would only allow festivals supported by the state to take place, which would "kill the diversity of cultural festivals in Egypt.
He added, The talents and artistic voices of the youth would be eliminated with the new rules, urging the Ministry of Culture to rethink these regulations.
In the past, some concerts and cultural events in Egypt have been subject to suspension or crackdown due to their content.
In September 2017, the Syndicate of Musical Professions banned Mashrou Leila from performing in Egypt after the audience raised the rainbow flag in support of the LGBTQ community in Egypt. The syndicate also decided to ban any upcoming concerts of the popular Lebanese indie rock band.
In early 2016, the syndicate banned a metal music concert in Cairo, accusing the band members of being devil worshippers.
Despite such a crackdown on art and free speech and now [causing] financial hardship, I believe that young people and NGOs will find a way out because no one can prevent them from pursuing their passion for art and for expressing their opinion in an artistic way, Ramsis concluded.
CAIRO Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli issued Aug. 26 a decree aimed at forming a technical, financial and legal action group that has the contracting, business and logistics expertise to work on reconstruction in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Palestine.
Hassan Abdel Aziz, head of the Egyptian Federation for Construction and Building Contractors (EFCBC) of the Ministry of Housing, announced in a press statement Aug. 26 that the action group would include representatives of some government agencies such as the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Military Production and the Administrative Control Authority.
Abdel Aziz added that the EFCBC is currently examining the Egyptian companies capable of working in the field based on their expertise and capabilities. This aims at enhancing the role of these companies in the abovementioned countries and minimizing the risks they may face. These companies will be announced as soon as the EFCBC examination is over.
Egypt had sent last Feb. 14 a delegation headed by Ibrahim Mahleb, the assistant to the president of the republic for strategic and national projects, to the conference on the reconstruction of Iraq held in Kuwait in the presence of about 200 Egyptian companies. Mahleb stressed Egypts keenness to fully participate in Iraqs reconstruction process.
Two-thousand companies from different countries, including the United States and France, took part in this conference.
On the sidelines of the conference, the Iraqi Central Bank governor and the adviser to the prime minister, among others, called on Egypt to participate in the construction of 2 million housing units and contribute to the generation of electricity in Iraq given Egypts experience in the field.
Of note, an Egyptian delegation including ministers and businessmen headed by Mahleb had visited Iraq Feb. 2 before the conference in order to showcase the potential of the Egyptian factories and companies in the field of reconstruction.
Ambassador Jamal Bayoumi, the former assistant to the minister of foreign affairs and the secretary general of the Union of Arab Investors, told Al-Monitor that albeit a little overdue, the recent Egyptian concerted effort to get involved in the reconstruction of some Arab countries is a good omen and certainly a right step in the right direction.
Bayoumi added, During the last seven years, Egypt only took positive political and security steps in the countries that suffered after the Arab Spring revolutions, especially considering that it insisted on the need to protect national states and national armies against disintegration. Egypt's lack of involvement in any conflict in these countries is an important factor that helps it intensify its foreign reconstruction efforts.
He suggested establishing companies that include skilled elements from the government sector, the business sector and the private sector in order to launch investments in Arab countries that need reconstruction, all the while employing the largest number of Egyptian laborers.
Bayoumi also stressed the importance of such a step given the remittances that workers abroad would be transferring to the national economy. Remittances have significantly increased in the recent period compared to previous years. They reached about $19.5 billion between July 2017 and March 2018, according to the Central Bank of Egypt. This reflects the importance of such a step as one of Egypt's foreign currency sources.
It is worth mentioning that Libya's Minister of Labor and Rehabilitation Al-Mahdi al-Amin said in a press statement to the Egyptian daily Akhbar el-Yom last April that the Egyptian workforce will have priority in the projects, factories and cities established in the framework of the Libyan reconstruction process during the next stage. The Egyptian workforce, Amin added, enjoys major skills that left their marks on the reconstruction of Libya before the revolution.
Amr El-Gohary, a member of the Egyptian parliaments Economic Affairs Committee, told Al-Monitor that parliament is widely supportive of the Egyptian efforts in the field of reconstruction in some Arab countries given the political and economic gains that would result thereof.
Egypt has considerable experience in the fields of reconstruction, infrastructure and real estate, and the Egyptian companies have come to build a good reputation in Arab countries, which is an important factor that helps the Egyptian ability to achieve a developmental boom in those countries, Gohary added.
Asked about the economic opportunities that would maximize benefits for Egypt, Khaled el-Shafei, an economist and the head of the Capital Center for Economic Studies and Research, told Al-Monitor, The formation of a diversified action group to strengthen Egypt's reconstruction efforts is a right step to get Egypt back to its Arab depth, especially as far as the economic sphere is concerned.
Egypt will greatly feel the economic benefits of such a step, especially when it comes to sectors related to construction and infrastructure. For example, the Libyan market is the biggest importer of Egyptian ceramic, and Syria mainly depends on Egyptian cement, among other raw materials needed for construction, Shafei added.
Of note, the volume of Egyptian construction material exports amounted to about $2.8 billion in the first half of 2018.
As for the number of Egyptian laborers expected to participate in the reconstruction projects, Shafei said the envisaged projects can absorb about 5 million Egyptian workers, and this will significantly contribute to reducing the unemployment rate and increasing the remittances that support the national economy.
Asked about the obstacles facing Egypt, Shafei said, I do not expect the work of Egyptian companies in these countries to be easy in the presence of strong competition from Russian companies, among others. There are a lot of countries, especially China and Russia, that are seeking to win the largest share that would allow them to achieve the biggest gains especially in Syria, Iraq and Libya.
Shafei called for coordination among Egyptian companies, the concerned ministries and the commercial representation offices in these countries in order to provide the Egyptian companies with details concerning any trade or industrial alliances in the field of reconstruction, all the while examining the best opportunities for Egyptian companies.
Majed Faraj, head of the Palestinian General Intelligence Service and viewed as a possible successor to President Mahmoud Abbas in a number of Middle East capitals, is now in the midst of intensive negotiations in Washington with his American hosts. On the table is an effort to reboot Trump administration relations with the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah. It was publicized in Israel on Sept. 3 that President Donald Trump asked Abbas to meet with him in New York when Trump will attend the UN General Assembly gathering later this month, but Abbas rejected the offer. The disconnect between Washington and Ramallah blocks all American efforts to jump-start the negotiations and finally unfurl the deal of the century that is being crafted by emissaries Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt for recalcitrant partners Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Parallel efforts were also made in Ramallah. High-level representatives of Egyptian intelligence met with Abbas Sept. 1 for four continuous hours in an effort to reach some type of compromise that would enable renewal of the negotiations. The elderly, unwell Palestinian leader was focused, alert and in good form, but no compromise was reached.
The Egyptian efforts on Saturday continued in the course of the week in Washington. Working vis-a-vis the Palestinian delegation, headed by Faraj, the Americans are trying to consolidate some kind of deal that will enable renewal of the negotiations. According to senior political sources well-versed on the issue, the Palestinians are demanding a total cancelation of the cut in American assistance, in addition to some kind of American act or statement that would offset the transfer of the American Embassy to Jerusalem. They also demand a quiet understanding that east Jerusalem would become the capital of the future Palestinian state, and that the 1967 cease-fire lines would constitute the basis for future negotiation. On top of that, Abbas personally demands the replacement of emissaries Kushner and Greenblatt for objective emissaries capable of serving as fair brokers.
It is extremely doubtful that these conditions will be fulfilled. Meanwhile, it is clear that the unfurling of the deal of the century has been postponed, and we can only hope and pray that it is not being postponed to the next century. All this is taking place on the 25th anniversary of the 1993 Oslo Accord, an agreement that put an end to the condition of war that prevailed between Israel and the PLO and led to mutual recognition of the sides for each other. But for the last decade, the (interim) agreement has been dormant and fossilized. No Palestinian state has yet been established, a permanent-status arrangement (which should have followed the interim agreement) is as out-of-reach as ever, and the disconnection between Jerusalem and Ramallah is absolute despite the fact that the two cities are only a 20-minute drive apart. Yet despite all this, Oslo is not dead and it is too early to eulogize it. On the contrary: It is still alive and kicking at this very moment.
Over the last decade, Oslo became a kind of curse word in the Israeli public. The vast majority of Israelis believe that Oslo has failed. The Israeli political right has attacked this agreement furiously since the day it was born, and the loathsome accord is perceived as a rusty, hopeless castoff in the junkyard of history. In face of all this, we must ask: If the agreement is so terrible, why hasnt Israel revoked or abolished it? Why does the present right-wing government (established in 2015), the most right-wing government in the annals of the state of Israel, continue to fulfill the Oslo agreement verbatim? Many senior Israeli personages have declared, The two-state solution is dead former Minister Gideon Saar was the most recent of these yet the government has not voted to cancel the agreement. Why? It would be a lot easier to accomplish than the whole government-initiated process that led up to acceptance of the controversial Nationality Law, yet its not happening.
The answer is clear: The Oslo Accords success in stabilizing the reality on the ground is in fact the biggest failure of all. When Netanyahu was first elected to the premiership in 1996, he did not cancel the agreement; he signed it. He transferred Hebron the City of our Forefathers to the Palestinians (the 1997 Hebron Protocol); he went to the Wye Plantation and signed on the dotted line to transfer another 13% of the West Bank as part of the second stage of the agreement (the 1998 Wye River Memorandum). Before he carried out his promise, Netanyahu lost the 1999 elections to Ehud Barak. When Netanyahu returned to power 10 years later, he found a much more difficult reality on the ground: The settlers had doubled and tripled themselves, despite the agreements. At this stage, Netanyahu implemented his original, secret plan: not to cancel Oslo, but to freeze it in its early stages.
And that is exactly what happened: Oslo ground to a halt after the first stage was implemented but before the second. This can be compared to bringing a child into the world but halting his development at age 5. No Palestinian state arose; the sides lost confidence in each other; and the second, bloodstained Intifada (2000-2005) destroyed whatever remained of hope and of the Israeli peace camp. Thus, the reality on the ground constitutes a perfect status quo as far as Netanyahu is concerned: On the one hand, most of the Palestinians live in Area A, under direct Palestinian control. On the other hand, no Palestinian state has risen; sovereign Israel is all around the Palestinian territories; and the Israel Defense Forces are stationed on the Jordan River, Israels eastern border.
And so the situation remains as it is: stuck. The Oslo Accord was implemented successfully regarding a preliminary separation between the Palestinians and the Israelis. But before it matured into a permanent-status arrangement, namely a peace agreement for a two-state solution, it ground to a halt and went into a coma. With regards to Netanyahu, this coma could last forever. With regards to Abbas, he also seems to favor the status quo.
The Oslo concept was good, but its execution was bad. Two and a half decades of distrust, confrontations and terror attacks created a reality in which the leaderships of both sides are unable to talk to one another; they even do not believe that it is possible to square the circle and reach a permanent-status agreement.
On the other hand, many seniors in the Israeli security system which diligently maintains security cooperation with the Palestinian security apparatus feel that the principles behind a future permanent agreement with the Palestinians are clear to everyone and are within reach. A very senior member of the security system recently told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, Give me Abbas for a few hours and Ill get him to sign a permanent-status agreement. The parameters are well-known; theyve been chewed over and over-discussed for generations. What is needed is real willingness and courage.
Willingness and courage are nowhere to be found. The last person who was equipped with these characteristics was shot three times in his back on that night in the square in November 1995. Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin died, and Oslo was buried alive but somehow despite it all continues to live on to this very day.
Deputy head of the Likuds Young Guard, Yoel Nagar, didnt think he was doing anything wrong when he attended a meeting Sept. 2 in Ramallah with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Nagar, 33, accepted an invitation from Abbas office, saying that the Palestinian leader wanted to meet with Israelis. While most participants at the meeting identified with the left and were members of the Peace Now movement, Nagar and another member of the Likud thought that this would be a good chance to hear the other side for themselves.
What happened just a few hours later lies somewhere in the realm between the ridiculous and the disturbing. At the same time, it offers a glimpse into the rapid process of radicalization taking place in the Likud. Nagar received a phone call from David Shain, the chairman of the Young Guard, informing him that because of his meeting with Abbas, he had been removed from his position.
In an interview with Al-Monitor, Nagar claimed that Shain explained to him that his meeting with Abbas posed a big problem for him as chairman of the Likuds Young Guard, and that he had to make some operative move to counter it. If he didn't, Shain said, he would pay a steep political price when competing in the Likud primaries.
Shain made no effort to keep the dismissal of his deputy low-key, and even published a statement saying that the meeting with Abbas crossed a red line. In media interviews, Shain explained that Israelis consider Abbas to be an irrelevant factor, who recently expressed anti-Semitic views and denied the Holocaust. As a result, "one who has a position in the Likud Youth cannot join under any circumstances a meeting with a man like that," Shain added.
Nagar was forced to accept the decision. Still, he said that he had no regrets whatsoever about meeting Abbas, and that he did not break any law. According to Nagar, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself met with Abbas in the past and is currently engaged in an indirect dialogue with Hamas in order to reach an arrangement in the Gaza Strip.
What is no less problematic than Nagars dismissal, is the fact that not a single Likud minister or Knesset member was willing to condemn it publicly. While some of them did contact Nagar whom they have known for years they did so privately, far from the prying eyes of the media, so as not, God forbid, to evoke the wrath of registered Likud members in the West Bank. This refers to large, well-organized groups on the far-right, which have established themselves in the Likud over the past few years. They now wield power in the partys institutions and have enormous sway over who gets voted onto the list of the partys candidates for the Knesset. Senior members of the Likud, who are already preparing for the next party primaries (ahead of the 2019 Knesset election), would rather maintain a correct relationship with the powerful settler bloc.
Shain, who lives in the West Bank, is considered to be a key figure in party politics among the settlers, even though he is more moderate than many of them. In a conversation with Al-Monitor, Nagar said that as a result of his dismissal, he realizes that he must intensify his activity in the Likud and perhaps even run for a seat on the partys Knesset list, if only to give voice to the forces of sanity and stop the shift toward the extreme right. What did I actually do wrong? Whats the problem? The fact that I was open enough to listen to what Abbas has to say? he asked. Much to my regret, the extremists are taking over the Likud. I have no intention of leaving [the party]. This is my political home, so I will stay here and fight for it. No one will remove me from the Likud.
What Nagar is describing is actually the latest and most extreme political development instigated by the settlers after the disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005. In the wake of the enormous trauma they experienced, watching Likud Prime Minister Ariel Sharon evacuate settlements, they decided to prevent any further evacuations. The strategy that they chose was mass registration in the Likud in order to influence its policies. Until then, there was no major movement to register settlers with the party, so their registration en masse shifted the balance of power within the party.
In many cases, settlers who register with the Likud do not actually vote for the party. They are simply interested in wielding influence in the Likuds internal institutions and help decide who will be on its Knesset list. The plan succeeded in moving the party to the farthest extremes of the political right. Following the election of US President Donald Trump in 2016, and his implementation of pro-Israel policies with a right-wing orientation, the self-confidence of the settlers has increased considerably.
It could not have happened in the Likud 10 years ago or perhaps even five years ago that a member of the Likud would be removed from an official position in the party just because he met with a Palestinian leader, Moti Ohana told Al-Monitor. Ohana is a veteran party activist of standing, who once served as an adviser to Minister Dan Meridor.
Ohana is saddened by the developments he sees in his party as it veers toward extremism, noting that it was once a center-right party loyal to common Israeli values. The settler right is gradually changing the very face of the Likud, and he claims this can be seen in statements by senior party leaders as they make a sharp turn toward the ideological far-right.
Ohana noted that he is already used to seeing the moderate voices in the party dwindling. He was, for example, the only person to vote against the annexation of West Bank settlements in a vote taken by the Likud Central Committee in November 2017 (unbinding resolution). What happened to the liberal Likud? Since when does it support annexation? After all, annexation means that there will be a separate set of laws in Judea and Samaria [biblical name of the West Bank]. The people [in the Likud] dont realize that, he added.
Nevertheless, Ohana also claims that this trend is reversible. It all depends on one man: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He enjoys unprecedented political power in the Likud, Ohana explained. He could change the mood and tone down the extremism if he wanted to, but it doesnt look like thats the direction hes headed.
Violence tore through Arab Israeli communities during the first weekend of September, when four people were murdered within 48 hours. In the central town of Tira, Mohammed Hajaj and his fiance Rima Abu Gheit were shot dead while sitting in their car. In the coastal community of Jisr a-Zarka, Radad Faisal Radad was shot dead and three others were wounded. In the Galilee village of Raineh, Jonathan Nuesray was killed in an altercation between two local families. Only one of the four, Hajaj, was previously known to the police.
So far this year, 37 Arab Israelis have been murdered, and 70 were murdered last year. According to police data issued in June, 95% of all crime-related shooting incidents in Israel involve Arabs. Some 76% of those suspected of illegal weapons possession are Arabs; 55% of murder victims are Arabs, as are 57% of murder suspects. Arabs constitute 21% of Israels population.
According to a 2017 report by the governments watchdog agency, the state comptroller, 1,236 Arab men and women lost their lives in the course of criminal activity between the years 2000 and 2017.
The reasons for this disparity undoubtedly stem from the socio-economic situation of Arab society in Israel and the governments policies toward it. The problem has worsened since the 2000 riots in which 13 Arab protesters were shot to death by security forces a crisis point in the relationship between police and the Arab minority.
Arab lawmakers generally argue that police are to blame. Following the latest murders, head of the Joint List Ayman Odeh said that the police do not respond to reported crime properly. They dont deal with such cases even though there are police stations everywhere. If a Jew is murdered, they have an answer, but if an Arab is murdered, they dont, he said. His colleague, Knesset member Ahmed Tibi, also blamed the army since criminals use weapons smuggled from its arsenals. The Israel police and the army bear responsibility for the continued smuggling and the result is over 1,260 murders, he said.
In April 2016, the government took action to improve personal safety in Arab communities and in Jerusalem and established a new administration to police Arab communities, to recruit thousands of policemen and women, including Arab Israelis, to open police stations in Arab towns and villages and to expand existing ones. Three new stations were established in November 2017 in Arab communities, one of them in Jisr a-Zarka, where Radad Faisal Radad was murdered this past weekend. At the time, Joint List lawmaker Jamal Zahalkeh protested the move, claiming the Israeli establishment was seeking to infiltrate Arab towns and villages with officers who would report on the residents actions.
In 2016, Jamal Hakrush was promoted to deputy police commissioner, the first Arab to hold such a rank, and tapped to head the Arab policing administration. But so far, the administration has had a hard time setting up new police stations and obtaining the cooperation of residents and local councils. However, the real difficulty lies in recruiting Arab police officers to help fight the swelling crime in their communities. They face community condemnation, such as when young Arab men recently saw new recruit Saadi Sabarin entering a local police station to begin her duties, they cursed her for joining the "Zionist" police force.
Despite the alarms raised over the growing violence by Arab leaders, joining the police is still considered an act of treason. What is the point of all the leaderships calls for change when the victims refuse to do anything for themselves and their leadership continues to point the finger of blame solely at the police?
At a security conference in June, Hakrush lashed out at Arab Knesset members. From a place of depression and disappointment, the Arab Israeli public chose its leaders to improve their lives but instead those leaders have embarked on a path of shouting and violence. Their behavior serves to put them in the headlines, but the majority would prefer peace and quiet, he said.
This past week, other Arab Israelis spoke up with a similar message. In a harsh Aug. 31 article in the Arabic-language Kul al-Arab weekly, Maram Awada wrote, We can declare strikes, express anger on social media and blame the police, but without assuming responsibility and ending the weapons [proliferation], we will continue to wallow in rivers of blood.
Others hold similar views, but she is one of the few who dared to openly blame the community itself. Most the other voices reach only so far as the family or community. Tira resident N. spoke to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity about the gang warfare in his town. When it gets dark, you wont find people in the streets. Everyone is scared, but no one does anything. A., a resident of Umm-al-Fahm, said that every family in town has at least one firearm. If you dont have a weapon, you expose yourself and your family to risk. The town leadership only talks and talks but no one does anything to establish a citizens patrol or try to change the mentality of our society, he said, also asking that his name be withheld.
The most effective and perhaps the only way to stop the bloodbath is a large-scale operation to collect the massive amounts of weapons amassed in Arab homes over the years. Such a plan, however, would require house-to-house searches by police officers aided by army troops. It would require strong support from the Arab leadership, such as the Knesset members and mayors.
As long as residents keep demonstrating against the police and calling for the expulsion of police forces instead of working with them, the violence will likely continue.
A political firestorm has erupted following the revelation that last year, the Donald Trump administration attempted to circumvent the two-state solution by proposing to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas the establishment of a confederation with Jordan. According to Israeli Peace Now activists who met with Abbas on Sept. 2, Abbas reportedly didnt reject the offer but said his acceptance was conditional upon including Israel as a member of the Jordan-Palestine confederation.
Jordanian and Palestinian officials have publicly dismissed the idea. Jordanian government spokesperson Jumana Ghunaimat said on Sept. 2 that the idea of a confederation is not under discussion in Jordan. In Ramallah, presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the idea has been around since 1984. The position of the leadership has been since that time and until now that the two-state solution is the road to the special relationship with Jordan, he said, adding, The decision of confederacy is decided by the two peoples.
Former Palestinian local government minister Khaled Qawasmi said that the latest Israeli and US proposal of a confederation is an attempt to bypass the two-state solution after removing the issues of Jerusalem and refugees from the negotiating table.
Qawasmi told Al-Monitor that the aim of the US offer is to show that there are options available. They [the United States] want to claim that there is a political opportunity and that things have not reached a dead end.
Adnan Abu Odeh, a former political adviser to both King Hussein and King Abdullah II, told Al-Monitor that it is important not to entirely dismiss the idea of a confederation. Abbas idea of adding Israel to the Jordan-Palestine confederation is brilliant because you have many shared locations and histories between all three countries, he said.
Abu Odeh, a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, said that the Dead Sea, the Jordan River and many historical and religious sites are intertwined between Jordan, Palestine and Israel.
The continuation of the negotiations stalemate, coupled with the latest attempts by the Trump administration and Israels right-wing government to gut the two-state solution of its basic principles especially the Jerusalem issue and the right of return might be behind the renewed media interest in the Jordanian-Palestinian confederation idea.
In many ways, a Jordanian-Palestinian confederation makes sense. If done right and with the approval, by referendum, of both Jordanians and Palestinians, it could be a mechanism to end Israel's occupation and its continued colonial settlement policy. A confederation with Jordan could also be seen by the Israeli public as a security solution that could be guaranteed by Jordan, with which Israel has a peace deal and whose leader Israelis trust.
However, the current media interest reflects discussions that took place early on in the Trump administration. Two years ago, the confederation issue was raised by Palestinian philosopher Sari Nuseibeh and former Jordanian Prime Minister Abdel Salam Majali. Nuseibeh said in 2016 that he supports a confederation with Jordan, provided it is an agreement between the states of Palestine and Jordan, and there are two capitals: East Jerusalem and Amman.
Majali said in Nablus in May 2016 that the confederation idea is the best solution for both Palestine and Jordan.
The key to the discussion of a confederation is determining whether the confederation represents genuine unity between two states or if it is an attempt to bypass the idea of an independent Palestinian state.
The late PLO leader Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad) was quoted as saying in 2012 that Palestinians want five minutes of independence and then they would happily agree to a confederation.
Some are concerned that, in the case of a confederation, the independent state phase would be bypassed. Any agreement that doesnt include a Palestinian state with membership in the UN will not work, insisted Abu Odeh.
Skeptics fear that the idea being cooked up by the Trump administration would basically transfer control of parts of the West Bank (without settlements) from the Israeli army to a Jordanian security force and completely exclude Gaza from a Palestinian state. Palestinians would certainly reject this plan, especially if the Israelis did not cede control of East Jerusalem.
The current discussions seem to be a trial balloon. Mahdi Abdul Hadi, founder of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, believes that the US-Israeli discussion of the subject reflects an obsession with Jordan. In an interview with the Saudi-based Arab News site on Sept. 4, Abdul Hadi suggested that this trial balloon should be left alone because it will soon run out of air.
While out-of-the-box ideas are certainly needed to break the deadlock between Israelis and Palestinians, the key issue that needs to be looked at is the occupation.
UN Security Council Resolution 242 was very clear in its preamble as to what is needed to solve the conflict. Any idea that can expedite the end of what the UN Security Council called an inadmissible occupation will be welcomed; any idea that provides cosmetic effects while sustaining the Israeli occupation will be rejected.
Any deal that does not include an end to the Israeli control of areas it occupied in 1967 will not succeed. That is the true litmus test of any new idea.
US President Donald Trump tried to move past the latest bombshell political book and the pitched battle over his Supreme Court nominee as he hosted Kuwaits Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah at the White House today.
Even then, the low-key Oval Office meeting, billed as a friendly bridge-building exercise with the tiny oil-rich emirate, could not avoid wading into troubled political waters. Beneath the facade, the emirs visit was largely about patching up the 15-month embargo by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against Gulf neighbor Qatar, a crisis that Kuwait has tried to mediate.
We are working to reach an end to the crisis in the Gulf, Sabah said during a joint press conference with the US president.
Calling the emir a special friend of mine in a surprise question-and-answer session that lasted 10 minutes, Trump thanked Kuwait for investing in the United States and helping to fight terrorism. The meeting comes ahead of a possible Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) reconciliation meeting in October that will deal mainly with Iran.
Were also talking about other things such as Qatar coming back into the fold with [the] UAE and, as you know, Saudi Arabia, Trump added. Thats been going on for a long time.
Experts say Kuwait remains the most important US back channel into the longstanding Gulf crisis.
The most important reason why [the emir is] here is the GCC reconciliation process, said Sigurd Neubauer, a Middle East analyst based in Washington. The US has never recognized the diplomatic onslaught and the demands imposed on Qatar as legitimate.
US and Kuwaiti efforts to broker a deal to end the squabble petered out in May, when UAE and Qatari officials fought over which country would have the last word with Trump before a proposed reconciliation summit. Ever since, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has refocused his engagement in the region on Iran following Trumps decision to exit the 2015 nuclear deal in May.
In his remarks with the emir, Trump stuck out another olive branch to Tehran, telling reporters hed always be available for talks with the Islamic Republic, which he said is worrying about their own survival as a country. Despite beginning to reimpose sanctions this summer, Trump hinted hed be willing to speak with President Hassan Rouhani without preconditions, even as Pompeo has laid out 12 conditions for a potential meeting.
The Trump administration insisted the visit stuck to bilateral issues. A US official told Al-Monitor that the meeting sought to advance on the emirs agenda from his 2017 White House visit, including tightening US-Kuwaiti ties on aviation and fostering a stronger business relationship.
Prior to todays White House meeting, the sizable Kuwait delegation, which includes the foreign minister and the ministers of interior and finance, signed a cybersecurity agreement with the State Department and a nuclear trafficking ban with the Department of Energy. A congressional aide, however, told Al-Monitor that the delegation would not stop by Capitol Hill during the visit. The emir also signed memorandums of understanding with US companies including Amazon and leaves tomorrow for a private visit to New York, the last leg of the trip.
Even as the Qatar crisis has long since frozen over, experts have increasingly raised questions about Saudi and Emirati resolve to continue the blockade, as both countries face potential leadership challenges. Specifically, that pressure could give the sides a window to make a deal before the potential GCC summit in October.
The emirs visit is about more than just GCC unity, said Theodore Karasik, a senior adviser at Gulf State Analytics, a Washington-based consulting firm. Given uncertainty in political infighting in both UAE and Saudi, there might be an unexpected twist in how the Qatar crisis proceeds.
Birmingham's Best Peanut Butter Pie
School's back in session and that means peanut butter jelly sandwiches are too. If you're looking to indulge in a peanut butter treat this month, a slice of peanut butter pie should do the trick. These local restaurants offer different takes on the classic dessert--and all will satisfy your sweet tooth.
John's City Diner
Jim 'N Nicks
Saw's Southside
Miss Myra's
Blueprint on 3rd
Lederhosen Optional
The world's best beer-and-food party is called Oktoberfest, but most of the fun is in September. Munich's Oktoberfest, the original held since 1810, is Sept. 22-Oct. 7. Birmingham has celebrated for decades, and our neighbor to the north, Cullman (founded by German immigrants), has for even longer. Cullman hosts its festival Oct. 3-6 this year. In Birmingham, start your 'fest with German sausages and sauerkraut for lunch at Klingler's restaurant in Vestavia Hills, or try its cheese blintzes at brunch.
Lakeview's Brat Brot specializes in German food and beer. They plan to host an inaugural Bratoberfest Sept. 28-29, which will feature beer, brats, pretzels, live music, contests, and a Dachshund parade. A week later, on Oct. 6, celebrate again at Birmingham Oktoberfest held at Railroad Park.
Oktoberfest also is a beer style, which Cahaba Brewing releases each fall. Also seek out Munich's official Oktoberfest beers by Spaten, Paulaner, Augustiner, Hacker Pschorr, Hofbrau, or Lowenbrau. -Eric Velasco
Caffeine Kick
If hot coffee sounds unbearable in September's heat, try a chilled nitrogen-dispensed brew from local roasters Domestique and Seeds. Nitro coffee begins life as cold-brew, ground coffee slowly steeped in cold water to create a smooth, flavorful product. It's then kegged with nitrogen, which puts a creamy head on the brew as it is dispensed--like nitrogen does to draft Guinness Stout. No-sweat caffeine from Domestique can be found at Woodlawn Cycle Cafe and Hero Donuts, as well as the Domestique Satellite Cafe in Saturn. Try Seeds nitro pour at its cafes in West Homewood and Lakeview.
Another way to enjoy your coffee cold is with Red Diamond's new ready-to-drink Fitz Cold Brew Coffee. The bottled product is available at select Piggly Wigglys, Westerns, and most independent grocers in Birmingham. The coffee comes in three flavors: Black, Dark Chocolate, and Slightly Sweet. -EV
Get It to Go
A new food delivery service has launched in Birmingham by everyone's favorite rideshare service--Uber! Uber Eats charges a flat $4.99 delivery fee, and restaurant options include The Filling Station, Saigon Noodle House, Miami Fusion Cafe, and more.
John Hall of Post Office Pies
Culinary Influencers
Birmingham dining continues to grab national attention. Highlands Bar and Grill is on the Robb Report's recent list of 30 Most Influential Restaurants of the Last 30 Years. The 30, according to the luxury lifestyle magazine, have left an "indelible mark on the food scene." Others on the Robb list also indelibly influence Birmingham by way of the kitchens where Magic City chefs gained skills before opening their own places. John Hall (Post Office Pies) cooked at Gramercy Tavern in New York City. Hall also was sous chef at David Chang's second NYC restaurant, Momofuku Ssam. Chang made the Robb list for his original, Momofuku Noodle Bar. Ben Vaughn (Root to Tail) apprenticed at Charlie Trotter's eponymous restaurant in Chicago. Highlands, of course, trained a who's who of Birmingham chef/owners. Coming full circle locally, Robb Report's list also includes Chez Panisse, the California restaurant where Frank Stitt worked, a decade before opening Highlands. -EV
On Island Time
Ono Ice is out, about, and rolling through town on their newly finished food truck. This has been a long-term project for owner Rebecca Davis, who has been hosting pop-ups featuring her all-natural shave ice for the past three years. Ono Ice offers Hawaiian-style shave ice in atypical flavors that include Cherry Limeade, Lemongrass Ginger, Vietnamese Iced Coffee, and Hibiscus. Also, look for her alcoholic shave ices, which often can be found at popular restaurants, bars, and breweries like The Louis and Bamboo on 2nd.
All for Agave
Birmingham's newest bar is open and ready for business. Pilcrow, the name for the paragraph mark, can be found at Founder's Station in the alley behind
The Essential (look for the neon P). The "cocktail cellar" chose its name to
honor the printing press company that took residence in Founder's Station near the end of the 19th century. Its menu features fun, cleverly named cocktails that prominently feature tequila and mezcal. Popular choices include the Pilcrow Rita (blanco tequila, sour orange, bergamot, Amaro Montenegro, and honey); the Una Noche en Bangkok (solerno, blanco tequila, Thai shrub, passion, fruit, and lime); and the ***dingbat (rye, pineapple, lemon orgeat, and Angostura).
Distilling New Business
A new distillery is in the works for Birmingham by way of Dread River Distilling Co., which plans to open in Southside, at 2400 Seventh Avenue South. The facility will manufacture a full line of spirits, as well as have a bar and event space. It joins one other distillery in town, Redmont Distilling Co., which was the first to open in Birmingham since Prohibition.
Brew in Town
Gadsden-based Back Forty Brewery's new satellite operation is open here in the shadow of Sloss Furnace. Birmingham's seventh brewery, Back Forty is the first in town to have a built-in kitchen. The company started brewing in 2012, and now is one of Alabama's largest microbreweries. Main brews include Truck Stop Honey Brown Ale, Naked Pig Pale Ale and Freckle Belly IPA, but the satellite also makes specialty brews specifically themed to Birmingham, including the War Baby Wheat, named after a storied Birmingham train.
The kitchen is run by executive chef Russ Bodner, former chef at Spring House on Lake Martin. At Back Forty, he's created an innovative bar menu that includes favorites like house-made sausages, pizza, and sandwiches, as well as elevated offerings like Confit Chicken Wings, Oven Roasted Cauliflower, and Seared Mahi Mahi. Don't miss out on a slice of their specialty Lemon Ice Box Pie that changes its topping seasonally. -EV
This story appears in Birmingham magazine's September 2018 issue. Subscribe today!
A Birmingham company is among the finalists for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Dream Big Small Business of the Year Awards.
MotionMobs, a software consulting and development company, is a finalist for the Woman-Owned Business Achievement Award.
The other finalists in the category are Metairie, La.-based Beary Cherry Tree, and a New York City business, EvolveMKD.
Award winners will be announced at the Dream Big Awards Celebration on Oct. 3 in Washington, D.C. as part of the 2018 Small Business Summit. Finalists are now eligible to win the Community Excellence Award. Online voting is ongoing now through Friday.
Taylor Peake, MotionMobs president, said the eight-year-old business does consulting, design, development and support for web and mobile apps, as well as analytics for clients and other services.
Peake said MotionMobs has received a lot of support from Birmingham, the Birmingham Business Alliance, and the city's burgeoning tech community.
"It's really cool for our team to get recognition for what we're doing well," Peake said.
At the same time, she said, it's been exciting to watch how the tech landscape in Birmingham has experienced dynamic expansion.
"We're very community focused. We love being in the Birmingham business community. There's a lot more action than there was eight years. The tech community has grown and there are so many more opportunities for growth," she said.
Family conversations have played a huge part in Emily Wood Bowron's life.
Growing up, she heard a lot at the dinner table about the family business - Red Diamond Coffee & Tea. But even though she is the great-great-granddaughter of the company founder, she planned on becoming an actress.
Years later, though, she gravitated to a career in business. She had worked as an assistant buyer for Neiman Marcus and spent time in communications with Aon Hewitt. One evening, while living in New York, she spoke with her mother about what she really yearned to do.
"I wanted a job where I could do strategic work in branding and communications," she said. "I wanted to be involved with a product I cared about."
At the same time, she said, her father CEO Bill Bowron Jr., was having similar conversations, looking for someone to fill a strategic marketing position.
Problem solved. Six months later, Emily Wood Bowron had returned to Birmingham to assume a role with the company. Now, after three years with Red Diamond, she is assistant vice president for strategic marketing.
More importantly, she is the fifth generation to work for the company, a rare achievement in business but one, she says, that made perfect sense.
"We're going to be a family company," she said. "If I can say anything about my family, they've been so incredibly supportive of whatever direction I or my brother (William Bowron III) wanted to take."
Bowron, 30, who already has considerable roots in Birmingham, just bought a loft downtown. And while she fulfilled her goal to find a product and company she cared about, Bowron says its a great time to be with Red Diamond.
The company just unveiled its Fitz Cold Brew Coffee line, and plans another product launch by the end of the year.
"We have five items in the pipeline right now," she said. "We are working on expanding our portfolio, expanding our footprint - we are growing in every sense of the word."
Red Diamond has been around since 1906, but coffee and tea is, like many industries, undergoing disruption on several fronts. The demand for its products is up, which is why the company has "doubled down" on coffee and tea, she said. At the same time, opportunities in retail and food service are expanding, with e-commerce redefining business plans.
What Red Diamond is trying to do, Bowron said, is assemble a beverage portfolio for the future - navigating the expectations of several generations as opportunities develop. But that isn't different from business as usual, she said.
"The coffee and tea industry is build on relationships, from the farm to the customer," she said. "Everyone is looking for transparency and authenticity. That's easy for us because we've never strayed from it. It's part of our DNA."
And relationships have also been part of the company. Bowron said she is part of a family of opinionated, "strong personality types." That energy helps propel the company forward, she said.
"I always heard my dad say how great it was to work with his dad," she said. "I really understand that now. To see the family dynamic at work, and the importance in the passion and the personal aspect, it makes an incredible difference in how the business runs."
Mansfield Tyler, a former slave who became a preacher and state representative and a founder of Selma University, will be honored by the Alabama Men's Hall of Fame this month.
Tyler, along with industrialist and business leader William Houston Blount, and inventor Robert Sylvester Munger, will be inducted into the Alabama Men's Hall of Fame on Tuesday, Sept. 18.
The annual program recognizes men identified closely with the state of Alabama who have made significant contributions on a state, national or international scale within their professional field. Honorees must have been deceased at least two years before they are eligible for induction. Inductees are selected by the Hall of Fame board of directors following a statewide nomination process. Plaques recognizing the honorees are housed in Samford University's Harwell G. Davis Library.
Here are biographies of the honorees:
Mansfield Tyler (1826-1904) was a self-educated slave who rose from humble beginnings to represent Lowndes County in the Alabama State House of Representatives during 1870-1872. His goal was to build a strong public education system. Born near Augusta, Georgia, he came to Alabama with his owner, Reverend Jacob White, in 1854. There, he found his calling to preach the Baptist ministry.
Tyler founded the first Baptist churches of Lowndesboro and White Hall as well as the Lowndesboro School for African Americans. After being ordained in 1868, he subsequently baptized thousands of persons in the two churches.
Tyler was also one of the originators and chairman of the board of Selma University. The school conferred an honorary doctorate on him in 1890. The board also established the Tyler Medal in his honor. He was known for encouraging African Americans not only to be religious but to also get an education and acquire property.
William Blount
William Houston Blount (1922-2011) co-founded with his brother Winton "Red" Blount the Blount Brothers Corporation, a construction firm that eventually became Vulcan Materials Company. It is the nation's largest producer of construction aggregates--crushed stone, sand and gravel--and a major producer of construction materials such as asphalt and ready-mixed concrete.
Blount joined the company in 1954 and became executive vice president in 1970 and president and chief executive officer in 1979. He led the firm in dramatic new directions, including supplying the country of Saudi Arabia with materials for the nation's massive infrastructure projects during the 1970s.
Blount was also a community leader who supported various Birmingham charities. He was a board member of the Birmingham Museum of Art and Birmingham-Southern College, and supported such organizations as The Alabama Shakespeare Theatre, Alabama School of Arts Foundation, University of Alabama at Birmingham and others.
Robert Munger
Robert Sylvester Munger (1854-1923) contributed significantly to Birmingham's educational, religious and civic institutions in the early 20th century. He was best known for his patented cotton ginning processes that made the industry more efficient and created a safer work environment. After getting his workplace start in his father's Texas cotton mill, Munger moved to Birmingham in the early 1890s and merged his company with six other factories to create Continental Gin Company.
Munger had helped create Southern Methodist University in Dallas. When Birmingham College, another Methodist institution, needed help, Munger helped provide important financial support and led a merger with Southern University in Greensboro, Alabama, to create Birmingham-Southern College in 1918.
He supported First Methodist Church and also worked to establish Highlands Methodist. Later, he supported and attended Walker Memorial Methodist in Elyton. Munger bought the 1840s Greek Revival house known today as Arlington Antebellum Home and moved his family there, saving it from destruction.
Public invited
The public is invited to the induction luncheon at 11:30 a.m. at The Club in Birmingham. Reservations are required and are $35 per person or $280 for a table of eight. The deadline for reservations is Monday, Sept. 10. Contact Mrs. Ross Mason, reservation chairman, to reserve a place by calling 205/968-0967 or emailing rebecca@shelbysys.com.
Two Selma police investigators were fired on at a public housing community Monday night in an apparent ambush, and the chief is livid.
The gunfire erupted about 10 p.m. at George Washington Carver Homes. The suspect or suspects fired six to eight shots, said Selma Police Chief Spencer Collier.
The officers weren't injured, but a patrol car was struck.
"The cowards stepped out from housing units in the horseshoe of GWC after luring officers on a fake call,'' Collier said Tuesday. "Officers have been ambushed multiple times at this location."
"The cowards, and they are nothing but cowards, shoot from several blocks away and then flee into a housing complex or a waiting car,'' the chief said. "We are in contact with supporting law enforcement and we are in the planning stages of an operation that will overwhelm these punks that have the false bravado of men."
Not only are they cowardly, Collier said, they are weak.
"They operate in such a manner that they make insurgents in the Middle East that fight from behind women and children look like real soldiers,'' Collier said. "The good people of GWC and Selma have been terrorized long enough by these cowards."
About an hour after that incident, a 31-year-old woman shot in GWC Homes. Police have a suspect in connection with that shooting.
The Birmingham Museum of Art returned a stolen stone sculpture of the Hindu deity, Shiva, to the nation of India on Tuesday.
The sculpture was returned nearly three years after it was discovered the work was stolen out of India as part of a $100 million international smuggling racket organized by New York-based art dealer Subhash Kapoor.
The Art Fund of Birmingham, Inc.--a non-profit corporation that supports the Birmingham Museum of Art--purchased the sculpture, titled Lingodhbhavamurti (Shiva Manifesting within the Linga of Flames), in 2008 from Kapoor, who worked for the Art of the Past gallery. The purchase price of the sculpture wasn't released.
The sculpture was placed on loan to the Birmingham Museum of Art, where it remained on display until last month.
The nearly 4-foot tall stone sculpture depicts a pillar of fire splitting open to reveal the god Shiva, witnessed by the deities Brahma (in the form of a goose) and Vishnu (as a boar). The sculpture was made during the Chola dynasty around 1150 CE. It is from Tamil Nadu in southern India.
"The Birmingham Museum of Art follows a strict code of ethics to ensure that objects acquired for our collection are not among those stolen from protected sites of religious and/or cultural significance," Graham Boettcher, R. Hugh Daniel Director of the Birmingham Museum of Art, said in a statement. "As soon as we learned of the unlawful provenance of this sculpture, we set out to return it to the nation and people of India. It is unquestionably the right thing to do and we are happy to know this important cultural treasure will soon be in its rightful home."
The work of art was returned to the nation of India in a formal ceremony that took place in New York City on Sept. 4. Boettcher represented the Birmingham museum at the ceremony, which was hosted by the Consulate General of India in New York and attended by Consul General Sandeep Chakravorty.
Through his galleries, Kapoor sold antiquities to reputable museums around the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
In 2011, Kapoor was extradited to India to face charges over the multimillion dollar international antiquities looting operation through which he secretly sold illegally-acquired artifacts to unsuspecting buyers using falsified paperwork.
The Birmingham Museum of Art was contacted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2015 with compelling evidence that the work in its collection was smuggled illegally out of India, according to the Birmingham museum. The museum immediately began making arrangements for repatriation and, in the meantime, informed museum patrons of the circumstances by posting an amended label alongside the object's display.
The sculpture was removed in August in accordance with the museum's collections policy for works found to be imported under violation of state, federal, or foreign laws, according to the Birmingham Museum of Art. The sculpture was shipped to New York where it was processed by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office as evidence in the case against Kapoor.
Birmingham City Schools says it has no plans to close A.H. Parker High School after a petition to keep the school open began circulating on social media Monday afternoon.
"Please be advised that the Birmingham Board of Education has no plans to close Parker High School. The Birmingham City Schools administration has been made aware of a petition being circulated on social media relative to the closure of Parker High School. The Birmingham Board of Education is providing this statement in response to the rumor, and offers the statement as its officials position on this matter," school officials said in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon.
Statement regarding A.H. Parker High School Dr. Lisa Herring: There are NO plans to close A.H. Parker High School. Download the BCS App by visiting bhamcityschools.org/app. Posted by Birmingham City Schools on Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Parker High was the first public high school for black students in Birmingham. The school opened in 1900 with an enrollment of 18 students, according to the school's site.
A Change.org petition entitled "Stop the closing of Historic A.H Parker High School in Birmingham, Al." had been signed more than 920 times as of 4 p.m. Tuesday.
The petition said a change in school feeder patterns have led to low enrollment at the school. The petition also asked the Birmingham City School system to "rezone areas to make it more available to more students."
"If they decide to close this school, A.H. Parker School could possibly be erased from history...It would be a great travesty to the City of Birmingham and those nationwide, if this school was to close."
The petition was started by an account called "Alumni to Keep A.H Parker High School open."
Charges have been upgraded against the suspect in the February shooting of a man who died five months after he was injured.
A Jefferson County grand jury indicted 26-year-old Tyrin Clark on a charge of murder, according to court records made public Tuesday. He is charged in the death of Demetris Michael Crayton. The 35-year-old victim had lived in both Birmingham and Georgia.
The shooting happened about 9:40 a.m. on Feb. 22 in the 800 block of Center Place West. A Birmingham police officer heard shots that Thursday morning and found Crayton suffering from gunshot wounds.
He was taken to UAB Hospital, where he remained until May 28, when he was moved to a long-term care nursing facility in Georgia. His condition deteriorated and, on July 13, Crayton was taken to Miller County Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 4:06 p.m.
Clark was arrested on Feb. 23, the day after the shooting. He was initially charged with attempted murder, but the grand jury upped the charge following Crayton's deaths.
Clark has remained in the Jefferson County Jail since is initial arrest. His bond on the new murder charge is $250,000.
A former Lee County corrections officer was arrested Tuesday morning, accused of stealing money from an inmate's account.
The Lee County Sheriff's Office announced the arrest of 25-year-old Danielle Nichole Rodgers. The Columbus, Ga. woman was a guard at the Lee County Detention Center until this week.
Sheriff's Capt. Van Jackson said the investigation began Monday, Aug. 27, when an inmate reported to the sheriff's office that money in their possession at the time of book was not returned when they were released on Friday, Aug. 24. The personal property of all inmates is documented at booking and secured with a receipt provided to the detainee.
Once an inmate is released from custody, he or she is provided a credit card in the amount of funds in their possession at the time of book. Jackson said an investigation revealed the card given to that particular inmate upon release was not active.
On Friday, Aug. 31, sheriff's investigators and Columbus police detectives carried out a search warrant at Rodger's home on Welch Drive in Columbus. The search, Jackson said, revealed additional evidence linking Rodgers to the crime.
At this time, Jackson said, it appears the crime was one of opportunity and is believed to be an isolated incident. Rodgers was fired from her job and charged with third-degree theft.
"The Lee County Sheriff's Office strives at all times to operate in a professional manner. We hold ourselves to a high standard in our efforts to maintain that level of performance,'' Sheriff Jay Jones said in a prepared statement. "When we become aware of anyone within our ranks who violates that standard, especially of public trust, we will work diligently to determine the facts and then take swift and appropriate action to address the situation."
Rodgers is being held in the Lee County Detention Facility on a $1,500 bond. In the State of Alabama, the theft of a credit card is a Class D felony.
Anyone with information about this case or any other case is asked to call the Lee County Sheriff's Office at 334-749-5651 or Crime Stoppers at 888-522-7847.
The convictions of two Jefferson County men have been upheld in unrelated Birmingham-area murder cases.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced Wednesday that the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the capital murder conviction of Stevin Ra Dunning and the murder conviction of Tarus Hawkins.
Dunning, 25, of Birmingham, was convicted in December 2016 for the murder of Vincent Chancellor. A second person was charged along with Dunning but charges against that man were dismissed.
Evidence at Dunning's trial showed that in the early-morning hours of November 9, 2014, Chancellor and his girlfriend left a nightclub in Birmingham - the Platinum Club - and drove to a nearby restaurant where Chancellor got out of the vehicle to order food.
When Chancellor returned, Dunning approached him, brandished a gun, and demanded that Chancellor give him everything he had. Chancellor gave Dunning his cellular telephone and the money he had in his pockets. Dunning then ordered Chancellor to give him any valuables that were inside the car.
As Chancellor began to unhook a television set installed in the car, he retrieved a gun under the seat that he kept in the car. The two men shot at each other and both were wounded during the exchange. Chancellor then stumbled to his car and drove away but was only able to drive a short distance before losing consciousness. Paramedics arrived shortly thereafter and took Chancellor to the hospital where he was pronounced dead later that day.
Dunning was convicted of three capital offenses because the murder was committed during the course of a first-degree robbery; the victim was killed while in a vehicle; and, Dunning killed the victim by firing a gun within a vehicle. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He is currently incarcerated at Donaldson Correctional Facility.
In the second case, the 32-year-old Hawkins, of Bessemer, was convicted in May 2017 for the murder of Henry Toles.
On May 12, 2015, Toles and his girlfriend, Galencia Baker, drove to the Wylam Junction Convenience Store to see Toles' cousin. Toles went inside the store. After waiting a few minutes, Baker went inside also. When Baker came back out, she saw a girl she knew sitting in a white car and went over to talk to the girl.
Hawkins was standing outside the front passenger side of the car. Baker testified that when she approached the car, Hawkins said something like she "spooked" him. Toles came out of the store and asked Baker what Hawkins said to her. After a verbal exchange between Toles and Hawkins about what Hawkins said to Baker, Toles and Baker turned and walked toward their car. Without warning, Hawkins shot Toles in the back. Toles died of the gunshot wounds. Hawkins was sentenced to 40 years in prison for his murder conviction. He is serving his time at Bibb Correctional Facility.
Marshall said the cases were prosecuted at trial by Jefferson County District Attorney Mike Anderton's office. Both defendants were seeking to have the convictions reversed on appeal. The Attorney General's Criminal Appeals Division handled the cases during the appeals process, arguing for the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to affirm the convictions. The Court did so in decisions issued Friday, Aug. 31.
Prosecutors are appealing the decision a judge made to dismiss charges against a man accused of killing a 4-year-old.
Darrell Montez Hutton, 34, was charged with murder and first-degree assault for a July 2017 shooting that left 4-year-old Taleayah Stafford dead, and 68-year-old Shirley Jackson Hollonquest wounded. After a Stand Your Ground hearing last month, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Virginia Vinson dismissed the charges against Hutton.
The Jefferson County District Attorney's Office is appealing that order to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, court records filed Tuesday show.
"I... certify that this appeal is not brought for the purpose of delay and that this order, if not reversed on appeal, will be fatal to the prosecution of these charges," Deputy DA Andrew Herring wrote. "The pretrial order dismissing the two cases pending against the defendant was error."
Hutton's attorney Scott Boudreaux argued at the Stand Your Ground hearing that Hutton fired his weapon after nearly being robbed by a man named Anthony Fowler. The child was struck in the crossfire.
"The judge issued a well-thought-out order that was supported by all the evidence at the hearing," Boudreaux said Wednesday. "The Court of Criminal Appeals will not disturb that order without something palpably wrong. And there's not."
In 2006, Alabama adopted Stand Your Ground provisions to its self-defense law, eliminating the duty to retreat from situations as long as the person defending themselves is not doing something unlawful.
Legislators also added a provision that says a person who is justified using force, including deadly physical force, "is immune from criminal prosecution and civil action for the use of such force, unless the force was determined to be unlawful."
After a defendant is indicted, they may request a Stand Your Ground hearing where the defense team can present evidence and ask the judge to dismiss the charges based on the provision.
The judge wrote in her order, "Without question the defendant found himself in a position where he was in imminent fear of his life and was justified... to defend himself."
The shooting happened about 3:30 p.m. on July 9, 2017 in the city's Kingston community. Police said Fowler and Taleayah's father were on the scene, while the little girl was inside their car. Police said Fowler exited the vehicle and pulled a gun, when gunfire erupted between him and Hutton. The little girl was struck in the head by a bullet fragment, and died three days later at Children's of Alabama.
Hollonquest was hit in the neck by a stray bullet. She died of an unrelated cause on Jan. 3, 2018, court records state.
Hutton testified during the hearing, and said on the day of the shooting he was a passenger in a parked car, with the window down. Hutton said Fowler walked up to the car and put a gun to Hutton's head, pulling the trigger several times. But, the gun didn't go off.
Hutton said he pushed open the door and knocked Fowler over, and pulled his own 9 mm gun, court records state. Fowler ran away and kept trying to shoot, but his gun misfired. Hutton admitted to firing at Fowler, saying he was afraid for his life and was defending himself.
Fowler also testified and said, according to court records, he has pleaded guilty to attempting to assault Hutton but did not intend to kill him. Fowler said he was with Taleayah and her father that day, and he and the father decided to stop and buy marijuana while Taleayah was in the backseat.
Fowler said they parked next to a grocery store and he walked to a apartment to buy drugs. Fowler said he spotted Hutton in a car and walked over to shoot him, according to court records. Fowler said he pulled the trigger several times, but his gun didn't fire and he ran.
Fowler said he saw Hutton shooting at him, but believed more than one person was firing. He and Taleayah's father fled in their car, and the two didn't realize Taleayah was hurt until they pulled away.
Birmingham police Det. Jeffery Miller said at the hearing that Taleayah died from a bullet fragment from a .40 caliber gun.
Vinson wrote in her order, "From the evidence presented the Defendant had a 9 mm. Fowler attempted to intimate that Hutton had gotten another gun, however, the timing involved and the further testimony of Fowler 'perceiving' there was someone else shooting, and the additional .40 shell casings do not support his theory."
Deputy District Attorney Mike Philpott prosecuted the case.
A 37-year-old Springville man has been arrested following a multiple bomb threats in St. Clair County.
On Tuesday, the St. Clair County Sheriff's Office received information regarding terrorist threats being made by email to the Board of Education and the St. Clair County Clerk's Office. The threat implied an explosive device would cause damage at the St. Clair County Courthouses, along with Pell City and Ashville Schools, said Assistant Sheriff Billy Murray.
"These threats were treated with the highest priority and a sweep was made with all available manpower and K9 units,'' Murray said. "The locations were cleared, and normal operations resumed."
Investigators identified Danny Ray Nichols as the suspect in the threats. He was arrested on two counts of making a terrorist threat and is being held without bond in the St. Clair County Jail.
Murray thanked the FBI, the State Fire Marshal's Office, the Alabama Fusion Center, and Pell City, Springville and Moody police for their assistance. He said the investigation is ongoing and more information will later be released.
An early-morning shooting in west Birmingham left a woman dead and a man seriously injured.
Birmingham police Sgt. Bryan Shelton said officers received a call about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday after two victims showed up in the emergency room at Princeton Baptist Medical Center.
Birmingham police identified the fatality victim as 26-year-old Briana Young of Bright. Shelton said the black male, who is in his 40s, was seriously injured but is expected to survive.
Shelton said investigators have been able to determine the shooting happened at 10th Place and Avenue U in Pratt City. Both victims were in a vehicle when they were shot.
A motive has not yet been determined. "It's still early in the investigation,'' he said.
No arrests have been made. Young is the 78th homicide in Birmingham in 2018. Of those, five have been ruled justifiable and therefore are not considered criminal by Birmingham police. In all of Jefferson County, there have been 111 homicides including the 78 in Birmingham.
Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
An Alabama A&M University foundation has won a $376,520 federal grant to help boost federal contracts to the school and other minority colleges.
The A&M University RISE Foundation will use the grant from NASA to design, create and deliver a series of workshops and training material to give A&M and other minority colleges and universities "a competitive advantage in winning federal contracts," the foundation said today.
Dr. Chance Glenn, executive director of the RISE Foundation and dean of A&M's College of Engineering, Technology and Physical Sciences will oversee the two-year grant.
"We value the opportunity to be out leading the charge to get more HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities) involved in contract-based research and development," Glenn said in a statement. "There are an enormous amount of resources available to us all and there is more than enough to go around."
Phenomenal Management Partners, a Huntsville consulting firm, will help develop and oversee the initiative.
Shortly before she and two teenage girls were gunned down, Iris Bynum kicked her boyfriend, Rodney Geddes, out of their north Huntsville home, court testimony revealed.
Geddes, now charged with capital murder, accused Bynum of cheating on him, and she told him to move out of their house at 4008 Knollbrook Drive, according to court testimony.
The bodies of 42-year-old Bynum, her 17-year-old daughter Heaven Hines and a 16-year-old friend Xzariah Rice were discovered in the home on the afternoon of June 19. Authorities believe they were killed hours earlier -- sometime between midnight and 4 a.m.
"I love you all, and I'm sorry," Geddes wrote in a text message to his mother just before 4 a.m., according to court testimony.
Geddes, who is charged in all three slayings, was captured later that day in Tennessee. His capital murder case is headed to a grand jury for consideration of indictments. At a preliminary hearing this morning in Madison County District Court, Judge Patty Demos ruled prosecutors have probable cause for the capital charge.
Geddes, 43, maintains his innocence.
Capital murder is punishable by the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole. Assistant District Attorney Tim Douthit hasn't yet said whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty.
During an emotional hearing this morning, the victims' family members and friends held one another as Huntsville police Investigator Michael DeNoon recounted details about the case from the witness stand.
The investigator testified that Rice was shot in the face and temple; Hines was shot in the mouth, hand and chest; and Bynum was shot once in the chest/abdomen area.
At the scene, police found Geddes' Lexus. A Dodge Charger and Nissan Maxima, which belonged to Bynum, were missing, DeNoon testified.
Geddes was spotted on surveillance footage driving the Charger at a Huntsville gas station around 4 a.m., according to police. DeNoon told the judge that Geddes later traded the Charger for drugs. Police recovered the car on Attu Court in northwest Huntsville.
DeNoon testified that Geddes apparently went to Tennessee in the Maxima.
On the night of the shooting, Geddes walked up to a police officer who was working a traffic stop in Franklin County, Tennessee. Geddes told the officer he had been riding with some people and doing drugs, according to police.
Geddes said he jumped out of the car when he realized the people were going to rob him, DeNoon testified. Police later found the Maxima at a scrap yard in Tennessee.
In Franklin County, Geddes was charged with cocaine possession and held until Huntsville police could come interview him about the slayings.
DeNoon testified that he along with two other HPD investigators, traveled to Tennessee and met with Geddes. Geddes told the Huntsville cops the story about the Maxima.
DeNoon testified that he noticed a lot of blood on Geddes' socks and blood spatter on his pants. That's when the investigator says he read Geddes his Miranda Rights and started to ask about the killings. Geddes immediately asked for a lawyer, DeNoon told the judge.
Bynum's sister first discovered the crime scene the afternoon of the 19th. She went to the home because her family members hadn't answered the phones for hours.
The sister told police she opened the door and saw a foot near the hallway. The sister was scared, so she stopped a friend who was driving by and asked him to go inside. The friend walked inside and found Hines' lying near the hallway. Rice was found dead in the bathroom, and Bynum was slain in her bedroom, DeNoon testified.
Defense lawyer Bruce Gardner, who represents Geddes along with attorney Kourtney Ballew, asked DeNoon whether anyone witnessed the killings or heard gunshots.
"There were only four people there that night, and three of them are dead," DeNoon responded.
After the hearing, Gardner said Geddes insists he isn't guilty. "He said he did not do this," Gardner told news reporters.
A grand jury will be tasked with deciding whether to formally charge Geddes, who is held in the Madison County jail without bail.
Janice Bowling, one of Bynum's sisters, said after the hearing that the family is leaning on faith to get them through.
"God is in charge," she said.
Fairhope city officials were expected to vote Tuesday on whether to purchase an old schoolhouse and renovate it into a so-called "technology village" with federal disaster-recovery money from last year's hurricanes.
In an ironic twist, a tropical storm interrupted the proceedings. Now, the meeting and the vote is being postponed until noon on Wednesday.
"You don't want people in a position between having to speak their opinion versus taking care of their safety and welfare," said Fairhope City Councilman Jimmy Conyers.
Tropical weather aside, a political storm could be brewing on what to do with the 93-year-old school building, which was shuttered by the Baldwin County School System in 2011.
In Fairhope, competing viewpoints are surfacing and they are splitting into two distinct camps: The City Council led by Council President Jack Burrell versus Mayor Karin Wilson and one of her chief supporters.
"It's a shame that it may boil down to the mayor versus the council president," Conyers said, referring Burrell and Wilson who have repeatedly butted heads since 2016.
Said Conyers: "But we need to look at two things: What do the citizens want and what is in the best interest of the city?"
Grant opportunity
For Burrell, the issue comes down to preserving the K-1 Center, a fixture in Fairhope's downtown known for its quaint shops, homegrown eateries and vibrant arts and music scene.
"It's a very historic building and the building is treasured," said Burrell.
The schoolhouse, since it closed seven years ago, has sat empty and in a state of disrepair. Ideas have surfaced to suggest the building be reutilized as a performing arts center, but no concrete financing plans have materialized until lately.
Lee Lawson, president and CEO with the Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance, said his organization and the city of Fairhope recently applied for $6.1 million in federal grant money from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, which is under the Commerce Department.
The administration, through an appropriation by Congress, made over $600 million available to areas affected by last year's disaster-impacted areas from multiple hurricanes and wildfires.
Lawson said the grant, if awarded to the city, will be used for the acquisition and renovation of the K-1 Center. The plan is to transform the building it into a multi-faceted educational "resource hub" administered partly by the University of Alabama.
It's unclear how much the acquisition of the abandoned building would cost. Baldwin County Schools officials were unavailable for comment, but Burrell said it could be $2.5 million to $3 million to renovate the schoolhouse to meet modern building codes.
The schoolhouse, under the proposals, would house a program called "Hatch," which is described by the Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance as a facility that will provide guidance and links to statewide resources for tech entrepreneurs who are in the early stages of forming their own companies.
Lawson said Fairhope and Cullman are "pilot" programs under Hatch, which is part of the "Technology Villages" program through the University of Alabama.
Lawson said the Baldwin County EDA already submitted the grant. He said the EDA could hear back by October or November on whether the proposal gets OK'd by federal authorities.
Hurried meeting
Burrell, meanwhile, wants the property transaction to be sped up. The reason why: He's concerned about a competing proposal for the schoolhouse.
That proposal calls for transforming the building into a boutique hotel. That project is being pitched by one of Wilson's supporters, artist and historian Dean Mosher of Fairhope.
Mosher said he's been working on the "second proposal" for the past 4-1/2 months with Birmingham-based Capstone Corporation, which would develop the building into a downtown hotel to support tourism that is Baldwin County's No. 1 driver economically.
"What I'm most concerned about is Fairhope's future, as far as an economic base, will largely be dependent on tourism," said Mosher. "We never really promoted tourism that strongly in the past. We relied on Gulf Shores and Orange Beach as a destination and maybe (visitors) will come here for one day while they are staying along the Gulf for a week or two But we have to promote tourism because it's the life blood for our downtown businesses."
Mosher said his biggest concern is what he calls a "lack of due diligence" in the process. He said there hasn't been enough discourse, or studies, to compare the boutique hotel with the technology incubator projects.
Wilson, herself, took to Facebook on Monday and expressed similar concerns.
Update 12:20pm 9/4/18 Meeting has been canceled for tonight and rescheduled for Noon, Wed, 9/5/18 Please share with... Posted by Mayor Karin Wilson of Fairhope, Alabama on Monday, September 3, 2018
"I expressed to (Burrell) the importance of transparency with all possibilities for the best use of the K-1 property and how its future use needs to be communicated with all stakeholders," Wilson said. "There should also be a feasibility study. These decisions have long lasting effects on our city and should not be rushed."
Burrell said there have been plenty of discussions about the city's plans. He noted that he discussed the city's interest in purchasing the schoolhouse, and other school district properties, were publicly discussed during a council meeting last month.
"People have known about this for months," said Burrell. "We've applied for the grant. This not anything that is a secret."
Burrell waited until around 11 a.m. on Tuesday before postponing the special council meeting despite National Weather Service warnings about Tropical Storm Gordon's arrival later in the evening.
He said he wants to get the matter resolved, and that it wouldn't take long for the council to OK the transaction.
"We know there is a group of people out there who are trying to purchase the land as well," said Burrell. "Dean Mosher is stating he was working with the developer to purchase that land."
Mosher denied that is the case. "If he drew that conclusion, then he's full of it as a Christmas turkey. It just isn't true and there is not a shred of evidence he has."
Said Mosher: "He's rushing this through to commit us to over $1 million in a plan that they have not done due diligence on. It will be a long-term drain on us as a community. What is wrong with a public debate?"
Lawson, though, said a vote is needed to bolster the grant application.
"The grant is first come, first serve," he said.
'High-paying jobs'
Mosher also said that "virtually everything that (Burrell) wants to do" with the schoolhouse can be included with the boutique hotel attached to it. He said the hotel could bring tens of thousands of new dollars daily into Fairhope, while adding a significant boost to the city's lodging tax.
The University of Alabama, in an analysis it performed and released in July based on statistics from a similar facility in South Carolina, indicated that the Fairhope Hatch will generate 30 to 35 jobs annually at an average salary of $50,000.
The university, through its Officer for Technology Transfer, projected 44 new jobs annually (both direct and indirect), with an annual projected payroll of the new tech jobs ranging from $1.5 million to $2 million annually."
Lawson said it's difficult to compare the two projects, which described as "different" from one another.
But he said that Baldwin County needs to diversify its economy beyond the tourism sector. Baldwin County is Alabama's No. 1 tourism county drawing a quarter of the state's overall 26.6 million visitors in 2017.
"That's the crux of our grant application and that is to fortify ourselves against future tropical storms and future events that have a strong impact on our heavily dependent tourism economy," said Lawson. We have to find ways to create sustainable and high-paying jobs."
This story was updated at 10:05 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2015, to clarify that it could be October or November on when the prospects of a federal grant to renovate the K-1 Center are known.
Gov. Kay Ivey reported $495,000 in contributions to her campaign in the governor's race in the month of August, bringing her total to $5.45 million since she began raising money last summer.
Ivey has a large fundraising lead over Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox, the Democratic nominee. Maddox had raised $1.38 million through the month of July.
Maddox has not filed his report for August. The Associated Press reported that the Maddox campaign expected to report $338,000 in contributions for August when the campaign files its report on Wednesday.
Ivey's campaign has reported spending a total of $5.17 million and reported a balance of $338,000 to end the month of August.
Through July, the Maddox campaign had spent $1.1 million and showed a balance of $313,000.
Maddox was competitive with Ivey in fundraising in July, raising $265,000, while the governor raised $268,000.
Ivey's largest contributions in August included $25,000 each from the Alabama Truckers Association political action committee and the Alabama Builders Association political action committee.
Other large PAC contributions included $20,000 from the Committee for Good Government PAC; $16,000 from the Alabama Nursing Home Association; $15,000 from the lobbying firm Franklin Resources Group; and $10,000 each from the Alabama Bankers Association, Caterpillar Employees and Boeing.
Ivey's largest business contributions included $25,000 from Georgia Crown Distributing; and $15,000 each from Charles E. Watts, Inc. of Gadsden; Dunn Construction Co. of Birmingham; Midsouth Paving Inc., of Birmingham; Whitaker Contracting Corp., of Guntersville; and Wiregrass Construction Co., of Dothan.
Ivey's largest contributions from individuals included $15,000 from Gregory T. Abramson of Vestavia Hills and $10,000 each from Phylis Baron of Huntsville and Reid B. Dove of Dothan.
The election is Nov. 6.
It's hard, in a place like Alabama in the age of us against them and them against us, to cling to the belief that justice is blind as one of those cave fish.
But you gotta hold on. Or there's nothing left.
It's necessary to remind those caught up in the partisanship of our age that neither side - no side - has the market on duplicity or greed or bone-numbing hypocrisy. Never have. Never will.
Those things are every bit as vision-impaired as justice herself.
Back when Democrats ran Alabama - it was just a decade ago - the place reeked of corruption.
The two-year college system was for all practical purposes a Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization. Lawmakers across the state went to jail for double dipping and no-show jobs. Politicians and bond dealers in Alabama's largest county conspired to make themselves richer, and cost residents billions in escalating sewer bills.
Governors went to jail. Mayors, commissioners, contractors and their aides and enablers formed a pipeline to prison. In the Northern District of Alabama, for instance, feds prosecuted more public corruption cases from 2005 to 2008 than they've prosecuted in the entire 10-year period since.
(Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse)
That's what made the Republicans so appealing for so many when they swept the statehouse in 2010. Politicians like Mike Hubbard and Del Marsh spoke of the cleaning up Montgomery, and the GOP took Alabama like Sherman took Georgia. With the promise that things would be better, if not the same.
Because politicians are politicians and absolute power numbs your skull better than Absolut vodka.
So Hubbard was convicted of his own crimes. Governor Robert Bentley pleaded guilty and Chief Justice Roy Moore was forced from office for the second time. Lawmakers were popped like corn and it started to seem like old times. The private interests who shove money into the political process found themselves so afraid of consequences they've begun to push for changes to the ethics law. If they can't change themselves they'll change the law.
And every time somebody is busted - Democrat or Republican - the cry is predictable. It was selective prosecution. It was aaaaaall political. Must've been.
Because it's easier to make people doubt the bedrock of our country than to accept responsibility or guilt.
And way more destructive.
Which is why it was difficult to read the president's tweet about Attorney General Jeff Sessions this week.
Because the leader of the free world just ripped the blinders off Lady Justice. He beat up on Alabama's Sessions because criminal prosecutions of a couple of Republicans could threaten the party's hold on Congress.
Or as Trump put it:
Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff...... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2018
Forget the misrepresentation. Forget that the prosecution of one of those congressmen - New York's Chris Collins - began last year. That's not even important.
What's important is that the president just suggested that prosecutions be determined by election dates, that guilt or innocence should be determined by party.
Which is stunningly ... unAmerican. It makes it hard to hold on to those beliefs that make us who we are. That justice really is the first duty of society. That she really is blind.
Because that is all we have.
It's not about politics. It's about principles that are way more important.
So hold onto them, Mr. Sessions. Please hold on.
John Archibald is a columnist for Reckon by AL.com. His column appears in The Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register and AL.com. Write him at jarchibald@al.com.
This is an opinion column.
Benard Simelton is very careful when speaking about the madness and uncertainty surrounding the Birmingham chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and its beleaguered, ugh, leader Hezekiah Jackson.
Simelton, president of the Alabama NAACP, calls it the "situation" or "issue", and he during our chat he never mentioned Jackson by name.
He has seen the emails alleging Jackson didn't exactly advance the well-being of African-Americans living in north Birmingham by conspiring with folks who will likely soon be going to jail to discourage those residents from getting their soil tested for toxins from nearby manufacturing plants, toxins that may have been killing them.
He's read about the testimony and evidence implicating Jackson that was revealed during the trial of Balch & Bingham attorney Joel Gilbert and Drummond Company VP Dave Roberson, both of whom were convicted on six criminal charges: bribery, conspiracy, money laundering and three counts of honest services wire fraud.
He's received telephone calls and two written complaints charging that Jackson must go, that he can no longer effectively lead the now-tainted and embarrassed chapter.
And he knows all too well of former state representative Oliver Robinson, who plead guilty and testified against Gilbert and Roberson, saying they bribed him to stall the cleanup--which would have cost Drummond millions--by leverage the respect residents had for him to convince them not to get their soil tested.
"We are aware of the situation," Simleton said. "One of the things the NAACP fights for is the right to a fair and impartial--I even hate to use this word--'trial'. A person is innocent until proven guilty."
That said: "There have been discussions with [the] national [NAACP] on this issue," he added.
Does Jackson remain at the helm of the chapter representing this historic city simply because he defiantly says so?
"We [the state] don't have absolute power to remove people," Simelton said. "That resides with the national board of directors and President."
He added, however: "There are things the state can do. There are things the local members can do."
Local activists have long called for Jackson's ouster, as have others--all while he stands defiantly at the chapter's door, denying any wrong-doing.
The NAACP's Constitution and By-laws, according to Simelton, say rather than just post complaints on social media chapter members should send them to the state organization.
"If any member feels a person no longer be effective [in their leadership role] they can file a complaint," Simelton says. "Anyone can file a complaint. If they're a member it speaks volumes as to what the concerns of members are."
If the preponderance of complaints warrants action--"There's no magic number [of complaints]," says Simelton--the state organization will forward them to the national office. At that juncture, national may ask the statewide organization to conduct an investigation.
Then, if the results of the investigation warrant action, the national office, while consultation with the state organization, will do so.
Simelton would not say whether the national NAACP has asked the state to begin an investigation.
National NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson--like Simelton, a Mississippi native--has not yet responded to inquiries as to whether the organization has asked the state NAACP to begin an investigation into the allegations against Jackson.
Ultimately, what transpires regarding the leadership of the Birmingham NAACP is less about Hezekiah Jackson than about the once-proud organization he professes to lead.
Less about how effective he's been--or can be while under a cloud that will likely never leave--than how effective the Birmingham NAACP has been.
And should be.
Where has it been of late as our children are dying in the streets and in their homes from senseless gunfire?
Where has it been as parents fail to inspire hope in their children because perhaps no one inspired hope in them?
Where has it been as men and women from our poorest neighborhoods who want to work remain disconnected from the myriad local enterprises and industries struggling to find capable and committed employees?
And where will it be as north Birmingham residents continue to cry for help?
Times are too dire for anyone or any group that is truly interested in seeing all of Birmingham rise to succumb to internal bickering or public posturing-let alone an organization that was founded to advance us.
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.
The Corps of Engineers has postponed a public meeting on its plan to enlarge the Mobile Ship Channel, and extended a related public comment period.
At the end of July the Corps released a draft version of what's known as a General Reevaluation Report and Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on the project. Estimated to cost $387.8 million, the work will deepen the channel and widen sections of it to better accommodate the larger container ships now favored in international shipping.
The study was requested by the Alabama State Port Authority, which says channel enlargement is necessary for the port to remain competitive. But the project has raised concerns from some who worry about its environmental impact, and others who fear the Corps is missing an opportunity to handle dredge spoil in ways that could replenish Dauphin Island beaches.
The Corps, meanwhile, maintains that "overall, no substantial impacts in aquatic resources within the study area are anticipated due to channel modifications." That position has generated some skepticism about the Corps' methodology.
The release of the report opened a 45-day comment period, and a public meeting was set for Sept. 6. The Corps has announced that due to Tropical Storm Gordon, that event has been rescheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 11. It will take place from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center.
The Corps also announced this week that the deadline for written comments has been extended to Monday, Sept. 17.
The full report and supporting documents can be found at the Corps of Engineers website for the project: http://www.sam.usace.army.mil/Missions/Program-and-Project-Management/Civil-Projects/Mobile-Harbor-GRR/
Comments may be submitted by mail, facsimile, or electronic mail to:
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mobile District
Attention: PD-EC
109 Saint Joseph Street, Mobile, AL 36602
E-mail: MobileGRR@usace.army.mil
Fax: (251) 690-2054
On Labor Day, the president of the United States criticized his attorney general for not considering the political implications of criminally charging two congressmen. As President Donald Trump waxes poetic about impermissible political bias at the U.S. Department of Justice, he expects Attorney General Jeff Sessions to consider the impact of prosecutions on Republican electoral prospects. Regardless of political alignment, we should take the president's musing on the matter seriously.
While Trump didn't name the congressmen, he was almost certainly talking about California Congressman Duncan Hunter, indicted for misuse of campaign funds, and Chris Collins of New York who is charged for insider trading.
Prosecutors accuse Hunter and his wife of funneling more than $250,000 in campaign funds for their personal use. Hunter allegedly ignored warnings by staff, falsely reported campaign funds, and spent campaign money on such luxuries as a $14,000 family vacation to Italy in 2015.
Collins supposedly used insider information about a failed drug trial at Innate Immunotherapeutics, an Australian biotechnology company, to help his son and others avoid more than $700,000 in financial losses.
Hunter and Collins will have their days in court, but these cases are much more than mere witch-hunts aimed at two of Trump's earliest and most ardent supporters.
Weeks after charges were announced, Trump responded by tweeting: "Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff......"
There's so much wrong here, that it's hard to figure out where to begin.
Whether Collins and Hunter are "very popular" or not has absolutely nothing to do with the criminality of their actions. In America, we don't and shouldn't have a separate standard of justice that applies to the admired and well connected.
Trump's tweet acknowledges that the DOJ has thoroughly investigated the cases for quite some time. That alone is an indicator that the law enforcement process is working correctly. In each of these cases, prosecutors weren't making indictments on a lark or because of the party in power.
Whenever a congressman is charged with a crime, it will inevitably draw publicity. It should. In the cases of Collins and Hunter, the complaints against them outline conduct that, if proven in court, clearly violates federal law. Their constituents should know about the charges, be able to follow the proceedings and vote accordingly. A federal criminal charge isn't evidence of guilt, but it's not insignificant either.
Finally, no attorney general should time indictments to impact election outcomes...ever. To do so would be the height of political bias at the DOJ. It's truly mind-blowing that Trump excoriates Sessions for failing to root out political bias only to expect him to engage in the same activity for the benefit of Republicans.
Imagine for a moment that we're talking about Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton publicly expecting the attorney general to protect Democratic seats in the House of Representatives by timing indictments.
Republicans would be coming out of the woodwork calling for either of them to be removed from office. Conservative-leaning media outlets would be running "breaking" news on a loop drawing attention to the horrific politicization of the DOJ.
In short, those of us on the political right wouldn't stand for it.
So what's the difference in this situation other than Trump and the indicted congressmen being Republicans? I'll save you the consideration. There isn't any.
Some issues must transcend party. This is one of them. Justice must be as blind, non-partisan and independent from political considerations as possible. We must ardently reject any type of law enforcement that punishes political enemies and rewards allies. That's the brand of "justice" Americans have literally sacrificed their lives to defeat around the world.
In politics, not much shocks our consciences these days. Trump's expectation of politicized justice should.
Cameron Smith is a regular columnist for AL.com and vice president for the R Street Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C. He previously served as counsel for Jeff Sessions on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Richard Dickerson, of Birmingham, is a consultant in government and community relations, media and business development.
It is often stated that numbers don't lie. The state of Alabama had 17 Birmingham schools on their list of schools that failed state reading and math tests in 2017. Ramsay High School was the only Birmingham High School not on the list.
If your child attended Bush Hills Academy, Charles Brown, Carver High, Central Park Elementary, Green Acres, Hayes K-8, Hemphill Elementary, Jackson-Olin, Oxmoor K-5, Parker High, Putnam Middle, South Hampton K-8, Arrington Middle, Washington Middle, Jones Valley, West End Academy or Woodlawn High, your child's school failed state reading and math tests.
This failure represents a crisis that requires immediate attention.
Recently the mayor, the superintendent and other dignitaries attended an event at the Lyric Theater to present the Birmingham City Schools proposed strategic plan for 2018-2023. The plan outlines four proposed pillars to address a "Force for Greatness" to include student success, team excellence, stakeholder trust and systems and planning. The slick brochure is not representative of a strategic plan. Our children and communities need less theatrics and more plain hard work. The plan does not address the issue of failing schools. Nor does it provide metrics for success, cost per school, cost per student, a timetable or a means for measuring accountability.
According to the school superintendent, the proposed plan has a goal of raising the graduation rate from the current level of 77% to 90%. How will they do it? If currently 86% of the high schools fail reading and math, are the students attending those schools prepared to advance and to graduate?
Parents, students and guardians should ask the mayor and school superintendent what is different this year. Who is responsible at each school for insuring that our black children learn how to read? Is it acceptable for an organization to spend in excess of $250 million dollars and have an 86% failure rate? Where is the outrage? We are paying at least twice for the school failures, the $250 million that is spent on the administration of the schools and the millions more spent on the thousands who are incarcerated. Will today's students be tomorrow's leaders or tomorrow's inmates? It is estimated that 85% of the inmates in Alabama's prisons read at 5th grade level.
Recently a delegation of 20-30 city dignitaries traveled to Chicago to learn about coding. The group included the mayor, school superintendent and other important people. What did this trip have to with failing schools? How many students are coding? How many students can't read? Can you code if you cannot read? Reading provides our children a chance to succeed.
There is much discussion about the friendship which exists between the mayor and the superintendent. What is more important that our leaders be friends or that they be competent? If your child needs major surgery what would be the criteria for selecting a surgeon being friendly or being competent?
What is being done to insure that our children are safe at school? I recently had the opportunity to speak with students from Sherman Douglas High School. They all agreed that metal detectors are not enough. How is the school budget being administered to address the ongoing security threats? Security also includes being safe from the hazards of environmental pollution. The students at Hudson K-8 attend a school built on a superfund site. The students need to be tested immediately.
Finally, all of Birmingham must step up now. We need to embrace parents, students and teachers as the new school year begins. We must work to make our neighborhoods safer. Our children should not have to navigate blight or to attend a school built on a superfund site.
Recommendation:
Increase funding for literacy programs and activities.
Make the reduction of illiteracy priority 1 in every school.
Develop and implement a plan for each school with budget, timetable and metrics for reducing illiteracy.
Identify school systems with similar demographics that have successful illiteracy reduction programs.
Recruit 500 volunteers for the city schools.
Require Quarterly status reports from the school superintendent.
We can; we must do better. The future of our children and city depend on us.
UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said the anticipated battle in Idlib would affect millions of civilians.
Air raids have pounded areas in Syrias last rebel-held province of Idlib, killing several civilians and raising further concerns that an all-out government offensive is only a matter of time.
At least 24 raids the first in three weeks hit the area on Tuesday.
Idlib would be the perfect storm, said UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura earlier this week. A battle, he said, would affect millions of civilians and could see both sides use chemical weapons.
Similarly, Filippo Grandi, the head of the UNs refugee agency, cautioned that a wider offensive would cause renewed displacement while exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation.
The attacks on Tuesday came as the United Nations urged Russia, a Syrian government ally, and Turkey, which backs certain rebel groups in Idlib, to help avert a bloodbath.
There are an estimated 70,000 rebel fighters in and around the province. Idlib is strategically important as on one side it shares a border with the province of Latakia, home to the biggest Russian naval and airbase in Syria, and on the other side, it borders Turkey.
The strategic M5 highway the main access road to the north also passes through Idlib.
The bombing mainly targeted the city of Jisr al-Shughour on Idlibs western edge, along with its surrounding towns and villages, activists told Al Jazeera.
The attacks lasted for several hours before subsiding at around 7pm local time (17:00 GMT).
After using de-escalation zones to take over one rebel-held area after the other, Russia has its eyes now on Idlib.
Marwan Kabalan is the Director of Policy Analysis at the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies.
The fate of the last remaining stronghold of the Syrian opposition in Idlib will likely be decided in the coming few days. The international media has been speculating about an imminent battle for the province, which has been the focus of hectic diplomatic activity.
On September 7, the leaders of Turkey, Russia and Iran will meet and decide the future of Idlib and with it the fate of Syrias seven-year conflict.
The illusion of de-escalation
Idlib is the last unconquered de-escalation zone of the four that were agreed to by the Astana trio (Russia, Iran, and Turkey) following the fall of the opposition-held eastern Aleppo in December 2016. The idea of de-escalation was designed or at least that was the general perception at the time to freeze the conflict, decrease human suffering, and pave the way for a political solution.
That proved to be a mere illusion. Lacking adequate manpower to fight at different fronts, the Russians threw their weight behind the de-esclation zones idea, originally proposed by the UN special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura in 2014.
In addition, following the defeat of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, known as ISIS) in Mosul, the Russians started to realise that while they were busy fighting the opposition along the western belt of Syrian territories between Aleppo and Damascus, the US-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) was quickly retrieving ISIL territories in the oil and gas-rich east.
For that reason, Moscow decided to freeze the conflict with the Syrian opposition and entered into a race with the US-led coalition to regain as much territory from retreating ISIL as possible. The Euphrates River acted as a natural borderline between the Russian and the American spheres of influence.
As the war with ISIL was approaching its end, Russia reverted back to its strategy of crushing the armed opposition before any political solution can be negotiated. It attacked and took over the de-escalation zone in Eastern Ghouta, near the capital, Damascus.
Russia and regime forces then moved onto the province of Homs in the north before going after Daraa and Quneitra in the southwest, near the borders with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Hundreds of thousands of opposition fighters have been relocated to the northwest under evacuation agreements. Idlib was turned into a gathering place for all opposition factions, along with some two million refugees, preparing for a final showdown.
Idlib is no Deraa or Eastern Ghouta
Shortly after the armed opposition groups were forced to evacuate from the southwest, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad indicated that Idlib would be his next target.
The Syrian army started to amass troops and drop leaflets over the province, urging people to return to state rule and demanding the surrender of the armed factions. However, Idlib looks like a much more complicated case to deal with in political, military and humanitarian terms than the other three de-escalation zones.
With an area of 6,000sq km, Idlib houses around three million people. The UN has warned that an offensive in the area could force 2.5 million of them towards the Turkish border and precipitate a massive humanitarian crisis.
Idlib is also home to more than 60,000 well-armed opposition fighters. The presence of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Hayet Tahrir alSham (HTS) further complicates the situation. With more than 12,000 fighters, HTS controls a great part of Idlib and has vowed to fight to the end.
Russia, Iran and the Syrian regime use this as a pretext to attack, citing UNSC resolutions, which have designated HTC a terror group. With nowhere else to go, it is expected that, in the eventuality of war, these opposition groups will put a very stiff resistance.
In addition, Turkey has troops at 12 observation posts in the Idlib province to monitor the Astana truce. Without prior agreement, any Russian-backed offensive could well lead to greater tension between the three.
Turkey has already warned that an attack on Idlib could put the last nail in the coffin of the Astana process. Right now, Turkey and Russia are engaged in extensive diplomatic talks to prevent this from happening.
Three scenarios
Turkey and Russia have both announced that the leaders of the two countries will hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Tehran summit to discuss the future of Idlib. Three scenarios can be discussed here.
The first one is that Turkey and Russia would agree to uphold the de-escalation zone in Idlib, providing that Turkey deal with the HTS problem. Over the past several months, Turkey has been trying to persuade the HTS to dissolve itself and melt within the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army factions.
The HTS foreign fighters have been offered a safe exit to relocate somewhere else. These efforts have not yielded the desired results, however. Last week, as a sign of frustration, Turkey listed the HTS as a terror group, signalling a possible military action against it.
If Turkey agrees to take action against the HTS, this could avert a Russian attack on Idlib until a lasting peace is achieved in Syria.
If Turkey fails to deal with the HTS, the second scenario becomes very probable. It would allow for a limited Russian-led military action in Idlib to take out the HTS and other radical groups. Given the high population density in the area, Russia and even the Syrian regime seem to be trying to avoid a massive military attack something that Iran would like to undertake.
At this stage, Russia seems to be mainly seeking to secure its Hmeimim airbase in Latakia from drone attacks by pushing the opposition factions in Idlib further north. The Syrian regime, on the other hand, seems to be mainly interested in regaining control of the M5 highway, the countrys main trade road, which passes through parts of Idlib.
For the past two years, the regimes offensive strategy has traced the M5s 470km from Aleppo in the north to Hama, Homs, Damascus and more recently Daraa in the south. The only remaining part of the M5 outside regime control lies now in parts of Idlib.
Indeed, the regime would want to regain every inch of Idlib but simply does not have the manpower to do so, especially against tens of thousands of die-hard opposition elements, with nowhere else to go.
The third and the most feared scenario is an all-out offensive in Idlib. This scenario is unlikely at this stage because it is very costly both politically and militarily. It would also lead to a humanitarian disaster, a massive refugee crisis and destruction at a large scale. It would destroy the evolving partnership between Russia and Turkey and lead to the collapse of the Astana process.
It will put more pressure on the already strained Russian-European relations as it would lead to a new wave of refugees. The US has also warned against a massive attack in Idlib and stated that it would intervene in case chemical weapons are used.
Lastly, an all-out attack in Idlib runs counter to the new Russian strategy, aiming at returning the Syrian refugees back home and starting the reconstruction process with aid from Europe and the Gulf states.
The Tehran summit will, however, show which of these three scenarios will prevail and whether the future of Idlib will be decided by war or by diplomacy.
There is, in fact, some room for cautious optimism here but that is mainly because of war fatigue, not because we have some great diplomats handling the Syrian conflict.
The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
On August 28, British Prime Minister Theresa May arrived in Cape Town, South Africa, for a one-day working visit. This visit was part of a three-nation tour of South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria designed to strengthen Britains trade ties with African nations.
During the course of her visit, May made a brief appearance on South African TV channel NCA, which all but confirmed her willingness to mollycoddle African strongmen and do business with administrations which hold shaky and homicidal claims to power.
When asked if she endorses President Emmerson Mnangagwas strongly disputed victory in Zimbabwes July 30 presidential election, a wily-looking May immediately alluded to the commission of inquiry which the former vowed to establish to look into the armys violent crackdown on opposition supporters.
On August 1, six people died after Zimbabwe Defence Force (ZDF) soldiers used live rounds on hundreds of angry protestors and innocent pedestrians in Harare. Supporters of the opposition MDC Alliance were demonstrating against the alleged rigging of the election in favour of Mnangagwa and his ZANU-PF party when the violence erupted.
Unimpressed by her cagey response, the interviewer asked May a second time whether she endorsed the Zimbabwean president. Mnangagwa is an elected president, said the British PM, He is taking an important step in saying that he will set up a commission of inquiry. I think this is a very important signal from him about the Zimbabwe he wants to see.
May also mentioned how South Africas President Cyril Ramaphosa attended Mnangagwas inauguration ceremony, in an apparent attempt to justify her endorsement.
But May should not have endorsed Zimbabwes new president without condemning the needless loss of innocent lives and expressing concern over the much-documented electoral shortcomings and illiberal practices, which the European Unions election observation mission to Zimbabwe also reported on.
Commission of inquiry as political ruse
This is not the first time ZDF soldiers have been accused of killing innocent civilians and a commission of inquiry has been set up to pacify public outrage and whitewash gross human rights violations orchestrated by high-ranking civil servants and army officials in Zimbabwe.
The ZDF, along with influential actors from the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) and Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), was accused of committing torture, holding public executions, causing forced disappearances and murdering unarmed civilians during the Gukurahundi massacres in Matabeleland and Midlands between 1983 and 1987.
Human rights groups allege soldiers killed up to 20,000 people in a politically and ethnically motivated, violent crackdown on mainly Ndebele-speaking opposition Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU) supporters and officials in the countrys Matabeleland and Midlands provinces.
As domestic and international condemnation and political pressure to explain horrific reports of mass killings of civilians in southern Zimbabwe mounted, then-President Robert Mugabe established a commission of inquiry, led by Judge Simplicius Chihambakwe, a former judge and highly regarded lawyer.
Prior to this investigation, Mugabe had set up another commission of inquiry to investigate clashes between Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and Zimbabwe Peoples Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) that took place during the 1981 Entumbane uprising. Judge Enock Dumbutshena, the countrys first black judge, had chaired this commission.
But the findings of both the Dumbutshena and Chihambakwe commissions have not been made available for public examination to this day. According to a 2000 affidavit by Mnangagwa, who was then serving as justice minister, the Dumbutshena report had simply vanished into thin air and nobody could find it. Unsurprisingly, not a single person has been held to account for the Gukurahundi killings to this day.
There was a single man at the centre of this deadly drama from beginning to end: Mnangagwa. As minister of security between 1980 and 1988, he exercised control over the much-feared CIO and is believed to have helped in the planning and implementation of the Gukurahundi massacres.
However, he refuses to apologise for his perceived role in the massacres and established a National Peace and Reconciliation Commission earlier this year to smother comprehensive investigations into historical atrocities.
In light of all this, Mnangagwas decision to establish a commission of inquiry into the events of August 1 cannot be interpreted as an honest attempt to hold guilty parties to account. His government is extremely reluctant to face judicial scrutiny and will likely use this commission for the very same purpose its predecessors used the ones that came before it: to whitewash the role the Zimbabwean government played in the violence.
The findings of the commission will likely not even be made public or acted upon if they do not match its political agenda or narrative of events. Mnangagwa, ZDF Commander General Valerio Sibanda, Home Affairs Minister Obert Mpofu and the ZRP have already assigned the blame for the August 1 violence to opposition leader Nelson Chamisa and the MDC Alliance.
Human rights and economic engagement
Theresa May seems to have turned a blind eye to the new Zimbabwean governments democratic shortcomings in order to secure trade deals, and she is not the only Western leader to do so.
When Mnangagwa became Zimbabwes interim leader on November 24, following the military coup that removed Robert Mugabe from power, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a letter to him: Germany will support you as a partner in your endeavours to start a new chapter in the history of Zimbabwe one characterised by democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights.
Mnangagwa has failed to fulfil the above mentioned democratic thresholds, but Germany remains unconcerned.
Late last month, only a few days after Mnangagwas inauguration as Zimbabwes new president, Germany once again demonstrated its intention to work closely with his administration. Germanys Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development Gerd Mueller visited Zimbabwe and launched a joint commission with Zimbabwes finance minister, Patrick Chinamasa, to identify areas of cooperation that could help promote economic development.
Mueller also met Mnangagwa during his visit and announced that Germany will open new lines of credit for Zimbabwean businesses.
Sadly, the German minister glossed over Harares dismal human rights record and only said Germany believed the new government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa would uphold the rule of law and pass friendly policies. The German government says its foreign policy champions democracy and human rights, but it appears to be ready to ignore Zimbabwes human rights abuses for economic benefits.
The duplicitous approaches of May and Merkel towards Zimbabwe evokes memories of former British PM Magaret Thatchers policy towards the country. In 1983, Thatchers administration reportedly downplayed the killings of civilians in the Gukurahundi massacres, simply to protect its economic investments in the region. Now, Thatchers successor also appears to believe an equally unconscionable approach to human rights abuses in Zimbabwe is the diplomatic way to go.
Zimbabwe undoubtedly needs a massive injection of direct foreign investment. But it also needs to respect human rights and embrace political and legal accountability for its politicians.
Rewarding murderous political leaders with unconditional legitimacy when innocent people have been shot and killed is hardly suggestive of progressive international engagement.
At what point will political accountability extend beyond measured sound bites in public forums and well-scripted statements and result in legal convictions and lengthy jail terms for officials who flout basic laws and order the killings of unarmed civilians? Overlooking political impunity for economic expediency will likely result in further deaths if Mnangagwas hold on power is ever challenged seriously again or indeed overhauled through constitutional means. This political and electoral dilemma has repeated itself time and again since 1980.
Suffice it to say, diplomatic silence and official solidarity with shady characters like Mnangagwa will always metamorphose into lethal complicity down the line. Worse still for Zimbabwes long-suffering people, May and Merkels awkward diplomatic dance with Mnangagwa hardly suggests democratic and electoral change is in the offing now or in the 2023 elections.
The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
UN refugee agency spokesperson discusses why it has not taken a more active role to help Yemeni refugees in South Korea.
Seoul, South Korea More than 500 Yemenis have applied for refugee status on South Koreas Jeju island.
The influx has provoked debate over how the country handles refugees, including an online backlash, a petition for the government to take action and protests on Jeju and the capital Seoul.
This also prompted the government to remove Yemen from the list of countries whose citizens are allowed visa-free entry to Jeju and to tweak its refugee policy.
A strong anti-refugee sentiment has been seen in South Korea, driven largely by Islamophobia, that analysts say is caused mostly by ignorance among the population and the prevalence of fake news stories.
Al Jazeera spoke to Heinn Shin, Korea spokesperson for the UNs refugee agency (UNHCR), about the causes of xenophobia, the governments role in calming fears and rooting out fake news and why the agency is not at the forefront of helping these refugees.
Al Jazeera: What role is UNHCR Korea playing in this current refugee crisis? Why is it not actively involved in assisting and helping these refugees on Jeju island?
Heinn Shin: Different UNHCR offices have different roles. For a place like Korea, which is an advanced country with its own refugee system, we play a supporting role. We dont directly help out in supporting refugees. We cant do anything that the government didnt ask us to. If we dont like something, we can release a statement but we cant go out and action anything.
Al Jazeera: So does the Korean government have that ability?
Shin: Of course. It has its own refugee system.
Al Jazeera: But why are there so many protests, discrimination and harassment of the refugees? Is the government playing an active role?
Shin: Comparatively speaking, Korea has a very young refugee history. Its traditionally a very homogenous country so its not just about refugees or migrants. Its about outsiders, non-Koreans in general. Korea is in a developing stage and UNHCR is supporting the government to play that role better.
Al Jazeera: Are you happy with the role the government is playing? It seems to have listened to the protesters?
Shin: We have to give credit to the Korean government. It already knew the public wouldnt be open to the idea of receiving more refugees, but despite that, it went ahead and enacted a stand-alone refugee act.
Al Jazeera: What do you mean the government knew the public wouldnt be open to refugees? Isnt that an obvious case of xenophobia?
The Yemenis have limited job opportunities and are generally restricted to working in restaurants or the fishing sector [Faras Ghani/Al Jazeera]
Shin: Korea is geographically at a long distance from refugee hotspots. Decades ago, we had a system to bring in migrant labour from different Asian countries and there was huge public backlash. As a Korean, I can say that Koreans are not open to the idea of opening up.
Al Jazeera: Is that a cultural thing? Or a lack of knowledge?
Shin: Its a mixture of everything. But one unique thing about the Yemeni refugee situation is that its the first time Koreans got to think about Islam. In a way thats a good thing. This will serve as a great chance for the public to understand Islam better.
Its also very important that UNHCR plays a balanced role. There are certain things that the government can do better but it also has to reflect what the public wants. And for us to criticise what the government does could cause backlash, not against the government, but against the refugees. We provide support where necessary.
Al Jazeera: So the governments decision to take Yemen, and other countries where refugees might come from, off the visa-free list, is reflecting public opinion then?
Shin: Yes, definitely. The Jeju government did that. There were concerns among the public, albeit based on wrong information. There were concerns not just about employment but also about security. There were lots of females talking about it so I do think the government had to take that into account.
Al Jazeera: These Yemenis were also branded fake refugees. What is a fake refugee?
Shin: Theres a refugee and not a refugee. There are no fake refugees. Thats our message. This phrase stems from the fact that these Yemenis are male, young, flew to Jeju and carry iPhones. So its ignorance on the Koreans part. They dont understand these people are fleeing persecution. You can be rich or poor but when a war breaks out, that doesnt matter. Theres xenophobia, not against refugees but against Muslims. They also dont understand Islamic culture. And the fake news about extremism fuels these fears.
Gatherings for refugees, such as this dinner at a church, are mostly organised by the private sector on Jeju island [Faras Ghani/Al Jazeera]
I dont think any Korean who has ever met a refugee or a Muslim would be against them. UNHCRs role should be trying to explain to the general public who these refugees are. And Im afraid, UNHCR has failed in that role for many years.
And weve only just realised that. Because we had no idea, despite the country having 150,000 Muslims, that the public would be so cautious and concerned. And telling the government to choose between their rights or the refugees rights.
Al Jazeera: Since UNHCR has not been playing an active role, what does it need to do more of?
Shin: We need to support the government. We also need to continue persuading the public. As the refugee and asylum seekers population grows in Korea, it cant be the governments role to do everything. We and the civil society would need to help out.
Its our message to the public as well as that if youre happy to help out that Syrian kid in the TV ad through donations, would you receive him if he was to come to Korea? Its that message were trying to deliver. In a country like Korea, its strange to see someone who doesnt look like you and speak the same language. Itll take us time to solve this but Im sure it can be solved.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Burundi unrest: UN report condemns rights abuses
A UN commission of inquiry into human rights violations in Burundi is presenting its findings in Geneva.
Turmoil over the last five months has killed nearly 300 people with more than 2,000 wounded after government crackdown.
The United Nations Security Council will debate the situation in Nicaragua for the first time since a deadly political crisis erupted in the Central American nation earlier this year.
In what is seen as a push by the United States after taking over the Security Council presidency for September, the UN debate was scheduled for Wednesday despite opposition from some members.
How many people have to die before it becomes a matter of peace and security? US envoy to the UN Nikki Haley asked the Security Council on Tuesday.
Its why the US felt it was very important to have this meeting on Nicaragua. Because we dont want another Syria. We dont want another Venezuela.
The country has been in turmoil for the last five months with nearly 300 people killed and more than 2,000 wounded in the governments violent repression of the protests, including alleged torture and extrajudicial killings.
The Security Councils decision to debate Nicaragua came after President Daniel Ortega ordered the expulsion of a United Nations human rights team last week.
The ejection was seen as Ortegas response to a critical report published by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights blaming his government for the violent repression of opposition protests.
Peru and the UK supported the US initiative at the Security Council, but several members expressed opposition, including permanent members China and Rusia, along with Bolivia. Kuwait and Kazakhstan also stated reservations.
Under @NikkiHaley's presidency, the Security Council will meet on the urgent human rights situations in #Nicaragua (tomorrow) and #Venezuela (Sept. 10th Arria-formula meeting). These situations are sadly not on the agenda in Geneva at the @UNHumanRights Council. #SOSNicaragua pic.twitter.com/8CBN0GO9tl UN Watch (@UNWatch) September 5, 2018
Continuing crisis
Protests in Nicaragua demanding reform to the social security system that began in April this year quickly escalated into calls for Ortega to step down and announce an early election.
More than 1,200 people were arrested or have disappeared, according to the UN, with some charged with serious crimes, including terrorism.
Ortega whose fourth term as Nicaraguan president since 2007 has often been dubbed autocratic by his opponents has rejected the demand for early elections.
The opposition has told me that I have to leave I think it would be a very serious precedent for the country, Ortega said in an interview in July, adding the country would slip into anarchy if he quits.
UNs Martin Griffiths says going to make it happen at Geneva talks despite rebel no-show.
The UNs special envoy to Yemen expressed confidence even though the first day of peace talks between rebels and the internationally recognised Yemeni government was pushed by a day, as Houthis failed to arrive in Switzerland.
Speaking at a press conference in Geneva on Wednesday, Martin Griffiths said despite delays in the arrival of the Houthi delegation, he was confident representatives will attend Fridays UN-sponsored discussions to help end the three-year war that has killed thousands.
Griffiths said he hoped to see both parties in the same room. Previous reports suggested there would not be face-to-face meetings with intermediaries used for communication.
The meeting will be the first UN-led peace talks in two years, although chances of anything more than an agreement to further discussions are slim.
{articleGUID}
The rebels said they were stranded in Yemens capital, Sanaa, on the eve of the peace talks, unable to secure authorisation from the Saudi-Emirati-led military coalition for a plane to transport its delegation and wounded fighters out of the country, according to the Houthis Al Masirah TV.
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam tweeted on Tuesday the UN made promises on facilitating the transport of the wounded abroad, and accused the world body of stalling.
Griffiths said talks with the Yemeni government will start Wednesday night, and efforts were being made to ensure the Houthis presence.
We are working at it. I think this issue will sort itself out. Yemen talks have always had a delay to begin. We are going to make it happen, he said.
Anwar Gargash, minister of state for foreign affairs of the United Arab Emirates welcomed the talks.
Long way to go, he wrote on Twitter. But Geneva can bring outcome nearer.
Turning the page
The UN envoy told reporters in Geneva there was no military solution to the Yemeni conflict.
It has been a process in Yemen. This is an opportunity for that page to be turned. We are talking about consultations this is not a negotiation this a process. We want to understand the issues of both parties, Griffiths said.
This is a Yemeni-Yemeni discussion, its not for other countries to determine.
Griffiths will act as the intermediary between government officials and Houthi representatives.
A draft UN peace plan seen by Reuters news agency in June calls on the Houthis to give up their ballistic missiles in return for an end to the alliances bombing campaign and a transitional governance agreement.
While the Houthis control Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, the Saudi-Emirati-led coalition controls its airspace.
In 2014, the Houthis seized Sanaa and drove the government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile, marking a major turning point in Yemens long-running conflict.
The following year, Saudi Arabia and allies formed the regional military coalition to back Hadis government in its fight against the rebels.
More than 10,000 people have been killed since 2015 a death toll that has not been updated in years and is likely much higher. The UN describes Yemen as the worlds worst humanitarian situation with millions on the brink of famine because of the war.
The last round of peace talks collapsed in 2016 when 108 days of negotiations in Kuwait failed to broker a power-sharing agreement.
The Houthi delegation was then grounded in Oman for three months on its way back to Yemen, blocked from returning by the coalition.
A day after six people were killed in southern Iraqs Basra city, violent protests over poor government services continued with security forces opening fire after new clashes.
Protesters in Basra told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that live ammunition and tear gas were fired by security personnel at hundreds of demonstrators outside the regional government headquarters in the oil-rich province.
At least one demonstrator was taken to hospital after being hit in the head by a tear gas canister. An overnight curfew was imposed and more security personnel deployed in the city, an army official said.
Basra and surrounding areas have been the focus of angry demonstrations over alleged government neglect that have rocked Iraq since early July.
Residents in Iraqs second-largest city are particularly angry over pollution of the water supply, which, they allege, has hospitalised more than 20,000 people.
On Tuesday, six demonstrators were shot dead and 20 wounded when hundreds of people gathered to mourn the death of a protester killed a day before.
The Iraqi army on Wednesday blamed unidentified gunmen for the death of the six demonstrators.
The protesters slain yesterday in downtown Basra were killed by unknown gunmen in a car, army commander Jamil al-Shammari said in a statement a day after the massacre.
Al-Shammari denied reports that Iraqi security forces fired on protesters outside provincial headquarters but went on to assert that the demonstrations were not entirely peaceful in nature.
Security forces were surprised to find a group of demonstrators throwing Molotov cocktails, burning tires and attacking citizens, he said.
Hold accountable
Jan Kubis, United Nations envoy to Iraq, called for calm in Basra and urged authorities to avoid using disproportionate, lethal force against the demonstrators.
Kubis also asked the government to investigate and hold accountable those responsible for the outbreak of violence and do its utmost to respond to the peoples rightful demands of clean water and electricity supplies.
At least six protesters were killed and 20 others wounded in clashes in Basra on Tuesday [Reuters]
Defending his government over Basras deadly unrest, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Tuesday said he had ordered no real bullets to be fired in the direction of protesters or in the air.
Shia leader Moqtada al-Sadr, who is hoping to form a new government with al-Abadi, said in a tweet before the latest clashes that vandals infiltrated the protesters.
Iraq is currently in a state of political limbo with al-Sadrs coalition winning the largest number of seats in national elections held in May, but falling short of a majority.
Water contamination
Iraqi authorities, meanwhile, pledged to take measures to put an end to the health crisis that has ravaged the oil-rich province of Basra.
Al-Abadi announced on Tuesday that he had met legislators from Basra, who are in Baghdad for the parliaments first session since the elections, to resolve the water pollution issue.
In July, the government announced a multibillion-dollar emergency plan for southern Iraq to revive the regions infrastructure and services.
But protesters said they are wary of promises made by the outgoing government, even as negotiations drag on over the formation of the next administration.
Military sources say the attacks are mostly aimed at preventing Iran from establishing a military presence in Syria.
Israel has launched more than 200 air attacks against Iranian targets in Syria over the past year and a half, a senior Israel official revealed.
The officer in the Israeli army said on Tuesday the air raids included the dropping of about 800 bombs and missiles on mostly arms shipments as well as military bases and infrastructure.
Later on Tuesday, Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz confirmed the report, calling Irans military presence in Syria a red line.
Only just now it was published in the name of military sources, so I can quote it too that in the last two years Israel has taken military action more than 200 times within Syria itself, Katz said.
{articleGUID}
Understanding the significance of this matter in terms of preserving the red line, preventing things that Iran has done, is doing and trying to do against Israel from Syria.
In August 2017, the outgoing chief of Israels air force told Haaretz newspaper that his corps had carried out nearly 100 strikes in Syria.
That left another 100 in the time since, according to the official Israeli accounts issued on Tuesday roughly two attacks per week.
Israel, which monitors neighbouring Syria intensively, has long alleged that Iran came to assist the Damascus government, in part, to set up a permanent garrison there, effectively forming an extended anti-Israel front with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran, Israels arch foe, has been a core supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad throughout the seven-year-old war, sending military advisers as well as material and regional Shia armed groups that it backs.
Israels strikes on Syria have been largely ignored by Russia, Syrias big power backer.
On Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman signalled that the country could also attack suspected Iranian military targets in Iraq, where Reuters has reported the deployment of ballistic missiles by Tehran.
Briefing reporters on Tuesday, a senior Israeli military officer who requested anonymity said that Israel believed Iran was using Iraqi territory as a conduit for missile transfers to Syria.
Home to 180 Palestinians, villages demolition expected soon by Israeli army as rights groups denounce move.
Palestinians and rights groups condemned a decision by an Israeli court giving the green light for the military to demolish a Bedouin village in the occupied West Bank, forcibly evicting its 180 residents.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Palestinian Authority said the decision to raze Khan al-Ahmar village consolidates Israels colonial project of building an arc of settlements that effectively cut off occupied East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank.
This illegal decision uncovers the colonial DNA of Israels institutions that work to confiscate Palestinian lands effectively alienating it from the West Bank and killing any hopes for a future contiguous Palestinian state, it said.
Khan al-Ahmar is situated a few kilometres from Jerusalem between two major illegal Israeli settlements, Maale Adumim and Kfar Adumim, which the Israeli government wants to expand. The removal of the Bedouin village enables the Israeli government to cut the West Bank in two.
The High Court rejected petitions against the demolition and said a temporary injunction that had put a hold on the move would lapse in a week.
Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman praised the justices decision on Twitter calling it brave.
Khan al-Ahmar will be evacuated. I congratulate the Supreme Court judges for their brave decision. Nobody [is] above law. Nobody can prevent us from consolidating our sovereignty, Lieberman said.
The mood in the village, where residents attended a protest after the ruling, was despondent.
We have gone through all the procedures in court, now we can do nothing more, said Tawfiq Jabareen, a lawyer for the community. If anything can prevent the demolition, it is the political process.
Courts of the occupiers
The villagers are members of the Bedouin Jahalin tribe which was expelled from their lands in the Naqab (Negev) desert by the Israeli military in the 1950s. They were displaced twice more before they settled in Khan al-Ahmar, long before the illegal settlements around it existed.
The small community of 40 families lives in tents and shacks on what is classified by the 1993 Oslo Accords as Area C, which accounts for 60 percent of the West Bank and is under total Israeli administrative and security control.
A Palestinian girl walks outside her family dwelling in Khan al-Ahmar [Mohamad Torokman/Reuters]
The courts decision was largely based on the premise that the village was built without Israeli permission, which Palestinians say is impossible to obtain because of the expansion of illegal Jewish-only Israeli settlements there.
United Nations figures show Israeli authorities have approved just 1.5 percent of all permit requests by Palestinians between 2010 and 2014.
In early July, Israeli bulldozers destroyed a number of tents and other structures in Khan al-Ahmar, sparking confrontations with local residents.
Hagai El-Ad, director of Israeli rights group BTselem, told Al Jazeera the courts ruling was cowardly, immoral, and outrageous.
This decision only demonstrates the Israeli High Court is working not in the service of justice but is simply working in the service of the occupation, he said, speaking from Jerusalem.
This is yet another example where we can see that the occupied people cannot find justice in the courts of the occupiers.
The Israeli government plans to relocate the residents to an area about 12km away, near the Palestinian village of Abu Dis.
But the new site is next to a landfill, and rights advocates say a forcible transfer of the residents would violate international law applying to occupied territory.
Forcible transfer of protected people in occupied territory is a war crime, plain and simple, El-Ad said. And now we have even more High Court justices that are backing the implementation of a war crime.
Appeal to international community
El-Ad said displacement and settlement expansion have been the policy of many Israeli governments but the current one is acting with a glaring green light that it sees from Washington.
In response to the courts decision, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) organised a demonstration in Khan al-Ahmar on Wednesday.
We are holding this sit-in today to show solidarity with the people of Khan al-Ahmar and pressure Israel to reverse its decision, Walid Assaf, head of the PLOs commission on settlements, told reporters there.
Israel continues to impose restrictions on the Palestinian people and expel them from their homes. We have exhausted all domestic legal channels, so we must resort to international law to safeguard our rights.
El-Ad called on the international community to act, saying it has the responsibility to safeguard human rights anywhere.
Especially in this reality where Palestinians have been living for more than half a century under a military occupation that desires to advance settlements and displace Palestinians a process that is happening in broad daylight, he said.
Foreign minister accuses US president of planning to blame Iran for horrors US clients have unleashed on Middle East.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused US President Donald Trump of planning to abuse the presidency of the UN Security Council to criticise Tehran, Washingtons political nemesis.
Zarif said the US leader plans to abuse presidency of SC [Security Council] to divert a session item devoted to Palestine for 70 yrs to blame Iran for horrors US clients have unleashed across ME [Middle East], Zarif wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
He also wrote the hashtag #chutzpah to suggest Trumps audacity.
{articleGUID}
Iran and the United States have been engaged in a diplomatic tug-of-war and harsh rhetoric since Trump came to office.
During his campaign for the presidency, Trump repeatedly referred to the historic 2015 nuclear agreement as the worst deal ever and vowed to tear it apart.
On Tuesday, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley announced Trump would chair a UN Security Council meeting on Iran later this month to spotlight its violations of international law during the annual gathering of world leaders in New York City.
The US, which holds the council presidency for September, has unsuccessfully pushed it to call out Iran.
It is unclear whether Zarif or Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will be present at the Trump-chaired Security Council meeting. But Rouhani is expected to attend the annual UN General Assembly meeting.
Irans FM responds to @POTUS chairing a session of the #UNSC in September. Presumably (per @nikkihaley s remarks) Iran will be represented at the meeting by either @HassanRouhani or @JZarif. If so, will be the most electrifying event of #UNGA week. https://t.co/RWj5wvqbhE Hooman Majd (@hmajd) September 5, 2018
Haley has regularly verbally attacked Iran, accusing it of meddling in the wars in Syria and Yemen.
She told reporters Trump was chairing the meeting to address Irans violations of international law and the general instability Iran sows throughout the entire Middle East region.
In May, Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal aimed at preventing Irans nuclear capabilities in return for lifting some sanctions.
Trump also ordered the reimposition in August of US sanctions suspended under the deal.
Since then, Iran has filed a case against the US before the UNs International Court of Justice, demanding the sanctions be quashed.
Iran is still subject to a UN arms embargo and other restrictions contained in the resolution that enshrines the nuclear deal.
European powers have been scrambling to salvage the accord.
In February, Russia vetoed a US-led bid for the Security Council to call out Tehran for failing to prevent its weapons from falling into the hands of Yemens Houthi group, a charge Tehran denies. The issue of Irans support of the Houthis is not covered in the nuclear deal.
At least five people arrested, including the stepmother, for brutal gang rape and murder of nine-year-old child.
A nine-year-old child has been gang-raped and murdered in Indian-administered Kashmirs Baramullah district, bringing back memories of the brutal gang rape of an eight-year-old in the Jammu region of the state.
Police in Kashmir said on Wednesday that the child had gone missing on August 23 and was murdered the same day.
Five people have been arrested in connection with the case, including the stepmother and the stepbrother.
The girl was lured to a secluded spot in a forest by her stepmother and was raped in turn by her 14-year-old stepbrother, his friends and accomplices, the police said.
{articleGUID}
Later, the stepmother strangled her and the stepbrother swung an axe at her head. One of the men gouged out her eyes and burned parts of her body with acid to destroy evidence, the police added.
There is conclusive evidence for murder, there is destruction of evidence in regards to rape. But we have got vital clues to prove the rape charges in the court, Mir Imtiyaz Hussain, police chief in Baramullah district who is supervising the investigation, told Al Jazeera.
We have identified the culprits. Our job will be complete when the culprits are convicted in a court of law, he added.
Police say they found the decomposed body in a forest near her home in Uri on September 2, almost 10 days after she went missing.
Watertight case
The father of the child had two wives and the first wife harboured acrimonious feelings towards the second wife and her daughter which spurred her to murder the child, police said.
The police said they are building a watertight case so the perpetrators are punished this time.
One of the men gouged out her (the victim's) eyes and burnt parts of her body with acid to destroy evidence Kashmir police
The case is the second such incident in the restive Kashmir region after the brutal gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua earlier this year, which caused widespread revulsion across India.
The girl in Kathua was held captive in a temple and sexually assaulted for a week before being strangled and beaten to death with a stone in January.
Violence against women in the South Asian country is widespread and has deep roots.
In recent years, the country has witnessed renewed public outrage over the number of violent sexual assaults against women, especially children.
Crimes against minors
In July this year, doctors confirmed sexual abuse at a girls shelter in the state of Bihar, with children reporting being beaten, drugged, raped and scalded with hot water.
A child is sexually abused every 15 minutes in India, according to NGO Child Rights.
Crimes against minors have risen more than 500 percent over the past decade, the right group said, after analysing government data.
{articleGUID}
In 2016, police in India received 38,947 reports of rape compared with almost 35,000 in 2015, according to data collected by the National Crime Records Bureau.
India has enacted strident anti-rape laws in response to nationwide outrage in the wake of a series of child rape cases.
The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act has now been amended to introduce the death penalty for the rape of children below age 12.
But campaigners say laws, on their own, do not act as a deterrent.
The brutal assault on this child tells us the law is not working. When you have death penalty for rape, they dont just rape, but they murder and they destroy evidence like they tried with this girl by using acid, Enakshi Ganguly, founder and adviser at HAQ Centre for Child Rights in New Delhi, told Al Jazeera.
This case should be a lesson to the government. They rushed to bring the death penalty but the number of rapes have not gone down. What we are dealing with is what is happening behind closed doors, inside families. Our studies show in more than 70 percent of child abuse cases, the rapists are known to the family, she added.
Brazils Workers Party (PT) has suffered a major blow after prosecutors charged vice presidential candidate Fernando Haddad with corruption.
The former Sao Paulo mayor will likely become the PTs presidential candidate within days as embattled former President Luiz Inacio (Lula) da Silva was barred from running by the top electoral court last week.
Haddads campaign press team in a written statement on Tuesday denied he had committed any wrongdoing and said the prosecutors case was based on false plea-bargain testimony.
In the accusation, a prosecutor alleged that the PT accepted on behalf of Haddad a payment of 2.6 million reals ($481,095) to cover a debt accrued when he was campaigning for mayor of Sao Paulo in 2012.
The payments were allegedly made by representatives of construction conglomerate, UTC Engenharia, to a company that printed Haddads campaign materials.
Such payments, according to prosecutors, were aimed at obtaining illegal advantages for UTC as a contractor of public works in the city of Sao Paulo after Haddad had already taken office.
There was a scheme of payments and money transfers in order to disguise the origin of the cash, the prosecutors office said.
Haddads candidacy is not in danger of being blocked, as it would be virtually impossible for a trial to play out before the countrys presidential elections next month.
But the accusations will allow political rivals to rally against him just a month ahead of the first-round vote.
Uncertain election
Lula, who served two largely popular terms between 2003 and 2010, has been jailed on a corruption conviction and cannot run in the presidential election to be held on October 7.
The former trade union leader has vehemently denied the corruption accusations and dismissed the charges as a political plot aimed at preventing him from standing in the elections.
The court, however, gave the PT a September 12 deadline to find a replacement candidate for what is the most uncertain Brazilian election in decades.
If Haddad is named as the PTs candidate, Manuela dAvila of Brazils Communist Party will assume the running-mate position, according to a previous agreement between the parties.
But unlike Lula, former Sao Paulo mayor Haddad commands little popular support.
Corruption cases
This is not the first blow Lula or his party have suffered. In August 2016, Lulas protege and successor Dilma Rousseff was impeached for breaking budgetary laws.
At that time she accused the parliament and segments of the judiciary law of launching a coup detat.
In the same year, President Temer was accused on corruption charges, but opposition legislators did not secure enough votes to put him on trial for charges of obstruction of justice and criminal organisation allegations he denied.
Last year, Temer had a three percent approval rating, making him the most unpopular leader in Brazils history.
However, Lula, despite the conviction, recent scandals involving the PT and several corruption cases pending against him, still commands the race by a long stretch, with 39 percent of voter support, according to pollster Datafolha.
His nearest rival, far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, has 19 percent.
The labour leader-turned-president oversaw a dramatic rise in Brazils economy from 2002-2010, pulling millions from poverty and making the country a prominent player on the world stage.
Pacific islands forum overshadowed by Nauru refugee crisis
Forum begins with row over lack of media access to event in Nauru, one of two islands where Australia has imprisoned asylum seekers.
Foreign ministers announcement comes as new President Mario Abdo Benitez looks to reset countrys Middle East policy.
Paraguay will return its embassy back to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem, reversing a contentious decision taken months ago by the previous government.
Paraguay wants to contribute to an intensification of regional diplomatic efforts to achieve a broad, fair and lasting peace in the Middle East, Foreign Minister Luis Alberto Castiglioni said on Wednesday.
In response, Israel announced it will close its embassy in Paraguay and recall its ambassador, the Haaretz newspaper quoted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus office as saying.
The Palestinians, meanwhile, will immediately open an embassy in Paraguay, Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki said, according to the official news agency Wafa.
Al-Maliki hailed Paraguays change of mind as a new Palestinian diplomatic achievement.
Paraguays former President Horacio Cartes travelled to Jerusalem to inaugurate the embassy in May. But Cartes successor, Mario Abdo Benitez, also a member of the conservative Colorado party, took office last month and reversed the decision.
So much for the everlasting friendship between Paraguay and Israel, professed by Benjamin Netanyahu in May, when Paraguays former president Horacio Cartes decided to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Al Jazeeras Lucia Newman said.
At that time many people couldnt find a logical explanation [for that decision], there has been very, strong speculation that there might have been an economic incentive.
But now there is a new president, Mario Abdo .. [and] he says he is putting things back to where they were, he says that he wants Paraguay to contribute to regional efforts to help bring about a diplomatic and lasting solution to the conflict in the Middle East.
Paraguay is a country of principle, Abdo said on Twitter. We will always be respectful with international law, he added.
Paraguay es un pais de principios. El espiritu de la decision anunciada es que los pueblos de Israel y Palestina logren alcanzar una paz amplia, justa y duradera. Siempre seremos respetuosos del derecho internacional. Marito Abdo (@MaritoAbdo) September 5, 2018
In December, US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israels capital, reversing decades of American policy and upsetting the Arab world and Western allies. The US opened a new embassy in the city on May 14. Two days later, Guatemala also opened its embassy in Jerusalem.
Irresponsible leader
The decision by the three countries was hailed as a political victory by Israel as it pressed other countries to recognise Jerusalem as its capital.
But the relocations drew Palestinian and international anger. Deadly protests in Gaza and the West Bank also took place.
Palestinian leaders see East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state and said Trumps move disqualified Washington as a peace mediator.
Previous US presidents, as well as nearly every other country, refrained from opening embassies in Jerusalem, saying the citys final status should first be resolved through Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, had condemned the opening of the Paraguayan embassy in Jerusalem.
We have witnessed today how the Paraguayan president is an irresponsible political leader by defying international law and the achievement of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, he said.
Netanyahu has attempted to persuade other countries to follow the US lead.
On Wednesday while meeting Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov Netanyahu said: I appreciate your decision to open an honorary consulate in Jerusalem, and I hope, I hope, I hope its the first step towards establishing the Bulgarian embassy in Jerusalem.
Mariano Blanco of the town of Rondo was the 11th mayor killed since Duterte came to power in June 2016.
A town mayor, who had been accused by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte of being involved in the drug trade, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in a pre-dawn attack in Cebu province.
Mayor Mariano Blanco of the town of Rondo was killed by four unidentified attackers who arrived at the town hall on board a white van, police told local media.
According to the report, the gunmen ordered the two security escorts guarding Blancos office to drop on the ground and then went into the mayors office.
A burst of gunfire was heard shortly before the attackers made their escape.
The employees later found Blancos lifeless body inside his office.
Blanco had been reportedly staying in his office as a security precaution since President Duterte linked him to the drug trade.
He had denied the allegations and expressed concern for his safety.
In July, two mayors and two vice mayors were also killed. The assassination of the two mayors gained media attention as the killings were caught on video.
According to news reports, Blanco was the 11th town mayor killed since Duterte came to power in June 2016.
At least six vice mayors were also killed during the same period, including Blancos vice mayor and nephew, Jonnah John Ungab, who was shot dead in February.
Ungab was the lawyer of a top drug suspect, Kerwin Espinosa, whose father, Rolando Espinosa Jr, also a mayor of a town in the central province of Leyte, was killed while under police custody in 2016.
When he rose to power in 2016, the brash-talking Duterte expanded nationwide a deadly campaign against illegal drugs that he had implemented as a longtime mayor of the southern city of Davao.
Police said the current campaign has left more than 4,200 suspects dead in what they claimed were clashes with law enforcement, although human rights groups have blamed them for extrajudicial killings.
But opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes claimed in February that as many as 20,000 people have already been killed in the drug war.
Duterte and the police have denied a policy of condoning illegal killings and cite the deaths of many policemen in clashes as proof of the danger posed by drug suspects.
The president has, however, often threatened drug suspects with death and promised he would never allow policemen to rot in jail for doing their work in speeches critics say have helped promote impunity and foster abuses.
Protests continue in Aden over Yemens ailing economy
More protests took place in southern Yemen over the governments failure to take measures against rising prices and the collapse of the currency.
One hundred permanent residencies each year to be given to children of Qatari mothers and skilled expatriates.
Qatar will soon be the first Arab Gulf nation to allow some of its long-time foreign residents to become permanent residents.
Issuing a new law, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani directed the government on Tuesday to grant permanent residency to 100 expatriates every year. The law also allows most migrant workers to leave the country without an exit visa.
The new permanent residency law gives priority to children born to a Qatari mother, as well as foreign nationals who have lived in the country for more than 20 years and are considered valuable for their skills.
Some two million foreign residents live in Qatar.
Under the new law, permanent residents are entitled to the same social security as Qatars citizens, including free healthcare and education in government schools. They will also be given priority in government jobs.
Gesture of appreciation
As permanent residents, foreign expatriates investing in Qatar will no longer be required to have a Qatari citizen as their partners. The new law also allows them to own real estate in the country.
Once the new law is implemented, permanent residents will be able to enter and leave the country without permission from their employers, which is required for other residents.
The landmark law also allows expatriates serving in the Qatari armed forces to apply for permanent residency.
A Sudanese citizen, serving in the Qatari army for decades, told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity that he is in the process applying to become a permanent resident.
This law would serve as a gesture of appreciation to many of our Arab brothers who have lived among us for decades and made an honourable stand supporting Qatar against the siege by the neighbouring countries. Abdullah al-Athbah
Vision 2030
Analysts say the new law is part of Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thanis ambitious Vision 2030, which aims to create a sustainable and modern Qatar in the next 10 years.
This law would serve as a gesture of appreciation to many of our Arab brothers who have lived among us for decades and made an honourable stand, supporting Qatar against the siege by the neighbouring countries, Abdullah al-Athbah, chief editor of Qatari newspaper Al Arab, told Al Jazeera.
In June 2017, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt severed diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of funding terrorism and fomenting regional instability allegations Doha denies.
Al-Athbah said the new law is a first step in Qatars investment in human capital, which will benefit the state in vital areas such as medicine, science and engineering.
The pioneering new law is part of a national strategy of modernisation and sustained development, a senior Qatari official, who declined to be identified, told Al Jazeera.
On plans to grant just 100 permanent residencies a year, al-Athbah said the move will allow the government to evaluate its policy, revise it and expand it as needed in the years to come.
Qatar is one of the richest countries in the world with an average income of nearly $124,000 a year, a figure that surpasses many Western countries, including the United States.
Follow Ali Younes on Twitter: @ali_reports
Rajapaksa leads Sri Lanka protests, calls for government change
Tens of thousands of Sri Lankans, led by a former president, have congregated in the capital to demand a new government.
Scholar, 61, charged with 37 counts, including incitement against the ruler and spreading discord, his family says.
Public prosecutors in Saudi Arabia are seeking the death penalty against prominent Muslim scholar Salman al-Awdah, local media, activists and his family members have said.
Awdah, who UN experts have described as a reformist, was imprisoned a year ago, shortly after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched a crackdown on dissent and imposed a land, sea and air blockade on the kingdoms Gulf neighbour, Qatar.
Awdah, who has 14 million followers on Twitter, posted a tweet on September 9, saying: May God harmonise between their hearts for the good of their people an apparent call for reconciliation between the Gulf countries.
Local daily Okaz reported that the public prosecution, which represents the Saudi government, had levelled 37 counts against Awdah and called for the death penalty.
According to London-based Saudi rights group ALQST and other activists, some of the charges included incitement against the ruler and spreading discord.
Awdahs son, Abdullah, wrote on Twitter that the charges against his father included critical tweets and establishing an organisation which worked to defend the honour of the Prophet Muhammad.
() #____ . (@aalodah) September 4, 2018
Today, at a court hearing for my father Sheikh Salman al-Awdah, the prosecution requested the death penalty against him, and submitted 37 charges, one of which was establishing the al-Nusra organisation in Kuwait to defend the Prophet (PBUH), and being a member of the European Council for Fatwa and Research and the International Union of Muslim scholars, with other charges related to his tweets on Twitter.
Amnesty Internationals Saudi Arabia campaigner Dana Ahmed called the reports a disturbing trend in the Kingdom [that] sends a horrifying message that peaceful dissent and expression may be met with the death penalty.
Crackdown on dissent
The ruling Al Saud family has long regarded Islamist groups as the biggest internal threat to its rule.
In the 1990s, the Muslim Brotherhood-inspired Sahwa (Awakening) movement demanded political reforms that posed a challenge to the ruling family.
Al-Awdah, a Sahwa leader, was imprisoned from 1994-99 for agitating for political change, an act which would earn him praise from Saudi-born late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
{articleGUID}
In 2011, al-Awdah called for elections and separation of powers, demands considered dangerous provocations in the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy where public protests and political parties are banned, has witnessed a massive crackdown on dissent, with dozens of religious leaders, intellectuals and womens rights activists arrested in the past year.
Among those arrested were prominent Islamic preachers Awad al-Qarni, Farhan al-Malki, Mostafa Hassan and Safar al-Hawali.
Al-Hawali, 68, was detained after he published a 3,000-page book attacking bin Salman and the ruling family over their ties to Israel, calling it a betrayal.
Earlier this year, bin Salman softened the kingdoms stance on Israel, telling the US-based Atlantic magazine that Israelis have the right to their own land and there are a lot of interests we [Saudi Arabia] share with Israel.
Last month, authorities recommended the death penalty for five human rights activists from the kingdoms Eastern Province, including Israa al-Ghomgham, the first woman to possibly face that punishment for rights-related work.
A tense calm has taken hold of the town of Jisr al-Shoghur in northwestern Idlib province after days of bombing and shelling by forces loyal to the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
Residents on Wednesday reported that the shelling and air raids had stopped but a number of reconnaissance drones were flying above the town and surrounding areas.
On Tuesday, Russian and Syrian jets bombed the town and its outskirts, killing 10 civilians and injuring 20 others, Abu al-Fadl Ahmad, a member of the White Helmets, a civil defence organisation, told Al Jazeera.
Among the victims were five children from the same family, Ahmad reported.
Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the stated toll.
The bombardment campaign sent much of the local population fleeing towards the border with Turkey, said Ahmad, while a number of people with serious injuries were also transported across the border for treatment.
{articleGUID}
The bombings also targeted branches of the White Helmets in the area which did not result in any injuries among its members, he added.
The Syrian army, aided by Russia, has been preparing for an offensive on the last major stronghold of the Syrian opposition, which some fear will start after an upcoming Tehran summit between Turkey, Russia and Iran on September 7.
In remarks published by Turkish media on Wednesday, Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that dropping bombs and firing missiles on Idlib could cause a massacre.
God forbid, a serious massacre could take place if there is a rain of missiles there, Erdogan told journalists on his plane after an official visit to the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan, media reports said.
Russian officials have justified the planned military operation in Idlib with the presence of Jabhat al-Nusra (now known as Hayet Tahrir al-Sham or HTS), an armed group formerly affiliated with al-Qaeda.
On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Damascus would have become the capital of the ISIL caliphate if Russia hadnt intervened.
Idlib is the last remaining de-escalation zone where a few tens of thousands of terrorists are concentrated, headed mainly by Jabhat al-Nusra, he said on a political talk show on the state-owned First Channel. One of the main element of the de-escalation agreements was the commitment to pull out the moderate armed opposition from the territories controlled by terrorists, so they face what they deserve.
Lavrov suggested that Russias partners, including the Americans did not fulfil commitments to separate the moderate Syrian opposition from terrorists.
Over the past several months, the Turkish authorities engaged in unsuccessful efforts to dissolve the HTS. On August 31, Turkey designated HTS a terrorist organisation.
Every inch
Assad has sworn to recapture every inch of Syria and has made big gains against rebels since Russia joined his war effort three years ago.
His forces have been amassing around Idlib, presumably in preparation for the assault to seize the bastion of the rebel groups who have been trying to overthrow Assad since the start of the war in 2011.
Turkey, whose army controls a string of military posts around Idlib, has for weeks been engaged in diplomatic efforts to prevent a Syrian government attack on Idlib.
In Geneva, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura on Tuesday called on the leaders of Russia and Turkey to draw up a solution in the coming days to prevent a major battle for Idlib.
A telephone call between the two of you would make a big difference, de Mistura said, addressing Russian President Vladimir Putin and Erdogan directly in a media briefing.
{articleGUID}
Moscow and Ankara should be given more time to negotiate a way to prevent an offensive, he added.
De Mistura, who has mediated several rounds of Syria talks in recent years, without making any progress, said he was determined to hold discussions with high-level envoys from Turkey, Iran and Russia on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, despite concerns the offensive may begin before then.
The UN has previously warned that an all-out assault on Idlib could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale not yet seen in Syrias conflict.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump late on Monday warned Syria against recklessly attacking Idlib, which he said could trigger a human tragedy.
New book by Bob Woodward alleges Trump made the remarks after a chemical attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in 2017.
US President Donald Trump has denied he wanted to kill Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a key claim in a new book by renowned Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward.
That was never even contemplated, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday as he met with the emir of Kuwait.
According to the book Fear: Trump in the White House, by Woodward, Trump wanted the US military to go into Syria and assassinate al-Assad after the Syrian government reportedly carried out a chemical attack in April 2017.
Lets f*****g kill him! Lets go in. Lets kill the f*****g lot of them, Trump said according to Woodwards book.
{articleGUID}
The attack, which was widely blamed on forces loyal to the Syrian government, was carried out on the town of Khan Sheikhoun, killing more than 80 people.
Secretary of Defense James Mattis said the Pentagon would get right on it after Trump made his request, according to Woodward, but after getting off the phone with Trump, Mattis made it clear to his staff that they were not going to follow through with Trumps plan.
Were not going to do any of that. Were going to be much more measured, Mattis said according to Woodwards book.
Instead of targeting al-Assad personally, the Pentagon drew up plans for air attacks to take out Syrian military infrastructure.
Following those attacks on April 7, 2017, Trump praised the US military, saying the military personnel represented the United States and the world so well.
Congratulations to our great military men and women for representing the United States, and the world, so well in the Syria attack. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2017
In an official response to the allegations, Mattis called the quotes used in Woodwards book fiction and a product of someones rich imagination, adding that the publication was a uniquely Washington brand of literature.
In serving in this administration, the idea that I would show contempt for the elected Commander-in-Chief, President Trump, or tolerate disrespect to the office of the President from within our Department of Defense, is a product of someones rich imagination, Mattis statement said.
Statement from Secretary of Defense, James Mattis: pic.twitter.com/OneaxKCneV Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2018
Trump also responded to the book, calling the quotes in the book made up by frauds, a con on the public.
The book means nothing. Its a work of fiction, he said.
The Woodward book has already been refuted and discredited by General (Secretary of Defense) James Mattis and General (Chief of Staff) John Kelly. Their quotes were made up frauds, a con on the public. Likewise other stories and quotes. Woodward is a Dem operative? Notice timing? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2018
When asked about the allegations, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley denied ever hearing threats made by Trump against al-Assad.
I have not once ever heard the president talk about assassinating Assad, Haley told Al Jazeera correspondent James Bays.
The Syrian government has always denied it was involved in the chemical attack, but an independent United Nations panel concluded the attack was carried out by al-Assads forces.
Were in Crazytown
Woodwards book also details several other encounters in the Trump White House between senior staff and the president.
According to the book, sources told Woodward that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly regularly lost his temper with Trump, calling him unhinged and an idiot, the Washington Post reported.
Its pointless to try to convince him of anything. Hes gone off the rails. Were in Crazytown. I dont even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job Ive ever had, the book quotes Kelly as saying according to unnamed sources.
Trump himself also railed against the people he appointed, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, the book states.
Rob Porter, former staff secretary, was told by Trump to ignore whatever Priebus said, saying that Priebus was a little rat, Woodward wrote.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has recently been targeted by Trump on Twitter for his recusal in Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, was also alleged to have been criticised regularly by Trump.
{articleGUID}
This guy is mentally retarded. Hes this dumb Southerner, Trump said about Sessions, according to the book.
Another allegation made in the book is that former top economic adviser to Trump, Gary Cohn, stole a letter off Trumps desk to prevent the US from withdrawing from a trade agreement with South Korea.
Ill just take the paper off his desk, Cohn, who has since quit the White House, said to his staffers.
Woodward is considered one of the most renowned investigative political journalists in recent decades.
He became famous after he and his colleague Carl Bernstein revealed the Watergate scandal during the Nixon administration in the 1970s.
Their reporting eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974.
Since then, Woodward has written several books about the inner workings of presidential administrations.
Seguin, TX (78155)
Today
Rain likely. Thunder possible. Low 48F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%..
Tonight
Rain likely. Thunder possible. Low 48F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
Once the sick man of Europe, Germany weathered the financial crisis and the Great Recession better than its neighbours.
Syrian delegations have failed to agree on new constitution provisions, and no new date is set for the next talks.
Can a Red Wave Actually Happen?
The midterms are right around the corner and political pundits everywhere are sounding off about the most likely outcomes. And despite the feeling that Democrats are about to regain majorities, theres plenty of reason to believe that Republicans can maintain their stronghold. Heres What the Democrats Need to Do
Its hard to believe that were already nearing the halfway point of President Donald Trumps first term in the White House. But November 6 is quickly approaching, which means its once again election season. While midterm elections rarely get the hype and turnout that presidential elections do, theyre arguably just as important -- this year especially. If the Republicans can keep control, President Trump will be able to keep up the momentum hes gradually built over the last 18-plus months. But if the Democrats regain majorities in either the House or the Senate, the tides would begin to change. In the Senate, the Republicans currently hold a 51 to 49 lead. There are 35 seats up for grabs this year, of which 26 are held by Democrats. Considering that they need to gain two seats in order to take control, the Democrats face an uphill battle. Theyll essentially need a clean sweep -- plus two additional seats. The problem for the Democrats is that they have to defend ten seats in states that Trump won in 2016. On top of that, there arent very many opportunities to take seats from Republicans. The best chance the left has of regaining some control in Washington is to reclaim the House. They need to flip 24 seats here, which is neither unprecedented nor uncommon. There have been swings of 24 seats or more in half of the midterm elections since 1994, Jasmine C. Lee writes for the New York Times. The last time Democrats took the House with that kind of swing was the 2006 midterm election, when they picked up 32 seats. In 2010, as the Tea Party movement against President Obamas policies shifted the political landscape, Republicans took control of the House by flipping 64 seats. They have held the chamber ever since. All 435 House seats are up for grabs this year, with more than 10 percent of them considered highly competitive (tossups or slight leans towards one party). Most pundits are predicting the Republicans hold on to their narrow lead in the Senate, while the Democrats regain control in the House -- albeit by a slight margin. So the idea of a red wave or blue wave doesnt seem all that likely. However, as history has shown, its never smart to postulate the impossible. And while the blue version is certainly more probable, dont count out a fiery red wave. A Red Wave is Still Possible And Heres Why Just as the Democrats need a lot to go right to facilitate a blue wave, the Republicans need a perfect storm of sorts. While some are more likely than others, here are a few of the reasons why a red wave is possible. The Economy Continues to Thrive The left can scream about Russia until they lose their voices, but most Americans frankly dont care. The majority see it as much ado about nothing. (A recent poll of Americans on both sides of the political fence reveals that Russias alleged involvement in the recent election isnt even one of the eight issues Americans care most about. Even the broad issue of ethics and morality is viewed as more important.) Americans care about concrete issues -- ones that impact their daily lives in tangible ways. And whats more tangible than the state of the economy? Trumps economy continues to thrive, which has been catalytic in his growing approval rating. As economist Chuck Jones explains, GDP growth is up, the S&P 500 is soaring, unemployment rates are at record lows, millions of jobs are being added, hourly wages are up, and people are happy. Voters who are on the fence wont want to rock the boat -- which bodes well for Republicans. Republicans Have Mastered Grassroots Campaigning Trump won the 2016 election as a result of grassroots campaigning. Sure, he was backed by millions of dollars, but it wasnt the money that earned him the victory -- it was the way in which his campaign swept through the nation and moved individual people to become part of a larger collective. While Democrats spend a lot of time campaigning based on identity politics, their policies and campaigns are ironically very individualistic and divisive. Republicans, on the other hand, have grasped the significance of taking a collective focus and using words like we and us, rather than me or them. If Republicans are to win big in November, itll be the direct result of strategic grassroots campaigning. Simple things like printing and distributing flyers or hosting community events all count. They cut through the BS that oozes from campaign commercials and involve the very people who control the outcomes -- the voters. The Democrats Have No Platform When you look at Republicans, its pretty clear what theyre fighting for right now. They want safer borders, a stronger Department of Defense, and true freedom of speech. When you look at Democrats, it isnt clear what they want. Can you name an issue that the Democrats are running on without using Trumps name? All they care about is Trump this and Trump that. They have no platform to stand on. Theyve become so hardened against the right that theyve actually begun to turn on themselves. The left seems to have lost all reason, with key party leaders going so far as to say that America was never great to begin with. In the words of Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Trump has totally corroded their own standards. No matter what year it is or who controls Washington, its hard to win a midterm without a solid platform. Only Time Will Tell Again, it isnt very likely that a blue wave or red wave will sweep the nation in November. Its far more probable that the Republicans will hold the Senate and the Democrats will put up a fight for the House. But, if a red wave does happen, you can bet the three factors outlined here will come into play.
Sources familiar with Ohrs testimony before the House Judiciary and House Oversight Committees told The Daily Caller News Foundation that Ohr informed Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page about his interactions with Steele and Simpson. He also informed Justice Department prosecutor Andrew Weissmann about his dossier-related work.
A week ago, August 27th, Bruce Ohr, the demoted former Associate Deputy Attorney General, testified before the House Judiciary and House Oversight Committees. Among the newsworthy items that emerged, a few stand out. One of course is that his wife Nellie began working for Glenn Simpson's opposition research outfit, Fusion GPS, back in 2015 -- adding fuel to the speculation that she was involved as an FBI contractor in illegally mining NSA databases for information on GOP presidential candidates. Another item, highlighted by Chuck Ross at The Daily Caller , was that Ohr kept a number of FBI and DoJ colleagues "in the loop" regarding his highly irregular contacts with Christopher Steele, the "former" MI6 spook. Specifically:
Weissmann is now serving as right-hand man to Robert Mueller at the special counsels office.
It seems to me that the question that needs to be asked is: Why Andrew Weissmann? Why was Ohr keeping Weissmann, who was at the time head of DoJ's Criminal Fraud Section, in the loop on what to all appearances was a Counterintelligence investigation? If Ohr kept Weissmann in the loop out of friendship, that still breaks the first rule of conspiratorial operations: need to know. Unless ... Weissmann was contributing or could potentially contribute something of value to the conspiracy.
What Weissmann's contribution to the Russia hoax might have been is suggested by his previous career.
Weissmann is best known as a hard charging prosecutor, but one with a reputation for being willing to take ethical shortcuts to make the big case. This led, in 2005, to the US Supreme Court unanimously overturning the conviction in his biggest case: Arthur Anderson, part of the Enron Scandal. The criticism of Weissmann's "intimidating" "scorched earth" tactics that arose from the case made him a hot potato in the legal world, but fortunately for him he landed on his feet -- as Special Counsel to a friend and former colleague, FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Screen grab YouTube
This was Weissmann's first gig at the FBI, and lasted probably less than a full year while he looked for a more lucrative position. By the end of 2005, Weissmann went into private practice, becoming a partner at Jenner & Block in New York. But in 2011, Weissmann returned to the FBI and his mentor Mueller, serving as General Counsel under Mueller until the end of Mueller's term in September 2013.
He continued at the FBI under James Comey until January 2015, when he returned to DoJ as head of the Criminal Fraud Section. His final career move, to date, was his reunion with Mueller, joining Mueller's Special Counsel team in June 2017.
What was Weissmann doing as General Counsel at the FBI? According to DoJ:
"The General Counsel of the FBI is ultimately responsible for all of the legal affairs of the FBI. ... The General Counsel interacts regularly with all of the elements of the FBI, the Justice Department, the U.S. Intelligence Community, a range of other government agencies, foreign partners...."
You get the drift. During his four years as General Counsel at the FBI, Weissmann would have been interacting on a daily basis with FBI management at the very highest levels, certainly including the Director (Mueller, then Comey) and Deputy Director -- with additional contact with the highest levels in all important Divisions. Beyond that, however, he would have been developing contacts throughout the Intelligence Community and with "foreign partners" -- prominently including the British intelligence agencies. The appeal of having Weissmann "in the loop" of the Russia hoax is obvious -- he would be a trusted contact with the top levels of the FBI and would have a wide range of other useful contacts.
But Weissmann's connections to the FBI would not have been the end of his usefulness. Weissmann was well known to be a Hillary Clinton partisan, and even attended the Clinton election night surprise wake. Just how extensive were Weissmann's contacts with the Clinton campaign? Here the waters are murky. Nevertheless, Weissmann is known to have had contacts with Mary Jacoby, the wife of Glenn Simpson, as well as with Simpson himself.
Aaron Klein has detailed remarkable new information involving contacts of Edward Lieberman with the Russians involved in the famous Trump Tower meeting. Not only on the days surrounding that meeting, but the very day of the meeting. Edward Lieberman is a lawyer and an associate of Madeline Albright, whose expertise involves multi-billion dollar privatizations of oil and gas assets in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Russia. He was also the husband of the late Evelyn Lieberman, a Deputy Chief of Staff in the Clinton White House.
Was Bruce Ohr "in the loop" regarding the Trump Tower meeting -- which I regard as a clear attempt to set up Donald Trump Jr. and/or Jared Kushner in a quid-pro-quo arrangement for supposed "dirt" on Hillary Clinton? If Ohr knew of this attempted setup of the Trump campaign, there would seem to be little doubt that Weissmann also knew. Further, since both would have known of the connection of Fusion GPS to the Clinton campaign, was there possibly a more direct connection to the Clinton campaign, through Weissman?
Finally, when it came time to select a Special Counsel, would not Weissmann have been a logical person to sound out Mueller on returning to government -- or should we say Deep State -- work? It's telling that Weissmann jumped on board the Mueller train as soon as the Special Counsel was established. Had there been preliminary discussions?
We now know that Weissman was a more integral part of the Russia Hoax/conspiracy than previously suspected -- probably from the very beginning. The question is, just how extensive was his involvement? Did it extend to contact with the Clinton campaign itself? Did it extend beyond the election to strategizing with FBI efforts to ensnare and use George Papadopoulos? Did it extend to reaching out to his mentor Mueller during the early months of the Trump administration, planning for a Special Counsel?
The answers to these questions should be of pressing concern to Congressional investigators.
Mark Wauck is a retired FBI agent who blogs on religion, philosophy, and FISA at meaning in history.
He got a jump in his campaign from his pal, John McCain, who selected Biden for a eulogy. Biden got lots of media exposure, and the media are ecstatic in their praise .
Much of the admiration of Biden is based on the general anti-Trump setting of the funeral ceremonies. It was an anti-Trump media festival disguised as a funeral, with the speakers taking turns at taking shots at President Trump.
Biden went from the McCain funeral to Pittsburgh, where he walked in the Pittsburgh Labor Day Parade with union members.
Pittsburgh has a large parade on Labor Day that is a must for any serious Dem pol who needs Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania was a key battleground victory for President Trump, and Western Pennsylvania turned out for Trump. Biden knows he will need a big turnout in Pittsburgh to go along with Philadelphia to win Pennsylvania.
There is no reason for Joey to show up in Pittsburgh on Labor Day immediately after the McCain funeral unless he is running. He is a shameless pol who will say and do anything. I doubt he cares about labor unions, or union members, or anything except his political future. He is smart enough to show up in my hometown parade to pander to the labor vote.
Biden looks like a statesman compared to Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Pocahontas Warren, and Andrew Cuomo. At least Biden has not (yet) called for the abolition of ICE like the others.
Kamala Harris and Cory Booker tried to catch up with Biden by using the Brett Kavanaugh hearing to appear passionate and concerned to the MSNBC and CNN viewers. Both interrupted Judiciary Committee chairman Senator Grassley moments after he started speaking. Harris and Booker are competing for the far-left loon vote, otherwise known as the Democratic base, which makes Biden appear reasonable. Grassley had barely said two sentences before Harris interrupted, out of order, to demand that the hearing be postponed so the Dems and media can read the latest Kavanaugh papers. She was immediately followed by Cory Booker, who ranted about the same. It was shameless showboating.
It is amusing the Biden is probably the most qualified Dem for 2020. It shows how low the Dem party has sunk into a leftist party driven by the leftist media.
Biden's credentials are that graduated near the bottom of his class at Syracuse Law School, although he lied that he graduated in the top half with a full academic scholarship.
While in law school, Biden plagiarized from law review articles to write a term paper. He should have been thrown out, but he received only a reprimand and an "F" in the course, which he had to take again.
Biden did not learn much about plagiarism from his Syracuse Law days. In the 1988 primaries, Biden plagiarized a speech from British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock describing his poverty as a child. Biden liked Kinnock's poverty background better than his middle-class background, so he simply took Kinnock's speech.
If Biden's opponents in the 2020 primaries are Harris, Booker, and Warren, Biden will say he has black and Indian and American Indian ancestors. Bet on it.
Defeating him is Ayanna Pressley, advocate for lots and lots of free stuff, seen here addressing a small gathering of voters.
A second big-city Democrat House district has ousted a white male ten-term incumbent progressive in favor of a minority woman. Representative Michael Capuano, who just lost the Democratic primary in the Seventh Congressional District of Massachusetts, first entered the House of Representatives in 1999, in the same freshman class as Rep. Joes Crowley of New York, who was defeated by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Screen grab: Politico video.
Among Democrats in safe big-city congressional districts, it used to be that if you managed to win a primary after the incumbent Democrat left office, you had a safe gig, so long as you stayed away from scandals and voted progressive. But the era of identity politics has changed all of that. Old white men are being rejected by the voters they believed themselves to be serving.
I used to see Mike Capuano when he was an alderman in Somerville, Massachusetts in the 1970s, and I attended City Council meetings as a resident of that town with an inferiority complex, lying just to the north of richer and more renowned Cambridge. He was good at shaking hands and constituent service, and he finally made it to mayor.
His big break came in 1998, when Joe Kennedy II retired from his Eighth District seat in the House a seat that was previously held by Tip O'Neill and before him, JFK and a wide open primary battle left Capuano the victor with only 23% of the vote, thanks to the large size of the field. Under the Old Rules, once in Congress from a heavily blue district, he was set for life.
But the 2000 Census intervened, requiring Massachusetts to give up another House seat, thanks to greater population growth in predominantly red parts of America, and Mike's residence in Somerville put him in a newly configured Seventh District, which now became the sole "minority-majority" district in the state of Massachusetts. More affluent areas of the old 8th were dropped, and large swaths of heavily black areas of Roxbury and Mattapan in Boston were added to make the new Eighth District.
The woman who defeated Capuano is Ayanna Pressley, the first black city councilwoman in Boston. Compared to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, she is older (44 vs. 28) and an experienced politician. She also knows how to advocate for free stuff for people who didn't earn the money to pay for it. This video from Politico shows her style. A glamour girl like Ocasio-Cortez, she is not. But she does know a thing or two about politics and is unlikely to embarrass herself to the degree that the ingenue from the Bronx has.
She will go whole-hog anti-Trump:
"Our president is a racist, misogynistic, truly empathy-bankrupt man," Pressley, 44, told supporters on Tuesday night. "It is time to show Washington, D.C., both my fellow Democrats, who I hope will stand with us and Republicans who may stand in our way ... change is coming and the future belongs to all of us."
Republicans didn't even bother to field a candidate, so Pressley is guaranteed a win unless a meteor or lightning strikes her down.
Meanwhile, white males from safe urban Dem districts would be advised to find a new line of work before the 2020 election.
Democrats disgrace themselves in day one of Kavanaugh hearings
The spectacle of the Kavanaugh hearing Tuesday morning was a circus, planned and orchestrated by the usual suspects: Senators Durbin, Schumer, Blumenthal, Booker, Klobuchar, Harris (particularly ill behaved), Feinstein, Hirono, etc. Like seventh-graders planning to bully the nerdy kid, they were probably gleeful as they schemed to disrupt the proceedings by interrupting relentlessly. And then there were the shrieking protesters. It is hard to imagine sane people behaving like that in public, let alone in the halls of Congress and during judicial hearings. Still, for all the rudeness and disrespect, it was a wonderful thing to see. The American people, those who watched, cannot help but realize that the Democrats are the party of immaturity, of sheer childishness. Throwing tantrums is their best thing.
Those who lectured and moralized the most are those least qualified to do so. Kamala Harris slept her way into California politics with Willie Brown. Cory Booker has imaginary friends he uses and abuses. When he speaks, it is pure blather. He makes no sense. Richard Blumenthal lied about having served in Vietnam. These are self-unaware people. They clearly have an exaggerated sense of their own intellectual capacity. And they don't listen. The Republicans who spoke, on the other hand, some of them, were spectacular Senators Cruz, Lee, Sasse, and Graham especially. It is easy to see not only who reveres the Constitution, but who has actually read it. It was obvious that the noisiest Democrat senators are not at all familiar with our founding document as are the Republicans. A while back, Sen. Hirono of Hawaii was baffled by the fact that the operative word in the phrase "illegal immigration" is "illegal." She refused to meet with Kavanaugh because of Michael Cohen's plea deal! How's that for confused thinking? It is a safe bet she has never read or studied the Constitution. Sen. Kloubachar apparently thinks the public is so uninformed that she can stick to the Trump-colluded-with-Russia hoax when there are mountains of evidence that it was the Clinton campaign, the DNC, the DOJ, the FBI, and the CIA who committed countless crimes to that end, to steal the election for Hillary. That Trump won despite their prodigious efforts to derail him is miraculous. Sen. Grassley was taken aback by the rudeness and screaming. Why those people, each of whom had to be invited by a member of the committee, were not removed and arrested within five seconds of their outbursts is a mystery. They were allowed to impede the hearing for far too long. The whole thing had the feel of a reality TV setup, and a setup it was. It was an embarrassing display of incivility on the part of the Democrats present. They were all in on the ill conceived strategy play and so proud of their sophomoric selves. In the end, they did those paying attention a favor. There can no longer be any doubt that the Democratic Party of today has moved to the far, far left. Democrats appear to loathe the country that has given them so much in the way of wealth and power. They really hate the half of the country that supports Trump, and they are loath to admit that Trump's support is growing. The more they act like crazed lunatics, the more people will continue to walk away from the party, and they are walking away. The more good Trump accomplishes re: the economy, national security, rebuilding the military, the more the left amps up its farcical attacks on our outsider president. He must be doing something right. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? It is sure to be infuriating. The left never learns from its mistakes in its craven pandering to its deranged base. Those who were so rude yesterday are bound to be even ruder today. They will each have thirty minutes to grill Kavanaugh! The man sat through all that nonsense yesterday; he will likely be prepared for the lunacy of the left he will face today.
Why are the Democratic leaders acting as though Kavanaugh is an existential threat to their agenda?
The Democrats in the Senate are trying to prevent Brett Kavanaugh from being confirmed to the Supreme Court by making a mockery of the hearing process. Constant interruptions, outside protesters, and a clear affinity for mob rule mark the Democrats' attempts to prevent an eminently qualified judge from being added to the Supreme Court.
The answer is simple, and it shows that current Democrat leadership is made up of fascists who hate democracy and believe in tyranny.
Kavanaugh's "problem," in the eyes of Democrat leaders, is that he believes that the job of a judge is to interpret the law, including the Constitution, as it was intended by those who wrote it.
That is, Kavanaugh believes that power comes from the people and that it's the people, through their elected representatives, who define the laws under which the people are to live.
Democrats, on the other hand, believe that judges should be able to create laws that the people are too "stupid" not to endorse. Essentially, Democrat leaders believe that the Supreme Court should be a tyrannical institution that ignores the people and allows Democratic leaders to unconstitutionally impose their will.
The Supreme Court invented all of the "let's be nice to criminals" rulings out of whole cloth. Given that criminals were treated far more harshly in 1787 than they were in the 1960s, when the Supreme Court invented all sorts of "rights" for criminals, it's obvious that the intent of the Constitution didn't support the Court's rulings. They should have been passed through the democratic process, not by judicial fiat.
The Supreme Court overturned the laws of all 50 states, including liberal New York, when it declared that abortion is legal for any reason at any point in a pregnancy. There's no right to privacy in the Constitution, and if there were, it wouldn't cover killing what science tells us is a human being. Given that the folks who ratified the Constitution thought abortion was a horrible thing, saying they intended this even though it was unseen by 150 years of previous judges is absurd.
The Supreme Court declared that the Constitution required the definition of marriage to be changed to satisfy the 2% of Americans who are gay. The justices thereby nullified the votes of 55,000,000 Americans and made it clear that leftist justices were tyrannical rulers, not impartial judges. They didn't even bother to provide anything like a basis for this in the Constitution. Rather, they cited the idea that the Constitution says we can be whatever we want to be something that the Constitution most clearly does not say.
Even Obamacare exists only because the Supreme Court ignored the Constitution. The only way Obama was able to ram Obamacare through was by repeatedly saying it didn't involve new taxes. The bill as passed talked only about fees. Yet the Supreme Court declared that the fees were really taxes. The Supreme Court rewrote the law something judges aren't supposed to do in order to allow it to stand.
Since Trump has been elected, the Democrat leaders have been counting on tyrannical lower court judges to nullify the 2016 election by declaring that anything Trump does is "unconstitutional." Giving the Democrats a majority on the Supreme Court means the end of freedom in America.
Without a tyrannical judiciary, Democratic leaders know that they'd have to actually convince people to embrace their socialist and hedonistic agenda, a task they know is impossible.
Kavanaugh is no threat to any law, including the Constitution, passed by the people's representatives through the democratic process. Kavanaugh will not make up any conservative-leaning laws. There is absolutely no reason to say Kavanaugh is unqualified for the Supreme Court.
You can read more of Tom's rants at his blog, Conversations about the obvious, and feel free to follow him on Twitter.
The state has a long tradition of turning out Republican centrists like Nancy Landon Kassebaum and former governor Bill Graves, who had the highest winning percentage of any governor in Kansas history.
The Kansas Republican Party is in big trouble. From top to bottom, it's hopelessly divided between hard-right conservatives and moderates.
Yesterday, Graves announced he's backing Democrat Laura Kelly over conservative Kris Kobach, a move seen as a repudiation of the conservatives led at one time by former governor Sam Brownback, whose disastrous term in office opened the door for Democrats in the state.
Kobach, who headed up Trump's voter fraud panel, is the current secretary of state. He won an extremely narrow primary victory by less than 200 votes over incumbent governor Jeff Coyler, who had taken over when Brownback was named ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom earlier this year.
It was a bruising primary that left the party divided. Graves didn't help matters by endorsing the Democrat.
Kansas City Star:
Bob Beatty, a political scientist at Washburn University, called the Graves endorsement "a big deal." A number of moderate Republicans endorsed Democrat Paul Davis in his challenge of then-Gov. Sam Brownback in 2014, Beatty said, but none on the level of Graves. "No matter what, the former governor who had the highest vote percentage of any governor in Kansas history, to endorse someone from the other party is pretty significant," Beatty said. ... And despite calls for unity in the party after Kobach defeated Colyer in the Republican primary, moderates contacted by The Star have yet to fully embrace Kobach as a candidate. Rep. Jene Vickey, a Louisburg Republican who served in the House during Graves' time as governor, has said he supports Kobach as the nominee. "I'm not at all surprised," he said of Graves' endorsement. "I think his influence is a lot less than it was at one time."
It's been fifteen years since Graves held office, and the GOP has changed dramatically over that period of time. The rise of the Tea Party empowered conservatives like never, before and the religious right gained a lot of influence in the Republican Party.
So Graves's influence in GOP circles is probably limited. His endorsement will not start a stampede toward Kelly, especially after the GOP House leader issued a stark warning:
The endorsement comes roughly two weeks after House Majority Leader Don Hineman, a moderate Republican from Dighton, wrote an email to more than two dozen of his fellow centrists to discourage them from taking a public stance on anyone other than Kobach, the party's standard bearer. In the email, Hineman warned that support for Orman or Kelly "could well be a career-ending move for anyone who chose to do so."
As it should be. If you're going to run on a party label and accept help from that party to get elected, the only honorable thing is to support the party nominee at the top of the ticket. Graves can do what he wants, but other Republicans in office should heed Hineman's warning.
Kobach's key to victory now is to turn out conservatives in unexpected numbers, aided by some stupid gaffe by Kelly. Otherwise, the outlook is grim for Republicans to hold the governorship in Kansas.
Former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling completes his time in federal prison | Main | "Decarceration Strategies: How 5 States Achieved Substantial Prison Population Reductions"
September 4, 2018
Federal district court finds Louisiana LWOP sentence for low-level recidivist unconstitutionally excessive under Eighth Amendment (and local DA will not appeal to Fifth Circuit)
A helpful reader made sure I did not miss this local press report, headlined "Judge orders release or resentencing of St. Tammany man serving life for burglary," discussing a notable ruling from the federal district court in New Orleans. Here are the basics:
When he went before a judge in 2010, Patrick Matthews was a 22-year-old father of two who had a criminal record but had never spent a day in prison. But to the office of former north shore District Attorney Walter Reed, he was a hardened criminal who deserved a life sentence as a habitual offender for the crime of simple burglary. Matthews received that sentence with no chance at parole in a state where life means life. Eight years later, Reed is a convicted federal felon, though his case is on appeal. The Legislature has changed the law so that no one could receive a sentence like Matthews today, but Matthews himself, now 31, remains behind bars at a prison in St. Gabriel. On Wednesday, however, U.S. District Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown said Matthews life sentence violates the U.S. Constitutions ban on cruel and unusual punishment. She ordered him to be resentenced to a lesser term or released within 120 days. Current 22nd Judicial District Attorney Warren Montgomerys office is not appealing Browns decision, although prosecutors could still seek to keep him in prison for several years more. Attorney Justin Harrell said his clients family is ecstatic. At least therell be an end to it, as opposed to that indefinite life sentence, Harrell said. Although the federal court ruling hinged on the specific facts of Matthews case, it is in line with a larger shift in the past decade away from Louisianas strict mandatory minimum sentences. In 2013, the American Civil Liberties Union estimated that 429 people in Louisiana were serving sentences of life without possibility of parole for nonviolent offenses more than in any other state. Criminal justice reform advocates like the ACLU singled out Matthews as an egregious example of the states penchant for sending people away for life for nonviolent offenses. The Legislature changed the habitual offender law in 2017 to make it less strict. However, those changes did not affect sentences already in place. With his appeals in state court exhausted, Matthews had only the federal courts to ask for mercy. Brown agreed to adopt the recommendation of Magistrate Judge Janis van Meerveld, who acknowledged that it was rare for the federal courts to weigh in on a state sentence. However, Meerveld said, Matthews presented an unusual case.... Meerveld said she had no hesitation in finding that a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for a youthful, drug-addicted offender guilty of nothing more than two clusters of minor, nonviolent property crimes crosses the line from merely harsh to grossly disproportionate. Prosecutors under both Reed's and Montgomerys administrations consistently opposed Matthews appeals, but lately their stance has changed. In a short brief filed in July, Assistant District Attorney Matthew Caplan replied to a question from the judge as to whether the sentence was grossly disproportionate. It appears that way, he said.
As this press account reveals, US District Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown granted relief on "Matthews' excessive sentence claim" on the basis of the recommendation of US Magistrate Judge Janis van Meerveld. Judge van Meerveld wrote an extended opinion explaining her recommendation in Matthews v. Cain, No. 2:15-cv-00430-NJB (E.D. La. Aug. 13, 2018), and that opinion can be downloaded below (and merits a full read). Here are some key passages therein (emphasis in original):
Of course, the mere fact that a sentence is harsh does not mean that it is disproportionate. Nevertheless, the undersigned has no hesitation in finding that a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for a youthful, drug-addicted offender guilty of nothing more than two clusters of minor, nonviolent property crimes crosses the line from merely harsh to grossly disproportionate. As one scholar has noted: [T]here is no uglier disproportionality than a man, guilty of a minor crime, banished to a cage for the remainder of his life. Craig S. Lerner, Whos Really Sentenced to Life Without Parole?: Searching for the Ugly Disproportionalities in the American Criminal Justice System, 2015 Wis. L. Rev. 789, 793 (2015) (footnote omitted).... [A]at the time Matthews was sentenced, Louisiana law punished a wide swath of fourth offenders identically, regardless of the nature of their criminal histories. Accordingly, a fourth offender with a history of nonviolent property crimes, such as Matthews, was treated no differently than a fourth offender with a history of violent crimes and/or serious sex offenses. However, the impropriety of equating such disparate offenders was so apparent that the state has now abandoned that practice. In fact, as Matthews noted and the respondent did not dispute, an individual with Matthews criminal history would not even be eligible for a life sentence as a habitual offender under current Louisiana law. The undersigned therefore finds that an interjurisdictional comparative analysis likewise supports a conclusion that Matthews sentence is unconstitutionally excessive. It must be noted that this conclusion neither calls into question the general constitutionality of Louisianas habitual offender law nor impugns the states decision to employ a harsher recidivist sentencing structure than those employed by the vast majority of its sister states. Rather, it is simply a recognition that even among the minority of states that vigorously punish recidivism, a sentence of life imprisonment without parole for a young, drug-addicted, nonviolent, sporadic burglar who had never been sentenced to a single day in prison for his prior offenses is such an anomaly as to be unconstitutional. Download Matthews v. Cain excessiveness opinion
September 4, 2018 at 05:27 PM | Permalink
Comments
Thanks Doug, for the posting. I am working on a case where the defendant received LWOP in a non-homicide case, due to several misdemeanors. Under the sentencing grid, a misdemeanor is worth one point on the prior record level chart, and he got put in the the higher prior record level due to two or three misdemeanors.
North Carolina is handing out Life Without Parole like its candy. I have another guy who was convicted of felony murder during a drug deal gone bad, and a bullet hit a bystander. The jury sent out a note asking "do we have to convict him of first degree murder if we believe the killing was an accident? Judge said "yes." NC is one of only five states in the country where felony murder is always first degree and always punishable by mandatory life without parole.
bruce
Posted by: bruce cunningham | Sep 5, 2018 8:01:28 AM
It is clear that the local officials (due to changes in personnel or changes in attitude or both) no longer agree with the original sentence. But is there any real doubt about how the Fifth Circuit would have ruled on the appeal?
Posted by: tmm | Sep 5, 2018 1:55:43 PM
Post a comment
Google's pro-Muslim algorithms
Back in 2007, the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) lobbied the United Nations to impose worldwide blasphemy laws. Even though the resolution enjoyed the support of many non-OIC members and even though it appealed to Western liberal thinking by arguing that "unrestricted and disrespectful freedom of opinion creates hatred and is contrary to the spirit of peaceful dialogue and promotion of multiculturalism," the OIC's resolution ultimately was a failure. Today, such a far-reaching bid has been attempted again this time with better results for the Islamists. After many years, Texas imam Omar Suleiman has successfully lobbied Google into changing the algorithm used to find results on Muslim-related issues. According to the state-run Turkish news Anadolu Agency, Google's results about queries related to Islam or Muslims in the past produced "what many criticized as propaganda from hate groups" and "alleged disinformation." In contrast, now "Google's first page results for searches of terms such as 'jihad,' 'sharia' and 'taqiyya' return mostly reputable explanations of Islamic concepts."
According to Suleiman himself, in an article titled "Google Is Doing Irreparable Harm to Muslims," for the last few years, the Dallas imam and his team have been publishing reports on controversial topics in Islam in order to influence the outcome of the search engine. In July of 2018, after Google agreed to change its search engine results, the world's most popular search engine issued a statement to the Anadolu Agency that "it does not seek to remove content from its platform simply because it is unsavory or unpopular, but [that it] does its best to prevent hate speech from appearing." In theory, such a bid to contain hate speech is all to the good. However, in practice, often such manipulation of Google's search results amounts to Google-led control of the narrative that is permissible to have on Islam and Muslim-related issues. We have seen these tactics used before. For example, the search results related to Tommy Robinson's imprisonment over the summer: Despite Robinson's supporters collecting over 600,000 signatures from around the world petitioning for his release, Google's search results on Robinson's case were heavily slanted toward the sharia-compliant British media. Even today, a quick search on Tommy Robinson turns up links to websites that call Robinson "a phony martyr," "a hateful hero," and someone who "sows divisions" despite the many conservative voices such as Raheem Kassam and YouTubers Red Pill Phil and Sargon of Akkad who argue otherwise. According to the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, every human has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. In contrast, in many streams of Islamic thought, any form of cursing, questioning, or annoying God, Muhammad, or anything sacred in Islam constitutes blasphemy. According to sharia, leaving Islam and expressing contempt for Islam and the religious conversion of Muslims from Islam are prohibited. According to a 2011 Pew Report, 20 Muslim-majority nations have laws declaring apostasy from Islam as illegal and a criminal offense. In a 2013 Pew Survey Report, based on international surveys of religious attitudes, more than 50% of the Muslim population in six out of 49 Muslim-majority countries supported the death penalty for any Muslim who leaves Islam. The globalization of Western society has created a distinct clash of cultures. Even though Google claims that it will not silence views that are unpopular or unsavory, its tampering with the algorithm at all is proof enough that the platform itself is not free, nor is our speech on it. My fear is that the suppression of free speech will create a world like that described in Milton's Areopagitica: "We boast our light; but if we look not wisely on the run itself, it smites us into darkness." For the last fifty or so years, the civil rights movement has made headway on race-related civil rights issues. To my mind, the next frontier of civil rights should be the right to diversity of thought. Such a right should trump all other concerns, including Google's and YouTube's concerns with being sharia-compliant.
It will include 2020 presidential candidates positioning themselves for the first debate of 2020. "I stood up to Kavanaugh" is now the latest rallying cry of the resistance!
Well, here we go again. The "Borking of a good man" show is off and running.
And what would a Supreme Court confirmation be without someone in the back of the room screaming that "her rights" are at risk?
For some, the mere thought of a Justice Brett Kavanaugh is enough to scream this or that.
For many of us, a future Justice Kavanaugh will be a step in the restoration of our constitution.
I agree with Stephen B. Presser:
Fifty years ago there was a fragile consensus, even in our great law schools, about how justices were to go about doing their jobs. That consensus was formed by admiration for Felix Frankfurter, the occasionally mercurial, but stunningly brilliant, appointee of Franklin Roosevelt. Frankfurter, contrary to the later pattern of justices appointed by Republican presidents, moved to the right on the court, becoming more conservative with age. By the end of his career, in a series of thoughtful opinions, he had explained that the task of a justice was not to formulate new constitutional law according to his personal preferences, but, rather to exercise restraint and wisdom in preserving the original constitutional scheme of separation of powers and preeminence of state and local governments.
Cheers for Felix!
The modern Democratic Party knows that it can't get abortion or same-sex "marriage" in a majority of state legislatures. In California, a judge reversed a vote passing a ban on redefining marriage. We've seen judges reverse decisions on abortion clinics in Texas.
Where did judges get the authority to redefine marriage and create abortion rights? I'm sure the aforementioned Justice Frankfurter and even Supreme Court justice John Marshall would love to know.
So here is my recommendation for the next 30 days:
1. Do not watch the hearings, or simply flip the channel when a Democrat is on the clock. Why? Because they will all ask the same question about Roe v Wade!
2. Pray that this is the last time we have to watch a spectacle like this in the U.S. Senate. It does not do much to help the Democrats, especially in those places between the coasts that they have to win to get the House back.
It also does not do much for the image of the Senate. It makes you wonder if electing senators by popular vote was a good idea after all.
PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
The FNIH was created by Congress in the 1990s with the mission to raise private funds to support taxpayer-funded medical research at the national research institutes, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and was intended to act as an ethical shield between industry and medical research.
There's a crisis of legitimacy in the world of medical research. Congress is finally putting bad actors at the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) on notice in the wake of a litany of scandals.
However, the FNIH has since been rocked by a series of incidents that represent, at best, serious conflicts of interest and, at worst, a betrayal of the organization's core mission.
During an August 23 Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) hearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) asked Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, "Do you agree science should be setting the agenda at NIH and not donors?" Collins responded, "Absolutely."
Continuing, Sen. Warren highlighted one example of malfeasance, stating, "The NIH recently cancelled a study of the health effects of alcohol consumption following an internal investigation that revealed that the alcohol industry was not only funding the study, but that the study had been set up to deliver the results that the industry wanted."
Warren was specifically referring to the Moderate Alcohol and Cardiovascular Health (MACH) Trial a study funded by the alcohol industry to study the effects of moderate drinking. A task force later reported that there was "early and frequent engagement" between NIH officials and members of the alcohol industry, severely undermining scientific integrity.
FNIH Director Francis Collins, who noted that FNIH staffers had been "conducting activities that they [were] trying to hide from other staff," in the case of the MACH Trial, was similarly forced to kill a plan to partner with big pharmaceutical companies on a $400-million study of opioid dependency after an external panel highlighted a similar risk of conflict of interest.
Compounding matters, the FNIH has violated laws designed to prevent these conflicts of interest, neglecting to reveal amounts received by top "anonymous" donors. According to U.S. law, the FNIH must report "the source and amount of all gifts," adding, "a specification of any restrictions on the purposes for which gifts or grants," may be used.
Now, a congressional report accompanying the 2019 Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill has explicitly called out the FNIH for its unethical behavior.
"The Committee directs the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health ('Foundation') to abide by section 499(j)(4) of the Public Health Service Act by including in the Foundation's annual report the source and amount of all monetary gifts to the Foundation," the report reads, adding, "The annual report shall not list ''anonymous'' as a source for any gift that includes a specification of any restrictions on the purpose for which the gift may be used."
Senior members of the FNIH appear wholly unfazed by the directive.
"This is not language in the appropriations bill, so we have no comment on it," David Wholley, the FNIH's senior vice president of research partnerships, stated with regard to the report, adding, "And if and when Congress puts language into the appropriations bill that directs FNIH to do something, FNIH will do it, as we have for 25 years, without exception."
In order to maintain the transparency and integrity of medical research, Congress must rectify the FNIH's blatant breach of public trust. When industry members are allowed to unduly influence scientific findings, public health is compromised for the private enrichment of bad actors.
In a recent statement, NIH director Collins acknowledged the controversy directly, referencing the "failure by some researches at NIH-funded institutions to disclose substantial contributions of resources from other organizations, including foreign governments, which threatens to distort decisions about the appropriate use of NIH funds," as an area of concern.
Now is the time for Congress to act to protect the public welfare by presenting President Trump with an appropriations bill that will bring the FNIH in line with the law. Until this matter is addressed, the medical research legitimacy crisis will only grow worse, eroding America's faith in the mission of the national research institutes and placing public health in danger.
In control Williamsville Souths TJ Venti gains control of the ball against Grand Islands Kyto Magee in the Billies 5-0 win in the Section VI Class A-2 final Saturday at Sparky Adams...
Gateway Longview asks for publics help to Adopt-An-Angel For a second year in a row, Gateway Longview is reaching out to the public along with businesses and organizations to help make a childs Christmas wish come true with...
COVID briefing discusses concern of rising cases Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz does not know what else he can do to convince people to get vaccinated. Its been a while since Poloncarz and Erie County Health Commissioner...
At the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh are a set of eight miniature coffins carved in wood and decorated with tinned iron. Each coffin contains a tiny wooden figure, with a painted face and dressed in clothes that had been stitched and glued around them. Since their discovery in a cave by a group of young lads one June afternoon in 1836, the miniature figurines have been a source of much fascination and mystery.
The boys had been out all day hunting for rabbits on the slopes of a rocky peak known as Arthurs Seat, when their attention was drawn towards a small cave hidden behind a slab of slate. After pulling back the slab of stone, the boys found seventeen little coffins inside, each barely 4 inches long, arranged in three tierstwo rows of eight, and a solitary coffin at the top.
The discovery was important enough to find a place in the July 16th edition of The Scotsman, year 1836. The paper reported:
Each of the coffins contained a miniature figure of the human form cut out in wood, the faces in particular being pretty well executed. They were dressed from head to foot in cotton clothes, and decently "laid out" with a mimic representation of all funeral trappings which usually form the last habiliments of the dead. The coffins art about three or four inches in length, regularly shaped, and cut out from a single piece of wood, with the exception of the lids, which are nailed down with wire sprigs or common brass pins. The lids and sides of each art profusely studded with ornaments formed of small pieces of tin, and inserted in the wood with great cart and regularity.
Stranger still were the signs that seemed to imply that the coffins were deposited over a considerable period of time, indicated by the rotten and decoyed state of the first tier of coffins and their wooden mummies. The early coffins had the wrapping cloth, in some instances, entirely mouldered away, while others show various degree of decomposition, while the coffin placed last was as clean and fresh as if only a few days had elapsed since their entombment.
The article concludedbut with some hesitationthat the coffins were the misdoings of some of the weird sisters hovering about Mushats Cairn or the Windy Gowl, who retain their ancient power to work the spells of death by entombing the likenesses of those they wish to destroy.
Indeed, witchery was the most immediate assumption. Scotland, and Edinburgh in particular, have a dark history of witch trails. Between 4,000 to 6,000 witches were executed in Scotland between the 16th and 18th centuries, 300 of which were burned at the Edinburg Castlemore than anywhere else in Scotland. Today, there is a memorial fountain at the Castle, known as the Witches Well, commemorating all the murdered women.
Before long other newspapers picked up the story, concluding with their own interpretation of the coffins. The Edinburgh Evening Post mused whether the coffins might be an ancient custom which prevailed in Saxony, of burying in effigy departed friends who had died in a distant land. The Caledonian Mercury concurred adding that some sailors also instruct their wives on parting to give them 'Christian burial' in an effigy if they happened to be lost at sea.
In the 1990s, a new theory emerged linking the seventeen figures to the seventeen victims of the notorious Edinburgh serial killers Burke and Hare, who in the late 1820s went on a killing spree to supply cadavers to medical practitioners. It was proposed that the tiny figures are tributes to the victims, despite the fact that the pairs victims were mostly women while all the wooden bodies were dressed in mens clothing.
William Hare and William Burke.
Dr. Allen Simpson and Professor Samuel Menefee, of the University of Edinburgh and the University of Virginia, respectively, carried out a detailed study of the figures in 1994, and have suggested that the toys were not carved for the purpose of burial but were adapted from a set of wooden toy soldiers manufactured around the 1790s, but not re-clothed or buried in the cave until the 1830s. The conclusion was based on the findings that some of the dolls had their arms removed, apparently to allow the figures to fit into its coffin, and markings on their lower bodies that seem to indicate the figures were originally made to stand upright. Their eyes were also painted open, making it unlikely they were originally designed as corpses.
Of the seventeen original coffins, only eight survived and are at Edinburghs National Museum of Scotland. The rest, as The Scotsman of July 16, 1836, reported, were either badly damaged or lost altogether as the decrepit-looking cache provided convenient fodder for the boys to pelt one another with.
The landscape around Arthurs Seat, whose peak can be seen on the right. Photo credit: Mikko Muinonen/Flickr
In the far eastern edge of the desolate Taklamakan Desert, hundreds of kilometers from the nearest settlement, a clump of dense wooden stakes mark the spot of a 4,000-year-old cemetery.
The cemetery lies on top of a small sand dune. The wooden posts, whose tops have been splintered by centuries of strong wind, are the tombstones of those who lie buried beneath. The dry summer and frigid winters have helped preserve the bodies to such an extent that one can still see the features and contours of their faces. One of these mummified bodies, nicknamed the Beauty of Xiaohe, must have been a stunningly beautiful women when she was alive. Her body has survived even down to her delicate eyelashes.
The cemetery was discovered in the early 20th century by a local hunter named Ordek. The Uighur hunter was wandering through a patch of the inhospitable desert when he stumbled across the forest of wooden poles with human bones and ancient religious artifacts littered around. Believing the place to be haunted, he hurried away never to return again. Decades later, a Swedish explorer and archeologist, Folke Bergman, was poking around the region looking for ancient ruins related to the fabled Silk Road when someone directed him to Ordek. Ordek explained to Bergman how to find the cemetery but refused to go with him. Bergman managed to find the site anyhow and named it Ordeks Necropolis.
Bergman excavated about a dozen bodies, and recovered some 200 artifacts. He left a fairly detailed account of his findings in the book Archaeological Researches in Sinkiang Especially the Lop-nor Region. The entire book can be read online now in the digital format. Bergman noted the unusual shape of the coffins, which looked like overturned boats. After placing the dead in these overturned boats, they were carefully covered with cowhide and buried in the sand along with straw baskets containing wheat and other food grains. Wooden stakes were then driven into the ground. The entire site, Bergman wrote, was littered with oar-shaped wooden monuments and wooden human figures.
The cemetery was nearly forgotten until the early 2000s, when Chinese archeologists conducted an expedition to the site. They found that Bergmans discovery was far more remarkable than initially thought.
Archaeologists found hundreds of bodies buried five layers deep, along with intact mummiesthe oldest and best-preserved mummies in the Tarim Basin area of China.
"Never before have such a large number of mummies been found in a single site anywhere in the world," said Idelisi Abuduresule, a researcher and head of the Xinjiang Cultural Relics and Archaeology Institute.
Archaeologists also discovered miscellaneous large wood-carved figures and animals, small wooden masks, and wood carvings of male and female genitalia, among other things.
All these led us into a mysterious world permeated with an original, religious atmosphere, said Idelisi. The rich cultural connotation of the Xiaohe Tombs is unparalleled among Chinese and foreign archaeological discoveries.
The Ordeks Necropolis was now called the Xiaohe Cemetery, after a dry river nearby. But archeologist prefer to call it the Small River Cemetery No. 5.
One of the more interesting finds is that although the cemetery lies in China, the corpses have strong European features with brown hair and long noses. Genetic analyses of the mummies showed that the maternal lineages of the Xiaohe people originated from both East Asia and West Eurasia, whereas the paternal lineages all originated from Europe. Archeologists believe that the European and Siberian populations probably intermarried before entering the Tarim Basin some 4,000 years ago. The Tarim Basin was already dry when the Xiaohe people entered it forcing them to live at the edge of survival until the lakes and rivers on which they depended finally dried up around A.D. 400.
Chances are that youve never heard of Art Selfie, but that feature is now rolling out to Google Lens. Art Selfie has been available in Googles Arts & Culture app from January this year, and it basically allows you to match your selfie to a famous painting. Thanks to this feature, you can basically take a selfie, and the app will find a famous painting of a person which resembles you the most. That app got its five minutes of fame because of that feature earlier this year, even though its basically a portable museum which you can check out from your smartphone.
Having said that, this rather interesting and fun feature is now rolling out to Google Lens, which essentially means that a ton of people will have direct access to it, as not many people have Googles Arts & Culture app installed. Art Selfie is powered by Googles computer vision technology, which is based on Machine Learning, of course. After your face gets compared to a famous painting / paintings, you can learn more about said painting, of course, thats probably the whole purpose of this feature, to get you to learn something along the way. Its also worth noting that this feature was exclusive to the US, until now, but considering its hitting Google Lens, it should become available on a global basis.
This feature should become available in Google Lens both through Google Assistant and Google Photos, though it may not be available just yet. This rollout will be gradual, as expected, so it may take a bit of time until you actually see Art Selfie as an option in Google Lens. The feature is live in the UK as we speak, though, so those of you who live in the UK probably have access to it already. Its also worth noting that the feature is not exclusive to Android, iOS users will also be able to use it.
Amazon has the Sony H900N Hi-Res Noise Cancelling Wireless Headphones on sale right now for just $268, that is down from $299, for about $31 off of its regular price. Obviously that isnt a huge discount, but these headphones are brand new, and have only dropped once before and that was to $289, so this is definitely a good time to grab a pair.
This pair of headphones from Sony are a great pair to pick up if you are an audiophile. That is because these feature Hi-Res audio, so youre going to get some really rich audio out of these headphones, especially when paired with the Extra Bass included here. These are also noise cancelling, so you can use these when you want to be left alone and really mellow out into your own music, which is a really nice thing to have here. Sony quotes the battery life here as lasting around 20 to 25 hours on a single charge. Thats pretty substantial and about the average for headphones of this size. Sony does also include a carrying case here, so you can carry these around and keep them protected at the same time. Finally, as is always the case with Sony headphones, these also include NFC compatibility. Allowing you to easily tap your phone onto the ear cup and itll connect automatically. Which is a really great and underrated feature of any pair of headphones.
This item is also eligible for Amazon Primes free shipping. Which includes free two-day shipping, and pretty cheap (usually $3.99) next-day shipping if you need it extra fast. If you are not an Amazon Prime member yet, you can sign up for a free trial of Amazon Prime. Youll get 30 days free (if youre a student, you get 6 months), and then its $119/year (or $59/year for students). Prime members do get a whole lot more than just free shipping though, so be sure to check out the full benefits.
Here is another look at the upcoming Palm-branded Android-powered smartphone. This is a device that has leaked fairly rigorously already, including the surfacing of an image which looks very similar to the one shown above. Although, this latest one does provide a slightly clearer view of the new smartphone, as well as a slight change to the marketing image for the interface which seems to now place a much greater focus on the Google app support compared to before. More pertinently, the image adds further weight to the suggestion this is almost definitely what the new Palm smartphone will look like. The image itself has been provided to AndroidHeadlines by a reliable source.
While this latest image does not properly highlight it, the main selling point with this new smartphone is understood to be its size. Or more accurately, the absence of a larger size, as it has been routinely rumored the phone boasting the model number PVG100 will be tiny by modern smartphone standards. For example, the current consensus is the PVG100 will come equipped with a 3.3-inch display, limited to a 1280 x 720 resolution. To put this size into perspective, a couple of smartphones boasting a 4.5-inch display have come through from BlackBerry Mobile recently, and those models have come with a physical keyboard which looks to keep the overall size of the smartphone in line with other modern handsets. The Palm PVG100, however, has no similar ambitions, with its small display size reflective of its small size overall. Speaking of the BlackBerry Mobile brand, the use of an against-the-grain smaller display design ethos is not the only thing the BlackBerry and Palm brands now have in common, as like recent BlackBerry Android phones, the Palm PVG100 is also understood to be manufactured by TCL Communication. As for availability, there are still no firm details on when the Palm PVG100 will be released, although as this phone has recently been spotted gaining both its Wi-Fi Alliance and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) certifications, the expectation is its in the closing stages of its pre-release cycle and fairly close to making its market debut. In addition to these certifications pointing to a U.S. release in due course, rumors have suggested this Palm phone will arrive in the US via Verizon.
Whenever the smartphone does arrive, its not expected to arrive as a high-end option as the small nature of the phone is expected to translate to a light spec experience overall. For example, the Palm PVG100 is thought to come powered by a core combination of 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 SoC. Possibly more revealing is the battery capacity, as it would seem likely the Palm PVG100 will arrive boasting an 800 mAh capacity battery. Which if correct would be of a significantly less capacity than every other Android phone currently available to buy. Of course, due to the limited display size, resolution and computing power, the equally limited battery capacity is not directly comparable to other current smartphones and their respective mAh-defined values. In other words, making any firm conclusions on how long the battery will last on a daily basis is not possible or advisable as of right now.
Advertisement
What is clear from the information available so far, however, is the Palm PVG100 is unlike any and all other smartphones currently on the market. While the others have looked to offer greater computing power along with as much display real estate as possible, the Palm PVG100 will look to offer a smartphone that while limited in some respects will also be as compact as you are likely to ever get from a smartphone nowadays. Especially considering this one does seem to be providing a full Android experience through full support for Googles varied app ecosystem. In terms of the rest of the design traits and cues, there is nothing too much new that can be taken from this new image, which simply looks to reconfirm the inclusion of the front and back portions joined through what is possibly a metal frame, a single front-facing camera, a single rear-facing camera, and very limited physical elements. For example, there is no indication physical navigation buttons will be in use, with the only noticeable physical aspects consisting of the main power button and the SIM tray both of which are positioned on the right-hand side of the phone. Therefore, it seems highly unlikely any additional hardware elements will be offered, including some of the most basics ones such as a 3.5 mm headphone jack. In spite of its limited design and hardware, consumers probably can expect a fairly reliable user experience considering the Palm PVG100 is expected to arrive running on Android 8.1 (Oreo).
[September 04, 2018] TMC names Pryme Radio a 2018 Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award Winner Pryme PICO Wired Surveillance Kit Recognized for Exceptional Innovation Brea, Calif. (August 2018) - Pryme Radio announced today that TMC, a global, integrated media company, honored the PICO Wired Surveillance Kit with the 2018 Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award.
'We are humbled to be chosen again for this prestigious award,' said Dave George, President and Chief Engineer of Pryme Radio. 'This further encourages us to continue designing cutting-edge technology to meet all customer communications needs.'
Wireless PTT isn't right for everyone due to cost, interference, pairing and charging issues. Wired accessories are typically more reliable, but many cell phones and tablets aren't designed for PTT. Innovative solutions are Pryme's forte so they engineered a more robust alternative to Bluetooth. Coined the 'Magic PTT Connection,' PICO wired surveillance kit with PTT Button is a new way to dependably run PoC/MCPTT applications on smart devices without relying on wireless. The Kit includes a built-in microphone and 5 earpiece options. Fits 3.5mm jacks with ({C} Apple (News - Alert){C} ) 4 wire connections. The PICO and all of Pryme's products are now available through GSA.
'Congratulations to Pryme Radio for being honored with a Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award,' said Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC (News - Alert) . The PICO is truly an innovative product and is amongst the best communications products and services available in 2018. I look forward to continued excellence from Pryme in 2018 and beyond.' About Pryme Radio Products Headquartered in Brea, California, PRYME Radio Products has been a leading manufacturer of high quality products for professional users of mobile communications for over 30 years. PRYME is devoted to innovating new technologies that serve a wide range of industries and uses. All products are designed, engineered and built in-house. PRYME is capable of customizing communication accessories for almost any end-user need. PRYME also offers industrial strength wireless accessories for virtually every two-way radio brand and model as well as most PoC application versions, including ESChat, AT&T Enhanced Push-to-Talk, Kodiak, Wave, Verizon PTT Plus and Zello (News - Alert) . PRYME'S products have received many honors, including 2x-winner of TMCNet's Mobility Tech Zone Product of the Year, The ASTORS Homeland Security Platinum Award, and 3x-time winner of The Communications Solution Product of the Year Award. www.Pryme.com
About TMC Through education, industry news, live events and social influence, global buyers rely on TMC's content-driven marketplaces to make purchase decisions and navigate markets. As a result, leading technology vendors turn to TMC for unparalleled branding, thought leadership and lead generation opportunities. Our in-person and online events deliver unmatched visibility and sales prospects for all percipients. Through our custom lead generation programs, we provide clients with an ongoing stream of leads that turn into sales opportunities and build databases. Additionally, we bolster brand reputations with the millions of impressions from display advertising on our news sites and newsletters. Making TMC a 360 degree marketing solution, we offer comprehensive event and road show management services and custom content creation with expertly ghost-crafted blogs, press releases, articles and marketing collateral to help with SEO, branding, and overall marketing efforts. For more information about TMC and to learn how we can help you reach your marketing goals, please visit www.tmcnet.com and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, @tmcnet. For more information about TMC, visit www.tmcnet.com. Pryme Radio Contact: Dave George President 714-257-0300 sales@pryme.com
TMC Contact:
Stephanie Thompson
Manager
203-852-6800, ext. 139
sthompson@tmcnet.com
Edited by Erik Linask
[ Back To SIP Trunking Home's Homepage ]
Facebooks efforts to combat misinformation are working and the company is now much better-equipped for curbing such malicious attempts at abusing its platforms compared to a few years ago, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told the Senate Intelligence Committee during a hearing held earlier today. Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey made similar remarks in regards to his companys own endeavors meant to fight public manipulation attempts as part of the same hearing.
Both Facebook and Twitter are presently investigating a number of possible examples of coordinated misinformation campaigns and have already banned numerous bad actors engaging in such activity, the officials said, recalling some of their recent disclosures pertaining to platform abuse attempts originating from Russia and Iran. Google and its subsidiaries are believed to have been pushing back against the same actors but Alphabets subsidiary had no representatives at todays hearing, with CEO Sundar Pichai declining the Senates invitation after Alphabet CEO Larry Page did the same. Google did offer to send one of its SVPs to the hearing but the Senate refused that suggestion, deeming the matter at hand to important for someone without ultimate authority to address.
In the run-up to the hearing, U.S. President Donald Trump accused social media giants of interfering in the 2016 presidential elections themselves. While he didnt substantiate those accusations with anything, the head of the state suggested the Silicon Valley is the party that should be targeted by the ongoing foreign meddling probe led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Despite the fact that both Facebook and Twitter believe theyve made significant progress in their fight against fake news and other forms of online misinformation, both acknowledged theres still more work to be done, maintaining the issue at hand isnt likely to ever go away completely. Both executives also used todays hearing as yet another opportunity to dismiss all allegations that theyre letting political biases affect their policy and moderation decisions.
The tensions between Google and Oracle are on the rise once again but the formers previous use of select Java APIs in Android now took a backseat to more recent controversies over foreign misinformation campaigns that Alphabets subsidiary is trying to combat. Nonprofit group Campaign for Accountability on Tuesday accused Google of doing little to stop its test ad purchases design to mimic those Russian agents used to attempt manipulating the public discourse and polarize the American public in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.
CfA says it both used Russian IP addresses and paid for the advertising in rubles, in addition to designing its ads based on the 2016 ones, claiming Google failed to detect them despite so many red flags. The Mountain View, California-based company dismissed the episode as an outliner financed by Oracle, stating its rival donated money to CfA in the past. Now that one of our US-based competitors is actively misrepresenting itself, as part of a stunt to impersonate Russian trolls, we have taken further appropriate action to upgrade our systems and processes, a company spokesperson said in a prepared statement provided to Business Insider. Oracle SVP Ken Glueck denied the allegation that the tech giant in any way participated in CfAs operation. Wish we had a ruble for every time Google blamed their problems on us, Mr. Glueck said mockingly.
In response to the episode, Google also called for Oracle to collaborate with it on preventing foreign misinformation campaigns, with the latter not responding to the appeal. The tensions surrounding fake news and other foreign endeavors aimed at polarizing and otherwise influencing the American public are likely to rise in the run-up to this years mid-terms scheduled to take place on November 6. Representatives of Twitter and a number of other tech companies will be attending a hearing on the matter in front of a Senate committee later today, though Googles presence at the gathering was previously deemed unnecessary, at least as far as certain officials are concerned.
An LG-made device said to be called the Q9 leaked online earlier this week, having been depicted in a real-life image obtained by Indian tech blog Hometop. The device features an 18:9 screen and relatively minimal bezels, with its operating system being based on some variant of Googles Android Oreo, as suggested by the photograph seen above, with one previous rumor pointing to Android 8.1 Oreo. While LG is already in the process of bringing the bezel-free aesthetic to its mid-range offerings, the Q9 wont be borrowing the display notch from the G7 ThinQ.
Rumors from earlier this summer suggested the LG Q9 will be powered by Qualcomms Snapdragon 660, a 14nm mid-range chip praised for its energy efficiency. The South Korean electronics manufacturer is said to be preparing two models of the device so as to provide consumers with a choice between 32GB and 64GB of storage space. Both variants are understood to be featuring 4GB of RAM, though its still unclear whether a microSD card slot will be part of the package. Seeing how India appears to be one of the LG Q9s target markets, dual-SIM capabilities are a given.
By most accounts, the Q9 will be a significantly more powerful version of the Q8, a device announced last month which effectively bridges the gap between LGs entry-level and mid-range smartphones. As its screen is said to be around six inches in size, LG is also said to have resolved to equip the Q9 with a higher-capacity battery, though its exact specifications remain unclear. The Q8 was fueled by a 3,550mAh cell, so its sibling may end up shipping with a 4,000mAh one, a popular capacity mark for handsets advertised as offering long battery life. LG is expected to officially announce the Q9 by the end of the year, though the Android handset may not be available on a global scale.
Microsoft Edge browser has been available for Android for quite some time now, and it has now received a new update, which brings some new features along the way. When you get the newest update (42.0.0.2313), you will be able to see annotations that you made in books, though that doesnt apply to PDF free-form inking. On top of that, Microsoft added an option for you to see Whats new and tips web page from the Settings and more menu. General performance of the browser has also been improved, said the company.
Thats pretty much everything that Microsoft listed in its Play Store changelog. The ability to see annotations you made in books is a feature that has been in testing since August, as it has been available in the beta version of Microsoft Edge, and its now ready for primetime it seems. This new feature can be quite useful if you read books via this browser often, or youve been looking for a browser which offers such a functionality strictly for reading books. Microsoft has been improving its Edge browser constantly, and its actually currently holding a solid 4.4-star rating in the Play Store, after over 30,000 rating, and over 5 million installs. This browser has been available via the Play Store since November last year.
Microsoft Edge offers a rather functional UI, and great integration with Windows desktop OS. The toolbar is placed on the bottom in Microsoft Edge, which makes it easier to reach with one hand, it actually has a similar setup to Opera. Microsoft Edge has voice search built in, and the same can be said for QR code reader. Reading View is also one of the features of this browser, while standard Internet browser features are also available, such as bookmarks, incognito mode, and so on. If youd like to download / update Microsoft Edge, follow the link / banner down below.
An image of a new, mysterious Nokia-branded smartphone has just surfaced online. That being said, this image shows only the back side of the device, and as you can see, this phone has five cameras on its back, and if it ever becomes a reality, it will break a record, thats for sure. In addition to those five cameras, and LED flash is also located on the back, and all of those sensors are not exactly neatly organized, theyre kind of all over the place.
That being said, a Nokia-branded phone with four cameras had been rumored, though we did not hear anything about a phone with five cameras on the back. The provided image was actually originally shared by Baidu, but was taken down quickly after that. Its worth noting that this is not a real-life phone that you can see, its only an image of a device, so its possible this is just some sort of a prototype or something. Interestingly enough, Android One branding is located on the bottom of the phones back side, while above it youll notice Nokias branding. ZEISS branding is also present on the back of the device, while a fingerprint scanner is not located on the back of the device, so its probably planned to be included under the display, as its hard to believe Nokia would put it below the display at this point in time, as nobody is doing that anymore, basically.
All in all, this phone is still a total mystery, we cannot see its front side, and all we have to go on is this image of its back. Its hard to believe that HMD Global would release a Nokia-branded phone with five cameras anytime soon, but who knows, the company is due to release a new flagship sometime in the future, so they may surprise everyone with something like this. The Nokia 9 has been rumored for a long, long time at this point, but HMD Global did not release a successor to the Nokia 8 just yet (not counting the Nokia 8 Sirocco, as that was not exactly a successor to the Nokia 8). The Nokia 8 was announced back in September last year, so HMD Global may come up with a new flagship during this month, well see.
Google has now officially been warned not to meddle in Russias local elections with a threat of litigation up to and including criminal prosecution. Google subsidiary YouTube will be in violation of Russian political agitation laws if it continues to allow the platform to be used by opposition leader Alexei Navalny to call for protests via the platform, according to Russian officials. Although Navalny is currently serving a 30-day sentence for the violation of similarly-toned public order laws during earlier protests, he has been using the companys advertising tools to call for further protests during the upcoming September 9 elections. YouTube has allowed those ads to continue and the Central Election Commission is said to have sent Alphabet CEO Larry Page a letter about the matter. Deputy Chief Vadim Subbotin of Russias state media and communications watchdog group Roskomnadzor has gone further to accuse Google as taking a direct role in spreading the propaganda of anti-social behavior during elections. Referring to YouTube as a mouthpiece for illegal information, Subbotin says that the company will be directly intervening in domestic affairs if it does not act on the call to stop providing a platform for Navalny.
Although Navalny is currently serving a 30-day sentence for the violation of similarly-toned public order laws during earlier protests, he has been using the companys advertising tools to call for further protests during the September 9 elections. For Googles part, the company has responded by stating that it does review every valid request received from a government institution. However, it has not indicated whether it will remove Navalnys messages from the platform. That could land the company in serious trouble in the region since an official warning has also been issued by the countrys Prosecutor-Generals Office about the content. According to one official from the office, Alexei Zhafyarov, the search giant could ultimately be prosecuted on criminal grounds.
This is not the first run-in Google has had with Russian officials over the past several years. More recently, the company was forced to open up its Chrome Browser to allow a different default search engine in the region. Back in November, the company was also threatened after it was revealed that it was contemplating lowering the search ranking of certain Russian websites that stood accused of spreading propaganda. Meanwhile, Google is also facing a fair amount of trouble at home and in other countries with allegations of bias and over its data collection policies. President Trump leveled similar claims against the company earlier today in an interview with The Daily Caller. Specifically, Trump accused the American companies of supporting Hillary Clinton unfairly and behaving as a true interference in the countrys democratic process.
A carbon dioxide leak at a Samsung chip plant has claimed the life of a 24-year-old worker, and left two others, aged 26 and 54, hospitalized. The three involved, who are employees of a Samsung supplier and not of Samsung itself, were inspecting Samsungs operations, particularly in relation to the control of toxic and pollution-causing gases, and were later found unresponsive in a basement of the building that they were inspecting. The youngest of the workers was still alive when he made it to the hospital, but apparently only lasted a few hours more. The older workers are still unconscious but are alive. Samsung would not give specific information on their condition.
The incident took place at Samsungs semiconductor factory in Suwon, South Korea. Samsung has launched its own investigation into the incident independent of local authorities, and has thus far stated, It is believed that the cause of death is suffocation due to a carbon dioxide leak. It is worth noting that Samsung has a dedicated global safety team comprised of 500 individuals worldwide. This team conducts safety inspections and enacts safety and health policies according to company guidelines, and their work is inspected by independent third parties to verify the results and ensure impartial judgment.
Semiconductor plants have a wide range of fixtures in their typically vast workings that can easily become dangerous, and Samsungs plant in Suwon is no exception. This is especially true of the Suwon plant because it is one of the companys largest semiconductor factories. This is not the first time that Samsung has had a widely publicized safety incident, or even the first time that workers have died on the companys property. Any type of factory work has the potential to be extremely dangerous no matter what safeguards may be in place. Samsungs operations in Suwon are extremely large in both scale and scope, and have a vast multitude of moving parts and dangerous chemicals and gases that can cause an incident due to negligence, faulty parts, or even simple coincidence in some cases. This incident serves as a tragic reminder of that fact.
Members of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee harshly criticized Google during their opening remarks at todays election security hearing while thanking top officials from Facebook and Twitter for participating in the thereof, i.e. listening and addressing their concerns with what they believe is an adequate level of seriousness. Committee Chairman Richard Burr and Senator Mark Warner both expressed disappointment and befuddlement by the fact that both Alphabet CEO Larry Page and Google CEO Sundar Pichai declined participating in the hearing. Google previously offered its top attorney and Global Affairs SVP Kent Walker but that suggestion was dismissed by the Senate as lawmakers deemed Mr. Walker not high-ranking enough to discuss the matter with maximum credibility. Mr. Walker still ended up submitting a written testimony for the occasion.
In an attempt to highlight Googles absence from the high-profile hearing, the committee opted to leave an empty chair next to other tech industry executives. The symbolic gesture was pointed out by Republican Senator Marco Rubio. Senator Rubio also criticized the company over the matter, speculating that its decision to avoid the hearing may be related to the fact that a small nonprofit managed to fool its misinformation mechanisms just yesterday, describing the matter at hand as something Google doesnt want to discuss with the legislators.
The hearing itself yielded little new revelations and was mostly retreading old ground in regards to some social media giants efforts to combat fake news and other content served as part of coordinated misinformation campaigns meant to polarize or otherwise manipulate the American public. Facebook was represented by COO Sheryl Sandberg, whereas Twitter sent CEO Jack Dorsey to the hearing. Both industry veterans said their efforts aimed at curbing misinformation are working, vowing to continue investing in such endeavors moving forward, while also acknowledging that online manipulation attempts arent a problem thats likely going to be completely eliminated at any point in the future.
U.S. President Trump accused American social media giants from interfering with the 2016 presidential election and expressed concerns theyre looking to do the same with this years mid-terms. In an interview with The Daily Caller, the head of the state said the truth is they [Internet juggernauts] were all on Hillary Clintons side during the last election cycle, describing that alleged behavior as the true interference in the U.S. democratic process. The remarks are in line with the rhetoric President Trump has been pushing for over a year now in regards to the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller whos still probing foreign meddling in the 2016 presidential race, having already indicted 25 individuals and three companies from Russia over the matter.
President Trump often referred to Mr. Muellers probe as a witch hunt and accused the DNC of being the party that actually colluded with Russia, without ever substantiating those claims. Over the course of this summer, the head of the highest office in the country repeatedly accused Google, Facebook, and Twitter of censoring conservative voices on the Internet, suggesting their alleged behavior is illegal and threatening with federal investigations. The accusations that the Silicon Valley dismissed in their entirety on several occasions are yet to be elaborated upon, with the evidence provided so far coming down to what the tech industry claims are isolated incidents.
Top Facebook and Twitter officials are currently attending a hearing on the matter with a Senate committee, whereas one Google SVP was told his presence at the gathering wasnt needed last month. Lawmakers did ask for Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Alphabet CEO Larry Page but the pair declined their invitation. All three Internet giants and their subsidiaries recently disclosed theyve been combating new misinformation campaigns originating from Russia and Iran. The legislative pressure meant to push the tech industry to up its fight against fake news and similar public manipulation attempts sponsored by foreign agents is likely to increase as the November mid-terms approach but the White House is still signaling that it sees those proven and widely identified interference campaigns as a non-issue.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying's Regular Press Conference on September 5, 2018
2018/09/05
At the invitation of State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion Carmelo Abela of Malta will pay an official visit to China from September 12 to 15.
Q: According to reports, ROK President Moon Jae-in said that the peace of the Korean Peninsula should be promoted together with denuclearization and that now they are at an important juncture in building peace on the Peninsula. What is your comment?
A: We attach importance to the relevant statement made by President Moon Jae-in. The essence of the Korean Peninsula issue is about security and the crux is the lack of mutual trust between relevant parties. Only when the relevant parties, especially the US and the DPRK as well as the ROK and the DPRK, address each other's security concerns in a balanced manner and establish mutual trust through dialogue and consultation can the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue be resolved in a fundamental way and the lasting peace of the Peninsula be achieved.
The Chinese side believes that the denuclearization and the establishment of a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula should be promoted in a coordinated fashion, which is completely consistent with the spirit of the Panmunjom Declaration and the outcomes of the DPRK-US summit in Singapore. We hope that all relevant parties can continue to enhance dialogue, further demonstrate goodwill and sincerity to each other and jointly make concrete efforts towards this right direction.
Q: It is reported that the Nauru side has created much hassle for the Chinese delegation attending the 30th Pacific Islands Forum in that country. Could you talk a bit more about that?
A: The 30th Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders Session with Forum Dialogue Partners was held on September 4 in Nauru, a country that has the so-called "diplomatic ties" with the Taiwan authorities. At the invitation of the PIF Secretariat, China attended the meeting as a Forum Dialogue Partner.
However, the host country Nauru went against international practices and the PIF regulations and staged a despicable farce. Before the meeting, Nauru asked the Chinese delegation to travel on regular passports. After many PIF members and the Chinese side lodged representations and said that they would boycott the meeting, Nauru had to agree with the Chinese delegation's request to visit on diplomatic passports. During the meeting, Nauru disrespected international practices again and obstructed the Chinese delegation's speech. The Chinese side immediately lodged stern representations and walked out of the meeting in protest. Many delegations from other attending countries also left the meeting to express their strong dissatisfaction with Nauru.
It must be pointed out that the one-China principle is part of the well-recognized norms governing international relations and a consensus shared by the international community. Any attempt to create "two Chinas" or "one China, one Taiwan" will be rejected and is doomed to fail. Our advice for Nauru is that it should have a clear grasp of the overarching trend, correct its mistakes and stop working against the trend of the times.
China attaches importance to its relations with the Pacific Islands countries and the PIF and will continue to strengthen friendly exchanges and practical cooperation with the Pacific Islands countries on the basis of the one-China principle.
Follow-up: Nauru's President said yesterday that China is a big country trying to bully small countries. What is your response?
A: Nauru is making a fuss out of nothing by accusing China of bullying small countries. What has happened these two days during the FOCAC Beijing Summit fully demonstrates again that China attaches greater importance to equality in international relations more than any other country. The relevant person should have understood that only those who behave with dignity will win respect from others. The same is true for a country. Big or small, one country should conduct itself with dignity and self-respect.
Q: It is reported that the Philippine navy ship which ran aground in the vicinity of Banyue Jiao of Nansha Qundao was retrieved by the Philippine side on September 4. Can you confirm it and give us more details?
A: The Chinese side is closely following the grounding of the Philippine navy ship BRP Gregorio del Pilar near Banyue Jiao of Nansha Qundao. We maintain close communication with the Philippine side in this regard. According to the information provided by the Chinese coastguard vessel which is on standby at the scene, the Philippine side retrieved the aground vessel and returned it to safe harbor on the early morning of September 4. According to our primary survey at the scene, we have not found oil slick or other consequences which may damage the environment caused by the grounding.
After the vessel was stranded, the Philippine side immediately notified the Chinese side of the accident and the arrangement for search and rescue efforts. Our two sides discussed China's assisting in the search and rescue efforts. The Chinese coastguard vessel which is on standby in the relevant waters also maintain good interactions with the Philippine ships. The Philippine side expressed their thanks for China's goodwill.
Q: Reports say that Arif Alvi, the presidential candidate from Pakistan's ruling party Tehrik-e-Insaf has been elected as the new President. What is your comment?
A: The Chinese side congratulates Mr. Arif Alvi on being elected as the new President of Pakistan. President Xi Jinping has sent a message of congratulations to him. China highly values developing its friendly ties with Pakistan. We are willing to work with the Pakistani side to elevate the China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership to a higher level.
Q: US Ambassador to UN Nikki Haley said yesterday that last week the UN attempted to issue a report on the implementation of the sanctions against the DPRK, but it was obstructed by Russia and China. Russia and China continue to create difficulties in the UN Security Council when it comes to resolving the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue. Do you have any comment on that?
A: China has fully and strictly implemented relevant UN Security Council resolutions and fulfilled its international obligations. Meanwhile, we maintain that sanctions themselves are not an end, and actions taken by the Security Council should support and complement the current diplomatic efforts for dialogue and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and contribute to the political settlement process of the Peninsula issue.
As for the annual midterm report by the Panel of Experts assisting the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Sanctions Committee, we believe it should objectively, comprehensively and accurately reflect the work undertaken by all countries to implement the Security Council resolutions. Its release should comply with the stipulations of the Security Council resolutions and the procedures of the Sanctions Committee. Groundless and irresponsible accusations will not help resolve the Peninsula nuclear issue. We hope the US could respect facts.
Q: The International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) released the information through Xinhua News Agency that Li Zhanshu, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) will visit the DPRK and attend the celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK on September 8. What are China's expectations for that?
A: At the invitation of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Li Zhanshu, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, as General Secretary and President Xi Jinping's Special Representative, will head a Chinese delegation consisting of CPC and government officials to visit the DPRK and attend the celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK on September 8.
As friendly neighbors, China and the DPRK enjoy profound traditional friendship and have the tradition and practice of sending messages of congratulations to each other on the occasion of important festivals. Since this year, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and President Xi Jinping held three successful meetings with Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea and Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK Kim Jong Un in China, during which they reached important consensus on developing the China-DPRK ties in the new era. The China-DPRK friendship and the situation on the Korean Peninsula have achieved meaningful progress. We hope that our two sides, through this visit, can further promote the implementation of the consensus reached by the leaders of the two Parties and two states and have an in-depth exchange of views on issues of mutual interest. We believe that this will contribute to further cementing and developing China-DPRK traditional friendship and upholding regional peace and stability.
Editors Note: Brett Bigham is the 2014 Oregon State Teacher of the Year and author of a series of over 150 books called Ability Guidebooks that help autistic people get out into the world. This summer, he traveled to South Africa with a group of teachers as part of the NEA Foundation Global Learning Fellowship program . Here, he shares insights from the group.
For many teachers, the idea of global education means finding YouTube videos to watch and books to read. Other teachers bring the world to their students through Twitter or programs that make use of the internet to bring classrooms closer together.
For the lucky few, there are rare chances to actually visit with schools and classrooms around the globe. The NEA Foundation Global Learning Fellowship programis one of those rare opportunities, and the program brings together educators from across the U.S., who, after a year-long professional development program to integrate global competence into their classroom, travel as a cohort to an international location for the summer. This year, the program brought together a group of teachers from forty-seven states and culminated in a trip to South Africa. The teachers were selected as Fellows because of their deep interest and passion for global education.
Some of these teachers come from as far away as a Native Alaskan village in Alaska; others from some of the smallest rural towns in the United States. Several of the Global Fellows shared their experiences and insights with me, and Ive recounted them below.
Norman Ayagalria
English Language Arts and Yugtun Immersion Program, Bethel, Alaska
In Cape Town, the Fellows visited the Rainbow Academy , an arts program open to young people with an interest in becoming professional dancers, actors, poets, and musicians. They performed traditional as well as modern South African songs and dances. As they invited Fellows to join their drum circle, Norman jumped right up to participate. To see him bound up into the drum circle surprised me initially, given his quiet nature, but only for a momenthe was clearly in his element. Then I remembered Native Alaskan performers I had seen in my youth, and it was easy to see that Normans Native Alaskan culture and these traditional drum circle dances of South Africa had much in common. You cant get much further from Cape Town, South Africa, than Bethel, Alaska, but these distant cousins had more in common than you would think. When I asked Norman about the similarities, he said, There are enough parallels between my culture and African culture that it is very easy for me to make connections regardless of the separate continents. It would be easy to teach my culturethe Yupik culture(in Africa) and broaden that to other cultures around the world, starting with South Africa.
Vasiliki Dardeshi
Social Studies, Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Vasiliki teaches de-colonization to her students in Doylestown. Her knowledge of the government and culture gave her a much deeper perspective on the recent damage that apartheid did to South Africa. She says: This is the best professional development opportunity Ive taken because you hear all these stories. I remember apartheid in the 1980s and never thought Id come to South Africa. The experience, the cause, and the effect of seeing apartheid in place and the impact that is still felt today in society. All of these primary sources are so important to understand past history and how history impacts today.
Vasiliki drew a parallel between issues that we are seeing in the southern United States and South Africa: You see statues of white imperialists all over town. When you look at the statues and think of the time they were createda select few made those decisions for the whole countryI saw a commonality between the two. Though they are memorials, in todays world, is it appropriate to have such a statue if it upsets the people who were oppressed?
Noah Zeichner
Social Studies and Spanish Language, Seattle, Washington
At Cape Towns South African Jewish Museum , Noah charmed a museum worker into giving the two of us a private tour of the closed Great Synagogue. The ensuing conversation gave us both a deeper understanding of how the ending of apartheid sent ripples of change through the Jewish community. Following one of our school visits, Noah shared these thoughts with me:
There is no substitute for visiting schools in different countries. I have learned so much from teachers and students I have met during international trips. I have gained new ideas for my classroom and I have gained new insights into how schools are structured. In South Africa, for example, I was excited to learn that many high school principals teach at least one class. My favorite part, though, is creating new relationships that can lead to virtual exchanges benefiting students in both countries.
Understanding the World
It was clear from my discussions with the other Fellows that this trip to South Africa was going to have immense impact in their classrooms. For example, a middle school teacher, Angie Madsen , from Omaha, Nebraska, observed, After traveling internationally, I feel I am better in pointing out to students that others have different perspectives. I can authentically share another side of the story.""
I agree. You cannot face the results of apartheid without understanding that when the leadership of a country does not believe in equality, oppression will often follow. That is why global education is so important. To know other cultures is to respect them. That must remain one of educations highest priorities.
Connect with Brett , Heather , and the Center for Global Education on Twitter.
Top image of the author speaking with a student in South Africa was taken by, and used with the permission of, Dr. Joe Underwood , 2018 Global Learning Fellow.
Quote image created on Pablo .
Marysville, CA (95901)
Today
Mostly clear skies this evening will give way to cloudy skies and rain overnight. Low 58F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%..
Tonight
Mostly clear skies this evening will give way to cloudy skies and rain overnight. Low 58F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%.
BarcelonaPedro Sanchez has insisted that the solution to the Catalan conflict is via a "referendum on self-government", a euphemism so as not to directly say a vote on a new Statute of Autonomy. This proposal cannot be considered in itself an offer to Catalonia, because it would first have to have specific content. For example, would jurisdiction over language and culture be protected? Would the Generalitat have control over Barcelonas El Prat airport? Would it have its own Treasury Office and a unique and fair financing system? But even ignoring all of these issues, the experience of the 2006 Statute has shown that the problem is not so much reaching a pact with the Spanish left (a feat in itself), but rather the inability or lack of real will by the Spanish side to comply with it. In other words, Catalans have learned that it is of no use to agree on a new Statute that broadens their self-government if later the State, through their institutions or official apparatus, boycotts it. Because that is exactly what happened in 2010, when the Constitutional Court (TC), politicized and delegitimized in the eyes of public opinion, watered down the Statute that expressed the will of the people as voted in referendum.
Therefore, if Pedro Sanchez wants to lend credence to his offer of a new Statute for Catalonia, he would first have to present the basic outline of a Constitutional reform that would shield the Catalan charter and would prevent, for example, the TC from striking any of its precepts. In fact, this seemed to be Sanchez's initial proposal to amend the Constitution but now it seems that he has shelved it in the face of his party's own internal divisions and the usual hostility of PP and Ciudadanos, who have turned the unity of Spain and their aversion to diversity into their sole reason for existing.
Beyond Spains institutional and legal architecture, Sanchez should be aware that the underlying problem is the strong unitary and corporate culture of Spain's central administration, which resists any transfer of powers because it is not prepared to share the power that it now exercises in a monopolistic regime. The problem, therefore, is not the Statute, but a strongly nationalistic Spanish State that opposes decentralization and views managing the public sector as its own personal business.
It is clear that Spain does not have the federal culture nor sufficient political sensitivity to recognize Catalonia's unique nature by building a space where it can be comfortable. And this lack of sensitivity has led hundreds of thousands of citizens to come to believe in independence as the only way out. Independence is not the result, as some claim, of manipulation by Machiavellian leaders and indoctrinated citizens, or of a special set of circumstances, but rather, a largely rational option that responds to the accumulation of specific failures, such as the statutory process of 2006.
A majority of Catalans want a referendum to decide on independence. Therefore, if Sanchez wants to resolve the Catalan issue, his only options will require a vote. Now it remains to be seen if he will be able to launch an ambitious reform of the State that can convince part of the Catalan public that it is still possible for Catalonia to have a place within Spain, and present his offer as an alternative to the option of independence at the polls.
The new codeshare services from Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi connect Emirates passengers to 14 Vietnamese cities beyond Ho Chi Minh City and six cities beyond Hanoi. Emirates will also operate codeshare flights with Jetstar Pacific between the latters hub in Ho Chi Minh City and Singapore, as well as Bangkok, both of which serve as connections for Emirates passengers continuing their travel to Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney.
The Vietnamese cities that are covered by the new codeshare routes include: Ban Me Thuot, Phuquoc, Dalat, Quinhon, Tamky-Chulai, Hue, Pleiku, Nha Trang, Vinh City, Tuy Hoa, Dong Hoi, Thanh Hoa, Haiphong, and Da Nang in addition to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Under the agreement, Emirates flight number will be placed on Jetstar Pacifics services to all codeshare destinations.
As part of our continuous efforts to delight customers around the world, were pleased to further extend our partnership with Jetstar Group to include Jetstar Pacific, allowing Emirates customers to benefit from enhanced connectivity to numerous destinations in Vietnam and beyond while also enjoying the convenience and rewards of the integrated loyalty programme Skywards, wherein customers may earn and redeem Skywards Miles on the codeshare flights, said Adnan Kazim, Emirates Divisional Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning, Revenue Optimisation & Aeropolitical Affairs. Jetstar Pacifics route network of 16 domestic destinations in Vietnam in addition to 6 international cities within Asia complements flights from Emirates European network into Vietnam and from Australia to Vietnam via Singapore and Bangkok. This further enhances our global network that spans more than 160 destinations worldwide.
Alan McIntyre, Jetstar Executive Manager Networks and Partnerships, said this was another exciting announcement for Emirates and Jetstar, as they continue to grow and develop their valuable partnership. This codeshare is another way we are fulfilling our promise to make the world more accessible, by giving Emirates customers access to our growing Vietnamese network. We are proud to extend our cooperation with Emirates Skywards, offering its members earn and redemption opportunities on Jetstar Pacific.
Originally signed in June 2016, the extended partnership allows Trinity to continue to serve the high fashion industry for which it is most renowned, forwarding apparel from Colombo (Sri Lanka) and Hanoi (Vietnam), two of the worlds largest garment exporters, to Columbus Ohio in the United States.
In addition to these three weekly services, the partnership was further expanded to introduce an onward Etihad Cargo freighter connection between Rickenbacker Airport and East Midlands Airport (EMA), in the United Kingdom.
Abdulla Mohamed Shadid, Etihad Airways Managing Director Cargo and Logistics Services, said: The long-term extension of our agreement with Trinity is an endorsement of the positive working relationship we enjoyed over the past years. It reaffirms Etihads commitment to fostering global logistics partnerships, and enhances our network by focusing on key successful trade lanes.
Rickenbacker International Airport, one of the worlds few cargo-dedicated airports, is a growing hub for international trade thanks to its foreign-trade zone status. It provides an ideal gateway for importers and exporters, with approximately half of the United States, including the East Coast, California and Texas, and one-third of Canadas populations within a one-day truck drive.
David Pereira, President Trinity Logistics, said: We are happy to extend our agreement with a likeminded partner in Etihad. Our combined efforts to build a long term sustainable solution for our clients has proved to be a success.
Etihad Cargo has recently refreshed its strategy, gearing its fleet and network towards key trade lanes that leverage Abu Dhabis strategic geographical location, as well as increasing focus on high yielding segments with products like FlightValet (automotive), FlyCulture (arts and music) and TempCheck (pharmaceutical).
Our efficient fleet of Boeing 777 freighters makes partnerships such as this with Trinity possible, added Shadid. Together with the belly-hold capacity of our passenger jets that provide access to 93 destinations globally, and our continued investment in digital and physical infrastructure, Etihad Cargos strategy brings commercial and operational benefits to both our partners and the end consumer, and is a key element in Abu Dhabis aspiration to become a global logistics centre.
Jeff Wilkinson, Joramco CEO said: We are pleased that flyadeal has selected Joramco to perform these maintenance tasks. This collaboration reaffirms Joramcos strength, expertise and know-how on the A320 and we look forward to provide flyadeal with continued long-term value solutions and superior maintenance services.
Saudia, the flag carrier of Saudi Arabia, announced the creation of flyadeal on 17 April 2016. The venture is part of Saudia Group's SV2020 Transformation Strategy, which aims to elevate the group's units into world-class organizations by 2020. flyadeal will cater to domestic travelers, Hajj and Umrah pilgrims, and the rising number of tourists to Saudi Arabia, among other groups. The airline launched flights on 23 September 2017, linking Jeddah to Riyadh.
Jeff Wilkinson, Joramco CEO
Passengers arriving through Luxivair avoid the congested airspace at other overcrowded airports yet enjoy access to most southern California attractions within an hours drive, explained the FBOs business development manager Kimberly Benson, while attending the recent Aviation Africa Conference and Exhibition in Cairo.
Located just 96 kilometres from downtown Los Angeles, Luxivairs FBO offers its clientele a broad range of world-class services, including on-site 24/7 US Customs clearance.
The FBO is celebrating five years of service and recently announced a 62% increase in customer activity in 2017 compared to the previous year.
Our exquisite facility has a thriving business complex designed to support the complete needs of corporate, charter and general aviation pilots, said Benson.
Our cooperative agreement with Abu Dhabi Airports Company, announced in February, together with our strategic partnership with Dubai-based Jetex Flight Support, announced in March, underscore our deep commitment to MENA. We recognise that the MENA region plays an increasingly important role in private jet aviation and we are focused on serving as a trusted partner in support of its continued growth.
Michael Burrows, executive director, San Bernardino International Airport, added: Luxivair SBD is also a key supply chain partner for MENA-based air cargo companies shipping to southern California.
The recent decision by UPS to begin daily flights into our airport highlights the fact that we are providing much-needed relief for air cargo companies of all sizes from the MENA region and beyond, who have been experiencing significant delays at other southern California airports. Our very competitive cost structure, together with the fact that aircraft of any size can land here, provides significant advantages to our clients.
Utah resident 74-year-old Bonnie Foerster has been declared legally married to Beverly Grossaint, her partner of 50 years who died this May.
Foerster met Grossaint in New York in 1968, where Foerster was escaping from an abusive husband who left her with black eyes and broken ribs. Grossaint noticed something was off and doubled back to check on her, and the two hit it off, living together soon after despite public outcry against LGBT couples.
I was born for her, and she was born for me Im numb from happiness. Im married. Im a married woman. Ive waited 50 years, Foerster said, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
Lawyer Roger Hoole said that being declared married after the death of one participant is rare, but not unheard of.
The two didnt get married in 2015 when it was legal because they were afraid their marital status would clash with Foersters Medicaid, which she needed for her various health issues. The date that Foerster can consider her and her wife being married on is still being decided.
On behalf of the government of Kuwait, the US Army has awarded Raytheon Southeast Asia Systems of Andover, Mass., a $9.9 million modification (#P00015) to a previously existing Foreign Military Sales contract (W31P4Q-16-C-0022) for technical assistance, planning, training, maintenance, and sustainment of the Kuwait phased array tracking radar to intercept on target missile (MPQ-65 PATRIOT) weapon systems, equipment, and logistics support elements. The contracted work will be performed in Andover, Mass., with an estimated completion date of December 31, 2019.
Patriot air defense system (Picture source: Raytheon)
The MIM-104 Patriot is a surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, the primary of its kind used by the United States Army and several allied nations. Patriot uses an advanced aerial interceptor missile and high performance radar systems. The Patriot system is modular and highly mobile. A battery-sized element can be emplaced in less than 1 hour. Patriot systems have been sold to Taiwan, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Spain.
Poland hosts a battery of Patriot launchers in Morag since 24 May 2010. The system will be integrated into the Polish air defence system until 2012. The Republic of Korea is also in the process of purchasing several second-hand Patriot systems after North Korea test-launched ballistic missiles to the Sea of Japan and proceeded with underground nuclear testing in 2006. The role of the PATRIOT is to defend against airborne threats as part of an integrated air and missile defence system.
Notable characteristics of the PATRIOT system include a short response time, the ability to engage multiple targets simultaneously, good ground mobility, and the ability to resist electronic jamming. The first PATRIOT air defence systems were deployed by U.S. Forces in the mid-1980s. During the first Gulf War, it was used to defend against the Iraqi Scud missile threat. The PATRIOT system has evolved over the years as the threat has changed and technology has advanced. The current PATRIOT variants are equipped with advanced interceptor missiles and high-performance radar systems. PATRIOT stands for Phased Array Tracking Radar to Intercept on Target. The role of the PATRIOT is to defend against airborne threats as part of an integrated air and missile defense system. Notable characteristics of the PATRIOT system include a short response time, the ability to engage multiple targets simultaneously, good ground mobility, and the ability to resist electronic jamming.
Do it yourself if you can We accept in principle that private equity can deliver (somewhat) excess returns over most other asset classes. But there are a lot of qualifications attached to that, and most of them are very relevant to whether and how pension funds should invest in private equity.
Commercial jets on the ramp at the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport. The county is preparing to redevelop the airport and expand the runway due to a concern that the CRJ700, shown here, is being phased out by the major carriers and replacement aircraft will have a larger wingspan. County commissioners on Tuesday suggested that the carriers perform test flights into Aspen with the next-generation aircraft so the community can gauge the new planes impact.
Gadens has welcomed back partner James Beckley in Sydney.
Beckley returns to the national firm from EY, where he was a director in the corporate law team. He started his legal career at Gadens, before making the move to PwC in 2012. He joined EY in 2014 as a senior associate.
The growth in our corporate advisory team over the past five years has been tremendous, said Grant Scott-Hayward, Gadens chief executive. James is another exciting appointment for our firm, and we see this momentum continuing strongly into the future as our pre-eminent corporate advisory practice advances formidably. It is especially pleasing too that James is returning to Gadens.
Dentons has launched its Intelligence & Strategic Services (ISS) practice, bringing together a multi-disciplinary team of lawyers from across the world.
Chaired by Karl V. Hopkins, partner and chief global security officer, the practice will provide executive advisory services that combine market intelligence, analytics and organizational resiliency counselling.
We've always provided these types of services, and through formalizing the creation of this group, we achieve a new level of client support," said Hopkins. "Formalizing our global international capabilities has led to more efficient mobilization when our clients need us most and, more importantly, providing them with holistic protection to secure their people and assets worldwide."
Exclusive to dual-tailpipe models, the American Thunder package is priced at $759.97. Described as perfect for the person looking for an aggressive exterior sound level, the bolt-on exhaust system includes a 50 series HD muffler and a 3.0-inch mandrel-bent front pipe. The 3.0-inch tailpipes, meanwhile, are complemented by 4.0-inch black ceramic-coated exhaust tips.Made in the U.S. of A., the Flowmaster upgrade in made from 409S stainless steel. Sound level is described as moderate in the cabin and aggressive on the outside, which is the perfect blend considering that the Ram 1500 is a pickup truck first and foremost.The dyno sheet reveals a minor improvement throughout the rev range compared to the bone-stock exhaust system. As for installation, it would be best to raise the vehicle up on a hoist before getting down to business. A one-inch tack weld is recommended to all slip-fit connections. High-temperature paint over the welded areas is another recommendation from the Flowmaster installation guide, preventing premature corrosion.Now in its fifth generation, the half-ton Ram doesnt come cheap. At $31,695 for the Tradesman 4x2 Quad Cab with the 64 box, the truck is priced higher than the F-150 ($27,705) and Silverado ($29,795). Once the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 with the eTorque mild-hybrid system arrives at dealers, expect the price to drop below $30,000.The cheapest F-150 with at least 395 horsepower on tap is the 5.0-liter Ti-VCT V8 with the Regular Cab and two-wheel drive in XL flavor. Chevrolet , meanwhile, doesnt have anything to offer between the 5.3-liter V8 (355 horsepower) and 6.2-liter V8 (420 horsepower).Given time, the 3.0-liter EcoDiesel V6 will return to the Ram 1500, enabling an EPA-estimated 30 miles per gallon on the highway
Hill posted to Facebook a photo of what looks like a square aircraft hovering in the night sky, with illuminated margins. He tells The Charlotte Observer that he only managed to take this photo of the strange object, because when he pulled over to shoot a video of it, it disappeared into thin air. It started to rain heavily immediately afterwards.I was on my way home with my wife on the speaker phone, and it looked like there was a tornado coming, so I was trying to take a picture of the clouds for my wife, Hill explains.But then I saw something that wasnt normal and I was, like: Oh my god, what is that? I started trying to take as many pictures of it as possible while I was driving.Hes not saying that what he saw as a UFO, but hes not ruling it out either. In fact, Hill says what he saw scared him so badly that he could hardly sleep that night.Still, he admits what he saw could have been a military plane of some sort. Conspiracy theorists argue that UFO sightings in the area are usually flight tests conducted by the military with a secret spacecraft known as TR-3B, an anti-gravity craft that hovers.On paper, such a craft doesnt exist.For what its worth, North Carolina is in the top 10 U.S. states when it comes to UFO sightings, The Observer notes. So either aliens have a vested interest here and make more frequent visits, or people are more willing to believe in UFOs.Hills mysterious flying object could also be a cell phone placed on the dash of the car, reflected in the windshield. Food for thought.
At the time of the accident, 27-year-old Kennedy was driving his mothers Audi wagon; he lost control of the car and smashed into a tree . He had two passengers in the car and he admitted after the crash that hed been speeding. Police recovered empty beer cans from the wreck and later established that Kennedy had also smoked marijuana.When he was arrested, Kennedy had a .11 blood alcohol content, while the legal limit in the state of Washington is .08. Court documents obtained by Q13 Fox reveal that he called the crash the biggest mistake of his life, one that would haunt him for the rest of his life. Showing remorse was not enough to keep him out of jail.Mr. Kennedy might be a talented athlete and a good person, but on Aug. 30, 2017, he was selfish and irresponsible, the prosecutor argued. He also brought up Kennedys history of traffic violations: it turns out the skateboarder had a long string of infractions, mostly for speeding.The crash instantly killed Preston P-Stone Maigetter, a skateboarding videographer who had worked with Kennedy on various occasions and counted him as a friend Maigetter and Kennedy actually went back before the latters rise to fame. He was married and had two children. He worked for Thrasher Magazine and was known in the community as The Bible.Another passenger suffered minor injuries, a fractured foot, while Kennedy wasnt hurt at all.Kennedy was convicted of vehicular homicide and vehicular assault. In addition to 48 months in prison, he will also under home monitoring for 369 days once he gets out of prison, the Fox affiliate notes.
ISS Leak summary:
First thought was MMOD strike.
Then NASA released pics. Lots of people: "Hmmm, doesn't look like MMOD". NASA deleted the photos.
Top Russian news site RIA NOVOSTI reported - via sources but apparently confirmed by Mr. Rogozin - it was a drill hole. pic.twitter.com/520kHK0TMc Chris B - NSF (@NASASpaceflight) 3 septembrie 2018
The investigation into what caused the hole seems to point to it being drilled into the upper section of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft attached to the ISS.Initially, Russian and American engineers believed the cause of the leak was a hole created by a possible impact with a micro-meteorite or a piece of space debris. Rogozin begs to differ, saying for Russian news agency RIA the hole is the result of some kind of technological error of some specialist."According to the Russian official, the hole shows clear signs of drilling, including scratching here and there. More importantly, he also hints at the fact that the hole was made from the inside, possibly on purpose, although it is unclear whether it was made on Earth or in space."The Earth version is being checked, but there is another version that we do not dismiss: deliberate interference in space. There are several attempts to influence the drill," the official said."The version of the meteorite has already been swept away, but there was an obvious impact on the shelling of the ship from the inside.Sabotage? Incompetence? Well know soon enough, as the Russians are on it and promise a quick answer.A photo allegedly showing the hole before being filled with epoxy surfaced on a NASA Twitter account and was then apparently deleted, not before being snatched by others. If the photo is real, the hole sure does seem as it was made on purpose with a drill.The oxygen leak was discovered by Russian and American Earth-based control centers on August 30. It was not deemed life-threatening.The Soyuz MS-09 will not be used to bring back astronauts from the ISS so any other damages to the spacecraft will not be endangering their lives.
MQB
The problem with the Passat in the U.S. is that its as old as dirt. Introduced in 2011 and underpinned by a different platform from theused by the European model, the Passat is losing ground at an alarming pace. At $22,995, it isnt too far off the Camry ($23,845) and Accord ($23,570) either.Two more problems come in the form of the lack of an electrified powertrain option and the lackluster cabin. As unattractive as it is, the Passat takes a turn for the worst for the 2019 model year, losing the 3.6-liter narrow-angle V6 engine (280 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque).The 2.0-liter TSI is now the norm, paired to a six-speed automatic instead of a dual-clutch transmission as it was the case with the V6. According to The Car Connection , the 2019 Volkswagen Passat will come in two trim levels, losing the S, SEL, and sportier-handling GT.Manufactured in Chattanooga, Tennessee alongside the MQB-based Atlas sport utility vehicle, the Passat as we know it comes with 17-inch alloys, keyless ignition, synthetic leather upholstery, blind-spot monitoring, and automatic emergency braking. The Wolfsburg Edition, which is the entry-level trim, can be optioned with a moonroof and 18-inch wheels.Higher up, the SE R-Line flaunts LED for the headlamps and taillamps, satellite navigation for the infotainment system, parking sensors, adaptive cruise control, active lane control, and Fender-branded speakers.2019 is the final model year of this generation of the Passat in North America. The heir-apparent will arrive on the MQB vehicle architecture, borrowing most of the styling and technological features from the European variant.The Chattanooga plant is also where Volkswagen will add the Atlas Cross Sport into production, coming in 2019 for the 2020 model year with seating for five. Theres also talk of the Tanoak concept making it into production as a rival for the Honda Ridgeline unibody pickup truck, but based on how the results posted by Volkswagen in the United States in the past couple of years, chances are this project will remain on the drawing board.
SUV
Adaptive Cruise Control
Called Teramont, just as in Russia and China, the newis the first seven-seater Volkswagen available on the local market, and it is hoped it will charm customers in the region with the large interior space.The Teramont measures 5,037 mm in length, 1, 979 mm in width and 1,768 mm in height. The luggage volume, depending on how the seats are arranged, can be anywhere in between 583 and 2,741 liters.The SUV features Apple CarPlay or Android Auto connectivity, Fender Premium Audio System,, Forward Collision Warning and Autonomous Emergency Braking, Blind Spot Monitoring with Rear Traffic Alert, Lane Departure Warning, and the groups Digital Cockpit.The model was introduced for the first time as the Atlas in 2017 and as the biggest car manufactured by the brand in the United States. Just as for all the other markets, it will be produced for the Middle East in Chattanooga, Tennessee.In its first year on the market, the nameplate sold over 27,000 units. Not much when talking about a giant like Volkswagen, but after taking into account the fact that in these first months of 2018 the Atlas already sold over 30,000 models, its safe to assume the gamble paid off."Welcoming the Teramont to our market is a delight, as we are confident this car will be perfect for this location. Size matters, especially for families in this region and this is exactly what we offer now," said in a statement Andrew Savvas, the man in charge with VWs affairs in the Middle East.This year we have been busy ramping up our SUV range and having this 7-seater means we have a complete line up in place and can offer the perfect car for every type of family."
It's no secret that every single automaker in the world wants to get a bigger piece of the Chinese pie (or mooncake). The trend is so clear that companies such as BMW and Mercedes are even willing to engineer long wheelbase versions of their existing models just to cater to the Chinese market's desire for larger vehicles.
But what's an automaker to do if they specialize on small cars?
The answer, it seems, is clear for Suzuki: pull out.
Suzuki Motor Corporation has announced that they are pulling out of the Chinese market and selling all their equity in their operations there to their partner: Changan.
"Approximately 25 years ago, we launched the Alto in China, and since then we have made efforts in cultivating the Chinese market," said Mr. Osamu Suzuki, chairman of Suzuki Motor Corporation. "However, due partly to shifting of Chinese market to larger vehicles, we have decided to transfer all equity to Changan Automobile."
To operate in China, carmakers strike up partnerships with domestic automakers, in this case Changan. The transfer of the equity means that the company will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Changan.
The Suzuki brand will actually still remain in China, but will be operated entirely by Changan with locally-produced models licensed from Suzuki. The president of Changan Suzuki, presumably assigned from Suzuki in Japan, will resign.
Suzuki says the transfer of equity will complete upon completion of legal proceedings in China.
The FAA has granted a Supplemental Type Certificate to Boeings KC-46 tanker, the company announced this week. The STC is the second of two FAA certifications required for the aircraft. Next, Boeing will seek a Military Type Certificate from the U.S. Air Force, which is expected in the next few months. The required testing already has been completed. Once that certificate is received, the aircraft will be ready to fly, Boeing said.
Boeing said it is currently on contract for the first 34 of an expected 179 tankers for the USAF. The KC-46 will refuel military aircraft in flight, and also will be able to take on fuel to extend its range. Deliveries are expected to begin in October, with a total cost of about $44 billion, according to a recent government report. The KC-46 is derived from Boeings commercial 767 airframe and built in the companys facility in Everett, Washington.
With its Certified SkyView HDX line, Dynon is seeking to effectively upend the established way of doing business in the world of avionics upgrades. Rather than only building dealer relationships with avionics shops who act as sales agents, Dynon will push the idea of any shop with a qualified A&P/IA installing this equipment. Some readers and other manufacturers have criticized this idea, perhaps for the wrong reasons. In case you missed it, read the story here.
The Dynon Certified retrofit glass system started life in the experimental market as the HDX, but now has an STC for installation in Cessna Skyhawks and soon, some models of the Beech Bonanza. The company has plenty of other airframes on its STC to-do list. But while the Skyhawk STC has been in place for a while, not many have been installed, likely because there are just two shops authorized by Dynon to do it: Thrust Flight in Texas and Merrill Field Instruments in Alaska.
The lack of an established dealer network for such a sizable product line is surprising, and Dynons Michael Schofield told me the company is sorting out which other shops it will select as authorized Dynon Certified installation centers. It will be a network thats different than the one for Dynons experimental products. In the interim, it will be up to the aircraft owner to nominate an A&P with IA (inspection authorization) credentials to do the installation. The customer contracts directly with the installer for all aspects of the install, including instrument panel modification or fabrication. While some have suggested these major avionics retrofitswhich include Dynons integrated autopilotshould be left to an avionics repair station, I think thats a shortsighted, old-school way of thinking. Ive seen plenty of horrific installs turned out by avionics shops and plenty of best-of-show projects done by IAs.
For talent that fits somewhere in the middle, Dynon insists that an A&P with a current IA certificate should be more than qualified to install the Certified HDX line and in many circumstances, I agree. An IA has much of the same inspection and signing authority as an FAA repair station, plus many avionics repair stations have IAs on staff. Suggesting that a competent and practicing IA (two imperative prerequisites) isnt qualified to do the job might be insulting, especially considering the number of successful experimental avionics that have been installed by homebuilders who have little if any avionics experience at alland not just Dynon equipment. Garmins G3X Touch suite (which includes an autopilot) is installed in a wide variety of IFR-flying experimental amateur built aircraft. You dont have to hold any certificate to put one in.
Historically, Dynon has done a pretty good job of designing products that curtail and simplify the installation effort. It provides preassembled wiring harnesses and is simplifying and customizing the installation hardware for easier retrofit. Dynons field support and installation documentation is quite good, based on my own experience. But Dynon isnt putting faith in every A&P/IA without doing some vetting first, although Schofield told me its the aircraft owners responsibility to ensure the work being done is airworthy. Still, Dynon wont sell the STC authorizationwhich will specifically identify the name of the installing IA (or an FAA repair station)or honor the warranty without verifying the individual selected by the customer has the right credentials. After all, the IA or repair station will be accepting the liability by signing the FAA Form 337. The installation also requires a flight manual supplement, a revised weight-and-balance report, a logbook entry and instructions for continued airworthiness.
Dynon expects that many of these installers will have previous avionics installation experience, perhaps on their own aircraft or on other experimental aircraft. Thats an obvious question for you to ask when nominating an installer for your own Dynon project. If the A&P hasnt installed anything more modern than a Narco Superhomer, you might want to find one who has because there will be a steep learning curve, in my estimation. Moreover, an IA who keeps the certificate current, but isnt actively doing airframe work or doesnt understand EFIS technology, might not be the best candidate. There will be wiring thats interfaced with third-party equipment, including IFR navigators, audio systems and antennas. Theres also software configuration, including setting the autopilot gains and other post-install tweaks. The interface also includes mandate-compliant ADS-B Out.
Dynon is launching its Certified HDX system into a competitive EFIS retrofit display marketwhich will become even more competitive overnight if Garmin certifies its G3X Touch. Its no secret that Garmin is dominant on the shop level, but a good shop is one that presents a buyer with options, including other brands with comparable capabilities. If your shop doesnt, I would consider going elsewhere. Still, I suspect Dynon is at least somewhat concerned that some shops will push Garmin retrofits over the Certified HDX. While Dynon made it clear that it eventually plans to build Certified HDX dealerships at larger avionics shops (in addition to supporting A&P/IAs to do the work), I predict well see more Dynon dealerships at smaller shops than at larger ones, especially those that dont sell Garmin or may not even hold a repair station certificate. There are plenty of them.
From our perspective, well be looking for capability and quality more than the very particular FAA credential, Schofield said. Until Dynon builds its network of installers that fit that criteria, its up to the aircraft owner to find one they trust. Like it or not, its a departure from the old-school regulatory mentality the industry has been determined to fix. And it uniquely gives customers more choice and influence in the way avionics are installed. Thats a big step forward.
Larry Anglisano is editor of Aviation Consumer magazine.
Jenny Gove is a User Experience Research Lead at Google, where she conducts research on device use, in this talk about Progressive Web Apps we learn insights from Google products like YouTube and Google Play, plus case studies and learnings from partners to help improve payment experiences.
Progressive Web Apps is a new term for new features and technologies of the modern web, progressive web apps are enabled by a new set of capabilities that allow us as designers, in collaboration with developers, to radically improve that user experience.
Subscribe now - watch the hottest digital design talks and interviews from Awwwards, on our official YouTube Channel.
Next stop - awwwards Conference New York November 15th & 16th 2018, digital designers network and learn key tools from visionaries and leading agencies about current trends and emerging web technologies, tickets on sale now!
Defense Secretary James Mattis has responded to claims in Bob Woodward's upcoming book saying the allegations "were never uttered by me or in my presence... the idea that I would show contempt... or tolerate disrespect to the office of the President from within our Department of Defense, is a product of someone's rich imagination."
Woodward recounts that after Trump left a meeting with Secretary Mattis on North Korea, "Mattis was particularly exasperated and alarmed, telling close associates that the president acted like and had the understanding of 'a fifth- or sixth-grader.'"
"The contemptuous words about the President attributed to me in Woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence. While I generally enjoy reading fiction, this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility.
"While responsible policy making in the real world is inherently messy, it is also essential that we challenge every assumption to find the best option. I embrace such debate and the open competition of ideas. In just over a year, these robust discussions and deliberations have yielded significant results, including the near annihilation of the ISIS caliphate, unprecedented burden sharing by our NATO allies, the repatriation of U.S. service member remains from North Korea, and the improved readiness of our armed forces. Our defense policies have also enjoyed overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress.
"In serving in this administration, the idea that I would show contempt for the elected Commander-in-Chief, President Trump, or tolerate disrespect to the office of the President from within our Department of Defense, is a product of someone's rich imagination."
Secretary Mattis, provided by the Department of Defense
Go deeper: Bob Woodward: Trump's top staff trashed him in private
A Dubai-based investment company has filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Arbitration, demanding that the Armenian government pay it compensation in the amount of $160 million related to the planned construction of an Armenia-Iran railway.
Rasia FZE, which is registered in the United Arab Emirates, has undertaken to build the rail link.
The information about the international lawsuit against Armenia was confirmed on Tuesday by Minister of Transport, Communications and Information Technologies Ashot Hakobian.
According to the minister, the company claims that it incurred losses as a result of the actions of the Armenian side. We believe that this is not logical. The reason is that during this period with the purpose of supporting the project representatives of the Armenian government were in China where this issue was also discussed. And Rasia FZE today cites some reasons, saying that this affected their further programs, the minister explained.
Plans for construction of a railway linking Armenia and Iran were announced in 2008 by then-President Serzh Sarkisian. Before the 2013 presidential election a concession contract was signed with Rasia FZE. Since then, however, the company has not built a single meter of railway.
The company only prepared a feasibility report and submitted it to the Ministry, and the Ministry made numerous remarks on it. After that, the company was repeatedly invited to discuss the implementation of its concession obligations, but all the invitations remained unanswered, said Hakobian.
The minister is convinced that the Armenian government has solid arguments in case of litigation. I think that our positions are strong and there is no cause for concern. However, we will not be doing nothing. Measures are being taken. The government has already invited a prestigious international organization to defend our interests, Hakobian said.
The governments of Armenia and Iran have discussed the railway project for more than a decade. So far, however, Yerevan has failed to attract an estimated $3.2 billion needed for building the 305-kilometer-long Armenian section of the railway.
Aram Orbelian, a lawyer representing the interests of former Armenian president Robert Kocharian, has described yesterdays decision by the Special Investigative Service (SIS) not to allow his client to leave Armenia pending investigation as illegal.
Still, he said, the ex-president will sign a written pledge confining him to the country limits, if necessary.
Kocharian, who ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, stands accused of illegally using the armed forces against opposition supporters who protested against alleged fraud in a disputed presidential election a decade ago. Eight protesters and two police personnel were killed when security forces broke up those demonstrations on March 1-2, 2008.
Kocharian spent more than two weeks in custody last summer. The Court of Appeals on August 13 overturned a district courts July 27 decision to allow Kocharians arrest. It said that the Armenian constitution gives the ex-president immunity from prosecution. The Prosecutors Office has appealed the courts decision at Armenias highest judicial instance the Court of Cassation, which is still to consider the case.
SIS spokesperson Marina Ohanjanian told RFE/RLs Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) on Tuesday that investigators have decided to apply a measure of restraint called a written undertaking not to leave [the country] in relation to Kocharian. The decision comes one day after Kocharian, through his lawyer, revealed his intention to travel to Germany for an annual medical examination.
Taking into account the decision of the Court of Appeal that immunity is applied to the charges [brought against Kocharian] and that, accordingly, no criminal prosecution can be pursued on those charges, we assume that any action aimed at criminal prosecution and applying a measure of restraint is also an act of prosecution is not legal, said Orbelian.
The lawyer said that they have not yet received the text of the decision. We will see it and then give a more detailed assessment, he said, adding that they will appeal the decision if it proves to be what we think it is.
Kocharian insists that there are no grounds for his prosecution and claims political motives for that. The 64-year-old former leader announced his return to active politics on August 16.
By Trend
Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have 83 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said Sept. 5.
Armenian armed forces were using heavy 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 Trend
The first delivery of Afghan goods through the international transport corridor Lapis Lazuli, which passes through Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and further to Europe, will be held in October, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce said.
The ministry noted that the first delivery will be of a test character and two containers to be shipped of Afghan carpets and gemstones l will go to Turkey and Holland.
The pilot phase will enable the Lapis Lazuli Corridor countries to assess problems and challenges and they will then take the necessary steps to solve the issues, the director of transit and trade facilities at the MoIC Yahya Akhlaqi said.
According to Akhlaqi, the Afghan goods will be sent to Turkey and Holland by railway and on trucks and will reach the Black Sea ports in six days.
At todays meeting with transport companies, we decided to transfer some of the goods via railway and the rest via truck and ship, said Akhlaqi.
The International Chamber of Commerce's country director Abdul Qadir Bahman meanwhile said the Lapis Lazuli Corridor will help traders export and import goods quickly and more cheaply.
According to the Lapis Lazuli project, railways and highways will connect the city of Torghundi in the Afghan province of Herat with Turkmenistan's Ashgabat, and further with the Caspian port of Turkmenbashi. The corridor will extend to Baku, going further through Tbilisi to Ankara with branches leading to Poti and Batumi in Georgia, and go ahead from Ankara to Istanbul.
The budget of the project is estimated at $2 billion. This large-scale project is aimed at increasing the economic integration of countries in the region and increasing trade.
---
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
By Sara Israfilbayova
Azerbaijan has been recently taking important measures to modernize the locomotives.
Javid Gurbanov, chairman of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC made the remarks at a meeting in Baku with a delegation led by Alstom senior vice president for the Middle East and Africa Didier Pfleger.
Frances Alstom Transport SA and Azerbaijan Railways signed an agreement on May 12, 2014 according to which Azerbaijan Railways will purchase 50 AC locomotives.
The current project planning and supply of locomotives to Azerbaijan Railways, maintenance by Alstom on the basis of short-term and long-term strategies, as well as the completion of the signaling project in the direction of Baku-Boyuk Kesik, were discussed at the meeting.
Gurbanov informed the guests about the transport and logistics potential of Azerbaijan, the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, the North-South, South-West transport corridors and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway.
Pfleger, in turn, stressed that Alstom regional center for Western and Central Asia, the Caucasus, Iran and Iraq was transferred to Baku.
This will contribute to strengthening the companys activity in Azerbaijan and attracting more attention to the Azerbaijan Railways-related projects, he added.
Pfleger expressed satisfaction with the expansion of ties of cooperation with Azerbaijan Railways.
Alstom Transport SA Managing Director for Western and Central Asia Bernard Pell and Alstom Managing Director for Azerbaijan and Georgia Elshan Zeynalov also attended the meeting.
Alstom and Azerbaijan Railways CJSC have been cooperating since 2014, signing a contract for the delivery of 50 electric locomotives. In October 2017, the first AZ4A locomotive in Belfort, France was presented to Azerbaijan Railways.
Today, Azerbaijan participates in such large-scale railway projects as the International North-South Transportation Corridor and Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK).
The transport corridor "North-South" is designed to connect Northern Europe with South-East Asia, including the unification of the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia. At the first stage, along the corridor, it is planned to transport five million tons of cargo per year, increasing later to more than 10 million tons of cargo.
The BTK railway is constructed on the basis of the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey intergovernmental agreement. The main purpose of the project is to improve economic relations between the three countries and gain foreign direct investment by connecting Europe and Asia.
The line is intended to transport one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of freight at the first stage. This capacity will then reach 3 million passengers and 17 million tons of cargo.
A solemn ceremony on the occasion of the opening of the BTK railway was held on October 30 at the Baku International Sea Trade Port. Two trains from Kazakhstan to Turkish Mersin have already been sent via this route. The first train, consisting of 30 containers, on November 4, delivered 600 tons of wheat to the Turkish city of Mersin.
---
Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
By Sara Israfilbayova
The State Committee for Property Issues held another auction on September 4, during which 17 orders were made for 10 state-owned properties.
Non-residential areas, exhibited for sale during the auction, are located in Khatai, Binagadi, Sabunchu and other districts of the capital.
The Committee will hold next auction on privatization of state property on September 11, where 47 state objects will be put up for sale.
The auction will offer 20 joint-stock companies, 11 small state enterprises, 11 non-residential areas and five vehicles.
The portal for privatization privatization.az, launched in July 2016, reflects all necessary information about the facilities, their addresses, location, and even initial cost and aims at facilitation of the process. The website is available in two languages - Azerbaijani and English. Why Azerbaijan is special section available on the website explains the reasons and advantages of investing in the country.
The privatization process is designed to attract both foreign and local investors, as well as develop the business environment of Azerbaijan.
Moreover, the State Committee on Property Issues held the first electronic auction on July 4.
The electronic auction service, which is available on the website privatization.az, combines the privatization procedure of vehicles and equipment. In the future, it will be possible to privatize small state enterprises and facilities, joint-stock companies through electronic auction. Now, the corresponding work in programming is being implemented.
The State Committee on Property Issues was established on May 19, 2009 on the basis of the relevant presidential decree.
The main activities of the State Committee are the management of state property, attraction of investments, maintenance of a single cadastre of immovable property, maintenance of a land cadastre, organization of a land market, protection and improvement of land quality.
---
Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
By Kamila Aliyeva
Azerbaijan is working on the development of a national strategy on cybersecurity, Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies Elmir Velizade said.
He was speaking at an event dedicated to cybersecurity training for CIS countries, organized with the support of the International Telecommunication Union, in Baku on September 5.
The work in this direction is carried out on the initiative of the ministry together with the corresponding state agencies of the country, Velizade noted.
Moreover, a coordinating commission has been set up in the field of information security in the country. This testifies to the fact that the country pays great attention to this sphere, he said.
The deputy minister went on to say that the dynamics of development in the country and the wide application of information and communication technologies require great attention to ensuring cybersecurity.
An integrated approach beginning from an ordinary user and ending with solving organizational, technological and technical issues is required. From this point of view, local specialists in this sphere should have good skills and promptly eliminate possible incidents," he said.
Velizade recalled that large-scale events have been recently carried out in the country.
During these events, the main issue was to ensure cybersecurity. Among those events are the Eurovision Song Contest, the first European Games, Islamic Solidarity Games and other events of international significance. It was important to ensure the protection of information systems at all these events, he said.
The deputy minister noted that during this time there were no serious incidents in the sphere of information security.
But it is important to constantly raise the level of knowledge in this sphere. Today, great attention is paid to this sphere and one of the steps is to develop a national strategy on cybersecurity, he added.
Touching upon the issue of transition to a new generation electronic identity cards, Velizade noted that this will further increase the level of cybersecurity of Azerbaijan.
The integration of electronic signature and authentication certificates into new identity cards is considered a progressive step, according to the official.
Their availability will allow citizens to access e-government services, to gain free access to them. What is important, citizens will no longer need to purchase e-signature and authentication certificates. From this point of view, this step can be considered progressive. We believe that the transition to new identity cards will also serve to increase the level of cybersecurity in the country, Velizade said.
Speaking to reporters later, the deputy minister said that the prepared project is being agreed upon in the government agencies of Azerbaijan and, in line with the procedure, will be submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers.
The strategy envisages the most advanced experience in the field of cybersecurity. The document that will be adopted in Azerbaijan provides for full compliance with international experience - full readiness for cyber threats, application of all necessary measures to combat them, coordination issues, etc., he noted
Velizade added that the adoption of the National Cybersecurity Strategy will also contribute to the revision of the issues of legal regulation in this area.
---
Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
By Laman Ismayilova
As part of the 3rd Indonesian Cultural Festival (ICF), the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Baku and YARAT Contemporary Art Space invites you to an Architecture Forum with the theme of Indonesian Islamic architectural heritage on September 14.
The Forum is led by Indonesian renowned architect, Mr. Munichy Bachron Edress, Chairman of Indonesian Architecture Association.
The architect will present Indonesias rich architecture, which is influenced by a variety of art and cultural heritage, among others Muslim heritage. One of the topics that he will present is a unique Muslim village called "Kampung Kauman" or Kauman village in the city center of Yogyakarta, a traditional and historical city in Java Island with an existing Sultanate palace and designed based on specific Javanese cosmology and philosophy.
Munichy Bachron Edress, M.Arch., IAI, AA, is an Indonesian architect, artist, living and working in Yogyakarta. He is the Chairman of Indonesian Architect Association and professor at the Islamic University of Indonesia in Yogyakarta. He also takes painting as a career and owns a painting gallery.
The event starts at 19:00. Admission is free.
Language: Bahasa, with translation into Azerbaijani.
YARAT is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to nurturing an understanding of contemporary art in Azerbaijan and to creating a platform for Azerbaijani art, both nationally and internationally. Based in Baku, YARAT (meaning CREATE in Azerbaijani) was founded by Aida Mahmudova in 2011.
It realizes its mission through an on-going program of exhibitions, education events and festivals. YARAT facilitates exchange between local and international artistic networks including foundations, galleries and museums.
YARAT comprises YARAT Art Centre, ARTIM Project Space, YARAT Studios, YAY Gallery and an extended educational and public programme.
---
Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
By Trend
There will be very active struggle for power in Armenia, Russian public figure, political analyst, director general of the Institute for Political Studies Sergey Markov told Trend Sept. 4.
In these circumstances, opponents of Nikol Pashinyan accuse the prime minister of being ready to make significant concessions on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Markov, who is also member of the State Duma of the fifth convocation and member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, said.
But I think Pashinyan is not quite ready for this concessions," he added. On the contrary, he is interested in "patriotic euphoria". So, his supporters may organize provocations in the form of local clashes to allow the prime minister to demonstrate "firmness" and "stiffness" of his position in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Pashinyan has already started to toughen the negotiating positions when he stated that the illegal regime created in Nagorno-Karabakh region must take part in the negotiations on the conflict settlement, Markov said.
"Therefore, I think that due to domestic political reasons it is not worth expecting the Armenian leadership to make significant compromises and concessions, he said. It seems improbable to me. So, I am not optimistic about that."
I was optimistic earlier, he said. "The negotiations were very successful 1.5-2 years ago. By the end of 2016 the families of internally displaced people could return to their lands. But it did not happen. The last steps in this issue have not been made. I know that for certain."
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 Naila Huseynli
Caucasus most widely spread species of poisonous viper may bring economic benefits to Azerbaijan. The country, which once produced the largest amount of snake venom of Levantine viper in the Soviet Union, can redevelop venom production capacity.
Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) has started negotiations on sale of snake venom.
In this regard, Elman Yusifov, Director of the Institute of Zoology of ANAS stated that currently negotiations on the export of the viper poison inherited from Soviet era continue with the Turkeys Marmara Trade.
At present, we are at the stage of correspondence. They applied for the purchase of a part of the Soviet-era poison. Part of that poison will be tested by them in an international laboratory. After receiving accurate information about the suitability of the poison the second stage will start, Yusifov said.
He also added that about 20 kg of snake venom have been inherited during the Soviet era, adding that the Marmara Trade intends to buy 8-10 kg of this poison.
Yusifov said that the price of 1 gram of snake poison varies from $100 to $500 in the world market.
It should be considered that poison in Azerbaijan is not a new product. Although Soviet-era poison is preserved in optimal condition, in vacuum ampoules, toxicity and other indicators may change in their composition. This may have a certain impact on the purchase price of the poison, he explained.
The director of the institute also stated that if the export proceeds as a result of the negotiations with the Turkish company, then Institute of Zoology will raise the issue of restoration of production of snake venom in the Department of Biological and Medical Sciences and Presidium of ANAS.
The snake poison was produced in Azerbaijan in the Soviet era and the strongest production center was in the country, Yusifov reminded. During that time, 5-10 kilograms of poison were produced and sold abroad.
After the collapse of Soviet Union, relations were interrupted with the buyers of Azerbaijan due to new cooperation with Iran, Afghanistan and other countries.
Snake venom could be a remedy to many diseases, particularly neuralgia, arthralgia, myalgia, myositis, rheumatism, hypertension, and asthma. Snake venom in very small quantities is frequently used for medical purposes as an analgesic and an anti-inflammatory remedy.
---
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
By Trend
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order providing funds for construction of the Shamkir-Abbasli-Narimanli road in Shamkir region.
Under the presidential order, the Azerbaijan Highway State Agency is allocated 4.8 million manats for the construction of the road connecting eight residential areas with a total population of 71,000 people.
---
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
By Trend
Parvin Mirzazade, head of the state protocol department at Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry, received newly-appointed Consul General of Turkey Zaki Ozturk in the Ganja city, Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry said in a message Sept. 4.
During the meeting, in connection with his appointment as consul general, Ozturk presented a patent document to Parvin Mirzazade.
Mirzazade wished success to the consul general in his future activities.
During the meeting, the sides exchanged views on friendly and fraternal relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey, as well as prospects for further development of these relations.
---
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
By Kamila Aliyeva
A meeting of Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono, who is on a two-day visit to Baku, was held on September 5, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a message.
Japan has decided to simplify the visa regime for Azerbaijani citizens, Taro Kono said at a joint press conference, which followed the meeting.
Japan wants to strengthen multi-vector relations with Azerbaijan, he noted.
We hope that after this visit, friendly relations between the two countries will develop even more, Taro Kono said.
The Japanese minister expressed satisfaction with the implementation of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) project in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, in which Japan's Itochu Corporation holds a 3.65 percent stake.
A contract on the ACG was signed in 1994. A ceremony to sign a new contract for development of the ACG block of oil and gas fields was held in Baku on September 14, 2017.
This will give an even greater impetus to our cooperation, Taro Kono added.
Speaking at the conference, Mammadyarov announced that a direct flight between Azerbaijan and Japan may be opened.
He went on to say that the issues of bilateral cooperation were discussed at the meeting.
The relations between the countries are at a high level. There are 30 Japanese companies operating in Azerbaijan and to this day Japan has invested about $ 7 billion in Azerbaijan, which mainly fall for the oil sector. During the meeting, issues of investment in various spheres of the economy were discussed. The number of tourists arriving from Japan to Azerbaijan is also growing. For the development of mutual tourist flow today, we also discussed the issue of launching a direct flight between Japan and Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani foreign minister added.
He said that Japanese companies are interested in participating in infrastructure projects in Azerbaijan, noting that Japan is showing great interest in the development of the North-South and East-West transport corridors.
One of the issues discussed at the meeting was the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Japan's position on this issue is clear. They believe that this conflict should find its solution in the near future, Mammadyarov said.
Azerbaijan and Japan established diplomatic relations in 1992. Over the period of cooperation, more than 20 agreements in the humanitarian, economic and other spheres have been signed. The two countries have established inter-parliamentary friendship groups, as well as a joint intergovernmental commission.
According to the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee, trade turnover with Japan in January-July 2018 amounted to about $148.5 million. Almost the entire amount of turnover fell on the import of Japanese products to Azerbaijan.
By Trend
Azerbaijan and Russia continue to strengthen bilateral relations, as also evidenced by quite frequent meetings between presidents Ilham Aliyev and Vladimir Putin in a short period of time, the expert of the Center for Post-Soviet Studies of the Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian political scientist Farhad Ibrahimov told Trend.
He noted that the leaders of the two countries have held three meetings in just three months, each of which has been held in a positive way and has had positive results for both Azerbaijan and Russia.
"Russia and Azerbaijan have the potential for closer cooperation, which is why presidents Ilham Aliyev and Vladimir Putin expressed a desire to increase the trade turnover between the two countries to $10 billion. Moreover, the key areas of cooperation are not only transport, economic and energy spheres, but also military-technical and humanitarian ones. Azerbaijan has purchased weapons from Russia worth just over $5 billion," he said.
"The Azerbaijani head of state stressed that Azerbaijan continues the modernization of the Armed forces, and Russia is the most important manufacturer and supplier of military products. This suggests that Baku is interested in developing relations with Moscow in this direction, which is especially important in the context of the difficult geopolitical situation in the region," Ibrahimov said.
He believes that the personal warm relations that exist between presidents Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev also contribute to stability and security in the region.
"Today, Azerbaijan is one of the safest and most stable states not only in the Caucasus, but also in the CIS and the Greater Middle East. Azerbaijan is a state that really has its principled foreign policy position and does not succumb to pressure, which is also important. Of course, Moscow knows and appreciates this, so relations with Baku will continue to strengthen in several areas at the same time," the expert said.
Ibrahimov drew attention to the fact that at the meeting of the two heads of state, the issue of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which is crucial for Azerbaijan, was not bypassed, and Russia continues to be a mediator in the issue.
The President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev visited Sochi on September 1, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the visit, the parties signed 15 documents that cover the issues of Azerbaijani-Russian cooperation in such areas as energy, economy, sports, tourism and others.
---
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
By Trend
The Uzbek-Egyptian business forum and cooperation exchange will be held in the B2B format in Uzbekistans Tashkent on September 5, the Uzbek Ministry for Foreign Trade said in a message Sept. 4.
According to the message, the business forum will be held during the visit of President of Egypt Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi to Uzbekistan.
Businessmen of the two countries will take part in the events.
Mutually beneficial investment and trade agreements are planned to be signed. Moreover, the participants of the business forum will discuss the creation of a horticulture and logistics hub in Uzbekistan.
The Egyptian president will be on an official visit to Uzbekistan September 4-5.
---
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
By Trend
Turkmenistan is among the important trade partners of Uzbekistan, and the dialogue in this sphere is characterized by dynamic and sustainable growth, reads an article by Akmaljon Kuchkarov, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Uzbekistan to Turkmenistan, the Turkmen media reported.
The article is dedicated to the celebration of the 27th anniversary of the state independence of Uzbekistan.
The diplomat notes that this year the parties held a number of meetings and negotiations to ensure the practical implementation of the Ashgabat agreement on the establishment of the Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Oman transport and transit corridor.
The work is underway to deepen intersectoral, interregional cooperation and expand direct contacts between representatives of business circles of the two countries, according to the article.
The established open and confidential dialogue between Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev is the basis for strengthening the multifaceted Uzbek-Turkmen cooperation at the present stage, the Uzbek diplomat said in his article.
This year, the countries celebrated the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations. On April 23-24, 2018, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov paid a state visit to Uzbekistan.
Following the talks at the highest level, a solid package of documents was signed. Besides, a monument to the great Turkmen poet and thinker Magtymguly Pyragy and the Ashgabat Park were opened in Tashkent city, while the House of Uzbek-Turkmen Friendship was opened in Urgench city.
The activity of the Uzbek-Turkmen intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation, special exhibitions organized in Ashgabat and Tashkent, as well as business forums give impetus to building up trade and economic relations, which have become more active.
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which have impressive reserves of hydrocarbon resources, are in favor of diversification of energy flows. The implementation of the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-KazakhstanChina gas pipeline project, which was put into operation in 2009, is a good example of this.
Recently Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov invited business circles of Uzbekistan to participate in the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project. Construction of the Turkmen section of that pipeline was started in December 2015.
Uzbekistan was also invited to start developing oil and gas fields on the Turkmen shelf of the Caspian Sea. Ashgabat is ready to intensify cooperation in the framework of the project on the supply of electricity from Central to South Asia through the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan route.
At this stage, the two countries are also discussing a project to establish the UzbekistanTurkmenistanIran-Oman transport route. This will significantly increase international transit traffic and provide a new communication corridor to world markets.
---
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
By Trend
Russian Nordwind Airlines will launch flights to Uzbek cities in the winter of 2018/2019, the airline said in a message.
In particular, the planned flights will link Moscow with Uzbek cities, such as Karshi, Namangan, Samarkand, Urgench and Fergana.
It is also planned to launch a direct flight between Tashkent and Kazan.
In general, the airline plans to launch flights to 40 new domestic and international destinations.
Presently, Nordwind's fleet consists of 27 aircraft. Within eight months of 2018 the number of passengers carried on the airline's flights has reached the annual volume of transportation for entire 2017.
---
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
By Trend
The Turkish air force continues operations in northern Iraq, the Turkish General staff said in a statement Sept. 5.
During the operation, conducted the day before against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), ammunition depots were destroyed in the Zap and Kakurk regions, the message says.
The conflict between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terrorist group, which demands the creation of an independent Kurdish state, has lasted more than 25 years, claiming more than 40,000 lives. The PKK is recognized as a terrorist organization by the UN and the EU.
---
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
By Trend
The Kyzylorda region of Kazakhstan is considering the possibility of increasing the share of exported oil from 20 percent to 50 percent, the official portal of the governorate of Kyzylorda region said in a statement.
At the meeting with subsoil users of the region, which was attended by mayor of Kyzylorda region Krymbek Kusherbayev, the issues of increasing the share of oil exports, the gas production and the development of new fields were discussed.
Krymbek Kusherbayev noted that 80 percent of the oil produced in the region is sold in the domestic market, where the price per barrel is $30, while the export price is $70.
Taking into account the discussed issues, the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan was charged to consider within a month together with the governorate of Kyzylorda region the possibility of ensuring the enhancement of ratio of oil exports by the oil companies of Kyzylorda region to the level not less than 50 percent.
In addition, as the governor noted, the volume of oil production will be reduced by 600,000 tons this year compared to last year and will amount to 6.2 million tons.
Also, the governor of the region noted that according to the data resulting from preliminary geological exploration activities, there is a prospect of increasing gas reserves by 50-70 billion cubic meters.
"In these conditions, the expansion of gas production is one of the points of "growth" and compensation for the fall in oil production in the region. However, the existing scheme of gas sales to one national operator at a low price does not cover even the cost of production," the governor said.
Meanwhile, the subsoil users of the region continue to pump gas into the reservoir or burn it at gas turbine plants, that is, they reduce the volume of gas production in every way.
"The economic motivation for the production of gas is necessary. In this regard, according to our proposal, the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan together with "KazMunaiGas" JSC and "KazTransGas" JSC have been instructed to consider within a month the possibility of making some changes in the principles of distribution of finished gas products, namely, to allow the gas producing companies participating in the project to sell 50 percent of commercial gas to the external market independently, and to oblige them to sell 50 percent of commercial gas to the national operator based on the on existing conditions," the governor said.
According to the Governor's office, measures to increase the share of oil exports and establish a favorable price for gas will allow oil and gas companies to increase revenue. In turn, the collected proceeds should be directed to the exploration and drilling of new fields and the introduction of new technologies.
Thus, the promising areas of search for new deposits are the Aral, Syrdarya and Shu-Sarysu basins.
---
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
By Kamila Aliyeva
Belarusian specialists are ready to participate directly in the construction of a nuclear power plant in Uzbekistan, Ambassador of Belarus to Uzbekistan Leonid Marinich told in an interview with UzA news agency.
The envoy noted that cooperation in the field of nuclear power can become a new breakthrough direction of the cooperation between the two states.
Belarus, together with its Russian partners, will soon complete the construction of its own nuclear power plant - the first power unit is planned to be commissioned in 2019, the second - in 2020, he said.
Marinich recalled that Uzbekistan plans to build its own nuclear power plant by 2028.
Belarusian design and construction organizations have gained some experience in the construction of nuclear power facilities. In the universities of our country, new areas of education have emerged, which will prepare personnel for the renewed energy industry of the country, he stressed.
Belarusian specialists are ready not only to participate directly in the construction of nuclear power plants in Uzbekistan, but also to ensure the supply of equipment, provide consultations, conduct training of personnel, Marinich added.
Earlier, Moscow offered Uzbekistan to build a nuclear power plant with two new generation power units in the country.
During the visit to Uzbekistan, Rosatom corporations head Alexei Likhachev announced that Rosatom is ready to build the most modern two-block nuclear power plant in this Central Asian country.
Our proposal is to build a station of two modern blocks of the three plus generation VVER-1200 here in Uzbekistan, at a time when the Uzbek side considers acceptable. We have very solid experience in the construction of such stations, he said then.
This NPP project will have a huge national importance for Uzbekistan as it would allow diversifying Rosatoms own energy complex and ensuring energy security of Uzbekistan, according to the director general.
The most safe and modern power unit in the world is allocated for the construction of the nuclear power plant. Its commissioning is planned until 2028.
Currently, the need for electricity in Uzbekistan is 69 billion kWh. Almost 85 percent of this energy is produced by burning gas and coal, the remaining 15 percent are produced by hydro power plants. To generate power, 16.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas, 86,000 tons of fuel oil and 2.3 million tons of coal are consumed.
Uzbekistan is one of the important partners of Belarus in Central Asia. In 2017, trade turnover between the countries increased more than twice and reached $131 million.
The upward trend has continued this year as well - in the first half of the year, the trade turnover has already exceeded $90 million.
By Trend
The Iranian presidents Chief of Staff, Mahmoud Vaezi, rejected claims that President Hassan Rouhani may meet his US counterpart Donal Trump in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, which will be held from September 18-25.
Vaezi seriously criticized Ahmad Jannati, Iranian Assembly of Experts Chairman, who raised the claim.
Iranian media outlets quoted Vaezi as saying Sept. 5 that claims about Iranian president intention to meet Trump in his upcoming New York trip is very strange and baseless.
On Sept. 4, Jannati warned against a possible meeting between President Rouhani and Trump in the New York, saying the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] has repeatedly said that no official has the right to negotiate with the US government and the cabinet members who will go to the United Nations should respect the Leaders guidelines.
Elsewhere in his remarks Vaezi said that Rouhani is scheduled to travel to New York at the first week of the next Iranian month (to start September 23) and hold meetings with heads of states and officials of other countries.
Earlier Vaezi claimed that the US president made eight requests to meet with Rouhani last September.
During Rouhanis last visit to New York for the UN General Assembly session, Trump asked the Iranian delegation eight times to have a meeting with him, Vaezi said.
Earlier in October, Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi, said that Rouhani rejected a meeting requested by US president while in New York for the 72nd UN General Assembly.
Such a meeting was suggested by the American side, but was not accepted by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Qassemi said.
The highest level of contact between the two countries in decades was in 2013 when Rouhani had a phone conversation with former US President Barack Obama. Iranian conservatives severely criticized Rouhani on the issue.
The US and Iran have not had diplomatic relations since US embassy personnel in Tehran was taken hostage for 444 days starting in late 1979.
In the absence of formal relations, Switzerland represents US interests in Tehran, and Pakistan represents Iranian interests in Washington. The only Iranian diplomatic presence in the US is its delegation to United Nations headquarters in New York.
---
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Ray Fisher / Royal Dutch Shell
NextDecade Corp. announced Tuesday that it expects to make a final investment decision on its Rio Grande liquefied natural gas project in the third quarter of next year pending approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
FERC has notified the company that it will issue a final environmental impact statement for the project near the end of April. The company anticipates receiving federal authorization by the end of July.
The Beaumont Fire Department will be hosting a medical benefit for Assistant Fire Chief Chris Singler, according to information from the department.
The event will be held on September 28 from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Beaumont Fire Headquarters.
An ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel will run for the leadership of the European Commission as the continent's biggest party seeks to counter a populist revolt.
Manfred Weber, German head of the Christian Democrats in the European Parliament, said on Wednesday he would seek to succeed Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the Brussels-based commission. Juncker's term atop the European Union's executive arm ends in October 2019.
Weber, a pro-EU politician from the southern German state of Bavaria, must still win the backing of Europe's Christian Democratic party to become its nominee for commission chief. After that, his chances would depend on how well the Christian Democrats -- also known as the European People's Party -- do in May 2019 elections to the European Parliament, which approves the commission president.
"Europe needs a new beginning and more democracy," Weber, 46, said in a Twitter post after announcing his bid.
The upcoming EU Parliament elections and choice of commission president will be a barometer of the anti-establishment forces at play in the developed world. Those forces brought about two watershed events in 2016, when Britons voted to leave the EU after four decades of membership and Americans sent Donald Trump to the White House with an "America First" agenda that challenges an even longer history of U.S. international engagement.
Last year's election of French President Emmanuel Macron and fourth-term victory of Merkel put a brake on an anti-EU trend exemplified by Brexit. But just as the EU ship was steadying itself, Italy acted as a buffet by producing a populist government composed of parties far from the European mainstream.
Beyond the political theater, the struggle between EU supporters and opponents has implications for how the bloc is governed. The commission proposes EU legislation on everything from auto-pollution limits to mobile-roaming fees, acts as the bloc's antitrust authority, administers its 140 billion-euro ($162 billion) annual budget, negotiates trade accords and runs a foreign service.
Human rights groups raised a red flag in Chechnya last year when authorities were arresting, torturing and executing gay people, but Russias government refused to intervene, leaving 15 members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) unhappy.
So 15 members of the OSCE, including the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Germany, signed a statement to trigger the organizations Vienna Mechanism, which begins a questioning procedure on another member about violating human rights.
Chechen Republic Head Ramzan Kadyrov said that gay people are not people, and need to be removed to purify the region. The authorities have allowed violence against the LGBT community, and encouraged families to commit honor killings, the statement reported.
At the same time, journalists and human rights defenders face threats and reprisals by local Chechen authorities for documenting these and other violations and supporting the survivors, it also said, reported Pink News.
Theyve given Russia 10 days to respond.
A 21-year-old undocumented immigrant living in Liberty was indicted Wednesday in connection to a late August kidnapping in Jefferson County, according to information from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Juan Carlos Saucedo-Meza is accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman on August 24, accoriding to information from the U.S. Attorney's Office. He is believed to have taken her from Liberty to Lake Charles, court records claim.
A Nigerian court detained 57 men for having gay sex in a Lagos hotel, and have charged them with conspiracy, unlawful gathering, and belonging to a secret cult.
This isnt the first time people at hotels in Nigerian states have been accused of and arrested for homosexuality. Six men in were arrested earlier this month in a hotel in Abia, and 42 men were arrested in a hotel in Lagos last year as well. Depending on the area, the punishment for homosexuality is either up to 14 years in jail or being stoned to death.
All of the men pleaded not guilty, and most said they were just at a party.
The police just barged in and arrested people They also accused us of being homosexuals. I am not one, I went there to party. They also accused us of being initiated but no initiation material was founded with us or at the venue, one of the accused said, reported Pink News.
Bariatric surgeon David Kim, MD, of Colleyville, Texas, pleaded guilty to accepting $4.5 million in kickbacks for referring patients to Dallas-based Forest Park Medical Center, Dallas News reports.
Here's what you should know:
1. Dr. Kim entered a plea deal. He admitted to receiving about $4.5 million in kickbacks between 2009 and 2012.
2. The money was used to market Dr. Kim's medical practice, Colleyville-based Kim Bariatrics.
3. Dr. Kim was an investor in Forest Park Medical Center. He faces up to five years in federal prison.
4. As part of the plea deal, Dr. Kim will pay the government $2.2 million.
5. Dr. Kim is the third physician to plead guilty in the kickbacks case. Twenty-one people have been charged in what is believed to be a $200 million healthcare scheme; about $40 million was allegedly paid in bribes and kickbacks. Six physicians pled not guilty.
6. Dr. Kim also entered a guilty plea for a tax case. Dr. Kim underreported $18.3 million in income between May 2012 and August 2015, according to court documents. He faces up to three years in prison and has agreed to pay $5.1 million in restitution for the tax case.
Here are six ASC developments worth more than $10 million that had updates over the past month:
Great Neck, N.Y.-based Northwell Health will develop a medical complex on property the University Financing Foundation purchased for $232 million. Northwell plans to develop an ASC, an outpatient care center, a cancer center and medical offices on the site.
Glendale-based Ascension Wisconsin plans to begin construction on a $42 million medical center with an ASC by the end of the year. The medical center will also include an imaging center, urgent care services and specialty care. It is the first of several project announcements Ascension plans to make as part of a $100 million investment.
Winter Springs, Fla.-based Aventus Health plans to construct a $40 million medical complex in Oviedo, Fla., that will feature one 60,000-square-foot medical building, one 40,000-square-foot medical building and an ASC.
Construction is underway on Doylestown (Pa.) Health's Richard A. Reif Heart Institute, which will be accompanied by an ASC. The project is funded by a $75 million public fundraising campaign that has raised $30 million so far.
Murfreesboro, Tenn.-based Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital plans to adapt to the city's growing population with a $16 million ASC to be located off New Salem Highway.
Medford, Mass.-based MelroseWakefield Healthcare outlined plans to build a $16 million ASC on the campus of its North Medford, Mass.-based Lawrence Memorial Hospital.
Effectively managing a hospital's revenue cycle requires the completion of time-consuming, cumbersome tasks that are prone to human error. However, automation shows promise for streamlining a significant amount of this labor-intensive work.
During an Aug. 29 webinar sponsored by Olive and hosted by Becker's Hospital Review, Olive's Chief Marketing Officer Rebecca Hellmann and Senior Director of Engineering David Landreman explained how hospitals can select which workflows are best to automate and evaluate automation's return on investment.
Automation, defined
For many, the prospect of implementing automation in the revenue cycle seems daunting. Some of this hesitancy may be fueled by the uncertainty generated by buzzwords such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. To strip away some of the uncertainty, Mr. Landreman divided different types of automation into two main buckets:
Rule-based automations: These automations are driven by process and should be done the same way every time based on certain parameters and triggers. One example of this is Robotic Process Automation, which entails training software algorithms that mimic how an employee would complete a specific task.
These automations are driven by process and should be done the same way every time based on certain parameters and triggers. One example of this is Robotic Process Automation, which entails training software algorithms that mimic how an employee would complete a specific task. Judgement-based automations: These automations change based on the context they run in, similar to how artificial intelligence is able to understand data like a human would and then interact with it. Judgment-based automation could take the form of machine learning, which is a type of AI that allows software to become more accurate on its own, over time, without being programmed by a developer.
"In general, with the use of AI techniques RPA becomes more than just rules-based automation," Mr. Landreman said. "In effect, RPA becomes a way of leveraging AI-based decision-making throughout an organization."
Getting started with automation
Choosing which business operations to automate, though, can be a challenge. Ms. Hellmann said this challenge can be solved through a methodology created by Olive
The best workflows to automate are those marked with repetitive, high-volume, rules-based tasks which are also more prone to human error. Eligibility checking, for example, often requires copying and pasting data as well as simple yet time-consuming interactions with predetermined applications.
To help make that decision, Ms. Hellmann suggests two approaches and a method devised by Olive. The first approach is problem-oriented hospitals should ask themselves, "What challenges or bottlenecks are negatively impacting our organization and what are the composite workflows of those bottlenecks?" In contrast, a solution-based approach considers, "What are the strategic goals within our organization and which key performance indicators show the most potential?"
The third method is what Ms. Hellmann calls Scaling Humans with Advanced Process Engineering, or the SHAPE method. This involves creating a laundry list of all the candidate processes for automation, and subsequently ranking and rating them based on standardized criteria such as the hours of human work required, error vulnerability, potential to increase profit, actionability and volume per day.
Next, organizations must evaluate whether to buy or build an automation solution. Ms. Hellmann proposes four key questions for hospitals to consider when making this decision:
Is automation one of our core competencies? How much will it cost? How long will it take? What level of expertise do we have available?
"In order to have a comprehensive view of what your automation project could look like, you'll likely want to talk to several AI solution providers," Ms. Hellmann said. "We always suggest that organizations start out by casting a wide net doing their own research, as well as asking colleagues for their recommendations."
Automation with Olive
Ms. Hellmann described how Olive automates a common workflow: prescription prior authorization. After a new prescription order is faxed to a pharmacy, Olive uses machine learning to classify the fax type. Then, with computer vision a type of AI that gives algorithm eyes to understand and interpret visual or text-based information Olive is able to understand and extract relevant data. Olive then routes the prescription through the appropriate prior authorization portal and writes the determination back to a designate location before alerting necessary staff to it.
Hospitals have already realized the promises of automation with Olive. At the Heart of Ohio Family Health in Columbus, Olive has successfully taken over 90 percent of eligibility checks saving the organization significant dollars on staffing.
But automation can generate ROI in more ways that just financial, said Ms. Hellmann. When tasks are automated, employees' time is freed up to focus on higher value tasks, which ultimately leads to greater job satisfaction.
To access the webinar recording, click here.
To learn more about Olive, click here.
Central Maine Medical Center and St. Mary's Regional Medical Center, both in Lewiston, Maine, are pledging to revise policies and increase staff education after turning away mental health patients from the emergency room, which is a form of patient dumping illegal under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, The Portland Press Herald reports.
Four things to know:
1. The two hospitals illegally turned away ER patients in mental health crises and had patients arrested for trespassing in some cases, according to documents from the hospitals and state licensing inspectors cited by the Press Herald. EMTALA requires Medicare-participating hospitals to screen and stabilize ER patients.
2. Inbound EMTs were sometimes told to take patients to different facilities and ER personnel questioned paramedics about why they were bringing in someone with a mental health issue. The hospitals also called the police to arrest "uncooperative" patients, and patients who were arrested had their hospital records altered or deleted, investigators found.
3. Both hospitals submitted plans to correct the violations to avoid losing Medicare funding. For example, CMMC said it will better train employees on the EMTALA, develop a process to ensure disruptive patients are assessed and implement a barrier in the electronic registration log to avoid emergency patients' names being deleted after entered in the system.
"Central Maine Medical Center has taken steps to prevent future incidents such as the one which earlier this year triggered [the investigations] at both local hospitals," a CMMC spokesperson told the Press Herald. "Signage has been improved, and substantial training in rules and protocol was undertaken. A recent inspection by CMS found that appropriate steps were taken and the investigation was closed."
4. Links to statements of deficiencies and plans of correction for both hospitals are available on the Disability Rights Maine website, drme.org.
Ellwood City (Pa.) Hospital is facing financial challenges and has laid off 25 percent of its employees, according to the Ellwood City Ledger.
The layoffs occurred after the hospital took in less revenue in July than its payroll.
Ellwood City Hospital CEO Beverly Annarumo told the Ellwood City Ledger the hospital laid off 53 of its 200 employees, but three were called back to work. An additional 20 full-time workers were converted to part-time status or had their hours reduced.
"It's an awful decision to have to make," Ms. Annarumo told the Ellwood City Ledger. "The reason these people were working here was they needed a paycheck to feed their families ... [but] it was that or we all are in trouble."
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Americore Health, which owns and manages Ellwood City Hospital, is also facing financial issues. Nine complaints were filed against Americore earlier this year alleging the company defaulted on contracts totaling $7.1 million. In June, New York's Supreme Court ruled in favor of the creditors.
Ms. Annarumo told the Ellwood City Ledger Americore's financial issues have affected the hospital's operations. However, she said Ellwood City Hospital's financial problems are largely attributable to the facility not making enough money.
Ms. Annarumo and the hospital's advisory board expect the hospital's financial position to improve once its medical labs reopen. The hospital is also close to reopening its renovated psychiatric unit and is awaiting state approval to open a substance abuse treatment unit, according to the report.
More articles on healthcare finance:
Vanderbilt University Medical Center points to Epic rollout for 68% drop in operating income
Cleveland Clinic's operating income plunges 80% in Q2
Tennessee health system lands in bankruptcy after acquiring 3 hospitals from CHS
Apple told some of the participants in its joint heart study with Stanford (Calif.) University School of Medicine that it had completed collecting their data over the Labor Day weekend, according to the blog MacRumors.
The iPhone maker launched the study in collaboration with American Well and Stanford in November 2017. Customers of at least 22 years of age with an Apple Watch Series 1 or later were eligible to enroll in the study, which uses the Apple Watch's heart rate sensor to collect data on irregular heart rhythms known as atrial fibrillation. Enrollment to new participants closed Aug. 1.
As part of the study, participants were asked to download and install the Apple Heart Study app and regularly wear their Apple Watch. If the Apple Watch identified an irregular heart rhythm, the participant would be connected to a free virtual physician consultation facilitated by American Well.
Over the Labor Day weekend, some study enrollees received an app notification thanking them for their participation and asking them to complete an exit survey.
Apple previously said it planned to continue the study until Jan. 1, 2019, but according to MacRumors, the participants who received the notifications enrolled early, suggesting that data collection is slowing over stages.
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom said that if he is elected governor in November, he would support a single-payer healthcare system that provides coverage for illegal immigrants, according to The Hill.
Mr. Newsom said the universal healthcare plan he implemented during his time as mayor of San Francisco could be adopted on a statewide level.
"I did universal healthcare when I was mayor fully implemented, regardless of pre-existing condition, ability to pay, and regardless of your immigration status," said Mr. Newsom on the podcast Pod Save America, according to The Hill. "I'd like to see that extended to the rest of the state. San Francisco is the only universal healthcare plan for all undocumented residents in America. [I'm] very proud of that. And we proved it can be done without bankrupting the city."
More articles on leadership and management:
Ascension fires 75% of Providence Health System's board
Living like a leader: A day with Cleveland Clinic CEO Dr. Tomislav Mihaljevic
Atul Gawande is hiring
The Hospital Authority of Valdosta and Lowndes County is expected to select a new permanent CEO for Valdosta-based South Georgia Medical Center next week, roughly one month after the hospital's former chief executive asked for a contract buyout, according to the Suwannee Democrat.
The hospital authority is expected to meet Sept. 11 to discuss the selection of a permanent hospital CEO. Officials will also consult with its hired legal team to discuss pending or potential litigation brought against the authority or its employees, the report states.
Last month, former hospital CEO Ross Berry sent a letter to the hospital authority asking it to pay him three years' worth of his base salary and a lump sum bonus payout of $325,000 to end his contract. He also asked the authority to pay for his attorney fees and include a nondisparagement agreement.
Mr. Berry claimed the hospital authority did not allow him to do his job, that it thwarted his attempts to fix problems at the facility and that the situation had become untenable.
In his letter, Mr. Berry gave the hospital authority until Aug. 17 to make a decision on his contract. Seven days before the deadline, the hospital authority appointed Bill Forbes, assistant administrator at SGMC, interim CEO of the hospital.
Mr. Berry and SGMC also faced backlash and protests after firing two of the hospital's leading cardiothoracic surgeons Joe Johnson, MD, and Randall Brown, MD, in July. The surgeons worked at the SGMC CardioVascular Institute.
To access the full report, click here.
Washington
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh said on Wednesday that gun violence in schools is something we all detest, but that he based a key dissenting opinion in favor of gun rights on high court precedent.
Meanwhile, when given a chance to respond at the Senate confirmation hearing to a controversy over his encounter Monday with the father of a Parkland, Fla., shooting victim, Kavanaugh more generally responded that while he bases his decisions on the law, I do so with an awareness of the facts and the real-world consequences.
On the guns and school violence issue, Kavanaugh was pressed during his first day of questioning by Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, about his views that certain semiautomatic assault weapons could not be prohibited.
Kavanaugh referred to his 2011 dissent to a decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upholding certain gun restrictions, in which he would have struck down a ban on semi-automatic rifles because they are in common use by law-abiding citizens, a standard set with respect to handguns under the Supreme Courts landmark 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller .
I never thought this would happen in our country, that someone would bring a semi-automatic weapon into a school and just mow down children and staff, Feinstein told Kavanaugh. So Ive been very interested in your thinking on assault weapons.
Kavanaugh said that under the Supreme Courts Heller decision, and a followup 2010 decision known as McDonald v. City of Chicago , which applied the reasoning in Heller to the states, he concluded that semi-automatic rifles could not be distinguished as a matter of law from the semi-automatic handguns upheld by the high court.
Semi-automatic rifles are widely possessed in the United States, Kavanaugh said.
Feinstein asked him how he could reconcile his views with the hundreds of school shootings, using assault weapons, that have taken place in recent history. How do you reconcile that? (She cited no source for that figure. School shootings remain statistically rare and those involving semi-automatic rifles even rarer. Here is a link to Education Weeks School Shootings tracker .)
Senator, of course the violence in schools is something we all detest, and want to do something about, Kavanaugh said. And there are lots of efforts I know underway to make schools safer. I know at my girls school they do a lot things now that are different from just a few years ago, in terms of trying to harden the school and make it safer for everyone.
Kavanaughs two daughters attend a Roman Catholic K-8 school in Washington, not far from the familys home in Chevy Chase, Md.
Handguns and semi-automatic rifles are weapons used for hunting and self-defense, but as you say senator, as you rightly say, they are used in a lot of violent crime, Kavanaugh said. They cause a lot of deaths. Handguns are used in lots of crimes that result in death, and so are automatic rifles.
Thats what makes this issue difficult, Kavanaugh continued. I understand the issue. But as a judge, my job as I saw it, was to follow the Second Amendment opinion of the Supreme Court, whether I agreed with it or disagreed with it.
Feinstein then moved on to another issue, abortion rights.
Guns a Flashpoint
It was the second day that Kavanaughs views on gun rights and their relation to school violence were a flashpoint at the hearing.
On Tuesday, the father of a student killed in the Parkland incident sought to shake hands and address Kavanaugh at the lunch break and believes he was rebuffed. Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was among the victims of the Feb. 14 shootings at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 students and staff members, was a guest of Feinstein at the hearing.
Kavanaughs White House handlers say that security agents intervened before the nominee realized who Guttenberg was. Guttenberg told Education Week that he did identify himself, and he was interviewed by the police after the encounter before being allowed to remain at the hearing. The incident went viral, with Guttenberg appearing on cable TV Monday night. He also retweeted a comment by Ron Klain, a longtime Democratic political aide, that said Ive managed Supreme Court nominations before. If I were in charge of the Kavanaugh nomination, hed be having breakfast with @fred_guttenberg .
On Wednesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, D-S.C., asked Kavanaugh what he might want to say to the Parkland father. Kavanaugh did not directly address his encounter with Guttenberg.
I want to reassure everyone that I base my decisions on the law, Kavanaugh said. But I do so with an awareness of the facts and the real-world consequences. I have not lived in a bubble. And I understand how passionately people feel about these issues, and l understand how people are affected by issues. And I understand the difficulty people have in America. I understand, for example, the situation of homeless people, because I see them regularly when I am serving meals.
Kavanaugh says he learned from reading To Kill a Mockingbird in 6th grade the lesson of standing in the shoes of others. He said he keeps his school version of the Harper Lee novel in his judicial chambers in Washington.
Photo: Brett M. Kavanaugh holds up a worn copy of the Constitution of the United States as he testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 5 during the second day of his confirmation hearings to replace retired Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.-- Andrew Harnik/AP
An art exhibition in Brazil called the Queer Museum was shut down last September after religious backlash, but has reopened this August.
Head of art school Parque Lage, Fabio Szwarcwald, resurrected the exhibit by starting a record-breaking crowdfunding page that raised over $327,000 to support the project. The 264 art pieces curated by Gaudencio Fidelis are now being presented at the school for free.
It is a very important moment for Brazilian democracy, a convincing demonstration that the most progressive sectors of society will not accept censorship. We havent seen an act of censorship of this size and severity since the dictatorship, Fidelis said to AFP.
Religious protestors claimed that the exhibit showed zoophilia, pedophilia, and blasphemy, raising signs that read God created man in his image; he created a man and a woman during Fidelis opening ceremony speech the second time around. Despite this, the reopened exhibit saw 7,000 visitors on its opening weekend, Brazil Reports said.
Beau Braden, DO, who owns and manages a clinic in Ave Maria, Fla., told The New York Times the state recently approved his plans to build a 25-bed microhospital for patients in southwest Florida. However, a larger area hospital is reportedly pulling out all the stops to prevent the facility from being built.
Here are six things to know:
1. Dr. Braden told The New York Times that the rural area of Collier County, Fla., boasts fewer hospital beds per person than Afghanistan. He said he sought to build a 25-bed facility to serve the roughly 50,000 people who live in the rural farming community of Immokalee, Fla., and nearby Ave Maria communities that lack access to 24-hour medical care, he said.
2. However, the communities' efforts to build the facility have been strongly opposed by Naples, Fla.-based NCH Healthcare System, which petitioned the state earlier this year to rescind its approval for the hospital. The state approved Dr. Braden's certificate of need application to build the facility in June.
3. NCH Healthcare argued in a 50-page opposition statement that a microshospital is "a project doomed to fail" and would siphon away patients and revenue from the system. Officials argued the system's two hospitals in Naples provide adequate care and medical resources to Immokalee residents.
4. NCH Healthcare, which did not respond to The New York Times' requests for comment, also questioned Dr. Braden's experience running a financially struggling clinic and whether he would be prepared to take on the responsibilities associated with running a small hospital that would predominantly serve uninsured individuals. Particular challenges facing the small hospital, like shrinking populations, financial strains and corporate consolidations, have caused similar rural facilities to shut down in recent years. An estimated 87 rural hospitals have closed since 2010, the report states.
5. Despite the challenges, Dr. Braden said the communities need a closer health facility. According to him, infant death rates in Immokalee rose 12 percent between 2015 and 2017, as did stroke deaths and out-of-hospital births, which rose more than 164 percent during the past three years.
6. With NCH Healthcare's challenge to the state's approval, Dr. Braden said it could take at least six months of hearings before the dispute is resolved. Legal bills from the ordeal could amount to at least $600,000, the report states. However, Dr. Braden said he refuses to back down.
"I refuse to stop," he told The New York Times. "[The people have] been trying to get a hospital in their community for 50 years. I'll bring all of what I can to make sure this injustice stops."
To access the full report, click here.
A health system's name and branding are becoming even more important amid the rise in healthcare consumerism and other industry trends.
However, when an organization does decide to take on a different moniker, it is not always an easy journey, especially if they have significant brand awareness that has been built up over the years. Various factors must be considered, including the organization's history and evolution.
Here, three health systems discuss why they changed their names.
Northwell Health
Great Neck, N.Y.-based North Shore-LIJ Health System became Northwell Health in 2016, nearly 20 years after the merger of North Shore Health System and Long Island Jewish Medical Center.
Northwell Health spokesperson Terence Lynam said North Shore-LIJ Health System no longer reflected the scope of the organization, as it now consists of more than 20 hospitals, including facilities outside of Long Island in New York City and Westchester County. He said the system's hospitals also grew to be a regional network of long-term care facilities, rehab, home care, hospice services and more than 665 outpatient facilities. Additionally, the system includes a medical school, ambulance transport system (including helicopter), graduate nursing school and research enterprise, called the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research.
"The feeling was we needed a name that was more reflective of the organization as it existed," said Mr. Lynam.
There were multiple options on the table. However, Northwell Health ended up being the favorite among leadership and the board. The new name became effective in January 2016.
"With the continuing shift in the national healthcare delivery system and growing emphasis on health and wellness promotion and disease prevention, we wanted a name that underscored our focus on keeping people well and better managing their health, rather than only treating them when they are sick or injured," he said. "So, the new name was an acknowledgment of North Shore-LIJ heritage, and we thought it better reflected efforts to guide consumers toward better health."
Along with the name change came a broad rebranding and marketing campaign launched in 2016. As part of the campaign, Northwell Health has worked to build recognition of its new name and clearly show how the organization has grown over the years. It also moved its headquarters from Great Neck to New Hyde Park, N.Y. Names of individual hospitals remained intact, although Northwell Health now appears as part of each facility's signage.
Two years after the campaign launch, Northwell Health is happy with awareness of the new name in communities it serves.
When asked to identify a top hospital in the area, 62 percent of Long Island residents and an average of 50 percent New York City-area residents in communities the organization serves mentioned Northwell Health.
"We're actually pleased with those numbers. We think they're pretty good," said Mr. Lynam.
"Obviously we continue to advertise and market the name. Next steps are building on what we've already done. That first year was especially important since we were starting from scratch and there was a heavy ad investment in trying to get the name out. Then after a year it was more about promoting the Northwell name instead and going back and referencing LIJ."
Atrium Health
Carolinas HealthCare System, a 45-hospital system based in Charlotte, N.C., changed its name to Atrium Health in February.
System spokesperson Chris Berger said the move is in line with the organization's mission: "To improve health, elevate hope and advance healing - for all."
Officials knew the system's footprint was in the Southeast, beyond North Carolina and South Carolina. Therefore, they wanted a name that fits the "for all" part of the mission, especially as the organization engaged in discussions with potential partners. On Feb. 8, one day after the name change, Atrium Health announced its intent to form a strategic combination with Macon, Ga.-based Navicent Health. The next month, it suspended merger discussions with Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Health Care.
"We'd been thinking about a name that could go with us into the future, and what that would look like, even during our UNC discussions," said Mr. Berger. Then, "we were going to make the Navicent Health announcement and knew it would be hard for any system outside the Carolinas to be able to join up with a system that had a geographic reference as part of the name."
The system sought a new name that was a real word and did not include a geographic reference. Mr. Berger said Atrium was chosen because it means a place filled with light, as well as a gathering place where diverse thinkers come together. It also is the chamber of the heart where each heartbeat begins.
Additionally, Mr. Berger noted Atrium Health is a short name, which has many branding benefits, including starting at the beginning of the alphabet.
Although the system changed its name, it updated and kept the well-known "Tree of Life" icon and teal color associated with the Carolinas HealthCare System brand.
"One important thing we have shared with the communities we serve is while we continue to evolve as an organization, we also will always hold true to our roots," he said.
Mr. Berger said patients went through the typical feelings when a change is made with something familiar. However, he said the overall reaction has been positive, and patients have gotten increasingly comfortable using the new vernacular.
"I think the big thing we wanted to make sure of is we found a name that reflects our system's evolution as we look to advance beyond traditional borders and care settings," he said. Additionally, "the 'for all' part of our mission truly means without borders. It's limitless. And changing our name allows our organization to grow and impact as many lives as possible to fulfill our mission."
Adventist Health System
Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based Adventist Health System, a 47-hospital, faith-based system, plans to change its name to AdventHealth, effective Jan. 2, 2019.
President and CEO Terry Shaw said talks about a name change began several years ago.
"We had an outside panel of experts come to review our five-year strategic plan and nothing in our strategic plan focused on branding," he said. "In their final report, they recommended we think about what branding would look like across all delivery sites and potential impact that could have in the market."
From there, Adventist Health System leaders considered various name options, but they ultimately chose AdventHealth. Mr. Shaw said the system's religious history, as well as its desire to be inclusive of every patient in every market and to unify its various market-based brands, contributed to the decision.
"We wanted something that would keep with our heritage but also be something that would represent something of value to anyone in the marketplace," he said.
"The sum of that is to be a consumer-focused organization that delivers Christ-centered, 'wholistic', best-practice care across the entire continuum and to do that in a way that the consumer is helped through the process and is not left to navigate that by themselves."
The organization spent the last year preparing for the rebrand and an overall business change.
As part of those efforts, the system expanded its spiritual resources into the outpatient setting. Now, there are providers in physician offices and urgent care centers asking patients questions about topics such as joy, love and peace. Mr. Shaw said the answers are recorded in the patient's medical record but can also result in a referral to Adventist Health System's spiritual care specialists. The expansion of spiritual resources is being phased in and is expected to be completed by January. Since the rollout began in May, there have been more than 1,500 referrals for spiritual care follow-up in the outpatient setting.
By June, the system also plans "to have every consumer in every one of our markets understand what we're doing and to experience care in a different way," said Mr. Shaw.
"I do believe most consumers are going to like the way we are changing how we're interfacing with them, and I think it will be very positive in the market and very positively received."
More articles on leadership:
11 healthcare layoffs reported in August
Mount Sinai launches its own TV show in NY
Judge quits St. Luke's board after investigation finds heart transplant safety issues
Registered nurses at 15 hospitals affiliated with Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare have voted to authorize their nurse negotiators to call a strike if issues the nurses have raised in ongoing contract negotiations remain unresolved.
The National Nurses Organizing Committee said Sept. 4 that the nurses are urging hospital management to address several issues, including nurse turnover rates. The nurses also want the hospitals to create a process to consistently comply with hospital staffing grids.
The 15 hospitals that voted to authorize the strike are in Florida, Missouri, Kansas, Texas and Nevada, and have a total workforce of 7,000 RNs.
"With this strike authorization vote, nurses are making it absolutely clear that we are ready to strike to ensure optimal care for our patients," said Jack Hood, an RN at Oak Hill Hospital in Brooksville, Fla., one of the hospitals included in the strike authorization vote. "From Florida to Nevada, we are united in our commitment to negotiating a contract that provides solutions to the issues we are raising, including turnover, recruitment and retention, and consistent compliance with staffing grids."
The strike authorization vote does not mean the nurses will go on strike, but it gives them the option to do so if they feel the issues they've raised aren't being addressed. If the nurses move forward with a strike, they will provide hospital management 10 days' notice to help ensure facilities can make appropriate preparations, according to the National Nurses Organizing Committee.
An HCA spokesperson told the Tampa Bay Times it's common for talk of strikes to emerge during contract negotiations.
"We have bargaining dates scheduled later this month and we look forward to the union's response to the proposal we provided to them back in July," the spokesperson told the Tampa Bay Times. "We want to assure our community that neither this nor any other action will ever come between us and our commitment to the high-quality care and services we offer our patients and this community on a daily basis."
See a full list of the hospitals that approved the strike authorization here.
More articles on human capital and risk:
Proposal to regulate California city's hospitals fails to make ballot
Michigan nurses union accuses Munson Medical Center of bargaining in bad faith
Vermont nurses lead negotiator quits talks, says union leaders forced her out
Traveling nurse Tonya Broughton jumped into action Sept. 4, after she found herself in the middle of a car chase in Nashville, Tenn., that ended in a fatal shooting and crash, according to WZTV Fox17.
Ms. Broughton and her daughter pulled behind the crashed car, grabbed her stethoscope and ran to the wreck. "[I]t wasjust chaos," she told WZTV Fox17.
Ms. Broughton was one of the first people to help the injured men in the car. She said she keeps her stethoscope in the car in case of emergencies.
"We had to take knives and cut the airbags, because he was literally shoved down into the floorboard," Ms. Broughton told WZTV Fox17. "He wasn't breathing. Once we got him up out of the floorboard, he was gasping for air."
Law enforcement said the driver died from a gunshot wound. The passenger was rushed to the hospital with unspecified injuries. The two men had thousands of dollars in cash with them in the car. Police are still investigating why the two men were being chased, and no arrests have been made in the case.
"When you do my line of work, you want to make sure someone is OK. You're always going to try to save someone else," Ms. Broughton told WZTV Fox17. "You're always going to put someone else's needs before yours."
More articles on patient flow:
After opening in January, Sherman-based Emergency Center of North Texas ceased all operations Sept. 1, according to the Herald Democrat.
When the freestanding emergency room opened it had 25 employees, including 13 physicians. It offered a wide range of ER services, including X-ray, CT-scans and ultrasounds.
"It's unfortunate to see any local medical care facility close its doors," Rob Moody, MD, a physician at another freestanding facility in Sherman told the Herald Democrat. "It's a tough environment right now from a business standpoint with the insurance companies."
Despite the closure of the emergency center, Sherman officials said they have been in talks with people who want to use the former ER to ensure there is a medical facility in the Sherman Crossroads development.
"In the meantime, work on the overarching development continues, with a nearby medical office building nearing completion," Sherman Community and Support Services Manager Nate Strauch told the Herald Democrat.
Calls requesting more details about the closure were not returned, according to the report.
Denver-based SCL Health Medical Group acquired Rocky Mountain Orthopaedic Associates in Grand Junction, Colo, according to The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.
Here are five things to know:
1. SCL Health will assist in administrative duties at Rocky Mountain Orthopaedic, according to Grand Junction-based St. Mary's Medical Center President Brian Davidson.
2. Surgeons from Rocky Mountain Orthopaedic have used St. Mary's operating rooms and served on call for its trauma services for more than 70 years.
3. Rocky Mountain Orthopaedic's staff is comprised of nine physicians, nine advanced practice professionals and 86 employees total.
4. The physicians at Rocky Mountain Orthopaedic join the more than 80 SCL Health physicians in the area.
5. Rocky Mountain Orthopaedic's clinical office will not move.
More articles on practice management:
New Atrium Health institute focuses on musculoskeletal care: 3 details
Orthopaedic & Spine Center breaks ground on ASC: 3 details
UMass, HealthLoop join forces to improve total joint replacement patients experience: 3 notes
Craigavon-based global pharmaceutical company Almac has created 63 jobs at Loughborough in Leicestershire.
Almac Pharma Services received 1m in funding from the University of Derby's Invest to Grow scheme to support the expansion.
The firm has redeveloped premises at the Charnwood campus outside the university town at a former base of drugs giant Astra Zeneca.
Graeme McBurney, Almac Pharma Services' managing director, said: "The support Invest to Grow offered was certainly a factor in our decision to invest in the Charnwood campus and expand the site."
The new jobs are part of the roll-out of 150 posts announced for Charnwood in 2015 as part of a 16m expansion. The company last week also announced the appointment of a site head for Charnwood. James Hurst joined Almac Pharma Services in 2008 as an analytical manager.
He is leaving the role of head of pharmaceutical development operations in Craigavon to take up the new post. The firm said it would be using the drug development and testing facilities at the site, carrying out similar work in drug research, development and manufacturing as its Craigavon headquarters.
The company employs nearly 5,000 people globally.
Republic book retailer Eason's Northern Ireland business returned to profit last year, new accounts from the company have shown.
Despite a difficult period for the retail sector here, the firm reported 148,000 in pre-tax profits in the 12 months to the end of January 2018.
It compares with a 578,000 pre-tax loss the previous year.
The accounts do confirm a slight dip in turnover, dropping from 17.8m to 15.9m in the past year.
The book and stationery retailer reduced its local presence to seven stores this year, shutting outlets in Craigavon and Newry.
The store in the Rushmere shopping centre shut in April, while trading ceased at the Buttercrane shopping centre in July.
It contributed to a cut in its staff numbers here from 120 to 107.
It's understood that the Newry and Craigavon stores were performing reasonably, but shut due to problems in securing suitable long-term tenancy agreements with the landlords.
However, it's believed that the closure of loss making outlets in Ballymena and Newtownards during 2017 has been reflected in the latest reporting.
Eason has confirmed that the four stores it owns in Northern Ireland will not form part of a major sell-off of 13 properties in the Republic, which it hopes will generate 60m (54m) over the next two to three years for its 220 shareholders.
The retailer sold its Belfast premises at 20 Donegall Place several years ago and took over the lease at 40-46 Donegall Place from rival WH Smith.
Eason currently retains ownership of four premises here in Lisburn, Bangor, Coleraine and Enniskillen.
The others in Newtownabbey, Londonderry and Belfast remain subject to lease arrangements.
It's a stark contrast to its property portfolio in the Republic, which the company has valued at around 80m.
The group is due to put a proposal before its shareholders on September 21, which would see it move to sell off 13 premises in the south.
However, the stores would be leased back and continue to trade as Eason.
In statement, the company said: "The board of Eason Holdings PLC has written to shareholders announcing plans to transfer 20m of capital to create a robust, financially independent retail business and to return the balance of excess capital to Eason shareholders, following a proposed divestment of group property assets."
While no Northern Ireland stores will be sold as part of the plan, Eason has said 2.4m in property assets here will be used to help capitalise its retail business.
Independent News & Media (INM) has said it intends to continue its business as normal in the aftermath of yesterday's decision by the High Court in Dublin to approve the appointment of inspectors to the company.
INM said its board would consider the 76-page ruling by Mr Justice Peter Kelly and the action the company might take in the interests of the business and its stakeholders.
INM's publications include newspapers the Belfast Telegraph, Irish Independent and the Herald.
"The board and the company's management intend to remain focused on the business and ensuring that the group's operations continue, so far as possible, to be conducted as normal," the firm said.
The statement made no mention of the possibility of an appeal of the ruling.
An appeal is thought to be unlikely.
Lawyers for INM and the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement will return to the court tomorrow, when there will be a hearing on the issue of costs.
Mr Justice Kelly said that if no stay is sought at that hearing, orders allowing the appointment of inspectors will take effect.
The Director of Corporate Enforcement is seeking its costs from the case, which included a three-day hearing of the matter in July, during which INM strongly opposed the corporate watchdog's application.
INM had warned the appointment of inspectors would be disproportionate and would have a seriously damaging impact on the company, its shareholders and employees.
Its chairman Murdoch MacLennan said in a court filing the board believed the company's very survival would be jeopardised if there was a general erosion of confidence, including a loss of advertiser and supplier confidence in the INM group, such as would follow from the appointment of inspectors.
In his ruling Mr Justice Kelly said he was not convinced on a consideration of the evidence that the consequences were as serious as are suggested by the company.
He said: "The appointment of inspectors is a serious matter and such a sledgehammer should not be used to crack a nut.
"What has been disclosed in the evidence before me is no nut.
"The appointment of inspectors to ascertain the truth of what has allegedly gone on in the company is well justified and is not disproportionate."
The boss of Ireland's largest hotel group has blasted a report criticising the Republic's special 9% Vat rate for the tourism sector.
But Pat McCann, chief executive of Dalata, which operates four hotels in Northern Ireland, insisted he has not given up hope that the rate will be retained in next month's budget in the Republic.
However, a return to a higher rate in the Republic would be cheered here, where tourism businesses are required to charge Vat at the standard 20% rate. Calls for a lower rate from the UK Treasury have not been successful.
A July report from the Department of Finance in Dublin said the 9% Vat rate introduced in 2011 was now a "significant deadweight" on the economy and that reverting to a 13.5% rate would not damage the tourism industry.
It said the reduced rate had cost the Republic's Exchequer 3.2bn between 2011 and 2018. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has also said it was time to move back to the 13.5% rate.
But the tourism sector has credited the 9% Vat rate with having helped to create tens of thousands of jobs.
Dalata operates three Maldron hotels here - in Belfast city centre, Londonderry and at Belfast International Airport. It also has a Clayton Hotel in Belfast.
Mr McCann claimed yesterday that the Irish Department of Finance report is "so imbalanced".
"It never mentions anywhere what has actually happened as a result of the Vat reduction," he said.
He added that for 2018, the Vat take from the 9% rate is "heading towards 1.1bn".
Mr McCann, speaking yesterday as Dalata reported strong first-half results, said that it should not be a proxy for how the wider Irish hotel sector is performing.
The group warned that if the rate reverts to 13.5%, the move would cut its annual revenue figure by about 2%.
Dalata said that its revenue in the first half of the year rose 10.6% to 180.6m.
The company announced it has agreed to buy a new four-star 276-room hotel in Manchester, which will operate as a Maldron.
Last week Dalata also announced that it had agreed a deal to pay 100m for a new hotel in London.
Le Collectif Cheikh Yassine a organise un certain nombre dactivites et de festivites pour les enfants de Gaza sous le theme La joie des enfants de Gaza pour lAid . Ces activites ont commence le premier jour de lAid et continue jusquau 4eme jour de lAid dans la bande de Gaza.
Plusieurs activites, ont ete organisees parmi lesquelles : des competitions recompensees par des prix, des jeux, des animations et des chants presentes par un groupe ainsi que des distributions de cadeaux et daides financieres.
Joanna in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul while making her new television programme Joannas Lumleys Silk Road Adventure
A recent visit from her granddaughter has got Joanna Lumley thinking. The famed actress - best known for her unforgettable portrayal of Patsy Stone in BBC's Absolutely Fabulous - is considering a change. A transition from glam to gran, if you will.
"My eldest granddaughter - she's 15 - came down to stay at the weekend with three friends. And it was absolute heaven," she begins.
"So I just thought, 'I'm going to be a little bit more of a granny', which involves eating a lot of cake and becoming quite big.
"I want to have one of those housecoat overalls," she declares, with a laugh. "A nice big one so I get a bit Demis Roussos about it."
While that sounds like a sight to behold, for now Lumley - whose two beloved granddaughters hail from her only son, Jamie - remains impossibly stylish.
Cooing over the London skyline when we meet, the 72-year-old runs rings around those decades younger than her: impeccably dressed, hair well-coiffed and, as always, as down-to-earth as they come.
"I rush about a bit," she says, excusing her age-defying looks. "And I live in a tall, thin house, so I don't go to the gym because it's five storeys high. Stairs, stairs, stairs, stairs, stairs..."
But the cake-scoffing granny era will have to wait its turn anyway. For Lumley has plenty in the pipeline - including another epic travelogue for ITV.
Joanna Lumley's Silk Road Adventure will see the British India-born star (whose grandfather was a diplomat and travelled along much of the same path) trail 7,000 miles across continents, deserts, mountains and steppe.
She's even dubbed the ancient trading route her "most adventurous and exotic journey yet".
"It was more than on the bucket list - it was stitched into the hem of my trousers," Lumley says of the voyage.
"It was eight countries; I'd been to two of them, I'd been to Venice and Turkey, but Uzbekistan, Kirghizstan, Azerbaijan, whoa?!
"How do you ever get there?" she questions. "Places like Uzbekistan, I just thought, 'What can it really be like?'
"It sounds as though it'd be a few old stones on a street and a dusty camel.
"But it's the most sophisticated place, with boulevards, tree-lined streets, opera houses, architecture. My preconceptions were dashed."
In fact, the four-part series covers a part of the world many of us - including her - are ignorant of, she notes.
"We're not sure where they border, we're not quite sure where the Black Sea is and where the Caspian Sea is, we're not sure about all of it," she reasons.
"But when you're travelling, then it all begins to click like a Rubik's Cube."
Do humbling experiences such as meeting local families, who happily exist with very little, leave her re-evaluating her life back in London?
"It does," she answers honestly. "Particularly when you're up in the mountains, you feel so well and the air is so clean, you go, 'God, we live a mad life'.
She follows: "But rather than leave it behind, I think it's good to escape from time to time.
"I've found a lot of people - and I am included in this - get so used to such speed that you miss it," she claims. "So after three months, you go, 'okay I'm feeling pretty good now, I'm looking forward to something'. It's just we tire out."
That said, Lumley - who's married to English conductor Stephen Barlow - does intend to halt her plans in favour of lying on a beach soon enough.
"I want to become completely mahogany," she suddenly announces. "I would like to be a scrawny old crow who's dark brown before I die," she says with a smile.
"Because the places we go to and what we do, we don't have time for sunbathing," she argues. "Plus we're usually in modest countries."
First, though, she has a 31-date, live tour to complete.
Kicking off in October, It's All About Me will see the legendary performer travel the UK and Ireland with an abundance of hilarious stories from her lengthy career -some of which have never been heard before.
Between this, acting work, travelogues and her avid charity work, is there anything else Lumley is keen to tick off? "Pretty much everything," she fires back. "It's like the more you know, the more you have to know.
Expand Close Joanna in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul while making her new television programme Joannas Lumleys Silk Road Adventure / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Joanna in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul while making her new television programme Joannas Lumleys Silk Road Adventure
"But what I would really like to do is to just do one part - act one part - where I come back and go, 'Pretty good' instead of, 'Oh my God, will we get away with that?'
"We all think like that," she insists. "No actor is convinced that they're fabulous."
What she will say, however, is she's become "less fearful" with age.
"A lot of it is to do with your own life," she says, addressing past concerns.
"'Will I be wrongly dressed?' 'Will I say the wrong thing?' 'Can I make ends meet?' All of those sorts of things. But you say, 'Yes you can'.
"But there are some things you can't ever get rid of and I call them 'the nameless dread'," confides the Tony and Bafta award winner.
"It comes back out of the blue when you're completely happy, you've got enough money, everybody loves you," she adds. "You wake up in the middle of the night and it's worse than any horror film.
"Maybe it's a kind of hyper-anxiety, but I'm not really anxious. It's more than that."
She shares: "I think if you have it a lot, it becomes depression. I think that's when people wake up in the morning and their lives are pitch black, where a nameless dread flits in and out."
One constant force in Lumley's life, it seems, is cult hit comedy Ab Fab.
"Jennifer [Saunders] and I never have quite put the baton down," she says with glee. "We're always brewing something, always thinking of something.
"But we've always seen ourselves as very old women, so we know no matter what we look like, we'll hopefully never be quite as revolting as they are.
"And secondly we'll never die," she finishes with a smile. "So as long as we're alive, they're alive."
Joanna Lumley's Silk Road Adventure starts on ITV next Wednesday, 9pm. As part of her It's All About Me tour, she appears at the Waterfront Hall, Belfast, on October 6 at 7.30pm
Co Londonderry is a prime location for those who enjoy an aquatic adventure. Although the crashing waves of the Causeway Coastal Route make for a great Atlantic splash, further inland the Maiden City provides the ultimate opportunity to enjoy a more relaxed waterside retreat.
1. Only fifteen minutes from the historic City Walls, stay at the multi-award winning Da Vincis four-star hotel. Boasting Derrys largest guest bedrooms, the accommodation is a burst of urban living in the rural surrounds. The contemporary hotel is stylishly furnished and located close to the banks of the River Foyle, with peaceful views over the calm waters to be enjoyed on the short walk into the city centre.
Expand Close Da Vinci's / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Da Vinci's
2. Before making your way towards the bustling streets of the Walled City, take a short scenic drive across the Foyle Bridge towards Beech Hill Country House where you will be surrounded by beautiful wooded countryside. At the foothills of the Sperrins and nestled in the Faughan Valley, Beech Hill Country House offers you the unique opportunity to explore the surrounding secluded woodland on horseback.
Expand Close Beech Hill Country House / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Beech Hill Country House
The Georgian elegance of the 18th Century country house is reflected in the magnificent grounds through which you will travel, with the sound of horses hooves accompanying the trickling waters of the forest to provide an ambient soundtrack. Close to the River Faughan, you will pass by ponds and scurrying wildlife along the country path with your knowledgeable guide sharing their insights to the landscape and local characters of the area.
3. After a few hours in the saddle, return to the city of Derry for a casual dining experience with fine flair. Browns In Town, located nearby the Harbour Square and River Foyle, offers a modern Irish menu with local ingredients at its heart. The Michelin Guide recommended venue is a continual hit with foodies and is popular with locals and visitors alike.
Expand Close Browns In Town / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Browns In Town
The restaurant combines delicious dishes with trendy decor and with multi-award-winning Chef Ian Orr at the helm of the busy kitchen, all guests are sure to enjoy a gastronomic treat. Browse through the menu of the ambient-lit establishment and choose from the mouth-watering options, including the signature Browns Burger or regionally-sourced Seafood Chowder accompanied by home-made bread and Eglinton butter. Accompany your meal with a traditional cocktail or craft-brewed beer before debating whether to opt for one of the delicately delectable desserts.
4. Ahead of taking the scenic route back to your hotel, make a pit stop at Sandinos on Water Street and nab a table outside to enjoy a riverside nightcap. The live music venue is popular with artists and musicians, ranging from lively traditional through to smooth jazz and world music from across the globe. The popular cafe bar is the perfect location to round off your night.
Expand Close Sardinos / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Sardinos
5. Awaken refreshed and relaxed after a restful nights sleep at Da Vincis Hotel and pay a visit to nearby Primrose on the Quay for a delicious breakfast. Using only the finest local meats from their own family-run Breslin Butchers and baked goods from their scratch bakery, you are guaranteed the freshest brunch with a picturesque backdrop at Primrose. The vibrant City quay is the ideal spot to enjoy a crisp morning with a coffee before drawing your trip to Derry to a close.
Expand Close Primrose / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Primrose
Other nearby attractions
Brickwork Restaurant
Within the heart of the Walled City, Brickwork is an independent and locally-owned casual dining establishment serving up fabulous food using locally sourced ingredients. The quirky venue features low ambient lighting and a fusion of traditional dishes with international cuisine.
The City Hotel
The City Hotel is perched in Harbour Square at the heart of Derry city, with panoramic views over the River Foyle. Only steps away from the famous Peace Bridge and iconic City Walls, the award-winning hotel is also home to Thompsons on the River restaurant which offers tasty dishes in a stylish setting.
River Foyle Stand Up Paddle Boarding
To truly experience the citys waters from a unique perspective, engage in a stand-up paddle board session along the River Foyle. Embark upon a golden hour adventure at sunset to witness the lights reflecting off the glistening waters for a truly magical experience, as you slowly explore the maritime history of the area with your experienced guide.
For more of whats on offer on the banks of Derry's rivers, visit www.discovernorthernireland.com.
A Belfast car trader who claimed to be a private seller has been fined a total of 1,800 at Belfast Magistrates Court.
Compensation was also ordered to be paid to the value of 5,280 to the consumers involved.
In a case brought by the Trading Standards Service of the Department for the Economy, Gareth Campbell of Church Road, Castlereagh, Belfast pleaded guilty to nine charges under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.
Trading Standards Service had received a number of complaints from consumers who had bought cars from Mr Campbell.
When selling the cars he had told the buyers that he, or family members, had owned them for a number of years, which was untrue.
In one instance he also failed to declare that a car had been a category D total loss. When approached by consumers who had experienced problems with vehicles Mr Campbell told them that the cars had been sold in a private capacity and he would do nothing for them.
Enquiries showed that Mr Campbell had bought over 300 cars from a local car auction over a two year period and had advertised many of them on the Gumtree website as a private seller.
Kevin McNamara, of the Trading Standards Service, said: These cars were being sold as long held by Mr Campbells family whereas this was far from the truth. He was content to make considerable profit but unwilling to fulfil his obligations as a normal trader with regard to faulty goods.
Anyone who believes they have been sold a vehicle in similar circumstances should contact Consumerline on 0300 123 6262.
A convicted child killer last seen on a mobility scooter who failed to return to Maghaberry Prison on Sunday remains at large.
John Clifford (56) had been released from Burren house on the Crumlin Road for an external appointment but failed to return.
The facility houses 22 inmates nearing the end of their sentences and is a satellite unit of Maghaberry.
Clifford was jailed for the brutal rape and murder of his eight-year-old niece Sue Ellen Clifford in 1988.
He had been trusted to babysit her that evening at her north Belfast home, but instead sexually assaulted and strangled her before dumping the child's body on a railway line.
The trauma later caused her mother Martha Adair to take her own life less than two years later.
Clifford is described as 1.75m tall with green eyes and fair hair.
Of a medium build, he was last seen wearing a black beanie style hat, heavy black coat, grey trousers and black dress shoes.
He was last seen using a distinctive three-wheel mobility scooter with the registration EXZ4974.
His other offences include cruelty to children and several charges of indecent assault on a male.
In 2010, the family of his victim spoke publicly about their fears that Clifford would kill again.
Sue Ellen's sister Deborah Adair said at the time: "Mark my words, he will rape or murder another child. John Clifford is pure evil."
"That man destroyed my family - he didn't only murder my sister Sue Ellen, he was responsible for the suicide of my mummy." It was also reported that at the time of the murder Clifford was under death threat from loyalist paramilitaries.
The killer was previously released in 2005, with his location kept a secret, but was sent back to prison after breaching the terms of his probation.
A spokesperson for the NI Prison Service said: "The Prison Service is investigating the circumstances surrounding the abscondment of John Clifford.
"At this time we are focused on returning him to custody and we would ask anyone with information to contact the PSNI immediately."
Members of the public or anyone with information on his whereabouts has been asked to call police immediately on 101.
The bullet-riddled minibus near Whitecross in South Armagh where 10 Protestant workmen were shot dead (PA)
The detective who led the latest investigation into the Kingsmill massacre says he feels remorse he could not get justice for the bereaved families, an inquest has heard.
Ten workmen were murdered in the mass shooting in south Armagh on January 5, 1976. The atrocity has been attributed to the Provisional IRA.
No one has ever been convicted over the murders.
Detective Chief Inspector Ian Harrison told an inquest sitting in Belfast it was a horrendous situation for the bereaved families.
Expand Close Detective Chief Inspector Ian Harrison was tasked with leading a fresh investigation in 2016 (PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Detective Chief Inspector Ian Harrison was tasked with leading a fresh investigation in 2016 (PA)
I sit here with remorse today that my investigation has not given the families the justice they deserve, he said.
If I could change the situation I would.
Mr Harrison was tasked with leading a fresh investigation into the atrocity in 2016 after a palm print, found in a van police believe was used by the murderers, was successfully matched.
The palm print was collected in 1976 with attempts made to match it using police database systems in 2010 and 2014, but these were unsuccessful.
Earlier during the hearing on Wednesday, Mr Harrison put this down to system and human error.
Following the prints eventual successful matching, a 59-year-old man was arrested by police in Newry, Co Down. He was questioned and a file was sent to the Public Prosecution Service.
In February 2017, the PPS announced it would not be pursuing a case against the man due to insufficient evidence.
Mr Harrison read a section of the report he submitted to the PPS to the inquest.
Expand Close Posters of the ten protestant workmen killed in the massacre on display at the Family Research and Policy Unit offices in Markethill, Co Armagh (PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Posters of the ten protestant workmen killed in the massacre on display at the Family Research and Policy Unit offices in Markethill, Co Armagh (PA)
It revealed some difficulty proving whether the van had been used by the gunmen, due to a lack of witnesses and a lack of firearms residue inside the van, which was likely to have transported 11 heavily armed men thought to have fired more than 100 rounds at the scene.
Mr Harrison said he believes it is more likely than not the van was the one used by the terrorists, but there are no witness accounts that can place it at the scene.
There is also a lack of certainty over how the palm print came to be in the van.
Mr Harrison added: We were not able to discount that the palm print had been placed there innocently.
The man who was arrested, referred to in court as S54, was asked to account for how his palm print was found in the van. He made no comment during police interviews.
The inquest also heard the suspect was described in police intelligence report as dangerous.
An old school, very dangerous terrorist who would be familiar with police procedures. He should be treated with caution, the inquest heard.
Expand Close Alan Black, the sole survivor of the 1976 attack (PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Alan Black, the sole survivor of the 1976 attack (PA)
Alan Black, who suffered 18 gunshot wounds and was the sole survivor of the atrocity, was in the public gallery with a number of the families of the 10 who were killed.
Kingsmill was one of the most shocking incidents in Northern Irelands past.
Republican terrorists stopped a minibus carrying a group of Protestant textile workers off a bus, lined them up and shot them on a roadside.
Two of the cars that were damaged in the Riverside area of Dunmurry yesterday
Six cars were damaged early yesterday morning after two reports of arson in the Dunmurry and Lisburn areas.
The first incident was reported shortly before 3am in the Riverside area of Dunmurry.
The PSNI said two cars were set alight with the flames spreading to a third car.
"Colleagues from Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service attended the scene and dealt with the fire," police said.
"It is believed that an accelerant was used during the incident and enquiries are ongoing."
The second incident occurred two miles away in the Barbour Lodge area of Lisburn and was reported at 5.10am.
Two cars were set on fire outside a property with another car also damaged.
The PSNI said it is investigating a possible link between the incidents.
The former head of the Army has revealed he was quizzed by police in connection with the death of a paramilitary gunman during the Troubles 45 years ago.
For the first time, General Sir Lord Dannatt disclosed that investigators questioned him in the hours before his official retirement as Chief of the General Staff on August 28, 2009.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Lord Dannatt said he was "irritated" and "concerned" at being questioned by two investigators from the PSNI's Historical Enquiries Team over the death of a loyalist gunman who was shot by the Army in Belfast in 1973.
The 67-year-old was interviewed for 45 minutes as a witness.
He was a lieutenant commanding a platoon of The Green Howards when they were ambushed by loyalist paramilitaries in east Belfast.
One of his men - now almost 80 - shot and killed one of the terrorists while two men in the platoon were shot and wounded and one subsequently died.
The death was investigated at the time, with soldiers told they had no case to answer, but the police inquiry was reopened a decade ago in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement.
Lord Dannatt, who was head of the Army for three years, was awarded the Military Cross for exemplary gallantry in leading his men.
He said it was deeply worrying that ageing veterans, many in their 70s and even 80s, were still being hounded over events that occurred nearly 50 years ago.
"That knock on the door is not confined to elderly retired paratroopers, riflemen and cavalrymen," he said.
Recalling his interview, he added: "In as polite a way as possible, I explained that if the soldier standing next to you was shot dead, this might just explain why some of my soldiers returned fire.
"Terrorists must accept the consequences of their actions as the military and civil police concluded at the time.
"The investigation was a ridiculous waste of time.
"I didn't mind being quizzed, but what if I was a nervous soldier in my 70s? I would genuinely be very concerned about why I was being investigated again."
Lord Dannatt also highlighted what he called "troubling issues" with the retrospective investigations into British troops.
"While the Army kept extremely good operational records, the terrorists did not," he stressed.
"This makes a very uneven playing field on which to conduct these retrospective investigation.
All allegations were investigated at the time, he added, arguing that revisiting evidence was unlikely to provide greater clarity.
The Governments consultation on addressing the legacy of past violence in Northern Ireland has been extended by three weeks.
Those responding said they needed more time, Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley said.
The deadline has been shifted from September 10 to October 5.
The deadline to have your say on proposals to address the legacy of #NorthernIrelands past has been extended to Friday 5 October.
https://t.co/sc5dDK2w8p#LegacyConsultation pic.twitter.com/LyOcbjEy1G Northern Ireland Office (@NIOgov) September 5, 2018
Ms Bradley said: The legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland is an enormously sensitive and emotive issue, and I want to make sure everyones voice is heard as we move forward.
I have listened to those who want to take a little bit more time to consider their responses particularly those individuals who have been most affected by the Troubles, including victims and survivors and former police officers and veterans and I am happy to extend the deadline so that they can have their say.
The UK Government launched the consultation, Addressing the Legacy of Northern Irelands Past, on May 11 to find the best way to meet the needs of victims and survivors and to help people address the impact of the Troubles.
It touched on areas like recovering more information, seeking justice and acknowledgement and helping Northern Ireland move towards long-term peace and stability.
A red, green, blue composite image of the Large Magellanic Cloud made from radio wavelength observations at 123MHz, 181MHz and 227MHz. At these wavelengths, emission from cosmic rays and the hot gases belonging to the star forming regions and supernova remnants of the galaxy are visible.
A radio telescope in outback Western Australia has been used to observe radiation from cosmic rays in two neighbouring galaxies, showing areas of star formation and echoes of past supernovae.
The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope was able to map the Large Magellanic Cloud and Small Magellanic Cloud galaxies in unprecedented detail as they orbit around the Milky Way.
By observing the sky at very low frequencies, astronomers detected cosmic rays and hot gas in the two galaxies and identified patches where new stars are born and remnants from stellar explosions can be found.
The research was published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, one of the world's leading astronomy journals.
International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) astrophysicist Professor Lister Staveley-Smith said cosmic rays are very energetic charged particles that interact with magnetic fields to create radiation we can see with radio telescopes.
"These cosmic rays actually originate in supernova remnants--remnants from stars that exploded a long time ago," he said.
"The supernova explosions they come from are related to very massive stars, much more massive than our own Sun.
"The number of cosmic rays that are produced depends on the rate of formation of these massive stars millions of years ago."
The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are very close to our own Milky Way--less than 200,000 light years away--and can be seen in the night sky with the naked eye.
ICRAR astronomer Dr Bi-Qing For, who led the research, said this was the first time the galaxies had been mapped in detail at such low radio frequencies.
"Observing the Magellanic Clouds at these very low frequencies--between 76 and 227MHz--meant we could estimate the number of new stars being formed in these galaxies," she said.
"We found that the rate of star formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud is roughly equivalent to one new star the mass of our Sun being produced every ten years.
"In the Small Magellanic Cloud, the rate of star formation is roughly equivalent to one new star the mass of our Sun every forty years."
Included in the observations are 30 Doradus, an exceptional region of star formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud that is brighter than any star formation region in the Milky Way, and Supernova 1987A, the brightest supernova since the invention of the telescope.
Professor Staveley-Smith said the results are an exciting glimpse into the science that will be possible with next-generation radio telescopes.
"It shows an indication of the results that we will see with the upgraded MWA, which now has twice the previous resolution," he said.
Furthermore, the forthcoming Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will deliver exceptionally fine images.
"With the SKA the baselines are eight times longer again, so we'll be able to do so much better," Professor Staveley-Smith said.
Original Publication:
'A Multi-Frequency Radio Continuum Study of the Magellanic Clouds. I. Overall Structure and Star Formation Rates', published in The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on September 4th, 2018. Available at http://www.icrar.org/cosmic-rays
Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.
The couple cannot be named for legal reasons.
A husband and wife are to stand trial over allegations their two sons were subjected to sexual abuse and cruelty, a judge has ordered.
The couple, from Co Antrim, appeared together at Belfast Magistrates' Court accused of a series of historical offences.
Neither defendant can be named after reporting restrictions were imposed to protect the alleged victims' identities.
The man, aged 61, faces two charges of child cruelty.
His 59-year-old wife is charged with nine counts of indecent assault on a male.
She is further accused of having "wilfully assaulted, ill treated and neglected" one of the sons.
The alleged offences were committed over a decade-long period during the 1980s and 1990s.
One of the complainants was present in court for the preliminary enquiry proceedings.
Although the couple did not call witnesses or give evidence at this stage, their lawyers indicated the charges are denied.
However, defence representatives did not contest prosecution submissions that the pair have a prima facie case to answer.
Deputy District Judge Trevor Browne granted a Crown application to have both accused sent for Crown Court trial.
He also agreed to the reporting restrictions after a defence barrister confirmed: "The allegations relate to a family setting."
The couple were then released on continuing bail to return to court on a date to be fixed.
A Londonderry grandmother who faced a torrent of abuse about her appearance and religion outside her home said she is willing to meet the youths who taunted her to "educate them on what it's like to live with cancer".
Norma, who is battling incurable multiple myeloma and awaiting a stem cell transplant, said the youths called her "baldy" and "a hun".
It happened during her birthday on Sunday after she had mustered up the courage to go out for the first time without her head scarf.
This was three weeks after her hair fell out due to chemotherapy.
She said she broke down in tears as the youths shouted cruel abuse and hasn't slept since.
But Norma, who did not want to reveal her surname, added she has been overwhelmed by the support she received after her story appeared in the Belfast Telegraph. She has received flowers and hundreds of emails and messages from strangers as she recovers from her ordeal.
Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, the SDLP's John Boyle, also paid Norma a visit, bringing her a birthday card and gift. He also said he would "walk with her to the shop any day of the week".
Norma said: "I was very upset yesterday but I'm happier today. I have been getting a lot of messages of support from complete strangers on social media. I have had flowers delivered to me and everyone saying how they admire my courage and to keep going, that they think I'm beautiful.
"That's a big boost for my confidence. It's overwhelming, people who I have never met are encouraging me to go out without my scarf. I want to meet with the young people who shouted abuse at me. I don't know if it will happen but I will meet them so that they can apologise to me.
"I think that may make them see sense. I would ask them why they did it."
Mr Boyle said he recalls his mother's trauma of losing her hair as a cancer patient.
"It feeds into that sense of who she was as a woman," he said.
"We are all simple, ordinary human beings who just want to get on with our lives. That's what Norma wants to do. As mayor of this city I want to encourage Norma to continue to do that and if it requires, I will walk to the shop with her to make sure she does get to do that."
Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald has defended her apparent flip-flop on a border poll - insisting the party has been consistent on its desire for reunification.
At the end of July Ms McDonald said she didn't think that the middle of the turmoil and uncertainty thrown up by Brexit was a good time for a border poll.
However, less than 24 hours later she voiced her support for such a poll as soon as possible.
Ms McDonald told RTE's Good Morning programme she had been consistent.
She said: "It is hardly a secret that Sinn Fein want a united Ireland, and of course we want a border poll.
"Not only do I want us to secure a referendum, I want us to win it. I have said consistently, that a chaotic or crash Brexit is not the ideal acoustic, it is not the ideal background noise for what needs to be a very reasoned national debate.
"However, if the British Government insist on crashing out of the European Union there will have to be a referendum on the Union because the British could not inflict that level of jeopardy and damage on this country.
"I have said that to Theresa May on the first occasion that I met her as party leader. I said to her: 'We need to talk about this issue, we need to talk about the reunification, we need to talk about your Brexit plans and you need to understand the consequences of your actions'. We want the border poll, we want to achieve it as soon as possible.
"I don't want it to happen as a consequence of a crash Brexit, because that is bad for Ireland - North and South - and yes I want a respectful debate in which nobody has a veto, but in which we set out very clearly to maximise consent."
Ms McDonald also voiced her support and that of Sinn Fein for the new Garda Commissioner Drew Harris.
She added: "Not alone does he have my support, but he has my wish for success because I do not want to see more failure within An Garda Siochana.
"He brings with him deep reservations, particularly from victims and survivors of the conflict who have raised valid and legitimate concerns about his involvement in blocking families from getting to the truth.
"The Garda Commissioner has the full support of Sinn Fein, we support policing the length and breadth of this island, but there are issues and I raised these before Drew Harris took up his position.
"There needs to be answers for these families and I hope to meet with the Commissioner very soon."
Natural gas supplier Firmus has announced a price hike of 12% for its more than 85,000 customers in Northern Ireland.
The tariff increase will take effect next month.
Firmus has around 50,000 domestic and business customers in Greater Belfast area and more than 38,000 customers in 10 towns.
We do understand that price increases are always unwelcome and so we act on behalf of consumers to ensure any changes to the tariff are fully justifiedJenny Pyper, Utility Regulator
Announcing the price rise, Firmus Energy managing director Michael Scott said: We know that price stability is important for our customers and regrettably this increase is unavoidable.
He said Firmus continually monitored and reviewed its tariffs to ensure customers were getting the best prices possible.
The typical household bill in the Greater Belfast area will increase 5.47 per month, while customers in the 10 towns will see their bills rise by 6.25 per month.
The towns include Coleraine, Craigavon, Limavady, Londonderry and Newry, among others.
The Consumer Council said the tariff increase was a further blow for consumers following recent increase by the three largest electricity suppliers in Northern Ireland.
Head of energy policy Richard Williams said: This is unwelcome news for Firmus Energy customers, following a 6.8% increase in the 10 Towns area and 8.8% increase in Greater Belfast earlier this year.
Mr Williams said he would encourage customers in the Greater Belfast area to shop around and get the best possible deal.
However, customers in the 10 towns do not have that option as Firmus Energy is the sole supplier available to them.
Mr Williams said the council would like to see other gas licence holders enter the market so that those consumers can benefit from competition.
Utility Regulator chief executive Jenny Pyper said: We do understand that price increases are always unwelcome and so we act on behalf of consumers to ensure any changes to the tariff are fully justified.
She added: The main reason for this increase is due to the significant rise in global gas costs, which make up the largest portion of customer bills, since the tariff was last set earlier this year in April.
A small rise in the cost of transmission charges has also contributed to the tariff increase.
The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Karen Bradley has announced the deadline for responses to the consultation on the legacy of the Troubles has been extended by three weeks.
The move comes after political representatives and families of victims said they needed more time to respond.
The deadline has been moved to Friday October 5.
The Secretary of State said: The legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland is an enormously sensitive and emotive issue, and I want to make sure everyones voice is heard as we move forward.
"I have listened to those who want to take a little bit more time to consider their responses - particularly those individuals who have been most affected by the Troubles, including victims and survivors and former police officers and veterans - and I am happy to extend the deadline so that they can have their say.
The UK Government launched the consultation, which seeks to address the legacy of the Troubles, on May 11.
It aims to find the best way to meet the needs of victims and survivors and to help people address the impact of the Troubles and to provide long-term peace.
DUP leader Arlene Foster welcomed the announcement.
Mrs Foster said, This is welcome news for many victims who wish to participate fully in the consultation process. We called for the government to publish the consultation and that it must be a victim-led process.
"It is a detailed document and many people who wish to participate have not yet been able to do so. I hope this extra time announced by the Secretary of State will ensure that all those who wish to register their views will now be able to do so.
"Victims deserve and need a new, proper and full investigatory process. The key question is how best to do that and to deliver justice. The status quo is utterly unacceptable- it is only innocent victims who are not seeing any level of progress. I hope victims will make their voice loud and clear on how justice denied can become justice delivered.
Police issued an updated photo of John Clifford in their appeal to help track him down.
An on-the-run child killer has been spotted at a Northern Ireland train station.
John Clifford remains unlawfully at large after failing to return to Maghaberry Prison on Sunday.
Clifford (56) had been released to attend an appointment but failed to return. His offences include murder, indecent assaults and cruelty to children.
He was last seen using a distinctive three-wheel mobility scooter with the registration plate EXZ4974, which has since been found.
Police in an update in their appeal to help trace him said they believe he was spotted boarding a train at Lanyon Place Station - formerly Central Station - on Sunday just after 1pm.
He was wearing a dark-coloured beanie-style hat, with glasses and a dark heavy coat and was carrying a dark-coloured backpack. He is 1.75m tall with green eyes and fair hair. He is of medium build with a fresh complexion.
Detective Inspector Michael McDonnell said: I would like to thank those members of the public who have contacted us with information.
"I would again appeal to anyone who may have seen him, or who may have information about his whereabouts to contact us immediately on 101.
I would also appeal directly to John to hand himself in.
A spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Prison Service said: The Prison Service remains focused on returning him to custody and we would ask anyone with information to contact the PSNI.
Clifford was originally jailed in 1989 for murdering his niece Sue Ellen.
He raped and strangled the eight-year-old, before leaving her on a deserted railway line in 1988.
He was freed in 2005 but thrown back behind bars in 2007 for breaching the terms of his probation.
There are currently 10 people listed as being unlawfully at large from the Northern Ireland prison service.
More details can be found at www.justice-ni.gov.uk/unlawfully-at-large/
The former permanent secretary of Stormont's Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (Deti) has claimed that former DUP Enterprise Minister Jonathan Bell "covertly" recorded their conversations in a move which he branded "profoundly disturbing".
In a written statement published online as part of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Inquiry, Andrew McCormick claims that Mr Bell also admitted to recording conversations with his then party colleague, Carla Lockhart MLA.
Dr McCormick, who gave evidence to the inquiry yesterday, accused Mr Bell in his statement of "seeking reinforcement for his own position, which he clearly intended to use to establish the credibility of his stance in going to the BBC" (in an interview with Stephen Nolan) rather than "acting to protect my interests and those of other civil servants".
He said that the conversations with Mr Bell took place on December 11 and 12, 2016.
He also claimed that when he confronted Mr Bell outside the Senate Chamber on January 19, 2017 after a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) evidence session, Mr Bell responded that he "had been told that he was entitled to record conversations if he wished" - a view Dr McCormick "did not accept".
Dr McCormick, who became Deti's most senior civil servant in July 2014, says in his statement that he had been told at a meeting with DUP minister Simon Hamilton and party special adviser (Spad) John Robinson on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 that they "suspected" his meeting with Mr Bell "had been secretly recorded".
He added that he did not know how they knew, but that he "understood that the suggestion was that Jonathan Bell had previously acted in the same way in some other context or contexts".
He continued: "I note that Jonathan Bell avers in his statement (at paragraph 45) that he also recorded conversations with Carla Lockhart MLA.
"I further note that the Inquiry's Section 21 Notice does not pose the direct question to Jonathan Bell to divulge all of the conversations that he may have covertly recorded in this way.
"I found Jonathan Bell's actions in covertly recording our conversations profoundly disturbing, as it showed that the nature of the conversations was very different to the impression I had formed.
"Indeed, far from acting to protect my interests and those of other civil servants (as Jonathan Bell said in both the phone call on 11 December 2015 and the meeting in Netherleigh (Deti's headquarters) on 12 December 2015), he had apparently been seeking reinforcement for his own position, which he clearly intended to use to establish the credibility of his stance in going to the BBC.
"Jonathan Bell then used quotations from me in his interview with Stephen Nolan on 15 December 2016 and in his contributions to the Assembly debates in January 2017: at no stage in the conversations on 11 and 12 December 2016 had he indicated that he wanted to attribute any advice or comment to me.
"I confronted Jonathan Bell with my sense of grievance at his actions in a conversation outside the Senate Chamber on 19 January 2017 after the PAC evidence session.
"He said that he had been told that he was entitled to record conversations if he wished. I said I did not accept that view."
Mr Bell was suspended from the DUP in December 2016 following outspoken comments about party leader Arlene Foster's handling of the RHI scheme.
Meanwhile, in a text message released as part of the inquiry, Dr McCormick described it as a "great relief" that Mr Bell would not be travelling to the USA for a St Patrick's day event.
The message, sent by Dr McCormick to the then head of the Civil Service Sir Malcolm McKibbin and to former DUP special adviser Alastair Hamilton, followed a previous decision not to include Mr Bell in a ministerial visit to the US as part of the 2016 St Patrick's Day celebrations.
In a witness statement posted online as part of the RHI Inquiry on Monday night, Dr McCormick says he was "told that at one stage it had been envisaged that the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister would lead one programme and the Deti Minister a separate programme which would be directed to a range of additional locations".
However, he says that a week or two before St Patrick's Day 2016 he was told by Mr Hamilton that "plans had been scaled back and that Jonathan Bell would not be required to travel".
Dr McCormick said there were "indications that Jonathan Bell resented this decision" and he "inferred that as a direct consequence" of this he "delayed providing routine authorisation of Invest NI briefing and travel in support of the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister".
Dr McCormick revealed to Mr McKibbin that he had considered seeking a ministerial direction to avoid cancellation of the trip.
On March 14, 2016, Dr McCormick texted Mr McKibbin and Mr Hamilton that Mr Bell was "clearing" his diary to go to New York after being invited to a St Patrick's Day breakfast. The message stated: "For your eyes only: JB has been invited through TIL to ICCUSA breakfast on 17th in NYC and is clearing diary to go. Taking Lisa, home Sunday. Can live with it if he uses BA points to pay for flights!"
But the following day, Mr Bell texted Dr McCormick: "New York off flights gone J."
Four minutes later, Dr McCormick texted Mr McKibbin and Mr Hamilton, stating: "Minister can't get flights so not travelling. Great relief."
The messages are among a raft of new information which has come to light as the RHI hearing continues, including bullying allegations made against Mr Bell made by his Spad Timothy Cairns, notably that Mr Bell "tried to break his finger and swung a punch at him".
Dr McCormick said that he was "not aware of these allegations before seeing the references to them in the inquiry documents" and "had absolutely no personal experience of" Mr Bell "exerting (or attempting to exert) untoward pressure or bullying, as others have alleged."
Elsewhere, Dr McCormick reveals that Deti and Invest NI felt a trip by Mr Bell to the US in January 2016 to lead an Invest NI Trade Mission "had not gone well".
The statement refers to "several awkward incidents" which it says "arose in relation to travel to the USA", and Dr McCormick noted that "in a number of subsequent conversations with Invest NI colleagues, they commented on Jonathan Bell's limited contribution to the projection of Northern Ireland's interests in relation to Foreign Direct Investment and trade (indeed they had been aware of his limited capacity to contribute effectively, and the risk of him making inappropriate or unhelpful comments even before the trip took place)."
The statement says that Mr Bell was "visibly tired at a key meeting on Friday 28 January 2016" and Dr McCormick says he was "told later that Jonathan Bell had had quite a late night" and it was his "impression" that he was consequently "unable to participate fully in the meeting in a constructive way".
Dr McCormick's statement also says that there was a "dispute between Jonathan Bell and Arlene Foster" relating to an invitation to a Wrightbus event featuring the then-Mayor of London Boris Johnson in February 2016, and to which Mr Bell did not receive an invite.
In a letter dated March 7, 2016, Mr Bell asked Dr McCormick to "investigate" why an invitation had not been received by his department.
In a further letter on March 10 to the senior civil servant, Mr Bell said Dr McCormick had told him that "the First Minister had instructed the Head of the NI Civil Service not to proceed with the investigation and you as permanent secretary informed me that it was your advice 'not to proceed for my own good.'"
Mr Bell requested that Dr McCormick "clarify what you meant by 'not to proceed for my own good?" and asked that "all future advice from you is given in writing to me while I investigate this matter legally."
However, in an email to Mr Bell's private secretary Sean Kerr, private secretary to the Secretary of State Fiona McCoy said Mr Bell's omission seems to have been "a genuine mistake".
In correspondence to Mr Bell, Dr McCormick says he understands that the First Minister and Deputy First Minister had not received invitations, and had contacted organisers to meet Mr Johnson "in the margins of the announcement event".
He wrote that Wrightbus stated it was "told by NIO that local ministers were not to be invited" but that the NIO "have no explanation as to why Wrightbus told me that it had been told not to invite local ministers".
Dr McCormick added that he advised Mr Bell not to pursue to investigation as it would be "difficult" to "see any outcome that would be satisfactory" to him, and that it "could do damage" to Mr Bell's relationships with Wrightbus and/or Transport for London.
He said it was his understanding that "the issue over the invitations has already damaged relationships between Wrightbus and Deti".
In a supplementary personal statement dated October 18, 2017, Dr McCormick says he was told by Mr Bell in the course of conversations that the DUP's most senior Spad Timothy Johnston - now party chief executive - was the "instigator of the delay" in introducing a new tariff for RHI, and admits that he also "voluntarily referred to 'TJ' as the instigator".
He stated that these references "need to be placed in the context" of "Jonathan Bell's clear statements of his prior and independent knowledge that Timothy Johnston had been behind the delay (based on a context wholly outside my knowledge)" and "a number of clear statements where I say directly that I (and my colleagues) had not been aware of, nor had we suspected, involvement by Timothy Johnston in the delay in the tariff reduction".
He added he "accepted and repeated Jonathan Bell's references to Timothy Johnston as a key advocate for keeping the tariff at the higher level" because "not to have done so would have been to imply untruth in what Jonathan Bell had stated very clearly".
He said: "Ultimately, it was only in a phone call on 16 December 2016 that Timothy Cairns directly confirmed to Chris Stewart and me that Andrew Crawford had been the 'prime mover' for the delay. It was only on the evening of the PAC hearing on 18 January 2017 (or possibly the next day) that Timothy Cairns first said to me that Timothy Johnston had also been involved."
Referencing the period between the Spotlight programme on December 6, 2016 and the PAC evidence on January 18, 2017, Dr McCormick added: "This was a period when the DUP was very concerned to deflect or discredit any possible reference to Timothy Johnston, and, ultimately, acquiesced with the necessity (as it appeared at the time) of naming Andrew Crawford as the instigator of the delay (though I note the email from Andrew Crawford early on the morning of 18 January 2017 which denies that that was the case).
"The DUP was clearly unhappy that I appeared to have accepted Jonathan Bell's premise that Timothy Johnston had been involved."
A DUP spokesman said: "It would not be appropriate to comment on evidence given to the public inquiry, outside of the inquiry process. It is important that the inquiry is allowed to complete its work."
After over a quarter-century absence, harness racing may return to Louisville, Ky. in the near future at least temporarily.
According to a report from Louisville Business First, Churchill Downs Inc., in partnership with the Keeneland Association, have requested a 10-day Standardbred meet on the grounds of the former Louisville Downs, which last held harness racing in 1991 and now is home to Derby City Gaming, a historical racing facility due to open in the fall.
"We're trying to move quick on this so we don't see these industries move out of our state," said Kevin Flanery, president of Churchill Downs.
The return of harness racing to Louisville is intended to bridge a gap between the closure of Thunder Ridge Raceway in Prestonsburg, Ky. and the 2020 opening of a new track that the Churchill/Keeneland partnership plans to build in Oak Grove, Ky., located on Interstate 24 just over the Tennessee state line and a one-hour drive from Nashville.
The chief executive of Belfast jewellery firm Argento has pleaded for the Primark Bank Buildings shell to be demolished to save trade in the city.
He attended a meeting at City Hall on Wednesday where traders in the city were told the exclusion zone around the building - which has forced the closure of 14 businesses including his own - will remain in place for at least four months.
Read More
"Belfast closed for Christmas - the main thoroughfare - it is simply unacceptable," Peter Boyle told the Belfast Telegraph.
"I am all for preserving historic Belfast... I've restored a property myself.. but this can't be allowed. They need to tear it down and tell Primark it should be rebuild to look exactly the same."
Fire broke out on the roof of the five-storey city centre store last Tuesday (August 28). It took three days to extinguish and work is ongoing to assess the structural integrity of what remains. Work was ongoing on a 30m extension to the store and it is thought to be largely untouched.
Read More
"There's the stink that is driving people away from the city and if you close that area of the city down for four months there is a real fear people won't come back.
"It's called established business because we have worked to build a customer base - shopping is a habit. You can't close down for at least four months and expect those people to turn up again on the Monday morning.
"Zara, McDonald's and Tesco drive big amounts of people into the city as did Primark - and they are all closed.
"We may be ok, we will look after our staff and as we are in the cordon and our insurance may cover us. But those just outside - some who had seen trade drop 90% - will not get a cent.
"There is a feeling the preservation of the building is the main priority but at what cost?"
Mr Boyle pointed to a similar incident in Derry when the historic Tillie & Henderson clothing factory was demolished within days after a series of arson attacks at the beginning of the century.
He added: "We are nine days after the fire here in Belfast and nothing has been done. They say it is four months for the exclusion zone. You are talking 130,000 for a new shop, I could sign a lease for four months in another part of the city and then they shorten the cordon in November, allow us to open and leave me with two shops?
"Take my business out of it. Belfast trade is struggling and to close this part of the city down in the run up to Christmas - when 40% of annual trade is done - will put people out of business.
"We were told as a matter of fact the zone would remain in place for four months - but no one seems to have thought 'no that can't happen'.
"It is unaccepatable. They need to find another solution."
Andrew Webb, chair of Belfast City Centre Management also attended the meeting. He said there was a lot of frustration but did not get the impression the priority was for the preservation of the building and it was more a case no one was in a position to access the building and therefore determine what should or could be done.
Expand Close Primark following last weeks blaze PA / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Primark following last weeks blaze
"There is no heritage input at this stage. It is a dangerous building that is why there is a need for the cordon. As I understand it no one has been able to get in to assess the damage and therefore work out what can be done."
He added: "It was a very downbeat message delivered from the council and there was a lot of shock and anger. A trader needs to trade especially for the busiest four months of the year.
"It's not just those businesses in the cordon or just outside. Footfall is down across the city. We need to stress more now than ever it is open for business.
"But you can see that public safety is paramount and everything must be done to minimise the amount of time the cordon is in place."
Mr Webb said there was real concern for those small independent retailers affected.
"They won't be able to cope for any length of time with no business or a downturn in trade... significant livelihoods are at stake, there needs to be a quick solution found."
Belfast Lord Mayor Deirdre Hargey said the council acknowledged the anger and frustration felt by businesses and they would work to get that exclusion zone removed as soon as possible.
Primark said it was committed to working in Belfast and was considering options for relocating in the city.
The Ulster Unionist Party has announced the death of former MLA Reverend Dr Robert Coulter MBE.
He was a former mayor of Ballymena and North Antrim MLA. He was 88 years old.
Ulster Unionist Party Leader, Robin Swann paid tribute.
Bob was a stalwart of Ulster Unionism in North Antrim and personally to me he was also a mentor and a friend," he said.
Bob had a long record of public service, during his time on Ballymena Borough Council where he served as Mayor - and then when he was elected to the Assembly in 1998 until he retired in 2011.
"He was passionate about education and particularly for children with special educational needs. This was reflected in his role as a key advocate for the recently opened new build for Castle Tower School where he was Chair of the Board of Governors.
"Following in his footsteps in North Antrim, I was always aware of the high bar that had been set by him.
I send my condolences to his wife Elizabeth, son John and daughter Liz. They are a close family and my thoughts are with them at this sad time.
North Antrim DUP MLA Mervyn Storey spoke of his personal sadness at the death.
"Having visited him on Tuesday afternoon in Hospital I was shocked that so soon I was hearing of his death," he said.
"North Antrim and Northern Ireland has lost a hard-working and dedicated public servant. A man of personal integrity, character and Christian faith. While Robert and I were in different political parties we shared a common love for our constituency, our country and our faith.
"We worked closely together on a number of issues in our North Antrim Constituency and in particular securing the new capital build for Castle Tower Special School in Ballymena.
"There is no doubt that without the hard work and commitment of Robert all associated with Castle Tower today would not be enjoying the benefits of the new school. He was indeed the driving force behind the project, Unfortunately owing to his failing health he was unable to be in attendance at the official opening of the School just a few weeks ago, however his contribution was not overlooked on that special day.
"Recently I had the opportunity to visit Robert when in Hospital and recall some of the funny and not so funny moments in our political journey. It was also a privilege to read the scriptures and pray with him, knowing that the Word of God and prayer were very precious to him.
"To his wife and family I extend my sincere sympathy and assure them of our continued prayerful support at this time, ever mindful that for Robert in the words of Scripture it is "absent from the body present with the Lord."
Ministers have been warned of a potential "humanitarian crisis" in Northern Ireland's health service.
Former UUP leader Lord Empey said there were 280,000 people waiting for a consultant-led first appointment.
Lord Empey called on the Government to bring powers back temporarily to Westminster on "humanitarian grounds" to "offset what could be a potential humanitarian crisis in the winter".
Decisions had to be taken, Lord Empey told peers at question time in the Lords.
The Government had an "over-arching responsibility" to the people of Northern Ireland and could not "keep hiding behind the fact that there is no movement between the parties". His question came after recent protest rallies in Northern Ireland over the failure of Assembly members at Stormont to patch up their differences and get back to work.
For the Government, Viscount Younger of Leckie said no option was "off the table" and the Government "is prepared to step in to protect the interests of Northern Ireland to ensure the country is stable economically".
He said the Government's most important priority remained an Executive at Stormont.
For Labour, former Northern Ireland secretary Lord Murphy of Torfaen said it was time for fresh thinking.
He urged the Prime Minister to get involved and called for intensive all-party talks and possibly the use of an independent chairman.
New Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has attempted to quash concerns about his links to British intelligence services, saying he has reported wrongdoing by security forces on "many occasions".
On his second day in the role as head of Ireland's police force, the 53-year-old addressed issues about his key role within MI5, saying that he always worked to "prevent and detect" crime.
The former deputy chief constable of the PSNI said: "I've always been a police officer, it has always been my responsibility to prevent and detect crime and I have always done that.
"If any time I have ever found any wrongdoing of any nature, involving anyone and in this case which finger points towards wrongdoing by security forces, it would be my responsibility to report that to Police Ombudsman. I have done that on many occasions where I felt there was wrongdoing."
Mr Harris addressed the media yesterday at Garda headquarters in Phoenix Park, Dublin. He referred to a number of concerns that have been raised following his appointment to the role of Commissioner.
A number of survivors and victims of loyalist attacks questioned his suitability because of his previous role in the PSNI and RUC.
He added: "I'm very aware of the concerns some have raised. Throughout my policing career I have acted with impartiality, I have brought many loyalist terrorists to justice and I have secured convictions. These crimes have been atrocious crimes and I have been diligent and persistent in the investigation of those.
"I understand the hurt that remains with those victims. I can assure them of my integrity in what I was doing as a PSNI officer and RUC officer."
Mr Harris is the first Garda Commissioner to be appointed from outside the State.
When asked whether he considers himself Irish, he said: "Yes, I am Irish. I'm not sure how much of an outsider I am. I'm a police officer, I'm from the island of Ireland and have worked for the benefit of people of Ireland.
"I'm here to lead the organisation."
He said he believes Irish politicians are "fully behind" him in his role. When probed further about his intelligence regarding terrorist murders in the Republic and his obligation to pass on information, he said that he has "no other" intelligence to share with the Gardai.
He added: "That obligation would have been a live obligation with the PSNI.
"Intelligence is constantly exchanged between both police services or via the security service.
"I could highlight numerous cross-border operations where we exchange very sensitive intelligence and work very closely on joint operations and that prevented many terrorist outrages and very serious organised crime.
"The matters I was aware of with the PSNI are always dealt with properly."
He said he is here "to protect the people of Ireland" and will serve the public in "good faith".
Mr Harris added that dissident republicans remain the biggest threat on the island of Ireland and are "determined" to carry out attacks.
He raised a number of areas he will focus on over the coming years - including the threat from dissidents, organised crime and the threat from international terrorists.
He also spoke of his plans to address how Garda Siochanna is spending its budget and how it will deal with Brexit.
"This is an area of focus, our planning process is under way.
"Not all of the responsibility of Brexit, of whatever nature, will fall to Garda Siochanna, but we have to be concerned with police-to-police co-operation at a local level with the PSNI and how we secure border areas and we have to be aware of organised crime," he added.
Ministers have pledged they will come up with the solution in due course to the security implications of a no-deal Brexit in Northern Ireland.
The comment came in the face of repeated questions from DUP MP Nigel Dodds, who was frustrated at the lack of action following a warning from Northern Irelands top police officer over Brexit planning.
Chief Constable George Hamilton said in June that he feels in the dark because of a lack of information, and said he did not know to who he should send a business case asking for additional resources for border duties after Brexit.
.@NigelDoddsDUP at #NIQs pressing for extra resources given to PSNI to prepare for the UK leaving the European Union. The Chief Constable has been clear that he has not been given a fair allocation. pic.twitter.com/CGO1iGA8B3 DUP (@duponline) September 5, 2018
Mr Dodds, speaking in the Commons, reacted with annoyance when told by Northern Ireland Minister Shailesh Vara that the Government would be issuing guidance in future.
He said: With the greatest of respect, were not asking about issuing guidance, were asking about the allocation of resources.
So can the minister, and I really want to press him on this since it is a very big issue and its impact in terms of resourcing for policing in Northern Ireland more widely.
What is he going to do and the Government, this has been on their table for many months now.
Mr Vara responded: I can give an assurance that the Secretary of State actually spoke with the chief constable this morning, were in regular dialogue and were considering the proposals that he has put forward.
We are considering the proposals, thats what I can say and we hope to come up with the solution in due course.
Later in the question session, Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley was asked about what moves had been made to re-establish an executive at Stormont.
She said: Im acutely aware of the deep frustration and difficulties faced by the people of Northern Ireland and the urgent need to re-establish a locally elected democratically accountable devolved government.
I remain in close contact with the five main political parties and the Irish government where possible.
Ryanair pilots have accepted an agreement negotiated after a series of strikes (Niall Carson/PA)
Ryanair pilots have unanimously voted to accept an agreement negotiated with the airline.
The decision comes after pilots staged a number of strikes over the summer months following a dispute with the budget carrier.
The pilots based in Ireland, who are members of the Irish Air Line Pilots Association (Ialpa), accepted the Collective Agreement which covers base transfers, command upgrades and related seniority principles.
It follows mediated talks between elected pilots representatives and Ryanair management.
@IALPA members operating in Ryanair vote to accept collective agreement pic.twitter.com/keKbKbTium IALPA (@IALPA) September 5, 2018
Ialpa spokesman Captain Joe May said that, while the unions members fully respect Ryanairs operational model, it no longer accept the companys highly problematic employment model.
He added: After decades of declining terms and conditions, pilots in Ryanair have now firmly found a unified voice.
When pilots are treated fairly and transparently by an airline, they will be motivated to contribute to their airlines success, stay at the company and make their career with that airline.
He went on to thank former workplace relations director Kieran Mulvey, who brokered the deal.
He added: We would also like to thank Ryanair for their participation in the mediation process, Forsa officials and ICTU officials, in particular Patricia King and Liam Berney, for leading the talks on behalf of Ryanair pilots.
A Ryanair tweet welcomed the overwhelming vote in favour of the agreement.
We will now bring this agreement to our board and will ask them to reconsider their decision to rebase six aircraft away from Dublin this winter.
We expect that the board will meet to discuss this welcome development in the coming days.
Boris Johnson at Wrightbus in Ballymena in 2016 as DUP leader Arlene Foster looks on
The DUP's hostile relationship with Sinn Fein has dominated media headlines in recent times as the old political enemies trade blows.
But the disclosure of open warfare within the upper echelons of the party at Stormont is far more embarrassing for the Duppers than any row with republicans.
The claims made in Dr Andrew McCormick's statements to the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Inquiry were pure political farce. They revealed a Stormont soap opera beyond what even the most cynical satirist would have come up with.
Rampant jealousies and jockeying for position, and a leading DUP figure taping others.
Then there's the extraordinary allegation that former Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (Deti) Minister Jonathan Bell tried to punch his special adviser Timothy Cairns and break his finger.
This is material you would expect on the Jeremy Kyle Show.
But it's actually a glimpse into what was going on behind-the-scenes in the DUP, which we have always been told is one big (and certainly not dysfunctional) happy family.
The Ulster Unionist Party did tear itself apart during David Trimble's leadership, but at least no accusations of physical violence were ever made.
In his written witness statement, Dr McCormick referred to the poor relationship between Mr Bell and Mr Cairns. The special adviser made allegations that the minister "tried to break his finger and swung a punch at him".
It is, of course, important to point out that Dr McCormick was not in any shape or form validating the claims made against the minister.
Indeed, he said: "I think I should emphasise that, for most of the time when Jonathan Bell was Deti Minister, I got on very well with him: both as minister, and at a human level in all the ordinary day to day interactions that are inherent to the job.
"Jonathan Bell actively sought my advice and involvement... always appeared to respect my role and position, often with relaxed good humour, and I had absolutely no personal experience of his exerting (or attempting to exert) untoward pressure or bullying, as others have alleged."
Mr Bell, who is due to appear before the RHI Inquiry tomorrow, will surely address the allegations, and Mr Cairns will have his say when he gives evidence next Tuesday and Wednesday.
Dr McCormick said Mr Bell had recorded conversations with himself and with DUP Upper Bann MLA Carla Lockhart.
There were claims that a trip by the former DUP minister to the US in 2016 to lead an Invest NI Trade Mission "had not gone well".
Mr Bell was "visibly tired at a key meeting on Friday, January 28, 2016" and Mr McCormick said it was his "impression" that he had been "unable to participate fully in the meeting in a constructive way" as he had "quite a late night" the previous evening.
There was friction over Mr Bell's lack of invitation to a Wrightbus event in Ballymena involving London Mayor Boris Johnson which Arlene Foster and Martin McGuinness attended in February 2016.
Mr Bell was clearly very keen to increase his profile and assert his independence as minister. This brought him into direct conflict with the party's top brass.
The outcome of that long-running battle will be decided at the RHI Inquiry.
The former DETI minister's claims and those of his opponents will be examined in painstaking detail over coming days and weeks.
Both sides know the stakes couldn't be any higher.
Some of key figures with links to botched green energy scheme
ANDREW McCORMICK
Former permanent secretary at Deti. In February he moved from leading the Department for the Economy to become director general of International Relations, heading up NIs preparations for Brexit.
ANDREW CRAWFORD
Was special adviser to then Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster when the RHI scheme was developed and launched in autumn 2012. He has appeared a number of times in front of the RHI Inquiry.
TIMOTHY JOHNSTON
Former special adviser to three First Ministers: Ian Paisley, Peter Robinson and Arlene Foster. Last year the DUP appointed him to the newly-created senior post of chief executive officer.
TIMOTHY CAIRNS
Former special adviser to Jonathan Bell when he was Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment. He is now a member of the board of cross-border business body InterTradeIreland.
Former Department of Enterprise Trade and Investment (DETI) Permanent Secretary Dr Andrew McCormick has denied he was approached by a DUP Special Advisor over claims he was bullied by former DETI Minister Jonathan Bell.
DUP Spad Timothy Cairns alleged that Mr Bell acted in "an intimidating on threatening way" towards him on several occasions, a claim Mr Bell denies.
Mr Cairns says he approached Dr McCormick with the bullying concerns but Dr McCormick told him he could only act if the matter involved civil servants.
However Dr McCormick told the inquiry that he thought he would remember a report of bullying.
The inquiry heard how Mr Bell had a "sharp disagreement" with Spad Cairns over RHI during a breakfast ahead of a meeting with then Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Amber Rudd in June 2015.
Dr McCormick said that Mr Bell was advised to discuss the scheme with First Minister Arlene Foster but "Jonathan Bell said I'm the Minister I'll take the decision".
"Tim Cairns intervention was a sharper rebuke to a Minister from a special adviser than I'd seen before, the tone the language was terse and pointed and right at the borderline of normal conversation if not a bit over it," Dr McCormick said.
"It wasn't long before we realized this was not for us to be involved in and we were either asked to leave or got up and left,"
Dr McCormick said he did not see anything he determined threatening or intimidating from either man and it did not trigger a duty of care from him.
Following the meeting Mr Bell said Mr Cairns was dismissed for the day while Mr Cairns thought he was dismissed permanently.
Expand Close Jonathan Bell at Stormont in 2016 during the fallout from the botched energy scheme PA / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Jonathan Bell at Stormont in 2016 during the fallout from the botched energy scheme
After a leave of absence Mr Cairns returned to work in DETI.
Dr McCormick denied that Mr Cairns approached him in relation to "bullying" by Mr Bell and said that there were no complaints from members of the civil service about Mr Bell's behaviour during his time as Minister.
He said that he thought any disagreement between the men "was a matter for the party".
Dr McCormick also told the inquiry that he did not recall any attempts from DUP spads to stop the discussion of the RHI scheme in meetings during summer 2015 shortly after Jonathan Bell became DETI Minister.
Mr Bell has claimed that that DUP advisers did not want the scheme to be discussed.
However, Dr McCormick said the issue wasn't discussed because a submission on RHI with recommendations was being prepared by the department.
"I don't see any basis or why anyone would withhold that fundamental information," he said.
In the morning sitting Dr McCormick told the inquiry he could not explain why warnings from a whistleblower about key flaws in the scheme were not acted upon.
Businesswoman Janette O'Hagan contacted the department in 2015 to tell them the scheme was being abused and that businesses were burning fuel to make a profit.
He told the inquiry he only found about about Ms O'Hagan's emails after the scheme was closed.
He said: "Someone saying there is a grave weakness in the scheme and at that point in time the team also becoming aware they have a budget problem. I cannot understand why that did not take us back to a fundamental question- what is going wrong."
However, Dr McCormick said he accepted that during his time as DETI minister he did not manage risks regarding the RHI scheme "effectively".
Former DETI Minister Jonathan Bell is set to appear before the inquiry on Thursday and Friday.
Read More
Here's how the day unfolded:
Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab will be grilled by MPs over progress in exit talks later as the Governments plans face mounting criticism.
The minister will appear before the European Scrutiny committee after Brexit preparations were branded incompetent by former Bank of England governor Mervyn King, who warned the Government had been left without a credible bargaining position.
In a damning assessment, Lord King said it beggars belief that Britain, one of the worlds leading economies, had found itself in a situation where the country was being told to take a course of action or face catastrophe.
However he suggested blame should be shared by the Government, Parliament as whole and those on Whitehall who were tasked with making key decisions.
Frankly, if a government cannot take action to prevent some of these catastrophic outcomes, whatever position you take on the EU, it illustrates a whole lack of preparation.Lord King
His comments were broadcast by the BBC as new research suggested fewer than one in five voters now expect Britain to get a good deal out of the Brexit talks.
The proportion expecting a good deal has fallen from 33% in February 2017 to just 17% in June 2018, while those predicting a bad deal have increased from 37% to 57% over the same period, according to a survey for NatCen Social Research.
The slump in confidence emerged as Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham prepared to use a major speech in Westminster to call for Brexit to be postponed in order to avoid crashing out of the EU without a deal.
The Labour former Cabinet minister will insist this isnt about frustrating Brexit but instead about getting Brexit right.
Mr Raab told MPs on Tuesday that leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement would offer opportunities to the UK, but he insisted an agreement with Brussels was within our grasp.
Expand Close Dominic Raab updated MPs on his recent meetings with Michel Barnier (PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Dominic Raab updated MPs on his recent meetings with Michel Barnier (PA)
However the EUs chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has warned he is strongly opposed to the UK proposals, which he claimed would undermine the European project and the single market.
On Tuesday, German chancellor Angela Merkel told business leaders in the country that she could not fully rule out no deal because we still have no result from the talks.
Meanwhile Conservative divisions have deepened over the direction Brexit is taking, with former foreign secretary Boris Johnson describing Theresa Mays strategy a fix that can only lead to victory for the EU.
Lord King, who has spoken favourably of Brexit in the past, tore into the last-minute preparations for a no-deal Brexit, warning they had left Britain without a credible bargaining position.
He made the comments after ministers confirmed efforts were under way to stockpile medicines and ensure an adequate food supply if talks fail.
Frankly, if a government cannot take action to prevent some of these catastrophic outcomes, whatever position you take on the EU, it illustrates a whole lack of preparation, Lord King said.
It doesnt tell us anything about whether the policy of staying in the EU is good or bad, it tells us everything about the incompetence of the preparation for it.
Expand Close Mervyn King said the Government had been left without a credible bargaining position (PA file) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Mervyn King said the Government had been left without a credible bargaining position (PA file)
Asked if that meant the Government had been incompetent, he said: The group of people tasked with trying to make decisions on all of this is Parliament as a whole not just the Government, and the civil service, who have brought us to a position where we are now being told that we have to accept a certain course of action otherwise it would be catastrophic.
Now, it beggars belief that the sixth biggest economy in the world should get itself into that position.
Lord King, who was in charge of the UKs central bank from 2003 until 2013, said that credible plans should have been put in place to leave without a deal because Britain cannot impose a deal on the EU.
However he warned that such plans can not be drawn up in six months and would take several years.
Lord King said he feared biggest risk to the UK was that the referendum had failed to resolve the issue of Brexit and it isnt going to go away.
Mr Raab will appear before the European Scrutiny committee alongside the PMs Europe adviser, Olly Robbins, on Wednesday afternoon.
The Government undertook a ministerial charm offensive over the summer to persuade the remaining 27 EU member states of the merits of Theresa Mays Chequers plan for future relations.
Off to Westminster tomorrow to make a speech about our destructive politics, Brexit & why English devolution is our best hope. Wish me luck! Andy Burnham (@AndyBurnhamGM) September 4, 2018
Against growing concerns that a deal will now not be reached, Mr Burnham will call for a second referendum, or peoples vote, on whether to exit the EU without a deal.
He will say that the Article 50 negotiation period should be extended beyond March 2019 as a contingency measure if the only alternative was a no-deal Brexit.
This isnt about frustrating Brexit. It is about getting Brexit right, he will say.
A price would undoubtedly be paid in terms of social cohesion but it would be a necessary one to protect the damage to peoples jobs, families and lives.
British and French fisherman have celebrated progress made in negotiations to end the scallop wars in the English Channel.
After lengthy discussions on Wednesday, during which the French were said to have expressed regret for recent skirmishes, both sides reached an agreement on the principles of a deal.
No UK vessels will fish for scallops during the window in conflict, during which the French are not allowed to harvest the molluscs.
Expand Close Members of the crew on board Honeybourne III (Andrew Matthews/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Members of the crew on board Honeybourne III (Andrew Matthews/PA)
Instead, smaller British boats will be compensated for their losses but the sum is to be debated in Paris on Friday and if both sides do not agree, the accord could be sunk.
A joint statement from the UK and French governments said the talks in London had been constructive and a finalised deal hinges on a reasonable compensation package.
National regulations allow British ships to fish legally in the area all year round, but French fishermen are banned from taking scallops in the Baie de Seine between May 15 and October 1 to conserve stocks.
A previous industry accord prevented UK vessels larger than 15 metres doing so too, but smaller ones could help themselves.
The agreement-in-process will prevent the smaller British ships taking advantage of that window, but a UK industry representative involved in the talks said they will only be finalised if British fisherman do not lose a penny.
Jim Portus, the chief executive of the South Western Fish Producers Organisation, said: Im very pleased that weve negotiated a deal which satisfies the honour of fishermen on both sides.
The French are in a hurry to make sure that it happens because what they dont want either is for there to be another conflict.
Quite frankly if its not good enough on Friday, it will be rejected.
Asked if the French apologised, Mr Portus was tight-lipped. Instead he said: Im pleased to say regret was voiced before we started our negotiations.
We want to ensure that our seas are healthy and productive for future generations, and weve outlined how we plan to do this in our #FutureFishing white paper. There is only one week left to share your thoughts with us: https://t.co/n5uXb5fX28 pic.twitter.com/o3h4mMQsih Defra UK (@DefraGovUK) September 5, 2018
All British boats have been asked to voluntarily stop taking scallops from the conflict zone until the deal is finalised.
French industry representative Pascal Coquet told reporters outside the Department of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra), where negotiations were held, that it was a good deal.
The talks were held after some 35 French boats confronted five British craft off the coast of northern France last week, with UK crews reporting that rocks, smoke bombs and other projectiles were hurled at them during the confrontation.
Theresa May has directly challenged Jeremy Corbyn to rule out a second referendum on Britains withdrawal from the EU.
But the Labour leader did not respond, instead accusing the Prime Minister of dancing round all the issues as the Brexit plan she drew up at Chequers was ripped up by her own MPs and a no-deal outcome became more likely.
The pair clashed at Prime Ministers Questions in the House of Commons shortly after the UKs Brexit preparations were branded incompetent by former Bank of England governor Mervyn King.
Frankly, if a government cannot take action to prevent some of these catastrophic outcomes, whatever position you take on the EU, it illustrates a whole lack of preparation.Lord King
In a damning assessment, Lord King told the BBC the Government had been left without a credible bargaining position.
He said it beggars belief that Britain, one of the worlds leading economies, had found itself in a situation where the country was being told to take a course of action or face catastrophe.
He suggested blame should be shared by the Government, Parliament as a whole and those in Whitehall who were tasked with making key decisions.
Expand Close Lord King said the Government had been left without a credible bargaining position (PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Lord King said the Government had been left without a credible bargaining position (PA)
In the first PMQs since Parliament returned after the summer break, Mr Corbyn seized on the former governors comments as well as warnings about the dangers of a no-deal Brexit from figures including Chancellor Philip Hammond, the TUC and the CBI.
A majority of people may have voted to leave, but they expected negotiations to be handled competently and they certainly are not, Mr Corbyn told MPs.
The Prime Minister has repeatedly said that no deal is better than a bad deal. But no deal is a bad deal, and everybody from the CBI to the TUC to her own Chancellor are telling her the same thing.
The Chequers proposal is dead, already ripped apart by her own MPs. When will the Prime Minister publish a real plan that survives contact with her Cabinet and with reality? Those are of course two very separate concepts.
Mrs May retorted: What would be bad for this country would be signing up to a deal at any price whatsoever, which is the position of the Labour Party. That would destroy jobs, that would be bad for the British people.
Expand Close Theresa May speaks during Prime Ministers Questions (PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Theresa May speaks during Prime Ministers Questions (PA)
The Prime Minister twice called on Mr Corbyn to stand up and rule out a second referendum, but he ignored her challenge.
Labour has so far declined to take off the table the option of a vote on the final Brexit deal, and Mr Corbyn is coming under intense pressure from Peoples Vote campaigners to commit to a second referendum.
The partys Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said in a high-profile speech in London that he was ready to support a second poll as a last resort to prevent the UK crashing out of the EU without an agreement.
But he said the Governments first option should be to ask the EU to postpone the March 2019 deadline for the UKs departure to allow further negotiations.
AB: "The biggest danger facing British Politics right now is to allow this polarised No-Deal-Peoples-Vote dynamic to shape the next six months.
Instead, Greater Manchesters interests lie in finding a common-sense Brexit deal." Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham (@MayorofGM) September 5, 2018
Mr Burnham accepted the move would be divisive, but said social unrest on the streets of Britain could be a price worth paying to prevent the nightmare scenario of a no-deal Brexit.
Research released on Wednesday suggested fewer than one in five voters now expects Britain to get a good deal out of the Brexit talks.
The proportion expecting a good deal has fallen from 33% in February 2017 to just 17% in June 2018, while those predicting a bad deal have increased from 37% to 57% over the same period, according to a survey for NatCen Social Research.
On Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told business leaders she could not fully rule out no deal because we still have no result from the talks.
Expand Close Dominic Raab is facing questions from MPs on the Commons European Scrutiny Committee (Peter Nicholls/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Dominic Raab is facing questions from MPs on the Commons European Scrutiny Committee (Peter Nicholls/PA)
Lord King, who has spoken favourably of Brexit in the past, tore into the last-minute preparations for a no-deal Brexit, warning they had left Britain without a credible bargaining position.
He made the comments after ministers confirmed efforts were under way to stockpile medicines and ensure an adequate food supply if talks fail.
Frankly, if a government cannot take action to prevent some of these catastrophic outcomes, whatever position you take on the EU, it illustrates a whole lack of preparation, Lord King said.
It doesnt tell us anything about whether the policy of staying in the EU is good or bad, it tells us everything about the incompetence of the preparation for it.
Asked if that meant the Government had been incompetent, he said: The group of people tasked with trying to make decisions on all of this is Parliament as a whole, not just the Government, and the civil service, who have brought us to a position where we are now being told that we have to accept a certain course of action otherwise it would be catastrophic.
Now, it beggars belief that the sixth biggest economy in the world should get itself into that position.
Lord King, who was in charge of the UKs central bank from 2003 until 2013, said credible plans should have been put in place to leave without a deal because Britain cannot impose a deal on the EU.
However he warned that such plans cannot be drawn up in six months and would take several years.
Lord King said he feared the biggest risk to the UK was that the referendum had failed to resolve the issue of Brexit and it isnt going to go away.
Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab was facing questions from MPs on the Commons European Scrutiny Committee alongside the PMs Europe adviser, Olly Robbins, on Wednesday afternoon.
Members of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers are celebrating their 50th anniversary (John Walton/PA)
Hundreds of fusiliers set off on a parade through the city of London to celebrate 50 years since their regiment was formed.
Bayonets were fixed high as more than 500 serving and former army personnel began marching through the square mile to the beat of drums.
Expand Close Members of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers wait to set off from the Tower of London (John Walton/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Members of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers wait to set off from the Tower of London (John Walton/PA)
They set off at 10am after getting into formation at the Tower of London, their regimental headquarters.
The troops will parade toward Guildhall, where they will be received by the Duke of Kent and undergo a full inspection.
Expand Close The troops were due to march from the Tower of London to the Guildhall (John Walton/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp The troops were due to march from the Tower of London to the Guildhall (John Walton/PA)
Retired Colonel James Denny, regimental secretary for The Fusiliers, thanked the regiments Colonel-in-Chief, the Duke of Kent, for his continued support.
He said: The Privilege Parade on September 5 promises to be a great event for all the Fusilier family and we are delighted that so many of our affiliated regiments from around the world will be able to join us on this special day.
Expand Close More than 500 personnel were participating (John Walton/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp More than 500 personnel were participating (John Walton/PA)
It is a great honour to be allowed to parade through the City of London in this, our 50th anniversary year, so a huge thank you to all the officials for enabling this momentous occasion to take place.
The march is the final event in a year-long programme across the country to commemorate 50 years on from the infantry regiments formation in 1968.
Expand Close Members of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers march to celebrate 50 years since their regiment was formed (John Walton/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Members of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers march to celebrate 50 years since their regiment was formed (John Walton/PA)
The Regiments affiliated regiments in Canada (The Royal Canadian Regiment, The Lorne Scots and the Royal Westminster Regiment) and from Australia (Pipes and Drums of the Royal Victoria Regiment) are attending in support.
A reception in Guildhall will follow the parade.
The FBU says repeated governments failed to heed its warnings that might have helped to avoid Grenfell (David Mirzoeff/PA)
It is a national scandal the Government did not act on warnings about dangerous cladding almost two decades before the entirely avoidable Grenfell Tower fire, the firefighters union said.
Matt Wrack, the general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), said there had been a cross-party complacency about fire policy running through central government for a long time.
The union boss said the FBU had warned a House of Commons select committee in 1999 that certain cladding systems posed a threat to life, after the Garnock Court fire in North Ayrshire, Scotland, where a man died.
The union said cladding could act as a vehicle for assisting uncontrolled fire spread which poses a threat to the life safety of the residents above the fire.
Nobody has actually acted on that warning that was given after that fire in 1999FBU general secretary Matt Wrack
Speaking in Parliament, he said: Actually, thats a prediction of what happened at Grenfell Tower. We didnt expect it to happen on that scale, but we did warn of the possibility of that happening.
And I think the scandal that lies behind it is nobody has actually acted on that warning that was given after that fire in 1999.
Mr Wrack was speaking at the launch of the FBUs report, Background to an Atrocity, which gives its view of where official policy has gone wrong and how Labour and Conservative governments failed to listen.
He was joined by shadow home secretary Diane Abbott and Emma Dent Coad, the Labour MP representing the constituency containing Grenfell Tower.
Speaking at the @fbunational Report launch into the #Grenfell tower fire. It wasn't the firefighters that let people down, it was the Government. pic.twitter.com/scPrMKyFIw Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) September 5, 2018
He went on: We want to see real change as a result of this.
This phrase about lessons learned about the failures to take account of previous lessons its all very well making nice speeches or comments about learning the lessons, the point is many of the lessons were already known, the question was that they were not being applied.
This to me is, or certainly should be, a national scandal and we cant afford for it to be brushed under the carpet to avoid the difficult questions being answered.
Some 72 people died as a result of the fire in June last year.
We see a central government who seem to lack the courage and compassion to ban claddingMoyra Samuels, Justice for Grenfell
Moyra Samuels, part of the Justice for Grenfell campaign group, said some of the community were feeling increasingly frustrated, almost 15 months on.
The campaigner said: When we look at those in power, we look at authorities, whether they be local or national government, we are still struggling to see where change has happened.
The justice campaign is about truth, about accountability, and about change and I am afraid to date we have not seen any dramatic change that has come from either the local authority or from national government.
She added: Most shockingly, I think for the community, we see a central government who seem to lack the courage and compassion to ban cladding.
It comes as a lawyer representing a group of bereaved and survivors at the public inquiry into the blaze submitted a list of urgent recommendations to ensure the safety of high-rise tenants across the country.
The recommendations, sent by Michael Mansfield QC, call for an immediate moratorium of all cladding systems which contain materials that are not classed non combustible.
Responding to the report, Communities Secretary James Brokenshire said: Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy we acted swiftly to establish a comprehensive building safety programme, issued clear guidance to building owners and committed to a full review of the building regulatory system, which was led by Dame Judith Hackitt.
We welcomed the conclusions of the Hackitt Review and will be setting out our implementation plan this Autumn.
I have also said that we intend to ban the use of combustible materials on the external walls of high-rise residential buildings, and have been consulting on this basis.
Labour has been accused of giving racists a "get out of jail card" in a backlash over its latest move to deal with the anti-Semitism row engulfing the party.
The party's ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) adopted all of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) examples of anti-Semitic behaviour.
But it has faced heavy criticism for issuing an accompanying statement that it says will ensure the move does "not in any way undermine freedom of expression" on Israel or the rights of Palestinians.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has also been attacked after reports he wanted the NEC to accept a clarification that said it should not be considered anti-Semitic to describe Israel as racist.
Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) said the party "appears determined to provide a safe space for anti-Semites".
Critics had claimed that the wording of the IHRA examples could prevent criticism of the Israeli government's actions against Palestinians, but the leadership faced intense pressure to accept them in full.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell, deputy leader Tom Watson and shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer were among the senior figures in the party to call for the move in recent weeks.
But the statement on freedom of expression has infuriated campaigners.
LFI director Jennifer Gerber said: "It is appalling that the Labour Party has once again ignored the Jewish community - that it should adopt the full IHRA definition without additions, omissions or caveats."
She added: "A 'freedom of expression on Israel' clause is unnecessary and totally undermines the other examples the party has supposedly just adopted."
Labour Against Anti-Semitism said the move "appears to be about protecting the freedom of racists to present vile views".
A spokesman said: "There can be no caveats, no conditions and no compromises with racism.
"We are disappointed by the decision of Labour's governing body, the NEC, to diminish the IHRA working definition of anti-Semitism via the attachment of a 'clarification' that risks giving racists in the party a get out of jail card.
"The NEC has been told repeatedly that it needs to adopt the IHRA in full, without caveats or conditions, if it wants the Labour Party to begin the process of dealing with its anti-Semitism crisis."
Marie van der Zyl, Board of Deputies of British Jews President, said accepting the examples had been "long overdue".
"We need to see firm action taken against anti-Semites and those who bring the party in to disrepute by denying the problem of anti-Semitism. In addition, Jeremy Corbyn needs to apologise for past anti-Semitic comments and affiliations," she said.
Mr Corbyn told the meeting that Labour was committed to "eradicating the social cancer of anti-Semitism" and spoke of the "deep concern and pain" across the party over the loss of confidence among Jewish communities. He said adopting the examples was part of the process of "rebuilding trust and as an act of solidarity with Jewish communities".
The Labour leader said clarifications were needed to ensure the rights of Palestinians or their supporters were not undermined.
Securing a new agreement to end the scallop wars in the English Channel would be the right outcome, Fisheries Minister George Eustice said.
Talks between British and French officials and industry representatives are being held in London on Wednesday after clashes between fishermen harvesting the shellfish off the coast of northern France.
About 35 French boats confronted five British craft off the coast of northern France last week, with UK crews reporting that rocks, smoke bombs and other projectiles were hurled at them during the confrontation.
Expand Close Members of the crew on board Honeybourne III (Andrew Matthews/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Members of the crew on board Honeybourne III (Andrew Matthews/PA)
The clashes have occurred in a scallop-rich area known as the Baie de Seine off the coast of Normandy.
National regulations allow British ships to fish legally in the area all year round, but French fishermen are banned from taking the molluscs between May 15 and October 1 to conserve stocks.
The clashes came after the breakdown of a 2013 agreement in which larger British vessels agreed not to fish in parts of the area, so they would be abiding by same conditions as the French fleet, in return for gaining more fishing opportunities.
It broke down this year after the French industry said they wanted the deal to be extended to smaller British boats.
We all recognise the solution really is if we can get the voluntary agreement similar to the one that has stood the test of time over the previous five years, something similar to that back in place, Mr Eustice said.
We have officials from the French government, our own officials, both sides of the industry coming together to discuss this again, to see if they can get to back up an agreement similar to that which has pertained for the previous five years, which is the right outcome on this, if they can get a solution along those lines.
He also said he had received assurances from his opposite number Stephane Travert that additional resources had been put in place to the area which is Frances exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the seas to ensure there were no further problems.
He was clear they are putting additional gendarmerie and resources to have the capacity there to deal with any further outbreaks, he told a hearing of the parliamentary Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) Committee.
We want to ensure that our seas are healthy and productive for future generations, and weve outlined how we plan to do this in our #FutureFishing white paper. There is only one week left to share your thoughts with us: https://t.co/n5uXb5fX28 pic.twitter.com/o3h4mMQsih Defra UK (@DefraGovUK) September 5, 2018
But Mr Eustice said he was not aware of any prosecutions of French fisherman following the conflict.
Quizzed on whether, in light of the clashes, the UK had the resources to protect fishing in British waters after Brexit, he said preparations were being put in place, such as more protection vessels and looking at drone technology to assist with monitoring.
And he said: Its already the case we manage enforcement in our EEZ, we just have to abide by EU laws in our EEZ where in the future we will be an independent coastal state.
Questioned on the impacts of a no-deal Brexit, he said: The industry has nothing to fear from a no-deal Brexit , because fishing is one of the key areas where we would gain by having that more rapid control of our waters.
Whether we have a deal or dont have a deal, our view is we become an independent coastal state.
New guidance has been issued to universities dedicated to the prevention of student suicide.
It was launched in Sheffield at the Universities UK (UUK) annual conference where it was also announced that new guidance is being worked on for the disclosure of confidential data.
At least 95 university students took their own lives in the last academic year, and UUK said there is no room for complacency.
UUK and @PAPYRUS_tweets have published guidance for universities on preventing student suicides. The guide includes advice on developing a strategy focused specifically on #suicideprevention: https://t.co/1xBNwPyusd pic.twitter.com/SqPcN7DawR Universities UK (@UniversitiesUK) September 5, 2018
James Murray, whose son Ben Murray took his own life at Bristol University in May, said there was too little information sharing between universities and families.
Speaking at Sheffield Hallam University, he said: We hear a lot talked about data privacy, we get fixated.
We need to start giving more priority on information sharing to save lives.
He added: If we had had more information maybe would have intervened, maybe things would have been different.
Nina Clarke, deputy chief executive of Papyrus, said: When lives are at risk, normal confidentiality rules can, and should be bypassed.
So universities UK will be working with students parents and carers, legal and health experts and the Government to produce guidance regarding disclosure in the next two months.
Professor Steve West, vice chancellor of UWE Bristol and chair of UUKs Mental Health in Higher Education Advisory Group, said: When students take their own lives, it has a profound impact on family, friends, staff and students.
This new guide offers practical advice on understanding and preventing suicide, as well as guidance on how best to support those most affected.
We urge university leaders to work with their student support services to develop a strategy which focuses on preventing, intervening, and responding to suicide as part of an overall mental health strategy.
We're really proud to have worked in collaboration with @UniversitiesUK on the Suicide-Safer Universities guide, published today. This is an important step forward for #suicideprevention in #university.
Find out more: https://t.co/hxlg5ci53K pic.twitter.com/jCfVclp0Pw PAPYRUS (@PAPYRUS_tweets) September 5, 2018
Together with charity Papyrus, UUK has published the Suicide Safer Universities which includes advice on developing a strategy focused specifically on suicide prevention.
It covers information on intervening when students get into difficulties, best practice for responding to student suicides and case studies on approaches to suicide prevention.
The guide further includes steps university leaders can take to make their communities safer.
The suspects in the Salisbury nerve agent attack have been named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov believed to be aliases used by officers in Russian intelligence service the GRU.
Theresa May told MPs the GRU was highly disciplined, so the Novichok attack in Salisbury was likely to have been officially sanctioned rather than a rogue operation.
NEWS: PM statement on Salisbury investigation: "Only Russia had the technical means, operational experience and motive to carry out the attack."
Prime Minister's full statement: https://t.co/Nx8K7TLkae pic.twitter.com/NmaTudbzo2 Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) September 5, 2018
What is the GRU?
It is Russias military intelligence service. Sergei Skripal the former spy targeted in the Salisbury attack was previously a colonel in the GRU. Emily Ferris, from the Royal United Services Institute defence think tank, said: The GRU is Russias foreign military intelligence agency, one of three of Russias intelligence agencies whose activities often overlap the others are the Federal Security Services (FSB) and the Foreign Intelligence Services (SVR). The FSB has a broader remit, including counter-terrorism, border control and domestic surveillance, but all the agencies are in competition for resources and funding. Although by the end of the Soviet period the GRU declined in importance and size, it appears to have become increasingly prominent since its officers led Russias annexation of Crimea in 2014, she said.
GRU Is Putins hybrid warfare agency of choice. Bob Seely MP (@IoWBobSeely) September 5, 2018
How does the GRU operate?
The Prime Minister said the GRU had played a key part in malign Russian activity in recent years. The military intelligence service has been blamed or implicated in assassinations, espionage and cyber warfare around the world. The US authorities believe the Democratic National Committee hack in the 2016 presidential election was the work of GRU agents. As well as being active in the annexation of Crimea, reports have also linked a GRU officer to the downing of Malaysian Air flight MH17 over Ukraine. Ms Ferris said: The GRU is currently engaged in active signals intelligence gathering and espionage activities abroad and has been linked to several high-profile operations.
The two individuals are officers from the Russian military intelligence, the GRU. The GRU is a highly disciplined organisation with a well-established chain of command. This was not a rogue operation. It was almost certainly also approved at a senior level of the Russian state Rt. Hon Ben Wallace MP (@BWallaceMP) September 5, 2018
Who could have authorised the GRU operation in Salisbury?
The Prime Minister told MPs the GRU had a well-established chain of command and the nerve agent attack would have been approved at a senior level of the Russian state. Tory MP Bob Seely, a member of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee and Russia expert, said Vladimir Putin himself would have given the green light. Under a 2006 Russian Federation law, extrajudicial assassinations by agents of the Kremlin need be approved only by the Russian head of state, without reference to others, he said. Therefore, since this appears to be a GRU-planned poisoning, the order can only have come from the Russian head of state. Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat said: President Putin bears responsibility for a war-like act.
What will happen now?
The Prime Minister told MPs the organisation was a threat to all our allies and to all our citizens and we will deploy the full range of tools from across our national security apparatus in order to counter the threat posed by the GRU. In the US, a number of GRU-linked individuals including its chief Igor Korobov are already subject to sanctions over the agencys activities. Mr Seely called for a permanent body to investigate, understand and expose Russian political warfare.
Alexander Petrov (left) and Ruslan Boshirov are believed to have been behind the Novichok poisoning attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March (Metropolitan Police/PA)
British and Russian officials will come face-to-face as the UN Security Council discusses the Salisbury Novichok attack hours after Theresa May said Moscow agents were behind the deadly poisoning.
Police and prosecutors announced on Wednesday they had enough evidence to charge the men, named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, over the poisoning in March.
The Prime Minister told MPs it was carried out by two Russian spies and sanctioned at a senior level by Vladimir Putins regime.
She told the Commons investigations have concluded that the two suspects are members of the GRU, Russias military intelligence service, and it was not a rogue operation.
The UK has called for a #UNSC meeting tomorrow, Thursday, to update the Council on the Salisbury investigation. pic.twitter.com/exK4kEX0uD UK at the UN (@UKUN_NewYork) September 5, 2018
As a permanent member of the Security Council, Russia will be represented at Thursdays meeting called by Britain to update members on progress in the Salisbury investigation alongside UK allies such as the US and France.
Australia on Thursday said it was in lock step with the UK on the importance of holding Russia to account over the heinous attack, although it is not currently a council member.
Mrs May did not explicitly blame the Kremlin for authorising the attempted assassination, although senior Conservatives directly accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of approving the operation.
Commons Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat said there was no doubt it was state ordered and President Putin bears responsibility for a war-like act.
The charge daffaires at Russias London embassy was summoned to the Foreign Office for a dressing-down by an official following Mrs Mays statement.
Expand Close The PM told MPs the UK would push for new sanctions against Russia (Mark Duffy/UK Parliament/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp The PM told MPs the UK would push for new sanctions against Russia (Mark Duffy/UK Parliament/PA)
The PM told MPs the UK would push for new sanctions against Russians responsible for cyber attacks, additional listings under the existing regime and promised to work with intelligence allies to counter the threat posed by the GRU.
Former GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were left critically ill after being exposed to the military grade nerve agent Novichok in March.
The alleged perpetrators were identified in a dramatic joint police and Crown Prosecution Service press conference.
Detectives believe it is likely the pair, thought to be aged around 40, travelled under aliases and that Petrov and Boshirov are not their real names.
Prosecutors deem it futile to apply to Russia for the extradition of the two men, but a European Arrest Warrant has been obtained and the authorities are also seeking the assistance of Interpol.
Detectives believe the front door of Mr Skripals Salisbury home was contaminated with Novichok on Sunday March 4.
#Salisbury: UK publishes suspects' names and photos, but shows no willingness to engage with Russia in order to establish the truth. Our offers of cooperation remain on the table. https://t.co/9pASx5T5O6 pic.twitter.com/9MPGBud34w Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) September 5, 2018
Mr Skripal, 67, and his daughter were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury city centre the same day and spent weeks critically ill in hospital.
Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu also confirmed officers have now linked the attack on the Skripals to events in nearby Amesbury four months later.
In the second incident, Dawn Sturgess, 44, and her partner Charlie Rowley, 45, were exposed to the same nerve agent used in Salisbury.
Ms Sturgess died in hospital in July, just over a week after the pair fell ill.
In a statement, the Russian Embassy in the UK accused the British authorities of being unwilling to engage with them and called on the Government to give up politicised public accusations.
Dr Joseph Muenzer said it was too early to say if the move had been successful (AP)
Early results from a historic gene editing study have shown encouraging signs that the treatment may be safe, and could achieve at least some of its hoped-for effects.
Scientists stress that it is too soon to know whether the technique to permanently change a persons DNA in order to cure a disease will ultimately succeed.
The results are from the first human test of gene editing in the body in this case, tackling a genetic disorder called Hunter syndrome that often kills people in their teens.
Expand Close Brian Madeux was the first person in the world to participate in gene editing (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Brian Madeux was the first person in the world to participate in gene editing (AP)
In two patients who received a medium dose of the treatment, urine levels of large sugar compounds that are the hallmark of Hunter syndrome had fallen by half, on average, four months later a possible sign the treatment is working.
Two others who received a low dose have seen little change in these sugars so far.
There is no way to know yet whether the change in the middle-dose patients is due to the gene editing or something else, but the fact their sugars have declined consistently since treatment suggests it might be.
Study leader Dr Joseph Muenzer of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said that he cannot absolutely say the result was due to a treatment effect, but acknowledged that the drop is really encouraging.
Expand Close A research nurse examine Mr Madeux (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp A research nurse examine Mr Madeux (AP)
The main goal of early treatment studies is to test safety, though researchers also look for hints that the therapy is working.
Dr Muenzer revealed the results at a conference in Greece.
He consults for the treatments maker, California-based Sangamo Therapeutics.
Company president Dr Sandy Macrae said tests will reveal more in about five months, but the change in the middle-dose group so far looks really good.
He said: The most rational explanation for this is that what we hoped was going to happen, has happened.
Dr Howard Kaufman, a Boston scientist and member of a US National Institutes of Health panel that reviewed the study before it began, said the results are exciting, and suggest that gene editing is working to some degree, without safety concerns so far.
Expand Close Experts are hopeful that the results are a sign that the treatment is working (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Experts are hopeful that the results are a sign that the treatment is working (AP)
Dr Matthew Porteus, a genetics expert at Stanford University who consults for two other companies developing gene therapies, said more time is needed to see how the patients immune systems continue to react to the treatment and whether the effects last. But he added that, based on the early results, I would be excited about continuing to push along.
Gene editing is intended as a more precise way to carry out gene therapy knocking out a bad gene or supplying a good one that is missing. Doctors hope it will help address a host of diseases that cannot be treated at present.
In November, a man from Phoenix, Arizona with Hunter syndrome became the first person to test this inside the body.
Brian Madeux lacks a gene that makes an enzyme which breaks down certain large sugar compounds called GAGs. These build up in cells and cause havoc throughout the body.
Through an IV feed, Mr Madeux received many copies of a corrective gene as well as a gene-editing tool called zinc finger nucleases to help place it in a precise spot in his DNA.
He was one of the two patients given a very low dose of the treatment, as human testing requires extreme caution.
In the case of Mr Madeux and the other low-dose patient, levels of the tell-tale sugar compounds in urine rose 9% on average after four months.
Dr Muenzer said it is hard to know whether this is a significant change. This is because little is known about the biology of these compounds, including whether they fluctuate during the day or before or after meals.
A liver biopsy on one patient given a low dose of the therapy found no evidence that the gene editing had occurred, but Sangamo scientists said this dose is far below the level at which such signs had been detected in research on primates.
It is not yet known if declines like these can improve patients health or slow the progression of the disease.
Dr Muenzer said that one important goal had been met: the treatment seems safe. There were two serious side effects one patient was taken to hospital for bronchitis and another for an irregular heartbeat but those were deemed due to their disease and pre-existing conditions, not the gene treatment.
Two more patients have been given the highest dose being tested 10 times the starting dose making up a total of six patients in the study.
The next step is to start taking patients off the weekly enzyme treatments they have been receiving to see if the gene therapy has changed their bodies so they can make enough of the enzyme themselves.
More results are expected to be revealed in February.
The governor of Arizona has announced that a former senator will fill the late John McCains US Senate seat but said he has only committed to serve until the end of the year.
Jon Kyl, a Republican who retired from the Senate in 2012 to become a lobbyist and spend more time with his family, is currently shepherding President Donald Trumps nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court.
Mr Kyls appointment will make it possible for him to vote for the nomination.
It is unclear what more the 76-year-old will do in the Senate.
He said he agreed to serve briefly out of a sense of duty and will not run for the seat in 2020, when Arizona voters will decide who fills the seat until 2022.
Jon Kyl is a dear friend of mine and Johns. Its a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona. Cindy McCain (@cindymccain) September 4, 2018
The seat will then be up again for a full six-year term.
Governor Doug Ducey, also a Republican, said Mr Kyl was the best possible person, regardless of politics for the job, and he hopes Mr Kyl serves past the end of the year.
If Mr Kyl does leave the Senate after the end of the current congressional term on January 3, Arizonas governor can appoint another senator for the remaining year.
By state law the senator will have to be a member of the same party as the departing one, in this case the GOP.
For now, Mr Kyl will pad Republicans margin in the narrowly divided Senate.
I think McCain would be very happy with the pick. Honours his legacy while putting some major horsepower for Arizona in the seat, at least for nowFormer McCain aide Doug Cole
They hold a 51-49 majority but that dwindled to a single vote while Mr McCain stayed in Arizona for much of this year being treated for the brain cancer that killed him on August 25.
The GOP is hoping Mr Kyl will be a more reliable partisan vote than Mr McCain, whose opposition to a partial repeal of Barack Obamas healthcare law pitched the party into turmoil last year.
Mr Kyl is well-respected in Arizona and has been able to avoid many of the battles with activists that complicated Mr McCains career and that of the states other senator, Jeff Flake, who is retiring because his feud with Mr Trump made his re-election impossible.
Mr Kyls entire career in Washington overlapped with Mr McCains, and he served with the states senior senator for three terms before stepping down.
He carved out a profile as a reliable conservative vote and a foreign policy expert.
Mr McCains widow, Cindy, tweeted: Jon Kyl is a dear friend of mine and Johns. Its a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona.
Doug Cole, a veteran Republican consultant and former McCain aide, said Mr Kyl was a safe pick.
I think McCain would be very happy with the pick. Honours his legacy while putting some major horsepower for Arizona in the seat, at least for now, he said.
A lawyer, Mr Kyl speaks in a formal, reserved manner that is a sharp contrast to Mr Trump, and he belongs to an older, less populist vanguard of the GOP.
I look forward to working with Jon Kyl as we continue making progress for the American people pic.twitter.com/yAqYcqycAe Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) September 4, 2018
At a news conference where he was introduced as Mr McCains replacement, Mr Kyl said in a response to a question that he has only met Mr Trump once, though he noted he is working for the White House by serving as Judge Kavanaughs so-called sherpa.
With a nod towards Mr McCain, Mr Kyl said the presidents desire to jump into the middle of or be in the middle of a fight and by the way that reminds me of somebody can be detrimental in the end to what hes trying to achieve.
During his time back in the Senate, Mr Kyl will have the opportunity to vote on several issues that have been involved in his lobbying activities, from immigration to national security.
Mr Kyl has lobbied on behalf of young immigrants brought to the US illegally as children, often called Dreamers, whose fate is in limbo after Mr Trump tried to end an Obama-era programme protecting them from deportation and Congress deadlocked on a solution.
He will likely also vote on bills containing tens of billions of dollars for Defence Department programmes after he represented defence giant Northrop Grumman.
His work was primarily focused on tax issues affecting the company, but his firm Covington & Burling also lobbied the House and Senate to drum up support for the B-21 bomber, a stealth aircraft Northrop Grumman is building for the Air Force.
Reality television star Kim Kardashian has returned to the White House for a meeting with senior presidential advisers as part of criminal justice reform efforts by the US government.
A White House official confirmed Kardashians appearance after TMZ reported on her visit to the White House.
Expand Close The reality TV star held a meeting with Mr Trump three months ago (Ian West/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp The reality TV star held a meeting with Mr Trump three months ago (Ian West/PA)
She last visited the White House three months ago to push for a pardon for Alice Marie Johnson.
One week later, Mr Trump granted the 63-year-old clemency, freeing her from prison after more than two decades in jail on drug charges.
Kardashian participated in a listening session on clemency and prison reform with several White House staffers, including the presidents senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Hogan Gidley, White House deputy press secretary, said: The discussion is mainly focused on ways to improve that process to ensure deserving cases receive a fair review.
Among the others in attendance were CNN commentator Van Jones, Shon Hopwood, a lawyer who served time in prison for bank robbery, and Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, who has been instrumental in steering Mr Trumps supreme court choices, including Brett Kavanaugh, whose confirmation hearings have begun in Washington.
Expand Close The star has previously said she will push for clemency for a man serving a life term over drugs offences (AP) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp The star has previously said she will push for clemency for a man serving a life term over drugs offences (AP)
There are no plans for Kardashian to meet with the US president.
She gave an interview this week in which she said she would lobby for Chris Young, who was charged in December 2010 for being involved in drug trafficking in Clarksville, Tennessee. He was later convicted and, due to mandatory minimum sentencing, was given life in prison without parole after being arrested for marijuana and cocaine possession.
Mr Kushner has added prison reform to his broad portfolio, though others in the administration namely US attorney general Jeff Sessions support the toughest possible sentences for drug and other convictions in America.
The presidents son-in-law has had an interest in prison reform since his own father, Charles Kushner, was incarcerated for 14 months after being convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering.
Danish submarine inventor Peter Madsen, who was found guilty of the torture, sexual assault, murder and dismemberment of a Swedish reporter, has appeared before an appeals court to fight against his life sentence.
The three-day session at the Eastern High Court in Copenhagen will not deal with the April 25 guilty ruling.
Madsen, 47, still denies murdering 30-year-old Kim Wall but has accepted the verdict in order to move on, according to his lawyer.
In Denmark, a life term is on average 16 years, but it can be extended if necessary.
Madsen, who claims Ms Wall died accidentally inside the submarine in August 2017, wants a time-limited sentence, not an open-ended term.
Expand Close The UC3 Nautilus, where Ms Wall died (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp The UC3 Nautilus, where Ms Wall died (AP)
He has confessed to throwing her body parts into the Baltic Sea.
Wearing a dark blazer, a black T-shirt and jeans, Madsen listened quietly as prosecutor Kristian Kirk read out the April verdict to present the case.
He later looked away when Kirk played a police video of the inside of his UC3 Nautilus submarine, which he had claimed was the largest privately built submarine in the world.
The Copenhagen City Court had ruled unanimously that Madsen had lured Ms Wall onto his home-made submarine with the promise of an interview.
Expand Close Madsens lawyer Betina Hald Engmark (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Madsens lawyer Betina Hald Engmark (AP)
The court ruled the murder was sexually motivated and premeditated, with the prosecution using Madsens shifting explanations against him and quoting a court-ordered psychiatric report that described him as emotionally impaired with severe lack of empathy, anger and guilt and having psychopathic tendencies.
Madsens lawyer Betina Hald Engmark said the prosecution case was based on undocumented claims.
Clearly, she said, Madsen did something horrible by cutting Ms Wall into pieces, but she said he should only be sentenced for that, noting that the cause of death has never been established.
Under Danish law, indecent handling of a corpse carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail.
Ms Wall wrote for The New York Times, The Guardian and other publications. She had reported from post-earthquake Haiti, among other places, and studied at Paris Sorbonne University, the London School of Economics and Columbia University in New York.
She set out on the submarine on a sunny August evening last year to interview Madsen, the co-founder of a company that develops and builds manned spacecraft.
Her remains were found in plastic bags on the sea bed weeks later.
Madsen initially said he had dropped Ms Wall off at a Copenhagen island several hours into their submarine trip.
Then he claimed Ms Wall had died as a result of a build-up in pressure inside the submarine. He later changed this to say that the reporter had died accidentally inside the vessel when a hatch fell and hit her on the head but there was no indication of a skull injury when Ms Walls head was finally located.
A decision is expected on September 14.
World-renowned Ulster Glade celebrated in new designs
Ulster Banks new 5 and 10 polymer bank notes should prick the curiosity of the public in some little-known, but highly interesting local stories, according to the consultant who advised on their creation.
Jeni Lennox from design agency Nile says that she hopes Northern Ireland people will celebrate the new notes, which are due to be brought into circulation in early 2019, and the stories behind their design.
The first main issue vertical bank notes in the UK and Ireland, they were designed through a collaboration between the bank, the printer De La Rue, and people from Northern Ireland.
They are based on the theme Living in Nature and were developed with a panel of experts, which included botanists, geologists, creatives, business people, academics, and others.
The designs were revealed at an event in Belfast before the summer and the bank is getting ready to bring them into circulation early in 2019.
The 5 note focuses on Northern Ireland as a place that people pass through and visit, highlighting the importance of the sea and migration and features Strangford lough and Brent Geese.
The 10 note focuses on Northern Ireland as a place of growth, both in terms of agriculture and heritage, and features Lough Erne, the Irish hare and Guelder-rose shrubs.
Jeni Lennox, designer with Nile, says: The story of the Ulster Glade potato is one of my particular favourites. John Clarke from Ballintoy on the North Antrim coast became a world recognised expert on the science of potato-breeding, producing more than 30 varieties which are grown and traded in the industry. One of his most famous is the Ulster Glade.
It was released in 1962 and was one of the first in the world to have resistance to a prominent potato pest. John was respected by scientists nationally and internationally and won many accolades. The inclusion of the Ulster Glade in the new 10 note design is a tribute to him and his work, as well as recognition of the importance of the potato in the history of the island of Ireland.
I also loved finding out more about the flora that play a central role in the Northern Ireland landscape which is criss-crossed by thousands of miles of field boundaries, creating a characteristic green patchwork of small fields. Often taken for granted, the hedgerows, such as Hawthorn and Blackthorn, are an extremely important natural resource, supporting Ulsters bio-diversity by providing shelter for a wide range of insects, birds and animals, and often containing a rich mix of plant species.
The 5 note also, for instance, includes fishing boats and shellfish from Strangford Lough, paying tribute to the incredible tidal flow into the lough which brings the nutrients that enable the shellfish to be the world-class food that they are.
Overall, working on the notes was a genuine pleasure. Our task was to find the distinctive voice of Northern Ireland and to express this across four bank note scamps. With the magical graphic design skills of Neil Wallace of O Street, expert guidance from local creative directors Lisa Smyth of Shesaid and Colin McCadden, and our panel of experts to keep us right, I feel that we have been able to do this. I very much look forward to them coming into circulation early next year, she adds.
Find out more about ways you can bank with Ulster Bank here
After agreeing to postpone a high-speed rail project, Malaysian Economics Affairs Minister Azmin Ali (center), shakes hands with Singapore Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan as Anthony Loke, Malaysias transport minister, stands near them in Putrajaya, Sept. 5, 2018.
Malaysia signed an agreement Wednesday to pay Singapore U.S. $10.9 million to postpone for two years a high-speed railway linking Kuala Lumpur to the Lion City, after Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had said he wanted to scrap the project.
Since his Pakatan Harapan alliance defeated the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition in the May general election, Mahathirs new government has grappled with a national debt of 1 trillion ringgit (U.S. $241 billion) by curtailing projects started by his predecessor, Najib Razak.
In August, Mahathir canceled another rail project and two pipeline projects that were backed by China and valued at billions of dollars.
I am happy to say, and I believe Minister Khaw (Boon Wan) too, that today we have finally sealed the deal, witnessed by both Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad and the deputy prime minister of Singapore, said Economic Affairs Minister Azmin Ali who signed on behalf of Malaysia.
Under the new agreement with Singapore, the $12.3 billion High-Speed Rail (HSR) project, which consists of about 217 miles (350 km) of rail between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, will be postponed until May 31, 2020, effectively slowing the projects completion date by four years, to Jan. 1, 2031.
Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan, who signed for Singapore, said his government remained committed to the project.
But of course we understand why Malaysia needs to temporarily suspend the construction of the HSR project, Khaw said.
He said the deal was made after serious consideration by Singaporean officials because it did not match the original agreement signed with Najibs government in February 2013.
Azmin traveled to Singapore three times in August to negotiate the deal. In a tweet posted on Aug. 30, the final day of negotiations, he announced that both governments were inching closer toward a win-win deal on HSR.
The agreement stipulates that if the project fails to proceed after the agreed 2020 date, it will be considered cancelled and Malaysia could face a penalty of about $120 million, according to a source close to the minister who asked to not be identified.
Postponement questioned
A government critic who challenged the deal said construction and material costs likely would be higher in two years.
Abdul Rahman Dahlan, who served as minister in charge of the Najib administrations economic planning unit, said the millions paid to Singapore for the delay could be put to better use.
The cost of the postponement is enough to build five schools in rural areas or 643 low-cost housing units for the poor, Abdul Rahman said.
Pakatan Harapan needs to reconsider its priorities, he said Wednesday in a Twitter post.
Meanwhile, Oh Ei Sun, a senior adviser for international affairs at the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute, said the government made the right move.
Hopefully in two years it will be better, Oh said, dismissing the possibility of Malaysia scrapping the project.
If they wanted to cancel it they should just cancel it now and save the trouble of negotiating, Oh said.
In 2013, officials announced that the proposed rail line would reduce travel time between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to around 90 minutes by train from the current 11 hours on existing services.
In addition, the officials predicted it would contribute $5 billion (20.7 billion ringgit) in gross domestic product to Malaysia and Singapore while creating 111,000 jobs by 2060.
Mahathir on water deal: Manifestly ridiculous
The city-state of Singapore used to be part of Malaysia until it quit the Malaysian Federation in 1965. Since then, relations between the next-door neighbors have been tense at times.
And as the two countries were closing in on the deal on postponing the rail project, Daim Zainuddin, chairman of the new Malaysian prime ministers influential Council of Eminent Persons, said Mahathir was turning his attention to negotiating a review of prices as stipulated in a 1962 bilateral water agreement, the South China Morning Post reported on Sunday.
Under the 56-year-old water deal, Malaysia sells Singapore water from the Johor River at less than one U.S. penny per 1,000 gallons, the Post reported, noting that 60 percent of the city-states water needs are supplied under the agreement.
In late June, Mahathir indicated in an interview with Singapore-based Channel News Asia that he was not happy with this and that his government planned to renegotiate the agreement.
I think it is manifestly ridiculous that we should sell water at 3 cents per thousand gallons. That was OK way back in the 1990s or 1930s. But now what can you buy with 3 cents? Nothing, the prime minister told the news outlet.
Unidentified gunmen shot dead a mayor in the central Philippines on Wednesday, police said, in a killing that occurred two years after President Rodrigo Duterte tagged him as a protector of drug pushers.
Mariano Blanco III, the mayor of Ronda town, in central Cebu province, was sleeping inside his office before dawn when four unidentified men broke in, overpowered his bodyguards and opened fire, police investigator Dionisio Tagupa said.
Blanco became the 17th local government official to be killed since Duterte took office in June 2016 and launched a bloody anti-drug campaign.
After a second, a burst of fire was heard from the mayors office and then the unidentified persons left, Tagupa told reporters.
The gunmen were aboard a van, Tagupa said, citing an account from the mayors aides.
No suspects have been identified.
In 2016, Duterte publicly accused Blanco of protecting drug dealers but did not provide evidence. The allegation, which the mayor denied, forced Blanco to change his daily routine, and this included sleepovers at his office.
In February this year, Blancos nephew, Jonah John Ungab, who was also the towns vice mayor, was shot dead by gunmen outside a court house. Ungab was serving as legal counsel of confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa.
In July, two mayors were killed in ambushes by gunmen that took place a day apart. One of the victims was Antonio Halili, mayor of Tanauan city, south of Manila, who was slain by a snipers bullet in front of city employees. The brazen attack happened during a flag-raising ceremony.
Halili was stripped of his powers to supervise the citys police force last year due to his alleged drug links.
Among other mayors killed was Espinosas father, who was gunned down in jail because he allegedly pulled a gun on officers. Another mayor was slain after allegedly passing a police checkpoint with a huge drug haul in the south, while another was slain along with 14 of his followers during a raid at his home.
During the past two years, Duterte had publicly waved a list of officials that included police officers, military personnel and judges. He accused them of being involved in the illicit drug trade. His drugs war, according to rights advocates, has left at least 12,000 dead.
Duterte was forced to halt his anti-drugs operations last year following intense criticism from rights groups. But at his annual speech before Congress in June, he warned that his bloody campaign would continue, vowing that it would be as relentless and chilling as the day it began.
Duterte, in the meantime, faces two murder complaints before the Hague-based International Criminal Court. The charges were filed by the families of victims in his administrations war on drugs and by two members of his alleged death squad when he was mayor of the southern city of Davao.
Jeoffrey Maitem and Luis Liwanag, in Manila, contributed to this report.
Supporters of Philippine Sen. Antonio Trillanes mob him after he went to a Manila in a failed bid to obtain bank statements of President Rodrigo Duterte, whom the lawmaker accused of having amassed wealth beyond his stated net worth, May 2, 2016.
Philippine Sen. Antonio Trillanes, a top critic of the governments drug war, remained holed up at the Senate on Wednesday as he defied an arrest order following President Rodrigo Dutertes revocation of an amnesty that shielded the lawmaker over his past role in military rebellions.
The senator from the political opposition said his legal aides had advised him to stay at the Senate building while they filed papers contesting Dutertes order, which was made public a day earlier.
It was a long night for us last night, Trillanes told reporters, adding that his lawyers would answer the presidents allegations at the Supreme Court. What was evident, firstly, was that the basis of the presidential declaration of Duterte is one big error and a lie.
Duterte said he was revoking the amnesty granted to Trillanes allegedly because the senator did not comply with requirements set out by the law.
The president also ordered the Justice Department and military to proceed with court martial proceedings against Trillanes, a former Navy lieutenant who was part of a group of junior military officers who mounted two rebellions, one in 2003 and another in 2007.
To prove his point Trillanes showed a copy of his application for amnesty as well as a video of news coverage of the day he delivered his documents in person to the Defense Department and military headquarters.
Their statement that I did not apply for amnesty personally is trash. You were witness to all of that, Trillanes said. It was even recorded by the media that I admitted guilt. That was the requirement of the Aquino administration before I was approved to be given amnesty.
He was referring to former president Benigno Aquino III, the immediate leader of the Southeast Asian country before Duterte took power in 2016 and launched a drug war that has left thousands of suspects dead without the benefit of a trial.
Since Trillanes has holed himself up in the Senate building, throngs of allies have been flocking to the chamber to offer their support to what observers have described as politically motivated maneuverings by the president, who has been angered by the former Navy officers stinging opposition to his administrations crackdown on illegal drugs.
Legal debate
Dutertes order has provoked a legal debate, with some legislators questioning his right to invalidate an amnesty granted by a former leader and approved by Congress.
The justice department, however, said it stood by the order because the crimes Trillanes was accused of were punishable by life imprisonment.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, speaking from Israel where he was accompanying Duterte on an official trip, said the executive office would not change its mind, and he advised Trillanes to go to the courts. He also did not rule out the possibility of police storming the Senate to carry out the arrest.
There is no hindrance against the police to enter the Senate and arrest Senator Trillanes for as long as there is a warrant of arrest against him, Roque said.
He argued that members of Congress only enjoyed immunity from arrest, if it involved alleged crimes punishable by up to six years, but not for serious violations such as plotting a coup detat that are punishable by life imprisonment.
In 2003, Trillanes and about 300 other junior military officers and men took over the Oakwood Hotel in Manilas Makati financial district. They said it was a rebellion to protest massive corruption within the armed forces. They surrendered quickly after then-President Gloria Arroyo vowed to investigate their claims.
But four years later, while being tried for his role in the rebellion, Trillanes and some of the other accused military officers walked out of court and occupied another hotel, also in Makati. They called for Arroyos ouster, but the rebellion was quickly quashed after the army drove an armored personnel carrier into the hotel lobby.
Trillanes later ran for a Senate seat while in jail, and won.
Now a senator, Trillanes has been at the forefront of opposition questioning Dutertes drug war. He was instrumental for providing security to two alleged members of Dutertes death squad, who later filed against a case against the president before the International Criminal Court.
Zero basis
A fellow senator, Leila de Lima, has been in jail since last year, accused by Duterte of profiting from incarcerated drug lords when she served as the justice secretary. She has denied the charge.
On Wednesday, de Lima branded the amnesty revocation against Trillanes as baseless, arguing that Duterte alone could not undo an act that was jointly approved by both Congressmen and Senators.
If there is zero basis in fact and in law to revoke Senator Sonnys amnesty, then, why did Duterte issue this proclamation?, de Lima said in a statement issued from detention, referring to Trillanes by his nickname.
It was simply a political move to try and silence Senator Trillanes. Another palpable case of political persecution, she stressed.
Among those politicians speaking out on the side of Trillanes was Senate President Vicente Sotto, an ally of Duterte, who said lawmakers were drafting rules to regulate the flow of the entry of officers in the Senate.
We informed the palace that the rules of the Senate, and the tradition of the Senate is followed by the Senate president, he said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, opposition members in the House of Representatives filed a resolution denouncing the baseless, unlawful and improvident revocation of Trillanes amnesty and calling on the government to immediately cease from executing the arrest order against him.
Moncks Corner, SC (29461)
Today
Clear this evening then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 47F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph..
Tonight
Clear this evening then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 47F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
He governs a country where there are attacks almost every day and from which hundreds of thousands of people have fled to Germany. BILD met Afghanistans President, Ashraf Ghani (69), in his palace in Kabul.
As recently as August, the Taliban shot missiles at the palace.
BILD: Mr. President, over the past years, Afghanistan has seen an enormous and tragic brain-drain of young people leaving this country for other countries. What would you say to young people, and the most talented, most educated people, so they come back and work for their own country?
Ashraf Ghani: Before I answer your question, let me pay tribute to German soldiers, German aid workers, and particularly let me thank Chancellor Merkel, for having stayed with us during these years. And the German taxpayers, who foot the bill.
Afghanistan is in the middle of a generational change. The youth are taking over authority and responsibility in this country. If you look at the history of both us and our neighbouring countries, the generational changes are unprecedented. This generational change brings a group of people to positions of authority and responsibility that have a medium and long-term perspective. So every day the administration is becoming younger. Responsibility is shifting and they are beginning to own the problems of the country.
The most important thing now is vocational, in technical education. And in this Germany again has been a partner, particularly Chancellor Merkel herself. We want to transform our vocational system into the German-Scandinavian system. The liberal education that was just about literacy and numeracy is not sufficient. With that changed, I think we will be able to both create opportunities, but particularly the youth in this country can now see their cohort in full positions of authority and responsibility.
The Afghan president with BILD reporters Julian Reichelt and Paul Ronzheimer (left) Foto: Andreas Thelen
BILD: So youre happy about young Afghans who are in Germany and are able to contribute from there?
Ghani: Im delighted. The German public education system has been transformed. We couldnt produce that human capital with 2 billion dollars of investment. The tragedy of conflict is one side, but another side is an unintended result, and Germany probably captures this more than any other country, because Afghans there went straight from camps to becoming leading doctors, engineers, computer experts, and others.
BILD: Since the refugee crisis in 2015, there has been a discussion in Germany about how to deal with so many refugees. Is your country safe so that people can return there?
Auch Interessant
Ghani: The flow has stopped. In 2015/16, there was a special set of conditions, where everybody rushed to Germany. We, as your partners, have done our duty and our responsibility towards partners to help stop the flow. The return process is an organised process. Its a legally bounded process where the appeals of the people who seek asylum are exhausted. This has created confidence that the people, when people are returned, they are not returned without reason.
Safety in Afghanistan is a very difficult notion to define. Because you need to make these decisions psychologically, morally.
On 21st August, I came from the mosque and rockets were raining on the palace. Did I run away? Did I flinch? I took the podium, I gave the explanation, and I acknowledged that the rockets were going to come, but they were not going to determine my actions.
For me the important question is: What are we doing to make the country safe?
549 young men and women graduated from our military academy. I knew that within one week they would be in Helmand or in other places. They opted to defend this country. So I dont want to make the judgement on safety or lack of safety. I want to put an end to this. And there are a lot of Afghans, millions of us, who are standing up and voting for the future.
BILD: During the refugee crisis, many people also came to Germany who had left Afghanistan primarily for economic reasons. What can be done against false hopes?
Ghani: Well, strategic communication. Information is good. Because theres an illusion that the streets in Germany are paved with gold. Theyre not. And people who would be part of the middle class, and part of a vibrant entrepreneurial opportunity, theyll go and do manual work. Im proud of manual work, dont get me wrong. But they take a significant downward mobility. The second issue is the question of smuggling.
All of us have a responsibility to tackle international criminal organisations. The same people who are smuggling narcotics are smuggling people. And theyre smuggling arms. So this requires a really world-wide set of activities. Unfortunately, this struggle is very fragmented. Its done nation by nation and its done to a blame-game rather than seeing that the smugglers literally strip these people of their assets. They leave them, in the high seas or in the desert, and they rob them of their opportunities. So one needs to take care of this. We dont want to send our people we want to send our goods. So the partnership that I want to seek is with the German importers association. I give you just one idea: pine nuts. Germany is the largest buyer of pine nuts in the world. Afghanistan was the largest producer, last year. But you wont see the figure anywhere. Because the raw pine nuts are being smuggled instead of processed.
BILD: There were outrageous scenes during the rallies in the city of Chemnitz last week. What do you say to the majority of Germans people who had nothing to do with these rallies about the people coming from your country to Germany?
Ghani: I want to thank the German people for their hospitality. In the 1980s, Germany opened its doors and hearts to Afghans. The result was one of the most remarkable productions of human capital on earth. I give you just some examples from my family. One of my cousins is a brain surgeon. Another is a dentist. They came with nothing. But now they have everything. Please look at the Afghans who have contributed to German society. We are very proud of the Afghan Germans. And that aspect needs to be appreciated. For one or two or three, please do not condemn the nation.
I think that, given the Germany of the 1920s, the most important issue is to avoid fear. The Germany of the 1920s descended into fear. That fear had tragic consequences. So people need to be engaged, but also we need to acknowledge that the fears are rooted in uncertainty, and we should not demonize those who demonstrate. They need to be engaged.
BILD: But there is great skepticism whether the integration can work.
Ghani: Germany cannot become a fortress. Could anybody have imagined in 1945 that Germany would be such a formidable economic and social power on earth? It is because it opened itself. It fundamentally transformed itself, and re-espoused its classic liberal values of philosophy, human engagement, but also for a government that is truly a reflection of the consensus of society. Germany stands for me as a beacon of hope, and as a beacon of social integration and economic growth, and also compassion human compassion. Your social policies are examples of compassion and I hope that the Afghans will be seen for the good. So my request is, please profile the successes of the Afghans for your readers. For every person that has made an infraction or committed a crime, there are hundreds that have become very productive. And I think they will come back. And, I think the third generation of Afghans is really likely to come back and transform this country.
BILD: In Germany, there is a debate whether Chancellor Merkels welcome policy of 2015 was a trigger for more refugees. What do you think?
Ghani: You see, the issue that Europe does not confront is the system of demography. You dont have the birth-rate to underwrite your social policies. You need labour. You need the injection of a younger generation. Because if you look at sheer demography, the number of people who are working and the number of people who are pensioned the balance is not there. I think Chancellor Merkel with her classic approach made rational decisions. It was transformed into an emotional debate. This discussion of how Europe can maintain its demographics is an important discussion. Of course there are always lessons, and the key lesson is that reason and emotion must be balanced and communicated.
Societys capacity for absorption is much greater than fear-mongers believe. But of course lessons are always welcome and in politics and life there is not one risk you have to be able to sense and respond. Part of the social imagination is to be able to change the narratives. When the narrative shifts and people are afraid, we need to acknowledge their fear.
BILD: There are attacks in Afghanistan almost every week. You are at war with the Taliban. Given what has happened in the past months and years, do you need more soldiers in order to stabilize Afghanistan?
Ghani: I want to assure every German mother and father that their children are not going to be in combat again. We want a supportive role. Advice, training, assistance. And we need the symbolic presence for those functions. So the frontline duty is ours. In those areas that are common, like crime and terrorism, we need to be able to collaborate, and we collaborate very well. So the judgement of where we were and where we are, needs to be made from a process perspective. Initially, the Afghan army was incapable. The first challenge when I became President was a single hill in the province. It took us one week to retake this single hill. It involved the entire upper rank of our army, and police, and secret service. Now we have the capability of responding to five or six key locations within 12 hours. The balance is changing. With this plan being fully implemented and resourced, we are confident that we will not need more international troops. The second component is Again, the German public and the German politicians need to ask: how long will they need to foot the bill?
BILD: Before we get to the issue of peace you just mentioned German mothers and fathers. Approximately 50 German soldiers lost their lives in Afghanistan. What do you say to their parents, who are looking back at the sacrifice that their children made?
Ghani: First, as I always do, I thank them from the bottom of my heart. And second, I want to assure them that the sacrifice of their children was not in vain. We honour that. It is a bond that is truly unique, because there is no love greater than the love of a stranger. These German men and women in uniforms and some civilians came with nothing but a sense of global mission and service in the best tradition of Germany. We want to make sure that that is not replicated. I want to assure them that they will not be in combat patrols again. They will be in supportive roles, but we are as we are doing now going to be leading. Second, we want to create a society in a state, in a government system, in an economy, that does not repeat this. Its with enormous humility that I thank them. I want to say: thats not just my sentiment, but the sentiment of my entire Afghan nation that expresses gratitude for their sacrifice.
BILD: You engaged in an enormous effort for peace talks. At the same time, you push economic programmes. Tell us how hopeful you are about both of them and how they are connected.
Ghani: The key for Afghanistans stability is that it becomes an exporting country. Our imports are seven times our exports. If we shift the balance, you will see an impact. Why is this a prerequisite to peace? The greatest problem for peace and Ive reviewed over a hundred peace agreements, I looked at a long article in 2008 that is still being used as a standard is jobs after the peace agreement. A lot of the countries that have solved the problem politically, but have not solved the problem of attending to the former fighters and their networks, have become more insecure. Insecurity takes the form of criminality. What are we doing with peace? First, weve changed the paradigm of peace. Because the assumption was: you need to make a comprehensive peace, and then you get a ceasefire. In four days, after they had issued a fatwa asking me to declare a ceasefire, I declared a ceasefire. That was a political earthquake, because it changed all the assumptions regarding war and peace. Before that, there was a prevalent notion that Afghans are so fragmented. If you are not able to forget, youre not going to reconcile. Over 30 000 Taliban, young fighters, came to our cities. The week before that, thereve been 1000 Afghans who had lost their lives. 300 from armed forces and 700 from Taliban. Not one Taliban was humiliated, not one was lynched, not one was insulted. People opened up. Mosques welcomed them, women engaged in conversations. This has changed the dynamics. Second, they said that a ceasefire will not be observed. It was observed 98%. And the 2% were minor infractions. So we want to engage in a comprehensive manner. 93% of society wants peace. This requires courage, compassion, and commitment.
BILD: How problematic is it that the Taliban are regarded as terrorists by the Afghans but also the international community and that the international community was fighting against the Taliban for such a long time? What are the reactions like that you get?
Ghani: First, what did Ireland do? What did the UK and Northern Ireland do? Reconciliation. Wasnt that what people who were classified as terrorists The issue is: the damage of terrorism can take different shapes. Those who are willing to let go of the act, we need to bring them back to the fore. Because not every Taliban is necessarily an ideological terrorist. This is the fundamental issue. Are they seeking peace? I give you a story: a Taliban came to the hospital, brought his family. Then he asked the doctor: Whats wrong with me? The doctor said: Will you not get annoyed if I tell you? He said: No, I will not get annoyed. He said: Youre malnourished. And you know what the Taliban response was? Well, whats malnourishment? When the doctor explained, he said: How can I eat properly? I cant eat properly. So this side needs to be understood. We need to separate them. The other part is the ideological one. Those like Al-Qaida, Daesh, and others are completely committed and will not stop short and will not see reason. The international community is in no disagreement on this. When reason, inclusion, politics can work lets give them a space. But if they reject that process, then the responsibility will be theirs, and force is invented for this purpose. In Max Webers famous definition its the states legitimate monopoly of force. That is what is important. Because in the 21st century, force has become so easy and so prevalent that its threat has declined. The significance of its threat has declined. We need to make force much more meaningful again. But the threat of it will hopefully bring peace. Because the fundamental issue of order is that it cannot just come from the barrel of the gun. It has to come from acceptance. And those elements I call this the fifth wave of global terrorism, because anarchism was the first wave they will not reconcile. But the elements that can be reconciled should be engaged. So like Ireland or like Columbia We can take the steps that are necessary. Difficult? Absolutely. Necessary? Totally. How do you balance? I hope that God and opportunity will make us walk forward.
Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, the woke vs. the awakened.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nightingale has also recently announced a major initiative to analyse the biomarker profiles of 500,000 samples from the UK Biobank.
Nightingale Health, the Finnish innovator of an internationally recognized blood biomarker technology for studying chronic diseases, will perform large-scale metabolic profiling of the Mexico City Prospective Study cohort by analyzing the biomarker profiles of blood samples from a cohort of 150,000 study participants. Contracted by the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford, Nightingale will provide novel biomarker data to accelerate research into the chronic disease risk of Hispanic populations.
Nightingale's acclaimed biomarker profiling technology measures metabolic biomarkers that recent studies have found to be predictive of future risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes and many other common chronic diseases. Until recently, technological constraints and prohibitive costs have prevented the analysis of comprehensive biomarker data from large-scale population collections. Nightingale's technology now makes this viable by measuring over 220 metabolic biomarkers from a single blood sample.
Jonathan Emberson, Associate Professor, Medical Statistics and Epidemiology in the Nuffield Department of Population Health, said: "The Mexico City Prospective Study provides researchers with a unique opportunity to investigate the major causes of death in a Hispanic population. Biomarker profiling will allow us to better understand how lifestyle, environment and genetics combine to cause diseases such as cardiovascular disease in a population with high levels of obesity and diabetes."
Nightingale will perform the assays within 12 months allowing researchers to start investigating the novel dataset promptly.
"The chronic disease burden is global. Therefore, it's essential to study populations across the globe capturing ethnic and socio-economic differences that underlie disease risk," said Teemu Suna, CEO and Founder, Nightingale Health. "Nightingale's analysis of metabolic profiles from this cohort of 150,000 will facilitate the evaluation of effective prevention strategies and treatments for the local population. We believe that this novel initiative is a concrete step towards making chronic disease prevention a global effort."
Nightingale has also recently announced a major initiative to analyse the biomarker profiles of 500,000 samples from the UK Biobank.
The leadership provided by Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh has seen the WHO South-East Asia Region emerge as the top performer in the organization globally.
Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh has been nominated for a second five-year term as Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia.
Dr Khetrapal Singhs candidature was unopposed, as the 11 Member countries of WHO South-East Asia Region met at the ongoing Regional Committee session to elect the next Regional Director.
Congratulating Dr Khetrapal Singh, Indias Minister of Health and Family Welfare, J P Nadda, and chair of the Regional Committee meeting, said, With her contribution to regional as well as global initiatives and outstanding work in placing health central to the agenda of sustainable development, she will surely lead the Region to greater heights.
The leadership provided by Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh has seen the WHO South-East Asia Region emerge as the top performer in the organization globally. Her commitment to the public health agenda in the Member States is reflected in the significant achievements in all the flagship priorities of the Region, he said.
WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said As the first woman to become Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia Region, you have provided dynamic leadership in a Region that accounts for one quarter of the worlds population, but a disproportionate burden of its diseases.
The Director-General said that through her flagship programmes, Dr Khetrapal Singh had brought a strong focus to delivering results in countries, which is one of the key themes of WHOs new General Programme of Work and of WHOs transformation project.
Thanking the Member States for nominating her for the second term, Dr Khetrapal Singh said, My vision is to consolidate, accelerate and innovate to further strengthen progress in the priority areas and translate vision into action.
Dr Khetrapal Singh has a long and distinguished career in public health of over four decades. She served in the health sector at various senior positions during her stint in the Indian Administrative Services; in the World Bank; was part of WHO Director-Generals cabinet in Geneva; worked as the Executive Director of Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments in WHO headquarters; and was Deputy Regional Director WHO South-East Asia Region from 2000-2013.
Dr Khetrapal Singhs ongoing first term as Regional Director began on 1 February 2014, during which, in consultation with the Member countries she identified seven flagship priorities- achieving universal health coverage; strengthening emergency response capacity; reversing the noncommunicable disease epidemics; finishing off neglected tropical diseases; combatting antimicrobial resistance; preventing maternal, under-5 and neonatal deaths and eliminating measles and controlling rubella. Eliminating tuberculosis was added as her eighth flagship in 2017.
Substantial progress has been made in each of these flagships and beyond. Certified polio free in 2014, the Region continues to maintain this status. The Region eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus becoming only the second WHO Region to do so. Four countries in the Region have eliminated measles and six have controlled rubella. The maternal mortality rates in the Region have reduced by 69%, the steepest decline in any WHO Region during the MDG era. Countries in the Region have reduced maternal, under-5 and neonatal mortality rates to levels below the SDG targets.
Among neglected tropical diseases, India eliminated yaws, Nepal eliminated trachoma, while Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand have eliminated lymphatic filariasis. Two countries Maldives and Sri Lanka have eliminated malaria.
All countries are implementing national action plans to combat anti-microbial resistance.
Nine of the 11 countries have multi-sectoral action plan to address non-communicable diseases while all countries are committed to 25% relative reduction in overall NCD mortality by 2025.
Improved preparedness is helping minimize deaths and diseases during outbreaks and emergencies, while the South-East Asia Regional Health Emergency Fund continues to support emergency response, and now preparedness as well.
In their quest to achieve universal health coverage, countries are increasing their health budgets, rolling out health financing programmes, strengthening health workforce and making efforts to make essential medicines accessible and affordable.
The regional flagships are in sync with the Sustainable Development Goals 3 on health, and WHOs new triple billion goals to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable.
As per WHO procedures, the WHO Executive Board, which next meets in Geneva in January 2019 is expected to confirm Dr Khetrapal Singhs nomination and appoint her as the Regional Director. Dr Khetrapal Singh will commence her next five-year term on 1 February 2019.
A first in India, mfine ONE to offer unlimited doctor consultations in partnership with leading hospitals.
mfine, an AI powered, on-demand healthcare service, is redefining how millions of Indians access primary healthcare by laying more emphasis on preventive and holistic care. To enable this, mfine today launched mfine ONE, a unique subscription plan that includes a complementary baseline health checkup and unlimited access to best doctors for the entire family. The mfine app allows users to virtually connect with doctors from leading hospitals under 60 seconds. More than 70 doctors from 30 hospitals are consulting users, under 12 specialities. The healthcare startup is aiming to acquire 25000 members through the subscription plan in Bengaluru in the next 6 months.
mfine ONE is an annual/half-yearly subscription plan that allows unlimited doctor consultations for users and their immediate family members. The program will give users access to several digital tools to help them manage chronic conditions, maintain a healthy lifestyle, and aid in recovery from illnesses. Users with specific medical issues or chronic diseases will find this plan suitable for long-term care as they will have access to all their previous health records and will be able to continuously monitor and track their progress along with access to specialist doctors.
As part of the subscription, consumers get a complete health assessment followed by a consultation with a physician on personal health goals and steps to achieve the same. The assessment is a comprehensive check-up to know all important health parameters of an individual including functioning of heart, kidneys and liver, complete blood count, composition of fat & muscle in the body and vitamin profile. This helps consumers to know how healthy they are and what specific health goals they should pursue.
Spread of chronic and lifestyle diseases is growing at an alarming pace and much of it will end up in tertiary care if not managed and intervened at appropriate time. mfines vision is to enable easy access to quality primary and secondary care in India so that expensive tertiary care can be avoided. The subscription program allows users to not only monitor their own health but also of their immediate family members at no additional cost.
Launched in December 2017, more than 30,000 consultations have been done on mfine by some of the top doctors of the city. The startup has raised over $6 million and has 60 employees. The company is planning to achieve over 100,000 consultations by the end of 2018 and will partner with more than 50 top hospitals across 5 cities in the country.
Sulekha Nair
Farming without chemicals and pesticides seems to be a niche area as the produce from such efforts tends to be expensive. However, Pune-based EarthFood, founded by 33-year-old Nilesh Palresha of the VTP Group, has managed to move successfully on the residue-free' farming trajectory. The firm aims to sell relatively more affordable 'residue-free' produce.
Palresha, a mechanical engineer, first joined the family firm VTP Realty. After a few years, he decided to get into agriculture, where he felt he could work with traditional methods to keep pollution and wastage to a minimum. He took the plunge in 2015 on his 100-acre farm near Pune that follows good agricultural practices (GAP).
GAP is the use of specific methods in agriculture to create food for consumers that is safe and wholesome. The idea of following GAP is to supply 'global standard' vegetables and fruits in the domestic market. In Maharashtra, GAP are employed on around 0.6 percent of all farmland, Palresha told Firstpost. The GAP agriculture market is growing 18.3 percent every year.
Having attracted Rs 6.4 crore in May from 32-year-old Siddharth Khinvasara, Chairman of Pune-based Rairah Corporation, EarthFood got a co-founder. Khinvasara, talking about his investment, said Indias burgeoning start-up ecosystem is home to many youngsters moving towards farming but not everybody aspires to sell reasonably-priced residue-free produce.
Around 80 percent of the money infused by Rairah Corporation will be used to boost production, cultivate new land, for hydroponics, and for the the roll out of new products. The remainder will be used for sales and marketing that would help in enhancing the brand's footprint. EarthFood also plans to sell milk and milk products soon.
EarthFood's produce is priced some 0.5 percent to two percent higher than normally grown (fertiliser-driven) fruits and vegetables. Prices will not get affected by the volatility in market prices, according to the company.
EarthFood, which has a revenue of over Rs 1 crore, started selling fruits and vegetables in Mumbai, post-funding. It plans to enter Bengaluru soon.
IANS
Far from being a dead world, the dwarf planet Ceres is an active and evolving world, indicate hundreds of bright areas that stand out in images NASA's Dawn spacecraft has returned, say scientists.
The surface of Ceres is otherwise dark. "The mysterious bright spots on Ceres, which have captivated both the Dawn science team and the public, reveal evidence of Ceres' past subsurface ocean, and indicate that, far from being a dead world, Ceres is surprisingly active," said Carol Raymond, deputy principal investigator of the Dawn mission, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
"Geological processes created these bright areas and may still be changing the face of Ceres today," Raymond said. The researchers presented the latest results about the bright areas at the American Geophysical Union meeting in New Orleans on 13 December.
Since Dawn arrived in orbit at Ceres in March 2015, scientists have located more than 300 bright areas. Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and the only dwarf planet located in the inner solar system.
A new study in the journal Icarus, led by Nathan Stein, a doctoral researcher at California Institute of Technology divided Ceres' features into four categories. The first group of bright spots contains the most reflective material on Ceres, which is found on crater floors.
The most iconic examples are in Occator Crater, which hosts two prominent bright areas. Cerealia Facula, in the centre of the crater, consists of bright material covering a 10-kilometre-wide pit, within which sits a small dome.
East of the centre is a collection of slightly less reflective and more diffuse features called Vinalia Faculae. All the bright material in Occator Crater is made of salt-rich material, which was likely once mixed in water.
More commonly, in the second category, bright material is found on the rims of craters, streaking down toward the floors. Impacting bodies likely exposed bright material that was already in the subsurface or had formed in a previous impact event.
Separately, in the third category, bright material can be found in the material ejected when craters were formed, the study said. As Dawn continues the final phase of its mission, in which it will descend to lower altitudes than ever before, scientists hope to learn more about the origins of the bright material on Ceres and what gave rise to the enigmatic features in Occator.
Teachers Day 2019: Interesting Facts About Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Life oi-Syeda Farah Noor
Teacher's Day is celebrated on 5th September in India. This day is dedicated to mark the birthday of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan who was the first Vice President of India, and he was also the second President of India.
Radhakrishnan was also a philosopher, and he had introduced western idealist philosophies in India.
There are some lesser known facts about Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan which every Indian should know. Check them out...
He Was An Indian Philosopher Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was an Indian philosopher who was also the first Vice president of India from 1952 to 1962. Apart from this, he was also the Second President of India from 1962 to 1967. His Students Pulled Him In A Flower Decked Carriage When he was leaving the Mysore University to join as a professor in the University of Calcutta, the journey from Mysore University to the Railway Station was a historical event as his students pulled him in a flower-decked carriage. When He Gave A Lecture In London When he gave a lecture in London, H. N. Spalding was so fascinated by his content and his personality that he found a chair at Oxford for Eastern Religions and Ethics. Gift Ideas For Teacher's Day When He Was A Vice President When he was the Vice President, he had to preside over the Rajya Sabha sessions, and during heated debates, Radhakrishnan would intervene with slokas from the Sanskrit classics. This way he knew precisely how to calm the charged atmosphere. He Was Also Appointed As Ambassador To UNESCO He was also appointed as ambassador to UNESCO in the year 1946. After this he became an ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1949. He chaired the Union Education Commission in 1948. He received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 1961.
Procedure And Significance Of Aja Ekadashi Fast Yoga Spirituality oi-Renu
Aja Ekadashi Vrat: | Significance | Boldsky
Hindus celebrate a number of festivals throughout the year. All the thirty days of the month, known as Tithis, are dedicated to the worship of one deity. Some months such as the Shravana and the Kartik are entirely dedicated to pujas and celebrations.
Aja Ekadashi is one of the Tithis considered to be very auspicious. Aja Ekadashi refers to the Ekadashi falling during the Krishna Paksha in the month of Bhadrapad. This year it will be observed on September 6, 2018. Every Ekadashi is dedicated to Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu, as well as Goddess Lakshmi, are worshipped on Aja Ekadashi day. It is observed as a fasting day. Lord Krishna had explained its importance to Yudhishthir. Krishna said that King Harishchandra had observed the fast as a result of which, his son regained his life, and the king regained his kingdom.
Devotees get up early and take bath during the Brahma Muhurta. The place for puja is cleaned, and some rice is spread on it. A Kalash is placed on the rice and then it is covered with a red cloth. Atop the Kalash, an idol of Lord Vishnu is placed. He is offered prayers after lighting a lamp and incense before him. You can offer all other items such as flowers, fruits and sweets to him. Use sandalwood paste as tilak.
The observer of the fast has to stay abstain from eating anything for the whole day. A whole night vigil is kept by all the devotees, where they sing devotional songs and hymns praising Lord Vishnu. The fast generally starts on the Dashmi Tithi, that is the day before the Ekadashi and the parana is performed after the sunrise of the Dwadashi Tithi, the day after Ekadashi.
Eating anything that is not satvik should be avoided from the previous day. However, some people observe this rule only from the evening of the previous day. Though many devotees refrain from eating or drinking anything throughout the day, the fast can also be observed by eating fruits by those suffering from health problems. Grains and honey should not be consumed on this day. Rice should be avoided by those not observing a fast as well.
The fast is observed in order to please Lord Vishnu. It is said that observing the fast gives salvation. All the sins of the past life are washed away by observing this fast. This fast also brings peace and prosperity in life. It is said that observing Aja Ekadashi day gives benefits equal to those of performing the Ashwamedha Yagna.
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
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.
Washington
The confirmation hearing for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh had a raucous first day on Tuesday, with Kavanaugh extolling the principle of racial equality in education, Democrats calling for a postponement of the hearing, dozens of interruptions by protesters, and the father of a student killed in the Parkland, Fla., incident claiming he was rebuffed by Kavanaugh when he sought to shake hands with the nominee.
Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was among the victims of the Feb. 14 shootings at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 students and staff members and injured 17 others, was a guest at the hearing of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.
Guttenberg, who had been introduced by Feinstein in the morning, approached Kavanaugh at the lunch break, extended his hand, and tried to speak to him.
I said my name is Fred Guttenberg, Im the father of Jaime Guttenberg, who was murdered in Parkland, Florida, Guttenberg said in an interview. He just turned around and did a beeline.
Video clips of the exchange show that Kavanaugh appeared to hesitate and look at Guttenberg, then turn away. But the moment occurred quickly, and Kavanaughs chief White House spokesman said there was no snub, even though the encounter quickly went viral.
While Fred Guttenbergs encounter with Judge Kavanaugh has gotten your attention in the past hour, the video from the hearing room shows that as the judge was leaving and had already turned away and begun walking, security intervened and ushered the judge away, Raj S. Shah, the spokesman, said in an email.
Reference to Brown v. Board of Education
The hearing began chaotically as Democrats interrupted Chairman Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, with repeated complaints about a late release Monday night of 40,000 additional pages of Kavanaugh documents and demands that the proceeding be postponed.
We cannot possibly move forward, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., said at the outset of the hearing. We have not been given an opportunity to have a meaningful hearing on this nominee.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., repeatedly moved to delay the hearing. Grassley ruled the requests out of order.
This is the first confirmation for a Supreme Court justice Ive seen, basically, [run] according to mob rule, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said. Some spectators booed, and Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said, What weve heard is the noise of democracy. This is what happens in a free country when people can stand up and speak and not be jailed, imprisoned, tortured, and killed because of it. It is not mob rule.
Besides the handshake incident, which wasnt widely noticed in the hearing room, there were a few other education-related moments throughout the first day.
In his opening statement, Kavanaugh built on a theme that he and President Donald Trump put forth during his White House unveiling in July by praising the service of his mother, Martha Gamble, as a teacher in the District of Columbia schools beginning 50 years ago, in 1968.
At that time, my mom started as a public-school teacher at McKinley Tech High School here in Washington, D.C., Kavanaugh said, adding that 1968 was a difficult time for race relations in our city and our country. McKinley Tech had an almost entirely African-American student body.
I vividly remember days as a young boy sitting in the back of my moms classroom as she taught American history to a class of African-American teenagers, the nominee said. Her students were born before Brown versus Board of Education or Bolling versus Sharpe. By her example, my mom taught me the importance of equality for all Americansequal rights, equal dignity, and equal justice under law.
Bolling v. Sharpe was the 1954 companion case to Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka involving desegregation of schools in the nations capital. Kavanaughs mother later went to law school, becoming a prosecutor and then a Maryland state judge.
Blumenthal said he intended to ask Kavanaugh whether Brown was correctly decided. Blumenthal asked that of now-Justice Neil M. Gorsuch during his confirmation hearing last year. (Gorsuch eventually said that it was.) And earlier this year, the Connecticut senator asked the same question of one of Trumps nominees for a federal district judgeship, Wendy Vitter, who declined to answer.
The question has been asked of judicial nominees in part to try to dislodge their reluctance to answer questions about Supreme Court precedents on abortion and privacy rights.
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., noted that another guest of Democrats on Tuesday was Carlotta Walls LaNier, one of the Little Rock Nine who desegregated Central High School in the Arkansas capital in 1957.
There are people like Ms. LaNier who are part of gaining rights in this country, advancing the ideals of this nation toward the purity of the ideals put forth by the founders despite the imperfections, Booker told Kavanaugh. And now the fear and the worry is, what the trend of the court is doing is rolling back those gains, its undermining that progress, its restricting individual rights.
Feinstein said there had been 273 school shootings since the 2012 incident at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., when a gunman killed 20 children and six employees.
She expressed concerns about positions taken by Kavanaugh when his court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, ruled in an important gun-rights case that was a followup to the landmark Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which recognized a Second Amendment right of individuals to possess firearms.
In the follow-up case, Kavanaugh was the dissenter in a three-judge panel decision that upheld some of the federal districts gun registration requirements and a prohibition against semi-automatic weapons.
In your own words, gun laws are unconstitutional unless they are traditional or common in the United States, Feinstein said. You concluded that banning assault weapons is unconstitutional because they have not historically been banned. This logic means that even as weapons become more advanced and more dangerous, they cannot be regulated.
I care a lot about this, she said. I authored the assault weapons legislation that become law for 10 years, and Ive seen the destruction. If the Supreme Court were to adopt your reasoning, I fear the number of victims would continue to grow and citizens would be rendered powerless in enacting sensible gun laws.
A Beautiful Family
It was after Feinsteins statement, and several hours worth of back-and-forth between Democrats and Republicans, as well as numerous interruptions by protesters among the small groups of the general public allowed to enter the hearing room, that the lunch break finally came. That is when Guttenberg seized his moment to approach Kavanaugh.
Education Weeks Andrew Ujifusa writes here about how the exchange played on social media.
After the statement by Kavanaughs White House communications team, this reporter sought out Guttenberg during an afternoon break in the proceedings.
Asked whether he had only sought to introduce himself, or to impart a message to Kavanaugh, Guttenberg said, I wanted to introduce myself, but I also wanted to say to him, Listen, you have a beautiful family, youre a father. I want to know that youre going to look into my eye and understand the pain of a father.
I have no issue with the Second Amendment Guttenberg said. I have no issue with legal gun owners. But I do have issues with rolling back the common-sense things weve already done. ... Hes already said where he stands on these issues. Hes kind of in a no-limits-on-the-Second-Amendment mentality. And the problem is, its predictable what hell do. And if he does it, people will die.
Guttenberg said that after the lunch break, the U.S. Capitol Police approached him and questioned him for several minutes about the incident, which the father believes was at Kavanaughs instigation. Once they confirmed that he was Feinsteins guest, he said, he was allowed to return to the hearing room, where he remained for the rest of the day.
Guttenberg did not seek to approach Kavanaugh at the end of the days proceedings.
The hearing was to resume Wednesday at 9:30 a.m., when senators questioning of Kavanaugh will begin.
Indo-Asian News Service
US tech giant Apple has announced to donate Rs 7 crore towards the ongoing relief work.
"We're heartbroken by the catastrophic flooding in Kerala. Apple is donating Rs 7 crore to support the life saving work Mercy Corps India and the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund are undertaking to support survivors, help those who have been displaced and rebuild homes and schools," the Cupertino-based iPhone maker said in a statement.
Apple has also added support banners to its home page, along with App Store and iTunes Store, allowing customers to donate to Mercy Corps.
"We have also activated a donation button on iTunes and the App Store so customers who wish to donate to Mercy Corps' efforts can do so easily," Apple said.
Apple often uses the iTunes Store and App Stores to raise money for donation during major disasters.
Apple customers can donate $5, $10, $25, $50, $100, or $200 to Mercy Corps using credit and debit cards.
As many as 417 people have lost their lives in rains and floods as hundreds began returning home from relief camps, still leaving 8.69 lakh people in 2,787 shelters.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Friday that the deaths began since the monsoon rains started on May 29 but 265 of the casualties were reported from August 8 when torrential downpour triggered the worst flooding in the state in nearly a century.
Reuters
T-Mobile US Inc and its unit Metro PCS informed customers on Thursday about a potential security breach that was discovered and shut down by the company.
The cyber-security team found and shut down unauthorized access to certain information on 20 August, and reported the matter to authorities, T-Mobile said in a statement on its website.
No financial data, social security numbers or passwords were compromised, but other personal information like name, email-id, phone number, zip code, account number or type (postpaid or prepaid) may have been exposed, the company said.
No financial data, social security numbers or passwords were compromised, but other personal information like name, email-id, phone number, zip code, account number or type (postpaid or prepaid) may have been exposed, the company said.
About 3 percent of T-mobile's 77 million customers could have been affected, a company spokesperson told technology news website Motherboard.
T-Mobile did not respond to Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours.
Wednesday, September 5, 2018
Following up on my previous post, Should Washington & Lee University Change Its Name?:
President's Response to the Report of the Commission on Institutional History and Community (Aug. 28, 2018):
We are Washington and Lee University. The explanation of how George Washington, in 1796, and Robert E. Lee, in 1870, came to be the namesakes of our university is straightforward and remains compelling. Washington and Lee were figures of national significance whose direct impact on this institution was pivotal to its survival and success.
I did not ask the Commission to consider the name of the university, or the names of our buildings, but it is understandable that these issues arose in the course of its examination of the ways that the presentation of our history affects the community.
The Commission recommended that we continue to be Washington and Lee University, and that our nickname continue to be the Generals. The Board of Trustees, which has authority with respect to naming, and of which I am a member, agrees.
The legacies of Washington and Lee, along with those of many prominent Americans from the Revolutionary and Civil War eras, are discussed and debated by every generation of citizens and scholars. Attempting to settle these debates was not the Commission's assignment, nor is it the university's role.
As an educational institution, W&L is committed to fostering and conducting meticulous scholarship that carefully assesses the individuals and events that have shaped our university and our nation. Intellectually honest consideration of our namesakes cannot separate the generous benefactor from the slaveholder, or the forward-thinking college president from the Civil War commander. Our aim is neither to deify nor to demonize, but to understand on the basis of well-considered evidence, and to render praise and criticism on the basis of well-justified argument. These are the core practices of liberal arts education. Applying them to our own history advances our mission by developing the intellectual capacities of our students, improves our institution by encouraging constructive self-criticism, and serves the public by contributing to conversations of contemporary importance.
The Board of Trustees has also confirmed that Lee Chapel and Lee House will retain their names. Many university buildings are named for the presidents with whom they are most strongly associated. Robert E. Lee conceived the chapel, raised the funds for its construction, presided over its opening, and attended daily services within it. Lee Chapel appropriately bears his name. It is also common custom on campus and in Lexington for houses to be named for the families who lived in them first or longest. The home occupied by all university presidents since 1869 was built by Washington College for the Lee family, which lived in it for nearly 30 years. Lee House appropriately bears their name.
The Board will continue to discuss, at its October meeting, other issues raised by the Commission's report, including the naming of campus buildings.
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2018/09/washington-lee-university-keeps-its-name.html
In a show of appreciation, a South Bay art educator and his students have made artwork gifts of gratitude for city and school board leaders from the beach cities of Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo.
Brandon-based Cando Rail Services is one of two companies tasked with repairing the Churchill rail line after several businesses and First Nations groups banded together to officially buy the damaged railway last week.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 4/9/2018 (1155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Advertisement Advertise With Us
Brandon-based Cando Rail Services is one of two companies tasked with repairing the Churchill rail line after several businesses and First Nations groups banded together to officially buy the damaged railway last week.
The contract, awarded to Cando Rail and Alberta-based Paradox Access Solutions, was announced in a news release on Tuesday.
A Cando Rail spokesperson said the company could not comment on the deal due to the terms of the contract.
But the news was welcomed by Brandon West Progressive Conservative MLA Reg Helwer, who described Cando Rail as a great community player throughout the country and said he suspects that will continue with this new opportunity.
"Cando has been a remarkable success story in Brandon and in Canada," Helwer said. "They do work all across the country ... so (its) very good to see that theyll be using their expertise to make this a reality."
Last Friday, Arctic Gateway Group LP, whose members include Missinippi Rail Limited Partnership a consortium of First Nations and other communities along with Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited and AGT Food and Ingredients Inc., announced that it had closed a deal with Omnitrax Inc. to acquire the Hudson Bay Railway and Port of Churchill facilities.
The agreement also involves OneNorth, a group co-chaired by Churchill Mayor Mike Spence, and support from Ottawa, the Winnipeg Free Press reported.
In a statement made on behalf of the partners, Fairfax president Paul Rivett said the group has been working diligently over the last eight months and he thanked the federal government and leadership from Omnitrax, Churchill and other First Nations for making the project a reality.
Rivett said repairs have commenced with the awarding of a contract to Cando Rail and Paradox.
"We are racing against time to attempt to restore services prior to the winter season," he said. "The time has come for us to work together with our consortium of First Nations and communities, the Government of Canada, the provinces and the private sector to build an Arctic gateway for Canada to the world."
Grand Chief Arlen Dumas of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs described the deal as historic and thanked Omnitrax head Pat Broe for negotiating in good faith.
Prior to becoming grand chief, Dumas served as chief of Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, one of the signatories to Missinippi Rail. The consortium also includes Fox Lake Cree Nation, Opaskwayak Cree Nation, Tataskweyak Cree Nation, War Lake First Nation, York Factory First Nation and municipalities located along the rail line.
The group now owns a 50 per cent stake in the Churchill project.
"Participating communities will enjoy preferential employment and contracting opportunities consistent with modern agreements concerning business in our territories," Dumas said.
"This is a strong deal for our northern First Nation communities and a strong departure from the status quo of uncertainty over the future operation of these critical pieces of infrastructure. I am proud of our people and look forward to the successes that this project will enable."
"Well have control in the future, and well work toward prosperity," Spence said. "This is historic. I dont think theres another model out there in Canada that would fit into this equation. First Nations, communities and municipalities and the private sector hand-in-hand with the Government of Canada. This will work. We are excited for the future."
Numerous sections of the Hudson Bay Railway were damaged following heavy flooding in the spring of 2017.
Ottawa eventually intervened after Omnitrax refused to pay an estimated $43.5 million to repair the railway.
The Manitoba government last year spent $6 million to ship a winters supply of propane to Churchill.
mlee@brandonsun.com
Twitter: @mtaylorlee
Snapdeal has announced the launch of AI Hackathon, for professionals world-wide to unlock the potential of Artificial Intelligence in addressing business problems pertaining to the ecommerce sector.
This competition challenges participants to solve interesting problems around computer vision and natural language processing. Some key issues to be tackled by the hackers include the ability to personalise search results to suit each customers requirements and minimisation of fraud on the platform. The winner will be selected based on his/ her ability to solve the real world business problems.
As part of this strategic initiative, Snapdeal aims to engage super-smart Artificial Intelligence experts to join Snapdeals team. This 30 days challenge is starting from September 10, 2018, and will witness the participation of enthusiastic tech-geeks from across the world to participate in this mega event.
As part of the competition, the winner must beat the algorithm built by the internal team at Snapdeal and the algorithm built by other contestants. The winner will be rewarded with a cash prize of Rs. 50,000/- and will have an opportunity to join Snapdeals expert AI team.
Technuter.com News Service
Social workers and counsellors will be on hand to provide support to students and staff at Betty Gibson School, following teacher Jeffrey David Freiheits death at the end of last month.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 4/9/2018 (1155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Advertisement Advertise With Us
Social workers and counsellors will be on hand to provide support to students and staff at Betty Gibson School, following teacher Jeffrey David Freiheits death at the end of last month.
Freiheit was scheduled to begin a term contract teaching at the Brandon school.
FACEBOOK PHOTO Jeffrey Freiheit, pictured shortly before friends and family became unable to connect with him on Aug. 2.
The 32-year-old would have filled a void for physical education, as well as other classes that were to be arranged with the school principal, said Brandon School Division Supt. Marc Casavant.
Freiheit had started substitute teaching in the BSD as early as 2007, Casavant said.
The superintendent heard a lot of positive things about the work Freiheit did as a teacher.
"The things that I hear repeatedly is his ability to connect with kids," Casavant said. "He just had a kind soul about him, and he was always looking to connect with kids and make the school a great place for students."
Freiheit was found dead at the bottom of a ridge on Aug. 25 in Germany. The teacher had gone hiking in Europe.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held for Freiheit at St. Augustine of Canterbury Church on Saturday.
mverge@brandonsun.com
Twitter: @Melverge5
This Page
has moved to a new address:
Sorry for the inconvenience
Redirection provided by Blogger to WordPress Migration Service
Cork Airport has welcomed news that Ryanair is launching a twice-weekly service to the Polish city of Poznan.
The new route will begin in March 2019.
Niall MacCarthy, MD at Cork Airport said that airport welcomes the latest addition to their extensive network of destinations.
He said: In addition to Poznan, Ryanair will also launch a new service to London Luton this October.
"These new routes will be very popular for leisure and business passengers in both directions.
"Its an excellent development, particularly for the 2.4 million passengers from across the south of Ireland who use Cork Airport annually.
"We look forward to welcoming them over the coming months as they avail of the enhanced connectivity at the airport.
BREAKING NEWS @CorkAirport has welcomed news that @Ryanair, today announced a new route from Cork to Poznan, in Poland, with a twice-weekly service commencing in March 2019, which will be a part of Ryanairs Summer 2019 schedule. pic.twitter.com/PK42d39Rkv Cork Airport (@CorkAirport) September 5, 2018
Ryanair has also said they are delighted to be a part of this update to the Cork Airport summer 2019 schedule.
Spokesperson Robin Kiely said: "To celebrate, we are releasing seats for sale from 14.99 for travel from September to October, which is available for booking until Friday midnight, 7 September.
The 19-country eurozone economy continued to grow at a solid rate during August despite sharp slowdowns in Italy and Spain, figures show.
Financial information firm IHS Markit said its measure of business activity across manufacturing and services - called the composite purchasing managers' index - rose to 54.5 points during August from 54.3 the previous month.
By Tom Tuite
A Dublin man has been remanded on bail after he was charged with multiple counts of raping a young boy more than 10 years ago.
The man, who is in his mid-twenties, was charged with 14 counts under the Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act, 1990 in connection with alleged incidents in 2007.
The accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was granted bail after appearing before Judge Bryan Smyth at Dublin District Court.
Detective Garda David Jennings said he replied, no comment after the charges were put to him at Tallaght station.
The Director of Public Prosecutions directed the man is to face trial on indictment in the Central Criminal Court.
There was no objection to bail subject to him obeying conditions: a curfew, an order to sign on at his local Garda station three days a week, surrender his passport and not have any contact directly or indirectly with the complainant or witnesses.
The man, who has not yet indicated how he will plead, was remanded on 500 bail with the terms sought by Detective Garda Jennings.
He was ordered to appear again at the same court in October to be served with a book of evidence and returned for trial.
Judge Smyth acceded to a request by defence counsel John Griffin, instructed by solicitor Padraig ODonovan, to grant legal aid to the accused who is unemployed.
By Louise Roseingrave
A 58-year-old farmer suffered catastrophic head injuries after he sustained a suspected kick from a cow.
Thomas Flynn of Carinaulth, Arigna, Co Roscommon was securing his cows in a cattle pen on his farmyard when the accident happened on March 10, 2017.
The incident was unwitnessed. Mr Flynns wife was inside the family home preparing for work.
The farmer is believed to have been in a vulnerable position as he bent to close off three metal bars to secure the cattle inside the pen. He was expecting the vet later that day for a herd test, Dublin Coroners Court heard.
Anna Flynn said it was shortly before 8am when she saw what looked like his feet on the ground in the farmyard. She ran outside.
A bar from the cattle pen was lying partially on top of him, she said.
An ambulance was called and Mr Flynn was transported to a helipad at the Arigna Mining Museum for transfer to University Hospital Galway.
A CT scan revealed facial fractures and extensive head injuries and Mr Flynn was transferred to Beaumont Hospital later that day.
Despite two surgeries to save him, Mr Flynn died two days later in hospital.
The cause of death was cranio-cerebral trauma, according to a post-mortem carried out by Dr Francesca Brett.
Mr Flynn had a small farm of four cows, two calves and two donkeys, the court heard. He had extensive experience having grown up farming.
Health and Safety Inspector Brian McHugh visited the farm on the day of the incident and said he believed the farmer's injuries were the result of a kick from an animal.
He said the style of pen on the farm, with three metal sliding bars was unusual. He said safe handling equipment for small farmers, many of whom work alone, is important.
Sliding those bars, you are bending down into a confined space. Youre in a danger zone lifting bars into place.
We would prefer better handling facilities, in this instance a hinged gate that could be swung closed, would be a quicker way of securing the cows.
There were two calves in the pen which may have caused the cows to be more agitated, it might have been the protective instinct of the mother, she may have gotten spooked or startled.
He noted that farmyard upgrade works involve additional costs to the farmer.
There is a cost associated and with the small nature of the farm in question here, we have to be aware of what is practical, Mr McHugh said.
The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.
Alcohol Action Ireland is calling on the Government to increase the annual charge on off-licences.
It is one of a number of measures it is seeking in its Pre-budget submission.
The group says imposing a Social Responsibility levy would fund efforts to curb rising levels of alcohol consumption.
Head of Communications and Advocacy with Alcohol Action Ireland, Eunan McKinney, outlines two measures they would like to get up and running.
Mr McKinney said: "One is in relation to the level of young people who are starting to drink too early, every year we have 60,000 children starting drinking.
"We want to put in measures that would try to curb and delay that.
"Secondly, we want to try and put in measures that would put additional funding into community-based alcohol treatment programmes."
The group is also calling for an end to State supports for Craft breweries, saying the sector is flourishing and does not need any extra help.
Mr McKinney said: "The Craft brewers, in particular, have benefited on two fronts. One is, they have benefited from a tax rebate which is roughly to the tune of around 20m over the last 13 years.
"And then most recently, we've seen the Oireachtas pass the Intoxicating Liquor Bill in a very short space of time which affords the Craft brewers and distillers the opportunity to sell their products at their premises."
Update 5pm: A section of the M50 in Dublin has reopened fully after an earlier collision which left one man with serious injuries.
It happened this morning when a car collided with a truck heading southbound shortly before 10am.
Ryanair pilots have unanimously voted to accept an agreement negotiated with the airline.
The decision comes after pilots staged a number of strikes over the summer months following a dispute with the budget carrier.
The pilots based in Ireland, who are members of the Irish Air Line Pilots Association (Ialpa), accepted the Collective Agreement which covers base transfers, command upgrades and related seniority principles.
It follows mediated talks between elected pilots representatives and Ryanair management.
@IALPA members operating in Ryanair vote to accept collective agreement pic.twitter.com/keKbKbTium IALPA (@IALPA) September 5, 2018
Ialpa spokesman Captain Joe May said that, while the unions members fully respect Ryanairs operational model, it no longer accept the companys highly problematic employment model.
He added: After decades of declining terms and conditions, pilots in Ryanair have now firmly found a unified voice.
When pilots are treated fairly and transparently by an airline, they will be motivated to contribute to their airlines success, stay at the company and make their career with that airline.
He went on to thank former workplace relations director Kieran Mulvey, who brokered the deal.
He added: We would also like to thank Ryanair for their participation in the mediation process, Forsa officials and ICTU officials, in particular Patricia King and Liam Berney, for leading the talks on behalf of Ryanair pilots.
In a statement, Ryanair welcomed the overwhelming vote in favour of the agreement.
"We welcome the overwhelming vote in favour of this agreement negotiated with Forsa and our Irish pilots, with the assistance of mediator Kieran Mulvey.
"We will now bring this agreement to our Board and will ask them to reconsider their decision to rebase 6 aircraft away from Dublin this winter.
We expect that the Board will meet to discuss this welcome development in the coming days.
- Press Association
Those expats wanting to watch the Late Late show live now have their chance as the iconic show is looking for audience members for its London broadcast.
The chat show will be airing from central London on Friday, October 12, with a programme that will celebrate the historic ties between the Irish and their nearest neighbours and the contribution of Irish people to Britain.
Due to the high demand for tickets, a lottery system will be in place to allow a lucky few to get the chance to see host Ryan Tubridy live in action.
Ryan and some special guests will be in London on Friday, October 12 for the historic London show.
The studio audience for this very special edition of The Late Late Show will be the biggest since Ryan Tubridy began helming the show ten years ago with up to 1,000 people expected to be there on the night.
Ryan said: "If you have a bit of Irish in you, you are welcome to join us on the night. It is as simple as that. Go to the website, tell us about yourself. We are celebrating all things Irish in Britain and we want you to be there with us.
Entrants are limited to one application only.
So, what are you waiting for? Youve got nothing to lose.
Tickets are now available at The Late Late Shows website.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has arrived in Pakistan at a time when relations between the two countries have sunk to a new low.
The US last weekend cancelled a 300 million dollar Coalition Support Fund payment to Pakistan, and on board his plane to Pakistan, Mr Pompeo announced his appointment of an unpopular figure in Pakistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, as the new US special adviser on Afghan reconciliation.
Mr Pompeo said he wanted to "reset" strained relations with Pakistan, but the appointment of Mr Khalilzad could complicate his job.
"He has been very critical of Pakistan in the past and his appointment will not help move things forward," said Zahid Hussain, defence analyst and author of two books on militancy in the region.
Mr Khalilzad was born in Afghanistan and served as US special envoy to the country following the collapse of the Taliban from 2001 to 2003 and then US ambassador to Afghanistan until 2005.
He has been critical of Pakistan, often blaming the country's deteriorating security and countrywide chaos on the military and the powerful ISI intelligence agency, accusing them of harbouring and aiding Taliban insurgents.
During his visit to Pakistan, expected to last only a few hours, Mr Pompeo is holding meetings with new prime minister Imran Khan as well as army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa and foreign minister Shah Mehmood Quereshi.
Afghanistan and the prospects of a negotiated end to the war are likely to dominate talks before Mr Pompeo leaves for neighbouring India.
While neither the US nor Pakistan can afford a complete rupture in relations, Mr Hussain said Islamabad is frustrated that the relationship has been reduced to a single-point agenda: Afghanistan.
"The United States seems only to see Pakistan through the prism of Afghanistan," he said. "The main thing is we would like to be allies with the US but with dignity."
Fairfax Medias Walkley Award-winning journalist Adele Ferguson has signed a new book deal promising to reveal the story behind the story about her multiple investigations into malpractice in Australias financial services sector that led to the Hayne royal commission.
Banking Bad: How greed and broken governance conspired to break our trust in corporate Australia, to be published by HarperCollins Australia, will build on more than four years reporting of scandal and corruption in the corporate sector spearheaded by Ms Ferguson.
The new book will be published in August 2019 under HarperCollins Australias ABC Books imprint. Banking Bad is the same name as that given to a joint-Fairfax Media and Four Corners investigation in 2014, for which Ms Ferguson won a Gold Walkley. The investigation focussed on misconduct at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Along with eight Walkley Awards, she has won two Gold Quills, one for her reporting into a subsequent scandal at Commonwealth Bank's insurance business CommInsure. Ms Ferguson has also conducted celebrated investigations into National Australia Bank, IOOF, 7-Eleven, Aveo, Domino's Pizza and the Retail Food Group.
The administrators appointed to Big Un Ltd would not say if the former stock market darling, once worth $840 million, is now worthless, but at least one investor has been forced to reach that conclusion.
A.P. Meyer Pty Ltd, the investment company owned by Sydney businessman Anthony Meyer, collapsed into administration four weeks before Big Un Ltd met the same fate.
Big Un chief Brandon Evertz. Credit:Louie Douvis
It is my view that the companys financial difficulties arose after a significant investment asset, being shares in Big Un Ltd, were largely rendered valueless, said A.P. Meyers administrator Adam Shepard in a report to creditors.
Mr Meyer did not respond to requests for comment.
JD.com Inc.'s billionaire founder is under investigation for a suspected rape in a weekend incident that led to his arrest in Minnesota, local police say.
Liu Qiangdong, who uses the English name Richard, is a doctoral student at the University of Minnesota and was in Minneapolis for his studies, the college confirmed. The case involves a Chinese student at the school, according to the Financial Times and the Star-Tribune.
JD.com founder Richard Liu. Credit:Fairfax Media
Liu was brought in at 11:32 p.m. August 31 on an accusation of "criminal sexual conduct" and released just more than 16 hours later, according to arrest records. Minneapolis Police Department spokesman John Elder said the case is being investigated as a rape, but authorities decided not to keep Liu in custody and haven't imposed any travel restrictions while conducting their investigation.
Police responded to a location Friday night, found Liu and another individual, took photos and arrested the CEO, Elder said. Police declined to specify the location.
There are two opposing schools of thought on the gig economy, where almost a million self-employed Australians work on a freelance or project basis rather than in permanent jobs.
First, that the gig economy is a boon for contractors and companies because it boosts labour market flexibility. Second, that it is a form of mass exploitation of younger workers, particularly those born overseas, and a race to the bottom in wages and conditions.
The gig economy has benefits, but we do not know enough yet about the potential long-term risks. Credit:Bloomberg
I have always been in the first camp. Having run a business for many years, Ive seen the benefits of the gig economy for owners and clients first-hand. Flexibility, freedom, better pay and greater control are just some benefits of working on a project rather than on a permanent basis.
But Im moving to the second view as more stories of exploitation emerge and an Americanisation of our workforce (minuscule wages, no conditions for some workers) occurs. Then theres the insecurity. Much has been written about food couriers, for example, who are technically employed as contractors and paid a pittance and have terrible conditions.
Australia's surging economy is being driven by a growing number of people raiding their savings, fuelling concerns that households already saddled with record levels of debt are over-extending themselves.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg's first set of national accounts have delivered the Coalition the strongest set of numbers since the end of the mining boom, registering a bumper 3.4 per cent result and setting Scott Morrison up for an election fight based on his economic credentials.
But Wednesday's strong headline figure - which puts Australia ahead of the largest seven economies in the world - masks underlying concerns, including the reliance on high immigration numbers to drive employment growth and the fall in the household savings ratio to its lowest level in six years.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg Credit:AAP
Treasury sources confirmed the falling household savings ratio was being watched closely, amid fears consumers could pocket their wallets when savings dry up and interest rates inevitably rise from their current historic low of 1.5 per cent.
Controversial remarks made by Rev. Jasper Williams Jr. at Aretha Franklin's funeral last Friday have drawn criticism from the Franklin family for failing to properly eulogise the Queen of Soul.
Williams was chosen by the family because he had eulogised family members in the past, including Rev. C.L. Franklin, Aretha's father, whose funeral was 34 years prior.
In particular, Williams caused controversy with remarks that single mothers can't raise black boys properly as men and that the Black Lives Matter movement isn't effective unless African Americans stop killing one another first.
"Rev. Jasper Williams spent more than 50 minutes speaking and at no time did he properly eulogise her," nephew Vaughn Franklin told People, in a statement given to various outlets on behalf of the family.
The Los Angeles County district attorney's office has declined to file charges against three actors accused of sexual abuse in the wake of the #MeToo movement.
Kevin Spacey and Steven Seagal won't face criminal charges following allegations from the 1990s because the alleged incidents are beyond the statute of limitations, and prosecutors rejected filing a charge against Black-ish actor Anthony Anderson, citing insufficient evidence.
The D.A.'s entertainment task force on Tuesday said charges would not be filed against the three men, who are among dozens in Hollywood under investigation by police in Los Angeles County following sexual abuse accusations.
Prosecutors declined to charge Spacey in an October 1992 case, saying the date was beyond the period in which a charge could be filed. That allegation, made by a man, involved an incident in West Hollywood.
A few weeks before the release of Crazy Rich Asians, director Jon Chu hosted a dinner at his father's fabled Silicon Valley restaurant Chef Chu's for a couple dozen American tech entrepreneurs of Asian background, during which he asked them to get behind the film any way they could.
The mission: convince Hollywood that making a romantic comedy with an all-Asian cast wasn't just a bold move, it was good business too.
"We were all trying to brainstorm how can we get behind this, and one of the big ideas was let's do these cinema buy-outs," says Patrick Lee, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Rotten Tomatoes (a company he understandably regrets having sold cheaply in 2004), who was among the guests that night.
Several pairs of ruby slippers were made for the 1939 MGM film, and at least four, including the stolen pair, are known to exist. One pair was found in the basement of MGM's wardrobe department in 1970. An anonymous buyer bought them at an auction for US$15,000 ($20,890) and donated it to the Smithsonian in 1979. The pair was removed from display in April 2017 to be preserved. The Smithsonian raised nearly US$350,000 ($487,434) through a Kickstarter campaign to pay for the shoes' restoration. They will be back on display in October.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Steven Spielberg bought one other pair for display at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Another pair is owned by a private collector.
The once-missing slippers are owned by collector Michael Shaw, who lent the slippers to the Judy Garland Museum every year. Museum officials wanted to keep the slippers in a safe every night, but Shaw didn't want other people touching the delicate artefact. So Shaw delivered the slippers himself and placed them in the Plexiglass case.
"We kicked ourselves in the butt for not putting them in the safe," Jon Miner, one of the museum's board members, told The Washington Post's Jessica Contrera in 2015. "Of course, the owner was dumbfounded. And so were we."
That year, a wealthy fan of the movie volunteered to give $1 million to the person who could help find the missing slippers.
This moving documentary follows the efforts of a man who dedicated his final months to lobbying for voluntary euthanasia to be legalised.
Peter Short, a corporate CEO, had beaten oesophageal cancer once, but when it returned five years later, and was diagnosed as terminal, Short decided he wanted a "magnificent ending" to his life, "because I've had a magnificent life, and I don't want to drip out at the end of a morphine tube".
Peter Short decided he wanted a "magnificent ending" to his life.
Fearing the kind of protracted death that many with terminal illnesses face in hospital wards, Short who had never been involved in this kind of campaign before sought out Dr Rodney Syme, the vice-president of Dying With Dignity Victoria, who would (illegally) supply him with the lethal drug Nembutal, should he wish to take that path. Then, when he was inundated with support after The Age published a letter Short wrote about his situation, he began his advocacy in earnest, his plight eventually inspiring the dying with dignity legislation in the Federal Parliament.
This film partially funded by Short follows Short and his wife Elizabeth and son Mitchell, from his diagnosis through to the end. We see Short joking with his employees, working on charity campaigns, and then dedicating the bulk of his final months to campaigning in the media, meeting with politicians and hassling then prime minister Tony Abbott (the doco was filmed in 2014). Abbott finally called him back just days before his death and pledged his MPs would be given a free vote should the bill reach the floor of Parliament.
A national online "mega-raffle" run by a group of about 66 electronic cigarette businesses has been shut down by NSW authorities because it breached state laws.
The group "Aussie Vape Vendors" was raising funds for Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association (ATHRA), a charity lobbying for the legalisation of e-cigarettes containing nicotine, which had been "actively seeking donations" ahead of a campaign to coincide with the rise in the tobacco excise on September 1.
A screenshot of the Aussie Vape Vendors online raffle page.
The businesses had amassed more than 160 prizes, including e-cigarettes and e-liquids, worth nearly $33,000 and committed to "sending every cent" raised to ATHRA.
NSW Fair Trading said the organisers who had opened the raffle to all Australians had breached the state's Lotteries Act because they had not obtained a permit, exceeded the prize pool limit and offered "prohibited prizes".
When skateboarder Aleks Stocki decided to go to the ends of the earth to inspire others to live their best life, he had no idea he would, almost literally, end up there.
Having lost several friends to suicide, he knew he wanted to do something to raise awareness of mental health issues, and put a plan in motion, dreaming big.
Aleks Stocki now holds the world record for skateboarding at the highest altitude. Credit:Dion Georgopoulos
On August 29, 2017, Stocki qualified for the Guinness World Records after skateboarding at the highest altitude, at 5355m in Leh, Jammu and Kashmir, India.
He features in the 2019 edition of the worlds most popular record book, out September 6, which was first published in 1955 and has been a best seller ever since.
Police have uncovered three illegal brothels at an apartment complex in Reid.
Local police and Border Force officers executed a number of search warrants at the apartments in Reid on Tuesday after receiving information from the public.
Police have uncovered three brothels in a Reid apartment complex. Credit:ACT Policing
Three brothels were found and shut down in the complex and four illegal foreign workers were detained by Border Force officers, police said.
Footage of the raid released by police shows an unhygienic apartment with a mouldy roof and dirty kitchen and bedrooms.
A man has been charged after allegedly assaulting an elderly patient at an aged-care facility on Sydney's northern beaches.
Police allege the employee of the Bupa Aged Care Facility in Seaforth entered the patient's room a number of times between August 26 and August 29, and assaulted him.
Video footage allegedly shows the 82-year-old patient raising his arm to shield himself as the worker hits him with a shoe.
The worker can also be seen forcefully pulling at the patient to get him onto the bed. At one stage, the man allegedly pulls the patient's shirt off.
The grieving family of Hamze Ibrahim say they feel a mixture of relief and disgust after the Australian Paramedics Association (APA) apologised for falsely claiming a violent mob of angry males prevented the paramedics from treating the dying 25-year-old.
The family have been subjected to vicious social media trolls attacking them and the memory of Mr Ibrahim after the APA claimed paramedics were threatened by irate relatives and blamed them for the death of their loved one.
Hamze Ibrahim, 25, died at a Riverwood home. Credit:Facebook
On Sunday, APA president Steve Pearce said "paramedics were forced to fend off angry males who eventually forced them to stop treating the patient who was in cardiac arrest and subsequently died".
But in a statement on Wednesday, the association said it had investigated the case and identified "factual inaccuracies" in its initial statement.
The Australian Paramedics Association has apologised to the family of Hamze Ibrahim for falsely claiming paramedics were unable to treat the dying 25-year-old due to "mob" of "angry males".
On Sunday, the APA claimed paramedics were called to a property in Sydney's south west to treat a man with a suspected drug overdose, but were threatened by "irate" family members who injured one female paramedic and forced her colleagues to barricade themselves inside the unit.
"Paramedics were forced to fend off angry males who eventually forced them to stop treating the patient who was in cardiac arrest and subsequently died, APA secretary Steve Pearce said.
Hamze Ibrahim, 25, died at a Riverwood home. Credit:Facebook
Mr Ibrahim's family said they were "devastated" by the APA's "self-serving, reckless and unfounded" statements.
Discounted cat desexing will be introduced at 30 Brisbane vets in an attempt to reduce the amount of stray and abandoned cats.
On Wednesday, the Brisbane City Council announced it would commit $55,000 in the 2018-19 financial year to subsidise cat desexing.
Deputy Mayor Adrian Schrinner, AWLQ strategic director Joy Verrinder and Councillor Peter Matic with foster kittens at the cat desexing program announcement. Credit:Ruth McCosker
The commitment is for one financial year but the councils Lifestyle and Community Services chairman Peter Matic said the council would look to extend it.
The council funding will subsidise the desexing of about 850 cats.
A man who shot randomly at people, including a mother and her teenage daughter, during a week-long, ice-fuelled rampage has been jailed.
Ben Andrew Goreng was sentenced to 15 years jail.
Ben Andrew Goreng was sentenced in the Brisbane District Court to 15 years prison for 45 offences across south-east Queensland in late August 2016.
As well as shooting at the mother and daughter as they drove at night on the Gold Coast, he shot at the cars of two men driving at high speeds on the Pacific Motorway in separate incidents.
"The shooting of a car on a road, apparently at random, is in my view a very serious example of discharging a weapon in a public place," Judge Douglas McGill SC said on Wednesday.
Access to Illaweena Street was reviewed as part of the construction of a new Gateway Motorway bridge and a fauna arch crossing, which is part of Transurbans Logan Motorway Enhancement Project.
A works notice issued by Transurban on September 6, 2017, said Illaweena Street between Gowan Road and Stretton Recreation Reserve would be fully closed from September 15 that year until 2019. The council is the road authority for Illaweena Street and therefore can direct Transurban to implement a closure. Why did the council close the road if it wasnt recommended? A traffic study was completed on May 15, 2017, and considered two options for managing traffic on Illaweena Street during the Logan Motorway construction.
The first scenario was keeping a single lane open with temporary traffic signals directing reversible flow and the second option proposed closing the stretch of Illaweena Street during school holiday periods. The conclusion and recommendation from the report, prepared by construction engineering company SMEC, was to close the street during school holidays. An email exchanged between Transurban and the councils asset management project and innovation manager, Darryl Airlie, on August 25, 2017, revealed Transurban explored the full closure of Illaweena Street, outside school holidays, after a meeting with councillor Angela Owen (Calamvale) on July 20. Due to the interfaces with other works required on the Gateway Extension Motorway for the project, a full closure on Illaweena Street provides no reduction in the construction program, such that it would rationalise the substantial impact on the community, Transurban wrote to Mr Airlie. A full closure of Illaweena Street would need to be in place until early 2019 this would impact the nearby Stretton State College, a project supporter, for an entire school year.
TMR has also commented that a full closure is not preferred. An email sent between Mr Airlie and an asset management colleague on August 28 asked how do you think is going to be the best way forward after outlining Transurbans response. Their preference if council is going to grant a permanent closure is for a full closure over the school holidays in September, and then partial closures till Christmas with contraflow arrangements in place, with a permanent closure from Christmas onwards, his email said. Transurban emailed Mr Airlie again on August 31 outlining that its preferred option was the permit for full closure during school holidays and partial closure with shuttle flow during the school term. Mr Airlie said the least-preferred option was full closure.
In September 2017, a council spokesman said the council assessed the possibility of intermittent closures of Illaweena Street but found it would result in traffic queuing, which would impact traffic and student safety. When Fairfax Media asked the council why it closed the road permanently when it was not the required - or preferred - option, Cr Cooper said it was to "facilitate quicker construction works". Transurban told the council on August 25, 2017, the full closure would provide no reduction in the construction program. Labor MP accuses councillors of lying to the community Mr Pegg said Brisbane councillors had lied to the community about the decision to fully close Illaweena Street.
Deputy Mayor (Adrian) Schrinner, Cr Cooper and Cr Owen lied to my community in relation to the decision to fully close Illaweena Street, he said. Their claim that council officers recommended Illaweena Street be fully closed were never credible. Claims made by LNP councillors around this mess have no basis in truth. Mr Pegg said emails from Transurban showed the full closure was only considered following a briefing with Cr Owen. When Fairfax Media approached the council for response to the claims about lying, an LNP administration spokesman said at no stage have councillors suggested that council officers made the recommendation to fully close Illaweena Street.
However, at a council meeting on October 24 last year, Cr Cooper spoke about the Illaweena Street closure and the role of council officers. Council officers have to go through extensive consideration of whats put on as a proposal before they make their determination as to what the outcome will be, she said. So its not councillors who make that decision, it is council officers. Council officers with the training and the expertise to review whats put to them. Similarly, Cr Owen said in a fact sheet she distributed on the project that council officers made decisions on road closures. Council officers undertake assessments of all permit applications for any road closures, the fact sheet said.
Council officers make decisions on road closures across the city based on a whole-of-network perspective and a number of factors including safety for all users, traffic requirements and congestion management. Mr Pegg said he found it "unbelievable" the council overrode the expert advice and then publicly said they had advice supporting the decision. Resident backlash and the councils backtrack The road closure prompted a petition, supported by Mr Pegg and signed by more than 1200 people, to stop it. Illaweena Street petitioners Nycoll Szombathy, Louise Nann and Donna Longworth with Duncan Pegg.
A kind act by two Queensland paramedics has gone viral after they attended a palliative care call-out last week. Paramedics gave their palliative patient Ron a caramel sundae on his final trip to hospital. Credit:Queensland Ambulance Service Paramedics Kate Hanafy and Hanna Hoswell were called to the Gold Coast home of Sharon and Ron McCartney, for Mr McCartney's "final journey" to hospital and palliative care, Queensland Ambulance Service wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday. When Sharon mentioned that her husband had barely eaten for two days, the paramedics asked Ron if he could eat anything, what would it be. "A caramel sundae," Mr McCartney told them.
A photo of Ron enjoying his caramel sundae was shared with the post. Later, Mrs McCartney contacted the QAS to thank the paramedics for their compassion and support, not just on that final journey but through their earlier call-outs to the couple's home. The QAS said the message of thanks left them "humbled and with a tinge of sadness", and highlighted the caring side of paramedic work that was often overlooked. Ron and Sharon's daughter Danielle left a message on the post thanking paramedics for their kindness. "Dad enjoyed this so much and was the last thing he was able to eat by himself," she wrote.
She said that they gave it to the Wellington Shire Council because they felt panicked by an April 2004 letter, which was headed notice before summons and threatened immediate legal action if payment of $680.24 in overdue rates and legal fees was not received within three days.
Rosey Ammendola says her parents Salvatore and Giovanna Ammendola, now aged 91 and 82 bought a block along Gippslands Ninety Mile Beach in the early 1960s without ever having seen it, believing at the time it would be a good investment.
A family caught up in a scam that saw thousands of beachside blocks sold to newly arrived migrants in the 1950s and 60s felt so threatened by a lawyers letter demanding payment for rates, they handed the land over to the council for no charge.
But it has now emerged that the block the Ammendolas handed over to the council is in a part of Golden Beach that can in fact be developed, provided it is restructured that is, putting four adjoining lots together to make one larger block.
Ms Ammendola said her father was a hard worker who had always paid his bills on time, but had stopped paying rates as a silent protest when he learned other landowners had done so. He had been so stressed by the constant to-and-fro with the council that he told her to just deal with it.
At the very end when it was becoming evident that they were throwing good money after bad, it was too much for him to bear," Ms Ammendola said. "He said 'I cant do this anymore'."
He had paid the rates in full and on time for more than 40 years prior to that.
To receive a letter like that was completely and utterly demoralising. It really tore at their values and morals after all those years of scraping and saving to make a better life for their family
An unlucky thief has attempted to flee the scene of a crash just metres away from where police were unveiling their series of high-tech non-lethal weapons to deal with future street gang violence.
A 24-year-old man was arrested in Siddeley Street in the Docklands at midday, the same time Victoria Police were holding a media conference to showcase their latest riot control equipment.
Police allege the man was driving a stolen Pajero before he crashed it into bollards and another car on Lorimer Street near the West Gate Freeway on ramp.
The bungling thief then fled the crash scene on foot running straight towards the media conference being held outside the Victoria Police Centre.
He was caught by transit officers and is currently being questioned by police.
Another person has lost their life on WA roads this week following a crash in Perth's east.
The accident happened on Mundaring Weir Road about 3.30pm. Credit:Google Maps.
Emergency crews were called to a vehicle rollover on Mundaring Weir Road about 3.30pm on Wednesday.
Two people are understood to have been in the car when the accident happened.
One died at the scene and the other, a child, has been taken to Perth Children's Hospital.
A WA police sergeant accused of child sex offences has indicated he will plead not guilty to the charges.
Former police media operative Andrew Maher, 42, appeared in Perth Magistrates Court on Wednesday, seeking an amendment to his current bail conditions.
A suppression order on Mr Maher's identity was lifted in April. Credit:Eddie Jim
Mr Maher allegedly sent an explicit video to a child under the age of 13, and encouraged a child under the age of 13 to commit an indecent act.
The offences are believed to have occurred between October 2 and 3 last year.
Cabinet ministers rejected a $1.6 billion plan to cut power bills for thousands of Australians in the days before a Liberal Party brawl on energy policy that helped bring down Malcolm Turnbull.
Fairfax Media can reveal the Coalition government had drafted plans for a one-off bonus to help pensioners and others in financial stress pay their electricity bills, in a bid to demonstrate stronger action on power prices alongside tougher consumer laws.
Mr Turnbull put the plan to federal cabinet in early August at the same time he was trying to shore up support for the National Energy Guarantee against threats from Tony Abbott and others to cross the floor.
In a crucial decision, cabinet members rejected the plan to lower power bills and left the government without new measures to address household energy costs in the face of the backbench revolt over the NEG.
The outcome is now the subject of dispute within the government over the handling of such a key issue before the bitter leadership spill, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison tries to remove policy barnacles in areas ranging from the retirement age to company tax cuts.
The Morrison government will launch a fresh campaign to win crossbench support for new laws that will make it easier to deregister unions, including the militant CFMMEU, after several minor parties signalled they might now support the reform.
In the wake of a controversial social media post by CFMMEU official John Setka, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned the government is considering options for curbing the power of the union after years of "demonstrating their lawlessness and their thuggery and their brutality, their threats".
CFMEU building division Victorian secretary John Setka Credit:Paul Jeffers
The Coalition's first priority is a bill, introduced to the Parliament last year but still before the Senate, that would grant the government new powers to deregister unions, disqualify officials and prevent union mergers if they repeatedly breach the law.
The CFMMEU, known as the CFMEU until a recent merger with the maritime union, has paid more than $15 million in fines since 2015 and currently has about 80 officials involved in legal proceedings on a range of charges.
The group of conservative MPs behind Peter Dutton's failed campaign to become prime minister say they never personally lobbied the female backbencher whose decision to quit Parliament triggered a political firestorm over bullying and intimidation.
In a series of denials that will deepen the Liberal Party's internal divisions, seven of the Home Affairs Minister's key numbers men confirmed to Fairfax Media they did not contact Victorian MP Julia Banks because her loyalty to Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop was considered insurmountable.
The marginal seat holder last week announced she would quit Parliament after just one term, citing bullying and intimidation from "within my own party" and Labor. The explosive resignation statement was followed by other damaging claims of threats and standover tactics against other female MPs including Lucy Gichuhi and Linda Reynolds.
Dutton-backer Michael Sukkar, and leadership contenders Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Ms Banks' refusal to name names has sparked a search inside the Coalition over who may have bullied her, and provoked a broader conversation about what constitutes acceptable behaviour towards female MPs inside the Liberal Party.
Pared down to its essentials, the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation course confronts Australian vice-chancellors with a stark choice: are they willing to let their institutions authority to be used to bolster xenophobia and national chauvinism in our society?
The entire educational mission of the proposed Ramsay Centre is premised on the "civilisational" inferiority of non-Western cultures the very ones Australian politicians go to war against in the Middle East, punish with interventions in the Northern Territory, stir up moral panics about and whose members they imprison in island camps when their boats come near our shores.
John Howard and Tony Abbott are on the Ramsay Centre board. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
The Ramsay course has mainly been promoted by John Howard and Tony Abbott, the Ramsay boards most powerful members. Their enthusiasm for studying the heritage of the West doesnt spring from any newfound passion for Marcus Aurelius or Rousseau. Instead, the value of the Ramsay Centre to them lies in the intellectual legitimation it would confer on the other political agendas they champion. Tony Abbott, after all, has insisted on the need for the Ramsay Centre to be explicitly "right-wing".
So far, most academics commentary on Ramsay has focused on uniquely academic considerations what texts and authors would be taught in Ramsay courses, how critically the history of European cultures would be presented to students, how much direct control the Ramsay Centre would exert over university processes. These questions are important, but they are not the central grounds on which Ramsay should be opposed.
Peter Duttons use of ministerial discretion to grant visas to two foreign au pairs raises large questions about the propriety of his actions as minister for immigration. But, more importantly, the ongoing debate presents Parliament with an opportunity to introduce real limits on ministerial discretion in the immigration system so as to prevent those discretions from being used inequitably and unfairly.
French au pair Alexandra Deuwel was held in detention until Peter Dutton intervened. Credit:Facebook
In granting visas to the au pairs, it seems that Mr Dutton exercised a power under the Migration Act that permits the Minister for Immigration to grant a visa if satisfied that doing so is in the public interest. Like the power Mr Dutton exercised, many other significant powers contained in the Migration Act are conditioned on the ministers satisfaction that a particular course of action is in either the public interest or the national interest. These include the power to allow a person who arrived in Australia by boat to apply for a visa, and the power to revoke a residence determination, thereby moving people living in the community to immigration detention. The choice whether to exercise these discretions often has grave consequences, and therefore must be made in an even-handed way.
Loading
The courts have signalled that they are very unlikely to find that a decision based upon the ministers assessment of what is in the public interest or the national interest is unlawful. The supposed precondition for the exercise of these powers is therefore essentially no precondition at all. Nor is there any other person or body who has oversight of the exercise of these powers, given the limited jurisdiction of independent review tribunals and the difficulty of accessing information as to ministerial discretion. Practically unlimited powers of this kind are easily abused.
More than 200 drums of radioactive waste are to be transferred from Melbourne University and stored indefinitely in the city's leafy outer suburbs.
Documents released under freedom of information by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency show it is expanding its waste store in Lower Plenty Road, Yallambie.
Two hundred drums of nuclear waste are to be stored at the facility.
The expansion is being done to accommodate 210 drums of nuclear waste from Melbourne Universitys former radium lab, established in 1929 and closed four decades ago.
The expansion works at Yallambie are to be completed next month.
Smartphones have become a bit predictable over the past few years, leaving consumers craving something new to send them running to stores for an upgrade. For years, Samsung has teased the possibility of a phone with a folding screen that can expand to something more like a tablet. A new interview with the company's mobile chief indicated the wait may finally be drawing to a close.
Samsung's DJ Koh, chief executive of the tech giant's mobile division, recently told US network CNBC that the company is planning to unveil a consumer model of a phone with a foldable screen by the end of the year. Koh made his remarks at the IFA show in Berlin. While he didn't give a firm timeline for when the smartphone would make its debut, CNBC said it's likely a first glimpse will come during Samsung's developers conference in November.
Samsung did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company has previously shown off its folding phone concept at CES, the industry's annual Las Vegas consumer electronics trade show. In its 2011 keynote address, Samsung revealed plans to make a folding phone. As recently as last year, it showed a folding phone prototype to some members of the media. The company has used flexible screens, which wrap around the edges of its phones, for years. But it has never released a phone that completely folds or a screen that people can bend themselves.
London: French naval ships will "step in" if there are further clashes between scallop fishermen in the channel, a French minister has announced, amid fears the violence could escalate.
Stephane Travert, France's agriculture minister, said fighting over scallop-rich fishing beds cannot be allowed to continue as the two sides prepare to meet on Wednesday to thrash out a solution.
French and British boats clash off France's northern coast. Credit:AP
French and British officials will meet with industry leaders in a bid to put an end to clashes which saw boats ramming into each other in a row over who should be allowed to fish for the expensive seafood.
Downing Street said there were no plans for the Navy to step up patrols in UK waters, but military sources said they stand ready to act if required.
New York: The first day of confirmation hearings for US President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was marked by acrimonious and at times chaotic scenes, with veteran lawmakers from both parties saying they had never seen such a rancorous vetting process to fill a spot on the country's highest court.
The heated theatrics underscored the significance of the appointment, which will lock in a 5-4 conservative majority on the court that could last for decades. Progressives fear Kavanaugh's appointment will lead to a rollback of gains on abortion access, healthcare, union rights and affirmative action.
Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump's nominee for the US Supreme Court, faced senators on Tuesday. Credit:Bloomberg
Republicans accused Democrat senators of trying to run the committee by "mob rule", as Democrats attempted to stall proceedings for as long as possible in protest at being denied access to hundreds of thousands of pages of documents they claim they need to assess Kavanaugh's fitness for office.
Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy, who has voted on 19 Supreme Court nominations over his 44 years in the Senate, said: "I have never seen so much at stake with a single seat. And I have never seen such a dangerous rush to fill it."
Latest News RBA reaction continues as Westpac hikes rates again Second change in two weeks for one of Australias biggest lenders
AFG and Volt link up for first of its type app for lending and finance Aggregator and neobank create new offering that could revolutionise the way customers and brokers interact
An online lender has released a free eBook to help brokers move into writing unsecured online business loans.
The Guide to Online Business Loans is the first comprehensive guide to alternative lending produced by a fintech lender in Australia.
It was created to overcome barriers such as a lack of education and knowledge of the industry, to help brokers diversify.
The guide, produced by Spotcap, looks at the current business landscape in Australia and gives tips on how to spot opportunities in a broker or accountants client base. It also looks at how to begin writing simple and competitive business loans.
The company also plans to support the guide with further education in the form of webinars and workshops.
Lachlan Heussler, managing director of Spotcap Australia, said, We are very excited to release our first eBook, which is designed to help our partners diversify and boost their own client base and revenue by offering a modern finance solution to their small and medium-sized business clients.
Competitive pressures in the industry mean its harder to continue business as usual and many finance brokers now look to alternative forms of finance, such as business loans, to diversify their income sources. However, we have found one of the biggest obstacles holding them back from expanding the suite of services they offer their clients is quality education on the opportunity.
Writing online loans is easier than many finance brokers think and it can help them strengthen relationships with their client base and demonstrate further value with the services they provide.
Australias 2.2 million small and medium-sized businesses are the lifeblood of our economy but tightening credit conditions increasingly starve them of the working capital they need to operate and grow. Online business loans to these enterprises offers an exciting and effective way for brokers to break into this burgeoning market in a time-saving and stress-free way.
Spotcaps Guide to Online Business Loans eBook is available for free download now at www.spotcap.com.au/ebook/
Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC
78th Precinct
Park Slope
Party off
Officers apprehended a man who allegedly attacked his friend for refusing to continue their night out as they were leaving a Fifth Avenue bar on Aug. 21.
The victim told police that he was at the watering hole near Bergen Avenue with the suspect around 1:24 am when his pal asked him to go to another bar. When he declined to go, the angry buddy repeatedly punched the victim, causing injuries to the right side of his face, police allege. When cops arrived, they arrested the 29-year-old suspect for the attack.
Employee of the month
Authorities busted a man who they say stole more than $6,000 from a Flatbush Avenue department store over a period of time on Aug. 23.
Cops say the 26-year-old suspect, who was a former employee of the store near Atlantic Avenue, stole money from a register on multiple occasions, and a video game between July 23 and Aug. 20. According to the report, he stole $6,049 in total.
Market theft
Cops arrested a man for allegedly stealing from a Third Street supermarket on Aug. 25.
Police say the suspect entered the store near Third Avenue around 2:23 pm, placed several items under his arm, and left without paying, when an employee noticed the theft and called authorities. Police arrested the suspect minutes later.
All kicked out
A punk burglarized a Bergen Street business sign on Aug. 17.
The owner of the business near Flatbush Avenue told police that someone caused about $1,250 worth of damage to a sign.
Shirt thief
Some nogoodnik stole a pricey shirt from a package delivered to a Dean Street building sometime between Aug. 23 and 25.
The victim told police that when she retrieved the package from the lobby of the building near Fifth Avenue, she discovered that someone opened it and took the garment, according to the report.
Not so fast
Cops arrested a suspect who they say stole from a Flatbush Avenue lingerie store on Aug. 22.
Officers say the suspect entered the store near Atlantic Avenue around 4 pm and tried to leave without paying for the undergarments. Police later apprehended the 41-year-old suspect at the scene, according to the report.
Young gun
Police busted a teen for allegedly breaking into a Seventh Avenue restaurant on Aug. 21.
According to the report, the suspect entered the eatery near Fourth Street through a closed cellar door around 3 pm and hid there for several minutes, before trying to take off with an estimated $126 worth of wine. Cops caught up with the 16-year-suspect and also found him in possession of drugs.
Alexandra Simon
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
Vodafone and Idea Cellular, which have merged to become the countrys largest telecom operator, have together shed around 8,000 employees, or close to one-third of the workforce, in the last 17 months ever since the deal was announced. The newly crowned top telco Vodafone Idea Ltd has an employee count of around 17,000 at its inception, multiple sources in the know told Business Standard after the merger got an all clear last week.
At the end of March 2017, when the merger was announced, the total employee count for the two companies stood at around 25,000. As per figures ...
Maharashtra government Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the five rights activists were arrested due to the cogent evidence linking them with the banned CPI(Maoist) and not because of their dissenting views.
The state's response came in the backdrop of the apex court while ordering the house arrest of the five activists on August 29 till on Thursday, categorically stating that "dissent is the safety valve of democracy".
The filed an affidavit in response to a plea of historian Romila Thapar and four others challenging the arrest of the five activists in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case, claiming they were planning to carry out violence in the country and ambush the security forces.
The police said there was sufficient evidence to "dispel" the claim that they were arrested for their dissenting views.
While prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao was arrested from Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha was arrested from Delhi.
The raids were carried out as part of a probe into an event called Elgar Parishad, or conclave, on December 31 last year, which had later triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima village in Pune district of Maharashtra.
The police sought their custody and questioned the locus of Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociologist Satish Deshpande and legal expert Maja Daruwala, dubbing them as "strangers" to the investigation in the matter.
"The petitioners, who are strangers to the offence under investigation, are also praying for bail on behalf of the persons arrested during an ongoing investigation, strictly in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure after the investigating agencies having gathered requisite incriminating material against the said individuals," the affidavit said.
The police also told the court that the activists were part of the criminal conspiracy and active members of the banned CPI (Maoist), who had arranged public meetings under the banner of 'Elgaar Parishad'.
The affidavit said the state was committed to protecting fundamental rights of every citizen and a mere dissenting view, difference in ideology or vehement objections to political thinking, cannot only not be prohibited but should always be welcomed in any democratic country.
"Five accused persons for whose benefit the present petition is filed are not arrested based upon any dissenting views expressed by them or difference in their political or other ideologies....during the course of an intense investigation since January 8, 2018 (the date on which the FIR is registered), serious criminal offences are made out and incriminating material has emerged against them," it said.
"This Court is dealing with persons against whom cogent evidence has so far come on record showing that they are active members of the banned terrorist organisation namely, CPI (Maoist), and they are involved in not only planning and preparing for violence but were in the process of creating large-scale violence, destruction of property resulting into chaos (sic) in the society as per the agenda prepared by the CPI (Maoist), which was banned as a terrorist organisation in 2009," it said.
The police also told the court that the five arrested activists were not being indicted in the FIR for the first time but some had past "criminal antecedents" and were imprisoned.
It said the whole process of search of the activists in June including Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Sudhir Dhawale and others have been videographed.
"The material found from the computers/laptops/ pendrives/memory cards of the accused persons was shocking and clearly implicating the aforesaid persons not only as active members of CPI (Maoist) but clearly reflected an ongoing sinister design of having committed and in the process of committing criminal offences having the potential of destabilising the society," the affidavit said.
The contents of the electronic devices seized from Wilson, Gadling and others showed their preparedness, planning and coordination with other activists to carry out a violent "ambush/rebellion against the enemy (which is our country and its security forces)", the Maharashtra government alleged.
"It would become amply clear that they are found to be committing and were planning and preparing for a series of criminal offences in connivance and conspiracy with other persons," it said, adding that the accused were involved in selecting and encouraging cadres to go underground in 'struggle area', mobilising and distributing money, facilitating selection and purchase of arms, deciding the rates of such arms and suggesting the routes and ways of smuggling such arms into India for its onward distribution amongst the cadres.
"Some of them have suggested training and laying of booby traps and directional mines. They are also found to be providing strategic inputs in furtherance of the objective of armed rebellion as per the strategic document of the banned terrorist organisation namely CPI (Maoist)," it said.
The affidavit said the house arrest of the activists merely restricted their physical movement and they can always ensure the destruction of evidence elsewhere while alerting other potential accused by being at home.
As problematic as fake news is, and as dangerous as the label can be, maybe true news is equally corrosive. The contemporary world is giving us more reality and more truth than we can comfortably handle and that, as much as the lack of a common enemy since the end of the Cold War, may explain the decline of the liberal world order that I lamented in a recent column.
Fake news, after all, has been with us for a long time, whether in the form of overly optimistic dispatches from the Vietnam War or reports of Paul McCartneys death. And ...
Thousands of farmers and labourers paralysed the Indian capital on Wednesday in a protest against what they called the anti-people policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, as opposition parties step up pressure ahead of key elections. A sharp drop in commodity prices and stagnant wages have dented Modis popularity in rural areas home to about two-thirds of India's 1.3 billion people, and key to his hopes of winning a second term in next year's general elections. Traffic in many parts of central Delhi came to a halt as the protesters, many in red ...
Key trade and defence issues, including India's proposed purchase of S-400 defence system from Russia and imports from against the backdrop of sanctions on these countries, are expected to be at the centre of strategic talks between India and the US on Thursday.
Secretary of State and Defence Secretary will also discuss cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region and a pact on encrypted defence technologies with their Indian counterparts and when the four meet for the inaugural 2+2 dialogue - first scheduled in April and then in June and postponed on both occasions.
Informed sources said that among the issues to figure prominently in the talks would be India's plan to buy five Russian-made S-400 Triumf advanced air defence systems despite US sanctions against The Rs 400 billion deal is almost ready.
Since the US has banned the import of Iranian oil, the sources said, will seek a waiver from and let it continue buy the crude from India's third-largest supplier after and The sanctions on the import of Iranian petroleum products will be effective from November 4.
Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region and counter-terrorism efforts will also figure among a host of issues in New Delhi's biggest diplomatic engagement with this year.
The US desperately wants India to take a lead role in the strategic Indo-Pacific region to keep in check as has expanded its military presence after securing a Sri Lankan port on a long-term lease.
The 2+2 dialogue mechanism was announced after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US in June last year. This replaces the earlier strategic and commercial dialogue and is set to become an annual affair.
Despite defence ties touted as a key pillar of bilateral relations after the US designated India as a Major Defence Partner in 2016, the two countries have signed only one of three foundational agreements needed for interoperability with the US.
The only inked agreement is the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement in 2016. But the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) and the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement are pending.
According to the sources, COMCASA, providing for obtaining critical and encrypted defence technologies by the from the US, will be discussed but a final agreement is unlikely at this juncture.
"Defence innovation is important for us," a source said.
The Trump administration's Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) coming into effect in January 2018 has dogged the ties between the two countries as India's defence deals with other countries have come under the US scanner.
CAATSA also targets countries doing business with Russian, Iranian and North Korean defence companies. With India being a major defence partner of Russia, it has become a matter of concern.
Secretary Pompeo said in that such issues would be "part of the conversation" between the two sides "but I do not think they will be the primary focus of what we are trying to accomplish here".
India buying a missile defence system from Russia and oil from Iran would be part of the 2+2 dialogue, but not the talks' primary focus, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said.
Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis are headed to India for the talks tomorrow with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. This is the inaugural 2+2 dialogue between the two countries.
"They are (missile system purchase from Russia and oil from Iran) part of the conversation. They are part of the relationship.
"They will certainly come up, but I don't think they will be the primary focus of what it is we are trying to accomplish here," Pompeo said on Tuesday to a question from reporters who are travelling with him to Pakistan and then to India.
India is expected to convey to the US during the dialogue that it is going ahead with the Rs 40,000 crore deal with Russia to procure a batch of S-400 Triumf air defence missile system.
"There are half-a-dozen things on the agenda that we are really intent on making progress on. Those decisions are important, they are important to the relationship for sure, but I don't see us resolving those or have intention to resolve those during this set of meetings of the strategic dialogue," he said.
"They are really about things that are big and strategic and will go on for 20, 40, 50 years. Those are the kinds of topics that secretary Mattis and I are hoping to address not that those are not important, but they are not part of the structural relationship between the two countries," Pompeo said.
He regretted that the dialogue had to be postponed twice in the past. "I regret it was my fault the second time. I had to travel to Pyongyang. But secretary Mattis and I are both looking forward to this," he said.
The twice-delayed dialogue was earlier scheduled for July 6 in Washington, but was postponed by the US on June 27, citing "unavoidable reasons".
"We have a true strategic partner who, frankly, is our only major defence partner, right, the only designated major defense partner, with whom we have a great relationship and who is very important to our success in our Indo-Pacific strategy enormous country with incredibly opportunity and capacity for wealth creation," Pompeo said.
"We hope we can find opportunities to continue to expand the relationship not only diplomatic and military-to-military but a good set of business relationships as well," he said.
A revamped continental trade deal must include a dispute resolution mechanism, Canadian Prime Minister said Tuesday, pushing back on the US demands to get rid of binational panels to challenge anti-dumping and countervailing duties.
"We've said from the very beginning that we need a dispute resolution mechanism like Chapter 19 and we will hold firm on that," Trudeau said in Vancouver on the eve of the resumption of talks with the United States.
"We will not sign a deal that is bad for Canadians, and quite frankly, not having a Chapter 19 to ensure that the rules are followed would be bad for Canadians."
Concerned about Pakistans international isolation and faltering economy, the country's powerful military has quietly reached out to its archrival India about resuming peace talks, but the response was tepid, according to Western diplomats and a senior Pakistani official. The outreach, initiated by the armys top commander, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, began months before Pakistans national elections. Pakistan offered to resume on-and-off talks with India over their border dispute in the Kashmir region, which stalled in 2015 as violence flared up there. A key ...
Fighting back against invasive plant species DRYDEN TWP. Lapeer County is home to a diverse range of native plant life. But its also become home to a number of invasive...
Election Day in Lapeer County Tuesday, Nov. 2 was Election Day in the city of Lapeer, as well as in townships served by the Brandon, Goodrich and Mayville school districts....
Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said Pakistan still hasnt done enough against terror groups to merit the resumption of US security assistance, a point he said he would relate to senior leaders in the country when he visits on Wednesday. We certainly havent seen the progress that we would have hoped to have seen, Pompeo told reporters on his plane after leaving Washington en route to Islamabad on Tuesday. Certainly not progress that would be sufficient for us to have advocated for turning back on that financial support. Pompeo and Joint ...
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
United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that issues like India buying Russian missile defence systems and Iranian oil exports to the country would be discussed in the upcoming 2+2 dialogue, but also added these issues will not be the primary focus.
"They're part of the conversation. They're part of the relationship. They will certainly come up, but I don't think they'll be the primary focus of what we're trying to accomplish here. There are half a dozen things on the agenda that we're really intent on making progress on. Those decisions are important, they're important to the relationship for sure, but I don't see us resolving those or having the intention to resolve those during this set of meetings of the Strategic Dialogue. They're really about things that are big and strategic and will go on for 20, 40, 50 years. Those are the kinds of topics that Secretary Mattis and I are hoping to address - not that those aren't important, but they're not part of the structural relationship between the two countries," Pompeo told US traveling media en route to Shannon, Ireland.
The US Secretary of State underscored that he and US Defence Secretary James Mattis are looking forward to the 2+2 talks, which he called an "incredibly important meeting." The former termed India as the only designated defence partner and added that Washington and New Delhi share a "great relationship", which is crucial to the success of the US' Indo-Pacific strategy.
The 2+2 dialogue was deferred twice and Pompeo blamed himself for the cancellation of the talks for the second time. He said, "I regret it was my fault the second time. I had to travel to Pyongyang. But Secretary Mattis and I are both looking forward to this. We have a true strategic partner who is our only designated major defence partner, with whom we have a great relationship and who is very important to our success in our Indo-Pacific strategy. (It's an) enormous country with incredible opportunity and capacity for wealth creation. We hope we can find opportunities to continue to expand the relationship not only diplomatic and military-to-military but a good set of business relationships as well."
Pompeo, on being quizzed about his visit to Pakistan, said that he is making the trip in an effort to improve the bilateral relationship between Washington and Islamabad. He acknowledged that there are plenty of challenges to be tackled, but expressed hope that the new Pakistan government led by Imran Khan would resolve the irritants affecting the ties of both countries.
He elucidated: "I wanted to get out there at the beginning of his time in an effort to reset the relationship between the two countries. We have worked closely with the Pakistanis in my role as CIA director. Our teams have been working together for a long time. There are lots of challenges between our two nations for sure, but we're hopeful that with the new leadership that we can find a common ground and begin to work on some of our shared problems together. They have expressed good-faith intention to do so."
Pompeo, who is also being accompanied by General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said they would meet Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Jawed Bajwa and Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi during their day-long visit to the country.
"Chairman Dunford and I are heading out there together to have those conversations. We'll also meet with General Bajwa, who I've met with a number of times, and my counterpart, Foreign Minister Qureshi. So we'll have three opportunities to walk through the complexity that is this relationship and hopefully begin to make some progress so that we can get back to a set of common understandings. So that's really the very straightforward objective. I think it's important to meet the new prime minister (Imran Khan) early on in his time in office," the US Secretary of State noted.
Pompeo and Mattis are slated to arrive in India later today, prior to which they will make a stopover at Pakistan for a brief period.
Commenting on the Syrian conflict, Pompeo said that Russia has made a commitment to not carry out attacks in the de-escalation zone.
With regards to US President Donald Trump's tweet on the expectations by Moscow and Damascus to resolve the crisis, Pompeo continued: "So I've had conversations with lots of the potential participants. I've spoken with Foreign Minister Lavrov about this. I spoke with my Turkish counterpart, (Mevlut) Cavusoglu, this morning about it. We have a shared goal there. The Turks have outposts in Idlib, continuing. We are hoping that this can be resolved diplomatically."
On Monday, Trump took to Twitter and gave a stern warning to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad not to "recklessly attack" Idlib province. He also cautioned Iran and Russia to not participate in a "potential human tragedy" for the fear of making a "grave humanitarian mistake." His response came after suspected Russian planes on Tuesday carried out airstrikes in the rebel-held targets in Idlib province.
Reacting on the same, Pompeo said: "I've seen the reports of the Russian bombing and the Syrian bombing that's taking place today, or took place - would have been last night their time. The Russians made a commitment that said this was a de-escalation zone and this would be resolved through the Geneva process. I think the President's tweet was an effort to remind them of the commitment that they made."
He underscored that both Russia and the US share their concerns about terror activities in the northern parts of the war-torn country.
"There's no place for these people to go, and the Russians have the narrative that there are terrorists in Idlib. That is a true statement. We share their concern about terrorism emanating from northern, northwest Syria. We absolutely agree with them there are terrorists in those locations and they need to be taken care of such that they don't export terror around the world," Pompeo added.
Expressing concerns on the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria, the US Secretary of State further said: "It is not the way to do that to put the lives of all these innocent civilians at risk and create a humanitarian crisis, and I think that's what you saw the President say last night as we're happy to work on the terrorism issue in this place, you made an agreement to handle this in a way that is different from what it appears you're thinking, please take that seriously. Then of course, too, we're always concerned they may use chemical weapons in the process of trying to obtain their military objective, and I think the President could not have been more clear over the last year in both word and action about how he feels about the use of chemical weapons.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The trailer of upcoming movie '22 July' has just dropped, and it looks gritty and scary at the same time.
Netflix which launched the trailer of the upcoming movie depicts the true story behind the deadliest terror attack, the Norwegian citizens were a witness to, reported Variety.
The drama is helmed by Oscar-nominated director Paul Greengrass of 'Jason Bourne' fame. In the trailer which was launched on September 04, the director was able to recreate the exact set of events leading to the terror attack.
Actor Anders Danielsen Lie plays the titular role of the Norwegian far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people on July 22, 2011. According to the extremist, it was a sign of protest against the government.
The movie based on the book "One of Us: The Story of an Attack on Norway - And Its Aftermath" authored by Asne Seierstad, the movie tells the story of the survival of Norwegian citizens, post the dreadful attack.
'22 July' is set to hit theatres on October 10.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An investigation into the alleged distribution of fake National Identity cards has been ordered by Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani after a number of political parties claimed that fake ID cards could affect the outcome of the upcoming Parliamentary elections.
A statement issued by the Administrative Office of the President said that a delegation, led by the Attorney General's Office has been constituted to probe the distribution of the National Identity cards, Khaama Press reported.
The Afghan intelligence, the Ministry of Interior, the Independent Election Commission, the national statistics department and the population registration department comprise the delegation.
The statement further stated that the delegation has been tasked with identifying the officials who have assisted in the issuance of fake identity cards and bring them to justice. The delegation also has to prepare a thorough report and present it to the Presidential Palace.
The Grand National Coalition recently recovered thousands of fake identity cards and stickers that could potentially sabotage the transparency of the October 20 elections.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Maharashtra Government, in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court on Wednesday, mentioned that the five activists arrested in connection with Bhima Koregaon violence case "were active members of banned terrorist organistaion Communist Party of India(Maoist)."
In the affidavit, the state government stated, "This court is dealing with persons against whom evidence has so far come on record showing they are active members of banned terrorist organisation Communist Party of India (Maoist)."
The affidavit further stated that the activists are "involved in not only planning and preparing for violence, but were in the process of creating large-scale violence, destruction of property resulting into chaos in the society as per the agenda prepared by the Communist Party of India (Maoist)."
On September 4, a petition was filed in the Bombay High Court, seeking action against Additional Director General (ADG) of Maharashtra Police, Param Bir Singh, for disobeying the order of the magistrate and disclosing evidence related to the Bhima-Koregaon violence in media.
On Monday, the Bombay High Court came down heavily on the Maharashtra Police for elaborating the evidence against activists arrested in the case through a press conference.
The Maharashtra Police, on August 28, had arrested five activists - Sudha Bhardwaj, P Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha, Arun Ferreira, and Vernon Gonsalves, for allegedly being linked to the outlawed CPI (Maoist).
The arrests were made in connection with the violence that erupted between the Scheduled Caste and Maratha groups, in January this year near Pune, during the bicentenary anniversary of the Bhima Koregaon battle. The clashes killed one person and left several injured, including 10 policemen.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday deferred the hearing on inclusion of names in the Assam Register of Citizens (NRC) draft list.
A bench of the top court, headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi and also comprising Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman, deferred the hearing till September 19.
Last week, the apex court had sought a detailed report from the Assam NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela regarding why those who want to be included in the NRC draft list were asked to provide fresh additional documents. The top court division bench was hearing from Hajela and the Centre on the issue of inclusion and omissions of names in the NRC draft list.
Earlier, the process of filing claims and objections was deferred to September first week. The court had asked for a recommendation report from Hajela regarding the feasibility of the proposed process.
The Centre, which is exploring to give second chance to nearly 40 lakh aggrieved people whose names have not been included in the list, had asked the NRC coordinator if the process was feasible.
The top court had earlier directed the Assam NRC coordinator to provide it with the data of district-wise percentage of the population excluded from the NRC draft in the state. The apex court had sought the response of all the stakeholders including the All Assam Students Union and the All Assam Minority Students Union on the Centre's Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in this regard.
Further directing Hajela to make the draft NRC public, the court said that claims and objections would be accepted from August 30.
The top court on August 7 held Hajela and Registrar General of India guilty of contempt of court, reprimanding them for making statements to media on the NRC Assam modalities when nothing had been informed to the court.
The second draft, which was released on July 30, included names of 2.89 crore people, out of 3.29 crore applicants in Assam, leaving out names of nearly 40 lakh people.
On July 31, the court, while the hearing case, observed that the process of filing objections by those whose names were not listed in the NRC draft should be fair, and directed the Centre to prepare a SOP for claims and objections.
The NRC draft features names, addresses and photographs of all Indian citizens residing in the state of Assam before March 25, 1971.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Richwood, TX (77531)
Today
Scattered thunderstorms this evening, then cloudy with rain likely late. Low 53F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%..
Tonight
Scattered thunderstorms this evening, then cloudy with rain likely late. Low 53F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
The head of Free Balochistan Movement (FBM) Hyrbyair Marri welcomed the United States administration's decision to cancel USD 300 million dollars of Coalition Support Fund (CSF) to Pakistan.
In a statement, Marri said, "We welcome the (Donald) Trump administration's decision to cancel the CSF to Pakistan. Millions of dollars would have been used by Pakistan Army to maintain its army and garrisons in Balochistan and to support Chinese plan to occupy Balochistan's strategic seaports."
He claimed that Pakistan's foreign policy was based on terrorism and deception, adding, "Pakistan started its terrorism by occupying and 'illegally annexing' Balochistan and then they extended their terrorist activities to India and Afghanistan."
The Baloch leader alleged that the new Pakistan government's offer of peace was nothing but deception and deceit "as it is an open secret and well-documented fact" that the country's civil government, judiciary, and media are controlled by the Pakistan Army.
Marri asserted that Pakistan took billions of dollars from the US government in the name of fighting against terrorism but in return sheltered terrorists like Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar, who supported, financed and trained the Taliban to kill soldiers of 30 countries in Afghanistan.
"Pakistan is also protecting and sheltering United Nations and US-designated terrorists like Masood Azhar, Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salahudeen who have been involved in religious terrorism in India," he added.
Marri went on to say that India should not shy away from the fact that Pakistan will hold on their determination to make Kashmir part of Pakistan.
"Neither Pakistan will stop interfering in Kashmir nor will they leave Balochistan. India has to have a concrete policy to deal with the existing realities," he stated.
Earlier in the month, it was reported that the United States military cancelled the financial aid worth USD 300 million to Pakistan due to the growing concerns regarding Islamabad's failure to tackle terrorism.
However, the Pentagon clarified that the decision to suspend the aid was made in January itself.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Mayor Mariano Blanco of Ronda Town, Cebu was shot dead by unidentified gunman in his office building in the wee hours of Wednesday.
Al Jazeera, citing local media reported that Blanco, who had been accused by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte of being involved in drug trade, was killed by four unidentified attackers who arrived at the town hall in a white van.
According to the report, the gunmen ordered the two security escorts guarding Blanco's office to drop on the ground and then went into the mayor's office, following which a burst of gunfire was heard before the attackers escaped.
Blanco's lifeless body was later found inside his office by employees.
The Mayor had been reportedly staying in his office as a security precaution since President Duterte linked him to the drug trade.
Provincial police said the investigation is underway and they have yet to identify any possible suspects or motive.
The incident comes months after town's vice-mayor, Jonah John Ungab, was also killed by unidentified gunmen and two months after the mayors of Tanauan and General Tinio were shot dead, reported CNN.
Police said it is unclear if any of the incidents are linked.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Los Angeles County District Attorney on Tuesday declined to file charges against actor Anthony Anderson in an alleged sexual harassment case.
In July, a woman lodged a complaint against the 'Romeo Must Die' actor alleging that he assaulted her at a business meeting.
TMZ reported that law enforcement agencies said that the District Attorney's office rejected the case and decided not to charge him because the woman in question refused to cooperate.
Moreover, there wasn't enough evidence to level charges against the actor. Anderson is well known for movies like ' The Departed', ' Cradle 2 the Grave' and 'Scary Movie 3'.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
English actor Daniel Craig of 'James Bond' fame is set to play the role of a detective in upcoming murder mystery movie 'Knives Out'
Craig has teamed up with Director Rian Johnson of 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' fame for this movie, reported Variety. Johnson will also be the producer and screenwriter for the upcoming movie.
Shooting for the flick is expected to commence from November.
Craig is well known for starring in a number of Bond films like 'Casino Royale', 'Quantum of Solace', 'Skyfall' and 'Spectre'.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pioneers in the 'instant office space', DBS, with a strong presence at nine locations across prominent cities in India, celebrates one year of successful operation of Andheri Center, while Navi Mumbai Center completed two productive years.
Early 80's witnessed the unfolding of an innovative way of operations. The large, traditional British styled offices were widespread. Although costs may have been a constraint, there was sufficient commercial office space available. In the 80s, corporate India was in a nascent stage, stabilizing and growing at a slow pace.
As the economy opened up, India saw an influx of multi-nationals from across the world looking to tap in to the large opportunity in our country. During this time, DBS Centers introduced the concept of 'instant offices'. The idea behind the concept was to provide flexible office solutions to allow companies to run their without having to deal with any of the hassles of setting up their own offices or entering long-term leases.
Today, DBS Business Centers are preferred by MNCs, SMEs, and new age entrepreneurs. What differentiate DBS over competitors are the unparalleled style, authenticity, office space solutions, and exceptional customer service. With a strong network of 9 business centers located in metro and urban cities in India, the DBS network has resulted in inspiring success stories for startups, established businesses, and passionate business owners.
"We would like to share the Prime Minister's vision of focusing on mini metros of India and considering the workforce in India is between the age group of 25 - 40 years, DBS will provide these young entrepreneurs with a 'One stop shop' to start their venture immediately," said Director, DBS Business Centers, Vanita Bhandari.
The shared office industry has seen rapid growth in supply in the last 5 years to meet up with demand from startups and other corporates for flexible workspace. Companies no longer want to commit to long term leases, incur heavy capital expenditure, and deal with the rigidities involved in leasing your own office space. For some, working in a collaborative shared informal environment with other companies or individuals is beneficial, and therefore the new age co-working spaces are seeing tremendous demand from startups and millennial.
Others still want to feel like they are in their own corporate office, yet benefit from all the flexibilities and amenities provided by a shared office provider. DBS Business centers targets these people and companies. They provide a formal work environment that feels like your own office with the benefit of flexibility in terms of tenure, no capex or setup costs, and white glove service directly to your office. All this at an effectively cheaper price than what an organization would have to pay for their own office with the same amenities.
With four decades of experience in the office space industry, DBS leads in offering corporate style office set-up to national and international brands. They boast the highest retention rate amongst shared office space providers nationwide. An average client at DBS occupies their space for two and a half years.
Apart from prime locations and great service, DBS operates out of self-owned properties that equip them to manage a variable realty market without hampering client operations.
Since inception, DBS has believed in constant innovation. Office space amenities include complete office, shared office, and virtual office, backed by hi-tech support systems essential for smooth business operation.
The demand for shared office space has multiplied in the recent past. Today, there are many players in the industry that offer shared office space. There has also been a large inflow of institutional capital that will result in tremendous growth in supply. This also suggests a large increase in demand for shared office space in the coming years. 5 major factors distinguish DBS Business Centers from competitors in the market:
-Fully formal work environment
-Promotes the feeling of owning a corporate office at affordable rates
-Highest customer retention and satisfaction within this industry
-White glove service to directly to your office
-Company owned properties are safe from realty market volatility
The flexibility, quality facilities, affordable pricing, the highest level of customer service offered by DBS makes it popular among its clientele. DBS offers convenient, customizable, hassle-free office space services allowing its customers to concentrate on productivity, these factors make it different from its competitors.
The company has over 40 years of experience in providing flexible office solutions to their clients. Seeing the uptrend in the industry and economy, they plan on increasing their footprint across quality grade-A commercial real estate across the country. The company aims to tap the central and peripheral business districts in each Tier I city of India by 2020.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Directorate of Income Tax (Intelligence and Criminal Investigation) organised an outreach programme in Delhi to educate the traders about the filling of return of Statement of Financial Transaction (SFT).
The programme was organised along with Federation of Delhi Textiles Merchants August 31 to bring clarity about the filing of return of Statement of Financial Transaction where the sale of any goods or services have been made in cash amounting to Rs. 2 lakh or more. The event was organized with the intent to make traders aware of their duty to file the statement and to resolve their problems as far as the filling of return of SFT is concerned.
Besides SFT, other matters relating to day to day problems of taxation faced by the traders were also discussed. The purpose of the outreach program was also to gather the information about the entities which were engaged in a high-value cash transaction.
Director General of Income Tax (I and CI) has been conducting numerous Outreach Programmes all over the country to educate the traders and other institutions that fall within the ambit of this new provision of the Income Tax Act.
Senior officers from Income Tax Department, Delhi including Deepa, ADIT (I and CI), Jagpal Singh, ADIT (I and CI), Gianender, Income Tax Officer (ITO) were present during the programme which was also attended by many traders and businessman.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Divorce court judge Lynn Toler wants Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to stop the nasty divorce battle and instead do it the peaceful way.
While speaking on her show 'Celebrity -Divorce court', she talked up about the legal battle between 'Brangelina', reported Page Six. "I used to use their divorce as, 'This is how to get it done'," she said.
Toler feels that celebrities are just like all of us and continued to talk about the once-in-love couple. "I hope they get back to where they were, because I loved using them as an example," added the Divorce judge.
It's been two years since the custody battle for their kids started. The star couple has six kids together- Maddox (17), Pax (14), Zahara (13), Shiloh (12), and 10-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox.
Brad and Angelina have always been known as the ultimate power couple, they were looked up to even after their divorce for how peacefully they handled the split.
The two had met on the sets of 2005 thriller 'Mr. & Mrs Smith' and got married in 2014. It was in September 2016 when it was first revealed that the two had filed for a divorce. The allegations were against Brad's misbehaviour with their son Maddox.
After a court judgment, Jolie allowed Pitt to visit their children for four hours on school days, and 12 hours on holidays.
Earlier, Hollywood actor Angelina alleged that ex-husband Brad Pitt has not paid any 'meaningful' child support since their split in 2016. She also accused Pitt of being a careless father. In his defence, the 'Ocean's Eleven' star said that he filed for a loan of 8 million USD to help the Angelina buy a house.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Actor Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson gave his fans a sneak peek of the set of his upcoming movie 'Jungle Cruise'.
In his Instagram post, Johnson can be seen holding a mini guitar while discussing a scene with Director Jaume Collet-Serra.
He captioned it, "The Skipper & The Captain. Myself and our relentlessly hard working Spanish filmmaker, @jcolletserra between takes on set of our DISNEY'S JUNGLE CRUISE. Jaume has to draw me pictures on paper since I need what's called "practical direction" before shooting scenes. Especially, if it requires me to act, play my guitar and sing in keys that don't exist all at the same time. My incomparable co-star (and lucky recipient of my singing) Emily Blunt and myself are so grateful for the collaboration and partnership with this man."
"What a brilliant filmmaker. What an unforgettable experience. Two more weeks left and that's a wrap. The adventure of a lifetime... #SkipperFrank #DISNEY #JUNGLECRUISE ?? ????????," Johnson added in his post while complimenting the director.
The movie, based on the classic theme park attraction, is being helmed by filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra of 'The Shallows' fame.
The film is set in an Amazonian backdrop where the characters will be on a quest for a tree, believed to possess healing powers.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Delhi on Wednesday evening. He was received by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj at the Palam airport.
Pompeo, along with US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, is in India to attend 2+2 dialogue which will be held on September 6.
The two nations are likely to hold a discussion about the significant issue of increasing the interaction between the Indian Army and the Central Command of the US.
Among others, the delegation will also discuss issues like India buying Russian missile defence systems and Iranian oil exports to the country; however, "these issues will not be prioritised," Pompeo asserted.
The US Secretary of State underscored that he and US Defence Secretary James Mattis are looking forward to the 2+2 talks, which he called an "incredibly important meeting."
Pompeo termed India as the only designated defence partner and added that Washington and New Delhi share a "great relationship", which is crucial to the success of the US' Indo-Pacific strategy.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed prosecution complaint under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), against a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and his three associates for spending Rs. 5,41,21,019 more than earning from lawful sources.
The complaint was filed before the PMLA/Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Court at Mohali on Tuesday against Mandeep Singh, IAS (Retd.), M/s Ashiana Inn Ltd. and three others for committing an offence of money laundering.
In an investigation, it was revealed that during the period between April 1998 to March 31, 2014, Mandeep Singh spent funds totalling to Rs. 5,41,21,019/- in excess (130 percent excess) of the income earned by him and his family members through all the lawful sources of their income. The said expenditure also includes the purchase of agricultural lands in the name of his wife and sons.
"Mandeep Singh, IAS (now retired) has invested illegitimate funds, possessed by him in excess to his known sources of income, running in crores in cash, in the construction of Hotels Marc Royale-I and Marc Royale- II running under the aegis of M/s Ashiana Inn Ltd in connivance with Avtar Singh. This hotel was constructed under the ownership of the company, M/s Ashiana Inn Ltd. Value of hotels is to the extent of Rs. 91.83 crore," reads an official statement.
Elaborating further on the discrepancies found during the investigation, the statement added, "M/s Ashiana Inn Ltd. showed availability of funds by way of issuance of fake shares in the names of various Companies and a number of persons. During the investigation, these companies were found bogus/shell in nature. The shareholders of M/s Ashiana Inn Ltd. have also been found bogus. The unaccounted funds laundered in the Hotels belonged to Mandeep Singh."
It has also been stated that Mandeep Singh had acquired funds to the tunes of Rs. 2.50 crore using bogus agreement to sell his house. The above money is revealed to be illegitimate fund and in excess to known sources of his income and income of his family members. All these funds were used by prime accused to purchase agricultural lands in the name of his wife and his sons.
Following the investigation, the ED also issued Provisional Attachment Order (PAO) to attach immovable properties worth Rs. 94.45 crores which include agricultural lands owned by Maya Devi and her sons and Hotel Marc Royale-I and Hotel Marc Royale-II under the aegis of M/s Ashiana Inn Ltd.
The attachment of the above-mentioned properties allegedly representing proceeds of crime has already been confirmed by adjudication authority, PMLA.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Vice Chief of the Air Staff Air Marshal Shirish Baban Deo on Wednesday asserted that Rafale is a capable aircraft and the force needs such combat capabilities.
Air Marshal Deo, who initially refused to comment on Rafale, later said, "All this discussion and all these things going on in Rafale is because we know a lot about how everything went, we find that, people don't have the information."
"The Air Force policy is that anything comes to us quickly and money stays in our country, that's what is required," he said when quizzed by media on whether he favoured manufacturing of Tejas by private sector since the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was taking too long.
"It doesn't really . it is not necessary to know whether the money is with the DPSU (Defence PSU) or the money is with the private company, as long as money stays in the country, and investments are in the country and the aircraft come out quickly, why should we refuse?" he added.
The Rafale jets were chosen in 2012. India initially planned to buy 18 off-the-shelf jets from France, with 108 others to be assembled in the country by the state-run aerospace and defence company HAL.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government scrapped the UPA's plan in 2015 and announced that it would buy 36 "ready-to-fly" Rafale jets instead of seeking a technology transfer from France's Dassault Aviation and making the aircraft in India.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the investigation in the Hapur lynching case will be conducted under the supervision of Meerut's Inspector General of Police (IG).
The apex court also said that the IG Meerut will adhere and follow the court's judgment, while conducting the investigation in the case.
In August, while hearing the plea of a survivor in the case, the court had asked the IG Meerut to submit a report on the entire incident.
Besides seeking Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe, the petitioner had also sought transfer of case and subsequent trial outside Uttar Pradesh amid allegations that the police have not recorded his statement. He had also demanded cancellation of the bail of the accused.
In June, 38-year-old Qasim was lynched to death and 65-year-old Shamsuddin was severely injured in Uttar Pradesh's Hapur district after a group of people attacked them on suspicion of being involved in cow slaughter.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India and Bulgaria on Wednesday signed two agreements in an effort to strengthen the bilateral relationship between the two countries.
Two Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in tourism, civil nuclear cooperation, the establishment of Hindi chair at the Sofia University and cooperation in science and technology were signed in the presence of President Ram Nath Kovind and his Bulgarian counterpart Rumen Radev.
In a joint press briefing, President Kovind said that the two sides agreed to intensify the multilateral cooperation to address climate change, sustainable development and tourism.
Underscoring that terrorism poses a great threat to humanity, the President asserted that a strong global response is required to deal with the menace.
President Kovind also thanked the Bulgarian president for supporting India's claims for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council and membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
Commenting on India-Bulgaria ties, President Kovind said, "India immensely values its strategic partnership with the European Union for its efforts to promote multilateralism and rule-based international order. We have a time-tested and special relationship with Bulgaria. India and Bulgaria ties are deeply rooted in history. It is a strong foundation, we have together built a contemporary partnership based on shared democratic values and commitment to global peace and security. India looks forward to deepening its warm and friendly ties with Bulgaria."
The President underscored that Bulgaria can be a key partner for India under the 'Make in India', 'Digital India' and 'Smart Cities' initiatives. He added that India's growth story and Bulgaria's expertise in the economic domain would provide new opportunities to deepen trade and investment relations between the two nations.
The Indian companies are keen to deepen its footprints in the Bulgarian markets, he said adding, "We had detailed talks covering all aspects of our ties. We reaffirmed our mutual commitment to further strengthen across political, economic, defence, science and technology, education, cultural and people-to-people domains. I appreciate the strong cultural bonds existing between the two countries. We noted the excellent work done by the Department of Indology, Sofia University and by institutions in India to promote each other's culture and languages."
President Kovind further said that he is looking forward to jointly unveil the statue of Mahatma Gandhi on Thursday.
While addressing the Indian community on Tuesday, he apprised them of India's growth story, saying that the economy of the country is making steady progress and that it is the fastest growing economy in the world, with a growth rate of 8.2 per cent in Q2.
President Kovind is currently on an eight-day state visit to three European countries - Cyprus, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
One intruder was shot dead by the Army when two of them crossed the Line of Control in Lam sector on Wednesday.
Informing the same Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rajouri, Yougal Manhas informed that the other person is absconding.
"Two intruders crossed Line of Control in Lam sector today. One intruder is absconding and one intruder was shot dead by the Army when he challenged them," SSP Manhans said.
He further said that the body of the dead person will be handed over to Pakistan at Chakan Da Bagh crossing point after postmortem.
More details are awaited.
In a similar incident in July this year, the Border Security Force (BSF) gunned down a suspected Pakistani intruder in Hiranagar.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The stepmother of a 25-year-old Master of Business Administration (MBA) graduate, who recently joined the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen group, urged her son to shun the path of violence and return home.
The youth, identified as Haroon Abbas Wani, an MBA student from Katra University, was earlier working for a private company. However, he later joined the terror outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen on September 1.
The family of the boy went in a state of shock after they saw a picture of him wielding a gun on social media platforms on September 4.
Speaking to ANI, Wani's stepmother Nusrat Begum said, "We are really surprised that he has taken this step by leaving the family in distress. We want him to come back as real Jihad is to look after parents in old age but not adopting the path of violence which serves no purpose!".
Wani's grandmother, Sugra Begum, also made an appeal to his grandson to leave the path of destruction and return home immediately.
"You have shattered our dreams, you promised to come back home for the marriage of your brother by bringing new clothiers, but you broke the promise and left us in distress. You did not even think once what would happen to your ailing mother and who will bring medicines for her," she said.
"You took up the gun and left your responsibilities, this way you will solve no purpose, Jihad is to look after parents in old age, not adopting the path of violence," the grandmother added.
Wani is the second youth from the Valley to have joined the terrorist outfit since July this year. Earlier, Abid Hussain Bhat, a labourer from Sazan village, had joined Lashkar-e-Toiba. He was later gunned down by security personnel in Anantnag district along with several other terrorists.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Superintendent of Police (City), Kanpur, Surendra Kumar Das was admitted to Regency Hospital on Wednesday. The official is said to be in a critical condition and is in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
The hospital sources confirmed that traces of poison were detected in his body.
Speaking to media, Additional Director General (Kanpur) Avinash Chandra said an investigation is underway to ascertain how Das was poisoned.
"When Das' health suddenly deteriorated, his wife, who is a doctor, made him vomit. She then took him to the district hospital where he was given a stomach wash. He was later admitted to Regency Hospital, where he is under observation. He is under the care of specialists, but his condition is critical," Chandra said.
While medical reports are awaited, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Sanjiv Suman said that Das was allegedly under stress due to family issues.
"We got information at around 4 in the morning, today. His health deteriorated suddenly. Medical reports are awaited. He was tensed since last few days due to various family matters," said Suman.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hollywood actor Margot Robbie is set to join upcoming Nazi revenge thriller 'Ruin'.
The 'I, Tonya' star will be joining Matthias Schoenaerts in the movie, reported The Hollywood Reporter.
The film which is directed by Justin Kurzel of 'Assassin's Creed' fame, is set in the backdrop of post-World War II Germany. Here, Robbie who plays a Holocaust survivor is forced to team up with an ex-Nazi captain (Schoenaerts) in a quest to get her revenge.
The interesting part of the story comes about when they set off on a hunting spree of the members of the captain's former Nazi death squad.
Shooting of the flick will start in Prague in 2019.
Robbie will be next seen as Queen Elizabeth I in an upcoming film 'Mary Queen of Scots'. The 'Suicide Squad' star is currently shooting Quentin Tarantino's 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
On the occasion of 'Lucknow Metro Diwas', Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday asserted that with the Metro Rail service becoming a status symbol, his government along with the Narendra Modi-led Centre will make efforts to bring the services to more cities in the state.
"Now, three cities of the state have metro connectivity- Lucknow, Ghaziabad and Noida. Metro is not just a better transport system for the public, but also a status symbol (to people) that our city is a metro city. We will bring Metro services in more cities," he said while addressing an event here.
Adityanath also highlighted that as many as 35 lakh commuters residing in Lucknow have started using metro service instead of private vehicles, leading to less traffic congestion across the region.
"The moment metro will become operational all across Lucknow, it will not only lead to ease of traveling but will also make the city more developed," he noted.
Elaborating further about his future course of action, the Chief Minister said that the state government has sent a detailed project plan for starting metro services in Kanpur, Agra, and Meerut.
He also said that the second phase of the Lucknow Metro is expected to begin in 2019.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Norway officially chose Bollywood actor Adil Hussain starrer 'What will people say' to be submitted at the 91st Oscars under the 'Foreign language film' category.
On Tuesday Adil Hussain tweeted about the film's entry into the Oscars. He even congratulated the movie's cast and crew after the announcement.
He wrote, "Our Film #WhatWillPeopleSay is just declared as the #Norwegian official entry into #Oscars 2019. #Norway @norwayinindia @NorwayUN @Dibang ???????? Biig Congratulations to @iramhaq @mehia @merfilm @EkavaliKhanna all cast and crew."
The actor further said that he hopes the film gets "chosen to compete in the #ForeignFilm Category!"
"It's not yet Nominated for #Oscars. It's the official entry to Oscars from Norway! Now we hope that it will be one of the films to be chosen to compete in the #ForeignFilm Category!," he tweeted.
The film tells the story of a 16-year-old Nisha, a Pakistani teenager living in Norway. Her life changes when she is instantly sent back to her extended family in Pakistan after her father, played by Adil Hussain, finds out about her boyfriend.
The film has been helmed by Norwegian-Pakistani director Iram Haq.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Norway on a regular basis submits films under the said category since 1957.
Notably, till date, five Norwegian films have earned Oscar nominations. It includes 'Nine Lives' in 1957, 'The Pathfinder' in 1987, 'The Other Side of Sunday' in 1996, 'Elling' in 2001 and 'Kon-Tiki' in 2012. However, none of these films won an Oscar.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NTT Communications, Japan's largest telecom firm, held "Startup Challenge 2018" event for supporting Asian startup ecosystem with an opportunity for funding and to gain access to investors network and quality of technological infrastructure.
"Our final goal for the startup challenge powered by NTT Communications is supporting the startup ecosystem in Indonesia. Asia is one of the most important regions for us. Indonesia has a huge population and there are many startup companies here. We now put on strong emphasis here to support ecosystem by making most of our IT infrastructure," said Yasunori Kinebuchi, NTT Communications.
This year's NTT Communications Startup Challenge took place in three countries- Indonesia as the opening country, followed by Malaysia and Vietnam. There were approximately 500 more startup companies applying for this event compared to last year.
Startups from various categories such as IoT, FinTech, and e-commerce applied and only 10 companies were nominated for the final pitch session.
In this session, each company made presentations, described unique and innovative ideas and highlighted their strong suites. The judging criteria for this competition included a variety of aspects such as "Idea", "Challenge and Solution" and "Strategy and Team".
During the event, a question and answer session was held, where discussions between presenters and judges took place.
"I am very excited to see the amount of effort that NTT Communications has poured into event such as this in South East Asia, which is definitely becoming a hot spot for investment dollars coming from countries such as Japan, China, US and also within South East Asia," said Kuan Hsu from Sun Sea Capital.
As a result of final deliberations, first prize award included the right of collaboration with NTT Communications, Free use of ICT infrastructure went to the company that provides services for connecting farmers with investors.
"I am feeling very nervous and excited about the announcement. I hope this reward would not be just a reward. Next plan is for my company to grow with the help of NTT and achieve more in technology," said Agi Ananta from iGrow.
The startup ecosystem in Asia is attracting huge interest and with the help of Japanese companies, firms in this region can achieve higher prospects.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Muttahidda Qaumi Movement's (MQM) founder and leader Altaf Hussain, while giving a special lecture to his worldwide audience and viewers, especially Baloch students and youth through social media on 'The Issue of Balochistan and its historical perspective', said, "The people of Balochistan are at war with the military establishment demanding freedom from the clutches of slavery imposed onto them. The military establishment has used all demonic actions against them so as to suppress their voice of freedom."
Hussain stated that Balochistan was never a part of Pakistan. The province was captured by the military of Pakistan at gun point in March 1948 and was compelled to accept to merge with Pakistan.
All honest military officers and non-commissioned officers have to decide whether they would allow Pakistan to be under the control of corrupt Generals or would they choose to protect the country from them.
Hussain shared the detail of Balochistan's' demographic as well as its history in his lecture.
At the time when the sub-continent India's division into different independent states had come, Balochistan was still not part of the sub-continent India and its status as an independent state was intact. In 1893, the British Empire drew Durand Line from Chitral to Afghanistan and thus this particular area was divided, he added.
He said that three months prior to the inception of Pakistan, a meeting of British Empire representative Khan of Kalat and Mir Yar Muhammad Khan was held with the founder of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah in which detailed discussion about Balochistan was done. After that meeting, a presser was released on August 11, 1947, which entailed the details of Balochistan's status as an independent state.
Hussain said that Pakistan came into being on August 14, 1947, and Khan of Kalat had on the following day announced the free status of Kalat in a public assembly followed by an election in Kalat. National Party swept the elections and Nawabzada Aslam sworn in as Prime Minister of Kalat.
"M. A. Jinnah had recognised Kalat as an independent state on August 11, 1947, but on the pressure from the then establishment and military, he had also stepped back from his decision he had made in October 1947," he stated.
Hussain said that the Balochistan's assembly was always in opposition of its merger with Pakistan so much so that they passed a resolution that they will be no merger of Kalat with Pakistan, but the later should establish friendly relations with the earlier as is the basis of bilateral relations and rejected Pakistan's request for the merger.
Following the passing of the resolution, the Prime Minister of Kalat M. Aslam was handed a letter from the founder of Pakistan M. A. Jinnah. That letter carried direct instructions to him that he should immediately announce the merger of Kalat to Pakistan. In the meantime, the military establishment of Pakistan used pressure tactic and forced other states of Kharan, Makran and Lasbella to accept the merger with Pakistan.
Jinnah wrote to Khan of Kalat, in which he stated that he was unable to have a dialogue with him in his personal capacity and that the Government of Pakistan would see the matter onward, added Hussain.
He said that Jinnah was not only the founder of Pakistan, but also the Governor General, the apex position in the newly founded state of Pakistan but the military establishment had forced him not to have dialogue with the state of Kalat and appointed a Colonel S. B. Shah to have dialogue instead.
On March 27, 1948, the military of Pakistan invaded Kalat and at gunpoint forced Khan of Kalat to sign a document that pertained to the merger of Kalat. Thus Kalat was added to Pakistan at gunpoint by the military of Pakistan and it was officially announced in Karachi that Khan of Kalat had merged the state of Kalat to Pakistan.
Hussain asserted that as per history Baluchistan was neither part of Pakistan before the conception of it, nor a part of it after it was founded, but Pakistan invaded Balochistan and occupied it. Pakistan's military and its different agencies are levying atrocities on to the people of Balochistan only to keep it as part of Pakistan and the voices for freedom are being silenced. This is the real issue of Balochistan.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Amid mounting protests for establishment of High Court benches in southern and western part of Odisha, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday wrote a letter to Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, requesting to expedite the formal process for setting up the High Court benches.
In the letter to the Law Minister, Patnaik said, "Establishment of permanent benches of Odisha High Court is necessary to mitigate the inconvenience faced by the litigants in this southern and western region of the state."
"I had further conveyed the assurance of the state government to provide adequate resources for the establishment of the high court benches in these areas," he further said.
The Chief Minister said that the state government is aware of the various decisions of the Supreme Court, including the case of Federation of Bar Association of Karnataka vs Union of India and others, as well as the recommendation of the Commission headed by Justice Jaswant Singh for the establishment of bench of High Court away from its principal seat.
"In our view, there is adequate justification for the establishment of permanent benches of Orissa High Court in the western and southern parts of Odisha and the criteria laid down by Justice Jaswant Singh Commission are also substantially met," Patnaik said.
Patnaik, in his letter, stated that the parliament has the prerogative to establish such benches in an exercise of its powers under Entry-78 if the Union List.
"In the above context, it is urged that an early decision regarding establishment of permanent benches of the high court in western and southern Odisha be taken by the Government of India to fulfil the aspirations of the people of these regions," his letter read.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday shared pictures of Mansarovar lake during his Kailash Yatra and added that 'there is no hatred here'.
Taking to his official Twitter handle, Gandhi expressed contentment on his trip to Kailash Mansarovar and said that "a man goes to Kailash when it calls him."
He further described the waters of Mansarovar lake as "gentle, tranquil and calm."
"The waters of lake Mansarovar are so gentle, tranquil and calm. They give everything and lose nothing. Anyone can drink from them. There is no hatred here. This is why we worship these waters in India," Gandhi tweeted.
The Congress president embarked on a 12-day trip to Kailash Mansarovar on August 31 via Nepal. He is likely to cover a distance of 60 kilometres on foot.
Gandhi's trip to Kailash Mansarovar has been questioned by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with the latter demanding an explanation from the Congress President.
Accusing Gandhi of being a "Chinese spokesperson," BJP's Sambit Patra had said, "You are Rahul Gandhi, not 'Chinese' Gandhi.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Route Mobile Ltd., leading global cloud-communications platform service provider to enterprises, over-the-top (OTT) players and mobile network operators, has announced strengthens its offering into Google's Early Access Program for Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging.
Since its incorporation in 2004, Route Mobile has delivered innovative solutions and adopted quickly to emerging technologies in the rapidly growing cloud communications space. Marking another milestone.
RCS on Android helps brands to deliver more advanced experiences to users. It allows brands to send interactive, useful and effective messages to its customers, like images of their products, GIFs, videos, location to the nearest point of sale (POS) and even allow customers to browse and buy products/pay without leaving the messaging app. Retailers can now demonstrate products, airlines can handle bookings and banks can process banking transactions - all over messaging. It's the power of an app, with the convenience of messaging.
With the integration of quick replies, representation of brands as per its preference, suggestive clear menus and carousel display of images; RCS will enable brands to drive marketing campaigns effectively. It can also enable chatbot interactivity to enhance customer service and engagement.
Now, all Route Mobile customers and prospects will be able to benefit from the next generation of RCS messaging (or RCS Universal Profile 2.0) that gives them more meaningful interaction with brands.
"We are thrilled to bring RCS to our customers in India and across the globe. RCS offers enriched messaging experience and scalability; which will augment our product portfolio thereby making our offerings more robust. Brands today have been looking for a more holistic mobile communication solution apart from traditional messaging. With Google's RCS, we now have one. Joining Google's Early Access Program means a lot to us, and in turn, to our customers who will certainly benefit from it immensely," said MD & Group Chief Executive Officer, Route Mobile, Rajdipkumar Gupta.
Route Mobile has a diverse global client base that can directly benefit from Google's Program for Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging. As on date, Google has partnered with about 75 carriers and device manufacturers to bring better native messaging to every Android user.
Brands across food, retail, travel, delivery services in the USA, Mexico and Latin America have seen the benefits during the test phase of this program. With this inclusion, Route Mobile believes it has further strengthened its position among the leading cloud-communication platform service providers.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Russian Defence Ministry spokesperson Major General Igor Konashenkov has confirmed that their warplanes have hit two terrorist drones, belonging to Nusra Front, in Syria's Idlib Province.
Shedding more light on the attack, the spokesperson said that the strikes were carried out on the identified terrorist targets.
"On the 4th of September, at night, the anti-aircraft weapons of Hmeimim Airbase destroyed two terrorist assault UAVs. In total, last month, 47 terrorist unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed. in the area of Russia's Hmeymim Airbase," sputniknews.com quoted Konashenkov, as saying.
"The Russian aircraft carried out all strikes solely on the identified terrorist targets, as confirmed through several channels, located far from settlements," he added.
Russia, along with Iran and Turkey, is supporting the Damascus in their struggle against the regional terror groups. It also provides the violence-hit country with humanitarian aid, the report said.
Syria, which has been devastated by years of violent conflict between military and government forces, is coping with regional terrorist organisations as well.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Seventh Street, the renowned eyewear brand of Safilo Group, announces the leading Bollywood star, Rajkumar Rao as their brand ambassador for India.
Personality, style and comfort with a tinge of fun are the features that stand out in all the eyewear collections of Seventh Street. Beautifully crafted and perfectly balanced between fit and style, the optical frames are designed to make you stand out from the crowd.
Announcing Rajkumar Rao as the ambassador, Kyriakos Kofinas, Managing Director IMEA and APAC for Safilo Group, said, "We are delighted to have Rajkumar Rao as the face of Seventh Street. His charming personality and effortless style are the perfect qualities that embody the brand's value as well. The actor will be seen sporting the latest collection of the brand in a campaign that has been released today."
On his association with Seventh Street, Raj Kumar Rao said, "I am extremely happy to be associated with Seventh Street as its brand ambassador. I feel that the brand is all about a well-balanced style and comfort which is also an expression of my personal style. I look forward to a great year of partnership with the brand and to introduce the brand's latest 2018 collection of its optical frames in the upcoming campaign."
The campaign will debut in India starting September 2018 and simultaneously, the new Seventh Street optical eyewear collection will hit the stores. In the latest Fall/Winter campaign, Rajkumar Rao will be seen sporting the stylish yet comfortable optical frames - 7A 030.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bollywood actor Shraddha Kapoor, who is riding high on the success of her recent release 'Stree', is overwhelmed with the kind of love the film is receiving.
Also starring Rajkummar Rao, the unconventional and quirky horror- comedy has raked in Rs.48.34 crores so far.
Speaking to media here, the 'Baaghi' star said, "I have been reading all the messages about Stree from my close friends, family, and my lovely fans. The response is overwhelming, to say the least. I am extremely grateful to my director, producers, and writers for making me a part of this amazing film."
It was the first time that the actor chose a film from the horror-comedy genre.
The 31-year-old star will next be seen in 'Batti Gul Meter Chalu' with Shahid Kapoor and the trilingual action film 'Saaho'.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Backing Mauritius in its legal battle for Chagos Islands, India on Wednesday told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that historical facts and legal aspects confirm that sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago has been with Mauritius.
Mauritius has challenged United Kingdom's claim on the Chagos Archipelago, saying more than 50 years after the country got its Independence from the British, the process of decolonisation has remained incomplete as a part of it is still under its control.
Mauritius has cited UN resolution 1514 that prohibits breaking up of the territory of a colony. One of the largest islands of the archipelago - Diego Garcia - has important military setups of the United States of America that had taken the island on lease from UK. Over 1500 islanders were forced to vacate the area and never allowed to return.
Mauritius had approached United Nations where a resolution was adopted to seek ICJ's opinion in the matter. The ICJ is seeking opinion from 22 countries and the African Union on this issue. India has been supporting Mauritius in its battle for sovereignty at the international foras.
Presenting India's position in the Oral Proceedings before the ICJ on the Request for an Advisory Opinion by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in the matter concerning "The Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965," India's Ambassador in The Netherlands, Venu Rajamony, said the historical survey of facts concerning colonization and the process of decolonization indicates that the Chagos Archipelago throughout the pre and post-colonial era has been part of the Mauritian territory.
He added that these islands came under the colonial administration of the United Kingdom as part of Mauritian territory. "The understanding reached in November 1965 between Mauritius and the United Kingdom for the retention of Chagos by the United Kingdom for defence purposes and return thereof to Mauritius when no longer needed for defence purposes, is also in itself evidence that Mauritius has been and continues to be the sovereign nation for the Chagos Archipelago," the ambassador said. India asserted that the historical aspects of the matter in question do clearly establish the Chagos Archipelago being part of the Mauritian territory to the exclusion of the sovereignty of any other State.
"The legal aspects should root themselves in the historical facts, behaviour of the nations concerned, and the consideration of the issue by relevant administrative and judicial institutions," Ambassador Rajamony added.
India said that before the independence of Mauritius, the UN, in December 1960, recognizing the ardent desire of the peoples of the to end colonialism; believing in the need of ending all practices of segregation and discrimination associated with the colonialism; convinced of the right of all peoples to full freedom and of the integrity of their national territory, solemnly proclaimed the necessity of a speedy and unconditional end of colonialism in all its forms and manifestations in General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV). This resolution declared any attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of the national unity and the territorial integrity of a country, as incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
However, detachment of the Chagos Archipelago still took place in November 1965. The United Nations reacted in December 1965 to the detachment of the Chagos Archipelago by adopting resolution 2066 (XX) entitled "Question of Mauritius", calling on the United Kingdom to fully implement Resolution 1514 (XV). The resolution obligated the United Kingdom to complete the decolonization of Mauritius and report the same to the General Assembly, the envoy added.
He further said that the Arbitral Tribunal constituted by agreement between Mauritius and UK in its Award dated 18 March 2015, ruled that the undertakings of the United Kingdom with respect to: the fishing rights of Mauritius in the waters of Chagos Archipelago; the eventual return of the Archipelago to Mauritius and; the benefit of mineral and oil resources in and near the Archipelago, are legally binding undertakings. Further, by declaring as legally binding the undertaking of the United Kingdom to return the Archipelago to Mauritius, the Award has determined the legal obligation of the United Kingdom to return the Archipelago to Mauritius.
Ambassador Venu Rajamony said the process of decolonization of Mauritius remains incomplete both technically and in substance as long as the Chagos Archipelago continues to be under colonial control.
.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Tarun Vijay on Wednesday said he will file a police complaint over the "misuse" of his Twitter handle.
Vijay took to Twitter to clarify that the anti-party tweets on his timeline were not done by him, and his 'account password was misused'.
"Thank you friends for showing faith in us and not believing the wrong tweets. It happened when we were shifting home. Password misused and I am filing a police complaint. Changed password. Thanks to the huge number of friends who stood by me. Thank you," the tweet read.
Earlier in the day, Vijay, in a statement to ANI, claimed that the tweets were a "pre 2019 conspiracy."
"I have deactivated it (Twitter account). This can be a plot. I will live and die for (Narendra) Modi and Amit Shah. They are Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay and Dr. Syama Prasad Mukherjee for us small workers. My family and I work day and night for him. My family will die for BJP. No one demanded anything. It is a pre-2019 conspiracy. Please help me from anti-BJP elements," he said.
On Tuesday, a tweet was posted from Vijay's handle asking Prime Minister Modi to "shed his arrogance".
"Hello. you are NOT there bec you are very popular. you are there bec there is this person behind you. @narendramodi. shed your arrogance. Oh My god, you think you are very popular!!!" the tweet read.
Another tweet on Congress President Rahul Gandhi's Kailash Mansarovar Yatra read: "Those commenting, mocking at, Making cheap comments on Rahul's Kailas Yatra are wrong. Not what a Hindu should do. it is is all between him and Shiva. None can be bigger than Shiva. I hv been blessed to visit Kailas three times and president of Kailas Manasarovar Yatri Sangh."
However, the tweets were deleted a few hours after they were posted.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 20 people were killed and dozens others were injured in two bomb blasts that occurred in Kabul's Qala-e-Nazer area on Wednesday.
The first explosion was a suicide bombing incident that occurred around 6 PM (local time) at the Moalem wrestling club, killing at least four and injuring several others, reported TOLO News.
Police said that the explosives were detonated with the bomber present among the athletes in the club.
The second explosion, a car bombing which killed at least 16 and wounded 65 others, occurred about an hour later. Two TOLO News journalists were among the dead in the second blast.
Journalist Samim Faramarz and cameraman Ramiz Ahmadi were covering the first blast when the second explosion took place, killing both.
Afghanistan's Presidential Palace condemned the attacks in a statement and labelled it a "crime against humanity."
"An attack on civilians and media is an attack on the freedom of press and a crime against humanity. President Ghani condemns the terrorist attacks in the strongest possible terms and has directed the responsible officials to do whatever they can to help the families of the victims and those wounded and to launch an investigation into the incident," the statement read.
Former President Hamid Karzai took to Twitter to condemn the blasts and extend his condolences for the victims.
"I strongly condemn the terrorist attack in #Kabul that inflicted casualties on our people including our brave journalists & athletes. Our ill-wishers must know that our people stand united against their terrorism. I extend my profound sympathies to the victims' families & friends," Karzai tweeted.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
100 Welsh Guards were added to the NATO troops in Afghanistan during United Kingdom (UK) Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson's visit in Kabul last week, UK's Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday.
The troops are the first of the 440 additional personnel that will be deployed by the UK for the NATO forces. The addition will see the UK become the third largest contributor to troops in Afghanistan with 1,100 personnel, TOLO News reported.
"We remain absolutely committed to building an Afghanistan that is a strong security partner for decades to come. A secure and stable Afghanistan helps keep the streets of the UK safe. The uplift of UK personnel not only underlines our commitment to Afghanistan and regional security, but also to the Alliance that has been the cornerstone of our defence for 70 years," Williamson said.
"Thousands of our personnel stand shoulder-to-shoulder with NATO allies around the Those here in Afghanistan are just one example of Global Britain in action. The additional troops will bolster the UK's existing contribution to the UK-led Kabul Security Force (KSF), which plays a critical role in enabling NATO advisors in the city to undertake engagement with the Afghan government. They will also continue to mentor the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces who are responsible for security in the capital," the Defence Secretary added.
The UK's Defence Ministry further noted that Williamson visited Mazar-e-Sharif, where the UK and the German forces were supporting the growth of the Afghan Special Police.
Williamson also held a meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah, relaying the UK's commitment towards a safe and secure Afghanistan.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Donald Trump administration is eyeing another package of tariffs on Chinese products as the trade war between Washington and Beijing showed no signs of abetting.
The US is likely to impose tariffs on USD 200 billion of Chinese products on September 7 after the public comment period on taxes closes on September 6.
The US sought public comments on the proposed list of products that would be affected by the tariffs. Last month, public hearings were held and American businesses were permitted to submit their written comments on the proposal, CNN reported.
In July, Washington had slapped 25 per cent tariffs on USD 34 billion of Chinese imports and imposed another USD 16 billion last month. China retaliated by imposing 25 per cent tariffs on American goods worth USD 16 billion.
It is yet to be clear whether the new tariffs by the US would be set at either 10 per cent or 25 per cent.
So far, Beijing has imposed 25 per cent tariffs on USD 50 billion of American goods. It has also threatened Washington to impose another round of tariffs amounting to USD 60 billion of US products.
Last month, Trump had directed the Office of the United States Trade Representative to probe the impact of a 10 per cent tariff, which was later increased to 25 per cent, the report said.
China is the US' largest trading partner, with almost USD 506 billion worth of Chinese products being sold to Washington last year.
On the one hand, the Trump administration recently slapped tariffs on various countries, including China, claiming that the US was "being treated unfairly in trade" and accusing Beijing of "stealing intellectual property". On the other hand, China chided the US for indulging in "trade bullying.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday, met Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi to discuss bilateral ties between the two nations.
Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mohammad Faisal took to Twitter saying that the two delegations discussed "bilateral, regional and international issues."
Faisal tweeted, "FM Qureshi underscores the need to reset bilateral ties on basis of mutual trust and respect. Safeguarding Pakistan's national interests will remain supreme priority."
Pompeo later left to meet newly-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan, reported the Dawn.
On being quizzed about his visit to Pakistan, Pompeo told media persons travelling with him that the trip was being made in an effort to reset the bilateral ties between Washington and Islamabad. He acknowledged that there are plenty of challenges to be tackled, and expressed hope that the new Pakistan government would resolve the irritants affecting the relations of both countries.
Pompeo is slated to arrive in India today to participate in the inaugural India-US 2+2 dialogue, which would take place on Thursday.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan at PM House on Wednesday, following his meeting with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, US military chief General Joseph Dunford were also present in the meeting.
In a press conference, following Pompeo's visit, Qureshi stated that Pakistan's perspective was put forth "responsibly" to the US delegation. He further asserted that the meeting was cordial, reported the Dawn.
"We tried to understand their wishes and put forth our own expectations and concerns. I told them that if you want to proceed with Pakistan, the foundation lies in trust, frank and candid conversation. And until and unless we address concerns from both the sides, progress is not possible," Qureshi said.
Qureshi also revealed that he was invited by Pompeo to visit New York to attend the United Nations conference where he said he would try to engage with the US officials again.
"During the meeting at the PM House, we all sat down and exchanged views. In the past, they used to come, meet the PM and then went to the GHQ. Today's meeting sent a clear message that we are all on the same page," said Qureshi while talking about the meeting at PM house.
Terming the meeting as a "positive development", Qureshi said that an atmosphere for resetting the relationship has been created.
Talking about Pakistan's relationship with the US, he said that the two countries have been allies for a long time and have had their shares of tensions, "But our history shows when we have worked together, it has been in the best interest of both countries. We did this when we worked together to decimate Al Qaeda."
He also revealed that the scrapping of 300 million USD off of Pakistan's financial aid by the US was not brought up in the meeting.
"That decision was taken before this government took charge. I gave this matter some thought then I decided against raising it because free nations think along the lines of self-sufficiency. We will take a new direction," Qureshi said.
Pompeo visited Pakistan to discuss bilateral ties between the two countries. Following his Pakistan visit, Mike Pompeo left for India for the '2+2' dialogue.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu will embark on a two-day visit from September 8 to the United States to deliver an address at the 2nd Hindu Congress (WHC) in Chicago.
According to a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Naidu will also interact with the members of the Indian community during the visit.
The WHC, which is slated to be held from September 7 to 9, is a "global platform for Hindus to connect, share ideas, inspire one another, and impact the common good. It offers Hindus an opportunity to introspect towards improvement and tap into their collective resources to seek tangible solutions to the most pressing issues of this age," according to its website.
Held once every four years, WHC's seven parallel conferences showcase how the values, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit of the global Hindu community find expression in a variety of spheres, including economic, education, media, organisational, and political, as well as the unique leadership and contributions of Hindu women and youth, the site added.
The global event also marks the commemoration of 125 years of Swami Vivekananda's address at the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In order to spread awareness on the rising crimes against women, Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut said that they need to be awakened because it is the need of the hour.
She said, said that women should be encouraged to speak out "if they felt something" wrong is happening to them.
Stressing on the importance of empowering women, she said, "In India, a woman's upbringing is different from her brother's and that is the reason when something wrong happens with her, she thinks it is normal and doesn't protest."
"Therefore, the most important thing these days is to awaken women", the actress added.
Sexual crimes against young girls and women are on a rise in India. The biggest problem lies with the length of the trials as sometimes courts take five to 10 years to reach a judgment.
The 'Queen' actress gave out the clarion call while speaking at the 'Xin Philanthropy Conference' held in New Delhi on September 5.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Scores of social activists, farmers and workers flocked the capital on Wednesday to take out a protest march against the Narendra Modi-led government with a slew of demands ranging from loan waiver, a minimum wage of Rs 18,000 a month and remunerative prices for farm produce as per the Swaminathan Committee recommendations.
Venting anger against the centre for what they called the failure to provide aid to the poor farmers, Secretary General of the Communist Party of India, Sitaram Yechury said, "If the government again failed to take any required measure to provide support to the poor farmers, casual labourers across India, we will launch much bigger protest next week along with the other opposition political outfits."
"It is very unfortunate that the people working in the agricultural sector which is the backbone of the Indian economy are reeling under poverty, " Yechury added while speaking to ANI.
The Communist leader, without mentioning any name, accused that the government of allowing businessmen to flee from the country after looting banks, adding that it is now not ready to uplift the poor farmers, casual workers living in India.
Echoing Yechury's contention, a protester demanded that immediate actions should be taken to provide relief to the poor who are working in the agriculture sector. "This government launched so many massive programmes across India after coming to power in 2014. But, at grass root level they did not provide any support to farmers, casual workers," he said.
This protest march was collectively launched by All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), All India Agriculture Workers Union (AIAWU) and Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU) from Ramlila Maidan to Parliament Street under the name 'Majdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally'.
The protesters have put forth a total of fifteen points that include loan waivers of all India farmers, land to landless, implementation of Forest Rights Act, improving the working conditions of MGNREGA workers.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Headline stocks of the Asia market finished session at one-month low on Wednesday, 5 September 2018, as risk aversion selloff triggered on worries about a possible escalation of trade tensions between US and China, shrugging off data showing the domestic economy grew faster than expected last quarter. Most of ASX sectors declined, with shares of materials and resources companies being notable losers, hit commodity prices. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index ended down 62.7 points, or 1%, at 6,230.4 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index was down 59.7 points, or 0.93%, at 6,339.2 points.
Sigma Healthcare was among the best performers ahead of its first-half results on Thursday. Orocobre was the worst after saying that Argentina's export tax will equate to a levy of about 8% of its local venture's export sales revenue.
Shares of materials and resources companies suffered heavy losses amid pullback in commodity prices. The threat of a trade war escalation was felt particularly in the commodities market, with base and precious metal prices falling across the board on Tuesday. BHP Billiton fell 2.7% to A$32.20, wiping 10.5 points from the benchmark index alone. Rio Tinto also fell, down 2.4% to A$69.68. Of the smaller miners, South32 shares fell 2.3% to A$3.39, St Barbara was 4.6% lower at A$3.77 and Independence Group went down 4.8% to A$4.01.
Shares of banks also closed lower, led by Westpac, down 1.3% to A$27.94, after ASIC fined A$35 million over dodgy loans it issued between December 2011 and March 2015. Commonwealth Bank, the second-worst performing of the big four, fell 0.9% to A$70.11, while NAB suffered the least, down 0.7% to A$28.03.
Shares of energy sector inclined, crude oil as prices remained relatively steady overnight despite threats of a trade war and the strengthening US dollar. The price of NYMEX light sweet crude lifted 0.1% to $US69.87 a barrel on Tuesday as Tropical Storm Gordon heads toward the US Gulf of Mexico, putting offshore oil production at risk. Santos shares rose 0.6% to A$6.76 and Caltex Australia advanced 1.4% to A$30.15.
ECONOMIC NEWS: Australia services activity eases further in August-- Australia's services activity continued to deteriorate to its survey-low figure in August with the rate of business activity expansion slowing for the third straight month. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia Services Business Activity Index on a seasonally adjusted basis was down further to 51.8 in August from 52.3 in July, lowest since the survey began in May 2016.
Moreover, Australia's Commonwealth Bank Composite Output Index on a seasonally adjusted basis declined further to survey low level of 52.0 in August from 52.3 in July.
Australia grew 0.9% in Q2 The Australian economy grew 0.9% in seasonally adjusted chain volume terms in the June quarter 2018, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Chief Economist for the ABS, Bruce Hockman, said: Growth in domestic demand accounts for over half the growth in GDP, and reflected strength in household expenditure. Domestic demand increased 0.6% for the quarter, driven by a 0.7% growth in household consumption, with increased expenditure on both discretionary and non-discretionary goods and services. General government final consumption expenditure increased 1.0% in the June quarter. Public investment remained at elevated levels reflecting continued work on infrastructure projects across the nation. Investment in new dwellings increased 3.6% for the quarter. with strength observed in Victoria and South Australia. This strength was reflected in the Construction industry, which grew 1.9% for the quarter. Compensation of employees (COE) grew 0.7% for the quarter due to rises in the number of wage and salary earners and wage rates. COE growth was prominent in the Health Care and Social Assistance industry.
Australia AiG services index slips in August-- Australia's service sector growth grew at a slower pace in August, Australian Industry Group said with a Performance of Services Index score of 52.2. That was down from 53.6 in July. Individually, stocks, sales, new orders and employment all continued to expand but at a slower rate. Deliveries moved from contraction to expansion.
CURRENCY: Australian Dollar eased against greenback and other major currencies on Wednesday. The Aussie dollar was buying 71.74 US cents, down from 72.05 US cents on Tuesday; 79.96 Japanese yen, from 80.23; 62.02 euro cents, from 62.22; 55.90 British pence, from 56.09; and 109.57 NZ cents, from 109.47.
Powered by Capital Market - Live News
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Domestic stocks nudged higher in early trade. At 9:19 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 84.14 points or 0.22% at 38,242.06. The Nifty 50 index was up 5.20 points or 0.05% at 11,525.50.
The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.02%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.01%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On the BSE, 358 shares rose and 432 shares fell. A total of 39 shares were unchanged.
Overseas, Asian stocks were trading lower amid continued pressure in many emerging markets and as trade tensions persisted. US stocks fell yesterday, 4 September 2018 as investors looked ahead to a busy week of trade negotiations and economic data.
Back home, ABB India rose 0.6% after the company redeemed the entire 600 unsecured rated listed redeemable non-convertible debentures (debentures) of face value of Rs 1 crore each on 4 September 2018. These debentures were privately placed and listed in BSE. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 4 September 2018.
Mcnally Bharat Engineering Company gained 3.64% after the company said it has received one order from NLC India for construction of 544 colony houses and community hall including internal electrification - Phase-I for Talabira II & III OCP - proposed R&R colony at Khinda - Odisha worth Rs 107.97 crore. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 4 September 2018.
On the macro front, Nikkei Services PMI for August 2018 will be announced today, 5 September 2018. The Nikkei India Services PMI rose to 54.2 in July 2018 from 52.6 in June 2018.
Powered by Capital Market - Live News
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Volatility struck bourses in morning trade as the key benchmark indices cut losses soon after reversing intraday gains. At 10:19 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 7.45 points or 0.02% at 38,150.44. The Nifty 50 index was down 8.25 points or 0.07% at 11,512.05. Realty stocks dropped.
Domestic stocks nudged higher in early trade.
The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.5%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.45%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On the BSE, 834 shares rose and 1229 shares fell. A total of 111 shares were unchanged.
Back home, Coal India (down 2.18%), Hindustan Unilever (down 1.45%) and ONGC (down 0.95%) edged lower from the Sensex pack.
Realty stocks dropped. Godrej Properties (down 3.45%), Phoenix Mills (down 3.19%), Indiabulls Real Estate (down 0.45%), Housing Development and Infrastructure (down 0.6%), D B Realty (down 2.96%), Unitech (down 0.78%), Sobha (down 1.58%), Prestige Estates Projects (down 1.12%) and Oberoi Realty (down 1.91%) declined. DLF (up 0.05%) rose.
Mcnally Bharat Engineering Company rose 3.64%. Mcnally Bharat Engineering Company said it has received one order from NLC India for construction of 544 colony houses and community hall including internal electrification - phase-I for Talabira II & III OCP - proposed R&R colony at Khinda - Odisha worth Rs 107.97 crore. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 4 September 2018.
On the macro front, Nikkei Services PMI for August 2018 will be announced today, 5 September 2018. The Nikkei India Services PMI rose to 54.2 in July 2018 from 52.6 in June 2018.
Overseas, Asian stocks were trading lower amid continued pressure in many emerging markets and as trade tensions persisted. US stocks fell yesterday, 4 September 2018 as investors looked ahead to a busy week of trade negotiations and economic data.
Powered by Capital Market - Live News
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Mcnally Bharat Engineering Company said it has received one order from NLC India for construction of 544 colony houses and community hall including internal electrification - Phase-I for Talabira II & III OCP - proposed R&R colony at Khinda - Odisha worth Rs 107.97 crore. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 4 September 2018.
LT Foods announced that its board of directors at a meeting held on 31 August 2018 approved the infusion of equity capital by Rabobank's India Agri Business Fund II into Nature Bio Foods Ltd. (NBFL), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. This facilitates investment of up to Rs 140 crore in the global organic foods business in one or multiple stages, subject to concerned parties meeting predefined conditions in the joint agreement. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 4 September 2018.
ABB India has redeemed the entire 600 unsecured rated listed redeemable non-convertible debentures (debentures) of face value of Rs 1 crore each on 4 September 2018. These debentures were privately placed and listed in BSE. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 4 September 2018.
Texmo Pipes & Products said it has received an order of HDPE Pipe worth Rs 81.30 crore from Larsen & Toubro, Chennai. The execution period of the aforesaid order is 9 months. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 4 September 2018.
Goldiam International said it received export orders worth Rs 140 crore from its international clients for manufacturing diamond studded designed gold jewellery. The order will be delivered within coming 3 months. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 4 September 2018.
Powered by Capital Market - Live News
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Strides Pharma Science announced that its step-down wholly owned subsidiary, Strides Pharma Global, Singapore, has received approval for Potassium Chloride Extended Release Tablets USP, 8 mEq (600 mg) and 10 mEq (750 mg) from the United States Food & Drug Administration (US FDA). This is the second Extended Release product approval for Strides and the company has a strong pipeline of products leveraging its capability in the Extended Release delivery technology.
Potassium Chloride Extended-Release tablets is a generic version of Klor-Con Extended Release Tablets of Upsher-Smith and Strides is the first Indian generic company to receive this approval.
According to IQVIA MAT data, the US market for Potassium Chloride Extended Release Tablets is approximately US$ 60 Mn. The product will be manufactured at the company's facility at Bangalore and marketed by Strides Pharma Inc. in the US Market.
The company has 78 cumulative ANDA filings with USFDA of which 52 ANDAs have been approved as of date and 26 are pending approval.
Powered by Capital Market - Live News
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Insurgents ambushed a column of Assam Rifles in Manipur's Chandel district on Wednesday but there were no casualties, police said.
The attack took place in Ajijang village near Sajik Tampak. The police said that no insurgent group had claimed responsibility for the ambush.
It was not clear if the insurgents suffered any casualty.
--IANS
il/mr
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came under heavy fire across Maharashtra on Wednesday after its Mumbai MLA Ram Kadam publicly threatened to "abduct" women and bring them to their spurned suitors for marriage.
Cutting across party lines, political leaders, women's groups and social activists slammed the BJP demanding an unconditional apology, Kadam's resignation from the Assembly and his arrest.
Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray, a BJP ally, led the charge.
"Not only should strict action be taken against him, he should not be given a ticket by any party to contest future elections. He is a person of a low character and mentality," Thackeray told the media.
The BJP legislator's remarks, made after a Gokulashtami function on Monday, sparked an uproar in Maharashtra, drawing all-round condemnation.
Representing the BJP in Ghatkopar, north-east Mumbai, Kadam declared that he would abduct girls and bring them to their rejected suitors and provided his phone number as a 'helpline'.
"If you have proposed to a girl and she has rejected you, I will help you 100 percent. Come to me with your parents and say that they approve her. Then, I will catch her and bring her to you," Kadam boasted before the gathering.
After the video of the event went viral on Tuesday evening, a cornered Kadam claimed he was quoted out of context and blamed the media for blowing it out of proportion. He also said that he was joking.
"I had no intentions to hurt anybody's sentiments. But if I have done so, I regret it. Certain opponents are behind this misunderstanding," Kadam said in a Tuesday night tweet.
The issue continued to snowball with a group of women activists 'gheraoing' Education Minister Vinod Tawde and the NCP staging a noisy protest at Ghatkopar police station demanding Kadam's arrest.
The Congress, NCP, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), Samajwadi Party and others organised protests.
A Pune girl, Minakshi G. Patil, hurled an open challenge on social media to Kadam, daring him to "touch" her if he had the guts.
"I am throwing the gauntlet, accept it. Let's settle this in person. I will come to Mumbai... Lay a finger on me and leave the rest to me. This is shameful and cheap, such statements have no place in Chhatrapati Shivaji's Maharashtra," she said.
Various forms of protests were witnessed in Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Nashik, Pune, Solapur, Osmanabad and other places.
State Congress President Ashok Chavan asked: "Has the BJP made him a legislator to kidnap women?"
NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said "the BJP's 'Ravana' face has emerged. He is talking about kidnapping women. So henceforth he should be called 'Ravana Kadam'."
Samajwadi President Abu Asim Azmi said the BJP MLA's speech was a clear indicator that the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign was a sham.
Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil warned that the opposition would paralyse the next Legislative Assembly session.
Aam Aadmi Party's Preeti Sharma-Menon asked BJP's male members if it was okay if their daughters were abducted by Kadam. Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam asked all women in the country not to vote for the BJP.
Though the BJP has not officially commented, the state leadership sought a copy of the full video of the Monday function and an explanation from the MLA.
--IANS
qn/mr
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Continuing its probe into the multi-crore gutkha scam, the CBI on Wednesday raided the residences of Tamil Nadu Health Minister C. Vijayabasker and Director General of Police (DGP) T.K. Rajendran and several others here and in some other cities including Mumbai and Bengaluru.
"Separate CBI teams conducted simultaneous raids at 35 locations in Chennai, Tiruvallur and Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu and Mumbai, Bengaluru, Punducherry and Guntur in Andhra Pradesh since early morning," Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) spokesperson Abhishek Dayal told IANS in New Delhi.
This is the first time the residence of a serving DGP in Tamil Nadu has been raided by the CBI.
According to agency sources, raids were also conducted at the residences of former Minister B.V. Ramanaa and retired Chennai Police Commissioner S.George, ACP M.Mannan and Inspector Sampath Kumar.
They said the searches were also carried out at the residences and premises of the senior officials of the Central Excise department, state sales tax department and officials of the Food Safety and Drug Administration officials.
The premises of promoters of Jayam industries A.V. Madhav Rao, Umashankar Gupta and Sreenivas Rao were also searched.
Agency sources claimed that several incriminating documents were recovered during the raids.
The CBI action prompted M.K. Stalin, leader of the main opposition DMK, to appleal to Governor Banwarilal Purohit for sacking Vijayabaskar and Rajendran if they do not resign on their own.
PMK founder S. Ramadoss also demanded the removal of Vijayabaskar and all other raided officials from their posts.
The CBI in May-end had registered a case in the scam against unknown officials of Central Excise, Tamil Nadu government, Food Safety Department, public servants and private persons on charges of criminal conspiracy and for corruption following a direction of the Madras High Court on April 26.
The agency has been investigating all aspects of the offence of illegal manufacture, import, supply, distribution and sale of gutkha and other forms of chewable tobacco which are banned in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
In April 2018, the Madras High Court ordered the CBI to probe the multi-crore scam, alleging the involvement of Vijayabaskar, Rajendran and several other top police and other central and state government officials.
The court ordered the CBI probe on a petition filed by DMK legislator J. Anbazhagan.
"The probe seems to be proceeding on the right track under the CBI. Whether a case will be filed against the scamsters or not will have to be seen," Anbazhagan told IANS. "If no case is filed, then we may have to approach the Madras High Court again."
Several political parties had demanded a CBI probe into the issue but the AIADMK government did not agree.
In June 2018, the Enforcement Directorate registered a money laundering case against unnamed government officials in Tamil Nadu based on a first information report (FIR) registered by the CBI in May.
The case is related to an Income Tax Department raid in the offices, residences and godowns of a gutkha manufacturer Madhava Rao in Tamil Nadu in 2016 for evading about Rs 250 crore tax.
A diary was seized from Rao's residence which listed alleged bribes paid to various officials amounting to about Rs 39.31 crore.
Stalin alleged that the AIADMK government had tried various measures to stall investigation into the scam.
The IT department had sent a report to the Tamil Nadu government about the alleged payoffs to various persons.
The state government claimed it did not receive any report from the IT department. But a copy of the letter sent to the state government by the IT department was seized from the room occupied by V.K. Sasikala in the late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa's residence in November 2017.
The Tamil Nadu government has banned the manufacture and storage of gutkha. However, the product was reportedly available in the market with the alleged connivance of police officers and others.
Despite objections from the opposition parties, Rajendran was given a two-year extension in 2018 by the AIADMK government.
--IANS
aks/vj/vsc/sed
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
CBI officials from New Delhi on Wednesday searched the residences of several persons including Health and Family Welfare Minister C. Vijayabasker and Director General of Police (DGP) T.K. Rajendran in connection with a multi-crore gutkha scam.
"Separate CBI teams conducted simultaneous raids at 40 locations in Tamil Nadu early in the morning," Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) spokesperson Abhishek Dayal told IANS in New Delhi.
This is the first time a serving DGP's residence in Tamil Nadu has been raided by the CBI.
Included in the search list are former Tamil Nadu Minister B.V. Ramanaa and retired Chennai Police Commissioner S. George.
The CBI action prompted calls from M.K. Stalin, leader of the main opposition DMK, to Governor Banwarilal Purohit to sack Vijayabaskar and Rajendran if they do not resign on their own.
PMK founder S. Ramadoss also demanded the removal of Vijayabaskar and all other raided officials from their posts.
Ramadoss said Vijayabaskar's residence and the other places were also raided by the Income Tax department.
The CBI in May-end had registered a case in the scam against unknown officials of Central Excise, Tamil Nadu government, Food Safety Department, public servants and private persons on charges of criminal conspiracy and for corruption following a direction of the Madras High Court on April 26.
The agency has been investigating all aspects of the offence of illegal manufacture, import, supply, distribution and sale of gutkha and other forms of chewable tobacco which are banned in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
In April 2018, the Madras High Court ordered the CBI to probe the multi-crore scam, alleging Vijayabaskar, Rajendran and several other top police and other central and state government officials were said to be alleged.
The court ordered the CBI probe on a petition filed by DMK legislator J. Anbazhagan.
"The probe seems to be proceeding on the right track under the CBI. Whether a case will be filed against the scamsters or not will have to be seen," Anbazhagan told IANS. "If no case is filed, then we may have to approach the Madras High Court again."
Several political parties had demanded a CBI probe into the issue but the AIADMK government did not agree.
In June 2018, the Enforcement Directorate registered a money laundering case against unnamed government officials in Tamil Nadu based on a first information report (FIR) registered by the CBI in May.
The case is related to an Income Tax Department raid in the offices, residences and godowns of a gutkha manufacturer Madhava Rao in Tamil Nadu in 2016 for evading about Rs 250 crore tax.
A diary was seized from Rao's residence which listed alleged bribes paid to various officials amounting to about Rs 39.31 crore.
Stalin alleged that the AIADMK government had tried various measures to stall investigation into the scam.
The IT department had sent a report to the Tamil Nadu government about the alleged payoffs to various persons.
The state government claimed it did not receive any report from the IT department. But a copy of the letter sent to the state government by the IT department was seized from the room occupied by V.K. Sasikala in the late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa's residence in November 2017.
The Tamil Nadu government has banned the manufacture and storage of gutkha. However, the product was reportedly available in the market with the alleged connivance of police officers and others.
Despite objections from the opposition parties, Rajendran was given a two-year extension in 2018 by the AIADMK government.
--IANS
vj/mr
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Chinese private company launched a suborbital rocket carrying three miniature satellites, for two Chinese commercial companies, into space on Wednesday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre
The SQX-1Z developed by iSpace, a Beijing-based private rocket developer, founded in 2016 with a research centre in Shaanxi Province launched the rocket at 1 p.m.
The rocket carried three CubeSats for two Chinese commercial companies, Xinhua news agency reported.
After entering its preset orbit, the rocket will release two satellites for testing, and the other satellite will be parachuted to Earth, according to a statement by the company.
The SQX-1Z rocket will provide minisatellite and constellation launch services for clients, said Yao Bowen, spokesperson for the company.
A suborbital rocket usually has a flight path of less than one complete orbit of the Earth. It can reach an altitude of more than 100 km above sea level and then falls back to Earth.
Suborbital rockets or satellites are primarily used for scientific experiments.
The 9.5-meter-long rocket can reach a maximum altitude of 175 km and has a top speed of 1,600 metres per second. It can travel for 450 seconds.
This was the company's second launch this year. In April, it launched a suborbital rocket, the Hyperbola-1S, from a launch center in the southern province of Hainan. The company also plans to launch a carrier rocket in 2019.
China's aerospace exploration was dominated by state-owned companies and institutes until 2014 when private companies were allowed to develop and launch rockets.
China has more than 60 private companies in the commercial space industry.
--IANS
in/sed
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Facing accusation of playing the "Brahmin card", the Congress on Wednesday defended party leader Randeep Singh Surjewala addressing a Brahmin seminar wherein he claimed his party has "Brahmin Samaj's DNA in its blood".
Addressing the state-level Brahmin seminar on September 2 in Haryana's Kurukshetra, Surjewala had said: "Indian National Congress is a party in whose blood there is Brahmin Samaj's DNA."
In his speech, he likened Congress president Rahul Gandhi's "fight" with the BJP to the one between "gods and demons."
With the BJP now accusing the Congress palying the "Brahmin card", Senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi came out in support of his party colleague.
"The Congress has done this many times earlier. A person belonging to a party in our department does it, and you just attack for the sake of attacking, have we not had an 'OBC Sammelan', have you not had a 'SC/ST Sammelan', have you not a 'Brahmin Sammelan' earlier?" Singhvi told the media here.
Singhvi said the BJP's attack on Gandhi's Kailash Mansarovar Yatra was out of desperation and fear.
Ridiculing Congress, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said the party has the DNA of a "chameleon which changes colour that suits its political ambitions."
--IANS
and/prs
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Delhi woman has alleged that a Kashmiri man, purportedly a Jammu and Kashmir Police Constable, raped her and robbed her of Rs 14 lakh after a false promise of marrying her, police said on Wednesday.
According to the complaint details filed with the Vasant Kunj police station, the two first met through a dating site, BigoLive, in January 2017 and quickly fell in love with each other after Adil Hasssan told her that he was a businessman from Kashmir and traded in shawls and crafts from the valley.
They then exchanged numbers and began chatting over WhatsApp messenger. The accused expressed his desire to marry her after seeing her pictures and promised to meet her in Delhi once he talked to his family members.
He came down to Delhi in April 2017 and stayed at a hotel in Mahipalpur. The two met for the first time and got physically intimate.
They kept meeting in Delhi on his every visit to Delhi till February 2018. She alleged that he told her that his family was not willing to allow him to marry a Hindu woman.
But he promised her that he would still marry her even if he had to leave his parents but wanted to set up his business first.
He sought financial help from her to start up and took her credit card details and asked her to transfer her savings to his bank account. He also took some of her gold ornaments.
The total amount, including that of ornaments, was Rs 14 lakh, according to the FIR details.
However, the woman, who lives in Chhattarpur area of south Delhi, got suspicious during one of their meetings in Delhi when she saw him talking to other women on his phone.
She noted down the phone numbers and spoke to the women, unravelling his other secrets. She found that he had been cheating quite a few women in Mumbai, Dehradun, Bengaluru and Delhi.
When she questioned him about it, Hassan refused straight answers and asked her not to call him again. He also tried blackmailing her, saying he had her personal pictures with him that he would leak on social media.
The woman found that Hassan was actually a Kashmiri policeman. She learnt about this from another woman he had promised to marry.
Along with the chat details, the complainant has also submitted Hassan's police I-Card signed by the Anantnag district police chief in south Kashmir. His designation is shown as Constable, bearing belt number EXK-098156.
"We are verifying with Jammu and Kashmir police about Hassan details," a police officer told IANS.
--IANS
sp/sar/tsb/bg
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Thousands of farmers, labourers and government employees from across the country on Wednesday marched from the Ramlila Maidan to Parliament to protest against the "anti-people policies" of the Modi government and decided to hold a 'Long March' to the national capital in November.
The 'Long March' will be held from a place some 100 km from Delhi to Parliament, on the lines of the 'Nashik-Mumbai Long March' that was held earlier in 2018.
The Left-affiliated organisations -- the All India Agricultural Workers' Union (AIAWU), the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), and the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) -- which organised the six-hour-long rally, said the government had worked against the interests of farmers, labourers and its employees in order to benefit the corporate and private companies.
The protesters have put 15 demands before the government. They have asked for Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops as per Swaminathan Commission, curbing price rise, universalising the Public Distribution System, employment creation, minimum wage of not less than Rs 18,000 per month and a ban on labour law amendments.
Debt waiver, redistributive land reforms, ban on forcible land acquisition, reversing neo-liberal policies, and a ban on 'contract' employment are among other demands.
"The Modi government's policies have been anti-farmer, anti-poor, anti-people. In fact, they are beneficial to big companies and corporate. In order to apprise our countrymen of the situation, we are going to hold the 'Long March' from November 27 to 30," AIKS General Secretary Hannan Mollah said while addressing the protesters at Parliament Street, where the rally culminated.
The Long March in Maharashtra had created ripples in the corridors of power forcing the state government to give in writing its assurance to fulfil farmers' demands.
Farmers and labourers across the country turned up for the Wednesday's protest rally as they said their problems were not solved despite big announcements and promises by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
These farmers raised high-pitched slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and its policies throughout the protest.
Tapan Sarma from Assam said low wages for tea labourers in the state was the major issue besides high food prices.
"Earlier, there was Congress. Now, we have BJP government. But the situation has not changed a bit. Tea labourers are paid just Rs 137 per day when daily wages should be Rs 351," Sarma said.
Among the protesters were farmers from Nashik, who had embarked on the Long March to Mumbai.
They said their issues were not resolved yet despite written assurance from Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Parijata Gangurde, a landless farmer from Nashik, said: "Maharashtra government has not registered my land in my name though it had assured. So I have come to Delhi so that my voice reaches the central government."
The rally saw participation of other unions representing BSNL, Postal Department, teachers, Anganwadi and ASHA workers among others.
CITU General Secretary Tapan Sen said the government had hurt the interest of government employees by taking up privatisation of Public Sector Units (PSUs).
"There are no 'Acche Din' (good days) for people. They are for the corporate. So we will have to continue our fight till we get justice," Sen told the gathering.
AIKS President Ashok Dhawale criticised the government for providing loans and waiving the debts of corporate.
"The government does not have money to provide relief to debt-ridden farmers. But it has waived loans of corporate," he said.
--IANS
spk/mag/sed
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The CID Crime Branch of Gujarat Police on Wednesday arrested dismissed IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a 1996 case relating to falsely framing a lawyer in a narcotics peddling case.
The CID picked up Bhatt and seven others, including two former police officers, following directives from the Gujarat High Court.
"Sanjiv Bhatt was initially detained for questioning and shortly after that he was arrested by CID while others are still under detention," Director General of Police (CID) Ashish Bhatia said.
Going by the details of the case, lawyer Sumersingh Rajpurhoit was arrested by Bhatt in 1996 with a kg of drugs and booked in a case under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Bhatt was then serving as the District Superintendent of Police in Banaskantha district.
Police claimed that the drugs were found from the room of a hotel that was occupied by Rajpurohit. However, an investigation by Rajasthan Police later revealed that the lawyer was falsely implicated in the case.
This, Rajasthan Police claimed, was done to compel the lawyer to let go a disputed property at Pali district in Rajasthan.
The Rajasthan Police also claimed that Rajpurohit was abducted by Banaskantha Police from his residence at Pali.
Following this investigation, former Banaskantha Police Inspector I.B. Vyas moved the Gujarat High Court in 1999 demanding a detailed probe in to the incident.
The court in June handed over the probe to the CID and asked it to complete the investigation within three months.
Bhatt, who has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media platforms, has had several spats with the ruling establishment in the state since the 2002 communal riots.
In 2011, Bhatt even filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court, accusing Modi of being complicit in the 2002 riots.
Bhatt was dismissed from the Indian Police Service in 2015 for "unauthorized absence" from service. Bhatt even met fasting Patel quota stir leader Hardik Patel last week and extend his support for Hardik's cause.
"I have been fighting for justice for over two decades now and those responsible for my suffering have been arrested today," lawyer Rajpurohit told reporters.
--IANS
desai/mr
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Gujarat Police on Wednesday detained for questioning former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt here in a case relating to falsely framing a lawyer in a criminal case in 1998.
The Gujarat CID, which took Bhatt into custody following directives from the Gujarat High Court, also detained six other people, including two former police officers.
Sources said they were all being questioned and might subsequently be arrested.
When Bhatt was serving as the Superintendent of Police in Banaskantha, in North Gujarat, he was accused of trying to frame a lawyer in a fake case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Bhatt was dismissed from the Indian Police Services (IPS) in 2015 for taking on the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi's administration for the 2002 Gujarat riots.
In 2011, Bhatt had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court accusing Modi of being complicit in the 2002 riots.
--IANS
desai/mag/in/vm
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland will visit Delhi's Mohalla Clinics on Friday, the Delhi government said on Wednesday.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's media advisor Nagendar Sharma said the delegation which will visit the Delhi government clinics will comprise members from The Elders, an independent group of global leaders working together for peace and human rights.
Kejriwal and Health Minister Satyendar Jain will accompany the delegates.
"The delegates have been in touch with Jain for a long time. Previously, they have also written to Kejriwal appreciating the infrastructure and services provided by Mohalla Clinics in the city," Sharma told IANS.
The Mohalla Clinics are a flagship project of Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) where medicines, diagnostic tests and consultation are provided free of cost.
The Delhi government says 187 Mohalla Clinics are now operational in the national capital and sites have been identified to set up another 426. The AAP says it wants to open a total of 1,000 Mohalla Clinics soon.
--IANS
sd/mr
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A political furore erupted in Maharashtra on Wednesday after a ruling Bharatiya Janata Party legislator threatened to "abduct" girls and bring them to their spurned suitors.
The threat came on a public platform from BJP MLA Ram Kadam during a post-Gokulashtami celebration event in his Ghatkopar constituency when he addressed a large number of youth.
"You need anything, just come to me.. If you have proposed to a girl and she has rejected you, I will help you.. 100 per cent. Come to me with your parents and say that they approve of her. Then, I will catch her and bring her to you," Kadam told the gathering, and publicly gave his phone number.
A video of the incident which went viral on Tuesday evening, sparked off a major row, but Kadam claimed he had been quoted out of context and the full video-clip was not shown.
"I had no intentions to hurt anybody's sentiments, but if I have done so, I regret it. Certain opponents are behind this misunderstanding," Kadam said in a late-night tweet on Tuesday.
Maharashtra State Women's Commission Chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar took strong umbrage at the lawmaker's statement and said he must exercise caution before making such irresponsible comments on women.
"Kadam has claimed that his statement was manipulated. Even if that is true, such utterances on womenfolk are unbecoming. He and all other public representatives must be extremely vigilant before speaking out such things," Rahatkar said sternly.
In a sharp reaction, State Congress President Ashok Chavan said on one hand the BJP speaks of 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' and on the other its legislators speak of abducting women.
"Has the BJP made him a legislator to kidnap women...?" Chavan asked.
Nationalist Congress Party spokesperson Nawab Malik said with this, "the BJP's 'Ravana' face has emerged.
"He is talking about kidnapping women, so henceforth he should be called 'Ravana Kadam'."
Ruling ally Shiv Sena's senior leader and spokesperson Neelam Gorhe said though Kadam is named after Ram he harbours evil thoughts like the Demon King Ravana and talks about abducting women.
State Samajwadi Party President Abu Asim Azmi hit out at the legislator by saying that "the BJP supports Kathua, Unnao rape accused," and now its MLA's speech was a clear indicator that its 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign is an eyewash.
"This is only a jumla. Now, the time has come for 'BJP Bhagao, Beti Bachao'," Azmi said on Wednesday.
The NCP Women's Wing chief Chitra Wagh said this was unbecoming of a legislator and demanded an unconditional apology from Kadam, besides action against him by the BJP.
Education Minister Vinod Tawde said that he would convey sentiments to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, while a BJP leader said that the party was satisfied by Kadam's explanation in the matter.
--IANS
qn/anp/sar
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday here deliberated on the need for tightening the law to prevent incidents of lynching and taking action against social media platforms which have been blamed for the recent spurt in such incidents.
In the hour-long meeting, the GoM discussed the report of the Committee of Secretaries submitted last week and the possible changes in the Code of Criminal Procedure to punish those involved in mob lynching incidents.
A recommendation for action against the India heads of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, which are used to spread fake news and other "sinister" campaigns on social media, also came up for discussion.
The GoM's view is that all possible steps should be initiated to ensure that social media platforms do not become a means for spreading rumours and messages that lead to social disharmony, said sources.
The meeting was attended among others by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba.
The Committee of Secretaries, whose report has not been made public, was formed by the government after a Supreme Court verdict a couple of months ago to examine ways to initiate a crackdown on the rising incidents of lynchings and mob violence across the country. The apex court had said it is the "responsibility of the government to protect the citizens".
The GoM, which also includes Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot, will submit its final recommendation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Centre's step to deal with rising incidents of mob lynching followed an apex court suggestion to examine and enact a separate law to crack down on such offences so that it can instil a sense of fear in the perpetrators. The government may also be worried about the political repercussions of these incidents in the run up to the general elections next year.
The committee of secretaries, which held consultations with a cross-section of stakeholders before submitting its report to GoM, feels that social media companies and ubiquitous instant messengers such as WhatsApp need to take responsibility for not tracing, and thereafter blocking, malicious content that has the potential to lead to rumour mongering and incidents of lynching and rioting.
Last month, in separate discussions with the Home Ministry, the Law Ministry had examined the matter and felt that treating the offence under a separate section in the IPC, which would define mob lynching, could be an immediate step to begin with.
The Law Minister has already made it clear that there could be charges of "abetment" against WhatsApp if the company continues to say no to tracing the people who are behind the viral and fake messaging.
Over 35 deaths due to lynching have been reported from nine states in the last one year. The most recent case was reported from Alwar district of Rajasthan, where a man named Akbar Khan was beaten up, leading to his death, allegedly by a group of villagers over suspicion that he was a cow smuggler.
In July, the Home Ministry issued advisories to states and Union territories following the Supreme Court's directive to check incidents of lynching. The Centre asked the states to appoint an officer in each district at the level of Superintendent of Police, set up a special task force to gather intelligence, and closely monitor social media contents to prevent mob attacks on suspicion of being child-lifters or cattle smugglers.
--IANS
rak/vsc/sed
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
DMK President M.K. Stalin on Wednesday asked the Tamil Nadu Governor to sack Health and Family Welfare Minister C. Vijayabaskar and Director General of Police T.K. Rajendran if they don't quit on their own after raids by the CBI.
Stalin said in a statement that the continuation of Vijayabaskar and Rajendran would be a blot on democracy and the police administration.
"If they do not resign, then the Governor (Banwarilal Purohit) should dismiss them without any delay," he said after the Central Bureau of Investigation raided offices and homes in Tamil Nadu in connection with a gutkha scam.
Stalin said the CBI raids had brought shame to Tamil Nadu.
He alleged that the AIADMK government had tried various measures to stall investigation into the scam.
On Wednesday morning, CBI officials from New Delhi searched several places in Tamil Nadu including the houses of the Health Minister and Rajendran.
The case is related to an Income Tax Department raid on the offices, residences and godowns of a gutkha manufacturer in Tamil Nadu in 2016.
A diary seized then listed alleged bribes paid to officials amounting to Rs 39.31 crore.
The Tamil Nadu government has banned the manufacture and storage of gutkha -- a tobacco product -- since 2013. However, the product was reportedly available in the market with the alleged connivance of police officers and others.
DMK legislator J. Anbazhagan, on whose petition the Madras High Court ordered a CBI probe, also sought the resignation of Rajendran and Vijayabaskar.
"The probe seems to be proceeding on the right track under the CBI. Whether a case will be filed against the scamsters or not will have to be seen," Anbazhagan told IANS. "If no case is filed, then we may have to approach the Madras High Court again."
Several political parties had demanded a CBI probe into the issue but the AIADMK government did not agree.
In June, the Enforcement Directorate registered a money laundering case against unnamed government officials in Tamil Nadu based on a first information report (FIR) registered by the CBI in May.
Despite opposition from opposition parties, Rajendran was given a two-year extension in 2018.
--IANS
vj/mr
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Government teachers in Rajasthan have resented a government 'diktat' to mark their compulsory attendance for a government-sponsored Teachers Day event in Jaipur.
The BJP-led Vasundhara Raje government organised a grand Teachers Day on Wednesday at Amroodon Ka Baagh in the state capital.
The Department made it compulsory for all teachers, who got their jobs after December 13, 2013 -- the day Raje took over as Chief Minister -- to attend the programme. Around 50,000 teachers attended the event.
Speaking to IANS, a Jodhpur-based teacher, who declined to disclose his name, said, "We had to travel all the way from Jodhpur, about 330 km from the state capital."
"In Digital India, is there any need to call thousands of teachers to the state capital when video conferencing facility is available in all cities and towns? Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been interacting with people via Mann Ki Baat. The Chief Minister could also have arranged video conferencing and saved money," he said.
A teacher who came from Hanumangarh, a 7-hour train jouney, told IANS that teachers were being made victims in the politically-charged environment in the state.
"We have been asked to stay in government schools. We are aware what kind of arrangements are available in these schools," he said.
"We were promised travel allowance, but we have been spending from our pockets," he complained.
Yet another teacher from Jodhpur said that it would have been better had this programme seen voluntary participation from teachers. "This is a diktat for us. We had to leave all our work...we worked for this event for a week and were mainly focused on preparations for this event," he said.
Long queues of vehicles were seen in the city throughout the day. "There was no need to create such a mess on roads," he said.
When asked why they can not disclose their names, the teachers had a common opinion. "We are already under pressure to attend this event. If we disclose our identity, we might lose our jobs."
The Rajasthan Department made it compulsory for all government teachers appointed after December 13, 2013, to attend the state-level Teachers' Day celebration in Jaipur.
Raje took oath on December 13, 2013, and the day marks the start of the term of the government.
The Opposition Congress has criticised the move, questioning the government as to how the Raje government could differentiate between teachers.
Former Chief Minister and Congress leader Ashok Gehlot said: "The government's behaviour towards teachers is condemnable. Teachers are not slaves of the government. This is not a respectable invite for them."
He said taxpayers' money too was being wasted on "meaningless programmes."
Surendra Saharan, patron, Rajasthan Senior Teacher's Association said, "Verbal instructions were given to all teachers to avoid wearing black- colour outfits. We submitted a memorandum to the Department, but to no avail," he said.
"The government decision to invite new appointees while ignoring their seniors is sheer politicisation of education," Saharan added.
(Archana Sharma can be contacted at arachana.g@gmail.com)
--IANS
arc/prs
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday raided several places in Tamil Nadu, including the residences of Health and Family Welfare Minister C. Vijayabaskar and Director General of Police (DGP) T.K. Rajendran in connection with a gutkha scam, said a CBI official.
In April, the Madras High Court ordered CBI to probe the multi-crore gutkha scam in which Minister Vijayabaskar, DGP Rajendran and several other top police and other state government officials were alleged to be involved.
The court ordered the CBI probe on a petition filed by DMK legislator J. Anbazhagan.
The case is related to an Income Tax Department raid in the offices, residences and godowns of a gutkha manufacturer in Tamil Nadu in 2016.
A diary was then seized which listed alleged bribe payments made to various officials amounting to about Rs 39.31 crore.
The Tamil Nadu government has banned the manufacture and storage of gutkha -- a tobacco product. However, the product was reportedly available in the market with the alleged connivance of police officers and others.
Several political parties had demanded the CBI probe into the scam but the AIADMK government did not agree.
In June, the Enforcement Directorate registered a money laundering case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against unnamed government officials in Tamil Nadu's gutkha scam based on the first information report (FIR) registered by the CBI in May.
Despite the opposition from the opposition parties Rajendran was given a two year extension in 2018.
--IANS
vj/in
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Army chief General Bipin Rawat said on Wednesday that if Pakistan stops cross border terrorism, India will have no hesitation in extending its hand of friendship to it.
Responding to a question on how Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra displayed sportsman spirit when he bowed his head and shook hands with Pakistan's bronze medallist Arshad Nadeem during the medal distribution ceremony at the recently-concluded Asian Games in Indonesia, Rawat reiterated India's position by asking Pakistan to stop sponsoring terror from across the border.
"Let Pakistan take the initiative first by stopping cross border terror. If they manage to stop terrorism from their side, we will act like Neeraj Chopra," Rawat told reporters on the sidelines of a felicitation ceremony for the Army athletes here.
The 20-year-old Chopra, who clinched the gold in the men's javelin throw event at the Asiad, won millions of hearts when he bowed his head and shook hands with Arshad, to which the bronze medallist Pakistani reciprocated promptly in kind.
On being asked about the current situation in the Kashmir valley, since the implementation of President's rule in the troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir, Rawat was optimistic that the situation will improve.
"I can say this with conviction that their families have realised that terrorism isn't the best way forward. The mothers want their sons to return to the right track and if the trend continues, I am sure we can find a way for peace to return in the valley," he said.
--IANS
tri/ajb/bg
(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 Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Inspector General of Police of Meerut zone in Uttar Pradesh to directly supervise the probe into the lynching of a Muslim man by a mob in Hapur.
The officer will also act in accordance with the apex court's earlier order pertaining to mob lynching, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said.
The court was hearing a plea for a court-monitored Special Investigation Team probe into the lynching of Qasim, a cattle trader, in Bajhera village in Hapur district on June 18.
"... investigation will be carried under the direct supervision of the Inspector General of Police of Meerut zone," said the bench while posting the matter for hearing after two weeks.
The Uttar Pradesh Police earlier told the bench that 10 of the 11 accused were arrested and that a new Station House Officer was probing the case under the supervision of the Superintendent of Police, who is the nodal officer.
As the counsel for petitioner Samayuddin, who was also beaten up by the mob of cow vigilantes, insisted on the case's transfer out of the state, the bench asked police how long it will take to complete the investigation.
The police said it will be completed in 60 days.
The petitioner had pleaded for the cancellation of bail to the accused, contending that the police had ignored the top court's direction to curb lynching.
On July 17, the Supreme Court had issued 22 guidelines to the central and state governments to put an end to the "horrendous acts" of vigilantism, lynching and mobocracy and directed them to work in tandem to take "preventive, remedial and punitive measures".
The top court had said that it was the duty of the State to "ensure that the machinery of law and order functions efficiently and effectively in maintaining peace so as to preserve our quintessentially secular ethos and pluralistic social fabric in a democratic set-up governed by the rule of law".
Of the 22 guidelines, 12 dealt with preventive steps, nine with remedial measures and one punitive action against police officers found wanting at any stage -- prevention, investigation and expeditious trial.
The departmental action "shall be taken to its logical conclusion preferably within six months", the court had said.
The court had also suggested that Parliament enact a law categorising lynching and other forms of vigilantism as a distinct offence and providing for adequate punishment.
--IANS
gt/tsb/mr
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Superstar Salman Khan has been hosting "Bigg Boss" since its fourth season and says he often gets calls from people who are interested in participating in the controversial reality show, but he doesn't take a call on casting the contestants.
The show has had actors like Tanishaa Mukerji, Armaan Kohli and Shamita Shetty.
"I get a lot of calls but I tell them that I am not part of the casting bit," Salman told reporters at the Villa Marina in Goa on Tuesday.
The upcoming season of "Bigg Boss" will have "striking jodis" as participants who will battle it out to survive 100 days under the constant glare of multiple cameras.
"There will be interesting jodis and the more interesting people are the people in the creative team who will make sure that the jodis break up. So no matter how much they (contestants) plan or whisper, they have a microphone all the time. Everything can be heard. The cameras are there 24/7 and there are three batches of people who watch everyone," said Salman.
When IANS asked if he will have a co-host, he said: "No."
Though he shared what his friend and frequent co-star Katrina Kaif thought about hosting the show with him.
"She asked 'There are jodis this time?' I said 'Yes.' She said 'I should do it. You do your impromptu thing, I will follow the script'. I asked about the prize. She said 'We will keep it equal'," said Salman, who will be again seen with his "Tiger Zinda Hai" co-star in another film titled "Bharat" for which he will sport a grey beard.
"Bigg Boss 12", now in its 12th season, will premiere on Colors channel on September 16.
Asked about his favourite contestants over the years, he said: "There are so many of them. People who have gone over the top, they don't have any work. The ones who conquered their weaknesses and developed their strengths, are doing well."
He praised the winner of "Bigg Boss 8" - Gautam Gulati - though.
"Gautam Gulati lost the plot in the first two weeks and after that, he turned everything around to win 'Bigg Boss' which is a commendable thing," said Salman.
(The writer's trip was on an invitation by the channel. Natalia Ningthoujam can be contacted at Natalia.n@ians.in)
--IANS
nn/rb/sed
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Actress Taissa Farmiga has been struggling with anxiety for quite some time, and says she initially used to get angry at herself for getting nervous for no reason.
"There is such a stigma surrounding mental health and how a lot of people feel like it is not a real issue. It is not a real difficulty that people have to deal with on a daily basis," Taissa told IANS in an India exclusive interview while opening about her own struggle with anxiety.
"I will be honest... I have been dealing with anxiety for a bit now . And when I first started having it, I would get a little angry at myself because it felt like I was dealing with nervousness and paralysing anxiety for no reason. And that is what I used to get angry about -- the no reason part," she added.
But that is not true, asserted Taissa.
"We don't know what is going on in our brain, about the cheimicals and imbalances and know how our body is affected," said the actress over the phone.
Earlier this year, in May, Taissa had stressed on the need to discuss mental health in a lengthy Instagram post.
"There is nothing wrong with not feeling 'right' or not feeling like yourself. And you shouldn't have to hide it. Anxiety can be a paralysing monster, and it is something I have been dealing with myself.
"Some days it is nonexistent and other days it is all-consuming. I have found reprieve by learning to be open and talk through the more difficult times," she had said in the post.
The actress, who is looking forward to the release of Warner Bros Pictures' "The Nun" in India, feels it is important to speak up.
"You don't even have to make it a thing, but just talk about it. Don't try to hide anything. Everyone gets sick. Everyone gets a cold now and then. And mental health is the same thing. Sometimes you need a little help," added the sister of multi-talented Vera Farmiga.
Taissa didn't want to be an actor, but envisioned a career in accounting. She did her first film "Higher Ground" in 2011 on Vera's insistence. There was no looking back.
She went on to do "American Horror Story", "At Middleton", "The Bling Ring", "Anna" and "Rules Don't Apply".
Now, Taissa will be seen fighting off a demonic nun in "The Nun" , a spinoff of "The Conjuring 2", which is set to open in India on Friday.
Directed by Corin Hardy, "The Nun" tells the story of a priest (essayed by Demian Bichir) with a haunted past and Sister Irene (Taissa). They are sent by the Vatican to Romania to investigate the death of a young nun who has taken her own life at a cloistered abbey. The case involves Valak, the demonic nun.
Talking about her role, Taissa said: "Sister Irene is a young woman on the path to becoming a nun. I wanted to make sure that I did justice to it. As an actor, my job is to provide authenticity.
"So, I did a lot of research into what it takes to become a nun. One of the films, I watched is 'The Nun's Story' (1959) with Audrey Hepburn, which actually had an abundance of information."
She found a lot of interesting things about living a life as a nun.
"The interesting thing that I found is there so much that goes into the physicality of being a nun. You have to constantly think about how you are moving, how you are talking, and how you are acting."
The film events takes place in 1952 in Romania -- where the movie is shot. Taissa says Romania's landscapes made the film "grand and haunting".
"We got to film on location in Romania. It is a beautiful country with towering castles and gorgeous landscapes. It is a perfect setting for our movie because it inherently and authentically has that eerie look that we were trying to capture.
"So, you can see it on the screen -- how the movie looks so grand and haunting because we had the perfect backdrop," she said.
(Sugandha Rawal can be contacted at sugandha.r@ians.in )
-- IANS
sug/rb/vm
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
will emerge as the biggest market by 2030, with every second car being sold will be here in the country, CEO said on Wednesday.
Addressing an event here ahead of the two-day Global Mobility Summit beginning Friday, he said that India's vehicular transportation scenario was set to "undergo a sea change" by the next decade with e-mobility emerging as the preferred mode of transport.
Kant said that two-wheelers account for 76 per cent of all vehicles sold in at present, which consumed 64 per cent of fuel and accounted for 30 per cent of pollution as compared with 5 per cent of pollution by three-wheelers.
"In addition, 70 per cent of goods transportation is done on lorries which too are major contributors to vehicular pollution," he said.
The CEO said that the challenge for the country was to battery-charge all modes of road transport, and therefore, it was imperative to substitute fossil fuels with cleaner alternative fuels for both inter- and intra-city movement of vehicles.
ALSO READ: Worried about rising fuel prices? Soon, waste plastic may power your car
He said that businesses should seize opportunities set to emerge from e-mobility and sharing of vehicles space.
The army on Wednesday said it has killed an infiltrator on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district.
"One intruder on being challenged, opened fire and the army retaliated. The intruder was killed and the body was handed over to the Jammu and Kashmir Police," Defence Ministry sources said, adding that the incident occurred in the Kairi area of the LoC.
There was, however, no confirmation whether any weapon was recovered from the slain militant.
--IANS
sq/in/vm
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Israel closed a border crossing to the Gaza Strip except for humanitarian cases on Wednesday in response to violence a day earlier.
Israeli authorities said Palestinians have caused damage to Erez crossing while protesting the US' decision to cut aid to UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Efe news reported.
"Every day approximately 1,000 Gazans enter Israel through Erez Crossing to work, study, or pray. Yesterday (Tuesday), hundreds of Gazan rioters damaged this crossing, resulting in its closure for repairs," the Israeli Defence Forces said in a statement.
"Passage will be permitted for individually approved humanitarian cases," it added.
On Tuesday, Palestinian medical sources said at least three protesters were wounded by Israeli gunfire in Gaza.
The decision to cut UNRWA funding will affect services provided to nearly five million Palestinian refugees located in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem.
--IANS
mag/sed
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rome, Sep 5 (IANS/AKI) Italy's Defence Minister Elizabetta Trenta has blamed France for the deadly violence in Libya, claiming that when Paris pushed for military intervention in 2011 against then dictator Muammar Gaddafi it put French interests before those of the Libyan people.
"It cannot be denied that today Libya finds itself in this situation because someone, in 2011, put its own interests ahead of those of Libya and of Europe," Trenta wrote in a Facebook post.
"Parliament speaker Roberto Fico is right - in this sense, France is to be blamed, at least in part," he continued.
She was referring to comments made on Monday by Italy's lower house of Parliament speaker, who like Trenta, belongs to the populist Five-Star Movement which is currently governing Italy with the far-right League party.
"I am very worried about Libya, because it's a tinderbox and a very serious problem that France undoubtedly left us with," Fico stated.
Trenta ruled out the despatch of a military taskforce to Libya, which was an Italian colony from 1910 to 1947.
"It is Italy's job at this time to facilitate dialogue and to aid this, also by strengthening state security forces," Trenta wrote.
"We all need to work in the same direction, that is towards the cessation of hostilities (between rival armed groups) and therefore to launch at the earliest possible date a peace process in which Libyans play the leading role."
At least 50 people have been killed including at least 19 civilians while over 120 people have been wounded in clashes that began on August 24 between rebel militias and those supporting Libya's UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA).
The GNA declared a state of emergency on Sunday.
An international coalition, led by the US and Nato, intervened in Libya in 2011 on the basis of a UN mandate to protect civilians, leading to Gaddafi's ouster.
Italy allowed Nato forces use its airbases although then Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he opposed the operation.
--IANS/AKI
mr/
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hitting back at Congress President Rahul Gandhi over his allegations concerning the Rafale deal, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday rejected the charge that the Narendra Modi government had used its influence to benefit a private player.
Calling Gandhi "an ill-informed gentleman", he said it was unfortunate that the entire party was following him in ignorance.
Jaitley, who was responding to questions after a meeting of the Union Cabinet, said that the deal done by the Narendra Modi government with France was nine per cent cheaper than that negotiated by the UPA in terms of the basic cost of the fighter jet and 20 per cent cheaper for its weaponised version.
Apparently rebutting Gandhi's charge that the Prime Minister had benefited "a friend" in the deal to purchase fighter jets, Jaitley said the government has no role to play in the choice by the private manufacturer of an offsets partner.
"There is no scope of role of any private party in the entire transaction. All the 36 aircraft will reach India in flying condition and nothing will be added here. There is no scope for a private party but you keep alleging."
Attacking Gandhi, who has spearheaded the Congress attack on the Rafale deal, Jaitley said he was making baseless allegations.
"The Congress has proved that in dynastic politics, ignorance is contagious. If a person is ill-informed and does not have sufficient information, then the entire party lacks information. Let the problem remain within the Congress," he said.
"To satisfy the ego of an ill-informed gentleman, there are no options," he added.
He accused the Congress of doing little to boost indigenous production of advanced weaponary and said that the NDA government had helped the process by liberalising FDI norms in defence first to 26 per cent and then raising it to 49 per cent.
Jaitley said there can be more than 49 per cent FDI in special cases.
He said the Congress was willing to purchase fighter jets from foreign private players but was not willing to encourage Indian private players in defence manufacturing.
"This is backward thinking and we disagree with them on this," he said.
--IANS
bns-ps/vsc/qd/bg
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Actress Asia Argento, who has been accused of sexually assaulting musician Jimmy Bennett, has claimed that it was Bennett who sexually assaulted her when he was 17 years old.
Argento's lawyer Mark Jay Heller told TMZ that Bennett had "sexually attacked" her at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Marina del Rey, California in 2013 and he was lucky she decided not to prosecute him.
The allegations first surfaced last month when it was revealed that Argento had secretly paid off Bennet, after he accused her of sexually assaulting him when he was 17.
Argento's beau - the late Anthony Bourdain - arranged to pay Bennett a $380,000 in an out-of-court settlement in order to protect her, according to her attorney.
Heller said that the "Land of the Dead" star has refused to pay Bennett the balance of the settlement - $130,000 - because the arrangement was made by Bourdain before he took his own life in June.
The pair met in 2004 when Argento cast Bennett to play her son in "The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things".
--IANS
sim/rb/sed
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Rajasthan High Court on Wednesday directed the BJP to keep its ongoing Gaurav Yatra free from government programmes.
Justice G.R. Moolchandani issued the order while hearing a PIL that alleged misuse of government machinery for the yatra being taken out under the leadership of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.
The high court also said that various programmes which were being organised in the name of the state government during the yatra should be stopped.
The court observed that if during the yatra -- a political event -- the Chief Minister inaugurates a public function, the impression would be glorification of a political party. "Keeping in view the principles laid down in two decisions of the Supreme Court, we declare that no state function should be organised during the Gaurav Yatra," said the court.
On August 10, Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court Pradeep Nandrajog had issued notice to the Bharatiya Janata Party to submit the expense details of the yatra.
The party has submitted the report placing the expenses at Rs 1.8 crore.
On August 27, Justice Nandrajog had reserved his judgement after the final arguments concluded.
The PIL was filed by advocate Vibhuti Bhushan Sharma.
--IANS
arc/in/sed/prs
(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 Kerala government on Wednesday decided that despite the Congress-led opposition's opinion about KPMG, an international professional service company, selected as consultant partner for rebuilding the flood-ravaged state, it will stick with them, a minister said.
Industries Minister E.P. Jayarajan, deputising for Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who is presently in the US for treatment, told the media here that KPMG has already started its work in the state.
"They (KPMG) are known for their expertise. They are presently conducting a study to help us rebuild after the floods devastated the state.
"They are doing it for free, so what's the issue. When such an organisation is helping us for free, what we should now do is, wait for their report. Once they submit it, then we will take a call," said Jayarajan.
Earlier this week the Congress party expressed strong reservation about selecting KPMG as the consultant partner even as they faced cases in a few countries where they were involved in various programmes.
Vijayan said on August 31, the KPMG has agreed to provide free consultancy service and would be the consultant partner for rebuilding Kerala.
--IANS
sg/in/vm
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rescue operations are still going on Wednesday after a portion of a 40-year-old bridge collapsed in south Kolkata a day earlier.
A part of the Majherhat bridge between Taratala and Mominpur collapsed around 4.30 p.m. on Tuesday. So far, one person has died and 19 others injured in the accident.
"Our team is still working on the rescue. Overnight and this morning, we tried to dig holes on the concrete slab decks that caved in, to find out whether anyone is still trapped underneath.
"Cameras are also being used to find out what remains below the debris. Removing the rubble would take more time," a member of the rescue team said on Wednesday.
Four teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), fire brigade and personnel of disaster management teams are at the spot.
Cranes have been deployed and gas cutters were being used for the rescue operation. Three columns of army personnel were also present at the spot.
The West Bengal government has initiated a probe on the incident. "Investigations are going on. At this point, we cannot come to any conclusion regarding the possible reasons behind the accident," a member of the forensic team said.
Pedestrians and commuters in buses and cars who were on the collapsed structure were rescued.
The bridge was the main connector between central and southwest part of the city. Due to the partial collapse of the bridge, traffics has been diverted. Trams services on some routes have been withdrawn, a Kolkata Traffic Control official said.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was in Darjeeling at the time of the accident, has said: "Four-five labourers used to stay in a temporary tin shed under the bridge. If they were there during the collapse, it is possible that something unfortunate may have happened to them."
Goods vehicles have not been allowed to enter the city between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m.
State government will pay a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the family of Soumen Bagh, who died in the accident.
State Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim said on Tuesday that heavy construction work of the metro project beside the collapsed bridge could have weakened its pillars.
City metro railway authority, however, have ruled out any such possibility.
Amid blame game over the partial collapse of the bridge the Eastern Railway said it was not conducting any maintenance work at the accident site.
However, experts said the bridge was very old and any structural defect or use of inferior quality of material as the reason behind the collapse cannot be attributed.
The bridge has been withstanding heavy vehicles for more than 40 years. The only reason that may trigger the collapse could be "lack of maintenance".
According to a state official, the 40-year-old bridge was constructed by the Kolkata Port Trust and maintained by State Public Works Department.
--IANS
bdc/in
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday praised teachers, scholars and academics for their contributions to making India a knowledge power.
On Teachers' Day, the President said: "I would like to pay tribute to India's teachers, scholars and academics. They have drawn from India's age-old traditions of learning and wisdom and have contributed to India's reputation as a knowledge power."
Kovind's remarks came during a speech on the theme of " as an instrument to shared prosperity' at Sofia University here.
"They (teachers) are a source of pride for India. Across continents, Indian scholarship and academic excellence is recognised. It adds to the global economy and knowledge structures - and it earns India goodwill."
Kovind said the focus of India's system, knowledge production and broader social and economic efforts "is to secure a meaningful future for our younger generations, both in employment potential and in contributing to social well-being."
"Here Bulgaria and India, despite being so different, have common concerns and common aspirations," he said.
"About a quarter of Bulgaria's population is below the age of 25. In India, 65 per cent of our people are aged below 35. It is the dreams of these young people, people such as those who are here at this University, that drive our endeavours," he said.
The President said India would be happy to share its blueprints and its experiences with Bulgaria in terms of the Central European country's priorities.
"India has a massive network of 903 universities and 39,050 colleges," Kovind said, adding "close to 40 per cent of the universities and 80 per cent of the colleges are run by the private sector."
Earlier in the day, Kovind held talks with Bulgarian President Rumen Radev and participated in an India-Bulgaria Business Forum.
He arrived here on Tuesday from Cyprus on the second leg of his three-nation visit to Europe that will also take him to the Czech Republic.
This is the first presidential visit from India to Bulgaria in 15 years.
--IANS
ab/prs
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
London's 250-year-old perfume brand Creed will be launched in India.
Its maiden store is being launched in the country in partnership with Berkeley Beauty Brands Pvt Ltd, at The Chanakya Mall here.
"The brand's iconic status is in sync with the national capital that boasts of a cross-section of luxury connoisseurs. Owing to the globalisation and increase in the disposable income, India has become a profitable market for such luxury brands where the buyers want to experience international standards while shopping," Gaganmeet Singh, Managing Director, Berkeley Beauty Brands Pvt Ltd, said in a statement.
Founded in London in 1760, The House of Creed is the only family-owned luxury fragrance dynasty that has served royal houses as well as discerning patrons for over 250 years.
Passed from father to son spanning seven generations since its London founding by James Henry Creed, it relies on a 4,000-year old infusion technique to capture the highest concentration of natural essential oils, and does not use preservatives.
--IANS
dc/rb/sed
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress on Wednesday demanded that the Narendra Modi-led government clear its "doublespeak" on its defence deals and asked why it did not apply the same principle in the Rafale deal with France as it did with the AK-103 assault rifles deal with Russia.
It said the government had turned down the Russian proposal to make a private Indian entity its partner for the joint manufacture.
The party said the "trigger of Modi government's AK-47 deal with Russia has backfired for the Rafale 'scam' and made it more murkier".
"A fallacious argument of the Modi government on the Rafale scam has been nipped in the bud, by its own recent negotiations in another defence deal, which is the AK-rifle deal with Russia," said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
"That the Rafale deal was a government-to-government agreement and the Modi government had absolutely no role in facilitating the Rs 30,000 crore offset contract," he added.
Citing media reports, Singhvi said it has been revealed that Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has reportedly turned down a Russian request to make another private Indian entity (Adani Group) its partner for the joint manufacture of Rs 3,000 crore worth of AK-103 assault rifles for the Indian Army.
"Modi government has reportedly advised Russia that its firm Kalashnikov Concern should tie up with the state-run Ordnance Factory Board if it wants its proposal to manufacture the AK-103 assault rifles in India to be considered by the Defence Ministry," said Singhvi.
"Why did it not apply the same principle in the Rafale deal? Why did the government not advise Dassault Aviation to negotiate further with government-run HAL?" asked Singhvi.
He added: "It has also been revealed that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) reportedly shot down Kalashnikov Concern's proposal for a joint venture with the private Indian entity - which has recently entered the defence sector, to produce the 7.62x39 mm calibre AK-103 gun, which are a derivative of the iconic AK-47 rifle."
The party said the MoD last month said that if the Russians wanted to partner with a private Indian entity, they must come through the 'tender route'.
"Since the government has virtually given up 'Make in India' in defence, by only getting an investment of Rs 1 crore till now, it is imperative for them to clear the air on the same. The nation is waiting for a clear answer on this doublespeak," Singhvi said.
--IANS
sid/qd/bg
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NASA's Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager, or FOXSI -- a sounding rocket mission -- is soon set to stare directly at the Sun and search for nanoflares -- miniature explosions invisible to the naked eye -- using its X-ray vision, the US space agency said.
The FOXSI mission will take its third flight from the White Sands Missile Range in White Sands, New Mexico, no earlier than September 7, the agency said in a statement.
Derived from the nautical term "to sound", meaning to measure, FOXSI rockets make brief 15-minute journeys above the Earth's atmosphere for a peek at space before falling back to the ground.
FOXSI will travel 190 miles up, above the shield of Earth's atmosphere, to view the sun.
"FOXSI is the first instrument built specially to image high-energy X-rays from the Sun by directly focusing them," said Lindsay Glesener, space physicist at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and principal investigator for the mission.
"Other instruments have done this for other astronomical objects but FOXSI is so far the only instrument to optimise especially for the Sun," Glesener added.
Nanoflares -- small but intense eruptions -- are born when magnetic field lines in the Sun's atmosphere tangle up and stretch until they break like a rubber band. The energy they release accelerates particles to near light speed and according to some scientists, heats the solar atmosphere to its searing million-degree Fahrenheit temperature.
All of this happens in colours of light so extreme that the human eye cannot see them, the scientists explained.
To focus the X-rays, the FOXSI team used extremely hard, smooth surfaces tilted to a small angle (less than half a degree) that would gently corral incoming X-ray light to a point of focus.
The third mission also includes a new telescope designed for imaging lower-energy, so-called soft X-rays as well.
"Including the soft X-ray telescope gives us more precise temperatures" allowing the team to spot nanoflare signatures that would be missed with the hard X-ray telescopes alone, said Glesener.
In addition, several other performance improvements have been made to produce more accurate, higher resolution images.
FOXSI rockets are smaller, cheaper and faster to develop than large-scale satellite missions, sounding rockets which offer a way for scientists to test their latest ideas and instruments and achieve rapid results.
The first FOXSI flight was in 2012, during which it successfully viewed a small solar flare in progress, and its second in 2014, when it detected the best evidence at the time of X-ray emission from nanoflares.
--IANS
rt/mag/bg
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Nearly 47 years after a soldier attained martyrdom, the Haryana government has agreed to offer a government job to a son adopted by the martyr's widow.
The Haryana cabinet on Wednesday approved a group D job to Rajesh Kumar, adopted son of martyr Dharampal, a sepoy in the Indian Army from Birhi Kalan village in Bhiwani district.
Dharampal had sacrificed his life in 'Operation Cactus Lily' of the Army on December 14,1971.
"At the time of martyrdom of Dharampal, widow of martyr Santro Devi had no child. The wife of martyr had adopted Rajesh Kumar, the son of elder brother of Dharampal on September 9, 1997," a state government spokesman said on Wednesday.
"At the time of adoption, Santro Devi was about 57 years and Rajesh Kumar was about 18. The martyr's wife of had made a request to give appointment to her adopted son on compassionate grounds," the spokesman said, justifying the cabinet approval for the job.
The cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar here, approved relaxation in the existing policy to enable the martyr's adopted son to get a government job.
The cabinet also gave its nod to provide government job of Group D to Virender Singh, adopted son of martyr Dilbag Singh.
THe spokesman said that the government has also decided to provide government job of Group C to Ramesh Kumar, brother of martyr Bijender Kumar. Sepoy Bijender Kumar of village Matani, district Bhiwani had sacrificed his life in 'Operation Parakram' in Jammu and Kashmir on June 26,2002.
--IANS
js/prs
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday paid glowing tributes to Kailash Mansarovar, saying there was no hatred at the holy place.
Now on the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, Gandhi tweeted: "The waters of lake Mansarovar are so gentle, tranquil and calm. They give everything and lose nothing. Anyone can drink from them. There is no hatred here. This is why we worship these waters in India."
He attached pictures of the Mansarovar lake and Kailash mountain.
"A man goes to Kailash when it calls him. I am so happy to have this opportunity and to be able to share what I see on this beautiful journey with all of you," Gandhi said.
Gandhi left on the pilgrimage on August 31.
--IANS
aks/in/mr
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Olectra-BYD, a leading player in electric public transport system, on Wednesday announced that its eBuzz K9 electric buses have just begun commercial operations under the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC).
The first lot of five zero-emission electric buses was flagged off here by Ajay Mishra, Additional Chief Secretary, Energy and Arvind Kumar, Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD).
These buses are part of a contract for deployment of 40 AC electric buses which TSRTC awarded on Gross Cost Contract basis to Olectra-BYD. The remaining 35 electric buses shall be deployed in due course, the company said in a statement.
These electric buses are manufactured in India by Olectra Greentech (Formerly Goldstone Infratech) in a strategic tie-up with BYD Auto Industry Co. Ltd -- world's largest electric vehicle company.
The Department of Heavy Industry, under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles in India (FAME-I) scheme has provided a subsidy of Rs 1 crore for each bus to Telangana.
The 12-meter air-conditioned low floor buses having a capacity of 39+1 seats will ply from different locations in Hyderabad to Hyderabad International Airport. Supported by Kneeling Mechanism, these buses provide convenience to specially-abled and senior citizens while boarding or getting down from the bus.
The lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery installed in the bus enables it to travel up to over 250 km in a single charge. It also has regenerative braking system which enables the bus to recover part of the kinetic energy lost in braking. The battery can be fully recharged in 4-5 hours.
"Our buses plying under TSRTC are yet another step in the same direction and we are sure to repeat the success of our electric buses in other states. We are delighted to now offer our state-of-the-art electric buses of international standard to the people of Telangana," said A.N. Naga Satyam, Executive Director - Olectra Greentech Limited.
The company is also running its electric bus eBuzz K7 in Mumbai under Brihan Mumbai Electricity Supply and Transport Undertaking.
Apart from this, the 12-meter variant, eBuzz K9 has successfully completed its trials in Bengaluru, Delhi, Chandigarh, Goa, Rajkot, etc. Olectra's eBuzz K6 was the first 'Make in India' electric bus which was exported to Nepal in June 2018.
Olectra-BYD buses have completed more than 3,00,000 km on Indian roads. These electric buses have reduced CO2 emissions up to 320 tonnes till now, the company said.
--IANS
ms/qd/sed
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus may launch a successor to its highly popular OnePlus 6 smartphone with an in-display fingerprint sensor.
"At the bottom of the drawing (on the box) there's a small fingerprint icon with the text 'Unlock The Speed' which suggests that the OnePlus 6T may include a fingerprint sensor embedded into its display," CNET reported late on Tuesday.
Pictures of the upcoming OnePlus smartphone appeared on Chinese social media website Weibo that also suggest the device could feature a tiny notch.
The pictures posted on the site showed a white coloured box with OnePlus 6T written over it and inside the box, there was a blueprint image of the phone.
Previous iterations from the smartphone maker required a physical fingerprint scanner to unlock the device.
"But by embedding the sensor into the display, unlocking your phone is as simple as tapping the screen. Using an embedded sensor also frees up valuable phone real estate and can give the phone a more streamlined feel," the report added.
In-display fingerprint sensors are rare in smartphones currently, a handful of devices from Vivo -- such as Vivo X20 Plus UD, Vivo X21 and Vivo Nex and OPPO R17 come with an in-display fingerprint scanner.
--IANS
ksc/na/bg
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Opposition parties in West Bengal on Wednesday accused the Trinamool Congress government of a lackadaisical attitude towards maintenance of bridges in the state, a day after a portion of a South Kolkata bridge collapsed here.
The opposition accused the government of "neglecting" repair work and maintenance of bridges across the metropolis.
"She (Mamata Banerjee) is dreaming of becoming the Prime Minister but at the moment she should focus on taking care of the state. Her younger brothers (TMC leaders and ministers) are looting the state in the name of syndicate business," BJP state President Dilip Ghosh told reporters.
The Trinamool Congress, however, rubbished the allegations as baseless.
Part of the Majherhat Bridge between Taratala and Mominpur collapsed around 4.30 p.m. on Tuesday crushing one man and injuring at least 19 others while several vehicles were damaged.
Mukul Roy, formerly close to Chief Minister Mamata Banejee and now a BJP leader added, "The state government and PWD department are responsible for the bridge collapse. The PWD Minister Arup Biswas should take the responsibility."
State Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim retorted that the state government has taken enough steps to repair old bridges which were in a dilapidated state during the Left Front rule.
"Undertaking beautification work in the city is not wrong and it doesn't mean repair of bridges has been neglected. A portion of the bridge has collapsed and it is an unfortunate incident," he said.
On Tuesday, State Congress President Adhir Chowdhury also accused the Mamata Banerjee regime of negligence and claimed that the tragic incident could have been averted had the state government been more careful in maintaining the 40-year-old bridge.
"It is an unfortunate incident. This is not the first bridge collapse in West Bengal. There have been a number of such instances in Posta and Ultadanga in the last few years. I think this incident would not have happened had the state government been more careful," Chowdhury had said.
The under-construction Vivekananda flyover in central Kolkata's Posta area collapsed on March 31, 2016, killing 26 people while a portion of another flyover in Bidhannagar fell off in 2013.
--IANS
dm/qd/bg
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
More than 200,000 Afghans have been internally displaced by conflict in the first seven months of 2018, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Afghanistan said on Wednesday.
"From 1 January to 10 August, 2018, 209,000 people fled their homes due to conflict in Afghanistan, with 31 of 34 provinces recording forced displacement," Xinhua news agency quoted OCHA as saying in a statement.
Afghan officials and humanitarian agencies have expressed concern over the increasing numbers of displaced families in the country.
"Displaced families often find themselves in precarious living conditions with their well-being and dignity jeopardized by inadequate shelter, lack of food and water, insufficient access to sanitation and health facilities as well as lack of protection," the statement read.
More than 1 million Afghans have been displaced since 2001 due to conflicts, worsening security situation and ongoing insurgency in the country.
--IANS
mag/sed
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kriti said in a statement: "P C Chandra Jewellers is one of the most sought after jewellery brands in the country. I feel really honoured and happy to be part of their team. It's my first jewellery endorsement and because I have also studied jewellery design, it's something very close to my heart and I feel very happy being associated with the brand."
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
Pakistan on Wednesday summoned a senior Indian diplomat over cross-border shelling which it said killed a civilian along the Line of Control (LoC) in the divided Kashmir region, officials said.
The Foreign Ministry said the Indian forces resorted to "unprovoked ceasefire violations" in the Kotkotera sector along the LoC on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal, who heads the desk of South Asia and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation in the Ministry, summoned the Indian Deputy High Commissioner and condemned the "unprovoked ceasefire violations" by the Indian forces.
Pakistan and India had declared a ceasefire in 2003 along the LoC but both sides routinely accuse each other of violations.
Faisal told the Indian diplomat that the "deliberate targeting of civilian population areas is indeed deplorable and contrary to human dignity and 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."
--IANS
anp/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.)
A district police chief was killed following a bomb attack by the Taliban in Afghanistan's Badghis province, police said on Wednesday.
"Ismail Khan Shukori, police chief of Muqur district, along with a police constable, was killed following a roadside bomb blast in his vehicle in Miranzayee area late on Tuesday," Xinhua news agency quoted a police spokesman as saying.
Shukori was inspecting security checkpoints before the blast in the province, which has been the scene of clashes between security forces and Taliban militants.
On Tuesday, two police officers and 11 militants were killed and four police and 16 militants wounded in fierce clashes after the Taliban attacked a security checkpoint in Badghis.
--IANS
mag/bg
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday reached Islamabad to meet with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to discuss the bilateral relations.
This is the first high-level visit from Washington since the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government assumed office, Geo TV reported.
The report said that the talks will revolve around US-Pakistan ties and peace process in Afghanistan.
Pompeo, who is accompanied by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford and a four-member delegation, was received by Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi upon reaching the Foreign Office from Nur Khan Airbase.
Safeguarding Pakistan's national interests will remain the supreme priority, the Foreign Office said in a statement.
Pompeo said he hopes to reset the relations between the US and Pakistan. "We hope that both countries could leave the past behind and begin to make progress," he was quoted as saying.
He also said the Trump administration could release aid to Pakistan that was halted earlier in 2018.
Pompeo is due to visit India on the next stop of his South Asia tour.
--IANS
mag/qd/sed
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Pakistan on Thursday to take decisive measures against terrorists threatening regional peace.
In his meetings in Islamabad with Pakistani leaders, he "conveyed the need for Pakistan to take sustained and decisive measures against terrorists and militants threatening regional peace and stability," his spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement.
Pompeo, who is on his way to New Delhi for the 2+2 Strategic Dialogue, stopped over in Islamabad to meet the recently-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Bajwa.
He was accompanied by US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford.
While congratulating Khan on the formation of his government and "the further strengthening of civilian institutions," Pompeo in his meeting with Bajwa "welcomed the smooth transition of power to a new civilian government, stressing the importance of strong democratic institutions," Nauert said.
With "Qureshi, Secretary Pompeo discussed the potential for the United States and Pakistan to work together to advance joint priorities, including regional peace and stability," she added.
The statement did not mention anything about two crucial issues clouding US-Pakistan relations: the withholding of US, and Washington's refusal so far, to back Islamabad's request for an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout for the cash-strapped country.
Giving the Pakistani version of the the meetings, Qureshi said both sides agreed to "reset" their bilateral relations, GeoTV reported.
In a meeting en route to Pakistan with reporters accompanying him, Pompeo had said on Wednesday, "I wanted to get out there at the beginning of his (Khan's) time in an effort to reset the relationship between the two countries."
GeoTV reported that Qureshi told a news conference, "We presented realistic stance to the US authorities."
"We have given a clear message to the US that we all are on one page and we won't get anything from the blame game," he added.
Qureshi acknowledged that there had been friction in US-Pakistan relations during the past year and that no one tried to bridge the differences, according to GeoTV.
Pompeo and US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis are to meet External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday for the 2+2 Strategic Dialogue.
--IANS
al/prs
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A group of 20 students from Jammu and Kahsmir's Kishtwar district on Wednesday told Army chief General Bipin Rawat that they lacked Internet connection and had bad roads despite 70 years of independence.
"The country is living in the 21st century, but we are still struggling for basic needs like proper Internet connection. Making calls is also very difficult at times," complained a 19-year-old, Omash Kumar Koul from Navapachi.
The students also said that it took 12 hours for them to travel from the tehsil to Kishtwar town due to bad conditions of the roads.
"Travelling is a pain in our area. The road conditions are bad and a lot of time is wasted in travelling," said another student, Moshin Hassan.
Kishtwar district is a hilly region located in Jammu region.
The undergraduate students were here under the Indian Army's Capacity Building Tour (CBT), which will end in Chennai. The 6,000 km tour that began on Tuesday will conclude on September 12.
The tour was organised by the Army to provide an exposure to select students to the Passing Out Parade at the Officers Training Academy in Chennai on September 8.
Most students are travelling outside of Jammu and Kashmir for the first time. And they were visibly happy.
"We have never seen Delhi. From here we will go to Chennai by train. We will get to see the whole country in between. Most of us will board a train for the first time," Hassan said.
Akil Jaffer, 17, said he saw another side of the Indian Army during the tour.
"People have different perceptions about the Army back in Kashmir. We will go back and share our experiences about how caring the Army is," Jaffer said.
The Army chief urged the students to explore different fields in terms of employment.
"All fields are important, be it medicine or teaching. I will encourage you all to join the Army but I will say that all other fields are also important," he said.
--IANS
nks/qd/mr
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Three Rafale jets quietly flew into India for a three-day halt at military bases in a low-key military diplomatic affair, apparently due to the political storm raging over alleged irregularities in the purchase of the fighter aircraft from a French firm.
The three Rafale jets flown by the French Air Force (FAF) pilots were returning from Exercise Pitch Black 2018 at Darwin in Australia, in which 16 nations from across the globe, including the Indian Air Force, had taken part.
The Rafale fighter aircraft and transport aircraft staged through Air Force Station, Gwalior, and Air Force Station, Agra, from September 1-4, an IAF spokesperson said.
The French jets took off on Tuesday evening from Gwalior. The Maharajpur airbase in Gwalior is home to two Mirage 2000 squadrons. Both the Mirage and Rafale are manufactured by the same French maker - Dassault Aviation.
"During the staging period, FAF and IAF carried out basic joint training, which included fighter sorties by pilots in their respective aircraft with observers onboard each other's transport aircraft supporting the missions.
"This interaction with FAF provided a unique opportunity for exchange of experience and sharing of best practices during cooperative deployment," the spokesperson said.
During the military drill in Australia, it is believed that Indian Su-30 fighter pilots flew in the same three Rafales.
Though a picture of one of the three jets in India had emerged on the social media on Tuesday, the official announcement regarding their stay was only made a day after their departure.
Usually, such military diplomatic events are widely publicized.
Apparently, the halt of Rafale jets was not announced in advance because of the allegations of massive irregularities in the Rafale deal. The Congress has maintained that the Modi government was procuring each aircraft at a cost higher than the rate finalised by the UPA government.
--IANS
sar/sed
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A controversial funding handed to Australia's Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF) will be rescinded if the opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) wins in the next election.
The Australian government in April handed the GBRF a $318.5 million grant, the largest donation to a private foundation from the government till date, without first subjecting the organisation to a competitive tender process.
Tony Burke, the ALP's environment spokesperson, on Wednesday wrote to John Schubert, chairman of the foundation, warning him that the government can compel the GBRF to return the money.
Burke said that as per the grant agreement, the Department of Environment and Energy can terminate the agreement if there is "a material change in the Australian government policy".
Burke said that an ALP government would change the environment policy.
"We can't fix what's happened right now, but if Labor wins the election there will be an immediate policy change and the obligation will be on the foundation to return every single dollar that hasn't been spent," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Schubert and fellow board members of GBRF are due to appear before a Senate inquiry on the circumstances surrounding the grant on September 18, Xinhua news agency reported.
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who made the decision, is also expected to front the inquiry.
--IANS
in/
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Claiming that the crackdown on rights activists was a result of the "fascist Modi governments desperation", activists on Wednesday demanded the immediate release of all political prisoners and the repeal of the "draconian" laws like the UAPA and the AFSPA.
Speaking at the "Campaign Against State Repression on Right Activists" event here, they called the Modi government fascist and demanded that 10 activists arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence on January 1 as also wheelchair-bound Delhi University Professor G.N. Saibaba, among others, be released.
Speaking on the occasion, Delhi University Professor S.A.R. Geelani said there was a "pattern" behind the arrests and it was done with an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
"There is a pattern to what is happening, it's not haphazard. First, they arrested Saibaba on fake charges, then came the arrests of five activists including lawyer Surendra Gadling and activist Rona Wilson who were endeavouring to get Saibaba released," said Geelani, associated with the Committee for Release of Political Prisoners.
"After the second round of arrests of five activists in June, they have gone for more arrests. Arun Ferreira and Vernon Fernandes and others were ensuring legal help to Gadling and others," he said.
Geelani, convicted in the Parliament attack case by the lower courts but acquitted by the Supreme Court, said the crackdown on rights activists was aimed at polarising society and stifle dissent before the 2019 polls.
Kavita Srivastava of the People's Union for Civil Liberties alleged that an emergency under a fascist regime was in force wherein every dissenting voice is being thrown into jail.
She claimed that the arrests were meant to discredit the growing Dalit uprising in the country as well as divert the country's attention from the failures of the Modi government.
"As much as to put down dissent, this is also being done to cover the Modi government's gross incompetence, its failure to fulfil poll promises and divert public attention from burning issues like economic mismanagement, growing unemployment and increasing agrarian crisis," said Srivastava.
Expressing alarm over the abuse of law to stifle dissent, the activists demanded immediate repealing of what they said were draconian laws.
They also dismissed the "urban naxals" term used for political dissenters, saying that the government was desperately trying to use such labels for those opposed to it.
--IANS
and/tsb/bg
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two robbers were shot dead while trying to rob a ship in the Twantay Canal in Myanmar, police said on Wednesday.
Three robbers in a motorised boat were surprised by the police team as they approached the ship early on Tuesday. The officers were on a stake out after a tip off that vessels anchored in the canal were being robbed regularly, Global New Light of Myanmar reported.
Asked surrender two robbers attacked the police with machetes, while another jumped into the canal and managed to escape. Both died in counter firing, Xinhua news agency said.
A police officer was also seriously injured on his face in the machete attack.
--IANS
in/
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Four Russian jets have bombed positions of Nusra Front in Syria's Idlib province, Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, four planes of the Russian aviation unit deployed at the Hmeymim airbase carried out strikes on the militants' storages where they kept drones, Sputnik quoted Defence Ministry spokesman as saying.
The two Su-34 jets also destroyed a workshop where terrorists assembled drones and a warehouse of explosives, he added.
Russia, alongside Iran and Turkey, is a guarantor of the ceasefire regime in Syria.
Moscow has been assisting Damascus both through supporting the struggle against terrorist groups and providing humanitarian aid to the residents of the crisis-torn country.
--IANS
mag/sed
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A group of South Korean envoys travelled to Pyongyang on Wednesday to prepare for an upcoming inter-Korean summit and help re-start stalled talks between the US and North Korea.
The five-member delegation, led by Chung Eui-yong, head of the National Security Office, will deliver a letter from South Korean President Moon Jae-in to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Efe news reported.
The main objective of the visit would be to fix a date for the next Kim-Moon summit, scheduled for September in Pyongyang.
The delegation will also discuss ways to implement the Panmunjom Declaration signed at the inter-Korean summit in April, in which both leaders had pledged complete denuclearisation on the peninsula, said Chung.
During a phone conversation with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, Moon had assured the latter that he would keep Washington informed of the outcomes of Wednesday's meeting.
At the US-North Korea summit in Singapore in June, Kim and Trump had agreed to improve bilateral ties and work toward North Korea's nuclear disarmament.
North Korea had also promised to dismantle its nuclear arsenal in return for a peace treaty with South Korea to definitively end the Korean War.
--IANS
mag/sed
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Yemen's Houthi rebels on Tuesday said that they had launched four ballistic missiles towards a town located in southern Saudi Arabia, and Saudi media reported that those projectiles were successfully intercepted.
The Yemeni rebel-controlled news agency Saba reported that the insurgent group fired four ballistic missiles at the Aramco refinery and a petrochemical factory in the port city of Jizan, near Saudi Arabia's border with Yemen, using Badr-1 projectiles, Efe reported.
For its part, the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV channel reported that the Saudi air defenses intercepted two missiles launched by the Houthi rebels, without giving further details on their target.
The Houthis often announce ballistic missile attacks on Saudi territory, including facilities of the oil giant Aramco as well as other official and public targets, and even have claimed attacks on Riyadh.
In Saudi towns bordering Yemen, the impact of these projectiles has caused material damage and fatalities in recent years.
A Saudi-led military coalition comprising Sunni Arab countries has intervened in Yemen since March 2015 to fight against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is currently living in exile in Saudi Arabia.
--IANS
ahm/
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea seeking a ban on a part of Malayalam novel 'Meesha' saying subjective perception about the book cannot be allowed to come into the legal arena for censorship to stifle the creative imagination of a writer.
Dismissing the petition, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud in their judgment said: "To apply the litmus test, it is to be borne in mind that a book should not be read in a fragmented manner. It had to be read as a whole."
The petitioner N. Radhakrishnan had sought a ban on a part of the novel which he contended had portrayed women and temple priests in an "objectionable" manner.
The court said that language, ideas, style, the manner of portrayal of a character, and other aspects of the book had to be appreciated from an objective point of view.
Speaking for the bench, Chief Justice Misra said: "There may be subjective perception of a book as regards its worth and evaluation, but the said subjectivity cannot be allowed to enter the legal arena for censorship or a ban."
The CJI further said, "It has to be kept in mind that the imagination of a writer has to enjoy freedom. It cannot be asked to succumb to specifics. That will tantamount to imposition."
Asserting that a writer "should have free play with words, like a painter has it with colours", the court said: "The passion of imagination cannot be directed."
--IANS
pk/prs
(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.)
Bollywood actor Shahid Kapoor and his wife Mira Rajput on Wednesday became parents again as they welcomed a son at a hospital here.
They had daughter Misha in 2016. The boy was born on Wednesday evening at the Hinduja Hospital here, a source told IANS.
Mira was admitted to the hospital in the evening and her mother Bela Rajput and other family members like Shahid's mother Neelima Azim, Shahid's step-brother and actor Ishan Khatter visited Mira before the baby's delivery.
Shahid and Mira got married on July 6, 2015. Theirs was an arranged match, and they have grown to be one of the most talked about couples of Bollywood.
Earlier this year, Shahid disclosed the news of Mira's second pregnancy via social media on Instagram.
Despite his busy schedule of promoting his upcoming film "Batti Gul Meter Chalu", Shahid has been managing to spend some quality time w ith Mira in the past few days.
--IANS
aru/rb/prs
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India on Wednesday told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that historical facts and legal aspects confirm that sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago has been and continues to be with Mauritius.
A release by the Indian Embassy in the Netherlands said India's position was conveyed in oral proceedings before the ICJ on a request for an advisory opinion by the UN General Assembly in the matter concerning "The Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965."
India's Ambassador Venu Rajamony said the historical survey of facts concerning colonisation and the process of decolonisation indicates that the Chagos Archipelago throughout the pre- and post-colonial era had been part of the Mauritian territory.
"These islands came under the colonial administration of the UK as part of Mauritian territory. The understanding reached in November 1965 between Mauritius and the UK for the retention of Chagos by the UK for defence purposes and return to Mauritius when no longer needed for defence purposes is also in itself evidence that Mauritius has been and continues to be the sovereign nation for the Chagos Archipelago," the release said.
--IANS
ps/mr
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Taliban key commander Mullah Ghousuding was among 7 persons killed on Wednesday in a blast outside Qala-e-Naw, the capital of Afghanistan's western Badghis province, police said.
"The notorious Mullah Ghousuding, alias Sia Khan, along with his men were busy in subversive activities to terrorize people outside Qala-e-Naw city but an explosive device suddenly went off, killing him and six others on the spot," a police spokesman told Xinhua news agency.
Describing the commander as a "dreadful terrorist," the spokesman said Sia Khan's killing could prove a major blow to the Taliban in Badghis province and adjoining areas.
--IANS
anp/mr
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Salt-to-software conglomerate Tata is India's most "consumer-focussed" brand, said a TRA Research report released on Wednesday.
FMCG major Patanjali, promoted by yoga guru Ramdev, ranked 24th in the list of 500 brands, it said.
The study measures consumers' keenness to buy a brand's products. The survey was conducted among 6,000 consumer influencers across 16 cities, TRA Research said.
'Closely following (Tata), at second rank is Bajaj, with just a 12 per cent gap from the leader. At third rank in the list is Nike," the report said.
Dell was ranked fourth and Apple fifth in the list of "India's Most Consumer-Focussed Brands 2018".
--IANS
rrb/mr
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A crucial meeting of the Telangana cabinet is likely to be held on Thursday to recommend dissolution of the state assembly to pave way for early polls.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has asked his cabinet colleagues to be available at 6 a.m. on September 6 for the cabinet meeting, according to sources in the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
The TRS chief considers '6' as his lucky number and that's the reason cited for not taking the decision during the cabinet meeting on September 2, which was held hours before the massive public meeting by the ruling party to sound the poll bugle.
The cabinet is expected to pass a resolution recommending to Governor E. S.L. Narasimhan to dissolve the assembly. The term of the assembly is till May, 2019 and the elections in normal course have to be conducted along with the polls for Lok Sabha.
On the eve of the cabinet meeting, the state capital on Wednesday witnessed hectic activity in the political circle. Chief Secretary S.K. Joshi, Chief Advisor to government Rajiv Sharma, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, S. Narsing Rao and Legislative Assembly Secretary Narasimhacharyulu called on Narasimhan on Wednesday.
KCR also had a series of meetings with top party leaders.
A day after recommending dissolution of assembly, KCR will be launching the election campaign with a public meeting at Husnabad in Siddipet district on September 7.
Christened 'Prajala Aasirwada Sabha', this will be the first of 100 public meetings planned by TRS over next 50 days.
Political observers say TRS is keen for early assembly elections as it believes that simultaneous elections to assembly and Lok Sabha may not help it in properly highlighting the welfare and development works undertaken during last four years.
The political circle has been abuzz with the talks of early polls for the last few weeks with KCR himself giving strong hints with his two meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August, announcement of sops for various sections of people and transfer of top police and civil officials.
There was strong possibility of a decision in the cabinet meeting before September 2 public meeting, attended by lakhs of people and claimed to be mother of all rallies.
While the cabinet took no decision, KCR kept the suspense by telling the party cadres that the party leaders have empowered him to take a decision and that they would soon hear it (decision on early polls).
At the public meeting, the TRS chief highlighted the achievements of his government since it took reins in the newly created state in 2014.
He sought fresh mandate to continue the good work and achieve the goal of 'Bangaru Telangana' or golden Telangana. He urged people to protect their 'self-respect' by rejecting the parties from Delhi who want to make them slaves.
--IANS
ms/in
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday demanded stringent action against Mumbai Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Ram Kadam for his reported objectionable remarks on women.
"Not only should strict action be taken against him, he should not be given a ticket by any party to contest future elections. He is a person of a low character and mentality," Thackeray told the media here.
The Sena chief summoned a hurried press conference after the BJP legislator's remarks on Monday sparked off an uproar in Maharashtra, drawing all-round condemnation from social and political circles.
"I am not aware whether the BJP has launched a 'Beti Bhagao' programme. But if anybody speaks like this about our sisters and daughters, we will not tolerate it," Thackeray warned, coming down heavily on Kadam.
Kicking off a huge controversy, Kadam, a BJP legislator from Ghatkopar in north-east Mumbai, declared publicly that he would abduct girls and bring them to their spurned suitors, and even provided his phone number.
"You need anything, just come to me. If you have proposed to a girl and she has rejected you, I will help you 100 percent. Come to me with your parents and say that they approve of her. Then, I will catch her and bring her to you," Kadam told the gathering.
A video of the incident which went viral on Tuesday evening. But Kadam claimed he had been quoted out of context and the full video clip was not shown, and later, even blamed the media for blowing it out of proportion.
"I had no intentions to hurt anybody's sentiments. But if I have done so, I regret it. Certain opponents are behind this misunderstanding," Kadam said in a late night tweet.
As the issue snowballed, a group of women activists on Wednesday 'gheraoed' Education Minister Vinod Tawde while the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party organised noisy protests in the city, demanding action against the legislator.
In another development, a young Pune girl, Minakshi G. Patil, threw an open challenge to Kadam, daring him to "touch" her if he had the guts.
"I am throwing the gauntlet, accept it. Let's settle this in person. I will come to Mumbai... Lay a finger on me and leave the rest to me. This is shameful and cheap, such statements have no place in Chhatrapati Shivaji's Maharashtra where women are treated like Goddesses," she said.
State Congress President Ashok Chavan asked: "Has the BJP made him a legislator to kidnap women?"
NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said "the BJP's 'Ravana' face has emerged. He is talking about kidnapping women. So henceforth he should be called 'Ravana Kadam'."
Senior Shiv Sena leader and spokesperson Neelam Gorhe said though he (Kadam) was named after Ram, he harboured evil thoughts like Ravana.
Samajwadi President Abu Asim Azmi said the BJP MLA's speech was a clear indicator that the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign was a sham.
The NCP Women's Wing demanded an unconditional apology from Kadam besides action against him by the BJP.
--IANS
qn/mr
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
DMK legislator J. Anbazhagan on Wednesday demanded that Tamil Nadu's Director General of Police (DGP) T.K. Rajendran must quit, after the CBI raided his residence in connection with a gutkha scam.
It was on Anbazhagan's petition that the Madras High Court ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the scam.
Anbazhagan said Rajendran was on extension. Top officials who are given an extension should have an unblemished service record. With Rajendran's residence being raided by the CBI, he should step down.
"The probe seems to be proceeding on the right track under the CBI. Whether a case will be filed against the scamsters or not will have to be seen.
"If no case is filed, then we may have to approach the Madras High Court again," Anbazhagan told IANS.
The case is related to an Income Tax Department raid in the offices, residences and godowns of a gutkha manufacturer in Tamil Nadu in 2016.
A diary was then seized which listed alleged bribes paid to various officials amounting to about Rs 39.31 crore.
The Tamil Nadu government has banned the manufacture and storage of gutkha -- a tobacco product -- since 2013. However, the product was reportedly available in the market with the alleged connivance of police officers and others.
Several political parties had demanded a CBI probe into the issue but the AIADMK government did not agree.
In June, the Enforcement Directorate registered a money laundering case against unnamed government officials in Tamil Nadu based on a first information report (FIR) registered by the CBI in May.
Despite opposition from opposition parties, Rajendran was given a two-year extension in 2018.
--IANS
vj/in/mr
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The White House said on Tuesday that US President Donald Trump earlier on the same day spoke with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in, when they agreed to meet later at the UN General Assembly.
According to a statement issued by the White House press secretary, Trump and Moon "discussed the latest developments on the Korean Peninsula, including our ongoing efforts to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea," which refers to North Korea, Xinhua reported.
"President Moon briefed the President that he was sending a Special Envoy to Pyongyang tomorrow (September 5) to meet with Chairman Kim, and promised a readout of that meeting," the White House said, adding that the two presidents "agreed to meet later this month on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York."
Last month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he would travel to Pyongyang "to make further diplomatic progress towards our objective."
However, Trump tweeted a day later that he asked Pompeo to cancel the trip, citing the lack of progress on the peninsula's denuclearization.
Besides the pace and scale of denuclearization, Washington and Pyongyang have disagreed on whether to issue a war-ending declaration.
North Korea has argued that such a document is the first step towards peace on the peninsula, whereas Washington has said it is too early to discuss the topic.
At the conclusion of the historic summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un in June, the two sides issued a joint statement, in which they agreed to improve bilateral relations and work together to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the peninsula.
--IANS
ahm/
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NDA ally Shiv Sena on Wednesday extended support to fasting Patidar leader Hardik Patel, with party chief Uddhav Thackeray advising him "not to risk your life on insensitive governments".
Patel has been on an indefinite fast since August 25 to demand loan waiver for farmers and reservation for Patels in government jobs and educational institutions. He is also demanding the release of close associate Alpesh Kathiriya jailed on sedition charge.
Thackerey, in his message, extended support to Patel and advised him to give up his fast, at least for now. There was no point in "risking your precious life fighting against insensitive governments at the Centre and the state", the Sena leader said.
Thackeray also advised Hardik to prepare for a long-drawn battle for the farmers' cause.
Hardik's supporters have announced to intensify their agitation as the state government had not begun direct talks with the fasting leader, who was visited by disgruntled BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha and former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha on Tuesday.
"Hardik will again stop consuming water if the state government does approach him by tomorrow (Thursday) over our demands," Manoj Panara, Convenor of the Patidar Ananmat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), told reporters.
"From Thursday, the state's farmers will call up all 182 legislators, 26 Lok Sabha members and Rajya Sabha members from Gujarat and seek their views on farm debt waiver," Panara said.
He added that the phone calls would be followed by visits to the residences and offices of these elected representatives on Friday to seek their views in writing.
"The ball is in the government's court. The state government will be responsible if anything goes wrong. However, we appeal to farmers and Patel youths to maintain peace and not go for confrontation with police," Panara added.
Meanwhile, Visnagar town in north Gujarat, from where the Patel agitation started in 2015, observed a bandh in support of the fasting leader. Some of his supporters got their head tonsured in protest against the state government's alleged apathy.
Women too came out in the streets in several rural areas of the state and beat vessels with rolling pins to protest.
--IANS
desai/tsb
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A White House-prepared peace plan to settle Israeli-Palestinian conflicts is ready, US Ambassador Nikki Haley has told reporters here at the UN Headquarters.
"I have read the plan. It is thoroughly done," Haley said on Tuesday at a briefing in her role as the September president of the Security Council, adding that Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt have "detailed work in it".
Kushner is the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump and senior advisor on the Middle East, and Greenblatt is the Middle East peace envoy and the White House Special Representative for International Negotiations, Xinhua news agency reported.
There have been reports that the White House is preparing to release its long-promised Middle East peace deal, which was called by Trump the "Deal of the Century".
When asked when Trump was going to present the peace deal, Haley replied: "Only if a boss comes to the table".
"We have ensured (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu will come to the table... and Palestinian (National) Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, for the good of his people, needs to come to the table," she said.
--IANS
in/vm
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Over 6,000 teachers working in universities and colleges across Punjab and Chandigarh proceeded on mass casual leave on Wednesday to protest against the "unjust policies and illogical attitude" of the central and state governments towards higher
Teachers who participated in a protest rally here on Teachers' Day were from Panjab University, Chandigarh; Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar; Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana; Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana; Punjabi University, Patiala; and 60 government colleges of Punjab and 160 private colleges of Punjab and Chandigarh.
The call for the protest was given by Punjab Federation of University and College Teachers Organisations (PFUCTO).
Panjab University Teachers' Association President Prof Rajesh Gill said that the teaching community was facing several issues in the present times.
PFUCTO General Secretary Jagwant Singh said that the central and state governments were causing irreparable harm to higher
"After denying interim relief to university and college teachers, the authorities are silent on the implementation of UGC pay-scales, appointment of regular teachers, and regularisation of 1,925 teachers in aided colleges of Punjab. They have also failed to implement a pension scheme for teachers," Singh said.
Punjab Government Colleges Teachers' Association President B.S. Tohra claimed that regular faculty in government colleges of Punjab had come down to 520 while over 1,200 posts were lying vacant.
"The system is being managed through part-time and guest faculty who face exploitation at the hands of government, which is supposed to be a model employer," Tohra alleged.
PAU Teachers' Association President Rakesh Sharda said that reduced funding for agricultural research had impacted PAU contribution to the field.
He condemned payment of consolidated salary of Rs 15,600 only to Assistant Professors during probation and demanded equal pay for equal work for teachers.
--IANS
js/tsb/sed
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Actor Tom Hardy's "Venom" will release in India on October 5.
Sony Pictures India is bringing the film to the country. The film will release in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, read a statement to IANS.
Bringing one of the most enigmatic characters from -- the lethal protector -- to the big screen, the film is directed by Ruben Fleischer and stars Hardy as Eddie Brock and as Venom.
It also stars Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze and Reid Scott. It follows the popular Marvel anti-hero as he transforms from a go-getter journalist to powerful alien symbiote.
Venom was created in 1988 by Marvel Comics. The character made his big screen debut more than a decade ago in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man 3", where he was portrayed by Topher Grace. The movie is intended to be the first film in Sony's Marvel Universe.
Rapper Eminem has also created a theme track for "Venom" in his recent album "Kamikaze". Eminem has put in references to India and Mahatma Gandhi in the theme song.
--IANS
sug/rb/mr
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
South Asian countries may be in the late league of nations joining the bandwagon of literary prizes -- the likes of Booker and Pulitzer prizes are many decades old while the subcontinent's counterparts are just beginning to find a footing -- but the trends emerging from them show a staggering rise of women authors, writing on a multitude of themes, in diverse genres and languages.
The eighth edition of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, which is open to writers across the globe writing on South Asian themes, received 88 entries this year -- and 51 per cent of them are by women.
"The world is obviously changing and women are finding their voice which had been dumbed down for centuries. A woman writing may be a new phenomenon, but she has more to say because of the observations she makes about relationships and people in her day-to-day job which has traditionally been the house and the hearth," Surina Narula, the Founder Director of the prize, told IANS.
She said she is personally excited that this prize has encouraged more women to write about South Asia.
"The impact of the prize can be seen with these submissions from woman writers. We at the DSC Prize are delighted to achieve such success in a short time," she said.
But has there really been a sudden rise in quality writing by women writers? The evidence comes from the submissions received from debut writers. While 25 of the 88 entries received this year are by debut authors, 15 of them are by women.
The DSC Prize is the most dominant literary prize in the subcontinent thus far, but the inaugural edition of the JCB Literature Prize, which will be awarding a whooping Rs 25 lakh to the winner, too has attracted a large number of submissions.
Thirty-five per cent of all entries received for the inaugural edition of the prize are by women authors.
"Many of India's best and renowned writers have always been women, and -- like men -- they write about everything. There are entries by women about life under fascist regimes, about ancient Indian empires, about ecological systems, about mythological creatures -- about everything. There is no doubt that woman writers are very prominent in Indian writing, but I don't think it is possible to say that there is a 'women's literature'. There is just literature," Rana Dasgupta, Literary Director, The JCB Prize for Literature, told IANS.
The JCB Prize, however, is limited to Indian writers.
Notably, an increase in the number of books published by women does not guarantee them recognition as every publisher has a set number of maximum entries that it can submit for most prizes. The submissions received this year, however, show that leading publishers have fielded their women authors for such prizes.
Since 1954, India's national academy of letters, the Sahitya Akademi, has been awarding writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the major Indian languages. But it is only in the past few years that prizes such as the DSC, and now the JCB, have surfaced, attracting authors and publishers.
The New India Foundation (NIF) has also kickstarted Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize for works of non-fiction focusing on India after 1947, with a cash prize of Rs 15 lakh.
(Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in )
--IANS
ss/tb/sac/vm
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who is currently busy with his upcoming film "Zero", says working has become "second nature" to him.
Shah Rukh on Tuesday treated his fans to a question and answer session, where a user asked him about his motivation to work hard.
"Don't know about motivation. But working has become second nature to me," Shah Rukh replied.
A Russian fan asked if "Zero" will release in their country, the 52-year-old star said: "Yes, I hope it releases there soon."
Talking about how "Zero" is shaping up, the "Dilwale" actor tweeted: "Audience has to be happy not me. I just do my best and leave the rest."
Directed by Anand L. Rai, "Zero" features SRK as a vertically challenged man. The film also stars Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif.
--IANS
dc/vm
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Jammu and Kashmir Conference will boycott the local body and panchayat elections in the state unless the Centre takes effective steps for protection of Article 35-A of the Constitution, which is facing legal challenge in the Supreme Court, party president said Wednesday.
"The core group (of NC) unanimously decided that the Conference will not participate in these elections unless and until the government of India and the state government clarify their positions in this regard and take effective steps for protection of Article 35-A in and outside the courts," Abdullah said after the meeting here.
He said the decision of the state administration to hold urban local body polls and panchayat elections was taken in a "hurried manner" and without taking into consideration the prevailing situation "created by the powers that be by unnecessarily fiddling with Article 35-A".
The state government last week announced the schedule for holding elections to local bodies and panchayats in the state.
While the urban local body polls are slated for the first week of October, the Panchayat elections are scheduled to be held in November-December this year.
Abdullah said the core group had a detailed discussion about the prevailing situation in the state with particular reference to Article 35-A of the Constitution. "It was felt that any tinkering with Article 35-A would prove disastrous not only for our state but for the entire country".
ALSO READ: Do not indulge in 'polemics', says India after Pak rakes up Kashmir in UN
He said the stands of the central government and the present dispensation in Jammu and Kashmir before the Supreme Court goes "clearly against the wishes and aspirations of the people of the state.
"They conveniently ignore that this provision was incorporated in the Constitution after thorough discussion between the then state government and the Government of India and was made part of the Delhi Agreement 1952," he said.
"It was also approved by the state's constituent assembly as envisaged under article 370 of the Constitution," he said.
Abdullah said the core group resolved that Conference would fight tooth and nail all "sinister" attempts aimed at interfering with this constitutional guarantee.
"Such attempts, if allowed, shall strike at the very basis of the relationship between the state and the Union," he said.
Two pilgrims were killed and 20 others injured in a collision between two buses in the district on Wednesday, police said.
The accident occurred in Balotra police station area.
The bus carrying pilgrims was coming from Gujarat and was going to Ramdevra in Jaisalmer, the police said.
The injured persons were rushed to a local hospital, where their condition was stated to be stable.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Three members of a gang were arrested following a shootout with the police in outer Delhi's Alipur area Wednesday morning, the police said.
The three nabbed -- Manjit (23), Nitish (21) and Mahesh (25) -- are members of the Tillu gang, they said.
Manjit was wanted in the case of murder of a person, named Arman, who was a member the Gogi Gang, police said.
Based on the information extracted from him, a trap was laid at the Budhpur road and at about 5.05 am, a white-colour scooter, coming from the GT Karnal Road, was flagged down, a senior officer said.
He said that two gang members, who were riding the scooter, tried to escape and when the police chased them, they opened fire.
The police fired back and in the process on of the two received injury in his right leg while the other, named Mahesh, was apprehended without injury, the officer added.
Two rounds were fired by the accused and in retaliation, the police team fired four rounds, he said.
No police officer was injured since they were wearing bullet proof jackets, he added.
The injured gangster has been shifted to Raja Harishchandra Hospital where he is undergoing treatment. Further investigation if underway, police said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Uttarakhand Governor Baby Rani Maurya honoured 31 teachers of the state here Wednesday on the occasion of Teachers' Day asking them to teach students to dream big.
"You should teach students to dream big and help them to achieve their goal in life. The credit for the success of a student goes as much to him as to his teachers," she said after conferring 31 teachers of government schools with the Governor's Teachers Award at a function.
She also asked the teachers to pay attention to every child and give them extra classes if necessary so that they do not need tuitions.
Governor' Teacher's Award was instituted by former Uttarakhand governor K K Paul to improve the quality of teaching in government schools of the state.
The teachers got Rs 10,000 in cash and a citation as part of the award besides a copy each ofSwami Vivekananda's biography and a collection of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's selected addresses on 'Man ki Baat', an official release here said.
Teacher's Day is celebrated in the country on September 5 in honour of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who was born on this day in 1888. He was India's second president.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With the arrest of four persons, police on Wednesday claimed to have foiled five major bovine smuggling bids in Rajouri and Sambha districts and rescued 71 cattle.
Acting on a specific information, police parties conducted search operations in Mathyani Gala and nearby forest areas on Tuesday night, a police officer said.
They rescued 57 bovine animals from the smugglers, he said, adding that the arrested accused have been identified as Mohd Qasim, Talib Hussain, Mohd Iqbal and Mohd Bashir.
The smugglers were arrested from forest areas of Mathyani Gala, Hari Chuma and Dahergalla, he said.
In this connection, 3 different FIRs have been registered at Police Station Dharamsal, he said.
During routine checking at a highway at Tapyal area, 14 bovine animals were also rescued from a vehicle, he said.
The vehicle was seized on the spot and a case has been registered, he added.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
On Teacher's Day, over 6,000 government and non-government college teachers in Punjab proceeded on mass leave in support of their demands, including raise in pay scale.
Under the banner of Punjab Federation of University and College Teachers Organisations (PFUCTO), the agitating teachers from several parts of the state gathered here Wednesday to participate in the protest against the "apathetic attitude" of the Congress-led government towards their demands.
"We have been demanding implementation of recommendations of the UGC with regard to the seventh pay commission report. Several states, including Haryana, have given the UGC pay scale to teachers of colleges and universities but the Punjab government has failed to do so yet," General Secretary of PFUCTO, Jagwant Singh said.
He said that University Grants Commission (UGC) had already asked the states to implement the pay scale but the state government had not done yet.
The protesting teachers also condemned the state government for not hiring regular teachers in the government colleges.
"With fresh recruitment not being made, imparting in government colleges has been hit. Only 30 per cent regular teachers, including professors, have been working in the government colleges," he said adding that more than 1,300 posts of teaching staff in 60 government colleges were lying vacant.
"According to UGC guidelines, 90 per cent of the teaching staff should be regular, but in Punjab the situation is different," said Jagwant Singh said.
The PFUCTO general secretary also demanded that the state government regularise the services of 1,925 contractual college teachers who were hired in 2015.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Five rights activists were not arrested for their dissenting views but due to the cogent evidence linking them with the banned CPI(Maoist), Maharashtra government claimed in the Supreme Court Wednesday.
The apex court while ordering the house arrest of the five activists on August 29 till tomorrow had categorically said that "dissent is the safety valve of democracy".
The counter affidavit, filed by the Maharashtra police on a plea of historian Romila Thapar and others challenging the arrest of these activists in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, alleged that they were planning to carry out violence in the country and ambush the security forces.
The state police said there was sufficient evidence to "dispel" the claim that they were arrested for their dissenting views.
It also questioned the locus of the petitioners, Thapar and economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devika Jain, sociologist Satish Deshpande and legal expert Maja Daruwala, and said they were "strangers" to the investigation in the matter.
Maharashtra Police had on August 28 raided the homes of the prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested at least five of them for suspected Maoist links, sparking a chorus of outraged protests from human rights defenders.
While prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao was arrested from Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Farreira from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj from Faridabad and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha was arrested from Delhi.
The raids were carried out as part of a probe into an event called Elgar Parishad, or conclave, on December 31 last year, which had later triggered violence at Bhima-Koregaon village.
The apex court had on August 29 directed to keep them under house arrest at their homes till tomorrow. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra will hear the matter tomorrow.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Five days after the vehicle carrying five persons plunged into a river in Assam's Sivasagar district, rescuers found it Wednesday with the help of a 20 kg magnet, officials said here.
Decomposed bodies of five members of a family were also found inside the four wheeler which was recovered around 300 metre away from the accident site at Dinchial village.
The five have been missing after their vehicle plunged into the Dikhow river after breaking a dyke Saturday evening. Divers of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Army and Navy have been searching for the vehicle.
The 20 kg magnet brought from neighbouring Dibrugarh district got stuck to the bumper of the car and SDRF diver Pranjal Doley found a tyre near it, SDRF search team leader Jiten Doley told reporters.
"He then tied a rope to it and came up to inform the team members that the car has been found," the SDRF leader said.
It took around two hours to lift the vehicle from the bed of the river to its bank and five decomposed bodies were found inside it, he said.
The victims were identified as Guwahati based businessman Haren Bora (52), his wife Phunu Bora (45), daughters Simpi Bora (22) and Munmi Bora (18), and mother Ponou Bora (86).
The family was traveling from Sivasagar to Guwahati.
An eight-member team of Indian Navy deep divers were flown in from Vizag to assist the rescue operation being carried out by first response SDRF followed by NDRF and a 10-member team of Army para-commando divers, district administration sources said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Taxi hailing company Uber Wednesday claimed that its air taxi can cut travel time in a congested city like Mumbai by 90 per cent.
It had named Dallas and Los Angeles in the US as the first two cities for the commercial launch of its aerial taxi service by 2023 and has been on the lookout to select an international city as its third partner.
Uber has shortlisted five countries - India, Japan, Australia, Brazil and France - and one of them will become the first Uber Air City outside of the US.
Eric Allison, chief executive, Uber Aviation Program, illustrated that the 100-minute road journey from the city airport in the western suburbs to downtown Churchgate in south Mumbai can come down to 10 minutes using the futuristic service.
He added that the cost of flying through the service, which aims to use rooftops of high rises and erect dedicated 'skyports', will be at par with its taxis.
"This is the type of urban mobility game changer that this kind of solution brings. We think that once we are able to do it at scale as we are able to drive fully into it with the cost that these VTOL (vertical take-off landing) vehicles produce, we can do it at a cost comparable to our Uber X cost per passenger mile basis," said Allison.
He gave a presentation on the service, explaining that the vehicles used for it are akin to helicopters with multiple rotors that will fly low to keep the airspace free for jets and also have low noise levels.
According to reports, Allison is slated to meet government officials in New Delhi Thursday for the service.
According to the company, it is targeting to have electric powered vehicles which will fly in congested cities and is hoping for developments in battery technology for making up to 100 kms trips.
It eventually plans to fly the vehicles automated, sans any drivers, to do many trips across cities.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The plastic trays that passengers put their hand luggage in at airport security checkpoints harbour the highest levels of viruses, even more than toilets, a study warns.
Researchers from the University of Nottingham in the UK swabbed a variety of surfaces at Helsinki-Vantaa airport in Finland during the winter of 2016.
They set out to identify and quantify the respiratory viruses on frequently-touched surfaces in airports.
The team found evidence of viruses on 10 per cent of the surfaces tested and most commonly on the plastic trays that are circulated along the passenger queue at the hand luggage X-ray checkpoint.
The study, published in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases, concludes that hand washing and careful coughing hygiene are crucial to the control of contagious infections in public areas with high volumes of people passing through.
The findings add weight to previous studies showing that microbes are commonly found on surfaces in public transport vehicles and will strengthen public health advice in preparation for future flu pandemics, researchers said.
At Helsinki-Vantaa airport, the highest concentration of viruses was detected on the security check plastic trays with further viruses detected on shop payment terminals, staircase rails, passport checking counters, children's play areas and in the air.
The most common virus found in the survey was rhinovirus, which causes the common cold but the swabs also picked up the influenza A virus, researchers said.
Interestingly, no respiratory viruses were found on toilet surfaces, they said.
"This study supports the case for improved public awareness of how viral infections spread," said Jonathan Van Tam, a professor at the University of Nottingham.
People can help to minimise contagion by hygienic hand washing and coughing into a handkerchief, tissue or sleeve at all times but especially in public places, he said.
"These simple precautions can help prevent pandemics and are most important in crowded areas like airports that have a high volume of people travelling to and from many different parts of the world," Tam said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The AISA-SFI-DSF-AISF alliance, ABVP and NSUI today announced their candidates for the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) polls slated for September 14.
The united-Left alliance (AISA, SFI, DSF, AISF) has fielded N Sai Balaji of the School of International Studies as its presidential candidate. Balaji belongs to the All India Students' Association (AISA).
Democratic Students' Federation's (DSF) Sarika Chaudhary, a student of the School of Social Sciences, will be contesting for the post of vice-president.
A student of the School of Social Sciences, Aejaz Ahmad Rather of the Students' Federation of India (SFI) will be standing for the post of general secretary.
All India Students' Federation's (AISF) Amutha Jayadeep, a student of the School of Social Sciences, will contest for the post of joint secretary.
The Congress-affiliated National Students' Union of India (NSUI) has fielded Vikas Yadav of the School of International Studies for the president's post. Lijy K Babu of the School of Life Sciences will be contesting for the post of vice-president.
Md Mofizul Alam will be contesting for the post of secretary, while Ngurang Reena of the School of International Studies will be contesting for the post of joint secretary.
The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) fielded Lalit Pandey for the president's post, Geetashri Boruah for the vice-president's post, Ganesh Gurjar for the post of general secretary and Venkat Choubey for joint secretary's post.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A convict in the 2007 Ajmer Dargah blast case, in which three persons were killed, was accorded a hero's welcome here Sunday by a large crowd, including members of the VHP, RSS and BJP, after being released on bail.
Bhavesh Patel, one of the convicts in the Ajmer dargah blast case, was granted bail by Rajasthan High Court last week.
As he arrived in Bharuch, his hometown, from Ajmer, members of the saffron outfits as well as of the BJP-ruled Bharuch Municipality, along with general public gave him a warm welcome.
"A large number of members of Bharuch Municipality were present on the occasion," local BJP councillor Marutisinh Atodariya said.
Among those present to welcome him was Surbhi Tamakuwala, president of Bharuch Municipality.
"VHP, RSS and BJP members along with hundreds of people welcomed him as he walked towards his residence at Hathikhana Bazar from nearby Swaminarayan temple, where he went to offer prayers after his arrival here," Viral Desai, spokesperson of south Gujarat unit of the VHP, said.
Desai claimed Patel has been associated with the VHP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) since his younger days. He had also served as an office-bearer of the RSS's Bharuch unit long back.
In March 2017, a trial court had sentenced Patel and his co-accused, Devendra Gupta, to life imprisonment in the Ajmer dargah blast case.
The blast at the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer at the time of Roza Iftaar on October 11, 2007, had left three pilgrims dead and 15 others injured.
After reaching Bharuch, Patel visited the Swaminarayan temple in Dandiya bazar area.
On his way home from the temple, hundreds of people stood on the way to welcome him. As he walked towards his residence, people showered rose petals, garlanded him and shouted slogans in his support.
Dressed in saffron robes and a turban, he walked towards his residence with his hands folded in prayer as his supporters surrounded him.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sacked DMK leader M K Alagiri's rally, billed as a "massive show of strength" to press for his reinduction, was a tame affair Wednesday with the usually abrasive son of M Karunanidhi sparing party chief M K Stalin any criticism, a move seen as extending an olive branch to his younger brother.
Alagiri, a former union minister who was expelled from the party by his father and the then DMK boss Karunanidhi in 2014 at the height of the siblings' tussle for supremacy, was expected to breathe fire and brimstone at the rally ostensibly called to show his strength but the event ended not with a bang but a whimper.
The once strongman of Madurai, clad in a black shirt and dhoti as a mark of mourning for his father, was said to have mustered around 10,000 people for the rally that began from Wallajah Road junction and concluded at Karunanidhi's mausoleum on the Marina beach, 1.5 km away.
He stood on an open-top van with his loyalists holding banners hailing him as 'Anjanenjar' (Braveheart).
Alagiri's close family members--son Durai Dayanidhi and daugther Kayalvizhi-- besides a few hardcore loyalists, including former deputy mayor of Madurai Corporation P M Mannan, also wore black for the occasion, and followed him to Karunanidhi's grave where they paid floral tributes to the DMK stalwart.
Contrary to expectations, not a single DMK functionary was present. The DMK had recently sacked a village level leader Ravi for shaking hands with Alagiri.
No speeches were delivered nor any grand action plan announced, but Alagiri showed some of his characteristic belligerence when he dared the DMK leadership to sack partymen supporting him.
"Over 1.5 lakh people attended the rally. You ask them (DMK) if they will act against all of them," Alagiri told reporters.
"There is no intention behind the rally other than paying homage to Kalaignar," he said. Karunanidhi was often referred to as 'Kalaignar' (the artiste) or 'Thalaivar' (the leader) by his ardent supporters.
Days ahead of the rally, Alagiri, locked in a running feud with Stalin over succession, had made a climbdown and said he was ready to accept his younger sibling as his leader if the party reinducted him.
The Karunanidhi family projected a united picture when the DMK chief was fighting a battle for life in a Chennai hospital for 11 days before his death on August 7.
However, days after his death the bitter succession war erupted again with Alagiri claiming "all true and loyal supporters of Kalaignar" were with him.
Alagiri, who was leading a life of political exile in Madurai away from media glare, had even warned that the DMK will dig its own "grave" if it did not take him back.
However, Stalin's election as DMK president on August 28 apparently made Alagiri rethink his plans and end political grandstanding.
Sending out a signal that he was prepared to bury the hatchet just two days after Stalin's elevation, Alagiri said he was ready to accept the leadership of his younger brother if he was readmitted into the party.
"When we desire to be inducted into the party, we must then accept the (Stalin's) leadership. Isn't it?" Alagiri had told reporters.
He, however, blew hot and cold and seemed to question Stalin's elevation in the same breath.
"Is the general council alone the party? Do 1,500 members of the council alone represent the DMK? The cadres are on my side. After next month's rally more will come to my side," he said.
Before his expulsion at the height of his succession battle with his brother, Alagiri, known for his mercurial temper, had famously questioned if the DMK was a "mutt" where the pontiff could anoint his successor, an apparent reference to their father.
Though Alagiri was effectively out of since his expulsion, few had any doubt about the leader trying to reclaim the space he once had in Tamil Nadu after his father's death.
Alagiri wielded considerable clout in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu as the DMK organisation secretary for the region. Whether he retains that clout after four years of political hibernation remains to be seen.
The DMK had failed to open its account in the last Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and lost to the AIADMK in the assembly polls in 2016 when Stalin helmed the campaign after Karunanidhi began keeping indifferent health.
Now, as he leads the party into the Lok Sabha polls next year, he is up against a formidable opponent in the ruling AIADMK besides the fledgling Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) of former AIADMK leader T T V Dhinakaran.
Actor Kamal Haasan's 'Makkal Needhi Maiam' is likely to make its election debut, and so possibly would the proposed party of superstar Rajinikant.
With so many claimants for a share in the electoral pie, Stalin would have to strain every sinew to ensure the DMK finishes at the top of the table.
If Alagiri succeeds in mobilising even a chunk of DMK cadre in his favour in southern Tamil Nadu or persuade them to be passive during the polls, he could mar the party's chances at the hustings.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Allahabad High Court Wednesday ordered the state government to provide for basic security infrastructure, including installation of CCTV cameras at shelter homes across the state, for safety of their inmates.
Chief Justice DB Bhosale and Justice Yashwant Varma ordered to take basic safety measures, dismissing the Women Welfare Department's contention that the government cannot install CCTV cameras at shelter homes for want of funds.
How can the government say it cannot comply with the statutory guidelines for protection of children in shelter homes because of lack of funds? the bench shot back at the counsel on his submission.
The bench ordered the government to prepare a time line for taking various steps for safety and security of the inmates at shelter homes and apprise it of the time frame by the next date of hearing.
In an affidavit to the court, Additional Advocate General Manish Goel, meanwhile, said disciplinary actions have been initiated against 35 police officers, who sent 121 girls to Deoria shelter home despite knowing that its license had been cancelled by the government.
The court had on August 8 taken suo motu cognizance of the media reports on Deoria shelter home case involving sexual exploitations of its inmates and had said it would monitor the probe into the alleged sex racket being run from there.
The police had raided Deoria shelter home on August 5 after a minor girl escaped from there and apprised police of sexual exploitations of its inmates. The police subsequently raided the shelter home and rescued 24 inmates from there.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Unidentified gunmen on Wednesday gunned down a leader of the liberal Awami National Party (ANP) and his nephew in Pakistan's restive northwest tribal region, police said.
The unknown gunmen opened fire at the car of ANP leader Mohammad Ibrar Khalil in Tehkal area of Peshawar. Ibrar and his nephew Arshad succumbed to their injuries on way to a hospital, police said.
The motive remained unclear as Khalil, the ANP candidate in PK-74 during the recently-concluded general elections, was party to a longstanding family feud, police said.
In July, during the general election campaign, seasoned ANP politician Haroon Baloor along with 19 others were killed as suicide bomber detonated his vest in Yaka Toot area of Peshawar.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident at least five people, including a woman, were killed in restive North Waziristan tribal district.
The army has launched a military operation 'Khyber-4' under 'Radd-ul-Fasaad', which roughly translates to 'elimination of discord', to eliminate terrorists and consolidate gains of counter-terrorism operations in the country's restive northwest tribal region.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The monsoon session of the Andhra Pradesh legislature begins here Thursday amid indications that it could be the last regular session before the state heads for elections in April-May next year.
Assembly Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao said Wednesday that the session might run for 7-8 working days and could be extended.
"We may have a brief four-day session ahead of the vote-on-account Budget next March. But this will be the only full-fledged session and peoples eyes will be on it," he told reporters here.
The main opposition YSR Congress will continue its boycott of the Legislature during the monsoon session, over action against its MLAs who defected to the TDP, while the BJP, an erstwhile ally of ruling TDP, was expected to take on the government.
BJP has four members in the assembly and two in the Legislative Council.
YSRC MLAs shot off an open letter to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu saying they were ready to attend the House if the Speaker disqualified 22 of the party MLAs who 'defected' to the TDP between February 2016 and March 2017.
This is the third consecutive session of the Legislature that the YSRC will be abstaining from, protesting the "inaction" of the Speaker on its plea for disqualifying the MLAs.
Referring to the Speakers appeal to attend the House, the YSRC legislators maintained that they were ready to take part but only if the 'defectors' were disqualified forthwith.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Army chief General Bipin Singh Rawat met with a group of college students from Kishtwar district in Jammu and Kashmir Wednesday and encouraged them to contribute to the development of their area.
Interacting with the 20 undergraduate students from three colleges in different parts of Kishtwar at the South Block here, General Rawat also cautioned them against joining activities that were against the society and the country.
"You need to become doctors, engineers and teachers and contribute to the development of your area. No angel will descend from outside to do that for you," he said.
The young students in the age group of 17-19 years, accompanied by their teachers, are on a capacity building tour hosted by the Army. The tour began on September 4. They will attend the passing-out parade at Officers Training Academy in Chennai on September 8.
The youths, who were in Delhi for the first time, shared their experience with Rawat telling him about problems of poor roads and power supply back home in Kishtwar.
They also expressed their eagerness to join army and other professions after finishing their studies.
"I wanted to become an IAS officer but I am now so impressed with the Army during my two days with them that I think joining the Army is the best way to serve the society," said 17-year-old B.Sc student Akil Jaffer.
Mohammad Rafi, 19, who pursued BA, said he would become a teacher.
"Peace must be ensured for the progress of the community and society," he told mediapersons.
The Indian Army has adopted capacity building tour to give "holistic exposure" to local populace of terrorism-affected regions in the country. It intends to give them an opportunity to witness the historical legacy, cultural blend, existing development as well as future growth prospects available in the country.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Security has been stepped up, school holiday declared in one district and petrol pumps across Madhya Pradesh will remain closed Thursday in view of 'Bharat Bandh' called by some groups against the amendment to the SC/ST Act.
"We have decided to shut petrol pumps from 10 am to 2 pm tomorrow due to security reasons as some organizations have given a call for bandh," Madhya Pradesh Petrol Pump Owners Association president Ajay Singh told PTI.
Police have tightened security across the state in view of ongoing protests against the amendment to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Inspector General of Police (Intelligence) Makrand Deuskar said orders prohibiting gathering of people in large numbers have been imposed.
"The administration in most of the districts have clamped prohibitive orders under CrPC section 144 in view of the bandh on September 6," he said.
Thirty-four companies of the special armed force of police have been deployed in various districts, he said.
Jabalpur district collector Chhavi Bharadwaj has written to the state home department, seeking suspension of Internet services in the district till 6 pm on Thursday.
District Education Officer in Bhind has ordered that schools in the district will remain closed.
Meanwhile, protests against the amendment to the SC/ST Act continued in the state Wednesday.
Protesters showed black flags to former Union minister and senior BJP leader Prahlad Patel at Tikamgarh when he was addressing the party's OBC workers.
Slogans were shouted by protesters outside the venue of BJP's OBC cell's meeting in Gwalior.
After the Supreme Court diluted the provision of mandatory arrests under the SC/ST Act, sparking protests by Dalit organisations, the Union government brought an amendment in the monsoon session of Parliament to override the apex court's order.
Gwalior-Chambal region, considered a sensitive area, had witnessed large-scale violence on April 2 this year during the Bharat Bandh called by Dalit groups.
Now, upper caste organisations are protesting against the amendment.
Brahma Samagam Sawarna Jankalyan Sangathan's national president Dharmendra Sharma said about 150 organisations of upper castes and OBCs would participate in the Bharat Bandh against the amendment.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India's top singles player Yuki Bhambri and Asian Games gold-medallist Divij Sharan have pulled out of the Davis Cup World Group Play-off tie against Serbia due to injuries while Sumit Nagal has refused to join the team as a stand-by.
Sharan, who won the men's doubles gold with Rohan Bopanna in Palembang, has suffered a tear in his shoulder and Bhambri's knee injury flared up at the US Open, where he lost in the first round to Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
Saketh Myneni, who was a reserve in the six-man squad, will now be a playing member, replacing Bhambri.
N Sriram Balaji has replaced Sharan while talented Pune player Arjun Kadhe will now travel to Kraljevo as a reserve player for the September 14-16 tie.
"They have pulled out due to injuries. Divij had undergone an MRI in the US and he said it revealed a minor tear which will require at least three weeks to heal. Yuki also has a knee issue," AITA selection committee chairman S P Misra told PTI.
Asked about Nagal as a possible replacement, Misra said AITA reached out to him but he preferred to play Challenger tournaments in Poland during that time.
"We asked him to come as a replacement for Yuki but he said he would prefer playing Challengers," Misra said.
AITA secretary Hironmoy Chatterjee said Nagal's decision "surprised" the Federation.
"He said Ramkumar and Prajnesh will play singles matches and he has to come as a stand-by, so he would play Challengers. He said if he is needed, he will join but we do not pick players on conditions. We have told him, he will not be considered for this tie," Chatterjee said.
"For future ties, we will discuss, if he will be considered or not," Chatterjee said.
India captain Mahesh Bhupathi said, "we will go and try our best to be competitive as always."
Asked to react on Nagal's refusal, Bhupathi said, "I never have a view on anything to be honest."
World number 33 Filip Krajinovic will lead the home challenge in the tie, to be played on clay courts.
The last time India played Serbia was in Bengaluru in 2014 at the World Group Play-off stage, losing 2-3.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two motorcycle borne miscreants shot dead a businesswoman in Bihar's Gaya district late Tuesday evening, a police officer said Wednesday.
Kotwali police station SHO Ajay Kumar said that the deceased has been identified as Radha Kumari (35).
She was residing with her Bhabhi and niece in a rented accommodation in Jheelganj area of the town, Kumar said adding that the businesswoman was shot dead by assailants merely 50 meters away from her residence.
The incident occurred around 9:45 pm Tuesday evening when she was returning on her scooty home after shutting down her cloth shop located in Gani market area under town police station, the SHO said.
The two bike borne miscreants overtook the deceased and shot at in her temple killing her on the spot, the SHO said.
She died on the spot due to excess bleeding, the police officer said.
City Superintendent of Police Anil Kumar, Town Dy SP Raj Kumar Sah and other police officials reached the spot after getting the information last evening.
Police had taken two persons in custody Tuesday night but let them off after finding them innocent, the SHO said adding that police are conducting raids to nab the culprits.
Call details record (CDR) of the deceased's mobile phone is being examined for culling more information, he said adding that police are investigating the matter from every possible angle.
Central Bihar Chamber of Commerce president Kaushalendra Pratap Singh condemned the killing of businesswoman and termed it as dastardly act.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Maharashtra BJP accused the Opposition Wednesday of being least bothered about the people's real issues and fuelling instead the controversy over its MLA Ram Kadam's anti-women remarks, even as ally Shiv Sena demanded strict action against the legislator.
The BJP MLA's had told youngsters Monday night that he would "kidnap" a girl they like, if she rejects their proposal, but had later expressed regrets over his remarks made at a 'dahi handi' event in his Ghatkopar assembly constituency.
With Ram Kadam's remarks triggering an "outrage", the MNS and NCP Wednesday likened him to demon king Ravan for making the anti-women remark.
BJP state spokesperson Madhav Bhandari played down Kadam's remark, saying as the MLA has expressed regret over it, the matter is over.
"After Kadam regretted his comments, the chapter is over for the party now. He has tweeted about it, so there is no need to comment on it," Bhandari said.
Asked about the Opposition slamming the MLA and targeting the BJP, he said, "The opposition parties are not concerned about the 'real issues' of the state. They do not want to take any stand over issues that matter, hence they are continuing their tirade against Kadam."
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, whose party is an ally of the BJP at the Centre and in Maharashtra, however, dared Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to show "courage" and take action the MLA.
Mocking the Union government's "beti bachaao - beti padhao" slogan, Thackeray wondered if the Maharashtra BJP has launched a "beti bhagao" campaign.
He said no party should give a ticket to Kadam for making such a "snide remark" against women.
"Has the BJP started a 'beti bhagao' campaign?" he asked.
"No party should give him a ticket in the forthcoming elections. Strict action should be taken against Kadam for insulting our mothers and sisters. The Chief Minister should show courage and take action against him," Thackeray told reporters here.
He said the BJP had taken action against (BJP-backed MLC) Prashant Paricharak and (former Ahmednagar deputy mayor) Shripad Chindam in the past for making derogatory comments, and the same should be followed in Kadam's case.
The Maharashtra opposition parties earlier likened Kadam to demon king Ravan over his remarks.
The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena put up posters depicting Kadam as Ravan outside Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' residence and in Ghatkopar.
Nationalist Congress Party spokesperson Nawab Malik said the BJP's "Ravan-like" face was out and its legislator would be called "Ravan Kadam" till he apologises.
Women members of the Indian Youth Congress burnt Kadam's effigy and also thrashed it with footwear in Indapur town of Maharashtra's Pune district.
Kadam, who is heard making the comments in a video clip, has said his comments were distorted.
"I only repeated a sentence made by one of the persons standing in the crowd... It was not my sentence. The clip which has gone viral is only of 40 seconds. However, later I had said mothers, sisters and daughters in all households are 'Lakshmi' who need to be respected," he said late Tuesday.
"Yet, if I have hurt sentiments, I express regret," the MLA said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Activists of BJP's youth wing in Kerala took out a march on Wednesday against CPI(M) MLA P K Sasi, who has been accused by a woman DYFI leader of trying to sexually abusing her, and demanded his resignation.
A day after CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said the party has initiated a probe into the complaint, around 50 Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BYJM) workers, started marching towards the residence of the legislator at Kulikkiliyad in Palakkad district, raising slogans against him and demanding that he resign and face the law.
However, the protesters were stopped midway and booked for unlawful assembly, police said.
As the opposition Congress and the BJP pounced on the issue and demanded the resignation of the MLA, state minister E P Jayarajan on Wednesday maintained that it was a party matter and declined to answer questions from reporters on the issue.
"It (the complaint) has not come to us. You should ask the party secretary," Jayarajan, presiding over cabinet meetings in the absence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, now in the US for treatment, said here.
The CPI(M) heading the ruling LDF alliance has initiated the probe after the leader of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), the youth wing of the Marxist party, sent a complaint to its central leadership last month alleging that the MLA had attempted to sexually abuse her.
The issue came to fore Tuesday when Yechury told reporters in New Delhi that he had received the complaint.
"Yes, I have received the complaint yesterday and it has been forwarded to the Kerala unit (of the party). They have started enquiry proceedings into it. That is our usual practice," he had said.
BJP's state unit president P S Sreedharan Pillai alleged that the CPI(M) leadership tried to hush up the matter.
Kerala Women's Commission chairperson M C Josephine said the panel had not received any complaint on the matter.
The party and the commission were two separate entities, she told reporters, indicating that the panel cannot launch proceedings based on the complaint received by the party.
The woman had sent the complaint to CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat on August 14 and a copy e-mailed to Yechury. The accused MLA has described the complaint a "well planned conspiracy" to malign him politically.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
British parliamentarians have demanded an independent inquiry into the "forgotten scandal" of thousands of international students, including Indians, being accused of cheating by the UK government in an English language examination.
In a parliamentary debate at Westminster Hall on Tuesday, Labour Member of Parliament P Gareth Thomas said that given the seriousness of the issue, the "scandal merits a proper, thorough independent inquiry".
"I strongly agree. In fact an independent inquiry is necessary," added Wes Streeting, the Labour MP who had called the debate, which was attended by Indian-origin Labour MP Seema Malhotra among others.
Terming the incident as "social injustice" which happened under the "government's watch", Malhotra said the entire episode hit the reputation of the students' families.
She said the incident led to depression and affected whole families, including children, and demanded an "extensive apology and potential compensation".
The MPs also called on the UK Home Office to allow students, who claim to be wrongly accused, to re-sit the exam to prove their innocence.
Streeting categorised the issue as worse than the UK's recent Windrush scandal involving largely Caribbean-origin migrants being wrongfully deported from the UK.
"I am not the first to compare the dreadful mishandling of the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) cases to the scandalous mistreatment of the Windrush generation," he said.
"Our constituents undertook tests run by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), a body approved and licenced by the Home Office. They should not be punished for doing something like that. It is shameful and unacceptable that this is going on," he added.
Scottish National Party (SNP) MP Martyn Day highlighted the case at a personal level and described how his Indian partner, Nadia, had been caught up in the scandal despite having perfect English.
"When she was interviewed by an immigration officer, he said that her English was as good as his. It might even be better than mine. She clearly understands English and speaks it well. She often corrects my grammar when she gets advance sight of my press releases and speeches," Day said, adding that the rapid fall in Indian students coming to study at UK universities is linked to the scandal.
"Most of the students affected are from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, and I wonder what the lasting reputational damage to the UK will be. It can be no surprise I think there is definitely a connection that the number of student applications from India is barely a third of what is was before this situation arose," he said.
The issue dates back to 2014, when the BBC aired an investigation into colleges offering TOEIC exams and revealed some cases of cheating.
The UK Home Office responded by launching its own investigation and concluded that 33,725 of the test results were invalid and 22,694 questionable.
Those with questionable results were given the chance to re-sit a test or attend an interview before action was taken against them but the others were made to abandon their courses and, in many cases, forced to return to their countries of origin.
UK-based charity Migrant Voice recently released a report entitled 'I want my future back' based on experiences of people affected by the investigation, having arrived in the UK between 2004 and 2011.
According to its estimates, nearly 56,000 students have been caught up in the scandal and had also called on the Home Office to allow these students to re-sit exams to be able to clear their name.
Britain's immigration minister, Caroline Nokes, admitted that "innocent applicants may well have been caught up in widespread fraud" but dismissed the idea of an independent inquiry.
"It is important that we recognise that there was significant, widespread and indeed very lucrative fraud taking place in these cases. Our enforcement investigations uncovered evidence of impersonation and of proxy test-takers," she said.
"We know that the number of overseas students applying for Tier 4 (student) visas is up and there has been an increase in the number of visas granted, including 9 per cent more from Chinese nationals and 32 per cent more from Indian nationals. The UK remains an attractive place for foreign students to come to," the minister added.
Streeting described the government response to the parliamentary debate this week as "deeply disappointing" and called for a "detailed meeting" to find a resolution.
The issue centres around the requirement by some UK visa applicants to pass a test of proficiency in written and spoken English.
One of the approved tests, TOEIC, was provided by US-based ETS at a large number of test centres across Britain.
The spoken English part of the test involves the candidate being recorded reading a text, with the recording then being sent to an ETS assessor for marking.
After the BBC exposed some cheating on these tests, the Home Office instructed ETS to use voice recognition software to check test recordings from the test centres in question. On the basis of ETS' information, the Home Office took the decision to revoke many of the visas.
While the Home Office insists any "false matches" emanating from the voice recognition software was very small, campaigners have claimed that this figure is in fact very large.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje said on Wednesday that major sector reforms brought by her government were behind enhanced enrolment in public schools and improved results.
Speaking at a function here on the occasion of Teachers' Day here, she said the condition of the sector was poor when her government was formed.
"When we took over the reins, the state was on the 26th position in the country in education, but today, the state stands at number 2," Raje said in the function at Amroodon Ka Bagh near the Assembly building.
She said enrolment in government schools has increased and results have improved during her government's tenure.
"Due to the efforts made by the government, students studying in private schools are now shifting to government schools. This is the impact of what the government has done in the sector," the chief minister said.
"When we came to power, 50 per cent of the teachers' posts were vacant. After we came to power, we appointed 78,000 teachers. We brought down the percentage of vacant posts from 50 per cent to 20 per cent," she said, adding, that a few thousand teachers would also be given appointment soon.
Teachers from all over the district attended the function.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed the plea of Uttarakhand government seeking vacation of its order staying further construction activities there and observed that the states have rushed to the court as the builders may have "gone after them".
A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta also allowed the prayer of Maharashtra government seeking a clarification that there was no stay on construction activity in that state.
The apex court had on August 31 castigated some states and union territories for their "pathetic" attitude in not framing a solid waste management policy as per the 2016 Rules on the issue and stayed construction activities till they brought it out.
It had slapped a cost of Rs three lakh each on Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and the union territory of Chandigarh.
It had also imposed a cost of Rs five lakh on Andhra Pradesh for not filing an affidavit as per the court's July 10 direction and observed that even the Centre was not aware whether the state had framed the policy.
At the hearing today, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Chandigarh also moved the apex court on the issue, which led the bench to observe: "All the builders must have gone after you after our order (staying further construction)."
It asked the counsel for Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Chandigarh to file their applications in this regard.
At the outset, the counsel for Uttarakhand told the bench that they have framed the policy as per the 2016 Rule which would now go before the cabinet for approval.
"We are facing a calamity-like situation," the counsel said while referring to the landslides and formation of an artificial lake in Tehri Garhwal area in the state.
He said that due to the formation of artificial lake owing to landslides, around 13 villages were in danger.
The counsel also urged the bench that cost of Rs three lakh imposed on them should go for the relief and rescue operations going on in the state.
The court allowed the request of the Uttarakhand government.
However, the counsel also told the bench that cost were imposed on states for not framing the policy under the Rule, but the Centre has not yet framed a national policy in this regard.
Additional Solicitor General A N S Nadkarni, appearing for Centre, countered the claim and referred to the 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan' launched earlier by the government.
Senior advocate Shekhar Naphade and advocate Nishant R Katneshwarkar, appearing for Maharashtra, told the bench that the state had framed the policy in 2017 itself but due to some "communication gap", it was not conveyed to the court.
The bench questioned Maharashtra about utilisation of cess collected under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 and asked whether the money was being used on workers' welfare.
"You have collected crore of rupees under this and you are not giving it to these persons (construction workers)," the bench said and directed Maharashtra to give details about it on September 11 with regard to construction workers in Mumbai.
When Odisha's counsel said there was some "confusion" on their part during August 31 hearing due to which they could not apprise the apex court about framing of the policy, the bench said "everybody is confused when it come to implementation of law".
The issue of waste management had cropped up when the court was dealing with a tragic incident of 2015 in which it had taken cognisance of the death of a seven-year-old boy due to dengue in Delhi. The victim was allegedly denied treatment by five private hospitals here and his distraught parents had subsequently committed suicide.
The apex court had earlier taken strong note of non-implementation of solid waste management rules in the country and observed that "India will one day go down under the garbage".
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Cotton Association of India (CAI) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Wednesday signed an agreement to develop the futures trading platform for cotton.
Under the memorandum of understanding (MoU), CAI and BSE will jointly develop a user-friendly cotton exchange to cater to the hedging needs of the entire cotton value chain in the country, which will be effective for the next five years, an official release said.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had in December last year announced that from coming October, the country would have a unified exchange regime wherein stock exchanges would be allowed to offer trading in commodities derivatives.
BSE is planning to soon launch cotton futures contract, which will benefit the entire cotton sector in the country.
CAI president Atul Ganatra said the futures contract will not only help cotton growers get best price for their produce but also benefit exporters as well as the spinning mills by providing them a platform to hedge, which is now lacking in Indian cotton future market.
"Our endeavour will be to push BSE in developing an efficient, user-friendly and economical cotton trading platform, which is within the reach of a common cotton trader," he said.
He added that CAI, the parent body of 17 regional associations representing all the cotton growing regions of the country, will also extend its full cooperation to BSE by making available its infrastructure.
Further, Ganatra said, CAI had recently decided to set up a farmers training centre at its Cotton Exchange Building, and will spend Rs 1.25 crore on it in the next five years.
Maharashtra Agriculture Price Commission chairman Pashabhai Patel, who was also present on the occasion, said this endeavour will boost the cotton sector and help in its goal to double the farmers' income.
"Recently, we had a meeting with the state government where it was decided to take steps that will help in doubling farmers' income. This collaboration will help us achieve this goal," he added.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Cameroon's army on Wednesday said it had killed three people in the capital of the country's English-speaking North West region on the same day that the minister visited the area, with tensions spiking as children return to school.
Separatists in the region say the system marginalises anglophone pupils and have decreed a boycott of schools in the areas they lay claim to.
Three people were "neutralised" after having "burst into the city" of Bamenda in a car with three others on Tuesday, army spokesman Didier Badjeck told AFP.
According to a witness, numerous shots were heard Tuesday around the hotel where Minister Youssouf Adidja Alim was staying during a visit to the city to coincide with the reopening of schools.
A source close to Alim said the occupants of the vehicle had been "spotted and repelled" before they could reach the minister.
Separatist unrest in Cameroon's two minority English-speaking regions -- North-West and South-West -- has left scores dead and displaced about 200,000 people since late 2016.
Years of resentment at perceived discrimination at the hands of Cameroon's majority French speakers have led to almost daily acts of violence and retribution, triggering an army crackdown.
On Monday seven pupils and a headmaster were kidnapped by armed men at a school in Bafut, near Bamenda.
Two students and the school head were freed on Tuesday, according to information obtained by AFP.
Some secessionists have said on social media that they could not guarantee the security of children who returned to school in defiance of the boycott.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Tamil Nadu's top police official and health minister's premises were among 40 places raided by the CBI on Wednesday in connection with alleged sale of Gutka in the state even after it was banned in 2013 by the then J Jayalalithaa government.
This is perhaps for the first time the CBI raided a serving police chief of a state. For Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar, it was a double whammy as he is already under the scanner of the Income Tax Department, which raided his premises last year.
It was an early morning knock at the residence of Tamil Nadu Director General of Police (DGP) T K Rajendran, a 1984-batch IPS officer, when the CBI team presented the search warrant issued by the a special court.
The case pertains to illegal sale of gutka, a concoction of tobacco and 'pan masala' which was banned in Tamil Nadu in 2013, by Jayam Industries.
"The places searched were residential premises of the promoters/directors of the company and other public servants including officials of Sales Tax Department, Customs and Central Excise, Food Safety and Drug Administration Department and jurisdictional police officials," the CBI spokesperson said.
Rajendran was made DGP in 2016 after Ashok Kumar opted out for a voluntary retirement scheme. Officials claimed that Kumar, a 1982-batch IPS officer, was forced to seek VRS as he had recommended for a CBI probe into the gutka scam.
As the about the raids spread, clamour for the dismissal of the health minister and the police chief started doing the rounds. The opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and the CPI(M) sought their resignations or the state governor's intervention to sack them.
DMK President M K Stalin, in a statement, said, "The searches have brought shame on the state... Vijayabaskar continuing in the cabinet and Rajendran as the head of the police department will turn out to be a blot against people's rule and for the force known for its honesty."
CPI(M) state Secretary K Balakrishnan also demanded that both should be removed from their posts and made to face the probe.
"What respect will people have on police and the government after these raids? This is a very bad situation," he said.
PMK founder S Ramadoss termed the CBI searches as "appropriate" in order to nail those involved in the scam and asked why the government was "hesitant" to show the minister the door.
In the operation which started at 7 am, CBI teams swooped down on 35 locations in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Karnataka, Bengaluru and Andhra Pradesh.
The promoter-directors of Jayam Industries -- A V Madhav Rao, Uma Shankar Gupta and Srinivas Rao -- continued selling MDM brand gutka in the state even after the ban by allegedly influencing officials, politicians and regulatory authorities, the agency officials said.
Jayam Industries had rechristened it to Annamalai Industries to continue the sale.
The CBI, which started the search operation nearly three months after registering an FIR on the instructions of the Madras High Court, also raided former Chennai police commissioner S George, 2009-batch IRS officer in Central Excise R Gulzar Begum, and former AIDMK MLA from Tiruvallur constituency B V Ramanaa.
The scam came to light on July 8, 2017, when income tax sleuths raided the godown, offices and residences of the company in Tamil Nadu, which had been facing charges of tax evasion to the tune of Rs 250 crore.
During the raids, the income tax department had seized a diary containing names of those who had been allegedly paid by the gutka manufacturers.
The case was sent to the CBI by the Madras High Court in April this year on the plea of a DMK leader.
It is alleged by the petitioner in the Madras High Court while demanding a CBI probe that monthly payments worth over Rs 14 lakh were made to health minister Vijayabaskar while payments in lakhs of rupees were made to officials of Central Excise, Food Safety and Sales Tax department of the state, senior police officials and politicians among others.
This was challenged in the Supreme Court by a Tamil Nadu health official but the apex court sided with the Madras High Court order and asked the CBI to register a case.
The agency had registered the FIR against unidentified officials of the Tamil Nadu government, Central Excise Department and the Food Safety Department in May.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed the Maharashtra police to go ahead with its investigation against a lawyer who was accused of illegally possessing call detail records (CDRs) of actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui's wife.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud set aside the Bombay High Court verdict and said it should not have issued a writ of habeas corpus directing the police to produce advocate Rizwan Siddique.
It also expunged the observations made by the Bombay High Court in its March 21 judgement against the police officials in the case.
The top court said that the high court should not have made scathing observations against the Investigating Officer without giving him opportunity to offer his explanation on affidavit.
The high court order had held that in arresting advocate Rizwan Siddique, the Thane Police had acted in a "highhanded" manner and had failed to follow "due process of law".
"Suffice it to observe that since no writ of habeas corpus could be issued in the fact situation of the present case, the HC should have been loath to enter upon the merits of the arrest in absence of any challenge to the judicial order passed by the Magistrate granting police custody till March 23, 2018 and more particularly for reasons mentioned in that order of the Magistrate...
"As aforesaid, even though this appeal succeeds, since the respondent's husband Rizwan Alam Siddique has already been released after the impugned judgment, the IO may proceed against him in connection with the stated crime registered as FIR No.I31/2018 strictly in accordance with law and not merely because the impugned order has been set aside," the bench said.
The top court clarified that it was not expressing any opinion regarding the guilt of the accused or correctness of the charges levelled against him.
The high court had directed the Thane Police to release from their custody advocate Rizwan Siddique, who was arrested on March 16 for allegedly having ordered the illegal procurement of the CDR of actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui's wife.
The high court had also directed the senior-most officials of the Thane Police and the state Home department to inquire into the actions of the Thane Police and if deemed fit, initiate appropriate punitive proceedings against the officials concerned.
Rizwan Siddiqui's wife, Tasneem, had challenged the manner of his arrest and filed a habeas corpus petition in the high court.
In the plea, she claimed that her husband Rizwan Siddiqui had received a witness summon from the Thane Crime Branch Unit one on February 14.
However, around 10 pm on March 16, Thane Crime Branch officials came to his office and while recording the statement, arrested him without giving him any notice under Section 41(A) of the CrPC to give him time to make an appearance before the police, the plea read.
It alleged that the Thane police kept him in wrongful and illegal custody.
The state, however, told the high court that the Thane Crime Branch had attempted to serve the 41(A) notice on Rizwan Siddiqui.
But because he refused to accept it, he was arrested, the prosecution said.
Section 41 (A) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) sets guidelines for a prosecuting agency to arrest a person without warrant.
However, the court noted that while the notice was issued on March 15 asking Rizwan Siddiqui to appear before it on March 17 at 11 am, he was arrested before he could visit the police.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Centre will Wednesday discuss with lenders, including PFC, issues related to 'Pariwartan' scheme under which the government plans to warehouse stressed power projects to protect their value.
Power Asset Revival through Warehousing and Rehabilitation (Pariwartan) scheme looks to warehouse around 25,000 MW stressed projects under an asset management company in a bid to protect their value and prevent them from distress sale.
"There are some issues in that scheme (Pariwartan) which needs to be discussed," Power Secretary A K Bhalla said here.
He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of Coal Summit organised by India Energy Forum.
"There are some concessions that are needed from RBI like upfront valuation of the stressed assets," he said.
According to official sources, Power Minister R K Singh will chair the meeting.
A Parliamentary panel had earlier recommended new framework for resolution of stressed assets in power sector saying RBI's framework, brought in February, "addresses only financial issues, ignoring the whole range of vital issues of electricity sector".
The RBI framework laid down strict timeline after which insolvency proceedings are to be initiated. It terms even a one-day delay in debt servicing as default.
Banks are required to ensure resolution plans within 180 days after default. It covers debt exposure of Rs 2,000 crore or more.
The Centre has already recommended extension of the deadline by another 180 days in its submission before Allahabad High Court earlier this month.
Underlining that the stressed thermal power assets are a cause of concern for the country, the government had earlier said it would set up a high-level empowered panel to resolve the issues and revive such assets.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The union government would extend further aid to Kerala to rehabilitate flood affected people once the full estimate of the damage was done, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Wednesday.
Addressing the 'India for Kerala' conclave here, organised by the Times Network in association with the Times Foundation, via video message, he said the Centre's focus for the state was two-pronged.
"While carrying out relief activities, we are also focusing on the emergence of a new Kerala," he said.
Jaitley said insurance companies have been directed to settle claims and banks asked to give loans so that people can get "a breathing space in rebuilding their lives".
"Further aid from the Central government will be given once the full estimate of the damage is done.
I am sure we will see the quality of life for the Keralites reinstated", Jaitley said.
Kerala had asked for a special package and stated that loss and damage could be much more than it's plan outlay of Rs 37,272.90 crore for 2018-19.
Inaugurating the event, Governor P Sathasivam said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had clarified to him that the Rs 600 crore released by the Centre in addition to the Rs 562.45 crore already made available to the State Disaster Response Fund was only advance aid.
The Prime Minister had also informed him that additional funds would be released from the National Disaster Response Fund as per the laid down procedure, he said.
Shashi Tharoor, MP, said Kerala needed more financial support and help to rebuild the state.
On the reported Rs 700 crore UAE aid to the state, he said 'I would like to clarify that there are far richer countries than India which have accepted such aid'.
He pointed out that there was a written policy of the Modi government in 2016, stating that India could accept aid offered by a foreign country, but may not appeal for it.
He suggested that the state consider the Bhuj model of hosting a conclave after the earthquakes there in 2001 to raise funds.
Kerala could host a 'Rebuild Kerala Conference' to raise money and help in grants, loans or charity, he said.
"But for that we need a credible assessment and hence I suggest we seek help from international agencies like UN in studying the destruction caused, based on which we can arrange conclaves in creating a new Kerala', he added.
State Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac said an estimated additional amount of Rs 30,000 crore was the need of the hour to expand and rebuild roads and infrastructure.
The government had announced a relief of Rs four lakh each to the kin of those killed and Rs 10 lakh each to those who had lost their land and houses in the murderous monsoon that left a huge trail of destruction and claimed 491 lives since May 29.
Air Marshal Suresh, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Southern Air Command, Maj Gen Sanjeev Narain-General Officer Commanding, Karnataka and Kerala Sub Area, Vijay Sakhare, IG Ernakulum Range, Rajamanickam, Commissioner Food Safety were felicitated to recognise their contribution in rescue and relief operations.
M K Anand, MD and CEO, Times Network, was among those who spoke on the occasion, a release said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Tech billionaire and JD.com founder Richard Liu's arrest last week in the US stemmed from a rape accusation, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday night.
Liu was released without being charged after his arrest on Friday and has returned to China.
JD.com, the company which Liu founded in 1998, is an e-commerce juggernaut in China and the main competitor to industry leader Alibaba.
The Journal said authorities in Minnesota are investigating a complaint against Liu by a female student from China.
Liu, 45, was in that midwestern state as part of a residency for a Ph.D. program in business administration offered by the University of Minnesota.
The Hennepin County Attorney's Office said prosecutors were waiting for the case file from police investigators before deciding on whether to charge Liu, the Journal said.
Minneapolis police could not be reached for comment.
The Minneapolis Police Department over the weekend said the investigation remained active but would not confirm details of the arrest or the allegations against Liu.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Climate change is a "big challenge" in Jammu and Kashmir, and serious efforts are required to mitigate its effects, a senior forest official said here Wednesday.
Addressing a meeting convened to review the working of the Forest Department in Jammu region, state Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Suresh Chugh said protection and conservation of forests were the department's top priorities.
Removal of encroachment and reduction in forest damage were issues that need to be addressed in a time-bound manner, he said.
"Climate change is a big challenge that the state of Jammu and Kashmir is facing, and mitigating the effect of climate change is another area where the efforts are required," Chugh said.
Chugh asked all officers of the department to work with dedication and zeal, while warning them against any laxity.
"The Forest Department is 200 years old and has a legacy of disciplined working for management of forests on scientific lines, and that legacy and discipline has to be maintained in our working," he said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Wednesday urged the Centre to take quick steps for establishment of permanent High Court benches in western and southern regions of the state to fulfil the aspirations of the people of these regions.
In a letter to Union Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, the chief minister asked him to refer to his earlier letters dated 28.09.2013 and 13.02.2014, wherein he had requested that steps be taken for establishment of High Court benches in western and southern Odisha.
"There has been persistent demand from the people of these regions for setting up permanent benches of Orissa High Court to mitigate the inconvenience faced by the litigants," Patnaik said.
"I had further conveyed the assurance of the state government to provide adequate resources for establishment of the high court benches in these areas," the chief minister said in his letter, copies of which were released to media.
The views of the Orissa High Court on our recommendation have not materialised so far, he said adding it is learnt from the response received from the Centre vide a letter dated 7.10.2015 that the Orissa High Court is seized with the process of examination of statistics regarding number of cases originating from various regions.
Patnaik said the state government is aware of the various decisions of the Supreme Court including the case of Federation of Bar Association of Karnataka vs Union of India and others as well as the recommendation of the Commission headed by Justice Jasswant Singh for establishment of the bench of a High Court away from its principal seat.
"In our view, there is adequate justification for establishment of permanent benches of Orissa High Court in the western and southern parts of Odisha and the criteria laid down by Justice Jaswant Singh Commission are also substantially met," the chief minister said.
He said the Parliament has the prerogative to establish such benches in exercise of its powers under Entry-78 if the Union List.
"In the above context, it is urged that an early decision regarding establishment of permanent benches of high court in western and southern Odisha be taken by the Government of India to fulfil the aspirations of the people of these regions," Patnaik said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress General Secretary Shakti Singh Gohil Wednesday termed Rafale deal as the "grandmother of all corruption" and said the party would take out protest rallies at district level across the country from September 6 to "expose" the BJP government's involevement in the deal.
Protest rallies would be organised between September 6 to September 15, Gohil, who is party in-charge of Bihar, told reporters.
"We will not be confining ourselves in reaching to the people by holding press conferences alone on the issue of Rafale deal. But, we (party) will be holding rallies between September 6 to 15 at district headquarters level across the country to expose BJP government's involevement in the deal," Gohil said.
He said the party will also come out with a simple one page pamphlet in order to make the common men easily understand the corruption involved in the Rafale deal.
"This is not only an election issue, rather it is directly concerned with nation's security," Gohil flanked by Bihar Congress acting president Kaukab Qadri, former governor and senior party leader Nikhil Kumar, newly appointed AICC secretary and co-incharge Alpesh Thakore and Rajya Sabha MP Akhilesh Prasad Singh, said during press interaction.
Charging the Narendra Modi government of making additional payment of Rs 43,000 crore for the purchase of 36 Rafale jets, he questioned as how the price of Rafale aircraft shot up by three times during Modi's tenure from intial Rs 526 crore to Rs 1670.70 crore.
Dassault company, which manufactures Rafale jets, tabled the report in France Parliament with regard to the deal in which it revealed the price of Rs 1670.70 crore at which the deal per jet has been clinched with India, the Congress leader from Gujarat added.
Gohil also wanted to know as why the government did not gave the work to manufacture Rafale jet to HAL, which went to a private company recently launched by Anil Ambani company.
Alleging that the BJP government is trying to "conceal" the facts under the garb of secrecy clause which is not a reality, Congress leader demanded the setting up of a "Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC)" to probe the issue.
"If JPC is constituted everything will be clear once for all," he added.
Wondering that for the first time three defence ministers have been appointed in four years of Modi regime, he said that "Arun Jaitley and Manohar Parrikar managed to get rid of the ministry in order to escape corruption charge in Rafale deal. Nirmala (Sitharaman), being politically naive, is now being made the scapegoat," Gohil alleged.
BJP carried out a campaign against the Congress, alleging corruption in the Bofors deal, however no evidence was found against Rajiv Gandhi, he added.
The party may think of filing PIL if the government does not constitute a JPC or an inquiry by CAG into the issue, he said.
Gohil refused to take any question on any other issue be it farmers, law and order or grand alliance saying that his interaction is strictly confined only to Rafale deal and would answer all other questions in his another media interaction.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Alleging that the double bedroom housing scheme of the ruling TRS was a total failure, Congress in Telangana Wednesday announced a host of promises for various sections of the society, including construction of two lakh houses every year for the weaker sections.
The party's announcement comes amid speculation about early assembly polls in Telangana.,
The promises pertained to housing for weaker sections, supply of fine rice through the public distribution system, free ration and power for SCs and STs, six domestic gas cylinders for below poverty line families, bicycles to girl students and funds for Gulf migrant workers, among others, a party release said.
Telangana PCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy, after a meeting with senior leaders, announced several promises which would be implemented if the Congress is voted to power in the next elections, the elease said.
Reddy announced that the Congress would clear all pending bills of 'Indiramma Housing Scheme' once it comes to power and all semi-finished houses would be completed.
All previous beneficiaries of the scheme would be given Rs 2 lakh each for construction of another room on their own, he said.
"An amount of Rs 5 lakh each to eligible persons will also be given if they wish to construct their own house.
The next congress government would construct 2 lakh houses every year for the weaker sections," the party release quoted Reddy as saying.
He slammed the TRS Government for its "failure" to provide double bedroom houses for weaker sections.
Hitting out at the ruling TRS, Reddy alleged that stopping Indiramma Housing scheme was a "bad and disgusting" political decision which consequently hurt the homeless people belonging to weaker sections.
"Nearly four lakh units were stopped only for political motives," Reddy said.
The congress would come out with a detailed manifesto soon and the manifesto committee would be constituted after September 15, he said.
He said promises like crop loan waiver up to Rs 2 lakh, doubling of pension, unemployment allowance of Rs 3,000 to 10 lakh jobless youth, etc, would be the flagship schemes of the next congress government.
Reddy said if voted to power, the congress would implement a sub-plan for backward classes and minorities to ensure that funds are spent in proportionate to their population in the state.
He also promised that free power, up to 200 units, would be supplied to poor Dalits and Girijans.
Reddy said the promises were totally practical and would be implemented without any hassles.
"These promises are being made based on Telangana's monthly revenue of Rs. 10,500 crore.... our focus is people's welfare...," Reddy added.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Reiterating the Congress' demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the Rafael aircraft deal, senior party leader Anand Sharma Wednesday said his party would have it investigated by a 'national commission'.
Sharma attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the deal, alleging that "he favoured a private company with no experience in defence sector and which was formed just 12 days ahead of the deal."
Terming the Rafael deal as the "biggest defence scam ever", he said all legal formalities were breached to favour a private company that was given contract ignoring the expertise of an experienced Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in the defence sector.
He also accused the Union government of misusing the central agencies like CBI and ED to settle political scores.
He said the government has created an atmosphere of fear among the people and those raising their voices against it are being targeted by the agencies to muffle their voices.
Stating that Modi had earlier questioned former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2014 over rising prices of diesel and petrol and the depreciation of rupees against US dollar, Sharma said the fuel prices are hovering today at the level where it was during Singh's tenure.
It's the NDA government in power now and Modi must answer as to why the value of Indian rupees had fallen so steeply and why the fuel prices are skyrocketing.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 30-year-old traffic police constable died Wednesday after he was run over by a vehicle in Taloja area in Navi Mumbai, around 50 kms from here, the police said.
The incident occurred at Nitalsar Phata (diversion) when the constable Atul Gagare was returning to the beat outpost after clearing a traffic congestion at around 5 AM, a police official said.
The incident was reported by some rickshaw drivers to the Taloja traffic police.
Gagare was rushed to a government-run hospital in rural Panvel where he was declared dead before admission, he said.
Police are yet to identify the vehicle that mowed down the constable.
A case has been registered against an unidentified driver.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As automation and robots transform human tasks, changing the skill-sets required for diverse jobs, companies across industries are spending about 25 per cent of the learning and development (L&D) budget on training sales teams, a survey said.
Further, the overall average L&D spend per employee is Rs 41,838 per annum, with a major focus on sales teams, talent assessment firm Mettl's said in its 'State of Workplace Learning and Development Report 2018'.
The survey, conducted among 1,500 L&D experts across the country, revealed that over 80 per cent organisations have some sort of structured L&D.
About 38 per cent L&D experts said improving employee performance in the company is the prime focus of their programmes this year.
"Since the learner of today is more demanding and evolved, it is necessary to plan the L&D programmes in depth. Aligning L&D interventions with the individual as well as business goals for achieving desired outcomes is critical to ensure that employees attend these programmes," said Ketan Kapoor, co-founder and chief executive officer, Mettl.
Meanwhile, the average spend per employee in senior level is three times compared to the entry-level employees, according to the survey.
Also, 37 per cent of L&D experts said they find 'assessment technology' the most effective way to evaluate the success of these programmes among employees.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A couple in a romantic relationship allegedly committed suicide by consuming some poisonous substance at the Kanpur railway station, police said Wednesday.
The interfaith couple, Abid and Lalita, had eloped from Sikanderpur village on August 30, they said.
According to SHO (Miranpur) Manoj Choudhry, the couple was found in a critical condition at the station on Tuesday and rushed to a hospital in Kanpur where they declared dead.
The parents of the girl had lodged a complaint of abduction against Abid after the couple eloped, police said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A flyover in the Bhiwandi powerloom town here in Maharashtra developed cracks and was closed Wednesday for vehicular traffic, an official said.
Notably, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had travelled Monday on the bridge during his visit to the town to attend the 'Dahi Handi' festival.
A slab of the Rajiv Gandhi Flyover developed cracks. A 'crater' was formed on the bridge after some of its cement plaster fell off, an official of the Bhiwandi Nizampur Municipal Coporation's disaster control cell said.
Some of the iron rods on the bridge were also dangling precariously, he said.
Bhiwandi Nizampur Municipal Commissioner Manohar Hirey and disaster cell chief Suresh Gaikwad conducted an inspection of the flyover Wednesday morning.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A year after Gauri Lankesh was shot dead outside her home in Bengaluru, many other journalists continue to face death threats, attacks and false charges, Amnesty International India said Wednesday, asserting it is a "dangerous" time to speak truth to authorities in India.
The rights body said attacks on journalism not only stifle the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression but also have a "profound silencing effect".
It cited the house arrest of civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha and Left-leaning poet Varavara Rao on charges of having ties with Maoists as examples of crackdown on free speech.
Lankesh, known for her strong anti-Hindutva views, was gunned down on September 5 last year outside her Rajarajeshwari Nagar residence. Some of the people arrested in the case are allegedly linked to Hindu rightwing groups.
A year after the killing, the SIT investigating the case said the probe is in the final stage and a chargesheet will be filed in two months.
"Gauri Lankesh's death anniversary is an occasion for us to introspect on how people who expose the truth, including journalists and whistle-blowers, are increasingly under attack in India.
"While it is heartening that the investigation into Gauri Lankesh's murder seems to be progressing, investigations into several other attacks on journalists and whistle-blowers have yielded precious little. It is a dangerous time for anyone who speaks truth to power in India," said Aakar Patel of Amnesty India.
According to Reporters Without Borders, in the first six months of 2018, at least four journalists have been killed in India and at least three more have been physically attacked.
Several other journalists have received threats for journalism that is critical of the State. In August, two journalists were arrested in a nationwide crackdown on human rights defenders, Amnesty India said in a statement.
"Journalism cannot be suppressed by those refusing to acknowledge the truth," Patel said, adding, "This occasion is also a good time to call for investigations into all attacks on journalists."
Amnesty India said Lankesh's killing is part of a growing pattern of attacks on journalists in the country.
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) ranked India 12th in its 2017 Global Impunity Index, which ranks countries where the murder of journalists are least likely to be prosecuted.
According to data available with the National Crime Records Bureau, between 2014 and 2017, as many as 204 attacks against mediapersons have been registered in India.
India's position among 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index has gone from 136 in 2017 to 138 in 2018, the body said.
It pointed out besides journalists, others who expose corruption and rights violations like whistle-blowers and Right to Information (RTI) activists are also being targeted.
Around 14 cases of attacks against whistle-blowers and RTI activists were recorded in 2017 according to National Crime Records Bureau data, it said, adding that activists say the actual number could be much higher.
The Whistle Blowers Protection Act, 2014 has not been operationalised and the Union government has proposed amendments that will dilute the protection provided by the Act, and drastically increase the risks for whistle blowers, the body added.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Actor Daniel Craig has signed on as a lead in the murder mystery, "Knives Out".
The indie thriller will be directed by "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" helmer Rian Johnson, reported Deadline.
Craig, 50, best known for playing famed British spy James Bond in four films, will portray a detective who is assigned to solve a murder case in the new movie.
The script has been penned by Johnson who will also produce the project alongside partner Ram Bergman.
The new film will mean that Craig's fifth outing as James Bond in another film will be delayed further.
The as-yet-untitled film is likely to miss its release date of November 8, 2019 in the US after the departure of director Danny Boyle over "creative differences".
Johnson said Boyle's exit from Bond 25 gave him the opportunity to pursue Craig for his film.
"I have been a huge fan and always wanted to work with him and as I worked on the script, trying to get it right, Ram and I were wringing our hands over who could be the detective," Johnson said.
"Then, serendipitously, we heard Daniel might have a small window, and it worked out. He's an actor of extraordinary range, and we are looking forward to the fun of finding that modern detective, and collaborating with Daniel on creating a new Poirot," he added.
"Knives Out" will begin shooting in November this year.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das Wednesday invited the Chinese companies to invest in food processing industry in the state.
According to an official release, Das called on the secretary of the Communist Party of China of the Henan province, Wang Guoshang, and invited the Chinese industry people to invest in the food processing sector in Jharkhand as it has vast opportunities for the investors in the sector.
Das informed Guoshang that Jharkhand is organising Global Agriculture and Food Summit on November 29 and 30 this year in which companies of the agriculture and food processing sector from across the world are participating.
About 30,000 companies are working in the food processing sector in the Henan sector and they have big investment possibilities in Jharkhand.
Welcoming Das, Guoshang highlighted the growing Sino-India relationship and underlined that the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, had three one-to-one meetings with the Chinese president this year, the release said.
And these meetings have given a new dimension to the diplomatic relationship of the two countries, it said.
Das highlighted the importance of Jharkhand and informed him the Itkhori area (in Chatra district) could be developed as a centre of Lord Buddha because this was the place from where Lord Buddha had initiated his spiritual journey.
The chief minister said Henan province of China has a deep relationship with Buddhism and so it could be the basis of a strong bonding between Henan province and Jharkhand.
Guoshang praised Jharkhands ease of doing business and growth rate and the state is full of (investment) possibilities, it added.
Das is on a five-day tour of China from September 1 to obtain information about latest technology.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Scores of Congress supporters held a huge protest in east Delhi's Gandhi Nagar on Wednesday as part the party's 'Nyay Yudh' campaign, with its Delhi unit chief Ajay Maken alleging that both the AAP and BJP were responsible for the "illegal sealing" of household industrial units in the national capital.
Senior Congress leader Arvinder Singh Lovely, Haroon Yusuf and former Delhi MLA Mukesh Sharma also took part in the protest in the area which has a number of such units.
The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) launched the campaign, seeking to make sealing the party's poll plank.
Challenging the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party on the issue of sealing, Maken alleged that due to "irresponsible act and anti-people policies by both these parties (AAP, BJP), the people of Delhi are suffering".
Three resolutions against "illegal sealing" in the area were placed by Lovely in front of the crowd and passed unanimously with scores of people raising their hands in support, the DPCC said in a statement.
"The resolutions strongly condemned the BJP and AAP governments for the sealing of non-polluting household industries despite these industries having legal cover," it said.
According to the statement, the resolution also demanded from both the AAP in Delhi government and the BJP in the municipal corporations that on the basis of the legal cover given to the household industries in the city's Master Plan, the "definition of household industries be changed to make it to 11 employees, and power (parameter) from 5 kv to 11 kv.
"The resolution also sought immediate implementation of those measures not only in Gandhi Nagar, but all over Delhi to save the non-polluting household industries and livelihoods of lakhs of people from sealing," the DPCC said.
Sharma claimed that 'Nyay Yudh' will "prove to be the last nail in the coffin of the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party".
He said the agitation will be spread to rest of Delhi and the Congress will soon announce the second phase of the stir.
Sharma alleged that the MLAs and councillors of the AAP and BJP were "looting small-scale industrial unit owners and shopkeepers by creating an atmosphere of fear, by cashing in on the illegal sealing".
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Odisha government's two departments Wednesday differed on the funding pattern of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's flagship health scheme the Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) launched in the state.
The BSKY was launched in the state on August 15.
While the Health and Family Welfare department claimed that the BSKY was fully state funded, Finance department revealed that centre too contributes to Odisha's universal healthcare coverage scheme.
Additional Chief Secretary, Finance Department, T K Pandey in a press conference Wednesday after presentation of the supplementary budget, had informed that an amount of Rs 700 crore will be contributed by the Central government towards BSKY while Rs 1375 crore will be spent by the state government.
Pandey informed that an amount of Rs 2075 crore per annum will be spent on implementation of BSKY in the state.
Immediately after Pandey's press conference, Health and Family welfare department in a statement claimed that there is no Central government support to the BSKY which is fully funded by the state government out of its own resources.
The statement said that the state government will spend Rs 1003.52 crores for the BSKY in the current financial year.
"An impression has been created in certain sections of the media that there is a Government of India contribution towards the Biju Swasthya KalyanYojana(BSKY), which is not a fact," the Health and Family Welfare department statement said.
It said that the BSKY is an umbrella scheme of Odisha government, which aims to provide universal health coverage, with special emphasis on the health protection of economically vulnerable families.
Under the BSKY, annual health coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family and Rs 7 lakh for the women members of the family, is provided for over 70 lakh economically vulnerable families in the state. "Towards this component, the state government will be bearing Rs 290 crores in the financial year 2018-19," it said.
BSKY also has provision for free health services for all (irrespective of income, status or residence) in all state government health care facilities starting from Sub center level up to District Head Quarter Hospital level. Towards this, the state government will be spending Rs 713.52 crores in the financial year 2018-19.
On Pandey's statement in the press conference, the Health and Family Welfare department said that Additional Chief Secretary, Finance, inadvertently mentioned the Central share toward the National Health Mission, which is a separate National scheme to fund various Public Health Programmes in the country.
This (NHM) support is provided by the Centre to all States, since the inception of the Mission. This share of the centre towards NHM funding, comes to about Rs 785 crores.
The Odisha government has not accepted the Centre's Ayushman Bharat Health Scheme.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Her feet were swollen, her legs weary and her body aching, but Sunita Devi was indefatigable as she held aloft a red flag and walked through the capital on a rain-drenched Wednesday morning, one of the many thousands of workers and farmers in a long and winding road of red.
Driven by desperation and determined to be heard, the Left affiliated rallyists gathered from all corners of the country, some walking for miles, others hopping on to buses or trains, to press for their demands.
The charter includes implementation of remunerative prices for farm produce, loan waivers, just labour laws and a minimum wage of Rs 18,000 a month.
Bound by their desire for a better life, they all had their stories.
Sunita Devi, 50, said she came from all the way from Jodhpur, leaving her family.
"I have seen my land been taken by landlords as I couldn't pay back the loan my husband took for buying new seeds. This government often talks about loan waiver, but my loans have never been waived.
"I am hear to raise my voice against this government. It has done nothing for farmers like us," she said determinedly.
The Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally - organised jointly by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and the All India Agricultural Workers' Union (AIAWU) -- began from Ramlila Maidan in the rain and passed through various roads to culminate at Parliament Street.
Carrying red flags, the marchers raised slogans against the policies of the BJP government and assailed the ruling party's "communal and divisive" agenda.
Also in the gathering was Bhau Ram Shivram Ghumare, a 42-year-old from Nashik who arrived in the capital two days ago only to find that the rain had washed away the arrangements made for them at Ramlila Maidan.
But he was undeterred.
For Ghumare, the Delhi rally is a continuation of the "Long March" he took part in in March when he walked from Nashik to Mumbai.
He was just 11 when he started farming with his father. Three decades on, he has not been able to get his own land.
"We travelled from Nashik to Mumbai for our demands, but the Maharashtra government fooled us then. So now we have travelled to Delhi to demand our rights. They tell us to trust them each time, but don't fulfil their promise," he said.
Swaroop, 25, covered the distance from Kerala to Delhi with his three friends on a motorcycles.
"My friends and I travelled from Kerala to Delhi in seven days crossing many states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telegana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh meeting farmers on our way. We realised that the state of farmers is seriously bad. We told them that the time has come to raise our voice against the government's policies," Swaroop said.
Estimating that about 1.5 lakh people had gathered, organisers said this was the first time after Independence that farmers and workers jointly participated in a rally against the government.
According to AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah, the government has not done anything for farmers since it came to power.
"For the last four years, this BJP government has fooled us. It has never done anything for farmers. We have always demanded that the government should give farmers remunerative price as per the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee. We have asked for the minimum wage for the workers which should be not less than Rs. 18,000 per month," he said.
He alleged that government has ignored their demands. "Now it is high time. We will continue our struggle till our demands are met," Mollah told the gathering.
The leaders warned that they would continue their struggle till they "change the Central government".
"Workers and farmers coming together has enthused the other sections of the society. Now the Youth Federation has decided to organise a rally on November 3 protesting against unemployment in the country. Before that, they will hold a 24-hour dharna in front of all central government offices in all districts," said Tapan Sen, CITU general secretary.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Political parties in Jammu and Kashmir reacted sharply on Wednesday to National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval's comments that a separate constitution for the state was probably an aberration pointing out that it was a part of the 'Instrument of Accession'.
The People's Democratic Party (PDP), which was till recently an ally of the Centre's ruling BJP, said those who believe in accession of the state to the Union of India should also have faith in the instrument of accession.
"Anyone who believes and endorses the accession of Jammu and Kashmir with India should also have faith in clause 8 of the Instrument of Accession which provides for internal sovereignty of the state," PDP chief spokesperson Rafi Ahmad Mir said in a statement.
He said "unwarranted" remarks of the NSA when the Kashmir valley was witnessing a political turmoil, showed his "insensitivity" towards the people of the state.
"The state's internal sovereignty is a matter of right and has a historical significance, although this sovereignty had been reduced to a hollow shell over these years, it continues to be a matter of our identity, symbolic of our collective struggle against autocratic rule," he said.
The PDP spokesman said it was unfortunate that when a Muslim-dominated state rejected the two-nation theory and went to accede to a Hindu-majority nation with trust, "we are being harassed, pushed to the wall by these assaults on our state's special status".
This selective discrimination and assaults on the state's special status will only "alienate" the people further as the government of India at the time of accession gave an undertaking that the people of Kashmir could frame their own constitution, he said.
"I would like the NSA to know that the Instrument of Accession is a valid legal document and nobody should forget the essence of clause 8 of the Instrument of Accession, which shows in its opening sentence that the instrument did not in any way effect the 'sovereignty in and over' the acceding state," the PDP spokesperson said.
Similar views were expressed by senior NC leader Abdul Rahim Rather.
If the Constitution of J&K is an aberration then I am very sorry to say, the instrument accession of accession is in itself an aberration, Rather told reporters.
Jammu and Kashmir Congress chief G A Mir also said Article 370 of the Constitution which provides special status to the state and said noises for its abrogation have no takers in the country.
Claiming that the situation in Kashmir situation had deteriorated, G A Mir said the Congress would not lag behind in the process of conduct of panchayat and municipal elections but a decision should be taken after reviewing the ground situation.
"Different people speak differently about Article 370 which is a special safeguard for the people of the state. The whole world knows that Jammu and Kashmir's accession to India is based on some conditions, the biggest being the special status, having own constitution and flag," he told reporters here.
The Congress leader, who led a rally from party headquarters at Shaheedi Chowk to the office of deputy commissioner at Wazarat road in Jammu, was reacting to NSA) Ajit Doval's statement.
He said there were many examples in the world where smaller states enjoy a status like Jammu and Kashmir enjoys with India.
"People raise such things for vote bank but statements like these will have no takers in the country," the Congress leader said.
On Tuesday in New Delhi, NSA Doval had said that having a separate constitution for Jammu and Kashmir was probably an "aberration" as he stressed that sovereignty can never be compromised.
Speaking at the launch of a book on Vallabhbhai Patel, Doval also paid glowing tributes to the first home minister of India, saying he made significant contributions in laying a strong foundation of the country.
Doval said sovereignty "cannot be a diluted and ill-defined", and added that when the "British left, probably they did not want to leave India as a strong sovereign state."
In this context, he said Patel could see through the plan of the British to sow seeds of disintegration in the country.
"His contribution is not about the merger of the states, it is only a means to an end. The thing was that to make a sovereign state in which there was the sovereignty of the people was established in the Constitution, which is applicable to the whole of it. Probably with Jammu and Kashmir, where the Constitution was...in a truncated form...another constitution of J&K continued to exist, which is aberration," Doval said at the event at Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), a think-tank.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that dropping bombs and missiles on Syria's last rebel-held province of Idlib could cause a "massacre," in remarks published Wednesday.
"God forbid, a serious massacre could take place if there is a rain of missiles there," Erdogan told journalists on his plane after an official visit to the Central Asian state of Kyrgystan, Hurriyet daily reported.
His comments come as Syrian troops mass near the northwestern region of Idlib for a major assault that is raising fears of a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale not yet seen in the seven-year-old conflict.
Damascus and its main backer Moscow have vowed to root out the jihadist groups that dominate Idlib province.
Russia, an ally of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, on Tuesday resumed air strikes on Idlib after a 22-day pause.
Turkey, which backs some of the rebels, has held several rounds of talks with Russia aimed at averting an assault on Idlib, as well as with Washington.
"Our cooperation with Russia now is very important. The United States sends the ball into the corner of Russia and Russia into the corner of the US," he said.
Erdogan talked of a "very merciless process" unfolding in Idlib, warning of the risk that heavy fighting would trigger an influx of refugees.
"3.5 million people live there. God forbid, it is again Turkey where those people will flee in case of a disaster," Erdogan said.
Idlib is one of the so-called "de-escalation" zones set up as a result of talks by Russia, Turkey and Iran last year as Damascus regained control of more of the country.
Erdogan as well as the presidents of Iran and Russia will meet on Friday in Tehran for a summit expected to focus on Idlib.
"God willing we will succeed in averting the extreme actions of the regime there by getting a positive result from the Tehran summit," he said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Madhya Pradesh police Wednesday picked up a retired employee of the Army's Central Ordnance Depot (COD) here for allegedly supplying spare parts of weapons to a man who was recently caught with an AK 47 rifle in Bihar.
A police officer said they suspect that the former armourer was in contact with some working as well as retired COD personnel involved in illicit arms business.
"We have picked up Purshottam Lal, a retired armourer (repairer of weapons) of the COD. We are questioning him after his name cropped up during the interrogation of Imran Alam, from whose possession AK 47 rifles were recovered in Bihar," Superintendent of Police Amit Singh said.
The SP said Lal retired from the COD in 2008.
However, Singh declined to reveal the modus operandi of the accused saying it would negatively impact the probe.
The police suspect that the retired employee of the COD used to supply spare parts of junked weapons to Imran and other persons involved in illegal gun manufacturing and smuggling, sources in the police department said.
The COD junks the arms after they are of no use to the Indian Army. Such scrap is officially auctioned, they added.
"Lal might have repaired some components of the auctioned arms and might have supplied it to Imran and elsewhere," sources said.
Colonel Arun Kumar, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Army Central Command's Madhya Bharat Area here, could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.
Bihar police had last week claimed to have busted a gunrunning racket with the arrest of Mohd Imran Alam, from whose possession three automatic rifles, hundreds of ammunition and spare parts used in the assault weapon were recovered.
A police party conducted a raid in Jubilee Well locality of Jamalpur town in Munger district of Bihar and arrested Alam, who was carrying a bag and a blanket inside which the items were concealed, an officer had said.
The Bihar police officer had said that during his interrogation, Alam said he had brought the weapons from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh and was intending to sell them locally.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt was arrested Wednesday by the Gujarat CID in connection with a 22-year-old case of alleged planting of drugs to arrest a man, police said.
Bhatt and seven others, including some former policemen attached with the Banaskantha Police, were initially detained for questioning in the case.
Shortly after being questioned, Bhatt was arrested by the Crime Investigation Department while others are still kept under detention, Director General of Police, CID, Ashish Bhatia said.
Bhatt was the Banaskantha district superintendent of police in 1996. He was dismissed from the service in 2015.
As per the case details, the Banaskantha Police under Bhatt had arrested one Sumersingh Rajpurohit, an advocate, in 1996 on charges of possessing around one kg of drugs.
At that time, the Banaskantha Police had claimed that drugs were found in a hotel room occupied by Rajpurohit in the district's Palanpur town.
However, a probe by the Rajasthan Police had revealed that Rajpurohit was allegedly falsely implicated by the Banaskantha Police to compel him to transfer a disputed property at Pali in Rajasthan.
It had also found that Rajpurohit was allegedly abducted by the Banaskantha Police from his residence at Pali in Rajasthan.
Following the Rajasthan Police's investigation, former police inspector of Banaskantha, I B Vyas, had moved the Gujarat High Court in 1999 demanding a thorough inquiry into the matter.
In June this year, the high court had handed over the probe in the case to the CID while hearing the petition.
The high court had asked the CID to complete the probe in three months.
Bhatt was in August 2015 sacked by the union home ministry on grounds of "unauthorised absence" from service.He has been a vocal critic of the ruling BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media platforms.
Bhatt had last week met Patidar leader Hardik Patel, who is on an indefinite fast since August 25 at his residence demanding reservation for his community and farm loan waiver.
Recently, the BJP-ruled Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation razed illegal construction at Bhatt's residence here after the Supreme Court dismissed his plea seeking a stay on the demolition.
Bhatt had several run-ins with the BJP government in the past over the issue of the 2002 post Godhra riots.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt was detained Wednesday by the Gujarat CID in connection with a
22-year-old case of arrest of a man for alleged possession of drugs, a senior police official said.
Bhatt and seven others, including some former policemen attached with the Banaskatha Police, were detained for questioning in the case, Director General of Police, Crime Investigation Department (CID), Ashish Bhatia said.
Bhatt was the Banaskantha district superintendent of police in 1996.
As per case details, the Banaskatha Police under Bhatt had arrested Sumersingh Rajpurohit, an advocate, in 1996 on charges of possessing around one kg of drugs.
At that time, the Banaskanta Police had claimed that drugs were found in a hotel room occupied by Rajpurohit in the district's Palanpur town.
However, a probe by the Rajasthan Police had revealed that Rajpurohit was allegedly falsely implicated by the Banaskatha Police.
It had also found that Rajpurohit was allegedly abducted by the Banaskatha Police from his residence at Pali in Rajasthan.
In June this year, the Gujarat High Court had handed over the probe in the case to the CID while hearing Rajpurohit's plea.
The high court had asked the CID to complete the probe in three months.
The CID found substance in charges against Bhatt, which led to his detention, Bhatia said, adding that Bhatt and some others could be arrested after questioning.
Bhatt was sacked by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in August 2015 for "unauthorised absence" from service.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Delhi High Court Wednesday directed former Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd promoter Malvinder Singh to deposit with it 3.5 million Singapore dollars, which he obtained by selling his shares in a company in violation of court's direction.
Justice Rajiv Shakdher said undoubtedly there has been disobedience of the court's previous directions by Malvinder, who along with his brother Shivinder Singh, was directed not to sell their assets.
The court's order came after it was informed by the counsel for Malvinder, who was present in the court, that his 45 lakh equity shares in Religare Healthcare Pvt Ltd were sold in Singapore in April.
The counsel said Malvinder had received 3.5 million Singapore dollars by selling the shares and the amount was used by him and his brother to pay EMIs of an apartment in Singapore to avoid any default of payment.
The court was hearing a petition of Japanese pharma major Daiichi Sankyo, which had come to the high court seeking execution of the Rs 3,500 crore Singapore tribunal arbitral award won by it in April 2016.
Daiichi's counsel contended that Malvinder was in contempt of the court's February 19 directions by which the two brothers were directed to maintain status quo on the assets they have disclosed during the case.
The court had restrained the brothers and 12 others from selling or transferring their shares or any movable or immovable property as disclosed by them before the high court earlier.
Taking note of the breach of directions passed by it, the judge said, "Undoubtedly there had been disobedience of the directions of the court. For the moment respondent 1 (Malvinder) is directed to deposit the money received by him upon sale of these shares with the registry of this court."
The court, during an over two-hour-long hearing, directed that the amount be deposited within four weeks.
On being informed that the local commissioner, appointed by the court, has sold shares of the Singh brothers in listed companies, the judge said that Rs 9.2 crore received from the sale be released to Daiichi.
The court, however, asked Daiichi to file an affidavit stating that if orders are passed in future to re-deposit the money, it will be complied with.
The court turned down the plea of several private banks, including Yes Bank and Axis Bank, to whom Singhs owned money, that some amount shall be released to them also as the DRT has passed attachment order in their favour.
The high court had on August 10 restrained the Singh brothers from operating their bank accounts in India or abroad and selling any property.
It had directed the brothers and their firms RHC Holding Pvt Ltd and Oscar Investments Ltd to disclose the bank account details.
The court had also recorded on oath the statements of the brothers in which they were asked various questions ranging from number of bank accounts in India and abroad, their balances, properties, sculptures and assets.
A Singapore tribunal had in April 2016 passed the award in Daiichi's favour holding that the brothers had concealed information that their company was facing probe by the US Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Justice while selling its shares.
The high court on January 31 had upheld the international arbitral award passed in the favour of Daiichi and paved the way for enforcement of the 2016 tribunal award against the brothers who had sold their shares in Ranbaxy to Daiichi in 2008 for Rs 9,576.1 crore. Sun Pharmaceuticals Ltd had later acquired the company from Daiichi.
It had, however, said that the award was not enforceable against five minors, who were also shareholders in Ranbaxy, saying they cannot be held guilty of having perpetuated a fraud either themselves or through any agent.
Daiichi had moved the high court here seeking direction to the brothers to take steps towards paying its Rs 3,500 crore arbitration award, including depositing the amount. It had also urged the court to attach their assets, which may be used to recover the award.
On February 16, the Supreme Court had dismissed Singh brothers' appeal against the high court verdict upholding the international arbitral award.
Singh brothers' counsel had argued that the award granted consequential damages which were beyond the jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal and the award cannot be enforced under the provision of the Arbitration Act.
They had claimed that Daiichi was fully aware of all facts and still chose to retain the Ranbaxy shares, instead of terminating the agreement and returning them.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Facebook and Twitter executives assured Congress on Wednesday that they are aggressively working to root out foreign attempts to sow discord in America, and they pledged to better protect their social networks against manipulation during the 2018 midterm elections and beyond.
Facebook's No. 2 executive, Sheryl Sandberg, and Twitter's CEO, Jack Dorsey, testified before the Senate intelligence committee in the morning, but there was an empty chair for Google parent company Alphabet, which refused to send its top executive.
In the afternoon, Dorsey went before a House panel alone to address Republican concerns that Twitter is censoring conservatives. Dorsey denied that is happening.
The hearings come at a critical time, just two months before the midterm elections and as President Donald Trump has charged that Twitter is biased against Republican views.
Senators had sharp words for Alphabet CEO Larry Page. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., suggested the company was a no-show because it was "arrogant." Sandberg's appearance came several months after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified at highly publicized Capitol Hill hearings.
Like Zuckerberg, she acknowledged Facebook's lag in recognizing Russian efforts to manipulate Facebook during and after the 2016 presidential election. Sandberg detailed Facebook's efforts to fight the problem with new technology and manpower.
"We are even more determined than our adversaries, and we will continue to fight back," she said.
Dorsey was candid with both committees about what his company needs to improve, while defending Twitter against allegations of bias.
Holding his phone throughout the hearings, Dorsey tweeted some of his opening statement to the Senate: "We aren't proud of how that free and open exchange has been weaponized and used to distract and divide people, and our nation. We found ourselves unprepared and ill-equipped for the immensity of the problems we've acknowledged."
He added: "Abuse, harassment, troll armies, propaganda through bots and human coordination, misinformation campaigns, and divisive filter bubbles that's not a healthy public square. Worse, a relatively small number of bad-faith actors were able to game Twitter to have an outsized impact."
As the executives spoke, the Justice Department announced that it would look at whether their companies are hurting competition and "intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms." Justice Department spokesman Devin O'Malley said Attorney General Jeff Sessions will meet with a number of state attorneys general later this month to discuss the department's concerns.
Sandberg, 49, has extensive Washington experience, typically acts as her company's public face and clearly felt comfortable answering to the senators. The bearded and tieless Dorsey, 41, is far less of a public figure and was quiet and respectful in his answers. Both contrasted with Zuckerberg's sometimes awkward defiance during his Washington appearance in April.
Thirteen Russians were indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller this year on charges of taking part in a plot to disrupt the 2016 election by creating fake social media accounts that pushed divisive issues.
Both Facebook and Twitter are using artificial intelligence and other increasingly sophisticated technology to combat manipulation. Facebook is going after "inauthenticity," or fake accounts. Twitter is focusing on analyzing behavior patterns to find suspicious activity because Twitter technically allows "fake" accounts.
The companies have made many policy changes and have caught and banned malicious accounts over the past year. Still, their business models free services that rely on attracting as many users as possible for as long as possible and finding out as much about them as possible remain the same, and that has posed challenges in rooting out those bent on mischief.
GOP Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the Intelligence committee chairman, commended the companies for their efforts but said Congress is concerned that not enough has been done.
"Clearly, this problem is not going away," Burr said. "I'm not even sure it's trending in the right direction." Dorsey said Twitter has continued to identify accounts that may be linked to the same Russian internet agency cited in Mueller's indictment.
He said Twitter has suspended 3,843 accounts it believes are connected to that agency. Facebook has also taken down pages this year that it believes were tied to the agency.
At the House hearing, Energy and Commerce chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., cited recent complaints that Twitter limited the visibility of prominent Republicans on its platform a charge echoed by Trump himself.
"It takes years to build trust, but it only takes 280 characters to lose it," Walden said.
Dorsey has strongly denied that political ideology has played a part in any Twitter algorithms that determine what users see.
The assertion that conservatives are being censored has also been pushed by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and the No. 3 House Republican, Steve Scalise of Louisiana.
Committee Democrats charged that Republicans were manufacturing the issue ahead of the November elections.
"This hearing appears to be one more mechanism to raise money and generate outrage," said Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the committee's top Democrat. Other Democrats called it a "charade" and "a load of crap."
Twitter came under fire from some on the far right after suspending conspiracy theorist Alex Jones last month, as did Facebook. Jones made an angry appearance Wednesday outside both hearing rooms, telling reporters he was there to "face my accusers."
Jones railed against the government, media and social media companies for more than 40 minutes in the hallway as the Senate hearing began. Later, he heckled a reporter outside the House hearing room.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Thousands of farmers and labourers from across the country held a massive protest in the national capital on Wednesday against what they called "anti-people" policies of the Modi government, and demanded higher prices for farm produce, waiver of loans and better wages.
The protesters, holding placards and shouting anti-government slogans, marched from Ramlila Maidan to Parliament in Central Delhi, and warned the ruling BJP that it will have to pay a heavy price in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls for ignoring the demands of the disadvantaged people.
The 'Mazdoor Kishan Sangharsh Rally', organised by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and All-India Agricultural Workers' Union (AIAWU), also demanded concrete measures to generate jobs, minimum monthly wage of Rs 18,000 for workers, halting "forcible" land acquisition and stopping changes in labour laws.
The organisers claimed nearly 1.5 lakh farmers and labourers from at least 23 states have participated in the protests, preparation for which had started several months back. The protest has thrown the traffic out of gear in several parts of Delhi.
"The massive protest is a warning to the BJP government ahead of the Lok Sabha elections as for the last four years it has ignored the demands of the farmers and the workers," said Tapan Sen, general secretary of CITU, a leading trade union.
Carrying red flags and wearing red caps, the marchers raised slogans against the policies of the BJP government and assailed the ruling party's "communal and divisive" agenda.
The organisers said this was the first time after Independence that farmers and workers jointly participated in a rally against the government.
The farmers in various parts of the country have been holding protests demanding loan waiver and better prices for farm produce.
Addressing the rally, AIKS leader Vijoo Krishnan claimed 36,000 farmers have committed suicide over the last few years and said the BJP government is piling up miseries on the marginalised section.
"For the last four years, this BJP government has fooled us. It has never done anything for the farmers. The government should give farmers remunerative price as per the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee," AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah said.
"We will continue our struggle till our demands are met," he said, adding the struggle will continue till "we change the central government".
He said all other farmers' organisations will hold a long march and come to Delhi on November 30. "Trade unions will also hold a two-day strike by the end of the year," he said.
The rally was also supported by a large number of artists, academicians and left-wing intellectuals.
A large number of protesters arrived in Delhi around three-four days ago.
"Workers and farmers coming together has enthused the other sections of the society. Now the Youth Federation has decided to organise a rally on November 3 protesting against unemployment in the country. Before that, they will hold a 24-hour dharna in front of all central government offices in all districts," said Sen.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Traffic was hit in the national capital on Wednesday due to a farmers' rally, which saw thousands of people converging at Ramlila Maidan via major arterial roads in central and Lutyens' Delhi, police said.
Organised by Left-wing farmers' and workers' outfits, the Mazdoor Kishan Sangharsh Rally, began from Ramlila Maidan and culminated on Parliament Street.
The organisers claimed nearly 1.5 lakh people from at least 23 states participated in the march, preparation for which had started several months ago.
The protest threw traffic out of gear in parts of Delhi.
Sansad Marg, Janpath and KG Marg were closed for movement of vehicles, leading to congestion on alternate routes taken by motorists, a senior police officer said.
The rally started around 9.30 am, when it was raining and ended at 4 pm, which meant that traffic was affected on roads in the national capital through the day.
Traffic was affected on Ashoka Road and Baba Kharag Singh Marg, the officer said.
Traffic diversions were put in place around Delhi Gate, Paharganj Chowk, Minto Road, Barakhamba Road, KG Marg, Janpath and Copernicus Marg.
Commuters had a tough time negotiating their way in Lutyens' Delhi. They were stuck on alternative routes like Panchkuiyan Road, Minto Road, DDU Marg, ITO, Jawaharlal Nehru Marg, Tolstoy Marg, etc.
Connaught Place was choked as farmers walked from Ramlila Maidan towards Parliament Street via Ranjeet Singh flyover, which led to traffic congestion on adjoining roads.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Thousands of farmers and affiliated to Left-wing outfits took out a protest march in the capital Wednesday, demanding implementation of remunerative prices for farm produce, loan waiver, labour laws and a minimum wage of Rs 18,000 a month.
The 'Mazdoor Kishan Sangharsh Rally' - being organised jointly by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and All-India Agricultural Workers' Union (AIAWU) -- began from the Ramlila Maidan amidst rains and passed through various roads to culminate at the Parliament Street.
Carrying red flags, the marchers raised slogans against the policies of the government and also assailed the ruling party's "communal and divisive" agenda.
AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah, alleged the government has "never done anything" for farmers since it came to power.
"For the last four years, this government has fooled us. It has never done anything for the farmers. We have always demanded that the government should give farmers a remunerative price as per the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee. We have asked for the minimum wage for the which should be not less than Rs 18,000 per month," he said.
He alleged that government has ignored their demands. "Now it is high time. We will continue our struggle till our demands are met," Mollah told the gathering.
The leaders warned that they would continue their struggle till they "change the Central government".
" and farmers coming together has enthused the other sections of the society. Now the Youth Federation has decided to organise a rally on November 3 protesting against unemployment in the country. Before that, they will hold a 24-hour dharna in front of all central government offices in all districts," said Tapan Sen, the general secretary of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU).
He said that after the dharna, all other farmers organisations will come together, hold a long march and come to Delhi on November 30. "Trade unions will also hold a two-day strike by the end of the year," he said.
"So, we will continue our struggle throughout the year. In this process of struggle, people will gradually understand their no. 1 enemy and accordingly they will decided what to do in the coming elections," Sen said.
The rally was also supported by artists, academicians and left-wing intellectuals who came in support of farmers and workers and demanded the Centre accept their demands.
ALSO READ: Farmers' protest disrupts national capital as opposition targets Modi govt
Meanwhile, traffic was affected in the Lutyens' Delhi due to the rally. The Delhi Traffic Police tweeted updates on the march. The Parliament Street, Janpath and KG Marg were closed for traffic movement which led to congestion on the alternate routes, the police said.
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray Wednesday slammed the Maharashtra police for holding a press conference last week over the arrest of five Left-wing activists in multi-city raids for alleged Maoist links and favoured timely filing of chargesheet rather than labelling the accused as "Urban Naxals".
He said the government should submit evidence in the court instead of revealing everything before the media.
Instead of labelling the accused as 'Urban Naxals' or 'Hindu terrorists', charge sheets should be filed in time, Thackeray said while referring to the cases involving the five activists as also to the probe into recent seizure of explosives across state for which some people allegedly associated with right-wing groups have been arrested.
"A new system has started, wherein the police reveals everything before the court takes a decision. Even the court has expressed its displeasure over this... If what you're doing is right, submit evidence before the court soon," the Sena chief told reporters here after a meeting with his party leaders.
On Friday last week, State Additional Director General (Law and Order) Parambir Singh along with the Pune police had addressed the media in connection with the arrest of five activists.
During the press conference, Singh had read out letters purportedly exchanged between the activists and had claimed the police had "conclusive proof" to link the Left-wing activists arrested in June and last week to Maoists.
Pune police had on August 28 raided homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested five of them -- Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Sudha Bharadwaj in Faridabad and Gautam Navalakha in Delhi.
The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the Elgaar Parishad event on December 31 last year, which was followed by violence at Koregaon-Bhima in Pune district the next day.
Separately, the Maharashtra ATS last month arrested five persons after explosives were seized from different places in the state, which according to the police were to be used to trigger blasts at various places.
Thackeray said since terrorism has no religion, why should those arrested be labelled either as 'Hindu terrorists or Urban Naxals'.
"Whether you call them Urban Naxals or blame the Sanathan Sanstha, chargesheet should be filed against them in time," he said.
"Why have all of them become active during this government's tenure? If a pro-Hindutva government is in power in the country, why are Hindu terrorists, if at all they are, springing up now," he said.
Thackeray also slammed the central government over what he called the "failed" note ban decision and said, "Who will take the responsibility of the loss to the country's economy and of the people who died while standing in queues? Will you accept this was a mistake?"
Thackeray also said he had called Gujarat's Patidar leader Hardik Patel and expressed his solidarity with him over his ongoing hunger strike.
"I have extended my support to him and told him we need fighters like you. I also requested him to withdraw his hunger strike," Thackeray said.
Patel has been on an indefinite fast in Ahmedabad since August 25 with demands including farm loan waiver and reservation for the Patidar community under OBC category in government jobs and education sector.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Brother of Goa Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar has been booked on charge of assaulting a local panchayat representative, the police said Wednesday.
Panchayat member of Old Goa, Nilkant Bhomkar, has lodged an FIR against Dhaku Madkaikar, the younger brother of Madkaikar Tuesday evening, a police official said.
Bhomkar claimed that when he was getting out of the panchayat hall after attending a meeting of tribal bodies, he was stopped by Madkaikar and his cousin Mahesh Pilgaonkar and was beaten up.
"They were alleging that I had disrespected the minister during the meeting because of which they were upset with me," Bhomkar stated.
In a cross complaint, Dhaku's wife stated that Bhomkar had threatened her and her husband.
Old Goa police inspector Sudesh Velip said both the complaints are being investigated.
Pandurang Madkaikar (BJP) was admitted in a private hospital in Mumbai on June 5 this year, after he suffered a brain stroke.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Security forces arrested five cadres belonging to different proscribed outfits from separate areas of Manipur, police said Tuesday.
A combined team of Manipur police and Assam Rifles held one woman cadre of banned United National Liberation Front (UNLF) from Leitanpokpi area in Imphal East district on Tuesday, a police statement said.
In another search operation the same day, security forces arrested an active member of proscribed militants organisation Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) from Andro Lupaochum Leikai in Imphal East district.
A member of proscribed militant outfit Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) was held from Wangkhei Loumanbi area in Imphal East district on Saturday, it added.
The same day, two cadres of proscribed outfit Zeliangrong United Front (ZUF) were held from a check gate at Chini Ingkhol in Bishnupur district, it said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Five pilgrims returning from Pokhran were killed Wednesday afternoon after their car collided head-on with a truck near Balesar on the Jodhpur-Jaisalmer Highway, police said.
All victims were from Gujarat, and were returning after paying obeisance at the shrine of Baba Ramdeo, SHO (Shergarh) Sawai Singh said.
The truck carrying apples was trying to overtake another vehicle on the highway when it collided with the car coming from the opposite direction, he said.
Four victims died on the spot, Singh said, adding that a fifth one succumbed to injures in a hospital.
"The truck coming from Jodhpur hit the car while it was apparently overtaking another vehicle. The collision was so intense that car got stuck in the truck and was dragged a few metres before the truck finally stopped," he said.
The victims have been identified as Shankar Bhai, Keshu Bhai, Narayan Bhai, Amrit Bhai and Bharat Bhai, all in their 30s, the SHO said.
According to Singh, all five belonged to Amja village in Gandhi Nagar.
The family members of the deceased have been informed and the bodies have been kept at the Community Health Centre in Balesar, he said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
German based multinational firm MANN+HUMMEL Wednesday launched its 'OurAir' brand in Bengaluru offering end-to-end indoor air quality solutions.
The firm's India managing director Pradeep Randhawa said they expect the market to grow rapidly over the next few years.
"The launch of OurAir in India is timely. There is an increase in public awareness, growing demand for pollution-free offices and homes, and new government regulations and building standards supporting the adoption of clean air solutions," he told PTI.
The company, which has expertise in filtration with cutting edge digital solution, has ventured into the air quality improvement business by launching smart devices such as air quality monitors, filters, purification and ventilation systems, and linked them with the OurAir digital platform.
The company said OurAir solutions helps building owners, facility managers and tenants to know, improve and manage the air quality in the building.
Randhawa said the company has three plants in India--Peenya and Tumakuru in Karnataka and Bawal in Haryana.
Their first plant was set up in Tumakuru.
"Our air quality monitoring machine can give you information about the quality of air on a real time basis and switch on the filters, purification and ventilation systems using internet of things from whichever place the user was located," Randhawa added.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said Wednesday the government need not respond to daily or weekly changes in the oil prices as they declined in July after showing northward movement a month ago.
Crude oil has gained USD 7 a barrel in a fortnight, driven by fears that the US sanctions on Iran will likely contract supplies.
"Weekly, daily or periodic changes in global oil and commodity prices are to be observed but don't necessarily have to be responded.
"The prices rose in June but then declined in July. Is not it? Same situation may happen again, therefore policy can not be a knee-jerk reaction to periodic events in the markets," Kumar told PTI.
Petrol and diesel prices in the country have been rising owing to a sharp rise in global crude oil rates.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram has blamed the NDA government for rise in petrol and diesel prices, saying it was happening due to "excessive taxes".
Petrol price in Delhi on Tuesday rose to a record Rs 79.31 a litre and diesel climbed to an all-time high of Rs 71.34, renewing calls for a cut in excise duty to cushion the spike.
Almost half of the retail selling price of the two fuels is made up of central and state taxes.
Replying to a question on the reasons for economic slowdown in 2016-17, he said it was not exclusively on account of demonetisation, there were also other factors responsible for it.
"Simple point, I am making is that the slowdown in economic activity during 2016-17 was not a result exclusively of demonetisation, but also a result of the declining trend in the economic activities which started from the last quarter of 2015-16," he said.
On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the demonetisation of high-value currency notes of Rs 500/1000.
India's economic growth slipped from 8.2 per cent in 2015-16 to 7.1 per cent in 2016-17 and further to 6.7 per cent in 2017-18.
Almost half of the fuel price is made up of taxes. The Centre currently levies a total of Rs 19.48 per litre of excise duty on petrol and Rs 15.33 per litre on diesel.
On top of this, states levy Value Added Tax (VAT) - the lowest being in Andaman and Nicobar Islands where a 6 per cent sales tax is charged on both the fuel.
Mumbai has the highest VAT of 39.12 per cent on petrol, while Telangana levies the highest VAT of 26 per cent on diesel. Delhi charges a VAT of 27 per cent on petrol and 17.24 per cent on diesel.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 28-year-old woman has alleged that she was raped by a gynaecologist inside his cabin at a private hospital here, the police said Wednesday.
Following the FIR lodged by the woman late Tuesday, police booked the doctor under section 376 (Punishment for rape) of the IPC.
As per the FIR, the accused called the woman inside his cabin while asking her husband, who was accompanying her, to sit outside, and raped her, said Athwa Lines police inspector S B Bharwad.
The victim was taken to Surat civil hospital for check-up.
Further investigation is underway.
The doctor is not yet arrested, the official said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Author and journalist Bhagwatikumar Sharma died at his residence in Surat city of Gujarat Wednesday morning, family sources said. He was 84.
Sharma, a recipient of several awards including the Sahitya Akademi Award, died due to age-related ailments, the sources said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several other leaders expressed grief over the author's death.
"Anguished by the demise of Shri Bhagwatikumar Sharma Ji, a noted Gujarati author and journalist. His passion towards academics, literature and learning were extremely noteworthy. His works will continue to be widely read and admired. Condolences to his family and well wishers," Modi tweeted.
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said Sharma's death has left a huge vacuum in the literary world.
Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda also condoled the author's demise.
Born in May 1934, Sharma authored novels, short stories, poetries, essays and articles during his 65-year career.
He received Ranjitram Suvarna Chandrak in 1984 and the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1988 for his novel 'Asooryalok'.
In 2017, the Gujarat Sahitya Akademi honoured him with the 'Sahityaratna' Award.
He was conferred a Doctorate of Literature by Veer Narmad South Gujarat University in 1999.
In 2011, he received the Harindra Dave Memorial Award for journalism and the Vali Gujarati Gazal Award for his contribution to literature.
Some of his famous Gujarati novels include 'Aarti Ane Angara' (1957), 'Man Nahi Mane' (1962), 'Rikta' (1968), 'Vyaktamadhya' (1970) and 'Samaydvip' (1974), among others.
He had also worked in different genres of poetry such as ghazal, geet and sonnet.
His first ghazal collection, 'Sambhav', was published in 1974, followed by 'Chhando Chhe Pandada Jenan' (1987), 'Nakhdarpan' (1995), 'Jhalhal' (1995) and 'Adhi Aksharnu Chomasu' (2002), among many others.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said Wednesday that India has gifted the "Guru-Sishya" (teacher-student) tradition to the world.
Today is #TeachersDay. Teachers are our gurus. The guru-sishya parampara is a gift of India to the world, Banerjee wrote on her Twitter handle.
She said that her government has initiated the Siksha Ratna Samman to honour outstanding teachers for their contribution to the field of
In recognition of the contribution of teachers in schools, colleges and universities, our govt felicitates outstanding teachers with 'Siksha Ratna Samman' on Teachers Day, she added.
Teachers' Day is celebrated in the country to pay respect to the teachers for their contributions to the society.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The CBI today carried out searches at around 40 locations in Tamil Nadu, including at the residences of state's health minister and the director general of police, in connection with the Gutka scam, officials said.
They said the searches are spread across the state but did not reveal exact locations at this stage, saying it may hamper the ongoing operations.
The residences of Health Minister C Vijayabaskar and DGPTK Rajendran, besides that of a former senior police official, among others are being searched, they said.
The scam came to light on July 8, 2017, when income tax sleuths raided the godown, offices and residences of a pan masala and gutka (a concoction of tobacco and pan masala) manufacturer in Tamil Nadu, who had been facing charges of tax evasion to the tune of Rs 250 crore.
The manufacture, storage and sale of the chewable forms of tobacco, including gutka and pan masala were banned by the Tamil Nadu government in 2013.
During the raids, the department had seized a diary containing names of those who had been allegedly paid by the gutka manufacturers.
The case was sent to the CBI by the Madras High Court in April this year on the plea of a DMK leader.
The agency had registered an FIR against unidentified officials of the Tamil Nadu government, Central Excise Department and the Food Safety Department in May.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The DMK described the CBI searches at the residences of Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar and Director General of Police T K Rajendran a "shame" on the state and along with other opposition parties, demanded that the two be sacked.
The CBI carried out searches at around 40 locations in Tamil Nadu, including at the residences of Vijayabaskar and Rajendran in connection with the Gutka scam.
Demanding resignation of both Vijayabaskar and the state police chief, DMK President M K Stalin, in a statement, said, "The searches have brought shame on the state... Vijayabaskar continuing in the cabinet and Rajendran as the head of the police department will turn out to be a blot against people's rule and for the force known for its honesty."
Hence, the Health Minister and the DGP should voluntarily quit their posts. If not, the Governor Banwarilal Purohit should dismiss them without further delay, he said and recalled the DMK earlier moving court seeking a CBI probe into the Gutka scam, pertaining to alleged pay-offs by a gutka manufacturer.
CPI(M) state Secretary K Balakrishnan also demanded that Vijayabaskar and Rajendran be remove from their posts and made to face the probe.
"What respect will people have on police and the government after these raids? This is a very bad situation," he told PTI, adding the CBI should take the case to its logical conclusion.
PMK founder S Ramadoss termed the CBI searches as "appropriate" in order to nail those involved in the scam and asked why the government was 'hesitant' to show the minister the door.
In a statement, he said the PMK has for the last two years been insisting that Vijayabaskar be sacked as minister over the issue.
"By not removing Vijayabaskar, the K Palaniswami-led dispensation doesn't seem to be a government protecting people's welfare but that of scam-tainted ministers," Ramadoss said, adding the minister and the DGP continuing in their posts was 'unacceptable,' and they along all others connected in this case should be dismissed by the state government.
The CBI on Wednesday carried out searches across the state and had swooped down, among others, the residences of Vijayabaskar and DGP T K Rajendran, besides that of a former senior police official.
The scam came to light on July 8, 2017, when income tax sleuths raided the godown, offices and residences of a pan masala and gutka (a concoction of tobacco and pan masala) manufacturer in Tamil Nadu, who had been facing charges of tax evasion to the tune of Rs 250 crore.
The manufacture, storage and sale of the chewable forms of tobacco, including gutka and pan masala were banned by the Tamil Nadu government in 2013. During the raids, the IT department had seized a diary containing names of those who had been allegedly paid by the gutka manufacturers.
The case was sent to the CBI by the Madras High Court in April this year on the plea of a DMK leader.
The agency had registered an FIR against unidentified officials of the Tamil Nadu government, Central Excise Department and the Food Safety Department in May.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
DMK described the CBI searches at the residences of Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar and DGP T K Rajendran a "shame" on the state and along with other opposition parties, demanded they be sacked, even as the minister termed it as political vendetta and vowed to come clean facing the matter legally and politically.
The ruling AIADMK, however, dismissed opposition calls for resignation or sacking of Vijayabaskar, saying Wednesday's raids were a 'routine' affair done under court direction and that anyone is 'innocent' before law till proven guilty.
The CBI carried out searches at around 40 locations in Tamil Nadu, including at the residences of Vijayabaskar and Rajendran in connection with the Gutka scam.
Vijayabaskar, in a statement, said that since the raids were carried out by CBI on a court direction following a plea by DMK, he was ready to extend full cooperation to any probe as a "law-abiding citizen."
He said he extended full cooperation to the CBI probe Wednesday and that he has not directly or indirectly met Madhav Rao, the gutka manufacturer.
"Some think that they can finish me from by repeatedly spreading baseless charges due to political vendetta," he said.
Relying on a Tamil saying, he said only those who perform well will be targeted.
"It is normal for my political rivals to level such charges against me as I am working tirelessly to make the Health department a pioneering one in the country," he said.
Stating that he had nothing to hide, the minister said he would face this problem legally and politically and come out of it.
The government was taking many steps to implement a 2013 ban on sale of gutka and pan masala, he added.
Meanwhile, DGP Rajendran reportedly met hief Minister K Palaniswami in the wake of the CBI searches at his residence.
Demanding resignation of both Vijayabaskar and the state police chief, DMK President M K Stalin, in a statement, said, "The searches have brought shame on the state... Vijayabaskar continuing in the cabinet and Rajendran as the head of the police department will turn out to be a blot against people's rule and for the force, known for its honesty."
Hence, the Health Minister and the DGP should voluntarily quit their posts. If not, Governor Banwarilal Purohit should dismiss them without further delay, he said and recalled DMK earlier moving court seeking a CBI probe into the Gutka scam, pertaining to alleged pay-offs by a gutka manufacturer.
CPI(M) state Secretary K Balakrishnan also demanded that Vijayabaskar and Rajendran be remove from their posts and made to face the probe.
"What respect will people have on police and the government after these raids? This is a very bad situation,"he told PTI, adding that CBI should take the case to its logical conclusion.
PMK founder S Ramadoss termed the CBI searches as 'appropriate' in order to nail those involved and asked why the government was 'hesitant' to show the minister the door.
In a statement, he said PMK had for the last two years been insisting that Vijayabaskar be sacked as minister over the issue.
"By not removing Vijayabaskar, the K Palaniswami-led dispensation doesn't seem to be a government protecting people's welfare but that of scam-tainted ministers," he said, adding the minister and the DGP continuing in their posts was 'unacceptable,' and they along all others connected in this case should be dismissed by the state government.
Responding to opposition criticism, senior AIADMK leader and fisheries minister D Jayakumar said the central agency had carried out searches as per a court direction and that such things were done 'routinely.'
"Before the law, they are innocent (until proven guilty). There is an investigation and various procedures. It will be determined only in a court whether someone is guilty," he told reporters.
The investigating agency will probe the allegations and produce the material before a trial court, he added.
The question of Vijayabaskar quitting on moral grounds would arise only after the verdict in the case, he said.
CBI Wednesday carried out searches across the state and had swooped down,among others, on residences of Vijayabaskar and the DGP, besides a former senior police official.
The scam came to light on July 8, 2017, when income tax sleuths raided the godown, offices and residences of a pan masala and gutka (a concoction of tobacco and pan masala) manufacturer in Tamil Nadu, who had been facing charges of tax evasion to the tune of Rs 250 crore.
The manufacture, storage and sale of the chewable forms of tobacco, including gutka and pan masala were banned by the Tamil Nadu government in 2013.
During the raids, the IT department had seized a diary containing names of those who had been allegedly paid by the gutka manufacturers.
The case was sent to the CBI by the Madras High Court in April this year on the plea of a DMK leader.
The agency had registered an FIR against unidentified officials of the Tamil Nadu government, Central Excise Department and the Food Safety Department in May.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A top over-ground worker of Hizbul Mujahideen, who was involved in encouraging youth to join the terror group and revive militancy in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir, has been arrested, the police said Wednesday.
Touseef Ahmad Gudna alias Abu Bakar was arrested on specific information Tuesday, a police spokesman said.
The arrest of the hardcore motivator came just two months after police unearthed a module of the outfit planning to carry out grenade attacks and revive militancy in the district.
Gudna's name came to the fore during interrogation of the two Hizbul Mujahideen activists who were arrested on July 1 and with his arrest, there is "likelihood of decrease in terrorist activities and reduction in the number of youth indulging in anti-national activities", the spokesman said.
Gudna, a close associate of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Mohammad Amin alias Jehangir, was also involved in a militancy-related case registered in police station Parimpora in Srinagar last year.
He was also reportedly in contact with another terrorist Lattiin 2017. Gudna allegedly helped transfer money to Jehangir's wife, the spokesman said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The ruling BJP in Haryana held a 'manthan shivir' in Morni Hills in Panchkula district on Wednesday to firm up the strategy for parliamentary and assembly elections next year, and decided to hold a mega rally to mark the completion of four years of the M L Khattar government.
Interestingly, the BJP meeting was held two days before the monsoon session of state assembly begins in Chandigarh.
Opposition parties are set to corner the Haryana government in the House on a range of issues including the SYL canal project and the law and order situation in the state.
In December last year, the Khattar government had organised a 'Chintan Shivir' at Timber Trail resort in Himachal Pradesh, inviting sharp criticism from opposition parties, who had dubbed the event an "excursion".
But Khattar had asserted that a "blueprint" of a New Haryana was prepared at the meeting.
In Morni Hills, the BJP decided to invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the rally in Karnal on October 28, two days after the Khattar government completes four years in power, Haryana Transport Minister Krishan Lal Panwar said.
Karnal is Khattar's assembly constituency.
"From Karnal, the state unit will sound the poll bugle for the next elections," Panwar told PTI.
He said the leaders at the meeting discussed welfare schemes launched by the central and state government.
He said the state BJP will hold a meeting of its state executive in Rohtak on September 13-14.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A strike call given by employees of state-owned Haryana Roadways fizzled out Wednesday as the police detained protesting workers in pre-dawn action at several depots.
Officials claimed the bus services across the state remained normal.
Union leaders had halted bus services at a few depots on Tuesday night, but they were restored in the morning, officials said.
The police rounded up several employees, including union leaders, at the depots to foil protests.
They resorted to a mild lathicharge at a few depots, including Fatehabad and Jind, as some employees sat on dharna at the main gates to stop buses from leaving.
The Haryana government had imposed the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA)to prevent the one-day strike from taking place.
Prohibitory orders under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were imposed at some places to prevent the assembly of more than four people.
Police said several Roadways employees were detained for defying these orders.
The Roadways employees had given a call for the day-long strike to protest against the government move to allow private buses to run within and from the state.
Union leaders claimed that some workers suffered minor injuries in the police action.
Employees sat on dharnas at Fatehabad, Jind, Hisar, Ambala, Tohana, Sirsa, and Panchkula.
The Haryana government had on August 30 invoked the ESMA for six months, barring bus workers from going on the proposed strike.
Earlier, Transport Minister Krishan Lal Panwar had termed the strike call "unjustified".
However, opposition Indian National Lok Dal had slammed the government's move to invoke the ESMA, saying such a measure was not needed.
The Roadways employees have gone on strike earlier during the past year as well.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Haryana Governor Satyadev Narayan Arya exhorted the teaching fraternity on Wednesday to supplement the efforts of the state government by instilling a sense of moral values and nationalism among students.
Arya was addressing a gathering on the occasion of the Rajya Shikshak Puraskar Samaroh organised at the Haryana Raj Bhawan here, an official release said.
On this occasion, 32 teachers of the state were honoured with cash awards of Rs 21,000, certificates and medals, it said.
As per state government policy, the awardee teachers would be granted an extension of two years in service and two annual increments in their salary.
Laying emphasis on job-oriented in the present day scenario, Arya said, "I am happy that under the able leadership of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Haryana is the first state to start the National Vocational Educational Qualification Framework scheme for skill development of students right from the school level."
Under this scheme vocational courses have been started in 1,051 schools of the state.
The governor said Teachers' Day, celebrated on the birth anniversary of former President Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, was an opportunity for teachers to introspect on how they could perform better and contribute towards nation building.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Rajasthan High Court Wednesday temporarily banned meetings and rallies at a public park in its vicinity following difficulties faced by lawyers and litigants in reaching it today during a chief minister's function at the ground.
While banning rallies, demonstrations etc at the ground called Amrudo ka Bagh, a bench of justices M N Bhandari and D C Somani also asked authorities not to divert the traffic at nearby Ambedkar Circle and other points leading to the court.
The bench issued the interim order on oral complaints by lawyers, who had been stuck up in the traffic snarls due to an ongoing functions of Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje Scindia to celebrate the Teachers' Day and address the teachers.
Taking cognisance of the lawyers' complaint, the bench turned it into a public interest litigation and sought the state government's stand on the plea to ban rallies and meetings at Amrudo Ka Bagh permanently, which often makes the high court out of bounds for lawyers and litigants.
The bench sought the government's stand, issuing notices, amongst others to the chief secretary and the state police chief, asking them to file their replies by the next date of hearing of the matter.
The bench also asked High Court's Bar Association president Anil Upman to assist the court as amicus curiae in the matter.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Uttarakhand High Court dismissed Wednesday a contempt petition filed against Justice Lok Pal Singh of the court.
Previously, the court had questioned the petitioner on the validity of the petition.
Advocate C K Sharma had filed the contempt plea, claiming that during the proceedings of the court, the advocate was allegedly insulted by the judge.
A division bench of Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia asked the petitioner as to how such a petition is maintainable without the express sanction of the Advocate General.
Since the sanction could not be established, the petitioner requested the court for some time to look into the constitutionality and validity of the matter.
While dismissing the petition, the court observed that the duty of a judge after all is to dispense justice -- without fear or favour, affection or ill will, without passion or prejudice.
It is not a part of his duty to please litigants, or keep lawyers in good humour.
The principal requirement for all judges, and particularly for a judge of Court of Record, is to maintain his independence.
He often has to deal with cases having high stakes, which are fiercely contested by both sides.
Lawyers and litigants sometimes can be cantankerous, even unruly. Unpleasant situations and angry exchange of words at the Bar are not uncommon.
A judge can also be very helpless in situations like this. Irresponsible accusations may be thrown against a judge by a disgruntled lawyer or litigant.
Therefore, for the sake of the independence of judiciary, a judge has to be protected from vexatious charges and malicious litigations.
Intemperate comments and undignified banter undermine the public confidence in a judge. Public confidence is an absolutely essential condition for realising the judicial role. Public confidence does not mean being popular in the eyes of the public or being pleasant, the court said.
On the contrary, public confidence means ruling according to the law and according to the judge's conscience, whatever the attitude of the public may be.
Public confidence means giving expression to history, not to hysteria. Public confidence is also the ultimate strength of a judge.
The court further observed, "Eugen Ehrlich, the noted sociologist, had famously said 'there is no guarantee of justice except the personality of the judge'.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Jharkhand High Court Wednesday directed the state government to regularise 226 teaching and non-teaching staff of different project girl schools in the state and reimburse them their back wages with all the allowances.
Justice S N Pathak, who had reserved the order after hearing both the sides, pronounced the judgement asking the government to regularise and pay them their dues Wednesday, coincidentally the Teachers Day.
According to a writ filed by the aggrieved teachers, a total of 226 teaching and non-teaching staff of different project girl schools were working without salary since 1985.
When the then Bihar government did not listen to their demands, they approached the Patna High Court, pleading regularisation and reimbursement of salary.
Jharkhand separated from Bihar and became a separate state in 2000.
In a scheme of the then Bihar government, a total of 650 staff had been appointed in four phases between 1981 and 1985.
The government regularised the 1981/82 batch while leaving out the rest, the writ said.
In 1989, the Patna High Court asked the government to regularise them. The Bihar government, however, challenged the order in the Supreme Court.
The apex court upheld the Patna High Court order and directed the state government to inquire into every appointment and regularise it.
After the creation of Jharkhand, the state government set up a committee in 2006, which recommended regularisation of services of only about 10 per cent of the staff after inquiry and in 2011, the 10 per cent staff was regularized.
The committee left out the 90 per cent of the teachers saying that they did not have any teaching training and some of the teachers had not completed graduation.
They then challenged the committee's recommendation in 2016 in the Jharkhand High Court. The writ urged that the state government make a policy to accommodate teachers without training.
The high court in July, 2017 directed the state government to formulate a policy in this regard.
The state government formulated a policy in April, 2018, but as per the petitioners, the policy was not in full compliance with the Supreme Court order.
The petitioners once again challenged the policy in the Jharkhand High Court and after hearing the matter, the court passed the order Wednesday in which it allowed the writ and passed the order to the state government to regularise the services of all the 226 teaching and non-teaching staff within two months and pay their back wages and allowances accordingly.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
How do you correctly pronounce Nikon? Turns out that Eamon, who used to work for Nikon, knew the answer.
Quoth he:
Aaaargggghhhhh!! This "debate" drives me insane. There is no debate. It's settled. Zero room for disagreement. Nikon Corporation (that's Nikon Japan) officially and consciously blesses all regional pronunciations of their company name.
This is policy, agreed upon decades agolikely in the 1950sin some meeting room somewhere in Tokyo. Nee'kon is correct. Neye-kon is correct. Nick-on is correct. Many others are correct.
This was explained to me when I was a Nikon employee by the Executive Vice President of Nikon Inc. himself, in the flesh. I can still picture the conversation, 25 years later. And to anticipate the usual objections: Nikon Corp. is the ONLY, the SOLE, the UNITARY authority on this question. "Nikon" is not a natural word in the Japanese language. The company that is now Nikon (then Nippon Kogaku, K.K.) made it up. It's a brand namelike Kodak or Xerox. A neologism, and maybe even a portmanteau (that's debated). It was likely first conceived in the Latin alphabet, not in Kanji. Nikon Corp. gave birth to this name, and they own it. They get to make the rules about it. And their rule is clear: all regional pronunciations are equally correct. If you doubt this, just listen to their own regional advertising, produced by the company's various subsidiaries around the world. You'll hear several different, completely official, pronunciations. Oy. I feel better now.
Addendum: Of course, it goes without saying that however they pronounce it in Scotland is wrong.
It was news to me, so I learned something today as well. So now we all know, and it's official: all regional pronunciations of "Nikon" are correct! I like it.
And now we need a few Scottish readers to post videos of themselves saying "Nikon."
Mike
(Thanks to E.H.)
Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.
B&H Photo Amazon US Amazon UK
Amazon Germany Amazon Canada Adorama
(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:
Dave Stewart: "Ma Naekon D700 disnae day video, ye ken...."
Ian: "Now all we have to do is figure out how to pronounce 'Eamon'...."
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted time to the Centre to decide Vedanta Ltd's application for extension of the production sharing contract (PSC) to produce oil from a Rajasthan block.
A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao allowed the Centre's plea seeking two months time to comply with the court's July 3 order asking the government to "decide or process" within that period Vedanta's application for extension of the PSC under its new policy of April 2017 for such contracts.
"We allow the application granting time. The government shall comply with the order preferably within four weeks but in any case, not more than eight weeks," the bench said, making it clear that it was granting final opportunity to the Centre.
The division bench had earlier put on hold its single judge's order directing the Centre to extend till 2030 its PSC with Vedanta and ONGC to produce oil from the Rajasthan's Barmer block.
The interim order had come on the Centre's appeal against the single judge's May 31 decision in favour of Vedanta, formerly Cairn India.
The government, in its plea filed through central government standing counsel Amit Mahajan, has claimed that the PSC with Vedanta will fall under the new policy. The contention has been opposed by the company.
The single judge had held that Vedanta was entitled to extension of its contract, which is set to expire in 2020, for a further period of 10 years on the same terms and agreements when it was first entered into in 1995.
The direction by the court had come on Vedanta's plea for extension of the PSC which the company and the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) have with the government to extract oil from the Barmer block in Rajasthan.
ONGC had communicated its approval for extension of the PSC in July 2016, after which the Centre had assured the court it would positively take a decision by October of the same year.
However, later it had sought more time as it was framing a uniform policy with regard to all such PSCs.
Vedanta had moved the court after its request to the government in 2009 to extend the PSC did not elicit any response. It had claimed that the delay in a decision by the government was preventing it from infusing further investment of over Rs 30,000 crore in the project.
It had also contended that when none of the state-run companies could find oil in the block, it had invested around Rs 10,000 crore in exploration back in 1995 when the PSC was entered into. It had also claimed that the government has earned around Rs 80,000 crore from commercial production out of the area.
In its plea, Vedanta had said that the estimated recoverable assets in the block were about 1.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent, of which 466 million barrels are expected to be recovered beyond current PSC period until 2030.
Besides, it was also producing natural gas from the block and supplying it to government companies, the company had told the court.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Madras High Court has issued notices to social media networks like Twitter and Facebook, taking serious note of the claim that they were not responding to questions of law enforcement agencies on cybercrime complaints.
A bench of justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad passed the interim order based on the submission made by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police that social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and WhatsApp seldom reply to their queries or provide information.
The court issued notices to their headquarters in San Francisco and California.
A PIL was filed by Antony Clement Rubin seeking a direction to the Centre to declare linking of Aadhaar mandatory for social media accounts to effectively check cybercrime.
When the plea came up last week, the court asked why these companies were not cooperating with the law enforcement agencies as mandated by the Information Technology Act.
It directed the networks to explain as to why they should not be impleaded in the plea as party respondents by September 18.
Similar notices have also been issued to the offices of Facebook and YouTube at Hyderabad.
The court said the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules makes it clear, that when required by a lawful order, the intermediary (social media firm) shall provide information or any such assistance to government agencies who are lawfully authorised to investigative.
But according to the submission made by the CCB, it could be seen that, though request has been made to furnish details, social media companies have not furnished it in many cases and also rejected the requests, the court said.
"Having regard to the fact that some information, disseminated is an offence, punishable under Indian law, the law enforcing agencies request the intermediaries to furnish details, for investigation/detection and as per Rules, the intermediary shall observe due diligence in the discharge of his duties," the bench said and passed the interim order.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Madras High Court Wednesday kept in abeyance till September 20 the Tamil Nadu government's Rs 200-crore egg procurement tender after some suppliers opposed the zone-level buying policy of the state, saying it was discriminatory.
After hearing their petitions, Justice R Mahadevan passed an interim order, putting on hold the egg procurement tender for the supply of approximately 50 lakh eggs per day.
The judge directed the government to file its counter by September 7 and posted the matter for further hearing on September 14.
The petitioners submitted that the government's tender stipulations allowed only poultry farmers to participate in the tender and was "arbitrary and discriminatory".
The government is purchasing the eggs for its Nutritious Meal Programme and Integrated Child Development Services scheme.
According to the petitioners, the state government has been procuring eggs through state-wide tenders since 2012.
To their shock, the petitioners said, a government order was issued on August 20 cancelling a tender floated on July 24 for the procurement of about 50 lakh eggs per day for one year.
By rescinding it, the government introduced zone-level procurement by dividing the state into six zones for six months. It amounted to creating artificial barriers and precluding suppliers, the petitioners claimed.
When the pleas came up for hearing before Justice Mahadevan Tuesday, Advocate General Vijay Narayan submitted that the government as a policy decided to float zone- wise tender.
"The government made the decision as a policy to avoid middlemen and encourage actual poultry farmers (to sell eggs to the government directly). Trying to avoid middlemen cannot be said to be a bad policy," he said.
Also, direct procurement from the producer would reduce the cost as transportation of eggs, he had submitted.
As a separate tender is floated for each zone, the value of such tender is below the Rs 50 crore mark, which mandates compulsory all-India tender as per the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Act, Narayan had said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Vice Chief of the IAF Wednesday gave a strong endorsement of the fighter jets, saying it will give India an "unprecedented" combat advantage, as the Supreme Court agreed to hear next week a plea seeking a stay on the controversial deal with France.
As the government remained under attack from the Congress and other opposition parties on the escalating row, the country's top security brass also gave a briefing to the Union Council of Ministers in a bid to provide the NDA leaders with facts to counter the allegations of favouritism and corruption levelled against it.
Congress General Secretary Shakti Singh Gohil termed the deal as the "grandmother of all corruption" and said the party would take out protest rallies at district level across the country from tomorrow to "expose" the alleged irregularities committed by the Modi government.
Describing Rafale as a "beautiful" aircraft, Air Marshal S B Deo, the Vice Chief of the Indian Air Force(IAF), said those criticising the deal must understand the procurement norms.
Deo said "all discussions on the deal" were taking place as people do not have adequate information about the procurement procedure.
"We are waiting for the aircraft to come. It is a beautiful aircraft. It is a very capable aircraft. It is a capability that we need quickly," he said on the sidelines of an event when asked about the controversy surrounding the Rafale deal.
Asked about allegations relating to the Rs 580 billion deal, Deo said "all the discussions are taking place as people do not have information".
"They should read DPP (defence procurement procedure) and offset policy," he said, adding the jets will give India "unprecedented" combat advantage.
India had inked an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 580 billion. The delivery of the jets is scheduled to begin from September 2019.
The Congress has been alleging massive irregularities in the deal, claiming the government was procuring each aircraft at a cost of over Rs 16 billion as against Rs 5.26 billion finalised by the UPA government. The government has rejected the charges.
ALSO READ: Supreme Court may hear PIL seeking stay on Rafale deal next week
At the Supreme Court, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud considered the submissions of advocate M L Sharma that his plea on the Rafale deal be listed for urgent hearing.
In his petition, Sharma has alleged discrepancies in the jet deal and sought a stay on it.
Sharma claimed in his plea that the inter-governmental agreement to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets must be quashed as it was an "outcome of corruption" and not ratified by Parliament under Article 253 (Parliament has power to make any law for implementing any inter-government agreement) of the Constitution.
The Rafale fighter is a twin-engine Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) manufactured by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation.
During their briefing at the meeting of the Union Council of Ministers, the country's top security brass said the cost of the Rafale jet is based on equipment and weapons that will be married to the jet.
A senior official said Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Secretary, Defence Production, Ajay Kumar highlighted various aspects of the deal at the meeting, which lasted nearly three hours.
The ministers were informed that the Rafale contract was a deal between two governments involving no private party, leaving little scope for corruption.
The security brass also highlighted the aircraft's capability which would strengthen the IAF and make the fighter jets an asset for it.
The presentation underscores Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to take all his allies, who are represented in the council of ministers, on board as the government works to counter the opposition on the issue with the Lok Sabha election being less than eight months away.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi accused the Modi government of adopting "double standards" in approving offset contracts for defence deals asking why it did not adopt the same yardstick in the Rafale deal when it had disapproved Russia's move to grant offset contracts to a private player for AK-103 rifles.
Singhvi said a "fallacious argument" of the Modi Government on Rafale has been nipped in the bud by its own recent negotiations in another defence deal with Russia for manufacturing AK-rifles.
There is an increasing willingness on part of the Quad countries Australia, India, Japan and the US to explore new opportunities for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday.
Describing the Quad countries as vibrant democracies, Mattis said they will have their own interests, but the four countries can work together as they are governments of the people.
"I do see an increasing willingness on the parts of the quad nations to work together to explore new opportunities, and we're wide open to that," Mattis told reporters travelling with him to New Delhi for the maiden two-plus-two dialogue.
Mattis and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in New Delhi to hold the inaugural two-plus-two dialogue with their Indian counterparts Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
The focus of the dialogue will be to deepen strategic ties and resolve differences over India's defence engagement with Russia and crude oil import from Iran.
"We will continue to strengthen the quad framework. We'll have to see where nations are willing to do so. Some may be willing to do so in certain areas of maritime domain awareness, for example, exercising together," he said.
"And that's why we consult with each other. That's why once in a while, we get together, whether it be at Shangri-La or us coming to New Delhi now. So, we'll have to explore this," he said.
Mattis also said the United States hoped that Pakistan will be part of the community of nations that give no haven to terrorism.
"We do expect that Pakistan will be part of the community of nations that give no haven to terrorism. I mean, that's what we expect of all nations in the world. And so that's where we're at on it," he said.
"As far as the ISI, let me just say that Pakistan has a new government, against the odds of some skeptics. There was a peaceful transition of power. Government's being put together," he said.
"ISI is part of the Pakistan military. The Pakistan military is part of the Pakistan government. So, that's where it lies," he added.
Mattis said the US had been keeping a very close eye on the Haqqani network.
"We have our own views on it. Right now I'm not satisfied that I'm firm on why they announced it when they did," he said when asked about recent announcement about the death of the Haqqani leader Jalaluddin Haqqani.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The India-US relationship is on a firm foundation and the administration sees as a "consequential" emerging partner, US Defense Secretary said Wednesday.
Mattis and US Secretary of State arrived in to hold the inaugural two-plus-two dialogue with their Indian counterparts Defense Minister and External Affairs Minister
The focus of the dialogue will be to deepen strategic ties and resolve differences over India's defence engagement with and crude oil import from
"My visit is a firm indicator of what we see as India's place among our most strategic, and I would even call them consequential emerging partners," Mattis told reporters travelling with him on his way to
"Not just in the Region, but in the world, as steps up to its legitimate role as they see it in the community of nations. During Prime Minister Modi's visit to the last year, the president, Trump, said - and I quote here 'The friendship between the US and India is built on shared values," Mattis said.
"We all know those values are based on democratic values, and that's what we see in the world's two largest democracies that exist. We don't have to create those values, those values exist. This is not an opportunity we are creating, it's an opportunity that is resident in the two countries' politics," he said.
Mattis, one of the strongest advocates of India-US relationship in the administration, said that the two nations shared more than just democracy.
"We share a steadfast commitment to a safe and a secure, a prosperous and, especially, a free Indo-Pacific," he said.
"Free of terrorism and freedom for each nation to make sovereign decisions on their own, based on their own interests. This is underpinned by our steadfast commitment to the rule of law, the freedom of navigation, freedom from coercion for all nations no matter their size or the age of their independence," he said.
As the world's largest democracy, the US sees India as taking on a greater regional and global responsibility, a stabilising force, Mattis said.
"Secretary Pompeo and I are coming to for the continued consultations. I believe we will be reaffirming much of our shared vision for the region, alongside our Indian counterparts, Minister Swaraj and Minister Sitharaman, during this first two-plus-two meeting between the US and India at the ministerial level," he said.
He said there had been scheduled meetings before, but scheduling challenges on both sides had interrupted those schedules.
"We did not cancel them; we simply kept postponing them until we could find a mutually convenient time. The normal give and take in - in the tempo of the offices that we and our counterparts occupy," Mattis said.
Senior trade policymakers from and the United States sparred Wednesday, defending their respective positions on cross-border business.
Pitching for less protectionism, India's commerce secretary Anup Wadhawan stressed on the need to go beyond trade deficits and frame tariffs as per the prevailing economic strengths.
US' Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Gilbert Kaplan claimed fundamentally, its trade policies have not changed and stressed on the need on reciprocity, saying the lack of it has resulted in decisions which may be considered as adverse.
The comments come on the eve of the all important '2+2 dialogue' between Secretary of State and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis from the US and India's defence minister and external affairs minister in the national capital.
Kaplan said trade deficits are an important indicator of problems, but made it clear that the tariff actions on steel and aluminium were driven by lack of reciprocity from countries exporting those to the US and not the trade gap.
Wadhawan said over the last few years, trade deficit between and the US has come down as has started importing more goods from the US, including oil. He also said that while setting policies the indirect benefits to a country like import of iPhones by India from China which benefit an American company also need to be taken into account.
"Countries have to understand and accept globalisation. Protectionism is not going to make a country competitive," said Wadhawan.
He said US' unemployment rate - one of the biggest justifications for tariff imposition - has been coming down since the President Barack Obama's time.
The Indian bureaucrat said 6 per cent of the country's imports are from the US, for Washington, the same is 2.1 per cent on a bigger import bill.
Kaplan urged India to join an global supply chain and also not to impose any tariffs on particular goods and services.
He said the lack of and reciprocity has led the US under President Donald Trump to move away from multilateral pacts and go for bilateral agreements instead.
Wadhawan underlined the importance of multilateral trade pacts, saying all the countries in the world have to move as per an accepted framework and added that "no country can afford to have a world carved around it".
He cited the case of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) with countries in the Asean block, where India is moving ahead despite having a deficit with the countries and added that the onus is on individual country to identify and work on areas where it is less competitive.
Wadhawan said while framing international pacts, aspirations of developing countries have to be kept in mind, making a strong pitch for not equating developing and developed countries.
"Our trade policy is a continuum, we do not see any reason to revisit the trade policies," he said.
An Indian-origin broker has been sentenced to five and a half years' imprisonment for his role in a 2.8-million pound investment fraud targeting elderly and vulnerable people in the UK.
Charanjit Sandhu was among five people jailed for a total of nearly 18 years at Southwark Crown Court in London on Tuesday after the UK Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) second-largest criminal prosecution ever, dubbed Operation Tidworth.
The case, described as a "boiler room scam", involved defrauding of vulnerable individuals out of life-changing amounts of money.
Boiler rooms are unauthorised brokerages that use cold-calling and other high-pressure sales tactics to sell worthless or overpriced investments to unsuspecting members of the public.
In reference to Sandhu's role, the FCA found he, as a senior broker, often used bullying sales tactics and false names.
During sentencing, Judge Christopher Hehir described Sandhu as having been "dazzled by the rewards of crime" and losing "his moral compass" and found that he had pestered investors "mercilessly by telephone", describing his conduct as "cruel and callous" and "chilling".
"These fraudsters callously targeted investors who were often elderly and vulnerable, lying to them to get them to part with significant sums of money," said Mark Steward, FCA executive director of enforcement and market oversight.
"Despite efforts to conceal and destroy evidence, the FCA, in one of its largest-ever investigations, was able to ensure that these criminals faced justice and ended up behind bars. Applications under Proceeds of Crime legislation remain on foot and the FCA is determined to recover as much money from these defendants as possible for the benefit of investors," he said.
The others sentenced this week were Hugh Edwards, Stuart Rea, Jeannine Lewis and Ryan Parker. A sixth defendant, Michael Nascimento, who will be sentenced on September 14, was the "controlling mind, instigator and the main beneficiary of the fraud", the FCA said.
According to the financial watchdog, between July 2010 and April 2014, in efforts to "maintain the lifestyle" of their ringleader Nascimento, the fraudsters cold-called and subjected vulnerable people to high-pressure sales tactics to persuade them to purchase shares in a company that owned land on the island of Madeira.
Investors were told the shares would increase substantially in price when permission to build 20 villas was granted, and were promised but never received guaranteed returns of between 125 per cent and 228 per cent.
Among the lies the 170 affected investors were subjected to, the FCA said, the fraudsters claimed the schemes were partnered with Barclays Bank, planning permission had been obtained for the 20 villas, there was a guaranteed share buy-back, and Hilton Hotel chains had agreed to buy the completed development for 43 million pounds.
The fraudsters were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud, fraud, money laundering and perverting the course of justice, as well as breaches of the UK's Financial Services and Markets Act (FSMA).
As part of their conviction, Sandhu, Edwards and Rea were also made subject to Serious Crime Prevention Orders, and are prohibited from involvement in financial services or the sale of any form of investment for a period of five years after release from prison.
They, along with Parker, are also banned from being company directors for up to 14 years.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Budget carrier IndiGo has withdrawn three flights from Jammu to major destinations in India even though the airport is being expanded, a senior official said Wednesday.
"IndiGo has withdrawn three flights from Jammu. Two flights were withdrawn recently and one during the summer season," Jammu Airport Director V K Gautam told PTI.
Three flights have been withdrawn from Jammu to destinations such as Jaipur, Hyderabad, Delhi, Bengaluru and Amritsar.
"They have not given any specific reason for the withdrawal," Gautam said, adding that this withdrawal has come at a time when the Jammu airport is being expanded.
He said the decision has burdened other operators and passengers are facing problems.
He said talks are on with the airline to restore the flights.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The best bang for your buck! This option enables you to purchase online 24/7 access and receive the Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday print edition at no additional cost * Print edition only available in our carrier delivery area. Allow up to 72 hours for delivery of your print edition to begin. Print edition not available for Day Pass option.
The US Chamber of Commerce Wednesday said the upcoming '2+2 dialogue' between India and the US will deepen trade ties and help achieve the USD 500-billion bilateral trade volume target by 2025.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis from the US will be holding the first 2+2 dialogue with defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj Thursday.
"You can't do defence without economic strength and the 2+2 will set the groundwork for something that will not only improve our defence ties but will clearly take us towards the USD 500 billion (target)," said Thomas J Donohue, president and chief executive officer, US Chamber of Commerce.
"Security goes hand in hand with prosperity. Efforts to strengthen our security ties will help us as we work to tighten our economic ties," he said speaking at a US-India Business Council event.
He said after some difficulties, the trade ties between the two countries are in a state of "jog", at USD 125 billion now, but there is a need for them to "sprint".
"There is a general agreement in the US government that our relationship is a significant priority... India is at the centre of the administration's vision for seizing opportunities in Asia and truly worldwide," he added.
The dialogue in New Delhi will only act as a "further confirmation" of the same tomorrow, he said.
According to reports, trade is not on the agenda for the 2+2 dialogue, even though there may be some mention on the ties.
Donohue said this is the first of its kind engagement for India; inclusion of India in a select list of countries like Japan, South Korea and Australia with whom the US is having such a dialogue makes the intentions very evident.
He said it is time for establishing a trade agreement between the two countries and pointed out that such a pact will particularly help the startups thrive in the innovation economy of the future.
"The pact can specifically help establish more power for intellectual property rights and also a rules-based system," he added.
Donohue said both Washington DC and New Delhi need to work on many facets in order to leverage the trade potential.
He said India needs to continue unleashing more free market oriented reforms which will make it easier for companies to invest and operate in the country.
For the US, Donohue pointed out that his home country needs to be more open in welcoming immigrants, especially the high-skilled ones.
He said the US is staring at "demographic pain" in the future and while it will work at re-skilling the domestic work force, it will have to rethink on its immigration policies for being more open.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 30-year-old IPS officer is critical after he allegedly consumed some poisonous substance here Wednesday, police said.
Surendra Kumar Das, an IPS officer of 2014 batch, was posted here as the Superintendent of Police City (East) last month.
"On Tuesday night, Das had spoken to circle officers regarding patrolling. At 4 AM Wednesday, his wife, who is a doctor, noticed that his health suddenly deteriorated.
"He was rushed to a government hospital from where he was shifted to a private nursing home, where his condition is stated to be serious," ADG Kanpur zone Avinash Chandra told PTI.
On getting information, family members of Das arrived here from Lucknow.
"The police department has nothing to do with the matter as it appears that he has consumed some poisonous substance for any other reason," Chandra said.
"He had worked till late in the night on Tuesday. His behaviour was very good. Now, for what reason he had consumed poisonous substance will be probed," the ADG said.
He also said, "It has been decided to question the IPS officer's wife."
Meanwhile, senior police and district administration officials, along with a team of doctors, are monitoring the condition of Das, who has been put on ventilator.
A senior doctor at the nursing home where Das is admitted, said, "It is too early to reach any conclusion as to whether Das consumed poison to commit suicide or he took something laced with poisonous substance accidentally.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 30-year-old IPS officer is in a critical condition after consuming some poisonous substance here Wednesday, police said.
Surendra Kumar Das, an IPS officer of the 2014 batch, was posted here as Superintendent of Police City (East) last month.
The private hospital where he is admitted said he is on life support system.
Kanpur zone Additional General of Police Avinash Chandra said Das spoke to circle officers about patrolling on Tuesday night. At 4 am on Wednesday, his wife, who is a doctor, noticed that his health had suddenly deteriorated.
"He was rushed to a government hospital from where he was shifted to a private nursing home, where his condition is stated to be serious," Chandra told PTI.
Other family members then arrived here from Lucknow.
Chandra said the police department had nothing to do with the matter.
"He had worked till late in the night on Tuesday. His behaviour was very good. Now, for what reason he had consumed a poisonous substance will be probed," the ADG said.
He said the police will also question the IPS officer's wife.
Senior police and district administration officials, along with a team of doctors, are monitoring the officer's condition.
A medical bulletin released by the private hospital said Das is "currently on life support system in the intensive care unit".
The bulletin signed by Dr Rajesh Agarwal said the SP was admitted in a critical condition at around 6 am.
Soon after admitting Das in the intensive care unit, a team of specialist doctors started his treatment, but his blood pressure and pulse could not be recorded," it said.
Prima facie, the symptoms suggested that the officer might have consumed something laced with poison.
In accordance with the symptoms, he is being treated by physicians and cardiologists, the medical bulletin said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Israel's top court on Wednesday upheld an order to raze a Palestinian Bedouin village in the occupied West Bank, after debating petitions challenging the decision.
There has been strong international pressure on Israel to reverse its plans to raze Khan al-Ahmar, which the Israeli authorities say was built illegally.
"We reject the petitions" against the directive to demolish Khan al-Ahmar, the supreme court panel said in its ruling, adding that a temporary order preventing the razing of the village during court hearings "will be cancelled within seven days from today."
It will now be down to the authorities to decide when to carry out the demolition after the restriction order ends.
The present village consists mainly of makeshift structures of tin and wood, as is generally the case with Bedouin sites.
In May, the Supreme Court rejected a final appeal against its demolition after nine years of hearings before various tribunals.
The court said Khan al-Ahmar residents had rejected proposals by the state regarding the site of their relocation, and expressed hope "the dialogue" would continue.
Activists say the villagers had little alternative but to build without Israeli construction permits that are almost never issued to Palestinians in the large parts of the West Bank where Israel has full control over civil affairs.
Tawfiq Jabareen, one of the lawyers representing Khan al-Ahmar residents in the petitions, said the court "was following Israel's rightwing government" in its ruling, which he said was "legally wrong".
"It is not based on legal arguments and contradicts past supreme court rulings," he told AFP.
"This is unfortunately what the government wants, and the court doesn't want to intervene." Jabareen said there were currently no understandings between the state and residents on a voluntary relocation.
"I've never seen someone who's being expelled and whose house is being destroyed sitting idly by," he said.
Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who oversees the occupation of the West Bank, praised the judges for their decision in the face of "the coordinated attack of hypocrisy by (Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas), the left and European states." "Nobody is above the law, nobody will keep us from acting on our sovereignty and responsibility as a state," he said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Israeli jets flying high over Lebanon struck at targets inside Syria on Tuesday, Syrian state media reported, in a rare daytime raid that killed at least one person.
Syria's SANA state agency said the country's air defenses shot down five missiles, adding that one person was killed and 12 others were wounded.
It reported strikes on the Wadi Ayoun area in the western Hama province and on the town of Baniyas in the coastal Tartous province.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the jets targeted military installations belonging to Iran, a key ally of the Syrian government.
Lebanese residents in areas north of the capital, Beirut, reported hearing jets overhead before sunset.
Israel is believed to be behind a string of strikes targeting government and allied military installations in Syria, in order to disrupt weapons transfers between its archenemies Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
The Israeli government rarely acknowledges the attacks, and such strikes usually take place late at night.
The Syrian government accused Israel of striking a weapons research facility in Masyaf, near Wadi Ayoun, in July. The attack killed a top military scientist.
An Israeli military official said Tuesday that Israel has struck over 200 Iranian targets in Syria over the past 18 months.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity under military guidelines, said the targets were connected to Iran's elite Al-Quds force and include air force components, support infrastructure, and weapons storage and manufacturing facilities.
The official said Tuesday's alleged airstrikes were not included in the tally. He would not confirm Israel was behind those strikes, and did not comment on them.
Elsewhere in Syria, at least eight people were killed in airstrikes in the northern Idlib province, where Syria's rebels are holed up in their last major bastion.
Those strikes were likely carried out by the Syrian government or its allies, which are preparing for a major offensive.
The Syrian Civil Defence, volunteer first responders also known as the White Helmets, said five children were killed in strikes on the town of Jisr al-Shughour and another three civilians were killed in strikes on the village of Mahambal. The Observatory said 13 people were killed.
The Observatory blamed the strikes on Russia, which intervened in Syria's civil war in 2015 to support President Bashar Assad.
Government forces are amassing at the border with Idlib province, while Russia revealed last week it had positioned more than a dozen ships off the Syrian coast, raising fears of a wide-scale offensive that could mark the last major battle in the seven-year civil war.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Tuesday the Security Council will discuss the situation in Idlib on Friday morning.
The US is currently the president of the council, the UN's top decision-making body.
The UN's special envoy to Syria, Staffan De Mistura, urged Russia and Turkey to reach a "soft solution" to avert an expected government offensive on the province.
Syria's government is determined to retake Idlib, which it says is being held hostage by terrorists. Russia and Iran, which also back the government, have adopted a similar position.
Turkey, which has financed and organized rebels in Idlib and keeps 12 military posts in the province, has been less clear about where it stands.
De Mistura, in a Geneva press conference, appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to prevent a showdown in Idlib, saying "we need more time."
The leaders of Russia, Turkey, and Iran are slated to meet in Iran on Friday to discuss Syria.
De Mistura said he heard from media reports that a campaign for Idlib could begin as early as the following Monday. It was not clear which reports he was referring to.
The envoy restated his offer to travel to Idlib to oversee humanitarian corridors so that civilians can shelter in safety if an offensive moves forward.
There are 2.9 million people presently in Idlib, according to UN estimates, including 1.4 million who have been displaced from their homes by fighting.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have sheltered in the province, away from the government, to escape military conscription or arrest.
De Mistura said he was "determined" to hold talks with high-level envoys from Turkey, Iran and Russia on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.
He also planned to meet with envoys from Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and the United States on September 14 to brief them on his efforts to launch a political process and help set up a committee that could revise Syria's constitution.
Separately, the White House warned that the US and its allies would "respond swiftly and appropriately" against the Syrian government if it uses chemical weapons in its assault.
The US has twice struck Syrian military installations in response to alleged poison gas attacks. The Syrian government denies ever using chemical weapons.
President Donald Trump on Monday sent a tweet warning the Syrian government and its allies against a "reckless attack" on Idlib, drawing fire from Moscow.
Russia says militants in Idlib target its own facilities in Syria and pose a terrorist threat.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated Russia's position on Tuesday, calling Idlib a "hornets' nest of terrorists.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A government official was removed from his post and attached to office of collector land acquisition for his comments on on social media in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said Wednesday.
Kishtwar Deputy Commissioner Angrez Singh Rana ordered the attachment of Patwari (revenue official) Abid Hussain Veeri following receipt of an inquiry report, the officials said.
They said the assistant commissioner (revenue) Kishtwar has conducted the inquiry against Veeri after a complaint was lodged that he is indulging in political activities.
In his report, the inquiry officer said it is observed that the comments made by the concerned Patwari "on social media does suggest its political contours and is unbecoming on the part of the government employee, thereby violating the provisions of employees service conduct rules".
Acting on the inquiry report, the officials said the deputy commissioner ordered attachment of the official and asked for strict vigil on his activities.
"Veeri is attached to the office of collector land acquisition, assistant commissioner revenue Kishtwar, with immediate effect.
"It is ordered that the ACR Kishtwar shall keep close vigil on the activities of the Patwari and in case of any further political or other unlawful involvement the patwari shall invite further disciplinary action against him," the officials said quoting the order.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Jammu and Kashmir State Administrative Council
(SAC) Wednesday approved formation of a joint venture between the Centre and the state government for development of the 850 MW Ratle Hydro Electric Project (HEP).
HEP will be transferred to the state within a period of seven years from the start of commercial operation of the project.
The sanction was accorded in a meeting of the SAC chaired by Governor Satya Pal Malik here.
The hydro power projects, with long gestation periods, coupled with relief and rehabilitation issues and higher initial capital investment, have not remained attractive investment portfolios for private investors, an official spokesman said.
"The last attempt at promoting it as a PPP project with a 35-year concession period failed. The Joint Venture is the best route now to realise the potential of the Ratle HEP," the spokesman said.
Most of the major civil construction agencies in the country are presently facing financial stress and tend to avoid such investments.
To minimize risk in investments, construction agencies feel more comfortable to work as contractors and not owners in development of hydro power, he said.
The SAC also accorded sanction to the submission of five models of the joint ventures based on ownership proportion with 15-25 per cent free power (including Local Area Development Fund) to the Ministry of Power, Government of India for the purpose of arriving at the best suitable Joint Venture Model, the spokesman said.
The analysis of the models has revealed that all of these will be favorable to Jammu and Kashmir, with majority ownership remaining with State, ranging from 51 per cent to 90 per cent.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Jammu and Kashmir government Wednesday approved setting up of Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (JKIDFC) for completing unfinished and long-pending projects worth Rs 8,000 crore in the state.
"Today the government approved a major initiative through setting up of the J&K Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (JKIDFC). Through JKIFDC, government will spend up to Rs 8000 crore on completing unfinished/languishing infrastructure projects which are there all over the state," an official spokesman said.
The spokesman said many of the projects were started several years ago and their incomplete status is a great inconvenience to the people.
He said Governor Satya Pal Malik has appealed to all elected representatives to come forward and join hands with the government in addressing the needs of the public.
"Elected representatives being the custodians of the 'public interest' have an enormous responsibility to project the concerns, problems and priorities of their constituents before the government for redressal in a time bound manner," the spokesman said.
He said the Governor's administration in consultation with elected representatives, is single-mindedly committed to ensure equitable development of all regions of the state.
The government urged the elected representatives to identify and prioritise all such incomplete or languishing works that are critical for their respective constituencies from the public stand point.
"Elected representatives are further requested to project ongoing or incomplete developmental projects in their constituencies which are at different stages of execution and require funding for their timely completion. These could be roads, bridges, drinking water schemes, school building, medical facilities and so on," he added.
The spokesman said the elected representatives can forward their requests through the concerned Deputy Commissioner or directly to the Planning Development and Monitoring Department of the state government.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Full service carrier Jet Airways Tuesday announced to start daily direct flight from Bhopal to Delhi and back from October 28.
The Delhi flight will take-off at 9.50 AM and reach Bhopal at 11.40 AM. On the way back, the flight will depart from Bhopal at 12.05 PM and will reach Delhi at 1.55 PM, an official release quoting Jet Airways' assistant station manager, Sayyed Kumail, said.
The state government is making constant efforts to enhance number of flights from Bhopal to various destinations. Even city residents have launched campaign #SupportBhopalForAirConnectivity for the purpose.
********************** BoB to offer cheaper loans to MSMEs with better CMR
Mumbai: In a move that can potentially benefit 21 lakh small businesses, Bank of Baroda will offer loans at lower rate of interest to those with better Cibil MSME Rank (CMR).
The CMR uses machine learning algorithms to predict the probability of an MSME becoming non performing asset in the next 12 months, a Cibil statement said.
The state-run lender also increased its marginal cost of funding based lending rate by 0.05 per cent today.
********************** ICICI Bank to up women SHG exposure to Rs 2,300 cr by Mar 2020
Mumbai: ICICI Bank today said it is aiming to increase its exposure to women self help groups (SHGs) to Rs 2,300 crore by March 2020, from the present Rs 1,750 crore.
The number of women beneficiaries will go up to 20 lakh, from the present 15 lakh, its senior general manager and head of rural and inclusive banking group, Avijit Saha, said.
SHG is a term used for a group of 10-20 less privileged women, primarily from rural and semi urban areas, who pool resources on a periodic basis and use this money for income generating activities, a release said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party announced on Wednesday it will contest all 75 wards of Jammu Municipal Corporation in civic body polls scheduled from October 1.
"We will contests all wards of JMC," party chairman Harsh Dev Singh told reporters.
The former minister urged people, particularly the youth, to support JKNPP in the election.
Jammu and Kashmir State Administrative Council, headed by Governor Satya Pal Malik, Friday announced that elections to municipal bodies in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in October this year, followed by panchayat polls in the state.
Municipal polls will be conducted in four phases and polling will be held between October 1 and 5. Panchayat elections will be conducted in eight phases between November 8 and December 4.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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.
A South African firefighter plunged to his death on Wednesday and two others died from smoke inhalation while battling a blaze at government offices in Johannesburg, officials said.
"There are currently three members of the City of Johannesburg Fire Department who have lost their lives," the regional development minister, Jacob Mamabolo, told reporters.
One of the firefighters plunged from the 23rd floor of the 24-storey building while trying to extinguish the flames, Michael Sun, the city's public safety chief, told AFP.
"One of our firefighters is believed to have slipped and fallen from the 23rd floor, and he has been confirmed dead," said Sun.
Police helicopters were deployed to help airlift firefighters trapped in the building which houses offices used by the health, local government and housing departments.
Eight other firefighters were hospitalised with various injuries including burns and two others remain trapped inside, according to officials.
"We are trying to get those firefighters who have been injured or suffered smoke inhalation out of the building," said Sun.
All of the civilians working in the building were evacuated, 13 of whom required treatment for smoke inhalation, he added.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Jordan's King Abdullah II firmly rejects the idea of a confederation with the Palestinians in the place of a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict, the royal court said Wednesday.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas told activists Sunday that White House aides Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt had proposed the idea of a confederation with Jordan, one of the activists said.
Hagit Ofran of Israel's Peace Now NGO reported Abbas as saying he had told the US officials, who are working on a peace plan, that he would only be interested if Israel was also part of such a confederation.
Abbas's office confirmed the meeting with Israeli peace activists had taken place, but did not confirm his comments on the confederation.
Neighbouring Jordan, along with most of the international community, has long supported a two-state solution to the long-running conflict.
"Every year we hear about a confederation. My question is: a confederation with whom? This is a red line for Jordan," King Abdullah said, according to a palace statement.
"Jordan's position is firm and steadfast: there is no alternative to the two-state solution and the establishment of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital," he said.
"Any proposal outside this framework has no value." Palestinians see the idea of a confederation as destroying their long-held dream of a state.
But some on the Israeli right see the establishment of a Palestinian-Jordanian confederation as a way to avoid the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
They argue that it would also absolve Israel of any responsibility towards the 3.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, currently under Israeli military occupation.
The Palestinian Authority severed contact with Washington after President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December. In response, Trump said in January he would cut aid to the Palestinians in order to push them back to the negotiating table.
The US said Friday it would cease all funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) which helps some three million needy refugees across the Middle East.
Palestinian leaders see these moves as part of an effort to "liquidate" their cause.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a bid to reduce its around Rs 42,000 crore debt, Naveen Jindal-led JSPL is contemplating to demerge its steel, power and global business into three separate entities.
The financial stakeholders and prospective investors have suggested demerging Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) into three different entities, according to company sources.
The company is "considering demerger of the domestic steel, power and international steel business as separate entities", a JSPL spokesperson said.
The suggestions, the spokesperson said, "have been received from certain sections of our stakeholders, which are under initial stages of consideration".
Giving a breakup of its current debt of around Rs 42,000, the source said JSPL's domestic steel business has a maximum debt of around Rs 20,500 crore, followed by domestic power business at around Rs 8,500 crore and global business at around Rs 13,000 crore.
Justifying the proposed demerger, the source said there are certain investors whose outlook is sector or geography wise.
JSPL's two million tonnes (MT) steel plant in Oman, which the company targets to augment to 2.4 MT this fiscal, and international iron ore assets is proposed to be under one global company, the source said.
JSPL has a an independent power capacity (IPP) of 3,400 mw and it is being proposed that it should go under another entity.
"Steel plus international coal assets are being proposed to go under the steel vertical as in Australia and Mozambique, the company has primarily coking coal mines and in South Africa it has anthracite mine. Coking coal has to be used in blast furnace," the source added.
In India JSPL has liquid steel capacity of 9.6 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) spread over its plants Angul and Raigarh.
It has finished steel capacity of around 8 MTPA with its plants in Angul, Raigarh and Patratu.
"And this (proposed steel entity) will also have captive power assets of 1,654 mw," the source said.
JSPL had reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 110 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2018.
The private steel maker had suffered a consolidated net loss of Rs 421.43 crore in the corresponding quarter of the preceding fiscal.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The BJP took a dig at Congress leader Kamal Nath Wednesday, saying his promise of building a cowshed in every panchayat in Madhya Pradesh shows his "lack of understanding" of conditions in a village as panchayats have hardly any land, even for building schools.
Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who hails from the poll-bound state, told reporters that Kamal Nath has "practised sitting in air-conditioned rooms" and has little idea about conditions in a village.
Panchayats nowadays have little land left and government has to seek land from farmers for even building schools, Vijayvargiya said.
Kamal Nath, the state Congress president, has promised his party will build a cowshed in every panchayat of the state if voted to power.
"Will he bring land for it from his village in Kolkata," Vijayvargiya asked wryly, in a reference to the Congress leader's long personal association with the West Bengal city before he launched his political career from Madhya Pradesh.
He also played down the significance of protests by groups claiming to represent 'upper' castes against the Modi government's decision to strengthen a law on atrocities against Dalits.
Referring to an incident in which stones were thrown at Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's carcade, he said it was "Congress-sponsored".
Assembly polls are scheduled to be held in the state by the year end.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Karnataka government Wednesday said it will soon call an all-party meeting to discuss whether to challenge a tribunal's verdict on sharing Mahadayi river water with neighbouring states.
The Mahadayi River Water Tribunal (MRWT) on August 14 ruled that Karnataka will get 13.4 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) of water from the river, while Goa and Maharashtra will be allowed to use 24 TMC and 1.33 TMC of water respectively.
"We are not satisfied with the verdict. We will call an all-party meeting soon to take a call whether to challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court or Tribunal," Karnataka Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar told reporters here.
The state has got less water against the demand of 36.558 TMC water from Mahadayi. "This is grave injustice meted to us. We will fight legally," he said.
According to the tribunal's verdict, of the 13.4 TMC of water, Karnataka has been permitted to divert 2.18 TMC at proposed Bhandura dam and 1.72 TMC at proposed Kalasa dam subject to certain conditions.
Karnataka will also get 1.5 TMC of water for in-basin use for irrigation and water supply and 8.02 TMC for generating power at the Mahadayi Hydro Electricity Project.
In a 12-volume judgement, the tribunal had said the equitable distribution of Mahadayi waters among three states -- Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra -- is "neither necessary nor feasible" at this stage.
"In the absence of any apportionment of water amongst the party states, the activities related to water resources development for the benefit of the society must not stop and people of the party state must not suffer," the tribunal had observed while passing the order.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has warned health department officials he would go to "any extent" to file criminal cases against them if they don't ensure proper services under the mohalla clinic project.
The pet project of the Aam Aadmi Party dispensation is aimed at providing basic health services to underserved population in Delhi. There are 188 mohalla clinics.
An official said Wednesday Kejriwal held a meeting with health department officials and doctors of mohalla clinics at Delhi Secretariat on Tuesday and told them his government would not tolerate lapses.
"If needed, we are ready to take action. Don't force us to take strict action. If there is no availability of medicines, I will go to any extent to get criminal cases registered against concerned officials," Kejriwal told them.
He warned the officers against "siting on" files.
"I will file criminal cases if any lapse is found," Kejriwal warned.
The AAP government has set a target of setting up 1,000 mohalla clinics which is aimed at providing free primary healthcare to city residents closer home.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kenyan police on Wednesday raided the African headquarters of the China Global Television Network, briefly detaining several journalists as part of an ongoing crackdown against illegal immigrants, an employee told AFP.
Cellphone footage of the raid seen by AFP showed armed plainclothed police bundling Chinese staff into vehicles while demanding that reporters of other nationalities produce their passports or accompany them to the police station.
"They had automatic rifles, it was scary," said one foreign reporter at the state-owned television station on condition of anonymity.
Kenyan police chief Joseph Boinnet confirmed the raid on the office in search of illegal immigrants.
"All the foreigners who were arrested at CGTN have been released after their documents were confirmed to be okay," he told Capital FM radio station.
CGTN, an international English-language television station, broadcasts across the globe, with major centres in Nairobi and Washington.
Kenya last month began hunting down and arresting those illegally in the country after holding a 60-day exercise in which every foreigner was required to revalidate their permits -- a laborious process that can take up to eight hours.
Last week the interior ministry released a hotline number for members of the public to report illegal immigrants.
"It is extremely worrying that citizens are being encouraged to call a hotline to report cases of suspected undocumented migrants. This approach is likely to ignite xenophobia against foreign workers, refugees and asylum seekers," Amnesty International's regional deputy director Seif Magango said in a statement on Saturday.
China and Kenya maintain strong relations, with Beijing funding numerous infrastructure projects in the country.
China financed 90 percent of a $3.2-billion (2.8-billion-euro) railway linking Nairobi to the coastal city of Mombasa.
President Uhuru Kenyatta -- attending a two-day China-Africa forum in Beijing -- is expected to sign a deal for the financing of the second phase of the railway, which will link the Rift Valley town of Naivasha to Kisumu near the Ugandan border, costing a further $3.5 billion.
The project has increased concerns in Kenya over mounting debt to China.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NDA constituent the Shiv Sena and opposition parties in Maharashtra on Wednesday raised their pitch for action against BJP MLA Ram Kadam and likened him to demon king Ravan for telling youngsters he would "kidnap" a girl they like even if she rejects their proposal.
The Opposition warned that it would not allow transaction of business during the winter Session of the state legislature if no action is taken against the Ghatkopar (West) MLA.
As the BJP and Kadam continued to draw flak, the legislator expressed regret for his remarks made at a 'dahi handi' event in his suburban Ghatkopar assembly constituency Monday night, even though he claimed that the comments were "distorted".
BJP state spokesperson Madhav Bhandari, however, played down Kadam's remark, saying as the MLA has expressed regret, the matter is over.
Women members of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) burnt Kadam's effigy in Indapur town of Maharashtra's Pune district, while NCP workers staged a protest outside his residence in Ghatkopar, demanding his arrest.
An IYC member said, "We burnt Kadam's effigy in Indapur after naming it 'Ravan Kadam'. We are angered by his comments to the extent that we felt like beating him with slippers. The chief minister should take action against him".
The NCP and the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) likened Kadam to demon king Ravan.
"Through the comment, Kadam has insulted our mothers and sisters. We will not allow the House to function in case no action is taken against him," Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil told a rally in Indapur.
The rally was organised as part of the Congress' public outreach programme--'Jan Sangharsh Yatra.
Congress' Mumbai unit president Sanjay Nirupam demanded Kadam's expulsion from the BJP and urged women not to vote for the saffron party in the Lok Sabha and assembly polls next year.
During their protest, women activists of the NCP led by MLC Vidya Chavan blackened Kadam's photo and hit it with footwear.
In Mumbai, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, whose party is an ally of the BJP at the Centre and in Maharashtra, dared Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to show "courage" and take action against the MLA.
Mocking the Union government's "beti bachaao - beti padhao" slogan, Thackeray wondered whether the Maharashtra BJP has launched a "beti bhagao" campaign.
He said no party should give poll ticket to Kadam for making such "snide remarks" against women.
"Strict action should be taken against Kadam for insulting our mothers and sisters. The Chief Minister should show courage and take action against him," he told reporters.
The MNS put up posters depicting Kadam as Ravan outside Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' residence and in Ghatkopar.
State NCP women wing chief Chitra Wagh led a protest at Satara in western Maharashtra. The activists barricaded state Education Minister Vinod Tawde over the issue.
The minister assured them that "action would be taken if anything wrong was found".
NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said the BJP's "Ravan-like" face is out and its legislator will be called "Ravan Kadam" till he apologises. He said state-wide protests will be held against Kadam until he apologises.
Asserting that his comments were distorted, Kadam said late Tuesday, "I only repeated a sentence made by one of the people standing in the crowd... It was not my sentence. The clip which has gone viral is only of 40 seconds. However, later I had said mothers, sisters and daughters in all households are Lakshmi who need to be respected."
"Yet, if I have hurt sentiments, I express regret," the MLA said.
The BJP, however, accused the Opposition of being least bothered about the people's real issues and instead fuelling the controversy over Kadam's remarks.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Around 250 Twitter handles were created to spread misinformation about the Koregaon-Bhima violence and to mobilse support for allegedly holding demonstrations abroad to defame the Modi government, Maharashtra Police said Wednesday.
The police had submitted a report to the state home department, which mentions that an elaborate online campaign was launched to highlight the Koregaon-Bhima violence at international level, a senior official said.
"A deliberate mobilisation and misinformation campaign was carried out on social media by circulating videos and speeches on the Koregaon-Bhima violence," he said.
As a result of this campaign, there was "a large-scale mobilisation" in the UK and a "known group" supported these protests, the official said, but declined to name the group.
He further said the police has found 'suspicious videos' of speeches in which activists from the UK can be heard talking about the Koregaon-Bhima violence.
Protests were held in front of the Indian High Commission in London in mid-January to condemn the violence that broke out on January 1 during the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Battle of Koregaon-Bhima in Pune district.
"We suspect that such demonstrations were held to ensure negative publicity and to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government," the official said.
"Police usually monitor activity on social media and send hundreds of reports to the government," he said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath appealed the countrymen Wednesday to attend next year's Kumbh Mela at Allahabad in large numbers.
Kumbh Mela will begin in Allahabad on January 15, 2019.
"The coming Kumbh is going be historic and very special. For the first time in history, devotees would be able to dip not only at the confluence of Ganga and Yamuna, but they will also be able to feel the invisible Saraswati river," he said.
"We are making efforts to open the gate of Prayag Fort where Saraswati is situated and we are talking with the Government of India and the Archaeological Survey of India for this purpose," Adityanath said.
It is traditionally believed that the 'invisible' Saraswati river joins the confluence of Ganga and Yamuna at Allahabad, and it comes up in a temple at Allahabad (Prayag) Fort.
Adityanath said his government is going to invite the ambassador of every country in the world to the Mela.
"We will invite not only Indians living in foreign countries but also foreign nationals to be a part of the world's largest congregation," he said.
He was speaking at Sanskriti Kumbh, an event organised by Naimisharanya Foundation to discuss the significance of Kumbh Mela.
The main area of Kumbh Mela would be doubled from earlier 5,000 acres to 10,000 acres this time and 15 crore people are expected to attend it, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.
Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also attended the event, said Kumbh Mela is a symbol of faith and unity, and even UNESCO has recognised it.
"Our culture is like the flowing water of Ganga which is old and pure and has also changed with time. This is why many cultures were vanquished but our culture is intact," Fadnavis said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Global hospitality major InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is looking to have 150 hotels in India, including those in pipeline, in next three years, a senior official has said.
The hospitality chain currently has 31 hotels operational and 46 in pipeline in India under its four brands.
"We expect to get 150 hotels in India, that is opened hotels and and hotels in pipeline in next two to three years from the 77 today," IHG Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa CEO Kenneth Macpherson told PTI.
At present the company has four brands in India -- Intercontinental Hotels, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, he added.
"The upcoming hotels will be under the brands we have in the country and on the strength of Holiday Inn in the Indian market, it is going to be a key part in the growth," Macpherson said.
Equally when the company has the right partners in the right locations with the right assets, it could consider introducing more brands here, he added.
"Whenever we bring a brand in India, we have to make sure we have the talent, we have the commercial enterprise that can make that brand successful," Macpherson said.
When asked about the segment that could be the main driver for growth going forward, he said: "In terms of volume of hotels, the majority of growth will come from our midscale brands -- Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express".
But, as the company also has fabulous brands in luxury and upscale, it will like to balance the portfolio, he added.
On being asked about the business model the company follows, Macpherson said: "We follow the asset light model. Globally we follow two key models, the franchised and the managed model".
In India, today majority of the hotels are under the managed model and the 14 hotel agreement that has been signed with SAMHI will also have managed model.
"I expect managed model is going to play a important role as we develop brands as we build scale...," Macpherson said.
About the partnership with SAMHI, he said, "Out of the 14 hotels, by end of this calender year, we will have 9 to 10 other Holiday InnExpress hotels opened in key cities in India. Rest will be opened by middle of next year".
These 14 hotels will add around 2,000 rooms in the company's portfolio. This will make IHG one of the largest midscale operaters in India, he added.
On the Indian market, Macpherson said: "We are fully committed to the Indian market. We see great potential here, strong economic growth, strong domestic travel growth and continued policies from the government to support tourism".
IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns more than 5,400 hotels and 8,10,000 guest rooms in almost 100 countries, with nearly 1,800 hotels in its development pipeline.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A motor accident claims tribunal (MACT) has awarded over Rs 10 lakh to the parents of a man who was mowed down by a truck in Haryana in 2012.
MACT presiding officer Paramjit Singh asked Shriram General Insurance Company Ltd, insurer of the offending vehicle, to pay a total of Rs 10,92,000 as compensation to the parents of Haryana resident Anil Mann.
"The existence of the permit and fitness of the offending vehicle at the time of accident has not been proved on record in accordance with law and in absence thereof, the Shriram General Insurance Company Ltd shall be entitled to recover the compensation amount from the driver and the owner of the offending vehicle, in accordance with law," the tribunal said.
The tribunal awarded Rs 10,61,424 towards loss of dependency, Rs 15,000 towards loss of estate and Rs 15,000 for funeral expenses incurred by the parents.
It also awarded the petitioners an interest of nine per cent per annum on the total compensation amount from the date of filing petition in August 2012 to the date of realisation.
The compensation was awarded to Rajbir and Krishna, parents of Mann, who was hit by a truck on July 13, 2012 while crossing a road after which he was admitted to a local hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
The court noted that the truck was driven in a rash and negligent manner where it first hit Mann and then subsequently collided with two buses of Rajasthan and Haryana roadways before hitting him again.
The court also noted that Mann was the sole earning member of his family and is survived by his old parents aged 60 and 45 years.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Lauding the role of teachers in the nation-building process, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday called on them to devote the next four years in making a positive difference in the lives of the citizens.
"In the year 2022, we mark 75 years of freedom. Let us devote the coming four years to fulfilling the dreams and visions of those who gave their lives for our freedom.
"I urge you to focus on issues closer to your heart, mobilise local communities and make a positive difference in the lives of those around you. This would be a fitting tribute to our freedom fighters and further the resolve to build a new India," Modi said.
In a message to the teaching community on Teachers' Day, he said if there is one role that shapes the society more profoundly, it is that of teachers. "This is both a privilege as well as a responsibility and I am happy that our teachers are fulfilling their duty with boundless dedication," he said.
Modi, who interacted with 45 teachers who have been conferred the national awards this year, recalled the message of late president APJ Abdul Kalam, who had said, "Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, calibre and the future of an individual."
The prime minister said the 21st century will be shaped by societies that accord importance to education, research and innovation, thus, making the role of our teaches extremely vital.
While the government is undertaking numerous efforts to bring a paradigm shift in sector, the focus has successfully shifted from outlays to outcomes and from teaching to learning due to the monumental efforts of teachers, he said.
He said the emphasis on skills development has received a significant push due to the Atal tinkering labs. Numerous universities are being set up across the country so that no youngster is denied the joys of quality
"As the country marks the 150th birth anniversary celebration of Mahatma Gandhi, it would be wonderful if the teaching community takes the lead in furthering the thoughts and noble ideals of Bapu in an innovative manner among the students," he said in his message.
He appreciated the role of the teaching community in strengthening Swachh Bharat Mission.
Earlier, during the day, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu conferred the national awards on the 45 selected teachers.
Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar took questions during an online chat where he listed the initiatives rolled out by his government.
To a question about the high tuition fee charged by private schools, he reiterated that schools must make a complete disclosure on their income and expenditure, give details about the tuition fee to parents before the commencement of the academic year.
"The hike should be based on a formula and there should not be any hidden cost. Besides, there should be no compulsion for purchasing books or any other material from school shops," he said.
He said they are also formulating a scheme to make sanitary napkins available in schools especially in villages at cheaper rates.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A trial court here Wednesday deferred framing of charges against Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit and other accused persons in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.
Special judge, National Investigation Agency (NIA) court, Vinod Padalkar deferred the framing of charges after Purohit and other accused raised objections on the validity of sanction for their prosecution under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
One of the accused, former Major Ramesh Upadhyay, argued that first it should be decided whether the UAPA is applicable on them, before the trial commences.
The judge adjourned the matter and said the court will hear arguments of all the accused on this from next Monday.
The arguments will be heard on a day-to-day basis, starting with Purohit, the judge said.
The Bombay High Court had Tuesday rejected Purohit's plea to restrain the trial court from framing charges against him and other accused persons in the case.
In his plea, Purohit had urged the high court to stay the framing of charges until the issue of his sanction of prosecution was decided by the HC.
The high court had on December 18 last year refused to quash the government sanction for Purohit's prosecution.
He then approached the Supreme Court that refused to intervene in the case on April 20.
A prior sanction for Purohit's prosecution is required since he was a serving Army officer at the time.
The sanction was issued on January 17, 2009 by the additional chief secretary of the Maharashtra Home department.
Six people were killed and nearly 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque at Malegaon, a town in Maharashtra's Nashik district, on September 29, 2008.
On December 27, 2017, the special NIA court had dismissed the pleas filed by Purohit, his co-accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, and six others seeking discharge from the case.
The court, however, gave them partial relief by dropping all charges against them under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
Their appeals against this order are pending before the high court.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday remembered Mother Teresa, also known as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, on her 21st death anniversary.
Taking to her Twitter handle, Banerjee said that the United Nation (UN) had declared the day as the "International Day of Charity".
"Mother Teresa (Saint Teresa of Calcutta) passed away on this day in 1997, after a lifetime of service for the poorest of the poor," Banerjee tweeted.
"Sincerest tribute to her. In her memory, the @UN declared this day as the International Day of Charity," she added.
Special prayers were held today to pay tribute to Mother Teresa. Candles were lit at her grave in Mother House, the global headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity (MoC) she founded.
The Vatican had declared Mother Teresa Patron Saint of the "Archdiocese of Calcutta" on September 6, 2017 in recognition of her selfless service towards helping the poor and the underprivileged in the city.
Teresa, whose actual name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, left her home in Skopje, now in the Republic of Macedonia, at the age of 18 and joined the Sisters of Loreto in Rathfarnham in Ireland. After this, she never met her family again.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 38-year-old man, who was absconding for 14 years, was arrested here, police said Wednesday.
The man, identified as Laxmi Prasad, was arrested from his brother's residence in Delhi's Madanpur Khadar on charges of cheating and forgery, they said.
During interrogation, the accused revealed that in February 1996 while working as an office boy in a bank at Nehru Place, he fraudulently prepared a forged letter of his employer regarding application to the assistant manager of the bank for issuing a new cheque book, said Chinmoy Biswal, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (southeast).
The bank staff confirmed from the employer of the accused and it was learnt that no such request was made by the employer, he said.
Subsequently, when the accused went to withdraw money from the bank he was arrested on charges of cheating and forgery, the DCP said.
After a month, he was released on bail. During trial, the accused stopped attending court proceedings following which he was declared as a proclaimed offender by the Patiala House Court on January 8, 2004.
The accused told the police that he was staying at his in-laws place at Chatra in Madhya Pradesh.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A court here in Maharashtra has acquitted a 20-year-old man accused of sexually harassing and torturing his minor sister.
Additional Sessions Judge Kavita D Shirbhate acquitted the man last week for want of evidence against him, observing that the victim, who is the complainant in the case, and her mother did not support the prosecution theory in the court.
According to the prosecution, the accused had sought sexual favours from his sister, then aged 16, when their parents and elders were not at their home in Kashimira area here in 2016.
Out of fear, the victim did not disclose it to anyone.
The accused used to beat his sister and on May 16, 2016, he put his sister's hand on a hot gas burner, causing burn injuries to her, the prosecution said.
The girl called up a child helpline number on May 19, 2016 and subsequently went to police along with a social worker and lodged a complaint against her brother.
The accused was booked under IPC sections 354A(1)(ii) (sexual harassment) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), and relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO)Act.
The judge said the victim, with the help of an NGO, lodged a complaint against her brother, but neither she nor her mother supported the prosecution story in the court.
There is no corroboration of the complaint and no other independent witness has been examined by the prosecution, she observed.
"In the absence of any evidence on part of the complainant, it is difficult for me to hold the accused guilty. Hence, I come to the conclusion that the prosecution has failed to prove the guilt of the accused beyond all reasonable doubt," the judge said in her order.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma Wednesday said the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government were giving importance to the priority areas as agreed upon by all the allies.
Sangma whose government would complete six months in office Thursday said "We have started a lot of things in the last six months. We have given more or less good direction to the priority areas that are important to us and the policies have been shaped up in those lines."
Talking to reporters here the chief minister did not specify the priority areas but during the budget session of the state Assembly he had said that education was the top priority of his government.
On the Common Minimum Programme, the chief minister said, "We have circulated the draft and a committee has been formed with all the coalition partners."
He promised that his government will be more "aggressive" in monitoring in the process of implementation and reviews at the ground level.
The MDA government has made it mandatory for ministers to visit districts and blocks on rotation basis for the ground level review with the concerned officials and departments, the chief minister said.
He, however, admitted that the government is facing financial difficulties and claimed that these are part of "governance".
"I am happy to say that things have really smoothened up in the last six months and we are very much now in a proper momentum to work," he said, adding that the government will be meeting with the revenue generation departments tomorrow to try and find out what else can be done to mop up resources for the state.
On coal mining ban, Conrad said the government is working hard so the matter gets resolved at the earliest.
He also informed that after the Coal Nationalisation Policy has been repealed (about four months) the government has sought the Centres permission to exempt us from the provisions of the MMDR Act.
"I am positive and hopeful that this particular thing will also take shape but it is incorrect for me to give a statement on this regard on the status but I can tell the work is on and let us hope for a positive result," he said.
With regards to the non-payment of salaries to teachers under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan schools, the chief minister informed that negotiations are on with the Centre.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The opposition parties in Maharashtra Wednesday likened BJP legislator Ram Kadam to demon king Ravan for telling youngsters he would "kidnap" a girl they like even if she rejects their proposal.
The Ghatkopar MLA, who has expressed regret over his remarks, made the comments at a 'dahi handi' event in his suburban Ghatkopar assembly constituency Monday night.
The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena put up posters depicting Kadam as Ravan outside Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' residence and in Ghatkopar.
"The 'dashing' MLA, who proclaims himself to be compassionate, will abduct daughters. If he or his men do so, file a police complaint and also let us know. We will help you safeguard your daughters," the Raj Thackeray-led party said in the posters.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) spokesperson Nawab Malik said the BJP's "Ravan-like" face is out and its legislator will be called "Ravan Kadam" till he apologises.
"Expressing regret and apologising are very different things. The NCP will keep protesting against him and call him 'Ravan Kadam' till he apologises. State-wide protests will be held against him till he apologises," the opposition leader said.
Women members of the Indian Youth Congress burnt Kadam's effigy and also thrashed it with footwear in Indapur town of Maharashtra's Pune district.
Labelling the MLA "Ravan Kadam", they demanded that the chief minister take action against the lawmaker.
"We burnt his effigy naming it as 'Ravan Kadam'. We are angered by his comments to the extent that we felt like beating him with chappals... the chief minister should take action against him," one of the protesters, Pratiksha Jamdar, said.
The Youth Congress members staged the protest during the ongoing 'Jan Sangharsh Yatra', a public outreach programme of the party. Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan, former state minister Harshvardhan Patil and other leaders were also present during the protest.
Kadam, who is heard making the comments in a video clip, has said his comments were distorted.
"I only repeated a sentence made by one of the persons standing in the crowd... It was not my sentence. The clip which has gone viral is only of 40 seconds. However, later I had said mothers, sisters and daughters in all households are 'Lakshmi' who need to be respected," he said late Tuesday.
"Yet, if I have hurt sentiments, I express regret," the MLA said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
City-based MosChip Semiconductor Technology Wednesday said its Board of Directors have approved acquisition of four companies, including one in the U.S, being made as part of the company's growth plans.
The board gave its approval to the definitive agreements for acquiring Gigacom Semiconductor LLC, California, USA, Gigacom Semiconductor Pvt. Ltd, Visakhapatnam and city-based FirstPass Semiconductors Pvt. Ltd and the Institute of Silicon Systems Pvt. Ltd, a company release said.
MosChip was making these acquisitions as part of the companys growth plans to offer full suite of skill-set and expand business geography, it said.
Gigacom Semiconductor LLCis a six-year-old company focused on IP development and licensing apart from Mixed Signal Design Services.
Moschip will benefit immensely from the silicon proven IP and Silicon Valley presence, it said.
Gigacom Semiconductor is a six-year-old company primarily serving USA and India based customers in the Physical Design and Analog Layout space.
FirstPass Semiconductors was serving multiple customers in design verification, physical design and analog layout space while the Institute of Silicon Systems was a reputed player in the training space, the release said.
The company had trained more than 800 engineers in physical design and analog layout in the past eight years.
MosChip founder and director Ram Reddy said the firm would get access to high speed serial interface IP (SerDes) which has become key building block for any system-on-chip (SOC) development, making it one of the few companies with productisation capabilities and leading Fab relationships.
MosChip also said the company has appointed Venkata Sudhakar Simhadri as its CEO.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Azernews
By Naila Huseynli
Throughout last year, 82 percent of oil products of SOCAR were sold on the domestic market, while the remaining 18 percent was exported.
It is stated in the annual report of the company for 2017.
The report says that 5.81 million tons of crude oil produced in the oil refineries of SOCAR processing complex. Moreover, 1.21 million tons of gasoline, 588.000 tons of jet fuel, 1.84 million tons of diesel fuel, 200,600 tons of liquid gases, 237,100 tons of bitumen, 35,000 tons of lubricants, 226,900 tons of coke, and other products were produced in the reporting year.
Azerbaijan's State Oil company SOCAR is one of the leading international energy companies. It is active in all the oil and gas industry value chains. Exploration of oil and gas fields, production, processing and transportation of oil, gas and gas condensate constitute the main part of the operations of SOCAR. The company also exports natural gas, oil and petrochemical products to the country's market, as well as international markets.
The company's goal is to become a vertical integrated international energy company with advanced experience in the field of effective operation, social and environmental responsibility. As an important EU energy supplier, SOCAR plays a special role in the sustainable economic development of Europe.
Parliament was on Wednesday presented with a motion to abolish the current excessive president headed government system in Sri Lanka and replace it with a new one in which the prime minister is the head.
The motion was presented by opposition group Marxist JVP (People's Liberation Front).
"This was an unkept promise over a long period of time. There were many pledges to abolish the presidency but never implemented," Vijitha Herath, a JVP legislator, told Parliament.
If approved former president Mahinda Rajapaksa stands to gain as he would then be free from the term bar in the current Constitution.
Rajapaksa, 73, who was twice elected to the post, is constitutionally barred from running to be president again.
Herath said the new motion aims at preventing too much power being conferred on an individual. "This (the existing system) has made an individual too powerful," he said.
The current president headed system was introduced in 1978 after Sri Lanka was under a Westminster model parliamentary system since 1948.
The system has been blamed for most of the political ills in the island country, including the long standing dispute with the Tamil minority for their demand for power sharing.
Since it was introduced, all parties have pledged to abolish it. Every president, since 1994, have elected to honour the pledge to abolish the presidency. However, the pledge was never kept.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Madhya Pradesh government Tuesday decided to increase from Rs one lakh to Rs four lakh the ex-gratia to be paid to the kin of accredited journalists in the event of the death of the scribe.
MP Public Relations Minister Narottam Mishra Wednesday said this decision was taken during the meeting of the state cabinet held Tuesday evening.
"The cabinet decided to increase from Rs one lakh to Rs four lakh the amount of ex-gratia to be paid to the kin of accredited journalists in case of the latter's death," he told reporters.
The cabinet also decided to increase the compensation amount given to journalists/cameramen from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 in case of damage to their vehicles or cameras, the minister said.
The state government also decided to give five per cent interest subsidy for a period of five years on housing loan up to Rs 25 lakh to accredited journalists from the current financial year (from April 2018), he said.
"Fulfilling the major demand of the government college teachers, the cabinet also decided to implement the benefits of the Seventh Pay Commission from January 1, 2016," the minister said.
The arrears between January 1, 2016 and August 31, 2018, will be paid in one instalment and deposited in their GPF accounts, he added.
According to Mishra, the cabinet also took several other decisions, including granting of tehsil status to Sleemanabad in Katni district of the state and creation of Kuno National Park.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress alleged "huge irregularities" in the Madhya Pradesh government's subsidised power supply and bill waiver schemes Wednesday, demanding a CBI probe.
The ruling BJP termed the allegations as baseless.
"Huge irregularities have been found in the Sambal Yojana (power bill waiver scheme). Several ineligible persons were given benefit. We demand a CBI inquiry into this scam," said state Congress media cell chief Shobha Oza here.
Ministers, BJP MLAs and corporators were responsible for the alleged scam, Oza alleged.
Under the subsidised power supply scheme, registered labourers from the unorganised sector and Below Poverty Line (BPL) families get electricity at Rs 200 per month.
Under the bill waiver scheme, outstanding power dues as of June 1, 2018 of poor households are to be waived fully.
Congress Media Cell's vice president Bhupendra Gupta alleged that some beneficiaries were found to be owning cars and living in bungalows.
"Congress workers have checked out the addresses of such beneficiaries in Sagar and Indore cities," he said.
"Our investigation found that a power bill of Rs 1.77 lakh of a family living in one-room house was waived. How can a family living in one-room house can consume power worth lakhs?" he asked.
Congress leaders also released a list of such allegedly fraudulent beneficiaries.
State BJP spokesperson Rajnish Agrawal dismissed the allegations.
"These are baseless allegations. Congress should not politicise welfare schemes for the poor. These schemes were introduced to provide basic amenities to the deprived sections of society. Congress should think constructively about these welfare schemes," he said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will be starting work reconstruction and resurfacing on 1,343 roads of 507-km length from October this year, a civic official said Wednesday.
The works would be carried out in phases.
"The tendering process for 624 works for 202.31-km roads has already begun," the official said.
He said rest 719 works for roads admesuring 305.08-km would start in subsequent stage.
"These works will begin after monsoon gets over," the official said.
He said tendering process for 62 new road works that need urgent attention is already underway. These works will be awarded next month.
Of these 62 road works, 15 roads are located each in the island city and eastern suburbs while rest are in western suburbs.
The official said a new mechanism is being finalised to ensure that quality is maintained.
"We have taken a slew of measures to fix the accountability on the contractors. We will ensure that there would be no irregularities. The vigilance department of the civic body will also play its role," he said.
There will be a Defect Liability Period for three years, he said.
A defect liability period is a set period of time after a construction project has been completed during which a contractor has the right to return to the site to remedy defects.
The assurance came against the backdrop of a road repair scam that had come to light in 2015 and surfacing of potholes. Many people had died in various parts of the city and extended suburbs in accidents caused by pockmarked roads.
A total of 180 engineers were indicted in the two-phase enquiry conducted by the civic body and six of them were dismissed from the service earlier this year.
The civic body has set a budget of Rs 1,508 crore for the entire resurfacing and reconstruction works, the official said.
He said the BMC had completed the works on 552-km roads during October 1, 2016 to May 2018.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the National Legal Services Authority's (NALSA) scheme for compensating the victims of sexual assault and acid attacks should be used as guidelines by special courts in awarding compensation to minor victims of sexual abuse till the Centre finalises the rules.
The apex court took note of the fact that no rules have been framed by the Centre under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act on the basis of which special courts could award compensation to minor victims of cases under the law.
A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur, which had earlier accepted the NALSA's 'Compensation Scheme for Women Victims/Survivors of Sexual Assault/Other Crimes-2018', said the scheme and the guidelines would be operational across the country from October 2.
"...We are of the opinion that the NALSA compensation scheme should function as the guidelines for special courts (under the POCSO Act) to award compensation to the victims of sexual abuses until rules are formalised by the central government," the bench, which also comprised Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta, said.
The bench said the special court would take into consideration the provisions of the POCSO Act, which is gender neutral, as well as the circumstances of the cases while awarding interim compensation to the minor victims of sexual assaults.
As per NALSA's scheme, a victim of gang rape in any part of the country would get a minimum compensation of Rs 5 lakh and up to a maximum of Rs 10 lakh.
Similarly, in case of rape and unnatural sexual assault, the victim would get a minimum of Rs 4 lakh and maximum of Rs 7 lakh as compensation.
The scheme also says that the victims of acid attacks, in case of disfigurement of the face, would get a minimum compensation of Rs 7 lakh, while the upper limit would be Rs 8 lakh.
In acid attack cases, if the injury is more than 50 per cent, a minimum compensation of Rs 5 lakh would be given, while the maximum would be Rs 8 lakh.
Today, the apex court asked the special courts to also consider the fact that interim compensation awarded to minor victims of sexual assaults should not be misused or mis-utilised.
It directed that copies of the NALSA scheme as well as its order be sent to the registrars general of all high courts so that it could be circulated to the trial courts as well as the district or state legal services authority.
"We direct that wide publicity be given to the scheme as well as the order passed by us today on regular basis till rules are finalised by the central government," it said.
During the hearing, senior advocate Indira Jaising, assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, said a meeting was convened by the NALSA on the issue of compensation for minor victims of sexual assaults.
NALSA told the bench that POCSO Act was to be amended and it was likely to be brought before the Parliament during the next session.
The bench then asked Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Pinky Anand, who was appearing for the Ministry of Women and Child Development, about it.
"Why don't you do it (frame rules under POCSO Act)," the bench asked, adding that the POCSO Act had come into force in 2012 but rules have not been framed even after six years.
The ASG told the bench that there was a proposal to amend the POCSO Act and the rules would be framed after the amendment was carried out.
Jaising told the apex court that the NALSA's victim compensation scheme would come into force from October 2. She said the NALSA scheme has caps on the amount to be awarded as compensation while POCSO Act does not prescribe any upper limit.
"The scheme has been finalised and it should be implemented by the states," she said.
The bench also observed that the purpose behind going into this aspect was to bring in parity in compensation given by different states.
The apex court had earlier said that the NALSA's scheme be modified to make it applicable to child victims of sexual assaults.
Earlier, the Centre had told the apex court that it was finding it difficult to get the cooperation of states on the issue relating to disbursal of compensation to the victims of sexual assault under the Nirbhaya Fund.
The Fund was announced by the Centre in 2013 after the December 16, 2012 gang rape and murder case in Delhi to support the initiatives on women's safety across the country. Several petitions were filed in the Supreme Court after the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder incident in Delhi raising concerns over safety and security of women.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The J-K BJP Wednesday hit out at the National Conference for announcing to boycott the forthcoming civic bodies polls in Jammu and Kashmir, alleging the party was playing the "role of separatists" by blackmailing the Centre on Article 35-A which is subjudice.
Party president Farooq Abdullah said Wednesday the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference will boycott the local body and panchayat elections in the state unless the Centre takes effective steps for protection of Article 35-A of the Constitution, which is facing legal challenge in the Supreme Court.
Article 35A, which was incorporated in the Constitution by a 1954 Presidential Order, accords special rights and privileges to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir and bars people from outside the state from acquiring any immovable property in the state.
J-K BJP spokesperson Priya Sethi told reporters, "The NC is playing the role of separatists by boycotting civic polls and trying to blackmail Government of India on Article 35-A, which is subjudice."
She claimed that every time the central and state governments try to take new initiatives of empowering people in Jammu and Kashmir by holding urban local bodies and panchayati elections, regional parties particularly the NC try to play "separatist politics" and derail the initiative.
"It is they who tried to derail the process and resort to blackmail tactics. They are definitely sabotaging the systems and processes. The statement of the NC and its leaders is very unfortunate," Sethi said.
All the regional political parties including the NC and PDP, have always played a negative role in the state, she claimed.
BJP spokesman Anil Gupta said that the NC was deliberately trying to change the narrative and mislead the people of the state by adding a new dimension of the Constitution of separate regional and sub-regional councils in order to divert their attention from the all-important issue of legality of Article 35A.
Gupta said, "Having miserably failed in its propaganda to convince the people by creating a fear psychosis about the loss of identity and job opportunities in case of Article 35A being declared invalid by the Supreme Court, its leaders are now trying to confuse the people with the old idea of regional councils.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Jammu and Kashmir's oldest political party, the National Conference, decided wednesday to boycott the elections to panchayat and urban local bodies in the state unless the Centre clarifies its position on Article 35-A of the Constitution, which is facing legal challenge in the Supreme Court.
Minutes after NC president and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah made the announcement, the party's arch rival PDP expressed hope that newly appointed governor Satya Pal Malik would convene an all-party meeting to discuss the matter.
The National Conference, which held its core group meeting here, decided to stay out of the panchayat and urban local body elections, saying the decision to hold the polls had been taken in a "hurried" manner without taking into considerations the prevailing situation "created by the powers that be, by unnecessarily fiddling with Article 35-A".
The validity of Article 35A of the Constitution, which accords a slew of rights and privileges to the "permanent residents" of the state, has been challenged in the Supreme Court.
Talking to reporters after chairing the meeting, Abdullah said, "The core group unanimously decided that the National Conference will not participate in these elections unless and until the government of India and the state government clear their position in this regard and take effective steps for protection of Article 35-A in and outside the courts."
The state administration had last week announced the schedule for holding the elections to local body poll in the state. While the urban local body polls are slated for the first week of October, the panchayat elections are scheduled to be held in November-December this year.
Jammu and Kashmir is currently under governor's rule.
Abdullah said the core group had a detailed discussion about the prevailing situation in the state with particular reference to Article 35-A of the Constitution. "It was felt that any tinkering with Article 35-A would prove disastrous not only for our state but for the entire country."
He said the role of the central government and the present dispensation in Jammu and Kashmir before the Supreme Court go "clearly against the wishes and aspirations of the people of the state".
"They conveniently ignore that this provision was incorporated in the Constitution after thorough discussion between the then state government and the Government of India and was made part of the Delhi Agreement 1952," he said, adding that "it was also approved by the state's constituent assembly as envisaged under Article 370 of the Constitution".
NC vice president and former chief minister Omar Abdullah said, "It is now for the central government to clarify where it stands with regard to Article 35-A. It's not enough to use panchayat and municipal elections simply to delay proceedings in court."
In a related development, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti tweeted that her party the PDP was hopeful that the Governor will convene an all-party meeting on the issue.
"(When) in government I had called an all-party meeting to discuss ULB/Panchayat elections and majority of the parties had opposed holding of elections at that time. We expected that the governor too would have called an all-party meet where everyone would put forward their viewpoint," she said.
"We are still hopeful about that meet and would share our opinion with all the parties so that a consensus is built," she added.
The PDP president, tweeting from her personal handle, said, "The central government's plea in Supreme Court to link decision on (Article) 35-A with panchayat and urban bodies elections, was a disastrous idea, which has further alienated the people and complicated the situation on ground."
In Jammu, state Congress chief G A Mir said it was the responsibility of the governor-led administration to provide secure atmosphere to the candidates and voters and ensure peaceful, free and fair polls.
"The situation in the state, especially in Kashmir Valley, over the past three years has deteriorated. The previous PDP-BJP government failed to conduct bypolls to the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat...," he said.
Mir said the Congress had informed former governor N N Vohra and his successor Satya Pal Malik that the party would not sit behind if they chose to conduct the panchayat and municipal elections, but added that a decision would be taken after reviewing the ground situation.
Talking to reporters in Delhi, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi refused to comment on the NC's decision to boycott the polls, but alleged that the BJP was raising issues such as Article 35-A and uniform civil code to divert the people's attention from its misgovernance.
Reacting to the NC's stand, the All Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Conference termed it "highly-objectionable" and asked the party not to politicise panchayati raj institutions for "petty vote bank politics".
AJKPC state president Anil Sharma told reporters in Jammu that it was an attempt "to blackmail the Government of India and put pressure on the apex court", hearing pleas challenging Article 35-A.
The Centre had last week informed the Supreme Court that panchayat and urban local body elections were to be held in the state, prompting the apex court to defer hearing on a bunch of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of Article 35-A to the second week of January next year.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) Wednesday extended the hearing of the Tata Mistry matter to October 31, as Tata Group sought some more time to file their replies.
Earlier on August 24, while passing an interim order the appellate tribunal had asked Tatas to file their reply within 10 days and directed to list the matter on September 24 for next hearing.
The time to file reply was ending on Thursday, following which Tata side approached NCLAT for extension to file their replies.
NCLAT has now given four-weeks time to Tata to file reply and two weeks-time to Mistry for filing rejoinder, if any.
Now, both petitions filed by ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry and the investments firm Cyrus Investments will come for hearing on October 31.
Last week, Cyrus P Mistry had moved NCLAT in his personal capacity, requesting the appellate tribunal to set aside the impugned order passed by the National Company Law Tribunal on July 9.
On August 29, NCLAT had admitted Mistry's petition and issued notices. It had said the petition would be heard together with petitions filed by his family's investment firms, challenging the removal as well as conversion of Tata Sons into a private company from a public limited firm.
Earlier, on August 24, NCLAT passed an order over the petitions filed by the investments firm of Mistry family and directed Tata Sons not to force the companies to sell their shares in the Tata group firm.
The appellate tribunal had also admitted the petitions of Mistry's family-run firms.
The Mistry camp had challenged the July 9 order of the Mumbai bench of the NCLT which dismissed their pleas against his removal as Tata Sons chairman, as also the allegations of rampant misconduct on part of Ratan Tata and the company's Board.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
There is a need to strike a balance between the freedom of the press and the right of a victim to have fair trial in cases of crime against women, the Supreme Court was told on Wednesday.
Senior advocate Indira Jaising, assisting the court as an amicus curiae, told a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta that the media was running "parallel trial" in sub-judice matters and the court should frame guidelines on how to report the cases of crime against women.
Jaising also claimed that the police was leaking information to the media even before filing the charge sheet before a competent court, which amounted to interference in the administration of justice.
"Touchstone of the question is whether it is interference in administration of justice. It is one thing to report court proceeding. It is another thing to run a parallel trial. Running parallel trial in sub-judice matters is interference in the administration of justice," she said.
She referred to the sensational Kathua gang rape and murder case and said that even before the charge sheet was filed in the court, the media pronounced the decision that some of the accused were innocent and not guilty of the offences.
An eight-year old girl, belonging to a minority nomadic community, was allegedly gangraped and murdered in Kathua in the Jammu region on January 10. Her body was found in the same area a week later.
During the arguments, Jaising referred to the provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, which deals with disclosure of identity of victims of such offences and the procedure to be followed by the media in reporting these cases, as also the Contempt of Courts Act.
After the amicus concluded her arguments, Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand, appearing for the Centre, said she needed some time to respond to the submissions, following which the bench posted it for hearing on September 11.
Anand said the Press Council of India also have some guidelines on media reporting.
Jaising told the bench that there was no need to give guardian the right to give consent for disclosing the names of victims of sexual assaults in cases of minors and disabled.
The bench observed that if the kin of such victims say that they have no objection if the name is disclosed, then it cannot be prohibited but it should not become a mean to make money.
"It cannot be that they (kin) will say 'I will give you exclusive right to disclose the name first'. This is unfortunate. We cannot be oblivious to it," the bench said.
Jaising also made it clear that there should not be an "absolute taboo" on the disclosure of the names of such victims.
The amicus said she was not at all against "accurate" reporting of court proceedings by the press, but parallel media trial cannot be allowed.
She said an accused was not supposed to know the evidence against him even before filing of charge sheet against him, but the police was leaking information to the media prior to this.
Jaising said in the recent case in which several activists were arrested in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case, the Bombay High Court had reprimanded the police for leaking letters recovered during the probe to the press.
"Pronouncing someone as guilty or not guilty is the function of the court and not the media," she said, adding that the victims also have right to privacy.
The bench also heard arguments on the reporting of in-camera proceedings in the court.
The court had earlier agreed to examine the provisions of law which provide curbs and balances for the media in reporting incidents of sexual assault, including that of minors, after a complaint that there have been "regular violation" of such provisions.
Jaising had earlier said that a balance of rights of such victims and that of the media to report such incidents was required, and the apex court should interpret Section 228-A of IPC (dealing with disclosure of identity of victims of sexual offences) and provision 23 of the POCSO Act which deals with the procedure to be followed by media along with the Contempt of Courts Act.
The issue had cropped up when the court was hearing a batch of petitions filed after the December 16, 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder incident in Delhi to support the initiatives on women's safety across the country.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Trend
Governor of the People's Government of Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Shohrat Zakir and the delegation of the Turkmen government discussed the aspects of investment cooperation in the city of Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, according to Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper.
The sides also discussed the cooperation in the trade and economic sphere.
The meeting was held on the sidelines of the forum entitled "Turkmenistan-China: Tourism on the Great Silk Road", organized by the State Committee for Tourism of Turkmenistan and the Committee for the Development of Tourism of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
"Turkmenistan is a unique country and has great potential not only in tourism sector, but also in the trade and economic area," Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper cited Erkin Tuniyaz, deputy governor of the People's Government of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, as saying.
Turkmenistan's Ambassador to China Chinar Rustamova focused on the country's investment potential, key vectors of the innovation development strategy.
The Chinese companies are represented in the Turkmen market in oil and gas and telecommunications spheres, transport, agriculture, textile, chemical and food industries, health care and construction sectors.
China has implemented a number of major projects in the gas sector. In particular, CNPC company is taking part in the development of the Bagtyyarlyk contract territory and construction of facilities on the Galkynysh giant gas field. Since 2009, China has been importing Turkmen gas with the prospect of increasing the volume of gas imports to 65 billion cubic meters of fuel per year.
According to data for 2016, about forty enterprises with Chinese capital were operating, and about 70 investment projects totalling more than $4 billion and 2.3 billion yuans have been registered in Turkmenistan.
Israel's prime minister says the country is working in "all arenas, near and far" against Iran.
Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is working "resolutely" to combat precision weapons that could be used against it and to prevent Iran to establish a military presence in neighboring Syria. He spoke Wednesday at a meeting of his Cabinet.
The remarks come a day after an Israeli military official said Israel has struck over 200 Iranian targets in Syria over the past 18 months.
Israel is widely believed to have been behind a series of airstrikes mainly targeting Iranian and Hezbollah forces in Syria who are fighting alongside the government. It rarely confirms the attacks.
Israel views Iran's presence in Syria as a growing threat.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The National Green Tribunal has formed a monitoring committee headed by a former high court judge to prepare a time-bound action plan on groundwater recharge in the national capital.
A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said mere finalisation of the action plan without oversight of its implementation may not achieve the desired purpose.
The committee will be headed by Justice (retd) S P Garg and comprise one representative each from the Delhi Jal Board, Central Pollution Control Board, Central Ground Water Authority and Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) concerned, it said.
"Apart from finalising the action plan in the light of suggestions of other stakeholders, the suggestion mooted is to have an independent monitoring committee which can constantly monitor the situation for about six months to enhance the availability of groundwater by adopting suitable measures, check contamination and take final call on the plans for proper utilisation of treated effluents...
"The committee will take stock of all actions taken so far and prepare time-bound action plan to deal with the problem and ensure its implementation," the bench said.
The green panel said the panel may take help of technical experts and also carry out visits to sites whenever necessary.
"They will be entitled to all logistic support for performing these functions which shall be provided under the directions of the chief secretary, Delhi.
"The monitoring committee may also set up a website for receiving and giving information on the subject. The committee may also involve educational institutions for awareness and feedback about results," it said.
The NGT directed that the committee will also take an urgent call on the issue of supply of drinking water to areas where it is deficient.
The tribunal directed the Delhi chief secretary to provide all facilities to the committee to perform its functions and asked the panel to send its periodical reports to it by e-mail.
"The committee may assume its charge within two weeks from today. The committee may prepare action plan which shall have targets of ensuring compliance. It may meet at such intervals as considered appropriate but twice in every month and fix targets for compliance," the bench said.
It had earlier directed the Delhi government to act against unauthorised water extraction in the national capital.
The appalling picture of water supply in the capital had prompted the tribunal to seek the response of the city government in the matter after taking suo motu cognisance of a media report that said "stinking and dirty" water was flowing through water supply lines and borewells were pumping out contaminated water.
Later, it had constituted a committee comprising secretary (Environment) and representatives from the Central Pollution Control Board, Delhi Pollution Control Committee, Delhi Jal Board, Central Pollution Control Board and all municipal corporations and asked them to submit a complete and comprehensive report.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Banned militant outfit National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) has sent extortion notices to three village committee chairman in Dhalai district, police said Wednesday.
Extortion notices were sent to the chairmen of Purba Potacherra, Raima and Boalkhali villages in Dhalai district Tuesday, Officer-in-charge of Raisyabari police station, Soleman Reang told reporters.
Assistant Inspector General (Law and Order), Smriti Ranjan Das said police has received complaints from villagers and investigation is on.
"We would alert BSF because those villages are near the Chittagong Hill Tract of Bangladesh and we are also keeping a close vigil on the situation and patrolling by state police force was intensified in the area," Das told PTI.
The AIG said a small splinter group of NLFT still has makeshift camps inside the Chittagong Hill Tract.
"We are cautious, but do not consider the incident as very serious. When poor tribal shifting cultivators go to collect forest produces, the ultras hand over some extortion notices and direct them to drop the notices near government offices or near some ones house. The cultivators are forced to do that," Das said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Nepal said on Wednesday that there was no discussion held or agreement reached during the recently concluded 4th BIMSTEC summit on holding a joint military exercise of the member states.
Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali said the matter of holding joint military exercise has not been incorporated in any mechanism of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit hosted by Nepal on August 30 and 31 in Kathmandu.
The BIMSTEC is a regional grouping comprising India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal. The grouping accounts for 22 per cent of the global population, and has a combined gross domestic product of USD 2.8 trillion.
Briefing the International Relations Committee under the House of Representatives regarding the agenda endorsed by the BIMSTEC Summit, Gyawali said the Summit did not dwell on the issue of holding the joint military exercise as reported in the media.
Addressing the inaugural session of the Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had proposed to host a joint military exercise in India in the second week of September.
Responding to the queries of the lawmakers who had raised concern in the Parliament Committee meeting regarding India's proposal to host the joint military exercise, Gyawali said, "the issue of the joint military exercise did not enter in any of the three layers of meetings of the BIMSTEC (the Special SOM, ministerial-level and the Summit)."
Senior leader of the ruling Communist Party of Nepal and International Relations Committee member Bhim Bahadur Rawal said, "such type of joint military exercise would be against the ideals and spirit of BIMSTEC.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Goa BJP leader Rajendra Arlekar ruled out Wednesday the possibility of leadership change in the state, claiming that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is capable of handling the situation even though he away.
Parrikar is in the United States for medical treatment.
While the Congress has been demanding that the government should be dismissed owing to Parrikar's absence and the ill-health of two other ministers, there are also rumours that some senior opposition MLAs are on their way to the BJP.
"We do not want leadership change in Goa. The whole party is with Manohar Parrikar and there is no question of leadership change," Arlekar told reporters here.
"Parrikar is capable of handling the situation and with the help of party MLAs and the organisation, he is certainly doing that.
"So...this question of certain people entering BJP and taking charge of ministry, is irrelevant," Arlekar said.
"All those who are spreading such rumours...this message should be clear...we all are with Parrikar and we are not looking at any leadership change," he added.
However, he said that the BJP is not averse to admitting leaders from other parties into its fold to "enhance the party base".
Talking about the ailing BJP ministers Pandurang Madkaikar and Francis D'Souza, he said Parrikar will take decision about them "as and when required."
Madkaikar is admitted to a private hospital in Mumbai since June 5 after he suffered a brain stroke. D'Souza is receiving treatment in the US.
"When he (Parrikar) comes back he is certainly going to deliberate on all these issues and take final decision. He is the chief minister and he knows it better what happens to the administration in a minister's absence, so he will take the decision after consulting the party," Arlekar said, adding that the party has given Parrikar "full freedom" in these matters.
Parrikar left for the US on August 31 and is expected to return on September 8. He underwent three-month-long treatment for a pancreatic ailment in the US earlier this year.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan Wednesday said no student enrolled in industrial training institutes (ITIs) should fail as it is a "de-motivation" for students coming from diverse societal backgrounds.
Addressing a conference here on Teachers' Day, the skill development and entrepreneurship minister suggested that ITI students should be graded according to their performance but nobody should fail.
"We were reviewing yesterday, it is my suggestion that nobody should fail in ITIs, somebody should get Grade A, somebody should get Grade E but nobody should fail.
"This is a de-motivation. Look at the student's societal background. He can't speak properly but knows everything. He is not able to match your (ITIs) limited knowledge criteria linked to examinations," Pradhan said.
He observed that nobody knows which sectors would attract jobs in the future due to rapidly changing skill-sets required for new technologies.
"The skills emerging in the 21st century... Nobody knows the future of jobs," he said.
Besides, a tripartite MoU was signed between the Directorate General of Training (DGT), NSDC and Adobe India.
"The collaboration with Adobe will follow the launch of Adobe Digital Disha - a programme focused on helping Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras and ITIs leverage the power of Adobe Spark to integrate creativity and digital literacy into classrooms and curriculum, encouraging students to develop essential skills needed for jobs in the digital era.
"Adobe Digital Disha is expected to touch the lives of over 1 million students and teachers across India by the year 2020," an official statement said.
Another MoU was signed between National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and IBM India to address the demand of skilled workforce in futuristic job roles.
NSDC is partnering with IBM Skills Academy to facilitate the provision of Asia Pacific Skills Academy's Badges, Career Pathways and related IBM offerings to promote and embolden the Skill India Mission for the Future of Work through NSDC's approved training providers.
"Providing students with career-oriented training program on technologies like AI, Cloud, Big Data, Cybersecurity...will better prepare millennials for new collar jobs. With this tie up, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras will also be able to impart training using the virtual platform of IBM," the statement said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Norway has completed the frame of the world's tallest timber building, which is being lauded for being environmentally friendly and fire resistant.
The Mjos Tower, which is situated near and named after a lake located about 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Oslo, saw its last beam hoisted by a crane this week.
At 85.4 metres (just over 280 feet), it has 18 floors.
Promoters say that using wood, a renewable material, makes it possible to reduce CO2 emissions compared to concrete, which is the primary material of residential buildings in cities.
"Building with wood is helping us breathe in a better world," said businessman Arthur Buchardt, who added he began the project after being inspired by the Paris agreement on climate change.
Constructors say the building is fire resistant as it uses glue laminated timber that will only burn when continuously exposed to flames.
When it opens in March 2019, the tower will surpass its 49-metre counterpart Treet (tree in Norwegian), which previously held the record of the world's tallest wooden building and is located in the western city of Bergen.
The Mjos Tower is to hold apartments, an indoor swimming pool, a hotel, offices, a restaurant and common areas.
It was originally supposed to be 81 metres high, but a roof-top pergola added another 4.4 metres.
This addition makes it slightly higher than the HoHo tower (84 metres), currently being constructed in Vienna.
This Austrian building has a hybrid structure combining wood (76 percent) and other materials, unlike the Mjos Tower.
Other, even more ambitious timber projects have been proposed, including the Baobab tower in Paris (120 metres), though municipal authorities have turned that one down.
The Abebe Court Tower in Lagos (87 meters), meanwhile, is still waiting to be built, according to the CTBUH, an NGO specialising in sustainable urban design.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With the country's agro and food processing sector is expected to reach a size of USD 530 billion by 2020, Odisha has been facilitating creation of an ideal business eco-system to make the state a hub in the eastern region, an official said Wedsnesday.
The state has also made related infrastructure for sustainable, equitable and inclusive growth of the sector to add value and reduce wastage, thereby maximising employment opportunity and increase income of the farmers, Industries Secretary Sanjeev Chopra told PTI.
"Among 6 focus sectors of Odishas Industrial Development Plan 2025, we have received maximum investment proposals from investors in food processing and seafood sectors," Chopra said. Khurda district has already become home to many national and international brands in food processing.
As the state government has been giving clearances within 15-30 days of receiving complete proposals, "we are confident of making Odisha the hub for food processing and seafood companies in eastern India in the next few years, Chopra said.
Odisha is the fourth largest vegetable producing state in the country and a long coastline of 480 km. The state is also one of the major seafood processing hubs of the country.
With availability of raw materials, 10 agro-climatic zones, agriculture resources, sea food, farming landscape, adequate cold storage capacity and easy connectivity to ASEAN region, Odisha has all the ingredients required for the food processing & seafood sector to flourish in the state, he said.
Additionally, the MITS Mega Food Park at Rayagada has been developed with an investment of Rs 80 crore. The park has become functional with anchor investor LT Foods (Daawat Group) operationalising its rice processing mill recently. Land has already been allocated to many companies, he said.
Odisha has largely been concentrating on marine exports which is also reflected in the almost 100 per cent jump in value of marine exports in 2014 and and 27 per cent jump in 2015 over previous year.
The state has also launched a Food Processing Policy 2013, besides earmarking specific subsidies for mega food parks in its Industrial Policy, 2015. Odisha has set a target of 25 per cent food processing by 2025 and marine exports of Rs 10,000 crore by 2020, the official said.
The state government has largely been concentrating on marine exports. The Seafood Park at Deras (outskirts of Bhubaneswar) is being operationalised with an investment of Rs 134 crore. The units will be processing fish, shrimps and prawns for domestic and overseas markets, the official said.
Odisha has already witnessed an inflow of major companies like Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Private Limited (HCCBPL), Britannia, Parle Agro, ITC Ltd and Indo-Nissin and others.
As per the recent study, the total investment opportunities in agro and food processing sector in Odisha is Rs 12 billion with a potential to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11 per cent.
With more than 25,000 food & allied MSMEs and around 1.3 lakh people employed in the sector, the state government has taken large strides to make the state an ideal investment destination for agro & food processing sector, he said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pakistan currently has 140 to 150 nuclear warheads and the stockpile is expected to increase to 220 to 250 by 2025 if the current trend continues, according to a latest report by authors keeping a track of the country's nukes.
The current estimate of 140 to 150 nuclear weapons exceeds the projection made by the US Defense Intelligence Agency in 1999 that Pakistan would have 60 to 80 warheads by 2020.
"We estimate that the country's stockpile could more realistically grow to 220 to 250 warheads by 2025, if the current trend continues. If that happens, it would make Pakistan the world's fifth-largest nuclear weapon state," Hans M Kristensen, Robert S Norris and Julia Diamond said in the report 'Pakistani nuclear forces 2018'.
Kristensen, the lead author, is the director of the Nuclear Information Project with the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) in Washington, DC.
Over the past decade, the US assessment of nuclear weapons security in Pakistan appears to have changed considerably from confidence to concern, particularly as a result of the introduction of tactical nuclear weapons, the report said.
"With several delivery systems in development, four plutonium production reactors, and its uranium enrichment facilities expanding, however, Pakistan has a stockpile that will likely increase further over the next 10 years," says the report.
Pakistan continues to expand its nuclear arsenal with more warheads, more delivery systems and a growing fissile materials production industry, it said.
"Analysis of a large number of commercial satellite images of Pakistani army garrisons and air force bases shows what appear to be mobile launchers and underground facilities that might be related to nuclear forces," said the report.
The authors observe that the size of the increase will depend on many factors.
Two key factors will be how many nuclear-capable launchers Pakistan plans to deploy, and how much the Indian nuclear arsenal grows.
"Speculation that Pakistan may become the world's third-largest nuclear weapon state with a stockpile of some 350 warheads a decade from now are, we believe, exaggerated, not least because that would require a buildup two to three times faster than the growth rate over the past two decades," the authors said.
According to the report, Pakistan is modifying its nuclear posture with new short-range nuclear-capable weapon systems to counter military threats below the strategic level.
"The efforts seek to create a full-spectrum deterrent that is designed not only to respond to nuclear attacks, but also to counter an Indian conventional incursion onto Pakistani territory," it said.
"This development has created considerable concern in other countries, including the United States, which fears that it lowers the threshold for nuclear use in a military conflict with India," the report added.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pakistan's election commission Wednesday officially declared Dr Arif Alvi as the 13th president of the country after an official count showed he had secured 352 votes -- 44 more than his two rivals could collectively obtain.
Dr Arif Alvi, a close ally of Prime Minister Imran Khan and one of the founding members of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, defeated Pakistan Peoples Party candidate Aitzaz Ahsan and the Pakistan Muslim League-N nominee Maulana Fazl ur Rehman in a three-way contest.
The 69-year-old dentist secured 352 votes while his rivals Rehman and Ahsan clinched 184 and 124 votes respectively, Dawn reported, citing the Form VII issued by the returning officer.
The results of Tuesday's election were prepared in the presence of the representatives of the three candidates at the election commission headquarters Wednesday, with Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Sardar Muhammad Raza serving as the returning officer, the paper said.
The election commission has sent the official results to the federal government, which will notify Dr Alvi as the 13th president of Pakistan.
The newly elected president will take oath of the office on September 9. Outgoing President Mamnoon Hussain's five-year tenure ends on September 8.
Of the 430 votes cast via a secret ballot in the National Assembly and Senate, Alvi received 212 votes, Rehman bagged 131 and Ahsan garnered 81; six votes were rejected.
Alvi is one of the founding members of PTI. He served as the party's secretary general from 2006 to 2013.
He won the National Assembly elections from NA-247 (Karachi) during the July 25 polls. He was also elected member of the National Assembly in the 2013 general election.
In Pakistan, the President is considered as a symbol of the federation and head of the state and exercises all powers on the recommendations of the prime minister.
Prime Minister Khan, who is said to have the backing of the powerful military establishment, has consolidated his grip over power by nominating the governors of the all four provinces and appointing his key ally as the chief minister of the most populous and politically crucial state of Punjab.
With his close ally Alvi as President, Khan can smoothly implement his agenda, according to observers.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Trend
The Uzbek-Egyptian business forum and cooperation exchange will be held in the B2B format in Uzbekistans Tashkent on September 5, the Uzbek Ministry for Foreign Trade said in a message Sept. 4.
According to the message, the business forum will be held during the visit of President of Egypt Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi to Uzbekistan.
Businessmen of the two countries will take part in the events.
Mutually beneficial investment and trade agreements are planned to be signed. Moreover, the participants of the business forum will discuss the creation of a horticulture and logistics hub in Uzbekistan.
The Egyptian president will be on an official visit to Uzbekistan September 4-5.
Pakistan's Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the formation of a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe the alleged involvement of former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister in a Rs 3,500 crore money laundering and fake bank accounts case, according to a media report.
In July, the Supreme Court listed Zardari, 63, and his sister Faryal Talpur as beneficiaries in the alleged scam "running into billions of rupees" that led to the arrest of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman's close aide and famous banker Hussain Lawai.
While hearing the case regarding a delay in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) probe into the case, the apex court had earlier deliberated over the formation of an investigation team, but said that it would only be constituted once the defence and prosecution lawyers concluded their arguments, Dawn newspaper reported.
The three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar, however, has not decided who will be a part of the JIT. The apex court is also in favour of halting the proceedings in the trial court.
The case has been described as a "big corruption case", the report said.
"It is necessary to have a mega corruption case probed by a JIT," Nisar said while noting that the court had constituted JITs to probe a number of similar cases.
A Federal Investigation Agency JIT has been investigating the 2015 case regarding the fake accounts and fictitious transactions conducted through 29 'benami' accounts in the Summit Bank, the Sindh Bank and the United Bank Limited, the report said.
Seven individuals, including Zardari and Talpur, were said to be involved in using those accounts for suspicious transactions which were initially found to have totalled Rs 3,500 crore. The accounts were allegedly used to channel funds received through kickbacks.
Earlier, Nisar had hinted at constituting a high-power JIT- similar to the one formed in the Panama Papers case against Nawaz Sharif - to probe the money laundering allegations against Zardari and his sister.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pakistan on Wednesday sought US help to ease tensions with India, saying it wanted peace on the Eastern border in order to concentrate on the Western border with Afghanistan.
"We want ease on the Eastern border if we have to look towards the Western side," Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told reporters while briefing them on the outcome of his talks with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Stating that people suffer due to ceasefire violations along the Line of Control, he said, it was "important that we should look at it and see how we can improve that who can help us to bring the improvement (on Eastern border)."
He reiterated that Pakistan wanted peace with all its neighbours and had never shied away from negotiations, but "we need two hands to clap."
Pakistan's neighbours, including India and Afghanistan, often accuse Islamabad of providing safe havens to militants to conduct cross border attacks.
Qureshi said the LoC ceasefire was a very good Confidence Building Measure but when it gets violated, people suffer.
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.
India has made it clear to Pakistan that terror and talks cannot go together.
Qureshi said that the visiting US delegation indicated to have direct talks with the Afghan Taliban and Pakistan offered its full support for a negotiated solution of the Afghan issue.
"Pompeo said the State Department will lead the peace effort in Afghanistan. The impression we get is that there is space for (US) direct talks with the Taliban," he said.
He said Pompeo assured that the US did not want to keep its foot print for unlimited period in Afghanistan, though there was no timeline for America to pullout from the strife-torn country.
"US wants that Pakistan should help to move forward the talks. And we will do and we have offered full support as it is according to our policy. We want peace (in Afghanistan)," he said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Maharashtra government Wednesday informed the Bombay High Court that it has decided to constitute an expert committee to help resolve the traffic congestion in the city.
Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni informed a bench led by Acting Chief Justice Naresh Patil that the committee would comprise members from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), police and the state traffic department.
In an affidavit submitted before the bench during the hearing, Kumbhakoni also said the committee would take the help of independent experts and invite suggestions from the public for the government to tackle the problems arising due to the increasing vehicular traffic and rampant unauthorised parking in Mumbai.
The affidavit was filed in compliance with a previous order of the high court directing the state to implement some long-term measures to reduce traffic congestion and its resultant woes in the city.
The bench was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a local NGO, Janhit Manch, raising concerns over the increasing vehicular population and traffic problems across Mumbai.
The PIL also informed the court that the lack of adequate designated parking space in the city, and the resultant unauthorised parking along the roads and on pavements was adding to the woes of the commuters in the city.
The bench has now directed the state government to inform the court once the committee is constituted and some of its recommendations are received.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar will return here Thursday evening from the United States where he has gone for medical treatment, his office said on Wednesday.
"The chief minister would land in Mumbai tomorrow at 3 pm and will reach Goa by 5 pm. He will board a flight from the US tonight," a senior officer at the the Chief Minister's Office told PTI.
Parrikar's treatment is complete and that is why he is returning, the official said.
The chief minister had left for the USA on August 31.
Earlier this year, he underwent a three-month-long treatment for a pancreatic ailment at a US hospital. Subsequently, he was admitted to a Mumbai hospital again on August 23.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar lashed out at SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday, accusing him of ordering police firing at Behbal Kalan to disperse anti-sacrilege protesters to "facilitate uninterrupted" screening of film of Dera Sacha Sauda head in the state.
Two persons were killed in police firing at Behbal Kalan during a protest against desecration of religious text in 2015. Sukhbir Singh Badal was the deputy chief minister of Punjab in the SAD-BJP government at that time and also in charge of the home department.
Jakhar, who is also the Gurdaspur MP, asked about the necessity of removing peaceful protesters at Faridkot and alleged that Badal had "failed" not only as the home minister but also head of the 'Panthic' party.
"Sukhbir cannot escape the responsibility... when farmers and Dera premis who had been holding protests for their respective demands were not removed then what was so emergent that anti-sacrilege protesters had to be removed from Behbal Kalan," he told reporters here.
Accusing the SAD president of having financial interest in Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh's movie 'MSG-2', Jakhar alleged that this was the reason why the dera chief was pardoned in a blasphemy case.
The Dera chief had sparked a row after wearing a dress similar that of Guru Gobind Singh, the 10 Sikh guru, at a congregation at his headquarters in Sirsa in 2007, following which he was ex-communicated by the Akal Takht.
"Sukhbir had financial interest in the release of the film of Dera head and he did not want that to be jeopardized. He wanted the film to be screened uninterrupted in the state.
"The anti-sacrilege protesters were hampering the sale of tickets of the movie. That is why he ordered the then DGP of removing protesters and police firing. I hold him responsible for it, otherwise Sukhbir should clarify who ordered the firing," Jakhar said.
Referring to the reported statement of former SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar, Jakhar stated that Badal had told Makkar on September 24, 2015, about the plans of getting Akal Takht pardon to the Dera chief.
"It was done despite Makkar objected to it this move," the state Congress chief claimed.
Jakhar claimed that after the movie was released in Punjab, it did a business of Rs 102 crore in the first week itself.
Meanwhile, accompanied by six state cabinet ministers, Jakhar went to Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village, Panjgrain Khurd and Behbal Kalan on Wednesday to tell people that the Amarinder Singh government has "fulfilled its promise" by conducting a probe into sacrilege incidents.
They addressed a public meeting at Behbal Kalan and also spoke to people at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala gurdwara.
The Congress leaders also met two brothers at Panjgrain -- Rupinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh -- who were arrested by police during the SAD-BJP rule on the charge of being involved in desecration of religious texts. The two brothers were later released by police after it failed to gather evidence against them.
Meanwhile, a clash took place between workers of Akali Dal and supporters of Sikh radical leader Baljeet Singh Daduwal here on Wednesday following objection raised by latter to the proposed meeting of Akalis in connection with a 'Pol khol' rally to be addressed by SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on September 15.
Police said the situation was brought under control by using mild force in which no one suffered any major injury.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Flagging the issue of job uncertainties in the media sector, Press Council of India (PCI) Chairman Justice C K Prasad on Wednesday pitched for providing "social security" to journalists, saying they cannot work properly without it.
He was addressing a gathering at a function held at the IIMC campus here to kick-off of the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
"A word that is quite used in the field of journalism, it is called pink slip. Any person, be it editor or reporter, who goes to office, would not know, if he or she is going to continue tomorrow at work," Prasad said.
The rights of journalists are also important, he said.
"They must be provided social security. Because, there are claims and counterclaim, and unless a journalist is not going to be protected (with such rights), he or she cannot work properly and honestly," Prasad said.
In his address, the PCI chief also urged the journalists to adequately arm themselves with intricate knowledge of human rights to serve the society better.
"Media has played critical role in educating people about the violation of human rights... In today's scenario where the power of media has grown, they must work cautiously, sensitively and with sheer objectivity," he said.
NHRC Chairperson Justice H L Dattu said on several occasions the rights panel has taken suo motu cognisance of human rights violations based on media reports.
"Media has played an important role in educating the masses about human rights and their violations, particularly in geographically distant places," he said.
Prasad, urging the media to highlight the plight of the poor and the marginalised, said "rights of every man are diminished if rights of one man are threatened".
Director General of Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IMC), K G Suresh, proposed to build associations between the two institutions to further promote awareness about human rights.
A documentary charting the journey of 25 years of the NHRC was also screened on the occasion.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Actor Piper Perabo has revealed that she was arrested for protesting against US President Donald Trump's Supreme Court judge pick Brett Kavanaugh.
The 41-year-old actor-activist, best known for the film "Coyote Ugly" and "Looper", was arrested during Supreme Court confirmation hearing of nominee Kavanaugh in Washington DC.
"I was just arrested for civil disobedience in the Kavanaugh hearings," the actor wrote on Twitter.
"Many citizens before me have fought for the equal rights of women. I can't be silent when someone is nominated to the Supreme Court who would take our equal rights away.#StopKavanagh" she added.
Perabo also posted a video of her and several other women being forcefully escorted from the room where Kavanaugh was being questioned by lawmakers.
Piper has been very outspoken in her disdain for Kavanaugh, and has even dedicated her Twitter cover image to him.
However, it is not clear whether Perabo was charged for any crime or was taken into custody.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A petition was filed on Wednesday in the Supreme Court challenging a Patna High Court order restraining the media from reporting the investigation into the case of Muzaffarpur shelter home where several women were allegedly raped and sexually abused.
The plea, which has sought a stay on the operation of the high court's August 23 order, has alleged that the order was "patently erroneous" as it amounted to imposing a "blanket ban" on the media reporting in the case.
"The high court was not justified in ignoring that the effect of the impugned order was a gross infarction of the fundamental right of the people to know and freedom of the press which is guaranteed under the Constitution," the plea, filed through advocate Fauzia Shakil, said.
The Patna High Court, which has been monitoring the probe into the Muzaffarpur shelter home case, had on August 23 expressed displeasure over the leak of details of the investigation and asked the media to refrain from publishing it as it could be detrimental to the probe.
The incident of alleged rape and sexual assault of women over a period of time in the NGO-run shelter home at Muzaffarpur had come to light after a social audit was conducted by the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).
In the plea filed before the apex court, the petitioner, a journalist, has claimed that there was no material before the high court to come to a conclusion that the media reporting may hamper the ongoing investigation in the case.
"The high court committed an error in appreciating that the blanket ban had a chilling effect and is a direct assault on the rights of the public at large as also the rights of the fourth estate under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution," the plea has said.
The petitioner has also said that it was because of the pro-active role of the media, the "shocking incident" was exposed and imposing a blanket ban on reporting the probe into the case was "arbitrary".
"The impugned order is erroneous since it ignores that the reporting of follow up affirmative state action against its own establishment has a positive effect on the minds of the public at large and more particularly encourages similarly situated victims, who may still be living harrowing experiences as victims of such undisclosed crimes to come forward and report similar incidents," it said.
The plea has also said that because of media reporting in the Muzaffarpur case, boys at a juvenile home at Arrah in Bihar had gathered courage and complained to their parents about physical and sexual abuse there.
"The impugned order is erroneous since the high court failed to appreciate that is perishable. A prohibition on the right of the press to report in time amounts to a corresponding prohibition on the right of the public to know in time and this results in an immediate deprivation of the fundamental rights. It also has the effect of reducing to a mere historical effect," the plea has said.
The apex court had earlier taken cognisance of the incident after a letter was written by Patna-resident Ranvijay Kumar highlighting the issue of repeated interviews of the alleged victims of Muzaffarpur shelter home being published and aired.
Over 30 girls were allegedly raped at the shelter home run by 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 TISS to the state's social welfare department.
An FIR was lodged against 11 people, including Thakur, on May 31. The probe has now been taken over by the CBI.
In all, the sexual abuse of 34 of the 42 inmates was confirmed in their medical examination.
The TISS audit report had said 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 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 Delhi High Court Wednesday asked the CEO of Haj Committee of India to present himself before it on November 1 to clarify its stand on a PIL against the bar on differently-abled people from performing the annual pilgrimage.
The court's direction came after no one appeared for the Haj Committee of India, despite a notice being served to HCoI on the petition filed by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal.
A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao directed the secretary of Ministry of Minority Affairs to serve an additional notice to HCoI Chief Executive Officer M A Khan and observed that in case of non-appearance of the officer, action will be taken by the court.
The court asked Khan to appear before it on November 1, the next date of hearing, to clarify the committee's stand on the issue.
The petition filed by Bansal has sought quashing of provisions in the new Haj policy that bar differently-abled persons from undertaking the annual Haj pilgrimage.
The court had sought response of the Ministry of Minority Affairs, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and HCoI on the petition alleging that some provisions of the new policy violated Articles 14, 21 and 25 of the Constitution, pertaining to equality and freedom to practice religion.
The Centre, in its response, has said the bar on differently-abled people from undertaking Haj was retained in the new policy as was the practice for the past 30 years, since the journey is physically demanding.
The purpose is also to strictly screen the disabled due to instances of them indulging in begging, which is prohibited in Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Minority Affairs has said in its affidavit.
The other reason for the prohibition was that the pilgrimage is physically demanding and exhausting and, in case of a stampede, disabled people would be at risk more than others, it has said.
The ministry, however, has said it is sensitive to the issue raised in the PIL, especially in view of the Rights of Persons With Disabilities Act of 2016, and has directed the HCoI to look into the matter and recommend necessary corrections or amendments in the Haj policy of 2018-22.
The new policy guidelines under the 'eligibility for Haj' mentions that any Indian citizen who is a Muslim can apply for the pilgrimage, except those "who do not have the mental or physical health to perform the pilgrimage, persons whose legs are amputated, who are crippled, handicapped, lunatic or otherwise physically/mentally incapacitated".
Bansal has contended that these provisions "blatantly discriminate" against persons with disabilities and violate the Rights of Persons With Disabilities Act, 2016.
The plea has stated that those affected with polio, congestive cardiac, tuberculosis, respiratory ailment, acute coronary insufficiency, coronary thrombosis, mental disorder, infectious leprosy, AIDS or any other communicable disease or disability cannot take undertake Haj, an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.
The types of disabilities added in the 2016 Act include mental illness, autism, spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, chronic neurological conditions, specific learning disabilities, multiple sclerosis, speech and language disability.
Disorders such as thalassemia, hemophilia, sickle cell disease, multiple disabilities including visual and hearing impairment, acid attack and Parkinson's disease have also been included in the legislation.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday condoled the loss of lives in a boat accident in Assam.
He said he was deeply saddened by the loss of lives due to the capsize of a boat near Guwahati in Assam.
"My thoughts are with the bereaved families. The state government is working actively on the rescue operations and ensuring all possible support on the ground," he tweeted.
Three persons drowned and at least 11 others are missing after an overloaded motorised country boat capsized in the Brahmaputra river near Guwahati after hitting a rock.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kone Corporation, a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, announced its participation in the 5th Arab Future Cities Summit in Dubai, UAE, where Kone was the official Smart People Flow Partner.
The Summit, which concluded yesterday (September 4), at Sofitel The Palm- Dubai, brought together government representatives and urban mobility experts to discuss the future of smart cities.
As migration towards urban hubs continues to skyrocket, demand from new consumers will necessitate an expansion of the infrastructure which will account for the lions share of global investment towards building future cities. The Middle East and North Africa region is one of the most highly urbanized regions in the world, with over $4 trillion worth of projects planned or under construction. By 2050, 90 per cent of the GCC population will be urbanized which accounts for20 million individuals more than today.
Joakim Modeen, head of Service Business, addressed the urban megatrends and their effect on vertical transportation as well as the inevitability of the use of data and cloud storage to improve urban mobility.
On the other hand, the regional managing director of Kone Middle East Africa, Samer Halabi, tackled the paradigm shift that will affect the transportation and mobility sector as the cities absorb more numbers.
He discussed the imperative need to convert vertical and horizontal transportation solutions to smart modes in order to increase effectiveness, reduce technical failures and improve the flow of urban life.
Halabi said: At Kone we have been exerting all our efforts in researching and devising smarter solutions that will alter the way people move in and between buildings. It is a dear topic to Kone Corporation as we have dedicated our 100 + years of operations to creating a better urban landscape.
Today, we are delighted to see a government taking this initiative forward. In fact, leading the talk on the future of smart cities is crucial in facilitating the implementation of smart solutions, he added.
Earlier this year, Kone has introduced the Kone Care Services that enable end users to monitor and anticipate elevator and escalators problems, through stored data, to the UAE and Qatar. TradeArabia News Service
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday congratulated India's medal-winners in the recently-concluded Asian Games and asked them to strive harder in tougher competitions like the Olympic Games.
Complimenting the athletes during an interaction at his residence, the Prime Minister said their exemplary performance has raised India's stature and pride.
India won a record medal haul at the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, by bagging 69 medals, beating the previous best of 65 won at the Guangzhou Asiad in 2010.
"The PM expressed hope that the medal winners will remain grounded and would not lose focus due to fame and accolades," read a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office.
"PM Modi urged the sportspersons not to rest on the laurels achieved and asked them to strive harder for greater glory. He said that the biggest challenge for the medal winners will start now and they should never lose their goal of being in the Olympic Games podium."
Modi expressed happiness on seeing young talent rise from small towns, rural areas and from poor background.
"There is real potential in the rural areas and we should continue nurturing those talents. The outside world is unaware of the day-to-day struggles a sportsperson has to go through," he said.
The Prime Minister urged the sportspersons to use technology as an aid to improve their performance.
He said sportspersons should continue improving by using technology-aided critical analysis of their performance as well as those of top players in the world.
"Prime Minister got emotional while mentioning the names of some sportspersons who had to go through immense hardships to be a medal winner for the nation. He saluted their grit and dedication to their disciplines and hoped that the rest of the country would get inspired from their efforts," the release stated.
Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore said that the Prime Minister's vision and the government's initiatives played a vital role in the improved medal tally and in inspiring young sportspersons.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The police said they are investigating whether the death of a 25-year-old man whose body was found hanging in Odisha's Cuttack district Wednesday has anything to do with the Momo challenge online game.
"We have seized the phone of Umakanta Behera of Umar village, whose body was found hanging from the ceiling of a half constructed building near his house on Wednesday morning," said Mahanga Police Station inspector Jugal Kishore Das.
Behera was working as a security guard. Based on the written complaint filed by Behera's father, a case has been registered, he said.
"Preliminary investigations revealed that Umakanta was addicted to his smartphone and even before going to sleep on Tuesday night, the family members had seen him hooked to his phone," police said.
The police had earlier issued an advisory warning the youths against the challenges of the online game doing rounds in the social media.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Pakistan's new Prime Minister Imran Khan Wednesday and pressed him to take "sustained and decisive measures" against terrorists threatening the regional peace and stability, days after the US cancelled USD 300 million in military aid to Islamabad for failing to rein in the terror groups operating from its soil.
Pompeo, the former CIA chief who was on his first visit to Pakistan as the top American diplomat, told Khan that he was "pleased" with his meeting with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi earlier in the day.
But at the same time, Pompeo asked Khan "to do more" at the meeting, which was also attended by Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Foreign Minister Qureshi, Geo TV reported, citing diplomatic sources.
This was the US' first high-level dialogue with Pakistan since the new government of Prime Minister Khan assumed office after the July 25 elections and comes days after the US cancelled USD 300 million in military aid to Islamabad for not doing enough against terror groups active on its soil.
Talking to reporters travelling with him, Pompeo said, "We made clear to them that and they agreed it's time for us to begin to deliver on our joint commitments, right".
"So we've had lots of times where we've talked and made agreements, but we haven't been able to actually execute those.
"And so there was broad agreement between myself and Foreign Minister Qureshi, as well as with the prime minister, that we need to begin to do things that will begin to actually, on the ground, deliver outcomes so that we can begin to build confidence and trust between the two countries," he added.
State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said that in all of his meetings, Secretary Pompeo conveyed the need for Pakistan to take "sustained and decisive measures against terrorists and militants threatening regional peace and stability."
Later, Qureshi told reporters that the Pakistani perspective was presented responsibly to the US delegation.
"We tried to understand their wishes and put forth our own expectations and concerns," he said. "Ice has been thawed."
"Today, we felt that we have created an atmosphere to reset our relations, and the lack of trust that was present has been broken which is a very positive development.
"Believe me, if our narrative had not set in with them, the atmosphere would have been different...," he said.
"I told them that if you want to proceed with Pakistan, the foundation lies in trust, frank and candid conversation. And until and unless we address concerns from both the sides, progress is not possible," he said.
Regarding the US delegation's meeting with Prime Minister Khan, Qureshi said: "During the meeting at the PM House we all sat down and exchanged views. In the past, they used to come, meet the PM and then went to the GHQ (Army headquarters). Today's meeting sent a clear message that we are all on the same page."
Qureshi said he decided against raising the US decision to scrap the USD 300 million in aid.
"That decision was taken before this govt took charge. I gave this matter some thought then I decided against raising it because free nations think along the lines of self-sufficiency. We will take a new direction," he said.
"The meeting has created environment to reset the relations and removed the hiatus," he added.
The two sides also discussed the Afghan peace process.
Pompeo, who along with US Joint Chief of Staff Chairman Gen Joseph Dunford had arrived on an official visit to Pakistan, earlier met Qureshi and discussed "bilateral, regional and international issues".
In a statement, the Foreign Office said Qureshi highlighted that the priority of the new Government was socio-economic development and for the success of people centered agenda and economic reforms, an enabling regional security environment was imperative.
He said improving relations with neighbours was a priority, in an apparent reference to strained ties with India and Afghanistan, which often accuses Pakistan of providing safe havens to militants to conduct cross border attacks.
Qureshi also reaffirmed Pakistan's commitment to continue efforts for promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan.
"The two sides agreed that present conditions in Afghanistan were conducive to intensifying efforts for a political settlement. They underscored the need for the Taliban to seize the opportunity for talks in response to President Ghani's offer for an unconditional dialogue," the statement said.
Pompeo stated that US fully supported the reform agenda of Prime Minister Khan and wished the government success in its implementation, it said, adding that Pompeo conveyed the US desire to work with Pakistan in furthering the shared objectives of peace and stability in Afghanistan.
The ties between the two sides strained after President Donald Trump, while announcing his Afghanistan and South Asia policy in August last year, hit out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to "agents of chaos" that kill Americans in Afghanistan and warned Islamabad that it has "much to lose" by harbouring terrorists.
He had also slammed Pakistan for its support to terror groups and warned Islamabad of consequences if it continues to do so.
In January, Trump suspended all military assistance to Pakistan accusing it of rewarding past assistance with "nothing but lies and deceit."
The ties between the two "allies" are passing through a difficult period as the US is upset over what it calls lack of cooperation from Islamabad.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
World Health Organisation (WHO) Wednesday said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh has been nominated for a second five-year term as regional director of its South-East Asian Region.
Singh's candidature was unopposed, as the 11 member countries of WHO South-East Asia Region met at the ongoing Regional Committee session to elect the next Regional Director, the global health body said in a statement.
Union Health Minister J P Nadda tweeted,"I congratulate Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh on being re-elected Regional Director for WHO South-East Asia Region @WHOSEARO & thank Hon. Ministers & Heads of Delegations for their continuous & unstinting support to India's nomination of Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh."
Later the WHO statement quoted Nadda as saying,"With her (Singh's) contribution to regional as well as global initiatives and outstanding work in placing health central to the agenda of sustainable development, she will surely lead the Region to greater heights.
The WHO Executive Board, which next meets in Geneva in January 2019, is expected to confirm Singh's nomination and appoint her as the Regional Director.
Singh will commence her next five-year term on February 1, 2019.
"As the first woman to become Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia Region, you have provided dynamic leadership in a Region that accounts for one quarter of the world's population, but a disproportionate burden of its diseases," WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was quoted as saying in the statement.
The Director-General said that through her flagship programmes, Singh had brought a strong focus to delivering results in countries, which is one of the key themes of WHO's new General Programme of Work and of WHO's transformation project.
Singh's ongoing first term as Regional Director began on February 1, 2014, during which, in consultation with the member countries, she identified seven flagship priorities.
They include achieving universal health coverage, strengthening emergency response capacity, reversing the noncommunicable disease epidemics, finishing off neglected tropical diseases, combatting antimicrobial resistance, preventing maternal, under-5 and neonatal deaths and eliminating measles and controlling rubella.
Eliminating tuberculosis was added as her eighth flagship in 2017, the statement said.
Thanking the member States for nominating her for the second term, Singh said, "My vision is to consolidate, accelerate and innovate to further strengthen progress in the priority areas and translate vision into action.
Singh has had a four-decade long career in public health.
She served in the health sector in various senior positions during her stint in the Indian Administrative Services and in the World Bank.
She also worked in WHO Director-General's cabinet in Geneva, as the Executive Director of Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments in WHO headquarters and was Deputy Regional Director WHO South-East Asia Region from 2000-2013.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union Minister R K Singh Wednesday asked lenders of stressed power assets, including state-run Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), to ensure sustainability of electricity projects while addressing the bad loan issue in the sector.
"Power Minister R K Singh during meeting on stressed assets with lenders including REC, has emphasised on the need for sustainability of these assets," a source said after the meeting chaired by the minister.
Singh had called a meeting of lenders of stressed power assets to resolve the issues related to bad loans for avoiding any distress sale.
During the meeting, 'Pariwartan' scheme proposed by the REC was also discussed. Under the scheme warehousing of stressed power projects is mulled to protect value of these plans.
The scheme stands for power asset revival through warehousing and rehabilitation. It proposes to warehouse around 25,000 MW stressed projects under an asset management company to prevent distress sale.
Earlier in the day, Power Secretary A K Bhalla had said, "There are some issues in the scheme (Pariwartan) which needs to be discussed. There are some concessions that are needed from RBI like upfront valuation of the stressed assets".
Stressed power assets are a cause of concern and the government set up an empowered committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary to resolve issues related to these plants. The first meeting of the panel held on August 31, 2018 where RBI representative was not present. The government had invited RBI for the first meeting.
The issue of stressed assets in power sector became more vicious after Allahabad High did not give any reprieve to these plants from RBI's new framework for resolving bad loans issue on February 12, 2018.
The RBI framework provided for strict timeline for resolution of these bad loans where debt is Rs 2,000 crore or more. It mandates insolvency proceedings to start in case no resolution plan is provided by lenders within 180 days of default.
A Parliamentary panel had earlier recommended new framework for resolution of stressed assets in power sector saying RBI's framework, brought in February, "addresses only financial issues, ignoring the whole range of vital issues of electricity sector".
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Economic Offences Wing of Madhya Pradesh police raided the premises of a retired executive engineer of the state Water Resources Department Wednesday and allegedly unearthed assets worth crores of rupees, an official said.
"We raided one place in Jabalpur and three premises owned by Kodu Prasad Tiwari, a retired executive engineer, in Satna district," EOW deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Rajvardhan Maheshwari said.
"We unearthed assets worth crores of rupees amassed by him, which are disproportionate to his known sources of income," the DSP added.
Documents seized during the raids showed that Tiwari allegedly owns 120 acres of agricultural land among other properties, he claimed.
A case has been registered and further investigation is on, the EOW officer said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Ram Nath Kovind Wednesday paid tributes to teachers, scholars and academics on the Teachers' Day for drawing from age-old traditions of learning and wisdom and contributing to make India a "knowledge power".
Addressing students at the prestigious Sofia University in Bulgaria, President Kovind said teachers, scholars and academics were a source of pride for India.
"I would like to pay tribute to India's teachers, scholars and academics. They have drawn from India's age-old traditions of learning and wisdom - and they have contributed to India's reputation as a knowledge power. They are a source of pride for India," the President's Secretariat tweeted.
The President said Indian scholarship and academic excellence were recognised across continents and earns India goodwill.
"The 21st century is an era of dramatic technological change. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, Artificial Intelligence, and the maturing of robotics and of 3D and precision manufacture are changing how we live and work," Kovind said.
"This is a revolution playing out in real time in India. It has made India the world's third-largest innovation and start-up hub. And it has made India the fastest-growing large economy," he said.
"This is part of a larger story that places India as the world's second-largest contributor to high-quality scientific research and 12th highest in terms of patents filed. India's R&D investments are expected to touch USD 83 billion this year," he added.
India has a massive network of 903 universities and 39,050 colleges. Close to 40 per cent of the universities and 80 per cent of the colleges are run by the private sector.
Students from Sofia University and other institutions travel to India on scholarships. They are part of a growing international student community in India that comes from 166 countries.
Kovind arrived in Bulgaria on Tuesday from Cyprus on the second leg of his eight-day three-nation visit to Europe to continue India's high-level engagements with European countries.
From Bulgaria, he will fly to Czech Republic on the final leg of his three-nation trip on September 6.
In India, September 5 is commemorated as Teachers' Day in honour of the country's first Vice President Dr S Radhakrishnan.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Expressing her dissatisfaction, Bangladesh's imprisoned ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia Wednesday asked a court to "punish" her "as much as you want" as authorities turned an infamous Dhaka jail into a courtroom to try the opposition BNP chief in a graft case.
Zia, 72, was sentenced by the Special Court-5 in the capital Dhaka in connection with the embezzlement of 21 million takas (USD 252,000) in foreign donations meant for the Zia Orphanage Trust.
In the same case, her son Tarique Rahman and four others have been sentenced to 10 years in jail.
"Punish me as much as you want, punish me as long as you want . . . there is no justice here," she told the judge while appearing in the courtroom on a wheelchair from the nearby jail.
Zia told the court she was "extremely ill" and her hand and a leg were becoming paralysed.
"I can't come to the court here repeatedly as my leg will swell if I have to sit here like this," she said.
Zia is also being tried in another corruption charge involving a charity called Zia Charitable Trust while she was imprisoned in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.
Her defence counsels did not appear in the court, condemning the decision to use the jailhouse as the makeshift court complex.
They said they would seek a ruling from a higher court to get the move overturned.
"The decision to shift the court was taken a week ago, then why the gazette notification was issued yesterday... I would not have appeared here if I knew my lawyers are not coming," Zia said.
Judge Akhtaruzzaman of the Special Court-5, which is trying her, adjourned the hearing of the case filed by independent Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) till September 12.
The trial was previously being held at another makeshift court complex in old Dhaka's Bakshibazar area.
The Law Ministry issued a gazette on Tuesday, saying the proceedings in the Zia Charitable Trust case would now be held at the old Dhaka Central Jail complex in view of the "security concerns".
A pro-BNP lawyer present at the court, however, told the judge that the defence lawyers were not properly notified about the overnight shift of the court venue.
But Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajol said authorities decided to shift the venue considering Zia's "security and health concerns".
Kajol said the decision was properly conveyed to her chief counsel while other defence lawyers were also informed about it in person.
Zia's imprisonment has shaken the country's political scenario ahead of the general elections in December this year.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the main opposition outside parliament, alleged the trial was politically motivated to debar Zia from contesting elections, an allegation denied by the government.
Political analysts fear the BNP has been exposed to a political wilderness after the conviction of Zia who is likely to be disqualified for elections unless she obtains a different direction from the Supreme Court.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In the midst of a raging political squabble over purchase of 36 Rafale jets, the Vice Chief of the IAF said Wednesday that the "beautiful" aircraft will give India "unprecedented" combat capabilities and those criticising the deal must understand the procurement norms.
Air Marshal S B Deo also indicated unhappiness over delay in delivery of indigenously developed Light Combat Aircraft Tejas by the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and suggested that private sector should be involved in its production.
The IAF is reeling under shortage of combat aircraft. At present, it has 31 fighter squadrons against the authorised strength of 42 squadrons. Each squadron comprises 16-18 aircraft.
On Rafale jets, he said "all discussions on the deal" were taking place as people do not have adequate information about the procurement procedure.
"We are waiting for the aircraft to come. It is a beautiful aircraft. It is a very capable aircraft. It is a capability that we need quickly," he said on the sidelines of an event when asked about the controversy surrounding the Rafale deal.
Asked about allegations relating to the Rs 58,000 crore deal, he said "all the discussions are taking place as people do not have information".
"They should read DPP (defence procurement procedure) and offset policy," he said, adding the jets will give India unprecedented combat advantage.
India had inked an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore. The delivery of the jets is scheduled to begin from September 2019.
The Congress has been alleging massive irregularities in the deal, claiming that the government was procuring each aircraft at a cost of over Rs 1,600 crore as against Rs 526 crore finalised by the UPA government. The government has rejected the charges.
The party has also demanded answers from the government on why state-run aerospace major HAL was not involved in the deal.
On Tejas, Air Marshal Deo suggested that the private sector should be involved in its production if it helps in quick delivery of the aircraft.
"It is not necessary to know whether the money is with the DPSU (Defence Public Sector Undertakings) or with private company," he said.
"If the investment is in the country and aircraft comes out quickly, why should we refuse it?," he added.
The IAF had ordered 40 Tejas Mark-1 version. A request for proposal was issued to HAL by the IAF in December for the procurement of another batch of 83 Tejas aircraft at a cost of around Rs 50,000 crore.
At present, the HAL is producing around eight Tejas annually and the defence ministry wants it to increase the number to 18 planes per year.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Rafale is a beautiful aircraft which will give India "unprecedented" combat capabilities, the Indian Air Force said Wednesday amid escalating controversy over the Rs 58,000 crore deal.
Vice Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal S B Deo also said those criticising the Rafale deal must understand the laid down norms and procurement procedure.
"It is a beautiful aircraft..It is a very capable aircraft and we are waiting to fly it," he said on the sidelines of an event when asked about the controversy surrounding the Rafale deal.
The air marshal said Rafale jets will give India unprecedented advantage over its adversaries in the region.
India had inked an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore. The delivery of the jets is scheduled to begin from September 2019.
The Congress has raised several questions about the deal, including rates of the aircraft, while the government has rejected the charges.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Airbus, an international pioneer in the aerospace industry, has kicked off its innovative Critical App Challenge for the Middle East to set in motion regional developers and start-ups to create the best applications for public safety users.
Airbus is giving life to a digital ecosystem for its secure device Tactilon Dabat, an Android smartphone and Tetra radio in one. The aim is to establish new digital solutions to help police, firefighters and other professionals improve their work, said a statement from the company.
The challenges concept is based on the idea of hackathons: software pioneers, user interface designers, and business managers work together intensively in a limited amount of time towards building proofs of concept for innovative digital solutions, it stated.
Start-up companies and app creators from the Middle East can enrol for the online challenge on the website https://criticalappmena.bemyapp.com/.
An expert jury will then select the five best participants who can show the most promising and feasible results at the end of September.
The winners will subsequently be invited to present their applications at the Gitex exhibition, one of the most important fairs in the Middle East in the field of electronics and future digital technologies, to be held in Dubai, UAE, from October 14 to 18, it added.
Rahim Zaknoun, head of innovation and developer ecosystem at secure land communication of Airbus, said: We are looking for path-breaking ideas for our Tactilon Dabat. This challenge in the Middle East is a unique incentive for inventive minds. Contributors profit from getting special access to mission-critical markets.
Airbus sets up next-generation secure communication platforms where the Tactilon Dabat plays a pivotal role in gathering and processing intelligence for professionals.
The device received the International Critical Communications Award 2018 in the category Best evolution to future broadband and meets all the security standards for narrow- or broadband networks. Device users can take advantage of special mobile public safety apps that are available through Airbus, it said.
Application developers who are generally interested in cooperating with Airbus in the field of mission-or business-critical communication can register for the SmarTWISP programme on the Secure Land Communications website.
They will find a starter kit which helps make new mission-critical applications. Once approved for a free membership, subscribers can access guidelines, tools and the application programming interface (API). Furthermore, members benefit from special training, tools, and reward schemes, it stated. TradeArabia News Service
BJP president Amit Shah on Wednesday attacked Rahul Gandhi, saying instead of demanding an account of work done by Narendra Modi government in the last four years, the Congress president should answer why development did not reach the masses during the "six-decade rule of his family".
Addressing a rally at Kurrubhat village, Shah set a target of winning 65 of total 90 seats for the BJP in the upcoming Chhattisgarh Assembly polls and said the Opposition will not be able to defeat the BJP as it is as difficult as "lifting the leg of Angad".
Angad, the son of monkey king Bali, is a mythological character from Ramayana. He had challenged those in demon king Ravana's court to lift his leg, but none had succeeded.
Shah was speaking after flagging off the second phase of pre-electoral drive of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh to reach out to voters from Kurrubhat village near Dongargarh in Rajnandgaon district. The yatra was renamed in the memory of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
While the first phase of the yatra had covered 5,000 kms across 55 Assembly constituencies, the second phase is expected to cover about 6,000 kms.
Shah, who was addressing the rally at Pragyagiri ground in Kurrubhat village,
claimed Rahul Gandhi had no right to question the Modi government and slammed the performance of previous Congress governments.
"His (Gandhi) government was in power for 60 years but why electricity did not reach villages.... Why farmers did not get better MSP.... Why benefits of other welfare schemes did not reach masses.
"People of the country want to know the account of 60 years of rule from you," the BJP chief said.
"We don't need to answer you. You don't have the right to ask this question," he said.
Before the launch of the mass outreach campaign, Shah and Singh paid obeisance at Maa Bamleshwari temple in Dongargarh.
Shah also slammed Rahul Gandhi for criticising Raman Singh over the purchase of smart phones for the Sanchar Kranti Scheme (SKY) in Chhattisgarh.
SKY, launched in July this year, is expected to benefit 45 lakh women belonging to poor families and five lakh college students who will be given smartphones.
Shah said, "I was listening to speech of 'Shehzada' (prince) of the Congress. He was asking Modiji's account of the work done during the last four years. Why was he even asking this question?"
"The people of the country wanted to know from Rahul the account of work done during your four-generation rule," he said.
Referring to the alleged coal allocation scam that had surfaced under the previous Congress-led UPA government, Shah said the Congress is a "coal mine thief which committed irregularities in the coal block allocations".
"Rahul baba during his recent visit to Chhattisgarh, was asking why the Raman Singh government did not purchase mobile phones from BHEL under the SKY scheme. BHEL does not manufacture phones and Rahul does not even know that and he is asking for the hisab (account)," he said.
Recalling the contribution of Vajpayee in the formation of Chhattisgarh, Shah said, "Atal ji had founded Chhattisgarh state and Raman Singh has developed it as per his dreams".
The state was formed on November 1, 2000.
Assembly polls are slated to be held in Chhattisgarh along with Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Mizoram later this year.
Shah also praised Raman Singh for naming the upcoming new state capital of Chhattisgarh as "Atal Nagar".
He appealed to people to elect the Singh government for the fourth term in upcoming polls for building "new Chhattisgarh by 2025".
"Chhattisgarh was considered as a 'Bimaru' state before the BJP came to power (15 years ago). But now it is counted among the developed states," the BJP chief said.
"The BJP has continued its winning spree in various states under the leadership of Narendra Modi who has been working to safeguard the country. Raman Singh has developed Chhattisgarh in a similar manner," he said.
Shah said Modi as Prime Minister gave a befitting reply to Pakistan by ordering surgical strikes across the LoC after the Uri attack (in 2016).
"That time it was neither the rule of the Congress nor Manmohan Singh was the prime minister. It was Narendra Modi who took the decision (of surgical strike)," he said, adding that ceasefire violations by Pakistan were rampant before the BJP took over.
In his address, Raman Singh said his government had prepared a draft of the Atal Vision Document for the creation of New Chhattisgarh by 2025.
"We have vowed to double the GSDP (gross state domestic product) of Chhattisgarh when it would be celebrating its silver jubilee in 2025. We want to double the income of farmers. It is the right of every citizen to access quality medical facilities and internet connection," the chief minister said.
He said the Atal Memorial will be constructed at Atal Nagar on a five-acre plot. Soil for the memorial will be collected from every village and religious place in Chhattisgarh. After offering prayers at Maa Bamleshwari temple, Shah collected soil from the site.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
On the first day of its monsoon session, the Rajasthan assembly Wednesday paid glowing tributes to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee among others, who passed away recently.
After making obituary references, also to the victims of the Kerala flood-related mishaps, the House was adjourned for the day as a mark of respect to them.
Speaker Kailash Meghwal read out the obituary remarks and asked the House to observe silence for a minute for the late leaders and the people who died due to heavy rainfall in Kerala and other parts of the country.
The obituary references were also made to former Lok Sabha Speaker Chatterjee, former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, former Chattisgarh Governor Balram Das Tandon, former Himachal Pradesh Governor Urmila Singh and former Manipur Chief Minister R K Dorendra Singh.
As soon as the House assembled, independent MLA from Khivsar assemblysegment Hanuman Beniwal tried raising various issues but the Speaker did not allow him.
After the House was adjourned, the Speaker asked the members to attend a group photograph session of the 14th Rajasthan assembly, which is to undergo elections later this year.
It is likely to be a stormy affair in the House on Thursday as the Congress has been demanding the session to run for at least 10 days to discuss various issues related to the farmers, law and order and unemployment among others.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ram Kadam, dubbed as 'Ravan' by the Opposition for telling youngsters that he would "kidnap" a girl they like even if she rejects their proposal, is the latest
from the Maharashtra BJP unit to make headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Leading the pack is state Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) president Raosaheb Danve, whose off the cuff remarks have caused ripples in the political circles on many occasions.
From appealing people to accept money before the date of polling to offering an exchange of banned notes, Danve has often left the saffron party red-faced.
"Can the Opposition give us in writing that after the implementation of the loan waiver scheme, farmers would not commit suicide?" he said last year in response to a criticism that the BJP-led government in Maharashtra was implementing the farmers loan waiver "half-heartedly".
In 2016, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis raised eyebrows when he said, "When political power gets corrupt, religious authorities help them get back to their actual path". He made the statement while sharing stage with controversial religious figure Narendra Maharaj.
Addressing a public function in 2015, BJP minister Girish Bapat said, "I also watch the same video clips which you watch in the night. I may look like a ripened leaf but I am still young".
In February last year, BJP minister Subhash Deshmukh, while supporting the entry of people with criminal background into the party said, "We will first get the goons elected and then make them sober".
In February this year, BJP's Shripad Chindam, former deputy mayor of Ahmednagar, was arrested for making derogatory statements about Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. He was expelled by the BJP and removed from the deputy mayors post after an audio clip of his comments went viral.
In April last year, Pune mayor Mukta Tilak of BJP said, "Brahmin students had to go abroad for studies because of reservation for other castes in education".
In March last year, BJP-backed independent legislator Prashant Paricharak was suspended from the state Assembly for making objectionable remarks on wives of Army soldiers.
He had said soldiers stationed at the border distribute sweets when their babies are born although they have not come home in a year, indirectly alleging their wives are unfaithful. He later apologised for his remarks.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Amid speculation about early assembly polls in Telangana,the ruling TRS and main opposition Congress Wednesday appeared to have gone into election mode with both trying to reach out to people in their own ways.
The TRS, which has already announced its plan to organise 100 public meetings in 50 days,is busy making arrangements for the first rally on September 7 at Husnabad near Karimnagar, to be addressed by party president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Rao had kicked off his successful election meetings in 2014 from Husnabad.
Legislative Assembly polls in Telangana are scheduled to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections next year, but the political temperature in the state has risen with the speculation about early elections.
State IT and Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao, son of the Chief Minister, addressed public meetings Wednesday in Mahabubnagar district.
Training his guns on the Congress, he alleged that the opposition party had done nothing substantial for people during its long rule and highlighted the welfare schemes initiated by the TRS government since 2004.
Congress leaders are creating hurdles for construction of irrigation projects in the state, Rama Rao alleged.
Rama Rao, who addressed a gathering here Tuesday, attacked the Congress,saying that the TRS is not worried about the impact of Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Telangana.
On the reported comments of some Congress leaders that TRS organised a major public meeting (recently) as it was worried over Gandhi's recent visit to Telangana, Rama Rao claimed that the congress president needed the support of the Samajwadi Party to win the election in Amethi, the Gandhi family bastion in Uttar Pradesh.
Congress, on the other hand, too tried to reach out to people by announcing several promises to the people.
They include free supply of various ration items (PDS) to SC and ST families who are in the BPL category.
The present subsidy system would continue for other sections, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president N Uttam Kumar Reddy told reporters.
BJP too said it is ready for the polls whenever they are held.
State BJP president K Laxman said his partys national president Amit Shah would also guide the partys campaign.
State Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar held a meeting with representatives of major political parties on revision of electoral rolls.
Wednesday's meeting was not about early polls,Kumar said.
Senior Congress leader M Sasidhar Reddy said his party is ready for polls whenever they are held, but sought that the election process should not be announced without fully verifying the voters' lists.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A South Korean delegation met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday in Pyongyang for talks on arranging a third inter-Korean summit planned for this month and to help rescue faltering nuclear diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang.
The office of South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the envoys led by his national security adviser delivered his personal letter to Kim and "exchanged opinions" on unspecified issues.
The envoys are planning to fly back to the South after attending a dinner reception hosted by the North. They earlier met Kim Yong Chol, a former spy chief who has been negotiating with the United States on nuclear issues, and Ri Son Gwon, chairman of the North's agency that handles inter-Korean affairs, at Pyongyang's Koryo hotel.
South Korean officials said they couldn't provide further details. Moon's office is planning to hold a briefing on the visit on Thursday.
Moon, who discussed his plans with President Donald Trump by telephone on Tuesday, said before the trip that his envoys are tasked with a crucial role at a "very important time" that could determine the prospects for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.
While pushing ahead with summits and inter-Korean engagement, Seoul is trying to persuade Washington and Pyongyang to proceed with peace and denuclearization processes at the same time so they can overcome a growing dispute over the sequencing of the diplomacy.
Seoul also wants a trilateral summit between the countries, or a four-nation meeting that also includes Beijing, to declare a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War.
The UN General Assembly in late September would be an ideal date for Seoul, but many analysts see that possibility as low, considering the complications of the process and how far apart the parties currently are.
US officials have insisted that a peace declaration, which many see as a precursor to the North eventually calling for the removal of all U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula, cannot come before North Korea takes more concrete action toward abandoning its nukes.
Such steps may include providing an account of the components of its nuclear program, allowing outside inspections and giving up a certain number of its nuclear weapons during the early stages of the negotiations.
While an end-of-war declaration wouldn't imply a legally binding peace treaty, experts say it could create political momentum that would make it easier for the North to steer the discussions toward a peace regime, diplomatic recognition, economic benefits and security concessions.
The North has accused the United States of making "unilateral and gangster-like" demands on denuclearization and holding back on the end-of-war declaration.
North Korea's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday published a lengthy statement on its website saying that an end-of-war declaration would be a necessary trust-building step between the wartime foes that would "manifest the political will to establish the lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula."
South Korean officials said an end-of-war declaration will be among the issues discussed in the meetings between the South Korean envoys and North Korean officials.
"Our government believes that an end-of-war declaration is very much needed while we enter a process toward stabilizing peace in the Korean Peninsula through complete denuclearization," said Chung Eui-yong, Moon's national security adviser and the head of the South Korean delegation to Pyongyang, in a conference on Tuesday.
"We will continue to put in efforts so that an end-of-war declaration can be reached by the end of the year. We are always maintaining close communication with the United States."
Moon's five-member delegation, which also includes his top intelligence officer, Suh Hoon, consists of the same group that traveled to Pyongyang in March where they talked and dined with Kim and reached an agreement on the first summit between the Korean leaders in April.
The South Korean officials later visited Trump at the White House where they conveyed Kim's desire for a summit, to which Trump accepted on spot.
After their June summit in Singapore, Trump and Kim announced a vague statement about a nuclear-free peninsula without describing when and how it would occur. Post-summit nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang got off to a rocky start and quickly settled into a stalemate.
While the United States maintains that efforts to improve relations between the Koreas should move in tandem with efforts to denuclearize the North, Moon has recently said inter-Korean engagement could take the lead.
"If needed, we should pull forward the negotiations for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula with the development in relations between the South and North," Chung said.
Any progress could depend on whether Moon's envoys were able to coax a stronger verbal commitment from North Korea on denuclearization to help put the nuclear talks between the United States and Pyongyang back on track.
Trump called off a planned visit to North Korea by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last month, citing insufficient progress in denuclearization.
The resumption of US-North Korea talks sometime before the next inter-Korean summit, which will likely take place in mid-September, could give Moon more to work with when he arrives in Pyongyang.
Considering the difficult circumstances, it's unclear whether Moon's envoys would return with anything other than a fixed date for his new summit with Kim.
The two past inter-Korean summits in April and May removed war fears and initiated a global diplomatic push that culminated with a meeting between Kim and Trump in June. But Moon faces tougher challenges heading into his third meeting with Kim with the stalemate in nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington raising fundamental questions about Kim's supposed willingness to abandon his nukes.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Wednesday said it has appointed Ashwani Bhatia as its managing director and chief executive officer.
Bhatia takes over from Anuradha Rao, who now returns to (SBI) as deputy managing director, the fund house said in a statement.
Before joining SBI Mutual Funds, he was in charge of revamping the entire credit structure and processes of SBI. He has also been associated with SBI Capital Markets, as president and chief operating officer and whole time director.
Over his tenure of 33 years with the SBI, Bhatia has traversed through various functions and assignments possessing rich experience in various facets of commercial such as forex and treasury, retail credit and liability and corporate credit.
"It is indeed a privilege to be a part of It is a huge responsibility to oversee its future growth and work continuously towards offering best-in-class products and services to investors through a process driven approach which is high on transparency, convenience and value creation," Bhatia said.
SBI Mutual Fund, which is among the top five fund houses in the country, has an assets base of Rs 2,33,114 crore as on June 30.
(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 bench of justices Ranjan Gogoi and R F Nariman perused the report of coordinator Pratik Hajela in which he said that 10 out of 15 documents provided in list A can be relied upon by a claimant for staking claim in the state's list of citizens. The on Wednesday deferred till further orders the commencement of the process of receiving claims and objections for the Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.
The bench asked Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, and other stakeholders to file their response on the report of Hajela in two weeks and posted the matter for further hearing on September 19.
Earlier on August 28, the apex court had said that it could consider a re-verification of 10 per cent of the people who were recently included in Assam's draft NRC, an exercise that could be carried out by an independent team.
The top court had termed the issue as "human problem with great magnitude" and had asked the state coordinator to submit a report in a sealed cover on the ramification of allowing the claimants to file new sets of legacy documents.
The final draft list was published on July 30 in which names of 28.9 million of the 32.9 million people were included. The names of 4,070,707 people did not figure in the list. Of these, 3,759,630 names have been rejected and the remaining 248,077 are on hold.
On July 31, the apex court had made it clear that there will be no coercive action by the authorities against over 4 million people, whose names did not figure in the NRC while observing that it was merely a draft.
On August 14, the Centre had told the apex court that distinct IDs will be created by collecting biometric details of 4 million people filing claims and objections with respect to the NRC.
The first draft of the NRC for Assam was published on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1 in accordance with the top court's direction. Names of 19 million people out of the 32.9 million applicants were incorporated then.
Assam, which had faced influx of people from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is the only state having an NRC which was first prepared in 1951.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed a top police officer of the Meerut range in Uttar Pradesh to supervise the ongoing probe in the Hapur lynching case in which one person was killed and another brutally assaulted allegedly in the name of protecting cows.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra directed the Uttar Pradesh police to follow the guidelines it issued in a recent judgement on mob lynching and asked the Inspector General of Police to personally supervise the probe in the matter.
Samiuddin and 45-year-old Qasim Qureishi were assaulted at Hapur on June 18 by a mob allegedly by cow vigilantes. While Samiuddin survived, Qureishi succumbed to his injuries.
"It is directed that the investigation shall be carried out under the supervision of the IGP of Meerut range," the bench, which also comprised Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said.
At the outset, Aishwarya Bhati, Additional Advocate General of UP, informed the court that the state government had taken swift and instant action in the matter by ordering the transfer of the SHO concerned and appeals have also been filed challenging the bail granted to the accused in the case.
She said currently the probe was being conducted by the SHO of Pilkhuwa Police Station of Hapur district under the supervision of the Superintendent of Police and would be completed in 60 days.
Lawyer Vrinda Grover, representing victim Samiuddin, said a false FIR of road rage, instead of mob lynching, was registered by the police and sought transfer of the probe from state police to a Special Investigating Team.
She alleged that Samiuddin was the survivor of the incident but his statement was not recorded at the time of filing of the FIR.
The bench, which perused the report filed by the police in a sealed cover over the probe in the case, fixed the plea for hearing after two weeks.
The apex court, on August 13, had termed as "serious" the allegations of the alleged victim of mob violence and directed Meerut's Inspector General of Police (IGP) to investigate the incident and file a report.
It had also directed the IGP to "facilitate the recording" of the victim's statement before a judicial magistrate regarding the incident in which 45-year-old Qasim Qureishi was beaten to death at Hapur on June 18.
Besides Samiuddin, the plea was filed by his brother Yaseen and family friend Dinesh Tomar, alleging that they were living in a state of fear as the police had forced them to register a case of road rage, instead of mob lynching.
The bench had directed the police to provide "adequate security" to the three petitioners so that "they do not remain in a state of fear".
The plea has sought setting up of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to ensure "an impartial, competent and fair investigation" into "the barbaric incident of mob lynching on June 18 in Hapur district of Uttar Pradesh, wherein Samiuddin (the Petitioner No. 1) and Qasim, both belonging to the minority community, were targeted and mercilessly assaulted by a mob of the majority community from the neighbouring village, in the name of cow vigilantism."
The plea has sought "setting up a SIT comprising of police officers with impeccable career records of integrity and competence from outside the state of Uttar Pradesh, which shall be charged with the responsibilities and duties of investigation, in respect of all issues relating to the matters concerning and arising from the incident".
It has sought a direction that the SIT "shall report to and be responsible to this court through the filing of periodic status reports and shall also keep this court informed of any major developments".
It also sought a direction to the UP authorities to lodge a fresh FIR on the basis of statements made by Samiuddin regarding the nature of incident that had taken place on June 18 that had led to the "gruesome killing of Qasim" and the attempt to murder the surviving victim.
The victim, in his plea, has sought a test identification parade to ascertain the identity of the culprits by the SIT.
"Issue a writ ...or direction to the state to take all necessary steps and measures in pursuit of cancellation of bail granted to the accused by the sessions court, holding that the orders granting bail to the accused by the Sessions Court were prima facie obtained on the basis of gross misrepresentation of facts," it said.
The plea has sought a direction to the SIT to complete the probe into facts and offences relating to the incident within three months and the state government to initiate time-bound criminal and departmental proceedings. It has sought a day-to-day trial in the matter.
The plea has also sought a direction to the state government to compensate the victim for his medical treatment.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court Wednesday dismissed a plea seeking to ban the book 'Meesha' for allegedly depicting Hindu women visiting temples in derogatory light, saying "craftsmanship of a writer deserves to be respected".
A bench headed by Chief justice Dipak Misra said a book must not be read in a "fragmented manner" but as a whole.
"Subjective perception about a book should not be allowed to enter legal arena with regard to censorship," the bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said.
The bench also said that the writer should be allowed to play with words like a painter who plays with colour.
The apex court's order came on a plea by Delhi resident N Radhakrishnan, who had sought to omit excerpts from the Malayalam novel 'Meesha' (moustache) written by S Hareesh.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court Wednesday agreed to hear next week a plea seeking a stay on the Rafale fighter jet deal between India and France.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud considered the submissions of advocate M L Sharma that his plea be listed for urgent hearing.
In his petition, Sharma has alleged discrepancies in the fighter jet deal with France and sought a stay on it.
Sharma has claimed in his plea that the inter-government agreement to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets must be quashed as it was an "outcome of corruption" and not ratified by Parliament under Article 253 (Parliament has power to make any law for implementing any inter-government agreement) of the Constitution.
The petition has also sought FIR and prosecution of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former defence Minister and present Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, business tycoon Anil Ambani and French armament firm Dassault with recovery of amount.
A similar plea was filed in the apex court in March this year seeking an independent probe into the Rafale deal and disclosure of the cost involved in the deal before Parliament.
The plea, filed by Congress leader Tehseen S Poonawalla, had sought issuance of a direction against the Centre as to why the Union Cabinet's approval was not sought as part of the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) before signing the procurement deal with France on September 23, 2016.
Rafale deal is a defence agreement signed between the governments of India and France for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircrafts in a fly-away condition as a part of the upgrading process of Indian Air Force equipment.
The Rafale fighter is a twin-engine Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) manufactured by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation.
Indian Air Force had advanced a proposal to buy 126 fighter aircraft in August 2007 and floated a tender. Following this, an invitation was sent to various aviation companies to participate in the bidding process.
Poonawalla had claimed in his plea that the MoD had withdrawn the 2007 tender for procurement of 126 fighter planes, while the deal announced for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft was altogether a fresh procurement.
His plea said that in 2012, the deal for 126 fighter aircrafts was proposed by then UPA government, and out of the total of 126 number, 18 Rafale fighter jets were to be delivered by Dassault Aviation company in a fly-away condition, while the remaining 108 were to be manufactured in India at the public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) under a transfer of technology agreement.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Microsoft, a leading technology company, joined a host of futurists, technology strategists, start-ups and investors from across the region and around the world, for the inaugural two-day AI Week Middle East expo held in Dubai, UAE.
The event concluded today (September 5) at the Park Hyatt.
Endorsed by the Dubai Municipality and supported by the UAE Ministry of Health as Healthcare host partner, the event dives deep into the field of artificial intelligence, focusing primarily on the government, healthcare and financial services sectors, said a statement from the company.
Microsoft is a Strategic AI Partner for the event, and will also be operating a booth in the exhibition area, delivering keynotes and participating in panel discussions, it said.
AI Weeks launch coincides with a rapid rise in region-wide adoption rates for AI-based solutions. In a Microsoft survey conducted recently, 29 per cent of enterprise-scale Gulf businesses said they were investigating AI adoption as a means to accelerate digital transformation within their organisations.
Specific smart technologies that were also under consideration by respondents were business intelligence (41 per cent), Internet of Things (37 per cent), automated workflow (25 per cent) and predictive analytics (21 per cent). And almost one in seven (14 per cent) enterprises regarded robotics and machine automation as priorities, it added.
Necip Ozyucel, cloud and enterprise group lead, Microsoft Gulf, said: The event is the perfect platform, both for companies that are new to AI and for those that have solutions already in place.
Newcomers get to explore and assess technologies for best-fit and consult with proven industry experts. AI-equipped companies get to review the direction they have taken in the context of other case studies, and consider their next steps, he said.
Ozyucel continued: We are now living through the societal tipping-point of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The choices we make now, as governments, businesses and individuals, will determine our place in the digital future.
The intelligent cloud and the intelligent edge form the fulcrum of digital transformation the ability to engage citizens, patients and customers; the ability to empower employees; the ability to optimise operations; and the ability to reinvigorate entire business models. AI is the natural bi-product of that fulcrum, he added.
Rima Semaan, data and artificial intelligence technology at Microsoft Gulf, conducted a plenary session at the event to explain Microsofts overall vision, strategy and ethics framework concerning AI.
She addressed the democratisation and operational applications of artificial intelligence, covering how smart solutions will augment human capabilities in the transformation of industries such as banking, government, retail, aviation, transportation and telecommunications.
Yousef El-Foudeh, digital advisor at Microsoft Gulf, delivered a talk on transforming financial services using AI.
He explained the way AI is impacting the financial industry and how banks and insurance companies have reacted to this disruptive technology such as customer analytics, conversation agents, intelligent apps, fraud detection and financial forecasting.
Khaled El Shabrawy, public sector cloud solutions lead and account technology strategist at Microsoft Gulf, took part in the panel discussion How do we govern AI?, which explored AI governance with stress on the need to develop and apply AI ethics and standards when training machines, to make sure it is utilised for the good of humanity, rather than being harmful.
Meanwhile, at the AI Week, delegates saw the companys various Azure-based AI platforms in action at the Microsoft booth, said a statement.
Microsoft experts demonstrated various Cognitive capabilities of Microsoft AI platform through industry-specific use cases from face-recognition to chatbots, and emotion detection to object analysis, it stated. TradeArabia News Service
The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea seeking to ban a book for allegedly depicting Hindu women visiting temples in a derogatory manner, saying "creative voices cannot be stifled or silenced" as democracy permits free exchange of ideas unlike a totalitarian regime.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra refused to ban any further publication and circulation of novel 'Meesha' and said it was "perilous" to obstruct free speech, expression, creativity and imagination as it led to intellectual repression of literary freedom.
The bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said, "A writer should have free play with words, like a painter has with colours. The passion of imagination cannot be directed. True it is, the final publication must not run counter to law, but the application of the rigours of law has to also remain alive to the various aspects that have been accepted by the authorities of the Court.
"The craftsmanship of a writer deserves respect by acceptation of the concept of objective perceptibility."
Justice Misra, who wrote the 30-page verdict, said "we are not living in a totalitarian regime but in a democratic nation which permits free exchange of ideas and liberty of thought and expression."
"Ideas have wings. If the wings of free flow of ideas and imagination are clipped, no work of art can be created. The culture of banning books directly impacts the free flow of ideas and is an affront to the freedom of speech, thought and expression," the bench said.
The apex court's order came on a plea by Delhi resident N Radhakrishnan, who had sought omission of portions of a Malayalam novel 'Meesha' (moustache) written by S Hareesh and a complete ban on the book.
Radhakrishnan had alleged that certain comments in the book about Brahmins, who perform 'puja' in the temples, amounted to "casteist slur". He had also alleged that the Kerala government had not taken steps to stop its publication, online sale and dissemination.
The novel was being published in a serialised form in a Malayalam periodical. The publication of the subsequent parts of the novel was discontinued after the controversy.
In its order, the apex court said that a ban "would usher in a perilous situation, if the constitutional courts, for the asking or on the basis of some allegation pertaining to scandalous effect, obstruct free speech, expression, creativity and imagination. It would lead to a state of intellectual repression of literary freedom.
"When we say so, we are absolutely alive to the fact that the said right is not absolute but any restriction imposed thereon has to be extremely narrow and within the reasonable parameters as delineated by Article 19(2) of the Constitution," the bench said, adding that, "creative writing is contrary to intellectual cowardice and intellectual pusillanimity."
The top court said a creative work has to be read with a matured spirit, objective tolerance and a sense of acceptability. The reader should elevate himself as a "co-walker with the author" as if there is a social link and intellectual connect.
Dealing with the characters of the novel, it said they have been projected to show the "myriad experiences with different situations" which can be perceived as certain sub-plots evolving around the fundamental characteristics of the protagonist.
"The Court is not to be swayed by any kind of perception...The language used in the dialogue cannot remotely be thought of as obscene. The concept of defamation does not arise. Nurturing the idea that it is derogatory and hurtful to the temple going women would tantamount to pyramiding a superstructure without the infrastructure," it said.
The top court said if books were banned on such allegations, there can be no creativity and such interference by constitutional courts will cause "the death of art."
"It has to be kept uppermost in mind that the imagination of a writer has to enjoy freedom. It cannot be asked to succumb to specifics. That will tantamount to imposition. A writer should have free play with words, like a painter has it with colours," it said.
The bench ended the judgement quoting writer and thinker Voltaire, who had said: "I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it". This is the "laser beam" for guidance when one talks about freedom of expression, it added.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
: The Kerala Women's Commission Wednesday said it cannot suo motu register a case against ruling CPI(M) MLA P Sasi, who is in the eye of a storm over sexual charges raised by a woman party worker, with BJP slamming the panel, saying it had become a 'mute spectator'.
A woman leader of the Democratic Youth Federation, the youth wing of CPI(M),had raised the sexual charges against Sasi, Shornur MLA, following which the party's state unit began a probe.
While Industries minister E P Jayarajan maintained that the complaint had not come up before the government and that it was a party matter, Commission chairperson M C Josephine said a suo motu case cannot be registered as the complaint has been forwarded to the party.
"It (the complaint) has not come to us. You should ask the party secretary,"Jayarajan,presiding over cabinet meetings in the absence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, now in the U.S. for treatment, said here.
Asked about the allegations in the complaint, he said 'Ask the complainant...I do not know. It is a party matter.
What I am saying is government matter. As an MLA and a minister, such an issue is not before me," he added.
When it was pointed that CPI(M) had sought a police probe when such charges had cropped up earlier against others, he said there was no such allegation or complaint before the government now.
"So this is not a matter to be dealt with by the government...Party issue, the party will look after." he said.
Josephine said If the Marxist party has received such a complaint, the party has its own way of dealing with it.
This is not a new thing. From the time CPI(M) came into being, there are certain ways for it to handle such issues'.
She also said that to err is human and some times such mistakes do happen to people in the party also.
The CPI(M) had followed due procedures when there were allegations against those within the party, she added.
The party and the commission were two separate entities, she told reporters, indicating that the panel cannot launch proceedings based on the complaint received by the party.
Stepping up pressure against CPI(M),BJP's youth wing took out a march to the MLA's residence at Kulikkiliyad in Palakkad district and burnt his effigy in the state capital, demanding registration of a case against him and his resignation.
Police stopped them and registered a case against the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) workers.
Workers of BJP and Kerala Students Union, the student wing of the Congress, also filed separate complaints with DGP Loknath Behara, seeking a probe into the case, a day after CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury stated that the party had initiated an enquiry into the complaint.
The CPI(M), heading the ruling LDF alliance, initiated the probe after the DYFI woman leader sent a complaint to its central leadership last month, alleging that the MLA had attempted to sexually abuse her.
BJP's state unit president P S Sreedharan Pillai alleged that the CPI(M) leadership had tried to hush up the matter, while party MP V Muraleedharan said the women's commission had become a 'mute spectator'
Senior Congress leader K Muraleedharan, MLA, said the CPI(M) had 'double standards' while dealing with such issues.
"When an allegation of sexual misconduct were made against a Congress MLA, government registered a case and put him in jail.
Here the party says it has its own ways to deal with the serious charges. People want to know the stand of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on the issue," he said.
The woman had sent the complaint to CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat on August 14 and e-mailed a copy to Yechury.
The accused MLA has described the complaint as a "well planned conspiracy" to malign him politically.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh has moved the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to remove his elder brother Malvinder Mohan Singh from the board of RHC Holdings alleging "blatant acts of mismanagement" by him and also asked to reconstitute the board of the company.
Shivinder in his petition filed before the NCLT alleged "illegal and unlawful manipulation of records" of RHC Holdings including forging of signature of his wife Aditi Singh, while asking the NCLT to declare that Malvinder and ex-Religare chief Sunil Godhwani caused grave prejudice to the interest of the company by acting in "collusion with each other".
The younger brother also requested before the tribunal to allow him or his authorised representatives to inspect the statutory records of RHC Holdings and taking copies thereof.
He had prayed to "reconstitute the Board of Directors of Respondent No. 1 company (RHC Holdings) in exclusion of Respondent No. 2 (Malvinder Mohan Singh) and/or his officer, agent, servant or representative".
Shivinder has also requested NCLT to "direct Malvinder Mohan Singh and Respondent No. 4 (Sunil Godhwani) to restitute the undue gains made by themselves which lead to losses being suffered by the petitioners and RHC Holdings".
The petition is listed for hearing on Thursday before the principal bench of NCLT.
Shivender Singh has also prayed NCLT to direct Malvinder Singh and Sunil Godhwani to "restitute and restore the wealth of RHC Holdings which got eroded due to their unlawful actions" and disclose "their assets, bank accounts and net worth".
The petition filed through law firm RRG & Associates also asked NCLT to direct Malvinder "to return the funds unlawfully taken from Fortis Healthcare and Religare Enterprises".
When contacted RRG & Associates managing partner Ranjana Roy Gawai refused to comment on the ground that "matter is subjudice and proprietary demands that we should await the outcome..."
Comments from Malvinder Singh could not be obtained despite repeated attempts to reach him.
Shivinder also requested NCLT to direct Malvinder and Godhwani "not to alienate any interest in any asset anywhere so that recoveries can be effected against them".
While seeking interim relief, Shivinder has sought an injunction "to maintain status quo as on filing of the present Petition" over the shareholding of RHC Holdings till the time of disposal of the matter.
He has also sought "status quo to be maintained on board of directors" of RHC Holdings in his petition filed under section 241, 241 and 244 of the Companies Act, 2013.
In his 43-page-long petition, Shivinder also alleged that signature of his wife Aditi Singh, who had held the post of managing director of RHC Holdings, was forged.
"There are also instances of the petitioner No 3 (Aditi Singh) being shown as present for a board meeting when she was in fact abroad. A resolution of the board of the company dated September 25, 2014 demonstrates the presence of petitioner No 3 in the board meeting, while in fact she was out of country from September 24, 2014, till September 28, 2014... ," he said.
Shivinder further said: "Aditi Singh mere held the post of managing director on paper and had no role to play in the day to day workings of the company...has always been a home maker who played no part in the functioning of RHC Holdings."
RHC Holding Pvt Ltd is a non-banking financial company owned by the families of Singh Brothers. Currently, Malvinder Singh is managing director of the firm.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Maharashtra BJP spokesperson Shaina NC expressed displeasure on Wednesday over her party MLA Ram Kadam's anti-women remarks.
"I was quite shocked and I will say it quite openly. There was a legislator from our own political party who was talking about how you can kidnap young girls and if you want to have a quick pass time 'I will help you' and it shocked me," Shaina said at Alibaba's XIN Philanthropy Conference here.
"It shocked me for two reasons. One is women in India are viewed sometime as only an object. It's time we demystify this kind of image for women and realise that on one hand you talk about Saraswati, Durga and Lakshmi you pray and worship women and on the other you think that you can go out and abuse her and get away," the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson said during a discussion on the status of women in country.
At an event in his Ghatkopar assembly constituency Monday night, the BJP MLA had told youngsters that they can tell him if they liked a girl and he would "kidnap" her for them even if she rejects their proposal.
With his remarks triggering an outrage, Kadam issued a video message on social media, saying, "I have very high regard for women. Without giving any explanation about the video clip (of his controversial remarks), I express my regret."
Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut said in the conference that the condition of women in the country was very bad.
"We are struggling for very primitive things. Equal pay for equal work... The right to wear what you want whether it is bikini or burqa, you should be allowed to wear what you want," Ranaut said.
She said that there is not enough infrastructure in the country to enable women to participate in the society to the levels she can actually do it.
"These are primitive things that we are struggling with. Right now where we stand is worrisome," Ranaut said.
Delhi Commission for Women chairperson Swati Maliwal said that everyday six rapes take place in Delhi.
"31,446 crimes against women and children were reported in the capital and less that 150 were convicted. Therefore, no one is afraid of law in our country. They feel that they can do anything against women and this system will not be able to make any adverse impact on them," Maliwal said.
The BJP spokesperson said that it was time for every influencial person in the society to join cause to ensure 33 per cent reservation for women in parliament and state assemblies and their equal participation in all walks of life.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The SmartCity Kochi Wednesday organised a meeting of companies here to explore their voluntary support to the massive efforts towards the rehabilitation of those affected in the recent Kerala floods.
Close to 30 companies operating in the campus of the SmartCity Kochi attended the meeting, it said in a release.
Ernakulam District Collector K Mohammed Y Safirulla met the CEOs, Business Heads of operating companies and co-developers, along with SmartCity CEO Manoj Nair.
He apprisedthem on the extent of the economic damage and requested them to join the mission of rebuilding the flood-hit areas and helping the affected people.
Besides contributing to the Chief Ministers Distress Relief Fund, the companies can also partner with the administration in rehabilitating and helping people to bring their life back to normalcy, Safirulla suggested.
He pointed out that the magnitude of the calamity was so huge that thousands had been rendered homeless and rebuilding their homes and basic infrastructure needed generous support from all quarters.
The district was among the worst affected in the unprecedented deluge last month triggered by torrential monsoon rains that left a huge trail of destruction in the state.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Tens of thousands of opposition supporters have marched in Sri Lanka's capital to demand the government step down, accusing it of corruption and selling national assets to foreign nations.
The activists loyal to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa walked along several main roads in Colombo on Wednesday, shouting slogans and holding placards. They later gathered near the president's office and launched a sit-in protest on a main road.
Rajapaksa's loyalists criticize the government for selling national assets to foreign countries, including the leasing of a sea port to China for 99 years.
The government was elected on a platform of good governance but its image was marred in 2015 by a central bank scandal that led to the resignation of a key minister.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
One person was injured when a portion of a staircase of a building in Battala police station area in the northern part of the metropolis collapsed Wednesday, police said.
The three storey building was in a dilapidated condition and some people were inside it, sources in the Kolkata Police headquarters said.
Fire Brigade personnel, who rushed to the spot immediately after receiving information on the collapse, said that two other women were trapped in the incident.
Both the trapped women were rescued and the injured woman was admitted to a city hospital, they added.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb Wednesday said his government has taken a number of steps to improve school in the state.
Addressing a Teachers Day function here, Deb said the government schools in the state are now following the NCERT syllabus and curriculum.
The chief minister called upon teachers to sensitise students against drug addiction.
The Headmistress of Kalikishore Higher Secondary School of Udaipur in Tripuras Gomati district, Sutapa Sur, Wednesday received the National Award for Teachers at a function in New Delhi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had congratulated Sur by tweeting about her.
"Ms. Sutapa Sur from Tripura is an inspiration for everyone. Her approach to the overall development of students of her school has shown demonstrable success in the results of the students. She has focused on through co-curricular as well as cultural activities," Modi had tweeted Tuesday.
After receiving the award Sur told reporters over phone from Delhi, "I teach in a village school, but the students get all facilities there. School has secured 100 per cent pass percentage in the board exams for last four years.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a possible first, premises of a police chief in Tamil Nadu were among 40 locations searched by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Wednesday in connection with Gutka scam, officials said.
After registering a case in May, the CBI carried out searches at 35 places in Tamil Nadu and five places in Karnataka, Mumbai and Puducherry which included residential premises of Health Minister C Vijayabaskar, Tamil Nadu DGP T K Rajendran and former police commissioner S George in Chennai.
An Indian Revenue Services officer has also been raided by the CBI in connection with the case, the officials said.
This is possibly a rare incident when a serving Director General of Police of any state has been raided by the CBI.
A 1984-batch IPS officer, Rajendran was made Director General of Police in 2016 after Ashok Kumar opted out for a voluntary retirement scheme. Officials said that Kumar, a 1982 batch IPS officer, was forced to seek VRS as he had recommended for a CBI probe in the Gutka scam.
The scam came to light on July 8, 2017, when income tax sleuths raided the godown, offices and residences of a pan masala and gutka (a concoction of tobacco and pan masala) manufacturer in Tamil Nadu, who had been facing charges of tax evasion to the tune of Rs 250 crore.
The manufacture, storage and sale of the chewable forms of tobacco, including gutka and pan masala, were banned by the Tamil Nadu government in 2013.
During the raids, the department had seized a diary containing names of those who had been allegedly paid by the gutka manufacturers.
The case was sent to the CBI by the Madras High Court in April this year on the plea of a DMK leader.
This was challenged in the Supreme Court by a Tamil Nadu health official but the apex court sided with the order of Madras High Court and asked the agency to register a case.
The agency had registered an FIR against unidentified officials of the Tamil Nadu government, Central Excise Department and the Food Safety Department in May.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Telangana government Wednesday announced several measures, including subsidies and waiver of commercial taxes dues, aimed at revival of a pulp unit of Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT) in the state, shut since 2014.
BILTs pulp business operates a facility in Jayashankar Bhupalpally that producesrayon grade pulp for manufacture of viscose staple fibre (VSF) and viscose staple yarn (VSY).
A government order announcing the incentives said the closure of the unit for the past four years has affected livelihood of its 750 workers and their families and hundreds of others indirectly dependent on it.
The government offered a consolidated subsidy of Rs.21 crore per year for 7 years through Telangana Forest Development Corporation towards supply of pulp wood.
A maximum subsidy of Rs.9 crore per annum for 7 years will be released to the Telangana Power utilities for supply of electricity to the unit.
Among other incentives, the order said commercial tax dues of the company would be waived.
It also extended an investment subsidy of Rs 12.5 crore toward the company's proposed Rs 125 crore modification in plant and machinery and other renovation work.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Norway-based StormGeo, a leading provider of weather intelligence and decision support services, has entered into a deal to acquire Nautisk, a global supplier of maritime charts and publications to the merchant marine, from NHST Media Group.
The combination allows StormGeo to be the first to integrate market-leading routing and weather services with state-of-the-art charts and publications solutions, said a statement from the company.
Per-Olof Schroeder, chief executive officer, StormGeo, said: The acquisition of Nautisk is a natural complement to our existing solutions to the global shipping industry.
In recent years, Nautisk has developed state-of-the-art software for use in planning and navigation, while maintaining one of the industrys best run operations for delivering paper charts and publications to vessels worldwide, he said.
The power of the combined StormGeo-Nautisk solution will directly benefit customers as we advance our vision as a premier shipping services player. We are proud to lead the industry in creating the first, fully-integrated navigational planning solution in the market, he added.
This new all-in-one platform will allow StormGeo and Nautisk customers to optimise routing, obtain appropriate charts, and create a voyage plan without switching between disparate systems, it said.
Integrating navigational information with weather intelligence and proprietary route optimisation algorithms will enhance quality and offer significant usability and cost benefits to customers, it added.
Thomas Fjeld, chief executive officer, Nautisk, said: Our team is excited about combining with such a trusted company within the shipping community and beyond.
Our complementary offering means that together we can provide a solution that has no rival and will drive usability, provide richer functionality, and offer more value for our customers, he said.
Fjeld will take on a position as vice president planning and navigation within StormGeo post-acquisition, said a statement.
Nautisk has formed part of NHST Media Group since its inception in 1896.
Andreas Emblem, head of division at NHST Media Group, said: Nautisk is an established business with a renowned heritage set for a bright future, already spearheading the global, digital transformation of the nautical chart business.
This combination with a broader maritime solutions business has a strong strategic logic that should further enhance its potential for success in a rapidly changing market, he said.
The transaction will close within the next month or as soon as practical, pending the fulfilment of certain standard conditions for completion. Financial details of the transaction are not disclosed, it stated. TradeArabia News Service
The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday moved a Delhi court seeking permission to question a UAE-based businessman, arrested by the NIA and currently in judicial custody here in a terror-funding case also involving Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief and 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed.
In an application filed before District Judge Poonam A Bamba, the ED said that United Arab Emirates businessmen Naval Kishore Kapoor was required for interrogation and recording of his statement in a money laundering case, being probed by the ED in relation to the present matter.
The NIA had arrested Kapoor on July 26 and he is presently lodged in Tihar central jail.
The court has put up the application, filed by ED's special public prosecutor Nitesh Rana, for hearing tomorrow.
The ED had earlier interrogated a Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Watali, a co-accused in the case, in an investigation in the present matter under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) against him for allegedly receiving funds from abroad.
In today's application moved through advocate A R Aditya, the ED told the court that "Watali had mobilised huge amount of funds in the guise of foreign remittance from unknown sources in India through/in association with one of his old associates Kapoor."
"It is crucial to record the statement of the accused as the money laundering case is being investigated," it said.
According to the NIA, Kapoor entered in an agreement with Trison Farms and Constructions through its Managing Director Watali to take land in Budgam on lease.
Kapoor remitted a total amount of Rs 5.579 crore in 22 instalments between 2013 and 2016 to Watali, it had said.
According to the NIA, the said land did not exist in the name of the company and the agreement lacks legal sanctity.The agency alleged that it was a 'cover' created by Watali to bring foreign remittance from unknown sources to India.
Watali, Saeed, Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin and others have been accused by the NIA of "conspiring to wage war against the government" and fomenting trouble in the Kashmir Valley.
In its charge sheet, the NIA has alleged that officials of the Pakistan High Commission here were passing on money to separatists in Jammu and Kashmir through Watali.
The separatist leaders have been accused of taking a cut of the money.
Saeed has been accused of using Watali's services for passing on the money to the separatists and some individuals, who were actively indulging in stone-pelting in the Valley.
The NIA has charged Pakistan-based terrorists Saeed and Salahuddin, besides 10 others, with criminal conspiracy, sedition and provisions of the UAPA.
Besides Saeed, Salahuddin and Watali, the agency has named hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Shah alias Altaf Fantoosh and Bashir Ahmad Bhat in the charge sheet.
Hurriyat Conference leaders Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Mohammad Akbar Khanday and Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal have also been charged by the agency in the terror-funding case.
Most of the accused are currently in the judicial custody.
Two of the accused -- freelance photo-journalist Kamran Yusuf and Javed Ahmad Bhat -- both accused of stone-pelting, were earlier granted bail by the court.
The ED had registered a case under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on the FIR lodged by the NIA.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Four people including one Czech and three foreigners were killed on Wednesday when the helicopter they were in crashed over a factory in western Czech Republic, local police said.
The Czech CTK agency said it was thought that the foreign victims could be Thai nationals.
The four-seater Robinson R44-Raven helicopter came down in an industrial zone in a suburb of the town of Plzen.
"Among the victims, there are three foreigners, two men and a women," local police spokeswoman Dana Ladmanova said.
No-one from the Thai embassy in Prague was immediately contactable.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A group of fishermen from Tamil Nadu were Wednesday chased away by Sri Lankan Navy personnel for allegedly straying into the island nation's waters, a state fisheries department official said here.
The fishermen from Nagapattinam district, who had put out to the sea in five boats, were fishing off Kodiyakarai in the district when the Lankan Navy personnel threatened them at knifepoint and chased them away, Assistant Director of Fisheries Jayakumar said.
The Lanka navy men also snapped the nets of the fishermen and warned them not to poach fish in their territorial waters, he said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kirloskar Motor Wednesday announced the recall of Prius hybrid vehicles in India to inspect faulty engine wire harness that can cause fire, as part of a global recall by its parent firm.
The company is implementing this recall in India to inspect engine wire harness and correct, if required, Prius vehicles manufactured between June 2015 to May 2018, the company said in a statement.
" dealers will inform the affected customers soon. Currently, ten vehicles may be affected in India," it added.
Globally, Motor announced recall of over a million units of its Prius and C-HR compact crossover vehicles due to risk of fire because of faulty engine wire harness.
ALSO READ: Toyota planning to recall 1 mn hybrid models over engine wire harness issue
The company stated that an engine wire harness connected to the power control unit was at risk of wear over time, potentially leading to a short circuit or even a fire.
US President Donald Trump Wednesday alleged that social media companies interfered in the 2016 American elections to help his presidential rival Hillary Clinton.
Trump's remarks came as top officials of social media companies on Wednesday testified before a Congressional committee on issues related to security and interference in elections.
Prominent among them are Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter chief executive officer Jack Dorsey.
"I think they (social media companies) already have," Trump told the conservative website Daily Caller.
"I mean the true interference in the last election was that if you look at all, virtually all of those companies are super liberal companies in favor of Hillary Clinton," he said.
According to the report, Trump cautioned social media companies not to maintain a bias as it could one day be used against political causes that they prefer.
"Maybe I did a better job because I'm good with the Twitter and I'm good at social media, but the truth is they were all on Hillary Clinton's side, and if you look at what was going on with Facebook and with Google and all of it, they were very much on her side," he said.
In recent days, Trump has publicly spoken against social media companies.
"I think that Google and Facebook and Twitter, I think they treat conservatives and Republicans very unfairly. I could tell you that I have personal experience," Trump said recently.
Google, however, has denied these allegations.
In a written statement, Google chief legal officer Kent Walker promised to maintain efforts to prevent foreign interference in the US elections.
"Google remains deeply concerned about attempts to undermine democratic elections. As we promised the committee last year, we have now fulfilled all four of our commitments to provide increased transparency in election advertising," Walker said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President Donald Trump has neglected the country's vital relationship with India unlike his predecessors George W Bush and Barack Obama, a former diplomat has alleged, ahead of the crucial 2+2 dialogue tomorrow in New Delhi.
The twice-delayed dialogue was earlier scheduled for July 6 in Washington, but was postponed by the US on June 27, citing "unavoidable reasons".
"The future is very bright for both countries, but the United States must fully prioritise and expertly execute on this relationship," former US ambassador to India Tim Roemer said in an op-ed in the Foreign Policy magazine on Tuesday.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis are being hosted in Delhi by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. This is the first ever 2+2 talks between the two nations.
"It is essential that it devote sufficient time and consistent effort towards anticipating problems and implementing an overall strategy that helps deepen this growing relationship and facilitate abiding trust moving forward," he said.
Roemer, who was a top US diplomat in the previous Obama administration, said it is a telling sign of how little the Trump administration has prioritised India that this critical relationship, where both sides stand to heavily benefit, is not moving steadily forward.
"While the partnership has stalled in Washington, it is still seen as critical in New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's political and foreign-policy interests in deepening US ties are clear.
"While he is delicately balancing relations in his geographic neighbourhood with recent tensions with China in Doklam and arms sales with Russia, Modi sees a bright future with the United States," he said in the op-ed.
The former diplomat said Modi displayed savvy instincts during his visits to the US, meeting and courting the Indian diaspora with packed town meetings.
"He has also valued the United States as an advocate for India's permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, sought out access to cyber security cooperation to ensure progress in a growing e-commerce sector, acknowledged a growing reliance on the US liquified natural gas to bring clean energy to an overly polluted country, and emphasized a mutual commitment to democratic values," Roemer wrote.
In another article in the magazine, think-tank scholars Atman Trivedi and Aparna Pande argued that just as the US is warming up to India, India is starting to get cold feet about the whole idea.
"Despite efforts by Mattis and others to impose a strategic direction and invest in strengthening ties, there are plenty of fresh doubts in New Delhi.
"In the short term, that unease has been stirred by Trump's economic nationalism and the White House's unreliability. But something more significant the longer-term direction of US foreign policy may be making India cautious," they wrote.
In an article in The Diplomat, Raymond E Vickery, a former assistant US secretary of commerce, said the Trump administration is to be lauded for its efforts to make up for lost time with regard to the US-India 2+2 strategic dialogue.
"However, the administration will need to supplement the 2+2 with a forward-leaning and consistent US-India economic initiative if it is to achieve substantive progress in making the US-India strategic partnership as important as it should be," he said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President Donald Trump plans to chair a meeting of the UN Security Council later this month to discuss Iran's alleged violations of international law, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has said.
Haley, who assumed the Presidency of the Security Council for the month of September, told reporters here Tuesday that Trump intends to chair a meeting of the 15-nation UN body on Iran on September 26.
The US pulled out of the landmark Iran nuclear deal in May, saying it failed to put enough pressure on Tehran regime to halt its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programme.
Washington has sought to build up international pressure on Iran after reimposing tough and unilateral sanctions on August 7 and setting a November5 deadline for halting Iran's oil exports.
"He (Trump) is calling the meeting to address Iran's violations of international law and the general instability Iran sows throughout the entire Middle East region," Haley said as she briefed reporters about the Council's programme of work for the month.
On the meeting on Iran, she said the message to Tehran is that the world is watching its actions, whether supporting terrorism, launching ballistic missiles or selling weapons.
Another highlight of the US Presidency of the Council will be an update on efforts to make peacekeeping missions more effective, efficient and accountable, the US Permanent Representative to the UN said.
Through the debate on peacekeeping on September 12, the US will focus on improving peacekeeping performance including eliminating sexual exploitation and abuse, she added.
"In yet another first, we will be introducing a resolution on peacekeeping that would require the UN to hold peacekeepers, troop and police contributing countries and the Secretariat accountable for performance failures," she said.
On September 24, Trump will kick off a high-level event on counter-narcotics, making a "global call to action" on the world drug problem.
Haley said the Presidency of the Security Council this month under the Trump Administration will be a "Presidency of Firsts", and as part of this all meetings and events will be held in the open chamber, which is "part of our push for transparency and accountability for the Security Council".
She said a briefing on corruption and conflict are among the highlights of the Security Council's work in the month ahead.
The 15-member Council will also hold its first-ever meeting on the situation in Nicaragua on Wednesday when they will hear a briefing by a representative of the Organization of American States (OAS).
She emphasised the importance to the Council of regular updates relating to developments on the ground, since human rights are closely linked to peace and security.
She added that on September 10, the Council will hear a briefing on how corruption has become a cross-cutting issue that undermines stability around the world.
"It is a fundamental cause for conflict that the Council should be addressing," she said, citing Tunisia, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as countries destabilised by corruption.
Turning to regular Council business, she said it plans three briefings on Syria, with the meeting on September 6 focusing on the use of chemical weapons in that country, followed by a briefing on the situation in Idlib.
Responding to questions, she said the Council continues to shed light on the situation in Myanmar, where the Government is still in denial of events there. The Council must make hard decisions in that regard, she added.
On the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, she emphasised the importance of sanctions under Security Council resolutions, and added that "Russia and China are not exempted" from implementing the measures.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey told lawmakers Wednesday the social network is not operated on the basis of "political ideology," rejecting claims of bias against conservatives.
"Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules," Dorsey said in prepared remarks to a hearing with US technology giants.
"We believe strongly in being impartial, and we strive to enforce our rules impartially." Dorsey's comments come days after President Donald Trump accused technology firms of "censorship" and suppressing conservative voices.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Britain's Brexit minister rejected claims Wednesday that the government's EU withdrawal plan was "dead" after opposition in Brussels, Paris and by MPs on all sides at home.
Dominic Raab dismissed as "grumbles" the criticism of the so-called Chequers plan from the European Union's negotiator Michel Barnier.
"We are not going to roll over just because there is some traction static on what we think is not just a good deal for the UK but a good deal for the EU," he told a committee of MPs.
He added: "Of course, in a negotiation one side will try and resist certain aspects of it that they are uncomfortable with." Raab is due back in Brussels on Thursday for talks with Barnier, after the Frenchman told a German newspaper at the weekend that he "strongly opposes the British proposal".
Barnier tweeted Wednesday that he was "looking forward" to "finding common ground".
However, pro-European opposition lawmaker Stephen Kinnock said Barnier had told him and other British MPs during a visit to Brussels on Monday that the Chequers plan "was dead".
The plan envisages Britain leaving the EU's single market but staying in a free trade area through a customs deal and common rulebook with the EU. It has drawn criticism from all sides in Britain for leaving the country half in, half out of the bloc.
Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday her plan was "dead, already ripped apart by her own MPs".
Eurosceptic Conservative MP Bill Cash, like Kinnock a member of the committee which grilled Raab on Wednesday, said it should be "put out of its misery".
Some Brexit supporters are now pushing for a Canada-style free trade agreement with the EU after Brexit, which Barnier has previously raised as an alternative.
However, Raab said the EU offer would involve accepting a back-up plan to avoid a hard border in Ireland, which risked splitting Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom.
He said that the government's plan was "by far the most plausible and credible" one.
Britain and the EU aim to agree a deal by a summit next month, but acknowledge the timetable may slip until November.
The divisions in parliament have raised fears however there will be no deal at all agreed before Brexit on March 29.
French Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau insisted the EU would not change its rules to accommodate Britain after Brexit.
"We will not redefine our basic principles because the UK doesn't want to belong to the European Union any more," she told the London Evening Standard newspaper.
"We have described our priorities and they are not subject to negotiation." While a future trade deal must be "a special one", it "cannot divide the single market", she said.
Citing the discord in the British parliament, she said there was an "obvious question mark" over whether the British parliament would be ready to ratify May's proposals.
"We want a good deal -- but not at the detriment of the EU27," she added.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Japanese FMCG firm Unicharm is expecting 10 per cent of its global revenues to come from India by 2020, a top company official said.
The company, which makes MamyPoko Pants diaper and sanitary napkin Sofy, currently generates around 6 per cent revenues from India on a consolidated basis, according to Unicharm global chief executive officer Takahisa Takahara.
"In 2020, this 6 per cent composition will become 10 per cent," Takahara told PTI.
The company had reported a consolidated net sales of 641.647 billion yen for the year ended December 31, 2017, according to the company website.
It aims to clock a consolidated net revenue of 800 billion yen (around Rs 51,273 crore) in 2018, he said.
The company, which started its operations in India 10 years ago, is expecting to grow at 15-20 per cent in the country this calendar year, added Takahara.
Globally, it has presence in 80 countries and has manufacturing plants in 17 nations, including India and Japan.
The FMCG firm Wednesday inaugurated its largest 300,000-square-metre manufacturing facility in the country here, which will employ 1,200 people, and is planning to export to four to five other key markets from here, he said.
Takahara, however, declined to give details about the investment in the plant.
Unicharm already has an operational facility at Sri City in Andhra Pradesh and a plant in Rajasthan that isn't operational at present due to fire.
The company enjoys a market share of 36 per cent in the Rs 4,700 crore diaper market and over 40 per cent in modern trade, informed Takahara.
He listed price, psychology (general mindset) and lack of information as the major barriers in the country, where diaper penetration is estimated to be 15 per cent.
However, Takahara was hopeful of the prospects in the country, with 1.35 billion population and the number of infants roughly 23 times the level in Japan.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Azimut Yachts, a leading Italian yacht manufacturer with a major presence in the Middle East, said it will be showcasing its fleet of 18 yachts, including three new models, at the upcoming Cannes Yachting Festival 2018 in France.
The event, a leading boat show in Europe, will take place from September 11 to 16, at the Cannes Vieux Port and Port Pierre Canto in France.
The three models making their world debut include: Azimut S6, Azimut Grande 25 Metri, and Azimut Grande 32 Metri, said a statement from Azimut Yachts, which has seven offices in the Middle East including one in the UAE.
Accompanying the three new models will be 15 more yachts from all the brands five collections, (Atlantis, Magellano, S, Flybridge and Grande), ranging from the smallest Azimut Atlantis 34; to the shipyards flagship, the Azimut Grande 35 Metri, which since its launch has already sold 10 units and been awarded a remarkable six international prizes, it said.
Marco Valle, chief executive officer, Azimut Yachts, said: Season after season, we enrich our offering with models that often anticipate unexpressed needs and unformed ideas.
Owners increasingly express their desire to enjoy life on board in spaces that are less formal but never ordinary. We strive to create designs that express both elegance and comfort, to which we add innovation and advanced technology that are always a step ahead of the competition. This is the DNA that keeps our customers coming back to us, he said.
Valle continued: We confirm our confidence to the future from a position of strength built on solid results. Our group, with an average annual production of 300 yachts, introduced innovative products over the past years, which have all sold out.
We promise our clients to always sustain our professional growth and state-of-the-art quality of services. These are considered main pillars to our global market leadership, he added.
One of the protagonists at this edition of the festival will be Azimut S6, the new entry in the S Collection. The S6 is a pure coupe with sporty DNA that looks set to leave its mark in the history of yacht world development, offering unprecedented levels of efficiency obtained with the help of the three IPS propulsion units and carbon tech, it said.
The Grande Collection, the most recently introduced collection, has been joined by two new models. The first, the Azimut Grande 25 Metri, has a carbon tech superstructure, roll-bar, hard top and transom and represents the perfect blend of charm and technology.
The second in the collection is the Azimut Grande 32 Metri. This superyacht is the epitome of avant-garde in every aspect, with multiple unprecedented solutions, it stated. TradeArabia News Service
State-owned of hopes to recover Rs 20 billion from the resolution of three stressed thermal power units as there has been interest from other operators in these projects.
Three projects, including GMR Chhattisgarh Energy Limited and Prayagraj Power Generation Co Ltd (PPGCL), a subsidiary of Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd where the has exposure, are at different stages of resolution, a senior official of of said.
The project cost of GMR project was Rs 115.42 billion with debt component of Rs 81.73 billion while equity of Rs 33.67 billion. In case of Prayagraj Power, the project cost was revised upwards to Rs 155.37 billion which was met through Rs 45.43 billion equity and Rs 109.93 billion debt.
The total exposure of the bank in the power sector is about Rs 60 billion, the official said, adding that Rs 20 billion recovery is expected from resolution soon.
The official also said the haircut in these projects is going to be less than 50 per cent.
ALSO READ: Adani group bets big as stressed power assets may add spark in long term
Lead banker in most stressed power cases had last month said that 7-8 projects worth Rs 170 billion are expected to be resolved soon
There are about 34 stressed power projects and the combined value of their outstanding loans is about Rs 1.74 trillion.
"We have looked at 13-14 accounts which would entail changes in management, investment etc. Out of these, 7-8 accounts we are looking at very closely, to get some consensus among the banks," managing director Arijit Basu had said.
"There are investors who have expressed interest and we are in very very advanced stage as far as these accounts are concerned. Some of these we should be able to conclude very soon," he had said.
For the first quarter ended June 2018, reported a 12 per cent increase in net profit of Rs 1.30 billion.
The bank had a net profit of Rs 1.16 billion in the same quarter of 2017-18.
Total income during the June quarter increased to Rs 99.08 billion as against Rs 95.67 billion in the same period a year ago.
The Republican Party of India, an ally of the BJP, will move the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court directive against the use of the word 'Dalit' by media, according to RPI leader and Union Minister Ramdas Athawale.
Athawale told reporters on Wednesday that the word Dalit symbolises the struggle undertaken to give these communities their rights.
"It isn't an insult," he said.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had earlier suggested that the media use the word Scheduled Castes (SC), in order to comply with he Bombay High Court's directions.
"Republican Party of India will go to the Supreme Court against Bombay High Court (Nagpur bench) directive to the government to remove Dalit' word in media usage, the party leader said.
Athawale, who is minister of state for social justice, said that while he does not object to the use of 'Scheduled Caste' in government affairs, the term 'Dalit' shouldn't be a "worrisome word" in common usage.
"I have no objection to the use of 'Scheduled Caste' in government works, but it isn't fair to ban media, authors and other such persons from using the word 'Dalit'. It should be left to them whether they wish to say 'Scheduled Caste' or 'Dalit'," he said.
The RPI leader is the second Dalit leader after BJP MP Udit Raj, who has protested against the court order and the I&B Ministry advisory.
"The word Dalit is a symbol of our unity. This word has given us the motivation because of which one day our community will enter into the mainstream of the country. This word should not make anyone feel inferior and not name but their welfare should be important to us," Raj had tweeted.
The order from the I&B Ministry said that the term 'Scheduled Caste' should be used for all official transaction, matters, dealings, certificates, etc. for denoting the persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes notified in the Presidential Orders issued under Article 341 of the Constitution of India".
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A labourer from Uttar Pradesh was killed Wednesday in exchange of fire between militants and security forces in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir, the police said.
Militants opened fire on a patrol party of the security forces at Haji Darpora in Litter area of Pulwama, a police official said.
The security forces retaliated, leading to a brief gunfight between the two sides, he said.
Arjun Kumar, a 17-year-old labourer hailing from Bareily in Uttar Pradesh, was hit by a stray bullet in the head, the official said, adding the injured was rushed to SKIMS hospital here from treatment but succumbed to the injuries.
Soon after the exchange of fire, security forces cordoned off the area and launched search operation to track down the militants, the official said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US and Canada were working in "good faith" to salvage a continental free trade deal on Wednesday, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned he would stand firm on key issues as he questioned Donald Trump's respect for trade rules.
The US president stressed meanwhile that he was looking for a fair deal to prevent Canada from "taking advantage" of the United States.
Amid the charged political atmosphere, dogged by Trump's repeated threats to leave Canada out of the revised North American Free Trade Agreement, Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said there is "good faith and goodwill on both sides" in the talks.
That was a notable change from Friday, when inflammatory comments from Trump angered officials in Ottawa and the discussions ended with no agreement on a rewrite of the 25-year-old trade deal.
Following her first meeting of the day with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, as they try to salvage NAFTA as a three-country pact, Freeland told reporters the work continues and they will "come back with some fresh ideas later on in the afternoon."
Trudeau said there is an opportunity to improve NAFTA, but the outcome will depend on what happens at the negotiating table. And he stressed that he "will not sign an agreement that would be bad for Canada." "We'll walk away and not sign a deal rather than sign a bad deal."
One of the key sticking points in the talks has been a dispute mechanism in Chapter 19 of NAFTA that provides binational panels to resolve disagreements. Canada has used the mechanism to fight off US antidumping duties.
Trudeau said this was a "red line" that Ottawa will insist on retaining to make sure NAFTA rules are enforced.
"We need to keep the Chapter 19 dispute resolution because that ensures that the rules are actually followed. I mean, we have a president who doesn't always follow the rules as they're laid out," Trudeau said in the interview.
Another issue is US complaints about Canada's strictly controlled dairy market, which Trump criticized again on Wednesday, blasting the tariffs that are as high as 300 percent.
Trade analysts say his complaints are misleading because the US exports far more dairy goods to Canada than it imports, and American producers do not actually pay the high tariffs because they only apply when imports are above the set quota.
But Trump told reporters that Canada "has walls up against us" and has been "taking advantage of the United States for many years," along with other countries. He again called NAFTA a "foolish" and "stupid" trade deal that he was moving to fix.
Trump has threatened repeatedly to leave Canada on the sidelines and proceed with Mexico, which reached a deal with Washington last week and could sign NAFTA 2.0 as soon as November 30.
The White House notified Congress on Friday of its "intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico -- and Canada, if it is willing -- 90 days from now." The administration has until September 30 to present the full text of the new agreement to Congress, which gives Ottawa and Washington time to iron out remaining differences.
Trump continued his tough talk throughout the weekend, and was unlikely to be in a more cooperative mood after trade data released Wednesday showed the US deficit with Canada expanded, and deficits with China and the European Union hit new records.
"There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. If we don't make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out," Trump tweeted on Saturday.
"Congress should not interfere with these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off." But legislators and trade law experts have warned that Trump does not have the authority to supplant the three-nation NAFTA with a bilateral pact with Canada.
The US business sector strongly prefers that NAFTA remain a trilateral agreement. "Anything other than a trilateral agreement won't win Congressional approval and would lose business support," warned Thomas Donohue, president of the US Chamber of Commerce.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US and India have "big and strategic" items to discuss during the first 2+2 Dialogue, according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who asserted that the primary focus of the meeting was not about India's plans to buy a Russian missile defence system and oil from Iran.
Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis are headed to India for the talks tomorrow with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
"They are (missile system purchase from Russia and oil from Iran) part of the conversation. They are part of the relationship.
"They will certainly come up, but I don't think they will be the primary focus of what it is we are trying to accomplish here," Pompeo said Tuesday to a question from reporters who are travelling with him to Pakistan and then to India.
India is expected to convey to the US during the dialogue that it is going ahead to procure from Russia five S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems for nearly USD 4.5 billion.
"There are half-a-dozen things on the agenda that we are really intent on making progress on. Those decisions are important, they are important to the relationship for sure, but I don't see us resolving those or have intention to resolve those during this set of meetings of the strategic dialogue.
"They are really about things that are big and strategic and will go on for 20, 40, 50 years. Those are the kinds of topics that secretary Mattis and I are hoping to address not that those are not important, but they are not part of the structural relationship between the two countries," Pompeo said.
Last month, the Pentagon ruled out an automatic waiver for India from the punitive US sanctions over its weapons purchase from Russia, saying Washington has concerns over the Russian missile defence system deal.
Randall G Schriver, Assistant Secretary of Defence for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, said: "I can't sit here and tell you today that a (CAATSA) waiver would necessarily be used (for India). It would be a topic discussed at the highest level of our government and they would make some determination".
The Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) waiver is intended at preventing US sanctions on countries like India.
Mattis has publicly been a strong proponent of granting India waivers from sanctions.
Pompeo regretted that the 2+2 dialogue had to be postponed twice in the past.
The format of the 2+2 dialogue was agreed upon between the two sides during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington in June 2017.
"I regret it was my fault the second time. I had to travel to Pyongyang. But secretary Mattis and I are both looking forward to this," the top American diplomat said.
The twice-delayed dialogue was earlier scheduled for July 6 in Washington, but was postponed by the US on June 27, citing "unavoidable reasons".
"We have a true strategic partner who, frankly, is our only 'Major Defence Partner', the only designated 'Major Defence Partner', with whom we have a great relationship and who is very important to our success in our Indo-Pacific strategy enormous country with incredibly opportunity and capacity for wealth creation.
"We hope we can find opportunities to continue to expand the relationship not only diplomatic and military-to-military but a good set of business relationships as well," Pompeo added.
The US has told India and other countries to cut oil imports from Iran to "zero" by November 4 or face sanctions, making it clear that there would be no waivers to anyone.
Iran is India's third-largest oil supplier behind Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Iran supplied 18.4 million tonnes of crude oil during April 2017 and January 2018 (first 10 months of 2017-18 fiscal).
The 2+2 Dialogue is taking place amid Chinese People's Liberation Army flexing its muscles in the Indo-Pacific region.
The US said in April that its vision of a free and open Indo Pacific, which is supported by India, is not so much about countering any particular country.
China claims almost all of the resource-rich South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims over the area.
China recently deployed anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-surface missile systems in the disputed South China Sea amid frequent forays by US naval and surveillance aircraft over the region to assert the freedom of navigation especially around the artificial islands built by China, where it has also established garrisons.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Trump administration recognises the opportunity to grow the US-India strategic partnership, deepen security relationship, broaden friendship and ensure a more safe, secure, prosperous and free Indo-Pacific region, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday.
Mattis and Pompeo arrived in New Delhi separately for the inaugral India-US two-plus-two dialogue being hosted by their Indian counterparts Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
The focus of the dialogue will be to deepen strategic ties and resolve differences over India's defence engagement with Russia and crude oil import from Iran.
Mattis and Pompeo are planning to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on the sidelines of the inaugural two-plus-two dialogue to thank him for enhancing India-US relations.
Before landing in New Delhi, Mattis told travelling press that he and Pompeo will also meet Modi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval to reinforce their appreciation for India's role in regional and global security framework.
"And thank Prime Minister Modi for his personal leadership in enhancing US-India relations," Mattis said.
During the two-plus-two dialogue, officials from India and the US look forward to discussing diplomatic and security issues.
"For my part, we'll certainly be looking at how do we counter terrorism, increasing defense innovation. In both countries, they have a strong technological bent in India, so this two-way street, not a one-way. We are all, of course, looking for how can we enhance stability in South Asia," he said.
Creating greater maritime security, considering the ocean that the Indian subcontinent faces, that will be something that is in the best interest of all the nations of the world that want to increase prosperity and the free trafficking of goods, Mattis said.
"We look forward to discussing our respective visions for further strengthening this relationship," he said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has roped in high-profile former American ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table and help America on the reconciliation efforts in the war-torn country.
Khalilzad, 67, who was born in Afghanistan, is well known in the region and is highly respected across communities and stakeholders in the country.
The latest move is expected to give a big boost to the reconciliation efforts in the war-ravaged country.
Talking to reporters travelling with him hours before landing in Pakistan, Pompeo announced that Khalilzad has been named as a special adviser on seeking reconciliation in Afghanistan.
"Khalilzad is going to join the State Department team to assist us on the reconciliation effort, so he will come on and be the State Department's lead person for that purpose," Pompeo said.
The task of Khalilzad is going to be working with top officials of the South and Central Asia Bureau of the State Department and focus on developing opportunities to get the Afghans and Taliban to come to a reconciliation, Pompeo said.
"That will be his singular mission statement," he said.
While in Pakistan, Pompeo is expected to press the new government to target all terror groups on its soil and play a positive role in war-torn Afghanistan when he meets the country's new leadership in a bid to reset the strained bilateral ties.
Sources said that the situation in Afghanistan, talks with the Taliban, action against the Haqqani terror network and other militant groups, issue of suspension of US aid and other bilateral and regional issues will be discussed.
"We need Pakistan to seriously engage to help us get to the reconciliation we need in Afghanistan... They have important interests, security interests in Afghanistan to make sure they get the issues at their border right, and we need their help," Pompeo said.
The Haqqani network, believed to be behind a number of kidnappings and attacks against US interests in Afghanistan, was accused of bombing the Indian mission in Kabul in 2008 that killed 58 people. The attack was believed to be among the deadliest in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
The attack was believed to be carried out at the behest of the ISI.
In 2012, the US designated the Haqqani network as a terrorist organisation. Three years later, Pakistan also banned the Haqqani network as part of its National Action Plan.
The group is the bone of contention between Pakistan and the US as the latter accuse that Haqqani militants were still using Pakistani soil to launch attacks - a charge denied by Pakistan.
(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 Pakistan Wednesday to hold talks with the country's new leadership in a bid to reset the strained bilateral ties, days after the Trump administration cancelled USD 300 million in military aid to Islamabad.
This is the US' first high-level dialogue with Pakistan since the new government of Prime Minister Imran Khan assumed office after the July 25 elections.
Pompeo, accompanied by General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
He is also expected to meet Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
Pompeo is expected to press Pakistan to target all terror groups on its soil and play a positive role in war-torn Afghanistan when he meets the country's new leadership in a bid to reset the strained bilateral ties.
The Trump administration has cancelled USD 300 million in military aid to Pakistan as it was not doing enough against terrorist groups inside its borders, the latest controversy to hit Islamabad's troubled relationship with Washington.
Pompeo landed at the Nur Khan Airbase in Islamabad and headed for the US embassy.
Diplomatic sources said that Pompeo will meet Foreign Minister Qureshi, followed by the delegation-level talks between the two sides.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis arrived here Wednesday to hold the inaugural two-plus-two talks with their Indian counterparts, focus of which will be to deepen strategic ties and resolve differences over India's defence engagement with Russia and crude oil import from Iran.
Reflecting the importance of the talks to be held on Thursday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj received Pompeo, while Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman welcomed her US counterpart Jim Mattis at the Palam airport.
Swaraj and Sitharaman will hold the twice-postponed dialogue with Pompeo and Mattis. Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford is also part of the US delegation.
"In a special gesture symbolising our warm and friendly relationship, EAM @SushmaSwaraj received United States Secretary of State @SecPompeo at the airport on his first visit to India," MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet.
The External Affairs Minister will have a separate bilateral meeting with Pompeo while Sitharaman will have a one-on-one meeting with Mattis on Thursday morning before the delegation-level two-plus-two talks.
Twelve officials from each side are expected to attend the talks which will be followed by a working lunch. In the afternoon, Swaraj, Sitharaman, Pompeo and Mattis will call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
As Secretary Pompeo arrived here from Islamabad, India will also try to get his view about his engagement with the new government in Pakistan headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, official sources said.
In the talks, the sources said, India will also try to "sensitise" the US that any cut in import of Iranian oil in compliance with the US sanctions may impact the country's overall economy as the crude oil from that country is much cheaper.
India is also expected to apprise the US about the importance of the Rs 40,000 crore deal it is about to finalise with Russia to procure a batch of S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems. The US has been indicating that it does not want India to go ahead with the deal.
The sources said both sides will also discuss the long-pending Communications, Compatibility, Security Agreement (COMCASA). The COMCASA will help India obtain critical and encrypted defence technologies for Indian defence platforms from the US. The sources said text of the agreement is almost ready.
They said both sides will also explore ways to enhance engagement between their navies in the Indo-Pacific region and try to resolve tariff-related issues.
On import of Iranian oil, the sources said India may also convey to the US that some of its refineries are dependent on certain kind of crude oil and making technical adjustments in them may require huge investments as well as time.
After withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, the US has imposed sanctions on Iran. It has told India and other countries to cut oil imports from the Gulf nation to "zero" by November 4 or face sanctions.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress on Wednesday accused Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje of "betraying" the people of the state by not fulfilling the promises she made during the last Assembly polls.
PCC president Sachin Pilot said the people have made up their mind to vote against the BJP in the next Assembly polls.
"She did not take care of the people in four and a half years and now she is taking out yatra and misusing public money. The response to her yatra is poor and the public is showing no interest. The government has lost faith and trust of the people. They were betrayed," Pilot said.
Addressing 'Sankalp rally' in Pachpadra area here, he said large number of farmers committed suicide because the state government paid no attention to their issues.
AICC general secretary and former chief minister Ashok Gehlot exuded confidence that the Congress will form next government in the state.
He said the residents of Marwar region have always supported the Congress.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The UAE has selected Hazza Ali Abdan Al Mansouri and Sultan Saif Hamad Al Neyadi as the first two Emirati astronauts in cooperation with the Russian space agency, Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities, a media report said.
The selection was made from 4,000 young men and women who have been tested for the UAE Astronaut Programme, which aims to qualify and prepare Emirati astronauts for scientific missions in outer space, reported Emirates news agency Wam.
One of the astronauts will fly into space next April as the first Emirati astronaut on a 10-day mission as part of the Russian space mission to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft. The second astronaut will serve as a replacement.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, said: "Hazza and Sultan represent a new stage for the UAE youth and raise the aspirations of new generations after them. Our dreams embrace space ... and we are proud of our youth, and our future is based on a solid scientific foundation.
"We have the only Mars probe programme in the region; our satellite industry has realised its full potential; we have UAE astronauts; we have a space industry worth AED20 billion, and we have aspirations without limits... when given the opportunity, Arabs can reach for the stars."
He concluded by saying that the UAE is accomplishing outstanding achievements in the space sector and Emirati youth represent all Arab youth.
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, congratulated Al Mansouri and Al Neyadi on passing the tests and demonstrating their abilities and capabilities in the space programme. He also wished them success in carrying out the scientific tasks entrusted to them.
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed added that the achievements of Hazza and Sultan and their desire to provide a qualitative national addition reflect the aspirations of the UAE youth and their determination to reach the highest levels in all fields.
Sheikh Mohamed said: "As space has no limits, there are also no limits to our ambitions to accomplish greater achievements for our country."
He added that the UAEs goal, under the presidency of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to help the journey of humanity to space is part of its keenness to help advance the international efforts to serve humanity.
Al Mansouri and Al Niyadi reach the final stage of the competition out of 4,022 applicants, by completing six phases of medical, psychological and advanced tests and a series of interviews, in cooperation with NASA, as well as advanced medical tests by Roscosmos.
Thirty-four-year-old Hazaa Ali Abdan Khalfan Al Mansouri has a Bachelors Degree in Aviation Science and Military Aviation from the Khalifa bin Zayed Air College, has 14 years of military aviation experience, and has completed training programmes both inside and outside the country, including advanced courses on rescuing people from drowning, rotation training, acceleration up to 9Gs and red flag exercises in the US. In 2016, Al Mansouri qualified to be an aeronautical pilot and now pilots an F-16B60 aircraft.
Thirty-seven year old Sultan Saif Muftah Hamad Al Niyadi has a PhD in Data Leakage Prevention Technology from Griffith University in Australia that he had obtained in 2016, as well as a Masters degree in Information and Networks Security from the same university, a Bachelors degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Brighton University in the UK, and completed a general education programme in IT in the UK in 2001.
The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre launched the Emirates Astronauts Programme in December 2017 and created an e-registration portal for those who aim to be the first Emirati astronaut.
Encouraged by supply of bauxite from the state-owned Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC), The Vedanta Limited is optimistic about completion of its refinery expansion project.
Though the aluminium major has been managing to run its 2 mtpa refinery since 2007 by importing bauxite from other states and abroad, the company for the first time received the raw material from OMC's Kodingamali mines recently, Vedanta Limited's External affairs (Head) Sanjeev Kumar told PTI.
The raw material is available to the company from the bauxite rich Odisha almost 10 years after its successful operation.
The Vedanta got bauxite from Kodingamali mines, located about 152 km from its refinery at Lanjigarh in Odisha's Kalahandi district. The company has been importing bauxite from countries like Brazil and Guinea and other states like Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat to feed its 2 mtpa refinery, he said.
The company could utilise only 1.2 mtpa capacity of the refinery due to raw material shortage despite obtaining Consent to Operate (CTO) for 2 mtpa, he said.
The company has meanwhile began to enhance capacity of the refinery from 2 mtpa to 4 mtpa and subsequently to 6 mtpa by 2021. The Vedanta has so far spent about Rs 5,000 crore on expansion project, he said.
"Though OMC at present meets only five per cent of our bauxite requirement, we look forward to get more raw material by taking part in auctions of other mines in Odisha," he said.
The Vedanta is optimistic about getting about 3 million tons of bauxite, which is 50 per cent of its need, to run the 2 mtpa refinery from the OMC by year end, he said.
He said the company would require about 12 million tons of bauxite after expansion of its refinery to 4 mtpa.
Asked whether Vedanta still hopes to get bauxite from Niyamgiri hills, Kumar said "we are not looking for Niyamgiri now. It is insignificant for us. However, the company will like to participate in any auction within Odisha."
He said the company started its refinery expansion project not depending on Niyamgiri or any other mines. Odisha has about 700 million tonnes of bauxite reserves, while Niyamgiri holds only an estimated 88 million tonnes. Many reserves in the state remain unexplored.
To a query as to how Vedanta could compete with other players in the field, Kumar said "relatively our efficiency is very high for which we continue to survive despite buying bauxite at high price. Our finished goods are much better than the others due to technology we adopt."
Located on the foothill of Niyamgiri, Vedanta claimed to have brought positive effects in the life of the local population in terms of health care, education, sustainable livelihood and infrastructure development, a company official said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said it is "very sad" that an important means of transport has become out of reach of common man, reacting to a report which claimed Delhi Metro is the second most unaffordable metro system in the world.
The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), in its report on Tuesday, said Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is the second most unaffordable metro system in the world in terms of percentage of income spent for using it while asserting Delhi Metro has received nearly 32 per cent less than the number of daily passengers it had hoped to serve this year.
"As the chief minister of Delhi, I feel very sad that such an important means of transport has become out of reach of common man," Kejriwal tweeted.
"All those who have given up metro are now contributing to Delhi's pollution by using road based transport," he added.
However, the Centre and the DMRC have rubbished the report as "misleading and falsification of facts", saying the study compares "very selected metros".
Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Pankaj Gupta said Delhi's ranking is "shameful".
"When metro was opened in the country, we thought it would become ride for the common man and lessen the burden of traffic but what has happened is quite the contrary," Gupta said.
Despite knowing that the metro has been out of reach for many people, the BJP-led central government never bothered to reduce the fare but kept on increasing it, he alleged.
"Today the daily use products are out of reach for the common people. It is high time when the Centre must pay serious attention at the rising prices and reduce the fare of metro so that the projected figure of 2016 must be brought to reality," Gupta said.
AAP MLA Nitin Tyagi said that the price hike in the Delhi Metro is a well planned stunt of BJP-led central government to defame the state government.
He said the party has constantly been opposing the price hikes from the assembly to the streets and it will keep on fighting for the rights of the common people in Delhi.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar faced on Wednesday a second central agency probe in two years, with the CBI knocking at his doors after the Income Tax raid last year.
Vijayabaskar is the first state minister to come under the IT and CBI scanner, with both the raids being carried out in the post-Jayalalithaa era.
The Tamil Nadu health minister, state police chief T K Rajendran and a former senior police official were among those whose premises were searched by the CBI on Wednesday as part of its probe into the Gutka scam, involving alleged payments to officials by a gutka manufacturer.
The raids began around 7 AM with the sleuths swooping down on the premises of those under its radar.
The minister could not be contacted for a response, even as his residence remained out of bounds for the media.
The Income Tax sleuths had visited him as part of a coordinated state-wide searches in April last year over alleged tax evasion. The IT raids were conducted in full media glare following information that black money was allegedly being pumped in for the R K Nagar assembly bypoll scheduled that month.
The April 12 bypoll, necessitated following the death of chief minister J Jayalalithaa in December, 2016, was later rescinded by the Election Commission over complaints of money distribution.
Rajendran, said to be the first serving police chief to face CBI raids, also could not be contacted. Sources in the state police headquarters said he has not come to office "so far."
The DMK, PMK and CPI(M) have demanded the minister's ouster from the cabinet and also wanted the government to remove Rajendran as DGP.
The Gutka scam came to light on July 8, 2017, when income tax sleuths raided the godown, offices and residences of a pan masala and gutka (a concoction of tobacco and pan masala) manufacturer in Tamil Nadu, who had been facing charges of tax evasion to the tune of Rs 250 crore.
The manufacture, storage and sale of the chewable forms of tobacco, including gutka and pan masala were banned by the Tamil Nadu government in 2013.
During the raids, the IT department sleuths had seized a diary containing names of those who had been allegedly paid by the gutka manufacturers.
The case was sent to the CBI by the Madras High Court in April this year on the plea of a DMK leader. This was challenged in the Supreme Court by a Tamil Nadu health official but the apex court sided with the order of the Madras High Court and asked the agency to register a case.
The probe agency had registered an FIR against unidentified officials of the Tamil Nadu government, Central Excise Department and the Food Safety Department in May.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis Wednesday said he wants to make the state a logistics hub of the country to tap the growing investments in the sector following the introduction of GST.
The entire country has been integrated to become a single market place now and logistics is the fastest growing sector in the country, Fadnavis said at an USIBC event here.
"We have also been investing to help the logistics sector and I want Maharashtra to be the logistics hub of India," he said.
He said 60 per cent of the state's hinterland is now connected with the country's largest container port Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust located in the Mumbai metropolitan region.
The state is also creating three dry ports at Wardha, Nashik and Jalna, from where farmers and other exporters will be able to directly send goods that shall ship out from JNPT, he said.
The chief minister said the state is also constructing the country's longest expressway, a 700-km road connecting its capital with Nagpur, which will also aid the logistics sector.
Urging investors to invest in the state, Fadnavis also said the state is at the forefront of the digital economy.
He said there is abundant supply of human capital through educational sector concentration in places like Pune, that makes Maharashtra a leader in the new economy.
Fadnavis said US-India trade ties are essential because of geopolitical realities in the world and also because of the shared values of freedom and democracy between the two countries.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The White House said Tuesday a new book by famed investigative journalist Bob Woodward was "nothing more than fabricated stories" to make President Donald Trump look "bad".
Titled "Fear: Trump in the White House", the 448-page book is scheduled to hit stores on September 11 and claims to give an insider's account on the White House working and decision-making process in Trump's presidency.
The Washington Post on Tuesday published a report along with some excerpts from the book.
"This book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the president look bad," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.
Woodward, one of America's top journalists and an associate editor with The Washington Post, has written on eight US presidents beginning Richard Nixon.
In the book, he offers a negative portrayal of Trump's White House and gives conflicting accounts of differences between Trump and his staff.
Woodward said he tried to reach out to Trump multiple times, but was not successful.
However, when the president finally approached him, the author was ready with his manuscripts.
The White House fought back on the negative portrayal of Trump with Sanders saying, "While it is not always pretty, and rare that the press actually covers it, president Trump has broken through the bureaucratic process to deliver unprecedented successes for the American people. Sometimes it is unconventional, but he always gets results."
"Democrats and their allies in the media understand the president's policies are working and with success like this, no one can beat him in 2020 not even close," said the press secretary as she list out the Trump administration's achievements since January 2017.
According to the book, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly described Trump as an idiot in a meeting.
"In one small group meeting, Kelly said of Trump: He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had," Woodward has written according excerpts published in The Washington Post.
Kelly, however, denied having made such a remark.
"The idea I ever called the president an idiot is not true. As I stated back in May and still firmly stand behind: I spend more time with the president than anyone else, and we have an incredibly candid and strong relationship.
"He (Trump) always knows where I stand, and he and I both know this story is total BS. I'm committed to the president, his agenda, and our country. This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administration's many successes," he said in a statement.
According to the recording of the phone call between the president and Woodward, as released by The Washington Post, Trump told the author that he had never received a request for a meeting with him.
"It's really too bad, because nobody told me about it, and I would've loved to have spoken to you," Trump said as per the audio recording.
"You know I'm very open to you. I think you've always been fair," he said.
On his way to India for the 2+2 Dialogue tomorrow in New Delhi, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis joined the White House in slamming Woodward.
"The contemptuous words about the president attributed to me in Woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence. While I generally enjoy reading fiction, this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility, he said.
"While responsible policy making in the real world is inherently messy, it is also essential that we challenge every assumption to find the best option. I embrace such debate and the open competition of ideas," he said.
Mattis said in just over a year, robust discussions and deliberations have yielded significant results.
These include the "near annihilation of the ISIS caliphate, unprecedented burden sharing by our NATO allies, the repatriation of US service member remains from North Korea, and the improved readiness of our armed forces", he said.
"Our defense policies have also enjoyed overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress," Mattis said.
"In serving in this administration, the idea that I would show contempt for the elected Commander-in-Chief, President Trump, or tolerate disrespect to the office of the President from within our Department of Defense, is a product of someone's rich imagination," the defense secretary said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis Wednesday said he is ready to discuss "anything" during the inaugural two-plus-two dialogue and anticipates that the issue of the purchase of S-400 Russian missile system would be brought up by the Indian delegation.
Mattis and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in New Delhi on Wednesday to hold the inaugural two-plus-two dialogue with their Indian counterparts Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
The focus of the dialogue will be to deepen strategic ties and resolve differences over India's defence engagement with Russia and crude oil import from Iran
"Certainly, the S-400s will probably be brought up. I anticipate it'll be brought up by India, by the way," Mattis told reporters travelling with him to India.
The two-plus-two dialogue is scheduled for September 6 and 7.
Asserting that India and the US will have a very transparent dialogue, Matttis said it is a dialogue between two co-equal and sovereign nations.
"We will discuss anything that they bring up, and certainly, there'll be issues we bring up," he said.
Responding to questions on India's decision to buy S-400 Russian missile defense system, Mattis told reporters that freedom meant that at times, nations did not agree with each other.
"That doesn't mean we can't be partners. That doesn't mean we don't respect the sovereignty of those nations. So I'm sure it will come up there, but it's right that I not speak here before I've even heard their point. So first, I want to listen to my counterpart," he said.
Mattis said India and the US had been discussing how they can more openly communicate back and forth.
"Because of the sensitivity of some of the technology, we have to know that when we share this with another like-minded nation, that we can keep it secure, just like we do when the Navy talks to the US Army. It no different," he said.
"You maintain security over this kind of technology. We'll be talking to them about this. There's been a lot of work done by our staffs. They have their own processes for approval of something like this. We have ours. No two nations have exactly the same authority levels or organisations that have to check off - check the box, and also, we'll see where each other's at on that," he said.
The response indicated that the two countries are still a few steps behind in signing the key foundational agreements including the one on communications, he said.
"I think that we're pretty much there already, on the American side. We'll see where they're at. Our staff's been meeting, and once we get that put in place, that does give us the opportunity to share some of the sensitive technology," Mattis said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A mentally disturbed woman from Uttarakhand who landed in Mumbai because she 'wanted to marry Bollywood superstar Salman Khan', was handed over by city police to her family, an official said Wednesday.
The 24-year-old woman had left her home on August 11, a police official said.
After reaching Mumbai, she went to Galaxy Apartments in Bandra where Khan lives, but security guards did not let her in, he said.
Later, some people spotted her walking aimlessly on a bridge on the Eastern Freeway and alerted police.
Sewri police took her in custody and sent her for medical examination, said police sub-inspector Narayan Tarkunde.
Doctors found that she suffers from a mental ailment, following which police started a probe to find out her family.
She initially only said that she had come to Mumbai to marry Salman Khan, but on August 29 she revealed a few phone numbers.
One of those numbers was of her father, who was then contacted.
He reached Mumbai the next day and after due verification she was handed over to him, Tarkunde said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Companies should be doing more to protect the world's oceans, including combatting plastic waste pollution, Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's biggest, said on Wednesday.
"The ocean is a vital part of the biosphere and an important part of the global economy," said Yngve Slyngstad, the head of the fund valued at 8.66 trillion kroner (890 billion euros, USD 1.03 trillion).
"We expect companies to manage the challenges and opportunities related to sustainable use of the oceans," he added.
A heavyweight on the global finance scene, the Government Pension Fund Global published a document outlining what it expects from the 9,000 companies in which it holds stakes.
Among other things, it urged them to integrate environmental ideas into their business strategies, suggesting for example that plastics producers plan a transition to a "circular economy" frugal in raw materials, and that fisheries companies incorporate forecasts on future stocks in their planning.
The recommendations apply to companies active at sea - shipping, fisheries, fish farms - as well as others on land whose activities may affect the oceans, such as distribution and plastics industries and agriculture, the fund said.
The fund has in the past laid out its expectations on other issues, including better efforts in water management, anti-corruption, human rights and tax transparency, judging that bad practices in these fields can ultimately hurt companies' profitability.
On Wednesday, the fund also published a document reviewing its support of the United Nations sustainable development goals.
"Our most important contribution is to strengthen governance, improve performance and promote sustainable business practices," Slyngstad said.
In addition to its expectations based purely on financial considerations, the fund also follows ethical guidelines that bar it from investing in, among other things, companies that commit serious human rights violations, manufacture nuclear or "particularly inhumane" weapons, or those in the coal and tobacco industries.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Activist-journalist Gauri Lankesh's murder case is in the final stage of investigation and a chargesheet will be filed in two months, a senior SIT official probing the killing said Wednesday.
The Special Investigation Team, under the leadership of Additional Commissioner of Police (West) B K Singh, has arrested 12 people in connection with the killing of Lankesh, known for her strong anti-Hindutva stand, on September 5 last year.
Some of the people arrested in the case are allegedly linked to Sanatan Sanstha and its allied outfit Hindu Janajagruti Samiti.
"The case is in final stage of investigation. We will file a chargesheet in the case in two months," Investigating Officer M N Anucheth said.
The Gauri Memorial Trust and her supporters organised a series of events here to mark the first anniversary of her death.
The Gauri Balaga and Gauri Lankesh Memorial Trust submitted a joint six-point memorandum to Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala.
The memorandum demanded that Sanatan Sanstha and its affiliates be declared "terror organisations."
Earlier, a large number of activists led by Lankesh's sister Kavitha and playwright Girish Karnad staged a march to Raj Bhavan to mark the journalist-activist's first death anniversary.
Other activists, who participated in the march, were freedom fighter H S Doreswamy, social activist Swami Agnivesh Gujarat MLA and Dalit activist Jignesh Mewani and lawyer Teesta Setalvad, among others.
A 'Freedom of Expression' meet was held on the occasion.
The Trust also released a pen with a photograph and signature of Lankesh.
Mevani alleged that there was a connect between the killings of four progressive and rationalist writers. He also alleged that without the involvement of state machinery, such murders could not happen.
Wife of late professor MM Kalburgi, Gauri Lankesh's mother Indira, and Meghna Pansare, daughter of CPI leader Govind Pansare also addressed the gathering.
Writers, thinkers and journalists released a copy of newly launched Kannada tabloid "Nyaya Patha" during the meet.
Lankesh was shot dead on the night of September 5, 2017, from close range in front of her Rajarajeshwari Nagar house around 8 p.m.
The SIT got a breakthrough in its probe when a Gujarat-based forensic lab confirmed that Parashuram Waghmare shot and killed her.
The SIT, formed by then chief minister Siddaramaiah, has arrested suspected mastermind Amol Kale and shooter Parashuram Waghmare, among others.
A few others are yet to be nabbed.
Sanatan Sanstha has claimed that those arrested were not its members.
Investigations revealed that Lankesh was among 26 people including Prof K S Bhagwan, Girish Karnad and Chandrashekar Patil, were in rightwing extremists' list, as they were critical of Hindutva ideology.
Kavitha Lankesh has said rightwing outfit Sanatan Sanstha should be treated like any other terrorist organisation if its involvement in killings of rationalists, including that of Narendra Dabholkar, was proved.
In a counter move, members of Hindu Vidhidnya Parishad, some of them lawyers fighting for the accused, have criticised the SIT for invoking Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act against the accused.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Activist-journalist Gauri Lankesh's murder case is in the final stage of investigation and a chargesheet will be filed in two months, a senior SIT official probing the killing said Wednesday.
The Special Investigation Team, under the leadership of Additional Commissioner of Police (West) B K Singh, has arrested 12 people in connection with the killing of Lankesh, known for her strong anti-Hindutva stand, on September 5 last year.
Some of the people arrested in the case are allegedly linked to Sanatan Sanstha and its allied outfit Hindu Janajagruti Samiti.
"The case is in final stage of investigation. We will file a chargesheet in the case in two months," Investigating Officer M N Anucheth said.
Lankesh was shot dead on the night of September 5, 2017, from a close range in front of her Rajarajeshwari Nagar house around 8 p.m.
The SIT got a breakthrough in its probe when a Gujarat-based forensic lab confirmed that Parashuram Waghmare shot and killed her.
The SIT, formed by then chief minister Siddaramaiah, has arrested suspected mastermind Amol Kale and shooter Parashuram Waghmare among others.
A few others are yet to be nabbed.
Sanatan Sanstha has claimed that those arrested were not its members.
Investigations revealed that Lankesh was among 26 people including Prof K S Bhagwan, Girish Karnad and Chandrashekar Patil, were in rightwing extremists' list, as they were critical of Hindutva ideology.
Speaking to PTI Tuesday, Lankesh's sister Kavitha Lankesh said the rightwing outfit Sanatan Sanstha should be treated like any other terrorist organisation if its involvement in killings of rationalists, including that of Narendra Dabholkar, was proved.
Kavitha Lankesh expressed her happiness over the progress made by SIT, saying the investigating agency has made arrests and also guided CBI and other agencies to nab the killers of rationalists Govind Pansare and Dabholkar, besides progressive scholar M M Kalburgi.
Gauri Memorial Trust and her supporters are organising a series of events to mark the first anniversary of her death.
They are also planning to stage 'Raj Bhavan Chalo' march and demand a ban on Sanatan Sanstha.
In a counter move, members of Hindu Vidhidnya Parishad, some of them lawyers fighting for the accused, criticised the SIT for invoking Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act against the accused.
"We dare SIT to file a chargesheet. The trial should begin as soon as possible. KCOCA was invoked to please the Leftists ahead of Gauri's first death anniversary on September 5," N P Amrithesh, an advocate, told reporters Tuesday.
He alleged that the chargesheet against the first accused Naveen Kumar was filed in haste ahead of elections in the state.
Amrithesh charged that the accused were tortured by police and demanded a judicial probe into it.
"The so-called confessional statements of accused recorded by police under duress have no legal sanctity. SIT has used third degree on the accused and this needs to be probed," Amrithesh said.
HVP president Virendra Ichalkaranjikar alleged the invocation of KCOCA against 12 people is unwarranted and politically motivated.
He criticised the state government for its double standards and playing politics to appease Leftists.
Ichalkaranjikar alleged the government did not invoke KCOCA in Abid Pasha's case.
Pasha is a member of Popular Front of India, who had confessed to have killed eight RSS activists in Karnataka in 2016, he said.
"Why did the government not appoint an SIT to probe the killing of RSS workers?" Ichalkaranjikar questioned.
Hindu Janajagruti Samiti and affiliated Hindu outfits are planning to stage a protest march against attempts to portray Sanatan Sanstha as a terror outfit.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Norway-based Jotun, a leading paint manufacturer, has responded to market demand for a cargo tank coating that allows greater cargo flexibility, long-term performance and vessel utilisation with the launch of Tankguard Flexline.
Tankguard Flexline will be revealed at SMM, an international maritime trade fair to be held in Hamburg, Germany. The unique product is built on the Flexforce technology, ensuring excellent cargo resistance, quick port turnarounds and lengthy, and hence cost effective, maintenance intervals.
Marc Giesselink, global director - tank coating, Jotun, said: In the ultra-competitive tanker market optimal vessel flexibility, efficiency and utilisation are top of the wish list for our global customer base.
However, the aggressive nature of some cargo types, which can be absorbed into tank coatings, stressing and ultimately damaging them, as well as leading to lengthy ventilation periods after unloading, has, until now, been problematic. This has obvious knock on effects upon vessel availability and utilisation, he said.
Tankguard Flexline has been developed to solve this pressing industry problem, with its Flexforce technology designed for effective operation enabling vessels to carry critical and aggressive cargoes shipped in coated cargo tanks. That provides full flexibility, leading to full vessels and real business advantage for our customers, he added.
Jotuns Solvoxirane chemistry is at the heart of the solution. Standard tank coatings typically absorb low molecular weight, aggressive cargoes leading to swelling that stresses the structural network of the coating film, said a statement.
However, the composition of the Solvoxirane chemistry provides greater coating flexibility, minimising structural stress over repeated absorption/ desorption cycles. Faster desorption times also lead to decreased ventilation requirements, quicker turnaround and enhanced vessel earnings. Typically, one day saved on ventilation equates to $14,000 in increased earnings, it said.
The durable nature of Tankguard Flexline also extends maintenance intervals. Jotun states that prolonged coating lifetime can save up to $600,000 in maintenance costs on a typical tanker vessel, it added.
Jotun developed the new product after an approach from long-standing customer Stena Bulk, which was looking to shorten vessel turnaround times and enhance cargo flexibility for its IMOIIMAX fleet.
Johan Jawert, vice president commercial operations, Stena Bulk, said: Extensive trialling of the product has produced the results the firm has been searching for.
Using Jotuns Tankguard Flexline cargo tank coating enables us to carry an extensive range of products and chemicals, including methanol, with higher flexibility, capacity and durability. This improves our operational efficiency, he added.
Tankguard Flexline is made to order in selected colours - grey, green, and pink - and is now available worldwide. It was made with carefully chosen raw materials to ensure that workers, applicators and the environment are not exposed to unnecessary HSE risks, it stated. TradeArabia News Service
By Sinead Carew and Noel Randewich(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc on Tuesday briefly joined Apple Inc to become the second $1 trillion publicly listed U.S. company after its stock price more than doubled in a year as it grew rapidly in retail and cloud computing.Its shares traded as high as $2,050.50 before easing a little to end the session at $2,039.51, up 1.3 percent and just short of the milestone level of $2,050.2677.If the online retailer's shares keep up their recent pace, it would be a matter of when, not if, Amazon's stock market valuation eclipses that of iPhone maker Apple, which ...
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland said on Wednesday it will close a further 54 branches and axe 258 jobs, in what it called the final cut to its branch network until at least 2020.British banks have shuttered hundreds of branches and shed thousands of employees in recent years in a bid to streamline their operations and adapt to customers' increasing preference for digital banking. Not including Wednesday's changes, RBS has announced the closure of 421 branches and the removal of 2,372 roles since this time last year, drawing criticism from lawmakers and campaigners. The ...
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Indian government is addressing concerns arising from the market regulator's new foreign fund rules for non-resident Indians, a finance ministry adviser said on Wednesday."We are working on something," Shashank Saksena, an adviser in the Ministry of Finance, said amid concerns over an April circular from the Securities and Exchange Board of India that said foreign investment rules for companies of Indian origin had been tightened. (Reporting by Suvashree Dey Choudhury; Writing by Sanjeev Miglani; Editibg by Krishna N. Das)(This story has not been edited by Business ...
MUMBAI (Reuters) - India is likely to export 4 to 6 million tonnes of sugar in the 2018/19 marketing year starting next month as production could hit a record high, a senior industry official said on Wednesday.The world's second-biggest producer is likely to export 2.5 million tonnes white sugar and remainder as raw sugar, said Yatin Wadhwana, head of Sucden India.India has been struggling to export its massive surplus as prices in the world market are trading at steep discounts to local prices.India should make it compulsory for sugar mills to export at least 7 million tonnes of sugar in the ...
By Nidhi VermaNEW DELHI (Reuters) - India imported about 523,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Iran in August, down 32 percent on a month earlier, preliminary tanker arrival data showed, as the United States steps up pressure on buyers to halt Iranian energy imports from November.Some of the shipments were loaded in July and arrived in August, the data obtained by Reuters from trade sources showed.The August 2018 imports were still 56 percent higher than the same month last year, the data showed, as state refiners were attracted by discounts offered by Iran this year.Annual import plans ...
By Todd Melby and Adam JourdanMINNEAPOLIS/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The CEO of Chinese online retail giant JD.com Inc, Richard Liu, was arrested in Minneapolis last week following an allegation of rape, according to a public information report released by police on Tuesday.Liu, who through his lawyers has denied any wrongdoing, was released from custody on Saturday without being charged or paying bail. He has returned to China, appearing at an event on Tuesday to sign an agreement with Shandong Ruyi, the owner of Swiss luxury shoe firm Bally.The disclosure adds detail about the accusation after ...
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair is set to scrap plans to reduce its fleet in Ireland after pilots there unanimously backed a deal negotiated by their trade union that provided a breakthrough in the airline's efforts to quell staff protests.Europe's largest low-cost carrier suffered its worst ever strikes this summer, but reached agreement on issues including transfers and promotions with the Irish union two weeks ago and said it was hopeful it could secure deals in other markets soon. In a statement after the Forsa/IALPA union published the ballot result on Wednesday, Ryanair welcomed the vote ...
The Singh brothers have been trying hard to maintain a public display of harmony for a long time. The cookie finally crumbled late Tuesday, with younger brother Shivinder, former Fortis Healthcare promoter, moving the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), accusing his elder brother, Malvinder, of oppression and mismanagement of RHC Holding, Religare and Fortis.
I have filed a case against Malvinder and Sunil Godhwani in the NCLT for oppression and mismanagement of RHC Holding, Religare and Fortis, said Shivinder.
Claiming that sensitivity towards his familys business reputation stopped him from making any public statements so far, Shivinder said, My family reputation kept me a silent spectator, as I mutely watched the organisation I founded come to a point where it was publicly auctioned; where my family and myself have been stripped of our legacy, our finances and my personal credibility.
Having made a killing on the recent Walmart-Flipkart $16 billion deal, Tiger Global Management is once again looking to make fresh investments in India's startup ecosystem, after a gap of nearly three years. In fact, industry insiders say that it was the Lee Fixel-led fund's confidence in India - it had reportedly made over 40 early-stage investments after Flipkart - that had caused other global players to follow suit.
Citing people in the know The Economic Times reported that the New York-based hedge fund will now step up investments in India from its mega $3 billion fund called Tiger Global Private Investment Partners XI. "The new fund is expected to close in the next few weeks and India is specifically mentioned as one of the focus areas in the documents," said a source. The fund will also invest in other geographies, including US and China.
But Fixel is changing his strategy this time round. "Fixel is now looking at only growth-stage companies.. which have valuations of $200-250 million," the managing director of a venture capital firm, whose portfolio companies Fixel is scheduled to meet during his India visit later this year, told the daily. Tiger Global is now seeking to lead funding rounds starting from $30 million.
This is in contrast to Tiger Global's previous strategy of making a slew of $5-10 million investments in early-stage startups. Between late-2014 and end-2015, the firm had finalised 18 new investments, even as it poured more money into Flipkart and taxi-aggregator Ola, lifting its India exposure to $2 billion, but then it had suddenly stopped making new investments.
It had raised a $2.5 billion fund in November 2015 which focussed on companies in China, Latin America, the US, and the Middle East, but not India. That's because Fixel had come to believe that India's Internet economy was not growing as rapidly as that of China's. Some of the companies it invested in have shut, including Zopper, Localoye and Zo Rooms, while others such as Culture Machine, Little and Cube26 have struggled. Besides, questions over the fate of its investments in Flipkart and Ola back then forced Tiger Global to re-think its future investments in the country.
"Fixel has probably decided that he is not good at doing early cheques and it's better to find mature and fast-growing companies," the head of another early-stage venture capital fund told the daily. "The speed at which companies are reaching billion-dollar valuations shows that the market has changed and there is an inflection point."
So what kinds of companies are on Fixel's radar now? The buzz is that he is likely looking at new ecommerce companies, logistics tech startups, business-to-business commerce firms, and digital media/content ventures.
Interestingly, Tiger Global's renewed interest comes against the backdrop of an uptick in venture funding in the country. According to data from Tracxn, a startup research platform, investments across series A, B and C surged 60% to $1.6 billion across 165 deals in the first half of 2018 - up from the capital pool of $1 billion across 140 deals in the corresponding period of 2017.
UK-based Oil Plus has reinforced its position as a leading global oil and gas consultancy after securing contracts worth more than $800,000 in the Middle East and India.
The company, which marks its 40th year in business this week, has also increased its technical headcount from 24 to 33 people, and has plans to recruit another seven over the next 12 months.
One of the contracts, which has been awarded by Al Khafji Joint Operations (KJO), will see Oil Plus deliver water injection compatibility studies and engineering work, said a top official.
A joint operating company between Aramco Gulf Operations Company Limited and Kuwait Gulf Oil Company, KJO is responsible for oil and gas exploration, development and production of the offshore area close to the Saudi-Kuwait border, including the Khafji and Hout oil fields which have been in production since the 1960s.
"These contract wins are testament to the strong working relationships we have built in the Middle East, India, and beyond. We have also invested heavily in expanding our service offering over the past two 18 months to ensure we continue to provide optimum efficiency for our customers," remarked Clarke Shepherd, global business development director at Oil Plus.
The work will be delivered from the companys Newbury base with a dedicated team working on the projects for a duration of five months. Oil Plus has worked with KJO since 2006 and has delivered several projects for them during this time.
Since 1978, Oil Plus has worked with more than 270 upstream oil and gas companies in key disciplines of production chemistry, microbiology, specialised reservoir souring and process engineering completing over 2,700 projects in over 67 countries.
In March 2017, the company was acquired by Mark Cavanagh, managing director of Crandale Consultants, from John Crane. Since then, Oil Plus has achieved significant growth, expanding its range of engineering services and boosting its presence in the Middle East, India, Europe and Asia Pac.
"We are now in a robust position to further extend our global reach, developing our relationships with operators and partners in key international oil and gas hubs," said Shepherd.
"Over the past 40 years, the company has developed a reputation for providing a high quality, efficient and cost effective service and is one of the reasons we are still successful today. Its been fantastic to see the company grow over the years and Im excited to see what the future holds for Oil Plus," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Swedish home furnishings major IKEA has decided to stop selling vegetarian biryani and samosas in its canteen after an insect was found in biryani served to a customer. The company is also conducting an internal review on the August 31 incident.
"IKEA takes food safety and quality very seriously and customer health is always a priority. Following an incident on August 31, 2018, when a customer encountered a foreign object in the dish he ordered, IKEA India has voluntarily stopped sales of two of its most appreciated products -- vegetarian biryani and samosa sourced locally in India. IKEA follows strong internal processes to secure quality and takes full responsibility for its supply chain. IKEA India has initiated an internal review in order to take any corrective actions as needed," a statement from IKEA said.
The customer, Abeed Mohammad, had taken to Twitter to share his experience, saying: "Today I found a caterpillar in my veg biryani." He had also tagged the official handles of the city police, KT Rama Rao, Telangana Minister for Industries and Commerce and the Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development, as well as media organisations.
He also approached the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), which imposed Rs 11,500 fine on IKEA. The episode has not only proved to be a major embarrassment for the Swedish furniture giant but has also brought it under the scanner of the municipal authorities, who inspected the restaurant and collected food samples for bacteriological analysis.
(Edited by Manoj Sharma)
The US auto major General Motors Co plans to launch over 20 new all-electric cars globally by 2023, majorly focussing on the Asian countries like China. Though the company has recently faced some roadblocks in China, Mary Barra, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GM, says China is the world's largest EV market and will be a large driver of global EV adoption for the company. The company is aiming to launch 10 new electric vehicles in China by 2020.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal had reported that GM was facing a major problem with Chinese-made batteries as they had failed to meet the company's performance and safety criteria. The report said GM had planned to enter production in September on its hybrid Buick Velite 6, whose complete electric version was planned for the launch in 2019 but things had gone south after the issue with the Chinese batteries.
Since October 2017, General Motors has launched three new EV cars -- the Buick Velite 6 EV, Baojun E200 and Cadillac CT6 Plug-In -- for China. Barra said to support the production increase, a new LG Electronics facility in Hazel Park, Michigan, would start making battery packs soon to supply the company's Orion Assembly Plant, also in Michigan.
"We'll deliver a prototype vehicle capable of a 180-mile range with less than 10 minutes of charging to Delta Electronics for official testing as part of a new US Department of Energy initiative," said Barra, adding that creating a world of zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion won't happen overnight but GM's journey to this future was underway.
"We're now able to complete nearly all battery testing under one roof, reducing development time and cost. The significant expansion of this lab, already one of the largest in the world, brings the facility to more than 100,000 sq ft and includes new heavy and mild battery abuse test areas," she said.
(Edited by Manoj Sharma)
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been calling for a comprehensive audit of SWIFT systems in use since 2016, long before the Rs 13,000 crore Punjab National Bank scam broke. But banks are yet to pay heed, and hence the regulator has reportedly issued show-cause letters to several banks.
To remind you, the reason the scam escaped detection for so long is that rogue bank employees had issued fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoU) by using the SWIFT messaging system, without recording the transactions in the bank's core banking software (CBS) - something he was supposed to do since the two systems were not integrated.
As details about the scam surfaced earlier this year, the apex bank had once again cracked the whip. According to The Economic Times, in a confidential advisory to CEOs of all banks, the RBI had directed them to put in place a slew of measures to curb such frauds.
To begin with, banks were directed to immediately ensure that no SWIFT message, creating funded or non-funded exposure to banks, got sent without first ensuring that the underlying transaction was duly reflected in the CBS/accounting system.
Secondly, they were asked to implement straight-through processing between both systems by April 30, 2018. Moreover, a detailed timeline was issued to banks for implementation of 20-odd controls related to SWIFT and Nostro accounts. Some of these measures had to be implemented with immediate effect while the rest had to be put in place between March and June-end.
Other measures suggested by the RBI included putting in place a system to generate alerts on breach of any control limits as well as any other unusual feature in the transactions; auditing SWIFT/Nostro transactions for any anomaly by sourcing the data in raw form from the originating system; reconciling payment messages every one or two hours by comparing the outward messages with SWIFT confirmation; and setting limits for all corporate customers (fund and non-fund based limits), which would be monitored centrally by bank's risk management division every week.
But now, having discovered that many banks are yet to fully implement the measures, the regulator has asked them to explain the delay. Citing bankers the daily added that the show-cause letters issued in August-end points out lapses in close to 25 banks.
"There is a degree of paranoia. I believe banks have been told to follow a two-step authentication for large value transaction. Some of these measures may slow down a bank. But that's the price you pay after a scam," said a source.
Edited By Sushmita Choudhury Agarwal
Ireland fell slightly behind its tax revenue target for 2018 at the end of August after it collected 0.3% less than planned due to underperformance in three of the four main tax categories.
While surging corporate tax receipts were 6.8% ahead of target in the first eight months, income tax and value-added tax, the two largest tax categories, fell 0.2% and 0.9% below target. Excise duty was also 6.7% behind target at the end of August.
The total tax take, however, was still 5.1% up year-on-year, thanks to Ireland's booming economy.
Expenditure was 0.7% behind where the government had estimated to record an exchequer deficit of 1.8 billion euros. The government expects to run a deficit of 0.2% of economic output this year, although the central bank has urged it to be more prudent and target a surplus. (Reuters)
Source: www.businessworld.ie
Ireland's High Court on Tuesday approved an application by the state's corporate watchdog to appoint inspectors to investigate potentially unlawful conduct at Independent News & Media (INM), the country's largest newspaper group.
Ireland's Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) made the request in March following an investigation into issues at INM, including allegations that journalists' data might have been accessed for an "improper purpose."
INM had opposed the application and had also said it was prepared to take action if there was any wrongdoing.
INM, which owns Ireland's highest selling daily and Sunday newspapers, said in a statement it would consider the decision and possible action that would be in the interest of the company and its stakeholders.
"The board and the companys management intend to remain focused on the business and ensuring that the groups operations continue, so far as possible, to be conducted as normal," it said.
INM chairman, Murdoch MacLennan, told shareholders in May the board was "gravely concerned" that the appointment would significantly damage the company and lead to very considerable, ongoing financial costs.
In a judgment that took more than one hour to deliver, Justice Peter Kelly told the court that a good deal of reputational damage had already occurred and that it was highly desirable that the ODCE get to the bottom of the matters.
"Considerable mystery still surrounds many of the issues," he said.
The ODCE's initial probe was prompted by a clash in 2016 between the company's then chief executive, Robert Pitt, and former chairman Leslie Buckley over the terms of a possible acquisition of Irish radio station Newstalk.
Newstalk's parent group Communicorp is owned by Irish billionaire Denis O'Brien, INM's largest shareholder with a stake of 29.9%.
Pitt alleged that Buckley pressurized him to agree to pay an excessively high price for the station. His account was supported by a disclosure by INM chief financial officer Ryan Preston, the court heard.
Buckley, who represented O'Brien on the board before becoming chairman in 2012, wanted to buy Newstalk "no matter what," Kelly said on Tuesday, quoting a submission from the ODCE. He said Buckley acted in a way that was advantageous to O'Brien and not the company.
The ODCE also alleged that an external IT group was hired on behalf of Buckley to download data from INM's servers belonging to 19 people, some of whom were journalists and lawyers that had acted in opposition to O'Brien in the past.
In a statement in April, Buckley said he would "robustly defend his position against each and every allegation."
Shares in the group were 2.8% higher at 0.08 euros by 1510 GMT, unchanged following the judgment. (Reuters)
Source: www.businessworld.ie
Just Energy has today announced it is to create 50 new jobs in Ireland. The announcement comes as the Irish arm of the company looks to celebrate its first anniversary, after entering the market in September 2017.
These jobs are in addition to the dedicated team of energy advisors already based in the companys Cork contact centre and will work to support Just Energys continued growth in Ireland. The majority of the 50 new roles will be sales-oriented.
Just Energy, which received the Best Energy Price Plan (New Customer) Award at the Bonkers.ie National Consumer Awards, entered the Irish market in September 2017 with a broad range of new energy solutions that offer Irish consumers control over their household bills.
Speaking this week, Chief Executive Officer of Just Energy Group Inc, Pat McCullough said, "Our people are the cornerstone of our business. We are delighted to invest in identifying exceptional talent to join our team in Ireland. Expanding our workforce will be critical to driving the next phase of our business strategy and retaining our position as a significant player in Irelands energy market."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
This weeks column is dedicated to the poor folks at financial news giant Bloomberg, who have probably lost plenty of sleep over the last week after being politely asked to reschedule a major event they were planning just two months from now in Beijing. My sympathies similarly go out to the thousands of businesspeople here in Beijing who are being hugely inconvenienced this week as the city hosts a major China-Africa forum that has attracted many of the continents top leaders.
For anyone who hasnt guessed by now, this weeks column takes a look at the topic of holding major events in China, and how to avoid clashes and other issues that could lead to something like the Bloomberg fiasco. Key to understanding the debacle is the role of government in China, which old-timers all know is one of the most important factors for doing successful business here.
Anyone with serious China ambitions should always have at least a single person dedicated to handling complex government relations, and often an entire team is needed. Thats not too surprising in a land where the government has a hand in everything due to Chinas past as a planned economy where government and business operated on one large continuum with little or no differentiation.
Thats changed somewhat in the current era, but the bottom line is that Chinas bureaucracy is still vastly larger than what you would see in most Western countries. In this case, that also means the government still exercises huge influence over companies in state-controlled sectors like banking and telecommunications. That can sometimes mean the difference between success and failure of major events centered on such industries, because government support often means an organizer can instantly count on attendance by thousands of executives from Chinas vast complex of state-run firms.
Textbook case
All that said, lets review the basics of the Bloomberg case that will probably end up as a textbook example for future generations of people doing business in China. I actually wrote about Bloombergs plan back in May when it first announced its ambition to stage a major new global conference in Beijing bringing together some of the worlds biggest corporate chiefs talking about the latest pressing issues.
Company founder and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was never one to think small, and reports at the time said he hoped the event could become an equivalent of the World Economic Forum held each winter in Davos, Switzerland. His choice of Beijing was meant to spotlight Chinas rising global role, since the country is now the worlds second largest economy and will likely overtake the U.S. for the top spot in the next few decades.
As one might expect, Bloomberg had signed up the requisite government-linked Chinese co-host for the event and dates were set for Nov. 6-8 in Beijing. But then the wheels came off the cart when U.S. President Donald Trump started a tit-for-tat trade war with China, and suddenly Beijing was under the gun to show it was serious about boosting its imports.
Government leaders found a nice event that could spotlight that priority in a major new import trade show that was set to launch in Shanghai. The only problem was that the trade show, the China International Import Expo, was set for the exact same time, with dates of Nov. 5-10. The event is now prominently featured on the Commerce Ministrys website, showing just how important it has become for central government leaders.
That didnt bode well for Bloombergs rival event in Beijing, which central leaders probably worried might steal some of the thunder and VIPs from the Shanghai extravaganza. So Bloombergs co-host of the Beijing event, undoubtedly at the request of high officials, politely asked the U.S. company if it would mind changing the dates, even though the event was just two months away.
Never mind that countless arrangements had already been made and dozens of CEOs and other busy executives had reserved the dates on their calendars. This new import expo was now the primary focus as far as China was concerned, and everything else was secondary. With few other options, Bloomberg probably decided it would move the entire event to a more hospitable environment in Singapore, which is used to hosting such gatherings on relatively short notice and is far less bureaucratic.
This kind of occurrence doesnt happen daily in China, but is still a major risk factor for anyone planning big events here. For more ordinary businesspeople, it can also cause major headaches for things like business travel and larger issues like securing supplies when roads are closed for long periods and factories ordered to halt production to ease congestion and pollution during such events.
In the end, its all about understanding government priorities and trying to align your own schedule and events accordingly, according to several longtime foreign China business hands I asked about the matter. One was particularly helpful in suggesting strategies to avoid such a Bloomberg outcome as she had previously worked for an organization that now stages a major industry event each year in Shanghai.
Her biggest advice was to maintain constant contact with Chinese partner organizations, to build up the importance of the event in such organizations minds, and to get such organizations personally invested through their own participation. After all, she said, an organization is far more likely to take your side in the event of shifting priorities if it believes the event will add to its own prestige and credibility with the vast Beijing complex.
Another contact talked of similar experience, and added the process of regular and constant communication can often buy more advance time than the meager two months that Bloomberg got. At the end of the day, the first contact said, theres never any guarantee that your event wont get bumped if something more important comes along. But the regular contact means you can get the warning signs as early as possible, and either argue your case for staying the course or quickly turn to plan B to try and salvage the situation.
Doug Young has lived in Greater China for two decades, including a 10-year stint at Reuters, where he led China corporate news coverage. Send your questions or comments to DougYoung@caixin.com
A tanker is prepared to be loaded with liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the Rudong LNG terminal of China National Petroleum Corp. in Rudong, Jiangsu province, on Tuesday. Photo: IC
China Harbour Engineering Co. Ltd. (CHEC) signed an agreement to build sub-Saharan Africas first liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification terminal.
The announcement came on the eve of the just-concluded Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit in Beijing.
The state-owned CHEC will build the terminal, which will convert LNG into gas thats ready for consumption, at the Tema port in southeastern Ghana, with construction expected to take 18 months and cost about $350 million, according to the Ghanaian presidents office website. When built, the terminal will process up to 2 million metric tons (2.2 U.S. tons) of natural gas a year and supply about 30% of Ghanas total electricity generating capacity.
Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo was present at the Sunday signing of the deal between CHEC and Tema LNG Terminal Co. Ltd., which is developing the port, Ghanas biggest, on a build-operate-transfer basis. It was one of eight cooperation agreements signed between Beijing and Accra just ahead of the summit on Monday and Tuesday, including one to finalize a $2 billion deal under which state-owned Sinohydro Co. Ltd. will build infrastructure that includes roads, bridges and hospitals in exchange for an unspecified amount of Ghanas refined bauxite.
While the Tema project is a private deal that will boost Ghanas domestic energy supply rather than increasing that of Chinas, it is one of several LNG projects Chinese companies are developing abroad, largely with the aim of increasing Chinas supply. In July, China National Offshore Oil Corp. said it will invest an additional $3 billion in developing Nigerias offshore oil and gas reserves. In late 2017, Chinese companies signed major deals to develop energy reserves in the U.S. states of Alaska and West Virginia.
China has increased its LNG consumption substantially in recent years as it looks to reduce the environmental damage caused by its current heavy reliance on coal for power generation. Last year, LNG consumption rose by 46% to 38.13 million metric tons, allowing China to surge past South Korea to become the worlds second-largest LNG importer after Japan. The rise correlates with Chinas increased consumption of gas (into which LNG transforms when warmed), which rose by 17.5% year-on-year in the first half of 2018 to 134.8 billion cubic meters (4.76 trillion cubic feet).
The Tema deal came just before the opening of two-day Forum for China-Africa Cooperation summit in Beijing, where Chinese President Xi Jinping promised $60 billion of financing for new projects on the continent. The figure matches Chinas pledges made at the previous summit in Johannesburg three years ago, with details of new Chinese-backed energy projects likely to emerge in the next few days.
Contact reporter Ke Dawei (daweike@caixin.com)
Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair, recently celebrated its first flights to Ukraine, making it the 37th country on its destination network.
Launched on September 3, the airline will fly four times weekly between Kyiv Boryspil and Berlin Schonefeld, the first of its 12 new Kyiv winter 2018 routes commencing this week.
Ryanairs Kyiv winter 2018 schedule will deliver 12 new routes including Barcelona, Berlin S., Bratislava, Bydgoszcz, Gdansk, Krakow, London Stansted, Poznan, Stockholm S, Vilnius, Warsaw M and Wroclaw.
To celebrate the start of its first Ukraine flights, Ryanair is offering seats from Kyiv from just 14.99, for travel in October and November, which are only available for booking on the Ryanair website until midnight of September 5.
Denis Barabas, Ryanairs sales and marketing deputy manager CEE & Balkans, said: Were pleased to officially launch our first Ukrainian flights. Ukrainian customers and visitors can look forward to even lower fares when they make advance bookings for their holidays."
Pavlo Riabikin, Boryspil International Airport State Enterprise CEO, said: We are glad to welcome Ryanair at Boryspil airport. We wish our partners passenger traffic growth, routes expansion and successful business development in Ukraine. - TradeArabia News Service
Meituan-Dianping, a leading online, on-demand services provider and Chinas largest group buying platform, started a global roadshow Tuesday for what is likely to become one of this years biggest internet IPOs in Hong Kong.
At the high end of its pricing range of HK$60 ($7.64) to HK$72, the offering of 480 million shares could raise as much as $4.4 billion, according to roadshow documents obtained by Caixin.
The Meituan listing is expected to be another blockbuster tech flotation in Hong Kong this year. But investors are watching closely after Chinese cellphone-maker Xiaomi Corp.s highly anticipated debut in July turned out to be lackluster.
In its prospectus, Meituan disclosed it is backing away from plans to expand its nascent ride-hailing service and reported substantial losses by its Mobike bicycle-sharing unit. Meituan had losses for 2016, 2017 and the first four months this year. The company said it plans to use the IPO proceeds to upgrade its technology, develop new services and products and pursue acquisitions, among other things, according to the prospectus.
The IPO would put Meituans value at $45.5 billion to $54.7 billion, sharply higher than less than a year ago in Meituans latest funding round, when the company was valued at $30 billion.
Meituan plans to sell 5% of the IPO to public investors in Hong Kong and the rest to global institutional investors, its prospectus showed.
The company began taking orders from institutional investors Tuesday and retail investors Friday. The stock is expected to be priced Sept. 13 and start trading Sept. 20 on Hong Kongs main board.
Meituan would also become the second company listed on the Hong Kong bourse with a dual-class share structure, after Xiaomi, under the exchanges new rules designed to attract tech companies. The dual-class structure would give founders and management greater voting power than outside shareholders.
Meituan has secured a total of $1.5 billion of subscriptions from five cornerstone investors, including its main backer, tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd., and global asset manager Oppenheimer Funds. Cornerstone investors have become a regular feature of Asian IPOs in recent years to stimulate investor demand and lend credibility to an IPO. Cornerstone investors are subject to a lock-up period of at least six months following the listing date.
As Meituans largest stakeholder with 20%, Tencent has subscribed for $400 million of its IPO shares. Tencent made a $4 billion strategic investment in Meituan in October.
Oppenheimer has subscribed for $500 million of shares. The global investment firm previously invested in other major Chinese tech companies such as Tencent, Alibaba and JD.Com. Other cornerstone investors include British investment fund Lansdowne, U.S. hedge fund Darsana and Chengtong Fund Management, a structural reform fund set up by Chinas state-owned assets regulator.
In its updated prospectus filed Tuesday with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Meituan for the first time disclosed the financial statements of bike-sharing startup Beijing Mobike Technology Co. Ltd., acquired in April for $2.7 billion. The deal was brokered by Pony Ma, CEO of Tencent, which is a big backer of Mobike, sources close to the matter told Caixin.
During the four months through April 30 this year, Mobike had revenue of 147 million yuan ($21.5 million) and a gross loss of 407 million yuan, according to the filing.
Mobike has spent heavily on expanding its fleet and grabbing market share by selling rides below cost in the highly contested market where its main rival is Ofo, known for its trademark yellow bicycles. But Mobikes financial statements showed no sign of profitability in the near future.
Between April 4 and April 30, Mobike generated 0.56 yuan of revenue per ride. A company needs to generate at least 1 yuan per ride just to break even, bike-sharing industry participants told Caixin.
Meanwhile, Meituan is struggling to make money on its other businesses. It lost 18.9 billion yuan in 2017 compared with a loss of 5.8 billion yuan in 2016. In the first four months of 2018, the company had an adjusted net loss of 2 billion yuan, reflecting cash spent on the Mobike acquisition, increased sales expenses and rising debts.
In its updated prospectus, Meituan said it would no longer pursue expansion of the car-hailing service it launched in February 2017 in Nanjing and expanded in March 2018 to Nanjing. The company had said in December that it planned to extend the service to seven cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou. The industry is crowded, making expansion expensive.
Caixin learned that Meituan obtained licenses for the car-hailing service in Hangzhou and Chengdu. But no further actions are expected.
Separately on Monday, Meituan spinoff Maoyan Weiying, Chinas largest online movie-ticketing platform, filed its IPO prospectus with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company didnt disclose its IPO date or how much it plans. Tencent has also invested in Maoyan.
A previous version of this story misstated Mobike's revenue and gross loss. They were actually 147 million yuan ($21.5 million) and 407 million yuan, respectively.
Contact reporter Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com)
Chinas promise of $60 billion in financing to Africa will likely dominate most headlines on the recently concluded Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). The figure is substantial, matching Chinas pledge at the previous summit in Johannesburg three years ago.
Of the total amount of financing pledged, around three-quarters appears to be earmarked in the form of loans. Extrapolating from past experience, the likelihood is that most of these loans will be allocated to infrastructure projects on the African continent that are managed by Chinese firms using Chinese products.
Such projects are needed to help Africa realise its massive growth potential. Without Chinese financing, expertise and technology, it will be difficult for Africa to significantly trim down its sizeable infrastructure deficit. However, despite President Xis pledge at FOCAC to forgive interest-free government loans to least-developed African countries, there are already concerns about the debt-servicing ability of many African nations.
It could be argued that taking on such loans for infrastructure development before the continent has grown its industrial base is akin to putting the cart before the horse. Worse, without a framework in place to ensure African nations can fully capitalise on supportive infrastructure by attracting offsetting financial flows through increased exports and foreign investment to sustainably pay back such loans, they could become a saddle on the back of African nations.
A byword of this FOCAC was win-win cooperation. True to this principle, China also spelled out ways in which it will provide Africa with the reins to foster its own growth.
Aside from the $45 billion in loans, the country has earmarked another $5 billion towards a special fund to finance imports from Africa and another $10 billion to encourage Chinese companies to invest in Africa. Further, Xi announced a range of initiatives that, albeit less headline-grabbing, have the potential to significantly contribute to the continents development both through actively encouraging Chinese companies to buy African products and invest in Africa and through cooperation with the continent to improve its environment to organically attract such revenues. The latter could be the most important for Africas long-term development.
These initiatives, which include programmes to support capacity-building, industrial promotion and trade facilitation, are welcome in Africa and have the potential to go a long way towards attracting greater investment levels in China. At the moment, Chinas policy banks, state-owned enterprises and private firms are already doing most of the rights things and what can realistically be expected in terms of supporting trade, funding and building infrastructure. They are also making direct investments when the commercial logic is compelling. But this is the key point. Africa must create a compelling business environment to attract Chinese investment. It cannot solely rely on government-to-government pledges. Frankly, the responsibility should be largely on Africa to continue to make itself a more attractive destination.
Largely thanks to FOCAC, China has become Africas largest trade partner. Last year, Africa sold $75 billion worth of commodities, goods and services to China, while China sold $94 billion in exports to Africa. There are two ways of seeing this.
First and more importantly these trade flows should be seen as testament to rapid growth in both Africa and China and as creating welfare improvements for both African and Chinese people.
Second, these figures represent a trade deficit. A trade deficit is not an emergency or a crisis. Countries can comfortably run trade deficits for decades if they are able to attract offsetting revenues and measures intended to correct trade deficits are often counterproductive. However, in the long run, trade deficits indicate a lack of competitiveness and could ultimately become unsustainable if the ability to service debt becomes too strained.
This brings us back to the win-win proposition. Chinas outlined initiatives and financing pledges at FOCAC offer welcome support, but the onus needs to be on Africa to grasp this opportunity to bring China-Africa trade more into balance and promote more direct investment. There are three steps Africa could take to do this.
First and easiest Africa should extend visa-free travel for Chinese tourists. Chinese people are now the worlds largest spenders on tourism; and Africas extraordinary natural beauty and rich cultures have much to offer. Already approximately 10% of Chinas overseas tourism is to Africa, up from 2.8% a decade ago. The benefits would be felt quickly. When Tunisia and Morocco last year lifted visa requirements for Chinese citizens, Chinese arrivals to the two countries expanded 240% and 378% year-on-year, respectively.
Second, Africa should continue to build its institutions of economic policymaking and governance to improve its business environments and accelerate regional integration in order to encourage Chinese investment. This is certainly a win-win opportunity. Africa needs more investment in job-intensive manufacturing in order to be more competitive; and China needs to find new markets in which to undertake such manufacturing.
The continent has already recently made good progress in these respects. In the last two years, African countries collectively undertook more than 80 business climate red-tape cutting reforms. Encouraging progress also continues to be made on freer trade, with 49 countries this year signing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that Africas engagement with FOCAC should be strategic. This implies that emphasis should not be laid on financing support but on supplementing this with work to build a lasting capacity to develop and consistently implement high-quality fiscal, monetary, industrial and human development policy. Xis commitment at FOCAC to train many thousands of young Africans in China offers an immense leg up in this regard. Africa needs to grasp this opportunity. Such institution-building will not only be of great benefit to Africas people and attract yet further direct investment, it will be important to demonstrate that African can articulate its own requirements and truly shape its own destiny.
Third, African businesses should take full advantage of the supportive framework being offered at FOCAC to make more direct investment in China in order to return profits and know-how to Africa. China is the worlds most dynamic market; and Africa is bursting with entrepreneurial energy.
For instance, African businesspeople should attend the new China-Africa economic and trade expo that was announced at FOCAC with their minds focussed not only on trade but also on engaging with Chinese business to identify investments in China.
Xi, Ramaphosa and Rwandan President Paul Kagame all emphasised that the fundamental point of FOCAC is to promote people-led, people-centred, sustainable development. The onus certainly needs to be on Africa to take advantage of the initiatives laid out at FOCAC to create an environment to foster greater Chinese investment and imports, but it is by Chinese and African businesses working together that most can be achieved. Standard Banks own relationship with ICBC has informed us about the deep potential value of such China-Africa business partnerships.
The greatest legacy of FOCAC may therefore not be the initiatives or pledges but instead the business-to-business exchanges that the forum encourages. It is not a mistake in design that, practically speaking, three-quarters of the time at FOCAC was spent discussing trade and investment and in providing opportunities for businesses to meet and exchange ideas. Africa and China are now inextricably tied and both need each other. Ultimately, it is through courageously endeavouring to work more closely together and share and develop each others skills that businesses can develop the necessary local knowledge and long-term confidence to capture the many sustainable trade and investment opportunities on both sides and further solidify this important South-South relationship for the mutual development of both partners.
Francois Gamet is Standard Bank Group Asia CEO and head of Standard Advisory China.
The first Asia-Pacific Philanthropy Summit was held in Seoul, South Korea, in August, at which former Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon gave a speech about the role of philanthropy in achieving the U.N.s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The summit was jointly hosted by the Community Chest of Korea and United Way Worldwide.
The Sustainable Development Goals are a list of 17 global social and economic goals that, including an end to poverty, eliminating hunger, achieving gender equality and ensuring sustainable consumption.
In his speech, Ban said that expanding cross-sector innovation and cooperation, broadening ideas about technology and culture, and raising public participation will all be important factors in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in a constantly changing world.
In an interview with Caixin and other media outlets on the sidelines of the summit, Ban talked about his achievements during his 10-year tenure as U.N. chief, the Sustainable Development Goals and the future of the Boao Forum for Asia.
Caixin: There are lots of problems that need to be solved to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, such as the gender gap. Also, peoples different cultural and religious backgrounds can be obstacles. How can we get together to overcome these obstacles and to solve those issues? What role should the United Nations and other countries and regions play?
Ban Ki-moon: Its true that China is different from Korea, the United States and Japan. We may be living in different places, but we are all global citizens. And with the transformative development of science, technology and transportation communication, we are all living in a very small world. So there is no difference between China, Korea, Japan and the United States. We are all just global citizens.
Based on that, the United Nations has presented a very ambitious and far-reaching vision, which are the Sustainable Development Goals. The main philosophical idea of it is that all people in this world should be able to live without any fear of poverty, health and security. In a nutshell, nobody should be left behind; everybody should be on board.
In that regard, China can play a very important role. Some say that China is one of the G2 you have a lot of resources and the will. The most important thing is that President Xi and your people are more inclined to come forward to the world.
I was very impressed when President Xi announced that China will support $60 billion for Africa for the coming three years when he visited South Africa two years ago. This is what we expect that China will continue to do.
Globally, that is what we call ODA, official development assistance. Regionally, President Xi has announced the Belt and Road Initiative. I hope other countries like (those in) the OECD could do more to help developing countries.
As the former head of the global village, what are the most memorable achievements during your tenure? If you had more time in office, what would you do? What score would you give yourself?
There are three things.
One is the Sustainable Development Goals which were adapted during my tenure. I have spent very passionate leadership on this.
Second is the Paris Climate Change Agreement, which President Xi, President Obama and myself worked very closely on and (in which) China played an extremely important role.
Third, I have devoted (myself) to empowering women and youth.
What I want to do more (of) as the former secretary-general is to continue to raise my voice or add my voice to help the world leaders to implement the climate change agreement and Sustainable Development Goals and womens rights.
As for the scores, I will leave it to historians to judge.
Now corporations and governments are participating in the Sustainable Development Goals, how can we mobilize individuals to take part in this?
Media, newspapers and broadcasters should play the important role here. There is a tendency for people to believe that the Sustainable Development Goals are for the governments, the presidents or the prime ministers. But its not true. Governments are important in exercising political will, but business communities and civil societies also have to contribute.
Without the help of the media, nobody knows whats going on. Therefore, media should try to cross examine what President Xi is doing, what business leaders are doing and what civil societies are doing in China.
The vision community of common destiny which President Xi has declared is very important, and we have to emulate and implement it.
Your new role as chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia has been well-received in China. People are curious about what your role will be and how the Boao Forum will continue to demonstrate its significance?
I am honored to be elected chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia and to have received such confidence from the Chinese government led by President Xi.
With 17 years of history of activities, the Boao Forum has been able to contribute to regional integration and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific area.
My thinking is that now the Boao Forum should not only look inside Asia, but look beyond Asia. Because the Boao Forum has reached out to Southeast Asia, even to Europe, it should look beyond Asia.
The Belt and Road Initiative is in line with what the Boao Forum is trying to pursue.
Now, Im working very hard with Li Baodong (vice minister of Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the secretary-general of the Boao forum) to prepare a Boao Forum regional conference in Seoul in November. This is first time that Boao Forum is going to be held in South Korea.
Yu Bokun contributed to this article.
By Auqib Javeed, TwoCircles.net
Srinagar: Journalists in conflict-torn Kashmir have threatened to launch a widespread agitation against the detention of their colleague Asif Sultan by the Jammu and Kashmir Police on August 31.
Expressing outrage over the continuous detention of Asif, the journalist fraternity termed the charges levied against him as unconstitutional and intimidation on freedom of the press.
Support TwoCircles
Aasif Sultan, an assistant editor with a Srinagar-based monthly news magazine Kashmir Narrator was picked up during a late night raid at his home in Batamaloo area of Srinagar for allegedly harbouring terrorists.
The journalist and his family have strongly denied the charges, accusing police of keeping him in an illegal detention for six days.
The police arrested my son on the intervening night of August 27 and 28. They did not file any case against him; instead, they kept him under illegal detention. On August 31, police called me to the police station and told me that they are releasing my son. They asked me to get a witness to sign his release papers, Muhammad Sultan, Aasifs father told TwoCircles.net, adding that he took his brother Mehrajdin as a witness as he was asked by the police. When we reached the police station, both of us signed a paper, which read that Aasif Sultan has been handed over to his father. But then the police told us to return on Saturday and instead of releasing him, they booked my son on false charges, Sultan lamented.
According to a police statement, The initial questioning of the accused, subsequent searches and disclosures made in the case so far have led to the seizure of incriminating materials from various locations. It also establishes his complicity for harbouring known terrorists involved in serious terror crimes, the report claimed. Police have informed that further investigation in the case was ongoing.
The police have reportedly questioned Sultan for his cover story on militant commander Burhan Wani which appeared in the June issue of the magazine, his ideology and other stories. He was told to reveal the source of his story. The police also took away his laptop, cell phones and other documents during the raid.
Journalists have taken up the matter with international media watchdogs like International Federation of Journalists and Committee to Protect Journalists.
According to Sultans Editor Showkat Motta who met him in custody, Sultan was questioned about stories he published in the magazine. Police have kept him under illegal custody, he said. Why did they not produce him before a court in these six days? Why was he only produced after we made it public?
The arrest of a journalist and pressuring him in police custody to reveal his sources is against the democratic and constitutional values that govern the press. This amounts to sheer harassment which is highly condemnable said Kashmir Working Journalist Association (KWJA) and Kashmir Journalist Association (KJA) in a joint statement.
They accused him of involvement in harbouring terrorists but they didnt make the charges against him public. Also, the reason for the FIR that the police gave is silly because they stated that they found some incriminating material in his laptop which is vague because every journalist will have such material in his laptop or phone given the nature of their work, the joint statement reads.
KJA believes that the charges levelled against Asif are baseless as the FIR was filed after the concerned police official had an argument with his Editor over his illegal detention.
The harassment and intimidation by the state police are increasing day by day. They are pushing us towards the wall, we have no option left other than to come out on roads, said a journalist wishing anonymity.
The Kashmir Working Journalist Association and the Kashmir Journalist Association have demanded disciplinary and legal action against police officials for violation of the fundamental rights of an individual through illegal detention. They have also demanded his immediate release.
KJA demands immediate intervention from top officials of police and the Governor of state. We also appeal the Press Council of India (PCI), human rights bodies, and national and international media and rights watchdogs to intervene in the matter, said the president of KJA.
Journalists are working on a razors edge in Kashmir. The situation is worsening here; pressure on us has also mounted, says Moazum Mohammad, President Kashmir Journalist Association.
The harassment of journalists in Kashmir at the hands of the state is nothing new. This is a part of the coercive structures that seek to prevent reporting ground facts from the valley, as the facts paint an image of repression mostly at the hands of state forces, said another Journalist, Irfan Mehraj adding that The harassment against journalists in Kashmir is a coercive action aimed at victimization of reporters for writing about militant activity or state violence.
Senior Journalist of the Valley Naseer A Ganai sees this as the most worrisome and dangerous time for a Journalist in Kashmir
We see journalists being called for the questioning; at times they are being detained illegally during such questioning sessions. And when local journalist bodies raise questions over the illegal detention of a scribe, the law enforcement agencies promptly register an FIR to justify the illegal detention of the scribe, says Naseer while referring to the detention of Asif. According to him calling a journalist for questioning seems to have become a norm in the present day. It has become a routine exercise to an extent that even journalist bodies take such questioning as normal.
Asif is not the first journalist in Kashmir to be arrested for dubious charges of militancy involvement. Photojournalist Kamran Yousuf was detained for more than six months before finally being released on bail in March 2018. Kamran who now works with a web portal has to travel National Capital, New Delhi every month for the hearing of his case. Another Journalist was also summoned to New Delhi and interrogated on July 14 and 15 this year over an interview with a separatist leader.
Meanwhile, the international media watchdogs called for immediate release of Asif while condemning his detention.
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: The arrest and charge against Asif Sultan for his reporting is deplorable and unacceptable. We demand his immediate release and urge the Indian Government to critically address the deteriorating situation for media workers in Kashmir who are increasingly being targeted for doing their job.
The Journalists in Kashmir continues to face the brunt of the conflict. The situation remains grim with media on the edge, particularly following the June 14 assassination of Shujaat Bukhari, the editor of Rising Kashmir daily, outside his office by unidentified gunmen.
According to data released by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in December, at least 21 journalists have been killed since 1990, often in targeted killings or because of being caught in the cross-fire while attempting to cover the conflict in Kashmir. The situation has become more dangerous for journalists since 2008 when Kashmir witnessed its first major uprising against the Indian state in the last two decades.
news, latest-news
Black Mist, Burnt Country: Testing the bomb, Maralinga and Australian art. National Museum of Australia, Lawson Crescent, Acton Peninsula. Daily 9am-5pm until November 18. The Hiroshima Panels, which depict the consequences of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were created by the collaborative husband and wife team Maruki Iri and Maruki Toshi. When The Hiroshima Panels were shown in Australia in 1958, they had a profound impact on Australian artists with a whole generation of major artists responding to them in their work. This could be viewed as marking the beginnings of atomic bomb art in this country. Australia agreed to become a nuclear test site in 1951, when Liberal Party prime minister Robert Menzies acceded to a request from Britain to test the nuclear weapons it was developing in the less populated parts of the country. Indigenous peoples were thrown off their lands and Maralinga became a primary test site with atom bomb tests continuing until 1963, when mass movements and the nuclear test ban treaty came into force in August 1963. In 1984, under Labor prime minister Bob Hawke, a Royal Commission was established to examine the British nuclear tests and in 1993, the UK government begrudgingly agreed to pay 20 million towards the rehabilitation of the Maralinga site. This was only a fraction of the sum needed, not to speak of the huge and permanent damage done to the inhabitants and servicemen exposed to radiation. This exhibition is a collection of protest art made by Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists in response to the atomic bomb in general, and to the nuclear tests at Maralinga in particular. It is the initiative of the Burrinja Dandenong Ranges Cultural Centre in Upwey, Victoria, and has been touring since its first showing in 2016. The curator of this show, Jan Dirk Mittmann, has assembled a wide cross-section of artworks that reflect a reaction to nuclear warfare, to nuclear testing and to the general threat of possession of nuclear arms. While the bombing of Japan may be interpreted as an act of deliberate genocide, it was well publicised and many Australian artists - including Albert Tucker, who went to Japan immediately after the war - reported in a direct and graphic manner what they saw. Tuckers small watercolour Hiroshima (1947) is direct and unadorned. However, the British nuclear tests in Australia were conducted under the veil of military secrecy and although, in principle, they were on the parliamentary record, they were not largely in the public eye until the 1970s and 1980s, long after the event. Sidney Nolan got a very early whiff of what was going on and in his Central Australia: Atomic test (1952-57) added a mushroom-shaped cloud to the horizon. This is a hauntingly effective image. As a purely formal device, I suspect the horizontal disposition of the terrain juxtaposed with the thrusting vertical of the nuclear explosion was a temptation that few artists could resist. The politically motivated poster collectives of the 1970s and 1980s saw nuclear disarmament as part of their central agenda and hard-hitting posters including Pam Debenhams No nukes in the Pacific (1984) and Toni Robertsons Daddy, what did you do in the nuclear war? (1977) became well-publicised classics. Indigenous artists interpreted the tests at Maralinga as a crime perpetuated by the British authorities who treated Australians with colonial arrogance with the acquiescence of the Menzies government. Lin Onus Maralinga (1990) is a strangely haunting and effective summation of the tragedy facing an Aboriginal family clinging together for support while facing a metaphysical force that is beyond human comprehension. Other Indigenous artists, including Jonathan Kumintjarra Brown and Tjariya Stanley, expand on this theme of uneven conflict, where the nuclear war machine is directed against a dispossessed and impoverished population. It is a richly contextualised exhibition with graphics, paintings, photography, sculptures and installations, which, from many different perspectives, examine the ongoing catastrophe caused by the British nuclear tests in Australia. Although displayed in the unsympathetic space of the Focus Gallery at the back of the First Australian section of the museum, it is a powerful and disturbing exhibition that examines a very black page in the history of white Australia.
/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/1fdc4e34-f5d4-4268-b84d-b191a651cf46/r169_0_2229_1164_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg
news, latest-news
Millennial men are leading a major backlash against womens rights, according to new research from the University of Canberra. Those men, born between 1982 and 2000, backed by their older Gen X brothers, say they are left out of the conversation about gender equality and believe there is too much political correctness at work. Nearly half say their rights are being eroded by the focus on gender equality. The Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins says: There is more support for gender equality than ever before but there is also more opposition than ever before. This backlash comes at a time as federal politics in Australia is in upheaval, among serious accusations of sexism and bullying. Both the minister for women, Kelly ODwyer and South Australian senator Lucy Gichuhi confirmed this week there were instances of bullying over the course of the leadership spill in the Liberal Party. The survey reveals 58 per cent of respondents believe politics is the most sexist area of society in Australia, with the workplace not far behind at 53 per cent. The research, the first of its kind, surveyed 2122 Australians, across age groups, gender and demographics and the results show a marked contrast between men and women. It comes the week before new figures from the Australian Human Rights Commission are expected to reveal soaring rates of sexual harassment in industries across Australia. Nearly half of all male respondents surveyed agreed with the statement that gender equality strategies in the workplace do not take men into account. That feeling was strongest among Millennials but was consistent across men of all ages. Those men also believed that men were increasingly excluded from measures to improve gender equality and four in 10 Australian men say political correctness benefits women in the workplace. Around 30 per cent of men say their jobs have been impacted in some way by their gender; and just over one-third of men believe women are better at household tasks. The reports authors Professor Mark Evans and Virginia Haussegger from the 50/50 Foundation at the University of Canberra wrote: The observation that younger generations of men view themselves as outsiders, actively excluded from what is now increasingly one of the key debates in many workplaces indicates that there is no room for complacency if we want to avoid a backlash against workplace interventions to address gender inequality. Ms Haussegger says progress towards gender equality in Australia is in trouble. The current climate of bias and backlash is proving immune to regulatory control ... Australian women and girls are failing to flourish as well as they should, given [Australias] decade-long world number one ranking in female education, she said. But Professor Evans says there is a context to the backlash among Millennials and Gen X men. "Its a response to their own feelings of economic insecurity," he says. "It's also partly a product of witnessing the difficulties experienced by their parents in dual earner families and consequent rising divorce rates. As one of the respondents to the survey, a Generation X man with moderate political views, said: Yes sexual discrimination is a problem for Australian women but men are having it tough as well ... We all fear being middle aged and unemployed. The expectations on us from our parents, our children and at work are overwhelming. Stuart Whitman, a self confessed member of Gen X and the project officer for the Australian Labor Partys new Labor Academy, a training and development organisation for the party, argues his generations mindset must change. The academy has been established by the ALP to better prepare members for public office. "It's lazy and ill-informed to dismiss expectations of decent behaviour and inclusiveness as 'political correctness', culture change will happen in our parties when they start properly resourcing the education and training of their members and MPs."
/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/65fa0670-7edf-4eab-b944-a0470b8c78b5/r0_100_2000_1230_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg
By Nikhat Fatima, TwoCircles.net
Tulsi Gabbard, American politician of the Democratic Party and representative of 2nd Hawaiis congressional district has dismissed all rumours about her being the chairperson of World Hindu Congress 2018 to be held in Chicago from September 7-9.
The World Hindu Congress claims to be a global platform for Hindus all over the world to connect and share ideas and inspire one another. The congress is held once every four years. This year 2018 marks the marks the commemoration of 125 years of Swami Vivekanandas address at the Worlds Parliament of Religions in Chicago.
Support TwoCircles
Tulsi Gabbard has stated on record in a letter addressed to Dr. Asthana, convenor, World Hindu Congress, that she does not want to serve as the honorary chair for the said event as the event is a platform for partisan politics in India and withdrew her participation due to ethical concerns and problems that could arise due to her participation in the event.
There have been many media outlets that have propagated that Tulsi Gabbard is chairing the World Hindu Congress 2018. While some have been spreading rumours as to why Tulsi Gabbard is not part of the event.
To set the record right the politician has clarified in her press release posted on her website the reasons of her withdrawal in the letter addressed to Dr Asthana. She has also asked the convener to remove all her pictures, videos and also her name from all promotional materials of the World Hindu Congress and also from the website of the Hindu Congress.
The world Hindu Congress came into a recent controversy after a report by Minorities of India highlighted that Swami Vigyananand, founder of the World Hindu Congress (WHC), called for arming the masses with trishuls short-handled tridents saying, You cant kill with the trishul but symbols and ideas are interconnected by the law of association. The swami, who elsewhere calls for establishing a Hindu State, made his comments in a May 2003 interview with Indias Outlook magazine. Responding to questions about the VHPs trishul distribution program, he had stated, Who will protect the masses? Not the police or the army, they are unfit for it. The trishul sends a message that we should stand and fight. You cant kill with the trishul but symbols and ideas are interconnected by the law of association. When the mind gets ready, everything is possible.
These days, when a company hires a candidate, a substantial amount of the company's resources goes into training them and thereby making the person fit for the job. This extends to more than mere technical skills. There are a bunch of ethical and moral skills that a candidate needs to instil in order to ensure that they are good enough to fit into the company culture. For that, a significant amount of resource investment has to be made on the part of the organization. In light of all of that, the organization often demands that candidates who join the firm must sign a contract wherein they cannot leave the organization in the first year of their tenure.
Now, the other side of the story is the fact that indulging in an act like this is a clear violation of one's right to freedom. In a democratic country like India, an individual has the right to choose when and where they would want to work and no one has the right to dictate the same.
This indeed puts a huge question mark on whether signing a bond is actually beneficial to an individual or does it prove otherwise? In this article, we shall discuss in depth the pros and cons of signing a service bond with any organization.
Pros
Job Security
If a company wants you to sign a bond for a certain amount of time, they consider themselves to be in a position to be able to pay you your salary for that period. This naturally means higher job security for you. If you are able to perform to your basic standards, you can be confident of taking home the required pay cheque at the end of the month for the duration of the bond.
Quality Of Work
Psychologists have confirmed that if an employee knows that they will stay in a particular company for quite some time, they will invest all their time and energy in learning more about the company and its work culture. Skills that are required for the said job position will also be nurtured by the employee.
However, if the employee knows that they might leave the company at any given time, they will not invest as much energy in delivering quality work.
Shorter Bonds
These days, most companies do not have a bond that lasts more than a year or two. In such a situation, it is not a bad idea since a couple of years of continued service with any firm will look good on your resume as well. Anything less than that will make a prospective employer question your loyalty.
Ability To Grow And Better Work Experience
If a company wants to keep you for a given period of time, they will not want you to do the same tasks over and over again. The organization will surely have chalked out plans for your career growth and if you put in the due efforts, chances are that you will climb up as and when the company dictates.
Not only will this facilitate a better learning environment, but it will also ensure that your overall work experience becomes a much better one.
Adaptability
This is all the way more applicable for fresher candidates. If this is your first job, then chances are that there will be certain aspects of your job that will not appeal to you and you may feel like quitting. If you have signed a service bond, you might have to think twice before doing so.
It has been seen that in most cases, candidates who survive this initial difficult phase are seen to do very well later in life.
Cons
Long Bonds
In the world of technology, a lot can change in a matter of years. The field or domain that was in vogue once may no longer be so and this might make you want to switch ships. Having a bond often prevents an employee from making a domain shift. These days, it is often seen that when a candidate wants to switch their job, it is usually a change in their domain that they want and not a change in the employer or organization.
Personal Reasons
No matter how interested a particular person is in a job, at any given time, some personal reason might occur that might compel them to leave the job. In such a situation, if the person concerned is under some sort of some bond, they have to unnecessarily pay an exorbitant amount of money to get out of it.
In some companies, there is the practise of blacklisting a candidate if they abscond the organization for such personal reasons. Such a thing will have a very negative impact on the person's long-term career plans.
Incompatibility
It may so happen that in the course of working in the organization, a particular employee gets into clashes with their supervisors or colleagues. If the magnitude of these clashes is so large that they prove to be torturous to the person concerned, they might want to leave the company.
In such a situation, if they are in a bond with the organization, it might affect their mental health in a very negative manner.
Change Of Interests
This point is all the way more applicable for freshers and other people who are just beginning their career. At such initial stages, it is difficult to decide exactly what you want. Most of them end up taking any random job.
It may so happen that after a certain number of months in the organization, a candidate discovers what they actually want. This may be an altogether different career choice. In such a case, a bond with the employer will become a hindrance to professional growth.
Loss Of Job Opportunities
While working with a particular organization, you may actually end up stumbling upon job opportunities in some other place that is actually better than that of your own. The pay might be much higher than your current salary or the job location may be more convenient for you. In some cases, this might also mean an opportunity to work with your dream company. In such a situation, if you have signed a bond, you might not be able to proceed.
Just like every other thing in this world, the bonds that companies make you sign before giving you a job also has two sides. Now, it is up to you to evaluate the pros and cons discussed above and then decide for yourself if you want to sign a bond or not.
This is a personal decision and what seems to work for others may not be the same in your case. Thus, after having discussed both the sides of the coin, we now leave it to your able judgement to take a sensible decision in this regard.
Photo: CTV
Tahoe Resources stock fell more than 20 per cent to a multi-year low on Tuesday after it announced the licence for its Escobal silver mine in Guatemala will remain suspended following a ruling by the country's constitutional court.
The Vancouver-based company's stock hit an intraday low of $3.37 in the first half hour of trading Tuesday, the lowest level in five years. As of 10:30, the stock was down $1 or 22 per cent at $3.49.
Tahoe Resources says Guatemala's constitutional court reversed a Supreme Court decision that had re-instated the licences, which were suspended by the government's Ministry of Energy and Mines.
The company says it doesn't have a timeline for the consultation but said the ministry completed a similar process within six months.
The company has already dismissed about 70 per cent of the employees of its Minera San Rafael subsidiary, which runs the mine, including an additional 200 announced Aug. 20.
Prior to the licence suspension in October 2017, San Rafael employed 1,030 people.
The Escobal mine has been the focus of a number of court challenges and community clashes, including an Aug. 24 abduction of about a dozen of unarmed security workers who were held several hours before being released to police.
Tahoe said the abductors identified themselves as the Peaceful Resistance Group of Mataquescuintla a group that had also created a blockade and inspection point earlier in August on a public road near the mine.
Companies in this story: (TSX:THO)
Photo: The Canadian Press Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov smiles after a presentation ceremony for presidential awards to young people in arts and awards for children for writing and arts, in the Kremlin, Moscow, Russia.
Britain charged two alleged Russian military intelligence officers with the nerve agent poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury, officials said Wednesday, though authorities held out little hope of being able to bring them to justice.
The men, who entered the U.K. under the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, are being charged in absentia with conspiracy to murder, attempted murder and use of the nerve agent Novichok, prosecutors said.
Prime Minister Theresa May told lawmakers that British intelligence has concluded that the two men are officers of Russia's GRU military intelligence service.
May said the attack "was not a rogue operation" and was almost certainly approved at a "senior level of the Russian state."
The charges deepen Britain's diplomatic feud with Moscow, which denies involvement in the attack on Skripal, a former Russian agent who had been convicted in his homeland of spying for Britain.
Sue Hemming of the Crown Prosecution Service said the U.K. wouldn't ask Moscow to extradite the men because Russian law forbids extradition of the country's citizens. Britain has issued domestic and European arrest warrants for the suspects, meaning they can be detained if they leave Russia for another European country.
But assistant commissioner Neil Basu, head of counterterrorism at London's Metropolitan Police, conceded it was "very, very unlikely" police would be in a position to arrest them any time soon, though he said "we will never give up."
Police say the suspects, both about 40, flew from Moscow to London on Russian passports two days before the Skripals were poisoned on March 4. Basu said the passports were genuine but the men were probably using aliases, and appealed to the public "to come forward and tell us who they are."
Sergei Skripal, 67, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were found collapsed on a bench in Salisbury, 90 miles (145 kilometres) southwest of London. They spent weeks hospitalized in critical condition and are now recovering in a secret location for their own protection. A police officer, Nick Bailey, was also hospitalized.
After weeks of volatility, the market started this Wednesday fearful of what could happen with the signals provided by the...
Power Cement secures investment for plant upgrade
05 September 2018
Arif Habib Corporation Ltd (AHCL) has called extra ordinary general meeting on 26 September to make an additional investment of US$11m in Power Cement Ltd (PCL), an associated undertaking of the corporation.
PCL aims to install components/machinery to make its plant more energy efficient, according to a notification on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on 4 September. This guarantee amount by AHCL will enable PCL to negotiate a better deal with the potential supplier as AHCL will ensure the deferred payment to support the functionality, operations and growth of Power Cement and will earn commission on its non-funded exposure.
PCL has embarked upon a major expansion of its production facilities at its existing site by adding a new line of 7700tpd (2.5Mta). The expansion project is environmentally friendly, and will meet IFC and World Bank standards. After successful commissioning of the new project, the company will become the second-largest cement producer in the south with total production capacity of around 3.4Mta.
Equipment supply contracts were signed with FLSmidth for more than EUR90m and a PKR7.5bn (US$60.7m) construction contract was awarded to Tianjin Electric Power Construction of China. Work on the PKR25bn line has started.
Published under
DeNiro and Cranswick lead D60 race race with few votes outstanding
With fewer than 5,000 votes left to be counted, Kathy L. DeNiro and Matthew Cranswick lead the D60 board race and are likely to be elected.
Israel's intelligence minister said this week he was not aware of a claim that President Donald Trump ordered the killing of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
I do not know of any such instruction. He (Trump) is also denying it, by the way," Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz told Tel Aviv radio station 103 FM.
According to a new book by Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, Fear: Trump in the White House, Trump told his defense secretary that he wanted to have Assad assassinated in response to a chemical attack on Syrian civilians in April 2017 .
James Mattis, the defense secretary, told Trump he would "get right on it" but he then created a plan for a limited air strike.
Were not going to do any of that, Mattis told an aide. Were going to be much more measured.
Mattis dismissed the book as "a uniquely Washington brand of literature.
Trump, meanwhile, tweeted that quotes attributed to Mattis were "made up frauds, a con on the public."
Press secretary Sarah Sanders said the book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the president look bad.
Woodward also said in the book that former top economic adviser Gary Cohn allegedly stole a letter off Trumps desk that would have withdrawn the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea. Allegedly, the president was meant to sign the letter.
I stole it off his desk, Cohn reportedly told an associate. I wouldnt let him see it. Hes never going to see that document. Got to protect the country.
According to The Washington Post, Woodward cited top aides and other insiders, saying that he would not reveal how he got the information.
Photo courtesy: Getty Images/Spencer Platt
It was a strange sight. A well-dressed and respectable woman stood outside a brothel. She was beautiful, but her clothing marked her not as a prostitute but as the middle-class Victorian mother she was. She had recently confronted the Paris police over their abusive treatment of prostitutes under their legal control. The chief officer wasnt convinced by her arguments but was charmed by the woman in front of him. This wasnt surprising as all who met her felt her impact. She left with written permission to view the many government-controlled brothels.
So Josephine Butler stood, poised to enter the brothel, a place where no well-bred Victorian woman dared to go. With a glance toward her guide, she took the brave step forward. She would see padded rooms where prostitutes could be abused without the world hearing their screams. Her small form would pass rooms full of children used as prostitutes, and she would shudder to hear her guide proudly announce how wonderful it was that these children were under their care and off the streets. She wasnt persuaded. She knew what she saw. Hell hath opened her mouth, she would write. I stand in the near presence of the powers of evil. What I see and hear are the smoke of the pit.
A well-educated and cultured woman with a husband and children, her decision to not only enter brothels but to advocate for prostitutes was shocking to society. She viewed her war as a consecrated rebellion.
Who was this woman, and how can we understand her courage?
A Faithful Home
Born in England in 1828, just in time for the Victorian era, Josephine Butler appalled the world by speaking about unspeakable topics. Victorians believed in separate spheres for men and women: Women were to care for the home and children, and men were for the public sphere. Yet she not only entered into public politics, but worse, she was speaking about uncomfortable realities such as prostitution, child prostitution, sex slavery, and more.
To grasp why, we need to understand her values. These principles led her to visit brothels and jails. They are the reason she would face down thugs, public ridicule, and slanderpersevering even when dung and mud were thrown at her in the streets. Her strength, fearlessness, and morals came from a deep Christian faith.
Butler grew up in a comfortable and deeply religious family. Her father, John Grey, was a public advocate for the abolition of slavery, who could not endure to see oppression or wrong of any kind inflicted on man, woman, or child. Victorian fathers often felt it was their duty to keep their wives and daughters innocent of the evil of the world, but Grey treated his daughters as equals, speaking to them about the horrors of slavery.
Josephine married George Butler, a scholar and clergyman, who also treated her as an equal, fully supporting her campaigns. Her work forced her to speak against the mindset and actions common to men of her time. She would later say, It seems strange that I should have been engaged in taking up the cudgel against men when my father, brothers, husband and sons have all been so good. Perhaps it was her knowledge that men could treat women with respect that spurred her desire for change.
More importantly, Butler based her actions on Jesus himself. In his tender and respectful attitudes toward women, including prostitutes, she saw a different way to view womanhood and redemption. When confronting the idea that there were women not worth saving, she wrote that such an opinion was heathenism, and that this judgment can only be seen in its true colours by setting it side by side with the example and character of Christ. Were any beings in human shape not worth saving in his estimation? She was able to stand firm against a roar of opposition because her actions were rooted deeply in her faith in Christ and the redemptive worth he offered every person.
Tempered by Suffering
However, knowledge came with a cost. Author Helen Mathers discusses the personal cost Butler suffered in her book, Patron Saint of Prostitutes: Josephine Butler and a Victorian Scandal. At the age of 17, she struggled almost frantically in trying to reconcile Gods goodness with the pain and suffering of the world. These were questions that she would slowly work through in the years to come.
Eventually, she felt those dark times were God preparing her for a work that brought her face-to-face with unimaginable suffering. Instead of viewing her love for the oppressed as opposed to Gods harsh will, she felt that her love was as a drop of water to the ocean of His love. She would write that sorrow is with me still, the enduring companion of my life. ... But I have found the door of hope.
As a young wife, her husband worked at Oxford. Here she became aware of how deeply the double standards for men and women were ingrained. A respected Oxford don seduced and impregnated a very young girl. Left destitute and in a desperate situation, the girl killed her newborn and was put in jail. Butler was enraged.
With insight far ahead of her time, she recognized that the don, an older man with power, connections, and authority, had taken advantage of the girl in every way. The girls crime was undeniable, but Butler understood that it was a crime of desperation. She was angered that the girl was punished while the man who created the situation retained public respect and faced no consequences. Once the girl had completed her jail time, the Butlers hired her as a servant, rescuing her from a dark future.
Josephines life might have continued with occasional, though significant acts of kindness, but the course of her life was changed when her daughter tragically died after falling off of a banister while playing with her brothers. Butlers immense pain drove her to eventually find some pain keener than my ownto meet with people more unhappy than myself. My sole wish was to plunge into the heart of some human misery, and to say (as I now knew I could) to afflicted people, I understand. I, too, have suffered.
This path quickly brought her to women considered scum and subhuman: prostitutes. She soon understood how painful their lives were and how desperate many were for help. She responded with compassion and treated them with respect. She invited many to live with hera surprising venture for a woman with teenage sons. She began opening up small hospitals for prostitutes who were seriously ill, and homes to house them while they learned skills to use in a new career. Later she would help rescue women who were tricked into prostitution.
Advocate for Miserable Creatures
In entering their world, she was also forced to face laws that undermined the freedom and rights of women. Police, under the Contagious Diseases Acts (CD Acts), were rounding up prostitutes or suspected prostitutes and making them sign a register forever publicly linking them to that work. This made leaving prostitution almost impossible. Even worse, they were forced to endure regular painful internal examinations and treatments. Those found infected with a sexually transmitted disease were jailed until they were deemed cured.
The women shared horrific stories with Butler of brutal examinations that they felt were far more crushing than their sex work. Treatments were often excruciating and of uncertain value. Butler recognized that the CD Acts violated the constitution of England and treated women unequally, since men who used prostitutes would never be treated in the same way. Her long campaign to repeal the CD Acts began.
When Parliament argued to keep the CD Acts, it became clear how prostitutes were viewed by the majority of politicians. They wrote that prostitutes were miserable creatures who were mere masses of rottenness and vehicles of disease. Meanwhile, the men who used prostitutes were viewed as simply indulging a natural impulse.
Butler was convinced this double standard was evil and would later speak at universities, directly appealing to young men to consider a different course. She suggested that prostitutes were more virtuous than the men who used them because at least they werent leading a double life. She reminded them how Jesus had said that publicans and harlots enter the kingdom of heaven before you, and she pushed back on the idea that having sex with prostitutes wouldnt hurt their future marriages.
As she talked to prostitutes and visited brothels, she uncovered even more heinous abuse. She was shocked at how young many prostitutes were and alarmed when she found out that some had been forced into prostitution. The age of consent at the time was 13, and there were no laws to protect young women from being lured away to other countries under false pretenses, only to find themselves enslaved in a brothel. She called it white slavery and started calling for political change.
Again, some politicians opinions reflected common views at the time. When arguing about raising the age of consent to 16, members of parliament (MPs) asked their fellow lawmakers to consider their past actions and the possible future actions of their sons before criminalizing having sex with young girls. Some openly defended sexual access to working-class girls as a time honoured prerogative of gentlemen, as historian Judith Walkowitz has written.
Butler boldly spoke against such attitudes, calling out conservative MPs to face their hypocrisy. She once pithily called upon MPs opposing change to each contribute a daughter if prostitution was a necessity. Her comment was met with tremendous cheering at the conference she was speaking at. Its no wonder that she faced so much opposition. She was fearless in her criticism.
Relentless Voice of Change
Butler felt called by God to be a voice of change. She knew if Jesus was on her side that was all she needed. One of her famous sayings was God and one woman make a majority. She was a whirl of activity despite ongoing health issues. She would speak to crowds, meet with political leaders, church leaders, and society ladies. She helped found associations to repeal the CD Acts and would later help found an international association. She wrote pamphlets, using emotional appeals through retelling horrible stories of injustice or using cool logic to refute arguments against her. She would spend hours every day writing letters to friends and supporters, as well as those who still needed to be convinced of the worth of the cause.
As England spent years arguing over the CD Acts, Butler broadened her horizons. England was basing its decisions on other countries who were controlling prostitutes through government programs. To challenge England, she needed to better understand what was happening elsewhere. Here she would only find more suffering.
She would visit brothels where women and many young girls were kept locked up in dirty rooms, hardly ever seeing sunlight. In Geneva, she saw prostitutes who were not only living in an earthly hell but were told that they must not be of the elect and so were destined for an eternal hell. Butler saw young children in cages who would eventually be given to brothel owners to use. She was escorted through a brothel in Paris that housed an estimated 400 children between the ages of 5 and 11an experience so traumatizing that she would write that she dared not recall the horrors she had glimpsed.
Despite the hardship of uncovering so much torment, Butler did obtain the salient information she needed. She was able to further fight the CD Acts in England, as well as spark international attention, by exposing the ineffectiveness of government programs in controlling sexually transmitted disease. She would point to the many abuses of women happening under the legal care of the state, how life expectancy for prostitutes was short, with children often living only two years once in a brothel. As she further honed her arguments, she was able to continue to gather support for repealing the CD Acts.
In the end, her influence was vast; the CD Acts were finally repealed, the age of consent was raised to 16, and laws were put into place to protect English girls from being kidnapped into prostitution. She was influential in advocating for womens education and the right to the vote, and she confronted harmful social norms of her time. Her fingerprints are to be found all over the social change that happened during her lifetime.
It is not hard to see why Josephine Butler was called the most distinguished Englishwoman of the nineteenth century. Her work put into motion change that benefits us to this day. Sadly, Butler is largely forgotten today because, in the words of Elizabeth Longford, she did not champion the right women. The discomfort many of her contemporaries felt over her work to help prostitutes continues on in our history books. Butler accepted this fate because she never sought fame for herself.
Instead, the words of her friend James Stuart are true: the world as a whole is better because she lived; and the seed that she has sown can never die. That seed still needs to be nurtured as many of her descriptions of child and adult sex slavery could easily describe the realities of many trapped in prostitution today. While she accomplished much with her life, there is still work to be done, and a new generation of advocates are rising up to take up the cause. To them, I leave one of her favorite catch phrases, borrowed from the abolition movement: I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice. I am in earnest and I will be heard.
Kimi Harris writes at kimiharris.com and is the wife of worship leader and music teacher Joel Harris. They live in the beautiful Northwest with their three girls and a cat.
For the past several decades, American evangelicalism has been concerned about moralityand for good reason. Sexual promiscuity, pornography, abortion, divorce, materialism, racism, and countless other ills so permeate our cultureeven among the churchedthat they seem to be the rule rather than the exception.
But moral choices flow from moral character. Perhaps if we wish to reform morality, we should turn more attention to the formation of character.
Of course, everyone agrees that good character is a desirable thing. But good character today has been largely boiled down to being honest, hard-working, and sexually abstinent until marriage. Our culture, including the church, has abandoned a wealth of teaching about character formation that contributes not only to the flourishing of individuals but to the whole of society as well. Its time to recover that ancient wisdom.
Sometimes Christians emphasize a rule-based or outcomes-based ethic, and although rules and outcomes can certainly be helpful in making ethical decisions, good character is a more essential and durable predictor of true virtue.
As I explain in my new book, On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life in Great Books, so-called virtue ethics began with the pagan Greek philosopher Aristotle, who studied the human qualities that help us to flourish. Aristotle could see the uniqueness in human beingswhat we as Christians recognize as Gods image within us. Aristotle called the qualities that make people excel human virtues. Among the virtues he identified are justice, magnanimity, courage, temperance, friendship, and honorableness. He believed that these and other character qualities are the things that lead to human happiness or the good life.
The early church fathers found much biblical wisdom in the Greek philosophers teachings on virtue. After all, the Bible speaks extensively about virtue. Faith, hope, and love, which Paul writes about in 1 Corinthians 13, are referred to as the theological virtues. 2 Peter 1:57 instructs believers to diligently add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love (NKJV). The Book of Proverbs is full of wisdom about virtues. The fruit of the Spirit described in Galatians 5:2223love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-controlare virtues, as well. All of these qualities constitute the marks of good Christian character, or virtue.
One of the most intriguing and insightful aspects of Aristotles philosophy is that virtue is a mean between two extremesan extreme of excess and an extreme of deficiency, both of which are vices. For example, the virtue of generosity is the mean between the vice of miserliness (a deficiency of giving) and the vice of wastefulness (an excess of giving). Another example is that healthy self-regardor humilityis a mark of good character because it means being truthful about oneself, which is a moderation between the extremes of esteeming oneself too little (deprecation) or overmuch (boasting). This idea of virtue as the mean between two extremes is captured in the King James translation of Philippians 4:5, which tells us to let our moderation be known to all.
Yet another example of a virtuous mean can be seen in the virtue of courage. Too little courage results in the vice of cowardice. Too much courage becomes rashness. Ample examples of both cowardice and rashness abound today. Knowing how to avoid either of these vices requires yet another virtue: prudence, which is the ability to know what good to pursue and what evil to avoid.
In the context of social media, we see many ways in which the lack of prudence produces false courage. People who desire to proclaim truth do so rashly, in ways that cause more harm than good. Or they fail to speak up when they should, which is cowardly. Most of us, myself included, are guilty of erring on one or both of these extremes more often than we would like to admit. The quick, easy, and wide platforms afforded us by social media make this an especially prevalent error today, and we often lack even the prudence required to recognize such a failing.
Article continues below
In todays increasingly polarized climate, finding a mean between two extremes is an aspect of virtue that is especially pertinent. As Ive said before, in the middle of the tensionthe cruxis where truth and Jesus lie. Its easier to drop our anchors on one bank or the other rather than navigate the storm-tossed waters in between, but good character is wrung from the trials of experience and practice, not hovering in the shallows.
How do we go about cultivating virtue? Through something we sorely need today: good habits. A person is not in possession of a virtue by exhibiting a trait now and then. It must be routinely practiced for it to be considered a virtue.
Many of the commands, obligations, and exhortations that the Bible places on believers require intentionality, practice, and habit. It is, as Aristotle says, a working of the soul in the way of excellence. Or, as Paul says, a working out of our salvation with fear and trembling in order to fulfill Gods good purpose (Phil. 2:1213) the way that is most excellent.
So how do we go about acquiring the habits that lead to virtuous character? There are many ways. Reading great literary works can cultivate virtue. But virtue can be developed (or diminished) more commonly in our day-to-day interactions in our families and in our workplaces. Likewise, we are cultivating habits (whether good or bad) in how we treat church attendance and what we do when we go there. Our daily lives are filled with habits, many of which we dont even recognize as such. Each of them is shaping our character, whether we realize it or not. Each habit is forming us into people who are more patient, kind, courageous, humble, just, chaste, and temperateor less so.
Christians, of course, have more than our own strength to rely on in developing virtue. First, we have Gods Word to set standards for both our outward behavior and our inward attitudes. Second, we have the Holy Spirit to assist us. Third, we have the body of Christ, a community of fellow believers to spur one another on to good works (Heb. 10:24). We need not, as Aristotle envisioned, rely solely on human ability to achieve excellent character. In forming godly, virtuous character, we can rely on the God in whose image we are made and whose character we are called to reflect. But such character is also something we must pursue (1 Tim. 6:11).
Yet, we know that character is not enough. It may be sufficient, as Aristotle believed, for a good life here and now. But the best lifeeternal lifeis in Christ alone. His character is what makes our character matter. The essential meanthe perfect balance between justice and mercy, between truth and loveis found there in the center of the Cross.
Karen Swallow Prior is a professor of English at Liberty University and a research fellow with the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. She is the author of Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me and Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More. Brazos Press recently released her latest book, On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books.
Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment
Based on the response from the left, you would think that the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court virtually guaranteed the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Why, then, are some conservative and pro-life groups opposing his confirmation?
On the positive side, many pro-life leaders reacted enthusiastically to the nomination of Justice Kavanaugh, including Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the highly-respected Susan B. Anthony List.
She said, "President Trump has made another outstanding choice in nominating Judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, keeping his promise to nominate only originalist judges to the Court."
In her opinion, Kavanaugh was "an experienced, principled jurist," who has a "strong record of protecting life and constitutional rights."
Many others were enthusiastic as well, including conservative think tanks and long-term pro-life leaders.
On the negative side, Jane Coaston wrote an article for Vox.com explaining why, "Why social conservatives are disappointed that Trump picked Brett Kavanaugh."
She pointed to a number of top leaders in the conservative and pro-life movement who had reservations about Kavanaugh or who called for outright opposition.
Upon hearing of President Trump's nomination of Kavanaugh, the National Review'sDavid French wrote, "I'll defend [Kavanaugh] vigorously from unfair critiques tomorrow, but tonight I join many conservatives in a slight sigh of regret. There was a better choice."
Tim Wildmon, President of the highly influential American Family Association, wrote, "AFA has opposed the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S Supreme Court for some very valid reasons. We are deeply concerned about how he might ultimately rule on issues related to abortion and religious liberty. For these reasons, we consider this nomination to represent a four-star appointment when it could have been five-star."
Other groups, like Columbia [South Carolina] Christians for Life sent out e-blasts with titles like, "ROE VS. WADE protector Kavanaugh: Another red flag for Jesuit-educated, Jesuit school director, BRETT KAVANAUGH." (This was sent out August 30.)
Another pro-life activist sent out links to this video, with this warning: "President Trump broke his campaign promise to pro-lifers when he nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Ricardo Davis of Georgia Right to Life calls Kavanaugh's pro-abortion position 'morally reprehensible' and urges pro-lifers and conservatives to demand Kavanaugh's withdrawal and for Trump to replace him with a real pro-life nominee such as Amy Coney Barrett."
How can we make sense of this?
On the one hand, there is agreement that someone like Justice Amy Coney Barrett, if appointed to the Supreme Court, would definitely vote to overturn Roe v. Wade should the opportunity present itself. The downside is that many believe that in today's climate, despite the Republican majority, she would not have been confirmed.
Others have suggested that it's unlikely that there will be a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade as much as an incremental challenge. What if something like the Fetal Heartbeat Bill became law and was challenged up to the Supreme Court? How would Kavanaugh vote on that?
The real answer is that we simply do not know what a Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh would do.
According to Thomas Jipping, Deputy Director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and a Senior Legal Fellow, Kavanaugh's "record meets the Schumer standard of a judge who does not predictably rule for a particular side. That is because Kavanaugh is the kind of judge who follows the law rather than his personal views."
What, then, are we to make of the varied and passionate responses to Justice Kavanaugh? Does the left have reason to fear? Does the right have reason to rue a missed opportunity?
Here are a few things that seem clear.
First, we can be almost certain that Justice Kavanaugh will be a far better friend of the Constitution and of conservative values than any judge a President Hillary Clinton would have appointed. That is a very big positive.
Second, we who are pro-life do well not to put our ultimate trust in a man (Kavanaugh) or an institution (the Supreme Court) to change the direction of our nation. (This is not to deny the importance of both the man and the institution. It is simply to bring perspective.)
Third, it is possible that Kavanaugh himself cannot guarantee how he will rule if confirmed. There have been surprises in every direction from various appointees in the past, and even the best vetting process cannot guarantee the future.
Obviously, I hope that the leftist opposition to Kavanaugh is correct and that, should the opportunity arise, he would vote for life and for family and for our essential liberties.
But there may be a reason for the concern of some on the right, in which case we should be praying for Kavanaugh and the rest of the members of the Court that God would direct their hearts.
Scripture teaches that, "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He will." Surely He can turn the hearts of Supreme Court justices as well.
More importantly, He can turn the hearts of a nation. That is the greater goal when it comes to cultivating a culture of life, and it must always remain the foremost goal for all of us who love life. As powerful as the Supreme Court has become, it alone cannot transform hearts.
Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment
As I compose this commentary, there remain segments within the American evangelical church that continue to advance and propagate the principles and tenets of the "gospel" of social justice. Increasing numbers of evangelical churches, pastors, and ministries are buying into what I consider merely a new presentation of an old soteriology: salvation by social activism.
One such organization, Evangelicals For Social Action, describes itself as "a catalyzing agent for Christ's shalom via projects focused on cultural renewal, holistic ministry, political reflection and action, social justice and reconciliation, and creation care. Rather than a typical "think" tank, ESA is a "do" tank whose purpose is to mobilize movements for constructive social change." Conversely, The Evangelical Network lists as one of its missional objectives to "offer a safe place for LGBT people and the evangelical church community to dialogue."
There are other examples, of course, but I highlight the aforementioned not to single them out for any particular reason but in an effort to establish some context for what I am about to say.
Unlike previous embracements of this ideology by the church because there is truly nothing new under the sun (Eccl. 1:9) this current adoration of the social gospel seems especially occupied and absorbed with the idea of personal identity. That is, a self-focused desire to be acknowledged and, perhaps even admired, not for who we are in Christ (Col. 3:1-3) but for who we are in ourselves and in what makes us unique apart from Him.
For evangelicals, the social gospel has traditionally been defined primarily in terms of the joining together of ecclesial and secular resources toward the (re)formation of systems and structures that are consistentlyjust and equitable to all, but especially toward those who are deemed to have been unjustly oppressed and marginalized by those systems and structures. It is a visage that was shared by American theologian Walter Rauschenbusch, an important yet veritably unknown figure in the social gospel movement of the 19th and 20th centuries, who once asserted that: "The kingdom of God is not a matter of getting individuals to heaven, but of transforming the life on earth into the harmony of heaven."
It is my contention that the "heaven on earth" theology to which Rauschenbusch subscribed is at the heart of the contemporary evangelical social justice movement.
Though his name may not be widely known, either in ecclesial or secular circles, the soteriology of Walter Rauschenbusch, an advocate of Christian socialism and a major influence on more notable social gospel adherents such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bishop Desmond Tutu, mirrors that of increasing numbers of evangelical Christians today. In Christianity and the Social Crisis, published in 1907, Rauschenbusch expressed the belief that: "the essential purpose of Christianity was to transform human society into the kingdom of God by regenerating all human relations and reconstituting them in accordance with the will of God."
"'You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly." Lev. 19:15 (NASB)
But in reflecting on what Rauschenbusch posits as the "purpose of Christianity", I can't help but notice that missing from among the requisite r-words that will supposedly accomplish the stated "transformation of human society", namely "regenerating" and "reconstituting", is the word repentance.
It is a significant omission, one that goes to the very core of what is so fundamentally deficient about the social gospel in that it argues that those who need the gospel in order to be transformed are somehow capable of transforming themselves apart from the gospel. It is a dichotomy that is best reflected in the words of theologian and social justician Reinhold Niebuhr who, with all due respect, declared rather naively, if not outright heretically, that: "Ultimately evil is done not so much by evil people, but by good people who do not know themselves and who do not probe deeply."
It should not be too difficult for any professing Christian who properly understands the doctrine of Original Sin to realize that what Niebuhr is espousing is not the gospel, "social" or otherwise, but a type of secular humanism. And yet, it is this same worldly soteriology of salvation-by-activism that many advocates of the social gospel are propagating in evangelical churches and ministries across America.
In his Institutes of the Christian Religion, the 16th-century French reformer, John Calvin, asserts that: "Nearly all the wisdom we possess that is to say, true and sound wisdom consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves."
But there is an inherent and disturbing irony in Niebuhr's suggestion that human beings "probe more deeply" so as to "know" ourselves. For if we were to genuinely embark on such an introspective inquiry through the penetrating lens of the gospel (Heb. 4:12), we would not like what we would find. As the 17th-century Puritan theologian, Thomas Manton, wrote: "There is in man a mint always at work: his mind coining evil thoughts, his heart, evil desires and carnal emotion; and his memory is the closet and storehouse wherein they are kept."
For all its good intentions, the so-called "social gospel" fundamentally denies the one principle that is most fundamental to the gospel, namely, that mankind is innately sinful and in desperate need of a Savior (Gen. 4:7, 6:5, 8:21b; Jn. 3:16-17; 1 Tim. 1:15). As theologian and author Timothy Keller writes in The Reason For God: Belief In An Age of Skepticism, "There is no way out of this conundrum. The more we love and identify deeply with our family, our class, our race, our religion, the harder it is to not feel superior or even hostile to other religions, races, etc. So racism, classism, and sexism are not matters of ignorance or a lack of education. The real culture war is taking place inside our own disordered hearts, wracked by inordinate desires for things that control us, that lead us to feel superior and exclude those without them, and that fail to satisfy us even when we get them."
Notwithstanding the fault in their theological stars, to borrow a phrase from a popular book and film, I would concur with both Rauschenbusch and Niebuhr that human society is in need of regeneration.
Absolutely it is.
The question, however, is what kind of regeneration does society require?
The Scriptures clearly declare that "the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth until now (Rom. 8:22)." This sobering reality that sin is so pervasive and universal as to affect every aspect of our existence and experience as human beings is not often considered in the ongoing discourse about social justice. Consequently, we continually find ourselves forging ahead on our righteously indignant treadmill, choosing to expend our energies debating this issue from the standpoint of the societal effects of injustice as opposed to the spiritual causes of it (Mk. 7:17-23). The gospel mandates that we invert that perspective (Eccl. 7:20; Rom. 3:23). Toward that end, and as I conclude this commentary, I pray this exhortation from the 5th-century church father John Chrysostum, who even in his day was no stranger to the social gospel, will prove helpful:
"Should we look to kings and princes to put right the inequalities between rich and poor? Should we require soldiers to come and seize the rich person's gold and distribute it among his destitute neighbors? Should we beg the emperor to impose a tax on the rich so great that it reduces them to the level of the poor and then to share the proceeds of that tax among everyone? Equality imposed by force would achieve nothing, and do much harm. Those who combined both cruel hearts and sharp minds would soon find ways of making themselves rich again. Worse still, the rich whose gold was taken away would feel bitter and resentful; while the poor who received the gold from the hands of soldiers would feel no gratitude, because no generosity would have prompted the gift. Far from bringing moral benefit to society, it would actually do moral harm. Material justice cannot be accomplished by compulsion, a change of heart will not follow. The only way to achieve true justice is to change people's hearts firstand then they will joyfully share their wealth."
Rauschenbusch and Niebuhr are wrong.
Ultimately, the struggle for justice is a struggle from within ourselves, not from without.
Though the effects of injustice are material, the origin of all injustice is spiritual. The systems and institutions through which unjust policies and practices prove sinfully discriminatory are not created in a vacuum, but by human hearts that deliberately and volitionally choose to disobey God and His Word concerning the equitable treatment of those who bear His image (Gen. 1:27).
Originally posted at justthinking.me
Darrell Harrison is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. He currently resides in Covington, Georgia (about 45 miles east of Atlanta). Darrell attends Rockdale Community Church, a Reformed Baptist congregation located in the Atlanta suburb of Conyers, Georgia. Darrell is a 2013 Fellow of the Black Theology and Leadership Institute (BTLI) of Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey, and is a 2015 graduate of the Theology and Ministry program at Princeton Theological Seminary. Darrell studied at the undergraduate level at Liberty University, where he maintained a 4.0 GPA majoring in Psychology with a specialization in Christian Counseling. Darrell was the first African-American to be ordained as a Deacon in the 200-year history of First Baptist Church of Covington (Georgia) where he attended from 2009 to 2015.
Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment
Linus, from the Peanuts cartoon, once famously declared, "I love mankind ... it's people I can't stand!"
We could sum up the attitude of the Left toward the American political system with a similar statement: "I love democracy ... it's the Constitution I can't stand!"
That is the opinion that is apparent from some of the reactions to President Trump's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to fill the seat of the now retired Justice Anthony Kennedy on the U. S. Supreme Court.
For example, the Advocate, a leading LGBT news site, ran an article with the sub-headline, "Kavanaugh is a conservative who has pledged to interpret law as written. His record shows reason for concern."
Saying that a judge pledging "to interpret law as written" is "reason for concern" is strange. What is really "reason for concern" is a judge who interprets the law any other waybecause that is a recipe for judicial tyranny.
The remainder of the article (by Trudy Ring) makes clear that Judge Kavanaugh failing to fulfill this pledge is not the "concern." For example, Ring laments that "Trump has said he would appoint justices who would overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling that established abortion rights nationwide..." But courts are not supposed to "establish" rights at allonly recognize and apply those that have already been "established" by the Constitution or by statute.
The most crucial corrections of the Constitution's original imperfectionssuch as abolishing slavery and giving women the right to votewere accomplished through the Constitution's own amendment process, not through judges acting unilaterally to "establish" new rights.
Ring cites Rachel B. Tiven, chief executive officer of Lambda Legal (an LGBT legal advocacy group) as saying, "We have good reason to fear that Judge Kavanaugh will abuse his power on the Court . . . while depriving LGBT Americans of our dignity, demeaning our community, and diminishing our status as equal citizens."
Note, however, that the concepts of "dignity" (a favorite of now retired Justice Kennedy) and "community" appear nowhere in the text of the Constitution. The focus on "equal citizenship" of LGBT Americans is simply a talking point; for they retain the same rights granted to everyone (including every LGBT or non-LGBT American) by the text of the Constitution. Contrary to LGBT claims, the marriage debate was about the definition of marriagewhich the Constitution leaves to the statesnot about "equal" access to it.
Jay Michaelson, writing for The Daily Beast, tried to delve deeper into issues of judicial philosophy. Michaelson zeroed in on a quote from Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, the group that helped President Trump compile his list of potential Supreme Court nominees. Leo had noted that Kavanaugh has demonstrated "a commitment to interpreting the Constitution as it's written, and enforcing the limits on government power contained in the Constitution."
Here is Michaelson's take:
. . . Leo's statement is a dog-whistle to conservatives. "Interpreting the Constitution as it's written" means that substantive due process, the doctrine underneath Roe, Obergefell and even Griswold v. Connecticut, which forbids the government from banning contraception is illegitimate. That means all those cases are on the chopping block.
It is ironic that Michaelson uses the term "dog whistle" to describe an approach of plainly stating up-front a plain desire to follow the plain words of the text, as opposed to his support for "mystery of life" case law. Regardless, both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution state that no person may be deprived "of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." Some more conservative legal scholars see this as emphasizing the legal "process," and thus providing only procedural protections. However, other (primarily liberal) scholars and Supreme Court justices argue that the "liberty" mentioned in the clause may be interpreted broadly as giving protection to "substantive" rights that are not elsewhere enumerated in the Constitution.
"Privacy" is one such "substantive" right that the Supreme Court has identified, and used in part as the foundation for Roe (striking down laws against abortion), Obergefell (requiring same-sex couples be permitted to "marry") and Griswold. Yet the text of the Constitution nowhere includes a free-standing "right to privacy."
A true originalist will follow the Constitution, wherever it leads him or her. But liberals are used to using whatever they can to push their desired policies, and the fact that the Left is so alarmed by the idea of "interpreting the Constitution as it's written" shows their underlying contempt for the foundational document of our political system.
Peter Sprigg is Senior Fellow at Family Research Council.
Archbishop of Canterbury calls for tax rises: 'I do not believe we can continue with an economy that works so badly for so many'
The Archbishop of Canterbury has called for a reshaping of Britain's tax system to raise more money for public services and reduce 'damaging wealth inequality'.
A report co-written by Justin Welby with the Institute for Public Policy Research proposes the scrapping of inheritance tax and for it to be replaced by a gifts tax. Total gifts received over 125,000 during a person's lifetime would be subject to income tax, replacing the current loophole that allows people to avoid death duties with gifts becoming tax-free after seven years.
The report also calls for a 13-billion a year rise in corporation tax and the creation of a 186-billion 'Citizens Wealth Fund'.
It calls for higher taxes on capital gains and dividends, raising another 27 billion a year.
The increase in tax revenue would fund a higher minimum wage and grants to help young people buy homes.
In an article for the Daily Mail, Welby wrote that there was 'much of which we can be proud' in the UK's economic performance. However, he continued: 'Yet despite these strengths, it is evident that for many people, the economy is not working. It no longer fulfils the promise of rising living standards.'
Pointing out that wages have stagnated for a decade, he says: 'As the Bank of England has shown, for nearly 40 years the share of our national income going into people's pay has been falling while the share going to profits has been on the rise.
'Chronically low pay means that a hard day's work no longer keeps people out of poverty: today, a majority of the poor are working families.'
And he says bluntly: 'I do not believe we can continue with an economy that works so badly for so many.'
Stressing that his view is shaped by biblical values, he says the economy needs to be reformed on a scale similar to that after 1945 under Clement Atlee and in the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher.
Justice, he says, needs to be 'hard-wired' into the economy.
The report from the IPPR's Commission on Economic Justice calls for a boost to manufacturing and exporting sectors, an immediate increase in the minimum wage, and a reform to zero-hours contracts which can leave families relying on foodbanks to survive.
Welby concludes: 'In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is recorded as giving one of the greatest challenges possible to his disciples just before his arrest and crucifixion when he describes the judgment of God at the end of time. In that passage he explicitly says that judgment is linked to justice, namely, in the way in which we treat those who are most vulnerable and weakest. Out of that extraordinary passage comes the Christian call to work for the common good and for the welfare of everyone in our society.'
A government spokesman said: 'Since 2010, we've supported more people into work, introduced the National Living Wage worth 7.83 per hour, doubled free childcare and helped workers keep more of the money they earn at the end of every month by cutting taxes for 31 million people by an average of 1,000.'
Ethiopia's mass displacement is one of the 'worst humanitarian crises in decades'
Zenebech's eyes are filled with worry and fear as she wonders whether she will ever be able to return home. Along with her seven children, she is sheltering in a church compound in Kochere, Ethiopia's SNNP region, after fighting broke out in her home town in June.
Inter-communal violence in Gedeo (SNNP region) and West Guji (Oromia region) zones has displaced more than 1 million people since April. Although the security situation has improved in some areas, tensions among communities in the neighbouring regions remain high.
Like many other displaced people, Zenebech and her children arrived at Kochere with virtually nothing but the clothes they wore.
'There was no time to grab anything, the moment we heard the gunshots, we fled, leaving behind everything,' Zenebech says.
Thinking about what she has left behind is painful. At the farm, she grew coffee, bananas and millet. Now, she has nothing to do but sit and wait.
'It pains me, that I can't cultivate crops on my land and feed my children,' she says.
Many displaced people fled as their villages were being razed to the ground. Having lost their livelihoods, they can only rely on humanitarian assistance for survival as they shelter in schools, churches, bus stations and government's institutions.
Inside the church compound, families cram on concrete floors, braving the biting cold of the night. They keep themselves warm by lighting fires, continuously cutting trees to sustain the firewood demand.
Services like clean water and sanitation are in short supply, meaning that people cannot shower or wash their clothes, increasing the risk of diseases.
'The level of suffering endured by internally displaced people in southern Ethiopia is as bad as anything I've seen,' says Edward Brown, national director of children's charity World Vision Ethiopia.
'Many have lost everything and are living in appalling conditions. This is one of the worst humanitarian emergencies I have seen in nearly 20 years.'
Although a series of reconciliation meetings facilitated by the Ethiopian government have been held between Gedeo and West Guji leaders, many displaced people, particularly children, remain without adequate food, water and shelter.
Children are unable to go to school and are in urgent need of protection. They face malnutrition and the risk of contracting diseases, including cholera and skin infections like scabies.
Charities are working around the clock to help those displaced, but the crisis remains dire.
As World Vision, we have provided emergency food assistance donated by the US government, reaching a total of 640,000 people. We wish to reach around 1,050,000 by September, but more funds are needed to scale up our response.
Without the help from the international community, we will only be able to reach a limited amount of people, meaning that hundreds of thousands will continue to live in makeshift shelters wondering whether they will ever be able to go back to their lives.
If you want to know more about World Vision's work in East Africa, click here
Lucy Murunga is World Vision's communications adviser for emergencies, East Africa region.
National peace in South Sudan has to be achieved locally, says Tearfund partner
South Sudan's problems go much deeper than the civil war that has wrecked the country and traumatised its people since 2013, according to a Christian lawyer who works in conflict resolution there.
Juma Mabor Mariel works for ALARM African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministeries which has been a partner of Tearfund in South Sudan for the past three years and runs peace and reconciliation projects and trauma counselling. Speaking to Christian Today on a visit to the UK, he says: 'There are so many causes of conflict child abduction, land, cultural perspectives, different values, and the ownership of water. The conflict is not just a national one, there are deep-rooted differences.
'That's what we want the world to know. The national conflict could only escalate because of existing conflicts. Until local conflicts are solved, we cannot solve the national conflict.'
South Sudan became independent from Sudan in 2011 after years of civil war. Peace, however, was brief: in 2013 war erupted again between the government under President Kiir and forces loyal to his deputy Riek Machar, whom he had dismissed accusing him of planning a coup d'etat. Fighting has continued between different ethnic and political groups since then in spite of international attempts to broker a ceasefire. Around 2.5 million South Sudanese fled to neighbouring countries, but a fragile peace that has held during the last few weeks is tempting some of them to return. Altogether more than 4.3 million people fled their homes.
However, the oil-rich country is in a parlous state. The conflict has led to food insecurity undermining both agricultural and livestock production, disrupting livelihoods and forcing people to flee.
Humanitarian access has remained restricted and has been made harder by the arrival of the rainy season that has rendered many locations in need unreachable.
Mariel says many people need the help organisations like ALARM can offer.
'The church is a very important partner in peacemaking,' he says. 'We can be intermediaries in local conflicts we can find out what is happening and report to higher levels. It is the best-place institution because it meets people all the time it has access to them every Sunday.'
One of the main needs the Tearfund-supported organisation helps meet is trauma counselling. The breakdown of law and order has led to widespread violence, including sexual violence, and recovery is problematic.
Mariel instances a man who was shot while trading cattle, who experienced long-lasting psychological and apparently physical effects that led to him becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol, losing his job and becoming estranged from his family. Counselling and medical referrals resulted in him being diagnosed with leprosy, and ALARM saw him through the course of treatment that cured him. He is now back with his family.
'Trauma healing is a major thing,' Mariel says. 'They think that whatever happens to them, it is someone else's fault.'
However, he says, funding for counselling and conflict resolution is inadequate. ALARM has 58 counsellors working among South Sudanese people in the country and among refugees across its borders. But 'the country is huge, and the needs are huge', he says. 'We can only do what we can. We need help from our brothers in the UK. Continue to pray, continue to engage with the humanitarian effort, help us continue to build local communities.'
For more about Tearfund's work in South Sudan click here.
South Sudan church mourns murdered youth coordinator
The Episcopal Church of South Sudan's national youth cooordinator has been killed by gunmen who targeted his vehicle.
Joseph Kiri died instantly after he was shot in the chest as his vehicle was sprayed with bullets, according to the executive director of the charity for which he also worked, Across. Elisama Wani Daniel said his driver escaped and ran to a nearby army post, from where soldiers recovered Kiri's body.
Thousands of young people gathered at Kiri's house on Monday to pay their respects, ACNS reported.
The Primate of South Sudan, Archbishop Justin Badi Arama, tweeted that he and his wife Mama Joyce were 'deeply saddened to hear of the passing of the Provincial Youth Coordinator, Joseph Kiri, in an ambush on Lainya Yei road yesterday. Our prayers are with his family. We ask all parties to respect the ceasefire.'
The Episcopal Church's provincial secretary, John Augustino Lumori, described Kiri as 'a talented, sound and vibrant youth' and said his death was 'a very big loss to the entire Episcopal Church of South Sudan'.
South Sudan has suffered years of civil war which has left the infrastructure in ruins and terrorised the civilisan population. Around 2.5 million fled to neighbouring countries but are now starting to return after a preliminary peace deal between President Salva Kiir's government and rebels led by his former deputy, Riek Machar, was signed in August.
While the deal appears to be holding, there is still widespread violence and insecurity.
Archbishop Arama told ACNS earlier this week that peace was possible but that it needed to be expressed in truth, reconciliation and forgiveness. 'We very much welcome the recent developments in the signing of the agreements in Khartoum,' he said. 'But as a Church, we believe that peace is not something on paper. Peace is a practical reality on the ground, which does not just come with the signing of papers.'
When is an apology not an apology? What Bishop Charles Ellis should have said to Ariana Grande
Elton John said it as well as anyone can when he wrote the timeless lyric, 'Sorry seems to be the hardest word.' However, 'sorry' sometimes seems to be the easiest word, particularly when we don't really mean it.
Last Friday the life of Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, was celebrated in the most extraordinary way. It was a funeral that will go down in history and for the most part would have done Aretha proud. However, during the 10-hour event there were some jarring incidents, which resulted in an apology that really was a non-apology.
Bishop Charles H Ellis III, when introducing Ariana Grande, attempted to make a joke about her name. When Ms Grande joined him on stage, he then proceeded to put his arm around her in an inappropriate and extremely awkward hold.
The ensuing outraged social media storm resulted in Bishop Ellis issuing an apology: 'It would never be my intention to touch any woman's breast. I was, I don't know I guess I put my arm around her. Maybe I crossed the border, maybe I was too friendly or familiar but again, I apologise.'
I'm sorry (see what I did there, Bishop Ellis) but this isn't an apology.
He continued: 'If somebody took it the wrong way, or if they were offended by it, the easiest thing and the right thing for me to do, as a Christian, as a man of God is to apologise, and I sincerely apologise to Ariana again if I offended her in any kind of way.'
There are no ifs or maybes in apologies. When you apologise, you are saying sorry for an offence you have caused
The bishop also expressed regret about the joke he made when he saw Ms Grande's name on the programme. 'I certainly want to apologise to Ariana and to her fans and to her family and to her entire community if what I said was taken the wrong way. Listen, maybe it's just a joke that went bad...Listen, it's not about whether I meant it or didn't mean it, or whether somebody took it the wrong way, I'm the one that said it and if it was taken to be an offensive statement, I apologise. That's the easiest thing for me to do, the right thing for me to do and I certainly hope that she will forgive me.'
I too hope Ms Grande will forgive you, Bishop Ellis, because forgiveness is a spiritual principle which breaks down strongholds. Forgiveness helps to bring healing and liberation. However, if she does, it will not be because she accepted your apology, because there wasn't an apology.
An apology claims ownership of the offence, humiliation and hurt caused. The bishop's apology made no admission that he actually did or said anything offensive. What in fact was implied was that the recipient of the offence didn't understand what was intended and in fact the recipient was in the wrong for incorrectly interpreting what was meant. Bishop Ellis' non-apology was a way for him to salve his conscience and move past what had happened without taking any responsibility.
I have no doubt that Bishop Ellis is a man of God who has done much good in his life, but in this case he got it wrong. One of the things that saddens me about this whole sorry incident, is that the opportunity for a known personality and a Christian to publicly apologise well, was lost.
This was an opportunity for a Christ follower to show humility. It was an opportunity for the Christian community to put right a hurt. He botched it.
There is something extremely powerful in a genuine heartfelt apology. Saying sorry, and meaning it, is a powerful tool which can go some way in helping to repair the damage caused. It can also help the parties involved move towards resolution and forgiveness. An earnest, open and honest apology doesn't make the offence right, but it can bring healing.
Here is what Bishop Ellis ought to have said.
'Ariana, from the bottom of my heart I am so sorry for causing you distress. I acted inappropriately and was very wrong to put my arm around you and touch your breast. I crossed the border. I am deeply sorry I disrespected you. The right thing for me to do as a Christian, as a man of God is to apologise, and I sincerely apologise to you for any suffering I have caused you.
'I certainly want to apologise to Ariana and to her fans and to her family and to her entire community. It's not about whether I meant it or didn't mean it, or whether somebody took it the wrong way, I'm the one that said it and I sincerely apologise for the offensiveness of my statement and for the hurt and humiliation I have caused.'
Life is hard enough. Let's not make it more difficult for each other. As followers of Jesus we need to do better we need to be the carriers of love, grace, kindness, forgiveness, mercy and justice. We need to be the ones who apologise well and be the first to show authentic repentance and Godly tear-filled sorrow when we get it wrong.
Many of us Jesus followers want to and will continue to work on showing, as Aretha herself sang so powerfully, R.E.S.P.E.C.T. to all humanity.
Mandy Bayton is The Cinnamon Network Advisor for Wales and a freelance writer. Follow her on Twitter @mandyebayton
An American Place: The Barney A. Ebsworth Collection comes to Christies
The story of the greatest privately owned collection of American Modernist art ever to come to market, and Barney A. Ebsworths single-minded determination to buy only the very best including masterpieces by Hopper, Sheeler, OKeeffe, de Kooning, Pollock and more
The Barney A. Ebsworth Collection represents an extraordinary achievement in the history of collecting, one that illuminates the rise of American art across the 20th century. The origins of this singular assemblage, however, lie across the Atlantic in France. My real interest in art didnt start until 1957, revealed Ebsworth (1934-2018) in his autobiography. I was not an art connoisseur. I visited [the Louvre] because it was such an integral part of Paris, and what I found there changed me. Ebsworth was serving in the US Army at the time, having willed himself to France after completing his basic training. Reading Proust at college had ignited his love of the country, and when he stepped off a train from Germany he described feeling that he was in a glamorous place covered in history. His first trip to Paris lasted three days and proved to be a pivotal moment in his life. He talked of walking from exhibit to exhibit in the Louvre in awe of how it felt to be surrounded by such great works of art. It made such a deep impression on him, that he left wanting to understand the pictures, the time periods they were from, the artists who had created them. Equipped with an enquiring mind and a thirst for knowledge, Ebsworth spent his spare time in the local library studying the art hed seen the previous weekend, and preparing for his next trip to the museum. With no mentor and no formal classes, I trained myself in art history just by reading and looking, he said. My eyes were my mentors.
In real estate, they say three things matter: location, location, location. For me, collecting art was about quality, quality, quality Barney Ebsworth
He had Paris to thank for more than just his new-found love of art. On New Years Eve 1956, Ebsworth met Martine deVisme, a 19-year-old French girl, at a USO party, and began dancing with her on the stroke of midnight. Little did I know that she was going to become my wife, he wrote years later. They married in March 1958, and Ebsworth brought his new bride home to St. Louis where they had a daughter, Christiane. He embarked on the first steps of what would become a hugely successful career in the travel industry, buying a small travel firm that would eventually grow into INTRAV, an international company providing luxury group travel around the globe. And as his career progressed, so too did his love of art. Nobody starts as a collector, Ebsworth mused. You buy a few things you like, and then eight or ten items in, someone says, Boy, you have a great collection, and then you realise you have a collection. His own journey began with 17th-century Dutch pictures and Japanese scroll paintings, until a 1971 business trip to Rotterdam led to a conversation over dinner, which set him on a different, more defining course.
Barney Ebsworth in his Seattle home, known as An American Place, with (behind him) Gaston Lachaise (1882-1935), Standing Woman, 1932. Bronze. 88 in high. Estimate: $1,500,00-2,500,000. Sold for: $3,732,500 on 13 November 2018 at Christies in New York. Photograph: Brian Smale
Ebsworth was invited to visit a private collection containing multiple Old Master paintings by Rembrandt and Frans Hals. Realising he could not compete, he returned home and arranged a meeting with Charles Buckley, then director of the St. Louis Art Museum. [Buckley] suggested French Impressionism, Ebsworth recalled. I told him I couldnt afford that. He then suggested School of Paris and I told him I couldnt afford that either. So he suggested American Impressionism, and I said, What is it? Somehow we got into American modernism, and thats how it started for me. It was agreed Ebsworth should start with the Ashcan School early 20th-century painters of ordinary New York scenes such as Robert Henri, William Glackens, Everett Shinn, George Luks and John Sloan. In real estate, they say three things matter: location, location, location. For me, said Ebsworth, collecting art was about quality, quality, quality. I would rather have a smaller collection of the finest pictures than dozens of so-so ones. Vowing that he would only buy the very best, or only what could hang on the museum wall right now, and not sometime in the future, Ebsworths other ground rules were to buy works only by dead artists so that he could make choices from their whole range of work and to focus on objects rather than artists. All that mattered was what I could see in the piece, and how well I understood it in comparison to the artists range of work, he explained.
William James Glackens (1870-1938), Cafe Lafayette (Portrait of Kay Laurell), painted in 1914. Oil on canvas. 32 x 26 in (81.3 x 66 cm). Sold for: $792,500 on 13 November 2018 at Christies in New York
In 1972, the year he founded the Royal Cruise Line, Ebsworth and Buckley identified William Glackens 1914 work Cafe Lafayette (Portrait of Kay Laurell), above, which was being offered at auction in New York. He described his initial impression as love at first sight. In the same sale was an intriguing watercolour by Charles E. Burchfield, which prompted Ebsworth to embark on a further bout of research. In my hour-long crash course, I decided that it was painted during his best period and that if the painting was in my range, I would buy it. He left New York as the proud new owner of both works.
Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Chop Suey, painted in 1929. Oil on canvas. 32 x 38 in (81.3 x 96.5 cm). Sold for: $91,875,000 on 13 November 2018 at Christies in New York
At his next auction, Ebsworth bought three pictures by Charles Sheeler. He then added small paintings by Stuart Davis and Albert Bierstadt before finding himself at another fork in the road. Was it to be early 20th-century or 19th-century art? He opted for the former.
Stuart Davis (1892-1964), Still Life in the Street, painted in 1941. Oil on canvas. 10 x 12 in (25.7 x 30.8 cm). Sold for: $780,500 on 13 November 2018 at Christies in New York
Acting as a trusted guide, Buckley encouraged Ebsworth to focus on the achievements of American Modernists such as Edward Hopper, Georgia OKeeffe, Charles Demuth, Joseph Stella, and Charles Sheeler. He also introduced the collector to reputable dealers such as Joan Washburn, Antoinette Kraushaar and Virginia Zabriskie. Buckley suggested to Ebsworth that he should build a collection of the best 12 American Modernist paintings he could buy. If he found a 13th painting that was better than one he already owned, he should sell that painting to buy the new one. Within a year, though, Ebsworth had moved to buy a 13th, 14th and 15th picture.
Charles Sheeler (1883-1965), Cat-walk, painted in 1947. Oil on canvas. 24 x 20 in (61 x 50.8 cm). Sold for: $1,332,500 on 13 November 2018 at Christies in New York
The next significant milestone was the 1973 auction of The Estate of Edith Gregor Halpert, owner of the Downtown Gallery and the primary American Modernist dealer after the death of Alfred Stieglitz. Ebsworth later admitted he should have bought all 20 paintings on offer, confessing that he subsquently paid $1.5 million for a work that had been hammered down for $35,000. In that auction, he lost out to John D. Rockefeller on a John Marin watercolour, but was the successful bidder for Black, White and Blue by Georgia OKeeffe, paying $47,000 for the work. When he was subsequently introduced to Lloyd Goodrich, the director of the Whitney Museum of Art and curator of the 1970 OKeeffe retrospective told him that he considered the 1930 abstract canvas to be OKeeffes greatest picture.
Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986), Horn and Feather, painted in 1937. Oil on canvas. 9 x 14 in (22.9 x 35.6 cm). Sold for: $612,500 on 13 November 2018 at Christies in New York
The reason I understood Georgias work was that I came to American artists with European eyes, Ebsworth wrote. Europeans understood this type of art long before Americans did. We still had a cultural inferiority complex that told us all great works of art came from Europe.
Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986), Beauford Delaney, executed in 1943. Charcoal on paper. 24 x 18 in (62.9 x 47 cm). Sold for: $372,500 on 13 November 2018 at Christies in New York
American art didnt blossom until after World War II with artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko. Georgias work showed no influence; it didnt feel derivative of anything. It was purely American. Ebsworth would strike up a lasting friendship with OKeeffe and was married to his second wife, Patricia, with the artist as their witness at her Abiquiu home in New Mexico. Having satisfied himself that he had bought the very best available works of American Modernism, Ebsworth turned to museum-quality works by the great names of Abstract Expressionism, extending his quest to trace the unique creative experiment that saw traditions of the European canon being cast aside in favour of a bold, new interpretation of burgeoning national identity.
Willem de Kooning (1904-1997), Woman as Landscape, painted in 1954-1955. Oil and charcoal on canvas. 65 x 49 in (166.3 x 125.4 cm). Sold for: $68,937,500 on 13 November 2018 at Christies in New York
What I wanted to do by that time was to turn my American Modernist collection into the full American 20th century, Ebsworth told Christies in 2010. And that was when I became interested in buying a Klein, a de Kooning, a Pollock, a Jasper Johns, a Warhol and a Hockney. Historian Bruce Robertson has argued that the greatest performance in America as well as its most original creation is surely the United States itself. The Ebsworth Collection is a unique and powerful representation of that national experience, realised through the visionary talents of Hopper, OKeeffe, Pollock, Joan Mitchell, Franz Kline, de Kooning and others. Here, Robertson declares, is where the value of a single great collection returns.
Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), Composition with Red Strokes, painted in 1950. Oil, enamel and aluminium paint on canvas. 36 x 25 in (93 x 65.1 cm). Sold for: $55,437,500 on 13 November 2018 at Christies in New York
Due to luck, timing and research, I managed to put together the best privately owned collection of American Modernist paintings in existence, Ebsworth reflected. In 1987-88, the collection toured to The St. Louis Art Museum, the Honolulu Academy of Arts, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as well as a second tour in 2000 where it was shown at the National Gallery of Art and the Seattle Art Museum.
In many ways, the collection mirrors Barney Ebsworths own journey in connoisseurship. Buying American art of this period, Charles Buckley wrote, has been for Barney an act of strong personal commitment and discovery. Although the pleasure that he experiences from collecting is apparent to all who know him, it is what he learns from living with these paintings and sculpture that perhaps brings him the greatest satisfaction. In the tradition of such esteemed American collectors as Henry Clay Frick, Isabella Stewart Gardner and Albert C. Barnes, Ebsworth, with his third wife Pamela, conceived of his residence, designed by the renowned architect Jim Olson outside Seattle, Washington, as a dialogue between art and architecture. History is replete with houses that have contained great art, wrote curator Franklin Kelly of the National Gallery of Art, but not with houses where great art has been a central factor from their very inception.
Sign up today Christie's Online Magazine delivers our best features, videos, and auction news to your inbox every week Subscribe
Port Houston is now among the country's top five container ports, according to data collected by a trade publication focused on container shipping and logistics.
Port Houston recently climbed to the fifth largest container port, up from No. 6, according to JOC Group and its PIERS database.
A set of rarely-seen photos taken in the aftermath of 9/11 show the devastation wrought at the site of the Pentagon and the heroic efforts to save those still alive.
The FBI photos were first released to the public in 2011, but due to a computer glitch where they were stored, the images disappeared from public record until 2017.
Africa is entering the oil-hunt spotlight as drillers, flush with cash after crudes recovery, are turning their attention back to the continents potentially vast resources.
The worlds biggest companies from Exxon Mobil Corp. to Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc are setting up camp across Africa. Armed with stronger balance sheets and higher crude prices the industry is on track to double drilling in African waters this year. Rising natural gas demand is adding to the attraction.
The majors starting to move into these areas for exploration again is probably the first sign of things picking up, said Adam Pollard, an analyst at consultant Wood MacKenzie Ltd. He said Africa may be one of the first to get hit when the price goes against explorers, but equally its perceived to be one of the places where people are keen to get involved when the price is supportive.
IN IRAN: Secret oil shipments could be Iran's workaround for sanctions
There are plenty of signs of a recovery. Rigs working in waters off Africa have increased to the highest in two years, according to Baker Hughes data. Consultant Rystad Energy AS expects 30 offshore exploration wells to be drilled this year compared with 17 last year.
Acquisitions along the west coast, seen as a geological mirror of the other side of the Atlantic where huge discoveries have been made from Guyana to Brazil, have also accelerated. Shell secured its first exploration acreage offshore Mauritania in July and Exxon bought stakes in Namibian fields in August.
Companies drilled almost 100 exploration wells in African waters each year on average from 2011 to 2014, as Brent prices stayed above $100 a barrel, according to Rystads data. Then came crudes slump and spending suffered because the best prospects are in deep waters, making them expensive to drill. The slowdown contributed to declining production.
IN NIGERIA: Shell sees gas as answer in Nigeria after decades of oil strife
Oil has since recovered, making exploration attractive again, according to Tracey Henderson, who has lived through three boom and bust cycles in the continent.
The more you see the less you tend to get too fussed about the troughs and crests, Henderson, senior vice president of exploration at Dallas-based Kosmos Energy Ltd., which gets almost all its revenue from Africa, said in an interview.
For companies willing to take the risk, the prize could be significant. Theres a high probability that theres at least 41 billion barrels of oil and 319 trillion cubic feet of gas yet to be discovered in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a U.S. Geological Survey report of 2016. Thats equivalent to more than five years of the U.S.s oil consumption and 12 years of gas.
Kosmos used oils downturn to buy up licenses. Last year it acquired five offshore blocks in Ivory Coast. At the same time, it also sold stakes in fields in Mauritania and Senegal to BP in 2016, as the British company builds its natural gas business in anticipation of rising demand. Kosmos and BP have said theyre continuing exploration in the assets.
IN EUROPE: European oil majors are out-talking American peers on climate
In another part of the continent, London-based Tullow Oil Plc is scheduled to drill a much anticipated well offshore Namibia this month, hoping to revive prospects in the southern African nation that went quiet after at least 14 wells failed to find commercial oil deposits.
They are plenty of prospects and any discovery will only spark further interest and excitement, Wood Mackenzies Pollard said.
We always intended to return to exploration but clearly market conditions are now more favorable, and we have the portfolio to return to drilling in a careful and disciplined way, Tullows spokesman George Cazenove said in an email.
Exploration budgets are one of the first to be cut by companies during downturns. But when prices steady, unlocking new reservoirs becomes paramount as they secure future output. Investors value oil firms on how much new reserves they are adding to compensate for what they produce.
The sense of optimism has definitely taken hold at this point, Kosmoss Henderson said.
2018 Bloomberg L.P.
Oil tumbled the most in three weeks as crises of confidence in economies across the globe imperiled energy demand.
Futures in New York dropped 1.7 percent on Wednesday. Emerging-market stocks careened toward bear-market territory while a basket of the most-vulnerable currencies dipped to the lowest in more than a year. The threat to energy demand intensified amid forecasts for expanding crude stockpiles at a key U.S. storage complex.
Oil is falling amid concern that emerging-market contagion is going to suppress economic growth and limit demand, said Gene McGillian, manager of market research at Tradition Energy.
The U.S. benchmark crude briefly touched a 7-week high on Tuesday as Tropical Storm Gordon roiled the Gulf of Mexico. More than 9 percent of U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil output remained shut down on Wednesday as Gordon weakened and drifted northward over Mississippi.
Meanwhile, even as sanctions against Iran degraded the Islamic Republics ability to help supply global oil markets, OPEC and allied producers were working to finalize a long-term cooperation framework by December, according to the cartels secretary-general, Mohammad Barkindo.
West Texas Intermediate for October delivery slid $1.15 to settle at $68.72 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent for November settlement dipped 90 cents to end the session at $77.27 on the ICE Futures Europe exchange. The global benchmark crude traded at a $8.85 premium to WTI for the same month, the widest since June.
Meanwhile, Gordon weakened to a tropical depression after coming ashore near the Alabama-Mississippi border late Tuesday.
The market was clearly overheated on storm concerns, said Thomas Finlon, director of Energy Analytics Group LLC in Wellington, Florida. The real sharp run-up yesterday was quite an overreaction.
Oil inventories at the biggest U.S. pipeline nexus in Cushing, Oklahoma, rose by an estimated 600,000 barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey. The American Petroleum Institute is scheduled to release its weekly count of stockpiles later Wednesday, followed by the U.S. governments tally on Thursday.
Oil-market news:
Gasoline futures fell 1.5 percent to settle $1.9648 a gallon.
Saudi Aramco cut pricing for its main crude grades to buyers in Asia.
EOG Resources Inc., the biggest U.S. shale-oil explorer, wont play a part in the acquisition wave sweeping the Permian Basin, according to the Chief Executive Officer Bill Thomas.
--With assistance from Tsuyoshi Inajima and Ellen Milligan.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jessica Summers in New York at jsummers24@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Simon Casey at scasey4@bloomberg.net, Joe Carroll, Carlos Caminada
2018 Bloomberg L.P.
3 1 of 3 Jessica Kourkounis/Freelance Show More Show Less 2 of 3 ASSOCIATED PRESS Show More Show Less 3 of 3
Meg Cabot, queen of the YA genre, and author of The Princess Diaries is coming to Houston this weekend for an event at Brazos Bookstore. And yes. We know what you're thinking.
Cabot is scheduled to speak at the bookstore at 5 p.m. Sunday, for a ticketed event. Everyone who buys a ticket will receive a hardcover copy of Cabot's newest book, Royal Crown, the diary of Her Royal Highness, Princess Olivia Grace Clarisse Mignonette Harrison's latest adventures in Genovia.
People may not typically think of beer as a vehicle for advancing pediatric oncology, but Back Pew Brewing founder, Bobby Harl, is not a typical brewmaster.
Back Pew, located in Porter, partnered with the Kingwood-based nonprofit, Addis Faith Foundation, to produce and market a limited-edition craft beer in observance of September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
Addis Faith Foundation helps fund pediatric cancer research, provides resources for families of children with cancer, and raises awareness about issues surrounding childhood cancer. The organizations founders Tony and Amber Bender approached Harl about brewing a batch of beer for Addis Faith.
The work carried out by Addis Faith in their mission to end childhood cancer moved Harl to agree, and together, they determined a distribution strategy to spread awareness about Addis Faith across greater Houston.
Although Harl has helped fundraise for nonprofits through Back Pew in the past, this initiative was unique from anything hed ever done in support of a local charity.
This was something we could get behind, so we gave it a shot, Harl said. This is a first-year thing; wed never done something like this before, so we didnt know whether it would work, but I think its something worth doing to get the word out about the foundation. Thats why we feature their logo prominently on the label and why we called it Addis Faith Kolsch.
Back Pew debuted its special edition ale Addis Faith Kolsch during the Brewmasters Craft Beer Festival in Galveston the weekend of Aug. 31. Addis Faith Kolsch will continue to be sold in stores across the greater Houston area throughout September.
Harl said the batch was brewed to be an easy-to-drink beer.
Amber Bender had the chance to taste Addis Faith Kolsch during a tasting event the last week in August.
It was really, really good, she said. Its a lighter beer, so it doesnt have a super bitter aftertaste. Everyone at the tasting had rave reviews about it.
H-E-B in Kingwood put its first supply of cases out on the sales floor Sept. 4.
People were waiting for it and it was all gone before the end of the day, Amber Bender said. People were sending me photos from the store of about 20 cases all stacked up, and then the next picture showing the floor where the cases had been.
Addis Faith Kolsch will be available for purchase in select H-E-Bs, Krogers, and other vendors across greater Houston, including Kingwood, Humble, Atascocita, the Woodlands, Baytown, Sugarland, Katy and Cypress. Various bars and restaurants around the Kingwood area will be selling Addis Faith Kolsch as well, like Three Bs, Chachis in Kingwood and Longhorn Steakhouse.
Any proceeds from the sale of Addis Faith Kolsch remaining after accounting for production costs will benefit Addis Faith Foundation. However, Amber Bender explained that the goal of Addis Faith Kolsch is to raise awareness about the fight against pediatric cancer.
One of our big goals is to get the word out that childhood cancer affects more people than people think, she said. We see so much attention in October for breast cancer and pink ribbons, which wasnt the case too long ago, so were trying to do that for childhood cancer in September.
Gold is the color assigned to represent childhood cancer awareness.
In addition to their partnership with Back Pew, Addis Faith partnered with Panera, which is selling Addis Faith Ribbon Cookies at several locations in Houston and Louisiana, Amber Bender said. The gold ribbon cookies will be available for purchase through the month of September and 50 percent of the proceeds from the cookie sales benefits Addis Faith Foundation.
For more information, visit www.AddisFaith.org.
mfeuk@hcnonline.com
It's fast approaching that time of year when Houstonians venture into the forests northwest of town to eat turkey legs and wear chain mail.
The Texas Renaissance Festival is just around the corner and the organizer's annual job faire is this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, at the grounds up in Todd Mission.
PREVIOUS: Texas Renaissance Festival announces 2018 dates
The 44th edition of the Texas Renaissance Festival kicks off on Sept. 29-30 with the popular Oktoberfest weekend and concludes with three days of Celtic Christmas, running Nov. 23-25. Having a dependable staff to work all those weekends in between is a major hurdle for RenFest, hence the annual job fair.
This season's job fair kicks off each day at 9 a.m. on the festival grounds and can last up to four hours. Vendors and merchants are on site to meet prospective employees. There are open positions for hawkers, food and merchandise sales, food prep, and game and ride attendants.
A BIG YEAR: Texas RenFest releases final stats for 2017 season
Only interested applicants who can work nine consecutive weekends in whatever weather the Houston area can dish need apply.
A photo ID and a Social Security card are required, with the minimum age for employment set at 16 years of age.
In renaissance times that was basically middle-aged, right?
WORK IT: Glamping at the Texas Renaissance Festival is not for prudes
The 60-acre village, with more than 500 shops and an attached 200-acre campground, is a traditional part of Houston life in the fall, when the summer heat (sometimes) finally melts away and wearing Renaissance garb isn't a health hazard.
RenFest has come a long way since the '70s, when it was little more than some time-traveling hippies and curious locals. The festival is now one of the biggest attractions in Texas in the fall and every year more people flock to it for food, performances and fun.
Craig Hlavaty covers Houston history and pop-culture. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com. | craig.hlavaty@chron.com
Through a budget based on the same tax rate as the previous year, Clear Creek ISD trustees will fund a 2 percent cost-of-living raise for staff members and provide money to add teaching and safety-related positions, according to a statement from the district.
The raise for all staff will add approximately $6.1 million to the districts expenses, according to district budget documents.
The raises take effect on Sept. 1, CCISD spokeswoman Sydney Hunt said.
The district will hire 33 teachers and instructional staff, Hunt said. Additional security staff will consist of 15 sheriff liaison officers and 15 full-time student support counselors at the intermediate and high school levels.
The security positions were approved through the districts adoption of new safety recommendations in June that centered on improving psychological intervention and increasing the number of security officers.
Trustees on Aug. 27 unanimously approved the general fund budget, which totals $346.5 million.
On Sept. 24, the school board will consider adopting the proposed tax rate of $1.40 per $100 valuation, according to the release.
But the district is increasing the maintenance-and-operation portion of the tax rate by 2 cents to $1.06 per $100 valuation through a swap move in which the debt service portion of the districts rate will go down by 2 cents to 34 cents.
This tax rate swap is permissible without an election because the Clear Creek ISD is in an area where Gov. Greg Abbott has requested federal disaster assistance after school buildings sustained damage from Hurricane Harvey, according to the release.
Clear Creek ISD has not received Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursement for storm damages. The tax swap allows the district to maintain normal operations in the wake of the natural disaster, read the statement.
District budget documents forecast that increased property values of 3 percent will bump tax revenues for CCISD by $11.4 million.
The states share of funding education in the Clear Creek ISD continues to decline, according to the district, with 70 percent of the districts revenues.
We appreciate the support of the school board, the residents of the District and business community, all who work cooperatively to ensure the best education for its students and the prudent development of the District, Superintendent Greg Smith said in a statement.
jaimy.jones@chron.com
Its a mod, mod, mod world as Clear Creek Community Theatre kicks off its 54th season with go-go boots and sounds from the 60s in Shout! The Mod Musical Sept. 7-23.
The five ladies in our cast clock about 5,000 steps per show, said director Kathleen Richardson of Clear Lake, as they dance to moves that made England swing and sparked the British Invasion of the United States.
Stephanie Hendrickson of Friendswood choreographed the show, teaching the actresses dances such as The Frug, The Twist and The Hand Jive.
You might see me fall over in these 5-inch platform boots, said Angela Reader of League City, who portrays Orange Girl in the musical.
Rounding out the cast of beautiful birds are her daughter, Emily Reader, as Yellow Girl; Jana Smith of Houston as Blue Girl; Julia Cunningham of League City as Green Girl; and Eryn Dorsey of Seabrook as Red Girl.
The shows music director is Phyllis Harris of Pasadena, who juggles a collection of oldies but goodies, including new arrangements of To Sir, with Love, Downtown and Goldfinger.
Lot of songs
Want to go? What: "Shout! The Mod Musical" Where: Clear Creek Community Theatre, 18091 Upper Bay Road, Nassau Bay When: 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Sept. 7-8, 14-15 and 21-22; 2:30 p.m. Sept. 9, 16 and 23 Admission: $13-$15 Information: 281-335-5228; clearcreekcountrytheatre.org See More Collapse
The swinging 60s sensation also features You Dont Have to Say You Love Me, Youre My World, Those Were the Days and a dozen others tunes stuffed into what began as a revue created by Phillip George and David Lowenstein. Mod musings and groovy gab were added by Peter Charles Morris and Phillip George before the show premiered off-Broadway in 2006.
Its a lot of songs, with a little bit of dialogue linking them together with a story, said Angela Reader, comparing the shows concept to Mamma Mia! and other jukebox musicals.
We hope to get the audience to sing along and dance, too, said Emily Reader. We want them to get up and shout.
The 2012 graduate of Clear Creek High School is especially happy to get to perform Son of a Preacher Man in the show. She recently graduated from Abilene Christian University with a bachelors degree in music education and began teaching music in Sugar Land.
Her brother, Charlie Reader, recorded the voice of a Shout magazine writer for the show before heading back to his senior year in music therapy at ACU.
Katie Reed recorded the voice-over of Gwendolyn Holmes, who narrates the show with descriptions of London as a vibrant kaleidoscope of youth and excitement. Her character also advises the female characters that any problem can be solved with a fetching new hairstyle and a new shade of lipstick.
This really is a mother-daughter affair, said Richardson, noting that her daughter, Liz Richardson, is the shows stage manager.
Don Maines is a freelance writer who can be reached at donmaines@att.net
The Spirit of Texas Banks roots have spread across the county where the financial institution will soon construct a new building and monument welcoming people to the city of Montgomery.
About 50 people gathered under a blue sky at the corner of Texas 105 and Lone Star Parkway Wednesday as the bank celebrated a long-awaited ground breaking ceremony. The site, which neighbors the recently opened Kroger Market Place, will soon boast the banks new 12,000 square foot, white two-story plantation style building similar to the appearance of its buildings in Conroe.
Following the short ceremony, Spirit of Texas Bank Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dean Bass pointed across the street from the site where a historical marker stands that pays tribute to the spirit of the legendary late Montgomery resident Dr. Charles B. Stewartthe designer of the Texas flag and state seal, who signed the Texas Declaration of independence.
Montgomery has always been the pathway to Texas, Bass said standing at the site bordered with numerous Texas flags. Since the Republic of Texas days, wagon trains have passed through this community to get here, to get to Austin, to get to the Alamo, Washington on the Brazosthis has been the pathway to future Texans. With our tribute to the history of Texas, it was only fitting for us to be at the entry of Montgomery, Texas.
Bass shared the building will offer full commercial and retail banking as in its other 15 locations. However, with the recent acquisition of Comanche National Bank and its eight locations that Bass expects to close on in the fall of this year, the site in Montgomery will make it Spirit of Texas Banks 24th location.
At its Conroe complex, a gold-gilded Texas Lady Liberty stands with her eternal flame in Taysha Park. The statue was designed by Conroe sculptor Craig Campobella who also created the bronze bust of Stewart in The Lone Star Monument and Historical Flag Parkwhere Spirit of Texas continues development on a $100 million-plus project. The project will ultimately feature commercial office space as well as a 2,000-seat theater, hotel, several restaurants and upscale apartments all with a state of Texas theme. The project is in conjunction with the new Montgomery County Veterans Memorial which is also planned for the area adjacent to the complex.
Bass confirmed there will be another monument created at the Montgomery location in front of the new building that will take an estimated seven to nine months to complete with the hope to have the shell and landscaping finished by Texas Independence Day.
We are not divulging what that will be yet but it will be another beautiful piece being orchestrated by Craig Campobella, Bass said. It will be different; they will always be different but unique. And with this being the birth place of the flag of Texas, it has to be flag related, so you can expect a major tribute to the birthplace of the flag of Texas at the entry of Montgomery.
Montgomery City Administrator Jack Yates said the city met with Spirit of Texas just over a year ago with an interest in the property and talked to the city about development issues and the flood plain aspect. The city and the bank worked together, including for the application and approval for the narrowing of the flood plain from the Housing and Urban Development office.
We had to perform the flood plain aspect of the dirt work but other than that the plans were excellent and its an exciting plan for the city, Yates said. Theres going to be a welcome monument in the very corner in front of the bank at the northwest corner of Texas 105 and Lone Star Parkway. We have not seen the final plans on that but the preliminary plans looked really great and we have full confidence that the Spirit of Texas past work will be an example of what we will be receiving from them.
Once a final plan is received, the council will need to approve the plan.
What we are thinking is something like Welcome to Montgomery, birth place of the Texas flag and a very large flowing flag, Yates explained. Matter of fact, the council will probably have to approve a variance for the height and size of the flag because otherwise flag poles are considered a structure and there is a 32 ft. high restructure on structures in a structure zone. But I dont think the council will have a problem (with the variance).
Newly elected Mayor Sara Countryman shared she is honored to be the mayor of Montgomery at the time the building is erected and described of Texas as the epitome as a bank that displays at its locations and is rooted in Texas history.
We are thrilled because being that we are rich in history, birthplace of the Texas flag, third oldest city in Texas, home of C.B. Stewart, she said. It only makes sense to have a bank reflect our same history, heritage and pride. We share that in common.
On the economic side, she said the rapidly growing and developing city will be welcoming the banks employees. The building will house the bank on the first floor with office suites on the second floor.
We are bringing hopefully satellite offices or maybe being an incubator for startups that can start up there, Countryman said. I heard there are two big canons. Its going to be the gateway to our city. Who wouldnt want their office space there? We are quite confident it is going to add to our city, employment, financially, and aesthetically.
mellsworth@hcnonline.com
A Houston man sent to death row in a high-profile police killing and store robbery could be headed back to a local court for further review, after fallout from the wrongful conviction of one of his supposed accomplices raised questions about the case.
Harris County prosecutors last week put in an unusual request to let the lower court take another look at the 2004 conviction of Elijah Joubert, whose erstwhile co-defendant - Alfred Dewayne Brown - was freed after a police investigator doing spring cleaning uncovered potentially exculpatory phone records stashed in his garage.
Though the belatedly discovered records appeared to corroborate Brown's alibi, they didn't directly raise doubts about Joubert's conviction. But defense lawyers argued that they raised questions about the truthfulness of a third man - Dashan Glaspie - whose testimony helped put both Brown and Joubert on death row.
A Harris County judge rejected that claim last year. But in light of a series of twisting developments since then - a resurfaced email, the appointment of special counsel, and a bar grievance against the prosecutor who put Brown away - the district attorney's office decided that it's worth another look in the interest of "judicial economy."
Last week's filing with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals comes months after District Attorney Kim Ogg appointed special counsel John Raley to reinvestigate the case, and possibly figure out at last whether Brown is innocent and entitled to compensation for his time on death row, or whether he's guilty and should be taken back to trial.
The three men at the center of the case were all sent to prison in connection with the 2003 slayings of Houston Police Officer Charles L. Clark and store clerk Alfredia Jones during a robbery at a check-cashing store in southeast Houston.
In the theory of the case presented at trial, prosecutors said Brown executed the police officer, while Joubert shot to death the store clerk, who had just returned from maternity leave. Both men were sent to death row, while Glaspie got a 30-year sentence in exchange for his testimony.
But Brown always said he was innocent and that he'd been at his girlfriend's apartment just after the murders. The proof, he said, was in a phone call he'd made to his girlfriend at work that morning.
For years, officials claimed they had no records of that call. But then in 2014, investigator Breck McDaniel uncovered the phone records in his garage, apparently corroborating Brown's alibi. That sudden discovery paved the way to Brown's release from prison the next year.
At first, prosecutors said the records had been inadvertently misplaced and not intentionally concealed. But earlier this year, Ogg's office recovered a 2003 email showing that McDaniel had told former prosecutor Dan Rizzo about the phone records well before the case went to trial.
It's not clear whether Rizzo read that email, but two days after receiving it he signed a four-page subpoena order almost identical to one attached to the email. The only difference, records show, was a half-sentence deletion, removing a line McDaniel said he wasn't sure about in his message.
Rizzo's attorney, Chris Tritico, has consistently maintained there's no indication his client read the email, though his handling of the case raised enough questions for the DA's office that they forwarded the entire matter to the state bar as a formal complaint.
While Rizzo - who is now retired - waits to hear from the state bar, Brown is fighting for compensation for his time on death row. So far he hasn't been eligible for state funds because he hasn't been declared actually innocent, something Ogg's office could do. So instead, he's focused his efforts on a civil lawsuit.
Earlier this year, the Harris County Attorney's Office filed an explosive motion to dismiss the lawsuit, alleging that a new expert interpretation of old phone records dashed Brown's alibi and showed he really could have committed the crime and simply "bluffed his way out of prison."
Currently, that suit is on hold as Raley continues probing the events of 2003.
As for Joubert, his criminal case has been sitting in front of the criminal appeals court awaiting a confirmation of the trial court's findings from last year. His defense counsel did not oppose the DA's latest motion - but said they didn't agree with the legal reasoning behind it.
His lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
Nick de la Torre, Staff / Houston Chronicle
Houston City Council on Wednesday was to consider subsidizing the construction of a grocery store around the corner from a Fiesta Mart on a parcel it sold two years ago to a developer who built a pharmacy across the street from a Walgreens.
Mayor Sylvester Turner pulled the deal with Teloloapan Meat Market from the council agenda on Wednesday morning, however, and it was not discussed.
A pregnant woman is expected to be OK after being hit while crossing a southwest Houston street Tuesday night.
The crash happened around 9:20 p.m. on Fountain View Drive underneath the Southwest Freeway overpass, according to Houston police.
Two-time Guinness World Records holder Mike Matson will share his experiences rowing across both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans at a fundraiser benefiting Cullinan Park 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19.
Matson is the keynote speaker for the second annual Cullinan Park Conservancy Picnic for the Park event that will be held in the auditorium of River Pointe Church, 5000 Ransom Road. Memorial Hermann Sugar Land is the presenting sponsor.
Ill be telling the stories of both of my rows, said Matson. The first one, rowing across the Atlantic was successful. The second, and I think more interesting one, was my recent row across the Pacific, which ended in our being rescued by a container ship.
The Houston native made history skippering a three-man rowboat more than 3,200 miles across the Atlantic Ocean. He and his crew became the first Texans and the first triple-crewed row boat to finish the 2016 Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, billed as the Worlds Toughest Row.
Always up for a challenge and determined to make a difference in the world, Matson began a second row in June.
He and Brian Krauskopf, who rowed across the Atlantic with him, entered The Great Pacific Race. They were determined to cross the 3,000 miles from Monterey, California to Hawaii in 40 days. Three days into the race their custom-made boat, the Anne, capsized. Matson was thrown into the water. Though the boat was righted, Matson began to experience life-threatening dehydration. A container ship began rescue operations and the race had to be scrubbed.
Both trips taught Matson a number of life lessons that he shares with his audiences.
When you are out there, you are cut off from technology, Matson said. Theres no social media, no television. You are alone with your thoughts. It re-centers you. You learn to trust the people you are with and trust in your friendships. You also learn that you are never alone. There are always people there to take care of you and pray for you.
His message is a simple one that he hopes encourages people to persevere and live an adventurous life.
Just one stroke at a time, Matson said. If you start out thinking Im going to row all the way across the Atlantic youll be overwhelmed. If you think Ill just row 40 miles today and maybe 20 more tomorrow, you will be across that ocean in no time.
Mastons boat will be on display during the luncheon. Plus, the conservancy will present Ann Hamilton with the Nina Cullinan Award, given to a person instrumental in promoting and enhancing the beauty of the park. Winners of the annual Cullinan Park Conservancy Photo Contest, underwritten by Johnson Development, also will be announced.
Tickets are $50-$75 and can be purchased online at www.cullinanparkconservancy.org/picnic-for-the-park. Proceeds will go toward improvements for the 754-acre Joseph S. and Lucie H. Cullinan Park in Sugar Land.
Dear Abby:
My 3-year-old grandson hurts animals. Hes intelligent and articulate. He understands many concepts about all kinds of things. Frankly, Im scared. Its because he is so intelligent and high-functioning. I feel he should have more empathy than he does.
He has been doing this off and on for the last couple of years. My daughter, my husband and I have been discouraging it the whole time. He gets timeouts, stern talks and toys taken away. It doesnt work. My daughter has started swatting his bottom or his leg hoping he will understand it is unacceptable. She isnt comfortable hitting him and neither am I. My grandson knows better. I know he does.
My daughter called me this afternoon, upset because he hurt their dog again. Must we get rid of these pets? No one wants to do that. When is it too much? How can we make it stop?
Aghast in Alabama
Dear Aghast:
It is already too much. Your grandsons behavior isnt normal. Because he seems unable to appropriately interact with these helpless animals, he shouldnt be allowed to be around them without constant supervision. For the dogs own safety, another home should be found for it before its hurt again.
Your grandson may be acting out of anger, because he has been physically or sexually abused himself or has witnessed domestic violence. This is why its extremely important he be seen by a licensed mental health professional, who can advise his parents and you about how this should be handled. Without intervention, the boys behavior could escalate, and he could seriously injure another child.
Dear Abby:
I am a 64-year-old woman; my sister is 68. A few months ago, she was shopping and saw a man who looked exactly like our father. (Dad passed away in 2008.) A conversation ensued, and he subsequently came to visit her at her home. Hes 69. She snapped a picture of him and sent it to me, and the resemblance is uncanny. He was born in the same state as our father, was adopted and never knew his birth parents. We never had a brother; it was always just the two of us and our parents. She wants me to meet him.
Hes married and doesnt want to tell his family about us. I would be happy to meet him, brother or not, but I need to know the truth before getting involved. It would be too weird for me to just wonder. He seems reluctant to take the DNA test. My sister and I are in the AncestryDNA system already, so it would be easy for us all to confirm. What should I do?
Getting Involved
Dear Getting Involved:
Because this man doesnt want his family to know he may have siblings, is reluctant to take the test and you would prefer not to meet him unless you know his status, do nothing. The next move should be his.
DearAbby.com
Dear Abby
P.O. Box 69440
Los Angeles, CA 90069
Andrews McMeel Syndication
As a deadly pig virus strikes China, the world's biggest pork consumer won't have many places to turn if it needs to boost imports.
So far, it's too early to tell whether the outbreak of African swine fever -- a highly contagious, pig-eradicating virus -- will have a significant impact on China's domestic pork production, said Joe Schuele, a spokesman for the U.S. Meat Export Federation.
Still, it's unsettling to see a disease this deadly, which no other country has been successful at fighting, spreading among the world's densest hog population, said Brett Stuart, founding partner of Global AgriTrends, a market intelligence firm.
If massive losses do ensue, the European Union -- the top global pork exporter -- might be the first to step in and fill the gaps for China, said Heather Jones, an analyst at Vertical Group. After that, there's the U.S., but the Asian nation has levied tariffs against American shipments. What could end up happening: China turns to the EU and other importing nations start buying more American pork, she said.
U.S. pork producer Hormel Foods said it is "monitoring the situation closely," while Smithfield Foods and Tyson Foods declined to comment.
Canada, Brazil and Chile are probably next in line to benefit from a rise in demand. In particular, Brazil has a rapidly growing pork export business, and its shipments this year to China through July have more than tripled, Global AgriTrends' Stuart said.
"Brazil and China have cozied up significantly on meat trade," he said.
China produced 53.4 million metric tons of pork in 2017 and imported about 1.62 million tons, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.
Since the country's pork imports only account for about 3 percent of its industry, domestic production losses could pull on world supplies in a dramatic way. For example, if the nation lost 17 percent of its output, it would take all the traded pork in the world to make up that demand, Stuart said.
Former Maryland state delegate Michael Vaughn, D, was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison Tuesday after he was convicted of accepting cash in exchange for votes that would expand liquor sales in Prince George's County.
A jury found Vaughn guilty of conspiracy and bribery in March. During his six-day trial in U.S. District Court in Maryland, Vaughn and his attorneys argued that the bundles of cash he received from liquor store owners and a lobbyist in 2015 and 2016 were campaign contributions that he failed to report because he had personal financial problems.
But prosecutors for the government argued that the more than $15,000 that changed hands in a coffee shop bathroom, a dark restaurant and other locations throughout the county were bribes.
In his first public remarks about the case since he resigned from the legislature last year, Vaughn, 60, spoke briefly during his sentencing hearing. He stood in a gray suit and told the judge that he was "devastated by the hurt and pain" he caused and wanted to "express my sincerest apologies" to his family and constituents.
Sentencing Judge Paula Xinis called Vaughn's misconduct "exceptionally serious" and "grievous bribery."
Vaughn was one of seven arrested last year in a federal corruption case that investigators called "Operation Dry Saloon." Liquor store owners, lobbyists, former liquor board commissioners and former Prince George's County Council member William Campos, D, conspired to pass laws that would allow for Sunday liquor sales in the county in exchange for cash.
Vaughn served in the legislature for 14 years starting in 2003 and resigned from the legislature minutes before the start of the 2017 session, shortly after the liquor board investigation was made public.
Vaughn was the only defendant who took his case to trial. The others pleaded guilty, and most have been sentenced.
Vaughn's attorneys, William Purpura and Theresa Whalen, argued that Vaughn voted for legislation lifting the ban on Sunday liquor sales because the county was losing tax revenue to the District and other neighboring jurisdictions that permitted the sales.
Purpura said during Vaughn's sentencing that as a delegate, his client would often vote in accordance with committee recommendations and that while it was wrong to take the money, Vaughn did not necessarily change his votes. Purpura said Vaughn took the cash because "he was in a bad financial situation. . . . He was overextended."
"I believe Mr. Vaughn never changed his vote for any amount of cash," Purpura said.
Prosecutors, however, argued that Vaughn and former chief liquor inspector David Son hashed out a scheme in which local liquor store owners Young Paig and Shin Ja Lee would pay Vaughn $20,000 over two years to clear the way for Sunday sales.
The House and Senate eventually passed the bill, which Gov. Larry Hogan, R, signed into law.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Windom said Vaughn was a savvy legislator who was smarter than someone who merely voted in compliance with committee recommendations. Vaughn was a deputy whip, a house leader and "in the fray . . . playing politics."
"He fully embraced the pay-to-play culture that has been a repeat phrase in this court for a decade," Windom said, alluding to the 87-month sentence former Prince George's County executive Jack Johnson received for bribery and corruption.
While most bribery cases are driven by greed, Vaughn's case was underpinned by need, the judge said. "Your public office became at least one avenue to stop that financial blood flow, and I find that tragic," Xinis said.
Vaughn was also charged with funneling more than $100,000 in campaign donations to support himself. The jury never considered those wire fraud counts because the charges were separated from the bribery and corruption case. The government said Tuesday that it would drop the related wire fraud charges.
At the end of the sentencing hearing, Xinis thanked the FBI agents who investigated the case, saying she hoped that she would not see them in court again for future public corruption cases but added, "I am not so naive."
Paul Manafort's second trial will reprise many of the themes from his previous one in Alexandria, Virginia, where a jury convicted the former Trump campaign chairman of bank and tax fraud. But with U.S. prosecutors facing a new judge with her own ground rules, expect the sequel to unfold differently.
In the Washington trial, oligarchs are allowed but a witness's marital infidelity is not. Also out is any discussion of the full scope of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, which U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Wednesday was irrelevant and prejudicial to Manafort's defense.
Manafort faces seven felony counts including conspiracy to launder money, failure to register as a foreign agent for a Ukrainian political party and witness tampering. Some of the evidence underlying those charges was also seen or heard in the Alexandria trial.
Rick Gates, Manafort's former right-hand man, who cooperated with prosecutors and testified against his former boss last month, may or may not take the stand again, prosecutor Andrew Weissmann told Jackson at a hearing on Wednesday.
On cross-examination at the prior trial, Manafort's lawyers exploited Gates' admitted marital infidelity to sow doubts in jurors' minds about his trustworthiness. Jackson said that while she didn't believe the subject had been raised inappropriately, she nevertheless barred it from being a topic of discussion in the trial before her.
"I do not believe this evidence is relevant to his credibility," she said.
Similarly, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, who presided over the Alexandria trial, barred both sides from using the term "oligarch" because he said it had negative connotations that jurors might attach to Manafort. Jackson, by contrast, said lawyers could use the term, provided that they agree on a definition for it.
"I don't think we should leave it up to the understanding of the average juror," she said.
Jackson on Wednesday also denied a motion by the defense to move the trial to Roanoke, Virginia, rejecting an argument she said was based heavily on the propensity of District of Columbia residents to vote Democratic. The judge said she didn't believe that was a lawful basis for a change of venue or a predictor of bias. Still, she left the door open for Manafort's lawyers to ask again, should seating a jury prove more difficult than anticipated.
Jackson, who joked that she'd be open to moving the proceedings to Hawaii, also instructed prosecutors to "turn down the volume" on allegations of lavish spending by Manafort, which was on frequent display during the early part of the Alexandria trial.
Just as in the first trial, defense lawyer Kevin Downing said that his client was being prosecuted only because of his role in the Trump campaign. He cited other firms that were doing similar work during the same period -- including that of lobbyist Tony Podesta, the brother of former Democratic White House staffer John Podesta -- who haven't been accused of wrongdoing.
Jackson said she wasn't sure whether Downing was right about when the investigation into his client's activities began, citing a Justice Department inquiry referred to in the indictment that predated both the 2016 election and Mueller's appointment as special counsel. Still, she didn't immediately rule on whether the defense can claim Manafort is a victim of selective prosecution.
NEW CANAAN Commuters will be going to church more to park their cars.
Boxcar, a mobile phone application that coordinates the opening of parking spaces on private properties, was approved by the Board of Selectmen to open up 60 spaces by next Monday at St. Aloysius Church on 21 Cherry St.
Stacey Miltenberg, New Canaans parking manager, said the department would monitor and supervise the spaces on St. Aloysius.
Well go with Boxcar Sept. 10 and see how everything gets set up and where the spots will be designated, Miltenberg said. Well manage (the spaces) and hopefully those spaces wont be abused by just people going there and parking.
The allotted times would allow anyone to pay $7 for a space from 6 a.m. to midnight. Boxcar CEO Joe Colangelo said the daily fee applies to those who book the space even if they park in said space for five minutes or for the entire 6 a.m. to midnight timeframe.
Cars that park in Boxcar spaces without paying the daily fee will see stickers placed on them, followed by stickers that are harder to take off after the first offense.
Users will need to download the Boxcar application on their smartphone in order to use the service.
All spots are fully reserved, so if you have a reservation in the Boxcar app youll be guaranteed a parking spot no matter what time you arrive to the station, Colangelo said. Commuters should download Boxcar from the (Apples) app store or Google Play to reserve their parking spots.
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan, who campaigned on the promise of bringing more parking spots to town, has engaged in talks with the New Jersey based application since the beginning of the year in order to bring it to town.
Get in touch To contact Boxcar's customer service, call: 908-485-7275 To learn more about Boxcar, visit: http://www.boxcarapp.com/ See More Collapse
Were happy to do with other churches in town and effectively get additional parking spaces without costs to the town, Moynihan said.
A representative from St. Aloysius was not available for comment.
The Parking Authority will be emailing the estimated 500 people on parking wait lists to spread the word about the upcoming 60 spaces.
Colangelo added that the $7 daily fee applies to those who book the space even if they park in said space for five minutes or for the entire 6 a.m. to midnight timeframe.
Moynihan did not hide his ambition to extend Boxcar to other private properties in town as the six-month trial approved by Planning and Zoning in late June gets underway.
This is a good deal for our commuters and are happy to see this first step, Moynihan said. Other churches have reached out and were looking at similar arrangements with other properties we have a realistic goal of 150 spaces downtown which would greatly alleviate our waitlist.
Houston Fire Chief Sam Pena on Tuesday warned of dire consequences including possible layoffs of more than 800 firefighters and deferred maintenance or upgrades on aging equipment, if voters approve the firefighters pay parity initiative on the November ballot.
Penas warning came during a City Council Committee on Budget & Fiscal Affairs meeting to provide city leaders with their first look at how the Houston Fire Department might handle the costs of the ballot measure, which proposes to raise firefighter pay to that of their police peers.
In its latest estimate, the Turner administration says approval of the referendum would cost the city $98 million in its first year and would lead to cuts at the fire department as well as in other city agencies.
A reduction of this size in personnel cannot be accomplished without a major restructuring of the current operations, said Tantri Emo, director of the citys finance department. Emo said the citys $98 million estimate million came from comparing salaries of firefighters and police at similar ranks, and said the city did not yet have estimates that might factor in costs to the citys pension system.
Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association President Marty Lancton questioned the citys calculation on how much pay parity would actually cost taxpayers. Lancton repeated past assertions that the city refused to negotiate or work with firefighters on issues ranging from pay to operations to equipment, but he did not provide the unions cost estimates.
Lancton again contended that city officials had actively tried to sabotage efforts to reach a new contract and to declare collective bargaining unconstitutional in Harris County.
He also sought to shoot down assertions by council members that the city had previously offered firefighters a 9.5 percent raise and accused Mayor Sylvester Turner of pitting firefighters against police officers.
The union first circulated a petition last year to put the measure before voters, but the city failed to verify the signatures until 2018 when ordered by a judge. The city secretarys office completed the verification process in May. Then, union officials sought a court order against city officials for criticizing the proposed initiative in a public meeting, equating their comments to illegal electioneering.
Now, the mayor manufactures a budget emergency that few even bother to scrutinize, Lancton said, in a statement after the meeting. It may be good political theater, but its vindictive and misleading.
The sparsely attended meeting saw comment from just one other group, the fire unions colleagues at the Houston Police Officers Union who fired off a pointed critique of the parity initiative.
Union President Joe Gamaldi said parity in another Texas city Dallas had major impacts on public safety, causing a rise in response times and for officers to flee to other jurisdictions.
This is insanity, folks, he said. This is simple. This is a bill the city taxpayers cannot afford.
Chief Pena said a 25 percent across-the-board raise would boost costs and force layoffs of up to 931 firefighters more than a full shift of the departments 4,100 firefighters. The costs would further complicate HFDs attempts to replace an aging fleet, upgrade stations and make other long-overdue improvements, he said.
Now is not a time to be looking to decimate our organization, Pena said. Because were having a hard time keeping up with demand right now.
Pena said the department would need to replace classified personnel with civilian workers in major portions of its Life Safety Bureau, as well as its Dispatch and EMS divisions, and could see response times lengthen.
Those moves would save $20 million a year, he said, but would not bridge the gap.
Were going to have to cut personnel, he said. This is reality. We get work done with people. The less firefighters I have available, the less units I can keep in service, which means it has a domino effect on our response times and our capacity.
City council members said they strongly expect the initiative to pass and expressed alarm at the possible impact it could have on other city services.
This is going to be disastrous for the city of Houston and disastrous for the fire department as we know it, District E Councilman Dave Martin said. Everyone believes firefighters deserve a pay raise, but this isnt the way to go about it.
Lancton who arrived at the hearing when it was nearly over and said he was unaware hed been added to the agenda dismissed the specter of mass layoffs as a scare tactic.
Even as they raised concerns about the initiative, city leaders agreed they believed firefighters deserved a raise.
A lot of us are convinced firefighters need better compensation, At-Large Position 2 Councilmember David Robinson said. But I think they need their jobs, and thats where Im concerned as can be. Where are we going to find the money to pay them?
A new surveillance photo could help detectives solve a Labor Day shooting at a northeast Houston restaurant.
The violence unfolded in the parking lot of a Tex-Mex restaurant in the 11100 block of Bentley Street around 9:50 a.m. Monday, according to the Harris County Sheriff's Office.
The victim was sitting in his vehicle when two men drove up in a gold-colored Honda sedan with temporary paper plates, authorities said.
One of the men got out of the Honda and approached the victim. The two started arguing, and the man from the Honda allegedly pulled a gun and shot the other man, deputies said.
The victim stumbled into the restaurant and told waiters that he had just been shot. He was rushed to an area hospital and remained in critical condition Tuesday night, authorities said.
Detectives hope a photo taken from the restaurant's security system will help the public identify the assailant.
Anyone with information about the Honda or the shooting is urged to contact the HCSO Violent Crime Unit at 713-221-6000.
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
A Prairie View A&M University student was found fatally shot three times in a truck Tuesday night in the 200 block of University Drive, police said.
SHOOTING: New surveillance photo released in northeast Houston shooting
The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences identified the man as 24-year-old Darius LeCompte of Missouri City.
Prairie View PD said officers initially responded to a major accident at 9:15 p.m. and later found LeCompte dead on the vehicle's driver side in a parking lot.
The vehicle had slammed into a parked truck, a minivan and a store, according to KTRK. The station also reported that two people may have also been in the truck at the time.
Prairie View A&M University officials said LeCompte recently transferred to the school. He had only been attending class for two weeks as a sophomore biology major, university spokeswoman Candace Johnson said.
She said he didn't participate in any extra-curricular activities at the school.
His official cause of death has not yet been determined.
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
A mother is seeking justice for her daughter who died in jail in July 2017 despite allegedly asking law enforcement officers to take her to the hospital for treatment.
Kelly Coltrain, 27, of Austin, was found dead in her cell in Nevada's Mineral County Jail on July 23, 2017, after suffering a seizure related to drug use, according to documents in a death investigation conducted by the Nevada Department of Public Safety's Investigation Division (NDI). Coltrain was a heroin user since 2008 and had been jailed because of traffic violations, NDI said.
The NDI determined that Coltrain told Sgt. J. Holland of the Mineral County Sheriff's Office before she was placed in cell that she had a drug dependency and a history of seizures. Coltrain told Deputy R. Gulcynski that she wanted medical intervention during the course of her incarceration, the NDI wrote.
LOOKING TO HELP: Scripps researcher developing vaccine to battle heroin addiction
"Based upon investigative findings it appears that several Mineral County Detention Facility policies and procedures were violated," NDI detective Damon Earl wrote on April 26, 2018.
The Mineral County Sheriff's Office declined to comment. Lyon County District Attorney Stephen Rye declined to press charges against the sheriff's office, Holland, or Gulcynski.
"Based on my review, they did not notice any signs warranting any medical intervention based on their training or experience," Rye said, according to the Reno Gazette Journal. "They were provided information related to her, and it appeared to me that was taken into account in her housing and monitoring. The officers did not ignore information provided to them. And, based on the reports by NDI, it did not appear that they exhibited any cruel, oppressive or malicious treatment."
Coltrain's mother Carol Fesser has since retained Terri Keyser-Cooper and Kerry Doyle as legal council and have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Mineral County Sheriff's Office. Doyle hopes the lawsuit forces Mineral County to adopt the necessary policies and training to ensure that this doesn't happen to someone else, she told the Houston Chronicle.
The events leading up to Coltrain's death began when she traveled to Lake Tahoe for her grandmother's 75th birthday. The family went to the beach July 18, 2017, as part of the celebration. Coltrain's aunt Catherine Wise remembers her having a great time with the family.
"We had gone on hikes, swam and relaxed by the lake together. Most importantly we were able to hug, have a laugh and share the exciting things going on and plans for the future. I miss my niece's sweet laugh," Wise said.
It was at the beach where Fesser raised concerns over infections on Coltrain's arm due to drug use. Fesser gave her an antibiotic to help her feel better, documents from the NDI investigation stated.
The next day, Coltrain was arrested for speeding while travelling home, documents from the NDI investigation stated.
Coltrain called her mom from jail around 3:30 p.m.
"Carol stated Kelly's first words to her were, 'I never thought I'd call you from jail again, mom.' Carol told Kelly she was not bailing her out. Kelly told Carol to just pack up their stuff because they were going to lose their apartment. Carol said Kelly then made the statement that she should just go kill herself," Fesser told Detective Desiree Mattice in a Dec. 4. report.
Fesser claims she told Sgt. J. Holland about her daughter's drug addiction and seizures, according to the Dec. 4. report.
Roughly four hours after being placed into a jail cell, Coltrain told the night deputy she needed to go to the hospital.
"Unfortunately, since you're DT'ing (a reference to the detoxification process), I'm not going to take you over to the hospital right now just to get your fix," Dep. Ray Gulcynski told Coltrain, according to the NDI report. "That's not the way detention works, unfortunately. You are incarcerated with us, so ... you don't get to go to the hospital when you want."
Hours before her death on July 23, 2017, Holland noticed that Coltrain had vomited on the floor of her cell. He brought her new prison uniform and a mop to clean her cell before leaving and closing the door behind him. When Holland returned, he asked if Coltrain was OK and she said, "Well....I'm fine, I'm fine," according to an interview Holland gave to Detective Damon Earl Sept. 11, 2017. This entire interaction was captured by a surveillance camera in Coltrain's cell.
Kerry Doyle, the lawyer representing Coltrain's family, called the video of her cleaning up her vomit "horrifying because it shows that the person charged, by law, with caring for Kelly Coltrain, dismissed her medical condition as laziness in the hour before her death. His deliberate indifference is apparent since he entirely failed to ever seek guidance from a medical professional."
A couple of hours later, Coltrain was found dead in her cell by Gulcynski. A paramedic was not called after Coltrain was initially found, documents with the NDI state.
Coltrain's friend Katie Adreano first met her when they were in gym class at Clark County's Centennial High School in 2005. She remembers Coltrain has being bright, sweet, and loyal.
"Kelly and I spent years as best friends going to music festivals and adventuring. She was so full of life even in her deepest points of addiction," Adreano said. "She was someone you wanted to be around and the best friend you could ever ask for. She was my biggest cheerleader and I will miss her support and positivity for the rest of my life."
Fernando Alfonso III covers everything from crime to weird internet trends. Read him on the breaking news site chron.com and the subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com. | fernando.alfonso@chron.com
Yi-Chin Lee, Staff / Houston Chronicle
Mayor Sylvester Turner will begin a series of town hall meetings this week to discuss the two city ballot items that will appear on the November ballot.
The gatherings will run from 6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. and will start Wednesday and run through the week before early voting starts in October.
Texas talk show host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones called Sen. Marco Rubio a frat boy and a little gangster thug in a confrontation captured on video outside a hearing at Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
As the Florida Senator answered questions from reporters, Jones repeatedly interrupted, aggressively pressing him about Democrats purging conservatives from social media platforms.
Rubio said he did not know who Jones was, rolling his eyes and laughing as Jones continued to interject.
REJECTED: Judge denies Alex Jones effort to dismiss Sandy Hook lawsuit
Dont touch me again, man, Rubio said after Jones patted him on the shoulder. Rubio added that he would not call the police, but rather take care of it myself.
"Look at him, he's so mad," Jones said. "You're not going to silence me. You're not going to silence America. Youre literally like a little gangster thug."
Rubio continued to speak with reporters briefly, with a steady stream of interruptions from Jones.
You guys can talk to this clown, the senator said as he walked off. Jones continued to yell insults as Rubio left.
BACKING: Ted Cruz sticks up for Alex Jones after Facebook ban
The confrontation happened outside a Senate hearing during which Twitter and Facebook officials testified about their efforts to combat Russian interference in U.S. elections.
Jones, host of InfoWars, was suspended earlier this year from Twitter and Facebook, and his content has been removed from other social platforms, including YouTube, Spotify, and Apple. He currently faces a defamation lawsuit for claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.
Qualifications Quebec expands to assist immigration candidates and newcomers across the province
New web portal helps Quebec immigrants navigate credentials recognition process Qualifications Quebec expands to assist immigration candidates and newcomers across the province
New web portal helps Quebec immigrants navigate credentials recognition process Qualifications Quebec expands to assist immigration candidates and newcomers across the province
New web portal helps Quebec immigrants navigate credentials recognition process Qualifications Quebec expands to assist immigration candidates and newcomers across the province Stephen Smith Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif
Sans Font Size A
A
Pour lire cet article en francais, cliquez ici.
A new information portal has been created to help immigration candidates and immigrants to Quebec with questions about getting their foreign credentials recognized for employment in the province.
Developed with funding from Quebecs Immigration Ministry, known as MIDI, qualificationsquebec.com allows users to determine if their profession is regulated and, if so, whats required in order to have their education, training and work experience assessed and recognized and the organizations responsible for doing so.
Another feature of the new portal is information on job prospects for ones profession in the various regions of Quebec.
Counselors are also available either online or by phone to assist visitors with their search for information.
Our counselors can guide you to the most relevant resources and services to recognize all or part of your education and competencies, the websites contact page reads.
All the information on the current Beta version of the portal is in French, but users who wish to contact a counselor are invited to do so in English.
The portal taps the expertise of a group previously called Qualification Montreal, which for years provided similar services in the Montreal area. MIDI funding has now allowed the organization to expand its mandate and provide its services across Quebec.
MIDI describes the expanded mandate of Qualifications Quebec as:
facilitating the recognition of skills by institutions in Quebecs education and higher education network, professional orders and other regulatory agencies;
promote skills recognition services;
offer training and intervention tools to those engaged in the field of skills recognition;
set up intervention teams, in consultation with relevant partners, which can propose solutions to specific problems that may arise in the recognition of skills.
A news release says the aim is to have the portal capable of providing information on 500 trades and professions in French and English.
The new portal is a collaborative effort between Qualifications Quebec, MIDI, Quebecs Ministry of Education and Higher Learning and its Ministry of Work, Employment and Social Solidarity.
This is a great initiative, one that will hopefully serve as a model for other provinces, said David Cohen, senior partner at the Campbell, Cohen Canadian immigration law firm in Montreal.
To find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs, fill out a free assessment.
2018 CICNews All rights Reserved
Day one of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court was largely a farce, but the committees youngest member, Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, stepped up as the adult in the room. In the middle of what Sasse accurately labeled a politicized circus, he delivered a master class on the proper allocation of authority among the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of the federal government. Sasses separation-of-powers roadmap is one that nominee Kavanaugh has followed throughout his 12 years on the federal bench.
At the outset, Democratic senators played the part of resistance warriors and sought to derail the proceedings. Perched at the left flank of the Democrats left-side phalanx, the two junior-most of their number2020 presidential aspirants Cory Booker and Kamala Harrisjostled for camera time, while Republican chairman Chuck Grassley struggled to maintain order. Grassley implausibly claimed that the Democrats had had plenty of time to read 42,000 pages of materials from Kavanaughs White House years that had been released some 15 hours earlier. He largely missed the broader point: the objecting senators had announced their opposition to Kavanaugh the moment that he was nominated.
In the gallery, scores of protesters attempted to invoke the hecklers veto and were promptly escorted out by capitol police. A coterie protesting for abortion rights donned the red habits and bonnets of the oppressed women of the novel-cum-dystopian-television-series The Handmaids Tale. The father of a victim of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, accosted Kavanaugh during a recess, before security intervened. Kavanaughs former law clerk, Zina Bash, who has been prepping the judge for the hearing, became the subject of a deranged social-media firestorm, when conspiracy-minded leftists argued that she was making surreptitious hand signals to white supremacists.
Amid this chaos, the 46-year-old Sasse, who holds a Ph.D. in American history from Yale, explained the Framers view of American government. Sasse argued that judges wear black robes instead of red and blue jerseysand get life tenure, rather than seeking elected terms of officebecause the judicial branch is supposed to leave policymaking to Congress. Sasse invoked the civics of Schoolhouse Rock!, the public-service shorts that aired on Saturday mornings in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. The Schoolhouse Rock short Im Just a Bill, first aired in September 1975, shows a talking piece of legislation explaining to a boy how a bill becomes a law:
Im just a bill
Yes, Im only a bill
And if they vote for me on Capitol Hill
Well, then Im off to the White House
Where Ill wait in a line
With a lot of other bills
For the president to sign
And if he signs me, then Ill be a law.
How I hope and pray that he will,
But today I am still just a bill.
These lyrics still explain the legislative process, but as Sasse observed, theyre increasingly irrelevant to how the federal government exerts control. Though the legislative branch is supposed to be the center of our politics, it isnt, because more and more legislative authority is delegated to the executive branch every year. Starting in the 1930s and especially since the 1960s, Sasse said, a self-neutering Congress ceded much of its authority to a bunch of alphabet-soup bureaucracies.
Perhaps as much as any judge sitting on the federal bench, Kavanaugh has stood athwart this congressional abdication of constitutional duty, yelling, Stop! The seminal Supreme Court case enabling Congress to transfer its power to alphabet-soup agencies is the New Dealera decision Humphreys Executor v. United States (1935), which upheld the constitutionality of agencies wholly disconnected from the executive department that were created by Congress as a means of carrying into operation legislative and judicial powers. In a footnote in a dissenting opinion earlier this year, in PHH Corporation v. CFPB, Kavanaugh questioned the foundations of Humphreys Executor. He dissented from the D.C. Circuits opinion upholding Congresss decision to vest authority over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in a single director, unanswerable to the president. Kavanaugh viewed that as a step too far beyond what Humphreys Executor allowed.
The litigant in the CFPB case decided not to ask the Supreme Court for review, though similar cases are pending. But in other cases in which Kavanaugh has dissented from his colleagues acquiescence to congressional delegations of authority, the high court has agreed with his reasoning. In 2008, in Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB, the D.C. Circuit upheld the constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Boardan independent body appointed by another independent body (the Securities and Exchange Commission). Judge Kavanaugh viewed the twice-independent agency as an unconstitutional extension of Humphreys Executor. The Supreme Court agreed, and Chief Justice John Robertss opinion favorably cited Kavanaughs.
Kavanaugh did not delve much into the substance of these issues in his brief opening statement before the committee on Tuesday. (He instead focused his designed-to-be-inoffensive remarks on his personal story, highlighting his dutiful embrace of his role as husband, son, and father.) But as he had in his speech when the president announced his Supreme Court nomination, Kavanaugh stressed how he teaches his law students that the Constitutions separation of powers protects individual liberty.
Those separation-of-powers concerns explain some of the progressive opposition to Kavanaughs nominationan opposition that, as Sasse explained, has been similar for every Republican Supreme Court nomination for the last 31 years. Yes, senators objecting to Kavanaughs nomination are indeed worried about how he might rule on hot-button cases that animate their baseamong them abortion rights and gun control, the first two issues highlighted by ranking Democrat Dianne Feinstein in her opening remarks. But make no mistake: when Sasse decries the delegation of authority to administrative agencies because people dont have any way to fire the bureaucrats, progressives tend to view that as a feature, not a bug.
Theyre wrong; and Sasse is right that the current political circus is unhealthy for the republic. The Founders would be unhappily surprised to learn that so many Americans view presidential contests as live-or-die, Flight 93 elections; or that many voters in those elections are animated principally by prospective Supreme Court nominations, as 21 percent of American voters reported they were in 2016 exit polls.
Sasse, a persistent critic of his own partys president, is no drain the swamp populist. But such populism can be all thats left for objectors in a political system that leaves most divisive decisions to unelected administrators and judges. Jurists like Kavanaughjudicially modest, but forcing elected legislators to do the business of legislatingare necessary preconditions for lowering the political heat.
Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The connection between Facebook and the US election may get the bulk of the medias attention when it comes to the social networks misinformation problem, but the issue is even more of an immediate danger in other countries. Among the most recent examples is the Philippines, where president Rodrigo Duterte and his supporters have apparently used the network to attack their critics, including Senator Leila de Lima, according to a new report from BuzzFeed News. After a series of fake news stories touting trumped-up rumors about illicit sexual behavior and other indiscretions, De Lima was arrested on what some believe to be fabricated drug charges, and is now in prison.
Meanwhile, The New York Times reports Facebook has also become a key factor in the ongoing crisis in Libya, where rival groups use Facebook to mount disinformation and hate campaigns against each other, including posting threats to purify the country of political opponents. According to the Times, some of these keyboard warriors, have even tried to target their respective enemies by posting coordinates so that missiles could be aimed properly. From the traffic light at Wadi al Rabi, it is exactly 18 kilometers to the runway, which means it can be targeted by a 130 mm artillery, one user wrote on Facebook.
One of the first countries where it became apparent Facebook could be weaponized was Myanmar, where human-rights activists started reporting last year that a Buddhist monk was using the network as a tool to spread vicious lies about the predominantly Muslim Rohingya people. More than 700,000 Rohingya have been forced to flee their homes and many have been tortured and killed. Facebook has since sent additional staff to the country and has suspended some accounts, including that of a top Myanmar military official.
In India, meanwhile, rumors and conspiracy theories about alleged child abductions have been spreading via Facebook-owned WhatsApp, one of the most popular social tools, and those rumors have been linked to multiple deaths in recent months. Facebook says it is trying to help stop the spread of such misinformation, but argues that it is more difficult to do on WhatsApp because the entire network is encrypted from end to end. (Himanshu Gupta and Harsh Taneja argued against this in CJR.)
In addition to those examples, a number of news reports and at least one research paper have drawn a connection between Facebook and violence against immigrants in Germany. The paper has been criticized for flaws in its methodology, which led to the conclusion that Facebook use appeared to be tied to higher levels of anti-immigrant violence, but others argue that even a loose correlation like the one indicated by the study is worthy of concern. And those who are watching the violence on the ground say social media is definitely a factor in some of the attacks, according to a recent report from BuzzFeed News about riots in Chemnitz.
Some would argue Facebook isnt to blame for this any more than the phone company is. But social networks have allowed this problem to metastasize, and they reach orders of magnitude more people than would ever have been possible before. At what point does that become a social issue worth regulating? Thats likely to become a subject of discussion at this weeks Congressional hearings, where Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg will be testifying before the Senate intelligence committee.
Sign up for CJR 's daily email
Here are some more links about the connection between social networks and misinformation:
Google grudge : Senator Mark Warner, the vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is upset that Google and its parent Alphabet have refused to send either Google CEO Sundar Pichai or Alphabet CEO Larry Page to testify before the hearing, according to a report in Wired magazine. The company offered Senior Vice President Kent Walker instead, but the Senate committee said that wasnt good enough.
: Senator Mark Warner, the vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is upset that Google and its parent Alphabet have refused to send either Google CEO Sundar Pichai or Alphabet CEO Larry Page to testify before the hearing, according to a report in magazine. The company offered Senior Vice President Kent Walker instead, but the Senate committee said that wasnt good enough. Spot the fake: The New York Times has come up with a test for its readers, to see if they can discern the difference between Facebook pages that are legitimately about specific social or political issues, and those that have been created by fake accounts aimed at manipulating public opinion in some way.
has come up with a test for its readers, to see if they can discern the difference between Facebook pages that are legitimately about specific social or political issues, and those that have been created by fake accounts aimed at manipulating public opinion in some way. Discussion paper : What the Senate committee plans to ask the social platforms is unknown, but Warner has circulated a discussion paper among senior politicians and tech executives, proposing a number of regulatory solutions to privacy and misinformation problems, including removing some of the protections provided by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
: What the Senate committee plans to ask the social platforms is unknown, but Warner has circulated a discussion paper among senior politicians and tech executives, proposing a number of regulatory solutions to privacy and misinformation problems, including removing some of the protections provided by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Bias allegations : The tension around the Senate hearings was ratcheted up significantly in the past couple of weeks, thanks to remarks from President Trump that suggested he believes Google and other social platforms may need to be regulated because their algorithms are biased. The presidents tweet appeared to be based on a questionable study of Google News search results for the term Trump news.
: The tension around the Senate hearings was ratcheted up significantly in the past couple of weeks, thanks to remarks from President Trump that suggested he believes Google and other social platforms may need to be regulated because their algorithms are biased. The presidents tweet appeared to be based on a questionable study of Google News search results for the term Trump news. De-platforming works? Infowars founder and notorious conspiracy theorist Alex Jones bragged that being banned or blocked from social networks and other services such as Facebook and YouTube would make him stronger than ever, but early indications are that this isnt the case, according to a report in The New York Times. Traffic to the Infowars site appears to have dropped by close to 50 percent.
Other notable stories:
Legendary journalist Bob Woodward has an upcoming book out about the Trump presidency, entitled Fear , which describes a White House in turmoil as the president becomes increasingly obsessed with the witch hunt Russia investigation. The Washington Post has also published an audio clip and a transcript of a conversation between Woodward and Trump after the manuscript was already written.
, which describes a White House in turmoil as the president becomes increasingly obsessed with the witch hunt Russia investigation. has also published an audio clip and a transcript of a conversation between Woodward and Trump after the manuscript was already written. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has intervened personally in decisions about which accounts to block or ban, including the decision not to remove Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, according to The Wall Street Journal . These personal interventions have caused concern among some staff members at the social network, the Journal says. However, Dorsey denied intervening in an interview with Politico.
. These personal interventions have caused concern among some staff members at the social network, the says. However, Dorsey denied intervening in an interview with Politico. Emilio Gutierrez Soto, a Mexican journalist working in the United States, writes for CJR about what it is like to be detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE. Gutierrez Soto has been detained in ICE detention camps twice, and during the first detention was separated from his 15-year-old son for months, after requesting asylum due to persecution by Mexican authorities.
The Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the open-source encyclopedia Wikipedia, has written an open letter to the European Union arguing that proposed changes to the EUs copyright rules are a threat to the open web. The EU is considering laws that would require online services to pay for excerpts of articles (a so-called link tax) and could also make them liable for content posted by their users.
Amazon, the worlds largest online retailer and already one of the worlds most valuable companies (it just passed $1 trillion in market value, a benchmark Apple also recently passed) is said to be expanding aggressively into the online advertising business, where it is expected to be a fierce competitor for online ad giants Google and Facebook.
The Verge looks at whether Facebook, Google, and Amazon are monopolies that should be broken up by the government, and whether US antitrust law is capable of doing so. Attention Merchants author Tim Wu argues that Facebook should be forced to sell both WhatsApp and Instagram, and says the giant web companies are hurting innovation.
Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today
Mathew Ingram is CJRs chief digital writer. Previously, he was a senior writer with Fortune magazine. He has written about the intersection between media and technology since the earliest days of the commercial internet. His writing has been published in the Washington Post and the Financial Times as well as by Reuters and Bloomberg.
Compared to some congressional hearings, the latest open session of the Senate intelligence committee looking into the use of social networks as a platform for disinformationthe fourth in a serieswas a mostly sedate affair. No one trotted out poster boards with examples of ads bought by a Russian troll factory, as they did at the hearings last November, and most of the comments from senators were polite and conciliatory. There was one verbal tussle between Infowars conspiracy monger Alex Jones and Senator Marco Rubio, in which Jones called Rubio a frat boy and told him to go back to your bathhouse, after challenging him about alleged shadowbanning of conservatives, but that took place in the corridor outside the hearing.
Senator Burr, the chairman of the committee, opened by saying social media has a boundless potential for good, but that the country has also learned how vulnerable social media is to corruption and misuse, and that the examples of that happening during the election in 2016 are chilling, and a threat to our democracy. However, he also congratulated both Facebook and Twitter on the work they have been doing to remove bad actors. (Facebook recently shut down over 600 fake or inauthentic accounts, many of which appeared to be linked to Iran, and Twitter blocked several hundred as well). Both Burr and Vice Chairman Mark Warner took pains to thank Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for coming.
The most controversial aspect of the hearing was the elephant in the room, or rather the elephant not in the roomnamely, the empty chair that was supposed to be filled by a senior executive from Google. Both Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Alphabet CEO Larry Page refused to attend, and the Senate committee rejected the offer to have VP Kent Walker attend instead (although he did offer written testimony, which was also published on a Google blog). Given the largely polite nature of the discussion, its worth wondering whether Google did itself more harm by not attending than it would have by appearing. Neither Sandberg nor Dorsey said much that was noteworthy, but both at least gave the impression they care about the issues at hand.
Note to Google: showing up seems to be good for Facebook and Twitter. Lawmakers commending them for work done to take down fake accounts. This is hardly a bruising hearing for them so far. CeciliaKang (@ceciliakang) September 5, 2018
There were few mea culpas from the platforms about how they should have acted faster to crack down on misinformation (Sandberg said: We were too slow to spot this, and too slow to act), and little discussion of why it took almost a decade for both of these massive and well-funded platforms to spend even a fraction of their resources on figuring out how bad actors such as Russian counter-intelligence agencies or Iranian political factions might use them for their own ends. In a recent interview, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted he hadnt thought about that kind of thing until it was too latethat he had only focused on the good things that Facebook might bring to the world. But why?
Sign up for CJR 's daily email
What seems likely, as Senator Kamala Harris suggested during her questioning of Sandberg, is that the business model of the platforms, one based on advertising revenue and therefore on volume of clicks and engagement at any cost, benefited so much from all of the misinformation and fake activity on Facebook and Twitter that neither had any real incentive to care. Its certainly not the case that they didnt know about it, because outside security experts of all kinds have been warning both networks about such activity for years, and got little or no interest from senior executives until recently.
Now @jack is speaking; acknowledges that his platform is weaponized, is listing the litany of ways that our private public square is broken bc of algorithms and twitter's many years of inaction despite people shouting this at them (ok, I added the last part myself) #techhearings Renee DiResta (@noUpside) September 5, 2018
Both platforms have also taken full advantage of the confusion and debate over whether they are or should be thought of as publishers, or merely as conduits for information. In his opening statement, Senator Burr said the difficulty of defining who is a publisher and who is merely a distributor of content has led to a kind of convenient identity crisis, where decisions about what is allowable on your platforms have been too reactive and not given enough thought. Thats the problem in a nutshell. Facebook bans Alex Jones (finally, after multiple violations of its terms of service) but Twitter does not, and no one really knows why. The Wall Street Journal says Dorsey personally intervened to keep Jones on the platform, but Dorsey denies this, and so does Twitters head of trust and safety, Vijaya Gadde.
No one gave a clear answer to this. When asked whether it is wrong to declare, as Jones has done, that the families of victims of a mass shooting are crisis actors, Sandberg said she found it personally disturbing, and Dorsey mostly avoided answering the question. Thankfully, by that time, Jones himself was no longer in the committee room, having left it to rant at Senator Rubio in the corridor.
Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today
Mathew Ingram is CJRs chief digital writer. Previously, he was a senior writer with Fortune magazine. He has written about the intersection between media and technology since the earliest days of the commercial internet. His writing has been published in the Washington Post and the Financial Times as well as by Reuters and Bloomberg.
About a month before the Texas Tribune launched in 2009, media reporter Jack Shafer wrote a piece for Slate delineating the numerous problems inherent in nonprofit journalismnamely, that nonprofits lose money on purpose, and thus, have to take handouts, which, Shafer says, come with conditions. Shafer, who then blithely referred to CEO Evan Smith as picking the pocket of venture capitalist John Thornton, also spelled out that audience development is always secondary to advocacy in this sort of business model:
Commercial outlets may reflect their owners views, but this tendency is always tempered by the need to attract readers and viewers. Nonprofit outlets almost always measure their success in terms of influence, not audience, because their customers are the donors whove donated cash to influence politics, promote justice, or otherwise build a better world.
Of course, the Texas Tribunes base, composed of members scattered across the state and beyond, also includes deep-pocketed professional philanthropists. But just as the Tribune has evolved from a niche publication for hardcore policy wonks to a mainstream, establishment publication, its lofty goals for influence and audience arent at odds with each other; theyre inextricably linked.
ICYMI: A travesty in Myanmar
Ive been overwhelmed by the fact that they are liberated to make news judgment the only judgment, says Siva Vaidhyanathan, a journalist who worked at the Austin American-Statesman, Dallas Morning News, and Fort Worth Star-Telegram and now directs the University of Virginia Center for Media and Citizenship. Coverage decisions seem based on the importance of the story to the people of Texas, says Vaidhyanathan, not based on parochial or political or financial concerns.
In 2017, the Texas Tribune put on 62 events, including the wildly popular Tribune Fest, opened by a keynote from then-democratic Senator Al Franken and closed by Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn; this year, the site will do $2 million in revenue on events alone. Bolstered by partnerships with the likes of The New York Times, Time, Cosmopolitan, and ProPublica, a monthly average of 1.9 million people read reporting that originates in the Tribune newsroom. Its stories regularly appear in local newspapers free of charge, and its reporters crop up on local news stations just as often. If you ask an Amazon Alexa for news about Texas, Tribune multimedia reporter Alana Rocha will read it to you.
Sign up for weekly emails from the United States Project
It has exceeded my expectations. I wasnt sure it would survive and thrive, says Vaidhyanathan. You never know with a new model. I was confident knowing who they hired that they would do best to produce quality journalism. Whether there would be enough money would be the challenge.
RB Brenner, a former Washington Post editor who until recently directed the University of Texas at Austins School of Journalism, says the Tribune has made very impressive strides with deeper investigative work: Pulitzer-level, enterprise investigation since he first came to Austin in 2009.
They are doing that better and more consistently, says Brenner of the Tribunes enterprise work. Theres still a ways to go there, but they are absolutely on the right path.
Perhaps most importantly in an unforgiving media climate, the Tribune expects to raise $9 million dollars between donors, grants, and members in 2018, and anticipates more than $1 million more in revenue compared to 2017. It has been in the black since 2012, and has posted double-digit percentages in revenue growth every year since its inception.
Compare that to Texas local legacy publications, whose cuts have devastated the ranks of reporters in the state. In May, 14 newsroom staffers were let go at the San Antonio Express News. The Dallas Morning News, where Texas Tribune Editor in Chief Emily Ramshaw cut her teeth, has already cut five positions this year, citing the hard realities of publishing and shrinking revenues. In March, GateHouse Media purchased the Austin American-Statesman; last month, the company offered voluntary buyouts to 200-plus employees. Already, Publisher Susie Biehle and Editor Debbie Hiott have taken the offer, and thirteen newsroom staffers are expected to follow. Next month, the American-Statesman will stop publishing Ahora Si, its Spanish-language weekly.
Nearly a decade since its inception, the Texas Tribune has defied the doubts of nonprofit journalism skeptics and is no longer seen as an anomaly. Now, Smith and company are shaking everything up again.
Today, the publication released its first-ever strategic plan, the fruits of a nine-month information-gathering process that involved every member of the staff and conversations with media companies from the Texas Observer and the Dallas Morning News to Spotify. The Texas Tribune hopes to double and diversify its audience, double its membership program, and double down on multimedia and technology.
According to the 3,000-plus-word manifesto, our core readers are not yet representative of the states fast-changing demographics, the audience thats critical to ourand the statesfuture. Indeed, as newsrooms shrink in direct proportion to the immense growth of the state, increasingly the Tribune acts as Texas mouthpiecefor oilmen in Karnes County, families on the border, both sides of the aisle in the Capitol. While it has succeeded so far, there are large segments of the Texas population that are underrepresented, as readers, subjects, and members.
So, Smith says, Were going to fuck shit up.
AS SMITH AND RAMSHAW saw the 10th anniversary of the publication approachingthe site turns nine on November 3 of this yearthey realized it was time to think about the next decade. I dont think that there was any one thing where it was like, Oh, shit, we gotta do something, Smith says. I dont think weve ever, at any time weve been in business, felt panicked or felt like somehow we woke up and we were like, What did we do last night?
Instead, the anniversary was what Smith calls a clarifying moment, a chance to make a bold statement both internally and externally. The crux of the document hinges on one central objective: to develop specific audience and editorial strategies aimed at reaching and reflecting Texas fastest-growing populations: young and ethnically diverse Texans.
The Tribunes strategic plan makes the case that everyone everywhere should care about the state that produces the most crude oil, has the most prisoners and people living without healthcare, shares the longest contiguous border with Mexico, and contains six of the 20 biggest cities in the country.
The Tribune has already employed some of the editorial strategies hinted at in the document, says Ramshaw. In the past few months, the publication launched two new closed Facebook groupsThis is Your Texas and Campus Correspondents, respectivelyto bring young Texans into the Tribune fold and tailor coverage to specific demographics. This summer, the Tribune rolled out its Summer Salon Series for young Texans; the first, held August 18 at Austin southern restaurant Olamaie, attracted an audience (average age: 25) whose members munched on a biscuit buffet while they discussed family separation on the Texas border. There are corresponding pledges to diversify the Tribune staff; the strategic plan identifies Spanish-language skills as a greater priority in hiring going forward.
When you first start doing things that are more audience focused, there obviously are questions raised, and there are people in the newsroom who wonder if this is what they were hired for, Ramshaw says. But this newsroom has been a really fast adopter of the understanding that if we dont have an audience, who are we speaking to? The Tribunes goal, says Ramshaw, is to explain Texas to the rest of the world. If the newsroom isnt representative of a large swath of Texans, then how credible can the Tribunes message be?
Explaining Texasperhaps the most provincial and politically complicated state in the countryto someone in Idaho who may not care about the Top 10 Percent Rule or the state attorney generals securities fraud case, is an arduous task. The Tribunes strategic plan makes the case that everyone everywhere should care about the state that produces the most crude oil, has the most prisoners and people living without healthcare, shares the longest contiguous border with Mexico, and contains six of the 20 biggest cities in the country.
Publishing partnerships have been particularly helpful in disseminating the gospel of the Tribune. Recent collaborations include a joint venture with Cosmopolitan magazine for a piece on sex trafficking and another with the Weather Channel for a special report on Rockport, a Gulf Coast community that was decimated by Hurricane Harvey. There are plans for an as-yet-announced project with the Vox property Curbed. Certain issues, like family separation and Beto ORourkes November challenge for Cruzs Senate seat have nationwide appeal regardless of region, and the Texas Tribune is leading the way in coverage on those fronts. The next step, then, is grabbing and retaining an audience in-state and across the country that will turn to the Texas Tribune on a daily basis, show up to the growing slate of events, and, of course, give money via memberships and donations.
To fund this endeavor, the Tribune wants to raise an extra $10 million by its 10th anniversary. The innovation and capacity-building fund, as it is referred to, will live beside the $8.7 million operational budget, and come from philanthropic asks, a few of which have either been fulfilled or are already in the ether.
Revenue itself requires revenue, and theres things we need to test, Smith says. Were raising a separate pot of money for that purpose. It is not an endowment, it is not to sit on the shelf. This is money to be deployed in service of this strategic plan. Honestly, Id like to raise more than $10 million.
THE TRIBUNE HAS REPORTERS in El Paso, Dallas, the Rio Grande Valley, and Washington, DC, and a more limited presence in San Antonio and Houston; most of its reporters are based in Austin. Brenner, the former UT Austin journalism school director, sees the Tribunes geographic constraints as one possible obstacle to its audience growth plan.
Its going to be hard to go into places like Houston and Dallas, big cities that still have very reliable, ambitious news organizations, and get people to think of you as the go-to source, Brenner says.
The Dallas Morning News is still an excellent newspaper. The Houston Chronicleespecially the coverage of Harvey and its aftermaththeres still good journalism being done there. Texas is so big, and particularly those big cities, he says. How do you become impactful enough when theres already good journalism there and youre inevitably significantly outnumbered?
While Ramshaw says she hopes to get boots on the ground in cities where the Tribune hopes to increase its base, Smith says there are more ways to increase audience engagement than stationing beat reporters around the state.
This is statewide news organization, not a network of city organizations, he says. We viewcorrectly, I thinkthe impact of statewide decisions on the people of the state as not limited to people in cities. How we get more readership is to be more conscious and deliberate about making that connection in the Capitol in Austin and in Washington. Such coverage, says Smith, will be married to events on the ground in communities, where we bring elected officials onstage and hold [them] accountable in real-time.
Smith also balks at the idea that this strategic plan is a signal that the Texas Tribune is looking for statewide domination.
We have no competitors, he says. We only have current and future collaborators. Said another way, we hang separately or survive together. When the Tribune launched, Smith says, they were seen as competitors to the establishment. Since then though, he says, I think that whole traditional competitive mindset has broken down.
Ramshaw acknowledges the Tribunes plan will need modification in the coming years as digital publishing trends evolve. Still, in 2018, the Tribune feels more and more like the establishment. By 2025, the Tribunes plan may function as a blueprint for more publications; its happened before, after all. And because of its modenot in spite of itjournalists like Ramshaw who have worked on both sides of the profit divide are reaping the rewards and passing them along to a new class of media members.
I feel like the Tribune gave me an opportunity to reinvent myself as a journalist, to play a role in reinventing this industry, and now I get to run a newsroom where all these journalists are only thinking about the journalism. They arent worried that theyre about to be laid off. They arent worried about the bottom line of their news organization, she says. Ive been given that gift, and in return I get to turn around and give it to these guys. It is so fucking cool.
ICYMI: In Texas, a local public radio show defies the Google it age
Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today
Chris O'Connell is a writer and editor in Austin, Texas.
Smoke rose Monday from the burned-out hulk of Brazils National Museum, as recriminations flew over who was responsible for the loss of at least part of Latin Americas largest archive of historical artifacts, objects and documents.
The museums director said part of the collection was destroyed but that it was not possible yet to detail what was lost.
The museum had a collection of 20 million items including Egyptian and Greco-Roman artifacts and the oldest human skull found in the Western hemisphere and was once the home of the Portuguese royal family.
It was not clear what was at the site when the building caught fire Sunday night.
But the fire quickly led to criticism over dilapidated infrastructure and budget deficits as Brazilians prepare to vote in national elections in October.
Just crying doesnt solve anything, Alexander Kellner, the museums director, told reporters at the scene. He became emotional as he listed the funds and support he said he would now demand from authorities to salvage what was left of the collection and rebuild the museum. We have to act.
Kellner said that the institution had just recently secured approval for funds for a planned renovation of the museum, including an upgrade of the fire prevention system.
Look at the irony, the money is now there, but we ran out of time, he said.
Roberto Robadey, a spokesman for the fire department, said firefighters got off to a slow start fighting the blaze because the two fire hydrants closest to the museum were not functioning. Instead, trucks had to be sent to get water from a nearby lake.
Kellner said there were fire extinguishers on site, but it was not clear if there were sprinklers since they are problematic for museums because water can damage objects.
The building was still standing Monday morning, but much of it appeared to have been gutted. A few hundred people crowded at the gates of the site, some in tears.
On the massive site where the museum sits, the fencing was dilapidated, stonework was cracked and lawns appeared untended.
This fire is what Brazilian politicians are doing to the people, said Rosana Hollanda, a 35-year-old high school teacher, who was crying at the gates of the museum on Monday. Theyre burning our history, and theyre burning our dreams.
Roberto Leher, the rector of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, of which the museum is a part, told reporters Monday that the building needed an upgrade to its electrical and water systems and a new fire prevention plan.
We all knew the building was in a vulnerable state, he told reporters. He added that officials had been working with firefighters to reduce those risks.
A fire of this scale, the reality unfortunately showed this, we needed a systematic intervention, he said.
Asked by a reporter why such a disaster doesnt happen at cultural institutions in other countries, Kellner, the museum director, replied: Ask yourself that. Thats a good question, ask yourself that.
Latin Americas largest nation has struggled to emerge from its worst recession in decades. The state of Rio de Janeiro has been particularly hard hit in recent years thanks to a combination of falling world prices of oil, one of its major revenue sources, mismanagement and massive corruption.
The museum was closed to the public at the time of the fire, which broke out at 7:30 p.m. Sunday local time, it said in a statement. There were no reports of injuries, the museum said, and it wasnt immediately clear how the fire began.
(DiLorenzo reported from Sao Paulo. Associated Press video journalist Yesica Fisch contributed to this report from Rio. AP reporter Mauricio Savarese contributed from Recife, Brazil.)
Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Recent hurricanes have highlighted the flood insurance gap. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria caused a record $135 billion in damages, according to Munich Re estimates. Remarkably, less than half were insured losses.
There were a lot of losses that occurred outside of high risk flood zones that kind of surprised people, said Matt Junge, Swiss Res head of property solutions for the U.S. and Canada.
The storms illustrate the need for private flood coverage and homeowners are requesting the coverage more and more, he added.
He explained that the National Flood Insurance Program came into existence because private flood insurers didnt understand the risk and how to price for that risk. Now, better technology and improved models allow insurers to simulate potential events before they happen allowing for better pricing.
Insurers are comfortable with the science behind it and the ability to price appropriately for it, he said.
Its also proving to be a way for insurers to differentiate themselves from competitors, while widening lines of coverage offered to already existing customers.
Several factors have influenced the increased participation of private insurers in the flood insurance market, said Junge. Technology offers insurers the ability to understand and model how water flows. LIDAR and satellite imagery have helped improve mapping. Lastly, improved computing power has enabled insurers to simulate realistic events via multiple scenarios.
Since they already have a built-in distribution network through agents or by direct sales, insurers can play a key role in the private flood market. Adding additional value is the ability to offer comprehensive coverage by reducing gaps in coverage, he said.
Its a business opportunity and its a tremendous client service, said Junge.
The federal governments chief watchdog slammed the Federal Emergency Management Agencys response to the hurricane that killed thousands of people in Puerto Rico last year, saying it was unprepared and failed to deploy enough qualified staff.
The U.S. Government Accountability Offices report issued Tuesday said FEMA struggled with a record year for disasters on the mainland and Puerto Rico. Overall, the agency failed to adequately house disaster victims, distribute financial assistance in a timely fashion or do enough to prevent fraud.
For instance, scammers implemented a well-organized and coordinated identity theft fraud scheme in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and California that hadnt shown up following prior disasters, according to the report.
The reports criticism was especially pointed when it came to Hurricane Marias strike on Puerto Rico.
They were not prepared to respond to an event like that, said Chris Currie, the lead author of the report. They were having a lot of trouble getting people there. And not just people, but qualified people.
A report by George Washington University commissioned by Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello and released last week found that 2,975 people on the island died as a result of the storm. Other estimates have ranged as high as 5,000, but Rossello said the GWU figures would be used as the official tally.
President Donald Trump said last week that his administration did a fantastic job in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria devastated the island last September.
The GAO report acknowledged factors outside of FEMAs control that contributed to the poor response, including the islands distance 1,000 miles from the U.S. mainland, its outdated infrastructure and the limited local preparedness for a major hurricane.
But the response was also hindered by FEMAs lack of adequately trained staff -including those who speak Spanish the report found.
FEMA did not have enough bilingual employees to communicate with local residents or translate documents, GAO wrote, which resulted in further delays while staff were reshuffled from other disasters to Puerto Rico.
Even the fitness of those personnel was a problem. According to FEMAs leadership, some of the personnel sent to the island werent physically able to handle the extreme environment.
The report described an agency stretched beyond its resources by an unprecedented sequence of storms and wildfires. Its staffing was down by about a third before Harvey hit Texas which was followed in rapid succession by Irma striking Florida and then Maria.
At the height of the deployments, in October, more than half of FEMA staff were serving in a capacity for which they werent designated as qualified.
By the time Maria hit Puerto Rico, they were down to the bottom of the barrel, Currie said on a call with reporters.
The ripple effect eventually reached California. FEMA encountered initial delays in deploying personnel to the wildfires there last year because a majority of its workforce was already dispatched to support hurricane recovery efforts, according to the report.
It could take years for FEMA to dole out funding for long-term projects to rebuild storm-damaged infrastructure and other facilities. That is on top of $1.5 billion FEMA had obligated in public assistance grants to three states and two territories recovering from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.
Administrative challenges in awarding those public assistance grants were tied to delays in removing debris, though the GAO highlighted bright spots where local and federal officials collaborated to overcome the problems. For instance, in Texas, officials hired military personal to help move debris when they encountered problems.
In response to the GAOs findings, the Department of Homeland Security, which includes FEMA, said the agency is constantly reviewing its program delivery, decision-making processes, and response efforts to ensure that it can improve, minimize errors, and better serve survivors.
In July, FEMA released its own report on its response to last years disasters, and the policy changes the agency was making as a result. Tuesdays report said its too soon to assess the adequacy of these actions as part of this review and whether the actions will have the intended impact.
Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.
Wildfires in the U.S. have charred more than 10,000 square miles so far this year, an area larger than the state of Maryland, with large fires still burning in every Western state including many that are not fully contained.
Whether sparked by lightning or humans, fire has long been a force shaping the landscape of the U.S. West.
Hot, dry winds can whip flames into firestorms that leave behind charred wastelands prone to erosion and mudslides. Other fires clear out underbrush, open the forest floor to sunlight and stimulate growth.
Government agencies in recent decades effectively upended that cycle of destruction and rebirth. Fire suppression policies allowed fuels to build up in many Western forests, making them more susceptible to major fires.
Those influences are magnified as development creeps ever deeper into forests and climate change brings hotter temperatures. Recent images of subdivisions ablaze thrust the power and ecological role of wildfires into the spotlight.
A look at the environmental effects of wildfires:
SMOKE AND RUIN
Most immediately fire brings destruction.
Temperatures from extreme fires can top 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit hot enough to kill all plant life, incinerate seeds hidden beneath the surface and bake the soil until it becomes impervious to rain.
The lifeless landscape becomes prone to severe erosion, fouling streams and rivers with silt that kills fish and other aquatic life. Torrents of muddy debris following fires last year in Southern California killed 21 people and destroyed 129 homes.
U.S. Geological Survey scientists say the problem is getting worse as the area burned annually by wildfires increases. A study last year concluded sediment from erosion following fires would more than double by 2050 for about a third of western watersheds.
Smoke from this summers Western wildfires a potential health hazard for at-risk individuals prompted the closure of Yosemite National Park for more than two weeks and drifted to the East Coast, according to NASA. Recent research says it also impacts climate change as small particles spiral into the upper atmosphere and interfere with the suns rays.
CLIMATE QUESTIONS
Scientists broadly agree wildfires are getting bigger in North America and other parts of the world as the climate warms. But still emerging is how that change will alter the natural progression of fire and regrowth.
The time interval between wildfires in some locations is getting shorter, even as theres less moisture to help trees regrow. That means some forests burn, then never grow back, converting instead into shrub land more adapted to frequent fire, said Jonathan Thompson, a senior ecologist at Harvard University.
They get stuck in this trap of repeated, high-severity fire, Thompson said. Through time well see the California shrub land shifting north.
Similar shifts are being observed in Colorado, Wyomings Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park in Montana, he said.
The relationship between climate and fire cuts both ways. A longer fire season and bigger fires in the boreal forests of Alaska and Canada are burning not just trees but also tundra and organic matter in soils, which hold roughly a third of the Earths terrestrial carbon, said David Peterson, a former U.S. Forest Service research scientist.
The carbon enters the atmosphere and contributes to higher temperatures, leading to bigger fires that release yet more carbon.
BIRD IN THE BALANCE
Life and property still top the list of priorities for firefighters, but in recent years another asset has been deemed worth extra protection in many Western states: a chicken-sized bird known as the greater sage grouse.
Fires burned an estimated 3,240 square miles (8,390 square kilometers) of the birds sage bush habitat in 2017 and have burned almost 2,400 square miles (6,215 square kilometers) so far in 2018.
When sage brush burns, its often replaced with a plant from Europe called cheatgrass, which crowds out native plants and is more prone to burning.
Thats challenging government efforts to keep greater sage grouse off the endangered species list, which could restrict economic development.
Areas considered crucial to the birds survival now get extra attention: A military-type Blackhawk helicopter is under government contract to deploy quick-reaction teams to snuff out sage brush fires in portions of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Oregon.
REGENERATION
A turning point in public understanding of the ecological importance of fire came in 1988, when 1,240 square miles (3,200 square kilometers) of Yellowstone National Park burned.
The devastation, punctuated by images of wildlife fleeing flames, fed into the perception of wildfires as a menace to be battled.
The events drew criticism of the parks let it burn policy. Officials didnt immediately squelch lightning-caused fires that June because they did not pose an immediate threat to life or property, but eventually ended up deploying 10,000 firefighters.
By that fall, seedlings already were emerging in some burned out areas. Park biologist Roy Renkin recalls a visitor reacting with surprise a decade later when he told her a thick stand of young trees emerging from a burned area had come back on their own.
Lodgepole pines are commonly cited as an example of forest resiliency. The fires heat releases seeds from the pines cones.
Several species of woodpeckers thrive on insects attracted to fire-killed trees. A plant called fireweed is specially adapted to take root in fire-damaged soils, multiplying rapidly and forming carpets of pink petals against a blackened backdrop.
Its isnt all death and destruction, Renkin said. These forests have evolved with fire.
Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
ELYRIA, Ohio -- A man with multiple stab wounds was found dead Wednesday morning in an Elyria elementary school parking lot, police say.
Officers found the man at about 2:20 a.m. after receiving a call about a man who appeared to be passed out in the Windsor Elementary School parking lot.
The victim suffered several stab wounds, and EMS pronounced him dead at the scene, police say.
The Elyria police department said it is working with the Lorain County Coroner's Office. The man's identity will not be released until his family has been notified, police say.
Detectives say they are in the process of pursuing several leads in an attempt to identify the person or people involved in the incident.
To comment on this story, visit Wednesday's crime and courts comment section.
LORAIN, Ohio -- Authorities arrested a father and son Monday after a drug trafficking investigation led authorities to their Lorain homes where they seized nearly $50,000 in drugs, weapons and accessories, police say.
The Elyria and Lorain police departments, along with the FBI, arrested 44-year-old Dameon "Gorilla" Robertson and his father, Terry Johnson, 63, following an investigation into the sale of heroin, cocaine and prescription opiates in Lorain County.
Elyria Police Special Response Team and Lorain Police SWAT simultaneously raided Robertson's home on the 1300 block of 8th Street and Johnson's home on the 1000 block of W. 22nd Street.
Narcotics detectives seized 12 grams of heroin or fentanyl, 130 grams of cocaine, 134 grams of marijuana, 158 doses of Xanax and 136 doses of oxycodone. Detectives also seized $9,000 in cash, five weapons - an AR-15 assault rifle and four handguns - and a 2007 Dodge Nitro, according to police.
The total value of the drugs, weapons and property seized has a street value of about $49,100, police say.
Robertson faces eight felony charges including possession of heroin, cocaine, oxycodone and Xanax, trafficking heroin and cocaine, having weapons under disability and receiving stolen property -- a Ruger .357 Magnum handgun that was reported stolen to Lorain police, according to court records. He also faces a misdemeanor charges of drug paraphernalia possession.
Robertson faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted based on the amount of cocaine investigators say they found in his home.
Johnson is charged with felony counts of possession of cocaine and having weapons under disability, court records say. He also faces misdemeanor charges of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana.
Lt. James Welsh of the Elyria police department said authorities will continue to work together to "aggressively pursue and arrest individuals responsible for the sale and distribution of illegal drugs in the community."
To comment on this story, visit Wednesday's crime and courts comment section.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Cuyahoga County Jail inmates who died last week in the downtown jail died of a hanging and another with drugs in his system , according to medical examiner records.
Those two deaths, a third in the county-run Euclid jail, and two more earlier in the summer are the most inmate deaths in Cuyahoga County in one year in at least a decade.
The two who died earlier in the week had been housed at the downtown Cleveland Justice Center.
Gregory Fox, 36, was found hanging in his jail cell on Aug. 28. He died two days later at MetroHealth.
Medical examiner notes viewed by cleveland.com said Fox suffered from bipolar disorder and anxiety and had attempted to commit suicide in January by overdosing on prescription pills.
Fox was jailed on $125,000 bond on charges that accused him of raping a child.
Joseph Arquillo, 47, cause of death has not been officially determined, but toxicology screenings showed he had opiates, cocaine and benzodiazepines, commonly found in drugs such as Valium or Zanax.
Arquillo, a military veteran, also suffered from a laceration on his liver, medical examiner records say. He was jailed on a probation violation stemming from two 2017 convictions for unauthorized use of a car and writing a bad check.
Cuyahoga County officials have not yet said how a third inmate being housed in the county-run Euclid jail died. Randy Kain, 46, of Lakewood, died Friday after being taken from the satellite jail to Euclid Hospital, according to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner.
County spokeswoman Mary Louise Madigan said Kain was booked into the county jail downtown on July 31 and was transferred to the Euclid jail on Aug. 10. The Euclid jail houses non-violent offenders and the jail features an array of rehabilitation services, such as job-placement training.
Madigan said inmates are only transferred to the jail if they pass medical screenings, which Kain did.
She said he ate lunch about noon Friday and was found unconscious in his cell an hour later. He was taken to the hospital, where he died about 2 p.m.
Kain had several warrants out for his arrest from police departments across the county, all of which were misdemeanor crimes, including charges of drug possession and theft.
Madigan said all three deaths are under internal investigation.
To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A Columbus police officer is still recovering in the hospital after being attacked by his K9 partner over the weekend, forcing him to shoot the dog.
"This was a malicious attack; it's unheard of," Sgt. Mark Cartwright tells the Columbus Dispatch.
According to WLWT Channel 4, officer Brian Carter was working on training with his K9 partner of the past two years, Benzi, on Saturday when the dog refused the officer's command to go into a down position.
Carter was trying to correct Benzi with verbal commands when the dog attacked, police say. He suffered serious injuries to his arms and back.
Cartwright tells WLWT the attack was "more of a mauling" and that Carter was forced to shoot the dog. Carter reportedly tried to reach his Taser but had to use his firearm instead, shooting Benzi once.
The dog was later euthanized.
The Dispatch reports that Cartwright says Benzi had no history of aggression. The dog had been used in public demonstrations without incident.
Cartwright says Carter "is heartsick" that he had to shoot Benzi.
The incident remains under investigation.
To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- One person is dead and another injured in a Tuesday evening shooting that marked the sixth fatal shooting in the city in five days and third in an 18-hour span.
The shooting happened about 7:30 p.m. on East 121st Street between Union Avenue and Kinsman Road, police said.
One was pronounced dead at the scene. Police have released no additional information about the shooting, including the age and gender the two who were shot.
Cleveland police spokesman Det. Reginald Lanton said the shooting does not appear to be connected to another shooting about the same time on Harvard Avenue and East 174th Street. In that shooting a 20-year-old man was shot five times and was taken to Southpointe Hospital for treatment.
There have been 88 homicides in Cleveland in 2018, eight more than at the same point last year. There were 130 homicides in 2017.
Five other people have been killed by gunfire in the city since Thursday, including three on Monday.
Here is a timeline of the other five deaths:
Thursday: A 31-year-old man was shot to death in front of New Tech West High School. A passerby loaded the man in their car and drove him to a nearby gas station, where a Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority police officer called 911.
Saturday: A 28-year-old woman was killed about 1 a.m. inside Club X-Rated and eight others were injured in the shooting, both inside and outside the downtown Cleveland strip club. The club was hosting an event for local rap artists, police said.
Saturday: A 26-year-old man died about 8 a.m. in the 3200 block of West 82nd Street after being attacked by a group of men, police said.
Tuesday: A 35-year-old woman was killed about 1 a.m. while sitting in her living room, police said. Someone fired several gunshots at the home. Bullets ripped the home and hit the woman in the abdomen, killing her.
Tuesday: A 17-year-old boy was shot to death about 11:20 a.m. behind a home on Sophia Avenue near East 93rd Street.
The teen, identified by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner as Nicholas Cerutti of Willoughby, went to a home near the intersection with two friends to meet up with someone, police said. Police officials did not say why the trio tried to meet up with the person. One gunshot was fired and the teen ran in front of the house clutching his chest.
No arrests have been made in any of the six homicides.
To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page.
NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio -- City Council decided Tuesday night against asking voters in November to abolish term limits for council members and the mayor.
Councilman Dan Kasaris, who had sponsored three ordinances that would have placed the issue before voters, said the ordinances simply didn't have enough support among council members.
He withdrew his sponsorship of the legislation during a committee meeting, just minutes before council's regular Tuesday session.
"I don't want (council) to vote on something where the issue has already been sealed," Kasaris said at the committee meeting. "In my mind, that's just not good government."
Scrapping term limits in North Royalton would have required changing the city's charter, or constitution. According to the charter, at least five of seven council members must agree to place a charter amendment on the ballot.
In August, only four council members -- Kasaris, Cheryl Hannan, Gary Petrusky and Paul Marnecheck -- expressed support for placing the elimination of term limits on the ballot. Council members Dan Langshaw, Larry Antoskiewicz and John Nickell opposed the idea.
On Tuesday night, Kasaris asked if any council member had changed his or her position from last month. No one spoke up.
Kasaris said the next charter review commission -- which the city appoints at least every four years, as required by the charter -- may want to revisit the concept of abolishing term limits in a couple of years.
Under the city charter, council members cannot hold office for more than six two-year terms, or a total of 12 years. The mayor and council president are restricted to three four-year terms, or 12 years.
According to the council clerk's office, Kasaris, Petrusky and Nickell were first elected to council in November 2007, which means they can't run for re-election in 2019.
Nickell said he plans to run for mayor in 2019. Kasaris said he's weighing a run for council president, so even if term limits had been abolished, he might not have sought re-election to his council seat.
Langshaw, who was appointed to council in April 2013, was first elected by voters in November 2013. He can run for re-election three more times.
Marnecheck was first elected to council in November 2009 and was re-elected three times. He can run for re-election once more, in 2019.
Hannan was appointed to council in January 2017. She finished the term of Stephen Muller, who resigned because he left town. Her first term will end in 2019, so she can run five more times.
Antoskiewicz was first elected to council president in November 2011 and was re-elected in 2015. He can run for re-election once more in 2019. However, he said he plans to run for mayor next year.
Meanwhile, Mayor Robert Stefanik, first elected in 2007, will finish his third and final term in 2019. He said he plans to retire from public service at that time.
Term limits are not the norm in municipal government, at least in Cuyahoga County. Among the four communities along Ohio 82 in Cuyahoga County -- including Brecksville, Broadview Heights and Strongsville -- only North Royalton has term limits.
For the third year in a row, the Cleveland Clinic has been named the nation's No. 2 hospital in U.S. News & World Report rankings. Its numerical score -- based on 16 specialties and nine procedures and conditions -- considers such measures as patient safety and survival, the medical complexity of those treated, nursing staffing and, in certain specialties, reputational measures. The Clinic's total score was only 7 percent behind the top-ranked Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and 37 percent ahead of 10th-ranked New York-Presbyterian in New York City.
The Clinic also ranked first in cardiology and heart care nationally for the 24th straight year. And it scored another first in urology and made the top five in 10 other adult specialties.
The rankings underscore Cleveland's pre-eminence in medical care statewide, with University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center -- home to Ohio's only women's hospital -- ranked the second best hospital in Ohio overall, and No. 6 nationally in neonatology. UH received the survey's highest ranking in eight of nine nationally rated procedures and conditions. (The Clinic got the highest ranking in all nine, including heart bypass surgery.)
Why does this matter?
There are nearly 12 billion local reasons, all with dollars attached.
That's the local economic impact of the region's hospitals in terms of direct and indirect jobs, according to the latest Center for Health Affairs report, based on 2015 data. The center advocates for local hospitals.
On top of local hospitals' $11.5 billion wage impact in Northeast Ohio - 15 percent more than in the center's last report, which was based on 2010 data -- were nearly $4 billion in state and local tax impacts and $1.8 billion in annual community benefits, the center found.
The Clinic -- Ohio's second-largest employer -- did its own economic impact study in 2015, using 2013 data, and estimated its statewide impact at $12.6 billion, including wages, purchases, construction outlays, visitors' economic impact, taxes and community benefits. Most of that impact was in Northeast Ohio, including close to $191 million spent by visitors coming to the Clinic.
Overall for all hospitals in the region, the Center for Health Affairs report found that nearly 17 percent of regional hospital revenue came from patients from outside Northeast Ohio.
Ohio's largest and third largest employers are retailers (Walmart at No. 1 and Kroger at No. 3) -- but Walmart with 172 retail locations and five distribution centers had only 400 more employees (out of 50,200 total) than the Clinic with its primary position in Cuyahoga County. UH ranked 7th in the state as an employer, with 26,000.
That all packs a powerful local economic punch.
Yes, health care's economic gains in Cuyahoga County contrast in potentially troubling ways with health care disparities in the region -- particularly in parts of Cleveland near both UH and the Clinic. But local hospitals, including the MetroHealth System, are working to address those disparities -- as a notable example, contributing the leadership, large amounts of staff time and other resources to the county's big push to reduce infant mortality. That's an effort likely to have other positive health spinoffs for Cleveland's most disadvantaged communities.
For all these reasons, the prominence and quality of Cleveland's medical care, recognized nationally, is worth celebrating.
About our editorials: Editorials express the view of the editorial board of cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer -- the senior leadership and editorial-writing staff. As is traditional, editorials are unsigned and intended to be seen as the voice of the news organization.
Have something to say about this topic?
* Send a letter to the editor, which will be considered for print publication.
* Email general questions about our editorial board or comments on this editorial to Elizabeth Sullivan, director of opinion, at esullivan@cleveland.com.
* Use the comments to share your thoughts. Then, stay informed when readers reply to your comments by using the "Follow" option at the top of the comments, & look for updates via the small blue bell in the lower right as you look at more stories on cleveland.com.
CLEVELAND -- In regard to Friday's editorial, "MetroHealth expansion outside Cuyahoga County should have involved public debate," MetroHealth is always eager to play a role in thoughtful and transparent conversation, especially when it involves the care of Ohio's most vulnerable residents.
Passage of House Bill 111 allows MetroHealth to respond to the health care needs of surrounding communities and to provide crucial care for patients in eight additional Northeast Ohio counties. MetroHealth's mission compels us to provide care to those in need, whenever we can, wherever they are. And we've lived by that principle for the past 181 years, caring for those with cholera, tuberculosis, polio and HIV. It's why we volunteered to serve as the Ebola Center for the entire state of Ohio.
The bill made a small but significant change in Chapter 339 of the Ohio Revised Code, the section of state law that governs county hospitals. To call ORC 339 antiquated is an understatement. Most of its current provisions date back to a 1908 act that established the framework for Ohio's county hospitals. The last time a major provision was added to ORC 339 was in 1953.
Imagine for a moment if the rules governing Ohio's banks, building codes or boards of elections hadn't been significantly updated since the Eisenhower administration.
It's no surprise to learn that more than 70 percent of Ohio's county hospitals have either closed or been consolidated into other health systems. Since 1995, at least nine county hospitals in Ohio have closed or converted to nonprofit status.
MetroHealth is unique among the survivors. It is the only Ohio county hospital serving a large urban area - providing safety-net care to more than 100,000 of the most vulnerable members of our community. In terms of patient visits, it provides 1.4 million per year, more than 20 times that of the second-largest county hospital.
Moreover, we work to improve the health of everyone in the communities in which we are located, not just the patients who walk through our doors. As a county hospital, that's what makes us special. According to America's Essential Hospitals, more than a third of all Level I trauma centers and burn care beds are operated by hospitals like MetroHealth.
Nationally, health care is experiencing rapid-fire integration that is reshaping the business of managing hospitals and health systems.
Public hospitals are a threatened species - on their way to becoming endangered. State, county and city hospitals are closing at a rate 11 times that of other hospitals.
Since 1976, America has lost almost half its public hospitals, more than 800, even as our nation's population has increased by more than 110 million. During the first half of 2018 alone, Ohio saw three hospitals close their doors.
Again, MetroHealth is a special case. Our system is thriving, and as a result, we are providing more care and services than ever before to our neighbors on Medicaid and those who are uninsured. Last year, we spent $160 million providing free care and covering costs not paid by Medicaid. Thanks to House Bill 111, we may be able to expand our care and mission to more Ohioans in need.
As the current and future chairs of MetroHealth's Board of Trustees, we have encouraged the health system's leadership to begin working with lawmakers to modernize ORC 339.
MetroHealth is not asking for special treatment or a competitive advantage, only for more up-to-date rules on how we operate. The goal is to ensure that Northeast Ohio's essential health system is here and healthy for our children and grandchildren.
As thoughtful and open debate on modernizing ORC 339 begins locally and in Columbus, MetroHealth hopes that all those joining the conversation are guided not by competition or profits but by what matters most - the health and care of everyone in Ohio.
Thomas M. McDonald is chair of the MetroHealth System Board of Trustees. Vanessa L. Whiting is the board's chair-elect.
************
Have something to say about this topic? Use the comments to share your thoughts. Then, stay informed when readers reply to your comments by using the "Follow" option at the top of the comments, and look for updates via the small blue bell in the lower right as you look at more stories on cleveland.com.
Chinas parliament chief will visit North Korea this weekend as President Xi Jinpings special representative for celebrations marking 70 years since the founding of the country.
Reuters reports in its article China's parliament chief to visit North Korea to mark its 70th birthday that North Korea, locked in a standoff with the United States over its nuclear and missile programmes, is preparing to host a number of major events for the Sept. 9 anniversary, including a military parade, possible visits by foreign delegations, and - for the first time in five years - a massive choreographed performance known as the Mass Games.
There had been speculation in diplomatic circles that Xi himself would go. Xi and North Koreas youthful leader, Kim Jong Un, have met three times this year, each time in China.
Xinhua gave few details about the visit of parliament chief Li Zhanshu, who is the third most senior member of Chinas ruling Communist Party, in its brief report on Tuesday, aside from saying he would arrive on Saturday.
In a separate reports, the Norths KCNA news agency said Li would visit from Sept. 8, without saying how long he would stay. Kim met U.S. President Donald Trump in June and agreed to work toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, but negotiations since then appear to have stalled with both sides increasingly criticising the other for a lack of progress. Trump last month cancelled a planned visit to North Korea by his top diplomat, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, citing insufficient progress in the denuclearization talks. Trump has also questioned Chinas role in helping to resolve the crisis over North Koreas development of nuclear weapons that threaten the United States, and has said that while China is exerting tremendous pressure it is also supplying Pyongyang with considerable aid.
China says it is committed to enforcing the harsh U.N. sanctions on North Korea and has also welcomed the talks between Trump and Kim. China has long feared chaos or war on the Korean peninsula, and has repeatedly called for talks to resolve tensions.
Today, Google celebrates its 21st birthday. This month, in 1998, the company filed for incorporation, the very first step in turning a Stanford dorm room project into what's become Alphabet, one of the world's most valuable companies. Google's revolutionary search engine set its co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin up to become two of the richest people in the world, but they never anticipated it would become a multi-billion-dollar company. "When Sergey and I founded Google, we hoped, but did not expect, it would reach its current size and influence," Page wrote to investors in a letter ahead of its initial public offering in 2004. "Our intense and enduring interest was to objectively help people find information efficiently." In celebration of the company's official anniversary, here are eight things you might not know about Google's early days.
Page and Brin 'found each other obnoxious' at first
In 1995, Page visited Stanford for a tour of its campus. He was a prospective student for its doctoral program in computer science when he met Brin, a volunteer guide for first-year students. As Google notes, "By some accounts, they disagreed about nearly everything during that first meeting, but by the following year they struck a partnership." Brin had already wrapped up his first year at Stanford when Page enrolled, and the two stayed in touch. Their newfound friendship was also a test of each other's patience: "Sergey is pretty social; he likes meeting people," Page told Wired in 2005. "I thought he was pretty obnoxious. He had really strong opinions about things, and I guess I did, too." The teasing, Brin went on to explain, was all in good fun: "Obviously we spent a lot of time talking to each other, so there was something there. We had a kind of bantering thing going."
Google started as a PhD project
Despite Google's wild success today, "We didn't start out to do a search engine at all," Page recalled in an interview with the Academy of Achievement. He continued: "In late 1995, I started collecting the links on the Web, because my advisor and I decided that would be a good thing to do. We didn't know exactly what I was going to do with it, but it seemed like no one was really looking at the links on the Web which pages link to which pages." Page had a particular interest in links back to pages online. The son of a computer science professor, Page understood that links on the Internet could function like citations in the academic world, proving relevance and expertise. Brin and Page combined their knowledge of math and computer science to build an algorithm that took into account the number of links and the importance of those links. The resulting algorithm PageRank, named after Page, would be more efficient than the tools available at the time, such as AltaVista and Excite. Page was adamant on making his doctoral thesis about the web and his research piqued Brin's interest, so the two joined forces. They released the first version of Google on Stanford's website in August 1996.
Google's first iteration was named "BackRub"
Brin and Page's fascination with word play started in 1995, when they launched a project called "BackRub." It was a search engine that stemmed from Page's curiosity with backlinks, or the how one web page links to any other web page (for example, the same way a bibliography "links" one piece of work to many other pieces of work). In 1997, they renamed their search engine Google, "a play on the mathematical expression for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros," the company says, reflecting their mission to organize the world's information.
Page and Brin begged professors for cash
When Page and Brin first came up with the idea for a new and improved search engine, they didn't have the money to access all the computers, disc drives and computer memory they needed, the Stanford Alumni Magazine noted. Professor Hector Garcia-Molina, Page's adviser at the time, said he was "their main bank." The professor helped secure $10,000 from the school's Digital Library budget to help Brin and Page get the parts to build the data servers. Other professors reportedly lent money to Brin and Page as well, with investments as small $40, as the two scrappy students picked up spare parts from wherever they could. Once the two students secured the funds and built their own data servers, they debuted the search engine as google.stanford.edu.
Investing in Google paid off for two professors
The first Google headquarters was in a garage
Similar to Apple and Amazon, Page and Brin used some of their investors' money to open up Google's first headquarters: a garage-turned-office space in Menlo Park, California. The space was part of a house owned by Susan Wojcicki, who later became a Google senior VP and is now the CEO of YouTube. Brin would go on to marry Wojcicki's sister Anne, who would found 23andMe.
The company notes that the old headquarters had clunky desktop computers, a ping pong table and bright blue carpet that "set the scene for those early days and late nights." Google's first server was encased in Lego blocks.
Burning Man inspired Google's first out of office message
The first Google "Doodle" made it to the search engine's homepage in 1998, less than a week before the company incorporated. Page and Brin were off to Nevada to attend Burning Man, the nearly week-long music and arts festival which takes place in the Black Rock Desert. The Doodle featured a stick figure in the logo, which told site visitors that "the entire staff was playing hooky at the Burning Man Festival," Google notes.
Warren Buffett inspired their IPO letter to shareholders
Most professional money managers dread the month of October when it comes to investing, but not .
"Me? I can't wait until we get to October, that's how much I dislike September," the host of CNBC's "Mad Money" said Tuesday.
Some of Cramer's distaste has to do with timing. September tends to bring droves of market-wide selling, driven in part by mutual funds that tend to ring the register before the end of their fiscal year in October.
But part of the selling is caused simply by investors' fear of the month of October, which is only worsened by television doomsayers, Cramer said.
"I'm going to prepare you for September. It does tend to be especially tough on the market's best performers," he warned. "People love to take profits on their winners at this time of year. So you should be ready to buy them into weakness."
What kinds of winners should investors be eyeing? For Cramer, few stocks look more attractive than the market's most rapid secular growers: the cloud kings.
Cramer's top recommendations were essentially a who's who of Cramer-fave software plays: Adobe, Red Hat, Salesforce.com, ServiceNow, VMware, Splunk and Workday.
"These days, everybody's embracing the cloud to cut costs, improve customer relations, mine insights from data and generally make their business more competitive," the "Mad Money" host explained. "These are exactly the kind of stocks that should bounce the hardest after a big sell-off."
Cramer backed these seven "cloud kings" for their long-term growth. Noting that most of them have trounced the S&P 500 year to date, he emphasized how dramatically they benefit from the global shift to cloud computing and subscription-model adoption.
And while he felt some of them namely ServiceNow were too hot for investors to chase right here, he highlighted Adobe and VMware as "first-round" picks.
In particular, he argued that VMware "has the best growth prospects" because the market is miscalculating how Dell, VMware's parent company, will handle its shares in the company.
"There's this widespread but, I think, incorrect belief that eventually Dell will cram down the company's shares. That's why I consider VMWare a buy I don't think that's going to happen," the "Mad Money" host said.
"Bottom line? These are all strong companies riding a giant secular wave that's still early," Cramer concluded. "So when you hear 'buy on weakness,' you need to think of the cloud kings, and given that this is September, I expect us to get some serious slip-slidin' that gives you a chance to pull the trigger on any one of your favorite kings of the cloud."
The main result of the Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, Johannes Hahns two-day visit to Georgia was the opening of a European School for high school students from the six member countries of the EU's Eastern Partnership program. The educational institution of regional importance was opened by the Prime Minister of Georgia Mamuka Bakhtadze along with the high European guest. The observers drew attention to the several important messages, voiced by one of the EU leaders. The European commissioner called the weakness of the judicial system the main problem of Georgian statehood. "An independent, transparent and professional judicial system is important," Hahn said, hinting that during the period of independence and taking into account the succession of the authorities, none of them managed to free themselves from the temptation to influence the judiciary using the administrative tools.
One of the methods of strengthening democratic institutions is an educational work. The project of the European School is designed to develop multilingual programs, which will enable young people to improve their knowledge for a successful movement towards the European universities. The school opened in Tbilisi should become a center of attraction for high school students not only from Georgia but also from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus and Ukraine. The Ministry of Education of Georgia assured Vestnik Kavkaza that all the necessary mechanisms and fair procedures for admission to the European School have already been worked out in a strict accordance with the EU rules and will be implemented with the participation of European representatives. As the head of the third department of the Georgian Foreign Ministry Mariam Narchemashvili stated in an exclusive interview to Vestnik Kavkaza, Tbilisi is fully aware of not only the rights but also the responsibility for the successful implementation of a unique multinational project.
- Why did you decide to open the European School in Tbilisi?
- Georgia is a successful example of implementing the EU projects. We signed an Association Agreement with the European Union and reached a visa-free regime. The EU has repeatedly recognized the progress of our country in deepening the democratic reforms. Therefore, it is not surprising that the EU decided to open its school in Tbilisi. But this regional educational institution will work for the benefit not only of Georgian youth but of all EU partners.
- What is the status of the European School?
- It provides Bachelors programme. It makes easier to continue studying in the European Union. But its mission is much more extensive - to promote the cooperation of the regional countries, bringing young people closer and affirming the European values of peace, cooperation, and the protection of human rights.
- How large is this project?
- It is such a large-scale project that several departments worked on it from the Georgian side. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs dealt with the organizational issues, the Ministry of Education worked out mechanisms for admission to the school for high school students from Georgia, the neighboring countries, as well as from Belarus and Ukraine.
Donald Trump addresses his supporters during a rally at the Charleston Civic Center on May 5, 2016 in Charleston, WV.
Ever since Donald Trump's improbable political rise, many have attributed his appeal among the white, male voter base to economic anxiety. Faced with unemployment and wage stagnation, these voters elected a president who promised to fight for jobs.
A study published on Wednesday in the Journal of General Internal Medicine offers an additional explanation: declining health and rising death rates in rural Republican bastions helped tilt the presidential election toward Trump.
"Changes in life expectancy were an independent factor in voting choices. Reduced health prospects are an important marker of dissatisfaction, discouragement, hopelessness, and fear sentiments that may have resonated with voters who sided with President Trump," said Dr. Lee Goldman, the study leader and chief executive of the Columbia University Medical Center.
Other studies have added more elements to the economic anxiety narrative too. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that Trump voters were driven over a fear of losing their status. Last year, a Public Religion Research Institute survey of more than 3,000 people found that fears of cultural displacement pushed the white working class toward Trump.
White Americans from rural America, with less education and lower income levels, voted disproportionately for Trump, according to the Columbia study. This group is increasingly victim to "deaths of despair" related to alcohol, drugs and suicide, the researchers said.
They also find that counties with a net gain in individuals who voted for the Republican candidate had a 15 percent higher age-adjusted death rate in 2015 than counties with a net gain in Democratic voters. The increase in death rates due to "deaths of despair" was also 2.5 times higher in counties where Republicans made gains, compared with counties where Democrats made gains.
Pro-Trump counties also had a 7.4 percent higher age-adjusted death rate than counties won by Hillary Clinton. Counties in which Trump's percentage vote in 2016 was higher than John McCain's percentage vote in 2008 had a 15 percent higher age-adjusted death rate.
The study also suggests that modest reductions in death rates in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin might have shifted their electoral votes to Hillary Clinton.
The study uses publicly available data from each of the country's more than 3,100 counties to compare changes in presidential voting from 2008 to 2016 with changes in death rates, controlling for factors like race, income, education and unemployment.
"Although life expectancy is increasing in many parts of the country, especially in urban areas, we're not seeing nearly the same gains in rural and middle America," said Goldman. "We shouldn't underestimate the degree to which some portions of the country have been left behind in terms of their health. And it's not surprising that health disparities correspond with voting behavior."
The conclusions are largely consistent with a 2017 study in American Journal of Public Health, which found that counties where life expectancy stagnated or declined saw a 10-point increase in the Republican vote share between 2008 and 2016.
"Regardless of your political persuasion, our paper suggests that if health disparities were important enough to influence presidential voting, they may have an even broader impact on our country's future than we had imagined," Goldman said.
Here's one way to determine if fees are devouring your retirement savings: Open up your mail.
About 6 out of 10 retirement plan participants are cracking open their annual 401(k) fee disclosures, according to a recent survey by Schwab Retirement Plan Services.
The company, an affiliate of Charles Schwab, polled 1,000 individuals in May, all of whom were contributors to their plans.
That means more than 40 percent of participants said they did not review their 401(k) fee disclosure documents. This annual report is mandated under a U.S. Labor Department regulation.
"Your employer must send out an annual disclosure showing the fees and investment performance for every fund in your 401(k) plan, all in one place," said Catherine Golladay, senior vice president, participant services and administration at Schwab Retirement Plan Services.
What you're paying matters because high fees erode your investment returns over time.
Artificial intelligence could contribute an additional 1.2 percent to annual gross domestic product growth for at least the next decade, according to a simulation from McKinsey Global Institute.
Overall, AI could deliver $13 trillion in additional global economic activity by 2030, putting its contributions to growth on par with the introduction of other transformative technologies such as the steam engine, McKinsey said in a report released Wednesday morning Hong Kong time.
The institute's model expects about 70 percent of companies will adopt at least one form of AI by 2030, and that a significant portion of large firms will use a full range of the technology.
AI uses large data sets and algorithms to mimic human behavior. The world's two largest economies, the U.S. and China, are both racing to invest heavily in the technology. Beijing, in particular, has made AI part of its five-year plan that runs through 2020 and wants to become a leader in the technology by 2030, the McKinsey report pointed out.
"Without AI, China might face a challenge to achieve its target growth rate," Jeongmin Seong, one of the report's authors and a senior fellow at McKinsey Global Institute in Shanghai, said in an interview with CNBC.
As stocks struggle after recent highs, some Wall Street strategists are seeing an increased chance of a 5 percent stock market pullback.
Deutsche Bank and Citigroup said the risk is increasing based on a variety of factors. This time of year can be weak for the stock market to begin with, and very positive consumer sentiment is a contrarian indicator, they said.
Deutsche Bank's analysts said they are cautious for the near term and expect a 3 percent to 5 percent pullback but a rebound later in the year. They pointed to the fact that September is usually a poor month for stocks, along with mounting geopolitical risks, more negative macro economic data surprises and the lack of positive corporate news to lift stocks in the period between earnings seasons.
"The window for a typical 3-5 percent pullback is open," they wrote. Corporations will also curtail their stock buyback activity as the blackout period ahead of the next earnings season approaches.
Citigroup strategists said they see a greater chance for a 5 percent pullback, and one of their models suggests a 70 percent chance that stocks will be lower in 12 months.
The cautious comments from both firms come as the is under pressure, failing to hold new highs, amid trade war worries and the sell-off in emerging markets. The S&P was down 0.6 percent Wednesday and is down 1.2 percent from its all-time high reached Aug. 29. Tech led Wednesday's decline and was off 1.7 percent.
The Citi analysts based their comments on a model they created using inputs such as investor sentiment, margin debt levels, gasoline prices, stock trading volumes and put/call premiums in the options market.
"Our proprietary Panic/Euphoria Model has tracked higher alongside the rise in stock prices, with few investors indicating concern, partially due to an underlying strong economy, robust earnings and powerful buybacks," they wrote. "At these levels, there's a 70 percent chance of the S&P 500 being down 12 months from now, which is more than three times the random probability of losing money."
Five of the nine inputs in their model "have pushed the gauge into worrisome territory."
"The last time the model hit euphoric levels, in January and early February 2018, stock prices were jolted by wage pressures," they wrote. "The potential for faster wage gains could generate another 5%+ pullback this time, as might Fed policy, geopolitics, trade sanctions, and international economic weakness. It is always challenging to pinpoint the catalyst, but the vulnerability now exists."
The Deutsche analysts said they will become more positive about stocks in October. "We maintain our S&P 500 year-end target of 3000," they wrote. They said U.S. macro growth looks robust, and earnings are expected to continue to grow at a more than 20 percent pace in the second half.
They noted "if a typical mid-term election outcome, with the House and/or Senate changing majority, can check Presidential power on trade policy, it would reduce the risks to growth and imply upside risks to our baseline view."
German pharma and life sciences firm Bayer said it completed the "biggest acquisition in its history" Wednesday but delivered a series of mixed results for its second quarter. Bayer gave more details of the acquisition of U.S. firm Monsanto, which officially completed on June 7 this year and came in at $63 billion, including debt. The purchase helped its core earnings for the second quarter and offset weak health care sales. Here are some of the highlights for the second quarter: Net income fell 34.7 percent from the previous quarter to 799 million euros ($923 million).
Depreciation, amortization and impairments dropped slightly from the previous quarter to 666 million euros.
Core earnings per share rose 1.3 percent to 1.54 euros. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization came in at 2.34 billion euros ($2.71 billion) for the period. This narrowly missed estimates from a Reuters poll. Net income for the quarter saw a 34.7 percent fall, but it also reported an 8.8 percent increase in sales from a year ago, taking its total group sales to 9.48 billion euros.
The Bayer AG logo sits behind silhouetted members of the management board during the company's annual general meeting in Bonn, Germany, May 25, 2018. Krisztian Bocsi | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The increase in sales was mainly boosted by its crop science business, where sales rose by 21.4 percent. Bayer said this increase was due to the recognition of significantly higher provisions for product returns in the prior-year quarter due to high inventory levels in Brazil. The rise in sales was also supported by the acquisition of Monsanto. The deal made Bayer and Monsanto the world's largest integrated pesticides and seeds company. Bayer Chief Executive Werner Baumann spoke to CNBC Wednesday about the major acquisition, saying the firm remained "very excited about the attractive growth prospects" and the potential to capitalize on the "leadership positions we are going to have going forward." But shares slipped 2.3 percent as European markets opened Wednesday morning. Back in August, the stock of the German multinational saw a sharp fall after Monsanto was ordered to pay $289 million in damages over alleged links between a glyphosate-based weedkiller and cancer. Bayer is expected to face years of legal wranglings with around 8,000 lawsuits, according to Reuters.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos tours the facility at the grand opening of the Amazon Spheres, in Seattle, Washington on January 29, 2018.
Sen. Bernie Sanders' criticism of Amazon peaked Wednesday as he and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., introduced legislation to tax corporations for every dollar that their low-wage workers receive in government health-care benefits or food stamps.
The bill, pointedly called the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies, or Bezos, Act, is aimed at shaming companies like Amazon and Walmart, whose workers rely on public assistance.
For months, Sanders has targeted Amazon, juxtaposing the wealth of CEO Jeff Bezos with reports that Amazon warehouse workers are paid less than industry averages and rely on food stamps.
Bill Heinecke was 42 when he did something drastic: He walked into the U.S. embassy in Bangkok, handed over his passport and renounced his citizenship.
It wasn't a moment of madness, nor was it strictly necessary: The American-born entrepreneur had by then been living and working in Thailand for almost three decades. But it did showcase what he says is one of the most important skills in business commitment and, as a result, propelled him up the ranks of the country's rich list.
"I remember the time very well," the now-69-year-old self-made billionaire said during a recent episode of CNBC's "Managing Asia."
"I remember the counselor who said to me: 'I think you have to rethink this, you know. I've never seen or heard of anyone who wanted to give back their citizenship.'"
But Heinecke was resolute: "I said: 'Well I've made up my mind and I, you know, I don't need to wait.'"
Heinecke is the chairman and CEO of hospitality group Minor International, the company he founded as a cleaning business when he was 17 still a minor four years after relocating to Bangkok with his family. Throughout his 20s and 30s, it evolved into one of Thailand's leading hospitality chains, and Heinecke said he felt he owed it to the country that "adopted" him to show his dedication to doing business there.
Kerri Harris is running the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez playbook in the Senate primary in Delaware. But she might not see the same results.
An anti-establishment working-class outsider, Kerri Harris has promised to re-prioritize "people over corporations" in a state that has had the same representation for nearly two decades. She has championed a Medicare-for-all-style single-payer health-care system, a $15 an hour minimum wage and has called for abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She has vowed to represent Delawareans who feel neglected.
"The working people continue to be left behind. Wealthy politicians smile in our faces and take advantage of us as families fall apart," Harris told CNBC in an interview. "The people need to step into the halls of Congress and write legislation that benefits the whole community and pulls people from the margins into the core."
In Thursday's primary against a deep-pocketed, longtime incumbent, Harris' grassroots campaign is another test case of whether the left can transfer its energy into a tangible win at the ballot box this year.
But a wave of leftist victories might not arrive in Delaware, where voters have a reputation as being moderate and could be turned off by anti-corporate rhetoric in a state that gets revenue largely from big corporations, agriculture and tourism.
"There is zero interest on behalf of Harris to have a dialogue with the business community. Some of the policies she's advocating the minimum wage, Medicare for all these don't take into consideration the Delaware economy and the corporate community," said James DeChene, vice president of government affairs for the Delaware Chamber of Commerce.
A Harris win would echo other victories for underdogs, women and minorities elsewhere during this election season. This includes the major upset in June by Ocasio-Cortez, who trounced a longtime House incumbent, Joseph Crowley, in New York, and who recently stumped for Harris in Delaware. And on Tuesday, Democrat Ayanna Pressley upended the Massachusetts political order by unseating 10-term Rep. Michael Capuano.
While Harris' campaign encompasses the passion of the left, it also underscores the growing divisions in the Democratic Party between energized outsiders and supporters of more traditional and experienced centrist figures.
Harris, 38, an Air Force veteran and self-described queer woman of color, faces an uphill battle against Tom Carper, the 71-year-old centrist who has served in the Senate since 2001 and has not faced any serious competition. Recently endorsed by former Vice President Joe Biden, Carper has crusaded against President Donald Trump but has voted with Republicans on controversial measures. He voted to approve the Keystone Pipeline and supported legislation that exempted dozens of banks from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law.
Carper has long championed a moderate approach, focusing on compromise with Republicans, which has irked some liberal Delaware voters and has led Harris to assail his long history of backing institutions. But DeChene said that while there is some resistance against the "Delaware way," there isn't nearly enough to oust Carper, who is well liked by Democrat and Independent voters.
"You'll see Carper out running, you'll see him at the local Home Depot. He's just around. One thing to his credit is that often long-term politicians let their district go and stop paying attention. But that's not Carper," said DeChene. "He's visible. He's here, he takes care of the district, and he doesn't let people forget him."
Staked with millions in campaign donations, Carper has sided with the financial industry in virtually every policy debate over his 40 years in politics, and boasts a tremendous fundraising advantage over Harris. According to FEC filings, Carper has raised more than $3.5 million, has spent over $3 million on his campaign and still has more than $1 million cash on hand. Harris, who has refused corporate and lobbyist money for her campaign, has raised only about $100,000, has spent just over $60,000 and has just over $50,000 in cash on hand.
"I've had to account for every single dollar and cent for my campaign, and stretch to make ends meet, just like working families do every month," Harris said. "My campaign feels the same urgency that working families do. How can elected officials feel that sense of urgency if they're dependent on corporations doing well, and not the people? My campaign is the opposite. We might not outraise them, but we'll always outwork them."
Shares of Chinese e-retailer JD.com plunged 11 percent on Wednesday, dropping for a second straight day, after CEO Richard Liu was arrested last week in Minneapolis after rape allegations.
The Minneapolis police department said on Tuesday that Liu was taken into custody on Friday night. He was released without bail the following day and then returned to China, according to news reports. He has not been charged with any crimes.
JD.com shares have dropped 16 percent in the past two days, with its U.S. shares closing at $26.30 on Wednesday. The stock has plummeted 37 percent this year.
Liu, who founded JD.com in 2004 and has parlayed his ownership into a stake worth billions of dollars, controls about 80 percent of the company's voting rights. Stifel analysts lowered their rating on the stock to $39 from $48 on Wednesday, citing increased uncertainty.
"We expect investors will view the recent events as an additional risk to a stock that has already struggled YTC," the analysts wrote. "The additional negativity could continue to be an overhang on shares for some time."
JD.com didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. According to a Reuters report, Liu's attorney said that his client denied any wrongdoing.
Technology giants such as Facebook, Twitter and Google are using the wrong approach in policing their social platforms, cybersecurity expert Raj Goel told CNBC on Wednesday.
"They're still taking a technical approach to a social problem. In software, bugs are accepted. You have a bug, no big deal, we'll fix it in the next release. With a media platform, like this, there is no room for bugs," Goel said on CNBC's "Closing Bell."
Goel's comments come amid testimonials by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in its hearing on interference in the 2016 election. Alphabet CEO Larry Page and Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai both declined invitations to testify, and lawmakers rejected the company's offer to send top lawyer and senior vice president of global affairs, Kent Walker.
The digital giants have all been ramping up detection efforts in light of widespread misinformation campaigns by foreign actors during the 2016 presidential election and subsequent contests. They have increased page removals and public disclosures of abuse ahead of the U.S. midterm elections in November. Facebook, Twitter and Google have all removed pages, many Russian or Iranian in origin, they say were engaged in inauthentic behavior or phishing schemes.
Facebook, Twitter and Google are also facing pressure from President Donald Trump, who has accused the companies of liberal bias.
Dipayan Ghosh, a former privacy and public policy advisor at Facebook, said Facebook and other platforms' recent disclosures concerning Iranian- and Russian-controlled accounts and the conversation surrounding the suspension of noted conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his InfoWars pages show these companies still aren't being proactive enough.
"Only when under pressure from public interest groups and the public do they really take actions that move the ball forward a little bit," Ghosh said in the same "Closing Bell" interview as Goel.
"If this kind of trend continues, if the industry keeps on withholding information from the public and being very reticent in their dealings with government, then we're going to need public interest to rise up, we're going to need the government to come in and swing the ax down," Ghosh added.
In the past, Ghosh said Facebook has taken action, emphasizing its robust privacy policy and engagement with lawmakers in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. But he called these "small steps" that won't cut it in the buildup to the 2020 election.
Goel, chief technology officer and co-founder of Brainlink International, said these companies at some point will have to be regulated, because they know they have a faulty product.
"They know internally that their platform is toxic and dangerous to some segments of the population, but they are hiding behind, 'Oh, we are a neutral platform, it's a public square.' It's a public area marketplace, but hate speech has no place on the open marketplace," Goel said.
Facebook, Google and Twitter did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment.
On Tuesday night, Russia's Hmeymim Airbase in Syria destroyed two terrorist drones with surface-to-air missiles, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said, Sputnik reported.
"On the 4th of September, at night, the anti-aircraft weapons of Hmeimim Airbase destroyed two terrorist assault UAVs. In total, last month, 47 terrorist unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed in the area of Russia's Hmeimim Airbase," Konashenkov told reporters.
"On the same day [September 4], four planes from the Russian air unit deployed at the Hmeymim Airbase carried out strikes on Nusra Front* terrorist group targets in Idlib province with precision-guided munitions," Konashenkov said.
According to the spokesman, the strikes were carried out on the terrorists' storage facilities where they kept drones, located outside settlements, as well as "detected sites where assault drones were launched to carry out terrorist attacks on Russia's Hmeimim Airbase and settlements in the provinces of Aleppo and Hama."
"The Russian aircraft carried out all strikes solely on the identified terrorist targets, as confirmed through several channels, located far from settlements," Konashenkov said.
He added that two Su-34 jets had also destroyed a workshop where terrorists assembled drones and a warehouse of explosives for them.
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION MIRAMAR, Calif. There is nothing quite like the Air Force's E-4B aircraft.
Born and bred for battle, the modified Boeing 747s are nearly six stories tall, equipped with four colossal engines and designed to survive a nuclear attack.
"It's like a backup Pentagon," a U.S. Air Force crew member told CNBC aboard one of the aircraft, which was transporting Defense Secretary James Mattis. "There's always one plane on alert and ready to go 24 hours, seven days a week."
The E-4B Advanced Airborne Command Post, or "doomsday plane," is a highly survivable flying fortress.
And much like Air Force One, its sister aircraft with the same recognizable paint job, most of the E-4B's capabilities are classified.
Designed during the Cold War, each E-4B, or "Nightwatch," is built to endure the immediate aftermath of a nuclear detonation. During peacetime, the plane is used to transport the secretary of Defense and his staff.
Currently, there are four of these unique aircraft in the Air Force's fleet. The identical planes, which are based at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, have been in operation since 1980.
If your Disney parks knowledge could give even Mickey Mouse a run for his money, The Walt Disney Company has the perfect gig for you.
On Wednesday, Disney kicks off its 12th annual search for experts to be on its Disney Parks Moms Panel. The panel comprised of 40 Disney buffs (despite its name, the gig is open to anyone over the age of 18, among other eligibility requirements) serves as an online resource and question-and-answer forum for people planning a Disney vacation. For the job, panelists are asked to complete about 10 to 20 written responses per week and must specialize in either Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, Disneyland Resort in California, runDisney events, Disney Vacation Club or Disney Cruise Line.
Though the position is unpaid, in exchange for participation Disney gives panelists (and up to three guests) a free trip to a Walt Disney Resort of their choice.
The purpose of the Disney panel is to aid visitors planning their Disney vacations. Almost any question on the topic is fair game, and panelists must be prepared for even the most specific questions regarding everything from dining options to which characters sign autographs.
Panelists recently answered questions like: Does the Lightening McQueen character from "Cars" signs autographs? How much do cabanas cost at the Disneyland Hotel? And what will traffic will be like at the Disney waterparks during the week of Easter?
"My passion for creating epic Disney getaways led me to the Disney Parks Moms Panel," says Jerry M., one of the Disney dads on the panel, who adds the panel members' "collective experience and our diverse backgrounds" make the panel "so informative."
With the specificity of the questions, Disney takes its search for panelists seriously: The three-round application process includes a series of short-answer questions, a video submission and a phone interview, and eligibility requirements include having visited a Walt Disney World Resort or Disneyland Resort at least once in the last 12 months, or if you're applying to be a Disney Cruise Line or Disney Vacation Club Panelist, it's required that you took that vacation within the last 24 months.
If selected, Disney buffs must also have ample time to dedicate to spreading their Disney expertise; the 10 to 20 written responses per week are estimated to take about 20 minutes per question, and there are mandatory training sessions at the Walt Disney Resort at the end of November. Panelists serve for one year, and then are invited to return as alumni panelists, but are not required to go through the application process again.
Applications for the Disney Parks Moms Panel for 2019 will be accepted beginning Sept. 5 and run through Sept. 12.
Don't miss: This life-size, driveable Bugatti Chiron supercar is built entirely from Legos take a look
Like this story? Subscribe to CNBC Make It on YouTube!
Embattled blood-testing company Theranos will soon formally dissolve, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing a shareholder email.
The Silicon Valley firm will attempt to pay unsecured creditors its remaining cash in the coming months, the report said, adding that big name investors had lost about $1 billion.
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and the company's former president Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani were indicted in June on charges that they engaged in schemes to defraud investors, doctors and patients.
Prosecutors had said Holmes and Balwani used advertising and solicitations to encourage doctors and patients to use its blood testing laboratory services despite knowing the company could not produce accurate and reliable results consistently.
Theranos did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.
Federal health authorities and local police quarantined an Emirates Airline jumbo jet Wednesday morning in New York after several passengers said they were ill.
Upon landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the double-decker Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger jet, was met by ambulances and parked away from terminals, so medical personnel from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could provide assistance to the "multiple" sick passengers, said the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the airport. Emergency medical workers took passengers' temperatures at the airport.
Flight 203 arrived in New York with travelers complaining of cough, fever and "symptoms of gastrointestinal illness," said the CDC. At least 10 people from the flight were taken to a local hospital after the flight. Emirates said that includes seven crew members. There were more than 500 passengers and crew aboard the superjumbo jet, the health agency said.
About 45 minutes before landing, Emirates crew informed passengers that health officials would be boarding the plane at the airport because some travelers were ill, and that passengers should remain seated, said Larry Coben, the chairman of of NRG Energy, who was on the flight. Another passenger, Erin Sykes, tweeted a video of medical workers examining travelers as they exited the aircraft.
"We are requesting the passengers who have been evaluated and released to call their provider and health department if they develop any symptoms, and to give their travel history and report of incident," said the CDC. "They may receive a follow-up call from their health department just as a check-in."
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which processes passengers arriving from overseas, said it would admit the arriving travelers once they were cleared by the CDC, said Anthony Bucci, a spokesman for the agency.
The incident delayed Emirates' return flight to Dubai, scheduled for 11:20 a.m. EDT, by about three hours, the airline said.
Failed Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore sued comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, Showtime Networks and its parent company, CBS, on Wednesday for more than $95 million for allegedly defaming him with a prank "pedophile detector" test on the program, "Who Is America?"
Cohen, posing as an Israeli security official, had waved an electric wand over Moore that he claimed could detect pedophiles during a fake interview for his prank show.
When Cohen waved the machine in front of the former chief justice of Alabama's Supreme Court, it beeped but remained silent when it was placed near Cohen and another man on the set.
"I've been married for 33 years, I've never had an accusation of such things," Moore said before walking off the set. "If this is an instrument, then it's certainly ... I'm not a pedophile, OK? Maybe Israeli technology hasn't developed properly."
"I support Israel, I don't support this kind of stuff," Moore added.
While campaigning in a special election for an Alabama Senate seat, which Democrat Doug Jones won, Moore came under fire after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct with them decades earlier when they were teenagers.
Moore has vehemently denied the allegations.
Moore's lawsuit against Cohen, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., makes claims for fraud, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The suit says that Moore and his wife were tricked into traveling to Washington by Cohen and his team, who claimed that Moore would appear on an Israeli television network, and that he would receive an award for his strong support of Israel.
Moore's wife, Kayla Moore, is also named as a plaintiff in the case.
After the show aired in July, Moore issued a statement blasting Cohen:
"I am involved in several court cases presently to defend my honor and character against vicious false political attacks by liberals like Cohen. If Showtime airs a defamatory attack on my character, I may very well be involved in another. As for Mr. Cohen, whose art is trickery, deception, and dishonesty, Alabama does not respect cowards who exhibit such traits! It's been a long time since I fought for my country in Vietnam. I'm ready to defend her again!"
Moore's lawyer, Larry Klayman, in a prepared statement releasd Wednesday said, "Judge Moore, a man of great faith, morality and intellect, is one of the finest people I have ever known."
"Sasha Baron Cohen, who is not only low class but also a fraudster, will now, along with Showtime and CBS, be held accountable for his outrageous and false, fraudulent and defamatory conduct which callously did great emotional and other damage to his great man and his wife and family," Klayman said.
CBS referred questions about the lawsuit to a spokeswoman for Showtime.
The Showtime spokeswoman said, "The press has been sent copies of an alleged complaint, yet to our knowledge Showtime has not been served. With that said, we do not comment on pending litigation."
A representative for Cohen did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
The center predicted total rain amounts of 4-8 inches (10-20 centimeters) in the Florida panhandle and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa and Illinois. Rainfall could be even more intense in isolated places, dropping up to 12 inches (30 centimeters) through early Saturday.
Gordon's top sustained winds were down to 40 mph (64 kph) as its tight core moved about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. But it was going out swinging: Forecasters said radar spotted possible tornados spun off by the storm overnight in southern Alabama and the Florida panhandle, and more were possible through Wednesday night in Mississippi and western Alabama.
The National Hurricane Center said early Wednesday that Gordon was weakening on a path into Arkansas after striking the coast at 70 mph, just shy of hurricane strength, near Pascagoula, Mississippi. The remnants will likely cause flash flooding across parts of seven states and as far north as Iowa in the coming days.
Tropical Storm Gordon never became a hurricane but it was deadly all the same, killing a child by blowing a tree onto a mobile home as it made landfall late Tuesday just west of the Alabama-Mississippi border.
A storm surge covered barrier islands as the storm blew through, and some inland roadways were flooded as well. The National Weather Service in Mobile cautioned that the Styx River near Elsanor, Alabama, could reach moderate, and possibly major, flood stage later Wednesday.
But the storm's impact could have been worse: Gordon gave only a glancing blow to New Orleans, where Mayor LaToya Cantrell said the city now has "the pumps and the power" needed to protect residents inside the levee protection system.
There were no immediate injury or damage reports, other than the tree that fell on the mobile home in Pensacola. The Escambia County Sheriff's office posted on its Facebook page that responding deputies discovered that the child had been killed. The name and age were not released.
More than 27,000 customers were without power as Gordon began pushing ashore, mostly in coastal Alabama and the western tip of the Florida Panhandle around Pensacola, with a few hundred in southeastern Mississippi. Crews were already restoring electricity early Wednesday in the wake of the storm.
Rain was still falling but the lights were on Wednesday morning at a Waffle House restaurant in Mobile, where factory worker Jerome Richardson said he lost power in the storm Tuesday night. He was still without electricity as he left for his 12-hour shift.
"I just hope I don't have to throw out everything in my refrigerator when I get home," he said.
Driftwood and other debris on the causeway made for hazardous driving early Wednesday to nearby Dauphin Island, where streets were submerged in seawater overnight. Mayor Jeff Collier had warned ahead of the storm that his community might get cut off.
Weather Channel tweet
"When you get the higher waves, water starts splashing across. Sometimes it starts pushing not only water across but debris, logs and things of that nature, which makes it very treacherous to get across," he had said.
The last hurricane to strike the U.S. was Nate last October, coming ashore in Biloxi with 75 mph (120 kph) winds.
Governors in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana all declared states of emergency to better mobilize state resources and National Guard troops for the storm. Mississippi shut down a dozen Gulf Coast casinos. Workers on at least 54 oil and gas production platforms were evacuated. Communities along the coast provided sand and bags, and many hustled to protect their properties ahead of the storm.
Gordon was not the only storm being watched by forecasters. Hurricane Florence was some 2,400 miles (3,900 kilometers) away from the U.S., and lining up behind it, another potential storm was likely to form not far off the coast of Africa.
It's way too early to know if either of those storms will have any impact on land, but Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham said attention should be paid: "It's the peak of hurricane season. Now is the time to get your plans all set," he said.
With the rise of e-commerce in full swing, Honeywell's 2016 acquisition of the automaton-focused Intelligrated is paying off in droves, Honeywell International Chairman and CEO Darius Adamczyk told CNBC on Wednesday.
In an exclusive interview with "Mad Money" host , Adamczyk, who took the helm of the sprawling industrial last year, touted Intelligrated's warehouse automation segment, which serves high-profile clients including Amazon.
"It's been just a terrific growth business. I mean, when you think about 50-, 100-percent booking rate increases, top-line growth of 20 percent plus, I think it's very, very exciting," the CEO said. "This is a nice pickup for us because it's coming at the right time."
While Honeywell's organic growth has remained intact, questions have been swirling about the timing of Adamczyk's widely publicized plan to split Honeywell into three parts.
The uncertainty has caused some gyration in Honeywell's stock year to date, but thanks in part to Intelligrated's fast-growing business, Honeywell's quarterly results have been steadily improving.
"Warehouse automation is huge, driven by e-commerce," Adamczyk, formerly COO of Honeywell, said Wednesday. "It's a trend that I believe is going to continue not just in North America, but throughout the world, and it was a great pickup for us."
Adamczyk also said that after reviewing Honeywell's portfolio at the start of his tenure, one of his goals became "to simplify the company," reducing its end markets and making the industrial more focused but for this CEO, that didn't mean shedding Honeywell's worst-performing businesses.
Instead, the first businesses to go will be two that Adamczyk labeled "terrific franchises:" Garrett Motion Inc., Honeywell's transportation systems segment, and Resideo Technologies Inc., a connected-home business, both slated for spin-offs by the end of 2018.
"That end-all litmus test for me is am I, as a Honeywell CEO, likely to put money, capital, to work in these two businesses?" Adamczyk said. "And, frankly, there are some other businesses that would be ahead of [these], which, obviously, raised them to the top of 'Maybe they don't belong in a portfolio.'"
And, by the CEO's account, he's making the right decision: "We'll have gone from eight end markets to six and all of them are extremely appealing from an investment perspective," he told Cramer.
Another point of pain for industrial conglomerates in 2018 has been concern around the United States' relationships with its trading partners, particularly China. According to Adamczyk, Honeywell's prepared for a trade war, too.
"Tariffs are not a big mover for us," the CEO said. "One of the things that we pride ourselves on is that we have very much a local-for-local strategy, so most of our manufacturing [and] innovation, for example, for China, takes place in China."
He added that that makes any tariff-related impact "relatively modest" for the $40 billion Honeywell, which competes in some areas with aerospace giant Boeing, the company behind one of the hardest-hit China-tied stocks.
"Obviously, we plan for the worst and hope for the best," Adamczyk said. "I remain optimistic that things will get resolved because I believe the world's No. 1 and No. 2 economy will come together and arrive in agreement. But where it will impact us, we have plans in place around supply chain, around pricing, around movement of some of our goods all those things are already in place and we're ready."
Shares of Honeywell climbed 1.35 percent on Wednesday, settling at $161.79.
InfoWars boss and far-right media personality Alex Jones got a stern warning Wednesday as he heckled and patronizingly patted Sen. Marco Rubio in the halls of Congress while ranting about being banned from social media platforms.
"Get your hand off me. Don't touch me again, man," snapped Rubio after Jones pawed his shoulder while the Florida Republican was trying to answer questions from a gaggle of reporters amid a constant stream of interruptions from the unhinged conspiracy monger.
"I don't know who you are," Rubio said, after calling Jones "a dumb ass" and rolling his eyes in response to the frequent taunts aimed at him.
Jones claimed Rubio would try to get him arrested. Jones was at risk of just that after a security guard quickly removed his hand from Rubio's shoulder, warned Jones not to do it again and then alerted colleagues over a radio.
"You're not going to get arrested," Rubio said. "I'll take care of it myself."
Jones then said, "Rubio just threatened to physically take care of me."
"Look at him, he's so mad," Jones said. "You're not going to silence me. You're not going to silence America. You are a little gangster thug."
Tweet
The bizarre scene came as the Senate Intelligence Committee took testimony from top executives at several social media companies.
Jones who has argued that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were an "inside job" and that school shootings were staged blasted lawmakers for not seeking his own testimony to defend himself from "slanderous" accusations that have led to multiple bans online.
"The media ran a hoax and said I said things on I didn't say," Jones fumed in a tirade aired earlier live on CNBC, referring to one of the social media platforms that has yet to ban InfoWars content or him. In August, Twitter suspended Jones' personal account for one week for violating the company''s policies.
"This is dangerous authoritarianism and they package silencing Americans who are popular and well-spoken," Jones said. "Because what I'm saying is effective, true and popular."
Iran's reaction to the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions in November could lead to some kind of "unintended military escalation" a risk currently underappreciated by markets, RBC Capital Markets closely-watched oil market expert Helima Croft said on Wednesday. "We maintain that Iran 's response to the coercive measures will play an important role in determining the potential upward trajectory of prices," Croft and her team of oil analysts said in a note Wednesday.
An Iranian military truck carries surface-to-air missiles past a portrait of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a parade on the occasion of the country's annual army day on April 18, 2018, in Tehran. Atta Kenare | AFP | Getty Images
The note titled "Winter is coming" warned that "if the Iranian regime restarts its nuclear program, increases support for regional proxy groups, or makes a genuine effort to restrict maritime traffic through vital chokepoints, fear price premium calculations will become of paramount importance." RBC Capital Markets' base-case scenario is that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei will opt for an approach of "contained escalation" and will seek to avoid a direct military confrontation with its regional rivals, like Saudi Arabia and Israel, that support the U.S. sanctions. Still, there's a risk that any retaliatory measures could get out of hand. "An unintended military escalation through miscalculation continues to be one of the most underappreciated risks in our view," Croft and her team warned. "Even if the probability of such a scenario remains relatively low, it would serve as the ultimate high-impact event for oil prices." The type of Iranian "provocation" will matter materially for oil prices, RBC's team said, as will the reactions of powerful rivals such Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the U.S. "If Tehran opts to avoid escalatory measures and attempts to wait out the Trump administration, the impact on oil prices would be more muted and largely limited to how many of its barrels are removed from the market by sanctions," Croft's team, including Christopher Louney, Michael Tran and Megan Schippmann, wrote. While the analysts noted that trade war and emerging market contagion fears could still serve to keep a lid on prices in the near term, they believed "the geopolitical risks remain skewed quite heavily to the upside." Emerging market currencies have succumbed to yet another sell-off with some hitting record lows as concerns rise about potential contagion across multiple regions.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will meet with state attorneys general later this month to discuss concerns that tech companies "may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms," the Department of Justice said in a statement Wednesday.
The proposed meeting between the country's top prosecutor and state officials is the first major signal of potential antitrust action against Silicon Valley and follows recent claims by President Donald Trump of political bias and censorship by major social media firms.
Last month, Trump said Facebook, Twitter and Google were "treading on very, very troubled territory and they have to be careful." He's also said the companies could be engaging in antitrust behaviors, without offering evidence for the claims.
The Iranian presidents Chief of Staff, Mahmoud Vaezi, rejected claims that President Hassan Rouhani may meet his US counterpart Donal Trump in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, which will be held from September 18-25, AzerNews reported.
Vaezi seriously criticized Ahmad Jannati, Iranian Assembly of Experts Chairman, who raised the claim.
Iranian media outlets quoted Vaezi as saying Sept. 5 that claims about Iranian president intention to meet Trump in his upcoming New York trip is very strange and baseless.
Biden's speech to a packed room of mostly students and retirees at Montclair State University embodies the middle class-focused message he will take around the country as he tries to boost House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates in tight midterm races this year. It also previews the ways in which Biden could rebut Trump if he chooses to challenge the president in 2020.
At a rally supporting Democratic House candidate Mikie Sherrill, the former vice president took veiled shots at Trump when he criticized a "raw, naked nationalism" and "phony populism" that he contended is ripping the country's moral fabric and eroding its middle class. He warned Sherrill's backers in the Republican-held 11th District of possible moves by a GOP-controlled Congress to trim social safety net programs or roll back Obamacare.
President Donald Trump towers over this year's midterm elections. But Joe Biden barely mentioned the president by name Wednesday as he pressed New Jersey voters to help Democrats flip the House.
A speech peppered with Biden's folksy asides assurances that "I'm not kidding" and odes to the shoe shiners and sandwich makers of America ended with a plea for young people to care about politics even if the state of the country has disheartened them.
"So don't tell me you got a hard time. Don't tell me you can't get involved because you are so demoralized. Get off your rear end and get out and vote! Get other people to vote!" Biden said, raising his voice to a shout.
Biden, 75, aims to boost numerous Democratic candidates locked in competitive races between now and the Nov. 6 elections. He started his push for the midterms' final stretch at Labor Day events in Pittsburgh on Monday. Biden campaigned for Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb, who faces Republican Rep. Keith Rothfus in Pennsylvania's 17th District in a rare contest featuring two incumbents as a result of redistricting.
Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot and prosecutor, aims to replace longtime GOP Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen in a district that Trump only narrowly won in 2016. Her goals as a candidate in part show why the former vice president chose to endorse her.
"We have nine weeks. We've got a lot to do," Sherrill said Wednesday before Biden spoke. "Because we're fighting to ensure the economic future of New Jersey. That our federal tax system doesn't punish our state. That we drive innovation and create good-paying jobs so that all of you can stay right here in New Jersey."
Biden's recent campaign activity has stretched beyond helping fresh faces in House races. He recently backed two well-known members of his party New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Tom Carper, his former Senate colleague from Delaware as they try to defend their seats amid primary challenges from upstarts running to their left.
He could also hit the trail for Senate Democrats defending their seats in red states, according to NBC News. A spokesman for Biden did not immediately respond to a request to comment on where else the former vice president plans to campaign this year or how he decides where to stump for candidates.
In his campaign stops so far, Biden has touted the type of working-class focused policy that Democrats hope will help them flip the 23 GOP-held seats they need to take the House. On Wednesday, he stressed the importance of protecting health-care coverage expansion under the Affordable Care Act and upholding labor rights, among other economic issues he highlighted.
"Our single greatest objective is to re-establish and broaden the middle class," Biden said.
Biden contended that Republicans are looking out for wealthy Americans and corporations more than working families. He targeted the GOP tax law passed in December, warning about potential Republican moves to restructure Social Security or Medicare to offset the more than $1 trillion the GOP tax cuts are projected to add to budget deficits over a decade.
President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort departs U.S. District Court after a hearing in the first charges stemming from a special counsel investigation of possible Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election in Washington, October 30, 2017.
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that special counsel Robert Mueller's probe of possible collusion between Russia and Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign could not be discussed during the upcoming trial of Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who is accused of money laundering, among other crimes.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is presiding over Manafort's criminal trial in Washington, D.C., said during a court hearing that the ongoing collusion investigation was "wholly irrelevant to the charges in this case."
Lawyers for Manafort had used the same language in a motion filed to Jackson in July, contending that any "evidence or argument" related to "the campaign's alleged collusion with the Russian government is wholly irrelevant" to Manafort's charges.
They had also asked that any information related to Manafort's work for the Trump campaign be barred from the trial, even if it was "relevant," because such information is politically volatile and could prejudice the jury.
The government noted in its response that it did "not intend to present in its case-in-chief evidence or argument concerning collusion" and did not oppose that portion of Manafort's request. But "Manafort's role in the Trump campaign, however, is relevant to the false-statement offenses," Mueller's prosecutors added.
They argued that press scrutiny about Manafort's activities as a lobbyist only intensified in 2016 because of his prominent role on the Trump campaign.
It's unclear at this time whether the judge will allow that line of questioning.
Manafort faces seven counts in his second trial on charges brought by Mueller's team, including conspiracy to launder money, witness tampering and lying to the government. That trial is set to begin jury selection on Sept. 17, with opening statements scheduled to start a week later.
On Aug. 21, a jury in Manafort's first federal criminal trial in Alexandria found him guilty of eight counts of tax and bank fraud charges. The judge in that case, T.S. Ellis, declared a mistrial on 10 other charges as the jury was reportedly deadlocked because of a single member.
The charges in both trials relate mainly to work Manafort performed and money he made as a consultant for a pro-Ukraine political party years before joining the Trump campaign. Manafort was Trump's campaign chairman for nearly three months during the summer of 2016.
Manafort's defense team had also asked to preclude any mention of the collusion probe from the Alexandria case. Ellis had denied that request as moot, noting that "the government indicated that it did not intend to introduce any such evidence."
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the upcoming trial of President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort will be held in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., denying his request to change the venue.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Manafort's attorneys were not able to show that an impartial jury could not be selected in D.C.
Manafort had requested that the trial be moved more than 200 miles away to Roanoke, Virginia, arguing that the high proportion of Hillary Clinton supporters during the 2016 presidential election and the torrent of publicity over his trials would make it impossible to find a fair jury in the nation's capital.
The trial is set to begin jury selection on Sept. 17, with opening statements scheduled for the following week. It is Manafort's second federal criminal trial based on charges lodged by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Jackson had previously signaled that she was against moving the trial out of Washington. "This court has heard high-profile cases before. We have been able to find impartial jurors," Jackson said during a court hearing in August.
In his previous case in Alexandria, Virginia, Manafort had also requested that the judge move the case to Roanoke. That judge, T.S. Ellis, denied the motion, as well. Manafort was convicted by a 12-member jury on eight criminal counts in that trial, including tax and bank fraud charges.
Older Americans are grappling with mortgage and credit card debt, as well as student loans.
In the past decade, there's been a steep increase in debt among households headed by someone age 75 and older.
Hero Images | Getty Images
The share of bankruptcy filers who are older than 65 is the highest it's ever been. As the cost of living outpaces incomes, health-care costs rise and debt swells, there's been more than a twofold increase in the rate of older Americans filing for bankruptcy, according to a new study. "For an increasing number of older Americans, their golden years are fraught with economic risks," it reads. Debt among older Americans is rising fast. In 2016, the average debt in families in which the head of the household is age 75 or older was $36,757. That is up from $30,288 in 2010, according to a recent report by the nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington. When Fay was laid off from her job in her 70s, she contemplated retirement. A painful reality hit when she realized she didn't have a nest egg that could cover her expenses or current debt. "I see myself with no house," said Fay, who agreed to be interviewed only if her last name was not used because she is afraid of collection agencies hunting her down. "Living on the street." Fay has $50,000 in outstanding student loans from when she had gone back to school in her 50s to get her MBA. She also has a mortgage on her house in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, and another $50,000 in credit card debt.
High balances and calls from collection agencies can leave many older Americans feeling helpless. The average monthly Social Security check is $1,404, and more than 40 percent of single adults receive more than 90 percent of their income from that check, according to the government. Older Americans' debt can threaten this. The number of Social Security recipients 65 and older who had their check reduced because of their student loans increased by more than 500 percent between 2002 and 2015, according to the Government Accountability Office.
"There's just fewer options you have at that stage of the game," said Justin Halverson, a financial advisor and co-founder of Great Waters Financial in Minneapolis. But the situation is far from hopeless. Here's what you can do.
1) Get your budget in order
John Lamb | Photodisc | Getty Images
Mapping your expenses will help you see where, and if, you have room to chip away at your debt, financial experts say. Doing so will also make it more likely that you stick to a budget, and therefore avoid falling deeper into debt. The National Council on Aging offers the Economic Check Up, a website where users can obtain a free personal report on money management and budgeting. (There is also a job search at the site.) Plug in a few simple questions on the council's Benefits CheckUp page and the online tool will screen your eligibility for thousands of benefits for seniors, including meal deliveries and myriad potential tax savings, that could help you to pull down your overhead. To brace for coming health-care costs and possibly find ways to save on them, check out AARP's health-care cost calculator. For Medicare specific information, go to My Medicare Matters.
2) Do what you can
Daniel Grill | Getty Images
As for that debt issue, Halverson recommends reaching out to creditors to find a way to negotiate more favorable terms. "If you have debts with a hospital, I've heard stories where people have called in, told them their situation and the hospital was able to forgive some of the debt," Halverson said. "Open communication is always going to be a good thing." Similarly, if you foresee problems paying your mortgage, contact your financial institution as soon as possible, said Lori Trawinski, director of banking and finance at the AARP Public Policy Institute. "If you wait until you're three or four months delinquent, it's much more difficult to get help," Trawinski said.
She also recommends reaching out to a nonprofit housing counselor for help. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development publishes a list of certified housing counselors by location. Some people will try to reverse their mortgage, which allows homeowners over age 62 to withdraw equity from their property, although keep in mind these options might be wrong for you. Also, financial experts recommend that you try to at least make the minimum payments on your credit card. By doing so, "you're not having actions taken against you," said Craig Copeland, a senior associate with the Employee Benefit Research Institute. But keep in mind that the less you pay, the longer you'll be stuck with a debt and, thanks to interest accrual, the greater it will become. So pay more if you can and look to avoid using that credit card all together. Also make sure your rights are not being violated. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau offers information on how to protect yourself from collection agencies.
3) Consider lifestyle changes
Jaap Arriens/ | NurPhoto | Getty Images
"To pay off the debt, you're going to have to give up some living standards," said Copeland. "You may have to stop traveling or going out for dinner." Some people will relocate to a place where the cost of living is cheaper. You can compare what your expenses would be in different locations with the "Elder Index." If you have enough equity in your house to sell it, you will, in certain cases, be able to avoid a number of costs because you're no longer responsible for property maintenance. "They may be able to move into a retirement community, where there may be a better social aspect than living in a house in the suburbs with a bunch of young people," Copeland said. "Or they may have to move in with a relative or friend, to share living expenses." More from Personal Finance:
Protect your bank accounts from rising debit card fraud.
The Bank of Mom and Dad is open for a quarter of working millennials.
Putting bitcoin in your IRA can sink your retirement. But if you're underwater on a mortgage, he said, "it doesn't make any sense to sell your house, because then you're just left with a debt and no place to live." People in those circumstances might consider renting out a floor or room in their house, although this requires a lot of work. Another way to bring in more money, of course, is to work part-time if possible. "We encourage people to work longer, if they can, because every year you work is one year less that you have to finance in retirement," said AARP's Trawinski.
4) Ditch the regret
Pressure from a key technical indicator could be why Netflix shares are falling, according to a chart analyst.
Netflix shares closed down 6.2 percent Wednesday.
Bespoke Investment Group told its clients that Netflix's inability to stay over an important moving average may have contributed to its sharp decline.
"The FAANG trade is getting hit hard today, with Netflix down. The price chart for Netflix has looked bearish since it broke below its 50-day moving average a few months ago," the firm's co-head of research and investments, Justin Walters, said in a note to clients Wednesday. "The stock recently attempted to re-take its 50-DMA, but with today's decline, it looks like a failed test."
Moving averages aggregate price data over a time period and are used to gauge a security's longer-term trend.
In similar fashion, MKM Partners predicts more downside for the stock based on moving averages.
"The mid-term trend is becoming a concern as the 50 DMA has started to roll over and now must be considered resistance," JC O'Hara, chief market technician at MKM, said in an email. "We believe downward pressure will push Netflix closer to the August lows."
Source: Kimble Charting Solutions
One chart analyst also sees another bearish chart signal for Netflix stock.
There is a "potential double top" on Netflix's weekly chart, Kimble Charting Solutions founder Chris Kimble wrote in an email. The highs "appears to be creating a new falling channel with a series of lower highs and lower lows."
To be sure, Netflix stock's multimonth decline of more than 15 percent from its June high may primarily be a reaction to the company's recent unfavorable fundamentals
On July 17, Netflix shares fell 5.2 percent a day after it reported disappointing second-quarter financial results. The company added 5.15 million memberships during the quarter missing the Wall Street consensus of 6.34 million.
But despite the stock's recent decline Netflix shares have significant cushion so far this year before they underperform the market. Its shares are up 89.4 percent through Tuesday versus the S&P 500's 8.3 percent gain.
CNBC's Fred Imbert contributed to this report.
Norway's $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund has said that it expects businesses to "manage the challenges and opportunities related to sustainable uses of the ocean."
Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages Norway's sovereign wealth fund on behalf of the finance ministry, said Wednesday that companies should, among other things: integrate ocean sustainability into strategy; integrate material ocean-related risks into risk management; and act responsibly and transparently on ocean-related governance.
Businesses should also, NBIM said, "disclose how ocean sustainability forms part of their strategies, policies and commitments."
The issue of ocean pollution is a serious one. To give just one example, more than 700 species "encounter marine litter in the environment" according to the University of Plymouth's International Marine Litter Research Unit.
"The ocean is a vital part of the biosphere and an important part of the global economy," Yngve Slyngstad, NBIM's CEO, said in a statement on Wednesday. "We expect companies to manage the challenges and opportunities related to sustainable use of the ocean," Slyngstad added.
Wednesday also saw NBIM publish a note relating to how it, as a responsible investor, could support sustainable development and help "fulfil the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)."
The UN's goals address a host of subjects, including the environment, poverty, climate change and gender equality.
"The fund's investments in more than 9,000 companies in 72 countries contribute directly and indirectly to a number of the SDGs," Slyngstad said. "Our most important contribution is to strengthen governance, improve performance and promote sustainable business practices," he added.
The fund, Slyngstad said, invested in developing markets and businesses that were coming up with solutions for a "more environmentally friendly economy." It also divested from companies that had "unsustainable business models."
The chief executive of Saudi Arabia's stock exchange told CNBC Wednesday that it is well-placed to cope with the pressures of the world's largest ever initial public offering (IPO).
Saudi Arabia recently shelved plans to sell a 5 percent stake in state-owned energy giant Aramco, reportedly amid valuation and regulatory concerns. Nonetheless, the IPO remains critical to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's ambitious plan to overhaul the kingdom's economy.
So far, Saudi Arabia's stock market also known as Tadawul is the only confirmed listing exchange for Aramco.
"I think the Saudi stock exchange will continue to develop its markets to be ready for Aramco and other issues," Khalid Al Hussan, who heads the exchange, told CNBC's "Street Signs" on Wednesday.
Saudi Arabia hopes to attract a $2 trillion valuation for Aramco the world's largest oil company though some external observers have pegged its value at half that amount.
Amin Nasser, CEO of Aramco, told CNBC earlier this year that his company was prepared for a public offering in the second half of 2018, but was waiting for the government to choose an exchange. Indecision over the listing venue is widely thought to have snarled the process.
Complaints over ten Facebook posts from the Scottish Gin Society have been upheld by the U.K.'s advertising body for encouraging excessive drinking and linking alcohol to sexual success, among other issues.
The gin group argued that the Facebook posts were not adverts and therefore did not fall under the remit of the U.K's ad codes, which are enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). However, the rules do apply to claims on a company's website and on social media, as well as paid-for posts.
One of the gin society's posts, dated 27 December 2017, featured an image of a glass of gin and tonic and the text: "Healthy eating and exercise make you look better naked. So does gin. Your choice".
Another post, from November 2017, showed a gin and tonic and the text: "A banana has 150 calories, a G&T has 110 calories, case closed." The image featured the Scottish Gin Society's logo and was captioned: "We're all about making healthy choices."
Leading Democratic Sen. Mark Warner on Wednesday sharply criticized Google's absence from the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on social media's role in protecting elections from misinformation and disinformation.
Warner, who is the ranking Democrat on the committee, which has been conducting a probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, said there was clear frustration from both parties about the tech company's vacant seat at the hearing.
"I don't get it," the Virginia Democrat said Wednesday in an interview with CNBC's "Power Lunch." "This was a time for the CEOs or the chief operating officers to appear."
The committee wanted either Larry Page, CEO of Google parent Alphabet, or Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai to testify alongside Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, but Google offered its top lawyer and senior vice president of global affairs, Kent Walker, instead.
The Senate intentionally set up an unoccupied seat to shame Alphabet at Wednesday's hearing. Senators, including Warner and Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Richard Burr, R-N.C., blasted Google executives for not showing up.
Warner said YouTube, which is owned by Google, has played a smaller role in "disinformation and misinformation" than Facebook or Twitter but "there's a series of other questions that have arisen." Warner told Wired that he planned to question Google about its plans in China during the hearing.
At the same time, Warner praised the performances of Dorsey and Sandberg at Wednesday's morning hearing on election security. He said it appeared Twitter and Facebook were making "bold moves" to thwart election meddling.
The hearing and one Wednesday afternoon on Twitter transparency and accountability by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce come just about two months before the midterm elections.
The hearings are also more than a week after President Donald Trump claimed, without evidence, that Google's search engine is biased against him and other conservatives. Google pushed back on those claims.
The Democratic Party's biggest financiers are reportedly pushing Warner, who is known on Capitol Hill as a moderate, to run for president in 2020. He is also a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and the Senate Finance Committee.
CNBC's Jillian D'Onfro contributed to this report.
Iran has given European parties to the nuclear deal until Nov. 4 -- the start of U.S. sanctions against its vital oil industry -- to come up with ways to offset the impact, suggesting it may otherwise pull out.
Iran has clearly announced to European nations that if its main interests in the nuclear agreement are not served, staying in the deal will not benefit us anymore, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on state television late Tuesday, Bloomberg reported citing the Tasnim news agency. They have a deadline of Nov. 4 and from then on, any action by them would be useless.
As long as we can sell our oil, it will be in our interest to stay in the JCPOA, Araghchi said, referring to the acronym for the 2015 accord, which the U.S. quit in May.
U.S. Supreme Court nominee judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies during his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, September 5, 2018.
President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh faced a grilling from senators on the Judiciary Committee Wednesday over his views on the president's executive authority.
Asked by the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, whether a president could be forced to respond to a subpoena, Kavanaugh demurred, saying he would not answer the "hypothetical" question.
Separately, Kavanaugh said Wednesday that the 1974 Supreme Court case that forced Nixon to turn over White House tapes in response to a subpoena was "one of the greatest moments in American judicial history." Two decades ago, Kavanaugh said the case may have been wrongly decided.
Kavanaugh, whom Trump named to replace the retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, could prove influential in future cases regarding the president, including any brought by special counsel Robert Mueller. Experts have said it is likely that Mueller will issue a subpoena to Trump in the course of his Russia probe if the president's attorneys do not agree to Mueller's terms for an interview.
Democrats on the Judiciary Committee also sought to get Kavanaugh on the record on the president's pardon authority. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., asked Kavanaugh about whether Trump could pardon himself.
"The question of self-pardons is something I have never analyzed. It's a question I have not written about," Kavanaugh responded. "It's a question that, therefore, is a hypothetical that I can't begin to answer in this context as a sitting judge and nominee to the Supreme Court."
Kavanaugh also declined to discuss his view on whether a president can pardon someone in exchange for a promise or bribe, saying the question has been "litigated before."
Experts generally agree that the president faces few limits to his pardon authority, though there is some debate over whether he could pardon himself.
One of Trump's attorneys raised the possibility of pardoning Trump's ex-campaign chief Paul Manafort last year before Manafort was indicted for a number of bank and tax crimes, The New York Times reported in March. Manafort was convicted by a federal jury in Virginia last month and faces another trial in Washington, D.C.
The attorney who raised the possibility with Manafort's team, John Dowd, has denied raising the possibility of pardons and is no longer working at the White House.
Democrats have criticized Kavanaugh as being deferential to presidential authority and expressed concern that he could protect Trump from any legal woes brought by Mueller or prosecutors in New York.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has said it would be "unseemly" for the president to nominate a Supreme Court justice, saying the nominee would likely be a "juror in a case involving the president himself."
Kavanaugh, who worked on Kenneth Starr's investigation of President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, has said that he does not believe a president should be prosecuted while in office. That is also the official opinion of the Department of Justice.
But, pushing back on criticism that he would be a stooge for the president, he praised judicial independence Wednesday, noting that "no one is above the law."
The comment, however, didn't seem to win Democrats over.
"If Brett Kavanaugh truly believes the president isn't above the law, he should have said the president must comply with a subpoena," Feinstein said in a post on Twitter. "There's no reason Brett Kavanaugh couldn't have given a straight answer."
This is breaking news and will be updated.
Democrats have expressed concern that Kavanaugh would overturn or roll back the ruling, and two key Republican lawmakers Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have said that the issue could be significant in shaping their votes. Collins told reporters last month that Kavanaugh told her he viewed Roe as "settled" law.
Addressing the Judiciary Committee's top Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, Kavanaugh said that the 1973 case "has been reaffirmed many times over the past 45 years, as you know."
President Donald Trump 's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh said on Wednesday that Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling protecting abortion rights, is "an important precedent of the Supreme Court that has been reaffirmed many times."
In front of lawmakers for the second day of his confirmation hearings, Kavanaugh said he understood the importance of the case.
"I don't live in a bubble, I understand, I live in the real world. I understand the importance of the issue," Kavanaugh said. He said that the Supreme Court's ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey added force to the court's legal reasoning. It was "precedent on precedent," he said.
"The Supreme Court didn't just reaffirm it in passing," he said.
Feinstein's office expressed skepticism of Kavanaugh's statements in a tweet posted during the hearing.
"Thomas, Alito, Roberts and Gorsuch used the same playbook," the tweet said. "We can't accept vague promises from Brett Kavanaugh when women's reproductive freedom is at stake."
Feinstein tweet
Reproductive rights activists have vigorously opposed Kavanaugh's nomination, citing Trump's claim that he would nominate judges to the court who would "automatically" overturn Roe, as well as Kavanaugh's comment last year that former Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist, who wrote a dissent in Roe, was Kavanaugh's "judicial hero."
Following the president's announcement that Kavanaugh would be his pick, Planned Parenthood immediately called on the Senate to reject him.
"There's no way to sugarcoat it: with this nomination, the constitutional right to access safe, legal abortion in this country is on the line," the group's executive vice president Dawn Laguens said at the time. "We already know how Brett Kavanaugh would rule on Roe v. Wade, because the president told us so."
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018.
The op-ed, which was published online with the headline "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration," details efforts by senior government employees who the author said were "working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations."
"This is what I have to deal with," the president said, calling the op-ed "gutless" and a "disgrace."
"We have somebody in what I call the 'failing New York Times' that's talking about he's part of the resistance within the Trump administration," Trump told reporters during a meeting with sheriffs.
President Donald Trump launched a verbal attack Wednesday on The New York Times following its publication of an op-ed written by someone identified only as a senior administration official who claimed to be working with colleagues to thwart the president's agenda.
In response, the president touted his economic record, and said that when he leaves office "all of these phony media outlets will be out of business, folks. They'll be out of business because they'll be nothing to write and nothing of interest."
In a statement, the White House accused the author of the article of being a "coward" and called on him to resign.
"He is not putting country first, but putting himself and his ego ahead of the will of the American people. This coward should do the right thing and resign," the statement said.
Trump doubled down on his criticism of the op-ed in an evening Twitter post.
Donald Trump tweet: Does the so-called "Senior Administration Official" really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source? If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!
The White House has been beset by leaks since its very first days, earning the fury of the president. Earlier this week, excerpts from a forthcoming book written by The Washington Post's Bob Woodward detailed internal conversations among senior White House officials including chief of staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary James Mattis.
Trump called the book a "con on the public." Both Kelly and Mattis said the book's reporting was false.
On Friday, off-the-record comments that Trump had made to Bloomberg concerning trade negotiations with Canada were leaked to the Toronto Star.
"Wow, I made OFF THE RECORD COMMENTS to Bloomberg concerning Canada, and this powerful understanding was BLATANTLY VIOLATED," Trump wrote in a post on Twitter at the time. "Oh well, just more dishonest reporting. I am used to it. At least Canada knows where I stand!"
Bloomberg denied leaking the president's comments.
CNBC's Marty Steinberg contributed to this story.
President Donald Trump may not want a government shutdown, after all.
After threatening to let government funding lapse earlier in the year as he seeks funding for his proposed border wall, Trump cast doubts on the likelihood of a shutdown. He told right-wing website the Daily Caller, in remarks published Wednesday, that "I don't like the idea of shutdowns," adding that "I don't see even myself or anybody else closing down the country right now."
Government funding runs out at the end of this month. Republicans controlling the White House and both houses of Congress are worried that a shutdown could hurt the party in November's critical midterm elections. Democrats aim to take a House majority and are considered at least slight favorites to do so.
The president met with GOP lawmakers Wednesday as they scramble to pass a bill to fund the government beyond September. He told reporters during the sit-down that "if it happens, it happens," with regard to a shutdown.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday morning that Trump would not shut down the government.
"That's not in anyone's interest, and he knows that," Ryan told reporters.
In July, the president threatened to let funding lapse if Congress did not authorize the roughly $25 billion he seeks for the proposed barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border. The "wall" was a key piece of Trump's election campaign, but he has struggled to get the funding needed to build it. During the campaign, he pledged that Mexico would pay for the wall.
"A Government Shutdown is a very small price to pay for a safe and Prosperous America!" he tweeted in July.
Trump tweet
In March, Trump signed a $1.3 trillion spending bill to avert the last shutdown threat. He threatened to veto that legislation as he sought more money for border security.
Government funding has briefly lapsed twice already this year.
CNBC reported last week, citing three people who have discussed the idea, that the White House is considering a possible partial shutdown. In this scenario, Trump would sign stand-alone bills to fund the majority of the government, while reserving the right to veto others if they don't include funding for the border wall.
President Donald Trump accused social networks of interfering in the 2016 presidential election and November's midterm elections.
Trump told online conservative publication The Daily Caller he thinks big tech firms "already have" intervened in the midterms, and said Facebook and Google intervened in the 2016 presidential election on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
"I mean the true interference in the last election was that if you look at all, virtually all of those companies are super liberal companies in favor of Hillary Clinton," Trump said, according to the outlet.
"Maybe I did a better job because I'm good with the Twitter and I'm good at social media, but the truth is they were all on Hillary Clinton's side, and if you look at what was going on with Facebook and with Google and all of it, they were very much on her side."
The president also warned tech firms not to continue with alleged bias against conservatives.
British prosecutors named two Russian men believed to be officers in Russia's intelligence service they believe were behind the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter in the U.K. earlier this year.
They named the men as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, and said they are officers in Russia's foreign military intelligence agency, the GRU.
They have been charged with the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who were found unconscious on a park bench in the small English city of Salisbury in March.
Following the announcement, Prime Minister Theresa May reiterated the U.K.'s allegation that the Russian state had orchestrated the attack on the former Russian spy, who had become a double-agent for the U.K.'s intelligence services in the 1990s and early 2000s a factor seen as motivation for the attack.
Speaking to parliament Wednesday, May said the U.K.'s security and intelligence agencies had determined that the men were officers belonging to the GRU.
"Based on a body of evidence, the government has concluded that the two individuals named ... are officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU. The GRU is a highly disciplined organization with an established chain of command so this was not a rogue operation," she said. "It was almost certainly approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state."
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis briefs members of the media on Syria at the Pentagon in Washington, United States on April 13, 2018.
The White House is actively discussing possible replacements for Defense Secretary James Mattis, according to a report published in The Washington Post on Wednesday.
The newspaper reported that discussions about who would succeed the top Trump administration official predated reports this week that Mattis had insulted the president's intelligence. One senior administration official told the paper, however, that "speculation about who replaces Mattis is now more real than ever."
On Tuesday, The Washington Post published excerpts from "Fear," a forthcoming book written by Bob Woodward. Mattis told associates that the president had the understanding of "a fifth- or sixth-grader," Woodward wrote.
Wednesday's report was written by Josh Rogin, a national security columnist for the newspaper. The Department of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC. Mattis has called the claims in Woodward's book "fiction."
President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday that Iran will continue exporting crude oil despite US efforts to stop it through sanctions.
"We will continue by all means to both produce and export" oil, Rouhani said in remarks broadcast on state TV. "Oil is in the frontline of confrontation and resistance."
The US wants to reduce Iran's oil exports effectively to zero with renewed sanctions in November, after pulling out of the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in May.
It's unclear, however, how much other countries will cut back on Iranian oil imports. Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, which also signed the nuclear deal, opposed the Trump administration's decision to withdraw from it. European countries are trying to salvage the landmark accord.
Japan has decided to simplify the visa regime for Azerbaijani citizens, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono, who is on an official visit to Azerbaijan, said at a joint press conference with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov, Trend reports.
Taro Kono said that Japan wants to strengthen multifaceted relations with Azerbaijan.
He expressed hope that after his visit, the friendly relations between the two countries will develop even more.
The Japanese minister expressed satisfaction with the implementation of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) project in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, where Japan's Itochu Corporation holds a 3.65 percent stake.
A contract on the ACG was signed in 1994. A ceremony to sign a new contract for development of the ACG block of oil and gas fields was held in Baku Sept. 14, 2017.
Types of obituaries
The Missourian publishes two types of obituaries family obituaries and life stories.
A family obituary is the version submitted by a funeral home or family. Please see the submission form for details on cost and deadlines. Family obituaries
A life story is a closer look at a person's life and involves a reporter contacting family and friends. Life stories are based on newsworthiness and consent of the family. Life stories.
The Kremlin has expressed great concern over the situation in Syrias Idlib and announced plans for continuing discussions of the current events there with other countries, TASS reports.
"The situation in Idlib remains a matter of great concern and, of course, it is on the agenda of all contacts the Russian side carries out at all levels with the counterparts concerned," Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
He refrained from commenting on progress in the military operation and the current situation in Idlib, adding that such matters were a competence of Russian Defense Ministry officials.
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
Microsoft's Edge last month posted its first ever double-digit browser share, while Google's Chrome slid for the third month straight.
Mozilla's Firefox once again held steady, keeping its head above water.
According to data published Sunday by California-based metrics company Net Applications, Edge's October share climbed by 1.4 percentage points, ending the month at 10.2%, the first time Microsoft's browser broke through that psychologically important barrier. The gain was the largest ever for Edge in a single month, almost double that of the previous record set in December 2019.
The increase was so large that it immediately raised suspicions that it was a miscount by Net Applications rather than a reflection of reality. Bolstering that was an even greater boost to the share of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE), the obsolete browser the Redmond, Wash. company has started to strip of some of its support. IE's share for October 5.6% was 1.7 points higher than the month prior, a jump so out of character as to be unbelievable.
Edge's gain was understandable, at least. Microsoft relaunched that 2015 browser earlier this year when it recast Edge with the Google-dominated Chromium technology, the same that powers Chrome. Not only did Microsoft make Edge a Chrome copy, but it also expanded support to versions of Windows other than 10, as well as macOS and, more recently, Linux.
Since January, Edge has slowly been adding share; 3.2 points since the Chromium-based Edge went final in the Stable channel. In the past 12 months, Edge has gained 4.1 percentage points, for an average of a third of a point per month.
At that pace, Edge should sit at almost 11% by year's end and at 15% by December 2021. Of course, that assumes Edge can maintain growth, which in turn requires one or more rivals continues to give up share.
The most likely loser? Chrome, mostly because of its titanic share but also because Edge is, well, Chrome wearing a different outfit.
Microsoft's launch of Windows 10 20H2 the H2 signifying the year's second feature upgrade last month may assist Edge as it continues to climb: 20H2 includes Chromium Edge. That should accelerate the replacement of original Edge, the version introduced in mid-2015 that ran only on Windows 10, with the sounder Chromium browser.
Chrome down for third consecutive month
Chrome dumped seven-tenths of a percentage point in October, falling back to 69.3%. The decline was the third in as many months, an unusual run that's occurred only four times in the browser's 15 years. (The last time it happened before this was in September-December 2019.)
Whenever Chrome suffers losses in two or more straight months, it's tempting to wonder whether the browser has peaked. Computerworld has tentatively pegged more than a couple such milestones before but been proven wrong each time. The browser could easily bounce back as it has before.
Computerworld's latest forecast as always, based on Chrome's 12-month average stayed with growth, albeit pared significantly from 30 days ago. Chrome should return to 70% by March 2021 and reach 71% by September 2022. (The latter was three months later than last month's forecast, showing how present declines quickly impact future gains.)
Edge remains Chrome's most dangerous competitor, primarily and this is Google's own doing to some degree because the former is the latter, what with both relying on Chromium. But Microsoft has cards to play here that Google cannot match; Microsoft will leverage its enterprise management reputation and expertise in an attempt to wean commercial customers from Google's browser.
Microsoft's strategy, then, would be the opposite of Google's. The latter pushed Chrome to consumers until its share reached tipping point, and employees demanded the right to run the same browser they'd become familiar with at home. Microsoft would instead hope to win over business users in the expectation that they might want to run the same browser on home PCs, tablets or even phones.
Firefox: Not dead yet!
Firefox didn't move its share needle last month; it stayed at the same 7.2% mark it earned in September. That meant Firefox didn't gain any ground. It also meant it didn't lose any, probably its most important goal for now and the foreseeable future.
Mozilla's browser also stuck to the bad news forecast of last month, although Computerworld's current prediction puts it under 6% in August 2021, two months later than last month's estimate. At its 12-month rate of decline, Firefox will dip below 5% in May 2022.
Elsewhere in Net Applications' numbers, Apple's Safari slumped by two-tenths of a percentage point in October, sliding to 3.4%. Opera Software's Opera fell by a slightly-larger three-tenths of a point to end the month at an all-time low of seven-tenths of a point.
Net Applications calculates share by detecting the agent strings of the browsers used to reach the websites of Net Applications' clients. The company counts visitor sessions to measure browser activity.
Or it used to.
At the same time it published October's share numbers, Net Applications announced that it's pulling the plug on the data source. "October 2020 is the last month of data," the firm 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 browser and 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 "Top web browsers" series, and if so, which alternate data source might be used.
Stay tuned.
NUS launches innovation4.0 building to support Smart Nation efforts
The National University of Singapore (NUS) has launched the innovation4.0 (i4.0) building to support Singapores Smart Nation initiative.
The launch ceremony held yesterday, September 4, was officiated by Mr Heng Swee Keat, Minister for Finance and Chairman of the National Research Foundation.
This six-storey building is the home of the NUS Smart Nation Research Cluster, housing 12 interdisciplinary research entities responsible for building the universitys strategic capabilities in various emerging tech fields.
These include artificial intelligence, data science, analytics, modelling, simulation and optimisation, as well as cybersecurity. Up to eight additional research entities are expected to move into the building by the end of 2019.
Mr Heng Swee Keat, Minister for Finance and Chairman of the National Research Foundation, viewing a display on NUSoil-Nutrigel, a start-up idea supported by the NUS Graduate Research Innovation Programme (NUS GRIP), during the launch of the new NUS innovation4.0 building. Photo courtesy: NUS
The Universitys technology transfer office NUS Industry Liaison Office (ILO) is also located in i4.0 to accelerate the transfer of NUS digital innovations to the commercial marketplace.
This state-of-the-art building not only houses the key R&D initiatives in the NUS Smart Nation Research Cluster, but also the entire value chain needed to bring innovations and solutions from the lab to the market," said NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye.
The building will comprise open-concept workstations and plenty of interactive work spaces. Innovative ideas for areas such as smart mobility, smart living, digital health, social connectivity, fintech and intelligent logistics will be created, built upon and eventually take flight.
Some interesting features of i4.0 include the Makerspace for entrepreneurial activities, smart cafe, and double-volume lobby and atrium lounges which are conveniently located at the ground level.
News of Johnsons conference speech to ConHome makes a splash
Boris Johnson will address up to a thousand Conservative Party delegates on the eve of Theresa Mays keynote conference speech next month. In a move that will cause discomfort, if little surprise, in Downing Street the former foreign secretary has accepted an invitation to speak at a rally organised by Conservative Home, the Tory grassroots group. Aides to Mr Johnson confirmed that he had agreed to attend the event but insisted that he had not yet decided on the subject of his speech. Regardless, the decision will be seen as a provocative attempt by Mr Johnson to contrast himself with Mrs May, who is a not seen as a natural oratorDowning Street has launched a counteroffensive against Mr Johnsons latest attack on her Chequers plan by compiling a dossier to rebut his claims. Ministers summoned to a meeting in No 10 after cabinet yesterday morning were handed a two-page documentsuggesting that the prime minister was making progress in the Brexit negotiation and quoting foreign leaders warm words. A Tory source described the handout as a hatchet job on Boris Johnson. The Times
>Today: Kathrine Kleveland on Comment: Here in Norway, we can do much better than the EEA. And so can you in Britain when you quit the EU
>Yesterday:
Carney intends to stay on at the Bank with Hammond and Mays backing
Mark Carney is expected to extend his stay as governor of the Bank of England until 2020, after Theresa May backed a plan to maintain stability at the central bank through the turbulence of Brexit. Mr Carney told MPs on Tuesday that he would be willing to stay as governor of the BoE beyond his planned exit at the end of June 2019 to help the Brexit process as well as the transition to a new governor. Mrs May has endorsed the plan, with senior government figures saying Mr Carney would now remain in post until the second half of 2020. The precise departure date is expected to be announced by Philip Hammond, the chancellor, within the next week. Mr Hammond hatched the plan to persuade Mr Carney to extend his tenure and won approval from the prime minister before the summer break. Discussions with the governor have taken place in recent weeks. FT
Mercer: May doesnt get it on historical investigations of veterans
Payroll glitch delays bonus for armed forces FT
A Tory MP has criticised Theresa May for her handling of vexatious historical claims against veterans. Johnny Mercer, a former army captain who sits on the Commons defence select committee, said yesterday that the prime minister doesnt get it. He spoke out after MPs heard emotional testimony from Colonel Jorge Mendonca, formerly of the Queens Lancashire Regiment, who was court-martialled in 2007. The senior officer was cleared of negligently performing a duty after the death of Baha Mousa, an Iraqi civilian, in Basra in 2003 Mr Mercer acknowledged that General Sir Nick Carter, the head of the military, wanted to stamp out vexatious claims. The trouble is it comes down to the prime minister and the secretary of state for defence. And in my view she doesnt get it, he said. The Times
Grayling presses for full review of rail franchising
The government is considering a full review of how Britains railways are run, after a succession of crises in the industry and growing commuter discontent. The transport secretary, Chris Grayling, has pushed for an overarching inquiry after the collapse of the Virgin Trains East Coast franchise and the recent rail timetabling chaos concerning Northern Rail, Southern and Thameslink services. According to a report in the Financial Times, Downing Street now backs Graylings view. However, sources said that no firm decision had been taken and there was some opposition to the idea. Labours leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has stepped up his partys campaign to overhaul rail franchising, with nationalisation popular among voters, and Conservatives believe they need a strong response but fear further antagonising commuters angered by poor services and rising fares. The Guardian
Met chief backs extending stop and search powers
Why is Facebook refusing to help police in the case of a murdered girl? Stephen Glover, Daily Mail
Miller says Chope was right to demand scrutiny of the upskirting bill, as it is flawed The Times
Health minister want to compel all food outlets to list calorie counts on their menus
Britains most senior police officer yesterday threw her weight behind plans to extend stop-and-search powers. Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, said that she supported the plans of Sajid Javid, the home secretary, to allow officers to stop anyone suspected of carrying acid without a good reason. At present police can do so only when they have evidence that a person is about to cause an injury. Ms Dick told LBC radio: I think an extension of the power to do this would be very helpful for us and I would be all in favour of it.- The Times
Calorie counts will have to be displayed on the menus of all restaurants, cafes and fast-food outlets under Government plans that have prompted a Cabinet row, The Daily Telegraph has learned. The Department of Health will within days unveil plans to display the number of calories in every meal to enable people to make informed and healthy choices for themselves and their family. However, The Treasury has warned the plans to tackle obesity are likely burdensome for 26,000 small businesses and could force them to raise food prices and cut jobs. While some larger chains including McDonalds and Pizza Express have voluntarily adopted calorie counts, most smaller restaurants and cafes do not include them on their menus. A draft consultation, seen by The Telegraph, states that new legislation will be introduced to ensure there is consistent calorie labelling for restaurants, cafes, takeaways and online delivery services. Daily Telegraph
>Today: Ben Houchen on Local Government: An Amazon Tax wont save the high street
>Yesterday: James Fraynes column: The voters most enthusiastic about state action on childhood obesity areConservative ones
Lidington and Lewis restate the case for boundary reform to MPs
The cost of getting elected skews our Parliament Isabel Hardman, The Sun
Corbyns attempts to caveat the antisemitism definition go too far even for his own NEC
Ministers last night vowed to press ahead with plans to cut the number of MPs by 50 despite warnings that they face defeat in the Commons. In a letter to Tory MPs, party chairman Brandon Lewis and Theresa Mays deputy David Lidington said failure to press ahead with a controversial boundary review would leave Britain with the most out-of-date boundaries in modern political history. Tory whips have warned Mrs May that they could struggle to win the Commons vote needed to put the new boundaries in place ahead of the next election. But in their letter last night, the two Cabinet ministers warned that leaving the borders as they are would cement the existing bias in the electoral system towards Labour. Without such reforms, there will be a significant bias at the next election that will unfairly discriminate against voters in Conservative constituencies, they wrote. The absence of fair and equal boundaries risks gerrymandering the election in favour of Jeremy Corbyn. Daily Mail
Jeremy Corbyn was humiliated last night after his attempt to add a 500-word caveat to the Labour Partys definition of antisemitism was rejected by his own allies. The partys ruling body agreed yesterday to adopt in full an international definition of antisemitism written by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in an attempt to end a summer of disputes. The definition was incorporated into Labours code of conduct in July, but not all its examples were included. During the meeting Mr Corbyn proposed a lengthy statement to be published alongside the document, setting out what he believed were the criticisms of Zionism and Israel still allowed by the IHRA. Despite being dominated by the Labour leaders allies, the partys ruling national executive committee (NEC) turned down his proposal, instead deciding to publish a short statement aimed at protecting members free speech on the issue. The Times
>Today: Profile: Jonathan Sacks, who accused Corbyn of supporting racists who want to kill Jews, and compared him to Powell
Police investigate leaked cases that Labour allegedly should have reported as hate crimes
This poison must be challenged Natasha Pearlman, Daily Mail
Willsman cheered by protesters as he arrived for meeting The Times
The most popular NEC candidate celebrated the Iranian Islamic revolution Daily Mail
Labours moderates have made this possible Tom Harris, Daily Telegraph
Scotland Yard is investigating a leaked dossier on anti-Semitism in the Labour Party which it is claimed contains 21 cases that should have been reported to the police. The document which was made public today details allegations against councillors and members involving messages posted on social media. The claims include on that a party member posted a message of Facebook saying we shall rid the Jews who are cancer on us all Radio station LBC were handed the internal Labour document which details 45 cases in total. Daily Mail
>Yesterday: LeftWatch: Wheres Ed Miliband?
Barron resigns from standards watchdog over MPs decision to obstruct transparency
Sir Kevin Barron announced yesterday that he would step down next month after eight years of chairing the standards and privileges committee. I am proud of the changes made to the code of conduct over the years, including the recent introduction of a new system of investigation into bullying and sexual harassment, he said. But he took a swipe at his fellow MPs, adding: It is a shame that some of those changes had to come with the sacrifice of transparency. In July members voted in favour of plans to keep secret the details of all MPs under investigation. The change was part of reforms being pushed through in response to reports of sexual harassment and bullying at Westminster. The Times
The commissioner no longer automatically publishes verdicts Daily Telegraph
Woodward reveals further troubling details of life inside Trumps Crazytown administration
Trumps aides say he has turned the White House into Crazytown and is a national security risk, a new book by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward claims. They swipe papers from his desk to stop him signing dangerous orders, it adds. Chief of Staff John Kelly reportedly raged: Hes an idiot. Were in Crazytown. This is the worst job Ive had. Defence Secretary James Mattis likened his intellect to a fifth or sixth grader a child aged 11 or 12. Mr Trumps lawyer John Dowd is said to have deemed him a f****** liar and warned of jail if he agreed to a formal quiz over Russia links. The President did not want to testifyThe White House last night said the book told fabricated stories from disgruntled ex-staff. The Sun
Profile: Jonathan Sacks, who accused Corbyn of supporting racists who want to kill Jews, and compared him to Powell
It is not every day that one hears Jeremy Corbyn likened to Enoch Powell. Nor has Lord Sacks, who made the comparison, ever before said anything half so startling about politics.
During three decades in public life, including 22 years from 1991 to 2013 as Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks has striven, like other religious leaders, to refrain from making comments which might be regarded as partisan.
The press can create a story out of a careless remark, but that is not what happened here. In his interview with The New Statesman, Sacks uses language with his usual precision, to build an indictment as deliberate as it is devastating:
The recently disclosed remarks by Jeremy Corbyn are the most offensive statement made by a senior British politician since Enoch Powells 1968 Rivers of Blood speech. It was divisive, hateful and like Powells speech it undermines the existence of an entire group of British citizens by depicting them as essentially alien. We can only judge Jeremy Corbyn by his words and his actions. He has given support to racists, terrorists and dealers of hate who want to kill Jews and remove from Israel from the map. When he implies that, however long they have lived here, Jews are not fully British, he is using the language of classic pre-war European anti-Semitism. When challenged with such facts, the evidence for which is before our eyes, first he denies, then he equivocates, then he obfuscates. This is low, dishonest and dangerous. He has legitimised the public expression of hate, and where he leads, others will follow.
On Sunday morning, Andrew Marr put it to Sacks that this was nevertheless over the top, and Sacks replies that it was, on the contrary, a warning he was obliged to give:
Anyone who befriends Hamas and Hezbollah is in danger of engulfing Britain in the kind of flames of hatred that have reappeared throughout Europe, and is massively irresponsible.There is a danger that Jeremy Corbyn will one day be Prime Minister.
Jews, he added, are thinking of leaving Britain. He called on the Labour leader to repent and recant, and to stop the persecution of people within his own party, in order to rebuild some very damaged relationships with the Jewish community.
These remarks are all the more striking when one notes that Sacks is a shy intellectual, who has been reluctant to court controversy, and who, in the words of one close observer, knows hes tone deaf to politics. For him, the question transcends politics, and has become one where it would be immoral to remain silent.
When the Hard Left have become incapable of condemning anti-semitism in their own ranks, or of seeing how far Corbyn has gone astray, an attempt must be made to shake them out of their complacency.
Sacks was born to Jewish parents in London in 1948. His father, who had arrived from Poland at the age of two, sold cloth in Commercial Road in the East End. His mother, who was born here, worked in her familys wine shop.
Jonathan, the oldest of four brothers, was educated at Christs College, Finchley, in those days a grammar school. About half the pupils were Jewish, and its old boys include Lord Young of Graffham, Sir Peter Strawson, Charles Saatchi and Will Self.
On one occasion, Jonathan went to see his local MP for help with a piece of school work. She was called Margaret Thatcher:
I was doing an essay on proportional representation once and I went to her Im 17 years old she looks at me and says he leans forward with narrowed eyes and breaks into a high-pitched imitation of his former MP youre not a liberal, are you?
From Finchley, he proceeded to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, to read Moral Sciences, or philosophy, in which he took a First. His hero, Wittgenstein, had until a few years earlier been at Trinity College, which is next door. When Sacks appeared on Desert Island Discs, he described the impact of Cambridge:
It was stunning, it was sensational, it was the pulse of the place. It wasnt so much the timeless beauty, though I loved that as well, but the sheer pulse of so many people with so many ideas. I found that very exciting.
On the same programme he said: My great ambition in life was to be an accountant. He married young, to Elaine Taylor, then a physiotherapist, and they went on to have three children. But his life had been changed in 1967 by the Six-Day War, when several Arab countries tried to drive Israel into the sea: It looked as if a second unthinkable Holocaust was about to take place.
Israel instead won a tremendous victory, and a seed had been planted in his mind, which some years later was to germinate. Although he continued with post-graduate philosophical studies, he also became increasingly interested in Judaism, felt mystic longings and attended a seminary in Israel, after which he qualified in London as a rabbi, and worked at Golders Green and Marble Arch synagogues.
His career is in some ways comparable to that of Justin Welby, the present Archbishop of Canterbury, who likewise displayed no particular piety as a child, and did not immediately go in to the Church, but almost as soon as he did, was marked out for rapid promotion.
In 1991, Sacks with declared reluctance became Chief Rabbi, a post in many ways as unenviable as being Archbishop, Jews being at least as divided and quarrelsome among themselves as Christians are inclined to be, a point on which I touched in an earlier profile for ConHome.
D.D.Guttenplan, Editor of Jewish Quarterly and a Labour Party member, told me while I was writing this piece that the comparison between Corbyn and Powell was quite misplaced, because whereas when the latter was speaking, there was deep hostility towards immigrants from the Caribbean, Jews who have long lived in Britain do not now feel threatened:
Jonathan Sacks seldom spoke for me when he was Chief Rabbi and he doesnt speak for me now. Jews dont have a Pope and we dont have a Pope for a reason you know the joke, two Jews, three opinions. On this particular issue hes clearly lost his sense of proportion if not his mind. I do think Jeremy Corbyn has caused offence and hurt and should apologise. What he was saying was very hurtful, but entirely unthreatening. To feel disregarded is painful, but its not the same as feeling threatened.
Sacks has demonstrated, in numerous books, lectures and episodes of Thought For The Day, and in his series Morality in the 21st Century, now playing on Radio Four, a tremendous gift for philosophical exposition. But in his first address as Chief Rabbi, he insisted that religion must come first:
We have become secularised. There are times when we believe that Jews can survive without beliefs, as an ethnic group sustained on nostalgia. But faith is not a luxury we can live without.
How does one conduct oneself as a religious leader in a society which has become more secular? Sacks remained on excellent terms with all four Prime Ministers John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown (with whom his latest intervention appears to have been coordinated) and David Cameron during his term of office as Chief Rabbi.
He has also shown his appreciation of thinkers such as his first doctoral supervisor, Bernard Williams, who dismissed religion and regarded as incoherent the idea of a God who is above space and time and yet communicates with us who live in space and time:
I learnt much from his work. He taught us that the wish to be someone else was a contradiction in terms. As one of the Jewish mystics, Zushya of Hanipol, put it: When I get to Heaven, they will not ask me, Zushya, why werent you Moses? They will ask me, Zushya, why werent you Zushya?
In his attack on Corbyn, Sacks in a profound way is being Sacks, defending his religion against attack. The problem is that Corbyn will go on being Corbyn.
James Bundy is a student at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, the national chairman of Conservative Future Scotland, and the former chairman of the St. Andrews Conservative and Unionist Association.
Yesterday marked the opening of the Scottish Parliament after the summer recess. This was an opportunity for the SNP Government to highlight their plans for education reform, supposedly their top priority. Yet again, however, the SNP let down parents and pupils throughout Scotland.
Just before recess, John Swinney the Scottish Education Secretary announced that the SNPs proposed Education Reform Bill was being dropped. Whilst I did not fully support all aspects of the planned reform, it was a step in the right direction for Scottish education. As a whole, it would have improved the standards of schools throughout Scotland, but the only way the Bill would have passed was with the support of the Scottish Conservatives. Due to their memberships dislike of the Conservative Party, the SNP avoided relying on the votes of Conservative MSPs, even when this would have improved the lives of thousands of young Scots. This alone should highlight that the SNP will always prioritise the nationalist interest before the national interest.
Knowing that the SNP will always put independence before anything else, I was not surprised that they did not highlight the importance of education in their programme for Government. Education, in fact, only made Chapter Three. I was disappointed that education appeared to be so low down in the Scottish Governments priorities. The level of numeracy, reading and writing skills is in decline and Scottish education is falling down the international league tables. For a nation that used to boast about having the best education system in the world, this is a sad state of affairs. It should be the goal of every politician in Scotland to make our country the best place to be education in the world once again.
For Scottish education to flourish, we need policies that are well thought out to achieve the best outcomes, not policies designed for soundbites to grab the headlines. This can be best demonstrated with the SNPs policy of free tuition. At first glance, this seems to be a policy that will help the poorest in society. But to fund free tuition, the SNP have slashed college places over 150,000 since 2007 and have cut bursaries and grants. Proportionately, these services impact those on the lowest incomes the most. For a party that claims to stand up for the poorest in society, it is hypocritical for the SNP to cut them.
The SNP also claim that they stand up for the people of Scotland, yet they have capped the number of Scottish courses at Scottish universities. This has resulted in young Scots being unable to apply to some courses at Scottish universities whilst their peers from outside Scotland including those in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have been able to apply. So whilst free tuition may appear virtuous on paper, in reality it acts as a middle-class subsidy. Rather than describing free tuition as a morally correct policy, the SNP should admit that it is actually a virtue-signalling policy.
By the age of 11, 60 per cent of the attainment gap has already developed. This clearly indicates that any policy that intends to close the attainment gap must focus on early education intervention. That is why I support the SNPs commitment to double entitlement to funded early learning and childcare for eligible two-year olds, and all three- and four-year olds, to 1,140 hours from August 2020. This will have a positive impact on children from the most deprived backgrounds. This policy, however, is not new, it is simply being re-announced.
And it is not enough. Simply aiming to close the attainment gap is not acceptable. We should be striving for every school to provide the highest level of education it can. This will not only improve Scotlands standing in the international league tables, but it will also close the attainment gap even more in itself. Sadly, there is nothing in this programme which shows any desire from the SNP Government to achieve this aim. The Pupil Equity Fund another policy which had already been announced will give a total of 120 million directly to headteachers throughout Scotland with the aim of closing the attainment gap. Surely if headteachers are capable of handling money to do this, then they are more than able to control their entire school budgets? Giving headteachers this autonomy, however, is something the SNP want to avoid, regardless of its merit, as it would require Scottish Conservative votes to pass Holyrood.
The SNP try and talk the talk when it comes to education, but their track record is abysmal. Falling standards in all ranges of subjects, the cutting of college places, and the capping of courses available to Scottish students at Scottish universities are the direct consequence of SNP policy. Yet, after 11 years of creating these problems, the SNP lack any solutions to them. This administration is looking increasingly tired by the day and has simply run out of ideas. The SNP leadership are fully aware of this and that is why they have become even more obsessed about breaking up our Union.
The Scottish Conservatives must ensure that we keep the narrative focused on the failings of domestic policy in Scotland under the SNP, particularly in education. If we do, we will ensure a better future for the next generation of Scotland.
Kathrine Kleveland: Here in Norway, we can do much better than the EEA. And so can you in Britain when you quit the EU.
Kathrine Kleveland is the Leader of Nei til EU (No to EU in Norway).
The process of Britain leaving the European Union is being watched with great interest in Norway. Norwegians have been debating EU membership for decades, and the situation in Britain could inspire a different relation to the EU than the current association through the controversial EEA agreement. We think a good Brexit is a clean Brexit, with Britain leaving the Single Market, including the Customs Union with the EU.
Norwegians have rejected joining the EU in the 1972 and 1994 referendums. Eurosceptic sentiment has soared in recent years, so much so that in the past decade every single opinion poll has found a majority opposed to joining the EU. The most recent polling found close to
70 per cent of Norwegians are against the move.
Despite our Prime Minister, Erna Solberg, and her party still dreaming of Norway joining, Norwegians are happier outside the EU. The mood is such that even a majority of our Prime Ministers own voters disagree with her position on Brussels.
Happier outside the EU
One important argument for Norwegians is that it would be messy to leave the EU if we actually joined and then later realised we wanted to get out. The turbulence surrounding Brexit was to be expected, but I must say I am surprised to what extent the EU seems willing
to inflict self-harm on European interests. Michel Barnier has time and again put the prestige of the EU above politically sound solutions and economic arrangements that would benefit all parties.
There have been countless warnings from Brussels cheerleaders that global investment will dry up and that your country will be far less competitive. This too was one of the main arguments promoted by the pro-EU camp in the Norwegian referendums. Reality is very different, with foreign investment in Norway having increased by several hundred per cent since 1994. Also, unemployment decreased in Norway following the last referendum on membership, and has remained consistently lower than in EU member states.
The truth is that Norway is not alone or isolated. Rather, we have thrived as an independent nation. The Norwegian economy has enjoyed many years of higher growth than the economies of EU Member States and our international rankings are far higher on a wide range of issues including gender equality, social welfare, even on happiness.
Close relations
As the results of the British referendum became clear on the historic morning of June 24th 2016, we at Nei til EU immediately released
a statement saluting Brexit as a victory for democracy. It continued: The British people have delivered a clear rejection of the
ambition to create a United States of Europe, which is undermining democracy in Europe.
This is the first time a country has disaffiliated from the EU. After having been granted increased autonomy, Greenland chose to leave the EU in 1985, but Denmark is still a member. Nei til EU expects that the British Leave vote will inspire a fundamental debate about the EU in member states. Europe and democracy deserve it.
We are still following the progress towards Brexit with great interest and anticipation. Norway and Britain have, of course, close historical ties. While not in strict geographical terms, Norway is closer to London than Brussels if one is talking culture, economics and politics. Britain is the single largest market for exports of Norwegian goods, with about a quarter of our exports to the European Union finding their
way to Britain.
Innovation Norway, an official body run by the government, concludes: Britain is an international crossroad of business, and is one of Norways most important markets for industry and tourism. Around 320 Norwegian businesses are established on British soil. Youll find Norwegian enterprises in most sectors and parts of the country. Equinor has, for instance, many activities in production and sales of energy in Britain and is a major supplier of gas to the British market, mainly imported from Norway.
Furthermore, Norway and Britain share vast marine resources in the North Sea. We have mutual interests in protecting the environment at sea and a sustainable management of the fisherie s. Leaving the EU, Britain should again take control of fisheries policy. The EU
Common Fisheries Policy is a story of much despair and few successes. Outside the EU, Britain and Norway can work together finding solutions that will be both environmentally sound and strengthen local fishing communities.
Bilateral agreements
Brexit is a game changer in European politics, offering new opportunities on how to handle trade and international co-operation. For Norway, this is the time to reconsider our relations with the EU, as well as developing future bilateral trade relations with Britain.
In Norway there is a growing national concern about our subordinate relationship with the EU. When Norway entered the EEA agreement in 1994, we were told it would not affect workers rights, regional policy, equal opportunities, ownership restrictions in the financial sector, or a host of other issues. Nevertheless, it did. The EEA agreement is not as cosy as the Single Market. In fact, it has turned out to be a lesson in the implementation of the four freedoms capital, services, labour, goods and beyond.
The EEA is controversial because of the never-ending tide of new EU legal acts. Some 12,000 EU directives and regulations have been implemented through the EEA agreement. The cost of the EEA for Norway has increased tenfold. Norway now pays around 650 million (gross) each year to the EU and EU states.
Nei til EU wants to replace the EEA agreement with a bilateral trade agreement, and we are demanding a referen dum on leaving the EEA. We are certain it would better to trade on even terms with the EU than being integrated into the Single Market.
Before the disaster that is the Chequers Agreement, Theresa May said that we will pursue a bold and ambitious free trade agreement with the European Union. In my view, this is the preferred way forward for future EU relations, a bilateral agreement where both sides have an equal say. I would love Norway to follow Britain and get a trade agreement with the EU instead of being tied by the EEA agreement. But even a no deal solution, trading on WTO rules, is way better than any kind of EEA arrangement.
We are watching Brexit closely. I want as much as you do to live in a truly independent and democratic country.
This article is reproduced from The Big Picture, published by the Red Cell, which contains contributions from Eurosceptic thinkers and campaigners from across Europe.
Alex Morton: The purpose of education is to give people skills for life. And we have lost sight of it.
Alex Morton is Director of Policy at the Centre for Policy Studies, and was a member of David Camerons Downing Street Policy Unit.
Conservatives are increasingly worried about education with good reason. We have lost sight of what education is for. Three beliefs usually cited as justifying education are:
Education should take place for its own sake.
Its purpose is to share a value system.
It is essentially functional to train people to cope with life, find employment and raise incomes.
There are also two areas related to education which have become increasingly mixed in:
Pure research.
Indoctrination.
The structure of education should flow from the purpose of education. Michael Goves free schools and the roll-out of academies were welcome but ran into a great deal of opposition. The infamous educational blob seems, if anything, to have grown with the National Education Union unanimously attacking OFSTED for raising the issue of the veiling of primary school children, an attack on the principle of excluding unruly pupils (and possible Government policy shift), and severe shortages in Maths and Physics that seem to show freedoms in pay for teachers are more illusory than real.
The biggest justification for education is giving people skills for life
In terms of education for its own sake, the evidence is fairly clear. Most people do not enjoy education. Unsurprisingly, policy-makers, who tend to be academically gifted and enjoy study, underestimate this. Most people rate education in time-studies as fairly low. The Princeton Affect and Time Survey, for example, finds education scores even lower than work in terms of enjoyment. So in this sense education for all but a minority is a waste.
Second, there is the issue of a value system. This shades later on into indoctrination of course but it is fairly uncontroversial in the teaching of basic elements about decency and tolerance of others, and that rules must be obeyed if you are to get on is a positive.
Third, there are the entwined issues of training people to cope with life and find employment, and raising incomes what might be termed a functional approach. Being able to read, write, count, engage with ideas and also follow rules (at least most of the time) are all valuable things in themselves and also necessary economically.
However, the value of this education is not intrinsic, but in the fact that it opens up life to those involved. It is not education for its own sake, but the giving of tools to people with which they can make their own way and support themselves. Interestingly, there is a clear link between IQ and growth (see this for a technical metastudy), but much less on education spending and growth, (and see this for another rather technical metastudy), indicating it is the quality of education that matters so education that builds intelligence which helps individuals and our wider economy must be our goal.
Unnecessary research and indoctrination have grown and need rooting out
Two developments, however, have intruded more and more into the education system. Firstly, our universities are a confused mix of pure research and mass teaching. We have kept the system from the 1950s when three to fourper cent of people went to university even as university attendance has exploded. Unsurprisingly, this means that a vast number are working on areas that are of no relevance. The idea that a PhD thesis from the majority of universities in such subjects like sociology, philosophy or English literature will be read by almost anyone is a cruel fiction. Much of this is unhelpful and a cost to both individuals and society.
This relates to the second area indoctrination. Education is, in theory, the opposite of indoctrination. While you should learn facts, the purpose is to teach you to think for yourself. In practice, it is impossible to teach in a completely value free-way. And indeed, nor would we want to. Ninety-nine point nine per cent of us would think it a failure if people left school with the values of the Saudi Arabian schooling system. But there is a growing conservative and classical liberal concern about indoctrination on issues from the environment to identity politics by which people are being taught to be hostile to and even that it is illegitimate to have conservative or classical liberal views.
Education needs to be focused on equipping individuals
If the purpose of education is to give people discipline and equip them to be able to cope with life, then our education system should be based on this. This would look quite different to the system that we currently have. Our current education system is a typical producer-focused system which assumes that production is automatically a good thing despite the fact that education which fails to develop students is a waste of their time and societys resources.
A few weeks ago, we at the Centre for Policy Studies published our report Technically Gifted, which argued that we need to move to a system of selective technical and vocational education rather than just tinkering with the exam systems with T-Levels representing yet another round of reforms that seems likely to be yet another change in a system that has seen, since the 1980s, BTECs, diplomas, NVQs, GNVQs and Foundation Degrees. (You can read Graham Bradys excellent piece on this here).
We need to focus on giving people a range of schools that suit aptitudes whether academic or technical. To ensure that they can see why education particularly from 11 onwards will help them lead a better life. We need to focus on a university and post-16 education system that is about giving people the tools to think for themselves, and training them to apply them not indoctrination in particular viewpoints. It may be as well that this also means rethinking for many people how far we need to be prescriptive about what they do in secondary schools particularly for those who are less academically gifted.
We need to make this as a positive case because we as conservatives believe that education helps individuals to lead better lives not just because we dislike our opponents.
Giving pupils pride in being British citizens and requiring them to tolerate different views
In addition, at a time when school budgets cannot grow too quickly we need to consider cutting the cost of the educational bureaucracy. As noted, it is the quality not quantity of education that matters. The educational blob and indoctrination could be reduced if, instead of trying to micromanage what people learn, we simply require that children coming out of our education system are proud of being British, tolerant of different opinions, and focused on people as individuals, rather than seeing themselves as part of different blocks.
We have never really managed to capture the educational bureaucracy, and I suspect we never will. Further it would be wrong to try to create a system of conservative indoctrination just because progressives have indoctrinated children and students in the other way. As long as we have a level playing-field, the facts of life are, after all, conservative, and forcing schools to teach that different viewpoints exist and that debate is essential should be our goal.
This is what an education system should aim for individuals who are proud of Britain, tolerant but supportive of robust debate, and who can get on in life because they have the right skills and can make the most of whatever talents and aptitudes they have. And if we promote this view, I am sure the majority of Britons will stand with us.
It was not a rogue operation. In a statement delivered immediately after PMQs, the Prime Minister indicated the very large volume of evidence linking Russian military intelligence to the Salisbury attacks, and said that when asked to account for what happened, the Russian authorities had responded with obfuscation and lies.
The House heard her in silence, for a grave tone suits her, and the story itself was so outrageous that it compelled attention. They even claimed that I myself invented Novichok, Theresa May said, and no one laughed.
Jeremy Corbyn did his best to indicate that he shared the Houses indignation at the contempt shown by Moscow for human life and British law. But his best is not particularly good, and he soon found himself saying I condemn the police and security services, when he meant I commend.
Boris Johnson, embedded deep in the Tory backbenches, rose and attacked the somewhat weaselly language used by the Leader of the Opposition. There is a man keen not to don the mantle of statesmanship, but to remind his fellow backbenchers that he can carry the fight to Labour.
At Prime Ministers Questions, May was keen to remind Conservatives she can perform that service perfectly well herself, with no need for help from the former Foreign Secretary.
She ordered Corbyn to apologise for insulting Britains Jews. He responded by pointing to Cabinet divisions on Brexit.
But when he complained, She cant keep dancing around all the issues, he provoked more laughter at his own expense than at hers.
These two combatants fought different battles and seldom connected with each other. Corbyn was certainly not going to take orders from May, and she was certainly not going to take questions from him.
Although the leading actors were the same as when they went away in July, and have got no better at acting, the holiday did seem to have revived them a bit, and they were not, for most of the time, dull. For the future of Brexit is clouded in such deep uncertainty that what happens in the Commons is of absorbing interest.
The OSCE Secretary General, Thomas Greminger, said at his meeting with President of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, Ara Babloyan, that the objective of his visit to Armenia is to expand and strengthen relations and cooperation with the country, and noted that the OSCE will continue to push its cooperation with Armenia forward, News.am reported.
In addition, Thomas Greminger drew attention to the productive cooperation between Armenia and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR), and noted that the latter stands ready to assist Armenia in the process of electoral reform.
Our survey. Its groundhog day for confidence in Mays leadership. Two in five respondents want her to quit now.
Last month, 45 per cent of our Party member panel respondents said that the Prime Minister should resign now, and 36 by the time of the next election.
This month, those totals are 40 per cent and 39 per cent.
So almost 79 per cent of our panel members believe that new Party leader should be in place for the next election, whenever that is, compared to 81 per cent last month.
And, as we keep pointing out, this combined total has never fallen below 50 per cent since we started asking the question.
This is a Groundhog Day finding and further evidence of the consistency of the panel. Last months equivalent ToryDiary cited each monthly answer since the question was launched last year, and is worth looking at if one wants to find peaks and troughs.
Lesley Rankin is a researcher at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). The final report of the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice, Prosperity and Justice: A Plan for the New Economy is out today.
It would be easy for ConservativeHome readers to dismiss the final report of the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice published today. But it would be unwise.
Although an initiative of a progressive think tank, the Commissioners span a wide range of public figures, including Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury; Helena Morrissey, a leading City investor; Catherine McGuinness, the head of the City of London Corporation; and Dominic Barton, the global managing partner of McKinsey. These are not just the usual suspects by any means.
The problems that the Commission identifies are ones that conservatives have to acknowledge. The 2010s are forecast to be the weakest decade for average real earnings in 200 years. The UK is Europes most geographically unbalanced economy, with wide disparities between the nations and regions, with many once-thriving communities suffering economic decline. On investment, research and development (R&D), trade and productivity, the UK performs worse than most of our European neighbours, and has done for much of the last 40 years.
As the Commission notes, it is hard to say the UK economy has been performing well; for many people, it is not really working at all.
Delivering her first speech as Prime Minister on the steps of Number 10, Theresa May vowed to fight the burning injustices of class and intergenerational inequalities. The Commissions priorities, then, are also Conservative ones.
One of the trends the Commission notes is the growing wealth disparity between the rich and the poor, and the young and the old. Housing plays a large role in this. The huge growth in property values over recent years means that todays young people, many of them priced out of the housing market, are set to be poorer than their parents. It is little wonder that young people are turning away from the Right when they find it so difficult to make their way in the world. As George Freeman said, it is difficult to get people to support capitalism when they have no prospect of owning capital.
The Commission makes the case for a stronger role for government in the economy in order to raise the UKs investment and productivity rates. But the Government has already got there first: its new industrial strategy bears a striking resemblance to the Commissions proposals. Yes, the Commission calls on the Government to promote greater equality. But it also believes government needs to open up competition and create more open markets. It notes, as many conservatives have pointed out, that many of our consumer sectors markets are now dominated by a small number of companies.
This is particularly true for the digital sector, where the market power of dominant companies such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon is particularly great. The Commissions proposals to regulate such companies as if they were utilities will surely be of as much interest to those on the right as the left of the political spectrum.
The Commissions call for fundamental reform of the economy may sound naive. But as its report notes, the last person to seek such reform and to achieve it was Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher was responding to Britains deep economic crisis in the 1970s, just as before her Clement Attlees post-war Keynesian reforms were a response to the Great Depression of the 1930s. The reports argument that, ten years after the financial crash, we need change of this magnitude again, is surely not one that conservatives should dismiss.
09/05/2018
Photo (c) TARIK KIZILKAYA - Getty Images Having written numerous articles about privacy issues with Facebook, Google, phone apps, and the like, nothing should surprise me anymore. However, when you find that more than five years of almost every move youve made has been archived, a few hairs are likely to stand up on your neck.
Let me explain.
Monday morning, an email landed in my in-box with the subject line Your August in review. It was from Google, saying Your timeline in Google Maps helps you curate the places you've been. Look back on the past month and reminisce about recent trips and past places.
Typically, emails from Google dont get much of my time, but this one brought on a mixed rush of curiosity and concern.
When I clicked on the link, I was taken to Google Maps timeline site where I was told that I had visited 397 places since 2013. Taking a deeper dive, I was able to find out the routes I had taken -- both driving and walking -- to get to all of those places, not to mention the time it took to get there, how long I was at each stop, and any photos I had snapped with my phones camera while I was there.
It didnt stop there, either.
Google had also recorded and archived my Ok, Google voice requests (Ok, Google, wheres the nearest Walgreens?), and it wasnt shy about following me out of the country. In all my travelogue glory, the timeline listed all the places Id visited from Budapest to Britain when I toured Europe a few years ago.
No matter where I went or what I did, Google Maps seemed to have nearly all the Ws -- who, what, when, where -- covered. A new study by Douglas C. Schmidt, a computer science professor at Vanderbilt University, confirms my gut instinct.
Google learns a great deal about a users personal interests during even a single day of typical internet usage, wrote Schmidt, who found that a stationary Android phone -- one with Googles Chrome browser active in the background -- communicated location information to Google 340 times during a 24-hour period.
In an example day in the life scenario, where a real user with a new Google account and an Android phone (with new SIM card) goes through her daily routine, Google collected data at numerous activity touchpoints, such as user location, routes taken, items purchased, and music listened to. Surprisingly, Google collected or inferred over two-thirds of the information through passive means. At the end of the day, Google identified user interests with remarkable accuracy.
An example of how Schmidt defines passive means might be someone who bought coffee from Starbucks using their Starbucks app; there would be two points of passive collection: walking to a Starbucks and opening up the Starbucks app.
Like shooting fish in a barrel
With an estimated 2 billion monthly active users of its related Android operating system, theres a lot of data Google can access. Schmidt goes on to point to Google Plays place in the Google ecosystem, enabling the company to gain even more user information from names and birthdays to credit card numbers.
Despite any potential big brother taint Google takes on with its data collection, the company wants the world to know that the user is still in control and can flip these data collection switches off anytime they want.
Location History helps you get better results and recommendations on Google products. For example, you can see recommendations based on places you've visited with signed-in devices, or traffic predictions for your daily commute. But, at the end of the day, the company gives all the power to the user: You control whats saved in your Location History, and you can delete your history at any time, the company claims.
Theres some debate on that point, however. A new investigation from the Associated Press (AP) revealed that many Google services on both iPhones and Androids store users location data even if the privacy settings are set to prevent it from doing so. Just to be sure it had its facts straight, the AP requested a confirmation of these findings from computer-science researchers at Princeton who found them to be accurate.
How can process data be accessed quickly, as useful information, to affordably improve performance? Predicting process events requires process historian or time-series search tools and the ability to apply meaning to the patterns identified within the process data. Historians serve as a repository for process data from many systems and are a data source for advanced analytics. However, process historian tools are not ideal for automating data analysis or search queries. They are "write" optimized and not "read/analytics" optimized. Finding the relevant historical event and building the process context is usually a laborious task.
While many process analytics solutions are available, these historian-based software tools often require a great deal of interpretation and manipulation. They are less than automated. They unearth past trends or export raw data to Microsoft Excel. Tools to visualize and interpret process data are typically trending applications, reports, and dashboards. Helpful, perhaps, but not particularly good at predicting outcomes.
Predictive analytics, a relatively new dimension to analytics tools, delivers insights about future performance, based on historical data, both structured and unstructured. Many predictive analytics tools begin with an enterprise approach and require more sophisticated distributed computing platforms such as Hadoop or SAP Hana.
While powerful, this is a more complex approach to managing both plant and enterprise data. Companies using an enterprise data management approach must often employ specialized data scientists to help organize and clean the data. Moreover, data scientists likely wont be familiar with the process of generating the data, which limits their ability to achieve the best results.
Moreover, as can be seen from Chart 1, data modeling software are seen as engineering-intensive "black boxes" in which the user only knows the inputs and expected outcome, without any insight into how the result was determined. Understandably, for many operational and asset-related issues, this approach is too expensive and time-consuming and, as mentioned, may require a highly skilled data scientist. This explains why many suppliers target only 1.0% of critical assets, ignoring other opportunities. However, there is a way to manage these issues without a data scientists help.
Data scientist free
An understanding of operational intelligence and process data are required to improve plant performance and overall efficiency. Process engineers and other personnel must be able to search time-series data over a specific timeframe and visualize related plant events. Time-series data is generated by process control and automation systems, testing laboratories, and other plant systems, as well as including annotations and observations made by operators and engineers.
Therefore, todays industrial process data analytics solutions take a different approach, leveraging multi-dimensional search capabilities that combine visualizing process historian time-series-data, overlaying similar, matched historical patterns, and contextualizing data captured by engineers and operators. The ideal pattern recognition solution quickly and easily integrates with the plant historian database archives and with a scalable architecture that communicates with available enterprise distributed computing platforms.
This solution uses "pattern-based discovery and predictive-process analytics" appropriate for the average user. It is easily deployed and delivers immediate value, with no data-modeling solution or data scientist required. Capabilities are targeted, perhaps without all the bells and whistles of larger systems that require in-depth education and training. Combining search capabilities of structured time-series process data with that captured by operators and other subject matter experts, users predict more precisely what is happening or what is likely to occur within their continuous and batch industrial processes.
This "self-service analytics" software puts power into the hands of the process experts, engineers, and operators who can best identify and annotate areas for improvement.
In the words of Peter Reynolds, a senior consultant at ARC Advisory Group, "The new platform is built to make operator shift logs searchable in the context of historian data and process information. In a time when the process industries may face as much as a 30% decline in the skilled workforce through retiring workers, knowledge capture is a key imperative for many industrial organizations."
A range of capabilities
Lab analysis quantifies quality before product is released to an internal customer but represent an additional cost and delay. On the other hand, using predictive analytics software, a process expert can create and deploy a predictor for an impurity concentration. The sensor gives an early indication. As a result, truck loading can start earlier, lead time is shorter, and the probability of rejection due to off-spec conditions significantly decreases. Support from on-the-fly detection of early indicators spots process variations, early.
Pattern recognition and machine learning allow users to search process trends for events or to detect process anomalies, unlike traditional historian desktop tools. Much like the music app Shazam, self-service analytics identify significant patterns in data, or "high energy content," matching it to similar patterns in its database, rather than seeking to match each note of a song.
These technologies are the basis for a new systems technology stack that makes use of existing historian databases and creates a data layer that performs a column store to index the time-series data. These systems work well with leading process historians like those from OSIsoft, AspenTech, and Yokogawa. They are simple to install and deploy via a virtual machine without impacting the existing historian infrastructure. However, the tool is only as good as the data it receives from the historian.
Case study in point
A polymer plant introduced a new product grade four years ago. From the start, the company experienced problematic behavior in 90% of the runs. During the dilution phase, an unknown factor caused a bottleneck in the conveyor system, ultimately resulting in an unacceptable pressure rise.
Product quality tests indicated no significant differences between runs. All possible physical factors were checked, up to dismantling the conveyor. Failing to find a cause, the engineers "solved" the problem by alternating every batch of the problem grade with a run of a different grade.
An analysis of the data revealed a repeated pattern of behavior, leading to a comparison of tag data during the time periods identified. The engineers found that one reactor upstream invariable showed a short pressure drop prior to a conveyor system pressure rise.
By better monitoring and controlling pressure in the reactor, the plant now runs several batches of the same grade without the workaround. Even though the grades were similar, avoiding the overhead of scheduling the identified grades together, as well as the change-over time and labor involved, including changing the additives, increased productivity.
By removing the conveyor system downstream bottleneck, a 16% efficiency increase in the production of this grade was achieved. The estimated total gain is $100,000 annually.
Why are tools needed?
Companies need analytics tools to uncover areas for efficiency improvements.
"There is an immediate need to search time-series data and analyze that data in context with the annotations made by both engineers and operators to be able to make faster, higher quality process decisions," said Reynolds. "If users want to predict process degradation or an asset or equipment failure, they need to look beyond time-series and historian data tools and be able to search, learn by experimentation, and detect patterns in the vast pool of data that already exists in their plant."
Fortunately, with a low-cost investment this new process analytics model can support the necessary re-tooling of traditional process historian visualization tools.
Early detection leaves time for action
Due to heat exchanger fouling, a manufacturer was experiencing batch times longer than the normal 12 hours to 13 hours. In the past, a timely switch was made to a spare heat exchanger after several days. This could foul as well, creating a situation where solving a fouling problem took about two weeks, and sometimes longer. With predictive analytics, monitoring alerts come two to three weeks in advance and are confirmed by the operator. Heat exchanger fouling was leading to longer cooling times. A contextualized cooling-time pattern was monitored to generate alerts when maintenance needs to be planned. Early detection leaves time for preemptive action, avoiding 10 hours of production loss every two to three months, as well as the associated extensive turnaround times.
Search reveals flow-rate peak proceeds temperature peak
A chemical plant occasionally suffered from quality problems due to unclean product. A predictive analytics search revealed a flow-rate peak preceding a temperature peak. These temperature peaks lead to heat exchanger seal stress. If seals break there is leakage between sterilized and unsterilized product, causing quality problems. The causal relationship between flow rate and temperature was confirmed with a similarity search. Additionally, a monitoring pattern was configured to alert the team when a similar pattern occurred. Staff was directed to retune the process to diminish seal degradation. The analysis allowed process experts to hypothesize a causal relation that explained how quality issues led to leaking heat exchanger seals. An alert was configured to detect excess seal stress.
Bert Baeck is CEO of TrendMiner.
This article appears in the IIoT for Engineers supplement for Control Engineering and Plant Engineering.
See other articles from the supplement below.
88%
Website bitchysmash.blogspot.in uses latest and advanced technologies. It supports HTTPS. The main html page has a size of 138695 bytes (135.44 kb uncompressed).
This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-02-10, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.
Russia acts precisely and selectively in Syria, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Wednesday.
"We, as it has been said many times, act precisely and selectively, trying to minimize possible risks for the civilian population," Ryabkov told journalists while answering a question about Western statements that Russia had allegedly already started a military operation in Idlib, Sputnik reports.
Ryabkov also stated that Moscow did not trust signals from the UK and the US regarding the situation in Syria. He further noted that Russia was extremely concerned about the threat of a new provocation.
The official further stressed that the issue of the beginning of the military operation in Idlib would become clear after the leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey meet at the Tehran summit to discuss ending the conflict on September 7.
The site you specified has a disallow rule.
At the origin of the Internet links were basically a signal of "likes". In a way, so likes, tweets and shares have now the natural explicit meaning of links. CoolSocial is an analyzer you can use to improve your site social media impact. You can also check for your competitors.
100%
Website monarchrentals.co.za uses latest and advanced technologies like: JQuery. It supports HTTPS and GZIP compression. The main html page has a size of 234288 bytes (228.80 kb uncompressed) and 31994 bytes (31.24 kb compressed).
This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-08-01, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.
We are analyzing the site. Please wait a few seconds..
BRIDGEPORT Police Commission member Danny Roach may not last another 20 years on that oversight body, but he is guaranteed another two.
Despite concerns that Roach has served too long and has too many conflicts of interest, a majority of City Council members on Tuesday night approved his re-nomination to the cop board. The vote was 12-7, with Councilwoman the Rev. Mary McBride-Lee absent. The entire council is made up of Democrats.
Roachs return to the commission he is also its acting chairman ends a recent effort to find new members who might be harder on Police Chief Armando Perez and his department.
Critics of the current commission have felt that it sat on the sidelines following last years shooting death of 15-year-old Jayson Negron by a rookie officer and other police-related controversies, and that the panel needs more proactive, reform-minded members.
But the council has recently supported all four of the Police Commission reappointments that Mayor Joe Ganim submitted, Roachs being the most recent and most controversial.
Longtime allies
Roach is a prominent member of the Democratic Town Committee, a close friend and political ally of Ganims and was given a municipal job by the mayor over two years ago.
Obviously theres massive conflicts of interest here, Councilman Kyle Langan told his colleagues before Tuesdays vote.
Langan also said that he was dissatisfied with Roachs responses when interviewed recently by the councils Public Safety Committee. Langan said Roach did not seem interested in using the Police Commissions powers to impact policy.
Roach told the committee that a lot of initiatives come from the chief, but added, Maybe there needs to be more (commission) involvement in that.
Roach also insisted during that interview that experience matters, and that during his two decades on the cop commission he never allowed any administration to interfere with those responsibilities or to coerce me into a position I wasnt comfortable with.
Neither Roach nor Ganim were present for Tuesdays council vote. Roach could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.
Ethical concerns
There is some inconsistency in Ganims decision to reappoint Roach. While running for mayor in 2015, Ganim supported keeping municipal employees off of the City Council and, once elected, pushed then-Council President Thomas McCarthy out of his job as deputy director of labor relations. The Ganim family also owns the building where Roach runs a bar, Mattys Corner.
City Attorney Mark Anastasi reminded council members Tuesday that state law in most cases does not prohibit municipal workers from holding elected office or seats on appointed boards and commissions.
Just because the state says you can do it doesnt make it right, argued Councilman Ernest Newton. You cant serve two masters.
Besides Langan and Newton, council members Karen Jackson, Christina Smith, Peter Spain, Maria Valle and Maria Zambrano Viggiano also voted against re-appointing Roach.
But he had plenty of defenders, including Council President Aidee Nieves. Nieves noted that Roach must be doing a good job if he has been allowed to serve for two decades on the Police Commission.
Others, like Councilwoman Michelle Lyons, argued Roach was being unfairly singled out. Lyons husband, Tom Lyons, is another member of the cop board who was recently reappointed to another term.
Roachs supporters have also taken issue with some critics efforts to attack his personal life and bar business. Spain, for example, during the Public Safety Committees interview, sought to question Roachs character, but was silenced by council colleagues like Lyons, Nieves and Eneida Martinez, who felt Spain was crossing a line.
Marcus Brown, like Langan, is a freshman council member who won election last year without support from the current Democratic powers that be. But unlike Langan, Brown supported keeping Roach on the police commission.
Ive known Danny. Hes probably the first person I met in politics and hes always been the same, consistent guy, Brown said Wednesday. Hes reliable, communicates with you. Hes reasonable. I think in this case experience matters. Its not a liability. Its an asset.
Before the vote on Roach, the council also reappointed a handful of library board members. Zambrano Viggiano at that time complained about a lack of transparency surrounding the Ganim administrations efforts to fill boards and commissions.
She also argued that the city has failed to recruit new faces to serve.
Wheres the bench? Zambrano Viggiano said.
STRATFORD The more than two dozen people who lost their homes in a condominium fire at 685 Success Ave. near the Bridgeport line last week still need help.
Although the local community has rushed to give aid, donations of cash and other home goods minus clothing are badly needed to help the displaced get back to a normal routine, said officials in Town Hall and the Sterling House Community Center.
We really have all of the clothing that we might need now, said Amanda Meeson, executive director of the Sterling House, where many of the donations are being collected. Its like Macys up there on third floor.
On Tuesday, Mayor Laura Hoydick got into the act; she was the celebrity bartender at a hastily arranged fundraiser that took place at the Beach House Grill near the entrance to Short Beach. Organized by the Sterling House, the proceeds will be used to fund the fire relief effort.
Its a rapidly evolving effort and there are several pieces to the puzzle, said Lawrence A. Ciccarelli Jr., the towns director of public safety. Some of those displaced owned their units, so they had fire insurance. But some were renters, and many of those people didnt carry fire insurance, so were trying to determine the needs of everyone involved. Its a mixed bag.
He said that the residents, except those who could stay with friends and family, are being provided with a total of eight days free lodging in area hotels, with some of those days paid for by the Red Cross for the first three days and the rest by the town and through donations.
Were at the stage now where were helping them help themselves obtaining housing and whatever else that they might need, Ciccarelli said, and also dealing with their insurance companies and so forth.
Initially, donations of food and clothing were being collected at Police Headquarters owing to the holiday weekend, but collections moved to the Sterling House Community Center Tuesday morning. officials said
Cash donations are badly needed for those displaced, many of whom have little else but the clothes that they were wearing at the time, Meeson said.
If you can help, go to our website and when you click on donate you can specify Success Ave. Relief when you make the donation, she said. One hundred percent of the contributions will be used to support these residents in need.
She said it will take time before the displaced are settled in new homes.
Later, theyll need things like lamps. tables, housewares and that sort of thing, Meeson said, adding that the heat wave hasnt helped matters any.
Ciccarelli said that Stratford Community Services is the agency thats there to help people navigate the resources available to them. That agency can be reached at 203-385-4095, or at communityservices@townofstratford.com during business hours.
The fire last week rapidly spread through the complex destroying more than half of the building. There were no life-threatening injuries reported, but officials say that whats left of the building will have to be demolished after the investigation on the cause is wrapped up.
Our hearts go out to all of those who have been impacted by this terrible event," said Hoydick. "Our primary concern is that anyone who is displaced by this fire receives shelter, clothing and food as needed until they have made proper arrangements for themselves. We want to make sure everyone who needs help gets it.
jburgeson@ctpost.com
BRIDGEPORT-For the second straight day Mayor Joseph Ganim is urging city residents, particularly the young and old to stay cool in the air-conditioned libraries, senior centers and transit center.
Temperatures are expect to stay in the 90s Wednesday and near 100 Thursday with high humidities. Forecasters are predicting a cold front will cool off the area with heavy downpours and cool temperatures by Thursday evening.
Dr. Leo Cooney, professor of geriatric medicine at Yale School of Medicine, will discuss How to Receive the Care you Wish at the 10 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 3 at Bigelow Center for Senior Activities, 100 Mona Terrace, Fairfield. The presentation is free and open to all Connecticut residents. Registration is required. Call 888-357-2396 or register online at www.bridgeporthospital.org/events.
Participants will learn how to stay in charge of their health care even when they may not be able to speak for themselves. Yale New Haven Health experts will walk participants through the decision making process and explain how advanced care planning can be one of lifes greatest gifts.
A second gubernatorial candidate backs eliminating the state income tax.
Libertarian Rod Hanscomb of Stamford, who qualified last week to be on the November ballot, wants to move Connecticut to a taxation model fashioned after that of Washington state and Texas, where he lived for two decades before moving back to Connecticut four years ago.
Those states have no income tax and higher sales taxes, Hanscomb said. He would increase that states sales tax to 8.5 to 9.5 percent from the states current 6.35 percent to fill the revenue gap left by the income tax, which Republican Bob Stefanowski also wants to toss out.
This is the model that is working in all those high-growth states, Hanscomb said Tuesday.
Hanscomb, 51, graduated from Stamford High School in 1985 and spent six years in the U.S. Air Force. He lived in Texas and then moved to Seattle, where he opened La Buona Tavola, a high-end Italian food retailer, and a houseboat building company.
Hanscomb sold his businesses and returned to Stamford in 2014, when he says he threw himself into politics. He won the Connecticut Libertarian Partys endorsement in March and then began a petition effort to collect 7,500 signatures to earn a spot on the November ballot.
As of July 10, Hanscomb had raised $10,805 for his campaign, $10,000 of which came from his own pocket, according to latest campaign finance filings.
emunson@hearstmediact.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson
SOUTHBURY A Local attorney faces up to 20 years in a federal prison after pleading guilty Wednesday to defrauding elderly clients out of more than $2.4 million.
Robert Barry, 77, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of wire fraud related to his theft from elderly client trust accounts.
Barry was an attorney with Sturges and Mathes with an office near Heritage Village, a large age-restricted development in the center of Southbury.
Authorities said Barry began defrauding his clients more than 10 years ago by stealing money from clients trust accounts while they were alive and from their estates after their death.
Barry, authorities said, would direct staff members at the law firm to prepare checks drawn on the victims accounts payable to a Sturges and Mathes operating account that only he had access to. Barry then wrote checks to himself from the special account.
As part of the scheme, Barry also sent false and misleading statements to his victims and their relatives upon their death. At one point, authorities said, Barry told relatives that one estate was valued at about $8 million when the actual value of the estate was in excess of $9 million.
Barry had more than 70 existing clients in the Southbury probate court district alone when federal authorities began investigating his actions about three years ago, according to the court filings.
Connecticuts Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel sought a suspension of Barrys law license three years ago when the investigation began.
The attorney still has dozens of clients in the area and access to untold monies, according to a filing by the counsel. The filing added that Barry, posed a substantial threat of irreparable harm to his current and prospective clients.
Local officials also voiced their concerns at the time of the investigation noting that Barrys office was located in Heritage Village, a development with nearly 2,500 age-restricted apartments.
A community resource police officer is stationed at the village at least five days a week to help identify scams and prevent local residents from becoming victims.
Barry was released on a $100,000 bond pending his sentencing. He is facing up to 20 years in prison when sentenced Dec. 4 before U.S. District Judge Robert Chatigny.
dperrefort@newstimes.com
HARTFORD Letters didnt work so the State Board of Education has initiated a formal complaint process to compel the city of Ansonia to pay its share of school funding.
The unanimous vote came after Matthew Hough, a music teacher and president of the Ansonia Federation of Teachers pleaded with the board to intercede.
Over the summer we eliminated 24 out of 185 teaching positions in Ansonia due to funding issues, Hough told the state board on Wednesday.
In all, 17 teachers lost their jobs through laid off. Hough called the results catastrophic with virtually 30 kids crammed in most every classroom.
It is something we can not sustain, Hough said, adding that a state Alliance grant meant to supplement funding for struggling districts like Ansonia is instead being used to help the school district of 2,300 students survive.
Peter Haberlandt, director of legal and governmental affairs for the State Department of Education, said the complaint process was recommended because the Ansonia Board of Education is unable to implement the educational interest of the state due to the citys failure to provide sufficient funding.
The complaint comes one month after the city rejected calls from the department to follow state law by giving its school district no less in funding in one school year than it did the year before.
It is the departments view that the city failed to meet the minimum budget requirement by $600,000 in the 2017-18 school year and by another $600,000 in the current school year, Haberlandt said.
Under state law, if that is found to be the case, the city could lose two times the shortfall in its next Education Cost Sharing grant for 2019-20.
The complaint process is a formal one that involves notifications, responses, collection of evidence and eventually a hearing. At least a 35 day process.
Commissioner of Education Dianna Wentzell said the process may seem straight forward but could become complicated if board and city books dont match.
And in the end, the law doesnt give the state board much power to enforce whatever decision it makes.
We dont have a police force, Haberlandt said. If the respondent is not cooperative, statutes authorize the state Board of Education to go to court.
The states Attorney General would be consulted.
The situation is also pretty rare, Haberlandt said. Usually districts comply.
City officials disagree with the assertion it has underpaid its school district and last spring the when school officials threatened to close school early because it was running out of money the matter landed in court.
There, the citys Board of Aldermen claimed it loaned the district money to help it weather last years state budget crisis, and then pulled it back once state money was fully appropriated.
A court-mediated settlement led to the city giving the district a one time $500,000 contingency account to get it through the last school year but did not resolve the underling issue.
Haberlandt maintain that once a city provides funding to its school district, it cant take it back,
Mayor David S. Cassetti said the state is not a party to the still pending lawsuit and should not be interfering. As for Wednesdays state school board action, he said he was unaware of it.
It doesnt surprise me. Nothing they do surprised me, Cassetti said.
Hough, meanwhile, said even before the current situation, the Ansonia school district lacked a full time music or health or elementary and middle school band.
He blames the situation on dwindling city reserves and an attempt by the mayor to take control of the school budget.
State officials say the city needs to appropriate $31,860,484 to its school system to meet its minimum budget requirement. In high needs districts like Ansonia, municipalities cannot decrease school spending from one year to the next. It appropriated $31,260,484.
Michael Mayko contributed to this report
The D-Day Squadron, a full squadron of WW2 C-47s (known as the Gooney Bird or Dakota) that will be returning to Normandy, France for the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, announced a new collaboration with Kota Longboards. Kota, a custom longboard manufacturer, has developed a unique, limited-addition board exclusively for the D-Day Squadron. The manufacturer will donate $50 of each board sold to the squadron in support of their efforts to return to the skies over Normandy to commemorate one of the most seismic historical events of the 20th century.
Honor, integrity, service and courage form the core of our daily mantra, explained Mike Maloney, Founder of Kota Longboards. When we heard about the D-Day Squadrons attempt to bring living history to the beaches of Normandy to honor those who served, we wanted to do our part to help in any way we could.
The D-Day Squadron plans to fly 21 restored C-47 and DC-3 (the civilian version of the C-47) aircraft across the North Atlantic to join with its European counterpart, Daks over Normandy. Together, these groups will fill the skies over Normandy on June 5th 2019, and will participate in multiple events on June 2nd-5th at Duxford Airfield in the United Kingdom and from June 5th-9th at Caen-Carpiquet Airport in Normandy, France. These events serve as a testament to the sacrifice of so many 75 years ago and honor the citizen soldiers that fought against tyranny.
The Greatest Generation is quickly leaving us, and we need to honor them in every way we can, declared Moreno Aguiari, Executive Director of the D-Day Squadron. The 75th Anniversary of the Normandy Invasion is one of our last, best opportunities to recognize what these airman, soldiers and sailors did while a few of them still remain. But to accomplish this feat requires dedicated logistics, such as fuel, maintenance, insurance, survival equipment and support services to name a few. Kota Longboards generous contribution puts us one step closer to putting C-47s once again in the skies over Normandy.
Click HERE to purchase the exclusive longboard and support the D-Day Squadron.
Medical marijuana might be legal in more than half the states, but that doesnt mean its fine to use it on most college campuses.
The reason? Marijuana still remains illegal at the federal level and schools are concerned it might put them in jeopardy with the law.
The latest example of this comes from Oklahoma. The state recently approved the use of medical marijuana for certain conditions and diseases and within the guidelines provided by law (such as getting a doctors prescription and registering with the state).
However, the states two major colleges, the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University, recently announced they will not allow medical marijuana on campus.
Student reactions were as expected. Honestly, I think thats a little bit ridiculous, one student told KFOR News in Oklahoma.
Related: White House Orders Federal Agencies to Find Bad Things to Say About Legal Marijuana
Federal Problems
Like many universities before them, the decision by the two Oklahoma schools came down to one major issue: cash from the federal government.
Public schools get funding from the federal Department of Education, and that funding is contingent on complying with federal law. Marijuana has been listed as an illegal, Schedule I drug since the 1970s.
In announcing the decision, the universities said they had to consider remaining compliant with three federal laws to continue receiving funding.
Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act
Federal Drug-Free Workplace Act
Federal Controlled Substances Act
That last one is the one that makes the growing, distribution, selling and possession of marijuana a federal crime.
Related: Massachusetts Is Helping Legal Cannabis Businesses Get Started in Areas Hit Hardest by War on Drugs
Not Getting Arrested
Because possession and even growing a limited number of marijuana plants is legal now in Oklahoma, students themselves will not get arrested if they violate the universities rules.
This is the case in most states where marijuana is legal -- although it almost wasnt in Arizona. The legislature there attempted to make possession of medical marijuana on campus a crime despite medical marijuanas legal status in Arizona, But a state court struck the law down after an Arizona State University student sued.
This is not a red state/blue state issue. The University of California system bans all marijuana from campus, as well. So does the University of Oregon. Some have taken steps to get around federal law, such as the University of Colorado, which now allows freshman students to apply to live off campus if they use medical marijuana.
For students and cannabis advocates looking to see change on the issue, one place to start may be the voting booth in November.
Follow dispensaries.com on Instagram to stay up to date on the latest cannabis news.
Related:
Prohibition State: Why Is Medical Marijuana Still Banned on College Campuses?
White House Orders Federal Agencies to Find Bad Things to Say About Legal Marijuana
Video: This Week in Weed (August 20-24)
Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
Courtesy of Hamden Police Dept.
HAMDEN An 18-year-old Quinnipiac University student is accused of chasing his roommate with a knife and threatening to kill him, according to a police press release.
Police responded Monday to the campus on Mount Carmel Avenue, where a verbal dispute between the men escalated when Josiah Diaz-Cregan allegedly brandished a knife and threatened his roommates life, the release said.
There was a moment in 2011 when Tony DAloia considered his freedom to be a curse. In prison, where hed just spent the better part of a decade, he could survive a full year on the $100 his mom sent him twice a year, on his birthday and on Christmas. But now that he was outside and back home in Washington state, he needed money to survive -- lots of it. Hed heard of job openings with warehouses and construction companies, but nobody seemed eager to bring on a convicted felon.
Then he finally found someone willing to interview him. A young Bellevue pizza joint called MOD was hiring a dishwasher. DAloia knew zilch about MOD and wasnt excited about the work. But it came with benefits and a 401(k), which was nice, if unusual. So he went in for the interview.
And anyway, he wasnt in a position to turn down work. By the time he was in his early 20s, DAloia had been arrested 38 times. Every time he was released, hed go right back to jail. I couldnt last a week on the street, he says. Hed get drunk and start a fight, or trespass after-hours in the park. But his big bust, the one that sent him away for more than five years, was on a conspiracy to distribute ecstasy. He needed two grand to pay off a DUI fine, so he agreed to drive 25,000 pills from the Canadian border down into Washington. The job was a sting, and DAloia landed in long-term lockup.
For some reason, MOD overlooked his history. The company met with his parole officer, and once he was cleared to work, DAloia was left to scrub dishes while water seeped in through a hole in one of his $20 Payless shoes. MOD gave him a free pizza every day, which he traded on the street for bus tokens to get to and from work. If this was life outside, DAloia wasnt sure he was interested.
At the time, MOD still wasnt sure it was interested in him, either. But in 2011 the company was following a few early data points, having discovered that ex-cons could make great employees. That would keep proving itself out. MOD would eventually embrace what it calls impact hiring -- people with backgrounds of incarceration, homelessness, drug addiction or mental disability -- and credits the decision in large part with its rapid growth: In the years after DAloias hire, MOD went from five stores in Washington to 367 spread over 28 states and the United Kingdom. It has nine franchise partners, and in 2016, the research firm Technomic named it the fastest-growing restaurant chain in the U.S. Last year, MOD hit $275 million in sales, 81 percent growth over the year prior.
Related: 3 Reasons Former Inmates Make Great Entrepreneurs
MODs hiring practices would come to alter everything about the company. We have no interest in just building another fast-casual pizza business, says Ally Svenson, who co-founded the company in 2008 with her husband, Scott. Were building a business platform to make positive social impacts. MOD doesnt collect numbers on how many of its employees qualify as impact hires, but partnerships with organizations like the Monarch School, which helps find jobs for people with autism and ADHD; Juma, which works with young adults in poverty; and Pioneer Human Services, which offers career counseling to the formerly incarcerated, implies that the number is substantial. People go to job fairs [for impact employees] and hire two or three people, says Ally. But we just hire that way.
Often, those hires prosper. From MODs perspective, DAloia is no charity case. The guy is a slam-dunk hire who immediately appreciated his entry-level job far more than youd expect from a strong-willed 32-year-old. In his first two years, he was promoted three times. Turns out, the ex-con was full of ambition.
That ambitious spark really began after he started at MOD, the day he got his first check. It was nearly $800 -- almost four times what hed lived on for a year in prison. He told his boss as much, who replied, You earned that money.
DAloia took the cash straight to a shoe store. It was pouring outside, and he could feel water swishing up between his toes. As he stepped off the bus, a gust of wind caught the edge of his pizza box -- that free daily pizza, the one hed eventually stop trading for bus fare -- and he managed to save it from flying down the street. Then he marched into the store, bought new shoes, and dumped his old ones in the trash. Life was better right then, he says. I could finally provide for myself.
MOD isnt the Svensons first food-industry rodeo. While living in London in 1995, the couple launched the Seattle Coffee Company, a chain they later sold to Starbucks for $85 million. Then they served as board members for an Italian joint called Carluccios, helping to scale it for an IPO in 2005. Afterward, they moved back to their hometown of Seattle and started playing with the idea of a fast-casual pizza chain. Scott and I know what it takes to build a business, says Ally. And its friggin hard. If we were going to put all we have into this place, it needed to be more than a soulless restaurant chain.
Impact hiring wasnt immediately part of MODs mission. After launching in 2008, the Svensons spent three years refining their business model. They hired a few ex-cons, only because they were available and it seemed like the right thing to do. The real goal was to open a few stores, target different demographics, test the variables. When a store near downtown Seattle failed to hit its numbers, they shut it down.
By 2011, the Svensons had five successful stores and felt ready to scale and eventually consider franchising. They also had come to understand how their impact hires shaped the companys culture; guys like DAloia had become their most driven employees. So that became MODs calling -- to grow on the strength of the people that other companies overlooked. After that first three-year period, the mission became very intentional, says Ally. We started to describe our business as enlightened capitalism.
This has inspired franchisees to seek out all sorts of overlooked workers. Three years ago in Houston, for example, a MOD manager brought on a kid with autism to fold pizza boxes. The kid was good, and unlike the rest of the staff, he actually enjoyed folding boxes. So the manager, Mark Foley, hired another kid with autism. Then another. Today, nine of his 25 employees have autism, Down syndrome or another developmental difference.
MODs enlightened capitalism isnt just about hiring. As the company expanded, the mission expanded, too -- becoming not just about the people it hires about but everyone it interacts with. For example, pies sell for a set price -- $7.67 to $8.47, depending on the market, for an 11-inch pizza -- regardless of how many toppings the customer requests. Employees are encouraged to improvise in an endless pursuit of service. If they drop a pie, they can offer the customer a milkshake while they make another; they can give someone a coupon for a free pizza. That was empowering, says DAloia. They were like, This is your house. Take care of it.
The company came to develop a term for these sort of acts: MODness. To spread MODness is to spread happiness.
A concept like MODness begins to inspire all sorts of, well, MODness. When a MOD employee in Sammamish, Wash., discovered that his work-commute bike had been stolen, his colleagues spread MODness by buying him a new one. Afterward, the company as a whole instituted the Bridge Fund, a rainy day account that staffers can access in times of emergency. (The fund currently holds more than $350,000, according to MOD.) When floods hit Houston, the company put up its local employees in hotels, while staffers from across the country mailed gift cards to help their Texan colleagues get back on their feet.
Once, at a meeting in Portland, a MOD employee admitted to his managers that hed been struggling with homelessness. Some nights he even slept by the dumpsters outside his store. In the spirit of MODness, managers hit up some local connections to score him free temporary housing. That employee, Chris Wells, now oversees five stores, soon to be seven, and shares a three-bedroom apartment with his girlfriend and two daughters. He talks about MOD with the passion of a religious convert: Their pizza sauce pumps through my veins.
To continue to inspire do-good innovation, MOD created an annual meeting -- called the Meeting of the MODs -- for general managers to gather in Seattle. Recently, Mark Foley, the manager who began hiring autistic employees in Houston, was invited to address his colleagues onstage. As he did, he found himself overwhelmed. I was an idiot up there, crying, he says. It was so emotional.
Crying managers arent a typical scene at a corporate off-site, but theyre welcome at MOD. Were really big on sharing stories, says Sophia Arellano, a MOD recruiter who confirms the profundity of this years tearjerking GM meeting. We even have an internal employee Facebook page where people celebrate the good things they see.
To outsiders, all this devotion to MOD can sound like a cult. But the company chalks it up to a self-selecting group. The people who buy into MOD, as either franchisees or employees, are on board with the mission. Culture is everything, says Ally. Because we invest in it, it defends itself. Its taken on a life of its own.
Related: How This Ex-Con Started From Nothing to Build a 7-Figure Business
Image Credit: Daniel Berman
MODs growth arrives at a time when consumers are increasingly willing to support cause-driven companies. Recent surveys by Cox Business and MediaCom show that roughly two-thirds of consumers are willing to spend more money with brands that support social missions. From a business perspective, that makes it increasingly easy to do the right thing. Companies that broadcast their values and then stand behind them are setting themselves up for success.
Though social-impact hiring isnt a new idea -- Daves Killer Bread out of Oregon has been hiring ex-cons for nearly 15 years, and New Yorks Greyston Bakery has been promoting no-questions open hiring for 35 years -- it is almost nonexistent within franchises. There are likely many reasons why, but a big one, according to New York-based franchise attorney Harold Kestenbaum, is that its generally in the franchisors interest to give its franchisees as much hiring discretion as possible. In a 2014 joint-employment ruling against McDonalds, the National Labor Relations Board declared that a corporate office could be held liable for the people its franchisees brought in. I counsel my clients not to make employment decisions for their franchisees, says Kestenbaum. You can make recommendations, but I wouldnt go beyond that. (The joint-employment ruling was overturned by the Trump administration, but its unclear what will happen in the future.)
Of course, MOD doesnt require its franchisees to hire any certain type of employee. It relies on its culture to apply a more subtle form of pressure -- which means that the initiative is always at risk of falling off the agenda. Along the West Coast and in parts of Texas, MOD is good at finding impact hires. But in regions where the companys presence is still new, it has work to do. We need to be really systematic about embedding our approach so that its locked in, says Ally.
If MODs culture-driven attempt to be the first major company to make impact hires at the national level is a success, it could have implications far beyond its 367 stores. The scope and scale of MOD could bring more attention to the need to hire these people, says Hilary Young, a vice president with Pioneer Human Services, one of the organizations MOD uses to find employees recently released from prison.
Arellano, the franchises recruiter, knows firsthand how important that Youre hired! can be. At age 32, she was arrested and convicted of a nonviolent crime, and for her first six months at MOD, she had a tracking device on her ankle. What started as a transitional gig turned into a passion-driven career when she realized how many people like her were on staff. Theyre not just employing people, she says of her bosses. Theyre giving them a way to feed their families, a way to not go out and reoffend.
By that measure, when MOD comes to town, its doing more than serving pizza. Its helping to turn crime-prone citizens into productive members of society. And in todays tight labor market -- unemployment is below 4 percent -- it might also be accessing the last bastion of untapped, hardworking talent. Its good business to look wherever you can to find the best people for your organization, says Ron Cool, the director of corporate and franchise operations at Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh, a Colorado-based franchise that, like MOD, works to hire formerly incarcerated and developmentally disabled employees. These people come in with a genuine desire to better themselves. All they want is a chance.
Related: The Case for Blind Hiring
DAloia remembers that feeling well. Now 39, hes a district manager who oversees six MOD locations in Washington. In his seven years with the company, he has flown to the United Kingdom to train managers and spoken at Harvard. Ive had all these opportunities I wouldnt have had if MOD didnt believe in me, he says. Being able to do that for other people is really important. The best part of the job is helping people through the same situation I was in.
And there it is: the MODness culture keeping itself alive. One kindness begets another. As the company grows, theres no guarantee that the do-good spirit will stay strong. But its sure worth a shot. Its not a done deal, says Ally. Its hard to make sure that our purpose will be protected and perpetuated in the places its needed most. I feel like we are only starting. We are at the beginning of something.
Related:
How This Warby Parker and Casper Alum Ended up 'Accidentally' Raising a Seed Round
Times Are Good, so Start Working Now to Make Your Small Business Recession-Proof
Why MOD Pizza Loves Hiring Ex-Cons
Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
Attention to detail and a drive for quality are part of Caroline Willards DNA, thanks to four years of working at Disneyland as a college student. When American First Credit Union recruited her from a southern California thrift in 2001, she knew little about the credit union movement but immediately felt the difference in the cooperative environment. Shes been working with credit unions ever since.
Here, the president and CEO of Cornerstone Credit Union League shares her thoughts on the importance of focus, finding inspiration, and what shed like to see more of within the credit union industry.
On early career lessons
I worked at Disneyland during college and learned a ton about discipline, show quality, and putting forth your best effort every day. There were lifelong benefits Ive reaped from my time there. For example, a drive for quality and attention to detail are drilled into you. Disney isnt about amusement or a ride, its about having a happy day with your family. The fact that the extrinsic product youre selling isnt always the same as the intrinsic appeal or need has really stuck with me.
Republicans sweep row office seats
The longtime prothonotary and treasurer for Somerset County lost their seats Tuesday night to Republican challengers.
While the rand has been dealing with negative emerging market sentiment in sympathy with economic woes in Argentina and Turkey, as well as trade war tensions between the US and China, the currency has been dealt another blow this week as Gross Domestic Product data has disappointed to suggest a technical recession within South Africa.
GDP (quarter on quarter)
Real GDP in South Africa contracted by 0.7% in the second quarter of the year, which follows a 2.6% contraction in the first quarter of the year. Consensus estimates had predicted a marginal economic expansion of 0.6%. The two consecutive quarters of negative growth implies a recession within the country.
Within the primary sector, the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry contracted by 29.2%, while the mining and quarry industry managed to grow by 4.9%. Within the secondary sector, the manufacturing industry contracted by 0.3%, led by declines in the motor vehicles, parts and accessories divisions.
Within the tertiary sector, the trade catering and accommodation industry contracted by 1.9%, while the transport, storage and communication industry decreased by 4.9%. The finance, real estate and business services industries increased by a marginal 1.9%.
Technical View
While emerging market currencies have been on the back foot as of late, the poor GDP print has seen the rand further underperforming its peers.
The USD/ZAR currency pair uptrend remains firmly intact, trading through the initial upside target guided in our previous note (R15/$). The dotted red line shows how the uptrend has accelerated over the short term.
The short term uptrend is remains valid until such time as we see the USD/ZAR price closes below this level. In the meantime, a move to the next level of resistance at R15.65/$ is favoured. Should the price manage to trade (close) above this level, the next level of historical resistance (not drawn on chart) is considered at R16/$.
Technical View Previous
USD/ZAR
The uptrend for the USD/ZAR remains (dollar strength/ rand weakness). In the near term we have seen the R14/$ mark as an area of accumulation, as the price has twice found support here (marked with arrows on chart) before resuming its uptrend. The recent retest of this level (marked with the blue arrow) has seen the USD/ZAR moving into oversold territory. The oversold signal supports the price reversal at this support level, and is considered technically bullish. With this in mind continued gains for the USD/ZAR are expected with R15/$ the initial upside target, a break of which further favours a move to the next level of resistance at R15.65/$. Should the price instead move to close below horizontal support (R14/$), then the upward trend line becomes the next level of support considered and possibly another point of consideration for a long entry into the USD/ZAR currency pair.
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 7pm
Suleiman Khan sounded upset. Anwar bhai, he said over the phone from Riyadh to his friend in Delhi, Ive been reading in the media here that an Emergency has been declared in India. I was planning to travel to Delhi tomorrow. Is it safe to come?
Anwar Sheikh tried to calm his friend. Look Suleiman, things are pretty bad, we are in an undeclared Emergency. But dont worry, come tomorrow. Ill introduce you to eminent lawyers wholl tell you how this undeclared Emergency is actually worse than the real Emergency of 1975-77.
Undeclared Emergency? Protests were staged at several places across the country following the arrest of five Left-wing activists on August 27. (Source: India Today)
Yes, said Suleiman. I read an article by a top lawyer last week on the editorial page of an Indian newspaper. He said exactly that. Id love to meet him to understand this grave crisis facing our country.
Done, said Anwar. This lawyer is a friend of mine. Well also meet lots of intellectuals whom the horrid rightwing media calls urban Naxals because they are defending their innocent colleagues whove been arrested by the Maharashtra police for helping poor Adivasis and tribals.
Sounds good, Anwar bhai, Suleiman said. Ill be in Delhi tomorrow. Id like to know more about this undeclared Emergency and how much worse it is then Indira Gandhis Emergency 43 years ago.
2pm, Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi
As he sailed through immigration, Suleiman looked quizzically at his fellow-passengers for signs of anxiety. Were now in Emergency territory, he murmured to himself, steeling himself for any eventuality. He half-expected the armed guard at the exit door of the airport to strip-search him. The guard instead smiled and waved him through.
Outside, Anwar greeted Suleiman with a hug. Welcome back to India, he said warmly.
Suleiman looked around warily for jackbooted armymen. Anwar bhai, he said, slightly puzzled, everything seems so calm and normal. It doesnt look like an undeclared Emergency.
Firing on all cylinders: Left intellectuals and their beef with Rafale fighter jet. (Source: India Today)
Anwar patted his friend on the shoulder. Dont be fooled by appearances, Suleiman. The nation is in the grip of fascist forces. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the RSS, who control him, want to take over every Indian institution and convert India into a Hindu Rashtra. Didnt you hear our big hope, Rahul Gandhi, speak in Germany and England about how fascist this government is.
As he put on the seat belt in Anwars Mercedes, Suleiman asked: Anwar bhai, isnt that when Rahul likened the RSS to the Muslim Brotherhood? Conservative folks back home in Riyadh werent happy that the Muslim Brotherhood was compared by Rahul to the Hindutva-loving RSS.
Anwar shook his head. Dont worry, Suleiman. Some Muslims here too were upset. But what to do? We in the Congress need Hindu votes in 2019. Rahul has even gone on a pilgrimage to Kaliash Mansarovar to prove hes a good Hindu. Hed have preferred to go to London instead. But hes a focused young man. For him politics comes first.
Suleimans eyes narrowed as Anwar continued: Listen Suleiman, Ive invited a bunch of people home for dinner tomorrow. They will tell you how terrible things are in India. This undeclared Emergency is just the beginning. Didnt you hear Arundhati Roy criticising Modi for the Rafale fighter jet scam?
You mean the Rafale aircraft carrier scam, said Suleiman. I saw her press conference about the Rafale aircraft carrier scam.
No, no, Suleiman, that was just a slip of the tongue by her. Wait till you hear my lawyer friends explain how Modi is turning India into a fascist state and running the economy into the ground.
But Anwar bhai, I heard Indias economy is now growing at 8.2 per cent...
A happy nation: Like it or not, the Indias economy is now growing at 8.2 per cent. (Credit: Reuters)
Anwar cut Suleiman off mid-sentence. Forget all those fudged figures, Suleiman. Just wait till tomorrow. Well be meeting some of the finest intellectuals in India at my place. Theyll tell you more about this undeclared Emergency.
9pm, Anwars home, New Delhi
The guests began pouring in fashionably late for Anwars dinner party. Suleiman recognised the famous prize-winning author with a shock of curly white hair and a high-pitched voice. Ah, he thought to himself, thats the one who spoke so eloquently against the Rafale aircraft carrier scam.
A group of men trooped in after her. Anwar greeted one particularly warmly. Your edit page piece on how this undeclared Emergency is worse than the old Emergency was outstanding! Well-argued like the good lawyer you are!
The lawyer smiled: Wait till Thursday, Anwar. Well be presenting our case in the Supreme Court and getting those five intellectuals released from house arrest.
Suleiman moved closer to him. Sir, he said hesitantly, if theres an undeclared Emergency in India, why didnt the government censor your newspaper article? In 1975-77, during the real Emergency, no paper would have dared carry such an article.
The lawyer looked at Suleiman patronisingly. My dear friend, he said, this is an insidious Emergency where our institutions are being silently subverted by RSS ideology.
Just then, the famous author wandered towards them. Suleiman smiled: Im a fan of your book.
Which one? she snapped.
Oh both, Suleiman replied quickly. He changed the subject. Do you feel intimidated criticising this government?
She laughed throatily. Dont be silly, young man. They dare not censor me.
Suleiman was now genuinely puzzled. What sort of Emergency was this? He turned to the lawyer who had been following their conversation closely. Sir, in Mrs Gandhis Emergency, over one lakh people were jailed without charges, the right to liberty was curtailed, the Supreme Court was subverted and the Constitution was suspended. Is todays undeclared Emergency worse that Indira Gandhis?
The lawyer pursed his lips. Perhaps you werent even born then. At least at the time we knew where we stood, which institutions were subverted, what we couldnt write or couldnt do, when we might go to jail. There was certitude. Now its all so underhand. We are being subverted without our full knowledge. Thats why I call this Emergency so insidious.
At that point a well-known woman consulting editor of a broadsheet newspaper walked up to them. Hi guys, she trilled. She seemed to know the lawyer well and turned to Suleiman. He introduced himself. Ah, youre from Saudi Arabia, lovely country. I bet its better than this Emergency-benighted Hindutva nation! She grinned wolfishly.
Suleiman couldnt believe his ears but wisely kept his counsel. Better not mention the public floggings in Saudi, he thought to himself. Thats what an Emergency looks like, he murmured.
What did you just say? the editor asked curiously.
"Oh nothing, Suleiman said hastily." "Just remembering life back home in Saudi."
She gave him a sharp look but said nothing as she moved away to greet an anchor of a TV programme which upbraided the government every night, left, right and centre, without fear or fetter.
As the guests drifted home, Anwar came up him. So Suleiman, did you get the answers you were looking for on this draconian Emergency we are all living through?
Suleiman smiled. Oh yes, Anwar bhai, I did. This Emergency is so insidious, we cant actually feel it, Im told.
Anwar looked at his friend strangely. Suleiman, tomorrow Ill introduce you to some hard-core activists whom the Hindutva media calls urban Naxals. They are nothing of the sort. Theyll tell you more about this undeclared Emergency.
Suleiman smiled: You mean, how its worse than the real Emergency when lakhs were jailed without charge and the Constitution suspended and...
Anwar interrupted him with a good-natured groan. Bro, youll never change. Now go get yourself another helping of the mutton briyani. They havent banned that yet.
(Explainer: This is a part of the continuing series of two close friends, Suleiman Khan and Anwar Sheikh. Suleiman works in Saudi Arabia and is politically curious. Anwar is a rising Congress leader. For earlier parts of this series, visit the authors page on DailyO.)
Also read: Is India on its way to become a censorship state?
10 hours ago
CVS raises 2021 forecast again after strong third quarter
CVS Health and Wall Street share the same view of the drugstore chains growth potential as COVID-19s impact on the company begins to ease. Average analyst expectations for 2022 earnings of $8.20 per share fit within CVS Healths expected initial forecast for the new year, Chief Financial Officer Shawn Guertin said Wednesday morning, promising to provide more details at the companys annual investor meeting Dec.
Read Article
Worldpay, Inc., through its subsidiary, Worldpay Holding, LLC, provides electronic payment processing services in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australasia. It operates in two segments, Technology Solutions, Merchant Solutions, and Issuer Solutions. The company offers merchant acquiring and payment processing services, such as authorization and settlement, customer service, chargeback and retrieval processing, and interchange management. It also provides value-added services, such data analytics and information management solutions, foreign currency management, and various funding options; and security solutions, including point-to-point encryption and tokenization at the point of sale and for e-commerce transactions. In addition, the company offers card issuer processing, payment network processing, fraud protection, card production, prepaid program management, automated teller machine driving, portfolio optimization, data analytics, and card program marketing, as well as network gateway and switching services. Further, it provides card and statement production, and collections and inbound/outbound call centers. The company serves merchants and financial institutions comprising regional banks, community banks, credit unions, and regional personal identification number networks through direct sales forces and referral partners. The company was formerly known as Vantiv, Inc. and changed its name to Worldpay, Inc. in January 2018. Worldpay, Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Read More
Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides marine transportation, subsea installation, and accommodation support services to exploration and production, oilfield service, offshore construction, and the United States military customers. It operates offshore supply vessels (OSVs), multi-purpose support vessels (MPSVs), and a shore-based facility to provide logistics support and specialty services to the offshore oil and gas exploration and production industry, primarily Gulf of Mexico in the U.S., Latin America, and internationally. Its fleet of U.S.-flagged OSVs and MPSVs support deep-well, deepwater, and ultra-deepwater activities of the offshore oil and gas industry, such as oil and gas exploration, field development, production, construction, installation, well-stimulation, and other enhanced oil recovery, as well as inspection, repair, and maintenance services. The company also provides vessel management services, including crewing, daily operational management, and maintenance activities for other vessels owners. As of December 31, 2018, it owned and operated 66 OSVs and 8 MPSVs. Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Covington, Louisiana.
Read More
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..
Imperial Oil Limited explores for, produces, and sells crude oil and natural gas in Canada. It operates through three segments: Upstream, Downstream, and Chemical. The Upstream segment explores for and produces crude oil, natural gas, synthetic oil, and bitumen. As of December 31, 2020, this segment had 138 million oil-equivalent barrels of proved undeveloped reserves. The Downstream segment is involved in the transportation and refining of crude oil, as well as blending, distribution, and marketing of refined products. It also transports crude oil to refineries by contracted pipelines, common carrier pipelines, and rail; maintains a distribution system to move petroleum products to market by pipeline, tanker, rail, and road transport; and owns and operates fuel terminals, natural gas liquids, and products pipelines in Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario. In addition, this segment markets and supplies petroleum products to motoring public through approximately 2,400 Esso and Mobil-branded sites. Further, it sells petroleum products, including fuel, asphalt, and lubricants for industrial and transportation customers, independent marketers, and resellers, as well as other refiners serving the agriculture, residential heating, and commercial markets through branded fuel and lubricant resellers. The Chemical segment manufactures and markets various petrochemicals and polyethylene, such as benzene, aromatic, and aliphatic solvents; plasticizer intermediates; and polyethylene resins. The company was incorporation in 1880 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada. Imperial Oil Limited is a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation.
Read More
Wall Street analysts have given iShares Russell 2000 Growth 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 Russell 2000 Growth ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.
View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.
SociAtA GAnArale SociAtA anonyme provides financial services in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Oceania, Africa, and France. The company offers retail banking services, including deposits and loans, vehicles and asset management, corporate finance, insurance, payments, investment, and online brokerage and financial information services; Internet, mobile, telephone, and service platforms; and online banking to individual and professional customers, businesses, non-profit associations and local authorities under the Societe Generale, CrAdit du Nord, and Boursorama Banque brands. It also provides international retail banking and financial services, comprising of deposit and loan products; consumer finance and car finance; mortgage facilities; corporate and investment banking; infrastructure, renewable energies, and agribusiness financing; life, retirement savings, and personal protection insurance products; vehicle leasing and fleet management services; and vendor and equipment finance services to corporate and individual customers. In addition, the company offers capital market services, such as fixed income and currencies, equities, and securities services; mergers and acquisitions, advisory and other corporate finance advisory services, and corporate banking and investment banking, as well as capital raising solutions for debt or equity, financial engineering, and hedging for issuers; transaction and payment services, comprising of cash management, trade finance, cash clearing and correspondent banking, supply chain finance, and foreign exchange services; and export finance, aircraft finance, shipping finance, real estate finance, and structured solutions and leasing. Further, it provides financial engineering and wealth management solutions; structured products, hedge funds, mutual funds, private equity funds and real estate investment solutions; and asset management solutions. SociAtA GAnArale SociAtA anonyme was founded in 1864 and is headquartered in Paris, France.
Read More
Rayonier Advanced Materials, Inc. engages in the production and sale of cellulose products, which is a natural polymer commonly used in the production of cell phone and computer screens, filters, and pharmaceuticals. It operates through the following segments: High Purity Cellulose, Forest Products, Paperboard, Pulp and Newsprint, and Corporate. The High Purity Cellulose segment manufacture and market high purity cellulose, which is sold as either cellulose specialties or commodity products in U.S., Canda, and France. The Forest Products segment manufacture and market construction-grade lumber in North America through seven sawmills located in Canada. The Paperboard segment comprises paperboard products. The Pulp and Newsprint segment involves in the production of pulp and newsprint in Canada. The Corporate segment consists senior management, accounting, information systems, human resources, treasury, tax, and legal administrative functions that provide support services to the operating business units. The company was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in Jacksonville, FL.
Read More
Travis Perkins plc distributes building materials to the building, construction, and home improvement markets in the United Kingdom. It operates through four segments: Merchanting, Retail, Toolstation, and Plumbing & Heating. The Merchanting segment distributes interior building products, which include drywalls, ceilings, external envelopes, fire protection products, flooring and partitioning products, and tools and accessories to professionals within the construction industry; civil, drainage, and heavy building materials to specialist contractors and trade professionals; and pipeline and heating solutions. This segment also distributes building materials, plumbing and heating products, landscaping materials, timber and sheet materials, painting and decorating products, dry lining and insulation products, doors and joinery, and hand and power tools to trade professionals and self-builders. The Retail segment operates as a home improvement retailer, which sells kitchen, bathroom, paint, and timber products. The Toolstation segment supplies products to the trade, home improvers, and self-builders industry through approximately 350 branches, as well as online, call center, and a mobile website. The Plumbing & Heating segment supplies its products to the trade, home improvement, and DIY markets. The company also offers kitchens and joinery products to specialist joiners, kitchen fitters, house builders, local authorities, and national house builders; and operates as a tile retailer. The company was formerly known as Sandell Perkins Public Limited Company and changed its name to Travis Perkins plc in October 1988. Travis Perkins plc was founded in 1797 and is headquartered in Northampton, the United Kingdom.
Read More
Vedanta Ltd. is a natural resource company, which engages in the exploration, extraction, and processing of minerals, oil, and gas properties. It operates through the following segments: Copper, Aluminum, Iron Ore, Power, and Oil & Gas. The Copper segment focuses in custom smelting and also include a copper smelter, a refinery, a phosphoric acid plant, a sulphuric acid plant, a copper rod plant, and three captive power plants. The Aluminum segment comprises refinery and a captive power plant at Lanjigarh and a smelter, a thermal coal based captive power facility at Jharsuguda both situated in the State of Odisha in India. The Iron Ore segment explores, mines, and processes iron ore, pig iron, and metallurgical coke. The Power segment consists 600 MW thermal coal-based commercial power facility at Jharsuguda in the State of Odisha in Eastern India. The Oil and Gas segment involves in the exploration and development and production of oil and gas. The company was founded by Dwarka Prasad Agarwal on June 25, 1965 and is headquartered in Mumbai, India.
Read More
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
Unit Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the exploration, acquisition, development, and production of oil and natural gas properties in the United States. It operates through three segments: Oil and Natural Gas, Contract Drilling, and Mid-Stream. The Oil and Natural Gas segment explores for, acquires, develops, and produces oil and natural gas properties. Its producing oil and natural gas properties, unproved properties, and related assets are primarily located in Oklahoma and Texas, as well as in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. The Contract Drilling segment is involved in the contract drilling of onshore oil and natural gas wells for a range of other oil and natural gas companies primarily in Oklahoma, Texas, Wyoming, North Dakota, Colorado, and Utah. It has 55 drilling rigs in its fleet. The Mid-Stream segment buys, sells, gathers, processes, and treats natural gas for third parties. This segment operates 3 natural gas treatment plants, 14 processing plants, 22 gathering systems, and approximately 1,475 miles of pipeline in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Unit Corporation was founded in 1963 and is headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Read More
Medtronic Plc is a medical technology company, which engages in the development, manufacture, distribution, and sale of device-based medical therapies and services. It operates through the following segments: Cardiac and Vascular Group; Minimally Invasive Technologies Group; Restorative Therapies Group; and Diabetes Group. The Cardiac and Vascular Group segment consists of products for the diagnosis, treatment, and management of cardiac rhythm disorders and cardiovascular disease. The Minimally Invasive Technologies Group segment focuses on respiratory system, gastrointestinal tract, renal system, lungs, pelvic region, kidneys, and obesity diseases. The Restorative Therapies Group segment comprises of neurostimulation therapies and drug delivery systems for the treatment of chronic pain, as well as areas of the spine and brain, along with pelvic health and conditions of the ear, nose, and throat. The Diabetes Group segment offers insulin pumps, coninuous glucose monitoring systems, and insulin pump consumables. The company was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.
Read More
The following companies are subsidiares of The Sherwin-Williams: Acquire Sourcing LLC, CTS National Corporation, Comex North America Inc., Compania Sherwin-Williams S.A. de C.V., Contract Transportation Systems Co., Dongguan Lilly Paint Industries Ltd, Duron, EPS (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., EPS B.V., Geocel Holdings, Geocel Limited, Guangdong Valspar Paints Manufacturing Co Ltd., Inver East Med S.A., Inver France SAS, Inver GmbH, Inver Industrial Coating SRL, Inver Polska Spoka Z O.O, Inver Spa, Invercolor Bologna Srl, Invercolor Ltd, Invercolor Roma Srl, Invercolor Torino Srl, Invercolor Toscana Srl, Isocoat Tintas e Vernizes Ltda, Isva Vernici Srl, Leighs Paints, M.A. Bruder & Sons, Omega Specialty Products & Services LLC, Oy Sherwin-Williams Finland Ab, PT Sherwin-Williams Indonesia, PT Valspar Indonesia, Paint Sundry Brands, Pinturas Condor S.A., Pinturas Industriales S.A., Piton Paints Limited, Plasti-Kote Co. Inc., Plasti-kote Limited, Productos Quimicos y Pinturas S.A. de C.V., Quest Automotive Products UK Limited, Quetzal Pinturas S.A. de C.V., Ronseal (Ireland) Limited, SWIMC LLC, SWIPCO Sherwin Williams do Brasil Propriedade Intelectual Ltda, Sherwin Williams Colombia S.A.S., Sherwin-Williams (Australia) Pty. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Belize) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (Caribbean) N.V., Sherwin-Williams (Ireland) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Sherwin-Williams (Nantong) Coatings Technology Co. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Nantong) Company Limited, Sherwin-Williams (S) Pte. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Shanghai) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Vietnam) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (West Indies) Limited, Sherwin-Williams Argentina I.y C.S.A., Sherwin-Williams Aruba VBA, Sherwin-Williams Automotive Mexico S.de R.L.de C.V., Sherwin-Williams Balkan S.R.L., Sherwin-Williams Bel Unitary Enterprise, Sherwin-Williams Benelux NV, Sherwin-Williams Canada Inc., Sherwin-Williams Cayman Islands Limited, Sherwin-Williams Chile S.A., Sherwin-Williams Coatings India Private Limited, Sherwin-Williams Coatings S.a r.l., Sherwin-Williams Czech Republic spol. s r.o, Sherwin-Williams Denmark A/S, Sherwin-Williams Deutschland GmbH, Sherwin-Williams Diversified Brands Limited, Sherwin-Williams France Finishes SAS, Sherwin-Williams Italy S.r.l., Sherwin-Williams Norway AS, Sherwin-Williams Paints Limited Liability Company, Sherwin-Williams Peru S.R.L., Sherwin-Williams Pinturas de Venezuela S.A., Sherwin-Williams Poland Sp. z o.o, Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine Coatings, Sherwin-Williams Realty Holdings Inc., Sherwin-Williams Services (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Sherwin-Williams Spain Coatings S.L., Sherwin-Williams Sweden AB, Sherwin-Williams UK Coatings Limited, Sherwin-Williams do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda., Spanyc Paints Joint Stock Company, Syntema I Vaggeryd AB, Taiwan Valspar Co. Ltd., The Sherwin-Williams Acceptance Corporation, The Sherwin-Williams Headquarters Company, The Sherwin-Williams Manufacturing Company, The Sherwin-Williams US Licensing Company, The Valspar (Asia) Corporation Limited, The Valspar (Australia) Corporation Pty. Ltd., The Valspar (Finland) Corporation Oy, The Valspar (France) Corporation S.A.S., The Valspar (France) Research Corporation SAS, The Valspar (Malaysia) Corporation Sdn Bhd, The Valspar (Nantes) Corporation S.A.S., The Valspar (Singapore) Corporation Pte. Ltd, The Valspar (South Africa) Corporation (Pty) Ltd, The Valspar (Spain) Corporation S.R.L., The Valspar (Switzerland) Corporation AG, The Valspar (Thailand) Corporation Ltd., The Valspar (UK) Corporation Limited, The Valspar (Vietnam) Corporation Ltd., The Valspar Corporation, The Valspar Corporation Limitada, UAB Sherwin-Williams Baltic, Valspar (India) Coatings Corporation Private Limited, Valspar (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd., Valspar (Uruguay) Corporation S.A., Valspar (WPC) Pty Ltd, Valspar Aries Coatings S. de R.L. de C.V., Valspar Automotive (UK) Corporation Limited, Valspar Automotive Australia Pty Limited, Valspar B.V., Valspar Coatings (Guangdong) Co. Ltd., Valspar Coatings (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Valspar Coatings (Tianjin) Co. Ltd, Valspar D.o.o Beograd, Valspar Industries (Ireland) Ltd., Valspar Industries (Italy) S.r.l., Valspar Industries GmbH, Valspar LLC, Valspar Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Valspar Paint (Australia) Pty Ltd, Valspar Paint (NZ) Limited, Valspar Powder Coatings Limited, Valspar Rock Company Limited (Japan), Valspar Specialty Paints LLC, and ZAO Sherwin-Williams.
Wall Street analysts have given SEGRO a "Buy" 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 SEGRO wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.
View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.
Wall Street analysts have given iShares Russell 1000 Growth 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 Russell 1000 Growth ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.
View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.
Bausch Health Companies Inc. develops, manufactures, and markets a range of pharmaceutical, medical device, and over-the-counter (OTC) products primarily in the therapeutic areas of eye health, gastroenterology, and dermatology. The company operates through four segments: Bausch + Lomb/International, Salix, Ortho Dermatologics, and Diversified Products. The Bausch + Lomb/International segment offers products with a focus on the vision care, surgical, and consumer and ophthalmology Rx products in the United States; and Solta products, branded and generic pharmaceutical products, OTC products, and medical device products, and Bausch + Lomb products in Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. The Salix segment provides gastroenterology products in the United States. The Ortho Dermatologics segment offers dermatological products in the United States; and Solta medical aesthetic devices internationally. The Diversified Products segment provides pharmaceutical products in the areas of neurology and other therapeutic classes, as well as generic and dentistry products in the United States. The company was formerly known as Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. and changed its name to Bausch Health Companies Inc. in July 2018. Bausch Health Companies Inc. is headquartered in Laval, Canada.
Read More
The Toronto-Dominion Bank, together with its subsidiaries, provides various personal and commercial banking products and services in Canada and the United States. It operates through three segments: Canadian Retail, U.S. Retail, and Wholesale Banking. The company offers personal deposits, such as chequing, savings, and investment products; financing, investment, cash management, international trade, and day-to-day banking services to businesses; and financing options to customers at point of sale for automotive and recreational vehicle purchases through auto dealer network. It also provides credit cards; real estate secured lending; auto finance; consumer lending; point-of-sale payment solutions for large and small businesses; wealth and asset management products, private banking, investment advisory, and trust services to retail and institutional clients; and property and casualty insurance, as well as life and health insurance products. The company also provides capital markets, and corporate and investment banking services, including underwriting and distribution of new debt and equity issues; advice on strategic acquisitions and divestitures; and trading, funding, and investment services to companies, governments, and institutions. It offers its products and services under the TD Bank and America's Most Convenient Bank brand names. The company operates through a network of 1,085 branches, 3,440 automated teller machines, and 1,223 stores, as well as offers telephone, digital, and mobile banking services. The Toronto-Dominion Bank was founded in 1855 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.
Read More
The following companies are subsidiares of Archer-Daniels-Midland: ADM (Shanghai) Management Co. LTD, ADM (Thailand) Ltd, ADM Ag Holdings Ltd, ADM Agri-Industries Company, ADM Agriculture Limited, ADM Agro Iberica S. L. U., ADM Agro Indust Latur and Vizag Pvt Ltd, ADM Agro Industries India Private Limited, ADM Agro Industries KOTA and AKOLA Pvt. Ltd., ADM Agro SRL, ADM Agroinvestimentos LTDA, ADM Alliance Nutrition of Puerto Rico LLC, ADM Americas S de RL, ADM Andina Peru SRL, ADM Antwerp NV, ADM Arkady Ireland Limited, ADM Asia-Pacific Trading Pte. Ltd., ADM Australia Holdings I PTY Limited, ADM Bio Science And Technology (Tianjin) Co Ltd, ADM Bioproductos SA DE CV, ADM CZERNIN SA, ADM Caribbean Inc, ADM Chile Comercial LTDA, ADM Clinton Bioprocessing Inc, ADM DO Brasil LTDA, ADM Direct Polska SP. ZO.O, ADM Dominican Holdings Inc., ADM Dominicana SA, ADM Edible Bean Specialties Inc, ADM Europe HoldCo SL, ADM European Holdings LLC, ADM European Management Holding GMBH, ADM Export Co, ADM Food Technology (Beijing) Co. Ltd., ADM France, ADM Germany GmbH, ADM Grain River System Inc., ADM Hamburg Aktiengesesllschaft, ADM Holding (Thailand) LTD, ADM Holdings LLC, ADM Hungary Agro Trading LLC, ADM Industries Centers Ltd, ADM International Holdings Inc, ADM International SARL, ADM Interoceanic LTD, ADM Investments LTD, ADM Investor Services Inc, ADM Investor Services International LTD, ADM Ireland Receivables Company Limited, ADM Israel, ADM Japan Ltd, ADM MALBORK SA, ADM Mainz GMBH, ADM Medsofts Sarl, ADM Mexico Inc, ADM Mexico SA DE CV, ADM Milling Co, ADM Milling LTD, ADM New Zealand Limited, ADM Olomouc S.R.O., ADM Paraguay SRL, ADM Protexin Limited, ADM Pura Limited, ADM Receivables LLC, ADM Rice Inc, ADM Ringaskiddy Unlimited Company, ADM Romania Logistics SRL, ADM Romania Trading SRL, ADM Specialty Ingredients - Europe BV, ADM Spyck GMBH, ADM Szamotuly SP Z O.O, ADM Trading Australia Pty. Ltd., ADM Trading Co, ADM Transportation Company, ADM Trucking Inc, ADM Vietnam CO. LTD, ADM WILD Europe GmbH and Co. KG, ADM WILD Ingredients GmbH, ADM WILD Nauen GmbH, ADM WILD Valencia S.A., ADM Wild Netherlands BV, ADM Worldwide Holdings LP, ADMIS Holding Co Inc., ADMIS Hong Kong LTD, ADMIS Singapore Pte Limited, AOR, AT Holdings II Company, Agri Port Services Investments Ltd., Agri Port Services LLC, Agricolas Madagascar SARLU, Agrinational Insurance Co, Agriserve, Agrograin LTD, Alfrebro LLC, Alfred C Toepfer International Netherlands BV, Alimenta USA, American River Transportation Company LLC, Ameriseed, Amylum Bulgaria EAD, Amylum Nisasta Sanayi Ve Ticarek Anonim Sirketi, Archer Daniels Midland (UK) Limited, Archer Daniels Midland Asia Pacific Ltd., Archer Daniels Midland Erith LTD, Archer Daniels Midland Europe BV, Archer Daniels Midland Europoort BV, Archer Daniels Midland Nederland BV, Archer Daniels Midland Singapore PTE LTD, Arinos Unlimited, Aston Foods & Food Ingredients, Balanceados Nova SA Balnova, Barbados Mills Limited, Bela Vista Bio Etanol Participacoes LTDA, Bern Aqua, BioPolis SL, Biopolis, Campa Sued GmbH & Co KG, Cattleman's Choice Loomix LLC, Chamtor, Ci ADM Colombia Ltda., Controladora ADM Sa De Cv, Crosswind Petfoods Inc., Daavision BV, Eaststarch, Eatem Corporation, Eatem Foods, Elstar Oils, English River Pellets Inc., Epicore Bionetworks INC, Epicore Networks (USA) INC, Erich Ziegler GmbH, Evialis France, Fasco Mills Co., Filozoo SRL, Florida Chemical, Florida Chemical Company LLC, GP Blanching Inc., Global Cocoa Holdings LTD, Golden Peanut Company LLC, Golden Peanut and Tree Nut Seed SA (PTY) LTD, Golden Peanut and Tree Nuts SA, Group Lysac, Guyomarc'h - VCN Company Limited, Guyomarc'h Vietnam CO LTD, HFR Shipping Company Ltd, HRA Shipping Company Ltd, HTI Shipping Company Ltd, Harvest Innovations, Hilltop Grain and Feed, Holding P and A Asia Company Limited, Hubei Meiweiyuan Biotechnology, Ilitchevskiy Maslo Extractionniy Zavod (IMEZ), Invivo NSA Asia PTE LTD, Invivo NSA Philippines Inc, Jamaica Flour Mills Limited, Julius Meijer-Alpharma BV, LLC ADM Ukraine, Liquid Feed Commodities, Malta Industries SA de CV, Malta-Texo De Mexico SA de CV, Master Mix of Trinidad LTD, Medsofts Investment Co, Medsofts L.L.C., Medsofts Trading Co, Mepla Comercio e Navegacao Ltda, NRG Inc, Naviera Chaco SRL, Neovia, Neovia Latina SL, Neovia Nutricao E Saude Animal LTDA, North Star Shipping S.R.L., P and A Marketing SA, PJSC ADM Illichivsk, PT Wirifa Sakti, Pancosma (Shanghai) Feed Additives CO LTD, Pancosma France SAS, Pancosma SA, Premiere Agri Technologies of Mexico Inc, Pura Foods LTD, Rodelle Inc., Schokinag-Schokolade-Industrie Herrmann, Sermix, Setna Nutricion SA, Societe Industrielle Des Oleagineux, Southern Cellulose Products Inc, Soy Investors LLC, Specialty Commodities, Specialty Commodities LLC, Sul Mineira Alimentos LTDA, SzSzV Kft, Toepfer International, Toepfer International Trading (Shanghai) Co. LTD., Vantage Corn Processors LLC, WILD Amazon Flavors Ltda, WILD Flavors, Wild Flavors Inc., Wild Flavors International GmbH, Wild Flavors Singapore Pte. Ltd., Wild Intermare GmbH, Wild Russia LLC, and Wisium SA (PTY) LTD.
The following companies are subsidiares of Quest Diagnostics: AmeriPath, AmeriPath Cincinnati Inc. (OH), AmeriPath Cleveland Inc. (OH), AmeriPath Consolidated Labs Inc. (FL), AmeriPath Florida LLC (DE), AmeriPath Hospital Services Florida LLC (DE), AmeriPath Inc. (DE), AmeriPath Indianapolis PC (IN), AmeriPath Kentucky Inc. (KY), AmeriPath Lubbock 5.01(A) Corporation (TX), AmeriPath New York LLC (DE), AmeriPath Texas Inc. (DE), AmeriPath Tucson Inc. (AZ), American Medical Laboratories, American Medical Laboratories Incorporated (DE), Associated Clinical Laboratories L.P. (PA), Associated Clinical Laboratories of Pennsylvania L.L.C. (PA), Athena Diagnostics, Athena Diagnostics Inc. (DE), Blueprint Genetics, Blueprint Genetics FZ-LLC (UAE), Blueprint Genetics Inc. (DE), Blueprint Genetics Oy (Finland), California Laboratory Associates, Cape Cod Healthcare - Business, Celera, ClearPoint Diagnostic, Clearpoint Diagnostic Laboratories LLC (TX), Cleveland HeartLab, Cleveland HeartLab Inc. (DE), Clinical Laboratory Partners, Colorado Pathology Consultants P.C. (CO), ConVerge Diagnostic Services, Consolidated DermPath Inc. (DE), DFW 5.01(a) Corporation (TX), DGXWMT JV LLC (DE), Dermatopathology of Wisconsin S.C. (WI), Diagnostic Laboratory of Oklahoma LLC (OK), Diagnostic Pathology Services Inc. (OK), Diagnostic Reference Services Inc. (MD), ExamOne Canada Inc. (New Brunswick), ExamOne LLC (DE), ExamOne World Wide Inc. (PA), ExamOne World Wide of NJ Inc. (NJ), Focus Diagnostics, HemoCue, Hoffman M.D. Associated Pathologists Chartered (NV), Institute for Dermatopathology Inc. (PA), Isabella Street Urban Renewal LLC (NJ), Kailash B. Sharma M.D. Inc. (GA), Kilpatrick Pathology P.A. (NC), LabOne, LabOne LLC (MO), LabOne of Ohio Inc. (DE), Laboratorio de Analisis Biomedicos S.A. (Mexico), Lancet Labs, MACL, Med Fusion LLC (TX), Med fusion, MedPlus, Mid America Clinical Laboratories LLC (IN), Nomad Massachusetts Inc. (MA), Nuclear Medicine and Pathology Associates (GA), Ocmulgee Medical Pathology Association Inc. (GA), Pathology Building Partnership (MD) (gen. ptnrshp.), PeaceHealth Laboratories, PhenoPath Laboratories, PhenoPath Laboratories PLLC (WA), Q Squared Solutions Holdings LLC (DE), Q Squared Solutions Holdings Limited (UK), Quest Diagnostics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. (China), Quest Diagnostics Brasil Holdings Ltd. (UK), Quest Diagnostics Clinical Laboratories, Quest Diagnostics Clinical Laboratories Inc. (DE), Quest Diagnostics Domestic Holder LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics HTAS India Private Limited (India), Quest Diagnostics Health & Wellness LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Holdings Incorporated (DE), Quest Diagnostics Holdings Ltd. (UK), Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (MD), Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NV), Quest Diagnostics India Private Limited (India), Quest Diagnostics Infectious Disease Inc. (DE), Quest Diagnostics International Holdings Limited (UK), Quest Diagnostics International LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Investments LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Ireland Limited (Ireland), Quest Diagnostics LLC (CT), Quest Diagnostics LLC (IL), Quest Diagnostics LLC (MA), Quest Diagnostics Massachusetts LLC (MA), Quest Diagnostics Mexico Holding Company Trust (Mexico), Quest Diagnostics Mexico S de RL de CV (Mexico), Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute (CA), Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute Inc. (VA), Quest Diagnostics Receivables Inc. (DE), Quest Diagnostics Subsidiary Holdings Ltd. (UK), Quest Diagnostics TB LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Terracotta LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Venture LLC (PA), Quest Diagnostics Ventures LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics do Brasil Ltda. (Brazil), Quest Diagnostics of Pennsylvania Inc. (DE), Quest Diagnostics of Puerto Rico Inc. (PR), Quest HealthConnect LLC (CA), ReproSource, Reprosource Fertility Diagnostics Inc. (MA), Solstas Lab Partners, Sonora Quest Laboratories LLC (AZ), Specialty Laboratories Inc. (CA), Summit Health, UMass Memorial Medical Center - Anatomic Pathology Outreach Laboratory Business, Unilab Corporation, and Unilab Corporation (DE).
Wall Street analysts have given Janus Henderson Short Duration Income 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 Janus Henderson Short Duration Income ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.
View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, a diversified financial institution, provides various financial products and services to personal, business, public sector, and institutional clients in Canada, the United States, and internationally. The company operates through four strategic business units: Canadian Personal and Business Banking; Canadian Commercial Banking and Wealth Management; U.S. Commercial Banking and Wealth Management; and Capital Markets. The company offers chequing, savings, and business accounts; mortgages; loans, lines of credit, student lines of credit, and business and agriculture loans; investment and insurance services; and credit cards, as well as overdraft protection services. It also provides day-to-day banking, borrowing and credit, investing and wealth, specialty, and international services; correspondent banking and online foreign exchange services; and cash management services. The company serves its customers through its banking centers, as well as direct, mobile, and remote channels. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was founded in 1867 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.
Read More
Wall Street analysts have given iShares MSCI Hong Kong 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 Hong Kong ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.
View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.
Wall Street analysts have given ETFMG Prime Cyber Security 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 ETFMG Prime Cyber Security ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.
View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.
The following companies are subsidiares of Global Payments: ACTIVE Network - Communities and Sports, Active Network (HK) Limited, Active Network IPICO (CA) Inc., Active Network IPICO (US) Inc., Active Network IPICO Holdings (US) LLC, Active Network IPICO Holdings (US) LLC, Active Network IPICO Innovation Inc., Active Networks LLC, AdvancedMD, Athlaction Intermediate LLC, Athlaction Topco LLC, AuctionPay, Comercia Global Payments Entidad de Pago S.L., DEBITEK INC, Digital Dining LLC, Dinerware LLC, DolEx Europe S.L., Educational Computer Systems Inc., Ematters Australia Pty Ltd., Equifax Credit Services LLC, Ezi Holdings Pty. Ltd., Ezi Management Pty Ltd., Ezidebit, Ezidebit (NZ) Limited, Ezidebit HK Ltd., Ezidebit Pty Ltd., GP Finance LLC, GPC Financial Corporation, GPS Holding Limited Partnership, GPUK LLP, Global Payment Holding Company, Global Payment Systems Asia-Pacific (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd., Global Payment Systems LLC, Global Payment Systems of Canada Ltd., Global Payments - Caixa Acquisition Corporation S.a.r.l., Global Payments - Realex Payments Holding Limited, Global Payments - Servicos de Pagamentos S.A., Global Payments Acquisition Corp. 1 B.V., Global Payments Acquisition Corp. 2 B.V., Global Payments Acquisition Corp. 3 B.V., Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 2 LLC, Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 2 S.a.r.l., Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 3 LLC, Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 3 S.a.r.l., Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 4 S.a.r.l., Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 6 S.a.r.l., Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 7 LLC, Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 7 S.a.r.l., Global Payments Acquisition Corporation HK Holding Limited, Global Payments Acquisition PS 1 C.V., Global Payments Acquisition PS 2 C.V., Global Payments Acquisition PS 3 C. V., Global Payments Acquisition PS1-Global Payments Direct S.e.n.c., Global Payments Asia-Pacific (Hong Kong Holding) Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific (Hong Kong) Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific (India) Private Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific (Shanghai) Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific (Singapore Holding) Ltd., Global Payments Asia-Pacific Lanka (Private) Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific Macau Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific Maldives Private Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific Philippines Incorporated, Global Payments Asia-Pacific Processing Company Limited, Global Payments Australia Pty 1 Ltd., Global Payments Australia Pty 2 Ltd., Global Payments Canada GP, Global Payments Canada Inc., Global Payments Card Processing Malaysia Sdn. Bhd, Global Payments Check Recovery Services Inc., Global Payments Check Services Inc., Global Payments Direct Inc., Global Payments Europe d.o.o. Sarajevo, Global Payments Europe s.r.o., Global Payments Gaming Canada Inc., Global Payments Gaming International Inc., Global Payments Gaming Services Inc., Global Payments Integrated, Global Payments Limited, Global Payments Process Centre Inc., Global Payments South America Brasil-Servicos de Pagamentos S.A., Global Payments UK 2 Ltd., Global Payments UK Ltd., Global Payments s.r.o., Greater Giving Inc., Heartland Acquisition LLC, Heartland Payment Solutions Inc., Heartland Payment Systems, Heartland Payment Systems LLC, Heartland Payroll Solutions Inc., IPICO South Africa (Pty) Ltd., JumpForward LLC, Maximum Solutions LLC, Merchant Services U.S.A. Inc., Modular Data Inc., NDC Holdings (UK) Ltd., NDPS Holdings Inc., PCAmerica LLC, Pay and Shop Limited, PayPros LLC, Payment Processing, Payroll 1 Inc., Realex Payments, SICOM Systems, Sabrir Invest S.L., Sentral Education, Spolecnost pro informacni database a.s., Storman Holdings Pty Ltd., Storman Software Inc., Storman Software Limited, Storman Software Ltd., Storman Software Pty Ltd., TeamPages Inc., The Active Network (Asia) Pte. Ltd, The Active Network (Aus-NZ) Pty. Ltd., The Active Network (EU) Ltd., The Active Network Ltd., The Active Network Ltd. (Chengdu), The Active Network Ltd. (Xian), Total System Services, TouchNet Information Systems Inc., UCS Terminal Joint Stock Company, United Card Service Joint Stock Company, VEPF III AIV VI-C Corp., VEPF IV AIV VII-C Corp., VFF I AIV IV-C Corp., Web Active Corporation Pty Ltd., Xenial Inc., Xpient LLC, eWAY, eWay Europe Limited, eWay Payments Asia Pte Ltd., eWay Payments Inc., eWay Payments New Zealand Limited, eWay Payments North America Inc., and eWay Payments Pty Ltd..
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.
Imperial Brands PLC, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, imports, markets, and sells tobacco and tobacco-related products. It offers a range of cigarettes, fine cut and smokeless tobacco, papers, and cigars; and next generation product (NGP) portfolio, such as e-vapour products, as well as oral nicotine and heated tobacco products. The company sells its products under various brands, including Davidoff, Gauloises, JPS, West, L&B, Bastos, Fine, Winston, News, Parker & Simpson, blu, Kool, Horizon, Jade, Cohiba, Montecristo, Romeo Y Julieta, Backwoods, Skruf, Golden Virginia, Rizla, and Knox in approximately 160 countries worldwide. It also provides logistics services that include the distribution of tobacco and NGP products for tobacco and NGP product manufacturers; and various non-tobacco and NGP products and services. In addition, the company is involved in the management of a golf course; marketing of papers; restaurant business; distribution of pharmaceuticals, POS software, and published materials and other products; printing and publishing activities; and provision of long haul transportation, industrial parcel and express delivery, advertising, and support management services. Further, it owns the trademarks; and retails its products. The company was formerly known as Imperial Tobacco Group PLC and changed its name to Imperial Brands PLC in February 2016. Imperial Brands PLC was founded in 1901 and is headquartered in Bristol, the United Kingdom.
Read More
Wall Street analysts have given iShares MSCI EAFE Value 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 EAFE Value ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.
View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.
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
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.
Everest Re Group Ltd. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of reinsurance and insurance services. It operates through the following segments: U.S. Reinsurance, International, Bermuda, and Insurance. The U.S. Reinsurance segment writes property and casualty reinsurance and specialty lines of business, including marine, aviation, surety, and accident and health business, on both a treaty and facultative basis, through reinsurance brokers, as well as directly with ceding companies primarily within the U.S. The International segment offers foreign property and casualty reinsurance through Everest Re's branches in Canada and Singapore and through offices in Brazil, Miami, and New Jersey. The Bermuda segment comprises reinsurance and insurance to worldwide property and casualty markets through brokers and directly with ceding companies from its Bermuda office and reinsurance to the United Kingdom and European markets through its UK branch and Ireland Re. The Insurance segment writes property and casualty insurance directly and through brokers, surplus lines brokers, and general agents within the U.S., Canada, and Europe. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartere
Read More
Nuveen North Carolina Quality Municipal Income Fund is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments, Inc. The fund is managed by Nuveen Fund Advisors LLC and Nuveen Asset Management, LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of North Carolina. The fund invests in tax exempt municipal bonds, with a rating of Baa/BBB or higher. It employs fundamental analysis, with bottom-up stock picking approach, to create its portfolio. The fund benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the Standard & Poor's North Carolina Municipal Bond Index and Standard & Poor's National Municipal Bond Index. The fund was formerly known as Nuveen North Carolina Premium Income Municipal Fund. Nuveen North Carolina Quality Municipal Income Fund was formed on May 20, 1993 and is domiciled in the United States.
Read More
Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC is a publicly owned hedge fund sponsor. The firm provides investment advisory services for its clients. It primarily caters to institutional investors which include pension funds, fund-of-funds, foundations and endowments, corporations and other institutions, private banks and family offices. The firm invests in equity and alternative markets across the world. It employs quantitative and qualitative analysis to make its investments. For its multi-strategy portfolios, the firm employs strategies like convertible and derivative arbitrage, corporate credit, long/short equity special situations, buyout investments, merger arbitrage, private investments, and structured credit. It also invests in real estate and traditional real estate assets including multifamily, office, hotel and retail, loans, portfolio acquisitions, loan pools, operating companies, structured debt products, public securities, and non-traditional real estate assets including gaming, distressed land and residential, cell towers, parking, golf, debt and senior housing. For private equity investments, it considers investments in a variety of special situations that seek to realize value through strategic sales or initial public offerings. The firm typically invests in the energy investments. It prefers to invest in United States. It also manages a buyout fund, Och-Ziff Energy Fund. Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC was founded in 1994 and is based New York City with additional offices in Houston, Texas, London, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Japan, Bangalore, India, Singapore, and Beijing, China.
Read More
Kinder Morgan, Inc. operates as an energy infrastructure company. The firm engages in the operation of pipelines and terminals that transport natural gas, gasoline, crude oil, carbon dioxide (CO2) and other products and stores petroleum products chemicals and handles bulk materials like ethanol, coal, petroleum coke and steel. It operates through the following segments: Natural Gas Pipelines, CO2, Terminals, Product Pipelines and Kinder Morgan Canada. The Natural Gas Pipelines segment engages in the ownership and operation of major interstate and intrastate natural gas pipeline and storage systems, natural gas and crude oil gathering systems and natural gas processing and treating facilities. The CO2 segment focuses on the production, transportation and marketing of CO2 to oil fields that use CO2 as a flooding medium for recovering crude oil from mature oil fields to increase production. The Terminals segment consists of the ownership and operation of liquids and bulk terminal facilities located throughout the U.S. and portions of Canada that trans load and store refined petroleum products, crude oil, chemicals, ethanol and bulk products, including coal, petroleum coke, fertilizer,
Read More
past daily news Sep 13 (1) Sep 09 (15) Sep 06 (12) Sep 04 (10) Sep 03 (10) Aug 31 (17) Aug 29 (14) Aug 26 (13) Aug 22 (11) Aug 21 (12) Aug 19 (21) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (10) Aug 10 (10) Aug 08 (9) Aug 07 (10) Aug 06 (10) Aug 05 (8) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (14) Jul 29 (1) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (5) Jul 24 (10) Jul 22 (11) Jul 19 (16) Jul 17 (6) Jul 16 (10) Jul 15 (13) Jul 12 (7) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (8) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (5) Jul 05 (8) Jul 04 (11) Jul 03 (8) Jul 02 (7) Jul 01 (5) Jun 30 (8) Jun 28 (7) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (7) Jun 25 (8) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (6) Jun 22 (9) Jun 20 (5) Jun 19 (9) Jun 18 (8) Jun 15 (9) Jun 13 (13) Jun 11 (11) Jun 09 (19) Jun 06 (10) Jun 04 (10) Jun 03 (8) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (5) May 30 (5) May 29 (6) May 28 (7) May 27 (7) May 26 (6) May 25 (4) May 23 (6) May 22 (6) May 21 (4) May 20 (7) May 19 (9) May 18 (4) May 17 (6) May 16 (5) May 15 (7) May 14 (3) May 13 (3) May 12 (9) May 10 (3) May 09 (7) May 08 (4) May 07 (3) May 06 (5) May 05 (8) May 03 (9) May 02 (1) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (8) Apr 29 (5) Apr 28 (4) Apr 27 (7) Apr 26 (12) Apr 25 (4) Apr 24 (8) Apr 23 (7) Apr 22 (5) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (1) Apr 19 (5) Apr 18 (3) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (6) Apr 15 (5) Apr 14 (2) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (2) Apr 11 (4) Apr 10 (3) Apr 09 (3) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (5) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (10) Apr 04 (2) Apr 03 (3) Apr 02 (9) Apr 01 (7) Mar 31 (10) Mar 30 (6) Mar 29 (7) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (10) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (10) Mar 22 (6) Mar 21 (5) Mar 20 (11) Mar 19 (8) Mar 18 (5) Mar 17 (4) Mar 16 (11) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (7) Mar 13 (7) Mar 12 (5) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (5) Mar 08 (6) Mar 07 (8) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (12) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (8) Mar 02 (6) Mar 01 (8) Feb 28 (7) Feb 27 (5) Feb 26 (6) Feb 25 (7) Feb 24 (3) Feb 23 (6) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (3) Feb 20 (1) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (2) Feb 15 (5) Feb 14 (3) Feb 13 (6) Feb 12 (6) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (6) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (6) Feb 06 (4) Feb 05 (2) Feb 04 (3) Feb 03 (5) Feb 02 (1) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (8) Jan 30 (2) Jan 29 (4) Jan 28 (1) Jan 27 (4) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (4) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (2) Jan 20 (2) Jan 19 (3) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (2) Jan 16 (7) Jan 15 (6) Jan 14 (4) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (5) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (4) Jan 05 (5) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (1) Dec 31 (5) Dec 29 (4) Dec 28 (5) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (4) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (2) Dec 17 (1) Dec 16 (4) Dec 15 (2) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (7) Dec 12 (5) Dec 11 (4) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (2) Dec 08 (2) Dec 07 (4) Dec 06 (4) Dec 05 (1) Dec 04 (5) Dec 03 (3) Dec 02 (5) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (5) Nov 29 (10) Nov 28 (6) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (3) Nov 24 (2) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (6) Nov 19 (2) Nov 18 (5) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (2) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (2) Nov 11 (4) Nov 10 (5) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (5) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (5) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (5) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (9) Oct 30 (9) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (2) Oct 27 (6) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (6) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (6) Oct 22 (4) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (5) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (4) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (2) Oct 13 (4) Oct 12 (7) Oct 11 (5) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (5) Oct 08 (10) Oct 07 (1) Oct 06 (10) Oct 05 (6) Oct 04 (8) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (1) Sep 28 (6) Sep 27 (6) Sep 26 (5) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (6) Sep 23 (5) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (6) Sep 20 (6) Sep 19 (5) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (5) Sep 16 (5) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (6) Sep 13 (4) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (7) Sep 10 (6) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (4) Sep 06 (8) Sep 05 (6) Sep 04 (7) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (5) Aug 31 (8) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (6) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (1) Aug 26 (4) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (7) Aug 23 (4) Aug 22 (4) Aug 21 (4) Aug 20 (7) Aug 18 (5) Aug 17 (8) Aug 16 (8) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (2) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (4) Aug 08 (8) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (3) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (4) Aug 03 (10) Aug 02 (9) Aug 01 (8) Jul 31 (1) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (2) Jul 28 (11) Jul 27 (10) Jul 26 (10) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (5) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (2) Jul 21 (7) Jul 20 (10) Jul 19 (8) Jul 18 (7) Jul 17 (1) Jul 16 (10) Jul 14 (7) Jul 13 (6) Jul 12 (11) Jul 11 (7) Jul 10 (5) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (8) Jul 06 (4) Jul 05 (6) Jul 04 (6) Jul 03 (7) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (2) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (7) Jun 28 (5) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (6) Jun 23 (4) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (8) Jun 18 (2) Jun 17 (3) Jun 16 (4) Jun 15 (3) Jun 14 (7) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (7) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (8) Jun 08 (8) Jun 07 (8) Jun 06 (10) Jun 05 (14) Jun 04 (6) Jun 03 (6) Jun 02 (8) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (7) May 30 (2) May 29 (7) May 28 (7) May 27 (2) May 26 (4) May 25 (5) May 24 (4) May 23 (5) May 22 (5) May 21 (5) May 20 (3) May 19 (10) May 18 (6) May 17 (3) May 16 (6) May 15 (2) May 14 (3) May 13 (5) May 11 (1) May 10 (5) May 09 (3) May 08 (4) May 07 (2) May 06 (4) May 05 (6) May 04 (5) May 03 (5) May 02 (1) May 01 (6) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (7) Apr 28 (8) Apr 27 (9) Apr 26 (14) Apr 25 (6) Apr 24 (6) Apr 23 (7) Apr 22 (1) Apr 21 (8) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (1) Apr 15 (8) Apr 14 (1) Apr 13 (7) Apr 12 (10) Apr 11 (7) Apr 10 (2) Apr 09 (2) Apr 08 (4) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (6) Apr 05 (6) Apr 04 (9) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (2) Mar 31 (5) Mar 30 (4) Mar 29 (8) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (9) Mar 26 (4) Mar 25 (5) Mar 24 (11) Mar 23 (10) Mar 22 (9) Mar 21 (10) Mar 20 (11) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (7) Mar 17 (3) Mar 16 (7) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (6) Mar 13 (9) Mar 12 (6) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (5) Mar 08 (6) Mar 07 (13) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (7) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (6) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (4) Feb 26 (5) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (6) Feb 23 (9) Feb 22 (6) Feb 21 (7) Feb 20 (8) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (3) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (6) Feb 15 (5) Feb 14 (7) Feb 13 (5) Feb 12 (3) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (5) Feb 09 (9) Feb 08 (8) Feb 07 (7) Feb 06 (10) Feb 05 (7) Feb 04 (2) Feb 03 (8) Feb 02 (7) Feb 01 (5) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (7) Jan 28 (3) Jan 27 (7) Jan 26 (8) Jan 25 (6) Jan 24 (6) Jan 23 (5) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (6) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (8) Jan 17 (12) Jan 16 (5) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (8) Jan 12 (6) Jan 11 (6) Jan 10 (7) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (6) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (6) Jan 05 (9) Jan 04 (9) Jan 03 (4) Jan 02 (6) Jan 01 (8) Dec 31 (2) Dec 30 (1) Dec 29 (5) Dec 28 (4) Dec 27 (8) Dec 26 (4) Dec 24 (5) Dec 23 (7) Dec 22 (12) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (7) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (5) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (1) Dec 15 (7) Dec 14 (10) Dec 13 (7) Dec 12 (12) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (6) Dec 08 (7) Dec 07 (12) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (13) Dec 04 (6) Dec 02 (8) Dec 01 (8) Nov 30 (6) Nov 29 (7) Nov 28 (7) Nov 27 (4) Nov 26 (8) Nov 24 (2) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (11) Nov 21 (7) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (10) Nov 18 (7) Nov 17 (6) Nov 16 (11) Nov 15 (10) Nov 14 (7) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (5) Nov 11 (12) Nov 10 (4) Nov 09 (14) Nov 08 (10) Nov 07 (11) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (5) Nov 04 (11) Nov 03 (9) Nov 02 (10) Nov 01 (8) Oct 31 (12) Oct 30 (5) Oct 29 (5) Oct 28 (5) Oct 27 (11) Oct 26 (13) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (10) Oct 23 (8) Oct 22 (5) Oct 21 (11) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (5) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (6) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (9) Oct 13 (10) Oct 12 (11) Oct 11 (9) Oct 10 (10) Oct 09 (7) Oct 08 (5) Oct 07 (10) Oct 06 (9) Oct 05 (14) Oct 04 (9) Oct 03 (12) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (9) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (7) Sep 28 (13) Sep 27 (10) Sep 26 (11) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (9) Sep 23 (7) Sep 22 (10) Sep 21 (12) Sep 20 (12) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (7) Sep 16 (11) Sep 15 (8) Sep 14 (5) Sep 13 (8) Sep 12 (8) Sep 11 (6) Sep 10 (10) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (9) Sep 07 (8) Sep 06 (11) Sep 05 (2) Sep 04 (8) Sep 03 (2) Sep 02 (6) Sep 01 (9) Aug 31 (9) Aug 30 (7) Aug 29 (9) Aug 28 (4) Aug 27 (8) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (5) Aug 24 (8) Aug 23 (4) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (2) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (6) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (4) Aug 16 (6) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (4) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (6) Aug 11 (3) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (8) Aug 08 (9) Aug 07 (7) Aug 06 (7) Aug 05 (7) Aug 04 (7) Aug 03 (11) Aug 02 (6) Aug 01 (9) Jul 31 (11) Jul 28 (7) Jul 27 (11) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (5) Jul 24 (1) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (2) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (8) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (7) Jul 15 (4) Jul 14 (2) Jul 13 (6) Jul 12 (10) Jul 11 (11) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (5) Jul 06 (6) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (6) Jul 03 (5) Jul 02 (3) Jun 30 (8) Jun 29 (5) Jun 28 (6) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (4) Jun 25 (1) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (11) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (5) Jun 19 (7) Jun 17 (4) Jun 16 (7) Jun 15 (4) Jun 14 (6) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (6) Jun 09 (8) Jun 08 (6) Jun 07 (8) Jun 06 (7) Jun 05 (5) Jun 04 (7) Jun 03 (1) Jun 02 (9) Jun 01 (5) May 31 (8) May 30 (7) May 29 (5) May 28 (5) May 27 (4) May 26 (4) May 25 (4) May 24 (3) May 23 (5) May 22 (2) May 21 (3) May 20 (7) May 19 (11) May 18 (1) May 17 (7) May 16 (3) May 15 (4) May 14 (3) May 13 (4) May 12 (4) May 11 (11) May 10 (2) May 09 (6) May 08 (6) May 07 (2) May 06 (3) May 05 (4) May 04 (5) May 03 (8) May 02 (4) May 01 (4) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (13) Apr 28 (5) Apr 27 (7) Apr 26 (5) Apr 25 (5) Apr 24 (2) Apr 23 (7) Apr 22 (9) Apr 21 (11) Apr 20 (2) Apr 19 (2) Apr 18 (5) Apr 17 (5) Apr 16 (6) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (2) Apr 12 (9) Apr 11 (10) Apr 10 (6) Apr 09 (5) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (10) Apr 06 (7) Apr 05 (7) Apr 04 (7) Apr 03 (9) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (7) Mar 28 (4) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (6) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (8) Mar 23 (7) Mar 22 (4) Mar 21 (10) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (6) Mar 17 (7) Mar 16 (11) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (4) Mar 12 (6) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (9) Mar 08 (10) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (2) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (5) Feb 28 (3) Feb 27 (8) Feb 26 (9) Feb 24 (11) Feb 23 (8) Feb 22 (9) Feb 21 (8) Feb 20 (7) Feb 19 (4) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (6) Feb 16 (5) Feb 15 (7) Feb 14 (11) Feb 13 (2) Feb 12 (5) Feb 11 (5) Feb 10 (3) Feb 09 (10) Feb 08 (9) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (2) Feb 05 (9) Feb 03 (7) Feb 02 (5) Feb 01 (7) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (5) Jan 29 (6) Jan 28 (5) Jan 27 (2) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (7) Jan 24 (8) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (14) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (10) Jan 18 (11) Jan 17 (9) Jan 16 (5) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (9) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (7) Jan 10 (2) Jan 09 (7) Jan 08 (6) Jan 07 (10) Jan 06 (8) Jan 05 (7) Jan 04 (9) Jan 03 (8) Jan 02 (5) Jan 01 (14) Dec 30 (13) Dec 29 (13) Dec 28 (9) Dec 27 (5) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (7) Dec 24 (4) Dec 23 (5) Dec 22 (4) Dec 21 (8) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (8) Dec 18 (9) Dec 16 (8) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (5) Dec 13 (8) Dec 12 (4) Dec 11 (17) Dec 09 (8) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (10) Dec 06 (12) Dec 05 (6) Dec 04 (8) Dec 02 (6) Dec 01 (7) Nov 30 (9) Nov 29 (6) Nov 28 (11) Nov 27 (6) Nov 26 (15) Nov 24 (7) Nov 23 (15) Nov 22 (9) Nov 21 (6) Nov 20 (11) Nov 18 (11) Nov 17 (13) Nov 16 (8) Nov 15 (13) Nov 14 (7) Nov 13 (7) Nov 12 (3) Nov 11 (13) Nov 10 (13) Nov 09 (6) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (6) Nov 06 (4) Nov 05 (12) Nov 04 (8) Nov 03 (9) Nov 02 (8) Nov 01 (6) Oct 31 (10) Oct 30 (8) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (8) Oct 27 (15) Oct 26 (10) Oct 25 (10) Oct 24 (13) Oct 23 (9) Oct 21 (8) Oct 20 (13) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (11) Oct 17 (8) Oct 16 (14) Oct 14 (9) Oct 13 (11) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (13) Oct 10 (7) Oct 09 (15) Oct 07 (7) Oct 06 (11) Oct 05 (18) Oct 04 (14) Oct 03 (1) Oct 02 (10) Sep 30 (11) Sep 29 (11) Sep 28 (11) Sep 27 (15) Sep 26 (7) Sep 24 (9) Sep 23 (11) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (17) Sep 20 (20) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (11) Sep 16 (10) Sep 15 (12) Sep 14 (9) Sep 13 (12) Sep 12 (14) Sep 11 (4) Sep 10 (8) Sep 09 (9) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (13) Sep 06 (15) Sep 05 (8) Sep 04 (11) Sep 03 (10) Sep 02 (12) Sep 01 (12) Aug 31 (14) Aug 30 (14) Aug 29 (8) Aug 28 (8) Aug 27 (9) Aug 26 (12) Aug 25 (6) Aug 24 (8) Aug 23 (12) Aug 22 (6) Aug 21 (5) Aug 20 (6) Aug 19 (9) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (7) Aug 16 (11) Aug 15 (2) Aug 14 (12) Aug 12 (15) Aug 11 (11) Aug 10 (6) Aug 09 (7) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (5) Aug 05 (7) Aug 04 (7) Aug 03 (4) Aug 02 (5) Aug 01 (5) Jul 31 (7) Jul 30 (5) Jul 29 (9) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (8) Jul 26 (7) Jul 25 (6) Jul 23 (8) Jul 22 (6) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (5) Jul 18 (15) Jul 15 (14) Jul 14 (5) Jul 13 (6) Jul 12 (12) Jul 11 (8) Jul 10 (3) Jul 09 (11) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (7) Jul 06 (10) Jul 05 (4) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (5) Jul 02 (7) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (10) Jun 28 (8) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (2) Jun 23 (11) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (7) Jun 20 (3) Jun 19 (7) Jun 18 (10) Jun 17 (11) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (7) Jun 13 (14) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (8) Jun 09 (9) Jun 08 (11) Jun 07 (14) Jun 06 (16) Jun 03 (8) Jun 02 (12) Jun 01 (5) May 31 (7) May 30 (15) May 28 (7) May 27 (5) May 26 (21) May 25 (14) May 24 (10) May 23 (7) May 22 (8) May 21 (11) May 20 (5) May 19 (4) May 18 (10) May 17 (11) May 16 (5) May 15 (6) May 14 (7) May 13 (12) May 12 (10) May 11 (7) May 10 (13) May 09 (4) May 08 (7) May 07 (3) May 06 (6) May 05 (9) May 04 (14) May 03 (7) May 02 (10) May 01 (10) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (9) Apr 28 (5) Apr 27 (9) Apr 26 (8) Apr 25 (8) Apr 24 (6) Apr 23 (14) Apr 22 (16) Apr 21 (11) Apr 20 (7) Apr 19 (16) Apr 18 (8) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (10) Apr 15 (8) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (11) Apr 12 (10) Apr 11 (8) Apr 10 (12) Apr 09 (5) Apr 08 (13) Apr 07 (9) Apr 06 (11) Apr 05 (15) Apr 04 (7) Apr 03 (15) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (11) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (10) Mar 29 (8) Mar 28 (7) Mar 27 (12) Mar 26 (8) Mar 25 (8) Mar 24 (7) Mar 23 (15) Mar 22 (17) Mar 21 (9) Mar 20 (8) Mar 19 (4) Mar 18 (16) Mar 17 (8) Mar 16 (19) Mar 15 (13) Mar 14 (7) Mar 13 (20) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (11) Mar 09 (13) Mar 08 (13) Mar 07 (7) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (9) Mar 04 (10) Mar 03 (16) Mar 02 (16) Mar 01 (13) Feb 29 (8) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (16) Feb 26 (10) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (12) Feb 23 (14) Feb 22 (9) Feb 21 (11) Feb 20 (8) Feb 19 (12) Feb 18 (12) Feb 17 (11) Feb 16 (8) Feb 15 (9) Feb 14 (7) Feb 13 (10) Feb 12 (11) Feb 11 (13) Feb 10 (5) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (13) Feb 05 (10) Feb 04 (11) Feb 03 (7) Feb 02 (19) Jan 31 (21) Jan 29 (11) Jan 28 (10) Jan 27 (13) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (2) Jan 23 (8) Jan 22 (13) Jan 21 (11) Jan 20 (9) Jan 19 (13) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (11) Jan 15 (7) Jan 14 (13) Jan 13 (9) Jan 12 (9) Jan 11 (5) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (7) Jan 08 (7) Jan 07 (6) Jan 06 (11) Jan 05 (7) Jan 04 (7) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (8) Jan 01 (5) Dec 31 (10) Dec 30 (9) Dec 29 (7) Dec 28 (9) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (1) Dec 25 (5) Dec 24 (6) Dec 23 (6) Dec 22 (7) Dec 21 (6) Dec 20 (7) Dec 19 (13) Dec 18 (16) Dec 17 (10) Dec 16 (13) Dec 15 (11) Dec 14 (8) Dec 13 (4) Dec 12 (9) Dec 11 (10) Dec 10 (12) Dec 09 (10) Dec 08 (13) Dec 07 (7) Dec 06 (12) Dec 05 (8) Dec 04 (11) Dec 03 (12) Dec 02 (16) Dec 01 (14) Nov 30 (10) Nov 29 (11) Nov 28 (15) Nov 27 (16) Nov 26 (11) Nov 25 (9) Nov 24 (13) Nov 23 (10) Nov 22 (1) Nov 21 (7) Nov 20 (12) Nov 19 (10) Nov 18 (11) Nov 17 (11) Nov 16 (10) Nov 15 (3) Nov 14 (10) Nov 13 (14) Nov 12 (8) Nov 11 (13) Nov 10 (10) Nov 09 (6) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (11) Nov 06 (12) Nov 05 (17) Nov 04 (12) Nov 03 (11) Nov 02 (5) Nov 01 (12) Oct 31 (11) Oct 30 (11) Oct 29 (10) Oct 28 (18) Oct 27 (16) Oct 26 (11) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (12) Oct 23 (11) Oct 22 (14) Oct 21 (12) Oct 20 (17) Oct 19 (12) Oct 18 (13) Oct 17 (15) Oct 16 (14) Oct 15 (10) Oct 14 (16) Oct 13 (12) Oct 12 (13) Oct 11 (8) Oct 10 (12) Oct 09 (21) Oct 08 (22) Oct 07 (19) Oct 06 (18) Oct 05 (6) Oct 04 (17) Oct 03 (13) Oct 02 (14) Oct 01 (13) Sep 30 (14) Sep 29 (15) Sep 28 (12) Sep 27 (11) Sep 26 (15) Sep 25 (13) Sep 24 (9) Sep 23 (10) Sep 22 (12) Sep 21 (8) Sep 20 (4) Sep 19 (12) Sep 18 (12) Sep 17 (16) Sep 16 (21) Sep 15 (14) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (10) Sep 11 (16) Sep 10 (7) Sep 09 (8) Sep 08 (10) Sep 07 (7) Sep 06 (5) Sep 05 (8) Sep 04 (9) Sep 03 (8) Sep 02 (11) Sep 01 (10) Aug 31 (4) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (1) Aug 28 (10) Aug 27 (8) Aug 26 (8) Aug 25 (14) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (13) Aug 20 (9) Aug 19 (13) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (6) Aug 14 (8) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (12) Aug 11 (9) Aug 10 (8) Aug 09 (14) Aug 08 (6) Aug 07 (1) Aug 06 (4) Aug 05 (8) Aug 04 (6) Aug 03 (6) Aug 02 (2) Aug 01 (6) Jul 31 (6) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (6) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (6) Jul 23 (5) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (7) Jul 20 (5) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (5) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (9) Jul 14 (2) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (1) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (8) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (3) Jul 07 (13) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (5) Jul 03 (6) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (7) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (1) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (7) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (9) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (3) Jun 19 (4) Jun 18 (7) Jun 17 (7) Jun 16 (7) Jun 15 (11) Jun 12 (6) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (10) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (2) Jun 05 (9) Jun 04 (8) Jun 03 (9) Jun 02 (6) Jun 01 (4) May 30 (7) May 29 (9) May 28 (13) May 26 (8) May 25 (5) May 24 (2) May 23 (8) May 22 (9) May 21 (7) May 20 (4) May 19 (6) May 18 (7) May 17 (8) May 15 (9) May 14 (5) May 13 (8) May 12 (6) May 11 (6) May 09 (7) May 08 (6) May 07 (11) May 06 (7) May 05 (4) May 04 (11) May 03 (5) May 02 (4) May 01 (9) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (4) Apr 28 (9) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (3) Apr 25 (5) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (10) Apr 22 (8) Apr 21 (9) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (4) Apr 18 (8) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (6) Apr 14 (8) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (6) Apr 10 (2) Apr 09 (4) Apr 08 (5) Apr 07 (5) Apr 06 (2) Apr 05 (2) Apr 04 (5) Apr 03 (7) Apr 02 (7) Apr 01 (12) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (1) Mar 28 (2) Mar 27 (6) Mar 26 (2) Mar 25 (5) Mar 24 (4) Mar 23 (7) Mar 22 (4) Mar 21 (6) Mar 20 (9) Mar 19 (9) Mar 18 (8) Mar 17 (9) Mar 16 (7) Mar 15 (11) Mar 13 (5) Mar 12 (12) Mar 11 (9) Mar 10 (12) Mar 09 (4) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (5) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (11) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (8) Feb 27 (9) Feb 26 (9) Feb 25 (8) Feb 24 (6) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (3) Feb 21 (6) Feb 20 (3) Feb 19 (10) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (7) Feb 16 (5) Feb 15 (2) Feb 14 (8) Feb 13 (12) Feb 12 (8) Feb 11 (10) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (3) Feb 07 (2) Feb 06 (7) Feb 05 (4) Feb 04 (11) Feb 03 (5) Feb 02 (7) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (8) Jan 29 (12) Jan 28 (6) Jan 27 (8) Jan 26 (13) Jan 24 (8) Jan 23 (12) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (10) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (9) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (11) Jan 14 (4) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (6) Jan 10 (2) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (6) Jan 06 (4) Jan 05 (4) Jan 04 (3) Jan 03 (6) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (3) Dec 31 (6) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (4) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (3) Dec 24 (5) Dec 23 (7) Dec 22 (5) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (4) Dec 19 (5) Dec 18 (8) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (9) Dec 15 (7) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (10) Dec 12 (10) Dec 11 (9) Dec 10 (10) Dec 09 (11) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (9) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (8) Dec 02 (10) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (1) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (9) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (7) Nov 25 (12) Nov 24 (3) Nov 23 (8) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (12) Nov 19 (6) Nov 18 (10) Nov 17 (12) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (12) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (7) Nov 11 (8) Nov 10 (7) Nov 09 (6) Nov 08 (5) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (6) Nov 05 (12) Nov 04 (9) Nov 03 (6) Nov 02 (14) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (6) Oct 30 (7) Oct 29 (9) Oct 28 (9) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (8) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (4) Oct 20 (2) Oct 19 (11) Oct 17 (6) Oct 16 (7) Oct 15 (7) Oct 14 (8) Oct 13 (5) Oct 12 (8) Oct 11 (6) Oct 10 (5) Oct 09 (11) Oct 08 (10) Oct 07 (8) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (8) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (10) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (7) Sep 29 (6) Sep 28 (5) Sep 27 (8) Sep 26 (11) Sep 25 (11) Sep 24 (15) Sep 23 (8) Sep 22 (9) Sep 21 (4) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (9) Sep 18 (10) Sep 17 (10) Sep 16 (5) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (8) Sep 10 (6) Sep 09 (7) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (2) Sep 06 (4) Sep 05 (7) Sep 04 (11) Sep 03 (7) Sep 02 (7) Sep 01 (2) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (1) Aug 29 (10) Aug 28 (5) Aug 27 (4) Aug 26 (10) Aug 25 (6) Aug 24 (9) Aug 22 (11) Aug 21 (8) Aug 20 (12) Aug 19 (8) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (4) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (6) Aug 14 (4) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (8) Aug 11 (7) Aug 10 (12) Aug 08 (5) Aug 07 (6) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (8) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (4) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (6) Jul 30 (12) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (5) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (8) Jul 23 (8) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (8) Jul 20 (6) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (8) Jul 17 (2) Jul 16 (7) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (9) Jul 13 (10) Jul 11 (9) Jul 10 (8) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (7) Jul 07 (7) Jul 06 (7) Jul 05 (10) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (6) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (5) Jun 29 (6) Jun 28 (1) Jun 27 (15) Jun 26 (10) Jun 25 (9) Jun 24 (16) Jun 23 (6) Jun 22 (12) Jun 20 (6) Jun 19 (8) Jun 18 (10) Jun 17 (6) Jun 16 (7) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (5) Jun 13 (13) Jun 12 (7) Jun 11 (14) Jun 10 (3) Jun 09 (2) Jun 08 (2) Jun 07 (7) Jun 06 (16) Jun 05 (7) Jun 04 (18) Jun 03 (12) Jun 02 (8) May 31 (3) May 30 (6) May 29 (6) May 28 (7) May 27 (4) May 26 (4) May 25 (6) May 23 (4) May 22 (8) May 21 (5) May 20 (6) May 19 (2) May 18 (9) May 17 (1) May 16 (5) May 15 (5) May 14 (7) May 13 (7) May 12 (7) May 11 (4) May 10 (4) May 09 (5) May 08 (10) May 07 (4) May 06 (13) May 05 (4) May 04 (10) May 02 (2) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (9) Apr 29 (6) Apr 28 (3) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (9) Apr 25 (9) Apr 24 (7) Apr 23 (11) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (10) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (5) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (6) Apr 15 (7) Apr 14 (11) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (9) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (6) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (6) Apr 05 (10) Apr 03 (9) Apr 02 (9) Apr 01 (12) Mar 31 (4) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (10) Mar 28 (7) Mar 27 (8) Mar 26 (8) Mar 25 (15) Mar 24 (11) Mar 23 (8) Mar 22 (7) Mar 21 (14) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (11) Mar 18 (11) Mar 17 (12) Mar 16 (8) Mar 15 (8) Mar 14 (13) Mar 13 (8) Mar 12 (10) Mar 11 (8) Mar 10 (7) Mar 09 (3) Mar 08 (12) Mar 07 (15) Mar 06 (16) Mar 05 (9) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (12) Mar 02 (20) Feb 28 (11) Feb 27 (8) Feb 26 (11) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (14) Feb 23 (5) Feb 22 (6) Feb 21 (8) Feb 20 (11) Feb 19 (7) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (8) Feb 16 (11) Feb 15 (3) Feb 14 (10) Feb 13 (4) Feb 12 (10) Feb 11 (7) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (6) Feb 07 (5) Feb 06 (4) Feb 05 (10) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (3) Jan 30 (5) Jan 29 (2) Jan 28 (6) Jan 27 (3) Jan 26 (2) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (7) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (5) Jan 20 (5) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (7) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (5) Jan 13 (4) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (3) Jan 10 (5) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (6) Jan 07 (3) Jan 06 (1) Jan 05 (4) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (6) Jan 01 (2) Dec 31 (6) Dec 30 (1) Dec 29 (5) Dec 27 (1) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (4) Dec 24 (8) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (1) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (8) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (4) Dec 16 (3) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (4) Dec 11 (4) Dec 10 (7) Dec 09 (5) Dec 08 (2) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (10) Dec 04 (9) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (2) Dec 01 (8) Nov 29 (5) Nov 28 (7) Nov 27 (5) Nov 26 (9) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (5) Nov 23 (6) Nov 22 (5) Nov 21 (12) Nov 20 (12) Nov 19 (10) Nov 18 (4) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (8) Nov 15 (7) Nov 14 (7) Nov 13 (6) Nov 12 (12) Nov 11 (6) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (10) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (5) Nov 05 (9) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (4) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (10) Oct 30 (4) Oct 29 (11) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (7) Oct 26 (7) Oct 25 (6) Oct 24 (7) Oct 23 (11) Oct 22 (2) Oct 21 (7) Oct 20 (4) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (7) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (8) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (5) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (7) Oct 11 (20) Oct 10 (2) Oct 09 (4) Oct 08 (21) Oct 07 (20) Oct 06 (34) Oct 04 (24) Oct 03 (21) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (7) Sep 30 (3) Sep 29 (5) Sep 28 (6) Sep 27 (5) Sep 26 (6) Sep 25 (5) Sep 24 (2) Sep 23 (8) Sep 22 (4) Sep 21 (3) Sep 20 (9) Sep 19 (11) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (7) Sep 16 (6) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (8) Sep 12 (11) Sep 11 (7) Sep 10 (6) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (6) Sep 06 (10) Sep 05 (7) Sep 04 (7) Sep 03 (5) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (8) Aug 31 (5) Aug 30 (7) Aug 29 (10) Aug 28 (7) Aug 27 (6) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (8) Aug 23 (6) Aug 22 (6) Aug 21 (8) Aug 20 (8) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (2) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (7) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (4) Aug 12 (6) Aug 11 (6) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (8) Aug 08 (6) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (12) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (4) Aug 01 (10) Jul 31 (3) Jul 30 (7) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (6) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (7) Jul 23 (10) Jul 22 (8) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (7) Jul 18 (9) Jul 17 (10) Jul 16 (11) Jul 15 (5) Jul 13 (5) Jul 12 (9) Jul 11 (11) Jul 10 (12) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (8) Jul 06 (9) Jul 05 (10) Jul 04 (8) Jul 03 (10) Jul 02 (12) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (5) Jun 29 (6) Jun 28 (23) Jun 27 (18) Jun 26 (12) Jun 25 (14) Jun 24 (15) Jun 23 (11) Jun 22 (11) Jun 21 (15) Jun 20 (9) Jun 19 (8) Jun 18 (11) Jun 17 (7) Jun 16 (6) Jun 15 (6) Jun 14 (6) Jun 13 (5) Jun 12 (6) Jun 11 (9) Jun 10 (10) Jun 09 (9) Jun 08 (6) Jun 07 (2) Jun 06 (6) Jun 05 (4) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (4) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (3) May 30 (5) May 29 (8) May 28 (7) May 27 (2) May 26 (2) May 25 (8) May 24 (7) May 23 (6) May 22 (9) May 21 (6) May 20 (5) May 19 (6) May 18 (9) May 17 (10) May 16 (11) May 15 (5) May 14 (11) May 13 (6) May 12 (7) May 11 (7) May 10 (5) May 09 (3) May 08 (10) May 07 (8) May 06 (11) May 05 (5) May 04 (9) May 03 (3) May 02 (2) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (5) Apr 29 (8) Apr 28 (6) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (9) Apr 25 (11) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (11) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (5) Apr 20 (7) Apr 19 (10) Apr 18 (8) Apr 17 (10) Apr 16 (8) Apr 15 (4) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (7) Apr 12 (11) Apr 11 (6) Apr 10 (7) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (9) Apr 05 (10) Apr 04 (7) Apr 03 (2) Apr 02 (6) Apr 01 (4) Mar 31 (3) Mar 30 (4) Mar 29 (3) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (10) Mar 26 (5) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (7) Mar 22 (6) Mar 21 (9) Mar 20 (5) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (9) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (8) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (10) Mar 12 (10) Mar 11 (2) Mar 10 (1) Mar 09 (6) Mar 08 (4) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (3) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (7) Mar 03 (6) Mar 02 (8) Mar 01 (9) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (8) Feb 25 (7) Feb 24 (3) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (7) Feb 20 (4) Feb 19 (4) Feb 18 (2) Feb 17 (1) Feb 16 (6) Feb 15 (6) Feb 14 (5) Feb 13 (4) Feb 12 (7) Feb 11 (2) Feb 10 (2) Feb 09 (5) Feb 08 (5) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (4) Feb 05 (9) Feb 04 (3) Feb 03 (3) Feb 02 (10) Feb 01 (9) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (8) Jan 29 (5) Jan 28 (3) Jan 27 (4) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (6) Jan 24 (5) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (3) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (7) Jan 18 (3) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (8) Jan 15 (7) Jan 14 (9) Jan 13 (1) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (1) Jan 10 (3) Jan 09 (3) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (2) Jan 05 (3) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (4) Jan 02 (4) Jan 01 (4) Dec 31 (3) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (5) Dec 28 (8) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (4) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (7) Dec 21 (5) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (6) Dec 17 (4) Dec 16 (5) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (8) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (6) Dec 11 (8) Dec 10 (5) Dec 09 (4) Dec 08 (4) Dec 07 (7) Dec 06 (7) Dec 05 (6) Dec 04 (6) Dec 03 (7) Dec 02 (1) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (2) Nov 29 (8) Nov 28 (16) Nov 27 (7) Nov 26 (5) Nov 25 (2) Nov 24 (6) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (5) Nov 21 (5) Nov 20 (15) Nov 19 (8) Nov 18 (2) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (7) Nov 14 (6) Nov 13 (9) Nov 12 (7) Nov 11 (8) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (5) Nov 08 (8) Nov 07 (9) Nov 06 (9) Nov 05 (1) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (8) Nov 02 (6) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (6) Oct 30 (7) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (4) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (8) Oct 24 (4) Oct 23 (1) Oct 22 (6) Oct 21 (1) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (10) Oct 17 (6) Oct 16 (15) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (5) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (7) Oct 10 (1) Oct 09 (5) Oct 08 (7) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (8) Oct 05 (5) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (7) Oct 02 (6) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (8) Sep 29 (6) Sep 28 (13) Sep 27 (10) Sep 26 (8) Sep 25 (8) Sep 24 (8) Sep 23 (3) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (9) Sep 20 (7) Sep 19 (8) Sep 18 (4) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (8) Sep 14 (5) Sep 13 (7) Sep 12 (7) Sep 11 (9) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (10) Sep 08 (4) Sep 07 (12) Sep 06 (13) Sep 05 (15) Sep 04 (5) Sep 03 (4) Sep 02 (6) Sep 01 (9) Aug 31 (7) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (8) Aug 28 (11) Aug 27 (2) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (15) Aug 24 (6) Aug 23 (8) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (6) Aug 20 (7) Aug 19 (2) Aug 18 (5) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (11) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (9) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (6) Aug 09 (5) Aug 08 (7) Aug 07 (9) Aug 06 (4) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (4) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (9) Aug 01 (10) Jul 31 (11) Jul 30 (4) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (11) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (7) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (8) Jul 22 (5) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (10) Jul 19 (6) Jul 18 (9) Jul 17 (6) Jul 16 (7) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (7) Jul 12 (8) Jul 11 (6) Jul 10 (14) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (4) Jul 06 (9) Jul 05 (8) Jul 04 (5) Jul 03 (8) Jul 02 (5) Jul 01 (5) Jun 30 (6) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (8) Jun 25 (3) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (14) Jun 22 (11) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (8) Jun 19 (7) Jun 18 (4) Jun 17 (3) Jun 16 (12) Jun 15 (12) Jun 14 (10) Jun 13 (10) Jun 12 (9) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (12) Jun 09 (4) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (12) Jun 06 (6) Jun 05 (7) Jun 04 (6) Jun 03 (3) Jun 02 (4) Jun 01 (8) May 31 (4) May 30 (3) May 29 (8) May 28 (7) May 27 (4) May 26 (3) May 25 (5) May 24 (9) May 23 (16) May 22 (12) May 21 (11) May 20 (7) May 19 (10) May 18 (8) May 17 (8) May 16 (10) May 15 (8) May 14 (5) May 13 (1) May 12 (6) May 11 (9) May 10 (9) May 09 (10) May 08 (9) May 07 (6) May 06 (5) May 05 (7) May 04 (10) May 03 (7) May 02 (9) May 01 (10) Apr 30 (4) Apr 29 (9) Apr 28 (12) Apr 27 (9) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (5) Apr 24 (9) Apr 23 (4) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (8) Apr 20 (9) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (2) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (10) Apr 14 (7) Apr 13 (5) Apr 12 (7) Apr 11 (7) Apr 10 (7) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (7) Apr 07 (10) Apr 06 (8) Apr 05 (8) Apr 04 (9) Apr 03 (6) Apr 02 (4) Apr 01 (4) Mar 31 (11) Mar 30 (12) Mar 29 (16) Mar 28 (8) Mar 27 (10) Mar 26 (12) Mar 25 (6) Mar 24 (9) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (12) Mar 21 (12) Mar 20 (14) Mar 19 (8) Mar 18 (7) Mar 17 (8) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (9) Mar 12 (6) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (13) Mar 09 (8) Mar 08 (10) Mar 07 (12) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (2) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (12) Mar 01 (8) Feb 29 (11) Feb 28 (5) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (13) Feb 25 (10) Feb 24 (13) Feb 23 (10) Feb 22 (9) Feb 21 (18) Feb 20 (6) Feb 19 (7) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (5) Feb 16 (9) Feb 15 (7) Feb 14 (6) Feb 13 (5) Feb 12 (6) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (8) Feb 09 (5) Feb 08 (8) Feb 07 (10) Feb 06 (7) Feb 05 (7) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (11) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (12) Jan 30 (7) Jan 29 (7) Jan 28 (7) Jan 27 (12) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (11) Jan 24 (4) Jan 23 (6) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (12) Jan 20 (11) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (6) Jan 17 (11) Jan 16 (9) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (9) Jan 11 (9) Jan 10 (10) Jan 09 (5) Jan 08 (10) Jan 07 (5) Jan 06 (6) Jan 05 (8) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (8) Jan 02 (7) Jan 01 (7) Dec 31 (10) Dec 30 (11) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (5) Dec 27 (10) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (5) Dec 24 (7) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (9) Dec 21 (8) Dec 20 (8) Dec 19 (5) Dec 18 (1) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (6) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (13) Dec 13 (8) Dec 12 (7) Dec 11 (9) Dec 10 (12) Dec 09 (7) Dec 08 (11) Dec 07 (9) Dec 06 (11) Dec 05 (10) Dec 04 (6) Dec 03 (8) Dec 02 (6) Dec 01 (14) Nov 30 (7) Nov 29 (8) Nov 28 (8) Nov 27 (6) Nov 26 (9) Nov 25 (10) Nov 24 (12) Nov 23 (10) Nov 22 (10) Nov 21 (10) Nov 20 (4) Nov 19 (4) Nov 18 (8) Nov 17 (9) Nov 16 (9) Nov 15 (12) Nov 14 (6) Nov 13 (9) Nov 12 (3) Nov 11 (9) Nov 10 (10) Nov 09 (10) Nov 08 (7) Nov 07 (8) Nov 06 (10) Nov 05 (8) Nov 04 (7) Nov 03 (10) Nov 02 (11) Nov 01 (10) Oct 31 (5) Oct 30 (8) Oct 29 (8) Oct 28 (8) Oct 27 (11) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (10) Oct 23 (5) Oct 22 (14) Oct 21 (10) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (11) Oct 18 (13) Oct 17 (7) Oct 16 (6) Oct 15 (9) Oct 14 (7) Oct 13 (12) Oct 12 (13) Oct 11 (9) Oct 10 (8) Oct 09 (9) Oct 08 (7) Oct 07 (12) Oct 06 (8) Oct 05 (13) Oct 04 (11) Oct 03 (7) Oct 02 (5) Oct 01 (14) Sep 30 (12) Sep 29 (12) Sep 28 (11) Sep 27 (11) Sep 26 (7) Sep 25 (10) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (7) Sep 22 (8) Sep 21 (8) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (7) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (14) Sep 16 (7) Sep 15 (11) Sep 14 (13) Sep 13 (11) Sep 12 (9) Sep 11 (5) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (13) Sep 08 (11) Sep 07 (11) Sep 06 (16) Sep 05 (1) Sep 04 (10) Sep 03 (8) Sep 02 (8) Sep 01 (7) Aug 31 (1) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (2) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (6) Aug 26 (8) Aug 25 (5) Aug 24 (5) Aug 23 (6) Aug 22 (7) Aug 21 (6) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (9) Aug 18 (7) Aug 17 (7) Aug 16 (10) Aug 15 (2) Aug 14 (5) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (10) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (8) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (5) Aug 06 (12) Aug 05 (5) Aug 04 (7) Aug 03 (6) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (14) Jul 31 (7) Jul 30 (7) Jul 29 (13) Jul 28 (10) Jul 27 (6) Jul 26 (7) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (12) Jul 22 (14) Jul 21 (6) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (12) Jul 18 (9) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (6) Jul 15 (8) Jul 14 (15) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (10) Jul 11 (6) Jul 10 (6) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (6) Jul 07 (9) Jul 06 (15) Jul 05 (6) Jul 04 (10) Jul 03 (6) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (11) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (8) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (11) Jun 24 (9) Jun 23 (10) Jun 22 (8) Jun 21 (8) Jun 20 (6) Jun 19 (5) Jun 18 (15) Jun 17 (8) Jun 16 (13) Jun 15 (15) Jun 14 (11) Jun 13 (6) Jun 12 (15) Jun 11 (7) Jun 10 (7) Jun 09 (18) Jun 08 (20) Jun 07 (17) Jun 06 (9) Jun 05 (9) Jun 04 (12) Jun 03 (13) Jun 02 (14) Jun 01 (8) May 31 (13) May 30 (8) May 29 (6) May 28 (8) May 27 (17) May 26 (8) May 25 (13) May 24 (12) May 23 (9) May 22 (4) May 21 (4) May 20 (11) May 19 (14) May 18 (6) May 17 (10) May 16 (4) May 15 (5) May 14 (28) May 12 (9) May 11 (17) May 10 (15) May 09 (12) May 08 (5) May 07 (4) May 06 (10) May 05 (8) May 04 (10) May 03 (5) May 02 (6) May 01 (8) Apr 30 (8) Apr 29 (12) Apr 28 (6) Apr 27 (11) Apr 26 (12) Apr 25 (6) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (5) Apr 22 (10) Apr 21 (19) Apr 20 (13) Apr 19 (11) Apr 18 (11) Apr 17 (5) Apr 16 (12) Apr 15 (11) Apr 14 (17) Apr 13 (6) Apr 12 (16) Apr 11 (10) Apr 10 (1) Apr 09 (18) Apr 08 (14) Apr 07 (6) Apr 06 (10) Apr 05 (21) Apr 04 (12) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (13) Apr 01 (8) Mar 31 (10) Mar 30 (11) Mar 29 (10) Mar 28 (8) Mar 27 (6) Mar 26 (12) Mar 25 (15) Mar 24 (10) Mar 23 (12) Mar 22 (12) Mar 21 (8) Mar 20 (4) Mar 19 (11) Mar 18 (7) Mar 17 (7) Mar 16 (9) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (4) Mar 13 (2) Mar 12 (14) Mar 11 (13) Mar 10 (7) Mar 09 (9) Mar 08 (17) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (7) Mar 05 (13) Mar 04 (10) Mar 03 (14) Mar 02 (12) Mar 01 (18) Feb 28 (8) Feb 27 (2) Feb 26 (9) Feb 25 (13) Feb 24 (17) Feb 23 (13) Feb 22 (12) Feb 21 (11) Feb 20 (11) Feb 19 (16) Feb 18 (17) Feb 17 (15) Feb 16 (15) Feb 15 (15) Feb 14 (10) Feb 13 (8) Feb 12 (10) Feb 11 (15) Feb 10 (11) Feb 09 (13) Feb 08 (10) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (6) Feb 05 (15) Feb 04 (15) Feb 03 (11) Feb 02 (14) Feb 01 (15) Jan 31 (11) Jan 30 (9) Jan 29 (19) Jan 28 (9) Jan 27 (9) Jan 26 (16) Jan 25 (19) Jan 24 (17) Jan 23 (8) Jan 22 (15) Jan 21 (9) Jan 20 (11) Jan 19 (7) Jan 18 (9) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (7) Jan 15 (12) Jan 14 (9) Jan 13 (14) Jan 12 (11) Jan 11 (13) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (8) Jan 08 (20) Jan 07 (11) Jan 06 (11) Jan 05 (8) Jan 04 (14) Jan 03 (6) Jan 02 (7) Jan 01 (7) Dec 31 (14) Dec 30 (15) Dec 29 (7) Dec 28 (10) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (11) Dec 24 (9) Dec 23 (9) Dec 22 (15) Dec 21 (12) Dec 20 (11) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (16) Dec 17 (6) Dec 16 (12) Dec 15 (14) Dec 14 (11) Dec 13 (10) Dec 12 (6) Dec 11 (10) Dec 10 (17) Dec 09 (11) Dec 08 (12) Dec 07 (16) Dec 06 (11) Dec 05 (5) Dec 04 (12) Dec 03 (15) Dec 02 (15) Dec 01 (12) Nov 30 (16) Nov 29 (7) Nov 28 (11) Nov 27 (13) Nov 26 (13) Nov 25 (16) Nov 24 (15) Nov 23 (10) Nov 22 (10) Nov 21 (4) Nov 20 (8) Nov 19 (9) Nov 18 (16) Nov 17 (11) Nov 16 (11) Nov 15 (10) Nov 14 (9) Nov 13 (6) Nov 12 (10) Nov 11 (12) Nov 10 (15) Nov 09 (9) Nov 08 (10) Nov 07 (6) Nov 06 (7) Nov 05 (12) Nov 04 (14) Nov 03 (10) Nov 02 (13) Nov 01 (9) Oct 31 (9) Oct 30 (11) Oct 29 (18) Oct 28 (13) Oct 27 (23) Oct 26 (12) Oct 25 (14) Oct 24 (20) Oct 22 (18) Oct 21 (18) Oct 20 (19) Oct 19 (12) Oct 18 (11) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (18) Oct 15 (8) Oct 14 (11) Oct 13 (9) Oct 12 (13) Oct 11 (6) Oct 10 (7) Oct 09 (27) Oct 08 (14) Oct 07 (10) Oct 06 (9) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (10) Oct 03 (6) Oct 02 (9) Oct 01 (13) Sep 30 (12) Sep 29 (13) Sep 28 (8) Sep 27 (9) Sep 26 (8) Sep 25 (14) Sep 24 (4) Sep 23 (14) Sep 22 (20) Sep 21 (11) Sep 20 (6) Sep 19 (9) Sep 18 (14) Sep 17 (8) Sep 16 (17) Sep 15 (6) Sep 14 (11) Sep 13 (9) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (7) Sep 10 (14) Sep 09 (12) Sep 08 (17) Sep 07 (12) Sep 06 (13) Sep 05 (9) Sep 04 (20) Sep 03 (16) Sep 02 (16) Sep 01 (10) Aug 31 (13) Aug 30 (4) Aug 29 (9) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (8) Aug 26 (11) Aug 25 (10) Aug 24 (14) Aug 23 (12) Aug 22 (13) Aug 21 (10) Aug 20 (13) Aug 19 (15) Aug 18 (8) Aug 17 (10) Aug 16 (8) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (11) Aug 13 (12) Aug 12 (15) Aug 11 (10) Aug 10 (17) Aug 09 (6) Aug 08 (13) Aug 07 (11) Aug 06 (13) Aug 05 (11) Aug 04 (11) Aug 03 (10) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (6) Jul 31 (10) Jul 30 (21) Jul 29 (14) Jul 28 (13) Jul 27 (16) Jul 26 (10) Jul 25 (15) Jul 24 (17) Jul 23 (15) Jul 22 (15) Jul 21 (19) Jul 20 (17) Jul 19 (9) Jul 18 (7) Jul 17 (26) Jul 16 (18) Jul 15 (20) Jul 14 (16) Jul 13 (19) Jul 12 (11) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (13) Jul 09 (11) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (12) Jul 06 (16) Jul 05 (9) Jul 04 (5) Jul 03 (15) Jul 02 (11) Jul 01 (14) Jun 30 (13) Jun 29 (19) Jun 28 (8) Jun 27 (9) Jun 26 (16) Jun 25 (22) Jun 24 (17) Jun 23 (11) Jun 22 (15) Jun 21 (14) Jun 20 (8) Jun 19 (17) Jun 18 (10) Jun 17 (10) Jun 16 (17) Jun 15 (13) Jun 14 (14) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (13) Jun 11 (15) Jun 10 (25) Jun 09 (10) Jun 08 (23) Jun 07 (14) Jun 06 (20) Jun 05 (10) Jun 04 (11) Jun 03 (12) Jun 02 (21) Jun 01 (14) May 31 (10) May 30 (14) May 29 (8) May 28 (23) May 27 (20) May 26 (16) May 25 (13) May 24 (12) May 23 (10) May 22 (18) May 21 (14) May 20 (12) May 19 (18) May 18 (14) May 17 (13) May 16 (4) May 15 (7) May 14 (16) May 13 (13) May 12 (8) May 11 (18) May 10 (8) May 09 (7) May 08 (13) May 07 (11) May 06 (15) May 05 (18) May 04 (17) May 03 (7) May 02 (5) May 01 (11) Apr 30 (19) Apr 29 (21) Apr 28 (18) Apr 27 (16) Apr 26 (8) Apr 25 (11) Apr 24 (9) Apr 23 (20) Apr 22 (23) Apr 21 (5) Apr 20 (16) Apr 19 (13) Apr 18 (6) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (16) Apr 15 (18) Apr 14 (13) Apr 13 (14) Apr 12 (9) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (16) Apr 09 (14) Apr 08 (12) Apr 07 (18) Apr 06 (7) Apr 05 (11) Apr 04 (9) Apr 03 (19) Apr 02 (17) Apr 01 (16) Mar 31 (16) Mar 30 (22) Mar 29 (16) Mar 28 (16) Mar 27 (19) Mar 26 (31) Mar 25 (25) Mar 24 (26) Mar 23 (27) Mar 22 (22) Mar 21 (22) Mar 20 (13) Mar 19 (21) Mar 18 (20) Mar 17 (24) Mar 16 (18) Mar 15 (9) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (29) Mar 12 (15) Mar 11 (11) Mar 10 (11) Mar 09 (20) Mar 08 (12) Mar 07 (6) Mar 06 (21) Mar 05 (22) Mar 04 (19) Mar 03 (9) Mar 02 (20) Mar 01 (11) Feb 28 (11) Feb 27 (27) Feb 26 (15) Feb 25 (18) Feb 24 (17) Feb 23 (19) Feb 22 (24) Feb 21 (10) Feb 20 (14) Feb 19 (25) Feb 18 (16) Feb 17 (19) Feb 16 (23) Feb 15 (8) Feb 14 (11) Feb 13 (25) Feb 12 (16) Feb 11 (12) Feb 10 (18) Feb 09 (12) Feb 08 (14) Feb 07 (8) Feb 06 (27) Feb 05 (28) Feb 04 (24) Feb 03 (17) Feb 02 (20) Feb 01 (23) Jan 31 (16) Jan 30 (20) Jan 29 (26) Jan 28 (17) Jan 27 (21) Jan 26 (24) Jan 25 (16) Jan 24 (14) Jan 23 (16) Jan 22 (17) Jan 21 (19) Jan 20 (21) Jan 19 (17) Jan 18 (13) Jan 17 (14) Jan 16 (10) Jan 15 (21) Jan 14 (16) Jan 13 (19) Jan 12 (30) Jan 11 (14) Jan 10 (11) Jan 09 (8) Jan 08 (23) Jan 07 (13) Jan 06 (21) Jan 05 (15) Jan 04 (18) Jan 03 (9) Jan 02 (12) Jan 01 (15) Dec 31 (18) Dec 30 (7) Dec 29 (13) Dec 28 (11) Dec 27 (8) Dec 26 (6) Dec 25 (8) Dec 24 (28) Dec 23 (12) Dec 22 (12) Dec 21 (17) Dec 20 (19) Dec 19 (19) Dec 18 (22) Dec 17 (24) Dec 16 (17) Dec 15 (29) Dec 14 (22) Dec 13 (12) Dec 12 (22) Dec 11 (24) Dec 10 (25) Dec 09 (18) Dec 08 (15) Dec 07 (21) Dec 06 (24) Dec 05 (30) Dec 04 (28) Dec 03 (26) Dec 02 (22) Dec 01 (33) Nov 30 (23) Nov 29 (9) Nov 28 (18) Nov 27 (25) Nov 26 (17) Nov 25 (23) Nov 24 (27) Nov 23 (12) Nov 22 (10) Nov 21 (15) Nov 20 (23) Nov 19 (23) Nov 18 (24) Nov 17 (21) Nov 16 (20) Nov 15 (13) Nov 14 (15) Nov 13 (27) Nov 12 (23) Nov 11 (19) Nov 10 (21) Nov 09 (13) Nov 08 (16) Nov 07 (16) Nov 06 (32) Nov 05 (24) Nov 04 (20) Nov 03 (29) Nov 02 (12) Nov 01 (15) Oct 31 (20) Oct 30 (22) Oct 29 (27) Oct 28 (20) Oct 27 (23) Oct 26 (21) Oct 25 (15) Oct 24 (23) Oct 23 (26) Oct 22 (27) Oct 21 (28) Oct 20 (24) Oct 19 (13) Oct 18 (9) Oct 17 (30) Oct 16 (8) Oct 15 (20) Oct 14 (14) Oct 13 (17) Oct 12 (16) Oct 11 (8) Oct 10 (19) Oct 09 (22) Oct 08 (16) Oct 07 (18) Oct 06 (23) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (15) Oct 03 (21) Oct 02 (17) Oct 01 (22) Sep 30 (25) Sep 29 (20) Sep 28 (17) Sep 27 (13) Sep 26 (20) Sep 25 (15) Sep 24 (24) Sep 23 (23) Sep 22 (18) Sep 21 (20) Sep 20 (11) Sep 19 (24) Sep 18 (25) Sep 17 (25) Sep 16 (19) Sep 15 (21) Sep 14 (15) Sep 13 (10) Sep 12 (23) Sep 11 (23) Sep 10 (25) Sep 09 (25) Sep 08 (17) Sep 07 (3) Sep 06 (17) Sep 05 (14) Sep 04 (24) Sep 03 (16) Sep 02 (11) Sep 01 (19) Aug 31 (20) Aug 30 (11) Aug 29 (24) Aug 28 (24) Aug 27 (16) Aug 26 (26) Aug 25 (21) Aug 24 (15) Aug 23 (19) Aug 22 (15) Aug 21 (25) Aug 20 (27) Aug 19 (19) Aug 18 (24) Aug 17 (14) Aug 16 (10) Aug 15 (15) Aug 14 (16) Aug 13 (21) Aug 12 (30) Aug 11 (19) Aug 10 (8) Aug 09 (12) Aug 08 (17) Aug 07 (21) Aug 06 (26) Aug 05 (23) Aug 04 (21) Aug 03 (12) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (19) Jul 31 (21) Jul 30 (25) Jul 29 (29) Jul 28 (23) Jul 27 (17) Jul 26 (11) Jul 25 (21) Jul 24 (14) Jul 23 (15) Jul 22 (19) Jul 21 (15) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (10) Jul 18 (15) Jul 17 (22) Jul 16 (18) Jul 15 (21) Jul 14 (20) Jul 13 (7) Jul 12 (9) Jul 11 (29) Jul 10 (19) Jul 09 (17) Jul 08 (26) Jul 07 (21) Jul 06 (18) Jul 05 (14) Jul 04 (20) Jul 03 (17) Jul 02 (24) Jul 01 (23) Jun 30 (23) Jun 29 (18) Jun 28 (16) Jun 27 (16) Jun 26 (17) Jun 25 (23) Jun 24 (32) Jun 23 (29) Jun 22 (8) Jun 21 (17) Jun 20 (25) Jun 19 (28) Jun 18 (19) Jun 17 (25) Jun 16 (23) Jun 15 (9) Jun 14 (11) Jun 13 (14) Jun 12 (22) Jun 11 (19) Jun 10 (17) Jun 09 (15) Jun 08 (16) Jun 07 (7) Jun 06 (29) Jun 05 (27) Jun 04 (24) Jun 03 (22) Jun 02 (22) Jun 01 (13) May 31 (9) May 30 (26) May 29 (19) May 28 (15) May 27 (15) May 26 (23) May 25 (13) May 24 (12) May 23 (24) May 22 (13) May 21 (21) May 20 (18) May 19 (16) May 18 (7) May 17 (12) May 16 (25) May 15 (24) May 14 (23) May 13 (19) May 12 (17) May 11 (8) May 10 (6) May 09 (14) May 08 (21) May 07 (26) May 06 (14) May 05 (14) May 04 (3) May 03 (3) May 02 (24) May 01 (13) Apr 30 (15) Apr 29 (24) Apr 28 (24) Apr 27 (11) Apr 26 (8) Apr 25 (13) Apr 24 (27) Apr 23 (15) Apr 22 (21) Apr 21 (19) Apr 20 (17) Apr 19 (8) Apr 18 (20) Apr 17 (27) Apr 16 (27) Apr 15 (21) Apr 14 (8) Apr 13 (8) Apr 12 (7) Apr 11 (7) Apr 10 (22) Apr 09 (15) Apr 08 (15) Apr 07 (17) Apr 06 (14) Apr 05 (5) Apr 04 (12) Apr 03 (19) Apr 02 (17) Apr 01 (19) Mar 31 (25) Mar 30 (13) Mar 29 (9) Mar 28 (16) Mar 27 (23) Mar 26 (22) Mar 25 (17) Mar 24 (25) Mar 23 (16) Mar 22 (13) Mar 21 (24) Mar 20 (27) Mar 19 (20) Mar 18 (24) Mar 17 (17) Mar 16 (11) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (20) Mar 13 (28) Mar 12 (30) Mar 11 (20) Mar 10 (21) Mar 09 (12) Mar 08 (8) Mar 07 (17) Mar 06 (20) Mar 05 (19) Mar 04 (15) Mar 03 (17) Mar 02 (8) Mar 01 (12) Feb 28 (16) Feb 27 (17) Feb 26 (8) Feb 25 (23) Feb 24 (15) Feb 23 (8) Feb 22 (10) Feb 21 (24) Feb 20 (14) Feb 19 (24) Feb 18 (19) Feb 17 (27) Feb 16 (13) Feb 15 (11) Feb 14 (15) Feb 13 (13) Feb 12 (13) Feb 11 (21) Feb 10 (16) Feb 09 (15) Feb 08 (10) Feb 07 (17) Feb 06 (21) Feb 05 (17) Feb 04 (14) Feb 03 (23) Feb 02 (5) Feb 01 (8) Jan 31 (17) Jan 30 (22) Jan 29 (23) Jan 28 (10) Jan 27 (24) Jan 26 (12) Jan 25 (9) Jan 24 (12) Jan 23 (19) Jan 22 (19) Jan 21 (14) Jan 20 (21) Jan 19 (12) Jan 18 (8) Jan 17 (20) Jan 16 (14) Jan 15 (23) Jan 14 (8) Jan 13 (20) Jan 12 (9) Jan 11 (7) Jan 10 (18) Jan 09 (11) Jan 08 (18) Jan 07 (13) Jan 06 (12) Jan 05 (12) Jan 04 (11) Jan 03 (10) Jan 02 (9) Jan 01 (9) Dec 31 (12) Dec 30 (11) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (9) Dec 27 (13) Dec 26 (15) Dec 25 (8) Dec 24 (6) Dec 23 (8) Dec 22 (5) Dec 21 (6) Dec 20 (14) Dec 19 (17) Dec 18 (14) Dec 17 (14) Dec 16 (13) Dec 15 (9) Dec 14 (9) Dec 13 (11) Dec 12 (16) Dec 11 (18) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (24) Dec 08 (11) Dec 07 (19) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (26) Dec 04 (15) Dec 03 (20) Dec 02 (17) Dec 01 (11) Nov 30 (10) Nov 29 (18) Nov 28 (21) Nov 27 (10) Nov 26 (22) Nov 25 (16) Nov 24 (12) Nov 23 (8) Nov 22 (18) Nov 21 (9) Nov 20 (17) Nov 19 (16) Nov 18 (16) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (9) Nov 15 (21) Nov 14 (17) Nov 13 (20) Nov 12 (16) Nov 11 (13) Nov 10 (9) Nov 09 (10) Nov 08 (16) Nov 07 (15) Nov 06 (18) Nov 05 (19) Nov 04 (16) Nov 03 (11) Nov 02 (5) Nov 01 (17) Oct 31 (17) Oct 30 (21) Oct 29 (9) Oct 28 (16) Oct 27 (6) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (16) Oct 24 (18) Oct 23 (14) Oct 22 (17) Oct 21 (10) Oct 20 (6) Oct 19 (8) Oct 18 (11) Oct 17 (12) Oct 16 (14) Oct 15 (19) Oct 14 (15) Oct 13 (11) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (10) Oct 10 (23) Oct 09 (13) Oct 08 (15) Oct 07 (20) Oct 06 (13) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (16) Oct 03 (17) Oct 02 (17) Oct 01 (20) Sep 30 (17) Sep 29 (9) Sep 28 (8) Sep 27 (14) Sep 26 (20) Sep 25 (19) Sep 24 (13) Sep 23 (11) Sep 22 (9) Sep 21 (5) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (21) Sep 18 (12) Sep 17 (20) Sep 16 (16) Sep 15 (10) Sep 14 (6) Sep 13 (18) Sep 12 (14) Sep 11 (24) Sep 10 (17) Sep 09 (16) Sep 08 (16) Sep 07 (10) Sep 06 (20) Sep 05 (13) Sep 04 (23) Sep 03 (14) Sep 02 (12) Sep 01 (11) Aug 31 (11) Aug 30 (13) Aug 29 (18) Aug 28 (14) Aug 27 (21) Aug 26 (10) Aug 25 (8) Aug 24 (10) Aug 23 (17) Aug 22 (15) Aug 21 (14) Aug 20 (20) Aug 19 (20) Aug 18 (7) Aug 17 (9) Aug 16 (11) Aug 15 (12) Aug 14 (14) Aug 13 (19) Aug 12 (14) Aug 11 (6) Aug 10 (12) Aug 09 (7) Aug 08 (18) Aug 07 (16) Aug 06 (16) Aug 05 (20) Aug 04 (12) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (12) Aug 01 (14) Jul 31 (16) Jul 30 (16) Jul 29 (11) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (9) Jul 26 (17) Jul 25 (20) Jul 24 (17) Jul 23 (11) Jul 22 (18) Jul 21 (7) Jul 20 (10) Jul 19 (14) Jul 18 (11) Jul 17 (15) Jul 16 (12) Jul 15 (10) Jul 14 (8) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (17) Jul 11 (18) Jul 10 (16) Jul 09 (13) Jul 08 (10) Jul 07 (12) Jul 06 (8) Jul 05 (16) Jul 04 (14) Jul 03 (17) Jul 02 (13) Jul 01 (16) Jun 30 (19) Jun 29 (7) Jun 28 (19) Jun 27 (21) Jun 26 (27) Jun 25 (23) Jun 24 (23) Jun 23 (12) Jun 22 (9) Jun 21 (18) Jun 20 (15) Jun 19 (24) Jun 18 (21) Jun 17 (13) Jun 16 (9) Jun 15 (9) Jun 14 (18) Jun 13 (24) Jun 12 (18) Jun 11 (23) Jun 10 (25) Jun 09 (24) Jun 08 (27) Jun 07 (5) Jun 06 (25) Jun 05 (30) Jun 04 (23) Jun 03 (22) Jun 02 (16) Jun 01 (17) May 31 (18) May 30 (19) May 29 (17) May 28 (23) May 27 (15) May 26 (10) May 25 (19) May 24 (16) May 23 (16) May 22 (27) May 21 (20) May 20 (26) May 19 (6) May 18 (8) May 17 (20) May 16 (8) May 15 (18) May 14 (5) May 13 (21) May 12 (9) May 11 (8) May 10 (12) May 09 (18) May 08 (11) May 07 (27) May 06 (12) May 05 (16) May 04 (19) May 03 (14) May 02 (18) May 01 (18) Apr 30 (25) Apr 29 (27) Apr 28 (11) Apr 27 (10) Apr 26 (18) Apr 25 (10) Apr 24 (29) Apr 23 (29) Apr 22 (14) Apr 21 (15) Apr 20 (20) Apr 19 (22) Apr 18 (16) Apr 17 (32) Apr 16 (12) Apr 15 (21) Apr 14 (21) Apr 13 (15) Apr 12 (13) Apr 11 (14) Apr 10 (16) Apr 09 (20) Apr 08 (36) Apr 07 (22) Apr 06 (11) Apr 05 (28) Apr 04 (20) Apr 03 (29) Apr 02 (32) Apr 01 (18) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (15) Mar 28 (22) Mar 27 (24) Mar 26 (17) Mar 25 (17) Mar 24 (13) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (12) Mar 21 (15) Mar 20 (18) Mar 19 (19) Mar 18 (16) Mar 17 (10) Mar 16 (6) Mar 15 (18) Mar 14 (24) Mar 13 (18) Mar 12 (18) Mar 11 (17) Mar 10 (13) Mar 09 (12) Mar 08 (18) Mar 07 (25) Mar 06 (16) Mar 05 (16) Mar 04 (22) Mar 03 (17) Mar 02 (6) Mar 01 (23) Feb 29 (19) Feb 28 (25) Feb 27 (26) Feb 26 (23) Feb 25 (12) Feb 24 (13) Feb 23 (15) Feb 22 (26) Feb 21 (31) Feb 20 (12) Feb 19 (21) Feb 18 (15) Feb 17 (10) Feb 16 (15) Feb 15 (19) Feb 14 (15) Feb 13 (25) Feb 12 (20) Feb 11 (9) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (28) Feb 08 (20) Feb 07 (22) Feb 06 (20) Feb 05 (19) Feb 04 (14) Feb 03 (16) Feb 02 (28) Feb 01 (37) Jan 31 (27) Jan 30 (31) Jan 29 (18) Jan 28 (14) Jan 27 (10) Jan 26 (18) Jan 25 (26) Jan 24 (34) Jan 23 (21) Jan 22 (21) Jan 21 (18) Jan 20 (18) Jan 19 (18) Jan 18 (26) Jan 17 (24) Jan 16 (23) Jan 15 (30) Jan 14 (20) Jan 13 (18) Jan 12 (24) Jan 11 (11) Jan 10 (23) Jan 09 (22) Jan 08 (17) Jan 07 (17) Jan 06 (9) Jan 05 (18) Jan 04 (15) Jan 03 (19) Jan 02 (14) Jan 01 (6) Dec 31 (12) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (15) Dec 28 (11) Dec 27 (7) Dec 26 (10) Dec 25 (16) Dec 24 (13) Dec 23 (16) Dec 22 (11) Dec 21 (26) Dec 20 (28) Dec 19 (14) Dec 18 (25) Dec 17 (23) Dec 16 (19) Dec 15 (22) Dec 14 (38) Dec 13 (26) Dec 12 (25) Dec 11 (27) Dec 10 (31) Dec 09 (15) Dec 08 (30) Dec 07 (31) Dec 06 (27) Dec 05 (38) Dec 04 (25) Dec 03 (27) Dec 02 (15) Dec 01 (36) Nov 30 (23) Nov 29 (17) Nov 28 (23) Nov 27 (13) Nov 26 (16) Nov 25 (14) Nov 24 (18) Nov 23 (21) Nov 22 (21) Nov 21 (24) Nov 20 (20) Nov 19 (23) Nov 18 (17) Nov 17 (17) Nov 16 (34) Nov 15 (25) Nov 14 (17) Nov 13 (21) Nov 12 (18) Nov 11 (9) Nov 10 (15) Nov 09 (9) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (12) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (4) Oct 29 (1) Oct 01 (1) Jul 29 (1) May 11 (1) Jul 11 (1)
Pendragon PLC, together with its subsidiaries, operates in the automotive retail sector in the United Kingdom. It operates through Car Store, Franchised UK Motor, Software, and Leasing segments. The company sells new and used motor cars, motorbikes, trucks, and vans together with associated aftersales activities of service, body repair, and parts sales. It also operates carstore.com, an online marketplace for used cars; and distributes aftermarket parts, accessories, and workshop consumables under the Quickco brand. In addition, the company provides cloud-based dealer management systems; and Licence Link, an online license checking tool for fleets, as well as leases cars and vans to small, medium, and large fleets under the Pendragon Vehicle Management brand, and retails vehicles under the Evans Halshaw and Stratstone brand names. It operates 142 franchise points. Pendragon PLC was incorporated in 1988 and is headquartered in Nottingham, the United Kingdom.
Read More
The following companies are subsidiares of Quaker Chemical: AC Products Inc., Applied Surface Concepts Holdings Ltd. , Binol AB, Binol Biosafe OY, Commonwealth Oil Corporation, DA Stuart India Private Limited, DA Stuart Shanghai Co, ECLI Products LLC, EFHCO LLC, Engineered Custom Lubricants, Engineered Custom Lubricants GmbH, Epmar Corporation, G.W. Smith and Sons, GH Holdings Inc., GHG Lubricants Holdings Limited, GHGL London Ltd., GHI Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Global Houghton Ltd., Houghton (Shanghai) Specialty Industrial Fluids Co. Ltd, Houghton Argentina S.A., Houghton Asia Pacific Co. Limited, Houghton Australia Pty. Ltd., Houghton Benelux BV, Houghton CZ s.r.o, Houghton Canada Inc., Houghton Denmark AS, Houghton Deutschland GmbH, Houghton Europe BV, Houghton Holdings Limited, Houghton Iberica S.A. , Houghton International, Houghton International Inc., Houghton Italia S.p.A., Houghton Japan Co. Ltd., Houghton Kimya Sanayi AS, Houghton Magyarorszag Kft, Houghton Mexico S.A. de C.V., Houghton Oil (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd., Houghton Polska Sp. Zo.o., Houghton Romania S.R.L., Houghton S.A.S., Houghton Sverige AB, Houghton Taiwan Co. Limited, Houghton Technical Corp., Houghton Ukraine ToV, Houghton do Brazil Ltda., Houghton plc, Internationale Metall Impragnier GmbH, Lubricor Inc, Lubricor Inc., Lubricor Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Lubricor USA Inc., MIH Acquisition Company LLC, MX Systems International Ltd, Maldaner GmbH, NP Coil Dexter Industries, New Houghton Brazil Inc., Norman Hay Engineering Ltd., QH Chemical Limited, QH Europe BV, QH Holdings Limited, QH International Limited, Quaker (Thailand) Ltd., Quaker Australia Holdings Pty. Limited, Quaker Chemical (Australasia) Pty. Limited, Quaker Chemical (China) Co. Ltd., Quaker Chemical B.V., Quaker Chemical CV, Quaker Chemical Canada Holdings Inc., Quaker Chemical Canada Limited, Quaker Chemical Europe B.V., Quaker Chemical Holdings South Africa (Pty) Limited, Quaker Chemical India Private Limited, Quaker Chemical Industria e Comercio Ltda., Quaker Chemical Investment Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Quaker Chemical Limited, Quaker Chemical MEA FZE, Quaker Chemical Operacoes Ltda., Quaker Chemical Participacoes Ltda., Quaker Chemical S.A., Quaker Chemical S.r.l., Quaker Chemical Services EURL, Quaker Chemical South Africa (Pty.) Limited, Quaker China Holdings B.V., Quaker Denmark ApS, Quaker Houghton (Finco) Ltd., Quaker Houghton Holdings Limited, Quaker Houghton Holdings Ltd., Quaker Houghton International LP, Quaker Houghton Ltd., Quaker International Holdings LLC, Quaker Italia S.r.l., Quaker Russia B.V., Quaker Sales Europe BV, Quaker Shanghai Trading Company Limited, Quaker Spain Holding SLU, Quaker Specialty Chemicals (UK) Limited, SB Decking Inc., SIFCO Applied Surface Concepts (UK) Ltd, SIFCO Applied Surface Concepts LLC, SIFCO Concepts Sarl, SIFCO Concepts Sweden, Sterr & Eder Industrieservice GmbH, Summit Lubricants Inc, Summit Lubricants Inc., Surface Technology (Coventry) Ltd, Surface Technology (Dalian) Co Ltd, Surface Technology (East Kilbride) Ltd., Surface Technology (Leeds) Ltd, Surface Technology Aberdeen Ltd, Surface Technology Australia, Surface Technology Holdings Ltd., TecniQuimia Mexicana, Tecniquimia Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Thai Houghton 1993 Co. Ltd., Ultraseal Asia Limited, Ultraseal Chongqing Limited, Ultraseal Germany GmbH, Ultraseal International Group Ltd, Ultraseal Machinery Dongguan Ltd, Ultraseal Shanghai Limited, Ultraseal USA Inc., Unitek Servicios De Asesoria Especializad S.A de C.V., Verkol S.A.U., Verkol SAU, Wallover Enterprises Inc., Wallover Oil Company Incorporated, Wallover Oil Hamilton Inc., and Wuhan Quaker Technology Co. Ltd.
UN officials are once again expressing hope that fighting which has raged in the Libyan capital of Tripoli over the past two weeks is over, with the announcement of a new ceasefire between the UN-backed unity government and a militia. The two sides have been fighting through several ceasefires in that time, and has centered on southern Tripoli. At least 61 have been killed in the fighting, including a large number of civilians, with another 159 wounded.
Source: Another Libya Ceasefire Announced After 61 Killed News From Antiwar.com
Hmm
Five months into the year, more than 1,000 people have been shot in Chicago and there have been more than 200 homicides, according to data kept by the Tribune. As of early Monday at least 1,071 people have been shot this year, below the last two years when violence hit record levels in the city but well above other recent years. There have been at least 202 homicides, the data shows. Chicago crossed the 1,000 mark after the long Memorial Day weekend, when seven people were killed and 32 were wounded by gunfire.
Source: More than 1,000 people shot in Chicago so far this year Chicago Tribune
Just two weeks in Tripoli? (Actually endless in Libya, due to USA involvement.) . (Yet) Endless in Chicago? (Also) Each city is a war zone! (Yes?)
Looks like a cease fire is needed in Chicago?
This is just one American city; How about others in the same boat?
UN officials are once again expressing hope that fighting which has raged in the Illinois capital of Chicago over the past several years, with the expected announcement of a new ceasefire between the UN-backed Pro American government and a inner-city militia
Interesting thought
Yes, Chicago and many US cites are a war zone according to technicalities that enforce said behavior
WtR
The following companies are subsidiares of Abbott Laboratories: 3A Nutrition (Vietnam) Company Limited, ABON Biopharm (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd., AGA Medical Belgium, AGA Medical Corporation, AGA Medical Holdings Inc., ALR Holdings, AML Medical LLC, APK Advanced Medical Technologies LLC, ATS Bermuda Holdings Limited, ATS Laboratories Inc., Abbott, Abbott (Jiaxing) Nutrition Co. Ltd., Abbott (UK) Finance Limited, Abbott (UK) Holdings Limited, Abbott AG, Abbott Asia Holdings Limited, Abbott Asia Investments Limited, Abbott Australasia Holdings Limited, Abbott Australasia Pty Ltd, Abbott B.V., Abbott Bahamas Overseas Businesses Corporation, Abbott Belgian Investments, Abbott Bermuda Holding Ltd., Abbott Biologicals B.V., Abbott Biologicals LLC, Abbott Bulgaria Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Capital India Limited, Abbott Cardiovascular Inc., Abbott Cardiovascular Systems Inc., Abbott Delaware LLC, Abbott Diabetes Care Inc., Abbott Diabetes Care Limited, Abbott Diabetes Care Sales Corporation, Abbott Diagnostics GmbH, Abbott Diagnostics International Ltd., Abbott Diagnostics Technologies AS, Abbott Doral Investments S.L., Abbott Equity Holdings Unlimited, Abbott Equity Investments LLC, Abbott Established Products Holdings (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Finance Company SA, Abbott Financial Holdings SRL, Abbott France S.A.S., Abbott Fund Tanzania Limited, Abbott Gesellschaft m.b.H., Abbott GmbH & Co. KG, Abbott Health Products LLC, Abbott Healthcare (Puerto Rico) Ltd., Abbott Healthcare B.V., Abbott Healthcare Costa Rica S.A., Abbott Healthcare LLC, Abbott Healthcare Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Healthcare Private Limited, Abbott Healthcare Products B.V., Abbott Healthcare Products Ltd, Abbott Holding (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding GmbH, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited Luxembourg S.C.S., Abbott Holdings B.V., Abbott Holdings LLC, Abbott Holdings Limited, Abbott Holdings Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Hungary Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Iberian Investments (2) Limited, Abbott Iberian Investments Limited, Abbott India Limited, Abbott Informatics Asia Pacific Limited, Abbott Informatics Canada Inc, Abbott Informatics Corporation, Abbott Informatics Europe Limited, Abbott Informatics France, Abbott Informatics Germany GmbH, Abbott Informatics Netherlands B.V., Abbott Informatics Singapore Pte. Limited, Abbott Informatics Spain S.A., Abbott Informatics Technologies Ltd, Abbott International Corporation, Abbott International Enterprises Ltd., Abbott International Holdings Limited, Abbott International LLC, Abbott International Luxembourg S.ar.l., Abbott Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Ireland, Abbott Ireland Financing Designated Activity Company, Abbott Ireland Limited, Abbott Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Kazakhstan Limited Liability Partnership, Abbott Knoll Investments B.V., Abbott Korea Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Bangladesh) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco (Dos) SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Laboratories (Mozambique) Limitada, Abbott Laboratories (Pakistan) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Philippines), Abbott Laboratories (Puerto Rico) Incorporated, Abbott Laboratories (Singapore) Private Limited, Abbott Laboratories A/S, Abbott Laboratories Argentina Sociedad Anonima, Abbott Laboratories B.V., Abbott Laboratories C.A., Abbott Laboratories Finance B.V., Abbott Laboratories GmbH, Abbott Laboratories Inc., Abbott Laboratories International LLC, Abbott Laboratories Ireland Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited - Laboratoires Abbott Limitee, Abbott Laboratories NZ Limited, Abbott Laboratories Pacific Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Laboratories Products B.V., Abbott Laboratories Residential Development Fund Inc., Abbott Laboratories S.A., Abbott Laboratories SA, Abbott Laboratories Services Corp., Abbott Laboratories Slovakia s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trustee Company Limited, Abbott Laboratories Uruguay S.A., Abbott Laboratories Vascular Enterprises, Abbott Laboratories d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories de Chile Limitada, Abbott Laboratories de Colombia S.A., Abbott Laboratories de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Abbott Laboratories druzba za farmacijo in diagnostiko d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories(Hellas) Societe Anonyme, Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios del Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Abbott Laboratuarlari Ithalat Ihracat ve Ticaret Ltd.Sti, Abbott Laboratorios Lda, Abbott Laboratorios do Brasil Ltda., Abbott Limited Egypt LLC, Abbott Logistics B.V., Abbott Management GmbH, Abbott Management LLC, Abbott Manufacturing Singapore Private Limited, Abbott Mature Products International Unlimited Company, Abbott Mature Products Management Limited, Abbott Medical (Hong Kong) Limited, Abbott Medical (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Medical (Portugal) Distribuicao de Produtos Medicos Lda, Abbott Medical (Schweiz) AG, Abbott Medical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Australia Pty. Ltd., Abbott Medical Austria Ges.m.b.H., Abbott Medical Balkan d.o.o. Beograd (Novi Beograd), Abbott Medical Belgium, Abbott Medical Canada Inc./ Medicale Abbott Canada Inc., Abbott Medical Danmark A/S, Abbott Medical Devices Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Espana S.A., Abbott Medical Estonia OU, Abbott Medical Finland Oy, Abbott Medical France SAS, Abbott Medical GmbH, Abbott Medical Hellas Limited Liability Trading Company, Abbott Medical Ireland Limited, Abbott Medical Italia S.p.A., Abbott Medical Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Korea Limited, Abbott Medical Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Medical Laboratories LTD, Abbott Medical Nederland B.V., Abbott Medical New Zealand Limited, Abbott Medical Norway AS, Abbott Medical Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Medical Sweden AB, Abbott Medical Taiwan Co., Abbott Medical U.K. Limited, Abbott Medical spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Middle East S.A.R.L., Abbott Molecular Inc., Abbott Morocco SARL, Abbott Nederland C.V., Abbott Nederland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Netherlands Investments B.V., Abbott Norge AS, Abbott Nutrition Limited, Abbott Nutrition Manufacturing Inc., Abbott Operations Singapore Pte. Ltd., Abbott Operations Uruguay S.R.L., Abbott Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Overseas Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Overseas S.A., Abbott Oy, Abbott Point of Care Canada Limited, Abbott Point of Care Inc., Abbott Poland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Procurement LLC, Abbott Products (Philippines) Inc., Abbott Products (Spain) S.L., Abbott Products Algerie EURL, Abbott Products B.V., Abbott Products Distribution SAS, Abbott Products Egypt LLC, Abbott Products Limited, Abbott Products Limited Liability Company, Abbott Products Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Products Operations AG, Abbott Products Operations LLC, Abbott Products Romania S.R.L., Abbott Products Tunisie S.A.R.L., Abbott Products Unlimited Company, Abbott Resources Inc., Abbott Resources International Inc., Abbott S.r.l., Abbott Saudi Arabia Trading Company, Abbott Scandinavia Aktiebolag, Abbott Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, Abbott South Africa Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Strategic Opportunities Limited, Abbott Trading Company Inc., Abbott Universal LLC, Abbott Vascular Devices (2) Limited, Abbott Vascular Devices Limited, Abbott Vascular Inc., Abbott Vascular Instruments Deutschland GmbH, Abbott Vascular International, Abbott Vascular Japan Co. Ltd, Abbott Vascular Limitada, Abbott Vascular Netherlands B.V., Abbott Vascular Solutions Inc., Abbott Ventures Inc., Abbott West Indies Limited, Abbott drustvo sa ogranicenom odgovornoscu za trgovinu i usluge, Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc., Alere, Alere (Shanghai) Diagnostics Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Healthcare Management Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Medical Sales Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Technology Co. Ltd., Alere A/S, Alere AB, Alere AS, Alere AS Holdings Limited, Alere BBI Holdings Limited, Alere Bangladesh Limited, Alere China Co. Ltd., Alere Colombia S.A., Alere Connect LLC, Alere Connected Health Limited, Alere Connected Health Ltd., Alere Diagnostics GmbH, Alere DoA Holding GmbH, Alere GmbH, Alere GmbH (Austria), Alere GmbH (Germany), Alere HK Holdings Ltd., Alere Health B.V., Alere Health BVBA, Alere Health Corp., Alere Health Sdn Bhd, Alere Health Services B.V., Alere Healthcare (Pty) Limited, Alere Healthcare Connections Limited, Alere Healthcare Inc., Alere Healthcare Nigeria Limited, Alere Healthcare S.L., Alere Holdco Inc., Alere Holding GmbH, Alere Holdings Bermuda Limited, Alere Holdings Pty Limited, Alere Home Monitoring Inc., Alere Inc., Alere Informatics Inc., Alere International Holding Corp., Alere International Limited, Alere Lda, Alere Limited, Alere Limited (New Zealand), Alere Medical BVBA, Alere Medical Co. Ltd., Alere Medical Pakistan (Private) Limited, Alere Medical Private Limited, Alere North America LLC, Alere Oy Ab, Alere Philippines Inc., Alere Phoenix ACQ Inc., Alere Pte Ltd, Alere S.A., Alere S.r.l., Alere S/A, Alere SAS, Alere San Diego Inc., Alere Scarborough Inc., Alere Spain S.L., Alere Switzerland GmbH, Alere Technologies GmbH, Alere Technologies Holdings Limited, Alere Technologies Limited, Alere Toxicology AB, Alere Toxicology Inc., Alere Toxicology S.r.l., Alere Toxicology Services Inc., Alere Toxicology plc, Alere UK Holdings Limited, Alere UK Subco Limited, Alere ULC, Alere US Holdings LLC, Alere s.r.o., Alisoc Investment & Co, Amedica Biotech Inc., Ameditech Inc., American Generics S.A.S., American Medical Supplies Inc., American Pharmacist Inc., Antares S.A., Apica Cardiovascular Limited, Aquagestion Capacitacion S.A., Aquagestion S.A., Arriva Medical LLC, Arriva Medical Philippines Inc., Arvis Investments Limited, Atlas Farmaceutica S.A., Avee Laboratories Inc., Axis-Shield AD III AS, Axis-Shield AD IV AS, Axis-Shield AS, Axis-Shield Diagnostics Limited, Axis-Shield Ltd., BBI Animal Health Limited, BBI Diagnostics Group 2 Public Limited Company, Banco de Vida S.A., Bioabsorbable Vascular Solutions Inc., Bioalgae S.A., Biohealth LLC, Biosite Incorporated, Bosque Bonito S.A., Branan Medical Corporation, Brandex Europe C.V., British Colloids Limited, CFR Chile S.A., CFR Interamericas EL Salvador Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, CFR Interamericas Nicaragua Sociedad Anonima, CFR Interamericas Panama S.A., CFR Pharmaceuticals, California Property Holdings III LLC, CardioMEMS LLC, Caripharm Inc., Cephea Valve Technologies, Cephea Valve Technologies Inc., Colibri Medical Aktiebolag, Comercializadora y Distribuidora CFR Interamericas Honduras S.A., Concateno South Limited, Concateno UK Limited, Consorcio Tecnologico en Biomedicina Clinico-Molecular S.A., Continuum Services LLC, Cozart Limited, Dextech S.A., Diagnostik Nord GmbH, Distribuciones Uquifa S.A.S., Domesco Medical Import-Export Joint-Stock Corporation, Duphar International Research B.V., Endocardial Solutions, Epocal (US) Inc, Esprit de Vie S.A., European Chemicals & Co, European Drug Testing Service EDTS AB, European Services S.A., Evalve Inc., Evalve International Inc., FARMINDUSTRIA S.A., Fada Pharma Paraguay Sociedad Anonima, Fadapharma del Ecuador S.A., Farmaceutica Mont Blanc S.L., Farmacologia Em Aquicultura Veterinaria Ltda., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV Ecuador S.A., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV S.A., Fernwood Investment S.A., First Check Diagnostics LLC, Focus Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Forensics Limited, Forestcreek Overseas S.A., Fournier Pharma Corp., Fournier Pharma GmbH, Fournier Pharmaceuticals Limited, Framed B.V., Gabmed GmbH, Garden Hills LLC, Global Analytical Development LLC, Globapharm & CO LP, Glomed Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Golnorth Investments S.A., Gynocare Limited, Gynopharm Sociedad Anonima, Gynopharm de Centroamerica S.A., Gynopharm de Venezuela C.A., Hi-Tronics Designs Inc., IDEV Technologies Inc., IG Innovations Limited, IMTC Finance B.V., IMTC Holdings B.V., IMTC Technologies Inc., Ibis Biosciences LLC, Igloo Zone Chile S.A., Igloo Zone S.L., Inmobiliaria Naknek S.A.C., Innovacon Inc., Instant Tech Subsidiary Acquisition Inc., Instant Technologies Inc., Instituto de Criopreservacion de Chile S.A., Integrated Vascular Systems Inc., Inverness Canadian Acquisition Corporation, Inverness Medical (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Australia Pty Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Hong Kong Limited, Inverness Medical Innovations SK LLC, Inverness Medical Investments LLC, Inverness Medical LLC, Inverness Medical Shimla Private Limited, Inversiones K2 SpA, Inversiones Komodo S.R.L., Ionian Technologies LLC, Irvine Biomedical Inc., Kalila Medical, Kangshenyunga S.A., Knoll UK Investments Unlimited, LLC VeroInPharm, Laboratoires Fournier S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano Lafrancol S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano del Ecuador S.A., Laboratorio Internacional Argentino S.A., Laboratorio Synthesis S.A.S., Laboratorios Lafi Limitada, Laboratorios Naturmedik S.A.S., Laboratorios Pauly Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Laboratorios Recalcine S.A., Laboratorios Transpharm S.A., Laboratory Specialists of America Inc., Lafrancol Dominicana S.A.S., Lafrancol Guatemala S.A. Sociedad Anonima, Lafrancol Internacional S.A.S, Lafrancol Peru S.R.L, Lake Forest Investments LLC, Lightlab Imaging Inc., Limited Liability Company Abbott Laboratories, Limited Liability Company Abbott Ukraine, Limited Liability Company VEROPHARM, Lung Fung Hong (China) Limited, Mansbridge Pharmaceuticals Limited, MediGuide LLC, MediGuide Ltd., Medscreen Holdings Limited, Metropolitana Farmaceutica S.A., Midwest Properties LLC, Murex Argentina S.A., Murex Biotech Limited, Murex Biotech South Africa, Murex Diagnostics Inc., Murex Diagnostics International Inc., Natural Supplement Association LLC, Negocios Denia Sociedad Anonima, Neosalud S.A.C., Nether Pharma N.P. C.V., NeuroTherm LLC, Normann Pharma-Handels GmbH, North Shore Properties Inc., Novamedi S.A., Novasalud.com S.A., Nutravida S.A., OJSC Voronezhkhimpharm, Omnilab Iberia Sociedad Limitada, OptiMedica, Orgenics France SAS, Orgenics International Holdings B.V., Orgenics Ltd., PBM-Selfcare LLC, PDD II LLC, PDD LLC, PT Alere Health, PT. Abbott Indonesia, PT. Abbott Products Indonesia, Pacesetter Inc., Pantech (RF) (PTY) LTD, Pembrooke Occupational Health Inc., Penagos S.A., Pharma International Sociedad Anonima, Pharmaceutical Technologies (Pharmatech) S.A., Pharmatech Boliviana S.A., Polygon Labs S.A., Quality Assured Services Inc., RF Medical Holdings LLC, RTL Holdings Inc., Ramses Business Corp., Recben Xenerics Farmaceutica Limitada, Redwood Toxicology Laboratory Inc., Rich Horizons International Limited, SC VEROPHARM, SJ Medical Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., SJM International Inc., SJM Thunder Holding Company, SPDH Inc., Saboya Enterprises Corporation, Salviac Limited, Scanax AS, Sealing Solutions Inc., Selfcare Technology Inc., Shandong Abbott Dairy Product Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Medical Devices Science and Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Shanghai Si Fa Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Sinensix & Co., Spinal Modulation LLC, St. Jude Medical, St. Jude Medical AB, St. Jude Medical ATG Inc., St. Jude Medical Argentina S.A., St. Jude Medical Asia Pacific Holdings GK, St. Jude Medical Atrial Fibrillation Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Brasil Ltda., St. Jude Medical Business Services Inc., St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Colombia Ltda., St. Jude Medical Coordination Center, St. Jude Medical Costa Rica Limitada, St. Jude Medical Europe Inc., St. Jude Medical Export Ges.m.b.H., St. Jude Medical GVA Sarl, St. Jude Medical Holdings B.V., St. Jude Medical India Private Limited, St. Jude Medical International Holding, St. Jude Medical LLC, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings II, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings NT, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings SMI S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings TC S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Mexico Business Services S. de R.L. de C.V., St. Jude Medical Middle East DMCC, St. Jude Medical Operations (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., St. Jude Medical Puerto Rico LLC, St. Jude Medical S.C. Inc., St. Jude Medical Systems AB, St. Jude Medical Turkey Medikal Urunler Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Standard Diagnostics Inc., Standing Stone LLC, Swan-Myers Incorporated, TC1 LLC, Tendyne Holdings Inc., Tendyne Medical Inc., Thoratec Delaware LLC, Thoratec Europe Limited, Thoratec LLC, Thoratec Switzerland GmbH, Tobal Products Incorporated, Topera GmbH in Liquidation, Topera Inc., Tremora S.A., Tuenir S.A., TwistDx, UAB Abbott Laboratories, UAB Abbott Medical Lithuania, Union-Madison Realty Company Inc., Unipath Limited (dba Alere International/aka Cranfield), Unipath Management Limited, Unipath Pension Trustee Limited, Veropharm, Veropharm Limited Liability Partnership, Vida Cell Inversiones S.A., Vida Cell S.A., Vivalsol, W&R Pharma Handels GmbH, Western Pharmaceuticals S.A., X Technologies Inc., Yissum Holding Limited, ZonePerfect Nutrition Company, eScreen Canada ULC, eScreen Inc., ( ), and Abbott Laboratories Baltics.
Taxi hailing company Uber Wednesday claimed that its air taxi can cut travel time in a congested city like Mumbai by 90 per cent. (Photo: AP)
Mumbai: Taxi hailing company Uber Wednesday claimed that its air taxi can cut travel time in a congested city like Mumbai by 90 per cent.
It had named Dallas and Los Angeles in the US as the first two cities for the commercial launch of its aerial taxi service by 2023 and has been on the lookout to select an international city as its third partner.
Uber has shortlisted five countries - India, Japan, Australia, Brazil and France - and one of them will become the first Uber Air City outside of the US.
Eric Allison, chief executive, Uber Aviation Program, illustrated that the 100-minute road journey from the city airport in the western suburbs to downtown Churchgate in south Mumbai can come down to 10 minutes using the futuristic service.
He added that the cost of flying through the service, which aims to use rooftops of high rises and erect dedicated 'skyports', will be at par with its taxis.
"This is the type of urban mobility game changer that this kind of solution brings. We think that once we are able to do it at scale as we are able to drive fully into it with the cost that these VTOL (vertical take-off landing) vehicles produce, we can do it at a cost comparable to our Uber X cost per passenger mile basis," said Allison.
He gave a presentation on the service, explaining that the vehicles used for it are akin to helicopters with multiple rotors that will fly low to keep the airspace free for jets and also have low noise levels.
According to reports, Allison is slated to meet government officials in New Delhi Thursday for the service.
According to the company, it is targeting to have electric powered vehicles which will fly in congested cities and is hoping for developments in battery technology for making up to 100 kms trips.
It eventually plans to fly the vehicles automated, sans any drivers, to do many trips across cities.
Stepping up crackdown efforts on spread of fake news, WhatsApp on Wednesday said it is expanding its radio campaign to 10 more Indian states, including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.
New Delhi: Stepping up crackdown efforts on spread of fake news, WhatsApp on Wednesday said it is expanding its radio campaign to 10 more Indian states, including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.
The Facebook-owned company has been on an overdrive after it faced severe criticism from the government over circulation of fake news on its platform that incited multiple incidents of mob lynching across the country.
WhatsApp kicked off the first phase of its radio campaign -- which urges users to check the veracity of information received as a forward before sharing it with others -- on August 29 in seven states including Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
"The second phase of the campaign starts on September 5 with radio ads across 83 radio stations of AIR across the states of Assam, Tripura, West Bengal, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Orissa and Tamil Nadu," WhatsApp said in a statement. These campaigns will run in eight regional languages -- Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Telugu, Oriya and Tamil and will run for a 15-day duration, it added.
"The campaign has been designed in an easy-to-understand format to help users spot misinformation and further sensitise them about the challenges of fake news and addressing these as a society," it noted. These campaigns advise users to verify authenticity of messages before forwarding them and to report content that they might find to be inflammatory.
It also cautions users to be careful about forwarding messages that contain misinformation, and said doing so could have serious repercussions. WhatsApp, which has been slapped with two notices to check the spread of fake news, has taken a series of measures, including restricting the number of forwards and added forward' label to help users identify such messages.
It is also in the process of establishing a local corporate entity. It has, however, not accepted the government's demand for traceability of messages saying that creating such a software will go against the idea of user privacy and end-to-end encryption. With general elections slated to be held next year in India, the government is taking a tough stance on use of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp for spread of misinformation.
The government had warned WhatsApp that it will treat the messaging platform as abettor of rumour propagation and legal consequences will follow if adequate checks are not put in place.
"WhatsApp stands committed in its efforts to address these issues jointly with civil society, stakeholders and the government," the company said in its statement. In a recent meeting with WhatsApp Head Chris Daniels, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had asserted that the company find a solution to track origin of messages on its platform, set up a local corporate entity that is subject to Indian laws within a defined timeframe as well as appoint a grievance officer.
India is a key market for WhatsApp, which has over 1.5 billion users globally, as it has more than 200 million in India.
New Delhi: The government on Tuesday sought to calm the markets by stating overseas investors of Indian origin were allowed to buy up to 5 per cent in any security under current regulations after markets fell for the second consecutive day on FPIs protesting over an Sebi circular coming up for compliance later this year that bans the dual role of NRI investors doubling as fund managers.
Economic Affairs secretary SC Garg said, There is nothing in operation at this moment and whats all ado about? You cannot manage funds and also have economic interests both. The markets plunge was accentuated after it became clear that there would be no review of this when it came up for compliance three months later.
Elaborating on the issue, Garg said, NRIs are permitted to invest in Indian securities up to 5 per cent cap up to which they can invest in single security. When they try to manage funds from others through fund management and are registered as FPIs, thats where the issue comes up. If some NRI is a beneficial owner then that has been defined as well. You have economic interests as well as you manage (the funds) that is not permissible in the law of today.
As the economic affairs secretary stood by the circular, it was clear that the government had no plans for making changes. On Monday, an industry group named AMRI had warned that Sebis new guidelines would force out $75 billion foreign funds, managed by Indians, and makeup nearly 17 per cent of the total $450 billion of existing FPIs.
The Rafale is a beautiful aircraft which will give India "unprecedented" combat capabilities, the Indian Air Force said Wednesday amid escalating controversy over the Rs 58,000 crore deal.
New Delhi: The Rafale is a beautiful aircraft which will give India "unprecedented" combat capabilities, the Indian Air Force said Wednesday amid escalating controversy over the Rs 58,000 crore deal.
Vice Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal S B Deo also said those criticising the Rafale deal must understand the laid down norms and procurement procedure. "It is a beautiful aircraft..It is a very capable aircraft and we are waiting to fly it," he said on the sidelines of an event when asked about the controversy surrounding the Rafale deal.
The air marshal said Rafale jets will give India unprecedented advantage over its adversaries in the region. India had inked an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore.
The delivery of the jets is scheduled to begin from September 2019. The Congress has raised several questions about the deal, including rates of the aircraft, while the government has rejected the charges.
Expressing concern over the recent happenings in the MAA, some industry folks have suggested senior actress Jayasudhas name for the post of President. At present, MAA needs a person who is graceful and brings stature to the organisation. Jayasudha is the right person, says a senior actor who doesnt want to be named.
Interestingly, Jayasudha contested in the last elections against Rajendra Prasad and lost. However, she is an experienced hand who has worked closely with the MAA for many years.
Sources say that even though her name has been proposed, she may not be interested in the post. She recently expressed that she wants to lead a peaceful life now that she is nearing 60. She doesnt want any tension at this age and stage, and may not take up this job, says a source close to the actress. All eyes are presently on Chiranjeevi and his decision regarding the controversy.
Chiranjeevi may agree to a fact finding committee and insist on transparency in the accounts, especially of the US tour, says a source. Interestingly, General Secretary Naresh is also finding support from the industry as many people have called him personally. One of them is Manchu Manoj, the younger son of Mohan Babu, who has assured Naresh of his support while appreciating his stand to set things right, adds the source.
HT05
Experts state that this occurs due to the narrowing of the peripheral artery where the blood flow to the legs, stomach, arms and head is affected. If it is not treated in the early stages and if there is a wound due to injury then there has to be surgical removal of the limb.
Hyderabad: As many as 1,85,000 people undergo amputations every year globally and 70 per cent of these cases are related to diabetes, according to the data collected by the World Health Organisation. The data shows that it is important to take care and save the limbs.
This is a highly debilitating factor in diabetic patients and below the knee amputations are most common. Experts state that this occurs due to the narrowing of the peripheral artery where the blood flow to the legs, stomach, arms and head is affected. If it is not treated in the early stages and if there is a wound due to injury then there has to be surgical removal of the limb.
With 69.2 million diabetics in the country, of which an estimated 36 million are not even diagnosed, India tops the world ranking in terms of a maximum number of people living with diabetes.
Dr Narendranadh Meda, senior vascular surgeon at KIMS Hospital, explained, There is an increase in the number of patients suffering from diabetic foot. The pain is moderate initially but if not managed effectively it can get worse. Treatment is important as otherwise saving limbs is not possible.
Amputations are the only way out and there are new techniques like drug-coated balloon which are now being tried in India to save the limbs. Experts state that the new technology offers hope but it is important that patients be managed properly to avoid these complications of infection, ulcer in the leg or foot.
When it is not treated properly, the only option for doctors is amputation. The disability is also a major burden to the family.
New Delhi: Greece is endowed with a long history and fascinating culture that holds plenty of myths and traditions.
Choose to travel to the country not only for its incomparable islands but also for its fascinating mainland packed with lesser known destinations.
This is definitely the land you will fall in love with at a glance; so let the country's historical wealth and sunshine captivate you.
Here are some reasons that will make you fall in love with the country:
Imposing art and culture
Walk along the roads steeped in history, visit museums and monuments around the country and listen to the echoes of the past. From findings of Prehistoric and Archaic Periods, interesting folk artifacts to visiting various Classical, Hellenistic, Medieval and Byzantine monuments; this is where the past meets the present and old structures or art coexist with modern society. Arts such as architecture, pottery, weaving, music, jewellery making and painting are present throughout Greece's history.
Tasteful treasures
Greek cuisine is irresistible; its flavorful recipes use a large variety of quality products, cleverly combined, telling age-old secrets handed down from one generation to another. The basic ingredients that make this cuisine so tempting are fresh produce, herbs, spices, the renowned Greek olive oil and of course simplicity. Taste the produce of Greek meat, savory seafood, handpicked healthy fruits, vegetables, pulses and world-famous cheese. Don't forget to accompany your meal with a glass of Greek wine, ouzo or tsipouro.
Islands blessed with light
Greek sovereign land includes 6,000 islands and islets scattered in the Aegean and Ionian Seas, of which 227 islands are inhabited. Most of the islands found in the Aegean Sea and are divided into seven groups (from north to south): The Northeastern Aegean Islands, The Sporades, Evia, the Islands of Argosaronic, The Cyclades, The Dodecanese and Crete, whereas The Ionian Sea has one island complex named as The Ionian Islands. Greek Islands have evolved and taken part in some of Europe's most renowned ancient civilizations, such as the Cycladic or the Minoan.
Mind-blowing beaches
The Greek shores almost 16,000 km are world-famous and exceedingly popular for their crystal clear waters and unique diversity. Greek sovereign land includes 6,000 islands and islets scattered in the Aegean and Ionian Seas, of which 227 islands are inhabited. The mainland and island areas end in a myriad variety of coastlines, with countless beautiful small beaches, charming bays and coves.
Mesmerising mainland
Greece is definitely famous for its islands but the mainland holds awesome treasures worth exploring. Magnificent mountains, rich ecosystems, rivers and lakes create an amazing ensemble. Visit historic monuments known across the world as well as magnificent religious structures. This imposing and thrilling land will make you feel that you become part of its nature. Enjoy various activities and relish the local flavors of its cuisine.
Memorable travel experience
Greeks are descendants of Zeus Xenios (the God of hospitality) so you can expect the locals to welcome you warmly wherever you go. You will be offered a world of opportunities to create your own memorable experiences throughout Greece. Participate in Greek customs and traditions like Easter or Christmas celebrations, agricultural activities, rustic festivals, vibrant nightlife, tours of historic towns and stone built villages. Take in the view of the country's sublime nature and its serene sunsets. Make sure to savor its tantalizing dishes by the sea or on a mountain top; take your pick and let Greece spoil you!
The book further mentions that Defence Secretary James Mattis likened his intellect to a fifth or sixth grader.
A new book by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward, Fear: Trump in the White House, now claims that Donald Trumps aides say he has turned the White House into Crazytown and is a national security risk.
According to a report in The Sun, the book goes on to claim that they swipe papers from his desk to stop him signing dangerous orders, it adds.
According to the book, Chief of Staff John Kelly reportedly raged: Hes an idiot. Were in Crazytown. This is the worst job Ive had.
Not only that, the book further mentions that Defence Secretary James Mattis likened his intellect to a fifth or sixth grader a child aged 11 or 12 and Trumps lawyer John Dowd is said to have deemed him a f****** liar and warned of jail if he agreed to a formal quiz over Russia links.
Fear: Trump in the White House by famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward also details his rants.
According to Woodwards book, Trump called Attorney General Jeff Sessions mentally retarded and told defence chiefs about Syrian leader Bashar Assad: Lets f****** kill him.
He also ridiculed his lawyer Rudy Giuliani as a little baby.
The book says Trump blasted, They took your diaper off right there. You're like a little baby that needed to be changed. When are you going to be a man?
Woodward also reveals that Trump orders print outs of his tweets and studied them to find out which ones were most popular.
While aides described his tweets as the devils workshop, Trump has insisted he was the Ernest Hemingway of Twitter.
The White House on its part has said that the book tells fabricated stories from disgruntled ex-staff.
HYDERABAD: A 25-year-old woman attempted to immolate herself in front of the Bowenpally police station on Tuesday afternoon. She was admitted to Gandhi Hospital with 40 per cent burn injuries. According to Bowenpally police, M Sabitha (25) is a resident of Anna Nagar and married Dinesh a few years ago. They loved in Bowenpally.
Video footage from CCTV cameras at a commercial establishment located opposite the police station showed Sabitha carrying a bottle running towards the Bowenpally police station on Tuesday afternoon, pouring the fuel on herself, and using a lighter to set herself ablaze. Hearing her cries, police personnel rushed outside, doused the blaze, and rushed her immediately to Gandhi Hospital.
Bowenpally inspector P. Vijay Kumar said that Sabitha had a dispute with her husband. Dinesh. After knowing about Sabithas alleged extramarital relationship with one Venkatesh, he had asked her to go to her maternal house in Tadbund, he said.
The accused has been identified as Abhilash Rao Magavanna (35), resident of Bharath Nagar in BEL Layout. (Representional Image)
Bengaluru: Cyber Crime officials on Sunday arrested a management consultant for allegedly siphoning off funds and stealing data belonging to an education group that runs a chain of schools in Dubai and Sharjah.
The accused has been identified as Abhilash Rao Magavanna (35), resident of Bharath Nagar in BEL Layout. Rao was arrested based on a complaint filed with Indiranagar police by the management representatives of IQRA Group, headquartered in Dubai.
The police have seized 12 laptops, eight debit cards and one mobile phone, all worth over Rs 7 lakh from the accused.
In his complaint to the police, the victim stated that Abhilash Rao had befriended CEO of the company while studying at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Madras, and gained trust and joined the latter's company, IQRA Education, as a management consultant.
During this period, he allegedly fabricated documents belonging to company, opened a different bank accounts and started diverting funds to the tune of Rs 7.5 crore and also stole data belonging to the company. Rao has been remanded to judicial custody.
The crime was instigated allegedly by her stepmother who also oversaw it, the police said adding that all the five accused have been arrested.
Srinagar: There has been widespread outrage in Jammu and Kashmir over the alleged gang-rape and murder of a minor girl by four persons including her step brother. The crime was instigated allegedly by her stepmother who also oversaw it, the police said adding that all the five accused have been arrested.
The gruesome incident is reminiscent of the gang-rape and murder of an 8-year-old nomad Bakarwal girl that took place inside a temple in Rasana village of the States Kathua district and which had evoked a nationwide outcry.
Director General of Police, Shesh Paul Vaid, on Wednesday tweeted, A bone chilling story of gang rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl in #Uri by her step brother and 2 other accused instigated by her step mother. A case worse than .. of Rasana Kathua. @JmuKmrPolice has solved the case and arrested all the accused.
It was found that the stepmother had been harbouring a long standing grudge against her husbands second wife children. She revealed that her husband would mostly spend time with his second wife and the girl.
Maharashtra Police had on August 28 raided the homes of the prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested at least five of them. (Photo: File | PTI)
New Delhi: Five rights activists were arrested due to the cogent evidence linking them with the banned CPI(Maoist) and not because of their dissenting views, Maharashtra government claimed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The apex court while ordering the house arrest of the five activists on August 29 till September 6 had categorically said that "dissent is the safety valve of democracy".
The counter affidavit, filed by the Maharashtra police on a plea of historian Romila Thapar and four others challenging the arrest of these activists in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence case alleged that they were planning to carry out violence in the country and ambush the security forces.
The state police said there was sufficient evidence to "dispel" the claim that they were arrested for their dissenting views. It also questioned the locus of the petitioners, Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociologist Satish Deshpande and legal expert Maja Daruwala, and said they were "strangers" to the investigation in the matter.
Maharashtra Police had on August 28 raided the homes of the prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested at least five of them for their alleged Maoist links, sparking a chorus of outrage from human rights defenders.
While prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao was arrested from Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha was arrested from Delhi.
The raids were carried out as part of a probe into an event called Elgar Parishad, or conclave, on December 31 last year, which had later triggered violence at Bhima-Koregaon village.
The apex court had on August 29 directed to keep them under house arrest at their homes till September 6. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra will hear the matter on Thursday.
The mishap took place around 1:30 pm when the boat developed a technical snag and subsequently collided with a pillar of an ongoing water supply project in the Brahmaputra. (Photo: Twitter | ANI)
Guwahati: In a tragic incident, at least 20 people are feared drowned in the Brahmaputra river after a country boat carrying 40 passengers capsized near the Aswaklanta temple near Fancy Bazar of Guwahati.
The mishap took place around 1:30 pm when the boat popularly known as Bhutbhuti, developed a technical snag and subsequently collided with a pillar of an ongoing water supply project in the Brahmaputra.
The boat was moving towards Majbat, Madhayamkhanda in North Guwahati from Fancy Bazar ghat in the city.
The NDRF and SDRF launched a massive search operation to rescue those missing. They recovered at least two bodies besides rescuing at least 12 passengers who were on the boat.
Pointing out that one of the two dead bodies is yet to be identified, the police said that the girl has been identified as Ankita Barua. 17-year-old Ankita, a resident of Silasako village in North Guwahati, is a student of Cotton University.
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has ordered a high-level probe by an additional chief secretary Jishnu Baruah into the incident.
SDRF officials said that the country-made ferry boat accidentally hit the ongoing construction site pillars, which led to the tragic accident and capsizing of the boat.
The Brahmaputra is in spate due to monsoon rains in the upper reaches of Arunachal Pradesh.
Eyewitnesses said that they saw several passengers from the ferry trying to swim to the shore. The country-boat, which was loaded with passenger, was also carrying a motorcycle.
Some of the survivors claimed that neither the driver of the boat was trained nor the boat had any life-jacket.
Police said that they have rescued 12 people so far. Among those identified include Rajesh Saha (45), Piyushi Saha (4), Rinki Saha (28), Nuruddin (26), Jitumoni Das (38) and Minakhi Das (30).
Ram Kadam, who is heard making the comments in a video clip, has said his comments were distorted. (Photo: ANI)
Mumbai: The MNS and the NCP Wednesday likened Maharashtra BJP legislator Ram Kadam to demon king Ravan for telling youngsters he would "kidnap" a girl they like even if she rejects their proposal.
The Ghatkopar MLA, who has expressed regret over his remarks, made the comments at a 'dahi handi' event in his suburban Ghatkopar assembly constituency Monday night.
The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena put up posters depicting Kadam as Ravan outside Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' residence and in Ghatkopar.
Also Read: Will kidnap the girl you like: Mumbai BJP MLA brags to youngsters in video
"The 'dashing' MLA, who proclaims himself to be compassionate, will abduct daughters. If he or his men do so, file a police complaint and also let us know. We will help you safeguard your daughters," the Raj Thackeray-led party said in the posters.
Nationalist Congress Party spokesperson Nawab Malik said the BJP's "Ravan-like" face is out and its legislator will be called "Ravan Kadam" till he apologises.
"Expressing regret and apologising are very different things. The NCP will keep protesting against him and call him 'Ravan Kadam' till he apologises. State-wide protests will be held against him till he apologises," the opposition leader said.
Kadam, who is heard making the comments in a video clip, has said his comments were distorted. "My statement is being quoted out of context. At that event, I said that all youngsters whether it be a boy or girl should take their parents' in confidence before marrying."
"The clip which has gone viral is only of 40 seconds. However, later I had said mothers, sisters and daughters in all households are Lakshmi who need to be respected," Kadam said late Tuesday.
"Yet, if I have hurt sentiments, I express regret," the MLA said.
Raj Bhavan Chalo! On September 5, the Freedom of Expression convention will bring activists, thinkers and intellectuals from across the country to mark the death anniversary of Gauri Lankesh. The brutal killing of the fiery journalist has come to stand for something greater: growing illiberalism and the often violent resistance of cultural diversity. Even Gauri, who spoke unceasingly for the downtrodden, became part of a rightwing-led smear campaign, becoming an icon of sacrilege. With the killers in custody but the mastermind still at large, the rally calls for far-sighted measures, including the banning of Goa-based Sanatan Sanstha as a "terrorist organisation," and the tackling of the larger problem at hand: The rise of an intolerant fringe, the self-appointed custodians of Hindu morality, who stop at nothing to silence those who get in their way. As journalist and author Chidanand Rajghatta says of the killing of his "simple, straight-align journalist," ex-wife, " it was incredibly cowardly."
On this day, exactly a year ago, a voice that vehemently criticised Hindutva ideology and condemned its proposal to form a Hindu Rashtra, was silenced by three bullets that pierced her body on the evening of September 5, 2017, outside her home in RR Nagar. There was much speculation and many suspects. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) that looked into the murder of one of the states seniormost journalists/activists, Gauri Lankesh, established a Hindutva link. As many as 12 accused, all associated with one or the other Hindutva outfit, including the man who pulled the trigger on Ms Lankesh, Parashuram Waghmore, were arrested, making it evident that it was a Hindutva ploy executed by a few right wing fundamentalists spearheading a movement to save Hinduism. Although some of the accused have been found to be associated with a radical Hindutva group, Sanatan Sanstha, the organisation has denied any link to them.
It has also been established that Ms Lankesh was not their only target, but also rationalist/author from Maharashtra, Narendra Dabholkar, Communist leader, Govind Pansare, and Karnataka scholar, M M Kalburgi, who were killed at different times in recent years. And it does not end there. The fanatics were on a spree to eliminate all rationalists and writers, who spoke or wrote against Hindutva and next on their list of targets was Mysuru writer, Prof. KS Bhagwan. A year after Ms Lankeshs death, her admirers and haters have come forward to mark her first death anniversary on Wednesday. While the former have planned to concentrate on her idea of what a secular country should be, the latter will protest the arrest of those suspected of involvement in her murder, claiming they are innocent and wrongly accused.
Blanket ban on Sanatan Sanstha
With the role of Hindutva being proved in the murder of the senior journalist, the demand to ban the Sanatan Sanstha is gaining momentum among rationalists, writers, filmmakers and journalists associated with the Gauri Lankesh Balaga. A protest march will be held as part of Gauri Assasin Day on Wednesday to Raj Bhavan demanding the government consider the Sanatan Sanstha a terror outfit and ban it. The rally will be inaugurated by Swami Agnivesh, who was attacked twice recently. Eight prominent Kannada writers, including Girish Karnad, whose names were on a hit list discovered by the SIT during its probe, are expected to participate.
The day will conclude with a convention, Right to Speak at the Jnana Jyothi Convention Hall at the Central College, which will be addressed by Umar Khalid, Kanhaiya Kumar, MLA Jignesh Mevani, Teesta Setalvad among others. Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister, Dr. G Parameshwara has agreed to consider banning the outfit if its role in the outspoken journalists murder is proved and Goa Congress chief Girish Chodankar too has supported such action against it. We have demanded this earlier and we are demanding it again. An organisation, which kills and plots to kill people in order to eliminate their ideology, has no right to continue. Many people attached to these organisations have been arrested and we believe that the Goa government should decide on this soon," Mr. Chodankar said.
Journalist Gauri Lankesh in happier times, wrote this email to her ex-husband, Chidanand Rajghatta. The email is an excerpt from his book, Illiberal India: Gauri Lankesh and the Age of Unreason
Dear Chids,
How could i have a difference of opinion about the name sharana?
Like you, i believe that lingayats have forgotten all concept of what lingayat dharma stands for (considering that some lingayats observe ashta
mahalakshmi/etc festivals as a show case of hindu religion: ;-) (could not resist that jibe, soooooooooooooooo ooory :-)) incidentally, lingayats and veerashaivas are not one and the same. shaivism has existed along with vaishnavism much before the sharana revolution of the 12th century. that is the point that people like m m kalburgi were trying to make. the important point is that while shaivism and its associated veerashaivism are part and parcel of the so called brahminical hindu dharma, the sharana revolution which gave rise to lingayat dharma-which is totally opposed to the brahminical hindu dharma- is a totally different religion. even today, the veerashaiva matas don't accept basavanna as their ideological chief. it is only the virakta mathas which follow basava dharma (though they too have distorted it now). In fact, veerashaivas and lingayats are two totally different ideologies.
Kalburgi (and people such as myself) believed in that and used to argue that lingayats are not hindus. perhaps that is what led to his killing, who knows? I love the concept of sharana, its so beautiful and meaningful. and 'sharanu sharanaarthigalu' is much more meaningful than any other greeting. in fact, i use this greeting when i have to speak to various religious heads, whether brahmin, lingayat, muslim or christian. and those religious heads respond to me according to their custom. its all so cordial. initially, my leftist friends used to make fun of me when i used to say it since i am-according to them-a lingayat (of course i don't use it in everyday common usage). but then they realized that i believe in the concept and are now okay with it. anyway, enough pontificating. i love the name you and mary have given to your son.
Sharanu sharanaarthigalu to both of you. hugs and love and affection as always.
GL
Properties of other police officers, including former DGP S George, were also raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation. (Representational Image)
Chennai: Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar and Director General of Police T K Rajendra's houses were among the 40 locations raided by the CBI in connection with the multi-crore 'gutka scam' in Chennai.
Properties of other police officers, including former DGP S George, were also raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
According to reports, properties of food safety department and sales tax officials were also raided by the central investigating agency on Wednesday.
The raids started around 7 am on Wednesday.
The 'gutka scam' came to light on July 8, 2017, when income tax officials raided the godown, offices and residences of a 'pan masala' and 'gutka' (a concoction of tobacco and 'pan masala') manufacturer in Tamil Nadu, who had been facing charges of tax evasion to the tune of Rs 250 crore.
The manufacture, storage and sale of chewing tobacco, including 'gutka' and 'pan masala' were banned by the Tamil Nadu government in 2013.
During the raids, the department had seized a diary containing names of those who had been allegedly paid by the 'gutka' manufacturers.
The case was sent to the CBI by the Madras High Court in April 2018 on the plea of a DMK leader.
The agency had registered an FIR against unidentified officials of the Tamil Nadu government, Central Excise Department and the Food Safety Department in May.
Telangana Cabinet is likely to meet tomorrow amid indications that CM K Chandrasekhar Rao may take a call on dissolution of state assembly to pave way for early elections. (Photo: File)
Hyderabad: The Telangana Cabinet is likely to meet in Hyderabad on Thursday, the second time in five days, amid indications that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao may take a call on the dissolution of state assembly to pave the way for early elections.
Sources in the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) on Wednesday claimed the government has more-or-less made up its mind on the dissolution of the assembly, whose term ends next year.
"Dissolution is 'pucca'. Yes, that's what's happening... the Cabinet will recommend dissolution or convening of the House to deliberate on the matter," a senior TRS leader told news agency PTI.
Assembly elections in Telangana are originally scheduled to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls next year, but the chief minister sees an advantage for TRS in delinking the two polls.
In recent weeks, the state government had announced a slew of measures for the benefit of various sections of the society.
Speculation has been rife that the TRS may go for early elections to cash in on the perceived positive atmosphere prevailing for it in the state.
Addressing a TRS public meeting on Sunday last, Rao had referred to media reports about early polls and said ministers and party leaders had authorised him to take a decision on it in the interest of people and the party.
The cabinet that met on Sunday ahead of the public meeting approved certain welfare measures.
The ruling TRS has planned to organise 100 public meetings across the state in 50 days, beginning with a meeting at Husnabad near Karimnagar on September 7.
The party captured power in the state in the maiden assembly elections held in May 2014, winning 63 of the 119 seats.
The department has also provided one lakh eggs for distribution in flood-hit areas
Kochi: The floods have caused a loss to the tune of Rs 20 crore to dairy and poultry sectors in Ernakulam. There has been a sharp dip in milk and egg production with thousands of cattle and chickens dead.
Veterinary hospitals in Alangad, Karumalloor, Chittattukara, Veliyathunadu, Chendamangalam, Cheranalloor, Okkal, Kalady, Malayattoor, Ooramana and Mudakuzha were completely inundated.
As many as 1,563 cows, 436 buffalos, 478 calves, 2,097 goats and 240,127 birds lost their life in the natural calamity. As many as 870 cow sheds and 862 hencoops were destroyed.
The animal husbandry department has completed initial assessment of the extent of damage and started providing initial help to farmers. Mobile veterinary clinics were organised through which 767 animals were treated. Several dairy farmers complained of sharp decline in quantity of milk produced by their cattle in post-flood days.
The Animal Husbandry department has provided 152 tonnes of cattle feed, 2,000 kilograms of fodder and medicines for cattle. The department has also provided one lakh eggs for distribution in flood-hit areas.
According to department officials, bringing back dairy farmers who lost cattle is the major challenge for which properly planned programmes are required. For sustainable growth of the sector, farmers affected by floods have to be brought back by providing them necessary infrastructure facilities and high breed cows.
Considering the sharp dip in poultry production, more projects have to be initiated to enhance egg and meat production.
The department officials also stressed the need to have temporary shelters for animals and birds in case of natural calamities like flood or other emergency situations.
Rally being held by expelled DMK leader MK Alagiri and his supporters to the Karunanidhi memorial at Marina Beach in Chennai. (Photo: Twitter | ANI)
Chennai: Nearly a month after the death of DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi, his elder son and expelled party leader MK Alagiri on Wednesday organised a silent march to his father's memorial at Marina Beach in Chennai to assert power in DMK.
Challenging his younger brother and DMK chief MK Stalin, Alagiri who was accompanied by his supporters, claimed that majority of Karunanidhis followers are with him.
Dressed in black, to condole Karunanidhi's death, the rally began from Triplicane. No public meeting or speeches are planned.
After walking for a while, Alagiri hopped on to an open van, waving enthusiastically to cheer his cadres.
The expelled leader's followers from various districts held banners, which read "karam korpom kazhagam kappom,' (let us join hands and guard the party).
Alagiri was expelled from DMK in 2014 for anti-party activities after he openly rebelled against his father for projecting his brother as his successor.
Alagiri had said that he would not accept anybody but Karunanidhi as his leader.
Alagiri claimed that he would have over one lakh people in his march, which is widely being seen as a show of strength by the rebel leader.
At least 1,000 police personnel have been deployed along the route where Alagiri and his supporters will hold the rally on Wednesday.
The decision to hold the rally was taken by Alagiri days after he declared that he was ready to accept his younger brother's (MK Stalin) leadership if he was taken back into the DMK.
After the death of Karunanidhi on August 7, Alagiri, who was in virtual political hibernation for four years, made it clear that he wanted back into the DMK but kept making contradictory statements, alternately lashing out and softening his stance. One day he claimed that loyal DMK workers are with him, the next day he threatened the DMK with serious consequences if he was not re-inducted.
Last week, the former DMK MP said: "We are ready to join the DMK... It is obvious that I accept him (Stalin) as my leader."
The campaign has been designed in an easy-to-understand format to help users spot misinformation. (Representational Image)
New Delhi: Stepping up crackdown efforts on the spread of fake news, WhatsApp on Wednesday said it is expanding its radio campaign to 10 more Indian states, including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.
The Facebook-owned company has been on an overdrive after it faced severe criticism from the government over the circulation of fake news on its platform that incited multiple incidents of mob lynching across the country.
WhatsApp kicked off the first phase of its radio campaign -- which urges users to check the veracity of information received as a forward before sharing it with others -- on August 29 in seven states including Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
"The second phase of the campaign starts on September 5 with radio ads across 83 radio stations of AIR across the states of Assam, Tripura, West Bengal, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Orissa and Tamil Nadu," WhatsApp said in a statement.
These campaigns will run in eight regional languages -- Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Telugu, Oriya and Tamil and will run for 15-day duration, it added.
"The campaign has been designed in an easy-to-understand format to help users spot misinformation and further sensitise them about the challenges of fake news and addressing these as a society," it noted.
These campaigns advise users to verify the authenticity of messages before forwarding them and to report content that they might find to be inflammatory. It also cautions users to be careful about forwarding messages that contain misinformation and said doing so could have serious repercussions.
WhatsApp, which has been slapped with two notices to check the spread of fake news, has taken a series of measures, including restricting the number of forwards and added forward' label to help users identify such messages.
It is also in the process of establishing a local corporate entity. It has, however, not accepted the government's demand for traceability of messages saying that creating such a software will go against the idea of user privacy and end-to-end encryption.
With general elections slated to be held next year in India, the government is taking a tough stance on the use of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp for spread of misinformation.
The government had warned WhatsApp that it will treat the messaging platform as an abettor of rumour propagation and legal consequences will follow if adequate checks are not put in place.
"WhatsApp stands committed in its efforts to address these issues jointly with civil society, stakeholders and the government," the company said in its statement.
In a recent meeting with WhatsApp Head Chris Daniels, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had asserted that the company find a solution to track the origin of messages on its platform, set up a local corporate entity that is subject to Indian laws within a defined timeframe as well as appoint a grievance officer.
India is a key market for WhatsApp, which has over 1.5 billion users globally, as it has more than 200 million in India.
Chennai: The 15th Finance Commission has reaffirmed that it will not penalise performing states like Tamil Nadu while allocating funds and that it would ensure even handed approach.
The assurance by the chairman of Finance Commission Dr N.K. Singh came on Wednesday during his visit to the city for a consultative meeting with political parties, industry, economic experts here, ahead of the commissions meeting with the state government on Thursday.
Expressing concern over the Finance Commissions recommendation to use the 2011 census for allocation of union tax revenue instead of 1971 census, the parties submitted that the move would severely affect Tamil Nadu which has made rapid progress in population control in the last 40 years. All major national and regional parties which attended the Finance Commissions third consultation with leading economists of the region here, urged the commission not to penalise the performing states like Tamil Nadu. Responding, the Chairman reaffirmed Commissions even handed approach vis a vis states and the centre.
The meet was attended by 11 eminent economists and domain experts. Tamil Nadu is the second state in Southern India after Kerala to be visited by the Fifteenth Finance Commission from September 5 to 8. Led by chairman N.K. Singh, the commissions members Dr Anoop Singh, Dr. Ashok Lahiri, Dr. Ramesh Chand and secretary Arvind Mehta along with other officials - participated in the meeting. They would meet Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, ministers and other officials of the state here on Thursday. Detailed presentations will be made on the finances of the state government.
Ahead of meeting with the CM, the commission met representatives to understand the macro economic issues and some peculiar issues related to southern part of the country in the light of the development trajectory of the region.
Inter-district disparities, unplanned urbanisation and resulting migration, disparity in funds flow between rural and urban local bodies, were among the key issues that emerged to the fore during the meeting here. Issue pertaining to Centrally sponsored schemes and revival of local water bodies through water technologies for better water management, too, dominated the meeting. Industry representatives raised issues related to land acquisition, water availability for industry and agriculture and grid development for green energy.
The commission was greatly enriched by the interaction and the discussions with domain experts and economists in understanding some necessary assumptions which are necessary for the Commission to come up with appropriate recommendation, said chairman finance commission Dr N.K. Singh.
Bengaluru: In a gory accident, three MBBS students died on the spot when their car rear ended a stationary mini truck, and pipes from the truck pierced through their bodies in Devanahalli traffic police station limits early Wednesday.
Police said the accident took place around 2 am on the Nelamangala highway and the truck was loaded with construction materials. The truck had broken down and was parked on the left side of the road.
The impact of the crash was so severe that one of the students got decapitated after a pipe pieced through his neck and the head got tossed on to the road. The Chevrolet Cruze car they were travelling got reduced to a scrap.
The police have registered a case of negligence under Section 337 and 338 of IPC against the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) as there were no street lights. If the lights were functioning, the tragedy could have been averted, said a senior police officer.
The deceased have been identified as Bhushan (21), a resident of Jigani, Vishal (21), resident of Doddabelavangala, and Prajwal, (21), a resident of Tumakuru.
Police said the three deceased were second year MBBS students at KIMS, while the injured, Kumar Raj (24), is a final year MBBS student in the same institution. He is a resident of Venkatgiri Kote in Devanahalli.
A senior police officer said the four students had left for Kumar Rajs home town in Venkatgiri Kote on late Tuesday night. Kumar Raj was behind the wheel and reportedly speeding.
When the car reached Devanahalli by-pass near Amanikere, Kumar failed to notice the parked truck and crashed into it. Preliminary investigations reveal that Kumar had a miraculous escape as he was at the right side driving seat. The car was allegedly overtaking from the wrong side, a police added. The bodies have been shifted to a nearby hospital and the families have been informed. Devanahalli Traffic police have begun investigation.
Bengaluru: Have skates. Will travel. Or in the case of international skater Rana Uppalapati, will skate for 6,000 km over the next 90 days, passing through the Golden Quadrilateral, touching Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai. All, to spread the message of educating the underprivileged girl child.
Uppalapati's expedition, flagged off from the city on Wednesday, will raise funds to educate 25,000 female children, with the funds raised from the campaign routed to Titan Kanya - a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative which educates the underprivileged girl child across the country.
The expedition will also oversee 6,000 awareness sessions organised at different points, reaching out to 6 lakh children and other stakeholders. The campaign will also teach students about 'good touch and bad touch' to protect them from predators, said Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director of Titan.
The expedition, titled 'Educate to Carry Her Onwards (ECHO)', which began from Hosur, will return to the city on December 4. The decision to choose the Golden Quadrilateral, which connects Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai, for the campaign was deliberate, as a large number of untoward incidents have occurred in areas along these routes.
Uppalapati has done this before. In 2016, he completed a 242-km expedition from Odisha to Visakhapatnam to create awareness on breast cancer. Last year, his campaign motivated college students and others to register as stem cell donors.
New Delhi: With the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government all set to launch its ambitious Ayushman Bharat scheme on September 25, which envisages a health insurance cover of up to Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 crore for the rural poor annually who are outside the insurance net, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed unhappiness over inadequate preparations on the part of several BJP-led states towards implementing the project.
Also as several Opposition-ruled states such as Karnataka, Punjab, Odisha, Telangana, Kerala and Delhi have not yet come on board in terms of participating in the scheme, the Prime Minister has urged them to cooperate and adopt it.
In a high-level review meeting which the Prime Minister recently undertook to oversee the preparations of the schemes launch on Jan Sangh ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyayas birth anniversary, he asked top officials of the state government of poll-bound Rajasthan, as well as those of Maharashtra, Goa, Bihar (where the BJP is in alliance with the JDU) and Jammu & Kashmir (which is currently under Presidents Rule, but where the BJP ran a coalition government with the PDP for more than two years) to make extra efforts to ensure that the scheme takes off effectively in their respective states.
Highly-placed sources said that the Prime Minister was disappointed with the fact that the aforementioned states ruled by the BJP and its allies have not made proper preparations towards implementation of the NDA governments flagship scheme even though only a few days are left for its official launch.
He is learnt to have asked the chief secretaries of these states during the meeting to take extra measures to implement the scheme.
Mr Modi also asked officials from Opposition-ruled states to expedite the process of signing pacts with the Centre as soon as possible, so that Ayushman Bharat can take off.
Under Ayushman Bharat, the Union Health Ministry plans to hire Ayushman Mitras, who will help in identifying beneficiaries for the scheme. Sources said that these Mitras are to be selected from hospitals own staff.
The Prime Minister, sources added, emphasised on this aspect and is learnt to have directed health ministry officials to ensure that the Ayushman Mitras are selected from hospitals staff only.
He is also learnt to have asked the ministry as well as the states officials to streamline and expedite all aspects related to Ayushman Bharat such as selecting health agencies in states, identification of beneficiaries as well as empanelment of hospitals and identification as well as training of Ayushman Mitras.
In his Independence Day speech, the Prime Minister had announced that Ayushman Bharat scheme would be launched on September 25 this year.
The scheme will target poor, deprived rural families and identify occupational category of urban workers families 8.03 crore in rural and 2.33 crore in urban areas, as per the latest SECC data. It will cover around 50 crore people.
The Centre has allocated about Rs 10,000 crore for the project.
Hyderabad: The term Dalit denotes the oppression imposed on a section of people who belong to the Scheduled Castes and is also a grim reminder of the atrocities unleashed on them. The Centre cannot oppose the use of the word in conversations, articles, literature and the media, but, it can restrict it in official correspondence, like police complaints, petitions to courts etc because the Constitution recognises the term Scheduled Caste and not Dalit, experts have said.
This has come after the Ministry for Information and Broadcasting issued a circular asking the media to stick to the constitutional term Scheduled Caste while referring to Dalits.
Following this, a number of people disagreed stating that the Centre was trying to dismantle the social status. The word Dalit is a metaphor of pain; struggle and it gained prominence in the 1970s, when the Dalit Panthers was launched in Maharashtra. The word was in popular use in Hyderabad which saw an independent movement by Dalits in the 1940s.
I am Mallepalli Laxmaiah, but socially recognised as a Dalit, does anyone have the right to take away my social identity? Neither can the Centre or the judiciary have that power. The word Dalit was born out of a movement. In 1970, on the lines of the Black Panther movement in America, an independent struggle that saw a high magnitude of emotional outburst from the community was held, Mallepalli Laxmaiah, who heads the Centre for Dalit Studies, said.
The Dalit Panther movement gained popularity in Maharashtra where it received prominence. Dalit does not only represent the SC community, but many from Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes and is used to display their agony, explained Laxmaiah.
Human rights activist Karthik Navayan finds the Centre trying to dismantle the prominence. The government issuing a circular requesting the media not to use the term is not called for, it is unwanted. The word gained muscle over the years through struggle displayed on streets, atrocities and even in literature. It cannot try to demolish it. However, the government has the right to make citizens confine themselves to their caste recognised by the Constitution of India, in official correspondence, he said.
For example, while filing an SC-ST petition, or applying for reservation one should address themselves under the SC category because the Constitution does not recognise the term Dalit. The media has the freedom to address people as long as there is no objection raised by the ones they represent, the activist added.
Going back in history, immediately after Dr B.R. Ambedkars death, certain important developments took place in the Dalit movement. One was the formation of the Republican Party of India and the other was the formation of the Dalit Panther Movement. Many more originated, the reason was that the word was getting attention. For example, the Dalit Sathya Movement and the Dalit Ranghbhoomi, those from the Scheduled Castes place the term before every movement they participate in.
G. Shankar Advisor to TS & AP Employees Association, said, It became a nomenclature and was widely used in literature, narrations, in letters describing identity crises. It became the symbol of oppression of the people. It also helped in garnering courage to fight against the ghastly incidents perpetrated on Dalits. Even the untouchables were able to raise their voice against the unjust caste system.
But Mr Shankar also supported the government move and said, The government has the right to ask people to stick to Scheduled Caste while addressing bodies including the national rights commission. When the Constitution recognizes SC, it is better for the people to identify themselves on similar lines.
Politician and activist, Manda Krishna Madiga, who spearheaded the Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti added, The term is used in preference to terms such as Harijans and Untouchables. It created a counter culture and separate identity. It acted as a bulwark against power politics and Republican Party leaders. One cannot take away our social recognition.
Meanwhile, the News Broadcasting Standards Authority in a statement said that it may consider taking legal action against the advisory.
Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani (from L), JNU student leader Umar Khalid and JNU Students Union former president Kanhaiya Kumar during the 'Freedom of Expression meet organised on the occasion of the first death anniversary of journalist Gauri Lankesh, in Bengaluru on Wednesday. (Photo:PTI)
Bengaluru: Calling Gauri Lankesh a frail woman who took on big leaders hell bent on forcing Hindutva ideology, noted rationalist Narendra Nayak, the seventh name in the hitlist of the accused arrested for Gauri's murder, said that Gauri lived for equality, justice and democratic India and died for it.
Speaking at the 'Freedom of Expression' convention here on Wednesday, organised to mark the first death anniversary of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh, Mr Nayak said that Gauri knew her fight was against an ideology that was massive, but stood by her legacy and fought relentlessly till her last breath.
"Gauri was a frail woman who wanted to fight the Hindutva forces alone. She knew there were threats to her life, but refused any gunman to protect her. I am alive today because I opted for security," Mr Nayak said, adding that he was proud that he was on the hit list as it meant he was speaking the truth. "These are nothing but terrorists who want to terrorise us and shut us up," he said.
Mr Nayak said that an attempt to intimidate and kill him was made on March 10, 2017, and after that he opted for security. He recalled a phone call from Gauri's where she asked him to be cautious. He said that he continues to struggle against the Hindutva forces and their fake nationalism theories. "I don't say I am brave. I am a coward who can't run away from my conscience," he said to a jam-packed audience at the Jnana Jyothi Auditorium in Central College.
The convention was part of a series of events to mark the first death anniversary of Gauri Lankesh, organised by the Gauri Memorial Trust and Gauri Lankesh Balaga.
Attempt to silence progressive people
Actor and activist Prakash Raj said that the investigation into Gauri's murder has revealed the ideology behind it and exposed the a big conspiracy to silence progressive people, including Govind Pansare, Narendra Dabholkar, Dr M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh.
"Dam is full and waiting to explode. They (Hindutva forces) are getting desperate and hence have become dangerous. We need to protect Hindu religion from them as they have made everyone a sheep. We should not be afraid of death as we all are bound to die," he said.
Hindutva goons are scared: Khalid
Student activist Umar Khalid on whom a failed murder attempt was made recently said that it was fear of losing a battle of ideology that prompted the killers to silence Gauri. "They (killers) think they shot dead Gauri a year ago but I don't think so. Those who wanted to kill Gauri killed a body and not her legacy. Her teachings and ideology are being carried ahead by thousands of Gauris including myself. The fact that they killed her shows how scared they were of her," Khalid said.
On the failed assassination attempt on him, he said, "If they think I would back off out of fear, they should understand that I am not from Savarkar's family like they are, but a follower of Bhagat Singh. I will never stop my struggle. In fact, I don't blame the two people who came to kill me but hold the central government and the man who comes on a prime time news show and brand me as an anti-national responsible. Let him prove me anti-national in any court," he challenged.
Mevani: Dalits being projected as Naxals
Jignesh Mevani, an MLA from Gujarat and a Dalit leader, said that a larger political conspiracy is being hatched in the country as Dalits are hitting the streets against these Hindutva forces. "Dalits are offended like never before. To discredit this nascent movement, the government wants to portray that Dalits are being instigated by Naxals. Human rights lawyers standing with Dalits are being discredited. Even in this falsehood, they are trying to extract sympathy for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said.
"Things are getting worse every day. But the silence of common public is disturbing. When attack on Dabholkar, Pansare and Gauri happens, it was mostly civil society that made noise. The amount of unrest that it should generate among common people, the way common people should come out on the streets was comparatively less. It's good that Karnataka police have been able to take this to its logical end to some extent. They have also given leads in Dabholkar, Pansare and Kalburgi murders as well," Mr Mevani said.
CBI on Wednesday begins raids on the residence of Director General of Police T.K. Rajendran following his name surfacing in connection with the gutka scam. (Image: DC)
Chennai: Welcoming the CBI raid on the houses of health minister C. Vijaya Bhaskar, DGP T. K. Rajendran and former Chennai city police commissioner George, DMK president M. K Stalin demanded that the governor Banwarilal Purohit should dismiss the Minister and the DGP if they do not quit voluntarily.
In a statement on Wednesday, he said I learnt that the CBI raids were conducted in 40 places. Even as Madurai Bench of Madras HC ordered for appointment of commissioner of DVAC to probe into the gutka scam, the government transferred the then vigilance commissioner V. K. Jayakodi, considering her integrity.
Stating that names of health minister and DGP were not mentioned in the FIR with an ulterior motive, Stalin said even as then director of DVAC Manjunatha put pressure to include these names. Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami kept attempting to divert the case and protect the minister and the DGP. However, the DMK filed a case in Madras high court, which ordered for a CBI probe , the leader of Opposition said.
The Supreme Court upheld the Madras high court order. Subsequently, the CBI conducted raids at houses of those names, which cropped up during inquiries, Stalin noted.
Even after such raids, it will be a shame for the health minister and top police officers to continue. They should quit immediately, he said. The Governor should take stock of the situation and dismiss Vijaya Bhaskar and DGP, he demanded.
There were no boards with School Zone written on them anywhere near the school or on the footpath adjoining the school.(Representional Image)
Hyderabad: There are no signage or speed beakers that may alert traffic to slow down and move cautiously in front of the Kendriya Vidyalaya School, Uppal. Parents have been insisting that the authorities should install pedestrian crossings and other signals for the safety of school children.
When a correspondent from this newspaper visited the place, it was found that there was rampant illegal parking of private vehicles on both sides of the road in front of the school.
Meanwhile, RTC buses of No 300, which travel from LB Nagar to Mehdipatnam stop on both sides of the school due to lack of space near LB Nagar Ring Road. There were no boards with School Zone written on them anywhere near the school or on the footpath adjoining the school.
A parent who travels around 8 kms everyday to drop his son to school during peak traffic, D. Vinod said, It would be better if there was a foot over bridge to cross the roads or a bridge which directly connected the Metro station to the school. It would enable children to commute safely.
Principal of Kendriya Vidyalaya School, Uppal, P. Srinivas Raju said, We have informed the concerned authorities about the problems like a zebra crossing, speed breakers, construction of footpaths and installation of signboards. But they have not responded to our requests, Raju added. We have been allocating duties to the teachers and group D staff to help the school children to cross the road, he said.
However, when contacted, Uppal traffic inspector E Jangaiah said that he had not received any request for allotting a traffic constable. He said, There will be a traffic constable on duty at Uppal Chowrasta to take care of any traffic problems. Since the road is NH 163, we cannot construct speed breakers on it. If the school authorities request for a speed breaker, we will forward the same to the authorities. Installation of signs does not come within our purview.
Hyderabad: The post-mortem over the less-than-expected turn out of people at the Telangana Rashtra Samithi's Kongara Kalan meeting revealed that leaders did not properly utilise the financial resources extended by the party.
TRS sources say the party leadership had allotted Rs 40 lakh to each Assembly constituency to mobilise a total of 25 lakh people. According to intelligence reports, just about five lakh people turned up at Kongara Kalan, though party leaders put the figure at 10 lakh.
The party leadership received complaints that the funds did not reach the ground level to pay for the travel and other expenses get people to attend the meet.
In Secunderabad Assembly constituency, local TRS leaders complained that Rs 8 lakh given by minister Padma Rao Goud was not spent by TRS ward-level leaders.
Similar complaints came in from Ranga Reddy, Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar and Medak districts from where the party expected two lakh people but did not get even 50,000.
The party leadership has decided to issue a stern warning and initiate action against leaders who failed to deliver even after getting financial assistance from the party.
Intelligence officials were pressed into service at all the toll plazas in the districts to note down the number of vehicles headed to Hyderabad for the public meeting. They also noted down the number of persons each vehicle was carrying.
These reports were submitted to party chief and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. The CM also obtained figures on vehicles and people from party leaders Assembly constituency-wise.
When both these reports were analysed, huge variation was found in the figures, exposing how TRS leaders exaggerated figures to please the party high command.
The analysis also found that some leaders did not bother to spend the funds given by the party because the CM has promised tickets to all the sitting MLAs for the coming elections. The disgruntled aspirants thus sat idle and did not use the money allotted knowing that they would anyway not get tickets.
There are three-four such contenders for all the seats. The dissidence is even more in seats where MLAs from other parties defected to the TRS, thus denying the old TRS leaders a chance to contest.
Wakf Board chief executive officer Shahnawaz Qasim said, We will submit a report after studying all aspects for setting up the NSDC.
Hyderabad: The TS Wakf Board is planning to set up a National Skill Development Centre (NSDC) on a part of the 50-acre site allotted by the government to the Dargah Hazrath Syedna Baba Sharfuddin at Pahadishareef.
The land was allotted after the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and other groups demanded that the government compensate the Wakf Board for the land it acquired for the Shamshabad airport
Sources said the Wakf Board was considering options to set up the centre with the help of Central schemes to improve employment of persons from the minority communities in skilled sector.
Wakf Board chief executive officer Shahnawaz Qasim said, We will submit a report after studying all aspects for setting up the NSDC. We want it to have facilities like workshops for practical sessions, classrooms for theory classes and hostels for the students, he said.
The Board wants the Centre to bear 60 per cent of the cost of setting up the NSDC and the rest is to be paid by the state government. It wants the Centre to allocate the funds from Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Yojana. As part of the scheme, the Union minority affairs ministry recently suggested setting up of NSDCs across the country.
Some time ago, an international NGO had evinced interest in setting up a charitable hospital on a portion of the land to offer free service to the poor.
Several people are approaching the board for lease on the land for projects aimed at social service. We have not finalised anything yet. The proposal for setting up the NSDC is under consideration, said Wakf Board chairman Mohammed Saleem.
Mr D. Suresh Kumar, counsel appearing for the petitioner, told the court that the police was causing inconvenience to the residents of the apartment by deploying a huge force and was preventing the family doctor from treating Mr Varavara Rao..
Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday told Ms Hemalatha, wife of rights activist Varavara Rao, that it would examine her request to allow a doctor to treat her husband, who was under house arrest, if she filed an additional affidavit.
A division bench comprising Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy and Justice P. Kesava Rao was dealing with a petition filed by Ms Hemalatha seeking to declare the arrest of Mr Varavara Rao as illegal.
Mr D. Suresh Kumar, counsel appearing for the petitioner, told the court that the police was causing inconvenience to the residents of the apartment by deploying a huge force and was preventing the family doctor from treating Mr Varavara Rao.
He submitted that the petition against the arrest of the civil right activists including Mr Varavara Rao would come up for hearing before the Supreme Court on Thursday.
Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents a bouquet to US Secretary of Defence James Mattis on his arrival at Palam Tech Area in New Delhi, Wednesday. (Photo:PTI)
New Delhi: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in Delhi on Wednesday to hold the inaugural two-plus-two talks with their Indian counterparts, focus of which will be to deepen strategic ties and resolve differences over Indias defence engagement with Russia and crude oil import from Iran.
Reflecting the importance of the talks to be held on Thursday, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj received Pompeo, while defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman welcomed her US counterpart Jim Mattis at the Palam airport.
Swaraj and Sitharaman will hold the twice-postponed dialogue with Pompeo and Mattis. Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford is also part of the US delegation.
In a special gesture symbolising our warm and friendly relationship, EAM @SushmaSwaraj received United States Secretary of State @SecPompeo at the airport on his first visit to India, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet. The external affairs minister will have a separate bilateral meeting with Pompeo while Sitharaman will have a one-on-one meeting with Mattis on Thursday morning before the delegation-level two-plus-two talks.
Twelve officials from each side are expected to attend the talks which will be followed by a working lunch. In the afternoon, Swaraj, Sitharaman, Pompeo and Mattis will call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
As Secretary Pompeo arrived from Islamabad, India will also try to get his view about his engagement with the new government in Pakistan headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, official sources said. In the talks, the sources said, India will also try to sensitise the US that any cut in import of Iranian oil in compliance with the US sanctions may impact the countrys overall economy as the crude oil from that country is much cheaper.
India is also expected to apprise the US about the importance of the `40,000 crore deal it is about to finalise with Russia to procure a batch of S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems.
Chennai: Health minister Dr C. Vijayabaskar who on Wednesday faced CBI knocking at his doors claimed that his political adversaries engineered a plot to finish off his political career. But, he would face the case legally and politically too and come out clean, he asserted.
Barely hours after the CBI began raids at his residence here and properties across the state, the health minister refuted the accusations levelled against him and said, even now I am say that I am not guilty and hence I am not scared. I humbly assure you all that I will face this accusation legally and politically and will overcome it.
The minister who last year, faced raid by the income tax department, said in a statement here that he was a law abiding citizen.
Ammas government banned gutka and paan masala on May 23, 2013. Since then the government has been trying to implement the ban in the most stringent way. I have not met Madhav Rao, related to gutka and paan masala directly or indirectly. People are trying to defame me and trying to get me out of politics due to enmity by filing false cases against me, he claimed.
Averring that he was extending full cooperation to the authorities, he said, in the above case based on a complaint filed by DMK, the Madras High Court transferred it to CBI. As a law abiding citizen, I am ready to cooperate to lead the case to its natural conclusion.
It was but natural for a person like him, who has worked for the betterment of the state by making the health department one of the best in the country, to be accused of such things by political enemies, he said merely because he is accused, he does not become a criminal. Whenever similar setbacks happened in my political life, I have always overcome them and continued to thrive in politics and serve the people, he said and added madiyil ganamirunthal, vazhiyil bhayamirukkum (we will have fear on the way if we have weight in our waists (money tied to belts).
The National Highway-75, connecting Mangaluru and Bengaluru, was blocked at Shiradi Ghat after massive landslides in about 48 places between Maranahalli and Addahole last month. The stretch that had been closed for repairs since January was opened for vehicle movement in July, only to be closed following landslides.
Mangaluru: In a relief to people travelling between coastal districts and hinterlands, Shiradi Ghat was thrown open for light vehicle traffic from 6 pm on Wednesday.
The National Highway-75, connecting Mangaluru and Bengaluru, was blocked at Shiradi Ghat after massive landslides in about 48 places between Maranahalli and Addahole last month. The stretch that had been closed for repairs since January was opened for vehicle movement in July, only to be closed following landslides.
As the alternative road (NH 275) to Bengaluru via Mysuru and Madikeri via Sampaje too has been severely damaged due to landslides, the pressure was completely on the narrow Charmadi Ghat road which witnessed frequent traffic jams.
Opening of Shiradi Ghat was important as it is the main and shortest route connecting the hinterlands. On Wednesday, a joint inspection was conducted by the assistant commissioner of Puttur, NHAI project director of Hassan and NH Mangaluru division executive engineer. The team gave its nod for the movement of light vehicles. In those places where there has been a landslide (towards the gorge), the officials have suggested one-way movement.
The Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada issued an order allowing light vehicles on the Shiradi Ghat stretch. But the ban continues on the movement of heavy vehicles.
Officials said that necessary measures like construction of barricades, traffic safety tapes, signboards and cat eyes have been installed on all parts of the stretch.
Vehicles sent back
With reports of Hassan officials declaring the Shiradi Ghat open, over 150 vehicles from Sakaleshpur took this road and reached Hassan-DK border. But as the DK district administration had not issued any order, the officials stopped the vehicles at the checkpost and the drivers had to take alternative routes. Sources said the confusion was because of lack of discussion between the two district administrations.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday held that an authors right to freedom of speech and expression to convey an idea or thought cannot be interfered with. It refused to ban the Malayalam novel Meesha on the ground that it was denigrating women.
A three judge bench of Chief justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud dismissing a petition filed by N. Radhakrishan said We must remember that we live not in a totalitarian regime but in a democratic nation which permits free exchange of ideas and liberty of thought and expression.
The petitioner alleged that the novel serialised in a magazine was denigrating women.
Writing the verdict, the CJI said It is only by defending the sacrosanct principles of free speech and expression or, to borrow the words of Justice Louis Brandeis, the freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think and by safeguarding the unfettered creative spirit and imagination of authors, writers, artists and persons in the creative field that we can preserve the basic tenets of our constitutional ideals and mature as a democratic society where the freedoms to read and write are valued and cherished clipped, no work of art can be created.
Cautioning the courts from interfering with such freedom, the CJI said the culture of banning books directly impacts the free flow of ideas and is an affront to the freedom of speech, thought and expression.
Any direct or veiled censorship or ban of book, unless defamatory or derogatory to any community for abject obscenity, would create unrest and disquiet among the intelligentsia by going beyond the bounds of intellectual tolerance and further creating danger to intellectual freedom.
The bench was of the view that any such curb would result in intellectual cowardice which is said to be the greatest enemy of a writer, for it destroys the free spirit of the writer. It shall invite a chilling winter of discontent.
Hyderabad: BJP state president Dr K. Laxman on Wednesday said that partys national president Amit Shah will visit Telangana on September 12 and 15 to brace up party for ensuing Assembly elections. He said Mr Amit Shah will lauch party's campaign from Mahabubnagar district.
Stating that the BJP is ready to face polls anytime, Mr Laxman demanded TRS government to explain why it intends to go for early polls when it's term will expire in May/June 2019.
Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao's eagerness to go for early polls prove that his government has failed in all spheres and to divert people's attention away from his failures, he is trying to dissolve the Assembly and go for early Assembly elections. People are fed up with both TRS and Congress. People consider BJP as a better alternative for TRS and Congress, he said.
Mr Laxman stated that Mr Shah took the responsibility of partys entire election campaign in Telangana. The CM has the power to dissolve the Assembly. But the EC will decide when to hold the polls. Based on its decision, a clarity will come whether early polls will be held or Presidents rule will be imposed, he said.
Nizamabad: TRS Rajya Sabha member D. Srinivas held discussions with his followers here on Wednesday to finalise plans for his political future. Leaders and activists of Nizamabad Urban and rural Assembly constituencies took part in the meeting.
In the backdrop of reports that the Assembly elections would be advanced. his followers are pressuring Mr Srinivas to take a decision on either continuing in the TRS or joining another party. Reportedly, most of his followers are supporting a proposal for Mr Srinivas to join the Congress.
A section of leaders said that Mr Srinivas may re-join the Congress on September 13. They said he had been in touch with Congress senior leaders in New Delhi over the last few days.
If all political equations are in his favour, Mr Srinivas may head back to the Congress on September 13. Both the Congress and the TRS are eagerly awaiting Mr Srinivas decision.
Speaking to mediapersons here on Wednesday Mr Srinivas denied the speculation that he would rejoin the Congress. My first priority is to get an explanation from the TRS high command, as to why they have charged me with anti-party activities, Mr Srinivas said.
He said changing his political party and other issues were his personal decisions and added that he would not disclose anything to the media. A few Congress leaders said that Mr Srinivas may join the BJP to support his son and Nizamabad Parliamentary constituency ticket aspirant D.Arvind. It is better for him to work with the BJP as Mr Srinivas is vexed with the Congress and TRS leaderships so far, a party leader from this section of groups said.
TRS leaders from Nizamabad led by party MP K. Kavitha have asked TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandra-sekhar Rao for action on Mr Srinivas Rao for alleged anti-party moves.
Hubballi: With the rift between the Jarkiholi brothers and Karnataka Congress women wing president, Laxmi Hebbalkar over elections for the posts of PLD bank chairman and vice-chairman deepening in Belagavi, its feared the rumbles may be felt in Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru.
The election, which was slated for August 28, was abruptly postponed by the tahaslidar, who is also the returning officer, after a complaint was lodged with the Kakati police station that one of the banks directors had been kidnapped. Ms Hebbalkar, who claims to have the support of nine of the banks 14 directors, promptly staged a protest against the postponement of the elections and claimed the Jarkiholi brothers were conspiring to create trouble ahead of them.
As the controversy threatened to snowball, the Dharwad High Court bench on Tuesday ruled that the election process should be completed by September 7.
But this has not put an end to the infighting among the Congress leaders as municipal administration minister, Ramesh Jarkiholi, has publicly warned energy minister, D K Shivakumar against backing Ms Hebbalkar and interfering in the Congress affairs in Belagavi.
Minister Shivakumar should not interfere in the district Congress. Neither should he meddle in the partys affairs in Belagavi and nor should I poke my nose in its affairs in Bengaluru. We will give a befitting reply if he does, Mr Ramesh Jarkiholi warned.
The fight between the two influential ministers is said to have reached the ears of the Congress high command, which reportedly reined in Ms Hebbalkar after the Jarkiholis threatened to destabilise the government if it did not .
Although the PLD bank election has intensified the rivalry between Ms Hebbalkar and the Jarkiholi brothers, sources say their relations were already soured over a financial matter. Ms Hebbalkar, who is said to have taken a Rs 200 crore loan from three banks for her under construction sugar mill, reportedly loaned some of it to the Jarkiholi brothers to start their own factory in Maharashtra.
But the brothers allegedly refused to return the money later, leading to the rift between them. Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is said to have tried to iron out the differences between them, but in vain.
Hyderabad: The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee has speeded up political activity to face possible early assembly elections.
After announcing its election manifesto, the TPCC has contacted the party's senior leadership to get UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to visit Telangana and has tentatively decided to hold huge public meetings at Karimnagar and Nizamabad when Ms Gandhi is present.
According to sources, the state Congress leaders have been told that Ms Gandhi's tour programme in Telangana will be finalised once the TRS government takes the decision to dissolve the assembly.
TPCC is planning to start its election campaign with Sonia Gandhi at Karimnagar or Nizamabad on September 14.
The TPCC has asked all the senior party leaders to be available in the city on Thursday. An emergency meeting will be held at Gandhi Bhavan after the cabinet meeting which is likely to take the decision on dissolution of the assembly.
NXPs acquisition of OmniPHY has already begun to translate 1000BASE-T1 Ethernet for the automotive space.
NXP Semiconductors has acquired OmniPHY, a provider of automotive Ethernet subsystem technology that enables the rapid data transfer required for autonomous driving. With the collaboration, NXP aims to deliver the next-generation of data transfer solutions to carmakers. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.
An automotive networking revolution is underway, driven by the need for higher data capacity and speed to meet the requirements of increasingly autonomous and connected vehicles. New advanced autonomous driving systems will require gigabit data speeds and beyond. Current plans for next-generation vehicles call for eight or more cameras, high definition radar, lidar and V2X capability, all of which generate steep data challenges for current car networks. These requirements, combined with the modern vehicles need to offload data to enable the new business opportunities of the connected car, will soon make terabyte levels of data processing commonplace.
As the self-driving ecosystem works to deliver on emerging automotive data requirements, many have turned to enterprise networking solutions as a stopgap measure for testing. Yet long-term solutions will need to be automotive grade and of a size and weight that make their implementation feasible. NXPs acquisition of OmniPHY, which has already begun to translate 1000BASE-T1 Ethernet for the automotive space, will give NXP a significant position in this rapidly evolving area.
OmniPHY delivers high-speed automotive Ethernet IP and automotive qualified IP for 100BASE-T1 and 1000BASE-T1 standards. OmniPHY interface IP and communication technology along with NXPs automotive portfolio will form a one-stop shop for automotive Ethernet, as per the report.
Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
Talking to reporters travelling with him hours before landing in Pakistan, the Secretary of State said: 'The rationale for them (Pakistan) not getting the money is very clear. It's that we haven't seen the progress that we need to see from them'. (Photo: File)
Washington: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has defended the Trump administration's decision to cut USD 300 million aid to Pakistan, saying Islamabad did not make satisfactory progress in combating terrorism.
Pompeo is arriving in Islamabad along with General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, days after the Trump administration cancelled USD 300 million in military aid to Pakistan as it was not doing enough against terrorist groups inside its borders, the latest controversy to hit Islamabad's troubled relationship with Washington. Pompeo's talks will be the Trump administration's first high-level dialogue with Pakistan since the new government of Prime Minister Imran Khan assumed office after the July 25 elections.
Talking to reporters travelling with him hours before landing in Pakistan, the Secretary of State said: "The rationale for them (Pakistan) not getting the money is very clear. It's that we haven't seen the progress that we need to see from them".
The top American diplomat, during his meeting with Khan, army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, would convey the same message of acting tough on terrorist organisations in Pakistan.
"The very reason for this trip is to try and articulate what it is our expectation is, the things that they can do, the things that they expect us to do, and see if we can't find a path forward together," Pompeo said amid reports that the Pentagon has sought a Congressional approval to reprogramme USD 300 million meant for financial assistance to Pakistan because of the lack of progress in fight against terrorism.
However, Pompeo said that this was not news for Pakistan. "Look, this wasn't news to the Pakistanis. It made a lot of headlines over the last few days because of the formality... but they were told this past summer that they weren't likely to get that money," he said.
Ahead of the meeting with Khan, Pompeo hoped that they can turn the page and begin to make progress.
"There are real expectations. We need Pakistan to seriously engage to help us get to the reconciliation we need in Afghanistan... They have important interests, security interests in Afghanistan to make sure they get the issues at their border right, and we need their help," Pompeo said.
On his first trip to Pakistan after Khan became the Prime Minister, Pompeo said he wanted to get there at the beginning of Khan's tenure in an effort to "reset the relationship" between the two countries.
"We have worked closely with the Pakistanis in my role as the CIA director. Our teams have been working together for a long time. There are lots of challenges between our two nations for sure, but we're hopeful that with the new leadership that we can find common ground and begin to work on some of our shared problems together. They have expressed good-faith intention to do so," the Secretary of State said.
Pompeo said that he and Dunford would have opportunities to walk through the complexity that is this relationship and hopefully begin to make some progress so that they can get back to a set of common understandings.
"So that's really the very straightforward objective. I think it's important to meet the new prime minister early on in his time in office," Pompeo said.
Responding to a question, Pompeo said that US aid to Pakistan could be restored, but he has not seen the progress yet.
"We certainly haven't seen the progress that we would hope to have seen, certainly not progress that would be sufficient for us to have advocated for turning back on that financial support," said the top American diplomat.
"Would that aid be back on the table if you do see measures that meet yours," he was asked. "I think the answer is probably yes," Pompeo said.
"If we get to the place you have to remember what it was. Some of this was we use the term 'aid' loosely there. It's more complicated; it's different sets of resources. But we were providing these resources when they made sense for the US, when it made sense because the partnership was in a place that the actions of our two countries, it made sense to do that. If that arises again, I am confident we'll present to the President the rationale for that, and then something like that might make sense," Pompeo added.
Islamabad: Pakistan will allow India to inspect the Kotri barrage in the lower Indus, while New Delhi has agreed to Islamabad's request for a special inspection of the hydroelectric projects in the Jhelum river basin, including the Kishanganga scheme, a Pakistani media report said on Tuesday.
The decision was taken during last week's meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission held in Lahore, the first official engagement between India and Pakistan since Imran Khan became PM.
During the meeting both the sides agreed to conduct the general tours of inspection which could not be conducted since 2014, the Dawn reported.
The Pakistani Commissioner for Indus Waters will visit the Chenab basin in last week of Sept., followed by a tour of Indian Commissioner for Indus Water to the Kotri barrage in the lower Indus, the report said.
The north-east division police arrested two Ugandan students for installing skimming equipment and micro cameras at ATM kiosks and withdrawing money using stolen data and duplicate credit/debit cards.
The arrested have been identified as Babalanda Amunon (25), a resident of Kothanur, and Ongido Ambrose (22), a resident of MS Palya. Both are from Kampala in Uganda. Police are on the lookout for another accused, Mariyam, who also hails from Uganda.
Police have seized two laptops, two storage devices, four skimmer plates, micro cameras, nine mobile phones, 20 ATM cards, 160 duplicate cards, a two-wheeler and Rs 60,000 from them. The two are said to have withdrawn Rs 25 lakh through skimming.
Babalanda is studying pharmacy in a private college near Hennur while Ongido is pursuing BCA in Vidyaranyapura. The duo stays with friend Mariyam in Kothanur.
According to police, the accused used to travel around the city in a bike to identify ATMs to instal skimming devices. They would take out memory cards with details of debit/credit cards and use the data to make online transactions and also withdraw money by using duplicate credit/debit cards.
At some ATMs, the duo had installed cameras to the roofs which looked like smoke detectors.
The two were inside an ATM kiosk near Hegde Nagar on August 28 when the Kothanur police, who were on night patrol, spotted them. Upon interrogation, they confessed that they were trying to instal a skimming machine.
The accused told the police that they had installed skimming machines at ATMs in MS Palya, Hegde Nagar, Kothanur Main Road and Geddalahalli. Police also said the duo had withdrawn Rs 25 lakh through skimming. They had committed similar crimes in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
A complaint was lodged by S Naveen in June 2017 with Kothanur police, saying somebody had withdrawn Rs 21,000 from his account. The investigation revealed that the same gang was behind the crime.
Within seconds of stealing his credit card details, the accused had withdrawn money thrice.
India and Bulgaria on Wednesday signed four MoUs, including one on civil nuclear cooperation, as President Ram Nath Kovind held talks with his Bulgarian counterpart Rumen Radev and invited the Balkan nation to become a key partner of India in the defence sector.
Kovind arrived on Tuesday from Cyprus on the second leg of his eight-day three-nation visit to Europe to continue India's high-level engagements with European countries.
The President held detailed talks with Radev and later the two leaders witnessed the signing of four MoUs between India and Bulgaria on investment, tourism, civil nuclear cooperation and the establishment of Hindi Chair at Sofia University, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.
A programme of cooperation was also signed to enhance scientific cooperation, he said
Kovind also invited Bulgaria to become a key partner of India in the defence sector, IT sector under 'Make In India' programme, the MEA spokesperson said.
Bulgaria is a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) member country with a large indigenous defence industry. It is ranked as a "medium" small arms exporter according to the Small Arms Survey.
Bilateral trade between India and Bulgaria has grown 76 per cent during 2016-17, but there is a lot of scope for expanding the current bilateral trade basket as well as for enhancing the quantum in the existing items of export and import, the Indian Embassy in Bulgaria said on its website.
Last night, Kovind hailed the Indian diaspora in Bulgaria for acting as a "living bridge" between the two nations and welcomed the community's participation in India's transformative journey.
Addressing the Indian Community here, the president also said there is a "new vigour" in India's diaspora policy and outreach.
Praising the Indian community, Kovind said, "The Indian Diaspora in Bulgaria constitutes a living bridge between our countries. Your numbers may be small but you have made an appreciable contribution to fostering bilateral ties."
The Indian community in Bulgaria is very small numbering around 250 permanent residents who are engaged in small business or work in companies.
In addition, there are around 400 other Indians, mostly students and IT professionals, who come on a temporary basis and leave the country when their courses or job assignments are over.
India is keen on making sure that its first "2+2 dialogue" with the US in New Delhi on Thursday does not end up sending out a hostile message to China.
Though the US wants India to play a key role in containing China in Indo-Pacific, New Delhi is likely to tread cautiously, as it does not want to put in peril its detente with the Communist country.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will host American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defence James N Mattis for the inaugural India-US "2+2 dialogue" in New Delhi on Thursday.
The US officials over the past few days indicated that "advancing the shared vision" of India and America for Indo-Pacific was on the agenda of the "2+2 dialogue", which would have at its "front and centre" the issue of hegemonic aspirations of China.
Pompeo and Mattis are likely to convey to Sushma and Nirmala that India and the US share "an interest in promoting security and prosperity" in the Indo-Pacific in order to ensure "freedom of the seas and skies, promote market economics, support good governance and insulate sovereign nations from external coercion".
The US Secretary of State and Secretary of Defence are likely to nudge New Delhi to commit to play a "central role" in President Donald Trump's strategy for countering China in the Indo-Pacific region.
India, however, is likely to remain non-committal and avoid echoing the US to make it sure it does not raise hackles in China.
Sources in New Delhi said that Sushma and Nirmala would seek to know from Pompeo and Mattis the broad contours of Trump administration's strategy on Indo-Pacific.
They would also convey to them New Delhi's vision for the region, as articulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his keynote address at Shangri La dialogue in Singapore on June 1.
External Affairs Minister and Defence Minister would underline that India's approach on Indo-Pacific was not the same as that of the US, although the two had "certain similarities", sources, aware about New Delhi's engagement with Washington, added.
India had joined Japan, Australia and the US to relaunch a quadrilateral dialogue on Indo-Pacific in November 2017. The move had apparently been aimed at bringing the four democratic nations together and creating a bulwark against China in the Indo-Pacific region.
New Delhi, however, went for a course correction early this year, as it started reaching out to Beijing to mend the complex India-China relations, which had hit a new low over the 72-day-long military face-off at Doklam Plateau in western Bhutan in June-August 2017.
Modi, himself, made it clear in Singapore that India never viewed the Indo-Pacific region as "a strategy or as a club of limited members".
He said that India stood for a free, open, inclusive region, which would embrace all in a common pursuit of progress and prosperity.
Faculty members of central universities on Wednesday wore black bands and badges on the Teachers' Day in protest against the government not acceding to their various demands which included a long-pending demand to revert to the old pension scheme.
They also flagged the issue of misgovernance in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi, University of Manipur in Imphal and Mahatma Gandhi Central University in Bihar where students and teachers both are in loggerheads with the university administration over a host of issues.
Recently, an assistant professor of Mahatma Gandhi Central University in Motihari district of Bihar was brutally roughed up by a group of people over his Facebook post on former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The assailants also reportedly tried to burn the professor alive amid the scuffles.
Teachers wore black bands and badges to mark their protest against the Modi government's policies in higher education sector, on a call from the Federation of Central Universities' Teachers' Association (FEDCUTA)
Thousands of teachers in universities and colleges across the country wore black bands/badges today to protest against the draconian New Pension Scheme (NPS) and other issues, Rajib Ray, FEDCUTA president, said.
Several teachers' associations like the Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA), Jamia Teachers' Association (JTA), JNU Teachers' Association (JNUTA), Assam University Teachers' Association (AUTA) and the Aligarh Muslim University Teachers' Association (AMUTA) showed unanimous support and solidarity to the FEDCUTA call, he added.
Teachers have been protesting against the NPS since its inception in 2014.
The discriminatory NPS leaves those who got jobs on or after January 1, 2014 in complete lurch. Not only have the NPS subscribers been undemocratically subjected to the vicissitudes of the share market, they are also only able to withdraw 60% of the contribution at the time of retirement. The rest 40% has to be mandatorily used to purchase annuities from approved life insurers, Sonajharia Minz, FEDCUTA secretary, said.
It is high time that the HRD ministry listens to the will of the people and recommend to the government to revert to the old pension scheme, he said.
The pension revision, as notified by the HRD Ministry on June 11, 2018 also remains incomplete as it did not have the correct concordance table according to the revised pay matrix of the seventh central pay commission (CPC), he added.
A war of words ensued between Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa on Wednesday following a charge by the former that the saffron party was trying to topple the coalition government by using central agencies.
Kumaraswamy charged that officers had been posted in the Income Tax (I-T) department and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to target leaders of the ruling coalition. He even charged that Yeddyurappa sons B Y Vijendra had met a top I-T official recently.
Reacting sharply to the charge on Wednesday, Yeddyurappa said Kumaraswamy was making irresponsible statements. It is unbecoming of the chief minister to make such baseless charges. Why should we topple the government? We have nothing to do with it, Yeddyurappa said.
Vijendra denied that he had met any I-T official. He (Kumaraswamy) has made a childish statement. It reflects his state of mind, Vijendra said.
However, Kumaraswamy stuck to his charge. I have the information and hence, I made the statement. When reporters asked whether he had proof, Kumaraswamy said, Should I go with a camera to capture the dealings of Yeddyurappa?
Joint Commissioner of Income Tax (Administration) Tamil Selvam clarified that the family members of none of the politicians had met the Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-Tax and Director General of Income-Tax (Investigation), Karnataka and Goa and termed the charge as baseless.
Delaware County Republican Party Chairman Andrew Reilly took up a new position this month as a member of the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
I am honored to be selected by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to serve on the Disciplinary Board, Reilly said in a statement. Having previously served as a Disciplinary Board Hearing Officer, adjudicating disciplinary matters at the hearing level, I am pleased to have the opportunity to continue my services to promote and enforce ethical standards for Pennsylvania practitioners.
The 13-member Disciplinary Board is an independent agency that assists the Supreme Court in all matters involving attorney licensing and discipline. It is made up of 11 attorneys and two non-lawyers from across the state, and is funded by annual assessments paid by attorneys licensed to practice in Pennsylvania.
Reilly, a managing partner of Swartz Campbell LLC with a focus on civil litigation, municipal law and government relations, began his three-year term with the board Sept. 1.
A graduate of Susquehanna University, Reilly earned his Juris Doctorate from Widener University and previously served as a law clerk to former Pennsylvania Superior Court President Judge Stephen J. McEwen Jr.
Reilly is also a past chairman of Delaware County Council, and a past board member of the Delaware River Port Authority, the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority, Riddle Memorial Hospital, Neumann College and the Delaware Valley Regional Finance Authority.
WEST CHESTER Lisa Saxes thefts from her employer were not a just-this-one-time, Ill-pay-it-back-as-soon-as-I-can, I-just-need-the-money-to-pay-the bills embezzlement scheme.
Rather, according to the prosecutor who handled the sentencing hearing for Saxe before Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey R. Sommer on Tuesday, it was a series of multiple thefts over a significant period of time, in a number of ways that left the company for which she worked imperiled financially and betrayed psychologically.
This was a long, slow bleed, said Assistant District Attorney Christopher Miler, in urging Sommer to exceed the normal state sentencing guidelines in punishing Saxe for the thefts, which totaled more than $230,000 over a 10-year period. You are looking at someone who did this for a very long period of time. This is fairly egregious example of thefts from a locally owned, family business.
It makes me sick to my stomach, Miller declared.
Sommer, in handing down his sentence for the 49-year-old former resident of Claymont, Del., noted that Saxes thefts were not simply from the company for whom she worked as office manager and bookkeeper, William Cohen & Sons of Thorndale. They amounted to thefts from all of her co-workers and their families, since they were all made worse by the companys sour financial position due to her excessive pilfering in one form or another.
This really is a theft from many individuals, Sommer stated. It is not a victimless crime. Its the same as going in there with a gun and robbing them with a .45.
Sommer sentenced Saxe to five to 14 years in state prison, just shy of the 5 1/2 year minimum that Miler had recommended. He also ordered restitution of $167,000, the amount that is left from what Saxe paid the firm back before she pleaded guilty in October 2017.
The delay in the sentencing came because after she entered her guilty pleas of counts of theft by unlawful taking and access device fraud, Saxe ran away, telling not even her husband and two daughters where she was going, Miller said. She had reportedly sold her house to have funds to pay back what she owed the Cohen company, but used the money instead to fund her flight. She was eventually arrested by authorities in Texas in June.
Officials of the company, a 68-year-old family owned firm that sells trucks and truck parts, told Sommer in statements about the impact of the thefts not only in financial but personal terms. Saxe had come to the company as an entry-level worker, but worked her way up the company ladder by endearing herself through her work to the late company president, Jacob Cohen.
Jacob Cohen treated Saxe like a member of the family, entrusting its finances with her and showing his appreciation by taking her for family dinners, his nephew Alan Cohen said in court. Jacob Cohen died before finding out that Saxe had been stealing rom the firm on a regular basis, using the money to feed a gambling habit that saw her run up losses of more than $800,000, Miller said.
She was arrested in August 2016 by Detective Sgt. Christine L. Cusick of the Caln Police Department after being confronted with her thefts. She gave herself unauthorized salary raises, unearned commission checks, and even upgraded her health insurance benefits to help pay for family medical care. All the while she was using the funds to gamble at area casinos.
We had complete trust in her, Alan Cohen said. She knew that she had a level of trust and that she would be able to get stay with all her illegal acts for a long period of time. It is hard for me to express how hurtful this has been for me.
Said Michael Cohen, another member of the family company, Lisa knew how much she could get away with because (the family) trusted her completely. They never looked over her shoulder.
Alan Cohen said that when the Great Recession hit in 2008, the company had to lay off workers because they did not have cash on hand to tide things over the result of Saxes thefts.
Reading from a prepared statement, Saxe seemed to minimize what her thefts had wrought, apologizing for the inconvenience and hardship I may have caused.
You treated me like family, and I betrayed your trust, Saxe said, seated before Sommer and next to her attorney, Julia A. Theobald of the Ciccarelli Law Firm of West Chester. Id like to be given the opportunity to make up for the pain and hardship I caused.
Sommer seized on her description of her crimes impact as an inconvenience.
Stealing $250,000 isnt an inconvenience,' he said. An inconvenience is failing to show up for work on time.
SALT LAKE CITY Members of the Utah Wildlife Board approved an increase in the number of cougars hunters can take during the upcoming season.
During the 2017-18 season, hunters were allowed to take up to 581 cougars. This year theyll be able to take up to 641. However, the number that are taken will actually be lower.
Cougars are tough to hunt, Darren DeBloois, game mammals coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources said. Not every hunter who gets a permit will take one.
Last year, 456 were taken.
Hunters can apply for a cougar permit starting Tuesday, Sept. 18. The cougar hunting rules the board approved will be available in the free 2018-19 Utah Cougar Guidebook which should be available at wildlife.utah.gov/guidebooks by Friday, Sept. 14.
DeBloois said Utahs cougar population is doing well, with lots of the big cats found across the state. Those who take a cougar must bring the animal to a DWR biologist or a conservation officer to see if its a male or a female and to determine the animals age by removing and analyzing one of its teeth.
Utahs Cougar Management Plan provides guidelines that help ensure the state has a healthy and stable cougar population. The two major guidelines are the number of female cougars hunters take compared to the number of males, and the number of cougars taken that are 5 years of age or older.
The plan dictates that not more than 40 percent of the cougars hunters take can be females. And at least 15 percent of the cougars taken must be 5 or older.
During the 2017-18 season, 32 percent of the cougars taken were females and 16 percent were 5 or older.
PRICE The Bureau of Land Management will remove excess wild horses from the Muddy Creek Management Area in Emery County starting on Tuesday, Sept. 11, due to continued drought and overpopulation.
Approximately 149 animals will be removed in order to reach the agencys appropriate management level of 75-125 animals. Once that number is achieved, fertility control will be administered to in order to help reduce population increases in the area.
The Muddy Creek area, located approximately 20 miles south of Ferron in the San Rafael Swell, consists of approximately 283,400 acres of public and state lands.
Opportunities will be available for the public to observe daily operations through BLM-escorted tours so long as conditions remain safe for both the animals and participants. Observers must provide their own transportation, water and food. No public restrooms will be available. The BLM recommends weather-appropriate footwear and neutral-colored clothing. Binoculars and four-wheel drive or other high-clearance vehicles are also strongly recommended.
Participants can meet at two locations for daily tours: the Gas-n-Go, 970 W. Main, Green River, and the kiosk on the south side of I-70 Exit 131, the Temple Mountain Road. The tours will leave at 6 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., respectively.
Gather and tour information may change daily and will be posted each evening on the BLM Utah gather hotline at 801-539-4050.
Visitors and observers should be aware that low-flying helicopters will be used as part of the operation. Unmanned aerial vehicles near the San Rafael Swell region south of I-70 from the McKay Flat area west to the Cathedral Valley scenic byway will be prohibited. Traffic may also be stopped for short intervals to allow for safe movement of horses.
Horses removed from the range will be transported to the Delta Wild Horse Facility, which will be closed when the horses are unloaded and for a period following, to allow the horses to settle before being prepped for the adoption and sale program.
Roseanne Barr said over the holiday weekend she plans to move away before The Conners premieres in the fall.
Barr told Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on his latest podcast she won't watch the Roseanne spinoff, which debuts next month on ABC.
Rather, she plans to study on the other side of the world.
"I have an opportunity to go to Israel for a few months and study with my favorite teachers over there," Barr said, according to CNN. "And that's where I'm going to go and probably move somewhere there and study with my favorite teachers. I have saved a few pennies and I'm so lucky I can go. It's my great joy and privilege to be a Jewish woman."
ABC fired Barr earlier this year after she sent out a racist tweet about former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett. ABC canceled her revived Roseanne show, too, which had been brought back in 2018 to massive ratings.
In June, ABC announced that The Conners would return, but without Barr involved in the show. The network said, Barr will have no financial or creative involvement in the new series."
Barr told Rabbi Boteach she wont say anything negative about the new show, though, according to Uproxx.
Im not going to curse it or bless it. Im staying neutral. Thats what I do, Barr said on the podcast. Im staying away from it. Not wishing bad on anyone, and I dont wish good for my enemies. I dont. I cant. I just stay neutral. Thats what I gotta do. I have some mental health issues of depression and stuff. I got to stay in the middle or Ill go dark, and I dont want to go dark again. Ive done it.
John Goodman, who will star on The Conners, told the Sunday Times of London back in August that he expects his character to be mopey and sad over the loss of his wife, implying that the character Roseanne will have died in the fictional story.
SALT LAKE CITY Japanese researchers will begin conducting tests on a new space elevator later this month.
And no, this is not like the one from the Roald Dahl books.
Shizuoka University has built test equipment that will launch into space alongside an H-2B rocket. The equipment includes a small elevator box that measures about 2.4 inches long, three centimeters wide and three centimeters high, according to Phys.org.
Two small cubic satellites, which measure about 10 centimeters on each side, will be connected by a 10-meter steel cable. The satellites will be carried from Kagoshima Tanegashima Space Center to the International Space Station on Sept. 11.
From there, the connected satellites will be launched and a motorized container acting as an elevator car will travel along the cable and have its journey recorded via a camera attached to the satellites, according to CNBC.
The elevator will be made of carbon nanotube technology, which is reportedly 20 times stronger than steel.
The idea is to provide proof of concept by moving along a 10-meter cable suspended in space between two mini-satellites that will keep it taut," according to Phys.org.
"It's going to be the world's first experiment to test elevator movement in space," a university spokesman told AFP Tuesday.
Of course the ultimate goal is to create an elevator that brings one from Earth all the way up into space. Technical barriers have limited how much testing can be done for elevators, though.
The Japanese construction company Obayashi has worked with Shizuoka University to create a space elevator that could bring tourists to space by the year 2050.
SALT LAKE CITY A century ago, Labor Day in northern Utah was about as quiet as this past Monday, except that people were obsessed with the grim news of the world war.
The Salt Lake Telegram featured an Associated Press report that the government had spent $57 million per day in August, mostly because of the war effort. Obviously this was considered outrageous at the time (although, for comparisons sake, Washington spends $11.4 billion per day today, or $690 million in 1918 dollars).
Near that was a story about how Salt Lake candymakers were gearing up to bid for a government contract to supply soldiers with lemon drops and other compact candies to help morale while fighting in Europe.
People had no idea what was coming to their own doorsteps.
In Boston on that early September day, a win the war for freedom parade of about 4,000 military personnel and civilian contractors wound through the city. The Boston Globe said the parade took 28 minutes from start to finish and the weather was ideal.
The next day, Sept. 3, was when the first civilian case of what became known as the Spanish influenza was reported at a Boston hospital, like the first ball of snow in an avalanche.
By November, Salt Lake City, Murray, Ogden and a lot of Utah cities were in quarantine, as were cities around the world. All public assemblies, including church services, theater performances and sporting events were canceled indefinitely.
The Telegram published an editorial with a tone that reflected the publics sense of desperation. If it is necessary to go still further, the editors demanded, the health officials should not hesitate. The health authorities should consider themselves all powerful at this time and demand whatever is necessary to prevent the further sacrificing of lives.
Democratic institutions and due process fly out the window when people are dying in bunches. People readily appoint health officials to be dictators.
Why bring this up 100 years later, other than to note the anniversary? Because, as former Health and Human Service Secretary and Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt told me years ago, pandemics are "just a part of biologic fact. ... And what's occurred in previous centuries is it always catches people by surprise." He also said he expects them to happen in the 21st century.
Also, because an op-ed in theconversation.com by medical scholars concerning a recent white paper published by The Scowcroft Institute for International Affairs has made it clear the United States is no more ready to handle a widespread, fast-moving deadly disease today than it was in 1918.
We have a lot more effective medicines today, but we cant react any faster to a global pandemic because were not planning for it. And, most troubling of all, the United States seems to be turning inward at a time when it needs to take the lead in international cooperation among health officials.
We have a lot more effective medicines today, but we cant react any faster to a global pandemic because were not planning for it.
Specifically, the authors pointed to a few troubling problems. One is that were overusing antibiotics. Most of this is in agriculture, but humans are over-prescribed, as well. As a result, bacteria are becoming resistant to what once were considered wonder drugs. Millions could die as a result.
Another is the lack of international rules for the use of these drugs. You need a prescription for antibiotics in this country, but not in some parts of the world.
Third, governments have failed to understand the need to combine the animal, human and environmental health industries into a united effort to stave off a post-antibiotic world.
Finally, governments need to promote a more-diverse supply chain. The authors cite protective masks as an example. The N95 mask is made in only one Asian city. If that city were hit by an epidemic, no one could get masks, just as Hurricane Maria wiped out production of an important IV saline bag in Puerto Rico.
While the flu isnt the only disease to pose a global threat, its annual mutation poses a troubling challenge. A number of groups are at work on a universal flu vaccine that would put an end to annual shots.
All of these needs require more government spending and a sense of urgency.
But, just as on Labor Day a century ago, its hard to drum up urgency when other things seem so much more important. Humans, unfortunately, are predictable that way.
A compelling case for library media standards of learning being taught in Utah schools has implicityly been made in three recently published Deseret News pieces. But who has the legal mandate to accomplish this teaching? Teacher librarians are the answer, but are slowly becoming extinct in Utah. Why? The answer may be because parents do not demand support with an active teacher librarian in place in each childs public schools.
Although all three pieces have, probably unknowingly, zeroed in on the critical need for timely information and media skills to be taught, none mention the key solution to this education issue at hand, that of strong school library programs and the teacher librarians who can provide the lessons. The public in general as well as parents and school administrators specifically often seem oblivious to a solution right under their noses.
In the first August publication "A call for information age education, M. Donald Thomas and Lynn Stoddard, former Utah educators, assert, "Now, we are beginning to understand some small steps schools can take that will lead to information age schooling develop curiosity and help students learn how to ask strong questions and search in a variety of places."
"Media literacy among the public is needed now more than ever. Transparency in media is also needed more than ever, and in greater proportions. And bias should be acknowledged," wrote Doug Wilks, editor, in the second piece titled, Why the Deseret News chose to write a one-word editorial." Yet again, the serious lack of staff support to teach a state-mandated curriculum is omitted.
In "The cost of skimming: The pursuit of truth requires critical thinking skills," printed Sept. 1, the editorial board states, "Simply put, by not using the brain to apply the reading and reasoning skills human beings have used for centuries, people are in very real danger of losing these critical abilities. Should society care? Without those critical tools, people will continue to retreat to the comfort of information sources that make them the most comfortable, or they will rely on others to tell them what is bogus and what is true."
These skills should be taught in Utah schools. But who has the legal mandate to accomplish this teaching? Teacher librarians are the only legal answer, but are slowly becoming extinct in Utah. Why? Who is standing up to insist upon the gains that a strong teacher librarian in their children's schools can provide? While those same parents usually advocate for a library and librarian, they do not demand that the information, media and reading engagement skills be stressed.
The public is not sufficiently informed about the tools already in place, the standards aleady adopted by the Utah State Board of Education. Please make it your responsibility to learn for yourself what could be taught by doing more than skimming this opinion piece. Go to https://schools.utah.gov/curr/librarymedia and read for yourself the key skills required by a knowledgeable citizenry.
The ability to use both electronic and print sources to evaluate and use information and media messages is not only a necessary, but an essential competency. Indeed, in a free nation, each and every citizen should be able to go beyond information intake to synthesize from all the words available new personal knowledge and opinions that can be produced by thoughtful analysis of text. Together we can demand of our schools what the future generation requires.
I grew up in Millcreek, Utah, attended public school in Utah for my K-12 education, and am currently a student at Utah State University. Im writing because Im concerned about the recent one-sided House Natural Resources Committee hearing, led by Rep. Rob Bishop in Roosevelt, Utah, on Aug. 29. It was intended to promote more fossil-fuel development on Utahs federal lands as a way to increase state education funding.
Not only is extraction of oil and gas on federal lands a temporary revenue source, considering that their supply is finite, but it also has severe consequences on the ecological environment and human health. A significant amount of the ozone and pollution problems that are evident in Utah are the result of oil and gas extraction in the Western states and burning of coal for energy supply. Increased mining on our federal lands will result in increased pollution and deter tourism, a crucial component of Utahs economy.
Utahns and tourists alike love enjoying recreational activities on our awe-inspiring federal lands. Instead of contributing to our states already poor air quality and reducing the quality of the recreational experience on our public lands through increased mining, state taxes should be increased to properly fund our education system. I care much more about my personal health, the health of my community and the ecological value of federal lands than about the small amount of money I might save on my state taxes.
Casey Trout
Logan
AMERICAN FORK A Utah family hopes a billboard on Interstate 15 will bring new information about the disappearance of a 24-year-old woman missing since she went running at Timpanogos Cave National Monument more than six months ago.
The Utah County Sheriff's Office says Jerika Binks left most of her belongings Feb. 18 in her room at a residential treatment center in American Fork, but took her cellphone with her.
National Park Service photos and cellphone data placed her running that day on the trail in American Fork Canyon.
Binks' mother, Suzanne Westring, tells the Daily Herald the billboard company, Reagan Outdoor Advertising, is donating the freeway sign.
The family also hosts a Facebook page called Finding Jerika.
"OPERATION FINALE" 3 stars Ben Kingsley, Oscar Isaac, Melanie Laurent, Joe Alwyn; PG-13 (disturbing thematic content and related violent images, and for some language); In general release
For Operation Finale, Sir Ben Kingsley returns to a familiar subject, albeit from a more villainous angle.
Chris Weitzs film recounts the true story of a small group of Israeli operatives who attempt to bring Holocaust criminal Adolf Eichmann to justice.
The film is set in 1960, years after most Nazi leaders have already committed suicide or faced judgment at the Nuremberg Trials. Eichmann, the SS officer known as the author of the Final Solution, has evaded capture, eventually settling in Buenos Aires under an assumed name amid a growing Argentine antisemitic movement.
When a Jewish girl named Sylvia (Haley Lu Richardson) begins dating Eichmanns son Klaus (Joe Alwyn), Mossad forces are alerted that their long search may be over. Led by a longtime operative named Peter Malkin (Oscar Isaac), a clandestine team is sent to Argentina with a plan to abduct the ex-Nazi and bring him back to Israel to face justice.
Like most members of the team, which includes his ex-girlfriend Hanna (Melanie Laurent), Malkin struggles with the idea of taking Eichmann alive. Most everyone involved lost multiple family members to Nazi oppression, and Malkin is haunted by the loss of his sister Fruma (Rita Pauls) and her three children.
Weitz walks us through the meticulous process of planning and executing the abduction, meant to take place amid the local distraction of Argentinas 150th anniversary celebration. But Operation Finales story really gets started once the team apprehends Eichmann, then discovers they will have to hold him captive in a Buenos Aires safe house for over a week before they can secure safe passage home.
The team is warned of Eichmanns manipulative and duplicitous powers, but Malkin eventually opens a conversation with his captive, initiating a psychological game of cat and mouse that forces him to face the depth of his emotional trauma.
Its in these scenes between Eichmann and Malkin that Kingsley shines, performing with the kind of spot-on resonance that leaves you thinking hes truly the only actor for the role. Its both sickening and fascinating to watch his character attempt to talk himself around his various justifications and rationalizations for actions that cost the lives of millions, and Kingsleys work is mesmerizing.
The role is a dramatic swing from the actors other noteworthy encounter with the Holocaust as the Jewish Itzhak Stern in 1993s Schindlers List. Its also a bold challenge for Isaac to match, but like several of his co-stars, hes able to capture the internal conflict between his integrity and base instinct for violent revenge.
Weitz does a solid if not spectacular job of emoting the suspenseful tension of whether Malkin and his team will be able to succeed in their mission, but the meat of the film is the interaction between Eichmann and Malkin.
Operation Finale spares audiences the graphic detail of its subject matter the film is in safe PG-13 territory in terms of both language and violence but Weitzs effort is still emotionally taxing, and an effective addition to a catalogue of Holocaust-inspired films that covers a little-known chapter of the story.
"Operation Finale" is rated PG-13 for disturbing thematic content and related violent images, and for some language; running time: 122 minutes.
SALT LAKE CITY A man has been arrested and charged after police say he held a woman he met at a gas station at gunpoint and sexually assaulted her inside his semitrailer.
Talbert Montrell Elzie, 26, was charged Tuesday in 2nd District Court with aggravated sexual assault, a first-degree felony; and purchase, transfer, possession or use of a firearm by a restricted person, a third-degree felony. He also faces class B misdemeanor charges of possession or use of a controlled substance, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and use or possession of drug paraphernalia.
On Aug. 7, according to the charges, Elzie met a woman who was offering to clean semitrailers for money at a gas station in Salt Lake City. Elzie told her he would give her $20 to clean his truck but "he did not want them to stay at that location," charges state.
The woman got into the truck and Elzie drove to Kaysville, where he offered her money "to spend the night and hang out with him," court documents say.
She agreed and Elzie eventually stopped at a rest area off I-15. He then went to the sleeper cab and removed his clothes, charges state, offering the woman money to perform a sex act.
"The female disclosed to law enforcement that she agreed but made it clear to (Elzie) that there would be no other sexual contact, including sexual intercourse," charges state.
Elzie later pulled out a gun, cocked it and held it to the woman's head, and sexually assaulted her, according to the charges.
"She thought he was going to kill her if she did not comply," court documents state.
After the assault, investigators said, Elzie "abandoned" the woman at a freeway off-ramp exit "under the guise of having her help him dispose of a piece of plywood" in the back of his truck.
As he drove away, Elzie threw the woman's purse out the window, charges state.
The woman made it to a 7-Eleven where she reported the assault, according to court documents. Police say DNA evidence and the woman's description of the man helped them identify Elzie.
When law enforcement located Elzie later in August, he was driving a different semitrailer, but officers found a black 9 mm pistol inside that matched the gun described by the woman. Las Vegas police had listed the gun as stolen, charges state.
Police also found marijuana inside the truck, charges state. The woman had said that Elzie smoked marijuana when she was with him, according to investigators.
Elzie "could not recall his whereabouts" at the time of the alleged assault, charges said.
While at the police department being interviewed, Elzie was overheard on a phone call talking about an "altercation where he shot a man in the head," charges state. Additionally, he has "no ties to Utah." Police believe Elzie to be a flight risk and recommend that he be held without bail, according to the charges.
His first court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 5.
Those who have experienced sexual abuse or assault can be connected to trained advocates through Utah's statewide 24-hour Rape and Sexual Assault Crisis Line at 888-421-1100.
SALT LAKE CITY The controversial Utah Inland Port Authority board has hit yet another "speed bump."
It's been less than a week since the board voted, despite pushback, to not create higher standards than what Utah's open meetings law sets out and instead kept its subcommittee meetings closed yet already a Salt Lake City board member is expressing concerns the board is straying from the state's open meeting law requirements.
Lara Fritts, Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski's economic development director, sent a letter Tuesday afternoon to fellow port board members raising concerns about the board's recent vote to negotiate a tax deal with Stadler Rail the rail car manufacturer that already struck a deal with the city earlier this year to expand its headquarters.
At the time of the deal, there was a caveat acknowledging the deal could potentially be undone by the port authority since it has the power to take the city's portion of the property's tax increment.
Biskupski who has been at odds with state leaders and even her own council over the controversial board tasked with creating a global trade area in Salt Lake City's undeveloped northwest mentioned the letter in front of the Salt Lake City Council Tuesday evening while echoing concerns of residents and advocacy groups that have protested the port authority board's closed-door subcommittee meetings.
"My concern and that shared by the public is that the inland port board is and will continue to conduct the vast majority of business behind closed doors and then only provide the public a cursory input prior to coming together as a board to vote, which is what we are witnessing," Biskupski said, "and I'm not sure what it will take to change that trajectory."
Biskupski then announced "just today" Fritts had sent a letter to Derek Miller, the board's chairman and president of the Salt Lake Chamber, saying she shares Fritts' concerns.
In the lengthy letter, obtained by the Deseret News Tuesday evening, Fritts decried the board's vote in last week's meeting to direct the Governor's Office of Economic Development to move forward with negotiations on behalf of the port authority to strike a tax differential deal for Stadler Rail.
Fritts wrote that "discussion and decision-making was not carried out in accordance with the Utah and Public Meetings Act," noting that the law "prevents a body from taking final action on an item in a public meeting unless that item is publicly noticed on a meeting agenda.
"While GOED might not legally need the port authority's consent to negotiate incentives with Stadler, the fact there was a vote, after failure to add that item to the agenda, left me, and possibly other board members, and the public, unprepared to have an important discussion about how tax differential deals will be structured," Fritts wrote.
Fritts was the lone dissenter in the vote, which wasn't included on the agenda before board member Stuart Clason, Salt Lake County's regional economic development director, made a motion after the board's discussion on whether to keep subcommittees closed to instruct GOED to negotiate with Stadler.
"The lack of transparency and rushed nature of these actions could harm the board's progress and create uncertainty in the development community as more project's come forward," Fritts wrote in her letter, meant to elaborate on her "no" vote.
Miller said in a text message later Tuesday evening that board leaders "are looking at the letter."
"If Lara is correct and this action was taken out of order, the board can easily remedy that at the next public meeting," Miller said.
City Councilman James Rogers, a Salt Lake City board member who voted in favor of the port authority's negotiations with Stadler, said in an interview Tuesday the vote was a "hiccup" and will likely be "remedied at the next meeting."
"Things do happen," Rogers said, noting that "it's a brand new board" that still doesn't have any staff hired, so "it's just one of those things."
"We're just new at it," he said. "No one caught it before it was too late. It's been brought up and we're in the process of remedying it."
"It's just a speed bump. It's been a process that has a lot of speed bumps," Rogers added, noting the port authority's false start earlier this year. "This is just a small one, in my opinion, that I think we'll move forward and get over it and get some training on open meetings."
More than 160 groups and individuals, including Biskupski, signed a letter last week urging the port authority board to increase transparency by opening its subcommittees, even though the subcommittees technically aren't required to be open because a quorum of the 11-member board is not present.
Biskupski brought up Fritts' letter during the City Council's second of three "fact-finding" work sessions planned ahead of a Sept. 18 public hearing to gather feedback from residents before the city provides recommendations to the port authority board.
Prior to Biskupski's comments, Natalie Gochnour, director of the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah, presented to the City Council her recommendations that the port authority proceed "carefully" and take the time to inform decisions by investing in "data analysis" that could be provided by the policy institute.
Gochnour also urged political leaders to "avoid controversy" to make the inland port a success.
"In many ways, controversy is the enemy of vision because it takes resources away from the difficult task of vision making," she said.
"I see no value in perpetual fighting between the city and the state," Gochnour added, noting that the inland port project is "so large" and "requires so much backing that there is a clear state interest here."
"I think that staying at the table, being a productive partner, disagreeing but doing it in an agreeable way, and trying not to air things out publicly, but doing them behind the scenes, I think that's totally in the state's and city's interest," she said.
SALT LAKE CITY Legislative Auditor General John Schaff announced Tuesday he will retire after 42 years with the state on Nov. 30.
Schaff has led the 28-person staff of the Office of the Legislative Auditor General which is tasked with examining and evaluating taxpayer-funded programs, operations, and entities since 2004.
In a letter announcing his plans, he described his career with the Legislature as a grand experience.
Senate President Wayne Niederhauser praised Schaff in a statement, saying his office has effectively provided information, analyses and recommendations helping the Legislature make the best policy decisions for our state.
Niederhausers sentiments were echoed by House Speaker Greg Hughes, who said in the statement the Legislature has been well served under his leadership.
The Legislative Audit Subcommittee, which is co-chaired by Niederhauser and Hughes, is currently seeking applicants for the position. Applicants must be a licensed certified public accountant or certified internal auditor, have at least five years of experience in performance auditing in the private or public accounting profession or the equivalent prior to appointment and must hold a masters degree in a related business field.
Interested applicants should send a cover letter, resume and references to hr@le.utah.gov no later than 5 p.m. on Sept. 16.
SALT LAKE CITY Just in case high-flying flips and swings, blindfolded tricks and flames werent enough to get Duo Transcend to the Americas Got Talent finals, the Salt Lake trapeze act added something else to its routine Tuesday night to ensure theyd reach the Top 10: roller skates.
On the ground, thankfully, although considering all the dangerous tricks theyve done in the competition, it wouldnt be that big of a surprise to see the trapeze act roller-skating through the air.
Duo Transcend started its semifinal performance with the move that has caused a lot of fear this season: Tyce Nielsen hung upside down on the trapeze and waited for his wife, Mary Ellen Wolfe, to slip through his arms so he could catch her by the ankles.
Set to an eerie rendition of I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight by Hidden Citizens, the acrobatic couple swung and spun through the air for about a minute and 20 seconds. And then Nielsen dropped his wife intentionally. As Wolfe fell to the floor, the flames judge Simon Cowell missed so much during the duos last performance sprung to life. Shortly after dropping Wolfe, Nielsen dove to the floor after her.
At this point, judge and former Spice Girl Mel B placed her hands over her eyes in fear as the other judges looked on wide-eyed. On the ground and with both husband and wife wearing roller skates on a small circular platform, Nielsen held Wolfe by her legs by the end of the performance he was only using his neck to hold her and intensely spun her around in circles.
All four judges stood up and clapped in awe after the performance.
I thank you for nearly giving me a heart attack twice. How many ways are you trying to find to murder your wife? judge Simon Cowell joked. When we ask people to step up their game during the semifinals, thats what you call a step up. It was sensational. America has to please vote this act through it was the best act of the night.
Although impressed, judge Howie Mandel seemed worried about what kind of message such a performance could send to the couples 2-year-old son, Jaxx, who was in attendance.
"I know kids wanna grow up and be like their parents. He's gonna light fires in the living room and wear roller skates with no helmet and hang upside down from the curtains!" Mandel said with a laugh.
But, as Nielsen said during a clip shown before their performance, all that he and his wife do is for the future of their family.
Getting to the finals, wed be able to have what weve always wanted more stability, he said. We could play it safe, but after all, we have to make it to the finals.
Find out if Duo Transcend makes it to the Top 10 Wednesday night on NBC at 7 p.m. MDT.
SALT LAKE CITY Sen. Orrin Hatch tried to get the jump on Democrats with questions for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh about allegiance to the president, his relationship with a judge accused of sexual misconduct and separation of powers Wednesday.
Hatch, R-Utah, said some of his colleagues have suggested that Kavanaugh would rule in President Donald Trump's favor on issues that come before the court because the president nominated him for the job.
Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge in Washington, D.C., described himself as an "independent" judge.
"If confirmed to the Supreme Court and as a sitting judge, I owe my loyalty to the Constitution," he said holding up a tattered pocket-size copy of the document.
Protesters again repeatedly disrupted the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Kavanaugh, including once during Hatch's 30-minute questioning and twice while Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, was on the clock.
Unlike Tuesday when Hatch became frustrated with demonstrators, the senator ignored a woman yelling as he asked questions. Lee, who filled in as chairman at one point, alloted himself extra time because of the interruptions.
Lee focused most of his questions on the Constitution and separation of powers, asking Kavanaugh at one point to name is his favorite Federalist Paper.
The senators also said Kavanaugh was not on either of the two lists of potential Supreme Court nominees many handpicked by the conservative Federalist Society that Trump put out before taking office.
In addition to asking Kavanaugh what kind of loyalty he would have to Trump compared to the American people, Hatch questioned him about his time in the George W. Bush administration.
Democrats want to see "every single scrap of paper you ever touched" during six years in the Bush White House to get at his role in crafting the administration's interrogation and detention policies, Hatch said.
Kavanaugh said he was not involved. Hatch followed up saying some have accused the judge of misleading the committee in 2006 about his role in the detention policy.
"I told the truth and the whole truth in my prior testimony," Kavanaugh said. "I was not read into that program."
Hatch asked Kavanaugh to give examples of when he ruled against the Bush administration after being appointed to the appeals court. Kavanaugh said he reversed the conviction of a man in a military commissions case who was convicted for an offense that wasn't an identified crime at the time it happened.
"It doesnt matter who you are or where you come from, if youre right under the law, you prevail," Kavanaugh said.
Hatch explored Kavanaugh's relationship with former 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Alex Kozinski, who Kavanaugh clerked for in 1991. Kozinski resigned last December amid accusations of improper sexual conduct and abusive practices toward law clerks.
"Some of your opponents have suggested that you must have known about these allegations. This seems to me to be an effort at guilt by association, which is not the way this committee should operate," Hatch said.
Kavanaugh said he knew nothing about the accusations and that he was not on an email list Kozinski allegedly used to send inappropriate material.
Hatch asked Kavanaugh about the Chevron doctrine, which takes its name from a 1980s Supreme Court decision that instructs federal courts to defer to a government agency's interpretation of ambiguous law.
Kavanaugh said agencies can't use old laws to do a new thing.
"Im not skeptic of regulation at all. Im a skeptic of unauthorized regulation, of illegal regulation, outside the bounds of what Congress has passed," he said.
Kavanaugh also said courts have to stick to law passed by Congress.
"We don't rewrite those laws," he said, adding the executive branch also should not rewrite law.
SALT LAKE CITY A Florida photographer is accused of sexually assaulting two Utah women while allegedly preparing for a fitness model photo shoot, according to charging documents.
Christian Dominguez Saavedra, 34, of Palm Beach, Florida, was charged Wednesday in 3rd District Court with object rape, a first-degree felony; forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony; and sexual battery, a class A misdemeanor.
Two women, both age 25, said they were inappropriately touched on consecutive days in October 2017, according to charging documents.
One woman met Saavedra at a local gym. When the two were alone, he asked "if he could look at her body to see if her body had any blemishes that would prevent her from wearing certain types of clothing for future photo shoots," the charges state.
While "examining" the woman, Saavedra inappropriately touched her, according to charging documents.
The next day while meeting with a second woman at her workplace, Saavedra asked to see her stretch marks, the charges state. While doing this, he inappropriately touched her, the charges state.
The case was investigated by West Valley police officers. A $150,000 warrant was issued for Saavedra's arrest.
Pat Reavy
Katrina Kaif To Co-Host Bigg Boss 12? Here's What Salman Has To Say About It!
Actor Salman Khan launched Bigg Boss 12 in Goa with his trademark towel dance, quotable quotes and details of the reality show. At the launch event, the actor was asked about rumours that suggested Katrina Kaif may co-host Bigg Bosses 12 with Salman. The actor replied, Katrina must have spread those rumours herself.
According to a report in Pinkvilla, the actor added, She was asking me that this time it is jodis? I said, yes. She said Then I should do it. When I asked why, she said that you do your impromptu thing and I will follow and stick to the script. When I asked her price for this, she said we will keep it equal, whats your price is my price!
Bigg Boss season 12s theme is vichitra jodis and speaking about who is his vichitra jodi, Salman said, Sanjay Dutt and me. We hosted season 5 together. So, he is the best choice for me. Also taking you back, I will choose Shah Rukh Khan. Not many know that SRK was the original choice of Bigg Boss. But he had a shoulder injury and so it came to me. I thank him for this.
Katrina and Salman are working together on Ali Abbas Zafars directorial Bharat. Their look from the film was recently released and they looked gorgeous together. Katrina and Salman returned from Malta after they completed their second schedule for the film.
This is the second time Salman and Katrina are working with Ali Abbas Zafar. The trios last film together, Tiger Zindagi Hai, was a big hit.
Rakshit Shetty Leaves Social Media
Well, this is not a good news for his fans. Rakshit Shetty is one among the most active actors on social media. His fans have always felt a connection with their idol since he was always just a message away. And now, he quits social media.
It came as a surprise when Rakshit announced that he is "taking a leave" from social media. He has deleted his profiles on Twitter, Facebook and even from Instagram. Before calling it to quit, he posted a story on Instagram, announcing his exit from social media. He wrote, I am taking a leave from all social media. Thank you, everyone, for the immense love you guys have showered on me. I love you all.
According to some reports, Rakshit took the step as he is busy shooting for two films 777 Charlie and Avane Srimannarayana. But it is also said that this break is temporary and that once Rakshit is relatively free, he will be back on social media. If this is true, we all will wait for it.
For latest movie reviews, ratings and trailers, download the Desimartini App.
Source: vijaykarnataka.indiatimes.com
Nigerias government has agreed a $328 million loan from Chinese state bank Exim to upgrade the countrys telecoms infrastructure.
The deal is the latest in a series of loan facilities between the Chinese state and the government of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who was elected in 2015.
Buharis administration described the loan as being between Nigerias Galaxy Backbone and Chinas Huawei Technologies, saying it represented the current administrations commitment to incorporating the development of information and communications technology into national strategic planning.
Inadequate telecoms infrastructure is a common and serious complaint among businesses looking to trade in Nigeria. The government is looking to address this issue in order to bring about greater economic growth and employment, as well as reduce the Nigerian economys dependence on selling oil.
For its part, China is increasingly looking to strengthen its diplomatic relationships with emerging markets, such as Nigeria and other African countries. Several major Chinese vendors are being frozen out of developed markets, with the US banning Huawei from selling equipment and imposing an import ban on ZTE. Australia recently moved to prevent both vendors from bidding on 5G contracts, and they are reportedly facing heightened security concerns in both Japan and the UK.
Sky and Space Global, which works to provide affordable communications to the world's equatorial regions, has expanded its reach into Indonesia and Suriname.
The UK-based company has signed a binding memorandum of understanding agreement with Cendrawasih Teknologi Nusantara (CTN) to provide the Indonesian company with nanosatellite connectivity services. The agreement will enable CTN to offer the services to its individual and small business customers throughout the island nation.
A successful collaboration with CTN will provide SAS with initial access to the fast-growing Indonesian market, says Meir Moalem, Managing Director and CEO of SAS. CTN is an Indonesian based provider of data connectivity services via satellite for the cellular, banking, plantation, farming, oil and gas and government sectors of the countrys economy. CTN also provides data connectivity to institutions and retail customers throughout Indonesia.
With a population of over 260 million spread out over thousands of islands, Indonesia is an ideal market for SAS nanosatellite technology. Moalem notes that the agreement with CTN will enable SAS to leverage and expand its existing connectivity services across the entire Asia Pacific region.
In addition to the MoU in Indonesia, SAS has also signed a binding MoU agreement with Surinamese ISP Foundation Busie Suriname, which was granted an Internet Service Provider (ISP) license in 2016 by the Telecoms Authority Suriname (TAS) and provides internet service solutions to individuals and businesses in rural Suriname, South America. Due to the geographic location and number of inhabitants outside of large cities, internet and online connectivity services are unreliable and expensive.
The binding MoU formalises the commercial and technical cooperation between SAS and FBS and marks the commencement of discussions for the provision of SAS affordable and reliable connectivity services to the country. The agreement is the first of its kind to be signed with a provider in the region, and validates the SAS nano-satellite narrowband connectivity platform.
Referring to the agreement in Suriname, Moalem said: "After a successful demonstration in Guyana last month I am pleased to announce we have secured an agreement with a Surinamese local internet provider.
SAS is the first company to successfully use narrowband connectivity provided by nanosatellites to deliver a voice call, text messaging and financial transactions capabilities. The cost is a fraction of traditional communications providers.
In 2017, SAS successfully launched its 3 Diamonds nanosatellites as a proof of concept. The launch of the first batch of nanosatellites remains on track for 2019. The timetable calls for launching a constellation of 200 nanosatellites beginning next year when partial service is due to begin. Full scale deployment is scheduled for 2020.
After Kerala, The North Eastern state of Nagaland is now reeling under the effects of severe flooding and landslides. The Chief Minister of the state, Neiphiu Rio has not only asked the government for assistance, but has also appealed to the people to donate by contributing to his CM Relief Fund. Rio has also tweeted out three ways that people can contribute to the relief efforts.
1. Directly transferring to the following account:
A/C No. 10530527879,
IFSC: SBIN0000214
State Bank of India, Kohima Branch
2. Visiting the following website:
https://cmrelieffund.nowpay.co.in/
3. Via Paytm
Those interested in donating via Paytm can either visit https://paytm.com/helpinghand/cm-relief-fund-nagaland, or donate though the Paytm app by tapping on More and selecting Flood Relief. Theres users have the option of choosing to donate for CM Relief Fund (Nagaland). They can also opt to donate to the Karnataka CM Relief Fund natural Calamity (Kodagu) and the Kerala CMs Distress Relief Fund.
A couple of days CM Rio tweeted out a status update on the floods. In it, he notes that the state is facing landslides at 359 locations across the state, including the NH 29 has cut off the Dimapur-Kohima road. He adds that the districts of Kiphire, Phek, Tobu in Mon, Tuensang have been isolated for over 15 days now and 12 lives have already been lost.
Its time for all of us to come together once again and help our friends in the North East.
Main image credit: @abhish18
Sep 5, 2018 | By Thomas
ArianeGroup, the space-launchers joint-venture between Airbus and Safran and the team in charge of the Ariane 6 project, on Sept. 4 awarded a contract to its Swedish supplier GKN Aerospace for turbines of re-usable rocket engine demonstrator, part of Prometheus project.
Image credit: ESA
GKN Aerospaces space business unit, in Trollhattan, Sweden will develop and manufacture two full-scale turbines for the Prometheus low-cost re-usable rocket engine demonstrator on liquid oxygen and methane propellants. Prometheus is an European Space Agency (ESA) funded program which is set to power Europes future launchers, with ArianeGroup as the Prime Contractor.
The target price for a Prometheus engine is 1 million euros, one-tenth the cost of the Ariane 5s Vulcain 2 engine. The turbines will generate power for the methane fuel system, with the first turbine to be delivered at the end of 2019.
GKN Aerospace, which has been active in the Ariane programme from its inception in 1974, will use cutting-edge additive manufacturing technology to reduce number of turbine parts from more than 100 to two. Additive manufacturing of engine parts enables faster production, helping lower costs and lead times. The technology will enable the engine to meet temperature, pressure and rotational speed criteria. This development of the turbines will also enable engineers to develop designs and AM processes for future higher loaded critical components.
GKN Aerospaces Trollhattan centre has made over 1,000 combustion chambers and nozzles as well as over 250 turbines for Ariane rockets to date. Sebastien Aknouche, vice president and general manager, services and special products engine systems said, We are proud to participate in the Prometheus project and to make a technological contribution to this key European space project. This allows us, together with our suppliers to work with our customer to develop and demonstrate advanced AM technologies in operation and at full scale.
We look forward to demonstrating the benefits and the added value in weight and cost reduction, and in faster production rates. These factors, along with our established expertise in space turbines, have resulted in the award of this engine turbine contract.
Prometheus casing prototype. Image credit: ESA
ArianeGroup signed a first contract with ESA to develop the Prometheus demonstrator in June 2017, which would be developed in part using 3D printing technology and is designed to run on liquid oxygen and methane. In December 2017 ESA signed a 75M (US$88m) contract with ArianeGroup for next phase of 3D printed Prometheus demonstrator engine to be ground tested in November 2020. The main goal was to build an engine that will be at least ten times cheaper than current engines, such as the Vulcain 2, which dates back to 2005 and costs around 10 million Euros. The ESA plans for versions of Prometheus to power European launchers by 2030.
The new approach involves new design and manufacturing workflows as well as different rocket technology. The development process for the demonstrator engine will see a switch from the traditional Ariane propellant, which is a combination of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, to a new combination of liquid oxygen and methane. The Prometheus LOx-methane engine project will also make use of an unprecedented level of digitilization for engine control and diagnostics. It will also see the introduction of 3D printing, in a connected factory environment, for its prototyping and final production process.
"By 2020, technical knowledge of liquid oxygenmethane propulsion gained through the Prometheus project will allow fast and informed decisions to be made on useful applications," ESA said. "Prometheus provides a nominal 1 MN of variable thrust, is suitable for first- and second-stage applications, and is reignitable. It will propel a range of next-generation launchers, including future evolutions of Ariane 6."
Posted in 3D Printing Application
Maybe you also like:
Tata Advanced Systems to make wings for Lockheed F-16s in India
Lockheed Martin, which is bidding for the defence ministrys $20 billion contract for 114 fighter jets with its vintage F16s, proposes to build wings for the combat aircraft at its local partner Tata Advanced Systems.
While the contract is for local manufacture of the fighter planes, with parts coming from original equipment manufacturers and partly from local sources, under the Modi governments `Make in India programme, Lockheed said production of the F-16 wings would not be contingent upon the company winning the order for the planes.
Reports quoting Vivek Lall, vice president of strategy and business development at Lockheed, said the proposed Indian production of the F-16 wings is to meet its local production requirements
Producing F-16 wings in India will strengthen Lockheed Martins strategic partnership with Tata and support Make in India, the company said in a statement.
Modi has been pushing for local manufacturing that will provide jobs and also end the militarys dependence on imports.
Lockheeds announcement came just days ahead of top level talks between the United States and India aimed at expanding defence ties.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis will meet with Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Besides Lockheed, another US defence major Boeing has pitched its F/A-18 Super Hornet for the Indian contract. Others include Swedens Saab with its Gripen fighter, Frances Dassault Systems SE with its Rafale, the Eurofighter Typhoon and Russian aircraft.
Meanwhile, Lockheed had offered to make India its sole F-16 production facility that would supply the Indian military as well as other countries. If India buys the F-16 then it becomes the centre of manufacturing for the global market, Lall said.
Lall said the company planned to begin production of the F-16 wings at Tats facility in Hyderabad from 2020, adding that these were being produced at a facility in Israel and would not impact any jobs in the United States.
The Israeli centre will continue to be involved in other production, he said. All F-16 wings globally are to be built in the Hyderabad facility, he said.
India, US ties not to hinder relations with other strategic partners
India has made it clear that its relations with the United States will not in any way hinder its association with equally important partners ant that is upcoming 2+2 dialogue with the US would not impact its open, independent and transparent relations with major powers like China and Russia.
India also wanted the US to recognise the importance of its strategic relations on issue of purchase of S400 missiles from Russia in the wake of sanctions against Moscow by Washington under the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).
New Delhi will also seek to placate the Trump administration on major trade concerns while expressing its own like the increase in steel and aluminium tariffs. India will underline that a 5 per cent decrease in bilateral trade deficit worth nearly $1.5 billion was recorded last year.
The United States and India will seek to finalise a number of defence agreements during high-level talks this week that aim to draw their two militaries closer and counter-balance Chinas influence in the region.
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will hold talks with Indias foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on a range of issues, including enhancing security cooperation, trade and immigration.
India, on its part, will seek to iron out significant differences with the United States on issues, including Indias ties with Russia and Iran.
Already cancelled twice this year, the so-called two-plus-two discussions is the highest level of engagement between the two countries after US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided last year to take bilateral ties to a new level.
The 2+2 presents an historic opportunity to develop our growing partnership and to explore ways of enhancing our security cooperation, the top U.S. military officer, Marine General Joseph Dunford, told reporters travelling with him to the talks.
Randall Schriver, the Pentagons top Asia official, predicted last week that the discussions would produce a set of actual concrete outcomes.
The United States and India have increased defence ties over the past decade, in part because of mutual concerns over an increasingly assertive China.
India has had to face off an aggressive China in the northern border recently, while Beijing has been excessively assertive in the South China Sea, which it claims as own territory.
US has also been leaning on India to justify its Asia-Pacific initiatives. Earlier this year, the US military renamed its Pacific Command the US Indo-Pacific Command, a move underscoring the growing importance of India.
On the US agenda is the finalisation of an agreement on a communications framework that would allow for securely sharing information.
The Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) has long been a demand of the United States and would open the door for Washington to sell sensitive defence equipment to India, like the armed version of Guardian drones.
But, passing on such sensitive information is too heavy a price India may have to pay in return for what Washington thinks it can share with India and this remains a sticking point the matter is too sensitive even for close allies.
US considers that an agreement on this would be a big deal, in terms of advancing the interoperability of the defence forces of the two countries.
The two sides are also negotiating another agreement, a Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA), which would enable them to share advanced satellite data for navigation and missile targeting, Indian military sources said.
The United States, which is keen to tap into Indias large defence market, has already emerged as Indias No 2 weapons supplier, closing $15 billion worth of deals over the last decade.
Reports quoting an unnamed senior US defence official also said the two countries were looking at a carrying out a major joint exercise - involving troops on land, at sea and in the air.
While the two countries engage in naval and air exercises and even drills involving Special Forces, war games involving all three services is a big scale-up in defence cooperation.
Research finds troubling disadvantages, including bias, against women in business
Women CEOs in America are paid less, have shorter tenures and their companies are punished in the stock market, even when their firms are just as profitable as those run by men, according to new research from Florida State University.
In addition, women CEOs are less likely to serve as board chair of their companies, and they have a much tougher time landing the top job because there is significantly less demand for their leadership compared to men.
"This research should be eye-opening to people, and I hope they take a closer look," said Michael Holmes, FSU's Jim Moran Associate Professor of Strategic Management. "We hope this sets the record straight on past research, some of which has produced conflicting results, and now people can build on this aggregation of findings."
To set the record straight, Holmes and Assistant Professor of Management Gang Wang conducted an exhaustive study focusing on the influence of gender on CEOs' careers. The business management experts conducted a meta-analysis, examining the entire body of research completed over decades, and they pored over 158 previous studies that investigated gender, companies' hiring choices and the impact of those decisions.
One of the key findings in that body of research reveals an extreme underrepresentation of women CEOs. Only 5.4 per cent of Fortune 500 companies had female CEOs in 2017, and that figure was the all-time high in the United States.
"The situation for women leaders is probably worse than you think right now," Holmes says. "Many women who become CEOs are absolute rock stars. They have graduated from elite schools and risen through the corporate ranks faster, but they get paid less, are less likely to be a firm's board chair, have shorter tenures in the job and are more likely to lead distressed firms. We wondered, 'What's going on here?'"
That question prompted Wang and Holmes to embark on a two-and-a-half-year research project the results were just published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. The study identifies a number of factors that hinder female CEOs and CEO candidates among stock market investors, corporate boards, managers, and more generally, across American culture.
Wang and Holmes grouped those factors into two basic marketplace forces: demand-side and supply-side influences that combined to stifle women's ability to get CEO jobs.
Demand-side factors reduce demand for female CEOs by limiting the willingness of companies to hire women for the job. One example of that attitude is known as "in-group favoritism," a phenomenon that causes people to view others who are similar to them as more competent. In the corporate world, where men dominate leadership jobs and company boards, that attitude means leaders tend to hire people like themselves.
The FSU research also notes the hiring process for CEOs can be influenced by gender-role stereotypes. In American culture, as well as many countries worldwide, the perceived traits of a good leader, such as aggressiveness and risk-taking, are generally seen as masculine qualities.
"Because of that bias, men have advantages obtaining and succeeding in leadership positions, while women leaders are more likely to be disliked and viewed as socially inept, due to the perceived role incongruity," the researchers wrote in the paper.
The other marketplace force influencing corporate hiring decisions, according to Wang and Holmes, is a supply-side issue. They report more women choose to leave the workforce for a variety of reasons, including family changes, lack of career advancement or perhaps outright discrimination.
In addition, the study points to a larger sociological influence on hiring CEOs. Men are socialised from childhood to display traits associated with leadership being forceful, aggressive, even pugnacious and those characteristics are generally less common among women, Holmes said, perhaps because women are raised differently.
"Females are more likely socialised to care for the home or be nurturing," he said. "Men start to develop characteristics that might help them become a CEO early in childhood, whereas fewer women do. That reduces the supply of female candidates for CEO jobs."
Wang and Holmes also documented a clear bias in the stock market against women CEOs. When they used accounting metrics to compare companies with similar financial results, for example, profits, firms run by women CEOs experienced worse stock performance than those led by men.
Wang and Holmes wrote that investors and stock market analysts, most of whom are men, likely had less direct experience with women CEOs, were influenced by in-group favoritism and gender-role stereotypes, and saw more women opting out of careers. As a result, the researchers concluded those factors prompted many investors to treat the stocks of companies led by women more harshly.
"Women have come a long way in the workforce in terms of their overall numbers and acceptance, but when it comes to stock market investors evaluating a CEO and a company that they don't know, I think investors may subconsciously discount that firm because the leader is female versus male," Holmes said. "It seems when investors take an overall look at firms, biases creep in, and people may not even be aware of them."
The research team hopes future studies focus on ways to reduce biases resulting from demand-side and supply-side forces. They believe too many women either have been pushed out of careers or opted out because they faced an uneven playing field.
Their research provides practical ideas for young women who hope to become a CEO someday, such as pursuing early and fast promotions because, as their research shows, women who do break through to become CEOs are often younger with fewer years of experience than men.
"These women have earned their place at the top," Holmes said. "But the data shows things are different for women -- the workforce does not offer a level playing field.
"I hope when people read the research, they have some 'aha' moments with the findings, as well as the explanations. By showing these firms perform the same as companies led by male CEOs, let's get beyond the idea that women can't be good leaders. Clearly, they are good leaders. They often just aren't rewarded equally."
The task of reinterpreting some of the attributes that have informed notions of a Japanese architectural identity is certainly not entirely new. Through different periods, it has raised questions and interest from within the circle of Japanese intellectual architects as much as from the international architectural community. Katsura Imperial Villa for instance, was object of reevaluation by modernist architects as Bruno Taut and Walter Gropius, but it was also through the pictures of Japanese photographer Yasuhiro Ishimoto that new readings emerged. Other Japanese architects like Kenzo Tange and Togo Murano, to mention a few, aimed to see in different light Japanese traditional styles. Under these precedents, the ongoing exhibition adds a new layer to the story.
Curated by Mori Art Museums Director Fumio Nanjo along with Shunsuke Kurakata, Ken Tadashi Oshima and a selected team of experts, under the advice of Japanese architect and history Professor Terunobu Fujimori, the exhibition presents 100 projects and more than 400 exhibits. Breaking the narratives into nine genealogies rather than displaying the projects in chronological order, the show embraces the titanic endeavor of decoding the genes that have prevailed throughout the evolution of Japanese architecture.
Presidential hopeful and Donegal artist Kevin Sharkey sent a bunch of "the most colourful flowers in the shop" to a Carlow councillor who asked him if Ireland was ready for a "coloured President".
Read also: Media circus in Carlow as candidates seeking a presidential nomination come to town
Last month Fianna Fail Cllr Arthur McDonald used the term when Mr Sharkey appeared at Carlow County Council.
Mr Sharkey later said on social media that he was "in no way offended" by comments describing him as coloured.
On August 15, the artist along with three other potential candidates, was seeking the local authority members nominaton for the presidency and made a fifteen minute pitch to them for their vote.
During the meeting, Cllr McDonald said the country had an atheist president, a gay Taoiseach, the country has brought in divorce and brought in abortion, and directing his question to Mr Sharkey, he added: "I just wonder do you think it's time for a coloured president?"
Sine the meeting, Mr Sharkey told Extra.ie that he searched online for a flower shop in Carlow town, and asked the florist for the most colourful flowers she had.
"I said: 'Can you give me six in each colour, and can you wrap them beautifully? And can you put in the following note please?'" Mr Sharkey told the website.
He dictated a note that read: "Dear Councillor, I was in no way offended by your use of the word coloured. Here are some lovely coloured flowers to brighten up your day. All the best, your future President, Kevin Sharkey."
When asked why he reached out to him, Mr Sharkey said he "felt for him" and that he knew Mr McDonald had not meant to insult him.
The candidates need the support of 20 Oireachtas members or four councils to get on the ballot paper for the October 26 election.
Mercedes-Benz has all-but confirmed its first hybrid-powered AMG model will hit the road in 2020, paving the wave for every model in the performance brand to get an electric boost.
AMG boss Tobias Moers had already confirmed to Drive earlier this year at the Geneva motor show that the forthcoming GT 4-door will get a hybrid powertrain, but now Mercedes board member responsible for research and development, Ola Kallenius, has given more details.
According to Kallenius, speaking at the launch of the all-new EQC in Sweden, the GT 4-door hybrid will be the first in a new generation of plug-in performance models from AMG beginning in 2020.
If we talk about EQ as a technology brand, what we have decided to do with AMG is to develop a range of dedicated power plug-in hybrids that were going to brand under the brand name EQ Power Plus, Kallenius said, speaking at the launch of the new electric EQC. So AMG is in full-scale development of this to hybridise the AMG fleet post-2020.
Mercedes-AMG previewed the EQ Power Plus drivetrain that will sit underneath the GT 4-door in the GT Concept at the 2017 Geneva motor show. It was powered by a hybrid unit that combines AMG's twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 petrol engine with an electric motor to deliver a combined system output of approximately 600kW.
Dunleer may represent the smallest town shortlisted in county Louth for a Bank of Ireland Enterprise Town Awards this year, but it hopes that the beneficial relationship between business and the community, will convince the judges that it deserves an award.
Eugene Conlon of the Dunleer Community Development Group said he believes Dunleer deserves to secure an award because, we are an example of local business supporting community and community supporting business.
The three judges began their tour in the Market House where they were formally introduced to the town and what it has to offer.
Over the following three hours they saw a selection of the projects that secured Dunleer a place on the shortlist alongside Blackrock and Dundalk.
Among the well known businesses they toured were Lannleire Honey, Mcor Technologies, Suretank and Glen Dimplex.
They also visited the Mens Shed, met pupils of Scoil Ui Mhuire at the murals on the main street, had a walkabout and also went to see the contribution made to health and sport by the GAA and Team Carrie.
The judges heard about the Energy Team programme established by the Dunleer Community Development Group which has implemented an education programme for home owners on energy conservation and it has led a programme of retrofitting homes, community centres and businesses.
Eugene Conlon said Businesses in the area have recognised that helping the community to grow leads to a better quality of life in the surrounding area and creates a good area for all to thrive in including being a good place for their employees to live and work in.
He hopes the Judges left with, a sense of seeing a community that is well rounded and a town that values what we have developed over the years, but has developed this to the benefit all.
The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at the end of November.
Cllr Liam Reilly, Cathaoirleach of Louth County Council said, Dunleer had seen many changes especially in the last three decades. After the M1 bypassed this idyllic village the community and business, both large and small, worked tirelessly to ensure it remained vibrant.
Nested nearly between Dundalk and Drogheda, Dunleer has carved out a niche for itself - evidence of community at its best, he added.
B2B Lead Generation Service
Reach key decision makers with sales-ready leads that shorten your sales process. Move the needle by delivering funnel qualified leads to your sales team. Learn more.
If you're a technologist, you've probably noticed (or have been asked about) a few new things associated with Chrome 68's release last month. One of the more notable changes is that it now uses a "not secure" indicator for any site not using HTTPS. So instead of providing a notification when a site is HTTPS, it now provides the user with a warning when it isn't.
This change has been quite a long time in the making. Google spelled out the details earlier this year. Following quite a bit of feedback, discussion and gnashing of teeth, the change finally arrived. Predictably, not everyone was prepared -- and a subset of website users now get the "not secure" warning for sites that, prior to the change, seemed hunky-dory.
One of those groups is users of U.S. state and local government websites. For example, the front pages of 14 states (including, for example, California, Florida and Ohio) do not have encryption enabled and are therefore have been generating a "not secure" warning for site visitors, according to the Center for Digital Government.
Likewise, four of the 10 biggest U.S. cities do not have it enabled as yet. The warning itself represents an arguably somewhat minor user interface issue, though it's one that nevertheless is important to address. Users receiving those warnings, particularly those who are less technology-savvy, may have legitimate concerns about a site now can be classified as "not secure."
The UI impact is important to note and subsequently address. The shift itself is a good one, as it incentivizes enhanced security of websites. Neither of those things is why I'm calling it to your attention, though. Instead, I'm mentioning it because it puts into sharp relief another issue that may seem unrelated at first blush. However, it is important to address it generally and to view it as a useful earning moment for enterprise security practitioners. Specifically, the issue is election security -- that is, ensuring secure, reliable, free and fair elections.
A Learning Moment?
This may strike some as a contentious thing to say at first. After all, the front page of a municipality, state, or even a civilian federal agency almost certainly is not a participant in the election process in any real or direct way.
For example, the server that runs California's homepage (www.ca.gov) is almost certainly not used to directly support any election in California. It is unlikely to be part of the same infrastructure, and it's a good bet it's not even in the same datacenter.
Still, looking at the Chrome 68 HTTPS notification change could be a useful learning moment. Why? Because, despite a significant amount of time to prepare -- and vocal warnings from the technology community at large -- not every state was able to prepare equally.
This is in part because there's a sizable surface area involved: Each state and municipality is responsible for ensuring that its own resources are taken care of and moved to HTTPS within the time window. Because that responsibility is distributed, each set of personnel is responsible for getting learning about the change, understanding its significance, and taking the right action to address it.
This is, in fact, similar to where the U.S. is with election security. I've made the point in the past that election security is a fairly asymmetric contest from a security perspective. Meaning, on offense you have one or more nation states that are well funded, that operate around the clock, that are sitting on a stockpile of zero-day vulnerabilities, and that have dedicated engineering staff that are among the best in the world at breaking into stuff.
On defense you have a state or municipality -- say for example Manchester, New Hampshire. Is it reasonable to expect an individual state or city to defend against a dedicated target attack under the circumstances outlined? It's difficult, because responsibility and resources for defense are spread thin and are distributed, while the offense is centralized and coordinated.
What I think really drives the point home is that replacing a certificate on a website is a relatively trivial affair, while securing the technology side of a major election is anything but. The fact that the U.S. demonstrably has been having challenges doing the easy part doesn't inspire confidence about the ability to do the hard part down the road. When the stakes involve a minor website UI issue, maybe that's OK. When it's instead the fundamental principle on which your system of government rests, maybe it's less so.
Adapting for Businesses
Of course, while election security is interesting from a theoretical point of view, the more salient point for security practitioners is how we can adapt these implications and lessons into securing our businesses.
There are, after all, situations that occur in business that have similar dynamics to both election security and the HTTPS issue. For example, you may have multiple business units that are distributed. You may work for a holding company or other organizational structure where distributed security-relevant tasks need to be performed by multiple different people throughout the organization. If so, there are a few things you can do to help ensure a positive and consistent outcome.
First is to improve communication. Having a reliable mechanism for sharing information about security-relevant tasks -- both what needs to be done and how to do them -- is a useful starting point.
Second, establishing clear accountability and ownership for security tasks ensures that as staff members become alerted to what they need to do and how to do it, they can be chartered with executing to make sure it happens.
Third, where there's asymmetry -- for example situations in which individual business units or departments are likely to be attacked by adversaries that disproportionately are better equipped than they are -- introducing an element of standardization or centralization can help offset an attacker's advantages.
At the end of the day, we can take away quite a few lessons. Paying attention to how these two issues interrelate both informs us about the seriousness of election security and gives us information that we can adapt for defending the organizations we're chartered to protect.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ECT News Network.
Ed Moyle is general manager and chief content officer at Prelude Institute. He has been an ECT News Network columnist since 2007. His extensive background in computer security includes experience in forensics, application penetration testing, information security audit and secure solutions development. Ed is co-author of Cryptographic Libraries for Developers and a frequent contributor to the information security industry as author, public speaker and analyst.
Enterprise IT Lead Generation Services
Fuel Your Pipeline. Close More Deals. Our full-service marketing programs deliver sales-ready leads. 100% Satisfaction Guarantee! Learn more.
Facebook on Tuesday announced it has removed more than 650 Facebook and Instagram pages, groups and accounts originating in Iran and Russia for "coordinated inauthentic behavior."
The goal is to improve the trustworthiness of Facebook connections.
Although it has been making progress in its efforts, the people responsible for the inauthentic activity are determined and well funded, Facebook said.
"We identified an influence operation, not just on Facebook, but across several social media platforms," said Sandra Joyce, vice president for global intelligence at FireEye, a cybersecurity company in Milpitas, California.
"We have moderate confidence it's Iranian-based," she told TechNewsWorld.
Classic Influence Campaign
Iran's efforts represented a classic campaign to influence audiences in the United States, United Kingdom, Latin America and the Middle East, Joyce said.
The campaign promoted content laced with pro-Iranian, anti-Israel, anti-Saudi Arabia, anti-sanctions and pro-nuclear-deal sentiments, she pointed out.
It praised candidates running for office in the United States who supported the Iran nuclear treaty scrapped by the Trump administration.
Iran seems "to be taking a page out of Russia's playbook when it comes to influencing the populace," Joyce said.
"What's unique is that we're watching what we believe to be Iranian-based actors pushing this agenda across the world and leveraging social media to do so," she remarked.
The campaign's focus on Latin America is a bit of a new wrinkle, observed Paul Bischoff, privacy advocate for Comparitech.com, a reviews, advice and information website for consumer security products.
"It seems less like a change in tactics and more like adapting proven methods to other countries," he told TechNewsWorld.
"With all the trouble brewing in Nicaragua right now, I wouldn't be surprised if that was a target," Bischoff said. "The U.S. has been pushing democracy in Nicaragua for decades, and that effort is now under threat."
Muddy Conversation
Influence campaigns are similar to astroturfing in that the sponsor of a campaign is hidden to make it look like a grassroots movement, Bischoff noted.
"With the help of analytics built into Facebook and most websites, these campaigns not only spread their message, they also gather information about the people who receive it," he said. "They can use this information to target the same people and people like them in the future with more effective messaging."
These campaigns don't want to change public opinion as much as shift it in a way that will benefit the campaign's authors, suggested Vincent Raynauld, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Emerson College in Boston.
That shift can include sowing doubt through misinformation.
"If you can inject a lot of fake news into an online conversation, you can muddy the waters," Raynauld told TechNewsWorld. "You might get people to question their beliefs. You might get them to change their behavior."
Iran-Russia Connection
The fact that the inauthentic pages, groups and accounts purged from Facebook originated in Iran and Russia is probably not a coincidence.
"The Iranians have really close ties to the Russians," said James A. Lewis, director of the technology and public policy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan, nonprofit policy research organization in Washington, D.C.
"That's why they've improved so much on the cyber side," he told TechNewsWorld.
"Iran has also been worried about controlling social media since the Green Revolution about a decade ago," Lewis said. "Iran is only the second country to use social media influence operations in any meaningful way. The Chinese do it, but they do it against their own people and Taiwan, not in other countries."
Uphill Battle
It's difficult to determine the effectiveness of Facebook's efforts to weed out inauthentic behavior, Bischoff observed.
"We have little context regarding how big this problem really is, likely because Facebook doesn't know how big the problem is," he said.
"Anybody can make a Facebook page or group with practically zero oversight, and the company probably relies on users flagging content to generate leads. When you consider that -- and the fact that Facebook must also try to balance enforcement and censorship -- it's really fighting an uphill battle," Bischoff explained.
"I don't have too much sympathy, though," he added. "Facebook built the hill."
More Anticipation Needed
Because it is so easy to create pages, groups and accounts on Facebook, policing inauthentic content can be challenging.
"It's pretty much a political whack-a-mole play. When a page pops up, you hit it and another one pops up," Raynauld said.
"Facebook is fighting fires," noted Mark Graff, CEO of Tellagraff, an incidence response planning company in New York City.
"It puts one out and waits until another fire breaks out somewhere else," he told TechNewsWorld. "It's good to do that. It's necessary to do it -- but it's better to anticipate where a fire is going to break out and take away its fuel."
Facebook maintained that what's needed to root out inauthentic behavior on its network is building better technology, hiring more people, and working more closely with law enforcement, security experts and other companies.
There's a fourth need, according to Raynauld.
"The public needs to be involved. It has to be able to identify fake news and ignore it," he said. "I've seen little to no attempt to educate the public on what fake news is."
Technology Will Solve Problem
While taking down inauthentic pages, groups and accounts is a good start, Facebook could go further to combat them, Graff maintained.
For example, it could make an effort to verify who is creating those pages, groups and accounts.
"It's never been much of a concern for them because it doesn't affect their income," Graff pointed out.
Facebook also could look more closely at who's buying ads on its network.
"U.S. sanctions Facebook from buying ads from Iran so it's using cutouts to buy ads," Graff explained. "Facebook should validate who's purchasing ads to see if they're trying to evade sanctions."
Technology eventually will solve the problem of inauthentic pages, groups and accounts on Facebook, CSIS' Lewis predicted.
"If you can come up with programs to identify pornography and extremism, you can come up with programs to identify fake news," he said. "It wouldn't surprise me if we were better off a year from now because people built the tools to find this kind of stuff."
John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John.
B2B Lead Generation Service
Reach key decision makers with sales-ready leads that shorten your sales process. Move the needle by delivering funnel qualified leads to your sales team. Learn more.
Google last week announced new steps to combat the placement of fraudulent tech support ads on its platform.
The company will roll out a verification program in the next few months to ensure that only legitimate third-party tech support providers can place Google ads.
There are many legitimate tech support providers that offer local or regional services, or affordable support for out-of-warranty products, Google pointed out in comments provided to the E-Commerce Times by company rep Caroline Klapper. Its goal is to separate those providers from bad actors.
However, enforcement actions are "particularly challenging because often the ads themselves look legitimate on their face, and the actual fraud is taking place off our platform, on the phone," Google said. "That's why we've decided to take this approach and begin initiating a pause on all ads."
The number of misleading third-party tech support ads has increased, observed David Graff, Google's director of global product policy.
Some Kinds of Scams
One tech support ploy involves scammers calling a potential victim, posing as an employee of Microsoft, Apple, or a third-party tech support service, and saying there's a problem with the consumer's computer, or that its software needs updating.
They offer to resolve the problem for a fee and ask the potential victim to log in to screen-sharing software or click on a URL so they can resolve the problem for a fee.
Or, an ad or warning might pop up while a consumer is online, claiming a scan shows the consumer's machine has been infected, and urging the consumer to click on a link to resolve the problem.
Again, there's a fee involved.
In another attack, the consumer's computer freezes and an error message pops up saying the consumer's data, email and passwords have been stolen. It displays a number that can be called for help.
The Size of the Problem
Tech support scams "have duped thousands of customers who thought these were legitimate offerings," noted Matan Or-El, CEO of Panorays.
"Because they found them on Google, this reinforced their belief that the service was reputable," he told the E-Commerce Times.
Microsoft Customer Support Services last year received 153,000 reports from consumers in 183 countries who had encountered or fallen victim to tech support scams, according to Erik Wahlstrom, Windows Defender research project manager. That was up 24 percent from the prior year.
That figure represents just a small part of the problem, as it doesn't include scams on all devices and platforms, Wahlstrom noted.
About 15 percent of the consumers lost between US$200 and $400 to the scammers.
Microsoft has been using machine learning to identify tech support scams going through call centers, Wahlstrom said at the RSA security conference this spring. ML tech can detect when victims give scammers access to their computers, and when they go online to pay for the fraudulent service.
Further, Microsoft scans the Web looking for sites that have been newly created; that have a poor reputation; that recently have changed registrations; that use JavaScript tricks like going fullscreen or autoplaying audio; or that use images, text or phone numbers known to be associated with tech-support scams.
Prodded by the Press
Microsoft forecast escalation of the problem in 2016, and the Better Business Bureau earlier this year issued a warning about tech support scams.
Google's announcement of a crackdown came after a Wall Street Journal investigation found fraudsters were buying ads on Google's platform and posing as authorized service agents for vendors such as Apple and Microsoft.
However, Google's actions may not have been prompted by that investigation.
"We are constantly reviewing our ad policies, especially in those areas that are prone to abuse," the company said in the notes provided by Klapper.
"In categories where we see a rise in misleading experiences, we take additional actions like the pause we initiated on Friday," the company maintained.
"If there's anything driving Google's decisions over the past year, it's the growing number of consumer data privacy laws sweeping across many parts of the world that prohibit the collection, processing or sharing of consumer data without the consumer's consent," Chris Olson, CEO of The Media Trust, told the E-Commerce Times.
How to Stay Safe
Consumers should make sure they've implemented basic security practices to reduce their risk of falling prey to online scams.
For example, enable a firewall and install cybersecurity software. Ad blockers are another useful tool.
Exercise caution when clicking on links, and note that Microsoft and Apple will not call users of their software and hardware.
If a caller claims to be from a tech support company, hang up. If you have no dealings with that company, there's no need to follow up. Consumers who want to work with a third-party tech support company can call up the company directly and speak to someone there.
Consumers who buy PCs from large vendors such as HP can sign up for tech support when making their purchase. Or, they can sign up for third-party tech support with big box stores such as Best Buy or Staples.
The BBB recommends that consumers who have been hit by a tech support scam take the following steps:
Notify their bank immediately;
Have their computer checked out by a trusted local business;
Remove any software that authorized remote access to their computer;
Change their passwords; and
File a report with BBB Scam Tracker and with law enforcement.
Richard Adhikari has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2008. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, mobile technologies, CRM, databases, software development, mainframe and mid-range computing, and application development. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including Information Week and Computerworld. He is the author of two books on client/server technology. Email Richard.
(Photo: sahistory.org)Beyers Naude
BERLIN - The general secretary of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) said recently that his country today is where it was in the final years of apartheid.
The SACC's Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana wrote in The Daily Maverick on Oct. 13, 40 years after the banning of 18 Black Consciousness organizations and the ecumenical Christian Institute.
"As a nation today, we are where the apartheid regime was in the late 1980s, a junk economy, a securocratic State, assassinations by the day, social unrest and loss of public trust in the government.
"It is a government that says in true Botha-Vorster language that priests must confine themselves to the altars and pulpits of their churches and not engage on matters of life that are governed by politicians. Deja vu," rued Bishop Malusi.
October 19, 1977 or Black Wednesday, marks the day, when those 18 Black Consciousness organizations, two black newspapers were closed and an editor banned by the government along with the white editor of the Daily Dispatch.
BEYERS NAUDE
The one organization that did not seem to quite fit the bill was the multi-racial Christian Institute, an ecumenical organization founded by Rev. Beyers Naude, vocal in its anti-apartheid theological stance.
Its founder Naude had a five-year banning order slapped on him. This was a type of house arrest effectively prohibiting him from leaving Johannesburg, attending any gathering where more than one person was present. Under it he had to report to a designated police station once a week. He was only allowed to attend church services.
The bannings came 16 months after black youths had risen in the townships against the apartheid government.
Black Wednesday became a setback from which the Black Consciousness movement never recovered.
South Africa's apartheid government constantly proclaimed its ideology as "Christian-National" and for the first time it acted against a Christian organization.
In the sixties many anti-apartheid groups had been banned.
Naude a former moderator of the white Southern Transvaal white Dutch Reformed Church left the church in 1963.
"In two memorable services... he announced his decision and delivered his farewell sermon on the theme 'We must show greater loyalty to God than to man,'" a member of the congregation Hennie Serfontein remembered.
He also put documents related to the top-secret power behind the throne, the Broederbond, into the hands of journalists Charles Bloomberg and Serfontein, leading to expose after expose.
Until 1977 the Christian Institute funded by churches in The Netherlands, Scandinavia, Germany and Switzerland played an important role in bundling the ecumenical power of the churches in South Africa.
In this role it was ahead of Europe at the time. In the seventies it started to pave the way for interfaith cooperation against apartheid in South Africa.
Shortly after setting up the Christian Institute, Naude in 1965 in its monthly newsletter Pro Veritate started to make the case that the time for a confessing church had arrived in South Africa, based on a German model under Nazi Germany.
Although the banning also meant that Naude was not allowed to give interviews or be quoted, he continued to do so for foreign journalists. He also set up a network to help support families of black detainees using his extensive international contacts.
In 1982 while still banned he played a key role behind the scenes in getting the World Alliance of Reformed Churches declare apartheid a heresy.
In a letter address to the WARC President James McCord and smuggled out of South Africa and read to the assembly, Naude accused the WARC of being too reticent in dealing with the whites-only Afrikaans churches.
He argued for a "status confessionis," which was overwhelmingly accepted and the white churches were suspended from WARC.
In 1982 Naude's banning order was renewed for another five years and then surprisingly lifted in late 1984.
DESMOND TUTU
The following year he took over as the SACC general-secretary from Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Under Tutu's tenure as the first black general secretary from 1978 onwards, the SACC had 20 member churches, representing about half of the South African population.
Under Naude's leadership from 1985-1988, the SACC became the voice of the opposition and South Africa had a full-on Church-State conflict as anti-apartheid meeting were held in churches.
(Photo: WCC / Peter Williams) Vancouver, Canada, 1983, 24 July - 10 August, World Council of Churches 6th Assembly. Bishop Desmond Tutu of the South African Council of Churches.
It was also a time that two States of Emergency that banned virtually all opposition to apartheid.
But after 1994 when Nelson Mandela became president the churches were coopted into governmental support and fell silent for nearly two decades.
Writing in the Daily Maverick last week Bishop Malusi explained that it is five months since a report called the Unburdening Panel was released on State capture of South Africa by foreigners with massive sums of money.
"This in simple terms amounts to the power elite taking over the governmental systems and is morally and constitutionally wrong," said the bishop.
Drawing on the past he continued: "Before 1994, not many professional politicians were the hope of a South Africa for all. It was trade unions and civil society organizations, and religious organizations, especially the SACC, the Muslim Judicial Council and Jews for Justice, that stood up as organized structures of apartheid resistance. That is the other story of our hope."
(Photo: Peter Kenny / Ecumenical News) Rev. Frank Chikane in Benoni, South Africa on June 17, 2017.
South Africa's churches are again under government attack. In August Rev. Frank Chikane, Naude's successor as SACC general-secretary before he went into government post-1994, said, "The president attacks me in ANC NEC meetings because I turn the churches against him."
Chikane is once more a clergyman and is now the vice-president of the SACC. Bishop Mpumlwana issued an appeal, "The Christian churches have a duty, and so have all other religious faiths, to generate hope for the people in despair, and a sense of the positive alternative.
"We must ensure that never again shall the country surrender public values to the whims of politicians regardless of party or the leadership thereof."
A movie based on the life of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, titled The Forgiven' that was panned by American critics earlier this year might face some unsympathetic reviews when it is released to South African cinemas next month.
The film, which will be released in South Africa on October 5, is based on Michael Ashton's play The Archbishop and the Antichrist and is directed by Roland Joffe.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tutu is an icon in South Africa after his role in the struggle against South Africa's racist apartheid ideology.
In a statement' Joffe said the drama would follow Tutu's moral and intellectual "struggle with brutal murderer and member of a former apartheid-era hit squad Piet Blomfeld"' played by Australian actor Eric Bana.
"When Tutu receives a highly articulate letter pleading for clemency' written by the convicted murderer' he becomes intrigued enough to visit the prisoner in his cell; here the two men have a series of intense conversations about guilt and forgiveness'" Bana said.
American actor Forest Whitaker plays the role of Tutu in the film but came under fire when a trailer for the film was released in March.
Social media users slammed Forest's accent and lack of resemblance to Tutu and South African audiences are likely to be unconvinced by Australian Bana's scratchy accent of a white racist bad man.
Whitaker was quoted as saying that filling Tutu's shoes was challenging.
TUTU'S LAUGH
"I knew his laugh' his sense of humor' how he felt' his passion' and his faith. But he has a graceful way in which he looks at the world. Trying to pull those things together' to capture the spirit of the man' was challenging'" he said in an interview with Times Live.
Producers said that Whitaker was chosen because he had an understanding of South African history and had taken on a similar role in another movie before this fictionalized drama concerning Tutu's early days as chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The movie was shot in Cape Town and features several scenes from the notorious Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison.
It is based on Michael Ashton's play The Archbishop and the Antichrist in which the playwright collaborated on the screenplay with Joffe.
The film begins with a 1955-set prologue during the apartheid era and the setting changes to the post-apartheid, mid-1990s after Tutu was appointed to his position by then-President Nelson Mandela.
"The Forgiven is heavy-handed from its early texts explaining apartheid through its end credits," critic Glenn Kenny wrote in The New York Times on 5 March.
Kenny, however, is impressed by Whittaker's take on the ever ebullient Tutu.
"Mr. Whitaker does an extraordinary job not just of impersonation (he has the clergyman's infectious laugh down pat), but also of showing the way the character thinks," he writes.
'DRAB MESSAGE MOIVE'
Variety's Guy Lodge was scathing saying, "South Africa's momentous Truth and Reconciliation Commission continues to evade the film treatment it deserves in Roland Joffe's drab message movie."
He explains that it is 20 years since South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded.
"Anyone who was there at the time will remember the startling, sometimes sick-making, power of the testimonies and apologies that emerged through its broadcast hearings: It was an emotional rinse cycle that no film on the subject, least of all one made principally by outsiders, has fully managed to convey."
Frank Scheck wrote in The Hollywood Reporter, "The Forgiven tackles its important political and social issues in an overly talky fashion. The film has its merits, but it represents a significant comedown for the director of such classics as The Mission and The Killing Fields."
He wrote, "The jumbled interweaving of the different plotlines has the effect of making the narrative confusing and the pacing sluggish, although the final courtroom scene, featuring a charged appearance by the distraught mother of the missing girl, packs an undeniable emotional punch."
The producers said Tutu has given his blessing to the production.
I am deeply troubled by the waves of distressing and insensitive policies emanating from the office I once occupied. Some recent ones even have Republicans shaking their heads.
While the U.S. Department of Education has sent mixed signals, it appears the department would tacitly approve the use of federal education funds by districts to buy guns. Thats a long way from the 1965 law that brought the federal government into the world of education.
The original Elementary and Secondary Education Act was part of a package of civil rights laws aimed at advancing equity and justice in the classroom. It followed a decade after the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision to end legal segregation. It was America at its best, raising our sights and uniting us behind common goals.
Secretary Betsy DeVos position on the use of guns is part of a pattern that takes us backwards. In recent days, she has announced plans to roll back guidance we issued on campus sexual assaults. More than 1 in 5 young women and more than 5 percent of men, report being assaulted; yet, she acts more concerned with the rights of the accused than the rights of victims.
The Trump administration also weakened protections for student borrowers and reversed the rules we developed for holding for-profit schools accountable. Our young people are drowning in debt, delaying home purchases, and filing for bankruptcy, but DeVos seems more concerned with protecting for-profit colleges that are ripping them off.
The administration has abandoned efforts to protect the rights of transgender students at the very moment that 16 states are challenging the validity of transgender people . They dont want them covered by civil rights laws, to which I ask, why not? Have they renounced their citizenship? Are they second-class people?
Despite the pleas of teachers, students, and parents, DeVos may pull back guidance encouraging the use of restorative justice practices to reduce suspensions and expulsions, which disproportionately impact students of color and students with disabilities. The evidence of bias is overwhelming, yet she turns a blind eye to the injustice.
In the wake of the Parkland shooting that left 17 dead and 17 injured, she has created a commission to look at school safety but the topic of gun control is largely off the table , except to suggest that we need more armed people in schools. The Parkland shooter bought an assault weapon with no questions asked, yet her solution is more guns.
On issue after issue, DeVos answer is the same: Leave it to the states and districts to figure out. This flies in the face of more than half a century of federal interventions to protect students.
The pendulum has now swung in favor of those who hold power, instead of safeguarding the rights of the people."
Thanks to those efforts, low-income kids receive additional funding to make up for the fact that their schools receive less state and local funding than schools serving higher-income kids. This isnt about federal overreach. Its about fairnessa core American value.
Thanks to those efforts, students with disabilities have the right to a free and appropriate education including needed accommodations in order to participate in school. But for these laws, students with disabilities would be hidden and neglected.
Thanks to those efforts, legal segregation has come to an end, even if de facto segregation continues. If integration really is our goal, we not only have to change the hearts and minds of people, but we need to put the power of the law behind the effort. So far, we havent.
These policies did not just fall out of the air, and they should not be reversed on a whim. They were developed with extensive input from a broad range of stakeholders, including those most-directly affected.
DeVos and her ideological partners are intent on undoing our work, regardless of the consequences. Teachers and students have told her that zero-tolerance discipline feeds the school-to-prison pipeline and should be discouraged. Has she heard them?
Before abandoning protections for LGBTQ students, she should talk with the parents of 9-year-old Jemel Myles of Denver. Jemel killed himself last month after he was bullied for being gay .
I appreciate the argument that Washington cant solve all of these problems. I never pretended it could. The federal role is limited at best.
But the pendulum has now swung in favor of those who hold power, instead of safeguarding the rights of the people. These new policies might seem technical and abstract, but Americans need to know they are a betrayal of our core values, and will have lasting consequences.
So what are the people to do? Its unacceptable to stay silent and do nothing while children are bullied to the point of suicide, while students are massacred by easily available weapons of war, while students are sexually assaulted, and while college debt threatens an entire generation.
Silence in the face of injustice is un-American. There are lives at stake. There are children at risk. We all have an obligation to speak up and do what we can.
In the push to identify and address the reasons for the underperformance of American students relative to their peers abroad and the persistence of test-score disparities across subgroups at home, no shortage of suspects has been summoned before the court of education policy public opinion.
Students, parents, and, of course, classroom teachers undergo levels of scrutiny, but other agents of blame have managed to evade detection. Chief among them: the purveyors of so-called best practice methodologies.
Education leaders who buy into these progressive pedagogical visions argue that the best way to improve education outcomes is to de-emphasize the role of competent, knowledgeable teachers and make students responsibleat virtually every stage of the educational processfor deciding what and how they learn.
Yes. You read that correctly. In many schools, Johnny cant read or demonstrate basic proficiency in other essential skill areas, in part, because his teacher is being told not to teach.
During my 29-year career as a high school teacher in New York state, Ive had a front-and-center view of the almost uncontested sway that university- and district-level education experts hold over the training, certification, andmost notablythe evaluation of teachers. Often the same state-provided consultants who oversee teacher professional development also train administrators on what to look for during classroom observations.
Operating in an accountability-free safe zone, these architects of methodology seem to subscribe almost uniformly to a type of educational PCor pedagogical correctnessthat views content-focused, direct instruction by subject matter experts in a structured, disruption-free classroom as an outmoded drill and kill approach to which students should never be subjected.
One need look no further than the vast majority of teacher-evaluation rubrics to see how pedagogically correct theory becomes practice-transforming policy. Many of these instruments, including the widely used Danielson Framework , compel observers to assume the role of engagement watchdog. The highest ratings can only be given if the classroom is a busy, collaborative space where teachers place students almost immediately in the educational drivers seat.
Predictably, many classrooms have become social, bustling, sometimes chaotic environments, where teacherseven masters of their craftare relegated to facilitator status, lest they be scolded for failing to limit teacher talk time, allowing any student to be even momentarily bored, or being too didactic in their approach.
Indeed, the message coming from the educational ivory tower is clear: Teachers must give up the need for control in the classroom.
Cosmetic Engagement or Actual Learning?
However, given that the best-practice pendulum has been stuck on progressive for years without much in the way of corresponding student gains, perhaps its the experts who should cede control.
To be sure, the teacher-directed model can be executed poorly, and is heavily dependent on proficient, passionate orators with a skill set that includes establishing credibility and rapport with kids. Thats a high performance standard that many teachers, myself included, find difficult to consistently meet. But student-led models have substantial shortcomings, many of which are structurally built in.
Rather than the time-honored methodologiessuch as lecture/discussion, skill modeling, and regular review and testing to ensure retentionmany progressive approaches provide students with a sampler platter of often unproven and, in some cases, already discredited activities and game-based strategies.
These prioritize fun over function, and mistakenly equate cosmetic engagement with actual learning. From various technology-based gimmicks to accommodating seemingly infinite learning styles, teachers are quite familiar with the professional-development guru who cried education game-changer.
Additionally, many of these strategies tend to put the critical-thinking-and-creativity cart before the fundamental content-and-skill-acquisition horse. Try composing on a musical instrument without learning the sequential basics first, and youll quickly discover that your creation stinks. Try participating in a class discussion without a rich knowledge base and contextual framework, and your input will lack substance.
Because progressive methodology is largely predicated on teamwork, studentsoften without foundational background knowledge or discernment capabilities in placeare frequently placed in groups to collectively engineer their own learning experiences. But many students treat cooperative learning as an extension of cafeteria socialization, regardless of how adept the learning facilitator may be at intermittently monitoring progress.
Of course, all students are ultimately in charge of whether they learn. But perhaps the biggest drawback of a student-led classroom environment is this reality: Many students, especially those most at risk of academic failure, are simply not sufficiently motivated or self-aware to advocate for their own education needs, and require the direct, focused instruction that a truly effective master teacher should be encouraged and empowered to provide.
A meta-analysis published in 2018 by Stockard, Wood, Coughlin, and Khoury, including more than 300 studies conducted during the period from 1966 through 2016, indicates that teacher-centered, explicit instruction produces positive results and in some cases, better results than student-led inquiry or group-based project models. But pedagogical correctness dictates that evidenceat least when it contradicts preconceived ideas about preferred methodologymatters less than classroom optics.
So, in accordance with best-practice orthodoxy, the experienced teacher with a thorough understanding of content, higher-order applications, and the logistics of time constraints accepts a significantly diminished role. After all, decades of resources have been dedicated to making student choice an integral part of the 21st-century classroom, and celebrating how it lets Johnny be the driver of his own bus.
Meanwhile, even though the classroom looks dynamic, students appear to be busy, and the right boxes get checked during classroom observations, achievement gaps dont close .
Supporters of traditional instruction arent arguing that students should be nothing but passive receptacles. They are arguing for some methodological balance. In almost three decades of teaching, Ive never come across a professional-development session devoted to teacher-led strategies. Do they even exist anymore?
The problem is not that teacher-centered instruction doesnt work, its that those in the pedagogical correctness echo chamber dont want it to. Its a confirmation bias bordering on education malpractice. To the extent that these experts ignore the merits of traditional approaches and continue to chase virtually every educational fad, perhaps its time for them to take their turn in the accountability crosshairs.
Ramsey RNLI aid stricken fishing boat off the Point
Ramsey RNLI assist fishing vessel in to Port
Ramsey lifeboat was launched to rescue a fishing vessel that had broken down in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The RNLI crew were launched at just after 4:30am following a request from the Belfast Coastguard.
The large fishing vessel suffered the engine failure around six miles north-west of the Point of Ayre.
The crew helped berth the vessel successfully into Ramsey Harbour.
Ramsey RNLI Facebook Page
2018-09-05
Maeci
The Governments of France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States welcome the result of the mediation reached today by the United Nations Support Mission that aims to deescalate violence in and around Tripoli and ensure the protection of civilians. We reiterate our strong support for Special Representative of the Secretary-General Ghassan Salame as he works to realize an immediate and durable cessation of hostilities in the Libyan capital, which is a critical step to advancing the political process in accordance with the United Nations Action Plan.
As the Secretary-General noted on September 2, all parties should immediately cease hostilities and abide by the ceasefire agreement brokered by the United Nations. We call on all Libyan parties to refrain from any actions that could undermine todays ceasefire announcement, jeopardize the security of civilians, or set back Libyan efforts to advance the political process and move forward in the spirit of compromise.
We also reiterate support for the President of the Presidency Council, Fayez al-Sarraj, and the Government of National Accord as they work in partnership with the United Nations to promote reconciliation and support a Libyan-led political process.
2018-09-05
Maeci
Italy has organised a course for magistrates and judges who will become trainers in Niamey, Niger. The course was set up by the Sant'Anna School in Pisa with the contribution of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and was attended by 20 Nigerian magistrates and judges. The aim is to strengthen the pedagogical, didactical and methodological skills of the educators. During the opening ceremony, Italian Ambassador to Niger, Marco Prencipe, stated how the course represents Italy's firm intention to support Niger's justice sector. Niger wants to repeat this training since cooperation with Italy represents an important part of bilateral relations in the judicial sector and Nigerian magistrates and judges need to adequately contrast transnational organised crime and illicit trafficking.
Researchers studying human remains of high-ranked warriors recovered from an Early Medieval Germanic cemetery have finally gleaned insight into these individuals' sex and kinship relationships. These findings offer a unique understanding of the Alemanni, a group of Germanic tribes that occupied a region spanning parts of present-day Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria. After the Alemanni were defeated by the Franks in 497 AD, the tribes' burial practices changed, with households (familia) buried in richly furnished graves known as Adelsgrablege. An example of Alemannic Adelsgrablege can be seen in the 7th century AD Alemannic burial site at Niederstotzingen in southern Germany, where, decades ago, the skeletal remains of 13 individuals, as well as collections of goods, were uncovered from 12 graves. Despite analysis on the site since its discovery in 1962, some questions remain: namely, the individuals' genetic sex, kinship and genetic origin. Using ancient genome-wide analyses techniques - including 1240K - Niall O'Sullivan and colleagues sought to reconstruct familial relationships of the Niederstotzingen individuals, as well as to estimate their genetic sex. At least 11 of the individuals were likely male, they say, suggesting that burial rites were sex-biased. What's more, in terms of origin, the site is divided into two groups, the authors say: Niederstotzingen North, comprised of six individuals genetically most like modern northern and eastern European populations, and Niederstotzingen South, two individuals most similar to modern-day Mediterraneans, but genetically unrelated. Of the Niederstotzingen North, five were second degree relatives. Finally, the strontium and oxygen isotope content of the individuals' dental enamel in the northern burials indicated that they were born locally, while the southern burials were born in other regions. These findings suggest that other social processes, such as personal fealty to powerful families, might have also influenced the composition of these cemeteries.
###
Rockville, Md. (September 5, 2018)--Losing a single night's sleep may affect the liver's ability to produce glucose and process insulin, increasing the risk of metabolic diseases such as hepatic steatosis (fatty liver) and type 2 diabetes. The findings of the mouse study are published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology--Endocrinology and Metabolism. The research was chosen as an APSselect article for September.
Sleep deprivation has been associated with eating more, moving less and having a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. However, a team of researchers from Toho University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan, explained, "It was not clear whether glucose intolerance was due to the changes in food intake or energy expenditure or to the sleep deprivation itself."
The researchers studied two groups of mice: One group was kept awake for six hours each night ("sleep deprivation"), while the control group was allowed to sleep as desired. The research team offered unlimited high-fat food and sugar water--mimicking lifestyle-related food choices that people make--to both groups prior to the study. During the sleep/wake period, the animals had limited opportunity for physical activity.
The researchers measured glucose levels and fat content of the liver immediately after the trial period. Blood glucose levels were significantly higher in the sleep deprivation group than controls after one six-hour session of wakefulness. Triglyceride (fat) levels and the production of glucose in the liver also increased in the sleep deprivation group after a single wake period. Elevated liver triglycerides are associated with insulin resistance, or the inability of the body to process insulin properly. In addition, lack of sleep changed the expression of enzymes that regulate metabolism in the liver in the sleep deprivation group. These findings suggest that "intervention studies designed to prevent sleep deprivation-induced hepatic steatosis and insulin resistance should be performed in the future," the researchers wrote.
###
Read the full article, "Mechanisms of sleep deprivation-induced hepatic steatosis and insulin resistance in mice," published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology--Endocrinology and Metabolism. It is highlighted as one of this month's "best of the best" as part of the American Physiological Society's APSselect program. Read all of this month's selected research articles.
NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: To schedule an interview with a member of the research team, please contact the communications@the-aps.org>APS Communications Office or 301-634-7209. Find more research highlights in the APS Press Room.
Physiology is the study of how molecules, cells, tissues and organs function in health and disease. Established in 1887, the American Physiological Society (APS) was the first U.S. society in the biomedical sciences field. The Society represents more than 10,000 members and publishes 15 peer-reviewed journals with a worldwide readership.
But for those men who seek counsel from their physicians, shared decision making is essential
Routine testing for prostate cancer is not recommended for most men because the benefit is small and uncertain and there are clear harms, say a panel of international experts in The BMJ today.
But they acknowledge that some men, such as those with a family history of prostate cancer, may be more likely to consider screening and, for these men, discussions about possible harms and benefits with their doctor is essential.
Their advice is based on the latest evidence and is part of The BMJ's 'Rapid Recommendations' initiative - to produce rapid and trustworthy guidance based on new evidence to help doctors make better decisions with their patients.
The prostate specific antigen (PSA) test is the only widely used test currently available to screen for prostate cancer. It is used in many countries, but remains controversial because it has increased the number of healthy men diagnosed with and treated unnecessarily for harmless tumours.
So an international panel, made up of clinicians, men at risk of prostate cancer, and research methodologists, carried out a detailed analysis of the latest evidence using the GRADE approach (a system used to assess the quality of evidence).
Based on a review (more than 700,000 men in clinical trials), which found that if screening reduces prostate cancer deaths at all, the effect is very small, the panel advises against offering routine PSA screening and says most men will decline screening because of the small and uncertain benefits and the clear harms.
Clinicians need not feel obligated to systematically raise the issue with all their patients, and should engage in shared decision making for those considering screening.
However, men at higher risk of prostate cancer death (for example, those with a family history of prostate cancer or of African descent) may be more likely to choose PSA screening after discussion of potential benefits and harms of testing with their doctor, authors concluded.
This view is supported in a linked editorial by Professor Martin Roland at the University of Cambridge and colleagues.
Both the panel and the editorialists welcome the UK government's commitment to invest in prostate cancer research, and point to recent advances and active surveillance "which have the potential to reduce the harms of testing."
In the meantime, they say conversations with patients requesting a PSA test "should explore their reasons for requesting a test, and include evidence based discussions about possible harms and benefits of PSA testing, informed by the patient's ethnicity and family history."
###
Externally peer-reviewed? Yes (research, practice guideline), No (editorial)
Type of evidence: Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials
Subjects: People
Gap is small for most doctor grades, but larger amongst consultants
Data published by The BMJ today reveal some differences in median basic pay between white and black and minority ethnic (BME) hospital doctors employed by the NHS in England.
While the gap is small for nearly all grades and types of doctor, a larger gap exists among consultants, with white consultants earning around an extra 4,644 per year compared with BME consultants.
Author John Appleby, Chief Economist at the Nuffield Trust, says although the lack of a significant pay gap for most doctor grades is encouraging, the differences at consultant level warrant further investigation and explanation.
His findings are based on basic pay data extracted from the NHS Electronic Staff Record for the month of December 2017, for doctors in England directly employed by the NHS, coupled with doctors' self identified ethnicity category.
In England, a higher proportion of NHS staff identify as belonging to a minority ethnic group compared to the population as a whole (20% in December 2017 vs 15% based on the 2011 census). For NHS doctors (excluding GPs), however, the proportion of BME staff varies from 37% for foundation year 1 doctors to 60% for specialty doctors.
Appleby shows that for nearly all grades and types of doctors the gap in median basic pay is small, ranging from close to zero for foundation year 2 doctors to 1%, favouring BME associate specialist doctors.
However, a larger gap exists among consultants: the median basic pay for white consultants is 4.9% higher than for BME consultants. This is equivalent to additional basic pay in December 2017 of 387 - or, scaled up, around 4,644 a year - for white consultants.
A more detailed breakdown shows that median basic pay for white consultants is higher than all other ethnic groups - varying from around 3.5% higher than black/black British consultants, to over 6% higher than mixed or dual heritage consultants.
But Appleby points out that it is one thing to identify pay gaps between staff, another to explain them.
As with the gender pay gap, the ethnic pay gap among consultants will be driven by several factors, he writes.
Part of the explanation may be differences in the age profile of white and BME consultants, he says. "White consultants tend to be older, and if age is taken as a proxy for experience, and experience is positively linked to remuneration, then we would expect to see some difference in pay."
"However, there will be other explanations too - some warranted, others not so much. These, as with the gender pay gap, are worth investigating further," he concludes.
###
Externally peer-reviewed? Yes
Type of evidence: Descriptive analysis of data from NHS Digital
Subjects: People
New findings bring Canada's largest HIV research, treatment & education organization, the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE), into the area of HIV vaccine and cure research
Researchers at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) and Simon Fraser University (SFU), in partnership with University of British Columbia (UBC) and Western University, have developed a novel way for dating "hibernating" HIV strains, in an advancement for HIV cure research in the province. Published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the BC-CfE's first major scientific contribution to the area of HIV cure research confirms that dormant HIV strains can persist in the body for decades.
"If you can't identify it, you can't cure it. This research provides further essential clues in the pursuit of an HIV cure--which will ultimately require the complete eradication of dormant or 'latent' HIV strains," said Dr. Zabrina Brumme, Director, Laboratory with BC-CfE and lead author on the study. "Scientists have long known that strains of HIV can remain essentially in hibernation in an individual living with HIV, only to reactivate many years later. Our study confirms that the latent HIV reservoir is genetically diverse and can contain viral strains dating back to transmission."
"The BC-CfE has consistently been a national and global leader on research on HIV and on the implementation of its pioneering Treatment as Prevention strategy. The addition of molecular biologist Dr. Zabrina Brumme as Director of the innovative BC-CfE Laboratory ensures the BC-CfE will play a significant role in HIV cure research," said Dr. Julio Montaner, Director of the BC-CfE. "Curative strategies will need to address this new study's key findings. I want to acknowledge the study participants and thank them for helping to increase our knowledge on the origins of the latent HIV reservoir."
"By creating family trees of viruses using a technique called molecular phylogenetics, we can reconstruct the evolutionary history of HIV within a person," said Brad Jones, a Ph.D. student with UBC at the BC-CfE and the first author on the study. "In essence, we created a highly calibrated 'time machine' that gives us a specific time stamp for when each dormant HIV strain originally appeared in a person."
Dormant HIV strains, which have integrated their DNA into that of the body's cells, can persist for years and are unreachable by antiretroviral treatments and the immune system. They can reactivate at any time, which is why HIV treatment needs to be maintained for life.
Through advances in antiretroviral therapy, an individual living with HIV can now live a longer, healthier life on treatment. Treatment works by stopping HIV from infecting new cells. On sustained treatment, individuals can achieve a level of virus that is undetectable by standard blood tests. An undetectable viral load means improved health and that the virus is not transmittable to others--the concept behind Treatment as Prevention.
"Previous research had already revealed that the HIV reservoir was genetically complex. With our method, we can now understand that complexity with greater granularity, pinpointing exactly when each unique HIV strain originally appeared in a person," said Dr. Jeffrey Joy, Research Scientist at the BC-CfE and co-author on the study.
"In order to eradicate HIV from a person's body, you first need to know the characteristics of HIV in the latent reservoir," said Dr. Art Poon, Assistant Professor in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Western University, also a co-author on the study. "We are providing a method for better measuring the timeline of virus latency and evolution within an individual living with HIV."
In order to "date" dormant HIV strains within the viral reservoir, researchers needed to compare these strains to those that evolved within an individual living with HIV over the entire history of their infection. The BC-CfE is one of a handful of institutions worldwide capable of such research, thanks to its maintenance of a historical repository of blood specimens from individuals diagnosed with HIV in BC. These specimens date back to 1996 and were originally collected for viral load and drug resistance testing. The BC-CfE Laboratory has provided HIV drug resistance genotyping for virtually all Canadian provinces and territories since 1998, as well as for many countries worldwide.
###
This research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) in partnership with the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR) and the International AIDS Society (IAS) through its support of the Canadian HIV Cure Enterprise (CanCURE), as well as the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) through its support of the Martin Delaney BELIEVE Collaboratory.
About the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS
The BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) is Canada's largest HIV/AIDS research, treatment and education facility, nationally and internationally recognized as an innovative world leader in combating HIV/AIDS and related diseases. The Treatment as Prevention (TasP) strategy, pioneered by BC-CfE, inspired the ambitious global UNAIDS 90-90-90 to end AIDS as a pandemic by 2030. The BC-CfE is applying TasP to therapeutic areas beyond HIV/AIDS, including viral hepatitis, through Targeted Disease Elimination (TDE). The BC-CfE works in close collaboration with key stakeholders, including government, health authorities, health care providers, academics and the community to reduce disease burden and increase health care sustainability.
For more information, please contact:
Caroline Dobuzinskis, BC-CfE Communications Coordinator
Phone: 604-366-6540, Email: cdobuzin@cfenet.ubc.ca
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - Even in cases where a rape has clearly taken place, traditional beliefs and assumptions about masculinity can cause both witnesses and victims to be uncertain about reporting it, according to new research conducted at Binghamton University, State University at New York.
In a study exploring possible reasons for the underreporting of rape, researchers at Binghamton University and SUNY Broome Community College had both male and female college students read a series of vignettes describing a clear incident of rape. In the different vignettes, which were randomly assigned, the rape was perpetrated by either a man against a woman, a man against a man, or a woman against a man. Afterwards, participants were asked to indicate how much blame they felt was attributable to the perpetrator or the victim; and then to consider, if they were the victim, how likely they would be to (1) tell people they know that the rape happened, or (2) to report it to authorities.
Even in situations that were clearly rape, individuals often appeared on the fence about whether or not they would dislcose the rape to others.
"In general, participants were ambivalent about disclosing that they had been sexually assaulted, even though they identifed the attack as a definite rape," said Binghamton University Associate Professor of Psychology Richard Mattson, corresponding author for the study. "The participants' gender role beliefs and sexual orientation, together with the sex of the perpetrator, seems to affect their attributions of blame, which could influence this tenuous decisional balance in ways that map onto patterns of underreporting in actual rapes."
The researchers found that male and heterosexual participants were more likely to blame victims and less likely to blame perpetrators, and were also less likely to disclose the rape if they were the victim. Endorsement of traditional beliefs and assumptions about men and masculinity seemed to be driving these associations.
"Regardless of gender (and sexual orientation), those who believed men should act more stereotypically masculine were less likely to either report a rape or disclose having been assaulted," said Mattson. "In part, this was because those endorsing such ideologies blamed victims more and minimized the responsibility of the perpetrators. However, the overall pattern of effects suggest a more complex picture in which different aspects of the masculine gender role might relate to underreporting for different reasons."
One surprising finding was that decisions to report a rape to authorities were more strongly tied to judgements about the perpetrator's actions than those of the victim.
"Regardless of how much blame a person placed on the victim for being raped, it was how they viewed the perpetrator, how much blame they assigned to them, that affected their likelihood to report the incident to authorities," said Mattson.
The study highlights the importance of continuing to explore and critically reflect on our enduring traditional beliefs about gender and how these beliefs shape our understanding of both sexual behaviors and sexual assault, said Mattson.
"Our findings suggest that challenging belief systems and cultural narratives about rape that exonerate perpetrators - particularly those related to gender and sexual orientation - may help to increase the reporting of rapes, which has implications for both public safety and the support and resources available to, and accessed by, victims of rape," said Mattson. "We hope these findings will serve to prevent the inadvertent and unjust blaming of victims while giving guilty perpetrators a pass."
###
The Binghamton University research team included graduate students Allison M. McKinnon and Edwin Ortiz; Lecturer in Psychology and Human Development Ann Merriwether; and Associate Professor of Women, and Gender and Sexuality Studies Sean G. Massey. Graduate nursing student Ian Chiu also contributed to the study. Susan M. Seibold-Simpson from SUNY Broome was first author on the paper, "Person- and Incident-Level Predictors of Blame, Disclosure, and Reporting to Authorities in Rape Scenarios," which was published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.
Recently, scientists from China and the UK reported two Middle-Late Triassic entomofaunas, providing not only the earliest records of several modern insect elements, but also new insights into the early evolution of freshwater ecosystems.
This study confirms that holometabolous and aquatic insects experienced extraordinary diversification about 237 million years ago. The research was published in Science Advances on September 5, 2018.
Dr. ZHENG Daran and Prof. WANG Bo, researchers at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS), discovered a late Ladinian Tongchuan entomofauna and a Carnian Karamay entomofauna in northwestern China. These entomofaunas provide new evidence for understanding the process of insect diversification.
The Tongchuan entomofauna contains at least 28 insect families in 11 orders, making it among the most diverse Triassic entomofaunas. The Karamay entomofauna comprises 10 insect families in six orders, including caddisfly cases and the earliest known water boatmen.
The Tongchuan entomofauna includes diverse fossil beetles with bodies, making them potential key calibration points for the molecular phylogenetic analysis of beetle phylogeny. Another interesting discovery is the earliest caddisfly cases (Trichoptera) in both entomofaunas.
The true Trichoptera was thought to have diverged from Amphiesmenoptera in the earliest Jurassic. The Holometabola are the most diverse insects in the Tongchuan and Karamay entomofaunas and are represented by diverse beetles and scorpionflies.
Holometabola were thought to have become dominant in the global entomofauna starting in the mid-Mesozoic. Thus, its high diversity and abundance in Tongchuan and Karamay are relatively unexpected, revealing a radiation of Holometabola during the Middle Triassic.
In addition, water boatmen are abundant in the Karamay entomofauna, making them the earliest record of aquatic bugs. These aquatic insects developed new herbivore and carnivore guilds that persist to the present.
The diversification of aquatic insects was thought to be part of the "Mesozoic Lacustrine Revolution," which dates to the Middle Mesozoic. The current study suggests, however, that this diversification had already begun by the Middle Triassic, thus providing new insights into the early evolution of freshwater ecosystems.
Compared to other insects, Holometabola were probably more resilient to Early Triassic environmental disturbances, since their development would have allowed greater buffering from environmental variability.
After the Early Triassic, various plants started to appear during the Middle Triassic and spread later, probably further contributing to the radiation of holometabolous and aquatic insects.
###
This research was supported by the HKU Seed Funding Program for Basic Research, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Researchers have long known that tau, a protein that accumulates in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD), is a major component of AD's hallmark neurofibrillary tangles that are presumed to be involved in the development of dementia. Precisely how tau contributes to the disease has remained a mystery. But new research publishing September 5 in the journal Neuron suggests the possibility of a new mechanism of neuronal dysfunction where tau interferes with the nucleus's ability to communicate with the rest of the cell.
A team of scientists led by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have found that the nuclear pore complex, which controls the transport of molecules into the cell nucleus, is defective in animal and human AD cells and that the defect is associated with tau aggregation inside neurons.
In a cell, the nucleus is surrounded by a membrane separating contents inside the nucleus from everything else within the cell. The nucleus communicates with the cell through protein-rich structures known as nuclear pores. Defects in these pores have been suggested in other causes of dementia, particularly frontotemporal dementia, and in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
"Under disease conditions, it appears that tau interacts with the nuclear pore and changes its properties," says co-senior author Bradley Hyman of Massachusetts General Hospital. The nuclear pore complex includes more than 400 different proteins. In this research, the team focused on one of the major structural proteins of the pore, Nup98. The researchers found that in the presence of tau, the Nup98 nuclear pores are not evenly spaced throughout the structure as expected. Instead, they were physically disrupted, fewer in number, and coalesced with each other. The team also noted that Nup98 seemed to leak or be mislocalized in the cytoplasm of AD brain cells rather than remaining in the nuclear pore. Whenever it was mislocalized, those same cells tended to have aggregates of tau.
Studying human AD brain tissue, the team found that the more extreme the AD disease was while patients were alive, at autopsy they had worse pathology related to Nup98 mislocalization with tau. In mice models, when human tau was added to cultures of living rodent neurons, Nup98 was mislocalized in the cytoplasm and functional nuclear import was disrupted. "This was a functional link between tau and damage to the nuclear transport in the nuclear membrane," says co-senior author Jeffrey Rothstein of Johns Hopkins University.
The researchers suggest that this physical alteration of the Nup98 nuclear pore in the presence of tau disrupts the function of the nuclear pore and accelerates tau aggregation and the formation of neurofibrillary tangles, ultimately leading to neural dysfunction and death. It remains unknown whether the Nup98/tau interaction is a normal function that is exaggerated in neurodegenerative disease or whether it occurs only in neurodegenerative disease.
###
This research was supported by several NIH grants, the Massachusetts Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, the JPB Foundation, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Paul G Allen Family Foundation, the Glenn Foundation Center for Aging Research, the American Federation for Aging Research, the Leona M and Harry B Helmsley Foundation Charitable Trust, Annette Merle-Smith, and the Mathers Foundation.
Neuron, Eftekharzadeh et al.: "Tau protein disrupts nucleocytoplasmic transport in Alzheimer's disease" https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(18)30637-8
Neuron (@NeuroCellPress), published by Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that has established itself as one of the most influential and relied upon journals in the field of neuroscience and one of the premier intellectual forums of the neuroscience community. It publishes interdisciplinary articles that integrate biophysical, cellular, developmental, and molecular approaches with a systems approach to sensory, motor, and higher-order cognitive functions. Visit: http://www.cell.com/neuron. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.
Half (51 percent) of people invited to bowel screening for the first time in 2015 didn't take part, according to the latest figures from Cancer Research UK
Half (51%) of people invited to bowel screening for the first time in 2015 didn't take part, according to the latest figures from Cancer Research UK published today (Wednesday) in the European Journal of Cancer.*
Averaged figures from 2010-15 in England showed that those from deprived areas were less likely to participate (43%) than those in wealthier regions (57%) and more women (56%) than men (47%) returned samples from the screening kits sent out in the post.
People who lived in ethnically diverse neighbourhoods were also less likely to take part (41%) than those who didn't (56%).
The current screening kit requires small stool samples to be taken on three separate days and posted back to the bowel screening unit in specially sealed envelopes.
Researchers from University College London (UCL) examined the anonymous data from 4.4 million men and women aged between 60 and 64 who were sent a home test kit for the first time as part of the English Bowel Cancer Screening Programme between 2010 and 2015.
They found that 53% returned samples in 2010, but this dropped to 49% by 2015.
For those who choose to take part in screening the risk of dying from bowel cancer is 25% lower** than for those who don't.
Lead researcher Dr Christian von Wagner from UCL said: "The fact fewer and fewer people are returning their kits and that inequalities in the system are widening, is very worrying. There is an urgent need to revolutionise bowel cancer screening because the earlier cancer is spotted, the more lives can be saved.
"Research has shown the introduction of a new test called the Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) would encourage more people to take part, with a 7% increase in uptake.*** The sooner this can be introduced, the more lives will be saved."
FIT is a new test due to be introduced into the national bowel screening programme in England this autumn. It is easier to use than the current test as it only requires one sample instead of three and is more accurate in detecting potential cancers.
Sara Hiom, director of early diagnosis at Cancer Research UK, said: "Our bowel cancer screening programme is extremely effective at detecting early disease before symptoms show themselves, so it's very concerning that so many people are missing out on this potential health benefit.
"We have good evidence to suggest that the new FIT screening test - which is easier to do - will help reduce barriers and result in more people choosing to take up their invitation. So the sooner it is introduced, and made available to everyone eligible, the better.
"When bowel cancer is diagnosed at an early stage, as through screening, more than 9 in 10 people survive but when it is detected in the late stages, survival falls to less than 1 in 10. Every year around 28,500 people aged 60 and over are diagnosed with bowel cancer in England.****
Improved screening will undoubtedly reduce deaths from a cancer that affects so many lives."
Anne Parmenter, 63, from South London was diagnosed with bowel cancer through screening. Following surgery and chemotherapy she is now doing well and back at work as a classroom assistant.
She said: "On my 60th birthday, I received a bowel cancer testing kit in the post from the NHS. I wasn't going to do it but, in the end, I thought it was daft not to and sent it back. The following Tuesday I received a letter asking me to go to hospital for more tests.
"I had no symptoms before and didn't feel unwell, so I feel that kit saved my life. The cancer has changed how I look at life because none of us know what is around the corner. Three years ago, I had no idea of what was to come but I am now slowly recovering and getting back to normal."
###
For more information on bowel cancer screening in England and advice on how to use the test visit https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/screening/be-clear-on-cancer/bowel-screening
Notes to editors
* Hirst Y, Stoffel S, Baio G, McGregor L, von Wagner C, Uptake of the English Bowel (Colorectal) Cancer Screening Programme: an update 5 years after full roll-out, European Journal of Cancer (2018), doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2018.07.135.
** https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18479499
*** Moss S, Mathews C, Day TJ, Smith S, Seaman HE, Snowball J, Halloran SP. Increased uptake and improved outcomes of bowel cancer screening with a faecal immunochemical test: results from a pilot study within the national screening programme in England. Gut. 2016 Jun 7:gutjnl-2015.
****Based on the annual average number of new cases of bowel cancer (ICD 10 C18-C20) in people aged 60 and over diagnosed in England between 2013-2015.
About Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK is the world's leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research.
Cancer Research UK's pioneering work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives.
Cancer Research UK receives no funding from the UK government for its life-saving research. Every step it makes towards beating cancer relies on vital donations from the public.
Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of the progress that has already seen survival in the UK double in the last 40 years.
Today, 2 in 4 people survive their cancer for at least 10 years. Cancer Research UK's ambition is to accelerate progress so that by 2034, 3 in 4 people will survive their cancer for at least 10 years.
Cancer Research UK supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses.
Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK's vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured.
For further information about Cancer Research UK's work or to find out how to support the charity, please call 0300 123 1022 or visit http://www.cancerresearchuk.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
LIVERMORE, Calif. -- Insights from experiments at Sandia National Laboratories designed to push chemical systems far from equilibrium allowed an international group of researchers to discover a new major source of formic acid over the Pacific and Indian oceans. In addition to being the smallest organic acid and an important chemical for communication among ants, formic acid is the most abundant organic acid in the global atmosphere and a major source of rainwater acidity. However, global atmospheric models significantly underpredict the amount of formic acid present in the troposphere compared to direct measurements. Because formic acid lies at the end point of hydrocarbon oxidation, this underestimate calls into question current scientific understanding of hydrocarbon degradation in the atmosphere. It is critical to understand the origin of this underprediction, because accurate predictions of air quality and of aerosol impacts on climate rely on a sound representation of atmospheric hydrocarbon chemistry. The new research highlights how nonequilibrium processes bring models closer to reality, but with an unexpected twist.
Inspired by earlier work led by Sandia researcher Craig Taatjes in combustion chemistry, Sandia physical chemist David Osborn and his colleagues hypothesized that vinyl alcohol could be a chemical precursor to the missing formic acid.
However, there was a hitch: vinyl alcohol is a metastable form, or isomer, of the common molecule acetaldehyde. At equilibrium and room temperature, there is only one vinyl alcohol molecule for every 3.3 million acetaldehyde molecules. Something would need to push this mixture far from its natural composition for there to be enough vinyl alcohol molecules to potentially impact formic acid concentrations.
The answer to this puzzle came through Osborn's explorations of a foundational scientific Grand Challenge from the DOE's Office of Basic Energy Sciences, which funded the work: to harness systems far from equilibrium. Forcing a chemical system far from equilibrium could allow chemists to explore unusual molecular configurations that may have valuable properties for energy capture and energy storage.
Osborn's team thought that photons -- in particular ultraviolet light -- would be an ideal tool to drive a chemical system far from equilibrium, but collisions between molecules inevitably lead to a restoration of equilibrium. For this reason, it wasn't clear whether the approach would work at atmospheric pressure, where collision between molecules occur about 7 billion times each second.
Nonequilibrium conditions key in new chemistry
Using infrared spectroscopy to analyze the molecules after irradiation with ultraviolet light, thereby mimicking sunlight, Osborn and his team confirmed that wavelengths from 300-330 nanometers can rearrange the atoms in acetaldehyde, converting it to vinyl alcohol. The experiments showed that when 100 acetaldehyde molecules absorb ultraviolet photons in this wavelength range, on average four of them are converted into vinyl alcohol. The process persists even at atmospheric pressure, so that molecules that have absorbed light are driven by a factor of 100,000 away from an equilibrium mixture.
"This dramatic increase in vinyl alcohol concentration now enables new oxidation chemistry that isn't possible from acetaldehyde," Osborn said.
His team postulated that vinyl alcohol could be oxidized to yield formic acid, a pathway supported by recent theoretical calculations that predicted a rate constant for this process. With the experimental and theoretical details in hand, Osborn's collaborators could add this chemistry to local and global models of Earth's atmosphere to see how it might alter formic acid concentrations.
"This new chemistry produces about 3.4 billion tons of additional formic acid per year in the model, but this only amounts to 7 percent of formic acid in the global model," Osborn said. "This is not enough to solve the mystery of the missing sources of formic acid that cause models to disagree with experiments. However, this new chemistry accounts for more than 50 percent of the total modeled formic acid production over the Pacific and Indian oceans, a result that was completely unexpected and may explain the previously puzzling origin of formic acid over open oceans."
Importance of pushing past equilibrium
Since 1999, Osborn has explored the mechanisms of gas-phase chemical reactions at Sandia's Combustion Research Facility. The high temperatures encountered in practical combustion provide a fertile ground to test fundamental questions of chemical reactivity. Improving the fundamental understanding of chemical change directly addresses Department of Energy goals that span disciplines, such as the ability to transform energy in a controlled way between electrical, chemical and kinetic reservoirs.
"This research shows how photons can push systems far from equilibrium, creating new chemical pathways that could allow increased control over energy transformations, even in environments with many randomizing collisions that seek to re-establish equilibrium," Osborn said.
The research also demonstrates how DOE-funded basic science can have unexpected impacts in other areas that are important to society, such as atmospheric chemistry.
###
Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. Sandia Labs has major research and development responsibilities in nuclear deterrence, global security, defense, energy technologies and economic competitiveness, with main facilities in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Livermore, California.
Microbes have the power to cause -- and treat -- human cancer
Every human cell is outnumbered in our bodies by microbes, in a ratio estimated at three-to-one. We need these microbes to thrive, and sometimes they can kill us - but we don't know them very well.
That's why ecancermedicalscience has prepared our latest Special Issue, focusing specifically on the "oncomicrobiome" - a phrase that readers may not be familiar with now, but which will play a large role in our future understanding of cancer.
"Humans are super-organisms of massive interconnecting genomes from trillions of organisms that are all essential for maintaining health," says Guest Editor Dr Alasdair Scott of Imperial College, London, UK.
The microbiome, or the sum of the genetic information contained within these organisms, is almost unimaginably vast - and incredibly complex, with thousands of relationships developed over our long history of co-evolution with the microscopic.
"We're beginning to appreciate that the human microbiome impacts on nearly every aspect of human physiology and pathophysiology," Dr Scott explains.
Now it's time to turn our attention to the "oncomicrobiome," the complex connection between cancer and the microbiome.
"This cutting-edge Special Issue delves into our rapidly evolving understanding of the microbiome in both the causation and treatment of cancer," says Dr Scott.
This Special Issue collects six original review articles that examine this complex relationship, ranging from the use of probiotics in cancer treatment, to the interaction of the microbiome with chemotherapy, to examining the bacterial infections that may lead to colorectal and lung cancer. The development of microbial DNA sequencing techniques and the rise of bioinformatics are also explored.
###
All of the articles on this fascinating topic are completely free to read. You're invited to explore the potential of this inner world at ecancer.org.
Editor's Notes
For more information, contact Audrey Nailor, Journal Editor, at audrey@ecancer.org
Link:
https://ecancer.org/special-issues/19-microbiome.php
Citation information:
Lung Cancer: a new frontier for microbiome research and clinical translation
Luis A. J. Mur, Sharon A. Huws, Simon J.S. Cameron, Paul D. Lewis Keir E. Lewis
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3332/ecancer.2018.866
Pre-, pro- and synbiotics in oncology patients
Alasdair J Scott, Claire A Merrifield, Jessica A Younes and Elsbeth Pekelharing
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3332/ecancer.2018.869
Moving on from Metchnikoff: Thinking about microbiome therapeutics in cancer
Saman Maleki Vareki, Ryan M. Chanyi, Kamilah Abdur-Rashid, Liam Brennan, Jeremy P. Burton
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3332/ecancer.2018.867
Colorectal Carcinogenesis: an archetype of gut microbiota - host interaction
James L. Alexander, Alasdair J. Scott, Anna. L. Pouncey, Julian Marchesi, James Kinross, Julian Teare
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3332/ecancer.2018.865
Gut microbiota, chemotherapy, and the host: the influence of the gut microbiota on cancer treatment
Pouncey AL, Scott AJ, Alexander JL, Marchesi J and Kinross J
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3332/ecancer.2018.868
The implementation of 'omics technologies in cancer microbiome research
Benjamin H Mullish, Laura S Osborne, Julian R Marchesi, Julie A K McDonald
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3332/ecancer.2018.864
About ecancermedicalscience (ecancer.org):
ecancermedicalscience (ecancer) is the official open access journal of the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI) and the European Institute of Oncology (IEO), Milan.
The journal was established in 2007 by Professor Umberto Veronesi and Professor Gordon McVie with the mission to break down the financial barriers to accessing cancer research and education.
The journal is not for profit and only charges authors an article publication fee if they have specific funding for publishing. So far over 2000 authors have published for free. The journal is funded by the ecancer Global Foundation, educational grants, sponsorship and charitable donations.
A study led by Paul Brindley, Ph.D., is looking at the cellular link between liver fluke and cholangiocarcinoma
WASHINGTON (Sep. 5, 2018) - Liver fluke infection is a major public health problem affecting more than 10 million people in Southeast Asia, particularly in Thailand and Laos. Infection has been strongly linked to cholangiocarcinoma, or bile duct cancer, an uncommon but aggressive form of cancer.
This particular cancer is caused by the chronic infection with a parasitic worm acquired by consuming uncooked or undercooked freshwater fish. The population in Thailand impacted by the infection, routinely prepares and consumes undercooked fish caught by locals to lower costs.
A team led by Paul Brindley, PhD, professor of microbiology, immunology, and tropical medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, has received more than $1.7 million from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health to investigate the cellular and molecular links between liver fluke infection and bile duct cancer.
"We are trying to figure out why this worm infection causes these liver cells to transform and become cancer," said Brindley. "It's an infection-related cancer and we're intrigued by and motivated to resolve the basic cellular question of how could a worm induce human tissue in the liver to become malignant."
Brindley also explained that while cholangiocarcinoma is most prevalent in Southeast Asia, it is not exclusive to the region. There have been reports of the cancer in the United States and areas of the West, including in military veterans who had been stationed in Southeast Asia.
The risk factors that explain why people get cholangiocarcinoma in the West are less clear, given that the parasitic worm does not occur in these regions. Brindley and his team anticipate that their research can provide insight and a biomarker in the local people that would allow researchers to take an easier tissue sample, like blood or urine, and try to detect the change that liver fluke causes to make the cancer occur.
Through gene editing, the team has already mutated once gene from the worm that makes the worm less virulent and are characterizing other parasite genes that contribute to the malignant changes in the human bile duct liver cells.
"Lots of people die from this infection. It's a global public health problem - a neglected tropical disease that we would like to control," Brindley said.
###
The study is a collaboration between Brindley and his colleagues at Khon Kaen University in northeastern Thailand -- the main site for the study -- and James Cook University in Queensland, Australia. The grant will fund the project for five years.
Media: To interview Dr. Brindley, please contact Ashley Rizzardo at 202-994-8679 or amrizz713@gwu.edu.
About the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences Founded in 1824, the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) was the first medical school in the nation's capital and is the 11th oldest in the country. Working together in our nation's capital, with integrity and resolve, the GW SMHS is committed to improving the health and well-being of our local, national, and global communities. smhs.gwu.edu
A new analysis of human hair taken from the remains of one of the members of the Franklin expedition, is providing further evidence that lead poisoning was just one of many different factors contributing to the deaths of the crew, and not the primary cause, casting new doubt on the theory that has been the subject of debate amongst scientists and historians for decades.
All 129 crew members died when two ships, the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, vanished in the Canadian Arctic in 1845, while searching for an elusive north-west passage to the Pacific.
Anthropologists from McMaster University used specialized techniques to measure lead concentrations in hair samples taken from the skeletal remains believed to belong to Henry Goodsir, a Scottish physician and scientist on the expedition. Because hair grows incrementally--approximately one centimetre per month--researchers could specifically measure changes in Goodsir's exposure to lead during the last weeks of his life.
"The lead burden we measured was calculated right until the time of death of Goodsir, which provides another new piece of information in this puzzle," says Lori D'Ortenzio, lead author of the paper and a researcher in the Department of Anthropology at McMaster University.
The findings are published online in The Journal for Archaeological Science: Reports. Researchers compared lead concentrations over three centimetres of hair, representing a three-month period before the death of Goodsir, who died sometime between September 1846 and early 1848.
The team also conducted an isotopic analysis to pinpoint possible sources of the lead, which likely included tinned food, medicines and lead pipes used for the ship's water tanks. The tests confirmed Goodsir was exposed to identical or similar sources of lead as other victims found on King William and Beechey Islands, as determined in previous research studies.
While those lead levels were high by today's standards, researchers found the toxicity was not high enough to worsen other mental and physical symptoms the men were suffering as they attempted to survive the harsh conditions.
"Our analysis also points to just how high lead exposure was in industrial Britain at the time," says Michael Inskip, a visiting expert on lead isotope analysis in the Department of Medical Physics and Applied Radiation Sciences program. "People would have ingested lead everywhere: in food, wine and medicines, for example."
And while lead burdens may have exacerbated the physical decline of the men in the final months of the expedition, by then, the fatal end was inevitable, say researchers.
###
To arrange an interview with Lori D'Ortenzio, please contact her directly at dortenl@mcmaster.ca, or 905-920-2440 (cell).
A Phase 1 clinical trial examining whether a topical cream can enhance the immune response conferred by a "pre-pandemic" influenza vaccine is underway at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Investigators are evaluating whether imiquimod cream, which is commonly used to treat genital warts and certain skin cancers, can boost the body's immune response to an H5N1 influenza vaccine. The trial is enrolling 50 healthy adults ages 18-50 years. Baylor is one of the Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units (VTEUs)--a network of clinical research sites that can rapidly enroll large volunteer cohorts to evaluate experimental vaccines against infectious diseases. The VTEUs are funded and managed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.
H5N1 is an avian influenza virus that causes severe respiratory illness in birds. In rare circumstances, humans have contracted H5N1 influenza through direct or indirect contact with infected birds, such as poultry. Infections in people can be serious and deadly--the World Health Organization reported 860 cases of H5N1 influenza, 454 of them fatal, from 2003 through July 20, 2018. H5N1 influenza currently does not spread easily from human to human. However, like all influenza viruses, the virus undergoes constant genetic changes, and it is possible that it may become more easily transmissible and cause a pandemic.
Participants in the VTEU trial will receive an H5N1 vaccine (manufactured by Sanofi Pasteur, based in Swiftwater, Pennsylvania) that was designed for use in a potential pandemic. The vaccine, developed with some NIAID support, is made from an inactivated, or "killed," influenza virus. After the vaccine was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2007, it was added to the National Pre-pandemic Influenza Vaccine Stockpile.
"NIAID is pleased to support a clinical trial evaluating an innovative way to boost immune responses to a pre-pandemic vaccine," said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. "The Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units remain a crucial component of our pandemic influenza preparedness efforts."
Imiquimod cream activates the innate immune system--the body's immediate defense against invading pathogens. Investigators in Hong Kong recently conducted two clinical trials of imiquimod cream and seasonal inactivated influenza vaccine. One clinical trial enrolled elderly participants, and the other enrolled young adults. The imiquimod cream was generally well-tolerated, and elderly and young participants who applied the cream before vaccination generated significantly more robust immune responses than those in control groups who did not receive imiquimod.
The immune-boosting properties of imiquimod could stretch the supply of H5N1 vaccines because fewer doses would be required to achieve sufficient immunity in recipients. This would allow more people to be vaccinated in an outbreak.
Hana M. El Sahly, M.D., associate professor, Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, serves as the principal investigator for the clinical trial. All trial participants will receive two intradermal doses of the H5N1 vaccine, 21 days apart. Intradermal delivery with a needle and syringe requires a precise technique of inserting the needle in the skin at a certain angle. To reduce variability, study clinicians are using a microneedle injector, the MicronJet600 (manufactured by NanoPass, based in Ness Ziona, Israel), to deliver the vaccine.
Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups. One group will have Aldara (FDA-approved imiquimod cream manufactured by Valeant Pharmaceutical International, Inc., based in Laval, Canada) applied to their upper arm before each vaccination. The cream, which is supplied in single-use packets, is rubbed in so that it is fully absorbed. After waiting approximately five to 15 minutes, clinicians will then administer the vaccine to the upper arm where the cream was applied. The same process will be followed in the control group; however, instead of receiving imiquimod cream, control group participants will have a placebo aqueous cream applied in the same fashion before both vaccinations. The trial is double-blind, meaning the participants and the investigators do not know who received each type of topical cream. Study clinicians will monitor participants for any injection site reactions such as redness and swelling, or other reactions such as fever, headache or nausea. After each injection, participants must refrain from washing their arm for four to six hours.
Participants will return to the clinic at regular intervals over the course of 7 months to have blood drawn so that investigators can test samples for an immune response. After each vaccination, participants will take home a diary card to record any symptoms and medications taken at home. An independent data and safety monitoring committee will review participants' clinical and safety data at specified time points and otherwise as needed.
The first clinical trial participant was vaccinated on June 19, 2018, and investigators expect to have early study results by the end of the year. For more information, visit ClinicalTrials.gov and search identifier NCT03472976.
NIAID conducts and supports research--at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide--to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID website.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.
###
When NASA's James Webb Space Telescope launches in 2021, it will write a new chapter in cosmic history. This premier space science observatory will seek the first stars and galaxies, explore distant planets around other stars, and solve mysteries of own solar system. Webb will be controlled from the Mission Operations Center (MOC) at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.
To prepare for launch, the flight operations team recently conducted two successful communications tests. The first simulated the complex communications among numerous entities in the critical period of launch through the first six hours of flight. The second demonstrated that the MOC could successfully communicate with the telescope.
A Complicated Dance
From the moment Webb launches, and through the first six hours of flight, five different telecommunications service providers located around the world will alternately convey command and telemetry data to the mission operations team in the MOC. The first exercise demonstrated the complex exchange among these facilities.
These different providers are needed because of the geometry of Earth in relation to Webb's orbit and altitude. "Whereas most low-Earth missions can use TDRSS (the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System) or some other kind of communications satellite in orbit around Earth to relay data, we are so far away that we have to use other facilities," explained NASA's Carl Starr, the Mission Operations Manager, or "MOM," for Webb at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.
By six hours after liftoff, Webb will be about halfway to the Moon and six times higher in altitude than the geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) where TDRSS and many communications satellites dwell. When the telescope reaches its destination, it will be nearly a million miles from Earth--about 45 times farther away than GEO.
"It's a lot of going back and forth," said Starr. "You have to change configurations, you need a stable connection with Webb at each change, you have to establish the network connections, you have to process the data--and you have to do it multiple times with different stations and make it seamless."
"And to make things even more complicated," Starr continued, "everyone we are talking about is in different places. You have the Space Network out in New Mexico, the Deep Space Network in California, and the European Space Agency's Malindi station in Kenya and European Space Operations Centre in Germany. It becomes a very complicated test to do, because no one is in the same time zone--and all of that data comes in and out of this building."
This test was a major step in demonstrating the flight operations capabilities and processes to support launch-day communications. After the first day, the team moves to a normal setup with just the three Deep Space Network terminals around the world.
"The teams were able to talk with the external entities, and prove the concept that we can manipulate the communications on the day of launch here in the building for the mission," Starr said. "We'll have other proficiency exercises later, but this was the first time that we did it, and it was very successful."
Talking to the Telescope
No mission would be possible without communicating with the telescope. The flight operations team in Baltimore recently did that for the first time, talking to the actual Webb spacecraft on the ground while it's being integrated and tested across the country at the Northrop Grumman facility in Los Angeles, California.
"We treated Webb as if it were a million miles away," said Starr. To do this, the flight operations team connected the spacecraft to the Deep Space Network. However, since Webb isn't really in space yet, special equipment was used to emulate the real radio link that will exist between Webb and the Deep Space Network when Webb flies.
"We can command and control the vehicle now, and run tests with it from here, without having to travel to Northrop Grumman," Starr explained. "It really is making use of technology to stay on schedule."
It didn't really matter where Webb was during the test. "As far as we're concerned, it could be in the basement of this building, and we wouldn't know any different," Starr added. "You're just at your console, you've got a data line, your screen...it's all very much remote. I could imagine it must be how drone pilots feel. They're not anywhere near where their vehicle is."
During the exercise, the team executed non-operational commands and initiated a recorder playback. This important test demonstrated the flight operations team's ability to command Webb from the MOC in Baltimore.
Throughout most of commissioning, the MOC will be in constant communication with Webb. After commissioning, approximately 180 days after launch, the team will communicate for 8 hours a day with the telescope. During that time, operators will send up packages of commands for the telescope to run autonomously and downlink the science data.
More to Come
More tests will follow, but these were the first to show the MOC's successful communication with Webb and with the many command and telemetry service providers. The fact that these exercises were carried out flawlessly is a testament to the hard work of the flight operations team, as well as teams across the country and around the world.
The James Webb Space Telescope will be the world's premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries of our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international project led by NASA with its partners, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
###
For more information about the Webb telescope, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/webb
COLUMBUS, Ohio - If you want smokers to remember cigarette-warning labels, include a graphic image of the results of long-term smoking, a new study suggests.
A vivid image - such as a picture of a nicotine addict smoking through a surgical hole in his throat - packs an emotional punch for smokers, the researchers found.
Such images are shocking enough that smokers who viewed them actually remembered less of the associated text warning immediately afterward than did those who viewed warnings with only text or a much milder photo.
But six weeks later, fewer smokers who saw the graphic image had forgotten the warnings, compared to those who received the other messages.
"The high-emotion image sticks with smokers longer and we see less decline in what they remember about the warnings," said Ellen Peters, lead author of the study and professor of psychology at The Ohio State University.
Even more importantly, the study showed smokers who had stronger emotional reactions to the graphic warnings reported higher risk perceptions of smoking six weeks later and had greater intentions of quitting.
"Warnings with graphic images are the best way to convey the negative health consequences of smoking in a meaningful way," Peters said.
The study appears online in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine and will be published in a future print edition.
The study involved 1,932 people who participated in two separate internet surveys. The studies included a nationally representative sample of adult smokers, a sample of Appalachian adult smokers, and a national sample of teens who were smokers or who were at high risk of taking up smoking.
All of the smokers participated online. Each participant was shown the same cigarette warning labels on their computer four times: on the first day of the study, twice after one week, and then a fourth time after either two weeks or six weeks.
Each smoker received one of nine text warnings (for example, "Cigarettes are addictive" or "Smoking can kill you").
Some received only the text. Others saw the text paired with an image that earlier tests showed provoked little emotion (such as hands in chains reaching for cigarettes). A third group saw an image that earlier tests showed triggered strong emotions, such as the man smoking through the hole in his throat. (The hole is called a tracheostomy and may be necessary because of some smoking-related cancers.)
Results showed that smokers who viewed the low-emotion or text-only messages could recall about 30 percent of what the warnings said if they were asked immediately following the study.
But if they were asked after six weeks, warning recall dropped by nearly half for those who saw the low-emotion image and by one-third if they saw the text-only message.
People who saw the highly graphic image remembered slightly fewer of the messages (26 percent) immediately after the study was completed. However, after six weeks, there was a drop-off of only 5 percentage points in amount of warning information remembered.
The researchers found something else interesting about the people who had strong emotional reactions to the warnings: Even when they couldn't remember the exact warning that was paired with their image, they were more likely than others to spontaneously recall other risk information that they weren't shown.
"They were recognizing real risks of smoking, just not the ones they were shown in the study," said Brittany Shoots-Reinhard, a co-author of the study and a research associate in psychology at Ohio State.
"They were reminded of other bad things about smoking that they already knew."
Compared to those who received the other messages, smokers who received the graphic-image warnings had greater emotional reactions to the images, which related in turn to them thinking they were at greater risk of dying younger or getting a life-threatening disease because of their cigarette use. They were also more likely to say they were thinking about quitting.
"The results suggest that the high-emotion warnings will teach people more about the health risks of smoking and possibly get them to act," Peters said.
"Research has shown that the average smoker has surprisingly superficial knowledge about the risk. They know it is bad for them, but if we can teach them the specific risks of smoking, we believe it will stick in their heads and have a bigger impact in the long-term."
The key is to find a way - such as the graphic images in this study - to arouse people's emotions. Research on memory consolidation shows that strong emotions that excite people can disrupt immediate memory, just as it did in this study, Peters said.
But it also helps to support memory over the long term. "That's why pictorial warnings can be so effective," she said.
###
Peters and Shoots-Reinhard conducted the study with Ohio State colleagues in psychology and the College of Public Health, and Daniel Romer of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
This research was supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute and the Food and Drug Administration Center for Tobacco Products.
Contact: Ellen Peters, Peters.498@osu.edu Brittany Shoots-Reinhard, Shoots-Reinhard.1@osu.edu
A census of annual pup production by Australian fur seal populations revealed the first reduction since species-wide protection was implemented in 1975, according to a study published September 5 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Rebecca McIntosh of the Phillip Island Nature Parks in Victoria, Australia, and colleagues. The study also shows that the long-term monitoring program for the Australian fur seal has effectively tracked population trends over time.
In the marine environment, monitoring the abundance and population trends of a top predator can provide measures of ecosystem health and management success. Fur seals, Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus, are important upper trophic level predators that, in Australia, are a protected marine species facing specific challenges related to fisheries and aquaculture management, ecotourism, potential impacts on seabirds, and response planning for oil spills and other emergencies. For these reasons, it is important to obtain accurate information about their abundance and population changes. An ad-hoc monitoring program coordinated across multiple stakeholders conducted a range-wide census of live pups in the Austral summers of 2002, 2007 and 2013. In the new study, McIntosh and colleagues set out to assess whether the monitoring program for the Australian fur seal is achieving its goals of determining pup abundance and estimating population trends.
The findings reveal that monitoring of the Australian fur seal between the 1970s and 2013 has effectively recorded population changes. The census successfully tracked signs of population recovery up to 2007. In addition, the 2013 census identified the first pup population decline, estimated to be 4.2% per year since 2007, since species-wide protection was implemented. According to the authors, the study highlights the importance of regularly assessing long-term monitoring programs and provides valuable information on how to effectively design and improve these programs.
Roland Pick, of Phillip Island Nature Parks, notes: "As wildlife managers it is important for us to regularly review our monitoring programs to examine the reliability of the information we have collected, and also to identify enhancements which may assist in a greater understanding of any population changes detected. We are currently using drone technology and Citizen Science programs at Phillip Island Nature Parks to enhance our monitoring of Seal Rocks as the largest breeding colony for the species."
###
In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0200253
Citation: McIntosh RR, Kirkman SP, Thalmann S, Sutherland DR, Mitchell A, Arnould JPY, et al. (2018) Understanding meta-population trends of the Australian fur seal, with insights for adaptive monitoring. PLoS ONE 13(9): e0200253. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0200253
Funding: The project was funded by Australian Marine Mammal Centre (https://data.marinemammals.gov.au/grants) (Project number 12/27, RK), with contributions from Phillip Island Nature Parks (RM, DS, MS, PD), Deakin University (JA), Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and the Environment (ST), Parks Victoria (staff and logistical support), and Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (AM). South Africa's Department of Environmental Affairs, Branch Oceans and Coasts supported SK's time on the project. The Montague Island census was funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage Project grant (http://www.arc.gov.au/linkage-projects) (LP110200603 to Rob Harcourt and DS). The South Australian data was provided by Simon Goldsworthy (South Australian Research and Development Institute - Aquatic Sciences) and Peter Shaughnessy (South Australian Museum), funded by AMMC. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University researchers have developed a unique approach that allows experienced surgeons and physicians around the world to help less-experienced doctors in war zones, natural disasters and in rural areas perform complicated procedures.
"The most critical challenge is to provide surgical expertise into the battlefield when it is most required," said Juan Wachs, Purdue's James A. and Sharon M. Tompkins Rising Star Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering, who led the project team. "Even without having highly experienced medical leaders physically co-located in the field, with this technology we can help minimize the number of casualties while maximizing treatment at the point of injury."
The team presented the work at the 2018 Military Health System Research Symposium, held Aug. 20-23 in Kissimmee, Florida. Watch a video of how the system works at http://bit.ly/ARHealth-Purdue.
The Purdue technique involves using augmented reality tools to connect health care professionals in remote areas with more experienced surgeons and physicians around the world. The AR headset worn by the mentee in the field is designed to replace current telestrator technology, which uses a separate video screen and freehand sketches to provide feedback.
"There is an unmet need for technology that connects health care mentees in rural areas with experienced mentors," said Edgar Rojas Munoz, a doctoral student in industrial engineering, who worked on the project. "The current use of a telestrator in these situations is inefficient because they require the mentee to focus on a separate screen, fail to show upcoming steps and give the mentor an incomplete picture of the ongoing procedure."
The Purdue system features a transparent headset screen display that allows the mentee to see the patient in front of them, along with real-time on-screen feedback from the mentor. That mentor is at a separate location using a video monitor to see the AR feed and provide instant feedback to the field surgeon.
Purdue's system uses computer vision algorithms to track and align the virtual notes and marks from the mentor with the surgical region in front of the mentee.
"Our technology allows trainees to remain focused on the surgical procedure and reduces the potential for errors during surgery," Munoz said.
The U.S. Department of Defense supported the research as it looks to connect its medical professionals out in the field with specialists back at the bases who can provide critical guidance during procedures.
The Purdue technology has gone through a round of clinical evaluation and will soon go through another one. In the next few months, the technology will be tested at a Navy base in Virginia, where mentees and mentors will experiment with a simulated battlefield.
Researchers at Purdue also are working to increase the stabilization ability of the view for the mentees.
Other researchers on the project include Voicu Popescu, an associate professor of computer science at Purdue; Brian Mullis and Ben Zarzaur from the Indiana University School of Medicine; and nurse researchers Kathryn Anderson and Sherri Marley from Eskenazi Health Services in Indianapolis.
The technology aligns with Purdue's "giant leaps" celebrating the university's global advancements made in health, space, artificial intelligence and sustainability highlights as part of Purdue's 150th anniversary. Those are the four themes of the yearlong celebration's Ideas Festival, designed to showcase Purdue as an intellectual center solving real-world issues.
The team is working with the Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization on patents for the technology. The research team also is looking for partners.
###
About Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization
The Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization operates one of the most comprehensive technology transfer programs among leading research universities in the U.S. Services provided by this office support the economic development initiatives of Purdue University and benefit the university's academic activities. The office is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, which received the 2016 Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Award for Innovation from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. For more information about funding and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org. For more information on licensing a Purdue innovation, contact the Office of Technology Commercialization at otcip@prf.org. The Purdue Research Foundation is a private, nonprofit foundation created to advance the mission of Purdue University.
Writer: Chris Adam, 765-588-3341, cladam@prf.org
Sources: Edgar Rojas Munoz, edtec217@gmail.com
Juan Wachs, jpwachs@purdue.edu
Dr. Hitoshi Omori, who has been honoured with the Sofja Kovalevskaja Award by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, is researching at the interface between philosophy and mathematics. His work, which he is going to conduct at the Chair for Logic and Epistemology held by Professor Heinrich Wansing at Ruhr-Universitat Bochum (RUB), will be funded with 1.59 h million euros over the next five years.
Inconsistencies welcome
In classical logic, the principle applies that from a contradiction you may deduce anything whatsoever. Inconsistent assumptions thus trivialise the relation of the valid inference. Hitoshi Omori is an internationally recognised expert on non-classical logic, especially on logical systems that tolerate inconsistencies in valid inferences. The aim is to analyse how arguments and non-trivial theories may be constructed on the basis of inconsistent information with which we are frequently confronted. In order to achieve that, it is necessary to possess a comprehensive understanding of inconsistency-tolerant logics, so-called paraconsistent logics.
At RUB, Hitoshi Omori will use the Sofja Kovalevskaja Award to develop a systematic understanding of paraconsistent logic and to analyse how it relates to the history of philosophy.
###
About the researcher
Hitoshi Omori was born in Japan and studied at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, where he also received his PhD. Subsequently, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the City University of New York, USA, and several universities in Japan. In addition, Hitoshi Omori was a visiting scholar at the University of Melbourne, Australia, the University of St. Andrews, United Kingdom, and Ruhr-Universitat Bochum. At RUB, he will continue his research as a Sofja Kovalevskaja Award winner from December 2018 onwards.
The Award
With the Sofja Kovalevskaja Award, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation honours outstanding research performance of highly promising early career researchers from countries abroad. By enabling them to set up an independent junior research group at a research institute in Germany, the Award paves the way into an academic career in Germany.
New analysis shows that relatively modest incremental reductions in age-adjusted, county-level death rates could have had an influence on voting in swing states
A slightly different death rate in the swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin could have resulted in a different outcome to the 2016 US presidential elections. This is according to a study led by Lee Goldman and other researchers at Columbia University in the US published in the Springer-branded Journal of General Internal Medicine. The researchers also say that death rates are important markers of the dissatisfaction, discouragement, hopelessness, and fear of cultural displacement that contributed to President Donald Trump's appeal, especially to the non-urban, white working class.
The research team used publicly available data in each of 3,112 US counties to correlate changes in a county's presidential voting in 2016 compared with 2008, and how this relates to recent changes in its age-adjusted death rate. The data sources included Dave Leip's Atlas of US Presidential Elections, census information and online data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 2016, President Trump increased the Republican presidential vote percentage in eight out of every ten counties compared with Senator McCain in 2008. Counties with no or slower gains in income were much more likely to vote Republican in 2016, as were ones with little or no changes in ethnic or racial diversity. These findings are in line with the notion that swing voters are often driven from one party to another because of economic and social motivations.
The team's primary analysis, as well as three alternative sensitivity analyses, found that relatively modest incremental reductions in age-adjusted, county-level death rates could hypothetically have swung Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and, hence, the election to Secretary Clinton. This held true even for the most conservative scenario analyzed.
"Although statistical correlation does not infer causality, modest incremental reductions in age-adjusted, county-level death rates could hypothetically have swung Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and, hence, the election to Secretary Clinton," said Goldman. He added that, even in the team's most conservative analysis, these reductions were plausible and potentially obtainable - 18 deaths per hundred thousand lower in Michigan (to a rate between Pennsylvania and Montana), 44 deaths per hundred thousand lower in in Pennsylvania (to a rate between Oregon and Iowa), and 67 deaths per hundred thousand lower in Wisconsin (to a rate between Minnesota and New York).
The analyses further showed that counties with a net gain in Republican votes had a fifteen per cent higher age-adjusted death rate in 2015 compared to ones where Democrats gained votes. Another interesting finding was that the death rate ascribed to suicide, drugs and alcohol (so-called "deaths of despair") increased 2.5 times more in counties where more Republican votes were cast in 2016 than in 2008. Overall, a slower reduction in the age-adjusted death rate was also seen in such counties.
"President Trump over-performed in counties with higher rates of deaths of despair, which are increasing at a time when the sum of all other causes of death are decreasing," says Goldman, who notes that such deaths represent less than 5 per cent of the overall age-adjusted death rates and, do not, in and of themselves, explain a substantial proportion of the voting change.
###
Reference: Goldman, L. et al (2018). Independent Relationship of Changes in Death Rates with Changes in U.S. Presidential Voting, Journal of General Internal Medicine DOI: 10.1007/s11606-018-4568-6
Radical/radical cross-coupling represents a straightforward way for the construction of new chemical bonds in theory. Until now, it is challenging to achieve the selective bond formation between two transient radicals since selective radical cross-coupling usually occurs between persistent radical and transient radical. A recent study proposes a novel strategy "tuning radical reactivity" that could tune transient radical into persistent radical.
The paper was reported in Science Bulletin (2018, 63(15): 1006-1009), entitled "Tuning radical reactivity for selective radical/radical cross-coupling" by Aiwen Lei et al from Wuhan University. The authors introduced four methods to achieve "tuning radical reactivity".
Radical chemistry laid the foundation for the development of organic synthesis, biological processes and polymerization. Generally, radicals with a single electron have a strong tendency to form chemical bonds. Due to the quick reaction rate and low activation energy, radical/radical coupling is an efficient way to construct new chemical compounds. However, radicals are present only under special and limited conditions. It still remains a great scientific challenge to achieve highly selective radical/radical cross-coupling for further application.
In 1936, the persistent radical effect (PRE) provides the theoretical basis for the realization of radical/radical cross-coupling between persistent radical (* Rp) and transient radical (* Rt). Recently, a few radical/radical cross-coupling reactions have been realized between R-H and R-X (X= CN, F, Cl, Br, I, etc.) via photocatalysis. Although, the photo-induced radical generation became a useful method, most studies were still limited in the reaction between * Rp and * Rt. Therefore, it is still a great challenge to achieve the selective bond formation between two transient radicals that may be more commonly used in chemical transformations. It is reasonable to assume that if methods could be developed to stabilize one of reactive radicals, it will provide a solution for the direct cross-coupling between two transient radicals. In this paper, the authors introduced the concept of "tuning radical reactivity" and its applications in oxidative cross-coupling.
Based on previous researches in XAFS, the authors found that the equilibrium between organocuprates and radicals could serve as persistent radical. This reveals that transient radical could be translated into persistent radical in special conditions. Inspired by that, the authors proposed "tuning radical reactivity": through transforming * Rt into a more stable intermediate, radical/radical cross-coupling could be realized more easily. This novel strategy has been achieved by the following ways: method a) by tuning * Rt into R-Mn+1 via oxidative addition, method b) by tuning * Rt into * R-Mn via metal chelation, method c) by tuning * Rt into C-X bond (X = I, Br, Cl) and method d) by tuning * Rt into * (R-Arene) intermediates.
###
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21390402, 21520102003) and the Hubei Province Natural Science Foundation of China (2017CFA010). The Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities of China (111 Program) is also appreciated.
See the article:
Shengchun Wang, Shan Tang, Aiwen Lei. Tuning radical reactivity for selective radical/radical cross-coupling. Science Bulletin, 2018, 63(15):1006-1009
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095927318302767
LA JOLLA--(September 5, 2018) Plastic surgery to treat large cutaneous ulcers, including those seen in people with severe burns, bedsores or chronic diseases such as diabetes, may someday be a thing of the past. Scientists at the Salk Institute have developed a technique to directly convert the cells in an open wound into new skin cells. The approach relies on reprogramming the cells to a stem-cell-like state and could be useful for healing skin damage, countering the effects of aging and helping us to better understand skin cancer.
"Our observations constitute an initial proof of principle for in vivo regeneration of an entire three-dimensional tissue like the skin, not just individual cell types as previously shown," says Salk Professor Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, holder of the Roger Guillemin Chair and senior author of the new paper, published in the journal Nature on September 5, 2018. "This knowledge might not only be useful for enhancing skin repair but could also serve to guide in vivo regenerative strategies in other human pathological situations, as well as during aging, in which tissue repair is impaired."
Cutaneous ulcers--wounds that can extend through multiple layers of the skin--are typically treated surgically, by transplanting existing skin to cover the wound. However, when the ulcer is especially large, it can be difficult for surgeons to graft enough skin. In these cases, researchers are able to isolate skin stem cells from a patient, grow them in the lab and transplant them back into the patient. However, such a procedure requires an extensive amount of time, which may put the patient's life at risk and is sometimes not effective.
Izpisua Belmonte and Salk Research Associate Masakazu Kurita, who has a background in plastic surgery, knew that a critical step in wound recovery was the migration--or transplantation--of basal keratinocytes into wounds. These stem-cell-like cells act as precursors to the different types of skin cells. But large, severe wounds that have lost multiple layers of skin no longer have any basal keratinocytes. And even as these wounds heal, the cells multiplying in the area are mainly involved in wound closure and inflammation, rather than rebuilding healthy skin.
Izpisua Belmonte and Kurita wanted to directly convert these other cells into basal keratinocytes--without ever taking them out of the body. "We set out to make skin where there was no skin to start with," says Kurita.
The researchers first compared the levels of different proteins of the two cell types (inflammation and keratinocytes) to get a sense of what they'd need to change to reprogram the cells' identities. They pinpointed 55 "reprogramming factors" (proteins and RNA molecules) that were potentially involved in defining the distinct identity of the basal keratinocytes. Then, through trial and error and further experiments on each potential reprogramming factor, they narrowed the list down to four factors that could mediate the conversion to basal keratinocytes.
When the team topically treated skin ulcers on mice with the four factors, the ulcers grew healthy skin (known as epithelia) within 18 days. Over time, the epithelia expanded and connected to the surrounding skin, even in large ulcers. At three and six months later, the generated cells behaved like healthy skin cells in a number of molecular, genetic and cellular tests.
The researchers are planning more studies to optimize the technique and begin testing it in additional ulcer models.
"Before going to the clinic, we have to do more studies on the long-term safety of our approach and enhance the efficiency as much as possible," says Kurita.
###
In addition to Kurita and Izpisua Belmonte, authors of the new paper were Toshikazu Araoka, Tomoaki Hishida, David D. O'Keefe, Yuta Takahashi, Akihisa Sakamoto, Masahiro Sakurai, Keiichiro Suzuki, Jun Wu, Mako Yamamoto, Reyna Hernandez-Benitez, Alejandro Ocampo, Pradeep Reddy and Maxim Nikolaievich Shokhirev of the Salk Institute; Pierre Magistretti of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology; Estrella Nunez Delicado of Universidad Catolica San Antonio de Murcia; and Hitomi Eto and Kiyonori Harii of Kyorin University School of Medicine.
The work and the researchers involved were supported by grants from Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT); Kyorin University; the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; the Uehara Memorial Foundation; the National Cancer Institute; the G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation; The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust; The Moxie Foundation; The Evergreen Foundation; Fundacion Dr. Pedro Guillen; and Universidad Catolica San Antonio de Murcia.
About the Salk Institute for Biological Studies:
Every cure has a starting point. The Salk Institute embodies Jonas Salk's mission to dare to make dreams into reality. Its internationally renowned and award-winning scientists explore the very foundations of life, seeking new understandings in neuroscience, genetics, immunology, plant biology and more. The Institute is an independent nonprofit organization and architectural landmark: small by choice, intimate by nature and fearless in the face of any challenge. Be it cancer or Alzheimer's, aging or diabetes, Salk is where cures begin. Learn more at: salk.edu.
The impact of global warming on shallow marine life approximately 56 million years ago is the subject of a significant, new paper by researchers at Syracuse University.
Linda Ivany, professor of Earth sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), is the lead author of an article in Science Advances (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2018). Her team's research is the first to address the effects of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM)--a relatively brief period of global climate change, spanning 200,000 years--on marine invertebrates, including snails, clams and other mollusks.
Marine invertebrates are animals without a backbone or an internal skeleton, occupying shallow seas and reefs. Invertebrates presently account for more than 98 percent of all animal life.
"The response of ecosystems [to the PETM] has been well documented for marine plankton, terrestrial plants and land vertebrates, but, until now, almost nothing has been published on marine shelf faunas," Ivany says. "This is because the stratigraphic record, showing where marine invertebrates are preserved on the continental margins, is full of gaps because of erosion. The chances of preserving a short-duration event, such as the PETM, are small.
Ivany figured that if her team could not "see" the effects of climate change in the geologic record, they could do the next best thing--look for them in sediment straddling the PETM. Turning their attention to the rich, well-preserved shell beds of the U.S. Gulf Coastal Plain, the team sought out evidence of ancient bivalves, gastropods and scaphopods.
What they found was surprising. "The long-term effects of the PETM on these shallow-water communities actually was unremarkable," says Ivany, taking into account biodiversity loss, taxonomic turnover and ecological restructuring. "Any potential selection pressure imparted by global warming must have been weak, taxon-specific, short-lived and ultimately inconsequential to overall molluscan evolutionary history."
Co-author Warren Allmon says scientists have long presumed the PETM on the Coastal Plain to be a tome of major biological change. "Our study shows the importance of testing ideas we think we're sure of. Some organisms changed a lot across the Paleocene-Eocene Boundary, but most did not," explains Allmon, who doubles as the director of the Paleontological Research Institution in Ithaca, New York, and the Hunter R. Rawlings III Professor of Paleontology at Cornell University.
There were exceptions, of course. Witness the abundance of marine life below the sediment surface, instead of on it. A large number of invertebrates also engaged in microbial symbiosis--interactions enabling them to profit from chemicals in the sediment, released by the decomposition of organic matter. "These characteristics are what one might expect from low-oxygen conditions typical of a super-greenhouse world," Ivany adds.
Potentially good news, from an evolutionary and ecological perspective, as these mollusks must have figured out how to stay out of hot water. Ivany thinks they "got lucky." In truth, their adaption to the prevailing warm conditions at the time, coupled with the slow release of carbon dioxide relative to the timescale of ocean mixing (i.e., distributions of heat, salt and chemicals), likely mollified the impact of global warming.
"When the dust settled and the climate had cooled back down, our faunas had not changed all that much," she says.
Nevertheless, the PETM is one of the best ancient analogs of modern climate change. The geologic record shows that, during a roughly 5,000-year span, some kind of terrestrial source--sedimentary, or volcanic, or both--pumped thousands of billions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere. This raised global marine temperatures by as much as 15 degrees Fahrenheit, triggering severe extinctions in the deep sea, as well as wholesale ecological reorganization on land.
The PETM likely was a perfect storm of global warming, acidification and oxygen stress. "Several things happen when you put large amounts of carbon in the atmosphere--the Earth gets warmer, and some of the carbon dioxide dissolves into the ocean, raising the acidity level near the surface," Ivany continues. "The warmer the water, the less oxygen it holds. All of these changes have consequences for marine life. We are seeing these same things today, along with their increasing effects on ecosystems.
Which begs the question: What implications do these results hold for the present and future response of shallow marine biota to ongoing global change? Ivany chooses her words carefully, explaining that the carbon dioxide release during the PETM occurred over thousands of years. Compare that to putting the same amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from only a few hundred years of human activity."
Whatever happened during the PETM was a "best-case scenario" for marine invertebrates, Ivany explains. "With everything happening so much faster now, it is more likely organisms will go extinct," she adds. "When the environment changes, you must move, evolve or die. If it changes faster than you can move or evolve, you're toast."
###
The paper's co-authors include Jocelyn Sessa, a former postdoctoral scholar at Syracuse who is assistant professor of biodiversity, Earth and environmental science at Drexel University, where she also is an assistant curator at The Academy of Natural Sciences. Other co-authors are faculty members at the University of Rochester, the College of William & Mary and San Jose State University.
San Antonio, Texas (September 5, 2018) - Small, New World monkeys called marmosets can mimic the sleep disturbances, changes in circadian rhythm, and cognitive impairment people with Parkinson's disease develop, according to a new study by scientists at Texas Biomedical Research Institute.
By developing an effective animal model that can emulate both the motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease, scientists have a better chance of understanding the molecular mechanisms of the neuro-circuitry responsible for changes in the brain during the course of the disease. Scans like magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs) and analysis after dissections may lead to potential targets for new therapies for patients.
Associate Scientist Marcel Daadi, Ph.D., leader of the Regenerative Medicine and Aging Unit at the Southwest National Primate Research Center on the Texas Biomed campus, is the lead author of the study that tracked marmosets using devices around their necks similar to Fitbits humans use to track their activity and sleep. The study was published in a recent edition of the journal PLOS ONE. In the case of the tiny monkeys, investigators wanted to see if the marmosets with induced classic Parkinson's motor symptoms - like tremors - could also serve as an effective model for non-motor symptoms. In addition, scientists videotaped the animals to monitor their ability to perform certain tasks and how those abilities were impacted over time by the disease.
"Most of the early studies in Parkinson's have been conducted with rodents," Dr. Daadi explained, "but there are some complex aspects of this disease you simply cannot investigate using rodents in a way that is relevant to human patients. Nonhuman primates are critical in his aspect because we can see these symptoms clearly whether it is the dyskinesia (abnormality or impairment of voluntary movements), or the sleep disturbances that you can monitor or the fine motors skills."
Parkinson's disease affects a million people in the United States and 10 million people worldwide. With the aging population, the incidence of the neurodegenerative disorder is on the rise. 60,000 people are diagnosed with Parkinson's each year in the U.S. alone. The hallmark symptoms of Parkinson's include tremors, slow movements, balance problems and rigid or stiff muscles. However, non-motor symptoms including disorders of the sleep-wake cycle and problems thinking clearly can be just as difficult for patients to handle.
"This study is a great first step," Dr. Daadi stated. "More studies are needed to expand on these non-motor symptoms in marmosets in the longer-term, and perhaps, include other nonhuman primates at the SNPRC like macaques and baboons."
###
Dr. Daadi's work on this study was supported by the Worth Family Fund, The Perry & Ruby Stevens Charitable Foundation, The Robert J. Kleberg, Jr., and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation, by the Southwest National Primate Research Center grant P51 OD011133 from the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs, National Institutes of Health, and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, through Grant UL1 TR001120 (M.M.D.).
###
Texas Biomed is one of the world's leading independent biomedical research institutions dedicated to advancing health worldwide through innovative biomedical research. The Institute is home to the Southwest National Primate Research Center (SNPRC) and provides broad services in primate research. SNPRC contributes to a national network of National Primate Research Centers (NPRCs) with specialized technologies, capabilities and primate resources, many of which are unique to the SNPRC. The Center also serves investigators around the globe with research and technical procedures for collaborative projects. For more information on Texas Biomed, go to http://www.TxBiomed.org or for more information on SNPRC, visit http://www.SNPRC.org.
Of the 8.6 million deaths from conditions treatable by health care, poor-quality care is responsible for an estimated 5 million deaths per year - more than deaths due to insufficient access to care (3.6 million)
Global efforts to expand access to care through Universal Health Coverage will be wasted if health system quality does not improve
An estimated 5 million deaths per year in low and middle income countries (LMICs) are the result of poor quality care, with a further 3.6 million the result of insufficient access to care, according to the first study to quantify the burden of poor quality health systems worldwide.
While many LMICs have made significant progress in improving access to care, a new reality is at hand: poor quality care in the health system is now responsible for a greater number of deaths than insufficient access to care. The total number of deaths from poor-quality care per year is estimated to be five times higher than annual global deaths from HIV/AIDS (1 million), and over three times more than deaths from diabetes (1.4 million).
The findings come from a new analysis published in The Lancet, as part of The Lancet Global Health Commission on High Quality Health Systems - a two-year project bringing together 30 academics, policy-makers and health systems experts from 18 countries who examined how to measure and improve health system quality worldwide.
"Quality care should not be the purview of the elite, or an aspiration for some distant future; it should be the DNA of all health systems," said Commission Chair, Dr. Margaret E Kruk, of Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston (USA) [1]. "The human right to health is meaningless without good quality care. High quality health systems put people first. They generate health, earn the public's trust, and can adapt when health needs change. Countries will know they are on the way towards high-quality, accountable health systems when health workers and policymakers choose to receive health care in their own public institutions." [1]
The epidemic of poor-quality care
The over 8 million excess deaths due to poor quality health systems lead to economic welfare losses of US$ 6 trillion in 2015 alone. The Commission found systematic deficits in quality of care in multiple countries, across a range of health conditions and in both primary and hospital care. These include:
Approximately 1 million deaths from neonatal conditions and tuberculosis occurred in people who used the health system, but received poor care.
Poor-quality is a major driver of deaths amenable to health care across all conditions in LMICs, including 84% of cardiovascular deaths, 81% of vaccine preventable diseases, 61% of neonatal conditions and half of maternal, road injury, tuberculosis, HIV and other infectious disease deaths.
Insufficient access to care was a proportionally greater contributor to deaths from cancer (89%), mental and neurological conditions (85%), and chronic respiratory conditions (76%), highlighting the need to increase access to care for these conditions alongside improving quality.
Data from over 81000 consultations in 18 countries found that, on average, mothers and children receive less than half of the recommended clinical actions in a typical visit, including failures to do postpartum check-ups, incorrect management of diarrhoea or tuberculosis, and failures to monitor blood pressure during labour (see Commission figures 2, 3 & 4).
A third (34%) of people in LMICs report poor user experience, citing lack of respect, long wait times, and short consultations. Similarly, confidence and trust in health systems are low. For instance, in India, half of households report bypassing their nearby public facility, with 80% citing at least one quality concern (see Commission figure 8).
Poor-quality care is more common among the vulnerable in society. The wealthiest women attending antenatal care are four times more likely to report blood pressure measurements, and urine and blood tests compared to the poorest women; adolescent mothers are less likely to receive evidence-based care; and children from wealthier families are more likely to receive antibiotics. People with stigmatised health conditions, such as HIV/AIDS, mental health and substance abuse disorders, as well as other vulnerable groups such as refugees, prisoners and migrants are less likely to receive high quality care.
In India, an estimated 1.6 million deaths per year were due to poor quality care (and a further 838,000 deaths due to insufficient access to care); in China 630,000 deaths per year were due to poor quality care (and 653,000 deaths due to poor access); in Brazil, 153,000 deaths per year were due to poor quality care (and 51,000 due to insufficient access). In Nigeria 123,000 deaths per year were due to poor quality care, and 253,000 due to insufficient access [Country data provided in the Appendix]. These are conservative figures after subtracting cases of disease that should have been prevented by strong public health measures. "The impact of poor quality care goes well beyond mortality, but can lead to unnecessary suffering, persistent symptoms, loss of function, and a lack of trust in the health system. Other side effects are wasted resources and catastrophic health expenditures. Given our findings, it is not surprising that only one quarter of people in low and middle income countries believe that their health systems work well," adds Dr. Kruk [1].
The right to high quality care
The Commission proposes several ways to address health system quality, starting with public accountability for and transparency on health system performance.
The Commission found that many current improvement approaches have limited effectiveness. Additionally, commonly used health system metrics such as availability of medicines, equipment or the proportion of births with skilled attendants do not reflect quality of care and might lead to false complacency about progress. The Commission calls for fewer, but better measures of health systems quality, and proposes a dashboard of metrics that should be implemented by counties by 2021 to enable transparent measurement and reporting of quality care.
"The vast epidemic of low quality care suggests there is no quick fix, and policy makers must commit to reforming the foundations of health care systems. This includes adopting a clear quality strategy, organizing services to maximize outcomes not access alone, modernizing health worker education, and enlisting the public in demanding better quality care. For too long, the global health discourse has been focused on improving access to care, without sufficient emphasis on high quality care. Providing health services without guaranteeing a minimum level of quality is ineffective, wasteful and unethical," says Dr. Muhammad Pate, co-Chair of the Commission and Chief Executive of Big Win Philantropy and former Minister of State for Health in Nigeria [1].
In a linked Comment, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of WHO, adds: "Quality is not a given. It takes vision, planning, investment, compassion, meticulous execution, and rigorous monitoring, from the national level to the smallest, remotest clinic.... The strength of a country's core capacities under the International Health Regulations depends on the quality of its health services. The same nurse who vaccinates children and cares for new mothers will also need to detect an unusual communicable disease. Similarly, people and communities are at the heart of quality health service delivery. We cannot talk about quality without placing them at the centre. When people are actively engaged in their own health and care, they suffer fewer complications and enjoy better health and wellbeing."
Writing in support of the findings and recommendations from the Commission, 19 leading global health organisations [2] including the World Bank's Health, Nutrition, and Population Department, Asian Development Bank, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, UNICEF, as well as the Ministries of Health of Argentina, Japan, Malawi, Indonesia, and South Africa, have signed the Bellagio Declaration on High Quality Health Systems, calling for action and state: "High quality health systems are at the heart of global equity. Quality care should not be a privilege for a lucky few, in a few facilities, in a few countries. Health systems must effectively protect, treat and respect all people, especially the vulnerable. As countries work to achieve universal health coverage let us use this moment to ignite a movement for high quality health systems."
###
Peer-reviewed / Modelling and review
NOTES TO EDITORS
The work of the Commission was supported by funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
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] Quotes direct from the authors and cannot be found in the text of the Commission.
[2] 'The Bellagio Declaration on High Quality Health Systems: from a quality moment to a quality movement' is published in The Lancet Global Health - embargoed link provided below. Full list of signatories: Argentina Ministry of Health; Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; International Federation of Medical Students' Associations; Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare; Malawi Ministry of Health; Malaysian Society for Quality in Health; Mexican Institute of Social Security; Mexico National Institute of Public Health; MSD for Mothers, an initiative of Merck & Co; Public Health Foundation of India; South Africa Department of Health; Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; UNICEF; World Bank Health, Nutrition, and Population Global Practice; Asian Development Bank; Indonesia Ministry of Health; University of Ibadan, Nigeria; White Ribbon Alliance.
Digital medicine platform Rx.Health, a Mount Sinai Health System spinoff and provider of RxUniverse, recently announced that it has raised $1.8 million in seed funding. The funding will be used to diversify Rx.Health's client base and support its first-to-market Bulk Prescription digital therapeutics and patient engagement tool.
Rx.Health's Bulk Prescription allows health care teams to prescribe digital therapeutics and patient-centered care plans to entire cohorts of patients through a single click. The feature will be initially launched for the treatment and monitoring of various chronic diseases, including respiratory, cardiovascular, and gastroenterological illnesses. Patients who do not have their symptoms under control can simultaneously receive immediate access to education, digital therapeutics, or remote monitoring via smartphone or email. Incoming patient data is then integrated into electronic health records (EHR) and care management dashboards, ensuring that providers are streamlining care processes while meeting quality and outcome metrics.
"We've seen a tremendous increase in the demand for our services and the landscape of potential clients has broadened. By integrating multiple evidence-based solutions under one digital medicine platform, we're making digital transformation simple and affordable," noted Rx.Health Chief Operating Officer Andy Pfau. "In addition to health systems, we're now able to capitalize on the advanced discussions we're having with payers and accountable care organizations. These discussions always change the application of your products, which in turn naturally fuels R&D."
Rx.Health curates digital solutions that are clinically proven to improve patient health, lowering the cost for health systems as they transition to value-based care. According to Shrawan Patel, MD, Vice President and Head of Clinical Transformation for Rx.Health, U.S. health systems are losing nearly $100 million per year by failing to engage patients through digital solutions. Rx.Health's flagship product RxUniverse is the first enterprise-level, app-prescribing platform that provides an efficient prescription mechanism built into a health system's EHR, becoming part of an evolving, bundled care plan that provides real-time feedback to providers. The platform gained recognition over the last year after scoring in the 96th percentile on the System Usability Score based on the results of RxUniverse's eight-week pilot study and facilitated a 40 percent reduction in readmissions for patients of chronic heart failure. RxUniverse is live in several U.S. health systems, with additional implementations currently underway.
"Rx.Health is expanding the model for patient care by extending care outside of the clinical setting and allowing health care systems to harness the power of digital health," said Erik Lium, PhD, Executive Vice President of Mount Sinai Innovation Partners. "Rx.Health is a prime example of the innovative, patient-first discoveries valued by the Mount Sinai Health System and I look forward to seeing its expansion as a leader in digital medicine."
###
About Rx.Health
Rx.Health is changing the way both patients and provider think about digital medicine. A spinoff from the Mount Sinai Health System, Rx.Health's flagship product, RxUniverse, is the first enterprise-wide Digital Medicine delivery system that enables physicians to prescribe evidence-based mobile health applications, multi-media education, wearables, online scheduling, remote monitoring, telemedicine and digital therapeutics to patients at the point of care. Information on Rx.Health and RxUniverse is available at http://Rx.Health and http://RxUniverse.com, or follow Rx.Health on Twitter @Rx_Health and LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/Rx-Health.
About Mount Sinai Innovation Partners
MSIP is responsible for driving the real-world application and commercialization of Mount Sinai discoveries and inventions, and the development of research partnerships with industry. Our aim is to translate discoveries and inventions into health care products and services that benefit patients and society. MSIP is accountable for the full spectrum of commercialization activities required to bring Mount Sinai inventions to life. These activities include evaluating, patenting, marketing and licensing new technologies building research, collaborations and partnerships with commercial and nonprofit entities, material transfer and confidentiality, coaching innovators to advance commercially-relevant translational discoveries, and actively fostering an ecosystem of entrepreneurship within the Mount Sinai research and health system communities. For more information, visit http://www.ip.mountsinai.org.
Hikers and trail runners be warned: Rattlesnakes and other venomous reptiles may bite more people during rainy years than in seasons wracked by drought, a new study shows.
The research, which was led by Caleb Phillips of the University of Colorado Boulder and Grant Lipman of the Stanford University School of Medicine, examined 20 years of snakebite data from across California. Their findings contradict a popular theory among many wilderness health professionals that drought might increase snake bites by pushing the reptiles into the open where they are more likely to run into people.
Instead, the group discovered that for every 10 percent increase in rainfall over the previous 18 months, cases of snake bites spiked by 3.9 percent in California's 58 counties.
The results could have implications for efforts to prevent and treat dangerous encounters between humans and snakes, especially as climate patterns shift across the western United States.
"This study shows a possible unexpected, secondary result of climate change," said Phillips, an adjunct assistant professor in CU Boulder's Department of Computer Science. "We probably need to take climatological changes into account when we coordinate systems that may seem unrelated like planning how we distribute antivenin supplies or funding poison control centers."
Phillips and his colleagues suspect that the reason for the surge in snake bites during wet years may come down to snake food. Mice and other rodents, the prime meals for rattlesnakes, flourish in rainy years--and that might give snakes a boost.
Phillips said that he'd be eager to find out if the same trends appear outside of California. Colorado is home to three closely-related species of venomous reptiles: prairie, western and massasauga rattlesnakes. Bites from these animals rarely kill humans, but tragedy can strike. Colorado triathlete Dan Hohs, for example, died from a rattlesnake bite in 2017.
The researchers wondered how climate change might influence the frequency of such encounters. They pored through 5,365 cases of rattlesnake bites reported to the California Poison Control System between 1997 and 2017. The team compared those cases to a range of other information, including climate data from NASA and drought records from the National Drought Mitigation Center.
What the group found was surprising: When California counties experienced drought, recorded cases of snake bites dropped off. Those incidences hit record low levels statewide in 2015 and 2016 when California was in the middle of a historic dry spell.
The researchers published their findings today in the journal Clinical Toxicology.
Research in Colorado and other parts of the United States suggests that the impact of warming temperatures on rainfall patterns will be a mixed bag--with some regions experiencing more severe storms and others seeing drier weather.
Phillips, an avid trail runner and trained wilderness first responder, urges outdoor enthusiasts like him to stay calm. "If you encounter a rattlesnake," Phillips said, "don't pick a fight with it, and it won't pick a fight with you."
###
Other co-authors of the study include Derrick Lung and Hallam Gugelman of the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine and Katie Doering of the Stanford School of Medicine.
Researchers at the University of Helsinki, Finland have found bacterial DNA in the intestine of newborn calves, representing quite a diverse variety of bacterial species. Previously it was thought that the fetus develops in sterile conditions inside the uterus, delaying microbial colonisation until after the birth.
"Calves are an excellent study subject due to their conveniently large size already at birth. We are able to collect microbial samples directly from the rectum of newborn calves with sterile equipment doubly protected against contamination, making interference by microbes from the outside world impossible. In the case of human babies, researchers have to wait for them to defecate, which makes it very likely that bacteria already on the skin of the baby will contaminate the samples," explains Mikael Niku, a docent at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.
The early microbiota of newborn calves resembles more the oral rather than faecal microbiota of adult cows.
"Similar results have been obtained also with human babies. However, a fetal microbiota does not necessarily originate specifically in the mouth, but perhaps elsewhere at the beginning of the digestive tract, such as the rumen or the small intestine. Those are difficult areas from which to collect samples in living animals," says Mikael Niku.
In ruminants, the small intestine is of particular importance to the functionality of the immune system, since B cells, which produce antibodies, mature in the intestinal wall, whereas in humans this process takes place in the bone marrow. The research group led by Professor Antti Iivanainen at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine found that in bovines, the intestinal immune system is already activated before birth.
After birth, the number of intestinal bacteria in calves quickly increases. Bacteria numbers were great already after the first day, but most of them were from the Escherichia genus. Within the first week after birth, the intestinal microbiota diversified and gradually started to gain the characteristics of adult faecal microbiota. However, the microbiota of young calves clearly indicated their primary source of nutrition: milk.
Modern DNA analysis comprehensively illustrates the composition of the microbiota. However, the presence of living bacteria in samples remains uncertain, since DNA can be preserved for some time also after microbes die. The research group is currently employing traditional bacterial culture to find out whether there are living microbes in the fetus.
"It would actually be enough for the maturation of the immune system for the dam to, as it were, provide readily processed microbial fragments to the fetus," muses Niku.
The group is studying the early microbiota of other domestic animals also, since the goal is to understand the phenomenon in mammals overall. Another objective is to find out whether the feed offered to dams can affect the microbiota of newborns, while also examining the development of the immune system.
"We mammals need species-specific intestinal microbiota originating in the dam or mother, as well as later on in life in other members of the same species. Our development takes place through interaction with these microscopic partners, enabling our immune system to identify friends and fight off harmful intruders. Determining the specifics of this dialogue is exceedingly interesting."
The researchers were helped in the collection of rectal samples by the staff of the cowshed at the Viikki Research Farm, University of Helsinki, and a group of energetic veterinary students monitoring the calving night and day.
"When calving was imminent, the students hurried to the cowshed to collect samples at the moment when the calf came out of the uterus. This is a fine example of how even students in the early stages of studies can take part in research," says Niku.
###
ANN ARBOR--As much as 100 times more heat than predicted by the standard radiation theory can flow between two nanoscale objects, even at bigger-than-nanoscale distances, researchers at the University of Michigan and the College of William and Mary have reported in the journal Nature.
The new results could have implications for better solar cells, materials that behave like one-way valves for heat flow and perhaps even a heat-based computing platform.
A mystery in the lab
Max Planck's theory of radiation, proposed in 1900, set the stage for quantum mechanics and has held up well over the intervening century. But five years ago, a microstructure in the lab of Pramod Reddy, U-M professor of mechanical engineering, was letting an astonishing amount of heat flow between objects that should have been insulated from one another.
"We couldn't figure out the cause for a long time. It seemed like our calculations based on the standard Planck theory couldn't account for what we observed," said the study's first author, Dakotah Thompson, who at the time was a new graduate student in Reddy's lab.
"The question from Pramod and me to the students was, 'Are you sure you calculated this right?'" said Edgar Meyhofer, a professor of mechanical engineering at U-M and senior author.
But they had. It became Thompson's mission to find out what was going on.
The heat flow rate between two objects has a limit that depends on details like the size of the objects, the surfaces that are facing one another, their temperatures, and the distance between them. Heat travels between objects as electromagnetic waves, such as infrared radiation and visible light.
Previously, Reddy and Meyhofer had led a study showing that heat can travel 10,000 times faster than expected between objects separated by nanoscale gaps--smaller than the dominant wavelength of the radiation--but at larger separations, that mechanism wouldn't be in play.
In very thin plates, heat shoots out the edges
Under the guidance of Meyhofer and Reddy, Thompson devised a series of experiments to explore the unexpected observations. From the beginning, they suspected it had something to do with the thickness of the objects.
To illustrate the concept, Reddy produced two cards from his wallet, laying one on his palm and the other across his fingers with a gap between them. Thompson spent many months in the Lurie Nanofabrication Facility making matched pairs of semiconductor plates similar in shape to the cards, but about a thousand times smaller in length and width. The thickness of the rectangular plates was anywhere between 10,000 nanometers (0.01 millimeters) to 270 nanometers. He suspended these on very narrow beams about a hundred times thinner than human hair.
In an object the size and shape of a credit card, heat would ordinarily radiate from each of the six sides in proportion to the surface area. But the team found that when the structures were extremely thin--at the thinnest, about half the wavelength of green light--those edges released and absorbed much more heat than anticipated.
With experimental results in hand, Thompson worked closely with Linxiao Zhu, a postdoctoral researcher in Meyhofer's and Reddy's lab. Zhu built a detailed mathematical model of the two thin plates and the physics that governs heat transfer between these structures.
After many hours running the model on a supercomputer, Zhu's results confirmed that the 100-fold enhancement in heat flow occurs because of the way that waves move in the very thin plates. Since the waves run parallel to the plate's longer dimensions, the heat shoots out the edges. In the identical plate absorbing the energy, the same concept was at work.
"When we model how the plates emit and absorb thermal radiation, it is as though their edges are much thicker," Zhu said.
What the findings could enable
While the effect is strongest at the microscale and smaller, the emerging field of nanotechnology could mean that we will see this new idea used in devices.
"You could potentially control heat in new ways because we have identified the mechanism of heat transfer," Reddy said.
Examples proposed by the team include controlling the flow of heat in a way similar to how electronics manage electrons, making heat transistors for next-generation computers and diodes (like one-way valves). For example, future building materials could let heat out during cool summer nights but keep it in during the winter. Solar cells could harness the portion of the sun's spectrum that isn't converted to electricity for other purposes. A roof installation could send this lost energy to heat water, for instance.
Reddy cautions that a heat-based computing device would be slower and larger than an electronic version, but he believes it might be preferable in certain situations, such as high-temperature environments where conventional electronics are damaged.
The paper describing this research is titled "Hundred-fold enhancement in far-field radiative heat transfer over the blackbody limit." The work was supported by the Office of Naval Research, the Army Research Office and the Department of Energy. Reddy is also a professor of materials science and engineering. Meyhofer is also a professor of biomedical engineering.
###
Study: Hundred-fold enhancement in far-field radiative heat transfer over the blackbody limit
Pramod Reddy
Edgar Meyhofer
Story on earlier finding
A University of Oklahoma research team of biologists and meteorologists will develop and employ advanced methods to monitor birds during migratory flights and assess the atmospheric conditions in which they fly. The project will involve unmanned aerial vehicles as well as novel tracking devices developed by OU researchers. The devices will be attached to migratory birds and will reveal the environments experienced by birds in flight and provide new insights into the dynamics of the lower atmosphere.
"The role of the atmosphere in migration behaviors of animals is underrepresented and understudied. As our climate changes, so will the prevailing wind patterns that animals rely on to reach their migratory destinations. This project combines the interest and ability of biologists and meteorologists to understand changes in these aerial habitats and the consequences for migratory birds," Jeffrey F. Kelly, academic director, Corix Institute.
Kelly and other team members Eli S. Bridge, professor, Oklahoma Biological Survey; Phillip B. Chilson, professor, OU School of Meteorology; and Phillip M. Stepanian, postdoctoral research fellow, Corix Plains Institute; will combine these new observations with currently underused weather radar data from across the country, which includes massive amounts of data on migrating birds, bats and insects as they fly over the countryside. This combination of new and existing data will yield novel insight into migrant behavior within their changing atmospheric habitats.
This multidisciplinary team will develop and test different ways to enhance communication, collaboration and teamwork among the next generation of students and teachers, and communicate to the public how the changing environment influences the timing of migration over and through their communities. Local workshops conducted in schools and community centers will foster "citizen science" to contribute to this national effort, and teach landowners local climate adaptation strategies.
The National Science Foundation awarded a $1 million grant for the research entitled, "RoL: FELS: RAISE: Rules That Govern Seasonal Migration of Birds Through the Air." For more information about this project, contact Professor Kelly at jkelly@ou.edu.
###
LISBON, PORTUGAL--Three Penn Medicine ophthalmology innovators will receive the 2018 Antonio Champalimaud Vision Award for their revolutionary work leading to the first successful gene therapy to cure an inherited cause of childhood blindness. The Penn recipients are Jean Bennett, MD, PhD, the F.M. Kirby Professor of Ophthalmology; Samuel G. Jacobson, MD, PhD, a professor of Ophthalmology; and Albert M. Maguire, MD, a professor of Ophthalmology, all in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
This year's award honors seven researchers who share a 1 million Euro prize for scientific advances leading to successful treatment of a condition known as Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA)--a genetic form of retinal blindness--by replacing damaged genes with healthy ones and dramatically improving patients' vision. Their work led to the December 2017 U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the first gene therapy for an inherited condition.
LCA is a rare genetic eye disorder that results in nearly complete vision loss by about age 40. Infants with the condition have reduced vision at birth and this can be associated with abnormal sensitivity to light and rapid, involuntary eye movements. About 20 versions of the disorder have been discovered to date.
Bennett, Jacobson, and Maguire have each made scientific advances leading to the treatment of LCA. Their breakthrough work began in affected mice and dogs during the 1990s, including work led by the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine. In 2001, a team including the three award recipients from Penn reported they had successfully restored the sight of three blind dogs with a canine form of LCA. Research efforts took off from there, leading to clinical trials conducted at the Scheie Eye Institute and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). This was followed by the FDA approval. Additional research has led to further breakthroughs toward treating inherited forms of blindness.
"This award recognizes the pioneering work of three remarkable scientists at Penn and many firsts in the field of genetic medicine," said Joan O'Brien, MD, chair of Ophthalmology. "Their dedication and hard work has paved the way for new hope for inherited blindness and demonstrates the potential for future developments in gene therapy."
Bennett is a physician-scientist with expertise in molecular biology and gene therapy studies. She has developed approaches for treating different forms of vision loss and uncovered mechanisms that lead to blindness. Her research has uncovered the scientific underpinnings which made it possible to test the first retinal gene therapy treatment.
Jacobson has more than 35 years of experience as a clinician-scientist in the field of inherited retinal degenerations. His Center for Hereditary Retinal Degeneration focuses on the complex retinal response to genetic injury. He and his colleagues have revealed mechanisms of human retinal degeneration, resulting from mutation in genes.
Maguire, who is married to Bennett, has clinical expertise in the diagnosis and management of vitreoretinal diseases--conditions that affect the back part of the eye. He has a special interest in pediatric and genetic retinal diseases, such as LCA, and developed and carried out all of the surgical procedures leading up to the CHOP and University of Florida clinical trials preceding to the FDA approval. In the process of the clinical trials for the first approved gene therapy, he developed a gene therapy surgical training program which has certified retinal surgeons around the world for retinal gene therapy studies.
The additional 2018 honorees of the award include William W. Hauswirth of the University of Florida College of Medicine; Michael Redmond of National Institutes of Health; and Robin Ali and James Bainbridge of the University College of London. The recipients will use the award to advance their research programs.
The Antonio Champalimaud Vision Award is supported by Vision 2020 - The Right to Sight, a global blindness-prevention initiative launched in collaboration with the World Health Organization and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness.
###
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.
From observations of phenomena culminating in the Fragmentation and Divergence of the previous volume, Inter Faculty now turns to considerations of action, the first chapter of which is Engagement.
Perhaps it is somewhat singular to focus on engagement, as this is the very cornerstone of any research problem in human sciences. The research problems of the present volume speak for themselves: identity and rights; transfer and evolution of linguistic concepts from one culture to another; reconsiderations of ethical interpretation.
But the discussion of engagement here is even more fundamental and deep-rooted, because it is the engagement of the researcher himself that is at issue; it is in his profound engagement towards his chosen research topic, towards the wider scientific community and human society that his research has meaning. Engagement is fundamental to research in the human sciences, (issues of society, culture, philosophy, the passing of time and space), but with deep-rooted engagement in every sense of the term, at every turn, on every level, a new perspective and more dynamic approach to research can be envisaged.
Peer Review Paper
Maintaining Identity and Rights of National Minorities: Visibility, Linguistic Landscape of the Slovene Minority in Carinthia
In his article, Andrej BEKES, University of Ljubljana, takes the case of the ethnic Slovene peoples of Carinthia in Austria to discuss identity and rights of national minorities. The paper deals with the visibility of the autochthonous Slovene minority as one of the crucial factors contributing towards maintaining its identity in the territory of its traditional settlement. The paper focuses on the international legal framework concerning national minorities to elucidate the controversial issue of the language of a subset of topographical signs erected by the Austrian regional government.
For the author, the issue here is not that of safeguarding immigrant peoples as posed in every region of the world, but that which goes to the heart of identity itself; identity which is of an extremely complex nature, built up over the passing of history, movements of politics, ideology, society, division, fragmentation, oppression and more. Questions of personal identity and identity of peoples are at the heart of the author's research, and it is in this sense that he focuses on the autochthonous Slovene peoples confronted with issues of linguistic rights in the face of Austrian authorities and movements of ideology.
Peer Review paper
L'invention du genre grammatical au Japon et en Grece antique
Emergence of Grammatical Gender in Japan and Ancient Greece
In her paper, Irene Tamba, EHESS Paris, explores the translation in Japanese of grammatical gender stemming from the Dutch language. She details how it took almost a century (1750-1850) for Japanese specialists in Dutch studies to understand grammatical gender and how, once this grammatical category was understood, it was transferred to the Japanese language. Genders were assimilated to the cultural concepts of yin and yang. From this semantic classification emerged the grammatical gender category with the discovery of Dutch grammars and literal transposition of Dutch terminology. She argues these two stages can also be found in Ancient Greece during the slow emergence (from the fifth century BC to the second century AD) of grammatical gender in the Greek language. Indeed, the Sophists led the foundation of a semantic noun classification from which morphological category was invented by grammarians. According to Irene Tamba, this convergence may lead to the hypothesis of two ordered steps in other cases of emerging grammatical categories, i.e. a semantic step followed by a grammatical stage.
This could seem a rather surprising subject of research, as grammatical gender is a well-established, shared concept, supposedly posing no problems. Nevertheless, how and by what intellectual process could this concept be transferred into a linguistic system where the category of grammatical gender did not exist? Instead of looking to the universalism of language for the solution, the author has gone to the core of the conflicting reality of two heterogeneous languages being made to correspond. In engaging in a unique and singular path, Irene Tamba has, with this study, opened a hitherto unsuspected new avenue of research.
Peer Review paper
The Development of Confucian Ethics in the Teachings of Ito Jinsai
This Research Note by Marko Ogrizek, University of Ljubljana, examines the works of Ito Jinsai, an Edo-period Japanese scholar of Confucianism and more particularly of Confucian ethics. Most often considered as an intermediary between the ideas of the Zhu Xi School, of which he was a critic, and the Sorai School, which in many ways he helped inspire, Ito Jinsai was also a Confucian ethicist in his own right.
Marko Ogrizek, however, does not limit his study to commenting a philological interpretation of Jinsai's works, but also attempts to reinterpret the thinking and life of Ito Jinsai in terms of 'embodiment of knowledge', as, according to the author, Jinsai's teachings on Confucianism and the way he lived his life are inseparable one from the other. The theory of Embodiment of Knowledge, stemming from phenomenology, has greatly influenced current cognitive science, and could open the way to a new framework within which to reconsider, and perhaps give a truer insight into, the works of Jinsai on Confucian ethics.
###
Articles by Andrej BEKES, Irene TAMBA; Research Note by Marko OGRIZEK; foreword by Saburo AOKI.
(San Antonio, September 5, 2018) -- A groundbreaking discovery by chemists at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) will have a significant impact on how pharmaceutical companies develop new drug treatments. The breakthrough involves fluorine, which forms the second strongest carbon bond (C-F) known to science, after the carbon-silicon (C-S) bond.
Fluorine is one of the most fundamental elements of life. In its fluoride form, it's a mineral with anti-acid properties used in toothpaste and drinking water to prevent dental cavities. This small, non-toxic element is also widely used by medicinal chemists in cancer treatment, antibiotics, anti-depressants, steroids and other drugs. Fluorine is prevalent in modern drugs because it stabilizes drugs and improves their biological activity.
For many years, researchers in the UTSA Metalloprotein Research Laboratory, led by Aimin Liu, a Lutcher Brown Distinguished Professor, have been studying the regulation of thiols, compounds that affect a variety of biological functions in mammals such as redox stress levels, energy balance, cellular signaling, heart health, and autoimmune and neurological conditions. When thiol levels are stable, individuals are generally healthy. When they increase too much and for too long, conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, breast cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases can develop.
Cysteine dioxygenase (CDO) and cysteamine dioxygenase (ADO) regulate the body's thiol levels. When the thiol levels are elevated, CDO and ADO develop catalytic amplifiers to quickly remove thiol from the body. Scientists don't yet know precisely how the enzymes make the amplifiers. The UTSA researchers were studying this when they made their significant discovery.
The scientists performed a technique on CDO called genetic code expansion. The cutting-edge technique was brought to UTSA by post-doctoral fellow Jiasong Li, and was initially invented by The Peter G. Schultz laboratory at The Scripps Research Institute.
The researchers created a new form of CDO with two very strong carbon-fluorine bonds. This should have made it more difficult for the enzyme to break those carbon-fluorine bonds and produce its catalytic amplifier. What they observed, however, surprised them. They discovered that the modified CDO was still able to break its carbon-fluorine bonds to generate its full catalytic assembly.
This is the first time that scientists have demonstrated the cleavage (breakage) of a carbon-fluorine bond through oxidation in proteins. This means that it may be possible that human bodies are capable of breaking these bonds in the drugs that are consumed.
The UTSA researchers also uncovered clues as to how thiols generate their catalytic amplifiers after the proteins are built. Their discovery is described in Nature Chemical Biology.
"This is an important discovery. More than 20 percent of pharmaceutical drugs contain fluorine," said Michael Doyle, the Rita and John Feik Distinguished University Chair in Medicinal Chemistry at UTSA. "Because of their strength, fluorine-carbon bonds resist normal drug metabolism and can extend the beneficial lifetime of the drug in the body. Fluorine in drug molecules can also increase their ability to cross membrane barriers and enter cells. That the carbon-fluorine is strongly resistant to cleavage is a long-held belief in medicinal chemistry. Professor Liu's discovery changes that."
To expand on their discovery, the Liu lab, including a third-year UTSA undergraduate student, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and two staff chemists--Wendell Griffith and Daniel Wherritt--utilized a similar approach to determine the catalytic assembly of ADO, a sibling enzyme to CDO. In addition to successfully identifying the catalytic amplifier in ADO, they discovered a unique structural motif that hindered its detection by routine lab techniques. These findings are reported in another paper recently published in Angewandte Chemie, an internationally renowned chemical journal.
"Dr. Liu's laboratory provides excellent opportunities for students to get involved in very interesting and impactful research projects," said Waldemar Gorski, professor and chair of the UTSA Department of Chemistry.
While fluoride is widely used by medicinal chemists in drug treatments, Liu says his team's discovery should remind pharmaceutical companies that fluorine chemistry is very complex. Although valuable, he recommends that they proceed with caution, because there is still much to learn.
"We see a rush by pharmaceutical companies to get drugs through development, into clinical trials and on the market," said Liu. "This research reminds us that we need to be thorough and careful. Fluorine chemistry is very complex."
"This research is vitally important," said Howard Grimes, Interim Dean of the College of Sciences at UTSA. "Understanding the C-F bond is critical to our understanding of drug design and improving the lives of patients."
###
This research was supported by multiple grants from National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institute of Mental Health, National Science Foundation and Lutcher Brown Endowment Funds from The University of Texas at San Antonio.
Nuclear waste repositories must be safe for millions of years, so knowing which materials are most appropriate as barriers is vitally important. A professor at The University of Texas at Arlington is researching the physical and chemical processes by which fluids and radioactive atoms move through different rock formations to better assess which rock materials provide optimal barriers to isolate nuclear wastes in long-term repositories.
'Max' Qinhong Hu, UTA associate professor of earth and environmental sciences, recently won a three-year $567,831 grant from the Department of Energy's Nuclear Energy University Program to assess six different kinds of low-permeable rock formations, including granite and clay, as potential barrier materials.
"We need to be sure that we have chosen the materials that are most appropriate, that will be least affected by leakage from the nuclear containers, as well as from weather events that result in liquid seepage," Hu said.
Hu is also looking at how radioactive atoms or radionuclides from nuclear waste, or liquids, can move through the tortuous passageways found in these rock formations to better assess how to isolate the radionuclides over the long-term.
"These pore spaces can be very small, nanometers instead of microns, with an extremely low permeability even tighter than the kitchen-top granite, and we need innovative ways to characterizing these tiny pore structure to enhance the isolation," Hu said.
Hu's team will provide a mechanistic or process-level understanding of how the fluid and radionuclide movements work and also quantify the uncertainty around the materials for isolation purposes. Some work will be carried out using small angle neutron scattering technique at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
"Traditionally, UTA has not been a nuclear science center but we will be able to offer our students experience working at top national labs on this project," Hu said. He plans to employ two doctoral students to this end.
Arne Winguth, chair of UTA's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, congratulated Hu on his new grant.
"Dr. Hu's unique focus combines hydrogeology with radiochemistry to handle research around both fluid movement and radionucleotide transport," Winguth said. "This is very important work in line with the strategic plan of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and of the University of Texas at Arlington."
###
Hu has been at UTA since 2008. Prior to that, he worked at the U.S Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is a fellow of The Geological Society of America.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - An emerging pathogen that devours the skin of salamanders will be the subject of a new study funded by the National Science Foundation.
Matt Gray and Debra Miller, both faculty members in the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture Center for Wildlife Health within the UT Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries, have been awarded a $2.5 million grant to lead a collaboration among scientists from Vanderbilt University, University of Massachusetts-Boston, Texas Tech University, University of California-Santa Barbara and Washington State University.
The research will expand the current understanding of a fungal pathogen that is causing salamander population declines in Europe. Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, or Bsal, is an emerging pathogen that devours the skin of salamanders.
Thought to originate from Asia, Bsal is spreading throughout Europe, and scientists are now concerned of the fungus spreading to North America through international trade. As a preemptive measure, Gray and Miller, along with their research partners, will study the epidemiology of Bsal in an effort to find ways to combat the fungus.
Gray, Miller and their team will focus on three main objectives: (1) identify the infection pathways and environmental conditions under which Bsal spreads, (2) evaluate salamander immune responses to infection, and (3) characterize the pathogenesis of Bsal. Their focal species will be the eastern newt (Notophthalmus viridescens), which is one of the most widely distributed salamander species in North America. The eastern newt is known to be susceptible to Bsal. With many reptile and amphibian species in the U.S. being threatened by infectious diseases, such as snake fungal disease and Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd or chytrid fungus), the timing and need for this research is significant.
"With eastern North America as a global hotspot for salamander biodiversity, this research will allow science-based decisions to be made on Bsal response actions most likely to thwart an outbreak in the USA and elsewhere," Gray indicates.
Miller, a wildlife pathologist with a split position in the UT College of Veterinary Medicine, adds, "The lesions I see under the microscope are significant, destroying the epidermis in highly susceptible species, which is deadly to amphibians that rely on their skin for osmoregulation and respiration."
Gray adds, "To our knowledge, Earth has never seen a wildlife disease outbreak like Bsal's cousin - Bd - which has caused population declines globally in greater than 200 amphibian species and some species extinctions. It is too early to know what the scale of Bsal emergence will be; however, we hope that by working in multi-disciplinary research collaborations like this one that we will be able to identify plausible treatment and management options quickly that lessen the impact of this recently discovered pathogen."
In addition to research, this award will support one post-doctoral scientist, one veterinary scientist, three graduate students, and multiple undergraduate research technicians at UTIA. There will also be an outreach component, including STEM school engagement, guest lectures, international training opportunities, and research findings will be delivered monthly to the Technical Advisory Committee of the North American Bsal Task Force. Gray begins co-chairing the committee this month.
###
More information about the UTIA NSF grant and other Bsal research performed by the UTIA Center for Wildlife Health can be found at ag.tennessee.edu/fwf/bsalproject.
Through its mission of research, teaching and extension, the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture touches lives and provides Real. Life. Solutions. ag.tennessee.edu.
The UT Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries (FWF) is under the Herbert College of Agriculture, UT AgResearch and UT Extension at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture. Our curricula focus on a mastery learning approach, emphasizing practical, hands-on experiences. FWF's faculty, staff and students conduct research and extension that advances the science and sustainable management of our natural resources. For more information, visit fwf.tennessee.edu.
September 5, 2018 - Addictions nursing specialists have a unique role to play in caring for patients, families, and communities affected by the crisis. A series of original research and expert commentaries provide the nursing specialist's perspective on the opioid crisis, appearing in the July/September special issue of Journal of Addictions Nursing (JAN), the official journal of the International Nurses Society on Addictions (IntNSA). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.
"The opioid crisis is at the forefront of the US and global drug use problem conversation," writes JAN Editor-in-Chief Christine Vourakis, PhD, RN, FIAAN, FAAN, in an introductory editorial. "The Journal of Addictions Nursing is adding its contribution to the literature to offer a nursing perspective in addressing this international scourge."
Nursing Research and Viewpoints on the Opioid Crisis
The special issue presents seven original research papers understanding and addressing the needs of people with opioid abuse and opioid abuse disorder. The papers were selected by two eminent clinicians and educators who served as Guest Editors of the special issue: Ann M. Mitchell, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FIAAN, FAAN, of University of Pittsburgh and Diane Snow, PhD, APRN, BC, PMHNP-BC, FAANP, FIAAN, of University of Texas, Arlington.
In a Guest Editorial, Dr. Mitchell introduces the seven studies - drawing attention to the "numerous programs and treatment options that are available to impact the overdose and mortality rates among persons who use opioids." The research topics include:
Unique insights into the unmet social support needs of Iranian women undergoing methadone maintenance therapy for OUD.
Integrating information on medication-assisted treatment and other evidence-based therapies for OUD into the graduate nursing curriculum
A review of evidence showing the effectiveness of the "rescue" medication naloxone to prevent fatal overdose among people who use opioids
A program to educate emergency department personnel about their state's prescription drug monitoring program, including its impact on opioid prescribing rates
The benefits of screening for adverse childhood experiences among individuals with substance abuse disorders enrolled in a recovery program
Evaluation of an overdose-prevention program, including prescribing of naloxone, for homeless adults who use opioids
An educational intervention on opioid overdose and naloxone distribution to primary care providers at a Veterans Administration clinic
For the special issue, JAN's regular columns turn their focus to the opioid crisis. The columnists discuss the prevalent "syndemics" of OUD interacting with other conditions, specifically HIV infection and suicide; the importance of medication-assisted treatment as part of the overall approach to treatment for OUD; efforts to overcome barriers to accessing care for OUD, particularly the stigma attached to this condition; and the role of the behavioral resource nurse in helping individuals dealing with medical conditions as well as substance use withdrawal.
In another Guest Editorial, Dr. Snow shares a set of clinical "pearls" to improve outcomes for the patient using opioids. Her tips include assessing risk factors for OUD, managing the psychiatric disorders that often accompany OUD, educating patients and families about the effectiveness of medication-assisted treatment, and offering ongoing support and encouragement to promote safety. Dr. Snow concludes, "We each bear a responsibility to take action to address opioid problems wherever we work, wherever we have influence."
The Editors hope their special issue will provide nurses and other health professionals with knowledge from several sources to inform their evidence-based practice in caring for individuals affected by the opioid crisis. Dr Snow adds: "I encourage nurses and advanced practice nurses to seek certification in addictions nursing as a certified addiction registered nurse [CARN] or certified addiction registered nurse-advanced practice [CARN-AP]." For more information, visit http://www.intnsa.org
Click here to read the entire issue on the opioid crisis.
###
Journal of Addictions Nursing, the official journal of the International Nurses Society on Addictions, is a peer-reviewed quarterly international journal publishing original articles on current research issues, practices and innovations as they related to the field of addictions. Submissions are solicited from professional nurses and other health-care professionals engaged in treatment, prevention, education, research and consultation.
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.
Adult humans have many more blood-creating stem cells in their bone marrow than previously thought, ranging between 50,000 and 200,000 stem cells. Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and Wellcome - MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute developed a new approach for studying stem cells, based on methods used in ecology.
The results, published today (5 September) in Nature, present a new opportunity for studying, in humans, how stem cells throughout the body change during ageing and disease. Using whole genome sequencing to build and analyse a family tree of cells, this work could lead to insights into how cancers develop and why some stem cell therapies are more effective than others.
All of the organs in our body rely on stem cells in order to maintain their function. Adult stem cells found in tissues or organs are a self-sustaining population of cells whose offspring make all of the specialised cell types within a tissue.
Blood stem cells drive the production of blood, and are used in treatments and therapies such as bone marrow transplantations - a treatment for leukaemia that replaces cancerous blood cells with healthy blood stem cells.
However, blood stem cells in humans are not fully understood, with even some of the most basic questions, such as how many cells there are and how they change with age, not yet answered.
For the first time, scientists have been able to determine how many blood stem cells are actively contributing in a healthy human. Researchers adapted a method traditionally used in ecology for tracking population size to estimate that a healthy adult has between 50,000 and 200,000 stem cells contributing to their blood cells at any one time.
Dr Peter Campbell, a joint senior author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "We discovered that healthy adults have between 50,000 and 200,000 blood stem cells, which is about ten times more than previously thought. Whereas previous estimates of blood stem cell numbers were extrapolated from studies in mice, cats or monkeys, this is the first time stem cell numbers have been directly quantified in humans. This new approach opens up avenues into studying stem cells in other human organs and how they change between health and disease, and as we age."
Scientists found the number of stem cells in the blood increases rapidly through childhood and reaches a plateau by adolescence. The number of stem cells stays relatively constant throughout adulthood.
In the study, researchers conducted whole genome sequencing on 140 blood stem cell colonies from a healthy 59 year-old man. The team adapted a capture-recapture* method, traditionally used in ecology to monitor species populations, to 'tag' stem cells and compare them to the population of blood cells.
Henry Lee-Six, the first author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "We isolated a number of stem cells from the blood and bone marrow and sequenced their genomes to find mutations. The mutations act like barcodes, each of which uniquely tags a stem cell and its descendants. We then looked for these mutations in the rest of the blood to see what fraction of blood cells carry the same barcodes and from this, we could estimate how many stem cells there were in total."
Current methods for measuring stem cell population size typically involve genome engineering, meaning they are limited to model organisms, such as mice. By analysing naturally-occurring mutations in human cells, researchers can use the accumulation of mutations to track stem cells to see how stem cell dynamics change over a person's lifetime.
Dr David Kent, a joint senior author from the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge, said: "This new approach is hugely flexible. Not only can we measure how many stem cells exist, we can also see how related they are to each other and what types of blood cells they produce. Applying this technique to samples from patients with blood cancers, we should now be able to learn how single cells outcompete normal cells to expand their numbers and drive a cancer. As the cost of genomic sequencing comes down, it is transforming scientific research such that studies previously thought to be impossibly large, are now becoming routine. It is a very exciting time to be working in this space."
###
Notes to Editors:
*Capture-recapture is a method commonly used in ecology to estimate a species' population size. A portion of the population is captured, tagged, and released. Later, another portion is captured and the number of tagged individuals within the sample is counted. Since the number of marked individuals within the second sample should be proportional to the number of marked individuals in the whole population, an estimate of the total population size can be obtained by dividing the number of marked individuals by the proportion of marked individuals in the second sample. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_and_recapture
Selected websites:
Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute
The Cambridge Stem Cell Institute is a world-leading centre for stem cell research with a mission to transform human health through a deep understanding of stem cell biology. Our scientists study stem cell behaviour, both normal and pathological, and use their findings to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. http://www.stemcells.cam.ac.uk/ Follow @SCICambridge
University of Cambridge
The mission of the University of Cambridge is to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. To date, 98 affiliates of the University have won the Nobel Prize. Founded in 1209, the University comprises 31 autonomous Colleges, which admit undergraduates and provide small-group tuition, and 150 departments, faculties and institutions. Cambridge is a global university. Its 19,000 student body includes 3,700 international students from 120 countries. Cambridge researchers collaborate with colleagues worldwide, and the University has established larger-scale partnerships in Asia, Africa and America. The University sits at the heart of one of the world's largest technology clusters. The 'Cambridge Phenomenon' has created 1,500 hi-tech companies, 14 of them valued at over US$1 billion and two at over US$10 billion. Cambridge promotes the interface between academia and business, and has a global reputation for innovation. http://www.cam.ac.uk/
The Wellcome Sanger Institute
The Wellcome Sanger Institute is one of the world's leading genome centres. Through its ability to conduct research at scale, it is able to engage in bold and long-term exploratory projects that are designed to influence and empower medical science globally. Institute research findings, generated through its own research programmes and through its leading role in international consortia, are being used to develop new diagnostics and treatments for human disease. To celebrate its 25th year in 2018, the Institute is sequencing 25 new genomes of species in the UK. Find out more at http://www.sanger.ac.uk or follow @sangerinstitute
Wellcome
Wellcome exists to improve health for everyone by helping great ideas to thrive. We're a global charitable foundation, both politically and financially independent. We support scientists and researchers, take on big problems, fuel imaginations and spark debate. http://www.wellcome.ac.uk
this news is not available
While much of last weeks Brexit optimism unwound on Monday, the British Pound to Euro (GBP/EUR) exchange rate has avoided falling as far as its 2018 lows and has held its ground since Tuesday. This has been due to Bank of England (BoE) speculation, as well as weaker demand in forex markets for the Euro.
Since opening this week at the level of 1.1164, GBP/EUR has fallen around half a cent. While GBP/EUR trended near lows of 1.1074 on Monday and Tuesday morning, the pair has been edging higher again. At the time of writing on Wednesday, GBP/EUR trended in the region of 1.1106 just over a cent above last weeks 2018 low of 1.0995.
Pound (GBP) Finds Support in Bank of England (BoE) Speculation, Brexit Hopes
Uncertainty about the possibility of UK-EU Brexit negotiations ending without a solid deal continue to keep pressure on the Pound this week, and have prevented the British currency from making a more solid recovery.
However, optimistic signs for more consistency in the Bank of England (BoE), as well as hopes that Brexit negotiations are going more smoothly, supported Sterling since Tuesday and helped GBP/EUR edge away from its worst levels.
This weeks biggest UK news so far has been the possibility that BoE Governor Mark Carney could be asked to extend his term as Governor until 2020 or even 2021.
Carney had originally intended to end the typical BoE Governor term two years early in 2019.
On Tuesday, in a testimony to UK Parliaments Treasury Committee:
Even though I have already agreed to extend my time to support a smooth Brexit, I am willing to do whatever else I can in order to promote both a smooth Brexit and an effective transition at the Bank of England, The Chancellor (Philip Hammond) and I have discussed this. I would expect an announcement to be made in due course.
While a formal announcement has yet to be made, a longer term for Carney would give the BoE outlook more consistency which would support the Pound.
On top of this, the UK government said this week that it had received positive and constructive feedback from the EU about its Brexit proposals.
This came following the weekends news that EU Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier strongly opposed some parts of the plan.
Euro (EUR) Struggles to Push Higher Amid Mixed Data and US Dollar (USD) Strength
Investors have been hesitant to keep buying the Euro since Tuesday, as its movement this week has been driven more by the strength of rivals than any strong support from the Eurozone.
As demand for safe haven currencies like the US Dollar (USD) rose on the latest global trade jitters, the Euro weakened as the Euro and US Dollar (USD) have something of a negative correlation.
This weeks Eurozone PMI data from August was too mixed to give the Euro a strong boost either with disappointing figures coming from major economies like Germany and France.
Even though the overall Eurozones services report improved to 54.4 as projected and the composite figure beat forecasts and climbed to 54.5, Frances composite figure only rose to 54.9 and Germanys fell short of the expected 55.7 with a figure of 55.6.
The uninspiring data left the Euros movement tight, so the Pound to Euro exchange rate continued to hold above its weekly lows.
GBP/EUR Forecast: German Factory Data and Eurozone Growth Ahead
Britains data is unlikely to be influential in the coming days, so is likely to remain driven largely by developments regarding the Brexit process, as well as a possible announcement about Bank of England (BoE) Governor Mark Carneys future.
If it is confirmed that Carneys term will be extended, this could offer the Pound some relief and lighten just some of the significant uncertainties plaguing it.
On the other hand though, if Carney is not kept on it could knock the Pound even lower.
In terms of data, Eurozone data is more likely to be influential towards the end of the week as key German trade and factory data from July will be published, as well as the Eurozones latest growth rate stats.
German factory orders and construction will be published on Thursday, followed on Friday by Germanys July trade balance and industrial production figures.
The latest Eurozone Q2 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate projections will round off the week on Friday and could prove influential to Euro movement if it surprises investors.
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.
Wednesday, September 5, 2018
The Herman Trend Alert
September 5, 2018
Affluent Travelers Seek Experiences
Recently, we found a landmark study on Affluent Travelers from Ipsos, a global market research company specializing in wealthy consumers. Not surprisingly, Ipsos believes that "Affluencer" dollars are driving the present developments.
Travel is becoming experiential
Ipsos Affluent Intelligence identified six key types of affluent travelers and the attitudes, desires, and expectations of each---looking at the types of experiences travelers seek. Those six types are Wellness Seekers, Active Challengers, Sightseers, Cruisers, Historians, and Gourmands. Each category is characterized by a unique set of values and attitudes.
Historians---the group with the highest net worth
With a median net worth of $1,047,000USD, Historians are also the group with the second highest median household income ($191,000USD). They are the most open of all the categories to "charting new territory". Highly educated, they are very interested in exploring new cultures. They are the segment that Viking Cruises courts with their commercials that highlight the cultural opportunities included in their cruises. Historians also skew the oldest at a median age of 48.4 years.
Wellness Seekers---the group with the highest median income
With a median income of over $200,000USD/year, Wellness Seekers are looking for wellness-focused experiences that also include great food, adventure, culture, and more. While currently, this segment is mostly women, there is a trend towards more men planning this type of vacation (over 50 percent). While this group tends to be female, the next Wellness Seekers will include more men - over 50 percent of those currently planning a vacation of this type are male.
Active Challengers---the most energetic segment
Appearances matter to this group of risk takers who like to stand out from the crowd. With their environmental consciousness, you're likely to find them staying at a green hotel. And, of course, they are interested in participating sports.
Sightseers---the largest affluent travel segment
Sightseers are less interested in relaxing and more likely to see, collect new experiences, and learn while traveling. Many Gen-Xer families with children are in this category. They are more likely to explore and 41 percent of them are currently planning a trip of this type. They, too, are environmentally conscious and when they are not traveling, they enjoy entertaining and their homes.
Six Key Travel Attitudes
Ipsos has also identified the following attitudes as being important to Affuencers: Pioneering (want to be the first to try), Transforming (looking for their vacation to change their perspective), Learning (care about learning new information and trying new things), Pampering (willing to pay more to be taken care of), Indulging (focused on food and drink experiences), and Challenging (seek to be physically challenged especially outdoors).
Defined by 13 Travel Desires
Ipsos also identified 13 "Travel Desires": Relaxation, Adventure, Culture, Romance, New Experiences, Meeting New People, Learning about Other Cultures, Learning about Myself, Eating Great Food, Physical Activity, Learning New Things, Personal Growth, and Connecting with Family.
Affluent Millennials are driving many trends
It was fascinating to see our previous observations of experiential travel catalogued by Ipsos in this way. Just one of the trends Millennials are driving is their desire to learn and experience new things. With 90 percent of Millennials agreeing that these are the purpose of a vacation, we expect to see a major shift towards learning being incorporated into many aspects of travel. We are already seeing a glimmer of this trend in the new alliance between Marriott Hotels and TED (Technology Education Design), known for its "ideas worth spreading". (This concept is just one of the forecasts our author Joyce Gioia will talk about at the Future of Tourism Conference in France this week.)
To read the entire Ipsos study, visit HERE.
Copyright 1998-2018 by The Herman Group, Inc. -- reproduction for publication is encouraged, with the following attribution: From "The Herman Trend Alert," by Joyce Gioia, Strategic Business Futurist. 336-210-3548 or http://www.hermangroup.com. To sign up, visit http://www.HermanTrendAlert.com. The Herman Trend Alert is a trademark of The Herman Group, Inc."
Welcome to the News Release Wire Selection Control Panel.
Instant News Wire
Regional evaluation of Ardea's 100%-owned NSW project highlights strong results in a historic mining area with drill targets defined
Exceptional gold-silver rock chip results Black Bullock NSW
Perth, Sep 5, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Ardea Resources Ltd ( ASX:ARL ) ( OTCMKTS:ARRRF ) announces exceptional gold-silver rock chip results at Black Bullock Prospect, NSW.- First-pass rock chip sampling at the historic Black Bullock mining area (Wiseman's Creek EL8554) records exceptional assay results:o Up to 38 g/t gold and 348 g/t silver.o Significant samples have greater than 1 g/t gold.o Several centres of workings located, largely obscured by soil cover and pine plantations.- Historic mining area with high-grade epithermal gold-silver-lead mineralised pyritic deposits at Black Bullock:o 4-5 years operation (1899-1902, 1905).o Mining records show annual production up to 1,960 tpa (1902) containing up to 26.0 g/t gold (1905) and up to 540 g/t silver (1899), grades suggest epithermal system.o Mined to a maximum depth of 40 m onlyo Workings extend over 1000 m E-W and over 800 m N-S, with only extremities sampled by Ardea to date.- Northwest/southeast trend of mineralisation coincides with anomalous geophysical trends extending ~6.5 km.- Ardea's first-pass success combined with considerable upside for strike and depth extension support additional exploration to define the potential of the Black Bullock Project.- New management appointments to oversee advancement of Ardea's NSW assets.Initial rock chip sampling results from Ardea's Wisemans Creek Exploration licence EL8554 covering the Oberon gold and silver project in NSW have confirmed high-grade results from historic gold workings. Epithermal style mineralisation is present at the Black Bullock mine site. Reconnaissance rock chip sampling of poorly exposed mineralised rock and float material from the historic mining area has recorded assay results of up to 38 g/t gold and 348 g/t silver. These results are highly encouraging and support further exploration to fully define the extent of the mineralisation at Black Bullock.Rock chip results from the Black Bullock area, Oberon ProjectTwenty-eight rock chip samples were collected from the Black Bullock mining area as part of Ardea's ongoing regional assessment of its NSW projects. The Black Bullock mining area is home to historic small-scale mining of high-grade epithermal gold-silver mineralisation. The mining area was active around the start of the 20th Century.Outcrop is limited, so sampling has been restricted to 3 centres where historic workings are recognised. Of the 28 samples collected, 7 of the samples contain in excess of 1 g/t gold. The sample with the highest values of 38 g/t gold and 348 g/t silver was collected from the southern workings which seem to have been the focus of much of the historic mining. Such results are consistent with historic grades mined at Black Bullock and this surface reconnaissance spatially reconciles the high-grade sample result with historic workings. As a result, a more focused sample program will be conducted in the near future.On-ground observations show a northwest/southeast trend to mineralised rocks and workings. The results of the reconnaissance rock chip sampling program represent the discovery of a significant mineralisation occurrence that will require follow-up investigation.Black Bullock mining areaThe historic Black Bullock mining area is located on Ardea's Wiseman's Creek project area centred on the township of Oberon, around 40 km southeast of Bathurst and 85 km ESE of the company's base in Orange.The Black Bullock group of mines was discovered in 1894 and worked from 1899-1902 with subsequent minor mining during the first half of the 20th Century only. Publicly available historic records show that:- Major minerals include gold, pyrite, galena, arsenopyrite, and quartz.- All recorded mining was within 40 m of surface.- Total production quoted at 4,775 tons at 23 g/t gold and 107 g/t silver(see Note 1 below)o 1902 production quoted at 1,961 tons at 24.1 g/t gold and 445 g/t silver(see Note 2 below)Total production at Black Bullock is unclear. According to historical records, total quoted production is not the sum of the quoted annual production. It is likely that the total production represents total "stone raised" rather than ore processed, so grades are likely higher in the defined ore.Exposure at Black Bullock is poor, with very little outcrop beyond the extent of the workings. Indeed, the workings are greatly degraded and are covered by pine plantations, from which there have been several generations of harvest. This has resulted in near obliteration of the historic workings in some areas.Geophysical responseImportantly, the Black Bullock mining area corresponds with a distinct geophysical anomaly. Paralleling the observed trends of mineralisation and historic workings, a distinct northwest/southeast trend is evident in regional geophysical datasets, extending up to 6.5 km. Several cross-structures appear to correspond to some of the workings.Presently, the available geophysical datasets are regional-scale State-supplied low-resolution data. Higher resolution data may need to be acquired to fully define the exploration potential of Black Bullock.NSW projects and development strategyArdea's West Australian and NSW gold programs are being run in parallel with the Company's Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) programs at the flagship Goongarrie Nickel Cobalt Project (GNCP). A search for a strategic partner or group of partners is progressing, with the data-room being accessed and investigated by several parties.Ardea's portfolio of projects in NSW incorporates zinc-gold-silver-lead-copper mineralisation exhibiting both VMS and epithermal affinities at Lewis Ponds, orogenic gold mineralisation at Ophir, Calarie, and Gundagai, epithermal gold-silver mineralisation at Oberon (Wiseman's Creek), Calula (Copper Hill East), and Mount Aubrey (formerly mined by BHP Gold). Porphyry-style mineralisation has been intercepted historically at Yeoval.Ardea has appointed Sydney-based mining engineer and corporate finance specialist Mark Sykes to oversee the NSW portfolio of projects, with a view to defining options including the potential spin-out via an IPO. To this end, the Company has also recently appointed Johan Lambrechts to manage the NSW operations including defining a new resource for the Lewis Ponds Project and to oversee day-to-day running and assessment of the NSW regional tenure.Notes:1 Quoted in Imperial values: 4700 long tons at 15 dwt/t gold and 3.5 oz/t silver. Source: DIGS Report D003173960, Pegum & Gibbons 1962 (search.geoscience.nsw.gov.au).2 Quoted in Imperial values: 1930 long tons to produce 1,520 oz gold and 28,037 oz silver. Source: DIGS Report D003173960, Black Bullock Mine Annual Report, 1902 (search.geoscience.nsw.gov.au).To view tables and figures, please visit:About Ardea Resources Ltd
Ardea Resources Ltd (ASX:ARL) (OTCMKTS:ARRRF) (FRA:A91) is an ASX listed resources company, with 100% controlled Australian based projects, prioritising a three-pronged value creation strategy which is:
- development of the Goongarrie Nickel Cobalt Project, which is part of the Kalgoorlie Nickel Project, a globally significant series of nickel-cobalt deposits which host the largest nickel-cobalt resource in the developed world, coincidentally located as a cover sequence overlying fertile orogenic gold targets;
- advanced-stage exploration at WA gold and nickel sulphide targets within the Eastern Goldfields world-class nickel-gold province; and
- the demerger of the NSW gold and base metal assets with planned in-specie share distribution, with projects located within the Lachlan Fold Belt world-class gold-copper province.
So, youve decided to leave the house and take in a little culture in person rather than via a screen.
Once you reach your activity of choice a symphony concert, a museum exhibit, a play there are a few rules to keep in mind.
You shouldnt clap willy-nilly during a classical music performance. You (mostly) cant touch works of art. You cant continue the conversation you were having when you walked in to the theater after the lights dim. And, no matter how much you may want to preserve what youre seeing for yourself or your pals on social media, you cant take flash photos at live performances.
READ ALSO: Task force releases strategic plan for the San Antonio Symphony
There are some very good reasons for all of that, some having to do with safety and some simply having to do with making sure that everyone not just you is having a good time.
Its about helping to foster that space where everybody can enjoy whats going on, said Troy Peters, music director for Youth Orchestras of San Antonio.
Here the why behind some of the rules:
Why cant I reach out and touch the artwork?
Because your hands even if you just scrubbed them have oils that could damage the work. Keep in mind, it wouldnt just be your undoubtedly immaculate fingers touching the piece it could be hundreds or thousands of fingers involved, creating wear and tear. Museum professionals dont touch things with their bare hands, either they wear gloves.
But keep your eyes open. Some artists intend for their work to be touched. Signs generally let you know when thats the case.
Why cant I clap whenever I am moved to do so at a classical music concert?
Technically, you can, though doing so may make you the target of hostile glares and even shushing. You just probably shouldnt.
That rule didnt start with composers, said Peters, noting that Mozart wrote of seeking applause between movements and Brahms wrote to a friend of his disappointment over the lack of applause during one of his works.
The applause guideline which calls for a response at the end of a symphonic work and silence between movements is believed to have started in Germany early in the 20th century, and it swiftly took hold worldwide.
The idea behind it was that a multi-movement piece like a symphony has very often a kind of a larger story that connects the different parts, so that without that applause, the audience could stay in the narrative, Peters said. It has become tradition, and theres a whole bunch of us who think its a little ridiculous that its an absolute rule. There are some moments where the music ends so exuberantly that you want to clap. But if I start clapping, I would get shushed.
READ ALSO: The Other Side of the Alamo digs into the historic sites story
Fear of the shush isnt the only reason he follows the guideline, though.
I dont want to disturb or bother other concertgoers, and since some people have lived with this (rule) their whole lives and really cherish that tradition, I dont want to rain on their parade, either, he said.
Why cant I take my seat if Im a few minutes late?
Some shows The Lion King comes to mind have elaborate opening scenes that simply dont work if the actors have to accommodate the movements of latecomers. So, in those cases, those who turn up after the show has started have to cool their heels in the lobby for a bit.
In other instances, the theater may wait until theres a scene transition before admitting those who arrive late in hopes of minimizing the distraction for the actors and for those in the audience.
Because the unexpected can happen, its a good idea to get to whatever youre going to a little early. Some theaters have art exhibits in the lobby; some have bars where folks can grab a pre-show beverage.
Why cant I sing along?
Because its annoying. The folks around you did not pay to listen to your interpretation of the toreadors song in Carmen or Dont Cry for Me, Argentina at Evita.
I was in a concert once in Montreal where Renee Fleming was singing. and there was a gentleman in front of me singing along he was louder than she was, Peters said. That was a little bit frustrating.
There are exceptions here, too. At some musicals, like Mamma Mia!, audiences are encouraged to sing along and may be invited to dance in the aisles, too. If the invitation is extended, the audience is welcome to join in that way. (Side note: That should not be seen as a license to gab during the non-musical scenes.)
Why cant I touch things on the set during intermission?
This is a classic look with your eyes, not with your hands scenario. Props are placed where they are for good reason, and you, as a member of the audience, are probably not privy to why that is.
Sometimes, actors have mapped out lines and movements to correspond with where things are on the set. If an object isnt where its supposed to be, it can be discombobulating, impacting the performance.
READ ALSO: San Antonio artist sets Guinness record for tiny paintings
There are so many spinning parts, said Kelly Hilliard Roush, executive and artistic director for Classic Theatre. If this one thing is moved, its amazing what it can throw off.
Its weird that it needs to be said, but apparently it does: Dont climb on parts of the set, either. During Classics staging of You Cant Take it With You last season, a patron stepped onto an ottoman and broke it.
Why cant I take a flash photo or gaze at my device at a play?
The flash no-no is a safety thing. Actors can be blinded by those little flashes, and can stumble. There are stories, Roush said, of actors tumbling over the lip of the stage, seriously injuring themselves.
The light from a screen or the clickety-click-click as you text can distract those around you, tugging their attention away from whats happening onstage.
You go into a dark space and experience this moment in time, Roush said. If someone is on their phone, its hard for all of us to be present.
Thats pretty much what all of the rules boil down to: Be mindful of those around you, and make sure that you arent doing anything that means that someone else is having a lousy time.
dlmartin@express-news.net | @DeborahMartinEN
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
A team of private and government experts riding in a motorboat Tuesday dipped their nets into Denman Estate Park pond, retrieving all kinds of fish, from 2 inches long to those big enough to require a two-handed grip to put in buckets.
It was the first step in a $297,000 six-month project designed to save wildlife at the man-made neighborhood pond on the Northwest Side. The pond has to be emptied to repair cracks in the bottom that are causing it to leak, but first the fish and turtles living there have to be relocated.
Beneath drooping tree branches, moving carefully past tangled cypress tree roots, team members scanned the water for signs of gills and fins even as rain continued to fall Tuesday morning. After two outings, they had captured more than 700 fish, including bluegill, green sunfish, Rio Grande cichlid and largemouth bass and redear sunfish.
The fish are being sorted by species and will be taken to Woodlawn Lake as part of the aquatics resources relocation plan.
RELATED: Pearl gets room to grow
Theyll finish out their lives there, said Bill Pennell, assistant parks manager. Were going to restock (Denman pond) with species thats appropriate and will be able to work with the situations that we have here.
Pennell said Monday nights storm didnt slow the retreival of the fish and turtles, which is expected to take about three days. The turtles likely wont be reached until near the end of the process, because they tend to live at the bottom of the pond.
Many area residents, such as Patrick Donnelly, are worried about the welfare of the wildlife and the future of the parks ecosystem after the project is completed.
Theyre going to pump out this pond and theyre likely to find who knows what at the bottom, he said before the project began. And that will decide a lot.
Brian Gottschalk, senior environmental scientist with Adams Environmental, said the retrieval process the team was using Tuesday, called electrofishing, is a harmless way to capture fish.
RELATED: UTSA gets $1.5 million to help its STEM students
He said four low-voltage lines are dangled into the water from the boat, temporarily stunning fish within an 8-foot radius. When the fish float to the surface, team members net the fish and put them in an oxygen-rich tank.
They recover from the voltage stun in about 30 minutes or so, Gottschalk said. There are no long-lasting effects on them.
As the team carries out the relocation plan, other workers are pumping out the water from the pond to get it ready for repairs.
Gottschalk said when the water level gets too low for the boat, the team will strap on backpacks and use a probe to detect fish and turtles as they slowly walk through the sludge.
He said its not unusual to catch up to 8,000 fish at local ponds.
The most surprising thing, even to me, is still the sheer number of fish that a pond like Denman can support, he said. Here, because theres so much public involvement with the pond and theres no fishing, the numbers we pull out of here will probably be pretty high. Itll be interesting at the end to see what the system can support.
RELATED: Alamo plan approved by management committee
Pennell said the city will build a horseshoe-shaped peninsula in the pond, which will save water and provide more shoreline for plants and wildlife.
Other animals, such as ducks, opossums and deer, continue to roam the park freely. Pennell said water troughs will be set up for the animals at strategic locations on the grounds while the pond is empty.
After the peninsula is built, he said, workers will seal the bottom of the pond with a clay liner, and an environmental team will plant new foliage to restore the ponds environment.
Were going to have to watch it, Pennell said. Were going to have to test it and see what kind of option were getting to be able to shape it for the wildlife that will come back.
Pennell said the city worked with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to devise the park habitat management plan that includes relocating the fish and turtles. The team that went out on the pond Tuesday included state agencies and private companies.
The park will remain open to the public from sunrise to sunset during the six-month project.
Three-day weekends are lovely, but four-day workweeks can be intense.
For those lucky enough to enjoy Labor Day weekends, as I do, there lurks the reality that a full weeks worth of work will need to be compressed into four days. I know Ill still meet my deadlines; it will just take more concentrated effort.
Most office workers will do the same, which begs the question: If we can get our work done in four days, why not permanently add Monday to the weekend? We could finally make those Garfield comic strips about hating Mondays a thing of the past.
Employers and governments have experimented with four-day workweeks for decades, but the changing nature of work is making the idea more viable. Some industries can afford to focus on accomplishing tasks rather than how many hours someone worked.
RELATED: Despair and addiction are taking Americans out of the workforce
Psychologists have long known, after all, that people dont work a full eight hours. In a 2016 survey, United Kingdom office workers admitted that they probably stay on task a little less than three hours a day. The rest of the time is spent socializing, eating, smoking, browsing websites and searching for new jobs.
Proponents of the four-day week argue that if people only work a fraction of the assigned 40 hours, then why not concentrate that work and promote a better work-life balance? Experiments have shown that when people have more time for themselves, they work harder when on the job.
A wealth management firm in New Zealand, Perpetual Guardian, put the four-day week to the test this year. The company's founder, Andrew Barnes, brought in a human resources professor from the University of Auckland to measure what happened.
They worked out where they were wasting time and worked smarter, not harder, the professor, Jarrod Harr, told The New York Times in July. Supervisors said staff were more creative, their attendance was better, they were on time, and they didnt leave early or take long breaks. Their actual job performance didnt change when doing it over four days instead of five.
Employees, for example, found ways to reduce two-hour meetings to 30 minutes. They developed ways to signal co-workers not to distract them. But the real motivation was Barnes paying his employees the same salary for 32 hours as he did for 40 if they did the same amount of work.
Barnes experiment should not be confused with Frances 35-hour workweek. The Socialist Partys goal in 2000 was to force French companies to hire more workers, not boost productivity. Frances shorter workweek lowered unemployment, but businesses ended up spending more, according to academic studies.
RELATED: Trump labor plan hits the mark, should include higher wages
Some jobs lend themselves more to shorter workweeks than others. Job search site Flexjobs.com analyzed 50,000 job postings and identified those where a four-day week could make sense.
Unsurprisingly, they were mostly white-collar, task-oriented positions, including sales, information technology, health care, education, accounting, marketing and human resources.
Companies are competing in a tight labor market, and in order to attract and retain top talent, they need to better meet employees expectations and at the top of that list is the desire for work flexibility, Sara Sutton, founder and CEO of FlexJobs, explained. We have seen and expect to continue seeing the flexible job marketplace diversify.
If an employee has a work quota, then the number of hours spent in the office makes no difference. And if an employee is paid by the piece of work, then why not hire them as an independent contractor instead of an employee?
This where utopian visions of a four-day workweek can end in a sweatshop dystopia.
RELATED: Labor groups waste time and money campaigning for municipal ordinances
Many people dream of working for themselves, but as a former freelance writer, I can testify that running a small service business is tough. And the early results of the so-called gig economy, where people work on short-term contracts, are disheartening.
People forget the benefits that an employer provides, from health insurance to retirement plans to legal protections, until they have to pay for them. Ask any taxi driver, especially those with ride-hailing companies, how much money they make. Not very much.
Visit TaskRabbit.com and post a job for a handyman and watch the gig workers bid each other down to an unsustainable fee. When there are limited buyers of labor, and plenty of workers, the value of labor plummets.
The construction industry has long employed independent contractors, paying them by the job rather than the hour. Exploitation is far too common.
Thats why workers formed unions, fought for better treatment and now celebrate Labor Day. A shorter workweek may make sense, but only if workers can protect their wages and benefits.
Chris Tomlinson writes commentary about business and economics.
chris.tomlinson@chron.com
twitter.com/cltomlinson
The Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon rejected a plea from the Secure San Antonios Future political action committee to quash the Nov. 6 charter-amendment election.
The courts denial is the latest and final blow dealt to the PACs effort to keep voters from casting ballots on the initiatives.
Secure San Antonios Future and their corporate special interests went 0 for 3, and whiffed. They struck out, said Cris Feldman, a Houston attorney who represents the fire union. We will hold them fully accountable for this incredible waste of time and money, and will seek every penny of our attorneys fees.
RELATED: Judge sides with San Antonio firefighters union
The legal wrangling began last month, weeks after the San Antonio Express-News reported that the San Antonio Professional Fire Fighters Association failed to disclose the money it spent on its San Antonio First campaign seeking signatures on three petitions calling for charter amendments.
The PAC sued in district court, alleging that the union illegally spent member dues on the signature campaign.
Previously, Judge Cathleen Stryker denied the PACs request for a temporary restraining order against the City Council, which last month officially called the charter-amendment election. The 4th Court of Appeals quickly rejected the PACs request to overturn Strykers ruling.
READ ALSO: PAC opposing charter amendments sues city, union to block election
Christian Archer, the campaign manager for Secure San Antonios Future, said the PAC would not pursue a full trial in Strykers court and would focus on a campaign to defeat the initiatives. The three proposed amendments would: cap the salary of future city managers and place term limits on them; lower the threshold for signatures on referendum petitions, increase the amount of time allowed for gathering them and remove prohibitions against overturning utility rates, tax levies and appropriations; and give the union sole discretion to declare an impasse on contract negotiations and force the city into binding arbitration, removing its right to seek relief in the court system.
The PAC is planning to kick off its campaign at La Villita at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Josh Baugh 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. | jbaugh@express-news.net | Twitter: @jbaugh
Argonaut and Hartleys Strengthen Capabilities
Adelaide, Sep 5, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Emerging Australian lithium developer, Core Exploration Ltd ( ASX:CXO ) ("Core" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has appointed Argonaut as a financial adviser.Alongside Core's long-term broking supporter Hartleys, Argonaut will assist the Company in delivering the optimal financing package for development of its flagship Finniss Lithium Project in Northern Territory, Australia.Argonaut is a specialist natural resources financial adviser with offices in Hong Kong and Perth that offers significant experience in international equity, debt and hybrid financing, having completed transactions totalling over $10 billion since 2007.Commenting on the appointment of Argonaut, Core's Managing Director, Stephen Biggins said:"I am delighted to enter into this partnership with a high-quality firm such as Argonaut to add to our excellent long-term relationship with Hartleys. Together they provide the depth of experience, international presence and track record that will be critical to support delivery of the Finniss Lithium Project."About Core Lithium Ltd
Core Lithium Ltd (ASX:CXO) is an emerging lithium producer focused on development of its Finniss Project near Darwin in the Northern Territory. Core owns 100% of Finniss, a major developing project that lies close to existing infrastructure such as the Darwin Port, grid power, gas and rail infrastructure.
The Finniss Project covers a 500km2 tenement holding and 25 historic pegmatite mines. The project area is about 80km from Darwin Port. Exploration work has generated a near term development timeline, with feasibility studies to be completed over the course of 2018 ahead of receipt of approvals in early 2019 and planned first production during 2019.
An aggressive exploration program is under way, which has confirmed the high quality prospectivity across much of the Finniss Project area. Core's stated ambition is to upgrade Finniss' resource base to fast-track commercialisation options.
AUSTIN A federal judge on Wednesday struck down a Texas law that requires fetal and embryonic tissue from most failed pregnancies be buried or cremated, striking a blow to anti-abortion activists and delivering another defeat to the Texas Attorney Generals Office, which defended the law in court.
It is the third Texas law restricting abortion to be overturned by the courts in recent years, but the states lawyers are expected to quickly appeal Wednesdays decision by U.S. District Judge David Ezra. That would send the case to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, considered one of the most conservative federal appellate courts in the nation.
Texas lawmakers approved the fetal burial law in 2017, testing out a new anti-abortion strategy focusing on the fetus. The law would require hospitals and abortion clinics to arrange for fetal and embryonic remains to be buried or cremated, regardless of the womans wishes or religious beliefs. The law does not apply to at-home abortions but does apply to the remains from miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies.
Now Playing: Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh says a 1973 Supreme Court decision that established a constitutional right to an abortion is an "important precedent" that has "been reaffirmed many times." (Sept. 5) Video: Associated Press
Opponents argue the forced interment is another example of government officials enacting laws to shame women and create more hurdles for those who want abortions.
Ezra ruled that the law created substantial obstacles for women, doctors and abortion clinics while offering absolutely no health benefit in return.
The judge offered a glimmer of hope to the supporters of the fetal burial law, saying the state has a legitimate interest in protecting the dignity of life. However, in issuing a permanent injunction on the law, Ezra concluded that its speedy implementation and the lack of resources to facilitate the burials and cremations created on undue burden on women.
OUTRAGE FOLLOWS: Dallas billboard proclaims abortion as 'self-care'
"What we do know is that these laws get introduced and passed under the sham of protecting women, when in reality it's a political agenda," said Andrea Ferrigno, a vice president of Whole Woman's Health, one of the plaintiffs in the case.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called the ruling disappointing and vowed to appeal the case.
I remain confident the courts will ultimately uphold the Texas law, which honors the dignity of the unborn and prevents fetal remains from being treated as medical waste, Paxton said in a statement. My office will continue to fight to uphold the law, which requires the dignified treatment of fetal remains, rather than allow health care facilities to dispose of the remains in sewers or landfills.
The overturning of the fetal burial law comes on the heels of a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a pair of Texas regulations that forced the closure of several abortion clinics in Texas. Anti-abortion advocates are hopeful the pending appointment of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the high court will solidify a conservative Supreme Court that could undercut abortion rights.
Re: Celibacy to blame, Your Turn, Aug. 25:
The writer is correct that the Catholic Church needs to eliminate the archaic celibacy restrictions for clergy among other Dark Ages rules. It will improve and help reform the church, but it will not repair the ever-increasing sexual abuse scandals.
To regain credibility and fix these tragedies the church must do two things: First, there needs to be zero tolerance of priests guilty of sexual abuse, and the bishops who cover up these crimes. Both should be persecuted to the full extent of the law. If this creates a shortage of priests, who abide by their sacred trust, the laity can fill the void.
Second, apologies, prayers, and pleas for forgiveness are welcome, but fall short of the solution. Compensation can assist families to care and support their loved ones. Without compensation the church will be doomed to failure.
My recommendation is to institute a panel of clergy and laity in each archdiocese to review cases of sexual abuse, and negotiate a settlement on credible claims. The church would be surprised that they can settle these cases for far less than going to court and bearing costly mandatory awards. The church is fully capable financially of taking this proper course.
George Farias
Manu Ginobli Street?
Dear San Antonio:
You know Manu is retiring. As a gift to him, the city of San Antonio should name a downtown street after him. No one embodies the spirit of San Antonio better than him.
An immigrant of Latin America, he defied the odds by getting drafted out of obscurity in the second round and rose to become the most important sixth man of the 2000s. In spite of rarely being in the starting lineup, he infused so much explosive offense, tenacious defense and imagination into close games that he was always a factor, even into his 40s.
He was never MVP (although he should have been the 2005 Finals MVP), but he wasnt about that. He was about team. He was about the Spurs. How many people have highlight reels on YouTube of their passing game? Manu does. He was loyal to the Spurs and was part of their DNA in a way that maybe only Pop, David and Timmy can really understand.
He is a tribute to the dogged determination and resourcefulness of immigrants everywhere, and he is much loved here and in the Latin American community.
Ben Ernst
Deliberate cruelty
A recent letter writer in the San Antonio Express-News who wrote a criticism about Julian and Joaquin Castro is to be commended for stating his point of view.
However he needs to make sure that he is accurate about his complaints. Yes, there have been unaccompanied minors prior to the Trump administration. The situation of young children who do not speak the language, have no idea what a lawyer means, and are in a courtroom without representation is completely unacceptable.
Yet it is the current Trump administration that deliberately undertook to separate children from their families. This type of separation is deliberate cruelty, which must not be allowed. We must find a way to work together to craft a more humane immigration system.
Judy Lackritz
Who has rights?
The other day I was stopped at a red light and a young lady from Mexico with expired insurance ran into me. She did not receive a ticket. My insurance has to pay to repair the damage to my car and I have to shell out my deductible.
Now lets turn this around a bit. Lets say I ran into her while she was stopped at red light. My insurance would have to pay for her repairs plus the repairs on my car, and I would still be out my deductible. I would probably get a ticket for causing the accident. Plus my insurance would increase next year.
Now lets carry this a little further. Lets say I ran into her while driving in Mexico and I didnt have insurance. The Mexican police would take me to jail and confiscate my car and I would probably never see it again.
Dont think the ACLU will defend me because there will be no money in it for them. Now tell me who has rights and who doesnt.
Emmet Cook
Why he slams media
Lets examine the real reason this president hates the media. From the first day he announced he was no longer a Democrat but was running for the White House as a Republican, he denied that he was ever a Democrat.
But someone produced proof that in a previous life he wanted to run for political office as a Democrat. He could not believe that reporters wanted to publish the truth. He immediately began his war on any news organization that dared to call his bluff.
News organizations that pointed out that he had said two or three opposing thoughts about the same topic in the space of two days became the enemy of the people. News organizations with editorials that opposed his kingly view of the word became the enemy of the people. Facebook admitted that the Russians misused Facebook during the 2016 election. But its still a witch hunt and anyone who does not agree with this president is an enemy of the people.
A lie is a statement used intentionally for the purpose of deception. The practice of communicating lies is called lying, and a person who communicates a lie may be termed a liar.
Here is what Founding Father George Mason said: The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by a despotic government.
Ralph Peay
Signals, please
Why are drivers in San Antonio so lazy? Why do so many refuse to use turn signals?
Of the many ridiculous, impatient and often dangerous driving practices that are exhibited each day, this is perhaps the most difficult to understand. Signal operation is effortless, and becomes instinctive when done regularly. By allowing drivers to anticipate other vehicles movements, this simple action clearly reduces confusion and accidents.
To the small minority of drivers who use turn signals, thank you. To the large majority who do not, shame on you.
Bill Erichson
Momentum Builds in Australian Made Channel
Sydney, Sep 5, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Anti-counterfeit and customer engagement solutions provider YPB Group Ltd ( ASX:YPB ) is pleased that Bluey Merino will employ YPB's ProtectCode solution suite as its anti-counterfeit and customer engagement strategy ahead of its push into export markets.- Bluey Merino adopts ProtectCode anti-counterfeit and customer engagement solution- YPB and Australian Made collaborating closely in roll out- Progressive ramp up strategy building to planBluey Merino is an Australian owned and operated Merino activewear & outdoor clothing company based in the Southern Highlands of NSW. Garments are produced in Australia close to the source of direct-from-farm, dedicated, high-end merino fleece growers. Bluey Merino's mission is to produce the world's softest and most comfortable Merino Wool activewear and outdoor clothing.Bluey Merino is presently preparing to launch into export markets and is conscious of the need to protect its new customers and its brand from counterfeit and to build relationships with remote customers. It has selected YPB's integrated ProtectCode and YPB Connect solution to meet that need. Bluey Merino is expected to be a modest revenue contributor to YPB in the year ahead. (see Note below)Since partnering in late March 2018, YPB and the Australian Made Campaign have collaborated closely to maximise the penetration of YPB's solutions into the Australian Made user base to protect both the integrity of the Australian Made logo and its users from counterfeit. The strategy has been to start with targeted smaller players, prove the robustness of systems and processes, and then expand to bigger clients.The response from the user base has been pleasing and engagement is high. Additional niche operators are expected to be on-boarded in 2018 with the first high volume Australian Made exporters presently expected to begin employing YPB's solutions in Q1 2019. The programme is progressing well and to plan.YPB's Executive Chairman John Houston said: "Innovators such as Bluey Merino recognise the benefits of protecting and engaging directly with their customers wherever they may be in the world via our solutions. The Australian Made Campaign recognises that the value of its authenticity mark to Australian producers and the nation is entirely dependent on consumer trust and YPB's solutions are a proactive means of protecting and maximising that trust. Although early days, I am optimistic that the Australian Made channel will build progressively to prove a valuable contributor to YPB."*Please note:Modest revenue contribution: < AUD100K per annumModerate revenue contribution: > AUD100K < AUD1m per annumMajor revenue contribution: > AUD1m per annumAbout YPB Group Ltd
DEACTIVATED
Fortis Inc. operates as an electric and gas utility company in Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean countries. It generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 433,000 retail customers in southeastern Arizona; and 98,000 retail customers in Arizona's Mohave and Santa Cruz counties with an aggregate capacity of 3,233 megawatts (MW), including 59 MW of solar capacity. The company also sells wholesale electricity to other entities in the western United States; owns gas-fired and hydroelectric generating capacity totaling 65 MW; and distributes natural gas to approximately 1,048,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in British Columbia, Canada. In addition, it owns and operates the electricity distribution system that serves approximately 572,000 customers in southern and central Alberta; owns 4 hydroelectric generating facilities with a combined capacity of 225 MW; and provides operation, maintenance, and management services to five hydroelectric generating facilities. Further, the company distributes electricity in the island portion of Newfoundland and Labrador with an installed generating capacity of 143 MW; and on Prince Edward Island with a generating capacity of 130 MW. Additionally, it provides integrated electric utility service to approximately 67,000 customers in Ontario; approximately 270,000 customers in Newfoundland and Labrador; approximately 31,000 customers on Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands; and approximately 15,000 customers on certain islands in Turks and Caicos. The company also holds long-term contracted generation assets in Belize consisting of 3 hydroelectric generating facilities with a combined capacity of 51 MW; and the Aitken Creek natural gas storage facility. It also owns and operates approximately 91,000 circuit Kilometers (km) of distribution lines; and approximately 49,500 km of natural gas pipelines. Fortis Inc. was founded in 1885 and is headquartered in St. John's, Canada.
Read More
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.
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..
Wall Street analysts have given iShares MSCI Switzerland 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 Switzerland ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.
View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.
Youanmi Vanadium Oxide Project Major Breakthrough
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Sample V2O5% Al% Co% Cu% Fe% Ni% Si% Ti% --------------------------------------------------------------------- Feed 0.41 7.57 0.01 0.01 23.65 0.04 14.25 4.40 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Perth, Sep 5, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - The Directors of Venus Metals Corporation Limited ( ASX:VMC ) ("Venus" or the "Company") are pleased to announce a major breakthrough in regard to the Youanmi Vanadium Project following receipt of proof-of-concept metallurgical test work on oxide ores.Highlights:- Unique oxide vanadium ores identified at Youanmi.- The test work confirms strong recovery into solution of V2O5 by simple atmospheric sulphuric acid leach testing of oxide vanadium ores, together with co-extraction of nickel, copper and cobalt- The proof-of-concept of high recoveries from simple atmospheric sulphuric acid leach testing of oxide vanadium ores makes bulk mining and acid leach processing an attractive development path for initial scoping study work.- A 6000 m RC drill program is commencing immediately to support advanced metallurgical testing and aims to provide a large measured resource.- These factors give Venus a potential low cost entry into significant and rapid vanadium production.SUMMARY- The Youanmi JORC 2012 inferred oxide mineral resource estimate is 110 million tonnes grading 0.3% V2O5 for 333,000 tonnes of V2O5 (735,000,000 lbs V2O5) (ASX Release 6th February 2015) (Plan 1).- A recent geological review of the Youanmi Vanadium Oxide Project identified a widespread and remarkably even distribution of high vanadium values throughout the oxide inferred resource material from surface down to 50m depth.- The friable, crumbly soft oxide ores are derived from deeply weathered vanadiferous gabbro, circumstances unique to Youanmi.- The inferred mineral resource occurs as a continuous zone 3.5 km long by up to 350m wide, ideal for bulk open pit mining (Plan 2 and Plan 3).- Importantly, the soft oxide ores start at surface and have a zero open pit strip ratio all the way to the base of oxidation.- The metallurgical test work by METS Engineering Group was initiated to see if the widespread vanadium values (together with low levels of copper, nickel and cobalt) in the abundant soft, friable oxide ore could be successfully leached by an acid leach atmospheric process.- The test work was conducted on a random drill sample of the abundant, deeply weathered vanadium oxide gabbroic material that overlies the fresh rock Youanmi vanadium resource. Assays showed a head grade of 0.41% V2O5 for this sample.- The test work confirms vanadium recovery into solution of between 66.9% and 69.58% V2O5 by simple atmospheric sulphuric acid leach testing of oxide vanadium ores, together with co-extraction of nickel, copper and cobalt.- This success in proof-of-concept testing has major implications for the Youanmi Vanadium Oxide Project and its potential economics.- Current vanadium prices are US$18/lb for V2O5 flake, (AUD$25/lb).* "The exploration potential quantity and grade is conceptual in nature, that there has been insufficient exploration to estimate a Mineral Resource and that it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the estimation of a Mineral Resource."FORWARD PLANNINGVenus is now planning a rapid advancement of the Project. This includes:1. an immediate +6000m RC drill program to provide a large amount of oxide material for representative advanced metallurgical testing;2. aiming to complete a scoping study treating 5mtpa oxide ore grading 0.3% V2O5 or better*;3. commissioning of advanced metallurgical testing by METS;4. scoping study work by METS following the metallurgical testing; and5. relevant mining lease applications.PROJECT FINANCINGThe cost of the drill program and next phase of metallurgical test work is estimated to be around $400,000. To fund this, the company has entered into a convertible loan agreement with Mr Barry Fehlberg, an executive director of the company, which may convert, subject to shareholder approval, at an issue price of $0.20 per share - see the announcement dated 4 September 2018.BACKGROUNDThe Youanmi Vanadium Oxide Project is contained within E57/986. It is 90% owned by Venus and 10% by a prospector. The prospector interest is free carried to a decision to mine, after which the interest becomes contributing or reverts to a 1.25% NSR.Venus commissioned Widenbar and Associates to review the historical drilling, sampling and assay data to produce a JORC 2012 Inferred Vanadium Resource for the Company.The inferred resource produced by Widenbar and Associates is shown below (see link below).The inferred resource is based on 47 RC drill holes completed by Australian Gold Resources during 1998-1999, together with 11 PQ diamond drill holes completed by Youanmi Metals Pty Ltd in 2010 (Mark Creasy). The inferred resource is separated into oxide and fresh rock categories (refer ASX release 6 February 2015).In addition to the inferred resources, Widenbar identified an exploration target* at a 0.1% V2O5 cut off of 1 billion to 1.3 billion tonnes at 0.25 to 0.3% V2O5. This exploration target did not provide a separate oxide and fresh rock target category (refer ASX release 6 February 2015).* "The exploration target potential quantity and grade is conceptual in nature, that there has been insufficient exploration to estimate a Mineral Resource and that it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the estimation of a Mineral Resource."With respect to this current announcement, all work is directed solely at the oxide resources.No consideration has been directed to the fresh rock resources.PROJECT REVIEWThe Company recently initiated a review of the Youanmi Vanadium Oxide Project geology and resources with regard to competitor vanadium projects to determine the implications for ongoing Project advancement.With respect to other Australian wide vanadium projects, a number of features were observed to strongly influence potential Project economics.1. The numerous hard rock vanadium projects around Australia require mining and crushing of tough vanadiferous magnetite ores. In addition to hard rock mining, the geology of the deposit often involves high waste to ore strip ratios all of which adds greatly to the expense of mining and subsequent magnetite concentrate production.2. After production of a vanadium rich magnetite concentrate product, the next step involves conventional roast leach to get the vanadium into solution. This is a high temperature process with high capital and high operating costs, even though it has a well-established process route.3. A Kimberley based vanadium Company is investigating a new direct leaching - precipitation method using hydrochloric acid to produce vanadium and other mineral products from vanadiferous titaniferous magnetite concentrate. The cost parameters for this process are not known.4. The other main Australian vanadium project with a difference is the Julia Creek vanadium project in Queensland. Large resources of low grade vanadiferous ores occur within oxidized oil shale rocks of the Toolebuc formation.5. The soft Julia Creek ores occur near the surface with strip ratios of around 1:1 offering cheap mining by open cut methods.6. Offsetting this cheap mining cost, the Julia Creek ores require high temperature alkaline pressure leaching using autoclaves to get the vanadium into solution. This involves high capital and operating costs. Acid leaching is not viable due to a high calcium carbonate content in the ore.7. Once into solution, the solvent extraction process for all vanadium projects is believed to be similar.REVISED YOUANMI VANADIUM OXIDE PROJECT CONSIDERATIONSThe Youanmi drill database was re-examined to look for features that might represent a point of difference from other vanadium projects outlined above.A number of factors stood out immediately:1. The Youanmi vanadium ores are deeply oxidized. A deeply weathered oxide 'blanket' some 30 to 50 meters deep occurs over the whole resource outline.2. Significantly, there is an extensive and widespread distribution of high vanadium values throughout the oxide profile.3. Distinct magnetite lenses, while forming some important bands, are mostly narrow and would not form separate minable lenses in the deposit.4. These more magnetite rich zones however do carry higher vanadium values providing an opportunity to target high-grade zones during the early production years.5. The vanadium values start from surface meaning that the oxide material has a zero strip ratio, a remarkable situation creating conditions for ultra-low cost mining.6. The host rock is a coarse grained gabbro that has no carbonate minerals in the weathered zone (or in fresh rock). This means that acid solutions have a chance to do their work leaching vanadium and other minerals without being 'stolen' by carbonates forming CO2 before doing its leaching work.7. The extensive distribution of vanadium values means that the Project can be treated as a bulk mining operation with minimal grade control (particularly now that proof-of-concept shows the Youanmi ores can be successfully leached).RECENT FIELD WORKA Youanmi field visit was organized with the Company Consultant Metallurgist Mr Damian Connelly of METS Engineering in August 2018. Diamond drill core from YMDD 011 was inspected in the on-site core farm as well as completing a site visit to the drill location.The visit confirmed:1. Hole YMDD 011, with assays of 58.3m grading 0.41% V2O5, was strongly oxidized from surface to 58m depth. The intense weathering caused the rock to be soft, friable and easily broken.2. Vanadiferous magnetite, where observed, was oxidized to maghemite and hematite.3. No carbonate minerals were observed.4. During the field visit to the drill hole site, it was observed that the inferred resource strike location is along a prominent deeply weathered ridge zone.5. In addition, an oxide drill spoil sample from YMDD 008 was taken for initial metallurgical testing.It is the results of this test work that form the basis for this announcement.METALLURGICAL TEST WORK RESULTSMETS Engineering (METS) was engaged by Venus Metals to conduct proof of concept leach test work of vanadium on an oxide sample from the Youanmi Vanadium Oxide Project. The key objective of the scope of work was to assess whether vanadium can be extracted into solution from an oxide sample from Youanmi, as well as assess the potential co-extraction of other valuable metals.The test sample was crushed and homogenized by hand to obtain the subsamples for testing. No attempts were made at any beneficiation and the full raw sample was tested.Sulphuric acid was chosen for all the acid leach tests. METS have advised the reason is that this acid is the cheapest and most readily available, and is simpler for subsequent solvent extraction of any metals.ACID LEACH RESULTSThree acid leach test were conducted on the sample having a head grade of 0.41% V2O5 (assayed via x-ray fluorescence).Head AssaysThe results from the three leach tests conducted show vanadium and other cobalt, copper and nickel can be extracted using sulphuric acid, the extraction levels increasing with temperature.Leach Test Extraction Summary (see link below)CONCLUSIONSThe following conclusions have been made following receipt of the Mets Engineering proofof -concept test work.1. Vanadium was able to be leached using sulphuric acid.2. Very encouraging extraction percentages of up to 69.58% V2O5 have been obtained from an un-beneficiated raw sample.3. The vanadium extraction increases with increasing temperature, but all at atmospheric pressure.4. Cobalt, copper and nickel were co-extracted.5. A beneficiated sample is expected to reduce acid consuming gangue minerals feeding the leach.6. Venus will perform additional test work with the aim of characterizing the ore, beneficiating the ore prior to leaching and optimizing the leach (reduce acid consumption, assess leach temperatures etc).FORWARD PROGRAM1. Venus has commissioned METS to undertake comprehensive test work on the Youanmi oxide vanadium deposit, leading to an Engineering Scoping Study.2. An immediate 6000m RC drilling program aiming for measured resources.Mr Hogan, Managing Director of Venus commented that "the Company looks forward to updating shareholders with further news with regard to development of this major Project."To view tables and figures, please visit:About Venus Metals Corporation Limited
Venus Metals Corporation Limited (ASX:VMC) is a West Australian based Company with a focus on gold and base metals exploration. The Company aims to increase shareholder value through targeted exploration success on its projects.
The Company's major gold project is the Youanmi Gold Mine, located 500km north east of Perth. The Youanmi Gold Mine is now jointly owned by Venus Metals (30%) and Rox Resources Limited (70%) (OYG JV); Indicated and Inferred Resources of the mine is 1.7 million ounces of gold.
Exciting new discoveries at the Youanmi Gold Mine have been made at the Grace prospect in footwall granites where very high grades of free milling gold have been intersected, including 25m @34.7g/t Au from 143m (RXRC 287) and 13m @60.49 g/t from 181m (RXRC 239). The Grace Prospect may substantially add to the Youanmi Gold Mine resources.
By Farm and Dairy Staff
The 2018 Lorain County Fair market livestock sales were held Aug. 23 and 25. Heres a recap of the grand champion exhibitors and their final sale bids/buyers. Scroll down for a slide show of the winners.
Aug. 23 and 25, 2018
Sale Total: $459,193 Total Lots: 530
STEERS
Lottery steers: 21 head
Average: $2.49/pound with champions; $2.31/pound without
Modern beef steers: 42 head
Average: $1.92/pound with champions; $183/pound without
Dairy steers: 16 head
Average: $1.52/pound with champions; $1.42/pound without
Grand champion lottery: Clayton Kowalski
Bid: $5/pound Weight: 1,289 pounds
Buyer: Beriswill Insurance, Beriswill Livestock & Trucking
Reserve champion lottery: Kendal Brasee
Bid: $3.25/pound Weight: 1,351 pounds
Buyer: Vermilion Farm Market
Grand champion modern beef: Tucker Webb
Bid: $4/pound Weight: 1,350 pounds
Buyer: Kalt Manufacturing
Reserve champion modern beef: Braeden Casper
Bid: $3.25/pound Weight: 1,290 pounds
Buyer: Absolute Machine Tools Inc.
Grand champion dairy steer: Patrick Finnegan
Bid: $2.20/pound Weight: 1,534 pounds
Buyer: Bobs Truck Tire Sales & Service
Reserve champion dairy steer: Logan Galloway
Bid: $2/pound Weight: 1,585 pounds
Buyer: Schlechter Bros, Schlechter Country Harvest Market
HOGS
Number of Market Lots: 252
Average: $2.93/pound with champions; $2.82/pound without
Grand champion: Shadrach Dvorak
Bid: $15/pound Weight: 270 pounds
Buyer: Laborers Union Local #758
Reserve champion: Gabriel Horoschak
Bid: $14.75/pound Weight: 268 pounds
Buyer: Avon Lake Animal Clinic
LAMBS
Number of Market Lots: 39
Average: $4.91 with champions; $4.50 without champions
Grand champion: Paige Bremke
Bid: $11.5/pound (record) Weight: 152 pounds
Buyer: Bremke Insurance, Mike Buchs/Partners Seed Brand
Reserve champion: Alaine Bremke
Bid: $12/pound Weight: 137 pounds
Buyer: Heffelfinger Meats, Mezurek Livestock
Grand champion carcass lamb: Alaine Bremke
Bid: $3.25/pound Weight: 132 pounds
Buyer: Rays Auto & Truck Service
Reserve champion carcass lamb: Frank Krupka
Bid: $5.50/pound Weight: 107 pounds
Buyer: Avon Lake Animal Clinic
DUCKS
Number of Lots: 18
Average: $170 with champions; $157 without
Grand champion duck: Scott McCraw
Bid: $275
Buyer: Fehlan Insurance
Reserve champion duck: Jessica Urig
Bid: $275
Buyer: Mike Buchs/Partners Brand Seed
GOATS
Number of Lots: 35
Average: $538/head with champions; $430/head without
Grand champion dairy market goat: Molly Cordonnier
Bid: $500/head
Buyer: C&L Shoes
Reserve champion dairy goat: Jacob Miller
Bid: $550
Buyer: Bremke Show Feed, SB Graphix, Wellington Implement
Grand champion market goat: Chance Mezurek
Bid: $3,500 (record)
Buyer: Jim Beatie Livestock Trucking
Reserve champion market goat: Chance Mezurek
Bid: $2,500
Buyer: Buyers group, Mount Hope Auction
RABBITS
Number of Pens of 3 Meat Rabbits: 10
Average: $393/pen with champions; $221 without
Single Fryer Rabbits: 22
Average: $207/head with champions; $178 without
Grand champion pen of meat rabbits: Grace Stanley
Bid: $1,150
Buyer: Sheriff Phil Stammitti
Reserve champion pen of meat rabbits: Kyra Garnek
Bid: $1,000
Buyer: Buckley
Grand champion single fryer: Corynn Sediak
Bid: $625
Buyer: Schlather Insurance
Reserve champion single fryer: Elijah Kyser
Bid: $350
Buyer: Joe Miller, candidate for state representative
CHICKENS
Number of Pens : 40
Average: $241/pen, with champions; $222, without
Grand champion chickens: Carter Richardson
Bid: $500
Buyer: Joe Kalt, Kalt Manufacturing
Reserve champion chickens: Brooke Richardson
Bid: $300
Buyer: Judge Sherry Glass; Joe Miller, candidate for state representative
TURKEYS
Number of Lots: 35
Average: $349, with champions; $336, without
Grand champion turkey: Ayden McClean
Bid: $725
Buyer: Fehlan Insurance
Reserve champion turkey: Trinity Van Antwerp-Bring
Bid: $375
Buyer: Kalt Manufacturing
Photos provided by: Dan Messaros of Messaros Photography, Elyria, Ohio.
2018 Lorain County Fair sale 1 of 24
British farmers visited the Netherlands to learn how the country has reduced ammonia emissions by making changes on farm.
The visit formed part of an industry initiative to work together to find solutions, as the country develops new strategies to meet its international environmental commitments.
The government is taking more action to tackle ammonia emissions, with figures pinpointing the farming industry responsible for 88% of all emissions.
The fact-finding tour highlighted that there are cost-effective steps British farmers can make to deliver short-term improvements, which bring both environmental benefits and improve herd health and welfare.
Paul Tompkins a dairy farmer on the trip, said: Simple methods such as managing nitrogen levels and excess protein in feed could not only substantially reduce ammonia emissions per animal, but also save farmers money as their feeding system is better optimised.
In the Netherlands, improving manure spreading techniques has made the most significant contribution to the reduction in ammonia emissions from farms."
It is compulsory for Dutch farmers to use techniques, such as rapidly incorporating manure into soils, slurry dribble bars and injectors.
Mr Tompkins added: Although many UK farmers have already adopted these techniques, we need to see more rapid uptake in order to achieve the emission improvements."
'Strict regulations'
The Netherlands have strict regulations on new farm buildings. Farmers can only use approved systems that have been tested and certified to help reduce ammonia.
The legislation means all new dairy housing now has to meet emission standards of 8.6kgNH3 per cow place per year, down from a standard initially more than 12kgNH3 per year. In the UK there are no limits at the present time.
AHDB Environment and Buildings Manager David Ball said: It is important for us to understand the science and practical implications of how to reduce ammonia from livestock production.
This study tour certainly provided us with that, we can learn from others and provide clarity for farmers faced with change.
'Pioneering research'
During the trip, Dutch farmers showcased innovative ideas, from low emissions flooring that drains urine away quickly and improves foot health for cows, to slats with small flaps attached to allow slurry down but also stop gas rising.
A trip to Wageningen University also provided insight into the pioneering research taking the industry forward.
Commenting on the visit NFU Dairy Adviser Verity Richards, said: The tour was a great opportunity to see how Dutch farmers have adapted to meet ammonia emission legislation. It provided vital insight into potential challenges and demonstrated the need for a holistic approach to tackling ammonia.
The farmers on the tour represented a variety of different systems, which helped to highlight the need for a range of options to help UK farmers reduce emissions, using techniques that suit their system, size and geographical location, she added.
Agricultural ammonia emissions are a key priority for the proposed Clean Air Strategy, with a 3 million, three-year commitment from Defra to support and advise farmers on effective ways to reduce ammonia emissions on farm.
A final call has been issued to British growers for those eligible to claim their share of historic overpaid levies being refunded by the EU Commission.
Growers of sugar beet during 1999 and 2000 are entitled to a repayment of both the overpayment and the interest accrued.
However, NFU Sugar and British Sugar have now teamed up to highlight how time is running out, with the claim deadline of 21 September fast approaching.
The issue stems from the EU Commission, which calculated the levies in 1999/00 and 2000/01 with a flawed method that overcharged the amount.
Sugar processors in the EU challenged this and have succeeded in getting it revised following a number of EU court cases.
A proportion of the levy from the 1999 and 2000 crop years is therefore being repaid via the Rural Payments Agency (RPA).
Prior to 2006, the EU Commission collected a levy from all EU sugar processors to pay for the export of sugar outside the EU, with contributions by beet growers via a deduction from the beet price.
In 2013, British Sugar obtained a refund of levy payments between 2001 and 2005 that the EU Commission had overcharged prior to the regime change that took place in 2006.
The beet sugar industry has continued to pursue the refund of the excess levies for the two years prior to 2001.
'Historic overpayment'
NFU Sugar and British Sugar said growers who believe they are eligible should contact the British Sugar levy helpdesk "immediately" to begin the claims process.
Eighty percent of eligible growers have lodged their claim, but 350,000 remains unclaimed.
NFU Sugar board chairman, Michael Sly said: Im pleased to see that 80% of eligible growers have lodged their claim but that means there are still plenty left.
Im urging the final growers who were involved in sugar beet during 1999 and 2000 to claim their share.
After the sugar industry successfully challenged this historic overpayment and succeeded in securing a refund, I would like all affected growers to benefit, Mr Sly said.
The two organisations are working closely with Defra and the RPA to ensure growers receive prompt repayments.
Growers can contact the British Sugar levy helpdesk on 01733 422153 to begin the process.
Farmers should maintain public footpaths on their land in any post-Brexit public goods scheme, walking charity the Ramblers has urged.
Farmers and landowners should also be rewarded for adding new routes as part of a system of public payments for public goods, the organisation said.
In a survey, the campaigning charity highlighted that more than two-thirds of the public experienced poorly maintained footpaths when out in the countryside.
It also revealed that 85 percent of adults believe that being able to experience the countryside is important for childrens understanding of the environment and food production.
The survey follows the Ramblers teaming up with 55 other organisations including National Trust, RSPB and the Campaign for National Parks to sign an open letter that was sent to the Prime Minister outlining support for a public goods approach to future farm payments.
The letter welcomed the governments commitment to develop new farming policies that provide public funds for farmers in return for public goods, such as public access and biodiversity.
'Vital opportunity'
Ramblers director of advocacy and engagement, Tompion Platt said the upcoming Agriculture Bill is a "vital opportunity" to ensure people can enjoy the countryside via path networks "for generations to come".
From walking to wildlife photography, without well maintained paths millions of people would miss out on the outdoor activities they love, Mr Platt said.
We know farmers work hard to make sure their businesses succeed while delivering wider benefits for society and believe they should continue to receive public money.
But in return, farmers and other landowners should be expected to meet their existing duties to keep paths on their land clear. We should also remember that countryside visitors can be a boon to rural communities.
Mr Platt added: The path network helps people learn more about the important work undertaken by farmers, benefits tourism and local businesses.
The forthcoming Agriculture bill will set up a system to support British farmers after leaving the EU. It is still unclear how the bill will operate.
Acquisition of Business - Core Banking Platform Provider
Melbourne, Sep 5, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Australian Securities Exchange and Frankfurt Stock Exchange cross listed iSignthis Ltd ( ASX:ISX ) ( FRA:TA8 ) (the Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into terms to acquire 100% of the issued capital of an EU based core banking platform software business ("the Business").The Business has been in operation for more than a decade, and services more than fifteen (15) prudentially regulated entities across the EU, Asia and North America, with regards to their core banking platform requirements. The Company is expected to deliver a modest, but positive, EBIT contribution for FY2018 (Dec)The Business' core banking services have recently been certified, and the Company intends to augment the offerings by the Business by adding its card processing modules as they also become progressively certified, including Visa, Mastercard, JCB and others. This will expand the Business' product range and revenue opportunities. The Business' revenue model is at present based upon a software licensing model, with annual maintenance fees, based upon licensed software installed on local servers operated by the banking client. The Company expects that the Business' revenue model can be readily adapted to a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, which can in future be hosted as part of the Company's secure and certified cloud infrastructure. SaaS services can command higher fees, as they are ready to use, without the need for case by case certifications and client side infrastructure deployments.In addition to the future SaaS licensing opportunities around core banking and card processing SaaS, the Business is a strategic acquisition for the Company as it provides proven and certified systems as follows;- Core Banking Platform- E-banking (Client Portal)- Mobile Banking Application- Loans & Mortgages Module- Portfolio Management- IBAN Validation API- Integration between ATM and POS switches, and the Core Banking System.- Wire Payments - SWIFT, SEPA and Earthport IntegrationThe Company's EMA services will be integrated to the above certified services as soon as readily possible, allowing our business customers and merchants access to the rich features of the core banking platform. The Business shall operate as an independent business unit, sharing legal, treasury, and HR functions with the parent and sister companies. The Client portal will allow retail customers to view their ISX IBAN accounts.The Company expects to reach definitive agreement within 10-14 days, and complete due diligence within that period. Subject to due diligence, the Company will acquire the business within a further 7 days for EUR300,000 cash at completion, and EUR100,000 in ISX ordinary shares in six months, with an earn out commission paid in cash for sales completed within the next three (3) months, based on receipted cash.John Karantzis, CEO of iSignthis said "The addition of a proven core banking platform will allow ISXPay to accelerate its eMoney Account (EMA) portfolio rapidly, and to provide enhanced services to its business and prospective retail customers. The already certified integration to SWIFT and SEPA will save significant time for the Company, and will allow ISXPay to integrate quickly into our Central Banking facilities. The certified Tier 1 card scheme software developed by iSignthis inhouse will also be available as a licensed or SaaS service from the Business, complementing the core banking offering and strengthening the value proposition to small banks and PSPs."Further details to follow once the definitive agreement has been executed and due diligence has been completed.About iSignthis Ltd
iSignthis Ltd (ASX:ISX) (FRA:TA8) is a hybrid monetary financial institution and also a RegTech leader in remote identity verification, payment authentication with deposit taking, transactional banking and payment processing capability. iSignthis provides an end-to-end on-boarding service for merchants, with a unified payment, electronic money and identity service via our Paydentity(TM) and ISXPay(R) solutions.
By converging payments and identity, iSignthis delivers regulatory compliance to an enhanced customer due diligence standard, offering global reach to any of the world's 4.2Bn 'bank verified' card or account holders, that can be remotely on-boarded to meet the Customer Due Diligence requirements of AML regulated merchants in as little as 3 to 5 minutes. Paydentity(TM) has now onboarded and verified more than 1.5m persons to an AML KYC standard.
iSignthis Paydentity(TM) service is the trusted back office solution for regulated entities, allowing merchants to stay ahead of the regulatory curve, and focus on growing their core business. iSignthis' subsidiary, iSignthis eMoney Ltd, trades as ISXPay(R), and is an EEA authorised eMoney Monetary Financial Institution, offering card acquiring in the EEA, and Australia.
ISXPay(R) is a principal member of Mastercard Inc, Diners, Discover, (China) Union Pay International and JCB International, an American Express aggregator, and provides merchants with access to payments via alternative methods including SEPA, Poli Payments, Sofort, PRZ24 and others.
Probanx Solutions Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of iSignthis Ltd, provides API based access to CORE Banking solutions, SEPA Core, SEPA Instant and SEPA business scheme, for neobanks, banks, credit unions and emoney institutions, and provides a bridge to the Eurosystem's Central Bank of Lithuania's CENTROLink service.
Beef and sheep farms are needed for a new project which will help farmers across Britain improve management of their grassland.
Improving grassland management efficiency is a key driver of profitability on beef and sheep farms across the UK.
A recent study carried out by the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) showed that improving pasture utilisation by one tonne per hectare is worth an additional profit of 204 per hectare per year to a beef farm.
The initiative 'GrassCheckGB' aims to improve grassland productivity and pasture utilisation on beef and sheep farms through a new grassland performance monitoring network.
This will benchmark current and potential performance, support novel grassland research and encourage uptake of innovative grassland management practices such as pasture (grazing) management and nutrient budgeting.
Dr Liz Genever, AHDB Beef & Lamb Senior Scientist said: As the extent of the problems associated with the prolonged dry weather become increasingly apparent, a new opportunity is on the horizon to help minimise the impact of similar occurrences in the future.
The programme has been successfully implemented in Northern Ireland since 1999 and most recently the data has been used to offer evidence to the NI government on the magnitude of the impact of the drought and inform discussions on how much support the industry needs.
'GrassCheckGB'
The project will see levy bodies AHDB, Hybu Cig Cymru (HCC) and Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) partnering with the Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock (CIEL) and researchers at AFBI and Rothamsted Research.
CIEL is supporting the purchase of equipment on farms through funds from Innovate UK, the UKs Innovation Agency.
The GrassCheckGB project will monitor the growth and quality of pasture, make predictions of future growth and report this to the industry on a weekly basis.
The project is being part-funded from the 2 million fund of red meat levies ring-fenced for collaborative projects which is managed by the three meat levy bodies AHDB, HCC and QMS.
The ring-fenced fund is an interim arrangement while a long-term solution is sought on the issue of levies being collected at point of slaughter in England, for animals which have been reared in Scotland or Wales.
Lyndsay Chapman, CEO of CIEL, said: Its great to see this collaboration across the three industry bodies focused on supporting the beef and lamb sector combined with research expertise from AFBI and Rothamsted Research all recognise the importance of efficient pasture management for profitable and efficient ruminant livestock farming.
Weather station
Participant farmers will be required to measure grass each week throughout the grazing season, with regular grass samples taken for analysis.
Each of the pilot farms will have an automatic weather station installed, which will measure key metrological data such as temperature, rainfall and sunshine hours.
Farmers involved in the project will receive information on grassland productivity and utilisation, nutrient efficiency and performance of livestock from grass on their farm together with predictions of future pasture growth and quality.
Theyll also have the opportunity to discuss their grassland performance with pasture management experts and other farmers directly involved in the project.
Up to 25 beef or sheep farms are needed to kick-start the project. Applications to participate in GrassCheckGB are now being sought. Application forms and information packs can be downloaded from www.CIELivestock.co.uk
Members of Parliament have been urged to show their support for the agricultural industry next week on Back British Farming Day.
MPs will be joining the likes of the NFU and members of the public to show their support for British farming next week on Wednesday 12 September.
Politicians will be demonstrating their support for the industry by wearing a Back British Farming wheat-pin badge.
The badge is made from British wheat and wool to symbolise the importance of food and farming in Britain.
And for the first time, Westminster will be serving approximately 9,000 Back British Farming meals throughout the week in all its canteens to celebrate British food.
The NFU is now encouraging members of the public to join in the celebration and take to social media to show their support by using the hashtag #BackBritishFarming.
'Strategic importance'
NFU President, Minette Batters said the day is a "great opportunity" to celebrate the role farmers play in feeding the nation and caring for the countryside.
By wearing the wheat-pin badge politicians are not only showing their support for British food and farming but acknowledging that they have a part to play in shaping the future of domestic agriculture and food production, Mrs Batters said.
Decisions made in Parliament must reflect the strategic importance of the food and farming sector to the nation.1 With over 9,000 meals from the Back British Farming menu being served across the week to MPs, researchers, decision-makers and visitors, food and farming will be at the very centre of Westminster activity.
She added: Farming is the backbone of life in Britain and its only right that it is put at the forefront of future policy so farmers can continue to produce safe, traceable and affordable food for the country.
MPs are now being invited to the NFUs breakfast reception in Westminster on Back British Farming Day.
Farming is the bedrock of the UKs largest manufacturing sector, food and drink, which contributes 111 billion to the countrys economy and provides 3.8 million jobs.
The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike.
We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve.
2020 was a year marked by hardships and challenges, but the Fauquier community has proven resilient. The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you for your continued support, wed like to offer all our subscribers -- new or returning --
4 WEEKS FREE DIGITAL AND PRINT ACCESS.
We understand the importance of working to keep our community strong and connected. As we move forward together into 2021, it will take commitment, communication, creativity, and a strong connection with those who are most affected by the stories we cover.
We are dedicated to providing the reliable, local journalism you have come to expect. We are committed to serving you with renewed energy and growing resources. Let the Fauquier Times be your community companion throughout 2021, and for many years to come.
Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release
SubCategory Select Sub-Category
"How many people have to die before it's a matter of peace and security?" US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley asked Tuesday as she pushed for a meeting on Nicaragua, amid open division among diplomats regarding the need for a session.
Haley, who is United Nations Security Council president for this month, used her powers to schedule the meeting for Wednesday morning.
Central America Continents and regions Government organizations - Intl Latin America Nicaragua The Americas United Nations
In an open session of the Security Council on Tuesday, five countries opposed openly having a meeting on Nicaragua, saying the developments in the country did not rise to the level of a threat to international peace and security. The mission of the council is to defend that peace and security.
But Haley kept pressing, saying, "We don't want another Syria, another Venezuela." She said it's the responsibility of the Security Council to act.
In just over four months, at least 322 people have been killed, thousands injured, and hundreds detained as waves of anti-government protests and ensuing crackdowns have swept Nicaragua, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The official government death toll during the same period stands at 198.
Last week Nicaragua ordered a team of UN human rights experts to leave the country, which they did on September 1, according to a UN spokesman.
Human Rights Watch had urged the Security Council to call for the government of Nicaragua, led by President Daniel Ortega, a former revolutionary whose Sandinista rebels overthrew Nicaraguan strongman Anastasio Somoza in the 1970s, to end a crackdown on protesters and to dismantle armed gangs favoring the government. It is unclear if the council will be able to attain enough unity to produce a statement after the 10 a.m. session Wednesday.
Anti-government protests in Nicaragua began this spring with people frustrated over the government's response to a devastating wildfire in an area of protected tropical rain forest. Unrest spread and tensions worsened after a government decision in April to change the country's social security system. The changes increased contributions by workers and employers but reduced pensions for retired workers in the second-poorest country in the Western Hemipshere.
The government subsequently reversed the social security change, but the people continued to march, with authorities moving to stem the protests and violence escalating. At least 10 people were killed in the first few days of unrest.
Demonstrations by citizens, crackdowns by the country's National Police and armed paramilitary groups, and violence have marked the weeks since.
Shahid Kapoor & Mira Rajput blessed with BABY boy | FilmiBeat
It's time for celebration as Shahid Kapoor's dear wife, Mira Rajput, has delivered a baby boy at the Hinduja Hospital today (September 5, 2018). A couple of hours ago, Mira Rajput's mother was clicked exiting the hospital. The couple is extremely elated as they welcome their baby boy to their happy family. And we can't wait enough to have the glimpse of Misha's little brother. Filmibeat sends all our love and happy vibes to their way.
For the uninitiated, Shahid has also bought a new plush home in Mumbai for a whopping amount of Rs 56 crore. Talking about the same with The Hindustan Times, the actor mentioned how he wanted a bigger living space since his family is expanding now.
Shahid said, "It's true that I have looked at a new house and most probably, I will shift in by the end of next year. I need a bigger house now as my current place has just two bedrooms and very soon, Mira and I will have two kids, so I need to move into a bigger house."
Rishi Kapoor Says He & Neetu Like Alia Bhatt!
Talking about his second baby, he was quoted as saying, "Having a child is the most amazing feeling. And we are fortunate that we are having a second one so soon, so I feel happy and blessed about that. Family is always a big reason to work even harder. When you come back home to your family after work, it's a great feeling."
Dulquer Salmaan is busy with his projects in different languages. Most recently, we saw him in the film Karwaan, which marked his big Bollywood debut. The young and charismatic actor went on to make an impression in Bollywood as well with his fine performance in the movie, which won the hearts of many.
Now, the wait is on for Dulquer Salmaan's next big venture and if reports are to be believed, his next big release is expected to be the Tamil movie Kannum Kannum Kollaiyadithaal. Now, one of the stills from this upcoming movie has surfaced on the internet, and it is indeed a must see.
This brand new still from Kannum Kannum Kollaiyadithaal features Dulquer Salmaan and heroine Ritu Varma in it. The actor can be seen in a traditional avatar, wearing a kurta and dhoti. At the same time, Ritu Varma can be seen in a Kasavu saree.
Image Courtesy: Facebook
Well, going by the stills and the posters of Kannum Kannum Kollaiyadithaal, which have hit the online circuits so far, we can say that this upcoming movie of Dulquer Salmaan will be a special film for the audiences.
Meanwhile, the actor's next big release in Malayalam will be Oru Yamandan Premakadha. The shoot of the film has already commenced and the first schedule of the shoot was completed a few weeks ago.
Hina Pays Tribute To Her Father
"My father has been my biggest strength, inspiration and a mentor who has guided me through all phases of my life. From my childhood days to now, he has been instrumental in shaping my life. Making me chase my dreams, helping me in my career, bringing me back to the correct path, he has done it all! He always taught me to be myself' irrespective of the situation and people around me. He has never let me feel low for a longer time when things were going wrong. I aspire to be the person that he is someday."
Ekta Kapoor Has Been Anitas Guide
Actress Anita Hassanandani said, "Ekta Kapoor is more than just a great friend. She has been a mentor, an inspiration and a constant guiding light. In all ways possible, she has been like a teacher. Just like a good teacher, she has taught me morals and ethics alongside professionalism. All these have helped me shape into a better person."
Vivek Dahiya Thanks His Mentor
"My mentor is someone I met during my modelling days, in Chandigarh. He used to work in the marketing team but is a wise soul, Anil Kadian. He is a writer, a poet, and a philosopher. I fondly call him my lamp post. A lamp post is something that gives you light when there is darkness. He persuaded me to live my dream and move to Mumbai. In many ways, I am here doing everything, because he guided me well. If I get stuck in my important life decisions, I do turn to him and look up to him. He has a better insight on life, it's almost like talking to a guru!"
Vahbiz Dorabjees Mother Helped Her Shape Up Her Career
"My mom Firoza is my mentor and has the biggest hand in my career and success today. She recognized my dream at a very young age. She started moulding me and guiding me in that direction. If I come across any problem or I am down or out, it is my mother who I can look up to. I am very lucky actually at times I can't believe she is my mom. At times I feel like she is my sister or best friend."
Pooja Banerjee Thanks Her Husband For Mentoring Her
"My husband Sandeep Sejwal has been a great support and a mentor. He has motivated me to be a better person and helps me calm down when I get angry. He gives insight into the situation objectively and he is the one who motivates me to work hard and stay fit physically and mentally. He encourages me to give priority to my career as he is committed to his career as a swimmer. I am fortunate enough to find a teacher, mentor and friend in my husband. I have developed a huge amount of patience, thanks to Sandeep."
Ssharad Malhotras Mentor Helped Him Through His Rough Times
"Anant Patwa my guide, mentor, my friend, walked into my life a couple of years back when nothing was working out right, the cards were down, energy levels were down, when life seemed impossible, he held my hand and pulled me through one of the most tough phases of my life some time back. It was like a God sent messenger introduced to me by my best friend for which I thank him for till date. We all need mentors at different stages of life and I'm lucky to have found one. He taught me to always remain positive in life irrespective of the situation and love your parents the most, as no one can replace them."
(1) Performance results are presented on a gross and net-of-fees basis. Net returns reflect the deduction of, among other expenses, management fees, brokerage commissions, administrative fees, and accrued and/or crystallized performance fees, if any, and include the reinvestment of all dividends, interest, and capital gains. Net returns reflect the performance of the Company's Public Shares. Depending on the timing of an individual investor's specific investment, net performance for an individual investor may vary from the net performance as stated herein. Gross returns reflect the performance of the Company's shares in the aggregate and are presented before the deduction of management fees and performance fees, if any. In May 2018, the Company purchased and cancelled 22,271,714 Public Shares pursuant to the tender offer announced on April 25, 2018 (the "Tender Offer"). The positive impact on performance of the Tender Offer is reflected herein. Performance data and other information contained herein are estimated and unaudited. Net performance is a geometrically linked, time-weighted calculation.
(2) Reflects the number of positions in issuers in which the Company has previously publicly disclosed an investment, which occurs after the Company has completed its accumulation. Cash, cash equivalents, direct or indirect currency or other hedges and income/expense items are excluded. Multiple financial instruments (for example, common stock and derivatives on common stock) associated with one (1) issuer count as one (1) position. A position that is included in the number of positions will be removed from the table only if the investment becomes 0.0% of the portfolio.
(3) For the purpose of determining the equity and debt exposures, investments are valued as follows: (a) equity or debt is valued at market value, (b) options referencing equity or debt are valued at market value, (c) long call options and short put options (or vice-versa, short call options and long put options) held on the same underlying issuer and with the same strike and same expiry are grouped together and treated as synthetic equity positions, and are valued at the market value of the equivalent long equity position (or vice-versa, the equivalent short equity position), and (d) swaps or forwards referencing equity or debt are valued at the market value of the notional equity or debt underlying the swaps or forwards. Whether a position is deemed to be long or short is determined by whether an investment has positive or negative exposure to price increases or decreases. For example, long puts are deemed to be short exposure.
(4) Includes all issuer equity, debt, and derivatives related to issuer equity and debt, and associated currency hedges. Cash, cash equivalents, direct or indirect currency or other hedges and income/expense items are excluded. The market values of associated currency hedges are included as part of the associated investment. In the event that there is a change in market cap category with respect to any non-publicly disclosed position, this information is not updated until such position is publicly disclosed.
(5) Portfolio composition is reflective of the publicly disclosed portfolio positions as of the date of this report. A position in an issuer is only assigned to a sector once it has been publicly disclosed.
(6) "Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. AUM" equals the assets under management of Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. Any performance fees crystallized as of the end of the year will be reflected in the following period's AUM.
(7) "Total Strategy AUM" equals the aggregate assets under management of Pershing Square, L.P., Pershing Square International, Ltd., Pershing Square II, L.P. and Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (collectively, the "Core Funds"). Redemptions effective as of the end of any period (including redemptions attributable to crystallized performance fees/allocations, if any) will be reflected in the following period's AUM.
(8) "Total Firm AUM" is the aggregate of Total Strategy AUM and the assets under management of Pershing Square VI Master, L.P. which operates as a co-investment vehicle investing primarily in securities of (or otherwise seeking to be exposed to the value of securities issued by) Automatic Data Processing, Inc. ("PSVI") without double counting investments by any Core Fund in PSVI.
MELBOURNE, Australia, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A new Israel-Australia research centre involving a major collaboration with Monash University will be officially launched today in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The Sagol Center for Epigenetics of Metabolism and Aging cements the relationship between Monash University and the Tel Aviv Medical Center, Israel's largest health institution, where the centre will be based. The initiative was made possible by the generosity of the Sagol family in Israel and is the vision of philanthropist Sami Sagol.
It is part of a collaboration that began last year, and will embed scientists from Monash's Department of Diabetes, while Israeli scientists will be trained at Monash.
Paul Zimmet AO, Professor of Diabetes at Monash, will become the centre's Co-director (honorary) with Professor Naftali Stern, Director of the Institute of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Hypertension at Tel Aviv Medical Center.
Epigenetics, a burgeoning new field, refers to changes in the genetic material surrounding genes that are induced by the environment.
Professor Zimmet, an international leader in diabetes research, believes some of these translate into adult disorders such as ageing, obesity and type 2 diabetes and may be passed down between generations or acquired during a lifetime.
"If you think of type 2 diabetes, for example, everyone thinks it's all genetic," Professor Zimmet said.
"But only about 20 per cent of risk of type 2 diabetes has been shown to be associated with genes. There's a whole belief now that the role of environment makes up a considerable part of that risk."
The centre will aim to reveal epigenetic changes in body organs that contribute to ageing and disease, attempt to discover which changes are experimentally reversible then strive to develop practical therapies to reverse such changes to delay ageing and diseases such as type 2 diabetes.
It is part of a network of research centres established in academic and medical centres by the Sagol family, focusing on the advancement of research on longevity and quality of life.
Ambassador of Israel to Australia, Mark Sofer said the project catapults Australian-Israeli scientific medical collaboration into a new era.
"One cannot commend highly enough the initiative of the Sagol Family and the amazing professionalism of Professors Paul Zimmet and Mark Cooper and their team at Monash University in Melbourne and of Professor Naftali Stern and his team at the Tel Aviv Medical Center," Mr Sofer said.
Victorian Minister for Innovation and the Digital Economy, Philip Dalidakis, said it was wonderful to see Monash University spreading its knowledge and expertise all over the world.
"Monash is a world leader in medical research and we're proud to see this great University collaborating with other world leaders and further strengthening our relationship with Tel Aviv," Mr Dalidakis said.
The initiative was made possible by the generosity of the Sagol family in Israel and is the vision of philanthropist Sami Sagol.
"Sami Sagol is a visionary philanthropist and a strong believer in the interchange of information and research between nations to strengthen relations between nations, as well as to improve scientific knowledge," Professor Zimmet said.
"We are now trying to raise funds from Australian philanthropic donors here to further support the Monash side of the program."
Dignitaries attending the opening include:
Professor Ronni Gamzu , Director General, Tel Aviv Medical Center
, Director General, Tel Aviv Medical Center Mr Ron Huldai , Mayor of Tel Aviv
, Mayor of Mr Chris Cannan , Australian Ambassador to Israel
, Australian Ambassador to Mr Yuval Rotem , Director General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the former Israeli Ambassador to Australia
, Director General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the former Israeli Ambassador to Mr Ken Ryan AM Agent to the United Kingdom Commissioner to Europe and Israel
Commissioner to and Professor Naftali Stern , Director of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Hypertension, Tel Aviv Medical Center
, Director of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Hypertension, Tel Aviv Medical Center Professor Paul Zimmet AO, Monash University and Honorary President, International Diabetes Federation
Professor Mark Cooper AO, Head of Department of Diabetes, Monash University
Professor Stephen Jane , Head of Monash University's Central Clinical School
, Head of Monash University's Central Clinical School Professor Sam El-Osta , Department of Diabetes, Monash University. Professor El-Osta, recognised internationally for his work in epigenetics, will play a large role in overseeing the research
The Monash professors, and scientists from Tel Aviv University, will speak at a scientific symposium held after the opening ceremony.
Professor Stephen Jane said, "This represents a wonderful opportunity for Monash University to establish meaningful collaborations with Tel Aviv Medical Center and Tel Aviv University, further enriching the rich relationships between Israel and Australia. Professors Zimmet and Cooper have been instrumental in this process, and further discovery into the causation of diabetes through the study of epigenetics has enormous therapeutic potential."
-ENDS-
MEDIA ENQUIRIES
Tel Aviv, Israel
Professor Paul Zimmet AO
Contact details: +61 439 651 502 or Paul.Zimmet@monash.edu
Australia
Media, Monash University
Contact details: +61 3 9903 4840 or media@monash.edu
For more Monash media stories, visit our news and events site
Looking for a Monash expert? Search Expertline
AUD $100 million Guaranteed Financing for the Port of Brisbane a Significant Transaction for Assured Guaranty in the Australian Market
Assured Guaranty (Europe) plc (AGE)* announced that it guaranteed principal and interest payments on $100 million Australian dollars of bonds issued by QPH Finance Co Pty Limited, the primary bond issuer for the Port of Brisbane in Australia. The bond issuance is to refinance existing facilities and for general corporate purposes at the Port of Brisbane.
The 25-year fixed-rate bonds were recently issued to a group of South Korean investors, of which DB Life Insurance Co., Ltd was the largest single investor, at a coupon of 4.71% as a private placement. AGE's credit protection was provided on a secondary market basis for the ultimate benefit of those investors, simultaneously with the bond issuance. As a result of the financial guarantee provided by AGE, the investors were able to benefit from AGE's AA rating from S&P Global Ratings.
The Port of Brisbane is the largest multi-cargo port in the state of Queensland.
Dominic Nathan, Managing Director, AGE, commented:
"This is a significant transaction for AGE in the Australian market, and our first new deal in Australia since the global financial crisis. We are delighted to have marked our return by guaranteeing a debt issuance by the operators of such a vitally important piece of infrastructure as the Port of Brisbane. We expect to replicate our success on this transaction with other Australian infrastructure or utility companies that seek to take advantage of our long term and cost-effective funding solution."
Nick Proud, Chief Executive Officer of AGE, commented:
"The transaction provides evidence of AGE's ability to innovate and add value in new markets. Our credit analysis and risk monitoring expertise across a number of jurisdictions and asset classes, coupled with the significant regulatory capital savings generated by AGE's credit protection, facilitates the participation of investors in Asia in the international infrastructure and utility debt capital markets. This ultimately opens up a new universe of potential investors for issuers like the Port of Brisbane."
AGE guarantees timely payment of scheduled principal and interest to bondholders throughout the life of the bonds, in accordance with the terms of its financial guarantees.
The legal advisers of AGE on the transaction were White Case (Sydney) and Linklaters (London). Sydney based DTW Capital Solutions provided financial advice and Allen Overy provided legal advice to the investors.
IMPORTANT NOTICE
All of the securities having been sold, this announcement is for information purposes only. This announcement does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities.
The securities described herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended ("Securities Act"), or with any securities regulatory authority of any state or jurisdiction of the United States, and may not be offered, sold or transferred, directly or indirectly, in the United States absent registration under the Securities Act or an available exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and the securities laws of any state or other jurisdiction of the United States.
AGE (company number 2510099) is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. AGE provides its financial guarantee together with a co-guarantee from its affiliate Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp. (AGM
Through its subsidiaries, Assured Guaranty Ltd. (AGL and, together with its subsidiaries, Assured Guaranty) is the leading provider of financial guarantees for principal and interest payments due on municipal, public infrastructure and structured financings. Its subsidiary AGM guarantees international infrastructure and U.S. municipal bonds and was previously named Financial Security Assurance Inc. (FSA) before becoming an Assured Guaranty company in July 2009. AGE, a subsidiary of AGM, is Assured Guaranty's European operating platform. AGL is a publicly traded (NYSE: AGO), Bermuda-based holding company. More information on AGL and its subsidiaries can be found at AssuredGuaranty.com.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:
Any forward-looking statements made in this press release reflect Assured Guaranty's current views with respect to future events and are made pursuant to the safe harbour provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in these statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those resulting from Assured Guaranty's inability to execute its strategies; the demand for Assured Guaranty's financial guarantees; further actions that the rating agencies may take with respect to Assured Guaranty's financial strength ratings; adverse developments in Assured Guaranty's guaranteed portfolio; and other risks and uncertainties that have not been identified at this time, management's response to these factors, and other risk factors identified in AGL's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are made as of September 5, 2018. Assured Guaranty undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005777/en/
Contacts:
Assured Guaranty
Robert Tucker, +1-212-339-0861
Senior Managing Director, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
rtucker@agltd.com
or
Ashweeta Durani, +1-212-408-6042
Vice President, Corporate Communications
adurani@agltd.com
2018, a year of transition towards state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities
Good Progress of Transformation 2020, in line with the Group's roadmap
Results temporarily impacted by start-up costs of new manufacturing plants and roll-out of the Transformation 2020 plan
Sustained sales momentum
INCOME STATEMENT
All of the figures presented in this press release were prepared under IFRS. The 2017 financial statements restated for the application of IFRS 15 are presented hereunder.
In million H1 2018 H1 2017 restated1 Revenues 320.8 350.4 Recurring EBITDA2 20.9 46.5 Recurring operating income (EBIT) 7.1 33.2 % of sales 2.2% 9.5% Non-recurring operating income/(expense) 0.8 (1.3) Operating income 8.0 31.8 Net interest expense (1.7) (3.8) Other financial income/(expense) (3.3) 24.1 Net financial income/(expense) (5.0) 20.3 Income tax (0.1) (13.7) Net income 2.8 38.5
Restated for the application of IFRS 15, effective as of 1 January 2018
2 Recurring EBITDA = Recurring operating income + Depreciation and amortisation of tangible and intangible assets
The financial statements for first half 2018 were approved by the Board of Directors at its meeting on 4 September 2018, the statements having been the subject of a limited review by the statutory auditors.
Revenues mainly impacted by currency effects
The Latecoere Group's first half 2018 revenues amounted to 320.8 million, down 8.5% as reported compared to the same period in 2017, significantly impacted by the depreciation of the US dollar. At constant exchange rates, Latecoere posted a 2.9% decrease in revenues in the first half, having no impact on forecasts for the year.
Aerostructures Division's revenues, down 8.3% at constant exchange rates (-13.8% based on reported data), mainly reflects the slowdown in production on the Embraer E1 program. The slowdowns announced in the A330 and A380 programs, seasonal A320 deliveries and the drop in contractual prices also contributed to the shift in pace in this division.
The Interconnection Systems division posted growth of 5.2% at constant exchange rates (-0.3% based on reported data). The decline in A380 invoicing and price impacts were largely offset by the contribution of new contracts signed in 2017, including the Mitsubishi Aircraft MRJ contract.
As a reminder, although a portion of the revenues is sensitive to the $ fluctuation, the Group's result is hedged, either naturally via purchases in $ and a global production network, or via hedging instruments.
Yearly /$ Hedging of the Group:
2018 2019 2020 Hedge in $ million 390 429 345 Hedged /$ rate 1.16 1.18 1.24
Temporary decline in profitability
In line with expectations, the Group's EBIT amounted to 7.1 million in the first half of 2018, down from 33.2 million in 2017.
In million Revenues Recurring EBITDA Recurring operating income (EBIT) H1 2018 H1 2017 restated1 H1 2018 H1 2017 restated1 H1 2018 H1 2017 Restated1 Aerostructures 182.5 211.8 2.6 24.7 (3.8) 18.5 Interconnection Systems 138.2 138.6 18.2 21.6 10.9 14.6 Total 320.8 350.4 20.9 46.5 7.1 33.2
Restated for the application of IFRS 15, effective as of 1 January
Profitability in the two business lines suffered from the worsening /$ exchange rate. For the Aerostructures Division, the decline is also linked to revisions in contractual pricing, the decrease in Embraer business volumes and temporary adjustments related to the launch of two new production sites. In addition, the division incurs extra costs related to the default of a major supplier. Its replacement which consists mainly of internalizing the production of primary parts, will be completed by the end of 2018.
Actions undertaken in 2017 (the social plan in France, transfer of production sites and reduction in procurement costs) enable these price revisions to be offset. As a result of these actions, margins on certain programs will continue to improve over the coming months.
Non-recurring expenses mainly consist of start-up costs at new manufacturing plants in Montredon and Bulgaria, resourcing activities, and the roll-out of the Transformation plan. Due to the recognition of capital gains generated by the sale of the first tranche of the Toulouse-Periole site, non-recurring income amounted to 0.8 million, up from an expense of 1.3 million one year earlier.
Debt expense decreased considerably following the financial restructuring undertaken at the end of 2017. A net financial expense of 5 million was recorded after accounting for the revaluation of balance sheet items and derivatives.
Net income amounted to 2.8 million (compared to 38.5 million in first half 2017).
One-off investments in competitive capabilities to drive future growth
The Group has ramped up its investment strategy and invested in safety stock to implement the Transformation plan under the best conditions and to ensure timely client deliveries. Accordingly, free cash flow from operations has temporarily resulted in a negative position of 28.3 million at 30 June 2018, including non-recurring income of 17.8 million. These items include expenditure related to the social plan (Plan de Sauvegarde de l'Emploi) and investments for the new manufacturing plants.
Update on the Transformation 2020 plan
The Group's Transformation 2020 plan is in full swing and advancing according to schedule. Over the first half of 2018, key milestones in the ramp-up of its manufacturing capabilities were achieved:
at the end of June 2018, 172 departures or job reclassifications were carried out, out of the 233 positions impacted by the French social plan, with the remainder scheduled to take place before year end;
construction completed and launch of production at the Plovdiv manufacturing plant in Bulgaria;
construction completed and launch of production at the Montredon manufacturing plant in France;
reorganisation of Group manufacturing employees, two-thirds of which are now based in best-cost countries.
Meanwhile, the Toulouse-Periole facility transfer is progressing; the first tranche has been sold and demolition works have begun. Agreements for the sale of the two remaining tranches have also been signed.
In addition to manufacturing plant transfers, the Group has launched procurement and redesign-to-cost projects, which will enable the Group to attain total cost reductions of more than 30 million per year by 2020.
Business momentum
The Transformation 2020 plan will endow the Group with competitive state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, and upon completion of the plan the Group will be in prime position to pitch for new platforms that will be developed in the future.
Benefiting from strong business momentum in the Interconnection Systems division, the Latecoere Group continues to increase its market share in 2018 and support its clients, as demonstrated by the recent launch of a new site in India.
On 23 august, 2018, the Group signed a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Future Aerospace Industry, based in Chengdu, Sichuan, and Taigui Application Technology based in Shanghai to create a Joint Venture, which primary objective is to win aerostructures contracts, and specifically doors on China airplane programs, including Comac Future Wide body.
China is the first commercial aviation market in the world. The country has the ambition to become an aerospace leader and has the financial and human resources to succeed. With this JV, the Group is opening the door of Chinese programs, that will grow in the future, but also of offset markets which generally come along the aircraft contracts that Latecoere traditional customers win in China.
2018 and 2019 outlook
The effects of the Transformation plan will pick up in the second half of 2018, with an expected improvement in the operating margin rate and free cash flow from operations to swing back to a positive position.
In 2019, efforts to reduce costs will be stepped up and should enable operating income to return to 2017 levels.
Pierre Gadonneix, Chairman of the Latecoere Board of Directors, said: "The Group has structured itself to invest in long-term initiatives and 2018 is characterized by non-recurring expenses. Restoring Latecoere to its full potential will enable the Group to sustain profitable growth."
Yannick Assouad, Group CEO, made the following comments: "2018 is a pivotal year for Latecoere's Transformation plan, and it is a period of major investments. We are on the right track and remain confident in our ability to implement initiatives that will contribute to the Group's success. The significant commercial successes of the Interconnection Systems division have been confirmed and will continue over the coming months. At the same time, we are continuing our efforts to diversify our programs in the Aerostructures division."
Next release: Q3 2018 revenues, 24 October 2018 after market close
About Latecoere
Latecoere is a tier 1 partner to major international aircraft manufacturers (Airbus, Embraer, Dassault, Boeing and Bombardier), in all segments of the aeronautical market (commercial, regional, corporate and military aircraft), specializing in two fields:
Aerostructures (61% of total revenue): fuselage sections and doors.
Interconnexion systems (39% of total revenue): onboard wiring, electrical harnesses and avionics bays.
At 31 December 2017, Latecoere employed 4,451 people in 10 different countries. Latecoere, a French corporation (societe anonyme) with capital of 188 789 804 divided into 94,744,952 shares with a par value of 2 per share, is listed on Euronext Paris - Compartment B. ISIN codes: FR0000032278 - Reuters: LAEP.PA - Bloomberg: LAT.FP
Latecoere
Sebastien Rouge / Chief Financial Officer
Tel.: +33 (0)5 61 58 77 00
sebastien.rouge@latecoere.aero Actus finance & communication
Corinne Puissant / Investor Relations
Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 77 - cpuissant@actus.fr
Anne-Catherine Bonjour / Media Relations
Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 93 - acbonjour@actus.fr
APPENDICE
Definitive restatement of historical data under IFRS 15
Reconciliation of key indicators
( million) 30-Jun-17 Reported IFRS 15 impact Restated Revenue 348.8 1.6 350.4 Adjusted recurring operating income 33.1 n/a n/a Recurring operating income 15.8 17.4 32.2 Adjusted operating income 31.8 n/a n/a Operating income 14.4 17.4 31.8 ( million) 31-Dec-17 Reported IFRS 15 impact Restated Revenue 652.5 4.9 657.4 Adjusted recurring operating income 51.1 n/a n/a Recurring operating income 21.7 30.2 51.9 Adjusted operating income 41.1 n/a n/a Operating income 11.7 30.2 41.9
After application of IFRS 15, restated recurring operating income (EBIT) becomes close to the adjusted recurring operating income.
Impact of the application of IFRS 15 on economic performance measures
Until 31 December 2017, the Group reported consolidated IFRS financial statements and, in parallel, published an adjusted income statement which included as main alternative performance indicator the "adjusted recurring operating income" (strictly non-accounting in nature).
The application of IFRS 15, as of 1 January 2018, led the Group to no longer recognize extra production costs or the early phase of the contract (curve) on the balance sheet. As a reminder, these costs were expensed when decrease in production costs were actually observed.
As a consequence, adjusted recurring operating income presented until 31 December 2017 is close to recurring operating income under IFRS 15.
The Group therefore no longer considers it necessary to present adjusted financial statements.
Impact of the application of IFRS 15 on 2017 revenues by operating segment and quarter
( million) Q1 2017 Reported IFRS 15 impact Restated Aerostructures 102.1 0.0 102.1 Interconnection Systems 70.5 2.0 72.5 Total revenues 172.6 2.0 174.6 ( million) Q2 2017 Reported IFRS 15 impact Restated Aerostructures 109.7 0.0 109.7 Interconnection Systems 66.5 -0.3 66.2 Total revenues 176.2 -0.3 175.8 ( million) Q3 2017 Reported IFRS 15 impact Restated Aerostructures 92.4 0.0 92.4 Interconnection Systems 52.2 1.5 53.7 Total revenues 144.6 1.5 146.1 ( million) Q4 2017 Reported IFRS 15 impact Restated Aerostructures 92.8 0.0 92.8 Interconnection Systems 66.3 1.8 68.1 Total revenues 159.1 1.8 160.9
H1 2017 income statement adjusted for IFRS 15
( million) 30-Jun-17 Reported IFRS 15 impact Restated Revenue 348.8 1.6 350.4 Recurring EBITDA1 40.6 5.9 46.5 Recurring operating income 15.8 17.4 33.2 as % of revenue 4.5% 9.5% Non-recurring operating income and expenses -1.3 -1.3 Operating income 14.4 17.4 31.8 Cost of net financial debt -3.8 -3.8 Other financial debt 24.1 24.1 Financial income 20.3 0.0 20.3 Income tax -13.7 -13.7 Net result for the period from continuing operations 21.1 17.4 38.5
1 Recurring EBITDA = Recurring operating income + Depreciation and amortisation of tangible and intangible assets
FY 2017 income statement adjusted for IFRS 15
( million) 31-Dec-17 Reported IFRS 15 impact Restated Revenue 652.5 4.9 657.4 Recurring EBITDA1 65.9 12.6 78.4 Recurring operating income 21.7 30.2 51.9 as % of revenue 3.3% 7.9% Non-recurring operating income and expenses -10.0 -10.0 Operating income 11.7 30.2 41.9 Cost of net financial debt -8.0 -8.0 Other financial debt 16.4 16.4 Financial income 8.5 0.0 8.5 Income tax -16.6 -16.6 Net result for the period from continuing operations 3.6 30.2 33.8
1 Recurring EBITDA = Recurring operating income + Depreciation and amortisation of tangible and intangible assets
Operating Segment information restated for IFRS 15 - at 30 June 2017 and 31 December 2017
( million) 30-Jun-17 Reported adjusted data Restated IFRS
data Change Aerostructures 17.1 18.5 1.3 Interconnection Systems 15.8 14.6 -1.3 Intersegment elim. 0.1 0.1 0.0 Recurring operating income 33.1 33.2 0.0 ( million) 31-Dec-17 Reported adjusted data Restated IFRS
data Change Aerostructures 24.7 26.8 2.1 Interconnection Systems 26.1 24.8 -1.3 Intersegment elim. 0.3 0.3 0.0 Recurring operating income 51.1 51.9 0.8
Simplified balance sheet restated for IFRS 15 at 31 December 2017
( million) 31-Dec-17 Reported Restated Change Intangible and tangible assets 97.2 217.4 120.2 a) Inventories 363.3 162.1 -201.1 b) Accounts receivable 151.1 152.9 1.7 Tax receivable 19.4 19.4 0.0 Financial derivative instruments 41.0 41.0 0.0 Other assets 8.2 8.2 0.0 Cash & Cash Equivalents 142.0 142.0 0.0 Total assets 822.1 742.9 -79.2 Equity 436.6 294.6 -142.2 c) Loans and bank borrowings 122.2 122.2 0.0 Refundable Advances 45.2 45.2 0.0 Provisions & Employee benefits 39.8 41.9 2.1 Accounts payable 151.9 151.9 0.0 Contracts liabilities 0.0 60.7 60.7 d) Other liabilities 26.4 26.4 0.0 Total Equity & Liabilities 822.1 742.9 -79.2
a) Reclassification of development costs (NRC "Non-recurring cost") from "Inventories and WIP" to "Intangible & Tangible assets"
b) Corresponds to:
The impact of the cancellation of WIP "Non-recurring" costs on equity relating to the curve. amounting to
144 million
144 million Reclassification of WIP "Non-recurring" items relating to development costs (NRC "Non-recurring cost") of
120.2 million
120.2 million Reclassification of WIP "Non-recurring" items relating to payments received from customers in respect of development costs of 60.7 million
c) Mainly corresponds to the cancellation of WIP "Non-recurring" costs relating to the curve of 144 million
d) Corresponds to payments received from customers relating to development costs
------------------------
Copyright Actusnews Wire
Receive by email the next press releases of the company by registering on www.actusnews.com, it's free
Full and original release in PDF format:https://www.actusnews.com/documents_communiques/ACTUS-0-54837-lat-communique-de-presse-h1-2018-vdef-vuk.pdf
ARLINGTON, Virginia, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Knowland, the industry leader in market intelligence for hotels, venues, and convention and visitor bureaus, today announced Erika Bucsi has joined the company as the enterprise director of sales in Europe. In her new role, Erika will be leading sales and customer success activities in the European market, which is also supported by sales veteran Mattia Melillo and Betty Huang, a dedicated service manager.
Erika joins Knowland as the company increases its footprint in Europe. Recognized as an industry innovator, Knowland has significantly expanded its product offerings in the last 18 months by introducing a series of next-generation, analytics-based solutions that help customers find, evaluate, pitch, and win the best groups and meetings business. Combining the release of these new products with a series of several strategic acquisitions, Knowland is poised to accelerate their European operations and undergo rapid expansion.
With more than a decade of hospitality experience, Erika brings a wealth of industry knowledge to her new position. Most recently, she served as regional director of sales in Europe for Cvent, where she oversaw sales of Cvent Hospitality Cloud solutions for MICE and Business Transient (formerly Lanyon) to new prospects, while managing an impressive roster of existing accounts. Prior to Cvent, Erika was the regional sales manager in Central Europe for Amadeus Hospitality, a leading technology provider for global hospitality organizations and proud partner of Knowland.
Tracking group activity at more than 7100 venues in 200 of the busiest markets in the world, Knowland has amassed the industry's largest database of actualized events, including more than 15 million events across nearly a million organizations. Knowland started gathering data in Europe in 2011 and today collects event details from 436 properties across 29 markets in Europe and the Middle East alone. Powerful analytical and predictive technology queries this database to deliver customers a steady flow of pre-qualified leads fitting their need periods, to automatically score and prioritize inbound leads that are a best fit for a property, and to provide sales teams with deep account insights that can be leveraged to deliver winning sales pitches.
"It's a thrilling time to join Knowland given the innovative products they have recently introduced and the acceleration of their adoption in the European market," said Erika. "I am excited to introduce the hospitality community to these amazing solutions and to show sales teams how they can truly sell smarter and capture a competitive edge with Knowland's products."
Erika is well versed in the challenges and opportunities facing group sales leaders in hotels today. She previously led conference and event sales, revenue, and strategy for leading hospitality organizations, including Accor Hotels, Park Plaza Hotels Europe and Hilton Hotels. Erika also participated in special projects throughout her time in hotels, such as new openings, team restructures, system implementations and integrations.
"Erika brings deep knowledge of hospitality technology, as well as years of hands-on group sales and revenue management experience to Knowland. As a result, she is uniquely able to provide our customers with phenomenal insight into how they can optimize their group sales processes and maximize revenue by partnering with us," commented Tim Hart, chief executive officer of Knowland. "Her experience and connections will be instrumental as we expand our presence in Europe and we are delighted to welcome her to our team."
Erika studied hotel management at MODUL, the Hospitality University in Vienna (Austria). She is passionate about triathlon, diving, and animal welfare, and fundraises for organizations like the World Wildlife Fund and Cats Protection in her free time.
About Knowland
Knowland enables hotel properties, hotel brands, management companies, CVBs, and other meeting venues to achieve their group sales goals by delivering deep market intelligence and innovative technology. By combining powerful analytics with the industry's largest historical database of actualized events, we deliver insights that drive more revenue, accelerate the sales cycle, and optimize processes. See why thousands of organizations trust our solutions to sell smarter and maximize their revenue. To learn more, please visit knowland.com or call 202-312-5880.
TURKU, Finland, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
Forendo Commences Phase Ia Study for FOR-6219 for Endometriosis
Forendo Pharma, a clinical stage drug development company focusing on novel treatments in women's health, today announces that it has raised an additional 4 million of funding from Vesalius Biocapital III Partners (Vesalius III). This is in addition to the 12 million Series A financing in 2014 and 5,7 million R&D loans granted by Business Finland since 2014. Vesalius III joins the existing international investor syndicate comprising Novo Seeds, Karolinska Development, Novartis Venture Fund, M Ventures and Innovestor. Stephane Verdood, Managing Partner from Vesalius III, joins Forendo Pharma's Board of Directors.
The financing will enable Forendo Pharma to accelerate the development of its innovative women's health portfolio. The Company also announced today that its lead program FOR-6219, a HSD17B1 inhibitor for the treatment of endometriosis, has commenced a Phase Ia study focusing on safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics. The first women participating in the study have been dosed. FOR-6219 is a novel, oral, tissue-specific treatment for endometriosis, which is expected to have no impact on systemic hormone levels. Forendo Pharma's second program, a dual HSD inhibitor for the treatment of broader gynecological conditions is currently in preclinical discovery.
Endometriosis is a chronic condition that affects up to 10% of women in reproductive age and causes repeated pain symptoms, infertility and impaired quality of life. Currently available treatments for endometriosis have limitations in efficacy or cause harmful side effects, due to estrogen depletion.
Risto Lammintausta, CEO of Forendo Pharma, said: "We are very pleased to welcome Vesalius III as a new shareholder and Stephane to our Board of Directors. The investment from Vesalius III, which has a successful track record in backing women's health companies, is strong endorsement of our growing women's health portfolio and the compelling clinical treatment and business opportunities Forendo Pharma has to offer."
Stephane Verdood, Managing Partner fromVesalius III,added: "Forendo Pharma is developing truly novel therapies that have the potential to transform the treatment of endometriosis, a disease that affects tens of millions of women across the globe. We look forward to joining the experienced management team and investor syndicate to help Forendo Pharma accelerate development of its women's health pipeline."
About Forendo Pharma
Forendo Pharma is a privately held drug development company, with core competences in modulating tissue specific hormone mechanisms. The company was founded in 2013 by leading academic endocrinology experts and Finnish drug development pioneers. Forendo is supported by strong international investors: Novo Seeds, Karolinska Development, Novartis Venture Fund, M Ventures, Innovestor and now Vesalius Biocapital III Partners. The company's pipeline includes HSD17B1 inhibitor (phase I) for the treatment of endometriosis; dual HSD inhibitors (discovery) for the treatment of broader gynecological conditions; and Fispemifene (phase 2), a novel SERM for the treatment of male urological conditions. Further information is available at www.forendo.com.
About Vesalius Biocapital Partners
Vesalius Biocapital Partners (Vesalius), the specialist life sciences venture capital investor, has supported companies active in human health through venture capital funds since 2007. In the ten years since inception, Vesalius has raised over 150 million in its first two funds, Vesalius Biocapital I and II, and contributed in the development of over 20 companies.
The investment portfolio is well balanced between drug development and non-drug development investments and committed to providing capital to science-backed innovation and ambitious entrepreneurs, with a strong focus on exit within five years.
The specialist team of Vesalius Biocapital III Partners consists of seasoned life science professionals with healthcare industry, corporate finance and strategy consulting experience, supporting companies through their growth cycle. The team is based in Europe and the USA to explore investment opportunities and valuation potential for the portfolio. For more information: fund3.vesaliusbiocapital.com
BERLIN, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
ZenMate (https://www.zenmate.com), the leading VPN service provider owned by the internet security and privacy company ZenGuard GmbH, celebrates reaching 45 million installs of their flagship product - ZenMate VPN. The international success of the German security startup is driven by the rising need for online privacy and security measures in current times.
"Reaching 45 million installs is a major milestone for ZenMate. ZenMate built its success thanks to its users and is continuing to do so. With the introduction of the Free VPN tier we have seen a rising interest in ZenMate, especially from emerging markets. The number of installs, signups, and visits to our website has spiked since the introduction. With our free plugins for Chrome, Opera and Firefox, users around the world are able to access any content they want securely and privately without compromising their security" says Andrei Mochola, ZenMate's CEO.
To celebrate this major milestone, ZenMate VPN is currently offering a significant 45% discount on all its paid subscription plans, including the brand new Ultimate tier, which introduced the support of OpenVPN. This exclusive offer will last until end of September 2018.
"We are extremely happy about being able to help users from all around the world. 45 million is a large number, but we don't plan to stop. Our next objective is to expand our distribution channels and proceed with a geographical expansion. There are still a lot of people out there who need our help." adds Jorn Stampehl, the CTO of ZenMate.
ZenMate is currently preparing to offer language support in Bahasa Indonesian and Brazilian Portuguese, which will be launched soon, followed by Arabic. This is a natural step in ZenMate's user acquisition strategy focusing on leading VPN markets.
According to Global Web Index, the usage of VPNs is steadily rising, with every fourth internet user connecting through an encrypted connection. The study also shows that emerging markets lead the VPN usage - with Indonesia taking the top spot.
- Cross reference: Picture is available at AP Images (http://www.apimages.com) -
About ZenGuard GmbH and ZenMate
Founded in 2013 in Berlin, ZenGuard GmbH (https://www.zenmate.com) provides a multi-platform security software that encrypts and secures user's internet connection and protects their privacy while browsing. With its ZenMate VPN flagship privacy service, ZenGuard prevents snoopers, hackers, governments, and ISPs from spying on user's web browsing activities, downloads, credit card information, and more. With over 30 global server locations and more than 45 million installs, ZenMate is one of the world's leading VPNs.
For further Press inquiries:
ZenGuard GmbH
Ritterstrae 12-14
10969 Berlin, Germany
+49-30-29009404
press@zenguard.org
Related Links
https://www.zenmate.com
Candidates for the California District 1 Congressional seat plan to attend two public events ahead of the November election.
Representative Doug LaMalfa agreed to attend two campaign forums against his opponent, Audrey Denney.
The League of Women Voters will host the forums. Both candidates will be asked the same questions and be given time to answer.
The first is in Shasta County on Sunday, Sept. 16. It's happening from from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Anderson New Tech Senior High School, located at 2098 North Street, in Anderson.
The second is in Plumas County on Monday, Sept. 17. The candidates will square off from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Graeagle Fire Hall. It's located at 7620 Highway 89, in Graeagle.
Organizers say all are welcome, but to get there early, as space is limited.
These are the only two opportunities to see the candidates together, answering the same questions, ahead of the November 6 election.
A representative for Rep. LaMalfa says the Butte County League of Women Voters requested a third campaign forum, but the Congressman has a conflict of interest between the forum date and his travels to Washington D.C.
LONDON, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
AmanaPRO delivers state of the art start-your-own-brokerage packages to clients worldwide
Leading financial brokerage firm Amana Capital has announced today the rollout of its new service, AmanaPRO (http://www.amanapro.com). The company's product portfolio is expanding into the institutional space as the firm capitalizes on its award-winning technology and customer service to deliver its brand new product to the market.
(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/739451/AmanaPRO_Logo.jpg )
AmanaPRO is offering both MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 alongside a Multi-Terminal to cater to the needs of institutional clients. Brokerages have access to a host of options when it comes to selecting a tailor-made package that suits their needs. With a risk-management solution from Centroid, the customers get high-level control of their book, and a choice between dealing desk, straight-through processing and hybrid models of execution.
Aside from a fully customizable offering that includes trading platforms, liquidity, connectivity, risk management and hosting, AmanaPRO provides brokers with a range of business consultation services. The turnkey solution enables broker clients to focus on building up a loyal client base, while the technological expertise of Amana Capital handles the rest.
From a client management system with an award-winning customer service help desk and an introducing broker's portal, to top tier liquidity, AmanaPRO delivers to its clients a high-quality brokerage-in-a-box solution.
Ahmad Khatib, CEO of Amana Capital, commented: "We have put an incredible amount of effort into developing AmanaPRO. Our team is offering institutional-grade technology, security and top-of-the-line customer service for our clients. With the saturation of the market we see ourselves in a competitive position to deliver to our partners a state of the art integrated solution from top to bottom."
"Aside from access to tier one liquidity, AmanaPRO delivers to our clients connectivity, risk management and hosting solutions that integrate into a seamless experience. We are excited to debut the product at the 2018 Asia Trading Summit in Guangzhou, co-hosted by Finance Magnates and FX168."
After over 8 years on the market, the brokerage business of Amana Capital is expanding into a new area after on-boarding top talent from the industry. The company's commitment to the market is further reinforced at a time when new regulatory requirements are coming into force worldwide.
About Amana Capital:
Amana Capital (http://www.amanacapital.com ), a member of 180 Capital, a specialist in online trading providing institutional and retail clients around the world direct access to the global financial markets. It manages TradeCaptain (tradecaptain.com), a recognized global financial news and research portal. Amana Capital services clients in over 80 countries. The company's subsidiaries are regulated by the FCA, DFSA, CySEC, and BDL.
LONDON, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Insurance Development Forum (IDF) is pleased to announce the appointment of Ekhosuehi Iyahen as its first Secretary General, effective 1 October 2018.
The IDF is a public-private partnership led by the insurance industry and supported by international organisations. It aims to enhance the use of insurance to build greater resilience against disasters and to help achieve the United Nations 2030 Agenda.
Ms. Iyahen brings a unique profile to the IDF, having held senior positions at two pioneering regional catastrophe risk pools, the African Risk Capacity (ARC) and the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF).
As the IDF's first Secretary General, Ms. Iyahen will be a visible and central point of contact for the IDF, establishing and building out the IDF Secretariat in London hosted by the International Insurance Society. She will also support the design, development and implementation of the IDF's operational activities.
The IDF Secretary General will support and manage the IDF's implementation efforts, driven by an Operating Committee and led by a high-level Steering Committee of 29 public and private sector leaders, including the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank Group.
"The appointment of Ms. Iyahen as Secretary General comes at an important moment in the IDF's development, complementing its current thought-leadership, partnerships and industry-shaping activities with a more operational focus," said Stephen Catlin, Chair of the IDF Steering Committee.
"We are very pleased to have been able to attract a person of the caliber and wealth of experience of Ms. Iyahen," added Denis Duverne, incoming Chair of the IDF Steering Committee.
"The IDF has already established itself as a unique and influential body in the insurance and development arenas and I greatly look forward to supporting its development in its next important, operational phase," said Ms. Iyahen.
The Secretary General appointment comes ahead of the IDF Steering Committee meeting in Monte Carlo on 11 September, which will be attended by more than 20 insurance industry and public-sector leaders.
Established in 2016, the IDF has played an important role in fostering public-private dialogue on the insurance-international development nexus and has helped shape policies and encourage innovation with industry insurance products and investment practices.
The IDF has mobilized more than 500 people from industry, NGOs, regulators, academia and international institutions to prepare pilots, develop and advocate best practices and transparency principles and support the design and development of critical funding facilities, set up by the UK, Germany and the World Bank.
"The IDF Working Groups have made early progress and now the appointment of a Secretary General and the creation of the Secretariat will enable the IDF to evolve to the next phase of operational impact. I have known Ekhosuehi since 2014 and witnessed her extensive capabilities and achievements. We are delighted that she has decided to apply that experience to support the IDF," said Rowan Douglas, Chair of the IDF Operating Committee and Head of Capital, Science and Policy Practice at Willis Towers Watson.
About the IDF
Objective: The Insurance Development Forum (IDF) is an industry-led public-private partnership supporting the growth and development of insurance-related resources and capabilities to help achieve the objectives of the Sustainable Development goals and related UN agreements of Sendai (Disaster Risk Reduction Framework), Addis Ababa (Finance for Development), Paris (Climate Change), Istanbul (Humanitarian System), collectively known as the UN Global 2030 Agenda.
Governance Structure: The IDF is led by a Steering Committee which is chaired by a senior insurance industry representative and co-chaired by the CFO of the World Bank Group and the Administrator General of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The Steering Committee comprises of another 26 private and public-sector leaders including AIG, Aon, Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers, Aviva, AXA, Axis Capital, Bank of England, Co-operators Group, French education mutual, Geneva Association, International Insurance Society, the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation, Lloyd's, Marsh & McLennan, Munich Re, Scor, Swiss Re, Tokio Marine, UN OCHA, UNISDR and Willis Towers Watson. Under guidance of the high-level Steering Committee, the IDF's implementation efforts are led by an Operating Committee which is supported by the IDF Secretariat led by the IDF Secretary General. The IDF is hosted by the International Insurance Society.
About Ekhosuehi Iyahen
Ekhosuehi Iyahen worked from 2008 to 2013 for the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility in various capacities. She joined the African Risk Capacity in 2014 as Lead Client Service Manager for Risk Transfer and was promoted in 2016 to Director, Policy and Technical Advisory Services. She holds a BA from the University of West Indies, an MSc from the London School of Economics and an Executive certificate from Harvard University'sJohn F. Kennedy School of Government. In 2018 she was selected as Rockefeller Foundation Resident Practitioner Fellow at the Bellagio Centre.
Contacts
David.Rylatt@XLCatlin.com
www.theidf.org.
Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/739189/IDF_Ekhosuehi_Iyahen.jpg
Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/739188/Insurance_Development_Forum_Logo.jpg
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Consumer Technology Association (CTA):
WHAT: CES Unveiled Amsterdam is a sneak peek into the innovation that is showcased at CES, the largest and most influential technology event on the planet. CES Unveiled Amsterdam is set to debut the Executive Forum on Innovation, a speaker series headlining tech industry thought leaders and government officials as they discuss the latest trends and innovations from the Netherlands and its surrounding countries. The Netherlands, considered a hotbed for smart city, solar and environment technologies, is well positioned to demonstrate how resiliency technology can keep its critical infrastructure running in times of crisis. The Executive Forum will encompass these exciting innovations, with programming focused on how technology is helping to overcome the world's toughest challenges. The Tabletop Exhibition and Networking Session features groundbreaking innovations from companies both large and small. WHO: Hear from Prince Constantijn of StartupDelta, Corinne Virgeux of CODAM, Sjaak Deckers of GTX Medical, Ben van Berkel of UNStudio and more as they share their insights on emerging trends in the industry, including artificial intelligence (AI), energy environment, mobility, and resiliency and smart cities. Maithreyi Seetharaman, Co-Chair of Fortune Magazine's 'Most Powerful Women International,' will emcee the event. As part of the Forum, an exclusive look at what's to come at CES 2019 will be presented by Consumer Technology Association (CTA) executives Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, Karen Chupka, EVP, CES and Steve Koenig, VP, market research. CES Unveiled Amsterdam will feature exclusive announcements from the CES Innovation Awards, the official awards program of CES 2019, celebrating outstanding design and engineering in consumer technology products. The honored products of 2019 will be announced for the very first time and a selection of European honorees will be on display during this year's awards. Nearly 80 exhibitors including Effect AI, Expivi, Gemvision, House of Haptics, Jamzone, Scalys and Volvareo B.V., will display their innovations across wearables, AI, robotics, health and fitness, mobility and more at the Tabletop Exhibition and Networking Reception. Mona Keijzer, Dutch State Secretary for Economic Affairs Climate Policy, will open the Pitch Presentation during the Tabletop Exhibition which will showcase leading European startups' breakthrough products and services and how they are changing the technology landscape for the better. WHEN: September 27, 2018 10 AM 5 PM WHERE: Beurs van Berlage Damrak 243, 1012 ZJ Amsterdam, Netherlands FULL SCHEDULE: You can find the full schedule for CES Unveiled Amsterdam online at CES.tech. REGISTRATION DETAILS: Don't miss out on the opportunity to witness Europe's latest tech innovations. Register to attend CES Unveiled Amsterdam today at CES.tech.
About CES:
CES is the world's gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. It has served as the proving ground for innovators and breakthrough technologies for 50 years-the global stage where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace. As the largest hands-on event of its kind, CES features all aspects of the industry. Owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)TM, it attracts the world's business leaders and pioneering thinkers. Check out CES video highlights. Follow CES online at CES.tech and on social.
About Consumer Technology Association:
Consumer Technology Association (CTA) is the trade association representing the $377 billion U.S. consumer technology industry, which supports more than 15 million U.S. jobs. More than 2,200 companies 80 percent are small businesses and startups; others are among the world's best-known brands enjoy the benefits of CTA membership including policy advocacy, market research, technical education, industry promotion, standards development and the fostering of business and strategic relationships. CTA also owns and produces CES the world's gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. Profits from CES are reinvested into CTA's industry services.
UPCOMING EVENTS
CES Unveiled Amsterdam Register
September 27, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Technology Standards Forum Register
October 1-5, Los Angeles, CA
CES Unveiled Paris Register
October 3, Paris, France
Innovate Celebrate Register
October 15-17, Boston, MA
CES Unveiled New York
November 8, New York, NY
CES Unveiled Las Vegas
January 6, Las Vegas, NV
CES 2019
January 8-11, Las Vegas, NV
CES Asia 2019
June 11-13, Shanghai, China
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005268/en/
Contacts:
Consumer Technology Association
Teresa Hsu, 703-907-5259
thsu@CTA.tech
www.CES.tech
or
Justin Siraj, 703-907-7415
jsiraj@CTA.tech
www.CES.tech
PHILADELPHIA, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
Lombard International, a global leader in wealth structuring solutions for high net worth individuals and institutions, today announced that its Mexican joint venture business, Akaan Lombard International (the Company), has entered into an agreement to acquire Principal Seguros, SA of C.V.'s Life Insurance business. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close later this year.
This acquisition will enable Akaan Lombard International to accelerate its growth plans for Mexico and Latin America, serving the needs of high net worth individuals, their families and institutions across the region. The Company will gain approximately 8,000 Mexican clients. These clients will benefit from Akaan Lombard International's long term commitment and local presence in the Mexican market including high quality policy reporting and excellent client service.
John Hillman, Group Chief Executive Officer of Lombard International, said: "These are exciting times for us. This acquisition demonstrates our commitment to our Mexican and Latin American partners and clients, while supporting our global growth ambitions through both organic and inorganic opportunities. With a footprint in Asia, Europe, the US and Latin America, we are building a unique global business in our sector, being able to serve our clients successfully on a global scale, leveraging our in-house expertise and unparalleled partnership network."
Ken Kilbane, Executive Vice President, Head of Global Distribution at Lombard International added, "We are delighted to have such a strong partnership with Akaan, a firm with great expertise, along with a strong track record and reputation in Mexico. Our joint venture provides us with local presence in a growth market, allowing us to deliver innovative solutions to best serve the needs of high net worth individuals."
Akaan's Chairman and founder, Fernando Quiroz concluded, "This acquisition represents an important step for Akaan Lombard International. Following the launch of our joint venture with Lombard International, we are pleased with the good work and progress achieved together. We look forward to the future as we bring world class wealth planning solutions to the Mexican market."
About Lombard International
Lombard International is a leading life insurance-based wealth solutions provider with over 25 years' experience. We have the strength and expertise to provide wealth structuring solutions using unit-linked life insurance to ultra-high net worth individuals, their families and institutions around the globe.
The global group, Lombard International, launched to market in September 2015. With head offices in Luxembourg and Philadelphia, and serving over 20 markets across the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America, we are able to provide multi-jurisdictional wealth planning solutions on a global basis with a deep understanding of local cultures and attitudes.
Global assets under administration are in excess of 41.2bn as of 31 December 2017. Our global team of approximately 600 includes more than 60 technical experts specializing in multiple jurisdictions.
Funds managed by Blackstone own Lombard International. Blackstone Group L.P. is one of the world's leading investment firms with $434 billion in assets under management as at 31 December 2017.
For further information about Lombard International visit: http://www.lombardinternational.com
About Akaan
Akaan is a Mexico-based wealth management firm that provides best in class financial and wealth management solutions to Mexican individuals, families and institutions.
Akaan integrates several financial subsidiaries related to wealth management and has one of the most experienced and professional banking teams in Latin America.
Akaan was the first asset management firm to implement Aladdin, an industry leading portfolio management system, in Mexico and has one of the best technological platforms for wealth management solutions in Mexico. Its product offering includes alternative investments, actively as well as passively managed funds and investment strategies.
Akaan has a presence in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey and Merida.
LONDON, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
Centrica plc has today (Wednesday) announced the acquisition of Vista Solar, a leading Californian solar engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company.
Established in 2008, Vista Solar has delivered 40MW of solar projects to over 160 customers across the private and public sectors.
The company will be integrated into Centrica's Distributed Energy and Power business, which provides energy insight, asset optimisation and energy solutions to large energy users under the Centrica Business Solutions brand. Earlier this year, Centrica's Direct Energy Solar team joined the business to deliver solar as part of a portfolio of innovative distributed energy offers that includes combined heat and power, back up generation, battery storage, and demand response.
Jorge Pikunic, global Managing Director for Centrica Business Solutions said: "Solar is a key technology for businesses in California and represents an important opportunity for us to grow our footprint in one of the largest economies in the world.
"Combining Vista Solar's impressive track record with our own in-house capabilities in energy insight, demand management, and onsite generation and storage puts us in a unique position to help more organisations in North America to take advantage of the changing energy landscape.
"I am delighted to welcome the team into the business."
Jaymes Callinan, President & CEO of Vista Solar said: "Our team is excited to join Centrica Business Solutions. We believe access to Centrica's scale, multi-technology solutions, and strong balance sheet will help us deliver better solutions to our customers. We're thrilled to be part of a dynamic distributed energy pioneer like Centrica Business Solutions."
Centrica has already facilitated the installation of over 150MW of solar globally.
To find out more about Centrica Business Solutions, go to http://www.centricabusinesssolutions.com
Notes to Editors:
About Centrica
Natuzzi S.p.A. (NYSE:NTZ) ("Natuzzi" or "the Company") will disclose second quarter and first half 2018 financial results on Friday September 21, 2018 after the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Company will host a conference call on Monday September 24, 2018at 10:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time (4:00 p.m. Italian time, or 3:00 p.m. UK time) to discuss financial results.
The dial-in phone numbers for the live conference call are 1-800-263-0877 (toll-free) for persons calling from the U.S. or Canada, or 1-646-828-8143 for those calling from other Countries.
A live webcast of the conference call will be available on line at http://www.natuzzigroup.com/en-EN/ir/financial-release.html.
A replay of the call will be available shortly after the end of the conference call starting from September 24, 2018 (from 1:00 pm US Eastern time), to October 24, 2018. To access the replay of the conference call, interested persons need to dial 1-844-512-2921 (toll-free) for calls from the U.S. and Canada, and +1-412-317-6671 for calls from other Countries. The access code for the replay is 1959379.
About Natuzzi S.p.A.
Founded in 1959 by Pasquale Natuzzi, Natuzzi S.p.A. is Italy's largest furniture house and one of the most important global player in the furniture industry with an extensive manufacturing footprint and a global retail network. Natuzzi is the Italian lifestyle best-known brand in the furnishings sector worldwide (Brand Awareness Monitoring Report Ipsos 2016) and has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 13 May 1993. Always committed to social responsibility and environmental sustainability, Natuzzi S.p.A. is ISO 9001 and 14001 certified (Quality and Environment), OHSAS 18001 certified (Safety on the Workplace) and FSC certified (Forest Stewardship Council).
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005378/en/
Contacts:
NATUZZI INVESTOR RELATIONS
Piero Direnzo
tel. +39.080.8820.812
pdirenzo@natuzzi.com
or
NATUZZI CORPORATE COMMUNICATION
Vito Basile (Press Office)
tel. +39.080.8820.676
vbasile@natuzzi.com
"It is the emotional and intellectual experience of collecting that has been the most glorious and rewarding aspect of my life." the late Barney A. Ebsworth
Christie's is honored to present An American Place: The Barney A. Ebsworth Collection, which will be offered in a dedicated evening and day sale in November as a highlight of its flagship 20th Century Week in New York. The collection of Barney A. Ebsworth represents an extraordinary achievement in the history of collecting a singular assemblage of over 85 artworks that illuminates the rise of American art across the 20th century. Highlights of the collection include Edward Hopper's Chop Suey, 1929, the most important work by the artist still in private hands (estimate in the region of $70 million), Jackson Pollock's Composition with Red Strokes (estimate in the region of $50 million) and Willem de Kooning's Woman as Landscape (estimate in the region of $60 million).
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005188/en/
EDWARD HOPPER (1882-1967), Chop Suey, oil on canvas, 32 x 38 in. Painted in 1929. Estimate in the region of $70 million (Photo: Business Wire)
A global tour of highlights will commence in Paris 6-9 September, coinciding with La Biennale Paris, followed by highlight exhibitions in New York, Hong Kong, London, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and culminating with the auction preview at Christie's Rockefeller Galleries in New York. The tour in Paris will include works by Hopper, Pollock, de Kooning, Kline, Nadelman, Davis, Sheeler, O'Keeffe and Glackens. The collection is expected to realize in excess of $300 million.
Marc Porter, Chairman, Christie's Americas, commented: "Last season, Christie's made the bold move of launching the $835 million Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller in Asia, underscoring our investment and deep commitment to collectors in this growing region. This season, Christie's Paris will host the debut of this stunning collection for the global collecting community, positioning it in the heart of Europe and paying homage to Barney A. Ebsworth's lifelong love affair with the city that first introduced him to great art. His unique journey as a collector resonates with the influence and art historical connections of Gertrude Stein's Paris, and ultimately set a new high standard for the creation of a nuanced collection of 20th Century Art that is without parallel in its exceptional depth and quality."
COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS
As a tribute to the former Stieglitz gallery, Ebsworth bestowed the name "An American Place" on his home in Seattle, which was built in collaboration with architect Jim Olson and designed as a dialogue between art and architecture. Ebsworth's credo in collecting was "quality, quality, quality," and with that mindset he amassed the most comprehensive collection of American Modernism in private hands, with many works having been loaned to leading institutions throughout his years of ownership.
A seminal composition within the landscape of American Modernism, Edward Hopper's Chop Suey was one of Mr. Ebsworth's most prized possessions (estimate in the region of $70 million). Possibly derived from a Cantonese phrase, tsap sui, meaning 'odds and ends,' chop suey referred not only to a low-cost stir-fry dish but, moreover, to a public destination where the societal fusion of different cultural elements of the modern city came together. As in his masterwork Nighthawks (1942, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois), Hopper's 1929 painting Chop Suey distills the atmosphere of this everyday eatery into a cinematic scene that at once depicts an implicit narrative while creating clear allusions to broader themes of social isolation, gender roles and art historical tradition. While having its roots in the French Impressionist and Ashcan traditions of painting city life, Chop Suey incorporates a thoroughly modern play of light and color to capture a specific restaurant that the Hoppers frequented on the Upper West Side of New York. The most important painting by Hopper left in private hands, Chop Suey epitomizes the psychologically complex meditations for which the artist is best known, while uniquely capturing the zeitgeist of New York during one of its most interesting eras of transition. Chop Suey was included in the groundbreaking retrospective at the Grand Palais in Paris 2012-13, which broke attendance records for the location.
Porter continued, "Christie's is honored to have been entrusted with this great collection which brings Hopper's great masterpiece back to Paris five years after his retrospective at the Grand Palais. With Hopper's Nighthawks traveling to the Shanghai Museum this fall, at the same time that Chop Suey tours to Christie's Hong Kong, the artist's two greatest masterpieces will be on view to the public in Asia, introducing new generations of collectors to the brilliance of this great American master."
Willem de Kooning's Woman as Landscape is a tour-de-force of 20th century painting (estimate in the region of $60 million). Executed at the height of the artist's career in 1955, this large-scale canvas belongs to a small group of works that are well positioned among the most powerful paintings in American art. Measuring over five and a half feet tall, Woman as Landscape is a heroic painting that encompasses the painterly bravado and radical use of color that singled out de Kooning as a leader of the Abstract Expressionist movement, and one of the pre-eminent painters of his generation. The shocking female forms sensationalized the art world, energizing and scandalizing in equal measure, but his vivid brushwork came to represent the dramatic shift in art that occurred in the postwar years, a change that would alter the course of art history. Now firmly established as part of the 20th century art historical canon, many of de Kooning's Woman paintings form the cornerstones of major international museum collections and as such, Woman as Landscape is one of the only paintings from this important period of the artist's career to remain in private hands.
Jackson Pollock's Composition with Red Strokes was executed in 1950 during the peak of his extraordinary creative output and is a central work to the artist's oeuvre, demonstrating his new technique (estimate in the region of $50 million). It was these startling, original and accomplished paintings that, in Willem de Kooning's phrase, finally 'broke the ice' for American painting, completely revolutionizing it and in the process reshaping the entire history of 20th century art. The diverse, virtuosic and carefully controlled markmaking in Composition with Red Strokes represents the variety, subtlety and mystery that Pollock had achieved in his new language of paint. Displaying a fascinatingly dense, intricate and animated abstract surface, Composition with Red Strokes is one of the richest, most engaging and successfully resolved of all these famous works. Other works made by Pollock in this key period are held at the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art.
GLOBAL TOUR OF HIGHLIGHTS
Paris: 6 9 September
New York: 7 12 September
Hong Kong: 28 September 3 October
London: 28 September 5 October
San Francisco: 16 20 October
Los Angeles: 23 27 October
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005188/en/
Contacts:
Christie's
PRESS:
Rebecca Riegelhaupt, 212-636-2680
rriegelhaupt@christies.com
or
Sara Fox, 212-636-2680
sfox@christies.com
VIENNA, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
Croma-Pharma GmbH (Croma) is establishing a joint venture company with its long-time partner Hugel, Inc. to develop and commercialize botulinum toxin, HA filler and PDO thread products in US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
On Sept 5th, Croma has stated that the company is moving forward in its plan preparing a successful launch of its HA filler and PDO thread products on the US market.
The joint venture company will be established with Croma's Korean partner Hugel, Inc. Croma will be transferring its Botulax (Hugel's botulinum toxin product) distribution rights for US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and also the 100% shares of its Canada and Australia subsidiaries in exchange for 30% of the joint venture company. Hugel will invest $90,000,000 in cash and future commitments and subscribe for equity representing 70% of the joint venture company. As a result of this transaction, the joint venture company will secure perpetual license to Croma's HA filler and PDO thread products and Hugel's botulinum toxin product in the aforementioned territories.
Said joint venture company will be in charge of developing and commercializing Croma's HA filler and PDO thread products and Hugel's Botulax product in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and spearheading all clinical, regulatory, and marketing operations in order to ensure successful entry of the above products in the territories. Additionally, the joint venture company will be collaborating with Croma for marketing activities in Europe for a successful launch.
Croma's Managing Director, Andreas Prinz, explained, "By partnering with Hugel in these major aesthetic markets, we clear another hurdle in our international expansion process, while intensifying our relationship with Hugel. Both companies will certainly benefit from the experiences we make together in North America and Australia. Croma and Hugel will be moving closer together, based on mutual respect and trust."
Hugel's CEO, Jihoon Sohn, stated, "US is a huge market that currently accounts for the majority of the global botulinum toxin market." He also added, "We have taken the very first step of our global initiatives, and through it, we plan to further strengthen our global footprint with our long-term partner, Croma."
About Croma-Pharma GmbH
Founded in 1976, Croma-Pharma GmbH (Croma) is an Austrian family-owned company that specializes in the industrial production of hyaluronic acid syringes for the fields of medical aesthetics, ophthalmology and orthopaedics. Croma currently runs 12 international sales companies and distributes its products in more than 70 countries. Within its global sales network, Croma focuses with own branded products on minimally invasive aesthetic medicine. Besides a broad range of HA Fillers from the own production site, Croma markets PDO lifting threads, a Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) system and a personalized skincare technology in its core strategic markets.
About Hugel, Inc.
Hugel is a biopharmaceutical company developing and manufacturing botulinum toxin and HA filler products for use in not only medical aesthetic field, but also in medical therapeutic field. Hugel's botulinum toxin product, Botulax, is currently marketed in 26 countries worldwide. In addition, Botulax is expected to enter the world's largest markets such as US, Europe, and China soon. The Chaeum (Dermalax), Hugel's HA filler product, is currently exported to 14 countries and is expecting approvals in 6 additional countries, including China, Brazil, and Chile.
Contact
CROMA-PHARMA GmbH
Mag. Stefanie Hohn
Corporate Director Communications
Cromazeile 2
A-2100 Leobendorf
Phone .: +43-676-846-868-190
Mail: stefanie.hoehn@croma.at
Home: www.croma.at
5 September 2018 For Immediate Release
Anglo African Agriculture plc
("AAAP" or the "Company")
Update on business and corporate activities.
Highlights:
Dynamic Intertrade - 100% owned Southern African spice business update
3 rd Quarter ending 31 July 2018 revenue in food manufacturing increases year on year by 14.8% to South African Rand 11,152m (from R9.713m)
Tonnage of product sold increased by 11.34% to 321 tonnes 3Q 2018 vs 3Q 2017.
Kenya Port - Proposed loan facility, as announced on 30 August 2018
Progress made on finalising loan to be made, subject to the raising of necessary finance and fulfilment of final conditions precedent, to Comarco port in Kenya .
Comarco trading positively has signed contracts with global oil and gas major ENI to provide storage, handling and offshore drilling support services for 2 years with annual extensions thereafter. has secured extensions for existing supply base tenants, including Marubeni Itochu, Halliburton, BGP and Exalo Drilling. Iron ore shipments have commenced. Iron ore port handling contracts now in place for over 1,000,000 of iron ore movement, with further optional extensions of 1,000,000 tonnes. has signed a 10 year renewable contract with a major LPG distributor to provide space, mooring and throughput access. Ground is to be broken in September 2018 .
David Lenigas, Chairman of AAAP, comments; "We are seeing a good uptrend in business activities from our core food manufacturing business in South Africa. The Company also believed it was important to update shareholders on Comarco's business activities in recent months. The Comarco commentary is important as, as announced on 30 August 2018, the Company is considering a secured loan to Comarco that, if closed, will be secured by a number of the port's assets. A strong Comarco provides a much better level of security for the proposed loan."
Anglo African Agriculture plc (LSE: AAAP), the London Main Board listed company trading under the ticker symbol AAAP:LN, is pleased to provide the following update on its 100% owned Dynamic Intertrade (Pty) Limited ("Dynamic") spices and seasoning manufacturing business and a general update on the proposed loan facility to be provided to the Comarco port in Kenya in recent months.
Update on South African food manufacturing business
Dynamic has achieved a solid growth in 3rd quarter volumes and revenues for the quarter ending 31 July 2018. Sales for the quarter are up 14.8% in South African Rand terms from R9.713m (GBP0.575) to R11.152m (GBP0.641). In addition, gross margins have increased due to better buying and an increase in efficiencies. Volumes increased from 288 tonnes to 321 tonnes. Dynamic has increased its sales force by 3 sales people and anticipates delivering better performances over the next period. Dynamic had previously announced that new equipment purchased would reduce the cost structure, and this is evident in the increased margins. With that said, the underlying ingredients of the spice blends manufactured and sold by Dynamic are commodities and are subject to price fluctuations. Dynamic is continually expanding its product range and, working with AAAP's 46.8% owned subsidiary, Dynamic Intertrade Agri (Pty) Ltd, has just sold its first 20 tonnes of sugar.
Turning to management, Ronel Putter and Dave Ransom were appointed to the board of Dynamic Intertrade in South Africa as Financial and Sales director respectively.
Dynamic is based in a modern 3,000 m FSSC compliant facility in Cape Town, South Africa and is involved in the importation, milling, blending and packaging of food products for the food manufacturing sector with bespoke lines that include herbs, spices, additives and seasonings for both the domestic and export markets.
Update on Comarco Group
As announced on 30 August 2018, the Company has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding whereby it is proposed, subject to funding, that AAAP will provide a 24 month loan to help fund the growth of the privately owned port and marine logistics group, Comarco Group, based in Mombasa, Kenya. All proposed transactions between the Comarco Group and AAAP are subject to the completion of due diligence, the completion of legal documentation and the production of such valuations and opinions as the company shall consider appropriate, in each case satisfactory to AAAP in its sole discretion and subject to board approval. This is intended to be the first step of a diversification for AAAP, which the Directors believe will allow the Company to significantly grow its business.
During this calendar year, the Comarco Group has secured some new contracts and re-signed most of their existing major port clients. In January 2018 Comarco signed a contract with global oil major ENI to provide storage, handling and offshore drilling support services for two years with annual extensions thereafter. It also signed extensions for existing port tenants, including Marubeni Itochu, Halliburton, BGP and Exalo Drilling. During the year a handling and export contract of 1,000,000 tonnes of iron ore was secured, with further optional extension of 1,000,000 tonnes, using Comarco barges for stevedoring the cargo to bulk vessels at anchorage. Comarco has already moved 110,000 tonnes of iron ore to date. In June 2018 Comarco signed an additional contract for the handling and export of a further 200,000 tonnes of iron ore to be completed before December 2018.
In May 2018, Comarco signed a 10 year renewable contract with a major LPG distributor to provide space, mooring and throughput access. Ground is to be broken in September 2018.
Importantly, Comarco received confirmation in June 2018 of the extension of its stevedoring licence issued by the Kenya Government to operate the Comarco port on a private basis. The Comarco port is the only privately licensed facility in East Africa properly authorised to handle bulk, breakbulk and project cargoes.
The port is also in final contract negotiations with a large multinational to provide storage, handling and transport services of cargoes for the UN to East Africa.
For further information please contact:
- T. S. Eliot
Thoughts After Lambeth
"The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide."
Without the governments lead on the pensions dashboard, it cannot become the one-stop shop that people need it to be. The state pension and public pensions are unlikely to be included, and unless the dashboard is backed up by legislation, savers wont be able to see all their pots in one place as many providers simply wont play ball. The point of it will be lost.
The Peoples Pension alone, with a membership of four million people, has more than three hundred and fifty thousand members whove not provided us with a current address thats hundreds of thousands of people at risk of losing their pension pot. Although we work hard to trace them, a dashboard, where they can see all their pensions in one place is needed to help them keep track of all their hard-earned savings and provide them with the information they need to make vital decisions about their financial future.
The advantages for savers are clear and most importantly its what people across the UK want with seven in ten backing the dashboard1. If the government is determined to hand over responsibility, then the Single Financial Guidance Body is the obvious home to ensure accuracy of data and governance.
PETERSFIELD, England, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
Top small business CRM vendor, Really Simple Systems, has today announced the release of its integration with OneLogin, the market leader in Unified Access Management.
(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/542735/RSS_Logo.jpg )
The integration means companies can now control access to their Really Simple Systems CRM system using OneLogin's Single Sign-on and Multi-Factor Authentication features.
This development provides protection against unauthorized access to critical corporate data by creating policy-based access control for user logins. Rather than just using a password to access the CRM, the OneLogin Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) identifies the individual user before giving access.
At the same time, the Single Sign-on feature lets uses enter one set of credentials to access to the CRM, and other cloud-based apps, helping increase productivity while keeping data secure.
John Paterson, Really Simple Systems' CEO, commented: "Our Enterprise customers who want high levels of security, including Two Factor Authentication, together with the benefits of being able to sign on to all their applications from one dashboard, can now include integrated CRM systems to their security policy. OneLogin will provide CRM users with better data security and compliance."
Really Simple Systems' integration with OneLogin comes at a time when data security is rarely out of the headlines. Although not specifically requiring MFA, the EU's new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the USA's Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), have accentuated the need for businesses to reduce the risk of data breaches. Including MFA in access control policies is an obvious first step.
Really Simple Systems customer, Fiona Moinuddin, Head of Event First Aid at British Red Cross, added: "Integrating our CRM system with OneLogin will enable us to maintain the high levels of security we need when handling personal information on our volunteers and First Aid clients. The British Red Cross takes data security seriously, so this is a very welcome tool for our CRM users."
Matt Hurley, VP Global Channels, Strategic Alliances and Professional Services at OneLogin also commented: "We are delighted Really Simple Systems has chosen OneLogin as their Unified Access Management partner. We are seeing a rapid growth curve and solutions like Really Simple Systems bring together and address many of the modern trends in the IT space. In a world racing more and more towards Cloud, and Cloud apps exploding on the scene, Identity Management has never been more important from both a company security perspective and user productivity requirement."
OneLogin integration is now available to Really Simple Systems' Enterprise plan customers at no additional charge.
https://www.reallysimplesystems.com/press-releases/crm-onelogin-integration/
About Really Simple Systems
Established in 2006, Really Simple Systems is one of the world's largest providers of cloud-based CRM systems. Designed for small and mid-sized businesses operating B2B, customers include the Red Cross, Royal Academy of Arts and the British Museum. Really Simple Systems CRM is credited as being super-easy to use with excellent customer support.
LONDON, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
The positive recommendation marks a step change in the management of XLH for children and young people, and the first significant clinical advancement for the condition in the last 35 years.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has issued a positive recommendation for Kyowa Kirin International's Crysvita (burosumab) within its marketing authorisation, for treating X-linked hypophosphataemia (XLH) in children and young people with growing bones in England and Wales.[1] The final guidance is expected to be published on 24th October 2018.
XLH is an inherited genetic disorder that causes low levels of phosphate in the blood. This leads to soft, weak bones, which can result in life-long physical disabilities and pain. Children with the condition usually have bowed or bent legs, short stature, bone pain and delayed walking, and may also have dental problems and hearing loss.
Crysvita is an anti-FGF23 fully human monoclonal antibody, and the first treatment to target the underlying pathophysiology of XLH. It received a conditional marketing authorisation from the European Medicines Agency in February 2018.[2]
Commenting on NICE's decision, Oliver Gardiner, Board Member at XLH UK, said: "This is important news for children and young adults with XLH who will now be able to benefit from Crysvita routinely on the NHS. Access to a treatment that tackles the underlying mechanism and has the potential to avoid or mitigate substantial physical and emotional challenges, will truly make a difference to the lives of patients and their families."
Dr Poonam Dharmaraj, Chairperson of the British Paediatric and Adolescent Bone Group said on behalf of the group: "This treatment represents a significant improvement for a condition in which there have been no advances in management for 35 years and will be much easier to adhere to compared to current therapy options. It will result in better healing of rickets, linear growth and muscle function among affected individuals."
Tom Stratford, CEO, Kyowa Kirin International said: "Kyowa Kirin International is committed to improving the lives of the many children across Europe who are living with XLH. It is a major development that NICE has recommended Crysvita for routine use among children and young people with XLH in England and Wales. This marks a step change in treatment for XLH, emphasised through the emotional testimonies provided by patient groups and clinicians following the first evaluation consultation."
Kyowa Kirin International has been providing access to Crysvita for eligible patients at no cost, via an Early Access Programme in the UK. This programme will be extended, to allow time for NHS England to implement the NICE final guidance, enabling a smooth transition to NHS supply in England and Wales.
Notes to editors
NICE Final Evaluation Document (FED)
The Final Evaluation Document (FED) is available on the NICE website here: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/indevelopment/gid-hst10016/documents
Final publication is expected on 24thOctober 2018.
All committee papers including testimony from stakeholders in response to the Evaluation Consultation Document (ECD) are available here: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/indevelopment/gid-hst10016/documents
About XLH
XLH is a rare, chronic progressive musculoskeletal disorder characterised by renal phosphate wasting caused by excess FGF23 production. XLH is first seen in infants and also affects adults. In children, XLH causes skeletal disease, leading to lower-extremity deformity and diminished height.
Until now, the treatment of XLH has consisted of multiple daily doses of phosphate and active vitamin D to counteract the excess effects of FGF23 but this does not correct the underlying disease.
About Crysvita
Crysvita is a first-in-class recombinant, fully human monoclonal antibody to FGF23. Crysvita was developed following the discovery by Kyowa Kirin International scientists of the role of FGF23 in XLH.
Crysvita works by blocking the activity of FGF23 and thereby restores phosphate blood levels by reducing phosphate loss via the kidneys and increasing the production of vitamin D, which enhances intestinal absorption of phosphate and calcium.
In the EU Crysvita is indicated for the treatment of X-linked hypophosphataemia with radiographic evidence of bone disease in children 1 year of age and older and adolescents with growing skeletons.[2]
In Clinical Study UX023-CL201[3]
Crysvita significantly decreased the mean Rickets Severity Score (RSS) versus baseline in the overall study population by -50% at week 40 (p<0/0001) that was maintained at week 64, indicating an improvement in rickets
A significant improvement in rickets healing was also shown versus baseline at week 40 (p<0.0001) that was maintained at week 64 measured using a Radiographic Global Impression of Change score (RGI-C)
Improvements were also observed in renal tubular phosphate reabsorption, serum phosphorus levels, linear growth, physical function and pain
Adverse reactions listed as very common (occurring in 1 in 10 people or more) in the summary of product characteristics include: injection site reactions, headache, pain in the extremities, decreased vitamin D, rash, toothache, tooth abscesses, myalgia and dizziness.[2]
Kyowa Kirin International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kyowa Hakko Kirin, and Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ: RARE) have been collaborating in the development and commercialization of Crysvita globally, based on the collaboration and license agreement between Kyowa Hakko Kirin and Ultragenyx.
About Kyowa Kirin
Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd. is a research-based life sciences company, with special strengths in biotechnologies. In the core therapeutic areas of oncology, nephrology and immunology/allergy, Kyowa Hakko Kirin leverages leading-edge biotechnologies centred on antibody technologies, to continually discover innovative new drugs and to develop and market those drugs worldwide. In this way, the company is working to realise its vision of becoming a Japan-based global specialty pharmaceutical company that contributes to the health and wellbeing of people around the world.
Kyowa Kirin International PLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kyowa Hakko Kirin and is a rapidly growing specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in the development and commercialization of prescription medicines for the treatment of unmet therapeutic needs in Europe and the United States. Kyowa Kirin International is headquartered in Scotland.
You can learn more about the business at: http://www.kyowa-kirin.com.
References
SAN FRANCISCO, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
Global Advanced Process Control Market is estimated to grow at a substantial CAGR in the forecast period as the scope, product types, and its applications are increasing across the globe. Advanced Process Control implies a wide range of technologies and techniques executed within industrial development control system, and it is mainly implemented in process industries. It has several benefits such as an improved monitoring of key performance indicators, less power consumption, better equipment reliability offered by advanced process control, and improved production capacity. The factors that propel the growth of the Global Advanced Process Control Market include rising adoption of advanced procedure control in process manufacturing in order to lower emissions and increase operational reliability and flexibility. On the other hand, the factors that may hamper the growth of the market include high implementation costs. Advanced Process Control Market may be explored by type, application, and geography. Advanced Process Control Market may be explored by type as Multivariable Model Predictive Control, Advance Regulatory Control, Inferential Control, and Others. The key applications that could be explored in the Advanced Process Control Market include Pharmaceuticals, Oil & Gas, Petrochemicals, Food & Beverages, and Others.
Advanced Process Control Market is categorized based on geography into North America, Latin America, Japan, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe. North America accounted for the major share of the Advanced Process Control Market and will continue to lead in the forecast period. The factors that could be attributed to the growth include well-established organization that allows higher saturation of the progressive procedure control software market in the region, eventually providing improved manufacturing procedures. This is expected to be an important factor driving the advanced process control software market in the region. In addition, North America is followed by APAC region. The key players contributing in the robust growth of the Global Advanced Process Control Market comprise Siemens AG, Rudolph Technologies, Inc., ABB Ltd., General electric Co., Emerson Electric Co., Yokogawa Electric Corp, Aspen Technology, Inc., Honeywell International, Inc, Schneider Electric Se, Rockwell Automation, Inc. The leading companies are taking up partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, and joint ventures in order to boost the inorganic growth of the industry.
Access 111page research report with TOC on "Advanced Process Control Market" available with Radiant Insights, Inc. @https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-advanced-process-control-industry-2018
Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Advanced Process Control in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), covering
North America
Europe
China
Japan
Southeast Asia
India
Global Advanced Process Control market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players including
ABB
Emerson Electric
Honeywell International
Siemens
Yokogawa Electric
General Electric
Rockwell Automation
Aspen Technology
Rudolph Technologies
Schneider Electric
SGS Group
Mavtech Technologies
ARC Advisory Group
FLSmidth
LayTec
On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into
Advanced Regulatory Control
Multivariable Model Predictive Control
Inferential Control
Sequential Control
Compressor Control
On 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, including
Oil and Gas
Chemicals & Petrochemicals
Water & Wastewater
Paper and Pulp
Pharmaceuticals
Browse reports of similar category available with Radiant Insights, Inc.:
LTE Advanced and 5G Market
Demand Response Management System (DRMS) Market
Enterprise Availability Management Market
Advanced Thermal Management Solutions Market
About Radiant Insights, Inc.:
At Radiant Insights, we work with the aim to reach the highest levels of customer satisfaction. Our representatives strive to understand diverse client requirements and cater to the same with the most innovative and functional solutions.
Contact:
Michelle Thoras.
Corporate Sales Specialist
Radiant Insights, Inc.
Phone: +1-415-349-0054
Toll Free: 1-888-928-9744
Email: sales@radiantinsights.com
Web: https://www.radiantinsights.com/
SHENZHEN, China, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The South Atlantic Inter Link (SAIL) consortium announced the completion of the close to 6,000km marine installation of its 25-year life-span transatlantic fiber optic subsea cable on September 4th. This marks a significant milestone: for the first time, two continents, Africa and South America are fully connected to their respective landing stations, Kribi in Cameroon and Fortaleza in Brazil. The entire project has been carried out by Huawei Marine Networks, a leading global supplier in the submarine cable industry.
The SAIL cable system has been designed to be a fast and direct path, utilizing the industry leading 100G transmission technology and to deliver a design capacity of 32 Tbps, through a 4 fiber pair configuration since its inception in 2016. It is a joint investment by China Unicom (with its wholly-owned subsidiary, China Unicom do Brasil Telecomunicacoes Ltda) and CAMTEL.
With the rapid development of global infrastructure and a massive surge in worldwide internet traffic, Africa and Latin America are becoming strategic emerging markets of the global telecommunications industry. The introduction of SAIL meets the traffic demands from the emerging markets, and also opens a new routing through diverse paths between Africa and North America, Europe and South America. Through the launch of SAIL, countries in these regions, especially in the southern hemisphere, will be more connected and in a better position to drive the development of the region's digital economy.
As an important infrastructure located in the southern hemisphere, supported by other submarine cables directed to Eurasia, the SAIL cable will positively impact the current communications market in Global South. This cable will allow immediate links of BRICS with connections between Brazil and South Africa, and China, Russia and India. This will reinforce increasing communication demand and drive rapid expansion of global emerging markets in these areas.
See more: http://www.huaweimarine.com/en/News/2018/press-releases/pr20180905
About Camtel
For more information, please visit: http://www.camtel.cm/
About China Unicom
For more information please visit www.chinaunicom.com .cn
About Huawei Marine Networks Co., Ltd.
For more information, please contact: public@huaweimarine.com or visit www.huaweimarine.com
MOSCOW, RUSSIA / ACCESSWIRE / September 5, 2018 / Bruce Abbott, President of Genoil Inc. (OTC PINK: GNOLF) Announced today that Genoil will begin testing of Pemex Heavy Crude Oil upgrading at our demonstration facility in Russia. Our engineers will activate the catalyst and will set up for the test which will commence on September 10, 2018. Genoil will also prepare for a second test in the near future.
David Lifschultz, Chairman & C.E.O. told investors on a recent conference call, September 10 will be a historic day as we begin a series of GHU feedstock test runs under the guidance of Raushan Telyashev, who was formerly in charge of all R&D at Lukoil Oil Company, the largest Russian oil company by capitalization.
"This new Mexican crude oil GHU tests will build on our existing technology models created from older tests and will provide us with a greater confidence in the range of the operating parameters we are assuming in our existing economic and kinetic models,' said Bruce Abbott. 'These tests will provide consequential hard data that support our engineers, which will be helpful when we work toward completion of basic engineering designs for commercial facilities. Genoil has already done extensive testing on many crude oil feedstocks.'
The purpose of this feedstock demonstration is to establish the quality of the product for the rollout of GHU project in Mexico. The new president of Mexico has indicated that he will go in a much more progressive direction on energy with a primary goal of producing all refined products necessary for Mexico internally in the country rather than importing it from overseas. This GHU demonstration test will be to support the engineering and design of a large-scale commercial GHU facility currently under evaluation by Genoil, to be constructed in Mexico as well as other target project locations around the world. Genoil has been in discussions with several potential equity investors and EPC companies to finance an upgrading project which with IMO 2020 legislation coming soon is more needed than ever. Currently, Mexico exports no light crude oil and Platts is predicting heavy and sour crude oil feedstocks to fall in value against light oil low sulfur feedstocks.
About The Genoil Hydroconversion Upgrader:
The Genoil Hydroconversion Upgrader (GHU), is an advanced upgrading and desulfurization technology, which converts heavy or sour crude oil into much more valuable light low sulphur oil for a very low cost. The GHU achieves 96% pitch conversion and 95% desulfurization with an operating cost of up to 75% less than the competition. For Conoco Canada Ltd, Genoil converted their bitumen of 6-8.5 API and converted it to 24.5 API. We also removed 92% of the sulphur reducing the amount from 5.14 % to below 0.24%. These results were taken by Conoco Canada Ltd, who had them analysed by Core Laboratories, one of the largest service providers of core and fluid analysis in the petroleum industry.
About The UFA Scientific Research Institute of Petroleum Refining and Petrochemistry:
The State Unitary Enterprise 'Institute of Petroleum Refining and Petrochemistry of Republic of Bashkortostan ' is located in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russian Federation. The state of the art Institute has more than 60-years' experience in the field of hydrocarbon processing technologies and well recognized by the Industry. UFA is the only 100% governmentally owned institute specializing in refining and heavy residue processing.
About: Beijing Petrochemical Engineering Company:
BPEC was founded in 1979 and is a first-class engineering company based in Beijing and its parent company is the fourth largest Chinese oil company, Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum Group Corp Ltd. BPEC currently has about 1200 employees and holds a class A qualification of engineering consulting and engineering design. The company has been mainly engaged in engineering consulting, engineering design, EPC, engineering technology development and other related business in the fields of refining, petrochemical, coal-chemical, natural-gas-chemical, oil and gas fields, storage and transportation, etc.
About: Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum Group Corp. Ltd:
Formerly 'Yanchang Oil Plant' founded by the Qing regime in Yan'an in 1905, Yanchang Petroleum is China's only century-old oil enterprise and the driller of the first oil well on the Chinese continent. Shaanxi Province where Yanchang Petroleum is located in an emerging key oil & gas province in China, with rapid growth of 5 million tons oil & gas equivalent on average every year since the beginning of the 'twelfth five-year' period. In 2012, Shaanxi province became China's largest oil & gas-producing province with oil & gas equivalent of over 60 million tons. They are also one of the largest producers of coal in China with 18 billion tons of coal reserves, and 300,000 bpd of oil production.
About: OJS 'VNIIUS' Institute in Kazan:
VNIIUS is one of the leading research institutes in Russia in the field of production and consumption of hydrocarbon feed. With 50-years of experience in practical work allows us to render assistance to oil and gas producing companies, to oil and gas processing companies and also to companies of deep oil processing and sulfur recovery. VNIIUS has cooperated with Chevron and over one hundred different companies from around the world.
For more information please contact:
David Lifschultz
Tel: 212 688 8868
Email: dklifschultz@Genoil.com
SOURCE: Genoil Inc.
MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / September 5, 2018 / GH Capital, Inc. (OTCQB: GHHC), a diversified FinTech holding company, today announced that its Going Public Process Advisory division, signed an agreement with Casual Card International. This segment of its business offers advise, guidance and referrals to help ease and quicken the process of becoming a publicly traded company.
Casual Card International (https://www.casualcard.com) is a lifestyle card and offers different local services such as VIP Travel, flight bookings and assistance. Cardholders can benefit from a variety of local happenings, such as music events at a discounted price, local retail and hotel discounts, as well as discounts for clubs, bars and much more.
The Casual Card International business is structured as a franchise system. The Casual Card started with its first franchise partner in Switzerland and was very well received with great demand as a lifestyle membership card.
Casual Card International's business model involves charging each license partner a card-issuing fee for each new and existing cardholder as well as a one-time annual franchise license fee. Casual Card just started with its plans to go public. The company is early stage and is primarily focused on expanding its franchise system globally.
Mr. Wolfgang Ruecker, Chief Executive Officer of GH Capital, commented, 'We are excited to support our latest Going Public Advisory Service client. Casual Card International has made great progress on its business over the past year and we look forward to assisting them in their capital structure and plans going forward. We believe it's a great opportunity for both Casual Card International and GH Capital shareholders.'
GH Capital is very focused to expand its Going Public Advisory Service Division. It truly believes that its service is very unique when it comes to its one-stop solution for small, start-up and emerging growth companies, which are seeking to going public. Its service fee is based on a combination of cash and equity, which helps clients to minimize their going public expenses.
About GH Capital
GH Capital, Inc. (OTCQB: GHHC) is a diversified FinTech holding company offering a range of financial solutions for businesses layered with an advisory platform to assist companies going public. For more information, please check out: http://www.ghcapital-inc.com
Forward-Looking Statements
Forward-Looking Statements. This press release contains 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the 'Exchange Act') (which Sections were adopted as part of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). Statements preceded by, followed by or that otherwise include the words 'believe,' 'anticipate,' 'estimate,' 'expect,' 'intend,' 'plan,' 'project,' 'prospects,' 'outlook,' and similar words or expressions, or future or conditional verbs such as 'will,' 'should,' 'would,' 'may,' and 'could' are generally forward-looking in nature and not historical facts. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any anticipated results, performance or achievements. The Company disclaims any intention to, and undertakes no obligation to, revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, a future event, or otherwise. For additional risks and uncertainties that could impact the Company's forward-looking statements, please see the Company's Form 10-K filed on December 15, 2017, for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2017, including but not limited to the discussion under 'Risk Factors' therein, which the Company has filed with the SEC and which may be viewed at http://www.sec.gov.
Contact Information
Corporate:
press@clickdirectpay.com
305-714-9397
Investors and Media:
Hayden IR
hart@haydenir.com
917-658-7878
SOURCE: GH Capital, Inc.
PUNE, India, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
According to a new market research report "Digital X-ray Market by Application (Radiography, Orthopedic, Cardiovascular, Fluoroscopy, Chest), Technology (Direct, Computed Radiography), Portability (Handheld, Mobile), System (Retrofit, New), End User (Diagnostic Center, Hospital), Price - Global Forecast to 2023", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is expected to reach USD 13.04 billion by 2023 from USD 8.68 billion in 2018, at a CAGR of 8.5%.
(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg )
Browse 224 market data Tables and 43 Figures spread through 201 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Digital X-ray Market"
https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/digital-x-ray-market-1164.html
Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report
The growth of the market is attributed to the increasing geriatric population and subsequent growth in global disease incidence, favorable regulations and government initiatives & investments, the advantages of digital X-ray systems, and technological advancements and product development.
General radiography to dominate the market in 2018
Based on application, the Digital X-ray Market is segmented into general radiography, dental applications, fluoroscopy, and mammography. In 2018, the general radiography segment is expected to account for the largest share of the Digital X-ray Market. The growth in this market is mainly driven by the rising prevalence of diseases like tuberculosis, osteoporosis, and CVD; growing aging population; and product launches.
Based on technology, the direct radiography segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.
By technology, the Digital X-ray Market is segmented into direct radiography and computed radiography. The direct radiography segment is expected to register the highest rate during the forecast period. The advantages associated with the use of direct radiography systems, such as effective dynamic range, better contrast detectability, better medical evaluation, superior and more accurate images, reduced radiation exposure for patients and workers, flexibility in image management, improved patient throughput, superior evaluation of data and images, and lower operational costs, are promoting the growth of the direct radiography segment in the Digital X-ray Market.
Ask for PDF Brochure:https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=1164
North America to dominate the Digital X-ray Market
In 2018, North America is expected to dominate the market. The large share of this geographical segment is attributed to factors such strong economies in the US and Canada, which have allowed for significant investments in new technologies. Europe is expected to hold the second-largest share of this market. Factors such as the growing disease prevalence, rising geriatric population, a favorable reimbursement scenario in several countries, and easy access to and the affordability of quality healthcare technologies and solutions are expected to drive market growth in this region.
The Digital X-ray Market is highly competitive with the presence of several small and big players. Some of the players in the Digital X-ray Market are Canon Inc. (Japan), Carestream Health (US), Fujifilm Corporation (Japan), GE Healthcare (US), Hitachi Ltd. (Japan), Hologic, Inc. (US), Philips Healthcare (Netherlands), Shimadzu Corporation (Japan), Siemens Healthineers (Germany), Konica Minolta, Inc. (Japan), Samsung Medison Co., Ltd. (Korea), and Agfa Gevaert (Belgium).
Know more about the Digital X-ray Market:
https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/digital-x-ray-market-1164.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: sales@marketsandmarkets.com
Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/digital-x-ray-market.asp
Connect with us on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 5, 2018) - Orestone Mining Corp. (TSXV: ORS) ("Orestone" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has signed an Option to Purchase Agreement for a 100 percent interest in the Resguardo copper project. The Resguardo project is located 95 km north east of Copiapo in northern Chile, on the Middle Tertiary porphyry copper belt, which hosts the large scale El Salvador and Potrerillos copper mines. The project consists of 2,905 hectares (11.3 square miles) of mineral concessions covering historic workings focused on oxide copper production at an elevation of 3000 metres.
Copper and gold grading 1-2% and up to 0.60 g/t respectively was mined in a shallow open pit measuring 150 x 60 metres and several tunnels to 50 metres below surface. This oxide copper mineralization at surface is surrounded by a large hydrothermally altered zone of clay and silica covering one square kilometre which is underlain by a large IP chargeability anomaly indicating a possible undiscovered sulphide copper porphyry at depth. This target has not been tested by previous exploration.
The IP chargeability anomaly measures from 15-30 mv/V, is 300 to 600 metres wide by 1000 metres in strike length; begins at a depth of approximately 200 metres and is open to the southwest.
Mineralization at Resguardo consists of fracture-controlled chimney and manto style oxide and sulphide copper along 1000 metres of strike length; two parallel structures up to 50 metres in width have grades from 0.40 to 2% copper. Previous exploration consisted of structural and alteration mapping, geochemical sampling, a three line 5.6 km IP/Resistivity survey, a 105 km ground magnetometer survey and two reverse circulation drill holes. The holes were drilled to a depth of 250 metres on the north fringe of the IP anomaly and intersected several tabular copper manto zones. The most significant zone, at a depth of 104 metres, grades 0.49% copper over 22 metres including 12 metres grading 1.3% copper.
The Resguardo property has similarities to the Candelaria copper mine at Copiapo where a large sulphide copper deposit was discovered by drilling strong IP chargeability anomalies beneath surface copper mineralized manto zones.
"Resguardo is a very exciting project for Orestone because of the large target size in contrast to the relatively small capital outlay to give it an initial test. Resguardo is our first acquisition in Chile and we continue to review other projects," stated David Hottman, Chairman, President & CEO.
Orestone will have the option to purchase a 100% interest in the property from Sociedad Contractual Minera Resguardo (the "Optionor" or "CMR") for a five (5) year period (the "Option Period") and may exercise the Option by: 1) paying a total of US$5.0 million in Option payments (the "Option Payments"); and 2) completing 2,000 metres of drilling at any time during the Option Period. Option payments are as follows: i) an initial payment of US$70,000; ii) US$150,000 on or before the first anniversary of the agreement; iii) US$220,000 on or before the second anniversary of the agreement; iv) US$460,000 on or before the third anniversary of the agreement; v) US$1,100,000 on or before the fourth anniversary of the agreement; and vi) US$3,000,000 on or before the fifth anniversary of the agreement.
Upon completion of the purchase of the property a net smelter royalty of 1.5% (the "NSR") will be reserved in favor of CMR. Orestone shall have the right at any time up to the seventh anniversary of the Option to Purchase Agreement to purchase the NSR for US$6.0 million. Orestone will also have the right to mine ores from the property at any time during the option period and would pay a seven percent royalty on production for this right.
The Resguardo Copper Project is located less than one hundred kilometres from the following copper and gold mines and deposits with similar characteristics typical of porphyries found in Chile.
Mine or Deposit Tonnes
(millions) Copper
% Gold
g/t Silver
g/t Moly
% Source
El Salvador Copper Mine 3,836 0.45 0.10 1.50 0.022 USGS Potrerillos Copper Mine 1,030 0.98 0.77
0.011 USGS Caspiece 1,403 0.19 0.51
Goldcorp Cerro Casale 1,198 0.22 0.60 1.50
Goldcorp Inca de Oro Copper-Gold Project 769 0.36 0.10
0.11 PanAust Candelaria Copper Mine (80%) 740 0.70 0.16 2.19
Lundin Mining Santo Domingo Project 391 0.30 0.04
Capstone Mining Maricunga 245
0.70
Kinross Gold Marte/Lobo 185
1.20
Kinross Gold La Coipa 30.8
1.80 64.80
Kinross Gold
The Company's initial exploration program will consist of additional geophysical IP/Resistivity surveys to provide more detail and to test the extension to the southwest. Drilling will follow to test the sulphide potential of this large target.
Additional information will be released concerning future exploration in the near future.
Mr. Gary Nordin PGeo, BC has reviewed the technical information on the project and visited the project.
Orestone Mining Corp. is a Canadian based company that owns a 100% percent interest in the Captain gold - copper project located approximately 30 kilometres south of the Mt. Milligan Mine in British Columbia and has an option to purchase a 100% interest in the Resguardo copper project in Chile. For more information please visit: www.orestone.ca
ON BEHALF OF ORESTONE MINING CORP.
"David Hottman"
President and CEO
For further information please contact:
Tel: 604-629-1929
Fax: 604-629-1930
Email: info@orestone.ca
Website: www.orestone.ca
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
Geneva - WISeKey International Holding Ltd, a leading cybersecurity and IoT company, today announced that is joining the 2018 Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin. More than 2,000 leaders from government, business, science and civil society will join the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, People's Republic of China, taking place on 18-20 September 2018. 111 countries will be represented.
WISeKey was originally nominated as one of the founding members of the New Champions community back in 2007 in China with already 12 years of deep engagement with the Forum as member of its Expert Network and member of the PACI, Cyber Resilience and Global Agenda Council. During the past years, the New Champions event in China has provided an excellent platform for WISeKey to exchange insights and practices with multi-stakeholders in China, which has greatly accelerated our WISeKey China operations.
The main objective of Summer Davos is to create a global community to ensure that emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and the internet of things are used to benefit society and that they remain human-centered. This requires global collaborative efforts to define the necessary principles of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the standards to ensure global interoperability.
WISeKey has already started the localization of the its IoT semiconductors in China, having as a goal the ramp up of its secure chip install base to 10 billion within the next 3 years, with a new Secure Microprocessor for IoT, Blockchain, AI and WISeCoin. WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.2 billion secure chips (since 2010) in virtually all IoT sectors - autonomous cars, smart cities, drones, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, mobile phones, etc. VaultIC407 features an outstandingly rich set of Security Protocols and Security Functions tailored to IoT applications. While WISeKey will continue manufacturing chips in other countries in Asia and Europe, its new plant in China will become the main manufacturing center for Asia.
WISeKey China has the goal of becoming one of the leading providers of Internet of Things (IoT) and Blockchain services for the growing Chinese market. The over-arching objective of the new company is to establish a market foothold with credible in-country leaders to maximize revenue in the near-term and realize reputable category position in the sectors of: retail, financial transaction, automotive, smart cities, consumer products, healthcare, smart card, industrial, transportation, and IT infrastructure, in the long-term.
Trusted Semiconductors are the building blocks of the IoT, found in everything from autonomous cars, smart cities, drones, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, mobile phones, ...
Den vollstandigen Artikel lesen ...
Steve Webb, Director of Policy at Royal London said: This announcement is a huge breakthrough after a period of uncertainty. There is much that the industry can do to deliver a dashboard, but only the government can supply vitally important state pension data and only the government can legislate to make sure that the dashboards coverage is comprehensive. Backed by this renewed commitment by the government, the whole pension industry now needs to work together to drive forward this much-needed initiative. Kate Smith, Head of Pensions at Aegon comments on the governments announcement that the pensions dashboard is to be delivered by the industry: Weve always been a supporter of the pension dashboard and believe it has the potential for people not only to keep track of their pension pots but also to start to drive up pension engagement. The whole point of the pension dashboard is so people can see all their pensions online in one place. Government needs to facilitate this by legislating to compel all schemes and the State to provide pension detail when asked to do so. Without this the pension dashboard risks being half-baked. For the time being we remain cautiously optimistic that government support continues and await the publication of the feasibility study which is key to the industry being able to move forward with developing the dashboard initiative.
Adrian Boulding, Director of Policy at NOW: Pensions said: For the dashboard to succeed, government need to be in the driving seat not in the passenger seat.
Its clear that legislation is essential to compel all providers to share their data with the dashboard and the inclusion of the State Pension is a must.
For most people, the State Pension will still make up the majority of their retirement savings and a dashboard without this data would be pointless. A large number of people also have public sector pensions and government need to ensure that this data is available. We hope the feasibility study will shed more light on how the government sees its role in this potentially revolutionary project.
DETROIT, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
Stratview Research announces the launch of a new research report on Thermoplastic Prepreg Market by End-Use Industry Type (Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Consumer Goods, and Others), by Resin Type (PPS, PEEK, PEI, and Others), by Fiber Type (Carbon Fiber Prepreg and Glass Fiber Prepreg), by Product Form Type (Fabric Prepreg and Unidirectional Prepreg), by Process Type (Compression Molding, Injection Molding, AFP/ATL, and Others), and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World), Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2018-2023.
(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660595/Stratview_Research_Logo.jpg )
This report, from Stratview Research, studies the thermoplastic prepreg market over the trend period of 2012 to 2017 and forecast period of 2018 to 2023. The report provides detailed insights on the market dynamics to enable informed business decision making and growth strategy formulation based on the opportunities present in the market.
Thermoplastic PrepregMarket: Highlights
Thermoset prepregs have been enjoying a long and marvelous history of more than four decades in the aerospace & defense industry. However, thermoplastic prepregs offer a series of advantages including faster part cycle time, recyclability, easy to fabricate, and excellent mechanical properties. Major aircraft OEMs such as Boeing, Airbus, and Gulfstream have efficaciously started utilizing the potential of thermoplastic composites from tail to wings to fuselage components in their latest aircraft. The penetration of thermoplastic composites is not likely to stop here and will rise in the future with the advancement of the material, technology, and processes. Major thermoplastic prepreg manufacturers are keenly working with tier players and OEMs to develop new applications using thermoplastic prepregs.
Thermoplastic prepregs currently account for less than 5% of the global prepreg market; however, it is likely to grow at a faster rate than the overall prepreg market in the coming five years, driven by the aerospace & defense and automotive industries. As per Stratview Research, the global thermoplastic prepreg market is projected to grow at an impressive rate over the next five years to reach an estimated value of US$ 193.1 million in 2023. Increasing production rates of thermoplastic composite rich next-generation aircraft, such as B787 and A350XWB; rising demand for lightweight recyclable parts; reduced part cycle time coupled with lower-processing cost of thermoplastic composite parts as compared to thermoset composite parts; stringent regulations regarding fuel efficiency and carbon emissions in the aerospace and automotive industries are some of the key factors that are burgeoning the demand for thermoplastic prepregs globally.
Aerospace & defense is projected to remain the most dominant segment of the market during the forecast period. Increasing production of commercial aircraft coupled with an increase in penetration of thermoplastic composites, especially in composite-rich aircraft programs, such as B787 and A350XWB is likely to fuel the growth of the segment in the coming years. Clips and cleats used in fuselage are the major applications of thermoplastic prepreg in these aircraft programs.
Based on the resin type, PPS dominates the market and is expected to maintain its dominance during the forecast period as well. It has good dimensional stability even at elevated temperatures and in harsh chemical environment. The resin system also has the advantage of molding complex parts easily and with tight tolerance. It also finds usage in various aircraft applications, especially in airframe. The aircraft industry is also showing a sheer interest in PEEK-based thermoplastic prepregs.
Carbon fiber is projected to remain the larger segment of the market during the forecast period. The fiber offers numerous advantages, such as excellent weight reduction, high strength-to-weight ratio, high tensile and compressive strength, low coefficient of thermal expansion, and high fatigue resistance but at a very high cost. Major thermoplastic composite applications in an aircraft, such as clips and cleats, are fabricated with carbon fiber-based thermoplastic prepreg.
Register Here for a Free Sample of the Report
Compression molding is the most dominant process type in the global thermoplastic prepreg market. The process offers faster part cycle time, reduced part wastage, and reduced defects, which overall leads to a lower part cost. However, AFP/ATL is likely to be the fastest-growing process type during the forecast period, driven by an increasing demand for an automated process that can layup prepreg at a faster rate than the manual layup process and generates low void content.
Based on regions, Europe is expected to remain the largest market for thermoplastic prepregs in the near future. Airbus is one of the major consumers of thermoplastic prepregs in Europe. North America accounted for the second largest share in the thermoplastic prepreg market and is expected to maintain its position in the coming five years as well. Boeing and Gulfstream Aerospace are the major OEMs, which are likely to drive the demand for thermoplastic composite parts in the region.
Key thermoplastic prepreg manufacturers include Cytec Solvay Group, Koninklijke TenCate nv, Lanxess A.G, SABIC, and Teijin Group (Toho Tenax). Some of the major end-users include Airbus, Boeing, Gulfstream Aerospace, Dassault Aviation, Lenovo, and Hewlett-Packard (HP). Formation of long-term contracts, application development, and development of innovative products are some of the key strategies adopted by the major players in order to gain a competitive edge in the market.
Report Features
This report provides market intelligence in the most comprehensive way. The report structure has been kept such that it offers maximum business value. It provides critical insights on the market dynamics and will enable strategic decision making for the existing market players as well as those willing to enter the market. The following are the key features of the report:
Market structure: Overview, industry life cycle analysis, supply chain analysis
Market environment analysis: Growth drivers and constraints, Porter's five forces analysis, SWOT analysis
Market trend and forecast analysis
Market segment trend and forecast
Competitive landscape and dynamics: Market share, product portfolio, product launches, etc.
Attractive market segments and associated growth opportunities
Emerging trends
Strategic growth opportunities for the existing and new players
Key success factors.
This report studies the global thermoplastic prepreg market and has segmented the market in six ways, keeping in mind the interest of all the stakeholders across the value chain. Following are the six ways in which the market is segmented:
By End-Use Industry Type:
Aerospace & Defense (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)
, , , and RoW) Automotive (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)
Consumer Goods (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)
Others (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)
By Resin Type:
PPS (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)
PEEK (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)
PEI (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)
Others (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)
By Fiber Type:
Carbon Fiber Thermoplastic Prepregs (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)
Glass Fiber Thermoplastic Prepregs (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)
By Product Form Type:
Fabric Prepregs (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)
Unidirectional Prepregs (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)
By Process Type:
Compression Molding (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)
Injection Molding (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)
AFP/ATL (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)
Other (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)
By Region:
North America (Country Analysis: the USA , Canada , and Mexico )
Europe (Country Analysis: Germany , France , the UK, and Rest of Europe )
Asia-Pacific (Country Analysis: China , India , Japan and Rest of Asia-Pacific )
Rest of the World (Sub-Region Analysis: Middle East , Latin America , and Others)
Stratview Research has several high value market reports in the chemicals and materials industry. Please refer to the following link to browse through our reports:
Click Here for Other Reports from Stratview Research in the Chemicals & Materials Industry
Related premium market report in the composites industryare:
Global Out-of-Autoclave (OOA) Prepreg Market by End-Use Industry Type, by Product Form Type, by Reinforcement Type, by Matrix Type, and by Region, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2018-2023
About Stratview Research
Stratview Research is a global market intelligence firm providing wide range of services including syndicated market reports, custom research and sourcing intelligence across industries, such as Advanced Materials, Aerospace & Defense, Automotive & Mass Transportation, Consumer Goods, Construction & Equipment, Electronics and Semiconductors, Energy & Utility, Healthcare & Life Sciences, and Oil & Gas.
We have a strong team of industry veterans and analysts with an extensive experience in executing custom research projects for mid-sized to Fortune 500 companies, in the areas of Market Assessment, Opportunity Screening, Competitive Intelligence, Due Diligence, Target Screening, Market Entry Strategy, Go to Market Strategy, and Voice of Customer studies.
Stratview Research is a trusted brand globally, providing high quality research and strategic insights that help companies worldwide in effective decision making.
For enquiries,
Contact:
Stratview Research
E-mail: sales@stratviewresearch.com
Direct: +1-313-307-4176
Mr. Studzinski will take a leading role in PIMCO's expanding global strategy.
He will serve as a key advisor to the firm's top clients globally alongside the client management teams and senior leadership.
He brings to PIMCO more than 30 years of experience as a deeply trusted financial advisor to leaders in business, finance, government and NGOs around the world.
He served as Vice-Chairman at Blackstone Group, Deputy Chairman of Morgan Stanley International and on HSBC's Group Management Board.
Mr. Studzinski has worked tirelessly in support of humanitarian causes that defend the rights and dignity of individuals globally.
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PIMCO, one of the world's premier fixed income investment managers, has hired John Studzinski as Managing Director and Vice Chairman of PIMCO in its Executive Office. Mr. Studzinski, who has spent most of his career working in Asia and Europe, brings to PIMCO 30 years of experience as a trusted financial and strategic advisor who has forged deep bonds among the world's leaders in business, finance, government and NGOs. He will be based in PIMCO's New York office and will report to Emmanuel Roman, PIMCO's Chief Executive Officer.
In what is a new role for the firm, Mr. Studzinski will bring to bear his extensive international knowledge and network to help support and advance PIMCO's global strategy as well as serve as a key strategic advisor to many of PIMCO's top clients around the world, including public and private pension funds, corporations, sovereign wealth funds, single-family offices, governments, foundations, and many others. He will work closely with PIMCO's Client Management teams and the firm's senior leadership including Tom Otterbein, Head of PIMCO's Institutional Client Management Group in the Americas, Craig Dawson, Head of PIMCO Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Kim Stafford, Head of PIMCO Asia-Pacific.
"I have known John personally and professionally for 20 years and have huge admiration for his enviable breadth of experience, expertise, integrity, wisdom and relationships. He's a true statesman in the world of global finance," said Mr. Roman. "Offering our clients insightful advice is one of PIMCO's most enduring values. John's unique, powerful perspective and experience -- combined with our outstanding client management leadership and teams -- will prove invaluable as we continue to expand our global business."
"I have long had enormous respect and admiration for PIMCO's investment acumen, steady client focus and the vital role it plays in the world's economy," said Mr. Studzinski. "I am very excited about PIMCO's momentum under Manny and Dan's leadership and look forward to contributing to the firm's continued progress and success."
About John Studzinski
Prior to joining PIMCO, Mr. Studzinski was Vice Chairman, Investor Relations and Business Development and Senior Managing Director of Blackstone Group, overseeing sovereign and institutional investor relationships and advising large, influential pools of family capital on investment strategy. He also served as head of European Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley and Deputy Chairman of Morgan Stanley International and was instrumental in HSBC Group's buildout of its investment banking division, where he was also on the bank's Group Management Board.
In addition to his career in finance, Mr. Studzinski has worked tirelessly in support of humanitarian causes that defend the rights and dignity of every individual. He is Chair of the U.K. Prime Minister's Business Against Modern Slavery initiative, the Co-Founder and Chair of the Arise Foundation, which partners with local networks to stop human trafficking, and is Vice-Chair Emeritus of Human Rights Watch. He is also founder and Chairman of the Genesis Foundation, a U.K.-based charitable foundation that nurtures the careers of outstanding young artists.
Mr. Studzinski also holds the Papal honors of Knight of the Order of St. Gregory and Knight Commander of Saint Sylvester and was named in the 2008 Queen's New Year's Honours List as Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for services to the Arts and Charity.
About PIMCO
PIMCO is one of the world's premier fixed income investment managers. With our launch in 1971 in Newport Beach, California, PIMCO introduced investors to a total return approach to fixed income investing. In the 45+ years since, we have continued to bring innovation and expertise to our partnership with clients seeking the best investment solutions. Today we have offices across the globe and 2,150+ professionals united by a single purpose: creating opportunities for investors in every environment. PIMCO is owned by Allianz S.E., a leading global diversified financial services provider.
Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, including the performance of financial markets, the investment performance of PIMCO's sponsored investment products and separately managed accounts, general economic conditions, future acquisitions, competitive conditions and government regulations, including changes in tax laws. Readers should carefully consider such factors. Further, such forward-looking statements speak only on the date at which such statements are made. PIMCO undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements.
Contact:
Michael Reid
PIMCO - Media Relations
Ph. 212-597-1301
Michael.Reid@pimco.com
Iconex, a leading global provider of receipt and label solutions, and Armor, worldwide leader in coating TTR ribbons for barcode printing, today announced that they have entered into an agreement where Armor, headquartered in Nantes, France, with U.S. headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio, will acquire Iconex Thermal Transfer Ribbon (TTR) Business and Intellectual Property (IP). The two companies also announced that they have signed a global reseller agreement, under which Iconex will become a preferred global reseller for Armor and its TTR technology.The Partnership will benefit to customers of both companies: it will significantly enhance Armor's presence and service to U.S. and worldwide TTR customers and also strengthen the Iconex go-to-market strategy, as it will spur company growth and foster a focus on its core offerings. Armor will fully integrate Iconex's offerings and IP into its organization over the upcoming months, ensuring cross-pollination of product, people and support. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
As part of the agreement, Iconex has agreed to sell its TTR intellectual property, which includes the patented formula of all Iconex grades including Ultra-V. Iconex invented the paper receipt over a century ago, and today offers products including receipts, labels, printer supplies and other essentials. Armor is the worldwide market leader in the coating of TTR for printing on packaging and barcode labels and is a specialist in print consumables and coated films for the renewable energies market. The company has a strong 90-year history of innovation as printing and consumables specialists. Armor has a manufacturing unit in USA since 2000. The acquisition of Iconex TTR business marks a new stage in Armor presence as a key TTR player in the U.S. market.
"Today's news strengthens the industry by bringing together two long-time leaders in the TTR market with storied histories in the market. The Iconex brand is well known for its product innovation and we are excited to merge with our existing technology to better service our customers," said Hubert de Boisredon, chairman and chief executive officer, Armor. "We are not only acquiring a market-leading technology, we are establishing an important reselleragreement with Iconex that will enable an extensive more robust go-to-market strategy for us and reinforce our market penetration in USA and around the globe."
The global reseller agreement between the two companies allows Iconex to sell its TTR technology as an Armor preferred partner in several countries around the world. The partnership is built upon a clear alignment of corporate strategy and direction and allows Armor to fully leverage Iconex strengths in the market. This preferred partnership becomes effective upon October 1st, 2018.
"This strategic decision to sell our Thermal Transfer Ribbon Business and associated Intellectual Property will allow us to better focus on our strategy to become the world's leading provider of receipts and innovative label solutions," said Craig Gunckel, chief executive officer of Iconex. "We are also very excited to enter into a distribution agreement to become a reseller of the full line of Armor's products and technologies, which now includes Ultra V. This partnership will allow us to better support our existing customers by offering an extended range of products and tools, which we believe will lead to growth for both Iconex and our customers."
About Armor
Armor is the global market leader in the coating of Thermal Transfer ribbons for printing on packaging and barcode labels, the European market leader in the production of inkjet cartridges and France's largest seller of remanufactured laser cartridges. This specialist in print consumables and coated films for the renewable energies market is proud to promote its business model, focusing on innovation, industrial hi-tech expertise and the personal development of its employees. With total revenue of 256m in 2017, ARMOR spends 13m each year in France on R&D. Its 1,800 employees are distributed over 26 industrial and logistics sites on all five continents, of which 700 are based in France.
About Iconex, LLC
Iconex is the leading low-cost provider of paper receipt and differentiated label solutions essential to daily commerce. A tradition of innovation dating back to 1887 is weaved into the fabric of Iconex's identity beginning with the company's invention of the paper receipt which revolutionized business transactions. Most recently, Iconex transformed the industry with the introduction of its Sticky Media, a product that has enabled the Quick Service Restaurant industry to streamline operations, leading to an improved customer experience. For more information, please visit www.iconex.com Iconex and Iconex Sticky Media are trademarks of Iconex, LLC in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks and/or registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005509/en/
Contacts:
For Iconex
Gratiane Sametin, +33 6 62 30 89 24
g.sametin@giotto-cr.com
Retired Police Chief and Professor at Loyola University is Recognized Expert in Community Policing and Use of Force
LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / September 5, 2018 / Wrap Technologies, Inc. (the 'Company') (OTCQB: WRTC), an innovator of modern policing solutions, announced today that Professor Ronal Serpas, Ph.D. will be advising the Company and its law enforcement customers on integrating the new BolaWrap 100 with effective community policing. It is well recognized by the field of professional law enforcement leaders and law enforcement organizations that there is no issue of greater consequence to the policing profession, or the communities served, than the issue of police use of force.
As a Police Chief in New Orleans, Nashville and of the Washington State Patrol, Dr. Serpas advanced community policing by implementing Justice and Legitimacy principles in the delivery of police service to successfully reduce crime and build community support. Dr. Serpas was a leader for more than twenty years in guiding innovative changes in use of force policies and investigations of use of force. He is an author of various use of force articles and frequently provides expert commentary on crime rates, policing and criminal justice reform for media outlets, including, among others, the New York Times, USA Today, The Hill, NBC News, CBS News, Fox News, The Atlantic Monthly, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NPR, Governing Magazine, and MSNBC. He has also worked closely with the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's office and the FBI on investigations of civil rights, administrative and criminal police matters.
'We are very pleased to have Dr. Serpas advise us on these important issues. We have introduced the BolaWrap to over 45 departments across the nation, and in each case we are seeing engagement with the community at the onset,' said David Norris, President of Wrap Technologies. 'Community media, along with other stakeholders, have been invited to join law enforcement in evaluating the deployment of BolaWrap as an early tool in combatting the difficult issues of engaging with the public, especially those in mental crisis. The most recent illustration of this community outreach was last week's product demonstration at the San Jose Police Department, which was summarized in the news report on the event broadcast by NBC Bay Area.' (https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Police-Test-BolaWrap-as-Non-Lethal-Alternative-for-Detaining-Uncooperative-Suspect-492225511.html)
Community policing brings the police and public together to work hand in hand to create safety for those in need of help and for the officers who are there to provide help. A significant part of a law enforcement officer's day is responding to those in need of help who may be suffering from mental illness or an alcohol/drug abuse crisis. 'Officers need options to de-escalate these situations - from training to innovative technology such as BolaWrap - to create safer spaces for both citizens and officers,' said Dr. Serpas. 'BolaWrap provides officers an important alternative, providing officers with additional time and distance to help reduce the amount of force necessary to respond to resistance, and to provide safer conditions for persons suffering from a mental health crisis.'
For information on the Company, please visit www.wraptechnologies.com. Examples of recent media coverage are available as links under the 'Media' tab of the website.
About Wrap Technologies (OTCQB: WRTC)
Wrap Technologies is an innovator of modern policing solutions. Wrap Technologies premiered its hand-held BolaWrap 100 remote restraint solution at the International Association of Police Chiefs (IACP) October 2017 international conference. In December 2017, the Company completed a self-underwritten IPO and now trades on the OTCQB Venture Market for early stage and developing U.S. and international companies.
BolaWrap is a patented, hand-held remote restraint device that discharges an eight-foot bola style Kevlar tether to entangle an individual at a range of 10-25 feet. Developed by award winning inventor Elwood Norris, the small but powerful BolaWrap assists law enforcement to safely and effectively control encounters.
Trademark Information: BolaWrap is a trademark of Wrap Technologies, Inc. All other trade names used herein are either trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective holders.
Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements - Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of the 'safe harbor' provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including but not limited to statements regarding the Company's overall business, total addressable market and expectations regarding future sales and expenses. Words such as "expect," "anticipate," "should," "believe," "target," "project," "goals," "estimate," "potential," "predict," "may," "will," "could," "intend," variations of these terms or the negative of these terms and similar expressions are intended to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which involve factors or circumstances that are beyond the company's control. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to: the Company's ability to manufacture and produce product for its customers; the Company's ability to develop sales for its new product solution; the acceptance of existing and future products; the availability of funding to continue to finance operations; the complexity, expense and time associated with sales to law enforcement and government entities; the lengthy evaluation and sales cycle for the Company's product solution; product defects; litigation risks from alleged product-related injuries; risks of government regulations; the ability to obtain patents and defend IP against competitors; the impact of competitive products and solutions; and the Company's ability to maintain and enhance its brand, as well as other risk factors included in the Company's most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q and other SEC filings. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and were based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections as well as the beliefs and assumptions of management. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no duty or obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new information, future events or changes in its expectations.
WRAP TECHNOLOGIES' CONTACT:
David Norris
800-583-2652, Ext #504
david@wraptechnologies.com
SOURCE: Wrap Technologies, Inc.
Company Presenting at JAZOON Tech Days; DevOps Boston, Raleigh and Philadelphia; Golab Florence; and Embedded Linux Conference OpenIoT Summit Europe
InfluxData, the modern Open Source Platform built specifically for metrics, events and other time series data that empowers developers to build next-generation monitoring, analytics and IoT applications, today announced that it will present on time series data monitoring and analysis at important industry events around the world this month and in October.
Metrics, events, and other time-based data are being generated at an exponential rate, as there is a growing requirement for analyzing today's complex environments. The InfluxData Platform provides a comprehensive set of tools and services to accumulate metrics and events data, analyze the data, and act on the data via powerful visualizations and notifications. Its InfluxDB database is the overwhelming leader among Time Series Database management systems, according to DB-Engines' latest results published earlier this quarter.
InfluxData will participate at a number of important events globally in the coming weeks, including:
JAZOON Tech Days; Bern, Switzerland. Gianluca Arbezzano (@GianArb), Site Reliability Engineer, will present "Distributed Monitoring: How to Understand the Chaos" on Sept. 7 at 10:05 am CEST in the Gurten Pavilion. Mr. Arbezzano has also been selected to participate in two Backstage Tracks on Sept. 7 the "Chaos Panel" at 11:05 am CEST and "Docker: Ask Me Anything" at 3 pm CEST.
DevOps Raleigh. Katy Farmer (@TheKaterTot), InfluxData Developer Advocate, will present "Database Metrics that Matter" on Sept. 11 at 1:10 pm EDT.
DevOps Days Boston. Ms. Farmer will deliver a talk titled "How to be Happy Being Average" on Sept. 24 at 9:30 am EDT.
Golab Florence. Mr. Arbezzano will present "Debug like a Pro on Kubernetes" on Oct. 23 at 10:45 am CEST.
Embedded Linux Conference OpenIoT Summit Europe; Edinburgh, United Kingdom. David Simmons (@davidgsIoT), InfluxData IoT Evangelist, will present "Creating an IoT Data Layer for Collecting, Storing, Analyzing and Reacting to Data" on Oct. 23 at 9:50 am BST in the Lammermuir 2 conference room. He will also participate in a panel titled "Why Open Source Marketing Matters: For Projects, Users and Vendors" on Oct. 24 at 3:05 pm BST in the Sidlaw Auditorium.
DevOps Days Philadelphia. Ms. Farmer has been selected to present during the event, being held at the Chemical Heritage Foundation Oct. 23 24.
InfluxData's unique features enable customers to quickly build:
Monitoring, alerting and notification applications supporting their DevOps initiatives
IoT applications supporting millions of events per second, providing new business value around predictive maintenance and real-time alerting and control
Real-time analytics applications that are focused on streaming data and anomaly detection
InfluxData has rapidly built its developer and customer base across industries including manufacturing, financial services, energy, and telecommunications by delivering the fastest growing Open Source Platform that enables customers to derive better business insights, data-driven real-time actions, and a consolidated single view of their entire infrastructure from applications to microservices, and from systems to sensors. More than 420 customers, including Cisco Systems, Coupa Software, IBM, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Nordstrom, and Tesla, have selected InfluxData as their modern data platform for metrics and events. InfluxData is pioneering the shift to time series in a modern metrics and events platform, and is making it possible for customers to become data-driven and take on digital transformation initiatives.
About InfluxData
InfluxData, the creator of InfluxDB, delivers a modern Open Source Platform built from the ground up for analyzing metrics and events (time series data) for DevOps and IoT applications. Whether the data comes from humans, sensors, or machines, InfluxData empowers developers to build next-generation monitoring, analytics, and IoT applications faster, easier, and to scale delivering real business value quickly. Based in San Francisco, InfluxData's more than 420 customers include Cisco, eBay, IBM and Siemens. Visit https://www.influxdata.com/. Twitter: @influxdb.
InfluxData, InfluxCloud, InfluxDB and InfluxEnterprise are all trademarked by InfluxData. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005263/en/
Contacts:
InfluxData
Dan Spalding, 408-960-9297
dan.spalding@influxdata.com
BEIJING, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On September 5th, the"Yili Nutrition 2020" strategic upgrade for the public welfare ceremony was successfully held in Liangshan, Sichuan Province, focusing on improving the nutrition of people in poverty-stricken areas, realizing targeted poverty alleviation by means of charitable donations, health education and in-depth research, and facilitating the UN SDGs such as "No Poverty" and "Zero Hunger".
Based on statistics, by the end of 2017, the "Yili Nutrition 2020" had donated 4.8 million boxes of Yili student milk worth 12 million yuan to nearly one-third of the provinces in China, benefiting more than 120,000 students in poverty-stricken areas. In 2018, the project will deepen its milk-for-students efforts with a total investment of 21 million yuan, covering 25 provinces, 130 cities and counties and 12,000 schools nationwide, boosting the nutrition and health levels of teenagers in the poverty-stricken areas. Meanwhile, the "Yili Nutrition 2020" project supports the PMTCT of AIDS by supplying infant milk powder, hosting public lectures for healthcare workers and mothers to promote consciousness for scientific feeding in the Liangshan area.It is estimated that the project will benefit more than 100 county hospitals, nearly 700 village clinics and over 2,000 healthcare workers, 1,000 village doctors and mothers from counties such as Jinyang, Puge and Yuexi.
After the strategic upgrade, the project will strengthen the targeted poverty alleviation to special groups including needy infants, orphans and the disabled, the elderly and severly ill patients. It will continue to explore professional help mechanisms that could integrate with the health and education industries.
Yili is the largest dairy company in China. Based on the "World Top 20 Dairy Producers" released by Rabo Bank Nederlands, Yili Goups is also the No. 1 dairy company in Asia, maintaining its place in the world's Tier 1 dairy producers.
"Social value outweighs commercial wealth" is Yili's philosophy of social responsibility. Upholding this philosophy, Yili has achieved outstanding results in sustainable development and has created three "Firsts": the first Chinese food company to join the UNGC, the first "World Integratedly Sharing Health" (WISH) system, and the first dairy company to implement the United Nations SDGs.
Yili will futher implement the UN SDGs through opportunities in the near future.
Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/739525/Yili_Donation_Ceremony.jpg
Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/739526/Yili_Nutrition_2020.jpg
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 5, 2018 / MGX Minerals Inc. ('MGX' or the 'Company') (CSE: XMG; OTCQB: MGXMF; FKT: 1MG) is pleased to announce the engagement of Erich Schnake, former Chilean Mining Ministry Undersecretary, to its South American management team. Mr. Schnake will provide legal and regulatory support to advance the Company's efforts in navigating Chilean regulatory permitting frameworks in order to obtain production permits.
Mr. Schnake has more than a decade of experience working within the Chilean mining and energy sector. Most recently, he held the title of Chilean Mining Industry Undersecretary, where he was responsible for internal administration within the government body while coordinating with public stakeholders to develop and implement new policies. During his tenure, Mr. Schnake prepared and negotiated numerous government regulations and amendments for the mining sector, including the Special Lithium Operation Contract signed between the government of Chile and Salar de Maricunga SpA, a subsidiary of Codelco, to develop a lithium exploitation project. Prior to his role with the Chilean government, Mr. Schnake acted as advisor to both the General Secretariat of the Presidency as well as Tripontis Ltda., where he designed and drafted contract documents and procedures for Codelco, CMDI Collahuasi, Antofagasta Minerals S.A., and Cementos Bio Bio. He has also held roles at numerous law firms throughout Chile. Mr. Schnake holds a Master(c) in Public Policies from the Universidad de Chile, a Master in Environmental Law from the University of Sydney and a Diploma in Public Policies from the Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago.
Rapid Lithium Brine Extraction Technology
MGX has developed a rapid lithium extraction technology eliminating or greatly reducing the physical footprint and investment in large, multi-phase, lake sized, lined evaporation ponds, as well as enhancing the quality of extraction and recovery across a complex range of brines as compared with traditional solar evaporation. This technology is applicable to petrolithium (oil and gas wastewater), natural brine, and other brine sources such as lithium-rich mine and industrial plant wastewater. The technology was recently chosen as winner of the Base and Specialty Metals Industry Leadership Award at the 2018 S&P Global Platts Global Metals Awards, held in London in May (see press release dated May 18, 2018).
About MGX Minerals
MGX Minerals is a diversified Canadian resource company with interests in advanced material and energy assets throughout North America. Learn more at www.mgxminerals.com .
Contact Information
Jared Lazerson
President and CEO
Telephone: 1.604.681.7735
Web: www.mgxminerals.com
Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is typically identified by words such as: "believe,' "expect,' "anticipate,' "intend,' "estimate,' "potentially" and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by the Company is not a guarantee of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking information as a result of various factors. The reader is referred to the Company's public filings for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects which may be accessed through the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
SOURCE: MGX Minerals Inc.
Quantzig, a global analytics solutions provider, has announced the completion of their latest article on the top demand forecasting methods.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005516/en/
Know Where to Draw the Line with the Help of Demand Forecasting. (Graphic: Business Wire)
Demand forecasting is the scientific and systematic estimate of the demand for a specific product in the future. Customer demand is extremely dynamic and unless organizations correctly chart out the demand patterns and ascertain the amount of goods to be produced, the chances of overstocking or understocking of goods are likely to happen. Using demand forecasting techniques, organizations can find what customers are buying and improvise on products that are not coping well in the market. To help such companies, Quantzig has listed the top demand forecasting methods in this blog.
Request a proposal to know more about our analytics solutions.
According to the analytics experts at Quantzig,"Adopting demand forecasting methods helps companies to cope with seasonality, sudden changes in demand levels, price-cutting maneuvers of the competition, strikes, and other major swings of the economy."
Demand forecasting methods
Predictive analytics: This method uses mathematical principles to predict consumer behavior based on the current or historical data and is one of the most effective demand forecasting methods. Predictive analytics uses data on how a company's products appeal to and relate with the customers. This analysis includes the explanation of consumer trends and making assumptions based on recent/past trends. One of the major disadvantages of such demand forecasting methods is that the inducing current data doesn't give insights into the future because of unexpected problems that may occur. Request a demo to know more about the popular demand forecasting methods.
This method uses mathematical principles to predict consumer behavior based on the current or historical data and is one of the most effective demand forecasting methods. Predictive analytics uses data on how a company's products appeal to and relate with the customers. This analysis includes the explanation of consumer trends and making assumptions based on recent/past trends. One of the major disadvantages of such demand forecasting methods is that the inducing current data doesn't give insights into the future because of unexpected problems that may occur. Delphi method: The Delphi method is one of the oldest demand forecasting methods that is currently being used. Experts in this technique are surveyed secretly. The survey contains several rounds, and after each round, a summary is formed, which is then changed into another question. These summaries and questions are then handed over to the experts, which can either sway their opinion or they can have it remain the same. This process is repeated several times until the experts reach a consensus on the decision. Get in touch to know more about the demand forecasting methods.
The Delphi method is one of the oldest demand forecasting methods that is currently being used. Experts in this technique are surveyed secretly. The survey contains several rounds, and after each round, a summary is formed, which is then changed into another question. These summaries and questions are then handed over to the experts, which can either sway their opinion or they can have it remain the same. This process is repeated several times until the experts reach a consensus on the decision. Client intent surveys: Such demand forecasting methods are performed to identify what the customer intends to buy in the future. This is particularly useful if the company is planning to introduce a new product to the market. You might frequently come across such surveys before entering a company's website or opening certain video contents. The questions are typically in the form of a scale to assess how likely their chances of are of purchasing a particular product.
Such demand forecasting methods are performed to identify what the customer intends to buy in the future. This is particularly useful if the company is planning to introduce a new product to the market. You might frequently come across such surveys before entering a company's website or opening certain video contents. The questions are typically in the form of a scale to assess how likely their chances of are of purchasing a particular product. Visit our page, to view the complete list of the demand forecasting methods
Quantzig is a pure-play analytics advisory firm concentrated on leveraging analytics for prudent decision making and offering solutions to clients across several industrial sectors.
Request a proposal to see how Quantzig's solutions can help you.
View the complete list of the demand forecasting methods blog here:
https://www.quantzig.com/blog/know-draw-line-help-demand-forecasting
About Quantzig
Quantzig is a global analytics and advisory firm with offices in the US, UK, Canada, China, and India. For more than 15 years, we have assisted our clients across the globe with end-to-end data modeling capabilities to leverage analytics for prudent decision making. Today, our firm consists of 120+ clients, including 45 Fortune 500 companies. For more information on all of Quantzig's services and the solutions they have provided to Fortune 500 clients across all industries, please contact us.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005516/en/
Contacts:
Quantzig
Anirban Choudhury
Marketing Consultant
US: +1 630 538 7144
UK: +44 208 629 1455
https://www.quantzig.com/contact-us
Stewart, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 5, 2018) - Decade Resources Ltd. (TSXV: DEC) ("Decade" or the Company) is pleased to report that the Company has extended the drilling program at the Red Cliff based on visual results in the 2018 drill core. An update on drilling to date is summarized below:
Visible gold noted in core at depths exceeding 300m.
Gold occurs in a mesothermal system implying further depth extent.
Drilling has completed 53 holes to date on both the Waterpump and Montrose zone.
The area of the Waterpump and Montrose zones are located along 400m of length in a structure that has been identified over a 2.3 km length.
Testing below a high grade portion of the Montrose zone has encountered visible gold mineralization in chalcopyrite-pyrite stockworks in brecciated intrusive. Widths of the stockworks have been intersected over appreciable widths ranging from 3-10 m.
Of the sixteen holes completed on the Montrose zone, a total of 10 holes contain visible gold in the core associated with the chalcopyrite-pyrite stockwork.
Sulphide mineralization including sphalerite and galena veinlets form an envelope to the chalcopyrite-pyrite mineralization and extend the width of the potential gold bearing zones.
Testing is encountering the zone approximately 200-300 m below the drill collars and approximately 400 m below previous zone intersections north of and above the present drill pad. DDH-MON-18-52 was completed as a -60 degree hole that hit the Montrose zone at 361 m and stayed in the zone (partly down-dip) to 413 m. The zone contains sections of chalcopyrite stockwork with visible gold. Vertical depth of the zone is projected to be 351 m below the highest intersection on the Montrose.
Drilling is using existing drill pads with present holes testing deeper than previous ones.
Present drilling on the Montrose zone is close spaced along the down-dip expression of the stockwork to trace the gold mineralization to depth. The goal at present is to block out the recently indicated high grade zone that is a minimum +100m long and approximately 400 m down-dip within the 400m of structure length drill tested to date. Width of the Montrose zone in this area appears to be from 8 to 22 m based on the modelling to date. Mineralization is also open to depth and along strike. Visual expressions of the drill assay results on drilling to date can be viewed on the 43-101 report and video shown under the Red Cliff project on the Company website at www.decaderesources.ca. There also appears to be a plunge to the high grade zone towards the SW which drilling will define. Previous drill intersections above and nearby the recent 2018 drilling include the following:
DDH No.* From To Core Length** Gold g/t MON-2011-9 131.71 140.61 8.9 28.10 MON-2011-11 138.57 146.04 7.47 43.91 MON-2012-48 233.02 238.41 15.39 4.53 including 156.71 157.93 1.83 35.73 including 223.02 224.63 1.62 26.23 including 237.44 238.41 0.98 15.74 MON-12-59 235.98 241.62 5.64 6.77 MON-12-61 173.93 208.99 35.06 7.83 including 176.22 184.91 8.69 12.42 including 200.55 208.99 8.45 18.11
*Holes above have previously been reported.
** True width is believed to be 70 % of intersection length.
A photo of gold in core in DDH-MON-18-49 is shown below. Other photos of the gold in DDH-MON-18-49 can be seen on the Company website.
The drill has been moved and further drilling is being conducted 50 m south of the initial 2018 Montrose drilling.
The Company is undertaking a non-brokered private placement of flow-through units to raise aggregate gross proceeds of up to $650,000 for expenditure on the Red Cliff project.
Ed Kruchkowski, P. Geo., a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101, is in charge of the exploration programs on behalf of the Company and is responsible for the contents of this release. E. Kruchkowski is not independent of Decade as he is the president of the Company.
Decade Resources Ltd. is a Canadian based mineral exploration company actively seeking opportunities in the resource sector. Decade holds numerous properties at various stages of development and exploration from basic grass roots to advanced ones. Its properties and projects are all located in the "Golden Triangle" area of northern British Columbia. For a complete listing of the Company assets and developments, visit the Company website at www.decaderesources.ca which is presently being updated. For investor information please call 250-636-2264 or Gary Assaly at 604-377-7969.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DECADE RESOURCES LTD.
"Ed Kruchkowski"
Ed Kruchkowski, President
"Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release."
"This news release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements."
Figure 1: Gold in core in DDH-MON-18-49
To view an enhanced version of the Gold in Core in DDH-MON-18-49, please visit:
[http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3615/38458_a1536082754109_69.jpg]
Thunder Bay, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 5, 2018) - White Metal Resources Corp. (TSXV: WHM) ("White Metal" or the "Company") is pleased to announce two proposed non-brokered private placements of up to a combined maximum of $500,000 to fund exploration on its Gunners Cove Gold Property (the "Property") in Newfoundland and for working capital purposes.
The offerings will consist of up to a combined maximum of 3,333,333 units of both Flow Through Units ("FTUs") at $0.15 per FTU and Non Fow Through Units ("NFTUs") at $0.15 per NFTU.
Each FTU will consist of one common share and one-half (1/2) of one share purchase warrant. Each full warrant will entitle the holder to purchase an additional common share at $0.25 for two years from closing of the private placement. Each NFTU will consist of one common share and one (1) share purchase warrant. Each warrant will entitle the holder to purchase an additional common share at $0.25 for two years from the closing of the private placement.
The flow through proceeds will be expended on the continued exploration of the Company's Gunners Cove Gold Project project located in Newfoundland. The non flow through proceeds will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes.
The offerings are only open to accredited investors in Canada and will be subject to the completion of formal documentation, receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals, including the TSX Venture Exchange and other customary conditions. All of the securities sold pursuant to the offerings will be subject to a four-month plus one day hold period from the date of closing.
Finder's fees may be payable on all or a portion of the private placements and will consist of 7% cash and 7% Broker's Warrants, where applicable. In respect of NFTU's, the Broker Warrant will be exercisable for $0.15 for a unit consisting of one common share and one (1) share purchase warrant exercisable at $0.25 for a period of two years from closing. In respect of FTU's, the Broker Warrant will be exercisable for $0.15 for a unit consisting of one common share of the Company and one half (1/2) of one share purchase warrant, each such whole warrant being exercisable at $0.25 for a period of two years from closing. No Broker Warrants or their underlying common shares shall be eligible for flow through tax deductions.
Although the Company fully expects to spend the funds as stated there may be circumstances, for sound business reasons, where a reallocation of funds may be necessary. There is no material change about the Company that has not been generally disclosed.
For more information with respect to to the Gunners Cove Gold Property please visit the Company's Web Page at www.whitemetalres.com.
About White Metal Resources Corp (TSXV: WHM):
White Metal Resources Corp. is a junior mineral exploration company exploring for gold in Canada.
On behalf of the Board of Directors of White Metal Resources Corp.
"Jean-Pierre Colin"
Jean-Pierre Colin, President, CEO and Director
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.
The information contained herein contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements relate to information that is based on assumptions of management, forecasts of future results, and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. Any statements that express predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements."
Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: risks related to failure to obtain adequate financing on a timely basis and on acceptable terms; risks related to the outcome of legal proceedings; political and regulatory risks associated with mining and exploration; risks related to the maintenance of stock exchange listings; risks related to environmental regulation and liability; the potential for delays in exploration or development activities or the completion of feasibility studies; the uncertainty of profitability; risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of drill results, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; risks related to the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses; results of prefeasibility and feasibility studies, and the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations; risks related to gold price and other commodity price fluctuations; and other risks and uncertainties related to the Company's prospects, properties and business detailed elsewhere in the Company's disclosure record. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company's expectations or projection
For further information contact:
Jean-Pierre Colin
President, CEO & Director
jpcolin.whitemetal@gmail.com
Phone: (416) 573-4300
or
Michael Stares
684 Squier Street
Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, P7B 4A8
Phone: (807) 628-7836 Fax (807) 475 7200
Acquisition of Danish Ellipse adds globally renowned IPL and laser technologies to Syneron Candela's portfolio, further strengthening their position in multi-application, multi-technology devices
WAYLAND, Massachusetts, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Syneron Candela, a leading global aesthetic device company, announces the acquisition of Ellipse, a Danish medical device company that manufactures and markets Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) and laser-based platforms for a wide variety of medical and aesthetic skin treatments. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
"The acquisition of Ellipse allows Syneron Candela to strengthen its footprint in the multi-application space and provide our customers a comprehensive portfolio. Syneron Candela's best-in-class laser and energy-based technologies are now coupled with a trusted IPL technology that is well respected by physicians," states Geoffrey Crouse, Chief Executive Officer of Syneron Candela. "Ellipse platforms will provide aesthetic practices with a fully scalable multi-application, multi-technology device. We look forward to Ellipse strengthening our portfolio as we continue to deliver our brand promise of Science, Results, Trust to our physicians and patients worldwide. The Ellipse product portfolio is consistent with our commitment to scientifically proven technologies backed by consistent clinical outcomes."
Ellipse's key products include Nordlys, a multi-application, multi-technology IPL and Nd:YAG platform for vascular and pigmented lesions, as well as hair removal. The Nordlys also offers a fractionated 1550 nm handpiece for skin resurfacing. Other products include an IPL-only system used for skin rejuvenation, facial veins and hair removal, as well as a fractional non-ablative laser system used for skin resurfacing. Ellipse's Selective Waveband Technology (SWT) uniquely utilizes dual filtering on all IPL handpieces to focus on effective wavelengths and selectively deliver precise energy to the targeted area, using sub-millisecond pulses for some applications. "We are excited to join forces with Syneron Candela and market our strong technology platforms via Syneron Candela's expansive global footprint, along with its commitment to clinical excellence, quality and innovation," says Jacob Kildegaard Larsen, Chief Executive Officer at Ellipse.
"As a physician who utilizes the Ellipse IPL platform and considers it a foundational technology for all dermatology practices, I am pleased that Syneron Candela can now offer the full spectrum of light, laser and energy-based solutions to physicians and patients worldwide," says Jill Waibel, M.D, a long time Syneron Candela user, board-certified dermatologist and Medical Director/Founder of Miami Dermatology and Laser Institute in Miami, Florida. "Syneron Candela and Ellipse are both physician acknowledged leaders in their respective categories. Bringing the companies together will herald a new era in device innovation that elevates patient care," concludes Christine Dierickx, M.D, a Luxembourg based dermatologist, specializing in laser surgery and cosmetic dermatology.
Syneron Candela
Syneron Candela is a leading global aesthetic device company with an extensive product portfolio and an expansive global direct commercial infrastructure. The Company's technology enables physicians to provide advanced solutions for a broad range of medical-aesthetic applications including hair removal, wrinkle reduction, tattoo removal, women's health treatments, facial resurfacing, traumatic and surgical scar treatments, body contouring, improving the skin's appearance through the treatment of benign vascular and pigmented lesions, and the treatment of acne, leg veins and cellulite. In addition to Vbeam, Syneron Candela has a wide portfolio of trusted, leading products including the Gentle family of products, PicoWay, Profound, CO 2 RE, CO 2 RE Intima, elos Plus, UltraShape and VelaShape. Acquired by Apax Partners in 2017, the Company markets, services and supports its products in 86 countries. It has offices in the United States, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom and utilizes a network of distributors for other international markets.
Ellipse
Ellipse, founded in 1997, is a privately held company head quartered in Denmark. Ellipse develops, manufactures and markets high-quality laser and IPL based systems for dermatologic treatments for a wide variety of medical and aesthetic conditions. Products are used for skin rejuvenation, the treatment of vascular and pigmented lesions, skin resurfacing and hair removal and are strongly rooted in science, high quality and customer trust. Ellipse products are currently marketed in almost 50 countries worldwide.
Media Contact:
EvolveMKD
P: 646.517.4220 | E: candela@evolvemkd.com
Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/737963/Candela_Corporation_Logo.jpg
CHELMSFORD, England, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- There's no denying the UK franchising sector's omnipotence. Not only has the bfa highlighted the 15.1bn contribution* it makes to the nation's economy, the sum is the result of a 46% growth over ten years, suggesting the future only looks even brighter.
Elite Franchise is thrilled with the industry's exciting rise. It's revealed no end of entrepreneurial talent as networks are built around everything from food to finance, housekeeping to healthcare and in-between. And that's why the Elite Franchise 100 is back.
With an incredible debut ranking of the top 100 franchises last year and the marketplace flourishing further with fresh faces, Britain's definitive league table is flying the flag for franchising finesse for its second outing. Franchisors small and large will be celebrated with our combined audience of 15,000 print subscribers and digital network of over 250,000 readers.
With everything from support to innovation taken into account by our prestigious judging panel, which last year included the likes of Richard Holden, head of franchising at Lloyds Banking Group and Clive Sawyer, chair of Encouraging Women Into Franchising, the categories to be considered include:
Longevity Financial Network size Growth Contribution Support Innovation Future
Zen Terrelonge, editor of Elite Franchise, said: "At Elite Franchise, we're often spoilt for choice when it comes to highlighting the country's vibrant franchises. With the EF100 2019, these buzzing British businesses have the chance to highlight themselves in their own voice and earn the recognition they deserve."
Formally announced on Friday 7thDecember 2018, the winners of the EF100 will be assembled in a high-quality printed publication and our annual online rankings. Please visit: https://www.newsstand.co.uk/196-Business-and-Finance-Magazines/27056-Subscribe-to-ELITE-FRANCHISE-TOP-100-Magazine-Subscription.aspx to subscribe to the physical publication on Newsstand.
For more information, visit: http://elitefranchisemagazine.co.uk/2018-08-24-12-11-15/apply-now-ef100-2019
Notes to editors
Data:
* https://www.thebfa.org/external-relations-pr/franchise-industry-research/
Elite Franchise
Elite Franchise is the definitive publication for the franchising sector. Published by Channel Edge Media, this monthly magazine is full with news and features for franchisors and franchisees. http://elitefranchisemagazine.co.uk
For further information: Scott English, scott.english@cemedia.co.uk, 01245-673690
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 5, 2018 / Omni Commerce Corp. (TSX-V: OMNI; FRA: 0MZA) ('Omni' or the 'Company') is pleased to announce that Gary R. Thompson has been appointed to its Board of Directors, as well as the appointment of Larry Martin to the Advisory Board.
Mr. Larry Martin is a successful entrepreneur with 40 years' experience in executive leadership, marketing and branding and intellectual property matters in many different industries. He is on the board of directors of numerous companies and is sought after for his expertise on building brands with a focus on consumer sales. Most recently as a principal and CEO of Field and Stream LLC, he facilitated the growth from $20 million to over $400 million in 5 years, then exited the company in a sale to Dicks Sporting Goods. Larry has 35 years' experience as a principal officer and director to many corporations in the medical industry, which ties in nicely into the CBD sector.
'Mr. Martin is a serially successful entrepreneur. I feel very fortunate to have him as an advisor to help Omni and PureKana reach the next level of growth,' stated Anthony Srdanovic, Omni's CEO.
Mr. Gary Thompson is a top-level executive with a wealth of experience in founding companies, raising capital and growing shareholder value over his 28 years of experience. He has raised in excess of $100 million in multiple public companies which he founded. Mr. Thompson completed the Queen's Executive MBA Program at Queen's School of Business and holds a B.Sc. (Honours) Geology, from the University of British Columbia.
'Mr. Thompson's vast experience in public entities and his network will be invaluable to Omni,' states Omni's CEO.
The Company has accepted the resignation of Monique Morden as director as she is leaving to pursue other ventures. Omni would like to thank Ms. Morden for her contribution and wish her success in all future endeavors.
Gary Boddington has relinquished his role as a member of the advisory board of Omni. Mr. Boddington joined the advisory board in November 2017 to advise the company on blockchain related opportunities. In March 2018 the Omni board decided not to pursue opportunities in the blockchain industry and Mr. Boddington terminated his role as an advisor to the Company.
About PureKana
Based in Los Angeles, California, PureKana is a top source for quality, affordable health and wellness products made from CBD-rich hemp. PureKana's CBD products contain less than 0.3% THC (the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis) as nutritional additives. PureKana products are non-GMO and contain no pesticides, solvents, herbicides or chemical fertilizer. PureKana's mission is to educate the world on the benefits of hemp CBD and to lead the industry in bringing affordable hemp CBD products to the marketplace. The Members, both of whom are resident in Los Angeles, California, are the sole owners and managers of PureKana.
About Omni
Omni is a publicly listed company currently listed on the TSXV, trading under the symbol "OMNI". Omni is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia and is a reporting issuer in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. On May 31, 2018, trading in the Shares was halted in connection with the Company's announcement of the proposed Change of Business and is expected to remain halted until the Closing.
Other Information
Completion of the transaction described herein is subject to a number of conditions, including Exchange acceptance and disinterested shareholder approval. The transactions cannot close until the required shareholder approval is obtained. There can be no assurance that these transactions will be completed as proposed or at all.
Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the Filing Statement to be prepared in connection with the transaction, any information released or received with respect to the Change of Business may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in the securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulatory Services Provider has in any way passed or expressed an opinion upon the merits of the proposed transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
OMNI COMMERCE CORP.
Per: "Anthony Srdanovic"
Anthony Srdanovic, CEO
For further information, please contact:
Omni Commerce Corp.
Anthony Srdanovic, CEO
Phone: (604) 506-0949
Email: anthony@omnicommerccorp.ca
OMNI COMMERCE CORP.
#1001 - 1185 West Georgia Street, Vancouver BC
Tel: 778-998-9242 | Fax: 604-685-4675
Neither TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information
This press release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including: statements regarding the future strategy of the Company; potential future transactions; and the sectors in which the Company is considering operating. These forward-looking statements address future activities, events, plans, developments and projections. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, constitute forward-looking statements and are frequently identified by words such as "may,' "will,' "should,' "anticipate,' "plan,' "expect,' "believe,' "estimate,' "intend" and similar terminology, and reflect assumptions, estimates, opinions and analysis made by management in light of its experience, current conditions, expectations of future developments and other factors which management believes to be reasonable and relevant. Forward-looking information and statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance and achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information and statements and, accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed thereon. Risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to vary include, but are not limited to, failure by the Company to obtain shareholder approval of a proposed change of business or fundamental transaction if required; failure to identify potential transaction opportunities with acceptable terms or that have the ability to increase shareholder value; risks related to investments and operations in the cannabis sector in the United States; and other factors beyond the Company's control, as well as the risks and uncertainties which are more fully described in our annual and quarterly management's discussion and analysis and in other filings made by the Company with Canadian securities regulatory authorities under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. The Company disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information or statements except as may be required by applicable law.
SOURCE: Omni Commerce Corp.
PrivateFly Will Join OneSky, Directional's Exclusive Family of Private Jet Travel Access Solutions
Within The OneSky Family, PrivateFly Will Join Forces With Digital Booking Pioneer Skyjet
Pairing Creates a Truly Global Solution for Instant Access to Aircraft Worldwide
OneSky Offers the World's Most Complete Suite of Private Jet Travel Access Solutions Including Digital On-Demand Charter Providers PrivateFly and Skyjet, Jet Card Innovator Sentient Jet and Shared Ownership Leader Flexjet
OneSky, LLC, part of Directional Aviation and home to some of the world's most respected private aviation companies including Skyjet, Sentient Jet and Flexjet, today announced it has acquired United Kingdom-headquartered PrivateFly, a leading global digital booking service for private jet charter flights. PrivateFly is expected to combine with Skyjet, OneSky's existing brokerage group and a pioneer in aviation technology for more than 20 years, to create one of the world's largest online booking platforms for private jet charter, one with a robust digital platform and a physical geography and assets tailored for countries on four continents.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005267/en/
"We are delighted to welcome PrivateFly to the OneSky and the Directional Aviation family," said Kenn Ricci, Principal of Directional Aviation. "PrivateFly's co-founders, Adam Twidell and Carol Cork, are true innovators who recognized early on how important mobile capabilities and on-demand digital bookings are in the charter space, and they will continue to play a critical role in the company's future. Pairing PrivateFly with Skyjet, OneSky's current digital on-demand charter broker, brings together two unique, innovative companies that are in different geographies to support OneSky's vision of a world-leading on-demand charter operation."
Twidell, who is PrivateFly's CEO, said, "We are proud to be joining OneSky, part of Directional Aviation, which incorporates every aspect of the private aviation industry in a way that no other company can. This is a key strategic moment for us that opens up new opportunities for our loyal and growing base of globe-spanning users, leveraging the power not only of Skyjet but also of the other OneSky companies."
"With this transaction, the OneSky portfolio of companies continues its global expansion to advance our vision of a connected world in which travelers anywhere in the world have access to every private jet travel solution no matter where they reside, ranging from on-demand charter booked at the swipe of a mobile device to membership programs to jet cards," said Andrew Collins, the President of OneSky's on-demand private jet charter organization Skyjet as well as jet card provider Sentient Jet. "With the combination of PrivateFly and Skyjet, we are realizing the digital part of this vision in the on-demand charter space. Nobody provides instant private jet travel at the touch of a button with this degree of expertise, allowing people to travel in the way that best meets their needs."
In line with the heritage of both PrivateFly and Skyjet, OneSky has a series of forthcoming technology-driven innovations that will further cement their global leadership in providing digitally accessed on-demand private jet travel.
In 2008, PrivateFly became the first digital end-to-end private jet booking platform. Initially focused on the United Kingdom, it since has developed multiple channels and customer bases worldwide, through localized content and language platforms and a multilingual, multicultural team. Currently, PrivateFly's platform for booking includes websites and digital applications tailored for 19 different countries on four continents, including North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Skyjet launched its charter platform in 1997, revolutionizing the travel landscape by pioneering the industry's first patented e-commerce platform for booking private jets. Skyjet is the first private aviation company to introduce the leading digital payment alternatives, adding Apple Pay to its award-winning mobile application in 2015 and Google Pay in 2017. Today, Skyjet offers one of the most popular and highly-downloaded private jet instant-booking mobile applications.
The combined entity will operate offices in both the United States and Europe and leverage the extensive infrastructure and assets available within the OneSky family of brands. Adam Twidell and Carol Cork will lead the new entity in its next period of growth and innovation.
About Directional Aviation and OneSky
Directional Aviation Capital is a private investment firm whose singular focus is private business aviation. Combining strategic aviation ownership, unmatched experience and revolutionary vision, Directional continues to innovate and reshape private aviation. Directional's unique industry expertise enables them to quickly understand business aviation companies and provide the financing and operational strategy needed to take advantage of evolving market opportunities.
Many of the world's leading private aviation companies are proud to be part of our family. Directional's OneSky portfolio of private jet travel providers includes shared ownership/fractional jet ownership, jet card, membership and on-demand charter providers. Industry leaders representing MRO, private jet remanufacturing, aviation parts distribution and more also make up the Directional family. Directional Aviation is charting the course of private aviation, worldwide. For more information, visit www.directionalaviation.com.
About Skyjet
Founded in 1997, Skyjet revolutionized private jet charter after pioneering the industry's first on-demand online booking for private jets. Headquartered in Massachusetts, Skyjet is a leading provider of on-demand private jet charters, providing clients with the industry's most efficient means of accessing private jet travel. Skyjet provides a superior solution for travelers seeking a simple, on-demand private jet charter option and a seamless booking experience. Clients have instant access to a custom fleet of aircraft as well as a fully certified jet collection through an extensive network of Skyjet approved operators. A team of dedicated aviation experts focused on exceptional service play a critical role in every Skyjet-approved trip. Skyjet's sole focus is on private jet charter customers, and it offers them convenience, security, and overall peace of mind in short, expertise on demand. Skyjet is part of one of the world's largest aviation portfolios, Directional Aviation. Visit www.skyjet.com to learn more.
About PrivateFly
PrivateFly is a global booking platform for private jet charter, making it faster, easier and more cost-effective to compare and book private jets. With over 7000 aircraft integrated worldwide, PrivateFly combines innovative technology with its team of aviation experts, available 24/7.
PrivateFly holds both Argus Certified Broker and Wyvern Broker status, industry best practice accreditations. The company's fast growth has been recognized by a number of award programs including the Financial Times FT1000, The Sunday Times Tech Track 100 and SME Export Track 100. For more information, visit www.privatefly.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005267/en/
Contacts:
The Hubbell Group, Inc.
Nicholas Parmelee, 216-406-5602 (cell)
781-878-8882 (office)
nparmelee@hubbellgroup.com
or
PrivateFly
Viv Diprose, +44 (0)7931 624864
viv@privatefly.com
or
Publicite Ltd
Katrina Suppiah, +44 (0)20 8543 6582
k.suppiah@publicite.co.uk
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 5, 2018) - Metals Creek Resources Corp. (TSXV: MEK) (Metals Creek or the company) is pleased to provide an update on the 10 Patented mining claims (The Garrison Project) located in Garrison Township approximately 35 kms north-northeast of Kirkland Lake, Ontario. The Garrison Project is contiguous with Osisko Mining to the west, south and east and contiguous with Kirkland Lake Gold to the north. (See Map on the company's website).
Compilation of historical data by the company on the Garrison Project has highlighted a highly prospective drill target consisting of carb altered mafic volcanics with associated pyrite mineralization as well as quartz stockwork. Drill hole BM88-1 intercepted 22.09 grammes per tonne (g/t) gold (Au) over 6.10 meters (m), including 74.63 g/t Au over 1.52 m (Source: project update drilling report, 1989). Further down hole were additional intercepts of 3.41 g/t Au over 2.74 m and 1.74g/t Au over 9.33m.
Hole BM88-5 undercut hole BM88-1 and returned a down hole intercept 36.12 g/t Au over 1.52m exhibiting similar style mineralization to that of hole BM88-1.
Reported intercepts are not true widths. At this time there is insufficient data to calculate true orientations.
The Corporation cautions that all Data in this release is historical in nature, has not been verified or validated and should not be relied upon.
A grid has been completed over the entire property and a Ground Geophysical survey consisting of Induced Polarization (IP) and Magnetics (Mag) will commence as soon as practical. Once the geophysical program is complete and the data has been reviewed and compiled, a detailed mapping program will commence to further delineate priority targets for an upcoming drill program.
Metals Creek can earn a 100% interest in the patents by making cash payments totaling $310,000 over a period of 4 years following the execution of the LOI. The vendors will retain a 2% NSR which the Company can purchase 1% for $1 million.
About Metals Creek Resources Corp.
Metals Creek Resources Corp. is a junior exploration company incorporated under the laws of the Province of Ontario, is a reporting issuer in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, and has its common shares listed for trading on the Exchange under the symbol "MEK". Metals Creek has earned a 50% interest in the Ogden Gold Property, including the former Naybob Gold mine, located 6 km south of Timmins, Ontario and has a 8 km strike length of the prolific Porcupine-Destor Fault (P-DF) that stretches between Timmins, Ontario and Val d'Or, Quebec. Metals Creek also has an option agreement with Quadro Resources on Metals Creeks and Benton Resources Staghorn Gold Project in Newfoundland as well as two option agreements with Anaconda Mining Inc. on Metals Creek's Jacksons Arm and Tilt Cove Properties also in Newfoundland. The company also has an option agreement on its Clarks Brook property with Sokoman Iron Corp. and is engaged in the identification, acquisition, exploration and development of other mineral resource properties, and presently has mining interests in Ontario, Yukon and Newfoundland and Labrador including the recently acquired Great Brehat project on the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland. Additional information concerning the Corporation is contained in documents filed by the Corporation with securities regulators, available under its profile at www.sedar.com.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Alexander (Sandy) Stares, President and CEO
Metals Creek Resources Corp
telephone: (709)-256-6060
fax: (709)-256-6061
email: astares@metalscreek.com
MetalsCreek.com
Twitter.com/MetalsCreekRes
Facebook.com/MetalsCreek
Norcross, Georgia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 5, 2018) - Micromeritics Instruments and Malvern Panalytical have announced today a new collaborative sales partnership. This strategic relationship brings two highly respected, market leading instrument providers together to offer customers an extensive and effective combined solution approach for materials and particle characterization. In several key markets around the world, Micromeritics will serve as a non-exclusive distributor for the world's most widely used Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) and Zeta Potential systems, the Malvern Panalytical's Zetasizer family of instruments. This will ultimately help drive customer innovation helping them to improve the performance of their products and processes.
"Collaborating with a progressive innovator and highly respected leader such as Malvern Panalytical aligns with our strategic development to deliver greater value in analytical instrument solutions for our customers," said Preston Hendrix, President of Micromeritics Instruments. "Micromeritics has always put our customers' interests first, and this partnership is further proof of that commitment to deliver excellence in materials characterization."
Paolo Carmassi, President of Malvern Panalytical, also highlighted the importance of this collaboration in supporting customers and commented that, "Access to critical analytical data is essential to generating the insight required to enable rapid, cost-effective development of innovative new materials, products and processes. Our partnership with Micromeritics will assist scientists and engineers in obtaining this critical data, bringing increased tangible value to our customers and growing our capability to effectively support applications we currently do not serve."
This announcement follows the recent acquisitions by Micromeritics of Freeman Technology Corporation, Ltd (Gloucestershire, UK) and Process Integral Development S.L. (Madrid, Spain), providing capabilities for process and product optimization across a wide variety of applications. The Zetasizer distribution agreement further adds to this capability, providing support for the development of novel nanomaterials.
About Malvern Panalytical (www.malvernpanalytical.com)
Malvern Panalytical technologies are used by scientists and engineers in a wide range of industries and organizations to solve the challenges associated with maximizing productivity, developing better quality products and getting them to market faster. Our mission is to create superior, customer-focused solutions and services to deliver tangible economic impact through chemical, physical and structural analysis of materials.
Underpinned by extensive industry knowledge and technical and applications expertise, Malvern Panalytical instruments help users better understand a wide variety of materials, from proteins and polymers to metals and building materials. Our technologies enable the measurement of parameters such as particle size, shape and zeta potential, biomolecular interactions and stability, rheological properties, elemental concentrations and crystallographic structure. Highly reliable and robust characterization of these properties is fundamental to predicting how a product will behave during use, to optimizing its performance and achieving manufacturing excellence.
Malvern Panalytical was formed by the merger of Malvern Instruments and PANalytical on 1st January, 2017, and employs over 2,000 people worldwide. With R&D and manufacturing sites in North America, Europe and China, and a global sales and service presence, we provide unrivalled levels of customer support. Malvern Panalytical is a strong player and innovator in the materials characterization market, providing expert solutions for superior actionable insight.
Malvern Panalytical is part of Spectris plc, the productivity-enhancing instruments and controls company.
About Micromeritics Instrument Corporation (www.micromeritics.com)
Micromeritics Instruments Corporation, a privately held company headquartered in Norcross, Georgia, USA, is a leading global provider of high-quality scientific instrumentation for material characterization. In business for over 55 years, Micromeritics' offerings include techniques for characterization of density/volume, surface area and porosity, physical and chemical adsorption, size and shape of particles, porous materials and powders. In addition to designing, building and selling its own instrumentation, Micromeritics, under its Particulate Systems brand, also offers complementary OEM and private label instruments through the Micromeritics global sales channel and distributor partners. Micromeritics also operates fee-for-service testing, certification and methods development laboratories under the Particle Testing Authority and Porotechnology brands in Asia (Shanghai, China); the Americas (Norcross, GA / Kingwood, TX, USA); and Europe (Aachen, Germany).
Media Contact:
Peter Nasca - 954-446-7060 - pnasca@persistencepr.com
Randy Byrne - 770-624-3339 - randy.byrne@micromeritics.com
Related Images
image1.jpg
image2.jpg
malvern-zetasizer-ultra-pro.jpg
Malvern Zetasizer Ultra Pro Dynamic Light Scattering Systems
Part of the Zetasizer family of products - "the world's most widely used systems for nanoparticle and colloid size and charge measurements".
Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - September 5, 2018) - FluroTech Ltd. (TSXV: TEST), ("FluroTech" or the "Company"), has successfully completed the development of the test kits for THCa and CBDa. When used with the Company's flagship quality control and potency optimization testing device, the CompleTest, accurate, reliable and consistent THCa and CBDa testing results can be achieved onsite within 15 minutes with this user friendly solution.
By having onsite cannabis testing, companies can save the time of shipping samples to the lab, improve the accuracy of labeling and cannabis sorting, pre-validate lab testing results, and optimize potency yield and cannabis curing techniques by testing the cannabis multiple times during the production process.
"FluroTech's science team has developed a straightforward testing protocol to accurately measure the concentrations of THCa and CBDa. Each test can be done with as little as 0.10 grams of cannabis," commented Dr. Elmar Prenner, Chief Technology Officer. "I am not aware of any other affordable technology that can achieve the same degree of accuracy without the use of trained lab technicians and relatively expensive lab equipment."
In preliminary data comparisons for the test for THCa and CBDa, the CompleTest results were very close to the results obtained for the same test sample by the current industry standard equipment, High Performance Liquid Chromatography or mass spectrometry. Unlike, the current testing equipment which often requires more data interpretation by scientists which may lead to cross-lab variability, CompleTest yielded the same test results on multiple test samples in a row.
The Company expects to obtain independent, third party validation of the THCa and CBDa test kits and the CompleTest device in the month of September and allow beta users to provide feedback prior to commercialization in late October.
"This milestone is significant for the Company. I believe that, it advances FluroTech from a research and development company to a position of achieving commercialization. In addition to the now completed heavy metals tests, the test for THCa and CBDa represents the completion of the second of seven prospective revenue streams the Company is actively developing" says CEO, Danny Dalla-Longa.
About CompleTest
CompleTest is FluroTech's flagship brand and product line. CompleTest is a portable, cost-effective, state-of-the-art cannabis testing device, able to provide quick, accurate and consistent testing results. It is designed for cultivators, dispensaries and anyone with a vested interest in consumer safety to test the quality and safety of their cannabis products and to optimize potency yield.
About FluroTech (TSX-V: TEST)
FluroTech is a technology and marketing company whose core business is focused on the commercialization of new technologies in the cannabis industry. FluroTech's proprietary spectroscopy-based technology allows for the testing and identification of organic and inorganic compounds contained within biological samples. Using the technology that was developed at the University of Calgary in conjunction with the University of Alberta, FluroTech has developed a two-part solution comprising an instrument called the CompleTest and consumable testing kits.
To learn more, visit www.FluroTech.com and watch our video.
Contact Information
FluroTech Ltd.
Alistair Ross Technology Centre
Suite 111, 3553-31 Street NW
Calgary, AB T2L 2K7
info@flurotech.com
Danny Dalla-Longa
Chief Executive Officer
403.680.0644
danny@flurotech.com
Prit Singh
IR - Thesis Capital Inc.
905.510.7636
psingh@thesiscapital.ca
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information
This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information generally refers to information about an issuer's business, capital, or operations that is prospective in nature, and includes future-oriented financial information about the issuer's prospective financial performance or financial position. The forward-looking information in this news release includes disclosure about the future performance of the Company.
The Company made certain material assumptions, including but not limited to prevailing market conditions and general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties to develop the forward-looking information in this news release. 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.
Actual results may vary from the forward-looking information in this news release due to certain material risk factors. These risk factors include, but are not limited to, adverse market conditions and regulatory and other risks associated with the medical cannabis industry in general. The Company cautions that the foregoing list of material risk factors and assumptions is not exhaustive.
The Company assumes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking information in this news release, unless it is required to do so under Canadian securities legislation.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of this release.
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES
SHANGHAI, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Medtec China 2018 is being held on 26-28thSeptember 2018 in Shanghai. The scale of the show has increased by 25% compared with 2017, which represents the largest event ever. 400 high quality brands including design and manufacturing, raw materials, precision components, processing technologies, and regulatory consultant services are going to be showcased on site, among which 100 exhibitors are debuting. This year Medtec China expects to receive more than 20,000 visits. Visitors can make the most of the following six highlights at the show.
13 exhibition zones improve the visiting experience
Medtec China 2018 has 13 exhibition zones to optimize the visiting experience, which including Materials & Adhesives; Materials, Components and Process; Medical Manufacturing Automation; Medical Components; Packaging, Sterilization, Labelling; Ultra-Precision Machining; and Regulation.
3M, Zeus, DSM, Teleflex, Clariant, Dupont, Trelleborg, Lubrizol Corporation, Micron are once again going to join Medtec China 2018; another 100 exhibitors such as WuXi AppTec, TP Concept Sdn Bhd, Industrial Physics, MTS China, and Junkosha Inc will mark their debuts at the show. Click to discover 2018 exhibitor list.
Germany and Singapore Pavilions upgraded
This year 11 companies are exhibiting at the German pavilion at Medtec China, while the Singapore welcomes eight exhibitors. This presence will augment the overall exhibition and showcase technologies and services for Medtec China visitors. These exhibitors are going to show specialty cables, automation and device manufacturing solutions, sealing detection equipment, plastic welding technology, dialyzer assembling equipment, software encryption and management services, non-standard precision components and surface treatment.
REGULATORY STREET helps brands go global
Exhibitors in REGULATORY STREET provide comprehensive regulatory consultant services including accessing markets in North America, Europe, Japan and Canada. Dr. Knoell Consult GmbH, WuXi AppTec, NAMSA and Shanghai Huaxia Investment Management will exhibit. A "Regulation Lecture" will take place in this zone.
MDiT Forum and Regulation Summit 2018" got supported by many keynote speakers
"Regulation, Quality and Technology" are three focus points of the conference theme as per usual. Keynote speakers from SHFDA, FDA and China Chamber Of Commerce Of Medicines & Health Products Importers & Exporters, Shanghai Pudong Medical Device Trade Association and Johnson & Johnson have been invited to deliver speeches about how to improve quality through unannounced inspections, the content and requirements of databases in UDI, supervision of post-marketing medical devices after changes of regulation, the interpretation and implementation of the medical device registration system, US & EU regulatory updates and key market accessing, MDSAP updates and FDA inspection, and concepts and ways of medical device design. Click here to discover the 2018 full conference agenda.
4 Free technology conferences and interesting technology theater
Medtec China also has many qualified free conferences and activities to enrich the visiting experience for our visitors. Four free technology conferences will focus on Next-Gen Design & New Technology, Pack&Ster, Plastic Innovation, and Dressing Materials and Technology. The Tech Theater is one of the most popular activities on site, which always attracts plenty of visitors. Further, Medtec China is going to have three tracks consisting of materials, components & processing, medical automation, and German technology.
To find out more, please download 2018 Show preview or visit our official website www.medtecchina.com
Media\Exhibit\Visit\Conference Contact:
Carina Li
UBM China
T: +86-10-5730-6163
E: carina.li@ubm.com
Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/739492/Medtec.jpg
Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/739494/Medtec_2.jpg
Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/739495/2017_Medtec.jpg
NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Charles Bronfman Prize announced its 2018 recipient: Amy Bach, Founder, Executive Director and President of Measures for Justice (MFJ), the first organization to publicly measure how the entire criminal justice system is performing in all counties across the United States by collecting, analyzing and comparing county-level data.
"Amy's work revealed a critical gap in our criminal justice system, and she developed an ingenious method for filling it," Charles Bronfman said. "She epitomizes the concern for social justice and entrepreneurial spirit that the Prize recognizes. I am delighted the judges selected Amy."
The Charles Bronfman Prize is an annual award of $100,000 presented to a humanitarian under 50 whose innovative work informed by Jewish values has significantly improved the world. The Prize was founded in 2004 by Ellen Bronfman Hauptman and Stephen Bronfman, with their spouses, Andrew Hauptman and Claudine Blondin Bronfman, to honor their father, Charles Bronfman, on his 70th birthday.
"The Prize is privileged to recognize Amy's groundbreaking work to address injustices experienced in the criminal justice system," said Ellen Bronfman Hauptman on behalf of the founders. "She will make an outstanding addition to an already exceptional group of Prize laureates."
"I am honored to be recognized by the Charles Bronfman Prize, which will go a long way toward bringing to light the importance of open data and criminal justice data collection at the county level," Bach said. "So many lives are impacted by the criminal justice system every day. We need make visible what is otherwise hidden. I am thrilled to see this work in the spotlight."
The U.S. leads the industrialized world in incarceration, with only five percent of the world's population but nearly a quarter of the prison population. Yet, its justice system lacks the fundamental data to determine whether spending is reducing crime, improving fairness or lessening repeat offenders. MFJ's solution is to supply legislators, practitioners, change makers, everyone with the facts.
"The way you treat the vulnerable in society is how that society will be judged," noted Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella of the Supreme Court of Canada on behalf of the Prize's international panel of judges. "Prison impacts some of the most disadvantaged. Amy's initiatives go toward taking care of people who can't take care of themselves, addressing universal issues of poverty, race, indigenous populations, the undereducated."
Bach founded Measures for Justice, based in Rochester, NY, in 2011 as a follow-up to her acclaimed book, Ordinary Injustice: How America Holds Court, which demonstrated how well-intentioned prosecutors, judges, and defense attorneys can become so accustomed to patterns of injustice, they no longer see them. She and her team developed a set of measures from arrest to post-conviction, and MFJ began collecting data to answer some basic questions -- who's in jail, for how long, for what crimes - and compared the results across counties.
"Amy's perseverance to create a transparency in criminal justice is really the story of what it takes to challenge human rights abuses everywhere," former US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power declared in a letter supporting her nomination.
Last May MFJ released six states' worth of data online -- available to anyone -- that can be broken down by race and ethnicity, sex, indigent status and age. MFJ is on its way to measuring all 50 states.
"Armed with data, MFJ is combining 21st century technology with age-old Jewish values," said Georgia Levenson Keohane, former executive director of Pershing Square Foundation, which nominated Amy for the Prize and was an early key supporter of MFJ.
Media Contact ; Martin Irom, martinirom@gmail.com, 212-362-5260, 516-567-4348 (c)
Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/737641/Amy_Bach.jpg
Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/737642/The_Charles_Bronfman_Prize_Logo.jpg
Proceeds from the annual tribute gala will benefit the charitable work of the Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation
The Latin Recording Academytoday announced six-time Latin GRAMMY and four-time GRAMMY winning rock-pop band Mana will be honored as the 2018 Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year for their extraordinary creative accomplishments and philanthropic contributions to the Latin community, as well as for their steadfast and dedicated support of environmental preservation and protection, as well as human rights. This award carries additional prestige and significance as it will be the first time a band receives the Person of the Year recognition.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005597/en/
Courtesy of Mana/Bernardo Flores, photographer
The Person of the Year award is bestowed upon musicians of Ibero-American heritage in recognition of their artistic achievement in the Latin music industry and their profound humanitarian efforts. Past honorees include Marc Anthony, Miguel Bose, Roberto Carlos, Placido Domingo, Emilio Estefan, Gloria Estefan,Vicente Fernandez, Juan Gabriel, Gilberto Gil, Juan Luis Guerra, Julio Iglesias, Jose Jose, Ricky Martin, Carlos Santana, Alejandro Sanz, Joan Manuel Serrat, Shakira and Caetano Veloso
"Mana (Fher, Alex, Sergio and Juan) is an iconic band with a profound social and environmental consciousness that has created captivating and vibrant music for over three decades," said Gabriel Abaroa Jr., President/CEO of The Latin Recording Academy. "Fusing mainly funk, reggae, ska, bolero, and a spectrum of Latin rhythms mixed with pure rock; Mana has created true musical anthems. In addition to becoming worldwide Latin music icons, their members have championed for social justice, global equality, and encouraged environmental protection using the force of their melodies and lyrics, which repeatedly remind our communities of our strength, resilience, and our inherent cultural value."
"It is a grand and unexpected recognition to an extensive career, a beautiful and passionate one that we continue to enjoy as if it were the first day. We are flattered that the most prestigious Latin music organization is recognizing us. Undoubtedly, it will be moving to hear our songs performed by talented colleagues and friends. We hope to continue using our voices and this honor to raise awareness about environmental concerns and human rights issues around the world," said Fheron behalf of the band.
Mana will be honored and celebrated at a star-studded gala featuring a glamorous tribute concert, including renditions of their renowned repertoire performed by an impressive array of notable artists and friends onWednesday, Nov. 14, 2018, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
One of the world's most influential Latin rock-pop bands, Mana-currentlycomprised of Fher Olvera, Alex Gonzalez, Sergio Vallin, and Juan Calleros-have 133 gold records, 256 platinum records, and more than 48 No. 1 hits worldwide. Classics such as "No Ha Parado De Llover," "Rayando el Sol", "De Pies A Cabeza," "Labios Compartidos," "Bendita Tu Luz," and "Mi Verdad," among many others, have become essential songs of the Latin American soundtrack. With their latest tour in the United States, the "Latino Power Tour"- they traveled to various cities promoting the importance of the Latin vote in the past presidential elections
Throughout the last three decades, they have used their voice and international recognition to raise awareness about environmental, social, political and human rights issues worldwide. In 1996, Mana created the Fundacion Ecologica Selva Negra, the band's philanthropic entity, which preserves endangered species, provides educational programs on the environment, and contributes and organizes community development projects.
Their success has crossed borders, they have surmounted every obstacle, and achieved a global presence where people from all over the world, whether in Israel or New York, sing their songs in Spanish, generating an emotional connection despite language barriers.
The net proceeds from the gala will go toward the charitable work of the Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundationwhose mission is to further international awareness and appreciation of the significant contributions of Latin music and its makers to the world's culture through scholarships, fellowships, grants, and educational programs. The Foundation's primary charitable focus is to provide scholarships to students interested in Latin music with financial need, as well as grants to scholars and organizations worldwide for research and preservation of diverse Latin music genres.
Nine-time Latin GRAMMY and three-time GRAMMY winner Rafa Sardina will be the executive producer of the prestigious event. Greg Fera will serve as the producer, and Gustavo Borner, who has received eleven Latin GRAMMYs and five GRAMMYs will be in charge of the sound for the night. The musical production and coordination of the event will be managed by Moon Moosic, Inc
For information on purchasing tickets to the Person of the Year gala please contact The Latin Recording Academy's ticketing office at (310) 314-8281 or ticketing@grammy.com
ABOUT THE LATIN RECORDING ACADEMY:
The Latin Recording Academy is an international, membership-based organization comprised of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking recording artists, musicians, songwriters, producers and other creative and technical recording professionals. The organization is dedicated to improving the quality of life and cultural condition for Latin music and its makers. In addition to producing the Latin GRAMMY Awards to honor excellence in the recorded arts and sciences, The Latin Recording Academy provides educational and outreach programs for the Latin music community either directly or through its Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation. For more information about The Latin Recording Academy, please visit LatinGRAMMY.com.
ABOUT THE LATIN GRAMMY CULTURAL FOUNDATION:
The Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundationwas established by The Latin Recording Academy to promote international awareness and appreciation of the significant contributions of Latin music and its makers to the world's culture, and to protect its rich musical legacy and heritage. The Foundation's primary charitable focus is to provide scholarships to students interested in Latin music with financial needs, as well as grants to scholars and organizations worldwide for research and preservation of diverse Latin music genres. For additional information, please visit us at www.latingrammyculturalfoundation.com For the latest news and exclusive content follow us on Twitter Facebook and Instagram.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005597/en/
Contacts:
MEDIA:
The Latin Recording Academy:
Iveliesse Malave: ive@grammy.com
(305) 576-0036
or
The Lippin Group on behalf of The Latin Recording Academy:
Elina Adut: EAdut@lippingroup.com
Jennifer Price: JPrice@lippingroup.com
(323) 965-1990
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered TissueMark [1] software enables molecular research labs to reduce variability in tumor estimation and related costs
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands and BILBAO, Spain, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced the latest release of TissueMark, which now supports region of interest detection for the majority of molecular testing and helps research labs improve the accuracy of tumor estimation. The new version, which will be showcased at the 30th European Congress of Pathology (ECP) 2018, from 8-12 September at Euskalduna Conference Centre, leverages deep learning AI to aid in prostate and ovarian tumor tissue identification.
Prostate cancer is the second deadliest cancer for men and ovarian cancer is the fifth deadliest for women. Given the severity of these two cancers, it is increasingly important that pathologists are equipped with the technology they need to further their research in these important areas. Innovative computational solutions can help pathologists improve efficiency in the research setting, which will ultimately help support precision medicine and enhance the speed and accuracy of diagnosis.
In addition to providing tumor sufficiency guidance for lung histology, lung cytology, colon and breast tissue samples in 60 seconds, the updated TissueMark software now provides this guidance to whole slide images (WSI) of adenocarcinoma prostate tissue and high-grade serous carcinoma ovarian tissue. With this update, TissueMark presents a comprehensive portfolio of AI-driven applications to address most critical primary tumors encountered for molecular research testing.
"Using a microscope for tumor estimation is subjective and leads to high variability amongst pathologists," said Marlon Thompson, General Manager, Philips Digital & Computational Pathology. "By digitizing the tissue slide and analyzing the image with robust computational software and intelligent algorithms, we can better support pathologists' workflows and help labs enhance quality and reliability, while reducing costs by limiting the number of molecular tests performed with insufficient tumor content."
AI-powered solutions have great potential to make solutions adaptive to the needs of clinicians to help them further improve patient outcomes and care efficiency. Philips is at the forefront of using advanced analytics and artificial intelligence in key healthcare domains and launched its AI platform for healthcare earlier this year.
To demonstrate Philips' commitment to AI and computational pathology technologies, the recently renamed Philips Digital & Computational Pathology business will showcase the latest version of TissueMark at ECP 2018. In addition to TissueMark, attendees will have an opportunity to experience the company's comprehensive portfolio of digital pathology systems, including the Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution, which helps labs to enhance efficiency of pathologists' workflows with the potential to improve cost savings and drive efficient care.
For more information on Philips' presence at the 30th European Congress of Pathology, visit www.philips.com/digitalpathology, stop by Philips' booth (#10) and follow @Philips_Path for ECP2018 updates throughout the event.
[1] TissueMark is not intended for diagnostic, monitoring or therapeutic purpose or in any other manner for regular medical practice.
For further information, please contact:
Joost Maltha
Philips Group Press Office
Tel.: +31 6 10 55 8116
E-mail: Joost.Maltha@philips.com
Twitter: @JoostMaltha
Hans Driessen
Philips Digital & Computational Pathology
Tel.: +31 6 10 61 0417
E-mail: hans.driessen@philips.com
About Royal Philips
Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology, deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips generated in 2017 sales of EUR 17.8 billion and it employs approximately 75,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter.
Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/739556/Philips_TissueMark.jpg
Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/324348/royal_philips_logo.jpg
With Panopticon Streams, users now able to create sophisticated Kafka data flows quickly and easily with no coding
BEDFORD, Mass., Oct. 16, 2018) today announced the general availability of Panopticon Streams , a stream processing engine built on the popular Apache Kafka platform. Whether used as a stand-alone solution or in conjunction with Panopticon's Visual Analytics platform, enterprises benefit from comprehensive monitoring and analysis of real-time streaming and time series data. Panopticon's unique solutions enable business users who deployed web-based solution to build sophisticated Kafka data flows with no coding.
With Panopticon Streams, users connect directly to a wide range of streaming and historic information sources, including Kafka, Kx kdb+, Solace, Hadoop and NoSQL sources. The platform supports critical data functions including:
Streaming Data Prep: Combines multiple real-time streams with historic data sources
Calculation Engine: Calculates performance metrics based on business needs
Aggregation Driver: Combines data as needed
Alerting Engine: Highlights anomalies against user-defined thresholds
Integration with the Confluent Enterprise Control Center
Expanded support for IoT environments, including manufacturing, energy/utilities, and transportation/logistics
"The introduction of Panopticon Streams gives our customers a true streaming analytics platform optimized for businesses working with continuously changing operational data," said Peter Simpson, vice president of visualization strategy at Datawatch Panopticon. "In particular, our Capital Markets customers will benefit from its support of several key use cases, including best execution, real-time P&L, transaction cost analysis and trader and trading surveillance."
Forrester analyst Mike Gualtieri noted in his The Forrester Wave: Streaming Analytics report that, "Streaming Analytics is essential technology to orchestrate interactions between a complex portfolio of applications and the data sources."1 He also noted in his Prescriptive Analytics: The Black Belt Of Digital Decisions report that, "Streaming Analytics can provide real-time insights for decision logic or it can detect patterns in data that indicate that a decision must be made."2
As with Panopticon Visual Analytics, Panopticon Streams requires no coding expertise. Users who understand the business problems can create their own data flows, which can utilize information from any number of sources and incorporate joins, aggregations, conflations, calculations, unions and merges and alerts. Analysts can then visualize processed data using Panopticon Visual Analytics and deliver it to Kafka, Kx kdb+, InfluxDb, or any SQL database.
Simpson continued: "The addition of Panopticon Streams' capabilities means we now offer a general purpose streaming analytics platform. It has applications anywhere organizations need to identify anomalies and outliers, investigate their causes, back test potential solutions, and then alter their business processes to address the issue. Given the software's ability to handle real-time and time series data, we believe it will be most useful in telecommunications, energy, and IoT applications, in addition to electronic trading for capital markets firms."
The company will demonstrate Panopticon Streaming Analytics at the Kafka Summit in San Francisco on October 16 and 17, 2018. More details: https://kafka-summit.org/events/kafka-summit-san-francisco-2018/
The company is also hosting a full day interactive workshop focused on implementing Panopticon Streaming Analytics in Kafka environments in London on October 30, 2018. More details: http://viz.datawatch.com/l/62102/2018-09-28/36sk628
To learn more about Panopticon Streams, visit: www.panopticon.com or call 978-441-2200.
About Panopticon
Leading capital markets firms rely on Panopticon from Datawatch for faster analytics of real-time streaming and time series data. The powerful combination of stream processing, rapid data comprehension through visual analysis, faster investigation through time series analysis, and playback down to the individual tick supports organizations in making timely, more informed decisions that have immediate financial impacts. For more information about Panopticon and how it has been deployed at customers in time critical areas across trading, risk, compliance, trading operations and asset management, please visit: www.panopticon.com .
About Datawatch Corporation
Datawatch Corporation ) is the data intelligence provider with market leading enterprise data preparation, predictive analytics and visualization solutions that fuel business analytics. Only Datawatch can confidently position individuals and organizations to master all data - no matter the origin, format or narrative - resulting in faster time to insight. Datawatch solutions are architected to drive the use of more data, foster more trust and incorporate more minds into business analytics. Thousands of organizations of all sizes in more than 100 countries worldwide use Datawatch products, including 93 of the Fortune 100. The company is headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts, with offices in New York, London, Toronto, Stockholm, Singapore and Manila. To learn more about Datawatch please visit: www.datawatch.com .
Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
Any statements contained in this press release that do not describe historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any such statements contained herein, including but not limited to those relating to product performance and viability, are based on current expectations, but are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could cause actual future results to differ materially from current expectations include the following: rapid technological change; Datawatch's dependence on the introduction of new products and product enhancements and possible delays in those introductions; acceptance of new products by the market, competition in the software industry generally, and in the markets for next generation analytics in particular; and Datawatch's dependence on its principal products, proprietary software technology and software licensed from third parties. Further information on factors that could cause actual results to differ from those anticipated is detailed in various publicly-available documents, which include, but are not limited to, filings made by Datawatch from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to, those appearing in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2015. Any forward-looking statements should be considered in light of those factors.
Media Contact:
Frank Moreno
Vice President Worldwide Marketing, Datawatch Corporation
frank_moreno@datawatch.com
978-275-8225
Twitter: @datawatch
2018 Datawatch Corporation. Datawatch and the Datawatch logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Datawatch Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
1 The Forrester Wave: Streaming Analytics, Q3 2017)
2 Prescriptive Analytics: The Black Belt Of Digital Decisions)
Source: Datawatch
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 5, 2018) - Blackrock Gold Corporation (TSXV: BRC) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that a review and study of the Silver Cloud property geophysical data has been conducted by Consulting Geophysicist Jim Wright of Elko, Nevada. Geophysical data over the Silver Cloud property, compiled by Wright (2018), has been analyzed and additional data including historic gravity, magnetic, CSAMT and Airborne Surveys conducted during the last 20 years are also included in the analysis.
The review and interpretation by Jim Wright indicates that property scale gravity data are dominated by lithologic responses and a large-scale gravity low. Furthermore, a compelling gravity low also correlates with the Silver Cloud deposit, the geologic source surmised to be advanced argillic alteration around and beneath the deposit. Several other similar gravity lows were recorded in the vicinity.
Airborne magnetic data covers the entire property, with lithological responses imparting considerable variation in the magnetic pattern. The most interesting feature is a magnetic high extending south-southeast from the Silver Cloud mine and termed the Silver Cloud Structural Zone (SCSZ). This magnetic high is likely produced by dikes filling a Northern Nevada Rift structural element.
Numerous small areas of silica alteration are interpreted from the CSAMT sections, as well as a myriad of small-scale structures. This is confirmed by examination of the geologic map. The most important guides to direct targeting of gold mineralization, based solely on the geophysics, are the inferred hydrothermal feeders proximal to larger-scale structures.
After a review of Jim Wright's Report -Silver Cloud Geophysical Analysis-2018 GIS Data Base and the geochemical data collected in May 2018, the Company believes more surface technical work is warranted prior to a drill program to optimize success. After careful consideration and review, the company will perform additional surface and technical work including an extensive geochemical survey and additional geophysical survey in 2018. Blackrock Gold will finalize plans to start drilling the Silver Cloud project once this work is completed.
"We are glad to have the geophysical review and interpretation completed by Jim Wright," stated Blackrock Gold CEO Greg Schifrin. "The information will help provide a better understanding of the geology, structure and alteration at Silver Cloud as we advance toward conducting additional surface exploration work on Silver Cloud project this fall in preparation for drilling."
About Blackrock Gold
Blackrock Gold Corp is a discovery-driven junior exploration company focused on uncovering the next big economic gold deposit. Anchored by a seasoned Board, the Company is focused on blue-sky opportunities, with an aim to acquire large-scale land packages that are in prolific gold belts within stable jurisdictions.
For further information, please contact:
Gregory L. Schifrin, Chief Executive Officer
Blackrock Gold Corp.
Email: gschifrin@blackrockgoldcorp.com
Phone: 1 - 208-290-1180
Website: www.blackrockgold.ca
The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this release. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, constitute "forward-looking statements" and include any information that addresses activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future including the Company's strategy, plans or future financial or operating performance and other statements that express management's expectations or estimates of future performance.
Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use of the words "may", "will", "should", "continue", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "intend", "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. These statements, however, 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, implied by or projected in the forward-looking information or statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements include but are not limited to the ability of the Company to attract financing and the general market conditions of the industry in which the Company operates and the other factors discussed in the sections relating to risk factors discussed in the Company's continuous disclosure filings on SEDAR.
There can be no assurance that any forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader should not place any undue reliance on forward-looking information or statements. Except as required by law, the Company does not intend to revise or update these forward-looking statements after the date of this document or to revise them to reflect the occurrence of future unanticipated events.
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWS WIRE SERVICES
OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES
Located adjacent to developing mining camp in James Bay Lowland, Canada;
Strategically close to proposed Ring of Fire access road;
Historical diamond drilling high-grade intercept of 4.90 meters of 0.75% V 2 O 5 , 7.56% TiO 2 ;
Low cost of entry and acquisition.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 5, 2018) - Falcon Gold Corp. (TSXV: FG) ("Falcon" or the "Company") reports it has signed a letter agreement (the "Letter") for the right to acquire a 100% interest in 9 (vanadium and titanium) mining claim units in the James Bay Lowlands in the Porcupine Mining Division of northern Ontario. The claim units cover an area of approximately 144 hectares ("ha").
Stephen Wilkinson, Falcon's CEO stated: "The Coomer Lake property represents an excellent opportunity for Falcon to add a potentially high-value asset to its growing international project portfolio. The high-grade vanadium and titanium mineralization is hosted within a geologically significant intrusive unit that has been traced with airborne geophysics for several kilometers but has not been drilled beyond the historical discovery hole."
The Coomer Lake V-Ti Property
The Property is located within numbered township BMA 523861 of the Porcupine Mining Division, District of Cochrane, 250 kilometres ("km") north of the town of Nakina, Ontario, and approximately 40 km south of Noront Resources Ltd. mining leases at the Ring of Fire developments. Noront's proposed north-south access corridor is 12 km east of the Property. The Property is accessible only by floatplane and boat. The Attawapiskat River is the main waterway and is less than 1,000 m east of the east boundary of the Property.
The Coomer Lake area occurs within the Archean-age Sachigo Subprovince of Northwestern Superior Province. The Fishtrap Intrusive Complex underlies the Property and is a differentiated mafic intrusive body which for the most part does not outcrop and is covered by glacial till. A high resolution airborne magnetic survey completed in 2003 defined the banded and folded complex reflecting the fractionated lithologies of the layered intrusion.
The vanadium and titanium mineralization occurs within a magnetite-rich band within the Fishtrap intrusion. The band shows as strong geophysical anomaly that has an arcuate signature with an overall 26 km strike length. In a news release dated February 12, 2007, Northern Shield Resources Inc. reported diamond drill hole, 06HB-04, intersected massive magnetite over a width of 4.9 m that averaged 0.75% V 2 O 5 and 7.56% TiO 2 . Another 13 drill holes were completed by Northern Shield on other locations of the intrusion with the objective of discovering platinum group metals and chromium mineralization. No follow-up on the vanadium and titanium occurrence have been reported despite the encouraging geophysical anomaly.
Option Terms
To earn its 100% interest, Falcon has agreed to issue a total of 400,000 common shares and to make cash payments totalling $185,000 over a term of up to 4 years. Falcon and the vendor have further agreed to add an additional 41 claim units to the Property in order to include about 8.5 km of the strike length of the magnetite bands as defined by the historical geophysical surveys. Subsequent to Falcon acquiring its 100% interest, the vendor will retain a 2% Net Smelter Return ("NSR") with Falcon retaining the right to purchase 1% for $1,000,000 at any time up to commencement of production. The agreement is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.
Qualified Person
The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. Bob Chataway, P. Geo., who is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.
About Falcon Gold Corp.
Falcon is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on generating, acquiring, and exploring opportunities in the Americas. Its Canadian projects include; the Central Canada cobalt, gold project and the Wabunk cobalt, copper project in N.W. Ontario, and the Burton gold property located near Sudbury, Ontario. Falcon also has an agreement to acquire seven (7) contiguous mineral concessions covering an aggregate area of 20,461 ha located within the Sierra de Las Minas District, Argentina which is known to be host to several past producing gold, copper and silver mines. The Company has 32.9 million common shares outstanding and is listed on the TSX Venture exchange with the trading symbol: "FG". For information on the Company, please visit our website: www.falcongold.ca.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Falcon Gold Corp.
David Tafel
Chairman
Stephen Wilkinson
CEO & Director
Telephone: 604-683-1991
Email: info@falcongold.ca
Cautionary Language and Forward-Looking Statements
This news release may contain forward looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, etc. Forward looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore, involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
PUNE, India, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
According to a new market research report "Debt Collection Software Market by Component (Software and Services), End-User (Banks, Collection Agencies, Finance Companies, Healthcare), Organization Size (Large Enterprises and SMEs), Deployment Type, and Region - Global Forecast to 2023" published by MarketsandMarkets, the market size is expected to grow from USD 2.64 billion in 2018 to USD 3.73 billion by 2023, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.2% during the forecast period.
(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg )
Browse 66 market data Tables and 45 Figures spread through 143 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Debt Collection Software Market"
https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/debt-collection-software-market-211244709.html
Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report
The growing need to provide customer-centric debt collection solutions, rising consumer requirements for self-service models for the collection process, and increasing specialized debt collection agencies across the globe are expected to drive the global Debt Collection Software Market during the forecast period.
The software segment is expected to account for the larger market size during the forecast period.
The software segment is expected to hold the larger market share during the forecast period in the global Debt Collection Software Market. Over the recent years, increasing debt volumes and complexities have created difficulties for organizations to effectively manage and recover the delinquent debts. The growth in unrecovered debts and inefficient debt management process has fueled the adoption of debt collection software by organizations across the globe. Debt collection software empower enterprises by managing and collecting their bad debts while reducing their debt recovery period and optimizing their debt management and recovery process.
Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=211244709
The large enterprises segment is expected to account for the larger market share during the forecast period.
Organizations with more than 1,000 employees have been categorized as large enterprises. The use of the debt collection in large enterprises is relatively higher as compared to that of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). This higher use is due to the affordability and high economies of scale, which enables large organizations to benefit from the debt collection. Large enterprises have left no stone unturned to compete in today's cut-throat competitive industry. Moreover, the need for a multichannel communication to reach debtors and improve the collection process would drive the growth of the debt collection software.
North America is expected to account for the largest market size during the forecast period.
North America is expected to be the largest contributor to the Debt Collection Software Market in terms of regional revenue. This region comprises developed countries, such as the US and Canada. North America is open to the adoption of new and emerging technologies, and its strong financial position enables it to invest majorly in the leading tools and technologies for effective business operations. North America is projected to be in the leading position over the next few years, due to the early adoption of digital technologies and cloud-based platforms to take hold of the increasing bad debts rate. Hence, organizations in North America have a competitive edge over the other organizations from various regions.
Major vendors that offer debt collection software across the globe include FICO (US), Pegasystems (US), Temenos (Switzerland), Experian (Ireland), Chetu (US), FIS (US), EXUS (UK), Sopra Banking (France), Quantrax Corporation (US), Indus Software (India), Pamar Systems (US), Intellect Design (India), Kuhlekt (Australia), Adtec Software (UK), Katabat (US), Advantage Software Factory (Romania), Totality Software (US), CSS Impact (US), Nucleus Software (India), COFACE (France), Arvato (Germany), Ameyo (India), AgreeYa Solutions (US), SeikoSoft (US), and Debtrak (UK).
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: sales@marketsandmarkets.com
Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/debt-collection-software-market.asp
Connect with us on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets
Pursuant to article L-223-8 II of the French "code de Commerce" and 223-16 of the AMF's General Regulations.
Regulatory News:
Median Technologies (Paris:ALMDT):
Total number of shares 11,974,903 Number of real voting rights*
(excluding treasury shares**) 11,924,519 Theoritical number of voting rights*
(including treasury shares**) 11,951,703
(*) Class E preference shares are non-voting
(**) pursuant to article 223-11 of the AMF's General Regulations
About Median Technologies: Median Technologies provides innovative imaging solutions and services to advance healthcare for everyone. We leverage the power of Imaging Phenomics to provide insights into novel therapies and treatment strategies. Our unique solutions for medical image analysis and management and iBiopsy for imaging phenotyping, together with our global team of experts, are advancing the development of new drugs and diagnostic tools to monitor disease and assess response to therapy. Median Technologies supports biopharmaceutical sponsors and healthcare professionals around the world to quickly and precisely bring new treatments to patients in need, with an eye on reducing overall care costs. This is how we are helping to create a healthier world.
Founded in 2002, based in Sophia-Antipolis, France, with a US subsidiary in Boston, Median has received the label "Innovative company" by the BPI and is listed on Euronext Growth market (ISIN: FR0011049824, ticker: ALMDT). The company is eligible for the PEA-PME SME equity savings plan setup and has received the label Pass French Tech Promotion 2017-2018. Median Technologies has been awarded the 2018 Tech 40 Label, has joined the EnterNext Tech 40 Index and is a winner of the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 2017 EMEA program. Median is a member of the Bpifrance Excellence Network. For more information: www.mediantechnologies.com
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005599/en/
Contacts:
Median Technologies
Emmanuelle Leygues, +33 6 10 93 58 88
Senior Director, Corporate Communications
emmanuelle.leygues@mediantechnologies.com
or
Press - ALIZE RP
Caroline Carmagnol Wendy Rigal
+ 33 1 44 54 36 66
median@alizerp.com
or
Investors - ACTIFIN
Ghislaine Gasparetto, +33 1 56 88 11 11
ggasparetto@actifin.fr
Sales 984 million (+8% vs. H1 2017)
EBITDA 67.3 million (6.8% of sales)
Net income (group share) 40.6 million
Regulatory News:
Jacquet Metal Service (Paris:JCQ):
On September 5, 2018 the Board of Directors chaired by Eric Jacquet examined the consolidated financial statements for the period ended June 30, 2018, which were subject to a limited review by the Statutory Auditors.
m Q2 2018 Q2 2017 H1 2018 H1 2017 Sales 481.5 445.7 984.0 910.7 Gross margin 122.9 114.2 248.9 236.0 % of sales 25.5% 25.6% 25.3% 25.9% EBITDA 1 32.8 29.5 67.3 60.7 % of sales 6.8% 6.6% 6.8% 6.7% Adjusted operating income 1 28.6 23.2 58.0 50.1 % of sales 5.9% 5.2% 5.9% 5.5% Operating income 28.7 22.1 62.1 49.2 Net income (Group share) 18.2 12.4 40.6 27.7
1 Adjusted for non-recurring items The activity report includes a definition of non-IFRS financial indicators and explains the methods used to calculate them.
First half 2018 sales and earnings
Sales amounted to 984 million, up +8% compared to first half 2017, including the following effects:
Volumes sold: +2.8% (Q2: +2.1%)
Price: +5.3% (Q2: +5.9%).
Gross margin amounted to 248.9 million or 25.3% of sales (Q2: 25.5%) compared to 236 million (25.9% of sales) in H1 2017.
Operating expenses excluding non-recurring items amounted to 190.9 million in H1 2018, +2.7% from 185.9 million in H1 2017 mainly due to the increase in Group activity.
EBITDA increased +10.9% and amounted to 67.3 million (Q2: 32.8 million), representing 6.8% of sales, compared to 60.7 million (6.7% of sales) in H1 2017.
Net income (Group share) amounted to 40.6 million (4.1% of sales) compared to 27.7 million (3% of sales) in H1 2017.
Financial position
As of June 30, 2018, operating working capital represented 24.4% of sales and amounted to 442 million (including inventories of 487 million), compared to 383 million (including inventories of 418 million) at December 31, 2017.
As a result, as of June 30, 2018 Group net debt stood at 202.3 million compared to shareholders' equity of 352.2 million, resulting in a net debt to equity ratio of 57.4% (55.2% as of December 31, 2017).
First half 2018 sales and earnings by division
JACQUET-
Abraservice Stainless steel and wear-
resistant quarto plates STAPPERT Stainless steel long
products IMS group Engineering steels m Q2 2018 H1 2018 Q2 2018 H1 2018 Q2 2018 H1 2018 Sales 106.7 210.8 123.8 253.0 251.1 519.4 Y.o.y. change 9.1% 7.6% 8.2% 5.2% 8.2% 9.9% Price effect 2.8% 0.8 0.3% -0.1% 10.2% 9.8% Volume effect 6.2% 6.8% 7.9% 5.2% -2.0% 0.1% EBITDA 1 2 10.3 17.8 7.6 14.9 13.2 30.9 % of sales 9.6% 8.4% 6.1% 5.9% 5.2% 5.9% Adjusted operating income 2 8.4 14.0 6.9 14.1 12.1 27.7 % of sales 7.8% 6.6% 5.6% 5.6% 4.8% 5.3%
1 Non-divisional operations (including Jacquet Metal Service SA) contributed 1.8 million to EBITDA in Q2 2018 and 3.8 million in H1 2018.
2 Adjusted for non-recurring items The activity report includes a definition of non-IFRS financial indicators and explains the methods used to calculate them.
JACQUET Abraservice specializes in the distribution of stainless steel and wear-resistant quarto plates. JACQUET and Abraservice have separate sales networks. The division generated 73% of its business in Europe and 20% in North America.
Sales amounted to 210.8 million, up +7.6% from 195.9 million in H1 2017: volumes sold +6.8% (Q2: +6.2%), prices +0.8% (Q2: +2.8%).
Gross margin amounted to 68.2 million (32.4% of sales) compared to 60.5 mil- lion in H1 2017 (30.9% of sales).
EBITDA amounted to 17.8 million (Q2: 10.3 million), representing 8.4% of sales, compared to 13.5 million (6.9% of sales) in H1 2017.
STAPPERT specializes in the distribution of stainless steel long products in Europe. It generated 41% of its sales in Germany, the largest European market.
Sales amounted to 253 million, up +5.2% from 240.6 million in H1 2017: volumes sold +5.2% (Q2: +7.9%), prices -0.1% (Q2: +0.3%).
Gross margin amounted to 55.3 million (21.9% of sales) compared to 56.1 million (23.3% of sales) in H1 2017. The gross margin variation is explained among oth- ers by a positive price effect more important in Q1 2017 than in Q1 2018.
EBITDA was 14.9 million (Q2: 7.6 mil-lion), representing 5.9% of sales, com-pared to 16.7 million (6.9% of sales) in H1 2017.
IMS group specializes in the distribution of engineering steels, mostly in the form of long products. It generated 47% of its sales in Germany, the largest European market.
Sales amounted to 519.4 million, up +9.9% from 472.7 million in H1 2017: volumes sold +0.1% (Q2: -2%), prices +9.8% (Q2: +10.2%).
Gross margin amounted to 123.5 million (23.8% of sales) compared to 116.7 million (24.7% of sales) in H1 2017.
EBITDA amounted to 30.9 million (Q2: 13.2 million), representing 5.9% of sales, compared to 26.5 million (5.6% of sales) in H1 2017.
Key financial information Income statement m H1 2018 H1 2017 Sales 984.0 910.7 Gross margin 248.9 236.0 % of sales 25.3% 25.9% EBITDA 1 67.3 60.7 % of sales 6.8% 6.7% Adjusted operating income 1 58.0 50.1 % of sales 5.9% 5.5% Operating income 62.1 49.2 Net income (Group share) 40.6 27.7 1 Adjusted for non-recurring items. The activity report includes a definition of non-IFRS financial indicators and explains the methods used to calculate them.
Cash flow
m H1 2018 H1 2017 Operating cash flow before change in working capital 56.5 49.2 Change in working capital (63.0) (1.5) Cash flow from operating activities (6.5) 47.7 Capital expenditure (10.4) (8.0) Asset disposals 4.3 0.6 Dividends paid to shareholders of Jacquet Metal Service SA Interest paid (4.8) (5.4) Other movements (1.8) (2.2) Change in net debt (19.2) 32.8 Net debt brought forward 183.1 205.3 Net debt carried forward 202.3 172.5
Balance sheet
m 30.06.18 31.12.17 Goodwill 68.3 68.3 Net non-current assets 154.2 156.2 Net inventory 487.3 418.0 Net trade receivables 246.8 189.3 Other assets 99.9 94.0 Cash 118.4 102.1 Total assets 1,174.9 1,027.9 Shareholders' equity 352.2 331.8 Provisions (including provisions for employee benefit obligations) 102.0 106.5 Trade payables 292.0 224.0 Total borrowings 324.5 289.6 Other liabilities 104.2 76.0 Total equity and liabilities 1,174.9 1,027.9
Activity report available: www.jacquetmetalservice.com
Q3 2018 results: November 13, 2018 after close of trading
Jacquet Metal Service is a European leader in the distribution of specialty steels. The Group operates and develops a portfolio currently comprising four brands: JACQUET (stainless steel quarto plates), STAPPERT (long stainless steel products), Abraservice (wear-resistant quarto plates) and IMS group (engineering steels).
With 3,329 employees, Jacquet Metal Service has a network of 110 distribution centers located in 25 countries in Europe, China and North America.
Compartment B
ISIN: FR0000033904
Reuters: JCQ.PA
Bloomberg JCQ FP
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005743/en/
Contacts:
Jacquet Metal Service
Thierry Philippe
Group CFO
comfi@jacquetmetals.com
or
NewCap - Investor relations
Emmanuel Huynh T: +33 1 44 71 94 94
jacquetmetalservice@newcap.eu
New locked-down Android phone a major improvement in form factor and user experience
Product launch is a key factor to Company's commercial lift off
Regulatory News:
Cellnovo Group (Paris:CLNV) ("Cellnovo" or the "Company" CLNV:EN Paris), a medical technology company marketing the first mobile, connected, all-in-one diabetes management system, today announces the launch of its Gen 3 System, which includes a locked-down consumer-grade Android phone linked via Bluetooth Low Energy to its micro-pump for insulin delivery.
This product launch is a key factor in supporting the Company's commercial lift off worldwide. It complements a series of recent developments, including the start of large-scale manufacturing of its insulin cartridges and the integration of best-in-class industry standards for communication and operating systems (Bluetooth and Android) into its handset and pump.
The outsourcing and the replacement of its handset controller is the latest step in the Company's manufacturing strategy that aims to increase the efficiency and capacity of its production in order to support strong market demand.
The Gen 3 System's off-the-shelf Android phone offers a significant improvement in form factor and user experience with a lighter, slimmer, more modern version of its current handset controller. It provides the quality and responsiveness that is to be expected from consumer-grade smartphones, while preserving the high-level of security of a medical-grade device. Moreover, a new user-interface brings a fresh, contemporary design to the System. Its battery life has been extended beyond 48 hours on a single charge.
The Gen 3 System's handset communicates wirelessly with the micro-pump using Bluetooth. This technology was introduced in the previous version of the Cellnovo System and lays the groundwork for future integrations with other wearables and devices such as blood glucose meters (BGMs) and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs).
Sophie Baratte, Chief Executive Officer of Cellnovo, commented: "We are delighted to announce the launch of the Gen 3 Cellnovo Diabetes Management System, which marks a pivotal moment in our commercial strategy. The first patients on the new system have reported a noticeable improvement in user experience and we are confident that this will be an important contributing factor to its uptake. We are now completely focused on activating our commercial network to make the Gen 3 System available."
Cellnovo has initiated a roll-out following the CE mark approval of the Gen 3 System and is mobilising its direct sales force and distribution partners in countries where it has established a presence: The United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands, Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Australia and New Zealand. The product will be showcased during the annual meeting of the European Association for Study of Diabetes (EASD), the largest scientific meeting in Europe for diabetes professionals and key opinion leaders.
About Cellnovo (Euronext: CLNV)
An independent medical technology company specialising in diabetes, Cellnovo has developed and markets the first mobile, connected, all-in-one diabetes management system that helps make life easier for patients. Compact, intuitive and entirely connected, Cellnovo's insulin pump comprises a mobile touchscreen controller with an integrated blood-glucose meter. This unique device allows optimal management of insulin injections whilst ensuring extensive freedom of movement and peace of mind for patients. Thanks to the automatic transmission of data, it also allows the patient's condition to be continually monitored by family members and healthcare professionals in real time. Cellnovo is currently participating in several major Artificial Pancreas projects with Diabeloop, TypeZero and Horizon 2020 to develop automated insulin delivery systems.
For more information go to www.cellnovo.com
About the Cellnovo Diabetes Management System
Compact, intuitive and entirely connected, Cellnovo's insulin pump comprises a mobile touchscreen controller with a blood-glucose meter. This unique device allows optimal management of insulin injections whilst ensuring extensive freedom of movement and peace of mind for patients. Thanks to the automatic transmission of data, it also allows the patient's condition to be continually monitored by family members and healthcare professionals in real time.
Cellnovo is listed on Euronext, Compartment C
ISIN: FR0012633360 Ticker: CLNV
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180905005751/en/
Contacts:
Cellnovo
Chief Executive Officer
Sophie Baratte
investors@cellnovo.com
or
NewCap
Investor Relations
Tristan Roquet Montegon 33 1 44 71 00 16
cellnovo@newcap.eu
or
NewCap
Media Relations in France
Nicolas Merigeau, 33 1 44 71 94 98
cellnovo@newcap.eu
Third Point Offshore Investors Limited
(a closed-ended investment companyincorporated in Guernsey with registration number 47161)
LEI Number: 549300WXTCG65AQ7V644 Renewal Date- 20/12/2018
(The "Company" or "TPOIL")
5 SEPTEMBER 2018
REDEMPTION OF SHARES
Further to the Extraordinary General Meeting of the Company held on 31 August 2018, the Board of Third Point Offshore Investors is pleased to announce that the Company has redeemed 2,500,000 shares held by Third Point Offshore Fund, Ltd. (the "Master Fund"). The shares redeemed represent 5.0% of the Company's outstanding shares.
The shares were redeemed at $15.80 per share. The redemption of the shares held by the Master Fund is expected to result in an estimated increase in the Company's NAV per share of approximately 19 cents. The effect of the redemption of the shares will be reflected in the Company's NAV per share as at 31 August 2018.
Following the redemption of the shares, the Company's issued share capital consists of the following:
47,504,787 US Dollar Ordinary Shares with one voting right per share.
Ordinary Shares with one voting right per share. 31,669,953 US Dollar B Shares with one voting right per share and no rights to distribution of profits
The total number of voting rights in the Company is therefore 79,174,740.
As announced on 2 May 2018, the Board intends, dependent on the Master Fund's performance, to redeem the remaining TPOIL shares held by the Master Fund in 2019 or, if necessary, thereafter. Furthermore, the Board has received an undertaking from the Master Fund that it will not dispose of any TPOIL shares it holds while awaiting cancellation unless any such disposal is priced at or above the Company's prevailing NAV per share. The Board will separately continue to monitor the Company's rating following the proposed Premium Listing and may, at its discretion, engage opportunistically in future share repurchases by causing the Company to purchase such shares in the open market and cancel them upon such purchase.
Enquiries:
Company Website: www.thirdpointoffshore.com
Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited
The Company Secretary
Trafalgar Court
Les Banques
St Peter Port
Guernsey
GY1 3QL
Tel: 01481 745001
END
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 5, 2018) - Pure Nickel Inc. (TSXV: NIC) (the "Company") announces the following corporate updates.
Sale of Royalty
The Company has reached agreement to sell its royalty interest in a copper mine located in Milford, Utah (the "Royalty") to David McPherson, the President and CEO of the Company. Under the terms of the agreement, the Company's wholly-owned Subsidiary, Nevada Star Resources Corp. (US), will sell all of its rights to the royalty to a company (the "Purchaser") wholly-owned by Mr. McPherson for consideration of CDN$660,759 (the "Purchase Price"). The Purchase Price which will be satisfied through the issuance by the Purchaser to Nevada Star of a secured promissory note (the "Note") in the principal amount of the Purchase Price. Mr. McPherson has provided a limited recourse guarantee to guarantee all of the obligations of the Purchaser under the Note. Recourse under the guarantee is limited to the entitlements of Mr. McPherson under the Transition Agreement dated May 26, 2017 between Mr. McPherson and the Company, which provides for the payment to Mr. McPherson of past-due management fees in the amount of CDN$778,000 and Mr. McPherson's transition from management of the Company. As security for his obligations under the guarantee, Mr. McPherson has agreed to assign all of his rights in the Transaction Agreement, including the payments due to Mr. McPherson thereunder, to Nevada Star. Currently the Royalty is carried on Pure Nickel's balance sheet at CDN $451,758.
The principal amount of the Note is payable by the Purchaser from time to time upon receipt by the Purchaser of payments under the Royalty. The Note provides that the any obligation to repay principal outstanding under the Note shall be automatically set off against any amounts owing to Mr. McPherson under the Transaction Agreement.
The sale of the Royalty is a related party transaction for the Company pursuant to Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101") as the sale is being made to a corporation wholly-owned by an officer and director of the Company. In accordance with MI 61-101, the sale of the Royalty must be approved by a majority of the minority shareholders of the Company. The Company will be relying on an exemption from the requirement under MI 61-101 to obtain a formal valuation in respect of the sale available to issuers that are not listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange or another senior exchange. In addition to shareholder approval, the sale of the Royalty will require the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.
ASM /AGM
The Company is in the process of planning an annual and special meeting of the shareholders to be held on October 17, 2018. At the meeting the shareholders will be voting on the Company's name change, a share consolidation, the royalty sale, directors and other regulatory required matters.
About Pure Nickel Inc.
Pure Nickel is a mineral exploration company with a diverse collection of gold, nickel, copper and platinum group element exploration projects in North America.
Forward Looking Statements
Some of the statements contained herein may be forward-looking statements which involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Without limitation, statements regarding potential mineralization and resources, exploration results, expectations, plans, and objectives of Pure Nickel are forward-looking statements that involve various risks. The following are important factors that could cause Pure Nickel's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements: changes in the world wide price of mineral commodities, general market conditions, risks inherent in mineral exploration, risks associated with development, construction and mining operations, the uncertainty of future exploration activities and cash flows, and the uncertainty of access to additional capital. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events may differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Pure Nickel undertakes no obligation to update such forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
For further information:
Pure Nickel Inc.
David McPherson
T. (416) 644-0066
info@purenickel.com
www.purenickel.com
Sovereign and PowerObjects partner to configure Microsoft Dynamics 365 for use across Tenancy Management, Customer Contact and Sovereign Living services
LONDON, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sovereign Housing Association and PowerObjects, an HCL Technologies Company are pleased to announce their partnership to configure Microsoft Dynamics 365 for use across Sovereign's Tenancy Management, Customer Contact and Sovereign Living services. The project will support Sovereign's aspiration to become a modern and connected business, transforming services to deliver a contextual and individualised experience for each customer.
"The goal of this project is to transform how we manage our relationships with customers and what our customers in turn experience when they interact with us," says Sam Dart, Head of Digital Technology Services at Sovereign. "We aspire to be a growing, influential, modern and connected business, enabled by our technological capabilities to maintain a competitive advantage."
PowerObjects, utilising their long-standing partnership with tech-giant Microsoft, will support the delivery of Sovereign's wider strategic business objectives including managing customer demand, proactively managing risk and delivering services more efficiently.
"We are expanding our channel offering to meet growing and changing customer expectations," says Dart. "As part of our digital programme we'll make a wider range and choice of contact channels available to customers, all designed to interact seamlessly with each other."
Sovereign plans to use Dynamics to become more proactive in how they deliver services to customers using data and wider Cloud services to identify at the earliest opportunity risks that could become serious incidents, and prioritise those responses according to root causes. With Dynamics 365 for Field Service, Sovereign will be able to deploy the right resource, to the right person, at the right time.
"Using Dynamics and its wider digital platform capabilities, we have the opportunity to deliver customer-facing services more efficiently," says Sam Dart. "We will deploy resource more effectively; reduce the level of duplication and double handling in our management of customer contacts; and dial down the level of avoidable customer contact."
PowerObjects, integrated PowerProperty solution for housing associations, is built on Microsoft Dynamics technology and offers housing associations a platform to enable innovation and digital service improvements. "Regardless of the channel customers choose to do business with Sovereign, a personalised and contextual service must be delivered from the front to the back-office," say Rahul Pawar, Sales Director, EMEA at PowerObjects. "Dynamics will play a key role in enabling demand management and operating an omni-channel contact center for Sovereign."
Sovereign Housing Association is a social business and one of the largest housing associations in the United Kingdom. They provide over 57,000 homes for around 130,000 people in housing need across the south and south west of England and the Isle of Wight. A major developer of affordable housing, Sovereign builds around 1,600 new homes each year to rent or buy.
About PowerObjects, an HCL Technologies Company
With over 25 years of experience partnering with Microsoft on delivering successful digital and business transformation projects, PowerObjects offers a completely integrated front, middle and back-office solution for the Housing sector, built on Dynamics 365 and supported by Microsoft's suite of Business Applications. Winner of the 2018 Microsoft US Partner Award for Business Applications in Dynamics Customer Service, no other system integrator offers the breadth of experience and resources for Microsoft Dynamics 365 as PowerObjects.
Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/467009/Power_Objects_Logo.jpg
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 5, 2018) - Global UAV Technologies Ltd. (CSE: UAV) (OTC: YRLLF) (FSE: YAB2) (the "Company" or "Global UAV") is a vertically integrated drone technology company, and is pleased to announce that it recently became a member of the 8020 Connect Inc., ("8020 Connect"), investor community.
We invite all shareholders and stakeholders to join the Global UAV portal on 8020 Connect.
Connect here; https://bit.ly/2MpsHaH
Through the 8020 platform, Global UAV will engage with open lines of communication to ensure each shareholder and interested investor can stay up to date with corporate developments as well as have an opportunity to be engaged through a social media portal. The interactive structure of the portal provides for an opportunity for shareholders to become a part of the communication process and support the development of the Company's investor audience. 8020 Connect actively ensures timely and regulatory compliant information dissemination while providing one-stop access to company executives, news, and educational materials.
8020 Connect is the first social media platform directly connecting existing and potential investors to the Executive Management teams of the savviest publicly traded companies.
"In addition to expanding our platform, 8020 Connect has been successfully increasing our investor community. This expanding investor community provides Global UAV, and other companies on our platform, with an opportunity to increase the "stickiness" of their investor audience through active participation with the respective companies," stated, Mr. D'Arcy Funfer, President of 8020 Connect.
"We are looking forward to working with the 8020 Connect platform as an opportunity to further engage with stakeholders and investors," stated Michael Burns, CEO and Director of Global UAV.
About Global UAV Technologies Ltd.
Global UAV Technologies Ltd. is a vertically integrated drone technology company within the commercial Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ("UAV") sector. Through its wholly owned subsidiaries - Pioneer Aerial Surveys Ltd., High Eye Aerial Imaging Inc., UAV Regulatory Services Inc., and NOVAerial Robotics Inc., Global UAV provides a full spectrum of UAV-based services and products including drone research, development and manufacturing, flight services and regulatory compliance. Global UAV will continue its growth through technology development, expanding the business of its current divisions and the continued evaluation of potential acquisitions. Global UAV is well positioned for growth as a vertically integrated drone technology company.
About 8020 Connect Inc.
8020 Connect Inc. is a social and interactive investment community portal which expands the way shareholders and interested investors access and gather information from public corporations. Built as a hybrid social media and shareholder and management engagement platform, corporations can direct the flow of information to prospective and existing investors through both static and dynamic content. This will allow public companies to build their investment brand and investor awareness while maintaining digital media and regulatory compliance in a growing online investment community.
On behalf of the Board of Directors,
"Michael Burns"
Michael Burns
CEO & Director
For additional information please contact:
Global UAV Technologies Ltd.
Investor Information
Telephone: +1 888 905 7011
Email: ir@globaluavtech.com
www.globaluavtech.com
Neither Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward-Looking Statement
Statements in this press release, other than purely historical information, including statements relating to the Company's future plans and objectives or expected results, may include forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on numerous assumptions and are subject to all of the risks and uncertainties inherent in public markets, service industries, manufacturing and the UAV Sector. As a result, actual results may vary materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.
Washington, DC--(Newsfile Corp. - September 5, 2018) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged two Michigan men with fraud for their roles in a fake accounts scheme perpetrated by a phony day-trading firm, Nonko Trading.
The SEC alleges that Jeffrey Goldman of West Bloomfield, Michigan, and Christopher Eikenberry of Birmingham, Michigan, participated in and profited from a scheme to defraud Nonko's customers out of at least $1.4 million. While Nonko marketed itself as a state-of-the-art platform for day-trading professionals, the SEC alleges that it secretly provided customers with training accounts that merely simulated actual trading. Nonko team members allegedly pocketed customers' deposits and used the money for personal expenses and for Ponzi-like payments to customers who wanted to close their accounts. According to the complaint, Nonko deliberately targeted traders who were inexperienced or had a history of trading losses and lured them by promising generous leverage, low trading commissions, and low minimum deposit requirements.
"As alleged in our complaint, Goldman and Eikenberry actively concealed their involvement in the alleged fraud and took steps to evade U.S. broker-dealer registration requirements," said Joseph G. Sansone, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division's Market Abuse Unit. "But, behind the scenes, they were active and knowing participants in the scheme, which caused losses to more than 260 investors."
In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey today announced criminal charges against Goldman and Eikenberry.
The SEC previously charged four other individuals and two entities in connection with the Nonko fraud. Two of those individuals, Naris Chamroonrat and Adam Plumer, have settled the SEC's charges. Chamroonrat also pled guilty in a parallel criminal case and is awaiting sentencing. Criminal charges against two other individuals charged by the SEC, Yaniv Avnon and Ran Armon, are pending.
The SEC's complaint charges Goldman and Eikenberry with fraud and with aiding and abetting Nonko's fraud and broker-dealer registration violations. The SEC is seeking injunctions and the disgorgement of their allegedly ill-gotten gains, plus interest and penalties.
The SEC's investigation was conducted by Simona Suh, Barry O'Connell, and John D. Marino of the Market Abuse Unit and Elzbieta Wraga of the New York Regional Office. The case has been supervised by Mr. Sansone. The SEC's litigation will be led by Ms. Suh and Mr. O'Connell. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Securities Commission of The Bahamas, Financial Supervisory Commission of the Cook Islands, Israel Securities Authority, Financial Services Commission's Nevis Branch, Ontario Securities Commission, Monetary Authority of Singapore, and Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand.
NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of CV Sciences, Inc. ("CV Sciences" or the "Company") (OTCMKTS: CVSI). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980.
The investigation concerns whether CV Sciences 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 August 20, 2018, Citron Research ("Citron") published a report addressing a CV Sciences patent application for CVSI-007 titled "Pharmaceutical Formulations Containing Cannabidiol and Nicotine For Treating Smokeless Tobacco Addiction" (the "Patent"). According to the Citron report, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") made a non-final rejection decision and mailed CV Sciences a letter indicating the non-final rejection status of its Patent on June 6, 2017, and then made a final rejection decision and mailed CV Sciences a letter indicating the final rejection status of its Patent on December 20, 2017. The Citron report alleged that CV Sciences never disclosed to investors the USPTO's decisions concerning the Company's Patent.
On this news, CV Sciences' stock price fell $2.40, or 36.31%, to close at $4.21 on August 20, 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
rswilloughby@pomlaw.com
888-476-6529 ext. 9980
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 5, 2018) - Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits Inc. (TSXV: DWS) ("Diamond Estates" or "the Company") today announced that it has issued deferred share units ("DSUs") to its directors.
Under the amended DSU plan, approved by shareholders on September 27, 2016, the Company has issued an aggregate of 259,167 DSUs to non-executive directors under the Company's deferred share unit plan in settlement of $77,750 of deferred directors' compensation. The DSUs are to be settled in common shares of the Company when the director retires from all positions with the Company.
About Diamond Estates Wines and Spirits Inc.
Diamond Estates Wines and Spirits Inc. is a producer of high quality wines and a sales agent for over 120 beverage alcohol brands across Canada. The Company operates three wineries, two in Ontario and one in British Columbia, that produce predominantly VQA wines under such well-known brand names as 20 Bees, EastDell, Lakeview Cellars, Dan Aykroyd, Fresh, McMichael Collection, Benchmark, Seasons and Backyard Vineyards. Through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Kirkwood Diamond Canada Partnership ("KDC"), the Company is the sales agent for many leading international brands in all regions of the country, as well as being a distributor in the western provinces. These recognizable brands include Josh wines from California, Fat Bastard wines from France, Kaiken wines from Argentina, Marston's beers from England, Hpnotiq Liqueur from France, Anciano wines from Spain, Francois Lurton wines from France and Argentina, Waterloo Brewing and Amsterdam Brewery, both from Canada, Landshark Lager from the USA, Blue Nun wines from Germany, Malfy Gin from Italy, Edinburgh Gin from Scotland, Barcelo Rum from the Dominican Republic and Evan Williams Bourbon from the USA.
For further information on the company, please visit the company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.
Forward Looking Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "estimates", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Diamond Estates Wines and Spirits Inc. to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Actual results and developments are likely to differ, and may differ materially, from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Such forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions which may prove to be incorrect, including, but not limited to: the economy generally; consumer interest in the services and products of the Company; financing; competition; and anticipated and unanticipated costs. While the Company acknowledges that subsequent events and developments may cause its views to change, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the views of the Company as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking 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.
For more information, please contact:
J. Murray Souter
President & CEO
Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits Inc.
jmurraysouter@diamondwines.com
905.641.1042 Ext 234
Alan Stratton, CPA, CAChief Financial OfficerDiamond Estates Wines & Spirits Inc.astratton@diamondwines.com905.641.1042 Ext 225
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.
If the online retailers shares keep up their recent pace, it would be a matter of when, not if, Amazons stock market valuation eclipses that of iPhone maker Apple, which reached $1 trillion on 2 August.
Amazon.com Inc on Tuesday briefly joined Apple Inc to become the second $1 trillion publicly listed US company after its stock price more than doubled in a year as it grew rapidly in retail and cloud computing.
Its shares traded as high as $2,050.50 before easing a little to end the session at $2,039.51, up 1.3 percent and just short of the milestone level of $2,050.2677.
If the online retailers shares keep up their recent pace, it would be a matter of when, not if, Amazons stock market valuation eclipses that of iPhone maker Apple, which reached $1 trillion on 2 August.
Apple took almost 38 years as a public company to achieve the trillion dollar milestone, while Amazon got there in 21 years. While Apples iPhone and other devices remain popular and its revenues are growing, it is not keeping up with Amazons blistering sales growth.
Amazon has impressed investors by diversifying into virtually every corner of the retail industry, altering how consumers buy products and putting big pressure on many brick-and-mortar stores.
It says a lot about Amazon and its ever-increasing dominance of segments of the retailing world as well as the web services business, said Peter Tuz, President Of Chase Investment Counsel In Charlottesville, Virginia. They have a tiny share of the worldwide retail sales market so theres a lot left to capture there.
SURREY, British Columbia (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday indicated Canada would not bend on key demands at talks this week with the United States to update the North American Free Trade Agreement. 'There are a number of things we absolutely must see in a renegotiated NAFTA,' he told reporters in the Pacific province of British Columbia. Officials for both sides are scheduled to meet in Washington on Wednesday in a bid to settle some major differences
SURREY, British Columbia (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday indicated Canada would not bend on key demands at talks this week with the United States to update the North American Free Trade Agreement.
"There are a number of things we absolutely must see in a renegotiated NAFTA," he told reporters in the Pacific province of British Columbia.
Officials for both sides are scheduled to meet in Washington on Wednesday in a bid to settle some major differences.
(Reporting by Julie Gordon, writing by David Ljunggren; Editing by James Dalgleish)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Last month, the brothers who are co-promoters of the Group had put the blame on former Religare Enterprises Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Godhwani for the group's troubles.
Mumbai: The blame game at Fortis Healthcare Ltd took a new turn with co-founder Shivinder Singh on Tuesday saying he had filed a lawsuit against older brother Malvinder Singh, alleging "oppression and mismanagement" at their joint businesses.
Last month, the brothers who are co-promoters of the Group had put the blame on former Religare Enterprises Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Godhwani for the group's troubles.
"The Group's troubles today stem from the Group's association with Sunil Godhwani who had started his association in Religare as its CEO in 2001," Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh said in a joint statement then.
On Tuesday, however, the blame also shifted on one brother accusing the other. Shivinder, who has decided to break business ties with his sibling, said the case, which also accuses former chief of financial services firm Religare Enterprises Sunil Godhwani, was filed in the National Company Law Tribunal, a quasi-judicial body for corporate governances.
The case comes in the wake of financial troubles at the group businesses RHC Holding, Religare Enterprises and hospital chain Fortis On Healthcare.
"The collective, ongoing, actions of Malvinder and Sunil Godhwani led to a systematic undermining of the interests of the companies and their shareholders," Singh said in a statement.
Last month the brothers had said in a statement, "Godhwani used his position to conceive and orchestrate a series of transactions over the better part of a decade that led to our Group's debt load by 2016. It is clear that he used our trust in him to exercise undue influence and has taken advantage of the faith bestowed by both families, the statement said.
"We are sure (Gurinder Singh) Dhillon and his family would have had a similar expectation from Godhwani regarding management of their resources," it added.
Gurinder Singh Dhillon is the spiritual guru of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB).
On Tuesday, the company had said it would appoint an external agency to undertake scrutiny of its internal controls and compliances after an investigation found systemic lapses in funds allegedly taken out of it by erstwhile promoters Singh brothers.
The company had in February this year decided to carry out an independent investigation through an external legal firm following allegations of siphoning off nearly Rs 500 crore by the founding family through inter-corporate loans (ICDs).
"With respect to the other matters identified in the Investigation Report, the Board will appoint an external agency of repute to undertake a scrutiny of the internal controls and compliance framework in order to strengthen processes and build a robust governance framework," Fortis Healthcare said in its Annual Report for 2017-18.
The company further said, "Towards this end, they will also evaluate internal organisational structure and reporting lines, the delegation of powers of the Board or any committee thereof, the roles of authorised representatives and terms of reference of executive committees and their functional role."
The investigation report was submitted to the re-constituted board of the company on 8 June, 2018.
It found that the ICDs provided by the company's wholly-owned arm Fortis Hospitals Ltd to group firms of ex-promoters, billionaires Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh, "were not given under the normal treasury operations" and were not and specifically authorised by its board.
In the annual report, Fortis Healthcare further said, "We will also assess the additional requisite steps to be taken in relation to the significant matters identified in the investigation report, including inter alia, initiating an internal enquiry."
Stating that regulatory authorities are currently undertaking their own investigation, the healthcare chain said due to limitations on information available the external legal firm which conducted the investigation, at this juncture its board is unable to make a determination on whether a fraud has occurred in the company.
Addressing the shareholders, Fortis Healthcare Chairman Ravi Rajagopal said the new board is also "making a much more involved effort" in understanding the controls and process frameworks within the company.
"Our focus in the future will be on strengthening governance and transparency and restoring the health of the business," he said.
Fortis, which operates about 30 private hospitals in India, accepted an investment offer from Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Bhd in July, ending months of speculation over control of the company.
The two brothers, who now own less than 1 percent of Fortis, have denied allegations that they siphoned funds from the hospital operator.
The brothers also sold their controlling stake in drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories, founded by their family, to Japan's Daiichi Sankyo Co in 2008.
Last month, Fortis shareholders' approved the sale of their company to Malaysias IHH Healthcare with plans to immediately invest Rs 4,000 crore
--With agency inputs
Ajay Singh's comments came against the backdrop of domestic carriers suffering financial reverses in the wake of rising oil prices and depreciating rupee.
New Delhi: SpiceJet Chairman and Managing Director (CMDO Ajay Singh made a strong pitch to the government Tuesday to give domestic carriers a 'level playing field' with international carriers who enjoy tax benefits and consequently become able to cushion the impact of high jet fuel prices.
He said domestic carriers needed to raise fares, which was 'incredibly' important to remain financially healthy and sustain the growth trajectory in the Indian aviation market.
"What's happening today is quite scary, oil prices are high for every airline in the world but in India we are compounding the problem by also taxing the oil... Our oil is actually costing the airlines in India for domestic travel 30 percent more than those costing the airline around the world," Singh said at a plenary session of the International Aviation Summit here.
In contrast, airlines around the world do not have to pay taxes on oil and therefore are emerging stronger and this is a problem for the Indian carriers.
"If India truly aspires to be a global aviation power, we need to get a level playing field. Give us the same cost structure, same cost base that is enjoyed by airlines across the world and then let us compete with the foreign carriers," he said at the event which was attended by Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu, his deputy Jayant Sinha and many Aviation Ministry officials.
Singh's comments came against the backdrop of domestic carriers suffering financial reverses in the wake of rising oil prices and depreciating rupee. SpiceJet reported a loss of Rs 38.06 crore in the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal.
The SpiceJet Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) said domestic carriers have to raise airfares to remain financially healthy, as he observed that a five-seven percent hike in airfares has not adversely affected passenger demand.
"There is scope for airlines to actually raise fares and not lose much by way of demand in this market. I hope better sense will prevail and airlines will do this in the coming times because it's incredibly important that airlines are financially healthy. Because without that, the whole big revolution that we are growing on in India will lose out soon," he said.
CEO of Jet Airways Vinay Dube felt that the current crisis faced by the airlines was a temporary phase and that his airline, along with others, would revive from the financial reverses.
Group CEO of Qatar Airways Akbar Al Baker termed the Indian aviation market as a "sleeping giant" and suggested "redesigning of the India airspace" to bring more efficiency in airline operation, along with investment in infrastructure creation.
With an aim to promote eco-friendly vehicles, the government had launched the FAME India scheme in 2015.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the second phase of the FAME India scheme here on 7 September at India's First Global Mobility Summit 'MOVE', Union Minister Anant Geete said Wednesday.
Last week, PTI had reported citing official sources that the prime minister would launch FAME II offering incentives for mass adoption of electric vehicles with an outlay of Rs 5,500 crore on 7 September.
"Fame I will come to an end by September 30 and the Prime Minister will announce FAME II on 7 September," Geete said.
Addressing the inaugural session of the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association here, Geete said the Heavy Industry Ministry was framing a comprehensive auto policy after consultation with all the stakeholders.
"The department of heavy industries has always supported the automotive industry. We will definitely look into suggestions of having a clear, well defined short, mid and long-term policy.
"It is the duty of the government to make policy which is executed by the industry. So we should not make a policy which cannot be executed by the industry," Geete said.
In February, the government had sought stakeholders' comments on the draft National Auto Policy, which seeks to promote clean and safe mobility and adopt a long-term roadmap to harmonise emission standards with global benchmarks by 2028.
The minister said the government will address the auto industry's concerns regarding fuels and biofuel, however, adding that with changing times, it must adapt and embrace new technologies.
The heavy industry and public enterprises minister observed that the demand of changing times means we have to move towards electric mobility.
"In future we have to move towards it and we must accept the challenges of the future requirements," Geete said.
In April, the government had extended the phase 1 of the FAME India scheme by six months till September-end or till its second phase is approved.
The first phase of the scheme was initially proposed for two years till 31 March, 2017 but was extended twice for six months up to 31 March, 2018.
The second phase of the scheme spanning five years will offer a subsidy to all categories of electric vehicles, including two-wheelers, three-wheelers and four-wheelers including taxis and electric buses used in public transportation, to promote green vehicles and check pollution.
It will also envisage setting up massive charging infrastructure to support electric vehicles, senior officials said.
However, strong hybrid vehicles, which were entitled to incentives in the ongoing pilot phase of the scheme, will not be able to avail sops in the second phase.
Under the scheme, depending on technology, battery-operated scooters and motorcycles are eligible for incentives ranging from Rs 1,800 to Rs 29,000, while in three-wheelers it is between Rs 3,300 and Rs 61,000.
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 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.
Producing F-16 wings in India will strengthen Lockheed Martins strategic partnership with Tata and support Make in India,
New Delhi: Lockheed Martin will build wings for its F-16 combat plane in India with its local partner, Tata Advanced Systems Limited, an executive at the US company said on Tuesday.
Lockheed is bidding for a contract - estimated at more than $15 billion - to supply the Indian air force with 114 combat planes, which must be all manufactured locally under Prime Minister Narendra Modis flagship Make in India programme.
However, Vivek Lall, vice president of strategy and business development at Lockheed, said the proposed Indian production of the F-16 wings would not be contingent upon the company winning the order for the planes.
Producing F-16 wings in India will strengthen Lockheed Martins strategic partnership with Tata and support Make in India, the company said in a statement.
Modi has been pushing for local manufacturing that will provide jobs and also end the militarys dependence on imports.
Lockheeds announcement came just days ahead of top level talks between the United States and India aimed at expanding defence ties.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will meet with Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Boeing has pitched its F/A-18 Super Hornet for the Indian contract as well as Swedens Saab with its Gripen fighter. Frances Dassault Systemes SEs Rafale, the Eurofighter Typhoon and Russian aircraft are also in the fray.
Lall said Lockheed had offered to make India its sole F-16 production facility that would supply the Indian military but also other countries. If India buys the F-16 then it becomes the centre of manufacturing for the global market, he said.
Lall said the company planned to begin production of the F-16 wings in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad from 2020. He said these were being produced at a facility in Israel and would not impact any jobs in the United States.
The Israeli centre will continue to be involved in other production, he said. All F-16 wings globally are to be built in the Hyderabad facility, he said.
'With ease of doing business being still relatively difficult for startups, creation of an additional and complex regulator in the form of Data Protection Authority with ill-defined mandate will make things much more difficult for Indian tech startups,
Mumbai: Terming data collection as a "lifeline for startups", the industry body of digital businesses IAMAI on Tuesday said the proposed Data Protection Bill will severely impact the country's fledgling new businesses scene.
Earlier this month, the government had come out with a draft of the bill prepared by a committee headed by Justice (retd) B N Srikrishna and sought public comments on the same by 10 September.
"Collection and processing of first-hand data for monetisation is the only lifeline for startups," the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) said in a release, adding data is critical for analysing the customer preference and response, designing and fine-tuning services, identifying key revenue streams, targeted marketing and promotion.
Startups will face an "insurmountable difficulty" of collecting and processing personal data proposed in the draft bill, it said.
Limitations imposed on purpose, storage and collection of data will make it "very difficult for startups and potential startups to get into the data business", the IAMAI statement said, citing consultation held by it earlier.
"Restrictive norms of consent including 'bearing the burden of proof of consent', being responsible for the correctness of the data collected will add to the difficulties of data fiduciaries," it said. Additionally, the benchmark for "significant data fiduciaries" is also poorly defined, according to the body, which will make it difficult even for midsized data companies to comply with requirements like periodic data audit, data protection impact assessments including permission from the Data Protection Authority for every new technology introduced.
The provision of heavy fines or penalties for every violation or non-compliance, along with pressing criminal charges is also non-desirable, it said, pointing out that most startups are not in a position to pay up.
Startups will have to depend on incumbent businesses for 'anonymised data', it said, fearing that the existing companies may refuse to share data with potential competition or demand a premium price for the same. It warned that the incumbents can become "gatekeepers to the tech sector", which will not augur well for the startups.
Additionally, IAMAI said some of its members wanting to expand overseas feared that data localisation requirements will hurt their ambitions as other countries will also demand data localisation as a reciprocal measure.
"With ease of doing business being still relatively difficult for startups, creation of an additional and complex regulator in the form of Data Protection Authority with ill-defined mandate will make things much more difficult for Indian tech startups," it said.
The raw material is available to the Vedanta from the bauxite-rich Odisha almost 10 years after its successful operation.
Lanjigarh (Odisha): Encouraged by supply of bauxite from the state-owned Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC), The Vedanta Limited is optimistic about completion of its refinery expansion project.
Though the aluminium major has been managing to run its 2 mtpa refinery since 2007 by importing bauxite from other states and abroad, the company for the first time received the raw material from OMC's Kodingamali mines recently, Vedanta Limited's External affairs (Head) Sanjeev Kumar told PTI.
The raw material is available to the company from the bauxite-rich Odisha almost 10 years after its successful operation.
The Vedanta got bauxite from Kodingamali mines, located about 152 km from its refinery at Lanjigarh in Odisha's Kalahandi district. The company has been importing bauxite from countries like Brazil and Guinea and other states like Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat to feed its 2 mtpa refinery, he said.
The company could utilise only 1.2 mtpa capacity of the refinery due to raw material shortage despite obtaining Consent to Operate (CTO) for 2 mtpa, he said.
The company has meanwhile began to enhance capacity of the refinery from 2 mtpa to 4 mtpa and subsequently to 6 mtpa by 2021. The Vedanta has so far spent about Rs 5,000 crore on expansion project, he said.
"Though OMC at present meets only five percent of our bauxite requirement, we look forward to get more raw material by taking part in auctions of other mines in Odisha," he said.
The Vedanta is optimistic about getting about 3 million tons of bauxite, which is 50 percent of its need, to run the 2 mtpa refinery from the OMC by year end, he said.
He said the company would require about 12 million tons of bauxite after expansion of its refinery to 4 mtpa.
Asked whether Vedanta still hopes to get bauxite from Niyamgiri hills, Kumar said "we are not looking for Niyamgiri now. It is insignificant for us. However, the company will like to participate in any auction within Odisha."
He said the company started its refinery expansion project not depending on Niyamgiri or any other mines. Odisha has about 700 million tonnes of bauxite reserves, while Niyamgiri holds only an estimated 88 million tonnes. Many reserves in the state remain unexplored.
To a query as to how Vedanta could compete with other players in the field, Kumar said "relatively our efficiency is very high for which we continue to survive despite buying bauxite at high price. Our finished goods are much better than the others due to technology we adopt."
Located on the foothill of Niyamgiri, Vedanta claimed to have brought positive effects in the life of the local population in terms of health care, education, sustainable livelihood and infrastructure development, a company official said.
Maharashtra police filed an affidavit in response to a plea of historian Romila Thapar and four others challenging the arrest of the five activists in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence case
New Delhi: Maharashtra government Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the five rights activists were arrested due to the cogent evidence linking them with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and not because of their dissenting views.
The state's response came in the backdrop of the apex court, while ordering the house arrest of the five activists on 29 August till Thursday, categorically stating that "dissent is the safety valve of democracy".
The Maharashtra police filed an affidavit in response to a plea of historian Romila Thapar and four others challenging the arrest of the five activists in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence case, claiming they were planning to carry out violence in the country and ambush the security forces. The police said there was sufficient evidence to "dispel" the claim that they were arrested for their dissenting views.
While prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao was arrested from Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha was arrested from Delhi.
The raids were carried out as part of a probe into an event called Elgar Parishad, or conclave, on 31 December 2017, which had later triggered violence at Bhima Koregaon village in Pune district of Maharashtra.
The police sought their custody and questioned the locus of Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociologist Satish Deshpande and legal expert Maja Daruwala, dubbing them as "strangers" to the investigation in the matter. "The petitioners, who are strangers to the offence under investigation, are also praying for bail on behalf of the persons arrested during an ongoing investigation, strictly in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure after the investigating agencies having gathered requisite incriminating material against the said individuals," the affidavit said.
The police also told the court that the activists were part of the criminal conspiracy and active members of the banned CPI(Maoist), who had arranged public meetings under the banner of 'Elgar Parishad'.
The affidavit said the state was committed to protect fundamental rights of every citizen and a mere dissenting view, difference in ideology or vehement objections to political thinking, cannot only not be prohibited but should always be welcomed in any democratic country. "Five accused persons for whose benefit the present petition is filed are not arrested based upon any dissenting views expressed by them or difference in their political or other ideologies....during the course of an intense investigation since 8 January, 2018 (the date on which the FIR is registered), serious criminal offences were made out and incriminating material has emerged against them," it said.
"This Court is dealing with persons against whom cogent evidence has so far come on record showing that they are active members of the banned terrorist organisation namely, CPI (Maoist), and they are involved in not only planning and preparing for violence but were in the process of creating large scale violence, destruction of property resulting into chaos in the society as per the agenda prepared by the CPI (Maoist), which was banned as a terrorist organisation in 2009," it said.
The police also told the court that the five arrested activists were not being indicted in the FIR for the first time but some had past "criminal antecedents" and were imprisoned. It said the whole process of search of the activists in June including Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Sudhir Dhawale and others have been videographed.
"The material found from the computers/laptops/ pendrives/memory cards of the accused persons was shocking and clearly implicating the aforesaid persons not only as active members of CPI (Maoist) but clearly reflected an ongoing sinister design of having committed and in the process of committing criminal offences having the potential of destabilising the society," the affidavit said.
The contents of the electronic devices seized from Wilson, Gadling and others showed their preparedness, planning and coordination with other activists to carry out a violent "ambush/rebellion against the enemy (which is our country and its security forces)", the Mahrashtra government alleged.
"It would become amply clear that they are found to be committing and were planning and preparing for a series of criminal offences in connivance and conspiracy with other persons," it said, adding that the accused were involved in selecting and encouraging cadres to go underground in 'struggle area', mobilising and distributing money, facilitating selection and purchase of arms, deciding the rates of such arms and suggesting the routes and ways of smuggling such arms into India for its onward distribution amongst the cadres.
"Some of them have suggested training and laying of booby traps and directional mines. They are also found to be providing strategic inputs in furtherance of the objective of armed rebellion as per the strategic document of the banned terrorist organisation namely CPI (Maoist)," it said.
The affidavit said the house arrest of the activists merely restricted their physical movement and they can always ensure the destruction of evidence elsewhere while alerting other potential accused by being at home.
Pitching for less protectionism, India's commerce secretary Anup Wadhawan stressed on the need to go beyond trade deficits and frame tariffs as per the prevailing economic strengths.
Mumbai: Senior trade policymakers from India and the United States sparred on Wednesday, defending their respective positions on cross-border business.
Pitching for less protectionism, India's commerce secretary Anup Wadhawan stressed on the need to go beyond trade deficits and frame tariffs as per the prevailing economic strengths.
US' Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Gilbert Kaplan claimed fundamentally, its trade policies have not changed and stressed on the need on reciprocity, saying the lack of it has resulted in decisions which may be considered as adverse.
The comments come on the eve of the all important '2+2 dialogue' between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis from the US and India's defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj in the national capital.
Kaplan said trade deficits are an important indicator of problems, but made it clear that the tariff actions on steel and aluminium were driven by lack of reciprocity from countries exporting those to the US and not the trade gap.
Wadhawan said over the last few years, trade deficit between India and the US has come down as India has started importing more goods from the US, including oil. He also said that while setting policies the indirect benefits to a country like import of iPhones by India from China which benefit an American company also need to be taken into account.
"Countries have to understand and accept globalisation. Protectionism is not going to make a country competitive," said Wadhawan.
He said US' unemployment rate one of the biggest justifications for tariff imposition has been coming down since the President Barack Obama's time.
The Indian bureaucrat said 6 percent of the country's imports are from the US, for Washington, the same is 2.1 percent on a bigger import bill.
Kaplan urged India to join an global supply chain and also not to impose any tariffs on particular goods and services.
He said the lack of free trade and reciprocity has led the US under President Donald Trump to move away from multilateral pacts and go for bilateral agreements instead.
Wadhawan underlined the importance of multilateral trade pacts, saying all the countries in the world have to move as per an accepted framework and added that "no country can afford to have a world carved around it".
He cited the case of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) with countries in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) block, where India is moving ahead, despite having a deficit with the countries and added that the onus is on individual country to identify and work on areas where it is less competitive.
Wadhawan said while framing international pacts, aspirations of developing countries have to be kept in mind, making a strong pitch for not equating developing and developed countries.
"Our trade policy is a continuum, we do not see any reason to revisit the trade policies," he said.
Bhavesh Patel, one of the convicts in the Ajmer dargah blast case, was granted bail by Rajasthan High Court last week.
Bharuch: A convict in the 2007 Ajmer Dargah blast case, in which three persons were killed, was accorded a hero's welcome in Bharuch on Sunday by a large crowd, including members of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after being released on bail.
Bhavesh Patel, one of the convicts in the Ajmer dargah blast case, was granted bail by Rajasthan High Court last week. As he arrived in Bharuch, his hometown, from Ajmer, members of the saffron outfits as well as of the BJP-ruled Bharuch Municipality, along with general public gave him a warm welcome.
"A large number of members of Bharuch Municipality were present on the occasion," local BJP councillor Marutisinh Atodariya said. Among those present to welcome him was Surbhi Tamakuwala, president of Bharuch Municipality.
"VHP, RSS and BJP members along with hundreds of people welcomed him as he walked towards his residence at Hathikhana Bazar from nearby Swaminarayan temple, where he went to offer prayers after his arrival," Viral Desai, spokesperson of south Gujarat unit of the VHP, said.
Desai claimed Patel has been associated with the VHP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) since his younger days. He had also served as an Office-Bearer of the RSS's Bharuch unit long back.
In March 2017, a trial court had sentenced Patel and his co-accused, Devendra Gupta, to life imprisonment in the Ajmer dargah blast case. The blast at the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer at the time of Roza Iftaar on 11 October, 2007, had left three pilgrims dead and 15 others injured.
After reaching Bharuch, Patel visited the Swaminarayan temple in Dandiya bazar area. On his way home from the temple, hundreds of people stood on the way to welcome him. As he walked towards his residence, people showered rose petals, garlanded him and shouted slogans in his support. Dressed in saffron robes and a turban, he walked towards his residence with his hands folded in prayer as his supporters surrounded him.
Unless one turns into an effective police state like China, banning books is an exercise in futility.
Supreme Court dismissed a petition on Wednesday seeking a ban on the publication of a Malayalam novel Meesha, on the grounds that it infringed on the authors freedom of speech.
It's a welcome ruling upholding the democratic spirit of the nation. Books are banned but there are established procedures so that they can be banned only when there is justifiable cause to do so.
Section 95 and 96 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 provide for the forfeiture of books and other literary materials. Materials that can be prohibited under this provision are seditious materials, materials that promote class and religious enmity, those that are against national integration, obscene books and objects and those that maliciously insult the religious beliefs of a class. Once the government makes an order under this section, the books and materials are confiscated. Section 96 provides an appeal against such an order and this appeal lies before a division bench of the concerned high court. This is the strictest way a book can be banned in India.
The Central government may ban a book in part by using its powers under the Customs Act to prohibit the import of such books. This power is wide in nature as the import of goods is a sovereign prerogative. A classic case of a book being banned this way is the Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. In such a case though, the publication of the book within India is not prohibited but only the import of the book. This provision is normally used in relation to books published elsewhere.
Any civil court may order that a book be banned or withdrawn from circulation on the motion of a party if the party is able to establish that the book either infringes copyright or is defamatory in nature. This is done by way of an injunctive order. The order can be issued against publishers of the book who may also be ordered to recall and pulp the books. Any person can apply for such an order if they can prove that they have been defamed by the book or if they can establish that the book infringes on their intellectual property.
However, it gets tricky in the age of social media. A book that is no longer in print can be freely available on the internet and can also be shared alike.
The government can use other mechanisms to ban content on the internet as well. It can issue take down notices to websites hosting the book and/or block access to those sites. However, given the nature of the internet and how it functions, it is impossible to effectively ban any content on it.
Perhaps because the internet is a truly democratic platform that allows for the free exchange of ideas. The banning of books is a draconian measure that technology has found a way to overtake. Banning a book is a self-defeating cause. The minute a book is banned it gains a notoriety that no amount of publicity will be able to give it. Further there is no way currently to police the internet, where people can literally tweet an entire book out to get around the ban. Unless one turns into an effective police state like China, banning books is an exercise in futility.
The Maharashtra government filed a counter affidavit in Supreme Court regarding the arrests of five activists in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence. The government claimed that the five rights activists were not arrested for their dissenting views but due to the cogent evidence linking them with the banned Communist party of India (Maoist).
The Maharashtra police on Wednesday filed a counter affidavit in the Supreme Court regarding the arrest of activists in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, reports said.
The five rights activists were not arrested for their dissenting views but due to the cogent evidence linking them with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), Maharashtra government claimed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday. The apex court while ordering the house arrest of the five activists on 29 August till tomorrow had categorically said that "dissent is the safety valve of democracy".
The Maharashtra Police in its response accused the activists of planning to carry out violence, planned ambush against country and the security forces.
The state police said there was sufficient evidence to 'dispel' the claim that they were arrested for their dissenting views. The counter affidavit questioned the locus (right to bring action in court) of the petitioners, Romila Thapar and economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devika Jain, sociologist Satish Deshpande and legal expert Maja Daruwala, and said they were "strangers" to the investigation in the matter.
On 29 August, historian Romila Thapar and four activists had filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the arrests of the activists in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence. Responding to the petition, the Supreme Court had directed the Maharashtra Police to keep the five activists Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bharadwaj and Varavara Rao under house arrest until the next hearing, which is scheduled on 6 September.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra will hear the matter on Thursday.
With inputs from PTI
While the letters seized during the Bhima Koregaon raids, the veracity of which have to be proved in a trial, suggest alleged organisational affiliation of some of the arrested individuals, how these letters attribute organisational role of the CPI (Maoist) party in Elgar Parishad by way of which they directly provoked the violence in Bhima Koregaon as stated by the Maharshtra Police is unclear.
After the Supreme Court of India delayed police custody of the five activists till the petition questioning their arrest is heard on 6 September, the Maharashtra Police held a 50 minute press conference in Mumbai, where they released letters which they termed as 'incriminating material which proved beyond doubt that there were Maoist links to Elgar Parishad.' Elgar Parishad was a cultural convention organised by a group of 250 bodies in Pune on 31 December, 2017, a day before the Dalit community was attacked while they were commemorating Shourya Divas at Bhima Koregaon. Following the attacks, the state witnessed widespread protests and shutdown calls.
Advocate Jacob Daniel who was the Public Prosecutor in the Rajiv Gandhi Assassination case, said that he hadn't heard of a press conference like this in his experience and questioned the intentions of the Maharashtra Police for going to the press with sensitive documents when the matter is sub judice before the highest court of the country. "It is like issuing an open challenge to the apex court.
The Maharashtra Police are in contempt. Till the chargesheet is filed, these documents cannot be shared in the public domain. If the Maharashtra Police is claiming that they are basing these arrests on these letters, they are crucial to the trial and shouldnt be in the public domain till the trial is completed. Such actions will vitiate trial proceedings." Further, Daniel said that the nature of the letters produced by the Maharashtra Police are such that establishing them scientifically in a court of law is going to be extremely difficult. "This may be the reason why they released these letters, just to sensationalize the arrests."
What Daniel is referring to as difficult is the admissibility of these documents as evidence while adhering to the provisions pertaining to electronic records set out under Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act of 1872.
"Any information contained in an electronic record which is printed on paper, stored, recorded or copied in optical or magnetic media produced by a computer will be considered as a document as defined under Section 3 only if it adheres to the conditions set out under Section 65B (2). These conditions are that the information should be produced by the computer during regular use and mustve been fed into the computer in the ordinary course of activities. The computer mustve been operational at this point and the information used is derived or is a reproduction from the information fed into the computer.
Additionally, each electronic record needs a certificate to prove its validity which is to be issued by a forensic expert signed by a public official under Section 65B(3). "It is a complicated process. There are times when trial courts aren't equipped to look into these trials but now that the Supreme Court is overseeing the matter, they wont be easy to evade," said Madras High Court advocate B Sivakumar.
The Maharashtra Police had used similar methods in the trial of Professor GN Saibaba, Hem Mishra and four others where the entirety of the evidence was based on electronic data from CDs, DVDs, pendrives and hard-disks seized from their residences. An 827-page judgment of the Gadchiroli sessions court sentenced Saibaba to life imprisonment on 7 March, 2017, primarily based on this evidence.
At the recent press conference, ADG Maharashtra Police Param Bir Singh had said that the hard drives were confiscated from Rona Wilson and Advocate Surendra Gadling's homes during the raids conducted on 17 April and they were sent to the forensic department. The department, according to the police, gave them cloned copies of letters on 20 April which "proved these individuals were involved in a conspiracy with CPI(Maoist) to overthrow the ruling government which included attacks on Modi." Following this, the police invoked provisions of UAPA on Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dawle, Milind Teltumbde, Comrade Prakash, Comrade Manglu and Comrade Deepu on 17 May. Five of them were arrested on 6 June. No explanation was given for the delay of two months in arrest, considering a threat to the prime minister was involved.
Singh said that during the arrests of 5 June, further raids were conducted and more electronic data procured. More letters surfaced. The ADGP, in his initial briefing, read out excerpts from various letters allegedly written between those who are facing arrests. These include a letter in which Sudha Bharadwaj allegedly asked for money from Comrade Prakash, Surendra Gadling and Varavara Rao discussing problems in dispensation of funds due to demonetisation, Rona Wilsons letter to Comrade Prakash regarding weapons in which a Russian Arms Catalogue is attached, Comrade Sudarshan writing to Gautham Navlakha about using fact finding teams to further the interests of CPI (Maoist), Comrade Prakash to Anand Teltumbde about keeping the spirit of the Dalit agitation high to counter the ruling government, Miltind Teltumbde to Maharastra Zonal Committee regarding disbursement of funds by Varavara Rao and so on. The ADGP mentioned that many letters were password protected and the police were able to break these codes.
None of these above letters are pertaining to the offences mentioned in the FIR filed by Tushar Damgude on 8 January, 2018, on the basis of which arrests were made. On being asked if there is any letter suggesting direct involvement of these individuals with CPI (Maoist), the ADGP read out a letter written by Milind Teltumbde to Rona Wilson which he said was dated 2 January, 2018. This is odd as the letter starts off with the mention of a fact-finding being planned for 6 December. Com. Manglu, Com. Deepu have been coordinating the Bhima Koregaon movement for two months with Com. Sudhir. The Bhima Koregaon agitation has been very effective, and the unfortunate death of a youth must be exploited to prepare future agitations and propaganda material. The letter goes on to suggest how the Maharashtra state government feels cornered because of Dalit agitations and that they should keep up the pressure on this issue to help take down Modi in 2019.
Tushar Damgudes FIR alleges that violence in Bhima Koregaon was caused by the inflammatory songs sung by Sudhir Dhawale and members of Kabir Kala Manch. It mentions that these provocative slogans were made to incite disputes between two groups, impose wrong and false history and this is suggestive of the banned Maoist organisation (CPI) having strong organizational role.
While the aforementioned letters, the veracity of which have to be proved in a trial, suggest alleged organisational affiliation of some of the arrested individuals, how these letters attribute organisational role of the CPI (Maoist) party in Elgar Parishad by way of which they directly provoked the violence in Bhima Koregaon as stated by the Maharshtra Police is unclear.
On several occasions, the Supreme Court has held that mere membership of a banned organisation will not incriminate a person unless theyve resorted to violence or incited people to violence, or did an act intended to create disorder or disturbance of public peace. In this instance, there is hardly anything which connect those arrested to the offenses alleged in the FIR and hence the purpose of this press conference seems problematic. The law permits expansion of the investigation to encompass developments that may be brought to the notice of the investigating officer but there needs to some connection with the principle offense in the FIR, said Daniel.
The commonalities between both, this case and the one of Professor Saibaba's conviction, other than the method of procurement of evidence and reliance placed on electronic data, is the mention of Comrade Prakash. Eight of the letters read out by the ADGP mentions Comrade Prakash. The ADGP explained that Comrade Prakash is a senior member of the CPI (Maoist) and he communicates to overground cadre on behalf of the Central Committee.
In the judgment convicting Saibaba, the identity of Comrade Prakash, is discussed at length. Judge Suryakant Shinde noted in para 323 that in the present case, it is the case of the prosecution that the accused No.6 Saibaba used pseudo/alias name as Prakash, while making correspondence with the members of banned organization (CPI Maoist and RDF). Further, he states in para 335; it is clear that Prakash is nothing but the accused no.6 Saibaba and from the contents of this letter it shows that Prakash was not well and he faced several problems due to his physical inability and it is not disputed that accused no.6 Saibaba is 90% disabled. Finally, in the operative part of the judgment, Judge Shinde concludes that There are several letters addressed by accused no.6 Saibaba sometime in his own name and sometime by his pseudo name Prakash to the members of banned organization CPI (Maoist) and its frontal organization RDF.
The letters released by the ADGP including the ones written by or to Comrade Prakash are from early 2017 to the latest one in April 2018. Professor Saibaba, who the prosecution and the judgment made out to be senior Maoist leader Comrade Prakash has been in Nagpur Central Jail since March 2017.
Mentioning how the judgment relies completely on electronic date, Rebecca John, senior advocate and Saibabas counsel said, None of the letters, which the prosecution relied so heavily on had content suggesting Prof. Saibabas involvement in provoking violence, nor were these letters verifiable. The location from which the letters were procured was mentioned as a hard drive or a computer but no source was provided. The IP address of the downloaded emails or attachments wasnt mentioned. These are fundamental to admissibility of evidence but they were overlooked," said Rebecca.
For instance, the prosecution had submitted that a government appointed forensic expert had carried out the examination of electronic devices seized from Saibaba and 16 GB memory card seized from Hem Mishra by using EnCase software. The expert admitted that he did not mention in the exhibit containing seized electronic documents from Saibabas residence and the corresponding Section 65B certificate about the procedure followed by him while conducting tests on file system and other such tests on the data in the device. This was overlooked.
The certificates that are supposed to accompany the electronic documents were all flawed. They werent filed during the time of the chargesheet and were filed much later. They also did not mention the time of seizure of the CPUs or the hard disks. The witnesses for the Panchnama during seizure were stock witnesses, just like in the present situation. The Pune Police have taken along with them to Delhi, a set of witnesses from Pune. That is not how a Panchanma is to be drawn, the witnesses are supposed to be independent, explained Rebecca. The conviction of Saibaba is under appeal.
In the present instance too, the police is heavily depending on electronic documents, like the letters released by the ADGP, in its investigation. For these letters to figure in the
trial and have evidentiary value, theyll have to they pass the numerous tests set forth by the Indian Evidence Act. Most importantly, these letters should add to the principal offense, there needs to be a connection, says Advocate B Sivakumar.
Social activist Sanjay Bhalerao, who claims to be to be a witness to the Bhima Koregaon violence, filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Bombay High Court seeking action against Additional Director General ,Param Bir Singh and the other policemen for briefing the media and disclosing evidence.
A petition demanding action against Additional Director General (ADG) of Maharashtra Police Param Bir Singh and other officials of Maharashtra Police has been filed in the Bombay High Court under contempt of court for disobeying the order of the magistrate and briefing the media about arrests of prominent activists over their alleged Maoist links.
The matter has been slated for a hearing on 7 September the same day when court will hear the petition of alleged victim of the Bhima Koregaon violence, Satish Gaikwad, who wants the case to be handed over to the National Investigative Agency (NIA). Gaikwad is also being represented in the High Court by the same lawyer.
Activist Sanjay Bhalerao, who claims to be a witness to the Bhima Koregaon violence, filed a criminal public interest litigation (PIL) in the HC seeking action against Singh and the other policemen. According to the petition filed by Sanjay Bhalerao, the police read out parts of letters, which were "crucial evidence" in the case, in a press conference before submitting it to the court in Pune. Bhalerao is being represented in the Bombay High Court by his lawyer Nitin Satpute.
It also urged the court to direct the state government to take action against the police officers under Article 311 of the Constitution under which a civil servant can be dismissed for misconduct.
According to the petition, on 19 March this year, the Pune police had filed an application seeking permission to carry out searches at the residences of some activists. Police sought for the application to be heard in camera on the ground that if the names of the accused persons were disclosed, then there was a likelihood that they would destroy evidence.
"The magistrate on 19 March allowed police's request for in-camera proceedings," the PIL, filed through advocate Nitin Satpute, said. "Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Parambir Singh and other police officers, who were present at the press conference, disclosed crucial information with regard to the case. The police officers acted against the order passed by the magistrate court," it added.
The petitioner alleged that the probe carried out by the Pune police was politically motivated and with malafide intentions.
On Monday, the high court, while hearing another petition seeking an NIA probe into the case, raised questions over the press conference and said police should not have addressed the media when the Supreme Court was seized of the matter.
The court questioned the police for holding a media interaction when the case is sub-judice and criticised him for disclosing details of the matter, even after the police themselves had sought strict confidentiality in the proceedings.
Maharashtra Police, on 28 August, had arrested five activists, claiming they had links to the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist). The raids triggered strong criticism against the police, leading the cops to defend and claim that they had strong evidence against the arrested activists.
The arrests can be traced to the violence that erupted between the Dalit and Maratha groups, earlier this year near Pune, during the bicentenary anniversary of the Bhima Koregaon battle. The clashes killed one person and left several injured, including 10 policemen.
With inputs from agencies
BJP MLA Ram Kadam had said he would 'abduct women' who rejected proposals of men to help them and gave his phone number as a 'helpline'.
Mumbai: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came under heavy fire across Maharashtra on Wednesday after its Mumbai MLA Ram Kadam publicly threatened to "abduct" women and bring them to their spurned suitors for marriage.
Cutting across party lines, political leaders, women's groups and social activists slammed the BJP demanding an unconditional apology, Kadam's resignation from the Assembly and his arrest.
Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, a BJP ally, led the charge. "Not only should strict action be taken against him, he should not be given a ticket by any party to contest future elections. He is a person of a low character and mentality," Thackeray told the media.
The BJP legislator's remarks, made after a Gokulashtami function on Monday, sparked an uproar in Maharashtra, drawing all-round condemnation.
Representing the BJP in Ghatkopar in northeast Mumbai, Kadam declared that he would abduct girls and bring them to their rejected suitors and provided his phone number as a "helpline".
"If you have proposed to a girl and she has rejected you, I will help you 100 percent. Come to me with your parents and say that they approve her. Then, I will catch her and bring her to you," Kadam boasted before the gathering.
After the video of the event went viral on Tuesday evening, a cornered Kadam claimed he was quoted out of context and blamed the media for blowing it out of proportion. He also said that he was joking. "I had no intentions to hurt anybody's sentiments. But if I have done so, I regret it. Certain opponents are behind this misunderstanding," Kadam said in a Tuesday night tweet.
The issue continued to snowball with a group of women activists 'gheraoing' Education Minister Vinod Tawde and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) staging a noisy protest at Ghatkopar Police station demanding Kadam's arrest. The Congress, NCP, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), Samajwadi Party and others organised protests.
A Pune girl, Minakshi G. Patil, hurled an open challenge on social media to Kadam, daring him to "touch" her if he had the guts.
"I am throwing the gauntlet, accept it. Let's settle this in person. I will come to Mumbai... Lay a finger on me and leave the rest to me. This is shameful and cheap, such statements have no place in Chhatrapati Shivaji's Maharashtra," she said.
Various forms of protests were witnessed in Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Nashik, Pune, Solapur, Osmanabad and other places.
State Congress president Ashok Chavan asked: "Has the BJP made him a legislator to kidnap women?"
NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said "the BJP's 'Ravana' face has emerged. He is talking about kidnapping women. So henceforth he should be called 'Ravana Kadam'."
Samajwadi president Abu Asim Azmi said the BJP MLA's speech was a clear indicator that the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign was a sham.
Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil warned that the Opposition would paralyse the next Legislative Assembly session.
Aam Aadmi Party's Preeti Sharma-Menon asked BJP's male members if it was okay if their daughters were abducted by Kadam. Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam asked all women in the country not to vote for the BJP.
Although the BJP has not officially commented, the state leadership sought a copy of the full video of the Monday function and an explanation from the MLA.
The gutkha scam came to light in 2017, after a raid at tobacco businessman Madhav Rao's properties in 2016 led to the recovery of a diary that allegedly contained a list of politicians and senior police officers to whom bribes had been paid.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday launched a search operation across 40 locations in Chennai in connection with the 2017 gutkha scam. The homes of Tamil Nadu DGP TK Rajendran at Mogappair, ex-DGP S George near Maduravoyal, Health Minister C Vijayabaskar and other police officers are also being searched, ANI reported.
Special teams comprising officials of the agencys Anti Corruption-III Unit from New Delhi commenced the simultaneous searches at 7 am. This is the first time the CBI is conducting searches on the residence of a DGP in the state, The Hindu reported.
The Madras High Court in April 2018 ordered the CBI to probe sale of chewing tobacco, which has been banned in Tamil Nadu since 2013. The central investigation body took over the case from the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC).
In June, the Enforcement Directorate registered a money laundering case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against unnamed government officials in the gutkha scam based on the first information report (FIR) registered by the CBI in May.
Despite the opposition from the Opposition parties, Rajendran was given a two-year extension in 2018.
The raids come a year after the scam came to light.
On 8 July, 2017, the state Income Tax Department conducted raids at the godown, offices and residences of a gutkha manufacturer in Tamil Nadu, who was facing charges of evading tax to the tune of Rs 250 crore. During the raids, the officials found a dairy which carried names of Vijayabaskar, among others, and spoke of his alleged involvement in taking bribes from the manufacturers. The company allegedly paid him and senior police officers Rs 40 crore, in order to continue selling gutkha in the state.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) had demanded a CBI probe into the issue, following which chief minister E Palaniswamy had said that the DVAC was enquiring into the matter. The DMK had also demanded the resignation of the health minister as well as the then police commissioner.
Koel Sen is a filmmaker whose mother Shoma Sen was arrested in June for her alleged role in the Bhima Koregaon violence.
Are you an Urban Naxal? How many Urban Naxals do you know? Would you be able to spot an Urban Naxal in the wild? Do you even know what an Urban Naxal is? We don't, so we thought we'd track down a few who've been tagged so, sit down with them and ask each of them a bunch of fundamental questions about who they were. These podcasts are a result of our "field studies". In this episode, we talk to Koel Sen, whose mother Shoma Sen was arrested on 6 June, 2018, along with activists Rona Wilson, Mahesh Raut, Sudhir Dhawale and Surendra Gadling for their alleged Maoist links.
Co-produced and edited by Sonali Jain.
Also listen: Conversations with Urban Naxals #1 and #2
Lakhs of workers, peasants and agricultural workers from across the country are gearing up to make the Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally in Delhi on Wednesday a historic success.
Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh rally in Delhi today: Lakhs of workers, farmers and agricultural workers from across the country are gearing up to make the Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally in Delhi on Wednesday a historic success. It is being held under the joint leadership of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU). Last week, the organisers said they were expecting more than three lakh people from across the country at the rally.
Mamata Banerjee to visit Majerhat bridge collapse in Kolkata: At least, one person died and 25 others were injured as a 40-year-old bridge collapsed in Kolkatas Majerhat area. A section of the 50-year-old bridge on the arterial Diamond Harbour Road in south Kolkata collapsed Tuesday evening. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who is in Darjeeling, told the media that thousands of people pass through the area and the government has to probe the accident. Mamata said she will visit the site on Wednesday cutting short her tour.
Alagiri rally in Chennai today: Former DMK leader MK Alagiri is expected to hold a rally in Chennai as a show of strength. Alagiri had refused to respond to a query on the party's silence to his request to readmit him. Alagiri, who has been claiming since Karunanidhi's death that loyal party workers were with him, had earlier said the DMK would face threat after his rally. The rally is supposed to begin at 10 am from Anna Salai and end at the samadhi of Karunanidhi.
Upper caste groups rally against SC/ST act in Madhya Pradesh: Madhya Pradesh will be on high alert in the run-up to the day-long bandh on 6 September by upper caste groups against the new SC/ST Act. The administration has imposed prohibitive orders under CrPC in four districts Morena, Shivpuri and Bhind, all three in Gwalior-Chambal region, as well as in Ashok Nagar district in view of the proposed bandh. Gwalior-Chambal region, one of the sensitive areas, had witnessed a large-scale violence on 2 April this year during the 'bharat bandh' called by Dalit groups.
One year since Gauri Lankesh killing: Its exactly a year since journalist Gauri Lankesh was shot dead outside her home in Bengaluru. In a major breakthrough in the probe, the forensic lab confirmed to SIT on Tuesday that Parshuram Waghmare had pulled the trigger. SIT sources said the entire sequence of events was reconstructed and a video of it along with CCTV footage on the day of incident sent to the Directorate of Forensic Science, which confirmed that the man in both the visuals was the same. Lankesh's tabloid also returns to business after a year with a new name Nyaya Patha.
Mike Pompeo in Pakistan today: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to press Pakistan to target all terror groups on its soil and play a positive role in war-torn Afghanistan when he meets the country's new leadership in Ismalabad on Wednesday in a bid to reset the strained bilateral ties. Pompeo is arriving in Islamabad along with General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, days after the Trump administration cancelled $300 million in military aid to Pakistan as it was not doing enough against terrorist groups inside its borders, the latest controversy to hit Islamabad's troubled relationship with Washington.
US Open: In Wednesday's quarter-final fixtures of the ongoing event at Flushing Meadows, two-time US Open winner Novak Djokovic is up against Australian John Millman, who earlier pulled off a stunning upset by knocking Roger Federer out in the Round of 16. The other men's singles quarter-final will witness Marin Cilic take on Kei Nishikori. In the women's quarters, Naomi Osaka is up against Lesia Tsurenko, while Carla Suarez Navarro, who earlier knocked Maria Sharapova out of the event, faces local favourite Madison Keys.
Fuel prices continue to soar: Surging crude oil prices with Brent crude touching $79 per barrel and the tumbling rupee which plunged to a record low of Rs 71.54 on Tuesday is likely to maintain the trend of rising fuel rates. Fuel prices have been on fire since the middle of August, rising almost every day due to a combination of a drop in the value of the rupee and rise in crude oil rates. The government has ruled out cutting excise duty on petrol and diesel to cushion spiralling prices. Almost half of fuel price is made up of taxes. The centre currently levies an excise duty of Rs 19.48 per litre on petrol and Rs 15.33 on diesel.
Redmi 6 series announcement: Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi will be unveiling a series of devices on Wednesday as part of the new Redmi 6 line. As usual, these budget devices are expected to offer incredible value and start at rock-bottom prices. The cheapest of the lot is expected to go on sale at Rs 6,000.
PAX West highlights: PAX (originally known as Penny Arcade Expo) is an umbrella term used for a series of gaming culture festivals that involve, tabletop gaming, arcade gaming and video gaming. PAX events happen across the United States and also in Melbourne, Australia. PAX West, which was held in Seattle, ended yesterday and saw the reveal of a lot of new games.
Shah Rukh Khan was initial choice for Bigg Boss host: Salman Khan, who entered the world of Bigg Boss with its fourth season as a host, says the show was first offered to Shah Rukh Khan. "The one who was considered to sign 'Bigg Boss' was Shah Rukh Khan. I didn't know about this. Shah Rukh was the original choice for Bigg Boss," Salman said at the press conference of Bigg Boss 12 in Goa. "Earlier he had shoulder injury and he was shooting somewhere in Prague so he couldn't make it. That's how I got Bigg Boss," he added.
Organisers of the rally claimed nearly 1.5 lakh farmers and labourers from at least 23 states have participated in the protests in Delhi, marching from Ramlila Maidan to Parliament Street.
New Delhi: Thousands of farmers and labourers from across the country held a massive protest in Delhi on Wednesday against what they called "anti-people" policies of the Narendra Modi government and demanded higher prices for farm produce, waiver of loans and better wages.
The protesters, holding placards and shouting anti-government slogans, marched from Ramlila Maidan to Parliament Street in Central Delhi, and warned the ruling BJP that it will have to pay a "heavy price" in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls for "ignoring" the demands of the disadvantaged people.
The 'Mazdoor Kishan Sangharsh Rally', organised by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and All-India Agricultural Workers' Union (AIAWU), also demanded concrete measures to generate jobs, minimum monthly wage of Rs 18,000 for workers, halting "forcible" land acquisition and stopping changes in labour laws.
The organisers claimed nearly 1.5 lakh farmers and labourers from at least 23 states have participated in the protests, preparations for which had began months ago. The protest threw traffic out of gear in several parts of Delhi.
"The massive protest is a warning to the BJP government ahead of the Lok Sabha elections as for the last four years it has ignored the demands of the farmers and the workers. The BJP will have to pay a heavy price for it," said Tapan Sen, general secretary of CITU, a leading trade union.
Carrying red flags and wearing red caps, the marchers raised slogans against the policies of the BJP government and assailed the ruling party's "communal and divisive" agenda. The organisers said this was the first time since Independence that farmers and workers jointly participated in a rally against the government.
The farmers in various parts of the country have been holding protests demanding loan waiver and better prices for farm produce.
Addressing the rally, AIKS leader Vijoo Krishnan claimed 36,000 farmers have committed suicide over the last few years and said the BJP government is piling up miseries on the marginalised section.
"For the last four years, this BJP government has fooled us. It has never done anything for the farmers. The government should give farmers remunerative price as per the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee," AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah said. "We will continue our struggle till our demands are met," he said, adding the struggle will continue till "we change the central government".
He said all other farmers' organisations will hold a long march and come to Delhi on 30 November. "Trade unions will also hold a two-day strike by the end of the year," he said.
The rally was also supported by a large number of artists, academicians and left-wing intellectuals. A large number of protesters arrived in Delhi around three-four days ago.
"Workers and farmers coming together has enthused the other sections of the society. Now the Youth Federation has decided to organise a rally on 3 November protesting against unemployment in the country. Before that, they will hold a 24-hour dharna in front of all central government offices in all districts," said Sen.
Gauri Lankesh was shot dead in front of her Bengaluru home last year. Her murder is suspected to be linked to rationalist Narendra Dabholkar's killing.
Bengaluru: Marking the first death anniversary of slain journalist Gauri Lankesh, hundreds of people in the city paid moving tributes to her, recalling her chequered life and dogged fight against injustice and inequality.
Gauri, 55, editor of Kannada weekly tabloid 'Lankesh Patrike', was shot dead in front of her house on 5 September night a year ago.
Though the year-long probe into Gauri's killing by the Karnataka's Special Investigation Team led to the arrest of a dozen suspects, including Parushuram Wagmare, 26, who is alleged to have shot her, and his accomplices, the police have yet to confirm who was or were behind her assassination.
Scores of activists, Kannada writers, journalists, artistes, lawyers and student leaders joined Gauri's family, including elder sister Kavitha Lankesh, in fondly remembering her and paying homage to her soul.
Among those who participated in the day-long activities were social activist Swami Agnivesh, Gujarat legislator Jignesh Mewani, former JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, senior journalists Siddarth Varadarajan and Teesta Setalvad and multi-lingual actor Prakash Raj.
Family members of slain rationalists Govind Pansare and MM Kalaburgi also participated at some of the events in the city, organised by the Gauri Memorial Trust and other organisations.
The Gauri Media Trust released the first issue of her tabloid (Lankesh Patrike) in Kannada at the "Freedom of Expression Meet" in Central College, a year after its publication was suspended due to her sudden and untimely death.
A protest march was held from Gandhi statue in Cubbon Park to Raj Bhavan in the city centre, seeking justice to Gauri. Banners and posters carrying her picture and slogans "I Am Gauri" "Long Live Gauri" were carried.
Alleging that the forces that killed Mahatma Gandhi also killed Gauri, Agnivesh said her tragic death had led to the birth of thousands of Gauris across the country. "We suspect that Hindutva forces are behind her killing as they were in the case of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar, Pansare and Kalburgi," asserted Agnivesh.
Dabholkar was killed on 20 August, 2013, in Pune, Pansare on 20 February, 2015, in Mumbai, and Kalburgi on 30 August, 2015.
"We are living in dangerous times as the people who are opposed to fascism and authoritarianism are being arrested and jailed," Kavitha said.
Recalling that Gauri's killing had changed his world view, actor Raj said narratives were being changed by the powers that be to silence the voices of dissent and fairness.
Former JNU student leader Kanhaiya: "We take our democracy for granted; often ignoring the price that people pay. Make no mistake, our democracy is alive because of the courage of people like Gauri. They chose to face death so that our democracy could live. We resolve to take your struggle forward."
Sharing a picture of him with Gauri, Mevani tweeted that the shirt he wore for the occasion was gifted by Gauri.
Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan of Swaraj Abhiyan said of the killers: "They (suspects) belong to several Hindutva (organisations) who were also making bombs to blow up Ganpati Mandaps and churches and Eid gatherings. (People) who celebrated her killing are still in power."
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara said even a year after her death, Gauri continued to live on among thousands of voices she has inspired. "You can silence people but not ideas. My heartfelt remembrance to this brave soul," tweeted Parameshwara, who also holds the state home affairs portfolio.
Hardik had launched his fast on 25 August for demands, including farm loan waiver and reservation for the Patidar community under OBC category in government jobs and education sector.
Ahmedabad: As doctors expressed concern over the health of Hardik Patel, the Gujarat government Tuesday stepped up its efforts to persuade the Patidar leader to end his indefinite hunger strike which entered the eleventh day.
Hardik had launched his fast on 25 August for demands, including farm loan waiver and reservation for the Patidar community under OBC category in government jobs and education sector. The BJP-led state government held a meeting with several key leaders of the Patidar community at Gandhinagar Tuesday night, hours after doctors expressed concern over the health of Patel who has lost almost 20 kgs of weight in the last eleven days.
The doctors attached to the Sola civil hospital said Hardik had lost weight and should get admitted to the hospital. After meeting Patidar leaders associated with six different bodies of the community, Energy Minister Saurabh Patel said the government's priority is to ensure that the Patidar leader calls off his hunger strike.
Revenue minister Kaushik Patel and minister of state for home Pradeepsinh Jadeja also spoke with Patidar leaders associated with Vishwa Umiya Foundation, Umiya Mata Sansthan and Khodaldham Trust among others. "During the meeting, we conveyed that the government is worried about Hardik Patel. We appealed to the leaders to persuade Hardik Patel to end his fast. The leaders have promised us that they would meet Hardik Patel in this regard," the energy minister said after the meeting.
CK Patel, who led the delegation of Patidar leaders, told reporters that they would convey the feelings of the government to the 25-year-old quota spearhead. "This is just a first meeting over many issues of Patidars. Such meetings will take place in the future too. The government showed a positive approach to many of our demands. We will meet Hardik to convince him to end his fast," he told reporters.
Earlier in the day, Saurabh Patel had claimed that Hardik Patel's quota movement was a politically-motivated agitation with the backing of the Congress. Meanwhile, more support poured in for Hardik Patel on Tuesday, as former union minister Yashwant Sinha along with Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Shatrughan Sinha met him at his residence near here and extended their support.
After the meeting, Yashwant Sinha announced that he would take Hardik's agitation, particularly with regard to farmers, to the national level. "During my short meeting with Hardik, it has been decided that we will take this agitation to the national level and fight strongly. Not just Gujarat, we will take this movement to every corner of the country," Sinha told reporters.
"The issues on which Hardik Patel is holding fast have created an impact across the country. The issues are being discussed everywhere," he added. While the former Union finance minister maintained that he and others were with Hardik in his "fight for farmers", he also opined that the government should pay attention to the demand of reservation.
Responding to a query on caste quota, Sinha said the Union government should chart out a way forward as people from various communities who were outside the scope of reservation have demanded it. "The Central government should think about this. It has formed a backward class commission. It should think on how to take this matter forward. As far as possible, we should try to work to improve (lives) of many communities who have lagged behind, as per Constitution," he said.
Shatrughan Sinha said their meeting with Hardik was not politically motivated. "We gathered here in a non-political capacity on the basis of humanity. We are here because our aim is to construct the temple of humanity. We have no objection on mandir-masjid (sic)," he said. He alleged that the BJP governments in Centre and Gujarat were not bothered even as the entire Patidar community was worried about Hardik.
"When farmers' loans can be waived in other BJP-ruled states, why it cannot happen in Gujarat? Farmers must get justice. I appeal to the government to waive farm loans," Shatrughan Sinha said, adding democracy needs to be strengthened to fight autocracy. Meanwhile, the state government Tuesday told the Gujarat High Court that it was not trying to suppress or "demoralise" the agitation of Hardik Patel.
The government, in a written reply, said it was only trying to ensure that there was no violence such as witnessed during the Patidar quota agitation three years ago. The Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) led by Hardik Patel has moved the high court, alleging that police were not letting people enter the bungalow on the outskirts of Ahmedabad where the quota leader is on hunger strike since 25 August.
Hardik had launched his hunger strike on the third anniversary of his mega pro-quota rally in Ahmedabad. He had on Sunday released his "will" in which he divided his property among his parents, sister, 14 youths killed during the quota agitation in 2015 and a 'panjrapole' (shelter for ill and old cows) near his village. Apart from the Congress, leaders and representatives of the Aam Aadmi Party, Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Hindustani Awami Morcha (HAM) have visited Hardik at his residence and extended their support.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud was informed by the Uttar Pradesh government that it has transferred the SHO concerned and filed appeals seeking cancellation of bails granted to the accused in the case.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Inspector General of Police of Meerut range to supervise the investigation in the Hapur lynching case.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud was informed by the Uttar Pradesh government that it has transferred the SHO concerned and filed appeals seeking cancellation of bails granted to the accused in the case.
"It is directed that the investigation shall be carried out under the supervision of IGP of Meerut range," the bench said while posting the matter for hearing after two weeks.
Advocate Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, told the top court that the police had taken swift and instant action at the time of the incident and the investigation in the case will be completed in 60 days.
On 13 August, the apex court had directed a senior Uttar Pradesh Police officer to probe the Hapur lynching case in which one person was killed and another brutally assaulted in the name of cow vigilantism, while terming the allegations of survivor Samiuddin as "serious".
It had also directed the IGP to "facilitate the recording" of victim's statement before a judicial magistrate regarding the incident in which 45-year-old Qasim Qureishi was beaten to death on 18 June.
"In the meantime, the IGP, Meerut (Range) shall submit a report with regard to the incident in question. We have so directed keeping in view the serious allegations/ assertions made in the writ petition," the bench said.
The plea had sought setting up of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to ensure "an impartial, competent and fair investigation" into "the barbaric incident of mob lynching on 18 June in Hapur district of Uttar Pradesh, wherein Samiuddin (the petitioner No. 1) and Qasim, both belonging to the minority community, were targeted and mercilessly assaulted by a mob of the majority community from the neighbouring village, in the name of cow vigilantism."
Besides the state government, the court also issued notices to the IGP, Additional Director General of Police and Superintendent of Police of Hapur.
The plea had sought "setting up a SIT comprising of police officers with impeccable career records of integrity and competence from outside the state of Uttar Pradesh, which shall be charged with the responsibilities and duties of investigation, in respect of all issues relating to the matters concerning and arising from the incident".
It had sought a direction that the SIT "shall report to and be responsible to this court through the filing of periodic status reports and shall also keep this court informed of any major developments".
The plea further sought a direction to the state government to compensate the victim for his medical treatment. It said Qasim had died as a consequence of the lethal mob lynching, while Samiuddin survived the attempt on his life but suffered multiple fractures, wounds and egregious injuries.
It said Yaseen and Dinesh Tomar, brother and a family friend, were subjected to "grave threat and coercion" by Circle Officer Pawan Kumar Singh of Pilkhuwa Police Station for lodging a false complaint of road rage instead of mob lynching.
It also sought cancellation of bail granted to the accused, including alleged key offender Yudhishthir Singh Sisodia.
Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha on Tuesday extended his support to Quota leader Hardik Patel who has been on hunger strike for farm loan waiver and Patidar reservation for the last 11 days.
Ahmedabad: Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha on Tuesday extended his support to quota leader Hardik Patel who has been on hunger strike for farm loan waiver and Patidar reservation for the last 11 days. The former Finance minister expressed the need to take the agitation launched by Hardik Patel for the cause of farmers across the country.
Sinha visited the quota spearhead at his residence near Ahmedabad. He was accompanied by BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha, former BJP chief minister of Gujarat Suresh Mehta and ex-BJP MP from
Maharashtra Nana Patole.
Hardik Patel had launched indefinite fast on 25 August for demands including a farm loan waiver and reservation for the Patidar community under OBC category in jobs and education. The state BJP government has dubbed Hardik Patel's hunger strike "politically motivated". "The issues on which Hardik Patel is holding fast have created an impact across the country. The issues are
being discussed everywhere," he told reporters after meeting Hardik Patel.
Sinha, the convener of political action group Rashtra Manch, said the agitation launched by Hardik Patel should be taken to various parts of the country. "One thing that we decided aftegr a short discussion with Hardik Patel is that we need to take this agitation across the country and fight strongly," Sinha said. He said the issues plaguing farmers in the country are serious and that farmers be granted a permanent relief including a loan waiver. "We stand with Hardik Patel who has been raising the issue of farmers. Now the time has come that we fight together. We discussed this with him and we hope that the government wakes up now and initiate steps to resolve Hardik Patel's demands," the former BJP leader said.
Responding to a query on caste quota, Sinha said the Union government should chart out a way forward as people from various communities who are outside the scope of reservation have demanded it. "The Central government should think about this. It has formed a backward class commission. It should think on how to take this matter forward. As far as possible, we should try to work to improve (lives) of many communities who have lagged behind, as per Constitution," he said.
Shatrughan Sinha said their meeting with Hardik Patel was not politically motivated. "We gathered here in a non-political capacity on the basis of humanity. We are here because our aim is to construct the temple of humanity. We have no objection on mandir-masjid (sic)," he said.
Hardik Patel had launched his hunger strike on the third anniversary of his mega pro-quota rally in Ahmedabad. He had Sunday released his "will" in which he divided his property among his parents, a sister, 14 youths killed during the quota agitation in 2015 and a panjrapole (shelter for ill and old cows) near his village.
Apart from the Congress, leaders and representatives of the Aam Aadmi Party, Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Hindustani Awami Morcha (HAM) have so far visited Hardik Patel at his residence and extended their support.
Interim HNLU vice-chancellor Ravishankar Sharma extended library timings at the law university till 3 am, one of the demands of the protesting students.
After witnessing over a week of student protests, the Hidayatullah National Law University (HNLU) in Chhattisgarh's Naya Raipur has agreed to fulfil one of their key demands to extend the library timings.
In an order on Wednesday, interim vice-chancellor Ravishankar Sharma said the HNLU administration has decided to allow students access to the library till 3 am. "The students have been demanding extension of library timings round the clock and are willing to study. The university believes that they are responsible persons and will maintain the dignity and faith reposed in them," Sharma said in the order.
The order added that separate registers will be maintained in each hostel for students willing to avail the library facility during the extended timings. "Hostel-wise registers will also be maintained in the library, wherein corresponding entries are to be made by each student while entering and leaving the library," Sharma said.
He also asserted that the students will not be allowed to wander in or outside the campus. "Moving outside the campus beyond the permitted hours, i.e. beyond 9 pm, shall be strictly prohibited," it said.
The HNLU administration's order comes a day after Sharma met the protesting students. He had agreed to most of their demands, and the final round of discussions were held on Wednesday morning.
The students had earlier planned to launch a hunger strike from Wednesday. But with the interim vice-chancellor's directive, it will likely not be held.
On 27 August, the Chhattisgarh High Court had declared the re-appointment of professor Sukh Pal Singh as the vice-chancellor of HNLU "illegal". In the interim, Sharma, who is the Chhattisgarh principal secretary (department of law), was appointed the vice-chancellor. Students at the HNLU launched their protest after they learned that Singh was planning to challenge the high court order.
The students had protested for the removal of the hostel curfews and demanded the appointment of independent wardens in place of faculty members, who double as wardens.
The hostel curfew, which put a 10.30-pm deadline on students to return to their rooms, was raised as a prominent issue as the students are of the view that they should be allowed access to the entire campus at all hours without any discrepancies or exceptions.
In a letter by the Student Bar Association, HNLU, the protesters had said that many of them on campus identify with different genders, and therefore, reside in other hostels. The students said the imposition of the rules was hindering their academic and extra-curricular activities, such as holding moot court competitions, collaborative research papers and access to the library and other resources.
With inputs from PTI
Describing Rafale as a 'beautiful' aircraft, Air Marshal S B Deo, the Vice Chief of the Indian Air Force(IAF), said those criticising the deal must understand the procurement norms.
New Delhi: The Vice Chief of the IAF Wednesday gave a strong endorsement of the Rafale fighter jets, saying it will give India an "unprecedented" combat advantage, as the Supreme Court agreed to hear next week a plea seeking a stay on the controversial deal with France. As the government remained under attack from the Congress and other Opposition parties on the escalating Rafale row, the country's top security brass also gave a briefing to the Union Council of Ministers in a bid to provide the NDA leaders with facts to counter the allegations of favouritism and corruption levelled against it.
Congress general secretary Shakti Singh Gohil termed the Rafale deal as the "grandmother of all corruption" and said the party would take out protest rallies at district level across the country from tomorrow to "expose" the alleged irregularities committed by the Modi government. Describing Rafale as a "beautiful" aircraft, Air Marshal SB Deo, the Vice Chief of the Indian Air Force (IAF), said those criticising the deal must understand the procurement norms.
Deo said "all discussions on the deal" were taking place as people do not have adequate information about the procurement procedure. "We are waiting for the aircraft to come. It is a beautiful aircraft. It is a very capable aircraft. It is a capability that we need quickly," he said on the sidelines of an event when asked about the controversy surrounding the Rafale deal.
Asked about allegations relating to the Rs 58,000 crore deal, Deo said "all the discussions are taking place as people do not have information". "They should read DPP (defence procurement procedure) and offset policy," he said, adding the jets will give India "unprecedented" combat advantage. India had inked an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore. The delivery of the jets is scheduled to begin from September 2019.
The Congress has been alleging massive irregularities in the deal, claiming the government was procuring each aircraft at a cost of over Rs 1,600 crore as against Rs 526 crore finalised by the UPA government. The government has rejected the charges. At the Supreme Court, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud considered the submissions of advocate ML Sharma that his plea on the Rafale deal be listed for urgent hearing.
In his petition, Sharma alleged discrepancies in the jet deal and sought a stay on it. Sharma claimed in his plea that the inter-governmental agreement to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets must be quashed as it was an "outcome of corruption" and not ratified by Parliament under Article 253 (Parliament has power to make any law for implementing any inter-government agreement) of the Constitution.
The Rafale fighter is a twin-engine Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) manufactured by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation. During their briefing at the meeting of the Union Council of Ministers, the country's top security brass said the cost of the Rafale jet is based on equipment and weapons that will be married to the jet. A senior official said National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Secretary, Defence Production, Ajay Kumar highlighted various aspects of the deal at the meeting, which lasted nearly three hours.
The ministers were informed that the Rafale contract was a deal between two governments involving no private party, leaving little scope for corruption. The security brass also highlighted the aircraft's capability which would strengthen the IAF and make the fighter jets an asset for it. The presentation underscores Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to take all his allies, who are represented in the council of ministers, on board as the government works to counter the opposition on the issue with the Lok Sabha election being less than eight months away.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi accused the Modi government of adopting "double standards" in approving offset contracts for defence deals asking why it did not adopt the same yardstick in the Rafale deal when it had disapproved Russia's move to grant offset contracts to a private player for AK-103 rifles. Singhvi said a "fallacious argument" of the Modi government on Rafale has been nipped in the bud by its own recent negotiations in another defence deal with Russia for manufacturing AK-rifles.
Dalit is an anti-caste spirit imperative for the creation of nation based on equality, liberty and fraternity.
Black as a functional communicative terminology, as an identical reference to collective consciousness against the racial oppression, and in the domain of aesthetics, was made prominent in the 1970s in USA with the advent of the Black Panther Party. Black in the domain of aesthetics, again, made beautiful, thereby, instilling the sense of dignity in what was understood as black previously.
The movement of annihilation of castes is primarily a process to achieve a dignity in all aspects of life. In the city of Mumbai, 1970 was a period of resentment against caste, emergence of Dalit literature that broke brahminical frameworks to write and understand the literature. When atrocities in Maharashtra on Dalits increased during this period and a few youth (ex-untouchables) now Buddhists, were reading reportage of such news almost every day, often in the libraries of Mumbai, they decided to fight and bring justice to the victims of atrocities (Dalits). Already frustrated with the several factions among the Republican Party of India, and freshly seeking for the movement whose primary aim was to guarantee justice and dignity to Dalits, they took inspiration from the Black Panthers. When the time came to name their collective consciousness, and their movement, they named it the Dalit Panthers.
In their manifesto, they clarified and proclaimed the meaning of the word Dalit: Members of Scheduled Castes and Tribes, Neo-Buddhists, the working people, the landless and poor peasants, women and all those who are being exploited politically, economically and in the name of religion.
One of the reasons why Dalit as a terminology became prominent in everyday discourse, was the committed engagement of founders of Dalit Panthers with literature. And with the literature they produced, the meaning of the word Dalit became profound and crossed the boundaries of caste, gender, and religion. The insertion of the element of dignity, resistance and vision of a just world in the word Dalit, however, was prominently done by two meticulous scholars of literature, Gangadhar Pantavane and MN Wankhede.
Both hailed from Milind College established by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar in Aurangabad. From 1960s to 1990s, literature produced by Dalits gained momentum across the world. This was responsible for the acceptance of the word Dalit in the global imagination, mainly symbolising the resistance against caste-oppression.
However, one curious transition during this period in the domain of literature was the rising demand from a few Dalit dignitaries, mostly literary personalities, to rename the body of Dalit literature as Buddhist literature or Ambedkarite Literature; implicitly rejected the usage of the word Dalit as a communicative terminology. Their claims, however, had some factual context. Though Dalit as an umbrella term claimed to unite people across caste, gender, and religion, on the basis of their caste-based exploitation, a major chunk of Dalit literature was produced by men and women from Mahar caste (ex-untouchable caste) and now Buddhists.
But one of the faults in this claim was its emergence had the basis of class dialectics that so apparently stressed upon the aesthetics of language in terms of using a narrow terminology based on history rather than experience of oppression, thereby restricting the growth of language by emphasising over the use of particular, exclusive word which is often unable to communicate the common thread between oppressed communities across various geographical as well as experiential positions in human life.
This was precisely understood by one of the earliest foreign scholars of Ambedkars movement, Eleanor Zelliot, who hailed from America. After studying the anti-caste movement (Ambedkarite Movement) closely for nearly 40 years, when she was suggested that she name her book From Untouchables to Buddhists, she clarified her position and understanding of politics of terminologies in these words:
Just last year I asked by some highly educated followers of Dt Ambedkar if I was going to do a book called From Untouchables to Buddhists, since this group resented the term Dalit as negative, even demeaning. I replied that I could not, since not all Dalits were Buddhists, and that the term Dalit was not only to be interpreted as the oppressed but also as the proud, the defiant. As long as there is a group of groups, chiefly untouchable and in some cases Backward Castes or Scheduled Castes, who are the victims of caste oppression, there must be a term to describe them and the literature they create to tell their stories.
Recently, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued an advisory urging all private media channels not to use the word Dalit to refer to people of Scheduled Castes, completely forgetting the fact that the meaning of the nomenclature Dalit is strongly based on experiential world of communities who are prone to caste-oppression. As long as this exploitation prevails, their experiential position defined by the nomenclature chosen and constructed by their literature over the decades, will remain.
But, this advisory cannot be taken lightly since it emphasised the rejection of a nomenclature Dalit, which is also a choice of an individual as well as communities, to express their world in the nomenclature they know that would define them with dignity, as well as manifest their position against caste-based oppression. Throughout his writings, Ambedkar used a categorical terminology of Scheduled Castes especially after the advent of the Constitution, in which all members of ex-untouchable castes were included, but he preferably and widely used nomenclature such as depressed classes or untouchables while referring to this communities categorically, since it captured and understood the experience of all castes fall under the constitutional category of Scheduled Castes.
Therefore, it must be noted that words not only work as definitions for us in life, they are reminders of the past, and its possible deconstruction so the new language would take place in order to define us differently but collectively. Dalit as a nomenclature is itself a functional word which articulates the position of a person or a community against caste. In the case of India as a nation of fragmented experiences, abnormalised by the system of castes, it seems difficult to provide an umbrella term for oppressed communities, primarily because their experience of oppression varies with the changing location of their castes.
Nomenclature that tends to remind people of their caste rather than their experiential similarities when it comes to realise the sense of being oppressed weakens the spirit of resistance against caste oppression since it divides people into closets of caste. Advising and urging the mediaa medium of dissemination of narratives which helps society understand oppressionto avoid the nomenclature that exposes oppression within the country is an act of further strengthening caste-based oppression.
If democracy has to prevail in its fullest sense, then the nomenclature Dalit, which exposes and fights against caste-based oppression within the country's democratic mechanisms, is to be protected, used, and disseminated widely. Dalit is an anti-caste spirit imperative for the creation of nation based on equality, liberty and fraternity.
In the final episode, we visit Idukki, to tell the story of Periyar, the river that sits at the centre of this story
Editor's note: This multi-part video series, created in collaboration with the Calicut-based production house, Pulleys' Junction, tells stories of lives fundamentally altered by the Kerala floods, and the ongoing effort at rebuilding those lives. In the final episode, we visit Idukki, to tell the story of Periyaar, the river that sits at the centre of this story. What locals here told us portends serious consequences for the state administration; release of water from the dams was ill-timed, and, more important, not enough people living by the riverside were sent advance warning that floodwaters were coming their way.
The amounts earmarked for these celebrations in Kerala would have to be transferred to the Chief Minister's Disaster Relief Fund (CMDRF), it said.
Thiruvananthapuram: With Kerala struggling to find resources for rebuilding the flood-ravaged state, the LDF government Tuesday decided to do away with state-sponsored festivals such as film fete and tourism carnivals for an year and utilise the funds for the rehabilitation work.
Days after the flood situation eased, the state reeled under various types of fevers, including leptospirosis (rat fever), with the toll rising to 11 since 29 August with two more deaths, including one due to dengue, being reported Tuesday, officials said.
A cabinet sub-committee that reviewed the relief works decided to complete the process of disbursement of Rs 10,000 as immediate relief to the flood-hit families. A government order said the international film festival, slated in December, and art and youth festivals organised with government funds and other celebrations held by the Tourism Department have been cancelled for an year.
The amounts earmarked for these celebrations would have to be transferred to the Chief Minister's Disaster Relief Fund (CMDRF), it said. The school arts fest, considered one of the biggest gatherings, the Onam festival celebrations and the Nehru Boat Race are among the events cancelled in view of the floods. The cabinet sub-committee also directed the authorities to finalise by 7 September the steps for the disbursement of compensation to the families of those who died in rain-related incidents, an official release said.
It also asked officials to take up all preventive measures to check the spread of fevers. The government had announced a relief of Rs four lakhs each to the kin of those killed and Rs 10 lakhs each to those who had lost their land and houses in the murderous monsoon that left a huge trail of destruction and claimed 491 lives since 29 May.
Meanwhile, the Kerala High Court Tuesday observed there should be transparency in determining compensation to the people affected by the floods. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice AK Jayasankaran Nambiar directed the government to file an affidavit with scientific, rationale and strong formula for granting compensation to the victims.
The court gave the order on a public interest litigation petition filed by IUML leader PK Firoz who sought a direction to the government to ensure transparency in giving compensation. The bench pointed out that same yardsticks cannot be adopted for all people affected by the floods. Compensation should be reckoned scientifically.
Meanwhile, state Finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac said the government employees Tuesday accepted chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan's "Salary Challenge" and agreed to contribute one month's salary in ten installments for the distress relief of the flood-affected people. A consensus was reached at a meeting held by him with
the representatives of employees' organisations, he said.
"The government employees in Kerala accepts the Chief Minister's Salary Challenge for Distress Relief of victims of Kerala flood. Employees to contribute one months salary in 10 monthly installments," Isaac tweeted after the meeting. Speaking at the meeting, Isaac said an amount of Rs 6,000 crore was needed for revenue expenditure in the post-flood situation.
As per a bulletin issued by the State Disaster Management Control Room on Tuesday, a total of 491 people died in rain-related incidents from 29 May when monsoon set in over Kerala. The period from 8 August till the third week saw the maximum deaths when the state was battered by torrential rains that caused most rivers to be in spate, resulting in the worst deluge in 100 years.
With more and more people returning homes, the number of displaced in relief camps came down to 8,800 on Tuesday, officials said. At the peak of floods, more than 14 lakh people were accommodated in relief camps across the state. The removal of mud and dirt dumped by floods in houses and buildings was progressing and only 12,900 houses remained to be cleaned, an official release said.
According to the Kerala Health Services (KHS), there were 115 confirmed cases of leptospirosis, an infectious bacterial disease, and 12 dengue cases. Thirty-eight people, with suspected symptoms of dengue were taking treatment. A total of 13,434 people sought treatment for fevers across the state Tuesday, KHS said.
As Kerala builds itself back after the worst floods the state has seen in almost a century, help has poured in from other parts of the country as governments, prominent personalities and civillians alike have committed to providing essential items and financial aid.
As Kerala builds itself back after the worst floods the state has seen in almost a century, help has poured in from other parts of the country as governments, prominent personalities and civillians alike have committed to providing essential items and financial aid.
Bishwanath Sinha, a Kerala IAS officer, issued a statement on Wednesday appealing for essential school items for the children who have lost their possessions in the floods that caused large-scale death and destruction in the state. In the statement, Sinha, who is principal secretary to the state government, said that Kerala is "limping back to normalcy", as four lakh families were displaced from their homes.
He also said that the "marginalised sections of society" were reeling under "extreme pathetic conditions" after having lost their homes and livelihoods. "More than two lakh children belonging to the poorest sections of society need special care, and are in need of essential school going items," Sinha's statement said.
Sinha listed the items required, which included school bags, water bottles, tiffin boxes, notebooks, pens, and pencils. He also mentioned the amount of each item needed.
On 28 August, the government had said that an immediate relief of Rs 10,000 was to be disbursed to the flood-affected. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had issued necessary instructions to district collectors on the aid during a video conference to review the post-flood situation in the state.
Meanwhile, several people have come forward, responding to the chief minister's appeal to donate their one month's salary for the chief minister's disaster relief fund.
With inputs from agencies
Kisan-Mazdoor Rally in Delhi LIVE updates: The farmers and labourers are marching in protest in Delhi against government's labour laws. They demand that all workers should be given a minimum wage of at least Rs 18,000 per month
Auto refresh feeds
Those who participated in the Kisan March in Maharashtra in March 2018 will also join the protest.
The worker-farmer rally, which has been organised by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and All India Agriculture Workers Union (AIAWU) affiliated to the CPM, will be held from Parliament Street to Jantar Mantar on Wednesday.
The demands of the protesters include effective implementation of labour laws, minimum wage guarantee, more employment opportunities and recognition of one crore Anganwadi and ASHA workers as an organised workforce, The Indian Express reported.
Meanwhile, state-wise camps have been set up at the maidan for the arriving protestors, along with a medical camp and a storage area for protest tools.
Delhis late monsoon rainfall has inundated the Ramlila Maidan, forcing the farmers and workers arriving for the rally to abandon 60% of their tent space, The Hindu reported .
Organisers are trying find alternative accommodation in train stations and gurudwaras for the protestors as the ground is flooded. "We originally expected to house 80,000 people in Ramlila Maidan but now we will have to reduce it to 50,000," Manoj Kumar Sirswal, an All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) coordinator working at the camp told The Hindu.
We have asked those who are coming from Maharashtra to stay in the large halls at the railway station. People who had participated in the Farmers Long March to Mumbai in March would also have to stay at the station for now, AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah told The Hindu.
As 30,000 more people from Maharashtra, and an equal number from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are expected to arrive in the capital for the worker-farmer rally, organisers are scrambling to look after the lodging arrangements. Even Kerala is expected to send about 6,000 participants for the mega protest.
As lakhs of supporters are expected to arrive in the city today, organisers have said that most of those coming early from Punjab and Haryana will be housed at three large gurudwaras, at Rakab Ganj Sahib, Sis Ganj Sahib and Bangla Sahib.
Two lakh more protestors expected to arrive from Punjab and Haryana; organisers to house them in three gurudwaras
Meanwhile, a four-member team of the Delhi governments Mobile Health Scheme gave painkillers and diarrhoea medicines to the protesters. From 10 am to 5 pm, we have treated 699 people, said Dr Vineet Kumar Sahu, a medical officer deployed at the ground, according to The Indian Express' report .
Sansad Marg,Janpath and KG Marg are closed for traffic movement due to procession/demonstration and motorists are advised to take Baba Kharak Singh Marg and Ashoka Road as alternative route, the traffic police tweeted.
Tapan Sen, General Secretary of CITU, addressed the farmers and labourers at Parliament Street. He announced that their workers will join the Kisan Long March in November.
The farmers and labourers are marching in protest in Delhi against government's labour laws. They demand that all workers should be given a minimum wage of at least Rs 18,000 per month and there should be food security as well.
A congregation of farmers and labourers, backed by the Communist Party of India Marxist, have sought that the government should curb the increasing prices of essential commodities and food grains. They also sought a ban on forward trading of essential commodities
Members of the Kisan Mazdoors demand remunerative prices for the peasants as per Swaminathan Committee recommendations. The protesters are also demanding the timely public procurement of the farmers' produce.
Sansad Marg,Janpath and KG Marg are closed for traffic movement due to procession/demonstration and motorists are advised to take Baba Kharak Singh Marg and Ashoka Road as alternative route, the traffic police tweeted.
Tapan Sen, General Secretary of CITU, addressed the farmers and labourers at Parliament Street. He announced that their workers will join the Kisan Long March in November.
The farmers and labourers are protesting against the 'neo-liberal polices' of the central government and asking for revision of labour laws.
The farmers and labourers are marching in protest in Delhi against government's labour laws. They demand that all workers should be given a minimum wage of at least Rs 18,000 per month and there should be food security as well.
A congregation of farmers and labourers, backed by the Communist Party of India Marxist, have sought that the government should curb the increasing prices of essential commodities and food grains. They also sought a ban on forward trading of essential commodities
Members of the Kisan Mazdoors demand remunerative prices for the peasants as per Swaminathan Committee recommendations. The protesters are also demanding the timely public procurement of the farmers' produce.
There are huge jams on nearly all arterial roads around the Parliament Street in Delhi as protestors continue their march.
Kisan-Mazdoor Rally in Delhi latest updates: The farmers and labourers are marching in protest in Delhi against government's labour laws. They demand that all workers should be given a minimum wage of at least Rs 18,000 per month and there should be food security as well.
Tapan Sen, General Secretary of CITU, addressed the farmers and labourers at Parliament Street. He announced that their workers will join the Kisan Long March in November.
Sansad Marg, Janpath and KG Marg are closed for traffic movement due to procession/demonstration and motorists are advised to take Baba Kharak Singh Marg and Ashoka Road as alternative route, the traffic police tweeted.
The demands of the protesters include effective implementation of labour laws, minimum wage guarantee, more employment opportunities and recognition of one crore Anganwadi and ASHA workers as an organised workforce, The Indian Express reported.
The 5 September protest by workers and farmers at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi will not be the last rally, organisers said on Tuesday, warning that they would intensify their struggle against the "anti-people" policies of the Centre. The rally - Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh March - is being organised jointly by CITU, AIKS and AIAWU, organisations and unions affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
"This is the first time...after Independence that farmers and workers will jointly participate in a rally against the government," CITU general secretary Tapan Sen told reporters, adding, "And it will not be the last one of our efforts." "We will announce the second phase of our struggle and war against the government, whose anti-people policies are affecting the poor people of our country. This government is only making policies keeping in mind the interests of the corporate and the rich," Sen said.
Last week, the organisers said they were expecting more than three lakh people from across the country at the rally. Preparations for the rally had been under way for several days but incessant rain over the last few days threw all that into disarray, damaging the makeshift shelters at Ramlila Maidan, the venue for the protest. However, the thousands of participants who have come from all over the country appeared confident that the rally would be successful in highlighting their issues of concern.
People part of the "Long March" of farmers from Nashik to Mumbai earlier 2018 are also participating in this rally. The march of farmers was led by All India Kisan Sabha and was, among other demands, for proper implementation of Maharashtra government's loan waiver scheme. "The BJP government in Maharashtra fooled us. I have come to Delhi to raise my voice against the anti-farmer policies of the Centre. I will not stop till I get the right price for my crops," one of the protester said. "We realised that the state of farmers is seriously bad. We told them that the time has come to raise our voice against the government's policies," another protester from Kerala said.
The farmers and workers, participating in the rally, want remunerative prices for crops as per the Swaminathan Committee recommendations, debt waiver of all farmers and agricultural workers, minimum wage of not less than Rs 18,000 per month for workers.
Some organisations have also given a call for 'Bharat bandh' against the SC/ST Amendment Bill passed in the Parliament last month. The administration has imposed prohibitive orders under CrPC in four districts
Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh police have stepped up security across the state in view of the ongoing protests against the amendments in the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Some organisations have also given a call for 'Bharat bandh' against the SC/ST Amendment Bill passed in the Parliament last month. The administration has imposed prohibitive orders under CrPC in four districts- Morena, Shivpuri and Bhind, all three in Gwalior-Chambal region, as well as in Ashok Nagar
district in view of the proposed bandh.
Gwalior-Chambal region, one of the sensitive areas, had witnessed a large-scale violence on 2 April this year during the 'Bharat bandh' called by Dalit groups. Makrand Deuskar, inspector general of police (Intelligence) told reporters on Tuesday, "Police headquarters have alerted all the superintendents of police in view of proposed bandh on 6 September."
He said the police force allotted to the districts on the occasion of Krishna Janmashtami on Monday, would continue to remain deployed. Madhya Pradesh has witnessed protests against the ruling party leaders at various places in the past few days. "In view of proposed Bharat Bandh on 6 September, the prohibitive orders under CrPC section 144 have been imposed in the district," Bhind District Collector Ashish Gupta said in a press note.
"It is necessary to impose section 144 this time as the law and order situation in the district was disturbed on 2 April this year when some organisations had given the call of 'Bharat bandh'," he said. The collectors in Shivpuri and Morena districts have also imposed prohibitive orders under CrPC section 144. Brahma Samagam Sawarna Jankalyan Sangathan's national president Dharmendra Sharma said that about 150 organisations of upper castes and OBCs would participate in the Bharat bandh against the amendments in SC/ST Act.
"We will protest peacefully on 6 September. Through this protest, we will demand withdrawal of this black law. All the sections except SC/ST are affected due to this amendment. We will also write letters to all MPs of the country," Sharma said.
Former Union Minister and senior BJP OBC leader Prahlad Patel expressed his displeasure over the protests. "The role of people from the OBC community has become all the more important in this scenario. For centuries, the OBCs have been acted as a bridge between upper castes and scheduled castes and they will continue to play this role actively in future," he said.
Protests have been going on against the amendments in SC/ST Bill in parts of the state since the past one week. The protesters staged a demonstration outside the bungalows of union minister Narendra Singh Tomar at Gwalior and Member of Parliament (MP) Bhagirath Prasad at Bhind. The protesters also staged a demonstration at Higher Education Minister Jaibhan Singh Pawaiya's bungalow at Gwalior.
The protesters also showed black flags to Union ministers Thawar Chand Gehlot and MJ Akbar at Guna and Vidisha respectively. Several other protests were also organised across the state. Earlier this year, the apex court had removed the strict provision of mandatory arrests under the Act. This decision had triggered nationwide protests by Scheduled Castes organisations, forcing the Centre to bring an amendment to the Act during the Monsoon Session to overrule the SC order.
Rescue operations are still going on Wednesday after a portion of Majerhat bridge collapsed in south Kolkata.
Kolkata: Rescue operations are still going on Wednesday after a portion of a 40-year-old bridge collapsed in south Kolkata on Tuesday.
A part of the Majherhat bridge between Taratala and Mominpur collapsed around 4.30 pm on Tuesday. So far, one person has died and 19 others injured in the accident. "Our team is still working on the rescue. Overnight and this morning, we tried to dig holes on the concrete slab decks that caved in, to find out whether anyone is still trapped underneath. "Cameras are also being used to find out what remains below the debris. Removing the rubble would take more time," a member of the rescue team said on Wednesday.
Four teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), fire brigade and personnel of disaster management teams are at the spot. Cranes have been deployed and gas cutters were being used for the rescue operation. Three columns of army personnel were also present at the spot.
The West Bengal government has initiated a probe on the incident. "Investigations are going on. At this point, we cannot come to any conclusion regarding the possible reasons behind the accident," a member of the forensic team said.
Pedestrians and commuters in buses and cars who were on the collapsed structure were rescued. The bridge was the main connector between central and southwest part of the city. Due to the partial collapse of the bridge, traffics has been diverted. Trams services on some routes have been withdrawn, a Kolkata Traffic Control official said.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was in Darjeeling at the time of the accident, has said, "Four-five labourers used to stay in a temporary tin shed under the bridge. If they were there during the collapse, it is possible that something unfortunate may have happened to them."
Goods vehicles have not been allowed to enter the city between 6 am and 11 pm. State government will pay a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the family of Soumen Bagh, who died in the accident.
State urban development minister Firhad Hakim said on Tuesday that heavy construction work of the metro project beside the collapsed bridge could have weakened its pillars. City Metro Railway Authority, however, have ruled out any such possibility.
Amid blame game over the partial collapse of the bridge the Eastern Railway said it was not conducting any maintenance work at the accident site. However, experts said the bridge was very old and any structural defect or use of inferior quality of material as the reason behind the collapse cannot be attributed. The bridge has been withstanding heavy vehicles for more than 40 years. The only reason that may trigger the collapse could be "lack of maintenance".
According to a state official, the 40-year-old bridge was constructed by the Kolkata Port Trust and maintained by State Public Works Department.
Earlier in 2018, Manohar Parrikar underwent a three-month-long treatment for a pancreatic ailment at a US hospital
Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar will return Goa Thursday evening from the United States where he has gone for medical treatment, his office said on Wednesday.
"The chief minister would land in Mumbai Thursday at 3 pm and will reach Goa by 5 pm. He will board a flight from the US tonight," a senior officer at the the Chief Minister's Office told PTI.
"Parrikar's treatment is complete and that is why he is returning," the official said.
The chief minister had left for the US on 31 August. Earlier in 2018, he underwent a three-month-long treatment for a pancreatic ailment at a US hospital. Subsequently, he was admitted to a Mumbai hospital again on 23 August.
DMK chief MK Stalin said in a statement that the continuation of Vijayabaskar and Rajendran would be a blot on democracy and the police administration.
Chennai: Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president MK Stalin on Wednesday asked the Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit to sack Health and Family Welfare Minister C Vijayabaskar and Director General of Police (DGP) TK Rajendran if they don't quit on their own after raids by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Stalin said in a statement that the continuation of Vijayabaskar and Rajendran would be a blot on democracy and the police administration. "If they do not resign, then the governor should dismiss them without any delay," he said after the Central Bureau of Investigation raided offices and homes in Tamil Nadu in connection with a gutkha scam.
Stalin said the CBI raids had brought shame to Tamil Nadu. He alleged that the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government had tried various measures to stall the investigation into the scam.
On Wednesday morning, CBI officials from New Delhi searched 40 locations in Chennai, including the houses of the Vijayabaskar and Rajendran.
The case is related to an Income Tax Department raid on the offices, residences and godowns of a gutkha manufacturer in Tamil Nadu in 2016. A diary seized then listed alleged bribes paid to officials amounting to Rs 39.31 crore.
The Tamil Nadu government has banned the manufacture and storage of gutkha a tobacco product since 2013. However, the product was reportedly available in the market with the alleged connivance of police officers and others.
DMK legislator J Anbazhagan, on whose petition the Madras High Court ordered a CBI probe, also sought the resignation of Rajendran and Vijayabaskar. "The probe seems to be proceeding on the right track under the CBI. Whether a case will be filed against the scammers or not will have to be seen," Anbazhagan told IANS. "If no case is filed, then we may have to approach the Madras High Court again."
Several political parties had demanded a CBI probe into the issue but the AIADMK government did not agree.
In June, the enforcement directorate registered a money laundering case against unnamed government officials in Tamil Nadu based on a first information report (FIR) registered by the CBI in May. Despite opposition from opposition parties, Rajendran was given a two-year extension in 2018.
I predict sometime in the future Gmail will scan your email and have suggested replies ready.
Oh, I`m sorry. That won't be in the future.
That is now!
Today I just checked out the new version of Gmail.
But when I "clicked" to see one email message to me, Google's Artificial Intelligence (A9) was already suggesting the following replies:
"Thank you!"
"Awesome, thanks!"
"It worked."
If you don't believe me, look at the screenshot above,
And I thought Google wasn't reading my emails?
Am I alone in thinking that this is kinda creepy?
Maybe Gmail's next phase it to reply to your emails and cut out the "middle man / middle woman"?
Why pay human operatives to read your emails when Big Brother AI can to the job -- and know your every move?
In a letter to Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Naveen Patnaik asked him to refer to his earlier letters from 2013 and2014, wherein he had requested the establishment of High Court benches in western and southern Odisha.
Bhubaneswar: Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday urged the Centre to take quick steps for establishment of permanent High Court benches in western and southern regions of the state to fulfil the aspirations of the people of these regions.
In a letter to Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, the chief minister asked him to refer to his earlier letters dated 28 September, 2013, and 13 February, 2014, wherein he had requested that steps be taken for the establishment of High Court benches in western and southern Odisha. "There has been persistent demand from the people of these regions for setting up permanent benches of Orissa High Court to mitigate the inconvenience faced by the litigants," Patnaik said.
"I had further conveyed the assurance of the state government to provide adequate resources for the establishment of the high court benches in these areas," the chief minister said in his letter, copies of which were released to media.
The views of the Orissa High Court on the recommendation have not materialised so far, he said, adding that it is learnt from the response received from the Centre vide a letter dated 7 October, 2015 that the Orissa High Court is seized with the process of examination of statistics regarding number of cases originating from various regions.
Patnaik said the state government is aware of the various decisions of the Supreme Court including the case of Federation of Bar Association of Karnataka vs Union of India and others as well as the recommendation of the Commission headed by Justice Jaswant Singh for the establishment of the bench of a High Court away from its principal seat."In our view, there is adequate justification for the establishment of permanent benches of Orissa High Court in the western and southern parts of Odisha and the criteria laid down by Justice Jaswant Singh Commission are also substantially met," the chief minister said.
He said the Parliament has the prerogative to establish such benches in an exercise of its powers under Entry-78 if the Union List. "In the above context, it is urged that an early decision regarding establishment of permanent benches of the high court in western and southern Odisha be taken by the Government of India to fulfil the aspirations of the people of these regions," Patnaik said.
Jammu and Kashmir Congress chief GA Mir on Wednesday defended Article 370 of the Constitution which provides special status to the state.
Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir Congress chief GA Mir on Wednesday defended Article 370 of the Constitution which provides special status to the state and said noises for its abrogation have no takers in the country.
Claiming that the situation in Kashmir situation had deteriorated, Mir said the Congress would not lag behind in the process of conduct of panchayat and municipal elections but a decision should be taken after reviewing the ground situation.
"Different people speak differently about Article 370 which is a special safeguard for the people of the state. The whole world knows that Jammu and Kashmir's accession to India is based on some conditions, the biggest being the special status, having own constitution and flag," Mir told reporters in Jammu.
The Congress leader, who led a rally from party headquarters at Shaheedi Chowk to the office of deputy commissioner at Wazarat road in Jammu, was reacting to National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval's statement on Tuesday that a separate constitution for Jammu and Kashmir was probably an "aberration" and that sovereignty can never be compromised.
Mir said there were many examples in the world where smaller states enjoy a status like Jammu and Kashmir enjoys with India.
"People raise such things for vote bank politics but statements like these will have no takers in the country," he said.
On reports of an MBA graduate from Doda joining Hizbul Mujahideen terror group, he said it was very unfortunate that highly qualified youth were taking up arms.
The trend is going on for the last three years and it is the outcome of the central government's poor policy to deal with the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, he said.
On the upcoming panchayat and civic polls in the state, Mir said it was the responsibility of the governor-led administration to provide secure atmosphere to the candidates and voters and ensure peaceful, free and fair polls.
"The situation in the state, especially in the Kashmir valley, over the past three years has deteriorated. The previous PDP-BJP government failed to conduct bypolls to the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat and announced its cancellation just one day ahead of the scheduled date of polling...They announced panchayat polls and local bodies elections but later deferred them," he said.
Mir said the Congress had informed former governor NN Vohra and his successor Satya Pal Malik that the party would not lag behind if they choose to conduct the panchayat and municipal elections but a decision should be taken after reviewing the ground situation.
"It is the responsibility of the governor administration and the Centre to provide secure atmosphere to the contestants and the voters and we are watching how the situation develops but we will not escape from the democratic exercise," Mir said.
Amid chanting of anti-Modi and anti-BJP slogans, several hundred Congress activists marched nearly a kilometre to protest what they alleged was the "Rafale scam" before submitting a memorandum to the deputy commissioner of Jammu.
"Prime Minister Modi and his government is maintaining silence over the deal. We just want the government to reveal the price of each fighter aircraft to the people of the country as Congress-led UPA II had entered into an agreement with France before the fall of the government," Mir said.
He alleged the Rafale deal was the "biggest scam" in the history of the country and therefore Congress was seeking a joint parliamentary committee to look into the deal.
"If the UPA II had secured the deal for Rs 526 crore for each aircraft, reports suggest that the BJP had purchased the same jet for Rs 1670 crore," he said.
Mir claimed the Modi government was avoiding inquiry in corruption cases to "be-fool" voters by claiming that not a single case of corruption had come to fore during its five-year rule.
How the country will know when this government has not instituted a single inquiry commission to investigate corruption charges? he asked. Congress will hold similar rallies across all the district headquarters in the state to inform the people about the "Rafale scam", he said.
Mehbooba Mufti's tweets came a little over an hour after PDP's arch rival National Conference announced it will not participate in ULB and panchayat elections
Srinagar: The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Wednesday said it was hopeful that Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik will convene an all-party meeting on holding of urban local body and panchayat elections in the state.
"(When) in government I had called an all party meeting to discuss ULB/Panchayat elections and majority of the parties had opposed holding of elections at that time. We expected that the governor too would have called an All Party meet where everyone would put forward their view point," PDP president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said in a series of tweets.
She said the PDP was hopeful that such a meeting would be called and her party would share its opinion with other parties in order to build a consensus on the issue. "We are still hopeful about that meet and would share our opinion with all the parties so that a consensus is built," she added.
Mehbooba Mufti's tweets came a little over an hour after PDP's arch rival National Conference announced it will not participate in these elections in view of the prevailing situation in the valley caused by the legal challenge to Article 35A of the Constitution.
The PDP prseident also tweeted that the Centre's plea in the apex court to link Article 35A with panchayat and local body polls was a "disastrous" idea. "The central government's plea in Supreme Court to link decision on 35A with panchayat and urban bodies elections, was a disastrous idea, which has further alienated the people and complicated the situation on ground," she said.
A combined team of Manipur police and Assam Rifles arrested five cadres belonging to three different banned organisations in East Imphal and Bishnupur districts of Manipur.
Imphal: Security forces arrested five cadres belonging to different proscribed outfits from separate areas of Manipur, police said Tuesday.
A combined team of Manipur police and Assam Rifles held one woman cadre of banned United National Liberation Front (UNLF) from Leitanpokpi area in Imphal East district on Tuesday, a police statement said.
In another search operation the same day, security forces arrested an active member of proscribed militants organisation Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) from Andro Lupaochum Leikai in Imphal East district.
A member of proscribed militant outfit Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) was held from Wangkhei Loumanbi area in Imphal East district on Saturday, it added.
The same day, two cadres of proscribed outfit Zeliangrong United Front (ZUF) were held from a check gate at Chini Ingkhol in Bishnupur district, it said.
Manjit was wanted in the case of murder of a person, named Arman, who was a member the Gogi Gang, police said. Based on the information extracted from him, a trap was laid at the Budhpur road and at about 5.05 am, a white-colour scooter, coming from the GT Karnal Road, was flagged down
New Delhi: Three members of a gang were arrested following a shootout with the police in outer Delhi's Alipur area Wednesday morning, the police said. The three nabbed Manjit (23), Nitish (21) and Mahesh (25) are members of the Tillu gang, they said.
Manjit was wanted in the case of murder of a person, named Arman, who was a member the Gogi Gang, police said. Based on the information extracted from him, a trap was laid at the Budhpur road and at about 5.05 am, a white-colour scooter, coming from the GT Karnal Road, was flagged down, a senior officer said.
He said that two gang members, who were riding the scooter, tried to escape and when the police chased them, they opened fire. The police fired back and in the process on of the two received injury in his right leg while the other, named Mahesh, was apprehended without injury, the officer added.
Two rounds were fired by the accused and in retaliation, the police team fired four rounds, he said. No police officer was injured since they were wearing bulletproof jackets, he added. The injured gangster has been shifted to Raja Harishchandra Hospital where he is undergoing treatment. Further investigation is underway, police said.
The NSA and defence officials made the presentation to provide the Centre with facts to counter the allegations of favouritism and corruption.
New Delhi: With the government under attack from the Opposition on the Rafale issue, the top security brass briefed the Union Council of Ministers on Wednesday on the fighter aircraft deal with France, saying that its cost is based on equipment and weapons that will be integrated into the jet.
The presentation was made in a bid to provide the leaders with facts to counter the allegations of favouritism and corruption being levelled against the government.
A senior government functionary said National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Secretary of Defence Production Ajay Kumar highlighted various aspects of the deal in the meeting, which lasted more than two and a half hours.
The ministers were informed that it was a deal between two governments involving no private party, leaving little scope for corruption. The security brass also highlighted the aircraft's capability, which will strengthen the Indian Air Force and make the fighter jets an asset for it.
Opposition parties led by the Congress have been attacking the Modi government over the deal, alleging that it was struck at an exorbitant price. The charges have been denied by the government.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while refusing to get into the details of what transpired at the meeting, took a dig at the Congress and its chief Rahul Gandhi over the fighter jet deal. Responding to a question, he said, "Congress has proved that in a dynastic party, ignorance is contagious... if one lacks information, all are ignorant."
Jaitley said questioning the deal is the "biggest ignorance". He said a basic aircraft is of "no use" as it can only fly the pilot. He said cost escalation and currency variations between 2007 and 2016 have to be considered.
He also pointed out that a weaponised jet is 20 percent cheaper now after the negotiations. Since it is a government-to-government deal, no private party or a PSU is involved. "The 36 jets will come in a fly away condition and not even a bolt will be fitted here ... during UPA (rule), they did not believe in transfer of technology but preferred to buy (hardware) from foreign buyers ...," he said.
Referring to Bofors howitzer gun deal, he said while bribes can be taken, the weapons could not be manufactured here.
Jaitley said after increasing FDI to 49 percent several international defence major are tying up with Indian companies to manufacture defence hardware here. He said the government has also ensured that defence PSUs get sufficient orders. He said side by side the government also believes in helping the private sector.
The functionary, meanwhile, said the presentation in the meeting also underscored Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to take all his allies, who are represented in the Council of Ministers, on board, as the government works to counter the Opposition on the issue in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections, which are less than eight months away.
The presentation was made before the ministers and BJP leaders, who will reach out to the people all across the country on the achievements of the government under a week-long campaign.
Separate presentations were also made on the government's ambitious 'Ayushman Bharat' mission, a health insurance cover for the poor, and 'Swachh Bharat' (clean India) project.
Petitioner N Radhakrishnan sought the banning of the publication or circulation by internet or propagation of the dialogue between two characters in the novel, Meesha, which he claimed insults Hindu women.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition seeking a ban on publication and circulation of Malayalam novel Meesha written by S Hareesh after it was alleged that it insulted Hindu women.
The judgment was pronounced by a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, who said 'the writer's imagination must enjoy freedom'. The bench added that subjective perceptions about a book should not be allowed to enter legal arena when it comes to censorship, reported Bar and Bench.
Petitioner N Radhakrishnan sought the banning of the publication or circulation by internet or propagation of the dialogue between two characters in the novel, which he claimed insults Hindu women. He had also prayed for a ban on further publication of the novel.
The excerpt that drew criticism from right-wing outfits is a conversation between two characters in the novel, where they suggest that women who go to temples are subconsciously making a declaration that they are ready for a sexual relationship. The character also says that women, when they fail to turn up in the temple for four or five days in a month, are not ready for it on those days.
The apex court on 2 August had reserved its order on the petition. The Supreme Court 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.
The court gave expression to its apparent reluctance to interfere with the passage being sought to be taken off as counsel Gopal Shankarayanan told the court that the passage they were seeking to be expunged makes insinuations against the priestly class.
The novel was being serialised by Mathrubhumi Weekly before being withdrawn by the author. Hareesh had said that it all started after suspected right-wing activists posted on his Facebook page that the novel was an "insult" to Hinduism.
He also told a Malayalam TV channel that he is unable to and too weak to take on the people as threats have started to come against him and his family and withdrew it from further serialisation. Fearing a bigger backlash, Hareesh had also shut down his Facebook account.
Following the threats, the author had drawn support from political circles, including former Kerala chief minister VS Achuthanandan, leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.
Sahitya Akademi, in August, vociferously expressed solidarity with writers after at least 26 heavyweight authors urged Indias National Academy of Letters to condemn repeated ongoing threats to Hareesh. 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.
Meanwhile, the novel has been published by DC Books and is currently available in bookstores across Kerala. The novel, the publisher confirmed, had retained the controversial part. Ravi Deecee, the CEO of DC Books told IANS that the publisher had also received over 2,000 messages of threats, violence and intimidation regarding the novel.
With inputs from IANS.
Supreme Court, while providing relief to the former Bhushan Steel promoter Neeraj Singal, expressed 'disapproval' over the manner in which Singal was granted bail by the Delhi High Court.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday, while providing relief to the former Bhushan Steel promoter Neeraj Singal (accused of allegedly siphoning off Rs 2,500 crore of public funds and arrested by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office), expressed 'disapproval' over the manner in which Singal was granted bail by the Delhi High Court.
The court in its Tuesday order said, "We may only observe that urgent mentioning of the case was made before the Bench presided over by the learned Chief Justice of India and hearing thereon continued after court hours on 29.08.2018. The matter was directed to be listed on the next day on 30.08.2018. Propriety demanded that the High Court should have showed deference and awaited orders in the present proceedings. The haste with which the High Court was moved on the evening of 29.08.2018 at around 5:20 P.M. to implement its order, despite this Court being seized of the proceedings would indicate an attempt by Respondent No.1/Neeraj Singal to preempt the hearing before this Court by securing release. We express our disapproval."
It further added, "Indisputably, Respondent No.1/Neeraj Singal was sent to judicial custody in connection with the alleged offences under Section 447 of the Act in terms of a judicial order passed by the jurisdictional court. That order was in force when the writ petition was filed and the interim order to release Respondent No.1/Neeraj Singal came to be passed. The High Court issued its interim directions, prima facie, in the teeth of the decisions of this Court in Saurabh Kumar v. Jailor, Koneila Jail and Another, and Manubhai Ratilal Patel v. State of Gujarat and Others. Further, the reasons assigned by the High Court in the impugned order for grant of interim relief are not confined to the issue of the validity of the stated sections of the Act or concerning grant of bail but prima facie impact upon issues concerning matters of investigation and lodging of the complaint and/or police report in respect of offences under the Act."
A bench comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, while pointing out that bail to Singal was granted in haste on 29 August despite the fact that the apex court was all set to hear the SFIO's appeal the very next day, observed in the order, "In the nature of the interim order that we propose to pass, we refrain from elaborating on the contentions and the reasons recorded by the High Court at this stage. However, we may observe that prima facie we find that the reasons being on the constitutional validity of provisions apart from Sections 212(6)(ii) and 212(7) of the Act ought not to have weighed with the High Court for grant of interim relief. Moreover, in any case, the High Court ought to have applied the broad contours required to be kept in mind for grant of bail under Section 439 Cr.P.C., which aspect, we find, has not been adverted to at all in the impugned order. There is prima facie substance in the grievance of the appellants that the High Court has failed to consider matter such as the nature of gravity of the alleged offence. Moreover, we find that in the course of the impugned order, the High Court even proceeded to recall certain observations made by it in another case (Poonam Malik v. Union of India [W.P.(Crl.) No.2384 of 2018] order dated 10th August 2018)."
The Delhi High Court had on 29 August granted bail to Singal who was arrested by the SFIO for allegedly siphoning off Rs 2,500 crore of public funds.
The Supreme Court on Thursday is likely to pronounce its verdict on the petitions challenging the legality of the Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.
The Supreme Court on Thursday is likely to pronounce its verdict on the petitions challenging the legality of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.
Section 377, an archaic law which came into force 156 years back in 1862, reads as follows: "Unnatural offences Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine."
Thus, this law criminalises certain consensual sexual acts between adults by describing them with the vague phrase "against the order of nature", in turn criminalising homosexuality and any group of people which form a sexual minority.
The issue of Section 377 was first raised in 2001 by an NGO, Naz Foundation, which had approached the Delhi High Court over the issue.
In 2009, the Delhi High Court decriminalised sex between consenting adults of the same gender by holding the penal provision as "illegal".
The verdict, which was described as progressive by the gay rights activists, had said, Section 377 denies a persons dignity and criminalises his or her core identity solely on account of his or her sexualities and thus violates Article 21.
As it stands, Section 377 denies a gay person a right to full personhood which is implicit in notion of life under Article 21 of the Constitution, the high court bench had said in its 105-page judgement.
However, this judgment by the high court was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2013. The apex court had commenced the hearing on the fresh writ petitions challenging re-criminalisation of consensual gay sex between two adults, rejecting the Centre's plea seeking postponement of the proceedings by four weeks.
It had restored the criminality of the sexual relationship between persons of the same sex.
After the apex court's decision, review petitions were filed, and on their dismissal, curative petitions were filed by the affected parties for a re-examination of the original verdict.
During the pendency of the curative petitions, the plea was made that an open court hearing should be granted and after the apex court agreed to it, several fresh writ petitions were filed seeking decriminalisation of Section 377.
A five-judge bench of the apex court began hearings in the Section 377 case on 10 July.
On 17 July, the apex court reserved its verdict on the issue. The constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra concluded hearing the arguments on the contentious issue after a detailed hearing of four days. The bench, also comprising Justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, had asked the parties to file written submissions in support of their claims by 20 July.
The apex court was hearing the writ petitions filed by dancer Navtej Jauhar, journalist Sunil Mehra, chef Ritu Dalmia, hoteliers Aman Nath, Keshav Suri and business executive Ayesha Kapur, and 20 former and current students of the IITs.
With inputs from PTI
Militants opened fire on a patrol party of security forces at Haji Darpora in Pulwama, a police official said. Security forces retaliated, leading to brief exchange of fire between the two sides, he said, adding there were no casualties.
Srinagar: A brief exchange of fire took place on Wednesday between militants and security forces in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir, the police said.
Militants opened fire on a patrol party of security forces at Haji Darpora in Pulwama, a police official said. Security forces retaliated, leading to a brief exchange of fire between the two sides, he said, adding there were no casualties.
Security forces have cordoned off the area and launched search operations to track down the militants, the official said.
The chances of getting diabetes seem to be increasing every day. Due to the ongoing diabetes epidemic, it is paramount now more than ever to watch what you eat. Here is a list of 10 of the most potent anti-diabetes foods that can help keep this illness at bay, as explored on healthline.com.
Brown rice
Because brown rice is a whole grain, it has a low glycemic index. It also contains essential nutrients such as fiber and magnesium.
Apples
Apples contain several vitamins and minerals that help to keep diabetes in check. Experts say that apples contain a plant pigment known as quercetin and that this pigment promotes insulin secretion and simultaneously staves off insulin resistance. Apple skin contains more quercetin that its flesh so makes sure you eat everything.
Berries
Berries are full of anti-inflammatory compounds and antioxidants that help to improve the overall health of patients suffering from diabetes.
Yogurt
The Harvard School of Public Health conducted a study, which showed that consuming yogurt daily may slash the risk of getting Type 2 diabetes by up to 18%. Marina Chaparro, a certified diabetes educator, noted that yogurt, especially the Greek kind, is filled with protein that prevents large spikes in your blood sugar level and promotes satiety.
Non-starchy vegetables
Vegetables such as beets, artichokes, and broccoli have a very low glycemic index and very little carbs, which makes them perfect for diabetic patients.
Asparagus
Leafy green vegetables like asparagus contain high levels of antioxidants. These antioxidants promote blood sugar balance and help to reduce inflammation. The British Medical Journal published an analysis, which revealed that increasing the consumption of leafy green vegetables can reduce the risk of diabetes by up to 14%.
Nuts and seeds
Nuts and seeds are rich in essential fatty acids. They have a low glycemic index, help to lower cholesterol levels, and improve heart health.
Coffee
The European Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study that revealed that those who consume more than one and a half cups of coffee regularly for up to a decade were 54 percent less likely to develop diabetes than non-drinkers.
Tomatoes
Tomatoes contain high levels of lycopene, which may help to keep macular degeneration and cancer at bay. According to a study in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition, eating tomatoes may reduce the risk associated with cardiovascular diabetes.
Citrus fruits
Grapefruits, oranges, and other citrus fruits are excellent sources of fiber. Experts suggest eating the fruits whole as opposed to juicing it seeing as juices were found to promote the risk of diabetes.
The rate of Type 2 diabetes continues to grow all over the globe. The World Health Organization identified sugary diets and obesity as the two main causes of diabetes. According to data from WHO, the rates of diabetes in adults across the globe increased by almost four, going from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014. The data also showed that in 2012, up to 1.5 million deaths across the globe were linked to the disease.
The four-year-old boy's remains were recovered from a Shimla Municipal Corporation water tank in Kelston area on 21 August, 2016, after the probe was handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department
Shimla: A Himachal Pradesh court Wednesday gave death penalty to three people for the murder of a four-year-old boy whose skeletal remains were found in a municipal water tank two years later in 2016.
Shimla Sessions Judge Virender Singh had convicted Chander Sharma, Tajender Singh and Vikrant Bakshi on 6 August for the child's (named Yug) murder, but deferred the hearing on the quantum of sentence.
Yug's father Vinod Kumar Gupta, mother Pinki Gupta and grandmother Chandralekha Gupta were present in the jam-packed court as the sentence was pronounced. My son cannot come back but I am satisfied with the verdict of death penalty for the guilty, Gupta told PTI. The minor was abducted from the busy Ram Bazar area in Shimla on 14 June, 2014 and killed after seven days, even before a ransom call was made.
His remains were recovered from a Shimla Municipal Corporation water tank in Kelston area on 21 August, 2016, after the probe was handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department. The prosecution said Yug was tortured, starved and forcibly served liquor before being thrown alive into a water tank. "A rock was tied to him when he was thrown into the tank," it said.
Yug's killing had sent shockwaves across the city and residents took out processions and candlelight marches to express rage. Gupta had filed a missing person's complaint at Sadar police station the day his son was abducted.
A criminal case was registered on 16 June, while a letter seeking a ransom of Rs 3.6 crore was received on 27 June. Three more ransom letters were received subsequently.
On January 29, 2016, some municipal corporation employees found his skeleton while cleaning the tank after a jaundice outbreak in the city. Public prosecutor Randip Singh Parmar told PTI that statements of 105 witnesses were recorded in the case.
The death sentence would have to be confirmed by the high court. "The convicts may file appeal against it in the high court within 30 days," he added.
The Supreme Court examined the report submitted by Assam NRC coordinator Pratik Hajela, in which he mentioned the ramifications of allowing the over 40 lakh people excluded from the list change their documents.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday deferred the commencement of the process of receiving claims and objections for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam till further orders.
A bench of justices Ranjan Gogoi and RF Nariman examined the report of NRC coordinator Pratik Hajela, in which he said that a claimant can rely on 10 of the 15 documents mentioned in list A to stake claim in Assam's register of citizens.
The bench asked Attorney General of India KK Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, and other stakeholders to file their response to Hajela's report in two weeks and scheduled the next hearing for 19 September.
On 28 August, the Supreme Court had said it could consider re-verification of 10 percent of the people who were included in the final draft of the Assam NRC, an exercise that could be carried out by an independent team.
The bench said that the Government of India will not be given the report submitted by the Assam NRC coordinator to the top court on the consequences of the 40 lakh people excluded from the final draft being allowed to change their legacy data, reported CNN News18. The top court had called the NRC issue a "human problem with great magnitude" and had asked Hajela to submit a report in a sealed envelop on the ramifications of allowing the claimants to file a new sets of legacy documents.
The Centre on Wednesday told the court that it has great interest in the matter, after which the bench said the government may be interested but the court has to "balance things".
The Assam NRC draft features the names, addresses and photographs of all Indian citizens who have been living in the northeastern state since before 25 March, 1971. The list has been updated for the first time since 1951 to account for illegal migration from Bangladesh.
The final draft of the Assam NRC was published on 30 July, in which the names of 2.89 crore of the 3.29 crore applicants were included. The names of 40,70,707 people did not figure in the list, of which 37,59,630 names were rejected and the remaining 2,48,077 are on hold.
On 31 July, the Supreme Court had made it clear that authorities should not take any coercive action against these 40 lakh people, observing that the list released was merely a draft.
On 14 August, the Centre had told the top court that distinct IDs will be created by collecting the biometric details of the over 40 lakh people filing claims and objections with respect to the NRC final draft.
The first draft of the NRC for Assam was published on the intervening night of 31 December and 1 January in accordance with the top court's direction. The names of 1.9 crore people of the 3.29 crore applicants were included then.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud of the Supreme Court considered the submissions of lawyer Manohar Lal Sharma seeking a stay on the India-France Rafale deal.
The Supreme Court has agreed to list the petition filed by lawyer Manohar Lal Sharma seeking a stay on the India-France Rafale fighter jet deal, reports have said.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud considered the submissions of Advocate ML Sharma that his plea be listed for urgent hearing. According to reports, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been named as the first respondent in the petition.
In his PIL, Sharma alleged discrepancies in the fighter jet deal with France and sought a stay on it.
As the heat is on #Rafale and the cabinet briefing has been hurriedly called for at 8.30, this is how the #PIL against #Rafale deal is listed in the #SupremeCourt. The #PrimeMinister has been named personally as the first respondent. pic.twitter.com/UEyPR81EPC Utkarsh Anand (@utkarsh_aanand) September 5, 2018
According to CNN-News18, the petition alleges that the agreement between India and France for the Rafale fighter jets involved corruption and the cancellation of the older tender without reason and the new deal not being approved by Parliament, suggests conspiracy. The petition seeks an inquiry by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) monitored by the Supreme Court. The petition also seeks that till the completion of investigation by the SIT, the agreement be rejected.
The Opposition has dubbed the fighter jet deal between India and France as the Rafale Scam and has demanded a joint parliamentary probe to investigate the agreement. The Congress and BJP have been waging a war words over the deal.
In April 2015, Narendra Modi had announced emergency off-the-shelf purchase of 36 Rafale jets in Paris for Rs 1,670.7 crore per aircraft.
With inputs from PTI.
Thousands of protesters thronged the streets of Delhi on Wednesday to demand for a change in Centre's labour laws and better food security for the workers.
Thousands of protesters thronged the streets of Delhi on Wednesday to demand a change in Centre's labour laws and food security for the workers. In a mega 'Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally' organised jointly by CITU, AIKS and AIAWU organisations and unions affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), farmers and labourers from across the country participate to lodge their protest against a host of issues as they marched from Ramlila Maidan towards the Parliament Street.
The protesters demanded that all workers should be given a minimum wage of at least Rs 18,000 per month and there should be food security for the workers. The other demands of the protesters included effective implementation of labour laws, more employment opportunities and recognition of one crore Anganwadi and ASHA workers as an organised workforce, The Indian Express reported. The protesters further sought the complete implementation of the Swaminathan Committee recommendations and debt waiver for all farmers and agricultural workers. The congregation also sought for a ban on forward trading on essential commodities and demanded that the government should curb the increasing prices of essential commodities.
Tapan Sen, general secretary of CITU, addressed the farmers and labourers at Parliament Street and announced that CITU workers will join the Kisan Long March, which is due in November. "This is the first time...after Independence that farmers and workers have jointly participated in a rally against the government," Sen said. But, he remarked, that this will not be the last one of their efforts. "We will announce the second phase of our struggle and war against the government, whose anti-people policies are affecting the poor people of our country. This government is only making policies keeping in mind the interests of the corporate and the rich," Sen said. CITU president Hemlata also addressed the gathering at Parliament Street.
Last week, the organisers had said they were expecting more than three lakh people from across the country at the rally.
People part of the "Farmer Long March" from Nashik to Mumbai earlier in 2018 also participated in this rally. "I have come to Delhi to raise my voice against the anti-farmer policies of the Centre. I will not stop till I get the right price for my crops," one of the protester said. "We realised that the state of farmers is seriously bad. The time has come to raise our voice against the government's policies," another protester from Kerala told The Indian Express.
Meanwhile, state-wise camps were set up at the Ramlila ground for the protestors. But, Delhis late monsoon rainfall inundated it, forcing the farmers and workers arriving for the rally to abandon 60 percent of their tent space, The Hindu reported. Organisers arranged for alternative accommodation at train stations and gurudwaras for the protestors. "We originally expected to house 80,000 people in Ramlila Maidan but now we will have to reduce it to 50,000," Manoj Kumar Sirswal, an All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) coordinator working at the camp told the newspaper. "We have asked those who are coming from Maharashtra to stay in the large halls at the railway station. People who had participated in the Farmers Long March to Mumbai in March would also have to stay at the station for now," AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah told The Hindu.
A mechanised boat carrying nearly 40 people capsised in the River Brahmaputra in Guwahati on Wednesday afternoon.
Three people, including a girl, were killed after a mechanised boat carrying nearly 40 people capsized in the River Brahmaputra in Guwahati on Wednesday afternoon.
One of the dead was Ankita Baruah, a student of Cotton State University in Guwahati. She died on way to the hospital after being rescued, while four others of the institute who were also in the boat are missing, the Kamrup deputy commissioner Kamal Kumar Baishya told PTI.
According to the latest reports, at least 16 people have been rescued so far while 27 others are missing. The accident occurred between 1 and 2 pm when a country-made ferry boat overturned after colliding with the pillars erected to lay hume pipes near Ashwaklanta Temple in the Brahmaputra river.
The state and National Disaster Response Force teams are present at the site and the relief and rescue operations are underway. Kamrup Metro district collector, Virendra Mittal was also present at the spot.
The overcrowded boat was on its way to Madhyam Khanda in north Guwahati from the main city. According to PTI, only 22 passengers had valid tickets and the boat was overcrowded, with 18 motorcycles on it. According to eyewitnesses, there were several women and children among the passengers.
The Brahmaputra is in spate due to monsoon rains in the upper reaches of Arunachal Pradesh.
Meanwhile, the situation tensed up in north Guwahati following the mishap. An angry crowd has surrounded the employees of the Inland Waterways Department.
According to News18 Assam, the people have been complaining about the lack of facilities and the safety hazards people faced during everyday's waterway commute, but apparently, no action was taken. People blamed the authorities for ignoring their complaints and alleged that the department's apathy ultimately led to the mishap in which several people are feared dead.
The rescue operations have been suspended for the night due to low visibility and will resume on Thursday morning, officials said.
Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal has instituted a high-level inquiry into the capsize and it will be headed by Additional Chief Secretary Jishnu Baruah.
The district administration has opened helplines with numbers 0361-2733052 and 0361-2684407 for information regarding the capsize.
The Inland Water Transport has temporarily suspended plying of country boats on the Brahmaputra, officials added.
With inputs from PTI
Uddhav Thackeray demanded stringent action against Mumbai BJP MLA Ram Kadam for his reported objectionable remarks on women.
Mumbai: Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday demanded stringent action against Mumbai Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Ram Kadam for his reported objectionable remarks on women.
"Not only should strict action be taken against him, he should not be given a ticket by any party to contest future elections. He is a person of a low character and mentality," Thackeray told the media.
The Sena chief summoned a hurried press conference after the BJP legislator's remarks on Monday sparked off an uproar in Maharashtra, drawing all-round condemnation from social and political circles.
"I am not aware whether the BJP has launched a 'Beti Bhagao' programme. But if anybody speaks like this about our sisters and daughters, we will not tolerate it," Thackeray warned, coming down heavily on Kadam.
Kicking off a huge controversy, Kadam, a BJP legislator from Ghatkopar in north-east Mumbai, declared publicly that he would abduct girls and bring them to their spurned suitors, and even provided his phone number.
"You need anything, just come to me. If you have proposed to a girl and she has rejected you, I will help you 100 percent. Come to me with your parents and say that they approve of her. Then, I will catch her and bring her to you," Kadam told the gathering. A video of the incident went viral on Tuesday evening. But Kadam claimed he had been quoted out of context and the full video clip was not shown, and later, even blamed the media for blowing it out of proportion.
"I had no intentions to hurt anybody's sentiments. But if I have done so, I regret it. Certain opponents are behind this misunderstanding," Kadam said in a late night tweet.
, . 54 Sec ! . Ram Kadam (@ramkadam) September 4, 2018
As the issue snowballed, a group of women activists on Wednesday 'gheraoed' education minister Vinod Tawde while the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) organised noisy protests in the city, demanding action against the legislator.
In another development, a young Pune girl, Minakshi G Patil, threw an open challenge to Kadam, daring him to "touch" her if he had the guts. "I am throwing the gauntlet, accept it. Let's settle this in person. I will come to Mumbai... Lay a finger on me and leave the rest to me. This is shameful and cheap, such statements have no place in Chhatrapati Shivaji's Maharashtra where women are treated like Goddesses," she said.
State Congress president Ashok Chavan asked,"Has the BJP made him a legislator to kidnap women?" NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said "the BJP's 'Ravana' face has emerged. He is talking about kidnapping women. So henceforth he should be called 'Ravana Kadam'."
Senior Shiv Sena leader and spokesperson Neelam Gorhe said though Kadam was named after Ram, he harboured evil thoughts like Ravana. Samajwadi president Abu Asim Azmi said the BJP MLA's speech was a clear indicator that the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign was a sham.
The NCP women's wing demanded an unconditional apology from Kadam besides action against him by the BJP.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had earlier suggested that the media use the word Scheduled Castes (SC), in order to comply with he Bombay High Court's directions.
New Delhi: The Republican Party of India, an ally of the BJP, will move the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court directive against the use of the word 'Dalit' by media, according to RPI leader and Union minister Ramdas Athawale. Athawale told reporters on Wednesday that the word Dalit symbolises the struggle undertaken to give these communities their rights. "It isn't an insult," he said.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had earlier suggested that the media use the word Scheduled Castes (SC), in order to comply with he Bombay High Court's directions. "Republican Party of India will go to the Supreme Court against Bombay High Court (Nagpur bench) directive to the government to remove Dalit' word in media usage, the party leader said. Athawale, who is minister of state for social justice, said that while he does not object to the use of 'Scheduled Caste' in government affairs, the term 'Dalit' shouldn't be a "worrisome word" in common usage.
"I have no objection to the use of 'Scheduled Caste' in government works, but it isn't fair to ban media, authors and other such persons from using the word 'Dalit'. It should be left to them whether they wish to say 'Scheduled Caste' or 'Dalit'," he said. The RPI leader is the second Dalit leader after BJP MP Udit Raj, who has protested against the court order and the I&B Ministry advisory. "The word Dalit is a symbol of our unity. This word has given us the motivation because of which one day our community will enter into the mainstream of the country. This word should not make anyone feel inferior and not name but their welfare should be important to us," Raj had tweeted.
The order from the I&B Ministry said that the term 'Scheduled Caste' should be used for all official transaction, matters, dealings, certificates, etc. for denoting the persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes notified in the Presidential Orders issued under Article 341 of the Constitution of India".
A fact-finding mission report on Naxals, recently unveiled at an RSS event states that 'intellectuals working as academicians, lawyers, media persons act as sympathisers of Maoist activities and spearhead the movement by making it appear an ideological war against caste and class'
The RSS recently organised a seminar focussed on identifying the "Urban Naxals" and how they are serving as the front for the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), the main party leading Left-Wing Extremism in India.
At the core of the event was a fact-finding report on Bastar, a Maoist-affected region in Chhattisgarh, prepared by an 11-member team, which identifies itself as UDAAN, comprising academicians, lawyers and teachers.
The report claims to have busted several myths and issues in societal perception of the Left-Wing Extremism in India (and Chhattisgarh) during its four-day visit of Bastar in 2017 including that "the ideological battle is not being fought in the jungles but in urban areas".
Making a note that the CPI (Maoist) has a dedicated plan to mobilise the urban population, it states that "intellectuals working as academicians, lawyers, media persons act as sympathisers of Maoist activities and spearhead the movement by making it appear an ideological war against caste and class".
"In urban areas," the report says, citing a Maoist document from its Ninth Congress of Maoists, "these secret organisations perform the important task of propagating the party (Maoist) line among various sections of the masses. They are the main vehicles of revolutionary propaganda..." and "the formulation and propagation of the revolutionary standpoint on various issues of the day particularly the issues affecting the section which they are organising."
The report also says that "the urban sympathisers of the Maoists, working under the disguises of 'constitutional framework' use the State machinery to weaken the State" and use "the provisions of National Human Rights Commission, Supreme Court and other Courts to the advantage of Maoists, the enemies of the State". The CPI (Maoist) has "an urban policy to run their version of revolutionary movement", it says.
These observations are important especially since "Urban Naxals" have become a part of the national discourse following the arrest of five human rights activists in a country-wide operation on 29 August.
Stating that Maoists works in a proper organisational structured way, the emphasis of Left-Wing Extremism, the report says that "their long-term plan is to move to urban areas after their priority work is successfully done in countryside."
The report also claims that unlike what is propagated, it's not the government but Maoists or Naxals who are responsible for the backwardness of Bastar.
"The Maoists deeply resent any development work and put their full force to stop it. It suits them if the children do not get educated, roads are not constructed or the modern amenities do not reach the villagers in order to continue their reign of terror."
It says that while in one hand (Maoists) do not let development happen, their urban sympathisers use this to claim that "villagers are protesting in a violent way" because there is "no development".
The fact-finding mission claims to have been inspired to take the study after it found "disturbing news and views published in national and international media about Chhattisgarh, like some documentaries shown on BBC and Al-Jazeera" and how The Washington Post has termed Chhattisgarh as the "rape capital" of the world and in another example, The Wire has described the state as "Black hole of world civilisation".
Though it says that there are no data to support or reject that Maoism has aided trafficking from villages of their dominance. The report claims, "Buses full of children keep going to Hyderabad from Jagdalpur and from there they are supposedly being trafficked to other cities of the country."
It also claims that the Maoist movement in Bastar was not indigenous, but fuelled by Left extremists who moved into the Chhattisgarh from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in the 1980s.
The report also cites how "irrational and inadequate Government policy and means" including designating the Abujmar hills area, a safe haven for fugitive Maoists, as a "No Entry" Zone in the 1980s, helped the spread of Maoists in Chhattisgarh.
"The existing vacuum of governance in the area was eventually made worse by extremists through their well-known operational procedure of killing the heads of local administration, the sarpanchs and panchs. This sudden and strong violence created an ambience of terror in the tribes," it said. It says that Maoism in Chhattisgarh is located in a dense forest area of around 4,000 square kilometres of dense forest area including Abujmar Hills.
"It was in 2009 when the government changed the status of the region, but, by then the damage had already been done. The isolation had completely worked in favour of the fugitive Maoists. As by then they had mastered the terrain and also specialised in the guerrilla warfare," it adds.
The report says that the Chhattisgarh terrain is "more hostile than other areas of Maoist influence in India" and that the "presence of high level of iron ore in the land makes it difficult for metal detectors to work in case of pressure bombs and other types of explosive material used by Maoists".
Journalist and photographer Aruna Chandarajus debut book, Forgotten Composers: Carnatic Music: The Lives and Contributions of Forgotten and Lesser Known Composers unearths 15 composers in the last few centuries whose redoubtable skills failed to lend immortality to their verses.
Few people, even connoisseurs of Carnatic music, have heard of Ajjada Adibhatla Narayana Das (1864-1945). A colossus, celebrated in his time as Layabrahma or monarch of rhythm, a polyglot proficient in eight languages and a vaggeyakara (composer) with several hundred compositions to his credit, he has been largely forgotten and remains an uncelebrated hero. Such was his genius that his unparalleled achievement, Dasa Vidha Raga Navati Kusuma Manjari with panchamuki thala and 90 ragas, was performed only once after he first demonstrated it during his lifetime.
Why does no one remember an artist of such virtuosity? While Carnatic music is full of compositions which are hundreds of years old, many talented composers have been relegated to the footnotes of history. Journalist and photographer Aruna Chandarajus debut book, Forgotten Composers: Carnatic Music: The Lives and Contributions of Forgotten and Lesser Known Composers unearths 15 composers in the last few centuries whose redoubtable skills failed to lend immortality to their verses.
Musicians like Tirupati Narayanaswamy Naidu or Duddu Seetharama Sastry, were immensely celebrated during their lifetime but their vaggeyams (compositions) were lost over time and the composers rendered to oblivion.
Rediscovering the lost and forgotten
The book was initially conceived in 2000 but it was around 2009 that the author set off on a meticulous research into the lives of these composers. Chandaraju shares that the seed of the book was sown by her mother, My mother, who was trained in classical music, and my first teacher, had learned many of the compositions of these forgotten composers. I heard her sing many of these lyrics while growing up. However, when I began learning from other teachers later on and attending concerts I never heard any of these compositions. That gave me an insight into the fact that many compositions, however beautiful, had disappeared from the concert scene and lessons of teachers. This kindled my interest.
The author zeroed in on composers based on their musical merit, availability of their work and reliable sources of information. Chandaraju confesses that she tried to provide an interesting mix, There are composers who belonged to and composed on different places in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka. There are composers who created technologically complex, esoteric works and then there are the ones who created simple compositions employing colloquial language. There are many more worthy composers not included in this book purely for space reasons. As Thyagaraja said, "Endaro Mahanubhavulu, Andariki Vandanalu (There are many great people, I salute all of them).
Unearthing the information on these musicians is no mean feat and it is little wonder that the book took nearly a decade to culminate. Chandaraju travelled extensively to glean information which involved a lot of physical effort, research and money. She recounts her painstaking journey over the past couple of years, I went to libraries and books shops across the two Telugu states (Telangana and Andhra Pradesh), the ashram in Kaiwara, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. I had to sift through hundreds of pages to get to a few lines of useful information. Some of these books and manuscripts were so yellowed and dusty, that I had to wear gloves to avoid itching while handling them! I also relied on a few books that belonged to my mother. I spoke to hundreds of people. Only two or three out of every ten had relevant information.
The musical mavericks
The near-forgotten vaggeyakaras included in the book are those whose majority of works have fallen off the musical map. While a few pieces of their works are performed at concerts or workshops by a few musicians of today including the masters, the majority of their work is either forgotten or lost.
While the compositions of Yedla Ramadasu and Kaviram Yogi are occasionally heard at kacheris, the rest of the composers have almost disappeared from the concert scene. Though there are some sources of information for others, the entire life and work of some like Mallekonda Ramadasu are shrouded in obscurity.
These composers have created beautiful pieces which are an artistic blend of music and words, dhaatu and maatu which would have enriched many a concert. They created new ragas (Balasubrahmanya Sarma created Vijayashankari raga while Smritirangajani raga owes its existence to Patrayani Seetharama Sastry).
Chandaraju shares nuggets from the lives of these forgotten doyens who were once the toast of the Carnatic world, Ogirala Veerarghava Sarma gave up a posting in Malaysia to focus on worshipping his muse, goddess Gayatri in his own home and then composed a beautiful piece on this. The gentle Mahendravada Bapanna Sastry, who had a great sense of humor, used to point to the musical howls of his pet dog in order to embarrass his student into practicing harder. The visually challenged MS Balasubrahmanya Sarma would get his students to read notations for new lyrics he heard, listen carefully and quickly master the song.
What made these musicians special was an ability to innovate and their absolute mastery over their craft.
Ajjada Adibhatla Narayana Dasu pioneered the Harikatha and is hence known as Harikatha Pithamaha. He also composed the mindboggling Dasa Vidha Raga Navati Kusuma Manjari which uses 90 ragas and a Panchmukhi thala experiment ie. five rhythm patterns performed simultaneously!
Prayaga Rangadasa wrote very simple, but very sweet lyrics and his Yeme O Chitti is endearingly beautiful, probably the sweetest composition on a parent-child interaction.
Kocherlakota Ramaraju proved the impossible that one can play a violin both left-handed and right-handed. He composed multi-raga swarajathis, which are generally composed in one raga.
Tirupati Narayanaswamy Naidu composed in a very rare raga-like Pushpalathika and this superb composition not only illuminates the contours of the raga but has also made it famous.
The Forgotten Stories
Carnatic music, like any other classical artform, is a vast ocean and in that are composers who have contributed immensely to its vast repertoire geetams, varnams, keerthanams, kritis, thillanas, padams, and javalis. Many were recognised during their lifetimes and received patronage from local zamindars and maharajas, but their rich contributions to music fell by the wayside for many reasons.
Chandaraju reels off a long list of plausible reasons for the music of the maestros to pass into oblivion, Lack of proper documentation in books of their compositions; no dedicated line of disciples and/or descendants who could have performed the compositions at concerts and disseminated them, inadequate royal patronage in the erstwhile Andhra region and the modesty of the composer himself who did not believe his works to be worthy of promotion or his general attitude of indifference to documentation and preservation of his work, and so on.
Chandaraju also muses that the compositions of some of these maestros were so technically complex and challenging that they deterred musicians who followed after him from practicing and popularising them.
The author reveals that she initially learned about most of these people in the book through her parents who often made mention of several of these people as great musicians, scholars who had become obscure. Later, her travels and interviews of musicians as a journalist revealed names of more composers.
The future of the past
Chandaraju puts the onus of rediscovering the works of these composers onto younger musicians, family members of the maestros and academic institutions. Considering the tremendous reach of cinema in the twin Telugu states, she suggests music directors introduce some of these works into their compositions.
Calling cinema possibly the most potent mass medium in the country, she gives the example of the Telugu cult classic based on Carnatic music, Sankarabharanam (1980) and the more recent Pawan Kalyan blockbuster Attarintiki Daaredi (2013) which featured a popular composition by Yedla Ramadasu, namely Petrayi Saami Devuda to immense acclaim, Many commoners didn't know the base of Shankarabharanam's songs were Carnatic or the names of their ragas. The point is that despite that ignorance, they savored and encouraged the film and its classical music. That gives the lie to the theory that Carnatic music based songs cant enjoy mass appeal or contribute to a films success. It makes a case for including Carnatic music based songs, at least occasionally.
Each chapter contains a list of the now largely forgotten compositions and a list of YouTube renditions and Chandaraju says that the whole idea of the book is to acquaint the music world including the younger generation with the musical riches that are lying undiscovered and composers who have to be celebrated. She remarks that she remains hopeful that the current and younger generations of musicians will discover these forgotten gems.
But how do proteins fold? What decides their structure and what makes them stay folded? Mahalakshmi is one of the many scientists in the world trying to solve the century-old protein-folding problem.
Editor's note: The Life of Science and Firstpost bring you this series profiling Indian women in Science. The challenges in Indian scientific life are many more so for women taking up this path. This series honours those who beat the odds and serve as inspirations for the next generation of Indian science a generation that is slowly and surely on its way to becoming gender equal.
***
By Karthik Varma
R Mahalakshmi | Molecular biophysicist | IISER Bhopal
I can show you how it works... it's kind of cool.
She picks up a metal hammer and taps open the valve of a gas cylinder. Say you want to know how stable a system is, begins R Mahalakshmi, Associate Professor of Molecular Biophysics at IISER Bhopal, first perturb it and see how resistant it is to change. One way to measure this resistant to perturbation is with a stopped-flow spectrometer.
She walks towards the stopped-flow spectrometer set on the table and demonstrates. In a syringe lies a protein which lights up [fluorescence, in scientific terms] in its natural folded state. Most [if not all] proteins have to fold into a very specific shape in order to function, and this folded state has a specific fluorescence. In a second syringe is a perturbant that can, under specific conditions, cause the protein to unfold - in other words, the specific shape of the folded protein is perturbed. In the perturbed state, the fluorescence changes, which we can measure. By measuring how resistant the protein is to the perturbant, she says, we get to know what makes a protein stable.
She turns to the computer connected to the instrument. Shall we give it five repeats? Theres a jolt in the displayed graph. Zooming in to the spike, she says can you see how fast the fluorescence decays? Youre looking at a fully-folded protein unfold.
Mahalakshmi is one of the many scientists in the world trying to solve the century-old protein-folding problem. Proteins of the same family are all folded the same way and they're all stable to a similar extent, performing the same functions, she says. The protein always does it right and it's always an ensemble of identical structures with subtle differences.
But how do proteins fold? What decides their structure and what makes them stay folded? Which molecules let them misfold? What causes the shift from the functional to the non-functional or disease states? These are questions that form part of the protein folding problem, and we still dont have definite answers.
I focus on a class of proteins called beta-barrel membrane proteins in combination with their lipid milieu," says Mahalakshmi. There are only a handful of groups internationally who are working on this. Of them, only very few groups are working on transmembrane beta barrels in particular.
An unintentional trajectory to biology
I wanted to become an air force pilot, but my glasses got in the way, says Mahalakshmi of her childhood ambitions. I had a passion for physics and was really good at mathematics, despite the general belief is that women arent very good at maths. So I wanted to do astrophysics.
In high school, had to choose between history-commerce or pure sciences. Though she was not so fond of biology at the time, she opted for the latter. Surprisingly, I started enjoying biology and realised it wasnt as bad as I had imagined.
On her lab website, she recalls a significant moment: As a teenager, an article I came across on ammonia transporters simultaneously fascinated and piqued my interest in membrane proteins. Having majored in biology (in high school), she went against expectations from neighbours and friends by declaring she did not want to become a doctor. My family was very supportive of that. I took a Bachelors in Biochemistry and things started building up.
Today Mahalakshmi is a professor in Biophysics, leading a team of researchers at IISER Bhopal, established in 2008 as a premier research institute in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Considering how other universities and institutes worldwide are doing, Id say its much better here. The entire concept of IISER is quite good and includes the opportunity for first-hand training in research for students.
Weve had some of the best scientists coming from India and whether or not they got the Nobel Prize is secondary. I believe in the saying things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.
Enigmatic membrane proteins
Proteins are one of the four major biomolecules that are part of any living organism, the others being lipids, nucleic acids, and carbohydrates. Broadly speaking, informs Mahalakshmi, there are two classes of proteins: membrane proteins and soluble proteins; they're either in the membrane or not.
Membrane proteins, which she studies, are not readily water-soluble. They like lipid environments, so they stick to lipids within the cell membrane. They're more challenging to study than soluble proteins because you have to give them the correct environment in which they fold. If they dont fold, they tend to precipitate, aggregating into non-native assemblies. Several neurodegenerative diseases are caused because of protein misfolding and aggregation Alzheimers, Parkinsons, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), to name a few.
Mahalakshmi opens up an image on her computer. This is one of the proteins we work with. It is from the outer surface of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague. When the bacterium enters the host, this protein attaches to help invade the host cell. The reason Mahalakshmi wants to understand this particular protein is because it has a more popular cousin that sits on Escherichia coli, a bacterium usually considered non-pathogenic. We have E. coli in our own gut and this doesnt make us sick. But the similar protein present in Yersinia is pathogenic. They look almost identical. If I take the protein from the pathogenic version and put it into E. coli, then E. coli will become pathogenic. This is very intriguing.
The allure of protein research
Looking up from a tightly packed globule on the computer screen, Mahalakshmi says, Ideally speaking, a protein molecule would have every atom in the protein rendered as per its van der Waals radius, or the overall area that it occupies. We use ribbon diagrams to obtain a simplistic representation of the protein. A simple analogy to this would be using a : and a ) to represent a face with a smile.
E. coli is like our workhorse for protein production, she continues. Getting large quantities of proteins by growing human cells in the laboratory is difficult. So we put an edited version of the human gene into the bacterium and use it as our expression system. If we want to change an amino acid, we go back and mutate that region which allows for it to be made.
The field brings together biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics, all in equal proportions and its very difficult to identify candidates who are mentally tuned for all four fields. By the end of school, theyve already made up their minds about what they like and what they dont. I completely understand. I was petrified of geography. It was very difficult to memorise which part of India has which mineral, though its very important to know these things. Honestly, I didnt like biology either, but the more you delve into a subject, it becomes more interesting.
How far can this take us?
As more pharmaceutical companies and researchers look to develop more potent drugs, they choose to work on proteins that directly relate to disease. I would say that we're at the early stages, Mahalakshmi explains. The membrane proteins she studies hold promise as drug targets for cancer, Alzheimers, Parkinsons, and other neurodegenerative diseases. The more she uncovers, the more precise the drug design processes can get. Simply put, the more you know about something, the more you can fine-tune what you want and what you can get from it. Similarly, the more you know which part of a protein dictates its folding, stability, and function, the design of drugs can be made more specific. Instead of screening 100,000 drug molecules, specific parts of the proteins can be targeted.
But thats not all. Mahalakshmi envisions a near future where we will be able to engineer a protein to do specific tasks. Imagine if I were able to tweak the VDAC protein to transport a specific molecule that I design. Now imagine having it engineered into electrical circuits where the 0s and 1s open up multiple options. Or I could create a filter that selectively removes lead from water how useful would that be! Bio-products, including proteins, go bad with time. So we could engineer food so that even if it goes bad, it does so after several years and not a few days.
Read more from the 'Women in Science' series here.
THELIFEOFSCIENCE.COM is a feminist science media project on a mission to make Indian women scientists more visible and investigate the gender gap in Indian academia
News Story not available
This story has been published on: 2021-11-03. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
This story is no longer available on our site.
The recently appointed manifesto committee of the Congress met for the first time on Monday to start the process of preparing the partys manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The recently appointed manifesto committee of the Congress met for the first time on Monday to start the process of preparing the partys manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Apart from the manifesto committee, other key election-related panels set up by Congress president Rahul Gandhi have also started meetings to shape the partys campaign strategy.
The focus of the manifesto committee will be to prepare a peoples manifesto, said reports. According to The Indian Express, the panel would soon be divided into sub-groups and the members would then travel across the country to hold public consultations. We will seek suggestions from all from farmers to industry to youth and students to women, Dalit groups and tribals, a leader who attended the meeting told The Indian Express.
It was a preliminary meeting but the broad idea will be to go to the people. We have held some good consultations in Gujarat and Karnataka and also in the Northeast and lots of inputs were taken. People could see that the Congress was listening, another leader said, according to the report.
The committee is also expected to discuss on ideas like drawing up special manifesto for target groups and having a separate document for youth and women and reserved constituencies. The group will have consultations with different people with varied demographic, gender and occupations in various regions across the country, The Hindu reported. "This is the template that our party has been following since 2014, a Congress source told The Hindu.
The 19-member committee whose focus would be on drafting a document on issues such as job creation, strengthening small and medium enterprises and agricultural productivity, would meet again on Saturday. The committee include party veterans like former finance minister P Chidambaram, Salman Khurshid, Jairam Ramesh, Kumari Selja, former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, among others. Punjab finance minister Manpreet Badal, Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev, Sachin Rao, and former MP Meenakshi Natarajan are also part of the committee.
Dressed in black, to condole Karunanidhi's death, Alagiri joined the rally from near Triplicane Police station and came to the Marina beach on an open vehicle, accompanied by his elder daughter and thousands of supporters afoot.
In what was purportedly a show of strength, expelled DMK leader MK Alagiri led a silent rally of his supporters to the mausoleum of his late father and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi at the Marina beach on Wednesday.
Dressed in black, to condole Karunanidhi's death, Alagiri joined the rally from near Triplicane Police station and came to the Marina beach in an open vehicle, accompanied by his elder daughter and thousands of supporters afoot.
After walking for a while, Alagiri hopped on to an open van, waving enthusiastically to cheer his cadres. The expelled leader's followers from various districts held banners, which read "karam korpom kazhagam kappom" (let us join hands and guard the party).
He later thanked the media and his supporters for turning up for the march but deftly escaped questions on him being re-inducted in the party, a demand his supporters openly spoke about ahead of the rally. "There is no ulterior motive to this rally, Alagiri told reporters at the Kalaignar Memorial. "I just wanted to pay homage to my father."
When asked about the cases of DMK party workers being dismissed for showing him any sort of support, he said that there were 1.5 lakh cadres in the Wednesday's rally and asked if Stalin was planning to remove all of them as well from the DMK. Earlier, DMK had suspended party functionary M Ravi who welcomed Alagiri at the Chennai airport, for "bringing disrepute to the party."
Alagiri had dropped ample hints that he was ready to settle past differences and work with his brother MK Stalin. However, DMK has not extended the olive branch to him yet, with Stalin keeping mum. Alagiri had said that he was ready to accept his younger brother and party president Stalin as his "leader" if he was taken back into the party.
Alagiri said that the current leadership of DMK a reference to Stalin was not willing to re-admit him despite his requests. He said that the DMK did not consist just of the General Council, which has elected Stalin as the DMK president, and that "genuine party cadres" were with him. Asked if he would accept Stalin's leadership, Alagiri said: "If I am in the party, then I will."
Earlier, just before Stalin's election as the party president, Alagiri had warned the DMK that if the party leadership did not take him back, then it will have to face "consequences". However, he did not elaborate on the consequences.
Wednesday's rally was also apparently a follow-up on these hints to further signal the party that his influence has not yet waned, at least amid the grassroots workers from southern Tamil Nadu.
The former Union minister's loyalists, including Madurai-based PM Mannan, took part in the rally. Thousands of people were brought in buses from southern parts of the state. An estimate by the reporters on the ground suggest that as many as 20,000 people came to Chennai to participate in the rally. Meanwhile, the Chennai Police's crowd control measures were in place with over 2,000 personnel deployed on the streets.
Alagiri was expelled from the DMK in 2014. Those were the days when Alagiri and Stalin supporters openly clashed on the streets of Tamil Nadu, often indulging in violence as the former resented Karunanidhi's preference for the latter. Ultimately, Karunanidhi stepped in and showed the door to Alagiri in 2014, clearly favouring Stalin to take over party affairs in time.
With inputs from agencies
One of the panel's key recommendations to check lynching is to put to task country heads of the social media platforms sites. The panel is also believed to have recommended tightening of law by inserting clauses in the Indian Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure through parliamentary approval
New Delhi: A Group of Ministers (GoM), headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, on Wednesday discussed the recommendations of a panel set up to suggest ways to check incidents of lynching, officials said.
One of the key recommendations of the committee of secretaries, headed by Union home secretary Rajiv Gauba, is to put to task country heads of the social media platforms sites. The panel is also believed to have recommended tightening of law by inserting clauses in the Indian Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure through parliamentary approval.
This was the first meeting of the GoM and the ministers were briefed about the recommendations of the committee, a home ministry official said. The GoM is expected to hold further meetings over the next few weeks to finalise its recommendations and would subsequently the same to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a final decision, the official said.
The members of the GoM are External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot. Home Minister Rajnath Singh heads the GoM.
The GoM and the committee of secretaries were set up after nearly 40 people were lynched in nine states in the past year. In July, the home ministry had issued advisories to states and union territories following the Supreme Court's directives to check incidents of lynching. The Centre had also asked them to appoint an officer in each district at the level of Superintendent of Police, set up a special task force to gather intelligence, and closely monitor social media to prevent mob attacks on suspicion of being child-lifters or cattle smugglers.
In its communique to states and UTs, the ministry had said incidents of violence and lynching by mobs in some parts of the country fuelled by various kinds of rumours and unverified news such as child lifting, theft, cattle smuggling etc, are a matter of serious concerns.
Such instances of persons taking the law in their hands run against the basic tenets of the rule of law, it had said. "All state governments, UT administrations and their law enforcement agencies are requested to implement the directions of the Supreme Court in letter and spirit," it said.
This decision which could upset the apple cart, especially for the BJP, which is facing anti-incumbency in Madhya Pradesh after three straight terms.
Bhopal: The Samanya Pichda Evam Alpsankhyak Varg Adhikari Karamchari Sangh (SAPAKS) an organisation of government employees and officers may play the role of a spoiler to the big boys (the BJP and the Congress) in the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls. The organisation has announced it will contest all 230 seats in the upcoming polls, a decision which could upset the apple cart, especially for the BJP, which is facing anti-incumbency after three straight terms.
It has also called for a nationwide bandh (along with other social organisations) on 6 September to protest against the Supreme Court order amending the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities (POA) Act, and reservation with regard to promotions. It is also planning a massive convention in Bhopal on 30 September to protest the changes to the Act.
SAPAKS leader Abhishek Soni said, The party's agenda is three-fold: Reservation on the basis of financial status, abolition of reservation in promotions and taking back the amendments made to the SC/ST Act. The other issues will be included in the manifesto which will be released in last week of September.
POA misused multiple times
Some of the important amendments the apex court made to the Act state that an initial inquiry need not take place before an FIR is registered against the accused, and the officer in-charge need not take prior permission from a higher officer for arresting the accused. Additionally, only the procedure prescribed by the Act needs to be followed, while Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure will not apply in these cases.
SAPAKS leaders accused the government of adopting a callous attitude towards its people by supporting the amendments to the Act, and state that these amendments have been misused on multiple occasions in Madhya Pradesh.
We are opposing the Act to safeguard the rights of the individual. In recent times, large groups have gathered at various rallies and protests (for these issues), which provided us a boost to fight elections. Also, what is the need of reservation in promotion? It has been abolished in other states, and should be abolished in Madhya Pradesh too. After Madhya Pradesh High Court quashed the reservation for promotion, the state government went to Supreme Court just to make employees in the state suffer, the leaders claimed.
When questioned about the governments stance, a government officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity stated, Its high time that reservation in promotion be abolished. It has become a curse for various employees and officers of Madhya Pradesh. Thousands of employees and officers in the state have retired without a promotion.
KD Sonakia, a retired DSP based in Gwalior, said, I strongly oppose reservation in promotion, [as] it creates an inferiority complex in some officers and a superiority complex in others. It must be reviewed at the earliest. Sonakia alleged that during his tenure as DSP, he saw multiple cases of the Act being misused. In my opinion, one of four cases lodged under the Act are bogus. There is massive anger on all these issues in Madhya Pradesh.
SC/ST activists come out against protests
SC/ST activists say they are vehemently opposed to such protests. The Gondwana Gantantra Party, which enjoys a massive support base in Madhya Pradesh's Mahakaushal region, has taken a clear stand. Party convener Gulzar Singh Markam said, We are opposing all these protests rallies and the call for nationwide bandh against the constitutional amendment. We will protest in Bhopal today.
Along with the SAPAKS, various social organisations such as the Karni Sena, Jat Mahasabha, Parshuram Sena, Vaish Samaj, Kshatriya Mahasabha and others have mobilised youth for rallies. Gwalior and Chambal have become the epicenter of anti-reservation dispute: on 2 April, during the Dalit Mahabandh, eight died in violent clashes. Section 144 has been imposed in Gwalior, Bhind, Shivpuri, Guna and Ashok Nagar districts ahead of the 6 September protest. It is estimated that around 150 organisations from upper castes and OBC groups will participate in the protest.
During Shivraj Singh Chouhans Jan Ashirwad Yatra in Sidhi district, people from upper caste groups raised slogans about abolishing reservation in promotions. Similarly, SAPAKS and similar social organisations targeted various political leaders, including Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kamal Nath of the Congress, and Union minister MJ Akbar for supporting the amendments to the POA Act.
The authors are members of 101Reporters
The MNS and NCP have compared Ram Kadam mythological demon king Ravan for telling youngsters he would 'kidnap' a girl they like even if she rejects their proposal.
Mumbai: The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Wednesday likened Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Ram Kadam to mythological demon king Ravan for telling youngsters he would "kidnap" a girl he likes even if she rejects their proposal.
The Ghatkopar MLA, who has expressed regret over his remarks, made the comments at a dahi handi event in his suburban Ghatkopar assembly constituency on Monday night.
The MNS put up posters depicting Kadam as Ravan outside Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' residence and in Ghatkopar. "The 'dashing' MLA, who proclaims himself to be compassionate, will abduct daughters. If he or his men do so, file a police complaint and also let us know. We will help you safeguard your daughters," the Raj Thackeray-led party said in the posters.
NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said the BJP's "Ravan-like" face is out and its legislator will be called "Ravan Kadam" till he apologises. "Expressing regret and apologising are very different things. The NCP will keep protesting against him and call him 'Ravan Kadam' till he apologises. State-wide protests will be held against him till he apologises," the opposition leader said.
Kadam, who is heard making the comments in a video clip, has said his comments were distorted. "I only repeated a sentence made by one of the persons standing in the crowd... It was not my sentence. The clip which has gone viral is only 40 seconds. However, later I had said mothers, sisters and daughters in all households are Lakshmi who need to be respected," he said late Tuesday.
"Yet, if I have hurt sentiments, I express regret," the MLA said.
On Sunday night, a few hours after KCR addressed the TRS public meeting on the outskirts of Hyderabad, leaders of the Telangana BJP were closeted with Amit Shah, their national president at the city airport
On Sunday night, a few hours after K Chandrasekhar Rao addressed the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) public meeting on the outskirts of Hyderabad, leaders of the Telangana BJP were closeted with Amit Shah, their national president at the city airport. The meeting that started at 11 pm went on for the next three hours.
The Telangana BJP made no bones about its unhappiness with KCR's likely decision to advance Assembly elections in the state, delinking them from the Lok Sabha polls in the summer of 2019. The state unit that won only five Assembly seats in 2014, is conscious of its lack of pan-Telangana appeal barring the urban pockets and the absence of a tall leader. Which is why it believes that if the two elections are held together, the Narendra Modi factor would come into play, helping it both in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
"KCR has the right to dissolve the Assembly whenever he wants to, it is his prerogative. What can we do?'' was reportedly Shah's response. It was a clear indication that the national leadership of the BJP was willing to let KCR have his way with early polls this winter, most likely along with the three north Indian states of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
In July and August, KCR met Modi thrice. His last trip to Delhi was particularly significant as it came after a senior advisor to KCR had already met the Election Commission to explore the possibility of early polls. BJP sources claim the TRS chief discussed his plan to dissolve the assembly with both the prime minister and Home Minister Rajnath Singh. It was important for KCR to keep the BJP in the loop because he cannot risk the EC or the executive subsequently playing hardball citing a paucity of EVMs or Central forces.
The BJP in present-day Telangana or united Andhra Pradesh earlier has always felt let down by its Delhi leadership. In the past, former ally Chandrababu Naidu used to deal directly with Atal Bihari Vajpayee or Modi, keeping the local leadership out of the loop. The state BJP's grouse is that it was never allowed to grow, forced to compromise on its interests by feeding on crumbs thrown by Naidu. The leaders fear the KCR story seems headed in the same direction.
The decision of the national BJP to warm up to KCR is ironically because of the Naidu factor. After the Telugu Desam Party chief broke up with the NDA in March over the issue of special category status to Andhra Pradesh, the BJP believes Naidu was trying to stitch together a narrative that the Modi-Shah duo is anti-alliance partners and anti-south India. The priority was to dispel this notion.
"The party has realised that we need friends because some people have left us. The election to the post of the deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha was an opportunity where we found new friends in the TRS and Biju Janata Dal," says a Telangana BJP leader. The BJP is also aware that it could find itself short of numbers in the next Lok Sabha, forcing it to make overtures to regional parties. Since it is unlikely to improve upon its 2014 tally in the Hindi belt states, the Peninsula has to be its catchment area. The TRS in Telangana, YSR Congress in Andhra and the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu are therefore on its radar as potential post-poll allies.
The Telangana-specific argument therefore is that the BJP would be better off seen as helping KCR at this time, greenlighting early polls, rather than antagonising him now and having to land up at his doorstep in Hyderabad asking for help in May 2019. With very little at stake in Telangana, the BJP is seen as having little to lose if elections are advanced.
In the midst of all this, both the TRS and the BJP have forgotten their stated preference for one nation, one poll. The TRS had supported the idea in its letter to the EC earlier this year and Modi has consistently backed a combined poll to curb unnecessary expenditure. How will the two parties then explain Telangana going to polls twice in a space of four months, burning public money, when the term of the present Assembly extends till June 2019?
But the bonhomie will not, at least openly, mean the TRS and the BJP will fight the state election together. That is because KCR will not like to miss out on the Muslim vote in Telangana that he has wooed assiduously by distributing gifts before Eid, floating schemes like Shaadi Mubarak to help Muslim families during marriages and forging a friendship with the AIMIM.
For the BJP, Shah has advised the state leaders to identify seats where it came second or third in 2014 and focus on them. He has also deputed RSS man BL Santosh, who played a key role in the Karnataka elections, to Hyderabad to coordinate the Telangana electoral effort.
The BJP president has also committed to addressing a public meeting in Mahbubnagar district of Telangana next week, to kickstart the BJP campaign. The state BJP also plans to make a splash on 17 September, which is the day Hyderabad was liberated from Nizam rule and joined the Indian Union in 1948. It will position it as Hindu majority Hyderabad overthrowing its Muslim ruler. It helps that the day also happens to be Modi's birthday.
RS Surjewala said Congress had Brahmin DNA in its blood and made 'gods and demons' comparisons between Rahul Gandhi and BJP leaders.
Till May 2014, nearly all political parties, other than the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena, indulged in aggressive competitive politics to woo Muslim voters. The counter-argument Muslims vote, but they are not the only community that votes hardly had any takers among the so-called secularist parties, most of whom were then aligned with the Sonia Gandhi-headed United Progressive Alliance.
In 2006, former prime minister Manmohan Singh had profoundly asserted at the National Development Council meet that Muslims must have the first claim on resources. In September 2013, Manmohan, as well as Sonia and Rahul Gandhi visited riot-hit Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, but they only met members of Muslim communities and neither met nor talked about the Hindu families affected by the violence.
Turn to September 2018. The Congress no longer talks about the concerns of the Muslim community. Before the recent Assembly elections in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and other states, neither Rahul nor any senior Congress or leaders of allied parties talked about grievances of the minority community. They also did not utter the word communal in reference to the BJP. That was understandable as the Congress was playing soft Hindutava politics and did not want Hindu polarisation for the BJP and against it.
But now, the Congress has decided to get competitive in Hindutava politics. Rahuls close confidante a member of the all-important Congress Working Committee, core committee and head of the partys communications department Randeep Singh Surjewala on Tuesday declared at a public function in Kurukshetra, Haryana, that the Congress had Brahmin community DNA, meaning that the party has Brahmanical roots and continued to be part of the community.
One of my colleagues asked why a Brahmin conference was being held using Rahuls photo and under the Congress party flag and the Tricolour, Randeep Singh Surjewala had said. I said that I will respond to this from this platform one day. The Indian National Congress is that party, my friends, in whose blood there is Brahmin Samajs DNA.
As the head of the Congress communications department, he is the partys chief spokesperson, and his words are taken as an official statement from Indias Grand Old Party. With this statement, Surjewala has effectively negated the Congress 123-year-old claim that it was well and truly a secular party. By claiming that the Congress was a party in whose blood there is Brahmin DNA, he is trying to rebrand the party and cast it as a Hindutva outfit.
Therefore, one could ask, what about the founders of the Congress, Allan Octavian Hume, Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee, Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta and others? Or even the countrys biggest icon Mahatma Gandhi, who was associated with the Indian National Congress till his death? There is a long list of such illustrious leaders Badaruddin Tyabji, Abul Kalam Azad, Subhash Chandra Bose, Vallabhbhai Patel, Rajendra Prasad and others. Feroze Gandhi simply does not exist for the Congress.
In his enthusiasm, Surjewala gave a caste identity to freedom fighters, including the likes of Mangal Pandey, Chandra Shekher Azad and Ram Prasad Bismil, as well as to leaders from the Congress First Family, including Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
The fight between gods and demons has been on since time immemorial. In mythology, whenever Vishwamitra sat for prayers, demons would try to foil it," Surjewala said. "Whenever anyone prayed for Bhole Shankar (Lord Shiva), demons would gather to foil it. Even today, Shiv bhakt, your son, Congress chief and our leader Rahul Gandhi is on Bhole Shankars yatra on his way to Kailash Mansarovar. And whos trying to foil his trip? Leaders of the BJP.
This is a bizarre argument. Is Surjewala trying to suggest that Rahul is Vishwamitra and the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah clan is made up of demons?
It seems that in the past 10 months, from the Congress own narrative, Rahul has come a long way from registering as a non-Hindu at the Somnath temple to not just a Hindu but a janeu dhari (sacred thread-wearing) Hindu, to a devout Shiv bhakt Brahmin to running a party whose blood has Brahmin Samaj DNA.
One is not sure how Congress allies the Left Front, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Telugu Desam Party and the Trinamool Congress are going to take it.
The Congress ally in Uttar Pradesh, former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, has promised to build a whole new township in the name of Hindu god Vishnu. Congress Madhya Pradesh chief Kamal Nath is trying to snatch the cow plank from the BJP, making promises to build gaushalas across the state if his party is voted to power in the upcoming elections.
After the Congress lost Gujarat end 2017, Rahul had claimed a moral victory for his party. Today, the BJP and the entire Sangh Parivar can turn around and say that they have not only wiped out the Congress from most of Indias political map, but have also scored a moral victory over whatever is left of the party.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh can relax now. The Congress, too, is now helping it realise its Hindu Rashtra dream.
Swami Paripoornananda, of the Shree Peetham mutt in Andhra Pradesh's Kakinada returned to Hyderabad on Tuesday and was given a rousing welcome by members of Hindutva organisations
Swami Paripoornananda of the Shree Peetham mutt in Andhra Pradesh's Kakinada, who was banished from Hyderabad in July 2018 for incendiary speeches, returned to the city to a rousing welcome from members of Hindutva organisations like the RSS, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal, among others. The Telangana Police's externment of the Swami was suspended in an interim order by the Hyderabad High Court in August.
The Swami's re-entry was marked as a significant event by the BJP and other Hindu organisations amid speculations that the saffron party might offer Paripoornananda either a Lok Sabha seat from Secunderabad or Malkajgiri, or an Assembly seat from Karwan or Chandrayangutta. According to a report by The Times of India, the seer's externment is being used by Hindutva organisations to bring in votes from the Hindu community.
According to reports, BJP's possible endorsement of the Swami could be to bring a party leader in southern India similar to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath. The Economic Times reported that BJP MLA NVSS Prabhakar said, "I have already told on the Floor of the Assembly that Telangana needs a leader like Yogi Adityanath. Time will decide when Swami Paripoornanda will come into politics. The decision has to be taken at the highest level."
Reports, however, said that the situation was tense when a group of people tried to organise a rally to welcome back the Swami. The activists of various groups in support of Paripoornananda clashed with police as argument broke out when they were stopped from taking out the rally.
VHP Telangana president M Rama Raju said, "K Chandrashekhar Rao's government behaved similarly to the Nizam's government in expelling Swami. Even though the Nizam didn't take such drastic steps against Hindus, this government is using all its power. Police arbitrarily expelled Swami."
According to The Economic Times report, Paripoornananda has not commented on the speculations of being fielded as a BJP candidate. BJP MLC N Ramchander Rao said, "Swami Paripoornananda has a huge following among tribals. He commands respect from Hindus. Currently, no decision has been taken on his political entry. Swamy hasn't expressed his opinion on this. It will be speculative if I speak about his political entry."
Following Paripoornananda's alleged incendiary statements, the Telangana police had externed him for 6 months in July 2018. However, the Hyderabad high court passed an interim order suspending the externment in August.
The Hyderabad police had put Paripoornananda under house arrest after he announced his intention to take up a three-day yatra, to preach on protecting the Hindu dharma. Following this, along with other controversial speeches the police booked him under the Telangana Prevention of Anti- Social and Hazardous Activities Act and ordered his externment, The Hindu reported.
The Telangana Cabinet is set to meet on Thursday, the second time in five days, amid indications that chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao may take a call on dissolution of the state assembly to pave the way for early elections.
Hyderabad: The Telangana Cabinet is set to meet Thursday, the second time in five days, amid indications that chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao may take a call on dissolution of the state Assembly to pave the way for early elections.
Sources in the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) Wednesday claimed the government has more-or-less made up its mind on dissolution of the assembly, whose term ends in 2019. "Dissolution is pucca. Yes, that's what's happening...the Cabinet will recommend dissolution or convening of the House to deliberate on the matter," a senior TRS leader told PTI.
Assembly elections in Telangana are originally scheduled to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls in 2019, but the chief minister sees advantage for TRS in delinking the two polls. In recent weeks, the state government had announced a slew of measures for the benefit of various sections of the society.
Speculation has been rife that the TRS may go for early elections to cash in on the perceived positive atmosphere prevailing for it in the state. Addressing a TRS public meeting on Sunday, Rao had referred to media reports about early polls and said ministers and party leaders had authorised him to take a decision on it in the interest of people and the party.
The cabinet that met on Sunday ahead of the public meeting approved certain welfare measures. The ruling TRS has planned to organise 100 public meetings across the state in 50 days, beginning with a meeting at Husnabad near Karimnagar on 7 September. The party captured power in the state in the maiden assembly elections held in May 2014, winning 63 of the 119 seats.
Reuters
US President Donald Trump accused social media companies of interfering with the upcoming congressional elections, without appearing to offer any evidence, in an interview published on Wednesday ahead of congressional testimonies from top social media executives.
Referring to companies such as Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc, Trump, a Republican, told the Daily Caller in an interview conducted on Tuesday I think they already have interfered in the 6 Nov election.
The report gave no other details.
Trumps accusation added to recent charges he and Republican lawmakers have made of political bias against conservatives by social media companies and search engines.
The true interference in the last election was that if you look at all, virtually all of those companies are super liberal companies in favour of Hillary Clinton, he said, referring to his Democratic opponent in the 2016 presidential election.
Google and other tech companies have denied political bias.
Republican lawmakers may raise issues of political bias in Wednesdays hearing in the Senate Intelligence Committee, where Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey will testify.
The executives are expected to defend their companies against what lawmakers see as a failure to combat foreign efforts to influence US politics.
US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 campaign with the aim of tilting the election in Trumps favour, a finding that Moscow has denied.
The United States also has said foreign entities continue to attempt to sow discord in the US political system.
tech2 News Staff
Similar to last year, Google, along with millions of students in India celebrates the 130th birth anniversary of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan on 5 September, Teachers Day.
The doodle being exclusive to India portrays an animated Gif, featuring a globe with reading glasses on. The globe rotates with several icons in Google colours popping up around it. The icons denote the various subjects associated with academics and extracurriculars like Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy, sports, and music.
Born in the town of Nellore in Andhra Pradesh in 1888, S. Radhakrishnan was not only a teacher and a source of inspiration to many but was also the first Vice President and second President of India. He was a professor at Chennai's Presidency College and also had stints at Mysore's Maharaja College and at the University of Calcutta. A great scholar in the field of Philosophy, Radhakrishnan also wrote a book in 1929 titled, 'An Idealist View of Life' and was later offered to be knighted by King George V in 1931. He, however, declined to keep the title after India's Independence, preferring his literary title of 'doctor' instead.
While India celebrates Teachers' Day on 5 September, World Teacher's day, designated by UNESCO is celebrated on 5 October every year.
As is the tradition, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu is also expected to confer the National Teachers' Award to 45 teachers from across the country.
tech2 News Staff
Motorola has finally announced the launch date of Moto G6 Plus, which is set to be unveiled in India next week on 10 September.
The Moto G series was first introduced back in April. The Moto G6 and Moto G6 Play were launched in India in June, which were priced at Rs 13,999 and Rs 11,999 respectively.
The tweet by the company shares some of the features that the Moto G6 Plus will be equipped with features like the Google Lens, Portrait Mode, Face Unlock, and TurboPower charging.
The new #motog6plus is set to arrive on 10th September and is built to give you more with every feature!
Which one are you most excited about? Take a screenshot and share it with us! #BuiltForMore pic.twitter.com/HyoigsRBv3 Motorola India (@motorolaindia) September 4, 2018
Earlier leaks have revealed that the phone will come with a 5.9-inch LCD display in an 18:9 aspect ratio. The phone is said to come with Corning Gorilla Glass 3, which is about three generations old now.
The device might be powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 chipset and might run on Android 8.0 (Oreo).
The device is said to have a dual camera setup that employs a 12 MP+7 MP sensor combo with an LED flash below it. There's an 8 MP camera in front. It's packing a decently-sized 3,200 mAh battery.
The phone is expected to come with Google Lens, Portrait Mode, Face Unlock, and TurboPower charging.
The Moto G6 Plus was launched in Brazil at a price of $370. If it comes to India, it might be priced around Rs 25,000.
When the phone was launched in Brazil, 4 GB RAM and 6 GB RAM variants with 64 GB and 128 GB of internal storage respectively were announced.
According to GSM Arena, the phone might be available in gold, deep indigo and nimbus colour variants.
Indo-Asian News Service
Protectionist groups on Tuesday warned that Australia's use of drumlines under the country's Shark Control Programme in the Great Barrier Reef is killing endangered shark species.
Humane Society International and the Australian Marine Conservation Society released a series of photographs and videos of two endangered scalloped hammerheads (Sphyrna lewini) found dead on a line near Magnetic Island in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Efe News reported.
"Lethal drumlines are an old and ineffective method of bather protection. They catch and kill hundreds of non-target marine animals in the Great Barrier Reef," Nicola Beynon, head of campaigns at Humane Society International, said in a statement.
"Lethal drumlines provide nothing more than a completely false sense of security, at the expense of the lives of threatened species that are crucial to our Great Barrier Reef ecosystem," she added.
Tooni Mahto, a campaign manager at the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said these "same ineffective, lethal methods" have been used by successive Queensland governments since the 1960s.
She called "for a change in our views of sharks and a change in policy to reflect that."
According to Shark Control Programme statistics, 10,480 sharks many of them innocuous have been caught on lethal drumlines since 2001 in the Great Barrier Reef, declared a World Heritage area.
It has also killed a significant numbers of rays, turtles, fish and dolphins.
"Humane Society International is currently engaged in legal action against the QLD Government and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority for shark culling on lethal drumlines within the World Heritage-listed reef," the statement said.
There are 173 drumlines that operate within the Great Barrier Reef, although the Queensland government has removed seven of the 26 species of shark from its target list since the legal challenge was launched.
tech2 News Staff
My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine?
While P for Pizzas denoting P for Pluto was removed from this perfect mnemonic that elementary school children once used in order to memorise the planets in the solar system, it looks like a new ninth planet really does exist, helping us hold on to the hope that the very educated mother will, after all, serve nine of something.
There could be a ninth planet. Every time we take a picture, there is this possibility that Planet Nine exists in the shot, says Surhud More to The Washington Post. More is an astronomer at the University of Tokyo. Nobody else has been able to spot it so far.
There has been evidence in the past that points at the existence of a ghost planet hiding in our solar system, beyond Pluto, but in a very different orbit. This orbit is tilted at an angle to the plane of our solar system.
The whole idea, however, that a Planet Nine exists, came in 2014 when a planetoid was discovered in the far-ends of our solar system, one that orbited the Sun. It was predicted later that the planetoid weighs approximately 20 Earth masses (20 times the mass of our planet) and follows an elliptical orbit which is about as much as 1,000 times more distant from the sun than Earth is.
Trying to get a look at the planet has been tough because it is 600 astronomical units away from us. An astronomical unit or AU is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. One AU is 149,598,000 kilometres and by simple math, this means that 600 AU is 89,75,88,00,000 kilometres away. In short, it is really, really far.
NASA had also released a statement about how far Planet Nine is, saying that it may be 20 times further from the Sun than Neptune is.
There is enough evidence and research and some speculation to suggest the existence of Planet Nine, so much so that even if it werent there, it will be a difficult fact to digest. NASA knows that it is now harder to imagine our solar system without a Planet Nine than with one."
Heres hoping that elementary science textbooks will soon be rewritten.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has overtaken the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), a poll showed on Tuesday, days after some of the most violent protests by radical right-wingers the country has seen in decades. Some 6,000 supporters of the AfD and anti-Islam PEGIDA joined protests in the eastern city of Chemnitz on Saturday, following other demonstrations last week, after a fatal stabbing on Aug.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has overtaken the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), a poll showed on Tuesday, days after some of the most violent protests by radical right-wingers the country has seen in decades.
Some 6,000 supporters of the AfD and anti-Islam PEGIDA joined protests in the eastern city of Chemnitz on Saturday, following other demonstrations last week, after a fatal stabbing on Aug. 26. Two immigrants were arrested for the killing.
An INSA opinion poll on Tuesday put the AfD up half a percentage point at 17 percent, with the SPD, who share power with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, slipping by the same amount to 16 percent. Merkel's conservative bloc was on 28.5 percent.
Germany's next electoral test comes on Oct. 14 when Merkel's Bavarian allies face a major challenge from the AfD for state government.
The AfD, the third-biggest party in last year's election and the main opposition, seized on the killing of a 35-year old German in Chemnitz and the subsequent arrests of a Syrian and Iraqi to ramp up criticism of Merkel's open-door asylum policy.
Prosecutors said on Tuesday they were looking for a third suspect and Der Spiegel reported there was some doubt about the identity of the two already under arrest.
Merkel, who has been criticised for remaining largely silent during days of protests, plans to visit the city, a spokesman said. No date for the visit has been set.
Images showed skinheads at last week's protests chasing migrants through the streets, hurling bottles and fireworks, and making Nazi salutes, illegal in Germany.
Calls have mounted for the domestic intelligence agency to place the AfD under surveillance.
Bjoern Hoecke, an AfD leader from the state of Thuringia who has criticised Germany's main memorial to the victims of the Holocaust as a "monument of shame" and wants Germany to re-write its history books, took part in Saturday's march in Chemnitz.
In a show of resistance, some 65,000 people attended a rock concert "against xenophobia" on Monday night in Chemnitz, given by mostly left-leaning groups.
(Reporting by Madeline Chambers and Andreas Rinke; editing by Peter Graff and Rosalba O'Brien)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
On Donald Trump calling the UNSC meeting about Iran, she said the message to Tehran is that the world is watching its actions, whether supporting terrorism, launching ballistic missiles or selling weapons.
United Nations: United States (US) president Donald Trump plans to chair a meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) later this month to discuss Iran's alleged violations of international law, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has said.
Haley, who assumed the presidency of the Security Council for the month of September, told reporters on Tuesday that Trump intends to chair a meeting of the 15-nation UN body on Iran on 26 September.
The US pulled out of the landmark Iran nuclear deal in May, saying it failed to put enough pressure on Tehran regime to halt its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programme. Washington has sought to build up international pressure on Iran after reimposing tough and unilateral sanctions on 7 August and setting a 5 November deadline for halting Iran's oil exports.
"He (Trump) is calling the meeting to address Iran's violations of international law and the general instability Iran sows throughout the entire West Asia region," Haley said as she briefed reporters about the UNSC's programme of work for the month.
On the meeting on Iran, she said the message to Tehran is that the world is watching its actions, whether supporting terrorism, launching ballistic missiles or selling weapons.
Another highlight of the US presidency of the UNSC will be an update on efforts to make peacekeeping missions more effective, efficient and accountable, Haley said. Through the debate on peacekeeping on 12 September, the US will focus on improving peacekeeping performance including eliminating sexual exploitation and abuse, she added. "In yet another first, we will be introducing a resolution on peacekeeping that would require the UN to hold peacekeepers, troop and police contributing countries and the Secretariat accountable for performance failures," she said.
On September 24, Trump will kick off a high-level event on counter-narcotics, making a "global call to action" on the world drug problem.
Haley said the presidency of the security council this month under the Trump administration will be a "Presidency of Firsts", and as part of this all meetings and events will be held in the open chamber, which is "part of our push for transparency and accountability for the Security Council". She said a briefing on corruption and conflict are among the highlights of the security council's work in the month ahead.
The 15-member Council will also hold its first-ever meeting on the situation in Nicaragua on Wednesday when they will hear a briefing by a representative of the Organization of American States (OAS).
She emphasised the importance to the Council of regular updates relating to developments on the ground since human rights are closely linked to peace and security. She added that on 10 September, the Council will hear a briefing on how corruption has become a cross-cutting issue that undermines stability around the world. "It is a fundamental cause for conflict that the Council should be addressing," she said, citing Tunisia, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as countries destabilised by corruption.
Turning to regular Council business, she said it plans three briefings on Syria, with the meeting on 6 September focusing on the use of chemical weapons in that country, followed by a briefing on the situation in Idlib.
Responding to questions, she said the Council continues to shed light on the situation in Myanmar, where the government is still in denial of events there. The Council must make hard decisions in that regard, she added.
On the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, she emphasised the importance of sanctions under Security Council resolutions and added that "Russia and China are not exempted" from implementing the measures.
Joint statement from Europe's biggest news agencies calls on internet giants to share more of their revenue with the media
Paris: Europe's biggest news agencies accused Google and Facebook of "plundering" news for free on Tuesday in a joint statement that called on the internet giants to share more of their revenues with the media.
In a column signed by the CEOs of around 20 agencies including France's Agence France-Presse, Britain's Press Association and Germany's Deutsche Presse-Agentur called on the European Parliament to update copyright law in the EU to help address a "grotesque imbalance".
"The internet giants' plundering of the news media's content and of their advertising revenue poses a threat both to consumers and to democracy," the column said. European Parliament lawmakers are to set to debate a new copyright law this month that would force the internet giants to pay more for creative content used on their platforms such as news, music or movies.
A first draft of the law was rejected in July and the plans have been firmly opposed by US tech firms, as well as advocates of internet freedom who fear that the regulations could lead to higher costs for consumers.
"Can the titans of the internet compensate the media without asking people to pay for access to the internet, as they claim they would be forced to? The answer is clearly 'yes'," the column said. The joint statement from the agencies, which are major suppliers of news, photos and video, said Facebook reported revenues of $40 billion (34 billion euros) in 2017 and profits of $16 billion, while Google made $12.7 billion on sales of $110 billion.
"Who could reasonably argue that they are not in a position to make fair payment for the content they use?" the agencies asked. "What we are really talking about is introducing a fair payment by those who have ripped off the news. For the sake of Europe's free press and democratic values, EU lawmakers should press ahead with copyright reform," they added.
'Neighbouring rights'
The column marks a new lobbying effort by media groups, backed by artists such as Paul McCartney, to sway European lawmakers as they prepare for a second vote on 12 September. The fight is over two parts of the planned law.
The first is Article 13, which would make platforms like Google-owned YouTube legally liable for copyrighted material to prevent content producers from seeing their work posted without pay.
The second is Article 11, which would create a so-called "neighbouring right" meaning that newspapers, magazines and news agencies would have to be paid when Google or other websites link to their stories.
"Without paying for it, internet giants such as Google and Facebook use vast quantities of news that is produced at great cost by press publishers and news agencies," added the joint statement on Tuesday.
Critics argue that the reform would lead to blanket censorship by tech platforms because of copyright problems, reducing their role as a hub for creativity, especially YouTube. They say it would also restrict the usage of memes and remixes by everyday internet users who often use content without securing the rights.
The column was signed by the heads of TT in Sweden, STT in Finland, Belgium's Belga and APA from Austria, as well as other media groups across the European continent.
Facebook and Twitter executives pledged on Wednesday to better protect their social media platforms in the 2018 elections and beyond, and told Congress of aggressive efforts to root out foreign intrusions aimed at sowing divisions in American democracy.
Washington: Facebook and Twitter executives pledged on Wednesday to better protect their social media platforms in the 2018 elections and beyond, and told Congress of aggressive efforts to root out foreign intrusions aimed at sowing divisions in American democracy.
Facebook's No. 2 executive, Sheryl Sandberg, and Twitter's CEO, Jack Dorsey, testified before the Senate intelligence committee, but there was an empty chair for Google's parent Alphabet, which refused to send its top executive.
Weve seen positive results from our work. Were now removing over 200% more accounts for violating our policies. Were identifying and challenging 8-10 million suspicious accounts every week. And were thwarting over a half million accounts from logging in to Twitter every day. jack (@jack) September 5, 2018
Senators had sharp words for Alphabet CEO Larry Page, who oversees Google. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., suggested the company might have bailed because it was "arrogant" while Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, expressed outrage over the absence.
Sandberg's appearance came several months after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in highly publicized Capitol Hill hearings. Like Zuckerberg, she acknowledged Facebook's lag in recognizing Russian efforts to manipulate Facebook during and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Sandberg detailed the company's efforts to fight the problem with new technologies and manpower.
"We are even more determined than our adversaries, and we will continue to fight back," Sandberg said.
Dorsey, far less of a public figure than Sandberg, acknowledged that he is "typically pretty shy." But he was forthcoming with the committee about what his company needs to improve.
Holding his phone at the witness table, he tweeted some of his opening statement: "We aren't proud of how that free and open exchange has been weaponized and used to distract and divide people, and our nation.
We found ourselves unprepared and ill-equipped for the immensity of the problems we've acknowledged," Dorsey wrote.
He added: "Abuse, harassment, troll armies, propaganda through bots and human coordination, misinformation campaigns, and divisive filter bubbles that's not a healthy public square. Worse, a relatively small number of bad-faith actors were able to game Twitter to have an outsized impact."
Dorsey was headed later Wednesday to a House committee focused on GOP complaints that social media companies have shown evidence of bias against conservatives. In testimony released before that hearing, Dorsey denied that Twitter uses political ideology to make decisions.
Sandberg, 49, has extensive Washington experience, typically acts as the company's public face and clearly felt comfortable answering to the senators. In contrast, the bearded and tieless Dorsey, 41, was quiet but respectful in his answers. Both contrasted with Zuckerberg's sometimes awkward defiance at the April hearings as he fielded questions from skeptical lawmakers.
The companies have laid out differing approaches in response to the Russian interference. Thirteen Russians were indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller this year on charges of an elaborate plot to disrupt the 2016 election by creating fake accounts that pushed divisive issues on social media.
Facebook and Twitter are using increasingly sophisticated technology and artificial intelligence to combat the misuse. But their approaches are different because their platforms are also different, as are their resources, where Twitter is far behind.
Facebook is going after "inauthenticity," or fake accounts. Twitter is focusing on analyzing behavior patterns to find suspicious activity because Twitter technically allows "fake" accounts in the form of spoofs, for example.
The companies have made many policy changes, and have caught and banned malicious accounts over the past year. Still, their business models free services that rely on attracting as many users as possible for as long as possible and finding out as much about them as possible remain the same, and that posed challenges.
GOP Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the committee chairman, commended the companies for their efforts but said Congress was concerned that not enough has been done.
"Clearly, this problem is not going away," Burr said. "I'm not even sure it's trending in the right direction."
Dorsey said Twitter has continued to identify accounts that may be linked to the same Russian internet agency as identified in Mueller's indictment. He said Twitter has so far suspended 3,843 accounts the company believes are linked to that agency and has seen recent activity. Facebook has also taken down pages this year that they believed were tied to the agency.
Congress has criticized the companies over the past year as Russia's interference became clear. That scrutiny has led to additional criticism over the companies' respect for user privacy and whether conservatives are being censored.
The afternoon hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee was to focus on bias and Twitter's algorithms. Some Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have pushed the idea that Twitter is "shadow banning" some in the GOP because of the ways search results have appeared. Twitter denies that's happening.
Twitter came under fire from some on the far right after temporarily suspending conspiracy theorist Alex Jones last month. Facebook temporarily suspended his account. Jones made an angry appearance outside the hearing room, telling reporters that he was there to "face my accusers."
Jones railed on the government, media and social media companies for more than 40 minutes in the hallway as the hearing began, and later took a seat in the hearing room.
Dorsey, in prepared testimony for the House hearing, said "Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules."
Only Dorsey was invited to the House hearing after specific Republican concerns about bias on Twitter. While all three tech companies have been accused of political bias against conservatives, the more public-facing nature of Twitter has made it an especially easy target.
In the inaugural 2-plus-2 dialogue between the two countries, Pompeo and Jim Mattis are headed to India to meet with Sushma Swaraj and Nirmala Sitharaman.
Washington: India buying a missile defence system from Russia and oil from Iran would be part of the 2+2 dialogue, but not the talks' primary focus, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said.
Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis are headed to India for the talks on Thursday with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. This is the inaugural 2-plus-2 dialogue between the two countries.
"They are (missile system purchase from Russia and oil from Iran) part of the conversation. They are part of the relationship. They will certainly come up, but I don't think they will be the primary focus of what it is we are trying to accomplish here," Pompeo said on Tuesday to a question from reporters who are travelling with him to Pakistan and then to India.
India is expected to convey to the US during the dialogue that it is going ahead with the Rs 40,000 crore deal with Russia to procure a batch of the S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems.
"There are half-a-dozen things on the agenda that we are really intent on making progress on. Those decisions are important, they are important to the relationship for sure, but I don't see us resolving those or have the intention to resolve those during this set of meetings of the strategic dialogue," he said.
"They are really about things that are big and strategic and will go on for 20, 40, 50 years. Those are the kinds of topics that secretary Mattis and I are hoping to address not that those are not important, but they are not part of the structural relationship between the two countries," Pompeo said.
He regretted that the dialogue had to be postponed twice in the past. "I regret it was my fault the second time. I had to travel to Pyongyang. But secretary Mattis and I are both looking forward to this," he said.
The twice-delayed dialogue was earlier scheduled for 6 July in Washington, but was postponed by the US on 27 June, citing "unavoidable reasons".
"We have a true strategic partner who, frankly, is our only major defence partner, right, the only designated major defence partner, with whom we have a great relationship and who is very important to our success in our Indo-Pacific strategy enormous country with incredible opportunity and capacity for wealth creation," Pompeo said.
"We hope we can find opportunities to continue to expand the relationship not only diplomatic and military-to-military but a good set of business relationships as well," he said.
Israel signalled on Monday that it could attack suspected Iranian military assets in Iraq, as it has done with scores of air strikes in war-torn Syria.
Jerusalem: Israel signalled on Monday that it could attack suspected Iranian military assets in Iraq, as it has done with scores of air strikes in war-torn Syria. Citing Iranian, Iraqi and Western sources, Reuters reported last week that Iran had transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Shiite allies in Iraq in recent months. Tehran and Baghdad formally denied that report.
Israel sees in Irans regional expansion an attempt to open up new fronts against it. Israel has repeatedly launched attacks in Syria to prevent any entrenchment of Iranian forces helping Damascus in the war.
We are certainly monitoring everything that is happening in Syria and, regarding Iranian threats, we are not limiting ourselves just to Syrian territory. This also needs to be clear, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman told a conference hosted and aired live by the Israel Television News Company.
Asked if that included possible action in Iraq, Lieberman said: I am saying that we will contend with any Iranian threat, and it doesnt matter from where it comes ... Israels freedom is total. We retain this freedom of action. There was no immediate response from the government of Iraq, which is technically at war with Israel, nor from US Central Command in Washington, DC, which oversees US military operations in Iraq.
Israels Channel 1 television reported that in recent weeks the United States asked Israel not to attack in Iraqi territory. It said it had gleaned the information from Western officials. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Saturday he was deeply concerned by the reported Iranian missile transfer.
If true, this would be a gross violation of Iraqi sovereignty and of UNSCR 2231, he tweeted, referring to a UN Security Council resolution endorsing the 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran. The Trump administration abandoned that deal in May, citing, among other factors, Irans ballistic missile projects.
According to regional sources, Israel began carrying out air strikes in Syria in 2013 against suspected arms transfers and deployments by Iran and its Lebanese ally, the Shiite Hezbollah militia. These operations have largely been ignored by Russia, Damascuss big-power backer, and coordinated with other powers conducting their own military operations in Syria.
A Western diplomat briefed on the coordination told Reuters last year that, while Israel had a free hand in Syria, it was expected not to take any military action in neighbouring Iraq, where the United States has been struggling to help achieve stability since its 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein. Despite their formal state of hostilities, Israel and Iraq have not openly traded blows in decades.
In 1981, Israels air force destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor near Baghdad. During the 1991 Gulf war, Iraq fired dozens of Scud rockets into Israel, which did not retaliate, out of consideration for US efforts to maintain an Arab coalition against Saddam.
Israel made a plan for its commandos to assassinate Saddam in Iraq in 1992, but the plan was abandoned after a fatal training accident.
By Dan Williams JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has carried out more than 200 attacks against Iranian targets in Syria in the last two years, a senior Israeli official said on Tuesday, in a rare summary of its campaign. According to regional sources, Israel began carrying out military strikes in Syria in 2013 against suspected arms transfers and deployments by Iranian forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies, both Damascus's partners in Syria's civil war
By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has carried out more than 200 attacks against Iranian targets in Syria in the last two years, a senior Israeli official said on Tuesday, in a rare summary of its campaign.
According to regional sources, Israel began carrying out military strikes in Syria in 2013 against suspected arms transfers and deployments by Iranian forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies, both Damascus's partners in Syria's civil war.
Israeli officials have rarely detailed specific operations. On Tuesday, an Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment after Syria said it shot down rockets fired by Israeli planes at military targets near the city of Hama.
But Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz used a speech to give a more general summary of Syria missions, prompted by a military briefing given to local media earlier in the day.
"Only just now it was published - in the name of military sources, so I can quote it too - that in the last two years Israel has taken military action more than 200 times within Syria itself," Katz told a conference hosted by the IDC Herzliya college.
"Understand the significance of this matter in terms of preserving the red line, preventing the things that Iran has done, is doing and is trying to do against Israel from Syria."
Asked to confirm Katz's comments, an Israeli military spokeswoman said Israel had carried out around 200 attacks within Syria over the past year and a half.
In August 2017, the outgoing chief of Israel's air force told Haaretz newspaper that his corps had carried out "nearly 100 strikes" in Syria. That left another 100 in the time since, according to the official Israeli accounts issued on Tuesday - or roughly two a week.
Israel, which monitors neighbouring Syria intensively, has long alleged that Iran came to assist the Damascus government, in part, to set up a permanent garrison there, effectively forming an extended anti-Israel front with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran, Israel's arch-foe, has been a core supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad throughout the 7-year-old civil war, sending military advisers as well as materiel and regional Shi'ite militias that it backs.
Israel's Syria strikes have been largely ignored by Russia, Israel's big-power backer, and backed by the United States.
On Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman signalled that the country could also attack suspected Iranian military targets in Iraq, where Reuters has reported the deployment of ballistic missiles by Tehran.
Briefing reporters on Tuesday, a senior Israeli military officer who requested anonymity said that Israel believed Iran was using Iraqi territory as a conduit for missile transfers to Syria.
(Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey told the United States on Tuesday that Kurdish militants must completely abandon Syria, as violence in the rebel-held northern Syrian enclave of Idlib escalated. Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar made the call during talks with visiting U.S.
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey told the United States on Tuesday that Kurdish militants must completely abandon Syria, as violence in the rebel-held northern Syrian enclave of Idlib escalated.
Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar made the call during talks with visiting U.S. special representative for Syria James Jeffrey, the defence ministry said in a statement.
Akar conveyed Ankara's discomfort with the presence of Kurdish militants in the region, it added.
Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, resumed air strikes on Tuesday against insurgents in Idlib. This followed weeks of aerial bombardment and shelling by pro-Syrian government forces in an apparent prelude to a full-scale offensive against the rebels' last major enclave.
Assad has repeatedly pledged to take back "every inch" of Syria, which would mean regaining both Idlib and Kurdish-led areas in the northeast.
Turkey, which has backed some rebels against Assad, has previously said a military operation into Idlib would be disastrous.
Ankara is angry over Washington's support for the Kurdish YPG militia in Syria. Ankara sees the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has fought an insurgency in southeast Turkey since 1984 and is considered a terrorist group by the United States, Turkey and Europe.
Turkish forces have carried out two-cross border operations against the YPG in Syria.
In a move long sought by Turkey, the NATO allies agreed in June to implement a roadmap for the northern Syrian city of Manbij. Under this, Turkish and U.S. forces are now carrying out joint patrols there to clear the area of YPG militants.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Twitter he had also met Jeffrey to discuss developments in Idlib in particular.
According to the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Jeffrey conveyed Washington's stance that an offensive in Idlib would risk civilian lives and prospects of a political settlement of the Syrian war. Such an assault would "fuel support for terrorism and harm regional stability", it also said on Twitter.
Ankara and Washington have more recently been in a stand-off over the fate of a U.S. evangelical pastor being tried in Turkey on terrorism charges that he denies. The row has helped to send Turkey's lira currency plunging about 40 percent this year.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ece Toksabay; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and David Stamp)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo from the Reuters news agency were sentenced on Monday in proceedings that were widely decried as unfair. They had reported about the army's brutal counterinsurgency campaign that drove 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh.
Yangon: US Vice President Mike Pence called on Myanmar to immediately release two journalists who were sentenced to seven years' imprisonment on charges of possessing state secrets in connection with their reporting on massacres against Rohingya Muslims.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo from the Reuters news agency were sentenced on Monday in proceedings that were widely decried as unfair. They had reported about the army's brutal counterinsurgency campaign that drove 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh. The subject is sensitive in Myanmar because of worldwide condemnation of the military's human rights abuses, which it denies.
Pence on Tuesday tweeted the two should be "commended not imprisoned for their work exposing human rights violations & mass killings." "Freedom of religion & freedom of the press are essential to a strong democracy," he wrote in back-to-back tweets. "We call on the Gov't of Burma to reverse this ruling & release them immediately." UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also urged Myanmar authorities to review their decision, noting with concern the conviction and sentencing of the two.
"The right to freedom of expression and information is a cornerstone of any democracy. It is unacceptable that these journalists were prosecuted for reporting on major human rights violations against the Rohingya in Rakhine state," Guterres' spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement. The case drew worldwide attention as an example of how democratic reforms in long-isolated Myanmar have stalled under Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government, which took power in 2016.
Although the military, which ruled Myanmar for a half-century, maintains control of several key ministries, Suu Kyi's rise to government leader had raised hopes for an accelerated transition to full democracy, and her stance on the Rohingya crisis has disappointed many former admirers. Wa Lone's wife, Pan Ei Mon, told reporters that she was saddened and hurt that Suu Kyi had taken a legalistic position in a June interview with Japanese broadcaster NHK by saying that the two reporters were arrested for breaking the Official Secret Act, not because they exposed the army's abuses.
"I am very sad about what she answered because she was the one whom we always admired and respected," Pan Ei Mon said Tuesday. "We loved and respected her so much," she said. "We feel very sad as our respected person has the wrong opinion about us." She said that she never expected such a harsh punishment "because everyone knows that they didn't do anything wrong." The two men testified that they had been framed by the police.
Pan Ei Mon gave birth to the couple's first child in Yangon on 10 August, but her husband has not seen their daughter. "After I gave birth, I continued to keep strong with the hope that my daughter and her father will meet soon. But I felt like my hope was broken after the verdict yesterday. I am hopeless now," she said.
Kyaw Soe Oo's wife, Chit Su, also said she had expected her husband would be coming home. They have a 3-year-old daughter.
"I believed he would be free, he felt the same," she said. "But it didn't happen, I felt like I am a crazy person." She said she still hopes for mercy from the state. At the same time, she remains proud that her husband did his duty as a journalist. The lawyers for the journalists told the news conference that they would do whatever they could to get their clients freed. They can file an appeal or ask for a pardon, or hope the reporters could be freed under a general amnesty for prisoners.
Pompeo is arriving in Islamabad along with General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, days after the Trump administration cancelled $300 million in military aid to Pakistan as it was not doing enough against terrorist groups inside its borders,
Washington: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has defended the Trump administration's decision to cut $300 million aid to Pakistan, saying Islamabad did not make satisfactory progress in combatting terrorism.
Pompeo is arriving in Islamabad along with General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, days after the Trump administration cancelled $300 million in military aid to Pakistan as it was not doing enough against terrorist groups inside its borders, the latest controversy to hit Islamabad's troubled relationship with Washington.
Pompeo's talks will be the Trump administration's first high-level dialogue with Pakistan since the new government of prime minister Imran Khan assumed office after the 25 July elections. Talking to reporters travelling with him hours before landing in Pakistan, the Secretary of State said: "The rationale for them (Pakistan) not getting the money is very clear. It's that we haven't seen the progress that we need to see from them".
The top American diplomat, during his meeting with Khan, army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, would convey the same message of acting tough on terrorist organisations in Pakistan. "The very reason for this trip is to try and articulate what it is our expectation is, the things that they can do, the things that they expect us to do, and see if we can't find a path forward together," Pompeo said amid reports that the Pentagon has sought a Congressional approval to reprogramme $300 million meant for financial assistance to Pakistan because of the lack of progress in fight against terrorism.
However, Pompeo said that this was not news for Pakistan."Look, this wasn't news to the Pakistanis. It made a lot of headlines over the last few days because of the formality... but they were told this past summer that they weren't likely to get that money," he said. Ahead of the meeting with Khan, Pompeo hoped that they can turn the page and begin to make progress.
"There are real expectations. We need Pakistan to seriously engage to help us get to the reconciliation we need in Afghanistan... They have important interests, security interests in Afghanistan to make sure they get the issues at their border right, and we need their help," Pompeo said. On his first trip to Pakistan after Khan became the prime minister, Pompeo said he wanted to get there at the beginning of Khan's tenure in an effort to "reset the relationship" between the two countries.
"We have worked closely with the Pakistanis in my role as the CIA director. Our teams have been working together for a long time. There are lots of challenges between our two nations for sure, but we're hopeful that with the new leadership that we can find common ground and begin to work on some of our shared problems together. They have expressed good-faith intention to do so," the Secretary of State said.
Pompeo said that he and Dunford would have opportunities to walk through the complexity that is this relationship and hopefully begin to make some progress so that they can get back to a set of common understandings. "So that's really the very straightforward objective. I think it's important to meet the new prime minister early on in his time in office," Pompeo said.
Responding to a question, Pompeo said that US aid to Pakistan could be restored, but he has not seen the progress yet. "We certainly haven't seen the progress that we would hope to have seen, certainly not progress that would be sufficient for us to have advocated for turning back on that financial support," said the top American diplomat.
"Would that aid be back on the table if you do see measures that meet yours," he was asked. "I think the answer is probably yes," Pompeo said. "If we get to the place you have to remember what it was. Some of this was we use the term 'aid' loosely there. It's more complicated; it's different sets of resources.
"But we were providing these resources when they made sense for the US, when it made sense because the partnership was in a place that the actions of our two countries, it made sense to do that. If that arises again, I am confident we'll present to the President the rationale for that, and then something like that might make sense," Pompeo added.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo defended the Trump administration's decision to cut $300 million aid to Pakistan, and said Islamabad did not make satisfactory progress in combating terrorism.
Washington: US secretary of state Mike Pompeo defended the Trump administration's decision to cut $300 million aid to Pakistan, and said Islamabad did not make satisfactory progress in combating terrorism. Pompeo is arriving in Islamabad along with General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, days after the Trump administration cancelled $300 million in military aid to Pakistan as it was not doing enough against terrorist groups inside its borders, the latest controversy to hit Islamabad's troubled relationship with Washington.
Pompeo's talks will be the Trump administration's first high-level dialogue with Pakistan since the new government of Prime Minister Imran Khan assumed office after the 25 July elections. Talking to reporters travelling with him hours before landing in Pakistan, the Secretary of State said: "The rationale for them (Pakistan) not getting the money is very clear. It's that we haven't seen the progress that we need to see from them".
The top American diplomat, during his meeting with Imran, army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, would convey the same message of acting tough on terrorist organisations in Pakistan. "The very reason for this trip is to try and articulate what it is our expectation is, the things that they can do, the things that they expect us to do, and see if we can't find a path forward together," Pompeo said amid reports that the Pentagon has sought a Congressional approval to reprogramme $300 million meant for financial assistance to Pakistan because of the lack of progress in fight against terrorism
However, Pompeo said that this was not news for Pakistan. "Look, this wasn't news to the Pakistanis. It made a lot of headlines over the last few days because of the formality... but they were told this past summer that they weren't likely to get that money," he said. Ahead of the meeting with Imran, Pompeo hoped that they can turn the page and begin to make progress.
"There are real expectations. We need Pakistan to seriously engage to help us get to the reconciliation we need in Afghanistan... They have important interests, security interests in Afghanistan to make sure they get the issues at their border right, and we need their help," Pompeo said. On his first trip to Pakistan after Imran became prime minister, Pompeo said he wanted to get there at the beginning of Imran's tenure in an effort to "reset the relationship" between the two countries
"We have worked closely with the Pakistanis in my role as the CIA director. Our teams have been working together for a long time. There are lots of challenges between our two nations for sure, but we're hopeful that with the new leadership that we can find common ground and begin to work on some of our shared problems together. They have expressed good-faith intention to do so," the Secretary of State said.
Pompeo said that he and Dunford would have opportunities to walk through the complexity that is this relationship and hopefully begin to make some progress so that they can get back to a set of common understandings. "So that's really the very straightforward objective. I think it's important to meet the new prime minister early on in his time in office," Pompeo said.
Responding to a question, Pompeo said that US aid to Pakistan could be restored, but he has not seen the progress yet. "We certainly haven't seen the progress that we would hope to have seen, certainly not progress that would be sufficient for us to have advocated for turning back on that financial support," said the top American diplomat.
"Would that aid be back on the table if you do see measures that meet yours," he was asked. "I think the answer is probably yes," Pompeo said. "If we get to the place ? you have to remember what it was. Some of this was ? we use the term 'aid' loosely there. It's more complicated; it's different sets of resources. "But we were providing these resources when they made sense for the US, when it made sense because the partnership was in a place that the actions of our two countries, it made sense to do that. If that arises again, I am confident we'll present to the President the rationale for that, and then something like that might make sense," Pompeo added.
Nauru, which is an ally of Chinas rival Taiwan, obstructed Chinas delegation from speaking, causing the Chinese delegation to leave the venue in protest
Wellington: An undiplomatic dispute between China and the island of Nauru, which is an ally of Chinas rival Taiwan, has marred the opening of a Pacific Islands Forum, highlighting Chinas growing reach in the region.
Nauru is hosting leaders of 18 Pacific nations, plus delegations from non-member countries including the United States and China, at a time of growing tension and rivalry in a strategically important region with access to swathes of resource-rich ocean.
However, Nauru president Baron Waqa criticised Chinas envoy to the forum as very insolent and a bully for speaking out of turn after an angry exchange at the opening of the annual gathering. The Chinese demanded to be heard when (Tuvalus) prime minister was about to speak, Waqa told a news conference late on Tuesday after media reported a heated start to the closed-door meeting. He insisted and was very insolent about it, and created a big fuss and held up the meeting of leaders for a good number of minutes when he was only an official. So maybe because he was from a big country he wanted to bully us, Waqa said.
A video of part of the incident, posted on Facebook by Fijian magazine Islands Business, showed Chinas delegate demanding that he be heard, citing his seniority.
Nauru and Tuvalu are two of six Pacific countries to have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, which is a major source of tension with China, which regards Taiwan as a wayward province, to be taken back by force if necessary.
Speaking in Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said it was Nauru that engaged in poor and undiplomatic behaviour. Nauru, as the host of the forum, violated international norms and the rules of the forum, and put on a clumsy farce, Hua told a daily news briefing.
Nauru originally demanded the Chinese delegates enter using normal passports but after protests and threats of a boycott by most other participants, they were allowed in on diplomatic passports, she added.
Dissatisfaction
During the meeting, Nauru obstructed Chinas delegation from speaking, so they lodged stern representations and walked out of the venue in protest, Hua said. Many countries' representatives at the meeting also left the venue and expressed strong dissatisfaction with the Nauru side.
Chinas delegation was led by Du Qiwen, its ambassador to Fiji.
Waqa said protocol dictated speaking priority was given to ministers over diplomats.
China has become one of the dominant economic players in the Pacific, spending billions of dollars in trade, investment, aid and tourism in a region that staunch US ally Australia has long regarded as its backyard. Chinese lending to the region has surged from nearly zero to $1.3 billion over the last decade, stoking concern that tiny nations could end up overburdened and in debt.
It is also the second-largest bilateral donor in the region, behind Australia. Nauru has no diplomatic relations with China.
New Zealand foreign minister Winston Peters, who appears the in the video posted on Facebook suggesting as a compromise that Chinas delegates could speak after Pacific ministers, told reporters on Tuesday there was no walk-out by Chinas delegation.
The dispute echoes an incident in 2017 when Chinese delegates were reported to have disrupted the opening remarks at a conference in Australia about conflict diamonds because a Taiwan delegation was invited.
Pakistan on Wednesday summoned India's Deputy high commissioner to protest the 'unprovoked ceasefire violations' across the Line of Control.
Islamabad: Pakistan on Wednesday summoned India's Deputy high commissioner to protest the "unprovoked ceasefire violations" across the Line of Control (LoC) by the Indian forces that resulted in the death of a Pakistani villager.
Director General Mohammad Faisal, who is also the foreign ministry spokesman, summoned the Indian diplomat and "condemned the unprovoked ceasefire violations by the Indian forces along the LoC on 4 September," the Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement. The firing in the Kotkotera sector along the LoC resulted in the death of the civilian on Tuesday, it said.
The FO alleged that the Indian forces have carried out more than 2,000 ceasefire violations along the LoC and the Working Boundary, resulting in the death of 32 innocent civilians, while injuring 122 others.
"This unprecedented escalation in ceasefire violations by India is continuing from year 2017 when the Indian forces committed 1970 ceasefire violations," it alleged. "The deliberate targeting of civilian population areas is indeed deplorable and contrary to human dignity and 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.
Faisal urged the Indian side to respect the 2003 Ceasefire arrangement; investigate this and other incidents of ceasefire violations; respect the ceasefire and maintain peace on the LoC. He also urged the Indian side to allow the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to play its mandated role as per the UN Security Council resolutions.
India maintains that UNMOGIP has outlived its utility and is irrelevant after the Simla Agreement and the consequent establishment of the LoC.
Pakistan's newly elected President Dr Arif Alvi shares an interesting connection with India as his father was a dentist to India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, according to the short biography of the president on the website of his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party
Islamabad: Pakistan's newly elected president Dr Arif Alvi shares an interesting connection with India as his father was a dentist to India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, according to the short biography of the president on the website of his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party.
Alvi, a close ally of Prime Minister Imran Khan and one of the founding members of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, was elected as the new President of Pakistan Tuesday.
The 69-year-old former dentist defeated Pakistan Peoples Party candidate Aitzaz Ahsan and the Pakistan Muslim League-N nominee Maulana Fazl ur Rehman in a three-way contest to become the 13th president.
Being a son of Nehru's dentist is not the only connection that Alvi has with India. He is yet another Pakistani president whose family migrated to Pakistan from India after Partition.
Alvi's predecessors Mamnoon Hussain's family came from Agra and Pervez Musharraf's parents migrated from New Delhi.
His father Dr Habib ur Rehman Elahi Alvi was a dentist to Nehru before Partition, according to short biography of the new president on the website of his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party.
"Dr Elahi Alvi was a dentist to Jawaharlal Nehru and the family has letters from Mr Nehru to Dr Alvi in their possession," according to the website.
Alvi, whose full name is Dr Arif ur Rehman Alvi, was born in Karachi in 1947 where his father settled after Partition.
He inherited the profession of a dentist from his father who practised dentistry in India before Partition and opened a dental practice in Saddar, Karachi after migration.
His father was also connected with the Jinnah family and was made a Trustee of the trust established by Shirinbai Jinnah (Quaid-e-Azam's sister) to which she gift all her worldly belongings including the Mohatta Palace in Karachi.
Alvi started his political career about five decades ago when he was a student of de'Montmonrency College of Dentistry, an affiliate of University of Punjab in Lahore. He was part of the students' wing of Jamaat-i-Islami and protested against military ruler Ayub Khan.
"During one of the protests on the Mall Road in Lahore he was shot and wounded and still proudly carries a bullet embedded in his right arm as a mark of his struggle for democracy in Pakistan," according to the PTI website.
He also participated in elections from the platform of Jamaat-i-Islami in 1979 but lost. Later he became disillusioned with the politics of Jamaat-i-Islami and joined PTI as its founding member in 1996.
He also helped in writing the Constitution of the new party.
Alvi contested his first election for PTI in 1997 but lost it. His affiliation with the party continued and he steadily rose in its ranks.
He was the Secretary-General of the party from 2006 till 2013. In 2013 he was elected as a Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from Constituency NA-250 Karachi and was re-elected in July 2018.
Apart from his political struggle, Alvi is also through professional dentist.
He acquired his dental degree BDS (Dentistry) from de'Montmonrency College of Dentistry, Lahore and Master of Science degree in Prosthodontics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1975 and Master of Science in Orthodontics in 1984 from University of the Pacific, San Francisco.
In 1997, Alvi was declared a Diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics. He was the primary author of the constitution of the Pakistan Dental Association and has been the elected president of the Pakistan Dental Association.
He was also Chairman of the first Pakistan International Dental Conference in 1981 and also elected Chairman of the 28th Asia Pacific Dental Congress.
He also served as Dean of the Faculty of Orthodontics of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan. In 2006, he was elected as the president of Asia Pacific Dental Federation.
In 2007, he was elected as a Councillor of the FDI World Dental Federation, the first time a Pakistani had been elected.
The new president is married with Samina Alvi and the couple has four children.
The mayor of Ronda, a city in central Philippines, was shot dead on Wednesday morning when several men broke into his office,
Manila: The mayor of Ronda, a city in central Philippines, was shot dead on Wednesday morning when several men broke into his office, marking the 16th elected local official to be assassinated under the current administration.
Unidentified men shot dead Mayor Mariano Blanco of Ronda town around 82 kilometers southwest of Cebu City past 1 a.m. on Wednesday. Read more: https://t.co/ArSzKA2MjE pic.twitter.com/owPbf4o4bn Cebu Daily News (@cebudailynews) September 4, 2018
Ronda mayor Mariano Blanco III was pronounced dead at 2.25 am local time upon arriving at a nearby hospital in Barili town, police senior inspector JR Palcon said, Efe reported.
According to Palcon, several men who are yet to be identified arrived at the Town Hall in a van at around 1.30 am and opened fire inside the municipal office of Ronda in Cebu province where Blanco was said to be sleeping.
Blanco was on the blacklist of public officials allegedly involved in the illegal drugs trade that was ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte as part of his war on drugs campaign. Blanco was stripped of his authority over police in 2017, although he denied involvement in illegal drugs.
In February, lawyer Jonah John Ungab, Blanco's nephew and Deputy Mayor of Ronda, was also shot dead after attending a court hearing with his client Kerwin Espinosa.
In July, the League of Municipalities of the Philippines which comprises 68 mayors from the main cities in the country requested a meeting with the president to address the assassinations of local officials and their involvement with the government's so-called "narco list."
Started by Duterte in 2016, the war on drugs has unleashed violence in the country, with more than 4,500 suspects killed in police raids and more than 23,500 unsolved murder cases.
A kindergarten principal of a Chinese school was fired following parents and public anger for permitting a pole dance which was performed on the flagpole bearing the national flag.
Beijing: A Kindergarten principal of a Chinese school was fired following parents and public anger for permitting a pole dance which was performed on the flagpole bearing the national flag.
Education authorities from Baoan district of Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province fired the principal amid criticism of the pole dance show in front of children on the first day of classes on Monday, state-run Global Times said.
The Baoan district education bureau made the announcement, after a video went viral online in which the pole dancers are performing next to a flagpole bearing China's national flag on the playground of the Xinshahui kindergarten, as part of the school's opening day.
Who would think this is a good idea? We're trying to pull the kids out of the school and get our tuition back. They wouldn't give us the number of the company that owns the school, but looking into that. pic.twitter.com/vEdIhuq774 Michael Standaert (@mstandaert) September 3, 2018
Kindergarten principal Lai Rong said there were 500 children aged three to six years old and 100 parents. Some of the boys in the audience were seen mimicking the strip-like pole dance moves.
The school and its principal soon faced a backlash online, with many calling the dance absolutely inappropriate for children at that age.
"We would like to pull our children out of the school and get a refund," said one of the parents.
Lai sent an apology letter to the daily on Monday, admitting that the school had failed to carefully examine the dance content before allowing it to be performed, and the school was simply trying to liven up the atmosphere.
"A few parents did come to me requesting a refund and threatening to pull their children out of the school. While others said it was just to learn a new type of dance," Lai said
"I may as well be dead. I already lost the hope to live," Lai said, claiming she arranged the pole dance because of the dancer's excellent skills.
Six people were killed on Tuesday in southern Iraq's Basra in ongoing unrest, as protesters rally against economic woes and the dire state of public services.
Basra: Six people were killed on Tuesday in the southern Iraqi city of Basra in ongoing unrest, as protesters rally against economic woes and the dire state of public services. "Six demonstrators were killed and more than 20 wounded," said Mehdi al-Tamimi, head of the government's human rights council in Basra province.
Security forces "directly opened fire on protesters," he said. Medical sources previously said two demonstrators were killed on Tuesday as thousands of people rallied outside the local government headquarters in Basra.
During the protests, some people in the crowd hurled Molotov cocktails and fireworks at the government building, while security forces responded with tear gas and by firing shots into the air. Around 15 members of the security forces were injured in the clashes, the medical sources said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi said an investigation had been launched into the death of another protester on Monday. Addressing his weekly press conference in the capital Baghdad, Abadi reasserted he had ordered "no real bullets are to be fired, in the direction of protesters or in the air".
Mekki Yasser Ashur died after being shot during protests, his family said Tuesday during his funeral march. Protesters accompanied his coffin through the streets of Basra until the government building, before being dispersed by tear gas.
During the procession some armed civilians fired shots into the air and hailed Ashur as a "martyr". Police and military cordons had been put in place, blocking numerous roads, while Basra's hospitals were filled with protesters bringing in people wounded in the clashes.
Basra's human rights council chief said tension was high in the city and "the shops have shut a lot earlier than usual". Tamimi warned of further escalation "if the government's doesn't respond to the demands of demonstrators".
The government has already announced an emergency plan in response to the protests, while promising billions of dollars in investment for southern Iraq. But protesters are wary of such pledges from the outgoing administration, as Iraqi lawmakers are in the process of forming a new government after May's election.
Political corruption has also fuelled protests, which erupted in Basra on July 8 before spreading across southern Iraq and reaching the capital. A litany of social problems -- from unemployment to electricity cuts -- have also been a central complaint of demonstrators.
Iraqis have also called on authorities to clean up the water supply, with pollution blamed for putting 20,000 people in hospital in Basra province alone. Protests had died down recently but since Friday large numbers have taken to the streets again.
Since early July, 21 people have been killed in protests across Iraq. At least one of those was shot dead by security forces, while authorities have accused "vandals" of infiltrating the rallies.
By Angus McDowall and Tulay Karadeniz BEIRUT/ANKARA (Reuters) - Russian and Syrian jets hammered a major rebel stronghold on Tuesday, a war monitor said, days before leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey meet to discuss an expected Syrian government offensive that could spark a humanitarian disaster. The warplanes bombarded countryside around Jisr al-Shughour on the western edge of the rebel enclave of Idlib after weeks of lull, killing 13 civilians but no fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a rebel source
By Angus McDowall and Tulay Karadeniz
BEIRUT/ANKARA (Reuters) - Russian and Syrian jets hammered a major rebel stronghold on Tuesday, a war monitor said, days before leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey meet to discuss an expected Syrian government offensive that could spark a humanitarian disaster.
The warplanes bombarded countryside around Jisr al-Shughour on the western edge of the rebel enclave of Idlib after weeks of lull, killing 13 civilians but no fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a rebel source.
For President Bashar al-Assad, the defeat of rebels in the northwestern province would mean breaking the last major stronghold of active military opposition to his rule, though other large areas also remain beyond his control.
Since Russia's entry into the war on his side in 2015, Assad and his other close allies, Iran and a group of regional Shi'ite militias it backs, have forced the rebels from a succession of bastions including Aleppo, Eastern Ghouta and Deraa.
A Syrian government minister said the siege of Idlib would probably be resolved by force. "Until now, military action is more likely than reconciliations," Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar told Russia's Arabic-language Sputnik news agency.
Damascus uses the term "reconciliation" for the negotiated rebel surrenders that have taken place in some areas.
"Idlib is different from other regions because of the large numbers of fighters," Haidar said. "However we cannot say there is no gateway to reconciliation."
Half of Idlib's 3 million people have already fled there from their homes in other parts of Syria, according to the United Nations, and any offensive there threatens new displacement and human misery.
It could also spark a wider confrontation with Turkey, a supporter of the rebels, whose army has set up observation posts along the Idlib front lines to deter fighting.
Turkey's Hurriyet daily reported that Turkish armed forces were reinforcing the Idlib border with M60 tanks, and Reuters television filmed a convoy heading towards the border.
Tuesday's air strikes came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump warned Assad and his allies not to "recklessly attack" Idlib, saying that hundreds of thousands might die.
"HUMAN SHIELDS"
The Kremlin on Tuesday dismissed his comments, describing Idlib, where jihadist insurgent factions dominate, as a "nest of terrorism". Spokesman Dmitry Peskov added: "We know that Syria's armed forces are preparing to resolve this problem."
Iran echoed that theme. "Terrorist groups [in Idlib] have mixed with the people," said Abbas Araqchi, deputy foreign minister, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.
"They are using people as human shields."
Idlib's dominant rebel faction is Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist alliance spearheaded by al Qaeda's former official affiliate in Syria, the Nusra Front, though other insurgent groups are also present.
Last week the U.N. envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said the Nusra Front and al Qaeda, both of which the international body designates as terrorists, had an estimated 10,000 fighters in Idlib.
A top U.S. general estimated there were 20,000-30,000 militants in Idlib, but said if there were major military operations "we can expect humanitarian catastrophe", and urged operations that mitigated the risks to civilians.
On Tuesday de Mistura said ongoing talks between Russia and Turkey held the key to resolving the fate of Idlib without a bloodbath. He said he had heard reports that Damascus had set a Sept. 10 deadline for diplomacy to work before attacking.
Turkey fears a major assault on Idlib could send a new wave of refugees towards its border, and wants to maintain a "de-escalation agreement" that it struck with Russia and Iran last year.
It has staged two major incursions into Syria, creating a buffer zone along its border in an area north of Aleppo that adjoins Idlib, where it has set up a local administration alongside Syrian rebel groups.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey was discussing joint action with Russia to target terrorist groups in Idlib while avoiding a full-scale offensive. Ankara last week added Tahrir al-Sham to its list of designated terrorist groups.
PRETEXT FOR ATTACK?
"We went to Moscow with our defence minister and intelligence chief. Now talks are ongoing between our soldiers, intelligence agencies and foreign ministries about what kind of steps could be taken," he said in Ankara late on Monday.
Ankara has said the presence of radical groups in Idlib is being used a pretext for a military operation. When he was in Russia in late August, Cavusoglu said "we have to differentiate terrorists from other people", but added that it was also important to eliminate Russia's concerns.
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, on a visit to Syria, told Iranian state television: "Our efforts are for ... the exit of terrorists from Idlib to be carried out with the least human cost."
He and Peskov said Idlib would be a major subject of discussion at the Sept. 7 summit meeting between Russia's Vladimir Putin, Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan and Iran's Hassan Rouhani.
Tuesday's strikes come after three weeks without Russian air raids in Idlib, though the Syrian military has kept up shelling and some aerial bombardment.
Last week a source close to Damascus said the government was preparing a phased assault that would initially target the areas in the south and west of the rebel enclave. That would bring Assad close to reclaiming the major strategic prize in the region, two arterial highways running to Aleppo.
Even a staggered offensive like that would involve fighting around Turkish observation posts, potentially triggering a new escalation in an already complex war.
State news agency SANA said Syrian air defences brought down Israeli rockets on Tuesday.
"Air defences downed a number of rockets fired by the Israeli enemy in the Wadi al-Uyoun area in the Hama countryside," it said.
(Reporting by Angus McDowall and Lisa Barrington in Beirut, Tulay Karadeniz in Ankara, Babak Dehghanpisheh and Tom Miles in Geneva, Tom Balmforth in Moscow, Phil Stewart in Athens and Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman; writing by Angus McDowall; editing by Andrew Roche)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Kathy Finn NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Gordon hurled rough surf, high winds and heavy rain at the U.S.
By Kathy Finn
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Gordon hurled rough surf, high winds and heavy rain at the U.S. Gulf Coast on Tuesday, strengthening as it spun towards the northern U.S. Gulf Coast, potentially to make landfall as a hurricane.
Gordon was forecast to come ashore between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. local time on Tuesday (0000 GMT to 0200 GMT Wednesday) along the Mississippi Gulf coast near the Louisiana state line as a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency and companies cut 9 percent of U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production.
"Im asking all residents to do their part in getting ready for this storm," New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said in a statement. "The citys absolute No.1 priority is to ensure the safety of our residents."
Winds of about 70 miles per hour (113 km per hour) were expected to reach hurricane force of at least 74 mph (119 kph) by the time storm reaches the Gulf Coast and some areas still recovering from last year's storms could see 12 inches (30 cm) of rain.
Beaches around Mobile, Alabama, were being washed by storm-driven waves on Tuesday morning, said Stephen Miller, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
"We're expecting an increase in winds," Miller said in a telephone interview. "We could see flooding."
The storm was producing gusty winds and heavy rain along the coast of the western Florida Panhandle and along the Texas coast, the National Hurricane Center said in an afternoon advisory.
Sea levels could rise as much as 5 feet (1.5 m) from Shell Beach, Louisiana, to Dauphin Island, Alabama, forecasters said.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency told South Mississippi residents to be prepared to evacuate.
EVACUATIONS
As of Tuesday afternoon, Gordon was 95 miles (153 km) southeast of Biloxi, Mississippi, and heading west-northwest, according to the National Hurricane Center.
At LaFrance Marina near Ansley, Mississippi, a mile north of Heron Bay on the Gulf of Mexico, marina owner Sue Cates said that a tidal surge is sure to push water into the marina's low-lying campgrounds, making evacuation "the only choice" people have to protect themselves.
Nevertheless, she said she and her husband will remain in their home, which sits on tall pilings, 24 feet above ground. Built after Hurricane Katrina, the home is made to withstand a 150 mile-an-hour wind, she said.
"We're way up here, and I think we'll be OK," Cates said. "People around here are well-trained for this sort of thing."
U.S. oil producer Anadarko Petroleum Corp evacuated workers and shut production at two offshore oil platforms on Monday, and other companies with production and refining operations along the Gulf Coast said they were securing facilities.
The Gulf of Mexico is home to 17 percent of U.S. crude oil and 5 percent of natural gas output daily, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The U.S. Coast Guard said the ports of New Orleans and Gulfport and Pascagoula, Mississippi, may have to close within 48 hours.
Last year, hurricanes hit Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, causing widespread destruction and thousands of deaths.
The Inn at Ocean Springs and the Roost Hotel in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, had guests planning to ride out the storm, said Kristin Smith, general manager of both hotels.
"A lot of guests are real comfortable sticking it out in our rooms," Smith said in a telephone interview. "Any of our guests who feel like they want to go home we encourage them to follow their instincts."
(Reporting by Kathy Finn in New Orelans; Additional reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Scott Malone in Boston and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Frank McGurty, Toni Reinhold and Lisa Shumaker)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he remained open to the possibility of talks between Washington and Tehran, but said Iran was in turmoil and struggling to survive.
"Iran is in turmoil right now. They're in total turmoil," Trump told reporters before a meeting with Kuwait's emir, without offering any evidence.
"Now they are just worrying about their own survival as a country," he said. "We'll see what happens with Iran. Whether they want to talk or not, that's up to them, not up to me. I will always be available but it doesn't matter one way or the other."
In May, Trump withdrew the United States from a 2015 international agreement intended to stall Tehran's nuclear capabilities and has since reimposed sanctions suspended under the deal.
Trump said in July that he would be willing to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani without any preconditions to discuss how to improve relations, which Rouhani dismissed.
When asked whether he would be willing to meet Rouhani at the U.N. General Assembly, Trump, who will chair a Security Council meeting at the United Nations on Iran this month, said, "It's possible. Anything's possible. Anything's possible. We'll see."
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Makini Brice and Tim Ahmann; Editing by James Dalgleish and Lisa Shumaker)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will chair a United Nations Security Council meeting on Iran this month during the annual gathering of world leaders in New York, diplomats and U.S.
By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will chair a United Nations Security Council meeting on Iran this month during the annual gathering of world leaders in New York, diplomats and U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said on Tuesday.
The United States, which holds the council presidency for September, has unsuccessfully pushed the U.N. to add sanctions on Iran. Haley has regularly attacked Iran, accusing it of meddling in the wars in Syria and Yemen.
Diplomats said Iran could request to speak at the Sept. 26 council meeting, the week of the U.N. General Assembly. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is expected to address the assembly on Sept. 25. The Iranian U.N. mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
During a rare public meeting on Tuesday to discuss the proposed U.S. agenda for the council, Russia's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said the Iran meeting should focus on the implementation of a 2015 resolution on Iran.
"We very much hope that there will be views voiced in connection with the U.S. withdrawal" from a 2015 international nuclear deal, Polyanskiy told the council.
Trump in May withdrew from the accord between Iran and six world powers aimed at stalling Tehran's nuclear capabilities in return for lifting some sanctions. Trump ordered the reimposition of U.S. sanctions suspended under the deal.
Iran is still subject to a U.N. arms embargo and other restrictions contained in the 2015 resolution, which enshrines the nuclear deal. European powers have been scrambling to salvage the accord.
In February, Russia vetoed a U.S.-led bid for the Security Council to call out Tehran for failing to prevent its weapons from falling into the hands of Yemen's Houthi group, a charge Tehran denies.
Haley arranged Tuesday's event after several members expressed opposition to her plan to convene a meeting on Wednesday on Nicaragua. Haley said their views should be on record. More than 300 people have been killed and thousands injured in crackdowns by police and armed groups on protests over government plans to cut welfare benefits. The protests developed into broader opposition against President Daniel Ortega.
China, Russia, Bolivia and others said the situation in Nicaragua was not a threat to international peace and security and therefore should not be discussed by the council. The United States has the nine votes required to block a procedural vote expected to be called by Bolivia, diplomats said.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Grant McCool)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Two exquisite Indian antiques smuggled out of the country which found their way into museums in the United States have been officially repatriated to the Indian consulate in New York Tuesday by officials from the city district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr's office and US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
New York: Two exquisite Indian antiques smuggled out of the country which found their way into museums in the United States have been officially repatriated to the Indian consulate in New York Tuesday by officials from the city district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr's office and US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
The 11th century Lingodhbhavamurti antique sculpted in granite and the 12th century Manjushri, crafted in phyllite - each weighing ~300kg - are back in Indias possession now. US Homeland Security experts estimate that there are at least 2000 such stolen/ smuggled artefacts which are still in various stages of finding their way back to home base.
An intricate, multi agency effort across teams from the HSI and New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jrs office worked to return these treasures back to India. India's Department of Revenue Intelligence was instrumental in initiating the case and nabbing the lynchpin Subhash Kapoor.
I was overwhelmed...and really really proud, says Sandeep Chakravorty, Indias Consul General in New York, about the moment he first set eyes on the two statues. Both are now wrapped up and and kept in a safe location in New York City.
"Partnerships, partnerships, partnerships - thats what got us this far. Because of our trans-national teams, we are in a very good place to solve these problems, said Angel Melendez, special agent in charge of HSI in New York City.
Melendez and his teams, who typically deal with criminals, narcotics and human trafficking, said the return of antiquities holds a "special" place for them because of the sheer emotional value that countries and cultures place on these treasures from the past.
The Lingodhbhavamurti dates back to about 1150 AD and traces its origins to the Chola dynasty in Tamil Nadu. Dr. Graham C Boettcher, Asia director from the Birmingham Museum of Art explained the exact moment that the sculpture depicts: "Legend has it that while Vishnu and Brahma were arguing Shiva appeared as a flame and challenged them to find his source. Brahma took the form of a swan and flew to the sky while Vishnu took the form of a boar - Varaha - and went to find the base. When neither could find the source, Shiva appears in an alcove inside the infinitely long column - that moment is called the Lingodhbhavamurti, which is the subject of the sculpture."
The Manjushri has its origins in the Vagiswari temple in Bodh Gaya, Bihar. It is often referred to as the oldest and most significant Bodhisattva in Mahayana literature and symbolizes transcendent wisdom.
As for the brain behind many such missing treasures - Subhash Kapoor, he is now being held in a prison in Trichy, Tamil Nadu. Kapoor, an US citizen, was extradited from Germany in 2012. He is being tried in two cases: The first is the theft of 18 idols from the Sundarashwar temple and Varadaraja Perumal temple in Ariyalur in April 2008; the second is in the case of eight idols stolen from the Arulmigu Pragatheeswarar temple in Ariyalur.
Before he was arrested, Kapoor was the go-to supplier of high end art to America's rich and famous. Kapoor's slide began after a tip off by Indian Customs authorities in 2007.
Investigating officers in the US are concerned that Kapoor may have maxed out his stay or close to the finish line in one case and the possibility of him being released in Tamil Nadu is very real. On background, officials familiar with the details told Firstpost that they are watching the Kapoor case very closely to see how quickly and efficiently he can be extradited to the US and tried here.
Last summer, over 200 stolen artefacts, many of them linked to Kapoor, were returned to India during Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to America. Earlier, in 2014, Australia returned a 900-year-old Shiva sculpture allegedly smuggled by Kapoor, during Modis visit to the country. In October 2015, German Chancellor Angela Merkel returned a 10th-century Durga idol stolen from Kashmir and allegedly smuggled out by Kapoor.
By Makini Brice and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday called on Myanmar's government to reverse a court ruling that imprisoned two Reuters journalists for seven years and to release them immediately.
By Makini Brice and Matt Spetalnick
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday called on Myanmar's government to reverse a court ruling that imprisoned two Reuters journalists for seven years and to release them immediately.
The journalists were found guilty on Monday on official secrets charges in a landmark case seen as a test of progress towards democracy in Myanmar, which was ruled by a military junta until 2011.
Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were investigating the killing by security forces of Rohingya villagers at the time of their arrest last December, and had pleaded not guilty.
"Wa Lone & Kyaw Soe Oo shd be commendednot imprisonedfor their work exposing human rights violations & mass killings. Freedom of religion & freedom of the press are essential to a strong democracy," Pence wrote on Twitter.
Pence is the most senior U.S. official to add his voice to an international outcry against the verdict by a Myanmar judge, who said the two had breached the colonial-era Official Secrets Act when they collected and obtained confidential documents.
In Yangon earlier on Tuesday, the wives of two journalists insisted that the men were innocent and called for them to be reunited with their families.
"Deeply troubled by the Burmese court ruling sentencing 2 @Reuters journalists to 7 years in jail for doing their job reporting on the atrocities being committed on the Rohingya people," Pence wrote in another tweet.
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Tuesday that the United States would become more vocal about the two journalists' situation.
Speaking at a news conference in New York marking the U.S. assumption of the rotating chairmanship of the Security Council for September, Haley said the reporters were "in prison for telling the truth."
Mark Green, administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, said "these convictions are an enormous setback for democracy and the rule of law in Burma."
MOUNTING PRESSURE
The verdict came amid mounting pressure on the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi over a security crackdown sparked by attacks by Rohingya Muslim insurgents on security forces in Rakhine State in west Myanmar in August 2017.
More than 700,000 stateless Rohingya Muslims have fled into Bangladesh since then, according to U.N. agencies. The Rohingya, who regard themselves as native to Rakhine, are widely considered as interlopers by the country's Buddhist majority and are denied citizenship.Neither Suu Kyi nor her government have commented publicly on the case since the reporters were convicted.
The journalists were arrested on Dec. 12 while investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya men and boys and other abuses involving soldiers and police in the village of Inn Din.
Myanmar has denied allegations of atrocities against Rohingya by its security forces, saying it conducted a legitimate counterinsurgency operation against Muslim militants.
The military acknowledged the killing of the 10 Rohingya at Inn Din after arresting the Reuters reporters.
A U.N mandated fact-finding mission said last week that Myanmar's military carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Muslim Rohingya with "genocidal intent" and called for top generals to be prosecuted. Myanmar rejected the findings.
The International Criminal Court is considering whether it has jurisdiction over events in Rakhine, while the United States, the European Union and Canada have sanctioned Myanmar military and police officers over the crackdown.
(Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Editing by Eric Beech, Toni Reinhold)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Global food commodity prices fell last month for the first time in 12 months, according to the FAO Food Price Index. The decline in June marked the first drop in the... Read More
Oil pipeline capacity in the Permian Basin is quickly filling to the brim due to the region's fast-paced growth. That's after output rocketed a jaw-dropping 38% over the past year to more than 3.3 million barrels per day (BPD), which is closing in on the region's 3.6 million BPD of pipeline capacity. That looming shortage has caused drillers in the area to slow their pace until new pipelines come online toward the end of next year.
In addition to those pipelines already under construction, companies continue to pitch new projects to shippers in hopes of locking in the next wave of growth. The latest entry into this building boom is the proposed Permian Gulf Coast pipeline, which is a joint venture between Energy Transfer Partners (NYSE: ETP), Magellan Midstream Partners (NYSE:MMP), MPLX (NYSE:MPLX), and Delek US Holdings (NYSE:DK). The line could be in service as soon as mid-2020 if everything goes according to plan.
Drilling down into the latest project
Energy Transfer, MPLX, Magellan Midstream, and Delek made a joint announcement this week that they'd received enough commitments to proceed with the construction of a new 30-inch pipeline to move oil from the Permian to the Gulf Coast. The 600-mile line would transport oil from several points of origin in the Permian to Energy Transfer's Nederland, TX, terminal as well as Magellan's East Houston, TX, terminal, where crude could then reach its ultimate destination through their distribution systems.
While the partners didn't unveil the project's planned capacity, Energy Transfer's management team made several comments on the company's second-quarter call about a potentially large oil pipeline project with its joint venture partner Magellan Midstream Partners. CFO Tom Long stated that the company made "significant progress with our new 30-inch crude oil pipeline joint-venture project with Magellan and other strategic partners" that would "provide unprecedented flexibility from the Permian Basin."
Meanwhile, chief commercial officer Mack McCrea said that the company felt good about the conversations it was having with shippers and thought that this project "would add at least another 1 million BPD" of oil pipeline capacity to the region by 2020, which is much more than the 600,000 BPD pipeline Magellan and Energy Transfer initially envisioned. However, it doesn't seem as though they've hit that 1-million-barrel level just yet since the partners are currently seeking additional shipper commitments for the project.
Add it to the list
The Permian Gulf Coast Pipeline is now one of a growing list of Permian oil pipelines in various stages of construction. However, according to an estimate by Wells Fargo, the region only needs to add about 1.5 million BPD of pipeline capacity in the near term to meet demand. That's a concern now that there are more than a half dozen pipelines under development, since it appears as if the region could go from a shortage to a glut in no time.
Currently, three major oil pipelines are on pace to start service in late 2019. They include Plains All American Pipeline's (NASDAQ:PAA) 670,000-BPD Cactus II, the up-to-1-million-BPD Grey Oak Pipeline by Phillips 66 Partners (NYSE:PSXP) and Andeavor (NYSE:ANDV), and the private equitybacked EPIC pipeline that could move up to 675,000 BPD. Add it up, and that's more than 2 million BPD of pipeline capacity. Meanwhile, Energy Transfer and Magellan Midstream are expanding several existing lines, which could add another 400,000 BPD next year. On top of that, Plains All American Pipeline is working with oil giant ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) on a 1 million-BPD oil pipeline as well as expanding several other smaller pipelines as fast as it can.
Aside from the proposed Plains/Exxon pipeline, all these projects have already secured enough long-term, fee-based contracts to justify moving forward. However, most haven't locked in agreements for their full design capacity. Because of that, volumes and cash flow could take a hit once the next wave of pipelines, starting with Permian Gulf Coast, enters service in mid-2020 and steal some of the oil not currently committed to long-term contracts.
How much is too much of a good thing?
The oil industry is in desperate need of new pipelines to move crude out of the Permian Basin. However, with several under construction and more in development, the industry is running the risk of building too much capacity, which could impact returns down the road. That's something pipeline investors need to keep an eye on, since it's possible that these projects might not fuel as much growth in the coming years as their developers currently anticipate.
Investors may be drawn to the newest publicly traded fuel cell stock, Bloom Energy (NYSE:BE), for a number of reasons. The $3.2 billion company has placed its core product, called Energy Servers, in the hands of healthy swath of Fortune 100 companies. The top line is growing at a considerable clip and, if investors squint and tilt their heads just right, there appears to be a path to profitable operations.
There's just one big caveat to the whole business model: Bloom Energy wouldn't exist without federal and state subsidies. A little technical knowledge about the company's solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology, coupled with a review of the financial disclosures to date, raises some eyebrows as to how the business will find a sustainable foothold in the distributed power generation industry. That's especially true with newer, future-proof technologies such as lithium-ion battery-based energy storage running down the cost curve -- and stealing the majority of state incentives.
Unfortunately, Bloom Energy's technology may already be outdated.
Does the value provided exceed the cost?
The value proposition of Bloom Energy Servers is to provide customers flexibility that cannot be achieved through the electric grid or other technologies. The product is a shipping container-sized module of SOFC stacks, which consume low-cost natural gas to provide on-site electricity within relatively confined price ranges. That allows businesses to avoid variable demand and delivery expenses that utilities charge large industrial and commercial customers, all in a footprint that is 125 times smaller than a comparable solar-plus-storage project.
Bloom Energy also provides the option to configure Energy Servers with uninterruptible power supply (UPS) capability, allowing the product to provide continuous electricity in the event of a power outage. Otherwise, regulations actually require Energy Servers to shut off during a grid outage. Today, only about 11% of the company's installed product base is configured with UPS functionality.
But while Bloom Energy Servers could play at least a niche role in the emerging distributed power market, economics may keep them from expanding their market share beyond specialty applications. The company readily admits that "the electricity produced by our Energy Servers is currently not cost competitive in many geographic markets."
Investors should also consider that in the second quarter of 2018, the company reported total installed system cost (TISC) of $5,600 per kilowatt of accepted products sold. The average selling price was $7,090 per kilowatt, which resulted in a gross profit of nearly $1,500 per kilowatt.
However, that included a huge benefit from the investment tax credit (ITC). When the federal tax credit wasn't active in 2017, Bloom Energy had to dramatically reduce the selling price of its systems. In the second quarter of 2017, the average selling price was 22% lower, or just $5,580 per kilowatt -- lower than the most recent quarter's TISC.
Furthermore, a price of $5,600 per kilowatt is roughly equivalent to the average price of distributed solar (around $2,260 per kilowatt in California, according to EnergySage Solar Marketplace) plus lithium-ion battery storage (around $2,300 per kilowatt in 2016, according to the National Renewable Energy Lab). It may not compete on footprint, but solar-plus-storage could soon offer economics that SOFCs can't touch.
The falling cost of distributed clean energy and the choppiness of federal tax credits aren't the only risks. States also dish out incentives, but they're increasingly favoring lithium-ion energy storage systems, not natural gas-powered Energy Servers. For example, California -- home to 18% of Bloom Energy's orders in the first quarter of this year -- is rewriting programs to benefit batteries. In order to be eligible for the state's self-generation incentive, Energy Servers must consume 25% biogas in 2018, 50% in 2019, and 100% by 2020.
Not only does that swipe away a key selling point of using low-cost and abundant natural gas, but using renewable methane is actually a huge detail for SOFCs. That's because biogas includes a higher concentration of sulfur, which can poison the materials used in a high-temperature SOFC such as the Energy Server and accelerate its degradation. The sulfur must be removed prior to being fed into the fuel cell, which results in an extra processing step and operating expense, not including the higher cost of biogas to begin with. Considering economics are already an uphill battle for Bloom Energy, the rule change isn't something that can be dismissed so easily.
Bloom Energy is a risky fuel cell stock
For obvious reasons, it's never a good thing when economics is the Achilles' heel of a business, but that looks like it may be the case for Bloom Energy. There are also technology risks associated with using high-temperature SOFCs, such as the requirement some states are placing on using biogas instead of low-cost and abundant fossil fuel-sourced natural gas.
While the company is working hard to lower costs and increase efficiency by lowering the reaction temperature of its SOFC technology, it may not be achieved in time or deliver the cost savings needed to compete with clean energy-distributed power systems that many states are increasingly favoring. Then again, given the economics of the Energy Server, customers may soon begin to favor other technology as well. It's why I think this fuel cell stock is one to avoid for now.
Thanks in part to higher oil prices, the average energy stock in the S&P 500 is up nearly 17% over the past year. However, those improving market conditions haven't taken the entire sector higher. Three laggards that stand out are fast-growing, high-yielding MLPs Antero Midstream Partners (NYSE:AM), Shell Midstream Partners (NYSE:SHLX), and EQT Midstream Partners (NYSE:EQM), which have all lost more than 10% of their value over the past year. Because of that, these MLPs look like compelling options for income-seeking investors to consider.
Top-tier growth
Antero Midstream has lost about 13% of its value in the past year. That sell-off is a bit of a head-scratcher since the company has grown its distributable cash flow by 30% over that timeframe, which has enabled the company to increase its distribution to investors at that same rate. Because of those two factors, Antero Midstream's yield has risen to an attractive 5.7%.
Adding to Antero Midstream's attraction is its current growth forecast. The company announced earlier this year that it expects to increase its distribution by 28% to 30% per year through 2020. Further, the company believes that it could boost the payout by another 20% in both 2021 and 2022 while maintaining at least a 1.2 times distribution coverage ratio. That's the fastest growth rate among MLPs.
Fueling that forecast is Antero Midstream's $2.7 billion inventory of high-return organic growth projects that it expects to complete over the next five years. The company anticipates that it can fully fund that growth with excess cash after paying its dividend and incremental debt even as it maintains solid credit metrics. That high-octane growth for a lower price makes Antero Midstream seem like a gold mine for income-seeking investors.
The fuel to continue growing
Shell Midstream Partners has declined about 20% over the past year. That slump comes even though cash flow rocketed nearly 72% in just the last quarter. While some of that increase is due to a return to normal services for its Zydeco pipeline in Texas after some maintenance work in the first quarter, the company also recently closed the acquisition of an interest in the Amberjack Pipeline Company. At $1.22 billion, it's the company's largest acquisition to date.
That transaction supports Shell Midstream's view that it can grow its distribution to investors by 20% this year. Meanwhile, the company has a solid financial profile and a large pipeline of acquisition opportunities that should support continued distribution growth in the coming years. Because of that, the company's 6.6%-yielding distribution looks quite enticing these days.
A big shake-up masks a bright future
Units of EQT Midstream are now down more than 25% in the last year. That's due in large part to the fact that the company's parent is undergoing a major corporate realignment. As part of that restructuring, EQT Midstream bought its parent's remaining midstream assets in a $1.69 billion deal that also included buying out a minority partner in one of the acquired assets. In addition to that, EQT Midstream merged with another MLP controlled by its parent in a $2.4 billion deal. These transactions have created one larger-scale MLP with an extensive inventory of expansion projects under development.
The combination of recently acquired growth and expansion projects in the pipeline positions EQT Midstream to increase its distribution to investors by 15% per year for the next several years, including 2018. Further, the company believes it can achieve this growth while maintaining a strong balance sheet and covering its distribution by a comfortable 1.1 times to 1.2 times. This forecast suggests that EQT Midstream's now 7.6%-yielding payout is not only on solid ground but poised to expand at a fast pace in the coming years.
Higher yields for a lower price
After selling off in the last year, these MLPs now trade at much more attractive prices. Further, since all have increased their high-yielding payouts at a high rate in the past year, investors can lock in even better yields that all three companies expect to continue growing at a fast pace in the coming years. That combination of income, growth, and value makes these MLPs worth a closer look.
Galveston, TX (77553)
Today
Cloudy with periods of rain. Thunder possible. Low 57F. Winds NE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%..
Tonight
Cloudy with periods of rain. Thunder possible. Low 57F. Winds NE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%.
Four Russian Journalists have not been allowed to enter Georgia - GeorgianJournal
LG Q Stylus+ with 6.2-inch display and 4GB RAM launched in India for Rs. 21,990 News oi-Abhinaya Prabhu LG Q Stylus+ is now available in India.
LG Q Stylus+ has been launched in India as the sequel to the Stylus 3 that made its way to the country last year. This latest offering from the company is priced at Rs. 21,990 and will be available in two color variants such as Moroccan Blue and Aurora Black.
Unveiled in June this year, the LG Q Stylus+ is designed to meet the military-grade durability and is MIL-STD-810G certified. The smartphone features IP68 certification, which makes sure that it is resistant to dust and water.
LG Q Stylus+ specifications
The LG smartphone bestows a 6.2-inch FHD+ FullVision display with a resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels resulting in a pixel density of 389 ppi. The display is topped with a layer of 2.5D curved glass as well. At its heart, the smartphone uses an octa-core MediaTek MT6750S processor that is teamed up with Mali T860 GPU, 4GB RAM and 64GB storage space. There is a microSD card slot supporting expandable storage space as well.
On the imaging front, the LG Q Stylus+ comes equipped with a 16MP camera at its rear along with LED flash and PDAF. There is an 8MP selfie camera at the front for video calling and clicking selfies.
Connectivity wise, the latest LG smartphone to arrive in India comes powered by 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2 LE, GPS/GLONASS, NFC, and a USB Type-C 2.0. The smartphone runs Android 8.1 Oreo topped by the company's custom interface out of the box.
As its name indicates, the smartphone comes with a stylus included in the package. This stylus is said to be capable of recognizing and recording the handwritten notes. It is also designed to be used for personalizing the images and videos that are captured by the device to create animated GIFs. Under its hood, the smartphone employs a 3300mAh battery along with support for fast charging.
Lags behind in the competition
Priced at Rs. 21,990, this smartphone could be lagging behind the competition that exists in the market right now. We say so as there are better-specced smartphones in this price bracket featuring dual cameras, powerful hardware and capacious battery. However, the durable design could be its USP.
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
Xiaomi Mi 8 Youth and Screen Fingerprint editions could be in the making News oi-Abhinaya Prabhu Two more Mi 8 models coming soon.
In May, Xiaomi took the wraps off its Mi 8 flagship lineup with the launch of the Mi 8, Mi 8 SE and Mi 8 Explorer Edition. Now, while the global release of these devices is yet to debut, there are claims that the company might arrive with two new models in the same series.
According to a report by MySmartPrice, Xiaomi will soon launch two smartphones dubbed Mi 8 Youth and Mi 8 Screen Fingerprint Edition in its home market China. The Youth version is said to arrive in three storage variants - 4GB RAM + 64GB storage, 6GB RAM + 64GB storage and 6GB RAM + 128GB storage. The smartphone will arrive in three color options - Gold, Blue and Space Gray.
When it comes to the Mi 8 Screen Fingerprint edition, this smartphone is said to arrive in two storage configurations such as 6GB RAM + 128GB storage and 8GB RAM + 128GB storage. This one is said to be launched in two colors - Black and Gold.
Could be similar to Xiaomi Mi 8 series
It is believed that these smartphones will be very much similar to the existing Mi 8 SE and Mi 8 Explorer Edition. This is not surprising as these phones are the base to the devices likely in the making. The Youth variant is said to be powered by a Snapdragon 710 SoC as the Mi 8 SE and the Screen Fingerprint edition is said to feature an in-display fingerprint sensor as seen on the Explorer Edition.
Xiaomi Mi 8 India launch
According to a recent report, the Xiaomi Mi 8 will be launched in India sometime this year. It is expected to be priced around Rs 30,000 price mark to compete with the like of the OnePlus 6 and the Asus ZenFone 5z. If Xiaomi is planning to launch the Xiaomi Mi 8 in India at a much competitive pricing, then the device might be an attraction for the premium flagship smartphone buyers in the country. And, it could pose a challenge to the Poco F1 with a similar pricing and almost similar hardware aspects.
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
OPCW Probe Confirms Amesbury Victims Poisoned by Same Substance as Skripals
Sputnik News
20:37 04.09.2018(updated 21:45 04.09.2018)
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which had been conducting an independent investigation into two poisoning cases, which took place in the United Kingdom, has released a report on what it called "toxic chemical incidents" in Amesbury.
"The toxic chemical compound displays the same toxic properties of a nerve agent. It is also the same toxic chemical that was found in the biomedical and environmental samples relating to the poisoning of Mr. Sergei Skripal, Ms. Yulia Skripal, and Mr. Nicholas Bailey on 4 March 2018 in Salisbury, " the OPCW said in a report.
As the document noted, it verifies the findings of the United Kingdom.
"The results of the analysis by the OPCW designated laboratories of environmental and biomedical samples collected by the OPCW team confirm the findings of the United Kingdom relating to the identity of the toxic chemical that intoxicated two individuals in Amesbury and resulted in one fatality," the OPCW stated in the document.
However, the OPCW has failed to confirm that the nerve agents were from the same batch.
"Due to the unknown storage conditions of the small bottle found in the house of Mr Rowley and the fact that the environmental samples analyzed in relation to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal and Mr. Nicholas Bailey were exposed to the environment and moisture, the impurity profiles of the samples available to the OPCW do not make it possible to draw conclusions as to whether the samples are from the same synthesis batch," the report said.
Reacting to the release of the document, the UK's delegation to the OPCW requested the technical secretariat of the investigative body share the document with all states parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and to "make the summary of the report publicly available."
The victims of the Amesbury attack, Charlie Rowley, 45, and Dawn Sturgess, 44, were found unconscious at Rowley's home on June 30. Dawn never regained consciousness and passed away on July 8; her boyfriend was discharged from hospital after three weeks of treatment. Later on, he told the media that he had unwittingly picked up a contaminated sealed perfume bottle. He then gave it to his partner who sprayed the liquid onto her wrists, exposing the pair to a lethal dose.
The Amesbury couple came into contact with a nerve agent, later identified by UK researchers as "Novichok," the same nerve agent that allegedly struck down former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in neighboring Salisbury in early March. A number of high-ranking UK officials, including Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson and Security Minister Ben Wallace, blamed the poisoning on Russia, though no evidence supporting the claims was ever presented. Britain's Home Secretary Sajid Javid has accused Moscow of using Britain as a "dumping ground" for poison.
Moscow, in its turn, has strongly denied any involvement in either incident, denying all allegations as groundless. Russia offered the UK its assistance in the Skripal investigation. Within a month of the alleged poisoning, Russia's proposal for a joint investigation into the incident was voted down at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the international chemical weapons watchdog.
The Salisbury attack ignited a diplomatic row between London and Moscow, resulting in a tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats and the closure of a British consulate in St. Petersburg.
Sputnik
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Dunford Gets Greek View of Regional Challenges
Sept. 4, 2018
By Jim Garamone
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
ATHENS -- The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said he very much welcomed seeing the Eastern Mediterranean region "through a Greek lens" as he finished consultations with his counterpart, Greek navy Adm. Evangelos Apostolakis, the chief of the Hellenic National Defense General Staff.
Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford told reporters traveling with him that the bilateral relationship between the two NATO allies "is probably as good as it has been in many, many years."
Dunford and Apostolakis discussed the situation in the region. Greece looks north into the Balkans, east to the Middle East and south into Libya and the rest of North Africa. "[He] shared some thoughts about the region, and I greatly benefited from the perspective of the Greeks, who have a regional view," the chairman said.
Increased Cooperation
The Greeks are open to increasing military cooperation with the United States, he said. "[They] made a general overture saying they would be willing to consider that, and I certainly was enthusiastic about the possibility," Dunford said.
U.S. European Command and the State Department will work with Greek ministries to continue these conversations, he said.
"If you look at geography and you look at current operations in Libya and current operations in Syria, [and] you look at potential operations in the Eastern Mediterranean, the opportunities here are pretty significant," the chairman said.
Dunford said hearing directly from the Greek military about their experiences with the refugee crisis gave him a better appreciation of the scope of the problem and the capabilities they brought to bear on it. "They also have some interesting perspectives on the Russian naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean, as well," he said. "I think we both agreed that we are seeing something we haven't seen since the 1980s in terms of the operational patterns of the Russians in the area."
The two leaders talked about the importance of sharing information and intelligence particularly in the area of counterterrorism, the chairman said.
Expanded Base Access
Dunford said the Greek defense chief "expressed interest in expanding our access to their bases."
This access can be used to move personnel and equipment in and out of theater.
"We have taken advantage of Souda Bay -- it's a critical piece of infrastructure here in the region, and Greece has also been open to expanding training opportunities for our forces that are stationed in Europe, in particular for U.S. Army units to do training with helicopters," he said.
The two men talked about deepening relationships through the International Military and Training program. This program increases military-to-military engagement through service member exchanges. Young Greek service members attend U.S. professional military education schools and young Americans attend Greek schools. He noted that Apostolakis attended the Marine Corps' Expeditionary Warfare School -- then the Amphibious Warfare School -- earlier in his career and the Greek army chief of staff attended a school in Fort Knox, Kentucky.
Finally, Greece also plays a unique role in the region in terms of bringing together multinational exercises. The United States is certainly amenable to participating in those exercises, Dunford said.
The U.S.-Greek relationship is in "a very positive place" today, a senior government official said here on background today, and the foundation to this turn of events has been the defense relationship between the two nations.
Regional Concerns
Greece has suffered through an economic crisis from which the country is still recovering. Yet the nation continued to spend 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense -- a benchmark for NATO members.
"The Greeks live in this neighborhood and they have been looking around and seeing the same instability that we have," the official said.
Greece is nervous about NATO ally Turkey and want that country to remain firmly rooted in the West, the official added. They also confronted the refugee crisis with limited resources, but see the possibility of it continuing.
"They are deeply concerned with what is happening in Libya and Africa, because even if Syria stabilizes, you've got Africa that is right on their doorstep," the official said.
The Greeks, too, are worried about what the Russians are up to in the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean, the official said. "They are looking around, and the U.S. is still the best partner available to them."
On the security front, more is happening. In addition to NATO forces, U.S. European Command, U.S. Transportation Command, U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Special Operations Command use the facilities at the Naval Support Activity in Souda Bay.
The U.S. Air Force is now operating MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles at Greece's Larissa Air Force Base. The unarmed UAVs will focus on information-gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance in the region.
Both Dunford and the official said the United States is not looking for large bases in Greece. The U.S. footprint in the country will remain light. But there will probably be more American service members rotating in and out of the country for training, education and exercises.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Italy takes up NATO air patrols over Iceland
NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
04 Sep. 2018
Four Italian Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon jets have arrived at Iceland's Keflavik Air Base, and from today (4 September 2018) they will help ensure the safety of Iceland's airspace. Over the next few weeks, the Italian pilots will provide intercept capabilities and train together with the Icelandic Coast Guard and the NATO Control and Reporting Centre. The Italian jets will complement the air surveillance which Iceland executes with its four remote radar and communication sites.
This is the third time, after 2013 and 2017, that Italy deploys fighter jets for NATO's mission in Iceland. In addition to supporting the Nordic Ally, the mission offers a valuable training opportunity for the Italian Air Force, whose crews will practice in a unique geographical location and boost their skills to operate in an unfamiliar airspace.
Iceland does not have a full range of air defence assets, so this mission is executed by other NATO Allies. This ensures that Icelanders enjoy a high standard of airspace security. It also demonstrates the spirit of solidarity among NATO Allies.
Over the past ten years, nine Allies Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Portugal and the United States have deployed fighter aircraft on the mission in Iceland. Deployments typically last three to four weeks, and take place three times a year. This peacetime defensive mission is overseen by Allied Air Command in Ramstein, Germany, and controlled by NATO's northern Combined Air Operations Centre at Uedem, Germany.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Royal Australian Navy Delegation Visits NSWC Dahlgren Division in Wake of RIMPAC 2018
Navy News Service
Story Number: NNS180904-39
Release Date: 9/4/2018 2:41:00 PM
By John Joyce, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division Corporate Communications Public Affairs
DAHLGREN, Va. (NNS) -- Australian military officials touring Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD), received briefings on U.S. Navy technical programs ranging from directed energy to human systems integration, Aug. 16.
The NSWCDD visit follows Australia's recent participation with the United States and 23 other countries in Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2018 a major U.S. Pacific Fleet biennial combined exercise to strengthen international maritime partnerships, enhance interoperability and improve the readiness of participating forces for a wide range of potential operations.
It also comes in the wake of operational and research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) efforts that continue to enhance the long history of collaboration between NSWCDD and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) with their subject matter experts from Defense Science and Technology Group.
At Dahlgren, five RAN officers were briefed on the electromagnetic railgun, the hypervelocity projectile, human systems integration, directed energy weapons, and integrated topside design to further current and future collaborative efforts.
RAN Commodore Peter Leavy, naval attache to the United States, who led the Australian delegation, emphasized the importance of collaborating early in the RDT&E cycle while requirements are still being defined.
"Working together with our allies during the science and technology as well as the RDT&E phases can lead to many benefits such as program improvements, cost and time savings plus enhanced interoperability," said Jed Ryan, NSWCDD International Partnering Office lead.
Moreover, working together via official conduits can facilitate the creation, development, and eventually, the growth of a technical project into a major program.
Discussions strengthen relationships and increase cooperation with allies to promote more efficient use of defense resources, and these early efforts lead to identifying, developing, and supporting urgently needed military capabilities for U.S. and coalition warfighters.
For example, International Armaments Cooperation efforts between Australia and the United States resulted in a technological capability called Nulka which enabled the two navies to counter the growing threat of radar-guided anti-ship missiles.
Nulka which means "be quick" in an Australian Aboriginal dialect is the common name used to refer to the jointly developed Mark (MK) 234 Electronic Decoy Cartridge and the U.S. developed rapid response MK 53 Decoy Launching System. Nulka is capable of providing highly effective defense for ships against modern anti-ship missiles.
Australia developed the hovering rocket while the U.S. developed the electronic payload. Each nation developed its own fire control system.
Nulka can be continually upgraded to protect the U.S. and Australian Fleets as the anti-ship missile threat evolves.
RAN amphibious ship HMAS Canberra tested upgrades to the Nulka anti-ship missile decoy system off the coast of southern Australia earlier this year. "During the testing of new components, we aimed to increase the tactical effectiveness of the Nulka against anti-ship missiles," said RAN weapons electrical engineering officer Lt. Cmdr. Mark Williams in the March issue of Naval Technology. "It forms a part of our layered defensive capability in the maritime environment."
In July, guided-missile destroyers USS Dewey (DDG 105) and USS Sterett (DDG 104) launched electronic decoy cartridges from an MK 53 Decoy Launching System while underway during RIMPAC 2018.
NSWCDD engineers developed the Decoy Launch Processor to work with processor power supplies and launchers to achieve tactical effectiveness. The Decoy Launch Processor computes a tactical solution based on information available from the SLQ-32 electronic warfare system to detect an attacking missile. It also utilizes the ship's orientation and wind speed information to program the round for launch.
Under another exchange arrangement, the Engineer and Scientist Exchange Program NSWCDD recently hosted an expert from Australia's Defense Science Technology Group in Human Systems Integration (HSI). The program promotes international cooperation through the exchange of defense scientists and engineers. U.S. military and civilian engineers and scientists utilize the program to take advantage of opportunities to work in allied and friendly countries.
Currently, the collaboration between Australia and NSWCDD is continuing to advance their respective HSI technologies under The Technical Cooperation Program. Dahlgren's HSI science and engineering technical capability investigates tradeoffs among human factors engineering, manpower, personnel, training, survivability, habitability, and occupational health to enhance warfighter capabilities and improve total system performance.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
NAVSTA Rota, USS Cook, USS Porter Integrates Major Fire Drill
Navy News Service
Story Number: NNS180904-35
Release Date: 9/4/2018 2:36:00 PM
By Aviation Electronics Technician 3rd Class M. Jang, NAVSTA Rota Public Affairs
NAVAL STATION ROTA, Spain (NNS) -- Personnel assigned to Naval Station Rota, Spain and Sailors assigned to the guided-missile destroyers USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) and USS Porter (DDG 78) conducted and completed their third annual major integrated fire drill onboard the Cook Aug. 29, 2018.
"This whole exercise is called the Chapter 13 drill. It's a fully integrated fire drill of a major fire onboard a U.S. vessel where we not only use ship's force personnel and equipment but also the base fire fighters on base and as well as USS Porter Sailors," said Lt. j.g. Justin Makin, USS Cook damage control assistant. "As we've seen in the past one of the biggest problems was not having the training or not being used to having to work with circumstances that might not be your usual status as if you were underway. So doing a drill like this really made our guys, as well as the leadership, think about what we need to do with the help from outside sources."
Shipboard and installation firefighters were able to train with each other to learn when and how to communicate for a successful mission. Yearly integrated training increases response effectiveness when a ship is in-port and in critical status.
The major players involved for this drill were Forward Deployed Regional Maintenance Center (FDRMC), USS Donald Cook, USS Porter, the Installation Training Team (ITT), U.S. Naval Hospital Rota, Fire and Emergency Services (F&ES), Emergency Operations Center (EOC), Dispatch, Security, and Environmental department.
"We expect to see enthusiasm, professionalism and level of knowledge when we run these drills," said Lt. Jerrit Fuller, Naval Station Rota installation training coordinator. "As you draw more entities into a drill the complexity increases and, what may be a simple drill as a single unit, becomes extremely difficult. Working through the difficulties, embracing the changes and increasing knowledge across the board as a subject matter experts is all we expect. At the end of it all we walk away smarter to the problem and have the knowledge of our short falls and areas of improvement."
Naval Station Rota enables and supports operations of U.S. and allied forces and provides quality services in support of the fleet, fighter, and family for Commander, Navy Installations Command in Navy Region EURAFSWA.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Colombia Takes the Lead in UNITAS LIX, Hosts Multinational Exercise
Navy News Service
Story Number: NNS180904-19
Release Date: 9/4/2018 12:04:00 PM
From U.S. 4th Fleet Public Affaris Public Affairs
CARTAGENA, Colombia (NNS) (NNS) -- Gathering in Cartagena, Colombian naval forces are taking the helm for UNITAS LIX, hosting 11 countries' naval maritime forces during the annual exercise from Aug. 31 Sept. 11.
UNITAS, Latin for 'unity,' is the world's longest-running multinational maritime exercise. Conceived in 1960, UNITAS is a demonstration of U.S. commitment to the region and the strong relationships forged between our partner nations and their militaries.
Joining the United States this year are 10 countries including: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and the United Kingdom.
Colombia has been a participant in UNITAS since 1960 and has hosted three times in UNITAS history: 2005, 2013, and 2018.
Colombian navy Rear Adm. Gabriel Alfonso Perez Garces is the overall commander for the exercise. U.S. maritime forces will be under the operational control of Commander, Task Force (CTF) 138, Rear Adm. Sean Buck, commander, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet.
"This is an incredible opportunity for our navies to come together and operate as a team to enhance our abilities to work together in the future," said Buck. "Developing skills and building lasting friendships with our counterparts is critical when we need to respond to any future maritime threats. Together, these vital training opportunities can enhance our skills as maritime warriors and global partners."
Participating U.S. forces include USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44), U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma (WMEC 908), Destroyer Squadron 40; Navy Mobile Diving and Salvaging Unit 1; Naval Air Systems Command BQM-7E Drone Detachment, Aerosonde UAS, Patrol Squadron 45, and U.S. 4th Fleet.
The overarching goal of UNITAS LIX is to develop and test command and control of forces at sea, training in this exercise will address the spectrum of maritime operations. Specifically, there will be scenarios addressing electronic warfare, anti-air warfare and air defense, anti-surface warfare, maritime interdiction, and amphibious operations.
U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command and U.S. 4th Fleet (COMUSNAVSO/C4F) supports U.S. Southern Command's joint and combined full-spectrum military operations by providing principally sea-based, forward presence to ensure freedom of maneuver in the maritime domain, to foster and sustain cooperative relationships with international partners and to fully exploit the sea as maneuver space in order to enhance regional security and promote peace, stability, and prosperity in the Caribbean, Central and South American regions.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Navy Takes Delivery of Future USS Charleston (LCS 18)
Navy News Service
Story Number: NNS180904-17
Release Date: 9/4/2018 11:59:00 AM
From PEO Unmanned and Small Combatants Public Affairs
MOBILE, Ala. (NNS) -- The U.S. Navy accepted delivery of the future Littoral Combat Ship USS Charleston (LCS 18) during a ceremony at the Austal USA shipyard Aug. 31.
The delivery marks the official transfer of LCS-18 from the Austal USA-led shipbuilding team to the Navy. It is the final milestone before commissioning, which is yet to be finalized.
"Today marks a significant milestone in the life of the future USS Charleston, as transfer occurs to the Navy and she enters service," said Capt. Mike Taylor, LCS program manager. "I look forward to celebrating the commissioning of this fine ship alongside the crew later this year."
Charleston is the 16th LCS to be delivered to the Navy and the eighth of the Independence variant. The Independence variant is noted for its unique trimaran hull and its large flight deck.
"The crew has done a tremendous job getting the future USS Charleston ready for commissioning, at which time our newest LCS will join the fleet," said Capt. Matthew McGonigle, commander, LCS Squadron One (COMLCSRON ONE). "We are excited to see our newest LCS in San Diego soon and welcome the ship into the LCS community."
COMLCSRON ONE supports the operational commanders with warships ready for tasking by manning, training, equipping and maintaining littoral combat ships on the West Coast.
Following commissioning, Charleston will be homeported in San Diego with her sister ships USS Freedom (LCS 1), USS Independence (LCS 2), USS Fort Worth (LCS 3), USS Coronado (LCS 4), USS Jackson (LCS 6), USS Montgomery (LCS 8), USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10), USS Omaha (LCS 12), USS Manchester (LCS 14) and the future USS Tulsa (LCS 16), which was delivered in April.
LCS is a modular, reconfigurable ship designed to meet validated fleet requirements for surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, and mine countermeasures missions in the littoral region. An interchangeable mission package is embarked on each LCS and provides the primary mission systems in one of these warfare areas. Using an open architecture design, modular weapons, sensor systems and a variety of manned and unmanned vehicles to gain, sustain and exploit littoral maritime supremacy, LCS provides U.S. joint force access to critical theaters.
The Program Executive Office for Unmanned and Small Combatants is responsible for delivering and sustaining littoral mission capabilities to the fleet.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Navy to Conduct Emergency Preparedness Exercise
Navy News Service
Story Number: NNS180904-10
Release Date: 9/4/2018 11:47:00 AM
From Navy Installations Command Public Affairs Office
WASHINGTON (NNS) -- For two days in September, Commander, Navy Installation Command, Regions Southwest and Northwest along with their installations and tenant commands will be testing their abilities to respond to a major earthquake and what follows next.
The exercise, called Citadel Rumble 2018, will test Navy installations' capabilities to prepare for, respond to and recover from "all-hazards" scenarios, which basically means that if an earthquake isn't hazardous enough, it triggers other hazardous event scenarios.
The exercise, spearheaded by Commander, Navy Installations Command, will be conducted in collaboration with local and federal authorities at bases within Navy Region Southwest and Navy Region Northwest Sept. 5 - 7.
"Citadel Rumble is an annual fully integrated disaster preparedness, response and recovery exercise to evaluate Shore Emergency Management program readiness," said Mike Velasquez, deputy emergency management director. "This exercise will provide the shore enterprise the opportunity to exercise emergency management teams, processes, procedures and partnerships with local mutual aid agencies to be better prepared in the response to real-world disasters."
The installations, along with their tenant commands, will test various procedures, including damage assessment, evacuation plans, disaster preparedness, recovery and consequence management plans, and accounting for Sailors and Navy families in the affected regions through the Navy Family Accountability and Assessment System (NFAAS).
This participation will include reviewing and exercising earthquake instructions and procedures, as well as fully accounting for Sailors and Navy families in the affected regions through the Navy.
In addition, the exercise will further enhance the Navy's readiness to deploy forces even under the most adverse conditions.
"We hope to minimize any impact to the public," said Velasquez, "but if anyone has concerns or wonders if something is real or part of the exercise, we encourage them to their contact public affairs.
Navy Installations Command is comprised of approximately 53,000 military and civilian personnel worldwide responsible for the operations, maintenance, and quality of life programs to support the Navy's fleet, fighters, and their families.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Yemeni army, allies hit Saudi Aramco oil facilities in Jizan border region
Iran Press TV
Tue Sep 4, 2018 08:21PM
Yemeni army forces, supported by allied fighters from Popular Committees, have fired four domestically-designed and -developed ballistic missiles at a strategic economic target in Saudi Arabia's southwestern border region of Jizan in retaliation for the Riyadh regime's devastating military aggression against their impoverished country.
A Yemeni military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that the short-range Badr-1 missiles struck an oil refinery of the Saudi Arabian national petroleum and natural gas company, Aramco, as well as petrochemical plants at Jazan Economic City, located 967 kilometers southwest of the capital Riyadh, with great precision, on Tuesday evening.
The report added that the sound of massive explosions could be heard in different parts of Jizan city.
Earlier in the day, Yemeni troopers and their allies destroyed an armored vehicle belonging to Saudi-sponsored militiamen loyal to former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi north of al-Durayhimi district in the country's strategic western province of Hudaydah, when they fired a missile at the car.
Scores of Saudi mercenaries were killed and injured in the attack.
Separately, Yemeni soldiers and Popular Committees fighters detonated an improvised explosive device close to al-Tawal border crossing, which links Yemen's northwestern province of Hajjah to Saudi Arabia's Jizan region, killing and injuring several Saudi-backed militiamen.
Moreover, an unnamed Yemeni military official said sharpshooters have fatally shot five Saudi troopers as well as ten Saudi mercenaries in various military camps across Jizan over the past few days.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating military campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing the government of Hadi back to power and crushing the country's Houthi Ansarullah movement.
Some 15,000 Yemenis have been killed and thousands more injured since the onset of the Saudi-led aggression.
More than 2,200 others have died of cholera, and the crisis has triggered what the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian disaster.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Taliban announce death of founder of Haqqani militant network
Iran Press TV
Tue Sep 4, 2018 09:44AM
Afghanistan's Taliban militant group says the founder of its affiliated Haqqani militant network based in Pakistan has died after a long illness.
In a statement posted on Twitter, the Taliban announced the death of Jalaluddin Haqqani, thought to be in his 70s or 80s, without specifying where or when it occurred.
Haqqani "was ill and bedridden for the past several years," the statement read, adding that his "ideology and methodology continue to endure."
The Haqqani network operates on both the Pakistani and Afghan side of the border. It has been behind some deadly attacks against civilians, security forces and NATO forces in the Afghan capital over the past decade.
The militants were blamed for the devastating truck bomb in the heart of Kabul in May 2017 that killed around 150 people -- though the Haqqani network later denied any involvement.
Meanwhile, the Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish emphasized that Haqqani's death was not expected to mean any major change for the group as his role had been ideological rather than practical in recent years.
"Operationally, his death will not have an impact on the group," he said.
Rumours about Haqqani's death have on several occasions circulated in the past years.
Haqqani had close ties with the al-Qaeda militant group. He had already given up operational leadership of the militant network to his son Sirajuddin, who is now Taliban's deputy leader.
The Haqqani network was formed 30 years ago to fend off the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and still boasts a strong presence in eastern Afghanistan and in the tribal districts of North Waziristan in Pakistan's restive northwest along the Afghan border.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Haqqani's Deadly Legacy Continues To Shape The War In Afghanistan
Frud Bezhan September 04, 2018
Elderly, ill, and partially paralyzed, the founder of one of Afghanistan's most notorious and brazen extremist organizations had been out of the insurgency game for years. But Jalaluddin Haqqani leaves behind a legacy of deadly violence that threatens to live on for decades.
Haqqani, whose death at the age of 72 was announced on September 4, was a key mujahedin commander in the war against Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, he founded the eponymous Haqqani network, which quickly earned a reputation for brazen, high-profile attacks. And he ensured long ago that his fight would continue by handing the reins of his organization over to his son, Sirajuddin, who today also serves as the deputy leader of a key ally, the Afghan Taliban.
Experts say Haqqani's far-reaching legacy is secure and that neither his network's military might nor strategy are likely to be affected by his death.
Indiscriminate Attacks
The Haqqani network is notorious for its heavy use of suicide bombers in complex, urban attacks, indiscriminately killing civilians and Afghan and foreign security forces alike.
The group was blamed for the horrific truck bomb in the capital, Kabul, in May 2017 that killed around 150 people, although Sirajuddin later denied involvement.
The network was also blamed for some of the deadliest attacks carried out against foreigners, including a suicide bomb attack at a CIA base in the eastern province of Khost in 2009 that killed seven agents and wounded six.
"Haqqani helped the Taliban recalibrate after the U.S. invasion in 2001 because they had the setup and local support in Pakistan's tribal areas to mount significant attacks across the border in Afghanistan," says Hameed Hakimi, a research associate at the London-based think tank Chatham House.
"By having a suicide brigade, Haqqani also helped the Taliban create a much fiercer image. The complexity of the insurgency and the complexity of the attacks would not have happened without the alliance with the Haqqanis," he adds.
During the 1990s, Haqqani was a minister in the Taliban regime, which took power in Kabul in 1996. The Taliban, which brought its own fundamentalist brand of Sunni Islam to the scene and emerged victorious from the Afghan civil war, embraced Haqqani for his military skills, according to a declassified 1998 cable from the U.S. Embassy.
He was the only major mujahedin leader to join the Taliban and forged a close relationship with the late Taliban founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar.
'Close Buddies' With Arab Fighters
Al-Qaeda's influence on the network materialized in the post-2001 insurgency.
"What made Haqqani unique was his special relationship with non-Afghan, foreign terrorist organizations, including Al-Qaeda," says Omar Samad, an analyst and former Afghan ambassador who has advised senior Afghan officials.
"This relationship played a role in sharing new tactics and cross-training with those who used and justified suicide attacks as part of what they consider 'jihad,' or holy war," he says, describing the tactic as "an imported phenomenon that was not used in Afghanistan prior to 2001."
During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, Haqqani used his Arabic language skills to forge close ties with Arab jihadists, including Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, who came to the region during the war.
With funds from bin Laden, Haqqani established dozens of radical religious schools along the Afghan-Pakistan border, spreading a fundamentalist Islamic ideology. Haqqani also established training camps for Arab fighters that were later used by Al-Qaeda during the Taliban regime.
Many of the Arab fighters that still remain in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri, are believed to be protected by the Haqqani network in Pakistan's tribal belt.
A declassified 1998 cable from the U.S. Embassy said Haqqani "is close buddies with many Arab and Pakistani Islamists."
'Veritable Tool' For Pakistan
The Haqqanis have long been suspected of links to Pakistan's shadowy military establishment and its notorious spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI).
Much of the group's ties with Pakistan were forged by Haqqani during the 1980s, when the guerrilla leader was one of the main beneficiaries of Pakistani and CIA money and weapons.
Haqqani's prowess during the jihad against the U.S.S.R.'s occupation of Afghanistan earned him praise from Washington. Haqqani was hailed by the late U.S. congressman Charlie Wilson as "goodness personified." He also visited the White House, and President Ronald Reagan once described him as a freedom fighter.
The Haqqani network was described by U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen in 2011 as a "veritable arm" of Pakistani intelligence that has provided safe havens for militant groups fighting foreign and Afghan forces in Afghanistan.
Designated a terrorist group by Washington in 2012, the Haqqanis are believed to have been operating from Pakistan's restive tribal region since 2001. The Haqqani family hails from eastern Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan.
"The Haqqanis have been a veritable tool and valuable asset for Pakistan in the past four decades," says Haroun Mir, a Kabul-based political analyst. "This is the reason why the Pakistani military has never abandoned them, even in the face of tremendous pressure from the United States."
Mir says Haqqani will be remembered as a "resistance hero in the 1980s and later [as] someone who strictly followed the Pakistani directive against the interests of his own people."
Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/jalaluddin -haqqani-s-deadly-legacy-continues-to-shape- the-war-in-afghanistan/29471611.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
Afghan Security Forces Retake Northern District From Taliban
RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan September 04, 2018
PUL-E KHOMRI, Afghanistan -- The governor of Afghanistan's northern province of Baghlan says Afghan security forces have recaptured a strategic district from Taliban fighters who have controlled the area in recent weeks.
Governor Abdulhai Nemati told RFE/RL the government's offensive to retake the district of Nahrin ended on the morning on September 4 after the Taliban withdrew during the night.
Nemati said at least six Taliban fighters were killed and 14 were wounded during an operation that began early on September 3. Nemati did not provide casualty figures for government forces.
RFE/RL's correspondent in Baghlan Province reports that hundreds of civilians fled their homes during the fierce 24-hour battle, which destroyed several houses in the district.
One disabled woman in the area told RFE/RL that she was "among very few people" from her neighborhood that did not flee the fighting.
"Almost everyone in our neighborhood fled. I couldn't join them because of my disability. Had I been able to walk I would have left, too," the woman said.
"People fled carrying their belongings," a local man said. "Old and young, women and children, all fled, some by foot, some on donkeys."
Nemati said government forces were continuing a "search and clearing operation" in theNahrin district on September 4.
There was no immediate comment about the battle from the Taliban.
Meanwhile, in the nearby province of Balkh, Afghan security forces have launched an offensive against Taliban fighters who seized a series of villages to the west of Mazar-e Sharif on September 2.
Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanesh said late on September 3 that government security forces hoped to retake the Chari area of Balkh's Dawlatabad district "soon."
The Taliban in recent months has carried out a series of operations to expand its control over rural areas in northern Afghanistan and has briefly taken control of some urban areas in Afghanistan, including parts of the city of Ghazni to the southwest of Kabul during August.
With reporting by Bashir Ahmad Ghezali of RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan in Pul-e Khomri
Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghan-security-forces-retake -northern-district-from-taliban/29470021.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
Philippines' Duterte Touts Israel as 'the Only Country' to Buy Arms From
Sputnik News
17:19 04.09.2018(updated 17:22 04.09.2018)
On September 2, Rodrigo Duterte started his four-day official visit to Israel, the first by a Philippine president since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1957. The schedule includes a visit to a display of advanced weapons and equipment organized by the Israeli Defense Ministry.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has announced that his country will only purchase weapons from Israel due to its lack of restrictive measures pertaining to such deals, according to i24NEWS.
"My guidelines for military officials dictate that in the field of army equipment and weapons, there is only one country to buy from that is Israel," the Israeli media outlet cited Duterte as saying during his meeting with Israeli counterpart Reuven Rivlin.
He also touted the United States as "a good company" in this vein, but added that "if we buy from them, there are limitations, same with China and Germany."
In mid-August, Duterte blamed the US for trying to hamper the modernization of his country's army and supplying used military equipment to Manila.
"Is that the way you treat an ally and you want us to stay with you for all time? Who are you to warn us?" he pointed out, in a nod to a previous warning by Randall Schriver, US Assistant Defense Secretary for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, that Manila should not buy Russian military hardware.
In July, an Israeli weapons manufacturer reportedly sold hundreds of assault rifles to anti-drug police in the Philippines. The deal was preceded by Duterte's remarks that he would be "happy to slaughter" three million drug addicts amid the ongoing crackdown on narcotics trafficking in the Philippines, which have already claimed the lives of more than 4,000 people.
The Philippines President repeatedly touted Israel as an alternative supplier of weapons in the wake of Washington's decision to stop supplying arms to Manila due to its alleged human rights violations.
One of the world's top arms dealers, the Jewish state started to develop defense ties with the Philippines in 2017, when the two counties inked a 21-million-dollar deal whereby Manila purchased Israeli radar and anti-tank equipment.
Sputnik
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
New home for scores of South Sudan's displaced
4 September 2018 - Nearly 3,500 people displaced by violence in South Sudan have been relocated from a UN-run camp in the capital, Juba, to temporary housing, the organization's mission in the country, UNMISS, reported on Tuesday.
The internally displaced people, who were living at a UN Protection of Civilians (PoC) site, have been moved to a new location at Mangateen, near the central part of the city.
"This is the first movement of displaced people of this magnitude out of the UN Juba protection site. Almost all of those relocated were women and children," said David Shearer, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of UNMISS.
"They had expressed a strong desire to leave the UN site and to be reunited with their husbands and other family members. Early indications and, in my discussions with those who moved, is that they are pleased to be back in the wider community."
The UN mission and humanitarian agencies carried out the relocation after negotiating an end to clashes between various groups in the camp which were posing a threat to those living there.
Once a resolution to the "sporadic fighting" was reached, and people expressed their desire to leave the protection camp, UNMISS and its partners worked quickly to establish the temporary housing at the Mangateen site, along with access to clean water, sanitation and health services.
The facility traditionally has been managed by South Sudan's Relief and Rehabilitation Commission.
The Government body will continue to be in charge of the site, though aid agencies will provide additional assistance on request.
South Sudan is the world's youngest country, having gained independence in July 2011.
However, most of the years since then have been marred by brutal fighting and human rights violations, forcing the displacement of more than four million people, either within the country or across the border. Nearly 200,000 are currently sheltering in PoC sites at six UNMISS bases nationwide.
"Hundreds of thousands of people fled to UN protection sites across South Sudan out of fear for their lives during the ongoing conflict. But these camps are not a good long-term option for families," Mr. Shearer stated.
"If people have the trust and confidence that the environment is safe enough for them to voluntarily return home, UNMISS is poised to assist them. But providing that confidence in the security situation very much lies with the Government."
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Haqqani Network Founder Dies After Long Illness
By Ayesha Tanzeem September 04, 2018
The man who founded the Haqqani network, one of the most feared and deadly arms of the Afghan Taliban, has died after a long illness.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid Tuesday released a statement confirming the death of Jalaluddin Haqqani and paying tribute to his "Jihadi struggle" and offering condolences to his "Jihad loving family."
Haqqani joined the Afghan jihad against the former Soviet Union in the 1980s.
"A time when our nation faced the dangers of atheist communism and the Islamic land of Afghanistan was under the threat of irreligiosity ... his excellency Haqqani Sahib and other honorable Mujahideen of that era took a stand against communist heresy," the Taliban statement said.
At the time, he was also close to the Central Intelligence Agency, which was supporting the fighters against the former USSR.
After the Taliban took power in the 1990s, Haqqani joined them as their Minister of Frontiers and became a member of their Leadership Council.
When the Taliban were ousted from power by a United States-led attack in 2001, he fled to neighboring Pakistan.
His group, the Haqqani network, has carried out some of the most complicated, precise, and deadly attacks in Afghanistan. Afghan and Western officials believe a truck bomb in Kabul in 2017 that killed more than 150 people and damaged the German embassy, was a work of this network.
The group is now headed by his son Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is the No. 2 man in the Afghan Taliban leadership after their Amir, Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada. However, he is widely believed to be the one leading the military efforts against the NATO and Afghan forces.
Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, told VOA that Haqqani died in Afghanistan and was buried there. He declined to name the place or say exactly when the burial took place.
Insurgent sources reported a few years ago that the aging Haqqani was injured in a U.S. air raid against his hideout near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and succumbed to his injuries later. But the Taliban had at the time refuted those reports.
VOA's Ayaz Gul contributed to this report.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Yemen targets Aramco installations with ballistic missiles
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Tehran, Sept 5, IRNA -- The missile unit of the Yemeni army and popular committees fired four ballistic missiles at Aramco oil installations in Jizan, south of Saudi Arabia Tuesday, Almasirah TV network reported.
Besides the installations of the Saudi Arabian oil company, the Badr-1 ballistic missiles also targeted a petrochemical firm located in Jizan industrial township, Almasirah said.
Saudi media outlets confirmed the firing of the missiles but claimed the country's air defense intercepted and destroyed two missiles over Jizan.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating military campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing the government of Hadi back to power and crushing the country's Houthi Ansarullah movement.
Some 15,000 Yemenis have been killed and thousands more injured since the onset of the Saudi-led aggression.
The assaults of the Saudi-led coalition forces have failed to stop the Yemenis from resisting the aggression. Recently, the Yemeni army unveiled its home-made underground missile launching pads.
1396**1396
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Task Force Hawaii Perseveres Against 2 Natural Disasters
Sept. 4, 2018
By Air Force Senior Airman Robert Cabuco, State of Hawaii Department of Defense
KEAUKAHA, Hawaii -- Just when Hawaii National Guard leaders thought they could begin to transition their personnel away from the disaster response mission that formed in the wake of Kilauea's eruption, Task Force Hawaii was bombarded by Hurricane Lane, Aug. 22-26.
The guardsmen persevered as they stretched their resources to meet the demands of a second natural disaster in a four-month period.
Since the start of Kilauea's eruption in early May, more than 150 service members from the Hawaii Army and Air National Guards have assisted Hawaii County authorities in keeping evacuated neighborhoods safe. By August, the lava flow had momentarily subsided and TF Hawaii was preparing to wrap up the operation.
"We were expecting it to be a pretty quiet rotation," said Army 1st Sgt. Mark Tiwanak, from Bravo Company, 777th Aviation Battalion. "We take over steady-state [operations] and we slowly close down the operation. Should be a nice quiet mission, that's what we were expecting. We were in the process [of] learning the operations ... when we received the hurricane warning. I knew right away I needed to identify my command team and develop communications through the ranks within a short time frame."
Disaster Response
The response to any disaster is tiered. Phase One is prepare, Phase Two is response, and Phase Three is recovery. Once recovery is accomplished, first responders move back to prepare. With most disasters, the response is brief and the transition to recovery quick. The thing that separates the Kilauea eruption from most disasters is the time first responders have spent in the response phase. The lava response has lasted four months, and the county and state, along with the Hawaii National Guard, were ready to move to the recovery phase when Hurricane Lane approached the state.
In addition to the challenge of taking over operations, TF Hawaii was faced with the additional threat of Hurricane Lane and had to quickly change gears to prepare for the worst. Anticipating emergency responses in Kona, on the other side of the island, TF Hawaii divided its personnel and sent one of its three response teams to cover the area.
During the lava support mission, TF Hawaii ran 24-hour operations, the team was split into three, eight hour shifts. Because of the hurricane they were now divided into two teams performing 12-15 hour shifts, further straining the service members.
"I had to figure out who were going to be the key players in carrying out the mission," Tiwanak said. "I selected team leads that were local to the Big Island and were familiar with the surrounding environment, so they can quickly deploy to the locations where emergency support was required."
Hurricane Lane
When the outer bands of the hurricane reached Hawaii, it dropped 52 inches of rain in two days, resulting in widespread flooding. TF Hawaii responded to rescue missions in the Hilo area. These requests for support came primarily from the Hawaii Fire Department, whose resources were wearing thin. The fire department had also been supporting the island communities during the lava threat.
"We were called to Waianuenue, but half my team was from Honolulu and it would take longer to get there," said Army Staff Sgt. Gregory Lum Ho, from Bravo Company, 777th Aviation Support Battalion. "Half my team remained in Pahoa, and we answered the call for help. I reported to a [Hawaii Fire Department] battalion chief, Michael Hayashida, and with our vehicles and their firemen we were able to rescue a couple on one mission, and returned to rescue their extended family of four and their dog."
The flooding created dangerous situations across the island. On many roadways, the water levels rose to 3-4 feet, stranding vehicles in-place.
Rescues
"Our first rescue involved a 61-year old man stuck in his truck in a pool about four feet deep," said Staff Sgt. Jonathan Anderson-Leonard, from the Hawaii Air National Guard's 169th Air Defense Squadron Security Forces. "[The Hawaii Fire Department] rescued the individual and we transported him to base ops." Anderson-Leonard said he went on to perform two more vehicle rescues that same evening.
The extraordinary efforts performed by service members in conjunction with the extended shifts placed a heavy burden on the military personnel. Their well-being was a high priority for Army Chaplain (Maj.) Ray Kitagawa.
"I have served this mission on three separate engagements since it started," said Kitagawa. "I help check on troop morale and ethics as well as help [the] command make decisions involving civilians."
Kitagawa said he made daily visits to the checkpoints to see how the troops were faring. He brought with him snacks and goodies and was often welcomed with smiles.
"During the storm, we prayed daily for our troops," he said. "It was a pleasure to serve the people of this community as well as the state and this island. I was born and raised here, so it feels good to give back to people that I know and love."
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Chinese and Nigerien peacekeepers conduct joint defense drill in Mali
People's Daily Online
(China Military Online) 15:40, September 04, 2018
MENAKA, MALI, Sept. 3 (ChinaMil) -- To address the grim security situation in Mali's Menaka region, a contingent in Menaka assigned to the 6th Chinese peacekeeping engineer detachment to Mali carried out a joint defense drill with the Nigerien peacekeeping infantry battalion on Aug. 29, in a bid to jointly enhance the capabilities to deal with emergencies. Menaka has been on an "Orange Alert", a high-risk level, since the deployment of the Chinese peacekeeping contingent in early July this year. As of the end of August, there have been 21 terrorist attacks with more than 90 casualties in the area.
The joint defense drill was conducted against the backdrop of a terrorist attack on the UN camp.
During the drill, the Chinese contingent immediately judged the situation together with Nigerien peacekeepers after receiving a warning signal from the sentry post. The Chinese and Nigerien quick-response teams dispatched infantry fighting vehicles to support. The Chinese medical team rushed to the scene to conduct forward first aid and medical evacuation to the injured. In the meantime, the Nigerien peacekeeping infantry dispatched armored vehicles to the combat readiness areas of the UN camp for support.
Wang Yong, deputy head of the Chinese contingent, said: "In this joint drill, the Chinese and Nigerien peacekeeping forces successfully handled the sudden 'hostile situation' through intelligence sharing and joint operations. They also learned from each other's operational concepts. The emergency response capabilities of Chinese peacekeepers have been further strengthened."
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Surveillance Common for Some Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Activists
By Erin Hale September 04, 2018
Evading surveillance is a new skill for Andy Chan, founder of the Hong Kong National Party, but one he had to learn quickly over the summer.
In July, Chan noticed that he was being followed repeatedly by unidentified individuals. He noticed that once spotted, the snoops would suddenly disappear only to reappear later or be replaced by others.
"You can do some tricks to catch them. For example on the MTR [subway] platform, you wait and just wait and let the MTR pass by and see if anyone stays. Or you get on and off and see if anyone is following on and off," he said.
Chan did not fully realize it at the time, but he was being monitored by Hong Kong's Security Bureau as part of a two year investigation into his party, which advocates for independence from China.
Hong Kong's Security Bureau declined to comment for this article. Previously, bureau officials have said that freedom of association and freedom of speech are "not without restrictions."
While Chan's party may become the first to be banned by police since Britain returned control of Hong Kong to communist-ruled China in 1997, his story is not uncommon in a city with a longstanding tradition of political surveillance.
Part of life
Historians say surveillance of politically suspect citizens has been a part of life in Hong Kong for much of the last century. From the 1920s, when the colonial government's anti-communist squad shut down newspapers and monitored strike activities to the 1970s when Hong Kong's political life was at its zenith, Hong Kong has been highly watched.
Political surveillance has ebbed and flowed with the times, and observers say it appears to be making a comeback in Hong Kong since pro-democracy Umbrella Movement protests in 2014 mobilized thousands.
Whereas communists and Beijing sympathizers were previously a key target, scrutiny has now shifted to members of the pro-democracy camp. A new cast of characters is also taking part in surveillance as well, and it includes those outside the judicial system.
"Surveillance occurred even before the handover," said Law Yuk-kai, director Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor, "After the handover, there are people suspected not only from so-called law enforcement agency from Beijing but also from the triads," he said. "There are signs they also use them at the order or instigation of the Chinese authority."
More active Chinese surveillance
While present during the colonial era, Law said his organization has observed an increase in activity by Chinese intelligence in Hong Kong during important political occasions, such as the visit of top Chinese leaders or major protests on a systematic scale not seen since 1997.
Their work is notoriously hard to prove, but some have succeeded in exposing it. In one well-publicized incident, democratic legislator James To foiled an operation by several Chinese agents who were following him by having them arrested by local police in 2014, according to a Reuters investigation.
Activists also say they suspect Chinese intelligence operatives were behind the 2015 disappearance of five booksellers who traded in banned books and later reappeared in Chinese detention, and the disappearance of Chinese tycoon Xiao Jianhua from a Hong Kong hotel room in 2017.
Surveillance outsourcing
Another noticeable trend, Law said, is the outsourcing of surveillance to either private detectives or triads the local mafia which he said is deeply concerning due to the often violent behavior associated with triad members. One example is the case of Eddie Chiu, a lawmaker and social activist, who has received death threats with individuals with links to the triads for his attempts to reform rural governance committees.
None of these groups is subject to Hong Kong's oversight rules such as the Interceptions of Communications and Surveillance Ordinance, which requires a judge or magistrate to sign off on surveillance in the home or the use of electronic monitoring.
The ordinance monitors the work of the Hong Kong police but Law said it leaves a large gray area when it comes to private citizens. Following people in public is legal because, Law said, individuals are not protected by privacy laws.
Experts say that leaves most Hong Kong citizens with little recourse.
"Those monitored have complained that the Hong Kong police have done an insufficient job of following up on their reports of being under surveillance," said rights activist and author Kong Tsung-gan, who has followed many of surveillance-related cases, said via social media. "All of these cases suggest a pattern of political surveillance by both Hong Kong authorities and mainland agents, and many in the pro-democracy movement simply assume they are under surveillance and act accordingly," he said.
Local police routinely film protests, a complaint that is included by non-governmental organizations in their submissions to Hong Kong's Universal Periodic Review, a regular report on human rights conditions that goes to the United Nations.
Chan is still not entirely certain who was watching him this summer. Like many Hong Kong activists, he appears to accept it as a new part of life.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Influential Iranian Cleric Rejects Europe's Demand For Talks On Ballistic Missiles
September 04, 2018
An influential Iranian cleric says Europe is not helping to preserve a nuclear accord between Iran and world powers by demanding additional talks on issues like Tehran's ballistic missiles, the country's state media reported.
"Europe has announced that they won't leave the deal. In practice, by bringing up a discussion of missiles and other issues they are not following an appropriate path," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati was quoted as saying on September 4.
Jannati heads Iran's Assembly of Experts -- a group of conservative clerics tasked with supervising the work of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On August 30, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian warned that Iran and world powers "must talk" on certain "subjects that worry" the West.
"Iran cannot avoid discussions, negotiations on three other major subjects that worry us -- the future of Iran's nuclear commitments after 2025, the ballistic question and the fact there is a sort of ballistic proliferation on the part of Iran...and the role Iran plays to stabilize the whole region," Le Drian said.
The French minister's comments echoed some reasons given by U.S. President Donald Trump to justify his withdrawal from the nuclear deal in May and to reimpose U.S. sanctions on Iran.
Trump's administration says it wants to bring Iran back to the negotiating table, but Iranian leaders have ruled out renegotiating the landmark 2015 deal.
Since Trump's move, the other parties to the accord -- China, Russia, Britain, France, and Germany -- have been trying to find ways to salvage the agreement.
Based on reporting by Reuters, IRNA, and AFP
Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/influential -iranian-cleric-rejects-europe-s-demand-for-talks-on- ballistic-missiles/29470486.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
Israel Declines To Rule Out Strikes On Iranian Military Targets In Iraq
RFE/RL September 04, 2018
Israel's defense minister has said the Jewish state will not rule out staging air strikes on suspected Iranian military targets in Iraq after carrying out deadly raids on Iranian facilities in neighboring Syria in recent years.
"We are certainly monitoring everything that is happening in Syria and, regarding Iranian threats, we are not limiting ourselves just to Syrian territory. This also needs to be clear," Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman told a news conference in Jerusalem on September 3.
Lieberman's statement comes after Reuters reported that Iran recently transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Shi'ite militia allies in Iraq.
"I am saying that we will contend with any Iranian threat, and it doesn't matter from where it comes," Lieberman said. "Israel's freedom is total. We retain this freedom of action."
There was no immediate response from the governments of Iran or Iraq, or from U.S. Central Command in Washington, D.C., which oversees U.S. military operations in Iraq.
Israel's Channel 1 television reported that in recent weeks, the United States asked Israel not to attack in Iraqi territory.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on September 1 that he was "deeply concerned" by the Reuters report of Iranian missile transfers to Iraq. Tehran and Baghdad both denied that report.
"If true, this would be a gross violation of Iraqi sovereignty and of UNSCR 2231," he tweeted, referring to a UN Security Council resolution endorsing Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The Trump administration abandoned that deal in May, citing, among other factors, Iran's ballistic-missile projects.
Israel began carrying out air strikes in Syria in 2013 against suspected arms transfers and deployments by Iran and its Lebanese ally, the Shi'ite Hizballah militia.
These operations, which have resulted in the reported deaths of dozens of Iranian troops and allied militia fighters, have largely been ignored by Russia, Damascus's biggest ally, which intervened in the Syrian civil war in 2015.
Reuters reported that the Israeli military operations in Syria have been coordinated with other "powers" conducting their own military operations there.
A Western diplomat told Reuters that Israel had a "free hand" in Syria as a result of that coordination, but it was expected not to take any military action in Iraq, where the United States has been trying to help the government achieve stability after helping to largely oust the Islamic State militant group from its Iraqi strongholds last year.
Israel and Iraq remain technically at war, though they have not openly exchanged fire in decades.
In 1981, Israel's air force destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor near Baghdad. During the 1991 Persian Gulf war, Iraq fired dozens of Scud rockets into Israel, which did not retaliate, out of consideration for U.S. efforts to maintain an Arab coalition against Saddam Hussein.
With reporting by Reuters and AFP
Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/israel-d eclines-rule-out-strikes-iranian-military- targets-iraq-lieberman/29469674.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
Iraq milestone: Some four million people return home, displacement drops to four-year low
4 September 2018 - For the first time in nearly four years, the number of displaced Iraqis has fallen below two million, according to a new report released on Tuesday by the United Nations migration agency.
Four years of data collected by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for its Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) report, concludes that 1,931,868 people currently remain displaced the lowest figure since November 2014 and that nearly four million people have managed to return home overall.
"IOM DTM data has documented the phases of the crisis and it has been critical for planning humanitarian assistance," said Marta Ruedas, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq.
Since January 2014, Iraq's war against the terrorist group ISIL, otherwise known as Da'esh, has displaced six million Iraqis, comprising about 15 per cent of the country's population. Last December, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared an end to the campaign to defeat the group.
Across Iraq, internally-displaced people (IDPs) continue to return home at a steady pace, but slower than in 2017, says the report. The greatest number of returnees some 1.49 million have made their way back to Ninewa, with 1.27 million returning to Anbar province; and nearly 553,000 to Salah al-Din Governorate. Some 77,000 have returned to homes in Baghdad.
While overall, 97 per cent have returned to their own residences, two per cent have gone to homes other than their own; while one per cent, or 19,000 vulnerable individuals, have sought shelter in religious buildings, schools and abandoned buildings.
The remaining IDPs are concentrated in: Ninewa (602,000), Dahuk (349,000), Erbil (217,000), Salah al-Din (169,000), Sulaymaniyah (151,000) and Kirkuk (124,000). Of the displaced, 1.2 million are in private residences, 574,000 in camps, and 176,000 in critical shelters.
"Data on returns is also essential for this next phase of our support for recovery and reintegration." Ms. Ruedas explained.
According to latest DTM data, people cited the improved security situation, more readily-available housing, encouragement from community leaders and support from friends and relatives, as factors influencing their decision to go back home.
Obstacles that confronted displaced families include damage or destruction of housing and public infrastructure; a lack of financial means and job opportunities, and a lack of safety and security.
"DTM makes an important contribution to humanitarian efforts in Iraq by informing the direction of resources to displaced and returnee populations," said IOM's Chief of Mission in Iraq, Gerard Waite.
"Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi families continue to be displaced and face significant obstacles to return," he continued. "Both displaced and returnee populations are often vulnerable and need humanitarian assistance to regain their livelihoods and support their families."
The DTM is IOM's information management system to track and monitor population displacement during crises. Since early 2014 IOM Iraq has been producing data sets, monthly reports and thematic reports, including on the Mosul crisis, when the city was occupied by ISIL terrorists; obstacles to return, location assessments and emergency tracking. This information is shared publicly to aid humanitarian efforts.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Ceasefire agreement reached in Libyan capital, announces UN mission
4 September 2018 - An agreement on a ceasefire in Tripoli has been reached under the auspices of Ghassan Salame, the top United Nations official in Libya, the Organization's Support Mission in the country, UNSMIL, has announced.
According to a tweet posted on the Mission's official Twitter account, the agreement aims to "end all hostilities, protect civilians, safeguard public and private property."
Tripoli's Meitiga International Airport, which had been closed since violence flared up, will also be opened under the deal.
It was signed by representatives of the Government of National Accord (GNA), military commanders, security apparatuses and armed groups present in and around Tripoli.
Scores of civilians had been killed and hundreds injured across residential areas of the Libyan capital since fighting escalated last week.
UNHCR spokesperson, Charlie Yaxley, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that the use of heavy weapons and shelling in civilian neighbourhoods had "caused death, destruction and displacement, and is of great concern."
According to the UN human rights office (OHCHR), a humanitarian worker trying to evacuate civilians trapped in a neighbourhood was reportedly shot at, while one of the armed groups involved is alleged to have confiscated three ambulances.
UN agencies, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNHCR, have stepped up their response, with WHO delivering trauma medicines for 200 critical cases, keeping another 2,000 more units on standby and deploying 10 mobile emergency trauma teams to areas where fighting is ongoing. Similarly, UNHCR is dispatching emergency items to families seeking shelter at a local school.In a statement prior to the announcement of the ceasefire, Syed Jaffar Hussain, the head of WHO operations in Libya, said the agency was "working with national health authorities and partners on the ground to respond to increasing health needs, but roadblocks remain a major challenge to the delivery of health care, especially ambulances that are unable to reach the injured."
"With greater numbers of injured civilians expected, it is imperative that doctors and other health staff be allowed to move freely so that they can save lives without delay, and without risk to their own personal safety," he added.
Vulnerable migrants and refugees at heightened risk
There were also reports that a migrant detention facility was hit, causing great concern over the safety of migrants and refugees.
"We are closely monitoring the situation and coordinating with the Libyan Directorate for Combatting Illegal Migration and UN agencies, and advocating for all refugees and migrants to be relocated to a safer place," said UNHCR's Mr. Yaxley.
According to UN reports, there are about 8,000 arbitrarily detained migrants trapped in detention centres in areas where fighting had been taking place, without access to food or medical treatment. Furthermore, there are reports that some migrants, released from detention, have subsequently been captured by armed groups and forced to work for them.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Myanmar's Suu Kyi chooses silence over jailed journalists, ignores global outcry
Iran Press TV
Tue Sep 4, 2018 06:22PM
Myanmar's embattled leader Aung San Suu Kyi has resorted to a stony silence in face of a growing global outcry over the imprisonment of two Reuters journalists in the South Asian country as the Nobel Prize winner has come under mounting criticism for her inaction on the case.
Journalists Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were arrested in December last year after reporting on the killings of 10 Rohingya Muslims by the Myanmar military in the northwestern state of Rakhine and on atrocities committed during the violent expulsion by the army troops of around 700,000 members of the persecuted minority last year.
Judge Ye Lwin convicted the journalists on Monday of being guilty for breaching a law on state secrets, the so-called Official Secrets Act, when they collected and obtained confidential documents, handed them each seven years behind bars.
The 73-year-old leader, who was herself subjected to house arrest for some 15 years, using foreign media to highlight her plight, has been widely-condemned by the United Nations and the European Union, as well as media and rights groups, for her silence on the case and verdict, which has posed the sternest test in recent years to the freedom of expression in the country.
"Criticizing the judicial system would be tantamount to contempt of court," said Aung Hla Tun, a former Reuters journalist who now works for the government as deputy minister of information, on Tuesday, defending the Nobel Laureate's reticence. "I don't think she will do it," he added.
Attorneys for the jailed pair will appeal the verdict while ultimately Myanmar's president, a close ally of Suu Kyi, is capable of pardoning the inmates.
Additionally on Tuesday, Chit Su Win, Soe Oos wife, made an emotional appeal to Suu Kyi to free her husband for the sake of their young daughter. "I want my husband to come back. I cry when my daughter asks me why her father is not with us," she said.
A UN report last week further put Suu Kyi under increasing pressure from the international community as it accused her of failing to use her moral authority to stem the violence last year against Rohingya Muslims, and called for the generals to be prosecuted for "genocide."
In its final report , the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar said the country's army, led by Commander-in-Chief Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing, had carried out the "gravest crimes" against the Rohingyas with "genocidal intent."
The UN investigators called for an international probe and prosecution of Myanmar's army chief and five other top military commanders for their crimes.
However, the Myanmar leader, whose government is now facing mounting calls to be investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes, chose to make no mention of the shocking report by the world body.
Last year, Myanmar's armed forces, backed by Buddhist extremists, launched a state-sponsored crackdown against the Rohingya in Rakhine under the pretext of a number of attacks on military posts blamed on the minority group.
The crackdown, once described by the UN as the textbook example of "ethnic cleansing," forced some 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, where they are living in overcrowded refugee camps in dire humanitarian conditions.
The new report further lashed out at Myanmar's de facto leader for failing to give a proper response to the military's brutalities, which have drawn widespread criticism from the UN and leading international organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in January to complete the voluntary repatriation of Rohingya refugees by 2020, followed up by an agreement with the UN last month.
Experts and Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh say a recent deal falls short of guaranteeing the Muslims' safe return to Myanmar.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
S.Korea in talks with DPRK on opening date of joint liaison office
People's Daily Online
(Xinhua) 08:00, September 04, 2018
South Korea's unification ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs said Monday that Seoul was in talks with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on the opening date of the joint liaison office to increase communications between the two sides.
Unification Ministry Spokesman Baik Tae-hyun told a press briefing that it was anticipated for special envoys to set the opening date of the liaison office when they visit the DPRK Wednesday.
The spokesman said South Korea and the DPRK had been in consultations on the issue though the date had yet to be finalized.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in and DPRK top leader Kim Jong Un agreed to launch the joint liaison office at the DPRK's border town of Kaesong following their first summit on April 27 at the border village of Panmunjom.
The liaison office was widely forecast to be opened last month, but it was delayed on a standoff between Pyongyang and Washington over the denuclearization process.
The South Korean president will send his five-member delegation as special envoys to Pyongyang Wednesday. The delegation will be led by Chung Eui-yong, Moon's top national security adviser and head of the National Security Office of the presidential Blue House.
The other four delegates include Suh Hoon, chief of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), the country's spy agency, Vice Unification Minister Chung Hae-sung, NIS deputy chief Kim Sang-gyun and Blue House official Yun Kun-young.
The special emissaries would set the date for the third summit between the current leaders of the two Koreas, while discussing dialogue agendas for the Moon-Kim summit such as the declaration of the end of the 1950-53 Korean War and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The two Koreas agreed to hold the third Moon-Kim summit in the DPRK's capital city of Pyongyang before the end of September.
Moon's special envoys will take an air route over the inter-Korean western sea boundaries to Pyongyang Wednesday, and return home on the same day.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Russia Ready to Construct Helicopter Carriers for Foreign States
Sputnik News
05:21 04.09.2018
MOSCOW (Sputnik) Russian shipbuilders are ready to construct helicopter carriers for foreign countries in case of relevant requests, Russian Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov told Sputnik.
"I can only say that we are really able to construct helicopter carriers and to sell them to customers including foreign ones, which will be interested in that," Manturov said.
Russia was planning to purchase Mistral-class amphibious assault ships from France, but the 1.2 billion euro (about $1.3 billion at the current exchange rate) contract was officially terminated in 2015 over the anti-Russian sanctions.
In August, Manturov told Sputnik that Russia would build amphibious assault ships, rather than helicopter carries, which will be capable of transporting helicopters.
Previously, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yury Borisov said that the construction of helicopter carriers, similar to Mistral-class ships, was part of the state armament procurement program for 2018-2025.
Sputnik
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Spain cancels 9.2mn deal to sell Saudis 400 precision bombs
Iran Press TV
Mon Sep 3, 2018 10:15PM
The Saudi-led coalition's recent slaughter of Yemeni children has prompted the Spanish defense ministry to cancel a 9.2-million deal to sell Saudis 400 precision bombs.
The Spanish Ministry of Defense announced on Monday that it will return the 9.2 million euros already paid by Saudi Arabia to buy 400 Spanish-made precision bombs amid fears that they could be used to target the innocent people of Yemen, the El Mundo reported.
The arms deal had been negotiated and finalized by former Spanish defense ministers Pedro Morenes Eulate and Maria Dolores de Cospedal.
However, the recent deadly attack on a bus carrying Yemeni students, which killed 51 people including 40 children, prompted incumbent minister Margarita Robles to revise all arms deals with the Arab kingdom. The recent decision to freeze the bomb sale contract is said to be the first stage of the revision process.
Amnesty International says Spain is the fourth country on the list of major arms exporters to the Riyadh regime. In one of the most recent contracts, the Spanish state-owned shipbuilder Navantia signed a 1.8-billion deal to sell five small warships to Saudi Arabia.
The deal was signed in April by Saudi Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman after his meeting with his then Spanish counterpart Cospedal in Madrid.
Riyadh main customer of Spanish arms
The Spanish defense ministry's decision to halt the arms deal it had earlier signed with Riyadh would open the door to the possibility that Spain would join countries such as Sweden, Canada, Finland, Norway, Belgium or Germany, which have suspended their arms exports to the Saudi-led coalition.
According to media reports citing the Amnesty International, between 2015 and 2017, Spain reportedly exported 1.2 billion euros worth of military equipment to the coalition.
"There is extensive evidence that irresponsible arms flows to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition have resulted in enormous harm to Yemeni civilians. But this has not deterred the USA, the UK and other states, including France, Spain and Italy, from continuing transfers of billions of dollars' worth of such arms. As well as devastating civilian lives, this makes a mockery of the global Arms Trade Treaty," the Amnesty said.
Other reports said ever since Saudi Arabia launched the military operation in Yemen in 2015, its purchases of Spanish ammunition have nearly tripled, rising from 34.7 million in 2016 to 90.1 million in 2017.
The European Parliament has urged its member states to halt these sales on numerous occasions, admitting that the alliance led by Saudi Arabia violates international humanitarian law by using this weaponry in attacking the civilian population and bombing hospitals, markets and schools.
Saudi Arabia and its allies launched the war on Yemen in March 2015 to reinstall its former Riyadh-allied government. The military aggression has so far killed over 14,000 Yemenis and put millions on the verge of famine. It has also caused a deadly outbreak of cholera.
European countries like France and Britain have provided billions in weapons to the Saudi military amid international calls to halt their arms deals.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Araqchi: Astana meeting on Syria very promising
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Tehran, Sept 4, IRNA -- Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araqchi said on Tuesday that Astana negotiations comprising the Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkey and Russia experienced a very promising progress in fight against terrorism and lessening of tensions.
Araqchi said in a televised speech on Tuesday on the outcome of Astana negotiations.
It is over two-three years that Astana talks resumed through active presence of Iran, Turkey and Russia, he said.
Alongside Astana talks, 'we witnessed resumption of Geneva talks' in which western countries failed to invite Iran but the result of such negotiations did not bear fruits, he said.
Geneva talks turned to be a center for those countries leaving destructive role in Syria and they spared no efforts to support terrorists, he said.
Geneva talks were held under the UN supervision, but it is for long time we hear no news about them, Araqchi said.
Presently Syria is experiencing a very sensitive period as terrorists have been uprooted in different parts of Syria through close cooperation countries forming Astana meeting and Syrian government and army and all have sheltered in Idlib city, he said.
Terrorists have been merged with the civilians in the city of Idlib and use people as human shield, he said.
1430**2050
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Syria to expel terrorists from Idlib with minimum casualties
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Tehran, Sept 4, IRNA -- Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday that efforts are underway to drive the terrorists out of the city of Idlib in Syria with minimum casualties.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Majlis open session, the Iranian foreign minister said during his visit to Syria he held talks with Syrian officials on expansion of relations and cooperation between the two countries.
Talks with Turkish and Syrian officials were underway to pull out terrorists from Idlib with minimum casualty, Zarif underlined.
To attain the goal, Iran will continue talks with Russia, Turkey and Syria to prevent further damage to the Syrian people during pulling out of extremists from Syria, he said.
1430**2050
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
White House says US 'closely monitoring' situation in Syria's Idlib
Iran Press TV
Tue Sep 4, 2018 08:32PM
The United States is "closely monitoring" the situation in Syria's Idlib province, where efforts are underway to drive terrorists out.
"President Donald J. Trump has warned that such an attack would be a reckless escalation of an already tragic conflict and would risk the lives of hundreds of thousands of people," press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement on Tuesday.
Takfiri terrorists have failed to destabilize the Syrian government in the face of the army's battles despite occupying major parts of the country since starting their foreign-backed militancy in 2011.
Ever since, Syria and its allies have tackled terrorism in most of the country, yet parts of its northwest remain occupied by terrorists.
Sanders' comments came a day after Trump warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his close allies, Russia and Iran, not to "recklessly attack" Idlib, claiming that civilian people could lose their lives "in this potential human tragedy."
Sanders added that Washington "will continue to work tirelessly with its allies to find a lasting diplomatic solution to resolve the hostilities in Syria."
The US has been conducting airstrikes inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate. It has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians across the Arab country. It has also been largely incapable of fulfilling its declared aim of destroying Daesh.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed Trump's warning at a press conference in the capital Moscow earlier in the day.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who has recently met with top Syrian officials, also told reporters that Tehran seeks Idlib liberation with the "least humanitarian cost."
This is while United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura has asked the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to find a "soft solution" in tackling terrorism in Idlib.
The presidents of Iran, Russia, and Turkey are set to hold their third round of tripartite summit in Iran next week in an effort to find ways to end the ongoing crisis in Syria.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Iran FM vows bids to drive terrorists out of Syria's Idlib with least humanitarian cost
Iran Press TV
Tue Sep 4, 2018 03:16PM
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says efforts are underway to drive terrorists out of the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib with the least humanitarian cost.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the Iranian minister said he held "very good" talks with senior Syrian authorities in Damascus.
Zarif paid a day-long visit to Damascus on Monday and held talks with the country's senior officials, including President Bashar al-Assad, Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem and Prime Minister Imad Khamis, as Syria is preparing for an operation to liberate Idlib Province, the last major militant stronghold.
Assad and Zarif said Western pressure on Tehran and Damascus will fail to deter them from fighting terrorism.
In their meeting, the two sides asserted that Western countries would not be able to deter Iran and Syria from defending their principles, the interests of the two nations, and the security and stability of the entire region.
Elsewhere in his Tuesday remarks, Zarif also pointed to his last week's talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Istanbul as well as a planned summit of Iranian, Russian and Turkish presidents in Tehran and said efforts would be continued to "prevent any damage to the Syrian people and complete the process of clearing extremists."
At the request of Damascus, Iran has been offering advisory military assistance to the Syrian army. Tehran says it will continue its anti-terror mission as long as the legitimate government in Damascus wants it to do so.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will host his Turkish and Russian counterparts Erdogan and Vladimir Putin, respectively, on Friday in an attempt to find ways to end the ongoing crisis in Syria.
The three presidents have previously held summits in the Russian resort city of Sochi in November 2017 and in the Turkish capital, Ankara, in April.
In response to a question about a claim made by US President Donald Trump that attacking militant-held Idlib would be a "humanitarian mistake" for Tehran and Moscow, Zarif said Trump seeks to take advantage of the situation in Idlib for his own foreign policy goals.
"Americans have not shown a good record of their fight against extremism and terrorism," the top Iranian diplomat pointed out.
Russia also on Tuesday strongly dismissed President Trump's warning to Syria not to carry out a full-scale offensive against terrorists in Idlib, stressing that the northwestern region is a "nest of terrorism."
"Just to speak out with some warnings, without taking into account the very dangerous, negative potential for the whole situation in Syria, is probably not a full, comprehensive approach," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a press conference in the capital Moscow.
Russia has also been providing air cover to Syrian army operations. It has also military advisors in the Arab country and runs a number of military bases there.
The Russian military has repeatedly reported that the US uses the areas under its control in Syria to provide support to Takfiri terrorists.
On the opposite front, the US along with Israel and its other allies -- has been backing the militant groups fighting to topple the Assad government.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Russia dismisses President Trump's warning about offensive in Syria's Idlib
Iran Press TV
Tue Sep 4, 2018 02:31PM
Russia has strongly dismissed US President Donald Trump's warning to Syria not to carry out a full-scale offensive against terrorists in the militant-held province of Idlib, stressing that the northwestern region is a "nest of terrorism."
"Just to speak out with some warnings, without taking into account the very dangerous, negative potential for the whole situation in Syria, is probably not a full, comprehensive approach," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a press conference in the capital Moscow on Tuesday.
His comments came a day after Trump warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and his close allies Russia and Iran, not to "recklessly attack" Idlib, claiming that civilian people could lost their lives "in this potential human tragedy."
Washington has been conducting airstrikes inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate. It has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians across the Arab country. It has also been largely incapable of fulfilling its declared aim of destroying Daesh.
The US has accused the Syrian government of attacking civilians with chemicals in previous operations, including in Douma near Damascus and in Khan Sheikhun, in Idlib. The Syrian authorities have strongly denied any involvement in the two cases, saying the attacks had been carried out by militants to slow Syria's progress in the fight against terror.
Syria and its allies, including Russia, believe a similar scenario could be staged in Idlib. Moscow has already submitted evidence to the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) showing that terrorists in Idlib are preparing to set up another chemical attack false flag to frame Damascus.
Peskov added that the presence of militants in Idlib was undermining the Syrian peace process and had turned the flash-point region to a base, from which terrorists carry out attacks, notably with "various unmanned aerial vehicles", on Russian "temporary bases" in the Arab country.
"A fairly large group of terrorists has settled there and of course this leads to a general destabilization of the situation. It undermines attempts to bring the situation onto the track of a political-diplomatic settlement," he further noted, adding that the Kremlin was aware that Syrian army was "preparing to resolve this problem."
Russia commenced an anti-terror campaign, mainly through airstrikes, in militancy-infested Syria in September 2015, upon an official request from the Syrian president. Its assistance to the Syrian military in eliminating terrorists has significantly helped Damascus in retaking militant-held areas and cities across the Arab country.
Iran has been also helping Damascus in its fight against various factions of terrorists on its soil through providing the government troops with advisory assistance, based on an invitation by the Syrian government, since foreign-backed militancy broke out in the Arab country in March 2011.
Meanwhile, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-Damascus monitor based in the UK, reported that Russian warplanes had purportedly resumed air raids against terrorists' positions in Idlib earlier in the day after a hiatus of several weeks.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will host his Turkish and Russian counterparts Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin, respectively, on September 7 in an attempt to find ways to end the ongoing crisis in Syria.
Peskov also confirmed that the situation in Idlib would be "one of the main issues on the agenda" at the upcoming trilateral peace talks in Tehran.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
US call for Iran, Hezbollah withdrawal from Syria meaningless: Sheikh Qassem
Iran Press TV
Tue Sep 4, 2018 05:29AM
Hezbollah says the US, whose pro-terror policies have faced defeat in Syria, is in no position to call for the withdrawal of Iranian advisors and allied Lebanese resistance fighters, who have emerged as "victors" of the war against terrorists in the Arab state.
Last week, Lebanon's al-Akhbar daily reported that an American delegation, comprising security and intelligence officials, had visited Damascus in June and met President Bashar al-Assad's special security advisor, Ali Mamlouk.
During the four-hour meeting, the report added, the delegation had set three conditions for the pullout of US military forces from Syria, including the withdrawal of Iranian advisors from southern Syria near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, data on "terrorist groups" and a role in the oil business in eastern Syria.
Speaking on Monday, Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem described those conditions as "meaningless," stressing that it is the "victors" who are eligible to set out conditions, not the US which has been defeated in Syria.
He also hailed the achievements made by the Syrian army and its allies against US-backed Takfiri terrorists.
Hezbollah and the Syrian government are now in the stage of "successive victories for Syria and its axis. We have lifted this black cloud, victories will continue, and we will achieve more," the Hezbollah official noted.
He further called on "all factions counting on America" to "reconsider" their ties with the "Great Satan" as it is not loyal to its friends.
"They are Saudi Arabia's allies, and tomorrow Saudi Arabia will see that the first strike it will get will be from America," Qassem said.
The Syrian army has managed to drive the terrorists out of most parts of the country and end Daesh's territorial rule with help from Iran, Hezbollah and Russia.
It is now on the verge of fully liberating the southern parts near the occupied Golan, prompting serious concerns in Tel Aviv, which supports the terrorists operating there against Damascus.
Syria is now preparing for an operation to liberate Idlib Province, the last major militant stronghold.
At the request of Damascus, Iran has been offering advisory military assistance to the Syrian army. Tehran says it will continue its anti-terror mission as long as the legitimate government in Damascus wants it to do so.
Hezbollah forces have also been assisting the Syrian government on the ground to clear areas bordering Lebanon from terrorist groups.
In turn, Russia has also been providing air cover to Syrian army operations. It has also military advisors in the Arab country and runs a number of military bases there.
On the opposite front, the US along with Israel and its other allies -- has been backing the militant groups fighting to topple the Assad government.
In an interview with the al-Alam News Network in June, Assad said the United States was an occupying power in Syria and that Damascus supported "any act of resistance, whether against terrorists or against occupying forces, regardless of their nationality."
Washington has deployed around 2,000 troops to Syria.
US forces maintain significant presence in the country's north, where they back Kurdish militants operating against the Syrian government.
The Russian military has repeatedly reported that the US uses the areas under its control in Syria to provide support to Takfiri terrorists.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Attacking militant-held Idlib 'humanitarian mistake' for Iran, Russia, Trump claims
Iran Press TV
Tue Sep 4, 2018 01:28AM
US President Donald Trump has claimed that attacking militant-held Idlib would be a "humanitarian mistake" for Tehran and Moscow.
"The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!" claimed the US president in a tweet on Monday.
His tweet followed the latest visit to Damascus by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other top officials from the war-ravaged country.
Trump's comment follows similar remarks by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
Tehran is set to host an upcoming summit with Russian and Turkish leaders over the situation in Syria on September 7.
Upon arrival in the Syrian capital earlier on Monday, Zarif asserted that "Terrorists operating in the remaining parts of Idlib must be cleansed, and the region be returned to the people of Syria,"
Last week, Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami visited Damascus, where he signed a "defense and technical agreement."
The Syrian army, meanwhile, is gearing up for a major offensive to retake the last terrorist stronghold, but it is facing threats of being hit by the US and its allies.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the country.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Lawmaker Says Armenia Willing To Take Part In Syria Reconstruction
RFE/RL's Armenian Service September 04, 2018
Armenia is willing to take part in the reconstruction of Syria, Armenian parliament speaker Ara Babloyan has said during a meeting with the Syrian ambassador to Yerevan, Muhammad Haj Ibrahim.
Aided by the Russian military, Syrian government forces have recently restored control over much of the territory of the Middle Eastern country torn by years of war, and Damascus is now seeking help to rebuild the country and restore its economy.
Russia is seeking greater Western involvement in the reconstruction of Syria. The United States and its allies, however, are tying reconstruction assistance to a process that includes UN-supervised elections and a political transition in Syria. Washington blames Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the country's devastation.
The hostilities since 2011 have affected a sizable ethnic Armenian community in Syria. Tens of thousands of Syrian Armenians fled their homes, with many of them given refuge in Armenia in recent years.
During the meeting with the Syrian ambassador on September 3, Babloyan expressed hope that "peace, internal political stability, and public solidarity will soon be established in Syria."
He also expressed his gratitude to the Syrian legislature for its activities towards the recognition of the Ottoman-era massacres of Armenians as genocide.
Many Syrian-Armenians are descendants of survivors of the 1915 massacres who found refuge in Aleppo and other Syrian cities and towns.
Ambassador Ibrahim said the Syrian-Armenian community had played an important role in the country, describing it as "an integral part of the Syrian society that has vastly contributed to the country's development."
"What the Syrian people have seen during these recent years is like what Armenians saw in Western Armenia," he said, referring to the part of historical Armenia that is now in Turkey, according to the Armenian parliament's website.
Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/babloyan-armenian- parliament-speaker-says-armenia-willing-take- part-syria-reconstruction/29469541.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
UN Urges Putin, Erdogan To Help Avert 'Bloodbath' In Syria's Idlib
RFE/RL September 04, 2018
The presidents of Russia and Turkey should act urgently to avert a "bloodbath" in Idlib Province, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria, the UN envoy to Syria has said.
Staffan de Mistura said in Geneva on September 4 that telephone talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Regep Tayyip Erdogan, "would make a big difference."
He made the comments as Syrian government forces have been preparing for a major assault on Idlib, the last major enclave held by fighters battling President Bashar al-Assad in the country's seven-year war.
Russia has given Assad crucial support throughout the war in Syria, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and uprooted millions since it began with a government crackdown on protesters in March 2011.
Turkey is backing opposition groups but has sponsored with Russia and Iran, Assad's other key ally in the Syrian war, a series of negotiations on the conflict.
On September 4, the White House said the United States was "closely monitoring the situation" in Idlib, where it said "millions of innocent civilians are under threat of an imminent Assad regime attack, backed by Russia and Iran."
Idlib is home to an estimated 3 million civilians and the United Nations has warned that some 800,000 people could be forced from their homes by any major government offensives. The war already has killed more than 400,000 people and displaced millions.
"Let us be clear, it remains our firm stance that if President Bashar al-Assad chooses to again use chemical weapons, the United States and its Allies will respond swiftly and appropriately," the White House statement also said.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu spoke on September 4 about the Syrian conflict, and both diplomats agreed the expected military offensive in Idlib would be an "unacceptable, reckless escalation," according to State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.
Earlier on September 4, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Russian jets carried out dozens of air strikes on rebel-held areas in Idlib and other provinces, killing at least 12 civilians.
If confirmed, they would be the first Russian air strikes there in three weeks.
Meanwhile, Israeli jets flying over Lebanon struck at targets in Syria's Hama and Tartous provinces, Syrian state media reported.
SANA news agency said the country's air defenses shot down five missiles, adding that one person was killed and 12 others were wounded in the air strikes.
The observatory said the jets targeted military installations belonging to Iran.
Israel is believed to be behind a string of strikes targeting government and allied military installations in Syria.
Late on September 3, U.S. President Donald Trump warned Assad and his allies not to "recklessly attack" in Idlib.
"The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!" Trump twitted.
Russia rejected Trump's warning, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying on September 4 that the Syrian Army was getting ready to clear a "hotbed of terrorism" in Idlib.
"The Idlib situation continues to make us feel strongly concerned in Moscow, Damascus, Ankara, and Tehran," Peskov said, adding that the presence of militants in the province was undermining the Syrian peace process and making the region a base for attacks against Russian forces in Syria.
Peskov also said the situation in and around Idlib Province will be a main item on the agenda when Putin meets with the presidents of Iran and Turkey in Tehran on September 7.
That same day, the United Nations Security Council will hold a meeting on the situation in Idlib, the U.S. Ambassador to the world body, Nikki Haley, said at a news conference.
"The situation in Idlib is sensitive," Iran's state news agency IRNA quoted Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying.
"We will try to remove terrorists from Idlib with the least human cost," he added.
Iran, Russia, and Syria often refer to any armed opponent of the Syrian government as a "terrorist." In the case of Idlib, an estimated 10,000 fighters with the Al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group are believed to be the dominant force among rebels in the province.
With reporting by AFP, AP, Reuters, and the BBC
Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trump-warns-russia- iran-syria-again-killing-hundreds-thousand- assault-idlib-province/29469543.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, Turkey Agree 'Any' Syrian Offensive in Idlib 'Unacceptable' - US State Dept
Sputnik News
23:36 04.09.2018(updated 00:00 05.09.2018)
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke on Tuesday over the phone with his Turkish counterpart, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, about the situation in Idlib, Syria.
The statement on the call, attributable to State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert, takes a stronger position against than the one taken by US President Donald Trump the day prior.
"President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy," Trump tweeted on Monday. "Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!"
Now, it appears that the State Department is expanding the White House's red line. While Trump cautioned against a "reckless attack," the State Department, in conjunction with the Turkish Foreign Ministry, is calling "any Assad military offensive" in Idlib "unacceptable."
Pompeo and Cavusoglu "agreed that any Assad regime military offensive in Idlib would be an unacceptable, reckless escalation of the conflict in Syria," the statement reads.
As the Syrian government, backed by Russian air power, has liberated major cities and districts from the jihadists since the start of the war more than seven years ago, they have allowed the militants to evacuate into Idlib. Now, there are fears the province could be the site of a chemical attack, with the UN special representative for Syria warning that militants there are capable of producing weaponized chlorine and Russia saying it has evidence of plans for chemical provocations by jihadists.
On Friday, the United Nations Security Council will convene to discuss the situation in Idlib, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley told reporters on Tuesday.
Sputnik
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Moscow, Tehran, Ankara Ultimately Want Put an End to War in Syria - Russian FM
Sputnik News
23:33 04.09.2018(updated 23:49 04.09.2018)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the end goals of Russia Turkey and Iran in Syria may differ at some aspects, but the countries ultimately want the Syrian conflict to end.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview that Moscow with its partners on the so-called Astana group of Syrian peace guarantors (Russia, Turkey and Iran) ultimately want put an end to the war in Syria and make sure that Syrian people could decide their fate without an outside interference.
Lavrov also said on Tuesday that the United States assured Russia that it would ensure the separation of armed opposition from terrorists in Syria.
"Our partners, including US ones, assured us that they would ensure the separation of the so-called moderate opposition from terrorists," Lavrov said on Russia's Channel One.
Previously, the Russian Foreign Minister said during his speech at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations that "there is no place for terrorists in Syria, and the Syrian government has every right to seek their liquidation on its territory." He stressed that it is necessary to separate the armed opposition from terrorists, noting that it is impossible to tolerate the situation in Syria's Idlib province indefinitely.
The situation in Idlib is tense amid reports on terrorists preparing a false-flag chemical attack against civilians, set to provoke western nations into launching a military action against the Syrian government.
Idlib province is one of Syria's de-escalation zones and a remaining stronghold of insurgency in the country. Syrian President Bashar Assad said earlier that the liberation of Idlib province was among the priorities for the Syrian military's operations. Washington has been opposing the possible offensive by Syrian government in the province: US President Donald Trump warned the Syrian government as well as Russia and Iran earlier against the possible military operation in the rebel-held territory.
Syrian Foreign minister Walid Muallem said earlier that the warnings by the United States would not affect the "determination of the Syrian people and Syrian army's plans to clear Idlib and finally put an end to terrorism in Syria."
Sputnik
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
US Vows to Respond to 'Swiftly and Appropriately' if Assad Uses Chemical Weapons
Sputnik News
21:03 04.09.2018(updated 22:16 04.09.2018)
The White House stated Tuesday that Washington, together with its allies, was ready to respond to a possible chemical attack carried out by the Syrian government forces. Prior to that, the Russian Defense Ministry warned that Syrian militants were preparing to stage fake attacks to blame them on the Syrian army.
"Let us be clear, it remains our firm stance that if President Bashar al-Assad chooses to again use chemical weapons, the United States and its Allies will respond swiftly and appropriately," the White House said in a press release on Tuesday.
The White House called the current situation in the Idlib province "reckless escalation".
In addition, the White House said that it would continue to collaborate with its allies in order to come up with a diplomatic solution to resolve the situation in Syria.
Recently, Russian authorities warned that a chemical assault was being masterminded, aimed at making the Western side take retaliatory measures against the Syrian government, which has resulted in growing speculations about the possibility of a chemical attack in Syria.
On August 25, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov stated that the Tahrir al-Sham terrorist group (affiliated with the Jabhat Nusra* terror organization, which is banned in Russia) had plans to stage a provocation in the province of Idlib in Syria aiming to condemn Syrian state forces for allegedly using chemical weapons.
*Jabhat Nusra, also known as Al-Nusra Front is a terrorist group banned in Russia
Sputnik
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Trump Wanted to 'F***ing Kill' Assad After 2017 False Flag Chem Attack Reports
Sputnik News
20:54 04.09.2018(updated 21:39 04.09.2018)
A new book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward claiming to offer insight into a tumultuous Trump White House revealed the tense atmosphere during the lead-up to the US missile strikes against Syria in April 2017.
According to Woodward, following the alleged chemical attack at Khan Shaykhun on April 4, 2017, which Syrian and Russian officials slammed as a false flag attack aimed at discrediting the Syrian government, President Trump was so furious that he wanted to assassinate Syrian President Bashar Assad.
In a telephone call with Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Trump allegedly said the following, according to Woodward: "Let's f***ing kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f***ing lot of them."
Telling the president that he would deal with it, Mattis hung up the phone and instead allegedly told an aide: "We're not going to do any of that. We're going to be much more measured."
Three days later, following internal consultations, but before the alleged chemical attack could be properly investigated, the United States launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles from destroyers in the Mediterranean Sea at the Shayrat air base, in what Washington claimed was a direct response to the Khan Shaykhun "attack." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the US aggression a violation of international law, with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei describing it as a strategic mistake.
The US strike, which killed several Syrian troops and civilians, and destroyed several planes, failed to reach its objectives of crippling the Syrian Air Force, with aircraft taking off from the base's runways just hours after the attack to strike terrorist targets.
However, the attack did prompt Moscow to announce that it would take measures to help strengthen Syria's air defenses.
On April 14, 2018, the United States and its British and French allies carried out new strikes, again over claims that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons, this time in Douma, using over 100 cruise missiles. Immediately following that attack, the Russian military reported that Syrian air defenses had shot down 71 of the 103 cruise missiles fired. Syrian media reported that half a dozen troops, and three civilians, had been injured in the attack.
In a fit of public rage on Twitter ahead of the strikes, Trump called President Assad an "animal," and threatened a "big price to pay" for the "chemical attack," which has since been conclusively proven to have been a false flag operation committed by the White Helmets organization.
The White House has yet to comment on the contents of Woodward's book, or the authenticity of the quotes the journalist has ascribed to the president or General Mattis.
Sputnik
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Nusra Front May Produce Weaponized Chlorine in Syria - UN Envoy
Sputnik News
20:15 04.09.2018
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) Nusra Front terrorists have the ability to produce weaponized chlorine, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said in a press conference on Tuesday.
"I have been saying, and I confirm my thinking that the government on the one hand and al-Nusra [on the other], which is an organization declared terrorist by the [UN] Security Council, are having the capability to produce weaponized chlorine," de Mistura told reporters.
The envoy underscored that chlorine has "unique horrible capacity of being on the gray zone between what is considered a chemical attack and not."
Russia's Defense Ministry has recently warned that the leader of the Tahrir al-Sham terrorist group, which is affiliated with the Nusra Front*, is planning a chemical attack against civilians in the Syrian Idlib province in order to provoke western nations into retaliating against Damascus.
Last week, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said terrorists smuggled eight canisters of chlorine gas into a village southwest of Idlib. According to Konashenkov, a chemical attack would create a pretext for Western intervention in an Idlib operation.
Previously, Syria accused terrorist of using chemical weapons, at the same time noting that Damascus eliminated all of its chemical arsenals in 2013 and that Syria would not use chemical weapons.
*Jabhat Nusra, also known as Al-Nusra Front is a terrorist group banned in Russia
Sputnik
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Hezbollah Defies Alleged Secret US Offer on Tit-for-Tat Withdrawal From Syria
Sputnik News
19:59 04.09.2018
Earlier, Lebanese media reported that officials from US intelligence and security agencies had secretly traveled to Damascus in June to meet with Syrian officials, and to offer to pull US forces out of Syria in exchange for a withdrawal of Iranian advisers, the sharing of intelligence on terrorists, and a share of the spoils from Syrian oil sales.
Speaking on Monday, Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem described the tit-for-tat offer allegedly proposed by US officials during the meeting in June as "meaningless," and emphasized that only the "victors" are eligible to set any conditions on peace in Syria, and not Washington, which has suffered a defeat.
Hezbollah and the Syrian government were enjoying "successive victories for Syria and its axis," Qassem said, according to PressTV. "We have lifted this black cloud, victories will continue, and we will achieve more," he added.
The deputy leader of the Lebanese political and militant group also urged "all factions counting on America" to "reconsider" their alliances, suggesting that the United States holds no loyalty to its partners.
"They are Saudi Arabia's allies, and tomorrow Saudi Arabia will see that the first strike it will get will be from America," Qassem said.
Hezbollah has been a key ally of the Syrian government in the war in Syria, and has played a major role in the fight against jihadist terrorists (including Daesh/ISIS*) in both Syria and Iraq, since 2014.
Last week, Lebanon's Al Akhbar newspaper reported that Damascus had turned down an alleged secret US offer to withdraw from the Arab Republic, including its forces in At-Tanf, and the Kurdish-controlled East Euphrates, in exchange for concessions from the Assad government on Iran, intelligence sharing and oil.
Among the conditions was the demand that Iran, which unlike the United States sent its military advisors to Syria at the request of the Syrian government to help fight Islamist militants, also withdraw. Damascus has said repeatedly that the issue of foreign military forces on Syrian territory "concerns the sovereignty of Syria" and is not up for debate.
* A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.
Sputnik
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
US-Led Coalition Denies Militants Operate Base Near Syria's Al-Tanf
Sputnik News
17:19 04.09.2018(updated 17:39 04.09.2018)
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US-led coalition in Iraq and Syria denies allegations that a Syrian militant group has set up training camps near the United States' military base in Syria's al-Tanf, a spokesperson for Operation Inherent Resolve told Sputnik on Tuesday.
"There is no terrorist camp within the al-Tanf de-confliction zone, which runs in a 55k diameter around the Coalition's al-Tanf Garrison," the spokesperson said when asked about the militants' allegations.
The spokesperson called the allegations regarding a terrorist camp near its base as "malign propaganda."
The allegations the spokesperson mentioned were made by a group of militants who were recently captured in battle. As the Russian Defense Ministry's Center for Syrian Reconciliation stated Saturday, this group revealed that they were members of the Lions of the East group and admitted that they have a training camp near the US military base in al-Tanf.
According to the Russian Reconciliation Center, the clashes near Palmyra left two militants dead and two others detained. One of the detained terrorists said that US instructors took part in the training of his group and supplied them with weapons and ammunition.
The US-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against Daesh* targets in Syria since 2014. The coalition's mission was neither approved by Damascus nor the UN. Currently, about 2,000 US troops are deployed in Syria.
*Daesh (ISIL/ISIS/Islamic State), a terrorist group banned in Russia, the United States and many other countries
Sputnik
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Trump Warns Syrian Government Against Operation in Idlib Province
Sputnik News
01:36 04.09.2018(updated 08:38 04.09.2018)
Trump has warned Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad against conducting a military operation in Syria's Idlib province, which remains a stronghold of insurgency in the country.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) US President Donald Trump warned the Syrian government as well as Russia and Iran against the Syrian army's possible offensive in the rebel-held province of Idlib.
"President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!" Trump wrote on his Twitter page on Monday.
Idlib province is one of Syria's de-escalation zones and a remaining stronghold of insurgency in the country. The situation in the province has recently escalated with Moscow and Damascus suggesting that militants are planning to stage a false-flag chemical attack against civilians there to frame the Syrian government.
Previously, Syrian President Bashar Assad said that the liberation of Idlib province was among the priorities for the Syrian military's operations.
Meanwhile, Syrian Foreign minister Walid Muallem said in an interview that the warnings by the United States would not affect the "determination of the Syrian people and Syrian army's plans to clear Idlib and finally put an end to terrorism in Syria," adding that the accusations by Washington about alleged plans regarding chemical attacks have become questionable in the eyes of public opinion.
Sputnik
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
It's time to apply maximum 'moral pressure' to save lives in Syria's Idlib: UN negotiator
4 September 2018 - All countries with influence over the grinding conflict in Syria should use all the "moral pressure" they can to avoid a full-scale military attack on Idlib, particularly Russia and Turkey, the United Nations top negotiator Staffan de Mistura said on Tuesday.
Appealing directly to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, and President Vladimir Putin, the UN Special Envoy for Syria explained to journalists in Geneva, that the two leaders had spoken to each other about the protection of civilians in 2016 after the fall of Aleppo to Syrian Government forces, and appealed for them to do so again now.
"You were the ones who actually were able to talk to each other, to make a telephone call, organize a formula that allowed the end of that horrible period not to be the worst," he said.
"A telephone call would make a big difference even before Tehran," he told reporters, in reference to the leaders' upcoming meeting in the Iranian capital on Friday.
Welcoming US President Donald Trump's earlier statement cautioning against a Government of Syria attack on Idlib, lest it lead to a "potential humanitarian tragedy", Mr. de Mistura said that he was sure that the Turkish and Russian leaders could find a "soft solution" to the problem if talks went beyond technical discussions.
"We all continue to wish, to ask, to hope to avoid the battle for Idlib," the UN Special Envoy said, noting that the north-west province had been hit by six airstrikes earlier on Tuesday.
The need to secure the protection of some 2.9 million civilians in Idlib is urgent, the UN official explained, amid reports that a 10 September deadline had been set for an attack.
Key objectives include preparing protection for routes to be used for the voluntary evacuation of those living and sheltering in Idlib, which is the last rebel stronghold in the country.
These could be in the "east, south and north", Mr de Mistura said, adding that the "whole principle can be that they, the people, can decide where to go", before calling for UN humanitarian access.
"We therefore ask more time to be given for negotiations especially between Russia and Turkey who are the main indirect stakeholders," he said, who "while we are talking, have been talking since this morning and who do hold in my opinion the key for a soft solution to the Idlib issue."
Speaking after a scheduled meeting of a humanitarian taskforce at the UN, Mr. de Mistura noted that 10,000 Al Nusra fighters remain in Idlib.
They have been classified as terrorists by the UN Security Council, he explained, before adding that the priority was protecting civilians the "men, women, teachers, health workerschildren, squeezed in the anguish of not knowing what will happen".
Also in Geneva, Senior Adviser to the Special Envoy, Jan Egeland, appealed to Russia, Turkey and Iran to give "hope" to the people of Idlib, in their capacity as guarantors of a deal to prevent fighting from escalating there.
The US, Western countries and the Gulf countries should also do all they can "so that men with guns and power for once put civilians first", he said, noting that there were "many more babies than there are terrorists in Idlib - there are a million children".
"If it succeeds we will have hundreds of thousands of lives spared, if it fails in the next days and hours we could see a battle more cruel than any previous battle in the cruelest war of our generation," added Mr. Egeland.
Earlier in the day Mr. de Mistura said that upcoming Syria constitutional consultations in Geneva on 10 and 11 September "could potentially, revive or give a chance of reviving, a credible political process" to end years of fighting across the war-ravaged country.
The goal of the consultations with Turkey, Russia and Iran remained consistent with UN Security Council resolution 2254: the establishment of an "inclusive, Syrian-led, Syrian-owned" future, he said.
Mr de Mistura also confirmed that he had received the names of individuals who could represent the Government of Syria and the opposition over a new, negotiated constitutional framework.
"The constitutional committee can be and should be now the entry point for what we call a credible political process as long as the constitutional committee is credible as well," the Special Envoy said.
A UN Security Council meeting planned for 20th September, will review his report on progress towards the committee's formation.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
US Warns Syria Against Chemical Attack on Idlib
By VOA News September 04, 2018
The United States promises to "respond swiftly and appropriately" if Syria uses chemical weapons in Idlib province, the last rebel stronghold in Syria.
The White House said Tuesday it is "closely monitoring" the fate of Idlib, where it said "millions of innocent civilians are under threat of an imminent ... attack" by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
It said President Donald Trump "has warned that such an attack would be a reckless escalation of an already tragic conflict."
The White House said it "will continue to work tirelessly with its allies to find a lasting diplomatic solution to resolve the hostilities in Syria" under a United Nations Security Council resolution.
Russia and Iran back the Assad regime and say they support Syria's efforts to retake Idlib.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Idlib is a pocket of terrorism and that the situation there is undermining efforts to find a political resolution to the Syrian conflict.
The Iranian foreign ministry said Idlib should be cleared of "terrorists" and that reconstruction efforts and the return of refugees should go forward.
Syria, Russia and Iran use the word "terrorists" when talking about Syrian rebels.
There are about 3 million people in Idlib, and the U.N. said it is worried about the potential humanitarian toll that may come with a Syrian military campaign there.
Trump warned Syria in a tweet Monday night to not "recklessly attack" Idlib. He also called on Russia and Iran to show restraint.
Trinity University history professor David Lesch told VOA that while the Trump administration is "ratcheting up the pressure a little bit" beyond its previous warnings against a chemical attack, U.S. influence on what happens in Idlb is limited.
"Frankly speaking, I don't think there's anything the United States can do about it. I think Russia and the Syrian government and their allies are dead set on taking over Idlib, either in a phased way or in an all-out massive invasion," Lesch said.
U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said the Security Council will meet Friday to discuss the situation.
Syria has been at war since early 2011. A multitude of parties, including pro-government forces, rebel groups and militants, are all fighting for control over various areas.
Assad's forces, backed by military support from Russia and Iran, have recaptured major cities in recent years after giving rebel fighters, families and other civilians the chance to flee, instead of facing a military onslaught.
Meanwhile, suspected Israeli jets struck military targets inside Syria's Hama and Tartous provinces Tuesday, killing at least one person, Syrian state media reports.
The report said Syrian air defenses intercepted some of the Israeli rockets.
Israel has not confirmed Tuesday's airstrikes. But a top Israeli defense official acknowledged Tuesday that Israeli jets have struck 200 Iranian military targets inside Syria since 2016.
Israel has said Iran must not be allowed to have a permanent military presence inside Syria.
VOA's Victor Beattie contributed to this report.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Russia Joins Iran in Support of Syrian Idlib Offensive
By VOA News September 04, 2018
Russia on Tuesday joined Iran in expressing support for Syria's impending operation to retake control of rebel-held Idlib province, the last major opposition stronghold in the country.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Idlib is a pocket of terrorism, and that the situation there is undermining efforts to find a political resolution to the Syrian conflict.
That follows statements Monday by Iran's Foreign Ministry saying Idlib should be cleared of "terrorists." Iranian media also quoted Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif saying during a visit to Syria that Idlib should be put back under the control of the Syrian people, and that reconstruction efforts in Syria and the return of refugees should go forward.
There are about 3 million people in Idlib and the United Nations has said it is worried about the potential humanitarian toll that may come with a Syrian military campaign there.
Trump's warning
U.S. President Donald Trump warned Syria in a tweet Monday evening not to "recklessly attack" attack Idlib. He also called on two major backers of President Bashar al-Assad's military to also restrain their actions.
"The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!" Trump said.
David Lesch, a history professor at Trinity University in San Antonio, told VOA that while the Trump administration is "ratcheting up the pressure a little bit" beyond its previous admonitions to not use chemical weapons, but that U.S. influence on what happens in Idlb is limited.
"Frankly speaking, I don't think there's anything the United States can do about it. I think Russia and the Syrian government and their allies are dead-set on taking over Idlib, either in a phased way or in an all-out massive invasion," Lesch said.
Syria has been at war since early 2011 with a multitude of parties including pro-government forces, rebel groups and militants all fighting for control over various areas.
Assad's forces, backed by military support from Russia and Iran, have recaptured major cities in recent years, often involving agreements with both opposition fighters and civilians that allowed them to flee to Idlib.
Assad's government has long referred to any opposition fighters as "terrorists." The Idlib area includes both rebel groups and militants such as the Nusrah Front.
The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey are set to hold a meeting in Tehran on Friday to discuss the situation in Idlib.
Victor Beattie contributed to this report.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Statement by the Press Secretary
September 4, 2018
The United States is closely monitoring the situation in Idlib province, Syria, where millions of innocent civilians are under threat of an imminent Assad regime attack, backed by Russia and Iran. President Donald J. Trump has warned that such an attack would be a reckless escalation of an already tragic conflict and would risk the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. Let us be clear, it remains our firm stance that if President Bashar al-Assad chooses to again use chemical weapons, the United States and its Allies will respond swiftly and appropriately. The United States will continue to work tirelessly with its Allies to find a lasting diplomatic solution to resolve the hostilities in Syria under the auspices of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Taiwan monitors ties with eSwatini after China Africa pledge
ROC Central News Agency
2018/09/04 14:41:08
Taipei, Sept. 4 (CNA) Taiwan is closely monitoring ties with eSwatini, its only diplomatic ally in Africa, and will continue to provide assistance to strengthen relations with the country, a foreign ministry official said Tuesday.
On Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping () announced that Beijing will invest more than US$60 billion in Africa over the next three years and cancel debt from the least developed countries that have relations with China as he opened the two-day High-Level Dialogue between Chinese and African Leaders and Business Representatives in the Chinese capital.
All 53 African countries that have diplomatic relations with China sent representatives to the conference, which is part of a series of meetings under the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.
eSwatini, former known as Swaziland, is the only country in Africa that recognizes Taipei instead of Beijing, and was not invited to the forum.
Asked to comment on Xi's announcement, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Liu Bang-zyh () under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said such a proposal will certainly pressure eSwatini to switch recognition.
The ministry will closely follow diplomatic relations with the African country and seek to enhance ties by providing all necessary assistance to eSwatini within its capability, he noted.
However, Liu declined to comment on whether an increase in the diplomatic budget slated for West Asia and Africa next year is for that purpose.
According to information provided by MOFA, the budget the ministry earmarked for West Asia and Africa for 2019 will increase by 1.78 percent to NT$1.4 billion next year.
MOFA spokesman Andrew Lee () explained that the increased budget is meant to be used in Taiwan's diplomatic allies and other countries in the region on all kinds of cooperative projects including medical and healthcare, investment, among others, without going into detail.
Beijing had repeatedly called on eSwatini to change diplomatic recognition but to no avail so far.
Lee previously said Taiwan's new ambassador to eSwatini Jeremy Liang () presented his credentials to the African country's monarch King Mswati III last week, demonstrating strong and stable bilateral ties.
(By Joseph Yeh)
Enditem/AW
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Tsai urges European countries to support Taiwan
ROC Central News Agency
2018/09/04 14:01:08
Brussels, Sept. 3 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen () on Monday urged European countries to support liberal democratic Taiwan at a time when a rising China is impacting the global landscape.
In a recorded speech at a Taiwan-sponsored seminar held at the European Parliament, Tsai said China is undermining the status quo across the Taiwan Strait and its rapid rise is also changing the global order that has sustained the region since the end of World War II.
At the opening to the seminar titled "China Factor: Resistance is Futile? -- Taiwan as a Case Study," Tsai said in a video that Taiwan is aware of the challenges posed by China, and noted that China's actions have "not served to drive Taiwan to Beijing, but encouraged us to look at where our friends and partners are, in countries that share our values and interests."
Since 2016, Tsai said, China has stepped up pressure on democratic Taiwan and tried hard to squeeze its economy and international space.
China has been working to destabilize Taiwan and undermine Taiwanese people's trust of the country's democratic institutions, Tsai said.
However, China's actions have only strengthened Taiwan's resolve that freedom and democracy not fear will continue to determine the future of the nation's 23 million people, she said.
"At this critical juncture in human history, Taiwan understands, better than any country in the world, how important it is that those values survive," Tsai said.
"As a small democracy trying to engage with the world's most powerful non-democratic country, Taiwan is resilient and determined to safeguard our precious democracy," Tsai added.
But, these challenges are not for Taiwan alone and the country is seeking support from friends and partners that share the same values, Tsai said.
"We do need your support. A liberal democratic order can only survive if like-minded countries, including our European partners, work together for the greater good," Tsai said.
"I'm calling on all like-minded countries to display the same spirit that led to the founding of a union across Europe in 1951: the clear-eyed sense that only by coming together, can we protect our values and our future," she said.
The speech lasted about four minutes and 30 seconds and Tsai received plenty of applause from the audience at the seminar, which was hosted by the European Federation of Taiwanese Associations and held on the last day of a three-day event.
In response to Tsai's speech, Ivan Stefanec, a Slovak member of the European Parliament, said the European Union and Taiwan have forged close ties and the EU should pay more attention to democratic development in Taiwan and Asia.
He called for more exchanges between Taiwan and the EU in economics, education and cultural areas in the near future.
Stefanec, who has visited Taiwan several times and is familiar with cross-strait relations, said China's rise is a very important issue not only in global economics but also in international politics so the EU needs to keep an eye on the latest developments.
(By Tang Pei-chun and Frances Huang)
Enditem/AW
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
Turkey Defends its Borders With Syria in Fear of Refugee Inflow - Reports
Sputnik News
16:53 04.09.2018
ANKARA (Sputnik) - The Turkish military is sending military equipment to Kilis province bordering Syria over concerns of a new wave of refugees that could be provoked by a possible military operation in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, Hurriyet Daily News reported on Tuesday.
At least eight vehicles transporting tanks and howitzers passed through Kilis on the way to the Turkish district of Elbeyli on the Syrian border on Tuesday, according to Hurriyet Daily News. The media outlet said, citing security sources, that this move was aimed at helping contain a new wave of Syrian refugees that could result from a potential Syrian government offensive in Idlib province, which is one of Syria's de-escalation zones and a remaining stronghold of insurgency in the country.
Turkey has also expanded the Atmeh refugee camp on the Syrian side of the border and reinforced 12 observation points to monitor the situation in the de-escalation zone, according to the report.
The situation in Idlib has escalated over the past weeks amid the recent reports of a potential government offensive after Russia said it had evidence that terrorists in the province were preparing a false-flag chemical weapons attack to frame the government forces and spark a US-led military intervention. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week that talks were underway to create humanitarian corridors in Idlib to allow civilians to leave the province.
As Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov told reporters on Monday, nobody was interested in active fighting in Syria's Idlib, which may result in mass casualties.
Sputnik
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
UK may lose billions of taxpayer money over Qatar military deal: Report
Iran Press TV
Tue Sep 4, 2018 03:17PM
The UK government could end up losing billions of its taxpayer money because it has underwritten a major military deal to sell Typhoon fighter jets to Qatar.
In a report published Monday on its website, the Daily Telegraph cited unnamed officials as saying that "billions of Exchequer funding" could be lost if Qatar defaults on the massive agreement with UK defense giant BAE Systems.
The sources said the contract runs the risk of "skewing" the government's credit agency "by concentrating about 25 percent of their portfolio risk in one transaction."
It added that British taxpayers would need to support the deal which is worth 6 billion ($7.6 billion).
BAE Systems announced the hefty deal with Qatar in December 2017, saying it would provide Doha with 24 Typhoon fighter jets as well as a package comprising weapons, pilot training and maintenance. The contract will be implemented at the end of this year.
The UK government has defended the deal as a major effort to secure jobs in defense industries while it claims that the agreement could bolster its security cooperation with allied countries in the Persian Gulf region.
UK Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said recently that Typhoon jets would help expand "the Qatari military's mission to tackle the challenges we both share in the Middle East."
Britain has been a major supplier of arms and weapons to undemocratic regimes in the Persian Gulf.
The government has been accused of assisting Saudi Arabia with its devastating military campaign against Yemen where the Kingdom is using weapons supplied by Britain and other Western countries against civilians in the impoverished country.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
UK bolsters support to NATO mission in Afghanistan
100 troops arrive in Kabul alongside Defence Secretary
4 September 2018
100 Welsh Guards arrived in Afghanistan last week. They travelled with Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson who was in the country for a three-day visit.
The 100 troops are the first group of the additional 440 troops the Prime Minister committed to NATO's capacity building mission in Afghanistan at the NATO Summit in July. The UK plays a leading role in NATO, and this troop uplift will make the UK the third largest contributor to Afghanistan with around 1,100 personnel.
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said:
"We remain absolutely committed to building an Afghanistan that is a strong security partner for decades to come. A secure and stable Afghanistan helps keep the streets of the UK safe."
"The uplift of UK personnel not only underlines our commitment to Afghanistan and regional security, but also to the Alliance that has been the cornerstone of our defence for 70 years. Thousands of our personnel stand shoulder-to-shoulder with NATO allies around the world. Those here in Afghanistan are just one example of Global Britain in action."
The additional troops will bolster the UK's existing contribution to the UK-led Kabul Security Force (KSF), which plays a critical role in enabling NATO advisors in the city to undertake engagement with the Afghan Government. They will also continue to mentor the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces who are responsible for security in the capital.
The Defence Secretary also travelled to Mazar-e-Sharif where, alongside the German Armed Forces, UK personnel are supporting the expansion of the Afghan Special Police. The force has recently illustrated its increased capability in responding to the InterContinental Hotel and Kabul Military Academy attacks. He met around 40 UK advisors who have been based in the north of the country since January 2018.
He also met President Ghani and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah, underlining the UK commitment to a secure and stable Afghanistan.
NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address
VANCOUVER, September 05, 2018 - Nevada Clean Magnesium, Inc. (TSX-V:NVM; Frankfurt-M1V; OTCQB:MLYFF) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has signed a definitive agreement with The Stirling Group of Vancouver ("Stirling") for an intial 6 month renewable contract for consulting services intended to position the Company for future expansion into production of magnesium metal that meets market demand, build revenues and establishes name recognition to gain greater attention from the investment community. Stirling's plans should help the Company make a production decision in the future.
The Stirling Group is providing corporate services to formulate a strategic direction and tactical execution plan complete with rigorous financial modeling and independent valuations for the explicit purpose of attracting investment. These tools and outcomes will allow Nevada Clean Magnesium to focus on the future development and implementation of its technologies to address business opportunities in the global magnesium industry.
Edward Lee, President and CEO of the Company remarked "Our goal is to have a plan ready for when we make a production and operations decision, and have the resources to help carry out the plan at the end of this process. We foresee the next 6 months as being crucial to be in a position to ramp up in all aspects of our business. In order to accomplish this, we have hired The Stirling Group who have knowledge and connections to help the company formulate its plans toward operations and the current and future planned fund raisings."
The terms of the contract are for 6 months and renewable with an initial payment of $25kUSD followed by an additional $40kUSD at the end of the fourth month after a successful money raise of up to $1 million USD. Included in the term is a final money raise of $5million USD at the end of 6 months with a succession fee of 5% of the issued Class "B" shares (approx. 9,000,000 shares) as calculated on the date of signing the agreement. Both proposed financings under this agreement are also subject to a Finder's Fee of 8% in cash.
The Consulting Agreement is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.
The technical portions of this press release was prepared under the supervision and review of James Sever, P. Eng., and COO for Nevada Clean Magnesium. Mr. Sever is a non-independent qualified person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 standards.
Forward-Looking Statement
Statements in this news release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements in this news release include that we can become a major U.S. producer and distributor of primary, high grade, low cost magnesium metal; that we will get TSXV approval for our agreement with Stirling and that we can produce magnesium from dolomite and the opportunity to commercialize operations,. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors, including that the TSXV may not approve the agreement, we may not be able to fund our plans or raise sufficient funds to carry on, the Company's dolomite resource may not be mined because of technical, regulatory, financing or other obstacles, the market price for magnesium may make our resources uneconomic, the process may not be able to be commercially developed, none of our processes may result in cost-effective magnesium production, we may not be able to protect our intellectual property and keep out competition, we may not be able to comply with our obligations under the Stirling agreement, we may not be able hire and retain skilled employees, no market for our products may develop, anticipated demand may not materialize, and other general risks associated with being a mineral exploration and development company. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and NCM undertakes no responsibility to update these forward looking statements except as required by law.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
To Reach Nevada Clean Magnesium Please Contact:
Edward Lee, CEO at (604) 210-9862
For additional information please visit our website at
http://www.nevadacmi.com or view our profile at http://www.sedar.com
You may also follow us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn
Copyright (c) 2018 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.
Latest Headlines
Code of conduct launched amid warnings for industry
A new code of conduct for the financial services sector has been launched, but the FMA is asking why it took so long to get there.
Thursday, September 6th 2018, 6:00AM
by Susan Edmunds
The Financial Services Code, which takes effect on January 1, has been in development for two years.
It is designed to sit alongside and complement existing regulation and laws, and has nine standards which fall into three core objectives covering ethical, communication and consumer outcomes.
If there is a material breach of the code, there are a number of sanctions and penalties that an Independent Disciplinary Committee can impose on a member, including fines of up to $100,000 and termination of FSC membership.
FSC chief executive Richard Klipin said it was primarily about putting customers first.
We want to ensure our members are putting the interests of consumers front and centre and delivering the best outcomes for New Zealanders. While we recognise there is still plenty of work to do, with the launch of this Code of Conduct the industry is putting a stake in the ground.
FSC chairman Rob Flannagan said the code showed the depth and power possible from the industry when people worked collaboratively.
He said it had been amazing to watch the process as representatives from the sector developed it.
People would come in wearing the badge of who they work for then have been challenged on whats best for the industry, [weve seen] how theyve moulded and changed and seen things from different perspectives. Everyone saw what was right for the industry as opposed to their particular tunnel that most of us have been trapped in for many years. Thats just been a huge success.
He said the industry was restricted by the Commerce Commission it couldnt agree as an industry to make wholesale changes to the way it operated. But it could come up with vest practice guidelines that would put the industry on a continuous improvement cycle.
Good customer outcomes made good business sense, he said but were also the right thing to do for New Zealanders and the country as a whole.
ANZs Ana-Marie Lockyer, co-chair of the code governance group, said the code would not remain stagnant. Whats acceptable today may not be acceptable tomorrow. Its important to test and challenge it as an industry.
Financial Markets Authority chief executive Rob Everett welcomed the code. But he said the amount of work it took to get it together might say something about leadership in financial services and some of the uncertainty at the top of New Zealand firms about what heir role is in that respect.
He said scandals such as those uncovered by Australias Royal Commission were detrimental to the industry and an affront to people who had spent their careers in financial services.
The damage done must not be underestimated, especially to consumer trust, he said.
Some of that damage is being felt here.
But he said New Zealand had the opportunity to get ahead of it, if providers could show they were adapting and responding to customer needs. Those who did not adapt swiftly to change risked losing customer trust and were more likely to face the intervention of politicians.
Code standards
1 Members must carry out business professionally, with due care, competence and skill, and act with integrity. They must behave in a way that promotes public confidence in the financial services industry.
2 Members must communicate with customers clearly and effectively.
3 Members must make reasonable efforts to ensure that customers are provided with sufficient information to enable them to make informed decisions about product and services.
4 Members must seek and consider customer feedback.
5 Members must design and distribute products responsibly.
6 Members must provide employees and distribution channel personnel with appropriate training.
7 Members must maintain appropriate internal processes for explaining the risks to a customer of replacing or retaining an existing product or service.
8 Members must manage conflicts of interest fairly and in a way that promotes good customer outcomes.
9 Members must treat customers fairly.
Special Offers
Comments from our readers
Sign In to add your comment
Latest Headlines
Failed MPM relationship doesnt mean deadlock
A communication breakdown and lack of trust between Mike Pero and his erstwhile business partners doesnt constitute a deadlock, according to the lawyer representing Peros legal foes.
Thursday, September 6th 2018, 12:46AM
by Miriam Bell
Mike Pero and Mike Pero Mortgages Ltd (MPM) are back in the Auckland High Court this week, battling it out over whether or not they are irrevocably deadlocked on the issue of a dividend pay-out.
While Christchurch-based Pero founded MPM back in 1991, he no longer has holdings in the company, which is owned by Liberty Financial.
However, Pero and MPM are 50/50 partners in Mike Pero Real Estate (MPRE) and, as such, they remain intimately connected.
The current trial is the latest round in a long-running dispute between the two parties, which was kicked off by Peros overpayment of himself as chief executive of MPRE back in 2014.
Pero has long wanted a dividend to be paid out to MPRE shareholders to help him pay back his debt to MPRE.
He has now repaid the debt, with the help of a loan from the Chow brothers, but still wants to receive a shareholders dividend.
But MPMs directors, Sherman Ma and Mark Collins, have always opposed this and Pero contends their inability to agree on the dividend constitutes a deadlock.
Their lawyer, Greg Blanchard QC, told the court on Wednesday that they do not believe the situation is one of deadlock.
Thats because there was never a deadlock on a fundamental issue as MPMs directors never opposed the dividend pay-out per se, Blanchard says.
But they didnt believe a dividend pay-out was prudent until certain things had occurred. All of those things were in Peros control and were not completed by a certain date.
A major factor in this was the limited financial information provided to MPMs directors by Pero which Blanchard says was simply not sufficient for them to declare a dividend earlier.
Despite this, MPM recently put a $6.75 million dividend offer on the table and that offer is now under consideration from the parties involved.
Blanchard says this means that even if there had been a deadlock previously there wasnt now.
However, as Justice Ed Wylie pointed out, there is no guarantee the dividend offer will go ahead.
This trial has served to highlight the breakdown in the relationship between Pero and MPMs directors, particularly Ma.
Under cross-examination by Blanchard earlier on Wednesday, Pero described the relationship as similar to a failed marriage which cant be expected to work if the parties cant talk to each other.
Pero says that a general lack of communication from MPM on issues ranging from board meetings to his remuneration requests is the root of all the problems.
In response, Blanchard alleges that Pero has been using the two issues of the dividend and remuneration to manipulate a deadlock because he wants to get out of the relationship with MPM.
While Pero has made it clear that he feels his relationship with MPMs directors has broken down irrevocably, Blanchard has suggested that they view the situation differently.
Ma is expected to take the stand to give evidence, on behalf of MPM, later this week.
Read more:
MPM Judge asks: whats the argument?
Mike Pero v Mike Pero companies the battle continues
Special Offers
Comments from our readers
No comments yet
Sign In to add your comment
Ferrari has gone aggressive for it's tyre selection for the Singapore Grand Prix whereas their title rivals Mercedes look a lot more conservative in comparison. Pirelli will bring the hypersoft, ultrasoft and soft tyres to the race around the Marina Bay Circuit.
For just the third time this season, the hypersoft tyre will be in use and Ferrari look like they will be making the most of it, bringing nine sets for both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen compared to Mercedes' six sets for their drivers. They will also be bringing just three sets of the ultrasoft and only one set of soft tyres for both of their drivers in a big contrast to Mercedes' plans.
Both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas will bring four sets of ultrasofts and three sets of soft tyres along with their six sets of hypersofts, a much more conservative strategy, bringing with them the least amount of hypersoft tyres of all the teams.
Only Force India and Haas have matched the nine sets of hypersofts that Ferrari will bring, the rest of the grid seemingly split on bringing seven or eight sets of the softest compound available.
Practice will be very interesting to gauge what race tyre is preferable, with Ferrari making the mistake at Monza to not run the soft tyre until the race, suffering from huge amounts of blistering as a result.
Whether the street circuit will provide the same circumstances as in Italy remains unlikely due to the big steps in compounds with the supersoft absent from the list of available compounds.
'BHEEMAS Indian Kitchen & Bakery NOW IN Dublin, Ohio'
Bheemas Indian Kitchen & Bakery, the south Indian cuisine we started as a pilot located in Frisco, Texas. which has been received with an overwhelming response from our customers.
We are very excited to say that our second complete dine-in restaurant experience is having a grand opening on September 6th in Dublin, OH.
At Bheemas we are cheerfully bringing you the coastal delicacies with wide varieties of Biryanis, Pulavs, Bakery items, Chat and lot more. Menu has been thoroughly tested and crafted with the uniqueness of our cuisine to standout anywhere. We offer lunch buffet all 7 days along with weekend specials!
Franchisees (Mr.Srikanth Munagala, Mr.Raghu Aligeti & Mr.Kishore Gajula) are very much excited to open this store. They have also expressed the kind of support they received from Srinivas Madhamshetti & Vamsi Kallepalli is second to none.
Just to put it in perspective, when you think of coastal delicacies we want that to be Bheemas Indian Kitchen. Bheemas Welcomes you all to savour our cuisine variety and feel the culture inspired experience. Bheemas also specializes in Bakery products such as .. Indian flavored pastries, cookies, plum cakes, fruit cakes, event cakes, birthday, anniversary & wedding cakes.
Our idea at Bheemas Indian Kitchen is to bring delectable and heartening food to our customers. We add our unique spices to leave a pronounced lasting impression of our food.
Beyond any doubt, you will be delighted with our exotic ingredients and specially crafted dishes. Speaking about the opening Srinivas Madhamshetti firstly congratulates the location owners Shrikant, Raghu and Kishore and wishing them the best. Also explaining about Bheemas menu.. he says its crafted in a way that it satisfies everyones interests.. biryanis to pulavs to appetizer to curry to chat to Bakery.
From the encouraging response from our customers we have decided to branching it as a franchise model to all the food lovers out there. For all interested, Dublin, OH location will be the flagship and benchmark for Bheemas Indian Kitchen & Bakery in terms of interiors, quality of food and service. Future plan is to expand in the United States right away and expand it further across the globe to reach our customers.
Several franchisee enquiries are active in Michigan, Virginia, Maryland, Ohio and California.
Any Individual or Groups interested to understand more about our franchise opportunities, please reach out to Srinivas Madhamshetti at 313.673.4062 and can also complete franchisee application online which can be found on our website.
www.Bheemas.com
LOCATION DETAILS:
6295 Perimeter Drive
Dublin, OH - 43016
614-956-7020
WWW.BHEEMASDUBLIN.COM
Franchise Questions:
Srini (Srinivas Masdhamshetti): 313.673.4062
Vamsi (Vamsi Kallepalli ): 551.208.4336
JP (Jay Prakash Reddy): 309.660.2787
Website: www.Bheemas.com
Press release by: Indian Clicks, LLC
Click Here for Latest Direct-to-OTT Releases (List Updates Daily)
GREENWICH There will be chocolate croissants.
The Alliance Francaise of Greenwich, an independent nonprofit that organizes classes and cultural immersion programs, will host an open house from 2 to 4 p.m. this Saturday. Attendees can meet teachers and board members and learn about the organizations classes and workshops, the annual cocktail party held next Wednesday and Focus on French Cinema.
Its going to be a window, a vitrine, into what we do in Greenwich, President Renee Amory Ketcham said. The open house is a great way to find a way to freshen your skills or take the opportunity to learn French.
There are 100 alliances in the U.S. and 805 worldwide, and they all insist their teachers are native French speakers, Ketcham said.
Its a good way to discover the program and meet the teachers, education director Geraldine Trippitelli said. Its a fun way to learn French.
Those who sign up for classes while at the open house, located on the second story of the Greenwich Arts Council on Greenwich Avenue, receive a $50 discount for adult classes and $30 off for kids.
Kids as young as 2 and adults as old as 90 participate in classes at the Alliance Francaise, she said. People learn because they want to travel to France or just to have a hobby.
You have a little bit for everyone, Trippitelli said.
The French language has made a comeback, Ketcham said.
Theres a surge in interest in French and French culture because its rich, she said, citing the nations shared history with the U.S. that goes back to the 1700s. Theres an incredible link, historically and culturally.
Americans learn French to experience the richness of French culture and to help their careers, she said.
Some of our students are very loyal, Trippitelli said. They are fluent but they continue to come because they learn about the culture.
The alliance has extended its bilingual school from first through fifth grade to include kindergarten through sixth grade because of a higher demand among residents. It now teaches more than 30 students, and registration is almost closed.
For children, its a good way to speak French at a young age and learn within a playful environment, Trippitelli said. They dont feel like they learn.
The bilingual school, called LEcole du Samedi or Saturday School, is in session three times a month. The alliance has watched the program grow in popularity as parents of New York City boroughs, such as Manhattan and Brooklyn, enroll their children in bilingual schools.
When families move to Greenwich, they look to preserve that experience, Trippitelli said. We have American families with bilingual children.
The educators are rolling out two new workshops this year, too. In its Immersion Workshop, adults can come once a month for a two-hour session either completely in French or English.
This is unique, she said. Its not a class. You dont need to commit every week. We know everyone has a busy schedule, you can still do it once a month.
Students who have tried to perfect their pronunciation for years now have access to a special workshop taught by the alliances instructors, who are all native French speakers.
She said the Alliance Francaise in Greenwich is a beautiful community because it attracts Francophiles from out of town, too, including Darien and Wilton.
It also attracts non-French speakers. Ketcham emphasized the alliance teaches French culture to those who cannot or do not want to learn the language itself.
Its a very inclusive community in the tri-state area, she said.
jo.kroeker@hearstmediact.com
Posted on: September 5, 2018 11:02 AM
The Anglican Diocese of Chile, which is currently part of the Province of the Anglican Church of South America, should become a Province in its own right, the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) has decided. Before the change can be made formally, the ACCs constitution requires the assent of two thirds of Anglican Primates. David White, the Chief Operating Officer at the Anglican Communion Office, told the Standing Committee members that a quarter of Primates had responded positively so far, and more notifications are expected in the coming weeks.
Chiles journey towards becoming the 40th Province of the Anglican Communion began in response to significant growth of the Anglican Church in the country. It has the support of its existing province, whose bishops affirmed the election of new bishops to serve the new Province, should the move go ahead.
In July, Samuel Morrison was consecrated as Bishop of the new Diocese of Valparaiso and Enrique Lago for the new Diocese of Concepcion. The current assistant bishop of Chile, Abelino Apeleo, will lead the new Diocese of Temuco and the current diocesan bishop, Hector Zavala, will lead the new Diocese of Santiago and serve as Primate of the new Anglican Province.
A working party from the Standing Committee visited Chile in August to assess whether the diocese was ready to become a Province. They adopted guidelines approved by a number of ACC meetings on provincial status, including the impact on mission of the new and existing provinces, financial stability, and organisational sustainability.
Members of the working party unanimously recommended Provincial status for the diocese; and their recommendation was enthusiastically supported by the Standing Committee.
The diocese, known as Iglesia Anglicana de Chile (IACH) the Anglican Church of Chile clearly takes very seriously the need to develop church leaders with strong biblical and theological knowledge and good formation for ministry, the working group said in their report. We believe that IACH has developed appropriate training for ordination and for laity. We welcome the commitment that we have heard describe to develop more teaching around understanding the Anglican Communion and Anglican identity.
They add: IACH has convinced us of its strong sense of belonging to the Anglican Communion and that it wants this to be maintained and developed. We very much welcome its vision of the Anglican Church as a focus for unity and its desire to understand differences and remain in Communion despite these.
Following the discussion on Chile, the Standing Committee discussed new draft procedures for the consideration of new Provinces of the Anglican Communion. The new procedures were prepared by a working party led by Margaret Swinson, the ACCs Vice-Chair, with the support of legal advisor Canon John Rees.
Currently, the process for recognising new provinces follows a series of resolutions passed at different meetings of the ACC. In light of an expected increase in the number of applications for provincial status, the Standing Committee have endorsed a new composite procedure, which will be discussed at the next meeting of the ACC, when it gathers in Hong Kong next April.
KABUL, Afganistan - In the lawless days of Afghanistan's civil war, Zardad Faryadi was a young militia commander with a uniquely cruel reputation.
From a highway checkpoint near Kabul, he extorted money from travelers and enforced his demands by threatening to let loose a menacing man who was later executed for killing 20 people, according to human rights reports. Faryadi fled the country but wound up serving 13 years in a British prison for conspiring to torture and take hostages in Afghanistan.
Today, at 54, he is back home and attempting to run for parliament in elections scheduled just over six weeks from now. He seems like a changed man - reflective and eager to defend the rights of nomadic groups backing his candidacy. But he and 35 other candidates have been barred from running for legislative seats because of ties to illegal groups.
As the first Afghan-run election since the Taliban regime fell in 2001, the Oct. 20 poll is seen as a democratic milestone and a make-or-break step toward successful presidential elections in April. But the election is already under violent threat from Afghan insurgents, who have attacked local election offices and bombed a voter ID card site in the capital, killing 57 people. Now, disputes and protests among Afghans over the election are posing a threat to the polls from within.
Opposition groups charge that the new voter ID system is inadequately protected from fraud. And the closed-door process that barred some candidates such as Faryadi while approving others viewed as abusive or corrupt has led to charges of political manipulation and bribery as well as angry protests that shut down the central election office for nearly two weeks.
"I have not been shown any evidence against me. I want nothing to do with violence or factions," Faryadi said in a recent interview. He denied he had committed the wartime brutalities that sent him to prison and asserted that other candidates with ongoing criminal dealings had bribed their way back into the running.
"This election has become a business," he said. "If I had money and political influence, I would be back on the list, too."
The list of barred candidates also includes some puzzling names, including Fawzia Koofi, 43, a liberal longtime legislator and outspoken activist for women's rights. She has been banned from seeking reelection based on complaints by unknown individuals in her native Badakhshan province who claimed she was affiliated with an illegal group.
"When I first heard about this, I laughed," Koofi said in an interview. "I have spent my career struggling against these kinds of abusive people and warlords, and now they say I am one of them?" She said she suspected the complaint came from political adversaries but has no way to know because the process was secret. If she could see the charges, she said, "I would happily fight this in court."
Election officials deny that the vetting process was flawed or manipulated. They said they sent written explanations to all barred candidates but that they could not name individuals who had brought complaints to protect them from reprisal. More than 100 other candidates were disqualified on technical grounds, such as being younger than 25 or actively serving in government office.
"We have taken our decisions independently, based on evidence from people and verified by many government departments," said Ali Reza Rohani, spokesman for the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission. He said all candidates are "welcome to prove" that officials had barred them or restored others "through bribery or political pressure," and that it is also their right to protest "in a civil manner."
Election monitoring groups, though, worry that the contretemps will permanently taint the election's credibility. Even with international guidance, they noted, several previous elections have been badly marred by fraud - including the 2014 presidential election that led to a U.S.-brokered power-sharing deal between the two top candidates, current Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.
Yousuf Rashid, head of the Fair and Free Elections Forum of Afghanistan, said that because the country has a weak judicial system, violent clashes and crimes often go unresolved in any formal way. As a result, festering personal, tribal or wartime feuds can be injected into elections, with no way to know which side is telling the truth.
"People come and say, 'He killed my brother,' or 'He stole government properties,' but this is not the mandate of the election commission," Rashid said. In one case, he noted, a group complained that a candidate had orchestrated the massacre of 120 people in a mosque. "If the commission decides that A or B killed 120 people," but without a public process, "everything becomes politicized. It can create a disaster."
This headline-grabbing drama has overshadowed the efforts of lesser-known candidates, some of whom are entering politics for the first time. It has also obscured the struggles of others running in conflict-ridden or Taliban-controlled districts that are so dangerous they cannot hold campaign events or meet with constituents.
Little attention has been paid to the unprecedented bid by the small community of Afghan Sikhs and Hindus to send their first-ever representative to parliament. A Sikh leader from Jalalabad city, Awtar Singh Khalsa, had planned to run, but he was killed July 1 while traveling in a convoy there that was bombed by insurgents.
His son Narinder Singh Khalsa, 37, was wounded by shrapnel in the attack. A shy man who runs the family herbal medicine business, Khalsa is now reluctantly running in his father's place to speak up for their religious minority.
"We have not picked up arms to threaten or fight anyone," he said. "We are harmless people, but we have not been given our rights."
The challenges are just as tough for Nazari Turkman, a legislator from Kunduz who is running for reelection. Kunduz has been overrun twice by the Taliban and retaken by Afghan security forces with U.S. support. During the last election in 2009, Turkman said, the Taliban controlled about 10 percent of the district where most of his supporters live. Now, he said, they control 90 percent of it.
"I have not been able to visit there so far. I don't have enough guards," he said by phone from Kunduz city. He said four people in the area have already been killed by the Taliban for participating in pre-election activities.
When the campaign starts several weeks from now, Turkman said, "I will visit the district once at any cost. It is impossible to go there twice."
- - -
The Washington Post's Sharif Hassan and Sayed Salahuddin contributed to this report.
Editors Note: In this series, The Way We Work, Entrepreneur Associate Editor Lydia Belanger examines how people foster productivity, focus, collaboration, creativity and culture in the workplace.
If youre a freelancer, you dont get days off when you're sick. While you may be able to save up a rainy day fund for the occasional flu, if anything ever happened to you that put you out of commission for weeks at a time, chances are youd be screwed.
For freelancers who have experienced this misfortune firsthand -- or who live their lives trying not to think about the possibility -- a new kind of insurance will soon become available. A company called Trupo, formed out of the Freelancers Union by the organizations founder, Sara Horowitz, will begin selling short-term disability insurance to a waiting list of more than 200 Georgia residents later this month, with a broader launch and additional markets to follow.
Most people who participate will pay in between $27 and $51 a month and receive an average of $500 per week in the case of serious illness or injury. Several factors come into play, however, from the physical activity required of that persons work to the amount of income they earn. People are only eligible to receive 50 percent of their weekly income (capped at $1,000), for between one and 12 weeks.
Related: 10 Things to Know About Association Health Plans, a Potential Solution to Entrepreneurs' Healthcare Problem
Freelancers may not know what their income will be from one week, month or year to the next, and Trupo doesnt expect them to. Those seeking a quote on the website will see the following reassuring message: We know it fluctuates depending on whats going on with your clients and the economy and possibly certain astrological events, but just give us a reasonable ballpark.
Its up to the freelancer: How much do they want to pay in, and how much do they think theyll need in weekly compensation in case they need to reap the benefit? They can toggle a slider to see how their coverage will change the more or less they pay in. The user interface applies the simplicity of todays most popular digital services to buying insurance, a traditionally harder-to-navigate industry. (Think: how you plug in your points A and B into a ride-hailing app and get a quote immediately.)
God forbid a serious illness or injury plagues the freelancer. In that case, they file a claim. Things such as hangovers, hangnails and bad hair days are not covered, the website clearly states, nor are pregnancy, short-term bugs or dangerous behavior.
Trupo, however, is about more than money. In Horowitzs view, its empowering for workers to be part of a group of people who share their best interests. To that end, part of the Trupo sign-up process, in addition to asking a bit about work and health history, is a solidary pledge.
We're a country of people who feel alone and can feel anxiety, Horowitz said. When you're in a group, you have somebody who's helping you curate and figure things out because you can't do it on your own.
Horowitz spoke with Entrepreneur about why and how Trupo is tackling short-term disability, the types of workers who have the most to gain by organizing and what a worker-focused future might look like.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
How did Trupo come out of the Freelancers Union?
The risk for freelancers, while it has always been about episodic income, is rough right now. In particular, when something happens like a really bad injury or illness, freelancers, of course, aren't eligible for unemployment insurance. They go into credit card debt, or personal bankruptcy or have to give up independence and move in back with family.
When we started listening to that, we said, wait a minute. There is a way we can probably start to collectivize this risk and solve this problem -- which is what Freelancers Union has always done, particularly around health insurance.
It became clear that there was not going to be foundation money or government initiative. The only way we were going to get this started is if we made it a for-profit and took it out of the Freelancers Union. Freelancers Union was like our Y Combinator and helped incubate it and bring it to life. Then the senior insurance team, five of us, left and built Trupo. Now, Freelancers Union is a 10 percent owner.
I understand that the Affordable Care Act presented some obstacles for the health insurance that the Freelancers Union previously worked to provide.
We had built the Freelancers Insurance Company, a $100 million company that reached 27,000 people in New York. After the ACA, the actuarial rules changed. Freelancers Union, which is a nonprofit, wholly owned the insurance company, which was a for-profit. Our actuary told us that we would have to pay between $35 million and $55 million after the ACA if the insurance company was going to survive. We said, there's not $35 million to $55 million of nonprofit capital out there. We knew we had to wind it down, which is what we did.
Was short-term disability insurance your next move in building a safety net for freelancers? Is it because its less regulated?
Health insurance right now is in the middle of extreme volatility. There was no way that we could enter it right now in a way that's helpful at all. It also is about this pivot shift. We're going to need new things, new products, new approaches. Trupo is a completely new approach.
What type of workers is Trupo geared toward? Platform workers, like Uber drivers? Or people whose companies made them independent contractors instead of employees so they wouldnt have to give them benefits?
We have to recognize there are workers who are and should be employees. That's one category. But the people were talking about, they're graphic designers, they're programmers, they're writers. They're skilled, and they very much see themselves as craftspeople. They don't want to be employees. They're working class and middle class.
There are few people in our society who don't work. And sometimes we're getting confused about that. In some ways, this freelance workforce gets lost in the political debate. There are some people who want to keep having the political discussions, and that's great, but we're just moving into action.
Has anyone expressed concern that people who self-select into Trupo insurance are maybe more likely to experience absence from work for illness or injury? Is that sort of risk something you have to mitigate?
One of the things that's fascinating about insurance is that it's all about setting the system so that you can make sure that it's sustainable over time. One of the major things about freelancers in general is, if they don't work, they don't eat. Trupo covers people at 50 percent of their income, which is a game changer for them. But as soon as they can get back to work, they're going to want to. They don't want to live on 50 percent of their income for too long.
The second is that, its not like paid time off if youre not feeling well. It's about, you have a serious injury or a serious illness. But it's also 12 weeks -- it's a short-term product. You see the biggest kinds of abuse when people are going to need disability for decades. Ironically, the easier it is to sign up is a hedge against [abuse], because the people who really are using it as insurance should be used don't have barriers to entry.
Related: Netflix-Like Recommendations May Be in Store for Workplace Benefits
Do you think that platform workers, such as Uber drivers, should be employees of third-party companies to obtain benefits? Or does that create more middlemen and costs for workers to inevitably bear?
We're in a moment of, whatever's helpful, all good. But we have to protect workers' independence. There's a lot that's great about being an independent contractor, and people should be able to do that. What we shouldn't have are bigger platforms that just don't want to pay benefits.
There are different types of independent contractors, and they get mushed together. So you see people who think that they're being progressive saying, "Let's just make everybody an employee. Won't that be great?" But the truth is that it's oppressing freelancers.
There is nothing wrong with making people an independent contractor and paying them enough so that they can buy their benefits. If you can pick the kind of organization you want to get your benefits from, an organization that is 100 percent aligned with you, you feel solidarity with that organization. Getting any benefits from your employer is an accident of history, and people need to remember that.
There were great reasons to get benefits from an employer, and they came from the union movement, and we shouldn't forget that. We dont want to lose that. But we have to be thinking about, what are the unions going to be doing for the next era? Or what are the workers themselves going to be doing? Trupo believes you need to be in a group, and the group should be the one that's providing benefits.
Right now it might seem inevitable that workers are going organize more in the future, but how that will look in practice is still kind of vague.
Because it's a little messy, and it's a little vague, people cling to the past structures because they don't see what the future is yet, and the workers get caught in the middle. That's exactly where Trupo says, "Freelancers, you're not getting anything out of the past. Get over it. We are going to architect the future. And others can follow when they're ready."
But one thing that we have to get back to is a consciousness about our own institutions that have presidents, secretary-treasurers and a budget. That might sound bureaucratic, but it's actually the mechanism of democracy. Because once you have a way to come together, you start to build in leadership so that it can be multi-generational and start to build up knowledge over time. We have to build the civic infrastructure back into America that we have lost. People are yearning for it.
Related:
Freelancers Will Soon Be Able to Buy Short-Term Disability Insurance Through This Startup
Netflix-Like Recommendations May Be in Store for Workplace Benefits
10 Things to Know About Association Health Plans, a Potential Solution to Entrepreneurs' Healthcare Problem
Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
NEW CANAAN They never crossed paths, but two sisters who are accused of bilking $500,000 from a public school cafeteria system both wore black sunglasses to court Tuesday.
Marie Wilson and Joanne Pascarelli, former cafeteria workers in New Canaan Public Schools, arrived separately at state Superior Court in Norwalk in their first court appearance since being arrested for a scam police say could go back as far as 15 years.
Though both of their attorneys say they will plead not guilty, no pleas were made Tuesday and the case was transferred to Superior Court in Stamford.
Wilson, 67, was the first to show up, entering the courthouse at 9:45 a.m. with her attorney, Mark Sherman. Wilson did not speak to anyone but her lawyer, remaining largely stoic before and throughout the proceeding.
The case was transferred, which is typical for things like this, Sherman said after Judge Stephanie McLaughlin approved the cases move to Stamford for Monday. We plan to enter a not-guilty plea at the appropriate time.
When asked about Wilson, Sherman said she was hanging in there.
In mid-August, police issued warrants for the sisters arrests, charging them with larceny and defrauding a public community for allegedly stealing $478,588 from 2012 to 2017.
Pascarelli, 61, dressed in a black blouse and black pants, entered Courtroom C around 10:45 a.m. and was told by an officer to remove her sunglasses. She sat in the front, left corner of the room, along with her attorney, Darnell Crosland.
Crosland also plans to file a not guilty plea for his client and is considering applying to the Accelerated Rehabilitation program.
Crosland said Pascarelli had zero control of any of the revenue and the schools loss was a result of systemic negligence.
Pascarelli gave 30 years of her life to the schools and never missed a day, Crosland said. This is a negligence case and we want the charges dropped, dismissed.
Obviously, shes at the peak of her life and this is not what she expects at this point of her life.
Wilson and Pascarelli did not issue any comment.
In the arrest warrant issued in August, police say that the scam could have been ongoing for 15 or more years but were advised to limit the investigation to five years due to statutes of limitations.
The investigation began in December when the Board of Education filed a complaint with police regarding financial discrepancies in the handling of cash at Saxe Middle and New Canaan High School cafeterias.
Both cases will proceed at the Stamford Superior Court on Monday.
humberto.juarez@hearst-
mediact.com
Posted on: September 5, 2018 1:55 PM
A major research paper, co-authored by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, says that Britains economy is not working for millions of people and needs fundamental reform. The report, Prosperity and Justice, argues that a fair economy is a strong economy and says that prosperity and justice can, and must, go hand-in-hand. The report includes a 10-part plan for a new vision of the economy and a rebalancing of economic power and more than 70 recommendations for the most significant change in economic policy in a generation.
The Report was published by the Institute for Public Policy Researchs Commission on Economic Justice, which was established in autumn 2016 following the decision by Britain to leave the European Union.
To coincide with todays launch of the report today, Archbishop Justin wrote an article in the Daily Mail newspaper setting out a case to tax wealth more. He said there was much in the economy for which Britain can be proud, including being the fifth largest economy, world-leading businesses, and low unemployment.
Yet despite these strengths, it is evident that for many people, the economy is not working, he said. It no longer fulfils the promise of rising living standards. For more than a decade, most people have seen no improvement in their pay, even while the economy as a whole has continued to grow.
He said that Chronically low pay means that a hard days work no longer keeps people out of poverty: today, a majority of the poor are working families. It is particularly hard for young people, so many of whom are set to be poorer than their parents, unable to find secure work and with little prospect of getting on the housing ladder.
He said that the Prosperity and Justice report, at its heart, is a simple but profound truth. If we make the economy fairer for ordinary people, we will also make it stronger. When prosperity and justice go hand in hand, every part of society benefits.
Posted on: September 5, 2018 2:50 PM
Members of the Anglican Consultative Councils Standing Committee have adopted changes to the membership schedule to increase representative from smaller provinces. The triennial Anglican Consultative Council is one of the four Instruments of Unity in the Anglican Communion and the only one of the four which includes laity amongst its membership. Currently, larger provinces are entitled to three members, medium-sized provinces are entitled to two members; and smaller provinces are entitled to one member. The medium and smaller category will be combined with both entitled to two members: one ordained and one lay.
The constitution of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) says that larger Provinces should nominate one bishop, one priest or deacon, and one lay person. Medium-sized Provinces should send one ordained person and one lay person. The new combined category will retain this requirement that one person should be lay and the other ordained.
The Standing Committee also proposed a new category of member: two youth members for each of the five Anglican regions; one male and one female. This change requires the consent of the ACC itself and it was proposed to address that at an early stage of next Aprils ACC-17 meeting in Hong Kong, so that the young people attending as observers could instead participate as full members.
The changes will take the maximum membership of the ACC to 111 people. The meeting will also be attended by up to 80 other people, including ecumenical representatives, staff and members of networks and commissions.
The Standing Committee agreed that the meeting should develop the theme of Intentional Discipleship that ran through the ACC-16 meeting in the Zambian capital Lusaka in April 2016. That meeting called for the creation of a Season of Intentional Discipleship throughout the Anglican Communion.
We do not wish to diminish the focus on Intentional Discipleship, or divert attention away from it, a planning update to the Standing Committee said, adding that we want the ACC-17 theme to be compatible with that for the Lambeth Conference 2020 (Gods Church for Gods World: walking, listening and witnessing together) without pre-empting or upstaging it.
The Standing Committee confirmed that the ACC-17 meeting would run under the theme Equipping Gods people: going deeper in Intentional Discipleship.
The Anglican Consultative Council is one of four Instruments of Unity in the Anglican Communion, alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primates Meeting, and the Lambeth Conference. It exists to facilitate the co-operative work of the churches of the Anglican Communion, exchange information between the provinces and churches, and help to co-ordinate common action.
Haiti - New York : Diaspora celebrates 50 years of Tabou Combo's career
Sunday, September 2nd at Eisenhower Park (New York) as part of the Labor Day weekend, several thousand festival-goers gathered with Haitian musical groups such as Sweet Micky, VAYB, Kai, Nu Look, Djakout #1, Zenglen among others, to celebrate the 50 years of Tabou Combo's career and to be together with compatriots.
In addition, the Ministry of Tourism also honored Tabou Combo and Richard Urbain for their contribution to the Haitian music industry and took advantage of this great meeting of the diaspora to spread the message of the campaign "Zafe Touris se Zafe Tout Moun", and sensitize them to return to the country, choose the destination Haiti for their holidays or for investments because "Lakay se Lakay" ; but also and above all, to make them understand that the cause of Haitian tourism is the business of every child in the country.
A message that was greeted in New York with great enthusiasm.
HL/ HaitiLibre
Havre Police Department
Marita Lee Bear of Havre, 37, was arrested on charges of failing to yield right of way at a stop sign and driving with a suspended or revoked driver's license and Rikki Elizabeth Rodriguez of Billings, 28, was issued a summons on charges of no vehicle insurance and operating a vehicle without valid registration, during a vehicle stop on Fifth Avenue Tuesday at 8:06 a.m.
--
Tuesday at 12:33 p.m., a 10th Street West caller reported a theft from a vehicle.
--
Jordan Miles Hobson of Havre, 26, was arrested on a Justice of City court warrant during a vehicle stop on Third Street Tuesday at 3:18 p.m.
--
A caller reported a two-vehicle noninjury accident Tuesday at 5:10 p.m.
--
A burglary was reported Tuesday at 6:59 p.m. by a Second Street caller.
--
Officers issued a summons after a caller at a First Street business requested assistance Tuesday at 7:06 p.m. No details on the charges was provided.
--
A caller reported suspicious activity at 8:18 p.m. Tuesday on Fifth Street.
--
Scott Earl Smith of Havre, 37, was arrested on a probation violation charge after an officer stopped Tuesday at 9 p.m. to provide someone assistance.
--
Paul Vincent Elston of Havre, 29, was arrested on a charge of partner of family member assault after a Ninth Avenue caller at 11:16 p.m. Tuesday reported a domestic disturbance.
Hill County Sheriff's Office
Randy Jay Chandler of Rocky Boy, 31, and Erin George Nault of Rocky Boy, 26, were each issued a summons on a charge of shoplifting after a U.S. Highway 2 West business caller reported shoplifters Tuesday at 9:57 a.m.
--
A caller on 40th Avenue Southeast reported a disturbance at 2:24 p.m. Tuesday.
Havre Fire Department
Havre Fire Department received no calls overnight.
Havre Animal Shelter
This morning the shelter held six medium-hair kittens with gender listed as "unknown," one medium-hair female cat and one short-hair female cat.
--
The shelter also held this morning a 1-year-7-month-old male German shepherd, a 2-year-1-month-old female pit bull terrier-German shepherd cross, a 2-year-1-month-old male Pekingese-dachshund cross and a 1-year-10-month-old female Australian cattle dog-blue heeler-German shepherd cross. The shelter also had five 13-week-old Rottweiler-shepherd cross puppies.
Press release
Montanans who want to reduce drunk and drugged driving are invited to rally together Tuesday, Sept. 11, at 11 a.m. at the steps of the state Capitol building in Helena to highlight Montanas worst-in-the-nation record for DUIs and offer suggestions to help solve this problem.
Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney and Attorney General Tom Fox will speak and offer their support and ideas. Members of three DUI Task Forces from Great Falls, Billings, and Missoula will also present five recommendations to reduce DUIs, including more effective penalties for first-time offenders; reducing the current 46 percent of DUI suspects who refuse to take a breathalyzer test and clog the court system; funding well-publicized DUI checkpoints; collecting court DUI statistics to help identify judges, police, and prosecuting attorneys inadequately dealing with DUIs; and increasing the beer tax to a nickel a can to help fund DUI prevention education for schools, DUI law enforcement, courts dealing with DUIs, and monitoring, counseling and treatment for DUI offenders.
Results from a recent DUI survey of nearly 200 professionals will also be shared.
For more information please contact Ron Yates at 406-781-5223.
Editor,
Who is Kathy Kraninger?
Well if youve ever had anyone in your family conned by a payday lender, you should know. The Senate could confirm Ms. Kraninger soon to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and she seems ready to try to roll back protections for borrowers of payday loans. Like most Americans, I think these basic protections are important to keeping our state safe from scams.
Thankfully, Sen. Jon Tester put consumers in Montana ahead of predatory lenders. During the Senate vote Tester said, My concern is that if we confirm Kraninger, she will do nothing ... and if she does nothing then the CFPB will (become) an inactive organization that will not be protecting students, military people or those who are seniors. He then voted against installing Kraninger because we need someone at the consumer bureau who will enforce the law, not someone who will fall asleep at the wheel while we get scammed.
Darrell Johnson
Billings
The union leader said the government has not changed funding for the sector.
We will mobilise to change the government. We are serious about putting Scott Morrison out of office, Gibbons said.
About 100,000 workers are reportedly planning to speak to millions of parents in the period leading up to the election regarding how the government has failed educators on equal pay.
United Voice criticised the way early childhood workers are treated more like babysitters than educators.
Other industry experts said the strike goes beyond the issue of wages.
Speak to all parties involved; including the accuser, the accused and anyone who might have additional knowledge of the situation claimed Keep accurate records of all meetings and discussions Quell any evidence of ridicule or hostility within the work environment Be cognisant of the damage the allegations could have on either the victim or the perpetrator Keep all investigations and findings confidential to only those directly involved
What to avoid
As the Australian community rises up against unequal workplace occurrences, businesses should be prepared to ensure that none of the following is occurring in their workplace:
Women who come forward experience retribution Promotions are lost or delayed Job loss as a result of the filing of a complaint Emotional issues arising from the abuse; including post-traumatic stress syndrome, anxiety, depression and fear are addressed by human resources.
The best cure is prevention
The #metoo movement has created a ripple of outrage which is now gaining momentum and will continue to be a major national issue of interest. With the level of outrage that is present, businesses need to be prepared to fight any incoming claims of inequity. To do this they must be able to show that their female employees are being treated fairly and equally, sans any form of sexual harassment. It is important for businesses to have the following avenues open to women who feel they are being sexually harassed or treated unfairly in the workplace.
Set procedures that protect a womans right to come forward with information of being harmed, assaulted or harassed in the workplace Protect the women who come forward from experiencing any repercussions for raising these sensitive issues Attend to the need to alter the work environment, sans any loss of status or promotional opportunities for the women who come forward Do not use termination as a way to eradicate the issue Assure the victim that in the event they choose to look for a new positon elsewhere, references will be given only on their actual work performance Offer resources within the community to assist women in finding additional help with the emotional issues that can arise from such a situation
With a combination of responsible business practices, and with proper attention, advocacy, and careful thought about the issues, businesses will be able to reduce the prevalence of sexual harassment in Australian workplaces. Such action will open up the workplace to greater success through respect, safety, and the full and equal integration of all employees over the course of their careers.
About Rolf Howard
Rolf is Managing Partner of Owen Hodge Lawyers. He has been in the legal practice since 1986 and a partner of Owen Hodge Lawyers since 1992. Rolf focuses on assisting clients to proactively manage legal responsibilities and opportunities to achieve competitive advantage. Rolf concentrates on business planning and formation, directors duties, corporate governance, fund raising and business succession. His major interest is to assist business owners and their financial advisers plan and implement strategies to build and exit from successful businesses.
www.owenhodge.com.au
A large genomic analysis has linked certain DNA mutations to a high risk of relapse in estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, while other mutations were associated with better outcomes, according to researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the Baylor College of Medicine and the University of British Columbia.
The knowledge could help predict which patients are most likely to have their cancer return and spread, and could help guide treatment decisions. It also opens the door to developing more aggressive treatments for patients with the newly identified high-risk mutations.
The study appears Sept. 4 in the journal Nature Communications.
The researchers analyzed tumor samples from more than 2,500 patients with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, one of the most common forms of the disease. These cancer cells have receptors that bind to the hormone estrogen in the nucleus of the cell and drive tumor growth.
More than 266,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with invasive breast cancer each year, according to the American Cancer Society, and about 70 percent of cases are estrogen receptor positive.
ER positive breast cancer patients have a number of treatment options that block the estrogen receptor to stop tumor growth. Such hormonal therapies are effective and less toxic than traditional chemotherapy and radiation. But some tumors develop resistance to these treatments, mutating in ways that fuel growth independent of the presence of estrogen. These types of mutations are of great interest because they are responsible for the majority of deaths due to breast cancer.
We would like to help doctors identify patients who are likely to do well versus those who are likely to have a recurrence, said first author Obi L. Griffith, assistant professor of medicine and an assistant director of The McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine. Those with mutations that are associated with a good prognosis may need less intensive therapy than they might otherwise receive. But if a patients tumor has mutations linked to high risk of relapse, its useful to know that early so they can be treated with more aggressive therapies or even potential investigational therapies that could be targeted to their specific mutations.
The new study confirmed past work showing that relatively common mutations in genes called MAP3K1and TP53 had opposite effects on tumor aggressiveness. Patients with MAP3K1 mutations did well, while those with TP53 mutations were likely to have a recurrence. The study also identified three genes DDR1, PIK3R1and NF1 with relatively uncommon mutations that were associated with cancer recurrence and spreading.
Although mutations in DDR1 and NF1 are considered rare, they are associated with early relapse, which makes them much more common in patients who unfortunately die from the disease and, thus, could be critical therapeutic targets, said Matthew J. Ellis, MB, BChir, PhD, of the Baylor College of Medicine. Their identification also gives us very important molecular clues into the nature of aggressive tumor behavior.
It is likely that these genes will now be included in gene panel tests, particularly when clinical trials are developed that target these mutations, Ellis added.
One unique element of this study was the age of the samples. Many were over 20 years old, allowing the researchers to know the full history of how the patients fared. But unlike more recent cancer sequencing studies, neither healthy tissue nor blood samples from those patients were collected or stored alongside the tumor. That means the old tumor samples couldnt be compared with normal DNA from the same patients. Comparing the DNA of healthy tissue versus tumor tissue in the same patient can help identify mutations driving the cancer.
According to co-first author Nicholas C. Spies, a graduate student in Griffiths lab, scientists now have enough healthy genomes sequenced to be able to compare, on a broad population level, normal genomes to cancer genomes and use big data bioinformatics methods to pull out the mutations likely to be driving cancer, even in old samples that cant be directly compared with healthy DNA from the same patient.
The researchers also pointed out the importance of continuing to sequence cancer genomes.
With all the breast cancer sequencing thats been done, its tempting to think weve found everything of importance, Griffith said. But this study tells us there is still more to discover.
This work was supported by a Susan G. Komen Promise grant, number PG12220321; a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Recruitment of Established Investigators award, grant number RR140033; the McNair Medical Institute; Susan G. Komen; the Department of Defense (DOD) Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP) award, number W81XWH-16-0538; a Komen CCR award, number CCR16380599; the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute to the NCIC Clinical Trials Group, grant numbers 021039 and 015469; and by the National Cancer Institute, grant numbers NIH NCI K22CA188163 and NIH NCI U01CA209936.
Griffith OL, Spies NC, Anurag M, et al. Prognostic effects of somatic mutations in ER-positive breast cancer. Nature Communications. Sept. 4, 2018.
Washington University School of Medicines 1,300 faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals. The School of Medicine is a leader in medical research, teaching and patient care, ranking among the top 10 medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.
Landowner withdraws plans for senior living development
Related Stories
LAUREL PARK A developer has withdrawn plans for a 130-unit senior living development on Brevard Road between the Hendersonville and Laurel Park corporate boundaries, saying that a Planning Board meeting made clear that the town requires additional time to fully embrace the positive attributions of the project.
Developer Curry Investments had sought voluntary annexation into the town of Laurel Park and zoning of Medical, Institutional, Cultural for the Sunshine Retirement Living development on 7.8 acres on Brevard Road across from Glasgow Lane. The Laurel Park Planning Board voted 4-1 on Aug. 14 to table the zoning request after eight neighboring
property owners opposed the project. Residents said the apartments would generate unwanted traffic and would be incompatible with surrounding developments of single-family homes.
In a letter dated Aug. 22, Thomas Bahrman, an attorney for property owner Chris Curry, addressed concerns Planning Board members and resident have raised. The retirement living project makes good planning sense and is in the right location, he said. Although the immediate neighbors may be in denial, the larger community acknowledges the inevitable this section of Highway 64 between Hendersonville and Laurel Park is changing. Senior housing is generally considered a great transitional use between commercial property and residential. It would generate lighter traffic than other high-density residential, would increase the towns tax base and would be physically attractive and well maintained gateway at a new roundabout.he, he said.
I think most of the Planning Board members and much of the community recognize and agree with these points, Bahrman said. The Planning Board seemed ready to OK the zoning until the last-minute outbursts of a vocal minority changed the immediate mood.
Good planning requires political courage, he said in closing. The
developer remains willing to move the project forward, he said, if
the town signaled that its committed to approving the zoning and annexation.
'During a search, 43,000 zopiclone tablets with a street value of 86,000 were seized.' (stock photo)
A dad-of-seven caught with 43,000 sedative tablets hidden in M&M sweet wrappers at Dublin Airport has been ordered to carry out community service work to avoid six months in jail.
Joseph Anthony Roche (41), of Drumcairn Parade, Fettercairn, Tallaght, was prosecuted by the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA), the agency that regulates medicines in Ireland.
He appeared again at Dublin District Court yesterday to face two charges under the Irish Medicines Board Act: that on October 28, 2016, at Dublin Airport he kept for supply white oval tablets containing or comprising the medicinal product zopiclone, without authorisation of the HPRA, and that he unlawfully placed them on the market.
The case began before new regulations brought in last year stating that zopiclone would be subject to control under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
The prosecution had been ordered to provide disclosure of evidence, and Roche had pleaded guilty to the charges in March. The court had then agreed to an adjournment for a probation report to be prepared.
Evidence was given by HPRA inspector Alan Smullen.
Disability
He agreed with prosecution solicitor Ronan O'Neill that Roche had been stopped by customs officers at Dublin Airport.
He had arrived back from Spain where the sleeping tablets had been bought.
During a search, 43,000 zopiclone tablets with a street value of 86,000 were seized. They were found in M&M packets.
Judge John Brennan heard Roche had seven children and three of them were dependants.
He claimed he had not realised the quantity of tablets and the court heard he suffered from health problems.
Roche, who is on disability allowance, had no previous criminal convictions, Judge Brennan noted. He was furnished with a probation report that found Roche was suitable for community service.
Pleading for leniency, defence counsel Rory O'Connor said the report was positive.
He asked the judge to affirm the order he had indicated at an earlier stage, 200 hours of community service.
Judge Brennan agreed the report was positive. He noted Roche had no convictions and the defence pleas for leniency.
The judge ordered him to carry out 200 hours of community service instead of serving six months in prison.
He warned Roche that he would impose the sentence if he did not comply with the Probation Service in carrying out his community service.
Police are following "international lines of enquiry" as they investigate criminal John Gilligan, who is accused of trying to smuggle more than 20,000 out of Northern Ireland, a judge heard yesterday.
A prosecuting lawyer also told District Judge Nigel Broderick that while the investigation into the 66-year-old convicted drug smuggler "is in its early stages", the file has been assigned and police have a mobile phone "to be examined".
"There are international lines of inquiry to be pursued," the lawyer said.
Appearing at Antrim Magis- trates Court via videolink from Maghaberry Prison, near Lisburn, 66-year-old Gill- igan confirmed his identity and that he could see and hear the court, telling the clerk: "Yes, I can, thank you very much."
Gilligan, of Greenfort Crescent, Dublin, is in custody acc-used of attempting to remove criminal property from Northern Ireland on August 23.
It is understood the charge arises after officers from the National Crime Agency arrested Gilligan at Belfast International Airport and seized 23,000 which the Crown claims arises from crime.
At the time, a police statement said: "National Crime Agency officers have today charged a man with money- laundering offences."
Gilligan initially appeared at Coleraine Magistrates Court last month when he was ref- used bail and remanded in custody.
In court yesterday, while the prosecution sought an adjournment for four weeks, defence solicitor Jim McGinnis asked for the "shortest possible adjournment" so that "momentum is maintained".
Hospital
"Mr Gilligan is 66 and he doesn't enjoy good health," said Mr McGinnis.
He added that since Gilligan was remanded to Maghaberry "he has already had to be taken to hospital".
"He was badly injured during an attempt on his life in 2014 when he was shot six times," Mr McGinnis told the court.
Judge Broderick said he would have to recuse himself from hearing the case because before taking up his position on the bench, "I was previously a partner in a firm that represented Mr Gilligan in the Special Criminal Court, therefore it would not be appropriate for me to rule on the case".
The judge said he would adjourn the case for a week, but in the meantime he had e-mailed the resident judge in Coleraine Magistrates Court to see if he would take the case on while still keeping it in that county court division.
He told the prosecution and defence lawyers, however, that the judge is currently on annual leave and may not have access to his e-mail.
With Gilligan remanded back into custody to appear again next Tuesday, Mr McGinnis asked for him to be held back for the purposes of a videolink consultation.
The High Court has approved the appointment of inspectors to investigate concerns over conduct of affairs at Independent News & Media (INM).
Their inquiry into a major data breach and other serious matters at the country's biggest media group could begin as early as tomorrow.
In a judgment yesterday, the President of the High Court said the appointment was justified and in the public interest.
Unlawful
Mr Justice Peter Kelly also said circumstances surrounding two proposed business transactions were "suggestive of an unlawful purpose" directed to the benefit of INM's biggest shareholder, Denis O'Brien.
He postponed the making of orders until tomorrow to allow INM, publisher of the Herald, to consider his judgment, which comprehensively found in favour of an application by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE).
INM had objected to the app- ointment of inspectors, saying the measure was disproportionate and would have a damaging impact on the company and its employees. However, Mr Justice Kelly rejected these arguments.
"The appointment of inspectors is a serious matter and such a sledgehammer should not be used to crack a nut. What has been disclosed in the evidence before me is no nut," he said.
"The appointment of inspectors to ascertain the truth of what has allegedly gone on in the company is well justified and is not disproportionate."
The judge said the corporate watchdog had investigated concerns at INM, but "quite a few questions remain to be answered".
The ODCE began its inquiries after receiving a protected disclosure from then INM CEO Robert Pitt in November 2016.
Mr Pitt alleged he was put under pressure by then INM chairman Leslie Buckley to pay an inflated price for Newstalk, a radio station owned by Mr O'Brien. The deal was ultimately abandoned.
He also raised concerns about a proposal, later dropped, for the payment of a 1m "success fee" to a firm owned by Mr O'Brien in relation to the sale of INM's shares in media group APN.
"While the Newstalk acquisition and the APN transaction did not ultimately lead to any loss to the company, the circumstances surrounding them are certainly suggestive of an unlawful purpose directed to the benefit of Mr O'Brien directly or indirectly and to the detriment of the company," Mr Justice Kelly said.
Another Government minister may use the visit of Donald Trump to air his grievances over the US president's controversial policies.
Shane Ross, of the Independent Alliance, has said he will decide in the coming weeks how to express his dissatisfaction with the Trump administration's policies during his November visit.
Two of his Cabinet colleagues, Finian McGrath and John Halligan, have said they will take to the streets in protest of the visit by the controversial president.
However, Mr Ross is reserving his position for now but said he supports the right of his colleagues to protest.
"I will decide in coming weeks what action I will take to express my disapproval of President Trump's policies," Mr Ross told the Herald.
Commemorations
Previously, Mr Ross spoke out against the visit of then taoiseach Enda Kenny to Washington for St Patrick's Day.
The visit is expected to take place on November 12 after Mr Trump visits France for the Armistice commemorations.
He is expected to pay a courtesy visit to the Aras, where he will meet the next President of Ireland. Three of the hopefuls looking to get on the presidential election ballot - Gavin Duffy, Joan Freeman and Peter Casey - have said they would welcome Mr Trump to the Aras.
Meanwhile, Senator Freeman said: "Whatever personal conviction we might have shouldn't actually interfere with the fact that he, like every other head of state, should be made welcome."
The Dubliner said Mr Trump may be "more lenient" toward her due to her setting up of a charity in New York, Solace House.
"I set up a charity in New York, the second one is going to open next Monday, so I've given a gift to America," she said.
"So I think President Trump might be a little bit more lenient towards me."
Separately, the Herald has learned that Mr Duffy has hired a PR guru who ran his rival Sean Gallagher's campaign in 2011.
Richard Moore, a former government adviser, is to lead Mr Duffy's media strategy.
It is understood he has accepted a temporary contract for the next two months after being approached by the Dragons' Den investor in recent weeks.
He will act as a liaison point for journalists and be heavily involved in behind-the-scenes planning. Mr Moore, who is managing director of MComm Communications Consultants, has worked with politicians in Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, serving as adviser to Dermot Ahern when Mr Ahern was the justice minister.
His appointment to Mr Duffy's campaign team will raise eyebrows as seven years ago he was at the forefront of Mr Gallagher's campaign.
Meanwhile, an upcoming book by journalist Bob Woodward says President Donald Trump's chief of staff privately called him an "idiot" and presidential aides plucked sensitive documents off Mr Trump's desk and thought he was often unaware of foreign policy basics.
Anecdotes
Those are some of the explosive anecdotes in the book on Mr Trump's first 18 months in office. The Washington Post yesterday published details from Fear: Trump In The White House'.
Mr Woodward quotes an exasperated chief of staff John Kelly doubting Mr Trump's faculties, declaring during one meeting: "We're in crazytown."
Mr Trump's former lawyer in the Russia probe, John Dowd, is said to have doubted Mr Trump's ability to avoid perjuring himself if interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller.
The White House didn't respond to a request for comment.
How many COVID tests do you think Meritus has done? Here's the answer
Home Minister Rajnath Singh claimed the other day that the family members of policemen in Kashmir were released by militants under pressure from the security forces in the Valley. He said: The way family members of our policemen were kidnapped.you might have heard that our forces put such immense pressure that they had to release all. That may be true, but what also helped was a swap the initiative for which reportedly came from the office of the newly appointed Governor, Satya Pal Malik. If the relatives of the policemen were let off, so were the militants kin the police picked up after the killing of some of their colleagues in south Kashmir.
The crisis erupted even as Malik was settling down as NN Vohras successor in the Raj Bhawan. It perhaps was his political astuteness that saved the situation from snowballing into a no-holds-barred faceoff. The timing of the retaliatory abductions couldnt have been worse. They happened within hours of the Governors August 31 interview to Hindustan Times in which he reaffirmed his administrations appeal to the Supreme Court to defer hearings on the volatile issue of the scrapping of Article 35A of the Constitution.
Maliks first political impulse obviously was to calm down the Valleys streets stirred up by protests against petitions challenging the provision incorporated in 1954. The Article, as it exists, gives the Jammu and Kashmir legislature a carte blanche to define the states permanent residents and delineate their concomitant privileges in terms of jobs and ownership of property. The grounds the Governor cited as the administrator of J&K for deferment of the Courts hearings were as much geared at calming frayed tempers. The views of the people can only be articulated by an elected government, he said in a candid acceptance of his administrations limitations in tendering a view on the sticky subject rooted in the states troubled history. Moreover, the detentions that triggered the abductions had broken an informal covenant between the state police and the militants to keep families out of the conflict, said an officer with considerable policing experience in the Valley. He believed the tit-for-tat commandeering mounted disproportionate pressure on the security apparatus. Other officials conversant with the abduction drama agreed. In their view, the Governors intervention somewhat contained the damage.
Militants and insurgents across the globe strategise to make security forces resort to excesses against the local population. The purpose is to blur the lines between the outlaws and the forces of the rule of law that give the State a moral high ground in bloody battles. It doesnt matter who started this because, regardless of who won, the detention-abduction chain broke nearly three decades of an unwritten accord that saved the warring sides kin getting caught in the unending crossfire. The terrain the policemen negotiate in the Valley is socially arduous. They have to balance their anti-militancy tasks with their charter to safeguard people from crime and violence. Right now, that balance does not exist, what with the police leaderships proclivity for swashbuckling. The way they publicise encounters and intelligence successes often put their local contacts in harms way. Intimidation at times is inevitable. But the police cannot marshal popular support against insurgency by expending human rights. Urgency must now be accorded to devise ways to strengthen their weakened popular connect. Of help towards that could be a sober execution of Maliks district-wise outreach through his advisors, two of whom are Kashmiris familiar with the local milieu.
The Governor has his task cut out. The number of militants in the Valley today is around three hundred but the situation is as grave as it was in the early 1990s. At that time, the armed groups would boast of numbers in thousands with active cross-border support from Pakistan. The insurrections increasingly indigenous nature and its connect with the local youth drives home the imperative of minimising collateral damage arising out of the polices catch and kill approach. Even the army and other uniformed forces locally guided by the police must come across as respectful of the rule of law. That alone can defeat the militants narrative to mobilise the youth. But such an image makeover wont be possible without a police that fights militancy but serves, not persecutes, innocent people.
vinodsharma@hindustantimes.com
Learn all you can from the entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley but dont become like them. This was my advice to a group of 91 students who are visiting here on a programme sponsored by Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. In a talk I gave this weekend, I encouraged them to take home the Valleys optimism and culture of openness and information sharing but not its greed and obsession with making money.
I also explained the advantage they have over the people they are meeting: an understanding of the true problems of humanity. This is what gives these students the ability to solve these.
Living here in California, surrounded by beautiful state parks, being close to mountains and the ocean, and having incredible comforts and luxuries, it is easy for entrepreneurs and investors to forget the realities of the world. People here cannot comprehend the hunger, misery, disease, and suffering faced by the majority of people on this planet. That is why the vast majority of the billions of dollars that are invested every year by venture capitalists go to silly apps and other equally meaningless, mindless projects.
Social entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility are foreign concepts in Silicon Valley for the same reasons.
I told the budding entrepreneurs that they have opportunities that their parents could not even have imagined. They can literally build the Star Trek future that we have dreamed about, taking humanity from eons of scarcity to an era of abundance, to a world in which we worry more about sharing prosperity than fighting each other over what little we have. This period in human history is unique, because now entrepreneurs can do what only governments and big companies could do before.
With the advances in computers, which keep getting faster and smaller, the smartphones we carry in our pockets are many times more powerful than the Cray supercomputers of the 70s and 80s were. Those were only for scientific research and defenceand cost in the tens of millions of dollars. Our phones also have advanced sensors such as accelerometers and gyroscopes, more accurate than those in old nuclear missiles, and cameras with higher resolution than what spy satellites had.
Artificial Intelligence has advanced to the point that it can analyse large amounts of data and help improve decision-making in every sector from agriculture to finance to transportation. The same tools used by engineers at Google and Microsoftand government research labsare available to startups everywhere. These can be downloaded for free on the web and mastered by watching YouTube videos.
Robots are already beginning to do the jobs of humans in manufacturing plants, in grocery stores, in pharmacies, driving cars, and making deliveries. The humanoids of science fiction are also becoming a reality. The actuators and sensors necessary to build robots that resemble Rosie from the TV series The Jetsons or C-3PO from Star Wars are commonly available and inexpensive. AI will soon take a few more leaps forward and provide these the capability of acting intelligentlyjust like what we imagined.
There is no reason that Rosie, or Ritu the Robot, cant originate from Jaipurand speak Hindi or Marwari.
Using CRISPR, a new gene-editing system derived from bacteria that enables scientists to edit the DNA of living organisms, it is becoming possible to eradicate hereditary diseases, revive extinct species such as the woolly mammoth, and design plants that are far more nutritious, hardy and delicious than what we have now. Imagine banana and mango plants that thrive in the desert of Rajasthan. These may, one day, be a reality. This is all terrifying and amazing at the same time and relatively inexpensive to do by anyone, anywhere, using the tools.
These are just a few examples of what new technologies are enabling. In the next decade, we will also be 3D printing household goods, entire buildings, electronic circuits, and even our food. We will be designing new organisms that improve agriculture and clean up the environment. We will be delivering our goodsand perhaps be transporting ourselvesby drone. We can also build futuristic cities, which use only renewable energies, are clean and self-sustaining, and provide incredible comforts.
Amazing and good things really are possible. Yet, the same technologies can create dystopia, with large-scale destruction, spying, pandemics, and other unimaginable horrors. Many social and ethical dilemmas lie ahead.
You can be sure that governments and investors are funding the most profitable and malicious uses of technologies. That is why it is so important to teach Indias entrepreneurs about the advances and to inspire, motivate, and support their efforts. They will surely put technologies to their best uses and do this out of concern for humanity rather than just an intention to make profits.
Vivek Wadhwa is a Distinguished Fellow at Harvard Law School and Carnegie Mellon University at Silicon Valley. His forthcoming book, Your Happiness Was Hacked, explains how you how you can live a more balanced technology life.
The views expressed are personal
Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu has just announced that the negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Partnership Agreement (RCEP) will extend into 2019 as agreement on several key issues remain unresolved. The earlier deadline for December this year no longer stands. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has been under negotiation since 2013. It is a trans-Asia mega trade agreement which comprises the 10 ASEAN countries and their six summit partners: India, China , Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Both Indian industry and government have serious reservations on India joining the RCEP since this would, in effect, bring India into a free trade relationship with China. This is likely to worsen the already large trade deficit India has with China (more than US$60 billion at present). India also wants a slower and graduated elimination of tariffs in order to safeguard the interests of Indian domestic industry and to encourage the Make in India project. A four-member Group of Ministers (GoM) is currently deliberating the pros and cons of RCEP membership. We should soon know if India is ready to take the plunge and commit itself to regional economic integration or if the risks to Indias economy are significant enough to warrant an opt out.
How are other developing countries in the RCEP, with economies much smaller than India, willing to risk competition with China, but not India? The answer is simple. The Indian economy is simply not as competitive as they are. Lack of competitiveness is due to several factors but transaction costs of exports are as much as 10% of export value. A World Bank study revealed that the average cost per container for our exports is US$945 which is more than double the rate in China. It takes 17 days on an average to deliver exports from India. For China it is five days. There are issues related to quality. Would our access to the markets of the second and third largest economies of the world, China and Japan, improve or diminish if we stay out of RCEP? In fact, our exports will become even less competitive staying out of RCEP since members will enjoy preferential access.
It has been argued that RCEP cannot exclude the regions third largest and fastest growing economy. Therefore, Indias conditions for joining the RCEP will have to be accommodated. Other negotiating partners also share Indian concerns about competition from China . Indias market is certainly an attraction but most RCEP partners already have privileged access to our market, thanks to existing FTAs with ASEAN, Japan and South Korea. And China, despite having no FTA with India, is already our largest trade partner and source of imports. So unless we accompany our opt out from RCEP with withdrawal from these other FTAs, how do we leverage the size of our market? The reason why we have not been able to take advantage of these existing FTAs again comes back to the issue of competitiveness. Recent studies have shown that we have treated these FTAs mostly to preserve market share rather than as opportunities to expand it. Our partners were better prepared to identify and exploit the advantages provided by the trade agreements.
We are also not factoring in the role of regional supply chains which bind the other RCEP economies together and our own marginal participation in these chains. These supply chains flourish on the basis of low tariffs and efficient logistics, not our strong points.
A link is sought to be established between our granting concessions on imports of goods with access for our service exports where presumably factors reducing the competitiveness of our goods exports are less operative. But Indian IT services, for example, have not fared well in markets like Japan, Korea and China because of language issues and strong preference for in-house solutions. There has been little progress in moving up the value chain in IT services while countries like the Philippines are already serious competitors in the low end segment.
The fear of foreign competition has led to a reversal of the nearly three decades of trade liberalisation and tariff reduction in India. In the Union budget for 2018-9, import duties were increased across a wide range of sectors, including a large number of consumer goods. In August 2018, import duties were hiked on 300 categories of textiles. These were justified on grounds of promoting Make in India, encouraging local manufacture and creating jobs. In effect, we are heading back towards the old policy of import substitution, which was a recipe for retarded growth before the economic reforms and liberalisation of 1991-2. India ended up with a high cost, low quality industry behind high tariff walls. It would be tragic if we give up on the challenge of improving the competitiveness of the Indian economy and instead slip back into a sub-optimal swadeshi mode.
Regional economic integration is an indispensable component of the Act East policy. India cannot sustain an expanding political and security role in the Indo-Pacific with a shrinking economic role. RCEP is the only game in town for India as we are excluded from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), whose 22 members are actively considering a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific. Neither is India included in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has been concluded among 12 countries after the US under Trump walked out. Several RCEP countries are also its members. Opting out of RCEP may push India irretrievably on the margins of Asia.
Shyam Saran is a former foreign secretary and is senior fellow, CPR
The views expressed are personal
Veteran actor Dilip Kumar has been hospitalised after he complained of chest infection and difficulty in breathing. The 95-year-olds official Twitter account confirmed the reports.
Saab has been admitted to Mumbais Lilavati Hospital as he was bit uneasy due to a chest infection. Hes recuperating. Requesting your duas and prayers, read the tweet posted by Faisal Farooqui, the actors close friend who also handles his social media.
Saab has been admitted to Mumbais Lilavati Hospital as he was bit uneasy due to a chest infection. Hes recuperating. Requesting your duas and prayers. -FF Dilip Kumar (@TheDilipKumar) September 5, 2018
We are here at Lilavati and we come here for a routine check-up regularly. He will be here for a few days, as long as the doctors want to do tests. All kinds of tests will be conducted. There is a team of doctors here, chest physician, neurologist..., Saira Banu told PTI.
The tests are being conducted under Dr Nitin Gokhale. We need your wishes so we can go home soon, she added.
The actor was last admitted in hospital in August 2017 due to kidney issues. In December 2016, the Padma Vibhushan awardee was brought in for a swelling in his right leg and in April last year, he took ill with pneumonia, but made a quick recovery in two days.
Known as the tragedy king, Kumar has acted in over 65 films in his career and is known for his iconic roles in movies like Devdas (1955), Naya Daur (1957), Mughal-e-Azam (1960), Ganga Jamuna (1961), Kranti (1981), and Karma (1986).
Last seen on the big screen in Qila in 1998, the actor was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1994 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2015.
Follow @htshowbiz for more
Amid the controversy surrounding actor Sonu Soods exit from Kangana Ranauts ambitious film, Manikarnika, support for Kangana as the new director, has been coming up from all quarters. After the makers of the film endorsed her as the director, now one of her colleagues has put her weight behind her.
Ankita Lokhande strongly endorsed Kangana as her new captain and sounded happy at the prospect of shooting her first song for the film with her. Sharing two pictures with Kangana, she wrote: I feel my feet lighter. Rehearsing for my first bollywood song with master ji @ganeshacharyaa and our new captain kangana ranaut @team_kangana_ranaut Super excited to be part of it. #jhalkaribai Much much gratitude #kamaljain #zeestudios #manikarnika #releasingon25th jan #swipelef.
Ankita plays the character Jhalkari Bai, a trusted aide of Queen of Jhansi, Laxmi Bai. According to a report in Rediff.com, Jhalkari, who hailed from a humble background in the Buldelkhand region, often appeared as a double for Laxmi. Together, they led what was called Durga Dal and repeatedly foiled British designs.
Meanwhile, Manikarnika has been plagued by problems - first, it was reported that the films director Krish left the project mid-way as he had to begin work on the NTR biopic with many accusing Kangana of hijacking the film. Later, controversy erupted when Sonu Sood chose to walk out of the prestigious project with Kangana stating that Sonu Sood refused to work under a woman director.
Now, a source close to the actor detailed how Kangana was handed the reins of the project. The makers of Manikarnika were upset seeing the rough cut of the film and hence asked Kangana to take over. Basically, when the producers saw the rough cut they were upset with Krish and were not happy. Hence Kangana was asked to take over. From a logical point of view if a director is under contract and is being paid by the producers then he has to reshoot if there are any changes too. But, they chose to let him go and not insist on him taking the reigns again cause they werent happy. They then asked Kangana to step in. Only 20-30% of what Krish shot is being retained and the other portions that is 60% are being reshot. The initial budget was around Rs 60 crores but the producers are ready to give in Rs 20 crores more for the reshoot as they trust Kangana.
The source questioned the logic behind reports that Kangana had hijacked the film. The said source posed questions like: Will the studio blindly give Kangana the film and crores of money every day to shoot? All of a sudden she can arm twist the producers to give in crores of money? It is their hard earned money too. How can a director just move on when he is bound by a contract?
The source revealed that Kangana was given the option of taking on as director or letting the project being shelved. Kangana had an option to either direct or let the film be shelved. She agreed and decided to lead the unit. Producers had full liberty to get a new director on board but they didnt.
According to the source, the action director Nick Powell has been called back to reshoot certain portions too. The patchwork too has been going on smoothly. All in all we are in for a treat on January 25, 2019 in the form of Manikarnika.
Kanganas team too shared some pictures of fight sequences on her Intagram page.
Earlier Kangana had been quoted as saying that Sonu, who she thought of as a dear friend, walked out as he refused to work under a woman director. Stung by the criticism, the actor had shot back saying that was not the case; he had worked with a female director (Farah Khan in Happy New Year) and that issue was competence. The issue snowballed into a major controversy with both parties trading guns at each other.
There also been a lot of debate that Sonu having grown a beard for his role in Rohit Shettys Simmba, which led to further problems as his character in Manikarnika was clean-shaven.
On the issue of Kangana hijacking the project, the maker of Manikarnika, Kamal Jain had refuted it outright. He had said Kangana was considered the best person to take over the mantle to complete patchwork and to direct a few additional scenes for Manikarnika - The Queen of Jhansi, when director Krish moved on to his new film.
Follow @htshowbiz for more
Kiara Advanis performance in Netflix anthology titled Lust Stories got a lot of applause. The actor has since signed a few projects and has also become a paparazzi favourite. One of the photographers took to Instagram to share a picture of her in which her cheeks became the focus. Soon, trolls were claiming that the actor has gone under the knife. Comments ranging from The cheek job is not on point, to Why did she get work done? It looks awful. She was so beautiful, flooded her timeline but Kiara was having none of it.
The Bharat Ane Nenu actor took to Instagram and wrote, Wow just reading these comments!! Calm down peeps dont jump to conclusions. You might not fancy the cheeks but it was no doctor just some yummy biryani from the night before. She also added an eye-roll emoticon for effect.
On the work front, Kiara is currently busy with her Telugu project opposite Ram Charan. The 25-day long schedule in Azerbaijan began on Tuesday and Kiara took to Twitter to announce that she will be joining them soon. The film directed by Boyapati Srinu is scheduled to release for Sankranti 2019. The title of the film is yet to be revealed.
Kiara will also be seen in Kalank, which stars Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Madhuri Dixit. She will also be seen in the film Good News, which is expected to star Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor and Diljit Dosanjh.
Follow @htshowbiz for more
Rishi Kapoor has always been a straight talker, be it on social media or in real life. In a recent interview to Mumbai Mirror, the actor spoke about his son, Ranbir Kapoor and his relationship with Alia Bhatt.
Its Ranbirs life. Who he wants to get married to is his prerogative, he said. Neetu likes her, I like her, Ranbir likes her. Get it? I cant be judgmental. After all, my uncles Shammiji (Shammi Kapoor) and Shashiji (Shashi Kapoor) and I chose our life partners. Ranbir is entitled to choose his, Rishi added
The Mulk actor who turned 66 on Tuesday married wife Neetu in 1980. Shashi Kapoor was married to Jennifer Kendal and Shammi Kapoor was married first to Geeta Bali and then to Neela Devi Gohil.
In an earlier interview to Hindustan Times, Rishi had expressed his admiration for Alia. I admire someone like Alia Bhatt, who takes up challenging roles like in Highway (2014) and Raazi. Its very difficult at this tender age to carry a film on their shoulders and only an actor can do that. Also, one has to be lucky enough to get such parts. Alia has been lucky and of course, she has the talent too, he said.
Hed spoken about Ranbir having the freedom to marry anyone he wanted earlier, too. In an interview to Mid Day, Rishi had said, It is high time he got married. I settled down when I was 27, Ranbir is 35. So he should think about marriage. He can marry anyone of his choice; we dont have any objection to it. I want to spend time with my grandchildren before I am gone.
Meanwhile, Alias father, director-producer Mahesh Bhatt, has also been straight with his statements. Its very obvious that [Ranbir-Alia] are making no bones about talking to people about them being intimate. And I dont belong to that category of parents whod advise their children about their personal choices. Alia is an adult and its a matter that she has to resolve. Its their life, their space. I respect and admire them for choosing to talk to the world when, and if, they want to do, he had told Hindustan Times.
Ranbir, who is currently working with Alia on Brahmastra, confirmed their relationship in an interview to GQ in May. Its really new right now, and I dont want to over speak. It needs time to breathe and it needs space, he had said. Speaking to HT, he had talked about their relationship in length, I am in a happy, positive and beautiful phase of my life. But you can talk about your personal life only to a degree. Otherwise, it becomes the forerunner of your life and your work takes a back seat. There is always excitement to know about someones personal life. But you want to give the relationship respect so that people dont malign it in a gossipy way. It is something beautiful, sacred and really important to you, so you want to deal with it in a nice manner.
Follow @htshowbiz for more
Actor Sonu Sood has reacted to actor Kangana Ranauts accusations that he didnt want to work under a female director on Manikarnika. In a recent interview to Hindustan Times, Sonu said the problem isnt that he doesnt want to work under a female director but something else.
That was not my statement. I never said that I dont want to work with a female director because I have already done a movie with a female director (Farah Khan, Happy New Year). I only said I cant be working with two directors on one set. So I will always maintain that stand and in a span of all these years, whatever films I have done, 80-90 movies, I have worked with one director at a time. So that is my stand and I will always stick to it, he said.
Kangana took the reins of Manikarnika from director Krish Jagalamudi for patchwork shoots of the film. It has now been reported that she will shoot almost 70% new footage for the film as Krish is busy with his other project, NTR biopic. For the reshoots, Kangana has roped in actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub in place of Sonu.
In a statement to Pinkvilla earlier this week, Kangana had said, Sonu and I havent even met since the last shot with Krish (director) last year. He is busy filming Simmba. He couldnt even give us tentative dates to match combinations with other actors. The producers showed him the film and writers narrated the patchwork to him...he refused to meet me. He vehemently denied to work under a woman director, which is kind of amusing because Sonu is a dear friend and I have even launched the music of a film that he produced on his request, even though the team suggested that they have full faith in me, it seems, Sonu had neither dates nor faith.
Sonu later lashed out at Kangana for making these statements. Kangana is a dear friend and she will always remain one but this constant playing the woman card, the victim card and making this entire issue about male chauvinism is ridiculous, he told India Today.
Sonu will soon be seen in JP Duttas comeback directorial, Paltan. It also stars Arjun Rampal, Gumeet Chaudhary and Harshwardhan Rane.
Follow @htshowbiz for more
Sushant Singh Rajput on Tuesday visited the flood-ravaged state of Nagaland and met with Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio. The actor pledged his support in providing aid to the region and has reportedly donated Rs 1.25 crore to help in relief efforts.
It has been reported that approximately 50,000 people have been affected by the floods and the state government has estimated that Rs 800 crore would be required to help restore the region. The CM had written a plea for help on social media. On Tuesday, he tweeted that he was moved at the kind gesture made by @itsSSR and his team towards #NagalandFloods and willingness to help #Nagaland at this crucial hour. Your contribution is encouraging and I hope to see the rest of the nation come forward selflessly, to #DonateForNagaland.
I am moved at the kind gesture made by @itsSSR and his team towards #NagalandFloods and willingness to help #Nagaland at this crucial hour. Your contribution is encouraging and I hope to see the rest of the nation come forward selflessly, to #DonateForNagaland pic.twitter.com/8ieoGohd0J Neiphiu Rio (@Neiphiu_Rio) September 4, 2018
Sushant, posting an image of his meeting with the CM, wrote on Twitter, Thank you Sir for your precious time. We,with our full force and determination would work incessantly till the time our #Nagaland is perfectly restored. And this wonderful Gong does make a wonderful sound of friendship. Thanks once again Sir.
Thank you Sir for your precious time. We,with our full force and determination would work incessantly till the time our #Nagaland is perfectly restored. And this wonderful Gong does make a wonderful sound of friendship.
Thanks once again Sir.@Neiphiu_Rio #NagalandFloods pic.twitter.com/PBrEl5RYLh Sushant Singh Rajput (@itsSSR) September 4, 2018
Sushant had previously donated Rs 1 crore in a fans name to help in relief efforts during the Kerala floods. Sushant had shared details on his social media handles. A fan of his tagged him saying: Sushant Singh Rajput, I dont have money but I want to donate for the flood. How can I donate? Please tell me. Sushant obliged by donating Rs 1 crore in the fans name. As promised, my friend, @subhamranjan66, what you wanted to do, has been done. You made me do this, so be extremely proud of yourself. You delivered exactly when it was needed. Lots and lots of love. Fly. Cheers, Sushant captioned his post, adding the hashtag, My Kerala.
As promised my friend, @subhamranjan66, what you wanted to do has been done. You made me do this, so be extremely proud of yourself. You delivered exactly when it was needed.
Lots and lots of love. FLY
Cheers #MyKerala #KeralaReliefFunds pic.twitter.com/fqrFpmKNhK Sushant Singh Rajput (@itsSSR) August 21, 2018
Sushant will next be seen director Abhishek Kapoors Kedarnath, which - incidentally - is also reportedly about human beings persevering during a natural disaster, specifically the 2013 North India flash floods.
Follow @htshowbiz for more
A 16-year-old boy, who had come from Kanpur to Delhi ten days ago in search of a job, was allegedly beaten to death by at least six men from his neighbourhood in northwest Delhis Mukundpur during the early hours of Tuesday.
The police said two men arrested for the crime alleged that they had caught the boy stealing from their house, after which the six beat him up. The four other men suspected to have killed the boy are absconding.
Officers said the teenager was from Arariya in Bihar. He had been studying in a local madrasa in Kanpur before coming to Delhi. Soon after reaching Delhi, he found an apprenticeship as an electrician in Mukandpur. He used to live with his elder brother, Mushahid, and two of his uncles.
The police said that around 6.30 am, they received a PCR call reporting that residents of a house in lane number 6, Mukundpur, had caught a thief.
When a police team from Bhalswa Dairy police station reached the spot, they found a boy lying unconscious near a drain. After questioning, the police detained two men, Rajkumar, an auto-rickshaw driver, and Nand Kishore, a factory worker, on suspicion of having beaten the boy. Rajkumar and Kishore are brothers. Their third brother, Triveni, and three cousins are absconding, a police officer, not authorised to speak to the media, said on condition of anonymity.
The boy was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Deputy commissioner of police (northwest), Aslam Khan, said the two arrested men told the police that they caught the boy at 3.30 am. But the police were called at 6.30 am. We are finding out what these men did with the boy in those three hours. The men who have been held have alleged that the boy had entered their house to steal valuables and money. One of the phones that belongs to an accused was found in the boys pocket. We have registered a case under section 304 of the Indian Penal Code for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, the DCP said, pointing to this discrepancy between the time the boy was allegedly caught and the police called.
One of the residents, who identified the boy, informed his elder brother, Mushahid, about the death. When I reached the spot, he was already dead. Last I had seen him was on the previous night when he went to the terrace to watch a movie on his phone. He was wearing a black vest. When he was found dead, he was wearing a white vest. He also had cut marks on his body and rashes on his hands and legs, which suggest that he was tied and beaten, Mushahid, who works as a plumber, said.
DCP Khan said that the police will also probe if evidence had been tampered with. The initial probe suggests that the accused might have dressed the crime scene. We are interrogating them. The hunt for the other four accused is also underway. There were slight injury marks on the victims hands and legs. His autopsy reports are awaited to ascertain the details of the injuries, she said.
Mushahid also said that neither he nor his uncles heard any sound in the night. If my brother had sneaked into some house, our neighbours would have raised an alarm. We did not even hear him crying for help. He was dragged, tied and beaten to death, he alleged.
Rita Devi, a 32-year-old woman who lives in the neighbourhood and was one of the locals who spotted the teenagers body early on Tuesday, said that they did not hear any ruckus in the night. If there was a thief in a house, usually people raise alarm or call police. Nothing of that sort happened in the night, she claimed
The United Nations World Tourism Organisation, a specialised agency of the UN, has said that international tourist arrivals in India grew from 14.57 million in 2016 to 15.54 million in 2017 and receipts increased from $22.42 billion to $27.36 billion. This is good news for India because tourism is one of the mainstays of the economy. In fact, almost 300 leading tour operators from across the globe will be in New Delhi later this month to participate in an event that focuses on marketing India as a destination. This is part of the governments efforts to make a renewed attempt at selling its tourist destinations to the world, aiming for 20 million tourist arrivals over the next three years.
This is not an ambitious target. India can reach it provided the Centre and the states take care of certain basic issues: security, infrastructure and connectivity (the latest round of the UDAN regional connectivity scheme has awarded 325 routes to airlines as well as helicopter operators for enhancing air connectivity to 73 new airports and helipads in tier 2 and tier 3 cities).
While the rush of tourists is good news, this is also an opportune moment to be cautious about the way we expand the sectors footprint. For example, look at what has happened to Barcelona and Venice. Fed up with constant streams of tourists, both places are now resisting them. In other places, the situation has come to such a pass that Airbnb and the so-called sharing economy have been accused of hollowing out our [western] cities. Amsterdam is restricting short-term renting out of properties by residents after protests against the swamping of the city by tourists last year. Problems have beset Shimla, Ladakh and Goa in India where the unregulated tourist rush has led to serious environmental problems. Recently, the Uttarakhand High Court banned trekking after local people said irresponsible trekkers are destroying the meadows in the state.
There is no doubt that India needs tourists, but its also imperative that we plan for the long haul, and not focus on just the quick, short-term gains.
Jed Mercurios Bodyguard harks back to the Johnson Dick affair
When not giving the go for an innocent man to be shot dead on the London Underground, Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick is on the PR trail. Last week Dick popped up on Good Morning Britain, the televised middle-class coffee morning, to discuss, among other things, Jed Mercurios BBC thriller Bodyguard.
Dick mistook fiction for fact, praising the shows senior females as role models, who are, er, actors working to a script. A woman playing a top copper with five lines on the show is not the actual superior to the lower rank plod who plays the shows star, the actual Bodyguard.
Cressida did, however, manage to say the show was ridiculous, turning off as soon as sexual signals were exchanged between the protector and the protected in the show the Home Secretary and her Bodyguard shag. But is it so far fetched? No.
In 2011, the BBC reported on a real-life matter:
A police bodyguard to former Home Secretary Alan Johnson has been sacked after an inquiry into an alleged affair with the Labour MPs wife. PC Paul Rice, 45, was dismissed by the Metropolitan Police, which condemned him for damaging its reputation. Mr Johnson quit as shadow chancellor in January as allegations surrounding the affair became public.
The Dick and Johnson Affair not as ridiculous as it sounds.
Anorak
Posted: 5th, September 2018 | In: Key Posts, News, TV & Radio Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday interacted with the recipients of National Teachers Awards in New Delhi and exhorted them to work towards bringing out the inherent strength of students.
On the eve of Teachers Day, the Prime Minister congratulated the awardees for their efforts towards improving the quality of education in the country, an official statement said.
He commended their dedication towards education and for making it their life mantra. He said that a teacher remains a teacher throughout his or her life.
During the interaction, Modi urged the awardees to mobilise the community and to make them an integral part of school development. He also exhorted the teachers to work towards bringing out the inherent strength of students, especially those from poor and rural background.
The prime minister said that the educators should work towards removing the disconnect between the teachers and the students, so that teachers are remembered by the students throughout their lives. He also encouraged the teachers to digitally transform their schools and its neighbourhood.
During the interaction with the prime minister, the awardees narrated their stories in transforming their schools into centres of learning and excellence.
They also thanked the prime minister for the new online nomination process and for schemes such as Digital India, which is bringing a big qualitative change in school education throughout the country, the statement said.
This year, the Ministry of Human Resource Development has revised the guidelines for the selection of teachers for National Awards.
The new scheme envisages self-nomination and was inspired by recent innovations in major national awards. The scheme is transparent, fair, and rewards demonstrated excellence and performance, the statement pointed out.
The teachers will be conferred the award for 2017 on Wednesday.
(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)
Taking strong note of frequent leakage of question papers of competitive examinations, the Uttar Pradesh Subordinate Services Selection Commission (UPSSSC) said on Tuesday it will prepare at least two sets of question papers as a corrective measure.
UPSSSC Chairman CB Paliwal said this just two days after the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force arrested 11 people for their alleged role in the leakage of question papers for tubewell operator recruitment test, which was to be held on Sunday.
We are planning to have at least two sets of question papers so that in case of leakage of a particular set, another can be given to the examinees, Paliwal said in Lucknow.
He said that the commission is mulling introduction of two sets of examinations -- screening and mains -- in the near future.
A proposal will be sent to the state government suggesting two sets of examinations -- screening and mains. This will help in weeding out chances of possible leakage of question papers in the future, Paliwal said.
In the past, leakages of question papers of various examinations were reported from the most populous state of the country, earning it a bad name and giving a tough time to both the job aspirants and police.
On July 29, as many as 51 people were arrested by the UP Police from different parts of the state for facilitating cheating during a recruitment examination for assistant teachers.
On June 18, as many as 19 people were arrested for allegedly aiding cheating through hi-tech devices, such as spy mics, and placing solvers impersonating aspirants in the Uttar Pradesh police constable recruitment examination.
Police said solvers are generally bright students who enter examination centres with forged documents having superimposed photographs.
On August 23, 2017, seven members of a gang allegedly involved in leaking a question paper of the online examination for sub-inspectors were arrested by the STF.
The online examination for sub-inspectors from July 7 to July 31 at 97 centres across the state was cancelled after the question paper was leaked on social media.
When a comment in this regard was sought from Rahul Srivastava, Additional Superintendent of Police (PRO to DGP), he said that the onus of conducting a foolproof examination lies on the department concerned.
However, if the department takes police on board before the test is conducted, then the racket is busted before the examination itself. This was the case with the examination pertaining to assistant teachers, he said.
Whenever any question paper leakage has been detected, the racket was busted within 24 hours, he said, adding, If we get any intelligence input pertaining to question paper leakage, we act immediately.
In March 2015, the UP government had cancelled the provincial civil services preliminary examination after an exam paper was leaked on WhatsApp. The STF had arrested three persons in connection with the leak.
In June 30, 2013, the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested seven people from Delhi and Muzaffarnagar for allegedly leaking question papers of constable recruitment examination in the Railway Police Force.
In May 2011, the UP STF had claimed that its officials were already having the AIEEE question papers with them hours before the countrywide exam for engineering course was due to begin. The question paper was being sold for Rs 6 lakh each.
A nationalised bank clerk posted in Jaunpur was arrested in this connection from Lucknow.
(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)
The West Bengal police recruitment board (WBPRB) on Saturday (September 8) released the admit cards of candidates for the preliminary examination to recruit constables in the state police. The exam will be held on September 23, 2018 from 12 noon to 1pm.
Candidates can download the e- admit card from the website of the West Bengal Police (www.policewb.gov.in) or click on the link here.
The board will also try to send SMS alerts about the admit card to the candidates. However, board will not be responsible if candidates do not receive the SMS alert.
West Bengal Police Constable Recruitment 2018: Steps to download prelims admit card
1) Visit the official website of West Bengal Police at www.policewb.gov.in
2) Click on the link for recruitment on the home page
3) Click on the link for recruitment to the post of constables in the West Bengal Police
4) Click on the link for download admit card for preliminary written test
5) Click on Click here to Download Admit Card FOR PRELIMINARY WRITTEN TEST FOR THE POST OF CONSTABLE IN WEST BENGAL POLICE
6) Key in your Application No. and date of birth in the login page that opens
7) Submit
8) The admit card will appear on the screen
9) Take a print out of the admit card and save it on your computer.
Candidates must bring the printout of their e-Admit Card to the examination centre. The candidates must follow the instructions on their Admit Card.
A superbug resistant to all known antibiotics that can cause severe infections or even death is spreading undetected through hospital wards across the world, scientists in Australia have warned. Researchers at the University of Melbourne discovered three variants of the multidrug-resistant bug in samples from 10 countries, including strains in Europe that cannot be reliably tamed by any drug currently on the market.
We started with samples in Australia but did a global snapshot and found that its in many countries and many institutions around the world, Ben Howden, director of the universitys Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory, said. It seems to have spread.
Ben Howden (right), director of the University of Melbourne's Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory, with Jean Lee (L). (AFP)
The bacteria, known as Staphylococcus epidermidis, is related to the better-known and more deadly MRSA. Its found naturally on human skin and most commonly infects the elderly or patients who have had prosthetic materials implanted, such as catheters and joint replacements. It can be deadly, but its usually in patients who already are very sick in hospital... it can be quite hard to eradicate and the infections can be severe, Howden said.
His team looked at hundreds of S. epidermidis specimens from 78 hospitals worldwide. They found that some strains of the bug made a small change in its DNA that led to resistance to two of the most common antibiotics, often administered in tandem to treat hospital infections. These two antibiotics are unrelated and you would not expect one mutation to cause both antibiotics to fail, said Jean Lee, a PhD student at Melbournes Doherty Institute, and co-author of the study.
Many of the most powerful antibiotics are extremely expensive and even toxic, and the team behind the study said that the practice of using multiple drugs at once to prevent resistance may not be working.
Biggest danger
Scientists say that the superbug resistant to all known antibiotics can cause "severe" infections or even death is spreading undetected through hospital wards across the world. (AFP)
The researchers said they believe the superbug is spreading rapidly due to the particularly high use of antibiotics in intensive care units, where patients are sickest and strong drugs are prescribed as routine. The World Health Organization has long warned of antibiotic overuse sparking new strains of killer, drug-resistant bacteria. Another Australian study, published last month, suggested some hospital superbugs are growing increasingly tolerant to alcohol-based disinfectants found in handwashes and sanitisers used on hospital wards.
Howden said his study, published in the journal Nature Microbiology, showed the need for better understanding of how infections spread and which bacteria hospitals choose to target. This highlights that the use of more and more antibiotics is driving more drug-resistant bacteria, he said. With all bacteria in a hospital environment we are driving more resistant strains and theres no doubt that antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest dangers to hospital care worldwide.
Follow @htlifeandstyle for more
The trailer for the upcoming Netflix movie 22 July has just dropped. The film tells the true story of the aftermath of Norways deadliest terrorist attack.
On 22 July 2011, 77 people were killed when a far-right extremist detonated a car bomb in Oslo before carrying out a mass shooting at a leadership camp for teens. 22 July uses the lens of one survivors physical and emotional journey to portray the countrys path to healing and reconciliation.
Actor Anders Danielsen Lie plays the titular role of the Norwegian far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik. According to the extremist, it was a sign of protest against the government.
The movie, based on the book One of Us: The Story of an Attack on Norway - And Its Aftermath, authored by Asne Seierstad, tells the story of the survival of Norwegian citizens, post the dreadful attack.
22 July will be made available on Netflix on October 10, in addition to a limited theatrical release in the US to qualify it for the Oscars.
Follow @htshowbiz for more
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense James Mattis on Thursday as part of an ongoing effort to strengthen the strategic linkages between the two countries and prepare the ground for a possible visit by President Donald Trump early next year. Pompeo and Mattis arrive separately on Wednesday evening for a so-called two-plus-two dialogue with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
South Block officials who spoke on condition of anonymity told Hindustan Times that this was the biggest India-US engagement after PM Modi met President Trump in June and seemed confident that the dialogue and the meeting will be followed by a positive joint statement. PM Modi is also expected to meet President Trump on the sidelines of November 30-December 1 G-20 summit in Buenos Aires. It is, however, unclear whether Secretaries Pompeo and Mattis will be carrying a message about Trumps India visit when the two leaders interact with PM Modi. While Secretary Mattis is flying directly to India, Secretary Pompeo (the former CIA Director) is expected to have separate conversations with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Army Chief Qamar Bajwa on Af-Pak (Afghanistan and Pakistan) and impress upon them the need to take urgent action against jihadist groups targeting Afghanistan and India. The Pentagon has already cut a much needed $300 million in aid to Pakistan over Islamabads failure to take strong action against proscribed groups.
Although the government is tight-lipped about the forthcoming dialogue, HT learns that the Union Cabinet will take up the vital Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA), which allows for interoperability of the defence forces of the two countries, for approval on Wednesday with the view to get it initialed during the dialogue. It has also been decided that India will place a liaison officer in the Silicon Valley-based Defence Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx; as previously reported by HT) so that it has access to the best and the latest commercial technologies. The DIUx is funded by Pentagon with offices in Boston, Austin and Washington.
The India-US relationship is destined for an upward trajectory and Washington has a lot to offer. It is for the Indian bureaucracy which needs to exorcise its ghosts of 1971 and 1962 wars and look towards US with an eye on China and Russia, said a senior official who asked not to be named, referring to Indias need to balance Chinas influence in the region.
Meanwhile, both India and the US are currently engaged in working out a mutually agreement on trade with Deputy US Trade Representative Jeffery Gerrish expected to travel to India after Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan had positive discussions in Washington in August. With a desire to remove irritants in trade issues, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu engaged USTR Robert Lighthizer last June following which two rounds of official talks were held before Wadhawans visit.
High on the two-plus-two agenda will be synchronization of the two countries views on the Indo-Pacific and stability of Afghanistan. While India and the US will be engaged in military exercises to ensure freedom of navigation with the help of other Quad partnersJapan and Australia-- the two countries differ on the role of the Taliban for stability of Afghanistan. However, they agree that the solution to Afghanistan lies in eradication of support to terrorists groups by Pakistans deep state.
MK Azhagiri, the elder son of late DMK chief M Karunanidhi, began his silent rally in Chennai on Wednesday, in what is being seen as a show of strength by his supporters.
Azhagiri, who has claimed since Karunanidhis death that loyal party workers were with him, had earlier said the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam would face a threat after his rally to pay homage to his father. He has said over 100,000 people would take part in the rally.
Azhagiri is upset with party president and his younger brother MK Stalin for not letting him rejoin the party, in spite of his protestations of loyalty and a public statement that he is ready to accept his leadership. He has been in political hibernation since his expulsion from the party in 2014 by Karunanidhi. The former Union minister was sacked after differences with his father in an apparent turf war with Stalin.
He has expressed his willingness to accept Stalins leadership with a rider to readmit him into the party. Azhagiri said while speaking to reporters in Madurai on Sunday that the DMKs current leadership -- a reference to Stalin -- was not willing to re-admit him despite his requests. He also said the party did not consist just of the General Council, which elected Stalin as the DMK president on Tuesday, as the genuine party cadres were with him.
Azhagiri refused to comment on Stalins silence to his demand, but told the media, As I said earlier, lakhs of my supporters will take part in the rally. Since I am the son of Kalaignar (Karunanidhi), I will stand by my words.
He had claimed on August 13 that all loyal party workers were with him, indicating a fresh succession war in the DMK, and accused Stalin of blocking his return to the party.
Read: Stalin to discuss Azhagiris re-induction at DMK meet on September 8
On August 27, he warned in Madurai that if the DMK leadership did not take him back, then its leadership will have to face consequences but did not elaborate. He had also claimed that if he was not readmitted into the DMK, the party leaders would face a similar defeat in the upcoming Lok Sabha election like in the last Parliament and assembly polls.
Political observers said Azhagiris refusal to respond on questions related to his brother could be a strategy to facilitate his re-entry into the DMK.
As an organiser, Azhagiri is a powerful man. The DMK now desperately needs an electoral victory and it will be a good decision to induct Azhagiri into the party, political observer Tharaasu Shyam said.
Since Thirupparankundram is in Madurai district where Azhagiri is based, his contribution would help the DMK to win the seat. Also, Azhagiri has made it clear that he is not expecting any party posts (for now), he said.
He also observed that this stand could also bring sympathy for Azhagiri.
The DMK on Tuesday acted strongly against M Ravi, the area secretary of Velachery in Chennai, for welcoming Azhagiri at the airport, suspending him for bringing disrepute to the party. The 96-year-old leader is a contemporary of the recently deceased party patriarch M Karunanidhi and had facilitated the smooth coronation of Stalin as the party president last month.
Ahead of the two-plus-two plus dialogue between India and the US on September 6, New Delhi is hoping Washington understands its sensitivities and compulsions and takes a lenient view on its oil imports from Iran and purchase of S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems from Russia, people familiar with the planning that has gone into the meeting said.
The focus of the meeting itself will be on the two countries working together in the Indo-Pacific region, the finalisation of a foundational defence pact, the designation of terrorists, and visa issues. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will discuss these with US Secretary of State Mike R Pompeo and Secretary of Defence James Mattis at the inaugural edition of the dialogue, which will also be the highest-level political engagement between India and the US this year, said the sources.
India, which is aware the US?is unlikely to give it a blanket waiver for arms deals with Russia, is hoping the country will give one for the purchase of S-400 anti-aircraft missiles, thereby giving it immunity from a 2017 US?law that requires the US president to penalise countries that have significant transaction with Russias defence sector.
Russia is Indias biggest defence partner and one of its most trusted allies.
We hope that they understand that India has strategic partnership with other countries too, said one of the people mentioned in the first instance.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in July that India and Russia are close to concluding the S-400 deal and that India would go forward with the deal, adding that the new US law isnt binding on India.
Indian officials have subsequently told their US counterparts that they have been diversifying the countrys defence purchases. The government recently approved a $2-billion government-to government deal for the purchase of 24 naval helicopters from US firm, Lockheed. Turkey, a NATO ally of the US, is also planning to buy the S-400 air defence system.
India is also in discussions with the US on the import of Iran crude, which falls afoul of the sanctions imposed by America on the West Asian nation. The person cited above said 83% of Indias total oil requirement is met by import, and that of this, 24% comes from Iran. It is an important issue for us. Iran is a major source of crude import for us. We will take a decision free from external pressures.
In May, the US?withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and re-imposed sanctions that had been suspended in return for curbs on Tehrans nuclear programme. The people cited in the first instance said the Indian position is consistent; that it is against the Iran acquiring nuclear weapons but have the right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
Secretary of State, Pompeo, arrives in New Delhi late Wednesday from Islamabad. Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, will also be part of the US delegation.
Swaraj and Sitharaman will have separate bilateral meetings with their US counterparts Thursday morning before the delegation-level two-plus-two talks continue over a working lunch; 12 officials from each side are expected to attend the talks, which will be followed by a luncheon.
Defending the action against five activists in the Bhima Koregaon case, the Maharashtra government Wednesday told the Supreme Court the arrests were made because there was cogent evidence linking the activists with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and not because of their dissenting views.
The state government has filed an affidavit in response to a petition by historian Romila Thapar and four others who have said the arrests were aimed at muzzling dissent. The states response came in the backdrop of the apex court, while ordering the house arrest of the five activists on August 29 until Thursday, categorically stating that dissent is the safety valve of democracy.
Evidence gathered against the activists clearly show that they were involved in selecting and encouraging cadres to go underground in struggle area, mobilizing and distributing money, facilitating selection and purchase of arms, deciding the rates of such arms and suggesting the routes and ways of smuggling such arms into India for its onward distribution amongst the cadres, reads the affidavit filed by the Maharashtra government.
On August 28, Vara Vara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bhardwaj and Gautam Navlakha were arrested for suspected Maoist links. The raids were a part of a probe into a conclave - Elgar Parishad - held in Bhima Koregaon near Pune on December 31, 2017 that allegedly triggered violence the next day.
The affidavit says the five were not arrested for dissenting views or difference in their political or other ideologies. They are involved in not only planning and preparing for violence but were in the process of creating large scale violence, destruction of property resulting into chaos, reads the affidavit filed by ACP Shivaji Panditrao Pawar, Pune.
The police also questioned the locus of Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociologist Satish Deshpande and legal expert Maja Daruwala, dubbing them as strangers to the probe in the matter.
MK Azhagiri, the older son of former chief minister M Karunanidhi, marched to his fathers Marina Beach grave with thousands of his supporters to pay tributes to the DMK patriarch.
The objective of the peace rally is just to pay tributes to Karunanidhi and there is nothing political, Azhagiri, a former union minister, said after paying homage at his fathers memorial.
The peace rally, as the Azhagiri camp described the march, is seen as an effort to position Azhagiri, 67, as a leader with popular support amid a renewed effort to rejoin the party.
Karunanidhi had expelled him for anti-party activities in 2014 after he rebelled for the party chiefs decision to project brother Stalin as his successor. Azhagiri had all along insisted that he would only accept Karunanidhi as his leader.
This stand had to change after Karunanidhis death and Azhagiri had recently made it clear that he had reconciled to Stalins leadership role in the party and asked for his re-induction.
Last week, he also threatened that the party leadership would have to face consequences if it blocked his return.
Stalin, who is expected to discuss the possibility with Azhagiris return later this week, however, appears to be less than enthusiastic.
Just this week, the DMK gave a south Chennai leader a rap on his knuckles because he had gone to the airport to welcome Azhagiri. A DMK statement said he was suspended for bringing disrepute to the party.
Azhagiri responded to the suspension as he walked out of his fathers memorial.
There are 1.5 lakh supporters behind me in this rally. Will the party suspend all these workers from the party, he retorted.
According to the police though, there were anywhere between 12,000 and 20,000 people at the memorial with Azhagiri, mostly from the southern districts.
Our only demand is to induct Anjanenjan (brave heart, as Azhagiris supporters call him) into the party to strengthen the DMK. Our heart beats for Kalaignar and his DMK, said K Mohan, DMK worker from Madurai.
The sibling rivalry between the DMK president M K Stalin and his brother M K Azhagiri is a setback for the party and if Anjanenjan (brave heart) Azhagiri is inducted back in to the party, our leader will strengthen the party, Azhagiri loyalist and former Madurai deputy mayor P M Mannan SAID. He promised that Azhagiri would strengthen the party once he is inducted.
Ajax midfielder Frenkie de Jong joins Barcelona, laughs at Manchester City and chased by Spurs
The Guardian says Spurs are in for Ajax midfielder Frenkie de Jong. The fee? 40m. Not too shabby for player whose made 37 appearances for the Ajax first team. But is he really going to Spurs, following that well-trodden route from Amsterdam to London, as taken by Christian Eriksen, Davinson Sanchez and Jan Vertonghen? No. Well, no if 90mins.com are believed.
In April 2018, the thundered: Barcelona have reached an agreement to sign Frenkie de Jong from Ajax, which could go through this month. They have? No. Elevens ays later on April 20, the Express said De Jong hopes the two clubs can come to an agreement. In June, moving to Barcelona was de Jongs dream. In July, the Sun said Barcelona are going to make a third offer for Ajax starlet Frenkie De Jong. But Marc Overmars, the Dutch clubs sporting director, has made it perfectly clear that the Barcelona target is not for sale, reported ESPN later in the month.
The only fact is that in December 2017, de Jong singed a new deal with Ajax, tying him to the club until 2022. That same month there was some clickbait about him leaving Manchester City in the Manchester Evening News, there were a few words from the man himself:
And, when asked about the prospect of moving to the Etihad, de Jong was keeping his feet firmly on the ground. Ive read it too, haha, he laughed. I do not think Im ready to play at the first team at Manchester City or something like that. Right now I really just want to develop here at Ajax and become a solid starting player. Especially in midfield. Then well see further.
Done deal it is, then.
Anorak
Posted: 5th, September 2018 | In: Back pages, Manchester City, Sports, Spurs Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
The Congress has called a meeting of all its state presidents on September 6 to discuss ways to mobilise resources for the party ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Partys state-level treasurers have been called for the meeting to be chaired by general secretary in-charge of organisation and training Ashok Gehlot. The meeting follows senior leader Ahmed Patels appointment as the All India Congress Committees (AICC) treasurer on August 21.
The Congress is grappling with its worst financial crisis following the drubbing in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The severe funds crunch, blamed primarily on corporate houses moving away from the party, has also been cited as one of the major reasons for its series of electoral debacles in states. The fund flow had also got curtailed due to the loss of big donor states such as Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Lack of funds had forced the Congress to withdraw some of its candidates in Nagaland in this years assembly elections.
The 133-year-old party has since 2014 adopted different measures, including mobilising resources directly from its members, to boost its kitty. In April this year, it asked all its Members of Parliament and legislators Legislative Assemblies to donate a months salary.
This followed with an appeal to the citizens on Twitter on May 24, urging them to make small contributions to restore democracy. The Congress needs your support and help. Help us restore the democracy which India has proudly embraced since 70 years by making a small contribution, read the partys tweet.
Prior to these initiatives, the party had made it mandatory for each member to contribute Rs 250 yearly to the party fund. In 2015, the then AICC treasurer Motilal Vora had asked all the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chiefs that the collected funds would have to be distributed in the ratio of 75:25.
While 75% of the funds received go to the AICC, the state units keep the remaining 25%. Political observers said the Congress is lagging behind in resources mobilisation and that is going to affect its election preparedness.
It is a genuine concern (with)in the Congress. Elections have become an expensive affair. The election expenditure requirement now is much more than ever before. It has increased substantially. In that scenario, the Congress is nowhere near, said N Bhaskara Rao, a Delhi-based political analyst and founder chairman of Centre for Media Studies, a not-for-profit, multi-disciplinary research and development organisation.
Three children died and hundreds of villages in five districts-- Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Kanpur, Unnao and Fatehpur-- are facing flood situation as Ganga continued to rise amid heavy rain and release of water from Narora dam.
While two kids were swept away in raging waters of Ganga in Unnao , one child died after his shanty collapsed in Fatehpur, said an official.
The river was flowing 17 inches above the danger mark in Fatehpur and crossed the warning mark in Kanpur. Besides Ganga, Yamuna and its tributaries were also rising.
Hundreds of villagers in the five districts were forced to move to relief camps, said an official.
In Farrukhabad, 300 villages were affected and condition in about 100 was grave. Some 30 connecting roads were washed away and the route connecting the district with Badaun has been closed, the official said.
The official added that Qasimpur village in Kannauj was marooned and Bakshipurwa faces a similar fate. Some 200 families have moved out of the villages. Water of Gangas tributary Kali has entered seven villages where the schools were submerged.
A view of the submerged area as the water level of river Ganga rises following monsoon rains, in Allahabad on Monday, Sept 3, 2018. (PTI)
The teachers of five schools reached on boat in Madarpur in Fatehpur where half a dozen villages were badly affected. Some 200 villages in four tehsils - Bangarmau, Safipur, Bighapur, Sadar - and urban part of Shuklagunj were flooded.
On Tuesday alone the gushing waters brought down 40 houses and wiped out 30 odd connecting routes in Unnao.
We are keeping a close watch on the situation, said Devesh Kumar Pandey, district magistrate Unnao.
About 1,500 people were in 14 relief camps we are running now. Each of the family today was given 48 kg of edibles, he said.
However, people in Mana Bangla and Soni Bangla villages criticised the relief work.
Crop in thousands of acres of land is destroyed. All we have been told is to move out, said Arjun of Mana Bangla.
Several Ganga ghats and adjoining areas in Kanpur are submerged in water as water level rises following heavy rainfall. (ANI/ Twitter)
The exodus from villages on Ganga catchment has begun in Kanpur too. About 200 people reached three camps on Tuesday. Announcements were being made from the boats asking people to leave the villages and get to the relief camp.
The water has entered six villages in Rani Ghat, Katri Kheora, Katri Singhpur, Hindupur and Pratappur.
The Hydel department on Tuesday refused to run electricity wire to the relief camps citing the rise in water level on both the ends of river. The engineers said the bamboo poles would not be able to withstand the flow of water.
The situation could further worsen further as 1.99 lakh cusec of additional water released from Narora would reach Farrukhabad in 48 hours and in another 48 hours it would get to Kanpur.
ADM (finance) Sanjay Yadav said the administration was fully prepared and in a state of high alert. The administration has prohibited fishermen from going into the river on boats, which would be used in relief and rescue operations.
Flood-ravaged Kerala is facing shortages of a drug that fights an infectious bacterial disease after the worst flooding in a century, forcing authorities to turn to other states to help ramp up supplies.
Suspected cases of leptospirosis, a waterborne disease known locally as rat fever, has climbed to 800 since mid-August, a health ministry spokesman said. Transmitted via the urine of infected animals, its symptoms include muscle pain and fever.
Confirmed deaths caused by leptospirosis so far total 12, while suspected deaths, pending full medical reports, number 41, the spokesman added.
The surge in cases comes after torrential rain beginning on Aug. 8 flooded almost the entire state, killing hundreds of people, destroying thousands of homes and causing at least 200 billion rupees ($2.81 billion) worth of damage.
Kozhikode district, one of the worst hit by rat fever, is staring at supply shortages as demand for the preventive drug shot up, following a few deaths locally.
Kozhikode corporation needs about 3 million tablets over the next two months, but currently has about 500,000 in stock, said R.S. Gopakumar, its health officer.
We have got supplies, but the stocks have been depleting fast, Gopakumar said, as more people are demanding the preventive tablets, which need to be taken once a week for a month.
Supply shortages are being replenished. Of course the demand has shot up, but we are monitoring daily, said Saritha R.L., the states director of health service.
The state government has sought help from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states, Gopakumar said.
The shortages are, however, not felt across the state.
Palakkad district, bordered on the east by Tamil Nadu, has plenty of stocks, as its proximity to the neighbouring state helped in faster transportation of medical supplies.
We have excess supply, said Reetha K.P, district medical officer of Palakkad.
Reetha does not expect a major jump in leptospirosis cases locally, and the district is focusing on vector-borne diseases such as dengue fever instead, as stagnant water breeds mosquitoes.
We are busy with source reduction activities..., she said, adding that, unlike leptospirosis, dengue had no preventive vaccine. All we can do is to keep the intake of fluids high.
(The story has been published from a wire agency, without any modifications to the text and headline)
SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Sacked Indian Police Service officer Sanjiv Bhatt was arrested on Wednesday by police in Gujarat in connection with the arrest of a man for allegedly possessing drugs 22 years ago, officials said.
The crime investigation department of Gujarat police arrested Bhatt following a probe ordered into the case by the Gujarat High Court in June. The high court had asked the department to complete the probe in three months. Bhatt was dismissed from the services in 2015.
Sources in the CID said six other people, including two former policemen, have also been detained for questioning in the case. The case also involved a retired Gujarat High Court judge.
Bhatt had allegedly falsely implicated a Rajasthan-based lawyer Surmersingh Rajpurohit, on charges of possessing around a kilogram of drugs under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act at Palanpur in 1996 when he was the superintendent of police in Banaskantha.
Banaskanta Police had claimed that the drug was found in a hotel room occupied by Rajpurohit in the districts Palanpur town. However, a probe by the Rajasthan police revealed that Rajpurohit was allegedly falsely implicated and that he was reportedly abducted by the Banaskatha Police from his residence in Pali.
Bhatt, the 1988 batch officer of Gujarat cadre, was suspended by the Gujarat government after he filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court contending that he had attended the meeting held by the then chief minister of Gujarat Modi, who had asked the top police officials to let Hindus vent out their anger against the minority community following the attack on the Sabarmati Express in which 59 Hindus were torched to death near the Godhra railway station.
Bhatt, whose tenure has remained controversial, had also accused the Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team formed to probe the Gujarat riots case of shielding Mr Modi and top-ranking police officials of Gujarat. He was sacked by the Union ministry of home affairs in August 2015 for unauthorised absence from service.
His wife Sweta Bhatt had contested the assembly election in 2012 from Maninagar and lost to the then chief minister Modi.
(With agency inputs)
Federal investigators raided the head of Tamil Nadu police and the states health minister on Wednesday over allegations that they received bribes, along with 13 other officials, to allow chewable tobacco products to be sold despite a ban, according to a statement by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
State health minister C Vijaya Baskar and director general of police TK Rajendran were the focus of the raids by the CBI.
In all, raids were carried out across 35 locations in seven cities including premises belonging to former state minister BV Ramana, former Chennai police commissioner S George and several officials from sales tax, customs and central excise, food safety and drug administration departments. A raid on a sitting director general of police (DGP) is rare, if not unprecedented.
It was alleged that one private company based in Tamil Nadu was in the business of manufacturing and sale of gutka and other chewable tobacco products since 2011. Subsequently, production and sale of gutka was banned in May 2013. During the period when the ban was in force, the promoters/directors of the said company allegedly paid bribes to regulatory authorities and continued with the business of manufacturing and selling of gutka products illicitly, CBI spokesman Abhishek Dayal said.
Vijaya Baskar has refused the allegation that he was bribed. I dont know about Madhava Rao, the gutka manufacturer, Bhaskar said in a statement. Rajendran did not respond to requests for a comment. He met chief minister E Palaniswami and discussed the searches.
As the Opposition called for both officials to be sacked, D Jayakumar, the state fisheries minister, said, This is just a raid based on the direction of the court. We cannot call one as accused just because raids have been carried out. No evidence has been found. It is not essential to take action against the innocent.
The call from the Opposition was led by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which had moved a petition in court that led to the CBI taking over the case.
CBI raids conducted in the houses of health minister Vijaya Baskar and DGP TK Rajendran is a shame to Tamil Nadu. Chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami should sack them both immediately. In case the CM fails, governor Banwarilal Purohit should dismiss the minister and DGP, DMK president MK Stalin said.
Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder S Ramadoss echoed the leader of the Oppositions views. The CM should safeguard the interests of the people and not that of the minister who is involved in scams, he said.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) state secretary K Balakrishnan Rajendrans tenure as DGP had ended last year. However, on the last day of his tenure, he got an extension just three hours before it came to an end on June 30 last year. Hence it is clear that the TN government wants to save him, added Balakrishnan.
The petition filed by DMK members alleged that the genesis of the scam lies in the Income Tax raids conducted in July, 2016, on the premises of Madhava Rao, who partly owns MDM Gutkha.
The petitioners told the HC that during searches at the premises of an accountant, the IT department found details of regular payments made to politicians, police and other officials.
For eight days, Kannan Gopinathan worked at relief camps in flood-ravaged Kerala, spending two of those carrying large packages on his head while offloading relief material from trucks in the port city of Kochi. On the ninth day, he was recognised as an IAS officer and he quietly left, as discreetly as he had arrived and helped.
Gopinathan, a 2012 batch IAS officer serving as district collector in the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, had arrived in Kerala on August 26 as the state battled devastation from deadly floods. He was on an official visit to hand over a cheque for Rs one crore from Dadra and Nagar Haveli for the Kerala chief ministers relief fund.
Once that engagement was over, the 32-year-old took a bus from state capital Thiruvananthapuram. Not to his home town Puthupally, but to one of Keralas worst-affected areas, Chengannur, where he went from camp to camp helping distressed people forced to abandon their homes and seek shelter.
He is reluctant to talk about it. I didnt do anything great. I was just a visitor. You have to talk to officers who live in the midst of the affected since the flood hit the state. They are real heroes, Gopinathan said, describing as embarrassing, the moment when he was recognised and people clamoured to click selfies with him. He was spotted while volunteering at a relief camp at the Kerala Books and Publications Society office, by a senior currently posted in Kerala.
Some officials even said they were sorry if anything they had said had hurt me. I thought if I remain there it will be a big disservice and left the place the immediately, Gopinathan said, adding he was overwhelmed by the presence of volunteers from many parts of the country including the north-east.
He was also reluctant to talk to this reporter, saying, I dont want it to be story. It is unfair if you glorify me. Real heroes are there on the ground. If we keep the spirit like this I am sure Kerala will overcome the tragedy soon.
On his return to Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Gopinathan applied for leave but the administration has marked the time he spent helping at the camps as an official tour.
The Kerala tragedy, which left over 400 dead and 13 lakh homeless, saw several young officers like Gopinathan brave bad weather and the threat of epidemic to engage tirelessly in rescue and relief work. Keralas food safety commissioner Rajamanikyam was seen carrying sacks of rice, Thrissur collector TV Anupama did rounds of camps with her young baby in her arms, and Thiruvananathapuram collector Dr K Vasuki led a team of volunteers from the front.
A year ago to the day, journalist Gauri Lankesh was entering her house in Bengalurus Rajarajeshwari Nagar after returning from work when she was shot and killed by three unidentified men.
A special investigating team (SIT) formed to inquire into the killing has since claimed to have completed its probe, arrested 12 suspects and unearthed a shadowy nameless organisation it has linked to the crime and the murder of three other individuals, all of who whom campaigned against superstition and espoused rationalism.
Lankesh, who was 55 and ran the eponymous Gauri Lankesh Patrike, was an outspoken critic of Hindu fundamentalism and known for upholding womens rights. Interviews with SIT officers and documents submitted in court by the police reveal that the plot to kill her had been afoot for a year; the reason why she was targeted were the public comments she made that were perceived to be disrespectful of the Hindu religion, the officials say. It isnt clear what evidence the investigators have and whether their claims will stand up in court. The lawyer of one of those arrested says there is no evidence.
Progress in the investigation was, at least initially, slow. To be sure, within the first month, detectives claimed that the bullets recovered from the scene matched those recovered from the murder scene of scholar MM Kalburgi, who was shot dead at his house in Karnatakas Dharwad district on August 30, 2015.
Yet, initial attempts to piece together evidence from the scene of the crime, apart from the bullets, did not yield major breakthroughs. The crime was caught on a closed circuit television (CCTV) camera placed near the door to Lankeshs house, but few clues surfaced from the footage. The man who shot Lankesh was wearing a helmet and couldnt be identified.
Attempts to trace phone records in the area in the hope that they would provide clues to the murder led to a dead-end. The police had a call log of around a million phone calls that nearby cell phone towers had recorded.
SIT then decided to concentrate on more traditional methods of surveillance and chasing all possible angles into the murder, many of which led nowhere.
As pressure mounted from the public, the media and from within the police force, SIT got hold of the first vital intelligence input on the murder.
A senior officer, requesting anonymity, said SIT received information in November that a man identified as KT Naveen Kumar had been missing since Lankeshs murder. Kumar, a native of Maddur in Mandya district, was traced to a village in Chikkamagaluru district, and was put under surveillance.
We noticed that he was frequenting many coin phone booths. He used as many as 128 coin booths since we began surveillance. We narrowed it down to six booths that he frequented, the officer said.
Intercepting these calls led SIT to confirm that Naveen Kumar had information on the Gauri Lankesh murder plot. We also intercepted a call between Naveen and another person that gave us a clue that another murder was being planned, the officer cited above said.
Arrests follow
This was the alleged plot to kill rationalist writer KS Bhagwan, known for his strong views on Hinduism. We soon realized that this plot was already underway and reconnaissance had been conducted. For this reason we decided to pick him (Naveen Kumar) up, the officer said.
Naveen Kumar was arrested on February 18 in Bengaluru, allegedly in possession of ammunition that he was about to sell. With this arrest, SIT was able to gather more details of the others suspected of involvement in the plot.
On May 20, the police arrested Sujith Kumar alias Praveen, who they claim was the person liaising with Naveen Kumar from Kolar. Sujith then led us to the other accused, the officer said.
According to the officer, the clues Sujith Kumar provided investigators helped SIT arrest Amol Kale, a resident of Pune and believed to be the mastermind of the killings, and Amit Degwekar, also a resident of Maharasthra and the second suspected mastermind, from Davanagere in Karnataka. Additionally, the police also arrested Manohar Edave, a resident of Vijayapura, who it says played a key role in recruiting the killers.
Through interrogations of these persons and using digital analysis of the footage gathered from Lankeshs house, the police say were able to identify Parashuram Waghmare as the person who shot Lankesh.
Subsequently, Amit Baddi and Ganesh Miskin, who is suspected to have ferried Waghmare to the murder scene in a two-wheeler, Rakesh Bangera, who allegedly trained the shooter, Mohan Naik, Suresh and Bharat Kurane, were also picked up by the police.
The evidence
The first link in the chain of evidence was the confirmation of the ballistics report that the same weapon had been used to kill Lankesh and Kalburgi. However, we did not want to follow only that one lead because we did not want to stop our investigation there. We wanted to catch the actual killers, which was our task, the SIT officer cited above said.
During Kales arrest, SIT secured a diary that allegedly belonged to him that proved to be vital in cracking the case. It wasnt easy because entries in the diary were made using codes, the officer said. Additionally, apart from Kale and Degwekar, none of the other accused knew each other by name, he said.
As the investigation progressed, the SIT says it became aware of a shadowy organisation, with Kale at its helm, behind Lankeshs murder.
We realised that we were dealing here with a well-oiled organisation because the planning was meticulous and everybody knew their roles, the SIT officer said. According to him, Kale took over as the head of the organisation after the arrest of Virendra Tawde in connection with the murder of rationalist Narenedra Dabholkar on 20 August 2013, when he was out on a morning walk in Pune.
SIT believes the organisation was formed in 2011 by Tawde. Kale and a man identified as Murali were in charge of recruitment in Maharashtra and Edave and Sujith Kumar were in charge of Karnataka. It was around this time that the group came in contact with Bangera, who gave weapons training to the recruits.
The group targeted extremist members of some right-wing groups, especially those who had cases against them, because this, they felt, proved their daring, the SIT officer said.
SIT has not yet filed a charge sheet in the case. On August 14, it received six months of custody of the accused under the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act.
Lawyers representing the accused say that there is not a shred of evidence that the police have produced so far. A Vedamurthy, counsel for Naveen Kumar, said it had been almost five months since his client was arrested. Initially it was claimed that Naveen had provided the ammunition for the murder. This was dropped subsequently. Then it was claimed that he had conducted a recce in the area, which was also dropped eventually. So, the SIT is only playing for time here, he said.
The only reason the police invoked the KCOCA was to extend the custody of the accused because it is still fishing for evidence, Vedamurthy said.
Advocates for the other accused condemned the invoking of the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act (KCOCA) in the case, comparing the SITs claims with television serials. Advocate Amrutesh said no other angle was probed by the SIT other than right wing involvement. In an attempt to please the left wingers the police has invoked KCOCA, he said.
Senior criminal lawyer CV Nagesh said the duration of this case would depend on when the charge sheet is filed. If the KCOCA has been invoked, then the police does not have any time limit within which to submit a charge sheet, unlike under sections of the Indian Penal Code, where a charge sheet has to be filed within 90 days if the punishment exceeds seven years, he said.
Nagesh said while it was difficult to say how long the trial might last, he there were instances when judgment had been passed within two years of a trial beginning. The high court might also decide to constitute a special court to hear the case, he said.
Days after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued a circular stating that dumping excreta from a flying airplane would attract a fine of Rs 50,000, the aviation regulator Tuesday told the National Green Tribunal that it was impossible to dump human waste mid-air from aircraft toilets.
The DGCA told a bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel that it has become a laughing stock due to this order and sought a stay and review of its order directing the aviation regulator to issue a circular to all airlines operating at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport here.
The aviation regulator informed the bench, also comprising Justice Jawad Rahim, that there is a designated place for emptying the waste tank and it cannot open it mid-air.
The bench, however, refused to stay its order and said it would consider the matter on the next date of hearing.
A circular has already been issued. What is the urgency now? We will see it on the next date of hearing, the bench said.
The DGCA has moved a plea seeking a review and stay of the December 20, 2016 and January 10 order of the tribunal claiming that it was impossible to dump human waste mid-air from aircraft toilets.
The tribunal had earlier issued notices to the original petitioner Lt Gen (Retd) Satwant Singh Dahiya and others while seeking their replies by May 23.
Dahiya had moved the NGT alleging that faeces were splattered from an aircraft on his South Delhi house before Diwali in 2016 after which the tribunal on December 20, 2016 directed the DGCA to issue a circular to all airlines to pay Rs 50,000 as environmental compensation if their planes were found dumping waste mid-air.
The petition has referred to the findings of the expert committee, constituted by the NGT, and said there was no switch or system available in the aircraft to dispose waste in flight.
The aircraft system has three level of in-built external protection for disposing waste and under no circumstances, release of waste during flight is possible and there has been no such resort ever by the operators.
The modern day airline toilets are sealed and cannot be emptied in flight and toilet waste can only be disposed of by manual operation on ground during its servicing, the plea by DGCA said.
The tribunal had earlier constituted a committee comprising representatives from the DGCA, Central Avian Research Institute and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to collect samples from the house of Dahiya.
The committee members were directed to send the samples for tests to ascertain whether it was human or bird excreta.
The NGT had earlier directed the CPCB to take a clear stand whether it could differentiate between human excreta and bird poop.
Aviation regulator DGCA has maintained that it was impossible to dump human waste mid-air from aircraft toilets, and bird droppings had landed on the complainants house, after which the green panel had ordered testing of the excreta samples.
The CPCB had said that there were traces of faecal coliform in the samples, indicating presence of human waste.
The tribunal had in 2016 held that if any aircraft, airlines and the handling services of registered aircraft were found to be dumping human waste from air or toilet tanks were found to have been emptied before landing, they shall be subjected to environmental compensation of Rs 50,000 per case of default.
The NGT had also asked the DGCA to carry out surprise inspection of aircraft landing at the airport to check whether their toilet tanks were empty while landing, and prevent the waste from being splashed over residential areas and any other place before landing.
The Indian Army on Wednesday foiled a suspected infiltration bid along the Line of Control in Rajouri sector, shooting dead an intruder, army officials said.
Early Wednesday morning, an infiltration bid was foiled in Rajouri sector, a defence spokesman said. On the infiltrator being challenged, Pakistani posts in the area opened fired in support and the Indian Army also retaliated, killing him. His body was later handed over to the local police, the spokesman added.
Army sources said that the army patrol had observed movement of two persons in the Keri sub sector.
In the exchange of fire, one of them was killed while another managed to flee back to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, they added.
Around 7.30 pm, the body of the slain intruder was handed over to Pakistan army officers via Chakan-da-Bagh in Poonch.
The Pakistani army officers had arrived at the meeting point at 5 pm and they waited for the family of the intruder, who arrived around 7 pm. Eventually, the body was handed over to them, said an army officer.
Meanwhile, Pakistan on Wednesday summoned Indias Deputy High Commissioner to protest the unprovoked ceasefire violations across the Line of Control by the Indian forces that resulted in the death of a Pakistani villager.
Director General (South Asia and SAARC) Mohammad Faisal, who is also the foreign ministry spokesman, summoned the Indian diplomat and condemned the unprovoked ceasefire violations by the Indian forces along the Line of Control on September 4, the Pakistani Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement.
According to a post on the website of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), the publicity wing of the Pakistani defence forces, a civilian, Abdul Rauf was killed due to unprovoked Indian firing on civil population in Kotkoterra Sector of the LoC on Tuesday afternoon. Rauf had taken his animals for grazing when targeted by Indian troops, it added.
The development come as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived on a short visit to Islamabad before heading to India.
The government interlocutor for Jammu and Kashmir, Dineshwar Sharma, said on Wednesday that the need of the hour was a break from the narrative of violence and called for measures that will help change the public sentiment at a time when the Valley was tense over apprehensions that Article 35A of the Constitution might be scrapped.
The focus should be on youth engagement and public sentiments. For peace, it is important not to raise contentious issues, Sharma, a former Intelligence Bureau director, told HT.
His comments came a day after National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval said at a book launch that a separate Constitution for J&K was an aberration and that sovereignty cannot be a diluted and ill-defined.
Dovals remarks sparked a political storm on Wednesday, with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) criticising him and the National Conference (NC) threatening to boycott the upcoming civic elections in the state. The NC and the PDP the two main regional parties in J&K have staged protests against any attempts to change Article 35A and Article 370, which give special privileges to the state.
The Supreme Court is hearing petitions on Article 35A, which empowers the J&K legislature to define permanent residents of the state and provide special rights and privileges to them. Last week, the court put off the hearings to January after the Centre and the state government argued that it could lead to a law and order situation ahead of the panchayat and local body elections.
On Wednesday, NC leader and former chief minister Omar Abdullah said on Twitter it was up to the Centre to clarify its stand on Article 35A. After a core group meeting, his party said in a statement, It was felt that any tinkering with Art 35 A would prove disastrous not only for our state but for the entire country.
The NC also said it will not take part in the urban local body and panchayat elections, slated for October-November, unless and until the Centre and the state administration take effective steps for the protection of Art 35A in and outside the Courts.
Rafi Mir, a PDP leader and spokesperson, told news agency IANS: Such inflections and unwarranted remarks of Doval when Kashmir is reeling under trouble and witnessing a political turmoil shows the insensitivity of the NSA towards the people of Kashmir.
Sharma is scheduled to visit the Valley on Thursday. He was appointed the interlocutor on October 23, and has pushed for several peace-building measures. An amnesty to first-time stone-pelters was granted on his recommendation last year.
And home minister Rajnath Singh asked security forces in May not to initiate counter-insurgency operations in the militancy-hit state in the month of Ramzan.
Sharma will be calling on the new governor, Satya Pal Malik, the administrative head of the state. Soon after Eid, the Bharatiya Janata Party broke its alliance with Mehbooba Muftis PDP, and the state was brought under Governors Rule on June 20.
Malik too has talked about the need for dialogue to win hearts. He is said to have been at the Centre of the decision to release the relatives of militants who were arrested last week.
Amid mounting tension in the Valley, militants abducted, and then released, 11 relatives of state police personnel in apparent retaliation to police detention of the families of three Hizbul Mujahideen militants.
(ANSA) - Rome, September 5 - A Macedonian woman killed her family because they wouldn't let her marry an Italian, Albanian-language Macedonian daily Koha said Wednesday.
28-year-old Blerta Pocesta, the eldest daughter, is accused of killing Amit, Nazmie and Anila Pocesta, a Macedonian family living in Italy who had returned home to Macedonia for a wedding.
Another two men have been arrested.
F.G., 31, and V.K., 61, from Gostivar and Debar, are said to have procured the gun used by the young woman and enabled her to flee quickly back to Italy.
The family, of Albanian origin and resident in Friuli, was gunned down in their sleep in Macedonia when they went back for a wedding.
The father, mother and teen daughter were killed at Debar, a small town on the border with Albania.
The family had for a long time been resident at Sacile near Pordenone.
The massacre happened on August 27.
The family has another daughter who stayed in Italy.
Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has summoned a Cabinet meeting on Thursday leading to speculation that he may move to dissolve the state assembly to pave the way for early elections.
Rao has asked all his Cabinet colleagues to be available to attend the meeting and instructed all members of the legislative assembly belonging to his ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to attend to work they may have, such as inauguration of any new projects, before Thursday, a TRS functionary said on the condition of anonymity.
At 6.45 am, KCR and his Cabinet colleagues will meet Governor ESL Narasimhan at Raj Bhavan to submit a copy of the cabinet resolution on dissolution of the state assembly, the person said.
When contacted, a spokesman for the chief ministers office confirmed that a Cabinet meeting had been scheduled for Thursday.
Speculation has been rife that Rao is moving to dissolve the assembly to advance the Telangana election to coincide with the November-December polls in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram. If the assembly were to run its course, the state elections would be held together with general elections next year.
The Telangana cabinet met in Hyderabad on Sunday amid buzz that the chief minister planned to dissolve the assembly and hold early elections but it ended without taking a decision on the issue. TRS leader and Lok Sabha MP from Karimnagar Vinod Kumar Boianapalli had told HT that for the Telangana elections to be held along with the polls in the other four states, the assembly would have to be dissolved before September 10. The Election Commission (EC), however, did not confirm if there was a cut-off date for the elections to be clubbed.
Senior Congress leader M Shashidhar Reddy said last week that that if Rao dissolved the assembly, his party would request EC to delay the Telangana polls until a revised voters list is published in January next year.
We will request the EC not to club the Telangana polls with the elections to four states in December and delay them so that time is available for us to ensure voters lists are not doctored, he said. If that is not done, there will be scope for legal options and we are ready to adopt those. We will move the court.
On Thursday, the Cabinet may also take some crucial administrative decisions such as announcement of interim relief for state government employees a pending pay revision.
Meanwhile, the TRS chief has decided to address a public meeting at Husnabad in Siddipet district on September 7. Dubbed Praja Deevena Sabha (meeting to seek blessings of the people), it could be the launching pad for Raos election campaign.
We are planning to mobilise nearly 65,000 people for the public meeting. From here, the chief minister will appeal to the people to support the TRS in the next elections, irrigation minister T Harish Rao, who represents the Siddipet assembly constituency, said. Rao added that the chief minister ill address 50 such public meetings in the next three months across the state.
Some people could still be trapped under the debris of the fallen Majerhat bridge, officials said Wednesday, stepping up search and rescue operations a day after a portion of the 50-year-old structure in south Kolkata collapsed.
A part of the bridge on the arterial Diamond Harbour Road caved in Tuesday evening, killing one person, trapping several people and crushing many vehicles.
Rescuers used drillers and cutting machines to barrel through concrete slabs and engaged sniffer dogs to ensure that they reach out and rescue anybody who might be trapped under the rubble.
There could be a few trapped underneath the collapsed bridge. We are trying to locate them. We are using cutters and drill machines to cut through the concrete slabs of the bridge. Till now, we have been unable to locate anybody. We are trying our best, an official of the rescue team said.
The area near the site has been dug up for a metro railway project and construction material is strewn all over the place.
Labourers working on the metro project claimed two of their co-workers, who were probably inside a temporary shelter underneath the bridge, are missing.
Rescue work by the Kolkata Disaster Management Department, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the state fire department continued through the night.
The bridge in crowded Alipore area runs over the Majerhat Railway Station and connects the city centre with the heavily populated Behala, vast areas of the southwest suburbs and neighbouring South 24 Parganas district.
Police said Tuesday evening that 27-year-old Soumendu Bag had died in the collapse while 21 people, including three women, were injured.
An official of the Kolkata Traffic Police said, We expect traffic jams because the Majherhat bridge has collapsed. It is the main link between Behala and the further south areas of South 24 Parganas district.
To avoid traffic congestion, Behala-bound buses and other vehicles availing Diamond Harbour Road from Hastings crossing will be diverted via Khidderpore crossing CGR Road, Hide Road, Brace Bridge, Taratala Road Taratala crossing further South.
Tram services have been completely suspended along CGR Road-DH Road and Judges Court Road, he said.
With the area virtually out of bounds, traffic was diverted away from the Diamond Harbour Road, affecting thousands of people.
Traffic snarls were reported at various points. The situation is likely to worsen as the day progresses.
Train movement was also partially hit.
West Bengal Transport Principal Secretary B P Gopalika said additional state buses have been pressed into service to mitigate the problems being faced by the people in these area.
Wherever there will be need for more buses, we will provide, he said.
Oishiki Mukherjee, who travels to her college at Park Street from Behala, said the longer distance and excess travel time that may continue for months, will impact her studies.
BJP MP Roopa Ganguly visited the site Wednesday morning. Blaming the Trinamool Congress-led government for the collapse, she alleged the bridge was not maintained properly.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is now in Darjeeling, is expected to return the city today and visit the site.
This is the third bridge collapse in the city since 2013.
A flyover under construction had collapsed in crowded Burrabazar area, the wholesale business hub of the city, on March 31, 2016, claiming 26 lives.
On March 4, 2013, a road bridge had collapsed in Ultadanga area in the northern part of the city. There were no casualties.
Thousands of farmers, aanganwadi workers and daily wagers turned Delhis protest hub, Jantar Mantar, into a sea of red on Wednesday.
Among the protesters, who were demanding an unconditional loan waiver and a hike in the minimum wages, was 58-year-old Lakshmi Satpute from a village in Maharashtras Nashik district. We have been tilling a three-acre land for the past 20 years. Why cant the government transfer it in our name? she asked.
Satputes family survives by harvesting millet and rice. I have six children to feed. My husband died last year after a prolonged illness. We could not even give him proper medicine, she said.
Shanti Varadhe, an agriculture worker, who had also participated in the Kisan Long March in Maharashtra in March this year, said he earns Rs 50 a day. After the Maharashtra protest, we were promised that we will be allotted land. Nothing has happened so far. I have come to the national Capital hoping that the government will at least listen to us now, he said.
A few metres away, a group of aanganwadi workers from Haryanas Jhajjar district was raising slogans. We are demanding a hike in our allowance. We were promised last year that our allowance will be increased to R 4,000 a month from Rs 1,000. However, we have not received the revised salary as of now. How should we run our house with R 1,000? said Usha Devi, 45, an aanganwadi worker for the last 20 years.
Another farmer from Maharashtra, Raghunath Chaudhary said that he has been protesting against the plight of farmers in the state for over two years. He said after the long march to Mumbai in March this year, promises were made by the Maharashtra government for debt waivers and redistributive land reform, which remain unfulfilled.
The government has been fooling us. Everyday some farmer in some part of the country is giving up his life because he is unable to feed his family. Death seems easier than life, he said.
Harminder Singh Pal, a farmer from Punjab, said that low returns for crop has driven several young farmers away from agriculture. They prefer menial jobs because that is better than dying of hunger. I will not stop this agitation till I am paid the right price for my crop, he said.
Pal had travelled from Punjab with 600 other farmers who have been staging protests against the state government there for the past six months.
Most of the participating farmers, low-wage workers and labourers complained of unliveable working conditions and alleged government apathy.
The city dwellers have a strange apathy towards the farmers and labourers who come into their space causing inconvenience. But they should understand that three lakh people deciding to leave their families and foregoing their incomes for a cause is a desperate cry for help, said Pradeep Pradhan, head of workers association from Haryana.
Separate investigations into the 2013 murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in Pune and journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru last year, by the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Anti Terrorism Squad of Maharashtra police, and a Special Investigation Team of Karnataka police have fed off each other, holding out the possibility the murders of four intellectuals in the past five years in Maharashtra and Karnataka are connected.
The first link between the murders of Dabholkar and Lankesh emerged this August, when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recovered a pistol during raids in Aurangabad and arrested two suspects in the Dabholkar case. The pistol with which Dabholkar was killed, the investigating agencies suspect, was connected to the Lankesh murder and was once owned by Sachin Prakashrao Andure, accused of murdering the Pune rationalist on August 20, 2013.
During the interrogation of Andure, it was revealed that one of the arrested in the Gauri Lankesh murder case handed over one 7.65mm country-made pistol and three bullets to Sachin Andure. Sachin Andure passed this country-made pistol and three bullets with magazine on August 11 evening, to his brother-in-law Shubham Surale, in Aurangabad, CBI told a Pune court. The agency claimed the pistol was recovered during raids on August 21. The investigators have now sent the pistol for forensic examination.
Interestingly, the Karnataka SIT investigating the killing of Lankesh said soon after the murder that the weapon used was the same one used in the killing of academic MM Kalburgi in Dharwad in 2015.
Andure has been named as one of the shooters in the Dabholkar case and is the second suspect arrested by CBI after Virendra Tawde.
Accused as a co-conspirator, Tawde is also a suspect in the murder of Govind Pansare, senior CPI(M) leader, who was shot dead in February 2015. On September 1, the CBI on September 1 took into custody from the Karnataka police two more suspects Amit Digvekar and Rajesh Bangera in the Dabholkar case; both were arrested by the Karnataka SIT .
There are more connections. Sharad Kalaskar, arrested separately by the ATS last month (and now in CBIs custody) , was the second shooter in the Dabholkar case, according to CBI, and allegedly provided the two-wheeler used in Lankeshs murder. ATS sources said Kalaskar allegedly provided the motorcycle to Amol Kale, one of the key accused in the Lankesh case, and that certain people arrested in Lankesh case and those arrested in the Dabholkar case were allegedly in touch. Indeed, the arrests of Kalaskar happened only after a tip-off from the SIT investigating Lankeshs murder.
The ATS also claims to have decoded a code NH4 wala kaam (Work related to NH4), which the accused allegedly used to refer in their communications. According to ATS officials, the code is significant when one considers the National Highway Number 4 runs from Mumbai to Chennai, via Pune, Satara, Belagavi and Bengaluru areas where the murders have occured. It could be a crucial code to prove the possible link between the murders of Dabholkar, Pansari, Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh, said an officer. The CBI has also appeared to shift from an earlier theory where it named two other people -- Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar as the people who allegedly shot Dabholkar. The defence counsel representing Andure and Digvekar has pointed out these apparent contradictions. The investigating agencies have been coming up with one theory after another. All their theories have fallen flat in the past, said Prakash Salsingikar, defence counsel for Andure.
The CBI, however, has refuted the defence counsels charge saying the mention of Akolkar and Pawar was based on the resemblance of their faces to sketches.
Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment Ramdas Athawale said the Republican Party of India (RPI) will approach the Supreme Court against a Union information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry directive to media organisations, advising them to refrain from using the term Dalit when referring to members of the Scheduled Castes (SC).
Athawale, who is also the president of RPI, said while he was not opposed to switching from Dalit to the legally approved Scheduled Castes for official purposes, he saw no merit in banning its usage in the media or otherwise.
We are going to the Supreme Court; it is not good to ban the usage of the term Dalit. There was opposition to the use of the word Harijan, as some people objected to it, but there is no such opposition to the use of Dalit as it is not derogatory, he said.
Incidentally, in March, Athawales ministry had written to other central ministries and state governments, advising them to avoid using the term Dalit and instead use person belonging to Scheduled Castes in all official communications.
Athawale defended the ministrys circular by pointing out that it only limited the usage to official purposes.
In June, the Bombay high court had asked the I&B ministry to consider issuing a directive to the media to stop using the word Dalit. Accordingly, the ministry issued the advisory to all private television channels.
The decision evoked mixed reactions from members of the Scheduled Castes community. While a section called the advisory an overreach on the governments part, another was of the view that the term Scheduled Castes was constitutionally accepted and not derogatory.
The government has supported the move, saying that the nomenclature Dalit did not find mention in the Constitution of India or any statute.
Member of Parliament and president of the BJPs SC Morcha Vinod Sonkar supported the decision, saying, Those who say the term Dalit should be used are neither aware of the Constitution nor of Baba Saheb (Bhim Rao) Ambedkars sentiments.
Congress MP Kumari Selja was also of the view that the sentiments of those who consider the term Dalit derogatory should be considered. Party spokesperson Manish Tewari, however, said the term was commonly used in the public discourse.
The term Dalit, according to experts, in Marathi language means broken or downtrodden.
Scheduled Castes is the legal term; but there can be an occasion when the term Dalit or formerly untouchables or formerly excluded castes can be used in an academic context..., said former chairperson of University Grants Commission, Sukhdeo Thorat.
D Shyam Babu, a Dalit academic at the Centre for Policy Research, said every community has the right to determine how it wants to be addressed.
Pakistan on Wednesday summoned Indias Deputy High Commissioner to protest the unprovoked ceasefire violations across the Line of Control by the Indian forces that resulted in the death of a Pakistani villager.
Director General (South Asia and SAARC) Mohammad Faisal, who is also the foreign ministry spokesman, summoned the Indian diplomat and condemned the unprovoked ceasefire violations by the Indian forces along the Line of Control on September 4, the Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement.
The firing in the Kotkotera Sector along the LoC resulted in the death of the civilian on Tuesday, it said.
The FO alleged that the Indian forces have carried out more than 2,000 ceasefire violations along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary, resulting in the death of 32 innocent civilians, while injuring 122 others.
This unprecedented escalation in ceasefire violations by India is continuing from year 2017 when the Indian forces committed 1970 ceasefire violations, it alleged.
The deliberate targeting of civilian population areas is indeed deplorable and contrary to human dignity and 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.
Faisal urged the Indian side to respect the 2003 Ceasefire arrangement; investigate this and other incidents of ceasefire violations; respect the ceasefire and maintain peace on the LoC.
He also urged the Indian side to allow the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to play its mandated role as per the UN Security Council resolutions.
India maintains that UNMOGIP has outlived its utility and is irrelevant after the Simla Agreement and the consequent establishment of the LoC.
The National Conference said on Wednesday it will boycott the upcoming panchayat and local body elections in Jammu and Kashmir unless the Centre and state government clear their stand on Article 35 A, which provides special rights to the restive states citizens.
Announcing the decision, NC president and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah said his party will fight tooth and nail all the sinister attempts aimed at interfering with the constitutional guarantee in any manner what so ever.
Unless and until the government of India and state government clear their position in the regard and take effective steps for the protection of Article 35A in and outside court, the NC will not participate in the elections, Abdullah said after the meeting of the partys core group.
He was flanked by senior party leaders Ali Mohammad Sager and Abdul Rahim Rather.
Watch: NC demands government to clear stance on Article 35 A ahead of Panchayat elections
Abdullah said that the core group of the party had a detailed discussion on the prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir with a particular reference to Article 35A and that any tinkering with it will prove disastrous not only for the state but for the entire country.
The role of central government and present dispensation in the state before the Supreme court is against the wishes and aspirations of the people of the state, he said.
Farooq Abdullahs son Omar Abdullah also said that the central government should make its stand on the article of the Constitution that restricts property ownership and government jobs to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir.
It is now for the central government to clarify where it stands with regard to Art 35-A. Its not enough to use Panchayat & Municipal elections simply to delay proceedings in court, he tweeted.
Omar was referring to the Supreme Courts decision last week to defer hearing petitions against Article 35A to January after the Centre and the state government argued that it could lead to a law and order situation in the state ahead of the upcoming panchayat and local body elections.
Additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta, representing the state government, said that any debate on Article 35A at this juncture would have an impact on the law and order situation in the valley where elections to over 4,500 posts of sarpanch and to 1,145 wards are scheduled. If these elections do not take place, then Rs 4,335 crore financial grant would lapse, he said.
The Jammu and Kashmir government had announced the schedule for its municipal and panchayat polls last week, set to start on October 1 up to the first week on November. The decision was taken by the state administrative council (SAC), which met under the chairmanship of governor Satya Pal Malik on Friday. Preparations for the elections have been on ever since the state came under governors rule on June 20.
The council had decided that the elections to municipal bodies will be conducted in four phases, with polling dates between October 1 and October 5. The municipal and panchayat polls are being held in the state after over a decade. The state government has deputed more than 15,000 additional paramilitary forces to conduct the polls amid a spike in violence.
Militants and separatist Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) comprising three leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik have also called for a boycott of the local bodies polls in Jammu and Kashmir, saying peoples participation in the elections are propagated as a verdict in Indias favour.
Hizb-ul-Mujahideens militant commander Riyaz Naikoo has also threatened that people who will get the election forms for panchayat and local body polls should also get shrouds.
There have been protests in the state by separatists against any change in Article 35A and Article 370 with the states main regional mainstream parties such as the NC and the Peoples Democratic Party also hitting the streets and warning of a deterioration of the situation in the state if any changes are made to either provision. Senior Congress leaders in the state have also warned of a massive agitation if Article 35A is altered in any way.
The family members of a woman, who married against their wishes, allegedly abducted her after attacking a police van at a government hospital, where she was taken for age determination on courts order, police said Wednesday.
Superintendent of Police (city) Omvir Singh said the woman was abducted by the family members Tuesday from the district hospital premises and taken away in vehicle.
Police said the woman married a man last month going against her family wishes.
They said that the womans family members filed a police complaint against the mans family members alleging she was abducted by them.
After this, the woman and her husband approached the Allahabad High Court requesting they be provided security, police said, adding the court directed the police to get her age ascertained.
In pursuance to the courts order, the woman was taken to the district hospital here by the Civil Lines police Tuesday. Her family members came to know that she was being taken to the hospital and they came there with around 20-25 people and tried to control the police van and the personnel accompanying her, Singh said.
He said that the family members took the woman away in a vehicle.
The police have registered a case against 25 people and found the woman after arresting three of the accused, he said.
Police said that the womans mother is also among the those arrested.
Security has been tightened in the area.
The Congress on Wednesday charged the Narendra Modi government with adopting double standards on defence pacts and asked why it did not apply the same yardstick in the Rafale deal with France that it did with Russias move to grant a contract to a private firm to make AK-103 assault rifles.
A fallacious argument of the Modi government on the Rafale scam has been nipped in the bud, by its own recent negotiations in another defence deal, which is the AK-rifle deal with Russia, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told reporters.
The argument given was that the Rafale deal was a government-to-government agreement and the Modi dispensation had absolutely no role in facilitating the R30,000 crore offset contract to a private company, he added.
Citing media reports, Singhvi said it has been revealed that defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman reportedly turned down a Russian request to make another private Indian entity (the Adani Group) its partner for the joint manufacture of Rs 3,000 crore worth of AK-103 assault rifles for the Indian army.
The Congress leader claimed the government reportedly advised Russia that its firm Kalashnikov Concern tie up with the state-run Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) if it wanted its locally made AK-103 assault rifles to be considered by the defence ministry.
Why did it not apply the same yardsticks in the Rafale scam? Why did Modi government not advise Dassault Aviation to negotiate further with government-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), he said.
Responding to this in the course of his media briefing, finance minister Arun Jaitley said: I consider Abhishek Singhvi a scholar and a fine lawyer, but what is this logic? There are 36 planes coming in from there. Nothing will be done in India. In the case of the Russian guns transaction, it will all be built here. These are two completely different transactions. He added that the entire policy of the current government was to ensure that defence manufacturing was encouraged in India and defence public sector undertakings got adequate orders, besides giving space to private players. It is regressive thinking of the Congress that we can buy from foreign firms but not allow Indian firms to get in. We differ with that.
On Rafale, Jaitley said that the basic aircraft price itself is 9% cheaper under the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) than it was under the UPA (United Progressive Alliance). He said that with add-ons meant for India-specific adaptations of the fighter and the weaponry, installed on the basic aircraft, the UPAs price would be at least 20% costlier. In his media conference, Singhvi credited the opposition parties for what he saw as a change in guidelines.
The NDAs decision to enter a $8.7 billion government-to-government deal with France to buy 36 Rafale warplanes made by Dassault was announced in April 2015, with an agreement signed a little over a year later. This replaced the previous UPA regimes decision to buy 126 Rafale aircraft, 108 of which were to be made in India by the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. The deal has become controversial with the opposition, led by the Congress, claiming that the price at which India is buying Rafale aircraft now is Rs 1,670 crore for each, three times the Rs 526 crore, the initial bid by the company when the UPA was trying to buy the aircraft. It has also claimed the previous deal included a technology transfer agreement with HAL.
The NDA has not disclosed details of the price, but former defence minister Manohar Parrikar previously said the UPA deal, struck in 2012, was not a viable one. Indeed, the UPA was not able to close the deal till 2014, largely over discussions related to pricing of items not included in the initial bid. The NDA has said that the current deal also includes customised weaponry.
The deal has become controversial on account of the fact that one of the offset deals signed by Dassault is with the Reliance Group of Anil Ambani. The Congress says the earlier deal was scrapped and a new one signed just to provide Ambani the opportunity for the deal. Both the government and Reliance have repeatedly denied this.
The West Bengal Public Works Department (PWD) issued tenders for Majherhat bridges painting and surface repair even as its condition was deteriorating on account of what experts now say were structural problems. A part of the 50-year-old bridges central section caved in on Tuesday, killing one person and injuring 19.
Hindustan Times has reviewed 106 tenders the PWDs Alipore Division, under whose jurisdiction the bridge comes, floated between June 6, 2014 and August 31, 2018. Only eight of them were floated for the two flyovers in the divisions jurisdiction. Three tenders were issued for painting and surface repair of Majherhat bridge. Five were floated for Taratala flyover, less than 100 metres away.
The last tender for surface repairing of a service road of the Majherhat Bridge was floated on July 27. The project did not take off. The PWD , on August 10 issued a general memorandum saying the appearance of bridges and culverts were not up to the mark. Therefore, it is decided that all bridges and culverts are to be painted after cleaning the same and repairing it, if necessary.
PWD minister Arup Biswas and principal secretary Arnab Roy could not be reached despite repeated attempts seeking comment. Although PWD floated all the tenders, urban development minister Firhad Hakim did not specify which department was in charge of the Majherhat Bridge.
The PWD maintains both flanks of the bridge and the road above. Only the portion that runs above the railway tracks is repaired by Eastern Railway. The Trinamool government cannot disown responsibility, said former PWD minister and Revolutionary Socialist Party leader Kshiti Goswami. I cannot remember the year right now but our (the previous Left Front) government repaired portions of the bridge.
Civil engineers pointed at two specific problem areas though they were not in a position to say to what extent these factors contributed to the disaster. It is a monumental maintenance failure. One, down the years, as the road on the bridge was repaired, the workers piled asphalt layer on layer, thereby increasing the dead load enormously, said Kamal Saha, a civil engineer. Also think of the heavy vehicles that used to ply over the structure. There were no structural reinforcements. Only some cosmetic work such as painting was done.
Another engineer, who did not want to be named, said engineering maintenance was essential, not cosmetic dressing. Steel beams exposed after the disaster show that water kept seeping through concrete and weakened the structure.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday echoed Hakims statement on Tuesday saying vibrations caused at the adjacent Metro railway construction site might have contributed to the disaster.
Experts did not agree. Had vibration caused by digging been powerful enough to crack portions of the bridge, then it would have affected the railways tracks long ago, said another engineer on condition of anonymity.
(ANSA) - Genoa, September 4 - The government said it would help after a group of evacuees from the August 14 Genoa bridge collapse demanded rehousing and respect after they were admitted to a Genoa council meeting on the disaster on Tuesday.
They urged local and national officials to provide guarantees on their future.
The protestors passed out leaflets titled 'The Morandi Bridge People' saying "50 years of service, two weeks of suffering".
They chanted "respect, respect" at the meeting.
They were said to be about 50 in all.
They told Liguria Governor and extraordinary commissioner for the disaster Giovanni Toti: "We come before the businesses, we come before the transport system, we're first, we want homes!".
The collapse killed 43 people and caused the evacuation of many flats below the bridge.
The evacuees are right, Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio said later Tuesday.
"They're perfectly right, you can't leave people at the whim of Autostrade hand-outs", he said.
Di Maio said an urgent government decree was being readied to address the rehousing of the Genoa evacuees.
"It's a question of weeks but perhaps also a few days and then we'll put out this decree," he said.
The government will provide aid to families and firms hit by the collapse, Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli said on Tuesday.
He promised that all evacuees would be resettled "within three months".
Toninelli said authorities would provide support for mortgages for families and tax breaks to businesses.
"The government will put into the field forms of aid in the order of the mortgage payments that many families are forced to pay on property they can no longer live in," he said.
"It will also help firms, in the area of the collapse, to resume productive cycles, envisaging forms of fiscal easements or incentives for temporary delocalisation".
Toninelli also said "from now on all concessionaries will be forced to reinvest".
A demolition project for Genoa's collapsed Morandi Bridge will be presented by Autostrade per l'Italia "within five days," Liguria Governor and emergency commissioner Toti said Tuesday.
"In five days' time Autostrade will present us with the definitive plan for the demolition of the Morandi Bridge," he told a council meeting.
"The plan will be illustrated to the technical committees and first and foremost to the prosecutors whose decision it is to de-sequester the area and get to the truth on the causes of the tragedy," he said.
Rescue teams worked throughout the night, cutting through concrete slabs, inserting cameras through holes drilled in the stone and using sniffer dogs to find the two construction labourers still missing after a portion of the over 50-year-old Majerhat bridge in south Kolkata caved in on Tuesday afternoon.
Gautam Mondal and Uday De, both residents of Murshidabad district, are still believed to be trapped under the debris. Mondal was cooking under the bridge when the accident happened, said construction workers of the metro rail, who used to live under the bridge.
Two persons are missing. They may be under the rubble, said a police officer at the disaster site on Wednesday afternoon.
Undertaking rescue operations at the site, personnel from the army, Disaster Management Group, National Disaster Response Force, Kolkata Police and Fire Brigade tried to drill holes through the thick concrete sections to insert cameras or smash the slabs with pay loaders.
NDRF personnel were trying to break the big concrete chunks into smaller pieces and remove them from the site.
One person was killed and around 20 others injured when the middle portion of the busy bridge connecting the city centre with the Behala area, the southwestern suburbs and South 24 Parganas district collapsed around 4.45 pm on Tuesday, sending several two-wheelers, cars and a minibus plunging down.
The deceased was identified as Soumen Bag, 21, a resident of Behala, who was going to College Street to buy books on a two wheeler. When I rushed to the spot after watching the news on TV, I was told my son was rushed to SSKM Hospital. I rushed there only to be told that he is no more, said Soumens father Pradip Bag.
Of the injured, 15 were still undergoing treatment in local hospitals with the condition of two of them said to be critical. Two of them in private CMRI hospital are stated to be critical. Ten are admitted in state-run SSKM Hospital while one is in VIdyasagar State General Hospital.
Away in Darjeeling on a trip, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said an inquiry will be carried out into the accident.
A probe will be done by a committee headed by chief secretary Malay De to find out the cause of the collapse. Action will be taken against those whose negligence caused the accident. No one will be spared, she said, adding: It is a crime.
The bridge that was constructed in the 1960s was maintained by the PWD. The chief minister and chief secretary will cut short their Darjeeling trip and return to Kolkata on Wednesday.
The opposition attacked the Trinamool Congress government over the accident. State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury visited the accident spot on Wednesday and slammed the state government for failure to maintain the bridge.
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Roopa Ganguly, who visited the site Wednesday morning, also held the state government responsible for the collapse, alleging that the bridge was not maintained properly.
On Wednesday, Kolkata Police lodged a suo motu case at Alipore police station against unknown responsible persons under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Eastern Railway appointed RITES to conduct a probe into the disaster. A three-member team visited the spot on Wednesday morning while a team of forensic experts went to the spot in the afternoon.
The rescue operations hit traffic movement, with thousands of people stuck in jams after the arterial Diamond Harbour Road was closed for traffic.
Train movement below the Majerhat bridge is normal, Eastern Railway spokesman R N Mahapatra said, reported PTI. Train services of Circular Railway from Dum Dum to Majerhat has also resumed this morning, he added.
However, services in the Circular Railway portion of railway track between New Alipore and Majerhat stations that passes under the bridge are temporarily suspended, he said.
Eastern Railway had stopped movement of trains on the lines on Tuesday as a precautionary measure. Tram services have been completely suspended along CGR Road-DH Road and Judges Court Road, a Kolkata traffic police source said.
This is a third bridge collapse in the city since 2013. A flyover under construction collapsed in crowded Burrabazar area, the wholesale business hub of the city, on March 31, 2016, claiming 26 lives.
On March 4, 2013, a road bridge had collapsed in Ultadanga area in the northern part of the city but there were no casualties as the incident happened late at night.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has turned its focus to finding a man from Marathwada who they believe masterminded attacks and the killings of Dr Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, MM Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh.
Two ATS officials one from Pune and one from Mumbai told HT on condition of anonymity that a man called MD Murali was behind these killings, as well as several alleged terror plots since 2008.
The officials, investigating the role of alleged sympathisers of the right-wing group Sanatan Sanstha in these murders and various terror plots over the past five years, said they identified Murali, after questioning Vaibhav Raut, Sharad Kalaskar, Sudhanva Gondhalekar, Shrikant Pangarkar and Avinash Pawar the five men the ATS has arrested over the past few weeks in connection with the attacks.
ATS sources said all five men told their interrogators that Murali was the person communicating details about every operation since 2008, including the planting of a bomb at a Panvel theatre in 2008.
All five accused told their interrogators that Murali had instructed Amol Kale, arrested by the Karnataka Special Investigation Team (SIT), to execute the September 2017 murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru. Kale is possibly the only person who may have more details about Murali, as he took direct orders from him, the officials said. Murali is also believed to have given instructions to Virendrasinh Tawde, shown as the mastermind behind Dabholkars murder. In August this year, agencies arrested Sachin Andure, who allegedly shot Dabholkar dead.
Andure was apprehended from Aurangabad.
None of the accused has seen the man they name as Murali. We believe Murali itself to be a code name, said one investigating officer, requesting anonymity. All the accused used code names when they exchanged calls and messages, the officer said. To find out more about Murali, the Maharashtra ATS now plans to take Kales custody from Karnataka. The ATS has also shared Muralis name with its counterparts in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, as well as with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that has been conducting a parallel probe into the case.
A recent Right to Information (RTI) reply, which shows that high-rise buildings in the city have witnessed fire incidents almost every other day, has raised serious questions over the citys vertical development and if the fire brigade is equipped.
The RTI reply sought by activist Shakeel Ahmed Shaikh said the city saw about 48,434 fire incidents from 2008 to June 2018, of which, 1,568 incidents were reported in high-rise buildings.
One of the tallest buildings in the city is about 320m, which is undergoing construction at Lower Parel.
The fire brigade is equipped with a ladder reaching a maximum height of 90m, which is around 30 floors.
The RTI reply said that maximum fire incidents in high-rise buildings were reported from Zone 3, which includes areas of Bandra, Khar, Santacruz and Andheri; 496 fire incidents, which is almost 50% of the total high-rise incidents; followed by Zone 1, which includes areas like Fort, Colaba, Marine Drive Girgaum and Byculla (325) and then Zone 4 (289), which includes areas like Goregaon, Jogeshwari, Borivli and Malad.
Raising questions on the fire brigades contingency, Ahmed said, Are we compromising on safety due to lack of space. If the civic body cannot provide safety to a high-rise, why does it provide permissions for higher FSIs?
Meanwhile, a fire brigade official said, Nowhere in the world does fire-fighting service have ladders reaching the top-most floors of their tallest buildings. Hence, in the Development Control Regulations (DCR), we have made it mandatory for high-rise buildings to have both active and passive fire-fighting systems.
We either try to douse the fire or evacuate people with these systems. Mumbai fire brigade is equipped as per international standards, he said.
The chief fire officer, PS Rahangdale, said that height of a ladder and height of a building have no relation during a fire fighting activity.
Fire-fighting happens internally, so, we insist on internal fire-fighting systems for which we carry out random inspections and prosecute those who do not have such a system in place, Rahangdale said.
Another officer said that due to presence of Navy and Coast Guard in Mumbai, the fire brigade can coordinate and airlift people in high-rise buildings.
Active fire-fighting systems include fire extinguishers, sprinklers and fire alarm systems while passive fire-fighting systems include fire resistant walls and floors and easy exit ways.
The fire officer also said there is only one 90 metre ladder in the fire brigade, which is kept at the Byculla fire brigade headquarters.
There are a total of 20 ladders ranging from 25 metres in height to 90 metres.
Former Shiv Sena corporator Shrikant Pangarkar trained Avinash Pawar to use arms and ammunition, the state anti-terrorism squad (ATS) told the special court for Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on Tuesday.
Suspected to be right-wing sympathisers planning alleged terror attacks, Pangarkar, Pawar, Sudhanva Ghondhalekar, Vaibhav Raut, Sharad Kalaskar and Santosh Andhure were arrested recently in connection with last months arms seizure in Nalasopara.
Seeking Pawars custody on Tuesday, the ATS claimed Raut gave Pawar a SIM card, which was obtained using fake documents, to stay in touch with other members of the group. The investigation showed the person in whose name the card is registered didnt apply for it, said an officer, adding, The card was used by Raut and Gondalekar. Gondalekar later returned it to Raut, who then gave it to Pawar. This shows the connection between the members of the group.
Chief public prosecutor Jaisingh Desai told the court that between December 2017 and January 2018, when an alleged attack at Sunburn festival venue in Pune was planned, the SIM card showed Pawar was present at two places Ghatkopar and Belgaum at the same time.
The agency said they have deciphered the codes written in the diary found with Pawar. We have been looking at all aspects and need Pawars custody for four-five days, Desai told the court.
Defence lawyer Sanjeev Punalekar claimed the investigation was going in the wrong direction. The way it is being probed, this is an endless process, Punalekar said.
The court extended Pawars ATS custody till Thursday.
The BJPs grand campaign called Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao has been liberally criticised and mocked in the last few years. The reality as it unfolded in various parts of the country, involving party members or its infamous and misogynist IT cell, brought home the need to bachao women and girls from the depravities of the sanskari or cultured party folk. As incidents came to light, the slogan was satirised into Beti Uthao, Beti Bhagao.
The satire turned real this week in Mumbai when Ram Kadam, BJPs MLA from Ghatkopar, told his audience of young men who had participated or watched the boisterous and macho cultural sport of Dahi Handi, that if girls reject their marriage proposal, he would abduct/kidnap the girls and hand them over to the boys to tie the knot with. The video clip went viral on social media platforms.
Kadam has since expressed regret but hasnt apologised. Regret isnt enough. He is, after all, an elected legislator and BJPs spokesperson in Maharashtra. The opposition parties have, expectedly, panned him. The Nationalist Congress Party alluded to the Ramayan saying that Kadam should henceforth be called Ravan Kadam. The Congress said girls now needed protection from BJPs leaders. Shiv Sena called upon chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to take strict action against Kadam.
The Maharashtra State Womens Commission reacted with caution. BJP state president Raosaheb Danve has said nothing. Kadams repugnant remarks have touched upon at least two issues: the incidence of kidnapping of girls even in a city like Mumbai, and the agency that girls/women have in deciding their partner. In five years from 2013, there has been a steep increase of 15 times in the number of girls/young women kidnapped, according to Mumbai Polices response to an RTI query.
Nearly 3,390 girls had been kidnapped in these years; 80% to 90% had been found, the data showed. The police justify that a Supreme Court order wanted all missing to be listed as kidnapped. Kidnapping is a criminal offence; it destroys the victim and families. Kadam made it sound like a cool thing to do and gave a signal to his large male following.
What of the girls/women who turn down marriage proposals? Enraged or insulted young men, in the past, have responded in the worst possible ways by stalking, throwing acid, stabbing, morphing videos to shame the girl and the like. Kadam emboldened such thinking.
The inability of young men to accept a No, the entitlement they feel to choose girls/women, and the social architecture steeped as it is in patriarchy and misogyny which allows men this choice but denies it to women, are all important issues at which activists have chipped away for decades. They continue to be our challenges. Kadam took the battle back a few steps.
He clearly believes in this patriarchal-patronising set-up. He doesnt understand that No Means No. This is disturbing. That he spoke so brazenly and made kidnapping sound matter-of-fact is even more so.
Fadnavis and Danve would do well to take action against Kadam. Not doing so would be insensitive and unwise. Entrenched patriarchy in politics is inexcusable; this open promise to abduct girls is criminal and deserves reprimand.
BJPs leaders complain that Ram Kadam is not the typical RSS shakha, trained cultured person; he was an import in 2014 for his winnability. Kadam, a Class 10 pass, was one of Raj Thackerays swashbucklers in the 2009 Assembly election. He won as Maharashtra Navnirman Sena representative from Ghatkopar, a mix of wealthy upper-caste business families and a sprawl of lower-middle-class tenements and slums. His big moment in the Assembly was when he objected to Abu Asim Azmi taking the oath in Hindi. He was suspended.
In the following years, he attacked a rationing officer, a civic engineer, and civic officials who were taking down his illegal hoardings. He has 12 criminal cases against him. Despite this, or because of it, he was inducted into the BJP and made a state-level spokesperson. In the 2014 Assembly election campaign, he was booked for threatening a rival contestant. Barely 10 days after demonetisation, Kadam gifted his son a swanky Mercedes car.
Fadnavis and Danve are already seen as being lenient on Kadam. Should they not rap Kadam for his remarks, Maharashtras top BJP leaders themselves would have ridiculed the party slogan on betis.
(This column was written before Ram Kadam publicly
apologised on Wednesday)
From October, work is likely to begin on extending the Bandra-Worli sea link up to Versova. Once done, the Versova-Bandra sea link (VBSL) will bring down to 15 minutes the travel time from Worli, in south Mumbai, to Versova, in the western suburbs a journey that currently takes more than an hour.
And, to ensure fewer jams at the points where vehicles enter and exit this new sea link, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has proposed three connectors, senior MSRDC officials said. The connectors will improve accessibility to the sea link from key roads within the city, said Radheshyam Mopalwar, the vice chairman and managing director, MSRDC,
The first such connector will run between Bandstand road in Bandra and VBSL. Without this, motorists would have to come to the Bandra-arm of the Bandra-Worli sea link to reach south Mumbai or the western suburbs.
The other two connectors will link the Western Express Highway (WEH), which ferries a major chunk of the citys traffic, to the sea link. One would take off from Juhu-Koliwada area and connect the WEH via the Milan flyover. The other would connect Nana Nani Park in Versova with WEH, near the Bisleri factory in Andheri (East) via CD Barfiwala Road.
MSRDC has appointed Louis Berger Group to make a detailed plan for the connectors, Mopalwar said. It will be built along with the VBSL. Senior MSRDC officials said the connectors could either be at ground level, or elevated, depending on the available width of the road.
The Versova-Bandra sea link is a crucial component of the coastal road project, a plan to connect south Mumbai and the western suburbs through a series of reclaimed roads, tunnels and a sea links. Nine years ago, the citys first sea link the 5.6km Bandra Worli Sea Link was opened to motorists. On Tuesday, MSRDC signed an agreement with a consortium of Reliance InfrastructureAstaldi to build the 17.17km VBSL from October. Reliance Infra CEO, Lalit Jalan, said the consortium was confident of finishing the work within the five-year period in the agreement. Reliance Infrastructure-Astaldi bagged the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for Rs 6,993.99 crore.
The VBSL will also have a 300-m long cable-stayed section, similar to the BWSL. The cable-stayed portion will be towards the Versova-end of the sea link. The sea link will have three landing spotsone at Otters Club, Bandra; second at Juhu Koliwada and the third at Nana Nani Park at Versova.
The audio launch of Mani Ratnams film, Chekka Chivantha Vaanam, took place on Wednesday in Chennai. Present at the event, CCV Unplugged, were composer AR Rahman, lyricist Vairamuthu, director Mani Ratnam, and actors Arvind Swami, Aditi Rao Hydari, Arun Vijay, Aishwarya Rajesh, Silambarasan and Dayana Erappa.
AR Rahman began the evening with a performance of Mazhai Kuruvi and also spoke about being a part of the film. He was asked what was special about this particular collaboration with Mani Ratnam and Rahman asked the director, Should I tell them? Amid laughter, he said, This film takes us back to days of Nayakan. Mani sir has got the same energy from then. The beauty of evil.
AR Rahman on stage at the audio launch of Chekka Chivantha Vaanam. (Priyanka Sundar/HT Photo)
While Sunitha Sarathy performed Sivanthu Pochu Nenje, Arvind Swami and Aditi Rao Hydari also talked about the film on stage. In a nod to Nayakans iconic dialogue, Arvind was asked if he was a good guy, or a bad guy. The actor said, I dont know what I am. I think you would have to ask our director about it. Next Aditi Rao Hydari was asked about her role, especially about her as Parvati having an affair with Varadhan, and she said with a smile, Its top secret and I wont be revealing anything.
Arvind Swami, Aditi, singer Karthik, singer Chinmayi at the audio launch of Chekka Chivantha Vaanam. (Priyanka Sundar/HT Photo)
Actor Arun Vijay said working with the director was a dream come true.I am happy that my 25th movie turned out to be with Mani Ratnam sir and the music is composed by AR Rahman. Initially, I was nervous to be on the sets with some great talent like Mani sir, Santosh Sivan sir, Arvind Swami brother and others. But, Mani sir made it very easy for me. Arvind also encouraged me and told me that if there was anything that I needed to know, I should just approach Mani sir. I have heard a lot about Simbus work and seen his work, but only after working on this film did I get to know that Simbu is a great human being, said Arun Vijay who plays the role of Thyagu in the film.
Follow @htshowbiz for more
ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop
Actor Siddharth Gopinaths wife Smrija allegedly committed suicide on Tuesday, according to reports in local media. The actors wife was found hanging from the ceiling in her room. The reports also suggest that Gopinath and his wife had an argument before the incident their residence in Maduravoyal, Chennai. The police have started investigation in the case.
Popular web portal Behindwoods quoted an official as saying, The couple had gone out last night and after coming home, they had an argument over a personal issue. Looks like the argument turned serious that led the woman to commit suicide late in the night while her husband was asleep in the hall. We got the information today morning. The investigations are on.
Siddharth reportedly informed the police when he knocked on the room door and there was no response. Once the police arrived at the residence, they had to break down the door to enter. More updates on the same are awaited.
Smrija and Siddharth have been married for three years and tied the knot in 2015. Siddharth was seen alongside Aadhi Pinisetty in the Tamil film Yaagavaarayinum Naa Kaakka.
Follow @htshowbiz for more
ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop
The United States on Wednesday urged Pakistans civilian and military leadership to take sustained and decisive action against terrorists and militants threatening regional peace as secretary of state Mike Pompeo held talks in Islamabad aimed at resetting bilateral ties.
Pompeo travelled to Pakistan with the US military chief, Gen Joseph Dunford, ahead of a visit to New Delhi for the inaugural 2+2 dialogue with India. This was the first high-level US visit since Prime Minister Imran Khans new government assumed power last month, and came days after Washington cancelled $300 million in security-related payments to Islamabad.
Though Pompeo adopted a conciliatory tone by saying his meetings with Khan and foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had laid the ground for outcomes that can build confidence and trust, he also made it clear there was a long way to go before the US could think of resuming security-related aid to Pakistan.
Pompeo didnt mention India but his remarks placed the onus for peace in the region on Pakistan. Pompeo landed in India on Wednesday evening and was received at the airport by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj.
Pompeo and US defense secretary Jim Mattis will have discussions with their Indian counterparts Swaraj and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday.
In all of his meetings (in Islamabad), secretary Pompeo emphasised the important role Pakistan could play in bringing about a negotiated peace in Afghanistan, and conveyed the need for Pakistan to take sustained and decisive measures against terrorists and militants threatening regional peace and stability, state department spokesperson Heather Nauert said.
Qureshi sought to give a positive spin to developments, tweeting that the talks marked the beginning of a new dawn after a spell of darkness. He also sought US help to ease tensions with India.
We want ease on the eastern border if we have to look towards the western side, Qureshi told reporters during a briefing. He added it is important that we should look at it and see how we can improve that, who can help us to bring improvement (on the eastern border).
A statement from the Prime Ministers House quoted Khan as telling Pompeo that his governments agenda was focussed on human development and poverty alleviation, for which peace and stability in the region was a prerequisite. Khan also underscored his commitment to peace with all neighbours.
Khan also spoke of strengthening the relationship with the US based on trust and respect and shared Pakistans perspective on the situation in the region.
State department spokesperson Nauert said Pompeo expressed hope for deeper counter-terrorism cooperation between our nations during his meeting with Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa.
During a brief interaction with reporters before leaving for New Delhi, Pompeo said he had discussed the opportunity to reset the relationship with Pakistan and the work to be done to develop a peaceful resolution in Afghanistan. He added, And Im hopeful that the foundation that we laid today will set the conditions for continued success as we start to move forward.
Asked about the resumption of security aid to Pakistan, Pompeo said: So weve still got a long way to go, lots more discussion to be had, but the military-to-military (relationship) is one that has remained in a place where some of the other relationships havent, frankly.
In response to a question regarding any US warning of increased punitive action, Pompeo said, We made clear to them that and they agreed its time for us to begin to deliver on our joint commitments, rightAnd so there was broad agreement between myself and foreign minister Qureshi, as well as with the prime minister, that we need to begin to do things that will begin to actually, on the ground, deliver outcomes so that we can begin to build confidence and trust...
Pompeos meetings were held against the backdrop of tense bilateral ties and sweeping cuts in American security aid because of Pakistans reluctance to go after terror groups based on its soil. The US has accused Pakistan of turning a blind eye to the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani Network, a charge denied by Islamabad.
The US suspended nearly $2 billion in security aid in January after President Donald Trump accused Pakistan of giving only lies and deceit in return for billions of dollars in aid over the years. Ahead of the talks, Dunford said Trumps South Asia strategy set clear expectations for Pakistan, including help to drive the Taliban to a peace process in Afghanistan.
(With inputs from Rezaul Laskar in New Delhi)
Monica Lewinsky cut short an Israeli interview and walked off stage after what she described on Tuesday as an off limits question about former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Lewinsky, whose affair as a White House intern with Clinton in the 1990s nearly brought down his presidency, sat for an interview with an Israeli TV anchor at a Jerusalem speaking event on Monday where the now 45-year-old anti-bullying activist delivered an address on the dangers of social media.
#MentalHealth: Monica Lewinsky is all over the news again. Here is what happened during the interview in #Israel.pic.twitter.com/hgoSAmNEMn RalphGM (@RalphGMWorks) September 4, 2018
She abruptly rose from her seat and strode off stage after the opening question - on whether she still expected a personal apology from Clinton.
Im so sorry. Im not going to be able to do this, Lewinsky said before walking away.
Clinton, asked in an NBC interview in June whether he felt he owed Lewinsky an apology, replied: No. I have never talked to her, but I did say publicly on more than one occasion that I was sorry.
Tweeting about her reason for leaving the stage in Jerusalem, Lewinsky wrote: There were clear parameters about what we would be discussing and what we would not.
In fact, the exact question the interviewer asked first, she had put to me when we met the day prior. I said that was off limits ... I left because it is more important than ever for women to stand up for themselves and not allow others to control their narrative.
In response, the Israeli News Company, which sponsored the event and employs the interviewer, said it had honoured all its agreements with Lewinsky and her requests.
We believe the question asked on stage was legitimate and respectful, and one that certainly does not go beyond Ms. Lewinskys requests and does not cross the line, it said in a statement.
(ANSA) - Rome, September 4 - The government on Tuesday held a summit on the Libya crisis and migrants as militia fighting continued in the Libyan capital Tripoli and the empty US embassy was set on fire.
All the ministers concerned took part in the summit, with Premier Giuseppe Conte presiding.
The government has already ruled out any Italian military intervention, even by its special forces.
Militia fighters are moving closer to the UN-backed government in Tripoli and the crisis may well have a knock-on effect on migrants leaving for Italy.
Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini said Italy must be the protagonist of stabilisation in the Mediterranean.
He said, referring to France, "the incursions of others who have economic interests must not prevail over the common good which is peace.
"I, too, am willing to run some risks and soon return to Libya".
Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi on Tuesday phoned the president of the Libyan presidential council, Faez al-Serraj within the framework of action aimed at improving the situation in Libya, the foreign ministry said.
Moavero confirmed to the Libyan PM "Italian solidarity and support for the Libyan people and for its institutions in this phase of great difficulty, ravaged by armed clashes in the capital Tripoli", the foreign ministry said.
Moavero on Monday confirmed to the chairs of the parliamentary foreign affairs committees that he was immediately at the parliament's disposal to report on the overall situation in Libya, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.
European Union member States should give up their own national agendas in Libya, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said Tuesday.
"The European Parliament must make its voice heard on the crisis in Libya in the next plenary session," he said.
"Only by acting in a united way can we work for peace and stability.
"The member States must stop promoting their own national agendas, damaging all European citizens".
The position of the EU member States is united on Libya, a spokesman for the European service for external action said Tuesday, answering a question on Italy's charges against France.
"The member States of the EU have a united position on Libya," he said.
Yesterday High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini spoke to UN special envoy Ghassan Salame to whom she assured "the full backing on the part of the EU" to find a "long-term solution" via a "political process", the spokesman said when asked how the EU intended to act.
Libya is "without doubt" the new peril for Europe with regard to ISIS, Rita Katz, the head of terror-monitoring website SITE, told ANSA Tuesday.
"Last year ISIS no longer existed in Libya, it had zero suicide operations," she said.
"This year there have been a dozen already all over the country".
Katz added that "some of the fighters in Iraq and Syria have been able to return".
The death toll from more than a week of fighting between armed groups in Tripoli has climbed to at least 50 people, including civilians, Libyan authorities said Tuesday, as the UN voiced alarm over the fate of detained migrants and Libyans already displaced by years of unrest since Muammar Gheddafi's ouster in 2011.
Fighting erupted last week when the Seventh Brigade, militias which hail from Tarhouna, a town about 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of Tripoli, attacked southern neighborhoods of the capital. The Tripoli Revolutionaries' Brigades and the Nawasi Brigade - militias which support the UN-backed government - have come to the city's defence.
In addition to those killed, another 138 people, including civilians, have been wounded, the health ministry said.
Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Tuesday defended the first Bimstec joint military exercise to be held in Goa during September 10-16 after ruling and opposition party leaders criticised his governments decision to join the wargame.
Making a speech in Parliament, he said, This (military exercise) is focused on capability building of the armies. We will not enter into any kind of military pact with any country or regional organisations, and we do not believe in military pacts too.
Oli was forced to respond after ruling and opposition party leaders questioned the decision to join the Bimstec military exercise and sought an answer from the premier. The lawmakers said Nepals decision was a mistake and went against the countrys foreign policy stance as enshrined in the Constitution.
The premier expressed dismay at statements made by senior political leaders, including those who had served as defence minister and home minister. I am really puzzled by statements made by former ministers on the joint military exercise. There should not be any confusion, he said.
Officials said the proposal for the military drill was first floated by India, and there was concurrence by all Bimstec members during the groupings summit in Kathmandu last week.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on member states to join the exercise, to be followed by a conclave of army chiefs of the countries in the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation.
The exercise will feature a unit of 30 soldiers from each Bimstec member state. The personnel will share experiences and learn skills from each other in counter-terrorism and disaster management.
Assuaging concerns expressed by Nepalese politicians, Oli said: Nepal has been conducting such military exercises with many countries such as India, China, Pakistan, the US and others. Before sending Nepali peacekeepers to UN missions, our army does military exercises. Have you seen in the Bimstec declaration that we are going to (sign) a military pact? he said.
Ahead of Olis statement in Parliament, a ruling party leader, Bhim Rawal, said, The government has made a mistake by deciding to take part in the military exercise. This is against our Constitution and against our national interests.
Many ruling and opposition party leaders expressed similar concerns about the military drill in India, and said Bimstec could turn into a military bloc by shifting from its original goal of technical and economic development.
The opposition Nepali Congress, considered more liberal than the ruling Community party, also criticised the government and raised the issue with Oli in Parliament. Bimstec is all about a technical and economic bloc. How did this joint military exercise suddenly appear? Nepali Congress lawmaker Minendra Rijal said.
Spain says it has cancelled the sale of 400 laser-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia amid fears that the weapons could be used in the Riyadh-led coalition fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The deal was originally signed in 2015 under Spains former conservative government, but the new centre-left administration plans to return the 9.2 million euros (USD 10.6 million) already paid by the Saudis, Cadena SER radio reported on Tuesday.
A Defence Ministry spokeswoman who was not authorized to be identified by media confirmed the report, but declined to elaborate.
Rights groups have criticized the coalitions airstrikes and other attacks in Yemen for killing civilians, including children.
UN human rights experts say all sides may have committed war crimes.
The Saudi embassy in Madrid did not immediately respond to e-mailed questions.
A visa rule popular with Indian students, which allowed them to work for two years after completing studies, should be revived to send a more welcoming message to international students at a time when Brexit is looming, UK universities said on Tuesday.
The provision, scrapped in 2012 when Prime Minister Theresa May was home secretary in the David Cameron government, allowed self-financing Indian students to recover some of the high costs of studying in the UK by working and gaining experience.
However, it was closed followed by some evidence that the route was being misused by bogus colleges that were admitting Indian and other non-EU students for purposes of employment rather than studies. Its closure led to a drop of more than 50% in Indian students.
Universities UK (UUK), the umbrella body representing all British varsities, said students should be allowed the same two years after completing studies, which will also benefit British employers when uncertainty linked to Brexit is leading to a dwindling labour pool.
UUK said reviving the provision will enable the UK to compete with other popular destinations such as the US, Australia and Canada, who have more welcoming student visa policies, including post-study work facilities.
The timing of UUKs call is significant. The key Migration Advisory Committee, which advises the government on immigration, is due to report on the impact of international students this month.
There have been growing demands from members of May's cabinet and others to exclude international students worth 26 billion to the British economy from migration numbers, since the overwhelming majority leave after their studies.
UUK president Janet Beer, who is vice-chancellor of the University of Liverpool, said: "The ability to work in a skilled job for a limited period after graduation is, for many prospective international students, an important part of the overall package when deciding where to study.
"This improved post-study visa would put us on a par with what is offered by countries such as the US, Canada and Australia. It would send a more welcoming message to international students and signal that the UK is open to talented individuals from around the world.
Currently, students must find a job with a salary of at least 20,800 with an employer with a Tier 2 sponsor licence within four months of completing their course, or find sponsorship as an entrepreneur, which most find difficult to obtain. PhD students can stay for a year after obtaining their degree.
A Home Office spokeswoman said: "There is no limit on the number of genuine international students who can come to study in the UK. We recognise the cultural and financial contribution which international students make to the UK, which is why we have developed an excellent post-study offer.
Half Moon Bay, CA (94019)
Today
Partly cloudy skies early then becoming cloudy with periods of rain late. Low 56F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%..
Tonight
Partly cloudy skies early then becoming cloudy with periods of rain late. Low 56F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
(ANSA) - Rome, September 5 - European Budget Commissioner Gunther Oettinger has been quoted as saying that the Italian government is among the internal and external opponents that are putting the European project is in "mortal danger".
"Some within Europe want to weaken it or even destroy it - Poland, Hungary, Romania, the government of Italy," Oettinger was quoted as saying by Politico at an event in Brussels on Tuesday.
C all it the lingering effect of that stonking summer, or maybe we're all just drowning our sorrows at the state of the world, either way, Londoners just can't seem to get enough of cocktail hour.
An Espresso Martini Festival returned to London for the second year in August, to the delight of coffee lovers and cocktail fans alike, with 100 of London's top cocktail bars serving variations of the much-loved tipple.
Next month's London Cocktail Week is also becoming a fixture in the capital's calendar and we'll all need to be well-equipped for entertaining by the time the party season rolls around.
So why not toast the last of summer with an investment in your own barware?
After all, the main ingredient of a good martini is the glass.
Mixed metallic glasses, with copper foiling and gold foiling, will jazz up any swish bar cart. A set of two costs 18 from Oliver Bonas.
For a timeless touch try hand-cut crystal. Inspired by Ralph Lauren's personal car collection, the elegant Bentley martini glass is hand-cut from Hungarian crystal and costs 95 from Ralph Lauren home.
Alternatively, for more of a coupe style that's ideal for our favourite espresso martini, try Richard Brendon's fluted style.
Mouth-blown by craftsmen in Bohemia, and priced at 90, the glass is light yet decadent.
(ANSA) - Rome, September 5 - European Budget Commissioner Gunther Oettinger has been quoted as saying that the Italian government is among the internal and external opponents that are putting the European project in "mortal danger".
"Some within Europe want to weaken it or even destroy it - Poland, Hungary, Romania, the government of Italy," Oettinger was quoted as saying by Politico at an event in Brussels on Tuesday.
European Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova said Wednesday that she did not agree with this assessment. "That image is too dark," Jourova said, adding that "perhaps" Oettinger "had had a difficult day" when he made the comments. "I am an optimist by nature," Jourova continued. "We have to make the EU more resilient and united".
Appointment
5 September 2018
The Brown Palace Hotel & Spa, a legend among Downtown Denver hotels since 1892, proudly announces Timothy Wolfe as Complex General Manager of the 241-room iconic landmark and the adjacent 231-room Holiday Inn Express Denver Downtown, part of The Brown Palace hotel complex. In this role, Wolfe will be responsible for managing the complex's day-to-day success, overseeing all operational aspects of the sister properties, including everything from sales and marketing to food and beverage, while maximizing revenue and maintaining focus on strategic goals.
"We're thrilled to have Timothy Wolfe join The Brown Palace hotel complex," said Ryan Sistare, Regional Vice President of Hotel Operations & Transitions at HEI Hotels & Resorts. "His distinguished background in the upscale hospitality industry and commitment to excellence, coupled with his outstanding record of management success will be instrumental in enhancing our celebrated reputation as the 'Grand Dame of Denver.'"
An accomplished authority in the hospitality realm with over 25 years of industry-specific experience, Wolfe joins the ranks at The Brown Palace following a seven-year stint as Area Managing Director of Pyramid Hotel Group. During his tenure, he managed a myriad of properties including the Denver Renaissance, The Antlers Hilton, Lodge & Spa at Cordillera, Revere Boston Common, Residence Inn Boston Harbor and most recently the Columbus Marriott Northwest in his native state of Ohio.
Among the prestigious accolades received during his career, Wolfe was inducted to The Colorado Hotel & Lodging Association's (CHLA) Hall of Fame in 2015 and was named CHLA's Hotelier of the Year in 2011. Besides his commitment to excellence in the industry, he is passionate about community involvement, having served as Chairman of the Board for Colorado Tourism and member of the Board of Directors at CHLA.
Supplier News
5 September 2018
London, 5th September 2018 - Fornova announced that Dusit International has selected the Fornova Distribution Intelligence to help them manage their hotel distribution more effectively to maximise their revenues and net RevPAR. Fornova's solution will provide Dusit hotels with unique insights and empower their hotels to be more responsive to market shifts that present new challenges and opportunities in hotel distribution, daily. The Fornova Distribution Intelligence platform will monitor more than 75,000 room-nights for Dusit International, every day, from multiple Points of Sale (PoS) including China, Korea and Australia.
AVP Revenue Management and Distribution at Dusit International, Chatchai Pongprapat said, "As a portfolio of international hotels we are spread across multiple countries and attract guests from domestic and foreign markets. It is critical for us to understand how our guests find and book with us at every destination from different regions, otherwise, we risk losing out. Fornova Distribution Intelligence provides us with the scale and ability to continuously monitor from multiple Points-of-Sale and manage our diverse partner relationships more effectively."
Fornova Distribution Intelligence has been rolled out across Dusit International portfolio of 29 hotels. The hotels are using the platform to monitor how their inventory is being sold on multiple channels including Online Travel Agents (OTA) and Meta Search Engines (MSE) across all PoS. Fornova's patented visual web-analysis technology for extracting and aggregating information from websites provides hotels with screenshot evidence and actionable intelligence to make it easier to manage partner relationships. "It is always easier to manage relationships with contracted partners, but indirect and uncontracted partners are harder to deal with. Having clear data and screenshot evidence makes it easier for our hotels" added Chatchai.
CEO, Dori Stein, said, "We are delighted to welcome, one of Asia-Pacific's most innovative hospitality groups, Dusit International to the Fornova community. They are joining a growing movement among leading hotel chains that are recognising the opportunity to maximise revenue and profitability using distribution intelligence to improve how their inventory is sold across both direct and indirect channels. In a modern distribution landscape dominated by online channels, it is more important than ever to monitor daily and respond quickly adopting an Agile Distribution mindset."
Improving rate-parity, especially with contracted OTA partners is just the first step. Working closely with Fornova has created broader awareness within Dusit about all the factors that affect distribution health and, eventually, a hotel's ability to sell every room through the best channel, every time. This has paved the way for Dusit International to focus on bigger opportunities beyond just rate-parity.
"Meta Search is where the next big opportunity is. Fornova has been a great partner to work with, always listening and shaping their solution based on our feedback to meet our requirements. Now that we have greater oversight and stronger relationships with our direct partners, and better ability to manage uncontracted partners, we are in a stronger position to focus on the next phase of our ambitious growth targets to increase revenues and boost direct." said Chatchai.
Dusit International currently operates 27 properties worldwide and has over 50 confirmed projects in the pipeline in key destinations such as Bhutan, China, Indonesia, Kenya, Myanmar, Oman, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, and UAE.
Find out more at www.dusit.com
About Fornova
Fornova's patented technology helps hoteliers maximise revenue and profit by continuously optimising their distribution mix across ALL channels - to sell every room through the best channel, every time.
Hotel distribution is evolving fast. Fornova's leading-edge technology delivers a comprehensive, constantly updated view across both direct and indirect distribution channels - giving hotels dynamic control of their entire distribution and e-commerce operations. And with intelligent insights and automation, hoteliers can get maximum profit on every room by optimising their distribution mix across ALL channels.
Founded in 2010, Fornova has over 100 employees with offices in London, New York, Israel and Amsterdam, providing market-leading distribution solutions for more than 15,000 hotels globally.
Find out more at www.fornova.com
Enquiries to:
Arunn Ramadoss, Director of Marketing
[email protected]
Press Release
5 September 2018
There are many great sessions and workgroup meetings to look forward to at the upcoming HTNG Insight Summit ! Make sure you're joining your peers on 25-26 September at the Plug 'N Play Headquarters in Sunnyvale, CA for this not-to-miss event.
Advertisements
HTNG Insight Summits focus on accelerating discussions and solutions in current HTNG workgroups by providing an opportunity for participants to meet face-to-face. HTNG members come together to discuss current issues, acquire knowledge on recent trends and benefit from networking opportunities.
General Sessions:
California Privacy Act
CBRS, New Waves for a Modernized Infrastructure
Driving Business Analytics with a Great BATE Update
Engaging the Frontline Through Communication Platforms
Future Infrastructure Requirements for Hotels
International QR Payment Trends
Is WPA3 the Charm for Protecting Wi-Fi Access?
Planning Your Next Fiber Optic Deployment
Plug 'N Play with the Latest Batch of Startups
SD-WAN, a Solution to Enhance Hospitality Innovation and Guest Experience
Security is Not Obscurity
Start Planning for 5G Now
The Future of Hospitality Wi-Fi
Voice Stories from Those Driving a Quality Guest Experience
On-site workgroup meetings will include: AI for Hospitality, Business Analytics Transactional Extract, Blockchain, CBRS for Hospitality, Fiber to the Room, Frictionless Check-In, Improving the Guest Wi-Fi Experience, IoT, NFC Contactless Payments, Staff Alert Technology and Voice Interaction Framework.
Press Release
5 September 2018
Expanding its hotel & resort management and marketing presence to Europe, Key Management Group LLC has relocated its corporate headquarters from Absecon, New Jersey, USA, to the city of Hilversum in North Holland, The Netherlands, near Amsterdam. The leading international hospitality management company specializes in the development, operation and marketing of independent, branded, boutique and condo-hotels, including several properties in the Dutch Caribbean.
Advertisements
"With nearly two decades of industry experience and a growing presence in Aruba, Curacao and Suriname, we saw new sales and operational opportunities in establishing a strong presence in Holland and in Europe," says company Managing Partner Albert Lacle. "The Netherlands Antilles are a top destination market for European travelers and especially the Dutch. Relocating to a commercial hub such as North Holland will open many new business opportunities for Key Management Group and for our properties," he said.
Located just a half hour from Amsterdam and Schiphol International Airport, Hilversum is a historic city surrounded by nature reserves and close to other Dutch commercial hubs such as Utrecht and Rotterdam. Key Management Group will keep its location in New Jersey as its U.S. Sales and Reservations Office.
The Netherlands is a particularly important market for Curacao, where Key Management Group manages, among others, the Piscadera Harbour Village. This striking, 48-apartment hotel will soon be joined by a new luxury boutique hotel opening late 2018. Key Management Group will operate this new 42-unit property on the beach and is seeking membership in Small Luxury Hotels of the World to market the new hotel in Europe and the United States.
Albert Lacle, previously the Regional Vice President Sales and Marketing for Benchmark Hospitality in Houston and Executive Director of Sales and Marketing at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City, NJ, together with his Managing Partner Walter Kohlross, founded Key Management Group in the year 2000.
Mr. Kohlross has previously held the position as Senior Vice President at the Trump Taj Mahal, where he served as part of the opening team. He has executive management experience in Rooms, Food and Beverage and Marketing for managed operations and personnel with major hotel chains in commercial, resort, casino and convention hotels throughout the world. Mr. Kohlross held executive management positions for fifteen years with Westin Hotels in North America, South Africa, and participated in the opening of six properties, including in Asia.
(ANSAmed) - ROME, SEPTEMBER 5 - A call to abide by a ceasefire has been launched by Italy, France, the UK and the US to "all Libyan parties" in a joint statement.
The statement urges reconciliation and the resumption of a Libyan-led peace process. "The Governments of France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States welcome the result of the mediation reached today in Tripoli by the United Nations Support Mission that aims to deescalate violence in and around Tripoli and ensure the protection of civilians," the statement noted. "We reiterate our strong support for Special Representative of the Secretary-General Ghassan Salame as he works to realize an immediate and durable cessation of hostilities in the Libyan capital, which is a critical step to advancing the political process in accordance with the United Nations Action Plan," it added.
"As the Secretary-General noted on September 2, all parties should immediately cease hostilities and abide by the ceasefire agreement brokered by the United Nations. We call on all Libyan parties to refrain from any actions that could undermine today's ceasefire announcement, jeopardize the security of civilians, or set back Libyan efforts to advance the political process and move forward in the spirit of compromise." "We also reiterate support for the President of the Presidency Council, Fayez al-Sarraj, and the Government of National Accord as they work in partnership with the United Nations to promote reconciliation and support a Libyan-led political process," it concluded. (ANSAmed).
Opinion Article
5 September 2018
It wasn't long ago that all the information hotels had on a guest could fit on a single registration card. In the late 1980s, the introduction of the property management system marked the beginning of the digitization of data.
Since then, the number of platforms used by hotels to engage guests, streamline operations and drive revenue has proliferated. Today, a hotel may use a dozen or more applications, from revenue management systems to guest survey solutions to marketing automation software.
"Guests leave a tremendous amount of data in their wake at the various touchpoints during their staywebsite, call center, PMS, mobile app, POS, activities, survey, loyalty program, just to name a few," said Sullivan of Cendyn. "The challenge is that each of these systems captures a sliver of information about the guest, and it's housed in disparate data silos." When you consider the entire lifecycle of a guest, which may encompass multiple stays at properties and brands within a hotel group, the amount of data increases exponentially.
The challenges arise out of the evolution of technology in hotels. New tools have been developed piecemeal over the years, some as standalone applications, others as add-ons. Because many of the systems do not communicate with one another, a hotel company may have multiple profiles of the same guest scattered across its properties and databases.
THE IMPACT OF MULTIPLE SOURCES ON STAFF MEMBERS
In today's competitive marketplace hotels need to know their guests and earn their loyalty. Customer relationship management utilizes a combination of technology and human hospitality to create rich profiles of guests and cater to their individual needs and preferences. By mining these profiles, staff can make informed decisions about the services, amenities and marketing campaigns they need to gain an edge over competitors.
For CRM to be effective, staff must work closely together in the pursuit of mutually aligned objectivesnamely, guest satisfaction, engagement, loyalty, advocacy, and profitability. Hotels must invest in technology that facilitates the collection, sharing, analysis, and use of guest data.
Under the current fragmented state of technology, hotel staff are impeded from achieving these objectives. Without a complete picture of the guest, the front desk doesn't know if a guest is a first-timer or a frequent customer of the brand. Marketers are unable to segment guests based on behavior and interests and must resort to sending generic offers. With limited access to data, department heads are prone to setting unrealistic and unachievable forecasts and budgets.
To overcome the challenges, staff find workarounds. Front desk staff jump from one database to another to extract and input guest profile data. Revenue managers manually reconcile data from multiple sources on Excel spreadsheets. And marketers pool data from diverse silos in an attempt to segment guests and send targeted offers.
In the process, guests experience delays, lapses in service and frustration. Loyalty and preferences go unrecognized, and guests don't come back. Guests receive irrelevant email offers and opt out of the database. Rather than empower staff to achieve objectives, technology leads to inefficiencies, errors and lost business.
AGGREGATING THE DATA
Hoteliers understand that the current situation is untenable, but what's the solution? A first step is to integrate data across silos, but the process is not as simple as it sounds. "Data integration can be challenging if systems don't talk to each other very well," said Abdullatif Awadh, Senior Director of Customer Relationship Management at Dubai-based Jumeirah Group. "This leads to sources not being accurate, and you lose confidence in the information."
Prior to integration, brands need to standardize how data is input and establish common formatting, rate codes, market codes, and other data fields. After integration, data must be cleansed and deduped, and subsequent data-sharing must be frequent, if not in real-time. Only then can staff confidently use the data to guide decisions.
"To minimize these challenges, hotels need robust and solid integrations built specifically for their systems. We need to ensure we have the right data to communicate with our guests, whether confirming a reservation or managing the entire lifecycle of a customer. Our CRM and other systems need to be in sync."
-- Abdullatif Awadh, Senior Director of Customer Relationship Management, Jumeirah Group
THE POWER OF A SINGLE PROFILE
By integrating systems, hotels can take advantage of the many tools available to collect data and engage guests while at the same time working from a shared database. "The end goal is a single version of truth," said Sullivan of Cendyn. "A centralized, integrated database that provides a complete picture of your guests. That's when you can start doing exciting things with that data."
With a single view of the customer, hotel staff can ensure that engagement is meaningful and relevant at every touchpoint during the guest journey. Profile information may include the guest's photo, stay history, total spend, interests, preferred room types, links to social profiles, loyalty program status and feedback from previous stays.
The benefits of an integrated database are far-reaching. Staff members do not need to perform multisource data lookups or find workarounds. Marketers have at their fingertips all the information they require to send the right message to the right guests, through the right channels, at the right time. Managers can access the data they need to create accurate budgets, forecasts, and reporting.
For hotel companies with multiple brands, the benefits extend to the entire portfolio. "Food & beverage can mail prearrival information about activities on property that may be of interest to the guest," said Chetan Patel, Vice President, Strategic Marketing & Ecommerce at Bangkok-based Onyx Hospitality Group. "Operations benefits from feedback in guest surveys, which becomes part of the guest profile so other properties can prevent any issues from happening again. And ecommerce and marketing can use guest profile data to communicate targeted offers, cross-sell, upsell and encourage repeat stays."
"Because brands and hotels within a hotel group can vary, not all information regarding the guest is relevant. For example, the data needs of a select-service property are more limited than those of a luxury resort. The ultimate goal is to have a single guest profile that allows for micro-segmentation by brand."
-- Marcos Cadena, VP of Digital, eCommerce and Distribution, Minor Hotels
Want to learn more about consolidating your data into one central CRM platform? Our whitepaper The CRM Data Warehouse takes an in-depth look at the future of data management for hotels.
Opinion Article
5 September 2018
The concept of leveraging technology to improve the user experience and increase hotel revenue simultaneously is what we call Predictive Personalization. It's a two-step process whereby you apply machine learning techniques to understand user behavior, and then personalize his or her experience by automatically presenting the best content and offers for that individual.
You might ask yourself - isn't that already being done? But the big leap here is that this prediction happens in real time. It's also much more sophisticated, not based on a few simple rules, but on hundreds of variables that interact with each other.
The need for Predictive Personalization
All hoteliers should be getting excited about predictive personalization because it's set to make our lives so much easier.
Predictive is key because first, there are so many travelers and they are all different. Unfortunately, you just can't know what they want using a few rules of thumb and blanket attributes like gender or nationality. Second, you need to anticipate his or her behavior. People are not exactly patient these days and if you need to wait for them to reveal their preferences, they'll be long gone. You need to act fast and fluently to encourage sales.
Personalization comes into play because predictive analytics are only powerful if they allow you to change behavior. Data that can't be acted on is useless, it's just a game that gives you an illusion of control. Just as each traveler is unique, through personalization you can ensure that each visitor to your website has a unique experience too.
Machine learning trumps guesswork
The reality is that no e-commerce or revenue manager can hold in their head the huge number of variables that shape user behavior and how they interact with one another. We need machine learning to automate this process and take it to a new level of accuracy and speed that humans alone cannot achieve.
The feedback loop from Predictive Personalization allows the hotelier to adapt their commercial strategy on the fly: optimizing offers, managing stressed inventory, for low/high season etc. It takes the guesswork out of the yield management process, which saves precious time and optimizes results.
Discovery vs. offer
Personalization is currently a buzzword for all players in the travel scene. Every CEO is thinking about it and every marketer is delving deeper into the topic to find out what the benefits are. The same can be said for AI and machine learning, however, the problem that OTAs and hotels are trying to solve is fundamentally different.
An OTA has a discovery problem: which hotels should they put in front of the user, among the hundreds of thousands that it is selling? A hotel, on the other hand, has an offer problem: which combination of room, services and price is the ideal one for each customer?
Adding the user to revenue management
So far, the offer problem has been tackled using conventional revenue management - finding out the price per room that maximizes revenue for the hotel using demand analytics and shopping competitors' pricing. You'll notice, however, that a key stakeholder is missing from this approach, and that is the traveler. How can you talk about personalization if the price is the same for every user, no matter what his or her preferences are? We need to add the user into the equation and start thinking in terms of "full offer" and not only price. In this way, we can then dynamically change the offer to match each individual user's inclinations.
Ultimately, perfect revenue management is personalized pricing. Current methods optimize for the hotel but we need to optimize for the traveler too.
Behavior-based personalization is not CRM
Let us just be clear about what Predictive Personalization is not.
It's not remembering the brand of wine you like or the newspaper you want delivered every morning. This is lazy and feels old because it's not the type of benefit a modern traveler wants. Amenities are out, experiences are in. When is the last time you saw a post on Instagram saying "Amazing stay, they really knew I'm a New York Times reader!" Guests of course do still appreciate the personal touches during their stay, but in today's world we need to be getting personal way before the guest has even booked their visit.
The conventional CRM approach does not work in hospitality, except for a few very large mainly business oriented brands. The reason is simple: 90% of clients who visit a hotel never come back. Not because they didn't like the hotel, but because they are not coming back to that destination. In hospitality, current behavior is more important than historic behavior, the present more important than the past. There's no such thing as a business user, boutique user or bargain user. Every one of us is all of them, at different points in time. What you are doing right now, while planning this very specific trip, is what gives us the insights we need to personalize your experience.
Another great advantage of a behavior-based approach to personalization is that it complies with the privacy concerns of the modern user. We can offer you something unique without knowing your name or email address.
A definition of Predictive Personalization
If we are going to summarize it, a business definition could be: finding the amount of money each client is ready to spend, and then delivering the maximum value for that amount.
For hoteliers, it means welcoming every user onto your website as you would welcome every traveler into your hotel. Warmly and professionally, and treating each person as an individual. An anonymous user becomes a person once he steps into the lobby.
Personalization is about how you seduce the user, guide him or her to trust you, and then convince them that your hotel is the right choice. It's how you show that you care. And that, after all, is the essence of hospitality.
Radisson Hotel Group will be introducing its Radisson Blu and Radisson brands to central China, with the signing of two new hotels, Radisson Blu Wuhan ETD Zone and Radisson Wuhan Optics Valley in the city's high-tech business and development zones.
Radisson Hotel Group will be introducing its Radisson Blu and Radisson brands to central China, with the signing of two new hotels, Radisson Blu Wuhan ETD Zone and Radisson Wuhan Optics Valley in the city's high-tech business and development zones. These two hotel properties will provide high-quality accommodation and world-class facilities for the rising number of domestic and international visitors attracted to Wuhan's economic zones.
The capital of Hubei province, Wuhan is a bustling metropolis that is home to approximately 10 million people. Nicknamed the "Detroit of the East," this city has one of China's largest automotive industries and a thriving manufacturing sector, which has attracted many major Chinese and international companies.
"Wuhan is a leading industrial hub in China and developments like ETD Zone and Optics Valley demonstrate how the country is progressing globally in terms of high-tech industry, manufacturing and scientific research," said Katerina Giannouka, President, Asia Pacific, Radisson Hotel Group. "With their international accommodation and world-class facilities, including flexible MICE venues, Radisson Blu Wuhan ETD Zone and Radisson Wuhan Optics Valley will be perfectly suited to this emerging global city."
Radisson Blu Wuhan ETD Zone is an impressive new lakeside property located in Wuhan's Economic & Technological Development Zone. Developed by Wuhan Liantou Peninsula Real Estate Co., Ltd, this 355-room upper-upscale hotel will open its doors in the first quarter of 2020. The hotel will rise eight stories from the banks of Hou Guan Lake. Designed in a contemporary style, this property will provide a full range of facilities, including international, Chinese and Italian restaurants, an indoor swimming pool, spa, fitness center and children's playground, plus nine meeting rooms and a 1,600 square meter grand ballroom.
Scheduled to open in June 2024, Radisson Wuhan Optics Valley is set to launch in Donghu New Tech Development Zone, an important medical research and science park also known as "Optics Valley". Developed by Wuhan Donglian Real Estate Co., Ltd, the property will feature 220 contemporary rooms and suites, and an array of upscale facilities, including an all-day dining restaurant, a specialty Chinese restaurant, lobby lounge and fitness center. Catering to the needs of corporate guests, the hotel will provide a business center, function rooms and a ballroom.
Both new hotels are easily accessible, with Radisson Blu Wuhan ETD Zone only 45 minutes' drive from Wuhan Tianhe International Airport, and Radisson Wuhan Optics Valley just over an hour's drive via major highways. Central China's largest air gateway, Tianhe offers worldwide connections to cities including London, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney and San Francisco.
Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe
2021 Hotel News Resource
Asia Argento has decided to play the blame game when it comes to her ongoing sexual assault scandal. As reported previously, The New York Times discovered that Argento was paying Jimmy Bennett to keep quiet about a sexual interaction between the two. Bennett accused Argento of giving him liquor, performing oral sex, and initiating intercourse with him when he was 17 years old. Argento has spent the last year as one of the heads of the #MeToo movement after coming forward about Harvey Weinstein. She initially denied all the allegations against her.
Soon after, texts messages were leaked that showed Argento admitting that she and Bennett had sex. The Italian actress was venting to model Rain Dove in the texts, and wrote, "The public knows nothing, only what NYT wrote. Which is one sided. The shakedown letter. The horny kid jumped me." A post-sex picture of the two came along with the leaked texts, which further incriminated Argento.
Then, TMZ got their hands on text messages between Argento and her former boyfriend Anthony Bourdain. The conversation proves that the late celebrity chef funded the hush money, which was reported to be $380,000. Argento claims that she's "broke," and asks Bourdain to help her pay off Bennett. Bourdain wrote that the payment was "no admission of anything, no attempt to buy a cover up, simply an offer to help an obviously tortured soul whose desperate and trying to jack you for money." He continued on to write, "Or you just tell him to fuck himself. Either way, I am with you." Argento also continued to admit her guilt in these texts, writing, "It wasn't raped (sic) but I was frozen. He was on top of me. After he told me I had been his sexual fantasy since he was 12."
Now, Argento is refusing to pay the remainder of the hush money balance to Bennet. The disgraced actress released a lengthy statement where she speaks for Bourdain, stating, Now that Mr. Bourdain has passed away and is not able to comment on his desire to avoid potential scandal which resulted in his facilitating payment to Bennett, Asia will not permit any portion of the balance of the $380,000 payment to be paid to Bennett who has already received $250,000 from Anthony Bourdain." Argento never had Bennett sign a non-disclosure agreement, because she had signed one with Weinstein that convinced her not to go down that path.
She also tries to blame Harvey Weinstein for participating in her scandal becoming public. Somehow, she ties it into her original leadership position with the #MeToo movement, hinting that her role in Weinstein's downfall caused him to lash out. "Phase Two of the #metoo movement dictates that the voice of a victim, even one with a history that may be in question, should be heard and she is hopeful that in the Court of Public Opinion," reads the statement."(Asia) was attacked by Bennett and might even be suffering the fallback of a smear campaign by those already accused who may have a vested interest in their accusers being denied credibility.
Beyonce turned 37 yesterday and instead of a big boujee birthday party she and Jay Z took the high road and went back to Italy. The couple started off their On The Run Tour in Europe and they must have enjoyed it so much that they hopped back over for a low key birthday. Photos see Jay doing the honours of snapping some pics of Bey on a boat, while others see them smiling wide on the mainland.
A few tweets online suggest that Beyonce and Jay Z went back to Italy for more reasons than one. If you can remember, back in July Beyonce submitted a request to film her next music video at the Colosseum in Rome. Fans think that her current vacation in Sardinia is just one stop of many before her next stop in Rome to get back to work on bringing some visuals to life.
On Tuesday, surprising news came out of Chicago when Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced he will not seek re-election for a third term, ultimately calling it quits when his term is over.
As much as I love this job and will always love this city and its residents, I've decided not to seek re-election, the Rahm said Tuesday. This has been the job of a lifetime, but it is not a job for a lifetime [] Now with our three children in college, Amy and I have decided it's time to write another chapter together.
Rahm has been a part of a number controversies since hes been Mayor of Chicago throughout his time. From mishandling the Laquan McDonald shooting in 2014 to his education policies that resulted in the closure of multiple public schools, the Chicago Mayor has been criticized by several officials & people in Chicago, one of which was Chance The Rapper who called out Rahm on the track I Might Need Security from June. And Rahm you done, Im expecting a resignation and open investigation on all these paid vacations for murderers, Chance spits, and luckily for him it turns out he was right.
Following the news of Rahms stepping down, Chance hopped on Twitter Tuesday afternoon and gave praise to the organizations who helped secure the mayors resignation.
Shoutout to all the grassroots orgs like @AssataDaughters @BYP_100 and many others that pushed for accountabily and resignation from Rahm. His announcement to not run however, is not Justice for Laquan McDonald, only convicting muderer Jason Van Dyke can bring that, he tweeted out before saying we need a new mayor who cares about equity in regards to education, job development and healthcare in one of the most segregated cities in the country.
Check out Chances tweets (below).
In an attempt to receive a study bible from an Arkansas institution, a Tennessee jail has learned of John Daniel Carothers' confession of murdering 40-year-old Robert Miller. Miller, a black man, was killed in March after he was set on fire at a Veterans Affairs assisted living home. Carothers had penned a letter to be sent to the American Institute of Theology in Arkansas, asking them to send a study bible and admitting to the killing of Miller.
According to a local CBS News affiliate, the AIT is a "small but long-standing group in the Christian Identity movement, which espouses a racist and anti-Semitic religious doctrine." Carothers' letter was written that he was in jail "for burning a black man." He explains that he "set him on fire with lighter fluid poured on his head." The letter was intercepted after jail staff researched the institution where it was being sent.
The reason the inmate was requesting a bible was because, in his opinion, the bible is "about white people and for white people."
Yikes. The district attorney of Rutherford County claims they don't normally see racially driven crimes like this one. This situation is disgusting to read about and we wish to extend our condolences to Robert Miller's family and friends. Read more here.
Kim Kardashian is back in the trenches. Just a few months ago, people trashed the celebrity for trying to make a change. Then, she made a change. In June, Kardashian met with Donald Trump and convinced him to grant Alice Marie Johnson clemency. Now, Kim is at it again. According to multiple sources, Kardashian visited the White House on Wednesday morning to discuss prison reform and fight for another non-violent conviction to be overturned.
Chris Young has been locked up for a decade, and is set to serve a life sentence, for non-violent drug charges. There is no word if Kardashian is meeting with Donald Trump, but according to TMZ, she has been in contact with Jared Kushner. Kushner is the son-in-law of Trump, and one of his senior advisors. Kardashian claims that Kushner is "passionate" about prison reform, and he appears to be her go-to White House link.
Kim also claims that she's been in contact with the former Tennessee judge who sentenced Young to life. The celebrity social reform agent says the judge resigned partly because he couldn't continue to send people to jail for laws that were unjust. It appears that Kim is changing the country for the better, and if she's the one to convince Trump and his administration to overhaul the justice system, we're all for it.
On Tuesday night, LeBron James was in New York City to accept the Icon360 award from Harlems Fashion Row event, and while there, the King made it clear he stands with Nike & their decision to have Colin Kaepernick as their next campaign star.
I stand with anyone who believes in change..and I stand with Nike every day, all day, said Lebron.
The Nike-supported fashion event was started to create solutions to bringing more black designers into the fashion industry. King James was there last night to be honored for his contributions to the African-American community, which included most recently opening the I Promise School in his hometown Akron, Ohio, among other things.
In addition to accepting the award, the other reason LeBron was there was to debut the first ever LeBron sneaker made for women, the HFR x LeBron Nike 16. Designed by Kimberly Goldson, Undra Celeste Duncan and Fe Noel, the high-top sneaker, which drops Sept. 7, has a distinct cognac leather ankle strap that looks as if it could double as a cuff bracelet.
Check out the women's sneaker & footage from last night's fashion show (below).
[Via]
Matt Barnes went to pick up his twin boys from school this past Friday since it was his weekend to have them but was met by his ex-wife Gloria Govan who tried to intervene and take them instead. After Matt managed to drive off with the kids, Gloria proceeded to follow and engaged in reckless driving to stop Matt's car. The police were called and since Matt had documentation that proved it was his weekend with the children, Gloria was arrested and booked for child endangerment.
The Blast now reports that Matt has filed for full custody of the kids saying Gloria is a danger to their safety. He wants Gloria's visits to the kids to be court-monitored and his documents are asking the court "to order her to stay 100 yards away from him, the kids, and the kids school." The publication notes how Gloria is not going down without a fight since she's enlisted powerhouse attorney Mark Gross to attend today's emergency motion in Los Angeles. Gloria thinks her arrest was unwarranted, but we'll have to see how the court decides.
(ANSA) - Rome, September 5 - The government will present a 2019 budget law that respects the EU rules and convinces the financial markets, Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said in an interview in Wednesday's Il Sole 24 Ore. The League leader added that a pension overhaul that will make it possible for people to retire when their age plus their number of years of social-security contributions add up to 100 is coming "at once".
Salvini said that this was necessary "not just for fairness, but also to create jobs".
Deputy Premier and Labour and Industry Minister Luigi Di Maio, meanwhile, said Wednesday that the government's plan to introduce a two-tier flat income tax should not just benefit the wealthy.
"The flat tax features in the government contract," the M5S leader told Radio Radicale.
"It must help the weakest and if it favours the rich, that is no good".
He said that for the M5S it was "impossible to forego" plans for a "citizenship wage (basic income), the overhaul of the Fornero (pension) law and the creation of infrastructure.
"I'm thinking of the south, where it is almost non-existent".
HCA Houston Healthcare has completed the acquisition of North Cypress Medical Center, a 139-bed hospital at 21214 Northwest Freeway near Huffmeister in the northwest Houston area.
The hospital, founded by physicians in 2006, expands HCA's Gulf Coast network to 18 hospitals in the Gulf Coast division. The deal includes four freestanding emergency centers in Barker Cypress, Spring Cypress, Fairfield and Texas 249.
COURTESY JAMES AVERY CRAFTSMAN
James Avery Artisan Jewelry has relocated its Highland Village store to the Centre at Post Oak across from the Galleria.
The Texas-based jeweler will hold a grand opening Saturday at 5000 Westheimer with drawings for 30 James Avery gift cards valued at $50, $100 or $500. Also, the first 100 guests will receive a gift with purchase.
Hannah McNair and her husband, Cal, Houston Texans chief operating officer, support too many charitable organizations to count. Influenced by their own children, the couple gravitates toward causes that improve the lives of future generations: DePelchin Childrens Center, Project 88, Bos Place, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Childrens Assessment Center, Dec My Room and Best Buddies top their ever-growing list.
When McNair recently chaired a benefit for Bos Place, which provides support to those who have lost a loved one, she shared how the organization had helped lift her family during a tough time. After being displaced by Hurricane Harvey, the McNairs and their children, mourned the loss of a newborn, Jackson, last October.
The city of Houston is set to sharply increase spending on its spay and neuter program in the coming year amid growing demand and rising costs for the surgeries.
City Council last week voted to renew a contract with two organizations the Spay-Neuter Assistance Program (SNAP) and Austin-headquartered nonprofit Emancipet and brought on the Houston Humane Society as a new partner.
The contract, covering three years with a pair of one-year options, totals $3.8 million, up from a $2.15 million deal inked in 2015. It provides free surgeries for Houston residents through the citys "Healthy Pets Healthy Streets" program, which targets low-income districts where stray cats and dogs are less likely to be spayed or neutered.
Houston and Harris County residents have complained for years about an abundance of stray animals, while local shelters often are overburdened. Experts say spaying and neutering provides the most effective way of keeping animal populations under control.
With a shortage of city-employed vets, Houston relies on its partners to help meet spay and neuter demand. The Bureau of Animal Regulation and Control shelter employs two full-time veterinarians and a part-timer, short of its capacity, and officials are hoping the additional funds will help the citys partners provide more surgeries.
The three organizations together employ roughly 10 full-time veterinarians, plus a collection of part-time vets. Under the new contract, they also will vaccinate cats and dogs for rabies, implant microchips used to identify lost animals and provide one-year pet licenses required by ordinance.
This contract is really, really important for the city of Houston because its for free services for low-income people who live in neighborhoods where spay-neuter isnt necessarily accessible, Emancipet chief executive Amy Mills said.
Experts say it is impossible to know how many stray cats and dogs live on Houstons streets. This year, the bureau has taken in nearly 16,000 cats and dogs, and last calendar year took in about 27,000.
It recorded a live-release rate of 86 percent from July 2017 through June 2018, compared to 2005 when four of five animals were put down.
During the same period, BARC veterinarians performed about 10,000 spay and neuter surgeries, while SNAP performed more than 19,000 surgeries, SNAP executive director Mary Kate Lawler said.
Meanwhile, Emancipet is aiming to open a second Houston clinic by the end of the year, which Mills said would double its current output of about 35 surgeries per day.
The Humane Society, which employs two full-time vets and eight to 10 part-time vets, typically performs 30 to 45 surgeries a day, said Monica Schmidt, the societys shelter manager.
The high number of part-timers is the product of a vet shortage, Schmidt said.
Its something everyone is experiencing, both nonprofit and for-profit clinics, she said. Thats one of the reasons we utilize so many contract vets.
Despite employing fewer vets than the shelters capacity allows, BARC performs scores of services aside from spay and neuter surgeries.
At BARCs shelter, veterinarian Cherie Whittenberg typically performs five to six surgeries an hour. She also diagnoses animals with illnesses, prescribes medication and counsels people who are about to adopt.
She also must finish surgeries by 3 p.m., because dogs and cats must recover from the effects of anesthesia which can take a couple hours before owners pick them up from the facility.
Otherwise, BARC operates a clinic focused on preventative care, where animals receive vaccinations and are treated for problems like heartworm, a type of parasitic roundworm spread by mosquitoes.
The shelter has also dealt with an increase in upper respiratory infections: An April outbreak of distemper a highly contageous and potentially fatal disease prompted the shelter to close for a week.
The shortage of vets which has become a statewide issue has put a strain on areas like Houston with large populations of stray cats and dogs.
People have offered different theories for why vets are in such high demand. Some vets likely moved out of the city in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Lawler said the trend of veterinary care becoming less expensive has led to ventures like Petcos recent partnership with a vet care company to provide inexpensive treatment, which creates more opportunities for vets and spreads the supply thinner.
Greg Damianoff, BARCs shelter director, said vets who come out of school are not particularly drawn to shelter medicine because the practice involves relatively specific functions.
You're not going to be able to use all the new gizmos and gadgets and practice all those things you were just taught, he said.
Houston city officials intentionally destroyed evidence, wiping crucial data from the computer drives of top police commanders that is potentially relevant to a lawsuit about the detention of suspects beyond the 48-hour deadline for a magistrate hearing, a federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Hoyts rare ruling last week means that if the case goes to trial, jurors will receive an adverse instruction about the records destruction. The jury must infer as fact that authorities destroyed evidence, knowingly and routinely detained people more than 48 hours without a probable cause hearing, and acted with deliberate indifference to the fact that they were violating defendants constitutional rights, the judge ruled.
The judge did not accuse the city of destroying evidence specifically to help it gain an advantage in the lawsuit, but the action is a blow to any defense the city could mount.
Its very rare to have a judge overtly and explicitly call out bad behavior by city officials, said Sharon Dolovich, a UCLA law professor who is an expert on jail and prison policy. Its troubling in a rule-of-law society that prizes liberty to the greatest possible extent.
A spokesman for Mayor Sylvester Turner said the city is examining legal remedies available to challenge Hoyts order. Former Houston Police Chief Charles A. McClelland said that he was not aware of the suit.
City Council Member Brenda Stardig, who chairs the public safety committee, said she has requested a formal briefing from the citys legal staff about the case.
The 2016 class-action lawsuit challenged the citys treatment of thousands of people jailed for days after warrantless arrests between January 2014 and December 2016. The complaint accuses officials of false imprisonment and alleges that they violated defendants constitutional rights to equal protection and a determination of probable cause by a judge. The case was brought by Civil Rights Corps and the Texas Fair Defense Project the groups that led the landmark suit challenging Harris Countys bail practices and lawyers from the Houston firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
Background: City, county face more civil rights lawsuits over detention, bail
The suit was filed after the January 2016 arrests of Juan Hernandez, who was held 49 hours before seeing a magistrate on an assault charge, and James Dossett, who spent 59 hours in custody before facing a hearing officer via videolink on a charge of possession of a controlled substance. After a week in custody, Hernandez pleaded guilty. Authorities ultimately dropped the charges against Dossett when police failed to prove he had drugs.
The lawsuit also cites arrests in which defendants were held for more than 10 days before receiving a probable cause hearing. Overcrowding at the county jail creates a bottleneck at the city facility, the suit said.
The plaintiffs lawyers argued that the city had a broad, longstanding, and consistent policy of refusing to release warrantless arrestees even when more than 48 hours had passed since their arrests, and that the city failed to provide thousands of records relevant to this policy and practice.
Prior to last weeks 13-page ruling, Hoyt said at an April hearing that the citys conduct in misleading opposing counsel bordered on obstruction of justice.
Jay Jenkins, an attorney with the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, called it an extraordinary ruling against the city.
Rarely do federal courts issue such rulings, but in this case it seems warranted the opinion goes into great detail about the citys inability to get its story straight, leaving no doubt as to whether this remedy was necessary, Jenkins said. Local taxpayers now have the privilege of footing the bill here putting them on the hook for two separate, multimillion-dollar defenses of an unconstitutional, immoral bail system.
Background: Harris County sued again over alleged civil rights violations
It was pretty stunning, said Amanda Elbogen, a lawyer for the inmates. This case was about this citys callous indifference to peoples rights and we saw that in the initial violation. And then we saw that all over again in how the city handled this case.
Elbogen said the citys conduct was particularly surprising given the number of inmates whose rights were potentially violated or the economic strain the case might place on the city.
Im wondering how seriously theyre taking this case and whether they understand the potential damages, Elbogen said.
Charles Gerstein, who also represented the inmates, said, Instead of seeking to remedy (the delay) either by letting people out of jail or making sure they got their constitutionally compliant hearing, the city jailed them and let them suffer the consequences of the problems at the county and city jail They exhibited callous indifference to the rights of poor people.
City lawyers maintained that the plaintiffs were asking for sensitive police data. They said they were confused about the scope of information that opposing counsel wanted. But the judge held that the city misrepresented what information it had and failed to deliver thousands of documents it promised.
RELATED: Inmates transferred, jails overcrowded
The judge ruled that the jury would be required to accept as true that the city had a pattern and practice of detaining people longer than allowed.
Of the 72,000 documents the city initially said it had, officials at Mayor Turners office only delivered 126 files in February. The judge said that all 126 were off topic.
City attorneys told the court in April that they had gathered 2.6 million documents, which would take about 17,000 hours to review. But the judge said the city later admitted it did not collect the documents and had wiped the hard drives of McLelland, former Chief of Police Martha Montalvo, former Executive ex-Assistant Chief George T. Buenik, former Lieutenant Patrick Dougherty, ex-Assistant Chief John Chen and former Assistant Chief Charles Vazquez, all of whom no longer work for HPD.
Officials acknowledged that once the inmates sued, the city had an obligation to preserve these documents. Instead, records custodians failed to retain data on hard drives and continued a practice of deleting data. Information about these inmates detentions was unrecoverable, Hoyt said, making it fair to presume the data contained evidence that the city violated the constitutional rights of the inmates.
Their legal counsel department is either in disarray or incompetent or possibly unethical or all three, said Elbogen. As the fourth-largest city in America, you cant claim you dont know how to do these basic things when it comes to discovery and turning over documents and not destroying documents. This is something they should know how to do.
Sandra Guerra Thompson, a law professor at the University of Houston, said the ruling was notable because the judge plans to tell the jury that the inmates lawyers have already established all the points they would need to prove.
Theres still a chance a jury could rule in the citys favor, but basically, the judge is instructing them that plaintiffs have won, she said.
After four days of frustration over Houston ISDs new transportation system, which parents widely have derided, Amanda Marshall wanted to know exactly how her 10-year-old son, Henry, was getting to his magnet school.
So, last Friday, Marshall spent her morning tracking Henrys whereabouts through a GPS-equipped watch he wears. For about 90 minutes, she looked on in disbelief as Henry traveled a circuitous route of more than 30 miles to get to Wilson Montessori, a school located just three miles from Henrys pick-up spot in the Greater Heights area.
At that point, I have to be honest, I was laughing a little, Marshall said. He said they were almost to Galveston.
As week two of Houston ISDs revamped bus system began Tuesday, families across the district continued to voice anger, frustration and the occasional exasperated laugh amid ongoing issues getting students to and from school on time. Meanwhile, in several suburban districts, some families are complaining about busing issues caused by problems with staffing, funding and drivers opting to work for ridesharing companies.
To date, transportation woes have been most pronounced in HISD, which revamped its bus system this year in an effort to untangle a complex web of routes. About 36,000 of HISDs roughly 214,000 students are eligible for transportation, about half of them magnet students.
Under the new system, magnet students are picked up and dropped off at one of 46 hubs placed throughout the district. As a result, many families must travel farther to reach their stops, though students take more direct routes to campus. Under the previous system, magnet and non-magnet students were picked up at the same location, resulting in longer bus rides for most children.
Many families, however, deemed last weeks rollout disastrous. They said drivers arrived late for pick-up times, children were dropped off well past scheduled times and district staffers failed to adequately communicate about the issues. The extent of HISDs transportation issues remain unclear, in large part because the district could not measure on-time bus arrivals last week due to a switch in GPS bus tracking systems.
I know they dont do hardly anything (in class) on the first week, but Im not going to be a happy camper if hes missing stuff, said Celeste Richard, who waited with her grandson Tuesday morning outside Law Elementary School on the citys south side for a ride to Chavez High School on the east side. Her grandsons bus arrived at 8:53 a.m., 23 minutes after classes begin at Chavez.
In an interview Saturday, HISD General Manager of Transportation Services Tim Brown said district leaders feel pretty good about where we are after making several changes ahead of Tuesday. They included switching pick-up and drop-off times for nearly half of all bus-eligible students, adding two more magnet hubs and getting drivers to clock-in earlier. Brown also said GPS installation on buses likely will be completed in the coming days.
Any time youre rolling out a new program like this, you have to expect there are going to be some lessons learned, Brown said. Youll have some wins and some things you learn from, so you go back and make some tweaks and adjustments.
Several families, however, reported in interviews and social media posts that some students still arrived more than an hour late to school Tuesday, wearing their patience thin. Outside Lawson Middle School, on the citys southwest side, several parents offered negative reviews of the new system Tuesday.
Mary Pineda, who has three children in grades 5 through 10 attending HISD magnet schools closer to downtown Houston, said the districts rollout has been not organized at all, highlighted by her daughter arriving home at 7:30 p.m. one day last week. Pineda said she wants the district to reinstate last years route schedule and locations.
They were one minute from my house, Pineda said. Now, I have to be calling friends, calling my mother, to come pick them up whenever I cant.
Candace Smith, whose 12th-grade daughter travels about 10 miles from Lawson to Lamar High School, said she believes HISD needs to set earlier pick-up times to ensure students arrive at school before classes start. Smith also wants district officials to move her daughters pick-up spot farther from Lawsons main entranceway, which can get congested in the morning.
Brown said HISD officials have been flexible following complaints, noting, for example, that Madison High Schools pick-up and drop-off point was shifted to avoid traffic bottlenecks. In addition, magnet hubs will open Sept. 10 at Kate Bell and Parker elementary schools on the citys southwest side, where bus demand has been high.
Brown also said he is hopeful the district has remedied a series of electronic errors. Prior to the school year, about 9,000 students were removed and later re-added to the rolls of potential bus riders, the result of a faulty data transfer between programs. A computer malfunction on the first day of school caused many drivers to start their routes late. Families also received erroneous notices on Thursday regarding new bus routes and times, messages that district officials ordered families to ignore.
The cascading missteps have led parents such as Marshall, whose son was picked up for school 17 minutes after classes started Tuesday, to contemplate abandoning HISD-provided transportation. For now, though, Marshall wants straight answers and prompt action from HISD regarding plans for remedying issues.
I think the biggest problem parents are having, aside from the obvious issue that buses arent show up, is that HISD has been disingenuous about this process, Marshall said. They dont provide info when asked, and they havent kept parents apprised of whats going on.
In a statement Tuesday, HISD officials said they expect to see "considerable progress in on-time arrival every single day" as updates are continually made. They said "a number of updates" did not process properly Tuesday, resulting in some students arriving late again this week.
Issues with school transportation extend well beyond Houston ISDs borders, though the root causes may differ.
More potential drivers are opting to work for the likes of Uber and Lyft, which allow them to set their own hours. Transportation funding rates have not changed since 1984, and according to the TEA's School Transportation Allotment Handbook, some routes in less-dense areas receive as little as 68 cents per mile from the state. The Texas Department of Public Safety cut the number of sites where drivers can take their commercial driver's license test, although the department began to allow some districts and other groups to offer the tests in spring of 2017.
In Fort Bend ISD, parents say those broader problems may have led to over-crowding on buses.
Alex Munoz said his two high schoolers and one elementary school student have to share their bus seats with as many as three other students. Other children sit in the aisles, he said.
On Aug. 22, the second week of school, his 14- and 17-year-old daughters said the first bus that came to take them to George Bush High School was too full. The driver told them to wait for a second bus, which arrived about 30 minutes later and made them late for class.
What if there was an accident or something. Would the kids be able to get off safely with that many kids on the bus? Munoz said.
Fort Bend ISD Spokeswoman Amanda Bubela said it can often take several weeks at the beginning of each year to balance the number of students riding each route. To help alleviate issues, the district has drivers and buses on standby in case one route proves to be over capacity, and transportation directors add routes as the district gets a more complete understanding of where the most need exists.
Still, some are unwilling to wait.
Michelle Spencer started the Sugar Land Shuttle Service over the summer to haul kids to and from school after she sought alternative transportation for her autistic son. For between $75 and $95 a week, parents can send their kids on a private shuttle to avoid waiting in half-hour-long parent pick-up lines to drop off or pick up their kids. Already the company regularly transports 25 students to about 10 different schools and has a wait list of about 10 students, and Spencer expects those numbers to grow.
Theyre concerned the buses are overcrowded. Some dont come nearly close enough to peoples homes and make students walk all the way to front of their subdivisions. Its concerning, Spencer said. Its affecting parents lives. They cant even get to their jobs if dont have bus transportation for their kids.
Elliott Davis, an accounting, tax and consulting services provider in the Southeast, announces that eight members of its professional services team have achieved shareholder status. The designation is effective as of Sept 1.
These individuals have demonstrated a deep commitment to the development and growth of their respective practices and the firm as a whole, says Rick Davis, CEO of Elliott Davis. Theyre all innovative thinkers who embody our future-ready approach to business and embrace their roles as change agents striving to transform what it means to be providers of tax, accounting and financial consulting services. Were proud of their accomplishments and look forward to sharing in their continued success.
The eight new shareholders are:
Denise Bailey, ABA, leads Elliott Daviss Accounting Systems Consulting Group, providing businesses of various sizes with accounting, tax planning and compliance, and startup consulting. Bailey, who is based in the Greenville, South Carolina office, has specialized knowledge in accounting systems applications, accounting workflow processes and analysis, sales and use tax reporting and compliance, and payroll tax reporting and compliance. She holds a BS in accounting and a MBA from Franklin University, and is an Accredited Business Advisor in South Carolina and an Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor.
Shelton Chambers, CPA, JD, is based in the Chattanooga office and works primarily in the areas of tax and estate planning for trusts, tax-exempt organizations and not-for-profit entities. Chambers advises clients on sophisticated estate plans, business transition plans and gifting mechanisms available to transition wealth to younger generations. She holds a BS in accounting and a JD from the University of Tennessee.
Michael Koupal, CPA, who is based in the Nashville office, provides accounting and assurance services to clients in the financial institution sector. With approximately 13 years of experience in public accounting, Koupal works with financial institutions ranging in size from $100 million to more than $3 billion in assets. He holds a BS in accounting and mathematics from Adrian College and a MA in accounting from Eastern Michigan University. Koupal is also a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Tennessee Bankers Association and the Risk Management Association.
Jeremy Migliara, CPA, is based in the Greenville office and serves as director of the State and Local Tax Technical Specialty Group. Migliara, who has more than 25 years of experience in accounting, works with clients in a variety of industries and consults with multistate taxpayers in addressing technical state tax issues in the areas of income and franchise tax, sales and use tax, property tax, employment tax and state credits. He holds a MA in taxation from the University of Florida, a BS in finance from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University and a BA in accounting from the University of Central Florida.
Eric Myers, CPA, is based in the Chattanooga office. With more than 13 years of experience in public accounting, Myers provides tax planning and compliance services to manufacturing and distribution companies with multi-state and international operations, private equity-owned portfolio companies and closely-held businesses. He holds a BA and MA in accounting from the University of Tennessee, and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants
Ben Romeiser, CPA, who has more than 15 years of corporate tax experience in both industry and public accounting, is based in the Raleigh office. Romeiser specializes in tax consulting and structuring, and mergers and acquisitions for the manufacturing and distribution and tax transaction services teams. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the International Fiscal Association and the Association for Corporate Growth among others.
Thomas Self, CPA, is based in the firms Greenville office. Self has extensive experience providing holistic tax planning and compliance services to partnerships, corporations, trusts, estates and individuals. He holds a BA in accounting from Furman University, and a MA in accounting and JD from the University of South Carolina. Self is also a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the South Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants.
Marshall Stein, CPA, has more than 10 years of experience and is based in the firms Raleigh office. Stein provides accounting, assurance and consulting services to clients primarily in the commercial, construction, manufacturing and real estate industry sectors. He has a BA in business from Erskine College and a MA in public accounting from Clemson University. Stein is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Association for Corporate Growth, the North Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants, and the Construction Financial Management Association.
ROME - A call to abide by a ceasefire has been launched by Italy, France, the UK and the US to ''all Libyan parties'' in a joint statement.
The statement urges reconciliation and the resumption of a Libyan-led peace process. ''The Governments of France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States welcome the result of the mediation reached today in Tripoli by the United Nations Support Mission that aims to deescalate violence in and around Tripoli and ensure the protection of civilians,'' the statement noted. ''We reiterate our strong support for Special Representative of the Secretary-General Ghassan Salame as he works to realize an immediate and durable cessation of hostilities in the Libyan capital, which is a critical step to advancing the political process in accordance with the United Nations Action Plan,'' it added.
''As the Secretary-General noted on September 2, all parties should immediately cease hostilities and abide by the ceasefire agreement brokered by the United Nations. We call on all Libyan parties to refrain from any actions that could undermine today's ceasefire announcement, jeopardize the security of civilians, or set back Libyan efforts to advance the political process and move forward in the spirit of compromise.'' ''We also reiterate support for the President of the Presidency Council, Fayez al-Sarraj, and the Government of National Accord as they work in partnership with the United Nations to promote reconciliation and support a Libyan-led political process,'' it concluded.
Texas talk show host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones called Sen. Marco Rubio a frat boy and a little gangster thug in a confrontation captured on video outside a hearing at Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
As the Florida Senator answered questions from reporters, Jones repeatedly interrupted, aggressively pressing him about Democrats purging conservatives from social media platforms.
Rubio said he did not know who Jones was, rolling his eyes and laughing as Jones continued to interject.
REJECTED: Judge denies Alex Jones effort to dismiss Sandy Hook lawsuit
Dont touch me again, man, Rubio said after Jones patted him on the shoulder. Rubio added that he would not call the police, but rather take care of it myself.
"Look at him, he's so mad," Jones said. "You're not going to silence me. You're not going to silence America. Youre literally like a little gangster thug."
Rubio continued to speak with reporters briefly, with a steady stream of interruptions from Jones.
Now Playing: Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones taunted Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) outside a hearing room, Wednesday. Rubio told Jones not to touch him while Jones called the Senator a "little punk" and "frat boy." (Sept. 5) Video: Associated Press
You guys can talk to this clown, the senator said as he walked off. Jones continued to yell insults as Rubio left.
BACKING: Ted Cruz sticks up for Alex Jones after Facebook ban
The confrontation happened outside a Senate hearing during which Twitter and Facebook officials testified about their efforts to combat Russian interference in U.S. elections.
Jones, host of InfoWars, was suspended earlier this year from Twitter and Facebook, and his content has been removed from other social platforms, including YouTube, Spotify, and Apple. He currently faces a defamation lawsuit for claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.
Do you remember when you were born? Can you produce your baptismal records? How about evidence of your mothers prenatal care?
These are the questions increasingly being asked by the U.S. government, not of newcomers, not of migrants, but of citizens who have lived and worked in the United States their whole lives, people whose official birth records show they were born on American soil. People who are suddenly finding they cant obtain or renew a U.S. passport because the Trump administrations latest crackdown on the southern border is throwing their citizenship into question.
And yes, they are mostly people with Hispanic surnames.
According to the Washington Post, Trumps State Department is accusing hundreds, possibly thousands, of using fraudulent birth certificates since they were babies and essentially faking U.S. citizenship. The crackdown specifically targets those whose delivery involved a midwife, a long-standing tradition in the region. A few have been placed into deportation proceedings.
We are talking about U.S. citizens including military veterans, police officers, even Border Patrol agents whose lives, rights, and national identity have been thrust into legal limbo.
Sure, the U.S. State Department says its policy has not changed and that the rate of formal denials of passports along the southern border have not increased, and in fact, have dropped under Trump. But the administration would not provide key numbers showing how many passport applicants were required to produce extra documentation to prove their citizenship.
Trumps government alleges that its acting on the same suspicions that led the administrations of both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama to deny passports to people delivered by midwives. Between 1960 and 2008, at least 75 midwives in South Texas were convicted of fraud. But compare that half-century total to the number of babies delivered by midwives in 2014 alone: 332,107. A 2009 legal settlement effectively put an end to passport denials.
Now, under Trump, they appear to be surging. The question is why. What is the purpose of forcing law-abiding, lifelong Americans to pay hefty legal fees and endure the stress and bureaucratic hassle of proving they belong here?
Coming under a president fond of xenophobic dog whistles and callous wide-net enforcement policies, including one that traumatized children to deter migrant parents from crossing the border, we have our own suspicions ones well-founded in fact.
Trump began his political career by casting doubt on the citizenship of the countrys first black president a lie he repeated for years. As president, his White House has passed policies aimed at making it more difficult for asylum-seekers, refugees and highly skilled immigrants to enter the country. He created a task force to challenge the citizenship of naturalized citizens.
This latest crackdown cannot be explained away as routine. It should be alarming to every single one of us who believe, as the late Sen. John McCain did, that Americaness is not based on blood and soil. Yes, people should follow rules to come here, this passport scheme is no valid attempt at border enforcement it is attempt to cleanse the citizenship rolls of people who fall outside Trumps narrow definition of traditional America, people whose skin may be darker or whose heritage lies in Latin America rather than Europe.
So far, there are no signs of passports being yanked from children with English surnames born to affluent parents who chose home births.
Its absolutely lopsided, Brielle Epstein, legislative chair for the Association of Texas Midwives, told the editorial board. Its almost always families with Hispanic last names.
We must call this what it is: another attempt by the Trump administration to divide us along racial and ethnic lines. It should wake up all those who have supported Trump and his war on immigration by reasoning, and perhaps genuinely hoping, that he was targeting only those in the country illegally.
Now, we know better.
We cant ignore the echoes of past discrimination based on color, ethnicity and religion. The Chinese Exclusion Act, Jim Crow laws and Operation Wetback, the largest mass deportation in U.S. history.
As Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.) tweeted: U.S. Citizens in Texas are being denied full rights of citizenship and having their citizenship questioned based on their heritage.
Castro called for congressional hearings to look into Trump immigration policy and for legislation to stop the denials, which he called unconstitutional.
We urge the Republican leadership to go along with Castro and take action to stop the countrys slide backward to the ugliest parts of our past.
800 migrants moved to safe center in Libya, UNHCR 'News of mass escape near airport'
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, SEPTEMBER 5 - The UNHCR and the Libyan interior ministry have arranged for the relocation of 800 migrants to a safer detention center. The migrants had been endangered by clashes between militias in Tripoli in the Triq al-Matar camp. The transfer was reported to ANSA through a message by an official source from the Libyan section of the UNHCR itself. The statement neither confirmed nor denied news of the escape of hundreds of African migrants from the same center near the airport, reported by humanitarian sources. It simply noted that it was aware of information that refugees and migrants in the Triq al-Matar detention center had left after clashes spread to near the center. The movement of the 800 people was organized in coordination with the interior ministry and the crisis committee set up by the deputy minister for illegal migration, UN agencies and LibAid, UNHCR's partner, the statement said. (ANSAmed).
These strategic moves are expected to give Bayer a chance to stay competitive and respond to increasing pressure from investors to begin licensing deals or snapping up new assets, Reuters reported.
Labour experts who are said to be concerned about possible job losses and outsourcing are purportedly taking part in the review, which is expected to end in November.
Until then, any drastic move would likely be put on hold.
The personnel shifts began when Bayer reorganised its R&D unit under Joerg Moeller, then its global development head, after the departure of Andreas Busch who led drug discovery for the company. Moeller is leading a team involved in the review.
The board has also extended the contract of Bayers HR head, Hartmut Klusik, ahead of the very tangible changes the company is anticipating, Reuters source added.
New Work from ROA in Austria, Canada, Great Britain, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the US.
Today we visit with street artist, urban naturalist, and globe trotter ROA to see what walls he has been climbing since we last checked in with him and his curious traveling circus of animals. Alternating between the cuddly and the killing, the endoskelton and the excrement, the pugnacious, playful and the putrefying, this Belgian world citizen is no romantic with his subjects and he isn't asking for you to be either necessarily.
Advertisement
ROA. Lagos, Portugal 2013. (photo Roa)
If you consider the brutal natural and man-made world that animals have to survive in and the ruthless depravity of humans throughout the ages (including right now), perhaps ROA's depictions of these regionally based creatures are a healthy counterbalance to the fictional storytelling we customarily see in large public depictions of animals. Rotting Big Bird, anyone?
ROA. Lagos, Portugal 2013. (photo Roa)
In one instructive example, a local town meeting in Chichester in Great Britain erupted into a heated debate this spring and a vote was called over whether to remove one of ROA's fresh paintings from public view. The aerosoled portrait featured a rotting badger lying belly up and pock-marked across the front of a neglected building.
Advertisement
"It's not appropriate, it's grotesque and I hope it will be removed," said the district and parish councilor who was outraged at the factual representation of a dying animal, according to a local website. The article does not mention if she was equally outraged at the culling of badgers locally, which ROA was drawing attention to, or if she would call the culling of undesirable animals "grotesque".
ROA. Ibex at the harbor in Linz, Austria 2013. (photo flap.at)
You wouldn't cheapen the spray-painted monochromatic realism of ROAs work as activism per se, or even moralizing. Sometimes a bear is just a bear.
But sometimes the poses and positions and selectively illustrated details are more pronounced than one may see in nature, so clearly his desire is to draw attention to them. And why not try to give a voice to them? Otters don't do email and bison hooves are too clunky for texting and nary a narwhal has his own Facebook page. If they have been displaced, marginalized, or are suffering, you won't see a cluster of clamoring squirrels arrayed before a bank of microphones and cameras issuing a press conference.
ROA. Detail. Linz, Austria 2013. (photo flap.at)
But slowly and gradually and almost systematically the former graffiti artist has been raising the awareness of even the dullest among us bipedal primates that the animals we are sharing the world with are plausibly pissed about that whole "dominion over nature" clause that pious Pulcinellas spout when justifying treating some animals like trash even while their blue-blooded poodles are having pedicures. Now that you think of it, this may not be exclusively about the animal kingdom.
Certainly we have all learned from ROAs travels that nature isn't pretty - and can possibly be very alarming - and he won't likely let you forget it.
So start trotting, galloping, swimming, scurrying, slithering, and scurrying! We have a lot of catching up to do with ROA as this year he's been in Austria, Canada, Great Britain, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the US.
ROA. Linza, Austria 2013. (photo flap.at)
Advertisement
ROA. Linz, Austria 2013. (photo Roa)
ROA. Mural Festival. "Still Life With Bison and Bear" Montreal, Canada 2013. (photo Roa)
This wall was featured in our coverage this summer of the MURAL festival, where we wrote;
"For his first visit to Montreal, the Belgian Street Artist named ROA says that he had a great time creating this 'still life' with a bison and a bear. When talking about his inspiration, ROA says that he was impressed with the history of the so-called American bison, which was incredibly abundant in the early 19th century, numbering more than 40 million.
After being hunted almost into extinction with a population of 200 a century later, the bison slowly have reestablished their numbers in Canada to 700,000. He decided to add a bear laying on top because it tells a similar story of a native mammal in the region."
"This is the first time I actually painted a narwhal," says ROA about the curiously speared whale that lives year-round in the Arctic.
"Their tusks make them a unique example of a species; in a way the narwhal is a mythical sea creature; The unicorns of the sea," explains ROA about this Swedish piece. "The young male narwal that I painted here is unfortunately caught in a fishing line. I wanted to draw attention to how they and many other species become a victim of hunting and pollution."
ROA. "Catch of The Day". Detail. Open Art. Orebro, Sweden 2013. (photo Roa)
ROA. Vienna, Austria 2013. (photo Roa)
At the start of July ROA opened his second solo show - this time with Inoperable Gallery in Vienna.
The exhibition was called "PAN-ROA's Box" and it was an animal curiosity focused show.
ROA. Detail. Vienna, Austria 2013. (photo Roa)
ROA. Wall Therapy. Rochester, NY 2013. (photo Roa)
ROA. Wall Therapy. Rochester, NY 2013. (photo Roa)
ROA. "Two Blue Tits" in Chichester, Great Britain 2013. (photo Roa)
Advertisement
ROA was there as part of his invitation to participate at the Chichester Street Art Festival in May.
ROA. Chichester, Great Britain 2013. (photo Roa)
Here is the painting referred to above that upset a number of people in Chichester and called for a vote to take it down (it was 50/50 so they've left it up).
Regarding the Badger Cull 2013 "After several emails from Louise Matthews about the upcoming badger cull in GB, I painted a badger to support their efforts to save the badgers," says ROA. The controversial practice in Britain has gained a number of very adamant foes, including Brian May from the rock group Queen.
ROA. Bethenal-Green London 2013. (photo Roa)
As a guest of Griff from Street Art London, ROA did this piece in Bethenal-Green.
ROA. Nuart 2013. Stavanger, Norway. (photo Roa)
As part of his invitation to the Maus Festival, ROA painted this in Calle Casas De Campos, Malaga, Spain.
ROA. "Fighting Squirrels", Southbank, London 2013. (photo Roa)
"If you have ever witnessed a squirrel fight, you might recognize the action," says ROA of these two enraged fellas in mid air. He explains that when the North American Eastern Grey squirrel (top) was introduced it caused the red native Squirrel (bottom) to lose habitat and population, so now the red one is protected by conservation laws.
ROA would like to thank the Southbank Centre at the canal.
ROA. Dulwich, London 2013. (photo Roa)
ROA. Baroque The Streets Festival. Dulwich, London 2013. (photo Roa)
Advertisement
Regarding the dog above, ROA says : "It took me a detailed search into the Dulwich Picture Gallery to find an animal expression that was involved with the daily life of the time and express on it's own a fragment of the ordinary life. My eye was caught by a pooping dog in a large scale hunting scene; I found that an interesting detail. The people of the museum told me they have more hunting scenes with this same curious detail, but those were currently not exhibited."
Dulwich: 'Baroque The Streets: Dulwich Street Art Festival' May 10-19, 2013. The festival was organized by Street Art London & Dulwich Picture Gallery
ROA. Urban Forms Festival. Lodz, Poland. 2013. (photo Roa)
Roa wishes to extend his most sincere thanks to the following people: In Southbank, London he sends thanks to the Southbank Centre at the canal. In Linz, Austria he says thanks to Bubble Days Festival in Linz, and thanks to Poidle. In Montreal, he says thanks to MURAL for all their good care and for the retreat in Quebec. Thank you also to Yan, Andre, Alexis and Nico! In Malaga, Spain he says thank you very much Fer. In Rochester he says thank you to Ian, Steven, Dan and Wise, who "made my stay excellent as usual." In Lagos, Portugal he says thanks to LAC Laboratorio Actividades Criativas. In Stavanger, Norway he extends his thanks to the NUART festival. In Lodz, Poland he says thanks to Michael and the crew.
And we here at BSA say thank you to you all, and of course to ROA for sharing all his travels with BSA readers.
<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><>
This article is also posted on Brooklyn Street Art.
Read all posts by Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo on The Huffington Post HERE.
See new photos and read scintillating interviews every day on BrooklynStreetArt.com
Follow us on Instagram @bkstreetart
See our TUMBLR page
Manila to host Asean Biodiversity Heroes forum
by Jonathan L. Mayuga
September 02,2018 | Source: BusinessMirror
The Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) will hold the Asean Biodiversity Heroes Regional Forum in Manila on September 4 and 5.
The forum will be conducted at a hotel in Makati City, in collaboration with the Biodiversity Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and with support from the European Union.
The event will focus on the sharing of stories of conservation by some of the Asean Biodiversity Heroes from Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines, according to an ACB statement released through the DENR.
This is the second leg of the forum. The first leg was held in Hanoi, Vietnam, on March 26 and 27. It featured the heroes from Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
The forum will be attended by representatives of various academic institutions in the Philippines, young professionals from different sectors, representatives from the media, participants from the Asean member-states (AMS), nongovernment organizations and government agencies.
The sharing of the heroes stories is aimed at inspiring people, especially the youth, in saving the environment and for other sectors in society to learn how they can also help in biodiversity conservation.
Among those who will speak in the forum is Sophea Chinn, a young biodiversity information specialist who sparked interest in wildlife research in Cambodia.
Chinn recalled that his interest in wildlife research was further enhanced, when, as a young boy in the 1990s, he observed that birds were being killed for food by the people in his community.
He took up Biology at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, followed by Management Information System at Setec University and a masters degree in Biodiversity Conservation.
Currently, the young conservationist is an official at the Research and Biodiversity and Ecosystem Assessment Office, a core component of the Department of Biodiversity in Cambodias Ministry of Environment.
Asean Biodiversity Hero Alex Waisimon from Indonesia is an indigenous leader who protects Papuas forest for future generations. Papua province is known for its dense rain forests that are home to diverse wildlife.
The provincial capital, Jayapura, is where the Rhepang Muaif Area can be found. This area is categorized as an Important Bird Area as it is the haven of five endangered species, and is also known as the home of the Cenderawasih, or the birds of paradise.
Sadly, the area has the same concerns as other biodiversity-rich places: illegal hunting and illegal logging. It is due to these concerns that Waisimon returned to the area with the noble vision to provide livelihood in his community. With this objective, he developed a sustainable ecotourism program that features the birds of paradise.
Dr. Angel C. Alcala, an educator and a marine biologist with remarkable contribution to Philippine biological sciences, will share his experience and insights.
Alcala was declared a National Scientist by President Benigno S. Aquino III through Malacanang Proclamation 782 on June 6, 2014.
Through his research and fieldwork, Alcala has added 50 new species of amphibians and reptiles, which provided international conservationists the basis to establish conservation programs on Philippine vertebrate biodiversity.
The National Scientist was the person behind the establishment of the Philippiness first no-take marine reserve, the Sumilon Marine Reserve.
Marine reserves allow the growth of marine biodiversity, such as various fish species, as well as movement of adult fish to fishing areas, which increases the fish yields of fishers.
After the establishment of the Sumilon Marine Reserve in 1974, Alcala proceeded to establish several other no-take marine reserves, such as the Apo Marine Reserve in 1982.
He also strengthened the management of approximately 60 no-take marine reserves.
Recognized during the 50th Anniversary of the Asean on August 8, 2017, in Manila, the Asean Biodiversity Heroes are 10 outstanding individuals who were chosen for their notable actions in biodiversity conservation.
The 10 Asean Biodiversity Heroes 2017 are Eyad Samhan of Brunei Darussalam; Chinn of Cambodia; Waisimon of Indonesia; Nitsavanh Louangkhot Pravongviengkham of Lao PDR; Prof. Zakri Abdul Hamid of Malaysia; Dr. Maung Maung Kyi of Myanmar; Alcala of the Philippines; Prof. Leo Tan Wee Hin of Singapore; Dr. Nonn Panitvong of Thailand; and Prof. Dr. Dang Huy Huynh of Vietnam.
The ACB serves as the Secretariat of the Search for the Asean Biodiversity Heroes. The heroes were selected by the ACB Governing Board, representing the AMS.
The Asean Biodiversity Heroes Regional Forum Series is part of the Biodiversity Conservation and Management for Protected Areas in Asean, a project that is implemented by the ACB in collaboration with the European Union.
The project seeks to improve the management of protected areas in the Asean region; develop and mobilize knowledge and scientific basis for biodiversity conservation; mainstream biodiversity into the education system; and strengthen the regional capacities.
BusinessMirror
Theme(s): Others.
Greek experts to train 2,500 Nigeria Amnesty beneficiaries in fishing
September 05,2018 | Source: The Nation
Eight Greek maritime experts billed to facilitate the training of 2,500 beneficiaries of the Amnesty Programme, have arrived in Nigeria.
The training programme initiated by the Presidential Amnesty Office will soon be inaugurated.
Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator, Amnesty Programme, Prof. Charles Dokubo, expressed optimism that the project, which will lead to the building of 100 fishing trawlers in Burutu, Delta State, will enhance the beneficiaries capability and strengthen business in the Niger Delta region.
Receiving the experts yesterday, Doklubo said:
I have sat through most of your discussions and you have explained to me the techniques and the method of how you do your own business. I want that to be replicated in Nigeria and in the Niger Delta, because we are a seafaring people. We hope that this new concept will work well for our communities and for the Niger Delta people so that the best that we can offer will enhance our capabilities and also strengthen the business and sea faring lives of our delegates.
Managing Director, Theo-Man Limited, managers of the project, George Theodoru, said the prospective beneficiaries would be professionally trained on how to operate state-of-the-art boats which will serve as a means of livelihood for them, their families and communities.
As project managers, we will organise the operation, consult the parties involved on progress made, and supervise each party for smooth deliveries. Above all, we are responsible for the technical consultancy to deliver good boats; to keep them working in good condition and maintenance.
Theodoru hinted that a study on a processing factory, including structures and facilities necessary for preparation of raw fish harvested for local consumption and export, had reached advanced stage. So we are now offering a complete solution, starting from educated fishermen to professionalism, modern equipment, choice of profitable catches, transportation and preservation.
The project which is driven under a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) has the Presidential Amnesty Office, Concept Amadeus Limited, Akewa Global Services Limited (AGS) and four Greek companies as partners. The foreign firms include Fintrilis S.A, Tel of Western Greece; Kreta Mare, El Mare and Theo-Man Limited.
Theme(s): Fisheries Development and Aquaculture.
(ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV - Rita Katz, director of Search International Terrorist Entities (SITE) Intelligence Group, told ANSA that Libya is "without a doubt the new danger for Europe".
SITE monitors Islamic radicalism on the web, and its director said the situation in Libya has changed drastically from one year ago. Katz spoke to ANSA on the sidelines of the International Institute for Counterterrorism (ICT) World Summit, an annual conference in Herzliya.
"Last year, ISIS didn't exist in Libya, it had zero suicide operations," Katz said. "This year, there have already been a dozen across the country, not in one or two places but everywhere. And this means that probably some of the fighters were able to return from Iraq and Syria. And we have seen them move through northern Africa and settle in that area," she said. She said the majority of the attacks ISIS or other groups in the region, such as AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) in Tunisia, targeted Western structures, "whether they were oil companies or investments, anything that is a legitimate enemy and doesn't regard Muslims". Katz said ISIS's "media reflect the situation in the field and what can happen in the future". Responding to a question on the most recent message attributed to al-Baghdadi, she said that ISIS is calling for attacks on the West, including Italy and France, "especially now that Italy is part of the war coalition against terrorist organisations". Katz said that in Italy in particular, "ISIS channels constantly supply translations in Italian and the organisation has Italian members. The threats for Italy are the same as, and perhaps even higher than, those on any other European country.
Let's not forget that their publications and messages always speak about Italy, highlighting that 'Rome is our eye'. In nearly all previous messages by Al Qaeda and ISIS leaders, Rome was mentioned". "This being said, it doesn't mean that you have to raise the level of alarm and be ready for an attack. I think it's important to know that this threat exists," she said.
To complete the picture on web activity by terrorist groups, Katz brought figures to the conference on the period from April through August 2018 that showed 23,267 links, 2,365 messages and more than 100 platforms.
Of the links, 19,492 (83%) were from ISIS and 17% from Al Qaeda.(ANSAmed).
ROME - Forty migrants who were transferred from the Diciotti coast guard ship to a Church-run migrant centre at Rocca Di Papa south of Rome have left the centre and are missing, interior ministry sources said Wednesday.
Caritas Italiana chief Father Francesco Soddu told ANSA "it's a voluntary departure, not an escape.
"You flee a state of detention and that is not the case here, no one wants to stay in Italy, that is well-known".
Some 100 Eritrean migrants were moved to the centre last week after a standoff between Interior Minister Matteo Salvini and the EU.
They are currently being moved to dioceses across Italy who have voiced willingness to take them.
Salvini kept them aboard the Diciotti for 10 days saying they would not land until the EU agreed to take them in.
In the end Catholic bishops agreed to take 100 while Ireland and Albania said they would take 20 each.
BEIRUT - The day after Syrian and Russian airstrikes began in the Idlib province following a de-escalation period and ahead of a major military offensive there, regime forces on Wednesday morning resumed artillery shelling at it.
The northwestern province is the last opposition-held stronghold in the country. Political sources in Damascus have meanwhile said that the airstrikes on Tuesday - in which several people including women and children were killed - were only ''preparation'' for the military offensive on the province. Several sources in Hama, Latakia and Idlib said that government artillery had hit opposition-held positions in Jisr al-Shugour, targeted repeatedly on Tuesday by the first Russian and Syrian airstrikes after 3 weeks of relative calm. Opposition forces on Tuesday continued destroying bridges over the Orontes River, the frontline between loyalists and rebels.
Imperial Valley News Center
Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance issues statement demanding encryption backdoors
Washington, DC - The five member states threaten tech companies with legislation if they dont weaken their encryption.
One of the unfortunate things we track here at Hashed Out are calls from law enforcement officials and politicians for responsible encryption and/or encryption backdoors. At this point, I feel like it happens about once a month. So far we have gotten dumb requests to weaken encryption from the likes of:
James Comey, Former Director of the FBI
Christopher Wray, Director of the FBI
Rod Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney General
Amber Rudd, Former UK Home Secretary
Theresa May, UK Prime Minister
Malcolm Turnbull, Australian Prime Minister
And many, many more. So, it shouldnt really come as a surprise that when the US, UK and Australia get together (along with New Zealand and Canada) as part of the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance, that they would combine powers and come up with a monumentally stupid joint statement requesting weakened encryption and/or encryption backdoors.
They did not disappoint.
The Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance has issued a Statement of Principles on Access to Evidence and Encryption.
Lets Hash it Out
Statement of Principles on Access to Evidence and Encryption
Five Eyes joint statement starts out nicely enough by reaffirming the importance of encryption.
The Governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are committed to personal rights and privacy, and support the role of encryption in protecting those rights. Encryption is vital to the digital economy and a secure cyberspace, and to the protection of personal, commercial and government information.
Now, if youre familiar with Larry David and the show Curb Your Enthusiasm, you may remember a conversation between Larry and Jerry Seinfeld where they both muse at the fact that anytime someone says, having said that, they are about to completely contradict the first statement they made.
That is incredibly apropos here, because Five Eyes immediately contradicts its opening paragraph.
However, the increasing use and sophistication of certain encryption designs present challenges for nations in combatting [sic] serious crimes and threats to national and global security. Many of the same means of encryption that are being used to protect personal, commercial and government information are also being used by criminals, including child sex offenders, terrorists and organized crime groups to frustrate investigations and avoid detection and prosecution.
First of all, let me make an observation as someone who has been able to make a living as a writer: this paragraph is written in a manipulative way. In web design this is sometimes called a dark pattern, in a joint statement by intelligence agencies it is, at best, hyperbolic and at worst its designed to play on some of your most visceral reactions. The technology is being used by criminals, adding the part about terrorists, organized crime and rings of pedophiles was just a fearmongering flourish.
Whats more confusing is the dissonance that comes from this argument. Theres no consistency as to when these governments will go out of their way to protect the rights and freedoms of the majority despite certain abuses by a minority and when they will trample the rights of the many to penalize a few.
Its the latter in this case.
What are the Five Eyes asking for?
The five participating intelligence agencies are requesting commercial assistance from stakeholders in lawfully accessing encrypted information. Or to put it in simpler terms, theyre asking the tech industry to undermine one of its most robust technologies so they can unlock a few thousand iPhones (isnt hyperbole fun?).
Encryption, as you well know, is a mechanism for protecting data. It essentially scrambles the data, whether at rest or in transit, so as to make it unreadable by anyone but the intended party. We talk about all kinds of encryption here, symmetric, asymmetric, public key, private key even historical encryption. The one constant is that encryption is almost impossible to crack. It would take a supercomputer thousands of years just to crack 256-bit AES symmetric encryption. Thats a feature, definitely not a bug.
But, really since the aftermath of the San Bernardino shooting when the FBI couldnt unlock the shooters phone, this has been a constant battle between the tech community and various government entities and politicians. Since then weve had myriad calls for responsible encryption, the FBI lied about the number of devices it cant unlock and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) have come out in adamant opposition.
This joint statement is just the latest in a long line of dumb requests.
Five Eyes has three principles that its statement affirms:
Mutual Responsibility Government entities need the assistance of various stakeholders in obtaining access to encrypted information. Due Process is Paramount Any attempt to access encrypted data must be underpinned by the rule of law, meaning a warrant is required. Freedom of Choice for Lawful Access Solutions We dont care how you break your encryption for us as long as you do it.
Obviously, Im paraphrasing a bit there. Heres the actual text from what is the third and most crucial principle:
The Governments of the Five Eyes encourage information and communications technology service providers to voluntarily establish lawful access solutions to their products and services that they create or operate in our countries. Governments should not favor a particular technology; instead, providers may create customized solutions, tailored to their individual system architectures that are capable of meeting lawful access requirements. Such solutions can be a constructive approach to current challenges. Should governments continue to encounter impediments to lawful access to information necessary to aid the protection of the citizens of our countries, we may pursue technological, enforcement, legislative or other measures to achieve lawful access solutions.
As you can tell from the second paragraph, the request for technology service providers to voluntarily establish lawful access solutions is business-voluntary. Meaning that regardless of the rhetoric its couched in, its compelled. Because if the tech sector pushes back these five intelligence agencies have already stated they will throw their full arsenal into forcing this issue. This is not the first time that threat has been made, either.
Why are Lawful Access Solutions dangerous?
When someone says Lawful Access Solutions they are typically referring to one of two options: key escrow or an encryption backdoor. Lets go over what both of those mean and then well talk about why theyre stupid.
Key escrow is a system where a copy of the private key used for decryption is provided to a third party to be securely stored. If a government needs access to an encrypted device, the idea is that they can be provided with a copy of the key by the third party.
Encryption backdoors are a little more complicated. They typically rely on the random number generators (RNGs) at the heart of most cryptosystems. If you can crack the RNG, you can likely crack the cryptosystem. In fact, most attacks on encryption are actually attacks on RNGs. The NSA is accused of trying to push a backdoor into a 2007 National Institute of Standards in Technology (NIST) publication that dealt with random number generators. The backdoor involved elliptic curves, specifically DUAL_EC_DRBG. That standard has a relationship to a secret set of numbers. Anyone that knows those numbers can effectively predict the standards output and break any encryption schemes using it.
So why are key escrow and encryption backdoors dumb ideas? Well, with key escrow the keys are only as safe as the third party. Thats a ton of trust to put in any government entity or private organization. The government can barely keep its own data secure, asking it to look after millions of private keys would be both a security risk and a bureaucratic nightmare. And with a private organization youre assuming that it can keep the keys secure itself, plus youre counting on it not to go out of business, go rogue or have a non-malicious data incident that accidentally wipes some of the keys.
And consider this, a single private key can be a valuable commodity for hackers and cyber criminals, so imagine what a massive target an entire database of private keys would be. This is just not a good idea. Now, thats not to say key escrow cant work. It can in some very specific contexts, for instance the banking industry has found some uses for it. But on a large scale? No. Not a good idea.
And then we have encryption backdoors. Once again, we would have to rely on government entities to safeguard the backdoor, whether it be a number set or some other mechanism. And thats not a given. But beyond that, this weakens encryption. Other entities, the same group of people Five Eyes is trying to stop, would eventually find a way in. The very existence of a backdoor is enough of a vulnerability to undermine the entire cryptosystem. And that just cannot happen.
Beyond that? When has purposely stunting a budding technology ever been the right answer? Encryption has been around for thousands of years, but its use and applications have grown exponentially since we entered the digital age.
In many ways, encryption represents one of our strongest layers of security, not just in the private sector, but on a national and international level, too. We cannot afford to undermine a technology that has the potential to protect so many, just so that we can access data from a few.
If anything breaks our encryption in the foreseeable future it should be quantum computing, not government interference. Suggesting otherwise is missing the big picture.
ICE arrests 364 criminal aliens and immigration violators in 30-day enforcement surge in 6 Midwestern states
Chicago, Illinois - Federal officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) arrested 364 criminal aliens and immigration violators in six Midwest states during a 30-day enforcement action, which ended Friday.
During this operation, ERO deportation officers made arrests in the following states: Illinois (134), Indiana (52), Kansas (43), Kentucky (60), Missouri (42) and Wisconsin (33). Of the 364 arrested, 187 had criminal convictions. Eighteen women and 346 men were arrested.
Aliens arrested during this operation are from the following 25 countries: Belarus (1), Bosnia-Herzegovina (1), Burma (1), Colombia (1), Czech Republic (2), Dominican Republic (1), Ecuador (2), El Salvador (2), Germany (1), Guatemala (54), Guinea (1), Haiti (1), Honduras (40), India (6), Jordan (1), Lithuania (1), Mexico (236), Moldova (1), Nicaragua (1), Nigeria (3), Peru (2), Poland (1), Romania (1), Saudi Arabia (1) and Ukraine (2).
More than half of the aliens arrested by ERO deportation officers during this operation had prior criminal histories that included convictions for the following crimes: assault, attempted murder, burglary, child neglect, child sexual exploitation, domestic violence, driving under the influence, drug possession, drug trafficking, fraud, hit and run, identity theft, illegal re-entry after deportation, indecent liberty with a minor, money laundering, obstructing justice, obstructing police, perjury prostitution, rape, sexual assault, theft, trespassing, and weapon offenses.
Seventy-one of those arrested were immigration fugitives; 97 others illegally re-entered the United States after having been previously deported, which is a felony. Depending on an aliens criminality, an alien who re-enters the United States after having been previously deported commits a felony punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison, if convicted.
Following are criminal summaries of six offenders arrested in the ICE Chicago area of responsibility during this operation:
July 24: ICE arrested a 46-year-old Mexican man in Wood Dale, Illinois. He is a convicted felon for attempted murder. He remains in ICE custody pending his removal.
July 26: ICE arrested a 27-year-old Honduran man in Independence, Missouri. Earlier this year, he was convicted of domestic assault. He also is a convicted burglar. He remains in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.
July 27, ICE arrested a 37-year-old Mexican man in Bardstown, Kentucky. He is a convicted felon for rape and was previously removed; he later illegally re-entered the U.S.
July 30: ICE arrested a 25-year-old man from India in Champaign, Illinois. He was convicted of criminal sexual abuse on July 30. He remains in ICE custody pending his removal.
Aug. 6: ICE arrested a 25-year-old Honduran man in Indianapolis. He is a convicted felon for rape. He remains in ICE custody pending his removal.
Aug. 15: ICE arrested an 18-year-old Honduran man in Indianapolis. He is wanted in Louisiana for child rape charges. He remains in ICE custody pending his extradition to Louisiana.
Aug. 22: ICE arrested a 26-year-old Guatemalan man in Shelbyville, Kentucky. He was arrested earlier this month for distributing child pornography. He remains in ICE custody pending his removal.
The Chicago area of responsibility includes the six states of Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin.
This operation targeted criminal aliens, public safety threats, and individuals who have violated our nations immigration laws, said Ricardo Wong, field office director for ICE ERO Chicago. Operations like this reflect the vital work our ERO officers do every day to protect our communities, uphold public safety and protect the integrity of our immigration laws. We will continue to devote the full efforts of our agency to protecting citizens and enforcing federal immigration law. Communities are safer today because of the hard work done by the men and women of ERO.
All of the targets in this operation were amenable to arrest and removal under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act.
ICE deportation officers carry out targeted enforcement operations daily nationwide as part of the agencys ongoing efforts to protect the nation, uphold public safety, and protect the integrity of our immigration laws and border controls.
These operations involve existing and established Fugitive Operations Teams.
During targeted enforcement operations, ICE officers frequently encounter other aliens illegally present in the United States. These aliens are evaluated on a case-by-case basis, and, when appropriate, they are arrested by ICE officers.
Colorado woman sentenced to 3 years in federal prison for illegally exporting firearms to the Dominican Republic
Denver, Colorado - A former member of the U.S. Army stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado, was sentenced Thursday to serve three years in federal prison following her criminal conviction for illegally exporting firearms to the Dominican Republic in 2015.
The U.S. Attorneys Office of the District of Colorado announced this sentence with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
On Sept. 1, 2015, a federal grand jury indicted Katherine O'Neal, 43, for numerous firearm and illegal financing-type criminal charges. A superseding indictment was handed down on Nov. 20, 2016, with a second superseding indictment returned on Dec. 5, 2017. A jury found ONeal guilty of smuggling goods from the United States on March 6, 2018. O'Neal was acquitted on other counts alleging false information on firearm-purchase forms and money laundering.
At trial, before U.S. District Court Judge William J. Martinez, the government introduced evidence showing that O'Neal made multiple trips to the Dominican Republic shortly after purchasing firearms in Denver and Colorado Springs, Colorado. On one trip she flew from Denver to the Dominican Republic with 11 firearms in her luggage in early June 2015. O'Neal declared the firearms to the airline, but did not obtain the required State Department export license. Her bags had been misdirected by the airline and were not on her flight. When the bags arrived later, Dominican Republic officials noticed the handguns while examining her baggage. When O'Neal arrived at the airport to claim her luggage, she was arrested. The Dominican Republic has a ban on all imported firearms. A Denver jury found O'Neal guilty of smuggling goods from the United States.
O'Neal must also serve three years on supervised release after she completes her prison sentence.
Illegally exporting firearms comes with stiff consequences, said U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer. Her consequence was 3 years in federal prison.
This is a prime example of how greed and an opportunity to make a quick profit motivate some people to criminal actions, said Steven Cagen, special agent in charge of HSI Denver. With 67 offices located in 50 countries, HSI is especially well-equipped to investigate criminal cases around the world.
This case was a coordinated effort to put a firearms trafficker behind bars, ATF Denver Special Agent in Charge Debbie Livingston said. She is very deserving of this sentence.
The case was investigated by HSI, ATF, as well as the government of the Dominican Republic, where charges are pending her extradition to that country.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert Brown and Kurt Bohn, District of Colorado, are prosecuting this case.
Being a NIST NRC Postdoc in Applied Mathematics
Washington, DC - I first learned about the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) while a graduate student in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Delaware, which has an active student chapter of the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). They regularly invite speakers from government laboratories and industry to give a one-hour seminar about their research and discuss careers outside of academia.
One day, Dr. Anthony Kearsley, a mathematician at NIST, came to give a SIAM lecture about his research. I thoroughly enjoyed the lecture and the applications he described and came away from the talk with an extremely favorable impression of NIST and the research conducted there. In fact, I was so impressed that I approached him after the lecture anxious to learn more about NIST and discuss some specifics regarding his research. After our conversation, he kindly invited me to NIST to spend a day learning more about some of the applications he was working on and to deliver a lecture of my own! I was ecstatic and honored to receive this invitation since my Ph.D. thesis research involved a measurement science problem.
My talk was, fortunately (!), very well-received, and after lengthy discussions, Dr. Kearsley encouraged me to apply for a National Research Council (NRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship. I had first heard about the program from one of Dr. Kearsleys former NRC postdocs who is a professor at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania. He recalled his own positive experience at NIST in the NRC program, and he also encouraged me to apply to work with Dr. Kearsley. Looking back as a current NRC postdoc, I agree wholeheartedly with his positive reflections upon his time working with Dr. Kearsley.
In my final year of graduate school, I took Dr. Kearsleys advice and applied for and was offered an NRC Postdoctoral Fellowship to work at NIST under his supervision. Although I had other opportunities when I got my Ph.D., there was no way I could pass up the chance to work at NIST with such an excellent mathematician and mentor. The NRC Postdoctoral Fellowships are an excellent opportunity that provide recent Ph.D.s with two years of generous funding to pursue their research interests at a unique and vibrant government laboratory. They prepare recent graduates for a wide variety of careers, including those in academia, industry or in other government laboratories like NIST.
One of my favorite parts of being an NRC postdoctoral fellow at NIST is being able to collaborate with world-class scientists on measurement science problems. Such problems naturally lend themselves to interdisciplinary and collaborative work.
For example, I am currently working with NIST engineer Dr. Arvind Balijepalli to construct a mathematical model to optimize the design and maximize the sensitivity of a novel medical diagnostic instrument called a biological field effect transistor (FET). Once fully developed, this device will provide physicians with rapid, accurate and portable measurements of biomarkersbiological molecules whose presence are indicative of a certain disease. Whereas most therapies in use today are prescribed based upon how an average patient would respond, physicians can use biomarker measurements to customize treatment protocols for individual patients. Although there are some biomarker tests already being used to deliver personalized therapies, in many cases, making those measurements requires specialized facilities, can take days to weeks to perform, and are very expensive. FETs could make personalized therapies more accessible and affordable.
In addition to my work on FETs, I am also developing machine learning algorithms, a kind of artificial intelligence, for classifying a certain class of drugs known as biologics. Many of the medicines on the market today are small molecule drugs. They have relatively simple structures and are chemically synthesized in a stepwise fashion: add a little of this, a little of that, simmer, strain, bake and voila, you have an anti-cholesterol drug.
By contrast, biologics are derived from living organisms such as insulin (pig and cow pancreases), penicillin (bread mold), and vaccines (most often weakened or dead pathogens). An important type of biologic that has garnered much attention in recent years are monoclonal antibodies. These are therapeutic proteins used to treat diseases ranging from rheumatoid arthritis to certain kinds of cancer.
Many such useful biologics are now reaching patent expiration, which will open up the marketplace to the development of biosimilars, i.e., variants which are clinically identical. Biosimilars must undergo a series of rigorous tests to ensure safety and efficacy before they are released to consumers, so we need to be able to accurately characterize their molecular structure. Research has shown that a technique known as two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is an excellent tool for the job.
To facilitate the classification of NMR spectra of monoclonal antibodies, Im working with my colleagues Dr. Luke Arbogast, Dr. Robert Brinson, Dr. Frank Delaglio and Dr. John Marino at the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR), a joint venture of NIST and the University of Maryland, to develop machine learning tools that can automatically classify different types of NMR spectra. We hope that these tools will ultimately reduce time-to-market for biosimilars and make monoclonal antibodies more accessible and affordable as well.
All the interesting problems and wonderful scientists with whom I get to collaborate make NIST an exciting and stimulating place to be an applied mathematician. Some collaborations involve only one or two people who work very close to my area of research. I also work with larger teams of scientists who are as unfamiliar with my research as I am with theirs, so Im always learning something new. My research is often aimed at more fully understanding experiments, optimizing experimental design and improving data analysis techniques, so my work doesnt stop after publishing in a journal or presenting results at a conference.
NIST has a rich history replete with mathematicians whose work deeply influenced the way scientists think about their experiments or interpret their data. A notable example is the work of Dr. Geoffrey McFadden. His work with NIST materials scientists on the solidification of metal alloys has had a profound impact on the field. Dr. Alfred Carassos revolutionary work on image deblurring has been used to help scientists interpret pictures taken by the Hubble telescope, MRI and PET brain scans, and helium ion microscope images of nanoscale objects.
My mentor Dr. Kearsleys work on optimizing mass spectrometers, which identify chemical species by their weight, has changed the way chemists analyze and think about their experiments. More recently, Dr. Paul Patrone, a physicist in my group, has partnered with Dr. Gregory Cooksey, a NIST engineer, and Dr. Kearsley, who is a mathematician, to pioneer novel techniques for measuring the flow of fluid through microscale devices that will substantially reduce both cost and measurement uncertainties. These techniques could eventually be used to help detect cancer. This is a tradition of research in which I am proud to conduct my work and motivates me to conduct the best research I can.
TEL AVIV - The Israeli army announced Wednesday morning that it had closed the Erez pedestrian crossing with the Gaza Strip. The decision - a military spokesman said - was taken after ''violent disorder in the area of the border crossing in which hundreds of Palestinian protestors took part'' on Tuesday. The protestors, the spokesman added, ''threw stones and damaged the border crossing facilities on the Palestinian side.
As a result, the decision was made to close the crossing until the damage caused by the protestors is repaired.'' Crossing through will be possible only for ''humanitarian cases approved on an individual basis'', he added.
Joint Statement Welcoming the Ceasefire in Tripoli, Libya
Washington, DC - The Governments of France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States welcome the result of the mediation reached today by the United Nations Support Mission that aims to deescalate violence in and around Tripoli and ensure the protection of civilians. We reiterate our strong support for Special Representative of the Secretary-General Ghassan Salame as he works to realize an immediate and durable cessation of hostilities in the Libyan capital, which is a critical step to advancing the political process in accordance with the United Nations Action Plan.
As the Secretary-General noted on September 2, all parties should immediately cease hostilities and abide by the ceasefire agreement brokered by the United Nations. We call on all Libyan parties to refrain from any actions that could undermine todays ceasefire announcement, jeopardize the security of civilians, or set back Libyan efforts to advance the political process and move forward in the spirit of compromise.
We also reiterate support for the President of the Presidency Council, Fayez al-Sarraj, and the Government of National Accord as they work in partnership with the United Nations to promote reconciliation and support a Libyan-led political process.
Secretary of State Pompeo's Call With Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne
Washington, DC - Secretary Michael R. Pompeo spoke with Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne by phone on August 30 and congratulated her on her recent appointment.
The two reaffirmed the close alignment of the United States and Australia and pledged to continue our long history of cooperation on the basis of our shared interests and values.
Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek.
This wasn't your usual mid-flight scene.
There were the passengers, sensing a nasty odor wafting about the plane.
And there were the cabin crew suddenly looking like evil beings from a very early episode of Doctor Who.
Or experts drafted in to deal with dangerous matter strewn about a public place.
There must have been something wrong.
What was that smell? Was it harmful? Toxic? Dangerous to the plane's safety?
Welcome to a British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Nice on August 26.
As the Sun reports, passengers say they were told the cabin crew were wearing the strange smoke hoods as a "precaution."
It seems that the passengers themselves weren't offered any sort of precautions at all.
Could it be that the cabin crew were happy to protect themselves, while leaving a plane full of passengers to breathe in, well, who knows what?
I asked British Airways what on earth had gone on here. A spokeswoman told me:
The safety of our customers and crew is always our highest priority.??? Our flight landed normally and customers left the aircraft as usual. As is always the case, our engineers made a full inspection of the aircraft before it was returned to service. We would not operate an aircraft if we believed it posed a health or safety risk to our customers or crew.
Believed? Well, no.
Engineers, though, don't seem able to find the causes of these things.
Meanwhile, please consider the passengers.
Seeing your cabin crew wearing hoods and having oxygen masks attached might cause one or two in the seated throng to wonder about a slight imbalance.
Airlines describe such happenings as fume events.
Which makes them sound akin to a hookah party.
It's unclear exactly what fumes might be wandering about the cabin and what effect they might have.
Families of pilots who have died while relatively young believe that fumes contributed to their deaths.
In the U.S., a 2015 Federal Aviation Administration report offered a disturbing conclusion:
Quantification of the potential health risks associated with exposure to bleed-air contaminants in cabin air is not possible without broad identification and measurement of the representa?tive hazardous constituents of bleed air during contaminated air events.
The report called for funding to support research activities.
Earlier this year, the Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines pilots, said that there had been around 20,000 toxic fume events in the last 10 years.
Indeed, British Airways enjoyed four just on August 26.
The APA, though, commended the FAA for recommending that airlines introduce enhanced procedures to mitigate fume events.
In truth, however, no one seems to know all the potential hazards involved.
So passengers sit there hoping for the best, while cabin crew at least enjoy some protection.
Theranos, the Silicon Valley blood-testing company that built a business on false claims, is closing down.
Theranos CEO David Taylor sent an email to shareholders on Tuesday announcing that the company will cease operations and use its remaining $5 million in cash to pay back creditors, The Wall Street Journal reports. The decision comes after Theranos spent four months unsuccessfully trying to find a buyer for its remaining assets, and after the company failed to meet a debt obligation tied to a $65 million loan from Fortress Investment Group. Under the loan agreement, Fortress could foreclose on the company's assets if its cash reserves fell beneath a certain threshold. Investors who poured more than $700 million into the company will get nothing.
Theranos founder and former CEO Elizabeth Holmes catapulted to fame on the claims of inventing a "groundbreaking" method that allowed her company to run a range of lab tests on just a drop or two of blood, eventually earning Theranos a $9 billion valuation. In 2015, a series of articles in The Wall Street Journal questioned the company's technology, ultimately exposing Holmes for overstating Theranos's technological abilities while relying on traditional blood-testing machines for the vast majority of its tests. She was later banned from owning or operating a lab for two years.
Geoffrey Owens is an actor.
But he's also a husband, a father, and a very hard worker.
Owens, who played a major role on The Cosby Show for multiple seasons, made headlines recently when he was photographed scanning groceries at a New Jersey Trader Joe's. But instead of negative publicity, Owens was overwhelmed by an outpouring of support, as countless people praised his humble efforts to provide for his family.
"I was only devastated for an hour or two," Owens told CNN in a recent interview. "It was hurtful but very short lived. What has been sustained, now over days, is how much love and support there is. Not just for me but for working people. The idea that 'Hey, what's wrong with working at Trader Joe's, or any job like that?"
Before the story went live, though, Owens quit his job at the grocery store, which he had held for 15 months.
"As soon as I heard this story was in the works, I resigned because I didn't feel that for my peace of mind and my dignity that I was going to be able to function there in a positive way, spiritually and emotionally," Owens told CNN.
How did his employer respond?
"[Trader Joe's] said instead of leaving, why not just call it a temporary leave of absence," Owens said. "I can go back whenever I want."
Bravo, Trader Joe's.
Why this response is so great
While simple, the response of Trader Joe's is a perfect example of emotional intelligence--the ability to make emotions work for you, instead of against you.
How so?
While the company recognized Owens's freedom to leave, it no doubt hated to lose a good worker. By leaving the door open for Owens to return, Trader Joe's showed that it cared about the person, not just the employee.
And the company made it that much easier for Owens to return if he ever finds himself in need of honest, decent work.
I did a little digging, and it turns out that Trader Joe's actually has a great reputation as an employer. For one, the company has repeatedly been named to Glassdoor's list of "Best Places to Work." The company offers decent compensation and benefits, such as health insurance for part-time workers (including dental and vision plans), annual pay increases, and plenty of opportunity for advancement.
But it's the company's management style that makes the greatest impression.
Ivetta Linnell, who worked five years at a Cape Cod, Massachusetts, location, told Time.com she appreciated the "positive environment" of her store more than anything else. Linnell, who left her home in the Czech Republic 14 years ago to immigrate to the U.S., and worked in various jobs including cleaning hotels and food service, described the job as transformative.
"Honestly, it's been like the only job in America, and I've worked a lot of jobs, where I felt appreciated and supported," she said.
And then there's this Chicago Tribune story by Hayley Benham-Archdeacon, who worked at Trader Joe's for seven years.
"At my last store, my co-worker was having a rough time in his personal life and the frustration was beginning to show at work," writes Benham-Archdeacon. "We watched a manager take him out back, presumably for a stern talking to. In fact, the manager handed him a box of broken eggs from the spoils cart, taped a plastic pallet wrap-up to the wall of our loading dock, and told him to throw eggs at the wall until he felt better. It worked."
Benham-Archdeacon continues, "Almost every manager I ever had somehow made me feel like I could tell them anything, personal or otherwise--even though I didn't have a lot in common with them. They did a lot of listening up front and opened up almost every conversation with asking what I think and then responding to what I said. I always felt trusted."
Now that's what I call emotional intelligence.
So, if a member of your team is struggling, resist the urge to view them as an "employee." Instead, treat them like a real person--one with feelings and emotions.
If they fall, help them up. Don't dishearten or tear down; encourage and lift up. Remind them that everyone has a bad day. Or a bad year.
And if they choose to leave, keep the door open.
Can satirists themselves ever get so establishment, self-satisfied and pompous that they themselves deserve to be satirised? Sometimes, I have to confess, I wonder about it when I see Ian Hislop in Have I Got News For You? Here is a bloke, with the rest of the regulars, who actually can exercise a certain amount of influence, if not power, themselves. He is editor of Private Eye, one of the biggest circulation magazines in the country, which is doing nicely. Now, of all things, he has been made co-curator of the British Museum, no less, with his very own exhibition: I Object. Whatever next? Sir Ian? Lord Hislop?
Fortunately it has not all travelled the relatively short distance to his head. Hislops show occupies quite a small space, and its ambitions are suitably modest. At the launch event, at which he recognised the hard work and inspiration of Tom Hockenhull, a curator at the museum, he made no great claims for this to be some sort of alternative history of civilisation as told by the oppressed, or a grand treatise on dissent, but merely an eclectic collection of objects about objecting. They simply show how people have poked fun at those in control of their lives, usually openly in free societies, or to transmit a message more covertly, under dictatorships or simply to make some sort of private joke, just for the sheer childish vandalistic hell of it.
Badge of honour: subverting Trumps messge (The Trustees of the British Museum)
In Hislops words: From ancient civilisations through to our own, there are extraordinary objects that bear witness to someone questioning the authorised version of their times and deciding to make a small though often lasting protest. Satire, in other words, is nothing new.
A very broad range it is too, historically and geographically. One of the earliest artefacts is a brick commissioned by Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon, in about 580BC. As was the kings custom, the brick is decorated with the usual praise of his far-sighted building programme the HS2 of the ancient world perhaps but it was only much later that a curious official at the British Museum noticed there was another name baked into the brickwork, that being the name of the brick master. It stayed there for the next 1,000 years until the wall came down, possibly unnoticed by many, if anyone, during its time as a long lasting but very private joke, between the brick master and his mates on the project. The last laugh, of course, being that its now about 2,574 years too late for old Nebs to wreak his revenge.
Making his mark: this ancient stone bears the signature of the master brickmaker (Trustees of the British Museum)
Then again, like the old philosophical puzzle about whether a tree in a forest actually falls if no one hears it coming down, is private satire actually satire at all?
Thus, a bored engraver with the responsibility for designing a 50 rupee banknote for the Seychelles decided to have a bit of fun and hid, quite elaborately, the rude word SEX in the fronds of some palm trees next to the portrait of the Queen. History does not record his fate, though youd think it must have been some very sharp-eyed Seychellois who spotted the mild obscenity, published towards the end of British colonial rule. Lese-majeste or a play on the name of the cocktail sex on the beach. Id like to imagine both.
Noted: the word SEX is engraved on the fronds of the palm trees (The Trustees of the British Museum)
Nor do we know what might have befallen the designer of a five yuan Chinese postage stamp ostensibly marking the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992. He, bravely or foolishly, decided to stick a coded message about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre into the artwork. On an apparently innocuous image of some athletes, the unlikely number 64 was stuck on one of the runners vest an unmistakable reference to the date of the massacre, 4 June, commonly abbreviated in China to 6-4 or 64.
Posting a message: a runner on this Barcelona Olympics commemorative stamp has the number 64 on his vest; a reference to the Tiananmen Square massacre (Trustees of the British Museum)
The most high profile of the recent additions to the collection picked out by Hislop is a 2016 Pussyhat a pink knitted affair with ears fashioned in the corners, as worn by protesters after Donald Trumps sleazy comments about women were unearthed. Its an act of subversion on many levels, though now, dumped on a plinth, it looks a bit less radical and rambunctious, as some context is inevitably lost.
Hats off to em: making a statement through the Pussyhat Project (The Trustees of the British Museum)
Not so the 20 defaced with the words STAY IN THE EU rubber stamped on it, obviously at some point after the 2016 referendum. That too follows in an honourable, though quirky, tradition of literally hammering home political messages into coins to gain a wide circulation.
Cash converter: trying to influence people by defacing currency (Trustees of the British Museum)
Plenty of Edwardian-era pennies (bigger than our ones) accommodated the slogan VOTES FOR WOMEN, though exactly what was being conveyed on the 1937 two shilling piece with a crude Swastika and NAZI stamped on George VIs profile is unclear. Pro- or anti- appeasement? Not every protest is perfectly thought through.
Penny for your thoughts: no doubting the point being made here (The Trustees of the British Museum)
The biggest and most elaborate item is a set of oak doors from Nigeria, hand carved to celebrate the 1924 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, but with disrespectful images of British colonialists on their motorcycles being mocked by the locals unobtrusively incorporated into the work.
Colonialism: this hand-carved Nigerian door mocks the British Empire (Trustees of the British Museum)
So theres a good deal about how ordinary folk can make their view known, in the millennia before social media. There is much less, rightly, about the familiar methods of paid and powerful satirists, the cartoonists of today (or should that be Toady), and the engravers and printmakers of the past who made a sometimes decent living out of lampoonery. One of the great definitive caricatures of all time is there, however A Voluptuary Under the Horrors of Digestion, by James Gillray, etched in 1792 and hardly ever bettered. There we see the self-indulgent, fat, greedy, corrupt, womanising and general disgrace that is the Prince Regent, later George IV, picking at his teeth.
Crowning glory: James Gillarys 18th century work capturing the Prince Regent (The Trustees of the British Museum)
The wastrel prince is surrounded by the detritus of yet another evening of self-indulgence, his chamber pot overflowing, and the obscene royal being so slovenly and idle he cannot be bothered to drag his corpulent form to the water closet. As an image, it is quite in your face, but not so literally as the cartoon of someone farting straight into the face of George III Treason! by Richard Newton.
The exhibition is a fine representation of the professional artist, but the cottage industry of button badges, T-shirts, posters and the Day of the Dead figure of a capitalist factory owner from Mexico all have their own power to assault dignity and status.
Make no bones about it: a papier-mache depiction of a Mexican factory owner for Day of the Dead (The Trustees of the British Museum)
Last a real mystery. Thou shalt commit adultery appeared as one of the 10 commandments in a 1631 edition of the King James bible. The printers were fined 300 (say 60,000 today) for their mistake. Was it an error? Was it deliberate sabotage by a printer in the pay of a rival? Or some typesetter having a laugh? Hislop, though, thinks he recognises a kindred spirit.
The subtitle of this exhibition of around 100 pieces is Ian Hislops search for dissent. Of course, sometimes you have to go no further than a newsstand and pick up a copy of Private Eye, but at times the activity is deliberately below the radar. Being a part-time leader writer myself, my own favourite bit of journalistic semi-clandestine protest comes from an editorial written by my old friend Stephen Pollard on his last day at the Daily Express. In an article about the virtues of organic farming, he made clear his feelings for the new Express proprietor, Richard Desmond. The first letters of each sentence spelled out the message f*** you Desmond. Hes editor of the Jewish Chronicle now, which proves that satire isnt always bad for your career. Someone should place a copy of that Express, ca January 2001, in the British Museum.
If Hislops show has a theme, or a point to prove, it is a small but important one that he and the modern band of satirists, whove enjoyed waves of successes and celebrity since the 1960s, are far from the first to make mischief. To assume otherwise is to patronise the past in Hislops ringing phrase. No one should dissent from that.
I Object: Ian Hislops Search for Dissent, is at the British Museum until 20 January
Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies are crashing in a sudden and dramatic market collapse.
After weeks of steady gains, bitcoin dropped in price by more than $300 in the space of an hour on Wednesday morning, with ethereum, ripple and bitcoin cash all following its lead. By Thursday morning, bitcoin had fallen $1,000 in just 24 hours.
The reason for the sudden price crash was not immediately obvious, though some analysts have said panic selling could contribute to bitcoin's fall in value.
Other factors potentially contributing to the crash include a report that Goldman Sachs is dropping plans for a cryptocurrency trading desk.
Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Satoshi Nakamoto creates the first bitcoin block in 2009 On 3 January, 2009, the genesis block of bitcoin appeared. It came less than a year after the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto detailed the cryptocurrency in a paper titled 'Bitcoin: A peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System' Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin is used as a currency for the first time On 22 May, 2010, the first ever real-world bitcoin transaction took place. Lazlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins the equivalent of $90 million at today's prices Lazlo Hanyecz Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Silk Road opens for business Bitcoin soon gained notoriety for its use on the dark web. The Silk Road marketplace, established in 2011, was the first of hundreds of sites to offer illegal drugs and services in exchange for bitcoin Screenshot Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures The first bitcoin ATM appears On 29 October, 2013, the first ever bitcoin ATM was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. The machine allowed people to exchange bitcoins for cash Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures The fall of MtGox The world's biggest bitcoin exchange, MtGox, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after losing almost 750,000 of its customers bitcoins. At the time, this was around 7 per cent of all bitcoins and the market inevitably crashed Getty Images Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Would the real Satoshi Nakamoto please stand up In 2015, Australian police raided the home of Craig Wright after the entrepreneur claimed he was Satoshi Nakamoto. He later rescinded the claim Getty Images Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's big split On 1 August, 2017, an unresolvable dispute within the bitcoin community saw the network split. The fork of bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology spawned a new cryptocurrency: Bitcoin cash Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's price sky rockets Towards the end of 2017, the price of bitcoin surged to almost $20,000. This represented a 1,300 per cent increase from its price at the start of the year Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures What goes up... Bitcoin price crashes spectacularly, losing half of its value in a matter of days Getty Images Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin plunges The cryptocurrency eventually bottoms out below $4,000 in 2019 before slowly rebuilding momentum to outperform more traditional assets Getty Images
While bitcoin fell by around 12 per cent, the hardest hit by the market shift has been ethereum, ripple, bitcoin cash and EOS, which all dropped by around 20 per cent.
Bitcoin hit a one-month high on Tuesday, leading some experts to suggest that more price gains can be expected.
"The increased price stability of Bitcoin over the last couple of days has not been witnessed for a while and I think it should be viewed as a positive sign with more gains to come, especially in the coming months," blockchain investor and advisor Oliver Isaacs told The Independent when asked about the cryptocurrency's prospects just hours before the crash.
The price of bitcoin plummeted by several hundred dollars on Wednesday morning, triggering a market-wide crash for cryptocurrencies (CoinMarketCap)
However other analysts were quick to say that cryptocurrency investors should be careful about seeing recent gains as a sign of things to come, at least in the short-term.
Bitcoins price might be rising but its way too early to call this a true resurgence," said Matthew Newton, a market analyst at the online trading platform eToro. "Weve seen the price yo-yo for several months so Id be hesitant to herald this as a new dawn just yet... Traders should be cautious."
He added: "Looking ahead, there is plenty to be positive about though. Theres lots of great fundamental news about the development of cryptocurrencies right now, but thats going to take time to filter through and impact on price."
Bitcoin is still trading higher than it was at this point last year, though it remains a long way off the highs of December 2017, when its price reached close to $20,000.
Since then, bitcoin has been on a bumpy slide down to today's price of around $7,000, though had experienced a period of relative stability in recent months.
Most significantly, bitcoin has appeared to be more immune to negative press in 2018, which has previously had a major impact on its market movements.
The dramatic collision of two stars deep in space flung a jet of particles through the universe at impossible-looking speeds, scientists have found.
Last year, astronomers around the world reported they had spotted two suns crashing into each other with a force that sent waves throughout the universe and a vast amount of material flying through space. Since then, they have been exploring that dramatic event, which they said opened up a new chapter in astrophysics and could change the way we understand the beginnings of some of the most mysterious parts of the universe.
It was the first time that scientists had detected an event both by using gravitational waves and also electromagnetic waves. That meant that it opened up a new way of looking at the universe.
Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Show all 30 1 /30 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Solar Flare An image from Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows a 200,000 mile long solar filament ripping through the Sun's corona in September 2013 Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Nasa Celebrates 50 Years of Spacewalking For 50 years, NASA has been "suiting up" for spacewalking. In this 1984 photograph of the first untethered spacewalk, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless is in the midst of the first "field" tryout of a nitrogen-propelled backpack device called the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space A Hubble Cosmic Couple The spectacular cosmic pairing of the star Hen 2-427 more commonly known as WR 124 and the nebula M1-67 which surrounds it ESA/Hubble & NASA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope has unveiled in stunning detail a small section of the Veil Nebula - expanding remains of a massive star that exploded about 8,000 years ago Nasa's most stunning pictures of space The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launch The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, Nov. 24, 2014, carrying three new astronauts to the International Space Station. It also took caviar, ready for the satellite's inhabitants to celebrate the holidays Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Earth from the ISS From the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Terry W. Virts took this photograph of the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. Gulf Coast at sunset Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Black Hole Friday Nasa celebrated Black Friday by looking into space instead sharing pictures of black holes Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space NuSTAR X-rays stream off the sun in this image showing observations from by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, overlaid on a picture taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Cassiopeia A c A false colour image of Cassiopeia A comprised with data from the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes and the Chandra X-Ray observatory Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Orion Capsule splashes down The Orion capsule jetted off into space before heading back a few hours later having proved that it can be used, one day, to carry humans to Mars Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Earth Observations From Gemini IV in 1965 This photograph of the Florida Straits and Grand Bahama Bank was taken during the Gemini IV mission during orbit no. 19 in 1965. The Gemini IV crew conducted scientific experiments, including photography of Earth's weather and terrain, for the remainder of their four-day mission following Ed White's historic spacewalk on June 3 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Frosty slopes of Mars This image of an area on the surface of Mars, approximately 1.5 by 3 kilometers in size, shows frosted gullies on a south-facing slope within a crater. The image was taken by Nasa's HiRISE camera, which is mounted on its Mars Reconaissance Orbiter Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Yellowstone from space NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman shared this image of Yellowstone via his twitter account Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Saturn This near-infrared color image shows a specular reflection, or sunglint, off of a hydrocarbon lake named Kivu Lacus on Saturn's moon Titan Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Worlds Apart Although Mimas and Pandora, shown here, both orbit Saturn, they are very different moons. Pandora, "small" by moon standards (50 miles or 81 kilometers across) is elongated and irregular in shape. Mimas (246 miles or 396 kilometers across), a "medium-sized" moon, formed into a sphere due to self-gravity imposed by its higher mass Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Solar Flare An X1.6 class solar flare flashes in the middle of the sun in this image taken 10 September, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy An image of the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy seen in infrared light by the Herschel Space Observatory. Regions of space such as this are where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Mars Rover Spirit Nasa's Mars Rover Spirit took the first picture from Spirit since problems with communications began a week earlier. The image shows the robotic arm extended to the rock called Adirondack Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Morning Aurora From the Space Station Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora from the International Space Station Nasa/Scott Kelly Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Launch of History - Making STS-41G Mission in 1984 The Space Shuttle Challenger launches from Florida at dawn. On this mission, Kathryn Sullivan became the first U.S. woman to perform a spacewalk and Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space. The crew of seven was the largest to fly on a spacecraft at that time, and STS-41G was the first flight to include two female astronauts Nasa's most stunning pictures of space A Fresh Perspective on an Extraordinary Cluster of Galaxies Galaxy clusters are often described by superlatives. After all, they are huge conglomerations of galaxies, hot gas, and dark matter and represent the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Hubble Sees a Galactic Sunflower The arrangement of the spiral arms in the galaxy Messier 63, seen here in an image from the Nasa Hubble Space Telescope, recall the pattern at the center of a sunflower ESA/Hubble & NASA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Pluto image Four images from New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were combined with colour data from the Ralph instrument to create this enhanced colour global view of Pluto Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Fresh Crater Near Sirenum Fossae Region of Mars The HiRISE camera aboard Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this closeup image of a "fresh" (on a geological scale, though quite old on a human scale) impact crater in the Sirenum Fossae region of Mars. This impact crater appears relatively recent as it has a sharp rim and well-preserved ejecta Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Hubble Peers into the Most Crowded Place in the Milky Way This Nasa Hubble Space Telescope image presents the Arches Cluster, the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way NASA & ESA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space An Astronaut's View from Space Nasa astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo from the International Space Station on 2 September 2014 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Giant Landform on Mars On Mars, we can observe four classes of sandy landforms formed by the wind, or aeolian bedforms: ripples, transverse aeolian ridges, dunes, and what are called draa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Expedition 39 Landing A sokol suit helmet can be seen against the window of the Soyuz TMA-11M capsule shortly after the spacecraft landed with Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan (NASA/Bill Ingalls) Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Jupiter's Great Red Spot Viewed by Voyager I Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and perhaps the most majestic. Vibrant bands of clouds carried by winds that can exceed 400 mph continuously circle the planet's atmosphere Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Chandra Observatory Sees a Heart in the Darkness This Chandra X-Ray Observatory image of the young star cluster NGC 346 highlights a heart-shaped cloud of 8 million-degree Celsius gas in the central region
Now researchers have found that the extraordinary event also threw out a superfast jet of material that flew through interstellar space. Tracking that jet could help scientists learn about the neutron stars that had the collision and which still remain mysterious.
That jet of particles was moving at nearly the speed of light but an illusion meant that it appeared to be going even faster when it was first spotted. The jet was so energetic that only a jet could explain what was going on.
Recommended Astronomer sees tiny star that could explain how Earth came to be
"We measured an apparent motion that is four times faster than light. That illusion, called superluminal motion, results when the jet is pointed nearly toward Earth and the material in the jet is moving close to the speed of light," said Kunal Mooley, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and Caltech.
If it weren't pointed so close to Earth, scientists would not have been able to detect the jet. But they did, and found that it seems to have come from a dramatic event deep in space.
It appears that when the two stars merged, they threw out a spherical shell of debris that was flung out into space. The stars then collapsed into a black hole and started pulling that material in.
As they did, the material turned into a spinning disk that flung out the jet at with intense force out from its poles.
"The merger event was important for a number of reasons, and it continues to surprise astronomers with more information," said Joe Pesce, NSF Program Director for NRAO. "Jets are enigmatic phenomena seen in a number of environments, and now these exquisite observations in the radio part of the electromagnetic spectrum are providing fascinating insight into them, helping us understand how they work.
Goop, the lifestyle company owned by Gwyneth Paltrow, has agreed to pay a settlement of $145,000 (112,514) after making unscientific claims about the health benefits of vaginal eggs.
On the Goop website, it states that using jade vaginal eggs can provide women with a spiritual detox by removing negative energy when used on a daily basis.
However, a group of district attorneys from California filed a lawsuit against the company, which states that the assertions made on the site are unfounded.
The statement released by the office of the district attorney in the Californian county of Santa Clara states that the medical claims made about the vaginal eggs are not supported by competent and reliable science.
The lawsuit refers to two different types of vaginal egg in particular: Goops Jade Egg and a Rose Quartz Egg.
The eggs are currently still available to purchase on the site, priced at $66 (50) and $55 (42) respectively.
Another product was also referenced in the lawsuit; the Inner Judge Flower Essence Blend of essential oils, which was described as being able to prevent depression.
Jeff Rosen, district attorney of the county of Santa Clara, explained that its important for companies making claims about alleged health benefits of products to be authentic.
The health and money of Santa Clara County residents should never be put at risk by misleading advertising, he said.
We will vigilantly protect consumers against companies that promise health benefits without the support of good science or any science.
Any customers who bought the Jade Egg, the Rose Quartz Egg or the Inner Judge Flower Essence Blend between January 12 2017 and August 31 2017 will be able to request a full refund from Goop by contacting customer service.
The company will pay a settlement of $145,000 (111,722) as a result of the allegations made in the lawsuit.
Erica Moore, chief financial officer of Goop, explained in a statement emailed to Bloomberg why the company chose to pay the settlement fee.
Goop provides a forum for practitioners to present their views and experiences with various products like the Jade Egg, she said.
Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop website under fire for telling women to achieve their 'leanest liveable weight'
The law, though, sometimes views statements like this as advertising claims, which are subject to various legal requirements.
The comments on the Goop website regarding the vaginal eggs came from an interview conducted with Shiva Rose, an actor, activist and blogger.
The site was previously lambasted for promoting a coffee enema kit, which people criticised for being potentially harmful.
Twitters share price sank almost 5 per cent as chief executive Jack Dorsey faced questions from the Senate Intelligence Committee about the spread of misinformation online on Wednesday.
Committee members repeatedly raised the prospect of increased regulation of technology firms including Facebook, Twitter and Google in the session which also discussed privacy protections and how to fight foreign influence on US elections.
If the answer is regulation, Senator Richard Burr, the committees Republican chairman, said, lets have an honest dialogue about what that looks like.
Facebook, whose chief operating officer Cheryl Sandberg was also appearing in front of the committee, saw its shares fall 1.4 per cent on Wednesday morning.
The Intelligence Committee invited Larry Page, chief executive of Googles parent Alphabet, or Google boss Sundar Pichai to the hearing but both declined.
Google offered to send chief legal officer Kent Walker as an appropriate witness" but the committee rejected the proposal.
Our members have a series of difficult questions about structural vulnerabilities on a number of Googles platforms that we will need answered, said Democratic Senator Mark Warner.
Imagine the damage to the markets if forged communications from the Fed chairman were leaked online, he said, Or consider the price of a Fortune 500 companys stock if a dishonest short-seller was able to spread false information about that companys CEO or the effects of its products -- rapidly online?"
Mr Dorsey, who said he had overcome his shyness in order to appear at the hearing, read his opening statement from his mobile phone while live tweeting.
When I think of our work, I think of my mom and dad in St. Louis, a Democrat and a Republican, Mr Dorsey said.
For them Twitter has always been a source of joy, learning and connection to something bigger.
Twitter has faced criticism from some right-wing activists who claim that the platform has censored their controversial message.
In an apparent response to that criticism Mr Dorsey said: We believe people will learn faster by being exposed to a wide range of opinions and ideas.
"We arent proud of how that free and open exchange has been weaponised and used to distract and divide people, and our nation."
Ms Sandberg faced questions about Facebook's use of personal data to sell adverts, to which she responded that "privacy and advertising aren't at odds. In fact they go together."
Asked whether or not Facebook has a "moral and legal obligation" to block accounts which encourage violence, Ms Sandberg said, "I strongly believe that".
Italy, France, UK and US call for dialogue on Libya 'Abide by ceasefire', support for Salame and Sarraj
(ANSAmed) - ROME, SEPTEMBER 5 - A call to abide by a ceasefire has been launched by Italy, France, the UK and the US to ''all Libyan parties'' in a joint statement.
The statement urges reconciliation and the resumption of a Libyan-led peace process. ''The Governments of France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States welcome the result of the mediation reached today in Tripoli by the United Nations Support Mission that aims to deescalate violence in and around Tripoli and ensure the protection of civilians,'' the statement noted. ''We reiterate our strong support for Special Representative of the Secretary-General Ghassan Salame as he works to realize an immediate and durable cessation of hostilities in the Libyan capital, which is a critical step to advancing the political process in accordance with the United Nations Action Plan,'' it added.
''As the Secretary-General noted on September 2, all parties should immediately cease hostilities and abide by the ceasefire agreement brokered by the United Nations. We call on all Libyan parties to refrain from any actions that could undermine today's ceasefire announcement, jeopardize the security of civilians, or set back Libyan efforts to advance the political process and move forward in the spirit of compromise.'' ''We also reiterate support for the President of the Presidency Council, Fayez al-Sarraj, and the Government of National Accord as they work in partnership with the United Nations to promote reconciliation and support a Libyan-led political process,'' it concluded. (ANSAmed).
Scientists have shown it is possible to directly regrow healthy skin in life-threatening open wounds caused by burns or ulcers that would previously only be treatable with surgical grafts.
Four key cellular ingredients which skin cells need to begin regenerating the complex layers that form the bodys outer protective barrier have been identified by academics at the Salk Institute in San Diego.
While large wounds have lost the base layer of skin cells they need to regenerate, the team used viruses to reprogramme other cells in the wound and connective tissue below to create these four proteins.
They managed to form new skin within 18 days.
The findings could lead to a new generation of simple wound treatments which could prevent complications from hard-to-heal wounds that are common among older people and patients with diabetes.
It may also allow for the repair of other organ damage, although this would likely be some time in the future.
However, although the study demonstrated its possible in mice, further refinements are needed before it reaches hospitals.
What we did in the current study is generate three-dimensional skin coverage in an experimental open wound setting in which no coverage or healing would ever be possible, Professor Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, one of the studys senior authors, told The Independent.
This observation suggests that we could potentially cover or heal a wound of any size in a specific time frame.
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
He added: Though this is not specifically examined in our current work, some of our findings suggest that our reprogramming technology has the potential to return aged or somewhat unhealthy skin back to a more youthful state.
To heal a wound, cells called keratinocytes, which make the outer layers of the skin, need to move in and gradually seal the damaged areas. However this healing process is diminished by age, and in people with circulatory conditions that can be caused by things like smoking or diabetes.
In these cases small wounds can become large unhealing ulcers which can have deadly complications. Pressure ulcers in the UK alone affect 700,000 people a year and cost the NHS 3.8m a day.
Ulcers, burns and other wounds which damage multiple layers of skin or are too large may need treatment with a skin graft, usually by taking skin from another part of the body to transplant.
Where there is not enough healthy skin to take, doctors may use some skin stem cells to grow them in the lab and create a prosthetic transplant however this is very costly and slow and patients are vulnerable in the meantime.
But Professor Izpisua Belmonte and his team set out to find a better alternative.
We set out to make skin where there was no skin to start with, said Masakazu Kurita, a research associate at Salk and lead author of the study published in the journal Nature.
They focused on keratinocytes ability to act like skin stem cells the cell types which can change into any type of tissue.
While large wounds where the base layer of skin has been lost have no keratinocytes to regrow the tissue, the researchers thought it might be possible to reprogramme other cells from the connective tissue beneath.
Looking at the cellular products of keratinocyte and wound cells, they identified 55 protein molecules which are important in the skin regrowth, before whittling it down to four key proteins with trial and error.
They then found the genetic instructions the cells use to make these proteins and loaded them into retroviruses, which can write their genetic material into cells, before applying them to non-healing ulcers on mice.
After two and a half weeks the wounds had a complex layer of skin that knitted itself into the edges of the healthy tissue, and within six months these new cells were identical on a cellular level to the original skin.
Scientists have observed two stars slamming into each other deep in space, sending out huge amounts of gold in an alchemical explosion.
The super-dense stars crashed together 130 million light years away, spewing out precious metals and other heavy elements like platinum and uranium and experts say the event has kickstarted a "new chapter in astrophysics" and confirmed theories about the origin of the mysterious neutron stars.
The huge explosion rocked the fabric of the universe, distorting spacetime. That is a major discovery in itself, marking only the fifth time that gravitational waves have been spotted on Earth.
Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Show all 30 1 /30 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Solar Flare An image from Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows a 200,000 mile long solar filament ripping through the Sun's corona in September 2013 Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Nasa Celebrates 50 Years of Spacewalking For 50 years, NASA has been "suiting up" for spacewalking. In this 1984 photograph of the first untethered spacewalk, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless is in the midst of the first "field" tryout of a nitrogen-propelled backpack device called the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space A Hubble Cosmic Couple The spectacular cosmic pairing of the star Hen 2-427 more commonly known as WR 124 and the nebula M1-67 which surrounds it ESA/Hubble & NASA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope has unveiled in stunning detail a small section of the Veil Nebula - expanding remains of a massive star that exploded about 8,000 years ago Nasa's most stunning pictures of space The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launch The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, Nov. 24, 2014, carrying three new astronauts to the International Space Station. It also took caviar, ready for the satellite's inhabitants to celebrate the holidays Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Earth from the ISS From the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Terry W. Virts took this photograph of the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. Gulf Coast at sunset Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Black Hole Friday Nasa celebrated Black Friday by looking into space instead sharing pictures of black holes Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space NuSTAR X-rays stream off the sun in this image showing observations from by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, overlaid on a picture taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Cassiopeia A c A false colour image of Cassiopeia A comprised with data from the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes and the Chandra X-Ray observatory Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Orion Capsule splashes down The Orion capsule jetted off into space before heading back a few hours later having proved that it can be used, one day, to carry humans to Mars Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Earth Observations From Gemini IV in 1965 This photograph of the Florida Straits and Grand Bahama Bank was taken during the Gemini IV mission during orbit no. 19 in 1965. The Gemini IV crew conducted scientific experiments, including photography of Earth's weather and terrain, for the remainder of their four-day mission following Ed White's historic spacewalk on June 3 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Frosty slopes of Mars This image of an area on the surface of Mars, approximately 1.5 by 3 kilometers in size, shows frosted gullies on a south-facing slope within a crater. The image was taken by Nasa's HiRISE camera, which is mounted on its Mars Reconaissance Orbiter Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Yellowstone from space NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman shared this image of Yellowstone via his twitter account Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Saturn This near-infrared color image shows a specular reflection, or sunglint, off of a hydrocarbon lake named Kivu Lacus on Saturn's moon Titan Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Worlds Apart Although Mimas and Pandora, shown here, both orbit Saturn, they are very different moons. Pandora, "small" by moon standards (50 miles or 81 kilometers across) is elongated and irregular in shape. Mimas (246 miles or 396 kilometers across), a "medium-sized" moon, formed into a sphere due to self-gravity imposed by its higher mass Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Solar Flare An X1.6 class solar flare flashes in the middle of the sun in this image taken 10 September, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy An image of the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy seen in infrared light by the Herschel Space Observatory. Regions of space such as this are where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Mars Rover Spirit Nasa's Mars Rover Spirit took the first picture from Spirit since problems with communications began a week earlier. The image shows the robotic arm extended to the rock called Adirondack Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Morning Aurora From the Space Station Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora from the International Space Station Nasa/Scott Kelly Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Launch of History - Making STS-41G Mission in 1984 The Space Shuttle Challenger launches from Florida at dawn. On this mission, Kathryn Sullivan became the first U.S. woman to perform a spacewalk and Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space. The crew of seven was the largest to fly on a spacecraft at that time, and STS-41G was the first flight to include two female astronauts Nasa's most stunning pictures of space A Fresh Perspective on an Extraordinary Cluster of Galaxies Galaxy clusters are often described by superlatives. After all, they are huge conglomerations of galaxies, hot gas, and dark matter and represent the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Hubble Sees a Galactic Sunflower The arrangement of the spiral arms in the galaxy Messier 63, seen here in an image from the Nasa Hubble Space Telescope, recall the pattern at the center of a sunflower ESA/Hubble & NASA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Pluto image Four images from New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were combined with colour data from the Ralph instrument to create this enhanced colour global view of Pluto Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Fresh Crater Near Sirenum Fossae Region of Mars The HiRISE camera aboard Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this closeup image of a "fresh" (on a geological scale, though quite old on a human scale) impact crater in the Sirenum Fossae region of Mars. This impact crater appears relatively recent as it has a sharp rim and well-preserved ejecta Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Hubble Peers into the Most Crowded Place in the Milky Way This Nasa Hubble Space Telescope image presents the Arches Cluster, the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way NASA & ESA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space An Astronaut's View from Space Nasa astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo from the International Space Station on 2 September 2014 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Giant Landform on Mars On Mars, we can observe four classes of sandy landforms formed by the wind, or aeolian bedforms: ripples, transverse aeolian ridges, dunes, and what are called draa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Expedition 39 Landing A sokol suit helmet can be seen against the window of the Soyuz TMA-11M capsule shortly after the spacecraft landed with Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan (NASA/Bill Ingalls) Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Jupiter's Great Red Spot Viewed by Voyager I Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and perhaps the most majestic. Vibrant bands of clouds carried by winds that can exceed 400 mph continuously circle the planet's atmosphere Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Chandra Observatory Sees a Heart in the Darkness This Chandra X-Ray Observatory image of the young star cluster NGC 346 highlights a heart-shaped cloud of 8 million-degree Celsius gas in the central region
Scientists didn't just "hear" the violent blast by seeing the ripples in spacetime. They were also able to use telescopes on satellites and the ground to see the light and radiation that was being flung out of the explosion, which is known as a "kilonova".
And that information is going to be relied on for years to come as scientists learn more about the beginnings of such stars, and even our entire universe, astronomers said.
Recommended Out of control Chinese space station about to fall to Earth
Every other gravitational wave detection has been traced to black holes crashing together in remote regions of the universe more than a billion light years away.
The new event though still very distant was much closer and completely different in nature. It was caused by colliding neutron stars burned out remnants of giant stars so dense that a teaspoon of their material on Earth would weigh a billion tons.
The two objects, each about 12 miles in diameter, stretched and distorted spacetime as they spiralled towards each other and finally collided.
Like ripples from a stone thrown in a pond, the gravitational waves fanned out across the universe at the speed of light.
They were picked up on Earth by two incredibly sensitive detectors in Washington and Louisiana in the US, operated by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Ligo).
It was here the first discovery of gravitational waves was made in September 2015, confirming a prediction made by Albert Einstein 100 years ago and earning three pioneers of the project a Nobel Prize.
Two seconds after the Ligo detection, a burst of gamma rays from the neutron star collision was captured by Nasa's Fermi space telescope.
Astronomers around the world quickly turned their telescopes and dishes towards a small patch in the southern sky and also saw the flash across the visible and invisible light spectrum.
Nasa is hiring a 'planetary protection officer' to defend Earth from aliens
Analysis of the light revealed something astonishing the manufacture of gold on a cosmic scale, as well as other heavy elements.
Dr Joe Lyman from the University of Warwick, one of many British scientists involved, said: "The exquisite observations obtained in a few days showed we were observing a kilonova, an object whose light is powered by extreme nuclear reactions.
"This tells us that the heavy elements, like the gold or platinum in jewellery, are the cinders forged in the billion degree remnants of a merging neutron star."
The origins of gold and other heavy elements have been a long-standing mystery, but recent evidence has suggested that colliding neutron stars could have a hand in their creation.
A third gravitational wave facility called Virgo near Pisa, Italy, also registered a faint signal from the event, allowing scientists to triangulate its position.
The neutron star collision took place 130 million light years away in a relatively old galaxy called NGC 4993. When the gravitational waves began their journey across space, dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
The gravitational wave signal, named GW170817, was detected at 1.41pm UK time on August 17.
Ligo's detectors, consisting of L-shaped tunnels with arms 2.5 miles long, use laser beams bouncing off mirrors to measure movement across a distance 10,000 times smaller than the width of a proton, the kernel of an atom.
New NASA discovery footage shows video of Pluto
A tight lid was kept on the findings until the publication of a series of papers in journals including Nature, Nature Astronomy, and Physical Review Letters.
The international researchers expect to spend many months trawling through the mountain of data.
One question already answered is the origin of short-duration gamma ray bursts. Gamma ray bursts (GRBs), marked by an eruption of gamma rays lasting milliseconds to several minutes, are the most powerful explosions known to science.
Scientists now know that one type of GRB is generated when neutron stars collide.
Dr Samantha Oates, also from the University of Warwick, said: "This discovery has answered three questions that astronomers have been puzzling for decades: what happens when neutron stars merge? What causes the short duration gamma-ray bursts? Where are the heavy elements, like gold, made?
"In the space of about a week all three of these mysteries were solved."
Colleague Dr Danny Steeghs said: "This is a new chapter in astrophysics."
British Ligo scientist Professor BS Sathyaprakash, from the University of Cardiff, described the new discovery as "truly a eureka moment".
He added: "The 12 hours that followed are inarguably the most exciting hours of my scientific life. This event marks a turning point in observational astronomy and will lead to a treasure trove of scientific results."
Professor Bernard Schutz, also from the University of Cardiff, told how his team used the gravitational wave detections to measure the expansion of the universe more accurately than had ever been achieved before.
"What has amazed me ... is that with just this one measurement, we got a result right in the middle between the two rather different values that astronomers have measured recently," he said.
Dr David Shoemaker, spokesman for the Ligo scientific collaboration and senior research scientist at the US Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, said: "From informing detailed models of the inner workings of neutron stars and the emissions they produce, to more fundamental physics such as general relativity, this event is just so rich.
"It is a gift that will keep on giving."
Ligo colleague Professor Laura Cadonati, from Georgia Institute of Technology, US, said: "This detection has genuinely opened the doors to a new way of doing astrophysics.
"I expect it will be remembered as one of the most studied astrophysical events in history."
Additional reporting by agencies
One of the keys to identifying the two men allegedly responsible for the Salisbury poisoning lay in the discovery of traces of novichok in their hotel room in London, similar evidence to the polonium trail left by the two men accused of murdering Alexander Litvinenko 12 years ago.
The security agencies concluded fairly early in their investigation that the attack on former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia was carried out by people who had arrived at the country from abroad rather than those based here.
The checking of names of airline passengers focused on those who had come from Russia for unusually short visits and two of the names which came up were those of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Borishov.
They had flown in from Moscow to Londons Gatwick airport on an Aeroflot flight on 2 March, two days before the attack, and flew out of Heathrow airport on the evening after it took place.
Tracing their movement in the UK, checking through 11,000 hours of CCTV footage, led to the two star City Stay Hotel in east London.
It was established that they had carried out a reconnaissance trip to Salisbury on Saturday before returning to the city on Sunday and putting the novichok, carried in a bottle of counterfeit Nina Ricci perfume, on the front door of the Skripals home.
The pair then flew back to Moscow on an Aeroflot flight at 10.30 in the evening.
Unlike Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, the suspects in the Litvinenko poisoning, the Salisbury attackers were almost certainly using false names although the Russian passports they travelled on were genuine.
Despite reports to the contrary, there have been no plans to seek extradition of the suspects from Russia because there is no extradition treaty between the country and the UK.
The chances of the Kremlin sending the two men to face trial here is considered to be remote, just as it was never likely that Lugovoi and Kovtun would be delivered over Mr Litvinenkos murder.
A European arrest warrant has, however, been obtained, which means that the two men could be arrested in any country where it is valid and extradited to the UK.
The British government accused the Russian government of culpability for the attack soon after it took place and evidence that has emerged since then has only reinforced that view, a very senior intelligence official told The Independent last week.
Novichok poisoning: Charlie Rowley reveals perfume gift he gave to partner contained deadly poison
Investigators believe the attack was carried out by GRU, the Russian military intelligence service for which Mr Skripal had worked when he was recruited by MI6. Security sources maintain that even if the poisoning was carried out as private action, possibly in revenge for colleagues betrayed by Mr Skripal, it could not have been carried out without the knowledge of senior Kremlin figures.
The Russian government has continued to deny any involvement in the Salisbury attack, as was to be expected.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova declared that the names of the suspects and the photos of them say nothing to us. She urged Britain to refrain from public accusations and work with Russian law enforcement authorities to investigate the attack.
Twenty-four hours before details about the suspects were released by Scotland Yard, Russia accused the British authorities of ignoring repeated offers of a joint inquiry.
It complained that the United Kingdom continues to blatantly violate Russias lawful right to communicate with its citizens in accordance with Article 36 of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and Article 36 of the 1965 bilateral Consular Convention. Moreover, the de facto deprivation of liberty of the Skripals is highly questionable from the point of view of observance of their rights confirmed in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1950 Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
Police are hunting for a man who may have "vital information" about a pensioner's wallet that was stolen as he suffered a fatal heart attack.
The 66-year-old was waiting at Hastings Station late on 28 August when he suffered a cardiac arrest, British Transport Police said.
They added: "His wallet was taken, however despite the best efforts of paramedics the man later passed away."
The victim was identified to the Hastings and St Leonards Observer as David Edward Lovett.
His son Rich told the newspaper his father was returning from a show when he collapsed.
He added: "It's the lowest of the low, it's absolutely disgusting. I'm very angry that someone has done this to my father when he was on death's door."
Police have released a photograph of a man they want to speak to in connection with the theft, "because they believe he may have information which could help officers investigate."
Anyone who recognises the man should call British Transport Police on 0800 405040, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.
Press Association
Close What does a no-deal Brexit mean?
Theresa Mays main Brexit adviser has been told to put the Chequers plan out of its misery.
Olly Robbins was answering questions from the Commons EU Liaison Committee alongside Dominic Raab, the Brexit Secretary.
Earlier, Ms May and Jeremy Corbyn clashed over Brexit and antisemitism as MPs returned to the Commons for the first Prime Ministers Questions since the summer recess.
The prime minister was ribbed by the Labour leader over her well-documented dancing during a trip to Africa last week, as Mr Corbyn sought to highlight the governments preparations for Brexit and divisions within the cabinet.
Ms May, meanwhile, said the opposition leader should apologise for a speech footage of which emerged last week in which he suggested Zionists in the UK dont understand English irony. She also criticised Labours handling of its antisemitism crisis, after the party adopted the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definitions.
Afterwards, she updated MPs on the Salisbury novichok investigation, announcing that the two suspects are believed to be part of Russias GRU military intelligence.
Please wait a moment for the live blog to load
Former Bank of England governor Mervyn King has heaped further pressure on Theresa May by condemning the "incompetence" of her preparations for Brexit.
Lord King, who supported leaving the EU, said it "beggars belief" that the sixth biggest economy in the world is talking about stockpiling medicines and food.
He blamed the government for Britain being placed in this position, but also targeted parliament and the civil service for criticism.
"Frankly, if a government cannot take action to prevent some of these catastrophic outcomes, whatever position you take on the EU, it illustrates a whole lack of preparation," said Lord King.
"It doesn't tell us anything about whether the policy of staying in the EU is good or bad; it tells us everything about the incompetence of the preparation for it."
Asked if that meant the government had been incompetent, he said: "The group of people tasked with trying to make decisions on all of this is parliament as a whole not just the government, and the civil service, who have brought us to a position where we are now being told that we have to accept a certain course of action otherwise it would be catastrophic.
"Now, it beggars belief that the sixth biggest economy in the world should get itself into that position."
John McDonnell MP, Labours shadow chancellor, seized on the comments, saying: The Tories have spent more time arguing with themselves than they have negotiating with Europe.
Mervyn King has hit the nail on the head. This government has displayed a staggering level of incompetence. It's time for the Tories to go and let Labour take over the negotiations. It's time for change.
And Chris Leslie, a Labour supporter of the Peoples Vote campaign, said: Whether people voted leave or remain, a growing majority are arriving at the same conclusion that the process has been botched and that we are heading for a bad deal.
Lord King, who was in charge of the UK's central bank from 2003 until 2013, warned the government had been left without a credible bargaining position.
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
He said plans should have been put in place to leave without a deal, saying these should have taken several years to draw up rather than the six months remaining until the UK is scheduled to leave on 29 March 2019.
Lord King said the referendum had failed to resolve the issue of Brexit and it "isn't going to go away".
Two years ago the former governor said Britain can be more successful outside of the European Union and suggested a future decline in UK productivity could be a result of the Remain camp exaggerating the repercussions of the Brexit vote.
The recent comments come ahead of Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab facing questions from MPs over progress in exit talks when he appears before the European Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday afternoon.
Mr Raab told MPs on Tuesday that leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement would offer "opportunities" to the UK, but he insisted an agreement with Brussels was "within our grasp".
The EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has warned he is "strongly opposed" to the UK proposals, which he claimed would undermine the European project and the single market.
New research has suggested fewer than one in five voters now expect Britain to get a good deal out of the Brexit talks.
The proportion expecting a good deal has fallen from 33 per cent in February 2017 to just 17 per cent in June 2018, while those predicting a bad deal have increased from 37 per cent to 57 per cent over the same period, according to a survey for NatCen Social Research.
Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson has described Theresa May's strategy as a "fix" that can only lead to victory for the EU.
Meanwhile, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has called for Brexit to be postponed in order to avoid crashing out of the EU without a deal.
The Labour former cabinet minister suggested a second referendum, or "people's vote", on whether to exit the EU without a deal could be necessary as a "last resort".
"This isn't about frustrating Brexit. It is about getting Brexit right," he will say in a speech in Westminster.
"A price would undoubtedly be paid in terms of social cohesion but it would be a necessary one to protect the damage to people's jobs, families and lives."
The Independent's Final Say campaign also calls for the people to have the last word on the Brexit deal.
Additional reporting by Press Association
Brexit should be postponed in order to avoid crashing out of the European Union without a deal, Andy Burnham will say.
The Greater Manchester mayor believes the Article 50 negotiation period should be extended beyond March 2019 as a contingency measure if the only alternative was a no-deal Brexit.
The Labour former Cabinet minister also suggests a second referendum could be required if no agreement is reached between the UK and Brussels.
Mr Burnham will use a major speech in Westminster to set out his plan, insisting this isnt about frustrating Brexit but instead about getting Brexit right.
He acknowledges that another referendum as demanded by the Peoples Vote campaign could result in further divisions in society.
But he will say that it could be necessary to protect peoples livelihoods from a no-deal Brexit.
The Independent has launched a petition for a Final Say vote, which has been signed by almost 750,000 people.
He will call for a commonsense Brexit based on building up from Theresa Mays Chequers plan.
But he acknowledges that disputes at Westminster mean this approach is looking more and more unlikely and the odds on a no-deal outcome are growing every day.
That would be a disaster for Greater Manchester, he will say, as he calls for a cross-party approach to preventing a no-deal scenario.
As soon as it becomes clear that the MPs against a no-deal outcome cannot unite around a plan, I would urge all Greater Manchester MPs to support a call on the EU for an extension of Article 50 beyond the March deadline as the next way of stopping no deal, he will say.
This isnt about frustrating Brexit. It is about getting Brexit right.
If that fails and we are left on the cliff-edge of no deal with no other options, then and only then would I endorse the call for a peoples vote on the proposed no-deal departure and encourage our MPs to do the same.
A price would undoubtedly be paid in terms of social cohesion but it would be a necessary one to protect the damage to peoples jobs, families and lives.
I realise that this is an unfashionably nuanced position when simplistic big positions are all the rage.
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
Mr Burnham will argue that the result of the 201 6 referendum was as much an instruction for Westminster to review its relationship with the rest of England as Brussels.
If the phrase take back control is to mean anything, it must mean substantial devolution of power and resources out of Westminster to all of the English regions, he will say.
A Department for Exiting the European Union spokesman said: As the prime minister has made clear, we are leaving the EU on 29 March 2019.
We have made good progress on the withdrawal agreement. Most issues have been resolved, including citizens rights and the financial settlement.
As a result of the significant progress made in negotiations, we remain confident we will agree a mutually advantageous deal with the EU.
PA
The most senior Brussels politician from Angela Merkels political alliance has launched a bid to become the next president of the European Commission.
Manfred Weber, who leads the largest group in the European Parliament, the centre-right EPP, said he would bring Europe back to the people if he was selected as its candidate in the upcoming elections.
Mr Weber, the most senior German MEP, is at a domestic level the member of Germanys CSU political party the Bavarian sister party that has been in alliance with Ms Merkels CDU since 1949.
He is entering a crowded field to win the candidacy for president, with EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier also thought to want the role.
Representatives from the 50 centre-right EPP parties in the EU will meet in Helsinki in November to decide who their lead candidate or spitzencandidate should be for the 2019 European elections.
Whoever is picked as the EPPs candidate is very likely to become the next Commission president as the EPP is expected to come top in the European elections in 2019.
Mr Webers candidacy is likely to face opposition from some parties on the grounds that he is a German politician with many countries anxious about alleged German domination of the EU institutions.
Europe is at a turning point. The 2019 European elections will decide the future of the EU Manfred Weber
Europe is at a turning point. The 2019 European elections will decide the future of the EU, Mr Weber said in a statement on social media.
Today is about the self-assertion of Europe and the defence of our values, because we are being challenged from the outside and the inside. Its about the survival of our European way of life.
We cannot go on as we are now in the EU. I will help bring Europe back to the people and re-establish the bond between citizens and the European Union. I want to kick start a new chapter in the EU.
I want to become the EPP's lead candidate for the 2019 European Elections and be the next President of the European Commission. Europe needs a new beginning and more democracy.
The European Parliament has to approve the next EU president (AFP/Getty)
In recent months Mr Weber has taken a tough rhetorical line on immigration and migration, in an apparent bid to position himself for the role. In January he was forced to apologise for a comment in which he called for a final solution to the refugee question. He later said he regretted the choice of words after it was pointed out that they resembled a Nazi slogan.
The European Commission president is chosen through a convoluted process based on the most recent set up European Parliament election results. The European Council votes by weighted qualified majority for a candidate, taking into account the results of the elections.
In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Show all 12 1 /12 In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier listens at the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty Images In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, delivers his speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg EPA In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcomming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Michel Barnier, European Chief Negotiator for Brexit reacts during a meeting at the European Parliament in Strasbourg EPA In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Member of the European Parliament and former leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage wears socks with Union Jack flag at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty Images In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Nigel Farage, United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) member and MEP, addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcoming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier gestures during speeches at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions The President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker (L) speaks with European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcomming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier delivers a speech during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions The European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France Getty Images
In 2014 this meant picking the lead candidate from the group which won the biggest candidate at the elections in that case the EPP. The lead candidate system is however a convention rather than law, and is disputed, and it is not clear to what extent it will be followed in the next set of election in 2019.
The European Parliament must approve or veto any appointment put to it by the Council by a simple majority, usually following a grilling by a parliamentary committee.
Though the CSU are close allies of Ms Merkels CDU, in recent months the two parties have been locked in a dispute about migration policy. Populists from the right are expected to make gains during the elections, mirroring victories at a national level since the last round of EU polls.
TUC general secretary Frances OGrady has told The Independent that people deserve a say on the UKs future relations with the EU.
Speaking amid preparations for the 150th anniversary congress that starts in Manchester on Sunday, OGrady went on: I dont think people have enough trust that Parliament alone can do the job.
I dont think they want to outsource that decision. Quite genuinely, I dont want to pre-judge our own democracy, but I feel that appetite is growing.
The TUC is due to discuss its official position, which OGrady will give voice to, at the event.
However, the union movement is increasingly in favour of giving people a final say, putting Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn under pressure to shift his party's position.
Britains third biggest union, the GMB, delivered a major boost to The Independents campaign by backing the call yesterday.
In a video statement Tim Roache, its general secretary, condemned the mess this government is making of Brexit when there is so much at stake.
OGrady said on the same subject: Right from the start of this process it should have been about protecting the economy, workers rights and jobs, as well as the peace process in Northern Island. Those should have been the red lines.
The union chief has repeatedly said that the UK should consider the so called 'Norway plus' option of a Brexit under which the UK retains membership of the European single market and customs union.
She said: That is our assessment of the best way of protecting jobs and the economy.
OGrady said she was concerned about answering a complex problem with a simple question in a referendum but she added: Im a trade unionist and there is no way that union negotiators would go into a negotiation about what is going into a deal without getting the approval of the membership.
The UKs economy was the fastest growing in the OECD prior to the EU Referendum, but since then it has sunk to the bottom of the table. The latest Purchasing Managers Index data on construction and manufacturing have pointed to a slowdown in both sectors.
Meanwhile, there are growing fears about the impact of a no-deal Brexit still the bookies favourite on ordinary people, particularly those who are just about managinig.
A TUC analysis of official data published today will show that average household income has fallen short of spending in every quarter since Theresa May became Prime Minister, with a typical household pushed 1,250 into the red during her time in Number 10 Downing Street, further underlining the problems created by Brexit.
The Governments own advice shows life will be harder under Brexit and the harder the Brexit the worse it gets, OGrady told The Independent.
She said she believed many of those who voted Leave were people who felt they had been forgotten and left behind in Britain.
I understand Brexit is the key issue that has dominated government policy, and that it is the most important issue facing the country, but the problems that made people vote that way, people who felt treated like they were disposable, they were there before the referendum they are still there and they are getting worse.
Government cant be a one trick pony and it is possible to delegate. I want to know who is looking after the interests of working people in this country? Who is minding the shop?
I was just re-reading the speech Theresa May made on the Downing Street steps when she took office. It is about the government being on the side of working people and prioritising their interests against those of the wealthy. But that hast happened.
Look at the way having workers on boards was dropped.
OGrady also highlighted how the Government commissioned review into modern working and the gig economy by Matthew Taylor has been kicked into the Whitehall long grass.
As far as we were concerned it didnt go far enough. But where has it gone? Whatever happened to it? Our release shows that every single quarter under Theresa May average households had more going out than coming in. This is what happens when you have flat wages and insecurity at work.
We have seen the balance of power shift against working people. We know there are nearly 4m on zero hours contracts, agency workers, temporary workers or very low paid self-employed workers, which is very often a proxy for not being self-employed at all.
They dont have any basic rights. So if they fall sick, want to have a baby, or simply want the national minimum wage it is a struggle for them. It is a struggle to get what most people think any decent employer should provide as a matter of course.
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
It is worrying that 10 years on from the financial crisis the burden is still falling on working people who are struggling with transport costs, childcare costs, both of which are rising faster than wages. Affordable homes are pretty thin on the ground. If this was a score card, all those promises have been abandoned.
OGrady stressed that the TUC was not affiliated with any political party but said Labour was ahead of the curve on Brexit compared to the government.
They will have their debates as we have ours. I do feel confident that Labour realises any agreement, any deal, requires sensible compromise and good faith. What really matters are what are the priorities are. As Ive said, they should be jobs, rights, the economy and peace.
This weekend sees the Trades Union Congress (TUC) meet to mark its 150th anniversary.
The gathering was first held at the Manchester Mechanics Institute on 2 June 1868 and convened by the Manchester and Salford Trades Council to address the perceived dominance of the British Trade Union Movement by their London counterpart, the TUC has met every year since to discuss issues relating to workers rights.
The institutions and traditions of the British left have enjoyed a resurgence in recent years under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.
Nowhere is this more obvious than in the proud singing of the The Red Flag at left-wing gatherings once more.
The official anthem of the Labour Party since its founding in 1900, the song was seldom heard under New Labour as leader Tony Blair regarded it as an outmoded relic of the partys past and an embarrassment to the centrist reforming agenda that saw him drop Clause IV from its constitution the commitment to the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange.
The lyrics to The Red Flag were written by Irish activist and journalist Jim Connell in December 1889, its six stanzas usually sung perhaps due to the month of its composition to the tune of the traditional German Christmas carol O Tannenbaum, despite its authors preference for using the Robert Burns melody The White Cockade instead.
The colour of the banner alludes to the blood ties that unite the brotherhood of international socialists while the lyrics honour those who have fallen in the fight for social justice. The Red Flag is a passionate ode to defiance in the face of the rich mans frown and an expression of faith in the power of collective action and the hope of peace at last.
Labour Conference 2017 in pictures Show all 14 1 /14 Labour Conference 2017 in pictures Labour Conference 2017 in pictures Britain's opposition Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn delivers his keynote speech at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton Reuters/Toby Melville Labour Conference 2017 in pictures Senior members of Britain's opposition Labour Party listen to Leader Jeremy Corbyn deliver his keynote speech at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton Reuters/Peter Nicholls Labour Conference 2017 in pictures Diane Abbott receives a standing ovation during Jeremy Corbyn's speech at the Labour Party conference BBC Labour Conference 2017 in pictures Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn addresses delegates on the final day of the Labour Party conference on September 27, 2017 in Brighton Leon Neal/Getty Images Labour Conference 2017 in pictures Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn stands with Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Rebecca Long-Bailey (left) and Shadow Secretary of State for Education, Angela Raynor after speeches in the main hall, on day three of the annual Labour Party Conference on September 26, 2017 in Brighton Getty Labour Conference 2017 in pictures Angela Rayner, Shadow Education Secretary, addressing the Labour Party annual conference at the Brighton Centre, Brighton PA Labour Conference 2017 in pictures The mayor of London Sadiq Khan delivers a speech at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton, Britain Reuters Labour Conference 2017 in pictures Dennis Skinner addressing the Labour Party annual conference at the Brighton Centre, Brighton PA Labour Conference 2017 in pictures John McDonnell MP, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Labour Party Conference, Day 2, Brighton Rex Labour Conference 2017 in pictures Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer John McDonnell (C) speaks with Labour party's leader Jeremy Corbyn (L) ahead of making a speech on the second day of the Labour Party Conference AFP/Getty Images Labour Conference 2017 in pictures Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn addresses supporters during a momentum rally on the first day of the Labour Party conference Getty Labour Conference 2017 in pictures Jeremy Corbyn listens to speeches in the main hall on the first day of the Labour Party conference Getty Images Labour Conference 2017 in pictures Labour Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott addresses delegates in the main hall on the first day of the Labour Party conference on September 24 Getty Labour Conference 2017 in pictures Jeremy Corbyn addresses a rally ahead of the Labour Party Conference in Brighton Reuters
It quickly proved popular with radical left-wing circles in Britain, the US and South Africa in the early 20th century and was sung by dockers, miners and industrial workers as a gesture of solidarity and demonstration of union might.
The party first sang it in the House of Commons on 1 August 1945 to cheer Clement Atlees defeat of Winston Churchill at the ballot box and it has remained a firm favourite among the party faithful.
You can read the song's lyrics in their entirety below.
The Red Flag (1889) by Jim Connell
The Peoples Flag is deepest red,
It shrouded oft our martyred dead,
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold,
Their hearts blood dyed its every fold.
Chorus:
Then raise the scarlet standard high.
Beneath its shade well live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
Well keep the red flag flying here.
Look round, the Frenchman loves its blaze,
The sturdy German chants its praise,
In Moscows vaults its hymns were sung
Chicago swells the surging throng.
(chorus)
It waved above our infant might,
When all ahead seemed dark as night;
It witnessed many a deed and vow,
We must not change its colour now.
(chorus)
It well recalls the triumphs past,
It gives the hope of peace at last;
The banner bright, the symbol plain,
Of human right and human gain.
(chorus)
It suits today the weak and base,
Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place
To cringe before the rich mans frown,
And haul the sacred emblem down.
(chorus)
With head uncovered swear we all
To bear it onward till we fall;
Come dungeons dark or gallows grim,
This song shall be our parting hymn.
(chorus)
ROME - Pope Francis on Wednesday sent ice cream to migrants from the Diciotti coast guard ship who are now guests at a Church-run migrant centre at Rocca di Papa south of Rome.
Papal Almoner Cardinal Konrad Krajewski brought them the pope's blessing and stayed to have lunch with them, after which he gave them the gelato.
"It's the Holy Father's blessing for them," he told SIR news agency about his visit to the Mondo Migliore (Better World) centre.
The migrants were held aboard the Diciotti for 10 days by Interior Minister Matteo Salvini who is under investigation for kidnapping.
The lawyer for Johnny Bobbitt, a homeless man whose generosity to a woman in Philadelphia sparked an online fundraising campaign amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars, says that money is gone.
Chris Fallon has claimed he learned the cash raised for his client Mr Bobbitt had been depleted, during a call with lawyers for couple Kate McClure and Mark DAmico.
Shocked. Shocked, Mr Fallon said. They raised this money to help Johnny Bobbitt get money for food.
The couple's attorney, Ernest Badway, told The Independent that they had no comment at this time.
Last autumn, Ms McClure had set up a GoFundMe page for Mr Bobbitt after he helped her when she ran out of fuel on a highway exit ramp one night.
Mr Bobbitt walked to a gas station and used his last $20 (15) to buy Ms McClure petrol since she did not have cash on her at the time.
After Ms McClure and her boyfriend Mark DAmico shared the story of Mr Bobbitts generosity on a GoFundMe page, more than 14,000 people donated to help Mr Bobbitt, who had previously served in the Marine Corps. More than $400,000 (300,000) had been raised for him.
But the couples relationship with Mr Bobbitt had soured as Mr Bobbitt later sued Ms McClure and Mr DAmico, alleging they were of mismanaging and withholding the donations raised for him. The couple has repeatedly denied misusing any of the money.
GoFundMe released the following statement: "We are working with law enforcement officials to ensure Johnny receives all of the funds raised on his behalf.
"While we assist law enforcement with their ongoing investigation, GoFundMe is also working with Johnny's legal team to ensure he's receiving support while the remaining funds are being recovered. GoFundMe has given $20,000 to a bank account created by Johnny's legal team to provide assistance during the investigation."
The fundraising platform also stated that in the "rare case" funds are misused, "donors and beneficiaries are protected" by GoFundMe.
In the GoFundMe Post for Mr Bobbitt, Ms McClure had guaranteed donors that the money raised would go towards buying Mr Bobbitt a home and his dream truck, a 1999 Ford Ranger.
The post also noted that the couple planned to set up two trusts in Mr Bobbitts name one giving him the ability to collect a small salary every year and the other a retirement trust.
But Mr Fallon alleged the couple has not delivered on those promises. The couple had purchased Mr Bobbitt a camper, which was parked on land Ms McClures family owns in Florence, New Jersey.
Couple raise over $400,000 fundraiser money for homeless man who gave his last $20 for her petrol
Mr Bobbitts story gained widespread attention again when news spread he became homeless again after the couple allegedly told him he had to leave the property in June.
Mr Fallon has claimed that his client had only received $75,000 of the money raised, which included the purchase of the camper and a truck, which he said was purchased in the couples name.
Mr Bobbitt told ABC that he had to ask the couple for everything when he wanted access to the funds raised for him.
During an appearance on NBCs show Megyn Kelly Today last week, Ms McClure and Mr DAmico claimed they did not give Mr Bobbitt large sums of money in fear he would buy drugs.
They alleged that Mr Bobbitt mostly spent $25,000 on drugs in a span of 13 days.
Every dollar he ever touched was used for drugs, Mr DAmico charged to NBC.
Mr Bobbitts other attorney Jacqueline Promislo told CNN those claims were absolutely incorrect.
End Youth Homelessness Sleep Out 2016 Show all 14 1 /14 End Youth Homelessness Sleep Out 2016 End Youth Homelessness Sleep Out 2016 Manchester End Youth Homelessness Sleep Out 2016 Manchester End Youth Homelessness Sleep Out 2016 Edinburgh Jon Savage End Youth Homelessness Sleep Out 2016 Edinburgh Colin Hattersley Photography End Youth Homelessness Sleep Out 2016 Edinburgh Colin Hattersley Photography End Youth Homelessness Sleep Out 2016 Edinburgh Colin Hattersley Photography End Youth Homelessness Sleep Out 2016 Edinburgh Colin Hattersley Photography End Youth Homelessness Sleep Out 2016 Edinburgh Colin Hattersley Photography End Youth Homelessness Sleep Out 2016 Eden Project, Cornwall End Youth Homelessness Sleep Out 2016 Eden Project, Cornwall End Youth Homelessness Sleep Out 2016 Sheffield James Rothwell End Youth Homelessness Sleep Out 2016 Norwich End Youth Homelessness Sleep Out 2016 Cardiff End Youth Homelessness Sleep Out 2016 Cardiff
Mr Bobbitt has also accused the couple of spending the donations on various trips and other purchases for their personal use. Mr DAmico has publicly admitted to using $500 of the money in a casino but said it was with Mr Bobbitts consent and that he has since repaid him.
The couple claimed they had not spent any of the donation money on themselves; they also told NBC they estimated Mr Bobbitt had well over $150,000 left.
Mr DAmico charged that Mr Bobbitt had spent a lot of money on legal fees, court costs, the camper and by sending money to his family.
A New Jersey judge in the case had ordered the couple transfer the money into an escrow account and hire an accountant to review financial records within 10 days, the Associated Press reported.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller will accept written answers from President Donald Trump on whether his campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 US election, but Mr Mueller is not ruling out a follow-up interview on that issue,
Mr Mueller's offer to accept written responses from the president on questions about possible collusion was contained in a letter that Mr Trump's lawyers received on Friday, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Mr Trump's legal team and Mr Mueller's investigators have been negotiating for months over whether the president will be formally interviewed in the probe.
The president's team have not yet answered the letter. After receiving the written responses, Mr Mueller's investigators would decide on a next step, which could include an interview with Mr Trump, the person said. The letter was first reported by the New York Times.
It was not immediately clear what those conditions mean for other avenues Mr Mueller is exploring, including whether the president sought to obstruct the Russia investigation through actions such as the firing last year of former FBI Director James Comey.
Mr Mueller's office had previously indicated that it had questions for the president on the obstruction issue.
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
A spokesman for Mueller's office declined to comment.
Rudy Giuliani, one of Mr Trump's lawyers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential race, seeking to tilt the vote in Mr Trump's favour.
Russia has denied interfering in the election. Mr Trump has said there was no collusion and has called the Mueller probe a witch hunt.
Reuters
Donald Trumps nominee for the Supreme Court has refused to say whether he believes the landmark 1973 ruling that recognised a womans right to a safe and legal abortion was decided correctly.
While saying his personal beliefs about abortion were not relevant, Brett Kavanaugh, a staunch Catholic, told senators as he had been advised to do he would follow the example of previous nominees and not answer questions about how earlier cases were decided.
Facing his first day of questioning as part of his confirmation process, Mr Kavanaugh was pressed by Democrat Dianne Feinstein, who said hundreds of thousands of women had died due to illegal abortions in the years before the Roe vs Wade ruling.
I understand the importance of the issue, Mr Kavanaugh said. I dont live in a bubble. I live in the real world.
He added that he believed the case was settled law. One of the important things to keep in mind about Roe vs Wade is that it has been reaffirmed many times over the last 45 years, as you know and most prominently, most importantly reaffirmed in Planned Parenthood vs Casey in 1992, he said.
Democrats and abortion rights activists have seized on the issue as they seek to derail Mr Trumps second appointment to the Supreme Court in less than two years.
After the White House last year secured the appointment of Neil Gorsuch, Democrats and progressives believe the countrys highest court would take a marked shift to the right if Mr Kavanaugh fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, known as a swing voter.
In addition to his comments on Roe vs Wade, Mr Kavanaugh said he has not taken a position on the constitutionality of investigating a sitting president. Yet his past writings cast doubt on the idea. Asked by senator Amy Klobuchar on Wednesday whether he believes such investigations are only acceptable in impeachment proceedings, Kavanaugh replied: I did not take a position on the constitutionality. Period.
In a footnote to a 2009 law review article, Kavanaugh wrote that a serious constitutional question exists regarding whether a President can be criminally indicted and tried while in office. A decade earlier, Kavanaugh wrote that the constitution seems to dictate that congressional investigation must take place in lieu of criminal investigation when the President is the subject of investigation, and that criminal prosecution can occur only after the President has left office.
While critics have raised questions about whether Mr Kavanaugh believes a president can pardon him or herself or refuse to answer a subpoena, activists have focused most vocally on the issue of reproductive rights. Some have claimed that womens rights have never been as threatened as they are now.
Supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh snubs handshake from father of slain Parkland student
A lot is at stake here. Our fundamental rights as women, our freedoms, our ability to control our own futures, lives [and] bodies, Amanda Thayer, deputy national communications director for NARAL Pro-Choice America, one of several groups that have been holding protests opposing Mr Kavanaugh, told The Independent.
Its on the line, and we know that to be true. Brett Kavanaugh was nominated to the Supreme Court by Donald Trump, in part because he was a surefire bet to overturn Roe. And that is why so many people are out here today from across the spectrum.
Democrats have sought, unsuccessfully, to postpone the hearing, claiming they only received all the relevant documents at the 11th hour. On Wednesday, senate minority leader Chuck Schumer was successful in shutting down the senate for one day, even as the hearing continued.
Earlier, Mr Kavanaugh, who has spent the last 12 years as an appeals court judge in Washington DC, also refused to answer two questions about the possible powers of a US president.
Ms Feinstein asked Mr Kavanaugh, who during the 1990s was a member of independent counsel Kenneth Starrs team investigating President Bill Clinton, whether he believed sitting presidents could be sued or indicted something he had previously suggested was not appropriate.
They were ideas for congress to consider. They were not my constitutional views, Mr Kavanagh said of his writing in a 2009 Minnesota Law Review article.
In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Show all 21 1 /21 In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AP In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AP In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images
Mr Feinstein also pressed Mr Kavanaugh, who is expected to face questioning for several days before the committee is asked to vote about his nomination, about whether a sitting president could be required to respond to a subpoena. I cant give you an answer on that hypothetical question.
Asked by committee chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican, whether he would be independent from the president who nominated him, Mr Kavanaugh responded: No one is above the law.
Ms Feinstein then tweeted: If Brett Kavanaugh truly believes the president isnt above the law, he should have said the president must comply with a subpoena. Theres no reason Brett Kavanaugh couldnt have given a straight answer.
Mr Kavanaugh was asked by Democrat Patrick Leahy whether he believed Mr Trump had been legally correct when he tweeted earlier this summer that he had the absolute right to pardon himself.
The question of self-pardon is something I have never analysed.[Its] a hypothetical question that I cant begin to answer as a sitting judge, Mr Kavanaugh said.
Mr Leahy responded: I hope for the sake of the country that remains a hypothetical question.
The strongest typhoon to hit Japan in more than 25 years has left a trail of destruction across the country, shutting down a major international airport and sending cars, roofs and anything else that wasnt nailed down flying.
Yet despite the chaotic scenes, as Typhoon Jebi moved away off the west coast and winds of up to 100mph died down, Japanese officials counted no more than 11 dead and 600 injured.
One Briton on holiday in Japan, Natalie Lovett, summed it up with an Instagram post from downtown Osaka among the worst-hit cities on Wednesday night. Hard to believe this is where Typhoon Jebi hit, she wrote. Smashed cars and debris but still the feeling that this could have been so much worse.
Built to survive
Japan sits on both the Pacific typhoon belt and the seismic Ring of Fire, meaning it receives far more than its fair share of extreme natural events of all kinds.
Whether by earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons or volcanic eruptions, whole swathes of Japans major cities have been destroyed and rebuilt in the 20th century alone.
That has provided the opportunity to plan and prepare for future events, and huge sums have been invested in building infrastructure to survive everything nature throws at it.
Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan Show all 20 1 /20 Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan Vehicles damaged in Osaka Reuters Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan High waves hit breakwaters at a port of Aki AP Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan A tanker is seen after it slammed into the side of a bridge connecting the airport to the mainland AP Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan People walk against strong winds in Nagoya AFP/Getty Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan Kansai International Airport AP Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan Damaged traffic boards and telecommunication relay poles are seen after they were brought down by strong winds caused by typhoon Jebi in Osaka AFP/Getty Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan A tanker ship smashed into a bridge connecting the city of Izumisano with Kansai airport Western Nippon Expressway/Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan The forecast track of of Typhoon Jebi Japan Meteorological Agency/AP Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan A man looks at a truck overturned AP Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan A truck sitting at an angle after being blown over by strong winds on the Seto Ohashi bridge in Sakade Kagawa Prefectural Police/Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan A woman holds broken umbrella as a powerful typhoon hits Osaka AP Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan AP Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan Boats float along with debris during Typhoon Jebi in Nishinomiya City Reuters Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan Police officers attempt to remove fallen trees AP Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan A tanker after it slammed into the side of the bridge connecting the airport to the mainland AP Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan Documents are spread under desks after windows broke at Gifu Prefectural Government in Gifu EPA Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan A police officer stands beside a flooded road AP Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan A tree damaged by Typhoon Jebi in front of Heian Shrine in Kyoto Reuters Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan Damaged vehicles blown by strong winds AFP/Getty Typhoon Jebi: Extremely strong winds and heavy rain hit Japan A building damaged by Typhoon Jebi in Osaka Reuters
Japan really are the world leaders in both emergency preparedness and response, and in ensuring that infrastructure and assets are resilient when they are constructed, said Marc Forni, the leading expert in disaster risk management at the World Bank.
Roads and public buildings in coastal cities like Osaka are designed to allow excess water and rainfall to flow away efficiently, and advanced coastal defences can reduce the risk of a storm surge.
Perhaps most importantly, the construction of private buildings is strictly regulated to adhere at all times to best practices, with natural disasters in mind.
The building code, and the enforcement of the building code most importantly, is really state of the art, Mr Forni said.
Awareness from a young age
On 1 September 1923, an earthquake measuring 7.9-magnitude struck Japans Kanto Plain, levelling the nearby cities of Tokyo and Yokohama. At least 100,000 people were killed, and the devastation was reportedly so complete that the government considered moving the capital.
That date, 1 September, is now marked as national Disaster Prevention Day in all of Japans schools and public offices. Children go through drills on what to do when a major natural event strikes, and learn about their countrys disaster-ridden history.
Recommended Scenes of devastation in Japan as typhoon death toll rises to 11
It is a grassroots approach that has made disaster preparedness an enduring national priority, said Mr Forni.
There is an awareness among the entire population about what to do in the event of an impending disaster, he said, and there is a respect for natural hazards.
Working through the education system, it has become part of the identity of Japanese students to know how to respond. All the exercises and drills create a cohesiveness that is needed for a stronger response [when disasters do happen].
Before Typhoon Jebi struck, Japan issued more than 1.2 million evacuation notices, none of which were mandatory. Nonetheless, interviews on national broadcaster NHK showed most were happy to comply. Our house is right at the base of a mountain, one woman told the TV station. Its a little dangerous, so we decided to leave.
A lesson to others?
Beyond public awareness and building codes, Japans government also sets an example to the world of how different ministries and jurisdictions work together in the event of a disaster.
But officials have also invested time and effort in preparing agreements with the private sector so that, before the first winds or raindrops even hit, private companies that could help out with the disaster response know what their responsibilities are.
It takes a lot of institutional strength and time and effort to be able to build those types of contingent agreements and really focussing on this as a national priority has really borne fruit, Mr Forni said.
While it is impossible to know, the chances are that far worse impacts would have been felt by a typhoon of Jebis scale hitting any other built-up coastal region in the world.
Japan proves time and again that when a natural hazard strikes a location it doesnt have to lead to major loss of life or economic assets, Mr Forni said. By investing in engineering design and the enforcement of codes and standards, it shows the impact really can be quite limited compared to [what it would be in] most other countries in the world.
Russias foreign ministry has accused Britain of manipulating information after two Russians were named as suspects in connection with the novichok poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury.
In comments to local media, spokesperson Maria Zakharova claimed the names and photographs of the two men released revealed nothing.
Once again we ask the British to move from public accusations and manipulating information to practical cooperation via the law enforcement agencies, she said.
Earlier Britains Crown Prosecution Service announced it had collected sufficient evidence for a conviction of two Russian nationals. Two names were given, the commonplace Alexander Petrov and less common Ruslan Boshirov both believed to be aliases.
In an oral statement at Westminster, Theresa May said the suspects worked for Russian military intelligence.
This was not a rogue attack, she said. It was almost certainly approved ... at a senior level of the Russian state.
Russia has reacted to the claims with a mixture of incredulity and sarcasm.
State television urged viewers to ignore the flimsy photographic evidence. Artyom Sheinin, host of the lunchtime talk show on Channel One, said pictures of the two supposed suspects using the London underground and near to Salisbury were images of two ordinary citizens.
Look at this one on the right, he has a red card in his hand, he said. Obviously the British prosecutor will say thats his FSB staff card.
Mr Sheinin turned to his audience. Those who accuse need to show evidence, he said. It isnt 1937.
It was a rare, but perhaps geographically suspect repudiation of Stalinist justice live on state TV.
Two Russian nationals identified and charged in relation to Salisbury attack
Government officials complained that Britain was acting as judge and jury in the case. According to spokesperson Zakharova, Moscows numerous requests for information had gone unanswered.
Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov foreshadowed the expected announcement by returning to a common position: Russia had no basis for comment because the UK had rejected an offer of a joint investigation.
We havent given up hope about hearing something convincing, he added.
Viktoria Skripal, the controversial and estranged niece of the poisoned double agent, said she had yet to be persuaded by the British evidence. In comments to The Independent, she said she largely agreed with what she was hearing on state TV.
They say its Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, but they might as well have said John Smith and John Smith, she said. The only thing they have been imaginative with is the ethnic backgrounds.
Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Show all 19 1 /19 Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV Salisbury train station The two suspects charged in relation to the attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal at Salisbury train station at 16:11hrs on 03 March 2018 Metropolitan Police Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Suspects Suspects Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov, Russian nationals, approximately 40 years old, who travelled on a Russian passport. It is likely that they were travelling under aliases and that these are not their real names Metropolitan Police Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Evidence Bottle and applicator recovered by police from Charlie Rowleys address in Muggleton Road Metropolitan Police Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Evidence A counterfeit perfume box that was discovered by nerve agent victim Charlie Rowley, who later gave it, and the bottle inside, to his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess Metropolitan Police/AFP/Getty Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Rowley has previously said he felt lucky to be alive after giving a perfume bottle that contained the nerve agent Novichok to his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess, who later died Metropolitan Police/AFP/Getty Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Suspeccts The CPS has issued European Arrest Warrants for the extradition of 'Boshirov' and 'Petrov' in connection with the Novichok poisoning attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March Metropolitan Police/PA Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV Boshirov' at Gatwick airport Movements in detail - At 3pm on Friday, 2 March, the suspects arrived at Gatwick airport, having flown from Moscow on Aeroflot flight SU2588 Metropolitan Police Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV Petrov at Gatwick airport From the airport it is believed that they travelled by train into London, arriving at Victoria station at approximately 5.40pm Metropolitan Police Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV Salisbury train station, 11:48hrs on 4 March 2018 They then travelled on London public transport to Waterloo station and were in the area between approximately 6pm and 7pm. They travelled to the City Stay Hotel in Bow Road, East London, where they stayed on Friday, 2 March, and Saturday, 3 March. On Saturday, 3 March, they left the hotel and took the underground to Waterloo station, arriving at approximately 11.45am, where they caught a train to Salisbury, arriving at approximately 2.25pm Metropolitan Police Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack City Stay Hotel in Bow Road Police officers stand outside the City Stay Hotel in Bow where on Sunday, 4 March, 'Boshirov' and 'Petrov' made the same journey from the hotel as they did the previous day, again using the underground from Bow to Waterloo station at approximately 8.05am, before continuing their journey by train to Salisbury Getty Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV Wilton Road, Salisbury, 11:58hrs on 4 March 2018 CCTV shows them in the vicinity of Mr Skripals house and we believe that they contaminated the front door with Novichok Metropolitan Police Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV Fisherton Road CCTV image of both suspects on Fisherton Road, Salisbury at 13:05hrs on 4 March, 2018 Metropolitan Police Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV Salisbury train station, 13:50hrs on 4 March 2018 They left Salisbury and returned to Waterloo Station, arriving at approximately 4.45pm and boarded the London Underground at approximately 6.30pm to London Heathrow Airport Metropolitan Police Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV Heathrow airport security, 19:28hrs on 4 March 2018 From Heathrow Airport, they returned to Moscow on Aeroflot flight SU2585, departing at 10.30pm Metropolitan Police/PA Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Scene investigations The police investigation was carried out over 6 months. Ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found on March 4 in a critical condition on a bench outside the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury AFP Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Victims Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, right, and his daughter Yulia Rex Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Victims Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey who rushed to the aid of the Skripals was also taken to hospital in a serious condition after falling ill when attempting to help them PA Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Victims Dawn Sturgess, a 44-year-old mother of three, died after falling ill when partner Charlie Rowley gave her a perfume bottle that contained the nerve agent Novichok Facebook/AFP/Getty Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Scene investigations The home of Charlie Rowley in Muggleton Road, Amesbury, where he and Dawn Sturgess were exposed to the deadly nerve agent Novichok PA
She said that she did not recognise either man.
Ive never seen them in any of our circles, she said.
Social media users who post or share satire that attacks religion will be imprisoned for up to five years under strict new laws introduced in Saudi Arabia.
Those found guilty of distributing content online deemed to disrupt public order, would also be subject to a fine of three million riyals (625,000), the Middle Eastern countrys public prosecutors office said in a statement on Twitter.
It said: Producing and distributing content that ridicules, mocks, provokes and disturbs public order, religious values and public morals through social media will be considered a cybercrime.
Recommended Saudi Arabia plans to execute first female political activist
Saudi Arabia is currently undergoing a programme of sweeping reforms in a bid to modernise sections of its deeply conservative society.
Its population is one of the most engaged with social media in the Middle East, but online dissent has been discouraged with the threat of imprisonment.
In 2012, Saudi blogger Raif Badawi was sentenced to 10 years behind bar and 1,000 lashes after he was convicted of cybercrimes and insulting Islam.
Mr Badawi was arrested after writing articles on the now banned Free Saudi Liberals website, which he co-founded, criticising Saudi Arabias powerful clerics and advocating the liberalisation of the countrys austere Wahhabist system.
Last month, Saudi prosecutors ordered five human rights protesters to be sentenced to death over their political activism.
Among the group is Israa al-Ghomgham, 29, thought to be the first woman to be handed a death sentence in the kingdom.
10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Show all 10 1 /10 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In October 2014, three lawyers, Dr Abdulrahman al-Subaihi, Bander al-Nogaithan and Abdulrahman al-Rumaih , were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for using Twitter to criticize the Ministry of Justice. AFP/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2015, Yemens Sunni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was forced into exile after a Shia-led insurgency. A Saudi Arabia-led coalition has responded with air strikes in order to reinstate Mr Hadi. It has since been accused of committing war crimes in the country. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Women who supported the Women2Drive campaign, launched in 2011 to challenge the ban on women driving vehicles, faced harassment and intimidation by the authorities. The government warned that women drivers would face arrest. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Members of the Kingdoms Shia minority, most of whom live in the oil-rich Eastern Province, continue to face discrimination that limits their access to government services and employment. Activists have received death sentences or long prison terms for their alleged participation in protests in 2011 and 2012. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses All public gatherings are prohibited under an order issued by the Interior Ministry in 2011. Those defy the ban face arrest, prosecution and imprisonment on charges such as inciting people against the authorities. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2014, the Interior Ministry stated that authorities had deported over 370,000 foreign migrants and that 18,000 others were in detention. Thousands of workers were returned to Somalia and other states where they were at risk of human rights abuses, with large numbers also returned to Yemen, in order to open more jobs to Saudi Arabians. Many migrants reported that prior to their deportation they had been packed into overcrowded makeshift detention facilities where they received little food and water and were abused by guards. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses The Saudi Arabian authorities continue to deny access to independent human rights organisations like Amnesty International, and they have been known to take punitive action, including through the courts, against activists and family members of victims who contact Amnesty. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1000 lashes and 10 years in prison for using his liberal blog to criticise Saudi Arabias clerics. He has already received 50 lashes, which have reportedly left him in poor health. Carsten Koall/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Dawood al-Marhoon was arrested aged 17 for participating in an anti-government protest. After refusing to spy on his fellow protestors, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At Dawoods trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested in 2012 aged either 16 or 17 for participating in protests during the Arab spring. His sentence includes beheading and crucifixion. The international community has spoken out against the punishment and has called on Saudi Arabia to stop. He is the nephew of a prominent government dissident. Getty
Ms al-Ghomgham and four other activists, including her husband, Moussa al-Hashem, were arrested in December 2015 for their roles organising anti-government protests in the wake of the Arab Spring.
Their charges include various terror offences including filming protests against the regime and later publishing them on social media.
Syrian rebels have pinned their hopes on Turkey to intervene with Russia and prevent an all-out offensive which could deal a fatal blow to their seven-year-long uprising.
Forces loyal to Syrias president, Bashar al-Assad, are massed on the frontlines in the northwest of the country and on Tuesday Russian planes joined in the bombardment of rebels in a prelude to a possible assault.
The insurgent enclave in and around Idlib represents the final major stronghold in the civil war against the Syrian regime.
Its fate now appears to rest on a summit meeting to be held in Tehran on Friday between the leaders of President Assads supporters, Russia and Iran, and Turkey, which has backed the rebels.
We realise the extent of vengeance and massacres that will befall us if they get our heads. They will slaughter us. The coming battle is to be or not to be, Mustafa Sejari, a commander in the Free Syrian Army (FSA) preparing for the offensive, told Reuters.
It comes as Russias Defence Ministry confirmed four of its jets struck targets in Idlib with airstrikes which the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said killed 13 civilians but no fighters.
Russia said the jets hit targets linked to an al-Qaida-affiliated group, including a weapons depot and a launch pad for drones that Russia says have targeted its military bases in Syria.
Backed by Russian air power, President Assad has taken back one rebel enclave after another in recent years.
Idlib and its surroundings are now the only significant area where they remain in active armed opposition to Damascus.
Rebels backed by Turkey also hold an adjacent zone in Syria along the border between the two countries, where Ankara has helped them set up a local administration, but they have not fought President Assad from there.
Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive Show all 13 1 /13 Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive A Syrian protester waves a flag of the opposition as during a protest against the regime and its ally Russia, in the rebel-held town of Maaret al-Numan in the north of Idlib province AFP/Getty Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive Syrian rebel fighters from the recently-formed "National Liberation Front" stand guard over a trench as rebels prepare defensive positions in anticipation for an upcoming government forces offensive AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive Syrian rebel fighters pile-up sandbags AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive A Syrian rebel fighter looks through an embrasure in a make-shift bunker AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive Syrian rebel fighters walk through a trench AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive A Syrian protester waves a flag of the opposition AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive A Syrian rebel fighter stands guard over a trench AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive AFP/Getty Images
With Idlib standing as the last active redoubt of the rebellion, the insurgents there say they have no choice but to fight to the finish.
Previous battles ended with defeated insurgents agreeing surrender deals that involved them being bussed across the country to Idlib.
There is no other Idlib to move to. We either die in the area or we resist until we win and stay, Mohammad Rasheed, another rebel official in Syria, told Reuters.
Both Mr Sejari and Mr Rasheed are from rebel factions that fought under the FSA banner groups that have long been at odds with the jihadist factions that dominate in large parts of Idlib.
The most powerful jihadist grouping in Idlib is the Tahrir al-Sham alliance, spearheaded by al-Qaedas former Syrian affiliate previously known as the Nusra Front.
Rebels from both Tahrir al-Sham and FSA groups said they had set aside their disputes to face the common enemy the Assad government.
Russia says there is no option in northwest Syria but to root out the Nusra Front, calling the area a terrorist nest and a festering abscess that must be cleansed.
Turkey along with the United Nations also classifies Tahrir al-Sham as a terrorist group, but says any action should distinguish between it and civilians. It says an attack would cause a massacre.
Idlib and surrounding areas have borne the brunt of years of Russian and Syrian military airstrikes that have killed thousands of civilians.
More than half the areas three million inhabitants are already displaced people who have fled their homes.
Turkey fears an assault will cause a new wave of displacement, adding to the 3.5 million Syrian refugees in its own territory.
Additional reporting by Reuters
The UK has said it will contribute more money to aid Palestinian refugees after Donald Trump's administration announced it would cut funding.
The US announced late last week it was cutting off its contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the primary group responsible for providing education and health care to the refugees.
Minister for the Middle East Alistair Burt announced the Department for International Development (DFID) will contribute an additional $9m (7m) to keep schools open for half a million children and provide medical care for nearly four million refugees in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon, and Jordan.
Recommended Palestinians speak out about devastating US cuts
The money, Mr Burt noted in a statement, is being allocated from other DFID funds and brings to the UK contribution to the UNRWA to $59m (45.5m).
Mr Burt said in a release the UK is deeply concerned about the devastating impact a shortage of funds for UNRWA could cause on those that rely on its services, as well as the consequences this could have for regional stability.
The UK stopped short in its plea for the international community to step up its contributions to the effort to blame the US for needing to increase its contribution.
Israel demolishes West Bank home of Palestinian attacker
However, the US had been the largest contributor ahead of its 1 September announcement, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the UN agencys budget and putting a halt to those contributions will likely have a negative effect on refugees.
In 2016, the US contributed $335m to the relief agency and a similar sum was planned for 2018.
In January 2018 though, the US decided to give the agency $60m in aid but said it would withhold another $65m for future consideration.
The withheld amount is now expected to be cancelled.
Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator uses a racket to return a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Palestinian demonstrators run for cover from tear gas fired by Israeli forces Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator shouts Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Tear gas canisters are fired by Israeli forces at Palestinian demonstrators Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A wounded Palestinian is evacuated Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator uses a sling to hurl stones at Israeli forces Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A female demonstrator uses a slingshot to hurl stones at Israeli forces Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator with a slingshot looks on Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Female Palestinian demonstrators react to tear gas fired by Israeli forces Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Israeli forces fire teargas canisters toward Palestinian demonstrators AFP Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Female demonstrators run for cover from tear gas fired by Israeli forces Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Palestinian medics evacuate a wounded protester AP Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator moves a burning tire Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator uses a racket to return a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Palestinian demonstrators during clashes with Israeli forces AFP/Getty
Israel has routinely criticised the agency for being biased and allowing its facilities, like schools and clinics, to be used by Palestinian militants - which the UN denies.
US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert had said the administration carefully reviewed its plan of support, ultimately concluding UNRWA is "irredeemably flawed".
In cutting the aid package, the administration appeared to be in line with Mr Trump's 2 January tweet in which he wrote that Palestinians were receiving "hundreds of millions of dollars" but gave the US "no appreciation or respect."
US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has routinely cited an anti-Israel bias in various UN agencies, UNRWA included.
It was she who reportedly pushed to completely cut funding after the January 2018 announcement.
She was talked down after Defence Secretary James Mattis and then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson indicated that if the relief agency's efforts are severely hampered it could cause further unrest in Jordan, another US ally which also hosts several million Palestinian refugees.
As the patter of rain fell on the cobblestone streets outside, a giant tulle bow was being meticulously sewn onto a floor-length scarlet gown. Two seamstresses hunched over it, pins in their mouths and tape measures on their laps, using the deft mannerisms of people who have racked up a lot more than Malcolm Gladwells 10,000 hours.
We should be in Paris. Thats where the heady couture ateliers of our imagination are all based or, at a stretch, Milan. But I was further east than European fashions centre of gravity: in an Athenian apartment on the edge of the Plaka. If I craned my head out of Atelier Loukias window, I could see the bulge of the Acropolis above the rooftops and the hordes of tourists dotting it like ants.
I was in Athens for work and considering buying my first ever couture gown. As a freelance journalist, that is not a sentence I ever thought I would type, but Athens rapidly growing made-to-measure industry is aimed at those who dont grace the pages of Tatler.
You may ask whats the point of couture in 2018? Countless newspaper columnists and trend analysts have already questioned the role it can play in an industry increasingly obsessed with speed to market, Instagram hype and dressing down. Not to mention the fact that AI is forecast to soon log our measurements and churn out pieces of perfectly fitting, affordable clothing on demand.
But in an era of Asos and Amazon, I found myself drawn to the luxury of handcrafted, beautifully made clothing that actually fit my body. And this was an urge I could indulge in in Athens, where you can order a demi-couture dress for as little as 700. Or, more likely in my case, ask a seamstress to copy one from a photograph for as little as 70, plus fabric costs. This is in comparison to the six, or even seven-figure sums you would be expected to pay for its equivalent in France.
And like Paris, all around the Greek capital there are a variety of specialist ateliers, each with a distinct skill such as feather-making, button-making, millinery, knitting and glove-making. And in Kolonaki, Perikleous and Psychiko leafy boroughs of Athens designers are working with these craftspeople to create individual pieces of clothing that begin with a watercolour sketch and end with a canary-yellow silk dress or a scarlet-lined three-piece suit.
Some like Atelier Loukia, Celia Kritharioti and Costarellos are reminiscent of a fashion-filled Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with endless rooms of brightly coloured silks, rainbow hued buttons and thousands of embroidered shoes, hats and bags. Others occupy just a single studio space with one glowering seamstress dressed in black.
Falling firmly into the former camp is Deux Hommes, a label run by Dimitris Alexakis and Grigoris Triantafyllou who make extravagant evening wear out of embroidered silk, rich velvets, chiffon and sequins.
Or there is Celia Kritharioti one of Athens most respected designers, who has created pieces for Jennifer Lopez, Gwyneth Paltrow, Heidi Klum and even Kim Kardashian.
Celia Kritharioti is one of the city's most famous designers (Celia Kritharioti)
My ancestors brought the Parisian haute couture and know-how to Athens in 1906 when they launched the brand, which we still embrace after decades, says Kritharioti. Since I was a little girl, I remember travelling every season to Paris with my mother to watch all haute couture private shows. Nowadays, we still create everything by hand, and still follow the rules of Paris.
And then there is MI-RO, headed by Dimitris Mastrokalos and Giannis Raptis, it has an ultra-modern, clean aesthetic, while still focusing on sleek evening wear.
We believe that the Greek designers of today are a bit more extroverted, says Mastrokalos. Maybe because of the economic crisis our country found itself in during the past years or maybe because their aesthetics and references are more international. For sure, the rise in tourism has also played a part, since visitors from all over the world have the chance to get to know Greek designers and how remarkable their work is.
The founders of Athenian fashion label MI-RO(MI-RO) (Miro)
There are many reasons why Athens has been able to try and pinch Paris couture crown. Like so many European cities, it has a long and illustrious history of suit and dressmaking but unlike London, which outside of Jermyn Street has lost much of its made-to-measure industry rents in Athens have stayed low, allowing skilled designers and seamstresses to maintain ateliers.
As the economy flounders, foreign-made goods have also become more expensive and steep taxes have been placed on big businesses. Amid this turmoil, seamstresses, pattern cutters and small designers have flourished, using Greek-made material and charging clients in cash to dodge taxes.
Many designers bemoan of the distinct lack of state support, although this has been somewhat helped by the influx of craftspeople from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. These recently arrived refugees and economic migrants have helped revive the industry and ensured there are enough well-trained designers in Athens.
Recommended Why you should swap Santorini for Ios
Despite this, Athens footing as a couture hub is precarious and it will never dethrone Paris as the haute couture capital of the world. But in a difficult time, the blossoming of the industry is wonderful. And it gives us tourists yet another reason to explore Greece beyond the shimmering seas and beachfront tavernas.
As for me, I frugally bypassed the designers and ended up in a tiny, fifth-floor workshop where I was measured by a black-clad seamstress. She didnt speak much English but seemed delighted by a photograph I had brought of a navy-blue backless dress my mother had worn in the 1990s. A month later it plopped through my door, remade in racing green silk and ready to be worn to my brothers wedding, where it will bring with it a dollop of Athenian glamour.
Travel essentials
Getting there
EasyJet, Ryanair and British Airways all fly directly from the UK to Athens from 80 return.
Staying there
The Hermes Hotel, on the edge of the Plaka, has views up to the Acropolis and a delicious rooftop breakfast. Its also only 50 a night, so you can spend more on clothes.
E coli has been found at the Egyptian hotel where a British couple died 15 days ago, Thomas Cook has confirmed.
But the tour operator says the results of wide-ranging tests shed no light on why John and Susan Cooper from Burnley died at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in Hurghada.
The couple, who were staying in the Egyptian resort with their daughter and grandchildren, passed away within hours of each other on 21 August.
Two days later, Thomas Cook announced it was evacuating over 300 holidaymakers from the hotel because of a raised level of illness among guests.
The company sent independent investigators to check the safety of food, water and air in the hotel, including a thorough audit of food storage, preparation, presentation and equipment.
The tests on the food and hygiene standards identified a high level of E coli and staphylococcus bacteria, said Thomas Cook in a statement.
It is clear from these results that something went wrong in August at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in Hurghada and that standards fell below what we expect from our hotel partners.
This is also supported by a review that we have conducted of our customer satisfaction scores, which fell sharply during this month.
It is likely that the presence of E coli and staphylococcus would explain the raised level of illness reported among guests at the hotel during this time, supporting Thomas Cooks decision to remove our 300 customers.
The firm is putting together a compensation package for holidaymakers who reported falling ill during August while staying at the hotel.
It will also send specialist hygiene assessors to any hotels where a higher than average level of sickness is reported.
The family of John Cooper, 69, and Susan Cooper, 63, are no closer knowing why the couple died.
Hotel concerns: the Steigenberger Aqua Magic in Hurghada, from which all Thomas Cook clients have been evacuated (Steigenberger Hotels)
Thomas Cook investigators were not allowed in the room where the couple died, which is still sealed off by the Egyptian authorities.
The company said: There was no evidence of carbon monoxide and there were normal carbon dioxide levels in the vicinity of the room.
We await the results of the autopsies being conducted by the Egyptian authorities.
Thomas Cook has taken the hotel off sale, but it remains open.
TUNIS - The Tunisian NGO La Terre pour Tous will on Thursday stage a protest in front of the Italian embassy in Tunis to call for the release of Chamseddine Bourassine, head of the Zarzis Fishermen's Association (APDE), and the five members of his crew. They have been in jail since August 29 on charges of aggravated aiding and abetting illegal immigration. The NGO has rejected the accusations made by the Italian security forces against the 6 arrested, noting that Bourassine has been working for over a decade to save lives at sea and against racism.
The head of the fishermen's association is well known for efforts against the C-Star (a ship of young people involved in a right-wing anti-migrant movement) in August 2017, when he went out to sea with other fishing boats and helped stop the anti-migrant ship from entering the port.
According to Italian media, the six members of the Tunisian fishing boat crew were caught on August 29 while they were towing a boat with 14 migrants towards Lampedusa. The police operation at sea was conducted by financial police naval units and continued by those from the Lampedusa brigade under coordination by the Agrigento prosecutor's office. Both the boats were then taken to the Lamepdusa port where the island's financial police cited the 14 migrants for illegal entry and arrested the six members of the crew, seizing their boats.
The NGO and family members say that the detainees were simply helping the migrants who had been found in distress at sea. Protests to call for their released have been held in recent days in Zarzis and the local fishermen's association have sent a letter to the Italian ambassador in Tunisia in which Bourassine was called ''an example to follow''.
Visitors to Florences historic city centre could face fines of up to 450 for eating in the streets.
The new ruling, which came into force on 4 September, is part of an effort to reduce congestion in the narrow streets of the city. Tourists tend to crowd around food outlets in these areas, making access difficult.
Four streets Via de' Neri, Piazzale degli Uffizi, Piazza del Grano and Via della Ninna are affected by the new law, which will remain in place for four months.
Recommended 48 Hours in Florence
The restrictions will apply from 12-3pm and from 6-10pm, peak eating times, and are also hoped to reduce litter.
A bilingual sign, directing visitors to respect residents, traders and workers of this street, has been circulated to local businesses, who have been advised to display the flyer prominently, according to The Local.
Many local residents are frustrated with the influx of tourists who congregate in the historic streets, which house one of Florences most popular sandwich shops, All'Antico Vinaio, and the busy Gelateria dei Neri. Neither establishment reportedly has the space to accommodate the high volume of visitors that flock to the respected eateries.
Roberta Pieraccioni, the President of the Via de Neri residents committee, was reported to say that he hoped the new initiative would restore a bit of decorum to our street".
One of the flyers instructing people not to eat during peak times
The citys mayor, Dario Nardella, described the measure as not punitive, but a deterrent".
"If tourists behave in Florence as they would at home then they will always be welcome, especially if they want to try our gastronomic specialities."
Its not the first time the citys mayor has caused controversy. In summer 2017, he ordered the steps of churches in the city to be hosed down in an effort to prevent tourists from gathering to eat their food.
Florence is one of a number of European visitor hotspots, such as Venice and Barcelona, attempting to achieve a fine balance between the needs of tourists and those of local residents.
The strongest typhoon in 25 years to hit Japan has left more than a million homes without power and 10 people dead. More than 700 flights to and from Kansai International Airport have been cancelled.
Tropical storm Jebi pummelled the western coast of Japan, with destruction centring around the city of Osaka, with winds of up to 129mph on Tuesday.
Kansai International Airport, built on an artificial island in the Bay of Osaka, remains shut again today. High seas flooded one of its two runways, while strong winds sent a 2,500-tonne tanker slamming into the side of a bridge connecting the airport to the mainland. Around 5,000 passengers stranded at the airport are being transported back to the mainland on high-speed boats, according to the Japan Times.
Are flights running?
Kansai International Airport is a major international hub that serves the cities of Osaka and Kyoto.
All flights were cancelled on 4 September. According to the Foreign and Commonwealth (FCO) office, there are no plans to resume service today.
Terminal 1 is heavily damaged, according to Kansai International Airports website. Both runways will open on 6 September at the earliest. The airport operator added that there was no power in some parts of Terminal 1 as at 4 September.
Meanwhile, the Osaka Prefecture Government said that some train routes around the region would be affected.
Those travelling to Japan are advised to check with their airline before heading to the airport.
Is Osaka safe to visit?
Osaka is Japans second city, and a vibrant business hub. In 2017 it welcomed a record 11.1 million tourists annually, an 18 per cent jump from 2016.
Recommended 10 things to do in Osaka
The Universal Studios Japan theme park in Osaka is closed today, and plans to open again on 6 September.
We know that there are many people planning to visit Osaka in the near future, just as there are many tourists already in Osaka who may now be unable to fully enjoy their time in our city. On behalf of Osaka and all of the Kansai area, we aim to provide everyone with a safe and relaxing visit, says Hiroshi Mizohata, public foundation chairman of Osaka Tourism Bureau,.
The FCO updated its guidance for visiting Osaka following storm Jebi. If you are planning to travel through the affected areas, or use the airport, you should follow the advice of local authorities, transportation services and check with your airlines. The Osaka Prefectural government is publishing up-to-date information and guidance on their website, it said.
Jebi has since been downgraded to a tropical storm, and is now heading north of Japan.
Is it safe to visit Japan?
Japan is known for its extreme weather. In July, more than 200 were killed by a heatwave bringing temperatures of more than 40C and torrential rain.
As Japan is in a major earthquake zone you should familiarise yourself with safety procedures in the event of an earthquake or tsunami, and take note of instructions in hotel rooms, at train stations and on your local prefectural website, the FCO guidance states.
Information on earthquakes and any impact on towns and cities in Japan, including tsunami warnings, are published by the Japan Meteorological Agency. There are many smartphone apps available with information on how to stay safe in a natural disaster in Japan.
There are also several active volcanoes in Japan. In April, Mount Io on Kyushu Island exploded for the first time in 250 years.
Japan is also susceptible to tropical cyclones or typhoons, which are categorised as having winds of more than 70mph. The typhoon season runs from June to December, with storms most common between July and September. The FCO adds that southern Japan is most at risk.
Typhoons that hit Japan are often accompanied by damaging high tides. People living in coastal areas are particularly at risk. Landslides and flooding can occur anywhere. The dangers increase when an earthquake occurs shortly after a typhoon has saturated an area, the FCO states.
Despite the risk of natural disaster, Japan is generally a safe country to visit. More than 300,000 Brits visited Japan in 2017, with most visits trouble free, according to the FCO.
Dont settle for a boring hotel in Madrid. Groovy new hostels and revamped palaces have cool roof terraces, top restaurant chefs and cocktail lists so tempting that you may never leave the bar.
Wherever you choose to stay, you can drop into any of the places on this list for a drink or dinner and get some inspiration for your next visit Madrid tends to become a bit of a habit for many people.
The Independent's hotel reviews are unbiased, independent advice you can trust. On some occasions, we earn revenue if you click the links and book, but we never allow this to affect our coverage.
Best for luxury: Gran Hotel Ingles
Neighbourhood: Barrio de las Letras
Gran Hotel Ingles may be one of Madrids oldest hotels, but it retains a contemporary feel (Gran Hotel Ingles)
Madrids first proper hotel dating back to 1886 reopened in spring 2018 with a glamorous new look and the feel of a private club. Located in the centre of the Barrio de Las Letras, one of the citys liveliest and most characterful areas, this five-star hotel has sumptuous rooms and suites with free-standing baths and local craft beer chilling in the minibar. Renowned chef Willy Moya is at the helm in the Lobito 8 restaurant and the afternoon cocktails in the lobby bar are always a good idea.
Doubles from 284, room only
granhotelingles.com
Best for art lovers: The Pavilions Madrid
Neighbourhood: Chamberi
The black bear chair and artwork in The Pavilions lobby (The Pavilions Madrid)
The first thing you see when you walk into The Pavilions is a huge black bear lying in the lobby. Fear not its actually an artwork that doubles up as a squashy sofa. The Alvaro Alcazar gallery provides changing selections of paintings and sculptures in this new boutique hotel, which is just beyond the more touristy areas but still walking distance for shops, restaurants and museums. Raspberry, teal and tangerine tones dominate the rooms no bland minimalism here.
Doubles from 165, room only
pavilionshotels.com/madrid
Best for budget travellers: Generator Hostel
Neighbourhood: Gran Via
With one of the nicest rooftop bars in the city with drinks at sensible rather than silly prices located in the heart of Madrid, the Generator gets you straight into the swing of the Spanish capital. If you like the hostel buzz but want a bit more comfort, opt for a private room instead of a dorm bed. But, if a gang of you are going to Madrid for the weekend, up the fun factor by staying in the eight-bed party dorm on the roof.
Doubles from 65, room only
generatorhostels.com
Best for panoramic views: VP Plaza de Espana
Neighbourhood: Plaza de Espana
Ginkgo Restaurant & Sky Bar (VP Plaza Espana Design) (VP Plaza de Espana)
Its all about the 12th floor at this massive new luxury hotel, where both Madrilenians and guests love the wraparound terrace and huge restaurant and bar spaces with 360 views across the city to the Sierra de Guadarrama. Rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows too, so you can also take in the cityscape from your bed the best are on the 15th to 17th floors. At ground level, you can gaze across the Plaza de Espana from the hydrotherapy pool in the Biloba spa or grab a bite in the Botania bistro.
Doubles from 200, room only
plazaespana-hotel.com
Best for cocktails: 7 Islas
Neighbourhood: Malasana
Kick back in the contemporary confines of 7 Islas (7 Islas)
Swerve by the bar as you enter the industrial-style lobby and prepare to get seriously distracted by the potions created by Narciso Bermejo. He likes to customise his range of gins, matching each guests taste with herbs from the mountains near Madrid the perfect way to kick off a night trawling the bars of Malasana. Book one of the top-floor Atico rooms to get a terrace with sunbeds and yoga mats.
Doubles from 95, room only
7islashotel.com
Best for a romantic break: Heritage Madrid
Neighbourhood: Salamanca
The Detalle Junior Suite at Heritage Madrid (Heritage Madrid ) (Heritage Madrid)
The citys newest five-star hotel, in an elegant Belle Epoque building in Madrids smartest area, has exquisite interiors by coveted designer Lorenzo Castillo. Blue silk panels adorn the walls in the Haroma restaurant, which is overseen by Mario Sandoval, who has two Michelin stars. Rooms have hand-painted wallpaper in olive and gold and are furnished with antiques and original artworks. If you happen to have a special question to pop, the flower-filled roof terrace of this luxury hotel should fit the bill.
Doubles from 240, room only
heritagemadridhotel.com
Best for nightlife: Room Mate Oscar
Neighbourhood: Chueca
Room Mate Oscars rooftop pool area is one of the most fashionable summer hang-outs in Madrid (Room Mate Oscar)
Tired of taupe temples? The Room Mate Oscar will bring a bit of zing back into your life, with an emerald and blue lobby and orange, black and white rooms. The rooftop pool is one of the most fashionable spots to hang out in summer and the cocktail bar up there stays open all year round. Overlooking a square in Chueca Madrids main gay area and one of the coolest neighbourhoods the Oscar is surrounded by cafes and restaurants.
Doubles from 90, room only
room-matehotels.com/gb/oscar
Best for shopping: Totem
Neighbourhood: Salamanca
Contemporary chic is the order of the day at Totem (Totem)
The Totem is on the corner of two of the loveliest streets in Madrid, which just happen to be lined with upmarket boutiques. Theres a lot of navy and charcoal, but cerise and purple pop up too, while indigo sofas in the bar are conducive to decadent slouching when you slope back with your shopping haul. With a restaurant that is packed with well-heeled locals and mid-century modern style in the rooms, the Totem exudes chic glamour.
Doubles from 160, room only
totem-madrid.com
Best for a girls weekend: ME Reina de Victoria
Neighbourhood: Barrio de las Letras
Enjoy drinks at the Radio ME roof terrace (ME Reina de Victoria)
You can always find your way back to this gleaming white building as a purple beacon shines from the slate turret on the corner. Located on Plaza de Santa Ana, with its pavement cafes and tapas bars, the hotel is right in the thick of things, but the fabulous food at the trendy Ana La Santa restaurant at street level and the cocktails up on the Radio ME roof terrace mean you might struggle to leave the premises.
Doubles from 175, room only
mebymelia.com/hotels/me-madrid
Best for fashionistas: Only You Boutique
Neighbourhood: Chueca
Watch the Spanisih sun set at Only You (Only You)
With snazzy interiors by in-demand designer Lazaro Rosa-Violan and a location between the bars of Chueca and the boutiques of Salesas, the Only You Boutique is chic without reaching peak hipster. Unusually, rooms are available for 24 hours from the time you check in, so you can sleep late and theres no mad scramble down to breakfast either, as you can eat whenever it suits you. A spiral staircase leads up to suite 416, which has a pitched, beamed ceiling. Its like your own super stylish loft in Madrid, if only for a weekend.
Doubles from 165, room only
onlyyouhotels.com
Best for mixing culture and nightlife: Room Mate Alba
Neighbourhood: Barrio de las Letras
Stylish digs at Room Mate Alba (Room Mate Alba)
This is the latest opening from the cool Room Mate group, which has four other hotels in Madrid. The Alba, in a handsome traditional building, is on one of the best streets in the city for bars and restaurants, but is also a short stroll from the Prado, Thyssen-Bornemisza and Reina Sofia museums. The decor combines Turkish and Chinese details with Op-Art features, a bit of Bauhaus and quite a few other influences too. Its all rather louche and decadent a perfect fit for a barrio that was once home to writers such as Cervantes and Lope de Vega.
Doubles from 155, room only
room-matehotels.com/en/alba/
Best for soaking up history: Pestana Plaza Mayor
Neighbourhood: Madrid de los Austrias
The elegant restaurant at Pestana Plaza Mayor (Pestana Plaza Mayor) (Pestana)
Occupying the historic Casa de la Carniceria building, which forms part of Madrids landmark square, the Plaza Mayor, this new hotel is literally part of the fabric of the city. Contemporary design in the courtyard bar and restaurant draws on the gold, teal and mauve tones used by Velazquez and Goya. Up on the roof, you can gaze across the skyline of slate pinnacles as you slump on a red deckchair by the guests-only pool. In winter, you might prefer to loll in the sumptuous hammam under the brick vaults of the former cellars.
Doubles from 200, room only
pestanacollection.com/uk/hotel/pestana-madrid-plaza-mayor
Best for discreet glamour: Relais & Chateaux Orfila
Neighbourhood: Almagro
Relax in the refined Italianate terrace (Hotel Orfila)
The ornate design at this boutique hotel has been freshened up this year but the Orfila still oozes old-school charm. On a quiet street in an elegant, untouristy area that is close to shops, museums and restaurants, the hotel has classic decor in the rooms and a secret Italianate garden at the back. Shaded tables mean you might be still be lingering over your breakfast coffee at noon and the terrace is equally inviting for lunch and dinner. You could almost forget to venture out into the city.
Doubles from 266, room only
hotelorfila.com/en
Passengers booked to fly from London to New York on Norwegian in September and October have a 50 per cent chance of finding themselves on an entirely different airline altogether.
The long-haul low-cost carrier, which recently announced it carried a record 3.8 million passengers in July, has leased a 19-year-old Airbus 330 from Wamos Air to use on the route. This little-known Spanish airline operates charter flights from Spain to destinations in Central America including Cancun, Punta Cana and Guatemala.
In June, Norwegian announced that half of its London Gatwick to New York JFK flights would be operated by Wamos, thanks to ongoing engine trouble with its Boeing 787 "Dreamliner" aircraft, with the agreement lasting until 23 July.
Norwegian flies to a number of transatlantic destinations from London Gatwick. As well as New York, it flies to Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle.
Then at the end of August, Norwegian announced that the leased aircraft operation had been extended until 27 October, with one of every two daily flights it runs between London Gatwick and New York operated by a Wamos A330. Separately, Norwegian announced that Wamos will operate the six-times-weekly route from London Gatwick to Fort Lauderdale until 10 January 2019.
According to a Norwegian statement: In line with other airlines that have been affected by similar problems, continuing issues concerning a specific Rolls-Royce engine type have impacted our Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet availability. To mitigate the impact on our customers and to avoid cancellations we have wet-leased various aircraft from different providers to ensure that we can fly our complete schedule.
While Norwegian has won acclaim for its cheap transatlantic flights on the modern Dreamliner, Wamos Air does not share in its glory. The experience onboard Wamos has been called hilariously bad by The Points Guy, with the aviation website labelling the Wamos 747 business class service ancient and smelly.
Airlines "wet-lease" aircraft to make up the schedule if a plane cannot fly, or to make up extra demand. Last week, The Independent reported that British Airways wet-leased an Air Belgium aircraft to operate its London-Cairo route.
Nearly two years into his presidency, President Trump has not been able to muster the congressional support and funding to deliver on his key campaign promise to build a physical wall on the United States border with Mexico. However, the Presidents nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court looks set to dramatically shore up the invisible wall that has sprung up, and is arguably doing far more to restrict US immigration than any border wall ever will.
Although the border wall captured much of the early focus, the Trump administration has been busily bypassing Congress and focusing on the far-reaching changes in policies and procedures through the use of executive powers that have made up the invisible wall. While invisible, it is a very real phenomenon, however, keeping out even legal immigrants and making the processes of obtaining visas, migrating to or remaining in the US slower, less reliable and more difficult.
In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Show all 21 1 /21 In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AP In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AP In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images
Like the presidents travel ban executive order earlier this year, parts of this invisible wall are being legally challenged and more cases may ultimately reach the Supreme Court. Brett Kavanaughs nomination to replace the retired Justice Kennedy, who was often a swing vote in close or politically sensitive cases, becomes critical in part explaining the controversy surrounding his Senate confirmation hearings which began this week. If confirmed, Kavanaugh appears likely to serve as a reliable vote to uphold the Trump administrations immigration policies against any legal challenges that may come before it.
Due to media scrutiny, the wider public is aware of some of the Trump administrations most egregious actions against immigrants, such as the travel ban, the family separation border policy, and the decision to rescind DACA (an Obama-era policy aimed at preventing the deportation of undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children). Other changes, however, have flown under the radar despite having caused substantial changes to the legal immigration system.
These include the presidents Buy American and Hire American executive order signed in April 2017, which now requires US consular officers to consider whether the economic interests of American workers are threatened when adjudicating visa applications in five of the most common professional work visa categories. The new requirement which has no statutory basis has led to an increase in arbitrary visa denials for otherwise qualified applicants. This is harming the US employers whose businesses benefit from those workers, as well as the interests of UK and other foreign workers needing to travel to the US for work or business. Likewise, an October 2017 decision rescinded a longstanding policy of giving deference to prior approvals for many work visa extensions. This means that professional foreign workers can be told they no longer qualify under their visa category, despite multiple previous approvals and years of working in the same position for the same employer in the US. Further, the administrations extreme vetting of certain visa applicants abroad has resulted in applications being placed in an administrative processing queue, delayed for weeks, months, or longer, without ever disclosing the underlying reason for the delay or providing an estimated timeline.
Kavanaughs views on presidential authority and immigration, as reflected in his judicial record, suggest he will side with the Trump administration should immigration policy challenges reach the Supreme Court.
In a 2014 case stemming from a visa petition denial, Kavanaugh wrote a dissenting opinion concluding that a specially trained churrasqueiro chef did not qualify for a specialised knowledge visa to work at US-based Brazilian steakhouse chain Fogo de Chao. Focusing on the contention that Americans were being displaced by cheaper Brazilian labour, and that American workers could learn to do the job, Kavanaugh concluded that mere economic expediency does not authorise an employer to displace American workers for foreign workers. This approach is in line with the spirit and intent behind President Trumps Buy American and Hire American executive order, and suggests the White House will be able to count on Kavanaughs vote against a challenge to that order.
Kavanaugh also signalled a conservative approach to immigration matters in a 2008 case regarding whether the votes of undocumented immigrant workers could be included in an election to form a labour union. In another dissenting opinion, Kavanaugh agreed with the employer that undocumented workers could not be deemed employees under the relevant labour relations law, referring to the union election as having been tainted and diluted by the votes of the immigrant workers.
There are legal challenges working their way through the courts against a number of the Trump administrations immigration policies and decisions, including the rescission of DACA, the extreme vetting program, the termination of Temporary Protected Status for those fleeing unsafe conditions in countries such as Haiti, El Salvador and Honduras, and the termination of work authorisation for spouses of some professional workers. If Kavanaugh becomes a Supreme Court justice, he will likely be a key, if not deciding vote, on whether those legal challenges succeed or fail.
Based on an analysis of his decisions and other writings, legal scholars have concluded that Kavanaugh has a particularly broad view of the constitutional limits on presidential power and executive authority, giving deference to actions taken by a sitting president. Given that the Trump administrations changes to immigration policies and procedures have been instituted by the executive branch rather than through legislation, Kavanaughs view on executive authority coupled with his judicial record on immigration provide a reliable indication that, when faced with challenges to immigration policies, he could ultimately help provide the lasting structural integrity for Trumps invisible wall.
Karnig Dukmajian is a US immigration attorney at Laura Devine Solicitors in London
There were reports in October last year that the former military commanders in the Trump administration James Mattis, John Kelly and HR McMaster had renewed their pact not to be abroad at the same time. At least one will stay behind, they had decided, as a check against the wilder actions of the president.
Ten months on, Lieutenant General McMaster has gone as national security adviser, General John Kelly has been sidelined and on his way out. The chief of staff, it is reported, now spends a lot of his working day in the gym and privately says he does not care if Trump gets impeached.
According to the latest revelations from the White House, contained in Bob Woodwards new book, Fear: Trump in the White House, the general cant wait to get out of crazytown and thinks the president is an idiot and unhinged.
General Mattis is now really the last man standing among the three who felt it was their patriotic duty to protect the nation from a president they have been viewing with increasing alarm.
The question, however, is just how much longer will Mattis last in his job. The defence secretarys influence is dwindling. Trump has ignored his advice against tearing up the Iran nuclear deal; pulling out of the Paris climate change accord; moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem; dealing with North Koreas Kim Jong-un; banning transgender service personnel and sending the National Guard to the Mexican border.
The President has reportedly complained that Mattis is trying to block his radical approach and that the general looks down on him which, of course, he does. Woodwards book says Mattis regarded Trump as having the knowledge of a fifth or sixth grader on matters of foreign affairs
It should be noted that both Kelly and Mattis have denied the claims made by Woodward about their view of Trump. But the sentiments they are said to have expressed are remarkably similar to other accounts which have emerged about the fractious administration.
Fear: The 7 most explosive passages from Bob Woodward's Trump expose
What is clear is that there has been a change in Trumps relationship with the security establishment. He had shown an infatuation with the military in coming to office with the appointments he made. But his repeated denigration of people who had served their country with sacrifice and distinction has led to first, dismay, and then disgust among many who guard the nations security.
The insults towards John McCain have been one of the egregious examples of this: he said of the senator, who was shot down and imprisoned in Vietnam, "hes not a war hero... I like people that werent captured". Trump, of course, heroically avoided getting captured in Vietnam by repeatedly dodging the draft, a position that has been viewed with particular disgust.
Trump refused to release a White House statement praising McCain, countermanding officials (including, it is said, Mattis). The defence secretary, in his own statement, lauded McCain for a life embodying the military motto not for self, but for country, the opposite of the conduct of the sitting president, to his many critics.
Senior figures in the armed forces are increasingly, and publicly, showing their disapproval of Trump. When the President revoked security clearance for John Brennan, the former CIA head who has become one of his trenchant critics, Admiral William McRaven, who was in charge of the Navy Seal raid which killed Osama bin Laden, volunteered to have his own clearance taken away. McRaven described Brennan as: One of the finest public servants I have ever known. Few Americans had done more to protect this country than John. He is a man of unparalleled integrity whose honesty and character have never been in question.
Trumps one sided adoration of the armed forces may be over. McMasters replacement as national security adviser is John Bolton, a fellow Vietnam draft dodger. Among the names being for Mattiss possible successor is Stephen Hadley, who, like Bolton, became notorious for claims over non-existent weapons of mass destruction, disregarding cautions from the FBI and CIA.
Mattis has had one victory: simply ignoring Trumps demand that Syrias Bashar al-Assad is killed after the last chemical attack. But, overall, the losses keep mounting up for the former Marine commander. He lost his argument against Trumps fanciful "space force", leaving it to vice president Mike Pence to announce a vanity project which will be hugely costly before it almost certainly dies a death on Trumps departure.
The chosen battleground for the defence secretary now is very much terrestrial: trying to protect Americas alliances. There is little secret about Mattiss dismay at Trumps constant attacks on Nato. He is now out of tune with Trump on relationships with two strategic partners South Korea and India.
Mattis stated that the annual military exercises with South Korea will continue, while Trump has declared that they will be cancelled. He has complained about the cost and has claimed that saving it is one of the dividends of his hugely successful summit with Kim Jong-un, after which he tweeted that North Koreas nuclear threat is over. Trump has since cancelled a trip to Pyongyang by secretary of state Mike Pompeo, accusing Kim of failing to start the denuclearisation process. But such contradictions are nothing new for the US president.
Successive US administrations had spent years cultivating India as a counterweight against China. Mattis tried, and failed, to get a waiver for New Delhi on tariffs imposed in Trumps trade war. The move directly led to Beijing, which is of course one of the main targets of American tariff, and Delhi being pushed closer together. Mattis is now struggling to get waivers for India for more threatened sanctions, this time over the purchase of a Russian missile system.
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
The confrontations have been pretty open. Trump had agreed at the Singapore summit to suspend the military exercises in return for North Korea making concrete moves an offer made without informing the defence secretary. Asked recently whether the drills would be resumed, Mattis said the suspension was "a good faith measure [but] our military posture has not changed since the conclusion of the Singapore summit and we have no plans at this time to suspend any more exercises".
Trumps response was a rambling four-part tweet referring to himself in the third person, headed STATEMENT FROM THE WHITE HOUSE and stating: The President believes that his relationship with Kim Jong-un is very good and warm one and there is no reason at this time to be spending large amounts of money on joint US-South Korea war games. They may be re-started in the future, he allowed, when of course they will be far bigger than ever before.
The threat of punitive economic measures on India comes over New Delhis plans to purchase Russias new S-400 missiles system, which Washington says will breach US sanctions on Moscow. Mattis has pointed out that India (which got the bulk of its weapons from Russia during the Cold War) is bound to continue some of that trade while, in fact, increasingly switching to supplies from the west.
It is ironic that the sanctions on Russia are for interference in the US election which allegedly put Trump in the White House allegations the president has described as fake news. They have been imposed by congress with Trump making little effort to hide that he did not approve of them.
The matter may boil down to a matter of commerce. The US is keen to sell New Delhi an alternative missile system. When you invest in a system, you are investing in a relationship as well. Russia is not going to be a good partner for India or anybody else given the nature of the regime, Randall Schriver, a mid-level Pentagon official opined. India can get Washingtons approval by spending vast sums on American weaponry instead, as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and others had done.
Addressing a group of soldiers on a visit to Afghanistan last year, Mattis said: Our country right now has these problems, and you know it and I know it. Its got these problems we dont have in the military... you just hold the line until our country gets back to understanding and respecting each other and showing it.
The time for Mattis to hold the line in this administration may soon be over. The missile system will be one of the topics when the US defence secretary and secretary of state Mike Pompeo meet their Indian counterparts in the inaugural "2+2" dialogue in New Delhi this week. The defence secretary has been working hard to promote these meetings with key allies; he may not be around to attend many more of them in the future.
The unveiling of the supposed Leonardo masterpiece, Salvator Mundi, at the Louvre Abu Dhabi has been postponed indefinitely. Making the announcement via Twitter, the museum gave no reasons for the delay nor any indication about when the painting might be hung on its beautiful walls. Some have suggested that the postponement might be to ensure that the unveiling coincides with the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vincis death next year in 2019 or perhaps with the first anniversary of the Louvre Abu Dhabis opening, on 11 November.
But might there be another possibility? Maybe the directors and the money men behind the museum, constructed at enormous expense and amid great controversy on Saadiyat Island in the Persian Gulf, are having second thoughts about the authenticity of their acquisition. No one in the history of the world has ever spent as much money on a work of art as Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al Saud a Saudi prince and the country's culture minister who was himself almost certainly acting as a middle man for the museum did last year. To the best of everyones knowledge, hed never bought any art before and then went and splurged nearly half a billion dollars on this painted pudding.
Da Vinci's 'Salvator Mundi' becomes most expensive painting in history
Scholarship, it would appear, is shifting away from the attribution. The panel has always had its sceptics, even after its restoration. Indeed, that restoration itself is coming under scrutiny, with revelations that re-touching carried on after its authentication as part of the National Gallery show, Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan, in 2011-12 and before it was sold in 2017. Why? If it was already a Leonardo, why did it need to look more like a Leonardo? The promised technical reports by the group of scholars who authenticated the painting and were responsible for its restoration have remained just that: promised.
In my view, there are a great many things wrong with Salvator Mundi all of which should call into question its origins. It is damaged, its true, and was badly overpainted in the past; although restoration removed a lot of this, it has, as Ive said, also been extensively repainted in recent years. Still, the drawing is lumpen: one hand is inexplicably larger than the other, the pose is full-on, flat, a painterly furlong from the style adopted by Leonardo in works from around 1500, its supposed date; the face looks sly and smug and not at all Saviour-like (compare it with the haunting Christ in the Last Supper); and the relationship between the hand clutching the crystal orb and the rest of the body is ill-defined to say the least.
Now, everyone says how masterful that orb is, but, as various experts have suggested, anyone with the tiniest powers of observation will know that what can be seen through a solid object of crystal or glass will look distorted, enlarged or reduced. Yet whoever painted this rendered the sleeve and mantle as if there were nothing at all between them and the eye.
For Leonardo, whose greatness is beyond doubt, observation and truth were fundamental. His eye was the most eagle-like of any artist, and he spent years and years observing natural phenomena, including crystal, so that he could reproduce their effects in minute detail. Other gazed-through objects some of the glasses littering the table in the Last Supper, the vase in the Madonna of the Carnation in Munich show definite distortion of what can be seen behind them. Even an old 17th century engraving of the Salvator Mundi prototype by Bohemian artist Wenceslaus Hollar indicates some distortion of the clothing seen through the crystal orb.
What we have here must be a workshop effort, parts of which may and I stress may have been retouched by the master himself. But by no stretch of the imagination is this otherwise unsightly mess an authentic, complete work by Leonardo da Vinci. I know some others disagree. I have no doubts.
But to what extent has debate about this painting been coloured by the way in which it was acquired, at a hyped-up auction (Christies referred to the piece emotionally as the last da Vinci) through surrogates who may or may not have been representing the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia or other unknowns, for a museum that masquerades as the Louvre (the original in Paris being one of the greatest depositories of works by Leonardo in the world; the copy in Abu Dhabi a result of a deal which rewarded the French state with an eye-watering amount of money)? The buyers, the museum and the authorities in the region cannot afford for too many doubts to be raised.
The whole process to me highlights the perils of authentication, particularly when its purpose is big money rather than simple appreciation. Can any old daub be a Leonardo if someone is willing to pay for it as if it were? If so, I may have a few in my attic should anyone be interested.
Frankly, this whole episode has been smoke and mirrors all the way: the painting sold at auction in 2017 is substantially not the painting shown at the National Gallery in 2011. Nothing is what it seems to be, not even the unveiling of the Abu Dhabi Louvres most expensive acquisition. Because ultimately it isnt there until it is there; just as it isnt by Leonardo until it is.
Nothing makes the nation feel collectively older than the return of children to school each September, so arguably it was commendable on the part of Westminster to provide a soothing antidote for all those agonied moments at the school gates in recent days.
Dont worry, they returned to reassure at noon on Wednesday, you might feel the sands of time slipping through your fingers, but look! The country is still run by toddlers, and if anything, we are getting even more babyish with every precious passing day.
Lets start with the Brexit farrago then move on to the antisemitism farce shall we?
With his second question to the prime minister, Jeremy Corbyn wanted to know who Theresa May agreed with over the consequences of a no-deal Brexit. Was it her (new) foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, who had called it a huge geostrategic mistake, or her chancellor, who in a letter to a parliamentary committee has warned it would lead to a loss of GDP of around 8 per cent, and as such be comparable to the financial crisis of 2008.
At this point the prime minister stood up and said something that, in less mad times, might have been history making.
Her lips began their now familiarly violent quiver, which if youve never had the pleasure of witnessing then just try and imagine Madonna getting unexpectedly Tasered right in the middle of the climactic dance break in the Ray of Light video. Traditionally this is only seen in the moment she knows she has little choice but to deliver an abysmal pre-planned joke that someone else has written, so seasoned May watchers knew something ridiculous was on its way, but no one was quite prepared for this.
The director of the WTO, she said, loudly, has said a no-deal Brexit will not be a walk in the park, but it will not be the end of the world.
The howls of derision were loud, but frankly, not loud enough. This is the actual prime minister, having to distance herself from the words of her most senior ministers, and deploy, by way of an actual defence, somebody else entirely, who has said it will not be the end of the world.
The best defence the prime minister can come up with. The best line of attack. It will not be the end of the world.
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
Just slip out of your robe and have a wallow in that one for a moment. No-deal Brexit might very well not be the end of the world. It might, indeed, merely be a huge geostrategic mistake, or economically comparable to the financial crash. But, months out from the increasingly likely event, this is the very best the prime minister can find to sell it.
Is it possible to feel sorry for her? Perhaps, yes. Certainly, she seems to feel more comfortable in her skin at the moment, but that speaks volumes in its own way. She has rid herself of Boris Johnson and David Davis, and taken over the Brexit negotiations herself. May is never happier than when she in charge of everything, when nothing is delegated. Brexit may be about to enter its nosedive phase, but at least everyone else is out of the cockpit.
Here she is, having her painstaking Chequers agreement trashed by her own party, driving her with extreme reluctance towards no deal. And who by? Thats right, the very people who said no deal couldnt possibly happen, because the Germans will want to sell us our cars, the Italians their prosecco. The catastrophe they are demanding is the precise one they said couldnt happen.
With regard to those people, by the way, directly after Prime Ministers Questions, Theresa May updated the house on the latest developments in the Salisbury poisonings. When she had finished, and Jeremy Corbyn had replied, Boris Johnson was straight on his feet to attack the Labour leader for his weasely language and his apparent refusal to condemn Russia directly. He is not without a point, but it might also be worth remembering that on the day the prime minister convened an emergency meeting over the murder by chemical attack of an innocent civilian, and the Russian state being the prime suspect, Boris Johnson was the foreign secretary. He didnt go to the meeting because he was busy with the photoshoot he had organised himself for the signing of his own resignation letter.
It is, sadly, just about worth putting on record how the session had begun. Before the speaker had come to Jeremy Corbyn, up stood Maggie Throup, hitherto unknown MP for Erewash, to gently ask the prime minister to provide some kind of general comment on just how bad antisemitism is.
Naturally, Theresa May did so, culminating, before Jeremy Corbyn could speak, with a demand for an apology for one of the summers many antisemitism related incidents.
Because nothing screams my grave concerns about antisemitism are so very grave indeed than having a backbench nobody provide the transparently crass setup for your little pre-emptive attack.
It was, without question, every bit as dry-boak inducing as anything the Labour Party has managed all summer.
Politicians will always politick. They will take the easy points where they can. But if they ever do wonder why general surveys consistently find them to be roughly as popular in public opinion terms as estate agents, bailiffs and Jehovahs witnesses, here was an especially delightful vignette.
More of the same next week, you can be absolutely sure of that.
A least one child has been killed and thousands have been left without power as Tropical Storm Gordon makes its way into the central Gulf Coast.
The storm smashed into an area between Alabama and the Florida panhandle with high-force winds and torrential rains Tuesday night, clocking in with maximum winds of 70 mph, according to the National Hurricane Centre.
While Gordon did not reach wind speeds necessary to be classified as a hurricane as had been predicted, the fast-moving system still brought potentially life-threatening conditions for areas between Mississippi and Alabama where the storm is expected to bring rapid storm surges and violent weather.
Recommended Tropical Storm Gordon warnings issued for parts of South Florida
The child was killed in Pensacola, Florida, where high winds snapped a tree onto a mobile home.
The death was confirmed by the Escambia County Sheriffs Office in a Facebook post, which said that authorities had responded to a 9-1-1 call at around 9pm local time. The name and age of the child has not been released, and nobody else was reported injured in that incident.
Anticipating the storm, schools were closed as states of emergency were declared across the central Gulf Coast.
Animals take shelter from Hurricane Irma at Zoo Miami Show all 8 1 /8 Animals take shelter from Hurricane Irma at Zoo Miami Animals take shelter from Hurricane Irma at Zoo Miami Jennifer Nelson, senior keeper at Zoo Miami, leads a cheetah named Koda to a hurricane resistant structure within the zoo, Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017 in Miami. AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee Animals take shelter from Hurricane Irma at Zoo Miami Ryan Martinez, a trainer at Zoo Miami, places an Eurasion Eagle Owl into a crate AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee Animals take shelter from Hurricane Irma at Zoo Miami Flamingos at Zoo Miami, are shown in a temporary enclosure in a hurricane resistant structure within the zoo, (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee) Animals take shelter from Hurricane Irma at Zoo Miami Brown pelicans and an American white pelican take refuge in a shelter ahead of the downfall of Hurricane Irma at the zoo in Miami REUTERS/Adrees Latif Animals take shelter from Hurricane Irma at Zoo Miami An African crested porcupine is moved into a shelter ahead of the downfall of Hurricane Irma at the zoo in Miami, Florida, REUTERS/Adrees Latif Animals take shelter from Hurricane Irma at Zoo Miami A macaw parrot looks out of it's cage after being put into a shelter REUTERS/Adrees Latif Animals take shelter from Hurricane Irma at Zoo Miami An African grey parrot is moved into a shelter ahead of the downfall of Hurricane Irma REUTERS/Adrees Latif Animals take shelter from Hurricane Irma at Zoo Miami Cheetahs are photographed in a shelter ahead of the downfall of Hurricane Irma at the zoo in Miami, Florida, REUTERS/Adrees Latif
While the biggest threat to the region is heavy rains and flooding, the National Weather Service has warned that there is a small chance the weather system could cause a tornado to form to the east of its forecasted path.
It is unclear if any other individuals may have been killed or injured by the storm aside from the child.
Around 27,000 people were hit with power cuts as Gordon approached the American mainland. Those outages mostly impacted Alabama, but areas on the western edge of the Florida and in parts of Mississippi have also seen their lights go dark.
The US could be hit by another major storm in the near future as well, with Hurricane Florence being named the first major hurricane of the 2018 season as a Category 3 storm.
The National Hurricane Centre says the storm had reached maximum sustained winds of 125 mph as of Wednesday morning, and is around 2,000 miles from the American coastline.
That distance means it is hard to make a prediction at this point whether it will hit the US but forecasts show there is something of a probability that it will hit the East Cost somewhere between northern Florida and Washington, DC.
If that happens, the storm would likely hit or come dangerously close sometime late next week.
WASHINGTON - As the current holder of the presidency of the UN Security Council, the US will be holding a meeting of it on Friday to address the situation in Idlib.
The province, in northwestern Syria, is the last stronghold held by opposition forces and the Syrian regime has said it plans to retake control with Russia support. US ambassador Nikki Haley made the announcement, saying that ''what you are seeing is the president (Trump) saying to Iran, Russia and Assad, don't go there. Do not let a chemical attack happen on the people of Idlib''.
''If chemical weapons are used, the United States will respond,'' she added. Airstrikes in recent days have resulted in deaths in the province. Halley said that most countries that are members of the UN supported the meeting.
Despite Ireland being the biggest source of the UKs food imports in relation to beef and dairy, agri-food trade across the Irish Sea is not one-way traffic, British Irish Chamber of Commerce seminar heard this morning.
It was highlighted that Ireland imports in the region of 4bn per annum of agri-food products from the UK.
It was in this context that Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed who provided the keynote address said that a no-deal is the worst possible deal for the agri-food sector both in Ireland and in the UK.
It would almost certainly result in the imposition of tariffs on food exports in both directions in addition to non tariff barriers such as customs inspection formalities.
This would be a damaging combination of additional with would damage food business in both jurisdictions, he said.
The Minister also outlined that Irelands contingency planning is well advanced and said his Department is working with customs other authorities to ensure they are prepared to fulfil there legal obligations in any scenario.
Minister Creed outlined the contingency measures the Government are taking to enhance the competitiveness of the agri-food sector in Ireland, and strongly reiterated the Governments determination to secure the best outcome possible from the Brexit negotiations.
At the event the British Irish Chamber of Commerce called for enhanced measures to Brexit-proof Irelands agri-food sector in Budget 2019.
The fifth in its series, the #Agenda2018 seminar was an opportunity for business leaders, policy makers and representative organisations in the agri-food sector to discuss the impact of Brexit on the industry.
Panellists from leading exporters and the large agri-food ecosystem also outlined how they can forge a shared future for both sectors across the Irish Sea.
The Ministers remarks were followed by a presentation by Tara McCarthy, CEO of Bord Bia and a speech by the CEO of Greencore Patrick Coveney who stressed the importance of protecting trade links with Irelands most important market for agri-food products.
Patrick Coveney said: The growth and development of the food sectors on both sides of the Irish Sea has been strongly intertwined over many generations. Todays integrated supply chain is a direct result of our shared history.
With large Irish food businesses operating in the UK and numerous UK retailers in Ireland, it is our mutual interest to ensure cooperation continues into the future irrespective of the outcome of Brexit negotiations.
With uncertainty now surrounding those links, it is the British Irish Chambers position that the Government must urgently enhance the competitiveness of Irelands agri-food offering. The introduction of a carbon tax on the sector in Budget 2019 would only further undermine the capacity of Irish agri-food companies to prepare for Brexit and to diversify their trading links.
Steps should instead be taken to provide state supports to all businesses exposed to the UK market and to increase funding to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI). Through these measures we can ensure the agri-food sector is robust enough to withstand the impact of Brexit.
FILE PHOTO: The corporate logo of Bayer is seen at the headquarters building in Caracas May 6, 2015. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo
Bayer cut its earnings forecast on Wednesday due to delays to its $63 billion takeover of Monsanto, and said sales of its consumer care products fell, hitting its shares, already reeling from a legal battle over the weed killer Roundup.
The weaker earnings forecast adds to a number of challenges facing the German drugmaker as it braces for years of legal wrangling over the alleged cancer risks of glyphosate-based weedkillers.
Bayer said the number of plaintiffs seeking damages over Monsantos Roundup and Ranger Pro herbicides had risen to 8,700 from 8,000 from last month, and said that it expected more to sue. It has vowed to defend itself in court, citing regulators and studies as saying the products are safe.
The inventor of aspirin and the maker of Yasmin birth control pills is struggling to stem falling sales at its consumer health arm as U.S. consumers switch from drugstores to online shops, and it faces increasing pressure to strengthen its pharmaceutical division after a string of setbacks.
The company lowered its forecast for adjusted core earnings per share for the year to 5.70 - 5.90 euros, down from 6.64 in 2017, short of analyst expectations, dragging the stock down as much as 3.7pc in morning trade.
The shares were down 1 percent at 1030 GMT, leading to a loss of about 16 percent since a U.S. jurys verdict on Aug. 10 for Monsanto to pay close to $300 million in damages in the first of thousands of lawsuits over alleged links between the Roundup weedkiller and cancer.
Second-quarter earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), adjusted for one-off items, rose to 2.34 billion euros ($2.71 billion), the company said on Wednesday, below an average estimate for 2.44 billion in a Reuters poll of analysts. The company blamed delays to the closure of its mammoth acquisition of Monsanto, which meant it missed out on a typically stronger first-half than the second for the seeds maker it agreed to buy in 2016.
It is clear that analysts have not appreciated the extent of this phasing deviation, said analyst Alistair Campbell at brokerage Berenberg. Nevertheless, this will disappoint.
The addition of Monsanto will make Bayer as reliant on farming supplies as on pharmaceuticals for earnings. It is in the midst of an overhaul of its drug research and development activities that could result in job cuts as it faces calls to beef up its development pipeline.
Quarterly adjusted EBITDA at the enlarged Crop Science division, now the worlds largest supplier of seeds and pesticides, almost doubled to a better-than-expected 631 million euros, helped by a recovery in Brazil and as Monsanto, part of Bayer since June 7, contributed 70 million.
But its consumer health business, which makes Claritin against allergies, Coppertone sun screen and Dr. Scholls foot care products, saw earnings fall by 18.5 percent as a weak U.S. dollar weighed on the value of overseas sales and as customers continued to shop elsewhere for cheaper products.
Berenbergs Campbell said the division remains highly problematic.
Bayer said it would still pay out a dividend per share for 2018 that was at least at the year-earlier level, more than its dividend payout policy of 30 to 40pc of core earnings per share would command.
A no-deal Brexit would be catastrophic for Irelands 1.7billion meat exports trade with Britain, Meat Industry Ireland (MII) has warned.
It is calling on the Government to make diversification of the meat industry an urgent priority and to support investment in modernising cutting plants and product development for new markets.
The scale of the investment needed, the urgency for action and the return it delivers to the overall economy, particularly the rural economy, warrants appropriate Government support, said MII director Cormac Healy.
For this to happen we need changes to the State Aid rules at EU level. While our Government has worked well to position Irish concerns in the Brexit negotiations and has increased investment in food marketing and low cost agri-loans, the progress on State Aid is lacking.
Now is the time for companies to be making such investments and now is the time for both Brussels and the Irish Government to be facilitating important investment projects with meaningful grant assistance.
However, Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed responded by saying: Investments in large companies, including those in the food sector, are very much constrained by EU State Aid Rules designed to ensure a level playing field across member states when it comes to State investment in industry.
These rules are an essential element of the Single Market that is such a critical platform for Irish exports.
Against the background of Brexit, and as part of its contingency preparations, my Department has been engaging intensively with the European Commission on flexibilities that might be required under these rules to permit the State to assist industry in exceptional circumstances. These discussions are continuing, he said.
In the starkest assessment yet of the potential impact of Brexit, MII said: A No Deal Brexit is the worst-case scenario for Irish beef, the wider meat sector and the whole of the Irish agri-food sector. It would plunge us into a situation of World Trade Organisation (WTO) tariffs, which would cripple trade.
Disruption
The European Meat Association has estimated that the imposition of WTO tariffs would reduce exports of meat from the EU to the UK by up to 84pc for beef, 76pc for sheepmeat and 48pc for pigmeat.
And even if a soft Brexit agreement is reached, MII warned that customs and veterinary checks on meat produce would be an issue in any form of Brexit as the UK would still be outside the Single Market and Customs Union.
Beyond the threat of major loss of business with the UK arising from a No Deal Brexit, MII is also concerned for the potential disruption in trade by Irish exporters with continental Europe and Scandinavia, given that so much of our exports to these markets transit the UK landbridge.
An estimated 90pc of our meat exports to Europe transits the UK.
MII also warned: There are no markets that could absorb, in the short or medium term, the major volumes of beef that would be displaced by a No Deal Brexit.
The EU beef market would be driven into an immediate surplus, with beef self-sufficiency jumping from 102pc today to 116pc.
While British ministers have said they are confident of negotiating a phased Brexit withdrawal agreement with the EU ahead of the November deadline for a deal, little progress has been made on resolving what the EU has labelled the 'red line' issues - including the Irish border.
The EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier last week said it was "critical" and "urgent" to come to a resolution how to resolve the conundrum of how to avoid a hard border between the Republic and Northern Ireland.
The 'backstop' - a safety net that guarantees an invisible border, though there is no agreement on how it will work - "is critical to conclude negotiations," Barnier said after meeting with UK Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab on Friday in Brussels.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has proposed a long-term solution that would see Britain keep all the EU's rules for trade in goods and agri-food - in theory removing the need for customs and standards checks at the border.
But under her blueprint, the UK would be able to adopt different rules from the EU on the services trade, which makes up 80 percent of the British economy, as well as its own immigration and international trade regimes.
EU officials regard this approach as unacceptable cherry-picking.
An Achill sheep farmer had to be rescued from the bottom of a cliff after he went to retrieve his dog, who had fallen over the cliff while herding sheep.
The incident occurred at approximately 5pm on Friday afternoon, August 24 when the sheep farmer, who was in his 60s, was herding sheep along the Atlantic Drive, near the village of Cloughmore.
His dog fell over the 40 metre high cliff and the Shepard took it upon himself to climb down, to retrieve his canine companion.
However, there was no way for the man to climb back up the cliff edge, and they found themselves alone in an isolated location.
Fortunately the man had contacted the local Coast Guard unit before he decided to climb down to retrieve the dog, and they were able to locate him.
A Coast Guard spokesperson told The Mayo News that the rescued person suffered no injuries.
The man was in no immediate danger but there was no way he was getting out on his own. He was not getting out without being brought up on a rope or by the helicopter.
"When we arrived, we set up our climbing team to retrieve the casualty and his dog but the Sligo-based R118 (rescue helicopter) was returning from Shannon and diverted to the scene. When they arrived they were able to winch the man and his dog to safety without much difficulty, the spokesperson said.
The Coast Guard spokesperson advised people not to try to rescue their pets or animals if they get into difficulty in dangerous areas, as they may end up endangering themselves.
The man should have waited for us but didnt and we had to rescue them. We would not normally rescue pets or animals but we are trained and if it stops people endangering themselves, we will do it. We will rescue anyone, no matter how unusual the situation is, he concluded.
Mince meat was the most commonly contaminated product followed by sausages, kebabs and restaurant curries.
Meat testing carried out by the UK Food Standards Agency contains the DNA of different animals than advertised.
The information was discovered following a Freedom of Information request by the BBC. It found that out of 665 Food Standards Agency (FSA) tests on meat from Northern Ireland, England and Wales 145 were partly or wholly made up of unspecified meat.
Some samples contained DNA from up to four different animals and others contained no meat from animals that were advertised.
Lamb was the meat mostly likely to be contaminated, followed by beef and goat, while cow DNA was the most commonly found contaminant in other meat.
Mince meat was the most commonly contaminated product followed by sausages, kebabs and restaurant curries.
The BBC revealed that in total 73 of the contaminated samples came from retailers - including three supermarkets. A further 50 came from restaurants, while 22 originated from manufacturing or food processing plants.
The samples came from 487 businesses, including restaurants and supermarkets.
A number of the samples came from Northern Ireland.
The FSA said the levels were consistent with "deliberate inclusion" - but added testing had targeted those businesses suspected of "compliance issues".
However the FSA said the results were "not representative of the wider food industry".
This latest data comes five years after the horsemeat scandal. In 2013, Irish food safety authorities detected beefburgers containing horsemeat.
Irish authorities were the first to discover and disclose the issue of adulteration of beef with horsemeat; and that was essentially a wakeup call for what turned out to be a pan-European problem.
AIB's chief financial officer Mark Bourke will leave the bank next year, the company announced today.
The bank said Mark Bourke had informed the board of his intention to step down as chief financial officer and as a director of the group, he'll leave in early 2019 following completion of his notice period.
Mr Bourke was chief executive at listed financial services group IFG for eight years, before opting to take a substantial pay cut to join state-owned AIB - where a 500,000 a year salary cap applies - in April 2014.
Since then he's played a key role in the majority state owner lender's re-flotation on the stock market last year.
Revenue at the UK's Breedon Group has risen 16pc to 378m (419m) in the six months to 30 June.
The performance was helped by the groups acquisition of Northern Ireland building materials group Lagan for 455m (527m) in April, with Breedon describing Lagans performance over ten weeks under its ownership as having "exceeded expectations" in a trading update today.
First half underlying operating profit rose 17pc year-on-year to 42m. This was below Davy forecasts of 44.7m for the period, with the shortfall reflecting what Breedon described as "testing trading conditions exacerbated by the severe weather in the first quarter and rising input costs throughout the period."
Nonetheless, Breedon, which is the UK's largest independent construction materials group, said it remains "comfortable with current market expectations for 2018."
Net debt at 30 June was 384m, up from 110m at the start of the year, with the increase largely due to the Lagan acquisition.
While the groups underlying basic earnings per share was 1.96 pence, a 7pc increase year-on-year.
Regulators at the Central Bank have ordered managers of Irish-domiciled mutual funds to review fees charged to investors, after uncovering evidence of possible overcharging.
The Central Bank of Ireland's Director General Financial Conduct, Derville Rowland, said the regulator is concerned that guidance on how fees are levelled is not being applied in a consistent and comprehensive manner across the industry, which, she said, could lead to the overpayment of performance fees.
That followed an inspection into undertakings for the collective investment of transferable securities (UCITS) performance fees. UCITS are structures used to manage and sell mutual funds.
Following inspections, the Central Bank said in some cases fees in such structures may be accrued as a result of market movements rather than due to the performance of the investment manager.
Where performance fees are based on the outperformance of an index, it was unclear as to which version of the index was being used in some cases, the Central Bank said.
As a result of the investigation, which looked a sample of funds, all fund management companies whose Irish UCITS charge performance fees are required to confirm to the Central Bank that they have carried out a review of the existing methodologies in order satisfy themselves that performance fees charged comply with the guidance.
The Central Bank said it will also commence supervisory engagement with the individual UCITS that were the subject of the review.
UCITS established in Ireland are authorised under common EU regulations.
China's telecommunication giants China Telecom and China Unicom have both denied reports that they will merge, reports Beijing Morning Post.
[File photo: VCG]
A Bloomberg report on Tuesday cited unnamed insiders claiming that China is considering merging two of its top wireless carriers in order to speed up the country's 5G development, although a final decision hadn't been made.
However, both companies released statements on their official Weibo accounts later in the day, saying they are not aware of any such plans.
The share prices of the two companies in the Hong Kong market surged following the news, with China Unicom rising by about 5.9 percent and China Telecom gaining 4 percent.
There has long been speculation of a possible merger between China Telecom and China Unicom, but the reports have always been denied by the two companies.
There was a sharp rise in activity in the services sector in August.
The improvement was driven by strong client demand, with the new business index increasing slightly from the prior months level and indicating a sharp rise in activity, according to the latest Services Purchases Managers Index (PMI) from specialist bank Investec.
The headline PMI increased to 58.0, having fallen to a four-month low of 57.4 in July. Any reading over 50 is deemed growth.
During the month the rate of expansion in new export business slowed to a five-month low, however this index also pointed towards strong levels of growth with some panellists reporting higher order volumes from clients in the UK.
Companies responded to increased demand by adding to headcounts at the fastest pace seen in 2018 so far.
Rising new business resulted in a further accumulation of backlogs of work during August, although the pace at which outstanding business increased eased in the month.
Looking at margins, and input costs rose sharply, which panellists attributed to higher staff and fuel costs.
In response, service providers raised their selling prices to the greatest extent since March. Although profitability increased at a solid pace during the three months to August, the rate of growth eased to the weakest since the three months to April.
Looking ahead, while there has been a slowdown in expected levels of business in 12 months time, the level remains consistent with strong optimism, the PMI has found.
More than 44pc of panellists foresee a rise in activity over the coming year, against 6pc that expect a decline and optimism is again greatest in the tech, media and telecoms (TMT) sector.
"Considered alongside the Investec Manufacturing PMI Ireland report, this weeks PMI releases suggest that the rate of growth in activity across much of Irelands private sector remains strong," Philip OSullivan, economist with Investec, said.
Chairman: US billionaire and TPG co-founder David Bonderman has led Ryanair since 1996
Ryanair's billionaire chairman should not be re-elected to the airline's board at the company's upcoming annual general meeting, according to the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) and the European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF).
The two organisations have urged Ryanair shareholders to oppose David Bonderman's re-election.
The ITF and ETF said that they and their affiliate unions have "lost confidence" in the ability of Ryanair's leadership to transition to a "sustainable, unionised business model".
They want an "independent" chairman appointed at the airline. Mr Bonderman is a co-founder of US private equity giant TPG. "If Ryanair is serious about engaging with workers and unions then the time has come for fresh leadership," the federations said.
Ryanair's AGM last year was dominated by a pilot rostering failure that ultimately saw it agree before Christmas to recognise unions.
Mr Bonderman has been chairman of Ryanair since 1996 and owns a 104m stake in the company. Ryanair deems that Mr Bonderman's interest is "not so material as to breach the spirit of the independence rule" contained in the UK corporate governance code. Two former Ryanair executives, Howard Millar and Michael Cawley, are non-executive directors at the airline. Both are considered independent.
"At the end of last year ITF, ETF and our affiliates welcomed the prospect of a new era of co-operation with the company," said ITF general secretary Stephen Cotton. "Instead, we have seen the stalling, antagonism and underhanded tactics continue."
He claimed Ryanair has a "seriously antiquated corporate governance model".
He added: "Keeping the same chair for over two decades and installing former Ryanair executives as 'independent' non-executives does not lend itself to proper scrutiny and challenge in the boardroom."
Ryanair did not respond to a request for comment.
For those who can take the plunge, where and how should they do it?
There has been a fall in the number of first-time buyers being approved for a mortgage.
New buyers are now competing with local authorities for new and second-hand houses, according to the Banking and Payments Federation. But the numbers switching mortgage have risen.
A total of 523 householders switched their mortgage in July, up from just over 300 in the same month last year. First-time buyers still represent the largest share of those getting mortgage approval at just around half of the home-loans given the go-ahead by banks. But there has been a squeeze on new buyers.
A total of 1,957 new buyers were approved for a mortgage in July, down 79 from the same month last year, according to the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland.
In the year so far there were 21,878 mortgages approved for first-time buyers, a fall of 346 in a year.
This is despite expectations there would be a rise in the numbers of approvals for new buyers. Many potential buyers are coming up against Central Bank rules that restrict what they can bid for a property.
The chief economist of the banking federation, Dr Ali Ugur, also said home buyers were competing with local authorities and investment funds when bidding for new and second-hand homes.
Local authorities acquired almost 2,900 houses in the past two years.
Meanwhile, housebuilder Cairn said that in the first half of the year its average selling price of new homes was 393,000, which excludes VAT.
Irish company Cubic Telecom has extended its partnership with Audi through the expansion of its connected car footprint into the Asian market.
Cubic Telecom connects cars and computers to mobile networks.
Powered by Cubic Telecoms connectivity management solution, Audi is providing high-speed 4G-enabled connected services in its cars in Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan through Audi connect.
Following the extension of the partnership, Cubic Telecoms connected car services will now operate in more than 40 countries around the world, with 1.5 million cars having access to this technology.
"Audi is a valuable partner to Cubic as we hold a shared vision focused on innovative technologies for the future of mobility," Barry Napier, CEO of Cubic Telecom, said.
"Our expansion into the Asian market represents a significant growth opportunity and I am pleased that our partnership in this region underscores our rapid rise to becoming the leading technology enabler of the connected car movement around the globe."
The connected Audi cars will have a number of integrated infotainment services including real-time navigation, route guidance (traffic, fuel, parking information etc.) and apps such as the news and weather, presented to the driver on a long-lasting hi-resolution screen.
"Cubics technical solution allows Audi to drive efficiency and competency in our delivery of connected services, enhancing the ultimate driving experience Audi customers have come to expect," Jens Kotz, connected architecture, energy and security lead at Audi, said.
Based in Dublin, Cubic Telecom is a privately held company with over 75m in funding.
Investors include Audi Electronics Venture, Qualcomm, Valid, Enterprise Ireland and the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund.
"We are honoured to have been selected by the government of the Commonwealth of Dominica for this transformational project which will provide the foundation for the provision of new advanced digital services such as eGovernment, Safe and Smart Cities, Connected Health and Smart Education, and make them a powerful reality for the people of Dominica," said Digicel Group CEO Alexander Matuschka (p)
Digicel has landed a contract from the government of the Commonwealth of Dominica, in the West Indies, to rebuild and manage the country's telecommunications and ICT services infrastructure.
The 15-year contract is understood to be worth tens of millions of dollars.
Dominica, an island nation sometimes confused with the bigger Dominican Republic, also in the Caribbean, issued a tender for the works as it looks to recover from the devastating effects of Hurricane Maria in September last year.
The contract means Digicel will undertake the rebuilding and provisioning of telecommunications, internet, data, cloud and other ICT services, including for all government offices, schools, community and health centres.
"We are honoured to have been selected by the government of the Commonwealth of Dominica for this transformational project which will provide the foundation for the provision of new advanced digital services such as eGovernment, Safe and Smart Cities, Connected Health and Smart Education, and make them a powerful reality for the people of Dominica," said Digicel Group CEO Alexander Matuschka.
The successful tender is a boost to Digicel, which last week launched a $3bn (2.58bn) bond swap, aimed at giving the Denis O'Brien-owned company more breathing room to show it can deliver a revenue boost as customers migrate to fast data and smartphones across its 31 markets. The bond swap offer to investors will give Digicel an additional two years before it faces a major debt repayment deadline, and gives bondholders the option of exchanging bonds that have been trading well below face value for new securities issued at what is in effect the face value of the outstanding debt.
Canon has released a full frame mirrorless camera to compete with Sony, Nikon and other camera manufacturers.
The EOS R (2,729 including adaptor) is a 30-megapixel camera that is significantly smaller than Canons existing full frame DSLR range.
It can use existing Canon lenses only with the use of an adaptor (119), which Canon is also releasing.
Otherwise, Canon launched four new native lenses designed for the new EOS R system, which can be used without an adaptor. They are: a 35mm f1.8 (599), 50mm f1.2 (2,729), 24-105mm f4 (1,319) and 28-70mm f2 (3,549). All of the new lenses except the 35mm model are L lenses, designed for professional use.
It has a flip-out touchscreen and over 5,000 autofocusing points. However, it only has one memory card slot.
It is also more expensive than both of its nearest competitors, Sonys A7iii (2,299) and Nikons just-launched Z6 (2,399). Sonys camera has two card slots and dozens of native lenses that dont need an adaptor to work.
The EOS R and Canons new lenses will start selling in retail outlets in October.
Canon hopes to sell approximately 20,000 EOS R cameras per month.
It is being aimed at mid-tier semi-professional users and enthusiasts, with the lack of a second card slot deemed a heavy disadvantage to professional photographers.
Canon and Nikon have dominated the pro market for decades, first with film and then with digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras. However, its becoming clearer that devices without the mirror-and-prism system offer significant benefits. Thanks to advanced image sensors, sophisticated software and a simpler design, mirrorless systems can capture light faster while staying in focus, making it easier to capture clearer images of rapidly moving objects.
Canon is moving to the next stage, President Masaya Maeda told reporters at an event in Tokyo on Wednesday. We are pushing the boundaries of imaging expression.
While mirrorless cameras have been around for more than a decade, Sony was first to embed them with the larger full-frame image sensors the chips that convert light particles into digital bits putting them on par with DSLRs in terms of picture quality. Canon and Nikon are following suit and rolling out their own designs featuring full-frame sensors.
Mirrorless cameras have been a rare bright spot for the 10 billion industry, where digital camera shipments have plummeted 80 percent in the past decade, as more people use smartphones to take pictures. Mirrorless cameras now account for about a third of the the sectors revenue, up from 9 percent in 2012, according to industry body CIPA.
Their lofty price tags however may limit mass appeal for now. Canons released only a mid-tier model. Rival Nikon last month unveiled two versions: one for the mid-tier and another for the high-end market.
(Additional reporting from Bloomberg)
The EU executive under President Jean-Claude Juncker risked undermining public trust by failing to follow procedures when it appointed his chief aide to run the EU civil service, the European Ombudsman said yesterday.
The executive had also been overly secretive and was sometimes hostile to media questions about the appointment of Martin Selmayr as secretary-general of the European Commission in February, Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly said. The finding did not overrule the appointment of Mr Selmayr, whose combative style has won the German both admirers and enemies in Brussels.
But the commission needed to review its procedures for filling the senior post, said Ms O'Reilly, in a rebuke that piled pressure on the executive as eurosceptics are gearing up to fight elections to the EU legislature after Britain quits next year.
Critics named the affair "Selmayrgate" and the European Parliament savaged Mr Juncker in March, saying the appointment smacked of cronyism.
Ms O'Reilly said on Tuesday she had found four instances of maladministration resulting from not following rules correctly, "either in letter or in spirit".
At issue were secrecy around the impending retirement of the outgoing secretary-general and an "artificial urgency" to fill the post that went unchallenged by Mr Juncker's 27 fellow commissioners, she said in a statement.
She also highlighted Mr Selmayr's quick progress from being Mr Juncker's aide to becoming deputy secretary-general of the commission and then full secretary-general.
The Ombudsman criticised the Commission for "defensive, evasive and at times combative" responses to media questions on the arcane manoeuvres around the publication of vacancies and selection of candidates which preceded an appointment that Juncker and his fellow commissioners were always free to make.
"All of this risked jeopardising the hard-won record of high EU administrative standards and consequently, the public trust," the ombudsman said in a statement.
A spokesman for the EU commission reiterated at a news conference on Tuesday that the EU executive saw no conflict of interest in the appointment of Mr Selmayr.
Reuters
Prosecutors have declined a sex assault case against the actor Kevin Spacey (Ian West/PA Wire)
Prosecutors in Los Angeles have declined a sex crime cases against Kevin Spacey (Matt Crossick/PA)
Prosecutors in Los Angeles have declined a sexual assault case against actor Kevin Spacey because too much time has passed since the alleged incident took place.
A man alleged Spacey had assaulted him in West Hollywood in October 1992.
However, prosecutors could not take the case forward because any alleged sex crime involving an adult that occurred in that year would fall outside of Californias statute of limitations, the Los Angeles County District Attorney said.
Expand Close Prosecutors have declined a sex assault case against the actor Kevin Spacey (Ian West/PA Wire) / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Prosecutors have declined a sex assault case against the actor Kevin Spacey (Ian West/PA Wire)
Prosecutors are reviewing a second case involving House of Cards star Spacey that includes allegations he attacked a man in Malibu in October 2016.
The case remains under review, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also declined to prosecute alleged sex crimes against the actors Steven Seagal and Anthony Anderson.
In Seagals case, the statute of limitations had passed while for Anderson the accuser declined to be interviewed by authorities.
Spacey, 59, is being investigated in the UK for six sexual assault claims over 22 years.
Actor Anthony Rapp was the first to make an allegation against Spacey, claiming he was 14 when a 26-year-old Spacey made a sexual advance to him in 1986.
Video of the Day
Spacey has faced a number of repercussions since allegations of sexual assault against him emerged, most recently clocking in a dire $126 on the opening day of his film Billionaire Boys Club.
He was also sacked from Netflix show House Of Cards and erased from Sir Ridley Scotts All The Money In The World.
Spacey was artistic director at Londons The Old Vic theatre between 2004 and 2015.
Natalie Portman has said she regrets signing a petition in support of director Roman Polanski in 2009.
The actress, who is now a prominent member of the Times Up movement, was one of many stars to demand the release of the film-maker, who was being held in Swiss custody on a warrant related to his 1977 under-age sex case, in which he pleaded guilty.
She told BuzzFeed: I very much regret it. I take responsibility for not thinking about it enough.
Expand Close 61st Cannes Film Festival Closing Ceremony / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp 61st Cannes Film Festival Closing Ceremony
Someone I respected gave it to me, and said I signed this. Will you, too? And I was like Sure. It was a mistake.
The thing I feel like I gained from it is empathy towards people who have made mistakes.
We lived in a different world, and that doesnt excuse anything. But you can have your eyes opened and completely change the way you want to live. My eyes were not open.
Portman revealed that, after her turn in The Professional in 1996, which she filmed over her 12th birthday, the roles she was offered were sexy little girls.
Discussing her role in Beautiful Girls, in which she played a 13-year-old opposite Uma Thurman and Mira Sorvino, she said she feels uncomfortable about the fact that a man in his 20s, played by Timothy Hutton, falls in love with her.
Expand Close Harvey Weinstein allegations / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Harvey Weinstein allegations
Video of the Day
She said: In retrospect its weird because so many of the stories around the Weinstein case involve people from Beautiful Girls.
I didnt know that all the adult women I was working with, who I was admiring so much and felt so cool to get to be in a movie with them, were being harassed at the same time.
I was, like, the cute little kid on set everyone was treating totally respectfully and kindly.
Both Thurman and Sorvino have alleged they were harassed by movie producer Harvey Weinstein.
In the same interview Portman spoke about announcing the director category at the Golden Globes by highlighting they were all-male nominees.
She said: I discussed with some of the women Ive been working with that they had offered to me to present the director category, but I felt uncomfortable because it seemed to be excluding some deserving nominees.
And how could I bring attention to it without disrespecting the nominees? Because its not their fault, and they all made great work. You dont want to not recognise them.
Its just, why arent we recognising the people who arent part of this exclusive club? So one of the women recommended I say that, and it felt like stating something that was true.
Thats part of what were here to do. We have to make it weird for people to walk in a room where everyones not in the room.
If you look around a room and everyone looks like you, get out of that room. Or change that room.
Whether you go to a restaurant, whether you go to your kids school, whether you go to work if you look around, and everyones not in the room, change that room.
The Late Late Show live London broadcast will take place on Friday October 12th and producers are seeking 1,000 audience members.
The special episode will celebrate the historic ties between the Irish and English and the contribution of Irish people to Britain.
The show is seeking Irish people living in Britain to attend on the night and applications for tickets are now open at www.rte.ie/latelate
For the first time in the ten years Ive been presenting The Late Late Show, were packing our bags and heading to London town. Why? Were going there because we think its time to say no matter what happens with Brexit, were always going to be friends, culturally, socially and every way imaginable." said host Ryan Tubridy.
"Its going to be very big, very exciting and, of course, great fun.
It will be the biggest audience for the Late Late Show since Tubridy took over as presenter ten years ago.
Demand for tickets is expected to be high so tickets will be allocated by lottery. You must be over 18 to be part of the audience. Check out the website for more information.
Paul Hollywood gave his first Hollywood handshake during the showstopper challenge. PIC: Channel 4
Great British Bake Off judge Paul Hollywood has offered one of his coveted handshakes to a contestant for their efforts in the showstopper round for the first time.
Hollywood, 52, had never previously made the gesture in the final challenge during the programmes previous series on Channel 4 or the seven prior to that on the BBC.
During the latest episode of the baking show, Rahul, a 30-year-old research scientist from India who lives in Rotherham, became the first contestant to receive the honour.
Rahuls pure delight at receiving a handshake is a joy to behold. #GBBO pic.twitter.com/oScI2embdX British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) September 4, 2018
Hollywood described Rahuls Bengali-inspired chocolate orange collar cake as fantastic before calling him over to shake his hand.
On receiving the handshake from Hollywood, Rahul said: When Paul invited me to the table, I just thought maybe I had left something stupidly inside the cake.
I was poking it with a cocktail stick and I thought maybe Id left the cocktail stick in there or something and he wanted to show me. So yeah, that was very surreal.
Hollywood then went on to shake project manager Rubys hand for her chocolate and hazelnut collar cake showstopper.
The unprecedented second handshake led Hollywood to joke that his usually high standards for praise may be slipping.
While deliberating with fellow judge Prue Leith and hosts Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig, Hollywood said: Ive never given a handshake on a showstopper before. But to give two, Im disappointed with myself.
RYAN THOMAS' mum has said she will "never forgive" Roxanne Pallett after the actress falsely accused her son of punching her on Celebrity Big Brother.
Ryan had been fooling around and 'punched' Roxanne in the dining area of the CBB house. She branded him a "woman beater" before going to the Diary Room to demand he be removed from the house.
Thomas' mother, Gail Waring, appeared on This Morning yesterday following the ex-Emmerdale star's very public apology in which she stated she made a "massive, horrible mistake".
Gail revealed she had been unable to watch the Channel 5 show because she was too "distressed" at seeing her 34-year-old son break down in tears after the 'punch' row, and expressed her worry at how long it would take him to pick himself up again.
Speaking of the incident in which Pallett called Thomas a "woman beater" after he playfully jabbed her, Gail told hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield: 'I don't think I'll ever forgive her.
"I just want Ryan to feel good in his own state of mind - that will help me forgive Roxy more, if he can be normal again. He needs to have a personal apology.
Expand Close Ryan Thomas was given a formal warning by Big Brother after Roxanne Pallett accused him of hitting her (Ian West/PA) / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Ryan Thomas was given a formal warning by Big Brother after Roxanne Pallett accused him of hitting her (Ian West/PA)
"I was almost giggling with them as they were play fighting. I was still thinking it was playful, was smiling at it. I never dreamt of the response from Roxanne."
On Monday, Pallett dubbed herself "the most hated woman in Britain" after returning to the Celebrity Big Brother studio for a pre-recorded interview.
Speaking about Pallett's apology, Gail said: "It was a relief for me, but at the end of the day she needs to apologise to Ryan personally.
"He's got an awful lot of support. The nation when he comes out, that's going to help him, plus his girlfriend. Lucy will smother him with hugs and kisses.
Video of the Day
"But how long will it take for him to pick himself up?"
Gail said she cannot watch the show after her son broke down in tears worrying that his career was in tatters.
"I can't watch him cry and distressed. It makes me very distressed, it really hurts," she said. "He's the godfather of the family, he's always looked after us. Now we want to look after him.
"He went in there for a challenge. He was in work on a long-term show for 16 years. He did Bear Grylls and this was a challenge for him, he was looking forward to it. He loves people and joking, laughing."
Gail also commented on the 25,257 complaints to Ofcom after Pallett asked producers for Thomas to be kicked out of the show.
"Lucy's been speaking to the production on my behalf. He's my baby, whatever age they are, whenever they are in distress you want to reach out, give them a hug. I can't," she said.
Read More
Pallett walked out of the Big Brother house in the early hours of Saturday after claiming Thomas punched her "like a boxer would punch a bag" on Thursday night's episode.
Yesterday, it was confirmed that she will not return to her job as presenter of a radio breakfast show on Minster FM in York.
A statement from the radio station said: "As a result of discussions today with her representatives, Minster FM can confirm that Roxanne Pallett has stepped down from her position at the station with immediate effect to take some time out and reflect on recent events."
Bridget Davies, managing director at Minster FM, said: "We are very close to our audience and our customers, and it's been alien to us to not be able to honestly communicate with them.
"We can confirm Roxanne will not be returning to Minster FM. She is going to take some time to reflect and address some issues. We hope that goes well and she gets the help she needs."
The Hugh Lane Gallery is one of Dublins stand-out cultural landmarks, and the man who founded it makes for a fascinating subject in Citizen Lane, a beautifully shot and structurally innovative docudrama which aired tonight on RTE One.
The films credentials are impeccable: written by playwright Mark OHalloran and directed by Thaddeus OSullivan, with Tom Vaughan-Lawlor leading a cast of fine Irish acting talent (including the legendary Michael Gambon, who we all assume to be English, but was in fact born in Dublin).
Lane himself crossed that Anglo-Irish divide: son of an Anglican clergyman, he was the only one of his siblings born in this country. Ironically, as we hear in Citizen Lane, birth and death were the only times Lane ever spent in Cork: the former in the suburb of Douglas, the latter on-board the Lusitania when it was sunk by German U-boats in 1915.
As an adult, he became an avid collector of art contemporaries noted that his eye for a painting was so good, people would study his reactions to seemingly unimportant or worthless pieces amassing both wealth and an enviable collection of modern art.
Expand Close Citizen Lane / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Citizen Lane
At this time, around the turn of the 20th century, Dublin and Ireland were experiencing a vibrant cultural revival: the Celtic Revival saw renewed interest in indigenous language, sports, music, poetry and drama. Pioneers in the latter two had close connections to Lane: WB Yeats was a friend, Lady Gregory was his aunt.
Lane wanted to include painting in this list, and in 1908 the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art opened, bequeathed a number of valuable works by Lane, including some priceless Impressionist paintings.
The film explores his motivations, the challenges he faced in establishing this iconic place the first publicly accessible gallery of modern art in the world and the cultural and social forces arrayed against him and pulling with him during an era of great change.
It also touches on his contested will, still the subject of controversy. Almost 40 works (among them a Monet and a Renoir) now reside in Londons National Gallery, not in Dublin because a codicil to his will, returning them to Ireland, was never officially witnessed before his tragic death.
Theres more than enough interesting information and inherent drama to make Lanes life worthy of a documentary. What really lifts OSullivans film above the norm is how he goes about it.
Citizen Lane has an unusual structure. Expert talking-heads (including historians Roy Foster and Paul Rouse, art historian Morna ONeill and Barbara Foster of the Hugh Lane Gallery) provide context, background and analysis. Vaughan-Lawlor, Marty Rea (as William Orpen), Bosco Hogan (Lanes father James), Derbhle Crotty (Lady Gregory) and Peter Campion (Yeats) bring the story to life in interspersed recreations.
Video of the Day
And, as a final little twist, OSullivan also has some of the actors give modern-style to-camera interviews, while in character: playful and a touch post-modern, and it works well.
OHallorans script is lucid and literate, while the whole thing is sumptuously filmed and edited to a stately pace (both fictional and factual elements). The programme takes its time; if youre impatient and need helter-skelter cuts or wham-bang action from start to finish, Citizen Lane isnt for you.
But if youve any interest in this larger-than-life figure, and the enduring artist legacy he bestowed on this country, its a real pleasure.
Debris outside a Primark store as a major blaze has engulfed the shop in the historic five-storey Bank Buildings in Belfast city centre Photo credit: Liam McBurney/PA Wire
Fire and smoke from a major blaze which has broken out at the Primark store in Belfast city centre. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday August 28, 2018. The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service is currently in attendance at the scene. See PA story ULSTER Fire. Photo credit should read: Liam McBurney /PA Wire
People look on as firefighters tackle the blaze (Liam McBurney/PA)
Firefighters helping to tackle a major blaze which has broken out at the Primark store in Belfast city centre. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday August 28, 2018. The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service is currently in attendance at the scene. See PA story ULSTER Fire. Photo credit should read: Liam McBurney/PA Wire
Fire and smoke from a major blaze which has broken out at the Primark store in Belfast city centre. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday August 28, 2018. The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service is currently in attendance at the scene. See PA story ULSTER Fire. Photo credit should read: Liam McBurney /PA Wire
General views of Primark Bank Buildings in Belfast city centre following a blaze that has gutted the store - August 29th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)
Arial views showing the aftermath of the fire in the Bank Buildings - Primark Belfast - August 29th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott)
Arial views showing the aftermath of the fire in the Bank Buildings - Primark Belfast - August 29th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott)
Flames from a major blaze which has broken out at the Primark store in Belfast city centre. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday August 28, 2018. The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service is in attendance at the scene. See PA story ULSTER Fire. Photo credit should read: Liam McBurney/PA Wire
A safety cordon will be maintained for at least four months around the Primark store in Belfast city centre (Liam McBurney/PA)
Part of Belfast city centre could be cordoned off for at least four months following the Primark shop fire, the citys Lord Mayor said.
Fourteen businesses are unable to trade as they are within a safety exclusion zone established amid fears the blackened structure could collapse.
There will be no through access for pedestrians down the main shopping street, Royal Avenue, and signs will be erected, Belfast City Council added.
Last week, flames and thick black smoke engulfed the five-storey historic Bank Buildings which housed Primark.
Businesses remaining within the Primark safety exclusion zone have been advised that the current cordon is likely to be in place for a minimum of four months. Belfast City Council #OneWeeThing (@belfastcc) September 5, 2018
More than 100 firefighters battled the major blaze for more than three days as it ripped through the building on Castle Street.
Lord Mayor Deirdre Hargey said engineers would assess the site and consider bracing the badly damaged shell, then determine if its facade can be saved.
She added: While it is imperative that the safety cordon remains, we recognise it is having a serious impact not just on the traders within the cordon, but for those in the immediate area who are suffering due to a reduction in footfall.
The area within the cordon will be inaccessible until next year, meaning it will be out of bounds throughout the busy pre-Christmas shopping season when many businesses earn enough to sustain them through leaner times.
Expand Close Deirdre Hargey at the scene (Liam McBurney/PA) / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Deirdre Hargey at the scene (Liam McBurney/PA)
The council will be implementing measures to help struggling firms.
The mayor added: As well as erecting signage to encourage and direct footfall, council along with other agencies and government departments are working together to find alternative premises for businesses and arranging initiatives for affected traders to provide advice in respect of rates and employability.
Belfast City Council and its partners are also planning a campaign aimed at sustaining visitors to the city and supporting retailers over the next four months.
Primark customers and staff were evacuated from the building last week after smoke could be seen billowing from the roof.
Flames reaching at least 50ft were visible across Belfasts skyline.
Expand Close A safety cordon around the former Primark store in Belfast will be maintained for four months (Liam McBurney/PA) / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp A safety cordon around the former Primark store in Belfast will be maintained for four months (Liam McBurney/PA)
The historic clock at the top of the building was engulfed in flames before the fire spread from the roof to the floor below.
Parts of the roof then collapsed as thick black smoke and fire ripped through the rest of the flagship store.
The building has survived bombs and fires throughout its long history in the city.
It was undergoing a 30 million (33 million) refurbishment and there was a recent recruitment announcement that the company was seeking to hire 100 additional staff.
A senior fire officer described it as one of the biggest blazes they had battled in a number of years, but no-one was injured.
Ban: Barry Keoghan won best actor in a supporting role for The Killing of a Sacred Deer at the Ifta Film and Drama Awards. Photo: Michael Chester
'Love/Hate' star Barry Keoghan has been disqualified from driving for two years after admitting to a garda he was using a car without insurance.
The 25-year-old actor, who is currently working in the US, did not attend Killarney District Court where he faced Road Traffic Act charges.
Mr Keoghan enjoyed a breakthrough role in the smash hit Irish crime drama, 'Love/Hate'.
He has since starred in the 2017 blockbuster 'Dunkirk' alongside Mark Rylance and Cillian Murphy, as well as 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer', with Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell.
He faced two charges yesterday in Killarney District Court before Judge David Waters.
Detective Garda Stephen Hourigan said that he stopped a car at 1.25pm at Fossa, Killarney, on November 30, 2017, that was being driven by Mr Keoghan.
The garda asked for his driver's licence and insurance.
He said that Mr Keoghan, of North Clarence Street, in Dublin, agreed to produce both.
"He admitted on the day he had no insurance to drive the vehicle," Det Gda Hourigan said.
Judge Waters was told that Mr Keoghan has a total of 11 previous convictions, all under the Road Traffic Act.
He convicted Mr Keoghan, fined him 250 and disqualified him from driving for two years.
The actor began his career in 2011 and has been honoured with an Irish Film and Television Award.
The High Court has approved the appointment of inspectors to probe concerns over the conduct of the affairs of Independent News & Media (INM).
Their inquiry into a major data breach and other serious matters at the country's largest media group, which publishes this newspaper, could begin as early as tomorrow.
In a judgment yesterday, the President of the High Court said the appointment was justified and in the public interest. Mr Justice Peter Kelly also said circumstances surrounding two proposed business transactions were "suggestive of an unlawful purpose" directed to the benefit of INM's largest shareholder, Denis O'Brien.
He postponed the making of final orders until tomorrow to allow INM consider his judgment, which comprehensively found in favour of an application by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE). The issue of costs, which are being sought by the ODCE, will also be dealt with at tomorrow's hearing.
INM had objected to the appointment of inspectors, saying the measure was disproportionate and would have a damaging impact on the company and its employees.
However, Mr Justice Kelly rejected these arguments in a 76-page ruling. "The appointment of inspectors is a serious matter and such a sledge hammer should not be used to crack a nut. What has been disclosed in the evidence before me is no nut," he said.
"The appointment of inspectors to ascertain the truth of what has allegedly gone on in the company is well justified and is not disproportionate."
The judge said the corporate watchdog had investigated concerns at INM but "quite a few questions remain to be answered" and ODCE director Ian Drennan considered that nothing less than court appointed inspectors would be able to get to the bottom of matters. The ODCE began its inquiries after receiving a protected disclosure from then INM chief executive Robert Pitt in November 2016.
In it, Mr Pitt alleged he was put under pressure by then INM chairman Leslie Buckley to pay an inflated price for Newstalk, a radio station owned by Mr O'Brien. The deal was ultimately abandoned.
Read More
He also raised concerns about a proposal, later dropped, for the payment of a 1m "success fee" to a company owned by Mr O'Brien in connection with the sale of INM's shares in Australian media group APN.
"Whilst the Newstalk acquisition and the APN transaction did not ultimately lead to any loss to the company, the circumstances surrounding them are certainly suggestive of an unlawful purpose directed to the benefit of Mr O'Brien directly or indirectly and to the detriment of the company," Mr Justice Kelly said.
A further protected disclosure by Mr Pitt in August last year prompted the ODCE to investigate a major data "interrogation", directed by Mr Buckley, where large amounts of data were removed from INM's premises in 2014 and given to outside companies.
ODCE inquiries subsequently uncovered a list of 19 people, including journalists, whose names are believed to have been used during searches of the data.
Mr Justice Kelly said the "actual purpose" of the data interrogation "remains unclear but is certainly suggestive of the company's affairs being conducted for a purpose that is unlawful".
The judge said a free press was a cornerstone of a functioning democracy. "Journalists' communications have a particular importance in that regard. Thus, allegations of the accessing of journalists' communications by unauthorised third parties raise issues of particular public interest."
Police are following "International lines of enquiry" as they investigate John Gilligan over money laundering in Northern Ireland, a court heard.
Mr Gilligan (66), from Greenforth Crescent, Dublin, is in custody accused of attempting to remove criminal property from Northern Ireland on August 23 this year.
The prosecution sought a four-week adjournment at Antrim Magistrates Court, but defence solicitor Jim McGinnis asked for the "shortest possible adjournment".
"Mr Gilligan is 66 and he doesn't enjoy good health," he said, revealing that since he was remanded to Maghaberry Prison "he has already had to be taken to hospital".
"He was badly injured during an attempt on his life in 2014 when he was shot six times."
Judge Nigel Broderick will recuse himself from the case because "I was previously a partner in a firm that represented Mr Gilligan in the Special Criminal Court".
He adjourned for a week.
The appointment of High Court inspectors is the biggest development yet in the controversy which has engulfed Independent News & Media (INM).
The saga, which has been rumbling on since 2016, has its roots in an aborted deal for INM to buy Newstalk, the radio station owned by INM's largest shareholder Denis O'Brien.
The deal never went ahead amid disagreement between then INM chief executive Robert Pitt and then INM chairman Leslie Buckley, who was Mr O'Brien's nominee to the board, over the valuation of the station.
Mr Pitt, a former senior executive with Tesco, joined INM as chief executive in September 2014 and was invited on to its board in January 2016.
It is evident that throughout 2016 there were significant tensions between him and other members of the board.
According to an account given to the High Court by senior independent director Dr Len O'Hagan, the situation deteriorated to the point where the non-executive directors of INM decided that October they wanted to replace Mr Pitt.
It was intended Mr Buckley would communicate this to Mr Pitt. But then the chief executive, who was unaware of the decision, dropped a bombshell.
On November 11 that year he made a protected disclosure to INM in relation to the Newstalk deal. A week later he made a similar disclosure to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE).
This set in motion a lengthy investigation culminating in yesterday's ruling.
Chief financial officer Ryan Preston also made a protected disclosure to INM on December 5, 2016, corroborating Mr Pitt's account. Both claimed they were put under pressure by Mr Buckley to pay a value which was considerably higher than they thought the loss-making radio station was worth.
At one meeting it is alleged Mr Buckley told Mr Pitt and Mr Preston he would "do the deal regardless" and that a valuation of 14m was "insulting" to Mr O'Brien.
Mr Pitt alleged Mr Buckley said Mr O'Brien was "entitled to a reward for bailing out INM".
At another meeting Mr Buckley is alleged to have said: "Do you not get it, lads?"
Mr Pitt was also concerned about a proposal that Island Capital, a company owned by Mr O'Brien, be paid a success fee in connection with the sale of INM's shares in Australian media group APN in 2015. The proposal was emailed to him by Mr Buckley. Mr Pitt was concerned as he believed Island Capital added no value in relation to the share sale.
The proposal was pulled after Mr Pitt got advice it would have to be declared due to the related party nature of the transaction.
Two independent reviewers were hired to examine the claims. Due to "a stark conflict of evidence" they were unable to resolve the key allegations regarding the aborted Newstalk deal. However, they did conclude Island Capital had done significant work of value to INM.
A further protected disclosure would be made by Mr Pitt to the ODCE on August 10 last year, two months before he left INM with a 1.5m severance package.
The repercussions of this disclosure would be even more explosive than his first one.
It led the ODCE to investigate the reasons for the removal of data from INM in 2014 and its "interrogation" by an outside company at the direction of Mr Buckley. The then INM chairman claimed he was looking for information about a legal services contract he wished to renegotiate.
However, during the course of its inquiries the ODCE found evidence suggesting a list of 19 people was used in a search of the data. Those named included journalists, former INM staff and directors and two senior counsel who had worked for the Moriarty Tribunal. The High Court later heard INM's solicitors described those named as "persons who may be regarded as having acted adversely to Mr O'Brien".
Mr Buckley stepped down from INM's board in March.
Last night Mr Buckley's spokesman said he intended to robustly defend his position.
Starting secondary school can be both an exciting and daunting transition. As they head off to school in stiff new uniforms - which inevitably are too heavy for early September weather - children can experience a mixture of emotions, as can their parents.
It is said over and over and still it is easy to underestimate the immensity of the task ahead. Yes, in a week or two it will all seem like a distant memory. We will wonder why we were so worried as the very things that seemed so exciting during the first week of school quickly become the new normal and then the mundane.
But right now this task can seem overwhelming. Ten or more subjects, short courses, new teachers, lockers and homework - and this all before we even consider peer relationships and image. It's enough to make the most well-adjusted adult tired even thinking of it.
Most young people are delighted to move away from the life they have outgrown in primary school. They long for more challenging academics, new friends, the variety of experiences they will find, as well as more responsibility and trust.
Others feel like they would prefer to hold off on this next step and can be sad for the loss of the comfort and familiarity that primary school offered. They can be nervous of this new, big and strange place, the crowds and keeping 10 teachers happy. Rest assured, no matter the starting point, both of these students will settle quickly.
Secondary schools are currently going through a period of exciting and rapid change. Schools are working hard to figure out how best to use technology to support teaching and learning. Active learning methodologies are becoming more commonplace and students will experience this while studying the new Junior Cycle curriculum.
Expand Close Most young people are eager to move on from primary school to experience more challenging academics, such as science / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Most young people are eager to move on from primary school to experience more challenging academics, such as science
Despite changes, schools still spend a significant amount of time and effort ensuring first year students settle in to their new school life as quickly and quietly as possible. Some programmes are innovative and some may seem, well, just common sense. Despite their simplicity, they make a massive difference to how a young person experiences their first year in second level and, as a result, their entire second level career.
Schools have always been very focussed on supporting young people, especially around the transition to second level. It can be very helpful for parents to be aware of these supports. The tutor and year head system means that a particular teacher is assigned to oversee the day-to-day needs of a class and year group. They will look after everything from notes for absence and uniform, to liaising with home and pastoral care. This system means that even in a very large school there is a teacher looking out for the needs and well-being of every student. Buddy or mentor systems see more senior students assigned to help the new students with any questions or concerns they have. They are also likely to have access to a guidance counsellor and chaplain who can offer students a quiet, private and confidential space to speak about their concerns with an understanding adult.
The majority of schools now organise mixed ability classes where students of all academic ability levels are placed in the same base group with some streaming (or organising by ability) for different subjects such as maths. Schools also differ in the policy on facilitating requests for students to be with friends. However, I would suggest that in the vast majority of cases, parents should refrain from asking that their child be kept with their friend from primary school. The move to secondary school is a wonderful opportunity to build resilience, make new friends and allow students to test their ability to navigate tricky and scary situations.
Even if a child comes home very disappointed that they have not been placed with their friend on the first day, they can, in my experience, have moved on from this within a couple of days. It is overcoming these small challenges which allow young people to build the skills to overcome larger ones in the future.
Instead, try to reassure your child they will still see their friend at lunch and break, perhaps even in a number of other subjects throughout the day. Focus on how your child will now have the opportunity to make so many more friends as well as keeping their old pals from primary school.
The biggest cause of stress for students in the first couple of weeks of school is managing their organisation and work load. It is completely understandable that 12-year-olds would both struggle with and worry about the huge increase in responsibility between primary and secondary school.
Parents can support this process in very simple ways. Focus on establishing a good routine of homework and studying for class tests rather than worrying too much about exams. Once this is done, it can be built up to study for exams. The influence home can have on students' success is tremendous.
Parents should try to get involved in school life when the opportunity presents itself. Parents' associations are no longer groups solely charged with fundraising but valued partners in education.
Attending the parents' association AGM, information night or talks organised by the school are great ways to stay engaged in what is happening in your child's education.
While the majority of young people adapt to this change quickly, a small number may struggle with the transition. Give young people the time and space to navigate this challenge in their own way.
But if you do have any concerns or feel your child is not settling, contact the school. They will be happy to help.
Only one pupil turned up in a primary school this week after parents withdrew their children for unspecified reasons.
There have been contacts for some time between the Department of Education, the school authorities and the patron, the Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, about issues at Bullsmouth National School, Achill Island, Co Mayo.
Pupil numbers had declined to 16 in recent years, and, in recent weeks, there was a gradual withdrawal of pupils to other island schools.
Crucially, with 15 pupils, the school was entitled to two teachers.
If there is no prospect of pupils returning to, or enrolling in, the school, its future comes into question.
The department said it did not comment on individual cases.
Any discussions on its future would involve the patron and the school community, in line with the commitment in the Programme for Government not to close any small school without the consent of parents in order to protect the sustainability and viability of rural communities.
The school was the subject of a critical Department of Education Whole School Evaluation (WSE) inspection report last year.
Among the findings of the inspectors was that, although it is a Gaeltacht school, pupils were speaking English in the classrooms and the playground.
All the pupils spoke English as their first language and the inspectors acknowledged that this created a challenge for teachers.
The WSE described both the quality of management by the board of management and the quality of in-school management and leadership for learning as weak.
But inspectors reported the quality of support for pupils was good and while the learning and achievement in Irish was poor, achievement in English and maths was good.
In response, the board of management committed to implementing its recommendations.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A Loving man wanted in connection with a shooting that occurred last month at a local apartment complex has been apprehended.
Tomas Salazar, 19, of Loving, was arrested early this morning in Albuquerque, according to the Artesia Police Department.
The shooting incident took place around 6 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 19, at the Abo Apartments, 700 N. 10th St. APD officers were subsequently dispatched to the Artesia General Hospital emergency room in response to an individual suffering from four gunshot wounds to his right upper back, mid-back, right buttock, and groin.
Officers were able to speak with a witness, who said she and the victim were at the apartment complex to pick up their infant son when Salazar approached their vehicle in the parking lot. According to the criminal complaint, the victim informed police she had previously ended a romantic relationship with Salazar, but he would often stay at her apartment in the complex uninvited and had stolen a key to the apartment.
After placing the infant in the back seat of the vehicle, the witness noticed Salazar and the victim having words. The witness got into the passenger seat and shut the door, at which point she states Salazar began yelling and hitting the passenger window, trying to get her out.
The victim exited the vehicle and came around to the passenger side. According to the complaint, the witness told police she then heard seven to eight gunshots. She said she witnessed Salazar pointing a gun at the victim and shooting twice. The victim crouched down and began walking back toward the drivers side of the vehicle, and the report states Salazar followed, continuing to fire shots.
The victim was able to enter the vehicle and drive to the emergency room. He was airlifted to Lubbock, Texas, and survived his injuries. The witness told police she saw Salazar run north on 10th Street after the shooting.
Salazar was arrested this morning in Albuquerque on charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon inflicting great bodily harm (third-degree felony) and assault. He has yet to be arraigned.
The head offices of the old Quinn Group that once was owned by businessman Sean Quinn. Photo: Mark Condren
A company formerly owned by controversial businessman Sean Quinn has said it is "grateful" no one was killed in an arson attack on the business of a senior manager.
Gardai have launched a criminal investigation into the incident, which happened at the Cavan factory over the weekend.
The business, Eco Tyres, is owned by a senior manager of Quinn Industrial Holdings (QIH), which has said it is the subject of "false allegations and intimidation".
The attack came just hours after QIH said it was considering legal action against people purporting to support Sean Quinn, who are alleged to have made critical comments about the company.
Last Friday, a letter was sent to its members in response to "false information" being spread against the group at a public event. The letter also alleged physical intimidation against "officers, directors, and staff of QIH and their families". Just hours after this letter was circulated, an arson attack was carried out at the factory owned by the QIH manager.
A Garda spokesperson said: "Gardai in Belturbet are investigating criminal damage that occurred at a tyre centre in Belturbet, Co Cavan on August 31 at approximately 11pm."
No arrests have yet been made, but investigations are ongoing.
A spokesman for QIH said that the company was "appalled" by the attack and praised the quick response of emergency services.
"QIH is appalled that a factory owned by one of our senior managers was the subject of an arson attack several hours after an update to staff seeking an end to intimidation.
"QIH is grateful for the speed of response by the emergency services and for the fact that no one was hurt or killed as result of this attack," the spokesman said.
Eco Tyres did not respond to requests for comment when contacted by the Irish Independent. Two weeks ago controversial businessman Sean Quinn told supporters at a public meeting that he has been "trying all along" to buy back his company.
Further arrests could be made by gardai as part of a 30,000 drug seizure during which the son of celebrity chef Rachel Allen was arrested.
Joshua Allen (18) was quizzed after a controlled delivery of cannabis, which originated from the US, was made to him.
He was arrested under drug trafficking legislation and could face up to 10 years' imprisonment upon conviction - although this would likely be reduced due to mitigating circumstances.
Gardai are attempting to determine who else was involved in the importation of the 30,000 worth of drugs, and are liaising with US police and customs officials.
It is believed the cannabis was intended for the east Cork market, but last night gardai said their investigation is still in its early stages.
"The drugs will be analysed, the origin of the package involved will be investigated and numerous local lines of inquiry including an examination of financial data will be followed up," one source said.
A detailed file will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), but will not be ready until November at the earliest.
Officials at the Portlaoise Mail Centre had become very suspicious of the parcel which bore a US postmark and was stamped 'clothing'.
However, a cursory inspection of the parcel determined it did not contain clothing.
A surveillance operation was also mounted by gardai in east Cork, which resulted in the arrest of Joshua Allen.
Detectives from the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (DOCB) were also involved in the operation.
Joshua Allen was last night being supported by his family.
His parents, Rachel and Isaac, earlier issued a statement which confirmed the arrest and revealed he will be pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity to any charges brought by the DPP.
The TV chef and face of the Ballymaloe House cookery franchise admitted she was "absolutely devastated" by what had happened.
The news of her son's arrest came as her new restaurant, Rachel's, in Cork city centre, is the focus of a major revamp in a bid to broaden its customer base.
"He [Joshua] has been arrested on suspicion of possession of drugs [marijuana] with intent to supply them to others," a statement by Rachel and Isaac said.
"He has admitted his guilt immediately and co-operated fully with gardai.
"A file has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions and when formally charged Joshua will be pleading guilty at the first opportunity.
"We are absolutely devastated at this turn of events.
"Our son is 18 years old, has never been in trouble with gardai, and has made a huge mistake, which will have profound consequences for him.
"We do not in any way condone his actions, in fact, we utterly condemn them, but it is not for us to condemn him.
"We must now try to look after our son and our family, the best way we can.
"We would ask that the legal process would be allowed to proceed to deal with this matter, without interference, and that we would be allowed to deal with this, like any other parents, in a similar position."
The family will not be making any further comment.
The teen was detained under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act, 1996.
Former Independent News & Media (INM) chairman Leslie Buckley has insisted he will be vindicated by the inspection process at the company.
His comments, in a statement issued today, come in the wake of a decision by the President of the High Court to approve an application from the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) for the appointment of inspectors to the countrys largest media group.
Mr Buckley, who stepped down from INMs board in March, is a central figure in several matters which will be investigated by inspectors Sean Gillane SC and Richard Fleck.
These include concerns INM data, including journalists emails, was improperly accessed during a data interrogation directed by Mr Buckley.
Also under scrutiny are allegations Mr Buckley put pressure on INM executives to agree to pay an inflated price for Newstalk, the radio station owned by INMs largest shareholder, Denis OBrien.
The circumstances surrounding a proposed 1m success fee for a company owned by Mr OBrien in connection with the disposal of INMs shares in Australian media group APN will also be examined, as will concerns inside information was shared with Mr OBrien by Mr Buckley.
In the statement, Mr Buckley said he noted Mr Justice Peter Kellys decision.
I welcome the opportunity to vindicate my good name through the inspection process, he said.
As previously stated, I intend to robustly defend myself against each and every allegation. I continue to reserve my position.
In a 76-page ruling on Tuesday, Mr Justice Kelly said: I hold that Mr Buckley was a person connected with the management of the company and that on the evidence before me the circumstances suggest that he has been guilty of misconduct and misfeasance.
Mr Justice Kelly said the actual purpose of the data interrogation remains unclear but is certainly suggestive of the companys affairs being conducted for a purpose that is unlawful.
In relation to the proposed Newstalk acquisition and the APN transaction, the judge said that while these did not ultimately lead to a loss to the company, the circumstances surrounding them were certainly suggestive of an unlawful purpose directed to the benefit of Mr OBrien directly or indirectly and to the detriment of the company.
Referring to email and text exchanges between Mr Buckley and Mr OBrien, the judge said: That material, if correct, seems to demonstrate a pattern of wrongful disclosure of price sensitive information by Mr Buckley to Mr OBrien.
Mr Justice Kelly could make his final orders in the application tomorrow, when a costs hearing is scheduled. The ODCE is seeking its costs for the application, which was opposed by INM.
Pledging to review budget of the force: Garda Commissioner Drew Harris at his first press conference in Garda Headquarters in the Phoenix Park yesterday. Photo: Damien Eagers
New Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has described himself as Irish - and is not sure how much of an outsider he is in taking charge of the force.
He described himself as a police officer from the island of Ireland, who had worked closely previously as a senior PSNI officer with members of An Garda Siochana.
In his first press conference after taking up office, the Garda Commissioner promised his force he was prepared to stand up to the politicians and make a case for extra resources.
But he firstly must be satisfied the organisation is spending the current budget well and making proper use of the resources available to it.
He said yesterday that he intended to carry out a full review of whether those resources were being implemented efficiently and it was too early to say whether more money was needed until that review had been completed.
But in response to a question about standing up to politicians, he said he would "speak truth to power".
The use of resources and his priority to protect the vulnerable in society were the dominant themes as he spelled out his plans for his five-year term as the commissioner.
But he also addressed some of the questions from his past and defended his role at the Smithwick Tribunal into allegations of collusion between an unnamed member of the Garda and the Provisional IRA, leading to the murder of two senior RUC officers, Harry Breen and Bob Buchanan, as they drove back across the Border from a meeting at Dundalk station.
He said he had given evidence, which was examined by the tribunal, and he was then subject to cross-examination before Judge Peter Smithwick weighed the evidence and drew his own conclusions.
Mr Harris said he accepted those conclusions.
He said he understood that the conclusions might have caused hurt to gardai based in Dundalk and elsewhere.
But he recognised that the vast majority of officers were "of great integrity and bravery in the Border area. I was stationed in the Border area myself and worked very closely with gardai," he added.
Throughout his policing career, he said, he had been aware of the need for impartiality and he had brought many loyalist terrorists to justice and secured convictions against them.
Asked about his role in overall charge of intelligence in the PSNI, he said he did not now have any intelligence that he had not already shared with gardai.
He said there had been very good cross-Border co-operation and that had resulted in the prevention of some terrorist outrages and also dealt with very serious organised crime.
He said the Garda was a well-resourced force and he intended to carry out a full review of whether these resources were being implemented efficiently.
Before deciding on future resourcing, he had to be satisfied if the current budget was being spent correctly and used in the best way possible.
He acknowledged Brexit would pose a challenge as the existing criminal justice treaties would disappear. He was anxious to co-operate with the PSNI to secure the Border and prevent any potential increase in activities from organised crime or terror gangs.
A schoolgirl who was bitten by a tick has created an ingenious compact kit to treat bites in her bid to prevent people becoming sick with Lyme disease.
Ali ODonoghue (12), a sixth class pupil at Scoil Bhride Loreto National School, Muckross, Co Kerry, came up with the innovative Tick Kit after she suffered a bite.
Though, thankfully, she recovered, Ali realised there was very little information out there on tick bites and she knew something had to be done.
Ali and her classmates decided not to leave the tick awareness to adults and instead entered the Junior Entrepreneur Programme, researched the topic and created the kit.
Now the fifth and sixth class pupils have been praised for helping lead the fight against Lyme disease by packaging an easy-to-use product to treat bites.
Ali says: At 12, I didnt think Id be doing a Junior Entrepreneur Programme project. You think of the idea and it gets so big its really unbelievable when people are actually going to pay money for it.
It made me feel very happy and very proud. I think, in the future, the Tick Kit is what will stop people getting Lyme disease and prevent people getting sick.
The Tick Kit comes in small plastic containers and contains two tick twisters, two circle plasters, two antiseptic wipes, and a pair of rubber gloves.
Lyme disease is a growing concern in Ireland with around 50 to 100 cases a year. The HSE says the disease is a bacterial infection, spread to humans by infected ticks.
If left untreated, symptoms can include a high temperature of 38C or above, muscle and joint pain and swelling or neurological symptoms, such as temporary paralysis of the facial muscles.
The pupils say that, from an early stage, they realised the Tick Kit could serve as a huge benefit to the community.
Ali thinks life as an entrepreneur is very cool it takes a lot of work and focus to believe, but its definitely something I learnt.
Amy Healy (11), who helped with the project, realises there arent many female entrepreneurs, but I think this will change in future as a lot of girls in my class want to be entrepreneurs.
Amy says she likes all the finance work, the sales and coming up with ideas. The biggest thing I learnt about being an entrepreneur is that you need a team, otherwise youre doing it all on your own.
Freelance TV producer Brian Hurley (39) from Tralee, Co Kerry, has praised the children for the Tick Kit, saying the product is the most important awareness on tick bites created in Ireland in the past five years.
His wife Jacqui (37) contracted Lyme disease after a tick bite and he has created a documentary Living With Lyme Disease due to be aired on RTE 1 in October.
Its brilliant that we have young people creating this awareness. The Tick Kit is something every school classroom, every teacher bringing students out on field trips, should have. We cant eradicate the ticks, but to create awareness is everything, he says.
The pupils sold 185 8 Tick Kits and made a profit of 569.90 as part of the Junior Entrepreneur Programme, but the product is still selling. In June, they won the Community Champions Award.
When the pupils turned out to the RDS in Dublin at the Junior Entrepreneur Project Showcase Day, proud school principal Mary OSullivan paid tribute to her young entrepreneurs for their hard work.
If your school would like to enter the Junior Entrepreneur Programme 2019, click here
The Baby Trump Balloon floats in the middle of crowds holding anti-Trump signs while the US president visited Trump Turnberry Luxury Collection Resort in Scotland in July. Photo: Getty
The Trump Baby blimp is set to come to Ireland to target the visit of the controversial American president in November.
Organisers of the protest against Mr Trump's visit to London last July confirmed to activists yesterday that the six-metre high orange blimp will fly here when the former reality television star visits Dublin and Doonbeg, Co Clare, in November. The blimp depicts Mr Trump wearing a nappy with a smartphone attached to one of his hands.
The White House has confirmed Mr Trump's two-day visit, although an exact date has yet to be formalised. However, it's widely believed he will arrive in Dublin following the centenary of the World War I Armistice ceremony in Paris.
Meanwhile, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, who is organising a protest against Mr Trump's visit on November 10, said he would be meeting today to figure out a gameplan for the protest.
"I'd like to do a candle-lit vigil but we're looking at all options," he said of including the blimp in the protest. Mr Ryan has urged people to rally on College Green to protest against Mr Trump's policies and record in office.
'We want a less divisive, peaceful and more sustainable world," he tweeted.
The Government has been urged to intervene to prevent the closure of rural post offices as Communications Minister Denis Naughten warned the postal network was on the brink of collapse last year.
Fianna Fail called on the Government to introduce a public service obligation charge - like the one levied on all electricity users - to fund An Post. The party claims such a move would cost the taxpayer 8m annually.
The party will bring forward a motion to preserve the network and has challenged Fine Gael TDs who have opposed the closures to show support and ensure the motion, if passed, leads to a tangible result.
Rural TDs from all parties have hit out at the planned closures after 159 postmasters opted to take voluntary redundancy. The changes will affect post offices in Co Carlow, Co Clare, Co Cork, Co Donegal, Co Galway, Co Kerry, Co Mayo, Co Tipperary and Co Wexford.
A special meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Communications Committee heard from representatives from An Post and Mr Naughten yesterday.
The minister defended the decisions taken to date as he warned that shirking decisions would lead to the collapse of the network.
The minister said that "97 weeks ago, I was presented with a future for An Post that was uncertain and extremely bleak".
He said: "I was determined the company would not go under on my watch because of the failure to act by successive governments. I could have sat on my hands and ignored it and let hundreds of post offices continually close.
"If politically we shirk decision-making, we potentially ultimately will have no post office network at all.
"No minister wants to be in the position I am in today, but I've decided we need to have a viable future for the post office network. These are not decisions that have been taken lightly or without good reason," he said.
The Rural Independents grouping also hit out at the planned closures and accused the Government of ignoring rural Ireland. The Government had pledged to rural-proof policies and had failed to do so, the group said.
Meanwhile, Seamus Maye, chairman of the Public Banking Forum of Ireland, warned the move would damage indigenous business.
"The current An Post proposals are bizarre and ill thought- out, and would see the destruction of one of our best institutions," he said.
A six-meter high cartoon baby blimp of U.S. President Donald Trump is flown as a protest against his visit, in Parliament Square in London, England, Friday, July 13, 2018. (AP Photo/Robert Stevens)
The organisers behind the 'Trump Baby' blimp are on a mission to send the balloon on a worldwide tour - and Ireland is their next stop.
The blimp, which depicts Donald Trump wearing a nappy and holding a smartphone, is set to come to Ireland in November during the visit of the controversial American president.
The White House has confirmed Mr Trump's two-day visit, although an exact date has yet to be formalised. However, it's widely believed he will arrive in Dublin following the centenary of the World War I Armistice ceremony in Paris.
The balloon made headlines over the summer when Mr Trump visited the UK, and one Irish woman wanted to see the same thing happen over here.
Jennifer Cassidy, an Oxford University lecturer, took to Twitter to share an open letter with the organisers.
"It really just came about because of the tweet I sent, and it seemed to gain quite a bit of traction and take off," Ms Cassidy told Independent.ie.
Dear citizens of the U.K,
Due to an unfortunate set of circumstances, Ireland is currently in the market for one, previously used, Trump sized Balloon. We would appreciate any help that could be given to us at this time.
Regards,
Ireland pic.twitter.com/oSnAPNTzCg OxfordDiplomat (@OxfordDiplomat) September 1, 2018
"The makers of the balloon then contacted me and Trump Baby and said they would be definitely up for coming to Ireland and I was to contact them to help organise if I wished, which I have done."
And now the original Trump Baby team have confirmed the visit, after raising a surplus amount of money from their UK crowd-funding campaign.
Expand Close A blimp resembling U.S. President Donald Trump floats above demonstrators marching to protest against the visit of Trump, in Edinburgh, Scotland: Reuters/Andrew Yates / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp A blimp resembling U.S. President Donald Trump floats above demonstrators marching to protest against the visit of Trump, in Edinburgh, Scotland: Reuters/Andrew Yates
The team are hoping that a similar "colourful and inspiring" protest will take place in Ireland in November.
"We made more money than we needed on our crowdfunder to get the Trump Baby up and running so we decided that the best use of that money would be to send him on an international tour to globally troll the president wherever possible," one of the Trump Baby Sitters Kevin Smith told Independent.ie.
Expand Close Demonstrators fly a blimp portraying U.S. President Donald Trump, in Parliament Square, during the visit by Trump and First Lady Melania Trump in London, Britain July 13, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Demonstrators fly a blimp portraying U.S. President Donald Trump, in Parliament Square, during the visit by Trump and First Lady Melania Trump in London, Britain July 13, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
"And in terms of progressive protest and people on the streets, Ireland has set the bar really in this last year with the victories around women's reproductive freedoms and equal marriage.
2So we are presuming that Ireland's protests against Trump's misogyny, xenophobia and trashing the climate will be equally effective, colourful and inspiring."
Expand Close A 'Baby Trump' balloon rises after being inflated in London's Parliament Square, as part of the protests against the visit of US President Donald Trump to the UK. Photo credit: Kirsty O'Connor/PA Wire / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp A 'Baby Trump' balloon rises after being inflated in London's Parliament Square, as part of the protests against the visit of US President Donald Trump to the UK. Photo credit: Kirsty O'Connor/PA Wire
Their goal is to inspire people to come together against "what Trump stands for" as well as to stand up for the rights of others.
"On the one hand, the Trump Baby is a light-hearted way to articulate to the President people's low opinion of his inflated ego, his petulance and above all his disgusting politics of hate and division," Mr Smith explained.
"But on another level, it's also about inspiring ordinary people to come together and in their communities and organise in opposition to what Trump stands for.
"We need to be actively standing up for the rights of migrants and refugees, we need to work out ways to oppose the sleazy patriarchy that Trump represents, and we urgently need to be pushing back against the fossil fuel companies that Trump is enabling to scupper a safe and liveable climate for everyone."
Read More
Ms Cassidy, who is a lecturer in philosophy, politics and economics, says the calls for the balloon to come to Ireland have received mixed reactions.
"I know around 80pc agree but there is a strange small segment who disagree. I of course do not mind disagreement, and everyone is entitled of course, but its those who disagree without any action themselves or viable alternatives methods.
"Trumps ego is definitely his weakness so traditional forms to protests in my opinion wont work."
The Green Party are organising a protest against Mr Trumps visit on November 10.
"I'd like to do a candle-lit vigil but we're looking at all options," said party leader Eamon Ryan.
"We want a less divisive, peaceful and more sustainable world," he tweeted.
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar encouraged treat Mr Trumps visit with respect during his visit here.
"President Trump is coming in November, he is the President of America. I know a lot of people dislike him. A lot of people object to him, Mr Varadkar said on RTE Radio One earlier in the week.
"A lot of people disagree with a lot of his policies, just as I do in fact. But he is the President of America.
"He is elected according to their rules, and the relationship between Ireland and the United States is so strong and so important, much more important than any Irish government or any US administration and I think we have to treat his office with the respect that it deserves."
Child killer John Clifford is unlawfully at large after failing to return to Maghaberry Prison
A convicted child killer last seen on a mobility scooter who failed to return to Maghaberry Prison on Sunday remains at large.
John Clifford (56) had been released from Burren house on the Crumlin Road for an external appointment but failed to return.
The facility houses 22 inmates nearing the end of their sentences and is a satellite unit of Maghaberry.
Clifford was jailed for the brutal rape and murder of his eight-year-old niece Sue Ellen Clifford in 1988.
He had been trusted to babysit her that evening at her north Belfast home, but instead sexually assaulted and strangled her before dumping the child's body on a railway line.
The trauma later caused her mother Martha Adair to take her own life less than two years later.
Clifford is described as 1.75m tall with green eyes and fair hair.
Of a medium build, he was last seen wearing a black beanie style hat, heavy black coat, grey trousers and black dress shoes.
He was last seen using a distinctive three-wheel mobility scooter with the registration EXZ4974.
His other offences include cruelty to children and several charges of indecent assault on a male.
In 2010, the family of his victim spoke publicly about their fears that Clifford would kill again.
Sue Ellen's sister Deborah Adair said at the time: "Mark my words, he will rape or murder another child. John Clifford is pure evil."
"That man destroyed my family - he didn't only murder my sister Sue Ellen, he was responsible for the suicide of my mummy." It was also reported that at the time of the murder Clifford was under death threat from loyalist paramilitaries.
The killer was previously released in 2005, with his location kept a secret, but was sent back to prison after breaching the terms of his probation.
A spokesperson for the NI Prison Service said: "The Prison Service is investigating the circumstances surrounding the abscondment of John Clifford.
"At this time we are focused on returning him to custody and we would ask anyone with information to contact the PSNI immediately."
Members of the public or anyone with information on his whereabouts has been asked to call police immediately on 101.
St. Patrick's College, Maynooth. Some 17.9pc of people living in the Co Kildare town stated they had 'no religion' on their Census 2016 form. Stock picture
The town most associated with the Catholic Church in Ireland has among the highest proportion of non-religious residents.
Some 17.9pc of people living in Maynooth, Co Kildare, stated they had 'no religion' on their Census 2016 form. This was the second-highest level in the country after Greystones, Co Wicklow, where the figure stands at 18.3pc.
But an analysis of Census data from 2016 and 2006 shows that Roman Catholicism remains, by far, the dominant religion with 78.31pc of the population professing to be a member of the faith. This is an increase of almost 1.3pc, or just under 48,000 people, over the decade.
But the increase is more than surpassed by hikes in 'other stated religions', which are up 131,000, and in the numbers professing to have no faith.
Almost one in 10 of the population - 9.84pc - told Central Statistics Office (CSO) enumerators they had 'no religion' on their Census form in April 2016, a 151pc increase since Census 2006, or 282,103 people. In 2006, the numbers professing to have no faith stood at 186,318, which rose to 269,811 in Census 2011 and to 468,421 in Census 2016.
The data shows the changing make-up of religious communities across the State, and highlights how fewer people believe in a deity today than a decade ago.
Of the 4.76 million-strong population, just over 3.72 million are Roman Catholic; 131,823 are Church of Ireland, including Protestant; and 307,232 are 'other stated religions'. Just over 125,000 did not state if they had a religious belief.
The findings are based on Census data provided by the CSO, and analysed by the Irish Independent.
Of 207 towns for which data is available, 169 reported an increase in 'no religion'. The biggest rise was in Rathangan, Co Kildare, up 640pc or 160 people. The lowest percentage of the population reporting 'no religion' was Clones, Co Monaghan, at just over 2pc.
At least one in 10 of the populations of 61 towns reported having no religion.
Kilmallock, Co Limerick, has the highest proportion of Roman Catholics at 90.95pc of the population. In all, seven towns have rates above 90pc and they also include Banagher and Clara, Co Offaly, Templemore and Fethard, Co Tipperary, Millstreet, Co Cork, and Castleisland, Co Kerry.
The highest proportion of Church of Ireland and other Protestant faiths is in Convoy, Co Donegal, at 10.68pc. The sharpest fall was in Bantry, Co Cork, down 49.22pc.
Some 6.45pc of the population profess to be members of 'other stated religions', which is up 74.4pc or 131,055. The Muslim population increased from 32,539 in 2006 (0.7pc of all religions) to 63,443 in 2016 (1.3pc). The highest proportions are in Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, at 22.95pc and Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon, at 16.3pc.
In the cities, Cork is home to the highest proportion of Roman Catholics at 76.35pc of the population, still below the national average. Some 12.79pc are 'no religion'.
Dublin is home to the highest proportion of Church of Ireland/Protestant at 2.7pc of the population, up slightly.
Some 68.2pc are Roman Catholic, down by 47,230, and 14.79pc are 'no religion', up by 100,140 people.
The highest rate of 'no religion' is in Galway city at 16.19pc of the population, up 137pc or almost 7,500 people. The lowest rate is in Waterford at 10.11pc. Some 75pc of the populations of Waterford and Limerick city are Roman Catholic, a drop in both cities.
Fianna Fail is under fire for "prioritising landlords" in its Budget proposal, which suggests offering tax breaks to sign longer leases.
The proposal, first revealed by the Irish Independent, looks to offer a rebate to landlords who offer leases of five or 10 years. Details of the proposal, including the costs, are still being worked out.
The suggestion is expected to form part of the party's Budget negotiations with Leo Varadkar's Government.
However, the move has been criticised by the Labour Party, which accused Fianna Fail of prioritising landlords.
"Fianna Fail's plan for tax breaks in exchange for longer leases does not address the real causes of our housing crisis," Labour's housing spokesperson Jan O'Sullivan said.
"The issue here is tenants' rights. A tax break for landlords, as opposed to strengthening legal rights for tenants, speaks to Fianna Fail's priorities."
"Individual landlords do not operate in the same way as corporate landlords. Giving them a tax break to bring them closer to the tax obligations of a corporate landlord will only serve to help landlords."
Sinn Fein also hit out at the proposal, with the party's finance spokesman Pearse Doherty accusing Micheal Martin's party of being on the side of landlords.
However, Fianna Fail's housing spokesman, Darragh O'Brien, dismissed the criticism as "throwing political charges" at the expense of tenants.
He acknowledged that challenges do exist in relation to tenancy law and said the proposal is not being brought in isolation, but is part of a suite of budgetary measures on housing being tabled. In addition, he said, the party is pursuing legislative change to make the position of tenants more secure.
"It's not a boon for landlords in any way shape or form," he said.
When pressed on the level of the tax rebate being considered, he said the incentive would be "reasonable" and landlords would need to adhere to the criteria. The scheme would be monitored either through Revenue or the Residential Tenancies Board.
Mary Lou McDonald did not deny that the IRA still exists when she was challenged on claims that it pulls the strings in Sinn Fein.
Her failure to do so meant Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty was forced to defend her, and insist that the terror group is gone. Meanwhile, the Sinn Fein leader has also faced criticism for unclear remarks on Sinn Fein's position on the Special Criminal Court (SCC).The party has previously said it wants to abolish the SCC, which holds trials of terrorists and gangsters.
Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan last night said that Ms McDonald's "equivocation" on the court made Sinn Fein "unfit" for government.
Ms McDonald's comments came in two radio interviews following Sinn Fein's think-in meeting in Co Cavan.
On RTE's 'Morning Ireland' she was asked about claims by Sinn Fein's political opponents that the party is really run by "shadowy figures in Belfast" with connections to the IRA.
Ms McDonald denied this, and insisted she was in charge as leader and "the buck stops with me".
Presenter Bryan Dobson put it to her that a Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) assessment found that the Provisional IRA still exists and, while it is not engaged in terrorism, it is involved in the Republican political agenda. "If it's not pursuing that political agenda through Sinn Fein, it's hardly pursuing it anywhere else," he said.
Ms McDonald did not take the opportunity to deny the IRA still exists. Instead she said "it's no secret" that "tens of thousands of people in the North of Ireland went through the prison system".
"It was an entirely abnormal situation. The social contract in the society had collapsed."
Later, Sinn Fein's deputy leader in the Dail, Mr Doherty, was forced to insist "the IRA doesn't exist" and "has left the stage". Asked why Ms McDonald didn't say this in her interview, he said: "She has said that on numerous occasions." He said claims that the IRA was driving Sinn Fein policy were "absolutely without base".
Separately, Ms McDonald was asked on 'Newstalk Breakfast' if it was still Sinn Fein's policy to abolish the SCC. The question was posed following the conviction of gangland murderer Freddie Thompson.
Ms McDonald's response has led to confusion over Sinn Fein's position. She said she welcomed Thompson's conviction and that Sinn Fein "supports all of the courts because the rule of law has to be applied and because communities have to be kept safe".
She said Sinn Fein was not unique or alone in "raising concerns" about due process in non-jury courts.
Pressed again on whether she was in favour of the SCC, she said that there needed to be a discussion with the judiciary and other stakeholders about non-jury courts.
She said such courts were considered emergency measures that were never meant to be a permanent feature in the criminal justice apparatus. She also said: "Our position in respect of the Special Criminal Court is a matter of record".
But the Justice Minister responded, saying the SCC was a "bulwark against terrorism and organised crime" and there were good reasons for having it. He added: "I believe that equivocation on it actually renders Sinn Fein unfit for government".
Presidential hopeful Joan Freeman has revealed her husband is one of the postmasters in line for a windfall under the An Post retirement deal.
The senator and charity founder said her husband Pat, who runs the post office in Bluebell, Dublin, has applied for the exit package on offer.
Speaking to Wicklow County Council, Ms Freeman raised her husband's plans while discussing her desire to begin a conversation about the well-being of older people as part of her presidency.
"My husband Pat is a postmaster and he is one of the post offices that will be closing down," she said.
"But he's not concerned about the closing down of the post office on a personal level; he is concerned about the person who stands in front of him every single week and, probably, he is the only person they've spoken to in a week," she said.
After 35 years in the business he plans to step down from the post office which was once run by his parents, she said.
"They are putting new rules for postmasters and mistresses and there's a penal system being introduced so if you forget to reset your alarm or something like that, you're penalised. It's just a very difficult and awkward way for the postmasters who have been at this for decades," Ms Freeman told the Irish Independent.
"It's a very different, and maybe people are saying a more professional, approach trying to market the post office in a different way, but for people who have been at this all their life, it's difficult.
"Change is always difficult."
Postmasters have been offered a redundancy deal which is worth six weeks' pay for every year served, capped at 26 months' pay. The deal has been estimated to be worth around 50,000.
It is not yet known if her husband has been approved for redundancy.
Ms Freeman noted "that's very personal for him", when asked.
Artist and presidential hopeful Kevin Sharkey has said he believed the death penalty would be an appropriate punishment for those who harm elderly people.
Discussing crime in rural Ireland Mr Sharkey said:
"I personally believe that the death penalty would be appropriate for anybody who harms an old person in their home.
I know we are not going to bring back the death penalty, he said, speaking about the terror and trauma faced by elderly people who are attacked in their homes, many of whom dont return.
I dont think theres too stiff a punishment for those kinds of people who commit those kinds of crimes, he said.
Earlier Senator Joan Freeman said she does not believe Michael D Higgins age is a factor in his ability to do the job.
When asked about the incumbents age, she described the current president as a very capable man.
I do not agree with ageism, she said, paying tribute to the performance of Mr Higgins over the past seven years. She said he has fulfilled the role with dignity which was what the country needed.
However, she said she is challenging him because Ireland is very different today and she believes she can represent what Ireland needs right now.
Ms Freeman also said she supports allowing the Irish diaspora to vote.
She appealed to councillors to help her make it on to the ballot paper to give voters a spectrum of choice.
Ms Freeman was one of a number of hopefuls who are speaking before the council today.
The council also heard from photographer and artist Marie Goretti Moylan, former Aer Lingus employee Patrick Feeney and journalist Gemma ODoherty.
Ms ODoherty told the chamber she wants to live in an Ireland where the government does its job and peoples taxes are respected.
Meanwhile, Mr Feeney spoke about the need to invest in rural Ireland.
Businessman Sean Gallagher has said he hopes the State broadcaster has learned lessons from his court challenge taken following the 2011 Frontline Tweetgate incident.
He said he hopes RTE will take on board the learnings of the last election this time around and that any candidate brave enough to stand is treated fairly.
Mr Gallagher was speaking at a special meeting of Roscommon County Council where he has been proposed for a nomination by two councillors ahead of a meeting next Monday where the decision on who the council will back will be made.
Asked if he had confidence in current affairs in RTE Mr Gallagher said internal review in RTE has led to many protocol changes at the broadcaster he said.
I hope that Ive played my part in making sure that that takes place.. And that will unfold in the coming months, he added.
A Twitter account with a user name similar to that of the official Martin McGuinness campaign, but not linked to Mr McGuinness, said a man who claimed he had given a 5,000 cheque to Mr Gallagher would appear at a press conference the next day.
Prior to the row Mr Gallagher had been favourite to win the election. He has since sued RTE over 'Tweetgate' and received "substantial damages.
In that moment many viewers saw me as someone I am not and that pains me greatly, he said.
The former Dragons Den investor also said he would look to be a successor and not a replacement for Michael D Higgins, and that he would look to carry on the incumbents legacy.
JUSTICE Minister Charlie Flanagan has expressed much regret that the country will not be voting on the removal of the sexist and reductive section of the constitution which gives a womans place in the home special recognition.
Government plans to hold a referendum on the issue alongside the presidential election in October have been scuppered by an Oireachtas committee.
TDs want time to debate what question should be put to the people, including whether a gender-neutral clause should be inserted into the constitution in place of Article 41.2.
The existing article reads: In particular, the State recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.
It adds: The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.
In a statement, Mr Flanagan said: The Constitution doesnt seek to define the place of men. I believe it should not seek to define the place of women.
To me, this is a straightforward proposition and after many decades of inaction, the time has come for the people to exercise a view on the retention or removal of the Article.
However, he accepted the outcome of a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice and Equality which means the referendum cannot now proceed on October 26.
In a letter to the minister, Fianna Fails justice spokesman Jim OCallaghan explained his partys reasons for seeking more debate on the issue.
He said Fianna Fail support the holding of a referendum to remove the anachronistic and sexist language that exists within this article.
As currently drafted, it is wholly inappropriate for modern Ireland and stands out like an iceberg frozen in the glacial waters of Ireland in the 1930s.
However, he added that consideration needs to be given to the idea of replacing the Article with a gender neutral provision or a symbolic recognition of home and family life, with reference to carers.
At this stage my own personal preference is for deletion over amendment as I believe the states responsibility towards parents and carers should be defined by the Oireachtas in legislation rather than potentially allowing the courts interpret what may be a vague and broadly defined constitutional provision.
Nonetheless, I recognise that there is another argument and I think it is important that this other argument be considered by the Oireachtas before we put the question out to the Irish people, Mr OCallaghan said.
Sinn Fein hasn't ruled out the possibility that the Union Jack could be flown along with the Irish Tricolour over Leinster House as part of a deal on a united Ireland.
The party's deputy leader in the Dail, Pearse Doherty, said he couldn't envisage a day when that would happen, but said discussions were needed on how unionists could be accommodated in a new Ireland. He said: "We need a conversation about symbolism, for the million people who identify as British and who believe deeply in their identity. It is important that those symbols are part of this new Ireland."
He told RTE Raidio na Gaeltachta: "This is not just a question for Sinn Fein, but other parties in the south should come together to discuss what kind of united Ireland there will be."
Sinn Fein is pushing for a referendum on Irish unity under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. A draft document entitled 'Irish Unity - An Activist's Guide' was circulated to members at the party's think-in meeting in Cavan.
On the question of a post-reunification flag and anthem, it says: "Emblems and symbols are important; however, we need to be open to new ideas that cater for the two main traditions on the island and we shouldn't allow these issues to hold back Irish unity."
In a speech on Monday, party leader Mary Lou McDonald said: "It's no longer the case of if there is going to be a unity referendum, but when that referendum will take place."
Controversial plans by fast-food firm Supermac's to build a 10m Barack Obama-style motorway plaza have been put on hold by Clare County Council.
The local authority has asked for additional information on technical aspects of the plans for a site off the M18 motorway near Ennis.
The Ennis plan is seeking to repeat the success of the Barack Obama plaza at Moneygall, Co Offaly, but it has been mired in controversy over bogus letters of support lodged with the council.
A total of 187 letters backing the plan were sent and around 40 people have since contacted the council to complain, while 27 have formally withdrawn what were not their letters in the first place.
The bogus letters used people's names and addresses without their knowledge and involved forged signatures.
Supermac's has asked gardai to investigate the bogus letters after the company stated it was "horrified" to learn about them.
However, the council does not refer to the 'bogus letters' in its request for further information.
Nor does it refer to the concerns of local businesses over the impact the Supermac's proposal may have on the local economy.
Instead, the request refers to issues concerning the main sewer connection to the project, traffic; landscaping; the operation of the plaza and surface water management for the project.
The council has told Supermac's boss Pat McDonagh that Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) has raised an issue with the feasibility of having the main sewer connection for the project on the N85 bridge crossing the River Fergus.
A spokesman for Supermac's said it would not be commenting at this time.
Times Square and 42nd Street is a busy tourist intersection of neon art and commerce and is an iconic street of New York City and America
The winter airfare wars are hotting up in earnest with Norwegian's launch of 99 fares between Ireland and the US.
All of the airline's transatlantic routes from Dublin and Shannon are included in the sale, which is available for travel from November 1 to March 31 of next year.
Book online at norwegian.com/ie/fall-flight-deals before September 17.
Norwegian flies from Dublin and Shannon to New York Stewart, and from Dublin to Providence International Airport. It also flies from Cork and Belfast, and will next year launch a route to Hamilton, Ontario - though these don't feature in the sale.
Airlines switch from summer to winter schedules at the end of October, and several are anticipating the move with winter sales this week.
Aer Lingus has seats to the UK and Europe from 29.99 and to North America from 159 each-way, for instance, valid for travel from November 1 to March 31, 2019.
Its sale fares are available on aerlingus.com until midnight on September 24.
CityJet has 30pc off all flights if booked before September 9 using the code 'AUTUMNBREAK' on cityjet.com. The sale follows news that Aer Lingus will take over its flights to London City Airport from October under a new leasing arrangement.
Ryanair is offering autumn city breaks from 19.99 in its latest special offer, while WOW air has flights from Dublin to Reykjavik from 49.99 each-way this autumn, and one-stop (via Iceland) services to the US from 135.99 each-way.
Most of the sales don't include baggage fees or seat selection, of course.
Read more:
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attends the WellChild Awards at the Royal Lancaster Hotel on September 4, 2018 in London, England. The Duke of Susssex has been patron of WellChild since 2007. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attends the WellChild awards at Royal Lancaster Hotel on September 4, 2018 in London, England. The Duke of Susssex has been patron of WellChild since 2007. (Photo by Samir Hussein/Samir Hussein/WireImage)
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attends the WellChild Awards at the Royal Lancaster Hotel on September 4, 2018 in London, England. The Duke of Susssex has been patron of WellChild since 2007. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex meet four-year-old Mckenzie Brackley during the annual WellChild Awards at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the annual WellChild Awards at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London
Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, arrive for the annual WellChild Awards ceremony at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, Britain September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, arrive for the annual WellChild Awards ceremony at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, Britain September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, arrives for the annual WellChild Awards ceremony at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, Britain September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, attend the annual WellChild Awards ceremony the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, Britain September 4, 2018. Victoria Jones/Pool via REUTERS
Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, attend the annual WellChild Awards ceremony the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, Britain September 4, 2018. Victoria Jones/Pool via REUTERS
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex with Poppy and her mother Jayne during the annual WellChild Awards at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the annual WellChild Awards at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London
Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, attend the annual WellChild Awards ceremony the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, Britain September 4, 2018. Victoria Jones/Pool via REUTERS
Meghan Markle's first few months in the British royal family hasn't been without its hiccups - in fact, it has been marred with more criticism than most 'normal' people's transition into the upper echelons of society.
But for every nasty comment made by her father or sister, there has been one area nearly free from critique: her personal style. Markle emits a natural elegance, injecting some fresh life into the can-be stale wardrobes of the British royals. Instead of pleated skirts, it's a trouser suit. A modest wedge? She wouldn't be caught dead in anything but a four-inch pump!
However, it's her consistent strength that will prove to be her eventual foot-wrong - an exclusively designer wardrobe will rub people the wrong way in the long run, and an inability to distinguish between investment pieces and simple spending-for-the-sake-of-it isn't endearing to the public.
There is a time and place for couture - the Oscars, the Cannes Film Festival, a state gala dinner - but Meghan hasn't quite grasped the concept that just because you have it doesn't mean you have to show it off.
Expand Close Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, arrive for the annual WellChild Awards ceremony at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, Britain September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, arrive for the annual WellChild Awards ceremony at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, Britain September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
The occasion to display your obvious wealth is not at an event honouring extremely sick children who are doing their best to live as normal lives as possible as she did at last night's WellChild Awards in London. It's a cause close to Harry's heart and he has been a regular guest at the awards in recent years, joined for the first time last night by his new wife, whose black power suit elevated her on top of best dressed lists everywhere.
While the couple's intentions to use their profile for good causes are noble and unquestionable, the optics leave a lot to be desired - perhaps least of all the fact that they arrived via limousine and most of all, it was with Meghan showing off the extent of her clothing allowance, wearing an ensemble worth an estimated 5,000.
The Altazurra trouser suit, 1,650, the Falabella Stella McCartney clutch, 425, the black suede Aquzurra pumps, 220, a 325 camisole by Deitas and a pair of pearl earrings gifted to her by Queen Elizabeth (price unknown, but worth at least 2,000) does not exactly exude a 'princess of the people' image she seemed so keen on pursuing just a few months ago.
There's an obvious disconnect between Meghan's extravagant taste and the gravity of her duties, which is largely comprised of meeting members of the public who could never fathom access to her new personal fortune.
Fashion is how royals lure attention to their personal causes - Meghan or her sister-in-law Kate Middleton wearing a dazzling dress or debuting a new hairstyle at an event will gather more columns inches for their respective charity visits than that of their husbands in a different variation of their trademark navy blue suits. Women's fashion is just more captivating, case in point: Barack Obama wore the same tuxedo for his eight years at the White House, while Michelle Obama's outfits were often the ones dissected.
But it's important to know when the line between the fantastical and real life needs to be drawn.
Expand Close Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attends the WellChild Awards at the Royal Lancaster Hotel on September 4, 2018 in London, England. The Duke of Susssex has been patron of WellChild since 2007. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images) / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attends the WellChild Awards at the Royal Lancaster Hotel on September 4, 2018 in London, England. The Duke of Susssex has been patron of WellChild since 2007. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)
Video of the Day
Meghan's new life as the Duchess of Sussex might be the stuff of real-life fairytales, but she knows better than anyone than life without the financial security is difficult and a little humility - or even, say, a high street dress - can go a long way in turning public favour.
Kate mastered the high-low balance long ago, famously peppering 30 Zara necklaces and 11 Accessorize earrings with Emilia Wickstead and Alexander McQueen coats and L.K. Bennett heels, while Meghan has much more expensive taste.
For her first overseas tour with Harry in July, the former Suits star chose labels over diplomacy, shunning any Irish brands in favour of British, French and Canadian talent - instead of an obvious couturier like Louise Kennedy or even, wearing designs exclusively from the country she is representing.
There is, so far, no consistency to her public style and soon enough, 'She's still new to it all' won't be enough of an excuse anymore.
Scaffolding of a building being demolished, collapse, following a powerful typhoon in Osaka, western Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (Nobuki Ito/Kyodo News via AP)
A tanker is seen after it slammed into the side of a bridge connecting the airport to the mainland, damaging part of the bridge and the vessel in Osaka, western Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (Nobuki Ito/Kyodo News via AP)
A police car makes through a flooded road following a powerful typhoon in Osaka, western Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (Kota Endo/Kyodo News via AP)
Kansai International Airport partially is flooded by typhoon Jebi in Osaka, western Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (Nobuki Ito/Kyodo News via AP)
A tanker is seen after it slammed into the side of a bridge connecting the airport to the mainland, damaging part of the bridge and the vessel in Osaka, western Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (Kentaro Ikushima/Mainichi Newspaper via AP)
Damage is seen on the bridge linking Kansai airport to Osaka in Japan in this still image from a September 5, 2018 video footage. Twitter/@_____whgg/Social Media/via REUTERS
An aerial view shows a flooded runway at Kansai airport, which is built on a man-made island in a bay, after Typhoon Jebi hit the area, in Izumisano, western Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo September 5, 2018. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS
Cranes fall down damaged at an seaside area following a powerful typhoon, in Nishinomiya, western Japan, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. Typhoon Jebi swept across part of Japan's main island. (Hiroko Harima/Kyodo News via AP)
A damaged 2,591-ton tanker is towed by a tugboat from a bridge connecting Kansai International Airport in Osaka, western Japan, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, a day after it slammed into the side of the bridge by a powerful typhoon. (Hiroko Harima/Kyodo News via AP)
This aerial view shows a damaged bridge connecting Kansai International Airport in Osaka, western Japan, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, a day after a tanker slammed into its side by a powerful typhoon. (Hiroko Harima/Kyodo News via AP)
Stranded passengers queue up in lines to wait for special buses at Kansai International Airport following a powerful typhoon in Osaka, western Japan, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (Kyodo News via AP)
Vehicles damaged by Typhoon Jebi are seen in Kobe, western Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo September 5, 2018. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS
Vehicles damaged by Typhoon Jebi are seen in Kobe, western Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo September 5, 2018. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS
A bridge connecting Kansai airport, damaged by crashing with a 2,591-tonne tanker, which is sent by strong wind caused by Typhoon Jebi, is seen in Izumisano, western Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo September 5, 2018. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS
At least nine people have died after Typhoon Jebi, thought to be the worst storm in Japan since 1993, swept across part of the main island.
People were left stranded at a flooded offshore airport overnight and more than one million households remained without power on Wednesday morning.
Japanese broadcaster NHK showed aerial footage of a boat and a caravan of buses transporting about 3,000 people from Kansai International Airport across a partially damaged bridge.
The airport that serves Osaka, one of Japan's largest cities, remains closed.
Expand Close Vehicles damaged by Typhoon Jebi are seen in Kobe, western Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo September 5, 2018. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Vehicles damaged by Typhoon Jebi are seen in Kobe, western Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo September 5, 2018. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS
The typhoon peeled roofs off buildings, toppled power poles and damaged businesses as it crossed Japan's main island on Tuesday.
Japanese media tallied at least nine deaths, and the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said more than 200 people were injured.
Jebi, reportedly the strongest typhoon to make landfall in 25 years, has been downgraded to a tropical storm and is heading north of Japan.
Kansai International Airport is built on artificial islands in Osaka Bay, and the high seas flooded one of its two runways, cargo storage and other facilities, said the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
Expand Close Stranded passengers queue up in lines to wait for special buses at Kansai International Airport following a powerful typhoon in Osaka, western Japan, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (Kyodo News via AP) / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Stranded passengers queue up in lines to wait for special buses at Kansai International Airport following a powerful typhoon in Osaka, western Japan, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (Kyodo News via AP)
One passenger was slightly injured by shards from a window shattered by the storm.
A tanker that was mooring slammed into the side of a bridge connecting the airport to the mainland, damaging the bridge and leaving people stranded overnight, transport ministry official Mitsuo Nakao said.
Expand Close This aerial view shows a damaged bridge connecting Kansai International Airport in Osaka, western Japan, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, a day after a tanker slammed into its side by a powerful typhoon. (Hiroko Harima/Kyodo News via AP) / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp This aerial view shows a damaged bridge connecting Kansai International Airport in Osaka, western Japan, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, a day after a tanker slammed into its side by a powerful typhoon. (Hiroko Harima/Kyodo News via AP)
A speed boat ferried the stranded passengers from the airport to a nearby Kobe port, while others took buses that used one of the two roads on the bridge that remained intact after the tanker clash.
Appearing relieved but exhausted, passengers said they had to spend the night feeling uneasy in the dark.
Expand Close A damaged 2,591-ton tanker is towed by a tugboat from a bridge connecting Kansai International Airport in Osaka, western Japan, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, a day after it slammed into the side of the bridge by a powerful typhoon. (Hiroko Harima/Kyodo News via AP) / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp A damaged 2,591-ton tanker is towed by a tugboat from a bridge connecting Kansai International Airport in Osaka, western Japan, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, a day after it slammed into the side of the bridge by a powerful typhoon. (Hiroko Harima/Kyodo News via AP)
Hideko Senoo, 51, who was planning a family trip to India, said the terminal was hot and dark due to power outage, and she could not even buy drinks at vending machines after food at convenience stores were all sold out.
"We could not use vending machines or access to wireless local network to get information, and we didn't even know about this boat service," she told Kyodo News.
Expand Close An aerial view shows a flooded runway at Kansai airport, which is built on a man-made island in a bay, after Typhoon Jebi hit the area, in Izumisano, western Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo September 5, 2018. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp An aerial view shows a flooded runway at Kansai airport, which is built on a man-made island in a bay, after Typhoon Jebi hit the area, in Izumisano, western Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo September 5, 2018. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS
Another passenger, Miki Yamada, said she spent the night at an airport cafeteria, Kyodo said. "It was a rather scary night, as we were so isolated."
The tanker was also damaged, but its 11 crew members were not injured, according to the coast guard.
The heavily damaged ship has been pulled away from the bridge into nearby open waters.
The deaths included a man in his 70s who was blown to the ground from his apartment in Osaka prefecture.
Police said five others died elsewhere in the prefecture after being hit by flying objects or falling from their apartments.
In nearby Shiga prefecture, a 71-year-old man died when a storage building collapsed on him, and a man in his 70s died after falling from a roof in Mie, officials said.
Daihatsu Motor Co stopped production at its Kyoto and Osaka factories, while Panasonic halted work at its air conditioning and refrigerator factory in Shiga.
Major beverage maker Kirin Co suspended production at its brewery in Kobe, according to Kyodo News agency.
In nearby Nishinomiya in Hyogo prefecture, about 100 cars at a seaside dealership burned after their electrical systems were shorted out by sea water, fire officials and news reports said.
In Osaka, the Universal Studios Japan theme park remained closed for a second straight day. A news release said it would open again on Thursday.
Huge waves at the port of Aki
At least eight people have been killed and a million residents evacuated as Typhoon Jebi sliced a path across western Japan.
Jebi, or "swallow" in Korean, was briefly classed as a super typhoon and is the most powerful storm to hit Japan in 25 years.
A 71-year-old man was found dead under a collapsed warehouse in Shiga, another died after falling from a roof in Mie, broadcaster NHK reported last night.
Police say six other people died in Osaka after being hit by flying objects or falling from their apartments. At least 126 people were injured, NHK said.
Evacuation advisories were issued for more than a million people and gusts of wind up to 207kmh were recorded in one point of Shikoku.
More than 1.6 million households remained without power in Osaka, Kyoto and four nearby prefectures late last night, according to Kansai Electric Power Co.
Expand Close A man looks at a truck overturned following a powerful typhoon in Osaka. AP / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp A man looks at a truck overturned following a powerful typhoon in Osaka. AP
Tides in some areas were the highest since a typhoon in 1961, and high seas poured into Kansai International Airport near Osaka, flooding one of its runways and forcing it to close - leaving around 3,000 tourists stranded.
The strong winds and high tides also sent a 2,591-tonne tanker crashing into a bridge which connects the airport to the mainland.
The bridge was damaged and closed but all 11 crew members on the tanker were uninjured and remained on board, according to the coast guard.
Nearly 800 flights were cancelled, along with scores of ferries and trains, according to Japanese media.
Expand Close The typhoon smashed a 2,500-tonne tanker into a bridge connecting the airport to the mainland in Osaka. AP / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp The typhoon smashed a 2,500-tonne tanker into a bridge connecting the airport to the mainland in Osaka. AP
High-speed bullet train service was suspended from Tokyo to Hiroshima, though service resumed partially later yesterday afternoon when the typhoon left the region.
The storm also cut power to hundreds of thousands of homes and caused schools, shops and factories to close in Osaka, Japan's second city and a major business centre.
Japan's weather agency warned of possible landslides, flooding and violent winds, as well as high tides, lightning and tornadoes in a swathe of the Japanese archipelago.
Elsewhere in Osaka, the Universal Studios Japan theme park and US Consulate were both closed.
Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, cancelled a scheduled trip to Kyushu, Japan's southernmost main island, to oversee the government's response to the typhoon, said a spokesman.
"I urge the Japanese people to take action to protect your lives, including preparing and evacuating early," Mr Abe said.
Tokyo escaped the centre of the storm but was set for heavy rains and high winds.
Jebi's course brought it close to parts of western Japan hit by rains and flooding that killed more than 200 people in July.
A kindergarten principal in southern China has reportedly been sacked after welcoming students back to the first day of term with a sultry pole-dancing display.
Parents attending the welcome ceremony with their young children in Shenzhen were stunned when a pole dancer clad in black hot pants and heels began to gyrate around a steel pipe.
Their complaints prompted a rebuke from the education bureau of Bao'an district, which took to social media to warn kindergartens against inappropriate behaviour.
"The District Education Bureau believes that it is not appropriate to perform pole dancing for children in kindergartens," it pointed out.
Video footage of the racy performance shows young children watching impassively as the dancer spins and falls to the floor while shaking her long hair.
Michael Standaert, an American writer whose children attend the school, narrated the story on Twitter.
He said he and his wife had already had concerns about the kindergarten before it closed for the summer, when the children had been subjected to 10 days of "military activities".
When the family returned after the summer break, they were surprised to see adverts for a pole-dancing school. Then came the performance. "Who would think this is a good idea?" tweeted Mr Standaert. "The principal hung up on my wife after saying it was 'international and good exercise'. OK, yeah for adults maybe, but not three- to six-year-old kids."
A British art gallery is to ensure its next exhibition of nudes has an equal gender split of naked men and women, as it navigates the post-#MeToo era.
The Royal Academy in London, which has just had a restructuring to celebrate its 250th anniversary, will have almost exact parity between male and female nudes in an exhibition of Renaissance art next year.
The decision, confirmed by Tim Marlow, the artistic director of the academy, at its new season launch yesterday, marks the first time it has introduced a gender quota for any of its exhibitions.
The 'Renaissance Nude', due to open in March, will include around 85 works created between 1400 and 1530.
It is designed to track the development of the "idea and ideal" of the nude throughout Europe.
The announcement of its gender balance follows a period of deep crisis in the arts. Television, film, theatre, music and the visual arts have all been re-examining their treatment of women in the wake of the #MeToo revelations about sex abuse.
Per Rumberg, curator of the Royal Academy, said the curators had been "very keen in the beginning to have an equal balance of men and women".
While he had not done a precise headcount, he said, "there is almost parity between men and women".
The academy had also worked to gender balance the mixture of scholars who are working on the exhibition.
The idea for the show was conceived three years ago, and it will be put on in partnership with the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. ( Daily Telegraph, London)
The FTSE 100 was knocked on Wednesday following a surge in the pound sparked by reports of a pending Brexit deal.
The pound, which has taken a Brexit beating over the past few weeks, rose as much as 1% to around 1.291 against the US dollar.
Versus the euro, the UK currency rose as much as 0.5% but was nearly flat by the stock market close to trade at 1.109.
It came amid reports that Britain and Germany are preparing to drop key Brexit demands, paving the way for a deal in the coming months.
Bloomberg said Berlin is ready to accept a less detailed agreement on Britains future trade ties with the EU in an effort to get a Brexit deal done.
However, Downing Street insisted there was no change in the UKs position on the need for proper information about the future relationship to be available by the time Parliament votes on the withdrawal agreement.
Investors were also digesting data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which showed activity in the services sector rebounded last month.
Expand Close The pound started to rebound on Wednesday (PA) / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp The pound started to rebound on Wednesday (PA)
The closely watched Markit/CIPS services purchasing managers index (PMI) showed a reading of 54.3 in August, up from 53.5 in July.
A reading above 50 indicates growth.
The pounds surge knocked the FTSE 100, which tends to benefit when foreign currencies are stronger as many of its constituents are multinational firms with overseas operations.
Londons blue chip index ended the day down 1% or 74.58 points at 7383.28 points.
Across Europe, the French CAC 40 and German DAX slumped 1.5% and 1.4%, respectively.
In oil markets, Brent crude prices were down 0.6% to around 77.39 US dollars per barrel as fears about the effect of US tropical storm Gordon on offshore oil platforms subsided.
The commodity was also facing pressure amid slowing global demand.
In UK stocks, Barratt Developments jumped 9.6p to 545.2p after logging a 9.2% rise in annual pre-tax profit to a record 835.5 million.
Barratt said market conditions remain good and the availability of attractive mortgage finance and the Governments Help to Buy scheme continue to support robust consumer demand.
FTSE 250 house building peer Berkeley rose 28p to 3,538p despite warning that Londons property market remains under pressure from high transaction costs, mortgage restrictions and Brexit uncertainty.
It backed guidance to deliver at least 3.4 billion of pre-tax profits for the five years to April 30 2021.
Royal Bank of Scotland rose 3.9p to 250.4p after announcing plans to swing the axe on another 54 branches, due to not being forced to sell its Williams & Glyn business.
William Hill surged 12p to 260.5p as the gambling group agreed a tie-up with US casino giant Eldorado in its boldest move yet to tap into the American market.
Shares in Quiz tumbled 5.5p to 162p after the retailer warned that it will take a 400,000 hit from House of Frasers collapse.
Quiz has historically operated 11 House of Fraser concessions and sold its products through the House of Fraser website.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Royal Mail up 8.6p at 467p, Associated British Foods up 41p at 2,284, Barratt Developments up 9.6p at 545.2p, and Royal Bank of Scotland Group up 3.9p at 250.4p.
The biggest fallers were WPP down 49p at 1,147.5p, Burberry Group down 84p at 2,116p, Coca-Cola HBC down 97p at 2,562p, and NMC Health down 140p at 3,734p.
Israel has threatened to attack any Iranian military assets in Iraq as it has done in Syria, following reports Tehran has moved ballistic missiles closer to the Jewish state.
Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's defence minister, signalled it would "contend" with Iranian provocations wherever they are found.
"We are certainly monitoring everything that is happening in Syria and, regarding Iranian threats, we are not limiting ourselves just to Syrian territory," he said.
Asked if this included Iraq, he responded: "I am saying that we will contend with any Iranian threat, and it doesn't matter from where it comes... Israel's freed."
Tehran has transferred dozens of short-range ballistic missiles to Shia proxies in Iraq over the last few months, according to reports.
The missiles have ranges of 640km, putting Tel Aviv within striking distance if the weapons were deployed in southern or western Iraq.
The Quds Force, the overseas arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has bases in both those areas. "It seems Iran has been turning Iraq into its forward missile base," a Western source said.
Israel is technically at war with Iraq, but the two countries have not openly traded blows for decades.
Israel has, however, conducted hundreds of air strikes against arms transfers and deployments by Iran and its Lebanese ally, the Shia Hizbollah militia, fearing the threat across its border.
Israel will also be watching political developments in Baghdad with concern. After months of wrangling, two blocs claim to hold the majority of seats in parliament and therefore the right to name a prime minister. ( Daily Telegraph London)
Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
A fighter of the National Liberation Front takes a selfie as he prepares in anticipation of an attack by the regime on Idlib province and the surrounding countryside, near Idlib on September 3, 2018. - The Syrian regime and its Russian ally are threatening an offensive to retake the northwestern province of Idlib, Syria's last rebel bastion. (Photo by Nazeer AL-KHATIB / AFP)NAZEER AL-KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images
Russian jets hit the Syrian city of Idlib with a barrage of air strikes yesterday, hours after US President Donald Trump warned such a move would be a "grave mistake".
At least 23 strikes were reported in several locations around the opposition-held north-western province of Idlib, in what appeared to be the opening salvo of an expected offensive.
Expand Close Vladimir Putin AP / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Vladimir Putin AP
Rebels said the strikes had mostly targeted military positions of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Turkistan Islamic Party in the Jisr al-Shughour district, although at least three civilians were reported to have been killed.
Syrian government forces have been massing around Idlib for weeks in preparation for an assault on the last opposition stronghold.
Meanwhile, Russia has sent an armada of ships, including the 'Marshal Ustinov' missile cruiser, to the coast of Syria in the Mediterranean, prompting speculation it was preparing for an imminent attack.
"The government plan was to give the maximum possible chance for a reconciliation, but unfortunately no progress in this regards. The radicals are in control in Idlib," a Syrian government official said.
"This is more than the usual stuff - it looks like preliminary bombardment before a major land operation."
President Trump had warned the Syrian government and its Russian and Iranian allies against "recklessly" attacking Idlib. In a tweet he warned of "a grave humanitarian mistake" in which hundreds of thousands could be killed.
An estimated three million people - half of them displaced from other parts of Syria - live in the province, and it is expected an offensive there could become the deadliest yet in the seven-year war.
UN officials say as many as 800,000 could be displaced and that the already high number of people in need of aid could increase dramatically.
Idlib is the only major territory the rebels still control, so those who do not wish to surrender to the government have nowhere left to go.
"We know that the Syrian armed forces are getting ready to solve this problem," Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, said yesterday, calling Idlib a "pocket of terrorism".
Mr Peskov took issue with Mr Trump's warning. He said the situation could have "dangerous, negative" consequences for the entire country.
The province is held by a complex array of rebels and jihadists, many of whom have been blacklisted as "terrorists" by world powers.
Analysts and aid workers say there is still an opportunity to avoid the humanitarian impact of a full-scale offensive. The presidents of Turkey, Russia and fellow regime ally Iran are to meet in Tehran on Friday for a major summit on Idlib.
At least nine people have died after Typhoon Jebi, thought to be the worst storm in Japan since 1993, swept across part of the main island.
People were left stranded at a flooded offshore airport overnight and more than one million households remained without power on Wednesday morning.
Japanese broadcaster NHK showed aerial footage of a boat and a caravan of buses transporting about 3,000 people from Kansai International Airport across a partially damaged bridge.
The airport that serves Osaka, one of Japans largest cities, remains closed.
Expand Close Stranded passengers queue up in lines to wait for special buses at Kansai International Airport (Kyodo News via AP) / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Stranded passengers queue up in lines to wait for special buses at Kansai International Airport (Kyodo News via AP)
The typhoon peeled roofs off buildings, toppled power poles and damaged businesses as it crossed Japans main island on Tuesday.
Japanese media tallied at least nine deaths, and the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said more than 200 people were injured.
Jebi, reportedly the strongest typhoon to make landfall in 25 years, has been downgraded to a tropical storm and is heading north of Japan.
Kansai International Airport is built on artificial islands in Osaka Bay, and the high seas flooded one of its two runways, cargo storage and other facilities, said the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
One passenger was slightly injured by shards from a window shattered by the storm.
A tanker that was mooring slammed into the side of a bridge connecting the airport to the mainland, damaging the bridge and leaving people stranded overnight, transport ministry official Mitsuo Nakao said.
Expand Close A damaged 2,591-ton tanker is towed by a tugboat from a bridge connecting Kansai International Airport in Osaka, western Japan (Hiroko Harima/Kyodo News via AP) / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp A damaged 2,591-ton tanker is towed by a tugboat from a bridge connecting Kansai International Airport in Osaka, western Japan (Hiroko Harima/Kyodo News via AP)
A speed boat ferried the stranded passengers from the airport to a nearby Kobe port, while others took buses that used one of the two roads on the bridge that remained intact after the tanker clash.
Appearing relieved but exhausted, passengers said they had to spend the night feeling uneasy in the dark.
Hideko Senoo, 51, who was planning a family trip to India, said the terminal was hot and dark due to power outage, and she could not even buy drinks at vending machines after food at convenience stores were all sold out.
We could not use vending machines or access to wireless local network to get information, and we didnt even know about this boat service, she told Kyodo News.
Another passenger, Miki Yamada, said she spent the night at an airport cafeteria, Kyodo said. It was a rather scary night, as we were so isolated.
The tanker was also damaged, but its 11 crew members were not injured, according to the coast guard.
The heavily damaged ship has been pulled away from the bridge into nearby open waters.
Expand Close Kansai International Airport is partially flooded by Typhoon Jebi (Hiroko Harima/Kyodo News via AP) / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Kansai International Airport is partially flooded by Typhoon Jebi (Hiroko Harima/Kyodo News via AP)
The deaths included a man in his 70s who was blown to the ground from his apartment in Osaka prefecture.
Police said five others died elsewhere in the prefecture after being hit by flying objects or falling from their apartments.
In nearby Shiga prefecture, a 71-year-old man died when a storage building collapsed on him, and a man in his 70s died after falling from a roof in Mie, officials said.
Daihatsu Motor Co stopped production at its Kyoto and Osaka factories, while Panasonic halted work at its air conditioning and refrigerator factory in Shiga.
Major beverage maker Kirin Co suspended production at its brewery in Kobe, according to Kyodo News agency.
In nearby Nishinomiya in Hyogo prefecture, about 100 cars at a seaside dealership burned after their electrical systems were shorted out by sea water, fire officials and news reports said.
In Osaka, the Universal Studios Japan theme park remained closed for a second straight day. A news release said it would open again on Thursday.
Donald Trump's most senior aides and appointees privately said he was "unhinged", an "idiot" and has the intellectual capacity of a "fifth-grader", according to an explosive new book.
The US president's senior aides are also quoted expressing fears that he could come across as a "goddamn dumbbell" and has gone "off the rails".
His top economic adviser reportedly even "stole" letters from his desk to stop the president making dramatic changes in America's trade policy.
The explosive claims come from a new book by Bob Woodward, the reporter who helped bring down Richard Nixon as president by exposing the Watergate scandal.
Copies of the 448-page book, which was based on hundreds of hours of interviews and is titled 'Fear: Trump in the White House', were obtained by 'The Washington Post' and CNN.
Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, said: "This book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the president look bad."
Mr Trump dismissed the publication last night as "just another bad book" and "nasty stuff".
The president claimed Mr Woodward had "a lot of credibility problems", adding: "I probably would have preferred to speak to him, but maybe not. I think it probably wouldn't have made a difference in the book."
He went on: "It's just nasty stuff. I never spoke to him. Maybe I wasn't given messages that he called."
Mr Trump also said that the claim Gary Cohn had removed papers from his desk was "false", suggesting the sources for the story were "disgruntled employees or just made up".
The book exerts paint a damning portrait of a president prone to rages whose struggles to understand national security issues have left aides despairing.
Some of the most senior figures in Mr Trump's administration are quoted in the book disparaging the president's intellectual abilities.
John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, is said to have told a small group meeting: "He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had."
James Mattis, the US defence secretary, is said to have been exasperated after trying to explain the importance of America's military presence in the Korean Peninsula, which allows a North Korean missile launch to be detected in seven seconds.
Mr Mattis reportedly told Mr Trump: "We're doing this in order to prevent World War III." But privately he allegedly commented that Mr Trump had the understanding of "a fifth or sixth-grader".
Mr Kelly issued a statement saying: "The idea I ever called the president an idiot is not true." He also repeated a previous comment criticising the "pathetic" attempt to "smear" those close to the president.
Mr Cohn, Mr Trump's most senior economic adviser before his departure earlier this year, reportedly went to remarkable lengths to curb the president's instincts.
Mr Cohn allegedly was "appalled" by a draft letter formalising America's withdrawal from a trade agreement with South Korea and so "stole it" from Mr Trump's desk.
Mr Cohn is quoted as telling an associate: "He's never going to see that document. Got to protect the country."
The former adviser pulled a similar move over Mr Trump's plans to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the book claims.
Mr Cohn supposedly told Rob Porter, the former White House staff secretary who drafted a letter on the policy change: "I can stop this. I'll just take the paper off his desk."
Mr Trump's erratic instincts and lack of curiosity about national security issues have alarmed senior foreign policy advisers, according to Mr Woodward's book.
The president reportedly told Mr Mattis to assassinate Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator, in April 2017 after he used chemical weapons.
Mr Trump is quoted as saying: "Let's f***ing kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f***ing lot of them." Mr Mattis reportedly told a senior aide after the call: "We're not going to do any of that." ( Daily Telegraph, London)
A White House statement dismissed the book as nothing more than fabricated stories (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
An incendiary tell-all book by a reporter who helped bring down President Richard Nixon has set off a firestorm in the White House, with its descriptions of current and former aides calling President Donald Trump an idiot and a liar.
The book, Fear: Trump In The White House, by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward is the latest to throw the Trump administration into damage-control mode with explosive anecdotes and concerns about the commander in chief.
Mr Trump decried the quotes and stories in the book on Twitter as frauds, a con on the public, adding that Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and chief of staff John Kelly had denied uttering quoted criticisms of the president in the book.
He also denied accounts in the book that senior aides snatched sensitive documents off his desk to keep him from making impulsive decisions.
He said in an interview with The Daily Caller, There was nobody taking anything from me.
The publication of Mr Woodwards book has been anticipated for weeks, and current and former White House officials estimate that nearly all their colleagues cooperated with the famed Watergate journalist.
The White House, in a statement from press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, dismissed the book as nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad.
Mr Woodward did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The book quotes Mr Kelly as having doubts about Mr Trumps mental faculties, declaring during one meeting, Were in Crazytown.
It also says he called Mr Trump an idiot, an account that Mr Kelly denied on Tuesday.
The book says Mr Trumps former lawyer in the Russia probe, John Dowd, doubted the presidents ability to avoid perjuring himself should he be interviewed in special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian election interference and potential coordination with Mr Trumps campaign.
Mr Dowd, who stepped down in January, resigned after the mock interview, the book said.
Dont testify. Its either that or an orange jumpsuit, Mr Dowd is quoted telling the president.
Mr Dowd, in a statement Tuesday, said no so-called practice session or re-enactment' took place and denied saying Mr Trump was likely to end up in an orange jumpsuit.
Expand Close Bob Woodwards forthcoming book focuses on Donald Trumps first 18 months in office (Alex Brandon/AP) / Facebook
Twitter
Email
Whatsapp Bob Woodwards forthcoming book focuses on Donald Trumps first 18 months in office (Alex Brandon/AP)
Mr Mattis is quoted explaining to Mr Trump why the US maintains troops on the Korean Peninsula to monitor North Koreas missile activities.
Were doing this in order to prevent World War Three, Mr Mattis said, according to the book.
The book recounts that Mr Mattis told close associates that the president acted like and had the understanding of a fifth- or sixth-grader.
Mr Mattis said in a statement: The contemptuous words about the President attributed to me in Woodwards book were never uttered by me or in my presence.
A Pentagon spokesman, Colonel Rob Manning, said Mr Mattis was never interviewed by Mr Woodward.
Mr Woodward never discussed or verified the alleged quotes included in his book with Secretary Mattis or anyone within the DOD, he said.
Mr Woodward reported that after Syrias Bashar Assad launched a chemical weapons attack on civilians in April 2017, Mr Trump called Mr Mattis and said he wanted the Syrian leader taken out, saying, Kill him! Lets go in.
Mr Mattis assured Mr Trump he would get right on it but then told a senior aide they would do nothing of the kind, Mr Woodward wrote. National security advisers instead developed options for the airstrike that Mr Trump ultimately ordered.
US Ambassador Nikki Haley denied on Tuesday that Mr Trump had ever planned to assassinate Mr Assad.
She told reporters at UN headquarters that she had been privy to conversations about the Syrian chemical weapons attacks, and I have not once ever heard the president talk about assassinating Assad.
She said people should take what is written in books about the president with a grain of salt.
Maybe I wasn't given messages that he called. I probably would have spoken to him if he'd called, if he'd got throughDonald Trump on Bob Woodward
Mr Woodward also claims that Gary Cohn, the former director of the National Economic Council, boasted of removing papers from the presidents desk to prevent Mr Trump from signing them into law, including efforts to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement and from a deal with South Korea.
The book quotes Mr Trump as mocking his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who has been a target of the presidents wrath since recusing himself from the Russia investigation.
He couldnt even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama, Mr Trump said of Mr Sessions, according to the book.
Mr Trump did not speak to Mr Woodward until after the books manuscript was completed.
The Post released audio of Mr Trump expressing surprise about the book in an August conversation with Mr Woodward and dismay that he did not have an opportunity to contribute.
Mr Woodward tells Mr Trump he had contacted multiple officials to attempt to interview Mr Trump and was rebuffed.
I never spoke to him, Mr Trump told The Daily Caller. Maybe I wasnt given messages that he called. I probably would have spoken to him if hed called, if hed got through.
Mr Woodwards book was already ranked the top-selling book on Amazon on Tuesday.
I've been on the receiving end of a Bob Woodward book. There were quotes in it I didn't like. But never once - never - did I think Woodward made it up. Anonymous sources have looser lips and may take liberties. But Woodward always plays is straight. Someone told it to him. Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) September 4, 2018
Mr Trump has been increasingly critical of anonymous sources used by reporters covering his administration. Mr Woodwards account relies on deep background conversations with sources, meaning their identities are not disclosed.
Former George W Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer defended Mr Woodwards methodology.
Ive been on the receiving end of a Bob Woodward book, he tweeted Tuesday. There were quotes in it I didnt like. But never once never did I think Woodward made it up.
Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas, who are now engaged are having a great time and are enjoying their time off work. Recently, the couple was spotted cheering at US Open.
It wasn't a usual date though. The couple was spotted with Joe Jonas, Sophie Turner, and Madhu Chopra. Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas were in New York City, and on Tuesday they attended the US Open to watch Serena Williams play against Karoline Pliskova. The couple took to their Instagram accounts to share pictures.
#USOpen A post shared by Nick Jonas (@nickjonas) on Sep 4, 2018 at 8:45pm PDT
Priyanka shared two pictures of the family together. She captioned them, Its a #famjam at the #usopen @nickjonas @sophiet @joejonas @madhumalati.
Just a few days ago, PC also turned into a photographer for her beau. Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas vacationed at Mammoth Mountains. An EOnline report also claimed that the couple was in Cabo San Lucas for a while before heading for Guadalajara.
A source was quoted in the report as saying, stayed the night at the oceanfront hotel One and Only Palmilla, before visiting Acre Baja for a tour of the agave fields and farmland.
Just to jog your memory a little, Priyanka and Nick got engaged on August 18 in Mumbai in a traditional Roka ceremony.
Actors Adil Hussain and Ekavali Khanna starrer What Will People Say has been chosen as Norwegian official entry into the Oscar 2019.
Just to jog your memory a little, in August, Adil also won the Best Actor award at the Amanda Award or the Norwegian National Awards - the Scandinavian country's top national film honour and dedicated it to Goalpara in Assam, his hometown.
Agencies
Adil Hussain took to his social media accounts to break the news. He posted,
"Our film What Will People Say is just been declared as the Norwegian official entry into Oscar 2019. Big Congratulations to Iram Haq, Maria Mozhdah, Ekavali Khanna and cast and Crew members. We hope that our film will finally be one of the films to be Nominated in Foreign Film Category at the Oscars in 2019."
Talking about the film, Ekavali told IANS,
"When we were shooting the film, we knew we are making a very compelling film but had no idea that it will receive such abundant love across the globe, and the official selection from Norway is such an honour. We have our fingers crossed for the nomination."
Agencies
Directed by Iram Haq, What Will People Say is set in Pakistan and Norway and traces how a Pakistani immigrant family deals with its teenage daughter's affair with a local boy in Norway.
Adil has been flooded with several congratulatory messages.
Jackky Bhagnani believes in one mantra and its Try try until you succeed'. This actor made his debut in 2009 and is still struggling to be make a mark. The best part about Jackky is he is not ready to give up even when he is 75 years old. After three years of a hiatus from acting, the actor is coming back with Mitron. The trailer and songs of the film so far have received a good response.
Twitter
Indiatimes met Jackky Bhagnani and had the most interesting and open conversation with him.
Being A Star Kid People Remember Me
To begin with, Jackky said, he is thankful he belongs to a filmy family which is why people havent forgotten him. His father Vashu Bhagnani was and is one of the most famous film producers of his time, If I didnt belong to a filmy family people would have forgotten me, I have to be in peoples eye to even dislike or like me. Today if you ask a 14-year-old who is Jackky Bhagnani they might tell you that Party Abhi Baaki Hai, or Suno Na Sangemarmar guy because music has a good recall value, but if I would take more gap like I did, they would have forgotten me forever and thats the truth. Out of sight is out of mind and thats the fact.
Twitter
You Cannot Make A Hit Film But A Good Film
Jackky recalls his initial statement when he said that he wants to make a hit film, he admits he was wrong and one cannot make a hit film but a good film, Today everyone wants a hit film; even good actors want their films to be a hit, but sometimes what happens is that some not so good film of some actors become a hit. I did Faaltu, people connected with it, then I did Ajab Ghazab Prem which people didnt like and it didnt work. Later I did Youngistann, which was loved by people and worked to an extent, then I did Welcome To Karachi which was not accepted. In my mind it was clear that the hit film is not made, it becomes hit and I have to just make a good film and it will automatically be a hit or a flop.
Twitter
I Dont Want A 'Got It Easy' Tag
Jackky says he took a gap of three years because he didnt want the tag of Got It Easy, I dont regret my choices at all because nobody kept a gunpoint on me and told me that you have to do these films. I was greedy and hungry to work in films and I did. In these 3 years there were lots of films I was offered and I said No including my own production house films, I said I dont want to do them, because if I keep working and there are no returns, my name also gets spoiled. Even if I work hard, give me my 100 percent and still get a 'got it easy' tag, so it's better I dont work.
Twitter
Jobless For 3 Years
The Faaltu actor reminisces the days when he was jobless and how hard it was to deal with it, I come from a home where they give job to 300 people and I didnt have work for 3 years, its not easy to deal with it, you automatically get tempted - should I do one more company film, at the end of the day I am also a human being.
Twitter
Not My Mistake To Be A Privileged Kid
Jackky had the best response on the nepotism debate started by Kangana Ranaut in 2017 on Karan Johars show Koffee With Karan. He said, Its not my mistake that I am a privileged kid. My father was a saree seller, by selling sarees he made this empire in the movie-making business and it's my responsibility to carry forward his legacy. If my films didnt work, all I can do is work hard, what more I can do? Should I start driving an auto rickshaw or should I get depressed and slash my wrist or should I have sleeping pills, open a tea stall? Why should I do that? If my father still has the means and I am ready to work hard why shouldnt I try once more? Also if you are not liking my films you will anyway not come and watch my films. I am not saying there is no privilege, there is. Today if you worked so hard then you would want your child to have it easy and there is no harm in it.
Twitter
We hope this time the actor strikes gold.
This year's monsoon will be remembered for a number of deaths it caused in many states in India. It has already resulted in the death of 1,400 people apart from the loss of property and livelihood. Kerala floods devastated thousands of homes, displaced human beings, killed cattle and resulted in a rat fever and snake-bite outbreak.
While India is still simmering in its after-effects, an unexpected rise in China's Tsangpo river followed by discharge of 9,050 cumecs of water in Arunachal's Siang and Assam's Brahmaputra has resulted in floods in the North East as well.
Nagaland CM Neiphiu Rio took to micro-blogging site Twitter to raise financial aid of Rs 800 crore and to bring attention to the grave situation in the northeastern states.
The heavy downpour of water clogged the roads of New Delhi as well. Traffic snarls in Noida and Gurugram created havoc for the residents. The Yamuna flowing above the danger mark kept the authorities on its toes as around 1,000 people had to be evacuated from low-lying areas.
Photo Credits: AFP
And now the wrath of Ganga is breaking shacks and flooding low lying areas in the district of Uttar Pradesh as well. According to Hindustan Times, three children died and hundreds of villages in five districts of Uttar Pradesh, Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Kanpur, Unnao and Fatehpur are flooded with rainwater.
Two kids have swept away in the strong tides of Ganga, third died as a shack collapsed onto his head in Fatehpur, officials told HT. The river was flowing 17 inches above the danger mark in Fatehpur and it crossed the danger mark in Kanpur. The Yamuna and its tributaries were also rising.
Schools were submerged, roads were snapped, communication was cut off and people had to be moved to relief camps. In Farrukhabad, 300 villages were affected and the road connecting the district to Badaun has been closed.
Raging waters had brought down 40 houses and washed away 30 odd routes connecting different parts of Unnao. Teachers of five schools had to be brought in boats in Madarpur in Fatehpur where half a dozen villages were badly affected.
Photo: AFP
The District Magistrate of Unnao, Devesh Kumar Pandey told the media that 1,500 people were staying in 14 relief camps and were being given 48 kgs of edibles. However, people in Mana Bangla and Soni Bangla villages criticised the relief work. They said that while the overflowing river water has destroyed crops of thousands of acres of land, all they have been asked is to move out.
Reportedly, 200 people in Kanpur were also moved from the Ganga river embankments to relief camps. The water has entered six villages in Rani Ghat, Katri Kheora, Katri Singhpur, Hindupur and Pratappur.
On Tuesday, the hydel department refused to run electricity saying that the relief camp was also surrounded by water on both the sides and bamboo poles would not be able to withstand the flow of water.
The situation could exacerbate if 1.99 lakh cusec of additional water released from Narora would reach Farrukhabad in the next 48 hours. The administration though said that it was on high alert and was fully prepared to face the situation.
After Kathua rape case, the state of Jammu and Kashmir has been rocked with yet another rape case, where a woman allegedly got her nine-year-old stepdaughter raped by her son and three others and after the rape, her eyes were gouged out and acid was poured on her body, said police.
The accused did all this because she didnt like her husband paying more attention to his other wife- the victims mother, police said.
The childs mutilated body was found in the forest of Boniyar and Jammu and Kashmirs Baramulla district and nine accused have been arrested for raping and killing the child including her stepmother, and stepbrother.
The girl had gone missing on August 24 and all efforts to trace her failed. Her body was found on Sunday which led to protest in the area.
Baramullas senior superintendent of police (SSP), Imtiyaz Hussain told HT that the victims father has two wives- one whos the accused from the nearby village and another from Jharkhand who was the mother is the victim.
The autopsy confirmed raped and torture and police worked accordingly.
During sustained questioning of the step-mother of the deceased and other suspects, a bone-chilling and horrible account of the rape and murder of the nine-year-old child came to be known, Hussain said.
Police told that on August 24, Fahmeeda, armed with the knife took her stepdaughter to the forest.
While she was on way to forests with her step-daughter, she signalled her son, aged 14, to be ready. He, later on, joined his mother in the forest area, along with two of his friends - Kaiser Ahmad, aged 19 and another, aged 14 of Trikanjan Boniyar. Accused Naseer Ahmad Khan, 28 also joined them, said Hussain.
The victim was then gang-raped by the stepbrother and his friends before being mercilessly murdered.
It was Kaiser who first raped her and then all others, including her step-brother, took turns to rape the girl. Thereafter, the step-mother strangulated the girl and her step-brother hit her head with axe killing her on spot. After that, one of the accused went back to his home and brought acid. Then the girls eyes were gouged out and acid was sprinkled on her body. Physical condition and preliminary forensic analysis of dead body substantiated all these facts, the SSP said.
Two of the accused then threw her body in bushes and concealed it with twigs and branches. All the material and weapons including axe and knife have been recovered at the instance of the accused, the SSP added.
Thousands of farmers and workers took out a protest march in the national capital Wednesday over a number of demands. Organised by Left-wing farmers and workers outfits, the Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally, began from the Ramlila Maidan and culminated at the Parliament Street. Read More
Here are the top news of the day:
Determined To Gain Education, Students Cross Forests, River To Reach School
Going to school for students in well-developed cities means hopping onto one of the school buses and enjoying a smooth ride to the school. However, in Madhya Pradesh, small children are climbing high mountains, rafting through rivers and sliding in valleys to gain the education. Read More
MBA Joins Hizbul Mujahideen And Hails Slain Terrorist Burhan Wani, Family Urges Him To Return
An MBA graduate from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Haroon Abbas Wani, has joined the terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen. Posing with AK-47 rifle, Wanis picture went viral across J&K. According to the picture, he joined the outfit on September 1, 2018. Wani is from Furqaanabad Ghat in Doda, of Jammu division. Read More
This Man Worked As Volunteer For Kerala Flood Relief, Nobody Noticed He Was An IAS Officer
The recent floods in Kerala have left a trail of destruction, but brought out the best of humanity among the people. Amid all the hardships and trauma there have been a number of stories from across the state where people doing their extra bit to help those in distress. Read More
One Year After The Murder Of Gauri Lankesh And 14 Arrests, Karnataka Police Yet To Crack The Case
It has been a year since journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh was shot dead outside her house in Bengaluru, the case still lingers on, despite the Karnataka Police Special Investigation Team claiming to crack it. Read More
The absence of marijuana or hashish doesn't prove that an individual is not addicted to drugs. Rather a closer look reveals a plethora of substances that are being abused by the people. Many a substance that clearly mention that they are for 'external use only' are freely being used for getting high these days.
Pain relief ointments, cough syrups or even regular antiseptic creams are in much demand for the same purpose.
While people are getting more aware of the abuse done by conventional drugs like heroin and cocaine, the use of medicinal drugs by youngsters is still seen as rare and at times it's seen as socially acceptable.
Most addicts who dont do conventional drugs like cocaine and heroin initially start with sniffing ink whiteners, cobblers glue and shoe polish before resorting to pain relief ointment sandwiches, and cough syrups.
Those who can spend more go for the prescription opioid pharmaceuticals, such as buprenorphine, pentazocine and propoxyphene, which are illegally sold by chemists at five to ten times the right price, depending on the available supply and desperation of the customer.
Delhi too loves getting high and that too at an affordable price.
The syrup is well known, but did you know about creams?
The codeine-based cough syrups - are well-known substances abused as drugs by youngsters and that too at a large scale along with well-known ointments which are used for strain relief etc. But not many people know that the addicts use beauty and antiseptic creams to do drugs and the number of such people is not minuscule, said Lalit, who pharmacist on a medical store in Pashchim Vihar, Delhi.
Representational Image
Pain relievers are also being misused for a period of two decades now. They got quite popular among the people of Haryana when in late 1990, the state government had banned liquor in the state.
Affordable plus less risky
Though there is no fixed price for the illegal drugs like marijuana, cocaine, heroin or hash, and it can get sold by smugglers at their whims and fancies, it's anyway costlier than the medicinal drugs which have a price since it's a medicine.
For example, every 10 gm of hash would cost one around Rs 700 to 1000 while 100 ml of Corex syrup is around Rs 93 which also has the no risk factor as keeping it doesn't invite persecution. Similarly, 10 gm of marijuana or ganja costs around Rs 400 or 500, but Phensydril and Benedryl syrups dont cost more than Rs 100.
parashospitals
If one is addicted to drugs in tablets form, even then plenty of options available in the market. However, these tablets need to be prescribed by doctors as overconsumption of these drugs is fatal.
For example, an anti-anxiety tablet packet of 10 tablets of 0.5 mg each comes around Rs 25 whereas the tablet Ecstacy, the famous drug comes around Rs 1000 a tablet which is a lot. It mainly slows down the brain functioning.
Punjab just got notorious, but it exists everywhere
Whenever we speak about drugs problem, we only talk about Punjab. But this menace isn't only limited to Punjab and it has spread across India. While the addicts doing conventional drugs can be identified, traced and contained, the people who do medicinal drugs are completely untraceable and Delhi has an increasing number of these addicts.
kachchachittha
Chita is another cheap drug, but its mostly consumed in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Since the smuggling of drugs remains under polices scanner, the addicts in Delhi do medical drugs which are almost impossible to trace. We too despite knowing that it might get misused, cant stop selling these products, said another pharmacist on the condition of anonymity.
The absence of prescription helps to curb it, but not all abide by it
Most of the drugs misused as substance abuse by addicts require the prescription from a doctor and most of the pharmacists abide by this rule. Yet there are many who overlook the necessity of the prescription.
parashospitals
Drugs like Alprax and many others cant be given without prescription and most of the pharmacists follow this rule since this drug can cause death if taken in exorbitant ratio. Even a cough syrup requires a prescription and thats where the pharmacists get lenient to earn money. Cough syrups shouldnt be given without the prescription, but people, even pharmacists think that coughing is a general ailment and anybody can take it without prescription, said Yogesh, a pharmacist in outer Delhi.
Misused substances like Iodex, Boroline etc dont need any prescription and people buy it for daily use and its quite difficult to separate the genuine buyers from the addicts.
Pharmacists can guess whos buying what for which purpose
The addicts can be identified by their behaviour. Lack of conviction is asking for medicine is enough for us to judge that he will misuse the drug. For example, Iodex is something that people should be buying once in six months. But if someone buys it twice a month, then one can easily fathom for what purpose, the strain reliever is being used. However, the addicts to know it and thats why they dont buy it from one shop regularly, Lalit said.
parashospitals
The medicine abuse is hard to contain since it cant be checked whether the person has the genuine problem or hes faking it. Police too cant help curbing it, therefore, the medicinal drugs abuse is bigger a threat to the youth than the conventional drugs and since the products are legit, their smuggling can't be checked or controlled unless done on a larger scale.
Thousands of farmers and workers took out a protest march in the national capital Wednesday over a number of demands.
Organised by Left-wing farmers and workers outfits, the Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally, began from the Ramlila Maidan and culminated at the Parliament Street.
PTI
The thousands of farmers from across the country who began converging at the Ramlila Maidan since Tuesday braved the rains as they marched forward.
Carrying red flags and shouting slogans against the policies of the Central government, the participants, who came from across the country, raised their demands including remunerative prices for farm produce as per the Swaminathan Committee recommendations, loan waiver and a minimum wage of not less than Rs 18,000 a month.
PTI
"This is a historic union. For the first time, workers and farmers have marched together in such numbers to protest the government policies," said Tapan Sen, general secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU).
An elementary school headmaster, who brought down the dropout rate, especially among girls in Mewat, one of Haryana's most backward districts, earned a tweet of commendation from PM Modi on the eve of Teacher's Day.
"Shri Basruddin Khan... has played a key role in promoting the education of girls. He has also made a significant contribution towards identification and enrolment of out-of-school children. Congratulations to him for the National Award for Teachers," the PM posted on Tuesday.
Delhi's Geeta Gangwani was also among several teachers who received similar tweets of appreciation.
Shri Basruddin Khan from Haryana, is a Headmaster who has played a key role in promoting the education of girls. He has also made a significant contribution towards identification and enrolment of out-of-school children. Congratulations to him for the National Award for Teachers. pic.twitter.com/Y18toZY3S1 Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 4, 2018
In conservative Mewat, where an estimated 20% students drop out of government schools, Basruddin Khan has played the pied piper to perfection.
The 54-year-old science and mathematics teacher has filled up vacant benches, brought down drop-out rates and spread awareness on the delicate issue of vaccination in the Muslim-majority district. He also roped in the services of an NGO to launch Udaan, a programme aimed specifically to ensure that girls dont drop out of school.
In at least three villages where Khan worked, attendance among students increased dramatically. When he started his career in 1993 in Jharpuri village, there were only 20 students in Class VI to VIII in the school he taught. By the time he left two years later, the number had almost tripled to 57.
toi
In Siroli village, where he taught at the Government Model Sanskriti Senior School for 18 years, the number of students shot up from 96 to 638 between 1995 and 2013. The school also had an impeccable a 100% pass record for several years, unprecedented in the village.
Khan has been posted at the Government Middle School in Tappan for the past five years. Till date, he has persuaded various agencies and NGOs to invest nearly Rs 1.7 crore to improve the schools infrastructure. For the past 25 years, Khans routine has hardly changed. He leaves for school around 7am and stays there till 7pm. He engages students for extra classes in the evening and prepares notes for the next day.
His mantra is simple. You have to involve children. There is so much to play with in science and maths. Whenever something is taught practically, kids learn faster and get more curious about it. Then, there is no looking back.
The Delhi Metro is the second-most unaffordable in the world among Metro systems that charge less than half a US dollar for a trip, says a study by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), based on data from the UBS report on Price and Earning, 2018, among other sources.
The study found that after last years tariff hike, the average commuter in Delhi spends 14% of household income on Metro travel, second only to the 25% spent by Metro riders in Hanoi. For 30% of Delhis riders, the percentage of income spent on daily commutes was as high as 19.5%, it said.
DMRC said the study was selective as it only compared Metros with smaller networks.
bccl
Fare hikes have stirred policy debate: CSE
CSE said that the fare hike had led to 46% drop in ridership if one compares the projection of 39.5 lakh riders made two years ago for 2018 with the actual figure of 27 lakh at present.
Speaking at a conclave on Towards Clean and Low Carbon Mobility held on Tuesday, CSEs Anumita Roy Chowdhury said the shock increase in Delhi Metro fares, carried out in two phases in 2017, had stirred a larger policy debate.
Should metros seek to meet their future costs of loan repayment and other fixed (depreciation etc) from fares? Or should they look at other financing methods and nonfare revenue? This is not just about Delhi Metro but about a cohesive policy for all metros, she said.
bccl
Roy Chowdhury said DMRCs fare revenues were enough to meet the operating expenditure up to 2016-17, but the Fourth Fare Fixation Committee had taken into account forecasts of revenues and expenses to justify the fare hike.
She said that while forecasting the gap between earnings and operating expenses in the future, it had not accounted for all of its non-fare revenue (consultancy projects etc).
According to CSE study, which will be released soon, 30% of Delhi Metro commuters have a monthly income of Rs 20,000 and increased fares mean they have to spend 19.5% of their income on Metro travel and last mile connectivity.
bccl
According to CSE, globally up to 15% of household income is taken as the upper cap for transport to be affordable. The bottom 20% of households should not spend more than 10% of their income on transport. In Delhi, as much as 34% of the population stands excluded from basic non-AC bus services as it is unaffordable.
Speaking at the conclave, Delhis transport commissioner Varsha Joshi justified the fare revision. If you dont increase fares, the quality falls, she said. Giving the example of the Metro feeder buses, which should have been an extension of the entire Metro experience, Joshi said that most people dont feel like using them due to their dilapidated condition. Fares of feeder buses have not been increased in tandem with Delhi Metro fare hike. Feeder buses should be as comfortable as the Metro, she said.
Joshi said that Delhi Metro fares should be part of an indexed and graded system, so that politics cant enter that equation.
Joshi also said that while Delhi Metros network was extensive, last mile connectivity needed to improve and the Delhi government was working on that.
bccl
She also said the target should be to move people from private to public transport. Car commuters need to be pushed off the road and into Metro or buses, she said.
The Delhi government is augmenting transport infrastructure through land pooling in some areas. It is also considering using para-transit for last mile connectivity. While the government is planning to acquire 3,000 buses, there is a need to improve bus shelters and ancillary infrastructure, she added.
CSE director general Sunita Narain said motorisation was assuming explosive proportions in India and locking in enormous carbon and pollution. Growing dependence on personal vehicles for urban commute can lead to irreversible trends and damages, she said. Greenhouse gas emissions from transport, the third highest among all sectors, has recorded the steepest increase. This is also responsible for health-damaging toxic exposure, Narain added.
Ashish Verma, associate professor at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore felt the public transport system needed to be made more attractive and reliable so that it can be used for door-to-door mobility.
Rakesh wipes sweat on his forehead as he picks a handful of peanuts and puffed rice from one of the black polythene bags. Sitting next to him, another man is busy making a mixture of sattu (flour consisting of a mixture of ground pulses and cereals, also called the poor mans protein), water and some sugar.
Rakesh arrived in New Delhi on September 4 to take part in the massive rally to be held the next day with his wife, other senior family members and some local friends. They all hail from a small village in Bihar.
I had packed some puffed rice and sattu from home. Here you dont know what to eat, he remarks.
Rakesh is one of the cooks in a government school for the Mid-Day Meal Scheme.
We only get 1,200 as salary for a month and on top of that, we only get a salary of 10 months, the rest two months salary the government keeps with itself. You tell us how do we survive? How is it possible for a man like me who has a family, to take up all the responsibilities with such little money? asks Rakesh.
Shweta Sengar/Indiatimes
Rakesh is one of the thousands of cooks who prepare food for children in the government schools. But their work is not restricted to cooking. They wash utensils, cut vegetables, feed children and prepare food for close to 250 children every day. All of this, every day, for just Rs 1,200 per month.
Braving the heavy downpour, farmers and government workers from states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Kerala began converging at the national capitals Ramlila Maidan September 1 onwards.
Men and women as old as 90 years of age enthusiastically took part in the procession organised by Left-wing farmers and workers outfits, the Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally. It began from the Ramlila Maidan early morning and culminated at the Parliament Street, Jantar Mantar during the day.
Shweta Sengar/Indiatimes
Men, women and children, carrying red flags, shouted slogans against the Modi government and its anti-farmer policies. They said the policies and schemes by the BJP government only favour the rich class of the country. There is nothing for the poor farmers and that the government has simply turned a blind eye towards farmer distress.
The farmers have been demanding a loan waiver, minimum support price for farmers, employment, recognition of one crore Anganwadi and ASHA workers as a workforce and a stricter enforcement of labour laws.
The plight of the Anganwadi workers
Anganwadi workers from Haryana have been demanding to raise their wages from Rs 3,500, what they currently earn to Rs 18,000 per month. 32-year-old Kamala, one of the Mid-Day Meal, said that the government is extremely unfair towards them.
We do not get our salaries during the time of school vacations. Now that today we are for the rally, the school will deduct our wages, she laughs mocking the system.
One of the Anganwadi workers, Saroj, gives out a big smile as she tells her story. She has lost her front teeth and when asked about her age, she says, Umar to ab ho rahi hai, bitti, and the whole group of around 20 women burst out laughing.
Shweta Sengar/Indiatimes
We cook dal, chawal, roti, sabji, feed the children, give them glasses of milk, and do all the work. We have a lot of work the entire day but no money. We can still manage all this work if we are paid at least Rs 300 as daily wages. They only need the reason to cut our salary, says Kamala and the soon the group starts raising anti-Modi slogans.
Despite all the hardships that they have been facing over the years, the women of Haryana have not lost their humour.
No Ration Cards
Munjaba Bhonsale, a farmer from Maharashtra, had applied for his Ration Card some three years ago and has been running pillar to post since then. The ration card office told me that they do not have my name registered in the list even when I had applied for it years ago, he says.
Farmers and workers from Bihar also echoed the same plight. They are facing an acute shortage of ration supply. Citing the recently introduced biometric measures, many said that sometimes the fingerprints do not match the print the Aadhaar card and we are denied ration on the basis. The farmers from Bihar said that while in the fields, the palms and fingers get rough and it may not always match the ones in Aadhaar card. Should they really take away what we have been guaranteed? they ask.
Shweta Sengar/Indiatimes
The protesters turned Delhi into a sea of red. They do not have massive bank accounts, property or land but their demands and they want them to be listened to.
We go the state government with our needs, they tell us to knock the door of the Central government. Now we have come here. We do not have any hope from this government. Hundreds of farmers commit suicide each year. What has been done? The government does not really care, but we will never stop unless we get what we deserve or we change the government, said an agitated Raghu, a young worker from Jharkhand.
The Kisan-Mazdoor Sangharsh rally was organised by outfits affiliated to CPI(M) Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and All India Agriculture Workers Union (AIAWU).
As the farmers and protesters prepare to go back to their states and villages and get engrossed in their daily lives tomorrow onwards, the massive protest rally was nothing less than an alarm bell for the government to finally wake up and act for the benefit of those who feed our country.
Theres been a lot of talk surrounding the devices Samsung is expected to release next year, particularly since rumours have also indicated one of them will be the long-awaited folding smartphone. Now we hear that a device coming soon might have four cameras.
GoodFreePhotos
The latest rumour comes from tech enthusiast going by the handle 'Ice universe' on Twitter. Its important to note that this person previously managed to leak a lot of accurate information about the Galaxy Note 9 before it launched, despite not displaying much evidence. Theres a possibility then that the news could turn out to be true.
Samsung
Camera Camera Camera Camera Ice universe (@UniverseIce) September 2, 2018
Its not so much the that the device will have four cameras thats the surprise, its where they will supposedly be placed. Ice universe claims the incoming device will have four cameras on the rear (no word on the front shooters). Theres not even any clarification on what job each of those sensors will do, so we can only guess. Meanwhile, theyve also specified that its not the S10 or the Galaxy F and that the device will be here before the end of the year. Strange, considering the company just launched the Galaxy Note 9.
pxhere
Samsung has (as is its habit) refused to comment on handset rumours. However, if true, the late-year launch of another device with four cameras could theoretically help it steal eyeballs from Apples launch this month. Then again, it could just be a market test to see if people even want those many cameras, and what price theyre willing to pay for it.
Given all of that, you should take all of this with a pinch of salt, but maybe keep your fingers crossed for it too.
Last week, astronauts aboard the International Space Station discovered a hole in the hull of the attached Soyuz spacecraft, forcing them to plug it with a rescue thumb. Now, the Russians say they have strong suspicions the spacecraft was sabotaged.
The air leak was discovered by NASA and Roscosmos on Thursday last week, but it wasnt enough of a worry to wake the sleeping astronauts. The inhabitants of the ISS eventually searched for and found the 2mm hole the next day, plugging it temporarily until it could be properly fixed.
Of course, Russias space agency is investigating the cause of the hole. While they initially thought it may have been caused by a stray chunk of meteorite, theyve since aired other possibilities. We are considering all the theories, Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russias Roscosmos told TASS. The one about a meteorite impact has been rejected because the spaceships hull was evidently impacted from inside. However, it is too early to say definitely what happened. Supposedly the area around the hole also appears to be slightly scratched. There are traces of a drill sliding along the surface, he said.
Rogozin has publicly declared that he intends to find the name of the person responsible for the hole, calling it a matter of honour, and finding out whether it was sabotage or not. Of course, there are a few holes in the sabotage theory (pardon the pun), one being that it doesnt make sense why a hole drilled on Earth before the Soyuz launched two months ago would only now begin leaking air.
Its not the first time though, that Russia has cried foul when investigating spacecraft failure. However, one other theory being put forward is that this is a simple human error. Possibly, a technician on Earth drilled a hole in the wrong place. He then realised his mistake and tried to plug it, only his rush to cover up his mistake or stress at being reprimanded for it caused him to bungle the repair too, which is how the plug dislodged or eroded away in time. The hole was after all discovered behind an insulation panel, which means it would have had some coverage, to begin with, explaining the two months before the hole opened again.
Either way, Roscosmos is continuing the investigation, and its likely sabotage will be the last resort at reasoning, despite being one of the first to be voiced. And even if it was an innocent mistake, I'd hate to be the person that screwed the pooch and almost killed a bunch of decorated astronauts and/or caused billions lost on the Soyuz. That's not just a firing offence, that's a career-ender right there.
Life throws the strangest surprises at the most unexpected times. Ask Vilma Wong about it. A colleague she worked with turned out to be a pre mature baby she had cared for 28 years ago!
The California nurse just discovered that she'd met a new coworker about 28 years ago when she was working at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford. She worked there for more than 32 years. She met 28 year old Brandon Seminatore, a second year pediatric resident completing a child neurology residency at Stanford University in August. According to a statement from Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Seminatore joined Wong's team.
Lucile Packard Childrens Hospital Stanford
When she asked his name, it sounded familiar, so she kept asking where he was from.
When he said he was from San Jose, California, he also added that he was a premature baby born at the same hospital. Wong then asked if his father was a police officer and he said yes. Then, Seminatore asked if she was Vilma as his mother had asked him to look for nurse name Vilma because she was the one who took care of him as a baby.
Both of them were pleasantly surprised,
After Brandon informed his parents about finding his primary nurse, his parents texted him the picture they had of Vilma holding him on her lap when he was a baby. He said that he never expected to meet the nurse who took care of me when he was a born.
In a rather fun prank at an outlet of McDonald's, two friends from Texas snuck up a poster of themselves on the wall. What's surprising is that it went undetected for nearly two months.
Jevh Maravilla posted it in a YouTube video titled 'We Became McDonalds Poster Models', which explained how he and his friend Christian Toledo were able to pull it off.
twitter
CTV news reported that Maravilla said all races deserve recognition, and he did his part. He noticed that there were several photos on the Houston-area restaurants walls of people smiling while consuming McDonalds products.
The friends edited the picture with the chains logo and 'Im lovin it' slogan, and ordered a poster-size version. Maravilla disguised himself as a McDonalds employee.
One night in mid-July, accompanied by two other friends, Maravilla and Toledo put their plan into action. They were able to get out of the restaurant without anyone realizing what they had done. More surprising to Maravilla was that more than seven weeks later, the picture remained in place. I really hope theyll never take it down, he said in the video.
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.
The insurance giant recently announced it will require syndicates to place at least 30% of risks electronically by the end of 2018 in an effort to reduce expenses in its operating model. It is also reviewing poor performing lines of business to ensure utmost efficiency in the market.
This year, were starting to see an increase in [primary insurers and reinsurers] exiting risky markets, particularly since Lloyds announced theyre reviewing the bottom 10% performing lines of their books, said Graham Coutts, director, Fitch Ratings. Were probably going to see more companies willing to [follow the example of Lloyds] and completely walk away from poorly performing lines.
While some insurance firms may be carrying out business reviews due to rating pressures or cat losses, the Lloyds business review is being driven by Lloyds in that they want the syndicates to really understand what lines of business theyre in and whether it makes sense to be in those lines, Coutts added.
Lloyds obviously wouldnt ever tell someone they cant write a certain line of business, but they certainly want the business plan to reflect the logic for being in that line, Coutts continued. [Theyre asking their syndicates], if youre not a market leader in that line, why are you in that line? Its almost changing peoples mindset as to why theyre writing certain lines of business.
According to Coutts, the Lloyds review is very much syndicate-specific. Syndicates writing smaller lines of business need to be market-leaders or offer differentiated product and service, he said, because if they try to scale while the market makes significant losses, they would face difficulties making profit. Its about making smart business decisions around whether to power through or to cut losses and focus on new opportunities.
What weve seen in the news is that companies are looking to completely exit lines of business, but we havent had any specific data come through yet. Its quite a recent trend, particularly in relation to Lloyds, Coutts commented. This is the year were likely to start seeing that exit. It is happening in the wider market but where Ive seen it most is in Lloyds.
Originally proposed in 1994, a smart contract is a computerised transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract, according to original developer Nick Szabo. In modern terms, this means that software automates much of the contract formation process. Details are then stored on the blockchain to secure the integrity of the contract, and payouts are made in digital currency.
Ahead of the Australian Insurance Law Associations (AILA) annual conference in October, Giancaspro has pointed to a number of benefits that could be reaped by increasing the use of smart contracts.
Increased efficiency due to automation is the most obvious standout for insurers. With computers processing the nitty-gritty details, its possible to deliver faster policies, leading to a higher turnover and reaching more customers more effectively.
However, smart contracts also present an opportunity for transaction costs to be reduced; as blockchain users process transactions themselves, there is no requirement for a central authority to oversee the process.
Once you cut out the middleman, with fewer human hands in the process, theres a reduction in costs, says Giancaspro.
If used correctly, both these factors have the capability to drastically improve consumer satisfaction, and accordingly enhance the wider reputation of the insurance industry.
Giancaspro concedes that the process is not yet foolproof; liability issues still remain, particularly around technological failure. If, for example, a computer was to fail during part of the process, it is as yet unclear as to whether the computer could actually be considered an agent of the insurer and render the insurer itself liable.
Additionally, in the case of a conventional contract, any errors can typically be corrected with relative ease. However, the nature of smart contracts means that they are much more difficult to alter after the client has accepted the terms.
The insurance industry is built on risk allocation so, if you get that wrong, the industry could be undermined, says Giancaspro.
Giancaspro suggests that the use of smart contracts will become far more widespread over the coming decade. While the technology to utilise smart contracts is already readily available, he has noted that there will likely need to be a large-scale cultural shift before they are adopted on a larger scale.
A number of high profile insurers have already begun to make use of smart contracts, including AXA with its flight-delay product, Fizzy.
Additionally, in October 2016, AEGON, Allianz and Zurich, and reinsurers Munich Re and Swiss Re established the Blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative (B3i). B3i is a prototype market which utilises blockchain technology in reinsurance contracts. As of October 2017, B3i has 15 members from across the globe.
A rapidly growing IoT firm, relayr provides enterprise middleware and IoT solutions for the digital transformation of industries. It employs around 200 people based in offices in seven cities in the US, UK, Germany, and Poland.
The Internet of Things is already changing our world and has the potential to disrupt the traditional insurance and reinsurance industry through new business models, services, and competitors, commented Munich Re management board member Torsten Jeworrek. This acquisition is a clear example of our strategy: we are combining our own knowledge of risk, data analysis skills, and financial strength with relayrs technological expertise.
Boston-headquartered relayr will become part of the Munich Re and HSB network but will continue to operate autonomously, retaining its start-up culture in order to drive innovation and attract IoT talent.
HSB has always focused on insurance and technology, noted Greg Barats, president and chief executive of HSB in charge of Munich Res IoT strategy. Back in 2016, HSB invested in relayr in an effort to harness the strategically significant business potential offered by IoT. relayrs end-to-end IoT solutions for the industrial and commercial sectors are an ideal addition to our groups capabilities.
relayr will help us to rapidly implement our global strategy to develop new IoT solutions for our clients. Digital transformation in the industrial and commercial sectors offers opportunities for new services and financial applications.
Josef Brunner, CEO of relayr, believes the unique combination brought about by the deal demonstrates the importance of applying first-class technology and powerful financial and insurance offerings to deliver business outcomes to customers.
State emergency officials are working with local authorities to help with recovery from flash flooding in south-central Pennsylvania that led to water rescues and evacuations and prompted two counties to issue disaster declarations, Governor Tom Wolf said.
Pennsylvania experienced significant flash flooding that impacted roads, bridges, homes and critical infrastructure, Wolf said Saturday. The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency will work with local municipalities to develop damage assessments and address unmet needs. We continue to urge Pennsylvanians to monitor driving conditions to stay safe this weekend.
The emergency management agency earlier said Lancaster and York counties had issued disaster declarations. Wolf said the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is deploying road construction crews, engineers, and inspectors to assist local municipalities.
The National Weather Service said rains brought 5 to 10 inches of rain to parts of Lancaster, York and Lebanon County. An emergency management agency spokeswoman says evacuations were reported in Lancaster, York, Berks and Chester counties. No injuries have been reported.
LNP newspaper reports that Lancaster County emergency officials received numerous calls for stranded motorists, including a school bus stuck in Mount Joy and a vehicle swept into a creek. No injuries were reported.
It was a lot of rushing water really quick, Danielle Krodel, of Elizabethtown, who had to turn back because of flooding on Route 283, told LNP. There was no warning whatsoever.
Charlene Campbell, trapped by flooded roads in her own York restaurant, The Accomac, said she had never seen anything like it.
Horror, its just horror, Campbell told WHTM-TV. Not only to mention the loss of business, but its just scary to see what the force of water can do.
An eastbound Amtrak train that left Harrisburg was stranded for 61/2 hours due to flooding in Mount Joy, where forecasters said almost 11 inches of rain was reported.
Amtrak Keystone Service and Pennsylvanian trains operated on a modified schedule Friday and Saturday due to the weather-related issues but said all scheduled service would be resumed Sunday. Keystone Service trains operate daily between New York and Harrisburg, and Pennsylvania trains operate daily between New York and Pittsburgh.
Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Topics Flood Numbers Pennsylvania
Sompo International Holdings Ltd., a Bermuda-based provider of specialty property and casualty re/insurance, announced the launch of its new subsidiary, SI Insurance (Europe).
SI Insurance (Europe) is headquartered in Luxembourg with branches in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. Sompo International will maintain its presence in the Lloyds market, its London-based underwriting platform and its Zurich reinsurance operation.
SI Insurance (Europe) will issue insurance policies and reinsurance treaties for new and renewal business in Continental Europe. European Economic Area policy issuance for multi-national insurance clients will continue to be serviced from London via the UK branch of SI Insurance (Europe).
SI Insurance (Europe) will also provide Sompo International with a foundation for additional strategic growth initiatives across Europe. Earlier this year, the company introduced a European Specialty business to partner with brokers across Continental Europe, initially offering a suite of professional liability and transaction risk insurance products. Sompo International is committed to the European market and will continue to expand its offerings to European clients through SI Insurance (Europe).
We continue to focus on delivering exceptional service to our international clients in areas where we can differentiate Sompo based on our specialty capabilities, commented John Charman, chairman and CEO of Sompo International.
It is critical that we have an established local presence in key Continental European markets as we introduce additional underwriting teams and innovative products to this region, he said.
Graham Evans, CEO of London Market & Europe Insurance for Sompo International, said: I am delighted to announce this exciting milestone which provides clear and timely definition of our post-Brexit capabilities for clients around the world. Our broker network can rest assured that they will have continued access to our full suite of Sompo International products and capabilities through their chosen channel of distribution.
Takashi Kurumisawa, CEO of SI Insurance (Europe), stated: Our clients and brokers across Continental Europe are reacting very positively to Sompo Internationals commitment to the European market. With SI Insurance (Europe) beginning to operate well ahead of Brexit, we have a long-term solution in place to deliver consistently high-quality service and uninterrupted capacity for clients across the European Economic Area.
Source: Sompo International Holdings Ltd.
Related:
Topics Europe London Uk
Regions around Osaka, Japans second biggest population center, struggled to recover from damage left by Typhoon Jebi, which left 10 people dead, hundreds of thousands of buildings without power and the areas main airport closed.
Kansai International Airport, a key transport and cargo hub that lies on an artificial island in Osaka Bay almost directly in the typhoons path, remained shut on Wednesday. Jebi, the strongest tropical cyclone to come ashore in 25 years, flooded its runways, and a tanker smashed into the road and rail bridge connecting the airport to the mainland.
The airport could remain closed for a week if the damage is severe, Kyodo News reported, citing unidentified people. An airport spokesman was unable to confirm the report to Bloomberg News, saying it would take more time before it could make an announcement.
About 5,000 people were stranded at the airport overnight, with passengers being moved in groups off the island by boat and bus on Wednesday.
At least 10 people in the Kansai region were killed and about 300 injured, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in a series of tweets, hailed the relief operations and said the government will come together to make every effort to urgently deal with the disaster and restore infrastructure.
Chip Hub
Kansai International Airport opened in 1994 and sits on reclaimed land in Osaka Bay. It is the third-biggest airport in the country by passenger numbers after Tokyos Haneda and Narita.
The airport is a key cargo hub, particularly for semiconductor parts, its biggest export by category. Parts suppliers in the region said they were examining their options.
If Kansai airport were to remain closed for a week or two, that would have an impact on our exports, so wed have to consider using other airports, said Hiroshi Shimizu, a spokesman for Mitsubishi Materials Corp., which exports materials for silicon wafers from Kansai.
Toshiba Memory Corp., Screen Holdings Co. and Rohm Co. also said they would consider alternative export routes. Murata Manufacturing Co., which supplies components for Apples iPhone, said it planned to use alternatives as the airport is its main export base.
Tourist Drop
The airport is operated by a venture between Vinci Airports SAS and Orix Corp. Despite challenges after its opening, including the need for a government cash injection to tackle greater sinking into the ocean than expected, in recent years it has been a beneficiary of Japans tourist boom. Passenger numbers have doubled since 2010.
Typhoon Jebi will clearly put a dent in inbound arrival numbers, said Andrew Jackson, head of Japanese equities at Soochow CSSD Capital Markets in Singapore. Japan recorded its slowest growth in tourist numbers in five years in the most recent set of data, as other disasters in western Japan an earthquake and historic flooding weighed on travel demand. Shares in Fancl Corp., Kose Corp. and other cosmetics makers fell in Tokyo trading Wednesday.
Read why Japans tourist boom is threatened by natural disasters
Power Offline
More than 400,000 buildings remained without power in Kansai Electric Power Co.s service area as of 3 p.m, with as many as 2.1 million buildings having lost power at the height of the storm. The utility dispatched 8,000 workers overnight to bring power back to households and businesses.
Many local train lines were shut or running reduced services today. Shares in Nankai Electric Railway Co., which operates a train line serving the airport as well as regional lines, fell 4.4 percent, the most in more than two years. In a statement, the railway said there was no timeframe for restarting the airport line.
Related:
Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.
Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Aviation
A couple whose Omaha, Nebraska, house was destroyed by an explosion next door are suing the Metropolitan Utilities District.
The Omaha World-Herald reports that the lawsuit by John and Jamie Myers says the district should have done more to prevent the July 25, 2016, blast. It killed Clara Bender-Rinehart, who was inspecting the house when the explosion occurred, destroying it, the Myers home and another and damaging several others.
District spokeswoman Jessica Heidebrecht says district officials dont believe the district is responsible for the events in question.
Authorities say a gas line to a clothes dryer was not shut off when the dryer was disconnected and removed by an evicted tenant. The gas escaped into the house for two days before Bender-Rinehart arrived for an inspection.
Its unclear what sparked the explosion.
Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Topics Lawsuits Nebraska
In October 2017, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) adopted the Insurance Data Security Model Bill, also known as the NAIC Model Law.
NAICs Model Law seeks to establish a guiding framework that provides actionable expectations to regulated entities so they can develop and establish the operation of a comprehensive cybersecurity program. Among many other things, the Model Law requires 1.) planned cybersecurity testing, 2.) board-level involvement with a companys information security program and 3.) incident response plans for specific breach notification procedures.
Although the Model Law cannot be enforced at a national level and no state or territory can be compelled into adopting it the Model Law only becomes binding when it is approved and adopted in each regulated jurisdiction NAIC is strongly encouraging states to enact the Model Law and has set a goal of having it passed by the majority of states within three years.
South Carolinas legislature became the first to adopt their version the NAIC Model Law on May 1, 2018 and they issued the call for the adoption of reasonably similar legislation across the nation.
As the first state to adopt cybersecurity legislation specifically for insurers and including the requirement to protect customer information, South Carolina has aligned themselves with the State of New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) after it passed a new set of financial regulations, known as 23 NYCRR 500.
New Yorks DFS seemed to serve as an inspiration for the drafting of the NAIC Model Law for the insurance community and for other industry leaders seeking to protect citizens from cyber threats. The South Carolina Legislatures tone, like that of NY DFS, expects more of regulated entities than ever before and the law is clearly more informed in its writing than many other industries attempt at cybersecurity reform.
Although to a lesser extent as NY DFS, South Carolinas adoption of NAICs Model Law will have nationwide consequences as other states rush to follow suit. The NY DFS had national impact and initiated the cybersecurity-focused regulatory process for the entirety of the U.S. financial sector since many financial institutions have a presence or operations in NY State. It is expected that South Carolinas Model Law will trigger the same trend for the insurance industry.
Although both laws do begin to address the myriad of compliance and regulatory actions necessary to provide robust cybersecurity programs, NAICs Model Law does not appear to go far enough in its demand of the establishment of foundational controls required to protect patients privacy, nor does it offer hefty enough cybersecurity defenses.
When South Carolinas Governor Henry McMaster signed the law on May 3, 2018, the race towards the Jan. 1, 2019 deadline when all regulated entities inside or doing business with the State of South Carolina will be required to achieve compliance with all statutes in the law kicked off. Ray Farmer, South Carolinas director of Insurance, and his department have accepted the challenge in developing an examination approach and regulatory process that not only must support the new law but serve as a pioneer for all the other 55 NAIC regulators and their departments, as well as a host of foreign government regulators who lack the resources to develop their own methodology.
South Carolinas new law focuses on cybersecurity and provides guidance for addressing security concerns starting above even a regulated entitys corporate executives. Under the law, a companys board of directors has been made directly accountable for the oversight of the cybersecurity program and all its activities and results. Executive leadership and senior management are made solely responsible for all program governance activities and compliance reporting.
These responsibilities include yearly attestation as to the regulated entitys cybersecurity programs maintenance, compliance status and any material matters related to the Information Security program. These would consist of events such as non-compliant testing results and any identified violations.
Similar to the 2002 U.S. Federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act, South Carolinas law insists on implicitly identifying who holds final accountability for each regulated entitys cybersecurity posture. The Board of Directors and executive leadership may delegate these responsibilities, but there is no mistaking whom the law holds accountable. This pragmatic approach to accountability is long overdue and offers real benefit in the form of increased awareness to the corporate citizenry.
The law should also promote a cultural change regarding how a new cybersecurity narrative is required to flow down through leadership into the corporation and affecting how employees regard cybersecurity and general information security practices in their day-to-day work efforts. To further a hopeful cybersecurity cultural revolution, the law mandates that all employees of regulated entities take cybersecurity awareness training and provides the stronger expectations that this training must be regularly updated to reflect the risks identified during the expected and ongoing risk analysis efforts.
This laws language represents more highly-focused aspirations than other cyber laws or regulations before it. For most regulated entities, the biggest cybersecurity cultural challenge will be cultivating an environment of openness amongst employees who may fear repercussions if they were to identify cybersecurity gaps. Under the new law, employees are encouraged to report suspicious behavior, supposed phishing attempts, or other anomalous activity without fear of reprimand.
Also, relatively new to the language of cybersecurity laws, is the mandate requiring regulated entities to stay actively informed of emerging cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities. The gathering, analysis and consideration of critical intelligence is a fundamental tenant of a healthy cybersecurity program and by including it in the law, it should have a marked impact on the quality of programs.
The penultimate expectation of the new law is its focus on the requirement for regular comprehensive assessment of cyber risk commensurate with the mission of the organization. The cybersecurity risk assessments are intended to identify all cyber risks that may have an impact on that regulated entity or its ability to conduct business.
For a company to conduct an agnostic and fulsome cybersecurity assessment on itself is difficult for most corporations to achieve. These assessments may even be harder for regulators who do not have the trained resources who fully understand the cyber risk identification and mitigation measures. To realize the highest benefit of a risk assessment, the assessment would be performed by a professional third-party who can assess all the people, processes, procedures, technology and information that will align with any applicable legal or regulatory compliance requirements.
The number of risks facing insurers, medical providers and medical device manufacturers is numerous. There are however, several techniques and methods available to gather the requisite intelligence necessary to identify each of these risks and threats. These techniques can and should include regulatory framework mapping exercises, readiness assessments and risk-posture evaluations, vulnerability and compromise testing, penetration testing, process and procedure reviews as well as tabletop exercises where the concepts derived from analyzing the data are played out and tested using real-world intelligence.
Each of these methods are intended to identify a different form of threat or risk. A robust cybersecurity risk assessment considers a combination of several or many of these techniques to augment the oftentimes insufficient standard intelligence gathering activity of the entity being assessed.
South Carolinas Department of Insurance requires compliance with the risk assessment clause through 1.) written attestation, 2.) annual submission to the director of Insurance and for 3.) proof of compliance to be maintained for five years. All areas of concern identified in the risk assessment must also be documented and have remediation plans in place.
In these areas of compliance, the use of external partners can be helpful for both regulators and regulated entities. An independent third-party may be able to assess the regulated entities to a level of comprehensiveness that regulators are unable to provide and administer a defensible risk assessment on behalf of regulated entities that lack adequate resources.
Additionally, South Carolinas law requires that if an event is believed to have occurred, the parties responsible for cybersecurity must investigate promptly. The investigation minimums outlined in the law include: determination of event occurrence, assessment of the nature and scope of the event, identification of nonpublic information related to the event and the carrying out of reasonable measures to restore security to affected systems. The South Carolina Director of Insurance must be notified within 72 hours of the discovery of the event if a combination of criteria is also true. All records regarding events must be kept for five years from the date of the event occurrence.
If third-party vendors are responsible for the cybersecurity of an organization, the same responsibilities are mandated unto them and the investigation will be overseen by the executives accountable for cybersecurity in the organization.
There are stringent requirements undertaken during an investigation by the South Carolina Director of Insurance into an organization that has had a cybersecurity event. Documentation must be completed in an electronic form and kept updated as the investigation progresses. The report of investigation must contain 13 basic requirements, including the date, description and method of discovery of the event.
South Carolina has achieved a stunning victory in the unending battle for cybersecurity and data privacy for the insurance and healthcare industry. By passing this law, South Carolina has managed to set the pace for other states and put themselves in the crosshairs of criticism. The journey from here for both South Carolina and the states that dare to follow directly in their footsteps is a bit uncharted.
However, with the excellent guidance from the NAIC Model Law, case studies from NY DFS and assistance from cybersecurity experts, we should be soon expecting better corporate cybersecurity hygiene driven by real cultural changes in how people view cybersecurity.
Topics Carriers Cyber Legislation South Carolina Data Driven
Hub International Ltd. has acquired the assets of Harman Agency LLC.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Pepper Harman, owner of Harman Agency, will join Hub Northwest and report to Garth Hamilton, chief sales officer of Hub Northwest.
Harman Agency has offices in Cottonwood and Orofino, Idaho, and specializes in crop, farm and ranch, and livestock insurance.
Chicago, Ill.-based Hub is a global insurance broker providing property/casualty, life and health, employee benefits, investment and risk management products and services.
Topics Mergers
An elevator company is asking a judge to reconsider a jurys $2 million award to a California man who claimed in a lawsuit he was injured by a sudden drop in a Lake Tahoe casino elevator.
Schindler Elevator Co. filed the request last month, asking the judge to rule on the case or allow a new trial, the Tahoe Daily Tribune reported .
John Deatherage was on an elevator with his nephew at Harveys Lake Tahoe in July 2014, when the elevator rapidly dropped before violently coming to a stop, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court.
Deatherage claimed the drop caused a back injury, resulting in extreme pain to his back, groin and leg. When the lawsuit was filed, he claimed his medical bills had reached more than $142,000.
The jury in July awarded compensatory damage to Deatherage, finding the elevator company acted negligently. The company was contracted by the casino to perform service and maintenance on elevators.
The weather conditions caused a power outage at the casino while Deatherage was in the elevator, the company claimed.
The elevators descent did not cause Deatherage to fall down when it stopped, nor was there any physical damage to the elevator, the company said in court filings.
The company declined to comment further, saying it will address the case facts in court and not in the press.
Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Topics Legislation Nevada
The deadlines for SIMPLE IRA contributions vary depending on the type of contribution and whether the employer or employee is making it. The following is a breakdown of what you need to know.
How SIMPLE IRAs Work
A "savings incentive match plan for employees" (SIMPLE) IRA is an employer-sponsored plan that provides employees with a tax-advantaged way to save for retirement.
Key Takeaways Deadlines for SIMPLE IRA contributions vary by type of contribution and whether the employer or employee is making it.
Employers can either match employee contributions or contribute on their behalf.
Contributions that are not made on time may incur fees or necessitate filing an amended tax return.
As the name implies, SIMPLE IRAs are designed to be easily established and administered, particularly when compared to other employer-sponsored plans such as 401(k) plans. Businesses, including sole proprietors, with less than 100 employees can set up a SIMPLE IRA.
There are two ways contributions are made to a SIMPLE IRAemployers can either match employee contributions or make contributions on their behalf. Depositing SIMPLE IRA deferred compensation, matching, and nonelective contributions when they are due will avoid penalties and needing to amend tax returns.
Deadlines for Employee Contributions
Contributions to SIMPLE IRA plans that are taken from an employee's paycheck as a salary-reduction contribution are due within 30 days of the month in which the deferred payments were made. For contributions taken from an employee's pay in September, for instance, the contributions must be deposited into the SIMPLE plan by Oct. 30 of the same year.
In 2020 and 2021, the contribution limit for employees is $13,500, and those aged 50 and older can make an additional catch-up contribution of as much as $3,000.
If the SIMPLE IRA is set up for someone who is self-employed and there are no other employees, contributions that are reductions in pay must be deposited within 30 days of the end of the year or Jan. 30 of the following year.
Deadlines for Employer Contributions
An employer may choose to make either matching contributions to an employee's SIMPLE IRA, from 1% to 3% of his or her salary, or non-elective contributions of 2% of the employee's salary, no matter what or if the employee contributes. Contributions made on the part of the employer are due by the business' filing due date for the tax yearusually April 15, or Oct. 15 if there is an extension.
Note that you can make a contribution to an IRA for the 2020 tax year through May 17, 2021, instead of April 15th due to extensions provided by the IRS.
Department of Labor Rules
The Department of Labor (DOL) rules that govern SIMPLE IRA plans are different from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requirements. According to the DOL, employers must make contributions that are taken from an employee's salary as soon as they can reasonably do so, but no later than seven business days for businesses with fewer than 100 employees.
This rule does not generally apply to business owners with no employees or whose only employee is their spouse.
September 5, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) The Critical Investor profiles a developer with a copper-zinc project in British Columbia that has been attracting financing despite the current base metals slump.
Despite the summer doldrums, a strong dollar, a developing trade war between the U.S. and predominantly China, and the resulting poor sentiment in commodities and mining stocks, Kutcho Copper Corp. (KC:TSX.V) managed to raise decent money, necessary to fund its ongoing drill program at its flagship project, the Kutcho high-grade copper-zinc project in British Columbia, Canada.
All presented tables are my own material, unless stated otherwise.
All pictures are company material, unless stated otherwise.
All currencies are in U.S. Dollars, unless stated otherwise.
On August 15, 2018, Kutcho completed its previously announced short form prospectus offering consisting of 9.2 million flow-through shares at a price of C$0.45 for gross proceeds of C$4.14 million. This offering will close in two tranches; the first of C$3.6M is already closed. Kutcho Copper has arranged a second tranche, on a delayed settlement basis, with one additional subscriber for total gross proceeds of C$540,000 to close on or before September 30, 2018.
The offering was conducted by a syndicate of well-known agents led by Haywood Securities, including GMP Securities, Canaccord Genuity, Cormark Securities and Macquarie Capital Markets Canada. These agents received a cash commission of 6% and warrants entitling them to acquire 480,000 common shares of the company at C$0.45 per share for a period of 24 months. A 6% finder's fee plus warrant is decent, as it is becoming increasingly difficult at the moment to raise cash, due to negative sentiment and cannabis taking up most available investment dollars it seems, especially at a premium (18% at the time of the offering) and with no warrant like this round.
The filling up of the treasury didn't stop there for Kutcho. The company received its second advance payment as planned on August 21, 2018, from Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (WPM:TSX; WPM:NYSE) in the amount of C$4.6 million under the agreement previously announced on August 10, 2017, entitling Kutcho Copper to a total of US$7 million. This amount is now fully received, and is meant to fund the ongoing expenditures related to completing its Feasibility Study (FS), like engineering, permitting, environmental work, geotechnical work, etc.
This work is progressing well, as Vince Sorace, president & CEO, stated:
"We have been making good progress in the field the past few months advancing the project towards Feasibility. Geotechnical and metallurgical drilling is almost complete, resource expansion drilling has commenced and environmental baseline studies have been progressing smoothly. The recent financing coupled with Wheaton's payment gives the Company the capital towards continuing its goal of completing the planned Feasibility Study in Q2 2019."
As a reminder, resource expansion drilling has commenced two weeks ago, and will be completed at the end of September/mid-October of this year. The FS data collection is on schedule and is also expected to be completed mid-October. The company is looking to complete its field season before the winter break (starting at the end of October), which would make everything more expensive, and according to management the company is on schedule. In the mean time, management acknowledged the issues that several companies had when applying for permits in BC (Taseko, KGHM), and has chosen to take a different road. This resulted in very good working relationships with supportive First Nations, and the company is working together now with the same bands with whom VP Community & Environment Sue Craig already reached agreements with at another, much larger project.
Although everything seems to be running smoothly and is managed very professionally, with a profitable (post-tax IRR of 28% @$2.75/lb copper, @$1.10/lb zinc) project that has a post-tax 2017 PFS NPV8 that is 15 times bigger than its current market cap, investors apparently don't all seem to appreciate the quality and progress being made, and might still need to be made more aware of Kutcho Copper, as the share price drop was much more than justified based on negative mining stock sentiment and metal prices alone, as more well-known peers like Trilogy, NGEX and Nevada Copper lost (a lot) less during the summer:
Share price over 1 year period
As it seems the Kutcho share price has found support now, and the market cap has come down to less than half the amount of cash in the treasury after the closing of the most recent offering, the buying opportunity for new investors is pretty good at the moment, and I am considering averaging down as well. I believe a second opportunity could present itself during tax-loss selling season, which usually puts pressure on stocks that have come down a lot during the year, and basically transpires between mid-November and mid-December until the holidays. However, it is also very well possible that Trump reaches an agreement with China on trade tariffs before mid-December, and commodity/mining sentiment could turn fairly quickly by then, and a rising tide lifts all boats.
A quick update on metal prices: the copper price finally seems to consolidate at the $2.702.75/lb Cu levels, as potential copper mine strike issues (Escondida) and ongoing salary negotiations with other large LatAm mines seem to be dwarfed by China trade war concerns, which might be more or less contained by now for the time being:
The fundamentals for copper are still very strong for the next three years, with a 510 Mt deficit expected by 2021. But we are not out of the woods yet, depending on Trump's goals and agenda. My belief is he will keep looking at the almighty U.S. stock markets, and more or less like the Federal Reserve, will determine his policies by probing and testing his ideas, and watch very closely what the effects will be on the stock markets.
Zinc is developing/behaving differently, as it is less fragmented as a market, warehouse inventories have impact, smelters have even more impact on pricing and basically control the zinc market anyway. Since the LME inventories recovered from 150 kt to 250 kt in a matter of weeks, and the trade war eroded metal sentiment, the zinc bull market seemed to be over:
It can be seen that the low in LME levels coincided with the peak in the zinc price, although there is no direct correlation between LME levels and zinc price:
At a zinc price of $1.13/lb, it will be clear that only very robust zinc projects will be of interest for financiers/potential suitors. The Kutcho project is very robust with a conservative base case zinc price of $1.10/lb, and it can go much lower before the post-tax IRR drops below 1820%, which I consider a threshold for capex financing for this relatively small-sized base metal project. Many zinc projects are losing economic profitability now as their base case zinc prices are above current metal prices, and will have a hard time arranging capex or finding a suitor in the near future, as these are probably looking at a long-term zinc price of $1.001.10/lb now, as they usually discount current metal prices by 1020% to have a safety margin.
The Kutcho project isn't losing any profitability at the moment as the base case metal prices were set at today's prices. It is very rare to see this happening for a base metal project these days, and shows the strength of its economics. And this is just the first stage as investors familiar with the story know. Management is looking to double the tonnage through the ongoing exploration drill program, which could, combined with other measures, generate total tonnage in the realm of 20 Mt. Other opportunities are improving recoveries of copper and zinc, FX rates, higher metal prices and further optimization of, for example, mine plan and opex.
As a reminder, and I keep rehashing these figures as they show the current undervaluation at its very best, when I would use a 20 Mt scenario, an 80% Zn recovery rate, a 1.25 exchange rate, a US$2.75 base case copper price and a fixed US$1.10 Zn price, a 2,500 tpd throughput scenario for a LOM of 22 years, and a 4,500tpd throughput scenario for a LOM of 12 years, this would be the resulting, hypothetical sensitivity table:
I don't expect the NPV8 to double instantly on doubling tonnage, but it will most likely increase significantly, and Kutcho Copper will turn into a deep value play even more, as C$265 million is 15 times current market cap, C$404 million is 22 times market cap, and C$499 million is 28 times market cap. There is, to my knowledge, no other project with such a big dislocation between market cap and (current and future potential) NAV, such a profitable base metal project, so cashed up and so backed by a very strong strategic partner that has a clear interest in bringing this project into production. And it also has its brand-new blockchain initiative MineHub, backed by a syndicate of large companies, which could add value further on. At some point in time, a re-rating seems almost inevitable, in my opinion, if the company keeps delivering as it does.
Kutcho project
I hope you will find this article interesting and useful, and will have further interest in my upcoming articles on mining. To never miss a thing, please subscribe to my free newsletter on my website http://www.criticalinvestor.eu to get an email notice of my new articles soon after they are published.
The Critical Investor is a newsletter and comprehensive junior mining platform, providing analysis, blog and newsfeed and all sorts of information about junior mining. The editor is an avid and critical junior mining stock investor from The Netherlands, with an MSc background in construction/project management. Number cruncher at project economics, looking for high quality companies, mostly growth/turnaround/catalyst-driven to avoid too much dependence/influence of long-term commodity pricing/market sentiments, and often looking for long-term deep value. Getting burned in the past himself at junior mining investments by following overly positive sources that more often than not avoided to mention (hidden) risks or critical flaws, The Critical Investor learned his lesson well, and goes a few steps further ever since, providing a fresh, more in-depth, and critical vision on things, hence the name.
The Critical Investor Disclaimer:
The author is not a registered investment advisor, currently has a long position in this stock, and Kutcho Copper is a sponsoring company. All facts are to be checked by the reader. For more information go to www.kutcho.ca and read the companys profile and official documents on www.sedar.com, also for important risk disclosures. This article is provided for information purposes only, and is not intended to be investment advice of any kind, and all readers are encouraged to do their own due diligence, and talk to their own licensed investment advisors prior to making any investment decisions.
Streetwise Reports Disclosure:
1) The Critical Investor's disclosures are listed above.
2) The following companies mentioned in the article are sponsors of Streetwise Reports: Wheaton Precious Metals. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.
3) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. The author was not paid by Streetwise Reports for this article. Streetwise Reports was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this article. Streetwise Reports requires contributing authors to disclose any shareholdings in, or economic relationships with, companies that they write about. Streetwise Reports relies upon the authors to accurately provide this information and Streetwise Reports has no means of verifying its accuracy.
4) The article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.
5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article, until one week after the publication of the interview or article. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Wheaton Precious Metals, a company mentioned in this article.
Charts and graphics provided by the author.
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
Brexit's impact on the agri-food sector will be the main topic of discussion at a seminar in Dublin today.
The British Irish Chamber of Commerce event is hearing from industry leaders on how best the sector can prepare itself for the uncertainty.
John McGrane, head of the British Irish Chamber, said he is worried about any changes to customs arrangements that Brexit may bring.
He said: "Irish food flows very freely from farm to fork through great Irish production facilities, through transportation across the Irish Sea and on to supermarket shelves tomorrow morning as a fresh, high-quality product.
"That works because there are no barriers in the way in terms of slow-downs at ports or documentation to be filled in, etc.
"So, we are very worried about any change to that."
Speaking at the event, Maree Gallagher, Chair of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce Agri-Food Committee and food & drug lawyer at Covington & Burling LLP said: The agri-food sector is Irelands largest indigenous industry employing around 250,000 people enabling 12.6bn in exports a year.
"Despite Ireland being the biggest source of the UKs food imports in relation to beef and dairy, agri-food trade across the Irish Sea is not one-way traffic; Ireland imports in the region of 4bn per annum of agri-food products from the UK.
With uncertainty now surrounding those links, it is the British Irish Chambers position that the Government must urgently enhance the competitiveness of Irelands agri-food offering.
"The introduction of a carbon tax on the sector in Budget 2019 would only further undermine the capacity of Irish agri-food companies to prepare for Brexit and to diversify their trading links.
"Steps should instead be taken to provide State supports to all businesses exposed to the UK market and to increase funding to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI). Through these measures we can ensure the agri-food sector is robust enough to withstand the impact of Brexit.
The Labour Party and Green Party have agreed to jointly organise a public rally opposing the upcoming visit of Donald Trump to Ireland.
Brendan Howlin and Eamonn Ryan met this evening to discuss the US President's November visit.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday met with Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed after the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed in Beijing on Wednesday, September 05, 2018. [Photo: Xinhua]
Xi said the friendship between China and Tunisia will remain unchanged no matter how the situation changes, and that the China-Tunisia relationship has maintained healthy and stable development.
China will, as always, support Tunisia in exploring a development path suited to its national conditions and conforming to the trend of the times, and support Tunisia's efforts in maintaining stability and promoting economic and social development, Xi said.
Xi also urged the two sides to increase interaction and strengthen exchanges of experience in governance.
China is willing to work together with Tunisia to promote major projects and deepen cooperation in fields such as aerospace and tourism, adding that the two sides should join hands on major international and regional issues to safeguard the common interests of developing countries, Xi said.
Chahed said the eight major initiatives proposed at the summit would elevate Africa-China relations to a new level.
Tunisia applauds the concept of a China-Africa community with a shared future and the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by President Xi, and hopes to learn from China's success, strengthen cooperation in fields such as the economy and trade as well as tourism, and welcomes Chinese companies to invest in Tunisia, Chahed said.
By Joe Leogue
Communications Minister Denis Naughten has denied being spooked into closing rural post offices by his officials, and said he has received Government approval to investigate the possibility of providing more services through the An Post network.
Mr Naughten and David McRedmond, An Post CEO, yesterday appeared before the Oireachtas communication committee to discuss the closure of 160 post offices across the country.
Fianna Fail TD Timmy Dooley accused Mr Naughten of losing sight of rural communities.
The reality is that you were spooked by An Post and the officials in your department. Its one of the oldest tricks in the book. You paint the worst possible picture, you spook the minister, you frighten him into the belief that the worlds about to fall in, and if the minister falls for it, the officials have a result. Theyve done that, he said.
Mr Dooley said it was incumbent on the minister to seek alternative solutions instead of closing post offices such as a public service obligation subvention to some post offices.
Mr Naughten conceded he was shocked by the figures presented by An Post, but that he deferred making any decisions until after a division within the National Treasury Management Agency went over An Posts finances. The last thing I needed to be put into was a position where this was just thrown at me to make a quick decision, and we didnt. We thoroughly went through all of those figures and had them independently assessed, he said.
Mr Naughten later told the committee: I could have taken the easy decision, as my predecessors did, and sat on my hands and ignored the issue and allow post office after post office to creep and close and see hundreds of post offices closed, but Im not going to be disingenuous in relation to that.
Mr McRedmond told the committee that 96.3% of customers across the country were unaffected by the closures, and the network is better positioned to deliver more services to the public than before.
The closures are an essential step to consolidate the network so it can provide those services. Where there are three post offices in a community which only has enough people to sustain two, then closing one post office makes those other two offices viable, he said.
If you keep all three offices open, all three offices are unviable. That is what consolidation is about, and it works. What does not work is subsidising the closing post offices, because keeping them open will kill the other offices nearby.
Cork West Independent TD Michael Collins questioned An Posts claim that people will still live within 15km of a post office after the 159 closures.
He said An Posts measurement was based on 15km distances between a closing office and the next nearest office but that people living on the wrong side of a closing office in West Cork will have even further to travel.
Mr McRedmond said on average the nearest adjoining post office to a closing office is within 7km, but admitted that those distances will be farther in more remote areas.
I realise that this is not going to be a popular answer in relation to the situation in your area, but if I look at Cork as a whole, Co Cork has 125 post offices. The number of people affected by the post offices closures is 1.4% of people.
98.6% of people are unaffected by that. Thats not saying that we shouldnt have to look after the 1.4%, absolutely we should, but it shows why we have to have a measure around this, that we have very carefully looked at the network to try to make sure services are available. But I absolutely hear and accept what you are saying around West Cork, he said.
Pieta House founder Joan Freeman believes the country is ready for a different type of presidency.
The mental health advocate was one of eight people who spoke to Roscommon County Council this afternoon as possible candidates seek an official nomination.
Sean Gallagher also formally addressed the meeting.
Joan Freeman says that the Ireland of 2018 is very different from the one that elected Michael D Higgins.
"There was a comfort about Michael D because we were going through an economic crisis," she said.
"Just think where we are seven years later.
"Seven years ago online stuff, social media, was in a different world.
"Now these are the challenges not only facing children, but parents.
There were different challenges.
Digital Desk
By Joyce Fegan
Facebook can be good for your wellbeing, but it depends on how you use it.
According to both independent and in-house research carried out by the social media giant, interacting with others online as opposed to just mindlessly looking at other peoples lives, can be good for your overall mood.
What independent research, as well as our own research, has told us is that what really matters, more than the amount of time youre spending, is how youre spending that time.
So if youre spending hours a day on Facebook, but youre using it in ways that are deeply meaningful and deeply connecting back and forth with people, those tend to be associated with increases in well-being, versus if youre just using that time to passively consume videos or do other things that kind of get you into that scrolling mentality, said David Ginsberg, Facebooks vice president of research.
He was talking at a media briefing in Dublin yesterday on the effects of social media on peoples wellbeing. What is not good for your mental health is when you are simply observing other peoples lives and not actually being a part of their life, or basically comparing yourself, either consciously or unconsciously, he noted.
However, research has indicated when you interact online, the negative effects of social comparison can be lessened. This notion of social comparison, if youre spending a lot of time looking at other peoples lives and just thinking about how you compare, that might make you feel negative, said Lauren Scissors, a research manager at Facebook.
What we see is that if youre consuming content about peoples lives and then interacting with them, talking about it, saying congratulations or that happened to me too, that is where the potential effect of comparing yourself, which is sort of a natural thing on social media, or off of social media, kind of go away.
Earlier this year, Facebook changed how posts appear in their users news feeds. Research found that what users across all age groups, genders, and countries had in common when it came to meaningful engagement was learning about friends and family and keeping up-to-date on issues.
We took that major finding and we made sure that news feeds and the posts that are prioritised in news feeds reflect that type of interaction that people can have, that is better for their well-being, said Ms Scissors.
Facebook, which also owns photo-sharing platform Instagram, also rolled out some tools to help manage peoples social media experience. Wellbeing informed these tools, they say.
The tools include a snooze button where you can select keywords related to certain issues you want to avoid. Another tool is their activity dashboard where users can manage the time they spend on the platforms.
We developed these tools based on collaboration and inspiration from leading mental health experts and organisations, academics, our own extensive research and feedback from our community. We want the time people spend on Facebook and Instagram to be intentional, positive and inspiring, said a spokesperson for the company.
These tools have not yet been put into use in Ireland.
Fine Gael ministers have told the Taoiseach they are worried about being portrayed as an anti-rural party because of proposed post office closures.
The concern was raised at Cabinet yesterday, as opposition TDs called for public funds to help keep open some of the 160 post offices targeted for closure.
At least three ministers warned about the knock-on impacts of the closures in rural communities. But opposition TDs are warning of devastation in villages and towns if post offices are closed under a cost-saving plan.
Communications Minister Denis Naughten proposed ways to improve footfall by increasing access to passport and licencing services in post offices.
However, Fianna Fail wants public funds to keep post offices open. Public service funding amounting to 8m should be used to keep some of the 160 post offices open which are targeted for closure, say Fianna Fail and Independent TDs.
Proposals to close post offices are a planned attack on rural communities, according to Fianna Fail, and are also set to become a key budget negotiating item in the weeks ahead.
The Irish Examiner also understands that coalition ministers have their own concerns about the closures and any impacts on villages and rural areas.
Fianna Fail communications spokesman Timmy Dooley launched a bill yesterday which proposes a public service obligation fund to support post offices.
He said the retirement deals made with postmasters were a ruse to close post offices. Such closures would create an intolerable burden on rural communities and cause a domino effect in villages where other businesses would see less customers.
An annual subvention could keep services operating, he argued, as has been done with public transport. This would cost 8m and fund some of the 159 post offices targeted by An Post and the Government, he added.
The issue would also form part of the budget negotiations, said Fianna Fail TDs. Eugene Murphy said older people and those with disabilities should not have to travel many miles for a post office and that he believed Fine Gael ministers shared his concerns.
Meanwhile, Independent rural TDs also want the same solution to stop closures.
The Rural Independent Group said its own Dail motion, passed last year, had committed to giving post offices five years to turn their fortunes around before any closures were considered.
Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath and Clares Michael Harty both said they supported the idea of a public service obligation fund for post offices.
The closures were discussed at Cabinet yesterday, the first meeting of ministers and the Taoiseach after the summer break.
Rural Affairs Minister Michael Ring, Defence Minister Paul Kehoe, and Agriculture Minister Michael Creed were among those to voice concern about the backlash against the Government.
One of the ministers said there wasnt a tsunami of opposition among local communities but the image coming out was that Fine Gael was anti-rural.
At the Cabinet meeting, Communications Minister Denis Naughten also outlined plans to review offline services for communities and how these could be improved. These include how to help people apply for licences and other services without the internet.
A working group will report back before the end of the year. Such services could be accessed through post offices, a Government spokeswoman said after the Cabinet meeting.
A construction company has pleaded guilty to not having one of its drivers properly insured in a case where iron bars in a trailer struck and seriously injured a pedestrian.
The incident occurred in April 2016 and has already been the subject of a High Court case.
Yesterday at Clonakilty District Court, Sgt Paul Kelly, prosecuting, said the case related to an insecure load where bars fell off and injured a pedestrian.
Grahame Copplestone, solicitor for Claramore Construction Ltd of Millstreet, Co Cork, said the issue had previously been adjourned for arbitration in relation to whether the insurer would grant indemnity, and that the arbitrator found against the company.
The court heard that a man who had been driving the vehicle was pulling a trailer on the day in the West Cork town of Rosscarbery and had a type B licence.
Mr Copplestone said there had been some confusion, to be fair to the driver in relation to whether such a licence allowed the pulling of a trailer. He said most people thought that a type B licence permitted the towing of a trailer as long as it was below 3,500kg in weight, but this was incorrect. The court was told that as a result, the driver had been uninsured at the time of the incident.
Regarding his clients, Mr Copplestone said: To be fair, it is their responsibility that all drivers have the correct licence to pull these particular trailers.
He said the driver had himself been stopped a few times previously and had never been charged and so believed that he was driving legitimately.
Mr Copplestone said the injured party had been fully compensated, referring to the horrific circumstances of the incident and the serious injuries she had suffered.
Last July, Frances ODriscoll, 59, a mother of three, who suffered catastrophic injuries when she was struck by the iron bars on April 16, 2016, at Causeway, Rosscarbery, West Cork, settled her High Court action in the case.
Mr Copplestone told Judge James McNulty: The company is now facing the prospect of the MIBI (Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland) coming after them.
Judge McNulty convicted and fined Claramore Construction Ltd 500 in relation to the charge, with 30 days to pay.
By Liam Heylin
A young man has been jailed for four months for his part in a serious assault on another youth at Douglas St, in Cork.
Defence solicitor, Pat Horan, said Ruben Stillwell got into a spiral of violent crimes following the drowning of a friend who tried to rescue a horse from a rivers undercurrent.
Stillwell, aged 20, of 3A Old Youghal Road, Cork, faced sentencing yesterday for assaulting one young man, and assault causing harm to another, during an attack at Douglas St. He was 18 at the time.
Inspector John Deasy said gardai were alerted after 11pm on December 28, 2016, to the scene of an alleged fight at the Spar shop on Douglas St.
The injured party was seen bleeding heavily from the nose and another young man said he had also been assaulted.
One of the two men involved in the more serious assault kneed the injured party in the head. Mr Horan, solicitor, said Stillwell had used his fists and was not the man who had struck the victim with his knee.
The incident started outside the shop and the injured parties ran inside in the hope they would gain safety there, but Stillwell and his accomplice followed them in to continue the attack.
Stillwell pleaded guilty to assaulting one man and assault causing harm to another.
Judge Mary Dorgan imposed an overall sentence of four months and said it was too serious to suspend the sentence. She noted from medical reports that the young mans nose was broken, he suffered concussion and had to have a stitch to the side of his face.
Judge Dorgan accepted that the accused had a difficult background.
The young man will appeal yesterdays jail sentence.
Bail pending appeal requires him to stay away from Douglas St and have no contact with the injured parties.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation is calling for urgent talks with the Government ahead of their conference later this month.
They say their sector is in crisis, and that inadequate pay rates are preventing nurses and midwives from taking up vacant posts.
By Caroline ODoherty and Eamon Quinn
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has appealed for staff at INM to be supported to continue their work when High Court inspectors begin their investigations into the companys affairs.
Irish NUJ secretary Seamus Dooley said: We note the decision of Mr Justice Peter Kelly. This is an unsettling time for staff and we are glad this stage is over.
He continued:
The priority for my members is to be allowed to do their job. It is vital that while the investigation is underway, the company ensures that journalists are given the resources to carry out the core function of reporting.
The position in which the company now finds itself has not arisen from the actions of staff.
A statement from the INM board said it would consider Mr Justice Kellys ruling with a view to whatever action might be taken in the interests of the company and its stakeholders.
It said: The board and the companys management intend to remain focused on the business and ensuring that the groups operations continue, so far as possible, to be conducted as normal.
Director of Corporate Enforcement Ian Drennan welcomed the ruling and said it would allow his offices own inquiries to be taken to a new level.
Todays judgment by the president of the High Court indicating his intention to grant the ODCEs application means that the investigation will now be further progressed by court- appointed inspectors.
The inspectors are vested with significant statutory powers not available to the ODCE, including the powers of compellability and examination of relevant persons on oath.
Niamh Brennan, the Michael MacCormac professor of management at UCD and an authority on corporate governance, said the appointment of inspectors to a company in Ireland was a very rare event despite the powers being in law for some time.
The decision was also significant because INM was a stock market-listed company and the ruling had to take into consideration the interests of all investors in the company, and not just its largest stakeholders, including Denis OBrien.
The ruling also raised questions for the regulator, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI), she said, because it would now have to stand on the sidelines until the High Court inspectors report on their findings and only then would be able to weigh the evidence.
Ms Brennan said the BAI would have to ask itself about the ruling it made in recent years over ownership and control at INM.
The regulator raised no concerns over the company in its last review.
The BAI made no direct comment on yesterdays ruling but said in a statement that it would be completing its next scheduled report on ownership and control of media businesses within the next few months and would present its findings to the communications minister at that point.
Ms Brennan also said that Justice Kelly was renowned for taking a firm line in commercial cases.
This 76-page judgment is no exception, she said.
She said his judgment was quite strongly worded and noted that INM commanded a key media position.
In assessing the public interest, he gave particular weight to accessing journalists communications by third parties which he considered to be particularly in the public interest.
Ms Brennan said his ruling brought attention to the question of how interrogating personal information had anything to do with cost reduction, as was claimed by INM.
The appointment of inspectors to companies is a very rare event even though it has been in our law for some time, Ms Brennan said.
The High Court application by the ODCE was also unusual because it had played out in public through reports in the media, she said.
INM shares have lost over a fifth of their value in the past year, valuing the media firm at around 120.1m.
Update 1pm: A referendum on the place of women in the home will not now take place next month.
There had been speculation it would be held on the same date as the Presidential election, October 26.
But the Oireachtas Justice and Equality Committee has now agreed to engage in more detailed discussions on the proposal.
This will get underway on September 19 with the referendum possibly being held alongside the Local and European elections next May.
In a statement from Charlie Flanagan, Minister for Justice and Equality, he expressed his regret that the referendum would not take place as planned.
He said: I very much regret that on the occasion of the centenary of women achieving the right to vote in Ireland, the Irish people will not have an opportunity to remove Article 41.2 from our Constitution.
"I believe the Article, which seeks to define where women belong in Ireland as being in the home carrying out duties, is not just sexist and reductive, but completely at odds with the Governments gender equality policies.
"The Constitution doesnt seek to define the place of men. I believe it should not seek to define the place of women.
"To me, this is a straightforward proposition and after many decades of inaction, the time has come for the people to exercise a view on the retention or removal of the Article.
"I am very disappointed that the referendum cannot now proceed on 26 October...I look forward to receiving the Committees recommendations in due course.
Update - 9.25am: The Green Party is calling for a "proper conversation" to be held before a referendum on the woman's place in the home.
The vote to change the constitutional reference was proposed for October 26, the same day as the presidential vote.
Green Party Deputy leader Catherine Martin says the issue needs further debate.
Ms Martin said: "Bring in witnesses in from both sides before a committee or indeed another Citizens Assembly, or maybe a special committee like the one that was set up ahead of the last most recent referendum.
"And have that conversation and have the experts in and debate that ahead of the referendum.
"That's what we're seeking, a public conversation around this instead of just rushing through."
6.35am: National Women's Council urges Govt to delay referendum on woman's place in the home
The Government is being urged not to hold a referendum on the woman's place in the home this year.
The National Women's Council of Ireland says the Constitutional reference to a woman's place is "undoubtedly sexist", and that a "public discussion" on the issue is needed, before it is put to the people.
The council says simply removing the article will do nothing to recognise the men and women that give care in the home.
NWCI Director, Orla O'Connor, says the chance to talk about the issue and things around it are important.
NWCI Director, Orla O'Connor
Ms O'Connor said: "There needs to be a much broader discussion in relation to that article and particularly in relation.
"That's why the National Women's Council is calling for the Government and the Oireachtas committee, which will meet today to discuss it, is to have this referendum in 2019 after we have that broader public discussion."
Dublin has the fewest pubs in the country per head of population, according to the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI).
Their figures show there is one pub in the capital for every 1,743 people with 1,477 fewer pubs in the whole country last year than in 2005, representing a 17.1% drop across the country.
Kildare has the second-fewest pubs per capita, followed by Meath, Wicklow and Laois.
Cork has the most bars but it has also seen the biggest drop in the number of them, with 25% fewer pubs since 2005.
In 2017, there were 7,140 pubs nationwide, a decline from 8,617 in 2005.
Rural counties saw the most significant drop in pubs. In 2005, there were 7,831 pubs in Ireland outside of Dublin, but last year that number dropped by 18.7% to 6,367.
In another report, Alcohol Excise Tax in Europe: Where Does Ireland Rank?, Ireland is second in the EUs Big 4 for overall alcohol excise tax, according to a new report authored by DCU economist Anthony Foley and published today by the DIGI.
The Big 4 - Finland, Ireland, Sweden and the UK - is made up of EU member states with disproportionately high alcohol excise tax compared to other countries in the bloc.
Mr Foley's findings show that Ireland has the highest wine excise in EU, the second-highest beer excise, and third-highest spirits excise.
The country with the fifth highest alcohol excise tax, Estonia, has a rate almost 50% lower than Irelands and 33% lower than the last country in the Big 4, the UK.
Sinn Fein says it has proposals which would ease the crippling burden on renters, but will not reveal the details of its plan until next week.
Speaking at the partys think-in in Cavan, Pearse Doherty said he will announce a significant package next Tuesday to provide relief for renters the same day as Fianna Fail holds its pre-Dail gathering.
Mr Doherty said: There is a particular pressure at this point in time in the rental sector where we have over 300,000 tenancies, where we now have rents that are 34% above peak rents in 2008 and this is causing huge distress, huge anxiety, huge worry on families out there wondering when will the rents increase next and will they be able to keep a roof over their heads.
Mr Doherty said the measures would provide security, adding that landlords would not be able to pocket any of the savings, instead they would be passed directly on to renters.
When you see the proposals on Tuesday it is very clear that the landlords will not be able to do that, that would be a big concern.
The party has also confirmed that it will table a motion of no confidence in Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy when the Dail returns. Fianna Fail has already said it will not back the motion claiming that a change of minister would do nothing to help the almost 10,000 people currently homeless.
Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin has already indicated that housing-related proposals will form a key part of budget negotiations.
Mr Doherty said Fianna Fail has returned to form with its proposals which he claimed are on the side of landlords instead of on the side of tenants.
Mr Doherty said a Fianna Fail proposal of a tax break to landlords provides no certainty at all that the cost of rents would be reduced.
He said Sinn Fein has continuously put forward proposals which have been ignored by Government.
We now see a housing crisis that is completely out of control and a homeless crisis that has nearly 10,000 people in emergency accommodation.
Mr Doherty said the party would like to see funding for social housing doubled in the upcoming budget.
Separately, Mr Doherty moved to clear up any confusion that the IRA is still in operation, after party leader Mary-Lou McDonald was asked about this yesterday.
Speaking on RTEs Morning Ireland, Ms McDonald denied there are shadowy figures pulling the party strings in the background.
But she said it was no secret that tens of thousands of people went through the prison system in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
Pressed on this, Mr Doherty said: The IRA doesnt exist, the IRA has left the stage. What Mary-Lou McDonald said was that during the conflict there were many ex-prisoners who went through the prison system, but the leadership of Sinn Fein is the leadership of Sinn Fein.
I am a member of the collective leadership of Sinn Fein, I am on the national officer board, Mary-Lou is party leader and she makes decisions collectively with us, said Mr Doherty.
He said claims that IRA members are driving political policy in Sinn Fein was a political attack from the likes of Micheal Martin.
Update - 11.32am: The Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy has said he is considering splitting the rental sector into short-term and long-term lets.
Mr Murphy claims we could follow international example where buy-to-let landlords are told whether their premises can be rented out by the week or the month.
His suggestion comes amid fears that holiday rentals could be squeezing people searching for home rentals out of the market.
He said he is trying to find balance in the housing system, saying: "There are two different sectors, so one is a tourism sector where people are coming from abroad or from another part of the country for a short stay, the other is about having stability in our residential letting sector.
"Other countries have brought in regulations around home-sharing that means that properties that would have been let long term are not being lost to the short-term market.
"Again it's about achieving a balance."
10.32am: Housing Minister: Not all councils 'making great progress' on building homes
The Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy has refused to name and shame councils that are not building enough homes.
Mr Murphy claims the entire housing system needs to be restructured to stop it from breaking again.
Sinn Fein has warned they are going to table a 'no confidence' motion in Minister Murphy when the Dail returns from its summer break as the homeless figures reach almost 10,000.
But the Minister said he is doing his best by working with local authorities.
Mr Murphy said: "We have plans to increase the stock of social housing homes by 50,000. That requires building on local authority land and that does take time, but the local authorities are making great progress as well.
"Now not all of them, I'll be honest on that, some local authorities, some in Dublin are doing fantastic work.
"There has been an announcement recently about literally thousands of homes they are going to build. Other local authorities haven't grasped this nettle yet."
- Digital Desk
A growing backlog in the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal is leaving victims of serious assaults waiting years for redress.
Just 31 payments were made to victims in 2017, a year in which there were 181 new applications, and only 10 victims were compensated up to the end of May this year when 73 new cases were lodged in the same period.
Since 2012, 1,357 claims have been received by the tribunal but only 597 payments were made.
Fianna Fail TD John Curran has now called for an immediate review of the scheme to find out what is causing the hold-ups.
Victims should expect that they will receive their compensation in a prompt manner and in accordance with constitutional justice.
Should this years applications be managed in the very same poor manner, its likely that just 24 cases will be settled in 2018.
The tribunal compensates people for out of pocket expenses such as medical costs and loss of earnings due to injuries suffered during violent crimes. The 31 payments made last ranged from 905,000 to 164.10 and totalled 3.97m.
The tribunal can not exceed its annual budget regardless of the needs of the victims. Its budget amounts to around 4m a year.
Mr Curran said tribunal correspondence cited economic constraints as one of the reasons for the delays in victims receiving compensation.
He said expecting the tribunal to work within a set budget when its workload and case mix varied from year to year was a dysfunctional way to operate.
One case could need to payout 1m or more when it reaches settlement, especially a victim who has suffered a life-altering injury. That means that one substantial case settlement can absorb a quarter of the tribunals funding.
These more complex applications, although exceptionally important to settle, tend to get put off as a result and until a time that the payment can be met under a yearly budget. That could be half a decade.
The Dail heard before the summer of a case of a man who was waiting 13 years for compensation after suffering life-altering injuries in an unprovoked attack.
A thorough review must be carried out before next years figure of unsettled claims rises even more. This review could not come quick enough for very many victims of crime or their families, Mr Curran said.
The Department of Justice said cases were often complex and took time to assess but aspects of the scheme were being examined.
By Sean ORiordan
An East Cork seaside town could be the preferred landfall for a new 930m submarine cable between Ireland and France, which will carry electricity and telecommunications links between the two countries.
Eirgrid, which is carrying out surveys for the project that will secure Irelands electricity supplies post-Brexit and into the future, has said that bringing a submarine cable on to land in Youghal would be less problematic than some other areas due to less rock offshore.
Eoghan Tuite, senior project engineer for the Celtic Interconnector project, said landfall locations in Wexford had been ruled out and the company is now concentrating on locations in east Cork.
He made his comments at two information sessions provided for councillors representing the East Cork and Cobh/Glanmire municipal district councils.
He said that it would be easier to bring the cable ashore at Claycastle or Redbarn beaches at Youghal than other potential sites along the coastline such as Ballycroneen, south of Cloyne, where there are undersea rock formations.
However, he emphasised that the impact of bringing the proposed service from Brittany ashore in Youghal would be the extra cost of additional cable line due to the increased distance.
Mr Tuite said marine surveys are continuing but he expected to have two preferred locations identified before the year-end.
The other landfall locations under consideration are Ballinwilling Strand, near Garrvyoe, and Inch Beach, also south of Cloyne.
Once ashore, the cable will be laid underground where possible and along roadside margins which would include the N25 (Cork-Waterford road) if Youghal was selected as the landfall location.
Mr Tuite also confirmed the cable will be connected to the national grid at the ESB station at Knockraha, 7km north-east of Glanmire.
A special converter station would also have to be built somewhere close by and potential sites are being examined around Carrigtwohill and Leamlara areas.
The interconnector will transmit high voltage direct current (DC) which will then be converted into alternating current (AC) at the converter station.
The cost of the project is being equally split between France and Ireland.
It is due to convey enough electricity to power 450,000 homes a day.
Around 500km of submarine cable will be laid, along with the remaining 75km onshore in locations in both Ireland and France.
Mr Tuite told councillors it will reduce electricity prices and enhance Irelands supply security after Brexit.
Eirgrid intends to submit a two-year pre-planning application to An Bord Pleanala but it is not anticipated construction will commence until 2022.
Cllr Mary Linehan-Foley said it looked likely the cable would reach landfall at either Redbarn or Claycastle and urged prolific public consultation if it was to be the case.
The bass player from The Specials has put his spin on classic characters from the Beano, writes Ed Power.
One of the most rock n roll comics of all time deserves a rock n roll anniversary to match.
Which is why the publishers of the Beano commissioned Specials bassist Horace Panter to produce a series of art pieces celebrating 80 years of Dennis the Menace, Gnasher the Dog, Minnie the Minx and chums.
The Beano was ubiquitous in everyones childhoods, says Panter from his art studio in Coventry,the city from which The Specials emerged in the late 1970s with their political, often polemical, mix of punk, reggae and urban angst.
This project was a collision of two of my favourite things arts and comics. It was a labour of love.
The Beano exhibition, which opens at Dublins Ebow Gallery on Thursday after an acclaimed tour of the UK to mark the 2017 anniversary of the publication, is high concept with a vengeance.
Drawing on four decades of experience as a visual artist a career he pursued in parallel with his music Panter has transposed the comics best loved characters into famous pop-art pieces.
So we see Lord Snooty rendered in the style of Roy Lichtenstein, Minnie the Minx redone as a Warhol screen-print (the technique Warhol applied to images of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe) and Dennis and trusty fleabag Gnasher plunging into a pool a cap-doff towards David Hockneys swimming pool paintings.
Pop art was to the art world as punk was to the music business, says Panter.
Before that you had the abstract expressionists like Rothko and Jackson Pollock people doing these huge emotive paintings about doom and ecstasy and tragedy.
And then along comes Andy Warhol with a soup can. In music you had the new Yes triple album and Emerson Lake and Palmer. And along comes The Ramones and The Sex Pistols and they blow everything out of the water. Thats why I like pop art.
The Beano was quite punk rock itself, he agrees. Published first on July 30, 1937, at the height of its popularity it was selling nearly 2m copies a week (the current total stands at around 30,000).
Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, the Bash Street Kids and the rest would become part of the background noise of our childhoods.
Dennis, who appeared in 1951, already wearing his black and red stripped jumper was a proto-Bart Simpson, a bad boy who couldnt keep out of mischief.
Just as revolutionary was Minnie the Minx, whose miscreant behaviour was seen as striking a blow for equality proving that girls could be just as out of control as boys. In the 50s this was deeply subversive.
Yet lately the magazine has moved away from celebrating rebellious behaviour with Dennis the Menace last year rebranded as plain old Dennis.
Todays Dennis is a flawed hero, a 10-year-old boy who fears nothing and sometimes gets into trouble as a result, said the publisher. He makes mistakes just like any other person but his mistakes only make him more determined to succeed.
But for Panter the characters are still clearly subversive figures which is why he chose to give them a pop-art makeover.
I quite liked the idea of Dennis and Minnie going to Warhols Factory [studio] and creating havoc. Thats where it came from.
Art and pop have always gone hand in hand for Panter, who joined The Specials after moving to Coventry to study fine art. In his second year at Lanchester Polytechnic, he met Jerry Dammers, with whom he would form the iconic band.
He never lost his passion for the visual arts. The first time The Specials went to New York in 1980 he toured the galleries while his bandmates toured the clubs and bars.
The story I tell is that they went night clubbing and I was to bed early so I could get up the next morning and visit the Guggenheim. Ive used The Specials and travelling the world to see some fantastic art.
New York in 1980 still had some of the rough-at-the-edges energy that had drawn Andy Warhol and his peers to the city.
Horace Panter, on left, with the rest of The Specials, on the cover of their first album. Panter maintained his love of the visual arts even through touring.
It was pretty gritty the first time we visited, recalls Panter. However the reality doesnt really set in for a couple of days because it feels exactly like being in a movie. Then you start to wonder, why is everyone snarling at me? Well actually thats what they do.
Panter is a life-long Americanophile and had immersed himself in Kerouac and the blues and Robert Greenfields writings about The Rolling Stones; early adventures in the US. There were obvious parallels with Coventry a declining industrial centre which had a lot in common with the rustbelt cities of the American Midwest.
By the time The Specials came along all the industry had beendismantled, he says. Thats what was happening to British industry in the 70s.
The Specials music was evocative of a specific time and place a British provincial town at a time of spiralling unemployment and building racial tensions. Simply by being mixed race and singing about the devastation all around one of their biggest hits, Ghost Town, mourns the hollowing out of Coventry they stood for something bigger than themselves.
Forty years later, its worth asking if Panter sees history as repeating itself. Again Britain is in a period of strife and again there is a sense that musicians should be the ones to articulate the dread many people feel.
Hes not so sure, however, if we really are living through the late 70s again.
The world has changed in so many ways and the Britain that produce The Specials is gone forever.
Most of the major cities have had a lot of money thrown at them, he says.
EU money may they live forever. People have technology, theres been a lot of immigration. The idea that you could talk to people across the world on a screen back then it would have seemed like science fiction. Everyone would have gone, crikey.
Beano The Exhibition opens at Ebow Gallery Dublin today.
A documentary to be broadcast tonight tells the stories of the Palestinian people living under blockade and military occupation, writes Helen OCallaghan.
She is a young girl, no more than 10, in a blue sundress, her hair in a ponytail held with a white bobbin. She is calm, respectful, silent, as she helps hold up a wooden board on which are displayed five photos photos of her relatives killed in Gaza in 2014 during the Israeli military offensive.
She is literally holding the memories of her dead and she features in This Is Palestine, a powerful documentary fronted by Riverdance director John McColgan in association with Trocaire, which airs tonight on TG4.
The documentary, produced and directed by McColgan with his brother Gerry, reveals the reality of life for millions of Palestinians living under occupation and blockade.
Filmed in Jerusalem, Hebron and Gaza, it features interviews with parents whose children were killed in the 2014 Gaza offensive, as well as people who have lost land and freedom of movement due to military occupation of the West Bank.
I had done as much research as I could but nothing prepares you for what you see on the ground, what you see in relation to human rights abuse and the devastation of the Palestinian people, says McColgan.
Until you look into the faces of people who have been abused and who have been through so much when Gaza was bombed 2,500 Palestinians were killed when you sit with them and hear the horrors they have had to heal from, it touches you deeply and you cant forget.
What also touched him to the core was the peoples dignified portrayal of their devastating losses.
I was struck by the dignity, integrity and stoicism of a lot of the Palestinian people, particularly in the women who hold society together. They tell their story in a very neutral way, eloquently, calmly, and you can see the deep sadness.
McColgan is referring to people like Layla Al-Helou, who lost her daughter in the Gaza onslaught. Describing that night, she says:
My daughter had been calling me all night to see how we were. I told her not to worry and that we were fine. She kept calling me until five minutes before three. Then the calls stopped. I kept calling her and her phone would ring but she didnt answer. My son looked out the window and saw their house had become a pile of rubble.
McColgan is also referring to women like Khaldea Al Selak El Shaja, who lost three children that night two little boys and the youngest a girl, aged eight, five and three. The week after they were killed, Khaldea tried to go to Shifa Hospital to say goodbye to them. I had lost my senses, she says.
Afterwards, she and her husband received an apology they had been targeted by mistake.
When we tried to pursue it legally, they changed their story and said the young ones were firing rockets at them. Does it make sense that those kids would know how to fire rockets? Khaldea asks.
And then there is Talal Mahmoud Al-Hebu, whose brother died, along with his children. The losses are so great, the grief so unspeakable that Talal pauses, takes some moments to contain this vast emotion before saying: What can I say? This is our lot.
McColgan says he went there hoping to be fair and balanced.
But when you see such blatant human rights abuse and disregard for international law, its impossible to be neutral.
In the West Bank, he met a Bedouin leader whose home a shack of corrugated tin has been repeatedly demolished since the 1970s by Israeli forces.
Mohamed Salim Mousa Kaabneeh describes how his home had been raided two years earlier, with soldiers kicking in the door, letting off shot grenades, pointing machine guns at the family, how his then 12-year-old son was so traumatised he lost the power of speech that night and has not talked since.
Wanting to hear the other side, McColgan interviewed the head of press at the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs.
He was very plausible, very smooth. They have a fantastic level of PR spokespeople. He was well used to being asked any question. He had quite a strong, very eloquent point of view thats his job. Some of [his answers] were quite blatantly lies. How did McColgan feel, faced with this sophisticated PR machine?
I had a feeling of helplessness, of the absolute power of Netanyahu. Israeli people dont know much about Palestine and dont care.
Amid all the tragedy, the documentary also features very brave Israeli activists who are working for peace. Theres a glimmer of hope in the voices of these activists, says McColgan. Among this brave vocal minority is Rabbi Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights.
Speaking about the land confiscations and demolition of Palestinian homes, he says:
This is wrong. This is occupation. As a rabbi and from my Jewish tradition, I know this is an abuse of human rights and a violation of international law.
Another powerful voice is that of Yehuda Shaul, co-founder of Breaking the Silence, an organisation of former Israeli soldiers who are campaigning against the occupation of Palestinian land.
In the documentary, Yehuda describes the orders he was expected to follow.
The orders were to disrupt Palestinian lives in any way possible.
"You would choose a random house. The officer leading the patrol would bump [break] into the house, wake up the family, men on one side, women on the other, search the house, throw some shot grenades, knock on some other doors, make some noise, invade another family thats how you passed your 10pm-6am shift.
The turning point for Yehuda came when, based outside Bethlehem, he was able to see myself in the mirror.
He says between 2004 and 2017, 1,100 soldiers broke their silence after seeing themselves in the mirror.
Speaking to Irish Examiner this week, McColgan says he has received news that two weeks ago Yehuda was beaten up on the street by Israeli settlers while Israeli soldiers watched.
What he and his brother encountered during their travels through the West Bank and Gaza left McColgan very despondent. Its hard to see hope in such a situation.
Greetings all, This Is Palestine documentary will air on TG4 on Thursday September 6th at 22.30pm with a repeat on Thursday 11th September at 24.55am. Very proud of my brothers, John and Gerard, involvement in the making of this excellent documentary. Please spread the word Patricia McColgan (@Patricia086) August 29, 2018
In the documentary, Sligo nun Sr Bridget Tighe who works with a partner of Trocaire for Gazas women says people are traumatised. The children are traumatised. Six-year-olds have been through three wars. What future have they?
Having recognised Jerusalem as Israels capital, President Donald Trump moved the US embassy there from Tel Aviv in May. More recently came news that the US is ending decades of funding for the UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees, a week after cutting bilateral US aid for projects in the West Bank and Gaza. The move cuts nearly $300m of planned support.
The UN says within a month, Palestinian children wont have enough funding to go to school, says McColgan, adding that Trocaire will lobby the Irish Government to up their contribution of 6m a year to the area. The German government has committed to increase their contribution, all in a bid to make up the shortfall.
McColgan believes talk of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is gone now with Trumps cutting of aid and the US embassy move. Palestinians see Trump as doing Israeli bidding. But you have to have hope, he says.
In the middle of the Troubles, Northern Ireland would have seemed hopeless. I would like to imagine there will be some breakthrough in the coming years that will bring peace but I dont see it happening under Trump.
This Is Palestine airs at 10.30pm tonight on TG4 with a repeat on Tuesday, September 11 at 12.55am.
To donate to Trocaires work in Gaza/with Palestinians click here.
All Fine Gael members selected to run in the next general election will gather today, adding to speculation that Leo Varadkar is preparing to go to the country.
The annual party think-in of TDs, senators and MEPS has been expanded to include those who have been added to tickets across the country in recent weeks and months.
Fine Gael have in fact held selection conventions in all but five constituencies and additional candidates have been added to some tickets by the party executive council.
The party intensified its election efforts in the wake of the whistleblower email scandal which led to the departure of Frances Fitzgerald as tanaiste and justice minister and brought the country to the brink of an election late last year.
Over the summer, Fine Gael has ramped up the number of selection conventions to ensure it is ready at short notice.
However, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar yesterday remained adamant that he wants the current Government to remain in place for another tow years.
Seaking on the Aran Islands Mr Varadkar urged Fianna Fail to agree to an extension of the confidence and supply deal to avoid a general election.
The confidence and supply agreement expires in the next couple of months and I would like to renew it would like to set a date for an election in the summer of 2020, give us political stability, remove any uncertainty about when or when not an election may be held. We think there should be an election in the summer of 2020 thus giving us certainly, political stability and removing uncertainty about an early election, he said.
A Fine Gael source said the party does not want a general election but is ready for any snap vote.
While Fine Gael sources said a specific election manifesto has not been drawn up they said Mr Varadkars rolling policy paper, which he adopted after becoming leader, would effectively act as a policy document if an election was called. Its not only designed for an election, its also designed to influence Government policy on an ongoing basis, the source said.
The 2016 general election saw the party lose 26 sets including high-profile candidates such as James Reilly, Jerry Buttimer, Alan Shatter and Jimmy Deenihan.
The minority Government set-up has meant the party has been on shaky ground with the threat of an election looming. Indeed, Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy will face a vote of no-confidence when the Dail returns in two weeks time.
Fine Gael will be under pressure to recoup the losses from the last election and has been working hard to put forward fresh faces with a strong profile.
Emer, daughter of former minister Austin Currie, has been selected to run alongside Mr Varadkar in Dublin West, while in the Dublin Mid West constituency will see an all-female ticket with Frances Fitzgerald and Cllr Emer Higgins selected as running mates.
With gender quotas in place since the 2016 election, Fine Gael have put an emphasis on selecting strong women.
First-time candidate Sinead Maguire was recently selected to run in Sligo Leitrim along with former TD Gerry Reynolds.
In Tipperary, vet Mary Newman-Julian, a sister of Fine Gael Dublin Bay South TD Kate OConnell and Garret Ahearn have been selected.
Meanwhile, in Cork North West the party have recruited former Independent councillor John Paul OShea to run alongside Agriculture Minister Michael Creed.
As would be expected the party have selected a number of senators to run for the Dail. These include Tim Lombard in Cork South West, Jerry Buttimer in Cork South Central, Neale Richmond in Dublin Rathdown and Catherine Noone in Dublin Bay North.
Tim Lombard looks for electric drive to reclaim Fine Gael heartland
If Tim Lombard can get just a small fraction of the 72,000 people who viewed his recent online clip to vote for him, he will have no problem winning a seat in the Dail.
Unfortunately, the Fine Gael Seanad spokesman on climate change failed to make it as far as Leinster House when he filmed his trip from his home in Kinsale to Dublin.
His electric car only had 38km left by the time he reached the halfway point and he was forced to stop in Portlaoise to charge the eco-friendly vehicle.
Despite the road bump, Mr Lombard, a father of four who has been married to Catherine for 11 years, is adamant he can reclaim traditional Fine Gael territory in the Cork South West constituency after being nominated to run alongside junior minister Jim Daly.
Traditionally it would have been one of the strongest Fine Gael constituencies in Ireland, he said.
I think in eight out of the last 11 elections, we would have had two out of the three seats. It really is a Fine Gael heartland.
Mr Lombard is a strong ally of Simon Coveney and was a key member in his team during the Fine Gael leadership content.
My affiliation with Simon Coveney is well known, we would have been members of the same branch of Fine Gael for many years and we have a great association.
In 2003 when I first entered the council, a long time ago now, I would have been replacing Simon Coveney and I have a track record of getting elected since then.
And while he may have been the right-hand man of the Tanaiste, he is adamant he can represent rural dwellers and farmers on the western extremes of the constituency.
I am actually one of the few dairy farmers that are part of the Dail or Seanad, so I am very involved in rural Ireland and have a great grasp of that.
In order to claim back what Fine Gael believe is rightly its own, Mr Lombard will have to unseat Independent TD Michael Collins.
I think the wave of support for Independents that was there in 2016 has really dropped, you saw Independents getting votes in every box in every constituency that, I think, wont happen this time.
I think this election will be won on national issues, he said.
Sinead Maguire eyes next political challenge
The departure of sitting Fine Gael TD Tony McLoughlin means the Sligo-Leitrim constituency is wide open Sinead Maguire is confident she can fill the gap.
Relatively new to politics, she surprised many by securing the Fine Gael nomination at the recent constituency convention, which was attended by some 1,000 party members.
The solicitor saw off former junior minister John Perry and former senator Michael Comiskey, with senator Frank Feighan withdrawing from the race.
She will now contest the next general election with former TD Gerry Reynolds.
There were nine people who put themselves forward so it was a very competitive convention, I was up against some extremely good candidates, ex-TDs and senators, people who would have much more experience than me, however, I feel that my track record on the council stood to me.
Ms Maguire is prepared for the fight indeed her introduction to politics at a local level was not what she expected as she received little or no support from party colleagues.
She first became interested in politics when she saw that many of the issues impacting young families were not being addressed. She was first elected to Sligo County Council in the 2014 local elections.
Although she had come from the male-dominated world of criminal law, Ms Maguire said this was a different ball game.
She has carved out a space at local level and for her politics in the blood her great-grandfather was a member of the first county council in Leitrim, a fact she only found out after being elected a councillor herself.
She is confident there is space for two Fine Gael TDs in the four-seater Sligo- Leitrim constituency.
To do so Fine Gael will have to push out one of the two sitting Fianna Fail TDs, Marc MacSharry and Eamon Scanlon, or would have to target Martin Kennys single Sinn Fein seat.
Ms Maguire, 43, who lives with husband Kieran Quinn and young daughter, said: I think there is definitely potential, I think we have a very strong ticket and if we run a good campaign we have a very good chance.
Tony [McLoughlin] leaves a legacy behind of work and a strong record of delivering and representing his constituents. I would hope to fill that gap.
John Paul OShea: From Independent to FG candidate
Luring popular councillor John Paul OShea into the ranks was part of a Fine Gael strategy to re-establish its dominance in Cork after hemorrhaging seats in the last election.
Standing as an Independent candidate Mr OShea, 34, lost out on the third seat by just 249 votes in the 2016 general election and now believes that being on the ballot a Fine Gael candidate in the next election will give him the extra votes he needs.
A native of Lombardstown, outside Mallow, he will contest the next election in Cork North West alongside sitting Agriculture Minister Michael Creed.
The constituency traditionally has been one Fine Gael seat, one Fianna Fail seat and the third has been up for grabs. So I would be hoping would be able to get that seat.
He was first elected to Cork County Council as an Independent in 2009 before being re-elected in 2014. He served as Cork County mayor between 2015 and 2016.
And so putting himself forward for national politics was a natural progression. Its a different role, as a national politician you are involved in the creation of legislation which often impacts on decisions at a local level.
I feel that I can certainly put my shoulder to the wheel when it comes to the development of legislation.
When the party approached me late last year it was something I was certainly going to consider because I have the desire to represent people nationally and I know the people of Cork North West are crying out for good representation, said Mr OShea who works part-time with the HSE in the Cork-Kerry region.
He said his own policies would not have been dissimilar to Fine Gael so it was not a huge leap to move over to the party.
Joining Leo Varadkars team, which includes many new and young faces, was also one of the reasons he decided to join the political party and run for Fine Gael next time around.
I think its a great sign and is a new way of politics, he said.
Emer Higgins: I have a young fresh approach
Tuesday, November 28, 2017, is a night Emer Higgins will never forget.
Frances Fitzgerald had just hours before resigned as tanaiste and justice minister after a slow drip feed of information in the whistleblower email controversy which had brought the country to the brink of a general election.
Now, with the possibility of a government collapse still in sight, Ms Fitzgerald had again secured a nomination to run in the next general election at her constituency selection convention in Lucan.
It was also the night that Ms Higgins was placed on the ticket with Ms Fitzgerald.
I think it is a night that neither of us will forget in a hurry, the South Dublin councillor says.
I was selected back in the uncertain days back in the end of November and early December when it looked like there was an election looming. That was the background to me being added to the ticket so since that day I have to be ready for what happens if here is a general election tomorrow, thats the type of mentality you have to have.
She will be contesting the local elections in May and will be standing in the Clondalkin local electoral area.
But being involved in community organisations and events is just as important to her as politics.
Ms Higgins, who became involved in politics while studying in UCD, claims she is just as likely to be mortifying herself up on stage at a charity lip sync battle for the local GAA club as she is canvassing in the area. Ultimately politics is about representing your community.
The 33-year-old, who works for a multinational company in West Dublin, hopes to be part of Leo Varadkars new generation of politicians and sees her age as a positive.
Frances was the most senior female in Government so she is bringing a huge amount of experience. But I believe I have a young fresh approach and I think it is a nice balance.
We both have very different things to bring and I think we would make a very good team, she said.
Mary Newman-Julian hoping to make the Dail a family affair
Having a sister already ensconced in Leinster House is certainly not a disadvantage, but Mary Newman-Julian will be fighting for a Dail seat based on her own merits.
People do identify me as Kate OConnells sister but then a lot of people in Tipperary are not really interested in a TD based in Dublin, its not relevant to them, she says.
Since being added to the Tipperary Fine Gael ticket almost nine weeks ago, Ms Newman-Julian has taken a leave of absence from her veterinary job to focus full-time on politics and has opened a constituency office in Thurles.
Like her outspoken sister Kate, who was elected in the tightly contested Dublin Bay South constituency in 2016, Ms Newman-Julian believes she has a strong work ethic and the ability to listen to people which she says is needed in national politics.
I will stand on my own merit within the constituency of Tipperary, I have been here for a long time and am well known.
I believe its possible to win two seats for Fine Gael in Tipperary and I certainly hope to do that come the next general election. My primary focus is on a general election.
Fine Gael suffered a massive defeat in Tipperary in 2016 when it was left without a seat, something the party is keen to rectify.
The party will now be looking to oust one, if not two, of the sitting TDs Independents Michael Lowry, Mattie McGrath, and Seamus Healy, Labours Alan Kelly, and Fianna Fails Jackie Cahill.
Ms Newman-Julian, who will run alongside Garret Ahearn, believes the lack of a Government TD has damaged the county.
To have no Government representation in a constituency the size of Tipperary is disappointing and I think Tipperary has suffered as a result of that in the past two years and I would hope to be able to rectify that come the next election whenever that may be.
Ms Newman-Julian added: On the ground there definitely seems to be a fair bit of support for Fine Gael and at the convention the members definitively voted in favour of change and newer candidates and the two candidates that were first and second at convention are now on the ticket.
So we are working hard as a team to maximise the Fine Gael vote in Tipperary.
Emer Currie: Politics is in my blood, but it was never inevitable
Given her family surname many expected that running for election would be a natural choice for Emer Currie.
But for the mother of two who moved from the North to Dublin when she was 12 after the election of her father Austin as a TD seeking a Dail seat wasnt that clear-cut.
Its in my blood, but it was never inevitable, or I never thought it was inevitable, the people around me thought it was inevitable that I would get into politics but I didnt, she said.
Ms Currie has been selected in one of the most contentious constituencies, Dublin West, where her running mate will be the most high-profile candidate in the country, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
But while her family is steeped in politics it was only when she became a mother herself and came up against the challenges many couples face that she finally decided to take the plunge.
I am a parent now and I am going through things that everyone else with a family is going through, she said.
I think we need more practical supports for parents.
I think people are busier than ever. We need more supports in general.
Its an issue that women are in employment at 86% when they dont have children and that drops to 57% when they have children under three and it only goes up to 58% if their kids are over six.
So we have an issue here, said Ms Currie, who added the fact that it is often easier for women to stay at home to mind their children than to return to work needs to be challenged.
Ms Currie, who previously worked closely with former tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald in Dublin Mid- West, believes that being on the same ticket as the Taoiseach is an advantage.
The natural profile that he gets spills onto me, that to me is an advantage, but overall Fine Gael need to be focused on bringing in as many seats as possible and we have a good team so thats the way to do it.
Yes, its a high-profile constituency, I am just focused on what I think is relevant and the policies that I am interested in.
You dont get into politics because of the way the constituency is, you get into politics because you believe in what you are saying, she said.
By Phil Blanche
David Brooks says he never considered changing his mind, like the Republic of Irelands Declan Rice, after pledging his international allegiance to Wales.
Rice was omitted from the Republic squad for tomorrows UEFA Nations League opener against Wales in Cardiff, with manager Martin ONeill revealing the West Ham defender is deliberating over switching loyalties to England. London-born Rice has three senior caps for the Republic, but they all came in friendly matches, meaning the 19-year-old could yet decide to represent England.
Warrington-born Brooks has also appeared in three international friendlies, but the Bournemouth forward is to end doubts over his future by representing Wales in tomorrows competitive fixture.
There is a decision to be made by younger players like Declan Rice and myself, said 21-year-old Brooks.
I dont know his situation and what he wants to do, so I cant really comment on that, but for me it was always going to be Wales and, thankfully, I got that opportunity. I wont be switching even if I dont get on against the Republic.
Brooks lined out for the England U20s at the Toulon Tournament in 2017, earning the competitions best player award, but
However, with his mother Cathryn hailing from Llangollen, he then joined the Wales set-up, winning senior caps in friendlies against France, Panama and Mexico in the past 12 months.
You obviously listen to what your family have to say and theres other influences involved, as well, said Brooks of his decision to play for Wales. You can get all the advice in the world, but if you want to do something for yourself you have to [make a decision].
Brooks previous international experience came when he was a Sheffield United player, but an 11.5m switch to Bournemouth has turned him into a Premier League player and he feels he is already benefiting from his summer move.
Eddie Howe (the Bournemouth manager) has been great to work with, said Brooks.
The training has been spot on and I can see myself improving already and, hopefully, it can continue.
Its the same with Wales, as the quality in our squad is there for all to see.
Im a big Manchester United fan and I grew up watching the gaffer (Ryan Giggs).
He was a fantastic player and won near enough every trophy under the sun, so Im delighted to work with him.
Children differ widely in how well they do at school. In recent years, researchers have shown that around two-thirds of differences in school achievement can be explained by differences in childrens genes, writes Kaili Rimfeld and Margherita Malanchini.
Genes have been shown to influence how well children do at primary school, at the end of compulsory education, and even in different subjects. However, less is known about how genetic and environmental factors contribute to how well a child continues to do academically throughout their time at school.
To study this, we used a sample of over 6,000 pairs of twins who are part of the UK-representative Twins Early Development Study and analysed their test scores from primary school to the end of compulsory education. Our new research found that the twins educational achievement was remarkably stable: children who do well in primary school also tend to perform well in GCSE exams, taken at the end of compulsory education.
Using twins allows us to estimate the proportion of differences that can be explained by genetic factors. Identical twins share 100% of their genes, while non-identical twins share on average 50% of the genes that differ between people, just like other siblings. If identical twins are more alike on a particular trait than non-identical twins, such as school achievement, we can infer that it is influenced by their genes. We can then estimate the heritability of that trait or the proportion of differences that are down to the differences in childrens DNA sequence.
Read more: The same genes influence exam results across a range of school subjects
We looked at what factors influenced stability in educational achievement when grades in a standardised test remain similar between primary and secondary school. We found that about 70% of the stability in achievement is explained by genetic factors, while 25% is accounted for by the twins shared environment, such as growing up in the same family and attending the same school. The remaining 5% was explained by their non-shared environment, such as different friends or different teachers.
When there was a change in educational achievement where grades increased or dropped between primary and secondary school we found this was largely explained by those environmental factors that are not shared by twins.
Its reasonable to assume that this substantial influence of genes on the continuity of childrens achievement during their time at school can be explained by intelligence. Yet we found the influence of genes remained substantial at 60% even after accounting for intelligence, which was measured using several verbal and nonverbal tests taken by the twins over the course of childhood and adolescence.
Double the good grades. Aaron Chown/PA Archive
Predicting achievement using DNA
While twin study estimates such as this can tell us about traits within large groups of people, recent scientific advances are revealing more about the influence of genes on the individual. There has been considerable recent success in identifying genetic variants associated with educational attainment through what are called genome-wide association studies (GWAS). These studies pinpoint genetic markers associated with certain traits. However, each genetic marker explains a very small proportion (less than 0.1%) of the individual differences in school performance.
A more powerful method was recently developed that sums up thousands of the genetic markers found in the GWAS studies to instead calculate a genome-wide polygenic score. This score is now being used, with increasing levels of accuracy, to predict variance in a trait, such as school achievement, for people unrelated to each other.
Read more: Your genes can help predict how well you'll do in school here's how we cracked it
As part of our new study, we used data from previous GWAS analyses to create a polygenic score for education attainment. We calculated a score for one of each pair of our 6,000 sets of twins (so that everybody in this part of the study was unrelated). This predicted whether they would do well across their time at school. These predictions ranged from accounting for 4% of the variance in educational attainment at the start of primary school, to 10% of the variance at GCSE levels. Our findings confirmed the results from the first part of our twins analysis that the same genetic variants play a role in explaining why children differ in achievement at every stage in development.
To hear more about Twins studies and why they are so important for science, listen to the Twins episode of The Anthill podcast
Our findings, which suggest that genes influence how well a child will do across the length of their time at school, should provide additional motivation to identify children in need of interventions as early as possible, as problems are likely to remain throughout the school years. In the future, polygenic score prediction, together with the prediction of environmental risks such as exposure to certain neighbourhood, family, and school characteristics might provide a tool to identify children with educational problems very early in life. They could then be provided with individualised learning programmes.
For example, we could use DNA tests at birth to identify children at genetic risk for developing reading problems, and give them early intervention. As preventive interventions have greater chances of succeeding early in life, a great strength of polygenic scores is that they can predict at birth just as well as later in life, which could be of particular help for those children who are likely to struggle the most.
This article was written by Kaili Rimfeld, Postdoctoral Research Associate, King's College London; and Margherita Malanchini.
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Texas at Austin
Read the original article here.
British Ministers have committed to order a review of hate crime law following calls to recognise misogyny as an aggravating factor if it motivated upskirting.
The British Labour party's Stella Creasy urged the Government to fund a Law Commission review into hate crime in new and existing legislation as the Voyeurism (Offences) Bill was debated in the Commons.
The Walthamstow MP said the true extent of hate crimes against women was being "masked" in the criminal justice system because misogyny is not currently recognised as such, but withdrew her amendment to the legislation following the Government's commitment.
If you are harassed in the workplace as a woman there is protection for it, but not on the streets
Labour MP @stellacreasy as MPs are set to vote on whether misogyny should be considered a hate crime.#VictoriaLIVE pic.twitter.com/YPmj1ltFGa Victoria Derbyshire (@VictoriaLIVE) September 5, 2018
Justice Minister Lucy Frazer spoke against the proposals to amend the Bill, saying statutory aggravating factors "don't usually apply to one or two offences" and would make them "inconsistent with all other sexual offences".
She told MPs: "While I recognise the intent behind the amendments, this narrow Bill is not the time to debate misogyny becoming a hate crime.
"However, we as a Government are concerned to ensure our hate crime legislation is up to date and consistent, and I'm pleased to announce today I will be asking the Law Commission to undertake a review of the coverage and approach of hate crime legislation following their earlier recommendation to do so.
"This will include how protective characteristics, including sex and gender characteristics, should be considered by new or existing hate crime law."
Ms Creasy thanked Ms Frazer for "listening", telling the Commons her commitment was "really, really welcome".
The announcement came amid concerns raised by Conservative Maria Miller that the upskirting legislation risks "artificially narrowing" the number of potential convictions.
The chairwoman of the Women and Equalities Committee warned that the Bill is "very narrowly defined" as she urged ministers to accept her amendment which sought to make all upskirting a crime.
"The Bill explicitly doesn't outlaw upskirting per se, it outlaws it in certain circumstances," Mrs Miller told the Commons.
She pointed to figures from Scotland, where she said only a "handful" of cases had been brought since legislation was introduced eight years ago, despite research suggesting that "one in 10 young people in this country experience upskirting".
"That would mean a far higher rate than just three in Scotland or just under 30 in the UK."
We're making #upskirting a crime.
Upskirting is a hideous invasion of privacy, but not all instances are currently covered by existing criminal law. Making it an offence is another step forward in challenging the sexist attitudes and behaviours in our society. pic.twitter.com/Sg61qfuTS3 Conservatives (@Conservatives) September 5, 2018
The Government has used the Scottish legislation as a base for the Bill, but Mrs Miller said ministers had not reflected changes made to address "significant shortcomings" in the original law.
She told the Commons: "My concern is that in drawing the Bill in this way it is artificially depressing the number of people that will come forward.
"And I think the courts may think that Parliament, in its very specific omission of certain groups of people who are perpetrating this crime, and we know they are already, they are artificially narrowing the number of convictions that might be brought forward and I don't think that is the way Parliament wants this Bill to work.
"And amendment 3 would make sure that it worked far more broadly than that, and actually call to account all of the people who are committing this crime - not just a very small section of them."
Conservative former minister Sir Christopher Chope said he did not believe misogyny should be an aggravating factor.
He said: "The activity itself should be criminalised, it shouldn't be a motive.
"Why do we need to have a motive in respect to an offence that outrages public decency?"
He also called for the law to be "toughened up" to put upskirting offenders motivated by sexual gratification on the sex offenders register.
Liberal Democrat Wera Hobhouse (Bath) condemned upskirting as a "vile practice" that should be a specific offence.
"The harm caused to the victim is substantial regardless of the intention of the perpetrator," she said.
The Bill later received an unopposed third reading and will undergo further scrutiny in the Lords.
- Press Association & Digital Desk
Asia Peace Commission Holds Talks With Northern Alliance Members in China
Northern Alliance members are seen in northern Shan State. / Kyaw Kha / The Irrawaddy
CHIANG MAI, ThailandThe governments Peace Commission (PC) met with three members of the Northern Alliance group of armed organizations in China on Wednesday. The meeting was agreed to in mid-July, when Northern Alliance leaders were in Naypyitaw for a peace conference.
The Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA)s Brigadier-General Tar Phone Kyaw said Wednesdays talks between the government delegation and leaders of the TNLA, Arakan Army and Kokang-based Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army were held to build mutual trust, which he said had been broken for a long time.
The government negotiators were PC vice chairman U Thein Zaw and secretary U Khin Zaw Oo, both former military generals.
Both sides agreed to hold further peace negotiations and will meet again next month, Brig-Gen Tar Phone Kyaw, who is also the TNLAs general-secretary and who was present at the meeting, told The Irrawaddy.
Representatives of the Kachin Independence Organization/Army and the United Wa State Party/Army were also presented at the meeting, he said.
While he declined to discuss details, the brigadier-general said they discussed ways for peace negotiations to move forward and to reduce the fighting. Details of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) and recent armed clashes were not discussed, he said.
We had lost mutual trust in each other. As we have only just resumed talks, we were not able to discuss issues in detail, he said. But we have been able to rebuild trust, which will allow further negotiations to lessen [military] engagement. This is a good step, Brig-Gen. Tar Phone Kyaw said.
The Irrawaddy tried to contact the government negotiators and representatives of the other groups, but they were not available for comment at press time.
The TNLA has been actively fighting the Myanmar Military in northern Shan States Kut Kai, Nam San, Man Tong and Namtu townships, and has also clashed with the Restoration Council of Shan State, an NCA signatory, in Namtu, causing nearly 2,000 residents of at least a dozen villages to flee their homes.
Burma Jailed Reporters Wives Hope Against Hope for Presidential Pardon
Jailed Reuters reporter Wa Lone tries to express his views on his conviction before being sent to Inn Sein Prison by police on Monday. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy
YANGON The Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) has urged the National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government to seriously consider all aspects of the larger interest of the country amid mounting local and international criticism of the jailing of two Reuters reporters.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were imprisoned for seven years on Monday for breaching the Official Secrets Act over their coverage of the conflict in Rakhine State.
The MNHRC statement followed a press conference given by the jailed reporters wives, Pan Ei Mon and Chit Su Win, on Tuesday. The commission said it had been closely observing the case of the two reporters since it received a complaint letter from the wives in December. It adds that officials of the MNHRC attended a series of trial hearings to observe whether the accuseds basic rights were being upheld. The commission urged the government to protect the basic rights of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, including their right to appeal and hold legal consultations with their lawyers.
Two days ago, Yangons Northern District Court analyzed the claims and counterclaims of the prosecutor and defense lawyers, respectively, regarding a number of accusations against the reporters. The reporters were accused of possessing top-secret documents at the time of their arrest last December in Yangon, including the travel itinerary for Vice President U Myint Swes trip to strife-torn northern Rakhine; the phone number of Arakan Army (AA) Brigadier-General Nyo Tun Aung (the AA is a non-signatory of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement); a map related to Pope Francis visit to Myanmar; and northern Rakhine security clearance operations reports. Taking into consideration all of the above matters, the judge concluded that the reporters had violated the Official Secrets Acts Section 3 (1) (c) and sentenced them to seven years imprisonment.
In fact, the pair was investigating the massacre of 10 Rohingya men in Rakhine States Inn Din village by a group of local villagers, police and Army troops last December. When the reporters returned to Yangon from northern Rakhine, they contacted Police Captain Moe Yan Naing, who had recently been transferred from Maungdaw Township, to clarify some facts about the Inn Din killings. At that time, the Myanmar authorities were bluntly denying that security forces had committed any mass killings during the operations.
The following month, the Army announced that seven soldiers had been sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labor in a remote area of Myanmar for participating in the mass killing. The United Nations says the military crackdown has sent nearly 700,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh.
Police were aware that two reporters were investigating indiscriminate killings by security forces, so Police Brigadier General Tin Ko Ko instructed a police constable to set the reporters up by handing them some of the top-secret documents and immediately arresting them. Pol. Lance Corporal Naing Lin and a colleague contacted Wa Lone and arranged to meet the reporters at a restaurant in Mingalardons Htauk Kyant area. Unexpectedly, the two reporters were given two newspaper-wrapped packages, but as the lighting was dim at the restaurant, the police suggested the reporters read the documents at a later time.
After handing over the packages, the police abruptly left. The reporters had taken just a few steps outside the restaurant when they were immediately handcuffed by a different group of Yangon police officers. They were taken directly to the Aung Tha Pyay interrogation camp, and a couple of days later police announced that the two had been arrested for possessing top-secret documents linked to northern Rakhine State and charged under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act. The two detainees attended a number of trial hearings over a period of nine months. While the two reporters were charged over the possession of the documents, the prosecutor made several late submissions to the court, adding information found by investigators on the two reporters mobile phones, including the phone number of a senior AA leader.
In terms of the MNHRC statement, commission member U Yu Lwin Aung told The Irrawaddy over the phone on Wednesday that the statement was issued with the aim of finding a better solutionfor both the government and the jailed reportersbased on a more rigorous approach that does not violate the existing laws of Myanmar and is arrived at using the legitimate powers of the ruling party. To make it happen, legal experts and relevant departments of the government should initiate a consultation meeting to find an appropriate solution, he said.
Strictly maintaining its stance will not bring about a positive impact, U Yu Lwin Aung said.
Defense lawyer U Khin Maung Zaw, who joined the reporters wives at yesterdays press conference, told the journalists they were extremely disappointed with the judges decision because the plaintiff witnesses testimony, including that given by police, appeared to contain discrepancies and falsehoods. A key plaintiff witness, Police Capt. Moe Yan Naing, even told the judge that the reporters had been set up. Another lawyer, U Than Zaw Aung, told the journalists that the defense team would exhaust all options in trying to obtain the immediate release of his clients, including appealing to the higher court.
This will remain as a black spot on our countrys history, U Khin Maung Zaw said.
Wa Lones wife Pan Ei Mon, who recently had the couples first child, said, I went to see my husband in prison yesterday and he told me that he had not expected this kind of result. He was very upset about having been trapped and having to serve a long prison sentence.
She repeatedly said, He has done nothing wrong and I want him to come home quickly.
Chit Su Win, the wife of Kyaw Soe Oo, recalled that one day before his conviction, she visited her husband in Inn Sein Prison and her husband had returned all his clothing to her as he ultimately trusted in the judicial system. She said a seven-year sentence was totally unjust.
She said, My husband is a good man and Im proud of him. My overwhelming concern is for the possible trauma my daughter will suffer. She even asks me sometimes why her father has been away from us for so long. Is he no longer in love with mommy?
In discussions with foreign diplomats or exclusive media interviews, senior NLD leaders including State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi have frequently said that the outcome of the Reuters reporters trials would be up to the judiciary. They have refrained from saying anything supportive of the journalists, saying that could be regarded as contempt of court.
As of this week, the judiciary has done its part. To return the jailed reporters to their families and newsrooms, there is a potentially life-saving provision in the ConstitutionSection 204. It stipulates that the president has the ultimate power to grant a pardon and that he can also grant an amnesty with the recommendation of the National Defense and Security Council (NDSC). Lawyer Than Zaw Aung told reporters he had heard some top NLD leaders, during foreign trips and at forums, discuss possible presidential pardons for the pair.
However, family members and defense lawyers were not confident of an immediate release, based on comments by the countrys de facto leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, during an exclusive interview with Japans NHK on June 8, that the two reporters were not arrested for covering the Rakhine issue and even that they were arrested because they broke the Official Secrets Act.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the reporters were taken to an interrogation camp named Yae Kyi Aing. The correct name of the interrogation camp is Aung Tha Pyay.
Burma Lawmakers Question 1.2bn Kyat Losses by State-Run Newspapers
State-run newspapers published on Sep. 4 / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy
YANGONA Myanmar parliamentarian questioned losses of 1.2 billion kyats ($770,000) made by state-run newspapers which are dominating the market in circulation as well as gaining plenty of advertisements.
During debates on the 2018-19 Union Budget Bill on Tuesday, a Lower House lawmaker Daw Aye Mya Mya Myo of Yangons Kyauktan constituency pointed out the estimated losses expected to be made by the News and Periodicals Enterprise (NPE) under the Information Ministry in the upcoming fiscal year [from Oct. 1, 2018 to Sept. 30, 2019].
The Union Budget Billsubmitted to the parliament in July stated that the News and Periodicals Enterprise under the Information Ministry will lose 1.158 billion kyats with estimated of 21.537 billion kyats and the estimated income of 20.375 billion kyats.
The NPE runs three state-owned daily newspapers: The Mirror and Myanma Alinn Daily in Burmese language and the English-language Global New Light of Myanmar which is running as a joint venture with a private company.
The enterprise is using state buildings and land for the operations and money from the state budget to pay staff. It also dominates in the market. There are plenty of advertisements but why is it making a loss? the lawmaker Daw Aye Mya Mya Myo asked at the Union Parliament on Tuesday.
She said government newspapers making losses on state funding needs to be questioned as well as the management of the outlets.
The MP said that the newspapers also failed in countering international reports on Rakhine State during a time when the country has been under strong international censure.
Private daily newspapers have only been published in Myanmar since 2013 after a decades-long ban was lifted. The then-government approved 39 publications, but only seven nationally distributed privately-run papers are left.
Many of those in the market are also struggling to make their publications survive due to a drop in circulation, shrinking ad revenue and high production costs. An uneven playing field has been created in competing against government newspapers which have more advertisements than private media because state media enjoys a bigger circulation, low sale prices and advertisement rates.
The Upper House lawmaker U Ye Htut of Sagaing Region, also mention at the parliament on Tuesday that the state-owned newspapers should be privatized as a way to reduce the state budget deficit.
There is no state-run newspapers or media in democratic countries and thus they should all be privatized.
Burma RCSS Chief Says TNLA Aggression Against Shan Civilians Hurts Taang Aims
RCSS/SSA-S Chairman Gen Yawd Serk. / Chit Min Tun / The Irrawaddy
MON STATE Amid an escalation in fighting between rival ethnic armed groups in northern Shan State, the chairman of the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) accused the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA) of detaining, harassing and murdering ethnic Shan, and said the strategy would only harm efforts by the Taang to establish their own state.
RCSS Chairman General Yawd Serk told the organizations media outlet, Tai Freedom, that the TNLA needed to consider which was the best route to establishing a Taang stateattacking ethnic Shan or entering peace negotiations.
By attacking the Shan, the ethnic Taang are sowing the seeds of their own destruction, Gen Yawd Serk said.
There is no benefit for the Taang in attacking ethnic Shan, he said, adding that he felt sorry for innocent Taang who are suffering due to the fighting between the TNLA and RCSS.
Responding to Gen Yawd Serks comments, Brigadier-General Tar Phone Kyaw of the TNLA said ethnic Taang (Palaung) did not need to arrest or murder Shan people to establish an ethnic state. To achieve the creation of a liberated state, the Taang people will fight for it, he said.
The RCSS occupies our areas. Therefore, the TNLA has to attack them, Brig-Gen Tar Phone Kyaw said.
If Yawd Serk wants to rebuild Shan State, he needs to avoid actions aimed at occupying our areas. His troops should not engage in human rights abuses against the Taang people, he said.
If they did not, he said, the Shan and Taang communities will only grow more divided and Gen. Yawd Serks efforts to rebuild Shan State would fail, Brig-Gen Tar Phone Kyaw said.
The RCSS and TNLA have a history of armed clashes, and accuse each other of human rights violations against their populations. Armed conflict broke out between the RCSS and TNLA after the former signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) with the Myanmar government in 2015.
The RCSS is based in southern Shan State. According to Taang military leaders, the group tried to take control of areas in northern Shan after signing the NCA, leading to clashes with the TNLA.
The RCSS has even tried to seize control of some areas from another Shan organization, the Shan State Progressive Party (SSPP), in northern Shan, despite being from the same ethnic group.
With increasing numbers of RCSS troops moving into northern Shan, the SSPP joined forces with the TNLA in attacks against the RCSS this year.
The TNLA and SSPP launched a military offensive last month with the aim of kicking the RCSS out of northern Shan. Fighting has escalated in Namtu Township this week, forcing about 1,000 local ethnic Shan and Palaung to flee their villages.
Ethnic Shan and Taang co-existed peacefully in Shan State for decades, but the recent clashes have seen trust between the two communities break down.
Burma US Vice President Pence Calls for Release of Jailed Reuters Journalists
Ko Wa Lone and Ko Kyaw Soe Oo are escorted from the court on Monday after receiving their sentence of seven years imprisonment. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy
WASHINGTON US Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday called on Myanmars government to reverse a court ruling that imprisoned two Reuters journalists for seven years and to release them immediately.
The journalists were found guilty on Monday on official secrets charges in a landmark case seen as a test of progress toward democracy in Myanmar, which was ruled by a military junta until 2011.
Ko Wa Lone, 32, and Ko Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were investigating the killing by security forces of Rohingya villagers at the time of their arrest last December, and had pleaded not guilty.
Wa Lone & Kyaw Soe Oo shd be commendednot imprisonedfor their work exposing human rights violations & mass killings. Freedom of religion & freedom of the press are essential to a strong democracy, Pence wrote on Twitter.
Pence is the most senior US official to add his voice to an international outcry against the verdict by a Myanmar judge, who said the two had breached the colonial-era Official Secrets Act when they collected and obtained confidential documents.
In Yangon on Tuesday, the wives of two journalists insisted that the men were innocent and called for them to be reunited with their families.
Deeply troubled by the Burmese court ruling sentencing 2 @Reuters journalists to 7 years in jail for doing their job reporting on the atrocities being committed on the Rohingya people, Pence wrote in another tweet.
US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Tuesday that the United States would become more vocal about the two journalists situation.
Speaking at a news conference in New York marking the US assumption of the rotating chairmanship of the Security Council for September, Haley said the reporters were in prison for telling the truth.
Mark Green, administrator for the US Agency for International Development, said these convictions are an enormous setback for democracy and the rule of law in Burma.
Mounting Pressure
The verdict came amid mounting pressure on the government of Nobel laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi over a security crackdown sparked by attacks by Rohingya Muslim insurgents on security forces in Rakhine State in west Myanmar in August 2017.
More than 700,000 stateless Rohingya Muslims have fled into Bangladesh since then, according to UN agencies. The Rohingya, who regard themselves as native to Rakhine, are widely considered as interlopers by the countrys Buddhist majority and are denied citizenship.
Neither Suu Kyi nor her government have commented publicly on the case since the reporters were convicted.
The journalists were arrested on Dec. 12 while investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya men and boys and other abuses involving soldiers and police in the village of Inn Din.
Myanmar has denied allegations of atrocities against Rohingya by its security forces, saying it conducted a legitimate counterinsurgency operation against Muslim militants.
The military acknowledged the killing of the 10 Rohingya at Inn Din after arresting the Reuters reporters.
A UN-mandated fact-finding mission said last week that Myanmars military carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Muslim Rohingya with genocidal intent and called for top generals to be prosecuted. Myanmar rejected the findings.
The International Criminal Court is considering whether it has jurisdiction over events in Rakhine, while the United States, the European Union and Canada have sanctioned Myanmar military and police officers over the crackdown.
News China Lures Chip Talent from Taiwan with Fat Salaries, Perks
A semiconductor wafer is seen at Tsinghua Unigroup research center in Beijing, China, Feb. 29, 2016. / Reuters
TAIPEI A huge pay rise, eight free trips home a year and a heavily subsidized apartment. It was a dream job offer that a Taiwanese engineer simply could not refuse.
A veteran of Taiwans top-tier chipmakers, including United Microelectronics Corp (UMC), the engineer took up the offer from a Chinese state-backed chipmaker last year and now oversees a small team at a wafer foundry in eastern China.
The engineer joined a growing band of senior Taiwan professionals working in Chinas booming and fast-developing semiconductor industry.
Attracting such talent from Taiwan has become a key part of an effort by China to put the industry into overdrive and reduce the countrys dependence on overseas firms for the prized chips that power everything from smartphones to military satellites.
That drive, which started in 2014, intensified this year as US-China trade tensions escalated, according to recruiters and industry insiders, exposing what China feels is an overreliance on foreign-made chips.
China imported $260 billion worth of semiconductors in 2017, more than its imports of crude oil. Homemade chips made up less than 20 percent of domestic demand in the same year, according to China Semiconductor Industry Association.
More than 300 senior engineers from Taiwan have moved to Chinese chipmakers so far this year, joining nearly 1,000 others who have relocated since Beijing set up a $22 billion fund to develop the chip industry in 2014, according to estimates from H&L Management Consultants, a Taipei-based recruitment firm.
The battle for skilled engineers has raised concerns in Taiwan that the island could lose a key economic engine to its political foe, China. Analysts say China is still years behind Taiwan in terms of chip design and manufacturing, however, even as it moves ahead in terms of the production of lower-end chips.
Chinas semiconductor plans accelerated this year after the United States banned sales of chips to the Chinese phone vendor ZTE, senior Chinese officials familiar with the matter told Reuters in April.
Tariffs imposed by Washington on $16 billion worth of Chinas imports have hit Chinese semiconductors, which are now subject to tariff rates of 25 percent.
That will make Chinese chips less competitive compared to those from Taiwan and South Korea, and could disrupt Chinas semiconductor ambitions. Beijings aim is to have local chips comprise at least 40 percent of Chinas semiconductor needs by 2025.
Underscoring the talent crunch, two state-run institutions said in August that about 400,000 professionals were working in Chinas integrated circuit sector at the end of 2017, far short of the estimated 720,000 workers needed by 2020.
While China has also targeted engineers from South Korea and Japan to address that shortage, it has had the most success in Taiwan thanks to a common language and culture, recruiters say.
Lin Yu-Hsuan, a manager at the recruitment firm H&L, said engineers from Taiwan were lured by high pay, perks and more senior positions at Chinese chipmakers like Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) that are flush with cash from Chinas multi-billion chip fund.
Many of them said: the money I will earn in China in three years is equivalent to what I could get in Taiwan in 10 years. I could retire earlier, Lin said.
Steve Wang, the vice chairman and president of Novatek Microelectronics, a Taiwanese integrated chip designer, said a small percentage of its employees had left for China over the past two years, and acknowledged that it would be difficult to match offers from Chinese rivals.
The engineer at the wafer foundry, who declined to be named as the details of his contract were not public, said his Chinese employer offered him a new three-bedroom apartment with a 40 percent discount on the condition that he worked for the company for more than five years, in addition to a 50 percent pay rise. He declined to give the exact figure.
China dares to burn money, whereas Taiwan companies have limited resources, he said.
Counter Offer
A senior executive at a newly-established chipmaker in northeastern China, SiEn (QingDao) Integrated Circuits Company Ltd, said about one-third of its recently recruited 120 engineers were from Taiwan.
There is not a lack of money. What we need is talent, said the person, who declined to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
He said the company, led by Richard Chang, the founder of SMIC, Chinas leading chipmaker, offers new hires discounted property and attractive subsidies for bilingual schools in the port city of Qingdao.
Taiwanese engineers are most experienced and could help us cultivate local talents, the executive said. The movement will continue to escalate.
Industry watchers said Taiwans widely respected chip design houses and foundries have been among the hardest hit by the outflow of engineers, and have been forced to ramp up spending to lure workers.
The islands leading integrated circuit designers and chipmakers have seen a 35 percent jump in labor costs, including salary and benefits from two years ago, compared with a 21 percent hike in revenue, according to Reuters calculations based on corporate filings from Taiwans 10 largest listed companies by market value.
Trade Secret
Taiwan has been watching the Chinese recruitment efforts with growing anxiety.
It has long barred chipmakers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, a key supplier to Apple Inc, from moving their most advanced technology to manufacturing operations in China to keep it from falling into the hands of Chinese rivals.
Many in Taiwan are also concerned that the rapid development of Chinas chip industry could lead to the sort of oversupply and plunging prices that came with Chinese efforts to develop other key industries like solar panels and liquid crystal displays.
Chinas integrated circuit design firms have already surpassed their Taiwan rivals in terms of revenue, with $31 billion in 2017, compared with Taiwans $22 billion, according to Mark Li, an analyst at Bernstein.
The fears are that the battle for talent will widen that gap further.
In a move to retain top talent, Taiwans cabinet in July pledged to relax tax regulations on employee stock ownership.
The Chinese Communist Party has been poaching our talent, said Chen Mei-ling, minister of Taiwans policy-planning National Development Council. The government has amended regulations to help companies keep talent.
Ho Chan-cheng, legal affairs director at Taiwans Intellectual Property Office, said inappropriate poaching could lead to the leaking of trade secrets and that the government was working to protect the islands core technology namely the capacity to increase chip yield per wafer.
Taiwan companies are also trying to offer their own incentives.
Antonio Yu, spokesman for the Taiwan-based chip design house Phison Electronics Corp, said that while the company does not have the capital to play such a money game, it has tried to create a reassuring environment for its employees.
He cited long-standing cash bonuses and programs such as free legal counseling, as well as a monthly town hall meeting with Phisons chairman, Khein-Seng Pua.
We treat our employees like family, he said.
Despite such efforts, Taiwanese engineers are finding incentives from China hard to resist.
Tommy Huang, a 37-year-old Taiwanese chip engineer who in 2016 joined United Semiconductor in southern China a joint venture between Taiwans UMC and Chinese state-backed partners said Taiwanese efforts to retain talent did not work for him.
You dont have any chance if you stay in Taiwan, said Huang, whose Chinese employer offered him an annual school subsidy of up to 60,000 yuan ($8,689) for his five-year-old child and a salary more than double what he earned in Taiwan.
We are buying hope by coming to China.
Wednesday, September 5th, 2018 (12:01 am) - Score 1,261
The trade association for mobile network operators in the United Kingdom, Mobile UK, has today published a new report that aims to improve service coverage (2G, 3G, 4G etc.) by highlighting how local councils can help to both build and benefit from new telecoms infrastructure.
According to Ofcoms most recent Spring 2018 Connected Nations update (here), some 92% of UK premises can receive indoor call coverage from all operators (i.e. Three UK, Vodafone, O2 and EE) and this falls to 88% for mobile data (3G/4G) connectivity. Sadly geographic 4G data coverage from all operators falls to just 57% (70% when 3G is included), but EE alone has already taken this to 90% and expects to reach 95% by the end of 2020.
The good news is that the climate for network expansion appears to be improving, particularly in light of the recent joint statement by landowners and telecoms providers to put aside past problems and commit to support the recently revised Electronic Communications Code (here). The ECC is designed to make it easier and cheaper for mobile or fixed line broadband ISPs to access public or private land in order to build new networks.
The Governments recent Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review (details) has similarly proposed yet more improvements to boost investment and coverage in the future generation of ultrafast 5G mobile networks. Nevertheless Mobile UK still sees room for improvement, particularly in how local government engage with their plans.
Gareth Elliott, Mobile UKs Head of Policy and Comms, said: Building Mobile Britain relies on strong partnerships and local Government has a vital role to play in delivering this goal. Our report, Councils and Connectivity, outlines how proactive local government leadership, planning and the sharing of ideas can enable and unlock opportunities to achieving a world-class connected economy.
The associations new report highlights three areas where it believes local government could have most impact, such as by adopting a more proactive approach to mobile, as well as planning for the long term by embedding mobile connectivity into every aspect of local government thinking and building partnerships and best practice, not least through the collaboration and exchange of ideas.
Adopt a proactive approach 1. Showing leadership and political will. Local government should see mobile connectivity as a way to improve the lives of residents and not just as a way to raise revenue. There are numerous examples of how different local organisations combined authorities, local authorities and local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) have promoted the economic and social benefits that flow from good mobile connectivity. 2. Creating local government digital champions. This could be a Local Authority cabinet post or committee focussed on mobile connectivity, a senior role dedicated to making better use of mobile/digital technology (such as a Chief Digital Officer) or a council officer with responsibility to improve mobile connectivity. Equally, when local government is a proactive user of mobile technology it is more likely to be a proactive enabler of mobile technology. 3. Providing training to ensure appropriate skills and knowledge. A key example of this is ensuring planning officers are aware of the requirements of mobile infrastructure. In the past, mobile operators have played their part by providing local planning authorities with professional development workshops on technological and other advances within telecommunications. 4. Lobbying to remove the barriers to mobile infrastructure deployment. Local government can use its influence to improve the environment for investment in mobile infrastructure. For example, if a planning regulation is thought to act as a barrier to the deployment of mobile infrastructure, local government should make representations to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Plan for the long-term 1. Embedding mobile connectivity in plans for local economic development. The development of mobile infrastructure should be included in Local Plans and all other types of local economic strategy including those produced by LEPs. This will mean that the importance of mobile connectivity is always considered when thinking about future economic outcomes. 2. Auditing public sector assets as potential locations for mobile infrastructure. Using public buildings, structures and open land to install mobile infrastructure has supported widespread improvements to connectivity. The charge for use of these assets should be set on the basis set out in the Electronic Communications Code, and not at rates that disincentivise investment. This will ensure that connectivity is valued over revenue. 3. Learning lessons from the rollout of broadband. There are numerous examples such as Connecting Devon and Somerset and Connecting Cambridgeshire of how concerted effort has improved broadband provision in local areas. For instance, Connecting Devon and Somerset uses collaborations that involve different tiers of local government, local economic development funding and private providers to achieve its objectives. These examples can be used as a template for providing better mobile connectivity, while recognising that broadband provision benefitted from higher levels of public investment. 4. Utilising economic development funds. There are examples of local authorities supporting the deployment of mobile infrastructure by tapping into funds for local economic development. For example, via the use of LEP funds or through central government funds for economic development. Build partnerships and share best practice 1. Exploring different models of collaboration with the mobile industry. Examples of current partnerships include regular catch-up meetings and roundtables, which support a collaborative approach between the mobile industry and local political and business leaders. 2. Sharing best practice and skills with other local bodies. The sharing of best practice is already happening in new structure of local government and economic development, such as combined authorities and Midlands Connect. 3. Building internal links between departments barrier busting at a local level. Ensuring that there are strong links between economic development and planning directorates within local authorities is crucial for a joined-up approach to mobile connectivity. 4. Establishing connectivity considerations as best practice in the planning phase of new developments. Any development from upgrades to the road network to new housing estates should consider connectivity requirements prior to construction beginning, not after construction is complete. At its most basic level, the planning for large-scale developments should include an impact assessment that looks at mobile coverage needs.
As ever one of the biggest challenges in delivering on all of this will be that local authorities have to be very mindful of their constituents, many of which wont always welcome the building of new infrastructure, particularly if they deem it to be unattractive or obtrusive in their environment.
Likewise some of the proposed measures may cost extra to deliver and a lot of councils currently have funding problems to consider. Otherwise the full report can be downloaded here (PDF).
Cloud accounting software provider Xero has launched a new solution Learn which it says is designed to give future small business leaders, accountants and bookkeepers the financial literacy and accounting skills needed to build better businesses.
Xero says Victorias Swinburne University of Technology, University of Southern Queensland, Auckland University of Technology, Macquarie University and AccountingPod are among the first institutions to onboard with the Learn solution, giving their students access to world-class accounting tools.
Educators can teach their financial lessons directly within Xero and can integrate Xero Learn into their curriculum.
According to Xero, more than 1000 students have been invited into Xero via Xero Learn to access over 100 courses that help teach core and advanced accounting and financial literacy skills with real-world examples and it is now rolling out the solution across both Australia and New Zealand.
Xero Learn allows users to:
Set up dummy Xero businesses loaded with data to be used in their lessons.
Add an in-app overlay within Xero to guide students through the course content.
Manage and monitor student access to ensure guided learning throughout the course material.
Xero says that since launching an early access programme in 2017, it has worked with more than 30 educational institutions to fine-tune the design of Learn.
Xero Learn will revolutionise and future-proof the way educators teach their financial lessons, said Anna Curzon, chief partner officer at Xero.
By partnering with educators such as the Auckland University of Technology, University of Southern Queensland and Macquarie University, were delivering on a joint mission to empower the next generation of accountants, bookkeepers and business owners with in-demand skills, knowledge and job opportunities. Xero is committed to investing in creating opportunities for ongoing training and professional development, leading to stronger and more assured small business growth.
Dr Paul Wells, senior lecturer at Auckland University of Technology, said, By using Xero Learn, our goal is to help our students be as prepared as possible to enter the workforce upon graduation. Learning from textbooks and on outdated desktop tools has made it very difficult to equip them with the accounting software skills they need to work in a modern day practice. Now thanks to Xero Learn, our students can gain the skills they need to walk into an accounting role straight after graduation, add value and be successful.
The James Dyson Award is an incredible global incubator of engineering and design talent, starting 14 years ago and bringing forth incredible innovation from students, with this year's Australian winner now set to compete in the international finals.
With approximately 285 million visually impaired people around the world who can often face challenges with everyday tasks, innovative solutions are always welcome.
This years Australian national James Dyson Award winner attempts to solve this problem with Macaron, a smart tape measuring device that "intuitively measures and records distance to help the visually impaired".
It has been designed and created by four Queensland University of Technology students Jake Dean, Yuma Decaux, Woo Sung Jung and Weng Hou Chan who will win 2000 for their design project.
So, where did the inspiration for this device come from?
Their inspiration came from a member of the team who "is blind and unable to renovate his house due to experiencing difficulties seeing the markings on a tape measure".
"The device is able to take measurement without needing to read the markings, but also connects via Bluetooth to a mobile device.
"The app can be used to pre-set the object and distances to be measured. Voice input is also available for the setup and all can be saved to the phone app with the press of a button.
"The team hopes that one day the universal design of Macaron will benefit everyone with some form of disability, not just the blind."
Dean said: People with little to no vision need to rely heavily on specialised measuring devices, but we hope that Macaron will become the common and everyday household product that leads to a new way of measuring, recording and thinking.
"Our team is so excited to be recognised with this years James Dyson Award and cant wait to see what the future holds for the device.
Here's a video from the Macaron team, the article continues below, please read on!
This year, the three Australian judges tech writer Trevor Long, Code Like a Girl Founder Ally Watson and QUT professor Sue Keay reviewed more than 25 entries across the country before selecting the coveted title for the Australian winner, followed by two runners-up.
The Macaron design "will now progress to the international stage of the James Dyson Award with the hope to commercialise the product and win up to 30,000 along with two Australian runners-up including H2 Snow (Tim Lutton from RMIT University) and Indra Mosquito Zapper (Paul Eterovich from Swinburne University of Technology)".
H2 Snow is the worlds first alpine survival tool that converts snow into drinking water by human power. Inspiration to create the product came from designer Paul Eterovich, whose friend was stranded for two days in the snow without water. Snow shouldnt be consumed without melting it first because it can cause dehydration and hypothermia. The H2 Snow is a one litre drink bottle which melts snow by creating heat through friction and pulverising the snow through a spinning blade.
Here's the H2 Snow video, the article continues thereafter!
The Indra Mosquito Zapper is an insect control device made from recycled materials. Inspiration for the design came from mosquito borne diseases, which are a major public health problem in India, particularly to street vendors. Powered by renewable energy such as wind and solar, the device creates electricity to zap and kill mosquitoes. Once fully charged, the stored electricity also creates light and, via its USB port, power for a number of everyday uses.
Here's the Indra Mosquito Zapper video, please read on afterward:
Who is the competition open to?
The competition is open to student inventors with the ability and ambition to solve the problems of tomorrow. Winning solutions are selected by Sir James Dyson and show ingenuity, iterative development and commercial viability.
This year Mexico, the UAE, Sweden and the Philippines have joined the global contest. With students from 27 nations now competing, the award is set to welcome new approaches to a broader range of global issues than ever before.
Since the competition began 14 years ago, the iconic inventor has already contributed over 1 million to championing boundary-breaking concepts.
To help finalists develop their novel idea, each year the overall winner is awarded 30,000, and winners in each participating region receive 2000. Unlike other competitions, participants are given full autonomy over their intellectual property.
The James Dyson Award forms "part of a wider commitment by Sir James Dyson, to demonstrate the power of engineers to change the world.
"The Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology, the James Dyson Foundation and James Dyson Award embody a vision to empower aspiring engineers, encouraging them to apply their theoretical knowledge and discover new ways to improve lives through technology."
Dr Alan Finkel will continue as Australia's Chief Scientist for a further two years, until the end of 2020, the Federal Government announced on Wednesday.
Dr Finkel, the eighth chief scientist, started in the role in January 2016 and his term was due to end this year.
Industry, Science and Technology Minister Karen Andrews announced the extension and said she looked forward to working closely with Dr Finkel.
"[He] is a tireless advocate and highly respected champion for science, innovation and technology in Australian public life, with an extensive background and expertise as an entrepreneur, engineer, neuroscientist, educator and communicator, Andrews said.
He has played a critical role and helped lead a number of major reviews into key policy areas.
Dr Finkel's work with the government played a key role in shaping the recent Budget decision to invest $1.9 billion in critical Australian research infrastructure capability, particularly his leadership on the 2016 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap.
Andrews said Dr Finkels leadership had been critical in key policy work, including through the Independent Review into the Future Security of the National Energy Market, a review into optimising STEM industry-school partnerships, and Innovation and Science Australias 2030 Strategic Plan.
Dr Finkel said: When I took up my post in 2016, I said that I had every confidence in the ambition and ability of Australians.
I am delighted to recommit to my promise to back our potential today, and to build new potential through STEM education for tomorrow and into the futureincluding a science workforce that harnesses the capabilities of all Australians. We are committed to developing our research and innovation capacity, as a blue-chip investment with inter-generational returns.
I look forward to working with Minister Andrews, her Parliamentary colleagues, and the many Australians who have inspired me with their visions of what this nation could be.
Before he became chief scientist, Dr Finkel was chancellor of Monash University and the president of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering.
Australian cloud platform provider Linius Technologies has appointed former Telstra executive Stephen Pech as vice-president of Global Channels and Alliances.
To be based in Linius headquarters in Melbourne, Pech has been appointed to drive and define the companys growing channel program across APAC, EMEA and North America.
A former head of Telstra's ICT channel distribution division, Pech previously held positions with Fujitsu Australia and Symantec, most recently as the director of APAC sales for software company, TeamViewer.
Pechs appointment follows Linius formation of a partnership with IBM, with its platform available on the IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services.
chief executive Chris Richardson said Pech would play a key role in scaling Linius business during the next phase of its commercialisation.
Our go-to-market strategy remains consistent validate Linius unique video virtualisation technology with proof-of-concepts and direct sales, then capitalise on those successes through channel partnerships, he said.
With Linius now looking to rapidly expand its channel program and network, Stephen will ensure best practice enablement of new and existing partners across Linius core target markets, including corporate communications, news, education and sport.
Stephen has delivered $100 million plus targets, led multi-channel sales teams, developed over 1000 partner channels, and has co-founded a cloud business. Hes the right type of person to propel Linius to new heights by signing and supporting the right partners.
Video content accounts for about 80% of all Internet traffic, said Pech.
And, with technology giants like IBM, Amazon and Microsoft currently investing billions exploring video virtualisation services and artificial intelligence in the cloud, Linius is well positioned to capture a growing market.
There is a massive opportunity for channel expansion with Linius unique ability to expose, enrich and exploit video content just like any other type of data. Im looking forward to announcing several significant business and technology partnerships in the near future.
In a bid to show how lax Google's policing of its ad service is, a non-profit group has bought divisive ads on the search engine's service using Russian roubles and an Russian IP address.
In a statement, the Campaign for Accountability said it had posed as the well-known Russian troll site, Internet Research Agency and "bought ads using similar language and the same images that the [group] deployed during its 2016 influence campaign. The ads ran on major US media websites and their YouTube channels".
CfA executive director Daniel Stevens said: "The ease with which CfA was able to replicate the 2016 Russian ad campaign shows Google has failed to keep its promise to prevent foreign actors from interfering in our elections. Google is more interested in pocketing roubles than protecting American Democracy.
Google has come under fire in recent years over allowing racist, sexist and homophobic advertisements on its YouTube video channel.
UPDATE: One day after we released our report on Googles failure to crack down on Russian trolls, you can *still* set up a Google AdWords account in the name of the Internet Research Agency. Simply put in its tax ID and Google populates the rest. @MarkWarner @SenatorBurr
Video: pic.twitter.com/j8Fv6smLiE Google Transparency (@GTP_updates) September 5, 2018
Russia stands accused of buying Google ads during the 2016 presidential election in a bid to influence the outcome. In response to these accusations, Google has said it addressed the loopholes in its system by a set of strict ad policies including limits on political ad targeting.
Last month, the company's senior vice-president of Global Affairs, Kent Walker, said: "Weve invested in robust systems to detect phishing and hacking attempts, identify influence operations launched by foreign governments, and protect political campaigns from digital attacks through our Protect Your Election program."
But CfA said all this did not prevent it from replicating the Internet Research Agency's campaign.
"CfA was able to set up a Russian Google AdWords account using a burner phone from Panama and the contact information of the [agency]," it said
The non-profit group said it used a Russian name and email address to set up the account, paid for the ads through the Russian payment service Yandex, and employed a virtual private network to ensure any IP address logged by Google would appear to be from St Petersburg. The Kremlin-linked group, which has been indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller for allegedly interfering in the 2016 election, is based in St Petersburg.
The ads that were posted by CfA were also similar to those that had been used by the Internet Research Agency, using language and imagery utilised by Russian trolls.
"Google also approved display ads, which CfA purchased with Russian roubles, directing US Internet users to websites such as BlackMattersUS.com and USAReally.com, which were created and run by the Russian trolls. CfAs ads ran on a wide range of websites and YouTube channels, including those of CNN, CBS This Morning, The Daily Beast, Huffington Post, AnnCoulter.com and Britains Daily Mail."
Stevens added, With the 2018 campaign underway, Google clearly isnt doing enough to protect our public discourse from malicious advertising campaigns. Congress needs to investigate Googles conduct to ensure Google is taking this threat seriously.
Two years ago, the American website Fortune disclosed that Oracle, a major foe of Google, was one of the sources of CfA's funds.
Google and Oracle have been locked in a court case over Google's use of APIs from Java in its Android mobile operating system. Last month, the case, which has been running since 2010, took a turn in Oracle's favour.
The Australia Singapore Cable has been switched on for use ahead of its scheduled 14 September service date, following a major disruption on the Sea-Me-We3 submarine cable between Perth and Singapore.
ASC owner Vocus Group said in a statement on Wednesday that it had initiated an emergency cutover of services that ran on the SMW-3 to the ASC to minimise customer impacts due to the issues with SMW-3.
On 29 August, as iTWire reported, Vocus Group managing director and chief executive Kevin Russell said the Vocus team was finalising its testing phase for the cable system to be ready for service on 14 September, when customers would be able to enjoy the newest, fastest and most direct connectivity route into Asia.
Vocus Group chief technology officer Simon Smith gave the go-ahead for the ASC to be used, Wednesday's statement said.
After consulting our team [that is] conducting final testing, we are confident that ASC is ready to provide reliable and effective services to mitigate the effect of the SMW-3 outage, said Simon.
Even though we had announced Vocus ASC Ready-for-Service on 14 September, our priority is ensuring our customers continue to access the connectivity they require.
"The SMW-3 outage has forced our hand, but our testing on ASC is ahead of schedule and we are confident enough to press ASC into early service.
Vocus said its engineers would continue to monitor re-routed traffic from SMW-3 as they worked to complete work on the ASC.
No impact was anticipated for customers who were contracted to start using the ASC on 14 September.
The SMW-3 outage was said to reinforce the need for the ASC to support businesses in Australia and the Asian region.
The requirement for reliable, high-performance connectivity into Asia will not abate, said Simon.
SMW-3 has unfortunately suffered many unexpected service interruptions in the past few years and Vocus ASC will be a welcome addition, being a newer and more technologically advanced cable, and able to offer a more reliable service than SMW-3.
"It is highly fortunate that our ASC project has been so advanced to be able to swing into action, in an emergency capacity.
Vocus is a member of the consortium that owns SMW-3; an ETA is not yet available as to when its services will be restored.
The NBN Co, the company rolling out Australia's national broadband network, the NBN, says it will offer additional support for unmonitored medical alarm users who get connected to the network.
In a statement, the company said: "Under the Unmonitored Medical Alarm Upgrade Offer, eligible people can obtain an upgraded medical alarm at a discounted price of up to of 80% off the normal price to a maximum of $300 off, from participating alarm suppliers."
It said owners (or carers on their behalf) should register unmonitored medical alarms in NBN Cos Medical Alarm Register.
"NBN Co will contact registered medical alarm users when their home is ready to be connected to the network. They will get advice about potential compatibility issues with their unmonitored medical alarm and their options to upgrade, or speak to their existing alarm supplier about continuing to use their existing alarm, before their current phone service is switched off."
Labor Shadow Communications Minister Michelle Rowland and Shadow Minister for Health and Medicare Catherine King welcomed the company's decision.
In a statement, they said Labor had been asking the NBN Co since 2016 to reconsider its 2015 decision to exclude unmonitored alarms from the medical alarm subsidy scheme.
"The source of concern was that the copper and HFC technology currently being deployed cannot support landline phone services during a power outage," Rowland and King said.
"In comparison, the NBN websites notes with fibre-to-the-premises (FttP) a battery back-up unit could support phone services for up to five hours during a power outage," they said.
"This meant the multi-technology mix presented a higher risk profile for vulnerable, usually elderly, Australians who rely on medical alarms connected to a phone line for their personal well-being and safety."
Rowland and King said it was unclear as to why Communications Minister Mitch Fifield had sat on this known issue for two years.
"The decision to reverse that stance will provide additional comfort and assurance to Australians migrating to the NBN who rely on this equipment," they said.
Author Empowers Students to be the Messengers of Change
Sept. 5, 2018
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Amy Ellis Nutt urged Illinois Wesleyan University students to fight ignorance and prejudice with knowledge and truth during her address at Wednesdays Presidents Convocation.
Knowledge is difficult to acquire; understanding hard to absorb; and finding the truth can sometimes seem insurmountable. But, thats usually the way with any question worth asking, Nutt told the crowd in Presser Halls Westbrook Auditorium. A truth-seeker must be patient, but above all, willing to forego the easy answer, the low-hanging fruit, if you will, on the tree of explanations.
Nutt is the author of Illinois Wesleyans Summer Reading Program selection Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of An American Family , which tells the story of Wyatt Maines in her journey of asserting her gender identity and becoming Nicole. In the process, Nicole challenges those around her to reassess their previously held beliefs in light of a rapidly changing world.
Similarly, Illinois Wesleyans annual theme Changing Climates challenges the campus community to examine and re-examine the racial, religious, political, environmental and economic climates present in our world.
Im not alone in the belief that it is your generation in particular that is driving the pace of many of the positive sociological changes we see today, Nutt told the students.
However, while she acknowledged that diversity is the norm for most college students today, she cautioned that ignorance is still the lazy enemy of truth.
Nutt emphasized the importance of sharing our stories, exchanging information, learning our way closer and closer to the truth. Nicole Maines and her family provided Nutt the opportunity to share their transformative narrative with an international audience.
Nicole summed it all up for me a couple of years ago: Stories move the walls that need to be moved, Nutt shared.
In closing, Nutt challenged Illinois Wesleyans students to fight ignorance by making their voices heard.
In today's world, we are all messengers of change, she said.
By John Twork
A 20-meter deck of the 450-meter long Majerhat Bridge in the crowded Alipore caved in around 4:45 pm on Tuesday.
Kolkata: A section of an over 50-year-old bridge on the Diamond Harbour Road in south Kolkata collapsed on Tuesday evening, killing at least one person and injuring 21. Several people are still believed to be trapped, and many vehicles were crushed in the debris.
A 20-meter deck of the 450-meter long Majerhat Bridge in the crowded Alipore caved in around 4:45 pm on Tuesday, the citys third bridge or flyover collapse in five and a half years.
An under construction flyover had collapsed in crowded Burrabazar area, the wholesale business hub of the Kolkata, on March 31, 2016 and had claimed 26 lives. A road bridge had collapsed in Ultadanga area in the northern part of the city on March 4, 2013, but there was no casualty.
The bridge constructed in 1965 runs over the Majerhat Railway Station and connects the city centre with the heavily populated Behala, the vast area of the south west suburbs and adjacent South 24 Paraganas district.
According to preliminary reports, water seepage through cracks led to corrosion of the underneath girders that gave way; vibrations from Metro Rail construction adjacent to the bridge led to the instability.
Some locals alleged the collapse might have been due to the construction of metro railway pillars nearby but this was not immediately confirmed by experts. Rail Vikas Nigam Limited, which is executing construction of the Joka-BBD Bag metro corridor passing through the vicinity of Majherhat Bridge, said there is "no relationship of metro construction" with the incident.
A section of Majerhat bridge collapsed in Kolkata on Tuesday. According to the police, a portion of the bridge collapsed this evening, claiming one life, trapping several people and crushing many vehicles. (Photo: PTI)
Biker Soumen Bag, a resident of Thakurpukur, in his late 20s, who happened to be crossing the bridge spanning the Sealdah-Budge Budge railway tracks and a canal, died after he fell headlong into the wedge as the deck spit into two.
Soumen was returning home from College Street in central Kolkata after buying some books when the incident took place, according to the police.
Soumens was one of the few bikes that fell in this wedge. Fours cars and a minibus suffered the same fate.
The injured were rushed to SSKM and CMRI hospitals.
150 fire brigade personnel, 400 police, 60 NDRF personnel are carrying out the rescue operation, Three columns of Army is on a stand-by.
The rescue work continued amidst occasional rain as the evening drew to an end and additional lighting arrangements have been made to facilitate the rescue work at night.
According to an eyewitness, some people in a minibus and private cars were trapped.
Vehicles are seen stuck after a section of Majerhat bridge collapsed in Kolkata, Tuesday. (Photo: PTI)
Read: Heard loud bang, portion of Majerhat Bridge caved in: Eyewitness
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is now in Darjeeling, late on Tuesday said that rescue work was almost over and only a concrete slab remains to be cut to find out whether any person was trapped there.
She said there was a hut under the bridge and some labourers engaged in metro rail construction work used to stay. "Had they been there during the time of accident, an unfortunate thing might have happened," she said.
Mamata Banerjee said that thousands of people pass through the area and the government has to probe the accident. "A probe will be done by a committee headed by Chief Secretary Malay De to find out the cause of the collapse. Action will be taken against those whose negligence caused the accident. No one will be spared," she said.
The chief minister also announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the family of the dead and Rs 50,000 each to the injured.
Mamata Banerjee said she will visit the site on Wednesday cutting short her tour.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed the incident as "deeply unfortunate" and hoped for the speedy recovery of the injured.
West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, who visited the site, described it as "a big disaster". "I have come to see the rescue work. It is a big disaster. I heard that maintenance of the bridge is entrusted with the PWD and the railways. The matter required to be enquired," he told reporters.
NDRF DG Sanjay Kumar said earthmovers are being used for clearing the area. "We have to take into account the safety aspect while clearing the debris", he said.
NDRF personnel have engaged sniffer dogs to trace any person trapped under the debris.
The bridge collapse hit Circular Railway services and local train services in Budge Budge-Sealdah line inconveniencing a large number of commuters, an Eastern Railway spokesman said. The local train services were suspended from 4:45 pm, he said. The train services in the Budge Budge-Sealdah section resumed at around 9 pm, an ER spokesman said.
The bridge collapse hit traffic movement to and from vast areas in south-west Kolkata and adjacent South 24 Parganas district during the peak evening hours.
Trinamool Congress lawmaker Derek O'Brien tweeted, "Watching scenes of Majerhat bridge #Kolkata collapse. Devastating. Rescue teams, disaster management teams, Police CP, fire fighters already reach spot. Locals join. Rescue operations on. Prayers for those affected. Difficult to gauge enormity of tragedy as yet looking at visuals."
Opposition parties blamed the ruling Trinamool Congress government and said its "callousness towards the repair of old bridges" was the main reason for the collapse. "It is really unfortunate that the bridge has collapsed. The state government is solely responsible for it. The issue of repair of the old bridges is not at all in the agenda of TMC government," senior BJP leader Mukul Roy said.
State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury demanded an "answer" from Chief Minister Banerjee and Public Works Department Minister Hakim.
Bhatt and 7 others, including some former cops attached with Banaskatha Police, were detained for questioning in case, Gujarat CID said.
Banaskatha Police under Sanjiv Bhatt had arrested Sumersingh Rajpurohit, an advocate, in 1996 on charges of possessing around one kg of drugs. (Photo: File | PTI)
Ahmedabad: Former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt was detained Wednesday by the Gujarat CID in connection with a 22-year-old case of arrest of a man for alleged possession of drugs, a senior police official said.
Bhatt and seven others, including some former policemen attached with the Banaskatha Police, were detained for questioning in the case, Director General of Police, Crime Investigation Department (CID), Ashish Bhatia said.
Bhatt was the Banaskantha district superintendent of police in 1996. As per case details, the Banaskatha Police under Bhatt had arrested Sumersingh Rajpurohit, an advocate, in 1996 on charges of possessing around one kg of drugs. At that time, the Banaskanta Police had claimed that drugs were found in a hotel room occupied by Rajpurohit in the district's Palanpur town.
However, a probe by the Rajasthan Police had revealed that Rajpurohit was allegedly falsely implicated by the Banaskatha Police. It had also found that Rajpurohit was allegedly abducted by the Banaskatha Police from his residence at Pali in Rajasthan.
In June this year, the Gujarat High Court had handed over the probe in the case to the CID while hearing Rajpurohit's plea. The high court had asked the CID to complete the probe in three months.
The CID found substance in charges against Bhatt, which led to his detention, Bhatia said, adding that Bhatt and some others could be arrested after questioning. Bhatt was sacked by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in August 2015 for "unauthorised absence" from service.
The Madras High Court in April ordered the CBI to probe sale of chewing tobacco, which is banned in Tamil Nadu.
Properties of other police officers, including former DGP S George, were also raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation. (Representational Image)
Chennai: Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar and Director General of Police T K Rajendra's houses were among the 40 locations raided by the CBI in connection with the multi-crore 'gutka scam' in Chennai.
Properties of other police officers, including former DGP S George, were also raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The raids started around 7 am on Wednesday.
The Madras High Court in April ordered the CBI to probe sale of chewing tobacco, which is banned in Tamil Nadu.
The high court order came after a raid at a businessman's properties in which a diary was recovered that allegedly contained a list of politicians and senior police officers who have been bribed.
Further details are awaited.
A bench headed by Chief justice Dipak Misra said a book must not be read in a 'fragmented manner' but as a whole.
The bench also said that the writer should be allowed to play with words like a painter who plays with colour. (Representational image)
New Delhi: The Supreme Court Wednesday dismissed a plea seeking to ban the book 'Meesha' for allegedly depicting Hindu women visiting temples in a derogatory light, saying "craftsmanship of a writer deserves to be respected".
A bench headed by Chief justice Dipak Misra said a book must not be read in a "fragmented manner" but as a whole. "Subjective perception about a book should not be allowed to enter legal arena with regard to censorship," the bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said.
The bench also said that the writer should be allowed to play with words like a painter who plays with colour. The apex court's order came on a plea by Delhi resident N Radhakrishnan, who had sought to omit excerpts from the Malayalam novel 'Meesha' (moustache) written by S Hareesh.
Summerville, SC (29483)
Today
Mostly cloudy skies. Low 48F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph..
Tonight
Mostly cloudy skies. Low 48F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.
Reddit Email 33 Shares
(Mizan) On October 19, 2008, a little over a fortnight before the November 4 election contested by Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, former Republican Secretary of State and retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Colin Powell appeared on the NBC News Sunday morning program Meet the Press to endorse the Democrat. Powell outlined multiple reasons for his choice, many of which were driven by sober policy concerns and a sense of which person was better suited for the job. But there was also a push factor behind his choice. He had grown weary of anti-Muslim rhetoric in the Republican Party and the attempts to tarnish Obama as a Muslim. Powell pointed out that Obama was a Christian, but in perhaps the most dramatic moment of the interview, he asked rhetorically:
What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is, No, thats not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim American kid believing that he or she could be President?
The reason for his dramatic declamation on this point was, he said, because of a powerful image. It was a photograph of Kareem Khans mother at her sons gravestone in Arlington National Cemetery. Powell continued:
And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awardsPurple Heart, Bronze Starshowed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didnt have a Christian cross; it didnt have the Star of David; it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he [could] go serve his country, and he gave his life.
This image of a mother at her sons grave spoke to former Gen. Powells deepest values as a patriot and his most fervent hopes for his nation.
Powells eulogy is but one example of what sociologist Robert Bellah calls American civil religion, defined by historian Jonathan Ebel as the narratives, symbols, practices, and institutions that create and sustain a sense of Americas special purpose and place in the worldin short, a religion of American exceptionalism. Rooted in the colonial founding of Massachusetts Bay Colony, where Puritans articulated the idea that they were chosen by God to occupy the land, American civil religions essential doctrine has been that America is a force for good, acting not only in the U.S. national interest but also for the sake of the whole world.
As Ebel points out, members of the military play especially important roles in the cultural practices that constitute American civil religion: The ubiquity of soldier veneration is staggering, its gravitational pull tremendous: political events, parades, civic gathering of all types, car bumpers, novels and films.
Though members of the military shape the meaning of their lives in this culture of veneration, especially in their immediate social networks and family circles, other powerful institutions and individuals are sometimes able to narrate the lives of military members in ways that occupy more space in the public square. Edward Linenthal shows, for example, how over time certain images of soldiers dominated American memories of specific wars: the Minuteman volunteer of the U.S. Revolution; the honorable, sacrificial soldier of the Civil War; and the homely hero of World War II.
For much of U.S. history, the sacrifice of U.S. military members was understood in explicitly Christian terms. As Jonathan Ebel argues, American nationalism and Christian confessionalism continue to go hand in hand for many members of the U.S. military. Americans have often understood service members as G.I. Messiahs, Christ-like saviors of the countrythe Word made flesh:
A barely submerged incarnational theology, frequent invocations of theories of atonement, regular equations of the fallen soldier to Christ crucified are appropriations from Christian tradition that give both coherence and binding power to a religious tradition focused on the worship of the nation.
Ebel goes further, arguing that American civil religions analogy, symbol, myth, and ritual actually encourage a Christian identity.
That may be true for some, even most members of the U.S. military, but not all. Starting with Republican President and former Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. Presidents have included religious minorities in the practice of American civil religion, divorcing the meaning of their sacrifice from an explicitly Christian theological end. Eisenhower and his vice-president, Richard M. Nixon, saw a universal rather than a particular belief in God as central to the ideological struggle against Communism and its spread in the developing world.
During this era, the words under God were added to the Pledge of Allegiance, and In God we Trust was adopted as the national motto. Drawing upon the central myth of American exceptionalism, Eisenhower claimed that the whole system of American government makes no sense unless it is founded on a deeply held religious belief but he added that I dont care what that is. Eisenhowers Cold War ideology included Jews and Muslims and all others of sincere religious belief in his vision of America as freedoms defender. This is why Eisenhower attended the opening of the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., in 1957. It is fitting that we re-dedicate ourselves to the peaceful progress of all men under one God, said Eisenhower during the visit. I should like to assure you, my Islamic [i.e., Muslim] friends, the President said, that under the American Constitution, under American tradition, and in American hearts, this Center, this place of worship is just as welcome as could be a similar edifice of any other religion.
Similarly, former General and Secretary of State Powells testimonial about Kareem Khan asserted that it is not the private confessional identity of the service member that matters but rather that service members public faith in the nation. The nation is the ultimate source of meaning, quite literally, in Powells civil religion: who or what you are willing to die for embodies your communal affiliations. The communal affiliation to which Powell refers is not a religious community, but a national community. As numerous scholars of religion and nationalism have argued, the willingness of citizens to sacrifice their own blood for the nation and for parents to sacrifice the blood of their children might be considered the greatest act of religious piety in the modern world.
World War I poet Wilfred Owen called it the old lie, and mocked it, but also recognized the power of this act of national devotion: Dulce et decorum est / Pro Patria Mori, he wrote: How sweet and fitting it is to die for ones country . Carolyn Marvin and David Ingle have asserted that the sacrifice of ones life, the shedding of ones blood, is the holiest ritual of the nation-state. There is no better example of this sentiment than the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, which asks all citizens to take up arms, form battalions, and let an impure blood soak our fields. For Marvin and Ingle, Christians may have been willing to die for their faith in the past, but the God of the nation-state has replaced the God of Christianity as the ultimate basis for communal formation and social agency.
Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet riffs on this idea, stating that
while many people have abandoned religious beliefs and practices, it is almost impossible to have no nationality. Even people who have lost their citizenship one way or another usually consider themselves as belonging to some nation in at least a spiritual and cultural sense.
This is not to say that other forms of communal formation and social belonging have disappeared in the modern world. Transnational ties of confessional religion, ethnicity, politics, race, and global economic interest exist alongside the nation-state, sometimes challenging its hegemony, sometimes sustaining it. In the modern world, according to interpreters such as Marvin and Lingle, social formations are just as apt to accommodate (or in the case of capitalism, reify) the nation-state as the most powerful institution of human community-making. This is true even in the case of Islamist politics, which is sometimes thought to be the most significant challenge to the nation-state in the contemporary world. But more often than not, political Islam is used to support and sustain nation-building in countries as different as Saudi Arabia and Iran.
In the post-9/11 era, the Muslim American service member, a walking contradiction to those who believe that Islam and America are polar opposites, has emerged as yet another sign of the nations ultimate significance. Muslim Americans are G.I. messiahs promised to redeem American nationalism and U.S. foreign policy.
EDWARD E. CURTIS IV is Millennium Chair of the Liberal Arts and Professor of Religious Studies at the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts in Indianapolis. He is the author or editor of ten books on Islam in America and Africana religions, including The Practice of Islam in America: An Introduction (New York: New York University Press, 2017) and The Call of Bilal: Islam in the African Diaspora (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2014).
This is the first of a series of essays based on the contributions to the new Mizan Series volume Muslims and U.S. Politics Today: A Defining Moment, edited by Mohammad Khalil. The volume will be published in early spring 2019.
Via Mizan
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License.
-
Bonus video added by Informed Comment:
PBS NewsHour: Khizr Khan on why public service is the root of patriotism
Reddit Email 93 Shares
Jerusalem (AFP) Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Monday signalled his country could strike Iranian targets in Iraq if they threatened Israel, saying it would hit wherever necessary.
We will face any Iranian threat, no matter where it comes from, Lieberman said in response to a question about reports that Iran had provided ballistic missiles to allied Shiite militias in Iraq in recent months.
Our freedom of action is total, he told a conference organised by an Israeli media company.
Israel has pledged to stop Iran, its main enemy, from entrenching itself militarily in neighbouring Syria, where Tehran is backing President Bashar al-Assads regime in his countrys civil war.
A series of recent strikes in Syria that have killed Iranians has been attributed to Israel.
Israel also acknowledges carrying out dozens of strikes in Syria against what it says were advanced weapons deliveries to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite group.
Asked about the possibility of Israel hitting Iranian military positions in Iraq or Tehran, Lieberman said: We do not limit ourselves to Syrian territory alone. It must be clear.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with US special representative for Syria engagement James Jeffrey on the war-ravaged country and Iran.
Featured Photo: AFP/File / JALAA MAREY. Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman speaks to the press in the Golan Heights on July 10, 2018.
President Kovind is on his state visit to three European countries-Cyprus, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.
The President also hailed the Indian community in Bulgaria as 'bridge between the two countries' . (Photo: ANI)
New Delhi/Sofia: President Ram Nath Kovind apprised the Indian community in Bulgaria of India's growth story, saying that the economy of the country is making steady progress.
Addressing the Indian diaspora in the Bulgarian capital Sofia on Tuesday, President Kovind said, "We have undertaken a range of transformative policy measures to give a new purpose and clarity of visions for inclusive development and good governance in the country. We have imparted a new energy to our economy. India is the fastest growing major economy in the world with the current growth rate of 8.2 per cent. We are making steady progress towards becoming a USD 5 trillion economy and the third largest consumer market in the world by 2025."
The President also hailed the Indian community in Bulgaria as "bridge between the two countries".
"Indian diaspora in Bulgaria constitutes a living bridge between the two countries. There is one common thread which binds us all together. This is our common cultural and traditional heritage. I am happy that you have kept our traditions and festivals alive in this country as well but what is truly heart-warming is the way our Bulgarian friends appreciate and embrace our culture and ethos."
He also detailed about India's economic growth and said, "According to latest World Bank and IMF estimates, Indian economy will continue on its high trajectory recording 7.8 per cent growth in 2019. India was ranked 3rd in the World Economic Forum's list of most trusted governments in 2017. We climbed 42 places in the World Bank ease of doing business index in last few years."
Elaborating further on economic reforms undertaken by the Indian government in last few years, President Kovind said, "The Goods and Services Tax (GST) has created a single unified market in India for the first time in its history. The Digital India program is transforming the face of public service delivery in the country. To promote entrepreneurship and create jobs under our microfinance scheme MUDRA (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Limited) we have dispersed 128 million loans worth US dollar 90 billion. 74 per cent of their beneficiaries are women."
The President also spoke about the ambitious health care program Ayushman Bharat scheme which he said will provide health insurance to 40 per cent of the Indian population.
He further emphasised on India-Bulgaria ties and said, "Indology Department of Sofia University has been doing stellar work for 35 years in spreading awareness about Indian culture. I am delighted to learn its scholars have translated eight principal Upanishads from Sanskrit to Bulgarian."
He also extended an invitation to Indian diaspora for Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) to be held in Varanasi from January 21 to 23 next year.
President Kovind is on his state visit to three European countries-Cyprus, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.
Reddit Email 78 Shares
The Washington Post yesterday carried excerpts from Bob Woodwards forthcoming book, Fear, which profiles the Trump White House from hundreds of hours of interviews with staffers. Trump declined to be interviewed.
Here are some of the main points regarding foreign policy (though the word policy has to be taken with a grain of salt).
1. When Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad was accused of using chemicals in an attack that killed civilians at Khan Shaikhoun in April, 2017, Trump fumed at Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Lets fucking kill him! Lets go in. Lets kill the fucking lot of them.
Mattis pretended to be on board, but arranged for the limited missile strike that Trump eventually signed off on.
During the 2016 Republican primary, Trump had said that Syria needed a strongman like al-Assad.
2. Trump wants to get out of Afghanistan and tongue-lashed his generals for 25 minutes in summer of 2017 for being on the path to losing the war.
The soldiers on the ground could run things much better than you. They could do a much better job. I dont know what the hell were doing . . . How many more deaths? How many more lost limbs? How much longer are we going to be there?
3. In March of 2017, Trump demanded a plan for a preemptive military attack on North Korea, horrifying his staff. He insisted that his insults aimed at the North Korean president were a matter of me versus him.
Trump wanted to withdraw all 28,000 US troops from South Korea and end an intelligence program that can detect a North Korean missile launch in 7 seconds (it would be 15 minutes from Alaska. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said that the US in in S. Korea to prevent WW III, which may have sounded a little melodramatic even to Trump, because it is.
Mattis said that Trumps understanding of world affairs was that of a fifth- or sixth-grader, which is unfair to Middle School students everywhere.
Trumps desire to pull out of the Korean peninsula has been reported before, but Woodward confirms it.
Chief of Staff John Kelly provided the most colorful quote: Hes an idiot. Its pointless to try to convince him of anything. Hes gone off the rails. Were in Crazytown. I dont even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job Ive ever had.
Trump accused the late Sen. John McCain of being a coward and taking early release from a N. Vietnamese prison because his father was an officer. (Mattis corrected him, but whatcha wanna bet Trump still believes it?)
The Post account actually suggests that Trump does have some foreign policy principles. He seems to want to bring US troops home from Afghanistan, Syria and North Korea, regardless of the consequences. He seems to want nevertheless to assassinate the politicians in those countries when he comes into dispute with them.
Withdraw-and-kill abroad, catch and release at home?
Bonus video:
CBC News: Bob Woodwards book on Trump paints picture of Crazytown'
Reddit 3 Email 54 Shares
As speculation grows that the Syrian army under the regime of Bashar al-Assad is preparing to strike at the Idlib de-escalation zone, the last piece of Syrian territory with a significant rebel presence left active, it seems as if the brutal civil there is at last drawing to a bloody conclusion. Like Iraq, Syria may continue to experience instability and terrorist attacks for years to come (the so-called Islamic State IS remains active on both sides of the two countries mutual border), but the effort to unseat the Assad regime from Damascus has seemed doomed since the intervention of Russia on behalf of its old ally began in 2015.
Russias occasional partner-in-crime China has also mooted sending troops to fight in Idlib, concerned at the presence of Uighur jihadists among the international terrorist organisations present there. But unlike Russia, which has used overseas military interventions in unstable places like Syria and Ukraine to reassert its geopolitical significance, Beijing still follows a decades-old policy of avoiding involvement in overseas adventures. Its interest in Syria is primarily focused on extending its new One Belt, One Road strategy westward, and thus expanding its economic and political influence into the Mediterranean region.
Along with Russia and Iran, Beijing could end up being among the big winners of the Syrian civil war, having backed the victorious side (albeit distantly and at arms length). Indeed, without the rebels and their Western backers to united them, the three powers could easily end up quarreling as they compete for influence in post-war Syria among themselves; the Assad regime remains a pariah for Western countries and the international institutions they still influence, meaning the aid needed to rebuild Syria following the end of the war will be unlikely to come from these quarters without terms attached which are unacceptable to the victors in Damascus.
However neither Iran nor Russia are likely to be able to afford to give the amount of aid that China can, meaning Beijing will have a significant advantage over its competitors. Estimates over how much it will cost to return Syria to its pre-2011 level of development vary; the government of President Bashar al-Assad says it will need $195 billion to rebuild, whilst the UN estimates it will cost at least $250 billion. So far China has only promised a fraction of this sum, but with the United States and European nations seeing the cost of rebuilding as leverage to be used to force Damascus into making political concessions to the opposition, Beijing does have an opening it could take to integrate Syria into One Belt, One Road, if it so chooses.
Syria is certainly courting China for more cash, with the Assad regimes ambassador to Beijing, Imad Mustafa, announcing late last year that it would give top priority to Chinese companies in investment and reconstruction opportunities at a special gathering of 1,000 representatives of Chinese firms, who might be interested in the opportunities of working there. At the same event, Qin Yong, the vice-president of the China-Arab Exchange Association, claimed that plans for $2 billion had been made for Chinese investments in Syrian industrial parks. How much of this money will actually materialise is debatable, but Qin made four trips to Syria in 2017, highlighting the growing interest Chinese businessmen are showing at the prospect of rebuilding Syrias shattered infrastructure in areas like roads, hospitals and even the Arab states electricity grid.
Such big infrastructure projects are a hallmark of Chinese development at home and projection of influence abroad. Indeed, Beijing has long been accused of using such schemes to run up unpayable debts with poor countries elsewhere in Asia, and of using this debt-trap to extort political concessions from the unfortunate debtors. Beijing may be pursuing the same strategy in Syria at the expense of Iran, Russia, and ultimately President Assad himself.
However, given the methods that the Assad clan have used to retain their power in Syria, the Syrian ruling elite may have little choice in the matter, having nowhere else to turn for the money. Meanwhile, though China may generally prefer safer places to invest the bulk of its cash in the Middle East (such as Qatar), it also has a history of propping up despotic regimes in the region where it suits Chinese geopolitical interests. For example, Beijing has worked for years with the Sudanese regime of President Omar al-Bashir who, like President Assad, is accused of committing serious crimes against his own people, including genocide, and has been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Neither China nor Sudan is a signatory to the ICC, whose operations are regarded as an infringer of national sovereignty by both authoritarian governments. But China today controls as much as 75 percent of Sudanese oil production, having thrived there by undercutting the competition and accepting higher risks than companies based elsewhere in the world would. Syria has much less to offer Beijing in terms of natural resources than Sudan, but its pariah reputation and geographic location at the crossroads of Europe and the Middle East (troubled EU member Cyprus lies just off the coast) may combine to make it an attractive prospective outpost of Chinese power. Therefore, expect more headlines about Chinese interest in Syrias reconstruction if the rebellion in Idlib is decisively crushed later this year.
Bonus video added by Informed Comment:
TeleSur from last Winter: China ready to participate in reconstruction of Syria
CALGARY, Sept. 5, 2018 /CNW/ - Lithium Chile Inc. ("Lithium Chile" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on their current drilling program. Based on strong indicators from their first four exploration holes on their Ollague prospect, Lithium Chile has been approved for a fifth hole that will extend the drilling depth from 250 meters to 500 meters.
Four exploration holes were originally planned and have now been successfully completed at Ollague. Results from the first hole were disclosed in a News Release dated August 23, 2018 and results from the remaining three holes are pending. Lithium Chile encountered grades in the brine in the first hole ranging up to 480 mg/l lithium with grades steadily increasing from 120 meters to its final depth of 300 meters. The first and second holes were drilled on the edge of the Ollague salar while holes three and four moved into the center of the basin.
Holes 3 and 4 were completed to a depth of 250 meters and were still in a porous brine formation when drilling was suspended as per the surface rights contract negotiated with the community of Ollague. Data collected at the drill sites indicated high salinity brines beginning at approximately 150 meters and open at depth at the time drilling was suspended.
Based on these indicators, Lithium Chile has made the decision to pursue a 5th hole in the center of the basin and north of holes three and four. Surface access has been successfully negotiated resulting in road and pad construction being completed over the past weekend with drilling planned to commence on Tuesday September 4th. The top 50 meters of this fifth hole will be cased with surface casing to prevent up hole caving and to reduce the amount of contamination of the deeper brine targets from near surface fresh water zones. The target depth on the fifth hole is 500 meters which will allow Lithium Chile to test the deeper levels of the salar.
Steve Cochrane President and CEO of Lithium Chile commented "Drilling a fifth hole at Ollague not only reflects the encouraging data we have collected on our first four holes but also reflects our belief that Ollague has the potential to be an exciting new lithium discovery".
Ollague 5th Drilling Location
This news release has been reviewed by Terence Walker, P. Geo., Vice President of Exploration and a qualified person as that term is defined in National Instrument 43-101.
About Lithium Chile
Lithium Chile is advancing a lithium property portfolio consisting of 155,800 hectares covering sections of 14 salars and 1 laguna complex in Chile.
Lithium Chile's common shares are listed on the TSX-V under the symbol "LITH" and on the OTC-QB under the symbol "LTMCF".
On Behalf of the Board of Directors,
LITHIUM CHILE INC.
Steven Cochrane
President & CEO
NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.
Forward Looking Statements
This news release may contain certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation (collectively "forward-looking statements"). Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "expects", "believes", "aims to", "plans to" or "intends to" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking statements relating to, among other things, management of the Company's views regarding the current and subsequent drilling programs.
You are cautioned that the following list of material factors and assumptions is not exhaustive. Specific material factors and assumptions include, but are not limited to: the general stability of the economic and political environment in which the Company operates; the timely receipt of required regulatory approvals; the ability of the Company to obtain future financing on acceptable terms; currency, exchange and interest rates; operating costs; the success the Company will have in exploring its prospects and the results from such prospects. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements herein, except as required by applicable securities laws. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.
OTTAWA, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. (Cornerstone or the Company) (TSXV-CGP) (F-GWN) (B-GWN) (OTC-CTNXF) announces that, given the ongoing delays faced by the Company in obtaining certain approvals, the Board of Directors has decided not to proceed with the previously announced plan of arrangement at this time. The plan of arrangement, which was first announced on July 13, 2017, would have involved, among other things, undertaking a spin-off transaction whereby Cornerstone would have transferred its non-Cascabel assets to a newly created company.
Despite the recent delays, the Board remains committed to pursuing a transaction that will unlock the value of the Companys non-Cascabel assets, including the drill ready Bella Maria, Shyri NW (Vetas Grandes) and Bramaderos properties in Ecuador, an option to own 100% of the drill ready Cana Brava property in Ecuador, the Tioloma property surrounding Cana Brava, the applications for new properties in Ecuador made by Cornerstones subsidiary, La Plata Minerales S.A., and the Miocene property in Chile, in addition to Cornerstone's generative exploration databases for Ecuador and Chile.
Cornerstone remains well capitalized and well positioned to continue executing on its strategic objectives. The Company currently has C$7 million in available funds and an approximately 23% aggregate interest in the Cascabel project in Ecuador, which is comprised of: (i) a direct, 15% interest in the Cascabel project, which is being financed by its joint venture partner (and operator of the Cascabel project) SolGold plc until a feasibility study has been completed in respect of the project; and (ii) the Companys ownership of approximately 10% of the shares of SolGold plc.
About Cornerstone:
Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. is a mineral exploration company with a diversified portfolio of projects in Ecuador and Chile, including in the Cascabel gold-enriched copper porphyry joint venture in north west Ecuador. Exploraciones Novomining S.A. (ENSA), an Ecuadorean company owned by SolGold Plc and Cornerstone, holds 100% of the Cascabel concession. Subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, including SolGolds fully funding the project through to feasibility, SolGold Plc will own 85% of the equity of ENSA and Cornerstone will own the remaining 15% of ENSA. SolGold Plc is funding 100% of the exploration at Cascabel and is the operator of the project.
Further information is available on Cornerstones website: www.cornerstoneresources.com and on Twitter. For investor, corporate or media inquiries, please contact:
Investor Relations:
Mario Drolet; Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; Tel. (514) 904-1333
Due to anti-spam laws, many shareholders and others who were previously signed up to receive email updates and who are no longer receiving them may need to re-subscribe at Click Here
Cautionary Notice:
This news release may contain Forward-Looking Statements that involve risks and uncertainties, such as statements of Cornerstones plans, objectives, strategies, intentions and expectations. The words potential, anticipate, forecast, believe, estimate, expect, may, project, plan, and similar expressions are intended to be among the statements that identify Forward-Looking Statements. Although Cornerstone believes that its expectations reflected in these Forward-Looking Statements are reasonable, such statements may involve unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors disclosed in our regulatory filings, viewed on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. For us, uncertainties arise from the behaviour of financial and metals markets, predicting natural geological phenomena and from numerous other matters of national, regional, and global scale, including those of an environmental, climatic, natural, political, economic, business, competitive, or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our Forward-Looking Statements. Although Cornerstone believes the facts and information contained in this news release to be as correct and current as possible, Cornerstone does not warrant or make any representation as to the accuracy, validity or completeness of any facts or information contained herein and these statements should not be relied upon as representing its views after the date of this news release. While Cornerstone anticipates that subsequent events may cause its views to change, it expressly disclaims any obligation to update the Forward-Looking Statements contained herein except where outcomes have varied materially from the original statements.
On Behalf of the Board,
Hugh Brooke Macdonald
President and CEO
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
TORONTO, Sept. 4, 2018 /CNW/ - Guyana Goldfields Inc. (TSX: GUY) ("GGI" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a definitive agreement with BHP Billiton plc ("BHP") to sell its 6.1% interest in SolGold Plc ("SolGold"), the majority owner and operator of the Cascabel porphyry copper-gold project in Ecuador.
Under the terms of the agreement, BHP will acquire GGI's entire stake of 103,125,000 shares in SolGold for an aggregate purchase price of 27,423,000 or 0.26592 per share, representing an approximate 20% premium to the 20-day volume-weighted average price of SolGold shares on the London Stock Exchange on September 4, 2018. Closing of the transaction is expected to occur on or about September 6, 2018 subject to customary closing conditions.
Based on current exchange rates, the consideration payable to GGI pursuant to the transaction is expected to equate to approximately US$35 million. GGI's initial total purchase price of the 103,125,000 shares was US$10 million which, based on the sale price, represents a 3.5x return on the initial investment. The Company does not expect to incur tax on the capital gains realized on the share sale based on accumulated tax pools available to the Company. The Company intends to use the proceeds from the sale for debt reduction and general corporate purposes.
Scott A.Caldwell, President & CEO states, "We are extremely pleased to have entered into this sale agreement with BHP. The sale of our shares in SolGold will significantly strengthen our balance sheet and will leave us well positioned to deliver on our targeted production growth over the near term."
About Guyana Goldfields Inc.
Guyana Goldfields Inc. is a Canadian based mid-tier gold producer primarily focused on the exploration, development and operation of gold deposits in Guyana, South America.
Forwarding-Looking Information
This news release contains "forward-looking information" which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the estimation of mineral resources. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words and phrases such as "plans," "expects," "is expected," "budget," "scheduled," "estimates," "forecasts," "intends," "anticipates," or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may," "could," "would," "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and are based on various assumptions.
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. Such factors include, among others, fulfilling all conditions precedent to the sale of the SolGold shares and the proposed use of proceeds, as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in GGI's annual information form. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, except as may be required by applicable securities laws. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.
UN investigators on Wednesday warned that crimes against humanity and other serious rights violations were continuing unabated in Burundi, blaming in part President Pierre Nkurunzizas repeated calls to hatred and violence.
In its first report last year, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi said it had reasonable grounds to believe that government was committing crimes against humanity.
On Wednesday, it said such crimes were still ongoing, citing summary executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, torture and sexual violence.
Serious human rights violations, including some which constitute crimes against humanity, have continued to be committed in Burundi, in 2017 and 2018, the commission said as it released a fresh report on the situation in the tiny east African nation.
Some practices, such as the disposal of bodies or operating at night, tend to make these violations less visible. Nevertheless, they are still real, head of the commission Doudou Diene said in a statement.
Burundi plunged into crisis in 2015 after Nkurunziza sought a fiercely contested third term in office that his opponents said was unconstitutional.
Turmoil since then has killed at least 1,200 people, and has forced 400,000 to flee their homes and triggered an investigation by the International Criminal Court.
Impunity
Human rights violations documented by the Commission of Inquiry were aided by recurring calls for hatred and violence, including by the President of the Republic, the commission said Wednesday, saying such calls took place in a general context of impunity.
The UN investigators said they had established a list of alleged perpetrators of crimes against humanity.
They said they would make the list available to any organ or jurisdiction tasked with carrying out independent and credible investigations on human rights violations and abuses committed in Burundi and which will guarantee the safety of the witnesses.
Diene stressed that the Burundian judicial system itself has neither the will nor the capacity to establish who is responsible and to prosecute perpetrators of violations.
The judiciary has become an instrument of repression used by the executive against any form of protest or opposition.
The commission did not name the suspected perpetrators, but has said members of the countrys National Intelligence Service, the police, military officials and members of the ruling partys youth league, the Imbonerakure were behind many of the worst violations.
It lamented the increasing strength of the Imbonerakure and decried the constantly shrinking of democratic space in the country.
The control exercised over Burundians by the ruling power and the Imbonerakure increased significantly and is felt in all aspects of daily life, commission member Francoise Hampson said in the statement.
At the beginning of June this year, the 54-year-old Nkurunziza announced that he would not stand for another term in office in 2020.
That announcement came just after the adoption of a new constitution under which the head of state could remain in office until 2034.
Diene warned Wednesday that the Constitutional Referendum organised in May 2018 and the campaign for the upcoming elections in 2020 have resulted in persecution, threats and intimidation towards persons suspected of opposing the government or not sharing the ruling partys line, whether proven or not.
The investigators, who are set to present their report to the UN Human Rights Council later this month, urged the council to extend their mandate.
It is all the more crucial to continue this work as Burundi is preparing for new elections in 2020, which have already resulted in human rights violations and abuse.
The general overseeing US military operations in the Middle East visited war-torn Yemens chief of staff in the de facto capital Aden on Wednesday, state media said, a day ahead of peace talks in Geneva.
US Central Command head General Joseph Votel met Major General Taher al-Aqili to discuss developing Yemens coast guard, navy and special forces to tackle the threat of terrorist militias and fight smuggling, the Saba news agency said.
The two also discussed the governments efforts to restore the state and put an end to the coup by the Iran-backed Huthi militia, it said, referring to rebels who ousted the government from the capital Sanaa and large parts of Yemen in 2014.
The US provides weapons, aerial refuelling to jets, intelligence and targeting information to the Saudi-led coalition that is fighting Huthi rebels in Yemen.
Votels visit followed meetings in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the main players in a military coalition set up in 2015 to back Yemens government in its fight against the Huthis.
Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said last week that US support for the coalition was not unconditional as he defended Americas ongoing role in the war.
His comments came as UN investigators said they had reasonable grounds to believe warring parties in Yemen had committed violations of humanitarian law that could amount to war crimes.
Washington has also carried out a long-running drone war against Yemens Al-Qaeda branch, which took advantage of the chaos created by the war to strengthen its own operations, particularly in the countrys south.
The Pentagon sees Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as the jihadist networks most dangerous branch.
It has intensified its strikes against AQAP since President Donald Trump took office in 2017.
The United Nations is set to host rebel and government delegations for indirect talks in Geneva on Thursday in a bid to revive formal negotiations.
But the rebels said Wednesday that they were stranded in Sanaa because the coalition, which controls Yemens airspace, had not given their UN plane permission to fly.
Biologist awarded $542,060 to study population changes in Kansas birds
Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018
Alice Boyle's study of declining grassland bird populations has received support from the National Science Foundation. Boyle, assistant professor of biology at Kansas State University, is also a musician and plans to communicate her research results to citizens around the state with a performance she is developing. | Download this photo.
MANHATTAN Iconic grassland bird species are in steep decline, and Kansas State University's Alice Boyle wants to know why.
But studying dickcissels, eastern meadowlarks and grasshopper sparrows is complicated by the fact that they move a lot. And why they move and how that movement affects their populations is not well understood.
The National Science Foundation has awarded Boyle, assistant professor of biology, and co-investigator Trevor Hefley, assistant professor of statistics at Kansas State University, $542,060 for a three-year project to identify the key reasons behind population changes in highly mobile species.
The grassland environment is complex, so understanding dramatic differences in abundance of animals from year to year requires charting differences in and species responses to rainfall variability, grassland management practices such as burning and grazing, and changes in prey and predator communities. Boyle has a head start on gathering those data thanks to the Konza Prairie Biological Station, an 8,600-acre native tallgrass prairie research area jointly owned by Kansas State University and The Nature Conservancy.
"We have four decades of data that have been collected through the Long-Term Ecological Research program at Konza, plus our studies there of individually marked and tracked birds," Boyle said.
Boyle and her team can now link environmental variability especially precipitation variability to population biology using both long-term data and detailed studies.
"We can determine the consequences of drought for an individual bird physiologically and their nest success and movement," Boyle said. "This is the holy grail of population biology because you can only do it by pulling all the pieces together. It is incredibly hard to do that in wild bird populations."
Boyle and Hefley's work in developing new statistical methods to integrate and reconcile data and at different spatial and time scales could become a model for other researchers to follow. They aim to cross-train students in both statistical and biological methods and increase appreciation of prairie ecosystems.
"This project builds upon Dr. Boyle's prior research and the long-term datasets collected at Konza Prairie, said John Blair, university distinguished professor of biology and director of the Konza Prairie Biological Station. "Understanding how climate interacts with other environmental factors to affect grassland bird populations will advance conservation efforts at local, regional and global scales. The research approaches developed here by Drs. Boyle and Hefley also can be applied to understand and predict population changes in other species."
In addition to setting a new standard for data integration and application to study of bird populations, Boyle plans to communicate her research to the public using music.
"My first degree was in viola performance, and I'm in a band and play the fiddle," Boyle said. "I want to develop a show that we take to rural Kansas communities talk about the importance of the tallgrass prairie and my experiences as a biologist."
Beth Montelone, senior associate vice president for research, said Boyle's plan is consistent with the land-grant mission to deliver research and education to citizens.
"Professor Boyle's planned musical science outreach and communication activity is a creative way to demonstrate the broader impacts of her research and share it with the public. It is very much in keeping with K-State's goals of conducting cutting-edge research while also excelling in teaching and outreach," she said.
Pompeo, Mattis to hold talks in Delhi tomorrow.
New Delhi: With the 2+2 dialogue at the foreign and defence ministers level to take place in New Delhi on Thursday amid the threat of US sanctions over import of weaponry from Russia and oil from Iran, government sources said Tuesday that India hoped the US would not forget its strategic relations with New Delhi. India is hoping for a waiver from Washington on both counts.
The issue of oil imports from Iran, the proposed S-400 missile deal with Russia, stocktaking on the proposed Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) pact that will enable the sale of armed drones by the US to India, matters relating to Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, the situation in the Indo-Pacific region vis-a-vis China as well as matters relating to Indias concerns on proposed immigration curbs in the US that affect Indian professionals working there are all expected to figure during the 2+2 dialogue.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and defence secretary Jim Mattis will reach India Wednesday evening for the dialogue being hosted by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on September 6. The 2+2 dialogue on Thursday will be preceded that day by separate bilateral dialogues at the foreign and defence ministers level before the four dignitaries together discuss various issues of regional and global importance. They will then together call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, symbolising the proximity and strength of India-US ties.
While the proposed S-400 missile deal with Russia is officially not on the agenda, sources did not rule out a discussion on it if the matter was raised by the American side. In the wake of sanctions by the US on Russian military exports, the US is concerned about the proposed Indo-Russian deal, although it may consider giving India a one-time waiver. New Delhi is expected to cite its security requirements for the missile system and press for a US waiver to escape sanctions. India is expected to convey clearly to the US that it is an energy import-reliant country and that any alternatives to Iranian crude oil will first need to be considered for its pricing, as it could otherwise have an adverse impact on the Indian economy. In the wake of the US piling on pressure on countries across the world to stop importing oil from Iran altogether or face sanctions, Indias ties with Iran and its strategic implications on the Chabahar port project is also expected to be discussed.
Sources also said there will be stocktaking on the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA), a proposed pact on encrypted American defence technologies. This is in the wake of raging speculation whether any announcement on inking of the pact will be made or not. The US decision to give Strategic Trade Authorisation-1 status to India is also being welcomed by New Delhi as this would mean 90 percent of dual-use items (that which can be used for both defence and civilian purposes) no longer require licensing.
Policy in the Indo-Pacific region with special emphasis on Chinese military assertiveness is also expected to be one of the major subjects of discussion.
On the visa front, India is in touch with the US to save both the H1-B and H-4 visa programmes. The H1-B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in specialised fields. The H-4 visa relates to work permits for spouses of H1-B visa holders. Both visas are of significance to Indian professionals and their spouses residing in the United States.
On the issue of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, New Delhi has welcomed the recent announcements made by the US in which three Pakistan-based terrorists and terror financiers have been named as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDTG). New Delhi is hoping for more such moves by the Trump administration, which is cracking down hard on the failure of Islamabad to take action against terrorism aimed at its neighbours.
Misras recommendation to govt ends speculation; first CJI from Northeast.
New Delhi: Outgoing Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Tuesday sent a letter to the Union law ministry recommending the name of the seniormost Supreme Court judge, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, as his successor.
After the recommendation is accepted, Justice Gogoi will become the 46th CJI and the first Northeast judge to take charge of the highest office in the Indian judiciary. He hails from Assam and is the son of former chief minister Keshab Chandra Gogoi of the Congress. Justice Gogoi was appointed a judge in the Gauhati high court on February 28, 2001, and later became Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana high court on February 12, 2011. He was elevated to the Supreme Court in April 2012. He will have a tenure of a little over a year as CJI and is due to retire on November 17, 2019.
Though it was expected that the recommendation letter of CJI Misra would be delivered to the law ministry on Sunday, it was delivered only on Tuesday. The Centre is likely to approve the recommendation after due process and Justice Gogoi is expected to take the oath on October 3.
Earlier, the law ministry had sent a communication to CJI Misra to recommend the name of his successor so that it could begin the process of appointment at least three weeks before Justice Misra demits office. Normally the recommendation is sent a month before the CJI is due to step down.
There was speculation over Justice Gogois appointment as the next CJI after an unprecedented press conference by the courts four seniormost judges, including Justice Gogoi, in January this year when they criticised Chief Justice Misra over various issues, especially the manner of allocation of cases to certain benches. It was feared Justice Gogoi might be superseded. However, all the speculation has now been put to rest after Justice Misra recommended Justice Gogoi as his successor.
Under the memorandum of procedure evolved under the collegium system, it is customary for the outgoing CJI to name the seniormost judge as his successor. There have been two attempts earlier to bypass the convention or to supersede judges after Independence.
Justice Gogoi now heads the special bench monitoring the updation of the National Register of Citizens in Assam to identify citizens and weed out illegally settled foreigners. He is also part of the bench monitoring the appointment of the Lokpal and lokayuktas in states.
Justice Gogoi had held that government advertisements could only include photographs of the Prime Minister, President and Chief Justice of India this was meant to be a measure to ensure politicians in power could not use taxpayer money to gain political advantage.
The UP government amended the law to allow former chief ministers of the state to continue to retain possession of their official accommodation. Justice Gogoi struck down the amendment, holding this law will create a separate class for such retired public servants, that is not permissible under the Constitution.
Justice Gogoi is known both for his simplicity and ability to take tough decisions.
This was evident when he slapped a contempt notice on former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju for his Facebook post criticising his ruling in the Kerala Souma rape and murder case. Later, Justice Gogoi accepted Justice Katjus apology and closed the contempt proceedings.
Maharashtra Police on Aug 28 arrested 5 activists in Bhima-Koregaon violence case, sparking outrage from human rights groups.
New Delhi: Five rights activists were arrested due to the cogent evidence linking them with the banned CPI(Maoist) and not because of their dissenting views, Maharashtra government claimed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The apex court while ordering the house arrest of the five activists on August 29 till September 6 had categorically said that "dissent is the safety valve of democracy".
The counter affidavit, filed by the Maharashtra police on a plea of historian Romila Thapar and four others challenging the arrest of these activists in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence case alleged that they were planning to carry out violence in the country and ambush the security forces.
The state police said there was sufficient evidence to "dispel" the claim that they were arrested for their dissenting views. It also questioned the locus of the petitioners, Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociologist Satish Deshpande and legal expert Maja Daruwala, and said they were "strangers" to the investigation in the matter.
Maharashtra Police had on August 28 raided the homes of the prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested at least five of them for their alleged Maoist links, sparking a chorus of outrage from human rights defenders.
While prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao was arrested from Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha was arrested from Delhi.
The raids were carried out as part of a probe into an event called Elgar Parishad, or conclave, on December 31 last year, which had later triggered violence at Bhima-Koregaon village.
The apex court had on August 29 directed to keep them under house arrest at their homes till September 6. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra will hear the matter on Thursday.
Sources in the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti claimed the govt has more-or-less made up its mind on the dissolution of assembly.
Speculation has been rife that the TRS may go for early elections to cash in on the perceived positive atmosphere prevailing for it in the state. (Photo: File)
Hyderabad: The Telangana Cabinet is likely to meet here Thursday, the second time in five days, amid indications that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao may take a call on the dissolution of state assembly to pave the way for early elections.
Sources in the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) Wednesday claimed the government has more-or-less made up its mind on the dissolution of the assembly, whose term ends next year.
"Dissolution is 'pucca'. Yes, that's what's happening... the Cabinet will recommend dissolution or convening of the House to deliberate on the matter," a senior TRS leader told PTI.
Assembly elections in Telangana are originally scheduled to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls next year, but the chief minister sees an advantage for TRS in delinking the two polls.
In recent weeks, the state government had announced a slew of measures for the benefit of various sections of the society.
Speculation has been rife that the TRS may go for early elections to cash in on the perceived positive atmosphere prevailing for it in the state.
Addressing a TRS public meeting on Sunday last, Rao had referred to media reports about early polls and said ministers and party leaders had authorised him to take a decision on it in the interest of people and the party.
The cabinet that met on Sunday ahead of the public meeting approved certain welfare measures.
The ruling TRS has planned to organise 100 public meetings across the state in 50 days, beginning with a meeting at Husnabad near Karimnagar on September 7.
The party captured power in the state in the maiden assembly elections held in May 2014, winning 63 of the 119 seats.
Sheas receives $20,000 for restoration of Mighty Wurlitzer organ Sheas Performing Arts Center has received a $20,000 grant from the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo to help restore its Mighty Wurlitzer organ. The grant is supported by the June...
TTPD seeking information on suspect in robbery of 7-Eleven The Town of Tonawanda Police Department is looking to identify the perpetrator of robbery that took place on Oct. 22, in which an unknown quantity of cigarettes were stolen from...
Niagara County receives $200,000 COPS grant for de-escalation training Rep. Brian Higgins and Niagara County Sheriff Michael Filicetti have announced that Niagara County will receive a $200,000 federal grant through the Department of Justices Office of Community Oriented Policing...
City of Tonawanda educator honored with ECASB award Kristin Schmutzler, a member of the Tonawanda City School Districts Board of Education, has been recognized by the Erie County Association of School Boards with a Shining Star Award. Schmutzler...
NT ranks in 73rd percentile of WalletHubs Top Small Cities list The City of North Tonawanda has made the list of WalletHubs Top Small Cities across the United States, ranking in the 73rd percentile of the approximately 1,300 small cities that...
This is in the wake of raging speculation whether any announcement on inking of the pact will be made or not.
New Delhi: The stage is set for the Indo-US 2+2 Dialogue to be hosted by external affairs minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday, with US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and defence secretary Jim Mattis representing the American side. The 2+2 Dialogue will begin shortly after 11 am on Thursday in New Delhi and will take place in two sessions lasting about an hour each.
The 2+2 Dialogue on Thursday will be preceded the same day by separate bilateral dialogues at the foreign and defence ministerial level before the four dignitaries together discuss various issues of regional and global importance. They will then together call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, symbolising the proximity and strength of Indo-US ties.
The issue of oil imports from Iran, the proposed S-400 missile deal with Russia, stock-taking on the proposed Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) pact that will enable sale of armed drones by the US to India, matters relating to Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, the situation in the Indo-Pacific region vis-a-vis China as well as matters relating to Indias concerns on proposed immigration curbs in the US that affect Indian professionals working there are all expected to figure during the 2+2 dialogue.
While the proposed S-400 missile deal with Russia is officially not on the agenda, sources have not ruled out a discussion on it if the matter was raised by the American side. In the wake of sanctions by the US on Russian military exports, the US is concerned about the proposed Indo-Russian deal although it may consider giving India a one-time waiver. New Delhi is expected to cite its security requirements for the missile system and press for a US waiver to escape sanctions.
India is also expected to convey clearly to the US that it is an energy import-reliant country and that any alternatives to Iranian crude oil will first need to be considered for its pricing, as it could otherwise have an adverse impact on the Indian economy. In the wake of the US piling on pressure on countries across the world to stop importing oil from Iran altogether or face sanctions, Indias ties with Iran and its strategic implications on the Chabahar port project is also expected to be discussed.
Sources also said there will be stock-taking on the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA), a proposed pact on encrypted American defence technologies. This is in the wake of raging speculation whether any announcement on inking of the pact will be made or not.
Attend the workshop at The Cuckoo Club, Mumbai on September 9, 10 am onwards.
As a five-year-old, when Priyanka Patel narrated a story on stage for the first time and won a prize for it, it sparked a passion. And combining her love for storytelling with her knowledge of psychology, Priyanka is all set to host a workshop called Introduction to Emotional Intelligence through Storytelling.
Open to anyone whose work revolves around dealing with people, she says, In this session, the participants will get a chance to explore their own emotions and find ways of expressing them. They will also learn tricks and techniques to tell stories effectively. The stories that people listen to and the way they behave has a direct link so in her narrations, the characters always come up with solutions after going through emotional turmoil. The way I conduct stories, the characters go through emotional ups and downs and usually find effective solutions to the problems. The stories range from being traditional to mythological, says the 36-year-old, who plans to follow up each story with an activity to help the audience reflect upon their emotions and actions.
Taking a unique approach, Priyankas narration includes folk tales, mythological tales, and Sufi stories. She explains the importance of each genre saying, Folktales are stories about people from a particular place and it celebrates their lifestyles and beliefs. Mythological tales, on the other hand, are epics that use a lot of symbolism to explain things, which over the years have become our subtle guiding principles. Sufi stories celebrate austerity, surrendering and a carefree life thats free from worldly concerns. All these stories also have miracles and mysticism woven into them. For me, these genres hold the secret to our beliefs, ideologies, behaviour, and our ideas of right and wrong. Unravelling these mysteries help us be more accepting and inclusive.
Priyanka Patel
Her love for storytelling has evolved from a childhood hobby to a full time job. My mother would narrate stories to me and train me to tell them. Over the years, I figured that the beauty of stories is in finding them everywhere. As a kid being trained in Bharatanatyam, the story of the dance was more beautiful to me than the actual dance itself, she smiles.
While growing up, stories didnt leave her side but the addition of psychology made things more interesting. When in college, theatre had consumed me. Even a subject such as psychology was so much more interesting to me, for the lobes of the human brain would tell stories unheard by the conscious self. I immediately saw a link between how we behave and what we hear and used them in therapeutic settings ever since with children and adults alike, she adds.
Although the event is just an introductory session, Priyanka plans to launch a longer course soon. We are looking at a course where well be covering different aspects of storytelling. Well be covering gender stereotypes, communication skills, emotional intelligence and conflict management but all of these things will be done through the medium of storytelling, she concludes.
Attend the workshop at The Cuckoo Club, Mumbai on September 9, 10 am onwards.
The talks are aimed at fuelling growth in Amazon.com Incs cloud computing business.
Amazon executives have been holding discussions with the Chilean government for two years about a possible data center to provide infrastructure for local firms and the government to store information on the cloud.(AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)
Amazon.com is in talks with Chile to house and mine massive amounts of data generated by the countrys giant telescopes, which could prove fertile ground for the company to develop new artificial intelligence tools.
The talks, which have been little reported on so far and which were described to Reuters by Chilean officials and an astronomer, are aimed at fuelling growth in Amazon.com Incs cloud computing business in Latin America and boosting its data processing capabilities.
President Sebastian Pineras center-right government, which is seeking to wean Chiles $325 billion economies from reliance on copper mining, announced last week it plans to pool data from all its telescopes onto a virtual observatory stored in the cloud, without giving a timeframe. The government talked of the potential for astrodata innovation but did not give details.
The government did not comment on companies that might host astrodata in the computing cloud.
Amazon executives have been holding discussions with the Chilean government for two years about a possible data center to provide infrastructure for local firms and the government to store information on the cloud, an official at InvestChile, the governments investment body, told Reuters.
For at least some of that time, the talks have included discussion about the possibility of Amazon Web Services (AWS), hosting astrodata, astronomer Chris Smith said, based on email exchanges he was part of between AWS and Chilean Economy Ministry officials over the last six months. Smith was at the time mission head of AURA observatory, which manages three of the US federally-funded telescope projects in Chile.
Jeffrey Kratz, AWSs General Manager for Public Sector for Latin American, Caribbean, and Canada, has visited Chile for talks with Pinera. He confirmed the companys interest in astrodata but said Amazon had no announcements to make at present.
Chile is a very important country for AWS, he said in an email to Reuters. We kept being amazed about the incredible work on astronomy and the telescopes, as real proof points on innovation and technology working together.
The Chilean telescopes can benefit from the cloud by eliminating the heavy lifting of managing IT, Kratz added.
AWS is a fast-growing part of Amazons overall business. In July it reported second-quarter sales of $6.1 billion, up by 49 percent over the same period a year ago, accounting for 12 percent of Amazons overall sales.
Chile is home to 70 percent of global astronomy investment, thanks to the cloudless skies above its northern Atacama desert, the driest on earth. Within five years, the South American country will host three of the worlds four next-generation, billion-dollar telescopes, according to Smith.
He and Economy Ministry officials leading the Chilean initiative to store astrodata in the cloud saw potential in more Earth-bound matters.
The particular tools developed for the astrodata project could be applicable for a wide variety of other uses, such as tracking potential shop-lifters, fare-evaders on public transport and endangered animals, Julio Pertuze, a ministry official, told Reuters at the event announcing Chiles aim to build a virtual observatory on the cloud.
Smith added that the same technology could also be applied to medicine and banking to spot anomalies in large datasets.
Amazon, whose founder and largest shareholder Jeff Bezos is well known for his interest in space, already provides a cloud platform for the Hubble Telescopes data and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Australia.
As Amazon explores the potential in Chiles astrodata, tech rival Google, owned by Alphabet Inc, is already a member of Chiles Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which will be fully operational in Cerro Pachon in 2022. Google also has a data center established in the country.
Justin Burr, the senior PR associate for AI and Machine learning at Google, declined to comment on any Google plans around astrodata or its involvement in other telescope projects.
Separately, a Google spokeswoman said last week that the company will announce expansion plans for its Chilean data center on Sept. 12.
Smith said that what the Chileans are calling the Astroinformatics Initiative - to harness the potential of astrodata - could enable Amazon Web Services access to the research that astronomers are doing on projects like the LSST.
We are going to have to go through a huge database of billions of stars to find the three stars that an astronomer wants, Smith said, adding that was not too different from searching a database of billions of people to find the right profile for a targeted advertisement.
So a tool that might get developed in LSST or the astronomical world could be applicable for Amazon in their commercial world.
Since speaking to Reuters, Smith has moved on from his job heading AURA to a new position at the US National Science Foundation.
Amazons role in the astrodata project would also give it an entry into a market where it is seeking to expand. Amazon - which controls nearly one-third of the global cloud computing business, ahead of rivals Microsoft Corp and Google - has struggled to lure public institutions in Latin America, including research facilities, to store their data online instead of on physical machines.
AWS declined to provide any information on the size of its regional business in Latin America.
Economy Minister Jose Ramon Valente said at last weeks announcement, Chile has enormous potential in its pristine skies not only in the observation of the universe but also in the amount of data that observation generates.
(Source)
313 Shares Share
Since intensive care units (ICU) were created in hospitals more than a half a century ago, there has been a steady decline in death rates for individuals who are critically ill and require life support. Thats significant and meaningful progress, and its thanks to the pioneering work of many doctors, nurses and researchers who have discovered better ways to liberate patients from life support so that they can leave the hospital breathing and functioning on their own.
But as a neurologist who practices medicine in the intensive care unit, Ive come to recognize that we now need to focus the same attention on the neurological health of patients leaving the ICU. New studies are shedding light on the high rates of acute brain dysfunction or delirium for patients who have undergone treatment in hospital intensive care units.
Depending on the study, the rate of acquiring delirium as a result of treatment in ICU ranges from 30 to 80 percent staggering numbers by any measure. What does delirium look like? Delirium is characterized by a fluctuating level of consciousness when someone drifts in and out of awareness poor attention and disorganized thinking.
What we see ranges from a patient lying in bed completely inattentive and disengaged from their environment to patients that are agitated and combative. Delirium can be excruciating for family members to watch.
On our bedside rounds, families often ask, How is it that my mom was admitted three days ago with pneumonia and now she just stares at me blankly like shes never seen me before? Thats hospital-acquired delirium.
Questions like these are difficult to answer, mostly because we simply dont know.
When a patient becomes critically ill, whether it be due to a heart attack, severe infection or trauma, they can require assistance with breathing, and may be connected to a ventilator for life support. Individuals are also frequently treated with medications for pain and anxiety.
Despite the fact that we treat our patients on life support to the best of our ability in the ICU, the brain may begin to function abnormally.
At medical conferences, we have sessions on The pathophysiology (aka cause) of delirium, at which speakers present beautiful and elaborate line drawings, with interconnected arrows leading from one box to another. However, in my relatively early career in academic medicine, Im learning that the more complex the schematic diagram, the less we know about the underlying topic. Its particularly true of hospital-acquired delirium.
Delirium is a common problem where the cause is not known, but we do know that older age and pre-existing dementia are significant risk factors.
We are slowly chipping away at the problem. As a medical community, we are implementing guidelines about sedation practices, we try to promote sleep and we encourage early mobilization and physiotherapy. My colleagues and I are starting a multi-centre study designed to ask whether poor oxygen delivery to the brain contributes to the risk of delirium.
The consequences of delirium can be deadly. Those that experience it during ICU stays are more likely to spend more time on life support, die in the ICU or die in the hospital.
And for survivors, ICU delirium is a risk factor for long-term cognitive impairment. This newly acquired frailty post-ICU is more than just occasionally forgetting where you lost your keys. The BRAIN-ICU study from Vanderbilt University suggests that 40 per cent of ICU survivors who developed delirium in the hospital function at the level of someone with moderate traumatic brain injury and 26 per cent at the level of someone with mild Alzheimers disease.
So what can be done?
Physicians and medical administrators can engage families in patient care. We know that simple things like abandoning visiting hours can reduce delirium rates. Government agencies should recognize that ICU survivorship needs to be a research priority, something our patients have known for a while. When asked, healthy seniors have told us that long-term brain function should be the number one outcome examined in critical care studies.
On our path towards finding strategies to prevent and treat delirium, we ask the families of our patients to help too. Please, come to visit your loved one. Talk to them and bring familiar items that can help keep them grounded. It is these small gestures that can sometimes matter most.
J. Gordon Boyd is a neurologist and critical care physician. He is a network investigator, Canadian Frailty Network, and a contributor EvidenceNetwork.ca.
Image credit: Shutterstock.com
204 Shares Share
Purdue Pharma recently ran a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post asserting that the company, which manufactures prescription opioids, wants to limit the use of prescription opioids. While this ad may have left some readers confused, one point rang true: we believe the country needs a new approach to prescribing opioids.
In its approach to addressing the opioid crisis, Purdue Pharma is encouraging limiting patient access to various treatment options, including limiting exposure to opioids. The ad stated that Purdue Pharma will no longer promote opioids as an option for pain treatment to prescribers. Instead, the company calls for access to multi-modal and non-pharmacologic options which are two treatment options that the American Academy of Pain Medicine supports as solutions to addressing this widespread issue.
As the professional society representing the nations doctors, nurses, researchers, and other clinicians who are tasked with treating pain, we could not agree more with Purdue Pharmas statement that we need a new approach to prescribing opioids. To achieve a new approach, however, will require the society to rectify the misconception that treating pain equals prescribing opioids. In fact, there are many treatment modalities in pain management, including non-pharmacological (physical, behavioral, cognitive), pharmacological (non-opioid and opioids), interventional (nerve blocks, ablations, and modulations), surgical, and complementary and alternative treatment. This approach to pain is termed multimodal pain care. In cases where patients have failed to respond to non-opioid therapy but responded well to opioid medications with improved quality of life and better functions, opioid therapy may be appropriate and necessary.
The key is that pain care must be patient-centered, integrated, and individualized. Just as the causes of pain are vastly variable, the ways to treat pain must be tailored to individual patients need. To meet the patients need requires accurate assessment and correct diagnosis of each patients pain condition, which may be a symptom caused by another disorder or a disease in its own right. Limiting opioid prescription arbitrarily to no more than seven days may not serve the patients needs, particularly for those who have severe pain after major surgeries, those with sickle cell disease, those with cancers, and those who have been on chronic opioid therapy for years with significant therapeutic benefit and without adverse effects.
With a sustained national opioid crisis, it is imperative that clinicians are prepared to address and diagnosis proper pain treatment depending on their patients needs. There is, however, another critical concern with current approach to pain management, the lack of proper pain management training for medical students. One hundred million people suffer from pain in the U.S., yet, per the Association of American Medical Colleges, there are fewer than 5,000 doctors specializing in pain. The journal Pain Medicine recently covered the gaps in how we train and test our medical students and found that while pain is the most common reason patients seek for care, appropriate management of pain is poorly taught in medical school curriculum and rarely tested in medical licensing examinations. Many students, residents, and educators find the current training landscape for chronic pain management to be inadequate. To begin altering our approach to prescribing opioids, we must start making changes at the foundation of medical training with proper education, certification, courses, and prioritization of pain management.
The future of patient care must be evidence-guided, integrated, and personalized in nature. This is especially true for pain care, and it will require more education options, and physicians, for the public to overcome stigma around pain, opioids, and addiction and for clinicians to help them treat patients smarter and better.
Jianguo Cheng is president, American Academy of Pain Medicine.
Image credit: Shutterstock.com
61 Shares Share
A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
The path to becoming a physician is remarkably devoid of leadership training. Being an adept manager is an increasingly important aspect of medicine and is not explicitly taught as part of medical training. When we, as attending physicians, suddenly find ourselves in situations where we are expected to train, manage or lead others, we may be ill-equipped to do so. This is a disadvantage for all, but the impact is most profound for women. We have the additional challenges of navigating well-described biases, overcoming cultural barriers and personal obstacles with often very little support or guidance.
In 2017, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) reported that 51 percent of incoming medical school applicants were women. Compared to the proportion of women entering medical school, the number of women holding leadership positions in academic medicine remains remarkably low. Only 15 percent of department chairs and 16 percent of all deans at U.S. medical schools are women, indicating a significant gender gap. So why is it that despite equal numbers of men and women entering medical school, only a fraction of women make it to leadership positions and eventually into the C-suite? More importantly, how do we change this?
The first step is acknowledging these realities as widespread and undesirable. This lack of parity in providing women with the same professional development opportunities as men results in a failure to access potential gifted managers and leaders among half of the community. While many are engaged in this discussion and have embraced the call for reform, fewer have piloted encouraging initiatives. Discussions on approaching these issues should include incorporating leadership training in medical school while also providing training and support to already practicing female physicians. Many national medical and subspecialty societies have created committees specifically focused on the challenges encountered by female physicians. For example, after realizing that only a small percentage of women were included in leadership positions in the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), Linda Hertzberg, MD, FASA, a practicing physician anesthesiologist, spearheaded an effort to create a community for women. Thus, the ad hoc Committee on Women in Anesthesia was appointed in 2016 to bring awareness to the specific career obstacles women face. More importantly, the committee provides a mentoring program allowing junior members to connect directly with leaders in the field for continued guidance, advice and support.
On a smaller scale, offering these types of initiatives at a regional or even institutional level will help foster mentorship and may eventually lead to sponsorship. This is particularly important for trainees, junior faculty, and physicians new to practice to learn how to navigate gender-specific challenges.
While these activities may not immediately change the institutional culture, they will provide female physicians with role models and strategies that have been effective in the past. They will also provide a forum where the importance of simple behavioral changes, such as sitting at the table, leaning in and asking for what one wants can be emphasized and reinforced. Learning these skills has been shown to be effective and necessary to ensuring visibility within an institution. For example, studies have repeatedly found that women are less likely to ask or negotiate on their own behalf in their professional lives. Their general assumption is that their work and accomplishments will speak for themselves and lead to advancements and promotion. Unfortunately, such an assumption would hold only in a perfect world with objective assessment and without bias. As Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever point out in their book Women Dont Ask, women are far less likely to articulate their expectations and therefore are often overlooked in favor of male counterparts who are more active in self-promotion.
There is a broad consensus on the need for important cultural and institutional changes that must occur to ensure women who choose to pursue leadership roles have the same access and support as their male colleagues. Nonetheless, even small changes, such as creating a strong mentorship program can lead to significant improvements by raising awareness, providing role models for trainees and reinforcing strategies that have been proven successful. This will ensure that female physicians interested in leadership positions are well equipped and supported to face challenges, while society catches up to provide equal grounds for men and women in the future.
Roya Saffary is an anesthesiologist.
Image credit: Shutterstock.com
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.
EU governments agree that tax rules should be changed to increase levies on digital services that are currently undertaxed.
Smaller states with lower tax rates such as Luxembourg and Ireland, which host large American multinationals, want EU changes to come together with a global reform of digital taxation.
European Union finance ministers will this week discuss proposals to adopt a tax on companies digital turnover by the end of the year, a document prepared by the Austrian presidency of the bloc said.
EU governments agree that tax rules should be changed to increase levies on digital services that are currently undertaxed but are at odds on the process to reach this target.
Smaller states with lower tax rates such as Luxembourg and Ireland, which host large American multinationals, want EU changes to come together with a global reform of digital taxation, which has been under discussion for years to no avail.
Larger states, such as France and Italy, which claim to have lost millions of euros of tax revenue due to digital giants shift of taxable profits to lower-tax countries, want a quick solution.
They support the European Commissions proposal for an EU-wide 3 percent tax on digital revenues of large firms that would be introduced before a global overhaul of tax rules.
Austria, which currently holds the EUs rotating presidency, intends to move forward with the 3 percent tax plan, it said in a paper seen by Reuters that will feed into discussions on the subject at a meeting of EU finance ministers on Friday and Saturday in Vienna.
While waiting for a global deal, EU states face the risk of erosion of the corporate taxation bases already now and might be tempted to act unilaterally, the Austrian document said, urging a uniform approach for an interim EU solution based on the Commission proposal.
Eleven of the 28 EU states are already considering their own national measures, the document said, warning against the risk to the EU common market if no common plan was quickly agreed.
Austria will ask ministers whether they agree on focusing work on an EU temporary solution that should be agreed upon by the end of the year, according to the paper.
To overcome some of the criticism of the measure, Vienna is proposing to reduce the scope of the tax, which would no longer be applied to the sale of users data as in the Commission proposal.
Only revenue from online advertising services, in which Google and Facebook excel, and from virtual marketplaces, such as Amazon, would be subject to the new tax, under the Austrian plan.
In line with the Commissions proposal, only firms with a global annual turnover of 750 million euros and EU revenue of at least 50 million euros a year would be taxable.
Some 200 companies would fall within the scope of the new tax proposed by the Commission, European officials said, estimating additional annual revenues of about 5 billion euros ($5.7 billion) at EU level.
(Source)
Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis are headed to India for the talks on Thursday with Sushma Swaraj and Nirmala Sitharaman.
Washington: India buying a missile defence system from Russia and oil from Iran would be part of the 2+2 dialogue, but not the talks' primary focus, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said.
Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis are headed to India for the talks on Thursday with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. This is the inaugural 2+2 dialogue between the two countries.
"They are (missile system purchase from Russia and oil from Iran) part of the conversation. They are part of the relationship. "They will certainly come up, but I don't think they will be the primary focus of what it is we are trying to accomplish here," Pompeo said on Tuesday to a question from reporters who are travelling with him to Pakistan and then to India.
India is expected to convey to the US during the dialogue that it is going ahead with the Rs 40,000 crore deal with Russia to procure a batch of S-400 Triumf air defence missile system. "There are half-a-dozen things on the agenda that we are really intent on making progress on. Those decisions are important, they are important to the relationship for sure, but I don't see us resolving those or have intention to resolve those during this set of meetings of the strategic dialogue," he said.
"They are really about things that are big and strategic and will go on for 20, 40, 50 years. Those are the kinds of topics that secretary Mattis and I are hoping to address not that those are not important, but they are not part of the structural relationship between the two countries," Pompeo said.
He regretted that the dialogue had to be postponed twice in the past.
"I regret it was my fault the second time. I had to travel to Pyongyang. But secretary Mattis and I are both looking forward to this," he said.
The twice-delayed dialogue was earlier scheduled for July 6 in Washington, but was postponed by the US on June 27, citing "unavoidable reasons".
"We have a true strategic partner who, frankly, is our only major defence partner, right, the only designated major defence partner, with whom we have a great relationship and who is very important to our success in our Indo-Pacific strategy enormous country with incredibly opportunity and capacity for wealth creation," Pompeo said.
"We hope we can find opportunities to continue to expand the relationship not only diplomatic and military-to-military but a good set of business relationships as well," he said.
There is an excellent chance that western Washington is going to be hit by a major lowland snow event. And yes, the mountains will be b...
Excerpts from book, 'Fear: Trump in the White House,' written by famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, were published by Washington Post.
According to the book, Trump told Defence Secretary Jim Mattis that he wanted to have Assad assassinated after the Syrian president launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017. (Photo: File)
Washington: President Donald Trump wanted to have Syrian President Bashar al-Assad assassinated last year but his defence secretary ignored the request, according to a new book that depicts top Trump aides sometimes disregarding presidential orders to limit what they saw as damaging and dangerous behaviour.
Excerpts from the book, "Fear: Trump in the White House," written by famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, were published by the Washington Post on Tuesday. The book, which is scheduled for release on September 11, is the latest to detail tensions within the White House under Trump's 20-month-old presidency.
The book portrays Trump as prone to profane outbursts and impulsive decision-making, painting a picture of chaos that Woodward says amounts to an "administrative coup d'etat" and a "nervous breakdown" of the executive branch.
According to the book, Trump told Defence Secretary Jim Mattis that he wanted to have Assad assassinated after the Syrian president launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017.
Mattis told Trump he would "get right on it," but instead developed a plan for a limited air strike that did not threaten Assad personally.
Mattis told associates after a separate incident that Trump acted like "a fifth- or sixth-grader," according to the book.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the book is "nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the president look bad."
The Pentagon declined to comment.
Woodward gained national fame for his reporting on the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, and has since written a series of books that provide behind-the-scenes glimpses of presidential administrations and other Washington institutions. For this book, Woodward spoke to top aides and other insiders with the understanding that he would not reveal how he got his information, the Post said.
Among his other revelations: Former top economic adviser Gary Cohn stole a letter off Trump's desk that the president planned to sign that would withdraw the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea.
Cohn, who tried to rein in Trump's protectionist impulses, also planned to remove a similar memo that would have withdrawn the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada, Woodward wrote.
"I'll just take the paper off his desk," Cohn told another White House aide, according to the book.
The United States remains part of both trade agreements as it negotiates new terms.
"Worst Job" ever
Other aides insulted Trump behind his back. Chief of Staff John Kelly called Trump an "idiot," and said, "We're in Crazytown. ... This is the worst job I've ever had."
Trump treated top aides with scorn, the book says, telling Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that he was past his prime and calling Attorney General Jeff Sessions "mentally retarded."
Kelly, in remarks released by the White House, said he never called the president an idiot and called the story "total BS."
Trump has grown paranoid and anxious over an ongoing federal inquiry into whether his campaign colluded with Russia in Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election, prompting aides to compare Trump to former President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, Woodward reported.
Trump's former lawyer John Dowd conducted a mock interview with Trump to convince him that he would commit perjury if he agreed to talk to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Russia investigation, the book says.
Trump did not speak with him until the manuscript was complete, the paper said. "So I have another bad book coming out. Big deal," Trump told Woodward, according to a transcript of a telephone call released by the Post.
Investigators later found Rey with his newborn and 2-year-old daughter, along with bags of body parts, at a storage shed in Lenexa, Kansas.
Rey is not charged in his wifes death, but faces child endangerment charges in Kansas and Missouri and is charged with abandonment of a corpse in Missouri. (Representational Image)
Kansas: A man testified Tuesday that he spent about eight hours cutting up his wifes body after she died at a Missouri hotel because he was afraid authorities would take away his children.
Justin Rey, 36, said protecting his family was the reason he didnt call for medical help after his wife delivered a baby at the hotel in October and afterward when she killed herself, The Kansas City Star reported. Investigators later found Rey with his newborn and 2-year-old daughter, along with bags of body parts, at a storage shed in Lenexa, Kansas.
Rey is not charged in his wifes death, but faces child endangerment charges in Kansas and Missouri and is charged with abandonment of a corpse in Missouri. He took the unusual step of testifying at his preliminary hearing in Kansas, with defense attorney Zane Todd saying Rey wanted to correct some witness testimony. After Tuesdays hearing, a not guilty plea was entered for Rey to Johnson County, Kansas, charges of two counts of aggravated child endangerment and two counts of contributing to a childs misconduct.
Its something I had to do, Rey testified. My family is very dear to me. Its something I had to do to protect my family.
One officer who met Rey at the storage unit said the 2-year-old appeared unhealthy and almost looked like she had cancer. The baby had a serious eye infection, according to several witnesses. The children were put in protective custody.
Rey has said in the past that his wife died in childbirth, but Lenexa police detective Shannon Murphy testified that Rey told her his wife had killed herself. After having his children pose for photographs with her body, Rey said he skinned her like a fish, Murphy testified. Murphy said Rey flushed body parts that would not fit in containers down the toilet.
Deputy Johnson County Coroner Charles Glenn testified that a number of stab were wounds found on some parts of Jessica Reys body but that it wasnt possible to tell whether the injuries were inflicted before or after she died.
Rey told the court that he and the children had not been living at the storage locker, as witnesses said, but had been there for only about 11 hours while preparing to travel to Arizona, where he said he intended to give his wife a proper burial. He also said his children were well cared for.
I didnt endanger my children, he testified. My children were perfectly healthy.
Rey also denied flushing anything but a placenta down the toilet.
His trial on the Kansas charges was scheduled for Nov. 5.
Rey also was charged in November in California in the death of Sean Ty Ferel, a Palm Springs resident who disappeared after vacationing with Rey in 2016. Ferels body hasnt been found, but his blood was detected in the trunk of his vehicle after Rey was involved in an accident with it months after Ferel disappeared.
Due farmacisti e un chimico catanesi hanno fondato un'azienda che, con criteri di economia circolare, utilizzano e valorizzano piante aromatiche e agrumi del territorio da cui ricavano prodotti con proprieta fitoterapeutiche, antibatteriche e antimicotiche
Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh) [India], Sept 02 (ANI): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday informed that two centers will be established for Rs 104 crore in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College for timely diagnosis and treatment of encephalitis and vector-borne diseases.
"Two important centres will be established for Rs 104 crore in Gorakhpur's BRD medical college for timely diagnosis and treatment of encephalitis and vector-borne diseases," Adityanath told reporters here.
"The first is Regional Medical Research Center and the second is Combined Rehabilitation Center for children disabled due to encephalitis," he added.
In August 2017, as many as 60 infants died, allegedly due to lack of oxygen supply. The hospital authorities had denied the claims and said that the infants died due to encephalitis.
Adityanath, however, had refuted the reports claiming that 60 infants died due to a shortage of oxygen at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur in August last year, adding that the incident took place due to "internal politics" at the hospital. (ANI)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
by NAT da Polis
Autocephaly means that the Ukrainian Orthodox will no longer have to depend on the jurisdiction of Moscow. The possibility of a schism is whispered. But this is unlikely: it is administrative and not dogmatic. The claim of primacy by Constantinople. Ethnophyletism, the disease of orthodoxy. An analysis of the meeting between the two patriarchs.
Istanbul (AsiaNews) - The meeting between the ecumenical patriarch Bartholomew and the patriarch of all the Russias Kirill, on 31st August at the Phanar, lasted just over three hours. The topic was the discussion or exchange of opinions "on bilateral issues", but the most burning issue that the whole Orthodox world talks about is that of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The request was presented to the ecumenical patriarchate by the Ukrainians last April.
Autocephaly means granting the patriarchate of Kiev the right to manage ecclesiastical affairs on its own and not depend on the jurisdiction of Moscow.
As already stated by AsiaNews, the meeting between Bartholomew and Kirill was "fruitful", "cordial", "sincere".
But beyond the news, some considerations must be made.
First of all because of the visit, requested by Kirill himself. The answer is simple: Moscow has perceived that the separation of the Ukrainian Church is a fact that is now unavoidable. As a result, almost 30 million - many would be the Orthodox faithful of the Ukrainian ethnic group - plus their diaspora will refer to the patriarchate of Kiev and no longer in Moscow. Kirill has had to put aside the superb superiority towards Constantinople and has rushed to Bartholomew. But a few weeks earlier, he had tried to get Putin to phone Ankara, to stop Bartholomew in the procedures for the granting of autocephaly to Kiev.
The role of the patriarchate of Constantinople
The Metropolitan of France, Emanouel, eloquently said at the end of the meeting between the two patriarchs: "The ecumenical patriarchate does not threaten anyone, but neither accepts threats from anyone". He also noted the long experience of Constantinople as the mother Church of the Orthodox world.
Two days ago, at the conclusion of the syntax of the 100 metropolitans of the ecumenical patriarchate spread throughout the world (see picture 2), Bartholomew himself said: "If during the first millennium the Church had to face the question of heresies, in the second millennium to date, the phenomenon of ethnophyletism has emerged, wishing to erase a long Oriental tradition until it looks like a Church without a shepherd. Our strength - concluded Bartholomew - is exhausted in the exercise of the diakonia in the service of the Mystery of the Church and not in the pursuit of the exercise of a secular power, imbued with pride".
Moscow seems to have understood that it was a great mistake not to have participated in the work of the Pan-Orthodox Synod of Crete in June 2016, withdrawing a week before the beginning of the work. There had been discussion of the future of the Orthodox planet, of its relations with other Christian confessions, of inter-religious dialogue, of the future of the world, but also of relations between the Orthodox Churches, the Diaspora, the granting of autonomy and autocephaly.
It should be remembered that according to the canons of the Eastern Church, the granting of autocephaly has always been the prerogative of the ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople. Moscow also received it from Constantinople in 1589. And it received it - even though removed by the patriarch Jeremiah II - as a result of pressure from the political power in Moscow, which at the time had proclaimed itself the third Rome.
Also for political reasons, and always on the part of the ecumenical patriarchate, the concessions of the autocephaly to the Churches of Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Poland, Georgia, etc ...
Just on the eve of Kirill's visit to the Phanar, with a rather harsh letter, the Serbian Patriarch Irineos invited Bartholomew to reflect that a possible grant of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church, demanded by Kiev's political power, would be a cause for schism Orthodox world.
He immediately had to collect the response from various Orthodox circles, who reminded him that the Serbian Church had also received autocephaly following political pressure, and also reminded him that when in 1878 the Patriarchate of Constantinople had condemned the ethnophyletism, everyone still preferred to follow their own path.
Conclusion: what will happen?
Certainly there will be various pressures and threats. Some speak of a schism in the orthodox context, such as that between Luther and Rome. But it is improbable: all this would be foreign to the Orthodox tradition, because it is not a dogmatic question, but an administrative question. Perhaps there will be a temporary break in communion.
According to well-informed sources, Kiev will be granted concession and at the same time it will allow Moscow to keep under 10 million Russian-speakers under its own jurisdiction, to save face.
A great Greek thinker of the 1970s, Gabriele Arnellos, profound connoisseur of the Christian world and convinced ecumenist, affirms that the Church of Christ stopped in Jerusalem: afterwards it evolved into a secularized self-referential institution. For this reason, it has been incapable of developing the Gospel message, and has become an accomplice to and succubus of the strong powers of this world.
Manila, Sep 5: The mayor of Ronda, a city in the central Philippines, was shot dead on Wednesday morning when several men broke into his office, marking the 16th elected local official to be assassinated under the current administration.
Ronda mayor Mariano Blanco III was pronounced dead at 2.25 a.m local time (18.25 GMT on Tuesday) upon arriving at a nearby hospital in Barili town, police senior inspector JR Palcon said, Efe reported.
According to Palcon, several men who are yet to be identified arrived at the Town Hall in a van at around 1.30 a.m and opened fire inside the municipal office of Ronda in Cebu province where Blanco was said to be sleeping.
Blanco was on the blacklist of public officials allegedly involved in the illegal drugs trade that was ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte as part of his war on drugs campaign. Blanco was stripped of his authority over police in 2017, although he denied involvement in illegal drugs.
In February, lawyer Jonah John Ungab, Blanco's nephew and deputy mayor of Ronda, was also shot dead after attending a court hearing with his client Kerwin Espinosa.
In July, the League of Municipalities of the Philippines - which comprises 68 mayors from the main cities in the country - requested a meeting with the President to address the assassinations of local officials and their involvement with the government's so-called "narco list."
Started by Duterte in 2016, the war on drugs has unleashed violence in the country, with more than 4,500 suspects killed in police raids and more than 23,500 unsolved murder cases.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 05, 2018 11:14 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Sana'a/Riyadh, Sep 5: Yemen's Houthi rebels on Tuesday said that they had launched four ballistic missiles towards a town located in southern Saudi Arabia, and Saudi media reported that those projectiles were successfully intercepted.
The Yemeni rebel-controlled news agency Saba reported that the insurgent group fired four ballistic missiles at the Aramco refinery and a petrochemical factory in the port city of Jizan, near Saudi Arabia's border with Yemen, using Badr-1 projectiles, Efe reported.
For its part, the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV channel reported that the Saudi air defences intercepted two missiles launched by the Houthi rebels, without giving further details on their target.
The Houthis often announce ballistic missile attacks on Saudi territory, including facilities of the oil giant Aramco as well as other official and public targets, and even have claimed attacks on Riyadh.
In Saudi towns bordering Yemen, the impact of these projectiles has caused material damage and fatalities in recent years.
A Saudi-led military coalition comprising Sunni Arab countries has intervened in Yemen since March 2015 to fight against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is currently living in exile in Saudi Arabia.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 05, 2018 08:38 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Spain has halted the sale of missiles to Saudi Arabia amid concerns about their use against civilians in its war with Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Spains defence ministry has launched a process to cancel the contract between Spain and Saudi Arabia signed in 2015 for 400 laser-guided munitions and will pay back the $ 10 million already paid for the weapons, broadcaster Cadena Ser reported on Tuesday.
"We confirm the news," Aljazeera quoted an unnamed spokeswoman at Spain's defence ministry as saying, who declined to give any additional details.
The cancellation of the contract reportedly began in July, shortly after Spains socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez took office. Before ousting his conservative predecessor in a no-confidence vote, Sanchez had slammed the governments arms sales to the Saudi government.
Spain now joins Sweden, Canada, Finland, Norway, Belgium and Germany in canceling weapons deals with Saudi Arabia for its actions in the Yemen conflict.
More than 6,000 civilians have been killed in Yemens conflict, many of them as a result of coalition airstrikes. A report by the United Nations in August has named the Saudi-led coalition for air strikes on many civilian structures including hospitals and markets without any concern toward minimising civilian deaths.
Human Rights Watch has called a Saudi airstrike on a bus full of schoolchildren earlier this month an apparent war crime. More than 40 children were killed in the air raid, and 19 more wounded.
There also seems to be growing dissention within Saudi Arabia over the governments actions in Yemen. According to a report by Aljazeera, a Saudi prince has told protesters in Britain's capital that the wider royal family ought not to be blamed for what is happening in the region, pointing the finger instead at the "king and his heir apparent".
The comments can be heard in a video that captured an encounter outside an unnamed London location between Prince Ahmed bin Abdelaziz - one of the few remaining sons of the founder of Saudi Arabia - and a group of activists chanting slogans such "down, down, the Al Saud" and "criminal family Al Saud".
: " " : " "! : " " ! pic.twitter.com/4gMbfZzfdO (@barqnewskw) September 3, 2018
Translation: Prince Ahmed bin Abdelaziz, King Salman's brother, heard opposition figures chanting "down down Al Saud" so he retorted, "All of the Al Sauds can't be blamed!? There are people responsible for the state of war in Yemen."
Saudi Arabia has launched a vicious campaign against Yemen by blocking its ports which has created a famine in the country with 22 million Yemenis in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. The architect of this campaign is being blamed as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who also serves as the Kingdoms defence minister.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 05, 2018 08:17 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
For Fr Paul Karam, the situation remains challenging. Only a few families have gone home, and their fate remains uncertain. Syrian authorities have encouraged repatriation, but the situation remains unstable. Lebanon faces its own problem: both unemployment and poverty are close to 40 per cent.
Beirut (AsiaNews) A deal between the Lebanese government and Syrian emissaries has made it possible for several Syrian families to go home, but we cannot say that the situation has changed radically nor that most have returned, said Fr Paul Karam, president of Caritas Lebanon, speaking to AsiaNews.
The clergyman, who has been involved with war refugees for a long time, said that the situation is still challenging. Noting that the Lebanese want to see lasting peace to facilitate repatriation, he added that the emergency cannot be solved quickly.
Yesterday, hundreds of Syrian refugee families left Lebanon for their homeland in buses from the cities of Tripoli (northern Lebanon), Nabatieh (south), as well as Shebaa and Bourj Hammoud. Lebanese authorities "facilitated their return" by coordinating the operation with their Syrian counterpart.
Recently, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Syria is ready to welcome the return of a million refugees thanks to an improvement in the situation on the ground and the reconstruction work had started in collaboration with Moscow.
However, in light of the actual situation on the ground, such a claim is far too optimistic for many observers and Caritas.
One of the consequences of the still ongoing civil war that broke out seven years ago is the displacement of millions of desperate people around the Middle East as well as Europe, North America and Australia.
Lebanon is one of the countries carrying one of the heaviest burdens, namely a million Syrian refugees in a country of four million people, plus long-term Palestinian refugees.
The situation has reached a breaking point, with huge strains on the economy and public services as well as the civilian population.
The government and NGOs (including Christian groups) have spent a lot of money in the past few years to "protect, promote and integrate" refugees, which Pope Francis encourages in his message for this years World Day of Migrants and Refugees.
"No one has precise information about the fate of those who have returned, whether they returned to their homes and region, said the clergyman. Although something is happening and some people are going back, the issue remains unresolved.
"In recent weeks, several families returned to Syria for the Muslim holidays before coming back to Lebanon at the end of the celebrations. The Syrian government encourages repatriation, but it is still a long process."
The offensive against Idlib is another major headache because it could turn into another humanitarian emergency with international repercussions that could trigger a US-led Western intervention.
Despite early attempts at reconstruction, Syria is a nation that has been almost completely destroyed; for most people, life is one of instability and destabilisation. The international community is not blameless since it failed to manage the crisis.
For Fr Paul, it will take "many years for Syria to get back on its feet. Lebanon too will need time to overcome its current difficulties.
In Lebanon, "Over 38 per cent of the population is unemployed and a similar percentage lives below the poverty line. We are going back, paying dearly for other people's policies.".
In this context, the Lebanese Church "continues to help" even if "it is increasingly difficult to promote projects and find funding since money and energy are increasingly in short supply."
Nov 27, 2017, 12:10pm ET
Elon Musk warns of scary-fast humanoid robots: 'sweet dreams'
The executive says Boston Dynamics\' gymnastic humanoid robot will be so fast \"you\'ll need a strobe light to see it\" in just a few years.
Elon Musk has called attention to Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot in his latest warning over the dangers of artificial intelligence and robots in coming years.
A recent YouTube video shows Atlas gracefully jumping between elevated platforms and performing a nearly perfect backflip, without the tether that had protected the expensive humanoid machine just a few years ago when it awkwardly traversed a pile of rubble in an earlier lab test.
"This is nothing. In a few years, that bot will move so fast you'll need a strobe light to see it," Musk said of the viral video. "Sweet dreams"
The visionary executive then reiterated his call for more regulation, arguing that AI and robotics should be treated the same way as food, drugs, aircraft and cars.
"Public risks require public oversight," he said. "Getting rid of the FAA wouldn't make flying safer."
Disgraced Google and Uber roboticist Anthony Levandowski -- the star engineer at the center of the Waymo-Uber lawsuit -- has taken a different approach, forming a religion to worship the coming AI-based 'Godhead.'
Sep 5, 2018, 3:55am ET
VW trims Passat line-up in preparation for new model
The current Passat is down to just two trim levels.
Volkswagen has pared down the Passat line-up to two trim levels for 2019. It's likely the last change the company will make to the current-generation model because its replacement is believed to be right around the corner.
The firm axed the S, SEL, and GT trim levels, according to The Car Connection. This leaves the Wolfsburg Edition and SE R-Line models. Pricing information and an on-sale date haven't been released yet.
The GT (pictured) leaves the Volkswagen portfolio after a single model year; it made its debut earlier this year at the Detroit auto show. The thinner line-up also announces the end of the line for the V6 engine. Moving forward, the Passat will only be offered with a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine bolted to a six-speed automatic transmission.
What's next?
The move is hardly surprising. 2019 will likely be the current Passat's last model year on the market because development of its successor is nearly finished. It will again be designed with an emphasis on the American market, meaning it won't share much with the European-spec model, but it will shift to the modular MQB platform. The Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant will continue to build the model.
"The Passat will get a great successor. It will be great-looking, and most likely more Americanized. We are very much looking forward to it," said Hinrich Woebcken, the head of Volkswagen's North American division, in a recent interview with Digital Trends.
We expect to see the next-generation Passat make its debut in the coming months.
Photo by Ronan Glon.
The owner of a dangerous dog that terrorized a Palmer Township neighborhood is facing new charges.
Police said they were called Sunday morning to the home Rashon Clark shares with his girlfriend on Stonecreek Court. The girlfriend owns the home, and did not want Clark there, police Detective Jim Alercia said.
Township officers found Clark leaving the home out the back door, when he ran away from officers through the house, Alercia said.
Clark allegedly resisted arrest, but was eventually taken into custody.
Palmer Township officers learned Clark was wanted on a warrant out of New Jersey.
Clark was sent to Northampton County Prison without bail while awaiting extradition, records show, and Palmer Township police filed charges of resisting arrest and flight to avoid apprehension.
Clark was convicted last month of summary offenses, including harboring a dangerous dog, following a trial in district court. Clark has appealed the verdicts to county court.
Clark's attorney, Paul Bender, said Kadafi was surrendered to Palmer Township police on Aug. 20, and the intent was for the dog to be euthanized.
Bender said he was unaware of the new criminal charges against Clark.
Because the dog was surrendered, Clark will not have to meet legal requirements for housing a dangerous dog, and the dog would not be listed on the state registry under Clark's address.
The girlfriend was also charged in connection with Kadafi. Records show she pleaded guilty to two counts of letting a prohibited dog run free, while the other summary counts were withdrawn.
Clark was trying to get the same deal with police by surrendering the dog, Bender said, but did not do it in time to meet a deadline.
Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Shawn Christy, who has been on the run for more than two months after threatening President Donald Trump and Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli, broke into a Luzerne County business and stole another gun among other items, auhtorities say.
Troopers from the Hazleton Barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police responded Wednesday to Skitco Iron Works in Hazle Township for the burglary report, according to a news release. Money, food and a Beretta shotgun were missing, police said.
Several law enforcement agencies searched the area but Christy remains free, police said.
"If an alarm is activated within a house/business, contact 911 immediately to allow law enforcement officials to properly check the property," police said.
Christy should be considered armed and dangerous, police said. Do not approach him and call 911 immediately, police said.
Christy, a Maple Shade, New Jersey, native who last lived in McAdoo, Schuylkill County in Pennsylvania, has been spotted as far away as Kentucky and has stolen vehicles, weapons and other items. He is wanted on various local warrants, including out of Northampton County.
He is also sought on a federal warrant issued June 19 alleging Facebook threats stating, "Keep it up Morganelli, I promise I'll put a bullet in your head as soon as I put one in the head of President Donald J. Trump," authorities have said.
A reward was offered of up to $20,000 for information that directly leads to Christy's arrest.
Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A Phillipsburg man is accused of beating a female passenger and shattering a passenger side window of a vehicle after leaving the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem.
Luis Manuel Lazu, 44, of the 600 block of South Main Street, is charged in the attack.
Bethlehem police at 1:20 a.m. Saturday were called to the Turkey Hill convenience store, 1140 Hellertown Road, for a report of a female victim attacked by a man who since fled the area.
The victim, who was visibly upset, had injuries to her chin and blood around her nose, as well as on her hands and clothing, city police said.
The victim told investigators Lazu began beating her after the pair left the Sands. The attack took place as Lazu was driving a 2002 Honda Accord and the victim was in the passenger seat, according to police.
The assault led to the woman briefly losing consciousness and the passenger side window becoming shattered, police said. Court records do not indicate a relationship between the pair or what led to the assault.
Hellertown police found the Honda and Lazu in the parking lot of the Vassis Drive Inn, 1666 Main St. in the borough. Officers found blood and hair in the vehicle, in which the hair color matched the color of the victim's hair, according to police.
The Honda, police said, also was found with blood on the passenger side seat, dashboard and door, as well as glass was found throughout the passenger side seat from the smashed window.
Lazu is charged with simple assault and harassment. He was arraigned Sunday before District Judge Douglas Schlegel, who set bail at $25,000. In lieu of bail, Lazu was taken to Northampton County Prison.
Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
by Fr Stanislaus
A priest in charge of a Henan parish complains about the ban on displaying sacred images and attempts by the faithful to accommodate government authorities. The faith cannot be abandoned or betrayed, nor can it be negotiated. What cannot be asserted or defended in public is not faith.
Rome (AsiaNews) Fr Stanislaus is an elderly priest in a Henan parish. Speaking to a member of his congregation, who justified hiding sacred objects to obey local authorities, he said The time of persecution has not yet arrived! [. . .] Should greater persecution come, one might understand your fear and betray Jesus Christ, but now, it's not the time yet! For the clergyman, hiding images is a bit like betraying Jesus Christ, especially since the Chinese constitution guarantees religious freedom.
it is public knowledge that a campaign is underway in various Chinese provinces (Henan, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, etc.) to remove sacred images, destroy crosses, wipe out religious signs and replace them with the Chinese flag and party slogans. This is part of a campaign to sinicise religion and implement new religious regulations.
The story that follows shows how local authorities are willing to pay people to obey the new rules, fearful of what their superiors might do. In his last words, Fr Stanislaus says that faith should not be negotiated, that believers should be steadfast in their faith.
When I fought for [seized] Church property[1], I organised demonstrations with the faithful several times, conducting sit-ins at the entrance of townhall. Only this way did we get a chance to talk with officials. Unfortunately, the result was not satisfactory, something is obvious given the current regime.
In private, an official told me: "It was not bad to demonstrate, because at least something moved". Then, for my ears only, he added: "For some time you have been promoting [demonstrations]. You should know this: even if you use the power of the masses, you can only attract the attention of some officials but never touch communist power. So, take advantage of this moment; otherwise who knows when it will be possible to solve the problems."
Recently, in a discussion on religious policy, one official said again: "You should realise that this is a communist world: you must follow what the leaders want; so, dont push it, [you shouldnt] study in depth the Constitution; above all, you should not be stubborn."
To that I said: "I do not want to be stubborn either, but I'm a priest. How can I be a priest if I do things contrary to the words of the Bible and Catholic doctrine?"
The official answered: "Let us then do everything through the Patriotic Association?"
I said: "They too are believers. But will they have the courage?"
The official did not answer.
A few days ago, a believer told me: "Village officials have been putting pressure on us for a long time, that we take away the sacred images. They tell us that they are willing to pay us, because if we do not, they will be in trouble.
The believer asked: Arent we legal? What have we done wrong with sacred images?"
[The officials] said: "We have not said that you are not legal. You have religious freedom and you can enter the church to pray, but we also have our job and above all our superiors checking up on us . . ."
I wanted to expand this discussion with the officials, but no one answers anymore.
Such is their world! A world contrary to laws and justice!
It is evident that among Communist Party leaders, many know how to discern what is true from what is false, but they live in in such a social context and can only adapt. Few have the courage to go against the current. In particular, when there are personal interests, they choose to betray their beliefs.
But we are different!
We are different!
Different!
We are men of faith. What is faith? Faith is the jewel that must be held onto for life! What can be abandoned or betrayed is not faith; what can be negotiated is not faith; what cannot be asserted and defended in public is not faith!
We are not accepted by the world; we are not loved by the world; we have often been boycotted with great opposition. This is normal. When we are persecuted, people rejoice and applaud. This is normal. Therefore, there is nothing surprising; we must persevere.
A believer told me: "I am not against faith; I only put the sacred images in the inside rooms."
I said: "One cannot!"
I was very angry.
The time of persecution has not yet arrived! Do we hide the faith only because of some small argument over faith? Should greater persecution come, one might understand your fear and betray Jesus Christ, but now, it's not the time yet!
Perhaps, it will be more difficult in the future but only by being steadfast can we be saved.
Jesus said: "Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father" (Matthew 10:32).
Even if you deny it informally, it is still a denial of faith.
Let me say this again: if you deny the faith, we shall no longer be Christian brothers. But this does not matter, because the important thing is your relationship with the Lord. If you want to come back, you'll find me again; otherwise, we'll never see each other again.
[1] During the Mao era, many churches and Christian institutions were seized "for the good of the people". Later, with the rise of Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese government enacted a law to return assets to their rightful owners, unless they were used in the public interest. Many parishes and dioceses applied for the restitution of their property, often without success. Many assets had been registered as personal property of members of the Party and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. For more on this, see Church endures economic persecution as the Patriotic Association tries to seize Church property.
Major General Michael Beary, a man with strong links to the Curragh Defence Forces Training Centre was yesterday awarded the Distinguished Service Medal with Honour by Paul Kehoe, Minister with responsibility for Defence.
Brig Gen Beary is a graduate of the Irish Defence Forces Command and Staff School and a 2009 graduate of the National War College, Defence University, Washington D.C. from which he holds a Master of Science degree in National Security studies.
Read also: Plans for Newbridge Maxol station and store revamp including new drive thru
Addressing attendees at the ceremony in Cathal Brugha Barracks, the Minister thanked Major General Beary on behalf of the Irish Government for his valuable contribution to United Nations missions and to the Irish Defence Forces.
"This award is for distinguished service characterised by outstanding qualities of leadership, diplomacy and devotion to duty. These qualities have been best demonstrated by you in your role as Head of Mission and Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and as Force Commander in the European Union Training Mission in Somalia," said Minister Kehoe.
Your distinguished service, in these appointments, has made a significant contribution to regional stability and world peace and enhanced the reputation of Ireland and its Defence Forces.
The Minister also thanked Major General Bearys wife and family for their support and noted that service does not come without sacrifice. That sacrifice falls most heavily on the family.
The United Nations paid tribute to Major General Beary during the ceremony.
A message from Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping, Jean Pierre Lacroix, was read out by Minister Kehoe.
It stated; The United Nations and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations were privileged to have Major General MichaelBeary at the leadership of UNIFIL. His exemplary dedication and integrity during his tenure as the Head of Mission and Force Commander were integral to the achievements accomplished by the Mission. His strong leadership, commitment to core peacekeeping values and principles and pro-active approach enabled UNIFIL to carry out its important mandate during a particularly challenging period....
The United Nations conveyed its gratitude to Major General Beary, the Government of Ireland and the Irish Defence Forces for their unwavering commitment and support to United Nations peacekeeping.
Major General Beary received his early education at Patrician College, Ballyfin, County Laois and completed a B.Sc Degree in University College, Galway.
He is a graduate of the Smurfit Business School, University College, Dublin and hold a Master of Business Studies in Organisational Studies.
Brig Gen Beary is a graduate of the Irish Defence Forces Command and Staff School and a 2009 graduate of the National War College, Defence University, Washington D.C. from which he holds a Master of Science degree in National Security studies.
A Naas restaurant has been fined for a breach of the environmental regulations after it left a container of used cooking oil on the street.
Kildare County Council prosecuted Il Fico Italian Restaurants Limited, with an address at Dublin Road, Naas.
The case came up at the September 3 sitting of Naas District Court when the company was prosecuted for failing to comply with a notices to get rid of the offending material, on May 22, 2017.
David McEntee, solicitor for the Council, said the company was pleading guilty to the offence.
Kildare County Council official, Dan Costigan, said the company had placed a container of used cooking oil on the street. He said the Council issued a notice asking it to remove it but it got no reply.
Judge Zaidan noted the used oil was in a container previously used for engine oil.
The court was told there was no evidence that the oil was being collected by a properly registered company (for that purpose). There was no order on costs made and the company was fined 700 and given six months to pay.
IFA President, Joe Healy, said the IFA National Council has supported the resolution from Leitrim IFA that an assessment of the social, economic and environmental impacts of afforestation within the county should be undertaken.
He said the level of afforestation in recent years, particularly by non-farmers and outside investors, was of major concern to farmers and rural communities in Co Leitrim.
In 2017, 10% of the national afforestation programme took place in Co. Leitrim. 536 hectares were established, with over half the area planted by non-farmers. The National Forestry Inventory completed by the Forest Service in 2017 showed that Leitrim is now the most forested county in Ireland, with 18.9% of the land area planted.
The level of afforestation within the county is disproportionate, said Mr Healy, particularly when you consider that the land area in Leitrim accounts for just 2.2% of the total land area in the country. The lack of balanced regional spread in the afforestation programme must be addressed.
The IFA President said that during a recent visit to Leitrim, he met with a delegation of farmers and saw first-hand the impact the level of forest cover was having on farm families and rural communities. Forestry represents a permanent land use change and its important that the social, economic and environmental impacts on rural communities are assessed.
Mr Healy said he would be seeking a meeting with Minister Doyle to get a commitment to fund an independent study in Co Leitrim on the impacts on afforestation.
The move from traditional agriculture to growing trees is associated with a range of impacts including changes in population, shifting income & employment opportunities, changes in agricultural land price trends, new demands on rural infrastructure particularly roads and considerable cultural change.
IFA Farm Forestry Chairperson, Pat Collins said that the removal of the farmer premium differential under the current programme is central to much of the opposition to forestry. The land is no longer owned by people living within the communities and any monies earned from grants, premiums and further timber earnings are leaving the local economy.
He said, As a result of the removal of the farmer premium differential, the perception of forestry among those living in rural Ireland has changed dramatically. A study on the social, economic and environmental impacts would help inform the debate and allow communities to plan appropriately.
THE Peoples Park could be home to a new war memorial, if proposals submitted to Limerick City and County Council get the green light.
A submission bearing the name of Edmund Pery, the seventh Earl of Limerick, is seeking permission for a structure to honour fallen civilian and military personnel from the city and county in World War One.
The family of Earl Edmund Pery donated the lands of the Peoples Park for civic use for Limerick, and this is why it is his name on the application.
At the heart of the memorial would be a four-metre high stone-central cross. As well as this, the plans show eight stone tablets, two metres high, inscribed with the names of all the victims.
The group delivering the project is the Limerick Civic Trust; the plan being one of the principal goals of its new chairman Thomas Wallace ODonnell for his term.
There would be three stone benches 3.7m long, and 0.45 metres high and associated gravel paths.
In supporting documents provided to council planners by eml architects, it was pointed out that a number of locations were considered for this memorial, including the City Gallery, and around the councils headquarters at Merchants Quay.
As the memorial commemorates the loss of Limerick people, it must be located in an environment conducive to reflection in a secure, central site, accessible to visitors and locals alike. The Peoples Park met the criteria to a much greater extent than any other location, the document stated.
The Earl of Limerick was advised of the project and was happy to support the proposal, pointing out that one of the fallen is the grandson of the third Earl of Limerick who leased the land for the Peoples Park in 1875. He was killed in 1918 aged 23, the document states.
Metropolitan mayor Daniel Butler says he would like to have seen more public consultation on this plan.
He added: For something that has been placed in a public realm, and the nature of what it is, I would have liked to have seen a bit more public input. Im happy to see us acknowledge who we have lost in the World War, but its just about how we do it.
Council planners are expected to make a decision on the application by Wednesday, October 17 next. Submissions are open until September 25.
LEADING Limerick designers are to donate their time and expertise as part of a unique nationwide strategy.
Mind over Matter, a new initiative backed by the Institute of Designers in Ireland (IDI), is taking place on Wednesday, October 10, World Mental Health Day.
The business-to-business event will see local designers provide their services for a nominal fee, with all proceeds doing to Aware, which provides support and information for people who experience depression or bipolar disorder.
Engine in Cecil Street was geared up for the launch of the initiative, which will take place on World Mental Health Day.
Designers will gather back there next month to provide support to companies.
A new scheme, Mind over Matter was inspired by an article that former IDI president Kim MacKenzie-Doyle read in 2016, which stated creatives are 25% more likely to suffer a mental health issue in their lifetime.
Blink Design managing director Louise Lawlor, the Limerick venue manager for the IDI initiative, said: This rang true for Kim on many levels, her grandfather took his own life, her father has experienced bouts of depression through his life, and this was only discussed in their family last year.
In Limerick, Gillian Barry, the head of innovation and enterprise in LIT chaired a panel of business leaders and design experts, who discussed the power of branding.
On that panel was Darren Smyth, the head of commercial at Shannon Group, Vicki OToole, the chief executive of Raheen packing firm JJ OTooles and Ms Lawlor.
Mr Smyth said: Collectively, we have a great opportunity to continue the very positive momentum around openly discussing mental health issues.
We have made great progress in the last decade but its essential that we continue to highlight issues around mental health and the mind over matter initiative will greatly assist in that mission.
Ms OToole, whose firm is the national sponsor of Mind Over Matter added: When JJ OToole was approached last year to be a national sponsor last year, I didnt hesitate for a second to get involved as it was ticking a lot of boxes for me both personally and for our business. Mind Over Matter is the perfect forum for our company to support mental wellness in the creative sector and we hope by doing so, and talking together more, we can make a difference.
Mind over Matter is supported by 200 designers from all over Ireland who are donating 1,500 hours with all funds raised being donated to Aware.
For more information, visit the campaigns website at www.idimindovermatter.ie, or telephone 087-0526215.
A PROPOSAL for a directly elected mayor would be favorably received by the people of Limerick, according to Senator Kieran ODonnell.
The proposal is contained in the letter sent by An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin in a bid to extend the confidence and supply agreement between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail which is due to expire this year.
Senator ODonnell said it was time the people of Limerick are given their say on having a directly elected mayor.
The Fine Gael leaders proposal is to hold a plebiscite on a directly elected mayor for Limerick next year.
I am delighted that an Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has reaffirmed Limericks premier status with this firm proposal for a directly elected Mayor here, Senator ODonnell said of the proposal, part of a package to extend the confidence and supply.
Importantly, it would provide a welcome opportunity for the people of Limerick to democratically decide by way of plebiscite whether to have a directly elected Mayor here. This vote would happen in 2019, possibly on the same day as the local elections.
Fine Gael said it was expected the plebiscite would be open to all the electorate in Limerick City and County council. Should it pass, the Government would then draw up legislation and if it proceeds through the Oireachtas, the first elections for Limerick voters for their directly elected Mayor could be held in 2020 or 2021.
The issue of a directly elected Mayor for Limerick has come up many times in the past. However, this is the first-time that any party is giving a definite intention to progress the matter in a defined timeline and allow the people to decide, Senator ODonnell said.
I believe that this proposal for a plebiscite will be favorably received by the people of Limerick, he added.
by Joe Pereira
Mother Teresa was the inspiration for the creation and modus operandi of one of Indias largest NGOs, the Kripa Foundation, which is dedicated to rehabilitating young addicts. Most addictions come from frustration, caused by economic problems, and the spiritual emptiness that comes with affluence. Yoga and eastern disciplines can help young people recover. Some suggestions are offered for the Youth Synod.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) Mother Teresa "saw the thirst of God in the youth", who were "frustrated, turning to all kinds of addictions", says Fr Joe Pereira. Writing for the feast day of the Mother of the poor, he describes her testimony and wisdom in welcoming young people, both the economically poor as well as the spiritually poor.
Fr Pereira is a member of the Kripa Foundation, one of Indias largest NGOs, whose focus is rehabilitating young people from all kinds of addictions. With 51 offices in 11 Indian states, the organisation has collaborated with Mother Teresa and her sisters in the past. The clergymans reflection is also meant as a suggestion for the upcoming Youth Synod (3-28 October 2018).
Mother Teresa is a beacon of hope for modern youth. Since the early 1980s, Mother Teresa has been our inspiration and model of caring by serving in variety of ways to attract the youth to Jesus. She was pained knowing that most of the poor hit rock bottom owing to all kinds of addictions in their youth.
She humbly consulted me and asked me to train her sisters. After that training she set up an addiction recovery centre in Tengra, Kolkata. It was especially for girls. She gave Kripa her numerous orphans turned addicts at Gangarampur and today the same Boy's Town is one of Kripa's largest rehabs in the country.
She saw in the youth a thirst for God and love and also saw that they were frustrated, turning to all kinds of addictions. She saw two types of youth. First the kind of frustrated youth owing to lack of opportunities to work and the other youth who, in spite of having material wealth, were spiritually bankrupt.
She recognized that these young people were searching for God and deep down they were very spiritual. She received many frustrated youths from abroad Europe and America and getting them involved in the service of the poorest of the poor won them over to a new form of spirituality. "[W]hatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me," (Mt 25:40).
She encouraged the work of Kripa by directing many lost in the world of addiction to the healing presence of Jesus in Kripa communities.
Building new communities with this concept of "Wounded Healers", many youths came back to the Church and got actively involved in works of love and mercy. Together with Mother Teresa's close associate Brother Roger of Taize, these youth communities have created a new image of the Church. Youth bodies as Pueri Cantores took this message to several countries.
These youth have created a new image of the Catholic Church as a Church that has taken an initiative to bring back those who walked away like the flower children and now have seen the rich heritage of spirituality in eastern disciplines like the practice of yoga for Christian Meditation (an initiative that has spread in over 120 countries!) and the use of eastern disciplines in the recovery programme in more than forty countries. The recent entrance of Kripa in China has given us a unique way to evangelize the youth as they are introduced to Jesus as the Supreme Yogi.
However, the efforts of bishops for the synod of youth needs a much broader vision to include the disillusioned youth and open the practice of faith and love beyond the boundaries of religions. I truly feel this vision is still wanting in the diocesan commissions. If the vision of Pope Francis is not included in our diocesan bodies we will again put old wine in new wine-shins and have it burst into wasted labour.
We need to create for our youth a community of love and faith that transcends these "churchy" boundaries and make Pope Francis's Church a truly Catholic Church without walls.
Anyone who mocks, provokes or upsets "public order, religious values and public morality" will be targeted. In addition to the prison, the perpetrators risk a fine of 800 thousand dollars. The government campaign continues against critical voices and dissidents. The 61-year-old religious leader Salman Odah risks death for asking for better relations with Qatar.
Riyadh (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Saudi Arabia intends to punish those who use satire online with the aim of "mocking, provoking or distorting public order, religious values and public morality". In a note signed by the prosecutor, it emerges that those who produce or share prohibited material will be allowed up to five years in prison and a fine of 800 thousand dollars.
Already in the past the government had exploited the laws against cybercrime to target dissidents and critical voices against the government and the highest religious and institutional authorities of the country. However, this latest announcement shows once more the iron fist used by Riyadh against those who satire or use the internet to share non-conformist ideas.
Since last year the government leadership has implemented a very harsh campaign against those who demand greater rights and freedom within society. There are dozens of arrests of critical voices or people "suspected" of entertaining "ties" with "foreign realities" and of providing financial support to "foreign enemies". So far none of the arrested persons have been indicted; activists are locked up in isolation cells and do not have contact with their families or lawyers.
These include female activists, human rights defenders, leading religious leaders of overly "reformist" and intellectual views. Measures that contrast with the flaunted openings and a series of reforms promoted in the context of the "Vision 2030" program wanted by the Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (Mbs). And they confirm, once again, how the Saudi kingdom remains an absolute Wahhabi monarchy, in which the least dissent is not admitted.
Among the prominent personalities arrested is the 61-year-old religious leader Salman Odah, who has over 14 million followers on Twitter. In recent days, the prosecutor has demanded the death penalty against the man on charges of "sedition" and "revolt", for publishing a post in which he hoped for "better relations" with Qatar.
The authorities invoked the death penalty against five other activists, including the female leader Israa al-Ghomgham, guilty of having joined anti-government protests promoted by the Shiite minority in Qatif.
Saturn's north pole hexagon in motion as seen by the now-defunct Cassini spacecraft.
A bizarre, hexagon-shaped vortex has formed above Saturn's north pole as the planet's northern hemisphere enters summer, data from the international Cassini-Huygens mission revealed. The unusual vortex is circulating hundreds of kilometers above the clouds in the stratosphere layer of the ringed planet's atmosphere, a new study reported.
This warm polar vortex resembles another, previously discovered hexagon formation, also located at Saturn's north pole, but lower in the atmosphere. But how and whether these bizarre low- and high-altitude hexagons are related remains a mystery to scientists.
"Either a hexagon has spawned spontaneously and identically at two different altitudes, one lower in the clouds and one high in the stratosphere, or the hexagon is in fact a towering structure spanning a vertical range of several hundred kilometers," Leigh Fletcher, lead author of the study and planetary scientist at the University of Leicester in England, said in a statement. [Cassini's Greatest Hits: Best Photos of Saturn and Its Moons]
NASA's Cassini spacecraft arrived at the Saturn system in 2004, when it was summer in the planet's southern hemisphere and winter in the northern hemisphere. At the time, the spacecraft documented a circular, warm, high-altitude vortex at Saturn's south pole but nothing at the north pole.
Prior to Cassini, NASA's Voyager spacecraft had revealed a lower-altitude north-pole hexagon in the 1980s. That hexagon is a long-lasting wave thought to be related to Saturn's rotation, similar to the way Earth's rotation influences the Polar Jet Stream.
The Cassini spacecraft took a closer look at this previously discovered lower-altitude hexagon formation with several instruments, including the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) a device that measures the temperature and composition of objects by capturing infrared light, according to NASA.
Cassini's view of the strange hexagon vortex high above Saturn's north pole. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Hampton University)
But because it was winter in Saturn's northern hemisphere at that time, temperatures in the stratosphere above the north pole were around minus 252 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 158 degrees Celsius) too cold for reliable CIRS observations. The extreme temperatures meant Cassini had to wait for summer, and as a result, the high-altitude regions of Saturn's north pole went unexplored for years.
"One Saturnian year spans roughly 30 Earth years, so the winters are long," Sandrine Guerlet, study co-author and planetary researcher at the Dynamic Meteorology Library in France, said in the statement. "Saturn only began to emerge from the depths of northern winter in 2009 and gradually warmed up as the northern hemisphere approached summertime," Guerlet explained.
Years later, as temperatures in Saturn's northern hemisphere gradually increased, Cassini's CIRS discovered the strange polar vortex high above the north pole. "As the polar vortex became more and more visible, we noticed it had hexagonal edges," Guerlet said.
Cassini captured images of both a low-altitude and high-altitude hexagon-shaped vortex only at Saturn's north pole, while the vortex discovered years earlier at Saturn's south pole was circular. This discrepancy between Saturn's poles led the researchers to suspect that there are likely different processes at work at the planet's two poles. The different vortexes suggest that the poles are asymmetrical or that the north pole vortex was still developing and continued developing after Cassini's demise in Sept. 2017, Fletcher said.
It's unlikely that the newly described vortex is arising from a single, giant hexagonal column of clouds above Saturn's north pole, because the planet's winds change drastically with altitude. And Fletcher and his colleagues previously thought that waves, like those from the earlier-discovered north pole hexagon, couldn't propagate upwards, so would remain trapped in the cloud-tops.
But Saturn presents a potential anomaly in how waves behave.
"One way that wave 'information' can leak upwards is via a process called evanescence, where the strength of a wave decays with height but is just about strong enough to still persist up into the stratosphere," Fletcher said.
Unraveling the mystery of how Saturn's high-altitude hexagon vortex formed may help scientists learn more about atmospheric effects, such as how events lower in an atmosphere affect the environment at higher altitudes.
"We simply need to know more," Fletcher said.
The team published its results Monday (Sept. 3) in the journal Nature Communications.
Original article on Live Science.
The ruined Christian church in Turkey's Lake Iznik is thought to have been built around A.D. 390
When Mustafa Sahin first saw photographs of the submerged ancient church under the waves of Turkey's Lake Iznik, he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.
The head of archaeology at Bursa Uludag University had been searching the shores of the lake for several years, but it wasn't until local government surveyors showed him some aerial photographs in 2014 that he realized the lake itself covered the ancient ruins he was looking for.
"When I first saw the images of the lake, I was quite surprised to see a church structure that clearly," Sahin told Live Science in an email. "I was doing field surveys in Iznik [since 2006], and I hadn't discovered such a magnificent structure like that."
The ruined ancient church lies beneath about 10 feet (3 meters) of water, about 160 feet (50 m) from the shore of Lake Iznik, near the western tip of Turkey and about a 2-hour drive from Istanbul. [See Photos of the Submerged Basilica in Turkey]
Archaeologists think that the Roman-style church, known as a basilica, was built on the shore of the lake around A.D. 390, when Iznik was known as Nicea and Istanbul was Constantinople the eastern center of the Roman Empire. The archaeologists now think this church may hide another treasure beneath it: a pagan temple.
In A.D. 740, an earthquake destroyed the church, which later sank beneath the lake's surface, leaving the ruins submerged and forgotten until they were rediscovered, more than 1,600 years later.
Before any of these riches are lost to history, Sahin and local government leader Alinur Aktas have called for the site to be established as Turkey's first underwater archaeological museum.
Underwater archaeology
Sahin and staff from Izniks Archaeology Museum have carried out underwater excavations of the submerged basilica since 2015. The hot climate of the region means that the lake is filled with algae, which can reduce the visibility during the excavation dives to a few inches, Sahin said. The archaeologists use special vacuum equipment to carry soil from the underwater excavations to the shore, where it can be sifted for artifacts.
The submerged ancient church lies just a short distance from the Turkish city of Iznik, known in Roman times as Nicea. (Image credit: Mustafa Sahin/Lake Iznik Excavation Archive)
Sahin said that the most important finds included several human graves beneath the basilica's main transverse wall, known as the bema wall, referring to a raised platform used by the clergy.
Several coins found in those graves date from the reigns of the Roman emperors Valens (who ruled from A.D. 364 to 378) and Valentinian II (who ruled from A.D. 375 to 392), which showed the basilica was built after A.D. 390, Sahin said. [Photos: Gladiators of the Roman Empire]
Sahin believes that the basilica was dedicated to St. Neophytos, who was put to death in Nicea by the Romans in A.D. 303, during the reign of the emperor Diocletian.
Ten years later, in A.D. 313, the emperor Constantine the Great issued the Edict of Milan, establishing religious tolerance for Christianity throughout the Roman Empire; Neophytos became celebrated as an early Christian martyr.
The city of Nicea itself became famous throughout the Christian world in A.D. 325, when Constantine convened the first council of church leaders thereto determine the core beliefs of the religion, which he promoted throughout the pagan Roman Empire.
Temple mystery
But the mystery of the submerged ruins in Lake Iznik may be even older than Christianity.
Sahin said that the basilica may have been built on top of a pagan temple to Apollo, a Greek and Roman sun god sometimes associated with Jesus in the early Christian period.Roman records related that the emperor Commodus, who ruled the Roman empire from A.D. 180 to 192, built a temple to Apollo at Nicea outside the city fortifications.
Archaeologists think the Christian church was built around A.D. 390 on a site that may have been a pagan temple to Apollo. (Image credit: Mustafa Sahin/Lake Iznik Excavation Archive )
Some early coins and fragments of an ancient lamp discovered at the church site hint at an even earlier structure, Sahin said. "Could this temple have been underneath the basilica remains?"
If the plans for the underwater museum are approved, construction could begin this year and it would open to visitors in 2019, Sahin said.
The museum buildings would include a 60-foot-high (20 m) tower, to enable the ruins to be seen from the shore, and a walkway out over the lake, above the submerged site itself.
The museum complex would also include a diving club, so tourists could explore the sunken ruins, and an underwater glass-walled room in the nave of the submerged basilica where visitors to the ancient church could pray, Sahin said.
Editor's Note: This article has been updated to correct a statement saying Istanbul is the capital of Turkey. Ankara is the current capital of Turkey.
Original article on Live Science.
About 7,200 years ago, farmers living near the Adriatic Sea packed clay pots full of soft cheese. And thousands of years later, archaeologists found traces of this fermented, cheesy goodness, preserved in chemical signatures left behind in the vessels.
This new evidence, found at two sites in what is now Croatia, dates to 5200 B.C. and pushes back cheese production in the Mediterranean by more than 2,000 years, scientists reported in a new study.
Cheese making was likely a game changer for early farmers; it may have helped lactose-intolerant adults ease into eating dairy, as fermentation reduces dairy's lactose content, the researchers wrote. And as a portable, preserved food, cheese would have been a dependable source of nutrition as farmers moved from the Mediterranean into Europe, an expansion that began around 7000 B.C. and lasted about 3,000 years, according to the study. [The 7 Perfect Survival Foods]
The Balkan Peninsula is considered to be the gateway for the spread of farming to northern Europe, lead study author Sarah McClure, an associate professor of anthropology with Pennsylvania State University's Department of Anthropology, told Live Science. Finding evidence that cheese production was taking hold alongside changes in farmers' settlement patterns, suggested a connection between cheese and human migration, McClure explained
Scientists found signs of cheese making lipids that indicated fermented dairy on clay vessels collected from two Neolithic villages on Croatia's Dalmatian coast: Pokrovnik and Danilo Bitinj, the researchers reported.
Archaeologists found traces of cheese lipids in pottery excavated at the archaeological site of Pokrovnik in Croatia. (Image credit: Andrew M.T. Moore)
Archaeological artifacts are often washed during preparation, and this process can destroy or damage residues that hint at how ceramic pots may have been used, McClure said. Fortunately, excavators preparing the sites' pottery decided to keep 10 percent of the pieces unwashed a choice that preserved the precious lipids that pointed to cheese production thousands of years ago.
"Residue analysis is relatively new in archaeology. People have been doing it for, maybe, 10 years," McClure said.
"Now that the fieldwork methods are catching up with the lab-work methods, we're seeing that we should be preserving at least a subsample without washing now that we know we can get better data from residues," she said.
And what was this ancient cheese like?
"I'd imagine it [was] sort of a fresh, firm cheese," McClure said, "not as squishy as a ricotta, with a little more heft to it like a farmer's cheese or perhaps like a feta."
A ripe history
People in the Mediterranean have been drinking milk for at least 9,000 years, researchers have determined based on remnants of dairy found on 500 pieces of prehistoric pottery from across the Mediterranean. And the earliest cheese-making evidence dates to about 7,500 years ago, discovered in 24 pottery fragments collected in Poland.
In some cases, actual pieces of ancient cheeses have survived to the present. In 2014, researchers reported finding yellowed hunks of preserved cheese wrapped around the necks of 3,800-year-old mummies in China; the cheese was likely buried with the corpses as a snack for the afterlife.
Another piece of ancient cheese, described by researchers as a "solidified, whitish mass," was recently found in an Egyptian tomb dating back 3,000 years, Live Science previously reported. But you wouldn't want to taste this cheese; molecular evidence in the cheese hints that it may have been infected with Brucella bacteria, which transmit the nasty gastrointestinal illness brucellosis.
The new findings were published online today (Sept. 5) in the journal PLOS ONE.
Original article on Live Science.
In 2016, U.S. Embassy staffers and their families in Cuba started experiencing strange symptoms: headaches, dizziness and insomnia, almost all of which were triggered by unusual, high-pitched sounds, like buzzing, humming or grinding metal.
The cause of these symptoms has puzzled experts for more than a year, but now, secretive "microwave weaponry" is emerging as a top suspect, according to The New York Times. The problem is, while everyone agrees that microwaves, bizarrely, can make people hear sounds, it's far from settled whether they could cause the kind of damage experienced by the Americans in Cuba.
"It isn't even close to a plausible theory," said Kenneth Foster, a professor of bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. [27 Oddest Medical Cases]
Hearing microwaves
The Cuban medical mystery began in November 2016, when staffers from the U.S. Embassy started reporting intense mechanical sounds in their homes and hotel rooms. A March 2018 study published in the journal JAMA on 21 of the 24 individuals thought to be exposed confirmed a range of long-term symptoms, including trouble with balance, headaches, hearing loss, sleep problems and trouble concentrating.
"These individuals appeared to have sustained injury to widespread brain networks without an associated history of head trauma," the authors of that study concluded.
So what could have caused brain injury without head trauma? Investigators have considered the possibility of sonic weapons or mass hysteria. According to ProPublica, FBI agents even questioned an insect biologist on the theory that the noises the diplomats heard could have been made by cicadas or other insects.
Several scientists, though, think that microwaves are the most likely culprit. The case, as argued by bioelectromagnetic researcher James Lin, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is based on the 1961 discovery that people can hear microwaves.
Hearing microwaves doesn't make much sense on the surface: Microwaves are electromagnetic energy that doesn't require a medium, like air or water, to transmit. Acoustic signals, on the other hand, are vibrations that do require a medium. Our ears, of course, are designed to pick up acoustic signals, not electromagnetic ones.
However, Lin told Live Science, people can hear microwaves that are focused in a beam and pulsed rapidly a phenomenon discovered in 1961 by a biologist named Allan Frey. It works like this: Each tiny microwave pulse, lasting 10 microseconds or so, hits the tissues of the head and heats them up an infinitesimal amount, about a millionth of a degree Celsius. Scientists have mathematically calculated this number, rather than measuring it directly.
"There is no instrument that I know of that can measure [the change]," Lin said.
These micropulses are quite different from the nearly continuous waves that heat food in a microwave oven, he said. The itsy-bitsy but very rapid temperature change they generate expands the water in the tissues of the head enough to generate vibrations an acoustic wave. This acoustic wave then travels through the soft tissue into the denser bone, which transmits the wave to the inner ear. From there, the sound wave is transformed into a nerve impulse, in the same way typical acoustic sounds are.
Typically, this sound is subtle, often compared to the click of two rocks knocking together underwater. Lin said an intense enough microwave beam, focused by a radar dish, could generate an acoustic wave inside the head big enough to damage brain tissue or the inner ear.
"To me, based on all the reported information, I don't think there is any other way that could happen," Lin said. "People are in the same room, [and] some people don't hear it; some people hear it. How would you target it? It has to be a beam of microwaves."
The case against microwaves
Then again, maybe not. It's impossible for a beam of microwave pulses to do auditory damage without essentially vaporizing the target, Foster told Live Science.
"You'd have to increase the intensity from anything that's been experimented by maybe seven or eight orders of magnitude, and then the subject would just go up in smoke," said Foster, who researched the possibility of microwave weapons for the U.S. Navy starting in the 1970s. The heat generated by the microwave pulses would simply be too intense, he said.
The military has tried to develop microwave devices to generate unpleasant or irritating sounds over the years, Foster said, but there is no way to get intense enough sounds to physically harm someone with excessive sound pressures without physically harming them with heat. The military does have an electromagnetic weapon called the Active Denial System, which uses millimeter-scale waves in longer pulses to beam heat at targets at a distance. These waves heat the water in the tissues, creating a burning sensation, but the heat penetrates only a fraction of a millimeter into the skin and dissipates quickly when the target escapes the beam. The system was used briefly by the U.S. military in Afghanistan in 2010 but proved unwieldly for combat. The vehicle-mounted equipment is bulky, expensive and difficult to repair, Foster said. [Flying Saucers to Mind Control: 22 Declassified Military & CIA Secrets]
Another strike against the microwave theory is that the Associated Press released a recording of the sounds linked to the diplomats' symptoms in 2017. A microwave-generated sound can't be recorded or heard anywhere outside the target's own head.
"That is one thing I'm trying to tie down," Lin said. "Some media reports say they recorded the sound waves and so forth, so that doesn't seem true to me."
Regular old acoustic sounds are a more likely culprit for the diplomats' woes than a microwave attack, Foster said. In March, researchers from Zhejiang University in China and the University of Michigan found that they could re-create sounds like the ones released by the Associated Press with the intersection of ultrasound waves, which are normally too high-frequency for the human ear to hear.
Ultrasound is used for a variety of purposes, from room-occupancy sensors to rodent-repelling devices, the authors wrote. Or, Foster said, there could be spycraft that the intelligence community would rather not discuss openly; ultrasound could be used in listening devices covertly installed in the diplomats' homes or hotel rooms.
"If that's what's going on," he said, "there's no way the government would tell you that story, so instead they're letting reporters go on about microwave hearing and all that sort of stuff."
Editor's note: This article was updated at 3:35 p.m. to clarify that it might be possible to create bothersome noises with harmless microwave pulses, but not to harm a person with microwave-generated sound pressures without first harming them with heat.
Originally published on Live Science.
Researchers from The University of Western Australia and the Australian National University have uncovered new evidence that dingoes arrived in Australia between 3348 and 3081 years ago more recently than previously thought.
A more precise date for the arrival of dingoes in Australia is important as it answers questions about the relationship between dingoes and Aboriginal people, as well as the dingoes possible role in the extinction of animals such as the Tasmanian devil and Tasmanian tiger on mainland Australia.
The timing of the arrival of dingoes has been the subject of great debate, with estimates ranging from about 4000 years ago based on archaeological deposit dates to as much as 18,000 years ago based on DNA age estimates.
Now direct radiocarbon dates on dingo bones from Madura Cave on the Nullarbor Plain have allowed scientists to paint a clearer picture of when dingoes first inhabited Australia.
The dingo is the only placental land mammal aside from rats, mice and bats to have made it over water to reach Australia prior to European arrival, and their arrival provides the only evidence of external visits by people to mainland Australia after first Indigenous settlement 65,000 years ago, said Prof Jane Balme of UWA.
Because Australia is separated from South-East Asia by water, with the minimal distance between the two more than 90 km, it is extremely unlikely that dingoes arrived in Australia independently of humans, Balme said. These new findings indicate it is most likely that dingoes were brought here as tamed animals around 3000 years ago.
ANU archaeologist Prof Sue OConnor said dingoes would have spread rapidly throughout Australia because it would have been aided by people; as they were useful animals or pets they were likely transferred between groups. Once in Australia they became feral, but were tamed by Indigenous Australians and used as companions animals in much the same way as dogs today.
Dingoes would have been used in the food-gathering process to find small game that the women would then catch, such as bandicoots, rodents, goannas and even small kangaroos. They were also useful for guarding the camp and keeping you warm at night, she said. Balme added that dingoes may have contributed to the extinction of a number of species, including the Tasmanian devil and Tasmania tiger on mainland Australia, because of the increased hunting pressure.
Balme said the next step would be to examine bone fossils from archaeological and palaeontological sites to identify how dingoes may have changed peoples subsistence activities and the impact that dingoes have had on the Australian environment.
We have made a start on this by dating of dingo bones from the Nullarbor, but analysis of dingo bones from other parts of Australia will help test our hypothesis of their rapid rate of spread.
The research was published in Scientific Reports (https://goo.gl/NHiunt).
See more
Eighty-seven elephants lay dead, most of them with their skulls chopped off near a wildlife sanctuary in the Okavango Delta. Poachers tried to hide the carcasses beneath drying bushes, NPR reported Monday (Sept. 3). [Elephant Images: The Biggest Beasts on Land]
Mike Chase, the director and founder of Elephants Without Borders, the nonprofit that conducted the survey, told the BBC that the poaching incident is one of the largest he's seen or read about in Africa. In the same area, three white rhinos were poached and killed in the past three months, according to NPR.
Ivory poaching is a huge problem for the continent; a third of Africa's elephants were killed in the past decade, according to the BBC.
But until recently, Botswana was largely unaffected, thanks to strong anti-poaching policies and armed anti-poaching units, according to the BBC. Indeed, tracking collars reveal that elephants that migrate from neighboring countries have largely stayed in Botswana.
This latest incident comes a few months after Botswana disarmed its anti-poaching units following the election of Mokgweetsi Masisi as president, according to the BBC.
There could be even more cases of poached elephants, according to the BBC. The aerial survey is only about halfway complete.
Originally published on Live Science.
SEKOs offices in Germany taken over by the parcels specialist, which will become a key partner of the global SEKO network as Hermes gears up for global activity
SEKO Logistics and Hermes Germany have formed a partnership in which parcel delivery specialist Hermes has taken over SEKO Logistics business in Germany as of 1 September, with the two companies also exploring other synergies between their respective organisations, in order to maximise opportunities within the growing e-commerce logistics business.
The agreement sees Hermes Germany take over SEKO Logistics offices in Bremen and Frankfurt, with the employees of both SEKO offices in Germany incorporated into the new structure. The two companies said Hermes would also become a key partner of the global SEKO network, as Hermes internationalises its business and gears up for global activity.
The two added: SEKO Logistics is a globally established provider of international supply chain services, which also include freight and IT solutions. With this alliance, the partners aim to combine their competencies in B2B and B2C businesses.
Stephan Schiller, managing director of Hermes Europe, commented: We are delighted to have found in SEKO Logistics an internationally well-established partner that offers an ideal enhancement of the service spectrum of Hermes. With this acquisition, we will not only create synergy for the entire Hermes Group, the existing customer bases of both companies will also profit from the changes brought about by a broader product portfolio, for example in terms of access to fulfilment solutions in the USA, Asia and Europe.
By becoming a key partner of the global SEKO network, Hermes Germany intends to make use of the US-headquartered international forwarding and logistics company with more than 120 branches in over 40 countries.
The networks focus is on omni-channel logistics, white glove solutions, technology, international air and ocean freight, surface transport, combined transport, demand chain solutions, warehousing and logistics services, it noted. This broadens the international growth potential for the Hermes Group, particularly in view of the key e-commerce markets in the USA, Asia and Europe.
SEKO Logistics, in turn, will profit from the extensive Hermes distribution network in Europe. With BorderGuru and SEKO Omni Parcel, both companies will be bringing start-ups into the partnership that are specialised in cross-border e-commerce solutions.
James Gagne, president and CEO of SEKO Logistics, commented: We are extremely pleased to have gained a well-established partner in Hermes, one of the largest players on the European parcel and two-man-handling market and a highly efficient provider of supply chain solutions. The partnership will blend together the heritage, experience and innovative services of two highly respected logistics companies whilst strengthening our respective global networks and local presence.
Along with digitisation and customer-oriented, flexible services, the Hermes Group said its focus in 2018 is internationalisation, explaining that the Hermes International business unit established within Hermes Germany at the beginning of the year consolidates all international activities of Hermes.
By 2020, the Hermes Group, which is a part of the Otto Group, plans to make investments to the tune of approximately 500 million across all business units. The main focus in the current financial year includes the growth of the cross-border parcel service, which is to be promoted by business units such as Hermes International.
Firefighters battling a blaze in a steep river canyon in Tahoe National Forest are counting on nine large air tankers and seven helicopters to halt the spread of the North Fire.
The wildfire erupted Monday near Emigrant Gap and consumed about 500 acres, authorities said Tuesday afternoon, forcing the Placer County Sheriffs Office to empty and close several campgrounds. The California Highway Patrol also closed Interstate 80 ramps at Yuba Gap Road and Emigrant Gap Road.
Monday nights estimate placed the size of the fire at 650 acres, but new observations made Tuesday with the aid of GPS led officials to reduce the scope of destruction.
The North Fire is just 10 percent contained, officialssaid, and no estimate for full containment have been projected.
The blaze is burning on both sides of the North Fork of the American River, fueled by brush and timber in the steep, rocky terrain of the river canyon.
The fire started around 4:30 p.m. in the North Fork campground, south of Emigrant Gap, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.
It spread quickly and by Monday evening the Placer County Sheriffs Office began evacuating the North Fork, Onion Valley and Tunnel Mills campgrounds on Texas Hill Road. The area around Lake Valley Reservoir was also evacuated, while the Sunflower, Lodgepole and Silvertip campgrounds were cleared.
Tahoe National Forest officials reported that hand crews, bulldozers and engines worked through the night establishing an anchor point and starting to flank the fire.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, said Michael Woodbridge, a Tahoe National Forest district ranger.
Flames were first spotted near a popular campground and swimming hole, Woodbridge said, raising the possibility that human activity could have started the blaze.
Several wildland fires ignited up and down California over Labor Day weekend, Cal Fire spokesman Scott McLean said.
But crews were able to jump on them quickly, he added.
Two new fires were reported near Kelseyville in Lake County, but both were limited to fewer than 40 acres.
Heres a quick look at some of the other wildfires in California:
The Hirz Fire, in Shasta County northeast of Redding, has burned through 46,051 acres. It is 60 percent contained. Fire crews are working to extend containment lines on the northeastern edge of the blaze.
The Ranch Fire, the larger of two fires to make up the Mendocino Complex, the states largest-ever blaze, has consumed about 410,000 acres in Lake, Mendocino and Colusa counties, and is about 98 percent contained.
Fire crews are focusing their efforts on the north and east ends of the fire as well as extinguishing islands of flame inside the containment lines. Full containment is expected Sunday.
The Carr Fire, Californias most-destructive fire in 2018, was fully contained Thursday night after torching 1,079 homes. The inferno, which burned nearly 230,000 acres, and whipped through Redding subdivisions, started July 23. Firefighters remain in the area, patrolling the lines to make sure the fire stays contained.
Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan
3 1 of 3 Enterprise Products Partners L.P. Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Bob Owen, Staff / San Antonio Express-News Show More Show Less 3 of 3
Flint Hills Resources is planning to expand its Ingleside crude oil export facility as exports of U.S. crude continue to ramp up along Texas' Gulf Coast.
The terminal expansion will include four new crude oil storage tanks and 60,000 barrels per hour of loading capability. The Wichita, Kansas company said the terminal will have a loading capacity of 380,000 barrels a day and storage capacity of about 4 million barrels when the work is completed by October 2019.
On this date in ...
1918: The push for the building of two new schools in Albany, one in the Delaware Avenue section and the other on New Scotland Avenue, was dropped for the duration of the war, based on a recent order sent out by the federal war department asking that all construction and improvements be avoided, if possible, until the fighting ended. According to Superintendent of Schools C. Edward Jones, any municipal improvements made during wartime had to have the approval of the war board, and the board decided the schools were not currently necessary.
1968: State reimbursement rates for hospitals continued their rapid climb with increases of 20 to 25 percent projected for the year in some area hospitals. The state rate schedule pegged the cost of a semi-private room at Albany Medical Center Hospital at $64.41 a day, an increase of about 10 percent. An Albany Med spokesman drew the distinction between the room rates and state reimbursement: "The state rate is the inclusive average cost per patient, including drugs, lab fees, operating room expenses and X-rays, and had nothing to do with the room rate the hospital charged."
1993: Charles Hawley had completed an oil painting depicting the moment St. Isaac Jogues first discovered Lake George, titled "Lac du St. Sacrament." It portrayed Jogues with five Native Americans blessing Lake George on May 30, 1646, and was recently unveiled in the entrance foyer in the building named for the saint, St. Isaac Jogues Hall. Hawley said the painting took three months of research to complete (and another three months to paint) and that he undertook the project because he wanted young people to acquire a better understanding of the historical aspect of the lake.
Want to read more about the Capital Region's past? Have any memories or thoughts about how our history relates to today's events? See http://blog.timesunion.com/history/.
Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here.
By Suelette Dreyfus, Media Specialist, Department of Computing and Information Systems, University of Melbourne
Chelsea Manning will appear via video link at events in Brisbane and Melbourne this month as the Australian government refuses to provide her a visa.
Without a visa, Manning was in Los Angeles when she appeared electronically on a giant screen at a weekend event speaking with journalist Peter Greste at the Sydney Opera House, where she received a standing ovation.
International and Australian organisations have called on the Australian government to give a visa to Manning in support of freedom of speech. Nearly 20,000 people have signed a petition calling on Australia to allow Manning to visit.
Read more:
Explainer: what role does ministerial discretion play in the Chelsea Manning visa case?
Whether you agree with Manning or not, public debate and discussion are essential for a healthy democracy. Any attempt to shut it down flies in the face of freedom of expression.
This is important as we enter an era of machines that make decisions for us, including autonomous weapons. Data ethics, transparency, accountability and avenues of recourse for injustice become even more important to explore in public forums. These are all relevant to Mannings story.
Manning the whistleblower
Manning was a US army intelligence analyst in 2010 when she leaked more than 700,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks. Her disclosures were a major milestone in the emergence of the digital age whistleblower.
First there was the explosive Collateral Murder video, published by WikiLeaks. It showed the US military gunning down civilians in Iraq. US soldiers fired on children and killed two Reuters staff, Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh along with ten other people. Former Reuters Iraq bureau chief Dean Yates, who sent his staff out that fateful day, wrote a personal piece on the impact of moral injury while being treated at Melbournes Austin Health for trauma recovery.
The US military lied about the incident and tried to cover it up. To this day, no one has been charged or convicted for the killings, nor the lying.
Manning is the only person to go to prison linked with the incident, yet she is the one who brought the truth to the public.
The astonishing video, filmed from the gunsight of an Apache helicopter, illustrates the power of bringing together visual digital media and whistleblowing. The video has had more than 16 million views on Youtube alone.
Manning also disclosed a collection of war logs. These were records about daily events happening in two wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Politicians had promised the public these wars were progressing well. The data showed a different story.
The New York Times, publishing in partnership with WikiLeaks, described the Afghan war logs as more grim than the official portrayal.
In Iraq, a leading independent UK-based charity Iraq Body Count, estimated 15,000 civilians were killed from 2003 to 2010 that had not been previously been revealed.
Less than half of the deaths reported in the Wikileaks War Logs had been previously reported by Iraq Body Count, according to one study.
Bringing the two datasets together showed how the body count of the Iraq War had been higher than either set had initially documented.
This sort of analysis illustrates how big data and whistleblowing are drawn together in actual cases, and have exposed the truth of what is really happening on the ground.
Big data leaks are getting bigger
In the digital age, data sets are increasingly driving news stories. Large data sets show patterns and connections - both of which can be important for accountability of decision-making by government.
At the time, Mannings disclosures seemed like an enormous amount of data. Yet, the data size was small compared with what was to come.
Collateral Murder (646MB) and the Afghan War Logs (75MB) data sets, published in 2010, created a new model for whistleblower disclosures driving database journalism. The entire tranche of this data, plus the US diplomatic cables and the Iraq War Logs, was reported to total 1.73 gigabytes (GB) small enough to fit on a single DVD.
What followed in their footsteps was much larger disclosures in terms of total data size. These included the 2013 Offshore Leaks (260GB), the 2014 Luxembourg Leaks (4GB), the 2016 Panama Papers (2.6TB), the 2017 Paradise Papers (1.4TB), and Edward Snowdens 2013 disclosures, estimated to be at least 60GB (the total data size has not been publicly revealed).
Whistleblower protection
Strong public support in Australia and overseas for the protection of whistleblowers flowed from this torrent of revelations, and it has forced governments around the world to respond.
From Ireland to Lithuania to Nigeria, governments have been adopting whistleblower protection laws.
In April, the European Union announced its draft Directive on whistleblower protection which, when passed, will apply to all 28 member states.
Whistleblowers reveal unsafe or illegal practices in everything from food safety to hospital practice.
In 2017, US President Barack Obama released Manning by commuting her prison sentence. The world Chelsea Manning re-entered after seven years in prison was profoundly transformed.
Increased public recognition of both the importance of whistleblowing as a corrective mechanism to wrongdoing in society, and of datasets informing a new kind of journalism, are part of that changed landscape.
Manning has been a controversial yet central figure in that transformation. As such, she has interesting perspectives to contribute to the public debate.
Encourage debate
A country which prides itself on being a free, western democracy should encourage such public discussions. Australias close allies Canada and New Zealand have recognised this.
The New Zealand government has granted Manning a visa to visit its shores for events in Auckland and Wellington.
Canada, which had initially turned her back at the border, also allowed her entry, in order to speak publicly earlier this year.
Its worth noting the Australian government allowed US General David Petraeus into Australia last year, despite the fact that he, like Manning, leaked secrets. Petraeus was spared prison time after pleading guilty to mishandling classified information, but he was sentenced to two years probation and fined US$100,000.
Read more:
A nostalgic journey through the evolution of web design
Mannings disclosure did not cause any real harm to US interests, according to media analysis of a US Department of Defense review, released in 2017 under a 2015 Freedom of Information lawsuit.
By contrast, material leaked by Petraeus was highly sensitive and, according to Reuters, contained the identities of covert officers, code word information, war strategy, intelligence capabilities and diplomatic talks.
Manning poses no danger to Australia, she is neither violent nor a terrorist. Yet, if people will still hear what she has to say via video links at the Australian events, why not let her appear in person?
Debating ideas is a core value of our democracy and one the Australian government should embrace, not fear.
Suelette Dreyfus has an executive role with freedom of expression not-for-profit NGO Blueprint for Free Speech and receives funding from it. She has received ARC funding.
Originally published in The Conversation.
Moscow
Yevgeny Popov, a Russian dissident writer, can laugh about it now, but it was a serious matter in 1979 when he was banned by Soviet authorities as part of "the Metropol affair," a literary scandal involving a ribald collection of fiction and essays published outside the USSR to avoid censorship.
Popov was an editor of the outlaw underground collection, titled Metropol, which included sexual references and scatological words that government censors labeled an anti-Soviet plot designed to denigrate Soviet literature. Popov deemed it satire of a repressive regime.
Popov was expelled in 1979 from the state-sanctioned Union of Soviet Writers after just seven months of membership. "I think it was a Guinness Book of World Records for being kicked out of a literary organization," Popov said with a deep chortle that caused his large belly to quake.
I met up with Popov and writer Boris Evseev during a summer trip to Russia with my wife Mary, who is a fluent Russian speaker. Galina Evtushenko, a Russian filmmaker and visiting Fulbright scholar in the history department at the University at Albany, made the introduction to her writer friends.
We were sipping strong black Russian tea and devouring pastries Popov ate his with crumb-cascading gusto at a museum adjacent to the apartment of Mikhail Bulgakov, a dissident Russian novelist of an earlier generation. His satirical novel "The Master and Margarita," which began in 1928, featured a visit to Moscow by Satan and mocked Soviet mores, was banned during Bulgakov's lifetime by Stalin regime censors. Parts of the heavily redacted manuscript were leaked in 1966, but it was not reconstructed in its original version and published as Bulgakov intended until 1969 in Germany. It became an international sensation and received wide acclaim as a masterpiece of literary satire, but Bulgakov had died long before, of kidney disease in 1940 at age 48.
Longtime comrades Evseev and Popov, who chafe at the constraints of authoritarian rule and are openly critical of Vladimir Putin, share a strong affinity with Bulgakov as a writer who refused to yield freedom of expression for fear of government censors. Both believe passionately that writers are truth-tellers, and extremely important voices of resistance in a society whose freedoms have been repressed.
The Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, imprisoned in labor camps for his criticism of Stalin, wrote this: "A great writer is, so to speak, a second government in his country. And for that reason no regime has ever loved great writers."
"You've got to understand that in the Soviet era, only state-approved Soviet writers were successful and publishing one book could buy you a nice apartment," Popov said.
"It could also buy you two years in prison," Evseev said.
More Information Contact Paul Grondahl at grondahlpaul@gmail.com See More Collapse
Popov, 72, trained as a geologist and later published well-received short stories and experimental novels filled with literary parody and satire. He is a sly, Falstaffian presence in battered dungarees with a scruffy beard, a sharp wit and a soiled bike messenger's bag slung over a shoulder.
Evseev, 67, is a concert violinist who has won several literary awards for his avant-garde novels. He is serious and controlled, with a neatly trimmed silver goatee and sporty plaid blazer.
Both he and Popov know writers who were detained, exiled or imprisoned because their writing ran afoul of Soviet authorities.
After the Metropol dust-up, Popov was harassed by the KGB the following year for helping to edit and publish another rogue literary collection called Catalog. He and his fellow writers felt they were engaged in a noble public service, giving voice to the voiceless masses cowed into silence by intimidation from Soviet authorities.
The situation confronting fiction writers in Moscow today is of a different sort.
"We are not censored today," said Popov, who paused and made a sign of the cross. "At least it's not open censorship. It's censorship of money. Before it was censorship of Communism. Now, writers are censored by the economics of what sells."
"Yes, it's true. We can write whatever we want today," Evseev said.
Popov is president of the Union of Russian Writers and Evseev is vice president. They helped establish the group in 1989, after the fall of communist rule. Writers were not allowed to gather in an independent organization like theirs during the Soviet era. Today, they have about 400 members. Evseev and Popov are also leaders of the Russian PEN Center, an affiliate of the international writers' advocacy group that works on behalf of those oppressed for what they write.
Neither writer had anything nice to say about Putin, aside from the Russian president's benign neglect of the literati. "It's as if writing just doesn't matter to him," Evseev said. "Bureaucrats can still cause problems, but Putin leaves us alone."
They lamented that only two Russian publishers remain who still publish serious literary fiction. The Russian public at large no longer seems much interested in demanding, challenging novels of high art. They consider it a sad state of affairs for a country that produced some of the world's greatest literature created by extraordinary writers including Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Pushkin, Turgenev, Chekhov, Gogol, Nabokov, Solzhenitsyn, Gorky and more.
Evseev and Popov both turned to teaching writing as book sales declined. They are thankful for royalties in foreign editions. Evseev has been translated into German, Italian, French, Turkish and Chinese. Popov has two books translated into English and published in the U.S.
"Russian writers are like all writers in the world today, struggling to get by," said Popov, whose wife is a theater professor and whose son is a photographer. "It's nice not being interrogated by the KGB, but it doesn't pay the bills."
"It's such a hard life today, I'm glad my daughters chose different paths than becoming writers," said Evseev, who has a daughter who is a graphic artist and another who is a film cinematographer. His wife is a concert violinist.
Neither man studied creative writing. They learned their craft by intensive study of Russian masters. "Our academy was the letters of Pushkin, the stories of Chekhov, the novels of Tolstoy," Evseev said.
Both writers were influenced by American writers, too, including Jack Kerouac, John Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson and John Steinbeck.
Bulgakov's apartment, located just down the street from where Chekhov and Tchaikovsky lived and worked, is a shrine to free speech.
The walls along a staircase leading up to the fourth-floor walkup where Bulgakov lived are plastered with graffiti.
"They tried to repaint it many times, but they finally gave up," Popov said. "Freedom of expression cannot be covered up."
Paul Grondahl is the director of the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany and a former Times Union reporter. He can be reached at grondahlpaul@gmail.com
TAMIU has repeated its placement in a national top 10 ranking among Southern Colleges by Washington Monthly Magazine's 2018 College Guide for the third year in a row. TAMIU was ranked ninth.
The College Guide singles out those institutions as "Best Bang for the Buck" that are the best value based on "net price," which the guide explains is affordability and how well universities do in graduating students. It notes "Best Bang" universities like TAMIU charge students "a reasonable price for quality education that will advance them in their careers." Perhaps most importantly, the guide rates schools on three equally weighted criteria: social mobility, research and public service.
One of the guide's authors, Kevin Carey, notes, "we give high marks to colleges that enroll lots of low-income students and help them graduate and earn a good living without too much debt. We factor in pure research spending and the number of undergraduates who go on to earn PhDs. And we give extra weight to colleges that send their graduates out into the world to serve the community at large."
TAMIU President Pablo Arenaz said the ranking is a source of great pride for all members of the TAMIU community: students, faculty, staff and alumni, especially as the university's fall semester began last week.
"This is a clear indication of the importance of doing things right," he said. "Our administration and our faculty listen to our students and the communities we serve. Together, we've created a higher education destination with world-class facilities and a global faculty that engages and advances students in meaningful ways. I'm especially impressed that this ranking continues to appreciate income and social mobility, and student engagement all dynamic elements that distinguish our campus. When we say we 'Go Beyond,' we mean it and we live it."
TAMIU has earned national accolades for the income mobility of its students, including being highlighted in the American Council on Education's report, "Minority Serving Institutions as Engines of Upward Mobility." Based on Stanford University's Equality of Opportunity Project, the study analyzed students' and parent's income. At TAMIU, that high extended income mobility rate was 34.1 percent, second only to the City University of New York's Lehman College with 35.5 percent. TAMIU was the top scoring Texas institution highlighted in the study with The University of Texas Pan-American and Our Lady of the Lake University-San Antonio also cited.
Also recently, Zippia hailed TAMIU as one of Texas' best colleges for getting jobs, ranking TAMIU eighth in the state, and citing a 91.58 percent student employment. TAMIU was also the only A&M System campus to be included in ZIppia's top 10 ranking of public and private institutions.
Founded in 1969, Washington Monthly is a bimonthly nonprofit magazine covering politics, government, culture and the media.
A man has been accused of threatening his wife with a machete, according to Laredo police.
At about 1:25 a.m. Monday, officers were dispatched to a domestic disturbance at an apartment complex in the 2600 block of Springfield Avenue.
A man is wanted for stealing $2,000 from an elderly man in downtown Laredo, authorities said.
Police said the incident was reported at about 3:30 p.m. Monday in the 1000 block of Matamoros Street.
EDWARDSVILLE - When 6-year-old Joby Nelson asked his parents last year how he could take his drawings and create a book, Jobys mom, Lynette, jumped into action and helped her son make a single hard back copy of Jobys original book.
That one book quickly turned into 10 and then 100, and now Jobys book, The Underdog Gang and the Playground Adventures is available on Amazon.
One signed copy of Jobys book is also now available in each of the five Little Free Libraries that are located throughout Edwardsville and Glen Carbon.
Lynette explained that Jobys interest in becoming an author began with his love of reading in kindergarten. He really got into reading Captain Underpants and that kind of thing, she said.
Then last year when Joby was in first grade he asked his parents one night how someone becomes an author when youre old and big?
We were like Oh yeah, you can go to school, learn how to be a writer, be a reporter and all of these kinds of things, Lynette recalled. And then the next day I was like - what am I doing? This is silly. If he wants to make a book, whats stopping him? You can make your own characters. You can make your own book. Lets just do this.
He said, I just want a hardback book, and Im like we can do this, Lynette added. You write the story, draw the pictures, and Ill type it up on the computer. And well make one book for you.
It became a family project. They learned how to print Jobys 80-page book and bind it to produce Jobys one hardback book, The Underdog Gang and the Playground Adventures.
But then the one book turned into a couple more family requests. Then that went to 10 books for our family, and then once everyone knew about it, it turned into 100 books. Last year we printed 100 books.
Once family and friends learned of Jobys book, people began offering donations for copies so Lynette said that she and her husband told Joby that he needed to do something good with the money. Having heard about the Edwardsville District 7 lunch-debt program at Goshen Elementary where Joby is currently a second grader, Joby decided to donate $500 to the program last year. The program helps to fund lunches for students who otherwise cant afford to purchase lunches at school.
Jobys also planning to save some of the future proceeds from any of his book sales for a trip to Iberia in Africa some day. Our family has always sponsored students over there to go to school through our church, Lynette said. Were like, You cant go when youre 7 years old, but you can save money for when youre older and this can be the funds for either sponsoring more students or going some day.
Once Lynette had made 100 books and Joby was talking about a series to his book, Lynette stopped production of the books at home. I was like I cannot make any more books. This was insane. It was great and the support was wonderful, but he wants to make a series out of this, Lynette said. This summer I told him I cant make any more physical books until we find a better way. We kind of explored several options, and a lot of author friends said you should just self-publish through Amazon.
Lynette and Joby spent the summer re-formatting the book to Amazons requirements and now the book is available to purchase through Amazon. They print the book. They ship you the book and we dont have to do it. Its awesome, she said with a chuckle.
I didnt think about these things bigger than he wanted his own copy and he really wanted to share the love of reading with all of his friends last year so that they could enjoy reading and writing and drawing as much as he does. We never anticipated that it would be at this level, but it has, Lynette said. Its really just to share the love of reading and why do you have to be an adult to be an author?
Erika Obrecht and her daughter Ivy, who began the Little Free Library at Township Park in Edwardsville five years ago, recently learned of Jobys book.
One of my friends on Facebook shared his story - that he wrote a book, Erika said. Normally when I see something like that, Ivy and I will jump in and promote our Little Free Library when we see a local author. Its rare to see a young author. I thought that was cute because my daughter is 10, and Joby is just a few years younger than her.
I wanted to support our local author so I bought five of the books and Ivy and I are going to go around and put a signed copy in each of the Little Free Libraries in the area, Erika added.
The Little Free Libraries in the area can be found at Edwardsville Township Community Park (Steward: Ivy Obrecht); Leclaire Park, 600 Hale Avenue, Edwardsville (Steward: Susan Carr)
Watershed Nature Center in Edwardsville (Steward: Holly Hampton); 705 Frederick Street, Edwardsville (Steward: Emily Ahrens) and at Miner Park in Glen Carbon (Steward: Glen Carbon Centennial Library)
Purchase a copy of Jobys book at https://www.amazon.com/Underdog-Gang-Playground-Adventures-Color/dp/1719240019/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1534344129&sr=8-1&keywords=joby+nelson+book.
Joby wrote the story and he drew all the pictures in his book. People are shocked. Im more of crafty artistic. And my husband was like, thats not my skill. But Joby just loves it. Its all him. We didnt do anything. I mean we fluffed it up here and there with periods and capitals, but it is all him, Lynette said.
At the end of the day he may not do this forever, but he can say I wanted to do this, and I figured it out, Lynette added. So I dont know. Hopefully we get an A for effort in parenting.
A former Jacksonville resident is one of six artists who have been selected to create a proposal for Pilkington Glass North America.
Sean R. Merchant, an artist in Brunswick, Ohio, was one of the artists chosen by The Arts Commission for Momentum | Intersection, a program that will allow artists and designers to work with Pilkington Glass, with the opportunity to develop a new item or design with materials from the company.
Merchant, who works with glass materials in a lot of his artwork, said he was thrilled for the opportunity after submitting his application.
Its really exciting, Merchant said. Ive used materials from Pilkington before. They are one of the leading glass makers in the country. To be a part of an arts festival with that kind of manufacturer is a great opportunity.
The artist will tour the company this month and will be able to pick a new material produced by the company to work with. After working with the material, each artist will submit a project proposal on Nov. 15 and up to three will be selected to receive materials, a stipend, technical support and learning opportunities through the company, as well as exhibition space during Momentum 2019.
This has the potential not only for me to get new experiences, but also to develop a relationship with a good manufacturer, Merchant said.
Merchant, who creates his own artworks, teaches classes and works with museums, started working with glass in 2007 at Jacksonville Art Glass in Jacksonville.
Merchant said he has a few ideas for proposals but is keeping his mind open for ideas once he tours the companys facility in Toledo.
The project is really open-ended, Merchant said. The scope of the project is very wide so there is a lot of options. The artists are sort of left to mold this thing into what they want and it can have a lot of potential.
Merchant said whether he gets selected or not, he is excited to participate in this program.
Im excited to get new materials in my hand and see what can be done with it, Merchant said.
Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1233, or on Twitter @JCNews_samantha.
By Sarah Hamylton, Senior Lecturer, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong
Marco Ferraz, Author provided
Harassed on fieldtrips. Excluded from projects. On the receiving end of micro-aggressions. A lack of female role models.
These are some of our collective experiences as women working in science and engineering.
Such experiences erode research opportunities and career progression, leading to the loss of many brilliant women from our disciplinary field along similar lines as weve recently seen exposed in Australian federal parliament.
Today we published a global snapshot of the status of women in coastal science and engineering. The results show that gender inequity is still a major problem in the daily work lives of women globally.
And since gender inequalities in science wont self-correct, weve developed some solutions based on our findings.
Naomi Edwards, Author provided
Working at the waters edge
We work in coastal geoscience and engineering, a broad discipline focused on physical processes at the interface of land and sea. Heres one of our experiences:
For twenty years people had been telling me how lucky I was to be in our field of research because things were changing for young women. This didnt resonate with my experiences. Twenty years later things had not changed and I was no longer a young woman. I started talking to other women and found that they had faced similar challenges, and wanted to see change. Ana Vila-Concejo
To catalyse change, we founded the Women in Coastal Geoscience and Engineering (WICGE) network in 2016. Our first project was a study to understand the main issues faced by women who work in our field.
Naomi Edwards, Author provided
Global snapshot
We surveyed 314 members of the coastal science and engineering community and analysed the gender representation in 9 societies, 25 journals, and 10 conferences.
We found that while women represent 30% of the international coastal science community, they are consistently underrepresented in leadership positions (such as being on journal editorial boards and as conference organisers). This situation was clearly acknowledged by the coastal sciences community, with 82% of females and 79% of males believing that there are not enough female role models.
Female representation in prestige roles was the highest (reaching the expected 30%) only when there was a clear entry pathway that gave women an opportunity to volunteer for a role.
Female representation was the lowest for the traditional invite-only prestige roles.
A significantly larger proportion of females felt held back in their careers due to gender than their male counterparts (46% of females in comparison to 9% of males).
Reasons for this include:
a glass ceiling of informal workplace cultures and customs that reduce womens chances of promotion
gender stereotyping of women not being competent in STEM disciplines
a boys club tendency to favour men in recruitment and collaboration, and
widely held assumptions that a womans job performance will be impacted by her having children (the maternal wall).
Naomi Edwards, Author provided
Fieldwork emerged as a key area of inequity, with female respondents being excluded or outright banned from research ships. For those respondents who made it to the field, many of them reported experiencing gender stereotyping and/or sexual harassment.
We used our survey to ask some forthright, open-ended questions about peoples experiences and observations of gender equality.
As a study author, the day I went over the responses was one that I will never forget. Stories of bullying, abortion and sexual harassment had me in tears at my desk. Inequality was consistent, pervasive and, in many cases, traumatic. Sarah Hamylton.
So, what can be done?
Seven steps toward improving gender equity
Gender imbalances in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) are not a self-correcting phenomenon so here are some ways to make science more inclusive for women.
Naomi Edwards, Author provided
Advocate for more women in prestige roles: Ensure fair representation of women as keynote speakers at conferences, on society boards and journal editorial boards. Have clear pathways to prestige roles giving women an opportunity to apply if they wish to do so. Promote high-achieving females: Recognise the achievements of females, and select them for roles that increase their visibility as role models. Be aware of gender bias: Consciously reflect on personal biases when hiring, promoting and mentoring staff. Speak up, call it out: Point out to conference organisers all-male panels and keynote programs and, where they are underrepresented, write to chief editors suggesting women for editorial boards. Provide better support for returning to work after maternity leave: Higher levels of support and more flexible conditions for women returning from maternity leave encourage women to stay in their employment after having children, thereby increasing their prospects of reaching more senior posts. Redefine success: Recognise the diverse range of definitions of what it means to be a successful researcher. Encourage women to enter the discipline at a young age: Many school-age girls are put off the idea of entering STEM disciplines as they are socially and culturally deemed to be male pursuits. This needs to be addressed.
Naomi Edwards, Author provided
The Women in Coastal Geoscience and Engineering network is already successfully implementing some of these steps.
By choosing to ignore inequity for women, you become accountable for allowing it to continue. Speak up, promote the work of your female colleagues and give them voice and visibility.
This problem transcends STEM disciplines. It is crucial that the wider community becomes aware of the extent of inequity so that, where necessary, everyone can take action to improve the governance and culture of their work place.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Originally published in The Conversation.
As the nation grapples with mass shootings, gun policy could be a deciding factor in the competitive race between Rep. Barbara Comstock, R, and Democratic challenger state Sen. Jennifer Wexton in northern Virginia.
Gabrielle Giffords, the former congresswoman severely injured in a 2011 shooting, last week kicked off her national campaign to elect Democrats with $1 million in cable television ads targeting Comstock. Her group chose the 10th District because Comstock is one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the country and her district is near the National Rifle Association's headquarters in Fairfax County, Virginia.
"Shooting after shooting, Barbara Comstock has failed," Giffords says straight to the camera in the ad. "She's taken thousands from the NRA. We must do better."
Giffords; Mark Kelly, her husband and a former astronaut; and Wexton met Sunday with gun-control advocates.
Voters in Virginia believe gun control is more important than protecting gun rights, according to a recent poll that captured a watershed moment in a once-conservative state.
Democrats' pro-gun-control message contrasts sharply with Comstock's conservative record on gun issues and A rating from the National Rifle Association.
Comstock wrote an op-ed published in a Loudoun County, Virginia, newspaper last week saying she supports more money for law enforcement, school safety and treatment for mental illness, which she said is often behind gun violence.
But experts said the national outrage over mass shootings and clamor for limits on gun sales is a challenge that may be difficult for Comstock to overcome in her quest for a third term. Independent rating agencies say the race leans toward Wexton.
Comstock is working hard to separate herself from President Donald Trump, whose election inspired a wave of Democratic activism that helped Gov. Ralph Northam, D, win the district by 12 points in 2017.
"The national context is having a significant impact on voters' perceptions in northern Virginia," said Mark Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. "That's undeniable. It's not just a Virginia issue, but it's definitely playing in the elections here."
There was a time when Virginia Democrats shied away from gun control for fear of alienating conservative voters. As the state has moved to the middle and the left in statewide elections, more voters have embraced gun control.
"I think it started when the mass school shootings started," said Elaine Lynch, 42, a Great Falls resident who voted for Comstock in 2014. Lynch said she voted for Comstock's Democratic challenger in 2016 and will vote for Wexton in November because she feels the congresswoman is too conservative for the district on many issues, including guns.
"People were afraid," Lynch said. "Parents sent their kids to school praying that they'd come home."
A year after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Terry McAuliffe won the governor's race in Virginia as an opponent of the NRA.
He called for greater gun control in the state, including an assault weapons ban, stronger background checks, better mental-health care and a return to limiting the number of handguns that an individual can purchase to one per month.
Democratic efforts to restrict guns went nowhere in the GOP-controlled legislature until 2016, when McAuliffe struck a deal with the NRA.
It expanded concealed-carry rights for gun owners in exchange for a law that requires some domestic abusers to relinquish their guns and made it possible to have optional background checks at gun shows.
"At the end of the day, we made Virginia safer, and it's not about winning elections, it's about doing what's right," McAuliffe said in an interview last Thursday.
The deal was panned by some gun-control groups who at the time objected to any expansion in concealed-carry rights despite the trade-offs, and Wexton's vote for the legislation was criticized by three of her Democratic opponents in the primary.
Wexton defended her vote by saying the deal presented a historic opportunity to pass limits on guns in a GOP-controlled legislature.
Giffords' gun-control group, which did not take a public position on the legislation at the time, still decided to support Wexton with the cable ad buy.
"We don't expect a candidate that we support to be in lockstep with us," Kelly said in an interview last week. "They need to represent their constituents. That's why we don't give people grades. Every one of these districts is different."
The Giffords organization has endorsed 169 state and federal candidates, including three Republican congressmen, Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania and Leonard Lance and Christopher Smith in New Jersey.
Comstock said she has addressed gun violence by supporting a bill that funds task forces aimed at rooting out gang violence, as well as two NRA-endorsed measures that passed with bipartisan support.
The STOP School Violence Act of 2018 funds school security, and the Fix NICS Act of 2017 encourages agencies to share records with the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Neither of the bills directly impact gun sales or purchases.
"Since her days as a senior Justice Department official, Barbara has fought for protecting our families, law enforcement, and public safety, and that advocacy has earned her the endorsement from the Virginia and Fairfax Police Benevolent Associations once again," her campaign manager, Susan Falconer, said in a statement.
She is not a sponsor of the House version of a bill sponsored by Sens. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., that would have required background checks for all commercial sales of guns.
Comstock has enjoyed strong support from the NRA, which has spent $137,232 on her behalf since she was elected in 2014, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign spending. The number includes $17,850 in direct contributions as well as money the group spent to help elect Comstock or defeat her opponents.
But that backing may be a liability for her among some voters.
A Roanoke College poll released last week found 48 percent of likely voters think it's more important to control gun ownership than protect the right of Americans to own guns; 44 percent believe gun rights are paramount.
The numbers mark the first time since Roanoke began asking the question in 2015 that more respondents think gun control is more important than gun rights, although the poll used different methodologies over time.
A June poll by Quinnipiac University asked Virginia registered voters if they supported or opposed stricter gun laws "in the United States," finding that 60 percent supported them, while 35 percent were opposed.
That's a slight uptick from last year, when the poll found 51 percent support stricter gun laws in Virginia.
Ellen Rubin, 65, of Herndon, Virginia, said gun control became more of a priority for her after the mass shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007. Her daughter was a senior there at the time. Although her daughter was not injured, Rubin went to Blacksburg the following weekend.
"We need to hug you," she told her daughter. "I think that made me more motivated to see more gun control because it was so close to home."
Rubin, a Democrat and Wexton voter, said she was not surprised that Comstock touted her "pro-2nd Amendment" position on mailers in the GOP primary.
"She knows what her constituents want to hear, and she's feeding it to them," she said.
Data show public opinion was starting to move in Virginia before the increase in mass shootings, but the national picture "escalated" the shift in support for gun control, said Rozell, of the Schar School.
"And that's the challenge for Comstock, because, for good or bad, she's been consistent in that issue area," he said. "That provides something of an opening for her opponents. That's why the ads on this issue are out right now. They know it."
---
The Washington Post's Scott Clement and Emily Guskin contributed to this report.
To help meet a need for English/Spanish interpreters within the city's vast medical infrastructure, the University of Texas Extended Campus will begin a three-month program for translators, the school announced.
The Medical Interpreter Certificate program, launched by the university's Center for Professional Education, will start Oct. 3. It is being expanded to Houston and modeled after a similar program in Austin, a spokesman said.
Participants will need at least a high school diploma or equivalent and be proficient in both English and Spanish.
"Houston is amazingly diverse with a globally recognized medical center and health care industry," said Liliya Spinazzola, director of the Center for Professional Education.
U.S. Census Bureau has reported that there are 145 languages spoken in Houston, often touted as the most diverse large city in the nation. According to the Census figures about 1.3 million in Harris County speak Spanish. Other languages encountered most often in Houston include Vietnamese, Chinese and Tagalog. French and German are also well represented, according to Census data.
RELATED: Just how diverse is Houston? 145 languages spoken here
The need for translators in Houston is growing. In July, the University of Houston-Downtown announced a program where students would assist Houston Police Department officers as translators. Deemed "Communicators on Patrol" the volunteer translators accompany officers as they patrol their beats, university spokesman Mike Emery said in a statement. Students earn internship credit under the initiative that is to include Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese and other languages.
Since 2014, UH-Downtown has offered an interpreter training course. Participants in that program must be proficient in English and any other second language, according to the university's College of Humanities and Social Services website.
UT's new certificate course will provide 40 hours of instruction and offer preparation for the Medical Interpreter Performance Test, officials said.
Classes will be held at the UT School of Dentistry campus. An informational meeting will be held there on Wednesday, Sept. 5, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the 7500 Cambridge St. For more information, email techealth@austin.utexas.edu.
Wayland Baptist University on Thursday announced the hire of Rosemary Peggram as the school's first Director of Student Success.
Peggram is a former Family and Consumer Sciences teacher at Plainview High School, where she worked for four years. She has a Doctor of Education degree, master and bachelor degrees in environment and interior design from Texas Tech University and worked for Tech as coordinator of recruitment and retention for the College of Human Sciences through the 1990s, according to a news release from WBU. She was also an instructor.
CASSIE GREGORY /The Advocate
As a pediatrician, I know that one of the most important things we can do to keep our children healthy as they return to school is ensure that they are up-to-date with their immunizations. At each visit, I take the necessary time to inform my patients and their families about the significance of immunizations. I welcome questions from parents and enjoy providing education. Immunizations prevent disease, disability, and even cancer. They are a cornerstone of public health, as they have helped eliminate terrible infections such as polio, diphtheria, and tetanus. Immunizations also protect our publics safety by preventing outbreaks and the resurgence of diseases we have thankfully not seen in many years.
In my practice, I take care of healthy children of all ages as well as medically fragile children with diagnoses such as prematurity, cerebral palsy and leukemia. Some of those children with complex illnesses may be unable to receive immunizations because of a weakened immune system, as in the example of a child receiving chemotherapy for cancer. To protect all children, everyone without a medical exemption should receive the immunizations on the recommended vaccination schedule endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Four teenagers were killed on an Indiana highway when they were struck by a vehicle as they attempted to push a broken down SUV down the road.
Details of the Fatal Indiana Accident
According to FOX News, Cara Shelby, 37, was driving nine children between the ages of 12 and 16 to a slumber party when her Chevrolet Suburban broke down about one block from the house. Several children got out to push the SUV the rest of the way to their destination when the SUV was struck by another vehicle.
Three of the teens, Nevaeh Law and Jenna Helton, both 14, and Brittany Watson, 15, died at the scene. A fourth teenager, 16-year-old Martin Martinez, was pronounced dead on arrival to Methodist Hospital.
Four other juveniles were injured in the incident.
The driver of the other vehicle was identified as 24-year-old Elizabeth Watson. It is unclear if she will face any charges.
National Traffic Accident Statistics
According to the latest available data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA):
35,485 people were killed in auto accidents in the United States in 2016, marking a 5.6-percent increase from 2015.
Of those killed in auto accidents in 2016: 22,639 were occupants of passenger vehicles 5,495 were pedestrians 5,029 were motorcyclists 829 were pedalcyclists 665 were occupants of large trucks 235 were listed as other or unknown
Injury estimates for the year have not yet been made available.
Contact an Experienced Auto Accident Attorney
If you or a loved one have been injured in a car crash, contact Thomas J. Henry. Our experienced auto accident attorneys have experience handling a multitude of injury accidents, no matter how severe the crash or injury. You may be entitled to compensation for your damages if another driver acted negligently. Our firm has the experienced lawyers and financial resources that you need to achieve the real results you deserve.
Our firm has offices in Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Austin, and Houston, serving clients across Texas and nationwide. Call us today for a free case review attorneys are available 24/7, nights and weekends. If you cannot make it to our office, we can visit you at your home, in the hospital, or at work.
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.
A civil lawsuit was filed by the family of a teenager who accused a Diocese of Lafayette priest of sexual assault, despite a church officials threats to cut off counseling payments in the event of a lawsuit.
Details of the Sexual Assault Case
The alleged threat made by a church official is included one of the many new details that were released in the case, which originally surfaced in June. It began when the diocese made an announcement that they had received a complaint regarding Father Michael Guidry of St. Peter Catholic Church in Morrow. A week after the allegations were released, Guidry surrendered to the St. Landry Parish Sheriffs Office and confessed to molesting a 16-year-old altar boy in 2015.
Another new detail includes Guidry allegedly pushing alcohol on the victim on multiple occasions. The victim later struggled with an alcohol addiction, which strained his relationship with his family. The victims brother apparently told him two months ago that he believed the drinking was a coping mechanism after something bad happening, which prompted the victim to tell him about his assault.
The diocese chose not to comment on the litigation when they made a statement to the media on Monday, including the alleged threat about the counseling payments.
The diocese statement to the media states, From the beginning, pastoral outreach and counseling has been offered to the victim and his family. At the time of the complaint, there had been no previous claims of any abuse concerning Father Guidry during his 47 years as a priest.
History of the Case
Guidry, 75, befriended the victims father, who is an ordained deacon, about 5 years prior to the assault. Guidry began hiring the victim to do some of his household chores, at which time he served the boy alcohol while he worked. The lawsuit claims it was at this time that Guidry started hugging (the victim), rubbing his stomach and keeping his hand on (the victims) back.
According to the lawsuit, their relationship transitioned into nighttime visits, during which time Guidry increased the amount of alcohol he served to the victim under the guise that it was their secret. One night in April of 2015, Guidry pushed the victim to drink pure gin as they watched a movie. The victim passed out as a result of the excessive amount of alcohol he had been served.
The victim was woken up to find Guidry sexually assaulting him. When he confronted Guidry the following day, the priest promised him that he would never do it again. However, Guidry continued to attempt contact with the victim through calls and text messages. The lawsuit alleges that the victim tried to brush Guidry off and eventually stopped going to church altogether.
The lawsuit details, (The victim) was fearful of telling anyone what had happened to him and he began to drink heavily, causing deep concern with his parents and older brother. It got to the point that every time they confronted him about his alcohol problem (the victim) would get mad and leave, all of which caused a breach in the close and loving relationship he and his family had before (Guidry) came into their lives.
The lawsuit has been filed in the 27th Judicial District Court and is seeking unspecified damages.
Guidry was arrested in June on counts of molestation of a juvenile as well as contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, and was placed on administrative leave, according to the diocese.
The allegations against Guidry coincide with information that one of priests incriminated in the Pennsylvania grand jury report on sexual abuse among several diocese also served in the Lafayette diocese. Father John Bostwick was transferred to the diocese in 1992, after he refused to get counseling. He transferred after the alleged abuse, but the reason for recommending him to counseling is unclear.
Bostwick, who came to Lafayette at the invitation of then-Bishop Harry Flynn, was immediately removed by Flynns successor in 1996 when the allegations surfaced, according to the diocese.
Contact an Experienced Child Abuse Attorney
If you believe that your child has been the victim of sexual abuse, contact Thomas J. Henry. For over two decades, Thomas J. Henry has been an advocate for sexually abused children across the state of Texas. Our experienced child injury lawyers are available 24/7, nights and weekends to take your call. Contact us today for a free legal consultation.
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.
Local News, Business & Finance, Press Releases, Politics
By Long Island News & PR Published: September 05 2018
Acting Director Mulvaney Has Suggested that CFPB May Refuse to Enforce Key Parts of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.
New York, NY - Sept. 5, 2018 - New York Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood part of a coalition of 14 Attorneys General - called on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Acting Director Mick Mulvaney to continue protecting the rights of consumers against credit discrimination under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA). The Attorneys General share authority with the CFPB to enforce regulations regarding the ECOA and lead antidiscrimination efforts in their own states. As such, they are calling on the CFPB to continue enforcing the ECOA, including its provision for disparate impact liability.
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act was enacted because of our countrys sordid history of credit discrimination and its unbelievable that the CFPB is considering refusing to use it to protect consumers, said Attorney General Underwood. As weve shown, my office wont hesitate to uphold the law and protect those we serve, even if the CFPB wont.
The ECOA is the principal federal antidiscrimination law for all forms of credit except home mortgage lending. It prohibits creditors from discriminating against consumers on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, and age. The ECOA also protects people from discriminatory intent and unconscious prejudices that do not mention race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, or age, but still have a discriminatory effect that prevents equality of opportunity; this is called disparate impact liability. The CFPB is charged with oversight and enforcement of federal laws relevant to nondiscriminatory lending and credit practices, which includes interpreting the ECOA.
The U.S. Supreme Courts 2015 ruling in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. dictated that the text of the ECOA provides for disparate impact liability, and numerous courts have continued to recognize disparate impact claims under the ECOA. In their letter, the Attorneys General say they will not hesitate to uphold the law if CFPB acts in a manner contrary to law with respect to interpreting ECOA.
Local News, Health & Wellness, Press Releases, Politics
By Long Island News & PR Published: September 05 2018
Participants in the Roundtable included Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth.
Huntington, NY - Sept. 5, 2018 - On Tuesday, Congressman Tom Suozzi (D Long Island, Queens) hosted an Aging in Place Roundtable at the On Tuesday, Congressman Tom Suozzi (D Long Island, Queens) hosted an Aging in Place Roundtable at the Manhasset Public Library . Invited participants in this roundtable discussion presented the Congressman with information about what support systems are needed to allow seniors to age at home.
As the baby boomers age and our life expectancy increases, more and more seniors will require assistance if they are to continue to live healthy and fulfilling lives. The professionals in this discussion provided me with more information regarding the different programs in my district; NORCs (Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities), Project Independence and our network of senior centers. Hearing from these professionals helps me better understand the challenges these programs face and some of the potential options for addressing these issues, said Suozzi.
Participants in the Roundtable included Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth, who welcomed the Congressman, directors of New York State, New York City, Nassau and Suffolk Counties and Town offices for the aging, and local providers and their service partners of existing Aging in Place programs in the 3rd Congressional District.
School & Education, Local News, Press Releases, Politics
By Long Island News & PR Published: September 05 2018
Funding Made Available as Promised by the Governor in the 2018 State of the State.
Suffolk County, NY - Sept. 5, 2018 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced $15 million in funding is available to establish pre-kindergarten programs for three or four-year-old students across New York. A preference in funding will be provided to high-need school districts that do not currently have a State funded pre-kindergarten program.
"It's critical that every child in New York has equal access to quality pre-K programs and this funding will help students in underserved districts receive the early education they need for academic success," Governor Cuomo said. "Providing children with the opportunity to begin learning from an even earlier age is one of the smartest investments we can make as a State and will help build a stronger New York for all."
"Having access to an affordable, quality education is important, especially at an early age," Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul said. "This funding will expand pre-K programs across the state, prioritizing high-need school districts, to ensure that every child is given an equal opportunity. We're committed to providing all children and families in underserved districts with an early childhood education, positioning them for future success."
Since 2011, Governor Cuomo has more than doubled the state's commitment to early childhood education to improve the academic future of young people across New York. In 2013, Governor Cuomo created the state's first full-day pre-kindergarten seats, and in 2015, New York expanded pre-kindergarten to serve three-year-olds for the first time. New York's commitment to pre-kindergarten is now over $800 million annually, serving 120,000 three and four-year-old students each year, and universal pre-kindergarten is free for families.
This additional $15 million will ensure New York continues to support its youngest students by supporting the expansion of pre-kindergarten in school districts across New York, including those where there are currently no pre-kindergarten seats. In addition, preference will be given to districts that will be ensuring the inclusion of students with disabilities in integrated settings.
The Request for Proposals is available here and applications will be accepted until October 29, 2018.
State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia said, "Early childhood learning has long been a top priority for the Board of Regents and the Education Department. We envision a New York where all children thrive from birth, flourish in preschool, enter a school-age program on a trajectory of success, and are academically proficient in third grade by growing up healthy and having opportunities for high-quality early learning experiences that are culturally, linguistically and developmentally appropriate. We thank the Governor and Legislature for providing the funding that will enable so many children to get off to a good start, and we look forward to continuing to make quality educational experiences available to all our youngest learners."
Senator Carl Marcellino, Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Education, said, "Research demonstrates that pre-K education has a long lasting, positive influence on our children's academic success. Investing in high-quality pre-K programs is essential to ensuring New York's youngest students have the educational tools and training they need for the future. I thank Governor Cuomo for recognizing the importance of these programs and for giving all young children the opportunity to grow and thrive here in New York."
Governor Cuomo first announced the initiative in January as part of his budget proposal and it was enacted in the FY 2019 Budget. Funding for districts will be renewed annually, provided the programs meet all program requirements and adopt quality indicators assessing environment, staff-to-student interaction and student outcomes. The State Education Department, which will administer the grant, expects to announce awards later this fall.
Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Health & Wellness, Press Releases
By Long Island News & PR Published: September 05 2018
Baldwinites heeded the call impressively, with nearly 80 rolling up their sleeves to donate.
Baldwin, NY - Sept. 5, 2018 - Nassau County Legislator Debra Mule (D- Nassau County Legislator Debra Mule (D- Freeport ) in conjunction with the New York Blood Center hosted a successful blood drive at the Baldwin Fire Department on Thursday, August 30th.
At the beginning of the summer New York Blood Center declared a blood emergency, and Long Island was one of the areas asked to help replenish the blood supply for local hospitals. Baldwinites heeded the call impressively, with nearly 80 rolling up their sleeves to donate. Legislator Mules office has hosted three blood drives this summer, attracting more than 200 donors.
The critical need for blood donations during the summer makes Thursdays impressive turnout even more important, Legislator Mule said. I thank the Baldwin Fire Department for hosting the drive, the New York Blood Center for coordinating and the nearly 80 residents who took time out of their day to give the gift of life.
Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Health & Wellness, Press Releases
By Long Island News & PR Published: September 05 2018
The gold ribbons will adorn lamp posts and benches at Huntington Town Hall through the month of September.
A lamp post on Veterans Plaza at Huntington Town Hall adorned with a gold ribbon for Childrens Cancer Awareness Month on September 4, 2018.
Huntington, NY - Sept. 5, 2018 - Supervisor Chad A. Lupinacci launched a Gold Ribbon Campaign at Supervisor Chad A. Lupinacci launched a Gold Ribbon Campaign at Huntington Town Hall for Childrens Cancer Awareness Month at the request of the Christina Renna Foundation.
"This gold ribbon campaign allows us as a community to speak with one voice for those voices that can no longer be heard and for those children who need our help today and tomorrow," said Supervisor Lupinacci.
The gold ribbons will adorn lamp posts and benches at Huntington Town Hall through the month of September.
Sports & Recreation, Nature & Weather, Local News, Travel & Local Attractions, Press Releases
By Chris Boyle Published: September 05 2018
Jones Beach, Hither Hills, Robert Moses, and Sunken Meadow will maintain limited daily schedules until Sept. 16th.
Long Island, NY - Sept. 5, 2018 - Labor Days passing typically signifies the end of beach season, to the chagrin of many; however, in light of a continued record-breaking heat wave, several Long Island state park beaches are officially remaining open past the holiday this year, giving those wishing to one last chance to enjoy the shore to get their fixes before the fall season is upon us.
Paid parking will remain in effect while lifeguards are still on duty, officials say.
In addition, the Jones Beach spray pad will also remain open, officials say, since lifeguards are not needed as there is no standing water that a child could drown in. A popular new addition to the Jones Beach boardwalk area this year, the spray pad consists of a mini-park with multiple ground nozzles that spray water upwards out of the spray pad's raindeck, where kids can frolic about and cool off.
Several Long Island beaches have remained open past Labor Day in recent years, and while beach season in the aforementioned state parks has been extended this year to the 16th, officials indicate that it is possible to extend that deadline further if the current warm weather patterns continue.
While the summer season still has several weeks remaining on the calendar before fall kicks in, most public beaches are typically closed to swimmers after Labor Day due to the lack of lifeguards available, as the start of school often depletes their ranks. However, officials have decided to retain as many non-student and retired lifeguards as possible to keep several beaches open in response to the current heat wave enveloping the region, with reported temperatures on Long island still in the 80s and 90s in some areas.
PSEG Long Island Partners with Farmingdale State College and NY-GEO to Bring Geothermal Workshop to Long Island
Tech & Science, School & Education, Nature & Weather, Local News, Business & Finance, Press Releases
By Long Island News & PR Published: September 05 2018
PSEG Long Island funded these courses to help educate Long Island inspectors and contractors on ground source heat pump (GSHP) technology.
Uniondale, NY - Sept. 5, 2018 - , The Renewable Energy and Sustainability Center (RESC) at PSEG Long Island , The Renewable Energy and Sustainability Center (RESC) at Farmingdale State College , and New York Geothermal Energy Organization (NY-GEO) are pleased to offer the Certified Geothermal Inspector course for Long Island inspectors, and the Accredited Installer Workshop course for Long Island contractors. These courses are developed and administered by the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA).
PSEG Long Island funded these courses to help educate Long Island inspectors and contractors on ground source heat pump (GSHP) technology. The week-long workshop is comprised of two discounted courses - a three-day Accredited Installer Workshop course and a two-day Certified Geothermal Inspector course.
The workshop will be held at Farmingdale State College the week of September 24. Continuing education credits for participants may be available.
The Certified Geothermal Inspector course is designed for city and state government code enforcing inspectors. Professional development electives (PDE) may be available to code enforcement officials.
The Accredited Installer Workshop course is designed for GSHP installers, contractors, dealers, home builders, manufacturers, distributors, architects, heating cooling mechanical engineers and trench/water well drilling contractors.
For registration and more information visit HERE
Everything you need to know about Aotearoa's new COVID-19 'Traffic Light' system
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced the new step in the COVID-19 response plan and we're breaking it all down for you.
SPRINGFIELD - In the summer of 2017, an alliance of Catholic nuns from around the country sent letters to gun makers and retailers, including the parent of Springfield's Smith & Wesson, hoping to start dialogues about gun safety.
The group -- which also includes Mercy Health, a Catholic health care provider in Ohio -- didn't hear back, at least and first, and not from the gun manufacturers.
So the sisters bought stock in Smith & Wesson parent American Outdoor Brands and in Connecticut-based Sturm, Ruger & Co. Those ownership stakes give them the right to put shareholder proposals on the ballot at those corporations' annual meetings. And that's just what they did.
American Outdoor Brands stockholders will soon vote on the nuns' proposal, which would require the company to detail what it's doing to prevent violence and make safer products. The vote is at a virtual shareholders meeting scheduled for Sept. 25.
CEO P. James Debney took time during an earnings conference call last week to ask stockholders to vote no.
"One thing that is encouraging is that we have their attention," said Sister Judy Byron, a member of the Adrian Dominican Sisters and director of the Northwest Coalition for Responsible Investments in Seattle.
Byron and her group want the report to include:
evidence of monitoring of violent events associated with products produced by the company,
efforts underway to research and produce safer guns and gun products, and
an assessment of the risks to corporate reputation and finances related to gun violence in the U.S.
And the sisters want that report by Feb. 8, 2019.
Ruger shareholders approved the sisters' shareholder petition by 69 percent at that company's annual meeting back in May. It is identical in wording to the one they submitted to American Outdoor Brands.
"The CEO (of Ruger) made very clear that they will issue the report but they won't change their business," Byron said.
It took months after they sent their letters last year, but Byron and her group did hear back from Dick's Sporting Goods. She credits conversations with Dick's for the retail chain's decision to stop selling assault-style rifles, stop selling any guns to anyone under 21 and to start lobbying for gun control.
"Dick's actions were very courageous," she said.
Byron hopes Ruger, Smith & Wesson and other firearms manufacturers will start working together to address the number of Americans killed by guns, whether by changing the guns or limiting who can buy them.
"We need safer guns and we need legislation," Byron said.
Asked about the nuns' proposal, Smith & Wesson spokeswoman Elizabeth Sharp referred to Debney's conference call comments.
Debney said American Outdoor Brands already emphasizes things it thinks will help curb gun violence. That includes: "vigilance in enforcing the laws and criminal penalties on the books, and the need to meaningfully address the role that mental illness plays in senseless violence."
He also said the company supports making sure all federal departments report to NICS, the federal background check system, any information that would disqualify a prospective gun buyer. It also supports childhood education and suicide prevention programs.
Debney said the nuns bought the 200 shares, the minimum number required to put a shareholder proposal on ballot for the Sept. 25 annual meeting. He said their efforts could hurt the company.
Two-hundred shares isn't much. American Outdoor Brands has more than 54.3 million shares outstanding.
Smith & Wesson may be afraid of even giving the impressions it is cooperating with gun control proponents.
In 2000, previous management of the company agreed with the Clinton White House on gun control measures including an effort to make "smart guns" that could only be fired by their owners. Such guns can work by means of a computer chip embedded in a ring or bracelet. Proximity to the chip unlocks the gun.
But the concept drew the ire of the National Rifle Association and gun consumers, and the backlash nearly destroyed the company.
Byron said she understands there will be backlash against her group's proposal. That's why she hopes gun makers work together and present a united front in favor of gun safety.
"What would be wonderful is if they could come together as manufacturers and be able to take some steps together," she said. "We don't talk about gun control. We talk about safety."
She wants to hear more about technology that can control who can fire and who cannot fire a weapon.
"I find it hard to believe that in this day and age with all the technology more can't be done," Byron said. "Your car can drive itself. Everything is smart these days from your oven to your doorbell."
Byron said gun makers need some leadership and direction. That's what these communities of women religious, the phrase she uses, hope to provide.
"I believe they are struggling with the issue. They live in our cities and they care about our people and our children, too," Byron said.
The nuns' historic missions were education and health care, Byron said. Gun safety is part of both those missions today.
A teacher and school principal for 25 years, Byron spoke of how her grandnephew was terrified to go through a school-shooter lockdown drill with his kindergarten class.
"We realize we are going to have guns. My family has guns," she said. "We talk about gun safety."
American Outdoor Brands competitors have also faced similar backlashes. Investment firms BlackRock Inc. and Vanguard Group told Ruger they wanted to talk publicly about gun regulations. Ruger turned them down. BlackRock also sent a letter the American Outdoor Brands calling for answers on gun safety.
In response, Debney wrote a letter where he said many of the same things about law enforcement he told analysts in last week's earnings conference call. He also told BlackRock that American Outdoor Brands works with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on enforcement issues and encourages retailers to follow all laws regulating who can buy guns and who cannot. American Outdoor Brands doesn't sell to consumers but through a network of distributors and wholesale buyers.
American Outdoor Brands recently reported first-quarter income of $7.6 million, or 14 cents per share, compared with a loss of $2.2 million, or 4 cents per share, for the first quarter last year.
The orders and health care organization that brought forth the petition are:
Dynamic Duos: Printmakers as Partners, a new exhibit at D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts, investigates the printmaking experiments and endeavors of artists who knew each other and often shared influences and inspiration.
The exhibit, on view until Feb. 3, brings together pairs of prints by artists who were friends, couples or business partners. From the woodblock prints of husband and wife duo William Zorach and Marguerite Thompson Zorach to the mass-produced lithographs of business partners Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives, the prints in this exhibit speak to the collaborative, creative lives of their makers.
"Dynamic Duos invites discovery by displaying rarely seen and important prints from our collection in a new and engaging way. The exhibition posits that art is not created in a vacuum but often in relation to one's environment, and in these cases, to one's friends and colleagues," said Heather R. Haskell, vice president and director of the art museums.
Her favorite comparison is between the prints produced by the Dada artists Max Ernst and Jean Arp, both of whom explore the power of simple shapes to evoke emotion.
Maggie C. North, acting curator of art, explained printmaking -- the process of producing an image as multiples -- originates in ancient times and can be achieved through a variety of methods including woodblock, etching, engraving and lithography.
The medium has been used for practical and commercial reasons and for endless artistic expression and experimentation.
"Many artists who work in other media such as paint or sculpture find themselves experimenting with printmaking at some point during their career," she said. "Herein lies the beauty of exploring various connections between prints and printmakers in the large collection of works on paper here at the D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts."
Because the printmaking process involves many steps -- designing the work, carving blocks or etching plates, inking, printing, etc. -- there are many opportunities for artists to pivot, adjust and garner assistance or advice. "I believe that for most artists and printmakers, partnership is incredibly productive and enhances the output. Artists who work as partners are often able to maintain their own sense of identity and their vision, while also drawing inspiration from friends, a spouse, or business partners," North said.
The two partnerships, between the Zorachs and between Currier and Ives, exemplify two different approaches to image creation. While prints of husband and wife artists William Zorach and Marguerite Thompson Zorach have a handmade, experimental and elemental feel, the prints created by business partners Currier and Ives were sleek and mass produced.
"Although they did provide artistic direction, Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives were primarily business owners and managers who employed others to design, print and hand-color works in an assembly line fashion," she said. "The Zorachs, working just a few decades after the close of the Currier & Ives Firm in 1907, completed each print themselves and used printmaking to experiment with avant-garde ways of depicting the world that incorporated abstraction and elements of cubism."
Despite these differences, the two pairs of artists both explored themes of home and were inspired by rural New England towns. The William Zorach print in this exhibition, Composition with Houses of 1920, makes for an interesting stylistic comparison to the 19th century print by produced by the Currier & Ives firm and titled A New England Home.
There are 17 prints on view in the exhibition dating to the 19th and 20th centuries.
One of the best-known prints on view in the exhibition is a scene of Venice, titled The Bridge by James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Although he spent most of his life as an expatriate living in Europe, Whistler was born in Lowell and lived in Springfield as a child. Today, he is known for his nocturne scenes, portraits and etchings.
North noted that in 1779, Whistler accepted a commission from the Fine Art Society for a series of 12 etchings of scenes in Venice. "The artist planned to return to London after three months, but the allure of Venice compelled him to stay for over a year. The Bridge was created during this time depicts a canal scene that evokes the hustle and bustle of this picturesque city."
In the exhibition, it is paired with a Venice etching by a friend and admirer of Whistler, Joseph Pennell.
She said that too often people stereotype artists as loners or geniuses who source inspiration only from their inner worlds. "Although, certainly, some artists do work this way, it is more common that artists work within communities of creatives, bouncing ideas off one another while learning and growing from partners and circles of friends," she explained. "The art world is a small world, and art is never created in a vacuum. Given the variety of styles, cultures and methods represented in the exhibition, I believe that every visitor will find something to admire."
"I think that more than anything else, viewers will appreciate the opportunity to compare works by artists whose paths intersected and to explore the personalities behind the paper," North said.
Many of the prints on view are seldom displayed because of light sensitivity.
For more information, go to springfieldmuseums.org/about/museum-of-fine-arts.
SPRINGFIELD -- Alexander Ciccolo, a former ISIS sympathizer convicted of plotting would-be domestic terror attacks, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in U.S. District Court on Wednesday.
Ciccolo, 25, of Adams, pleaded guilty in May to four criminal charges in connection with collecting a cache of explosives and weapons in 2015. Prosecutors said he was planning to lodge terror attacks at public places.
He also was charged with stabbing a jailhouse nurse in the head with a pen after his arrest on July 4 of that year.
"He was ready to execute a plan in the name of ISIS in support of his extremist views," Assistant U.S. Attorney Deepika Shukla told a federal judge.
Although Ciccolo appeared in court in traditional Muslim clothing and refused to comply with court protocol by standing while being addressed by the judge, defense attorney David Hoose said his client has since denounced his loyalty to the terror group.
Following his arrest, Ciccolo gave an interview to an FBI agent which was videotaped and featured him extolling to virtues of ISIS and its high-profile attacks on civilians.
The 20-year-sentence was agreed upon under a plea deal with federal prosecutors. Ciccolo could have faced up to life in prison absent the agreement.
Bill Cosby's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was vandalized with the words "serial rapist."
The words, which have since been cleaned from the star, were scrawled sometime on Monday night and have since been cleaned, according to The Los Angles Times.
Officers in the Los Angeles Police Department's Hollywood division took a vandalism report, ABC News reported. There are security cameras in the area that police will be checking out as part of the ongoing investigation, but at this point there are no suspects.
Cosby, 81, was found guilty of drugging and molesting Andrea Constand in his suburban Philadelphia-area home in 2004. He faces sentencing later this month, and remains restricted to his Pennsylvania home with an ankle monitor and is only allowed to leave for medical appointments or meetings with his attorneys.
The disgraced TV icon has been accused by dozens of women of misconduct, though he has maintained his innocence.
Cosby's Walk of Fame star has been defaced before. In 2014, someone marked it with the word "rapist."
MONSON - A car burst into flames Tuesday night, forcing Wilbraham Road to be closed.
Police asked people to avoid the street, which is closed near the intersection of Waid Road, until the scene is cleared. The car fire was reported at about 7:40 p.m.
No one was injured in the fire. Monson Fire Department is extinguishing the blaze now, police said.
NORTHAMPTON - Neither Jo Comerford nor her campaign manager Pamela Schwartz got much sleep Tuesday night, but it didn't matter. "It's a very happy version of tired," Schwartz said on Wednesday.
Comerford, a write-in candidate for the Hampshire-Franklin-Worcester County Senate District, won the seat previously held by former sen. Stanley Rosenberg by besting Chelsea Kline, 14,196 to 10,823 votes, with 96.9 percent of the precincts in the 24 community district reporting. The win was a 53.55 to 40.83 percent victory, according to the Associated Press.
Kline was the only candidate on the ballot, as she entered the race while Rosenberg was embroiled in the middle of a sexual misconduct investigation involving his husband Byron Hefner. Rosenberg resigned May 3, two days after the filing deadline.
Fellow write-in candidates Ryan O'Donnell and Steven Connor came in a distant third and fourth, respectively. O'Donnell had just 939 votes and Connor 552.
Both Comerford and Kline sent supporters home from Northampton gatherings at about midnight when it looked as if the final results wouldn't come in until the morning, although Comerford was well ahead at that point.
Comerford said she started seeing reports that the AP called her the winner at about 2 or 3 a.m.
She had been reluctant to say she won because Kline had not yet conceded. No one from the Kline campaign could be reached for comment on Wednesday.
Comerford attributed her victory to "people power, grass roots, hope and grit and grace."
She had a team of 650 volunteers from every community. "We ran a grass roots campaign from the bottom up, where people charted their own strategy," she said, adding that her campaign was aware of 41 public house parties.
With results from 20 communities reporting results, Kline won seven and Comerford won 13. With the exception of South Hadley, which Kline won with nearly 62 percent of the vote, Comerford won the three other large communities of Amherst, Northampton, and Greenfield, by 57, 51 and 62 percent, respectively.
Winning as a write-in candidate is a testament to Comerford, Schwartz said.
"This is a story on some level, you reap what you sow." She was talking about Comerford's decades of work in the community as the director of the Western Massachusetts American Friends Service Committee, as director of The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, leader of the National Priorities Project and campaign director for MoveOn.org.
Schwartz said she is grateful for Comerford's willingness "to step up and represent us. It so special with Jo's qualities; she's willing to step into these responsibilities. There are sacrifices involved in this. To have someone with Jo's level of connection to community (to be a) force for good willing to do this for us...is just special."
Comerford said her campaign ran on four platforms - education, the environment, economic fairness and Medicare for all - so she already has a mandate.
"The community is my boss," she said of the 24 cities and towns that elected her. "I'm supposed to be fully accountable to them." That is a third of her job, she said.
She said another third of her work is building trust and collaboration with her colleagues and the other is her ability to best represent the district.
And even without much sleep, she said she planned to visit the four large communities to thank voters and then make calls to some legislators.
SPRINGFIELD -- Lawyers for terror defendant Alexander Ciccolo, who received a 20-year prison sentence in federal court on Wednesday, said their client was a troubled young man who was baited by the government.
Lead defense attorney David P. Hoose spoke to reporters outside the courthouse on State Street following the sentencing. He argued federal prosecutors' labeling of Ciccolo, 25, as a "soldier" for the Islamic State group was overly dramatic.
"We thought that was a little over the top, frankly, given that he never actually met anyone from ISIS," Hoose told reporters.
He said Ciccolo was a misguided young man who struggled with substance abuse and mental illness who was radicalized online, then baited by federal agents.
Prosecutors, on the other hand, argued during Ciccolo's sentencing hearing that the Adams man was dangerous, and amassing homemade explosives and the makings of a pressure-cooker bomb while under surveillance.
While Ciccolo's plans to attack various public sites -- including in New Mexico -- never came to fruition, an FBI informant arranged a delivery of fake weapons to Ciccolo on July 4, 2015. He was arrested on the spot, investigators said.
Hoose said he believed the Independence Day arrest was a bit of theatrical flair on the part of the government, and that they nudged Ciccolo in a direction he may not have gone otherwise.
"It just wasn't moving fast enough for them, so they arranged to give him guns," Hoose said.
At sentencing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Deepika Baines Shukla told a federal judge Ciccolo was at the ready and federal agents potentially thwarted mass death or injury by arresting the defendant.
"He was ready to execute a plan in the name of ISIS in support of his extremist views," Shukla said.
WESTFIELD - On-street parking limitations could be expanded to two hours throughout downtown at the request of the Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce.
Chamber Executive Director Kate Phelon discussed the request with the City Council Ad-hoc Business Development Committee Aug. 30 and the committee, which includes councilors Michael J. Burns and Brent B. Bean II, approved the request.
The full City Council will take up the recommendation during its meeting Thursday, and Bean said he expects it will be sent to the Legislative and Ordinance Committee.
Phelon said members discussed the request at the chamber's last two meetings, including one with Police Chief John Camerota present. She said some sections of downtown have signs indicating one-hour parking, others have two-hour parking signs and some areas have no signs at all, so cars are often parked there all day.
Phelon said an hour is not enough time for customers of many downtown businesses.
"We're saying come downtown, but in an hour you have to move your car," Phelon said.
Phelon also said chamber members brought up the downtown parking lots and lack of clear signage there.
Community Development Director Peter J. Miller said parking lots fall under his purview, but on-street parking is governed by city ordinance. He agreed that two-hour on-street parking would be more advantageous to businesses.
"Some businesses, like Tobacco Barn and the bakery, customers are in and out," he said. "Other businesses like Skyline, Clemenza's and Optimum Health, customers are there longer."
Miller said the city recently received a $25,000 grant from the state to use for marketing.
"When we asked for it, we put in for way-finding signage," Miller said. He is still researching signage options but said signs would include parking hours and point to places such as the Athenaeum and parking areas rather than specific businesses.
The signs also would be attractive and could be hung on existing light poles, creating a uniform look downtown.
"This will make the streetscape look better and get rid of the ugly signs," Miller said.
Phelon mentioned having designated employee parking lots. Miller said right now, permit parking is allowed in all but two city lots and much of the space is already used by downtown employees. Miller also said some of the lots, particularly the ones along School Street, are crowded while other lots, such as the Franklin Street lot, have more open spaces.
Committee member Kathy Witalisz said the group should consider parking as a whole and future needs versus concentrating on current needs.
"What are we looking to make the city look like?" said Witalisz. "We have plenty of parking, but we have not defined and designated it properly."
Bean made a motion to send the request to the full council so it could be vetted by the Legislative and Ordinance Committee.
HOLYOKE -- No problems here.
That was essentially the Holyoke Law Department's opinion on the City Council's request to determine whether the procedure being used to disburse money from marijuana companies under host community agreements in Wards 1 and 2 passes legal and ethical muster.
The City Council Wednesday at 7 p.m. at City Hall will consider the Aug. 30 opinion from City Solicitor Paul Payer.
Councilor at Large Rebecca Lisi had raised questions about how such funds are being received and disbursed and whether such funds should go first to the City Council before disbursement to community groups. Such questions prompted the Council's request to Payer.
In raising such questions, Ward 2 Councilor Nelson R. Roman said Lisi's order amounted to an attack on him given his level of involvement in disbursing of host community funds to groups in Ward 2.
Lisi said the order was not an attack but a step to establish "universal, transparent processes."
Payer said Holyoke's host community agreement with the only company operating a marijuana business here so far abides by state law, and he noted such agreements are "not uncommon" across the state. (see below)
Payer's opinion also discusses how city officials are not to act in a manner that would cause a reasonable person to think that he or she would show favor toward someone or that he or she can be improperly influenced.
The city solicitor goes on to explain that officials can rebut the appearance of a conflict of interest by filing a disclosure form and seeking advice from the city Law Department and state Ethics Commission.
Only one marijuana company is operating here, though numerous others are at different points in the permitting pipeline. RISE Holdings Inc., formerly known as GTI Massachusetts NP Corp., opened a medical marijuana facility at 28 Appleton St. in April.
Under its host community agreement, RISE Holdings has provided $7,500 each to Wards 1 and 2 in the agreement's first year.
Payer's opinion refers to the $15,000 agreed upon in the host community agreement by RISE and the city as "a charitable donation."
"The continued enforceability of the charitable contribution requirement does not violate the statutory cap on impact fees pursuant to" state law, Payer said.
Massachusetts voters approved a ballot question in November 2016 to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Gov. Charlie Baker signed the law July 28, 2017. Bay State voters approved marijuana for medical purposes in 2012.
Under those laws, the state permits cities and towns to make "host community agreements" with companies applying to operate such businesses. The money comes into play via an "impact fee" cities and towns can impose on marijuana companies, with limits.
Such fees "shall be reasonably related to the costs imposed upon the municipality by the operation of the establishment and shall, in no event, amount to more than 3 percent of the gross sales of the establishment or be effective for longer than 5 years," according to the law.
Also, Payer said: "Charitable donation requirements are not uncommon among host community agreements -- both within Holyoke and across the commonwealth."
The order Lisi filed and which the Council referred to the Law Department stated:
"1) How the dedicated funds for Wards 1 and 2 should be established as a result of the Host Community Agreement with RISE Holdings (formerly GTI)?
2) If there are any legal or ethical issues with the way that those funds are currently established and disbursing money?
3) if the Law Department identifies any legal or ethical issues, how might they be addressed and mitigated?
4) How can the City help build uniformity and transparency into the establishment of those funds and the process by which residents and community groups access those funds?
5) Does the Green Fund/Verde Fund as its currently drafted meet legal/ethical scrutiny?"
Roman helped to establish the Green Fund/Verde Fund. The purpose of the fund is to solicit voluntary contributions from marijuana companies of money that would go directly to neighborhood associations without government involvement, he said.
Nothing has been collected in that fund as of yet, he said.
The money would be used for cultural events in and around Main Street, youth development programs, environmental and "food justice" programs, workforce development and community celebrations, he said.
The fund would be separate from the money received from marijuana companies in host community agreements, he said.
Payer said the city is "not a party to any agreement with the Verde Fund," so discussing ethical obligations of municipal employees and officials in relation to that fund falls outside the Law Department's role.
Holyoke Law Department opinion about marijuana host community agreements: by Mike Plaisance on Scribd
State Police and Boston Police issued around 500 citations in the area of South Boston where 2-year-old Colin McGrath was hit and killed by a car in July.
The operation, prompted by resident calls for action following the deadly crash, happened last week over the course of several days on Day Boulevard and streets feeding onto it. This is part of a study of traffic in the area.
State Police said they focused on "crosswalk enforcement, speeding, and other unsafe driving behaviors."
The Boston Transportation Department they would take updated traffic counts in the area following McGrath's death on July 25.
McGrath and his sister were hit by a car at the intersection of L and East Sixth Streets while trying to cross the street with their nanny.
His sister was taken to the hospital with serious injuries but survived the crash.
Following McGrath's death, some residents in the area demanded more stop signs and speed bumps to help with the speeding issue.
"There is no excuse for, and we will not tolerate, any motorist putting other drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians at risk," State Police Colonel Kerry A. Gilpin said in a joint statement issued with Boston police discussing the operation.
Gilpin wrote that state and Boston police will continue to monitor that area and "respond to the concerns of neighborhood residents."
26
Gallery: Mathew P. Locke of Ware charged with murder of West Brookfield family
John Kerry told "CBS This Morning" that he "doubts very much" he will run for political office again. That is not quite the same as saying "no, I won't."
If Kerry decides that only he can defeat a president he truly detests, the Democratic Party presidential debates might take the form of a game show. The former Secretary of State might be joined by Senator Elizabeth Warren and former Governor Deval Patrick - three Massachusetts liberals, seated behind Door Numbers 1, 2 and 3.
Maybe they'd all sit behind Door Number 1, the one on the far left. But before that happens, Democrats might consider if their national message is best conveyed by a race that looks like an intramural tournament among Massachusetts liberals.
With the ghosts of Michael Dukakis '88 and Kerry '04 in the shadows, they might even look for somebody, anybody, who does not live in a coastal state and who might win back some of the 30 states Donald Trump won in 2016. Massachusetts loves its liberal Democrats, but America does not.
Still, when your starting lineup of non-Massachusetts liberals is Bernie Sanders (age 77 on Sept. 8), Hillary Clinton (believe it!) and Joe Biden (78 on Inauguration Day 2021), it's worth looking at all the options. Let's take a quick look at the Bay State's Lib-3:
Elizabeth Warren: Of the Massachusetts liberals, she has the best chance to defeat Trump. A de facto candidate for at least a year, she can go jaw-to-jaw with the president, though this ability seems to change nobody's opinion on either side.
Warren will be 71 on Election Day, yet she seems more modern and current than, say ...
John Kerry: Sure. And let's order some new "Seinfeld" episodes while we're at it.
Kerry would be 77 on Inauguration Day 2021. He's a Vietnam War veteran who later turned against the war. Even so, you'd think his service to the nation would count against Trump's absence of service, but we know it won't.
A Kerry candidacy would be precisely the Pelosi-ism that could keep this party out of the White House, which is why he may be serious about not running. He's the news of the last generation. If the Democrats want that, Hillary Clinton is still looking for work.
Kerry's biggest drawback would be his reputation as exactly the type of Democrat that middle-class independents seem to be rejecting these days: a wealthy Northeast liberal elitist, a modern day Kennedy knockoff at a time most of the country doesn't want that.
Deval Patrick: Interesting candidate. He acknowledges he's thinking about it and exploring it but he's still not sure, which at least is an honest response.
Of the state's Lib-3, Patrick's resume is the least known. He is an engaging campaigner who would stir the Barack Obama wing. He can make the same attacks against Trump Administration policies as Warren, but Patrick's would sound fresher because America hasn't heard them over and over and over from him, as they have from her.
But Patrick would also face the label of too liberal, too soft on hot-button issues - in short, too Massachusetts. He would also have to overcome racism, and just because Obama did it doesn't make it easy.
The most appealing candidate from Massachusetts might be none of the above. U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton of Salem has been all over the country, involving himself in national politics that has "future candidate" written all over him.
Nada, he says. "Look, I'm not planning to run for president in 2020," says the 39-year-old former Marine who served four tours in Iraq and is quite popular among military leaders.
Moulton has been a thorn in Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's side, making him a pariah among political insiders and a hero to people saying it's time somebody stood up to the aging icons of yesteryear. Moulton speaks his mind in a refreshingly petulant yet articulate way, he can appeal to the young and there's no fair way he can be tagged with the typical "Massachusetts elite liberal" label.
Like Obama and Trump before him, Moulton would offer a fresh new political face to a country that is fed up with the old faces and old voices, unless you count Sanders, an old face with a young message.
Unlike the Lib-3, Moulton could be just the type of political wild card who could snare uncommitted centrist votes and win. But these are the Democrats, known to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, so why would we think they'd want that?
Say this for Congressional challenger Tahira Amatul-Wadud: she made U.S. Rep. Richard Neal earn it.
Even in a turbulent political age, however, the 30-year House veteran showed he still has strength at the polls.
Neal retained his seat in the 1st Massachusetts District convincingly. As the returns of the Democratic primary came in Tuesday night, his margin looked comparable to his decisive victory in the 2016 general election, when he defeated two challengers.
Unlike Neal's low-key 2016 campaign, however his 2018 primary bid reflected an urgency that speaks to these unpredictable political times. By debating Amatul-Wadud and running his most visible campaign in years, Neal took seriously the challenge of a Springfield attorney who was attempting to become the first Muslim-American woman elected to Congress.
With no Republican opponent in November, Neal is headed back to Washington for two more years. He's served the district in the House since 1989.
Neal's victory means Springfield retains a powerful voice in the U.S. House of Representatives. As the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, he becomes its chairman if the Democrats reclaim a House majority in November.
Voters decided that influence and experience was worth keeping. What also helped Neal was his traditionally strong reputation among minorities, making it difficult for Amatul-Wadud to make inroads into what would be her natural base.
In an age where nothing can be assumed in politics anymore, Western Massachusetts still ran pretty much according to form. The region did not produce an upset to match that of Boston City Council member Ayanna Pressley, whose defeat of 10-term U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano made national news.
Capuano's backers included House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, but Pressley's victory sent another message as to the unpredictability of results that defy tradition, incumbency and poll numbers.
Even without local upsets, the Western Massachusetts delegation in Boston will undergo sweeping changes. Resignation, death and retirement opened up seats in several districts.
The senior member in the state's reconfigured western contingent will be Senator James Welch, who represents West Springfield and parts of Chicopee and Springfield. Welch turned back former Springfield City Council member Amaad Rivera in a competitive race.
One noteworthy outcome came in the 1st Hampshire District, where newcomer Lindsay Sabadosa defeated Diana Szynal in the race to fill the seat vacated by Rep. Peter Kocot. Szynal had been Kocot's long-time aide, but Sabadosa's liberal platform resonated with voters in the House race.
On the statewide level, Governor Charlie Baker's only concern might have been whether non-enrolled voters (who belong to neither party) chose Democratic ballots to weigh in on other races. Non-enrolled voters make up 53 percent of the electorate and much of Baker's base, but he still won easily and will face Democratic nominee Jay Gonzalez (who defeated Bob Massie Tuesday) in the November election.
SPRINGFIELD -- Incumbent State Rep. Carlos Gonzalez, D-Springfield, declared victory in the race for the 10th Hampden District seat Tuesday night in front of supporters at his campaign headquarters on Main Street.
Gonzalez ran against longtime social worker Ivette Hernandez in a dual write-in campaign because neither candidate submitted the requisite number of signatures before the May 1 deadline to appear on the ballot.
"The people of the 10th Hampden District have spoken," Gonzalez said. "It doesn't matter what neighborhood you live in -- we are one Springfield and we need to send that message to Boston loud and clear. We are proud, unafraid, strong and united."
The uncertified official results confirm Gonzalez is the winner with 854 votes to Hernandez' 81 votes. Gonzalez needed 150 votes to have his name listed on the November ballot.
The district includes Springfield's North End, South End, downtown and parts of Forest Park.
Supporters for both candidates hit the polls Tuesday to cast their votes.
Springfield resident Enid Ramos said she was proud to vote for Hernandez.
"I voted for her because she is a Latina like me and I have seen her commitment to this community," said Ramos who has lived in Springfield for the past four years. "She doesn't just talk about it, she actually cares about people and I have seen that first-hand."
Hernandez said she is proud of the support she received during the race.
"Our campaign is proud of the race we ran and we feel hope that the issues we brought to light will be given proper attention," she said. "We don't wish to comment further on the outcome until we review first hand accounts from volunteers and voters."
Gonzalez supporters gathered at his headquarters chanting his name.
"He has a proven track record," said Springfield School Committee member Maria Perez, who came out to vote for Gonzalez. "This is not about popularity, it's about who can get things done."
Gonzalez said he wants to continue to make sure that Boston addressed the needs of the 10th Hampden District which he called the poorest in the state.
"We are the poorest part of the state, but we have pride," he said. " You can no longer just call us poor and unhealthy. We are proud, we are strong and we are united."
Gonzalez thanked everyone who came out to vote on Tuesday.
"Let me just say gracias, muchas gracias (thank you very much). What an amazing show of support. I am so humbled, so delighted and so thankful to the 10th Hampden district," he said. "We made a difference because we went out and did the work and you are responsible for that."
It's the morning after the primary and it remains uncertain who is the Democratic candidate for the Massachusetts 3rd Congressional District.
With all precincts reporting, 52 votes separate Lori Trahan of Westford and Daniel Koh of Andover.
Voters chose from a crowded field of Democratic candidates seeking to replace U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas. The other candidates include: Jeffrey Ballinger of Andover; Alexandra Chandler of Haverhill; Beej Das of Lowell; Rufus Gifford of Concord; Leonard Golder of Stow; Barbara L'Italien of Andover; Bopha Malone of Bedford; and Juana Matias of Lawrence.
As of 10:30 Wednesday morning, all precincts are reporting. The current results show Trahan ahead with 18,368 votes - 21.6 percent - to Koh's 18,316 votes - 21.6 percent.
"We're going to claim victory," Trahan said. "We are leading right now with 99 percent of the votes in," she said Tuesday night. "I look at the numbers tonight and with 99 percent reporting, the numbers look good, so I'm very confident that we're winning this election."
Koh's campaign remains less certain about the results. "Given the closeness of the results in the 3rd CD -- with 85,000 votes cast and only a handful of votes separating the top two finishers - and the fact that all ballots, including possibly hundreds of provisional ballots, have not been counted, it's clear that the final outcome of the election will not be known for a few days."
Just over 50 percent of the vote was split between four candidates: Matias, Gifford, L'Italien and Chandler.
The Democratic candidate will face Rick Green, a Pepperell resident who is the sole Republican candidate running, in November.
The 3rd Congressional District includes towns in Essex, Middlesex and Worcester counties.
This article has been updated with the results of all precincts reporting.
All ballots in the too-close-to-call 3rd Congressional District Democratic primary have been ordered sealed by the Massachusetts secretary of state in anticipation of a recount.
With all precincts reporting, 52 votes separate Lori Trahan of Westford and Daniel Koh of Andover.
Trahan served as chief of staff to former U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan. Koh served as chief of staff to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh before announcing his run for office.
Trahan declared victory shortly after midnight. "We're going to claim victory," Trahan said. "We are leading right now with 99 percent of the votes in," she said. "I look at the numbers tonight and with 99 percent reporting, the numbers look good, so I'm very confident that we're winning this election."
Koh's campaign remains less certain about the results. "Given the closeness of the results in the 3rd CD -- with 85,000 votes cast and only a handful of votes separating the top two finishers - and the fact that all ballots, including possibly hundreds of provisional ballots, have not been counted, it's clear that the final outcome of the election will not be known for a few days."
Voters chose from a crowded field of Democratic candidates seeking to replace U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas. The other candidates include: Jeffrey Ballinger of Andover; Alexandra Chandler of Haverhill; Beej Das of Lowell; Rufus Gifford of Concord; Leonard Golder of Stow; Barbara L'Italien of Andover; Bopha Malone of Bedford; and Juana Matias of Lawrence.
As of 10:30 Wednesday morning, all precincts are reporting. The current results show Trahan ahead with 18,368 votes - 21.6 percent - to Koh's 18,316 votes - 21.6 percent.
Just over 50 percent of the vote was split between four candidates: Matias, Gifford, L'Italien and Chandler.
The Democratic candidate will face Rick Green, a Pepperell resident who is the sole Republican candidate running, in November.
The 3rd Congressional District includes towns in Essex, Middlesex and Worcester counties.
All ballots in the primary race have been ordered sealed to prevent tampering ahead of the expected recount.
Democratic opponents for the Hampden County Register of Deeds race threw themselves into a final gauntlet of handshakes and push for votes headed into the primary election on Tuesday.
Cheryl Coakley-Rivera, a veteran candidate while she was a Springfield delegate in state Legislature for 15 years, said covering the county was obviously a greater challenge with 23 cities and towns.
"It's tough to get out and reach every voter, or even reach every city and town," said Coakley-Rivera, now an assistant clerk in Hampden Superior Court.
But, she said there were highlights in the brutal heat of the campaign trail this afternoon. Coakley-Rivera met Oboya Omot, an African refugee, who was voting for the first time Tuesday.
"He was honored to have met someone actually on the ballot. He said he voted for me. His first time ever voting right in Springfield, Massachusetts. That's democracy," Coakley-Rivera said outside Frederick Harris Elementary School in Springfield.
Her write-in opponent, Donald E. Ashe Jr., is seeking to win a bid for his late father's seat, who died July 10 amid his race for a seventh term.
Ashe Jr., a political newcomer, said he didn't know what to expect pounding the pavement on primary Election Day, but was pleasantly surprised.
"By and large it's been a really positive response. I wasn't able to engage people too much about my qualifications because I didn't want to hang on to people for longer than they wanted to but it's been really interesting and positive," Ashe Jr. said outside the Town Hall in Longmeadow, where a steady stream of voters were in and out of the building early evening.
Polls close at 8 p.m.
The victor in the Democratic primary will face Republican Marie Angelides in the general election on Nov. 6.
The Republican will update with live results throughout the evening.
AMHERST - Mindy Domb of Amherst declared victory over Eric Nakajima in the democratic primary for the 3rd Hampshire District, clearing the way for her to claim the state representative seat in the November election.
Domb, the executive director of the Amherst Survival Center, claimed victory over Nakajima, the chairman of the Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee. Although the results had not yet been tallied, the Associated Press showed her leading Nakajima by a 62-37 percent margin.
No Republican or independent candidates took out papers for the seat. Barring the emergence of a write-in candidate, the winner Tuesday has a clear path to gain the seat in the Nov. 6 general election.
"I feel very happy and gratified," she said.
The victory is her first in any elective office other than a time as a member of the Amherst Town Meeting.
She gave credit to all those who participated in her campaign and helped it get over the top.
"It feels good. All these people helped make it special," she said.
The seat became open after incumbent Solomon Goldstein-Rose announced he would not seek re-election to a second term. The 3rd Hampshire District is made up of Amherst, Granby and Pelham.
Goldstein-Rose, who was elected as a Democrat in 2016, announced in February that he was changing his affiliation to unenrolled. In August he made a surprise announcement that he had decided not to run for re-election.
His predecessor, Ellen Story, held the seat for 24 years.
She said she plans to spend Wednesday in Amherst, Granby and Pelham thanking voters, and will then meet with Goldstein-Rose and Story about steps needed to take before assuming the office in January.
"It's the end of the campaign but its the beginning of something else," she said.
She also has to meet with the board of directors at the Survival Center and aid them in finding her replacement as executive director.
Nakajima was previously a senior policy adviser and assistant secretary for innovation policy in the administration of former Gov. Deval Patrick.
He finished 2nd to Goldstein-Rose in a six-candidate primary two years ago, and announced his intention to challenge him before the incumbent decided not to run again.
Domb took out nomination papers in March. She is a New Jersey native who has been an Amherst resident for 20 years, and has been involved with nonprofit work and local activism.
She has been executive director of the Amherst Survival Center since 2013. She is also co-founder of the Berkshire AIDS Coalition, has served as the state Department of Public Health's regional coordinator for HIV testing, and created the state's first HIV education program at the Berkshire County House of Correction.
She was also active in past campaigns for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and state Attorney General Maura Healey, both Democrats.
BOSTON -- The morning after Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley won an upset victory over 10-term Democratic Congressman Michael Capuano, she delivered a passionate speech calling her win a "surreal, full circle moment."
"There are so many reasons why so many believed and might still believe I have no business standing at this podium," Pressley said, speaking Wednesday at a Democratic unity event in Boston.
She said some may believe that because "this is a tribal, parochial place and this hasn't always been my home," or "because of the statistical odds for those who come from the zip code I was born into and the sort of family model I was born into."
Pressley said people thought "my name was too funny sounding and I shouldn't be wearing my hair in braids."
Pressley will be the first black woman to represent Massachusetts in Congress. She grew up in Chicago and was raised by a single mother, who Pressley said faced "indignities in the workplace and the world," in a society where she was often "marginalized and rendered invisible." Pressley herself was a victim of sexual assault.
Pressley credited her late mother who "gave me my roots and my wings."
"There were many reasons in our lives we felt invisible and voiceless. My mother made sure I knew, on Election Day, we were powerful," Pressley said.
As a member of Congress, Pressley pledged to work closely with the people in the district.
"When I said people closest to the pain should be closest to the power, driving and informing policy making, that was never about me," Pressley said. "I know wherever the pain exists, the solution exists with that community."
Capuano did not attend the Democratic unity event.
Hours after polls closed in Massachusetts' primary Tuesday, an emotional Ayanna Pressley took the stage at her Dorchester campaign headquarters to claim a historic victory over incumbent U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano in the state's 7th Congressional District.
On the other side of the state, Democrat Tahirah Amatul-Wadud conceded defeat to longtime U.S. Rep. Richard Neal in Massachusetts' 1st Congressional District race.
Although Pressley and Amatul-Wadud, both 44-year-old women of color, had drawn comparisons and national attention for their respective efforts to unseat long-serving congressmen, the Democrats saw vastly different outcomes as election results poured in.
Pressley, a Boston city councilor, secured 59 percent of the vote to Capuano's 41 percent, according to results tabulated by the Associated Press.
The Democrat, who is running unopposed in November, is poised to become the first African-American woman elected to represent Massachusetts in Congress.
By contrast, Amatul-Wadud, a Chicopee-based lawyer, received just 29 percent of the vote to Neal's 71 percent in Tuesday's primary.
Despite her resounding defeat, the Democrat -- who could have become the first Muslim woman elected to Congress -- stressed that she's "not going anywhere."
Springfield-based political strategist Tony Cignoli argued that it's hard to compare Pressley and Amatul-Wadud, particularly given the various factors that played into their vastly different election night results.
"The differences between the 1st and the 7th are really striking to me today: You had two incumbent members of Congress -- both white males, both who had brought billions back to their districts over the course of time, both had track records, and yet Capuano fell," Cignoli said in an interview. "I think the difference there is that his opponent had a lot of name recognition whereas Congressman Neal's opponent did not have the same kind of name recognition."
Cignoli contended that while Pressley could point to her record as a city councilor when making the case that she would be more reflective of the district if sent to Washington, Amatul-Wadud's campaign had to largely focus on her opponent's record.
He also offered that Neal's potential House Ways and Means Committee chairmanship -- one of the most powerful positions in Congress -- likely weighed heavily on the minds of Western Massachusetts voters, particularly older constituents who remember the benefits experienced under former high-profile congressmen like Silvio Conte.
"This is a district that knows power. There are a lot of people -- especially over the age of 40 -- who remember names like (Edward) Boland, Conte and even (John) Olver to a degree," Cignoli said. "And their seniority did amazing things and brought major things back here."
Tim Vercellotti, director of Western New England University's Polling Institute and a political science professor, agreed that while there's a tendency to juxtapose Amatul-Wadud and Pressley's campaigns, there are too many differences at play between the 1st and 7th Congressional Districts for a true comparison.
"We all like narratives and we like to say that there are broader trends at work here -- and by 'we,' I mean pundits, scholars, journalists -- but these races were night and day, in part because of the nature of the districts and, in part, because of the personalities of the candidates," Vercellotti said in an interview.
Vercellotti, for example, offered that the sprawling 1st District, which spans all of Berkshire County as well as parts of Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire and Worcester counties, includes both large urban centers and rural towns.
The 7th Congressional District, by contrast, is compact and urban, touching parts of Boston, Cambridge, Milton and all of Chelsea, Everett, Randolph and Somerville, he noted. It is also the only majority-minority district in the state.
Vercellotti contended that such geographic, racial and political differences impact how candidates campaign, as well as the types of organization needed to be competitive.
He further argued that disparities in name recognition and financial resources, as well as Neal's high-power status as the potential next House Ways and Means Committee chairman, also make it hard to compare Pressley and Amatul-Wadud.
"Finding some sort of overarching narrative that this was a sign of larger forces at work, it just doesn't translate," Vercellotti said. "It just doesn't apply across the two districts."
Amanda Hunter, a spokeswoman for the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, said she believes Massachusetts' primary results largely echoed what has been seen around the country when it comes to women running for office.
"We know from our research this is an excellent time for women running for office," Hunter said in an interview. "And that authenticity is so important. Ayanna Pressley has run a really authentic, energetic campaign and she really brought the whole of her experience to the campaign trail. She talked about some very tough, personal issues and showed that she is in touch with the lives of the voters in the 7th District. Those are trends that we're seeing across the country."
Hunter, however, stressed that Amatul-Wadud's outcome underscores the fact that "every campaign is different and every candidate is different."
"There are a lot of different factors that affect a race," she said. "We know that partisanship outweighs all other factors typically for voters when making a decision, so it's really tough to unpack what dynamics go into any individual race.
"I think across the country, so far in the primaries -- and Massachusetts has a very late primary -- we've seen surprises and we've seen not surprises too. I think we saw that last night in Massachusetts with a number of incumbents winning their races," she said.
UPDATE as of 9 a.m: 3rd Congressional District still too close to call.
_______
From a crowded field of candidates vying to replace U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, who decided against running for re-election after more than a decade in Congress, Lori Trahan has emerged as the Democratic candidate who will appear on the ballot in November.
Trahan declared victory just after midnight after a very tight race against Andover's Daniel Koh, who at one point in the night had narrowed the gap with Trahan by fewer than 200 votes.
"We're going to claim victory," Trahan said. "We are leading right now with 99 percent of the votes in...I look at the numbers tonight and with 99 percent reporting, the numbers look good, so I'm very confident that we're winning this election."
Trahan said she was preparing for there to be a recount.
Tsongas announced in August 2017 that she would not run again, writing to her constituents that it was time to celebrate her growing family.
From there, the field of candidates running to fill Tsongas' seat became robust.
Eight other Democratic candidates made it to the primary as well: Jeffrey Ballinger of Andover; Alexandra Chandler of Haverhill; Beej Das of Lowell; Rufus Gifford of Concord; Leonard Golder of Stow; Barbara L'Italien of Andover; Bopha Malone of Bedford; and Juana Matias of Lawrence.
"This was a hard-fought race," Trahan said after address a room packed with excited supporters at the UMass Lowell Inn and Conference Center. "It was an unbelievable field of candidates."
Rick Green of Pepperell is the sole Republican candidate running.
"I was optimistic that because we have such deep roots in this district, because of our working class experience, that we would take this victory," Trahan said. "I'm really happy with the way it went. This has been an unbelievable year for women across the country, in Massachusetts tonight."
Trahan said that she thinks she stood out in a field of 10 candidates not only because she has lived in the district her whole life, but also because she understands economic anxiety.
Her speech to supporters included many references to Lowell pride. The night was especially sweet for Trahan's mother, who was celebrating her 70th birthday.
Breaking gridlock in Congress is part of Trahan's plan, she said.
"Working class families like the one I grew up in, they need Congress to get to work on quality education, affordable college education, health care that they can afford, prescription drugs that they can afford," Trahan said.
As the clock ticked on Tuesday night, candidates started to concede.
In a tear-filled speech, Gifford thanked his parents, his husband and his family for their support through the campaign.
With the race not yet decided, Gifford offered his full support to both Trahan and Koh.
"I have to say this, I wish both of them well," he said to a room of his supporters in Lowell, many of them wiping tears from their eyes.
L'Italien also conceded, but said, "I'm not even close to done making trouble yet."
L'Italien plans to support the Democratic nominee, according to her campaign, eager to see work on health care for all and defending public education.
A tweet from Chandler's campaign read, "We will not be the victor tonight," and thanked the district for support.
The field was not just large, but also diverse. The candidates represent several ethnicities and include members of the LGBTQ community.
Matias and Malone both immigrated to the United States as children. Das and Koh are the sons of immigrants. Gifford is gay and Chandler is a transgender woman.
That diversity is what attracted some voters.
Outside the Butler Middle School in Lowell on Tuesday afternoon, Gerilyn Turcotte said the reason she placed her vote for Gifford is because he is gay.
Turcotte said members of the LGBTQ community are discriminated against at a disproportionate rate, and that she believes having Gifford in Congress would help give a voice to LGBTQ constituents.
"I liked what he stood for," she said. "It was between him and Lori [Trahan]."
For Amanda McMeniman, the decision to vote for Chandler was easy because of her background in intelligence.
"I really felt she had a really strong stance on foreign policy," McMeniman said.
But for a woman named Holly, who voted with McMeniman but declined to give her last name, her vote went to Matias for a specific reason: She sees Matias as anti- President Donald Trump.
"I felt like she'd speak up to him," Holly said. "That was my only motivation to go vote."
Aside from diverse backgrounds, the candidates offer a range of experiences.
Some have experience in the state legislature -- like Matias, a state representative, and L'Italien, a state senator and former representative -- while others are political newcomers.
Those who haven't severed politically offer other experience.
After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Chandler served 12 years in Naval Intelligence, preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction from countries like North Korea.
Malone is an executive at Lowell's Enterprise Bank, a community advocate and escaped the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.
Das is a lawyer and entrepreneur. Gifford was formerly the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark and a senior aide for former President Barack Obama.
And Koh recently served as chief of staff to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh.
While the field offered a wide variety of candidates and political stances, for some, it was too hard to choose.
Kerry Dusablon said she didn't fill in a bubble for the race because there were too many candidates to make an informed decision.
The district includes 37 towns in Middlesex, Essex and Worcester counties.
Boston philanthropist Jack Connors will be the chairman of Gov. Charlie Baker's re-election campaign, Baker announced Wednesday.
A day after winning the Republican primary, setting up a general election fight against Democrat Jay Gonzalez, Baker met with Connors in Boston to tour the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, which is supported by Connors.
Connors said he is a "lifelong Democrat," who voted in the Democratic primary on Tuesday. He left his ballot blank in the Democratic primary for governor, because, he said, "I already have my governor."
Both Connors and Baker noted the unique nature of having a Democrat chair a Republican campaign. "I never voted by party lines. I voted by people, and I can't think of better people," Connors said.
Baker said his selection of Connors is "about his knowledge, history and the example he sets and represents, much more than party affiliation."
Connors is one of the most influential Boston philanthropists and power-brokers. He founded Hill Holliday, a marketing firm. He is a former board chairman of Partners Healthcare, the largest health care system in Massachusetts, and has worked in other capacities in the health care field.
He runs the Connors Family Foundation. Among numerous other initiatives, he has led efforts to raise millions of dollars for Catholic schools, a camp for at-risk children in Boston and a women's health center at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Boston Magazine ranked him the second most influential person in Boston philanthropy. The magazine noted that when he retired from the boards of Massachusetts General Hospital, Partners Healthcare and Brigham and Women's, then President Barack Obama recorded a thank-you video for his retirement gala.
Connors has contributed to politicians of both parties, including Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, and also Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey.
Connors and Baker have known each other for decades, and Connors worked with Baker's wife at Hill Holliday.
Baker described Connors as "one of the most pay-it-forward people I've ever met."
Connors described Baker as a "brilliant governor," "excellent politician" and "wonderful CEO."
Connors said he hopes to be helpful to the Baker campaign however he can be.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 5) The country has signed $82.9 million or roughly 4.4 billion worth of investment deals from Israeli businesses in the wake of President Rodrigo Duterte's official visit to Israel.
In a statement, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said the signed agreements, which were presented to Duterte on Tuesday, will help deepen ties with Israel.
"The Philippines is committed to pursue several growth opportunities by strengthening partnerships with emerging economic partners like Israel," Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said.
"Our engagement with them allows us to reinvigorate ties and increase trade between our countries," he added.
The business deals consist of three memoranda of agreement (MOA), 11 memoranda of understanding (MOU), and seven letters of intent (LOI). The agreements cover different sectors such as real estate, agriculture and urban farming, housing, military and security operations, and development projects.
Lopez said the country can learn more about start-ups, which Israel is known for.
"Our strategy should emphasize the ingenuity and creativity of Filipinos, which will result to a synchronized Philippine information and technology roadmap," the DTI chief said.
Malacanang on Monday said the two countries had jointly signed memoranda on temporary employment of home-based Filipino caregivers, scientific cooperation, and promotion on bilateral direct investment.
Duterte left the country on Sunday for Israel. The trip is a first for a Filipino leader.
The President will head back to the Philippines on September 8 after his next visit to Jordan.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and her newly minted general election opponent Geoff Diehl have agreed to participate in a televised debate in Western Massachusetts on Oct. 21 as part of three scheduled debates in the race ahead of Nov. 6.
Warren, who is seeking reelection to a second Senate term, and Diehl, a Republican State Rep. who co-chaired President Donald Trump's 2016 Massachusetts campaign, will face off in a live one-hour debate sponsored by the Western Mass. Media Consortium at WGBY's Springfield studio on that Sunday at 7 p.m.
Warren and Diehl will also debate Oct. 30 in Boston in an event sponsored by WCVB, The Boston Globe and the University of Massachusetts system. A third debate, also planned in Boston, will take place on date yet to be announced.
About 75 members of the public will be able to attend the Springfield debate in person at WGBY. It will broadcast live on television and streamed online by MassLive.
The debate is organized and sponsored by the Western Massachusetts Media Consortium, a group of institutions and media organizations who will sponsor, cover and broadcast the event.
Members of the consortium include the Springfield Public Forum, MassLive, The Republican newspaper, New England Public Radio, WGBY, the Daily Hampshire Gazette, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Western New England University, Western Mass News and WWLP 22 News.
Gov. Charlie Baker released his first ad of the general election campaign on Tuesday, just hours after he cruised to victory in the Republican primary.
The ad is a positive spot that opens with an idyllic picture of sunrise over the Boston Harbor, as a narrator says, "The sun is shining brighter in Massachusetts."
The ad goes on to praise the current state of Massachusetts, with businesses expanding and creating jobs and soaring graduation rates in the schools. It touts the Baker administration as bringing "strong bipartisan leadership, instead of partisan bickering."
"But there's more to be done," the narrator says. "Fortunately, we have a governor who believes Massachusetts' best days are ahead of us."
The ad is filled with shots of Baker interacting with businesses and students and talking to residents. It concludes with what appears to be a new slogan for Baker's campaign: "Integrity. Leadership. Results."
Baker is facing Democrat Jay Gonzalez in the general election. Baker has indicated that he will run on his record and try to portray all the positive aspects of the state under his leadership.
Gonzalez has been pointing out the areas that still need work in the state, and has argued that Baker does not have a vision for moving Massachusetts forward.
"Massachusetts is heading in the right direction under the bipartisan leadership of Governor Baker and Lt. Governor Polito, with a growing economy and public schools that lead the nation," said Baker-Polito campaign manager Brian Wynne in a statement.
Baker's ad will run online and on television.
His ability to buy ads immediately after the primary shows the advantage Baker has over Gonzalez, with a more than $6 million campaign fund. Gonzalez will have to rebuild his campaign account after spending it down to less than $400,000 during his primary fight against Bob Massie.
Gov. Charlie Baker easily won the Republican primary for Massachusetts governor over challenger Scott Lively on Tuesday.
The Associated Press called the race shortly after 9 p.m.
The primary was a test of Baker's support within his own party, pitting the socially moderate incumbent who has been critical of President Donald Trump against Lively, a conservative pastor who opposes gay rights and strongly supports the president.
Baker, in an interview mid-day Tuesday, said he believes he has done a good job being "a fiscal check on the Legislature," eliminating a budget deficit and increasing local aid without raising taxes. "That kind of approach to performance management and to fiscal discipline is the sort of thing that every conservative voter in Massachusetts appreciates," Baker said.
Baker, 61, of Swampscott, will face a Democratic challenger in the November general election -- either Jay Gonzalez or Bob Massie -- as he vies to win a second term in office.
In his first term, Baker has focused on improving service at the MBTA and addressing opioid addiction. His administration touts its work fixing the Health Connector, which had a difficult launch under former Gov. Deval Patrick, and putting in place new policies at the troubled Department of Children and Families.
Baker has had a generally strong working relationship with the Democrats who control the state Legislature, although lawmakers have not taken up all of his priorities.
Baker generally opposes new taxes, although he signed a law establishing a paid family leave program, which will be paid for by a new payroll tax.
On social issues, Baker supports abortion rights and gay rights and signed into law a number of bills that were supported by liberal groups: a transgender anti-discrimination law, a law protecting pregnant workers and laws protecting women's access to reproductive health care, including contraption and abortion.
Baker left his ballot blank in the 2016 presidential race and has criticized Trump for his temperament and his actions on immigration and health care policy.
Lively, 60, a Springfield pastor and attorney, ran on a pro-Trump platform. He campaigned as a conservative who supports gun rights and opposes abortion.
Lively has a history of preaching against gay rights and was sued for his preaching in Uganda that allegedly resulted in the persecution of gay people. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit.
At the state Republican Party convention in April, nearly 28 percent of attendees voted for Lively, which many observers saw as a critique of Baker for his moderate stances on social issues and his lack of support for Trump.
But those same qualities could play well in the general election, since Massachusetts voters tend to lean Democratic. Throughout his term, Baker has had approval ratings hovering around 70 percent, and he has been ranked multiple times as the most popular governor in America.
"We've tried pretty hard as an administration to bring a bipartisan approach that represents the interests and hears people on all issues for the past four years," Baker said. "What I hear when I'm out and about is people ... don't talk about us necessarily in terms of party, they talk about the work we've done on opioids, the work we've done on energy, the work we've done on education, the work we've done on economic development as being the right thing to do for the people of the commonwealth."
Baker previously worked as a health insurance CEO. He held positions in government in the 1990s as the state's secretary of Health and Human Services and secretary of Administration and Finance. He ran for governor and lost in 2010.
Oliver Booth, a 20-year-old Dover voter who is attending Oxford University next year, is an independent who spent Election Day volunteering for Baker. "I think it's difficult to be a bipartisan leader in today's political climate, and he's done an absolutely fantastic job of it," Booth said.
Both of Baker's potential Democratic challengers have tried to portray him as lacking in leadership. They note that the state is still struggling with a troubled public transit system and an ongoing crisis of opioid addiction. They argue that Baker lacks vision for the future in areas such as moving toward the use of renewable energy.
Baker will enter the general election with a distinct advantage. He has $6.3 million in his campaign account, while neither of the Democrats challenging him has more than $400,000.
Early polling gives Baker a 30-point lead over either of his Democratic competitors.
As the polls closed Tuesday evening, Kathleen Daigneault felt confident.
An incumbent candidate who has served as the register of deeds for northern Worcester County for 12 years, Daigneault's campaign volunteers were reporting positive results at the polling locations around Worcester County.
"It came to us pretty quickly that we had won," Daigneault said Wednesday. Then a staffer saw different results online.
Election results complied by the Associated Press and published online by news publications across the state - including MassLive - showed another Democratic candidate, Patricia Malcolmson, in the lead with massive turnout in Fitchburg.
Turnout - just over 2,500 votes - that included ballots cast for Daigneault and a third Democratic candidate.
"Our team knew it was not the correct result," Daigneault said, adding that she began getting calls about the reported primary outcome.
She alerted newsrooms to the error when it remained published Wednesday morning. Her calls resulted in a quickly corrected result and her declared the winner, receiving just over 50 percent of the total votes.
The erroneous reporting was due to human error, "reading across the wrong line on a spreadsheet," Fitchburg City Clerk Anna M. Farrell explained.
Like Fitchburg, most cities and towns in Massachusetts use optical scan ballots, which count ballots when they are inserted into the machine. Some still use paper ballots, which are tallied by hand after the polls close.
In all communities, ballots are then sealed until the tally is announced.
With no Republican or Independent candidates to face on Election Day, Daigneault is the presumed winner of the Worcester Northern Registry of Deeds race and is looking forward to serving another six-year term.
In a historic victory, Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley unseated Rep. Mike Capuano, a progressive Congressional favorite first elected in 1998 in Massachusetts' seventh congressional district.
Capuano took the stage shortly after 9:15 p.m. and conceded the race. At Pressley's headquarters in Dorchester defeaning, screams filled the ballroom drowning out Capuano.
Then came the chants: "Change can't wait. Change can't wait."
An emotional Pressley took the stage before about 100 supporters. Her husband, step-daughter, along with Attorney General Maura Healey and Boston City Councilwoman Michelle Wu stood behind her with tears in their eyes.
"You invited us into your kitchens, living rooms. We listened," Pressley said. "We are working toward a democracy that is truly representative."
Watch her speech here:
Pressley thanked Capuano who she called "unapologetically himself."
"I'm sorry it didn't work out, but this is life," Capuano told supporters. "This is OK. America is going to be OK. Ayanna Pressley is going to be a good congresswoman, and Massachusetts will be well served.
"This is not the side we wanted to be on," he added. "Clearly the district wanted a lot of changes."
Pressley, 44, mounted a surprising campaign against Capuano that led to one of the most-watched primaries in the nation. She won the seat that represents parts of Boston, Cambridge, Milton and all of Chelsea, Everett, Randolph, and Somerville.
She runs unopposed in November, and will be the first person of color Massachusetts sends to the United State House of Representatives.
In her victory speech, Pressley leveled an attack on President Donald Trump, who she called: "a racist, misogynistic, truly empathy-bankrupt man."
"Ayanna Pressley is a bold leader and a champion for the people. I am totally thrilled she won the primary for the 7th Congressional district," said Barbara Lee, president and founder of the Barbara Lee Political Office in Cambridge, which advances women's equality in American politics. "I know she will bring her empathy, energy, and inspired advocacy to Washington."
Pressley, also the first black woman to ever be elected to the Boston City Council, enjoyed grassroots support throughout her run. A survivor of sexual assault, who was raised by a single mother in Chicago, Pressley ran on the slogan "change can't wait."
"The people closest to the pain should be the closest to the power driving and informing the policy-making," she told MassLive in a July interview. "I am laboring in love every day, putting in a great deal of sweat equity."
Pressley came to Massachusetts for college in 1992. When she earned her degree from Boston University, she stayed -- working for Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II and former Sen. John Kerry.
Throughout the campaign, she distinguished herself from Capuano on few issues. Notably, she said she would vote to abolish the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while Capuano said he'd reform the agency. Her "activist leadership" style, she hoped, would carry her across the finish line.
"If we are successful and I am delivered to the seat I'm not going alone. I'm bringing the residents ... with me," she told MassLive in July. "Ultimately, I think the policies coming out of Washington are informed by a lack of empathy and the inability to see the humanity in our fellow brethren. What I've found is that when you lift up people's stories and their struggle that's what moves the dial."
While Capuano won endorsements from many big political players, from Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to Rep. John Lewis, Pressley was backed by parents from Parkland, Florida, Attorney General Maura Healey and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a rising star in New York.
The Boston Globe and Boston Herald offered Pressley endorsements. Pressley has also worked extensively with the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, being one of the featured speakers at the organization's well-attended Walk for Change in the spring.
During her run, Pressley said she was leveled with claims that she was running on "identity politics." In a viral clip from a debate with Capuano, she responded to the accusations.
"I happen to be black and a woman and unapologetically proud to be both. But that is not the totality of my identity," she said. "But I'm not going to pretend that representation doesn't matter. ...it matters because it informs the issues that are spotlighted and emphasized and leads to more innovative solutions. You cannot have a government by and for the people if it is not represented by all of the people."
Clarification: This story was updated to reflect Pressley's partnership with the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center.
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jay Gonzalez on Wednesday called on Republican Gov. Charlie Baker to disavow outside spending in the governor's race.
Gonzalez challenged Baker to take a "People's Pledge" to keep "dark money and super PACs" out of the race.
"My campaign will reach out to Gov. Baker's campaign today with the hope that he will agree to keep dark money and super PACs out of this race and help level the playing field for regular people to influence who becomes their governor," Gonzalez said, speaking at a Democratic unity event in Boston.
Dark money generally refers to money given by political nonprofits, which do not have to publicly disclose their donors. Political action committees can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money but cannot coordinate directly with a campaign.
Baker spokesman Terry MacCormack would not say definitively whether Baker would negotiate a pledge, but implied that he will not.
"Governor Baker and Lt. Governor Polito are proud to have broad, bipartisan support for their approach to governing and reaching across the aisle to deliver results for the people of Massachusetts," MacCormack said. "The campaign will continue to comply with the letter and spirit of all Massachusetts campaign finance laws and regulations."
The People's Pledge was first created by Democrat Elizabeth Warren and Republican Scott Brown in the 2012 Senate race, which Warren won. The candidates asked outside independent expenditure committees not to spend money in the race. If a committee spent money, Warren and Brown agreed to donate a portion of the amount that was spent from their own campaign funds to a charity of their opponent's choice.
"It was the right thing to do then, and it is the right thing to do now," Gonzalez said. "People need a governor who is beholden to them, not just the privileged and powerful."
Ed Markey and Stephen Lynch used a similar pledge in the Democratic primary for a 2013 special election, in which Markey won a U.S. Senate seat.
Baker already has a major fundraising advantage over Gonzalez, with more than $6 million in the bank compared to less than $200,000 for Gonzalez.
Baker also has a major advantage in outside money. The Commonwealth Future PAC, which is funded by the Republican Governors Association, already reported spending $2.4 million supporting Baker in his primary race.
The Democratic Governors Association has not yet donated to Gonzalez. The group did give money to 2014 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Martha Coakley, but it is not known if the group will get involved this time around.
Asked whether he wants a pledge to include union money, which is generally a major source of funding for state Democratic candidates, Gonazalez would not say. "We'll negotiate the terms of that with the Baker campaign," he said.
Update, 5 p.m.: Baker, speaking to reporters Wednesday afternoon, reiterated that he is honored to have the support of people across Massachusetts, and he will follow campaign finance rules. He added, "We're happy with where we are and we're planning to stay there."
Jay Gonzalez defeated Bob Massie to win the Democratic nomination for governor of Massachusetts on Tuesday.
The Associated Press called the race for Gonzalez at 9:17 p.m.
Gonzalez's victory was a triumph of political experience over a Beacon Hill outsider. It sets Gonzalez up for a difficult battle to take on the popular Republican incumbent Gov. Charlie Baker.
Gonzalez, 47, of Needham, is an attorney and the former CEO of the New Hampshire health insurance company CeltiCare Health. He oversaw the state budget under former Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, as secretary of administration and finance.
Gonzalez and Massie shared many of their views. Both support single-payer health care and high-speed Springfield to Boston passenger rail, and want to raise more tax money, generally from wealthy individuals. Both want to increase funding for transportation and education.
Gonzalez had argued that he has the experience working in state politics that will be necessary to implement those ideas.
"Unlike my competitor, I have leadership experience in state government getting things done," Gonzalez said in a recent interview.
Gonzalez said the fact that his resume is similar to Baker's - both ran health insurance companies and both served as state budget chief - makes him well-poised to take on the governor in a general election match-up. Gonzalez began making his case against Baker even during his primary fight against Massie.
Gonzalez criticized Baker for a lack of leadership for failing to fix the MBTA, for cutting state programs in a time of fiscal growth, and for not doing enough to address opioid addiction. Gonzalez has stressed the need to raise new tax revenue, and criticized Baker for focusing on reforms over new investments.
"He says he's a good manager. The truth is he has not been," Gonzalez said. "I can make the case on his management failures based on my experience as a leader in the public and private sectors."
Massie, 62, of Somerville, has been involved in issues ranging from opposing South African apartheid to promoting environmentalism. He founded a company that created standards for companies to integrate environmental and social concerns into their financial models.
In 1994, Massie won the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, but he and gubernatorial nominee Mark Roosevelt lost the general election.
Massie positioned himself as a Beacon Hill outsider and a progressive visionary who could develop long-term plans to address issues like climate change, traffic congestion and a lack of affordable housing.
"We need a leader from the outside with fresh ideas, fresh approaches and a proven track record of coalition building and system change," Massie said in an interview.
Several Democratic voters said they had a hard time choosing.
"It's difficult," said Louise Kittredge, of Newton, who voted for Gonzalez. Kittredge said the two seem similar on policy, but she believes Gonzalez would be better able to accomplish those policies.
"Massie's the vision guy, but I don't know enough about him to know that he's not going to go in and antagonize people," Kittredge said. "Whereas Gonzalez is the 'I know how to get this done and how it works' person."
Dorothy Fleishman, of Allston, chose Massie because she likes his personal story and his politics, and believes he will be the strongest candidate to beat Baker. She said Democratic issues were important to her.
She too said she did not see major differences on the issues between Massie and Gonzalez. "That's the problem we all have," Fleishman said. "There's so little air and space between all of our candidates that it comes down to whether you're voting to change, and if you are voting to change, what direction is that."
Now that the primary is over, Gonzalez will have to rebuild his war chest in order to challenge Baker.
Gonzalez raised $1.26 million for his campaign. As of Aug. 15, he had $367,000 in the bank.
In contrast, Baker had $6.3 million in his campaign account at the end of August.
Baker has repeatedly been ranked the most popular governor in America, with approval ratings of around 70 percent, despite the state electorate's Democratic leanings.
Although he is a Republican, a Baker has generally worked well with the Democratic-led Legislature. On social issues, he signed multiple bills that were promoted by liberal-leaning groups, including a transgender anti-discrimination law, a law protecting pregnant workers and laws protecting women's access to reproductive health care, including contraption and abortion.
Despite his general anti-tax stance, Baker signed a law establishing a paid family leave program, which will be paid for by a new payroll tax.
Early polling put Baker ahead of both Gonzalez and Massie by more than 30 percentage points, although some of that could reflect a difference in name recognition between the incumbent governor and his lesser-known challengers.
Who would emerge the winner of a crowded field of Democratic candidates vying to take over for retiring U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas remained unclear as the clock neared midnight Tuesday, but Lori Trahan had a lead over Dan Koh.
Trahan had more than a 2,000-vote lead that Koh narrowed as more precincts reported in. Just before midnight the gap had narrowed to less than 300 votes with 81 percent of precincts reporting.
Ten candidates were running for the Massachusetts Third Congressional seat, and most had conceded Tuesday evening.
A spokesman for Trahan's campaign said just after 11:45 p.m. that Trahan was up by 223 votes with two communities left to count.
But supporters at election parties waited with excitement, but while holding their breath, as the last precincts continued to report numbers from the polls.
Tsongas announced in August 2017 that she would not run again, writing to her constituents that it was time to celebrate her growing family.
Ten Democratic candidates made it to the primary: Jeffrey Ballinger of Andover; Alexandra Chandler of Haverhill; Beej Das of Lowell; Rufus Gifford of Concord; Leonard Golder of Stow; Daniel Koh of Andover; Barbara L'Italien of Andover; Bopha Malone of Bedford; Juana Matias of Lawrence; and Lori Trahan of Westford.
Rick Green of Pepperell is the sole Republican candidate running and either Trahan or Koh will face him in November.
The district includes 37 towns in Middlesex, Essex and Worcester counties.
Marian Ryan will remain the district attorney for Middlesex County, after her opponent in the Democratic primary conceded.
There are no Republican challengers set to be on the ballot in November.
Ryan was running against Donna Patalano, who said in a statement just after midnight that her campaign came up short.
"I am proud of the grassroots campaign we built to advocate for equitable justice, transparency, and accountability in Middlesex County. Though we came up short today, I am proud of the difference we made," Patalano said.
A spokesman for Ryan's campaign could not immediately be reached.
As of 12:45 p.m. with 86.5 percent of precincts reporting, the Associated Press live voting results indicated that Ryan had 78,628 votes, or 53.52 percent. Patalano had 68,280 votes, or 46.48 percent.
Ryan, of Belmont, has held the position since 2013. As district attorney, Ryan is the top prosecutor for the state's largest county, comprised of 54 towns and cities, representing more than a quarter of the state's population.
In her time as district attorney, Ryan has put a focus on the opioid epidemic with what she calls a multi-pronged approach involving law enforcement, healthcare, emergency medical services, social services, child welfare and government professionals.
The opioid epidemic is especially profound in Middlesex County. In 2017, there were 357 opioid-related deaths in the county, the most of any county in Massachusetts, according to state data released last month.
Ryan touts her approach to the crisis, which includes hospital-based Opioid Task Forces with representatives from law enforcement, healthcare, emergency medical services, social services, child welfare, schools, and government.
That approach led to an 11.5 percent decrease in fatal opioid overdoses countywide in 2017, according to her campaign, and a 21 percent decline in Lowell, the area hit hardest by the epidemic.
But Ryan's office has come under scrutiny for a lack of transparency, as well as its handling of the Jared Remy case.
Remy was released from custody two days before he killed his girlfriend, Jennifer Martel in 2013. Remy later pleaded guilty.
Ryan defended her decision to release Remy in the immediate aftermath of Martel's murder.
In conceding, Patalano thanked her supporters.
"To the thousands of people who joined our team to fight for racial justice and ethical and equitable prosecutions, I thank you for believing in this cause," she wrote in a statement. "It was a privilege and an honor to appear on the ballot, and I look forward to continuing to work with members of every community across our county to further the cause of equal justice for all."
SPRINGFIELD -- U.S. Rep. Richard Neal beat out challenger Tahirah Amatul-Wadud in Massachusetts' 1st Congressional District Democratic primary Tuesday -- a win that essentially guarantees the longtime congressman, who faces no Republican opponents, re-election in November.
Neal, who has represented Western Massachusetts in Washington for nearly 30 years, defeated the Springfield attorney and political newcomer, according to the Associated Press which called the race at 9:30 p.m.
The race, which garnered national attention given Amatul-Wadud's bid to become the first Muslim woman elected to Congress, marked Neal's toughest primary fight since redistricting moved the Springfield Democrat into the newly redrawn 1st Congressional District for the 2012 election.
The longtime congressman thanked supporters who helped him achieve what he called "a very substantial victory," as well as his opponent, during a post-election event at Max's Tavern.
"We took this campaign seriously and I want to thank Ms. Wadud for her candidacy," he said, adding that it's "very hard for one to put themselves forward in public life today."
Neal added that he is now setting his sights on helping other Democrats get elected in 2018.
"It's on to November ... We're on to that challenge, I have traveled parts of the country on behalf of Democratic candidates, and I intend to continue to do that," he said. "When you meet the crop of candidates that we have running across the country, it is really special -- they are all outstanding in every shape and form. I hope and I expect that we're going to prevail and win the House of Representatives come November."
Amatul-Wadud, who told supporters that she had congratulated the congressman on his win, said she hopes Neal recognizes how lucky he is to serve Massachusetts' 1st Congressional District.
"If nothing comes from the past nine months, it's that we've reminded him what an honor it is to serve us and that we will hold our elected officials responsible and accountable to us," she said at a event at the Munich Haus in Chicopee.
Posted by Yolanda R. Cancel on Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Amatul-Wadud noted that while she hoped for an electoral victory in Tuesday's primary, "perhaps the victory that we had today is even more meaningful than we know."
She added that she's "not going anywhere."
"Our morale is high, we've organized well, we've mobilized in a way that has shook this nation and you cannot take that from us," she said. "People are watching, they're paying attention and they know that we are going to demand that we are OK."
Neal's victory came despite Amatul-Wadud's attempts to paint him as out-of-touch with Western Massachusetts voters.
It puts the the 69-year-old congressman one step closer to taking over as House Ways and Means Committee chairman -- one of the most powerful positions in Congress -- if Democrats regain control of the lower chamber in November.
Neal touted his position as the current House Ways and Means ranking member throughout the campaign, offering that the position allows him to better advocate for the needs of Western Massachusetts on Capitol Hill than his opponent.
In the lead-up to Tuesday's primary, however, Amatul-Wadud questioned how having Neal as the next potential Ways and Means chairman would benefit 1st Congressional District voters.
She contended that the incumbent has fallen short in representing all of his constituents, particularly those in rural areas -- something the Democrat said she would do if sent to Capitol Hill.
The 44-year-old, self-described progressive further offered that she represents "the face of the future" in Western Massachusetts.
Neal has rejected the suggestion that he's failed to represent constituents from all communities across the district, noting in his final debate with Amatul-Wadud that he had held more than 600 public events over the last five years.
The congressman pointed to his efforts to bring federal dollars back to the region, including for the revitalization of Springfield's Union Station and extension of broadband internet throughout Western Massachusetts.
"I've been around this district: People know me, whether it's from Worcester County to Berkshire County," he said during the matchup broadcast on WGBY. "We've tried very hard to make sure that everybody's been included."
Neal held a significant financial advantage over Amatul-Wadud in the final days before Tuesday's primary, reporting a campaign cash balance of nearly $3.1 million, compared to the $20,000 she reported to the Federal Election Commission.
The congressman's re-election bid, meanwhile, picked up support from various interest groups, including: The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, The Human Rights Campaign, Sierra Club, Mom's Demand Action - Gun Sense Distinction, AFSCME International, Carpenters Local 336, IBEW Local 2324, IBEW Local 7, MA AFL-CIO, MA State Council of Machinists, SEIU Massachusetts State Council including SEIU 1199, NAGE/SEIU Local 5000, Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts, UFCW Local 1459, International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Baystate Stonewall Democrats, among others.
Several progressive groups, in turn, endorsed Amatul-Wadud's campaign.
They included: Our Revolution National, Progressive Massachusetts, Our Revolution Massachusetts, National Women's Political Caucus, Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus, Progressive Democrats of America, Indivisible National Project, Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution, Rise Up Western Mass, Williamsburg Indivisible, MoveOn Political Action and Massachusetts Peace Action, among others.
Neal has easily won re-election in recent cycles, running unopposed in the 2012 and 2014 general elections. In 2016, he secured nearly three-quarters of the vote over opponents Frederick Mayock and Thomas Simmons.
Massachusetts' 1st Congressional District spans all of Berkshire County, as well as parts of Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire and Worcester counties.
The 2018 general election will take place Nov. 6.
DORCHESTER -- Pledging to "aim high" and look out for the "little guys," Jay Gonzalez accepted the Democratic nomination for governor on Tuesday night.
Gonzalez began to make his case against Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, arguing that Baker is not aiming high enough and is not making Massachusetts a leader.
Gonzalez compared Baker to Republican President Donald Trump. "I get it. It is a relief to have a governor who seems nice and isn't a crazy right wing extremist. With Donald Trump setting the bar so low, nice and not crazy seems pretty good," Gonzalez said. "But it's not good enough."
Gonzalez is a former health insurance CEO and secretary of administration and finance under former Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat. He defeated Bob Massie to win the Democratic nomination. As of midnight Wednesday, Gonzalez led Massie, 65 percent to 35 percent with 83 percent of precincts reporting.
In a speech delivered at the Boston Teacher's Union Hall in Dorchester, Gonzalez acknowledged the difficult fight ahead against Baker, who has high approval ratings and a major fundraising advantage. Baker has $6.3 million in his campaign account, compared to Gonzalez's less than $400,000, according to their latest fundraising reports.
"We're up against an incumbent governor with millions of dollars of dark money," Gonzalez said. But, he added, as elections have shown in Massachusetts and elsewhere, "Incumbency and money and special interests and pundits don't decide elections. We do."
Gonzalez spoke on an evening when 10-term U.S. Congressman Michael Capuano lost his seat to Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley and two of the State House's most senior Democrats - Ways and Means Chairman Jeffrey Sanchez and Assistant Majority Leader Byron Rushing -- lost their seats.
Asked after his speech how the anti-incumbent sentiment will affect his race, Gonzalez said there is a lot of energy in the Democratic Party. "I think we saw something big today in the primary elections in Massachusetts," he said.
Gonzalez said in his speech that as governor, he will "aim high" to "make a meaningful difference in people's lives." He pledged to give every child access to affordable child care and preschool by the end of his first term. He pledged to fully fund public schools, make the transportation system more dependable, fire Keolis, the private operator of the commuter rail, deliver single payer health care and be more aggressive in fighting opioid addiction.
"This is a former health insurance CEO telling you we need to get rid of health insurance companies, and when I'm governor, we will," Gonzalez said.
He also pledged to be a governor who "will fight back against Donald Trump's hateful and divisive rhetoric."
Gonzalez described Baker as "content ... with the status quo."
Gonzalez was introduced by Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey, who said Gonzalez will stand up for Democratic values in a country where "those values are under attack."
"We aren't a state in Massachusetts that backs down and watches and waits for others to lead, and neither should our governor," Healey said.
Quentin Palfrey defeated Jimmy Tingle on Tuesday to become the Democratic nominee for Massachusetts lieutenant governor in 2018.
Palfrey will share a ticket with the Democratic nominee for governor Jay Gonzalez, challenging Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito for re-election.
The Associated Press called the race just after 10 p.m.
Palfrey, as a former Obama aide, had more political experience than Tingle, although Tingle, a comedian, brought some star power and even enlisted actor Matt Damon to make a robocall for his campaign.
Palfrey, 44, grew up in Southborough and lives in Weston. He has broad experience in law and politics.
The great-great-grandson of Theodore Roosevelt, Palfrey graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School.
He worked on voter protection efforts for Democratic U.S. Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign and then for Democratic President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign. When Obama was elected, Palfrey was hired to work on economic policy in the Commerce Department, then the White House.
Palfrey is an attorney who headed former Massachusetts attorney general Martha Coakley's health care division and most recently ran JPAL-North America, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology lab dedicated to using research to fight poverty.
Both Palfrey and Tingle oppose mandatory minimum sentences, support spending more money on education and transportation and want a more progressive tax system, where wealthy individuals pay more.
In an interview during the campaign, Palfrey said he wants to be a liaison between state government and both municipal officials and the federal government. He wants to help nominate progressive judges.
Palfrey's views tend to be in line with the progressive wing of the Democratic party - he supports single payer health care, wants to prohibit state and local police from cooperating with federal immigration officials and wants to eliminate all mandatory minimum sentences. He would consider policies like congestion pricing, carbon pricing and regional ballot initiatives that raise taxes to pay for local projects.
Tingle, 63, is a comedian who grew up and still lives in Cambridge.
He has produced is own comedy shows and appeared on late-night television. In 2013, he founded Humor for Humanity, in which nonprofits and charities hire him to organize and entertain at fundraisers.
Tingle worked for various Democratic candidates, including presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, and former Gov. Deval Patrick.
In an interview during the campaign, Tingle cited his struggle with alcoholism in the 1980s to talk about the need for government-funded services and the importance of treating addiction.
During the campaign, Tingle stressed his "out of the box" thinking in areas like expanding public bus service, tolling additional highways, moving toward a public option in health care and developing a system where immigrants without legal status can get some state recognition that allows them to work and pay taxes.
The Democratic ticket will face an uphill battle in the general election.
Palfrey raised $290,000 for his campaign. As of Aug. 15, he had $78,000 left in his campaign account.
In contrast, Polito has $3.7 million in her campaign account.
Baker has consistently been ranked the most popular governor in America, with approval ratings hovering around 70 percent.
Rachael Rollins, the chief legal counsel of the MBTA and MassDOT, won the Democratic primary for the Suffolk County District Attorney seat.
Rollins, who previously worked as an assistant US attorney, beat out four competitors vying to become the top prosecutor for Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop.
"I am honored and humbled," Rollins wrote in a news release. "But I also need to say -- for all of us -- that this is earned. As a 47-year-old Black Woman, I have earned this. We have earned this. This is a time for us to claim our power and make good on our promises to make true criminal justice reform for all of the people in Suffolk County. Reform that is progressive -- that decriminalizes poverty, substance use disorder, and mental illness. This is the time to create a system that puts fairness and equity first -- as a model for the Commonwealth and the nation."
Rollins was a surprise win - beating out Greg Henning, a current Suffolk DA prosecutor who was favored to win.
She beat out Henning; Evandro Carvalho, a state representative who immigrated to Dorchester as a teen; Shannon McAuliffe, a defense attorney who served as the director of the non-profit Roca.
She will face independent Michael Maloney in November.
State Rep. Geoff Diehl claimed victory in the three-way GOP U.S. Senate primary Tuesday, setting the stage for a November general election matchup between the Whitman Republican and incumbent U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
Diehl, the Massachusetts Republican Party's endorsed candidate, defeated Beth Lindstrom, a GOP operative and the first woman to lead the Massachusetts Republican Party, and John Kingston, a Winchester businessman and lawyer, according to the Associated Press, which called the race just after 9 p.m.
Diehl thanked Massachusetts voters for backing his primary campaign, stressing that he's humbled to be the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate.
"I stand here in partnership with you. ... This is our victory. This is our moment," he said in post-election remarks to supporters.
Contending that Warren has "let us down," Diehl further pledged to "work hard every day, every moment, between now and Election Day."
"I'm nothing like Elizabeth Warren, and I am proud of that. And so I ask, join with me. Stand together with me as we take this fight to every corner of the state," he said. "To every city and town, to every neighborhood and to every voter. We will not give in. We will never sell out. And, we will give this race everything we have to win."
MassGOP Chairman Kirsten Hughes congratulated Diehl on his primary win, saying the party "looks forward to supporting his campaign to deliver the kind of common sense, collaborative leadership our state deserves."
In the run-up to Tuesday's primary, Diehl touted his experience leading the successful 2014 ballot campaign against a proposed gas tax increase and his work co-chairing the Massachusetts effort to elect Donald Trump president. He argued that such experience makes him the best GOP candidate to take on Warren in the general election.
Diehl also pledged to prioritize efforts to improve care for veterans, including modernizing U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals and increasing the number of women who staff such facilities.
He offered support for the president's efforts to crack down on immigration, lower taxes and address regulations that make it hard for small businesses to compete in the U.S.
Although the Republican's primary victory guarantees Diehl the GOP spot on the Nov. 6 ballot, he will likely face an uphill battle in his quest to unseat Warren, who had no Democratic opponents in Tuesday's primary.
Warren, an oft-rumored 2020 presidential contender, entered Tuesday's primary with a campaign cash balance of $15.6 million -- much higher than Diehl's $200,000 war chest, according to Federal Election Commission data.
A Suffolk University Political Research Center/Boston Globe survey released in mid-June gave the Democrat a 22-point advantage over Diehl.
The poll further found that Diehl struggled with name recognition among voters, with about six in 10 respondents saying they've "never heard" of him.
The findings largely echoed those of a May 2018 WBUR/MassInc. survey.
Diehl led Kingston and Lindstrom in terms of fundraising heading into Tuesday's election, raising $256,212 for his U.S. Senate bid between July and Aug. 15 -- nearly double the amounts his fellow Republican contenders reported respectively. He reported a cash balance of less the $200,000.
Kingston, who finished his 16-year career at Affiliated Managers Group Inc. in 2015, led GOP candidates -- and even Warren -- in pre-primary spending, with $2.1 million, according to Federal Election Commission data.
He raised just $134,500 in contributions to his campaign during the pre-primary period and reported a campaign cash balance of $632,000 as of mid-August.
Lindstrom, who managed Scott Brown's successful 2010 U.S. Senate campaign against then-Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, followed Diehl in pre-primary fundraising, collecting about $170,500 in campaign contributions over the month-and-a-half period.
She spent $202,000 in the lead-up to the primary, leaving her campaign with a cash balance of $48,000.
SPRINGFIELD -- Cheryl Coakley-Rivera declared victory Tuesday in the Democratic primary election against write-in opponent Donald E. Ashe Jr. in the race for Hampden County Register of Deeds.
Ashe Jr. conceded shortly before 10:30 p.m. With nearly half of the county's precincts reporting, results from the Associated Press showed Coakley-Rivera with a commanding lead of 10,795 votes to Ash Jr.'s 27.
Coakley-Rivera will face Republican challenger Marie Angelides, who had no primary opponent, on the Nov. 6 general election ballot.
Ashe Jr. was initially reluctant to concede defeat when only larger cities such as Springfield and Holyoke were reporting complete numbers but later saw the writing on the wall.
"I'm really not ready to give up, so it's really hard. But unless there are 12,000 votes in a bucket somewhere ..." he said with a chuckle. "I wish her the best."
Coakley-Rivera represented the 10th Hampden District in the House of Representatives from 1999 until 2014, when she took a job as an assistant clerk in Hampden Superior Court.
She briefly flirted with a run for Springfield City Council until being informed by the state Ethics Commission she was prohibited from doing so, then announced her intent to run for the deeds seat in April.
High-fives and hugs started to come Coakley-Rivera's way by 9:30 p.m. as she and her supporters waited for polling results to come in at Nathan Bill's in East Forest Park in Springfield.
"I really just feel blessed. I want to thank the voters who came out to vote for me," she said. "And what's really important is for me to get out and meet the voters who don't know me yet, and continue to work really hard."
Coakley-Rivera thanked those who came out to support her, including City Councilor Justin Hurst and his wife, School Committee member Denise Hurst. She had the same message for many who went out the door.
"Take November 6th off," she said. "I'll need sign holders ... everything. It's gonna be a big race."
The Register of Deeds oversees all property and land transactions across the county.
Longtime Register of Deeds Donald Ashe Sr., who had held the seat since the early 1980s, died in July amid his bid for a seventh term.
Donald Ashe Jr., his father's eldest son and namesake, announced a write-in campaign on Aug. 6, less than a month after Donald Ashe Sr.'s death following a battle with brain cancer.
Ashe Jr., a Vietnam-era veteran, political newcomer and retired business owner, said he was running to preserve the integrity of his father's office and protect its longtime employees.
"With three-and-a-half weeks and not being on the ballot, it was really hard. It would have been totally different if I had been on the ballot," Ashe Jr. said.
Kelly Cavanaugh-Kelly was appointed as interim register by Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin. She has not thrown her hat in the political ring.
This story was updated at 10:30 p.m. to note that Ashe Jr. has conceded.
Attorney and criminal justice reformer Andrea Harrington has won the Democratic primary for Berkshire District Attorney, following a concession from former DA David Capeless' hand-picked successor Paul J. Caccaviello.
Harrington, Caccaviello, and Judith C. Knight all sought the Democratic nomination to be Berkshire County's top prosecutor. The race has been a clash between Caccaviello, a longtime prosecutor who was appointed DA after Capeless' March retirement, and two advocates for liberal changes to the Berkshires' criminal justice system.
And the race went down to the wire between Harrington and Caccaviello as Tuesday night edged toward Wednesday morning, according to their campaigns. Around 10:45 p.m., Pittsfield City Councilor John Krol, a Harrington supporter, said Harrington had a narrow lead with just four precincts remaining, according to her campaign's unofficial count.
Less than an hour later, Caccaviello's campaign told MassLive he had conceded to Harrington.
Harrington is a veteran attorney who has worked on criminal defense and labor cases. She worked on overturning death penalty sentences in Florida after graduating law school, according to her campaign website.
She was the sole candidate without experience on the prosecutor's side of the courtroom and centered her campaign on promises of criminal justice reform. She has endorsed treatment beds rather than jail cells for nonviolent drug users, proposed ending cash bail for low-level offenders and criticized the disproportionate prosecution of juvenile minorities.
Harrington's opponents criticized her for her comparative lack of trial experience, Commonwealth Magazine reported.
Her positions cast a contrast with Capeless, who was strongly opposed to the legalization of recreational marijuana, the Berkshire Edge reported.
Capeless endorsed Caccaviello, who was his First Assistant District Attorney, during his retirement announcement in March. Gov. Charlie Baker appointed Caccaviello as Berkshire District Attorney following Capeless' abrupt retirement, allowing Caccaviello to run as an incumbent.
During the campaign, Caccaviello touted his experience, saying he had the know-how to both successfully prosecute cases and implement the criminal justice reforms recently passed by the Massachusetts legislature, Commonwealth Magazine reported.
Knight is a veteran attorney who has worked as a prosecutor and defense lawyer during her 30-plus years of practice, according to her campaign.
No Republican is on the ballot, making Harrington Capeless' presumptive successor.
Massachusetts Sen. Adam G. Hinds is declaring victory in the Democratic primary for the Berkshire, Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden Senate district, clearing his path to reelection.
Hinds, a Pittsfield resident, defeated challenger Thomas P. Wickham, a Lee selectman. No Republicans were on the ballot, making Hinds a shoo-in to win a second term during the general election on Nov. 6.
"We're excited. It feels like it sends a message that we're onto something, and it's been really humbling to see the overwhelming support," Hinds said in an interview. "We're happy to get back to work."
As of 9:35 p.m., Hinds was winning 88 percent of the vote with 24.1 of precincts reporting.
Hinds said he spent much of his first term focused on improving education and transportation in his largely rural district. For his next term, he intends to prioritize the region's workers, he said.
"We do have a focus on jobs in rural areas in Western Massachusetts that we're rolling up our sleeves on next year," Hinds said.
Hinds is the Senate chair of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development and the Senate vice-chair of the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies.
The son of a librarian and a Vietnam War veteran, Hinds grew up in Buckland and attended Wesleyan University before studying international law and negotiation at international law and negotiation at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Before running for state office, Hinds worked overseas for the United Nations. He helped lead negotiations between the Iraqi Government and Kurdish leadership and on a team attempting to broker a ceasefire in the Syrian civil war, according to his campaign website.
Hinds defeated Republican Christine Canning to win his first term in office in 2016.
Extreme weather is again forcing schools to dismiss students early on Thursday, Sept. 6.
A heat advisory is in effect from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday for most of Massachusetts. The heat index values show some areas will feel like 100 degrees to the lower and middle-90s.
Students in Agawam are being let out early on the first day of school.
The following schools have altered their schedules for Thursday, Sept. 6, due to the heat:
Chatbots are increasingly common and a variety of websites use these automated chat systems to field user questions and provide direction and information. With advances in AI, chatbot interactions are becoming more sophisticated and have the potential to provide useful and meaningful engagement with a target audience. The technology has the advantages of being autonomous, rapid, and convenient, but there is also the chance for miscommunication and errors if things go wrong.
Healthcare companies have been slow to adopt this technology, but the possible benefits in this arena are significant. For instance, a chatbot could help to schedule patient appointments, answer patient questions on a disease or treatment, or help patients to locate their nearest doctor or hospital.
However, the consequences of providing a patient with the wrong information about a disease or treatment could be serious. This, coupled with the highly regulated nature of healthcare, may underlie the lack of chatbots in the healthcare industry.
Medgadget asked John Fitzpatrick, vice president of media and engagement at precisioneffect, a healthcare branding company based in the U.S. and London, some questions about the potential for chatbots in the healthcare industry.
Conn Hastings, Medgadget: Can you tell us a little about chatbots and how they work?
John Fitzpatrick, precisioneffect: A chatbot provides a new way for users to interact with a brand. Site visitors can ask questions and get information by interacting with a computer program designed to simulate conversation. The machine learning-based service processes natural language through pre-built scripts that evaluate sentiment and learn how to recognize what users want.
There is no shortage of information online today that would overwhelm the most experienced web surfer. In reality, a lot of web users are often looking for something specific. Therefore, giving them direct and quick access to the information through an online chatbot can be a really valuable asset.
Simply putusers come to a website searching for info and the chatbot acts as a concierge by serving up relevant content.
Medgadget: How have developments in AI enhanced user experiences with chatbots, and chatbot reliability/accuracy?
John Fitzpatrick: To help answer this question, I asked UI Architect, Raphael Rafatpanah, to chime in.
Chatbots have evolved from only being able to match exact keywords and phrases to being able to match a users intent. They can understand the context of a users request and even remember the context of a single conversation. These and other advancements in natural language processing (NLP), combined with the scalability and cost effectiveness of cloud computing, opened the doors for businesses to use chatbots as a way to provide their customers with real-time, personalized experiences.
With powerful, affordable cloud services like Amazon Lex and Microsoft LUIS, businesses are able to focus on making their customers experiences great instead of having to also become NLP experts. Therefore, businesses are competing on a level playing field where experience is the true differentiator.
Medgadget: What are the advantages and potential applications of chatbots in the healthcare industry?
John Fitzpatrick: On a very practical level, companies can leverage chatbots to help with cutting down costs and demand for live customer service. Its an efficient way to create more direct conversations with customers without the long hold lines.
From a content perspective, chatbots allow us to understand the customer mindset and develop content based on what exactly our customers might be looking for. In a similar way that SEO transformed content creation, chatbots can help bridge the gap between how our customers speak and how we communicate as marketers.
Medgadget: Can you discuss some of the risks associated with chatbots in healthcare? How can these be reduced?
John Fitzpatrick: The ability for chatbots to process natural language and learn to recognize what users want might be exactly what healthcare needs. With any regulated industry, the risk involved in real time has often scared brands away, in particular with social media.
However, by identifying early on what content can be used and ensuring we create business rules around that content, we can get medical legal teams comfortable with delivering real-time, approved content. Even more rewarding is that over time, your AI chatbot can get smarter and start to evaluate patient or caregiver sentiment.
Medgadget: Do you envisage that this type of AI communication technology will become more commonplace in healthcare?
John Fitzpatrick: Absolutely. One of the most interesting learnings from our chatbot experience has been collecting, mining, and interrogating data to understand what people are looking for, how they might ask for it, and whether or not our content today can provide it.
For example, one of our clients was new to market, and after launching the chatbot we learned that interest in refills was extremely high, but we didnt have a ton of that content available yet; a key learning that led us to expedite that content to ensure our customers had that info at their fingertips.
The data mined can be tremendously helpful to content creators as an additional way of unlocking the customer mindset, unearthing new topical territories, and, most importantly, mimicking our audiences lexicon for all media.
Medgadget: What would pharma companies need to think about when deciding on including a chatbot in their communications?
John Fitzpatrick:
Start by answering a few critical questions:
Which of your customers are you looking to support? (e.g., HCP, Patient) What are some of the most common customer service requests/inquiries that you receive? What type of support content exists to answer the most common customer service questions? What are the current channels available for customer support? (e.g., call center, phone, email, social, chat) What website(s)/platform will the chatbot be accessible from? How will the chatbot be monitored? What type of business rules do we need to create to ensure we are building a system that complies with all FDA regulations?
Link: precisioneffect
As Dental 3D Printing Market considerably alters the amount of time that is needed for the fabrication of the prosthetics and also increased the output of each technician in a dental service facility. Growth in the number of cases related to dental caries and the increased inclination of individuals towards the cosmetic industry is expected to be among the major factors transforming the growth of the market in the forecast period. The market for dental 3D printing is likely to advance further due to its ability to ensure accuracy and speed along with its ease of use and specialized dental materials.
Dental 3D Printing Market Key Players
Some of the key players in the global dental 3D printing market are Stratasys Ltd., 3D Systems, Inc., EnvisionTEC, Inc., DWS Systems, Renishaw Plc., Formlabs, Prodways group, SLM Solutions Group, Carbon, Inc., Concept Laser GmbH, EOS GmbH Electro Optical Systems, Rapid Shape GmbH, Asiga, and Roland DG
Industry Updates:
July 2018 A well-known biotechnology company, Evo Dental which is based out of London has received as 4 million investment from the British Growth Fund (BGF) to develop its 3D printing jaw correction clinics through the UK. The new clinics will aid Evo Dental will offer its exclusive full jaw dental implant solution, which features prosthesis additive manufacturing, digital scanning, and high-precision milling machines to patients who require jaw reconstruction.
Dental 3D Printing Market Segmental Analysis
The dental 3D printing market globally has been segmented on the basis of technology, product and service, application, and end-user. The segmentation of the market on product and service basis has been segmented into materials, equipment, and services. The equipment segment has been further segmented into dental 3D printers and dental 3D scanners. Additionally, the materials segment has been segmented into metal, plastic, and other materials. The basis of technology segments the market into selective laser sintering, vat Photopolymerization, polymer technology, fused deposition modeling, and other technologies. The vat Photopolymerization has been additionally segmented into digital light processing and stereolithography. By application, the segments of the market include orthodontics, implantology, and prosthodontics. On the basis of end-user, the market has been segmented into dental hospitals and clinics, dental laboratories, research institutes and dental academic. The market by region has been segmented, into Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa.
Get Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/6260
Dental 3D Printing Market Competitive Analysis
The improved financial liquidity of the competitors in the market has enhanced thus offering new chances for the growth of the market. The market appeal and the contenders forces at work are considerably improved by the strategies that are being used by market companies. The market displays massive potential for growing at an accelerated pace. The sustainability of the market is however considerably reliant on the tactics and the strategic roadmaps that are engaged by market companies. The market is very varied in terms of segments and also about the products as well as the end users that are a portion of the market. The product offering of the market has expanded massively as compared to the past few years, thus making the market more profitable for present and different competitors. The eminent players in the market are 3D Systems, Inc., Stratasys Ltd., EnvisionTEC, Inc., Renishaw Plc., Formlabs, SLM Solutions Group, Carbon, Inc., Prodways group, DWS Systems, EOS GmbH Electro Optical Systems, Concept Laser GmbH, Rapid Shape GmbH, Asiga, and Roland DG.
Dental 3D Printing Market Detailed Regional Analysis
As per the regional analysis of the market, the Americas region is estimated to lead the dental 3D printing market globally. The markets development in this region is credited to the growing demand for growing oral care expenditure, cosmetic dentistry, and the escalating popularity of digital dentistry. Furthermore, the growing occurrence of dental caries and tooth loss related to the aging population is anticipated to power the development of the market in this region. The European region is appraised to be the next largest market in the globe due to the growing number of dental problems, rise in the government expenditure for oral care, the existence of disposable income, and growing demand for cosmetic dentistry. The Asia Pacific is estimated to be the most rapidly rising market due to the increasing occurrence of dental caries and dental related problems in the emerging countries. Furthermore, the Middle East & Africa is projected to be responsible for the lowermost market portion in the dental 3D printing market owing to low development, poor medical facilities in developing economies and lack of technical knowledge in this region.
To Know More Enquire @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/6260
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
Tears provide lubrication, limits the risks of eye infections, washes away the foreign matter, thus, are helpful in keeping the surface of the eyes smooth and clear. Dry eye syndrome is a medical condition in which eyes lubrication is hindered by the unavailability of tears. Under normal condition, during excessive production, tears flow into the small drainage ducts of the inner corners of the eyes, followed by draining back into the nose. Sometimes when the production of tears and drainage is not balanced, it can result into dry eye syndrome. Eye redness, sensitivity to light, watery eyes, eye fatigue are some of the common symptoms of the disease. Increasing geriatric population, rising prevalence of diseases like diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and others are estimated to be the major drivers for the market growth. According to the World Health Organization in 2016, approximately 422 million adults were globally affected by diabetes in 2014, as compared to 108 million in the 1980s. Moreover, in 2014, it was estimated that the global prevalence of diabetes was estimated to be around 8.5%. Additionally, rising per capita healthcare expenditure, and changing lifestyle boosts the market. However, factors like stringent FDA drug approvals, lack of skilled ophthalmologists, and low per capita healthcare expenditure in the middle and low income countries are restraining the market. The market for global dry eye syndrome is expected to advance with an approximate CAGR of 6.6% during the forecast period.
Get Exclusive Sample Copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/5588
Market Segmentation of Dry Eye Syndrome Market :
The global dry eye syndrome is segmented on the basis of the type, diagnosis, treatment, distribution channel and end user.
On the basis of the type, the market is segmented into evaporative dry eye syndrome aqueous dry eye syndrome, and others. On the basis of the diagnosis, the market is categorized into Schirmer test, eye exam, and others. On the basis of the treatment, the market is segmented into nutritional supplements, serum eye drops, lubricant eye drops, anti-inflammatory drugs segments, surgery, and others. The lubricant eye drops segment is sub-segmented into oily tear eye drops, ointments, preservative-free drops, and others. The anti-inflammatory drugs segments segement is sub-segmented into tetracyclines, corticosteroids, and others. The surgery segment is sub-segmented into punctal occlusion, intense pulsed light therapy, and others. On the basis of distribution channel, the market is segmented into hospital pharmacies, retail pharmacies, online pharmacies, and others. On the basis of the end users, the market is segmented into hospitals, clinics, home care, and others.
Avail Premium Discount @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/5588
Top Players in Dry Eye Syndrome Market:
Allergan (Republic of Ireland), Novartis AG (Switzerland), Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (Japan), Valent Pharmaceuticals (Canada), Johnson & Johnson Vision (U.S.), Acadia Pharmaceutical (U.S.), Allostera Pharma (Canada), I-Med Pharma Inc. (Canada), Santen Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., (Japan), AFT pharmaceuticals (New Zealand), Novaliq GmBh (Germany), Auven therapeutics (U.S.), and others.
Intended Audience
Pharmaceutical Companies
Biotechnological Institutes
Government And Private Laboratories
Research And Development (R&D) Companies
Medical Research Laboratories
Market Research and Consulting Service Providers
Regional Analysis of Dry Eye Syndrome Market:
America dominates the global dry eye syndrome market. This can be attributed to the presence of a well-developed healthcare sector and a large patient population. Moreover, increasing healthcare expenditure boosts the growth of the American market. Additionally, the presence of the major market players like Johnson & Johnson Vision, Auven therapeutics, Acadia Pharmaceutical, and others within the region fuels the market growth.
Europe is the second largest dry eye syndrome market owing to increasing availability of funds for research, a well-developed healthcare sector, huge patient pool and growing geriatric population. According to the Saga in 2017, approximately 20% of people living in the U.K suffer from dry eye syndrome. Moreover, it was estimated that one in three people who age 65 or more within the region are diagnosed with this disease.
Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region for the market due to the presence of economies like India, China, Australia, and others. Moreover, huge patient population, rising healthcare expenditure boosts the market growth. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the total Australian health expenditure from 2015 to 2016 was estimated to be about USD 170.4 billion.
The Middle East & Africa has the least share in the global dry eye syndrome due to the presence of poor economies, low per capita healthcare expenditure, stringent government policies, especially within the African region. The Middle East holds a majority of the market due to a well-developed healthcare sector and huge healthcare expenditure by the developed economies like Dubai, Kuwait, Dubai, and others.
Major Table of Content for Dry Eye Syndrome Market:
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
4.1 Drivers
4.2 Restrains
4.3 Opportunities
4.4 Challenges
4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators
4.6 Technology Trends & Assessment
4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators
TOC Continued.!
Do You Have Specific Requirement? Ask to Our Experts @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/5588
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
The Analysis presents the study of Worldwide High Throughput Screening facilitating the regional and country wise analysis covering the strategic analysis of each market player and the market share they hold.
Global High Throughput Screening Market Top Key Players:
Agilent Technologies (U.S.), Danaher (U.S.), Merck KGaA (U.S.), Tecan Trading AG (Switzerland), Thermo Fisher Scientific (U.S.), PerkinElmer Inc. (U.S.), Hamilton Company (U.S.), Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (U.S.), Aurora Biomed Inc. (Canada), AXXAM S.p.A. (Italy), and others.
Get Premium Sample Copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1280 .
Global High Throughput Screening Market Overview:
High-throughput screening is a method used in the drug discovery and relevant to the fields of biology and chemistry. It involves the use of robotics, data processing software, and sensitive detectors which helps to enhance the speed of the process with accuracy. This process can rapidly identify active compounds, antibodies, or genes that modulate a particular bimolecular pathway.
According to a recent study published by the Market Research Future analysts, the global high throughput screening market is a dynamic market growing at a decent growth rate. The growth of this market is mainly due to rise in the prevalence of the chronic diseases. Increase in prevalence has led to the increasing need for the new drug molecules and therapies. Besides that, rising expenditure on research & development, and adoption of high through put screening techniques by pharmaceutical companies is pushing the growth of the market. Moreover, rapid development in the healthcare sector, developing technology, and increasing need for drug discovery have fuelled the market growth.
On the other hand, there are some hurdles in this market such as high cost involved in the development of the required infrastructure, expensive automation techniques. These can hinder the growth of the high throughput screening market to an extent.
Global High Throughput Screening Market Competitive Analysis:
There are number of companies involved in the development of the products, including the devices, tools, software, and other services in the high throughput screening space. The global high throughput screening market is competitive due to the presence of many local and international players. Local players are focus on cost reduction and innovation to ensure sustainability. On the other hand, the international players implemented growth strategies through collaborations and partnerships to expand their global presence and overall market share. Product launches, software update launches, and mergers & acquisitions are some key strategies of the companies in this market. Some of the developments for players are as follows.
Agilent Technologies, headquartered in the U.S., is an American public research, development and manufacturing company. RapidFire 365, RapidFire Cartridges, RapidFire Integrator Software are the high-throughput mass spectrometry system. These systems provide mass spectrometry-based high-throughput screening solutions to the targets that have proven challenging to screen using conventional approaches to the drug discovery researchers
Danaher, headquarters in the U.S., operates in five segments: test & measurement, dental, industrial technologies, environmental, and life science & diagnostics. In 2016, the company acquired Cepheid and Phenomenex.
Get Exclusive Discount @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/1280
Global High Throughput Screening Market Regional Analysis:
The Americas region dominate the global high throughput screening market owing to the presence of huge patient population with chronic diseases, and increasing government support for research & development. Furthermore, presence of large number of market players in this region which are involved in continuous development of the quality products which cater to the global patient population giving an extra boost for the growth of this market in Americas region.
Europe accounts for the second largest share of the global high throughput screening market as result of increasing focus of government agencies on the treatment of chronic diseases. Moreover, the growing public awareness about disease management and increasing need for the new drugs has led to the high demand for the drug development and screening tools which are likely to boost the European market. Asia Pacific region is not far behind & is growing at a commendable growth rate in the high throughput screening business space. Japan holds the major share of the regional market due to availability of advanced technology and huge healthcare spending. Moreover, rapidly developing economy, increasing healthcare expenditure, and the governments initiatives for research & development projected to drive the market in China and India over the forecast period.
The Middle East and Africa contributes least in the global market due to limited availability of medical facilities, unavailability of the required infrastructure, affordability issues, and lack of awareness among masses. However, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait are somehow the saving grace for the high throughput screening market in this region.
Table of Content:
1 Introduction
1.1 Definition
1.2 Scope of Study
1.2.1 Research Objective
1.2.2 Assumptions & Limitations
1.2.2.1 Assumptions
1.2.2.2 Limitations
1.3 Market Structure:
2 Research Methodology
2.1 Research Process:
2.2 Primary Research
2.3 Secondary Research:
3 Market Dynamics
3.1 Drivers
3.2 Restraints
3.3 Opportunities
3.4 Macroeconomic Indicators
4 Market Factor Analysis
4.1 Porters Five Forces Model
4.2 Bargaining Power of Suppliers
4.3 Bargaining Power of Buyers
4.4 Threat of New Entrants
4.5 Threat of Substitutes
4.6 Intensity of Rivalry
Continued!
Enquiry about Reports @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/1280
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
Hologic (NSDQ: HOLX ), known in the medtech industry for its mammography and diagnostics devices, is rethinking what it means to be a womens healthcare company.
The 6,000-person company wants to expand its reach to include products that care for womens well-being, as well as their health a concept that Dr. Edward Evantash honed when he led the Ob/Gyn division at Tufts Medical Center.
The beauty of being an Ob/Gyn is that you really take care of women throughout the continuum of their lifecycle, Evantash, Hologics medical director & VP of global medical affairs, told MassDevice.com. You get the full breadth of medical care for women. Thats essentially Hologic.
When Evantash first landed at Hologic in 2009, the company was focused on a select group of products: its ThinPrep cervical cancer test, fetal fibronectin test and breast & skeletal health division.
But early in his tenure, Evantash noted that there was a shift afoot in the companys strategy. Hologic was actively acquiring and developing products that helped to expand its reach across the spectrum of a womans life.
We kind of fly under the radar
The Massachusetts-based company was founded in 1985 and has since grown into one of the largest medical device companies in the U.S. it brought in roughly $3 billion in revenue last year. But even as it looks to expand into new businesses, its not backing away from the ones that it knows best: diagnostic tests and devices.
Hologic has an array of tests on the market, including the leading products used to screen for sexually transmitted diseases marketed under the Aptima brand. It even created a fully-automated system to help laboratories process different assays simultaneously, called the Panther system.
The company positions its diagnostic tests as hugely beneficial to a healthcare system overwhelmed by cost. Take for example a test that determines the risk of preterm labor in women who show up to the hospital with contractions, Evantash said.
Years ago we would just admit all those patients to the hospital for weeks. Think about the cost not just to the hospital but also her being out of work and the impact on her family, he explained. We have a test with a negative predictive value thats almost over 99%.
Preventive care is not always top-of-mind for the public, but former CFO Bob McMahon, who moved to Agilent Technologies this month, said the company is working to help change that by educating patients about the value of diagnostic screening.
Too many women dont have their mammograms as the guidelines say and the same goes with the screening around sexually transmitted diseases. There are clinical guidelines out there and still theres a tremendous amount of opportunity to create awareness about co-testing for cervical cancer and so forth, McMahon said. I personally believe that our products stand out because theyre not just me too products. They actually have a clinical benefit that we can communicate to a woman. If everyone understood that 3D mammography detects 20% to 65% more invasive cancers than traditional 2D mammography while also reducing callbacks up to 40%, who wouldnt want to have that?
Hologic is a global company its largest market after the U.S. is China but the company hopes to expand into new markets where its diagnostic tech could be especially applicable, including India and Latin America.
We kind of fly under the radar, but were global, McMahon told us. One of the things that all governments are struggling with now is the growing healthcare burden, so were working with governments and with some of our distributors to understand what we bring to the table and helping drive that path for reimbursement and access.
[Cervical cancer] used to be our number one cancer for womens reproductive systems, until the Pap test was introduced. And now we dont think of it as a major cancer any longer. It is one of the most common cancers for women outside the United States, especially in third-world countries. What could we do with our technologies to make them more accessible to some of those communities in those countries? Evantash added.
(Learn more about the companys vision from Hologic CEO Steve MacMillan at DeviceTalks Boston, Oct. 8-10)
Bringing AI and patient preference to womens health
Hologic is among the many medtech companies that see the future of medical technology in smarter, more connected systems. The excitement about the potential of artificial intelligence is palpable among the medtech industry and the team at Hologic is no exception.
Technology is advancing, especially the world of artificial intelligence. Were looking at whether or not we can integrate some of our mammography screenings with the algorithms that are used for detection of both breast density and breast cancers, Evantash said. For our ThinPrep test, were seeing how we can make reading a Pap test more standardized instead of having cytotechnologists looking at it.
Applying that across other technologies that we have, I think, is certainly a potential future for us, he added.
Hologic is aligned with other industry trends, the executives noted. Through its purchase of Interlace Medical in 2011, Hologic acquired a tissue removal device designed for uterine fibroids and polyps. Since then, the company has expanded its MyoSure portfolio to include devices that can be used in a doctors office without anesthesia.
Were really trying to incorporate where we think medicine has gone, where physicians are practicing moving out of the operating room and into the office, McMahon said.
Changing the definition of womens healthcare
Last year, Hologic made a billion-dollar-bid for medical aesthetics company Cynosure, marking its move into the periphery of womens healthcare.
Cynosure brought with it nearly $434 million in annual sales, as well as a portfolio of devices like the first FDA-approved laser treatment for non-invasive body contouring, SculpSure.
The $1.65 billion acquisition also included Cynosures MonaLisa Touch device, a laser designed to restore vaginal health by generating collagen and elastin. That device, according to Evantash, could help address vaginal and hormonal changes that occur as a result of menopause or a hysterectomy.
Theres a lot of anecdotal experience about how it works or doesnt work. We are committed to actually looking at the data on how these devices and how specifically MonaLisa Touch works to treat something that is incredibly disturbing to women and disruptive to their lifestyle, he said.
McMahon added that the company decided to pursue medical aesthetics because the team viewed it as an emerging area that was complementary to the rest of Hologics businesses.
The benefit of us coming into that space is that we have a reputation of operating based on the clinical benefits of all of our products, he said. And were committed to proving that [these medical aesthetic devices] do really work.
Based on the FDAs recent warning letters to seven device manufacturers (including Hologics Cynosure), the industry has its work cut out for them when it comes to proving the safety and efficacy of devices designed for vaginal rejuvenation procedures.
Weve recently become aware of a growing number of manufacturers marketing vaginal rejuvenation devices to women and claiming these procedures will treat conditions and symptoms related to menopause, urinary incontinence or sexual function. The procedures use lasers and other energy-based devices to destroy or reshape vaginal tissue. These products have serious risks and dont have adequate evidence to support their use for these purposes. We are deeply concerned women are being harmed, FDA chief Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in prepared remarks.
Hologic, Inc. and our medical aesthetics division, Cynosure, are aware that the FDA has issued a letter expressing concerns regarding vaginal rejuvenation procedures. As a leader in womens health, Hologic has a strong track record of rooting our products in science and clinical evidence so, we take the contents of this letter seriously. We are evaluating the letter in full and will collaborate with the agency to ensure all product communications adhere to regulatory requirements, Jane Mazur, VP of divisional communications at Hologic, told us.
Reflecting on his four years at Hologic, McMahon said that he doesnt think Hologics mission has changed, but it has evolved.
We were a leader in womens health. We are still that today. But I think the notion of how we view womens health has expanded, he said. Now, its more encompassing to include both health and well-being.
I had a philosophy in clinical practice and in academics to be innovative, cutting edge and completely committed to my patients and their families. And thats why I came to Hologic because they had the same philosophy and we still do, Evantash said.
Market Research Future published a cooked research report on Global Microbiology Testing Market Research Report Forecast to 2023 Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.
Global Microbiology Testing Market Overview:
Microbiology testing has emerged as one of the rapidly changing and growing 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. Microbiology testing is concern with the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of various infectious diseases such as, sexually respiratory infections, urinary tract infections, gastrointestinal infections, sexually transmitted infections, and many others. These diseases can be spread from one person to another, directly or indirectly.
According to a recent study published by the Market Research Future analysts, the global microbiology testing market is growing at a double digit growth rate; mainly due to factors such as technological advancements, rising cases of infectious diseases, surveillance programs for disease control, and rising stringency of standards. On the other hand, erroneous results produced during the testing, and heavy costs of the tests and instruments have created some obstacles in the growth of this market in all parts of the world.
Get Premium Sample Copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/697
Global Microbiology Testing Market Top Key Players:
Alere (US), BD (US), Beckman Coulter, Inc. (US), Biomerieux SA (France), Cepheid (US), F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (Switzerland), and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (US). These are the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the global microbiology testing market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis report.
Global Microbiology Testing Market Competitive Analysis:
There are large number of companies involved in the development of the products, instruments, and test kits for the microbiology testing which are now being used in majority part of the developed countries. Global market for microbiology testing is majorly dominated by Biomerieux SA with more than 40% of market share in 2016.
Major companies are adopting a specific strategy to enter and create unique space in this market. The different strategies includes, product launch, agreement and collaboration, partnership and expansion, joint venture and strategic alliance etc. All major players are focusing on new product development to provide new and innovative solutions to the market.
Biomerieux SA offers a comprehensive range diagnostic solutions which include Microbiology lab instruments, reagents and software. The products of the company is mainly used for diagnosing infectious diseases. In 2016, BioMerieux announced the acquisition of Hyglos. With this acquisition, the company plans to strengthen its position in the market.
Some of the major developments in this segment came from the Roche Diagnostics. In April 2017, the company received FDA clearance for the CINtec Histology test. This test is the only clinically validated p16 biomarker test. The CINtec Histology test will help physicians make informed decisions as to the best course of care for patients with high-grade pre-cancerous cervical disease. Back in 2015, Roche acquired GeneWEAVE to strengthen offerings in microbiology diagnostics.
Get Valuable Discount @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/697
Global Microbiology Testing Market Regional Analysis:
In 2016, North America and Europe were holding more than half market share of global microbiology testing market. Increasing funding for R&D is major driving force for the market growth. The funding for microbiology testing in US is one of the highest as compared to other countries. Rapid adoption of advanced products and techniques are driving the growth for North America market. Increasing cases of infectious diseases are promoting the research related activities in this region. Independent laboratories are dominating the North America market by adopting new technologies and trends.
European market is second highest revenue generator after North America. Europe microbiology testing market has benefited by the presence of some major players in this region. Moreover, increasing innovation and changing laboratory practices are driving the growth for Europe microbiology testing market. Microbiology testing have huge and increasing demand not only in developed countries but also in developing countries like China, India, and Spain.
Rising prevalence of respiratory infections are increasing burden on Asia-Pacific healthcare system. Being a large population base, increasing aging population, and increasing use of technology in healthcare, China microbiology testing market is growing at rapid pace. China is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.8% during the forecast period. The number of independent laboratories are rapidly increasing such as KingMed Diagnostics and Dian Diagnostics. KingMed Diagnostics is largest chain of independent laboratories in china.
The Middle East and Africa microbiology testing market is growing dramatically due increasing prevalence of various infectious diseases like Ebola. This region is carrying greatest burden of infectious disease. Sexually transmitted diseases are also major public health problem in this region. There are some factors are affecting the microbiology testing market in this region such as, limited access to the healthcare facilities, lack of knowledge of new microbiology testing techniques, less funding R&D, limited availability of products etc.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Report Prologue
2 Introduction
2.1 Scope Of Study
2.2 Research Objective
2.3 Assumptions & Limitations
2.3.1 Assumptions
2.3.2 Limitations
3 Research Methodology
3.1 Research Process
3.2 Primary Research
3.3 Secondary Research
4 Market Dynamics
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Drivers
4.2.1 Technological Advancements
4.2.2 Rising Cases Of Infectious Diseases
4.2.3 Surveillance Programs For Disease Control
4.2.4 Rising Stringency Of Standards
4.2.5 Weakness Of Traditional Laboratory Techniques
4.3 Restraints
4.3.1 Erroneous Results
4.3.2 High Cost Of Reagents And Instruments
4.4 Opportunities
4.4.1 Research And Development
4.4.2 Rising Grants, Collaborations And Partnerships
4.5 Challenges
4.5.1 Government Regulations And Policies
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
5.1.4 Threat Of Substitutes
5.1.5 Intensity Of Rivalry
5.2 Supply Chain Analysis
5.3 Value Chain Analysis
5.3.1 Primary Activities
5.3.2 Secondary Activities
Continued!
Direct Enquiry to Expert @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/697
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
The neighbor borrowing the cup of sugar is a familiar comic-strip image, dating back to the times neighbors baked, or used sugar -- or read the newspaper funny pages.
Now a new website called Whimiy is using its social media platform to let neighbors rent items out to other neighbors nearby, at rates and terms the renter sets.
Whimiy takes a 10% cut off the top and pledges to donate 5% of net proceeds to environmental nonprofits.
Philosophically, Whimiy is close to Uber and Airbnb, darlings of the sharing economy, and uses ideas that also make the neighborly Nextdoor.com work.
With Whimiy, your clutter becomes your inventory. Your storage unit becomes your warehouse, Rhonda Harper, the CEO and founder, says in a statement.
From from 2000-2002, Harper was the CMO at Sams Club. She gets the irony: I used to promote buying in bulk. Now, I encourage you not to buy at all.
advertisement advertisement
Owners of goods can offer them to others who live in an eight-mile radius that Whimiy works out, and only users in that area are part of that marketplace.
Getting people to rent out their power washer to a guy a few blocks away might find eager clients on either end of the equation.
So far Whimiy has posted some invitational images on Instagram but as far as other marketing goes, Harper tells Marketing Daily thats limited to providing social images for [members] to share, and having new members share friend, family, colleague and neighbor contact info with us.
Nextdoor has a slightly different model, with household goods for sale, not rent, along with tips on good plumbers and alerts about scam artists, in particular neighborhoods. Its FAQ says that it works best in neighborhoods with between 750-1,000 households. Since 2011, it says it has created 100,000 neighborhoods and 10 million members.
Asked if Whimiy plans to propose some sort of business alliance with Nextdoor, Harper writes, Well see.
These are early days. Whimiy has only been in beta testing for a couple months in Dallas ,and just last week went national.
Harper, who owns 100% of the company, cites stats about the sharing economy from PricewaterhouseCoopers that shows 83% of people say sharing makes life more convenient and efficient and 86% say it makes life more affordable.
Logically, Whimiy should work as easily as eBay does for more permanent transfers of goods. But the New York City apartment dweller Adam Berk, who founded a similar service in 2006, had a sobering experience.
My sharing economy startup, Neigh*borrow, was an obvious idea, he wrote for Pando.com in 2013. There were hundreds of doodads in my apartment that I only used once in awhile -- wrenches, power drill, vacuum, vegetable peeler, and camera. My building held 300 units whose occupants I figured were in similar straits. And my New York City neighborhood had 20 such buildings, all within a short walk.
It was such a good idea, in fact, CNBC quickly touted the site on the air. For many reasons some of which Berk blames on early, bad decisions Neigh*borrow (with the slogan, Because owning shit you hardly use is dumb) has never made it big.
Journalists flocked to write about us, but they never signed up for the service Even the users who wrote us emails saying how we were awesome (I got emails like that every week) didnt make an effort to lead their communities to Neigh*borrow. We were great in theory but not in practice, he wrote.
Berk did not respond to Marketing Dailys request for a comment about Whimiy.
by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, September 5, 2018
One of the joys of U.S. travel is the opportunity that a trip provides for sampling local TV media.
This was no less true on a late summer vacation to Savannah, Georgia and the surrounding area.
In this market, as in others that one sometimes has the pleasure of visiting, watching local TV news in the latter part of the evening can give the media-savvy traveler a glimpse at new and previously unseen trends in local TV news delivery.
Take, for example, the way this station -- Fox affiliate WTGS, Fox28, owned by Sinclair -- positions its weather forecasts on its 10 p.m. news. Instead of First Weather or First Forecast, WTGS news goes with First Warning, which implies a pending weather event worth noting, and possibly even fleeing from.
advertisement advertisement
However, in the days we watched this newscast, no such severe storm or other event ever materialized. Instead, we were warned that it would probably be sunny, which it was.
That's the First Warning bug the station uses in the screen grab above, featuring weatherman Jordan Fraser.
It should go without saying, but here goes: Positioning ordinary weather forecasts as a First Warning is the kind of unnecessary exaggeration that people deride TV news for. Therefore, such gimmicks should be avoided.
The TV Blog wishes to emphasize that we mean no disrespect to Mr. Fraser for the use of this First Warning gimmick, which was likely imposed on his weather forecasts by news management.
Nor is the gimmick a reflection on Mr. Fraser either. He is a fine weatherman -- professional, polished and engaging.
Savannah is the nation's 90th-ranked market with 328,860 TV households. WTGS seems to operate its news on a shoestring, although the mostly young, earnest reporters and anchors on the station seem like a fine bunch of up-and-comers.
Two correspondents we saw repeatedly were Caitlyn Penter and Briana Trusty, and anchorman Trey Paul. Keep up the good work, you guys.
One thing plaguing this station's newscasts, however, was misspellings. This is an increasing phenomenon of TV news everywhere, even in New York, so it is not limited to WTGS in Savannah.
But in the days we watched WTGS's news, one misspelling of several that we saw had Mcain on screen for an entire segment about the death of John McCain. Cmon, people -- we can do better.
More jarring than the station's First Warning weather reports was another feature apparently provided by Sinclair to its station newscasts -- something the company calls its Terrorism Alert Desk.
This feature is positioned as a daily report on terrorism around the world, even when there isn't any. In that way, it is like the First Warning weather that has no inclement weather to warn anyone about.
Of particular fascination in our viewing of Savannah TV was the supply of local commercial advertisers, especially the series of commercials airing in the market for a sprawling local car dealership called O.C. Welch in nearby Hardeeville, South Carolina.
In this series of spots, company President O.C. Welch, Vice President (and son) Chip Welch or someone else was seen at a desk or standing in a showroom (if memory serves) announcing some deal or another. Last week's ads probably promoted some sort of Labor Day sale.
The commercials seen with O.C. Welch were eye-catching for two reasons. The first was the presence on his desk of one or possibly two bottles of Maker's Mark bourbon just to his left.
To my knowledge, the bourbon was never mentioned, much less consumed -- so the presence of the Maker's Mark brand in this spot was mysterious.
Reached by email on Tuesday, however, Mr. Welch provided a friendly explanation. No particular reason, he wrote, replying to my question asking about the Maker's Mark bottles. Always something different on the desk to draw attention. Thanks for the feedback. Everyone knows I don't drink. Have a great day!! God Bless America!!
Also present on Mr. Welchs desk: A small dog named Gus, who is apparently a current mascot for the dealership. Gus paced around the desktop while Mr. Welch faced a camera and recited some ad copy. At the end of the spot came the reason for Gus presence as a slogan suddenly appeared that read: Gus says: Go see O.C.!
All of the O.C. Welch spots ended with Mr. Welch, his son or whoever else saying: God bless America (just like in Mr. Welch's email to the TV Blog) -- which was a very nice touch.
It was also a coincidence too because while I was watching local TV in Savannah, I was thinking the very same thing.
by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, September 5, 2018
Google co-founder Larry Page and Google CEO Sundar Pichai declined the offer to participate before Congress at the Senate Intelligence Committee to follow up on the meeting that took place in November regarding the Russian election interference. The discussion centered on how big tech companies are preparing for midterm elections.
The third hearing being streamed included questions such as whether Facebook has a moral and legal obligation to take down accounts that insight violence, who sets the standards to determine the definition of coordinated manipulation, and whether its platforms discern between U.S. and non-U.S. citizens.
"We don't always know where an account is coming from," said Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey during the hearing. He also made note that the company has been building machine-learning technology to identify behavioral patterns to determine fake profiles.
advertisement advertisement
One senator expressed her "outrage" that Google did not appear at the table.
While Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg attended the meeting to testify, Google followed up by sending remarks in a written letter. On Tuesday Kent Walker, Googles senior vice president of global affairs and chief legal officer, published the written remarks it plans to deliver.
We believe that we have a responsibility to prevent the misuse of our platforms and we take that very seriously, Walker wrote in the blog post. Our efforts in this area started many years before the 2016 election.
Walker wrote that the company continually works to detect and minimize opportunities for manipulation and abuse, constantly tackling new threats.
Those steps include an ID verification program for anyone buying ad space from Google to promote the U.S. federal election, in-ad disclosures attached to election ads across its products, a transparency report specific to political ads on Google and a searchable ad library that allows anyone to view political ads for candidates in the U.S.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, September 5, 2018
Maine Governor Paul LePage can't shake a lawsuit accusing him of violating critics' free speech rights by blocking them on Facebook and deleting their posts.
In an opinion issued late last week, U.S. District Court Judge John Woodcock, Jr. in Maine rejected LePage's argument that the case should be dismissed at a preliminary stage, calling the governor's bid for dismissal "premature."
The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed last year by the ACLU on behalf of Karin Leuthy and Kelli Whitlock Burton, who cofounded the progressive group Suit Up Maine. Both allege they were banned from LePage's Facebook page in July 2017, after posting comments critical of him or his administration.
They alleged that LePage violated their First Amendment rights by censoring them based on their viewpoints.
LePage had argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed for several reasons, including that the page was personal, as opposed to official. He argued the page reflected his "private speech," and that he has a First Amendment right to decide what material to allow on the page.
advertisement advertisement
"Public officials do not sacrifice their individual rights to free speech -- including the right to control the messages they promote -- when they assume office," he argued in court papers.
But Leuthy and Burton countered the page was run by the government. They argued the page was labeled as "official," and that LePage uses his Facebook page to discuss government business with the public.
Woodcock wrote that Leuthy and Burton presented a strong enough case that the page was official to move forward with their lawsuit -- at least for now.
"The plaintiffs pleaded facts that lead to a reasonable inference the governor acted under color of state law when he deleted their posts and banned them from his Facebook page," Woodcock wrote.
He stressed the ruling was based on the version of facts presented by Leuthy and Burton, implying that the decision could change as more evidence is developed.
"The court denies the governors motion because it is premature," he wrote. "The parties to this case do not agree on a basic fact: what exactly is the social media page in question. Is it, as plaintiffs allege, the governors official page that he uses to discuss policy issues? Is it, as the governor claims, a holdover campaign page that the governor uses to communicate with his base and his base with him? Is it somewhere in between?"
The decision comes several months after U.S. District Court Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in New York ruled that President Trump violates the First Amendment by blocking critics on Twitter.
The Department of Justice recently asked the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse that ruling, arguing that the Twitter account @realDonaldTrump -- which the president uses to broadcast official policy statements -- is "personal."
"Nothing in the First Amendment divests Donald Trump of the ability to decline to receive messages on his private property that he does not wish to hear, nor does it compel him to allow others to use his speech as a platform to amplify their own," the DOJ argued in papers field with the appellate court last month.
A large study provides 10-year absolute estimates for dementia risk. The scientists hope that by identifying people at high risk, specialists might be able to put in place early strategies for prevention.
Share on Pinterest What places a person at high risk of dementia?
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), every 3 seconds a new case of dementia is diagnosed.
It is characterized by cognitive impairment, such as having trouble recalling memories, solving problems, and reasoning logically.
Some of the main dementia risk factors include aging, stroke, and high blood pressure.
Recent studies have also found that biological sex and a particular variation in the APOE gene the e4 allele both affect a persons overall risk.
The APOE gene encodes apolipoprotein E, a protein that plays a vital role in regulating cholesterol levels, and which may also be key in reducing the levels of the protein beta-amyloid, which can form toxic plaques in the brain.
A team at the Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark believes that if we can identify people at the highest risk for dementia early on and understand what places them at such a high risk, we may also be able to implement appropriate preventive measures.
The researchers conducted a large population study in order to calculate the 10-year absolute risk estimates for dementia based on age, sex, and the existence of the e4 allele of the APOE gene.
Study co-author Prof. Ruth Frikke-Schmidt and colleagues published their results in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
The U.S. Open turned out to be a famjam for Priyanka Chopra and fiance Nick Jonas. After returning back from their Mexican holiday, the couple went on for a double date with Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner For the US Open.
Looks like Priyanka and Nick just can't get enough of each other and are making sure they take out time from their busy schedules, whenever possible.
The family was there to cheer Serena Williams who defeated Karolina Pliskova. Joining the couple was also Priyanka Chopra's mother Madhu Chopra, who enjoyed this family time.
Taking to her Instagram, Priyanka shared a picture and captioned it, It's a #famjam at the #usopen @nickjonas @sophiet @joejonas @madhumalati. While the first picture is lovely, the second one looks pretty cute.
Joe and Sophie were seen at the US Open earlier as well. In fact, a video of Joe and Kevin Jonas, flossing during the match, went viral like anything. It's funny, crazy and worth watching.
This adorable family outing was loved by the fans. No doubt Priyanka and Nick seem to be enjoying and relishing every moment before they tie the knot.
The duo got engaged in Mumbai last month in an intimate 'roka' ceremony, followed by a night-long party. However, the wedding date is not announced yet.
Kiki may or may not love Drake, but she sure has irritated all of us to death these past few months. The infamous 'Kiki challenge' has finally died down thank god! but we still have some unanswered questions about the song 'In My Feelings' by Drake. Actually, it's just one question that we desperately needed the answer to who the hell is this Kiki? Okay wait, there's one more why is Drake so obsessed with her?
If you're obsessed with pop culture, you would automatically associate any name starting with a 'K' to the Kardashians and that's what exactly a Twitter user did, coming up with one of the best conspiracy theories of the year.
In his viral thread, Twitter user Tyler Morrison explains how Drake has been telling everyone for months that he slept with Kim Kardashian but we just didn't pay attention. The entire thread is so wild and has got so many glued to his investigation. Let's have a look!
Drake's been telling us for months now he slept with Kim K, we just haven't been listening
- a thread pic.twitter.com/YVCehJI5fQ Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018
Now, it gets interesting.
He referenced verses like these from Scorpion. I already knew the disses were aimed at Kanye, but he claimed every girl line was about Kim. Your wifey felt too generic at first, and I figured Drake was referring to any man that leaves his girl long enough/for good. pic.twitter.com/NpyymtcRFl Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018
It's getting deep.
He also spoke about how Drake and Ye have been beefing since they were together in Wyoming. Which prompted the whole Push-Drake feud pic.twitter.com/vWsBPaPTSG Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018
Same caption, oops.
Then the concert took place and I pretty much forgot about the theory until a few days ago when another friend sent me these (s/o @JakeSpinny) pic.twitter.com/UvcaUhKVtk Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018
Now I'm like, okay, there is no way this is random. So I sat down and decided to take a closer look. pic.twitter.com/0qqxwSclhz Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018
We're coming to be biggest question now.
Thought to myself, Kiki is pretty damn close to Kim. Quick twitter search and I find these. pic.twitter.com/4cZkS7Rrs5 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018
Great evidence.
Then I learn about Kim's lipstick... pic.twitter.com/tM1OxFlv1J Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018
First verse of the album Drake comes directly at Kanye. With a Kim reference at the end? But why would Ye question his love with Kim... pic.twitter.com/hMRXHF9pwj Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018
What is it about?
Fast forward to the end of the song.
Started feelin' myself.
In My Feelings. Kiki.
Now he's got drama over Kim and the tie between him and Kanye is done because of it. Except what's the drama about? pic.twitter.com/x082tyzRqB Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018
I didn't even know this, I don't follow Drake so closely.
Everyone questioned why Drake never responded to Pusha after the 2nd diss. At first I thought the claim it would be Bad for Kanye was just a weak excuse and Drake took an L pic.twitter.com/vKMyTM5vPv Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018
It's getting too complicated now.
But hold on, maybe Drake does have something on Ye...
(G.O.O.D is the name of Kanye's record label - I think Drake is saying in 8 Out of 10 Kanye is lucky he never responded with the 2nd diss) pic.twitter.com/SQDcdo8Fcz Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018
1st photo is in reference to an interview b/w DJ Akademiks and Drake. 2nd photo is J Prince explaining Drake has info that would end Kanye's career and ruin his livelihood. Drake hints at this on Mob Ties, and confirms it on Behind Barz. pic.twitter.com/rFZdug8IdO Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018
Wait, I don't know anything.
Rap fans grilled Drake about not responding to Push. Except we don't know the half of it he says. And whatever it is, he can only tell us about it in pieces.
WHAT DONT WE KNOW DRAKE pic.twitter.com/bs3Gg7oXEP Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018
Let's look at Is There More and Behind Barz since Drake is talking about Kanye in both.
In Is There More, Drake tells us he's ready to come clean about something. Now focus on the word goof in both songs.
Also, in Behind Barz, he seems to speak directly to Kim. pic.twitter.com/sna9IZ9kT7 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018
It doesn't, I guess.
Your wifey doesn't seem so generic anymore pic.twitter.com/uSZnqtlFDT Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018
Wait what if it's Kris and not Kim?
Drake has a good relationship with the Kardashians.
And we know they both live in Hidden Hills. pic.twitter.com/QCnDOJQMbU Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018
Tyler has put in so much effort.
I crept down the block,
Made a right,
Cut the lights,
Paid the price. pic.twitter.com/2D91btFg4T Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018
You can infer what went down. Even if you can't, Drake might just tell us anyway later in this verse.
Drake hopped on a track with essentially Ye's brother in law to flex how he smashed his wife. Beyond savage. pic.twitter.com/Dhm8iNSHOL Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018
I think Scorpion was originally mostly Side B until Ye snitched to Push about Drake's kid. Once that got exposed, Drake made Side A to not only go after Kanye, but subtly tell us about the history with Kim. pic.twitter.com/3x6Y1OY8oA Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018
People been asking bout other verses I thought may be in reference to Kim or were important. Here ya go:
The verses in Talk Up and Nonstop I'm certain on.
The verse on Blue Tint and Lil Wayne sample on In My Feelings could be debatable, but are definitely suspect. pic.twitter.com/Z3nDb3GsBG Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018
Is it the end of the thread?
Here's an obvious one I definitely should've used. S/o to @93kmw93 in the comments. Telling you tho there's so many pic.twitter.com/CJtWEu8z6W Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) September 1, 2018
I don't think I understood most of it but well, I can't keep up all the beef between rappers, I just don't have it in me.
Then, The Shade Room posted a video which included Nick Cannon (who dated Kim in 2006) and DJ Akademiks discussing the ongoing feud between her husband, Kanye West, Pusha T, and Drake. During that, DJ Akademiks question the possibility of anything going on between Kim K and Drake.
But, Kim herself jumped in to clear everything with just one comment.
However, wouldn't Kim deny even if something happened? I mean, she's a married woman with three kids, she wouldn't want the world to know if she cheated, who would want that?
So, we can just take Kim's word for it or just go crazy with the conspiracy theory. But mostly, none of this information affects our life personally, so who cares?
When Kerala was battling with one of the worst floods in history and was in desperate need of financial support, Sushant Singh Rajput was one of the first few celebrities who came forward to lend a helping hand and donated Rs. 1 crore on behalf of his fan.
As promised my friend, @subhamranjan66, what you wanted to do has been done. You made me do this, so be extremely proud of yourself. You delivered exactly when it was needed.
Lots and lots of love. FLY
Cheers #MyKerala #KeralaReliefFunds pic.twitter.com/fqrFpmKNhK Sushant Singh Rajput (@itsSSR) August 21, 2018
With his heartwarming gesture, Sushant proved to be a real life hero who has a heart of gold. When celebrities do something out of goodwill, there are some who will always question their efforts and call it a publicity stunt. But, neither was that for publicity, nor is this kind gesture for flood-ravaged Nagaland.
Instagram
Nagaland too is hit by floods and while not many people know about the situation there, Sushant Singh Rajput recently visited the state, met the Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and donated Rs. 1.25 crore for the relief work. Reportedly, nearly 50,000 people have been affected by the floods and the state government gave an estimate of Rs. 800 crore that will be required to help restore the state.
Moved by Sushant's sweet gesture, CM Rio took to Twitter to thank the actor. He wrote, "I am moved at the kind gesture made by @itsSSR and his team towards #NagalandFloods and willingness to help #Nagaland at this crucial hour. Your contribution is encouraging and I hope to see the rest of the nation come forward selflessly, to #DonateForNagaland."
I am moved at the kind gesture made by @itsSSR and his team towards #NagalandFloods and willingness to help #Nagaland at this crucial hour. Your contribution is encouraging and I hope to see the rest of the nation come forward selflessly, to #DonateForNagaland pic.twitter.com/8ieoGohd0J Neiphiu Rio (@Neiphiu_Rio) September 4, 2018
Sushant too posted about his meeting on social media and wrote, "Thank you Sir for your precious time. We,with our full force and determination would work incessantly till the time our #Nagaland is perfectly restored. And this wonderful Gong does make a wonderful sound of friendship. Thanks once again Sir."
Thank you Sir for your precious time. We,with our full force and determination would work incessantly till the time our #Nagaland is perfectly restored. And this wonderful Gong does make a wonderful sound of friendship.
Thanks once again Sir.@Neiphiu_Rio #NagalandFloods pic.twitter.com/PBrEl5RYLh Sushant Singh Rajput (@itsSSR) September 4, 2018
Kudos to Sushant Singh Rajput for standing with Nagaland in this crucial hour. On the work front, Sushant is currently busy with 'Kedarnath' opposite Sara Ali Khan.
In August, Apple passed the US$ 1 trillion mark in terms of stock market value. And today, after just thirty-three days, Amazon has accomplished the same feat. Amazon's shares rose as much as 1.9 per cent, sprinting past the milestone.
Jeff Bezos started Amazon in 1994 as a book-selling platform and since then, the company has transformed itself into an e-commerce mammoth that literally sells everything in multiple markets. The company's success has made Bezos the wealthiest person on this planet with a net worth of almost US$ 150 billion.
Reuters
Amazon currently has more than 5,75,000 employees and rakes in more than US$ 200 billion in annual sales. When compared to other huge companies, the e-commerce company is fairly young and has managed to successfully diversify its business.
Bezos launched a new cloud-computing business division in 2006 called Amazon Web Services (AWS), the business has been an astounding success and further proved how long-term the vision is.
Having its own computing infrastructure also gave Amazon a lot of room to experiment with its own services. In the recent years, the company has gotten into the streaming business as well and bundled the same with its Prime membership offering.
YouTube
While the stock market-based valuation is very dynamic and at the end of the trading day, the company's valuation slipped to $988.8 billion, it is still a remarkable statement of how quickly the 24-year-old company has grown. The constant rise in share prices also means investors are confident about its prospects
Apple and Amazon aren't the first companies to join the trillion-dollar club though, as energy company PetroChina Co. briefly crossed that valuation in late 2007 but slipped back due to reducing oil prices and the oncoming 2008 financial crisis.
BCCL
Technology stocks have been on a constant rise this year though, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Netflix have been seen a consistent rise in their share price and analysts are bullish about them paying off in the longer run.
Morgan Stanley has recently raised its target price for Amazon's share to US$ 2,500, valuing the company at US$ 1.2 trillion. The stock closed at US$ 2,039 on September 4.
Source: Bloomberg
Samsung has been talking about a foldable phone for the last few years, and it is eager to be the first one to launch such a phone.
The company has been working on foldable phones for years now and we've already seen many patents and leaks, suggesting that the company is close to accomplishment.
During an interview on CNBC, DJ Koh, the CEO of the company's mobile division, said that it's time to deliver a foldable device. The report further adds, Koh hinted that more details of the device could be unveiled this year at the Samsung Developer Conference in November in San Francisco,
YouTube
Koh has been pretty vocal about the project since its start and had previously suggested that the technology requires a lot of work and that Samsung doesn't want to push out an unpolished product in the market.
"We want to hear that Samsung Electronics made a quality product when we showcase a foldable phone on the market," Koh said in August.
CNBC says Koh declined to say whether the foldable phone will be launched this year, but he did say Samsung has "nearly concluded" the "complicated" development process for the phone.
Samsung
The South Korean giant is now locked in a battle with Huawei, who is also trying to be the first one to release a foldable phone. Samsung definitely seems to be having an edge because of its self-researched and developed OLED displays and past history of working on bendable displays.
"We are focused on bringing innovations favoured by consumers, rather than just becoming the world's first. In terms of the foldable phone, however, we do not want to miss the first spot," Koh stated early this year.
LG's Foldable Display Panel
We do not know how the phone may look or what it might be capable of, as we've only seen patent applications for now. The company has successfully managed to keep a tight lid on the development, unlike Google's Pixel 3.
Samsung
Samsung released a concept advertisement for a potential foldable phone back in 2014. It featured a device with a bendable display that folded from a more tablet-like size into a small phone. It'll be interesting to see how the actual product works out.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Terens Quick met at his office today with the new Supreme President of AHEPA, George Loucas. The courtesy visit took place on the occasion of Mr. Loucas assumption of his duties at AHEPA, a historic Greek community organization that carries out exceptional social work.
Mr. Loucas was accompanied by AHEPA executive director Vasilis Mosaidis. The Director General of the General Secretariat for Greeks Abroad, Michalis Kokkinos, also attended the meeting.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Quick received the President of the Greek Community of Cairo, Christos Kavalis, with whom he discussed matters concerning the education of the Greek community in Cairo and acceleration of the process, already approved by the Hellenic Parliament, for incorporating the Greek Hospital of Cairo into the Greek National Health Service (EOPYY).
Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias will meet with the French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, at 14:00 on Thursday, 6 September, at the Foreign Ministry. Mr. Le Drian is carrying out a working visit to our country at the invitation of Mr. Kotzias.
The talks between the two Ministers will cover issues concerning bilateral relations, European affairs (future of Europe, Brexit, enlargement policy, Western Balkans), developments in the Middle East (Peace Process, Iran, Libya) and the eastern Mediterranean.
Following their meeting, at about 15:45, the two Ministers will make joint statements to the news media.
UPPER THUMB The theme for this years National Preparedness Month is Disasters Happen, Prepare Now. Learn How.
The Huron County Health Department wants to take the month of September to help you and your families understand what is needed to be prepared for emergencies.
Make and Practice Your Plan: Having a plan is the first step in being prepared for an emergency.
Knowing how to communicate or where to meet in the event of an emergency is crucial to your familys safety. Utilize technology and sign up for tools such as SMART 911 or get the FEMA app for weather and emergency alerts.
Learn Life Saving Skills: Do you know how to shut off the utilities in your home? Be aware of your utility companies and where the gas shut off is at in your home. Place a smoke alarm on every level of your home and test them monthly. Consider installing a carbon monoxide detector too. Keep your home safe from cooking, heating and electrical fires. Also, take a first aid and/or CPR class so that you are ready to help others, if needed.
Check Your Insurance Coverage: Whether you own your home or rent, talk with your insurance company about what kind of coverage is available in your area. Are you able to get flood insurance? If you are a renter, consider taking out a policy to cover your belongings in case something happens.
Save for An Emergency: Whether its a natural disaster or your furnace goes out, its a good idea to have an emergency fund available. Since we live in Michigan, one idea is to save the money from returnable cans to help get your emergency fund started. In addition, its a good idea to make copies of important financial documents. A good resource is the Emergency Financial First Aid Kit from FEMA located at https://www.ready.gov/financial-preparedness.
Its important to have the items you need to be prepared for an emergency. To learn more about how you can better prepare for an emergency visit www.ready.gov/september or www.michigan.gov/michiganprepare.You can also follow us on Facebook at https://m.facebook.com/hchd.us/ to see post related to National Preparedness Month.
In a study published this month, a University of Connecticut economist casts doubt on state incentives as a tool to spur the relocation or expansion of existing businesses, suggesting regions fare better in supporting homegrown businesses and technology.
Mary Donegan and co-authors William Lester and Nichola Lowe of the University of North Carolina published their findings via the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, with the study supported by a grant from the Kansas City, Mo.-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. In the paper, the researchers suggest states strike a better balance in investing in startups versus spending big to attract corporate relocations.
State and local incentive use in the United States has seen a notable uptick in the wake of the 2008-2009 Great Recession ... reflecting increased desperation for additional jobs, Donegan, Lester and Lowe wrote. We need to look no further than ... Amazon and Googles decision to establish a second U.S. headquarters to see that communities throughout the country and decision makers within them are willing to pull out all the stops.
Correlating deal-flow data tracked by Good Jobs First, Donegan and her co-authors studied more than 11,000 economic incentive deals nationally that resulted in commitments for at least 100 new or relocated jobs. The study found little evidence that incentive grants generated much in the way of new jobs or other direct economic benefits to the states that issued them, though Donegan established that incentives for small businesses tend to have a positive effect.
Incentive use for smaller firms appears to be less risky, the UConn and UNC researchers stated. It could be that large firms that seek incentives are moving activity from one state to another in a process of consolidation that is proximate in time with an overall downward trend in business activity. Alternatively, large establishments may simply be more likely to play the incentive game and are less likely to be experiencing a positive growth cycle or inventing new goods and services.
Southwestern Connecticut has had its share of success stories and cautionary tales. In 2012 under Gov. Dannel P. Malloys First Five program that awards incentives to companies adding at least 200 employees, Stamford attracted in the headquarters of Charter Communications, which after acquiring Time Warner Cable is planning a larger campus in downtown Stamford to accommodate more employees than originally envisioned.
Across the citys South End, however, Marriott International is subleasing out the huge waterside office complex it inherited in the 2016 acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, with Connecticut incentives having bought the state less than a decade of Starwood as a major corporate employer after its 2012 relocation from Westchester County, N.Y.
Norwalk, meanwhile, continues to benefit from a pair of homegrown companies in Booking Holdings and Datto that generated exponential growth on the dime of outside investors, with both having recommitted to their Norwalk headquarters the past few years.
Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman
Contributed photo /
OLD SAYBROOK The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center welcomes the blues duo of Kal David and Lauri Bono on Saturday at 8 p.m.
To say that Kal David is just a great blues guitarist would be a shame, although he is that, indeed. Other blues guitarists dont come close to his wide range of styles, the colors on his palette. Kal is a fine and experienced guitarist who can bring you to your knees with his soulfulness, but dont miss his depth. His gritty, yet polished vocals take you on an emotion filled ride. The world is about to wake up to a true living legend of music.
MADISON Susan Powell Fine Art will present Rhythms of Nature: David Dunlop, Deborah Quinn-Munson, Jeanne Rosier Smith, Sept. 7-30, with an opening reception Friday from 5-8 p.m. The public is welcome and wine and hors doeuvres will be served.
The exhibition is a first for these three nationally-acclaimed artists showing together. All are well known for their contemporary, unique and dramatic oil and pastel paintings of nature.
David Dunlop is a modern-day old master whose luminous landscapes draw from both Renaissance techniques and contemporary science. He is an Artist, Teacher, Lecturer and Emmy award-winning television host and writer of the PBS Series entitled, Landscapes through Time with David Dunlop. His paintings have been shown internationally and are held in the collections of major corporations. His contemporary abstractions based on nature, in his distinctive technique of oil painting on aluminum and copper, are appealing to collectors of both traditional and contemporary art.
Deborah Quinn-Munson is an elected Signature Member of The Pastel Society of America, Connecticut Pastel Society and the Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod. Other elected memberships include the Salmagundi Club in NYC, Copley Society of Art in Boston and the Providence Art Club. She has received many distinctions for her work, which is known for its bold color, energetic line, and strong composition; elements which are primary to her as a painter to convey a powerful image filled with atmosphere and light. Her pastel and oil paintings are in numerous private and corporate collections throughout the country.
Jeanne Rosier Smith maintains a Pastel Studio School, teaches around the country, and is represented by several galleries. Smith is a signature member of the Pastel Society of America, the American Society of Marine Artists, the Connecticut Pastel Society and the Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod, an IAPS Masters Circle member, a member of the Salmagundi Club and a Copley Society Master Artist. She has placed in the Pastel Journals Pastel 100 for the past six years, including first place in 2017. Her work has appeared in International Artist Magazine, American Art Collector, and The Pastel Journal, and she is a regular contributor to the Pastel Journal, which featured her work in August 2018. Her paintings are in collections on five continents.
Susan Powell Fine Art is located at 679 Boston Post Road, Madison, CT, near the Fire Station. Call 203-318-0616 for more information. View works online at www.susanpowellfineart.com
BRIDGEPORT - A North Carolina man was being held in leu of $400,000 bond after police said he raped twin Stratford girls.
Adam Palmer, 34, was arraigned in Superior Court Tuesday after being extradited from North Carolina.
Wearing a T-shirt that bore the words, Fear is for others, Palmer rocked back and forth on his feet as he stood before Judge Tracy Lee Dayton.
The allegations are incredibly serious and very troubling, the judge said, setting the bond and continuing the case to Sept. 18.
Palmer is charged with two counts of first-degree sexual assault and two counts of risk of injury to a child.
Police said Palmer raped the two 5-year-old girls, daughters of his former girlfriend, in their Stratford home in 2013.
Palmer lured the two girls into a bedroom while their mother was out, telling them he wanted to play a game, police said. He then showed them a pornographic video and took turns raping them as the girls screamed in terror, police said.
Police said the girls later told a counselor what Palmer had done to them.
EAST HAMPTON The accident Monday that killed a 51-year-old motorcyclist was the fifth fatal accident in town in 34 days.
Thats way too many, Town Manager Michael Maniscalco told the Town Council when he raised the issue Tuesday evening during its regular meeting. Maniscalco said he has asked Director of Public Works Dean Michelson to put together some signs that will record the number of traffic fatalities that have occurred in town.
It is part of an effort, the manager said, to make people more alert, and, hopefully, more careful.
The grim tally began July 31, when three people, including a 23-year-old man, were killed when his Jeep collided with a Buick carrying two women on a portion of Route 16 near Flatbrook Road.
One of the vehicles caught on fire in what a witness described as a horrific crash.
On Aug. 16, a 27-year-old East Hampton motorcyclist was killed when he plowed into the rear of a Portland police cruiser in Cobalt.
And on Monday, another motorcyclist was killed when he struck a car pulling out in front of him at the intersection of Laurel Ridge and East Main Street.
Police Chief Dennis Woessner told the council his department is doing more targeted enforcement in an effort to reduce speeding and other traffic violations. Woessner also called upon residents take a common-sense approach to driving: Obey the laws, dont speed, and dont drink and drive.
Wednesday morning, Woessner expanded on those comments. He said he is frustrated because the deaths were not the result of accidents. They were crashes. If a tree falls on you, thats an accident.
A crash is a collision, and, as such, They are preventable if people would just abide by the laws.
Without being more specific because police are still completing the individual accident reports, Woessner said the various crashes have involved speed, alcohol and/or drug use or some combination of all of the above.
Referencing one driver who was recently stopped by police on Route 16 going 77 miles per hour, Woessner asked, How do we get the message out to slow down?
Excessive speeding is not occurring at one particular time frame, such as during the morning commute. Its kind of all over.
And, he acknowledged, Were not unique. Its happening in every community.
While any death is disturbing, Woessner said he was particularly upset at the death of the 23-year-old in the fiery collision. That victim had barely begun his life, the chief said.
Woessner is especially concerned now that schools have reopened. The weather is still good, and he worries about young people being out with their friends and speeding.
He has reason for that concern.
Woessner came to East Hampton from Glastonbury Tuesday evening.
We had a three-fatality crash in which three young men in a BMW lost control of their car and crashed into another vehicle, killing that driver as well.
The string of fatal crashes has placed added stress on East Hampton police officers, beyond just the strain of dealing with often brutal deaths, he said.
In response to a question from the council Tuesday, Woessner said he had to call in additional officers for every one of the fatal crashes.
They were needed to do background investigations into what the victims were doing in the last 24 to 48 hours, to close off roads so state police could map the accident scene, and the always difficult process of notifying the next of kin about a victims death, he explained.
Wednesday afternoon, Maniscalco said he has asked Michaelson to make up signs with the number that can be changed, and which will read, This year to date, East Hampton has experienced five fatal accidents. Please drive safely.
He intends to put up signs announcing the tally of fatal crashes up at the entrances to town at both Cobalt and Marlborough, with another on Route 16.
His intention is to try and get people to pay attention to what they are doing.
That was a big part of why I brought it top to the council last night, he said, adding he delivered the same message to the East Hampton/Portland Division of the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce meeting Wednesday morning.
Maniscalco said he will bring that same message to every function I can. We need to pay attention to this.
Reporter Jeff Mill covers East Hampton, Cromwell and Portland for the Middletown Press. Contact him at jeff.mill@hearstmediact.com.
A New Haven man who allegedly sent white powder to federal and state offices, and community organizations, in addition to threatening communications, was arrested Wednesday by New Britain police and the U.S. Marshals Service Violent Fugitive Task Force, according to a release.
Gary Joseph Gravelle, 51, who is formerly of Thomaston and Morris, is charged with a federal supervised released violation, the release said.
Gravelle was arrested and appeared Wednesday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert M. Spector in New Haven and was ordered detained, the release said.
According to statements made in court, Gravelle is under investigation for sending multiple threatening communications and for mailing multiple letters containing white powder to several federal and state offices, and community organizations, this month, the release said.
New Haven police said in a release Thursday that the department, including members of the bomb squad and haz mat specialized firefighters responded to several hoax bomb threats Wednesday and are investigating two white powder calls at office buildings downtown.
However, the release noted, As this may be connected to similar investigations in other municipalities in the state, we are heeding the directive from our partners in law enforcement, by not commenting further at this time on the arrest of Gary Joseph Gravelle... or inquiries into any likely related investigation(s) that are case-specific. This is a multi-jurisdictional investigation being aided by law enforcement from several agencies.
The NHPD will report to the public, any tangible threat or hazard, should one be determined. At this time, we urge anyone receiving any letter, parcel, package or delivered item from Gary Joseph Gravelle to leave it alone and untampered with and to call police.
In July 2013, Gravelle was sentenced in federal court to 70 months in prison and three years of supervised release, for mailing numerous threatening letters, the release said. He was released in Nov. 2015 and allegedly failed to comply with certain conditions of his supervised release, including failing to notify the U.S. Probation Office of a change of residence, and failing to comply with a mental health treatment requirement, the release said.
In 2013, officials said Gravelle, also known as Roland Prejean sent more than 50 threatening letters in early September 2010, including one with an anthrax scare and another saying he had planted a hidden bomb on a remote timer inside the Thomaston Post Office.
The federal release from Gravelles 2013 sentencing said: According to court documents and statements made in court, in early September 2010, Prejean mailed a threatening letter to the Thomaston Post Office claiming that he had planted a hidden bomb on a remote timer in the Post Office. The letter resulted in the evacuation of the Thomaston Post Office as well as the Thomaston Town Hall and a Thomaston Public School, which were in the immediate vicinity of the Post Office. Bomb technicians from the Connecticut State Police Emergency Services Unit searched the post office for explosive or incendiary devices with negative results.
WESTBROOK State police are searching for a man they say robbed at least four gas stations at knifepoint in three towns over a two-week period in the Middletown area.
Officers from Troop F in Westbrook, with the assistance of Middletown police, are investigating armed robberies that took place in the early morning hours between Aug. 21 and Sept. 5, according to a press release.
The secretary of defense is the latest in a series of officials to issue a broad denial of accounts in an explosive new book on the Trump presidency by legendary journalist Bob Woodward.
The book, "Fear," is set for release later this month, but excerpts obtained by major media outlets today include shocking accounts of staffers filching papers from President Donald Trump's desk out of fear he'd sign them, Trump's lawyers warning the president he'd end up in an orange jumpsuit if he testified in court, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis comparing Trump to a 'fifth- or sixth-grader.'
On Tuesday evening, hours after the initial reports came to light, the Pentagon issued a three-paragraph statement on Mattis' behalf denying the 'contemptuous words' attributed to him in Fear.
"While I generally enjoy reading fiction, this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility," Mattis said in the statement. " ... In serving in this administration, the idea that I would show contempt for the elected Commander-in-Chief, President Trump, or tolerate disrespect to the office of the President from within our Department of Defense, is a product of someone's rich imagination."
Mattis did appear, however, to acknowledge he'd pushed back on Trump's ideas in high-level discussions.
Woodward's book reportedly contains a back-and-forth exchange in which Trump asks why the U.S. was spending any resources on the Korean peninsula, including missile-launch detection assets.
"We're doing this in order to prevent World War III," Mattis reportedly responds in the book.
In his statement Tuesday evening, Mattis said he embraced debate and the "open competition of ideas."
"While responsible policy making in the real world is inherently messy, it is also essential that we challenge every assumption to find the best option," he said. " ... In just over a year, these robust discussions and deliberations have yielded significant results, including the near annihilation of the ISIS caliphate, unprecedented burden sharing by our NATO allies, the repatriation of U.S. service member remains from North Korea, and the improved readiness of our armed forces. Our defense policies have also enjoyed overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress."
Mattis' statement follows a pair of denials from the White House regarding Woodward's book.
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps four-star general like Mattis, quoted in released book excerpts calling Trump an "idiot" and saying his White House position was "the worst job I've ever had."
Kelly said in a statement that he had never called Trump an idiot and enjoyed an "incredibly candid and strong" relationship with the president.
"He always knows where I stand, and he and I both know this story is total BS," Kelly said in the statement, using an abbreviation for a profane term. "I'm committed to the President, his agenda, and our country. This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administration's many successes."
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders also published a blanket denial, saying the book was full of "fabricated stories."
Woodward, who is most famous for reporting on the Watergate Scandal in the Nixon White House for the Washington Post, has reported on eight U.S. presidents, including Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama.
The 448-page new book reportedly relies on hundreds of hours of taped interviews, on the record and on background, but does not feature an interview with Trump himself. In a taped phone call published by the Washington Post Tuesday, Woodward tells Trump he made every effort to get an interview with the president. Trump maintains he never received the request.
Mattis, who became defense secretary in January 2017 and was the first member of the newly inaugurated Trump's Cabinet, has avoided any public rifts with the president, despite several Trump policy moves, including a ban on transgender service members and the establishment of a Space Force as a separate military branch that appeared to catch the Pentagon off-guard.
"Secretaries of defense don't always get to choose the president they work for," Mattis allegedly told friends on one occasion, according to Woodward's new account.
-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
The soldier killed in an insider attack in Afghanistan Monday has been identified by the Pentagon as Command Sgt. Maj. Timothy Bolyard, a combat veteran of 13 deployments and the highest-ranking, non-commissioned officer in a special unit formed to work closely with the Afghan security forces.
Bolyard, 42, of Thornton, West Virginia, was serving with the 1st Squadron, 38th Cavalry Regiment, which was part of the 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB) out of Fort Benning, Georgia.
The concept for the SFAB grew out of the new conditions-based strategy approved by President Donald Trump in August 2017.
Under the plan, the SFAB was to take over much of the train, advise and assist mission in close coordination on the front lines with the Afghan National Defense Security Forces.
The purpose was to free up Brigade Combat Teams and Special Forces for the fight against the Taliban and the ISIS offshoot known as Islamic State-Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K.
In August, Reuters quoted Bolyard as saying that the main problem the SFAB was having in the mission was in logistics and re-supply for the Afghan troops.
"Every kandak (battalion) we go to, regardless of where they're located, they all have major sustainment issues," Bolyard said.
Newsweek reported that Bolyard sustained fatal wounds and a second U.S. soldier was wounded when a member of the Afghan National Police opened fire on them in a "green on blue" insider attack, in which a member of the Afghan security forces, on an infiltrator posing as one, attacks coalition personnel.
The wounded U.S. soldier was reported in stable condition after the incident, which occurred in eastern Logar province south of Kabul at a forward operating base, Stars and Stripes reported.
A second U.S. service member died in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday in what officials called a non-combat incident, according to the NATO Resolute Support Mission.
A total of seven U.S. service members have died in Afghanistan this year, two of them from insider attacks.
Army Cpl. Joseph Maciel, 20, of South Gate, California, was killed and two other U.S. service members were wounded in an apparent insider attack in the Tarin Kowt district of Afghanistan's southcentral Uruzgan province in July.
Maciel was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Bolyard joined the Army in 1994 and in his career was the recipient of six awards of the Bronze Star, two of them with combat "V" device.
The Army said his other awards and decorations included four Meritorious Service Medals, six Army Commendation Medals, nine Army Achievement Medals, the Iraq Campaign Medal with four Campaign Stars, the Kosovo Campaign Medal with Bronze Service Star and the Combat Action Badge.
The deaths of Bolyard and the second as yet unidentified service member occurred in quick succession following the change of command ceremony in Kabul Sunday in which Army Gen. Scott Miller, a career Special Operations officer, took charge of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan and the NATO Resolute Support mission from Army Gen. John Nicholson, who held the post for 30 months.
In a taunting Twitter message, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban's spokesman, said that "Gen. Miller shall be witness to a series of failures and disappointments, just like Gen. Nicholson."
-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.
Still undetermined is whether the impact caused the October leak, or if the line was hit by something else at a later date.
The commander of the U.S. Army's Maneuver Center of Excellence said Wednesday that basic training programs for combat arms specialties such as armor and engineers will soon start a pilot program similar to the one that is extending Infantry one station unit training to 22 weeks.
About 400 recruits are now in their seventh week of the pilot at Fort Benning, Georgia that is adding eight weeks to the traditional 14-week infantry OSUT.
Once that pilot program is complete, Army officials will begin extending other combat arms OSUT programs, Maj. Gen. Gary Brito, the commander of MCOE at Benning, told an audience at the Association of the United States Army's Sept. 5 Aviation Hot Topic event.
"It started with infantry; now we will begin a pilot with armor one station unit training at the beginning of next calendar year," Brito said. "We also have some guidance from [Training and Doctrine Command] to do the same thing with the engineers at Fort Leonard Wood [Missouri].
"This could expand, and it most likely will, to some of the other combat MOSs over the next couple of years, to transform out to 22 weeks for all."
Recruits in infantry OSUT traditionally go through nine weeks of Basic Combat Training and about four-and-a-half weeks of infantry advanced individual training. The pilot adds eight weeks of training time to hone marksmanship, land navigation and other key combat skills.
"The guidance to the team is ... you have 22 weeks now to build and do the best land navigation you can do; you have 22 weeks now to have the best marksmanship training that you can do," Brito said.
The pilot follows an Army-wide redesign of Basic Combat Training earlier this year that focuses on emphasizing more discipline in young soldiers after leaders from around the Army complained that new soldiers were displaying a lack of obedience and poor work ethic.
"I am very proud of the 200 that started, per company, and no one has dropped out; we have no injuries, and we have no one that has wanted to quit," Brito said, adding that the pilot is scheduled to end on December 7.
"That is a long time in training."
The Army plans to track the two companies once they are out in the force to assess the differences the extended training has made on their performance, Brito said.
But before the 22-week infantry OSUT can become a permanent program, Benning will have to build up its training base with more instructors, Brito said. "This will demand a very big growth in drill sergeants ... so that we can continue the 22 weeks."
The goal is for a private to show up to a unit and "he or she is combat ready, physically fit, mentally fit to deploy right away," Brito said.
"I really do think this is going to help combat readiness and deployability for the Army."
-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.
In the wake of the second deadly insider attack in Afghanistan this year, experts say that these incidents are an unfortunate reality of the train, advise and assist mission: that U.S. troops cannot avoid living among killers in disguise.
The latest suspected green-on-blue attack occurred Monday. Killed in the attack was Command Sgt. Major Timothy Bolyard, the top enlisted soldier for the Armys new 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade, a unit designed for Afghan advisory missions. One other service member, who was not identified, was wounded. Afghan security personnel or insurgents wearing Afghan uniforms are suspected in the attack.
In July, an insider attack killed U.S. Army Cpl. Joseph Maciel of South Gate, California and wounded two other U.S. service members, who were operating in the Tarin Kowt district of Afghanistan's southcentral Uruzgan province.
Since 2007, insider attacks have killed 157 coalition personnel, according to the Modern War Institute at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The institute did not break down the numbers to show how many of the victims were U.S. personnel.
"It's going to happen," Jason Dempsey, an adjunct fellow for the Center for New American Security, told Military.com. "You are talking about a security force of about 300,000-plus. You've got changing loyalties, you've got desertion rates up to 25 percent ... dudes are flowing out of the Afghan military nonstop.
"There is absolutely no way to stop it."
Anthony Cordesman, the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he is surprised that there have been so few of these attacks.
"It's one thing to look back and say, 'there were some of these incidents when you had 100,000 Americans in the field, but right now they are almost the inevitable option for the Taliban,'" Cordesman said.
"We have to understand -- this is a war; it is a war being fought on an ideological level and ethnic and sectarian level. ... I don't want to say that this means you can disregard these sort of attacks, but I think given the numbers it's not surprising that they are taking place. It is surprising that [the numbers] are so low."
The U.S. presence in Afghanistan is now mainly dedicated to the train, advise and assist missions working with Afghan forces that in many cases have never worked with U.S. personnel before, experts maintain.
"As an advisor, your primary means of force protection is your direct Afghan counterpart and it's your direct Afghan counterpart who has the pulse on his organization," Dempsey said.
Dempsey, an Army infantry officer who deployed twice to Afghanistan, said he investigated a green-on-blue incident in 2012 that left two U.S. contractors dead.
"A U.S. unit just showed up and hung out at a checkpoint with a bunch of Afghans, and there was a hothead in the group of the Afghans who the Afghans knew didn't like Americans," Dempsey said. "He was fighting the Taliban, but he didn't like the Americans."
An argument ensued and a "point-blank firefight broke out," Dempsey said.
The investigation revealed that the Afghans said "if anybody would have told us that the Americans were going to show up, that dude wouldn't have been there," Dempsey said.
The U.S. military is investigating the Sept. 3 attack, as it does with all attacks of this nature.
"Almost inevitably, when there is an incident like that, people on both sides almost have to overreact," Cordesman said. "First, you have to send a message that there is discipline and retribution; second, you have to reassure people and third essentially take time to investigate because what can be just a one case could become far more dangerous if there is any kind of cell."
Trust is something that "you are always building and rebuilding," Cordesman added.
The Sept. 3 insider attack occurred a day after Army Gen. Scott Miller assumed command of Operation Resolute Support. The change of command comes at a time when Taliban forces have increased their attacks on high-profile targets and rejected the recent offer for a ceasefire from Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
Currently, there are about 15,000 U.S. and 6,400 NATO troops serving in Afghanistan.
"You have a very narrow, small part of American society taking all these risks for us," Cordesman said. "We can't eliminate those risks and be effective."
-- Military.com's Richard Sisk contributed to this report.
-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.
The Army has identified a staff sergeant killed Tuesday in a non-combat incident in Afghanistan.
Staff Sgt. Diobanjo Sanagustin, 32, died in the unspecified incident at Bagram Airfield, a massive military aviation hub north of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul.
The incident is under investigation, officials said.
Sanagustin, originally from National City, California, was an infantryman assigned to 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, out of Fort Carson, Colorado.
Fort Carson officials said Sanagustin enlisted in May 2007 and arrived at his current post in January of this year. He deployed to Afghanistan in May; he had previously deployed once each to Kuwait and Iraq.
His awards include two Army Commendation Medals and seven Army Achievement Medals, officials said.
"Staff Sgt. Diobanjo Sanagustin served as a Squad Leader in Bravo Company, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment during Operation Freedom's Sentinel," Lt. Col. David Uthlaut, commander of 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, said in a statement. "He made a lasting impact on the Manchu formation and we will forever cherish his memory. Our deepest condolences are with the Sanagustin family."
Sanagustin's death came a day after another soldier, Command Sgt. Maj. Timothy Bolyard, was killed in an apparent insider attack in Afghanistan in eastern Logar province, to the south of Kabul. Bolyard was the senior enlisted soldier in 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade out of Fort Benning, Georgia, a new element created by the Army to advise Afghan troops in their fight against the Taliban.
The deaths come the same week Army Gen. Scott Miller took over as the 17th commander of all U.S. operations in Afghanistan, succeeding Gen. John Nicholson to the post.
To date this year in Afghanistan, seven U.S. troops have died in hostile or combat circumstances, according to Pentagon records. Sanagustin is the first service member to die under non-hostile circumstances in Afghanistan this year.
-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
The head of the Army aviation today said that the service is about six years away from reversing its shortage of pilots for the AH-64 Apache and other rotary-wing aircraft.
"We are short pilots ... we are under our authorization for aviators, most predominantly seen in the AH-64 community," Maj. Gen. William Gayler, commanding general of the Army's Aviation Center of Excellence and Fort Rucker, Alabama, told an audience at the Association of the United States Army's Sept. 5 Aviation Hot Topic event.
"We under-accessed, based on financial limitations, to bring in the number of aviators that we were required to meet an operational requirement from Forces Command."
Between 2008 and 2016, the Army fell short in accessions of aviators, creating a shortage of 731 slots, Gayler told Military.com.
Since then, the service has reduced the shortage to about 400 through increased accessions of new aviators and paying retention bonuses of up to $35,000 each to seasoned pilots, Gayler said, adding that he didn't have an exact number of the number of Apache pilots the Army is short.
"You can't fill the void with just accessions because, then six to eight years later, you will have a relatively inexperienced force," Gayler said.
In the next 18 months, 33 percent of the active-component warrant officer aviation population will be retirement-eligible at a time when the airline industry has a huge pilot shortage as well, he said.
"They are highly recruiting all services ... and we have lost some Army rotary-wing aviators to them," Gayler said.
As an incentive, the Army has given out about 341 retention bonuses to pilots since late 2015 that were worth up to $35,000 each, Gayler said. He added that the biggest bonuses went to Apache pilots, but would not say how many received them.
"We did it in two different year groups; we did mid-grade and we did seniors with 19 to 22 years in service," Gayler said. "And some people questioned, 'hey why would we give a 20-year Army aviator a three-year bonus,' and my answer is, 'because if they all retire, we have no experience in our fleet.'
"We retained quite a few mid- and senior-grade [aviators] that will enable us to get out of this experience gap, but we still have to bring in more aviators."
The plan now is to access 1,300 aviators a year, "which over the next five to six years will completely fill us up," Gayler said. "It took us a decade to get into this position; we can't get out of it in a year or by next Thursday, so we've got some work ahead of us."
-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.
The seizure of an illegal weapons shipment late last month netted more than twice the number of smuggled automatic weapons originally estimated, the Navy announced today.
The guided-missile destroyer Jason Dunham boarded a stateless vessel in the Gulf of Aden Aug. 28 and captured the small arms shipment, initially estimated at more than 1,000 rifles. In a Wednesday news release, officials with U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said the final tally totaled 2,521 AK-47s. It's still not clear where the shipment originated or where it was headed, officials said.
"As a part of our counter-trafficking mission, we are actively involved in searching for illegal weapons shipments of all kinds," Vice Adm. Scott Stearney, commander of NAVCENT, U.S. 5th Fleet, and the Combined Maritime Forces, said in a statement. "Ensuring the free flow of commerce for legitimate traffic and countering malign actors at sea continue to be paramount to the U.S. Navy and its regional partners and allies."
The major weapons seizure is the fifth since 2015 by U.S. and Combined Maritime Forces in the waters around the Middle East.
According to Navy officials, the Royal Australian Navy made two consecutive seizures in 2015 and 2016, intercepting two dhows. The first, in September 27, netted weapons including anti-tank guided munitions, tripods, launch tubes and launcher assemblies. The second, in February 2016, resulted in the confiscation of nearly 2,000 AK-47s as well as rocket-propelled grenade launchers, PKM machine guns and 60mm mortar tubes.
In a third seizure in March 2016, a French destroyer confiscated some 2,000 AK-47s, as well as Dragunov sniper rifles, anti-tank missiles and machine guns.
The most recent previous seizure was conducted by Navy coastal patrol ship Sirocco in March 2016, which boarded a dhow and took its 1,500 AK-47s as well as rocket-propelled grenade launchers and .50-caliber machine guns.
Navy officials say it's believed the previous seized shipments came from Iran and were intended for the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The Jason Dunham departed its Norfolk, Virginia homeport in early June for a scheduled deployment to the waters around the Middle East and Europe. On its deployment, it has previously conducted joint training operations with Egyptian forces and executed a variety of small-boat operations.
-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
Legendary reporter Bob Woodward writes notoriously long books about presidents, filled with juicy dirt obtained from White House staffers who keep their anonymity but enthusiastically sell out their co-workers. The tradition goes all the way back to Nixon (Woodward made his name covering the Watergate scandal) and covers every single president since.
Now it's President Trump's turn and "Fear" is due in stores on September 11. Copies have leaked to the press and the media is enthusiastically pulling out the most outrageous quotes. The title comes from the president himself, taken from an interview Woodward had with Trump in 2016: "Real power is, I dont even want to use the word, 'Fear.'"
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly are the two generals who have stayed in power during the course of the Trump presidency. Woodward has collected some shockingly severe quotes that he attributes to the two men in the new book.
Mattis: "Fifth- or Sixth-Grader"
Woodward writes about a National Security Council meeting on January 19th, where the staff tried to explain to President Trump why the United States need to have a physical military presence on the Korean peninsula Mattis was particularly exasperated and alarmed, telling close associates that the president acted like and had the understanding of a fifth- or sixth-grader.
Mattis: You Don't Always Get to Choose Your Boss
Jim Mattis told friends that the president tended to go off on tangents during briefings and laughingly added, Secretaries of defense dont always get to choose the president they work for.
Kelly: An Idiot in Crazytown
White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly allegedly called the present "unhinged." Woodward writes that, in a small meeting, Kelly really unloaded on his boss: "Hes an idiot. Its pointless to try to convince him of anything. Hes gone off the rails. Were in Crazytown. I dont even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job Ive ever had. (Note: Kelly still denies that he ever called President Trump an "idiot" but doesn't come out and refute the rest of the quote.)
Mattis: Captured Heroes
At a dinner with SecDef Jim Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford, the president explained that he found Sen. John McCain to be a coward because he'd accepted early release from a North Vietnamese P.O.W. camp. Since McCain's Navy admiral father was Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Command, it would be a propaganda coup for the North Vietnamese if the future Senator left his fellow captives behind. Trump thought his was awful. Mattis spoke up,"No, Mr. President, I think youve got it reversed."
Mattis: Measured Response
President Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical attack on Syrian civilians in April 2017 and President Trump wanted to assassinate the leader in response, "Lets f**king kill him! Lets go in. Lets kill the f**king lot of them." After telling his boss he'd get right on it, Mattis told a senior aide, "Were not going to do any of that. Were going to be much more measured."
Kelly: The Johnny Paycheck Response
White House chief economic advisor Gary Cohn drafted a resignation letter in 2017 after the president said that "both sides" were to blame for the violence and riots in Charlottesville, VA. Trump talked him out of leaving at that time, but John Kelly shared Cohn's anger at the way their boss handled that situation. Kelly fumed, "I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his ass six different times."
Whether you're preparing for your first management role, or you've been managing teams for years, you can always learn something new. A good starting point is to find out how good your management skills are right now, using our interactive quizzes.
Then, have a look at our resources to recruit the right team for your needs, to get the best from people despite complex group dynamics, and to stretch and reward them through delegation.
Finally, well help you to navigate the complexities of performance management and dealing with conflict. Enjoy our articles, videos, infographics, workbooks, and podcasts!
Toyota is recalling about 192,000 newer Prius models in the United States due to a defect within the hybrid power control unit that could increase the risk of a fire.
The company says in a Wednesday morning, Sept. 5 news release that the recall affects 2016-2018 Toyota Prius models in the U.S. The Wall Street Journal reports this stateside recall is part of a massive global recall that includes about 1 million Toyota vehicles.
The global recall includes the Prius and hybrid C-HR crossover SUV, but only the 192,000 aforementioned models are recalled in the U.S as the hybrid C-HR is not sold here.
"The subject vehicles have an engine wire harness which is connected to the hybrid vehicle Power Control Unit," Toyota says in the release.
"A portion of the wire harness could contact the cover at this connection and wear over time, causing an electrical short circuit, which can generate heat. If sufficient heat is generated, there is an increased risk of a vehicle fire."
Once affected owners are notified of the recall later this month, dealers will check the engine wire harness assemble and make any necessary replacements or repairs for free.
WSJ reports the automaker says the defect was caused during the manufacturing process at one of its plants in Japan. While there have not been any injuries connected to the recall, there was a vehicle fire reported in September in Japan.
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.
With plans to launch 20 new electric vehicles globally by 2023, General Motors CEO Mary Barra said the automaker will make "major enhancements" to its battery lab in Warren, Michigan.
Automotive News reports the expansion to GM's Global Technical Center will cost the Detroit-based automaker $28 million. Barra made the comments in a Wednesday morning, Sept. 5 blog post to LinkedIn in which she further details GM's progress on its path to an "all-electric future."
The automaker has said it plans to launch 20 new EVs globally within the next five years, as it works toward its goal of "zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion."
"We're now able to complete nearly all battery testing under one roof, reducing development time and cost," Barra writes in the blog post. "The significant expansion of this lab, already one of the largest in the world, brings the facility to more than 100,000 sq. ft. and includes new heavy and mild battery abuse test areas.
"Over the last decade, this lab, located at our Global Technical Center in Warren, Mich., helped bring the Chevrolet Volt, Spark EV and Bolt EV to life, and now it's paving the way for an all-electric future."
Barra says expansion at the Warren facility will begin this fall, and include the addition of new test chambers and "advanced equipment to accelerate our next-generation battery architecture."
The GM CEO also said in the post that the automaker will start using battery packs from a new LG Electronics facility in Hazel Park for its all-electric Chevrolet Bolt. Automotive News reports the new Michigan-based LG facility will supplement an existing one in Korea for producing the battery packs.
Barra also mentioned that the automaker will deliver a prototype capable of a 180-mile range with less than 10 minutes of charging needed to Delta Electronics as part of a U.S. Department of Energy initiative.
The Detroit-based automaker also confirmed it will introduce two new all-electric vehicles in the next 18 months to add to its some 20 all-electric vehicles due out by 2023. GM also made a point to say it would further support the production of hydrogen fuel cells for commercial or military use in the next three years.
GM's 2017 Chevy Bolt EV starts at around $37,000 -- also eligible for federal tax credit -- and comes with a battery-only range of 238 miles, top speed of 93 mph and 200 horsepower. The 2017 Bolt EV, GM's first all-electric car, was named both the North American and Motor Trend car of the year.
Fire up the smokers, it's time to announce our next search:
This time we're looking for Michigan's Best BBQ Restaurant!
It's been six years since we last hit the Michigan roads searching for lip-smacking ribs, moist and tender brisket, perfectly prepared pulled pork and all those tasty side dishes we all know and love.
We discovered in 2012 that Michigan holds its own when it comes to world-class BBQ.
Now, Amy Sherman and I want to know:
Can anyone top our inaugural winner, West Texas BBQ in Jackson?
Who will emerge as contenders?
Has the Michigan BBQ scene changed much in the last six years?
What makes great BBQ?
What's the most popular wood?
Who makes the best mac and cheese, baked beans, corn bread and all those wonderful side dishes?
Help us get down to business.
NOMINATIONS
Tell us your favorite BBQ joint. We want to find the best overall experience. No chains please. You know the drill. We love to support small, independent business owners.
Beginning today, use the nominations form below to tell us your favorite BBQ restaurant, where it is located and what dishes we have to try.
The deadline for nominations is noon, Sept. 10, 2018.
POLLS & VISITS
Soon after we have your nominations we will post several regional polls to take your votes. The winner in each poll is guaranteed a visit. But Amy and I will add more finalists as we evaluate all of the nominees from our own experiences and our travel schedule. We will also look at your "passionate pleas."
Look for our Top 10 lists and more in early October.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Amy and I are always posting videos, photos and more on our Social Media channels. Here's how to find us:
Amy Sherman on Twitter @amyonthetrail, as well as Facebook and Instagram @amyonthetrail.
John Gonzalez on Twitter @michigangonzo, as well as Facebook and Instagram @MichiganGonzo.
Also, we have an MI Best Facebook Page, which you can check out here.
ANN ARBOR, MI - University of Michigan megadonor and Board of Regents member Ron Weiser and his wife, Eileen, have committed $10 million toward a new diplomacy center to serve as a hub for engagement with the foreign policy community.
The Weiser Diplomacy Center, housed at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, is expected to bring seasoned diplomats and foreign policy experts to campus, the university announced Wednesday, Sept. 5.
The gift will support professors of international diplomacy, as well as shorter-term opportunities for diplomats in residence from around the world. It also will help students apply knowledge in practical settings through workshops, simulations, conferences and internship opportunities in the U.S. and abroad.
The Weisers say they want to prepare students in a quickly shifting foreign policy world with new ideas and engagement with renowned scholars and policy experts.
"Under the leadership of Dean Michael Barr, the Ford School is well positioned to become the best public policy school in the country," Weiser, former ambassador, founder of McKinley Inc., said in a news release. "I am pleased to provide resources to help in this important field. Diplomacy is not just relationships between countries, it's about relationships between people ... it can change the direction of a country, affecting tens of millions of people."
The Weisers, both UM alums, have committed more than $89 million to the university to date.
In 2014, the couple made a $50 million donation that would impact six different parts of the university, and the donation also earned them naming rights to the Dennison Building, which was later renamed Weiser Hall.
ANN ARBOR, MI - The Ann Arbor City Council has decided not to place additional limits on medical marijuana dispensaries in the city.
That goes against the wishes of local pediatricians and others who have voiced concerns about exposing children to marijuana, though the decision is being welcomed by others who say concerns about dispensaries are irrational.
The council voted 6-3 Tuesday night, Sept. 4, to reject ordinance changes that would have required any new marijuana dispensaries approved after Oct. 31 to be at least 1,000 feet apart from other dispensaries. That would have been a change from the city's current 600-foot rule, which a majority of council members think provides enough buffer space to avoid clusters of dispensaries.
The ordinance changes voted down Tuesday night also would have required marijuana businesses to be at least 1,000 feet from child care centers or group child care homes.
That would have been an expansion of the existing requirement that they must be at least 1,000 feet from schools.
A majority of council members didn't think the added restrictions were necessary or would have addressed the concerns raised.
Council Member Jane Lumm, an independent from the 2nd Ward, joined local medical professionals and others in unsuccessfully lobbying for the stricter limits, calling it a response to community concerns over the many applications the city has received from marijuana dispensaries looking to operate in the city.
Local doctors and others have expressed concerns about normalizing marijuana use in society, arguing it increases the risk of use among adolescents and can be harmful to their health and development.
Some community members who spoke out Tuesday night also expressed concerns that children could more easily come into contact with marijuana and ingest it if dispensaries are close to daycare centers and youth centers, and some expressed concerns about people driving cars while high on marijuana.
The only two council members who joined Lumm in support of the added restrictions were Sumi Kailasapathy, D-1st Ward, and Jack Eaton, D-4th Ward. Council Members Graydon Krapohl, D-4th Ward, and Kirk Westphal, D-2nd Ward, were absent.
Chuck Ream, a longtime local marijuana activist, thanked council members for the decision they made, arguing that voting to place further restrictions on dispensaries would have signaled to the community that the City Council thinks there's something seriously wrong with cannabis. He said that's not what city voters believe and he called the proposed ordinance changes foolish.
Ream suggested at a previous City Council meeting that those with fears about marijuana in Ann Arbor should move to Saline.
Anastasia Hryhorczuk, a University of Michigan doctor and assistant professor with a focus on pediatric radiology, responded Tuesday night by saying she's not leaving Ann Arbor.
"I'm here in Ann Arbor and Ann Arbor is for everyone," she said, joining other medical professionals in speaking out.
"Ann Arbor is for people who are using medical marijuana, Ann Arbor is for families and children, and Ann Arbor can be for students and the entire community," Hryhorczuk said.
"This is a commonsense way of diminishing the exposure that our youngest children have to marijuana," she said of adding more restrictions on where dispensaries can be located. "We know that the research says that normalizing marijuana leads to kids who when they grow up are more likely to use marijuana at younger ages, more likely to endorse statements like 'marijuana makes me a safe driver,' and not be willing to abstain from it before those types of activities."
Ann Arbor resident Ryan Dybdahl told council members he's been a psychotherapist for more than 40 years and has experience working with substance abuse programs and dealing with marijuana use among both adolescents and adults.
"I think it would be a real mistake to treat marijuana in any way that would normalize it more than it already has been," he said. "It's very useful in my experience and in the experience of my patients to be available for when you have a severe condition that requires it, but the normalization of it has created a great deal of problems among youth that I've treated and among adults that I've treated."
Ken Pituch, a pediatrician at UM's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital whose speciality is hospice and palliative medicine for children, said he's a proponent of medical marijuana, but he also supports more restrictions for dispensaries in Ann Arbor.
"I think I've probably signed more applications for medical marijuana use for children than any other physician in the Children's Hospital," he said. "All of these have been for children with either serious seizure disorders for whom other therapy has not worked, for kids with advanced cancer who use medical marijuana for their pain or severe nausea related to their chemo therapy, but all of these are children with severe life-limiting conditions.
"None of the families for whom I have signed the authorization to obtain medical marijuana have found trouble finding a dispensary in Michigan to get the medical marijuana that they use for their children."
The city's Planning Commission has approved 21 marijuana dispensaries so far this year:
Arborside, 1818 Packard St.
Arbors Wellness, 321 E. Liberty St.
Bloom City Club, 423 Miller Ave.
District Arbor 1, 3005 Packard Road
Exclusive PR Center, 3820 Varsity Drive
Green Planet, 700 Tappan St.
Greenstone Society, 338 S. Ashley St.
Huron View, 3152 Packard Road
Liberty Gallery Inc., 702 S. Main St.
Liv Cafe N Wellness, 603 E. William St.
Medicine Man of Ann Arbor Inc., 2793 Plymouth Road
Northside Narnia, 811 N. Main St.
Om of Medicine, 111 S. Main St.
Parkhurst Services, 3294 Winewood Ave.
People's Choice Alternative Medicine, 2247 W. Liberty St.
Pure Roots LLC, 3430 Washtenaw Ave.
Scientific Method Holdings II Inc., 1115 Broadway St.
Stadium Ventures Inc., 2460 W. Stadium Blvd.
The Rabbit Club, 450 S. Main St.
TC MI Ann Arbor 2 LLC (TreeCity), 1958 S. Industrial Highway.
Treecity Health Collective, 2730 Jackson Ave.
Some of those were existing dispensaries going through the approval process to become official under new regulations, while some are brand-new ones. Several others are still under consideration.
The City Council has capped the number of marijuana dispensaries allowed in the city at 28 for now to see how things go.
Council Member Anne Bannister, a cannabis advocate who spoke at the Hash Bash marijuana rally in Ann Arbor this year, has suggested marijuana can help address the opioid addiction crisis.
She argues there shouldn't be more restrictions for marijuana dispensaries than there are for pharmacies.
Brett Lenart, the city's planning department manager, confirmed in response to Bannister's questioning Tuesday night that the city has no separation requirements for pharmacies, bars, liquor stores or tobacco stores, so the restrictions for marijuana dispensaries are unique.
Eaton, who has spoken at the last two Hash Bash rallies in Ann Arbor and favors marijuana legalization, previously opposed the idea of a 1,000-foot spacing requirement for dispensaries.
Explaining his support for the ordinance changes Tuesday night, he said he didn't think they would have much real effect since the city already capped the number of dispensaries at 28, and he said it's likely those 28 will be "grandfathered in" under current rules.
If Michigan voters approve a ballot proposal in November to legalize recreational marijuana, Eaton said, the City Council will have to revisit the issue anyway. He said he's fine with limiting the number of dispensaries for now to see how things go and then revisiting the issue in the next year if recreational marijuana becomes legal.
Speaking in defense of the dispensaries in the city, Eaton argued they're very secure and he doesn't think anyone is going to leave expensive cannabis products lying around for children to find.
Council Member Chuck Warpehoski, D-5th Ward, said he doesn't see how increasing spacing requirements for dispensaries and forcing them to be 1,000 feet away from daycares would improve safety.
He said he was worried the changes proposed would have been overly restrictive for the industry.
Council Member Julie Grand, D-3rd Ward, said she didn't find the arguments from the medical community to be compelling. Noting she has two degrees in public health, she called the science fuzzy.
Agreeing with her colleagues that dispensaries in Ann Arbor are very secure, Grand said she doesn't think having a dispensary nearby increases the chances of a child ingesting marijuana.
Council Member Chip Smith, D-5th Ward, said he has toured a number of dispensaries and most are at least as secure as pharmacies, and he said there don't seem to be any qualms about those. He said he hasn't received any complaints about a single dispensary in the city and he's confident in the regulations the city has in place right now.
Some of the community members who lobbied for the stricter limits argued if there's already a 1,000-foot buffer requirement for schools, then it makes logical sense to extend that to daycare centers to provide the same protections for younger children.
Mayor Christopher Taylor said there are distinctions to be made between schools and other facilities, one being that younger children coming and going from places such as daycare centers are likely to be accompanied by an adult.
DEXTER, MI - Jolly Pumpkin's Dexter Taphouse is the only place in Michigan, and one of 72 breweries worldwide, serving up a special Belgium sour beer for Zwanze Day this month.
In its 10th year, Zwanze Day was started by Belgium brewery Cantillon to celebrate the release of a unique sour beer at select breweries around the world.
This year's Zwanze Day is Sept. 29, and it is the third time Jolly Pumpkin has been selected as the only Michigan brewery to share the Zwanze beer.
"(Cantillon) just wanted to create a festival that brought lambic lovers together all over the world," said Keifer Fillinger, marketing and events coordinator for Northern United Brewing Company, which owns Jolly Pumpkin.
Lambic beers are brewed with wild yeasts native to a valley in Brussels, which gives the beer a unique flavor with a sour aftertaste.
Jolly Pumpkin is known for its sour beers, which Fillinger said made the brewery - which has seven locations - a natural fit for the sour beer celebration.
This year's Zwanze beer is a blend of three lambics that have been aged in sangiovese, amarone and chianti wine barrels, Fillinger said.
"This one is all about paying homage to the Italians that kept lambics alive," he said.
Tickets for Jolly Pumpkin's Zwanze Day festival are $100, and include a commemorative sampling glass and 20 drink tokens. Five hundred tickets are available, and about half of them are already sold, Fillinger said.
The festival runs from 2:12 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29, in Jolly Pumpkin's Dexter Taphouse back lot, 2319 Bishop Circle East in Dexter. The Zwanze toast takes place at 3 p.m.
Proceeds from the festival are going to Peace Neighborhood Center, an Ann Arbor nonprofit that provides youth programs and other resources for low-income families. Jolly Pumpkin raised about $1,300 at last year's Zwanze Day to benefit another nonprofit, Fillinger said.
More than 50 breweries will contribute beer or set up booths at Jolly Pumpkin's Zwanze Day festival. Many of the invited breweries are from out-of-state, and their beers are not always readily available in Michigan, Fillinger said.
ANN ARBOR, MI - As the battle over Ann Arbor's Library Lot continues, the next question to be decided in court is whether a deal to sell the property to a Chicago developer was legally executed.
Following a nearly hour-long hearing in Washtenaw County Circuit Court on Wednesday, Sept. 5, Judge David Swartz told both sides in a pending lawsuit that he'd take their arguments under advisement and issue a written opinion. He gave no indication on timing or which way he's leaning on the matter.
Anne Bannister and Sumi Kailasapathy, two members of a minority faction on the Ann Arbor City Council, are suing the city, Mayor Christopher Taylor and City Clerk Jackie Beaudry, alleging the city illegally executed a $10 million contract to sell the development rights to the city-owned property known as the Library Lot.
The sale hasn't happened yet and Bannister and Kailasapathy are hoping to stop it. They're seeking to void the May 31 purchase agreement, arguing the final document should have come back to council for approval after more than a year of legal negotiations.
The City Council voted 8-3 in April 2017 to approve a resolution authorizing the sale of development rights for the Library Lot -- the surface parking lot above the city's Library Lane underground parking garage along Fifth Avenue -- to developer Core Spaces.
The resolution authorized the mayor, city clerk and city administrator to execute the necessary documentation "after approval as to form and substance by the city attorney" to complete the sale.
Core Spaces wants to build a 17-story, mixed-use high-rise development with a 12,000-square-foot plaza on the lot, which sits just north of Ann Arbor's downtown library.
Bannister and Kailasapathy were represented in court on Wednesday by attorneys Eric Lipson and Bruce Laidlaw, a former city attorney.
City Attorney Stephen Postema and Senior Assistant City Attorney Matt Rechtien made arguments on behalf of the city.
The city attorney's office maintains the May 31 purchase agreement was legally executed in keeping with the April 2017 council resolution.
Postema said the city has been approving contracts this way since 1956, including some of the biggest land deals in the city such as the acquisition of acreage along the Huron River for Gallup Park.
Rechtien argued Bannister and Kailasapathy lack legal standing to bring a lawsuit over the purchase agreement, saying they have no interest in the contract and will suffer no injury from it.
He also said they knew the attorney's office was negotiating the contract and it wasn't expected to go back to council for additional approval. He said they never took action to try to put a stop to it or put it to another vote before the contract was finalized.
"Nobody was deprived of anything here," Rechtien said in court on Wednesday, arguing Kailasapathy got to vote on the contract last year.
Bannister was elected to council last November, seven months after the council voted 8-3 in favor of selling the Library Lot. The sale required eight votes and it likely wouldn't have eight votes now due to the change in the makeup of council.
Community members hoping to stop the Core Spaces high-rise collected thousands of signatures to place a question on the November ballot, asking city voters whether the lot should be turned into a downtown central park and civic center commons.
Laidlaw argued in court on Wednesday that there are a couple of significant differences between the April 2017 council resolution and the final negotiated contract document, including who's identified as the purchaser and workforce housing provisions.
Laidlaw noted last year's resolution directed selling the lot to Core Spaces, while the contract document identifies the purchaser as Core Spaces Ann Arbor Fifth LLC, a newly formed entity represented by David Nelson, vice president of Convexity Management LLC, and Marc Lifshin, manager of Core Campus Manager LLC.
Laidlaw argued it was fiscally irresponsible for the city attorney's office to allow Core Spaces to create a "shell corporation" for the contract, saying it leaves the developer with no responsibility if the deal falls apart. He also argued the city attorney's office failed to tell council members anything about the company.
Laidlaw said multiple council members, including Kailasapathy, asked the city attorney's office if they could see the contract before it was signed and they weren't allowed.
He argued council members have a responsibility to approve contracts under the city charter and they were denied that.
He also argued tens of thousands of dollars spent on outside legal counsel to negotiate the contract was a waste of taxpayer money.
The council resolution approving the Library Lot sale in April 2017 included a provision for an additional nine units of workforce housing in the Core Spaces development at 120 percent of fair market rent for household incomes ranging from 50 percent to 80 percent of the area median income, if the city paid $1.475 million. The negotiated contract states those units would be set at 150 percent of fair market rent, which is what Core Spaces previously offered in March 2017.
Lipson said the council was robbed of its right to vote on the final contract and constituents were robbed of representation.
Several local residents attended Wednesday's hearing, including former City Council members Marcia Higgins and Joan Lowenstein, incoming 2nd Ward council member Kathy Griswold, and Elizabeth Nelson, who ousted 4th Ward council member Graydon Krapohl in the August primary and now faces opposition in November.
Will Hathaway, a member of a citizens group behind the November ballot proposal for a park on the Library Lot, also was in attendance.
Hathaway's group recently won its separate case against the city over the ballot wording.
FLINT, MI - The parents who killed their 3-year-old daughter and then buried her body near railroad tracks in Flint were sentenced Wednesday in Genesee Circuit Court.
Erika Shantae Finley, 29, will spend the next 15 to 40 years in prison for the 2015 murder of her daughter, Kimora Lee Simon.
The girl's father, Khairy J. Simon, 27, was sentenced to 12 to 40 years for his role in the killing.
"Ms. Finley -- you have a stain on your soul," said Genesee Circuit Judge Geoffrey L. Neithercut. "The heinous act that you did causes every mother in this community to wonder why. Every parent in this community is appalled."
Finley previously 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.
She also was sentenced Wednesday, Sept. 5, to five to 10 years in prison on a second-degree child abuse charge. It will run concurrent to the murder sentence.
Finley apologized in a letter read by her attorney, Major White.
"I can't tell you how much I miss Kimora," she said in the letter. "I can't tell you how sorry I am. I realize I have to be punished. I know that no matter how much time I do, it's not going to bring my daughter back."
Finley must also pay $7,368.05 in restitution after she cashed welfare checks meant for her daughter for more than a year after the child was murdered.
"Frankly in your letter, you tried to shift some of the blame to the other gentleman," Neithercut said. "You could have stopped what happened. Then I find out you had the audacity to collect welfare for more than a year after this child's death. What a fraud on this town."
Simon also previously pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and removing a dead body without permission of the medical examiner.
"I want to apologize to everyone that this situation affected," he said during his sentencing. "I ask for forgiveness."
He was cooperative with investigators and tried to help find his daughter's body, however, her remains have not been found.
"Your participation in all of this was selfish and cruel and sad. Just sad," Neithercut said. "This poor defenseless child."
Simon admitted to killing his daughter in 2015 and investigators believe he put her body in a backpack and buried her along railroad tracks near the Evergreen Regency apartments.
Police have said they believe the parents killed the girl together
Investigators started asking questions about Kimora Simon after the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services began investigating potential abuse of her brother.
A DHHS employee visited Finley's home at Evergreen Regency and asked Finley where Kimora was, according to MLive-The Flint Journal files.
Finley told police the child was with her father in Detroit, but he provided a conflicting story regarding the child's whereabouts.
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, investigators were led 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.
Neithercut said it would have been difficult to get a conviction from a jury because investigators never found Kimora's body.
"It's a very sad case," said Genesee County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Michael Beer. "We look to our parents for love, support, kindness and that's not what happened in this case."
FLINT, MI -- Spending on attorneys to defend state employees from lawsuits and prosecutions tied to the Flint water crisis has surpassed $26 million, but officials say civil service rules, state law and unusual circumstances have caused costs to reach that level.
Representatives of the Michigan Departments of Environmental Quality and Health and Human Services say they are following written guidelines, court directives and internal procedures to determine whether employees get a taxpayer-funded attorney and who that attorney is.
"The department believes that its employees deserve legal representation," Tiffany Brown, a spokeswoman for the DEQ, said in an email to MLive-The Flint Journal.
"(Civil service rules make it) the department director's prerogative as the appointing authority to authorize legal representation for employees within certain conditions," Brown said.
Both the DEQ and DHHS cited the same state civil service rule as a guide for providing attorneys for some employees who have been named as defendants in civil lawsuits.
The rule calls for department directors to determine whether specific employees should be supplied an attorney and spells out the procedure for requesting representation from the Attorney General's Office first.
If the attorney general declines to represent the employee, outside attorneys can be hired to pick up the slack, according to the rule.
In Flint, seven DEQ employees were initially represented by the attorney general on civil matters, but a federal judge granted a motion more than two years ago to provide them with private attorneys due to a potential conflict of interest.
DEQ's spending for civil attorneys since that time -- $4.7 million -- is roughly double what it has spent on criminal defense attorneys for its employees, four of whom have criminal cases pending in Genesee District Court.
"With respect to the cost of the litigation, those costs are a result of the fact that the DEQ employees have been named as defendants in numerous highly complex lawsuits that involve multiple jurisdictions, legal theories, and appeals," Brown said.
The department has also spent heavily -- more than $1.1 million to civil and criminal attorneys -- for both former Director Dan Wyant and former Communications Director Brad Wurfel, state records show.
Neither Wyant nor Wurfel has been charged criminally in relation to Flint's water crisis, but each resigned in December 2015 after a task force blamed their department for its role in city's water problems.
Brown said in addition to civil service rules, state law allows the department discretion in providing attorneys for employees facing criminal or civil legal action.
At DHHS, spending on civil attorneys has been less with civil legal help being provided to Director Nick Lyon; Nancy Peeler, director of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program; and Robert Scott, data manager for the Healthy Homes and Lead Prevention program, according to state records.
Geralyn Lasher, deputy director for external relations and communications at the department, said DHHS asked the Attorney General's Office to represent Scott and Peeler on civil matters initially.
"The Attorney General's Office agreed to represent them, but later declined to represent Mr. Scott and Ms. Peeler due to a potential conflict of interest," Lasher said in an email.
Lyon is also being prosecuted for Flint water crisis crimes, including involuntary manslaughter, by the attorney general. A separate department in the Attorney General's Office is representing him against civil lawsuits.
His criminal defense team includes three separate law firms, one of which has billed the state more than $1.5 million to date.
Lyon's case is the first in which a judge has bound over a defendant for jury trial.
In criminal prosecutions, DHHS's legal division reviews requests for attorneys, according to Lasher.
Lasher said in an email that the length of time of the attorney general's investigations in advance of criminal charges played a role in the department's legal expenses, as did the "lengthy preliminary hearing process."
"I should also mention that the number of department employees that received subpoenas from the attorney general to answer questions under oath also played a role in costs," she said.
DHHS has spent more than $5.8 million for Flint water litigation so far, costs that Lasher said have been reviewed by the department's budget and contracts section to ensure "that budget lines are not exceeded and that appropriate contracts are in place for the attorneys ..."
"The two areas work in cooperation with each other on these decisions," she said. "For example, as an employee receives a subpoena, the department would support that employee in ensuring they have counsel to represent them as they prepare for complying with that subpoena."
KENT COUNTY, MI - The couple killed in their Caledonia-area home both died of head trauma, autopsies showed.
No arrests have been made.
Police urged the community to be "vigilant" and to call 911 to report any suspicious activity.
Theodore Syrek, 66, and his wife, Patty Syrek, 62, were victims of homicide, Kent County sheriff's deputies said. They suffered "blunt cranial cerebral trauma" inflicted in an assault, police said.
"This is the kind of thing that rocks a small community," sheriff's Sgt. Joel Roon said.
"And rightly so."
There are no obvious suspects.
Early on, police considered the deaths suspicious. One of their children had called 911 to ask police to check on the couple. Sheriff's deputies found the two dead inside their home, in the 9000 block of Jordan Avenue SE, off 100th Street, during a welfare check Tuesday, Sept. 4.
Neighbors were stunned.
"They're super people," Zak Austin said.
He thought it odd that an unfamiliar car was parked along the road, near the couple's driveway, for several days. He didn't think it was one of the Syreks' cars, although other neighbors said it did belong to the couple.
Police had it towed away on Tuesday for examination.
Austin didn't know why the couple - who spend winters in Arizona - would be targeted. They're friendly around the neighborhood. The husband once loaned him a chain saw, and helped build doors for his shed.
"Even if you're going to rob them, I don't see it requiring killing them."
Sheriff's detectives have worked around the clock. Investigators are still at the scene, processing potential evidence. Family members from out of the area are expected to help police determine what may be out of place in the home.
Investigators have not determined an obvious point of entry for an assailant but police haven't ruled out forced entry.
Police have not noted an increase in home invasions or other crimes in the area where the killings occurred. Police have canvassed the area, hoping that neighbors might have noticed something out of the ordinary.
"We want people to be vigilant," Roon said.
Police asked anyone with information to call the Sheriff's Department at 616-632-6125 or anonymously to Silent Observer at 616-774-2345.
GRAND RAPIDS - Students who live within the Grand Rapids Public School District boundaries could get free college tuition with the district's recent approval as a Michigan Promise Zone.
The designation is meant to provide students who graduate from any high school within the boundaries - traditional public, charter or private -- a scholarship to attend at least a two-year community college tuition free and possibly a four-year institution.
The announcement drew applause from the school board and audience attending the Tuesday, Sept. 4, meeting.
"This is the greatest gift that we can give the children of this entire community,'' said Grand Rapids Superintendent Teresa Weatherall Neal, who in her seventh year at the helm.
''If we stay together, plan together, are very intentional and thoughtful, this can be an absolute game changer for Grand Rapids. I'd like for all our children to take advantage of this opportunity.''
In November, Gov. Rick Snyder, signed legislation increasing the number of Promise Zones from 10 to 15. The scholarship program was initiated in 2009.
Four communities, including Flint, had been on a waiting list since 2009. This year, Mason County got the fifth designation after submitting its application before GRPS and the district was on the waiting list.
But Forest Park School District in Crystal Falls designation was withdrawn over the summer, paving the way for GRPS to receive approval, according to Michigan Department of Treasury.
"Ensuring all Michigan students have access to a college education is essential in order to strengthen our states' talent pipeline and prepare our young people for the 21st century workforce," Snyder said, after the expansion.
"Creating additional Promise Zones helps even more students have the chance for a better and brighter future, and hopefully they'll choose to live, work and raise a family right here in Michigan.''
Under the promise zone legislation, if the qualifying school district or local government can raise enough in private donations, the entity can keep half the annual growth in their state education taxes to help pay for scholarships.
The authority would need to raise three years worth of funding before the opportunity to capture tax dollars kicks in, Communications Director John Helmholdt told the school board.
However, he said fundraising would need to be ongoing because the tax dollars alone won't sustain the program. He said the district did not know the targeted amount yet to be raised.
"It is unbelievable what this scholarship program can do to open doors and change the narrative for so many of our families,'' Neal said.
"We have dual enrollment and middle college programs but this is on another level and benefits more than just GRPS students.''
She said the next step for GRPS is to establish an 11-member Promise Zone Authority. The school board will need to pass a resolution at its next meeting on Sept. 17.
The authority will decide when the program will begin, if there is a GPA or other requirements, and whether scholarships will be for a two-year or four-year degree college or technical school or all three.
Neal will select nine members and Michigan's House Speaker and Senate Majority Leader will each select one member. She said the authority would be representative of the community.
In the current zones, students seeking the scholarship apply for federal funds to attend college. The last dollars scholarships then fills in the rest of the funds needed to attend community college or in some zones, gives students the equal amount to pursue a bachelor's degree at a four-year college or institution.
School board member John Matias said the scholarship program offers hope.
"There is something about when you have certainty, you want to do better,'' he said.
Besides Mason County, the other West Michigan promise zones are the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District and Newaygo County.
Once approved by the Treasury, the requesting entity must complete a Promise Zone development plan that includes:
A complete description of the proposed promise of financial assistance;
A complete description of any limitation on the promise of financial assistance;
Whether graduates of a public or non-public high school would be required to exhaust all other available publicly funded scholarship before receiving financial assistance;
How funds necessary to accomplish the promise of financial assistance would be raised and how much the proposed plan is estimated to cost.
"This would be a significant economic bonus for families in our community,'' said school board president Wendy Falb.
"The Promise Zone Authority will need to determine if it is feasible to raise the funds to support scholarships, and if the program can actually improve equitable access to higher education.''
As for the fundraising necessary, Neal said historically the community has always stepped up when its needed to come together.
"We come together around our children,'' she said.
On Tuesday evening, letters regarding the designation went out to community partners and stakeholders, including the city, local foundations such as the Grand Rapids Community Foundation, local colleges and universities, Kent ISD and Grand Rapids Christian Schools the Diocese of Grand Rapids.
Treasury certifies Promise Zones on a first come, first served basis. To be eligible, the entity seeking to establish a zone must meet or exceed the state average poverty level for families with children under 18.
In April, Treasury sent letters to Forest Park School District, city of River Rouge, city of Flint, and Covert Public Schools requesting the entities to reaffirm within 60 days their intent to move forward with their Promise Zones or their applications would be withdrawn.
Forest Park School District was the only one to be withdrawn.
"We look forward to working with you as you embark on this worthy effort to instill hope in the students in your Promise Zone and to make universal education beyond high school the bedrock of your community's economic, civic, and social development, said Philip Trapp, Promise Zone coordinator for Treasury in a letter to the district.
Here is the full list of approved Promise Zones:
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- The Kent County Animal Shelter euthanized two out of every five animals it took in last year.
The state's average euthanasia rate in 2017 for all open admission shelters was 14 percent, according to non-profit Michigan Pet Fund Alliance. Kent County's euthanasia rate was 39 percent that year.
Those figures don't include pets euthanized at their owner's request.
The county-run shelter put down strays and pets at a higher rate in 2017 than every other shelter in the state except those operated by much-smaller Berrien and Cass counties, according to state data.
Kent County Animal Shelter Supervisor Carly Luttmann says the majority of animals euthanized are aggressive dogs and feral cats.
Deborah Schutt, board chair of Michigan Pet Fund Alliance, said the county likely isn't doing enough to save animals with treatable behavioral and medical issues.
"With the live release rate being as low as it is, that just tells me they're just status quo from the 1950s, and that's a shame because I can't believe the folks in Kent County love their animals any less than the folks in Flint or the Upper Peninsula or anywhere else," she said.
Luttmann struggled to explain why Kent County's euthanasia rate is among the highest in the state for the last five years. She attributed the high euthanasia rate to being the only shelter in the region that takes in aggressive and sick animals.
"If that's your defense for your performance, it doesn't cut it," Schutt said. "The vast majority of open admission shelters are saving 90 percent or more of their animals. Is the quality of animals different around the state? I think for the most part they aren't."
The Humane Society of West Michigan in Walker says it accepts aggressive animals as well. But, unlike the Kent County Animal Shelter, the Walker facility does not have officers who respond to calls of loose pets or when dogs have bitten someone.
The majority of dogs Kent County euthanized in 2017 were "beyond behavioral intervention" and posed a threat to the public, Luttmann said. The majority of cats were killed because they're feral and couldn't be placed into homes, she said.
Some cats and dogs were sick or injured past the point of reasonable treatment, even with a full-time veterinarian on staff, according to Luttmann. No animals were killed for lack of space.
"I think as a municipal facility, it's not the number we want," Luttmann said. "If you work in a shelter you want that number to be zero. I'm sorry that's all there is to it; you don't want there to be euthanasia. There has to be to some degree to alleviate suffering, and it's there for a reason."
Of the 2070 dogs and 1569 cats taken in, shelter staff killed 758 dogs and 679 cats, according to 2017 statistics collected by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The animal shelter is a division of the Kent County Health Department. The agency is responsible for animal adoption, cruelty and bite investigations, dog licensing and more. The shelter's budget was $2.3 million in 2018.
The shelter has no standard criteria for when an animal is too aggressive or injured and must be put down, Luttmann said. Instead, it's a case-by-case evaluation.
"That's really variable," she said. "It would depend on the situation -- that animal's individual assessment. Medically, they have to be beyond our resources to reasonably help and humanely keep and care."
Assessing a dog's behavior
Not all animals receive a behavioral assessment, though, according to a copy of the shelter's policies and procedures manual obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
"Any dog who has demonstrated aggressive or unsuitable behaviors at the animal shelter or in their previous home environment will not be eligible for behavior evaluation and will be humanely euthanized when their holding period expires unless reclaimed by their owner," the manual states.
"All other dogs will be evaluated prior to being offered for adoption."
The holding period for dogs without "traceable evidence" of ownership is four business days. The period is seven business days for cats and dogs with evidence of ownership.
Every animal, according to Luttmann, receives a health assessment when taken in.
Another section of the manual states although "animals with a history of biting and/or displaying aggressive behavior" are generally not evaluated for adoption, a supervisor can overrule the practice in specific cases.
The manual does not define "aggressive or unsuitable behaviors." It was last revised in September 2017 and is currently undergoing another revision, officials say.
The detriment of this practice, animal advocates argue, is that Kent County is likely euthanizing pets and strays with treatable behavioral problems -- some of which are likely caused by the shelter stay itself.
Some shelter behavioral problems in dogs stem from fear, owner separation, confinement and new environment, according to Schutt.
Schutt said the percentage of dogs euthanized by Kent County is high even for dogs rescued from fighting rings.
The old approach to animal control and sheltering, Schutt said, was to euthanize these "problem" animals. In Michigan, that's changed over the past decade, and now most shelters are saving nearly 90 percent of their cats and dogs.
"When a shelter is performing poorly, they're not doing anything differently, they're holding on to those old practices," Schutt said. "When they tell you, 'Oh they're too sick or have behavior issues,' why aren't they trying to correct them? More than likely they caused a portion of them."
Some "enrichment" techniques that help with behavioral problems include playgroups, daily interaction, chew toys, foster programs and walks, Schutt said. If the animal still has troubles, finding a suitable rescue group or shelter with other resources is key.
At the Kent County shelter, Luttmann said her staff does provide dogs with chew toys, daily interaction, walks and a positive reinforcement technique called "clicker training."
Schutt said Kent County's live release rate, or the number of animals who leave the shelter alive, speaks for itself.
"I'm shocked," Schutt said. "If I'm a taxpayer, how do you justify your taxes going to kill animals when a little extra effort keeps them alive?"
The "extra effort"
Namiko Ota-Noveskey, director of behavior and animal care at the Humane Society of West Michigan, asks a lot of questions when accepting dogs.
When a dog is taken to her and the owner says it's bitten before, answers to those questions predict how much help the animal will need.
"What's the circumstances of the bite?" Ota-Noveskey said she asks. "Who got bit? Where were they bit? Was the person hospitalized? We don't have a policy that just because there's a bite history, this dog should be euthanized."
Dogs with a severe bite history are a rarity, Ota-Noveskey said. More typical are dogs that appear aggressive on drop-off.
"We have many cases of dogs snapping and growling and we just give them space until they do improve," she said. "Just giving them space, choices and time, they'll come around."
Some practices include placing treat bowls near them that visitors can give, so they associate people with positive reinforcement.
If a dog still appears too aggressive, staff will "office foster" the animal, or keep it in their office away from the constant stimulus of strangers and other dogs. Potential adopters can then meet them in that space, where the dog is more settled.
The Humane Society of West Michigan took in 4,251 dogs and cats last year and euthanized only 293 of them, or 6 percent, according to state records.
No home for feral cats
The majority of the 679 cats euthanized by the Kent County Animal Shelter last year were feral, according to Luttmann. Feral cats, sometimes called community cats, live outdoors, have no owner and vary in their socialization with humans.
Last year, the Kent County Animal Shelter trapped, neutered and returned around 100 feral cats to their areas, Luttmann said.
The benefit of returning a feral cat to its area, Luttmann said, is that it competes for the food and resources there, keeping out non-neutered ferals cats. Over time, returning neutered feral cats reduces the overall population.
The decision to euthanize a feral cat or return it to its area after neutering is dependent on two factors, Luttmann said.
First, the cat must be healthy. Second, staff must be assured no one in the return area wants to harm the cat, but that isn't "terribly common," she said.
"I do see that as part of the next big steps that we need to take, as a community," Luttmann said. "How do we assess the community cat population and how do we respond to that in a humane way, because as you asked, euthanasia is not an effective population control method for that kind of thing.
"That's not acceptable to think you can just euthanize your way out of that problem. It doesn't work."
According to Schutt, municipal shelters taking in feral cats is becoming a thing of the past. With little hope to rehome them, there's not much a shelter can do besides euthanize them, if they don't put them back after neutering or place them in a rescue program.
"It's like bringing a squirrel to the shelter," she said. "What's the shelter going to do with them? You're not going to adopt out a squirrel, just like you're not going to adopt out a feral cat."
Turning point
Since 2014, the Kent County Animal Shelter has ranked among the five shelters in the state with the highest rates of euthanasia, according to an analysis of MDARD records.
"Kent County is doing really poorly, consistently poorly," Schutt said.
The euthanasia rate has gone down over time, though. In 2014, the rate was 55 percent. In 2015, it was 64 percent. In 2016, it was 47 percent. In 2017, it was 39 percent.
Luttmann credited the decrease to diminished animal populations and more efforts to treat behavioral and medical problems or transfer the animal to other shelters where those services are available.
But dramatic decreases, Schutt said, come from fresh leadership. She heralded the Genesee County Animal Shelter as an example.
In early 2015, Genesee County Animal Control Director Stephani Lazar resigned after she was suspended by county leaders. Paul Wallace, who remains the director to this day, replaced her.
Genesee County's euthanasia rate went from 32 percent in 2014 to 12 percent the following year under Wallace.
Since then, Genesee County's euthanasia rate has hovered near 10 percent.
"In every instance where we've seen huge turnarounds, it's because they've hired a compassionate director," Schutt said. "They hired somebody new and within two years their save rate just skyrocketed."
Dogs are adoptable from the Kent County Animal Shelter for $147. Cats older than 4 months are $5. Kittens under 4 months are $40.
Adoption hours at the shelter, 740 Fuller Ave. NE, are 9:30 a.m. to noon and 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Rosalynn Bliss.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Grand Rapids' mayor says more work is needed in the city's quest to improve the interactions between police officers and youth.
"We need to do better," she said days after another high-profile incident raised questions about Grand Rapids Police Department's guidelines for interacting with children in the community.
That was Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss's message when asked about the detainment of three unarmed black juveniles at gunpoint last month and its effect on ongoing efforts to improve community-police relations.
"An incident like what happened with these boys, it takes us a step backward unfortunately," Bliss said. "The incident shows we still have more work to do."
The episode was all too familiar following a pair of incidents in which six juveniles in total were handcuffed at gunpoint by police in March and December 2017.
Five months after its adoption, the police department's youth-interaction policy got its first public test on Aug. 26. The result left the mayor and multiple city commissioners dissatisfied and asking if there's a better way for police to interact with youth without leaving them traumatized.
"Just because you have a policy, doesn't mean there's not a significant amount of work that still needs to be done," Bliss said. "Particularly when I saw the little guy crying -- I don't know what the best response is, but I feel like we really need to be better when it comes to responding to the youth in this community."
The Aug. 26 detainment of the two 11-year-old twin boys and a 17-year-old male occurred while police were responding to a report of at least two black teens seen walking in Southeast Grand Rapids with a handgun.
Police said the youths matched the caller's partial description -- young, black males, one of which was wearing a red shirt and another wearing a black shirt.
Officers stopped the trio at gunpoint, called them back to the patrol cars one-by-one, handcuffed them and searched them. The first two youths were placed into patrol cars. Once the third individual was searched and no gun was found, all three were released.
Body-worn camera footage of the interaction was released by the police department Friday, Aug. 31. The video reached the national news level when it was broadcast in part on Good Morning America over the holiday weekend.
As of Tuesday, Bliss watched the video and read reports but hadn't talked with Police Chief David Rahinsky about the incident. Asked about the youth policy's first test, she said creating the policy was a good step but it's "not in any way the last step."
The police department unveiled its youth-interaction policy this spring in response to a pair of 2017 incidents in which black unarmed youth were handcuffed at gunpoint. The policy was a product of the department's Policy and Procedure Task Force, and was vetted by several community groups.
When the policy was first introduced to the city commission, Third Ward Commissioner Senita Lenear was skeptical about how the policy would change interactions between children and police.
Now she wants Rahinsky and the police department's union leadership to consider making changes to the youth-interaction policy to prevent similar traumatic experiences in the future.
"Now we know the policy didn't go far enough," Lenear said. "We can't say we want to do this to protect children and then allow this policy to remain the way it's written."
The twins' mother, Juanita Ligon, 37, said her sons uncommonly slept in her bed the night of the incident. She also said one of her sons told her he doesn't like putting his head down because "he thinks of a gun being pointed at his head."
Ligon is seeking counseling for her twin boys.
"I'm equating a gun being drawn on you as an act of trauma," Lenear said. "We have to do something differently when dealing with children so they don't have to deal with this level of trauma at the hands of people who are here to protect and serve them."
First Ward Commissioner Kurt Reppart watched the video from his Grand Rapids home while his two children -- ages 6 and 8 years old -- sat on the couch in the same room.
Halfway through the video, he said he put headphones in.
Reppart said it was apparent that the officers made an effort to de-escalate the situation, to comfort the children, and to explain what was happening. But in the end, he was still left asking, "Why it had to happen that way?"
"As a dad of two kids, it's hard to watch," Reppart said. "I appreciate the transparency of releasing that video so everyone can see it, but it was traumatizing, there's no other way to describe it. One interaction like that can change your perspective for a very, very long time."
At first glance, Reppart said the interaction didn't change police procedure. He questioned the need for police to have their guns out, and their decision to handcuff the children instead of just patting them down.
Rahinsky said officers draw their guns when responding to a report of a gun, and handcuff any individual who is suspected of having a weapon, for the protection of the individual and officers.
"You don't want a young person reaching for their cell phone saying, 'It's only a phone,' thinking they're being helpful," Rahinsky said. "We've seen in other parts of the country where use of deadly force occurred and in retrospect you look at it and say we could have avoided it."
The police chief defended his officers' response to the "high risk" and "very dynamic situation." His department has recovered 286 illegal firearms in the last 12 months, not including replica weapons, BB guns or legally possessed guns.
Rahinsky said the policy did as it was intended. The officers uncuffed the two 11-year-old boys within a minute, and talked in an age-appropriate manner to explain to the juveniles what happened and why they stopped them.
For Reppart, one positive takeaway from the policy is that it has heightened police and community awareness regarding interactions with youth, and has created a community conversation each time a similar situation occurs.
"There always needs to be some leeway for the officers, I believe that," Reppart said. "I certainly didn't expect this to happen again so quickly. I thought (the policy) would deter this type of thing from happening and it didn't."
The incident is being investigated by the police department's internal affairs unit.
UPDATE:Police say couple killed in home are homicide victims.
KENT COUNTY, MI - Police identified the couple found dead in their Caledonia-area home as Theodore and Patty Syrek.
He was 66. She was 62. Their deaths are considered suspicious, police said.
Kent County sheriff's deputies are investigating.
Police found them Tuesday, Sept. 4, after one of their children called 911 to ask police to check on their welfare. Both were found dead inside their home in the 9000 block of Jordan Drive SE, off 100th Street and west of Morse Lake Avenue.
Police have not provided details on what happened.
Investigators expect to provide further information after autopsies are conducted Wednesday, Sept. 5.
WYOMING, MI -- A police traffic stop on a stolen vehicle caused a brief lockdown of a North Godwin Elementary in the Godwin Heights school district.
Wyoming police said the traffic stop happened right in front of the school at 34th Street SW and Buchanan Avenue.
Children were on the playground at the time and police asked school staff to take them inside.
Officers then completed the "high risk" traffic stop, which lasted only 5 to 10 minutes, and the lockdown was lifted.
The traffic stop happened Tuesday, Sept. 4 but the exact time was not clear.
MICHIGAN -- Federal health officials have issued a second public warning, advising consumers not to eat Honey Smacks cereal because of a salmonella outbreak.
The first Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory was issued June 12, with a follow-up issued Tuesday, Sept. 4.
CDC officials say 30 more illnesses have been reported since June 12, bringing the total to 130 cases from 36 states.
No deaths have been reported but 34 people required hospitalization.
Kellogg, the manufacturer, recalled the cereal in mid-June. But staff wit the Food and Drug Administration say it is still being sold in some locations.
So far, the illnesses related to the outbreak started during the period March 3, 2018 to August 7, 2018.
A major part of Michigan's new regulations on medical marijuana involve lab testing for safety compliance.
In the past, marijuana testing hasn't been required by the state. Now, it's a new aspect of the medical marijuana industry in Michigan and, no -- testing does not involve anything like puff, puff, pass.
Labs for testing marijuana look exactly like a lab you'd find at a university or research facility: there's an eyewash station, hoods, microscopes and equipment whirring away.
Tests on marijuana and marijuana-derived products determine how potent the product is and how much THC or CBD the product contains. The results will be printed on the package. Testing also is also intended to assure consumers that the product is free of contaminants, most pesticides, mold, fungus, heavy metals and bacteria that could especially hurt sick patients, like E.coli and salmonella.
"The goal is so consumers know what they're buying," said Kris Krane, executive director of 4Front, a medical marijuana industry advisory firm.
PSI Labs -- one of the first labs in Michigan to be licensed -- is discreetly tucked inside an Ann Arbor industrial park. The distinct smell of marijuana isn't detectable outside, but greets you once you walk in the door.
The lab is led by Lev Spivak-Birndorf, a research scientist, and Ben Rosman, an attorney with a background in Michigan medical marijuana law.
It's one of the first labs in Michigan to gain approval for a state license this summer, a critical step in ensuring the new regulated medical marijuana program launches in the state. After Sept. 15, all marijuana products sold at a provisioning center have to be tested at a licensed lab like PSI.
"We can test at multiple points, but the vast majority of testing we're going to do is after the harvest, after it is dried and cured," Rosman said.
Technicians will visit growers to randomly sample their harvest.
In the lab, staff examines buds underneath a microscope to look for pests like spider mites and mold, mildew or fungus -- common friends of marijuana plants. When pests are present, the whole harvest can't be sold for smoking. There can be other uses for the flowers.
Then the flowers are broken down, dissolved in liquid and tested for potency, pesticides and heavy metals. Michigan has banned the use of a number of common pesticides in medical marijuana.
"No one was testing to air their dirty laundry before," Spivak-Birndorf said. "Because it's expensive and essentially tells people, 'I'm using this pesticide or that pesticide.' So this will be really good to help eliminate some of the common pesticides that are used."
The lab has to give its approval to the quality of the flowers before they can be sold for smoking, or sent to a processor to be turned into oils or other extracts.
With marijuana extracts and concentrates -- like vape fluid -- the oils and liquids are tested for potency and for residual solvents that were used in the extraction process.
"It would come back to us again to test for solvents, and then to double check if anything has been concentrated to unsafe levels," Rosman said.
Oils can then be used to make edibles -- which are also tested to make sure they have been dosed correctly. That's easier said than done, as lab technicians have to determine what's in the edible in order to break it down for analysis.
Cookies, brownies, gummies and hard candies are smashed into pieces with a mallet -- not your standard piece of lab equipment -- and then dissolved into a liquid. Edibles are tested primarily for THC potency. The results are ultimately printed on the packaging.
Though medical marijuana has been legal since 2008 in the state, it has not been regulated as an industry until now. The first businesses in the state were approved for licenses this summer, and officials are requiring all product sold after Sept. 15 to be grown, tested, processed and sold by a business with a license.
To date, 16 businesses have been approved for licenses and 10 have been issued, according to the state's licensing bureau.
The launch of the licensed industry in Michigan could experience similar growing pains to the industry in California, where testing labs have served as an initial pinch point for the flow of product from growers to shops, said Kris Krane, a medical marijuana industry expert.
In California, officials required all products that were sold to be tested at a licensed lab -- which has created a massive backlog for products as there are only three labs qualified to do so, Krane said.
"It's a problem that will fix itself," Krane said, explaining that businesses are still being licensed and is just a sign of growing pains for the industry.
As Michigan officials prepare to institute a similar deadline Sept. 15, Krane said: "You're very likely to see Michigan experience something similar."
DELTA COUNTY, MI - A 21-year-old Michigan man was killed when the vehicle he was driving crossed into the path of semi-truck in the Upper Peninsula.
The Michigan State Police Gladstone Post is investigating the incident that occurred on US-41 just north of S .15 Road in Delta County when a southbound car driven by Sean Lake of L'anse crossed the centerline shortly after 4:10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 1.
The driver of the semi-truck, 27-year-old Brandon Belanger of Escanaba, attempted to avoid the collision but was unable to. According to police, a head-on collision occurred resulting in both vehicles erupting in flames.
Lake was pronounced dead at the scene, while the driver of the semi was transported to OSF St. Francis in Escanaba with minor injuries. US-41 was closed for several hours during the investigation and clean-up.
Michigan State Police were assisted at the scene by the Masonville Township Fire Department, Delta County Sheriff Department, Delta County Road Commission, U.P. Health Systems Rampart EMS, Delta County Medical Examiners Office, Pro Towing and Gene's Towing.
The crash remains under investigation.
LANSING, MI - The Republican-led Michigan Senate on Wednesday adopted two ballot initiatives to raise the minimum wage and mandate employers provide sick leave for employees.
It's part of a plan to adopt and then amend the proposals. Adopting them legislatively instead of letting the proposals go to the ballot makes them easier to change because they only need a majority vote, not the three-fourths vote required if they're approved via a public ballot.
The measures passed 24-13, with all the chamber's Democrats plus three Republicans - Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker, R-Lawton; Sen. Joe Hune, R-Hamburg Twp.; and Sen. Patrick Colbeck, R-Canton - voting against it.
Colbeck said he wanted to see a real debate on the merits of the issue.
"We need to do better, folks. Right now, we're trying to use a procedural gimmick to go off and try to avoid a three-quarter vote threshold," Colbeck said.
Sen. Curtis Hertel, D-East Lansing, said the move was a bait-and-switch meant to trick the voters.
"I don't know who you all think you're fooling, but it's not this side of the aisle. And it's certainly not the voters," he told Republicans in a floor speech.
Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint, said it was difficult for him to vote against the proposals - particularly the paid sick time, which he's sponsored bills on since joining the legislature. But the Republicans won't say how they plan to change it. It's not a plan to adopt and amend, Ananich said, but one to "undo and screw."
Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive, didn't outline what specific changes the body would seek.
"We're looking at all kinds of things... there's a whole suite of things that we're looking on at this point, so we haven't settled on any one thing yet," he said.
However, he did outline some of his concerns - the elimination of the tipped wage included in the minimum wage hike proposal, and the potential for employees to take unplanned sick leave that leaves businesses in a lurch on the paid sick time proposal.
One Fair Wage, the group pushing the minimum wage ballot proposal, has come out in strong opposition to the legislature's adopt-and-amend plan, which the group and several outside experts say runs afoul of the constitution.
Meekhof was dismissive of those concerns, calling them "unfounded."
The House would need to pass the measures as well to make them law. Meekhof said the House believes it can get the votes to do so this afternoon.
But if the measures do become law they will not take immediate effect, meaning their implementation is delayed until 2019 and lawmakers have time to come back and amend them.
JACKSON, MI -- Blain's Farm and Fleet is now open in Jackson.
The nearly 128,000-square-foot store opened to the public at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 5. Located in the old K-Mart at 3555 O'Neill Drive in Blackman Township, the store marks Blain's first opening in Michigan.
Owner and CEO Jane Blain Gilbertson greeted guests on Tuesday evening, Sept. 4, for a Jackson County Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting ceremony.
"We are thrilled to be in Michigan," Blain Gilbertson said as business leaders milled about the store. She described the store as a modern general store featuring many brand-name goods.
Founded in 1955, the company is based in Janesville, Wis., with store locations in Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa.
Blain Gilbertson is happy with the workforce in Jackson.
"The quality of the people we found to open the store are top notch," she said.
A grand opening is planned from Sept. 20-22 with "really crazy great prices," and lots of demonstrations, Blain Gilbertson said. She compared the event to a carnival.
Blain's plans to also add Michigan locations in Portage, Traverse City and Holland.
JACKSON, MI - A $199,000 plan to freshen up signage in downtown Jackson has sparked concern in the Jackson City Council.
The council unanimously voted to postpone a decision on the plan until its Sept. 18 meeting, asking for specifics about where the money is coming from and what it would go toward.
If passed, 550 downtown signs would be replaced by Mount Pleasant company J. Ranck Electric Inc. - the sole bidder. The engineer's estimate for the project was $246,000.
A chunk of funds for the project are proposed come from the major street fund, while other dollars would come from the city's auto parking system fund.
Council requested city officials bring an exact breakdown of the costs and examples of what the new signs would look like to the Sept. 18 meeting.
"(The money) could have been used for potholes, it could be used for snow plowing, it could be used for building streets, it can also be used for the maintenance of our signs, it can be used for traffic control," City Engineer Jon Dowling said. "All of that is part of our street money that we receive."
Council members Colleen Sullivan, Craig Pappin and Jeromy Alexander suggested the money could go toward street construction instead.
"If it's a small amount (coming out of the major street budget), I would be more inclined to support it," Sullivan said. "If it's enough that we could do something significant, I would have some reservations."
The signs - many of which are for parking lots - need to be replaced sooner or later to meet standards from the Michigan Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices, Dowling said.
Current signs don't meet the standard for reflectivity, he said, so they don't show up clearly at night.
JACKSON, MI - At least four tornadoes touched down in lower Michigan on Saturday, Sept. 1, the National Weather Service confirms.
The twister in Jackson was the widest of the group, spanning 225 yards at its peak width. The NWS has released data from the tornadoes, including the path of travel and peak wind speeds.
Jackson's tornado touched down at the Cascades around 8:12 p.m. Saturday, moving north and slightly east. It persisted on the ground for eight minutes, moving 1.5 miles, per the NWS.
Its path of travel ended near Ganson Street and Hibbard Avenue. Click here to see the NWS map of the tornado's path.
Winds hit a peak speed of 80 mph, per the NWS.
While Jackson County was under a severe thunderstorm warning, a tornado warning was never issued - which is why the sirens never activated, county officials said.
No injuries or deaths have been reported, per the NWS. The tornado did leave major damage in its wake, however, with uprooted trees destroying homes and vehicles.
Citizens at the Tuesday, Sept. 4 Jackson City Council meeting commended Mayor Derek Dobies, Councilwoman Colleen Sullivan and City Manager Patrick Burtch - among others - for their roles in helping residents clean up the wreckage.
Michigan's other three confirmed tornadoes from Saturday were in Barry County, Mecosta County and Bath Township.
KALAMAZOO, MI -- Protesters who agreed to move their encampment in Bronson Park under the threat of arrest said an alternative location provided by the city of Kalamazoo is inhumane.
Carl Wiseman, one of six people who signed the agreement with the city, said the new situation is unlivable. Weekend storms were not strong enough to wash out protesters from the encampment, but Wiseman said they are dealing with other issues, like exposure to the sun, overflowing toilets, no access to running water, nightly noise from nearby bars and a proximity to dumpsters.
A closed-door negotiation between members of the group and city officials resulted in an agreement, signed by both sides on a document with official city letterhead, on Friday, Aug. 31. It states members of the encampment are allowed to camp overnight until Sept. 30 at a city-owned vacant fire station at 116 West Cedar Street.
In exchange, the city committed to forming a work group to explore short-term and long-term solutions to reduce homelessness and increase options to secure housing and social services. The demonstration began Aug. 19 to highlight a perceived lack of overnight shelter space.
Around 30-40 people are camping outside the vacant former public safety training facility, which is contaminated with asbestos. Two portable toilets were brought to the site, but haven't been serviced as of Tuesday and are full of waste.
"How about they come out here and endure this like we are," Wiseman said. "You know, put our shoes on for a minute ... we're trash to the city. They're giving us the symbolism of that."
City Manager Jim Ritsema agreed that more needs to be done to provide protection from the elements. A large tent will be furnished, he said, for the group to eat and take shelter in during inclement weather.
Ritsema said the portable toilets will be emptied three times a week. A third one will be added to provide an accessible option for people with a disability.
"During this 30 day period we're working with them and will address those issues," Ritsema said.
Three families are being put up in a hotel until they are provided emergency housing from Kalamazoo County. A pregnant woman and two families with young children are staying at the Knight's Inn on the city's dime.
Several lines of storms swept across the state over the Labor Day weekend, knocking out power, causing road closures and damaging homes and vehicles.
Officials confirmed that a small tornado, measuring 100-yards wide with winds up to 75 mph, was produced in northern Kalamazoo County the day after the encampment moved.
Tents at the encampment were damaged by wind and rain, while others flooded.
Ann Arbor Attorney Denise Heberle has been advising protesters on their rights and may represent plaintiffs in a case against the city of Kalamazoo. She said Tuesday that the city is not negotiating in good faith.
"They cannot be here another five minutes, and not because the city won't let them because it is uninhabitable," Heberle said.
The demonstration is in a much less prominent location compared to Bronson Park. Heberle said protesters have been tucked away from the public eye, but Ritsema said the Cedar Street property was chosen to give the protest visibility and keep it close to City Hall.
"This is simply unacceptable," Heberle said. "They're saying, 'We're giving you 30 days here in an alley.'"
Life in the encampment
Portable toilets carried the smell of human waste to Freeman Cramer while he rolled cigarettes inside a tent.
The lifelong Kalamazoo resident owns a home on Merrill Street but has lived on the street for two years. His house is uninhabitable but not condemned; a leaking ceiling caused black mold to grow, and Cramer can't afford to make repairs.
After a life of working physically-demanding jobs, Cramer is disabled from a neck injury that could paralyze him if exacerbated. He lives on social security and disability checks.
Cramer, 60, said people in the encampment see each other as family. They are cognizant that their movement could serve as a model for how to organize homeless people toward a common goal.
"We're doing this for homelessness everywhere," Cramer said. "But there are still some things the city needs to open their eyes to."
Wiseman said he has felt more support from the community than negativity. Donations of food items, clothes, sleeping bags and other items to the camp are being dropped off by private citizens.
Commissioner Shannon Sykes Nehring helped organize donations through social media.
Last week, Sykes Nehring asked residents to call City Manager Jim Ritsema after he sent an Aug. 26 email to the commission, which indicated his intent to shut down the protest. She later attended closed-door meetings between city officials and members of the encampment, at the latter's request.
Protesters plan to occupy public property until their demands are met. Last week, they successfully petitioned to add a discussion item to the Tuesday City Commission meeting's agenda.
The demands seek solutions to a perceived lack of resources for the homeless in Kalamazoo County, calling for the legalization of sleeping parks, an investigation into practices at the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission and the construction of a secular shelter and more affordable housing.
Business owners
Business owners on Cedar and Burdick streets said they were not contacted by the city before it sanctioned the encampment nearby.
Jarad Selner, owner of Selner Bros. Music at 117 W. Cedar St., said he has received "nothing but respect" from demonstrators. Selner said he's disappointed that the city is not providing the encampment with food and water.
Last summer, city staff held public meetings to solicit feedback about what the 60-year-old public safety facility should be used for. At the time, Selner hoped it would be a community art space or provide some non-commercial function.
In March, Portage developer Hollander Development Corp. submitted a plan to raze and replace the facility with affordable apartments. Hollander since backed out of an agreement which secured an exclusive right to buy the property.
Selner said it's the perfect opportunity to create a shelter or low-income housing.
"The city is putting the wants and needs of people with mobility over those of whom have no mobility," Selner said.
Ritsema said a new developer, whom he did not name, is showing interest in an affordable housing project at the site.
While standing on the sidewalk Tuesday, Wiseman and Heberle were approached on foot by an irate man.
The man, who did not disclose his name to MLive, said he "raised hell" with the city for not providing public restrooms downtown. He said property owners on Burdick Street have had to clean human waste from doorsteps.
If the encampment is going to be approved by the city, he said the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission and other resources should be bringing water and food.
Across the street from the encampment, a representative of The Blue Dolphin restaurant declined to comment.
Each year for nearly four decades, the family-owned business provides Christmas dinner at the restaurant and delivers meals to Ministry with Community and the Rickman House.
In letters to the City Commission, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, several residents and downtown business owners complained of behavior by homeless people in Bronson Park and the downtown area.
Statements received Aug. 20-28 showed complaints of aggressive panhandling, public intoxication and defecation and other unsavory behavior.
KALAMAZOO, MI -- A livid Commissioner Shannon Sykes Nehring unleashed a loud, explicit and cynical critique of Kalamazoo's failure to fix inequality.
For approximately 30 minutes, the first-term commissioner offered a sprawling criticism of the city's handling of a sit-in protest, calling the City Commission "cowards" for not discussing the group's demands.
It was a no-holds-barred, explosive speech during the Tuesday, Sept. 4, City Commission meeting, which ended in a standing ovation from demonstrators while Sykes Nehring exited the commission chambers before hearing the response from her colleagues.
Sykes Nehring read news clippings of articles about homelessness dating back to 2007 to illustrate how work over the last decade bore little fruit. She slammed commissioners for being apathetic to the issue and stalling progress.
"I will be divisive if it means refusing to stand on the side of injustice with y'all," Sykes Nehring said. "So, let's be very clear because I don't want no confusion. Let's just call it right here, for everyone in this audience, everyone watching at home, all (the commissioners) and everybody's friends and family, please share: I am being divisive. I am way the f--- over here."
Mayor Bobby Hopewell said the work is "not flashy," but ongoing. He pointed toward the passage of a countywide millage to fund homeless families and development of affordable housing projects as signs of progress.
"Do we have gaps in the work, yes we do," Hopewell said. "I would submit to you: we can attempt to work and to end homelessness, but I'm not sure that we will ever be able to end it totally."
The mayor said he supports the efforts of staff.
Citizens waited several hours to unload harsh criticism on the Kalamazoo City Commission Tuesday.
A Friday agreement between demonstrators and the city to relocate a sit-in protest from Bronson Park to a vacant former public safety facility on Cedar Street was called short-sighted. Commissioners were blasted for not visiting the encampment, now going on its third week, and which will be allowed at the new site until Sept. 30.
Commissioners Jack Urban, Eric Cunningham, Don Cooney and Sykes Nehring said they visited the encampment.
City officials say they're working to find housing for the group, but Sykes and homeless advocates who spoke Tuesday expressed burning frustration and a lack of trust.
"Do not tell me what you are doing to address homelessness in a boardroom," Sykes Nehring said. "Because guess what, it's not working."
A work group will be put together by City Manager Jim Ritsema to focus on organizing existing services to provide shelter for those in need. The first meeting is scheduled for Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Sykes Nehring threatened to make the protest national news. She joined the encampment after Tuesday's meeting.
"We are going to pick the safest, most comfortable place to stay," she said. "And baby girl, when you come with handcuffs, make sure you take me first."
KALAMAZOO! My apologies if I offended anyone ACTUALLY ranting at the City Commission meeting. But I have HAD... Posted by Shannon Sykes Nehring on Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Untenable solution
The city-approved encampment site lacks the shade available in Bronson Park. Members of the group complained of exposure to the elements and a lack of grassy surfaces to set up their tents.
Hopewell said the move was not intended to make the situation worse.
Others complained that they were mocked by public safety officers and people leaving downtown bars. A firecracker was thrown from a moving vehicle into the encampment this weekend, according to multiple witnesses.
By the time the public comment portion was opened at Tuesday's City Commission meeting, elected officials passed up several opportunities to discuss the evolving situation.
Demands presented by protesters to the commission were mentioned during the clerk's report but not read. A motion by Sykes Nehring to discuss the demands died after it was not seconded.
"You all should be ashamed," she later said. "The decision not to allow discussion on this was a cowardly move. That was a decision of cowards, point blank."
Ritsema tried to empathize with the protest group before it was their turn to speak. The city manager said hearing the story of individuals in the group touched him, and he plans to make conditions more comfortable at the new campsite.
"There are some incredible people (in the camp)," Ritsema said. "The issues are real. It's for those folks and others that I'm committed on working toward solutions."
One of the demands calls for the removal of Commissioner David Anderson as chair of the public housing commission. The city commissioner is also director of Housing and Facilities for Kalamazoo Community Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.
His staff visited the encampment last week to connect protesters with services. Anderson said the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission and Ministry with Community agreed to lift bans on guests that were given for misbehavior.
Sykes Nehring and her husband Ryan have organized donations of food, clothing and other supplies to the camp through social media. Ryan said the current situation is untenable; the encampment should move.
Urban came under direct fire for comments deemed to be insensitive. During an earlier conversation about gentrification in the city, Urban said not every issue needs to be looked at "through the lens of the homeless."
"There is always going to be displacement of people with less money by people with more money," Urban said. "That is the society we live in. That is the reality we have to deal with."
He later apologized. Still, Urban said the commission will have to decide whether it will take on the responsibility of providing "housing of last resort for the homeless."
Cunningham said he hopes cooler heads prevail, but understands the anger on display Tuesday night. He expects more communication and leniency on behalf of the city.
Vice Mayor Erin Knott said she will work on policy solutions that are much more complicated than it seems.
Stuart Hamilton calmly explained that he has been made to feel like "less of a citizen" because he is homeless. He apologized to the city for being an inconvenience but said he is ashamed to be a Kalamazoo resident.
Chris Wahmhoff set a combative tone early on. Thundering into the microphone, pounding on the lectern and swearing at commissioners, Wahmhoff said issues of inequality have been ignored since similar protests in Bronson Park six years ago.
"I'm going to swear because you deserve the disrespect," Wahmhoff said.
Michael Rizor followed Wamhoff, by slamming commissioners by name for not coming to the camp to talk with the demonstrators.
"You are the elected leaders of this city, where you have you been?" Rizor said.
KALAMAZOO, MI -- A nearly $300,000 grant is slated for efforts to prevent campus sexual violence at Kalamazoo College.
Kalamazoo College was awarded a $298,698 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women to help reduce domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking on campus, according to a press release from Congressman Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph.
The money is part of a $18 million grant awarded to nearly 60 universities and colleges nationwide, according to the Department of Justice website. Kalamazoo College was the only institution in Michigan awarded the funds.
The new program is in partnership with the Kalamazoo YWCA and the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, the release said.
The funding will create a Campus Coordinated Community Response Team, provide training to Campus Safety officers, give in-depth training to members of the campus disciplinary and appeal board, augment victim services through the YWCA and hire a full-time project coordinator.
Kalamazoo College Title IX Coordinator Ellen Lassiter Collier said the college was notified Friday of the new grant, and while the money is new, the efforts are not.
"We have a robust prevention process in place," Lassiter Collier said. "This money allows us to expand it."
Coordination with the YWCA and KDPS will allow the college to respond to any reports of violence from "all angles," she said. A full-time project coordinator will work to implement the program, while a YWCA representative will have open office hours on campus to help students.
"We're really excited to have this funding," Lassiter Collier. "It will do a lot of great work."
Upton said in the press release that the grant would "help keep students safe on campus right here in Kalamazoo.
"We all must work together to prevent domestic and dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking on college campuses," Upton said in the release. "This grant will greatly help in that effort here locally."
In December 2017, Kalamazoo College announced the implementation of the Green Dot program, a national bystander intervention training to help reduce dating and sexual violence on campus.
The program, which was introduced to the K-College campus in March of last year, teaches students and faculty how to intervene when they witness violence on campus such as sexual assault, stalking or domestic violence.
Paid for by a $42,000 grant from First Lady Sue Synder, the program has orchestrated about six training sessions for students since its creation.
Green Dot attempts to override the bystander effect, which is the tendency for people in crowds to not act when they see something wrong because they assume someone else will help.
Reports of violence at Kalamazoo College are in line with the national trends, Lassiter Collier said. "Of course, zero is the goal," she said.
According to the K-College's 2016 crime statistics, there were three reports of "sex offenses-forcible" on campus. K-College has a student population of about 1,400.
Numbers for 2017 are expected to be released next month, Lassiter Collier said.
OTSEGO, MI -- After dioxin was discovered in private wells in the area, the city of Otsego is conducting additional tests to check for the substance in wells that feed its municipal water system, City Manager Aaron Mitchell said.
While the city tested previously for dioxin and no issues were found, Mitchell said, he has been informed that the test the city did previously was not comprehensive and did not check for the type of dioxin discovered in private wells.
The city will request expedited testing for samples from the four wells that feed the municipal water supply, Mitchell said Tuesday, Sept. 4, just days after dioxin was discovered in nearby private wells.
Dioxins are a group of chemicals that can be formed during, among other things, chemical and paper manufacturing processes. They are highly toxic and can cause cancer, reproductive and developmental problems, damage to the immune system and can interfere with hormones, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Two types of dioxins -- 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin and 2,3,7,8 tetrachlorodibenzofuran -- were found in Otsego-area private wells. The first of the two dioxins found is the most studied and most toxic of all dioxins, according to an EPA fact sheet.
Mary Zack, a former Otsego resident and cancer survivor, started asking questions in early 2018 about why several of her friends from high school had cancer and other serious diseases. Her questions caught the attention of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies, leading to environmental testing to search for chemicals used historically by industries in the area.
For months, residents did their own investigations. Zack collected hundreds of health surveys while others compiled a list of former industrial sites and investigated potential sources of contamination.
They obtained documents about contaminants disposed of in the area and pushed for officials to investigate.
Then, 56 local wells were tested for chemicals associated with former industrial practices. The tests searched for chemicals in waste from local paper mills that was applied to fields and roads in the area, the Allegan County Health Department said in a news release.
On Saturday, Sept. 1, the county health department announced preliminary results, saying dioxin was found in 14 private water wells in the Otsego area. Residents with impacted wells would be contacted, the department said.
The count of private wells where dioxin was found has now reached 19, Allegan County Health Department Medical Director Richard Tooker said after a multi-agency conference call Tuesday, Sept. 4.
A likely source of the environmental contaminants is sludge that was spread on farm fields in the area, the health department said in its initial news release.
The agencies are discussing the possibility of widening the sampling field, but have not made a decision, Tooker said on Tuesday.
"The question now is what additional wells would we consider testing?" he said.
He directed area residents to a form to fill out to request their well be tested.
Zack said when the announcement was made about dioxin, it felt like the group's hard work digging into the topic was finally bearing fruit.
"The ball's rolling and I'm excited to finally see this hard work coming together," she said. "Unfortunately it's only going to get worse."
Zack, who grew up in a home with Otsego city water, said it was concerning that the city wells were not tested alongside the 56 private wells.
Otsego's city manager said on Tuesday that the additional tests will search for the specific dioxins found in nearby private wells.
"We tested for dioxins in April, it turns out, the way we initially tested, we didn't do a comprehensive panel," Mitchell said. "We're going to test again to make sure."
The city is committed to working with the agencies and will do whatever test the DEQ recommends, he said.
"All the big hitters are working on this case," Mitchell said. "We're going to get to it, I just don't know how fast."
Otsego Township Supervisor Bryan Winn said he was under the impression the township tested for the full panel, but he is checking to see if that is true. If not, Winn said, the township will also complete additional testing with a full panel.
"We are going to do everything at the township level that we possibly can to make everything as safe as can be for our residents," he said.
Nearby, the city of Plainwell also tested for dioxins in the past and none were found, City Manager Erik Wilson said. Wilson said the city is ready to work with the DEQ if any additional testing is needed.
Zack and others are waiting to get more information on Sept. 7, she said. That is the date when Tooker said a full report will be complete on additional testing results and when the agencies involved plan to share more information with the public.
An initial press conference on dioxin being found in local wells was held over the Labor Day weekend on Saturday, Sept. 1, announced to members of the news media about 30 minutes before it occurred.
Zack called the preliminary results "horrific" and said she is concerned that more chemicals could be found.
"We don't know fully what they found, other than dioxin," she said.
She complained that communication could be improved, because people are concerned about the findings.
Residents with questions can call an Allegan County Health Department hotline at 269-686-4546 daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. For more information on dioxins, contact Michigan Department of Health and Human Services at 1-800-648-6942 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m Monday through Friday.
PORTAGE, MI -- Residents in Portage and other Kalamazoo County communities have reported having mail stolen from their mailboxes, according to Portage police.
Suspects drive through neighborhoods and open mailboxes to look for checks, credit cards and debit cards. They then fraudulently use the cards at banks and retail stores, according to the Portage Department of Public Safety.
Police encourage residents not to keep sensitive mail in mailboxes any longe than necessary. Residents who are going to be away from home days at a time can use the United States Postal Service's hold mail service online at https://holdmail.usps.com/holdmail.
Anyone with information on the thefts can call the Portage Department of Public Safety at (269) 329-4567 or Silent Observer at (269) 343-2100 or at www.kalamazoosilentobserver.com.
MUSKEGON, MI - Muskegon High School is losing one of its most prestigious programs due to a lack of qualified instructors, at least for now.
"As of now, the program will not be available for the 2018-19 school year," said Muskegon Public Schools Superintendent Justin Jennings. "We don't have any certified ROTC instructors. There is a shortage across the country. We have not been able to secure two instructors as the code requires."
The district reduced the number of JROTC instructors from two to one - although two were required - when participation dipped in 2016-17.
When asked in an email from MLive how the district kept JROTC going in 2017-18, Jennings said, "The program encompassed leadership, which is a core for JROTC."
In 2017-18, JROTC was transitioned into a "leadership class," he said during a phone interview later.
In a subsequent email, he said that the program was on probation and that it could no longer run after the probationary period.
The Muskegon JROTC instructor job is not currently posted to the U.S. Army JROTC website.
"The district will resume and continue to search as we have for the last 2 years," Jennings said.
There are seven instructor postings in Michigan.
JROTC has been a treasured program at the urban district. In 2013 and 2014, Muskegon JROTC boasted more than 100 cadets. Membership dropped to the 70s in 2016-17.
In 2017-18, there were about 90 cadets, Jennings said.
A 2013 MLive/Muskegon Chronicle article described the program as "thriving."
When asked in an email how the program benefited Muskegon students and the district as a whole, Jennings provided a link to the national JROTC website.
The JROTC Cadet Creed reads:
I am an Army Junior ROTC Cadet.
I will always conduct myself to bring credit to my family, country, school and the Corps of Cadets.
I am loyal and patriotic.
I am the future of the United States of America.
I do not lie, cheat or steal and will always be accountable for my actions and deeds.
I will always practice good citizenship and patriotism.
I will work hard to improve my mind and strengthen my body.
I will seek the mantle of leadership and stand prepared to uphold the Constitution and the American way of life.
May God grant me the strength to always live by this creed.
Muskegon Public Schools established its program in 2004. It was the only JROTC program in Muskegon County.
The program taught soft skills such as leadership and teamwork while preparing students for possible military careers.
Jennings participated in JROTC while attending Grand Rapids Central High School. He pledged to keep the program going during January 2017, shortly after he was promoted to superintendent.
The U.S. Army reimburses schools for 50 percent of the instructors' "minimum instructor pay."
FRANKENMUTH, MI -- Frankenmuth City Manager Bridget Smith is apologizing for a boil water advisory that was issued last week.
The advisory issued Friday, Aug. 31 for properties north of the Cass River and businesses on Main Street north of Tuscola Street came after a water main break as crews connected a new transmission line.
City officials lifted the advisory Tuesday, Sept. 4 after two rounds of water samples came back negative for bacteria and discussions with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
"We appreciate the patience of the businesses and the community at large," said Smith. "We apologize for the major inconvenience experienced since Friday morning."
In a blog post titled "Sideways," Smith apologized to residents and businesses while adding "We only did it because our number one priority is ensuring the health, safety and public welfare of every resident and person in the City."
"If there was anything that we could have done to prevent the situation, we would have done it," she commented. "We are working hard to determine exactly what happened so that we can make sure it won't happen again."
Smith thanked businesses for conversing water on the city's south tower to minimize the impact; Saginaw County 911 for notifications; Blumfield and Bridgeport townships and Birch Run for providing and offering assistance; and Saginaw for helping facilitate water sample testing.
Here are some tips for residents and businesses on what they should do now that the advisory has been lifted:
-Turn on your tap slowly and run the water to flush water pipes for five minutes.
-You may need to clean appliances such as water softeners, filter units, water dispensers and ice makers. Read the owner's manual for directions to clean appliances.
Anyone seeking additional information on the issue may contact Ken O'Brien, the city's water superintendent, at 989-652-8987.
SAGINAW TWP, MI -- Though a Saginaw Catholic Diocesan priest pleaded no contest on Tuesday, Sept. 4, to seven criminal charges in the sexual assault of three young men, police and prosecutors say their work is far from over.
The Rev. Robert J. "Father Bob" DeLand Jr., 71, on Tuesday, Sept. 4, appeared in Saginaw County Circuit Court and pleaded no contest to two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving injury; attempted second-degree criminal sexual conduct; assault with intent to commit second-degree criminal sexual conduct; gross indecency between males; selling alcohol to a minor and distributing an imitation controlled substance.
"I want to make it real clear," said Saginaw County Assistant Prosecutor Mark Gaertner at a press conference held Wednesday morning. "The pleas yesterday did not stop the investigation. This is still continuing. This is not over."
He said that while investigators are unaware of any additional victims of DeLand, the Michigan State Police Computer Crime Unit is still analyzing data seized during March police raids on two Diocese properties and the home of Bishop Joseph R. Cistone.
"I'm not happy about the result in this case at all," Gaertner said, addressing reporters in a conference room within the Saginaw Township Police Department. "This should have never happened. This is despicable."
The investigation, which led to a creation of a task force, has used resources, personnel, and time that could have otherwise been spent addressing gun violence and drug crime in Saginaw, Gaertner said.
"I'm disgusted, to tell you the truth," he continued. "The church should have never allowed this to happen, period. The investigation is not over. The state police have to finish their part in it and we'll see where it takes us."
The Diocese on Wednesday released a short statement following DeLand's no contest plea.
"While the case is still pending, the Diocese does not want to influence it in any way. We will have a comment when the sentence is imposed," the Diocese's statement said.
Gaertner declined to comment on how many potential victims have contacted police or who else in the Diocese police may be investigating. Pressed whether or not Diocese officials could be under investigation for abuse or covering up abuse, Gaertner replied, "We'll follow both trains of thought where they take us. We'll follow the evidence."
Asked if the Diocese has been cooperative with investigators, Gaertner paused for a moment.
"No," he replied. "I'll leave it at that. I would say that they're just generally uncooperative. We cannot rely on them for information. The police agencies have to gather it on their own."
Gaertner stressed his office made no plea offer to DeLand, whose first of several trials was to begin Wednesday. In the days prior, prosecutors had discussed the matter with DeLand's attorney, Alan A. Crawford.
"I told (him) over the weekend there is no deal," Gaertner said. "The deal is this -- he pleads as charged."
With DeLand having no prior felony convictions, his sentencing guidelines are from 12 to 24 months. Circuit Judge Darnell Jackson, who accepted DeLand's pleas, has indicated he'll sentence the priest to one year in jail without the possibility of release on tether, followed by five years' probation. He will also have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
"His actions, his movements will be monitored by law enforcement and the courts," Gaertner said. "He's going to have restrictions on himself so he is, really, not a free man while he is out in public."
Saginaw County Assistant Prosecutor Melissa Hoover added the three victims' prime concern was that DeLand not victimize anyone else.
"After speaking with the victims yesterday, this seems to be the most appropriate choice with what their overall objective was with pursuing this case," she said. "Mr. DeLand has been very involved in the community up to this point. In a certain way (this) is a life sentence for him. He will never be looked at in this community as he once (was). Considering what he's used to, I honestly don't think a jail sanction will not appropriately punish him, because he's used to a different lifestyle."
The Rev. Robert J. "Father Bob" DeLand Jr. looks to attorney Alan A. Crawford during a preliminary examination for Deland before Saginaw County District Judge David D. Hoffman on April 25, 2018.
Tittabawassee Township Police Detective Brian J. Berg said he supports the resolution when considering the risks of going to trial.
"Father DeLand has been doing this for decades," he alleged. "It allows for closure, but what's really important, too, is what I've learned through this investigation is Father DeLand has a very strong following of some older Catholics, and there's a philosophy of, 'No matter what, protect the Mother Church.'"
If DeLand's cases had proceeded to trials and even one juror held that position, hung juries could result, Berg said.
"Then we revictimize the victims again," the detective said. "They have to tell their same story again and again, to new juries, in new trials. I explained the different options to the parents and they agreed: it's time for closure on this case, and at least it's a guaranteed conviction."
Gaertner said there were two factors essential to the prosecution's success, the first being the investigation conducted by the Saginaw Township Police, Tittabawassee Township Police, and Michigan State Police agencies.
"The quality of the investigation was excellent, especially when we utilized electronic surveillance," Gaertner said, referring to one of DeLand's victims wearing a police-provided recording device in his interactions with the priest. "That was a big plus in this case. That was the deal breaker. We had to have that to bolster our case."
The second factor predicating the entire probe was the courage of DeLand's victims.
"Three individuals ... came forward, put their credibility on the line, but their safety on the line, and the consensus among all three of the victims was, 'We want to come forward and do this because we don't want it to happen to anybody else.'"
Gaertner went on to say police did not pressure or force any of the victims to participate in the investigation.
"We gave them a way out and said, 'We will shut down the investigation if it's in your best interest,' and they said, 'No, we want to go forward,'" Gaertner said.
Hoover then spoke of the victims' intrepidity in coming forward.
"Never in my life have I met three more brave individuals," she said. "During a process like this, it's very hard to preserve the dignity of these victims. We put them out there to be cross-examined, to have their personal lives broadcast to, in this case, the country. In order to preserve a lot of that dignity that they would have otherwise put in jeopardy, this was the overall best outcome in order to take all of that into account. Punishment is an important factor, but overall this is for the victims, and they are the number one priority in these cases."
She concluded by saying she hopes the resolution of DeLand's cases brings closure to his victims. Saginaw Township Police Chief Donald F. Pussehl added there are grant-funded community organizations that help victims of sexual assault.
Detective Berg said that the victim who initially came forward is currently in counseling.
"It's been very traumatic on him," Berg said.
Case history
The investigation into DeLand began in November, when the parents of a Tittabawassee Township 17-year-old contacted local police. Their son in 2017 had pleaded guilty to a charge of minor in possession of alcohol and was court-ordered to perform 25 hours of community service, which DeLand supervised beginning around October. The teen had already known DeLand as the priest worked as a hall monitor in his high school.
The teen grew concerned when DeLand began constantly calling, would step on his feet and grab his hands in the school hallways, make him promise to hang out with him, and would offer to buy him things, the teen testified in an April 25 preliminary examination. The teen told this to his parents, who called police.
The teen agreed to investigators' request to record his conversations with DeLand.
DeLand would pick the teen up from his home and the two would discuss drugs, alcohol, and sexual orientations and smoke cigarettes, which DeLand bought for him, the teen testified.
On Nov. 16, DeLand had taken him out of class, given him $20, hugged him, and touched his buttocks, the teen testified.
The teen said this made him feel "very uncomfortable and very angry. I wanted to punch him in the face."
DeLand eventually asked him to acquire ecstasy for him. The teen testified DeLand gave him $100 for the illicit drug.
The teen on Feb. 25 stayed at DeLand's condo in Saginaw Township and pretended to take an ecstasy pill, then faked the drug's effects, he said. At the time, he was equipped with a recording device and was being monitored by nearby police.
The priest massaged the teen's feet, chest, and back and put his hand on the teen's buttocks for a minute or two, the teen said.
Police arrested DeLand on that date. The next day, he was arraigned on charges related to the molestation of the 17-year-old, as well as charges connected to the assault of a 21-year-old man.
The older victim also testified on April 25 that DeLand had assaulted him on Aug. 7 inside the priest's condo. He said the two were drinking tequila before he blacked out and regained consciousness several times, once to DeLand kissing him and another to both of them standing with their pants around their ankles, with no memory of how they got that way.
During the court hearing, prosecutors played video footage of the now-22-year-old calling DeLand from within a police station interview room and putting the priest on speaker phone.
In the footage, the man tells DeLand he needs "to talk about what happened that night. I'm not OK inside. I know you took advantage of me. I know you got me drunk on purpose. What did you do to me that night, Bob?"
Robert DeLand is arraigned on charges of attempted second-degree criminal sexual conduct via video from the Saginaw County Jail in the courtroom of Saginaw County District Judge M. Randall Jurrens in Saginaw on Feb. 26, 2018.
"Well, OK," DeLand responds. "Here's what I... I don't know what happened. I know we were drinking that tequila and I can remember sitting out on the deck because I was getting a big charge out of you telling me to be quiet and you moved your hand and it was really funny. I don't remember going to bed. I don't remember you leaving. I don't remember what happened. I don't know what I did."
The man begins sobbing and his voice rises.
"You don't deserve to be a priest at all," he says.
"All I can tell you is I wish... I don't know what happened," DeLand replies. "You don't have to believe that and I can't force you to believe that."
The man says he remembers DeLand not having his pants on and calls him a liar.
"You can call me a liar, but I don't remember a thing," DeLand says. "I know you're having a rough time. I'm having a worse time. I'll tell you this much, I believe you when you say if I took advantage of you... I don't remember it, but I believe you. I know another thing -- I'd never hurt you. I'm just so stupid. I guess, I guess... I don't know. I know I blacked out. I'm glad for this phone call; I've felt so terrible.
"I would never hurt you," DeLand continues. "I believe you because you're such a good person. I just feel awful. I mean, I really feel awful and I know there's nothing I can do to make it up. I just know I would not knowingly do this. I hope that I didn't take advantage of you."
"I don't care how you feel," the man says. "You literally broke me inside."
As part of their ongoing investigation, police executed search warrants on two Diocesan properties and Bishop Cistone's residence on March 22. Then, on April 5, police arrested DeLand for a second time after an 18-year-old male had come forward to allege the priest had assaulted him as well.
This teen testified on April 27 that he and his father in May 2017 attended a community event conducted by DeLand at St. Agnes Catholic Church, 300 Johnson St. in Freeland.
At DeLand's request, the teen accompanied him into a coat room in the church. DeLand then reached toward the teen's genital area, but the teen managed to block him.
Other Saginaw Diocese issues
Separate from his criminal matters, DeLand is named in a civil lawsuit filed by attorney Todd J. Weglarz of Southfield firm Fieger, Fieger, Kenney & Harington on behalf of DeLand's youngest victim and an adult representative. Also named in the suit are the Saginaw Diocese and Bishop Cistone.
The suit alleges DeLand had groomed and molested a teenage boy. Cistone and the Diocese are named as defendants in the suit due to allegations that they knew of DeLand's alleged misconduct with minors but turned a blind eye to it.
MLive has been unable to reach Weglarz for comment.
DeLand had preached at several churches throughout the Great Lakes Bay Region. Most recently, he served as the Saginaw Diocese's judicial vicar and pastor of St. Agnes Catholic Church in Freeland. A judicial vicar is appointed by a diocese's bishop and oversees that diocese's judiciary.
Bishop Joseph R. Cistone.
Prior to ministering at St. Agnes, DeLand served as the priest at St. James Church, 710 Columbus Ave. in Bay City, and as the pastor of All Saints Middle and High School, beginning there around 2005. DeLand also served as the priest at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, 1600 Hudson St. in Essexville.
In a 2010 interview with The Bay City Times, DeLand said he felt the calling to become a priest while in high school.
"I spent a lot of energy in the area of community service," DeLand said at the time. "I really enjoyed community service. My family was close to the church and it was just this nagging feeling that maybe I could take my love for community service into something bigger, namely the church. I went into seminary right out of high school. When I did that, I have to say it was just a natural fit."
DeLand added that he spent vacation time volunteering at St. Vincent Home in Thomas Township, an assessment center for youths ages 12 to 17.
The Saginaw Diocese suspended DeLand after his arrest. In March, the Diocese suspended 72-year-old the Rev. Ronald J. Dombrowski as a "precautionary measure" after someone told the organization that Dombrowski had sexually abused them when they were a minor.
No criminal charges have been filed against Dombrowski.
After the March 22 police raids, some Saginaw Diocese parishioners called for Bishop Cistone's resignation, with some referencing the bishop's past. Prior to coming to Saginaw, Cistone was a high-ranking member of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, a diocese that saw a grand jury report on sexual abuse and cover-up.
Among other findings, the 2005 grand jury report alleges Cistone was given several updates in 1996 on efforts to silence a nun who tried informing parishioners about a priest's past, particularly his "predilection for naked children."
The year before, Cistone wrote a memo to the cardinal stating accusations of sexual abuse against a priest "has the potential of becoming a PR concern," according to the report. That priest soon resigned but later went on to other posts within the church.
In 2012, a lawyer accused Cistone of misleading that grand jury by not acknowledging he witnessed the shredding of documents in 1994 that contained the names of priests suspected of child molestation.
Cistone never faced any criminal charges.
Cistone in April appointed retired Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Michael J. Talbot to serve as the Diocese's delegate in independently reviewing matters of alleged sexual misconduct.
Coinciding with Talbot's appointment, the Diocese named the following five clerics who had been permanently removed from ministry due to credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors:
Stanislaus A. Bur
John E. Hammer
Richard L. Howard
Jack J. Leipert
Leonard F. Wilkuski
In a May press release, Talbot said he had met with prosecutors to ask them if there are any allegations against other clergy members who have not already been removed from ministry.
"We have a common interest," Talbot said in the release. "We have no desire to have anyone out in active ministry, or any employee of the diocese who would be endangering minors. I'm concerned about whether there is anybody else. And I asked, 'If there is, please let me know; we wanted to take them out of ministry. My concern is the protection of young people out there today.'"
Talbot did not divulge the prosecutors' answers to his questions.
Assistant Prosecutor Gaertner on Aug. 21 told MLive that another area priest not mentioned above is being looked at as "a person of interest." He said he is not aware of any federal grand jury investigation on priest sex abuse locally.
A grand jury in Pennsylvania on July 27 released an 887-page report alleging 301 Catholic priests have credibly committed sexual abuse against more than 1,000 children since 1947.
DeLand remains free on bond pending sentencing, which has yet to be scheduled.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 5) Aviation authorities on Wednesday told lawmakers the country needs new airports to avoid a repeat of the Xiamen Air mishap that left thousands of passengers stranded at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and other terminals nationwide.
Airport authorities during the hearing of the House Committee on Transportation said they can only do so much at the NAIA, which has a perpendicular runway design, so they are looking at alternatives to the country's main gateway.
They said there is a need to build a new airport with at least two parallel runways.
Manila International Airport Authority General Manager Ed Monreal said they could not totally address the congestion without at least two parallel runways, but nevertheless "the show will go on."
Transportation undersecretary Manuel Antonio Tamayo agreed with Monreal that there is a need for a new international airport.
He said NAIA is too congested and there's nothing more that they can do to expand the airport.
This is the reason, he said, why they are entertaining proposals for the construction of a new airport in Bulacan, to open an airport in Sangley, Cavite, and to further develop the Clark International Airport in Pampanga.
"We will expedite the airport projects so that we can more or less have a better gateway without limitations as far as runways are concerned or obstructions are concerned or connectivity is concerned for passengers," Tamayo said.
But he admitted funding is another issue. The official said of the 53 airport projects the DOTr proposed for 2019, the budget department only approved five.
House Deputy Speaker Prospero Pichay Jr. said Clark International Airport can afford another runway to accommodate more flights and help decongest NAIA.
But Tamayo said they proposed the construction of another terminal in Clark in their 2019 budget and there are no funds for another runway.
"Right now Clark kasi is still underutilized for this year. We are projecting about 2.5 million passengers and with the new terminal, they have the capacity of 12 million passengers," Tamayo said.
Pichay said Clark should have another runway, which is why he will propose in plenary to realign P2.5 billion in the transportation budget to fund the new Clark runway.
10 Tips for Anyone Thinking of Retiring in Mexico
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Millions of Americans and Canadians nearing retirement age are looking south. Mexico draws thousands of foreign retirees every year. And those numbers will explode as more baby boomers hit the magical number that allows them to stop working and start living.
If you've decided that living or retiring in Mexico is right for you, here are 10 tips to help you make your move and life transition as smooth as possible.
1. Downsize
By the time you're ready to retire, chances are that you've accumulated a lot of stuff. Well, it's time to start getting rid of it in preparation for your new life south of the border. Holding on to all those things will only complicate the process of moving and cost you more money in the long run (e.g. moving costs, storage fees).
2. Get a temporary or permanent resident card
Life is just much easier when you have a temporary or permanent resident card. You can open bank accounts, register a vehicle, participate in the public healthcare system and the list goes on and on. Click HERE to learn how to get yours.
This applies to anyone thinking of permanently moving to Mexico and who doesn't live 25 km from the U.S. border, designated parts of Sonora or in the Baja Peninsula. The requirements to import your vehicle can be far more lax in those areas.
4. Leave your furniture behind
They sell furniture in Mexico and it's actually quite affordable to have custom pieces made. International moving and shipping services are expensive and sometimes things end up missing or damaged along the way.
5. Start learning Spanish now
Learning a language takes time and effort. It's not going to magically happen overnight, so you might as well start working on it now. Even though many locals in Puerto Vallarta understand and speak basic English, the more you know when you arrive, the easier it will be for you to communicate and get things done in Mexico.
6. Get a Mexican cell phone number
This will make it much easier to get things done and get call backs from businesses (they won't call your foreign number). Also, many banks require a Mexican cell phone number in order to do online banking due to certain security protocols.
7. Download Whatsapp
This is a the free app that is used by almost everyone in Mexico to call and text.
8. Open a Mexican bank account
There are numerous benefits to opening a bank account in your new country.
9. Get healthcare coverage
Mexico has both a private and a public healthcare system. It's important to research your options before moving down and to get some type of health coverage as soon as possible. To learn all about your healthcare options, we recommend HealthCare Resources Puerto Vallarta, the expat community's information center for health care services, programs, and medical needs in Puerto Vallarta and the greater Banderas Bay region.
10. Hire people (when necessary) to get things done
There is a huge learning curve involved when you move to another country and you will find that even the simplest of tasks (like getting the electric bill put in your name) can turn out to be more complicated than you anticipated. If you move to a large, friendly expat community like Puerto Vallarta, then it's not a problem because everyone helps each other. If not, you might want to consider hiring people to assist with tasks such as: registering your car, completing the second part of the resident card process, and putting utilities in your name. People who offer these types of services are often referred to as gestores.
More and more North Americans are retiring in Mexico to enjoy better weather, new experiences and relaxed lifestyles, as well as access to affordable healthcare and a lower cost of living. So what are you waiting for?
Tall Ships Return to Oregon Coast at Astoria, Coos Bay
Published 09/05/2018 at 3:37 AM PDT
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff
(Astoria, Oregon) The famed Tall Ships from Grays Harbor, Washington, return to the Oregon coast in early October, this time splitting up as the Hawaiian Chieftain hits Astoria from October 3 7, while the Lady Washington docks in Coos Bay on those same dates.
The ships have been featured in numerous movies and TV series, including Star Trek, Pirates of the Caribbean and Once Upon a Time, among others. The Aberdeen-based nonprofit Grays Harbor Historical Seaport sails the waters of the Pacific each year along with its two vessels, offering educational programs, free deck tours, and sailing trips.
From October 3 - 7, Hawaiian Chieftain will be docked at Port of Astoria's East Mooring Basin (10 Pier 1, Ste. 308). On the same dates, Lady Washington will be docked at Coos Bay City Dock (S Bayshore Dr. & Anderson Ave.) on the southern Oregon coast.
Both vessels are open on weekdays and available for schools to reserve trips aboard these one-of-a-kind maritime heritage field trips, called Voyage of Explorers. On weekends youll find them open to the general public for ticketed Adventure Sails. For those who run the risk of getting sea sick, the stationary dockside vessel tours are available for a $5 suggested donation.
No battle sails will be featured with either visit. Adventure sails are what the Seaport group calls experience sailing as it was done for hundreds of years and meet the ships crew.
The Astoria visit features a special history program on October 6. Its a History Sail program called "Oregon's Pirate" running from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and cost is $55. The program is essentially a lecture on Did Sir Francis Drake make landfall in Oregon in 1579? Youll sail with archaeologist Melissa Darby of the Oregon Heritage Speaker Bureau who will point out the historical and linguistic evidence for Drake's presence on the Oregon coast.
Dockside tours run from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. for both ships on October 3, 4 and 5. On October 5, both ships will feature an Evening Sail at 6 p.m. ($42-49). Both host vessel tours again at 10 a.m. on October 6.
The Hawaiian Chieftain in Astoria hosts the history cruise later on October 6, while the Lady Washington features an adventure sail at 2 p.m. ($42-49).
On October 7, both ships feature tours at 10 a.m. and an adventure sail at 2 p.m. ($42-49).
More on the Oregon coast visits at https://www.historicalseaport.org/public-tours-sails/sailing-schedule/. ---- Lodging in Astoria/Seaside - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours
More photos of Astoria below:
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
6. Citigroup | Fine: Rs 45,503 crore | In 2014, the bank was held guilty for selling bad mortgages as good investments, adding to the 2008 financial crisis.
Citigroup Inc's longtime Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach will retire in March, to be replaced by Mark Mason, CFO of the institutional clients group, the third-largest US bank told employees on Tuesday.
Gerspach, an accountant, joined Citigroup in 1990 and became CFO in July 2009. He became known for fielding analyst questions about the company's irregular progress in divesting businesses, satisfying new capital rules imposed by regulators and failing to meet financial targets.
He also had to answer for problems that cropped up at far-flung operations around the world, including losing $500 million on fraudulent loans in its Mexican bank.
"He has represented our company exceptionally well, not just in good times but in tough ones as well," Chief Executive Officer Mike Corbat said in the memo seen by Reuters.
Corbat also announced that North America CEO Bill Mills and Europe, Middle East and Africa CEO Jim Cowles would be leaving the bank at year-end, and named Kristine Braden, who is country officer for Switzerland, as his new chief of staff.
The changes follow an executive shuffle a few weeks ago at Citigroup's consumer bank, which has had trouble keeping up with performance expectations on Wall Street.
Mason takes over the CFO role at a time of investor frustration with Citigroup's lagging stock price. Its shares trade for about 1.2 times tangible book value compared with 2.1 times for shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co, the largest US bank by assets.
The institutional clients group where Mason is now finance chief provides trading, lending, treasury and investment banking services to large companies. He is also responsible for submitting Citigroup's capital plans to the US Federal Reserve as part of its annual stress test, a process that determines how much money the bank can return to shareholders through dividends or stock buybacks.
In prior roles, Mason worked closely with Corbat to unload Citigroup's troubled assets following the 2007-2009 financial crisis, and later ran the private bank that caters to ultra-wealthy individuals.
Mason grew up in Queens, New York, and lived in a house overlooking an expressway to John F. Kennedy International Airport, he said in a 2017 podcast interview with the president of Howard University, his alma mater.
He and his younger brother were raised by a single mother with help from family members who lived nearby. He went to public schools until attending Howard for his undergraduate degree, then getting an MBA from Harvard Business School.
"We didn't have much, but we had a lot of family," Mason said. "So, it was a good childhood, but it was one that was short of money in ways, so I learned very early on the importance of hard work and the correlation between that and achievement and money."
According to the EOW, the accused colluded with the former promoters of Religare Enterprises, Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh. (Image: Reuters)
In his statement after moving the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) against elder brother Malvinder Singh on September 4, Shivinder Singh talked about the unimaginable losses accumulated in running a private charter airline business.
A Moneycontrol investigation showed Ligare Voyages, which provided chartered flights, is close to winding down, as a former employee puts it, despite the Singh brothers ploughing in nearly Rs 900 crore over a decade.
As per filings, the company reported a loss of Rs 67 crore on revenues of Rs 6 crore, as on March 31, 2015, the last period for which financial information is available. It has been a loss-making operation since inception in 2006.
Also, developments of the last few years including the resignation of CEO & MD Sanjay Godhwani brother of Sunil Godhwani, who was also accused by Shivinder - mirror the turmoil in other Group companies such as Religare and Fortis.
Godhwani was replaced by Singh family confidants.
It has been going downhill, especially since 2015. Later, Godhwani was replaced, says a former senior executive who put in his papers earlier this year. Godhwani, who was leading the airline almost from its inception, put in his papers in November 2015.
While in his resignation letter Godhwani said, I am unable to devote any meaningful time to the affairs of the company, those close to the company say differences had cropped up between him and the Singh brothers over the direction of the airline.
The company is now led by Jitender Singh Chandel, who has been with the Singh family since he joined Ranbaxy in 2005 after taking premature retirement from the Indian Army. When contacted, Chandel declined to comment on the story and said he was travelling overseas.
The fleet is nearly grounded, and almost all the aircraft, saving two, have been sold, added the executive quoted above.
The former Ligare official said a customs case had initially led to the grounding of the aircraft. Though some of the planes were later released, the damage had been done.
Litigation
Interestingly, Godhwani later headed Spectrum Voyages, another Delhi-based company whose services were similar to that of Ligare. Earlier this year, Spectrum took Fortis Healthcare and Religare Health Insurance to the NCLT over non-payment of fees.
Spectrum provides travel solutions. It had booked tickets and given other travel services to Fortis and Religare, but since 2014, the payment has been pending, said advocate Priyanka Kakkar. In total, a payment of about Rs 1.3 crore is due, added Kakkar.
Like in the case of Ligare, phone numbers listed on Spectrums website were out of order. Moneycontrol talked to a Spectrum employee who said: there has been no business for over a year."
Big ambitions
Ligare was incorporated in 2006 and was initially named Regius Aviation. Like in other companies of the Singh brothers, the aviation company was also marked by the presence of Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the head of Radha Saomi Satsang Beas sect.
Shivinder calls Dhillon his master and the sect his spiritual home.
Documents filed during the initial public offering of Religare Enterprises show Dhillons sons Gurpreet and Gurkirat Singh Dhillon as prominent shareholders of Ligare. Each held 12.18 percent stake in the company as on January 2010. Sanjay Godhwani held 2.53 percent.
Malvinder and Shivinder Singh together held over 70 percent.
The company went through two rounds of a name change. It became Religare Voyages in 2008, and finally to Ligare in 2012.
The change in names though didnt alter its fortunes.
The company had 11 aircraft in its fleet, which included Falcon 7X, which is popular among business fliers, and King Air B200, a Turboprop aircraft which was used as an air ambulance.
Apart from private charters and air ambulance, Ligare also had an engineering arm that provided maintenance and repair services; and a training arm.
The companys biggest step, which also reflected the ambition Singh brothers had in the aviation industry, was the launch of a regional air carrier, Air Mantra.
Ironically, plans for Air Mantra were announced in 2012, just when shares of Kingfisher Airlines, the now-shut company of Vijay Mallya, were getting battered on the stock exchanges. Air Mantra commenced operations in July 2012 with inaugural flights from Chandigarh to Amritsar. But within eight months the airline shut down, citing poor bookings.
Twelve years since its inception, the aviation ambitions of the Singh brothers remain unfulfilled. An employee of Ligare told Moneycontrol that while the training arm continues to function, charter bookings have reduced. The company is clearly going down, says the former executive.
assembly elections 2018
Twitter Inc Chief Executive Jack Dorsey will tell Congress on Wednesday the company "does not use political ideology to make any decisions," according to written testimony made public on Tuesday.
Dorsey will appear before the US House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee after Republicans raised concerns about how the social media platform polices content.
"From a simple business perspective and to serve the public conversation, Twitter is incentivised to keep all voices on the platform," Dorsey said.
He added that a recent company review showed "no statistically significant difference" between how often tweets by Republican and Democratic members of Congress are viewed by Twitter users.
Conservative Republicans in Congress have, however, criticized social media companies for what they say are politically motivated practices in removing some content, a charge the companies have repeatedly rejected.
President Donald Trump used Twitter on July 26 to fault the website, without evidence, for using so-called shadow banning, or limiting the visibility of, prominent Republicans.
Representative David Cicilline, a Democrat, blasted the hearing and Republicans, saying there is no evidence that the algorithms of social networks or search results are biased against conservatives. It is a made-up narrative pushed by the conservative propaganda machine to convince voters of a conspiracy that does not exist.
Television maker Vu Technologies on September 5 launched a 100-inch television for Rs 20 lakh. Called Vu 100, this is the first 100-inch 4k HDR (high dynamic range) television to be available in the world, according to the company.
Devita Saraf, Founder and CEO, Vu Technologies said the television, which is reportedly the size of 224 iPhones, will be available through their retail stores.
The television can be connected to all existing devices at home including lighting, air-conditioner, among others. This means the audio-enabled remote of the television can be used as a switch for electrical appliances.
The television also has a capability to play 3D graphic games. A built-in Chromecast can be used to view content from Android or iOS devices on the big screen.
A 4k HDR technology offers a clearer picture quality than televisions of a lower dimension. Saraf said consumers will be able to view 2.5 billion colours on their 100-inch television.
The system runs on Android Oreo 8.0 and is equipped with 16GB storage and 2.5GB RAM. The television comes with pre-loaded applications like YouTube, Hotstar that can be operated through voice control. It offers Bluetooth connectivity so that existing devices can be seamlessly connected.
Saraf said, in August 2018, the company sold its one-millionth television. She claimed Vu has overtaken Sony as the largest 4K television brand in India. In FY18, the company clocked a revenue of Rs 750 crore, which she said will go up by 60 percent this financial year.
Unlike its other products available online, Saraf told Moneycontrol this will be exclusively available in their retail stores. They are also in talks with dealers to get them on board to sell the television.
Thousands of farmers and workers affiliated to Left-wing outfits took out a protest march in the national capital Wednesday, demanding implementation of remunerative prices for farm produce, loan waiver, labour laws and a minimum wage of Rs 18,000 a month.
The 'Mazdoor Kishan Sangharsh Rally' - being organised jointly by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and All-India Agricultural Workers' Union (AIAWU) began from the Ramlila Maidan amidst rains and passed through various roads to culminate at the Parliament Street.
Carrying red flags, the marchers raised slogans against the policies of the BJP government and also assailed the ruling party's "communal and divisive" agenda.
AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah, alleged the government has "never done anything" for farmers since it came to power.
"For the last four years, this BJP government has fooled us. It has never done anything for the farmers. We have always demanded that the government should give farmers remunerative price as per the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee. We have asked for the minimum wage for the workers which should be not less than Rs. 18,000 per month," he said.
He alleged that government has ignored their demands. "Now it is high time. We will continue our struggle till our demands are met," Mollah told the gathering.
The leaders warned that they would continue their struggle till they "change the Central government".
"Workers and farmers coming together has enthused the other sections of the society. Now the Youth Federation has decided to organise a rally on November 3 protesting against unemployment in the country. Before that, they will hold a 24-hour dharna in front of all central government offices in all districts," said Tapan Sen, the general secretary of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU).
He said that after the dharna, all other farmers organisations will come together, hold a long march and come to Delhi on November 30. "Trade unions will also hold a two-day strike by the end of the year," he said.
"So, we will continue our struggle throughout the year. In this process of struggle, people will gradually understand their no. 1 enemy and accordingly they will decided what to do in the coming elections," Sen said.
The rally was also supported by artists, academicians and left-wing intellectuals who came in support of farmers and workers and demanded the Centre accept their demands.
Madhavan Narayanan
On the face of it, there is nothing new in what Union minister for civil aviation Suresh Prabhu has said about India's plan to build 100 airports over the next 15 years or so at a cost of about Rs 420,000 crore but perhaps the timing should make us and the government think about whether there should be a mindless splurging on airports at the taxpayer's expense in an industry where vulnerabilities loom alongside major opportunities.
The aviation policy of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government laid out in 2016 makes regional air connectivity a priority in an attempt to create airstrips where none exist. This is perhaps natural in a major economy of subcontinental dimensions. But it is equally important to ask some questions that deserve more than simplistic answers. Where is the money going to come from? How does that fit into overall fiscal priorities? What does this mean for the banking sector?
On the face of it, India is the world's fastest-growing aviation market that has clocked double-digit growth over the past four years, and the noble idea of putting remote towns on the aviation map strengthens the case for a slew of new airports. However, there are other factors that must make us go about it cautiously. The national air carrier, Air India, continues to be a white elephant, albeit a flying one.
While the aviation ministry is fending off fears that its debt-pile may turn into a bad loan, both Air India and the country's leading full-service airline, Jet Airways, lead the industry pack in losses estimated at around $1.9 billion (about Rs 13,300 crore) in the current fiscal year. Amid rising oil prices and a fresh strain on the fiscal deficit, caution in spending is a good idea.
Defunct Kingfisher Airlines and its fugitive founder-baron Vijay Mallya haunt the national memory, and also the flooded runways of the Kochi international airport this year after severe floods in Kerala that caused losses totalling Rs 220 crore to the airport operator.
While the International Air Transport Association that clubs 280 airlines worldwide loves to see demand surging, its optimism ebbs when it sees fixed charges linked to airport development. Independent analysts say India's aviation industry is not strong enough to withstand cyclical setbacks.
Passengers are flying by the thousands because tickets are cheap. Tickets are cheap because airlines with high capacities are competing to fill up seats at a loss, with the possible exception of IndiGo, which has managed to keep its feet on the ground while seeking new destinations.
Prabhu's junior colleague Jayant Sinha said last year that airports are saturated by the time development is completed and India needs to take a long-term view on demand. But, demand fuelled by cut-throat prices are not healthy.
Consider the fact that Prabhu has said he favours the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode to build new airports. The bulk of that money for that will clearly come from the banks. Recent PPP experiences in telecom and power show that the buck starts often with public sector banks and the buck usually stops with the finance ministry if there is a case to bail out an industry and/or banks. A huge chunk of the pile-up in non-performing assets in the public sector-led banking system comes from infrastructure projects. Let airports not add to the burden.
The ultimate buck stops with the taxpayer. Can the minister give any guarantee that this does not or will not happen? Even if he wants to he cannot as political upheavals and change of governments may lead to the thwarting of plans.
The policy of 2016 also talks of a viability gap fund (VGF) to put smaller airports on the national map through a "small levy per departure" on leading domestic flights. But it does not make sense to burden passengers without a probable estimate of real demand.
India has already had a controversial user development charge. The private-sector GMR-group built Delhi airport may be world-class in facilities, but its financials have had ups and downs as it ran into the headwinds of the global economic crisis and a subsequent real estate slump a decade ago. GMR's Delhi airport company even pleaded before the airports regulator that it may face loan defaults if user fees were cut drastically. Overall, the GMR groups debt-driven growth has proved to be rocky, signalling a need for caution.
Experience suggests airlines won't bite a place on the map unless there is sustainable viability. Flights have been cancelled in the past for want of demand in small towns. Regional airline Air Pegasus shut operations in 2016 amid cash-flow problems even as the overall industry was growing at a healthy clip. There is a veritable long list of defunct Indian airlines grounding themselves into history, such as Paramount Airways.
IATA talks of "flexible parameters" to be reviewed by a regulator from time to time to build airports. Whatever the detail, ultimately, demand is not true demand unless it enables meaningful profit margins for all concerned. What we have witnessed so far is a strange mix of vanity investment and rickety gambles. Airline barons often put pride over profit at the cost of bankers. Flexible parameters may sound good on paper but can we guarantee a viability that won't bite the taxpayer or unduly burden the passenger?
There is certainly a case to build better airports or more airports but everything ranging from passenger safety, viability, environmental conditions and even liabilities arranging from aircraft poop falling from the skies have to be factored in as India builds its aviation sector.
In reaching for the skies, staying grounded is not a bad idea.
The writer is a senior journalist. He tweets as @madversity. Views expressed are personal
Predicting the end of the world has been a past time of religion almost as long as religion has existed. Men and women tried to read the stars, the clouds and the various natural phenomenon around them to determine if the end was nigh. Such soothsayers looked to myths and legends to see what was supposed to happen before the end. In many ancient cultures, the end of the world would come in a cataclysmic battle. The Norse Ragnarok, for instance, involved the death of almost every god and goddess in the pantheon.
Just like their ancient cousins, modern predictors of the end times often base their expectations on religious writings and the signs that are meant to indicate that the end is near. Some cultures and religions have more explicit warnings in their scriptures to work with than others. As such, those with an interest in predicting the end know what they should see in the last days, and those signs are making a number of Christians very nervous. Here are seven reasons Christians think the end times are near.
Israel is increasing in importance. Israel is everywhere in the Bibles descriptions of the end times. The nation is at the center of the Bibles overarching story, so it is no surprise that the small country is central to the end of days as well. Dozens of biblical prophecies revolve around the Temple, the fate of the people of Israel and, of course, Jerusalem.
The modern day state of Israel has been increasing in importance for years. From a purely geographical standpoint, the country is absolutely tiny. The entire nation is roughly the size of Vermont and could fit inside Lake Michigan with room to spare. That said, the question of Israel has loomed large in international politics for decades. The entire Arab world wants the state wiped off the map, but Israel is the United States ally and the only functioning democracy in the Middle East. The entire region turns on this tiny country, and Christians are wary of what will come after all eyes are fixed on Israel.
Lack of interest in the truth. Shutterstock.com Whether you are practically screaming at how the media distorts and spins stories to fit their agenda or wondering whether or not your Tinder matches really look that attractive in real life, you find yourself running into the same overarching issue. Truth has become less and less important as time goes on. People deliberately ignore facts in order to fit events into their predetermined narrative, lies and fake news run rampant on social media and it is a shock when advertisements state that they used an actual photograph instead of a heavily doctored image. People have forgotten what the truth is, and worse, most people really do not care. To anyone with a brain, this complete indifference to truth and reality spells disaster, and to Christians, this warns that the end may well be coming. Whether you are practically screaming at how the media distorts and spins stories to fit their agenda or wondering whether or not your Tinder matches really look that attractive in real life, you find yourself running into the same overarching issue. Truth has become less and less important as time goes on. People deliberately ignore facts in order to fit events into their predetermined narrative, lies and fake news run rampant on social media and it is a shock when advertisements state that they used an actual photograph instead of a heavily doctored image. People have forgotten what the truth is, and worse, most people really do not care. To anyone with a brain, this complete indifference to truth and reality spells disaster, and to Christians, this warns that the end may well be coming.
Increasing number of natural disasters. Shutterstock.com It seems like there is a new tragedy in the media every day. Of those disasters, many are caused by nature. Earthquakes, massive floods, hurricanes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, you name it, and it has been in the news lately. Human on human violence is horrific, but there is something especially chilling about nature itself turning against humanity. The body count is usually high and the damage catastrophic. There is also nothing anyone can do. When Kilauea erupted in May 2018 and continued to spew molten rock and poisonous gasses for nearly three months, all residents of Hawaiis Big Island could do was try and get out of the way. When Hurricane Harvey dumped so much water on Houston that the Earths crust under the city actually sank down two centimeters, humans could do nothing to hold back the water.
Christians are concerned that the rising number of natural disasters indicates that the end is near. It is, however, always possible that the number of disasters has not risen as much as many believe. Social media and technology now keep people tuned in to events all over the world, so people might simply be more aware of natural disasters than before. After all, the media may like nothing better than a scandal, but tragedy runs a close second.
Political turmoil is running rampant. Shutterstock.com Politics has gotten nasty in recent years, no one with eyes can deny that fact. Politics have also, in a painfully large number of places, simply failed. War and strife seems to be tearing the globe apart one region at a time. Terrorist groups like ISIS cause unrepentant slaughter in the Middle East and call for attacks in nations half a world away. The Rohingya face genocide in Myanmar, Christians are being murdered more or less with impunity in multiple countries and North Koreas dictatorial Kim dynasty is making attempts at producing nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, Europe has repeatedly covered up the crimes of refugees and immigrants, India is facing a massive surge of Hindu extremism and the United States escaped civil war by the skin of its teeth when some Democrats called on electors to ignore the will of their states and cast their Electoral College votes for Clinton instead of Trump. Given how the world seems to be falling apart at the seams, is it any wonder that Christians are getting nervous?
Minor divisions have split families. Shutterstock.com Families fight. No one likes it, but that is the reality. Siblings, parents and spouses disagree and argue. Sometimes, it is minor. Other times, it is vicious. Never is it pleasant. Usually, however, those fights can be patched up. That does not seem to be the case anymore. There are increasing numbers of stories about families that have split over the most minor of issues. In the last few years, political differences have caused children to stop speaking to parents or adult siblings to cut off contract from each other.
Beyond the splits that happen in messy, protracted fights, there is a fundamental disconnect that exists in many families along generational lines. Parents who grew up before the explosive growth of the internet, social media and technology sometimes struggle to relate to their children who truly do not know how to function without their devices. This breakdown of the family concerns many Christians.
Increasing debates over what is Christian. Shutterstock.com Biblical prophecies that talk about the end times often emphasize that large numbers of the faithful will abandon their religion and begin to follow false prophets or worship false gods. Today, there are many debates over what exactly is allowed in Christianity. Many Christians, especially young Christians, advocate for pluralism and mix the practices of other faiths with those that are traditionally associated with Christianity. Many Christians practice yoga, originally a Hindu spiritual practice, or engage in Buddhist inspired meditation. To the fury of many traditionalists, a large number of Christians take part in New Age and Neopagan practices such as divination. Among the most popular of these faith crossovers are angel cards which act as a combination of tarot card divination and shamanic communication with the spirit realm. There is no clear consensus among Christians over what is and is not permitted, and that worries many. Biblical prophecies that talk about the end times often emphasize that large numbers of the faithful will abandon their religion and begin to follow false prophets or worship false gods. Today, there are many debates over what exactly is allowed in Christianity. Many Christians, especially young Christians, advocate for pluralism and mix the practices of other faiths with those that are traditionally associated with Christianity. Many Christians practice yoga, originally a Hindu spiritual practice, or engage in Buddhist inspired meditation. To the fury of many traditionalists, a large number of Christians take part in New Age and Neopagan practices such as divination. Among the most popular of these faith crossovers are angel cards which act as a combination of tarot card divination and shamanic communication with the spirit realm. There is no clear consensus among Christians over what is and is not permitted, and that worries many.
Fall of many prominent Christians. Shutterstock.com In the last few decades, Christianity has accumulated a number of black eyes as the result of painfully public scandals. The Catholic Church has repeatedly been embroiled in child abuse and sexual scandals and responded by trying to cover them up. Protestants have not fared much better. Numerous radio and television evangelists have been arrested for everything from sexual misconduct to fraud. Heads of prominent churches were named as predators during the #MeToo movement, and toxic cultures on Christian college campuses were called out across the nation. This struck many Christians as a warning that there were many false prophets and poor leaders lurking in modern Christianity. They were, whether through deliberate malice or their own failure to tame their vices, leading the faithful astray. Some Christians felt that this was a warning to the faithful that the end of days was far closer than anyone seemed to realize. In the last few decades, Christianity has accumulated a number of black eyes as the result of painfully public scandals. The Catholic Church has repeatedly been embroiled in child abuse and sexual scandals and responded by trying to cover them up. Protestants have not fared much better. Numerous radio and television evangelists have been arrested for everything from sexual misconduct to fraud. Heads of prominent churches were named as predators during the #MeToo movement, and toxic cultures on Christian college campuses were called out across the nation. This struck many Christians as a warning that there were many false prophets and poor leaders lurking in modern Christianity. They were, whether through deliberate malice or their own failure to tame their vices, leading the faithful astray. Some Christians felt that this was a warning to the faithful that the end of days was far closer than anyone seemed to realize.
Christians who predict the end of the world are often the subjects of mockery, but there are very good reasons that many of the faithful are nervous. Plenty of the things that are going on around the world seem to indicate that the end times are rapidly approaching. Such events, however, do not comprise proof. The end may be near, or it may be centuries away. There will be no way to know for certain until Christ returns again and the final battle begins.
Representative image
Biswajit Dhar
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the 16-member mega-regional trading arrangement that is being negotiated for the past six years, seems to be ready for the end-game by close of the year. This was the message that was conveyed at the end of the meeting of the ministers from the RCEP Participating Countries (RPCs) held in Singapore last week.
The ministerial statement informed that the ministers had adopted a Package of Year-End Deliverables, which was developed by the Trade Negotiating Committee. The ministers tasked the negotiators to expeditiously bring negotiations to a mutually beneficial and fair conclusion and to exert utmost efforts to achieve each of the targets in the Package, so as the achieve a comprehensive, high-quality and mutually beneficial economic partnership agreement. Other than the sense of optimism that the deal would be done before the end of 2018, the ministers gave little away in terms of the substance of the proposed deal.
The negotiating processes of free trade agreements (FTAs) have been high on rhetoric about their likely beneficial outcomes and the participating countries have always stood by the informal commitment they make to each other not to allow public scrutiny of the work-in-progress. The negotiating process of the RCEP has been no different, and even though there are countries with vastly differing expectations from the agreement, there is no way in which there can be independent assessments in individual countries as to whether the likely outcome(s) match their expectations.
Take for instance the case of India, a country that always appeared to be a rather reluctant participant at the negotiating table. Thus, while the main protagonists of the proposed agreement, which include most of the RPCs, have pitched for comprehensive liberalisation of goods trade, India has been reluctant to go that far. In 2015, while putting forth its initial offers on tariff liberalisation, Indias offer to China was elimination of tariffs on 42.5 percent of its traded products. For all other countries, India was willing to go up to 80 percent.
Related stories
Indias tariff offers were borne out of its experiences of implementing the FTAs with ASEAN, Japan and Korea. In each of these agreements, India had seen a ballooning of its trade deficits, caused by a steep rise in imports and lack of export penetration in the markets of FTA partners. Indias trade with ASEAN and Korea has seen a near doubling of the deficit since 2009-10, when these agreements were being finalised, while with Japan, the deficit had grown at a lesser pace. In fact, Indias trade deficit with the RPCs in 2017-18 was well over USD 104 billion, as against the overall deficit of USD 162 billion.
That India was clearly wary of China was eloquently expressed in the initial offers to China. Despite not enjoying preferential market access like the other major economies, Chinas presence in Indias market had seen tremendous expansion. It exports to India had increased from about USD 31 billion in 2009-10 to over USD 76 billion in the previous financial year, while its imports from India increased from USD 11 billion to USD 13 billion.
The rapidly growing imports from China have not only stymied Indias manufacturing sector, they are now threatening some of our critical sectors such as textiles. According to the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), Indias trade with China in textiles and clothing has gone from a surplus in 2013-14 to a deficit of USD 1.5 billion these are worrying signs for these employment-intensive sectors.
If existing levels of trade openness vis-a-vis the RPCs have pushed Indias manufacturing sector into an existential crisis, can the Indian economy bear the brunt of further liberalisation? The answer seems to be an unequivocal no, since indications are that many of the RPCs would like see tariffs eliminated in no less 90 percent of the products.
At this level of tariff-elimination, small producers in agriculture and dairying, would be left in a highly unequal competition with the corporate interests from several RPCs. In the manufacturing sector the RCEP tariff-cut could adversely affect the automobile industry, which has been able to survive in an adverse domestic environment with the help of tariff protection.
Where did India see the gains that kept it engaged with the RPCs? The answer is, of course, services. From the multilateral trade negotiations to now, in the FTAs, India has been looking for enhanced market access for its service providers, especially the skilled and the semi-skilled, or the "Mode 4". But the RPCs have been lukewarm to Indias proposal of dealing with tariff elimination in the goods sector and services sector liberalisation on parallel tracks, which could have given India some room to offset the adverse consequences of tariff elimination.
Clearly, India needs to work on its long-neglected vulnerabilities in agriculture and manufacturing, if it is to secure some gains from the proposed RCEP. This would require a reasonable phase-in period for tariff elimination, which could be used to lend competitive edge to the real sectors.
The challenge would be to negotiate effectively with countries, such as China, which are looking at the market opening via the RCEP to make good the losses it is suffering in the bruising tariff war with the United States.
(Biswajit Dhar is professor, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. Views expressed are personal.)
Replacing fossil fuel vehicles can save Rs 14,000 crore: Anant Geete DNA India
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the second phase of the FAME India scheme here on September 7 at India's First Global Mobility Summit 'MOVE', Union Minister Anant Geete said Wednesday.
Last week, citing official sources that the prime minister would launch FAME II offering incentives for mass adoption of electric vehicles with an outlay of Rs 5,500 crore on September 7.
"Fame I will come to an end by September 30 and the Prime Minister will announce FAME II on September 7," Geete said.
Addressing the inaugural session of the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association here, Geete said the Heavy Industry Ministry was framing a comprehensive auto policy after consultation with all the stakeholders.
"The department of heavy industries has always supported the automotive industry. We will definitely look into suggestions of having a clear, well defined short, mid and long term policy.
"It is the duty of the government to make policy which is executed by the industry. So we should not make a policy which cannot be executed by the industry," Geete said.
In February, the government had sought stakeholders' comments on the draft National Auto Policy, which seeks to promote clean and safe mobility and adopt a long-term road map to harmonise emission standards with global benchmarks by 2028.
The minister said the government will address the auto industry's concerns regarding fuels and biofuel, however, adding that with changing times, it must adapt and embrace new technologies.
The heavy industry and public enterprises minister observed that the demand of changing times means we have to move towards electric mobility.
"In future we have to move towards it and we must accept the challenges of the future requirements," Geete said.
In April, the government had extended the phase 1 of the FAME India scheme by six months till September-end or till its second phase is approved.
The first phase of the scheme was initially proposed for two years till March 31, 2017 but was extended twice for six months up to March 31, 2018.
The second phase of the scheme spanning five years will offer subsidy to all categories of electric vehicles, including two-wheelers, three-wheelers and four-wheelers including taxis and electric buses used in public transportation, to promote green vehicles and check pollution.
It will also envisage setting up massive charging infrastructure to support electric vehicles, senior officials said.
However, strong hybrid vehicles, which were entitled to incentives in the ongoing pilot phase of the scheme, will not be able to avail sops in the second phase.
Under the scheme, depending on technology, battery-operated scooters and motorcycles are 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.
Automotive manufacturers claim the incentive from the government at the end of each month.
Hotel companies reported an overall healthy Q1FY19 supported by favourable domestic demand-supply situation in the industry. With limited new rooms entering the system and sustained uptick in demand, room rates saw an improvement. With a parallel increase in occupancies, the revenue per available room (RevPAR) improved. We expect the momentum to continue followed by strong growth especially from Q3, given the first half is seasonally weaker for the leisure industry. We like Indian Hotels and Royal Orchid from the investment perspective.
Indian Hotels
Indian Hotels (IHTL) reported a mixed performance with an overall healthy 7.5 percent year-on-year (YoY) topline growth driven by improved revenues from the domestic operations, though the international segment remained weak. Earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margins improved 140 basis with higher RevPAR which grew 9.7 percent YoY in the domestic segment and declined 0.8 percent YoY in the international segment. The company reduced its debt which led to savings in interest cost. Other income too was higher YoY. Consequently, the company posted a net profit from negative base last year.
LemonTree Hotels
Lemon Tree Hotels (LEMO) which got listed in March this year, posted a net profit in Q1 compared to a loss last year. The company reported an 18 percent increase in revenue on the back of a 15 percent YoY growth in ARR. Despite a 3 percent YoY uptick in the number of rooms, the company saw a 2.5 percent YoY increase in occupancies. A limited increase in operating costs led to a 31 percent YoY expansion in EBITDA and 260 basis points jump in EBITDA margin.
Royal Orchid Hotels
Royal Orchid (ROYL) reported a strong 18 percent uptick in revenue with improvement in both occupancies and ARRs. With a sharp uptick in margins, the company managed to more than double its EBITDA and saw 79 percent YoY growth in net profit. Losses at the subsidiary level have started to trim. With reduced debt, the company reported a reduced interest cost. It has plans to add around 15 more properties in FY19 which would lead to the addition of 600 rooms in the portfolio and would provide a boost to topline in the coming quarters.
EIH Ltd
East India Hotels (EIH) reported a strong uptick in the revenue and profits after the reopening of one of its main property in Delhi. EBITDA margin improved 460 basis points with reduced employee costs. Due to fall in other income, net profit declined 11 percent YoY.
With the reopening and revenue traction from the Delhi property, the occupancies and revenues are expected to improve further in the coming quarter. Moreover, the company has a strong pipeline of rooms which will help drive growth in the longer run. The debt-equity ratio at 0.2x is lower than peers and with an interest cover of 9.8x the company has a cushion for raising funds for the development of the new upcoming properties.
Outlook
The sector had suffered in the past on account of low occupancies and suppressed room rates due to strong supply.
With recovering occupancies, improving domestic room rates and RevPARs, a rise in domestic leisure spend and favourable demand-supply scenario, the quarter reported a healthy performance which we expect to continue in the coming year.
The overall demand-supply situation is improving with a slowdown in supply and a rapid uptick in demand, leading to an improvement in rates. With a concomitant increase in occupancy, we expect revenue and profits to improve in the coming year. In recent times, the stocks have corrected 15-37 percent from their 52-week highs.
Indian Hotels has completed all restructuring and cleaned up a lot of debt from the balance sheet, and is now positioned for growth. The company aims for margin expansion via cost savings and monetisation of its brand.
Royal Orchid Hotels is a relatively smaller hotel chain but better placed than peers on the valuation front. The hotel chain is growing rapidly and the stock has corrected substantially from its 52-week high.
Lemon Tree and EIH are both quality stocks but at their current price seem a tad expensive and we would like to see a better entry point for these, although these should be kept on the radar as the tourism sector as a whole is positioned for growth.
Follow @Ruchiagrawal
For more research articles, visit our Moneycontrol Research Page.
IPO
live bse live
nse live Volume Todays L/H More
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has initiated an inquiry against L&T Finance Holdings, Tree House Education, DB Realty and at least a dozen other companies, to find if the companies have used the money raised through initial public offerings strictly for the purposes mentioned in their prospectuses, a source told Moneycontrol.
The move follows some investors complaining to regulators that the companies have used a portion of the funds for purposes other than those stated in the red herring prospectuses.
The Western Regional Director has sought the relevant documents from these companies to examine if the allegations have merit.
The Western Regional Director has already sent notices to some of the companies and rest will receive the notices in the coming days. A Mumbai suburban real estate also figures on this list of companies. In addition, some broking, pharma and textile companies are also under scanner of MCA.
In an e-mail response to Moneycontrols queries, L&T Finance Holdings said: The company did its IPO in July 2011. In this regard, the company had been asked to submit certain information/clarification by Registrar of Companies and the same has been duly submitted by the company in time. The company has not received any further communication thereafter.
In its response, Tree House said: We had received a normal enquiry questionnaire from Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), and we had already submitted our reply to MCA in the matter
DB Realtys Company Secretary declined to comment on the queries sent to it by Moneycontrol.
MCA has started sending notices under Section 206 of the Companies Act. This section relates to whether a company has fulfilled the promises made in its Draft Red Hearing Prospectus. The section deals with the provisions relating to inspection, inquiry and investigation of the affairs of company. Investigation within the meaning of the relevant provisions of the Act is a form of probe; a deeper probe; into the affairs of a company.
Said the source: Any deviation in the use of IPO funds other than the purpose mentioned will attract prosecution charges against company. However, first we will complete the enquiry.
MCA may share a part of this enquiry report with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India if the probe concludes that there were irregularities in the use of funds raised through the IPO.
A good recovery in the last hour helped the market close with shallow cuts. The Sensex managed to recover over 250 points from its low point, while the Nifty shed about 70-odd points from its low points. Both indices closed in the red.
A combination of weak rupee as well as high crude oil prices weighed on sentiment on D-Street as investors rushed to sell stocks through the afternoon. However, a recovery in index heavyweights in the last hour, helped benchmarks erase losses. The Indian currency touched a record low of 71.97 per US dollar before seeing a pullback of around 12 paise.
Higher crude prices is one of the key reasons behind the rupees fall. Along with it, there are worries over fiscal deficit as well as a widening current account deficit (CAD). Increase in government spending due to this being an election year is also weighing on sentiment. There are fears among participants of the currency hitting 75 per dollar as well, AK Prabhakar, Head of Research at IDBI Capital told Moneycontrol.
Meanwhile, higher crude oil prices were also on the higher side as supply issues dominated cues on this front. A hurricane in the US along with supply threats from Iran on the back of upcoming sanctions also dented sentiment. Brent crude prices had almost touched USD 80 per barrel.
The recovery was led by automobile names, courtesy a good rally in Tata Motors. The stock rallied after its August JLR sales were stellar and helped in boosting auto names. There was a recovery in the metals segment as well, while pharmaceuticals, the sole gainer through the morning and afternoon, strengthened its position to end in the green. The Nifty Pharma and metal index were higher by a percent.
Among broader markets, the midcaps managed to end the day with a fall of around one-third of a percent. It had declined over a percent in the morning.
At the close of market hours, the Sensex is down 139.61 points or 0.37% at 38018.31, while the Nifty is down 43.30 points or 0.38% at 11477.00. The market breadth is negative as 1,053 shares advanced, against a decline of 1,680 shares, while 180 shares were unchanged.
Yes Bank, Vedanta and Hindalco were the top gainers, while HUL, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Bharti Infratel have lost the most.
Experts Moneycontrol spoke to also recommended to look at the brighter side of things coming out of the days move.
The RBI is caught in the noise and letting the rupee have a freefall. With USD 400 billion of reserves, there should be some action to instill confidence. The market, on the other hand, has shown extreme resilience. As such, it was very top-heavy earlier and this kind of a correction is inevitable. Amazon has hit USD 1 trillion market cap, and we could be looking at stories in India which will hit USD 100 billion next, Sanjiv Bhasin, EVP-Markets and Corporate Affairs at IIFL said.
Stocks in news:
Shares of Sunil Hitech Engineers fell as much as 5 percent on news report that the infrastructure firm is likely to be put under insolvency proceedings.
Shares of Tata Motors rose 1.3 percent as company's JLR sales increased by 66 percent and 2 percent in UK and US, respectively. Tata Motors' August JLR UK sales was up 66 percent at 3,444 units against 2,077 units in the same month last year.
Shares of Varroc Engineering slipped 2.3 percent even though the company reported marginally better number for the quarter ended June on YoY basis. The company's Q1FY19 (April-June) consolidated net profit was up 2.1 percent at Rs 100.4 crore against Rs 98.4 crore, in the same quarter last fiscal.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has initiated an inquiry against L&T Finance Holdings, Tree House Education, DB Realty and at least a dozen other companies, to find if the companies have used the money raised through initial public offerings strictly for the purposes mentioned in their prospectuses, a source told Moneycontrol. L&T Finance Holdings closed 1.9% lower, and Tree House Education ended 4.6% lower.
Global Update
Equity markets in Asia were negative after there was weak handover from Wall Street. Facebook and Nike lead losses there. Nikkei 225 was down by 0.51 percent to close at 22,580.83.
Meanwhile, markets in Europe were lower as investors continued to be worried about global trade war fears. Stoxx 600 was down around 0.4 percent.
Special additional excise duty of Re 1 cess/litre on petrol, diesel will be applicable. Customs duty on gold and other precious metals will be increased to 12.5 percent (Image: PTI)
live bse live
nse live Volume Todays L/H More
Shares of oil marketing companies fell over a percent, with HPCL and BPCL hitting fresh 52-week lows, as crude oil prices move upwards. The Brent crude is hovering close to USD 80 per barrel and this has impacted sentiment among investors.
The likes of HPCL, BPCL and IOC were all down 1 percent.
Higher crude oil prices imply a hit on oil marketing companies revenues as their input costs rise. A weaker rupee adds as a double whammy to such companies.
For companies like BPCL and HPCL, crude oil is a raw material which they will have to buy at the higher price and their final selling products are various refined products like petrol, diesel etc. The prices of these refined products may not necessarily increase by the same proportion as of the crude oil. As a result, the refining companies will start losing money, explained Ritesh Ashar, Chief Strategy Officer at KIFS Trade Capital in an earlier interaction with Moneycontrol.
Oil prices have risen on the back of supply disruption risks that could originate due to a hurricane forecast that is set to hit US Gulf Coast. Brent crude hit a session high of $79.72 before paring gains.
Both benchmarks jumped earlier after the evacuation of two Gulf of Mexico oil platforms in preparation for Tropical Storm Gordon. The storm was expected to become a hurricane before it makes landfall as a Category 1 hurricane near the Mississippi-Alabama border.
Vessel traffic along the U.S. Gulf Coast on Tuesday was under restrictions ahead of Gordon.
The Gulf of Mexico is home to 17 percent of U.S. crude oil production and 5 percent of natural gas output daily, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. On land, the Gulf Coast serves as a major U.S. refining hub.
Apart from this, oil prices have been on a bullish trajectory due to supply concerns, especially with the deadline of sanctions on oil supply on Iran nearing. The US has set a November deadline to impose the sanctions.
At 09:35 hrs Hindustan Petroleum Corporation was quoting at Rs 248.30, down Rs 1.75, or 0.70 percent, on the BSE. It touched a 52-week low of Rs 246.30.
Meanwhile, Bharat Petroleum Corporation was quoting at Rs 348.95, down Rs 2.25, or 0.64 percent, on the BSE. The stock, too, touched a 52-week low of Rs 347.00. Indian Oil Corporation, on the other hand, was quoting at Rs 151.55, down Rs 1.00, or 0.66 percent, on the BSE. It touched an intraday high of Rs 153.00 and an intraday low of Rs 151.00.
(With inputs from Reuters)
live bse live
nse live Volume Todays L/H More
Cyient share price rallied more than 5 percent intraday Wednesday after global investment firm Morgan Stanley said it is Overweight on the stock with target price at Rs 825 per share, implying 13 percent potential upside.
Cyient Solutions and Systems Private Limited, a joint venture between Cyient and Israel-based BlueBird Aero Systems has received first supply order from a unit of the Indian Army for SpyLite mini UAV systems for high altitude aerial surveillance.
Morgan Stanley said this new order opened up new opportunities in Make In India segment for the company.
SpyLite is an advanced, combat-proven, electric, mini unmanned aerial system.
At 11:10 hours IST, the stock price was quoting at Rs 765.50, up Rs 35.25, or 4.83 percent on the BSE.
Disclaimer: The above report is compiled from information available on public platforms. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
live bse live
nse live Volume Todays L/H More
Shares of Strides Pharma Science rose 3 percent intraday Wednesday as company received United States Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) approval for Potassium Chloride extended release tablets.
The company's step-down wholly owned subsidiary, Strides Pharma Global Pte., Singapore, has received approval for Potassium Chloride Extended Release Tablets USP, 8 mEq (600 mg) and 10 mEq (750 mg) from the USFDA.
This is the second extended release product approval for Strides and the company has a strong pipeline of products leveraging its capability in the extended release delivery technology.
Potassium Chloride Extended-Release tablets is a generic version of Klor-Con Extended Release Tablets of Upsher-Smith and Strides is the first Indian generic company to receive this approval.
According to IQVIA MAT data, the US market for Potassium Chloride Extended Release Tablets is approximately USD 60 million.
The product will be manufactured at the companys facility at Bangalore and marketed by Strides Pharma Inc. in the US market.
The company has 78 cumulative ANDA filings with USFDA of which 52 ANDAs have been approved as of date and 26 are pending approval.
At 11:24 hrs Strides Pharma Science was quoting at Rs 486.85, up Rs 6.80, or 1.42 percent on the BSE.
Posted by Rakesh Patil
Answer: Tata Motors
live bse live
nse live Volume Todays L/H More
Shares of Tata Motors rose 3.3 percent intraday Wednesday as company's JLR sales increased by 66 percent and 2 percent in UK and US market, respectively.
Tata Motors' August JLR UK sales was up 66 percent at 3,444 units against 2,077 units in the same month last year.
In the month of August Tata Motors JLR sold 9,648 units, growth of 2 percent, in the US market. However, Jaguar US sales was down 20 percent at 2,469 units. Its total Land Rover US sales was up 14 percent at 7,179 units, YoY.
The commercial vehicle sales grew 26 percent at 39,859 units against 31,566 units on a YoY basis.
In Indian market, company has reported 27 percent rise in its total sales for August at 58,262 units against 45,906 units during same period of last year.
Meanwhile, medium and heavy commercial vehicles (HCVs) sold 12,715 units, a rise of 16 percent year on year, while the number of passenger vehicles sold were reported at 18,420 units. This implies a rise of 28 percent.
At 15:27 hrs Tata Motors was quoting at Rs 268.60, up Rs 6.55, or 2.50 percent on the BSE.
Posted by Rakesh Patil
The Nifty50 after opening lower extended losses as the day progressed after the rupee hit record low of 71.96 a dollar intraday. But as the rupee showed smart recovery from day's low, the index managed to trim losses in the last hour of trade to close above 11,450 levels on Wednesday.
The Nifty50 hold on to its crucial support placed at 11,400 levels and made a bearish candle which looked like a Hammer like pattern on daily charts.
A Hammer which is a bullish reversal pattern is formed after a decline while a Hanging Man is a bearish reversal pattern. A Hammer consist of no upper shadow, a small body, and long lower shadow.
The long lower shadow of the Hammer signifies that it tested its support where demand was located and then bounced back.
The Nifty50 opened at 11,514.85 and managed to hit an intraday high of 11,542.65 amid volatility in the initial few minutes of trade, followed by gradual fall which dragged the index below 11,400. The index hit an intraday low of 11,393.85 but started recouping some of the losses in last hour of trade and closed 43.30 points lower at 11,477. It recovered 83 points from day's low.
The short covering or value buying seen in the last hour of trade may continue in the coming session but that may not sustain for long as short term structure of the market is still weak, experts said.
"Nifty50 registered a Hammer formation as it recouped major part of intraday losses from the day's low of 11,393 levels suggesting some sort of short covering or value buying post 3-day relentless fall. Usually this kind of formations will have bullish connotations provided they attract follow through buying in next trading session," Mazhar Mohammad, Chief Strategist Technical Research & Trading Advisory, Chartviewindia.in told Moneycontrol.
He said, however, short term strength in the indices shall be presumed only on a close above 11,575 in the next session. "Nevertheless as selling is severe in last three sessions any fall towards 11,400 in the first hour of next session may provide an intraday opportunity to create fresh longs for the day with a stop below 11,387."
On the other hand if the index fails to stabilise above 11,393 levels then eventually it may get dragged down towards 11,300 kind of kind of levels, according to him.
Hence, conservative traders are advised to wait for more signs of stability and strength before going long, he advised.
Gaurav Ratnaparkhi, Senior Technical Analyst, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas said overall technical setup suggests that the short term trend is in favour of the bears. "So any minor degree bounce should be used as a selling opportunity. 11,530-11,550 shall be the key hurdle zone where the bears can open next round of fire."
India VIX fell by 1.03 percent to 13.64. Pause in the VIX after the sharp spurt of 10 percent indicates some consolidation could be seen with support zones.
On option front, maximum Put open interest (OI) is at 11,400 followed by 11,500 strike while maximum Call OI is at 11,800 then 11,600 and 12,000 strikes. Meaningful Call writing was seen at 11,600 followed by 11,500 strikes whereas Put writing was seen at 11,400 strike.
"The index formed a Hammer kind of candle on daily scale which suggests that supports are seen at lower zones while immediate trend is on lower top lower bottom which is dragging it to lower levels," Chandan Taparia, Associate Vice President | Analyst-Derivatives, Motilal Oswal Financial Services told Moneycontrol.
He said now it needs to cross and holds above 11,500 zones to witness an up move towards 11,550 then 11,620 zone while on the downside support is seen at 11,420-11,400 zones.
Bank Nifty fell down sharply towards 27,136 mark but managed to recover from lows and formed a Long Legged Doji candle indicates tug of war after the recent decline of 1,250 points from its top of 28,338 marks.
Now it has to hold above 27,250 to witness a bounce towards 27,440 then 27,750 while on the downside support at 27,165 then 27,000 zones, Taparia said.
Maharashtra Seamless
live bse live
nse live Volume Todays L/H More
Shares of Texmo Pipes and Products surged more than 14 percent intraday Wednesday after company received an order worth Rs 81.30 crore.
The company has received an order of HDPE Pipe worth Rs 81.30 crore from Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Chennai.
The execution period of the aforesaid order is 9 months.
Promoters/promoter group/group companies do not have any interest in the entity that have awarded the order and same do not fall under the related party transactions.
The trading window of the company shall remain closed from September 5 to 6, 2018 (both days inclusive) and will open on September 7, 2018.
The 10th annual general meeting of the company will be held on September 25, 2018.
At 09:39 hrs Texmo Pipes and Products was quoting at Rs 27.15, up Rs 2.85, or 11.73 percent on the BSE.
Posted by Rakesh Patil
SBI Mutual Fund has appointed Ashwani Bhatia as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect, the fund house said in a press release on September 5.
Bhatia takes over from Anuradha Rao after she returned to State Bank of India (SBI) as Deputy Managing Director.
Prior to joining SBI Mutual Fund, Bhatia was in charge of revamping the credit structure and processes of the bank.
He has also been associated with SBI Capital Markets Limited, as President & Chief Operating Officer and Whole-Time Director.
Bhatia started his career with State Bank of India (SBI) as a Probationary Officer in 1985. Over his tenure of 33 years with SBI, he worked through various functions and assignments possessing across commercial banking such as forex and treasury, retail credit & liability and SME/corporate credit.
As on June 30, 2018, the average assets of SBI Mutual Fund stood at Rs 233,114 crore
Asian Paints | Promoter entity Smiti Holding and Trading Company Pvt Ltd released a pledge on company's 40.38 lakh equity shares.
"Har Ghar Kuch Kehta hi, says the Asian Paints punch line and it in a way sums up the brand's lasting relationship with the Indian consumer.
On today's Digging Deeper with Moneycontrol, we will share with you the story of the homegrown brand that has gone global as it manufactures, sells and distributes paints, coatings, products related to home decor, bath fittings and even provides a bouquet of related services.
Asian Paints is today India's largest and Asia's second largest paints corporation. It rules the Indian paint industry with 54.1 percent of the market share and it is the holding company of Berger International.
The beginning as was the case with most pre-independent businesses in India was in response to the Swadeshi movement and the company was initiated in a garage in Mumbai by four friends Champaklal Choksey, Chimanlal Choksi, Suryakant Dani and Arvind Vakil in February 1945.
Post the tumultuous years of World War II and the Quit India Movement, the company faced a few setbacks but by 1952, Asian Paints was reporting an annual turnover of Rs 23 crore and by 1967, it had become the leading paints manufacturer in the country.
The four families continued to hold the majority shares of the company but acrimony began to simmer within the unit over the global rights in the 1990s. The conflict led to the Chokseys selling their 13.7 percent shares and subsequently, the Choksey shares were bought by the remaining three families and Unit Trust of India (UTI). The Choksi, Dani and Vakil families hold a share of 47.81 percent in the company
The consumer-friendly brand
Much like its once famous mascot Gattu, Asian Paints never resisted the idea of identifying itself with the budget conscious consumer. In the 1950s, for instance, the company launched a "washable distemper", which was a notch above the inexpensive distemper and the rather steeply positioned plastic emulsions.
This became one of their signature creations and came to be known as Tractor Distemper with the famous tagline Don't lose your temper, use Tractor Distemper." Till date, the product is advertised as an affordable paint for those who want an impressive home but without burning a hole in their pockets.
The advertising smarts of the company have constantly created a certain connection between the products and the consumers.
For instance, in 1954 the distinctive mascot, Gattu, was created by none other than RK Laxman and he became the keynote of Asian Paint's unassuming, relatable brand appeal with the image of a young dishevelled painter.
The image went on to be used in print advertisements and packaging till the 1970s and by 1990s was also seen in TV ads.
The message of Any surface that needs painting needs Asian Paints tied up with the image that was as iconic as the Amul girl.
According to a 2015 piece in Business Standard, after the introduction of Gattu in 1954, sales zoomed ten-fold at Asian Paints because he was more relatable than say rival Jenson & Nicholson's- When you think of colour, think of us campaign.
Gattu appealed to the masses and helped Asian Paints become the leader, according to the Business Standard piece.
What the image did was to bring not the consumer but the painters who actually drive the painting industry to the forefront. But in the years to come, the consumer was wooed and also made to feel special with the Ogilvy & Mather tag line, "Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai," conveying that every home's story through various key moments needed to be told through Asian Paints' colour palette.
The Business Standard piece also states, "This was the post-liberalisation era, a home became a living space, where the consumer wanted to express herself. Decorating one's home via painting was one of the ways. The tagline lifted paints into the lifestyle domain.
Of course, the Mumbai-based company, adds the article, which began in a small garage in the forties also pushed the envelope in product development, marketing and distribution.
Not forgetting the importance of covering all bases, literally, in the 1990s, the company advertised their brand's dependability in protecting and beautifying the exterior of the Indian home in every weather.
Despite controversy plaguing its move to drop Gattu as its face in the 2000s, the future forward attitude of the company has held it in good stead.
According to Business Standard, It was trying to shake off its mass-market tag for a more premium appeal in the 21st century."
To expand its appeal, says the article, since then, the company has rejigged its brand portfolio and kept the emphasis on a few strong brands, neatly clubbed under verticals like exterior (Apex Ultima), interior (Tractor Emulsion, Royale, Royale Play), solutions (Ezycolour) and waterproofing (SmartCare).
Asian Paints has even been organising workshops and creating in-depth research modules with design professionals to predict the colour trends every year.
The company has consistently offered new ideas to approach colour via concepts like Colour World (Dealer Tinting Systems where consumers can pick colours from a shade card and the exact tint can be mixed right before their eyes), Home Solutions (A painting service that brings convenience right to your doorstep) , Kids World (Fun ideas for children's rooms), and Royale Play- where special effects are created through various techniques with brushes, rollers, stencils and more.
The company has also consolidated its earlier home solutions offerings under its paint solutions brand, Ezycolour, to move into the services space. In keeping with the new cutting-edge brand image, the Asian Paint logo is also shorter and crisper today.
Collaborations with the likes of Nippon Paints Company Ltd Japan has also helped Asian Paints to keep refreshing its technical expertise in complex areas like the manufacturing of powder and coil coatings.
There were other significant collaborations too, as in the year 1993 when they set up a joint venture unit along with their overseas subsidiaries in Queensland Australia for manufacturing paints enamels and varnishes.
In 1995, the company set up another joint venture unit to manufacture paints enamels and varnishes in the Republic of Mauritius. And in 1996, the company and PPG Industries Inc. of the US set up a joint venture called Asian PPG Industries Pvt Ltd, to market as well as manufacture automotive paints and certain industrial products.
An ever-increasing footprint
As we have already said before, Asian Paints Ltd is India's largest paint company and according to information in the public domain, the company has operations in over 22 countries with 27 paint manufacturing facilities servicing consumers in 65 countries through Berger International, SCIB Paints, Apco Coatings and Taubmans. The company has manufacturing plants in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Haryana.
A crucial role in its success has been played by Asian Paints' balancing act between its wide range of paints for decorative purposes and for industrial use. They offer among other things, automotive paints, interior wall finishes, exterior wall finishes, enamels and wood finishes.
As early as in 1998, they introduced many new market winning products including a range of wood finishes, the super successful ACE Exterior Emulsion and the ever dependable painting staple, the Asian wall putty.
In 2000, they launched two variants in polyurethane (PU) wood finish under the brand name Opal. In 2001, the company introduced Utsav Enamel for the festival season. Duracast PebbleTex and CrossTex are part of the textured exterior paint range.
Here is a timeline according to Business Line, of the journey, Asian Paints has been on since 1945.
Asian Paints was incorporated in the year 1945.
In the year 1965, the name of the company was changed to Asian Paints (India) Pvt Ltd.
In 1973, the company was converted into a public limited company.
Soon after, Asian Paints went through an updation and modernisation of production facilities to keep up with the increased demand for its products.
In 1985, Asian Paints established a third paint unit. This was interestingly at Patancheru, a little-known area near Hyderabad which became the manufacturing hub for over 15000 MT of paints and enamels.
In 1987, the company initiated a plant for the manufacture of synthetic rubbers lattices with a capacity of 1200 tonnes per annum.
Among many of its joint ventures, were the 1990 joint venture companies called Asian Paints (South Pacific) Ltd in Fiji and Asian Paints (Tonga) Ltd.
In May 1991 the company acquired 1910000 equity shares of Pentasia Chemicals Ltd from Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) and thus PCL became a subsidiary of the company.
During 1992-93, informs Business Line, the company installed and commissioned a manufacturing facility for powder coatings with a capacity of 300 MT at the Kasna plant, near Greater Noida.
In 1999, informs Business Line, the company acquired 76 percent of the equity stake in Sri Lanka-based Delmege Forsyth & Co (Paints) Ltd. They opened a manufacturing plant in Oman in partnership with a local company. They also acquired the entire paints business of Pacific Paints Company based in Australia.
In 2002, the company revamped their international operations and among other key steps, also acquired a controlling stake of 50.1 percent in Berger International Singapore.
Over the years, new technology and brand licensing agreements and tie-ups with international partners, acquisitions, expansion via new paint plants and manufacturing facilities, new distribution centres, new product launches have kept Asian Paints ahead of its competitors.
It also entered the home improvement and design space in India with the acquisition of Sleek International Private Limited, a kitchen solutions provider, and also has acquired the brand network and sales Infrastructure of Ess Ess Bathroom products Pvt Ltd and will now be a key player in the bath fittings business.
In 2015 Business Standard piece, B Ramanathan, managing partner, Ogilvy & Mather, the agency that has been associated with the company for the last 30 years said, "In the last three to four decades, the company has transited from being a paint-can company to a solutions provider, moving to surfaces beyond walls, with metal and wood finishes."
The ever-evolving success mantra
A Moneycontrol interview with author Saurabh Mukherjea delves deep into his book, 'Unusual Billionaires where he decodes successful businesses using economist John Kay's famous framework of innovation, reputation, architecture & strategic assets.
One of the companies that Mukherjea discusses is Asian Paints and he says, To explain what lies behind the seven decades of continued excellence at Asian Paints, there is a chart in the book, that shows it is not just Asian Paints revenue growth, but also improving return on capital employed (ROCE) for nearly four decades and improving profit margins for nearly three decades. I know there is no other company in India that has pulled it off. I doubt, if I even did a global search, I would find any other company like this."
"The ability of the three families to work cohesively, emphasises the familys focus on the company itself. What they have done very well is to stay focused on one industry- on paints. Even as India changes, their focus on paints has been broadly unwavering. There are a few other lines that they have begun, but the core focus of the business has been paints and as a result, they have pulled away from the rest of the paints industry in a way that I do not think I have seen in any other industry in India. The market leader, nearly 50 percent market share, multi-decadal dominance, it is very rare to see in any country in any industry," he added.
In a 2016 Business World interview, one of Asian Paints' most important strategists, Kanwar Bir Singh or KBS Anand, also chief executive officer and managing director recalled the journey of how over the four decades since he joined the company after leaving IIT-Mumbai in 1979, the company has grown to have around $ 2 billion in top line and profits higher than the combined numbers of its next three immediate rivals, including world No 1 AkzoNobel, Berger Paints and Kansai Nerolac.
KBS is credited with the brand's strategy to look beyond paints and make Asian Paints a holistic home decor solutions company that today also offers kitchen and bathroom solutions, wallpaper and colour consultancy.
One of the major reasons behind Asian Paints' success is its ability to connect with its dealers, consumers across various economic demographics and also its understanding that every colour template must evolve to keep up with the future.
In order to achieve that, says the Business World piece, the company has created a seven-member Technology Council to brainstorm on the companys technology needs and zoom in on business opportunities based on technological prowess. This approach- along with customer feedback garnered through multiple ways inspires the company to launch new products and also strengthen its front-end in a big way.
"Asian Paints does not have distributors - it supplies its paints directly to 45,000 retail shops across India through 125 depots. In a brilliant move, it has now tied up with retailers to tailor its service according to customer needs. So, in the past three years, it has added 250 Colour Ideas stores to take this formats count up to 300. A colour consultant from Asian Paints sits in these stores, and gives advice to consumers on paint solutions for their homes," wrote the Business World.
Setting trends
In a 2016 Forbes India piece, KBS, however, made a startling admission when he said, "The biggest eye-opener was that no one is interested in paint.
This conclusion was drawn in 2000 after a year-long customer engagement exercise by Asian Paints.
According to Forbes, this was the longest-ever customer engagement the company had done with over 850 interviews and group discussions.
"What was found is that paint as a product was very low on peoples minds, only coming to the surface every three to four years when it was time for home improvement. Second, it was the woman of the house who was the actual customer. And there was a third, rather self-affirming realisation: The only brand customers know and recall is Asian Paints," wrote Forbes.
The last revelation, of course, strengthened the company's resolve to continue to reinforce brand recall with steps like recruiting professionals like KBS from the Indian Institutes of Management or installing the first mainframe computer or doing demand forecasting.
The findings, says KBS laid the blocks for almost all the new initiatives the company made over the next decade and a half including introducing the Royale brand and an array of textures, which went down well with the users.
"Asian Paints also started marketing paints in small packs. Priced at Rs 80-90, these gave customers a chance to paint a small part of the wall in their houses and then come back for larger packs to complete the job. This success, in turn, led the top management at Asian Paints to conclude that the customer wanted choices and was hungry for more information. Enter the Colour with Asian Paints store, wrote Forbes.
In 2007, says Forbes, in Mumbais tony suburb of Bandra, Asian Paints launched a paint store unlike any seen before.
"Spread over 5,000 square feet, its aim was to provide customers with advice on painting and decorating their homes. Customers would come in and spend time with a colour consultant who would work with them on various paint types, different shades and textures. Advice on accessories like wallpaper and stencils was also given. Most importantly, there was no expectation to buy. It was an exercise in customer engagement. Women and children loved the place and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive," wrote Forbes
This was the first time the company was interacting with the customer directly, says KBS in the Forbes piece and this then led to a text messaging service through which customers were sent a booklet on paints yielded a stunning 300,000 queries in the first year.
The queries doubled in the second year. While these stores created an incredible brand connect, the cost of operations was prohibitive and the company had to restrict the stores to Mumbai, New Delhi and Kolkata. But this initiative shows the foresight the company has shown to keep up with its customers.
It also set up much smaller versions of these stores within dealer shops across the country. The company now also offers colour consultancies at home, informs Forbes.
The use of IT for predictive demand analysis and automation of factories has also kept the company ahead of its competitors.
Asian Paints also set up a large-format, dealer owned store in Coimbatore where customers can buy lighting from Philips, furniture from Pepperfry, DDecor furnishings, sanitary ware by Hindware and Somany Ceramics tiles in addition to kitchen and bath fittings.
The aim is to have a one-stop shop for home needs, says Forbes. Customers can also get a 3D rendering of what their house will look like, a feature that has proved to be a success.
On the anvil now are augmented manufacturing and production facilities, modernisation of older plants and constant evaluation of strengths and weaknesses and course correction when needed.
In Asian Paint's story, every tint and brush stroke speaks of the tireless commitment to the big picture which just keeps on growing bigger with time. In this case, success truly comes in many colours and strength also comes in the unity of the three families, at the helm of affairs. This many have attributed is the backbone of the Asian Paints success story.
Arvind Fashions Rights Entitlement | Kotak Standard Multicap Fund offloaded 4,83,404 RE shares in company at Rs 36.26 per share. (Image: PTI)
live bse live
nse live Volume Todays L/H More
Shoppers Stop is planning to open five more department stores and expand its presence to 41 cities, up from the current 38, said Rajiv Suri, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
In a freewheeling interview with Moneycontrol, Suri said the company will focus more on revamping women's wardrobe than offer discounts. He added that the strategy of selling old merchandise at discounted rates may not be the right choice as fashion trends keep changing.
The company will embark on its Pujo festive offer, particularly in east India, from September 7.
The company will also focus more on artificial intelligence to understand consumer behaviour.
Q) Amazon is planning to have an offline presence. You have tied up with them, so what is the kind of traction you are witnessing?
A: Our relationship with Amazon is quite new. Shoppers Stop's first step was to go online on the Amazon website, which is now complete. We have now 200-plus brands on the website.
We have got a micro site on their fashion page, which gives us a strategic advantage in terms of visibility, and some Amazon consumers are now coming to our stores. We have opened three kiosks with Amazon. The test period is on, the results are positive and we will open more of these by the end of the year. We hope to open around 12 kiosks by the end of the year.
A: Amazon reaches a lot of people, so we will benefit from that. We were earlier delivering from our warehouses and now we deliver from our stores . It has increased our speed, bringing us closer to the customer and we are able to offer better services.
A: We are going to open five department stores. We are currently in 38 cities and planning to expand into 41 cities. We will open 10-12 beauty stores.
A: It is the market sentiment rather than any activity on our side. There is a lot of news about FDI investments in big companies here, and recent news of the Walmart purchase may have pushed up the share price. On top of everything, the good news is that there is strong GDP growth. Hence, a combination of all these factors is increasing growth in the consumption sector.
A: We are not in talks with anyone.
A: Our expansion in Tier II and Tier III cities is going quite well. Some of the results have been really good. We have opened in Jhansi, and have seen exceptional results there.
Each of our stores have a beauty section. In India, we are the number one retailer for beauty. We have got new brands in our department stores and are opening new stores ourselves. We have about 100 beauty stores with brands like Estee Lauder, Mac, Bobbi Brown, Smashbox, Clinique and we are also expanding our own department stores.
Q) What is the technology innovation that you are working on?
A: We did invest about Rs 60 crore in our omnichannel capabilities and digitisation, and that investment is paying off.
Now we are about 2x in terms of customer visits. This year, we should get about 80 million visits to our e-commerce website. We need to continue to focus on conversion and content in order to increase sales.
Q) In current times, planning is done by data. So how are you looking at artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning to create your future strategy?
A: We are using analytics quite a lot. Around 75 percent of our sales come from First Citizen customers. So, we do have a lot of data on buying behaviour.
We focus on analytics to know what they like to buy, when they like to come and how often they come. So, analytics is super important and we are focusing more and more on that.
Layering on to that are two things forecasting analysis or predictive analysis and next is AI. These are the two things we have started to look at and are working on how we can improve that.
It is important that each store has its own product mix, its own assortment. For example: If you go to the North, the size of the customer may be different, they like big logos on their clothing; if you go down South, they like small logos, and half-sleeve shirts. For us, every city is important. What we sell in Juhu is different from what we sell in Vashi in Mumbai. So, product mix must meet the consumers need.
A: We always look to add brands. In fashion, we are planning to get some brands from abroad but that is during Spring '19 or Autumn '19.
Dont let the happy image of a froth bubbly beer mislead you. Brewing a bottle of beer is far more rigorous than the fun and frolic seen in a pub.
A long wait for the license, dispute with local villagers and lack of skilled workers are just some of the many things Prabhtej Singh Bhatia faced as he tried to set up a craft brewery business in India.
According to Statista, the beer market is estimated to touch $3,758 million in 2018 and grow to $4,564 million by 2020.
Bhatia founded Sona Beverages Pvt which sells craft beer under the brand name Simba in 2015. The brewery has been set up in Chhattisgarh at an investment of Rs 60 crore.
It took me three years to get the license, said Bhatia, adding that he had to let go of the first two plot of lands which he had finalised following protests from local villagers. Lots of people gathered and they were against setting up of a brewery, Bhatia said.
He could eventually set-up his brewery in the third plot of land he selected.
The idea to set-up a brewery in India came while he was studying in the UK in 2009. He chose this business possibly because it wasnt an alien segment for him. Bhatias family had been running a liquor distribution business since 1947. He went a step ahead and finally set-up a brewery in India.
While in the UK, I realised that India had big potential for a different quality and style of beer. At that time, if you removed the label, every beer used to be the same, whether it came in a green, blue or a white bottle, he said.
All used to be lagers. They had a different price range but similar taste. In a sense, there was nothing unique about them, he added.
Bhatia was sure that from day one he would never opt for contract manufacturing.
There are just a couple of small players who are doing their own manufacturing. The rest are mostly getting it manufactured on contract. That is the reason why you do not see consistency. It is not difficult to make a good product. Whats difficult is to make it day-after-day, year-after-year, he said.
Another major issue that troubled the company was the lack of skilled manpower. India mostly has lager breweries. So, workers are only accustomed to the process of producing lager and not craft beer.
Vodafone Idea (Image: Reuters)
live bse live
nse live Volume Todays L/H More
The newly merged entity Vodafone Idea is planning to move the telecom tribunal TDSAT to recover about Rs 7,249 crore that it paid to the Department of Telecom (DoT) for merging their mobile business, reported The Economic Times.
In July, Vodafone and Idea had paid the sum 'under protest' and had kept the option open of challenging the dues sought in the court later.
It is the most logical step to go to courts and recover the money later. Auditors should not question that when other telcos have gone to courts on similar dues, why the merged company did not protect its capital, a source told the paper.
The country's biggest telecom operator requires capital to strengthen its balance sheet to take on other market leaders including Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio.
Read: Vodafone completes merger with Idea, creates India's largest mobile operator
DoT gave a conditional nod for merger of these companies on July 9. Following which, it demanded one-time spectrum charges (OTSC) and other spectrum-related dues from Idea Cellular and Vodafone India as a precondition for approving the merger.
Vodafone India and Idea Cellular then paid Rs 3,926.34 crore in cash and a bank guarantee worth Rs 3,322.44 crore, respectively.
If the case is not settled at the Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), it may go to the Supreme Court, experts told the paper. DoT expects the new operator to move the tribunal and is willing to defend its demand.
We expect them to move TDSAT. Its a question of when, not if. Before the merger, they pay the guarantees and the moment it gets sealed, they head for the courts, a senior DoT official told the paper, adding that the regulator will exhaust all avenues to defend its demand.
Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments
Renowned investor Warren Buffett, dubbed the 'Oracle of Omaha', was born in 1930. The 88-year-old Berkshire Hathaway CEO has had a good mind for business and investment since he was a child. (Image: Reuters)
Buffett bought his first stock in 1941 at the age of 11, buying six shares of Cities Service, an oil service company, at $38 per share. The world's third richest man filed his first tax return aged 14, after making $500 by delivering newspapers. By the time he finished high school, Buffett had bought a stake in a 40-acre farm in Omaha, Nebraska. (Image: Reuters)
In December of 1962, Warren Buffett (then 32), was gaining notoriety as an investor in Omaha, this was also when he first began buying stock in Berkshire Hathaway. By mid-1965, he had bought enough shares to take control of the company. (Pictured here are caricatures of Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway Vice-Chairman Charlie Munger on Heinz bottles. Kraft Heinz is backed by Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital)
Buffett purchased See's Candies, an American manufacturer and distributor of candy, for $25 million in 1972. By the time he was 43, his net worth hit the $100 million mark. (Image: Reuters)
Buffett was 52 when he first made it to the Forbes list of richest Americans. His net worth at that time was $250 million. Three years later, his net worth quadrupled and he became a billionaire. (Image: Reuters)
From 1989 to 1999, Buffett's net worth grew ten times. By the age of 69, his net worth was $36 billion. (Pictured here with his wife and daughter in 1997. Image: Reuters)
Answer: Donald Trump.
Israel's intelligence minister said on Wednesday he had no knowledge of close ally US President Donald Trump ever ordering the killing of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.
A new book by Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, "Fear: Trump in the White House", says Trump told his defense secretary that he wanted to have Assad assassinated in response to a chemical attack on Syrian civilians in April 2017.
The book said James Mattis, the defense secretary, told Trump he would "get right on it" but instead developed a plan for a limited air strike that did not threaten Assad personally.
Trump tweeted that quotes attributed to Mattis were "made up frauds, a con on the public". Mattis dismissed the book as "a uniquely Washington brand of literature".
"I do not know of any such instruction. He (Trump) is also denying it, by the way," Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz told Tel Aviv radio station 103 FM.
"In any event, what can be said is that in the framework of the coordination between the United States and Israel the subject of the Syrian regime is certainly part of the discussions. Israel did not take a decision to topple Assad."
While formally neutral on the 7-year civil war in neighbouring Syria, Israel has carried out scores of air strikes against suspected attempts by Assad's Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah allies to set up permanent posts or advanced arms.
Under decades of Assad family rule, Syria has maintained a Cold War-style hostility toward Israel. Katz said Israel did not see a better alternative to Assad among Syrian rebel groups.
"Of course his (Assad's) actions are terrible actions, and something that we abhor and condemn. Those opposing him, ISIS and others, are not a side that we think are better. We took care to preserve our interests," Katz said.
Woodward gained national fame for his reporting on the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, and has since written a number of books that provide behind-the-scenes glimpses of presidential administrations and other Washington institutions.
For this book, Woodward spoke to top aides and other insiders with the understanding that he would not reveal how he got his information, said the Washington Post, which published excerpts from the book on Tuesday.
The Congress accused the BJP of bribing voters with state funds through its 'free smartphone' scheme in Rajasthan and insulting the legacy of Rajput king Maharana Pratap and his close aide Bhamashah by naming it after name.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi alleged that weeks before the Model Code of Conduct comes into force, the Vasundhara Raje government is spending people's money to lure voters in the state.
The BJP government in Rajasthan has announced providing free smartphones with Internet connectivity, under the Bhamashah Digital ParivarYojana' to families covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in the state.
As per government records, 1.64 crore families with 6.08 crore members are enrolled with 'Bhamashah' scheme and of these 1.03 crore families are entitled to receive benefits under the NFSA.
"The BJP is using public money to collectively bribe the people of Rajasthan. It is offering mobile phones as an 'electoral lollipop' with tax payers' money to garner votes," Singhvi alleged.
There is nothing wrong in making manifesto promises but spending people's money to offer an 'electoral bribe' is an offence, he told reporters.
The Congress leader claimed it is being done at a time when Chief Minister Raje and her BJP government are facing rejection from people of the state.
"The BJP-led Vasundhara Raje Government is using people's money from the state treasury for self-promotion.
"It was widely reported how BJP used people's money to further political goals by spending Rs 1 crore on Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's 'Gaurav Yatra' from August 4 to 10 just in the Udaipur division itself," he told reporters.
Singhvi said Representation of the People Act, 1951 clearly lays down the laws of the land in this aspect and explicitly defines the term 'bribery'. This offering of BJP by distributing mobile phones just before the elections is "collective bribery" of "monumental proportions", he said.
"On behalf of the people of Rajasthan, Congress party wants to ask why the Vasundhara Raje government woke up after 56 months of slumber, just before the elections to give away mobile phones? "Does it not want to hide its monumental failures?" Singhvi said, alleging the Modi Government and the BJP-ruled states are indulging in "mindless freebies" in the last lap of their terms.
"Why is the BJP insulting the legacy of the great Bhamashahji, who was also the treasuryin-charge of Mewar.... He was known for his astuteness in finances- yet the BJP is hurting the treasury by this mindless electoral bribery and insulting his legacy," he said.
loudspeakers noise
The Election Commission (EC) has reversed its decision to cut timing for using loudspeakers during poll campaigning, according to a report by The Hindu.
EC has restored the previously permissible timing for using loudspeakers from 6.00 am to 10.00 pm during election campaigns.
In an all-party meeting recently, recommendations were made by some political parties requesting the timing of loudspeakers usage for campaigning be extended and issue instructions relaxing the rule on it.
According to the report, the decision was taken after thorough deliberation on the recommendations made by the parties.
Representatives of nearly all political parties had suggested that the timing be increased. We deliberated on the issue and have decided to revert to the old order. The suggestions by the parties are also being examined, the report quotes an official as saying.
However, candidates of political parties will still be required to seek permission from concerned authorities.
The poll panel had earlier cut the permissible time of using speakers and and public address systems by five hours.
In its order, issued around a month ago, EC had instructed that the use of loudspeakers fitted on vehicles on any kind, for electioneering purpose during the entire campaign period -- starting from the date of announcement of the polls to the date of result declaration -- should be permitted for 11 hours.
Following the order, timings for loudspeaker use were restricted from 8.00 am to 7.00 pm.
Four states -- Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Rajasthan -- will head for assembly polls later this year.
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray slammed the Maharashtra police for holding a press conference last week over the arrest of five Left-wing activists in multi-city raids for alleged Maoist links and favoured timely filing of chargesheet rather than labelling the accused as "Urban Naxals".
He said the government should submit evidence in the court instead of revealing everything before the media.
Instead of labelling the accused as 'Urban Naxals' or 'Hindu terrorists', charge sheets should be filed in time, Thackeray said while referring to the cases involving the five activists as also to the probe into recent seizure of explosives across state for which some people allegedly associated with right-wing groups have been arrested.
"A new system has started, wherein the police reveals everything before the court takes a decision. Even the court has expressed its displeasure over this... If what you're doing is right, submit evidence before the court soon," the Sena chief told reporters here after a meeting with his party leaders.
On Friday last week, State Additional Director General (Law and Order) Parambir Singh along with the Pune police had addressed the media in connection with the arrest of five activists.
During the press conference, Singh had read out letters purportedly exchanged between the activists and had claimed the police had "conclusive proof" to link the Left-wing activists arrested in June and last week to Maoists.
Pune police had on August 28 raided homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested five of them Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Sudha Bharadwaj in Faridabad and Gautam Navalakha in Delhi.
The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the Elgaar Parishad event on December 31 last year, which was followed by violence at Koregaon-Bhima in Pune district the next day.
Separately, the Maharashtra ATS last month arrested five persons after explosives were seized from different places in the state, which according to the police were to be used to trigger blasts at various places.
Thackeray said since terrorism has no religion, why should those arrested be labelled either as 'Hindu terrorists or Urban Naxals'.
"Whether you call them Urban Naxals or blame the Sanathan Sanstha, chargesheet should be filed against them in time," he said.
"Why have all of them become active during this government's tenure? If a pro-Hindutva government is in power in the country, why are Hindu terrorists, if at all they are, springing up now," he said.
Thackeray also slammed the central government over what he called the "failed" note ban decision and said, "Who will take the responsibility of the loss to the country's economy and of the people who died while standing in queues? Will you accept this was a mistake?"
Thackeray also said he had called Gujarat's Patidar leader Hardik Patel and expressed his solidarity with him over his ongoing hunger strike.
"I have extended my support to him and told him we need fighters like you. I also requested him to withdraw his hunger strike," Thackeray said.
Patel has been on an indefinite fast in Ahmedabad since August 25 with demands including farm loan waiver and reservation for the Patidar community under OBC category in government jobs and education sector.
Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said Wednesday the government need not respond to daily or weekly changes in the oil prices as they declined in July after showing northward movement a month ago. Crude oil has gained $7 a barrel in a fortnight, driven by fears that the US sanctions on Iran will likely contract supplies.
Weekly, daily or periodic changes in global oil and commodity prices are to be observed but don't necessarily have to be responded.
"The prices rose in June but then declined in July. Is not it? Same situation may happen again, therefore policy can not be a knee-jerk reaction to periodic events in the markets," Kumar said.
Petrol and diesel prices in the country have been rising owing to a sharp rise in global crude oil rates.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram has blamed the NDA government for rise in petrol and diesel prices, saying it was happening due to "excessive taxes".
Petrol price in Delhi on Tuesday rose to a record Rs 79.31 a litre and diesel climbed to an all-time high of Rs 71.34, renewing calls for a cut in excise duty to cushion the spike.
Almost half of the retail selling price of the two fuels is made up of central and state taxes.
Replying to a question on the reasons for economic slowdown in 2016-17, he said it was not exclusively on account of demonetisation, there were also other factors responsible for it.
"Simple point, I am making is that the slowdown in economic activity during 2016-17 was not a result exclusively of demonetisation, but also a result of the declining trend in the economic activities which started from the last quarter of 2015-16," he said.
On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the demonetisation of high-value currency notes of Rs 500/1000.
India's economic growth slipped from 8.2 percent in 2015-16 to 7.1 percent in 2016-17 and further to 6.7 percent in 2017-18.
Almost half of the fuel price is made up of taxes. The Centre currently levies a total of Rs 19.48 per litre of excise duty on petrol and Rs 15.33 per litre on diesel.
On top of this, states levy Value Added Tax (VAT) - the lowest being in Andaman and Nicobar Islands where a 6 percent sales tax is charged on both the fuel.
Ahmedabad: Patidar community leader Hardik Patel during at road show for the second phase of state assembly elections, in Ahmedabad on Monday. PTI Photo by Santosh Hirlekar (PTI12_11_2017_000084B) *** Local Caption ***
The Gujarat government on September 4 stepped up its attempts to persuade social activist Hardik Patel after doctors expressed concern over his declining health.
The Patidar leader has been on a hunger strike for 12 days now.
The state government held a meeting with several key leaders of the Patidar community at Gandhinagar on September 4, hours after doctors expressed concern over Hardiks health.
Hardik has lost almost 20kg weight in the last 11 days and should get admitted to the hospital.
The fast
Hardik had launched his fast on August 25 to push for demands, including farm loan waiver and reservation for Patidar community under Other Backward Class (OBC) category in education sector and government jobs.
He launched the strike at his bungalow on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on the third anniversary of his mega pro-quota rally in the city.
Governments reaction
Gujarat Energy Minister Saurabh Patel met Patidar leaders associated with six different bodies of the community. He said the government's priority is to ensure that the Patidar leader calls off his hunger strike.
Revenue minister Kaushik Patel and Minister of State for Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja also spoke with Patidar leaders associated with Vishwa Umiya Foundation, Umiya Mata Sansthan and Khodaldham Trust, among others.
Also read: Opinion | Hardik Patel is carving a niche for himself in Indian politics
Yashwant Sinha to take agitation to national level
Hardik has received support from former Union minister Yashwant Sinha and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament (MP) Shatrughan Sinha, who met him on September 4.
Following a meeting with Hardik, Yashwant Sinha announced that he would take the agitation, particularly with regard to farmers, to the national level.
"During my short meeting with Hardik, it has been decided that we will take this agitation to the national level and fight strongly. Not just Gujarat, we will take this movement to every corner of the country," Yashwant Sinha said.
"The issues for which Hardik Patel is holding a fast have created an impact across the country. The issues are being discussed everywhere," he added.
The former Union minister also said the government should pay attention to the demand of reservation.
Shatrughan Sinha, however, maintained that their meeting with Hardik was not politically motivated.
Shatrughan Sinha alleged that the BJP governments at the Centre as well as Gujarat were not bothered even as the entire Patidar community was worried about Hardik.
Hardik also received support from leaders and representatives of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Congress, Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Hindustani Awami Morcha (HAM), who visited him at his residence.
On the ninth day of his fast, Hardik unveiled his will.
The Patidar leader divided his property among his parents, a sister, 14 youths killed during the quota stir in 2015 and a 'Panjrapole (shelter for ill and old cows) close to his village.
(With PTI inputs)
Global hospitality major InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is looking to have 150 hotels in India, including those in pipeline, in next three years, a senior official has said. The hospitality chain currently has 31 hotels operational and 46 in pipeline in India under its four brands.
"We expect to get 150 hotels in India, that is opened hotels and and hotels in pipeline in next two to three years from the 77 today," IHG Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa CEO Kenneth Macpherson said.
At present the company has four brands in India Intercontinental Hotels, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, he added.
"The upcoming hotels will be under the brands we have in the country and on the strength of Holiday Inn in the Indian market, it is going to be a key part in the growth," Macpherson said.
Equally when the company has the right partners in the right locations with the right assets, it could consider introducing more brands here, he added.
"Whenever we bring a brand in India, we have to make sure we have the talent, we have the commercial enterprise that can make that brand successful," Macpherson said.
When asked about the segment that could be the main driver for growth going forward, he said: "In terms of volume of hotels, the majority of growth will come from our midscale brands Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express".
But, as the company also has fabulous brands in luxury and upscale, it will like to balance the portfolio, he added.
On being asked about the business model the company follows, Macpherson said: "We follow the asset light model. Globally we follow two key models, the franchised and the managed model".
In India, today majority of the hotels are under the managed model and the 14 hotel agreement that has been signed with SAMHI will also have managed model.
"I expect managed model is going to play a important role as we develop brands as we build scale," Macpherson said.
About the partnership with SAMHI, he said, "Out of the 14 hotels, by end of this calender year, we will have 9 to 10 other Holiday InnExpress hotels opened in key cities in India. Rest will be opened by middle of next year".
These 14 hotels will add around 2,000 rooms in the company's portfolio. This will make IHG one of the largest midscale operaters in India, he added.
On the Indian market, Macpherson said: "We are fully committed to the Indian market. We see great potential here, strong economic growth, strong domestic travel growth and continued policies from the government to support tourism".
IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns more than 5,400 hotels and 8,10,000 guest rooms in almost 100 countries, with nearly 1,800 hotels in its development pipeline.
Luxury air conditioned (AC) tourist buses may have to shell about Rs three lakh annually to obtain national permit from the government to operate their fleets in India. A notification in this regard is expected in two weeks time.
A draft will be circulated regarding National Permit for passenger vehicles in about two weeks time, said a senior government official.
An annual fee of Rs three lakh for AC buses, Rs two lakh for non-AC buses and Rs 25,000 for taxis could be fixed to obtain the permits.
Group of ministers (GoM) have suggested this fee structure It may be revised, if not found suitable, he said.
GoM, early this year, had suggested that an annual fee structure for tourist buses should be put in place to give fillip to public transport.
Public transport in the country is growing annually at a rate of just about two percent as against a 20 percent annual growth in private transport. A national permit will give the much needed fillip to public transport and help reduce road congestion and its attendant problems, said a statement released by road ministry after the meeting.
At present, an ordinary tourist bus operator pays about Rs 62,920; luxury bus operator pays Rs 1.19 lakh while super luxury bus operator pays only Rs 900 annually under intra-state operations. Under inter-state operations, an ordinary bus operator pays Rs 3,040; luxury bus operator pays Rs 12,880 and super luxury bus operator pays Rs 14,940 annually.
In July, transporters went on strike demanding simplification of national permits for tourist vehicles. The strike was called off on eighth day after the government agreed to consider demands of All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), the independent transport union spearheading the strike.
The government will notify a National Permit Scheme for tourist vehicles to facilitate seamless movement of tourist vehicles across the country, joint statement issued by Centre and AIMTC said.
Another official said that the permit will have similar guidelines like that of goods transport.
The fees will be paid annually and the bus operator will be allowed to operate throughout the country, he said.
Goods transport operators have to pay Rs 16,500 as an annual fees to Centre, through Vahan portal, which is, then, divided among states.
Facebook, Twitter face US Congress over politics and the internet
JUST IN | The Supreme Court will give its verdit on Section 377 on Wednesday, September 6 , according to reports. The article criminalises sexual acts between persons of the same sex.
JUST IN | Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stated that the age for entitlement for Jan Dhan Yojana has been increased to 65 years from 60 years earlier. He stated that the aim is to open Jan Dhan account for each adult and not just the family
.Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stated that Kerala has been provided an interim amount of flood relief of Rs 600 crore so far,
JUST IN | Cabinet has approved the doubling of Jan Dhan account overdraft cap to Rs 10,000 Crore
JUST IN | Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the Rupee is better off compared to other currencies and also stated that the Rupee is falling due to global factors, and virtually has no domestic reasons for the Rupee's current decline.
September 05, 2018 / 08:51 PM IST / 08:51 PM IST JUST IN | Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the Rupee is better off compared to other currencies and also stated that the Rupee is falling due to global factors, and virtually has no domestic reasons for the Rupee's current decline.
September 05, 2018 / 08:41 PM IST / 08:41 PM IST JUST IN | Cabinet has approved the doubling of Jan Dhan account overdraft cap to Rs 10,000 Crore
September 05, 2018 / 10:56 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.
September 05, 2018 / 09:15 PM IST .Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stated that Kerala has been provided an interim amount of flood relief of Rs 600 crore so far,
September 05, 2018 / 08:50 PM IST JUST IN | Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stated that the age for entitlement for Jan Dhan Yojana has been increased to 65 years from 60 years earlier. He stated that the aim is to open Jan Dhan account for each adult and not just the family
September 05, 2018 / 08:08 PM IST
September 05, 2018 / 07:46 PM IST JUST IN | Twitter chief Jack Dorsey says he was 'unprepared' for 'weaponized' social media manipulation.
September 05, 2018 / 07:38 PM IST
September 05, 2018 / 05:31 PM IST JUST IN | The Supreme Court will give its verdit on Section 377 on Wednesday, September 6 , according to reports. The article criminalises sexual acts between persons of the same sex.
September 05, 2018 / 04:32 PM IST JUST IN | During the Union Council of Ministers meeting, ministers will be doing a presentation on various flagship programs of the government to state its target and achievement, reports CNN News18. There may also be a presentation on Rafael deal.
September 05, 2018 / 04:01 PM IST JUST IN | Supreme Court lifts a ban on construction activity in Maharashtra and Uttarakhand.
Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar
Goa BJP leader Rajendra Arlekar ruled out the possibility of leadership change in the state, claiming that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is capable of handling the situation even though he is away.
Parrikar is in the United States for medical treatment.
While the Congress has been demanding that the government should be dismissed owing to Parrikar's absence and the ill-health of two other ministers, there are also rumours that some senior opposition MLAs are on their way to the BJP.
"We do not want leadership change in Goa. The whole party is with Manohar Parrikar and there is no question of leadership change," Arlekar told reporters.
"Parrikar is capable of handling the situation and with the help of party MLAs and the organisation, he is certainly doing that.
"So this question of certain people entering BJP and taking charge of ministry, is irrelevant," Arlekar said.
"All those who are spreading such rumours this message should be clear we all are with Parrikar and we are not looking at any leadership change," he added.
However, he said that the BJP is not averse to admitting leaders from other parties into its fold to "enhance the party base".
Talking about the ailing BJP ministers Pandurang Madkaikar and Francis D'Souza, he said Parrikar will take decision about them "as and when required."
Madkaikar is admitted to a private hospital in Mumbai since June 5 after he suffered a brain stroke. D'Souza is receiving treatment in the US.
"When he (Parrikar) comes back he is certainly going to deliberate on all these issues and take final decision. He is the chief minister and he knows it better what happens to the administration in a minister's absence, so he will take the decision after consulting the party," Arlekar said, adding that the party has given Parrikar "full freedom" in these matters.
Parrikar left for the US on August 31 and is expected to return on September 8. He underwent three-month-long treatment for a pancreatic ailment in the US earlier this year.
L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited on Tuesday announced that the patronage of Hyderabad Metro Rail has touched 20 million (passengers).
LTMRHLManaging Director & Chief Executive Officer K V B Reddy thanked Hyderabadis for welcoming and embracing Hyderabad Metro Rail services in an "overwhelming" manner.
"We have touched this number earlier than expected with only the NagoleAmeerpetMiyapur operational stretch, and we are sure that these numbers will increase manifold with the inauguration of AmeerpetLB Nagar stretch," he said in a statement.
In November last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated a 30 km stretch between Miyapur-Ameerpet-Nagole out of the 72-km long elevated metro project.
There are 24 Metro Rail stations in the operational 30 km stretch. The concessionaire L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited is building the Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) project across three corridors.
According to Reddy, the last and first mile connectivity measures have significantly improved and there are many options available once one (passenger) deboards the train to reach the destination. "
Our endeavour is to consistently improve passenger services. We have recently introduced free water facility for the passengers and also free of cost restrooms usage at all Metro stations.
Soon passengers more new facilities will be introduced," he added.
amit shah
BJP president Amit Shah attacked Rahul Gandhi, saying instead of demanding an account of work done by Narendra Modi government in the last four years, the Congress president should answer why development did not reach the masses during the "six-decade rule of his family".
Shah was speaking after flagging off the second phase of pre-electoral drive of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh to reach out to voters from Kurubhat village near Dongargarh in Rajnandgaon district. The yatra was renamed in the memory of former prime minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Addressing a rally at the Pragyagiri ground in Kurubhat village, Shah claimed Rahul Gandhi had no the right to question the Modi government and slammed the performance of previous Congress governments.
His (Gandhi) government was in power for 60 years but why electricity did not reach villages. Why farmers did not get better MSP. Why benefits of other welfare schemes did not reach masses.
"People of the country want to know the account of 60 years of the rule from you," the BJP chief said. "We don't need to answer you. You don't have the right to ask this question," he said.
Before the launch of the mass outreach campaign, Shah and Singh paid obeisance at Maa Bamleshwari temple in Dongargarh.
Shah also slammed Rahul Gandhi for criticising Raman Singh over the purchase of smartphones for the Sanchar Kranti Scheme (SKY) in Chhattisgarh.
SKY, launched in July this year, is expected to benefit 45 lakh women belonging to poor families and five lakh college students who will be given smartphones.
Shah said, "I was listening to speech of 'Shehzada' (prince) of the Congress. He was asking Modiji's account of the work done during the last four years. Why was he even asking this question?"
"The people of the country wanted to know from Rahul the account of work done during your four-generation rule," he said.
Referring to the alleged coal allocation scam that had surfaced under the previous Congress-led UPA government, Shah said the Congress is a "coal mine thief which committed irregularities in the coal block allocations".
"Rahul baba during his recent visit to Chhattisgarh, was asking why the Raman Singh government did not purchase mobile phones from BHEL under the SKY scheme. BHEL does not manufacture phones and Rahul does not even know that and he is asking for the hisab (account)," he said.
Recalling the contribution of Vajpayee in the formation of Chhattisgarh, Shah said, "Atal ji had founded Chhattisgarh state and Raman Singh has developed it as per his dreams".
The state was formed on November 1, 2000. Assembly polls are slated to be held in Chhattisgarh along with Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Mizoram later this year.
The September 5 protest by workers and farmers at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi will not be the last rally, organisers said, warning that they would intensify their struggle against the "anti-people" policies of the Centre.
The rally - Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh March - is being organised jointly by CITU, AIKS and AIAWU, organisations and unions affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
"This is the first time after Independence that farmers and workers will jointly participate in a rally against the government," CITU general secretary Tapan Sen told reporters, adding, "And it will not be the last one of our efforts."
"We will announce the second phase of our struggle and war against the government, whose anti-people policies are affecting the poor people of our country. This government is only making policies keeping in mind the interests of the corporate and the rich," Sen said.
Last week, the organisers said they were expecting more than three lakh people from across the country at the rally.
Preparations for the rally had been underway for several days but incessant rain over the last few days threw all that into disarray, damaging the makeshift shelters at Ramlila Maidan, the venue for the protest. However, the thousands of participants who have come from all over the country appeared confident that the rally would be successful in highlighting their issues of concern.
Punik Narayan Rau, 70, has come from Nashik.
Rau said he was part of the "Long March" of farmers from Nashik to Mumbai earlier this year. The march of farmers was led by All India Kisan Sabha and was, among other demands, for proper implementation of Maharashtra government's loan waiver scheme.
Rau said he was disappointed with Maharashtra government.
"The BJP government in Maharashtra fooled us. I have come to Delhi to raise my voice against the anti-farmer policies of the Centre. I will not stop till I get the right price for my crops," he said.
Swaroop, 25 and from Kerala, said he had seen more rains in his home state Kerala this monsoon season. Along with his three friends, he covered the distance on motorbikes.
"Me and my friends travelled from Kerala to Delhi in seven days crossing many states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telegana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh meeting farmers on our way.
"We realised that the state of farmers is seriously bad. We told them that the time has come to raise our voice against the government's policies," Swaroop said.
The farmers and workers, participating in the rally, want remunerative prices for crops as per the Swaminathan Committee recommendations, debt waiver of all farmers and agricultural workers, minimum wage of not less than Rs 18,000 per month for workers.
Lok Sabha, Winter session of Parliament
With an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the opposition BJP in West Bengal have decided to revamp their IT cells and enhance social media presence to take on each other in virtual space.
Both the parties have been engaged in a bitter political war for the past few years and are now planning to extend it to the social media turf.
West Bengal has 42 Lok Sabha seats of which the TMC holds 34 and the BJP just two. BJP chief Amit Shah has set a target of winning over 22 seats and the party hopes that social media will play an important role in its quest.
The TMC, for the past few months, has been strengthening the party's digital cell under the stewardship of Abhishek Banerjee, the party's youth wing president and nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
TMC's national spokesperson Derek O' Brien and Abhishek are quite active on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook and are at the forefront in taking on the BJP in the digital space.
The party is all set to organize a Digital Conclave on September 10 at Nazrul Mancha, where Abhishek will address its IT cell members, ministers and youth workers.
"During this conclave, special instructions will be given to ministers to be more active on social media such as Twitter and Facebook to directly interact with the masses. Most of the BJP ministers are active on social media but in comparison only a few of our ministers and party leaders are active on social media. This has to increase," said a senior TMC leader.
The party has decided to train over 40,000 youths on the usage of social media to reach out to the masses across the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies of the state.
The party has set a target of creating 10,000 WhatsApp groups with 256 members in each of them to spread awareness on the developmental work of the state government and "anti-people" policies of the BJP government at the Centre.
"Till now, we have been able to create 3,000 WhatsApp groups and for each Lok Sabha constituency, we have created a separate media page. We have 12-14 people monitoring media content, fake news and trolls from district level to booth level, said a member of TMC's Social Media IT cell.
Colonel (retd) Dipatanshu Chowdhury, who is a joint convenor of TMC's Media cell, told PTI that the party is not only looking into the usage of Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp but also other platforms such as Messenger, microblogging sites, e-mails, Pinterest and Instagram.
"Social media is going to play a very vital role in the next Lok Sabha polls. We are looking at the use of digital spectrum so that we can reach out to our target audience, especially youths and first time voters," he said.
Mamata Banerjee herself, during the TMC students' wing programme held recently, had asked the party's students and youth activists to become more active on social media to counter the BJP.
With TMC gunning for an all-out cyber war, the West Bengal BJP unit too is gearing up to retaliate.
BJP chief Shah, during his visit in June this year, has spelt out the strategy to reach out to the masses, both physically and also via social media.
Shah had asked party workers to use social media as a tool to combat the TMC government in the state and propagate the pro-people policies of the Modi government.
He had also stressed on using social media to fight against the "rumours" spread by opposition parties and propagate developmental policies of the Narendra Modi government.
Amit Malviya, national in charge of BJP's IT, Website and Social Media Management cell told PTI that BJP will leverage social media effectively to highlight the "colossal misgovernance" and "appeasement politics" of Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal.
"The party has a trained cadre base with presence down to the booth level. BJP also has a huge network of volunteers, which is aligned with the BJP's ideology and sees a better future for themselves and the state under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Malviya said.
On social media platforms, the party plans to highlight the "failures" of the TMC government at the state level and the pro people policies of the BJP.
Speeches and political messages of party president Shah, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and state BJP president and other senior leaders will also be carried on the social media platforms and translated to Bengali so that it can be received by a bigger audience.
State BJP general secretary Sayantan Basu said the party is in the process of creating Facebook pages and WhatsApp groups at every booth of the state.
The purpose of these groups will not only be to highlight various state level issues but also create a public opinion on local issues through the use of social media.
"The work of creating Facebook page and whatsapp groups have already started. We hope to finish the job soon," Basu said.
The state BJP unit is also on the lookout for new office space for setting up the revamped IT cell. In districts too, the BJP is planning to have separate offices for its social media and IT cell.
Representative Image
Congress General Secretary Shakti Singh Gohil Wednesday termed Rafale deal as the "grandmother of all corruption" and said the party would take out protest rallies at district level across the country from September 6 to "expose" the BJP government's involevement in the deal.
Protest rallies would be organised between September 6 to September 15, Gohil, who is party in-charge of Bihar, told reporters. "We will not be confining ourselves in reaching to the people by holding press conferences alone on the issue of Rafale deal.
But, we (party) will be holding rallies between September 6 to 15 at district headquarters level across the country to expose BJP government's involevement in the deal," Gohil said.
He said the party will also come out with a simple one page pamphlet in order to make the common men easily understand the corruption involved in the Rafale deal.
"This is not only an election issue, rather it is directly concerned with nation's security," Gohil flanked by Bihar Congress acting president Kaukab Qadri, former governor and senior party leader Nikhil Kumar, newly appointed AICC secretary and co-incharge Alpesh Thakore and Rajya Sabha MP Akhilesh Prasad Singh, said during press interaction.
Charging the Narendra Modi government of making additional payment of Rs 43,000 crore for the purchase of 36 Rafale jets, he questioned as how the price of Rafale aircraft shot up by three times during Modi's tenure from intial Rs 526 crore to Rs 1670.70 crore.
Dassault company, which manufactures Rafale jets, tabled the report in France Parliament with regard to the deal in which it revealed the price of Rs 1670.70 crore at which the deal per jet has been clinched with India, the Congress leader from Gujarat added.
Gohil also wanted to know as why the government did not gave the work to manufacture Rafale jet to HAL, which went to a private company recently launched by Anil Ambani company.
Alleging that the BJP government is trying to "conceal" the facts under the garb of secrecy clause which is not a reality, Congress leader demanded the setting up of a "Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC)" to probe the issue.
"If JPC is constituted everything will be clear once for all," he added.
Wondering that for the first time three defence ministers have been appointed in four years of Modi regime, he said that "Arun Jaitley and Manohar Parrikar managed to get rid of the ministry in order to escape corruption charge in Rafale deal. Nirmala (Sitharaman), being politically naive, is now being made the scapegoat," Gohil alleged.
BJP carried out a campaign against the Congress, alleging corruption in the Bofors deal, however no evidence was found against Rajiv Gandhi, he added.
The party may think of filing PIL if the government does not constitute a JPC or an inquiry by CAG into the issue, he said.
Gohil refused to take any question on any other issue be it farmers, law and order or grand alliance saying that his interaction is strictly confined only to Rafale deal and would answer all other questions in his another media interaction.
In a bid to select and field the most competent candidates in the upcoming polls, the Congress is resorting to a more democratic selection process. The Rahul Gandhi-led party has decided to conduct extensive surveys to get details of ticket aspirants before making recommendations for potential candidates, according to a report in The Economic Times.
The country is going to face crucial assembly elections in the states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan later this year. The Congress is looking to select the most suited candidates to contest in the polls and bring victory to the party.
For this, the party has replaced its erstwhile candidate selection process with a more elaborate one. Earlier, the tickets to contest elections were given on suggestions of screening committees. These committees would interact with the state units and then recommend a panel of candidates in each constituency to the central election committee (which is led by the party president) to take the final decision.
However, now the committees will have to travel to assembly segments across the states and gather intelligence on possible candidates.
The new process is the brainchild of the Chhattisgarh Congress unit, which suggested that rather than ticket aspirants going to Delhi, camping at All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters at 24 Akbar Road and lobbying for tickets, the screening committee should travel to the states, people familiar with the matter told the publication.
In compliance with the new order, the screening committees have now divided the assembly segments and are conducting extensive surveys. Their recommendations will be tallied with the other lists and then a final panel of candidates will be prepared for the central election authority of the party.
Telangana Chief Minister and Telugu Rashtra Samithi (TRS) K Chandrashekar Rao
Telangana Chief Minister and Telugu Rashtra Samithi (TRS) President Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao is expected to announce dissolution of the state assembly on September 6, according to media reports.
Dissolution will pave way for assembly polls to be held, most likely, at the end of this year along with polls in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Rajasthan.
According to media reports, the announcement will be made at 6.45 am on September 6. Rao will then proceed to meet the Governor and submit his resignation at 9.33 am.
The date and timings have been calibrated to add up to six as Rao is said to hold six as his lucky number.
Speculations have been rife that the Telangana chief minister will call for early assembly polls soon, possibly seeking a greater mandate or to curtail effects of anti-incumbency.
On September 2, Rao stopped short of announcing the dissolution during a mega rally in Telanganas Ranga Reddy district.
In his almost one-hour-long speech, Rao instead said the public again wanted the TRS government in the state and sought their support to continue the welfare and developmental works being undertaken by it.
"I will take a decision (assembly dissolution) soon and then announce what I will do if TRS is elected again," he said during the rally.
Rao also said the people should not become "slaves to Delhi-based parties".
The 64-year-old chief minister will hold a public meeting in Husnabad, Telangana on September 7.
According to a report by The New Indian Express, Rao would embark on a districts tour from Siddipet district and cover 100 assembly constituencies over 50 days thereafter.
September 7 falls in the month of Sravanam, which is considered auspicious and it is a Friday, also considered auspicious for starting any new venture, the report adds.
Also read | Reading the political tea leaves: Why K Chandrashekar Rao wants early polls in Telangana
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also likely to sound the poll bugle in the state with a public meeting by its national president Amit Shah. Shah is expected to address a public meeting on either September 12 or 15, party's state unit president K Laxman said according to PTI.
Observers suggest Rao has become conscious of being seen close to the saffron party.
In August, Rao had held two consecutive meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
When asked about the "cordial relations" between the BJP and the TRS and speculations that the two parties may forge an alliance, Laxman told PTI, "There is no question of the BJP joining hands with the TRS. Modi as a Prime Minister is doing his best for the people of Telangana, not for KCR and not for the TRS.
BJP's national executive, scheduled to happen in Delhi on September 8-9, is expected to discuss Telangana elections.
Indias newest state held its first assembly poll simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls in April-May 2014. The term of the current assembly is scheduled to end in May 2019.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi
Moneycontrol News
Rahul Gandhi's Kailash Mansarovar Yatra courted controversy after local media in Nepal reported that he ate non-vegetarian food in Kathmandu. Denying the reports, the restaurant Vootoo released a statement on its Facebook page stating that he only ordered vegetarian food items.
"There has been plenty of inquiry from the media regarding the food ordered by Rahul Gandhi, President of Indian National Congress during his visit at Vootoo. We would like to clarify that he ordered pure veg items from the menu. Vootoo has not given any statement to any media regarding the food items ordered by him," the restaurant said in a statement.
Rahul reached Kathmandu on August 31 and stopped at Vootoo for dinner. A waiter at the restaurant told the local media that the Congress President had ordered the Newari platter and especially liked the Chicken Kurkure.
After the waiters statement, BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya claimed that Rahul has hurt religious sentiments of Hindus by eating non-vegetarian food during yatra. The Congress party on the other hand denied all these allegations and clarified that Rahul ate only pure vegetarian food.
When hotel has clarified that Rahul ate pure vegetarian food, then the rest of the controversy is baseless. This is BJPs agenda. BJP wants to put a hurdle in Rahuls yatra. This is a fight between god and devils, Congress said in a statement.
Rahul is expected to be back in Delhi after a 12- day journey on September 12.
A plea was filed in the Delhi High Court on Tuesday seeking to quash the registration of the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM as a political party, alleging that it raises issues concerning only Muslims and seeks votes in the name of religion.
The petition filed by the president of the Shiv Sena in Telangana sought setting aside the June 19, 2014 order of the Election Commission of India (ECI) granting recognition of state party of Telangana to the All India Majilis-e-Ittehadul Musalimeen (AIMIM).
Petitioner Tirupati Narasimha Murari claimed that the constitution and working of AIMIM was against the law laid down by the Supreme Court and the party was ought to be disqualified as a political party as its aim and object are opposed to the concept of secularism, one of the requirements under the Representation of the People Act.
The petition, filed through advocates Hari Shankar Jain and Vishnu Shankar Jain, also sought a direction restraining the ECI from recognising and treating the AIMIM as a registered political party.
The petitioner, who claimed to have contested Lok Sabha polls in 2014, said he was filing the plea in his personal capacity and the relief sought in the petition affects his rights of free and fair election.
The plea said the English translated meaning of AIMIM was 'All India Council of the Union of Muslims' which was founded as a political party in 1958 and the leaders and workers of the party were "continuously abusing Hindu religion, their Gods Goddesses". It alleged that several FIRs have been lodged against them.
"The constitution of AIMIM clearly raises issues relating to Muslim community and thinks only for the welfare of Muslims, which is violative of the principles of secularism as envisaged by the Constitution of India...
"The party having aim and object for the benefit of only Muslim community, formed on communal concept can in no way fulfil the object of secular principles. The declaration given by AIMIM to uphold the secular principles is farce and fraud on the law and the constitution," it claimed.
Former chief minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti
Terming resumption of dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad as "inevitable" for peace in south Asia, former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti Tuesday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend the hand of friendship to his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan for skae of Kashmir.
The Peoples Democratic Party president also appealed to the Prime Minister to follow the steps of late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee to revive the peace process between the two neighbours.
Peace in south Asia will only be possible if it is ensured in Jammu and Kashmir, the PDP president said, addressing a public meeting in border district of Rajauri.
Urging Modi to extend the hand of friendship to Khan and pick up the peace process from where Vajpayee had to leave it, Mehbooba said, "It will usher a new era of growth and tranquillity in the two countries."
If it's done, the people would no longer live in constant fears and heave a sigh of relief, she said.
She said opening new roads between "divided Jammu and Kashmir" and strengthening the people-to-people contact would lower the tension across the border.
Terming dialogue and reconciliation between India and Pakistan as "inevitable for the resolution of the Kashmir issue, Mehbooba said, "The two countries need to rise above ego and exhibit the political astuteness to help realise the people's dream of a peaceful and tranquil Jammu and Kashmir."
Asserting that economic packages alone would not usher peace in the Valley, she said consistent and earnest efforts aimed at taking youths into confidence are needed "to stop them from going adrift".
The economic packages alone are not going to resolve the issue. The roads, bridges and electricity are vital for the people, but unless there is dialogue aimed at the resolution of the conflict, no relief can be ensured for the masses, she said.
She said after the 2014 polls yielded fragmented mandate, PDP founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed decided to form government with the BJP with "the sole motive to reincarnate the Vajpayee era" in the state and to stop the vicious cycle of unabated killings and violence.
As I told my father that the decision to join hands with the BJP has more risks than rewards and would decline party's popularity, he said he was ready to sacrifice everything including his life, if that resolves the decades-old conflict, Mehbooba said.
Her father was confident that the reconciliation and dialogue would be initiated, and the measures taken during Vajpayee's era would be replicated once again, she added.
However, when Prime Minister Modi addressed a rally in Srinagar on November 7, 2015 , he announced Rs 80,000 crore package but exhibited no willingness for a thaw between India and Pakistan for the peace in the state.
This disheartened everyone including the people who had come from far-flung areas to listen to him," she said.
The PDP chief said even after witnessing hurdles in his way, her father remained adamant to get the two countries closer and always pitched for the dialogue which were desperately needed for peace in the state.
When I took over as the Chief Minister and headed the state for two years and two months, I did not compromise on my stand and stood like a rock before the Central government to protect state's special interests.
Had I shown any laxity in my approach, the BJP would not have toppled the government. They did not succeed in any way to make me barter the interests of the state for petty power and I can tell you with all certainty that I kept the honour and dignity of my people intact," she said.
Referring to the rape and murder of a minor girl in Kathua district in January this year, Mehbooba said she went to New Delhi and made it clear that the PDP cannot be the part of the government unless the two ministers who had openly supported the rapists were sacked and a transparent probe was allowed.
As the Chief Minister of the state, I remained in the forefront to thwart attempts to intimidate Gujjars and Bakerwals in the state and took every measure to ensure that no one harms them, she said.
Mehbooba said preserving the secular character of the state has been the top most priority of the PDP since its inception.
The Brezza became the first compact SUV from Maruti and quickly became the largest-selling SUV in the country. The Brezza is priced at 7.34 lakh and is sold with just a petrol engine with three broad variants. With the changeover to BS-VI Maruti discontinued the diesel variant. (Image: Maruti Suzuki)
live bse live
nse live Volume Todays L/H More
With India being one of the worlds fastest-growing automobile market, its largest carmaker Maruti Suzukis chief says the industry should create manufacturing hubs across the country if it has to work at scale.
Speaking at the 58th annual session of the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA), Maruti Suzuki MD Kenichi Ayukawa said that the industry, including auto component manufacturers, should invest in new technologies and spread out manufacturing across the country.
India clocked sales of 3.28 million in fiscal year 2018, a growth of 8 percent over the previous fiscal. In the first quarter of the current fiscal, sales increased by 13.3 percent.
Growing at a compounded annualised growth rate of 8-9 percent, we expect the passenger vehicle industry alone to be about 10 million units per annum by 2030, Ayukawa said.
The scale of operations before us will increase nearly three times of the present levels. Clearly, we have to triple our efforts to meet the growth in volumes. Our businesses will therefore, need to be re-looked and aligned to new scale of operations, he added.
He said multi-location plants would become a necessity in order to grow and de-risk the business.
Historically, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and component manufacturers have had a cluster approach towards developing greenfield projects, said Ayukawa.
Gurgaon is a shining example. Many such auto-clusters have to be developed throughout the country. This will help us sustain the next phase of growth and insulate us from unforeseen business risks. I urge component manufacturers to gear up for multi-locations facilities and align investments accordingly, the Maruti chief added.
Maruti itself has faced the brunt of having its manufacturing capabilities in a single location. In mid-2012, a worker unrest at its Manesar, Haryana, plant spilled over into a full-blown riot that caused the death of an HR manager and brought production to a standstill for over a month.
The disruption in the supply chain caused Maruti's market share to fall to a low of about 37 percent.
In 2017, Maruti announced it would set up its first unit outside Haryana, a plant in Sanand, Gujarat. It is continuing to scout for locations across the country to set up new facilities.
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Haryana remain the top destinations to host automotive manufacturing and component manufacturing plants.
But along with Gujarat, the country has seen Andhra Pradesh emerge as one of the more promising destinations for automotive investments, with companies like Hero MotoCorp, Kia Motors and Isuzu setting up plants.
France-based technology services company Capgemini on Wednesday said it has made several top level appointments, including Asia Pacific unit head and business services top boss.
Aruna Jayanthi, earlier head of Capgeminis business services unit, will now be the Managing Director of Asia Pacific and Latin America businesses. Jayanthi reports to Aiman Ezzat, the group's Chief Operating Officer, and will remain a member of the group executive committee, the company said in a statement.
She joined Capgemini in early 2000. Jayanthi has previously been the head of Capgemini in India, where she managed operations of all business units covering consulting, technology and outsourcing services in the country.
During her tenure, between 2011 and 2015, there was a significant increase in Indian integration, performance and capabilities, with headcount rising from 32,000 to 85,000.
Prior to this, she was the Global Delivery Officer for Outsourcing Services at Capgemini
Jayanthi will be replaced by Anis Chenchah, who has now been appointed CEO, Business Services Global Business Line, and would report to Thierry Delaporte, Group Chief Operating Officer. He will join the group executive committee.
Chenchah has been with Capgemini for over 12 years and has previously served as Managing Director - Financial Services France; Vice President - Financial Services - Middle East; and Sales Director, Financial Services, France.
Zhiwei Jiang will take over as CEO, Insights & Data Global Business Line. Jiang succeeds John Brahim who has quit Capgemini to pursue new opportunities and will be reporting to Delaporte.
Jiang was previously Executive Vice President, Global Head of Insights & Data Practice for Financial Services at the firm the past four years. Before Capgemini, he worked with Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
(Image: Reuters)
As Facebook seeks to ramp up the numbers to man its content moderation operations across the globe, several Indian graduates are lining up for the job.
According to an Economic Times report, the company earlier resolved to employ 20,000 people to ensure that its platform remains free from the content of a graphic, violent and abusive nature.
The report noted that while Facebook does directly employ people for content management, the company also collaborates with local business processing companies such as Genpact in India to cast a wider net on its operations. A Facebook spokesperson said it currently has 7,500 such content moderators and growing.
Genpact had placed an advertisement over many employment websites. The job profile read: Monitor and moderate user-generated content/video on one of the reputed Social Website to ensure that the online community is maintained as a safe and fun environment. Should be comfortable for any content Sexual Assault, Terrorism, Child Abuse, maybe live suicidal videos and bloodshed.
The report noted the annual package of a moderator would be from Rs 2.25-4 lakh a year, including monthly incentives.
Facebook was hiring content moderators over several Indian languages, which included Tamil, Kannada, Oriya, Chattisgarhi, Nepali, Marathi, Mizo and Punjabi.
The opening is popular, with close to 3,000 applications for 30 such openings on Genpacts postings for content moderators for the Kannada language.
The report noted that the emotional toll that can be caused by being exposed to disturbing content on a regular basis is a cause for high levels of burnout and attrition on the job.
A psychiatrist and mental wellness expert was quoted in the report as saying regular exposure to such content creates anxiety, stress and secondary trauma.
British voters would vote 59-41 to stay in the European Union if given the option after a six-point swing away from Brexit, an opinion poll showed on Wednesday, the highest recorded support for EU membership in such a survey since the 2016 referendum.
In the June 23, 2016 referendum, 17.4 million voters, or 51.9 percent of the votes cast, backed leaving the EU while 16.1 million voters, or 48.1 percent of votes cast, backed staying. Many opinion polls were wrong about the result.
Polling showed 59 percent of voters would now vote to remain in the bloc, versus 41 percent who would vote to leave. The findings were published in an academic-led report on Wednesday by research bodies NatCen and The UK in a Changing Europe.
That is the highest recorded support for 'remain' in a series of five such surveys since the 2016 referendum and a large reversal of the actual 52-48 percent vote to leave.
The author of the report, polling expert John Curtice, added a note of caution, saying that their panel of interviewees reported they had voted 53 percent in favour of remain in the original vote - a higher proportion than the actual vote.
"Nevertheless, this still means that there has apparently been a six-point swing from Leave to Remain, larger than that registered by any of our previous rounds of interviewing, and a figure that would seemingly point to a 54 percent (Remain) vote in any second referendum held now," Curtice said in the report.
Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, 2019 but has yet to secure an exit agreement to define future relations with Brussels and manage the economic impact of ending over four decades of integration with the world's largest trading bloc.
The government has ruled out holding a second referendum.
The survey interviewed 2,048 subjects between June 7 and July 8. That means the survey does not fully reflect any change in opinion brought about by the publication of Prime Minister Theresa May's negotiating strategy, published in early July.
That negotiating strategy has split May's party at every level and drawn heavy criticism from both Brexit supporters and those who want to retain close ties to the EU.
Nevertheless, the poll shows voters thought the negotiations were going badly even before the publication of May's so-called Chequers plan.
"Both Remain and Leave supporters have become markedly more critical of how both the UK government especially and the EU somewhat less so have been handling the negotiations," Curtice said. "They have also become markedly more pessimistic about how good a deal Britain will get."
Curtice said the results of the polling showed that the most influential factor over whether voters will support the conclusion of the negotiations is their perception of its economic effect rather than the details of any deal.
Didi Chuxing Didi Chuxing is China's answer to Uber. The ride-hailing company provides transportation for over 450 million people in 400 Chinese cities.
Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing Technology Co Ltd said on Wednesday it will spend 140 million yuan ($20.5 million) to improve its customer service after the recent murder of a passenger by her Didi driver exposed safety issues at the firm.
Didi founder Cheng Wei made the comments in a speech to government regulators who visited the company at the start of a nation-wide inspection of ride-hailing companies, the Chinese newspaper Beijing Daily said.
Didi has been under pressure since a passenger was raped and murdered by her driver last month. It's customer service team was criticised after the firm failed to act on a complaint made against the driver a few days before murder.
Didi, with backers that include Japan's SoftBank Group Corp, Apple Inc and U.S-based ride-hailing giant Uber Technologies, is the world's largest ride-hailing firm by number of rides and is expanding globally.
Didi said on Tuesday it would implement new measures to improve the safety of its platform and planned to suspend some late-night services in mainland China between Sept. 8-15 to phase in those measures.
Didi, in an emailed statement to Reuters, confirmed the 140 million yuan investment and said it would fully cooperate with the visiting inspection team.
Didi said an 8,000-strong professional customer service team would be set up by the end of this year.
China's Ministry of Transport said on its website the inspection team that visited Didi included staff from the government's transportation, public security and emergency management departments.
The team would visit other ride-hailing firms including Shouqi and Tencent-backed Meituan Dianping, the ministry said.
4th BIMSTEC Summit to be held on 30th August in Kathmandu. Etemaad Daily 4th BIMSTEC Summit will be held in Kathmandu from 30 to 31 August.Nepal's Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali has said that connectivity and ...
Seven-membered regional grouping BIMSTEC expressed hope that the customs cooperation agreement, which is a trade facilitation initiative, among the member nations will be finalised by 2019.
The grouping is also expected to conclude the agreement on trade in goods by 2020.
Founded in 1997, BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) is a regional grouping comprising India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.
The objective of the alliance is to harness shared and accelerated growth through mutual cooperation in different areas of common interests by utilising regional resources and geographical advantages.
The grouping accounts for 22 percent of the global population, and has a combined gross domestic product of $2.8 trillion.
"I am personally very hopeful that the main component of the BIMSTEC, which is the agreement on trade in goods, will be finalised by 2020, and also the customs cooperation agreement, which is a trade facilitation initiative, will be finalised by 2019," BIMSTEC secretary general Shahidul Islam said at an event organised by the World Trade Centre.
At the fourth summit held in Nepal's capital Kathmandu late last month, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the member nations had renewed their commitment to an early conclusion of BIMSTEC Free Trade Area (FTA) negotiations, among others.
They had also expressed their satisfaction with the progress of negotiation on the agreement on trade in goods and the agreement on customs cooperation.
BIMSTEC countries are negotiating six constituent agreements and one protocol agreement, a part of the FTA of this bloc. These constituent agreements are in trade in goods, trade in services, mutual assistance in customs matter, dispute settlement procedures, rules of origin, among others.
Islam also said that all member state want to expedite the completion of FTA, adding, "It is a long-pending issue, but this does not necessary mean that there would not be any development."
He said that at present the grouping was looking to consolidate the existing cooperation than expanding its membership.
"BIMSTEC has a very strong geographical reference. That means the countries that have open access to the Bay of Bengal or very much dependent on the Bay of Bengal for their economy or access in the world market like Bhutan and Nepal, they are the members. And the general mood of the membership is that it is a time to consolidate, then to expand," he said.
The decision to induct other countries as member will depend on the mood of the member states, he said, adding "once they feel that it is opportune time to expand this collaboration, forum, they will do it".
BIMSTEC has so far identified 14 priority sectors. Each country leads one or more areas in a voluntary manner. India leads in two counter-terrorism and transnational crime, telecommunication and transport.
India has supported Mauritius over its claim on disputed Chagos islands, which is home to Diego Garcia the key military base of the UK and the US in the Indian Ocean, saying that the process of its decolonisation remains incomplete as long as the atolls continue to be under UK's control.
Presenting the country's stand in the oral proceedings on the matter before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) here, India's Ambassador to the Netherlands Venu Rajamony said the analysis of historical facts and consideration of the legal aspects confirm that sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago has been and continues to be with Mauritius.
Rajamony was representing India in a four-day ICJ hearing, which began on Monday, on the request for advisory opinion by the UN General Assembly in the matter.
Chagos islands came under the colonial administration of the UK as part of Mauritian territory.
An understanding reached in November 1965 between Mauritius and the UK for the retention of the islands by Britain for defence purposes and return thereof to Mauritius when no longer needed for defence purposes.
Rajamony said the legal aspects should root themselves in the historical facts, behaviour of the nations concerned, and the consideration of the issue by relevant administrative and judicial institutions
The diplomat said before Mauritius' independence in 1968, the UN in December 1960 had proclaimed the necessity of a speedy and unconditional end of colonialism in all its forms. However, detachment of the Chagos archipelago still took place in November 1965.
He said the UN in December 1965 asked the UK to complete the decolonisation of Mauritius and report the same to the General Assembly.
Rajamony further said the UK is legally bound by a ruling of the The Arbitral Tribunal, constituted in 2015, to return the archipelago to Mauritius.
"The process of decolonisation of Mauritius remains incomplete both technically and in substance as long as the Chagos archipelago continues to be under UK's colonial," he said.
Both Mauritius and the UK are engaged in a diplomatic and legal war over the atolls located at the strategic Indian Ocean. The US also operates a crucial air base on Diego Garcia, a part of the Chagos islands.
Mauritius has repeatedly asserted that the Chagos archipelago is part of its territory and that the UK should return the same to it.
The UK has consistently maintained that it has no doubt about the Mauritian claim to sovereignty in the islands but will cede the archipelago to Mauritius when it is no longer required for defence purposes.
Mike Pompeo
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Wednesday discussed "bilateral, regional and international issues" during their crucial talks, in a bid to reset the strained bilateral ties on basis of "mutual trust and respect".
This is the US' first high-level dialogue with Pakistan since the new government of Prime Minister Imran Khan assumed office after the July 25 elections and comes days after the Trump administration cancelled $300 million in military aid to Islamabad.
Pompeo, accompanied by US Joint Chief of Staff Chairman General Joseph Dunford, reached the Foreign Office to meet with Qureshi.
Qureshi and Pompeo discussed "bilateral, regional and international issues" in the meeting that lasted for about 40 minutes, Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said.
"FM Qureshi underscores the need to reset bilateral ties on basis of mutual trust and respect. Safeguarding Pakistan's national interests will remain supreme priority," Faisal tweeted.
Pompeo is also expected to meet Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Prime Minister Khan.
He is expected to press Pakistan to target all terror groups on its soil and play a positive role in war-torn Afghanistan when he meets the country's new leadership in a bid to reset the strained bilateral ties.
The Trump administration has cancelled $300 million in military aid to Pakistan as it was not doing enough against terror groups active on its soil, the latest controversy to hit Islamabad's troubled relationship with Washington.
Pompeo landed at the Nur Khan Airbase in Islamabad this afternoon and went straight to the US embassy.
Earlier, sources had said that the situation in Afghanistan, talks with the Taliban, action against the Haqqani Network and other militant groups, issue of suspension of US aid and other bilateral and regional issues will be discussed.
The relation between the two "allies" are passing through a difficult period as the US is upset over what it calls lack of cooperation from Islamabad in eliminating militancy in Afghanistan.
The two sides publicly differed over what was discussed between Pompeo and Khan during a telephonic conversation.
Later, the US topped it by cancelling $300 million aid which Pakistan said was the money it already spent in the war on terror and Washington was bound to reimburse it as part of understanding between the two sides.
Talking to reporters travelling with him hours before landing in Pakistan, the Secretary of State said: "The rationale for them (Pakistan) not getting the money is very clear. It's that we haven't seen the progress that we need to see from them".
He defended the Trump administration's decision to cut $300 million aid to Pakistan, saying Islamabad did not make satisfactory progress in combatting terrorism.
"The very reason for this trip is to try and articulate what it is our expectation is, the things that they can do, the things that they expect us to do, and see if we can't find a path forward together," Pompeo said.
However, Pompeo said that this was not news for Pakistan.
"Look, this wasn't news to the Pakistanis. It made a lot of headlines over the last few days because of the formality but they were told this past summer that they weren't likely to get that money.
"There are real expectations. We need Pakistan to seriously engage to help us get to the reconciliation we need in Afghanistan. They have important interests, security interests in Afghanistan to make sure they get the issues at their border right, and we need their help," he said.
Pompeo said he wanted to get there at the beginning of Khan's tenure in an effort to "reset the relationship" between the two countries.
"We have worked closely with the Pakistanis in my role as the CIA director. Our teams have been working together for a long time. There are lots of challenges between our two nations for sure, but we're hopeful that with the new leadership that we can find common ground and begin to work on some of our shared problems together. They have expressed good-faith intention to do so," the Secretary of State said.
Qureshi, in one of his media talks, said that what the US was showing was just one side of the picture. "We will show (them) the other side," he said.
Local media reports said a tough interaction is expected between the two sides as US want decisive action against militants, while Prime Minister Khan promised in his victory speech in July that he was against one-sided relationship with the US.
The Express Tribune reported the "visit is expected to be tense" because "at the heart of the controversy is the longstanding US demand, seeking decisive action against the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network from Pakistan".
Dawn reported that "a senior Pakistani diplomat conceded that it would be a mistake to think that Mr Pompeo is coming on a goodwill visit".
Moneycontrol News
The Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is preparing to publish new crypto trading rules, as per reports in the local media. The SEC Commissioner Ephyro Luis Amatong confirmed that the regulators are targeting to publish the draft rules by the end of next week although an exact date has not been specified by them.
We see the need to regulate them as trading platforms," Amatong said. He further added that SEC and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) had agreed to join forces to regulate Virtual currency exchange (VCE). As reported by Coindesk, the proposed rules will cover the advertising for the offering, reportorial requirements and provisions for the return of investment funds if in case the initial coin offering (ICO) is not completed.
Previously, you had to go through all of the infrastructures of the PSE (Philippine Stock Exchange) or PDEx (Philippine Dealing Exchange) in order to raise the funds but what financial technology (fintech) promises is you can achieve that through technology at a lower cost so even if you are a small company, Amatong added. You have a way to look for investors without going through the whole process of a security.
As per the SEC, cryptocurrency exchanges could be allowed to operate as trading platforms in the Philippines given the growing global interest in virtual currencies. The authorities that govern the Philippines Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Freeport are aiming to earn $67 million through such issuances. Senior deputy administrator of the agency said that the CEZA charges $360,000 for a principal license and $85,000 for a regular one.
This opens the door to a potential revenue stream for the government.
Hellocomputer Johannesburg Managing Director Joey Khuvutlu has issued a challenge to leaders of South Africa's digital agencies: he wants them to join him in an initiative to fund 100 programming learnerships between September 2018 and August 2019.
Hellocomputer Johannesburg Managing Director Joey Khuvutlu welcomes two Umuzi interns who have joined Hellocomputer. From left: Sabelo Gumede, Joey Khuvutlu and Tsehla Nkhi
Provides agencies with an opportunity to contribute to the resolution of South Africas technical skills shortage.
Provides a platform for agencies to contribute in shaping the digital industrys future workforce.
Umuzi provides a 1-year programmer learnership in a product team environment.
On completion of learnerships, learners are placed in the sponsors organisation with the immediate benefit of a new resource.
Umuzi is SETA accredited which means that there are tax benefits as well as contributions towards the sponsoring organisations transformation goals.
The learnership in question is a one-year computer programming learnership that prepares learner programmers for the creative industry by equipping them with the skills every product team needs, including coding, UX design, UX research, product management and data science. Importantly, they get to hone these skills in a simulated work environment, ensuring that they are being groomed into high-calibre creative professionals.The programme is offered by Umuzi and was created in partnership with Hellocomputer. These learnerships would be funded by individuals or organisations making them free to the participant.Hellocomputer has a strong desire to address the chronic shortage of programmers facing its industry. As a result, the agency kickstarted the programme with R250,000 to fund the inaugural learnerships.Hellocomputer has invested further in the programme, which has quickly grown to 30 young people on learnerships, supported by several employers. But thats not enough, Khuvutlu said.I challenge other digital agencies to follow suit. On the one hand, theres a dire shortage of programmers in our industry. On the other, in South Africa we have a large pool of what is known as the missing middle talented and capable youth who do not qualify for financial aid but also do not have enough resources to comfortably complete their studies.Stack Overflow, which has a community of over 4.7 million programmers, recently published the findings of its annual community survey. This confirmed that 69% of developers are at least partly self-taught and fewer than half have a formal degree in computer science. This makes programming a unique space, a low barrier to entry but a high potential for growth and productivity.In the digital economy, developers and data specialists are in high demand across all sectors including banking, consulting, telecommunications, healthcare and software. A shortage in these skills impacts all because only those with the deepest pockets will win.I therefore challenge each of the top 20 digital agencies to each fund five learnerships by August 2019. Thats a cumulative investment of just R12.5 million, but one that will go a long way to bring new talent into the industry and help alleviate the shortage we face.FCB Africa group CEO Brett Morris added: "This is a fantastic initiative that is helping address a critical skills shortage. Huge credit to Umuzi and the Hellocomputer team for going beyond the B-BBEE scorecards to benefit the industry at large. We really hope other agencies take up the challenge.According to Khuvutlu, the Umuzi model is an efficient and impactful solution. The benefits of the model cut across the industry:Hellocomputer Group Managing Director Mark Tomlinson noted: What is equally important about this initiative is that it gives our industry the opportunity to not only shape and prepare South Africas future workforce consider the trends in India, Indonesia and Venezuela but to drive transformation in a way that goes beyond ticking boxes on scorecards.The #100programmers challenge will be administered by Umuzi ( www.umuzi.org ). A one-year learnership will cost the participating agency R125,000 per learner. Email gro.izumu@srepoleved001 for more details or to sign up.
Mike Pompeo
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has defended the Trump administration's decision to cut $300 million aid to Pakistan, saying Islamabad did not make satisfactory progress in combatting terrorism.
Pompeo is arriving in Islamabad along with General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, days after the Trump administration cancelled $300 million in military aid to Pakistan as it was not doing enough against terrorist groups inside its borders, the latest controversy to hit Islamabad's troubled relationship with Washington.
Pompeo's talks will be the Trump administration's first high-level dialogue with Pakistan since the new government of Prime Minister Imran Khan assumed office after the July 25 elections.
Talking to reporters travelling with him hours before landing in Pakistan, the Secretary of State said: "The rationale for them (Pakistan) not getting the money is very clear. It's that we haven't seen the progress that we need to see from them".
The top American diplomat, during his meeting with Khan, army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, would convey the same message of acting tough on terrorist organisations in Pakistan.
"The very reason for this trip is to try and articulate what it is our expectation is, the things that they can do, the things that they expect us to do, and see if we can't find a path forward together," Pompeo said amid reports that the Pentagon has sought a Congressional approval to reprogramme $300 million meant for financial assistance to Pakistan because of the lack of progress in fight against terrorism.
However, Pompeo said that this was not news for Pakistan.
"Look, this wasn't news to the Pakistanis. It made a lot of headlines over the last few days because of the formality but they were told this past summer that they weren't likely to get that money," he said.
Ahead of the meeting with Khan, Pompeo hoped that they can turn the page and begin to make progress.
"There are real expectations. We need Pakistan to seriously engage to help us get to the reconciliation we need in Afghanistan. They have important interests, security interests in Afghanistan to make sure they get the issues at their border right, and we need their help," Pompeo said.
On his first trip to Pakistan after Khan became the Prime Minister, Pompeo said he wanted to get there at the beginning of Khan's tenure in an effort to "reset the relationship" between the two countries.
"We have worked closely with the Pakistanis in my role as the CIA director. Our teams have been working together for a long time. There are lots of challenges between our two nations for sure, but we're hopeful that with the new leadership that we can find common ground and begin to work on some of our shared problems together. They have expressed good-faith intention to do so," the Secretary of State said.
Pompeo said that he and Dunford would have opportunities to walk through the complexity that is this relationship and hopefully begin to make some progress so that they can get back to a set of common understandings.
"So that's really the very straightforward objective. I think it's important to meet the new prime minister early on in his time in office," Pompeo said.
Responding to a question, Pompeo said that US aid to Pakistan could be restored, but he has not seen the progress yet.
"We certainly haven't seen the progress that we would hope to have seen, certainly not progress that would be sufficient for us to have advocated for turning back on that financial support," said the top American diplomat.
"Would that aid be back on the table if you do see measures that meet yours," he was asked. "I think the answer is probably yes," Pompeo said.
"If we get to the place you have to remember what it was. Some of this was we use the term 'aid' loosely there. It's more complicated; it's different sets of resources.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during their meeting at the Peace House. (Reuters)
A high-level South Korean delegation met with Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang on Wednesday, as Seoul plans a new summit with the North Korean leader to break a deadlock in denuclearisation talks.
The South's President Moon Jae-in's special envoy Chung Eui-yong, who is leading the five-member delegation, earlier said he would discuss ways to "completely denuclearise" the Korean peninsula and establish "lasting peace".
His delegation "met with Chairman Kim Jong Un and delivered a personal letter (from Moon) and exchanged opinions", a presidential office spokesman in Seoul said. The spokesman added that officials would fly back to Seoul later tonight after a dinner banquet but did not provide further details.
US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reached a vague agreement at a landmark summit in June to work towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, but there has been little movement since.
Talks reached an impasse last month when Trump abruptly cancelled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to North Korea, citing a lack of progress.
The stated aim of the South Korean delegation's day-long visit to Pyongyang is to finalise details of a third summit between the leaders of the two Koreas, due later this month. But observers said that Moon's personal letter to Kim will likely be a proposal aimed at breaking the denuclearisation impasse.
The envoy was likely to suggest "that Kim gives a firm commitment to presenting a list of nuclear weapons and fissile materials demanded by the US in return for a declaration of the end of the Korean War," Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies told AFP.
Despite the deadlock with the North, Trump expressed his hopes for the success of the next inter-Korean summit in a phone conversation with Moon on Tuesday.
Pyongyang has slammed Washington's "gangster-like" demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament, and accused it of failing to reciprocate the North's "goodwill measures", including the handover of the remains of US troops killed in the 1950-53 Korean War.
When Kim and Moon met in April for their first summit, they agreed to push for a declaration from Washington of an end to the Korean War, to replace the 1953 armistice. But US officials say the North must be rid of its nuclear weapons before that can happen.
South Korean envoys held talks in North Korea on Wednesday to finalise details on a third North-South summit to be held this month amid stalled talks on denuclearisation between the North and the United States.
South Korean officials hope the one-day visit will revive momentum after a broad but unspecific agreement on denuclearisation between the United States and North Korea at a Singapore summit in June.
Those talks have stalled since US President Donald Trump cancelled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to North Korea last month.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in's special envoys were led by the national security chief at the presidential Blue House, Chung Eui-yong, and included director of the National Intelligence Service spy agency, Suh Hoon.
The envoys were greeted in Pyongyang by Ri Son Gwon, chairman of a North Korean committee in charge of cross-border affairs, who has steered high-level inter-Korean talks, according to Blue House press secretary Yoon Young-chan.
They held a 20-minute meeting with Ri and Kim Yong Chol, who played a key role with Pompeo in arranging the Singapore summit, Yoon said without elaborating.
Additional talks are expected to take place between the Seoul and Pyongyang officials, but it was not certain that the envoys would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Yoon said. Kim met the South's delegation on their previous trip in March.
"The delegation was on the way for an official meeting but they did not inform whom they'll meet and where," Yoon said in a statement.
The United States and North Korea are at odds over whether denuclearisation or a step towards the normalisation of North Korea's international status by declaring the end of the 1950-53 Korean War should come first.
The war was ended by an armistice, not a peace treaty, meaning U.S.-led United Nations forces, including South Korea, are technically still at war with the North.
Chung said on Tuesday he wanted to discuss with Pyongyang officials ways to achieve the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
Seoul would also continue to push for a joint declaration with the United States of an end to the Korean war this year, Chung said.
The North's Kim made his first public appearance in 16 days to pay respects at the funeral of Dr. Ju Kyu Chang, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Wednesday.
Ju was a leading contributor to North Korea's successful development of its nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles and space programme, according to 38 North, a website that specialises in analysis of North Korea.
The United States wants North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons without condition. North Korea has said in previous, failed talks years ago that it could consider giving up its nuclear arsenal if the United States provided security guarantees by removing its troops from South Korea and withdrew its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from South Korea and Japan.
North Korea is preparing to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the regime's founding on Sunday.
A police notice is attached to screening surrounding a restaurant which was visited by former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia before they were found on a park bench after being poisoned in Salisbury, Britain, March 19, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls - RC177CBE6A80
British prosecutors charged two Russians for the attempted murder of a former Russian spy and his daughter with a nerve agent, naming suspects for the first time in a case that has caused one of the biggest East-West rifts in decades.
Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer who betrayed dozens of agents to Britain's MI6 foreign spy service was found unconscious with his daughter Yulia on a public bench in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.
British police released CCTV images of two Russian men they said flew in to Britain for a weekend to commit murder. Moscow said it had no idea who the men were.
Britain has blamed Russia for the poisonings and identified the poison as Novichok, a nerve agent developed by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s.
Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attack. Britain and dozens of other countries have kicked out Russian diplomats over the incident, and Moscow has responded tit-for-tat in the biggest diplomatic expulsions since the Cold War.
Neil Basu, head of UK Counter Terrorism policing, said the plot was "a remarkably sophisticated attack" which appeared to be a clear assassination attempt.
British prosecutors named the two suspects as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. Police said they arrived in Britain from Moscow on March 2 at London's Gatwick airport on an Aeroflot flight and left on March 4.
Basu said they were around 40 years old. They travelled under genuine Russian passports although their names are believed to be aliases. It was not their first trip to Britain.
Basu said he stood by Prime Minister Theresa May who said in March there was no other conclusion than that the Russian state was responsible. Police needed the public's help worldwide in identifying the men and their earlier movements.
"We would like to hear from anyone who knows them," Basu said. Russia's foreign ministry said the names given by Britain did not mean anything to Moscow.
Basu said the two men had been filmed by CCTV cameras near Skripal's house, where Novichok was sprayed on the front door. Traces of Novichok contamination were found in the London hotel room where the two men had stayed, he said, adding this was not a public health concern.
NOVICHOK PERFUME
The Russians are charged with conspiracy to murder Sergei Skripal and the attempted murder of Skripal, his daughter and Nick Bailey, a police officer who was taken ill while attending to the Skripals. They are also charged with use and possession of Novichok, contrary to the Chemical Weapons Act.
A European arrest warrant has been issued for the two Russians, British prosecutors said, but Britain will not ask Moscow to extradite them because Russia's constitution does not allow its citizens to be extradited.
Basu would not comment on whether the Skripals had faced threats before the attack or where they were currently located. However, he said they were making a good recovery.
A British woman, Dawn Sturgess, died in July after coming across a small bottle containing Novichok in a town near Salisbury where the Skripals were struck down. Her partner, Charlie Rowley, was also stricken but survived.
Police said Rowley and Sturgess had found a counterfeit Nina Ricci Premier Jour perfume bottle which tests later showed had contained Novichok.
Basu said they ha no doubt the two events were connected and they were liaising with prosecutors about bringing charges connected to the poisoning of Sturgess and Rowley.
The case has been likened by British politicians to the murder of Russian dissident and former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with a rare radioactive isotope in a London hotel in 2006.
Britain charged two Russians with the murder of Litvinenko but both remain in Russia. One later won a seat in parliament.
A British inquiry in 2016 concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin probably approved Litvinenko's murder, an accusation that Moscow has always rejected.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting at United Nations (U.N.) headquarters in New York City, New York, U.S., August 23, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson - RC124DEAC600
US President Donald Trump plans to lead a meeting of the heads of state of the United Nations Security Council on Iran in late September, his envoy Nikki Haley announced Tuesday. With the United States now holding the presidency of the Security Council, Haley said the aim is to put further pressure on Tehran over its alleged violations of council resolutions.
"President Trump is very adamant that we have to start making sure that Iran is falling in line with international order," Haley told reporters.
"If you continue to look at the spread Iran has had in supporting terrorism, if you continue to look at the ballistic missile testing that they are doing, if you continue to look at the sales of weapons we see with the Huthis in Yemen these are all violations of security council resolutions.
"These are all threats to the region, and these are all things that the international community needs to talk about," she added.
Washington has sought to build up international pressure on Iran after reimposing tough, unilateral sanctions on August 7 and setting a November 5 deadline for halting Iran's oil exports.
Those moves came after the United States decided in May to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, saying it failed to put enough pressure on the Tehran regime to halt its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program.
In reaction to the reimposition of sanctions, Iran demanded in The Hague that the top UN court suspend the unilateral US sanctions.
Europe has resisted joining the US sanctions move, but earlier this week Japanese media said Tokyo had agreed to suspend crude imports from Iran.
Haley denied the United States was seeking regime change in Iran, saying the US effort is aimed at supporting the desires of the "Iranian people." "We are going to stand with the Iranian people. They have every right to be heard in their government and they have every right to change it," she said.
But Russia's deputy ambassador to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy pushed back, emphasizing that any meeting on Iran should also discuss the consequences of the US withdrawal from the deal.
Beyond Iran, the US presidency of the Security Council for the month of September is likely to generate numerous controversies for the body's 14 other members.
Among these is Washington's decision to hold a meeting Wednesday on the bloody anti-government protests in Nicaragua, drawing criticism from Russia, Bolivia and China, which said the unrest there does not threaten international security and peace.
The blatant misuse of bank accounts opened under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (Jan Dhan) now stands exposed through the Right to Information (RTI) Act application filed by Moneylife. This information is sadly restricted to public sector banks (PSBs). So far, United Bank of India (UBI) has disclosed a whopping 1.18 million accounts with a deposit of over Rs1 lakh in Jan Dhan accounts. There is a clear rule that such accounts cannot have a balance of more than Rs50,000 at any point of time, since the accounts were meant to bring the unbanked into the banking fold and help direct transfer of subsidies to beneficiaries.
Instead, it is clear that very weak know-your- customer (KYC) requirements seem to have turned these accounts into money-mules during the demonetisation process to launder unaccounted currency.
These accounts could be opened with a simple Aadhaar card, a job card under the NREGA scheme or just a letter issued by a Gazetted officer, with a duly attested photograph of the person. There seems to have been a rampant abuse of this leniency. The scheme also said that the accounts could remain valid only for 12 months by which time full KYC needed to be done.
It is not clear if the government has done anything in this regard. However, a report in the Business Standard on Wednesday says that 60% of Jan Dhan deposits after the note ban are under investigation. Since it will soon be two years since the government put the economy into a shock by announcing demonetisation, this is, indeed, a slow investigation.
Our RTI filings show that Union Bank of India had 323,000 Jan Dhan accounts with deposits of over Rs1 lakh, followed by Oriental Bank of Commerce with 282,000 accounts. Number of such accounts in other PSBs range between 198 (Indian Bank) to Bank of Baroda at 79,240 Jan Dhan account that have deposits of over Rs1 lakh. This is among those who have responded to the RTI query.
In terms of highest number of Jan Dhan accounts with deposits between Rs10,000 to Rs99,000, Bank of Baroda tops the list with 1.28 million accounts. It is followed by United Bank of India at 1.01 million Jan Dhan accounts. Except Andhra Bank at 65,121, all other banks, who provided the information under the RTI Act, have 117,000(Indian Bank) to 906,000 (Bank of India) accounts with a deposit between Rs10,000 and Rs99,999.
As part of a fact-finding exercise, Moneylife had filed RTI application with the department of financial services, under the Ministry of Finance, seeking information on PMJDY scheme relating to PSBs. The CPIO of the department forwarded our RTI application to all PSBs, asking them to respond us directly. Here are the questions we had asked in the RTI...
What is the maximum amount deposited till date by any account-holder/beneficiary?
The number of accounts having deposit between INR10,000 to INR99,000.
The number of accounts having deposit exceeding INR100,000.
The number of accounts, which are dormant since past two years.
As per latest data shared by PMJDY website , United Bank of India has second highest deposits in Jan Dhan accounts. United Bank has deposits of Rs8,012.02 crore from 126 million Jan Dhan account beneficiaries. State Bank of India (SBI) tops the list of total number of account beneficiaries (105.1 million) and amount deposited (Rs18,971.76 crore) in Jan Dhan accounts. Considering its size and network, for SBI these figures are not out of proportion. For United Bank, however, the number of beneficiaries and total amount deposited under Jan Dhan accounts looks completely out of proportion.
You may also want to read
Where there is a worry, there is insurance. Worried about cyber attack? HDFC ERGO, Indias third largest non-life insurance-provider in the private sector, has announced the launch of , a cyber insurance policy that promises to protect individuals and their families against any cyber attacks, cyber frauds or digital threats that could lead to a financial loss and or reputational...
Aproximativ 6 din 10 romani admit ca fac cumparaturi online in timpul orelor de program cel putin odata pe luna, iar 5 din 10 spun ca timpul alocat pentru fiecare sesiune este in medie de 30 de minute, arata un studiu realizat de BestJobs, citat de Mediafax.
Rezultatele sondajului arata ca aproximativ 7% dintre angajatii intervievati fac cumparaturi pe internet in timpul orelor de serviciu, mai des de cateva ori pe saptamana, sau chiar zilnic (2%), iar in unele cazuri timpul alocat pentru cautarea produselor si finalizarea cumparaturilor depaseste o ora (2%).
Cei mai multi angajati (54%) prefera sa faca cumparaturi pe internet dupa-amiaza, intre orele 15:00 si 18:00, in timp ce 19% dintre respondeti fac acest lucru intre 9:00 si 11:00. Doar 15% dintre respondenti spun ca fac pauza de la birou pentru cumparaturi in jurul pauzei de pranz.
Unul din doi angajati foloseste cel mai adesea telefonul personal pentru a face cumparaturi online in timpul orelor de program, iar 32% folosesc calculatorul sau laptopul de serviciu. Alte dispozitive folosite de catre angajatii romanii pentru cumparaturi online sunt PC-ul/laptop-ul personal (7%), tableta personala (4%), telefonul de serviciu (2%) sau tableta oferita de companie (1%), precizeaza raportul.
Cele mai cautate produse pe care care le cauta online cumparatorii sunt cele de imbracaminte, incaltaminte si accesorii (39.8%), produse electronice si electrocasnice (33%), produse IT&C (28%), cadouri (24.3%), produse cosmetice (15.5%), jucarii si produse pentru copii (9%) si produse de bricolaj si amenajari interioare (9.2%).
Potrivit studiului, magazinele online cu produse de imbracaminte, incaltaminte si accesorii sunt accesate cel mai des de catre angajatii romani, urmat de platformele de tip marketplace si magazinele online cu produse electronice si electrocasnice, cu peste un sfert dintre angajati, care fac cel mai des cumparaturi online din astfel de magazine.
Aproape 1 din 5 angajati romani declara ca intra pe site-urile magazinelor online chiar si atunci cand nu au ceva de cumparat in mod special, profitand de eventualele momentele libere in timpul serviciului pentru a cauta noi produse in magazinele online preferate. Alti peste 33% dintre angajati prefera sa foloseasca pauzele pentru a citi diferite articole online, iar aproximativ 30%, pentru a naviga pe paginile retelelor de socializare, spun realizatorii sondajului.
Caprele recunosc oamenii fericiti si sunt atrase de acestia, conform unui studiu realizat in Marea Britanie, citat marti de Press Association, informeaza Agerpres.
Oamenii de stiinta au prezentat unui grup alcatuit din douazeci de capre fotografii nefamiliare cu acelasi chip uman care arata fericit sau suparat.
Cercetarea, efectuata la un adapostul de capre Buttercups din Kent, Marea Britanie, a demonstrat ca aceste animale prefera sa interactioneze persoanele cu chipuri zambitoare.
Eliberate de la o distanta de patru metri, majoritatea caprelor s-au indreptat direct catre imaginile care prezentau chipuri fericite, pe care le-au adulmecat apoi curioase.
Efectul a fost mai pronuntat cand chipul fericit a fost pozitionat in partea dreapta a zonei de testare, ceea ce sugereaza ca aceste animale isi folosesc emisfera stanga a creierului pentru a procesa emotii pozitive, dupa cum a indicat echipa de cercetatori de la Universitatea Queen Mary din Londra.
''Studiul are implicatii semnificative pentru modul in care interactionam cu animalele domestice si alte specii deoarece capacitatea animalelor de a percepe emotiile umane ar putea fi mai larg raspandita si ar putea sa nu se limiteze numai la animalele de companie'', a declarat dr. Alan McElligott, conducatorul studiului.
Despre capre se stia ca sunt sensibile la limbajul corporal al oamenilor, insa descoperirea recenta releva in plus ca acestea raspund la expresiile faciale umane.
Studiul a demonstrat ''in premiera'' ca aceste animale sunt capabile sa faca distinctia dintre expresiile umane si, in plus, ''prefera sa interactioneze cu (chipurile) fericite'', dupa cum a notat dr. Christian Nawroth, unul dintre cercetatorii din echipa de la Queen Mary, in prezent la Institutul pentru biologia animalelor de ferma Leibniz din Germania.
Studiul a fost publicat in jurnalul Royal Society Open Science.
''Aceste concluzii sugereaza faptul ca abilitatea animalelor de a percepe indicii de pe chipurile umane nu se limiteaza doar la cele care au o istorie indelungata a domesticirii pentru companie si, prin urmare, ar putea fi mult mai larg raspandita decat s-a crezut anterior'', se noteaza in cercetare.
Alte studii au relevat ca animale precum cainii si caii pot recunoaste si isi pot aminti expresii umane care tradeaza anumite emotii.
Anterior s-a demonstrat ca oile poseda o memorie vizuala deosebita si au capacitatea de a recunoaste chipurile umane din fotografii.
South Africa is the third largest economy on the continent, having a GDP of $350bn. Last year SARS collected R1.2tn from a country of 57 million people. No South African should suffer hunger, yet we have 17 million citizens on social security and only 15 million gainfully employed. Approximately five million contribute 80% of the revenue. Unemployment stands at approximately 27%, with 5.9 million young people aged between 18 and 35 unable to find employment.
Bonang Mohale, CEO, Business Leadership South Africa
South Africa's challenges
Bringing state-owned enterprises in line
Ethical leadership
Land reform
For the past 10 years we have experienced state capture on an alarming scale, while 90% of the students at Fort Hare University are dependent on NSFAS for tuition, accommodation and living costs. In December 2017 the ANC Conference deposed the previous administration which had, in 10 years, undone the good governance of late President Mandela, bringing the country to its knees. President Ramaphosa has a hard task ahead to bring the country back on track. He has enlisted stalwarts Trudi Makahaya, Mcebisi Jonas, Phumzile Langeni and Trevor Manuel to assist in reforming state-owned corporations like Eskom and SAA which were pillaged by the previous incumbents. He aims to raise $100bn in foreign direct investment which, he hopes, will be equalled by domestic direct investments. If he succeeds, our GDP of -2.2% for the first quarter of 2018 could end up as 2.5% or 3% GDP growth.The president faces a number of challenges requiring his early attention. He must eliminate state capture, for the estimate is that we have lost R100bn annually for the past 10 years, much of it finding its way to Dubai. Next is to reduce our excessively high debt level. Mandela inherited a technically bankrupt country but grew the economy four-fold in the following 10 years, bringing 100,000 black people into the middle class. Student numbers at institutions of learning stood at 500,000 in 1994, but rose to 1,200,000.Eskom, the biggest utility company in the world, is presently encumbered with a debt of almost R500bn. Government has provided guarantees for R350bn, of which Eskom has already accessed R297bn. If Eskom goes down, the country goes down, but Eskom is only one of six state-owned enterprises now managed by Pravin Gordhan. The Department of Communications owns 14 state-owned enterprises, as does the Department of Transport. National Government owns another 372, but adding the provinces and local government, the figure rises to over 700.The third item requiring the presidents attention is to bring state-owned enterprises in line, as they are a burden to the country. Like un-rehabilitated addicts, they return to government annually, seeking a bail-out. SAA is a good example. Most state-owned companies have an employee excess of 33%, all receiving higher remuneration than is appropriate. Eskom currently employs 48,000 people, of which 80 are senior management. Previously, senior management numbered just 20. There has to be some serious culling whether COSATU likes it or no. Therein lies our survival. Another urgent task for the president must be jettisoning expensive projects such as the nuclear deal.Eighty six companies I represent have formed a council, electing a 13-member board which meets 11 times per annum. They have earmarked two important functions. One is to assist the government in state building. They possess people capable of helping to repair our dysfunctional state-owned entities. In so-doing, they hope to grow the tax-morality of the country while ensuring that taxes are properly utilised to improve quality of life for the majority of our people. Secondly, they will remain alert to prevent any future state capture attempt.The idea that the business of business is business, no longer holds good. Civil society must become involved in keeping public servants accountable while also becoming involved in policy formulation. Ethical leadership is the foundation. Good leadership provides good policies which foster a better chance to attract and retain foreign direct investments (FDI). If the FDI is high, the economy grows and by 2030 we should be growing at 3.4% GDP, in order to absorb the 180,000 young graduates that enter the job market annually. Only when the economy is growing can we talk about redistribution of wealth. A growing economy brings jobs. Government has only two methods of collecting revenue via SARS: corporate tax, now about 28%, and PAYE, presently approaching 45%, both dependant on the economy.To achieve the South Africa of Mandelas dream, vital transformative legislation is required. Demographics must become more representative of the population. More women and black men should be in business leadership. Women are proving cleverer and more hard-working than their male counterparts. A company with a woman at the helm is more productive, effective and efficient, with contented employees. A woman not only transforms her company, but ensures her children are cared for, fed and educated, as well as her community. However, in 2014 women were paid only 73% of the salary paid to men, for equal work.The Competition Commission should remedy economic concentration as 90% of the countrys wealth lies in the hands of 10% of the population. In 1994 the GINI index showed South Africas income inequality coefficient to be .54, but today it stands at .7. We have bypassed Brazil to become the most unequal country in the world.Another important legislation is land expropriation without compensation. As businesses, we support land expropriation without compensation because the bigger agenda is land reform, not expropriation.Where people were forcibly removed from farms, they need to be restored to their original position.The Mining and Petroleum Resources Act states that when mineral rights are awarded to a mining company, the surface rights are lost to the community and they are relocated without notice in other words, expropriated without compensation. At least 15 such removals occurred by 1914. The apartheid government forced 90% of the populace onto 13% of the land; arid and with no mineral resources. Redistribution is necessary so we may all live in peace and harmony. Our Constitution guarantees us three rights, namely freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom from hunger.The Constitution states that when conditions are fair and equitable, compensation can be down to. Thus the current Constitution is adequate to deal with the issue of land reform. It is central to the struggle of the African people, so omitting to deal with it now would be irresponsible. It will not be a Zimbabwe-style land grab. It will be done in an orderly and constitutional manner, encouraging inclusive, socioeconomic growth. This way we can all enjoy the same dreams for our children: health, education and the ability to own a home in a pleasant suburb. We need to create a future for all of us together.
If you've ever dreamed of running away to the other side of the world, eat Greek food and sing your problems away - then you'll love the sound of this new restaurant.
A new ABBA-themed restaurant is set to launch in London, created by ABBA's own founding member Bjorn Ulvaeus.
Called an "immersive theatrical dining experience", diners will sit in a recreation of a taverna on the island of Skopelos, where most of the first film was shot.
3RC is a youth marketing and edutainment company. Our roadshows, videos and publications bring quality educational and marketing objectives together to reach the school-age market.
Duke Energy (DUK) was once a darling of income investors, long trading at a premium to its peers. That premium faded with execution missteps during the 2012 Progress Energy acquisition, putting focus on Dukes regulatory relationships in the Carolinas. Investors further soured when Duke Energys unregulated Latin American hydro assets and merchant generation went south, highlighting the assets cash flow volatility. Duke topped things off by paying the highest price/earnings multiple of any utilities M&A deal this cycle with its $6.7 billion Piedmont Natural Gas acquisition in 2016.
But CEO Lynn Good and her executive team have returned Duke Energy to its basic regulated utility business, and we think income investors should take another look. Dukes regulatory relationships are on sound footing in the Carolinas, setting the stage for a five-year investment plan that can support 4%-6% earnings and dividend growth. We think this growth paired with a 5.0% dividend yield, narrow economic moat, and 4-star rating offers a compelling total return opportunity. The market is worried about weak near-term growth, but we think this ignores Dukes growth in 2020 and beyond from three areas: greening up generation, meeting growing gas demand, and building out the electric grid. As Duke hits its growth objectives, we think income investors will again give it a princely valuation.
Morningstar's manager research team recently wrapped up due-diligence meetings with senior leadership at State Street Global Advisors' office in Boston. SSGA demonstrated that it has the structure and leadership in place to serve its fundholders well. Its revamped senior leadership team is finding its footing, but is capable of executing the firm's strategy. The firm has shown progress toward improving its business practices, but could do more to bolster its product development process. SSGA maintains its Parent Pillar rating of Neutral.
This parent rating is based on Morningstars assessment of how well a firm is looking out for its fundholders by focusing on the strength of its investment organization and business practices. SSGAs investment organization is in great shape. Its indexed-equity and fixed-income management teams have been remarkably stable, and each has a deep bench. The firm is well staffed and able to support the portfolio management and trading of its funds.
Community Trust is making a major splash in the residential mortgage space. It also launched a mortgage securitization program in 2015 and expanded its trustee program for registered accounts belonging to self-directed investors, who may choose syndication or MICs. In the wake of mounting mortgage regulations, its a growing industry.
Community Trust is also becoming a major player in the single-family market, believing that self-employed and new Canadian homebuyers are an underserved, yet robust borrowing cohort.
I think some of the strongest borrowers are self-employed people who work hard and create careers for themselves, said Humeniuk. Were active with borrowers who are consolidating debt or perhaps new to Canada and havent had a chance to build long-term income streams or credit profiles. From an underwriting perspective, its a different space than the CMHC or insured prime space, where its more transactional. With every Alt-A deal, theres a story and its the job of our underwriting team and team leaders to get to the bottom of the story.
Our growing market share shows weve been able to build strong working relationships with the broker community that have been mutually beneficial. Weve been working at this for a number of years and we had every expectation that well grow our market share in the Alt-A space.
Community Trust has positioned itself as a flexible alternative to big banksHumeniuk calls it a brand promiseby offering shorter-term deals with borrowers on quality real estate.
Laurentian Bank of Canada has announced that it has resolved a much-criticized sale of mortgages that were designated portfolio insured by mistake, when said sale did not fulfill the CMHCs standards for portfolio insurance.
The issued have been resolved to the satisfaction of the CMHC and the third-party buyer, the bank stated. It assured that none of its customers were affected by the transaction.
Earlier this year, Laurentian Bank president and CEO Francois Desjardins admitted that the institution underestimated the market reaction to the irregularities, but also said that the issue has been over mediatized.
But the study finds that rather than home prices being impacted merely by the presence of a Starbucks, it is more likely that store openings reflect the gentrification of the area.
"The most natural hypothesis to us is that restaurants respond to exogenous changes in neighborhood composition, not that restaurant availability is driving neighborhood change," the paper states.
In fact, the study found that each 10-unit increase in the number of reviews of the Starbucks in an area is associated with a 1.4% rise in home prices in the ZIP code; suggesting the affluence of consumers is driving home prices.
Useful data tool
The use of Yelp data is a useful tool, associate professor at HBS, Michael Luca, told CNBC.
This is because it provides a real time glimpse of changing neighborhoods which other data, while useful, does not always provide.
A coalition of 34,000 churches is calling for a boycott of Wells Fargo, saying that the megabank has suppressed economic growth in African-American neighborhoods.
The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI) cited a list of infractions when calling for the boycott, according to a report by The Los Angeles Sentinel. The bank has already garnered more than its share of unfavorable press and massive fines over the last two years for the opening of unauthorized customer accounts, unfair mortgage practices and charging customers for unnecessary car insurance. The bank has also been sued by the cities of Sacramento, Calif., and Philadelphia for allegedly discriminating against black and Latino homebuyers. The lawsuits alleged that minority borrowers were much more likely to receive high-cost or high-risk loans than similarly situated white borrowers.
Rev. Anthony Evans, NBCI president, said that the organization was taking Wells Fargo to task for its alleged inequitable housing policies.
Allstate insurance company has released its list of the American cities with the best drivers, and Midland is ranked seventh.
RELATED: County on pace to tie 2014 for number of traffic deaths
Midland is the second-ranked city in Texas, trailing only Brownsville, which also topped the list of cities nationwide. Brownsville drivers went 13.6 years in between claims, according to the report. Midlanders went 11.7 years. Midland, according to the report, is new to the drivers report rankings.
The top five were Brownsville, Kansas City, Kansas; Boise, Idaho; Huntsville, Alabama; and Madison, Wisconsin. Laredo, Midland, Cape Coral, Florida; Fort Collins, Colorado; and McAllen rounded out the top 10.
RELATED: MOTRAN: Midland County has most fatal crashes in 2016, 2017
The number of people who have died in accidents on roads inside Midland County this year is up to 30, according to Reporter-Telegram records. The Midland-Odessa Transportation Alliance (MOTRAN) recently reported Midland County had 16 percent more crashes in 2017, compared to 2016.
From the loving way I look at them, youd think these jars were filled with a fine red wine. But no, they are filled with fine red tomatoes. How satisfied and rich they make me feel.
The royal red color broadcasts richness through the sparkling clean glass. But its not just for show; I know from years past that these particular tomatoes will impart an especially rich, well-balanced and tomato-y flavor to sauces, stews and soups.
Good variety makes good sauce
Its hard to reap such satisfaction from a jar or can that you harvest from a supermarket shelf, or even from tomatoes you purchase and then jar up yourself. One reason is variety.
A great deal of difference exists in cooked flavor from one variety of tomato to the next, even if both are billed as paste tomatoes. Most commercial paste tomato varieties are bred for such qualities as good yield and disease resistance but too often fall flat when it comes to flavor.
Without delving into the nuances of flavors among the most savory varieties, suffice it to say that the variety San Marzano is among the best and makes up the bulk of that slushy red heaven that fills the jars on my kitchen counter. In Italy, commercially canned tomatoes that are San Marzano tout that fact on the label.
So my first bit of advice: Make yourself a note to get some San Marzano tomato seeds for planting next spring. You cant count on buying San Marzano transplants next year because the variety almost universally sold as transplants is Roma, a good-looking but sad-tasting paste tomato.
Easy canning
Perhaps you can buy some San Marzano fruits now, or fruits of some other good cooking tomato such as Howards German, Amish Paste, Anna Russian or Prudens Purple. If so, jar up your own for winter use. Not many people can tomatoes these days and methods vary, so let me describe my method, which is simple and relatively quick.
Im ready to begin once Ive accumulated a quarter of a bushel or more of tomatoes. I rarely harvest that many at once, so Ill just toss thoroughly ripe ones into a plastic bag in the freezer without any further preparation (beyond cutting off any bad spots) until Ive accumulated enough for a batch. Then I put inch of water into the bottom of a large cooking pot, dump in the frozen and any new fresh tomatoes I have, and start cooking. My goal is to slowly simmer the mass to concentrate it.
Once the tomatoes have cooked down to about half their volume, which takes about a half-day on low heat with occasional stirring, I could jar them up. But I first like to blend my tomatoes, an easy job with an immersion blender that you dip into the cooking pot. A quick rinse cleans the blender, and then I ladle the now slushy tomato heaven into washed, one-quart canning jars, filling them to within an inch of their tops.
To each quart jar add 2 Tablespoons of bottled lemon juice or teaspoon of citric acid. This is to make the mix more acidic, which prevents growth of the bacterium that causes botulism.
Canning jars are sealed with special rings and lids. I ready the lids by putting them into a small pot of water, bringing it to a boil, and then removing the lids and placing one on each jar. A threaded ring holds each lid down firmly but not too tightly.
Now you need one special piece of equipment: either a pot large enough to completely submerse the jars under 2 inches of water, or a pressure canner. A rack that fits into the bottom of either pot keeps the jars off the directly heated metal. After 45 minutes in boiling water or 15 minutes under 10 pounds of pressure in the pressure canner, the jars are finished. Remove them immediately from the water bath, but the pressure canner needs to sit unopened and undisturbed until the pressure drops back down.
Among the most satisfying aspects of canning tomatoes is looking at the finished jars cooling on the counter. Once they cool, press on each lid to confirm that its been sucked downward and a vacuum seal has formed.
Those tomatoes now can just sit on a shelf indefinitely. But they wont because Ill eat them, the other satisfying part of canning tomatoes.
BEARDSTOWN Beardstown Houston Memorial Public Library has been awarded $15,166 through the Illinois Secretary of States Project Next Generation Grant program.
State Librarian Jesse White awarded $526,790 in grants to 31 public libraries statewide. The initiative is a mentoring program administered through public libraries to work with middle and high school students. Participants can develop skills to use various technologies, achieve success through project-based learning and gain life skills, such as effective communication, goal setting and conflict resolution.
You're the joker, not the two ...
Washington Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) released a statement on the decision by Presidents Bush and Trump to claim executive privilege on 100,000 pages of documents related to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaughs time in the White House.
Feinstein was Wednesdays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. Here are her words:
The Judiciary Committee was informed in a letter from Bill Burck that Presidents Bush and Trump would claim executive privilege on more than 100,000 pages of Brett Kavanaughs records from the White House Counsels Office.
In contrast, not one page of Elena Kagans White House records were withheld due to executive privilege claims. This is just the latest action in a series of actions to obstruct our review of Brett Kavanaughs nomination.
President Trump and Senate Republicans have gone to extraordinary lengths to hide Brett Kavanaughs record from the Senate and American people.
The only explanation for their actions is that these records would further reveal Kavanaughs controversial history and ideological views.
Senators should not be willing to cast a yes vote for a nomination of this magnitude when more than 90 percent of the nominees record is being denied to them.
Additionally, all 10 Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter to White House Counsel Don McGahn calling on President Trump to stop withholding documents from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaughs years in the White House.
The full text of the letter follows:
September 3, 2018
Donald F. McGahn, II
Counsel to the President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Messr. McGahn:
This letter is to request that President Trump withdraw his claim of constitutional privilege over Judge Kavanaughs White House records and ensure that these documents are available to Congress and the public. These records are critical to determining the nominees fitness to serve on this nations highest court, including whether his prior testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee was accurate.
In an August 31 letter, Bill Burck informed the Committee for the first time that nearly 102,000 pages of documents from Judge Kavanaughs work in the White House Counsels Office are being withheld from the Committee and the public based on constitutional privilege.
As you know, executive privilege has never before been invoked to block the release of presidential records to the Senate during a Supreme Court nomination. In fact, when Elena Kagan was nominated, President Obama announced he would not invoke executive privilege over any of her White House records. When John Roberts was nominated, President Bush announced he would not invoke executive privilege over any of his White House records. And when Justice Rehnquist was nominated, the Committee refused to go forward with hearings until the White House produced records over which it initially indicated it might claim privilege.
By contrast, the Trump White House is withholding thousands of pages from Brett Kavanaughs record from Congress and admits that it is doing so without actually asserting a legal privilege. Rather, taking advantage of the unprecedented process used by Republicans to rush this nomination through the Senate with just a fraction of the nominees records, the White House is now asserting that it can withhold whatever documents it wants without formally invoking executive privilege.
The requirements of the Presidential Records Act are not merely a matter of convenience. Rather, the law ensures that executive privilege claims are taken seriously and used sparingly to ensure accountability and public transparency. Under the Act, the President must personally assert the privilege over each record and notify the National Archives and Congress the same day. This ensures that Congress and the public know what records are being withheld and that Congress has an opportunity to engage in the good-faith accommodation process required by the courts as a means of balancing the legitimate needs of both branches.
The decision to hide a significant portion of Judge Kavanaughs White House recordannounced on the eve of his confirmation hearing for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Courtis deeply concerning. We have previously expressed our concern that the Committee is receiving only a small fraction of Judge Kavanaughs White House record, filtered through an opaque private review process being conducted by outside private lawyers rather than the nonpartisan National Archives. Now, for the first time ever, a sitting President is blocking the release of documents during a Supreme Court nomination without even asserting executive privilege.
We were especially troubled to learn from Mr. Burcks letter that the bulk of the withheld documents concern Judge Kavanaughs involvement in the selection and nomination of judicial candidates by the Bush administration. Even based on the limited documents produced to the Committee so far, serious questions have been raised about the accuracy of Judge Kavanaughs testimony during his 2004 and 2006 confirmation hearings, including testimony regarding judicial nominations.
The Senate cannot fulfill its constitutional duty if the White House withholds documents necessary for Senators to know whether a nominee has been truthful in testimony before the Committee. President Trumps unprecedented move to conceal important documents casts a cloud over Judge Kavanaughs nomination.
President Trump is free to waive any claims of privilege, like past presidents have done, and we urge him to do so. In particular, before the Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearings this week regarding Judge Kavanaughs nomination to the Supreme Court, all documents related to his work on judicial nominations should be disclosed.
Sincerely,
Dianne Feinstein
Ranking Member
Kamala D. Harris
United States Senator
Patrick J. Leahy
United States Senator
Richard J. Durbin
United States Senator
Sheldon Whitehouse
United States Senator
Amy Klobuchar
United States Senator
Christopher A. Coons
United States Senator
Richard Blumenthal
United States Senator
Mazie K. Hirono
United States Senator
Cory A. Booker
United States Senator
The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML.
H-E-B will put all of its Austin digital team under one roof and hire hundreds of employees to staff its new digital headquarters there the latest in a series of big moves this year to bolster the companys mobile and online operations.
The San Antonio grocer, which operates 400 stores in Texas and Mexico, announced Wednesday that it plans a world-class tech facility and innovation lab to consolidate its digital team currently operating in Austin along with Austin-based Favor, the mobile delivery company H-E-B bought for an undisclosed sum earlier this year.
Employees on H-E-Bs digital team in San Antonio will remain here, company spokeswoman Dya Campos said.
H-E-B and Favor said they plan to hire several hundred workers to fill positions across all areas of expertise including product management, product design, and software engineering.
This state-of-the-art space will be a hub for creativity and innovation as we continue to develop the ultimate digital experience for our customers, Jag Bath, H-E-B chief digital officer and Favor CEO, said in a statement.
The San Antonio retailer has made big strides in the digital sphere as retail giants Amazon, Target and Walmart make headway in the grocery sector and encroach on H-E-Bs turf in Texas.
Consumers increasingly are seeking offerings that make grocery shopping easier, retail analyst Jan Kniffen said. And once a category of retail product, like books or electronics, starts seeing online sales growth, that growth doesnt stop, Kniffen said.
Grocery will be the same way, Kniffen said. People who dont believe that have not been watching every other category.
But its unclear whether grocers, who operate at low margins, can profit from new digital offerings like home grocery delivery, mobile checkout apps and allowing customers to order groceries online and pick them up in stores or have employees load them into shoppers vehicles.
Grocerys kind of the last frontier of the digital domain, said Paula Rosenblum, managing partner at retail consulting firm RSR Research. The challenge is not is there a market, the challenge is can you make any money at it and I dont think you can.
H-E-B has added home grocery delivery and curbside pickup on grocery orders to more than 100 stores in Texas and is on track to add the services to 165 Texas locations by the end of 2018.
Other retailers also have been aggressively adding grocery delivery and pickup options to their services.
Amazon which bought Austin-based Whole Foods Market last year for $13.4 billion expanded Prime Now delivery of Whole Foods products to San Antonio and Houston in ZIP codes where the Prime Now subscription delivery service operates in June.
That announcement came the same day Walmart announced a partnership with the mobile restaurant courier company DoorDash, offering delivery of at least $30 worth of items for a $9.95 flat delivery fee. Walmart which has been rolling out in-store grocery pickup in its stores since it first piloted the program in 2013 also is piloting its own last-mile grocery delivery service, the company said Wednesday.
And Target bought grocery delivery company Shipt for $550 million in December, saying it would provide same-day delivery on orders of groceries, clothes and electronics, among other goods.
H-E-B also is piloting a mobile checkout app, H-E-B Go, at three stores in the San Antonio area a service Walmart and Sams Club have increasingly offered to their customers.
H-E-B bought Favor in February, a rare acquisition for the $25 billion company. Three months later, H-E-B named Bath to the newly created position of chief digital officer, overseeing H-E-Bs digital products and services. Last month, the company hired Mike Georgoff of Austin-based digital marketing firm to head its digital product strategy, design and development as chief product officer.
For the digital headquarters, IA Interior Architects will customize a two-story, 81,000-square-foot workspace in a recently rehabbed warehouse at 2416 E. 6th St. on Austins East Side, less than 10 minutes from downtown Austin, and H-E-B will lease the space. The facility is projected to open in spring 2019.
The headquarters announcement also marks H-E-Bs latest corporate move in Austin. The chain consolidated its regional operations last year by buying about 100,000 square feet of office space on Austins North Side.
H-E-B still is growing its presence in San Antonio. City Council members waived $1.5 million in city and utility fees for H-E-B to build its $130 million, 1 million-square-foot distribution center on its 870-acre site at the southwest corner of East Houston Street and South Foster Road on the East Side.
Joshua Fechter is a San Antonio-based staff writer covering retail and tourism. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | jfechter@express-news.net | Twitter: @JFreports
Four people filed to run for the vacant District 6 Plainview City Council position.
Candidates include Lionel A. Garcia, David Velez, Dora Sifuentes Sanchez and Evan Weiss.
Early voting for the position starts on Wednesday and ends Sept. 18. The special election will happen on Sept. 22.
Only Plainview residents who reside within District 6 are eligible to vote.
The District 6 term expires in May 2020. The former councilmember who occupied the seat, John Gatica, moved to Slaton and resigned during a City Council meeting in June after taking office in 2016.
Here is a look at the candidates who filed to fill that seat:
Lionel A. Garcia
Garcia served as District 6 Councilman from 2012 to 2016. He gave up his seat in the 2016 election so he could run for mayor.
During his term as a councilman, Garcia said, he was part of the council that began planning for the Hale County/Plainview Business Park.
That's part of the reason he wants the position again, he said.
If elected, Garcia said there are two main goals he'd like to see through.
"If we're going to spend several million dollars out there, we've got to do it to where it's attractive to businesses and industry," he said.
That includes strengthening the workforce and ensuring there are incentives for the businesses interested in settling in, Garcia said.
His second goal is to keep funding and plans on track to complete the six bond items Plainview citizens voted for, Garcia said.
Asked about the most important issue facing the city, Garcia said it's the construction of 24th St.
Quick Facts:
Has lived in Plainview for more than 60 years.
Business degrees from both South Plains College and Wayland Baptist University
Certified Municipal Official
Dora Sifuentes Sanchez
When the District 6 City Council seat became vacant, a friend encouraged Sanchez to run.
Sanchez, who has lived and worked in Plainview since 1978, said she'd always had an interest in being involved in the community, so she filed to run.
If elected, Sanchez said her goals include to be visible in her district, get people more involved with what's going on with the city government.
The biggest issue she currently sees facing Plainview is jobs, she said.
"I work for South Plains College and a lot of our students move out of town," she said. "They move out of town because there are not good-paying jobs here. We would like to retain them here."
She believes that can be addressed by making Plainview a "more enticing" city and let people know that "we're growing, we're doing things," Sanchez said.
Quick Facts:
Married a lifelong Plainview resident
Works for SPC
Has been a part of the Main Street Board and Plainview Downtown Association
Evan Weiss
This is the longest Weiss has lived in anywhere.
The Air Force veteran traveled a lot with the military before he retired and eventually landed in Plainview, where he's lived since 2008.
He filed to run for the District 6 seat as soon as he learned it had become available.
If elected, Weiss said his primary goal is to entice new businesses to come to the city and get the Business Park occupied.
"You entice by keeping tax brackets low," he said. "You entice by showing them spaces that are easy access for a customer."
The revolving door of businesses opening and closing is one of the bigger issues he's noticed, he said.
"I would like to see them open and stay open, which means we have to patronize our businesses," Weiss said. "Let's spend our dollars here."
Quick Facts:
Retired after 22 years in the Air Force
Joined the Planning and Zoning Committee and the Zoning Board of Adjustment this year
Minister at 9th and Columbia Church of Christ
David Velez
At 25-years-old, Velez said he knows he's young but wants to make a difference.
Velez is a 2012 Plainview High School graduate who moved to town when he was a fourth grader. He briefly left Plainview after graduation but chose to return to his grandmother, whom he refers to as his best friend.
He's always had an interest in public service, he said.
That's why he filed to run for the District 6 position.
If elected, he said his goal will be to create an outreach program for the youth to keep them on a straight path.
Drug use among Plainview's youth is a problem, he said.
"Honestly, it's one of the biggest issues," Velez said.
One way to combat that is by engaging the youth, he said.
He's also anxious to see how other projects and changes going on around town like the renovated duck pond and the Hilton project will turn out, he said, and he'd like to be a part of it.
Quick Facts:
25 years old
Works with the Sheriff's Office
Plainview High School graduate
Gwyneth Paltrows controversial lifestyle and wellness company, Goop, has agreed to refund some customers who purchased its vaginal eggs and pay out $145,000 in a consumer-protection lawsuit settlement, California prosecutors announced this week.
Goop held up its jade and rose quartz eggs as a cure-all of sorts, advertising the items could balance hormones, prevent uterine prolapse, increase bladder control and prevent depression, according to a complaint filed by the California Food, Drug and Medical Device Task Force.
Women were instructed to insert the egg-shaped stones into their vagina and let them sit for various lengths of time. The complaint said none of these claims were backed by legitimate science, calling the representations false and misleading.
False claims that assure consumers of specific health outcomes can put the public at risk, said Alameda County District Attorney Nancy OMalley, whose office is a member of the task force.
The task force is composed of 10 district attorneys offices, including Napa, Marin, Monterey, Orange, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Solano and Sonoma counties.
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen chastised Goop for putting South Bay consumers health at risk.
We will vigilantly protect consumers against companies that promise health benefits without the support of good science or any science, he said.
The $145,000 in civil penalties will be split among the 10 counties, said a spokeswoman for the Alameda County prosecutors office.
Goop additionally offered to refund customers the full price of eggs if they were purchased between Jan. 12, 2017, and Aug. 31, 2017. The $66 jade egg and $55 rose quartz variety are still available for purchase on the companys website, but they now claim to increase sexual energy.
The Inner Judge Flower Essence Blend, a $22 liquid that was also noted in the lawsuit, appears to have sold out. Goop currently advertises the concoction as a floral blend that assists in the clearing of guilt, shame, self-criticism and blame.
As part of the settlement, Goop is barred from making any claims about the effects of its products without scientific backing, as well as selling or manufacturing any misbranded or falsely advertised medical devices, prosecutors said.
Goop issued a statement saying that although the company believes there is an honest disagreement about these claims, the company wanted to settle this matter quickly and amicably.
The recent suit isnt the first time Goop has taken heat for claims about the effectiveness of its products.
A line of stickers promoted on the companys website last year claimed to use the same carbon material NASA uses to line space suits, a description quickly refuted by the space agency. Goop later removed the NASA reference from the stickers description.
Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy
As the oil boom continues in West Texas rents have continued to skyrocket, and nowhere is that being felt more than in Midland and Odessa.
The two cities, which primarily serve the oil and gas industry in the Permian Basin, had the largest year-over-year changes in the nation, according to RENTCafe, an apartment search website. Midland's rent in August increased 31.9 percent over the previous year, while rent in Odessa increased 30 percent.
A new food truck at The Point Park is bringing crispy, sugary tubes of dough to San Antonio.
The dessert, a traditional pastry invented in 15th century Transylvania, Romania, known as Chimney Cakes, is cooked over an electric oven rather than baked. The finished product looks like a short tube and is healthier than baked goods, according to Ana Lacau, whose family is part-owners.
Ramens coming to the East Side this week when the Kimura spinoff Ramen Bar opens Friday at the philanthropic Cherrity Bar.
Ramen Bar at Cherrity Bar will offer much of the same menu of dumplings, yakisoba noodles and Japanese ramen noodle soups as its mothership, the celebrated Kimura noodle shop from Restaurant Gwendolyn chef and owner Michael Sohocki. The doors officially open at 5 p.m. Friday at 302 Montana St.
WASHINGTON At the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Wednesday addressed what he termed the elephant in the room: The looming legal difficulties of President Donald Trump and what role Kavanaugh might play in adjudicating them.
We are in uncharted territory, Blumenthal, D-Conn., said. It is unprecedented for a nominee to be made by a president who is an unindicted co-conspirator in a pending criminal matter.
The criminal matter is a reference to Trump former lawyer-fixer Michael Cohens guilty plea last month in which he said that before the 2016 election, he paid off women claiming sexual relationships with Trump at Trumps direction.
I would like your commitment you will recuse yourself if Trump were to come before the Supreme Court, Blumenthal told Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh demurred, saying it would be a violation of judicial independence to make commitments on hypothetical cases.
Im going to take your answer as a no, Blumenthal interrupted. Its really a yes-or-no question.
A former prosecutor known for sharp rat-a-tat questioning, Blumenthal used his 30 minute round of questioning to focus in on a variety of controversial issues including abortion, health insurance for those with pre-existing conditions and gun control.
On abortion, Blumenthal cited Kavanaughs use of the phrase abortion on demand in an appeals court opinion last year on an illegal-immigrant teenager in Texas seeking to terminate a pregnancy.
Those are code words used by the anti-choice community, Blumenthal said. He accused Kavanaugh of using the phrase in order to send a message to the Trump administration that he was an opponent of the Roe v. Wade abortion precedent, willing to overturn it in line with Trumps oft-stated promise only to appoint justices who would do so.
These were your bumper stickers, he said.
Kavanaugh replied he was not familiar with use of the words as code, and was only following the same words used by Chief Justice Warren Burger in the Roe v. Wade opinion in 1973. When asked by Blumenthal to commit to maintaining Roe v. Wade, Kavanaugh declined.
On guns, Blumenthal said he was deeply disturbed by Kavanaughs dissent in a 2011 case in which the majority upheld the District of Columbias ban on semi-automatic rifles assault weapons.
He attacked Kavanaughs statement in the dissent that weapons in common use should be off-limits from governmental controls.
Those words come from the Supreme Courts ruling in D.C. v. Helle, which struck down D.C.s ban on handgun ownership. The decision stated for the first time that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to have a gun at home for self-protection.
In his dissent, Kavanaugh insisted that semi-automatic handguns permitted by Heller are barely distinguishable from semi-automatic rifles -- both discharge a single shot per trigger pull. Both are in common use and therefore there is no basisfor drawing a constitutional distinction between semi-automatic handguns and semi-automatic rifles.
Connecticuts assault weapons ban actually dates back to the 1990s. But the legislature beefed it up in the round of gun-control laws approved in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in 2012. Connecticut law now bans such weapons both by brand name and specific features -- a folding stock, for instance, or a pistol grip. Connecticut also bans magazines greater than 10 rounds.
Earlier Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., forced the Senate to shut down for the day by objecting to a floor motion by his Republican counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Republicans are trying to jam through, with as little scrutiny as possible, a lifetime appointment to the nations highest court, with the power to affect the lives of Americans for a generation, said Schumer on the Senate floor Wednesday.
Schumer objected to McConnells proposal to wave a rule that prevents Senate committees from hearings that go beyond two hours while the Senate is in session. After Schumer spoke up against what otherwise would have been a routine motion, the Senates top Republican then had little choice but to adjourn.
dan@hearstdc.com
Contributed Photo / U.S. Marshals
BRIDGEPORT A man wanted in connection with two killings and who was on the U.S. Marshals Services 15 Most Wanted list, was taken into custody in Bridgeport on Tuesday, officials said.
Andre Neverson, 54, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, was wanted in New York in connection with the 2002 slayings of his sister and an ex-girlfriend, according to the U.S. Marshals. Neverson was also wanted for parole violation and illegal entry into the United States. He was added to the U.S. Marshals fugitive list in February 2004.
Carol Kaliff / Hearst Connecticut Media
Brookfield and Danbury schools will dismiss early Thursday because of the ongoing heat and problems with Brookfield schools ventilation systems.
All Danbury schools will be on a weather-related early dismissal Thursday. All after-school activities and the Extended Learning Program also are canceled.
Have a grand day in Hermann Park as Hermann Park celebrate Grandparents Day.
Many generations have made memories together in Hermann Park. This Grandparents Day, Sunday, Sept. 9, park officials invite families to join the staff for Grandparents Day breakfast in Pinewood Cafe.
The day will include breakfast, a special arts and craft project, ride on the Hermann Park Railroad, and a complimentary ticket for a pedal boat ride on McGovern Lake.
The mornings schedule is 8:30-10 a.m. breakfast at Pinewood Cafe; 10 a.m., all aboard the Hermann Park Railroad.
The complimentary pedal boat ticket can be redeemed on this day or on another visit to the Park.
The adult breakfast includes strawberry French toast, scrambled eggs, tater tots, bacon or turkey sausage and a choice of beverage. The childrens breakfast includes French toast sticks, bacon or turkey sausage, fruit cup and choice of beverage.
Space is limited and advance ticket purchase for this event is required. Tickets are $14 per adult and $7 per child 12 years and younger. For further information or to purchase tickets, visit www.hermannpark.org/calendar/grandparents-day-breakfast.
The event is hosted by Hermann Park Conservancy and Pinewood Cafe. Event is rain or shine. Tickets are non-refundable.
WASHINGTON - An explosive new account of friction between President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis threatens to impair their relationship and undermine the former Marine general's role as an influential voice for foreign policy continuity.
A forthcoming book by veteran journalist Bob Woodward, sections of which were described Tuesday by The Washington Post, recounts a series of episodes involving Mattis and Trump. Woodward writes, for example, that after a National Security Council meeting on the Korean Peninsula, Mattis said the president had the understanding of "a fifth- or sixth-grader."
Mattis vigorously denied insulting the president and described the exchanges in the book as "a product of someone's rich imagination." On Wednesday, Trump said Mattis was "doing a fantastic job" and would stay in his position.
But the reporting from one of America's most respected journalists nevertheless adds urgency to a question that has been building across Washington, D.C., in recent months: How long will Trump remain comfortable with a Pentagon chief with a reputation for keeping him in check?
The book comes at a delicate moment in the Trump presidency, as the White House struggles to project its message of success in a year marked by personnel drama, fallout from the Russia probe, and a series of presidential spats with everyone from TV stars to world leaders.
Retired Adm. Jim Stavridis, who served alongside Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, another former general who is depicted in the book making disparaging comments about Trump, said the reporting added new credence to a damaging portrait of the presidency.
"We must face the reality that there is real international danger ahead as a result of such confusion and acrimony at the top of our national security structure," said Stavridis, who is now chief operating officer with the Carlyle Group.
Since taking over at the Pentagon 19 months ago, Mattis has cut a sharp contrast to his unpredictable commander in chief. He has quietly made a traditionalist mark on the administration's foreign policy, talking the president out of embracing torture and securing his reluctant support for operations in Syria and Afghanistan.
Again and again Mattis has walked back provocative statements by Trump, as the president seemed to question the U.S. allegiance to NATO and commitment to keeping troops in South Korea. All that has made Mattis a favorite not just of lawmakers from both parties but allied nations struggling to make sense of the Trump era.
"What he's trying to do is help Trump think through how his conflicting and somewhat impulsive instincts might translate into policy," said Michael O'Hanlon, a defense scholar at the Brookings Institution.
Mattis has managed to avoid the public flaps that sabotaged Trump's dealings with senior leaders such as former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who reportedly called the president a "moron." Mattis has kept a studiously low profile, appearing only rarely on television, sidestepping political controversy and telegraphing his deference to the president.
That restrained demeanor makes the picture presented by Woodward all the more striking, adding new heft to previous reports of Mattis correcting or containing his boss.
When Syrian President Bashar Assad unleashed chemical weapons on Syrians in 2017, Trump told Mattis he wanted to assassinate the dictator, Woodward writes.
Mattis concurred but then told an aide: "We're not going to do any of that," according to the book.
While Mattis denied in his statement that he had said "contemptuous words" about his boss, he did not dispute the scene describing his reaction to Trump's outrage at Assad.
No matter their origins, the interactions described by Woodward are likely to fan friction between White House and Pentagon officials following months of speculation about a growing distance between Mattis and Trump. While Pentagon officials have rejected the idea that policy difference have fueled any discord, State Department officials denied similar reports related to Tillerson until the day Trump fired him in a tweet.
It is Trump's nature to stew over insults or perceived insults and to nurse grudges against people, including, and perhaps especially, his own staff. For example, after it was reported that Tillerson had disparaged Trump, the relationship between the two men soured and never recovered.
While Mattis has sought to stay out of White House drama, he has occasionally made comments that some have seen as a subtle rebuke to Trump's leadership, including in the wake of the racially charged 2017 confrontations in Charlottesville, Virginia.
He also made joking nods to the turmoil of the day. Speaking at the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation's 2018 awards dinner in April, Mattis recognized Kelly in the crowd and noted with a smile that he was "chief of staff of the White House - God bless you." The line drew laughs and applause.
Mattis' fate is of intense interest not just to allies in Congress but also to those in Europe. Diplomats and policymakers there had mixed reactions to Woodward's revelations. Some said they feared that Mattis' geopolitical expertise was one of the few barriers stopping Trump from ripping up the old transatlantic fabric and building an alliance of global strongmen.
Others, though, said they had already factored in strained relations between the Pentagon and the White House into the way they deal with Washington, and that the revelations in the book probably would not change Trump's approach to national security issues.
"Mattis knows and understands and has the experience and humility to pick his battles," said one senior European foreign policy official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss fears about the behavior of an ally. "It is not clear to me that a lesser man or woman could keep DOD's head above water. So in a macro sense, Mattis is important as an experienced and balanced adult who knows that defense of Europe is in the U.S.'s interest."
An EU foreign minister, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said their nation had embraced the turmoil of its dealings with its biggest transatlantic partner.
"Frankly, we are getting used to the new normal," the minister said.
---
The Washington Post's Michael Birnbaum in Brussels, Karla Adam in London and Philip Rucker in Washington contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON - Sen. Lindsey Graham's longtime ally John McCain was widely mourned last week as a vital counterweight to President Donald Trump, one of the few Republicans willing to take the president to task for cozying up to dictators, launching personal attacks and undermining the rule of law.
But Graham, McCain's loyal sidekick for years, is now charting a markedly different path in the wake of his friend's death - emerging as one of the strongest voices in defense of a president he once derided as a "kook" and "unfit for office."
In a matter of days, Graham, S.C., brokered invitations to McCain's funeral for the president's daughter and son-in-law with a family that didn't want Trump himself there. He appeared on "Fox & Friends," one of Trump's favorite television shows, to echo the president's attacks on the ongoing special counsel investigation of possible coordination between Russia and Trump's campaign in the 2016 election.
And on Wednesday, Graham took to Twitter to minimize the impact of Bob Woodward's blistering new book on the president while lavishing praise on Trump's achievements, including his Supreme Court pick of U.S. Appeals Court Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh.
Graham's tweets included a recap of his appearance the night before on another Fox News Channel show, where he predicted Kavanaugh would win Senate confirmation and provide a boost to Trump in his 2020 reelection bid.
"Well done, Mr. President," Graham said.
Graham's embrace of Trump - which began months ago but seems to have tightened in the past week - has prompted questions about his motives, with some suggesting he's angling for a job in a Cabinet in which vacancies have become commonplace.
Late last month, shortly before McCain's death, Graham raised eyebrows when he seemed to give Trump his blessing to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions as long as he waited until after the midterms. Graham, who once said there would "holy hell to pay" for such a move, voiced sympathy for Trump's frustration with an attorney general who recused himself from the Russia probe.
Asked Wednesday by a McClatchy reporter if he were angling for an administration job, Graham emphatically denied that was his aim.
"How do you say 'no' in forty languages?" he said.
Graham may also be acting out of self-preservation ahead of his 2020 reelection bid, seeking to avoid a repeat of his 2014 campaign.
During that race, he faced a half-dozen primary challengers who sought to capitalize on unhappiness among the conservative base with his more-moderate positions on climate change and immigration as well as his votes to confirm both of President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominees.
For years, Graham has come under fire from conservative commentators such as Rush Limbaugh, who dubbed the senator "Lindsey Grahamnesty," and Glenn Beck, who nicknamed him "Obama Lite."
Graham ultimately won his 2014 primary with 56 percent of the vote. But he could face a tougher road in 2020, given the Republican Party's rightward tilt and its full-on embrace of Trump.
McCain's death, and the unmistakable critique of Trump that was part of the week of services celebrating his life, drew attention to the question of whether Graham would adopt the critical approach to Trump that McCain embraced and his supporters heralded.
In an emotional floor speech last week, Graham addressed the issue of who would fill McCain's shoes broadly, urging all his colleagues to look to his friend and mentor for inspiration.
"The void to be filled by John's passing is more than I can fill. Don't look to me to replace this man," Graham said last week. "Look to me to remember what he was all about and try to follow in his footsteps. If you want to help me, join the march. "
That march, so far, has not included embracing McCain's role as a vocal Republican counterweight to Trump.
Some of Graham's colleagues said they've noticed a change since the 2016 election in Graham's posture toward the president, with whom he now plays golf periodically.
"Lindsey's developed a relationship with the president, he's changed his opinion," said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis. "You get to know somebody and you realize, no one's perfect, everyone has pluses and minuses. . . . They enjoy each other's company, but they continue to agree and disagree on a host of issues."
Asked about Graham's changing stance toward the president, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who has been a vocal critic of Trump and his policies, said: "Sometimes you get to know someone and you view them differently, you feel like you can learn to make a difference in other ways."
Corker, who is retiring after this term, said that his relationship with Trump has not changed, however.
"There are, I'm sure, very good reasons for every senator to be acting and speaking in the way that they are," he said. "For me, I came here a person, and I'm leaving here as that same person."
Graham has emerged as a conduit between Trump and people seeking access to him. In an audio recording Woodward made of an August phone call he had with Trump, the journalist mentions that he asked Graham to pass on word to Trump that he was seeking to interview him for his book.
Trump, who at first denied that any senators contacted him, is later heard on the call acknowledging that Graham had mentioned Woodward to him.
Richard Durbin, Ill., the second-ranking Senate Democrat, said that Graham tells his colleagues that he speaks regularly with Trump, "at all hours of the night and day."
"It's an unusual relationship," Durbin said. Graham, he added, is "the only one that can describe that relationship, but I think it embodies the entire spectrum of opportunities for him to be critical one day and supportive the next."
Others suggested Graham's about-face is reflective of a broader recalibration taking place within the Republican Party as lawmakers gradually have come to realize that Trump has achieved success on many of their agenda items despite his unorthodox style.
"A lot of people are beginning to wake up and realize that his agenda's actually working, what he believes in actually works, and that's what's going on," Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., said.
Graham fired off a string of tweets Wednesday morning defending Trump against the harrowing portrayal in Woodwood's forthcoming book.
Trump's "fate will be determined by the results he achieves for the American people, not by a book about the process," Graham wrote. "By any reasonable measure, we have one of the strongest economies in modern history, President Trump has rebuilt a broken military, and we are pushing back hard against America's enemies."
Among other unflattering accounts, Woodward's book describes "an administrative coup d'etat" and a "nervous breakdown" of the executive branch, with senior aides conspiring to remove official papers from the president's desk so he couldn't see or sign them.
In the book, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is said to have told colleagues that he considers Trump "unhinged" and "an idiot," and contends that it is "pointless" to advise the president. Kelly disputed Woodward's account.
In his tweets Wednesday, Graham ridiculed the idea that Kelly should resign, writing: "Only an 'idiot' or 'moron' would call for John Kelly to resign from the Trump White House."
Kelly and other staffers, Graham wrote, "have served the president with distinction and honor" and "even a 5th grader would understand that General Kelly has provided sound advice to and invaluable leadership for President Trump." (Woodward's book says that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has described Trump as having the intellect of a "fifth- or sixth-grader" - a remark Mattis denied.)
The senator's defense of Trump came as other Southern lawmakers - from both parties - were voicing concerns about reporting in Woodward's book that the president had called Sessions a "dumb Southerner" and mocked his accent. Trump denied Woodward's account in a tweet Tuesday night.
Graham on Wednesday also distributed by Twitter an account of his television appearance Tuesday night on Fox News, in which he called Trump the "big winner" at the Senate hearing the day before on Kavanaugh's nomination.
During his appearance on "The Story," Graham also told host Martha MacCallum that Democratic senators had performed poorly, adding: "If this is their approach to how to govern, they're going to have a hard time in 2020."
Graham squared off against Trump in spirited fashion during the Republican presidential primaries but became friendlier with the president after he took office, saying he wanted to work with him where he can.
In a CNN interview Wednesday evening, Graham pushed back against a tweet in which Trump wrote a single word - "TREASON?" - after the New York Times published a scathing op-ed from an anonymous senior administration official.
The op-ed may have been a "disloyal and cowardly act towards the president," but it wasn't treason, Graham said. He also sought to explain his support for Trump as dependent on the president's actions rather than his words.
"He ran a campaign that I didn't like at all," Graham said. "I'm telling you, I lost, he won, and from the time he's been sworn in until now, he says a lot of things I don't like, but he's doing things I respect."
- - -
The Washington Post's Felicia Sonmez contributed to this report.
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.
NEW HAVEN A New Haven man who sexually assaulted a woman in his car while he posed as a Uber driver has been sentenced to serve four years in prison.
Ahmad Bahjat, 31, a refugee from Iraq, probably will be deported to that country after he finishes serving his sentence, according to his attorney Hugh Keefe.
The crime occurred during the early morning hours of Jan. 31, 2016. The victim had left a New Haven bar and went to a parking lot designated for taxi and Uber cars, according to Hamden police. Bahjat drove her into Hamden but then stopped in a parking lot and viciously sexually assaulted her, police said.
Bahjat then drove the woman to the vicinity of her residence. She was able to flee from the car but left behind some personal items. Those materials were later seized by police as evidence against him.
But Bahjat had already left the country. Within a day of the attack, he took a flight to Toronto and then flights to Jordan and Turkey, police said. He was detained by authorities at John F. Kennedy International Airport 12 days after the attack as he was trying to re-enter the country.
Bahjat has been held in lieu of $500,000 bail for the past 21/2 years. Because of that incarceration period, he will be eligible for release in less than two years.
He was sentenced under a plea deal. Keefe said of the arrangement, It was worked out over a long period of time between the prosecutor and the defense. The judge (Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Clifford) gave it his blessing.
The prosecutor, Assistant States Attorney Karen Roberg, could not be reached for comment.
Keefe said of Bahjat, He was here on a refugee visa. He is not a U.S. citizen.
The sentence imposed by Clifford was 12 years, suspended after serving four years.
Before Clifford announced the sentence, he listened to detailed statements from the victim and her mother.
The defendants actions will always have an impact on my ability to trust others and to form relationships with men, the victim said in her written statement, which was provided to the New Haven Register by the Victim Rights Center of Connecticut.
I think there will always be a parcel of fear when I go out or when I am around men and I think that will be exaggerated if I ever have a daughter, she added.
She said she was raped for no reason, save for being in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong fellow human being.
The victim recalled writhing futilely, asking it to please stop and to please go home and that I dont want to do this.
She also recalled Bahjat saying shhh, shhh, its okay baby, shhh. She said those words will forever ring in my ears like some curse on my sense of identity and autonomy.
Describing the long-term impact, the woman said: My protective exterior that once shielded my soul and spirit from pain was destroyed from the inside out. She said on that day she lost her sense of free will, freedom, choice and volition, compassion and connection, trust and understanding.
However, she added, The wost pain was not the actual rape but after the fact. She said, When he stopped jabbing inside me, almost two years of survival mode was triggered inside me. Soon a legal process would kidnap almost three years of my life, leaving my free will still at large.
Since the attack, she said, she has endured flashbacks and nightmares as well as drinking way too much at night to forget. She also described pulling at her hair, scratching herself and one time, cutting herself.
I began blaming myself for what I could have done differently, she said. If I just didnt drink that night, if I just didnt leave alone, if I was more responsible with getting a ride home, if I fought harder, etc.
But she said therapy and immeasurable support from my family and friends all helped to ease the pain and make it bearable to a degree where I could make sense of its white noise.
The victim said she hopes perhaps another survivor will read this and feel the connection that is so hard to feel again once you have been raped. But once you do begin to feel connection again, the pain dulls and the fragments of yourself begin to come together again.
As for Bahjat, she said, I dont think I will ever be able to forgive the defendant because I dont think rape merits forgiveness, especially when he had the gall to claim it was consensual.
Her mother in her statement described Bahjat as a truly evil, narcissistic and self-centered creature. She noted that after the violent assault, he fled the very country he came to for refuge.
But she praised her daughter for her courage and sheer bravery. She added, My daughter is no longer a victim. She is a heroic survivor and throughout all of this she has not lost her innate sense of kindness, trust and overall sense of curiosity and positiveness.
However, the mother said she had long looked forward to a day where justice would prevail and a punishment would be given to fit the crime. I dont feel in my heart that this has been done and this is very unsettling and frustrating.
She acknowledged, The final unsettling part is that I am not sure there is a punishment that exists that would meet my definition of enough.
The mother then said: I have one question for Ahmad and that is how would you feel if this crime was perpetrated on your daughter, sister, mother or friend?
She said there is a lot to be improved on concerning how the judicial system handles sexual assaults. As a culture, we must do more to prevent sexual crimes and one of the first steps is harsher penalties for convicted felons. A harsher penalty sends a stronger message that this type of aberrant behavior will not be tolerated. A sentence of four years just does not send a strong enough message.
The mother added, We must as citizens be more aware as we go about our daily lives to prevent and reach out to help and protect potential victims from sexual predators like Ahmad. Unfortunately, there are more like him but there are more of us that can do more to change the statistics going forward. I implore everyone to pay attention. See something, say something.
The mother thanked her daughters friends and other family members for their support. She also thanked the nurses and others at Yale New Haven Hospital, the Hamden Police Department (especially Detective William Onofrio), New Haven Superior Court prosecutors Roberg and Lisa DAngelo, Clifford and the Victim Rights Center of Connecticuts James Clark and Maura Crossin.
But the mother said the prosecutors had their hands tied throughout this entire process. They were held to a higher code than their counterpart, Hugh Keefe, who appeared to be allowed to file last minute continuances and abuse the system as he saw fit with no repercussions. This ultimately caused this case to drag out beyond what should have been allowed.
When asked for comment, Keefe said, Ive been at this for 50 years. If I had a dollar for every time a victim or a victims family commented negatively on me, Id be a rich man.
randall.beach@hearstmediact.com
Sheldon Cohen, a tax lawyer and certified public accountant who helped set up the first presidential blind trust, for Lyndon B. Johnson, and then helped fully computerize the IRS as Johnson's commissioner of internal revenue, died Sept. 4 at a nursing home in Chevy Chase, Maryland. He was 91.
The cause was complications from congestive heart failure, said a grandson, Reuben Goetzl.
Cohen, a native Washingtonian and son of a Lithuanian-born shopkeeper, graduated first in his law-school class at George Washington University in 1952. He then joined a cadre of young lawyers at the Internal Revenue Service who drafted a massive overhaul of the federal income tax code.
His role shaping the new tax code, which took effect in 1954, vaulted him to prominence in the field of tax law. He soon left government work for private practice and was recruited to the politically connected firm of Arnold, Fortas and Porter. One of the partners, Johnson confidant and future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas, became Cohen's mentor.
Shortly after President John F. Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, Cohen said, he was headed to Friday-evening services at his synagogue when Fortas summoned his protege. Johnson, newly elevated from the vice presidency to the presidency, needed his business affairs put in order immediately.
The Johnsons had long owned a radio and television station in Austin. "I was the only one who wanted to sell the radio station on the basis that it was a terrible conflict," Cohen said in an oral history with the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington. "Fortas looked at me and said, 'He'll kill ya.' He agreed to set up a blind trust."
Cohen had experience creating such trusts, which allow investors to maintain their assets but avoid the conflicts of interest that might arise through their daily management. The 1978 Ethics in Government Act made blind trusts the preferred vehicle for public officials who do not want to dispose of holdings that carry potential conflicts.
Cohen returned to the IRS in 1964 as chief counsel. Johnson named him commissioner the next year, a time when the agency was warily beginning to adopt computer technology for the processing of returns. Such mechanization, which allowed the agency to track each taxpayer with a number, stoked fears of government overreach. Cohen argued that the modernized system would more efficiently identify and discourage tax fraud.
When it came time to use the state-of-the-art IBM system, however, Cohen proceeded cautiously and ordered that tax returns be tabulated by computer and then checked by hand.
"I am not going to be the commissioner on whose watch the system fails," he recalled thinking, according to what he told a publication of the American Bar Association. "So we did it both ways that first year, and the computers worked fine. So the next year we switched off."
As a new commissioner, Cohen also responded to the uproar when the agency's history of aggressive enforcement practices, including wiretapping in serious criminal cases, came to light.
Sen. Edward Long, D-Mo., who led a subcommittee investigating electronic surveillance methods across many agencies, accused the IRS of flagrant violations of constitutionally protected privacy.
In 1965, Cohen called Long's claims "overblown," insisting that the wiretaps were chiefly focused on racketeers attempting to bribe IRS personnel. But two years later, Cohen admitted in a letter to Long that the extent of wiretapping was far more extensive than initially revealed. By his count, the IRS had made "improper" and "questionable" use of wiretapping 287 times between 1958 and 1966, mostly owing to the "overzealousness on the part of certain personnel engaged in the investigation of the criminal element."
Although his sparring with Long generated negative headlines, Cohen said it was far from his greatest concern during his four-year tenure. "The most embarrassing thing that happened to me in office was that millions of persons below the poverty line had to pay taxes," he said in 1969 as he championed a system in which the poorest Americans would not pay income taxes.
Charlotte Crane, a professor and tax historian at Northwestern University's law school, said Cohen's proposal presaged the adoption in 1975 of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, a refund meant to offset payroll taxation for low-income filers. "He was one of the leading members of the tax bar willing to stick outtheir neck in favor of that kind of reform," she said.
Sheldon Stanley Cohen was born in Washington on June 28, 1927. His first experience in finance, he said, was helping his father with deliveries at the family business, Potomac Butter and Egg. After graduating from Coolidge High School in 1945, he served in the Navy at the end of World War II. He received a bachelor's degree from GWU in 1950.
In 1969, Cohen and IRS general counsel Lester Uretz formed a boutique tax-law practice. It was absorbed in 1985 by Morgan, Lewis and Bockius, where Cohen remained until retiring three decades later. He then spent several years as a senior counsel and director of Farr,Miller and Washington, an investment-management firm.
Through his friendship with Robert Strauss, the Texas-bred power broker and Democratic National Committee chairman, Cohen was recruited to serve as the committee's general counsel in the wake of Richard M. Nixon's landslide reelection victory in 1972. He helped settle a civil case stemming from the break-in and bugging of DNC offices at the Watergate office complex by Nixon campaign operatives.
Cohen, a longtime resident of Somerset, Maryland, was an officer in Jewish, community and legal groups. He also advised foreign countries on their tax systems.
His wife of 67 years, the former Faye Fram, died in April. Survivors include four children, Melinda Cohen of Adamstown, Maryland, Laura Apelbaum and Jonathan Cohen, both of Chevy Chase, and Sharon Cohen of Cabin John, Maryland; a brother; a sister; and 10 grandchildren.
The IRS is an agency that rarely draws praise from political leaders, but Cohen told the ABA publication that Johnson took an "immense" interest in boosting his office's morale.
For two years straight, the president invited IRS leadership and many of its lower-level employees to the White House for coffee, cake and a pep talk. By his third year on the job, Cohen said, he began to feel that he and his staff were imposing themselves on the president - amid the Vietnam War and other pressing matters of state - and instead invited the vice president to IRS headquarters.
Cohen's office phone soon rang. It was Johnson. "Don't you love me anymore?" the president inquired in his persuasive Texas twang.
The commissioner agreed to ferry the IRS team back to the White House for another coffee klatch.
Remnants of Tropical Storm Gordon could bring massive rainfall to west-central Illinois this weekend, depending on the course the storm takes when it reaches land and moves across the central U.S.
The storm was expected to hit Biloxi, Mississippi, Tuesday night as a hurricane with winds of 74 to 110 mph and be downgraded to a tropical storm by this morning.
The storm was already pounding western Florida with heavy rain Tuesday as it moved closer to shore. The Alabama and Mississippi coasts were under a hurricane warning, with forecasters saying the are could see a life-threatening 3 to 5 foot rise in waters.
Current projections have the storm cutting a swath across western Mississippi and into Arkansas as a tropical depression and then swinging into northwestern Illinois by Sunday.
The National Weather Service in St. Louis said a cold front that will stall over Illinois and Missouri about the same time could bring the potential for several inches of rain from Thursday into the weekend.
The forecasts Tuesday was calling for 3 to 4 inches of rain in a swath cutting through the region that included most of Greene, Macoupin and Sangamon counties.
Jacksonville was right on the cusp of the path where weather forecasters say 4 to 6 inches of rain are likely by the end of the weekend, although they cautioned that amounts are subject to change.
At the present time, it appears areas north of a Jacksonville to Danville have the potential for seeing 3 to 5 inches of rain through the upcoming weekend. Amounts of 2 to 3 inches are expected south of there, according to the National Weather Service in Lincoln.
The concern is heightened because of storms that last week brought 2 to 4 inches of rain to areas near and west of the Illinois River.
These locations correspond with the heaviest rain forecast and would be most susceptible to any flooding, according to the weather service. Elsewhere, flooding is also possible, especially if heavy amounts occur in a short amount of time.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to order a government shutdown later this month as part of his immigration-related fight for more spending, appearing to contradict the strategy his budget director conveyed to congressional Republicans just hours earlier.
It marked the latest herky jerky spending confusion from the White House, which has left many lawmakers dizzy and confused as they enter last-minute discussions over how to proceed.
"If it happens, it happens," Trump told reporters about the possibility of a shutdown during a meeting with congressional leaders. "If it's about border security, I'm willing to do anything."
Several hours earlier, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told congressional Republicans that he was advising Trump not to seek a shutdown later this month and wanted them to pass a spending bill by the Oct. 1 deadline.
A shutdown is "not in anyone's interest, and [Trump] knows that," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said.
Many government operations are only funded through Sept. 30, giving Congress three weeks to patch together the coalition of lawmakers needed to avoid a partial shutdown. Trump wants Congress to appropriate at least $5 billion for construction of a wall along the Mexico border, but congressional leaders have told him they will not be able to marshal enough votes to secure any wall funding by the end of the month.
This has led Trump to threaten to shut down the government repeatedly this year - at least five times since March - but he showed signs this week of backing down, telling the Daily Caller Tuesday he didn't "like the idea of shutdowns."
But that all changed Wednesday afternoon, when Trump reverted to his shutdown threat, surrounded by many of the same GOP leaders - including Ryan - who have urged him not to call for a shutdown.
The contrasting comments reflect how wildly Trump has swung back and forth in his government funding strategy, confusing GOP allies as they try to plot an approach.
Returning from the White House meeting, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., sidestepped a reporter's question about whether he was confident Trump would not shut the government down at month's end.
"I'm confident that the House is working to make sure we properly fund the military" and send other spending bills to Trump, Scalise said. "The president wants those bills on his desk, by the way."
But appearing later on Fox News Channel, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who also met with Trump, insisted there is "No chance of a government shutdown. Zero."
An extended government shutdown would likely send hundreds of thousands of federal workers home without pay and lead to a major disruption in government operations.
"It's certainly my hope that our country will not once again be brought to the brink of a shutdown while Congress and the adminsitraiton try to hammer out last-minute deals to keep the lights on," said Anthony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents 150,000 workers.
Trump has seen budget deadlines as his best opportunity for demanding concessions from Democrats, but his threats have failed repeatedly, and GOP leaders have sought to convince him that a shutdown ahead of the midterm elections would be unwise.
The most conservative House Republicans, a bloc that is often very loyal to Trump, appear split on how to proceed, with some still pushing for a fight over the wall now and others suggesting they should wait until later.
There were two brief funding lapses this year, one of which occurred after Senate Democrats refused to back a spending package following a new White House immigration policy. But that shutdown was short-lived, and Trump blamed it on Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
Republicans are trying to marshal a number of priorities through Congress and have expressed concern that a shutdown and polarizing fight over the construction of a wall could splinter the party heading into the midterm elections.
Ryan and McConnell have said they plan to pass as many spending bills as they can before the Sept. 30 deadline, and also seek a short-term stopgap measure that would keep other agencies open through the midterm elections. That stopgap would include Homeland Security funding - punting any fight over wall funding past the election.
"We still are in favor of the wall, we still want to get funding for the wall, but we think the best time to have that discussion is after the election," McConnell said.
Despite his public comments, Trump was on board with the leadership strategy when it was discussed at Wednesday's White House meeting, according to a congressional leadership aide briefed on the meeting who requested anonymity to describe the private discussion.
But if Trump demands the wall funding, and threatens to veto bills if the funding isn't given, it could scramble the GOP strategy.
Senate Republicans have spent months trying to methodically advance spending bills in a way that Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., has hoped would avoid last-minute shutdown threats. Shelby has sought to secure $1.6 billion in wall funding, which is the level initially requested by the White House but far smaller than the $5 billion Trump has recently suggested he wants and that House Republicans support.
But even though Shelby has tried to make his case to Trump in person that they cannot afford a shutdown fight now, much depends on the president's own political calculus. Trump has made the case in the past for both shutting down the government and avoiding a government shutdown.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said the message from House leadership behind closed doors earlier on Wednesday was "no drama, no drama."
But Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a leader of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said voters elected lawmakers to force tough debates and that House Republicans should try to attach funding for a wall this week, giving them time to hold a debate and votes.
"You can't wait until September 28 or 29, you gotta do it now," Jordan said. "I think that's the right approach. That's one of the fundamental promises we made that we haven't got done yet."
Other Republicans are wary of any strategy that could detract from their September and October agendas. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., another of the House's most conservative members and a close Trump ally, said the White House had appeared ready to push any debate over a border wall off into 2019.
"In my conversations with the administration they're willing to stay engaged on border security measures will beyond a September 30 deadline to fund the government," he said.
Trump's comments Wednesday afternoon signaled, however, that he wanted to have the wall fight this month.
Senate Republicans are looking at a rather narrow window to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's latest Supreme Court nominee, before the midterms. Republicans also want to pass stopgap spending bills through Congress before Washington becomes too swept up in midterm politics.
Democrats believe they have momentum to seize control of the House of Representatives after the midterms, which would pose major challenges for Trump's agenda, particularly the creation of a wall along the Mexico border.
Trump made construction of a wall along the Mexico border one of his top campaign promises, and he vowed Mexico would cover the entire cost as recently as last week.
Mexican officials have repeatedly rejected this.
Trump has sought, though, to have U.S. taxpayers pay for the wall's construction. He has not specified how he plans to eventually extract the money from Mexico.
He has vacillated on his shutdown strategy again and again.
On July 31, Trump wrote on Twitter that "I don't care what the political ramifications are, our immigration laws and border security have been a complete and total disaster for decades, and there is no way that the Democrats will allow it to be fixed without a government shutdown."
Many GOP leaders have said they can no longer guarantee what the White House's strategy will be, and many believe it will be unclear until the end of the month.
And, even after Mulvaney visited with House Republicans and told them he was advising against a shutdown, some GOP leaders were noncommittal about what would occur.
"What if?" House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said. "What if it rains?"
EAST HADDAM The 22nd annual Venture Smith Day will be held on Saturday, Sept. 8 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the First Church Cemetery, 499 Town Street (Route151), East Haddam, where Venture Smith is buried (1729-1805).
Son of an African king, Venture Smith became the first black man to document his capture from Africa and life as an American slave and successful black freeman in Connecticut. Well known and respected, Venture Smith spent the majority of his freedom years in East Haddam and Haddam Neck, Connecticut. His grave is one of the original sites on the Connecticut Freedom Trail.
The keynote speaker will be Jesse Nasta, Ph.D., Visiting Assistant Professor of African American Studies at Wesleyan University in Middletown. His presentation is called Inheriting Freedom, Venture Smiths Descendants and Connecticut Emancipation 1784-1848. At Wesleyan, Dr. Nastas research focuses on the social and legal histories of slavery, emancipation, and African American mobility during the eight decades prior to the Civil War. He earned his doctorate and Master of Arts degrees at Northwestern University and his Bachelor of Arts degree at Wesleyan University. He began his research on Connecticuts 19th-century African American history when he was an undergraduate student at Wesleyan University.
Dr. Karl P. Stofko, East Haddams Municipal Historian and Venture Smith family genealogist since the 1970s, will talk about Slavery in East Haddam during the 1800s according to records of the First Church of Christ. In his second presentation, Dr. Stofkos will talk about how Venture Smith was helped by his East Haddam and Haddam Neck friends.
In addition, Elizabeth J. Normen, publisher of Connecticut Explored, a journal about Connecticuts history, will talk about her upcoming book Venture Smiths Colonial Connecticut. This book will include several illustrations of Venture Smiths life created by Connecticut illustrator, Michael Borders. Borders will be on hand to answer questions about his illustrations that will be on display in the parish hall.
Venture Smiths family genealogy and artifacts and crafts from Ghana and other regions of Africa will be on display. A town proclamation will be presented and wreath-laying ceremony by the descendants of Venture Smith and the annual Venture family reunion photograph will take place in the cemetery by Ventures grave.
In addition, the ladies of Sisters In Stitches Joined by the Cloth of eastern Massachusetts will return this year with their magnificent African American quilts.
Adults and children who are interested in learning more about Connecticut history in the 1700 and 1800s are encouraged to attend. Please bring lawn chairs or a blanket. In case of inclement weather the celebration will move into the First Church.
There will be plenty of time to renew old friendships, talk with the speakers, and Ventures descendants, as well as enjoy light refreshments in the Parish Hall next to the cemetery.
For information, call 860-873-9375. To review the original Venture Smith autobiography go to www.docsouth.unc.edu/neh/venture2/menu.html
Born around 1729, Venture Smiths African birth name was Broteer, and he was the eldest son of King Saungm Furro of the tribe of Dukandarra in Guinea, West Africa. He was captured about 1736 when he was seven years old and was sold for 4 gallons of rum and some calico at Anamabo on Africas Gold Coast to Robinson Mumford, the steward of a Rhode Island slave ship. Broteer was renamed Venture because he was purchased by Mumfords own private venture. Venture grew up as a slave on Fishers Island, New York, which was being leased by the Mumford family at that time.
Around 1750 he married Meg, another Mumford slave, and they had four children. After a failed escape attempt in 1754, Venture was sold to Thomas Stanton of Stonington Point, Connecticut. In 1760, he was purchased for the last time by Oliver Smith, of Stonington. Smith allowed Venture to purchase his freedom in 1765 and in return Venture took the name Smith as his surname.
Venture then lived and worked on Long Island to raise money to purchase the freedom of his wife and children. During these years he cut wood, farmed, fished, and spent seven months on a whaling voyage. In 1774, Venture sold all his land on Long Island and in Stonington and moved his family to East Haddam. He then began purchasing land on Haddam Neck along the Salmon River Cove from Abel Bingham and others. His farm grew into 134 acres with three houses; twenty boats, canoes and sailing vessels; two fishing businesses and a commercial orchard. His entrepreneurial ventures included river trafficking, lumberjacking, carpentry and farming. All this he accomplished without the ability to either read or write.
In 1798, Venture dictated his autobiography to teacher Elisha Niles, which was then published in pamphlet form by Charles Holt, editor of the New London Bee. It has been reprinted many times. It is the only slave narrative of the 18th century that recounts life in Africa. His life story has been an inspiration to many over the years. Venture died on September 19, 1805, a highly respected man by all in the Haddams. His wife, two sons, Cuff and Solomon, and several grandchildren survived him. Several of his descendants still live in Connecticut.
Government has granted Minergy Mining licence for its Masama Coal project in Kweneng District, despite red tape that has delayed the process.
The latest paves way for the coal explorer to commercialise its assets, becoming the second operating coal mine after Morupule Coal Mine which is partly owned by Botswana government. The BSE listed company announced to shareholders this week that the granting of the mining licence follows the completion of a feasibility study and the authorisation of the environmental impact statement (EIS) by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA).
Up-beat about the development Minergy Chief Executive Officer, Andre Boje said the mine will start with 1.2 million tonnes per annum of saleable coal, which the miner intends to double to 2.4 million tonnes per annum depending on the market conditions.
We are moving forward with production and are set to start mining in January, said Boje.
He further highlighted that the mine will employ between 400 and 450 employees on site, as production kicks off in January 2019, and possible increase by 200 when production ramps up. In June, Minergy had challenged governments departments to adhere to regulatory timeframes stating that accelerated regulatory timeframes will allow Botswana to expeditiously utilise the countrys over 200 billion tonnes of coal resource.
He further challenged government to reduce company tax to 15 percent for coal exporting companies from 22 percent, as it is done for coal producers supplying power generation. Minergy is on record saying it wants to fast-track its production to meet the growing gap of supply and demand in the coal mining industry.
Adding his sentiment on the development, a delighted Botswana Chamber of Mines (BCM) Chief Executive Officer Charles Siwawa hailed the development as the start of good things for the coal industry.We can now have a coal industry, said Siwawa highlighting that the development is bound to excite other miners.
He however implored miners to embrace new technology that does not release a lot of gases into the air during mining.Siwawa said mining without harming the environment supports Botswanas sustainability efforts. Meanwhile, pre-mining construction work has already begun on site at the Masama Coal Project, allowing Minergy to have the final mine commissioned in January 2019.
According to Minergy, the miner is now able to break ground and invite contractors to start work immediately as well as to actively engage the local communities about job creation and several upliftment programmes, including improving the school and the clinic in the village closest to the mine, Medie in Kweneng district, as well as bringing in electricity.
Lucara Mine Botswana Managing Director, Naseem Lahri said they intend to extend their mine lifespan from 2026 to 2045 as the climate change in Botswana continues to inspire them to expand their presence in the country.
The company has rebranded its Boteti Mine to Lucara. Lahri said the rebranding exercise is to point out that they are increasing their investment in the country by extending the Lucara footprint locally and taking the mining activities beyond Boteti region where they have been operating Karowe mine. Our extended operations in Botswana mean increased revenue for the country, continued employment and development of our beautiful country, said Lahri.
She said expansion activities will result in increased employment and upskilling of Batswana and increase activity within the economy. Our Diamond sales activities take place in Gaborone and we have ambitions to open more mining assets as we continue to scour the land for more diamondfinds, pointed Lahri.
Lahri also highlighted that the mine had over the past two years yielded the 1109 carat Lesedi La Rona, the second largest gem quality diamond ever, which was sold for US $53 813 and the US $63.1 million Constellation diamond which set a record for the rough gem. As we rebrand, we intend to expand our footprint to the rest of the country, employing Batswana and imparting skills for the attainment of the National Vision 2036 and beyond, said Lahri.
On his part, Vice President Slumber Tsogwane commended Lucara Botswana for being actively engaged in financing projects aimed at empowering the Boteti community. I can confirm that the relationship that exists between Boteti residents and Lucara Botswana is indeed a solid one.It is characterized by amicable consultation, regional development and oneness.
The unity between Boteti residents and Lucara Botswana is made even more evident as the region has allowed Boteti Mining to carry the name of the beloved diamond area for the past six years since its inception, said Tsogwane.Tsogwane also said government welcomes mining initiatives and will continue to support organisations like Lucara Botswana for ploughing back into communities, especially in the drive to improve peoples livelihoods.
Francisco Reyes was a family man, a husband of 10 years and a father to three young children. He loved jujitsu and competed at the purple-belt level during many weekends, his two daughters cheering him on. He worked hard, touting three employee-of-the-year awards from his work as the nighttime supervisor at a food distribution warehouse in Missouri City.
But on Aug. 20, Reyes went to work his night shift on Cravens Road and never came home. Authorities said he was shot and killed by coworker Kristine Peralez, who entered their workplace with a gun in the early hours of the morning.
Now, members of Reyes family say they are seeking justice for his death. At a press conference Wednesday, attorney Benny Agosto announced a lawsuit against the employer, Ben E. Keith Company, alleging that it had failed to secure its buildings. The suit also accuses the company and Peralezs estate of negligence.
Miss Peralez walked in with a semi-automatic weapon with no gates to hold her back, no security guard on the premise, nobody to stop her, said Benny Agosto, an attorney for the Reyes family, at a news conference. This tragedy was preventable.
Agosto said that the company had previously received violent threats from a different coworker and had hired security guards for three months as a result. However, Agosto said, the company discontinued security services about a month before the shooting took place.
We bring this lawsuit to bring justice for this family to send message that companies like Ben E. Keith need to protect its coworkers and have safety measures on its premises, Agosto said. In particular if youre going to be working 24/7, making money 24/7, cut out a little bit (of money) for a security guard.
Capt. Paul Poulton with the Missouri City Police Department was among the police officers who responded to the scene the night of the shooting. He said he remembered at least two gentlemen wearing jackets that said security on the back.
Poulton added that Peralezs motives are still unknown, even though she streamed her final words to family on Facebook around 2 a.m. and blamed an unspecified person for the violence yet to unfold at the workplace. Authorities said Perelez fatally shot Reyes and wounded Fedencio Janas, and then exchanged fire with responding police officers before taking her own life.
I miss him. I will always love him, said Reyes wife, Michele Pena. Its hard for my children, they keep asking for him. Its going to be hard without him.
The Ben E. Keith Company did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The company previously said the incident was a tragic situation and that it was working with investigators.
About 20 to 25 workers were inside the building when shots were fired, police said, and several employees talked with Peralez before the shooting broke out.
Ben E. Keith Foods is a national food distribution company. The Missouri City location opened in 2013 and has 431 employees
massarah.mikati@chron.com
A lawyer for DACA recipient and activist Sergio Mapache Salazar, whose immigration benefits were not renewed, told a judge Wednesday that his client will seek voluntary departure to Mexico instead of being deported.
During a hearing in San Antonio, Salazars lead attorney Javier Maldonado told Immigration Judge Justin Adams that Salazar admits he was out of immigration status, but that he would seek to introduce evidence supporting Salazars intent to leave on his own.
Being detained is very difficult for an 18/19-year-old, Maldonado said after the hearing. By seeking voluntary departure, he would be back in Mexico soon.
Voluntary departure can protect Salazar, 18, from the harsh consequences of an order of removal or deportation, which could bar him from returning to the U.S. for several years even permanently, according to Maldonado. Voluntary departure, among other benefits, buys a person more time to take care of affairs before leaving and does not automatically bar a person from the United States for a set number of years.
RELATED: Mom of tot who died after being held in immigrant detention center files $40 million claim
Angel Olivera, a prosecuting immigration attorney with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, opposed the request, citing a 21-page motion the government filed that contains allegations that Salazar posted threats against law enforcement on social media.
The respondent has engaged in conduct that is undesirable, Olivera said. He has incited violence.
Salazar was born in Mexico and has lived in the United States since his parents brought him here when he was 2. He had been living legally in the United States as a recipient of temporary legal immigration status under the controversial Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative. He is a graduate of Roosevelt High School and aspires to make films, according to the advocacy organization Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, or RAICES.
RAICES had filed for a renewal of his DACA status, but it was denied. Salazar was arrested on Aug. 3 and has been jailed in Laredo as the feds seek to deport him. Salazars arrest came as he left a camp outside an ICE office on the North Side, where he and others had been protesting ICE and the Trump Administrations crackdown on immigrants that included the now-abandoned practice of separating undocumented parents from their children at the border.
RAICES and supporters have painted Salzar as coming under attack because he called for the elimination of ICE, but ICE says he was arrested for violating immigration law.
Olivera cited screen grabs from what officials contend was Salazars Twitter account, @babycrusty61, as part of evidence to show why Salazar should not be here. That Twitter account had been private, and has since been taken down.
Adams scheduled a hearing for Sept. 14 to hear evidence and testimony in the matter.
Guillermo Contreras covers federal court and immigration news in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | gcontreras@express-news.net | Twitter: @gmaninfedland
Botswana government is actively courting Chinese billionaire Jack Ma to invest in the country, although it is not clear yet in which sectors the Alibaba founder is wooed for.
Ma owns Alibaba, a diversified group which has interest in internet, retail, e-commerce, technology among others. Early this month(August), government representatives, mostly those from the investment, trade and industry ministry used the opportunity of Mas visit to South Africa for closed door discussions possibility of investing in the mining rich country. The Chinese mogul was in South Africa to among others launch his Foundation that targets start-ups in that country.
Investment, Trade and Industry minister, Bogolo Kenewendo told a local radio station that, they are expecting more discussions with the tech guru in the coming days. Ma himself is reported to be interested in investing in Africa, having previously visited Rwanda and Kenya, two of East African power houses. Meanwhile, President Mokgweetsi Masisi is expected to meet Ma in China later in the week.
Masisi, Botswana's 5th President is visiting China to also attend the China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) which takes place in Beijing. According to Botswana Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Daphne Mlotshwa, Masisis visit to China will be in two parts.From the 31st August to the 2nd September 2018, His Excellency the President will be on a state visit.
During the state visit, His Excellency the President will hold bilateral talks with his counterpart, wherein they will deliberate on various issues of mutual interest, with a view to enhance bilateral cooperation between the two countries, Mlotshwa said.Masisi is scheduled to officiate at the Botswana-China Business Forum on 31 August, which will be co-hosted by the Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. China remains an important trading partner to the mining-rich Botswana.
Last month, Masisi disclosed that they are getting P10 billion in credit line from China for infrastructure development. The money will be used to construct Francistown- Nata Road and Kazungula Bridge among other infrastructural developments.
Even the Martins Drift Road would be revamped because we will have trucks using that border to travel to other countries. So we have to ensure that the road is in good state. We want to improve the lives of Batswana.
This government is for Batswana and has to serve Batswana,Masisi stated.In 2017, Botswana exported goods worth $33 million, predominantly diamonds,to China while during the same period China exported to Botswana $233 million worth of goods.
As San Antonio nears the end of its tricentennial year, organizers are trying not to let the weather forecast dash weekend plans for the third annual World Heritage Festival at the historic missions.
The festival spotlights the Mission San Antonio de Valero, which became the Alamo, and four other missions that make up the only UNESCO World Heritage Site in Texas. The events highlight the missionary-led Native American communities that formed along the river under Spanish rule in the 1700s.
And we make sure we do it at each one of our missions, because every one tells a special story, City Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran, whose district includes those four missions, said at a news conference Wednesday at the Alamo.
Because of a strong chance of storms, officials have had to shorten what was to have been a five-day festival, Wednesday through Sunday. They canceled Thursdays Sunset Picnic at San Juan Farm and will reschedule Fridays Restored by Light event at Mission San Jose to a date to be determined. The events Saturday and Sunday remain unchanged.
Viagran recalled being part of a local delegation in Bonn, Germany, in 2015, when an international panel agreed the missions possess outstanding universal value putting them on par with other heritage sites such as the Grand Canyon and Statue of Liberty. The San Antonio Conservation Society had launched the missions site nomination nine years earlier.
Councilman Roberto Trevino and Alamo CEO Doug McDonald touted a plan to overhaul Alamo Plaza as the next major project, following up on structural renovations at the other missions and hike-bike trails and habitat restoration on the San Antonio River Mission Reach, to honor the citys roots.
World Heritage Festival *Free event Saturday Tour de las Misiones Bike Ride: Mission Park Pavilions, 6030 Padre Drive; 8 a.m. Tour de las Misiones 5K and 10K Run & Walk: Mission Park Pavilions; 8 a.m. *Mission Pachanga: Mission Park Pavilions; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. *Threads of Time: Spinning, Weaving and Dyeing at the Missions: Mission Espada, 10040 Espada Road; 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday *Celebratory Mass: Mission Concepcion, 807 Mission Road; noon. Visit worldheritagefestival.org for more information. See More Collapse
We have an opportunity to do something thats absolutely transformational for this community that I think is going to have a positive impact on everybody who loves history and who loves culture, McDonald said.
Ramon Vasquez IV, who helped open the news conference with a traditional Native American dance, said he and other descendants of San Antonios early indigenous people will never forget Mission San Antonio de Valero.
When we teach our heritage and culture to our children, were always going to continue to tell them to never forget who they are, never forget where they come from, he said.
Scott Huddleston 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. | shuddleston@express-news.net | Twitter: @shuddlestonSA
A Bexar County detention officer was arrested after he took off his uniform, challenged an inmate to fight him and, after losing, threatened the inmate, according to the sheriff.
Deputies arrested the jailer, 23-year-old Ta-vian Gloeckler, on suspicion of assault causing bodily injury and official oppression shortly after the fight was broken up.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said Gloeckler was upset with a 36-year-old inmate for getting "mouthy," and challenged him to a fight. Gloeckler struck the inmate around 2 a.m., Salazar said.
The inmate won the fight and Gloeckler told him he would face more charges if he told deputies the truth about what had happened, Salazar said.
RELATED: Alleged drunk driver runs over 3 pedestrians in NE Bexar Co.
Other deputies, however, quickly discovered the story Gloeckler told them wasn't adding up.
"It became apparently as the story unraveled what it was that occurred," Salazar said.
Gloeckler, who was hired in May 2017, was put on unpaid administrative leave after the arrest.
Salazar blasted the accused jailer, but recognized the officers who reported the misconduct.
"For that one deputy who completely disavowed his oath and began acting like a thug, there are 10 other deputies that did exactly what they were supposed to do," he said.
Gloeckler is the 16th Bexar County deputy arrested on criminal charges in 2018.
Salazar acknowledged that press conferences about his arrested deputies were becoming "all too commonplace," but said he's committing to setting an example.
"If I have to make that number 17 tonight and 18 tomorrow, I will do that without hesitation," he said.
No serious injuries were reported after the fight.
The case will be investigated separately by the offices's Public Integrity and Internal Affairs units.
A woman is in critical condition after she was struck by a pickup Tuesday evening on the South Side, police said.
San Antonio Police Department Sgt. Gary Mucho said the woman, 42, was clipped by the truck while crossing the street with another man about 8:15 p.m. in the 5500 block of South Flores.
What is good for the goose must certainly be good for the gander but it will seem this does not apply in the case of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Associations (CPA) elections. There was hue and cry last week Tuesday when it emerged that the rules of the elections were being blatantly flouted by the same legislators who should be their custodians.
In this gathering, the level of debate was poor. Some delegates from lower structures such as provincial parliaments which are equivalent to councils in Botswana, appeared lost and their conduct was un-parliamentary .The situation became clear during debates that the outcome of key vacant executive positions were long determined and all that was needed was a formality to justify the elections.
The key positions which were up for grabs were for the Chairperson of the Society of Clerks- at the Table (SOCATT) Africa Region and those of Chairman of the CPA Africa and Treasurer.
Constitution
Delegates proposed for an amendment on the 19th August proposing to amend Article 46. The General meeting adopted the proposed amendment and inserted a new sub- article which provides a rotation of branch representation within sub regions. The AGM resolved that the amendments should be implemented with immediate effect.
But the executive committee met the next day and reflected on the decision of the AGM, observing that notices of the vacancies were issued in accordance with Article 47 of the constitution before the amendments were adopted. They claimed that the enforcements were made on August 19 to affect the elections slated for 21 August when the process regarding the elections was started over 60 days ago would mean allowing the amendments to operate retrospectively from the date of the declaration of the vacancies.
They further argued that no modalities exist to implement the new decision of rotation system. Based on that, the executive committee overruled the AGM. But, still the three executives refused to budge claiming that they had received legal advice from someone that they never mentioned. They further appeared to have connived with some members to support them during debate.
Those who were against argued that the 60-day notice was meant to notify the members that there were existing vacancies and it does not mean interested parties should submit their names then.
Botswana robbed
Ironically, the executives applied double standards as they took the decision knowing that during the elections for the chairpersonship of SOCATT they had agreed that the 60-day notice would not apply. At that time Botswana was the only country which had complied through the clerk of the national Assembly, Barbra Ditlhapo who had submitted her name for the position of chairperson.
Instead the executive agreed that a name of Zambian clerk of the national assembly, Cecilia Mbewe be submitted and she later relegated Ditlhapo to become the Central Africa representative. But when it was time for the CPA elections the executive committee insisted that the status qou should remain leading to the Speaker of Kenya Justin Muturi taking over as the chairperson and Vice Treasurer being handed to a Ugandan MP, Elija Okupo.
Intimidation
There was intimidation even from South Africa. A member of the provincial parliament told MP for Francistown South, Wynter Mmolotsi that he is out of order when he tried to set the record straight.Speaking to Botswana Guardian Mmolotsi said it has become apparent that there is one or two countries that are dominating the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association committees and sub- committees.
The delegates decided at the AGM that these positions should be rotated for, countries must rotate in these positions so that they should not be any one or two countries domineering. We came up with a resolution as the AGM that we should start rotating with immediate effect.
Now the Regional Executive Committee because they do not want that rotation to take effect immediately, then decided to go and hold a meeting at which meeting they said the constitution talks about 60-days notice of vacancies just purely to notice that there are vacancies available, he said. According to him Article 47 of the constitution states that: a notice should be sent 60 days before the general annual meeting.
That notice was set, but they want to misinterpret it to say even nominations should be received in 60 days, but that is not in the constitution.
What happened was that because they had already determined who is going to become the chairperson and other portfolios, they then decided that against the decision of the AGM that now the 60 days notice will apply and if your name was not nominated then you would not take part in those elections. Meanwhile, at SOCATT at the time of 60 days only, Barbra Ditlhapos name appeared but when they got here, they connived to take her out and replaced her with the name of the Zambian clerk, which is why we are saying at SOCATT they used different rules and this side they used different, whilst the bodies are the same as it is CPA roles, but because it was not favouring them they decided to say the 60-day does not apply. This is the second time that countries turned against Botswana.
Many of them supported the candidacy of Dr Phenyo Butale for the presidency of the Pan African Parliament, but at the last moment , South Africa allegedly led the de-campaign of Butale in support of Zimbabwe.
This past week the Trump Justice Department threw its weight behind a high-profile lawsuit against Harvard University, in which a group of Asian-American plaintiffs claim with a great deal of evidence that the famous Ivy school discriminates against them as it once discriminated against Jews. This happened in the same moment that the No. 1 movie in America is Crazy Rich Asians, a guilty-pleasure romantic comedy about a young female Chinese-American economist in love with a Singaporean heir.
The convergence illustrates an underrated reality about Trump-era America. Our polarizing immigration debate revolves around the Wall and the border because weve just experienced a long wave of immigration from our southern neighbors. But that surge is diminishing, and for almost a decade the United States has taken more Asian than Hispanic immigration. So after the Trumpian moment passes, our ethno-political fights will be gradually reshaped by how Asians relate to American culture, how American politics relates to them, and how they (because Asian contains multitudes) relate to one another.
In the Reagan 80s, Asian-Americans were seen as the most Republican-friendly immigrant group more educated and prosperous than other immigrants, often anti-communist (in the case of the Vietnamese and Taiwanese especially), bearing Confucian or Christian values that aligned with a traditional-values GOP.
But then, from the Clinton era on, Asian voters swung toward the Democratic Party a shift that probably reflected changes in immigrant composition (more South Asians relative to East Asians, more non-Christians relative to Christians), the declining salience of anti-communism, and a reaction to the GOPs continued rightward shift and white-Southern-Christian brand.
This, in turn, led to a new story that cast Asian-Americans as a natural constituency in an emerging Democratic majority.
The term model minority often gets thrown around (and deplored) in discussions about Asian-Americans, and whats interesting is that both narratives Ive just described traffic in versions of that trope. The older narrative portrays Asians as the hardworking, industrious natural conservatives who dont need handouts. The newer narrative casts them as the liberal coalitions noblest group willing to put solidarity with fellow minorities above the economic concerns that might tempt them rightward, and willing to accept, for the greater good, a system of racial preferences that benefits others more than them.
This idea informs a lot of liberal arguments about the Harvard lawsuit, which tend to portray conservative critics of affirmative action as tempters invading the multicultural Eden.
But in addition to the whispering conservative serpent to Asian-Americans, the Harvard lawsuits liberal critics increasingly have an Asian scapegoat too specifically recent Chinese immigrants who hang out on WeChat, the popular social-media app, which a Vox writer complains has become an echo chamber for stories of anti-Asian discrimination.
For liberals these are the Bad Asians, putting their tribal resentments ahead of the racial-progressive cause.
So, where strong Asian support for affirmative action endures in this new landscape, it will probably be as part of a more consciously ideological progressivism one adopted by some second-generation Asian-Americans, as Reihan Salam suggested recently in The Atlantic, as a distinctive means of assimilation to the American cultural elite.
Where Asian support for racial progressivism breaks down, meanwhile, there are two possibilities. There could be a real swing back rightward among some Asian voters which can only happen if the Republican Party finds a way to lose its Trumpian aura of white identity politics and bigotry.
Perhaps more plausibly, Asian-Americans who reject affirmative action could begin to form their own centrist bloc within the Democratic Party, one that pulls the party back toward a kind of 1990s-style Clintonism, in the opposite direction from Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Or both things could happen, within different parts of the Asian-American community with Chinese-Americans tilting more Republican and Indian-Americans staying firmly on the center-left.
But no matter what, this weeks multiplex-courthouse convergence isnt an anomaly. Its a hint of both Asian-American influence and Asian-American divisions yet to come.
Ross Douthat writes for the New York Times.
As the late Sen. John McCains departing call to national unity reverberated across America last week, Donald Trumps prediction of violence should Democrats prevail in Novembers midterm elections seemed both discordant and, well, weird.
The president issued his dire warning two days after McCains death to a gathering of evangelical pastors at the White House. Trump warned that if they didnt rally their parishioners to turn out and vote Republican, Democrats will overturn everything that weve done, and theyll do it quickly and violently.
Ive nearly rubbed my chin raw from stroking it for answers. What sort of apocalyptic vision guides our commander in chief? What level of paranoia inspires such hyperbolic projections?
These questions are tendered as rhetorical exercise. We know what petty perdition this president has created for himself. And, sadly for the country, it neednt have been this way. Given the antipathy toward Hillary Clinton, Trump might have won the election without appealing to raw emotion and base fears. Later, he might have changed his tune as president and tried to appeal to a broader cross-section of Americans. Who knows? As McCain said, in this country nothing is inevitable. Trump might have united the nation in common cause.
Instead, he chose the ugly path. From immigration to health care and tax overhauls and foreign policy, Trump took the low road. Thus, the less-rhetorical question is: How do these evangelical pastors sleep at night?
We know that many conservatives voted for Trump because he promised to appoint conservative judges to the Supreme Court. We also know that Trump ran away with the evangelical vote.
But one must ask these men and women of the cloth: Is it really more important to hope for a Supreme Court that might reverse (or, more realistically, erode) Roe v. Wade than it is to have a president of whom we can be proud? In whom we can trust to be thoughtful, honest and impervious to every little slight?
Does same-sex marriage, which a majority of Americans support, so offend these church leaders that theyd rather risk a nuclear matchup with North Korea? Or an increasingly tenuous relationship with Russia and China owing to Trumps careless use of power to intimidate, insult and badger our geopolitical foes? This month, Russia is slated to hold war games its largest since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Chinas army will be involved.
Is this of no consequence to those who preach the word of God?
Granting the benefit of the doubt, Trumps supporters early on might have deluded themselves into believing he wouldnt be that bad. But whats their excuse now?
But Trump was surely serious when he spoke about the darkness that would descend upon the land if Republicans lost the House. One would have thought he was speaking of the Islamic State or the Taliban, not fellow Americans with a different point of view. Even stranger, he mentioned violence in the context of Antifa, a loose group of anti-fascists who are militant in their protest of white supremacists, who have celebrated Trumps presidency as a giant step for white mankind.
If Republicans do lose Congress in the fall, it wont be because evangelicals didnt turn out to vote, though that surely would be a redemptive act. It will be because of Trump himself. A Washington Post/ABC News poll released Friday found that 60 percent of Americans disapprove of Trumps job performance. The same survey also found that 63 percent support special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. And 62 percent said they support Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whom Trump has been threatening to fire.
A Democratic victory in the midterms will happen because of the GOPs silence in the face of Trumps untenable behavior; its lack of courage in condemning his draconian execution of policies; and the utter hypocrisy of allowing such a foul-mouthed, race-baiting misogynist to occupy the Oval Office after many of these same paragons of virtue impeached Bill Clinton for lying about his affair with an intern.
Violence isnt likely should Republicans lose, but impeachment probably is. This is what Trump anticipates and fears. If evangelical pastors really want to help the country, they should urge their parishioners to read McCains last testament and heed his words:
We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe.
kathleenparker@washpost.com
Downtowns landmark development project has plenty of room to grow after the city voted Tuesday to rezone several acres around the Pearl to allow for high-density development.
Silver Ventures, the development firm that billionaire Christopher Kit Goldsbury formed to build the Pearl, asked the city to rezone 7.9 acres of its land to infill development zone, a designation which allows for a variety of commercial and residential uses like high-rise offices, apartment buildings, bars and hotels.
Incumbent Member of Parliament for Tati East Guma Moyo brushed aside a challenge from his bitter rival Sean Sebele in the past weekend Bulela Ditswe, polling 2730 votes against Sebeles 1929.
The other contender, Kurusa trailed behind with 400 voters. Gumas victory defied the mood expressed by Botswana Democratic Party electorate ahead of the primaries. There had been complaints that Guma rarely holds kgotla meetings to address issues of national developments in the constituency and hence must be voted out.
The MP has admitted in previous interviews that he has his own style of addressing issues in his constituency apart from kgotla meeting, but it seems this did not sit well with the electorate.In Tsamaya Gumas home village voters threw their lots behind Sebele who hails from Senyawe village. Sebele amassed 174 votes against Gumas 160.
However, residents of Mabudzane village which forms part of Tsamaya ward voted in large numbers for Guma giving him his first-ever win in his home village. In Themashanga village Guma recorded a lead of 200 votes against his contender - a decisive stroke that dashed Sebeles hopes of reaching the 2019 general election.
But in Butale, Senyawe, Ditladi and Tati Siding West, Guma trailed behind Sebele. Following Gumas victory, disappointed voters who had expected him to lose, vowed to get him during the next general election where he will be pitted against a candidate from the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC).
The hot weather will continue, but theres some cool relief in sight.
The National Weather Service says Wednesday will be several degrees cooler as high pressure passes off the New England coast and a returns a south-southeast air flow with winds at five to10 mph. Highs will top out in the lower to mid-80s near the coast, and the mid to upper 80s from New York City and points north and west.
For the first time in days Connecticut does not have a heat advisory on Wednesday.
Temperatures should peak into the mid-80s.
Some school districts will again have early dismissals Wednesday.
Schools include: North Haven (elementary only), Stratford and Trumbull.
In Waterbury, public schools, Kaynor Tech. Holy Cross and Sacred Heart high schools. In Easton, Helen Keller Middle School will be closing at 12:50 p.m.
More for you Excessive heat is making practice time hard to find
On Tuesday, Tweed-New Haven Airport hit 90 degrees for a new high temperature record for the day. It was New Havens seventh 90-or above day of the summer.
Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford and White Plains airport, near Greenwich, also set a new record of 89 degrees. Danburys high was one degree cooler.
Thursday will be our last hot day of the week with temperatures a few degrees warmer than Wednesday. Heat indexes are expected in the mid-90s.
As a cold front moves in Thursday afternoon and evening, the NWS says isolated, strong and severe thunderstorms are possible. Gusty winds would be the primary hazard, it says in its forecast discussion.
Those hoping this will be the last of 90-degree days may be disappointed. Last year, Danbury had one 90-degree day on Sept. 24, followed by three days of temperatures that hit 89 and 87 degrees.
The weekend is looking much cooler with highs in the low 70s. Saturday will be the better weather day of the weekend with partly sunny skies; Sunday will be mostly cloudy with a chance of rain.
The forecast
Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 85. Light and variable wind becoming south 5 to 7 mph in the morning.
Tonight: Patchy fog after 2 a.m. Otherwise, partly cloudy, with a low around 74. South wind 5 to 8 mph.
Thursday: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after noon. Patchy fog before 8 a.m. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 90. Heat index values as high as 97. Southwest wind 6 to 8 mph.
Thursday Night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 69. Calm wind becoming northeast 5 to 8 mph after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 50 percent.
Friday: A 20 percent chance of rain before 9 a.m. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 78. Northeast wind 7 to 9 mph.
Friday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 63.
Saturday: Partly sunny, with a high near 75.
Saturday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 58.
Sunday: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 70.
Nigerian beauties love dressing with taste and latest guinea styles for ladies are great choices for any fashionista. Guinea is suitable for any occasion, both for everyday life and for events. If you don`t know how to style guinea brocade, just continue reading.
Incredible guinea styles for every ladies
Source: UGC
Guinea brocade female styles
To fill the wardrobe with guinea brocade Nigerian styles correctly, you don`t need to do too much. The main trend of this fashion is the use of ethnic motifs of bright colours.
The variety of guinea style in female native wears involves using natural materials such as fur, canines, feathers and decorative stones are used as decoration in modern guinea brocade female styles.
Stylish guinea brocade
Source: UGC
READ ALSO: Guinea brocade female styles
To look gorgeous, it will be sufficient to wrap yourself in a bright guinea brocade and go to conquer the city. However, modern fashion doesn`t involve such experiments, so planning your image is important to understand its purpose.
For guinea brocade Nigerian style, it is necessary to select you style and ensure that your clothes and accessories are complementing each other.
Daily guinea styles for Nigerian fashionistas
Source: UGC
Blouse and wrapper/skirt styles
Trendy among Nigerian women is blouse and wrapper guinea brocade style. Blouse and wrapper made with guinea brocade is a good option for other popular Nigerian female native wears and it will perfectly emphasize your femininity.
Today guinea blouses for women are an excellent option for creating the most vivid, original and exciting images because you can wear fashionable blouses with a skirt of different cuts.
Fabulous guinea blouse, photo from ankarafashion.com.ng
Source: Depositphotos
READ ALSO: Casual ankara gowns for Nigerian beauties
Guinea style blouses are not just beautiful; they can very successfully emphasize the female charms and without exaggeration, fashion blouses of the latest guinea style are mega stylish.
Ankara pattern in guinea style, photo from newafricandesigns.storenvy.com
Source: Depositphotos
Ankara pattern
Ankara print is a constant of any fashion season. This year, decorating guinea brocade with Ankara patterns cut out from Ankara fabric is a new trend that's not going away soon.
Ankara, as an artistic device, allows you to show more imagination and emphasize your personality. Ankara prints take us from everyday reality to the world of magic.
Latest guinea styles for ladies are the most popular addition, allowing you to make your wardrobe more diverse and interesting. We suggest designing your clothes with the most incredible and unexpected prints. The choice is yours. Be brave and please yourself!
READ ALSO: Trendy ankara jackets for real fashionistas
Source: Legit.ng
The inspector-general of police, Ibrahim Idris, has ordered the detention of the four police officers and informant involved in the raid of Edwin Clarks house saying he is not aware nor did he order the raid.
In a statement by Jimoh Moshood who is the spokesperson of the police force on Tuesday, September 4, the police chief said misconduct will not be tolerated.
READ ALSO: Meet 35-year-old Ronke Ajayi who vowed to sell all her belongings to buy Buhari nomination form
Read the statement below:
The attention of the Nigeria Police Force has been drawn to a report on vanguard online publication of 4th September, 2018 credited to one Henry Umoru claiming that the Police on Tuesday raided the Abuja residence of Federal Commissioner for Information and South South Leader, Chief Edwin Clark.
The Force wishes to categorically state that, the Inspector General of Police is not aware and did not order the raid of the residence of the Elder Statesman, Chief Edwin Clark as claimed by the writer of the story.
Consequently, the Inspector General of Police has directed the detention and investigation of the Four (4) Police personnel and the informant involved. The outcome of the investigation will definitely be made public.
"Notwithstanding, the facts that on daily basis the Nigeria Police Force across the Country receives information from members of the public which were promptly used to prevent and detect crimes and Criminalities, the Force will not condone misconduct by any of its personnel that can run contrary to the rule of law."
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app
Legit.ng had reported that elder statesman Edwin Clark expressed disappointment over the polices raid on his Asokoro residence by policemen on Tuesday, September 4. The Niger Delta chieftain said he has never carried a gun in his life.
He said: I have never one day thought about carrying gun, I have been fighting for the unity of this country, if at the age of 92 years, I am making statement, and they do not want me to talk, I will continue to talk, which is the position.
Lagos Police Commissioner Parades Suspected Criminals (Nigeria News) on Legit.ng TV:
Source: Legit.ng
Editor's note: In this article, a former spokesperson to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan, Reuben Abati, talks about President Muhammadu Buhari's whole idea of free and fair elections.
President Muhammadu Buhari reportedly declared in China, last Sunday, that he believes in the idea of free and fair elections, and that he is committed to this pillar of the democratic process. I dont expect him to say anything otherwise.
On the whole idea of free and fair elections, electoral integrity as it were, rests the political stability of our country and the legitimacy of democratic governments. Besides, President Buhari is a beneficiary of the framework of electoral integrity instituted by his predecessor in office.
On account of the misgivings reported about the conduct of the 2007 general elections, President Goodluck Jonathan upon his assumption of office had declared that he hoped to leave a legacy of free, fair and credible elections.
READ ALSO: Full list of PDP presidential aspirants and their profiles
He tried to do this in 2011, even if there was an outbreak of violence in parts of the North, owing more to ethnic emotions rather than any far-reaching failings by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Between 2011 and 2015, President Jonathan remained committed to his promise.
Whenever elections were held, gubernatorial elections or bye elections and the ruling party lost, he was always the first to congratulate the winner of the election and to call for due respect for the peoples choice. I recall when the Gubernatorial election in Edo State was held in 2012.
The President characteristically congratulated the winner in that election - Adams Oshiomhole, now Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Some elements with the Edo State PDP had grumbled loudly that the President should not have congratulated Oshiomhole because they intended to reject the results and make trouble.
I received one or two phone calls, as presidential spokesman, telling me I was stupid to have issued a statement so quickly congratulating Adams Oshiomhole. The presidents acceptance of the result of the election tied their hands. They didnt make trouble, instead they went to the Tribunal and pursued their case all the way to the Supreme Court.
The apex court in a lead judgement read by Bode Rhodes-Vivour (JSC) upheld Oshiomholes election. The rule of law prevailed. Again, in 2015, when the Presidential election did not favour President Goodluck Jonathan, he conceded victory to President Buhari and vacated office. He respected the Nigerian peoples right to choose.
He chose to lead by example. If anyone is uncomfortable with this short narrative, let the person be further apprised of the fact that Professor Attahiru Jega, who served as the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under President Jonathan, (2010 2015), remains today perhaps the most successful electoral umpire in Nigeria since independence.
With probably the exception of Hon. Justice Ephraim O. I. Akpata, every other electoral commission chairperson before him, left office with a trail of controversy. The two general and other elections conducted by Attahiru Jega were widely regarded as credible. It may be too early to offer a final assessment of his successor, but it is safe to say that todays INEC does not seem to be as strong and as prepared as Jegas INEC.
READ ALSO: 2019: 5 PDP governors reportedly planning support for Buhari
This is the more reason why President Muhammadu Buharis declaration as regards free and fair elections is important. The preparedness and integrity of the electoral commission have far-reaching implications for the outcomes of the 2019 electoral process.
In a recent research essay by Mathew T. Page and Sola Tayo, titled Countdown to February 2019: A Look Ahead at Nigerias Elections (July 2018) legitimate concerns have been raised about Nigerias volatile pre-election season and the strategic importance of the National Electoral Commission.
If the Gubernatorial elections conducted in Kogi, Ondo and Ekiti states can be used as signs of things to come, then, indeed, Nigerians have cause to worry and the government enough reason to reassure the people.
In the face of all this, it is important that President Buhari matches his words with action. The series of double entendres coming from the Presidency in the past few weeks, increase anxiety, not confidence, about the promise of credible elections in 2019.
It should be a matter of interest to us, for example, that barely six months to the 2019 general election, the National Assembly and the Presidency remain locked in a disruptive battle over the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2018. In February 2018, the National Assembly forwarded an Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill to the President.
This was vetoed. The President vetoed the Bill over disagreements on the issue of whether or not the National Assembly has the right to determine the sequence of elections. The lawmakers in re-ordering the 2019 elections had put the presidential election last, apparently to prevent the possibility of the elections being influenced by any bandwagon effect.
The matter went to court and the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the National Assembly. On June 27, 2018, the National Assembly sent another version of the amended Bill to the President for his assent. This was again vetoed on the grounds that it contained constitutional breaches.
On July 24, 2018, the very day the National Assembly embarked on a recess till September 25, the National Assembly again passed another version of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill which purportedly reached the President on August 3, 2018.
Pressures from National Assembly members to the effect that the Bill should be signed was rebuffed by the Presidency, with the argument that the President still had enough time, since the Constitution provides for a 30-day window within which the President can assent to a bill or he would be deemed to have vetoed it. That 30-day window closed on September 2.
Meanwhile, the only explanation that was offered by the Presidents Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, when I interviewed him on The Morning Show (Arise News, DSTV Ch. 416, GoTV, Ch. 44 and SKY Ch. 519), on September 3 is that it is well with the Electoral Bill.
I couldnt figure out what that means in plain English language. It is well? How? I tried to provoke Senator Enang to comment on the Electoral Bill and its amendment. He argued that we should wait till September 25 when the National Assembly resumes, for us to know what the President has done with the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill.
I wondered: Why the secrecy? Why the mystery? I didnt make much headway. Enang invoked his Miranda rights a right that does not apply to him in the instance. But it is reassuring that before the close of work, on September 3, Enang had reconsidered his position and rightly taken the good step of providing clarifications.
He reportedly disclosed that the President declined assent to the Electoral Bill on August 30 (which is the same as the President vetoing the Bill) on the ground that the Bill as proposed contains some drafting issues. Incidentally this is also one of the excuses that the Presidency gave to justify President Buharis rejection of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) as presented to him by the National Assembly.
Nonetheless, the fate of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill remains dangerously shrouded in mystery. Why is it so difficult for the Executive and the Legislature to agree on a legal framework for the 2019 elections? Sometime in August, both Enang and Garba Shehu, the presidents other spokesman, told us that there was still enough time for the President to sign the amended bill.
READ ALSO: We wont vote Buhari, Atiku, others - Women group in Kaduna vows
We now know that he chose not to sign it. In response to allegations by the rival opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), that the President continues to veto the bill because it contains provisions that would block under-age voting, identity theft, the influx of alien voters, and the manipulation of results between the polling station and the collation centre, Shehu responded that the President believes in the card reader system and the use of Permanent Voters Cards.
I consider the to-ing and fro-ing on this matter utterly contemptuous of the Nigerian people. If the matter is treated as important enough, the National Assembly should cut short its recess, and return immediately to take another look at the Bill and the earlier the better.
For if the Bill continues to travel like a yo-yo between the National Assembly and the Presidency, it may be practically impossible to apply the recommended amendments to the 2019 electoral process. My suspicion however is that the Presidency probably does not want anything to tamper with the status quo, that is the Electoral Act 2010.
It all gets curiouser because members of the National Assembly have protested that the supplementary budget of N143 billion for INEC that has been endorsed by the joint committee of the National Assembly on electoral matters, clearly off-season, I mean during recess time, cannot be accessed if the President refuses to sign the amended electoral bill.
Their argument is that the Bill covers approvals for INEC to procure necessary equipment and logistics for the 2019 elections. Long before now, INEC itself had complained that any further delay over the enabling legislation for the 2019 elections could hamper its ability to conduct a hitch-free election.
So I ask: with all of these plain-sight facts, is there something that Nigerians should know that is not yet in the public domain? Could there be a covert attempt to derail the 2019 elections? Do we face the possibility at some point, of INEC throwing its hands up in the air in despair saying it is not ready, and that the election should be postponed in national interest, followed by the trading of blames? Please place emphasis on national interest.
It is also clear, so far, that there is no love lost between the National Assembly and the Presidency. Both arms of government even when the ruling party had a sure-footed majority in parliament have not been able to work together harmoniously due to reasons not far from ego-conflicts, the conflict of sycophants on both sides, and the absence of a guiding, all-inclusive, shared vision and mission.
Nigerians are also suffering the effect of the inability of the ruling party, a network of strange bedfellows, to transform into a political party. Those who sold the APC as the best thing since toothpaste have since departed the party, returning majorly to the Peoples Democratic Party, the party that ruled Nigeria for 16 years, which today, by the way, is also still struggling to get its groove back.
On the question of the Electoral Bill, President Buhari should see the need to provide the necessary leadership to ensure that a consensus that works for all parties concerned is established. He needs to realize that his own integrity is at stake.
The amount of energy that the Presidency has devoted to the argument over the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill raises high suspicion and may be used against President Buhari, in the future, whichever way the 2019 Presidential election goes.
The situation is not helped by the fact that the President most recently ran into murky waters with inappropriate and uninformed comments about the rule of law and national security, but perhaps he needs to worry more about these two issues within the context, not of power and might, but how best to ensure free, fair and credible elections in 2019.
Respect for the rule of law will help to achieve that objective: and this would include: respect for the right of the Nigerian voter to make a free choice without threat or intimidation and for that choice to be respected and protected. No attempt should also be made to hijack the National Electoral Commission, and no one should see the 2019 election as a do-or die-election.
Respecting the rule of law would mean putting Nigeria first, before, during and after the election. National security: this does not necessarily need to be at conflict with the rule of law, instead it must be operationalized within the context of the rule of law. This is the simple point that sycophants and intellectual marabouts do not seem to get.
In the recent gubernatorial election in Ekiti State there were reports that the Nigeria Police deployed about 30, 000 policemen, other security agencies were also on ground with lorry-loads of men. Nigerians should not be made to vote under the rule of the gun and a climate of fear. It is a sign of our underdevelopment and the failure of institutions that in Ekiti, vote-buying was done in the open, by agents of the two major political parties involved, with security agents looking the other way.
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Nigeria
To have free and fair elections, President Buhari cannot also afford to tolerate the impunity of security chiefs who have turned themselves and their agencies into his campaign billboards. The politicization of public institutions in Nigeria on the grounds of religion, ethnicity and geography remains a serious threat to national progress, the professional political elite is collectively guilty; it only just got worse under President Buharis watch.
What President Buhari does or does not do, in the next six months has serious implications for his own politics and political fortune and for the Nigerian polity. It is not for nothing that the international community seems for now to have shifted attention away from Nigerias Presidential politics and seem to be more concerned about trade, migration and security.
But they are watching and waiting and listening. Nigeria is certainly under international searchlight. President Buhari should beware of those who tell him all is well. This is precisely the same kind of illusion that swept the PDP out of power in 2015.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Legit.ng.
Your own opinion articles are welcome at info@corp.legit.ng drop an email telling us what you want to write about and why. More details in Legit.ngs step-by-step guide for guest contributors.
Were ready to trade your news for our money: submit news and photo reports from your area using our Citizen Journalism App.
Contact us if you have any feedback, suggestions, complaints or compliments. We are also available on Twitter.
Nigeria News: President Buhari's Return Will Teach Nigerians Sense | Legit.ng TV
Source: Legit.ng
- Two children who were abducted by their neigbhour have been returned to their parents
- The children were sold by the suspects for N200,000
- The police said the suspect confessed to working her way into becoming a tenant in the house the children lived in other to perfect her abduction plan
The Nigeria Police Force has returned children who were sold for N200,000 to their biological parents.
The children - Unmi Isiaku, 5 and Habib Awalu, 7 - were handed over to their parents by the Imo state commissioner of police, Dasuki Galadanchi, on Tuesday, September 4.
Galadanchi while also parading the suspect, Mary Paul, before re-uniting the children with their family said, the victims were stolen three weeks ago in Akure.
Punch reports that the commissioner of police said the suspect worked her way into becoming a tenant in the house the children lived in other to perfect her abduction plan.
He said: "I want to hand over these two children - Unmi and Habib - to their fathers. But before I do that, let me show you the woman who stole them three weeks ago in Ondo state. The suspect, Mary Paul, became a tenant in the compound where the children were living with their parents. She stayed for only four days before she stole the kids.
These children were part of the 11 children we rescued a few weeks ago. These children a boy and a girl were stolen three weeks ago. By the grace of God, my men from the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad rescued them and arrested the suspect.
We must preach against trafficking in human beings. Children are special gifts from God and we must work hard to protect them.
After stealing these children in Ondo state, the suspect, who hails from Cross River state, ran to Imo state to sell them. The amount she sold the children will tell you that some people have sold their souls to the devil. We must keep uncovering them. I assure you that this woman will not go unpunished. We will charge her to court."
Speaking during the parade, the suspect confessed to selling the children for N200,000. "I rented an apartment in Ondo State, in the same compound where the parents of the children were living with the sole aim of abducting Unmi and Habib," the suspect said.
Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the Akwa Ibom police command on Sunday, July 8, confirmed the arrest of a village head and four suspects for allegedly abducting 19 ExxonMobil staff members.
PAY ATTENTION: Get best new on Nigeria's #1 news app
The state's police spokesperson, MacDon Achebe, confrimed the arrest of the suspects.
Achebe said: Initially four persons were arrested in connection with the abduction of 19 workers of ExxonMobil but the suspects told us the village head approves their abduction."
Robbers Return Firearms to Nigerian Police (Crime News in Nigeria) | Legit.ng TV
Source: Legit Nigeria
- The National Human Rights Commission has inaugurated an investigative panel on SARS
- The commission said it has also called on members of the public to bring forward their complaints against the special police unit
- The panel will sit in Abuja and the six geopolitical zones of the country
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has reportedly inaugurated a seven-man Special Investigative Panel to look into the activities of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police and make recommendations for its reform.
A statement on Tuesday, September 4, by the commission in Abuja said the investigative panel was inaugurated in line with a presidential directive, The Punch reports.
Recall that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had, while acting as the president during President Muhammadu Buharis 10-day vacation in the United Kingdom last month, expressed concerns about the allegations of human rights abuses levelled against SARS.
Osinbajo had then ordered the inspector general of police, Ibrahim Idris, to reform the police formation.
READ ALSO: 2019: 13 PDP 'heavyweights' set to slug it out with Buhari (full list, profiles)
Legit.ng gathered that the presidency had also directed the NHRC to investigate the activities of SARS and make recommendations on how to reform it.
The NHRC said that it had complied with the presidential directive by inaugurating the special investigative panel to look into the activities of SARS.
The statement read in part: In line with the presidential directive, the commission has issued call for memoranda in two national dailies, requesting members of the public to bring forward their complaints and has also inaugurated a Special Panel of Investigation for the national assignment.
It said state and federal agencies of government were also requested to submit their memoranda as well as suggestions on how to reform SARS.
The agencies were also urged to make recommendations to improve policing, public safety and security in general.
According to the statement by the NHRC, the panel will sit in Abuja and the six geopolitical zones of the country.
The panel, during the period of its sitting, is to listen to complaints from victims of alleged human rights violations against SARS operatives as well as members of the public who have suggestions on reforming SARS and improving public safety and security in Nigeria.
The panel is expected to submit its report to the federal government after 90 days of its inauguration.
According to the commissions statement, members of the panel included the executive secretary of the NHRC, Tony Ojukwu; the representative of the Police Service Commission, Tijani Mohammed; the representative of Public Service Commission, David I. Shagba; a representative of civil society, Chino Obiagwu.
The rest are a retired deputy inspector general of police, Hashimu Argungu; and an independent expert on policing, Prof Etannibi Alemika.
The seventh member, who is from the NHRC, Abdulrahman Yakubu, is the secretary of the panel.
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app
Meanwhile, Legit.ng had earlier reported that Rivers state police command said it would henceforth deal decisively with politicians in the state who are blackmailing and peddling unfounded rumours against members of the force, especially the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) for any crime committed by people who were alleged to be impersonating FSARS.
Nigeria Latest News: Osinbajo Orders Overhaul Of The Dreaded SARS | Legit.ng TV
Source: Legit Nigeria
- The Osun state All Progressives Congress (APC) has kicked off its gubernatorial campaign
- The campaign team visited the palace of Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Ogunwusi, to receive royal blessings for the partys candidate, Gboyega Oyetola
- Oyetola said serving with Aregbesola is more than enough training for him on how to govern the state
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun state on Tuesday, September 4, kicked off its campaign in Ile Ife, ahead of the September 22 governorship election, Premium Times reports.
Legit.ng gathered that the campaign team was led to the palace of Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Ogunwusi, to receive royal blessings for the partys candidate, Gboyega Oyetola by the outgoing governor, Rauf Aregbesola.
The monarch, while blessing Oyetola prayed for success of his quest and assured Aregbesolas legacy could help his electoral victory.
READ ALSO: APC fixes date for presidential primaries, reduces cost of nomination forms
APC Osun candidate, Gboyega Oyetola, receiving royal blessings from Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Ogunwusi. Photo credit: Twitter; itsdolapojulius
Source: Twitter
Oyetola speaking at the palace, said serving with Aregbesola is more than enough training for him on how to govern the state.
He said: I know where we started. I know where we are. I am not a candidate who needs any tutorial to lead Osun. As an apprentice, eight years are more than enough training period for anyone. I am the most suitable person to continue from where we are.
Aregbesola addressing the crowd after leaving the palace, said their coming to Ife was for two reasons to seek Oonis blessings and seek the votes of Ife people.
Massive turnout as Osun APC flagoff it's gubernatorial campaign in Ile-Ife. Photo credit: Twitter, AdabanijaQomaru
Source: Twitter
Ooni has blessed us. He pointed out that today, Tuesday signifies victory, meaning Oyetola will record victory. God is with us. He has given us the wisdom and strength to take Osun to the promised land.
After our initial foundation that must be laid by a maverick like me, now that we have laid a solid foundation, there is need for somebody with gentle disposition like Oyetola to continue with the construction of the super structure," he said.
He pleaded with the residents to vote for the progress of the state by way of continuity. He also said party members who have defected may still consider returning and that their spaces are still open.
Voters were urged to shun violence with opposition parties and encouraged to vote for APC on September 22.
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app
Legit.ng previously reported that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) said that the party is capable of winning the September 22 governorship election in Osun.
Tinubu said this in an interview with State House correspondents after he led the partys stakeholders from the southwest to a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday, August 30.
The stakeholders used the opportunity of the occasion to present the partys candidate in the forthcoming polls, Alhaji Isiaka Adegboyega Oyetola, to the president.
How Aregbesola broke African records in Osun state - On Legit.ng TV
Source: Legit
- The Senate president, Bukola Saraki, has aired his opinion over the raid on the residence of an elder state man, Chief Edwin Clark, by some police officials
- Saraki said that since the inspector general of police, Ibrahim Idris, has dismissed claims that he authorised the raid, there should be a probe into the development
- The Senate president said that the act is a threat to Nigeria's democracy and a gross abuse of state institutions
Abubakar Bukola Saraki, the Senate president, has decried the raid on the Abuja home of one of Nigeria's elder state men, Chief Edwin Clark, by the police, and called for a thorough probe into the development.
Saraki described the incident as an unwarranted harassment of the statesman, adding that the act must not be pushed under the carpet, without the public knowing all the details, especially concerning who gave the order, who signed the police search warrant, which officers executed it and what objective it was meant to achieve.
READ ALSO: Construction of transportation university in Daura to commence soon - Amaechi reveals
Saraki said: Chief Edwin Clark, a Second Republic Senator, former minister under the General Gowon administration is not just anybody. Yes, he is not above the law. If there is a genuine reason for his home to be searched by law enforcement agencies, nobody will object to it.
"However, as it now appears, for the Police to conduct a raid on the home of a man of that age on the pretence that they were looking for arms and eventually, the claim turned out to be a hoax, then something must be amiss.
This type of action by the Police coming at this time when the nation is preparing for election is not reflecting well on the country. Such actions constitute a threat to democracy. They represent gross abuse of state institutions.
"Now that the Inspector General of Police has denied that the raid was never authorized, the next move should be a thorough, transparent investigation into the Senator Edwin Clark incident to prevent future occurrence.
This kind of ugly development must stop. This country experienced peaceful change in 2015 because the government in power allowed democracy to work. If the government had allowed the flagrant abuse and misuse of state institutions to be the norm, we would not have had the change that occurred.
Saraki told the federal government to remember its recent commitment to world leaders on the need to create a peaceful and conducive atmosphere for a credible, free and fair elections where citizens can freely exercise their franchise, without fear of violence, suppression and abuse of their fundamental human rights. He stated that such act contradicts the promise the presidency made to these world leaders.
PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet!
He said: Democracy is not only about elections. Circumstances that will create tension in any part of the country or make people feel that their fundamental human rights are being trampled upon should be avoided.
"If a man of the calibre and status of Senator Edwin Clark could suffer such unwarranted raid on his home, then what happens to ordinary Nigerians as we move towards the 2019 polls and beyond?
Earlier, Legit.ng had reported that some men of Nigerian Police Force on Tuesday, September 4, raided the Abuja residence of former federal commissioner for information and south-south leader, Chief Edwin Clark.
Legit.ng gathered that the policemen who searched all the rooms of the elder statesman, alleged that they were in the house to search for arms which they accused him of keeping.
Nigeria Latest News: Here's What Saraki and Tambuwal's Defection Means for the APC | Legit.ng TV
Source: Legit
Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Central Committee and Electoral Board failed Bulela Ditswe candidates in the primaries that were held this past weekend, Botswana Guardian can reveal.The BDP conducted primaries in 40 constituencies where over 1000 candidates participated.
The publication has discovered that even though the central committee and Electoral Board promised to deliver a credible election during the 11th August 2018 Palapye consultative meeting, it was a different story on the ground when primaries were finally conducted.
Prior to the Palapye meeting there were complaints about the voters rolls.
Names of voters were missing while others had their names moved from their polling stations to others. Some of the people were not in the voters roll even though they had proof that they have registered.BDP Secretary General Mpho Balopi told the Palapye meeting and subsequently a press conference on that day that they together with the Electoral Board would ensure that all the outstanding issues would have been resolved by the time the primary elections are held.
He stated that most of the problems raised by candidates would be addressed through resolutions that were taken during the meeting at Majestic Five in Palapye. We have decided that people who appear in the voters roll but do not have membership cards would be allowed to vote using Omang.
This is because the number in the Omang card is the same that appears in the membership card. We have also set up our polling stations in such a way that a person would not be able to vote more than once which is why we have also introduced the use of ink for the voters. So through the assessing of complaints, we have discovered that some of them would be addressed by these decisions, Balopi pointed out.
Balopi revealed that complaints that would not be addressed through these resolutions the Central Committee and Electoral Board had resolved that Political Education and Elections Committee and a special team would be assigned to those constituencies. No one would be sidelined and we will ensure free and fair elections, posited Balopi. An observation by this publication during the primaries has proved that the party leadership failed dismally to do what it had committed to do.
Final voters rolls that were used during voting still came with some names missing. Some people who had proof that they have registered were denied to vote because they did not appear in the voters rolls. This proved to be a difficult exercise as candidates and polling agents had different stories to tell to one another.
Some candidates were explaining what was communicated during the Palapye meeting while the polling agents indicated that they have been instructed to work within the limits of what they have been mandated to do which was to ensure that only people in the voters rolls should be allowed to vote.
This has culminated in most of the candidates - both council and Parliamentary - indicating that they do not accept the outcome of the elections. They argue that there were irregularities in the conduct of the elections. The most affected are those who were incumbent for council and parliament where others were ministers.
BDP Electoral Board Chairman Peter Siele told this publication in an interview that he could not comment on the matter because his committee is still compiling reports from returning officers on the elections. He said his committee which is the sub-committee of the party Central Committee was scheduled to meet yesterday (Thursday) in the morning to make final scrutiny on the report.
After looking at reports from returning officers we would then look at other issues that have been raised and come up with our report as the committee. After doing that we would then meet with party Chairman who is also Vice President Slumber Tsogwane and map a way forward. Until then there is nothing tangible that could be shared at this point, said Siele.
- A fake EFCC official has been arrested by the Adamawa police command
- He was arrested after attempting to dupe the majority leader of the state House of Assembly, Hassan Barguma
- The suspect, Simon Bolki, was said to have claimed to be from the intelligence unit of the commission
A fake Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) official has landed in police net in Adamawa after attempting to dupe the majority leader of the state House of Assembly, Hassan Barguma.
Daily Trust reports that the fake official identified as Simon Bolki was arrested in the House when he approached Honourable Barguma.
Legit.ng gathers that the majority leader stated that the suspect approached him in his office with a fake EFCC identity card, claiming to be from the intelligence unit of the commission.
READ ALSO: Buharis refusal to sign electoral bill could affect 2019 polls - CUPP warns
Barguma said: When I called the name of my brother working with the EFCC in Abuja and other names of EFCC officials I know, he said he didnt know them.
I then called my brother in EFCC and linked them together while placing the phone on speaker. My brother then pronounced him as an impostor and from there he started pleading with me.
He said he was a university graduate and that it was lack of job that pushed him into the act. I had to intervene to prevent people from lynching him while we awaited the arrival of police who took him to the state CID."
The information officer of the assembly, Mohammed Daji, confirmed the incident, saying the suspect was first sighted in the premises of the Assembly on Monday, September 3, while trying to approach lawmakers. He said: One of the lawmakers even gave him appointment for Tuesday."
The incident was also confirmed by the acting public relations officer of the police command in Adamawa, DSP Habibu Musa. He said: We have so far arrested two suspects and investigation is ongoing."
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app
Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that a suspected fake lawyer who had been parading himself as Barrister Chris Elisha and had been practicing for the past fifteen years was arrested by the Nigeria police.
The alleged impostor was arrested on February 6, at Ojo magistrate court where he appeared on behalf of an accused person but found it difficult to move a motion for the variation of the bail condition of his client.
Lagos Police Commissioner Parades Suspected Criminals (Nigeria News) | on Legit.ng TV
Source: Legit
BBC reporter Rachael Bland has passed away after battling cancer for almost two years. The 40-year-old presenter died two days after she shared a farewell message on social media.
According to BBC, her family had confirmed that she passed away peacefully at home in the early hours of this Wednesday, September 5.
Bland was a presenter on the BBC Radio 5 Live. She was also popular for co-hosting You, Me and the Big C podcast about cancer.
Two days before her death, the reporter had taken to Twitter to reveal that doctors had told her that she had only days left to live. She wrote: "In the words of the legendary Frank S - I'm afraid the time has come my friends. And suddenly. I'm told I've only got days. It's very surreal. Thank you so much for all the support I've received."
READ ALSO: Nigerian parents arrested after son dies during 40-day fast
In August, the deceased broadcaster noted that she was writing a memoir to leave behind for her two-year-old son, Freddie. She stated that the memoir is like a love letter to her son.
Rachel's husband Steve said: "She was an incredibly talented broadcaster as well as a wonderful and much loved daughter, sister, aunt, niece, wife and, most importantly to her, a mother to her precious little Freddie.
PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News on Legit.ng News
We all take such huge comfort and pride from the amazing and tireless work she has done since her diagnosis to reduce the stigma around cancer and prove that it is possible to live life to the fullest even when facing huge challenges on a daily basis. At the end, even though her body was at its weakest, her voice was at its strongest and most powerful. We will miss her more than words can say."
PAY ATTENTION: Get your daily relationship tips and advice on Africa Love Aid group
The reporter's career began 15 years ago. She married her colleague Steve Bland in 2013. In November, 2016, she was diagnosed with primary triple-negative cancer after finding a lump under her arm.
This is really sad, Rachael Bland was a fighter and an inspiration. Legit.ng had reported that a popular CNN broadcaster had passed away two months ago at the age of 61.
What could make you take your own life? - on Legit.ng TV
Source: Legit.ng
- It was a dream come true as Modibbo Adamawa University of Technology appoints Hajiya Halima Mohammed as its first female registrar
- Her appointment was announced during the 91st university's governing council regular meeting
- The new registrar was the institution's deputy registrar for information and publicity before her appointment to the new role
Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola, Adamawa state, has re-written history by appointing Hajiya Halima Mohammed as its first female registrar, breaking a long existing jinx in the male dominated system.
Saad Aliyu, the acting information officer of the university, in a statement obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), announced this development in the state's capital on Wednesday, September 5.
READ ALSO: 2019: Sokoto APC endorses President Buhari for re-election
He said Mohammad's appointment was ratified by the institutions governing council at its 91st regular meeting, adding that Mohammed was formerly the university's deputy registrar for information and publicity.
Hajiya Halima Mohammed has since Wednesday, September 5, taken the mantle of responsibility.
PAY ATTENTION: Download Legit.ng app to enjoy the latest news updates from no. 1 news portal
Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the ongoing second semester examinations for the 2017/2018 academic session at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, had been disrupted by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The development was confirmed by the secretary of the union, Toyin Abegunrin, who said that lecturers had embarked on a two-week warning strike to express their displeasure over non-payment of salaries and decayed infrastructure of the institution.
Nigeria News Today: Goodluck Jonathan Wants To Teach Again | Legit.ng TV
Source: Legit.ng
- CSP Yinka Egbeyemi says he will not condone corruption among men of the Lagos task force
- Yinka Egbeyemi, the task force boss, says the task force operates with a human face and only tackles adamant law breakers
- Some drivers whose vehicles were impounded reveal their offences
CSP Yinka Egbeyemi, chairman of the Lagos state environment and special offense taskforce, has ordered immediate released of vehicles impounded at the agency's traffic yard in Ikorodu, Lagos over various traffic offenses.
Egbeyemis action, Legit.ng learnt, followed complaints of alleged touting, reported by members of public, against the unit.
Egbeyemi, who visited the place on Tuesday, freed the vehicles to their owners, despite various traffic offenses committed, including driving against traffic, driving on BRT lane, obstructions among others, after pleaded for mercy and admitting their wrong doings.
READ ALSO: Full list of PDP presidential aspirants and their profiles
CSP Yinka Egbeyemi said the task force would not condone acts of corruption. Photo: Some impounded cars Credit: Lagos task force
Source: Depositphotos
It was learnt that no fewer than seven vehicles were released to their owners in the presence of the task force boss, with the belief that the agency may free more, since the others were informed to report at the unit office for identifications and other processes.
Speaking on the development after his action, the taskforce boss stated that his decision to free the vehicles was to prove that the Lagos state government was in place to create hardship in the state but that it would also not tolerate lawlessness from members of public.
He explained that the action was also to inform Lagosians that the state government does not encourage touting or bribery and that the agency would take action against any of its agency's officer found guilty of such crime.
The task force boss released some of the vehicles irrespective of drivers' offences Photo: Some impounded buses Credit: Lagos task force
Source: Depositphotos
Egbeyemi reiterated his commitment of ensuring adequate discipline among his men even as he disclosed that any taskforce member caught collecting bribe or extortion from members of the public will face the wrath of law.
It is not true that we are anti-masses. We fight those people that are adamant and defiant. We are not in a state of anarchy, we are in an orderly society where there must be law and order.
We take offenders to court, and once anyone is pronounced guilty, such ends in prison.
How can a sane driver be driving against another vehicle coming with speed; this is how innocent people are killed, Egbeyemi said while charging members of the taskforce to desist from any act that can dent the image of the unit.
He also pointed out that it would be difficult to enforce law once they engage in corrupt acts.
He added that the commissioner of police, Imohimi Edgal, had declared zero tolerance to corruption and further said that corruption would not have a place in his tenure as police boss in the state.
CSP Yinka Egbeyemi of the Lagos task force arrives Ikorodu to release impounded vehicles Photo: CSP Yinka Egbeyemi with his men Credit: Lagos task force
Source: Depositphotos
I am appealing to Lagosians to abide with the rules and regulations that guide road use. Be a good citizen and dont offer members of the task force bribe and in case any of them demand please kindly report," he said.
Egbeyemi said the unit understood the plights of the masses, but that laws must be respected so as to make the state livable for people.
These are things we do but people dont understand. It is my duty to raid when people are doing illegality, he said.
PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app
The owner of one of the freed vehicles blamed the passengers for flouting the rule.
Segun Olusoga, a private taxi driver, claimed that a passenger he had in his vehicle pleaded with him to manoeuvre traffic because she was late for appointment.
I drive a Toyota Corolla with a plate number AGL136BH, in the process of trying to satisfy my client, I maneuvered traffic and was caught. To my surprise, the passage eventually left me with my problem, he said.
SS2 Student Arrested, Paraded by the Police Wants to Become an Engineer - Nigeria News | Legit.ng TV
Source: Legit.ng
- Former APC sopkesman, Comrade Timi Frank, has called for the sack of the Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris following the invasion of Chief Edwin Clark's house
- According to him, the Police IG has shown that he is not fully in-charge of the Nigeria Police
- Frank said the those responsible for the illegal invasion and search of the house Clark's house by the police should be sanctioned
The immediate past deputy national publicity secretary of All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, has condemned the invasion of Chief Edwin Clark's house in Abuja.
Frank said the illegal invasion and search of the house of the elder statesmen and Ijaw leader by the police should attract heavy sanctions to those culpable.
He also called for the sack of the Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris adding that the current police boss has shown lack of capacity, disrespect for the constitution and flagrant disregard to the rule of law in handling the affairs of the security agency.
IGP Idris has since apologised for the invasion of the house by the policemen and has ordered for their detention.
Comrade Frank, however, insists that despite the apology, the current IGP has shown that he is not fully in-charge of the Nigeria Police.
READ ALSO: If you detain suspect beyond 48 hours you can lose your job - IGP warns FSARS
He said he believes that the current IGP has not only shown himself as incompetent but a security apprentice who lacks knowledge of all that is happening in the force under his command.
Part of the statement read: This latest siege on the premises of Pa Clark must be thoroughly investigated and culprits made to face the law, or we will be at liberty to conclude that a plot to finally eliminate Chief Clark is at a full blown stage as anything short of the IGs sack will be seen as a nod by his paymasters to carry on with his nefarious acts.
The activities of the Nigeria police in recent times has left everyone wondering if indeed this is the same police saddled with the responsibility to serving and protect all Nigerian citizens.
The modus operandi of this administration in clamping down and arm-twisting perceived opposition figures in the country has become one too many as Nigerians are now feel perpetually under siege.
To buttress this assertion, the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, only recently ordered a review the activities of the FSARS - an arm of the police - that had become a living nightmare for law abiding citizens.
The Bayelsa-born politician, however, called out all Ijaw sons and daughters to protect their PVCs and vote out this malicious and self-serving government during the forth coming presidential elections."
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app
"The hounding and hoodwinking of the Acting DG of the DSS, Matthew Seiyefa - an Ijaw man - speaks volume of the level of hatred and disdain with which the present administration holds the Ijaw people and other minority tribes in the country," he declared.
Chief Clark had earlier expressed disappointment over the police raid on his Asokoro residence by policemen on the order of the IGP.
He said: I have never one day thought about carrying gun, I have been fighting for the unity of this country, if at the age of 92 years, I am making statement, and they do not want me to talk, I will continue to talk, which is the position.
I have been minister in this country, I have been a senator in this country and if by my age, I am nearing 92 years now, I will be accused of stockpiling weapons in my house, it is too bad.
Lagos Police Commissioner Parades Suspected Criminals (Nigeria News) on Legit.ng TV
Source: Legit
- A Benin high chief and APC chieftain, Osemede Adun, has dumped the party for PDP
- He places curse on anyone who defects and goes back to APC
- Chief Adun cited injustice as the reason he dumped APC
A Benin high chief and Edo state chairman of the Reformed All Progressives Congress (R-APC), Chief Osamede Adun has placed a curse on any member of the party who decamped to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and returned back to the former party.
Nigerian Tribune reports that Adun, the Ayobahan of Benin who led thousands of defecting red capped Kwankwasiya members to the PDP state secretariat in Benin, said that they dumped the ruling party in favour of the PDP because of the large-scale poverty and high handedness which the APC is notorious for.
READ ALSO: Full list of PDP presidential aspirants and their profiles
Legit.ng gathered that he swore that he and his supporters made a move to the PDP which he originally belonged after a careful appraisal of the state affairs in Edo state, insisting that the APC led government has failed woefully at both the state and federal levels.
He said: We are back home to the PDP. I am placing a curse on anybody who comes here to spy on us with the intention of going back to the APC. There is a curse on anybody here who goes back to APC. We are through with APC and will never go back to that party. Woe betides anybody here who goes back to APC. There is poverty everywhere. That is the only achievement of APC. We are back to make PDP better than we met it.
The former top member of the ruling party lashed out at the ruling party for being very vindictive, noting that after they helped the party to win the last election in Edo state, the very first thing Governor Godwin Obaseki did was to throw some of his supporters in prison and demolish their properties.
Speaking, a factional APC chairman in the state, Chief Dan Orbih said that the country was presently witnessing very difficult times under the leadership of the APC and was drifting towards dictatorship, adding that the development portends great danger to the countrys democracy.
Orbih said that the rights of the citizens were daily being eroded, and condemned the recent security raid of the Abuja resident of Chief Edwin Clark.
Welcoming the defectors, the party chairman said that the decision of the defectors would change the political destiny of the state.
He added that APC was presently experiencing political Ebola said the mass defection of APC members in the state to the opposition PDP, was a manifestation of the failed APC leadership in the state.
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Nigeria
Meanwhile, Legit.ng had earlier reported that there are indications that a massive wave of defection was about to hit the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Gombe state, following the plan defection of Buhari Dankwambo, the younger brother to Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo and Auwal Akko, the presidential coordinator of Senator Ahmed Makarfi in Gombe state to the rival All Progressives Congress (APC).
PDP's magnificent 7 for 2019 - on Legit.ng TV
Source: Legit
- President Muhammadu Buhari is making progress on his trip to China
- Garba Shehu said the president has the support of his Chinese counterpart for the Mambilla project
- The power project is expected to boost Nigeria's electricity
President Muhammadu Buhari has reportedly won the support of the president of China, XI Jinping, for Nigerias plan to build the 3050 Megawatts Mambilla hydroelectric power project.
This is contained in a statement issued by Garba Shehu who is the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity on Wednesday, September 5.
The president informed his Chinese counterpart that the Mambilla project remains one of the key focuses of his administration.
President Buhari also sought additional Chinese funding for four airport terminal projects.
READ ALSO: Full list of PDP presidential aspirants and their profiles
Read the statement below:
President Muhammadu Buhari Wednesday in Beijing won the crucial support of the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, for the countrys aspiration to build the 3050 Megawatts Mambila hydroelectric power project, just as the two countries signed the agreement of $328m for the Information and Communication Technology Infrastructure Backbone Phase II (NICTIB II) project.
The concessional loan agreement between Galaxy Backbone Limited and Huawei Technologies Limited (HUAWEI) was signed by Nigerias Minister of Finance Kemi Adesoun and Wang Xiaotoa, Director-General, International Development Agency, in the presence of President Muhammadu Buhari and President Xi Jinping of China.
Nigeria and China also signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the One Belt One Road Initiative (OBOR).
Nigerias Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama and He Lifeng, director, Chinas National Development and Reform Commission signed the OBOR- an initiative of President Xi which focuses on improving connectivity and cooperation among multiple countries spread across the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe.
Earlier during his meeting with President Xi, the Nigerian leader, while commending the Chinese government for successfully hosting the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) solicited support for the Mambilla hydropower project.
Noting that Mambilla project remains a key priority to Nigeria, the president also sought additional Chinese funding for four airport terminal projects as well as the Abuja light rail project.
President Buhari told his Chinese counterpart that since his last visit to China in 2016, the brotherly relationship between both countries had continued to flourish.
According to the President, in the past 24 months, the Chinese Government has provided humanitarian aid to our conflict-affected areas, scholarship to Nigerian youth, military training and security support to our personnel and agricultural modernization training."
President Buhari noted that in the period under review, China had provided concessionary loans to fund critical infrastructure projects in Nigeria, adding that these interventions have positively impacted millions of Nigerians and will continue to do so for generations to come.
READ ALSO: If you detain suspect beyond 48 hours you can lose your job - IGP warns FSARS
Mr President, as we celebrate these successes, I would like to once again solicit your support for the Mambilla Hydropower Project which remains a key priority for my government. Our hope is to fund the project with concessionary loans from China as any alternative funding arrangement will adversely impact the projects viability.
We have been informed that our submission on this project is undergoing assessment by the relevant Chinese agencies. We hope with your kind intervention, this assessment will be expedited. Your Excellency, Mambilla is Nigerias equivalent of the three gorges dam. My wish is that you join me for the groundbreaking ceremony of this project in the not too distant future. President Buhari said.
On Lake Chad Basin, the President thanked China for accepting to support the international efforts to recharge the Lake.
The inclusion of this project in the FOCAC Action Plan 2019 to 2021 will go a long way in supporting our efforts to rehabilitate and resettle the conflict-impacted North East region, he said.
On people-to-people relations, President Buhari told his host that in the course of his visit, he interacted with Nigerian students and entrepreneurs living in different parts of China.
I was very pleased to hear about the positive experiences these hard working and law abiding citizens are having in their host communities. I also had the pleasure of meeting young Chinese students learning three Nigerian languages.
We must continue to support such exchange programmes to enhance our people-to-people contacts, he said.
Similarly, President Buhari noted that easy movement of citizens of both countries would complement the currency swap agreements recently signed by the central banks of both countries.
Since our last meeting two years ago, Nigeria has relaxed its visa requirements to Chinese citizens. Today, I am pleased to inform Your Excellency that Chinese citizens receive Nigerian visas in less than 48 hours.
Another measure that will improve our trade volumes will be to introduce import duty waivers on Nigerias commodity exports to China. Today, our commodities such as sesame seeds, hibiscus and cassava amongst others attract import duty in China, he said.
The Nigerian leader also lauded Chinas support for two permanent seats for Africa at the United Nations, noting that the reform of the Security Council would ensure equitable representation for the continent.
In his remarks, President Xi who commended Nigerias fight against terrorism and the progress that has been made so far, promised Chinas support in capacity building and intelligence sharing.
He also pledged 50 million Chinese Yuan support to Nigerias military, noting that Buhari is as decisive in dealing with terrorism as China.
President Xi said China would import more agricultural products from Nigeria and expressed gratitude to President Buhari on Nigerias interest to participate in the forthcoming Chinese Import Fair.
The relationship between Nigeria and China is as best as ever, especially given the deepening mutual trust. China will continue to stand with Nigeria, he said.
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app
On Mambilla, the Chinese leader told President Buhari: We understand how critical the project is to your country and we will take a serious look at it and ensure that it succeeds because of its social and economic benefits.
Meanwhile, at a separate meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, President Buhari reaffirmed Nigeria's commitment to expanding mutually beneficial cooperation with China.
Legit.ng earlier reported that President Muhammadu Buhari purchased his form from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to enable him participate in the partys primary election ahead of the 2019 presidential election.
According to Bashir Ahmad who is the personal assistant to the president on new media, the form was purchased on behalf of the president by a group of good Nigerians.
One of the presidents support groups, the Nigerian Consolidation Ambassadors Network, bought the form on Wednesday, September 5.
Nigeria News: President Buhari's Return Will Teach Nigerians Sense | Legit.ng TV
Source: Legit.ng
The NATO Secretary General, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg, will travel to Athens on Thursday, 6 September and Friday, 7 September 2018.
On Thursday, 6 September, Mr. Stoltenberg will meet with the Prime Minister, Mr. Alexis Tsipras.
Still and video images will be available on the NATO website after the visit.
Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) President Advocate Duma Boko has indicated that they are still waiting for the letter from Registrar of Societies confirming the error communicated in the letter dismissing UDC as a party.
The Registrar of Societies, Davids Okello-Wengi wrote to the UDC Secretary General in response to the two constitutions submitted by the warring parties within the UDC. Responding to the submitted constitutions the Registrar said that UDC is not a political party but a cooperation agreement by the four political parties for a common political goal.
All four parties are listed in the schedule, therefore, in our opinion, the registration of UDCs Constitution falls outside the scope of the Act, reads the letter in part which some within the UDC have described as confusing.Advocate Boko said the response by the Registrar was contradictory and they had to meet face to face with Attorney General to clear the matter. He said that is time they discovered that the utterances by the Registrar that UDC was not a party should not have been made.
Okello-Wengi described in the letter that the term society is defined in Section 3 of the Act to exclude any political party listed in the Schedule of the Act. The Registrar listed the political parties in the Schedule to the Act as BMD, BCP, BPP and BNF. Therefore, the registration of political parties falls outside the scope of the Act, reads the letter dated 13 August 2018.Advocate Boko said that during the engagement with the Registrar and AG it was agreed that the response was erroneous.
They said the last part of the letter was not in order. It was at that meeting that even the AG discovered ambiguity of the Societies Act and has promised to attend to it. It was disrespectful of the Registrar to have written the letter in such a manner. We were not submitting a new Constitution but we were submitting amendments to the UDC 2012 Constitution. That 2012 UDC Constitution has transitional clause which allows us to make amendments that is as simple as that.
There is no confusion or what-so-ever, The UDC leader stated. He said they have told the Registrar to write another letter to clear the air because it seems people have been confused by the letter from Registrar.The Constitution which has been submitted to Registrar of Societies has divided the four UDC constituents- Botswana Congress Party (BCP), Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD), Botswana National Front (BNF) and Botswana Peoples Party (BPP).
BCP and BNF are in one corner pitted against BMD and BPP in another corner as they oppose the submitted constitution. Both BCP and BNF set themselves targets during their respective Conferences last month. BNF resolved that having noted that the new UDC Constitution has been filed with the Registrar of Societies the BNF should ensure that the process is concluded within twenty-one (21) days.
The BCP on the other hand resolved that having been appraised and deliberated thereof on the developments within the UDC collective, conference resolved to remain in the UDC, but directed that due to limited time before registration of the general election, all outstanding matters within the UDC should be resolved by mid-August 2018.Addressing a political rally in Gabane this past weekend, Advocate Boko called for calm within the coalition movement.
He said BCP is a bonafide member of the UDC and wondered what the confusion was. He told the rally that the BMD leader Advocate Sidney Pilane has bowed himself and indicated that he would listen to Advocate Boko as the party leader. Advocate Pilane has told me that I should speak and he would listen. He would follow my instructions. Let us refrain from attacking him because he has made it clear to me that he wants to work with us to liberate Batswana. If he is ready to work with us, why should we always attack him? asked Advocate Boko.
The UDC leader dismissed claims that he is afraid of Advocate Pilane. He said none of the insinuations should be taken seriously. He pointed out that they have even fought their legal wars at court but that should not divide them. Advocate Boko said differences within the UDC leadership should not be treated as fights.We will always differ but at the end we would come to an agreement, he said. For his part Advocate Pilane said presidents of the four contracting partners should sign for the amendments to be incorporated into the constitution.
He said the signing should be done as a matter of urgency. The BMD leader however cautioned that the signing should not be just for the sake of signing. He posited that every party that signs should do so with commitment that all the UDC candidates would be supported and voted for by all UDC members regardless of the party they come from.
There has been talk that some members of BCP and BNF have vowed not to support BMD candidates during the 2019 general election. The argument has been that BMD do not have credible candidates to win elections for UDC.
On Wednesday (5 September 2018) UK National Security Adviser Sir Mark Sedwill updated NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the North Atlantic Council on the actions taken by the United Kingdom in response to the Salisbury nerve agent attack. Sir Mark noted that there is sufficient evidence for charges to be brought against two Russian nationals for the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. The Council expressed solidarity with the UK.
At the Brussels Summit in July, allied leaders condemned the Salisbury attack. They also stressed that any use of chemical weapons is unacceptable, and NATO demands that all perpetrators be held accountable.
Sir Mark last briefed the North Atlantic Council on this matter in March 2018.
The NATO-Georgia Commission met at NATO Headquarters on Wednesday (5 September 2018) to discuss the situation on the ground in the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and ongoing efforts to pursue peace. The meeting also coincided with the tenth anniversary of the NATO-Georgia Commission, which first met on 15 September 2008.
During the meeting, NATO Allies exchanged views with the State Minister of Georgia for Reconciliation and Civic Equality, Ketevan Tsikhelashvili, and Deputy Foreign Minister, David Dondua. Allies reaffirmed their full support for Georgias sovereignty and territorial integrity and condemned Russias recognition of the Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions of Georgia as independent. They also praised Georgias efforts to pursue peaceful conflict resolution in the context of the Geneva International Discussions.
Ahead of the meeting, State Minister Tsikhelashvili and Deputy Foreign Minister Dondua met with NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller. The Deputy Secretary General reiterated NATOs political and practical support to Georgia and welcomed Georgias substantial contributions to international security.
The Alliance works closely with Georgia, including through the NATO-Georgia Joint Training Centre near Tbilisi. In 2019, broad Allied participation is expected in a joint NATO-Georgia military exercise. The NATO-Georgia Commission also continues to play a central role in deepening political dialogue and enhancing practical cooperation between Georgia and NATO.
(Natural News) The deeper we get into the Trump presidency, the more unhinged, angry, violent, and irrational his Democratic opponents become.
Beginning with POTUS Trumps inaugural weekend, when the Left staged unprecedented protests in the nations capital replete with entertainers and Hollywood stars who hurled insults and even threats at the new president, to now, when a growing number of elected Democrats and Democratic candidates have begun calling for the elimination of a duly-appointed federal immigration agency (ICE), the party has become something Josef Stalin would be more comfortable with than George Washington or even John F. Kennedy.
This shift was highlighted last week by Fox News Tucker Carlson, who addressed the rising irrationality of the Democratic Left and correctly labeled it a threat to the civil society.
As noted by Information Liberation:
Fox News host Tucker Carlson revealed Wednesday how the rising stars of the Democratic Party want to abolish ICE, have their agents prosecuted for criminal acts, give illegal aliens free healthcare and impeach President Trump for obstruction because he fired former FBI director James Comey.
These are not the thoughts and policies of rational people; they are the product of rage, uncontrollable anger, and an unhealthy, illogical desire to overthrow the system in order to save it.
The Democratic Party is transforming before our eyes, Carlson said, per Fox News, who warned viewers that the far-Left candidates running in key races could win this November, which would be a massive blow to the principles that founded our country. (Related: New report refutes STUPIDITY of Dem calls to abolish ICE: Terrorists are being smuggled INTO U.S.)
One of them, Tallahassee (Florida) Mayor Andrew Gillum, a black Democrat who is running for the states governorship, wants to replace ICE, wants to transform healthcare into a taxpayer-funded right, and impeach the president forsomething, anything, really. He claims that because the president fired FBI Director James Comey that amounted to a self-incrimination for obstructing justice, though a) everyone in the Executive Branch serves at the pleasure of the president, who can fire them for any reason or no reason; and b) its absurd to accuse POTUS of obstructing justice when investigations into his alleged meddling in the election with Russian help did not stop (and are still continuing, thanks to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller).
Sure they can win
Carlson warned that the pundits who are saying that far-Left Gillum has no chance against his GOP challenger, U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who has already been endorsed by the president, were some of the same ones who were wrong about POTUS victory, meaning Gillum could flip Floridas statehouse blue.
And Gillums historic rise is part of the larger story surrounding the Democratic Partys transformation. While the discredited establishment cable networks not named Fox News bleat on about how the Republican Party is in existential crisis following its takeover by Donald Trump, Carlson argues that the real story is whats happening to the GOPs rival.
Its no longer the party of FDR, JFK, or even President Bill Clinton, and soon, Tucker says, even stalwarts like Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will be gone replaced by angry, authoritarian Leftism in the vein of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Another far-Left Marxist-socialist who is sure to win Californias governorship, Democrat Gavin Newsome, said he plans to push for free health care for all residents, even those in the state illegally.
Another example is a black Democratic candidate in New York who has a shot at winning the lieutenant governors race; he wants to take everyones guns away and throw open U.S. borders. The Democratic candidate for governor in Arizona, Carlson said, also wants no barrier at all between the U.S. and Mexico.
These are not rational ideas. They are not policies that have even a remote possibility of working, as most of them have failed everywhere around the world, throughout history, where theyve been tried.
And yet the goofball con artists who are pushing them are getting a lot more support than they should, Carlson says, and that is transforming an entire party into something the U.S. opposed throughout the Cold War.
Read more about the Alt-Left transformation of the Democratic Party at AltLeft.news.
Sources include:
InformationLiberation.com
FoxNews.com
OpenBorders.news
(Natural News) If you want to know what your local river will look like in the future, your best clue is to inspect its rocks. A joint Scottish-French study on waterfalls suggests that the type of rock on a riverbed have a much bigger impact on the evolution of rivers and waterfalls than the amount of water coursing through them, according to a ScienceDaily article.
Researchers from the University of Edinburgh (UoE) and Universite de Rennes 1 (Rennes) say that their finding provides valuable clues about the ways rivers, waterfalls, and their surroundings evolve over time, especially with outside factors working on them.
This includes any reactions to external sources such as rising or falling sea levels or the slow but steady movements of tectonic plates far below the surface of the Earth. Rivers and waterfalls will react to these.
The Natural Environment Research Council and European Commission supported the joint UoE-Rennes study on waterfalls. The results were published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Rock beats water when it comes to shaping waterfalls
For their study, the researchers created a scale model of a river using three different mixtures of silica cement. They included a 2 cm tall waterfall which they refer to as a knickpoint in order to find out how this particular feature will be affected by the flow of water and the material that comprises the riverbed.
Given their energetic nature, waterfalls are a powerful source of change in the landscape they occupy. Furthermore, they have a tendency of migrating upstream instead of downstream.
Established models of this response assume a correlation between knickpoint retreat rate and the catchment drainage area. This was disproved by the results of their study, where the upstream migration of a waterfall was governed by the composition of the riverbed.
When the researchers increased the amount of water flowing through the model, the catchment drainage area reshaped itself accordingly. However, the position of the waterfall itself did not move much despite the significant rise in water discharge.
Altering the material of the riverbed model, on the other hand, greatly affected the migration speed of the waterfall. A softer substrate abraded faster and therefore hastened the movement, while a much tougher material slowed it down.
A bigger river doesnt mean faster waterfall migration
Based on their findings, the researchers believe the established model for calculating the speed of waterfall migration is not workable. This is because the catchment drainage area self-regulates to account for higher or lower amounts of water flow.
Instead, future studies should also consider the sturdiness of the rocks that comprise the riverbed.
Furthermore, the researchers believe their results validated the findings of previous studies that covered various rivers. According to those earlier studies, the size of a river does not always dictate the resulting changes to its surroundings. (Related: State of Ohio sues DuPont for dumping toxic chemicals in the Ohio River.)
They cite Niagara Falls, one of the biggest and most famous waterfalls in the world. Despite its imposing bulk, they say it migrates much more slowly than the far smaller cascades found in Scotland.
Accurately modelling how rivers change is important for understanding landscape evolution in the past, present and future, explained Dr. Mikael Attal. A professor of the School of GeoSciences at UoE, he participated in the study alongside author Edwin Baynes.
The nature of the rock on the riverbed plays a more important role than the size of flow in influencing how rivers evolve, and ongoing studies should take this into account, he said.
For more news on rivers and other bodies of water, visit Ecology.news.
Sources include:
ScienceDaily.com
Nature.com
(Natural News) Taking probiotic supplements every day can support bone health, as it cut the risk of age-related bone loss by 50 percent, according to a new study. The study, published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, examined the effect of probiotic supplementation on the human skeleton.
To conduct the study, the research team from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden recruited 90 elderly women, with the average age of 76. At the beginning of the trial, the team measured and recorded the bone mineral density at the spine, hip, and femoral neck of the participants. The team also aimed to verify whether good bacteria play a role in bone density improvements in humans, as shown in an earlier animal study.
Then, they asked these women to take either the study product, which was a powder that contained the bacteria Lactobacillus reuteri 6475 combined with maltodextrin powder, or the placebo product containing the maltodextrin powder only. The products were taken twice a day for a year. After the treatment of one year, the research team measured the womens bone loss in their lower legs through a CT scan and compared it with the measurements they initially had.
Results revealed that the participants who received the probiotic supplement had lost only half as much bone in the skeleton in comparison with those who received the placebo product. In addition, the probiotic supplement was deemed safe and did not cause more side effects compared to those experienced by women who received the inactive powder supplements.
Based on the findings of the study, the research team concluded that supplementing with probiotics can be used as a safe and effective way to prevent the development of osteoporosis in many older people.
Other preventive measures for bone loss
Worldwide, osteoporosis is estimated to affect 200 million women approximately one-tenth of women aged 60, one-fifth of women aged 70, two-fifths of women aged 80, and two-thirds of women aged 90.
The risk of having osteoporosis increases with age. Women over 50 years old and men over 70 years old have a greater risk of osteoporosis than younger women and men. This is mostly because of a decline in estrogen during menopause in women, and a drop in testosterone as men age. As people age, the body may reabsorb calcium and phosphate from the bones instead of keeping these minerals in the bones. In turn, this makes the bones weaker, and can reach a certain stage where it can already be considered as osteoporosis. Here are some ways to prevent osteoporosis:
Avoid drinking carbonated drinks: Carbonated drinks, such as soft drinks, champagne, and sparkling water leach calcium from the bones. These drinks also contain a lot of phosphates, which cause even more calcium loss. According to a Harvard study, half of the women participants aged 16 to 20 were already exhibiting bone loss because of excess soft drink consumption.
Carbonated drinks, such as soft drinks, champagne, and sparkling water leach calcium from the bones. These drinks also contain a lot of phosphates, which cause even more calcium loss. According to a Harvard study, half of the women participants aged 16 to 20 were already exhibiting bone loss because of excess soft drink consumption. Dont eat too much protein: Excessive protein consumption causes acidity in the body, which results in calcium losses in the urine.
Excessive protein consumption causes acidity in the body, which results in calcium losses in the urine. Keep your stomach acid: Avoid using acid-blocking drugs, as these drugs significantly increase the risk of osteoporosis. Stomach acid is needed by the body to absorb minerals, including calcium, magnesium, and zinc. (Related: Commonly prescribed antidepressants may cause bone loss in postmenopausal women, study finds.)
Avoid using acid-blocking drugs, as these drugs significantly increase the risk of osteoporosis. Stomach acid is needed by the body to absorb minerals, including calcium, magnesium, and zinc. (Related: Commonly prescribed antidepressants may cause bone loss in postmenopausal women, study finds.) Limit caffeine intake: For every cup of coffee you drink, you lose 150 milligrams (mg) of calcium in your urine. If you cant help but drink caffeinated drinks, at least raise your calcium intake by 150 mg for every cup you consume.
Read more news stories and studies on preventing bone loss in older people by going to Longevity.news.
Sources include:
NutraIngredients.com
WallerWellness.com
MedlinePlus.gov
(Natural News) A recent U.S. court ruling that forced Monsanto to pay out more than $289 million to school a groundskeeper who got terminal cancer after using its Roundup weed killer is reigniting calls by Vietnam for the company to compensate victims of its Agent Orange chemical.
Monsanto supplied Agent Orange to the U.S. military during the Vietnam war. The chemical herbicide and defoliant was used to clear out tropical jungles in the country to strip Viet Cong guerrilla fighters of hiding places and food sources. In the years from 1961 to 1971, the American military sprayed roughly 12 million gallons of it across 30,000 miles in the southern part of Vietnam.
Agent Orange contains the toxin dioxin, which has been linked to cancer, birth defects, and other fatal illnesses. Millions of the Vietnamese people are still suffering from the effects of exposure to the chemical.
The August 11 ruling that held Monsanto accountable for the damage that Roundup caused has given Agent Orange victims new hope of one day being compensated for their suffering.
Vietnam Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nguyen Phuong Tra stated: The verdict serves as a legal precedent which refutes previous claims that the herbicides made by Monsanto and other chemical corporations in the U.S. and provided for the U.S. army in the war are harmless.
According to the government of Vietnam, around 4.8 million people in the country were exposed to the substance. Three million have dealt with debilitating illnesses such as neural damage, reproductive failures, and cancer. Mental impairment and deformities can even be seen in the third and fourth generations of those who were originally exposed to dioxin.
According to studies, just 80 grams of dioxin in a water supply could kill off a city of 8 million people; nearly 370 kilograms of dioxin were in the amount of Agent Orange that was sprayed in Southern Vietnam during the war.
Past attempts to hold Monsanto accountable have been unsuccessful in Vietnam
In 2004, a group known as the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin filed a class action lawsuit against Monsanto, Dow Chemical and other companies that supplied the toxin, but their case was rejected on three occasions on the grounds that it had no legal precedent as the firms were simply acting on orders given by the American government.
Moreover, it was claimed at the time that there wasnt enough evidence to link Agent Orange to health problems. Now, studies carried out by the governments of Vietnam and the U.S. have linked exposure to the chemical to more than 10 different diseases. In addition, scientific advancements have made it easier to identify whether a persons illness was caused by dioxin.
Relentlessly pursuing justice
The group says it will never give up on its quest for justice. Last year, a Monsanto tribunal in The Hague found the firm guilty of ecocide and causing long-term negative consequences on various nations ecosystems, including Vietnam. They reached their conclusion following a six-month investigation and two days of testimony. Not surprisingly, Monsanto rejected that ruling.
Even though they claim not to be responsible, Monsanto reached an out-of-court settlement compensating American war veterans who had filed a $180 million class action lawsuit against the firm. It may be too little, too late, but many Vietnamese people will be hoping that they can successfully hold the firm accountable for its role in the atrocities theyve suffered.
Sources for this article include:
ZeroHedge.com
VietnamNews.vn
EcoWatch.com
(Natural News) Two very important stories came across our radar this weekend that led to this story.
(Article by Stefan Stanford republished from AllNewsPipeline.com)
In the first from Spiked-Online titled Now We Know: The Resistance Is The Establishment, they perfectly illustrate for us Americas present day situation where people like Barack Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton and George Bush endlessly trash talk President Trump at John McCains funeral (finally!) while considering themselves the resistance according to this New Yorker story. Yet going back decades, they were THE establishment!
The second story, which ties in perfectly with the first, from The Truth About Guns, was titled The Violent Left Says They Want A Civil War: Antifa Forming A Red Army within which they take a look at one possible glimpse of the future with one group that has sprung up that is supporting the Obama/Bush/Clinton establishment actually having the nerve to call themselves anti-fascists when they resort to fascist tactics to silence their critics. And as the Truth About Guns story tells us, now theyre arming up for war.
The Truth About Guns story references this story over at Red Guards Austin titled Oppose The Counterfeits: Antifa Must Take On A Paramilitary Character! which argues:
Lets look at the event from a military perspective. Many from the right-wing side, including the fascists, were well armed and equipped. While this makes them dangerous, their tactical strength is overshadowed by their strategic weakness. All their weapons and their fighting condition mean absolutely nothing without support from the broad masses of people. Regardless of their current lack of popularity a fascist populist movement is still a threat and backward elements of society are moved to become fascists during economic crisis. This is the main reason why we oppose fascists presence or any attempts on their part to organize.
Our principle is that when you go against a class enemy you hit himthat if you do not hit him he will not fall. The fact that no fascists were harmed in the making of this counter-protest only proves that the main organizers have no stomach for antifascismfor us antifascism is concreteit does not mean simply voicing a disagreement it means stopping fascists in their tracks and hurting their efforts to the point where they stop organizing.
On the basis of our principled united front work, fascists and their collaborators can be drowned out, run out, routed, beaten bloody, and even annihilated. These are our principles and we aim to hold them to the very finish.
If you think the remarks from the Red Guard Austin, Texas sound just like something a fascist would do, attempting to silence their opposition by using force, youre not the only one.
And as we see from the next excerpt below taken from the antifa story, they actually reference Mao Zedong who carried out a mass genocide upon tens of millions, killing landlords and redistributing land to peasants, almost just as were seeing in South Africa today. And while none of us really like landlords, the fact that Zedong had nearly 20 million slaughtered, with some saying he killed more than 65 million, and antifa is referencing him as if he is some kind of saint is alarming. From their story.:
What does antifascist unity look like?
It is time for Austin to stand up, to shake off bad leadership trying to impose itself on antifascism and come together under a better model of actual resistance and not token performance. When we organize and lead actions the fascists do not march every step they take is met with physical confrontation and they are bombarded from all sides.
We are willing to work with, and accomplish temporary unity with anyone who can be united with; we simply will not liquidate our leadership behind anti-communists, Democrats or social-democrats. Antifascism is in and of itself neither Socialist nor Communist but it must not be Anti-Communist. Communist leadership of a united front must not be liquidated.
According to Chairman Mao: Capitulationism must be strenuously opposed. When we make concessions, fall back, turn to the defensive or halt our advance in our relations with either allies or enemies, we should always see these actions as part of our whole revolutionary policy, as an indispensable link in the general revolutionary line, as one turn in a zigzag course. In a word, they are positive.
That is, our collaborations with those who genuinely wish to defeat fascism must not come at the expense of our own ability to fight fascism, or our ability to grow and expand strategically. While understanding the need for certain tactical unity against fascism we understand that antifascism is just one part of our overall revolutionary work.
We will not change our color as Communists; we will not liquidate our program or allow cessation of ideological and political struggle. While we will unite first, we will not fail to criticize second. Those who are worthy of the sharpest criticism are the very same ones who frame any and all critique as a personal attack and cannot self-criticize.
Read more at: AllNewsPipeline.com
(Natural News) The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has formally expressed its support for Asian American students who filed a landmark affirmative action suit alleging that Harvard University admissions discriminated against them.
A group known as Students for Fair Admissions filed a suit against Harvard over a personal rating admissions affirmative action policy that it says discriminates against Asian applicants. The suit said that Asian Americans were consistently given lower ratings in subjective categories such as personality and courage something that hurt their chances of getting accepted to the school and that they believe is intentional.
The Justice Department agreed, saying in documents that it filed supporting the groups federal lawsuit that the universitys admission process may be infected with racial bias and that Harvard has not been able to prove its consideration of race in admissions assessments is in accordance with what the law requires. The DOJ is also launching an investigation of its own into the schools discriminatory admissions policies.
In addition, the DOJ statement of interest claims that Harvard strives to achieve the same racial demographics in every entering class despite a Supreme Court ban on racial balancing and quotas. This is supported by the fact that Asian Americans accounted for 18 percent of the admitted classes in both 2014 and 2015 and 20 percent of the 2016 and 2017 classes.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that Harvard, despite being a private university, is the recipient of taxpayer funds and federal grants and therefore has an obligation to follow legal admissions requirements and avoid racial discrimination. The case will be tried in Boston next month, but it is believed that it will ultimately make its way to the Supreme Court.
A statement that the university released in response to the Department of Justices letter seemed to contradict itself. It states: Harvard does not discriminate against applicants from any group, and will continue to vigorously defend the legal right of every college and university to consider race as one factor among many in college admissions which the SCOTUS has upheld for more than 40 years.
Not the first time Harvard has been accused of discrimination
So which is it: Do they not discriminate against applicants from any group, or are they trying to protect what they say is their right to consider race as an admissions factor? Why does race need to be considered if its supposedly not influencing their decision anyway? A study that was recently published by the Center for Equal Opportunity indicates that there is indeed some discrimination going on. The study showed that students of Asian descent are dramatically underrepresented at the prestigious university.
At the California Institute of Technology, for example, 43 percent of the student body is Asian, while Harvard is made up of only 17 percent Asian students. The groups representatives feel the Asian students are passed over to make room for Hispanics, blacks and even whites who are not as qualified academically because of its affirmative action policies.
Moreover, the group says that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which also has a significantly lower Asian representation in the student body, has a similar policy in place. The study says that Harvard and MIT appear to have a type of ceiling on the number of Asian American students they are willing to admit.
Sources for this article include:
TheGatewayPundit.com
BostonGlobe.com
NBCNews.com
(Natural News) For months, many conservatives have openly speculated what role former President Obama may have had in Spygate the Deep State counterintelligence operation launched to spy on the 2016 Trump campaign and infiltrate it with informants.
Previously, some analysts who ought to know have said with certainty that they believe there is no way Obama would not have known about the operation because, if for no other reason, he would have had to approve it.
In May, Ari Fleischer, the former White House spokesman for George W. Bush, told Fox News with no uncertainty that Obama knew from the outset about the scandal that would become Spygate.
Investigative reporter Paul Sperry tweeted:
BREAKING: Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer said "I guarantee the answer is yes" to whether Obama knew Halper & others were deployed to spy on Trump campaign. Fleischer explained that no FBI director would put informants inside a presidential campaign w/o the prez authorizing it Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) May 24, 2018
BREAKING: Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer said I guarantee the answer is yes to whether Obama knew Halper & others were deployed to spy on Trump campaign. Fleischer explained that no FBI director would put informants inside a presidential campaign w/o the prez authorizing it, he wrote.
Now, there appears to be new evidence proving that Obama did indeed know what was going on and that he was most likely the ringleader.
Tom Fitton, the president of government watchdog organization Judicial Watch, wrote in a brief posted on the groups website Friday that according to a court filing, the Justice Department admitted that the secretive FISA court never even held hearings on spy warrant applications for Trump campaign official Dr. Carter Page, Ph.D., a former graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy and intelligence officer who served briefly as an advisor. (Related: Liar James Clapper now trying to cover for former boss Obama: Im sure he had no knowledge about Trump spy.)
The filing noted:
[National Security Division] FOIA consulted [Office of Intelligence] to identify and locate records responsive to [Judicial Watchs] FOIA request. [Office of Intelligence] determined that there were no records, electronic or paper, responsive to [Judicial Watchs] FOIA request with regard to Carter Page. [Office of Intelligence] further confirmed that the [Foreign Surveillance Court] considered the Page warrant applications based upon written submissions and did not hold any hearings.
Loophole in the law
How could this happen? According to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which created the FISA court, the only time Americans can be put under intelligence community surveillance on American soil is after they obtain a warrant from the FISA court right?
Yes. And no.
Fox News host Judge Janine Pirro discussed how the process worksnormally.
I want you to remember that you heard it here first. Any collector, their name for an informant working on a national campaign, must have a sign off by the Attorney General. Here that would be liar Loretta Lynch. Lynch, herself, would of had to have approved an informant on that campaign. And if she didnt, then the FBI under James Comey was even more corrupt, going rogue in their attempt to destroy Donald Trump, she said in May.
But theres more. Recall that the first Page warrant was pushed through in October 2016, but that initial warrant was approved three subsequent times since. That means either Attorney General Jeff Sessions would have had to have approved them, or more likely since Sessions recused himself Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein did, the same man who appointed special counsel Robert Mueller.
Theres even more. As The National Sentinel reports, there is a loophole in the law that allows for the bypassing of the standard FISA court warrant process:
AUTHORIZATION FOR ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE FOR FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE PURPOSES
SEC. 102. 50 U.S.C. 1802 (a)(1) Notwithstanding any other law, the President, through the Attorney General, may authorize electronic surveillance without a court order under this title to acquire foreign intelligence information for periods of up to one year if the Attorney General certifies in writing under oath.
As Fleischer notes, there was no way Obama wouldnt have known Spygate was underway.
This is the smoking gun connection to Obama.
Read more about the massive corruption of the Deep State at DeepState.news.
Sources include:
TheNationalSentinel.com
JudicialWatch.org
(Natural News) Climate change myth pushers are scientifically illiterate propagandists who have brainwashed themselves against all scientific reality to somehow believe that carbon dioxide is a poison to plants. In truth, its the greening molecule for the planet, as Ive repeatedly explained in multiple climate videos, podcasts and climate articles. Now, new science published in Nature demonstrates that global tree cover is rapidly expanding across the planet as CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere rise to healthier, pro-tree levels that support forest growth and health.
Yes, you read that correctly: Forestation coverage of planet Earth is expanding, not shrinking as were all told by the lying globalist media on a daily basis. (The same dishonest media that claimed New York City would now be under water from an apocalypse of melting ice caps go figure.)
We show thatcontrary to the prevailing view that forest area has declined globally5tree cover has increased by 2.24 million km2 (+7.1% relative to the 1982 level), reports science study authors in this study entitled Global land change from 1982 to 2016.
The study was primarily funded by NASAs Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs). It also enjoyed supporting funds from the World Resources Institutes Global Restoration Initiative and the NASA Land-Cover and Land-Use Change (LCLUC) Program.
Here we analyse 35 years worth of satellite data and provide a comprehensive record of global land-change dynamics during the period 19822016, the authors explain. Global bare ground cover has decreased by 1.16 million km2 (?3.1%), most notably in agricultural regions in Asia.
See the study abstract yourself at this link.
Carbon dioxide is bringing planet Earth back to life by supporting forests, plants and food crops
The study documents the scientific reality that carbon dioxide supports the expansion of forests across the planet. That makes perfect sense, since CO2 is the oxygen of plant life. Without CO2, nearly all plant life on the planet would die, quickly followed by the total collapse of the food web, animal ecosystems and human civilization.
See related article: Rise in carbon dioxide unleashing global greening, faster food production, reforestation and new vegetation across the planet.
Currently, CO2 is at around 408 ppm in the atmosphere, a number thats dangerously low for plants (and forests), causing mass death of trees, food crops and even grasses. Climate change lunatics lie to the public and try to claim that CO2 levels have never been this high. Even NASA joins the conspiracy by selectively choosing data to show the public, distorting the true history of CO2 on planet Earth. In reality, CO2 levels have been over ten times higher in the past (over 4,000 ppm). Todays CO2 levels are near the lowest theyve ever been in the history of the planet, and as they rise, plant life across Earth is bring slowly restored.
The left-wing anti-science media is now banning all content that questions the fake science of climate change, hoping to censor any real debate on the subject while pushing their own quack science CO2 poison lunacy.
The science morons on the Left who keep calling for eliminating all CO2 are, in effect, demanding their own mass suicide and the extinction of most life on planet Earth. Its the kind of suicidal, idiotic position that can only be pursued by scientifically illiterate, arrogant liberal mobs who know nothing about reality but are fixated on a delusional fairy tale pushed by Al Gore, an anti-science lunatic who profits from carbon phobia.
See this related article: Al Gore backlash: Why environmentalists are celebrating rising CO2 levels.
The study published in Nature was authored by Xiao-Peng Song, Matthew C. Hansen, Stephen V. Stehman, Peter V. Potapov, Alexandra Tyukavina, Eric F. Vermote & John R. Townshend. Citation: Nature 560, pages639643 (2018)
Watch the following videos all of which have been BANNED by YouTube to hear the truth about carbon dioxide that globalist anti-human depopulation pushers dont want you to hear:
Brighteon.com/5820639339001
Brighteon.com/5820620279001
Brighteon.com/5820599249001
See more videos about climate change truth at Brighteon.com.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 5) Amnesty can theoretically be voided -- but the President cannot call the shots on his own, a constitutional expert said on Wednesday.
San Beda College Graduate School of Law Dean Fr. Ranhilio Aquino weighed in on President Rodrigo Duterte's proclamation to void amnesty given to opposition senator Antonio Trillanes IV. Executive officials argue that this effectively makes the soldier-turned-lawmaker a wanted man for his role in military uprisings against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's administration.
READ: Trillanes faces arrest as Duterte voids his amnesty
"My position is that is not for the President to say... Only the courts can properly say that," Aquino told CNN Philippines' The Source.
"The President, when an amnesty is granted, cannot unilaterally withdraw or revoke the amnesty," he added.
Aquino is a member of the Constitutional Committee (Con-Com), appointed by Duterte to aid in the shift to federalism.
Trillanes' case has sparked debate on whether amnesty can be revoked, and how. It may also have far-reaching implications for people who previously received amnesty and those who will apply for it in the future.
When asked why the courts had to be consulted, Aquino responded that power could not be concentrated.
"Normally you would say the President granted it, therefore it is for the President to determine whether or not the grant is valid or invalid," he explained. "But if you would do that, you would be concentrating too much government power in official, contrary to the tenets of democracy."
The legal academic went on to cite American jurisprudence on the issue, noting that there were no such precedents in Philippine law.
"American jurisprudence tells us once amnesty is granted, even if fraudulently obtained, [it] cannot be taken away without appropriate processes," said Aquino. "[These] are certainly judicial processes."
Trillanes and his allies cried political persecution, as the senator has been a vocal critic of Duterte.
Amid debate as to whether the proclamation can substitute for a warrant of arrest, Senate President Tito Sotto said that no colleague could be arrested within Senate premises. Trillanes spent Tuesday night at his office.
READ: Trillanes, officials decry 'political persecution' in voiding of amnesty
The Justice Department has turned to a Makati Regional Trial Court to get an alias arrest warrant for Trillanes, but Aquino does not think that is the proper procedure.
"An alias warrant can be issued only if the service of the first warrant failed and... the case is still current," he said. "But if the case has already been dismissed, the alias warrant cannot work. They have to file the case again."
Aquino said that Trillanes could argue he is not covered by any warrant of arrest due to his amnesty, and only then should the government try to prove otherwise.
"Sen. Trillanes can say I am not covered by that, and you cannot arrest me because of amnesty. The government will then try to refute that by proving the amnesty was void," said Aquino. "But the final determination of whether in fact the grant was valid or void is not the executive's call, but the [judiciary's] call."
The proclamation against Trillanes is regarded by critics as the latest of the Duterte administration efforts to shut down opposition. Other vocal figures who questioned Duterte include Senator Leila De Lima, who is detained on what she maintains are trumped up drug charges; and former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, who was unseated by her own colleagues in a highly controversial decision.
Less than a year in operation, the controversial Botswana Defence Force fleet of Landrovers bought for P161 million from the United Kingdom is facing mechanical challenges.
The 500 second-hand Land Rover 110 Defenders started arriving in the country during the last quarter of last year in batches via Namibia. The last batch is allegedly expected to arrive this year. The procurement of the obsolete vehicles was allegedly spearheaded by Office of the President early last year and BDF played no major role save for viewing and collection at Witham (Specialist Vehicles) Ltd - a UK second seller.
Although the OP refuted playing part in the agreement to purchase units of the Defenders LR110 44 SUV for the BDF, at a cost of P161.9 million, it has been at the centre of the controversial procurement. According to sources at Sir Seretse Khama Barracks (BDF Headquarters) the Landrovers have now become a liability to the BDF within a short space of time. It is alleged that most of the Landrovers which were dispatched in areas such as Plateau and Linyanti have broken down and were towed back to Kasane. The vehicles were dispatched for patrols in those areas.
BDF Director, Directorate of Protocol and Public Affairs Colonel Tebo Dikole has confirmed that the Landrovers are experiencing mechanical problems. BDF last year procured what is labeled as EXCESS DEFENCE EQUIPMENT from the United Kingdom (UK) Military. Excess Defence Equipment is equipment disposed by an army, in this case the UK Army as a result of downsizing.
This equipment ranges from never used to hardly used. Some of the Landrovers were never used and others had mileages between 7000km to 50 000km. It is common knowledge that sometimes equipment, whether military or not that has not been in use for a while will likely display some form of minor mechanical faults that require minimal repairs, said Colonel Dikole in an interview.
The Landrovers are said to have started experiencing mechanical problems and some of the parts that have been procured do not match the specifications of the vehicles. Some of the vehicles are said to have only been in use for less than four (4) months before they broke down. According to sources some of the parts that have been procured are stock-piled at the barracks and have been rendered useless.
It has been estimated that the parts have cost the BDF close to P30 million. Colonel Dikole stated that any fleet - new or used - remains susceptible to mechanical failures as well as wear and tear. In all our operational areas, which are in rugged terrain, the BDF cannot insulate its equipment against mechanical challenges coupled with wear and tear that result from such hostile environments, said the BDF spokesperson.
According to Colonel Dikole it is against this background that service support is provided in operational areas, and if this fails vehicles are backloaded to the nearest repair facility. He refuted claims that there is a stockpile of spares amounting to close to P30 million.The fact of the matter is that only parts worth P1, 8 million were procured and contrary to your claims are not stockpiled, as they are used to maintain the vehicles. Please note that as a cost saving measure the best international practice is for militaries to consider excess defence equipment in the constant review of their inventory.
The Landrover fleet procured last year has augmented the existing fleet and this has enhanced our operational reach, Colonel Dikole pointed out. According to reports production of the Land Rover 110 Defender has ceased in the United Kingdom and has been phased out of military service in both the UK and Botswana.
(Natural News) The mainstream media is known for promoting all kinds of propaganda, but the push on global warming definitely takes the cake. Not only does the fake news media refuse to report on science that undermines the big scary climate change narrative, multiple news outlets have flat-out banned any sort of discussion or dissemination of data that contradicts or questions the global warming hoax.
Even though there is a mountain of evidence which shows that much of the science behind climate change has been faked or is fraudulent, mainstream news outlets like The Los Angeles Times and BBC have all but silenced any sort of discussion on the matter. Either you align with their beliefs, or you can kiss your voice goodbye.
Fake news, fake narrative
As Daily Caller reports, multiple media outlets have fought to keep dissenting thoughts from entering their airwaves and articles. The Los Angeles Times banned the questioning of global warming from its letters section in 2013. Editor Paul Thornton Thornton said he wasnt banning skeptics, but was really just eliminating factual inaccuracy.
Disagreeing with the climate change narrative, he argued, is not stating an opinion, its asserting a factual inaccuracy.
Its worth noting that the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology confirmed in 2017 that the NOAAs climate records had been manipulated to hide the fact that climate change was not, in fact, occurring. Multiple other models of climate change have been proven false, as well.
The BBC also reportedly trains their reporters not to give climate skeptics space while on air or in print, and ThinkProgress went so far as to get a professor fired from another publication.
Now, 60 politicians, environmentalists, scientists and other global warming activists just sent a signed letter to The Guardian demanding that the media further its efforts to silence so-called dissenters.
Not only did the self-described campaigners and thinkers refuse to partake in media debates with people they disagree with, they also called on the media to end the false equivalence between an overwhelming scientific consensus and a lobby, heavily funded by vested interests when it comes to global warming, reports Daily Caller.
Apparently, these campaigners havent heard of Al Gore. Recall that Gore has been a leading voice in the war on climate change, and then consider how much he stood to gain from climate change. In 2009, it was predicted that Gore would become the worlds first carbon billionaire. What about those vested interests, again?
Under the Lefts rule, diversity of thought is a crime. And when it comes to climate change, theyre not willing to discuss the matter further no matter what the science actually says. What the Left says goes, or else. If these people were conservatives, theyd be called tyrants, dictators or perhaps even fascists. But as always, the left-wing insists that its censorship and oppression is for public good and societys safety. Thoughts are dangerous things for people to have if you want to control them, at least.
Now that the fraud behind the climate change narrative is being exposed for what it is fake science the Left is simply trying to shut down any and all conversation on global warming.
You can find the latest news on real climate science at ClimateScienceNews.com.
Sources for this article include:
DailyCaller.com
Science.House.gov
The Raiders are set to leave Oakland a second time, and will move to a publicly funded stadium in Las Vegas in 2020. Now, the city of Oakland planning to file a lawsuit against the team.
The Oakland City Council approved an antitrust lawsuit against the Silver and Black, as well as the NFL, over the Raiders' eventual move to the desert.
In turn, the Raiders would not sign a lease extension to play at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum beyond this season, Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority executive director Scott McKibben said.
"I would guess its just that anybody who is suing you, you dont want to do business with," said McKibben, whose job is to keep the Raiders in Oakland as long as possible. "If they leave our facility, were going to lose about 3,000 people that were working here on game day."
Oakland City Councilman Noel Gallo said the lawsuit will be filed in the coming days, and likely before the Raiders' season opener against the Los Angeles Rams at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. The suit will seek $300 million to $500 million in damages for the team's exit.
The Raiders' lease with the Coliseum expires after this season. They have been working on a deal to stay in the Coliseum through 2019 -- and potentially 2020 if the Las Vegas stadium isn't ready. McKibben said last year that he [didn't believe] there is any appetite for a third season" after the Raiders announced their move to Sin City.
Oakland and Alameda County still have to pay off $75 million in bond debt on renovations to the Coliseum that brought the Raiders back to Oakland from Los Angeles in 1995.
NBC Bay Area's Melissa Colorado contributed to this report.
What to Know Andreas Iglesias, known as "Cobre," paints photorealistic murals all over the world
On a 6-day layover in San Francisco, he wanted to paint a mural of a beloved local figure
He chose to paint Williams in his senior years because he feels lines and wrinkles express character
Like many muralists, Andreas Iglesias began his art career writing graffiti on just about anything he could find.
"Being a little kid with spray paint in my hand, it was always trouble," said Iglesias, who goes by "Cobre" in the art world.
Now, at the age of 30, he's all grown up a professional artist who travels the world painting giant, photorealistic portraits on walls and buildings especially portraits of those in their older years.[[492432971, C]]
"In this part of my life i'm painting senior people," he said. "I like to paint them because the wrinkles I can play a lot with all the little details here and there."
Iglesias spoke to us from his home in Argentina, where he'd just returned after six days in San Francisco. The visit to the Bay was a spontaneous detour after meeting San Francisco mural painter Cameron Moberg at a street art festival in Indiana. Moberg offered him a place to stay and a wall to paint on, near the corner of 7th and Market Streets a wall where Moberg's own mural had fallen into disrepair over the years.[[492433011, C]]
The two decided to cover up the old mural with a new painting one of somebody universally loved by the city and the region. The painting of a bearded Robin Williams, as he was depicted in a 2014 issue of Time Magazine, has quickly become a tourist attraction.
Watch the video above to meet the artist and learn about the hidden details of the painting you may not have noticed.
What to Know Dorsey and Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook will speak before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Russian interference on social media on Wed.
Dorsey will also testify and defend Twitter against accusations of bias before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wed.
Twitter is trying to ID accounts linked to a Russian agency that was indicted by special counsel Mueller this year for election interference
Twitter's CEO says the company is not biased against Republicans or Democrats and is working on ways to ensure that debate is healthier on its platform.
In prepared testimony released ahead of a House hearing Wednesday, Jack Dorsey says he wants to be clear about one thing: "Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules."
The testimony comes as some Republicans say conservatives have been censored on social media and have questioned the platform's algorithms. Dorsey will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday afternoon on that subject, following a morning hearing before the Senate intelligence committee on foreign interference in social media.
At the Senate hearing, Twitter and Facebook plan to tell the intelligence panel that they are aggressively working to root out foreign actors who want to influence U.S. elections. Lawmakers are especially concerned about the upcoming midterm elections after Russia used social media accounts to try to influence the 2016 election.
To address concerns about bias, Dorsey offers an explanation of how Twitter uses "behavioral signals," such as the way accounts interact and behave on the service. Those signals can help weed out spam and abuse.
He says such behavioral analysis "does not consider in any way" political views or ideology.
Dorsey says the San Francisco-based company is also "committed to help increase the collective health, openness, and civility of public conversation, and to hold ourselves publicly accountable towards progress."
He says the company has continued to identify accounts that may be linked to a Russian internet agency that was indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller earlier this year. The indictment detailed an elaborate plot by Russians to disrupt the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Dorsey says Twitter has so far suspended 3,843 accounts the company believes are linked to the agency, and has seen recent activity.
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's No. 2 executive, is also planning to detail efforts to take down material linked to the Russian agency, including the removal of 270 Facebook pages that targeted Russian speakers around the world. Sandberg says in prepared testimony for the Senate panel that the company's overall understanding of the Russian activity in 2016 is still limited "because we do not have access to the information or investigative tools" that the U.S. government has.
"This is an arms race, and that means we need to be ever more vigilant," Sandberg says.
There is expected to be an empty seat at the Senate intelligence panel's witness table reserved for Larry Page, the CEO of Google's parent company, Alphabet. The company declined to send Page and offered another executive instead; the committee said no.
Only Dorsey was invited to the House hearing after specific Republican concerns about bias on Twitter. President Donald Trump has charged that some Republicans have been "shadow banned" because of the ways that some search results have appeared.
The company has denied that charge, but conservatives have continued to push the issue ahead of the 2018 elections.
"Sadly, conservatives are too often finding their voices silenced," House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a statement when the hearing was announced. "We all agree that transparency is the only way to fully restore Americans' trust in these important public platforms."
A Pleasanton woman killed Monday after getting out of an ambulance and running into traffic on a busy freeway ramp has been identified as Jasmine Johnson, according to the Alameda County coroner's bureau.
Johnson, 38, was being transported to a psychiatric hospital in San Leandro after being stopped by Pleasanton police for hitting a pedestrian and reckless driving at about 2 a.m. Monday.
She resisted officers, struggled and even tried to get an officer's gun before she was subdued with a stun gun, according to Pleasanton police.
She was initially taken to ValleyCare Medical Center in Pleasanton for routine medical clearance and at about 7 a.m., an ambulance picked her up to take her to John George Psychiatric Pavilion in San Leandro.
The ambulance was on a connector ramp from southbound Interstate Highway 680 to westbound Interstate Highway 580 in Dublin when it stopped due to a problem with Johnson. She then got out, ran into traffic and was hit and killed by a car.
Police are continuing to investigate the case. Anyone who witnessed it or has any information is asked to call Lt. Brandon Stocking at (925) 931-5100 and refer to case No. 18-34368.
China has been loosening trade restrictions with North Korea through coal shipments, construction projects and tourism, former U.S. officials and independent experts told NBC News.
The increased trade gives North Korea a lifeline and deals a major blow to President Donald Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign to sway Kim Jong Un into abandoning its nuclear and missile program.
Beijing was stunned by the White House's plans for a summit with Kim, so it rolled out the red carpet for Kim in March and began softening its enforcement of United Nations sanctions, according to analysts, foreign diplomats and former U.S. officials.
The Trump administration has mostly stayed away from criticizing China publicly and has defended diplomacy with Pyongyang as successful so far, but declined to comment about the increase in trade on the record.
While tech industry executives are testifying before Congress on Wednesday, their biggest worry may be the protests they face from within their own companies, NBC News reports.
Tech giants like Amazon and Google have seen unprecedented pushback from their employees regarding the direction their companies are taking and how they interact with the US government.
In June, Google said it would not renew a contract with the U.S. Defense Department to analyze drone footage after thousands of employees signed a petition, with some employees even resigning.
Facebook has seen a number of leaks in recent months, which has led to debates about the appropriateness of leaking company information.
These incidents have prompted workers and executives to consider the ethical implications of working at companies that are trying to change the world through technology.
A conspiracy theorist linked to both ex-Trump aide Roger Stone and Infowars host Alex Jones has been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., Friday as part of special counsel Robert Muellers probe, his attorney David Gray said.
Jerome Corsi, who authored the books "Wheres the Birth Certificate?" and "Killing the Deep State: The Fight to Save President Trump" intends to comply with the Mueller teams subpoena, Gray said.
As Gray told NBC News, Corsi expects to face questions about his relationship with Stone, who is suspected of communicating with Wikileaks and hacker Guccifer 2.0 both entities allegedly involved in releasing hacked Democratic emails obtained by Russia-linked agencies during the 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign.
Corsis name first came up in the Mueller probe in March. As first reported by NBC News, Trump ally and Corsi associate Ted Malloch was detained at Bostons Logan Airport and questioned by the FBI.
Malloch said federal agents questioned him about Stone, Corsi and WikiLeaks. Malloch said he told them he met Stone a total of three times and always with groups of people, and that Corsi had helped edit one of his books years ago.
The Corsi subpoena was first reported by the New York Times. A spokesperson for the special counsels office declined to comment.
What to Know Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano Tuesday in a closely watched Democratic primary battle.
Pressley is all but certain to become the first black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts because there are no GOP candidates.
After her win, Pressley took aim at Republican President Donald Trump, calling him "a racist, misogynistic, truly empathy bankrupt man."
Declaring that "change can't wait," Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano on Tuesday in a closely watched Democratic primary battle in Massachusetts.
Pressley is all but certain to become the first black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts in November because there are no Republican candidates in the race. Her victory gives Democrats' progressive wing another win in their effort to pull the party leftward.
"It seems like change is on the way," Pressley said in her victory speech. "I am so humbled to be standing before you tonight, victorious."
She said Capuano "forced me to bring my best," and thanked him for his years of service. But she later added that "it's not just good enough to see the Democrats back in power, but it matters who those Democrats are."
She also took aim at Republican President Donald Trump, calling him "a racist, misogynistic, truly empathy bankrupt man."
Capuano conceded earlier, saying "America is going to be OK" and Pressley is going to be a good congresswoman.
"Obviously, this is not the side we wanted to be on. Clearly, the district wanted a lot of change," Capuano said. "Apparently the district is just very upset with lots of things that are going on. I don't blame them. I'm just as upset as they are, but so be it. This is the way life goes."
Democrats were quick to rally behind Pressley after her big primary night win.
U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, who was unopposed in Tuesday's primary, congratulated Pressley on Twitter "for being willing to challenge the party establishment and for building a winning movement." He said he looks forward to serving with her.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who was also unopposed, called Pressley "a fierce advocate & powerful force for change" and said she's looking forward to fighting alongside her in Congress.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi issued a statement saying she looks forward to welcoming Pressley's "leadership and perspective to the House Democratic Caucus."
The challenge from Pressley, the first black woman to serve on the City Council, drew some comparisons to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who defeated 10-term New York Rep. Joe Crowley in a stunning upset in a Democratic primary in June. Both races highlighted rifts within the Democratic Party, with many younger voters embracing new and more diverse political leadership.
Ocasio-Cortez also tweeted at Pressley Tuesday, calling her "my sister in service" and congratulating her on "continuing her historic path into Congress tonight."
Capuano was considered one of the most liberal members of the Massachusetts delegation, and Pressley acknowledged she had few major policy quarrels with him.
"We will vote the same way, but I will lead differently," Pressley said in a recent debate.
Capuano, first elected to the House in 1998, is the second Democrat and fourth House incumbent to lose a primary ahead of the midterms.
"My record is pretty clear. I'm one of the most progressive members of Congress and have been since I got here," he said in a recent interview. "I think I've effectively represented every constituent group in this district."
Four other Democratic incumbents - Reps. Richard Neal, Stephen Lynch, William Keating and Joe Kennedy - also faced primary opponents Tuesday. All four defeated their challengers.
Another Democrat, U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, is retiring at the end of this term, and the open seat has touched off a political scramble with 10 candidates on the Democratic primary ballot. That race was still too close to call and wasn't expected to be decided on Tuesday night.
A 2-year-old girl has died hours after she was shot Tuesday night in Gary, Indiana, police said.
The shooting occurred shortly after 7 p.m. near Polk Street and 17th Avenue. Investigators were trying to determine if the girl got ahold of a gun or if someone shot her.
The child was taken to Northlake Hospital in Indiana but was flown to Comer Children's Hospital in Chicago after he condition had stabilized.
As of 9 a.m. Wednesday, police said they were notified by the Cook County Coroner's office that the girl had passed away.
Police say they took two adults in for questioning.
No charges had been filed in a shooting as of Wednesday morning, authorities said.
A man is being questioned after authorities responded to multiple white powder incidents in Hartford Wednesday afternoon, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Hartford Fire Lt. Bryan Thompson confirmed four white powder incidents in Hartford.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said 51-year-old Gary Gravelle, of New Haven, is being questioned in connection with these incidents. Gravelle was arrested on a supervised release violation unrelated to this case and is in custody. They said no charges have been filed in connection with the white powder incidents.
Gravelle is known to federal authorities. In 2013, he was sentenced in Bridgeport federal court to 70 months in prison for mailing threatening letters and he was released from federal prison in November 2015.
One incident Wednesday was at 450 Columbus Blvd., which houses the Department of Education.
State police said troopers responded to the building at 11:04 a.m. to investigate a report of a suspicious package and the building was evacuated.
Thompson said six people were near the white substance, but all self-decontaminated and no one was taken to the hospital.
At the federal courthouse at 450 Main St. in Hartford, there were two envelopes containing letters and white powder, according to two state sources. Fire officials said one female was taken by ambulance to Hartford Hospital as a precaution.
The location was treated as a hazmat situation and the area surrounding the courthouse was blocked off. The building was not evacuated but employees were told to remain in place. Hartford firefighters, the Hartford Police Department Bomb Squad, State Police and FBI were all called in, as well as crews from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
A third incident occurred at 21 Oak St., a state building behind the state courthouse. Firefighters at the scene said the building was not evacuated and the incident was contained to a small area.
A DEEP official confirmed the incident happened on the third floor, where there are multiple agencies and organization offices including ATF.
NBC BAY AREA
The fourth happened at 10 Columbus Blvd. in Hartford.
Federal officials said Thursday morning that an investigation at Motel 6 in Southington is connected, but no additional information was immediately available on how.
A white powder incident was also reported at 25 North St. in Bristol, the First Bristol Federal Credit Union building, though it is unclear if it is related.
Police said a female employee at First Bristol Credit Union discovered white powder while opening an envelope. The Bristol fire and police departments responded and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection were called.
Gov. Dannel Malloy released a statement Wednesday afternoon about the threat and response.
The Connecticut State Police was notified of a threat at the Grasso-Fauliso State Office Building and the federal courthouse in downtown Hartford and immediately responded. Special units are on site and working closely with our federal and local partners to assess the situation. The State Police will be taking every measure to protect the safety and security of personnel and visitors in the buildings and surrounding areas. We are monitoring the situation very closely and will provide further updates as the investigation progresses, Malloy said in a statement.
DEEP is supposed to test the powders. Federal officials said Thursday morning that they do not have any information to provide yet on what was in the letters.
Anyone with information that could help with the investigation is asked to call the FBI at 203-777-6311.
The Connecticut Mental Health Center building in New Haven has been evacuated after a bomb threat was called in, according to officials from Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Mark DAntonio, of Yale-New Haven Hospital, said there are state and local police and K9s in and around the Connecticut Mental Health Center building and the building has been evacuated.
Yale-New Haven Hospital is not affected and people can come and go from the hospital as normal, he said.
City officials in New Haven said this was one of six bomb threats this morning.
Connecticut State Police are searching for the driver of a truck that hit a bicyclist at a high school in Mansfield on Tuesday night.
Troopers were called to E.O. Smith High School around 6:30 p.m. after getting reports of an evading motor vehicle accident.
A white, dual cab GMC/Chevrolet pickup with black rims hit a bicyclist while exiting the school, troopers said.
According to police, the truck was parked at the school prior to the incident. Video surveillance footage showed the truck pick up a passenger in front of the school and continue toward the exit, where it hit the bicyclist. After hitting the bicyclist, the truck left the scene and drove south on Route 195.
No serious injuries were reported.
Anyone with information about the operator or owner of the truck is asked to call Connecticut State Police at (860) 896-3200.
Hamden police have arrested a Quinnipiac University student who is accused of chasing his roommate with a knife and threatening to kill him.
Police said they responded to the university Tuesday to investigate a report of threatening and learned through their investigation that a student had gotten into an argument with his roommate, 18-year-old Josiah Diaz-Cregan, of Meriden.
Then, the dispute escalated when Diaz-Cregan chased his roommate with a knife while threatening to kill him, according to police.
Hamden police arrested Diaz-Cregan with help from Quinnipiac University Public Safety.
He was charged with reckless endangerment in the second degree, threatening in the second degree and disorderly conduct and released on a $500 bond.
The student was immediately suspended from the university pending the outcome of his student conduct meeting, Lynn Bushnell, vice president for public affairs Lynn Bushnell, said in a statement.
Diaz-Cregans court date is scheduled for Sept. 17 in Meriden Superior Court.
The Associated Press reports that Diaz-Cregan did not immediately return an email seeking comment Wednesday and it wasn't clear if he has a lawyer who could respond to the allegations.
Several schools are dismissing early Wednesday.
New Haven public schools will be closing two hours prior to their normal dismissal time because of power outages, according to the school district's website.
Irving School in Derby will be dismissing at 12:30 p.m. today because of the lack of air conditioning. All other Derby public schools are on their regular schedule.
Several other schools will have an early dismissal as well. See the list here.
The NBC Connecticut meteorologists have issued a First Alert for the threat of storms on Thursday.
A cold front will break the heat Thursday, producing scattered storms that could be strong to severe.
The storms will be isolated but could pop up across the state.
We continue to track this threat. Stay with NBC Connecticut and get the latest forecast anytime by clicking here.
A 15 Most Wanted fugitive wanted in connection with the 2002 murders of his sister and ex-girlfriend was arrested by U.S. Marshals in Bridgeport Tuesday.
Fifty-four-year-old Andre Neverson, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, is accused in the 2002 murder of his sister and ex-girlfriend in New York, and for a parole violation and an illegal entry into the United States, according to the U.S. Marshals office.
Investigators allege that Neverson shot his sister in the head and stomach on July 8, 2002. The next day, he allegedly kidnapped a former girlfriend, who was found dead two days later with a head wound. At the time of the killings, he was paroled by the state of New York for attempted murder, first-degree assault and criminal possession of a firearm.
Several months later, on Nov. 6, 2002, Neverson allegedly went into the home of yet another ex-girlfriend to try to visit his daughter, but he ran off when the woman's brother walked in unexpectedly, authorities said.
Neverson was located hiding in a home on the 600 block of Ogden Street in Bridgeport around 3:45 p.m. Tuesday.
The United States Marshals Service is extremely pleased to have a violent criminal, who murdered two women in New York, off the streets of Connecticut after 16 years on the run, said U.S. Marshal Brian Taylor, District of Connecticut in a statement.
Neverson was added to the "15 Most Wanted Fugitives" list in February 2004. He is expected to be transferred back to New York City.
Reality television star Kim Kardashian West, who successfully pushed President Donald Trump to grant a pardon for a drug offender earlier this year, returned to the White House on Wednesday for a meeting with senior aides as part of the administration's efforts on criminal justice reform.
Kardashian, who may have felt right at home with the drama-infused atmosphere in the West Wing as it grapples with the fallout from Bob Woodward's new book, participated in a listening session on clemency and prison reform with several staffers, including the president's senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
"The discussion is mainly focused on ways to improve that process to ensure deserving cases receive a fair review," according to Hogan Gidley, White House deputy press secretary.
Among the others in attendance were CNN commentator Van Jones, Shon Hopwood, a lawyer who served time in prison for bank robbery and Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, who has been instrumental in steering Trump's Supreme Court picks, including Brett Kavanaugh, whose confirmation hearings have begun on Capitol Hill.
But the headliner was Kardashian, who last visited the White House three months ago to press for a pardon for 63-year-old Alice Marie Johnson. At the time, the reality star, dressed in black, posed for an instantly iconic and seemingly somber photo with Trump in the Oval Office, though there were no plans for her to meet with the president on Wednesday.
One week after Kardashian's visit, Trump granted Johnson clemency, freeing her from prison after a more than two-decade stint on drug charges.
"When I looked at Alice, I said we can't just stop with one person. We have to change the laws," Kardashian said in a statement released by #cut50, a group that looks to reduce incarceration time.
The pardon for Johnson was one of several instances where the president has used his constitutional power to pardon federal crimes. Trump in May pardoned conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza and suggested he was considering a commutation for former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and a pardon for lifestyle guru Martha Stewart. He has not yet acted on either front.
"We are working to build support for prison reform, sentencing reform, and fair treatment of people coming home from prison," said Van Jones. "When you have prominent people like Kim helping voiceless people behind bars like Chris Young who she is advocating for today that's incredibly powerful."
Kardashian West on Tuesday told "Wrongful Conviction" podcast host Jason Flom that she's advocating for Young, who was sentenced to life without parole after being arrested for marijuana and cocaine possession.
"It's so unfair. He's 30 years old. He's been in for almost 10 years," she said.
Kardashian West later tweeted an image from the meeting, writing "It started with Ms. Alice, but looking at her and seeing the faces and learning the stories of the men and women I've met inside prisons I knew I couldn't stop at just one. It's time for REAL systemic change"
Young was one of 32 people charged by federal prosecutors in a drug trafficking investigation. Prosecutors say he was buying cocaine or crack from a major drug supplier at a gas station in December 2010. He was convicted in 2013 on drug charges and also pleaded guilty to being a felon with a gun.
Young, who was 26 at the time, received a life sentence in August 2014 from then-U.S. District Judge Kevin Sharp, who has since left the bench and has very publicly opposed the mandatory minimum sentencing he had to hand down.
"What I was required to do that day was cruel and did not make us safer," Sharp tweeted in June.
Young previously had been arrested at both 18 and 19 on both felony and misdemeanor drug possessions charges. For those two arrests combined, he had been slated to serve 14 years through community corrections.
Kushner has added prison reform to his broad portfolio, though others in the administration namely Attorney General Jeff Sessions support the toughest possible sentences for drug and other convictions. The president's son-in-law has had an interest in prison reform since his own father, Charles Kushner, was incarcerated for 14 months after being convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering.
TMZ first reported Kardashian's Wednesday visit to the White House.
A Kroger grocery store in Denton reopened late Wednesday morning following a closure earlier in the week by health inspectors after the grocery store battled "rodent issues."
Kroger released the following statement Wednesday, which read, in part:
"We apologize for the inconvenience as repairs to improve our store have concluded and have been approved by the City of Denton."
Officials with the city of Denton said the chief health inspector worked to address the problem at the store at 500 W. University Drive.
The city said it received multiple complaints about the conditions inside the store, which led the chief health inspector and store management to close the store until the problem is resolved. [[492477051,C]]
On Tuesday, NBC 5 found signs on the front doors of the Kroger that read, "Loyal Customers. Our location will temporarily be closed for facility maintenance. Sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you, Store Management."
A second sign read "Loyal customers. For prescription pick-ups, please use the walk-up window. Thank you. Store Management."
Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images
Kroger released this statement Tuesday evening that read:
A Lyft driver, called to help a man who said he fell off an electric scooter, believes more investigation is needed to confirm what happened to the 24-year-old.
Jacoby Stoneking was riding a Lime scooter early Saturday morning when he was injured.
Stoneking's father, Jack, told NBC 5 his son called his roommate to say he fell off the scooter and hurt his foot. Stoneking reportedly asked his roommate to call a Lyft ride for him.
According to Dallas police, when the Lyft driver arrived at the intersection of South Munger Blvd. and Terry Street, Stoneking was unresponsive. The scooter was 160 yards away from him, broken in half. Police said there was no other debris in the road.
If it was your kid youd want somebody to say what happened, it was more than just him hurting his foot somebody knows something, said Jack Stoneking.
Lyft Driver Katelynn Sorrells says she was on her way to pick up Stoneking when she received a second call that she believes was from Jacoby. She said he told her he was hurt badly and asked her to hurry.
When I got to the scene, this is so much more this is so much more than the fall, said Sorrells.
She told NBC 5 she called 911 for help and watched as Stoneking was taken away in an ambulance. She said an officer later arrived and spoke to her. As she was leaving, she said she spotted a broken scooter down the street and raced to flag down the officer so he could collect it for evidence.
A disintegrated scooter, not just broken in half as they described it on the news, explained Sorrells.
She said she doesnt believe Sorrells was hurt in a robbery because his iPhone was next to him on the ground when she arrived on the scene, but she does suspect he didnt just fall.
Could he have maybe fallen and then got hit? Yeah. Could he have been hit by a car then the scooter got dragged that far? Yeah, said Sorrells. Could he have, because of the injuries sustained to his head, thought he fell off because it happened so quick and his brain didnt register it? Yeah. Somebody in the neighborhood knows what happened.
Dallas Police say the responding officer did not find evidence of a hit and run at the scene and that the assaults unit would look into the injured persons report. Sorrells says she received a call from a detective late Tuesday morning, asking her to come to the police station to provide a statement.
A neighbor near the scene told NBC 5 he saw a detective on Tuesday walking the area where Stoneking was found.
Tuesday, Stonekings father told NBC 5 his son was taken into surgery to donate his organs at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. Family and friends spent their final moments with Stoneking before he was taken into surgery at about 1 p.m.
After surgery, Stoneking will go to the Medical Examiner for an autopsy to confirm his cause of death.
A non-stop fire season is taking a big toll on firefighters on the ground, and Cal Fire now confirms that pilots who fight those flames from the air are also dealing with physical and emotional stress.
Unlike their colleagues on the ground, the specially-trained tanker pilots are also leaving their jobs for better-paying work as commercial pilots.
A Cal Fire spokesman confirmed that nine tanker pilots have left the state fire-fighting agency in the past year.
These pilots fly S-2 tankers, two of which are based at the Ramona airport.
Cal Fire confirmed a Sacramento Bee report that up to six agency aircraft have been grounded at once due to staffing shortages this fire season.
According to the Bees report, an average of four of the states 23 tankers have been grounded on certain days in August due to a lack of trained, experienced and certified pilots.
Retired military and commercial pilot Denny Breslin told NBC 7 its no surprise theres a pilot shortage at Cal Fire.
He said the demands of firefighting -- and this seasons relentless fire storms -- require long hours and cause significant job stress.
When a fire call comes, you just go, Breslin said. It's important, it's necessary, and it saves lives, so you can't change that part of the (job) formula."
Cal Fire tanker pilots have worked six days a week, in the air or on-call, week-in and week-out during this non-stop fire season.
That makes it tough, the quality of life, and (impacts) how you keep your family together, given the fact that (youre) going to be gone most of the time."
Breslin said its also a very dangerous job, flying solo, low to the ground, through smoke and flames.
You have to make your way around mountains, around thermals a lot of them heat-generated by convection columns and fire, he said. Thats difficult flying in anybodys world.
Cal Fire told NBC 7 that in the past year, three pilots have retired, three left to fulfill military service commitments, one died and two left for new jobs.
According to Transparent California, forestry fire pilots can make more than $200,000 a year in salary and benefits.
But they can make considerably more flying big commercial jets. Breslin said a veteran airline captain who works a series of demanding shift can make $500,000 a year in salary.
Plus, seniority offers definite perks in private industry. And airlines are competing for qualified pilots, because theres now a significant, industry-wide pilot shortage.
You get to fly better airplanes, you get more days off, including birthdays, weekends and holidays, the pay and benefits are better, and theres a generous pension, Breslin said.
According to the Bees report, there are just eight pilots now training at Cal Fire. Some of them are expected to drop out before they complete that program.
Cal Fire confirms it will need 25 and 40 more pilots, in the next few years.
a.t. furuya who grew up in San Diego, is only the fifth person in the country, according to the Transgender Law Center, to obtain court documents that grant nonbinary as their legally designated gender.
I was assigned female at birth, but I identify as agender or nonbinary. So, agender for me meaning, I dont have a gender. I dont associate and I dont have an internal feeling of any type of gender, furuya told NBC 7 in an October 2017 interview.
Now, under a new law that went into effect on Sept. 1, it will soon be easier for people like furuya to obtain a gender or conforming name change on state-issued identity documents.
Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), author of the new laws, encouraged residents Tuesday to visit the California Courts online help center for assistance with the new streamlined procedures.
It makes California the second state in the country to offer a standard path to obtaining a nonbinary gender marker on state documents, according to the Transgender Law Center.
For the individuals who want this, this is really about them being able to be recognized for who they are by their friends, their neighbors, and their government even, Atkins said.
For some, its not just about recognition.
Kris Hayashi, executive director of Transgender Law Center, said it can also be about safety.
Having appropriate ID is an issue of public safety for many trans, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people, who may be subject to discrimination, harassment and even violence when theyre forced to carry inaccurate or mismatched documents, said Hayashi.
Some of the new procedures took effect on Sept. 1 under Senate Bill 179, the Gender Recognition Act, and Senate Bill 310, the Name and Gender Act --- two pieces of legislation Atkins authored last year.
The Gender Recognition Act, signed into law in October 2017, simplifies the process for transgender, nonbinary and intersex Californians to obtain a gender or conforming name change on state-issued identity documents.
When Governor Brown told me he had signed SB 179, it was one of the proudest moments of my career, Atkins said. Mindful of all the people I know who are gender-nonconforming, and the families I know with transgender children, I wanted to make sure that California continued to be a leader in gender-identity equality. I am thrilled to see SB 179 and SB 310 implemented and grateful to our courts for their work to ensure a streamlined application process.
Nonbinary means the person does not designate male or female as a gender. The option will come in the form of an X on state-issued IDs, starting in January 2019.
The new law does not go into effect all at once, and it doesnt affect all documents issued by the government, like passports. The Transgender Law Center put together a Fact Sheet of key dates and facts about the new legislation.
Another of Atkins key pieces of legislation, the Name and Gender Act provides incarcerated individuals the ability to change their gender or name in a California court under existing court processes.
Under the simplified processes created by the new laws, individuals may change their gender markers to nonbinary, in addition to male or female, on state-issued identity documents by petitioning a gender and/or conforming name change through a judicial process or by revising their birth records.
The new law also removes costly and outdated barriers to updated IDs and birth certificates that fell disproportionately on incarcerated trans, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people and those without access to affirming healthcare, said Hayashi.
Starting on Jan. 1, 2019, individuals may change their gender markers on their state drivers licenses and identification cards.
Former President Barack Obama will join the campaign trail leading up to the November midterm elections with a stop this weekend in Orange County to back seven Democratic candidates competing for House districts, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Obama made regular visits to Southern California as president, but the upcoming trip marks his first appearance of the 2018 campaign as Democrats try to seize control of the House. At a Saturday rally, Obama will be throwing his support behind seven members of his party who are running in Republican-held districts that voted for Hillary Clinton in the November 2016 election.
Democrats need to pick up 23 seats to claim the House.
Details about the schedule and locations for Obama's visit were not immediately available.
He'll join Democrats Josh Harder, who is running against Rep. Jeff Denham of Turlock; T.J. Cox, challenging Rep. David Valadao of Hanford; and Katie Hill, who faces Rep. Steve Knight of Palmdale, the Times reported. The rally also will be attended by Democrats Gil Cisneros, looking to replace retiring Rep. Ed Royce of Fullerton; Katie Porter, challenging Rep. Mimi Walters of Laguna Beach; Harley Rouda, who's opposing Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa; and Mike Levin, who's hoping to replace retiring Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista, according to the Times.
Obama released endorsements for a wave of candidates in August and attended fundraisers for the party's national committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee since leaving office, but the Saturday rally will include his first stump speech in the run-up to November. Saturday's event is part of a "focused, strategic" lineup of fall campaign appearances, a spokeswoman told the Times.
Other possible stops include Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
During Obama's two terms in office, the Democrats party lost control of both the House and Senate and more than 1,000 legislative seats nationwide.
A Brentwood husband and wife say they received an unexpected visit Tuesday night when a big cat smashed through a window of their home.
According to Los Angeles Police Department, the homeowners locked themselves in a bedroom to avoid the animal, possibly a bobcat. It apparently leaned against the sliding glass door, causing it to shatter, police said.
It briefly stayed inside the residence before leaving back into the darkness.
LAPD showed up to the couple's home on Old Ranch Road and searched the area with flashlights and a shotgun, but the animal was no longer seen on the property.
Editor's Note: Initial reports indicated the animal was a mountain lion. The story has been updated to indicate it was likely a bobcat.
Pressured by Democrats with Donald Trump on their minds, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh rejected repeated requests at Wednesday's Senate confirmation hearing to reveal his views about a president pardoning himself or being forced to testify in a criminal case.
For a second day, the judge nominated by Trump insisted he fully embraced the importance of judicial independence. But he refused to provide direct answers to Democrats who wanted him to say whether there are limits on a president's power to issue pardons, including to himself or in exchange for a bribe. He also would not say whether he believes the president can be subpoenaed to testify.
"I'm not going to answer hypothetical questions of that sort," Kavanaugh said in response to a question from Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont about pardons. Still, he began his long day in the witness chair by declaring that "no one is above the law."
The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing has strong political overtones ahead of the November congressional elections, but as a practical matter Democrats lack the votes to block Kavanaugh's confirmation.
They are concerned that Kavanaugh will push the court to the right on abortion, guns and other issues, and that he will side with President Trump in cases stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible ties to the Trump campaign. The 53-year-old appellate judge answered cautiously when asked about most of those matters, refusing an invitation from Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut to pledge to step aside from any Supreme Court cases dealing with Trump and Mueller's investigation.
Kavanaugh's most uncomfortable moment may have come near the end of nearly 12 hours in the witness chair, when Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris asked whether he had discussed the investigation with anyone at a law firm founded by Marc Kasowitz, a onetime lawyer for Trump. Kavanaugh said he couldn't recall any conversations, but asked for a list of lawyers at the firm. Harris said she thought Kavanaugh had a name in mind but did not want to reveal it. She promised to follow up, amid Republican complaints that she was being unfair.
Protesters continued their efforts to interrupt the hearings, but senators basically ignored their shouts as they were removed by police. U.S. Capitol Police said 66 people were removed from the committee room Wednesday and charged with disorderly conduct. Six more at a different Senate office building were charged with crowding, obstructing or incommoding.
Democrats also persisted with their complaints that they were being denied access to records from Kavanaugh's time in the George W. Bush White House.
One TV viewer gave Kavanaugh a rave review.
Trump said he had been watching the hearings and thought the Democrats were "grasping at straws" in questioning the man he chose to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. He said he "saw some incredible answers to very complex questions."
The committee's top Democrat, Dianne Feinstein of California, disagreed. "He's not being very specific," she said during a break in the proceedings.
The Democrats weren't the only ones who recognized the importance of questions about Trump and the Russia investigation. Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, asked Kavanaugh right away whether he would be independent from the president who chose him for highly prestigious lifetime position.
Kavanaugh said, "The first thing that makes a good judge is independence, not being swayed by political or public pressure."
He cited historic cases, including the Brown v. Board of Education ruling that desegregated schools and the U.S. v. Nixon decision that compelled the president to turn over the Watergate tapes a ruling Kavanaugh had previously questioned.
"That takes some backbone," he said of the justices who decided those cases.
But when asked more specific questions, including whether a president can be required to respond to a subpoena, Kavanaugh said, "I can't give you an answer on that hypothetical question."
The Supreme Court has never answered that question, and it is among the potentially most important since Trump could face a subpoena from special counsel Mueller.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, asked whether a president could be criminally investigated or indicted. Kavanaugh again said he had never taken a position on those issues, though he did write in a 1998 article that impeachment may be the only way to hold a president accountable while in office.
"The Constitution itself seems to dictate, in addition, that congressional investigation must take place in lieu of criminal investigation when the President is the subject of investigation, and that criminal prosecution can occur only after the President has left office," he wrote in the Georgetown Law Review.
On abortion, Kavanaugh wouldn't say whether the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that ensures access to abortion was correct, but noted it has been affirmed "many times."
"Respect for precedent is important. ... Precedent is rooted right in the Constitution itself," he said.
Kavanaugh likened Roe v. Wade to another controversial, landmark Supreme Court decision, the Miranda ruling about the rights of criminal suspects. Kavanaugh said the court specifically reaffirmed both decisions in later cases that made them "precedent on precedent."
Kavanaugh defended his dissenting opinion last year in the case of a pregnant immigrant teen in federal custody. Kavanaugh would have denied her immediate access to an abortion, even after she received permission from a Texas judge.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, praised Kavanaugh for hiring female lawyers as clerks as a judge on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, and then posed questions about whether Kavanaugh was aware of sexual harassment allegations against retired circuit court Judge Alex Kozinski in California. Kavanaugh considered the judge a friend and mentor and Kozinski testified at Kavanaugh's 2006 confirmation hearing to be an appellate judge.
Kavanaugh said he had known nothing about the allegations until they were disclosed last year. "It was a gut punch for me," he said, and he was "shocked, disappointed, angry."
Asked about an email list Kozinski allegedly used to send offensive material, Kavanaugh said, "I don't remember anything like that."
The judge's work in the Bush White House also has figured in the hearing, particularly as Democratic senators have fought for access to documents from his three years as staff secretary. They say those could shed light on his views about policies from that era, including the detention and interrogation of terror suspects. Majority Republicans have declined to seek the papers, and instead have gathered documents from his work as White House counsel to Bush. Many are being held as confidential within the committee.
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois asked Kavanaugh if he would seek a delay in his hearing so the paper trail could be vetted.
But Kavanaugh declined to engage, saying, "I do not believe that's consistent" with the way prior nominations have been handled.
Kavanaugh stood by his 2006 testimony, when he was nominated for the appellate court, when he said he was not involved in some Bush-era policies, particularly a bill-signing statement on the treatment of terror suspects that would have passed his desk as staff secretary.
Kavanaugh said his earlier testimony was "100 percent accurate."
Republicans hope to confirm Kavanaugh in time for the first day of the new Supreme Court term, Oct. 1. They now have a 51-49 majority in the Senate, after Jon Kyl was sworn in Wednesday to fill the seat held by the late Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
One of several Democrats who could potentially vote for Kavanaugh, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, joined the hearing in the audience for a while. He is up for re-election this fall in a state Trump won handily in 2016. Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine also stopped in for part of the session.
Associated Press writer Jessica Gresko contributed to this report.
What to Know Charisse Stinson was arrested Tuesday on a charge of first-degree murder after the body of her 2-year-old son was found in Pinellas County
Jordan Belliveau was the subject of a statewide Amber Alert after his mother told police a stranger knocked her out and her son went missing
His body was found days later in a wooded area near Lake Avenue and McMullen Road, Largo police said
A mother admitted to killing her 2-year-old son and was arrested on a charge of first-degree murder after the body of the boy who was the subject of a Florida-wide Amber Alert was found Tuesday afternoon, police officials said.
The body of Jordan Belliveau was found in a wooded area near Lake Avenue and McMullen Road, Largo police said in a news conference.
The boy's mother, 21-year-old Charisse Stinson, was arrested on a charge of first-degree murder, police said.
"This is a very emotional time," said Police Chief Jeff Undestad. "This was a job that took a lot of resources and teamwork."
Stinson admitted to police during a post miranda interview that her son had a serious unexplained injury to his right leg. During a moment of frustration, Stinson told police she struck Belliveau in the face with the back of her hand, which caused the back of his head to hit a wall.
After the blow to the head, the child suffered from seizures during the night, which ultimately led to his death.
Stinson then told police she took the child's body to the woods and left it there.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement issued an Amber Alert early Sunday after Stinson told police her son went missing.
According to police, Stinson had said a stranger offered her and her son a ride on Saturday but then knocked her unconscious. Stinson said she woke up hours later in Largo's Central Park in Pinellas County and her son was nowhere to be found.
The search for a suspect and a white Toyota Camry went on for almost three days. Officials also searched inside of trash containers for signs of the 2-year-old boy. Police even released a sketch of a suspect, who was described as a 25-year-old with brown hair, brown eyes with "dreadlocks and gold teeth."
During a press conference on Monday, Largo Police Maj. Stephen Slaughter called Stinson a "struggling single mom" as he confirmed that child protective services previously investigated the family for domestic violence.
Slaughter said Stinson and Jordan's father, Jordan Belliveau Sr., both have a "longstanding history" of domestic violence.
A July 14 police report said Belliveau Sr. was arrested for punching Stinson in the mouth. The report alleged that Belliveau Sr. brought Jordan back to Stinson to exchange custody but punched her during an altercation after Stinson told him she did not want Jordan back "yet."
Bloodied clothes and items were found inside of Stinson's apartment after a search by authorities, Slaughter confirmed Monday.
Slaughter said the previous domestic violence cases and a separate child protective services investigation were part of the missing child case.
Amid reports of child abuse, Slaughter on Tuesday clarified a previous statement he made in which he said Jordan sustained a cut that required stitches by adding that he thought Jordan had possibly fallen.
Stinson's story had been considered suspect by some, but when Slaughter was asked by WFLA Monday if she had been "100 percent truthful with investigators," he said, "I feel that she's answered all our questions so we can continue our investigation."
What to Know A murder suspect who allegedly killed his sister and an ex-girlfriend in NYC 16 years ago has been arrested in Connecticut, authorities say
Andre Neverson, 54, of Trinidad and Tobago, was nabbed in Bridgeport and is deemed one of U.S. Marshals' 15 most wanted fugitives
He allegedly shot and killed his sister in Brooklyn in 2002, then abducted an ex-girlfriend who was found dead two days later, police say
A murder suspect deemed one of U.S. Marshals' 15 most wanted fugitives has been captured in Connecticut, 16 years after allegedly killing his sister and an ex-girlfriend in New York City, authorities say.
Andre Neverson, 54, of Trinidad and Tobago, was arrested by U.S. Marshals and Bridgeport police on Ogden Street Tuesday afternoon after they learned he was hiding in a house there, officials said. He was living with a woman there, according to law enforcement sources, and may have been hiding in the neighborhood for a few years.
Neverson allegedly shot his sister in the head and stomach in Brooklyn on July 8, 2002, killing her; the next day, he abducted ex-girlfriend Donna Davis, and she was found dead with a wound to the head two days later, according to authorities. He was on parole for attempted murder and other crimes at the time, officials said.
Several months later, on Nov. 6, 2002, Neverson allegedly went into the home of yet another ex-girlfriend to try to visit his daughter, but he ran off when the woman's brother walked in unexpectedly, authorities said.
The U.S. Marshals added him to its "15 Most Wanted" fugitives list in February 2004.
Ed Murray, who retired from the NYPD in 2014, spent 14 years tracking Everson through the U.S. and abroad. Police had plenty of pictures and videos but just couldn't get him -- until Tuesday. Murray, who has stayed in touch with active fugitive task force officers on the case, said, "I'm still numb and elated by everything that has happened."
Donna Davis was living with her parents in East Flatbush when she murdered. On Wednesday, her father told News 4 he'd never given up hope that Neverson would be caught.
"It is a wonderful gift the NYPD has given me on my 90th birthday," said Clyde Davis.
Davis said if given the chance, he would tell the charming ex-con who wooed, then allegedly killed, his daughter that "he is a monster in human form."
Donna's mother died in February but her family says they finally have a sense of peace.
"We finally got him," said cousin Dale DeGale.
Neverson is expected to be transferred back to New York City.
Marc Santia contributed to this report.
What to Know Police were contacted by Norwalk High Schools security team after 69-year-old Leslie Delaney made Threatening comments to a co-worker.
Delaney said that if he was seen in his army fatigues, the co-worker should leave because he would have an AK-47 to "finish everything".
Police found an unloaded rifle with no ammunition in the trunk of Delaney's car which was parked on school property at the time.
A school cafeteria worker in Connecticut was arrested Tuesday after allegedly making comments to a co-worker that suggested he was planning to come to the school with a gun, police say.
Police were contacted by Norwalk High Schools security team after 69-year-old Leslie Delaney told a fellow cafeteria worker that if they ever saw him in his army fatigues, they should leave because he would have an AK-47 that he would use to finish everything and then off himself.
When officers arrived at the school around 8:30 a.m., Delaney was escorted out of the building and interviewed. He claimed that the comments he had made were just a joke.
Norwalk police searched Delaneys car, which was parked in the schools lot at the time, and found a .22 caliber Mossberg rifle in the trunk. It was unloaded, with no ammunition found elsewhere inside the vehicle.
Delaneys residence was also searched, but no weapons or ammunition were found there.
Delaney has been charged with possession of a weapon on school grounds as well as making threats and breaching the peace.
Police determined that there was no immediate threat to students or staff, but additional security officers were present at the school Wednesday.
What to Know Police arrested a man accused of sexually assaulting a woman inside her apartment in Newark, Delaware, and stealing her vehicle.
Leonard Lambey, 25, was arrested in Brooklyn, New York, and faces rape, kidnapping and robbery charges.
Lambey is currently being held in New York City and will face extradition to Delaware in the near future.
Police arrested a man accused of sexually assaulting a woman inside her apartment in Newark, Delaware, and stealing her vehicle.
Leonard Lambey, 25, was arrested in Brooklyn, New York, on Wednesday. He's charged with rape, kidnapping, robbery, theft of a motor vehicle and other related offenses.
Police say Lambey sexually assaulted a 33-year-old woman inside the Hunters Crossing Apartments on Fairway Road Sunday around 5:30 a.m. Lambey, who was armed with a weapon, then took the woman's car keys and stole her vehicle, a 2013 Honda CRV, according to investigators.
Police later found the stolen vehicle in Brooklyn. New York City police officers then set up surveillance video and spotted Lambey returning to the vehicle, investigators said.
Lambey was then taken into custody.
Random attacks of this nature are of the utmost concern to the New Castle County Police, New Castle County Police Chief Colonel Vaughn Bond, Jr. said. From the onset of this investigation, we utilized every resource available as well as our partnerships with other law enforcement agencies to track and eventually arrest the suspect in New York City."
Lambey is currently being held in New York City and will face extradition to Delaware in the near future.
Update: Police have made an arrest. New details here.
Police are searching for a man accused of sexually assaulting a woman inside her apartment in Newark, Delaware, and stealing her vehicle.
The 33-year-old woman told police she was inside the Hunters Crossing Apartments on Fairway Road Sunday around 5:30 a.m. when an unidentified man armed with a weapon forced his way inside her home.
The man then allegedly sexually assaulted the woman and stole her car keys before fleeing in her vehicle.
The suspect is described as a heavyset, dark skinned black male standing between 5-foot-10 and 6-feet.
Al rojo vivo
The victim's stolen vehicle is described as a silver 2013 Honda CRV with the Pennsylvania license plate #KPP0923.
Al rojo vivo
If you have any information on the suspects whereabouts please call Det. Dinardo at 302-395-8110.
What to Know The parents of a Penn State fraternity pledge who died last year after a night of hazing and drinking reached a settlement with the frat.
The settlement also includes reforms "aimed at averting another preventable tragedy, the family of Timothy Piazza said.
Piazza, 19, died from head and abdominal injuries in February, 2017, after a bid acceptance ceremony at the Beta Theta Pi house.
The parents of a Penn State fraternity pledge who died last year after a night of hazing and drinking reached a settlement with the frat and announced sweeping reforms Tuesday.
The settlement allows Jim and Evelyn Piazza to move forward with any claims against any other parties arising from their son Timothy Piazzas death in February of 2017. It also includes a fraternity-conduct reform agreement aimed at averting another preventable tragedy, the family said.
On Feb. 4, 2017, Timothy Piazza, 19, of Lebanon, New Jersey, died of severe head and abdominal injuries after a bid acceptance ceremony at the Beta Theta Pi house. Authorities say he consumed a dangerous amount of alcohol. More than 20 members of the now-closed fraternity were criminally charged and three of the members have pleaded guilty so far.
The reform program detailed in the settlement includes the requirement of all chapter houses nationwide to be alcohol and substance-free by August of 2020. It also requires that the Piazzas be involved in any decision-making on the future use of the closed Beta Theta Pi chapter at Penn State.
The program also calls for better education and training at least once each semester on social event planning and bystander engagement as well as on the prevention of hazing, alcohol and substance abuse and sexual assault.
The settlement represents a unique, cooperative agreement, and is an outgrowth of the determined dedication by Jim and Evelyn Piazza to the cause of preventing hazing injury and death in Greek life in the future, the familys attorney Tom Kline said. By this settlement, the Piazzas and Beta help to establish a baseline for the new norm of fraternity pledging and fraternity life at universities and colleges in the United States.
The settlement also includes a monetary payment, though Kline would not disclose the amount.
What to Know Thomas Edison High School was put on lockdown Wednesday morning.
School security called 911 to report an alleged gun in a boy's restroom.
No gun was found and school returned to normal after about an hour.
A North Philadelphia high school was put on lockdown for about an hour Wednesday morning after someone allegedly spotted a guy with a gun in a school restroom. No gun was found.
Thomas Edison High School on West Luzerne Street was put on lockdown around 9:25 a.m. after 911 received a call from school security about a report of an armed male.
Police vehicles could be seen on the sidewalk in front of the building as police searched inside. Police spent about an hour searching for the gun but found no weapon, police on the scene said.
School returned to normal around 10:20 a.m. No injuries were reported.
More than 1,000 students in ninth to 12th grade attend Edison High. The school, along with the rest of the Philadelphia public schools, dismissed at noon Wednesday due to hot weather.
A protest group demanding transparency in the in-custody death investigation of Earl McNeil presented itself at a National City Council meeting once again Tuesday, vowing to continue its appeal for the release of details surrounding McNeils death.
The group, Justice for Earl McNeil, has been showing up to city council meetings since McNeil died in May, and has interrupted and forced recess at several.
The group wants the Medical Examiners office to release McNeils autopsy report, and wants the National City Police Department to identify the officers involved and release body camera footage from the incident.
"If we had not spoken up, if we had not continued for the hundred days like we had, you all would not be here, family spokesperson Tasha Williamson said during the public comment portion of the meeting. Earl McNeil would not be anything to anybody. And we are outraged."
Close to 40 others also spoke on the topic.
McNeil, 40, went to the NCPD building looking for help on May 26, according to his family. He ended up in police custody with bruises, comatose and severe brain damage. McNeil's family said he was a San Diego resident who suffered from mental illness. He died in the hospital after being in a vegetative state for days with brain damage.
Police said they found a controlled substance on McNeil and attempted to arrest him, and added they restrained him using a wrap.
In August, National City police turned over the investigation to the San Diego County District Attorney's office.
The family asked the DAs office to recuse itself from the case because court documents revealed they had used McNeil as a confidential informant in a murder trial. The DA's office has reached out to the state's attorney general to see if it should recuse itself.
Justice for Earl McNeil also held a news conference outside City Council chambers before Tuesday's meeting and rehashed the demands they say they've been fighting for months.
A San Diego State University student is being treated at a local hospital for meningococcal meningitis, university officials said Wednesday in a written release.
No details were given on the timing of the diagnosis for the unidentified student.
SDSU's Student Health Services is contacting those individuals who are believed to have had prolonged contact with the student. Those people are being advised to get antibiotics as a precaution, officials said.
Bacterial meningitis is spread by sharing items such as cigarettes or drinking glasses or through intimate contact such as kissing.
The bacteria are not airborne, officials said, so they do not spread like germs associated with the common cold or the flu.
Those who feel they may have been exposed and suffer from a sudden onset of symptoms including fever, headache, stiff neck, nausea and/or vomiting, should go to the hospital, health officials said.
University health officials believe the risk of infection for anyone who had direct contact with the student should expire by Friday, Sept. 14.
In 2014, a deadly form of meningitis killed one SDSU freshman and infected students at multiple colleges throughout the country.
Sara Stelzer contracted Type B meningococcal meningitis. While she had been vaccinated against meningitis, the vaccine did not cover the rare Type B bacteria.
A deadly form of meningitis that quickly claimed the life of a San Diego State University freshman is the same strain that infected students at multiple colleges throughout the country. NBC 7s Omari Fleming reports.
A student at the University of California Santa Barbara died from the B-strain.
There are currently vaccines available to prevent meningitis. The MC4 vaccines are recommended for people 11 to 18 years of age or people who are 19 to 21 years of age and living in college residence halls.
Meningococcal group B vaccines are recommended for people older than 10 years old who are considered high risk including those with certain medical conditions or those exposed during an outbreak.
Learn more about the available meningococcal vaccines through the CDC's website.
Or you can talk with someone by calling SDSU Student Health Services 8:30 am - 4:30 pm at 619-594-4325 or by calling San Diego County Public Health Services Epidemiology Division at 619-692-8499.
A U.S. soldier from the San Diego area has died from a non-combat related injury at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense announced Wednesday.
Staff Sgt. Diobanjo S. Sanagustin, 32, died Tuesday in an incident currently under investigation, the DoD said. No other details were released.
Sanagustin, of National City, was assigned to 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, based in Fort Carson, Colorado.
He was in Afghanistan supporting Operation Freedom's Sentinel, an overseas counterterrorism mission, the DoD said.
Sanagustin was given over 20 awards throughout his service.
He served as a squad leader within the 4th Infantry Division's 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team. His commander, Lt. Col. David Uthlaut, said Sanagustin made a lasting impact on his unit and his memory will be cherished.
He joined the army in May 2007 and deployed three times once each to Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, Stars and Stripes reported.
He was originally from the Philippines and became a U.S. citizen in 2008 during a ceremony with other members of the military in Kuwait, the Associated Press reported.
Syrian and Russian fighter jets carried out more than 20 airstrikes in towns near Idlib on Tuesday, ahead of an expected government offensive designed to drive out the rebels who control the Syrian city, NBC News reported.
It was the first time in more than three weeks that Russia was involved in airstrikes in the Idlib area, according to the the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based monitoring group.
Four people were killed in strikes in and around Jisr al-Shughur, according to activist Hadi Khrat. The town is located 30 miles southwest of Idlib.
The airstrikes came hours after President Donald Trump warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad not to "recklessly attack" the area.
"The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Dont let that happen!" Trump tweeted late Monday.
Idlib is the country's last remaining rebel-held enclave. Nearly 3 million civilians live there including many refugees from other war-torn parts of Syria. However, thousands of its residents are believed to belong to powerful extremist groups, prompting fears that civilians will be caught up in the violence.
As the embattled archbishop of Washington asked parishioners attending a Sunday morning service to keep Pope Francis in their prayers, a man stood and yelled "Shame on you" before storming out.
Cardinal Donald Wuerl was celebrating Mass at the Church of the Annunciation to install Monsignor Michael Mellone as the parishs new pastor. Wuerl is facing a storm of criticism and calls for his resignation after a Pennsylvania grand jury report said he allowed priests accused of sexually abusing children to be reassigned or reinstated when he was the bishop of Pittsburgh.
During his post-Communion remarks, Wuerl asked the parishioners to forgive his own "errors in judgment" and to pray for Pope Francis.
"We need to hold close in our prayers and our loyalty our Holy Father Pope Francis," Wuerl said. "Increasingly its clear that he is the object of considerable animosity."
That's when Brian Garfield shouted, Shame on you! and then walked out of the church.
Wuerl continued, At each mass, we pray for him by name as we do so with our voices, so may we do so also with our hearts. Yes, my brothers and sisters, shame. I wish I could redo everything over these 30 years as a bishop and each time get it always right. Thats not the case.
Garfield, who is Catholic but not a parishioner of Annunciation, said he was upset at being lectured to by Wuerl and was surprised that more people didn't express the same outrage. He said his faith in God remains strong, but he cant say the same thing about his faith in the church.
However, one parishioner turned her back on the cardinal during the remarks.
Theres a tradition in the church, especially here in Washington, Mary Challinor said. There were protests in the late 60s and early 70s of people who, during the sermon in that case, would turn their backs to say, I am here, I am a member of the church, I am celebrating mass, but I dont agree with what is being said, and I dont agree with the policy, but I am here as a Catholic.
She said she doesnt think the church hierarchy understands what the scathing grand jury report released last month about rampant sex abuse in six Pennsylvania dioceses really means to Catholics. The report accused Wuerl, 77, of helping to protect some child-molesting priests while he was bishop of Pittsburgh from 1988 to 2006.
I feel like these people who, in the evidence of the Pennsylvania report, allowed priests who were abusing children to continue in their ministry should no longer be in the church hierarchy, she said. They should be priests. We need every priest we can get, and I dont think they did this out of malice at all, but I think that they abused their position and I feel like they abused the responsibility that was given to them, I guess in Pennsylvania, as a bishop.
A statement posted on the archdiocese's website acknowledges the dissenters, but says "the Cardinal was also met with applause and expressions of support from the parishioners as he concluded his remarks. This sentiment was echoed as he greeted the faithful who approached him and expressed their prayers and support after Mass."
The Archdiocese of Washington is home to more than 630,000 Catholics and is considered an important power center for the church in the U.S. Wuerl has been ranked by commentators as one of the most influential of the 10 active American cardinals.
Some Catholics are calling for the resignation or removal of Wuerl, 77.
Wuerl has not been charged with any wrongdoing but is named numerous times in the grand jury report, which details instances in which he allowed priests accused of misconduct to be reassigned or reinstated.
Wuerl was born in Pittsburgh, attended Catholic University in Washington and received a doctorate in theology from the University of Saint Thomas in Rome. He joined the priesthood in 1966, was ordained a bishop by Pope John Paul II in 1986, and served briefly as auxiliary bishop in Seattle before going to Pittsburgh.
A man is in custody Wednesday after slamming his pickup truck into the Dallas FOX television station, ranting and throwing leaflets before surrendering to officers, police say.
At about 6:15 a.m., a man, identified by police as Michael Fry, crashed his pickup into the downtown Dallas TV station multiple times before he jumped out of the truck and began yelling, police said.
Fry then grabbed a bag out of the truck and placed it near the building, police said, which prompted a bomb squad investigation.
Fry eventually surrendered to police and his bag and truck were later cleared with no threatening devices found, police said.
"The officers say he was rambling and saying all kinds of nonsense," said Cpl. Debra Webb, with the Dallas Police Department. "It appears he was in some sort of agitated state so we're not really sure exactly what the issue was and why he was doing that."
Video from NBC 5's Texas Sky Ranger showed Wednesday's crash with papers littering the parking lot adjacent to the building. Police said the papers mentioned a local television station other than the FOX affiliate.
NBC 5 News
"It's concerning no matter what the building is or who's inside," Webb said. "We're really lucky today that no one was injured."
Dallas police later said the papers Fry had with him were about an officer-involved shooting in another city and that he wasn't directly targeting the media with his attack.
The name on Fry's flyer, Roberto Hernandez, is the same name as a man shot and killed in 2012 by a Denton County Sheriff's Deputy during a traffic stop. In the 2012 report, deputies said Hernandez and his passenger, Michael Chadwick Fry, would not exit the vehicle as ordered. Deputies said Hernandez put the car in reverse and rammed into the deputy's patrol vehicle. The deputy then fired into the car, killing Hernandez.
After surrendering, Fry was taken to Parkland Hospital in Dallas for a medical evaluation. Following that, he was transported to the Dallas County Jail where he was charged with criminal mischief.
Online Denton County records show that Fry has been booked into jail more than two dozen times since 2003 on a variety of crimes, including public intoxication and arson.
The driver of a pickup truck filled with leaflets was arrested after he repeatedly rammed into the KDFW Fox 4 studios Wednesday morning.
A bomb-sniffing dog checked vehicles parked in the studio parking lot and lots nearby.
Dallas Area Rapid Transit said train and bus service that was suspended in the area has returned to normal operations.
Special counsel Robert Mueller is willing to accept written responses from President Donald Trump to questions about any potential coordination between his campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election, a person familiar with the ongoing negotiations said Tuesday.
The offer was made in a letter Mueller's office sent Friday to Trump's legal team, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to publicly discuss the negotiations. Trump's team has not yet responded to the offer.
It was not immediately clear what those conditions mean for other avenues Mueller is exploring, including whether the president sought to obstruct the Russia investigation through actions such as the firing last year of former FBI Director James Comey. Mueller's office had previously indicated that it had many questions for the president on the obstruction issue.
The person familiar with the letter said Mueller's office indicated it would later assess what additional information it needs from the president, leaving open the possibility that Mueller's team might still seek answers on obstruction-related questions in an in-person interview.
The New York Times first reported Mueller's offer.
The move by Mueller comes after he has issued two lengthy indictments detailing Russian efforts to interfere in the presidential campaign. Mueller has also scrutinized a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer he believed to have derogatory information on Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump Jr. took the meeting, emails show, after it was described as part of a Russian government effort to help his father's campaign. Trump has said he knew nothing about the meeting before it happened.
Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel's office, declined to comment Tuesday.
The two sides have negotiated for months over whether and under what conditions Trump would sit for an interview. Though the president has publicly said he was eager to face questions from Mueller, his lawyers have been far more reluctant to make him available for an interview and have questioned whether Mueller even has the right to ask him about actions that he is authorized under the Constitution to take as president. At one point in March, Mueller's team raised the prospect of subpoenaing the president to compel his cooperation if he did not agree to an interview.
Mueller's office has been trying to determine the president's state of mind during several episodes as president, including the firing of Comey and his public attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions about recusing himself from the Russia investigation.
Associated Press writer Chad Day contributed to this report.
Small speed cameras perched on poles are popping up around D.C.
New speed cameras in the District are harder to spot than the boxy cameras drivers have gotten used to.
According to their manufacturer, American Traffic Solutions, the cameras have high-resolution sensors and 3-D capability.
"The radar is able to track the exact position of up to 20 plus vehicles before and after the violation point," a company video says.
D.C. police said they could not say how many of the new cameras are being used. They are in positions where boxy cameras were vandalized, including at Massachusetts Avenue and Upton Street NW.
A map of existing, planned and proposed speed camera locations in D.C. can be found here.
Driver Phil Petrilli said the cameras are just a fact of life.
"What am I going to say? It's their right to enforce the speed limit, and I guess it's our obligation to respect it," he said.
If you get caught speeding in D.C., fines can be as high as $250.
Researchers held out hope that a famed skull and other valuable objects might somehow be recovered from the ashes of a massive blaze that tore through Brazil's National Museum after firefighters found bone fragments from the collection.
Officials have said as much as 90 percent of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might have been lost in a fire that broke out Sunday. Aerial photos of the main building showed only heaps of rubble and ashes in the parts of the building where the roof collapsed.
The firefighters "found fragments of bones in a room where the museum kept many items, including skulls," Cristiana Serejo, the museum's vice director, said Tuesday. "We still have to collect them and take them to the lab to know exactly what they are."
In its collection of about 20 million items, one of the most prized possessions is a skull called Luzia, which is among the oldest fossils ever found in the Americas.
Despite the evident loss, Serejo told journalists Tuesday that staff members were "reasonably optimistic about finding some more items inside."
Parts of the collection were saved when a professor rushed into the fire, and parts were held in other buildings though some of those were also at risk. For instance, the electricity went out in an annex on the site, causing some frozen specimens to begin to rot.
Paulo Buckup, a professor of zoology at the museum, recounted Tuesday how he and a few other people pulled out mollusks and marine specimens as the fire gathered steam, going into and out of the building several times until it became too dangerous. He said the group tried to identify in the dark the most irreplaceable objects, but said they only saved a "minuscule portion of the heritage that was lost."
Many have already said that regardless of what is salvaged, the loss will be immeasurable. Marina Silva, a candidate for president in upcoming elections, called it a "lobotomy of Brazilian history."
The Globo newspaper wrote in an editorial published Tuesday: "The size of the catastrophe is vast: It struck the national memory, through the loss of the important historical collection; it affected the sciences, interrupting research; and it represents a cultural loss impossible to quantify. We only know that it is enormous."
With the cause still under investigation, the disaster has led to a series of recriminations amid accusations that successive governments haven't sufficiently funded the museum, and it has raised concerns that other institutions might be at risk. Officials have said it was well known that the building was vulnerable to fire and in need of extensive repair.
The national development bank announced Tuesday that it would make $6 million available for museums looking to upgrade their security or fire-prevention plans.
On Monday, government officials promised $2.4 million to the National Museum shore up its gutted building and vowed to rebuild the institution.
UNESCO, the U.N.'s cultural agency, has offered financial and technical assistance, and French and Egyptian officials also have offered help. The museum was home to Egyptian artifacts, and Egypt's ministries of foreign affairs and antiquities have expressed concern over the fate of those objects.
Associated Press writers Sarah DiLorenzo and Hamza Hendawi contributed to this report.
What to Know Ayanna Pressley and Michael Capuano were expected to attend the Democratic unity event Wednesday, but Capuano went to DC instead.
Ayanna Pressley defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano in a closely watched Democratic primary battle for the 7th District.
Since there are no GOP candidates in the general election, she will likely become the first black woman elected to Congress from the state.
Ayanna Pressley is dealing with symptoms of dehydration and exhaustion after her big primary night victory over longtime U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, her campaign said Wednesday.
"After an intense few days on the trail and a unity event this morning, Councilor Pressley is dealing with some symptoms of dehydration and exhaustion," campaign manager Sarah Groh said in an email Wednesday afternoon. "We will be cancelling the remainder of today's schedule and will keep you updated about public events tomorrow."
Pressley had originally planned to attend a 3:30 p.m. event at her Jamaica Plain campaign headquarters.
She attended a Democratic Party unity event in Boston on Wednesday morning, telling supporters there that she's thrilled and humbled by her victory over Capuano.
The 44-year-old Boston city councilor says it's "a surreal, full circle moment." She said she ran to represent those traditionally without a voice in politics who deserve to live in communities that are safe and have good schools.
Pressley also took a swipe at President Donald Trump, saying the only way to combat "the hate coming out of this White House" is with the kind of inclusive movement she built.
Capuano did not attend the unity event, choosing to head to Washington, D.C. to attend to business there instead.
Pressley beat Capuano with 59 percent of the vote in Massachusetts' 7th Congressional District primary on Tuesday.
Since there is no Republican challenger for the state's 7th District, Pressley will be the only name on the ballot in November. She will essentially be on her way to Washington soon, making her the first black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts.
"We have together ushered in something incredible," Pressley said in her victory speech Tuesday night. "People who feel seen and heard for the first time in their lives. A state hold in their democracy and a promise for our future. That is the real victory that is bigger than any electoral victory."
She also thanked Capuano, a 10-term Congressman, for his nearly 20 years of service to the district.
"Apparently the district is just very upset with lots of things that are going on," Capuano said in his concession speech. "I don't blame them. I'm just as upset as they are, but so be it. This is the way life goes."
Capuano conceded shortly after 9 p.m., telling supporters the district is in good hands.
"I will tell you that Im sorry it didnt work out but, this is life and this is OK," he said. "America is going to be OK. Ayanna Pressley is going to be a good Congresswoman and I will tell you that Massachusetts will be well-served."
Pressley cruised to victory Tuesday in a district once served by Tip O'Neill and John F. Kennedy. Minorities now comprise a majority of the district's population.
What to Know Prosecutors announced an arrest Wednesday in the murder of a mother and her three children earlier this year.
Sara Bermudez,her 8-year-old daughter, 6-year-old son and 2-year-old son were found dead in a home in West Brookfield on March 1.
Mathew Locke is now charged in the killings and was ordered held without bail at his arraignment Wednesday afternoon.
A family member who was previously arrested for misleading investigators in a grisly quadruple homicide investigation now stands charged with four counts of murder.
Matthew Locke, 32, of 20 Eddy St., Ware, Massachusetts, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Wednesday and was ordered held without bail. He is scheduled to return to court on Oct. 18.
The bodies of 38-year-old Sara Bermudez and her children, 8-year-old Madison, 6-year-old James and 2-year-old Michael, were found in their West Brookfield home on March 1 after police responded to their Old Warren Road address for a well-being check.
Prosecutors said there was a fire at the scene that appeared to have extinguished itself. Responding officers said they observed that all four victims had suffered stab wounds.
Sara Bermudez's husband, Moses Bermudez, was reportedly out of the state at the time of murders. He was arrested in mid-March for a disturbance at a pizza shop. Prosecutors said Wednesday that they are not looking at him in connection with the murders.
Moses Bermudez said Wednesday he wants "someone to be held accountable" and to know why the murders happened. Prosecutors haven't cited a motive.
Locke was accused of lying to police during the investigation earlier this year after he allegedly told authorities that Moses Bermudez, his cousin, suggested that members of the gang MS-13 were behind the murders. Locke also misrepresented his relationship with Sara Bermudez and the last time he was inside the Bermudez household, according to court documents. He has been in police custody since his arrest in March.
At a press conference Wednesday, Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said the investigation is still ongoing and asked for members of the public to call state police.
"This has been a very difficult case for everyone involved," Early said. "You have young children involved."
DNA and other evidence led to the murder charges, he said.
"I think it is a big relief that finally we've brought some closure to the case," added West Brookfield Police Chief Thomas O'Donnell. "It's still not closed, there's still work to do, but I think it definitely is a relief that we were able to make this arrest today."
Locke's attorney was killed last month when a crowbar crashed through his car windshield. It wasn't immediately clear if he has a new lawyer.
Longtime Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin has fended off a challenge from Boston City Councilor Josh Zakim in a Democratic primary race that turned caustic in its closing weeks.
Tuesday's primary was the toughest re-election challenge for Galvin, who's held the post for nearly a quarter-century.
The contest heated up after the 34-year-old Zakim won the endorsement of activists gathered at the Massachusetts Democratic Party convention, beating the 67-year-old incumbent first elected to the office in 1994.
Zakim faulted Galvin for not moving faster to harden protections against potential hacking and other threats to upcoming elections.
Galvin defended his efforts to protect voting, saying keeping the Massachusetts voting system off the internet has reduced the possibility of an attack.
Galvin will face Republican Anthony Amore in November.
State and local police are targeting drivers in South Boston, hoping to send a message on a stretch of road that has seen its fair share of tragedy.
It's where 2-year-old Colin McGrath was killed when a minivan went up onto the sidewalk and plowed into a stroller on July 25.
On Tuesday, Massachusetts State Police and Boston Police announced a recent joint initiative led to approximately 500 citations.
We have drivers driving through here disregarding every single rule of the road, one man said.
The community has demanded safer streets since McGrath's death, and police are listening.
The tickets they're writing cost $250 and on an average night, the officers are writing between 15-20 tickets on the stretch of road.
For Eillen Murphy, its personal. She was in a cross walk when she says she was hit back in 2003.
L Street has been a speedway for decades, and decades and decades, she said.
This is not a one night thing. Police say they will be back out again soon, as long as it takes they say to send a message to drivers that this will not be tolerated.
The ticketing initiatve is the latest in a series of actions to address safety concerns.
Residents have peacefully protested, marching from the L Street Bathhouse to a traffic meeting at the Joseph P. Tynan Elementary School in South Boston.
Officials have also already put new measures into place, including radars tracking speed and blockers making sure vision is not obstructed on corners.
A student shot outside of a high school in Providence, Rhode Island, has died from his injuries.
According to WJAR-TV police responded to a call of shots fired at about 2 p.m. Wednesday in the area of Fricker and Westminister streets. Nearby are the Providence Career and Technical Academy, Classical High School, and Central High School.
Police told WJAR that the victim was a 15-year-old boy at one of the nearby schools who had been found lying near a sign.
The victim, who has not been identified, was taken to Hasbro Children's Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Providence Police Col. Hugh Clements said the shooting was "a disturbance, a fight that leads to gunshots."
Police said they had been searching for two suspects who fled the scene. One person of interest is in custody.
After the shooting, U.S. Senator Jack Reed issued a statement saying "there is too much gun violence".
"We must work together toward commonsense solutions to make our schools and communities safer. We cant just give in to apathy or allow gun industry lobbyists to block progress or weaken public safety measures," Reed said.
A traffic stop in New Hampshire Tuesday night led to the arrest of a father and daughter in Hookset.
Police said an officer spotted a suspicious vehicle on Sunrise Boulevard just before 11 p.m. and pulled over the driver, identified as 47-year-old Dennis Gross.
While speaking with Gross, a woman was located in the bed of his pickup truck under a tarp. She was identified as Gross' daughter, 19-year-old Karleigh Gross.
Police said the officer, who asked for consent to search the truck, then located a baggy containing heroin in Karleigh Gross' purse. He also discovered Dennis Gross had an electronic bench warrant.
Both father and daughter were taken into custody.
Dennis Gross was charged with EBW and obstructing government administration. Karleigh Gross was charged with possession of drugs. Both were released on personal recognizance bail.
Dennis Gross is due in Hooksett District Court on Oct. 18. Karleigh Gross is due in Merrimack County Superior Court on Sept. 20. It's unclear if they have attorneys.
Republican state Rep. Geoff Diehl has defeated two other GOP primary candidates in Massachusetts for the chance to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren in November.
Diehl beat back the campaigns of business executive John Kingston and Beth Lindstrom, a Cabinet official under former Massachusetts Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, in Tuesday's primary.
Of the three, Diehl had the closest ties to President Donald Trump. Diehl co-chaired Trump's 2016 Massachusetts campaign. He was quick to note that despite its liberal reputation, Massachusetts gave Trump one of his most lopsided early primary wins.
All three candidates tried to turn Warren's national profile against her, criticizing her for being too politically extreme and spending too much time preparing for a possible presidential run in 2020.
"We're not going to take anything for granted," Diehl said when he stopped by his Braintree campaign headquarters to thank volunteers on Tuesday. "You can see we've got a lot of people working here. I've been traveling around the polls tlaking to people. We feel really good."
Kingston, a businessman, once tried to fund a third-party challenge to Trump but has since become more supportive of the president.
"We're seeing the same response everywhere, just lots of excitement and enthusiasm," he said Tuesday before polls closed. "People are ready to take on Elizabeth Warren."
Lindstrom was a member of Gov. Mitt Romney's administration.
"I've had a long history of working across the aisle with people from Beacon Hill to be able to create relationships, and that's what it's all about," Lindstrom said Tuesday.
Warren is a favorite target of Trump, who frequently and derisively refers to her as "Pocahontas" to ridicule her claims of Native American heritage. Warren, who has been equally harsh in her criticism of Trump, has said she's focused on winning re-election this year.
"I'm honored to be the Democratic nominee for the Massachusetts Senate seat this November," Warren tweeted after the polls closed Tuesday night. "This campaign has never been just about me - it's been about all of us fighting to level the playing field for working people. I will fight my heart out, and I hope you will too."
Welcome to Agility City! Let me set the scene.
In the castle, the Wonderful Wizard orchestrates networks in beautiful and powerful ways. Point-to-point tunnel connections are heralded as architectural wonders, which decades ago were called bridges with disdain.
Meanwhile, The Wicked Witch of the West brews a primordial potion of complexity that is hidden behind curtains of automated provisioning. Packets of information are heavily laden with unnecessary information and double encryption.
It almost makes you want Dorothy Gale to appear and click her ruby slippers - There's no place like home. There's no place like home. If only we start talking about true networking and not orchestration of bridges.
I spent some time watching AWS re:Invent 2017 Networking sessions on YouTube and felt like a house was just dropped on top of me. AWS has solved many problems with their new releases and added new kinds of connectivity inside the AWS world.
However, connecting corporate networks to theirs is still a tunnel-fest. If you are very careful, stay within the limits defined, avoid overlapping addresses and provision all your routes correctly, it will allow any-where-to-any-where communication. Just dont expect to go over 50 connections per VPC, or 1.25 GigaBits per IPSec tunnel. Even Toto would bark at that!
Bridges were replaced with routed links when networking was created. But IPSec tunnels are newfangled bridges that are the new connector of choice. The tunnels are being designed into public cloud networking schemes and are at the center of most SD-WAN solutions. The Wizard cannot change the fundamental nature of the networking world by handing out brains, hearts and medals for bravery. Even winged monkeys cant hide in the mess of point-to-point connections that are state full network-to-network bridges.
Instead, determine the following variables: A = How many current VPCs will you eventually use. B = How many locations need to access your VPCs. Simply multiply AxBx2 to get the count of bridges that need to be provisioned, monitored and controlled. One company I recently spoke with had data centers on five continents, over 100 large office locations and more than 1,300 VPCs at AWS alone. No amount of wizardry can hide this mess.
Software, especially open source software, is the key to innovation. Cookies are placed in packets to solve authentication and session management problems. Applications overcome NATs and network induced problems and the developers ignore any and all information from the network.
To increase performance, software developers use the network in parallel fashion and cache contents. Application guys develop improvements at a rapid pace, including standards such as QUIC, and TLS1.3. Innovation in the networking industry recently has focused on creating curtains to go over top of or hide the ugly and inefficient architecture. Orchestration of layers of networking complexity is not the answer.
Instead of letting AWS at re:Invent tell you how to connect to them, our industry needs to agree on how we want networks to operate. We need to do what AWS, Azure and Google do use software to innovate networking. Concepts like embedded cookies that can traverse NAT boundaries to communicate network information are possible. Routing that traverses private/public boundaries is possible. IPv4 and IPv6 borders no longer have to be barriers to routing protocols. Semantic-based routing definitions are likely.
We have the power to innovate. We know the requirements. Lets get back to networking basics. Eliminate the layers of encapsulation and double encryption. Throw water on the piles of tunnels and bridges to melt them away. Click your heels together and dream of a future network that can interconnect networks intelligently without bridges or tunnels.
Toto, lets go home!
Resourcefulness will be key post-Brexit.
Farmer and land agent Tom Bishop has jetted off to New Zealand for six months so he can be better informed about farming without subsidies, post-Brexit.
New Zealand abandoned its subsidy system overnight more than 30 years ago and Mr Bishop, an associate partner at BCM Rural Property Specialists at Sutton Scotney, near Winchester, Hampshire, wants to find out what UK farmers can learn.
So often UK farmers measure success in tonnes harvested per hectare or pounds per kilo. New Zealanders say they can reach a 45kg liveweight for their lambs or 10 tonnes of wheat per hectare, but what they really want to know is return on capital employed, drilling down to the return per kilogram of nitrogen applied or the return per kilo of dry matter produced where animal feed is concerned.
This was one of my most valuable lessons so far. I have been dwelling on it during the depths of South Island winter.
Either pre- or post-Brexit we should be considering that this type of review allows us to analyse our enterprises on a more critical level.
Benchmarking against other farms is irrelevant because there are so many variations between them.
Any farmer could apply nitrogen to the maximum, spend above 250 per hectare on sprays and farm thousands of acres in what outsiders may perceive the most perfect business, but is it the most profitable one?
Perhaps if we did some NZ benchmarking we would find that our best-performing farmers could rank among the UKs small-scale county council tenants rather than the large cooperative farming operations.
Resourcefulness will be key post-Brexit.
The scale of the iconic New Zealand South Island stations and their productivity are outstanding.
Sheep mobs (groups sub-divided from larger flocks) can be larger than the size of my entire two UK flocks, while applying fertiliser and top seed dressing from aeroplanes is an eye-opener to me.
However, the smaller, owner-operated farms use the same key performance indicators and regularly outperform the iconic stations for return on inputs.
Water is much in focus in the UK after the July heatwave.
The importance of its availability, quality and effect on the environment is something we all urgently need to consider.
At home, I have never had much thought for water, especially with three springs on our Welsh hill farm, and I had the same mindset here in NZ until recently.
The Country Land and Business Association recently published a paper on land management and, importantly, water resource to help justify future subsidy payments.
Lessons from NZ suggest we should take serious note as I have been to farms where land within certain catchment areas has been compulsorily purchased by the government, in one instance up to one third of a 6,000-acre farm.
The thinking is that removing livestock from the catchment will help improve water quality.
It is a stark warning that should we not protect our watercourses correctly, we may risk losing our land if the UK Government takes this approach.
While the farmer was compensated for the loss of land, the economy of scale for efficient production was affected.
It may be worth identifying all land that may be hit by such a proposal on your farm, assessing how your business would cope with reduced production.
We find it hard to justify irrigation systems, unless for high-value crops in East Anglia.
However, irrigation in NZ transforms a number of farms to allow the stock units to increase, animals to be finished and fertility to increase in areas that receive only millimetres of rainfall a year while the nearby west coast at Milford Sound is deluged by up to seven metres.
Water is therefore essential to allow farms to be transformed and, with climate change a hot topic, and the recent heatwave as reminder, I would urge everyone with extraction licences, watercourses and historic boreholes to ensure that they are up-to-date, licences renewed, and catchment areas farmed with environmental factors given utmost importance.
Who knows, in the future how valuable this will become in developing alternative farming enterprises and transferring farming assets?
Newbury-based employees Race to the Stones for leading diabetes charity
Newbury-based Ascensia Diabetes Care UK employees took part in the Dixons Carphone Race to the Stones last month, to raise money for leading diabetes charity Diabetes UK.
The Race to the Stones is a 100km race across the ancient Ridgeway path, which starts in Watlington, Oxfordshire, passes through the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs in Oxfordshire and Berkshire, before finishing at the 5,000-year-old stone circle in Avebury, Wiltshire.
The teams fundraising target is 5,000 and Ascensia, which has offices in Albert Road, will be matching all donations with its own additional corporate contribution.
The money raised will help Diabetes UK in its mission to support people who have diabetes, prevent type 2 diabetes, make research breakthroughs and ultimately find a cure.
Ascensia Diabetes Care country head for UK and Ireland Ros Barker said: By selecting the Dixons Carphone Race to the Stones, we did something that was truly challenging to show our solidarity for every person across the UK who has diabetes.
All of our team of 23, two of whom have diabetes themselves, were really excited to participate in the Race to the Stones and raise money for this worthwhile charity.
Donations to the Ascensia Diabetes Care team can be made at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/adcracetothestones
Landmark Grade II-listed building is transformed into new headquarters for lubricants distributor
One of Theales most prominent buildings is enjoying a new lease of life after being bought by an international firm as its new headquarters.
The Grade II-listed Old Brewery building on the High Street has been unoccupied for nearly three years but has been purchased by LE International, which specialises in the distribution of industrial lubricants across the globe.
Claire Tull from Studio 12 Designs was approached by LE International, which wanted to transform the Old Brewery into its international HQ.
The 2,000 sq ft building was once part-owned by Sir Tom Jones, and also, as its name suggests, spent many decades as Blatchs brewery.
A 14-week refurbishment overseen by Mrs Tull in partnership with Frasers Office Interiors has transformed the Georgian building into a luxurious head office.
LE International general manager Jackie Clark found Mrs Tull through recommendation and invited her to see the empty building.
Together, they worked on creating a plan to restore its character and accentuate its Georgian architectural features, while making it a modern hub for a busy, international company.
Ms Clark said: We wanted to give the building back its beauty while still remembering that it is an office and not a residential property.
Claire listened to what we wanted to achieve and then provided us with ideas on lighting, furnishings and colour schemes which incorporated our company colours.
Mrs Tull said: It was a little unloved after all this time, but we could see that it had the potential to be a fantastic head office thanks to its location and room for the team of six, with more space for new staff when required.
The building wasnt in bad condition all things considered and retained its stunning entrance hall and staircase, but it needed to be brought up to the standards required by an international company.
The finish and decor were very basic, not in keeping with the Georgian heritage and not up to the standards required in terms of lighting and data cabling provision.
Mrs Tull began by working on the colour scheme to reflect the companys ethos and branding, plus listing all the work that needed to be carried out.
The first job was to install the CAT6e cabling as arranged by Frasers and strip out the kitchen and toilets.
The Painting Partnership team replaced the lighting, upgraded electrics and plumbing installed the new kitchen and toilets and thoroughly redecorated inside and out.
Fine Design Flooring replaced all of the carpets to the offices and public areas and walnut Karndean to the toilet accommodation.
After gaining listed building consent, the front and back doors could be painted a different colour, the ugly shutters removed and the secondary glazing replaced.
Mrs Tull said: While we wanted to retain the Georgian heritage, it was also important that it was modern, not a museum piece so we combined contemporary with traditional.
Youll see that while the magnolia walls are out, the original coving, plasterwork and woodwork are very much in.
Key also to the look was to replace the dreadful strip lighting with energy efficient LED down lights that can be dimmed.
More traditional light fittings sourced from Elstead Lighting and Vaughan Lighting were used for the public areas and the chief executives office.
The sash windows also needed to be refurbished as many had been painted shut, now they can be opened to allow natural ventilation, which is very important.
The original secondary glazing was flimsy and totally impractical. Working with Selectaglaze, and the Windsor Box Window Company, the windows are now the stand-out feature of the bright facade.
Once the building was ready, Mrs Tull worked closely with Nick Clark, director at Frasers Office Innovation. His companys role was to provide the Verco furniture and to assist staff with the move.
He said: I like to visit to get a real understanding of each companys bespoke requirements and it was immediately apparent that moving to this magnificent building was not your ordinary office move.
There was no budget mentioned and the choice of the interiors needed to be of a quality to match the building.
We arranged for the networking of the telecommunications first and organised a relocation of the existing business at a time to suit the client.
We ordered the office furniture from Verco with a six-week lead time.
Finally, the finishing touch was the splendid Thai Sapphire blue front door with polished brassware, which has been attracting comments since it was painted.
Ms Clark was delighted with the results and the move into the new office has fitted smoothly around work commitments.
She said: Claire has achieved a stunningly beautiful office.
She has highlighted the original features of the building and the building now has a calm, relaxing feel about it making it a pleasure to work in.
Mrs Tull said: The building now has a sense of calm as well as splendour.
Its supremely well-designed and built; the interior is cool during summer and warm in winter.
The last thing we did was to power wash the inner courtyard which was very much neglected but has now been restored to its former glory, making a lovely place for LE International staff to enjoy a well-earned quiet moment.
Contributed Photo / Orange Police Department / Contributed Photo
ORANGE A New Haven man was charged after officers saw him speeding through a red light late last month, police said.
Michael G. Martin, 54, of New Haven, was charged with driving under the influence, police said. Court records showed he was also charged with failure to obey traffic control signals, illegally operating a motor vehicle under suspension and failure to insure a private motor vehicle.
Yale New Haven Childrens Hospital is one of the 20 most innovative childrens hospitals in the U.S., according to Parents Magazine.
The list on which Yale was the only Connecticut hospital to appear is based on the results of a survey sent to members of the Childrens Hospital Association. The poll aimed to find hospitals with a proven track-record of medical advancements, research, family support, and technical innovations related to childrens health and pediatric medicine.
Yale New Haven Childrens Hospital is based at the main Yale New Haven Hospital campus, and also has facilities at Bridgeport Hospital. Both hospitals are part of the Yale New Haven Health System.
This national honor by Parents Magazine underscores our commitment to making our patients and their families the center of what we do each day at Yale New Haven Childrens Hospital, said Cynthia Sparer, in a news released. Sparer is senior vice president of operations at Yale New Haven Hospital and executive director of Childrens Hospital and Womens Services at YNHCH.
According to the release, Yale New Haven Childrens Hospital was selected specifically for its outstanding commitment to family-centered care by being the first childrens hospital to offer couplet care within its neonatal intensive care unit, where mothers and babies who need medical attention remain together in the NICU.
Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media
Both Yale and Bridgeport hospitals opened fully renovated newborn intensive care units, or NICUs, this year. In January, Yale dedicated its new space, a specially designed, two-floor NICU. Bridgeport dedicated its refurbished, updated NICU in February, which changed the unit from a mostly-open nursery to a mix of private and semi-private rooms.
Our winning childrens hospitals collectively published more than 16,000 studies last year. Were in awe of their pioneering treatments, genius medical devices, improved medications, and the steps theyve taken to make a hospital stay less stressful for little patients and their families, said Liz Vaccariello, editor-in-chief of Parents, in the release. But, most of all, were grateful that these hospitals have made it a priority to share their innovations with other centers, making it easier for kids to receive excellent care closer to where they live.
The rankings appear in the October issue of Parents and online at www.Parents.com/hospitals
Several leaders in the New Milford community recently visited MEDinstill, one of the states leading medical manufacturing companies in New Milford.
New Milford Mayor Pete Bass coordinated the meeting and invited state Rep. Bill Buckbee, R-67, and state Sen. Craig Miner, R-30, as well as the Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board, in an effort to explore the potential growth within the industry at a local level.
MEDinstill has an important impact on our community, Buckbee said , a member of the legislatures Commerce Committee. There is an opportunity to extrapolate that positive impact to other industries and regions across the state.
The manufacturing of medical parts may not seem exciting on the surface, but MEDinstill is continuously working on products that prevent further harm to patients and their caregivers, he said. They are true innovators and problem solvers, which is exactly the type of talent we should be fostering here in New Milford and in Connecticut.
Miner thanked all parties involved for the opportunity to tour the facility and learn more about the companys history and future plans.
Their cutting-edge technology is applicable to many medical settings, he said. The company is a real asset to the local economy.
Bass acknowledged Miner, Buckbee, New Milford Economic Development Corporation Chairman Oley Carpp, Northwest Workforce Investments Cathy Awward, and Andrea Rynn and Robert Bepko from Western Connecticut Health Network for their attendance at the strategic meeting introducing MEDinstill's present state of manufacturing facilities.
We discussed possible opportunities in both the manufacturing base as well as creating an education component with an emphasis on advanced manufacturing and bioscience, he said.
Creating partnerships at the local, state and private sector will help foster opportunities for high tech jobs and education here in New Milford, the mayor said. I look forward to more meetings ahead.
MEDinstill has expressed an interest in introducing additional manufacturing skills to potential employees, in essence through an apprenticeship program.
The basic skills of crafting manufactured parts and items are transferrable through several industries.
Founded in 1986, the company has dedicated itself to innovating cost effective ways to help mitigate hospital acquired infections, improve disaster response and emergency manufacturing.
Love given is love received.
That sentiment recently abounded at Candlewood Valley Health & Rehabilitation Center in New Milford when the family of the late Arlene Goodbou presented special gifts to residents.
Shelley Killian and Amy Thibodeau, daughters of Goodbou, bestowed nearly 40 handmade fidget/sensory quilts to residents.
Goodbou resided at the center for two and a half years until she died this past April.
She had such a giving heart, Killian said of her mother, who would have turned 84 on the day of the presentation and was honored by staff and residents who sang Happy Birthday during the presentation.
The quilts vary in size but are all colorful and contain a variety of textures and objects.
They include ribbons that can be pulled, beads and buttons that can be spun, zippers that can be opened and closed, lace that can be felt, calculator buttons that can be pressed, soft toys that can be pressed to squeak, terrycloth dolls that can be hugged, stretchy bands that can be tugged, Velcro strips that can be pulled back and forth, small photo frames that can be viewed, and more.
All of the accessories are attached to the quilts.
Each is adorned with a small angel, added by Killian and Thibodeau in honor of their mother and the project aptly named Arlenes Angels.
Resident Madeline Gale was so impressed with the beautiful gifts that even after being given her quilt, she admired every other quilt given to fellow residents and expressed awe.
Im so thankful for this, said resident Doris Sue Snodgrass as she received her quilt.
The idea of fidget quilts stemmed from Killians visits with her mom, who often twisted her fingers in a crocheted blanket.
Killian said she noticed other residents doing similar things with their hands, such as pulling on a zipper or tugging on a blanket.
Goodbou was given a fidget spinner and she used it, but she would get frustrated when she dropped it and could not easily retrieve it.
Upon Goodbous death, Killian conducted research and discovered the concept of fidget/sensory quilts, which have shown to be beneficial for a variety of individuals, including those suffering from a variety of health challenges, such as dementia.
Immediately, she felt called to make quilts and donate them to Candlewood.
The goal was to make 25 quilts. Thirty-eight were presented.
Word about Killians project spread to her sister, and then friends across the country who happily offered to make a quilt or two and send them to the sisters.
Amy I just started sewing and it just took off, Killian said.
Thibodeau had never sewn before, but once her sister set her up with a sewing machine, she never looked back.
Staff considered fabric pattern, colors and themes, and each residents personality and likes when selecting quilts to give each resident.
These two beautiful woman made a huge difference in the lives of our seniors here, said recreation director Kathleen Horvath of Killian and Horvaths generous gifts.
Each residents heartfelt reaction to the gift of the sensory quilts brought tears of joy to my eyes, Horvath said.
We become family here at Candlewood and are blessed to have shared in a part of Arlene Goodbous journey of life, she said. And her memory is still touching all of us here at Candlewood Valley.
The greatest act of kindness is giving to those in need, Horvath summed up. Amy and Shelley have made their mom proud and truly made a difference in the lives of our residents.
Killian said she and her sister plan to annually present quilts to Candlewood, and would like to present them to others in need.
For information about the project, to make a quilt or to donate supplies for quilts, email shelleykillian@gmail.com or ladyrav42002@yahoo.com.
The Shepaug Valley School Class of 2020 will play host a Junk in the Trunk event Sept. 8 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Washington Primary School on School Street.
A rain date of Sept. 18 is planned.
WASHINGTON Megan Bennett sat at a table in the atrium of Shepaug Valley School, smiling as she watched students walk to their classes.
Its a testament to the type of superintendent she wants to be.
I want to be a superintendent thats in the schools, said Bennett, who took over as the Region 12 superintendent on July 1, replacing Patricia Cosentino, who is now New Fairfields superintendent. Its important I design it in a way that makes me happy, and my happiness is watching students be learners and seeing what happens in the schools.
Bennett has loved the classroom ever since her first teaching job at Mark Twain School in Hartford in 2000. Having that interaction with students is what drew her to Region 12 for her first superintendent job. She likes how its a smaller district where she can still develop those relationships.
There are 690 students from Washington, Roxbury and Bridgewater who make up the district.
Im looking forward to a day when I can walk down the hallways and students can say Hi, Mrs. Bennett, she said. That would be a win for me. Having that familiarity with the students will be a milestone for me.
She was excited about the districts agriscience academy, which will be built this school year and open next fall. The program will train students for careers in the agriculture industry, while also focusing on the STEM subjects: science, technology, engineering and math.
An agriscience teacher started this year and is busy developing the curriculum, teaching foundation agriscience classes at the seventh- and eighth-grade levels and marketing the program in area districts to encourage students to attend.
The program will serve 139 students from Region 12, Danbury, Brookfield, New Fairfield, New Milford, Newtown and Sherman.
Bennett said she appreciates the potential for the program and how it can elevate not only the agriscience students, but all of Shepaug, especially by using input from staff and students to develop the program.
Theres a lot of student empowerment thats going to be happening, she said. Its a program that was brought in for student needs.
The program is expected to meet a demand for this type of training because there is a waiting list for the program at Nonnewaug and officials say its a growing industry. The agriscience academy at Shepaug is also seen as a way to bolster Region 12s declining enrollment.
Advancing the agriscience academy is a main focus of Bennetts 90-day plan.
Long-term, she hopes to work with school officials to determine how technology is used to enhance education in the four Region 12 schools, as well as the agriscience program.
The same dual approach will be applied to determining the vision of what a graduate from this program and Shepaug should look like another of her long-term goals.
If were a reflection of our community, then we need to listen to what our needs are, she said.
Bennett, who earns $175,000 a year in her new role, will hold a community conversation Oct. 4 to gather input from residents, as well as offer more information on the agriscience program.
My entire goal as a superintendent is to make sure they have options and arent forced into a certain decision, Bennett said of students deciding to join a trade, enter the military or go to college. If weve provided the right education, then they can make these decisions.
Bennett decided to become a teacher because she wanted to ensure that students would have learning experiences that would foster change. She likes to challenge herself, which is why she set her eyes on Hartford to start her career after graduating from Siena College with a degree in psychology in 1999.
While teaching in Hartford, she earned a masters degree in elementary education from Central Connecticut State University in 2004 and a masters degree in educational leadership from Sacred Heart University in 2005.
After more than a decade as an elementary school principal, working in Southington, Rocky Hill and Taunton, Mass., Bennett decided it was time for another challenge and applied to be Region 12s superintendent.
She said she was nervous to transition to superintendent, where her scale of administrative decisions has grown, but said the staff at Region 12 has helped.
There were a lot of nerves, but when you meet this team, you cant help but feel confident, Bennett said. This is a staff that has a can-do attitude. With every person I meet, I feel a little better.
NEW MILFORD Officials are making a last-ditch effort to get federal funding to help deal with the aftermath of the deadly tornadoes and macrobursts that hit the state May 15.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency ruled town governments in Fairfield and New Haven counties will get up to 70 percent reimbursement for cleanup costs related to the storms, while New Milford, Roxbury and Bridgewater in Litchfield County would not. FEMA announced individual homeowners wouldnt get assistance.
That decision is being appealed.
They have an obligation to the whole state, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said, after a morning meeting with New Milford officials recently. Denial of this relief is unfair and inexplicable.
The entire Connecticut congressional delegation is joining forces to advocate for the additional money for the Litchfield County towns and for individual assistance, Blumenthal said. He and other members are gathering evidence to appeal before FEMA.
New Milford and other towns are sending letters to appeal the decision. New Fairfield First Selectman Patricia Del Monaco sent a letter to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Monday asking for help getting individual assistance.
Though New Milford was hit by the same storm that tore through the Danbury area and touched down again in Hamden and Southbury, New Milford is in Litchfield County and its damage is calculated separately.
The storm didnt know the difference between Fairfield and Litchfield counties when it hit us, New Milford Mayor Pete Bass said.
Litchfield County had to hit a threshold of $698,000 to qualify for public assistance, according to the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
So far, New Milfords town expenses come to nearly $254,000, with bids still out to determine the cost to grind and remove the debris stored at Century Brass. This includes overtime for public works and police officers, as well as reimbursement for the volunteer fire departments, insurance deductible, debris removal and the generators, said Brian Ohmen, New Milfords emergency management director.
It's a large amount of money wed rather use on infrastructure improvements or things we need, Bass said, adding the high school roof needs to be replaced.
Based on initial filings, Bridgewater had about $139,000 in damage and Roxbury had $26,000. The state as a whole had $13.2 million.
The damage from this event was significant in each of the designated areas, Jeff Byard, associate administrator of the office of response and recovery at FEMA, wrote in a letter. However, based on our review of all the information available ... it has been determined that the impact to the individuals and households from this event was not of such severity and magnitude to warrant the designation of individual assistance. ...
Blumenthal said this was unfair and he was moved by the graphic photos he has seen of roofs torn off, trees blocking roads and downed wires from the storm. He said the pictures of the devastation are the same images as other places hit in Connecticut and theres no reason New Milford, Bridgewater and Roxbury should be excluded.
He said homeowners should also get financial assistance.
A family whose home has been destroyed deserves that relief, regardless of where they live, Blumenthal said.
Bass and Blumenthal are optimistic, though no timeline has been released.
I'm hoping FEMA will respect the merits and the facts of our appeal, Blumenthal said.
kkoerting@newstimes.com; 203-731-3345
Recovery after a stroke is often challenging, and patients are also at heightened risk of another stroke. Now, with the launch of a new clinical trial, stroke survivors across the country will have the opportunity to help guide how future patients are cared for after a stroke.
For the trial, called Sleep SMART (Sleep for Stroke Management and Recovery Trial)(link is external), researchers will investigate whether obstructive sleep apnea diagnosis and treatment improves stroke recovery or reduces the likelihood of another stroke. The University of Michigan-led trial will be carried out at partner sites here and across the country.
"It's a seminal study," says co-principal investigator Ronald Chervin, M.D., M.S., a neurologist and director of the University of Michigan Sleep Disorders Centers(link is external). "We have long had the suspicion that sleep apnea increases the risk for recurrent stroke and that it can impede recovery, but this will be the first large, randomized trial." At an estimated cost of $45 million over the five-year period, it's also the largest in the history of Michigan Medicine's Department of Neurology.
About 70 percent of post-stroke patients have sleep apnea, according to co-principal investigator Devin Brown, M.D., M.S., a neurologist and longtime stroke researcher. And although the association between stroke and sleep apnea is clear, experts still don't know the nature of it: whether many patients' sleep apnea was always there, and may have led to the stroke, whether the sleep apnea was exacerbated or created due to the stroke, or whether it's a combination of the two. Nonetheless, the association offers a prime treatment opportunity.
"This is something we're very hopeful will be an entirely new way of improving outcomes after stroke," Brown says. "This would potentially give us a whole new facet of treatment that may be able to help both recovery and prevention, and it could be added on, potentially very safely, to any regimen, which makes that all the more exciting."
Nationwide collaborations
Researchers at 110 sites, via the National Institutes of Health's StrokeNet(link is external), plan to enroll 3,000 post-stroke patients in this randomized, controlled trial. Patients will begin the trial while still in the hospital, so the treatment group can begin right away, says Brown, who is also co-director of U-M's Regional Coordinating Stroke Center, part of NIH StrokeNet.
The study will compare the standard treatment for sleep apnea, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), with standard usual care after stroke. At three and six months after random assignment to one approach or the other, the investigators will compare the treatment group's stroke-related outcomes with those of the control group. The aim is to determine whether going forward, future patients who have a stroke should be screened and treated for OSA.
"Our thought is if we can prevent someone's throat from closing during sleep -- an event akin to choking that can happen repeatedly in the immediate aftermath of stroke -- then we may actually be able to improve survival and perhaps recovery of some of the brain after the stroke," Chervin says. "We really don't know yet, which is why we need this randomized trial."
Funding for the trial comes from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke(link is external) (NINDS) at the National Institutes of Health (U01NS099043). The researchers are working closely with NIH StrokeNet centers at the Medical University of South Carolina, which provides the national data management center, and the University of Cincinnati, which serves as the national coordinating center.
"We have made tremendous strides in improving stroke outcomes by timely reperfusion but have less to offer once the stroke damage has occurred," said Walter Koroshetz, M.D., director of NINDS. "This trial will test whether improving oxygenation by treating sleep apnea, a very common symptom in stroke patients, can help the brain to recover."
Industry partner Fusion Health will supply the sites with sleep apnea testing and CPAP equipment, incorporating telemedicine to better monitor patient adherence and results without requiring overnight sleep apnea tests or constant clinic visits.
The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) -- the nation's largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging -- has chosen Karen Fredriksen-Goldsen, PhD, FGSA, of the University of Washington as the 2018 recipient of the Maxwell A. Pollack Award for Productive Aging.
This honor, given annually, recognizes instances of practice informed by research and analysis, research that directly improved policy or practice, and distinction in bridging the worlds of research and practice. Individuals who are mid-career and actively engaged in the conception and development of innovative programs that demonstrate excellence in translating research into practical application or policy are eligible. The award is made possible through a generous grant from The New York Community Trust's Maxwell A. Pollack Fund.
The award presentation will take place at GSA's 2018 Annual Scientific Meeting, which will be held from November 14 to 18 in Boston, Massachusetts. This conference is organized to foster interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers, educators, and practitioners who specialize in the study of the aging process. Visit http://www. geron. org/ 2018 for further details.
Fredriksen-Goldsen is a professor and director of the Healthy Generations Hartford Center of Excellence at the University of Washington. She is a nationally and internationally recognized scholar addressing equity and the intersection of aging, health disparities, and well-being in marginalized communities.
With support from the National Institute on Aging, Fredriksen-Goldsen has served as the principal investigator of many landmark studies, including Aging with Pride: National Health, Aging, Sexuality and Gender Study (NHAS), the first longitudinal study of LGBTQ midlife and older adult health and aging to identify potentially modifiable factors that account for health trajectories over time in these communities. In addition, she recently received NIA funding to conduct Innovations in Dementia Empowerment and Action (IDEA), the first study of cognitive impairment in these communities.
Fredriksen-Goldsen is the author of three books and more than 100 publications in leading journals such as the American Journal for Public Health, The Gerontologist, and Social Work. She has received numerous awards for advancing aging and health research, practice, and education, including the University of Washington's campus-wide Distinguished Teaching Award. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare and was named in the inaugural class as a top 50 Influencer in Aging by PBS's Next Avenue. Fredriksen-Goldsen is the founder of Generations with Pride and the GSA Rainbow Research Interest Group, and co-founder of Shanti/Seattle. She also is a GSA fellow, which represents the highest category of membership within the Society.
Liver fluke infection is a major public health problem affecting more than 10 million people in Southeast Asia, particularly in Thailand and Laos. Infection has been strongly linked to cholangiocarcinoma, or bile duct cancer, an uncommon but aggressive form of cancer.
This particular cancer is caused by the chronic infection with a parasitic worm acquired by consuming uncooked or undercooked freshwater fish. The population in Thailand impacted by the infection, routinely prepares and consumes undercooked fish caught by locals to lower costs.
A team led by Paul Brindley, PhD, professor of microbiology, immunology, and tropical medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, has received more than $1.7 million from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health to investigate the cellular and molecular links between liver fluke infection and bile duct cancer.
"We are trying to figure out why this worm infection causes these liver cells to transform and become cancer," said Brindley. "It's an infection-related cancer and we're intrigued by and motivated to resolve the basic cellular question of how could a worm induce human tissue in the liver to become malignant."
Brindley also explained that while cholangiocarcinoma is most prevalent in Southeast Asia, it is not exclusive to the region. There have been reports of the cancer in the United States and areas of the West, including in military veterans who had been stationed in Southeast Asia.
The risk factors that explain why people get cholangiocarcinoma in the West are less clear, given that the parasitic worm does not occur in these regions. Brindley and his team anticipate that their research can provide insight and a biomarker in the local people that would allow researchers to take an easier tissue sample, like blood or urine, and try to detect the change that liver fluke causes to make the cancer occur.
Through gene editing, the team has already mutated one gene from the worm that makes the worm less virulent and are characterizing other parasite genes that contribute to the malignant changes in the human bile duct liver cells.
"Lots of people die from this infection. It's a global public health problem a neglected tropical disease that we would like to control," Brindley said.
Losing a single night's sleep may affect the liver's ability to produce glucose and process insulin, increasing the risk of metabolic diseases such as hepatic steatosis (fatty liver) and type 2 diabetes. The findings of the mouse study are published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology--Endocrinology and Metabolism. The research was chosen as an APSselect article for September.
Sleep deprivation has been associated with eating more, moving less and having a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. However, a team of researchers from Toho University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan, explained, "It was not clear whether glucose intolerance was due to the changes in food intake or energy expenditure or to the sleep deprivation itself."
The researchers studied two groups of mice: One group was kept awake for six hours each night ("sleep deprivation"), while the control group was allowed to sleep as desired. The research team offered unlimited high-fat food and sugar water--mimicking lifestyle-related food choices that people make--to both groups prior to the study. During the sleep/wake period, the animals had limited opportunity for physical activity.
The researchers measured glucose levels and fat content of the liver immediately after the trial period. Blood glucose levels were significantly higher in the sleep deprivation group than controls after one six-hour session of wakefulness. Triglyceride (fat) levels and the production of glucose in the liver also increased in the sleep deprivation group after a single wake period. Elevated liver triglycerides are associated with insulin resistance, or the inability of the body to process insulin properly. In addition, lack of sleep changed the expression of enzymes that regulate metabolism in the liver in the sleep deprivation group. These findings suggest that "intervention studies designed to prevent sleep deprivation-induced hepatic steatosis and insulin resistance should be performed in the future," the researchers wrote.
In 2014, Massachusetts lawmakers passed a law requiring a 1:1 or 2:1 patient-to-nurse staffing ratio in intensive care units (ICU) in the state, as guided by a tool that accounts for patient acuity and anticipated care intensity. The regulations were intended to ensure patient safety in the state's ICUs, but new research led by physician-researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and published today in Critical Care Medicine found the staffing regulations were not associated with improved patient outcomes.
"We hypothesized that Massachusetts ICU nurse staffing regulations would result in decreased complications and mortality for critically ill patients when compared with patients admitted to ICUs across the country unaffected by Massachusetts regulations," said lead author Anica C. Law, MD, core faculty at the Center for Healthcare Delivery Science and staff physician in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine at BIDMC. "But we did not identify improvements in patient outcomes associated with the state's nursing requirements."
The research team examined records from 246 medical centers nationwide, comparing patient outcomes in Massachusetts' six academic ICUs with outcomes in 114 out-of-state academic ICUs before, during and after the state mandate was implemented.
The Massachusetts regulations mandated 1:1 or 2:1 patient-to-nurse ratios, based upon patient acuity and anticipated care intensity. Academic ICUs were required to comply with the new regulations by March 31, 2016, while all other hospitals had until January 31, 2017. Analyzing tens of thousands of ICU admissions records, Law and colleagues focused on the change in mortality rates for patients in Massachusetts' academic ICUs before and after the mandate was implemented, compared with patients hospitalized in out-of-state hospitals; other analyses looked at changes occurring at community, non-academic ICUs and among a group of the sickest patients who received support from a ventilator. The team also analyzed the rate of complications, including central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, hospital-acquired pressure ulcers and patient falls with injury.
The researchers found modest increases in ICU nurse staffing ratios in Massachusetts before and after the mandates implementation, demonstrating a change from 1.38 patients per nurse to 1.28 patients per nurse. However, these increases were not significantly higher than staffing trends in states without state-mandated ICU staffing regulations, suggesting nurse staffing increases in Massachusetts could not be attributed to the state legislation. Law and colleagues also found that risk of mortality and risk of complications in Massachusetts' ICUs remained stable after the law's implementation, with no significant difference in trends compared to out-of-state hospitals.
"Our results suggest that the Massachusetts nursing regulations were not associated with changes in staffing or patient outcomes," said Law. "The modest changes in nurse staffing we saw in Massachusetts - approximately one extra nurse per 20-bed ICU per 12-hour shift - remained unassociated with changes in hospital mortality."
Researchers from New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) have secured $426,621 in funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the acquisition of a micro-computed tomography machine.
Aimed at enhancing the programs of individual researchers and forging new collaborations with neighboring institutions, the machine, also known as a "micro-CT scanner," will be housed in NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine's (NYITCOM) Data Visualization Lab on the Long Island (Old Westbury) campus. Available free of charge to both faculty and student researchers from NYIT and other institutions, the micro-CT scanner will aid in strengthening interdisciplinary research in the greater New York metropolitan scientific community.
According to lead investigator Simone Hoffmann, Ph.D., assistant professor of Anatomy, NYITCOM, the grant will enable NYIT to become one of the region's few institutions to offer micro-CT scanning capabilities without a fee.
"As a researcher, it's very difficult to complete your study when each scan comes with a substantial price tag," said Hoffmann. "Increased accessibility to this technology will help establish NYIT as a central research facility on Long Island, and nurture innovative research in biology, paleontology, nanotechnology, engineering, and life sciences."
Using x-ray imaging technology similar to the CAT scans found in hospitals, micro-CT scanners allow an object's internal spaces to be visible at the microscopic level, and recreate virtual 3-D models without dissection, which is damaging to the original specimen. With this capability, Hoffmann and her anatomy colleagues will soon view the internal morphology of fossils, measure bone density, map the internal structure of the brain, and closely examine intricate vessels and other soft tissue structures - tasks that would have previously required dissection.
Researchers from the institution's College of Engineering and Computing Sciences and College of Arts and Sciences will also benefit, including bioengineer Azhar Ilyas, Ph.D., assistant professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering. Ilyas, who was a co-investigator for the grant, will leverage the new micro-CT scanner to analyze bone regeneration and repair.
"While current data partially explains the complex biological pathways through which bone is regenerated, much remains to be understood about the host tissue interactions and fracture repair process. The acquisition of this new imaging technology will allow us to answer many of those questions," said Ilyas.
In addition to advancing faculty research at NYIT, the new technology will expand opportunities for student experiential learning. Engineering faculty and students plan to incorporate the CT-based technology into the Cultivating Resources for Employment with Assistive Technology (CREATE) program, which develops technologies to assist people with disabilities in their work environments. Likewise, College of Arts and Sciences students will participate in faculty-led investigations to examine data retrieved during scanning.
Source: https://www.nyit.edu/
Six months after hiring former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani's consulting firm, Purdue Pharma settled a Florida state investigation that had threatened to expose early illegal marketing of its blockbuster drug OxyContin, company and state records show.
The November 2002 deal was a coup for the drugmaker, which at the time faced growing criticism about overdose deaths and addiction linked to the painkiller. Purdue agreed to pay the state $2 million to help fund a computer database to track narcotics prescriptions and up to $150,000 to sponsor five one-day conferences to educate law enforcement about drug abuse.
In exchange, Florida's then-attorney general, Robert Butterworth, dropped his marketing investigation, which had uncovered initial evidence that Purdue misled doctors and the public about OxyContin's safety, state records show.
Today, as Giuliani makes frequent headlines as President Donald Trump's personal lawyer in the Russia investigation, the settlement his firm helped secure in Florida is drawing new scrutiny and mixed opinions.
"This was a missed opportunity," David Moye, a former director of economic crimes and health care fraud for the Florida Attorney Generals Office, said of the settlement. "They let them [Purdue] off the hook," said Moye, now a lawyer in Tallahassee.
Butterworth agreed to drop any claims "arising out of the sale and marketing" of OxyContin up to Nov. 1, 2002. That happened even though Purdue never paid for the database because state lawmakers balked at supporting it.
On Tuesday, Butterworth told KHN that he realized at the time that a "couple million dollars wasn't going to solve the problem" caused by what he termed "horrific" marketing of OxyContin. But, he said, "when you are the first state to take this on, you have to start somewhere."
Now a lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, Butterworth said he regretted that more wasn't done early on to halt improper marketing of opioids.
"I wish that law enforcement would have taken them out 20 years ago. It is absolutely insane that so many people die each year [from opioids]," he said.
The Florida AG's marketing investigation remains noteworthy because some of the evidence it unearthed could play a role in an avalanche of lawsuits that now blame Purdue and other opioid makers for fueling the nation's addiction epidemic.
More than 1,500 of these suits, mostly filed by state and local governments against opioid manufacturers and distributors, seek compensation for the costs of treating addiction.
"We allege the [opioid epidemic] is a consequence of this kind of [marketing] conduct," said Paul Hanly, co-counsel for a group of lawsuits consolidated in federal court in Cleveland. Addiction treatment costs have "hemorrhaged" over the past 10 years and cost billions of dollars, he said. The drug companies and distributors have denied responsibility in court filings.
Trump earlier this year declared the opioid epidemic a "national emergency," and suggested last month that the federal government also sue drug companies.
Giuliani launched his consulting firm, Giuliani Partners LLC, in early 2002. For years, detractors have argued that the ex-mayor traded on the respect and celebrity gained by his leadership after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to help Purdue duck responsibility for misdeeds.
On Aug. 24, two Democratic senators asked the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration to investigate Giuliani's role in a 2007 criminal case against Purdue in Virginia, which accused the company of making false claims about OxyContin's safety. The request follows a New York Times article that alleged Giuliani's influence led prosecutors to ease off charges that could have crippled the company.
The 2002 Florida investigation, by taking aim directly at Purdue's aggressive sales tactics, had posed a significant threat to the company. Released late in 1995, OxyContin topped $1 billion in annual sales by 2002.
The investigation picked up steam in July 2002, less than two months after Purdue announced hiring Giuliani Partners to help it "combat prescription drug abuse and diversion." The firm's duties included building support for electronic prescription monitoring plans and developing education programs for law enforcement the two pillars of the settlement in Florida.
As a sign of its willingness to cooperate with the state, Purdue agreed to turn over its confidential OxyContin marketing plans from 1996 through 2002. Kaiser Health News obtained these reports from the Florida AG and published them in June, with the remaining materials cited here.
Giuliani Partners founding member Daniel Connolly spoke on Purdue's behalf at a July 23, 2002, meeting with the Florida AG staff, notes of the meeting obtained from the Florida AG's office show. Connolly had no comment.
So did Miami attorney Jon Sale, a law school pal of Giuliani's who remains a close friend. Sale said in a recent interview that Giuliani "most likely" had asked him to represent Purdue in the legal negotiations.
Purdue's support for the database was among the issues discussed, the meeting notes show. Sale said Purdue hoped the database would allow doctors to check if a patient in their waiting room was receiving opioid prescriptions elsewhere, an abusive practice known as "doctor shopping."
"Everybody thought it was a wonderful idea," Sale said in a recent interview.
Former Florida assistant attorney general Dave Aronberg, who worked on the investigation but left before its settlement, agreed.
Aronberg blamed some Republican lawmakers, who saw the database as a threat to patient privacy, for torpedoing the deal. The settlement released Purdue from paying most of the $2 million if legislators did not approve additional funding for the database within two years.
Aronberg said the legislation, which eventually passed more than two years later in 2009, could have saved many lives had the database been set up earlier. Most states now have the computerized systems, though some doubt their effectiveness in curbing opioid overdose deaths and other abuse.
The 2002 settlement, and the political skirmishes over the databank, put the brakes on the AG's investigation of potentially illegal sales promotions. For instance, an AG's office investigator interviewed a former Purdue sales manager, who said company executives had directed its sales force to advise doctors that OxyContin was not addictive, according to notes of the interview. Though Purdue gave the state a list of the names and contact information for more than 100 of its sales agents, the same records indicate that the sales manager appears to be the only one interviewed.
Records from the AG's office show that Purdue also turned over marketing materials that downplayed the risks of addiction from the drug, including a brochure that advised patients, "Fear should not stand in the way of relief of your pain." Other records included the names of all employees who had helped write product warnings for OxyContin and Purdue's guidelines for paying commissions to its sales force.
Former fraud director Moye said that the revelations in these records and other evidence, such as Medicaid billing data that showed some doctors were recklessly prescribing of OxyContin should have prompted Florida officials to demand tougher enforcement, including a hefty fine, and an agreement to cease marketing violations in the future.
"We could have cleaned this up," Moye said.
But Hanly, the lawyer now suing opioid makers, noted that the marketing records were later used by the Justice Department in securing Purdue's criminal convictions in 2007. "It's not like they didn't have any consequences," he said.
Giuliani Partners was not the only high-profile hire at Purdue. It also retained Eric Holder, a former assistant attorney general under President Bill Clinton who went on to serve as attorney general in the Obama administration. In 2004, Holder helped negotiate a $10 million settlement of a lawsuit filed by the West Virginia attorney general, who accused Purdue of deceptive marketing. Holder's role also has drawn criticism.
But Purdue appears to have placed special trust in Giuliani Partners. In the 2002 press release, Purdue Executive Vice President Michael Friedman said the "management experience, law enforcement background, leadership and integrity of Giuliani Partners and its CEO Rudolph W. Giuliani are tremendous assets to our company."
Friedman and two other Purdue executives pleaded guilty to criminal charges of "misbranding" OxyContin in the 2007 Virginia case.
KHN's coverage of prescription drug development, costs and pricing is supported in part by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.
A George Mason University researcher is heading a scientific team that has received a sizable Department of Defense grant to combat the threat of a South American-borne disease that can cause long-term neurological problems and even death.
Kylene Kehn-Hall, an associate professor in Mason's School of Systems Biology within the National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases, is collaborating with scientists from the University of Maryland and QIAGEN, a worldwide provider of molecular technologies and genomics analysis solutions, on a five-year, $2.5 million grant from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency in the hopes of developing remedies to the Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV). The disease, which attacks the neurons of the brain, can be fatal, but often causes brain swelling that can leave those infected with long-term neurological issues such as seizures and personality disorders.
"The virus has no cure and can be easily aerosolized and weaponized," said Kehn-Hall, whose team includes the University of Maryland's Jonathan Dinman and QIAGEN's Jonathan Jacobs. "I would like to identify specific targets for the therapeutic countermeasures and show in a mouse model that we can prevent this disease."
Kehn-Hall and her team hope to lay the foundation for an eventual therapeutic treatment by identifying transcriptomic (RNA-based) and proteomic (protein-based) events that help the virus attack and kill brain neurons. The goal of the research is to identify the mosquito-borne pathogen's pathways to those brain cells and develop a solution that prevents the virus' growth.
"When brain cells die, bad things happen," Dinman said. "Our goal is to come up with a remedy that won't stop the virus, but one that will stop this pathology."
VEEV, which was first identified in Venezuela, often manifests itself in the form of flu-like symptoms such as high fevers, headaches, encephalitis and even death. Those with weaker immune systems, such as the very young and elderly, frequently become severely ill or die from the virus following exposure.
A large-scale outbreak of the disease occurred in Columbia in September 1995, resulting in more than 14,000 human cases and 26 deaths, according to media reports. The threat of VEEV has recently become more pronounced as the mosquitoes who carry the virus extend their reach, driven primarily by increases in globalization and rising temperatures from global climate change. Jacobs and his colleagues recently detected and sequenced a sub-type of VEEV in the Florida Everglades, but it was fortunately found in mosquitoes that do not typically feed on humans.
"It's important from a public health standpoint," Kehn-Hall said. "There are still people who get this virus on an annual basis."
Mr Chan (second left) and Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury James Lau (left) lay a wreath to mourn Holocaust victims at the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan (second right) visits the booth of Invest Hong Kong at the 6th Annual Summit for Business with China in Tel Aviv.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan continued his visit to Israel by promoting Hong Kongs unique strengths and outstanding business environment.
He attended the 6th Annual Summit for Business with China yesterday morning in Tel Aviv.
Giving a keynote speech, Mr Chan highlighted that Hong Kong boasts unique advantages and a strategic position to serve as multiple service platforms for the Belt & Road Initiative and Israeli businesses and entrepreneurs.
He said as one of the world's leading financial centres and China's international financial capital, Hong Kongs deep liquidity, premier financial infrastructure and comprehensive options for raising capital can meet the financing needs of any mega Belt & Road infrastructure project.
Hong Kong can also serve as a platform for enterprises to find the right partners and base their offshore operations, he added.
Accompanied by other officials and business delegates, Mr Chan then headed to Jerusalem to visit a technology company which specialises in developing artificial vision products to help the visually impaired.
He introduced various measures being put in place by Hong Kong to support applied research and development to the firms senior management and encouraged more Israeli innovation and technology companies to start their operations in Hong Kong.
The delegation then attended a luncheon hosted by an Israeli equity crowdfunding platform which invests in startups from around the world, including Hong Kong companies.
Mr Chan and Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury James Lau also visited Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, where they laid a wreath to mourn Holocaust victims.
Mr Chan and the delegation wrapped up their day by attending a dinner hosted by the Israeli Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.
Tokyo : At least nine persons have been killed by Typhoon Jebi, the worst storm to hit Japan in 25 years. It has left a trail of destruction across the west coast, hitting cities like Kyoto and Osaka.
As of Wednesday, evacuation advisories had been issued for more than 1.2 million people after the storm made landfall on Tuesday afternoon, the BBC reported.
As many as 3,000 people stranded at the Osaka's Kansai International Airport were being ferried by boat to another airport on Wednesday, an official said.
The travellers were stranded at the airport, which is built on an artificial island, after a tanker crashed into the bridge connecting it with the mainland.
The airport had seen its runways and basements flooded and will remain closed all Wednesday.
Flights, trains and ferries were cancelled. The winds are slowing down and moving north, but people are being urged to stay alert for landslides and floods, the BBC report said.
More than 30,000 people were given stronger but still not mandatory evacuation orders, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.
Footage on social media showed the 100-metre tall ferris wheel in Osaka spinning rapidly in the storm despite being switched off.
More than two million households experienced blackouts during the storm and schools and companies in the affected area remained shut.
Nearly 800 flights were cancelled, including international flights at Nagoya and Osaka.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 5) No arrest warrant yet for Senator Antonio Trillanes IV after a Makati court on Wednesday decided to hold a hearing first before it responds to the motion of the Department of Justice.
Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 148 is set to hold a hearing on the DOJ request on September 13, 9 a.m.
Judge Andres Soriano gave Trillanes five days to file a comment on the "very urgent" motion of the Department of Justice for the court to issue an alias warrant and hold departure order against the senator.
An alias warrant is issued when the subject fails to appear in court for a scheduled date before any plea has been set. DOJ on Tuesday said their motion for an alias warrant is valid since President Rodrigo Duterte voided the amnesty granted to Trillanes by then President Benigno Aquino III.
Meanwhile, the hold departure order will bar Trillanes from leaving the country.
The police and military cannot arrest Trillanes until Soriano issues a warrant.
Soriano said he still has to review 53 volumes of records of the case. He will also evaluate the many legal issues that may arise from Trillanes' case, such as the question of double joepardy - prosecuting a person more than once for the same crime - and the legality of Duterte's proclamation, among others.
Duterte on August 31 signed Proclamation Order No. 572, saying the amnesty given to Trillanes in 2011 was void from the very beginning for his failure to personally apply for amnesty and for never admitting his guilt in trying to topple the government.
Trillanes provided the evidence in a privilege speech on Tuesday. Before his colleagues in the chamber, the senator showed pictures of his amnesty application, his certificate of amnesty, and a video where he admitted to his guilt.
During the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Trillanes was involved in three coup attempts: the so-called Oakwood mutiny in July 2003, the Marines stand-off in February 2006, and the Manila Peninsula incident in 2007.
Washington : Negotiators from the US and Canada have resumed trade talks here to bridge their differences on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) after the two sides failed to reach a deal last week.
"Our officials have continued to work hard and constructively over the weekend and we are looking forward to constructive conversations today," Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters here on Wednesday, Xinhua reported.
The trade talks came after US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that there is "no political necessity" to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal.
"If we don't make a fair deal for the US after decades of abuse, Canada will be out," Trump said via Twitter, threatening to terminate the 24-year-old trilateral trade deal.
The White House has pressured Canada to accept the preliminary agreement it struck with Mexico last Monday to update the trilateral trade deal. But Canada insisted that it would only sign a new agreement that is good for the country.
One of the major sticking points in the talks is a so-called dispute resolution system, contained in Chapter 19 of the original NAFTA agreement. The US has proposed to scrap the dispute resolution system that Canada regard as crucial.
"We' ve said from the very beginning that we need a dispute resolution mechanism like Chapter 19 and we will hold firm on that," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday.
"As I've said, we will not sign a deal that is bad for Canadians and, quite frankly, not having a Chapter 19 to ensure that the rules are followed would be bad for Canadians," he said.
While US officials have indicated that they are prepared to go ahead and sign a NAFTA deal only with Mexico, the US business community and many lawmakers have insisted that the NAFTA deal should remain a trilateral pact.
Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden on Tuesday also refuted Trump's assertion that he could unilaterally withdraw from NAFTA without congressional approval.
"The president needs to take a look at the Constitution -- it gives Congress authority over trade. The President cannot pull America out of NAFTA without Congress's permission," Wyden said in a statement.
Talks on renegotiating the NAFTA began in August 2017 as Trump threatened to withdraw from the trilateral trade deal, which he claimed harmed US industries and jobs.
Sorry!
This content is not available in your region
Dear Newsie Readers,
Newsie has now permanently ceased it's services as of Friday 20th December 2019.
Newsie has been an owner-funded operation since day one.
Coming up to three years old, while we still firmly believe Newsie has a place in the New Zealand media landscape, the cost in both time and money has become too burdensome for the owners to continue alongside other ventures.
With the current government looking to restructure public broadcasting, and seemingly supporting NZME buying a ring-fenced Stuff, the time seems right to call it a day.
Should it happen, the combination of NZME and Stuff will ensure New Zealands national media will die a death by a thousand opinion-based articles.
Newsie has always tried to stick to balanced news, to inform readers of the facts of a situation, amid being largely ignored by government. Hopefully, one day someone else will take up the challenge to fight the good fight.
The good news, however, is that there were no job losses as a result of Newsie closing. Thanks to careful structuring, everyone involved in Newsie will retain their current positions.
We hope you all have a happy Christmas and new year. Stay safe, and stay out of the news.
The team at Newsie
Contributed Photo/ Diocese of Bridgeport / Hearst Connecticut Media
BROOKFIELD Bishop Frank Caggiano will visit St. Joseph Catholic Academy on Thursday morning to celebrate the start of the school year.
Caggiano will lead a mass at 8:45 a.m. to bless the building. Students had their first full day of classes on Tuesday.
WASHINGTON Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., accused Republicans of conducting a charade and a mockery on opening day of confirmation hearings for President Donald Trumps Supreme Court pick, Brett Kavanaugh, demanding Republicans cut off the proceedings until Senators can review records of the nominees work for former President George W. Bush.
Between objections of Blumenthal and interruptions of more than a dozen protesters, three days of hearings got off to a tumultuous start underlining the high stakes of vetting a justice who, if confirmed, would likely tip the nations highest court in a firmly conservative direction.
After Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, rebuffed Blumenthals attempts to delay the hearings, Blumenthal appealed to the 53-year-old D.C. federal appeals court judge himself to call a halt to the proceedings.
You have been nominated by that very president who has launched an attack on Department of Justice, the rule of law and law enforcement at every level, Blumenthal said in his opening statement, referring to President Trumps Labor Day Tweet questioning why Attorney General Jeff Sessions didnt delay indictments of two GOP lawmakers until after the 2018 election. At the end of this dark era, when the history ...(is written), the heroes will be the independent judiciary and the free press.
Blumenthal led off Tuesday morning with what appeared to be a planned move by minority Democrats on the committee to derail the hearings, at least temporarily.
We have been denied real access to the documents we need to advise and consent, which turns this hearing into a charade and mockery of our norms, Blumenthal said.
A Republican member, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, branded the Democratic tactics mob rule, drawing a rebuke from Blumenthal.
Far from mob rule, were simply asking for respect here, Blumenthal said.
Meanwhile, protesters punctuated the proceedings with shouts from the back of the hearing room.
Brett Kavanaugh is an enemy of womens rights!, one protester chanted as police officers removed her. Another protester brandished a sign: Roe - yes, Kav-nope. Chants of dump Kavanaugh, dump Kavanaugh, dump Kavanaugh, rang out through closed doors into the hearing room even after protesters were removed.
Animating the strategy of Blumenthal and other Democrats were bitter memories of Republicans in 2016 denying a hearing for President Obamas Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. When Trump won the presidential election that year, he filled the vacancy left by the death of conservative stalwart Justice Antonin Scalia with conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch.
So instead of a court tipping in a liberal direction, the court is just one vote away from tipping in a solidly conservative direction. Kavanaugh, a judge on the D.C. federal appeals court, would replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, a nominee of President Ronald Reagan who often became the swing vote in hot-button cases, including abortion, campaign finance and same-sex marriage.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, turned down Blumenthals effort to adjourn the hearing by saying such a motion could only be made behind closed doors in executive session. Grassley rebuffed Blumenthals motion to go into executive session.
At issue was the question of how much documentation should be provided on Kavanaughs service as staff secretary and associate counsel in the Bush White House. Blumenthal and other Democrats insisted only about 9 percent of documents relevant to Kavanaughs White House service had been turned over. About 42,000 of those pages were furnished to the committee Monday night, only hours before hearings were to begin.
And about 142,000 of those pages were ruled committee confidential, meaning Senators can review them but cannot refer to them in questioning Kavanaugh nor release them to the public.
Grassley countered that the Democrats document demands were little more than a smokescreen, and that more than 400,000 pages have been turned over.
Senators have more documents from Kavanaugh than any nominee in Senate history, Grassley said.
Blumenthal dismissed the documents on Kavanaugh as full of junk.
Blumenthal and other committee Democrats tried appealing to Grassleys sense of fairness and respect for the rights of the minority party, whether it be Republican or Democrat. Blumenthal quoted back a Grassley statement that full disclosure and transparency sunshine is the best disinfectant in the political realm.
But ultimately, the hearing settled down to sparring over the expected controversial topics of Kavanaughs record and legal viewpoints.
I will not cast a vote more important than this one, said Blumenthal, Connecticuts former state attorney general and U.S. attorney who already has declared his opposition to Kavanaughs confirmation. Whats at stake here is the rule of law.
Blumenthal, who is scheduled to get his first round of questions to Kavanaugh directly on Wednesday afternoon, took aim at the nominee nonetheless.
The conservative Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society are the ones who have nominated you, Blumenthal said, referring to Trump drawing his Supreme Court nominees from lists prepared by the two organizations. Youve done everything in your power to show those groups you will be a loyal soldier on the Supreme Court.
In questioning Wednesday, Blumenthal and the other Democrats are expected to express doubt over the legitimacy of the nomination overall, since legal clouds are gathering over Trump.
Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation of Trumps 2016 campaign connections to Russia gathered steam last month after his prosecutors won conviction of New Britain native Paul Manafort on tax evasion and bank fraud chargers. Also, former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to charges related to pre-election payments to two women with whom Trump allegedly had sexual relationships. In the plea, Cohen said Trump directed him to make the payments a possible campaign finance violation.
Grassley and the committees Republican majority are skirting the fact it was Trump who nominated Kavanaugh. Their focus is on Kavanaughs extensive legal experience, including 12 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, often cited as the nations second most influential court after the U.S. Supreme Court.
He is a judges judge, said Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho.
dan@hearstdc.com
H John Voorhees III / Hearst Connecticut Media
BROOKFIELD The $78.1 million plan to build a new Huckleberry Hill Elementary School will head to a committee that is meant to see the project through approval and construction.
The Board of Selectmen voted Tuesday evening to have the first selectman ask the Municipal Building Committee to oversee the project. The town hopes to hold a referendum in March on the plan to build a new school for pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made his first official trip to Pakistan on Wednesday, saying that he hoped to "reset the relationship" with the new government after a period of sharp disagreements between the longtime security allies over Pakistan's alleged harboring of anti-Afghan militants.
The secretary of state also told reporters that Zalmay Khalilzad, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq, was traveling with him from Washington and would join the Trump administration as a special envoy to Afghanistan, with a focus on pursuing reconciliation and peace talks with the Taliban.
It was the first official confirmation of widespread reports that Khalilzad would be named to the position, which has been vacant since President Donald Trump took office. The announcement added emphasis to Pompeo's message from Washington that settling the Afghan conflict after 17 years is the administration's top regional priority.
Pompeo's five-hour visit was greeted with skepticism and indignation in many quarters here, especially because it came just a a few days after the Trump administration announced it would suspend $300 million in military support funds to Pakistan as a reprisal for sheltering armed militants who stage attacks on Afghanistan. That was the second major U.S. cut in security assistance to Pakistan this year.
All week, Pakistani commentators denounced the United States as a hectoring bully that seeks to force Pakistan to do its bidding and fails to appreciate its efforts to fight Islamist terrorism. But officials of the new government headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan tried to maintain a cordial tone during the meetings Wednesday, and later pronounced the day a success.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a news conference Wednesday evening that the discussions with Pompeo, who was accompanied by Gen. Joseph Votel, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had "set the stage to reset the environment" for bilateral relations and that he had been invited to Washington to follow up later this month. "We understood what they want, and have also presented what Pakistan expects . . . in a mutually respectful manner," he said.
Pompeo, before departing for a longer visit in India, said he was "hopeful" that the talks with Qureshi, Khan and Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Javed Qamar Bajwa, would lead to improved relations. He said they had discussed the need for a "peaceful resolution" in Afghanistan, but that there was still "a long way to go" on making any firm agreements.
"We made clear to them and they agreed that it's time for us to begin to deliver on our joint commitment," Pompeo said. "There was broad agreement" about the need for "on the ground" actions that will "begin to build confidence and trust."
Pakistani officials expressed support for recent stepped-up U.S. efforts to seek reconciliation with the Taliban in Afghanistan and settle the 17-year conflict peacefully, asserting that it had long been Khan's wish. Qureshi said they had decided not to mention the military aid cut in order to maintain a positive atmosphere at the meetings.
Yet up until Wednesday, both Pakistani officials and commentators were fulminating about the sanctions, and a get-acquainted phone call last week between Pompeo and Khan led to anugly spat when Pakistan heatedly denied a State Department spokesman's statement that the two had discussed the issue of cross-border attacks.
"The antagonism witnessed now is unprecedented," Zahid Hussain, a columnist for Dawn newspaper, wrote Wednesday. "Washington's demand for unquestionable compliance is unacceptable to Pakistan." Although noting that the two "frenemies" cannot afford to break up, he added, U.S. efforts to "punish" Pakistan with aid cuts and belittle it with "humiliating tweets" would only backfire.
Pompeo told reporters Wednesday that the Islamabad government had been told in advance the sanctions were coming and why. "The rationale for them not getting the money is very clear," he said. "It's that we haven't seen the progress that we need to see from them."
Pakistan's priority in foreign policy has always been guarding against aggression by India, its nuclear-armed next-door neighbor. But the American priority in the region today is ending the war in Afghanistan, a long-elusive goal that is showing new promise. U.S. officials are eager to enlist Pakistan's help in that effort while pressing it to stop cross-border attacks.
American officials continue to insist that Pakistan is sheltering anti-Taliban militants in its porous border region with Afghanistan. Pakistan has repeatedly denied the charge. Afghan officials accused Pakistan just last month of sending fighters to attack Ghazni, a large Afghan city near the Pakstan border, which was besieged by Taliban forces for four days.
There were widespread reports of wounded and dead fighters being returned to Pakistan for treatment and burial, and foreign diplomats and military officials in Kabul said they had seen indications of that taking place. Pakistani officials have said the victims could have been Pakistani laborers or others caught up in the violence.
While U.S. officials tried to keep Wednesday's meetings focused on Afghanistan, Pakistanis continued to grumble about U.S. favoritism toward India and bias against their country. The Trump administration is working on an agreement with India that would give it greater access to defense technology, one of the items on the agenda for Pompeo's longer, more relaxed visit there beginning Wednesday night.
As recreational and medical marijuana slowly becomes legal in states across the country, the business of hemp is also booming. In 2017, $820 million worth of legal hemp products were sold in the United States alone. Given this number, its clear that theres a demand for hemp and businesses are popping up everywhere to serve it.
Related: Need a Business Idea? Here are 55
Just last year, hemp was grown in 19 states, covering nearly 26,000 acres of land, 1,456 licenses were issued to grow hemp and 32 U.S. universities were conducting hemp-related research. People are using hemp in CBD products, personal care items and even food because it provides a number of health benefits. In food, hemp can help with digestion, reduce risk of heart disease, improve skin conditions including acne and eczema and reduce menstrual symptoms in women.
Related: How This Investor Blazed a Path to Success in the Cannabis Industry
While hemp might seem like a new phenomenon, its history dates back to the 1600s when growing hemp was encouraged for use in sails, ropes and clothing. However, in the 1900s, hemp was frowned upon by the government: in 1937, the Marijuana Tax Act banned hemp and marijuana cultivation. Yet, it wasnt before long that industries realized the crop's benefits: In the 1940s, the government launched its Hemp for Victory program encouraging farmers to grow hemp to contribute to the war efforts and to be used in ropes, parachutes and other necessities. However, after the war, the laws went back to banning hemp. But in 2014 the U.S. Farm Bill was passed, allowing people to cultivate hemp as long as they registered and received a license.
Related: 5 Reasons Why Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Are Essential in the Cannabis Industry Business
Today, like marijuana, hemp laws vary by state. But with its growing popularity, it's likely hemp will become legal in more states -- and businesses are capitalizing off the opportunity. To learn more, check out Popular CBD Brands infographic below.
Related:
The Hemp Business Is Booming (Infographic)
The 6 Best Ways Leaders Can Inspire Their Teams (Infographic)
7 Hand Gestures to Get People to Listen to You (Infographic)
Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
Currently Reading
This Style Blogger Got Her Start in Her Dorm Room. Today She Has Over a Million Followers and a Fashion Line.
A U.S. military veteran says he's been denied service at a Western New York restaurant because of his service dog.
WIVB reports Brandon Ruzbacki, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, complained on Facebook after he wasn't allowed to bring his dog Murphy to Duff's in Orchard Park on Monday. It's against the law to discriminate against people with service dogs.
"Unbelievable," Ruzbacki wrote. "I get denied service cause the owner has no freaking clue what a service dog means. Tells me he could get shut down cause there is a dog in the building. I hand him a card explaining service dogs and regulations (not that I have to), and he is just being a d---. I snatch the cards out of his hands and say forget it after this treatment I won't eat here.
"I announce to the place that I'm a vet and being denied service here because of my dog. Tell the owner to shove it and walk out. Have to love the people here in Buffalo about 6 other patrons got up and cancelled their order and walked out. So f--- Duff's but thanks Buffalo for having my 6."
Ruzbacki told WIVB that he decided to eat at Duff's Famous Wings while his wife was at a concert Monday. He brings Murphy everywhere because of his PTSD and normally doesn't have any issues in other businesses.
"Not all wounds are visible. Some of us have other issues and the dogs help us. You have no idea how much this dog helps me," Ruzbacki said. "It literally terrifies me to be in a crowded room."
Ruzbacki, who lives in West Seneca, N.Y., said the owner told him the dog was a "sanitation risk" and could bite other customers. Ruzbacki said he showed the owner a card explaining that Murphy is a service dog, defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act as an animal trained to assist anyone with a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual or mental disability.
WIVB reports business owners can only legally ask if an animal is a service animal and what service he provides.
Philip Kinecki, the owner of Duff's in Orchard Park, told the TV station that he made a mistake and has reached out to Ruzbacki to apologize.
"I should've known the rules and I didn't exactly understand the difference between the dog designations and what it means to be a service dog and now that I do I feel even worse," Kinecki said. "I just felt horrible. You know I respect veterans and I don't want to do anything to hurt a veteran especially someone who needs a service dog."
Ruzbacki said Kinecki should "make it right" by sponsoring a dog for another veteran.
Duff's Famous Wings also issued a public apology on Facebook on behalf of the restaurant chain.
"We at Duff's Famous Wings would like to apologize for how things were handled yesterday at the Orchard Park Location regarding a veteran and his service dog entering the location," a statement said Tuesday. "We are taking this matter extremely seriously, and have been in contact with the owner of that location to make sure this never happens again. The owner of the Orchard Park location has acknowledged this situation was handled inappropriately, and has assured us it will never happen again."
Duff's said it has a long history of supporting veterans and vowed to retrain all its staff members on the appropriate procedures of allowing service dogs.
PENN YAN, NY -- The owners of Torrey Ridge Winery and other Finger Lakes beverage brands have added Rooster Hill Vineyards on Keuka Lake to their growing portfolio.
Paul Curcillo and Stephanie King purchased Rooster Hill, about five miles south of Penn Yan at 493 East Lake Road, from its founders, Amy and Dave Hoffman.
That puts Rooster Hill in Curcillo and King's CK Cellars group. It includes Torrey Ridge on the west side of Seneca Lake, plus affiliated brands Earle Estates Meadery, Redneck Wines, WortHog Cidery, Earle Estates Specialty Wines and soon to be released CuKi Fine Wines.
The Hoffmans owned Rooster Hill for 16 years. It earned 330 medals and frequent press citations during that time. They are retiring.
"We did what we came to do ... build a successful winery," Amy Hoffman said in a news release. "It's been a great run and now it's time to relax. We're in retirement mode."
Curcillo and King, natives of Philadelphia, entered the Finger Lakes wine business in 2015 when they purchased Torrey Ridge, about halfway between Geneva and Watkins Glen on Seneca Lake's west side.
Torrey Ridge was named New York's Winery of the Year in 2017 at the NY Wine & Food Classic, touted as the "Oscars" of the state's wine industry.
Except for Rooster Hill, the rest of the CK Cellars enterprises -- the meadery, the cidery and the other wine brands -- are housed on the Torrey Ridge campus, 2770 State Route 14.
Curcillo learned wine-making from his Italian-American family. He and King began looking for a winery several years ago and settled on one in the Finger Lakes.
"We love coming up here," Curcillo said in a news release. "It's one of the best decisions we ever made. Everyone we know who visits comes back."
Stanley Olevnik of Howard Hanna Lake Group handled the the winery sale.
"CK Cellar's purchase is a direct reflection on the confidence Paul and Stephanie have in our region," Olevnik said in the release. "The addition of Rooster Hill to their organization creates synergies in production and customer service that enhance the roles of local employees and support our growing tourist industry."
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.
Syracuse, N.Y. -- The summer heat is leaving just as kids get ready to go back to school.
Today will be broiling again in Upstate New York, with the heat index nearing 100 degrees. A cold front sweeping through tonight will bring thunderstorms and a return to fall temperatures.
The heat index could approach 100 degrees this afternoon in Upstate New York.
After today, highs will be in the 70s or even high 60s for a week or more.
First, though, we'll have one more day of heat and humidity in a summer that's been especially hot and humid. Temperatures will reach about 90 degrees this afternoon, and high humidity will make the air feel closer to 100 degrees.
The National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory across much of Upstate New York from noon to 8 p.m. today.
A cold front will sweep in from the west, so thunderstorms are likely tonight. The front likely won't arrive until after dark, after the hottest part of the day, so the odds of damaging storms are low.
Contact Glenn Coin: Email | Twitter | Google + | (315) 470-3251
European Union officials are exploring how to unlock a wider Brexit deal by making the so-called Irish border backstop more palatable to the U.K., according to a person familiar with the deliberations.
In February, the EU laid out a detailed plan for avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland, a proposal that would effectively keep Northern Ireland in the bloc's customs union and parts of the single market as a last resort. But that approach would amount to erecting a customs frontier between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain, which U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May says is unacceptable.
The EU accepts that its original version was heavy-handed and indicated a lack of trust in Britain, according to the person, who asked not be identified because deliberations are confidential. Still, there's no question of the EU side backing down on the principles behind the backstop.
The search for a version of the backstop more politically acceptable to the U.K. is key to the entire Brexit process. The Irish question must be solved to allow the two sides to reach an accord on a withdrawal agreement and avert the risk of Britain crashing out of the bloc without a deal.
In a speech in Dublin on Wednesday, Irish Agriculture Minister Michael Creed said he's "confident" progress can be made on agreeing on a backstop, though warned the timetable for doing so is "challenging."
The U.K. side is also working on proposals to find a solution to the border issue. But May needs to keep her allies in the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party onside, as without them she doesn't have a majority in Parliament. For the DUP, any barriers between Northern Ireland and Britain would be unacceptable.
DUP lawmakers are getting suspicious about the concessions the U.K. government may be prepared to offer the EU. Bloomberg reported in July that one option being considered is keeping Northern Ireland aligned with some EU rules after Brexit and setting up regulatory checks between Northern Ireland and Britain. DUP lawmakers repeatedly questioned Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab on Tuesday as to whether there would be a regulatory border in the Irish Sea. Raab stopped short of ruling it out.
"We will not allow anything to be done that would threaten either the territorial or constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom," he said.
Chief EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has said he's open to suggestions on how to solve the problem and in July said a way forward could be found. "We need to de-dramatize things," he said.
The EU's willingness to help May lies behind Barnier's request last week for more detail from Britain on what goods cross into Northern Ireland from the mainland, the person said. There may be many areas where there's little trade, for example, which would mean those sectors would need minimal monitoring on an ongoing basis, the person said.
A second area being explored is the circumstances under which the backstop would be triggered. If the EU and U.K. government can demonstrate that relatively few triggers for the backstop are in play, that may help sell it to the DUP.
Still, there's a real risk the Northern Irish party will reject any form of a backstop, no matter how watered down, the person said.
While the Irish government still wants a backstop to ensure no border re-emerges after Brexit, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has also said he's not "hung up" on the precise version of the legal text. What's important is the outcome, he said.
Relatively little progress is expected in coming weeks, the person said, with only a cursory discussion on Brexit expected at an EU leaders summit in Salzburg, Austria, this month. November is a more realistic timeframe for a deal, according to the person.
NEW HAVEN A Silicon Valley tech school is bringing its contemporary learning approach to Connecticut.
The Holberton School is a software engineer training program with nontraditional education methods and a track record of successful graduates. Based in San Francisco, it was founded by tech industry professionals Julien Barbier and Sylvain Kalache.
After seeing the schools graduates get jobs at the biggest tech companies in the world, they are bringing their teaching methodology to New Haven in January.
The idea of having an advanced, world-class two-year training program means we will again start to meet the needs of our employers, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said during the announcement Tuesday. Right now, there are thousands of unfilled jobs in Connecticut because were still catching up with the pipeline we need to establish.
Nobody knows what are going to be the jobs of tomorrow, Barbier said. Nobody knows what the skills will be to fill those jobs. ... Even though Holberton school is about software engineering, our education is focusing on three things: learning how to learn, critical thinking and problem solving, and teamwork.
The mission of Holberton is to create the full stack engineer, meaning the graduate of Holberton doesnt just know one specialty, but has a well-rounded knowledge of all the areas of software engineering and is able to sell his or her skills to big companies.
A lot of companies are going through this digital transformation, Kalache said. Tech is not only for tech companies. Its health care, transportation, retail, you name it. Most of the jobs that require software engineering skills are not in Silicon Valley anymore. Only 10 percent of them are in Silicon Valley. The rest are across the U.S.
Barbier and Kalache are also keen on finding students who are not just like them. In the application process, they dont look at gender, age, background or GPA. They only thing they do look at is a persons resiliency as a fit for their school, Barbier said. Applicants also dont need any type of engineering background to be successful, but it takes between 18 and 50 hours of work to complete the application process, he said.
Holberton is beginning to dominate in finding people with alternative backgrounds, with high skill levels but not necessarily with any coding experience and people with no formal degrees or formal background in tech fields and taking them and making them into coders, New Haven Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson said. Its people who have been problem solving their whole lives who get brought into a startup or special project. Its really the top people who are tapped of people of different backgrounds. Youre looking for people who can solve problems other people havent been able to solve. Thats why these independent coding academies have become so important, because you need something thats a little crazy and a little unstructured.
In choosing New Haven as Holbertons East Coast campus, Kalache said they looked where they could find a diversity of people and talent, where there was a large need for software engineers and where the cost of living wouldnt be as high so more people would have access to high quality education even if they werent financially stable, Kalache said.
We have to rethink education and make sure everyone has access this time, Barbier said. We removed the human bias in the application and the financial barrier by giving the option of students not paying anything until they find a job. Tuition for Holberton is $45,000 for the first year and $40,000 for the second year, but students have the option of not paying anything up front and once they find a job making more than $40,000 a year will pay 17 percent of their salary for 3.5 years.
Barbier and Kalache are looking to start small accepting 30-50 students every cohort and build up to eventually accommodate up to 1,000 students. Applications for the New Haven campus are live on their website, with the first cohort beginning in January.
Kalache said Holberton will have three acceptance periods throughout the year. There are no formal classes or teachers; instead, all the learning is project-based. Holberton graduates have gotten jobs at Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and other major companies.
They had to compete with Ivy League school graduates, Barbier said. Holberton School is a very different kind of education and it works. Every single graduate from Holberton has found a job and most of them found a job before the end of the two years.
The school will be in the District buildingat 470 James St., which offers customizable office spaces for people and businesses startups. District CEO and founder David Salinas said the state is taking a giant leap forward in workforce training and education with the opening of Holberton.
New Haven is the burgeoning center of biotechnology and pharmacological research, Mayor Toni N. Harp said. New Haven is going to need the graduates of this new coding school.
The school was named for Betty Holberton, who was one of the women computers selected by the U.S. Army to calculate ballistic trajectories in WWII and work on the Armys experimental, all-electronic, digital computer, the ENIAC. Her nephew Phil Holberton said he was immensely proud that Barbier and Kalache named their school in honor of her.
mdignan@hearstmediact.com
NEW HAVEN Rabbi Gershom Sizomu is the spiritual leader of Ugandas 2,000 Jews, a tiny portion of the east African nations 41.5 million people.
But he knows he and his people, who will commemorate Rosh Hashana beginning at sundown on Sunday, are accepted beyond his Abayudaya community because he was elected to Parliament by the larger, mostly Christian population even though he was listed on the ballot as Rabbi Gershom Sizomu and wore his yarmulke in his campaign photos.
We feel very, very much accepted. Otherwise, a Christian would not cast their vote for a man who is a rabbi and who wears a kippah, he said. Muslims and Christians cast their vote in my favor and that was a vote for the Jewish people.
Sizomu, 49, was in New Haven Tuesday as a guest of the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale and gathered with a small group for conversation Tuesday at Yale Universitys Afro-American Cultural Center. He said he is proud that the Jews he leads live in peaceful coexistence with other religions.
His philosophy is that everyone is equal under God and that differences are natural and should be celebrated.
By engaging and participating, we gained respect and nobody can ever say anything bad about the Jewish community because I will speak for them in the house of Parliament, he said. I have ambition to become president.
But he said its important to stand proudly as who you are. The moment we play victim and lament, the moment you put your head down, they will step on it, he said. You must stick your head up.
Sizomu said he teaches that we are all created in the one image of God. Whether we are Christians, Muslims or Jews, we are all human. Why I am elected is because that is the message I give to the people. Otherwise, politics is determined by religion and tribal differences.
He said his people also have gained acceptance because they dug wells in their villages and opened them up to anyone who needed water.
Judaism arrived in Uganda when one gentleman studied the Bible, which fortunately was brought by Christian missionaries, which wanted the people of Uganda to be Christian, he said. When he started the Bible he ripped it into two parts. He chose the Old Testament and the Torah. He circumcised himself and brought up his family to be Jewish.
Now, the nation is 84 percent Christian (mostly Roman Catholic and Anglican) and 14 percent Muslim, according to the CIAs World Factbook.
Ugandan Jews follow similar traditions and laws as those in other parts of the world, keeping kosher by not eating certain animals and not eating dairy and meat products in the same meal, Sizomu said. They take off their shoes when entering the synagogue, based on the story of Moses taking off his sandals at the burning bush because it was holy ground. But they have brought African culture into their worship as well.
We use our African musical traditions and musical beats and melodies and put Hebrew words on them, he said. When you hear the Hebrew and the African beats and melody you can see how we bring the two together.
The worst time for Ugandas Jews was during the dictatorship of Idi Amin, from 1971 to 1979, when many left the faith.
We were faced with a lot of anti-Semitism. During Idi Amins time, we were not allowed to practice and it was punishable by death if Jews wore the kippot or followed Jewish customs, Sizomu said. Idi Amin was a dictator who had no regard and respect for Judaism at all. And so people feared that if they still had the connection, maybe one morning they would come up with an order to kill all the Jews. So many people left the community.
But Sizomu, who was ordained a rabbi in 2008 and whose father also was a rabbi, said, the African continent has a very big potential Jewish population, more than anywhere else. He said there are groups who follow Jewish customs, such as keeping kosher and circumcising boys, as part of their tribal traditions and not because they were taught by a rabbi. The 33 million Ibo people in Nigeria as well as groups in South Africa and Rwanda believe they are a lost tribe of Israel.
Sizomu said that in his yeshiva, or rabbinic school, he has three students from Nigeria and one each from Ghana and Ethiopia. They are deeply connected. They have that thirst and desire but it is very difficult to maintain Jewish traditions, he said.
One of his biggest challenges is serving both his Jewish community and as a member of Parliament, having to drive five hours each way each week. He spends the Sabbath with his Jewish constituents and Sunday with the much larger non-Jewish population he represents. I am getting some negative rating for that. I have to find more ways of accessing more people not on Saturday. That day is for my community.
Sizomu said hes seen other changes in his life. Because they had no calendars, the Jews calculated Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot by counting days according to the full moon. His father was an expert in sighting the moon, he said. But they didnt celebrate Hanukkah because its not mentioned in the Bible.
Hanukkah came in 1962 when the Israeli Embassy opened and they began to get calendars, he said. The holiday resonates with Ugandas Jews because its the same story of persecution. The story of Idi Amin comes alive during Hanukkah.
Sizomu has also brought changes from the Orthodox Judaism practiced by his father. Since I was educated in a Conservative rabbinic seminary I said women are allowed to lead services, to read the Torah and do everything men do. People in one of the six villages disagreed and remained Orthodox.
I allowed the break, he said. I invited them whenever we have a special occasion; they invite us. There is no strife. We respect each others opinion. Differences are normal and we move forward with respect.
His father would not have approved of the changes, by my mom supported it and she was very happy, he said.
edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382.
UPDATE: N.J couple in $400K dispute with homeless vet no-shows court hearing, may take 5th
GoFundMe said Tuesday it deposited $20,000 in an account for Johnny Bobbitt and is working with authorities to see that $400,000 raised for the homeless veteran by a South Jersey couple reaches the rightful recipient.
The Burlington County couple - Kate McClure and Mark D'Amico - launched a fundraiser in Bobbitt's name after he gave his last $20 to McClure when she ran out of gas on I-95 in Philadelphia last year. The feel-good story soured after Bobbitt sued, claiming the couple was withholding the money gathered for him. A judge ordered the couple to turn over the money to an escrow account last week.
An attorney for Bobbitt, Christopher C. Fallon, said Tuesday that a conference call between lawyers for both sides revealed the thousands in donations is gone. A hearing was scheduled Wednesday morning in case.
Meanwhile, a GoFundMe spokesman said the company put $20,000 in a bank account created by Bobbitt's legal team " to provide assistance during the investigation."
"We are working with law enforcement officials to ensure Johnny receives all of the funds raised on his behalf," the company said in a statement.
"It's important to remember that our platform is backed by the GoFundMe Guarantee, which means that in the rare case that GoFundMe, law enforcement or a user finds campaigns are misused, donors and beneficiaries are protected," the statement said.
It was not clear if the couple is the subject of a criminal investigation or which law enforcement agency was apparently involved in the matter.
According to the GoFundMe website, donations can be refunded if the company determines something improper. A spokesman did not immediately comment further and the company's plans remained unclear as the legal case progressed.
An attorney for McClure and D'Amico, Ernest E. Badway, did not respond to messages seeking comment Tuesday afternoon.
Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
A 29-year-old New Jersey man arrested Tuesday as he tried to enter a high school in Burlington County had pepper spray, a stun gun and a length of rope in his car, authorities said.
Fidel Medina Jr. (Evesham police)
Fidel Medina Jr., 29, of Hamilton, Mercer County, was taken into custody around 2 p.m. at Cherokee High School after staff members saw him attempting to access the building through a locked vestibule, Marlton police said in a statement. It's the second time he has been arrested on trespassing charges at the school, police said.
Though Medina claimed he was there to pick up a student, police determined he has no connection to anyone at Cherokee High School.
Medina was charged with defiant trespass and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. He was sent to a mental health facility to be evaluated.
Police later searched his home and seized additional items that they declined to identify.
Tuesday was the first day of school for students at Cherokee, one of four high schools in the Lenape Regional High School District.
Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
The New Jersey fast food frontier will be getting another addition this year as California-based Fatburger has announced its return to the East Coast with the opening of a restaurant in Cherry Hill this year.
The burger chain's parent company, FAT Brands, announced a development deal with its franchise partner, Praveen Vig, on Tuesday that will culminate in the opening of a Fatburger at the Cherry Hill Mall in "late 2018", the company announced Tuesday.
Vig is the owner and operator of several fast food franchise restaurants, according to his Linkedin account.
"It has been a longtime goal of ours to bring Fatburger back to the East Coast, but we knew that we had to be deliberate in our strategy," FAT Brands CEO Andy Wiederhorn said in a release. "Entering the Cherry Hill market is the perfect entry point back into the East Coast for us and we are thrilled to have found such an excellent partner in Praveen Vig."
The Beverly Hills-based company opened in Southern California about 70 years ago and there are now 70 Fatburgers in California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Washington.
The opening of the Cherry Hill located is being called the chain's "return to the East Coast," as there were once Fatburgers located in Jersey City, Rockaway and Atlantic City. The Jersey City location closed nearly 10 years ago, much to the dismay of at least one frequent customer
Representatives for Fatburger did not respond to an email Tuesday evening asking how many restaurants opened and closed on the East Coast or what the reason was for their closure.
Wiederhorn pleaded guilty in 2004 to filing a false tax return and to giving an illegal gratuity while he was with Los Angeles-based Wilshire Credit and spent 16 months in federal prison, the New York Post reported. He first invested in Fatburger in 2003.
The company's trouble with finding its footing on the East Coast came on the heels of Wiederhorn's legal troubles, the Philly Voice reported.
Since that time, the company's finances appears to be trending positively as FAT Brands reported at net income of $771,000 and total revenues of $2 million for Fatburger, according to second quarter 2018 financial results.
The company did not announce plans for any future East Coast locations.
Fatburger prides itself as "The Last Great Hamburger Stand," and is known for its grilled to order burgers, milkshakes and onion rings. It even has a monstrous meat-lover's dream in the XXXL Fatburger which is three half-pound patties topped with lettuce, tomato, mustard, relish, diced onions, pickles, mayo and cheddar cheese. Eating it grants you a spot on the restaurant's XXXL Wall of Fame.
Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrisrsheldon Find NJ.com on Facebook.
An Israeli citizen headed to a training event on X-ray detection of explosives caused a scare at Newark airport Tuesday when he was caught with a mock bomb in his carry-on bag, officials said.
Alon Felman, 50, was charged with creating a false public alarm and interfering with transportation after the realistic-looking replica improvised explosive was spotted by a Transportation Security Administration officer at the Terminal C checkpoint, according to officials.
Felman told police he arrived from Tel Aviv and was bound for Panama City, Florida, to take part in the training conference, a Port Authority spokesman said.
The suspicious "test" item, designed to look like a fully-assembled bomb when viewed via an X-ray monitor, was found to be harmless after a response from police and the Essex County bomb squad, officials said. A TSA officer initially spotted the device and alerted her supervisor.
"Everyone reacted to the event properly," said TSA's New Jersey Federal Security Director Tom Carter.
"The item was built to look exactly like an explosive device. The terror threat is real and we do not take chances when it comes to protecting the lives of travelers," Carter said in a statement.
Six checkpoint lanes were temporarily closed and travelers were moved to other available lanes in order to allow bomb technicians to confirm the item was not an actual explosive, according to officials. Screening resumed after the area was deemed safe.
"The individual who brought this device to the checkpoint knew he had a replica bomb with him and as such, he should have known better than to bring it to an active checkpoint. His foolish actions inconvenienced hundreds of passengers today," Carter said.
In addition to criminal charges stemming from his arrest by Port Authority police, the TSA could impose civil fines.
Penalties of up to $13,000 are possible for people who bring weapons to airports, according to the TSA. Violations also exist for bringing "realistic replica explosives" to checkpoints or interfere with security screening.
It was not clear if Felman had retained an attorney to comment on the allegations.
Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
JERSEY CITY Immigrant advocates plan to protest outside the Hudson County Democratic Party's annual gala on Thursday to bring more attention to the freeholder board's recent decision to renew the county's contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The county's leaders have been under fire from liberal activists since the freeholders, all Democrats, voted July 12 to approve the new ICE agreement, which allows federal immigration agents to house immigrant detainees at the county's jail in Kearny.
Charlie Metzger, 28, of Jersey City, intends to be at the protest. Metzger said he believes the freeholders who voted to reauthorize the ICE contract have ignored the concerns of immigrant advocates. He hopes protesters will be able to get the attention of the Democratic stars scheduled to appear at the Thursday gala, including Gov. Phil Murphy.
"The progressive base is fired up about this issue and isn't going to go away quietly," he said.
The protesters intend to meet at 4:30 in the public area of Liberty State Park across from the Liberty House banquet hall, where Hudson Democrats will meet for their gala.
Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
Authorities are investigating a shooting in Jersey City that has left one person dead.
Police are currently at the scene of the shooting near the intersection of Lembeck and Ocean avenues, where at least 20 evidence markers have been placed in the street, according to freelance photographer Joe Shine, who is also at the scene.
The victim, who was shot in the chest and abdomen, was taken to Jersey City Medical Center, where they were later pronounced dead, according to police radio transmissions.
Hudson County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Ray Worrall confirmed tonight that the office's Homicide Unit was investigating the fatal shooting of a male.
JERSEY CITY -- The attorney for one of three Jersey City police officers accused of falsifying time sheets for off-duty work they never completed called the charges an "abuse of power" by prosecutors.
Opening statements in the trial of Lt. Kelly Chesler, Officer Michael O'Neil, and retired Capt. Joe Ascolese were heard Wednesday morning before Hudson County Superior Court Judge Mirtha Ospina, who will ultimately decide the fate of the three defendants.
"This case is indeed about an abuse of power, but not an abuse of power by Kelly Chesler, Joe Ascolese and Michael O'Neil," Ascolese's attorney, Robert Lytle, said in his opening statement.
Instead, Lytle said the officers are the victims of a shoddy investigation, addign that "there are few if any powers greater than the state's power to unleash its ample resources against someone."
In his opening statement, Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Peter Stoma said by the trial's end, the state would use circumstantial evidence, direct evidence and testimony to prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.
Stoma said the charges against Ascolese and Chesler stem from off-duty traffic assignments in 2014 during Pulaski Skyway closures. He said Ascolese was in charge of the operation and Chesler was his executive officer.
Both are charged with falsifying time sheets for Officer Michael Maietti, who has since decided to cooperate and will testify against the others at trial. Officer Joseph Widejko is also expected to testify that he was paid for no-show shifts. Widejko was not charged.
O'Neil is charged with working two no-show off-jobs, which were allegedly awarded to him to pay him back for shelling out $200 to pay for damage to a vehicle that was involved in an accident with a police motorcycle.
Stoma said a parade of officers and others would testify for the state. He said there were rules in place to verify officers actually showed up for the assignments for which they were paid $50 per hour.
"However, every system relies on the integrity of the officers and supervisors to do the right thing and not to use public funds for their own benefit or the benefit of others," Stoma said.
But Lytle said detectives investigating the case were either too incompetent or ignored evidence that the defendants had done nothing wrong, and produced a case full of holes.
The attorney said that to fill the gaps in the evidence, the state gave "the moon" in deals it struck with two officers who admitted getting paid for no-show off-duty jobs and will testify for the state.
All the officers involved were connected to the department's now-disbanded motorcycle squad. Lytle spoke at length about rivalries in the squad and the battle between what he called the squad's old guard and new guard. He also said state would not be able to prove Ascolese and Chesler signed time vouchers with the knowledge that an officer had not shown up.
As a bench trial with no jury, Ospina will decide the officers' guilt or innocence after closing statements. The request for a bench trial was made by the defense and accepted by the prosecution.
The lengthy opening statements by Stoma and Lytle took up the entire morning. O'Neil's lawyer, Charles Sciarra, and Chesler's lawyer Jeffrey Garrigan, are to give their opening statements Wednesday afternoon.
There are more than 250 names on the witness list, with the vast majority being police officers. The trial is expected to last up to six weeks. During his opening statement today, Stoma told Ospina "This is going to be a long one."
The defendants face 10 to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The case is similar but separate from the federal investigation into falsified police time records that has led to a dozen guilty pleas, including ex-police chief Phil Zacche.
Zacche, who admitted stealing more than $20,000 related to a "no show" second job for the Jersey City Housing Authority, was sentenced to two years probation last month. His career spanned nearly four decades.
BUCKS COUNTY >> Republicans swept the table on Tuesday regaining a foothold at the Bucks County Courthouse in Doylestown by winning five row offices, four of which it lost four years ago to the Democrats. According to unofficial results, voters re-elected Republican Matt Weintraub to another term as the countys district attorney. Weintraub defeated a challenge from Democrat Antonetta Stancu....
HOBOKEN -- The construction and paving work underway on Washington Street not only represents much needed relief for local drivers, but a first step toward mitigating Hoboken's rampant water troubles.
The project, which will replace 1.25 miles of water mains beneath the city's primary thoroughfare, is the unofficial first phase in a broad capital improvement plan that seeks to bring Hoboken's ancient water infrastructure into the 21st century.
The plan, dubbed the water system renewal program, also targets an additional 7 miles of water mains in the city for replacement or rehabilitation in the years to come. Officials estimate this portion of work will take eight years to complete.
It all amounts to just a fraction -- about 20 percent -- of the 41 miles of water mains throughout the city, but it's a step in the right direction, experts say.
"It sounds to me like it's going to get worse before it gets better, but it's going to get better," said Chris Sturm, the managing director of policy and water for New Jersey Future. "The fact that the city has a long-term plan underway is really important; there's a light at the end of the tunnel."
A recent series of water main breaks has put Hoboken's aging infrastructure back under the microscope. Last week, the city filed a lawsuit against its current water operator, Suez, saying it has mismanaged the system.
Suez, meanwhile, says the blame lies in the age of Hoboken infrastructure, which the city has done a poor job addressing.
As Washington Street construction nears 80 percent completion, the city now awaits approvals from the state Department of Environmental Protection before it can bid for companies to start replacing the 7 miles of old cast iron mains, which could have been installed "any(time) from 1880 to 1920," said city Business Administrator Stephen D. Marks.
"It's an aging asset that's fracture critical and it is definitely a health safety concern in the city," he added.
This part of the plan calls for $30 million in capital improvements over the next eight years and targets 67 priority projects, according to Jennifer Gonzalez, the city's environmental services director.
The city has already bonded for $10.2 million worth of improvements over a two-year span -- which officials said should begin later this year.
"We're basically taking all 67 projects in $5 million increments. That will make it much more feasible for our residents and convenient for them for construction," Gonzalez said, adding it is contingent on city council approval each year. "We imagine needing about $5 million a year for the foreseeable future until we reach a state of good repair."
But a state of good repair, city officials said, is still a reach, even when the improvements are made.
"I would love to say that the 67 locations are going to get us to a state of good repair, but ultimately industry standards say that 50 percent of your water system should be younger than 50 years old and 50 percent should be over 50 years old," Gonzalez said. "It would be way too speculative to say how long it's going to take us now."
That means the problem will not be fixed overnight.
"These lines are probably so fragile that the process of replacing lines is going to cause lines to break; just the slightest surge of pressure through will be enough to disrupt some of these very old lines," said Daniel J. Van Abs, an associate professor of practice for water, society and environment at Rutgers University. "I absolutely think -- or I expect -- that Hoboken is going to face a lot more breaks regardless of who operates the system."
The repairs will be "more difficult in a dense place like Hoboken," Sturm said, "but it's not rocket science."
"(The repairs) will be disruptive. But it's certainly clear that it will be more disruptive if they don't fix the system," she said.
Corey W. McDonald may be reached at cmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @coreymacc. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
The man who was fatally shot in Jersey City Tuesday evening has been identified as a 23-year-old Bayonne resident.
Eric Crocker suffered multiple gunshot wounds to his torso after gunfire erupted in the area of Lembeck and Ocean avenues just before 6 p.m., Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said.
Crocker was treated at the scene and then transported by EMS to Jersey City Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at approximately 6:30 p.m., Suarez said.
The cause and manner of Crocker's death are pending an investigation by the Regional Medical Examiner's Office. The Prosecutor's Homicide Unit is actively investigating the shooting with assistance from the Jersey City Police Department. No arrests have been made at this time, Suarez added.
The Hudson County Prosecutor's Office asks that anyone with information on the shooting to call 201-915-1345 or to submit an anonymous tip online at HCPO.org.
All information will be kept confidential.
BAYONNE -- One of the four remaining Catholic high schools in Hudson County almost heard its final dismissal bell in June 2017 when it faced financial struggles. Now, the school is back and better -- and has a new president.
"I'm very confident. I'm very energized," said Peter G. Kane, Marist High School's new president. "I would not have taken this job if I didn't believe and know in my heart that I could be successful."
Kane, who was appointed last week, will be involved in all aspects of the school's finances, including fundraising, donor cultivation, grant administration and strategic planning.
Marist, Bayonne's sole Catholic high school, grappled to stay open beyond the 2016-17 school year. It even announced closure unless $1.5 million was raised. But after extensive fundraising, the school managed to keep serving its community as it has since 1954, when it first opened.
Tuition, including fees, at Marist is around $10,000 per school year. Students have the option to earn an associate degree from Hudson County Community College upon graduation at no additional cost.
While enrollment dipped at Marist as its fate dangled in the balance, the 2018-19 school year is looking up, Kane said.
"We have met and exceeded our projection. Our enrollment is growing," said Kane, who declined to say how many students are enrolled. "We have plans and strategies in place to meet or exceed our previous enrollment."
Part of those plans is to lease some of the excess land the multi-acre campus sits on, Kane added.
"There are some sound development opportunities," added Kane, who was senior director at the New Jersey Housing & Mortgage Finance Agency. "That could easily ensure the long-term viability and success of Marist."
Alice J. Miesnik, now principal, took on responsibilities of both president and head of school for four years. To ensure the school's success, the return to the president-principal leadership model allows for each position to focus on its area of expertise, Kane added.
The president tackles the school's financial work, while the principal focuses on the educational development of students.
"I signed on as president to sustain and grow and make Marist successful," Kane said. "It will be successful."
After a weekend filled with neighborhood shootings in Trenton, the mayor met with multiple law enforcement agencies to seek solutions, saying in a public statement that he wanted more cops on Trenton's streets.
Ten people were shot -- and one killed -- between Friday and Monday, police tallied. One weapons arrest had been made, but no one had yet been arrested for the shootings, police spokesman Capt. Stephen Varn said Tuesday.
"Since the incidents, I've been in constant contact with Police Director Pedro Medina," Mayor Reed Gusciora said in a statement Tuesday night. "The Trenton Police Department is doing all that they can in their investigation of this weekend's tragic events."
Police said Monday morning they believe the outburst of gun violence was related to various neighborhood rivalries.
Gusciora said he met with state and local police, Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri and state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal on Tuesday. He also said he reached out to Governor Phil Murphy to advise him of the shootings.
"While there are no overnight solutions to Trenton's recent rash of gun violence, we have agreed to coordinate police resources so that we can have adequate personnel on the streets," Gusciora said in the statement.
He also pointedly said that Trenton needs more officers.
"In the short run, we need more cops on our streets," he said.
But in the long run, he continued, the city needs to address the societal issues pushing young people to gun violence.
"Our city needs to stay strong in the face of this violence," Gusciora said in the statement. "We all have a stake in Trenton's future."
The police department is in the process of interviewing and hiring more police personnel, the statement said.
Paige Gross may be reached at pgross@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @By_paigegross
If they serve the full stretch, three Trenton men will be in their mid 30s when they're released from prison for gunning down a teenager in the city two summers ago.
Maurice Wimbush-Jalaah, though, will always be 15.
Maurice Wimbush-Jalaah
He'll always be the one family member's wonder, what would he have become?
"We will never see his truest potential," his aunt, Aida Wimbush said at the sentencing last Friday of the three young men convicted of shooting the boy they knew as "Mar Mar."
"We will never see the man he could have been, the father he should have been and the husband we guided him to be with our love," Aida Wimbush said.
She was speaking at the sentencings of Jashawn Smith, 20, Juprie Wadley, 21, and Wilson George, 20. Each had previously pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter, and each admitting they fired at Wimbush-Jalaah in a Prospect Village parking lot June 11, 2016.
Wimbush-Jalaah had just returned from visiting family in Texas, and his family at the time called a "pedestrian" disagreement that should have never turned deadly.
In her remarks at sentencing, Aida Wimbush said the family has been in an everyday depression since the crime. They were subjected to taunts from the suspects on social media following the crime, posts like "one down one to go," and they are not all on board with the 15-year plea agreements.
"They still have a life and an opportunity to live out their lives, something Maurice will never have and we will never see," she said. "Again 15 years, is this the faith we have in the legal system? What happened to justice? What is the thinking behind giving those 15 years, which we all know they will serve less?"
Aida Wimbush said prosecutors did explain the plea agreements, but they still are hard to digest.
Assistant Mercer County Prosecutor Kathleen Petrucci, who handled the final phases of the case, said she's aware of the family's pain, but this outcome is the best for this case: Each admitted to the crime and each will go to state prison, with a mandatory minimum of 85 percent of their sentence.
If they went to trial, Smith, Wadley and George would have been tried separately due to the statements they gave to police, and the process could have been longer, and uneven.
"This was the best resolution for them to go to state prison for many years," Petrucci said.
Aida Wimbush paralleled her last remarks to the five stages of grief - denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance - and how each impacted the family, especially her sister in law, Shannell Wimbush, Maurice's mother.
"My sister in law still to this day has been unable to overcome this incident, knowing that every time she has a birthday, her son is no longer here to share the day because they were both born on the same day the same month," Aida said.
As for the final stage, acceptance: "We will never be able to conquer this step...it will forever be stolen from us."
Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora met with the state Attorney General's office authorities Tuesday following a violent weekend in the capital city, officials said.
But later in the day, the mayor had not made any public statements about the violent holiday weekend in which 10 people were struck by gunfire - one who died from his wounds.
Nor did the mayor's office make any statements about meeting with state authorities. The Trenton Police Department declined to address the state meetings, deferring to the mayor.
The weekend of violence started Saturday morning when a 34-year-old Pennsylvania man was found dead in a car, sprayed with bullets near Morris and Commonwealth avenues. The victim, Eric Rue, 34, was from Bensalem, Pennsylvania.
Later that night, a 21-year-old woman was shot on Hoffman Avenue in the city's West Ward, police spokesman Capt. Stephen Varn said Tuesday.
On Sunday night, police have said, seven people were shot in two separate incidents.
Around 9 p.m. Sunday, four were struck by bullets near Stuyvesant and Bryn Mawr avenues in the West Ward, including a 16-year-old who was critically wounded.
Then two hours later, three adults were also shot near the 400 block of North Montgomery Street in North Trenton, police said.
Police said Monday morning they believe the outburst of gun violence was related to various neighborhood rivalries.
On Monday night, Varn said Tuesday, police officers in the area of Oakland Street due to the ongoing violence actually heard gunfire nearby at about 9:30 p.m. and rushed toward the sound of the shots.
They found a 16-year-old male Oakland Street shot twice, to the body and the head. The boy was in stable condition once treated at a city hospital, Varn said.
Varn said officers made one gun arrest, but have not brought any charges in any of the shootings. The Mercer County Homicide Task Force did not make any announcements Tuesday in the killing of Rue.
City councilman Jerell Blakeley called out the uptick in violence in a Facebook post, saying he intended "to address this crime wave." And he urged residents to contact the police if they had information.
There has been a rash of violent crime in Trenton over the last few days. I am in communication with the Mayor and... Posted by Jerell Blakeley on Monday, September 3, 2018
Paige Gross may be reached at pgross@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @By_paigegross
A former school bus driver - along with a bus company and a Morris County school district - agreed Monday to pay a more than $1.25 million settlement to a woman he sexually assaulted on his bus when she was in elementary school.
Edward Comperchio, file photo
The molestation occurred repeatedly between third and sixth grades, her suit claimed.
The victim, Kristen Bishop, now 21, settled with the Mount Arlington school district, Byram Bus Lines and the driver, Edward Comperchio, just a day before a civil trial was set to begin, attorney Gregg Stone of Newark said in a written statement to the media.
NJ.com does not normally name victims of sexual assault.
But Bishop wants her name published because she feels the settlement validates her story, Stone said in a phone call Tuesday.
Comperchio -- a 78-year-old Hopatcong resident -- was accused of picking up Bishop before her scheduled time and taking the bus to a nearby vacant parking lot to molest her, the suit claimed.
At the vacant lot, Comperchio would turn off the surveillance camera inside the bus, and would then turn the camera back on before beginning the bus route.
The bus line and school district had no system in place to monitor the videos, Stone added in the news statement.
After being indicted on 20 counts including first-degree aggravated sexual assault, Comperchio pleaded guilty to one count of fourth-degree committing an unlawful act on a child, and was sentenced to three and a half years of probation.
The plea deal focused on one offense committed on May 27, 2009.
At sentencing, Comperchio also was ordered to have no unsupervised contact with non-family members under the age of 18 and could not work in any job involving people under that age, according to his judgment of conviction.
"Comperchio showered Kristen with stuffed animals and personalized birthday cards, gaining her trust, while making her feel special and needed," Stone said.
An attorney for the school district declined to comment. An attorney for the bus line argued that any statements from Stone were a violation of a confidentiality agreement in the case.
The district contributed $250,000 to the settlement while Comperchio agreed to pay $1 million.
The bus company settled for a confidential amount of money -- and all collectively denied any responsibility.
Joe Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JBrandt_NJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips
The New Jersey couple embroiled in a legal dispute over $400,000 they raised for a homeless veteran no-showed a court hearing Wednesday and their attorney told a judge they want to invoke the 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Superior Court Judge Paula Dow rejected the request because Kate McClure and her boyfriend Mark D'Amico were not present in the Burlington County courthouse for the second straight hearing in the civil case filed by Johnny Bobbitt.
Bobbitt contends the couple have been withholding the cash they raised last year in a much-publicized GoFundMe campaign. The hearing on Wednesday came a day after Bobbitt's attorney said he learned from the couple's attorney that the cash is gone.
Bobbitt's attorney Christopher C. Fallon, Jr. has been seeking financial records to determine what happened to the money.
"I'm not sure that I accept that it is all gone," Fallon said in court Wednesday. "We would like to recover any money that is owed to Mr. Bobbitt."
The request for financial documentation led the attorney for McClure and D'Amico, Ernest Badway, to raise the 5th Amendment issue.
Ernest E. Badway, right, who is the lawyer for the Kate McClure and Mark D'Amico, argues during a hearing on missing funds in the Johnny Bobbitt case in the Olde Historic Courthouse in Mt. Holly, NJ, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. McClure and D'Amico are accused of mismanaging the money raised for Bobbitt. (David Maialetti/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
The dispute started out as a feel good story in November when McClure ran out of gas and became stranded on I-95 in Philadelphia. Bobbitt, who was homeless, gave her cash to buy gas.
The couple launched a GoFundMe campaign to repay the kindness and help get the 35-year-old homeless veteran from North Carolina back on his feet and it became a national story.
Since then, the relationship soured and Bobbitt filed the lawsuit against the couple last week seeking access to the money.
Bobbitt's attorney's said he has seen $75,000 of the $400,000 that was raised. The couple has said the amount was closer to $200,000 and they have contended they were cautious with the cash because of Bobbitt's continuing issues with drug addiction.
McClure and D'Amico bought the veteran a trailer to live in on their property and deposited $25,000 into an account. The couple claims Bobbitt spent that money in the matter of 13 days.
The couple recently appeared on the Megyn Kelly Today show and said there was $150,000 left, the amount Bobbitt's attorneys expected to be transferred into a trust until the lawsuit was resolved.
In this Aug. 27, 2018 photo released by NBC, Mark D'Amico, left, and Kate McClure speak with host Megyn Kelly on "Megyn Kelly Today," in New York. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via AP)
On Tuesday, Badway disclosed in a conference call that there was no money left to transfer.
Badway told the judge in court Wednesday that he was misinformed when he said there was $200,000 left and that he hadn't seen all the documentation at that time.
The judge ordered Bobbitt's lawyer to file additional documentation and discovery requests by the end of Wednesday. Both sides are scheduled to give deposition statements Monday.
Bobbitt's lawyer said by that time, Bobbitt will be checked into a 30-day drug recovery program, leading the judge to order them to meet at that facility. He was not present at Wednesday's court hearing.
Bobbitt's lawyer also requested that judge revoke McClure and D'Amico's passports over fear they would leave the country with the remaining funds. That request was not granted.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Sept. 14 at 2 p.m.
In this Nov. 2017, file photo, Johnny Bobbitt Jr., left, Kate McClure, right, and McClure's boyfriend Mark D'Amico pose at a Citgo station in Philadelphia (Elizabeth Robertson/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
Alexis Johnson may be reached at ajohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @alexisjreports. Find nj.com on Facebook.
Editor's note: The headline and story have been changed to reflect a new statement from the Center for Disease Control that said 100 passengers on the flight fell ill.
Some of the approximately 100 people who got sick aboard an Emirates Airlines flight that landed at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on Wednesday morning had a cough and fever, federal officials said.
The Airbus A380 from Dubai carrying 521 passengers landed at 9 a.m. and was quarantined.
"CDC public health officers are working with Port Authority, EMS, and Customs and Border Protection officials to evaluate passengers including taking temperatures and making arrangements for transport to local hospitals those that need care," Center for Disease Control spokesman Benjamin Haynes said in a statement. "Passengers who are not ill will be allowed to continue with their travel plans, and if necessary will be followed up with by health officials."
The CDC's statement contradicted Emirates', which asserted less than 20 people were sick.
"All passengers were screened by the local health authorities prior to disembarkation, and three passengers and seven crew members were transferred to the hospital for further medical care and evaluation," a spokesman said. "Nine passengers underwent additional medical screening at the site near the aircraft and were released afterwards. We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience caused. The safety and care of our customers is always our first priority and will not be compromised."
Officials take the temperatures of passengers as the exit Emirates flight 203 at JFK on Wednesday. About 100 people on the flight from Dubai fell ill. (Twitter photo courtesy @LarryCoben)
Dozens of ambulances and other emergency personnel surrounded the plane before passengers were allowed to disembark, video shows.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey didn't immediately respond to a message from NJ Advance Media.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Toyota has issued a recall of 192,000 Prius hybrid cars in the United States due to an engine wiring issue that could ignite a fire.
The recall covers 2016 to 2018 Prius models, according to the Toyota recall notice.
Those cars have an engine wire harness that might contact its cover and wear over time, causing a short circuit that might ultimately ignite a fire, Toyota said.
Owners of the affected Prius cars may visit a Toyota dealer to have the wire harness assembly checked and fixed at no cost.
If the wire core is exposed, they will replace it with one that includes a protective sleeve. If it is not exposed, they will add protective tape.
To check if a vehicle is included in the recall, visit toyota.com/recall.
Cassidy Grom may be reached at cgrom@njadvancemedia.com Follow her at @cassidygrom. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips
I vividly remember a terrible auto accident that I witnessed over 30 years ago in Deerfield Township, where I used to live.
As I was driving down Lebanon Road, a car passed me going so fast that I thought it was doing 110 mph. When it reached the Lebanon Road and Morton Avenue intersection, the car didn't stop and collided with another car going north on Morton.
When I reached the scene, I noticed that a small child who was alive, but badly injured, had been thrown out of the car that had been struck. Two adults, presumably her parents, were still in the car.
In the car that caused the crash were three young men. They walked around the scene dazed as if they were high on something. A state trooper who investigated the accident later told me that he had found evidence of marijuana inside the car.
The injured family was taken to the hospital by ambulance. The three men were taken into custody by the trooper but later released. I heard they never showed up for their court appearance.
This is one of the main reasons why recreational marijuana use has been illegal in most states including New Jersey, and should continue to be. And, it is why I'm against legalization for recreational use here. If it is legalized, count on seeing more accidents such as this one on our roads.
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin and Phil Murphy, our "social justice warrior" Democrat governor, all seem to believe that reduced public safety is a small price to pay, compared to the potential tax revenue from legal marijuana sales and the end of mass incarceration on possession convictions.
I see legal recreational marijuana as a price any moral person would believe is too costly.
George I. Anderson, Vineland
Want to learn more about the cannabis industry? Subscribe to NJ Cannabis Insider.
Trump lacks even a smidgen of McCain values
Though I disagree with the late U.S. Sen. John McCain on most major policy issues, I always viewed him as a great moral leader who typically showed character and courage that few people, including me, have matched.
McCain viewed our country and its Constitution as essential to America and the world's well-being. He cared deeply about America and its people -- citizens and immigrants. He put country over ambition, adulation, party and wealth.
In contrast, President Donald Trump proclaimed, as demagogues are wont to do, "Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it." As the following examples show, Trump hasn't "fixed it." They, however, do show that he lacks even a smidgen of McCain's morality, leadership ability and dedication to country.
The president failed a litmus test for morality, caring and leadership by proposing a repeal of coal-fired energy plant restrictions. His own Environmental Protection Agency said that, if put into effect, these would cause up to 1,400 premature deaths a year by 2030. In line with George Orwell's "1984" predictions, he deceitfully named this "The Affordable Clean Energy Rule."
How does strengthening the disastrous potential of global warming and causing the deaths of thousands of Americans "Make America Great Again"?
McCain defied Republican leadership by casting a deciding 2017 vote against partial repeal of Obamacare's health safeguards. He would never accept such immorality.
According to the Washington Post, Trump had Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) send greater numbers of undocumented black refugees -- not criminals, but escapees from brutal discrimination -- back home to Mauritania, where they were likely to face enslavement and torture.
Sadly, Trump, blindly supported by his Republican sycophants in Congress, lacks the character to care about anyone but himself. For the lawmakers, it's pure tribalism and fear of Trump's Twitter fingers.
For America to again become President Ronald Reagan's "shining city on the hill", a nation of morality and caring, the nation must vote the Republican majorities out of the U.S. House and Senate this November.
Howard Margolis, Voorhees Township
Send a letter to the editor of South Jersey Times at sjletters@njadvancemedia.com
Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.
Senate Democrats used the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as a public platform to take a stand against Donald Trump's second pick for the high court, one by one, pushing for the postponement of the hearing.
Democrats are angry that only a portion of documents pertaining to Kavanaugh's professional career have been made public. Of the 480,000 documents that have been made available to the committee, 322,000 are public, while the rest can only be viewed by members, and not discussed publicly.
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ, called his nomination a threat to "American rights."
But Dems are outnumbered, and after 90 minutes of protests and attempts to stall, the hearing officially got underway.
Kavanaugh's confirmation would tilt the court to the right for decades but the Senate's fight over judges has been escalating for years. When Democrats were in the majority in 2013, they eliminated the filibuster for all judges beneath the Supreme Court after being frustrated with GOP efforts to block President Barack Obama's nominees.
Then, the GOP majority refused to even consider Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, in 2016, citing presidential election-year considerations. Republicans then got rid of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees for the Justice Neil Gorsuch nomination.
Many point to the Garland episode as a reason to postpone the confirmation hearing of Kavanaugh, with midterms just around the corner.
Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., brought up the Republicans' "shabby" treatment of Obama's nominee in Tuesday's hearing, noting that the committee could afford to adjourn for a few days or weeks for a more thorough review of Kavanaugh's record after Republicans left a Supreme Court seat vacant for more than a year.
Kavanaugh would succeed the now-retired Justice Anthony Kennedy.
As a U.S. appeals court judge in Washington since 2006, Kavanaugh struck down federal regulations, backed gun freedoms and questioned abortion rights.
Despite the unlikely outcome of the hearing or confirmation being postponed, do you think it should be?
Vote in our informal and unscientific poll and share your thoughts in the comments section.
Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.
Former Vice President Joe Biden gave New Jereyans a (sometimes loud) taste Wednesday of what his speeches might sound like if he challenges President Donald Trump in two years.
Shouting at points during a nearly 40-minute address, Biden tore into Trump's handling of America during a campaign appearance at Montclair State University for Democratic congressional candidate Mikie Sherrill.
He admonished Trump's fellow Republicans who lead Congress for staying "silent."
And he said states like New Jersey could be key in helping Democrats win back control of at least the U.S. House of Representatives this November amid what he dubbed "a battle for the soul of America."
"I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired about what's going on in this country today," said Biden, who's considered a potential Democratic challenger to Trump in the 2020 presidential election. "This is not who we are. This is not the America I know."
"We are a generous people. We are an honorable people. We are an inclusive people," he added, without ever mentioning Trump by name. "That's who we are."
Joe Biden campaigns for Mikie Sherrill 24 Gallery: Joe Biden campaigns for Mikie Sherrill
Biden didn't focus much specifically on Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor who is running in a key battleground race against Republican state Assemblyman Jay Webber. The candidates are fighting over the seat being vacated by retiring Republican U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen in north Jersey's 11th congressional district.
But Biden stressed that November's midterms are "the most important election any of us have voted in thus far."
"If we don't build up a bulwark against the erosion of our American values by winning back Congress, God forbid what happens in 2020," he said.
"We desperately need, in both parties, men and women of character," Biden added. "Mikie gets it."
The midterm races are being viewed as a referendum on Trump, and New Jersey -- where polls show the president is deeply unpopular -- is critical to Democrats' efforts to flip the 23 seats they need to take back the House.
The Sherrill vs. Webber battle is for one of four Republican-held seats in New Jersey in the state. Frelignhuysen has held the seat since 1995 but announced his retirement in January, as it appeared his re-election would suddenly be a challenge amid the anti-Trump sentiment in the Garden State.
After opening his speech Wednesday with the attack on Trump, Biden's tone became much more hushed. The usually bombastic politician from Delaware almost sounded like he was whispering for a stretch.
But by the end, the Biden of old returned. He said while Republicans in Congress helped pushed then-President Richard Nixon out of the White House, much of the current Republican-led Congress today is afraid of standing up to Trump.
"What has become of us? My Republican colleagues know better, but they're silent," Biden said, raising his voice. "Where are they?"
Gov. Phil Murphy, a fellow Democrat, had a similar message at the rally, saying the U.S. needs "leaders with steel in their spines."
"We need leaders who talk with us one on one and don't tweet at us," Murphy said in an apparent reference to Trump.
Murphy also linked Webber, R-Morris, to former Gov. Chris Christie, the Republican whom Murphy succeeded in January.
The governor said Webber was "handpicked" by Christie to be New Jersey's Republican Party chairman from 2009-11 and was a "solid yes man for the Christie agenda that wrecked our state."
"The nation's eyes are on us because we are on the cusp of doing something special," Murphy added. "Right now, New Jersey is the most important state in the United States. If we are going to take the nation back from Donald Trump and his enablers, the wave will start here in Montclair."
Biden didn't mention Webber by name but argued: "We can't afford another Trump acolyte in the House."
In her own remarks, Sherrill said Americans "have a duty now."
"To fight for what we know is true, to fight for what our country stands for," she said.
Webber's team said Tuesday that Biden's appearance shows Sherrill is "a professional politician" who is "beholden to Democrat Party bosses."
"Make no mistake, you will continue to see Democrat party elites campaigning for Mikie up until Election Day, because they are fighting to send someone to Congress who will support their liberal platform that includes trillions of dollars in new taxes, and that is weak on Syria, Iran, and Israel," Webber spokesperson Ronica Cleary said in a statement.
"With no voting record or proof to back the promises she makes, we must look to the company Mikie keeps, and that company is decidedly out of touch with New Jersey's 11th congressional district," Cleary added.
Biden's appearance came just weeks after current Vice President Mike Pence traveled to Springfield for a low-profile, private fundraiser for Webber.
That event was behind closed doors, with the minimum ticket price at $1,000 -- though Pence did make an unscheduled stop at the Florham Park Diner.
So far, Sherrill has been the slight favorite. The Cook Political Report rates the race "lean Democratic." And a Monmouth University poll from June 27 showed Sherill leading Webber 40 to 38 percentage points among potential voters/
Sherrill also led fundraising as of July, which she entered with $2.9 million to spend, compared to Webber's $171,720.
This was hardly Biden's first trip to New Jersey. Last year alone, he stumped twice for Murphy is his successful race to succeed Christie.
And now both Biden and Murphy are taking selfies with students and other crowd members. pic.twitter.com/3XWExPGqgJ Brent Johnson (@johnsb01) September 5, 2018
NJ Advance Media staff writer Jonathan D. Salant contributed to this report.
Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
WASHINGTON -- A conspiracy theorist from New Jersey who helped peddle the falsehood that Barack Obama was foreign-born has been subpoenaed in the investigation into whether President Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Russia, according to a published report.
The New York Times said Jerome Corsi of Denville, who formerly worked for the Infowars website that claimed 9/11 was a hoax and the mass murder of elementary school students in Newtown, Connecticut, never occurred, will testify on Friday.
Corsi has ties to Roger Stone, a former Trump adviser, and possibly had advance knowledge that Wikileaks had hacked into Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's email and would release its contents.
"He fully intends to comply with the subpoena," Corsi's lawyer, David Gray, told the Times, saying they expected "it has to do with his communications with Roger Stone."
Stone has said he had no contact with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and obtained his information elsewhere, including from public sources, the newspaper said.
Trump, who has praised Infowars founder Alex Jones, reportedly received information from Corsi before launching his evidence-free campaign insisting that Obama was not born in Hawaii. Corsi wrote a book on the subject.
Trump later admitted that Obama had been a native-born American and then falsely blamed Clinton for spreading the lie.
The president has railed against special counsel Robert Mueller, calling his investigation a witch hunt despite the fact that he has indicted or secured guilty pleas from 32 people and three companies, including Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, according to Vox.
Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
Gov. Phil Murphy pulled no punches when he warned commuters that NJ Transit's problems with canceled trains will continue until the end of the next year.
"We'll continue to have a challenging time through New Year's Eve," he said at a press conference Tuesday, admitting that he was frustrated with the recent rash of train cancelations.
Of 19 trains canceled during the Friday afternoon peak commuting period, 10 were blamed on equipment that wasn't available due to Positive Train Control equipment installation or testing. Eight were canceled because an engineer wasn't available to operate the train. One train was canceled because of a mechanical problem, according to NJ Transit tweets.
"We had three train canceled this (Tuesday) morning, which is good, unless it is your train," Murphy said.
@NJTRANSIT going for a record today.. back to back rush hr trains cancelled with back to back lame excuses. Demand is higher than ever and service is worse than ever. @GovMurphy #NJTransitdelays pic.twitter.com/naR7LSO1Ro Bottom Feeder (@MSAM1427) September 4, 2018
Some of the blame was put on NJ Transit's sprint to meet a federal Dec. 31, 2018 deadline to install Positive Train Control, Murphy said. That safety system that uses computers and communications systems to slow or stop a train if the operator fails to obey speed limits or signals.
"When we came in, NJ Transit was 13 percent toward the objective, now, they're a little higher than 60 percent," Murphy said. "That comes at a price of pulling trains off line (to install PTC equipment). It's why we had to close the Atlantic City Line. We had no choice, we were dealt a lousy hand."
If that deadline is met, NJ Transit could apply to the Federal Railroad Administration for a two-year extension to test and have the PTC system certified.
The Atlantic City line shuts down on Sept. 5 until early 2019 and Raritan Valley Line riders lose direct, off peak service to and from New York for PTC installation on Sept. 10. Atlantic City line commuters launched a petition in opposition that has been signed by more than 5,700 people so far.
Murphy conceded that NJ Transit has to do a better job letting bus and train riders know about problems in time to make other plans.
"We're pursuing how to communicate better," he said.
So how many trains have you cancelled today? Do I need to book yet another @lyft ride home? #dobetter Lillian Mondaro (@njcoffeejunkie) September 4, 2018
Referring to the recent closing of two lanes of a Route 495 viaduct to and from the Lincoln Tunnel for construction, Murphy said the Department of Transportation was given credit for warning drivers about it in advance.
"We need to do that with NJ Transit," he said.
NJ Transit officials have blamed some canceled trains on no-show engineers who take time off unexpectedly. That's exacerbated by a shortage of engineers, Murphy said.
"When we had had over 400 engineers, it was in our favor in covering people taking vacations, sickness or the right to take a day off," Murphy said. Now our pool is down to 330 engineers and our degree of freedom is limited."
Engineers have left NJ Transit for better paying jobs on neighboring commuter railroads and officials said training replacements hasn't kept pace over the past seven years.
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers union officials said some canceled trains were unfairly blamed on engineers.
The railroad is attempting to use its locomotive engineers as scapegoats, publicly reporting "unscheduled" locomotive engineer absences in an effort to pass the blame for cancelled trains onto its workers," said James P. Brown, BLE general chairman, in a statement.
He cited examples of engineers who are required to take time off for mandated physicals or for sleep apnea screening and were not given an "excused absence" by NJ Transit.
Classic @NJTRANSIT First train cancelled due to "lack of crew". Second one cancelled due to "mechanical problems". You now have 3 full trains of people trying to get to work on time. Good luck with that. Brian Heitman (@Brian_Heitman) September 4, 2018
"On one hand, NJ Transit is requiring an engineer to take time off work, and on the other hand, it is reporting the absence as "unscheduled" and blaming the engineer for a train being cancelled," Brown said.
Several times, NJ Transit blamed a train that was canceled because of available equipment on crew shortages, even though a crew was available, he said.
An NJ Transit spokeswoman said the agency stands by previous explanations.
"All of our communication regarding service impacts and the reasons for them, have been, and are accurate," said Nancy Snyder.
Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 5) Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Wednesday warned the military against violating laws for the sake of following President Rodrigo Duterte.
"Isipin niyo lang si Mr. Duterte, saglit na lang yan (Just think about it. Mr. Duterte won't last long). Please do not do anything illegal or unconstitutional," Trillanes told Senate reporters in a chance interview.
He told the military to consider that Duterte's Proclamation No. 572 is "absurd." He said it would not be smart to stand by the order, noting that anything can happen to the 73-year-old President, who had admitted experiencing "perpetual pain", while denying allegations that he is seriously ill.
Trillanes was reacting to the pronouncement of the Department of National Defense (DND) that court martial proceedings are underway to put him under trial again for military uprisings against former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
The DND insisted that Trillanes' trial was only suspended when then President Benigno Aquino III granted him amnesty in 2011. But now that the Duterte government voided his amnesty, the military is determined to go after him, even as a civilian.
"The acts for which he was charged happened while he was in active service. While he's a civilian now, the jurisdiction of the court martial was acquired when he was an active officer of the armed forces," DND Internal Audit Service chief Atty. Ronald Patrick Rubin said in a separate press briefing.
Trillanes on Wednesday afternoon presented documents that he was already dismissed from the Armed Forces in 2007, stressing that the DND no longer has jurisdiction over him. The soldier-turned-senator also said the cases against him for coup attempts have all been dismissed.
Trillanes, a former naval officer, was involved in three mutiny attempts against the Arroyo administration Oakwood mutiny in July 2003, the Marines stand-off in February 2006, and the Manila Peninsula incident in 2007. Trillanes and the other Magdalo soldiers involved were jailed but freed under an amnesty granted in 2011.
Trillanes said democracy is dead under the Duterte administration, but promised to abide by the law in this fight.
"Being a senator now iba na ang aking nasa arsenal ngayon (my arsenal is different now). I'm using this platform in fact to make institutions work," he said.
Taking the fight to the SC
Trillanes called on institutions, including the Supreme Court, to not be afraid of Duterte. He said he will question Duterte's order to nullify his amnesty before the high court.
"Wag kayong matakot dito. Malapit na ito, hindi naman ito magtatagal (Don't be afraid of this. This shall pass soon)," he said.
Lawmakers and legal experts said an amnesty cannot be revoked by the President unilaterally, noting it needs to go through proper judicial processes.
"Ang issue is wala ring nakalagay sa Constitution na dapat iconcur ng Kongreso ang (The issue is that the Constitution does not state that the Congress should concur) revocation, so the issue will again be tossed to the Supreme Court to tell us whether it should be concurred in or not, or not necessary," Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III told reporters on Wednesday.
The Constitution states that the President has power to grant amnesty "with the concurrence of a majority of all the Members of the Congress," but is not clear on how to revoke it.
Duterte's proclamation states that the amnesty granted to Trillanes was void from the start because he did not comply with the minimum requirements to qualify under the Amnesty Program. It alleges that Trillanes never admitted guilt for the coup attempts, and failed to take an oath and formally apply for amnesty. These are claims Trillanes had debunked through presenting videos and documents of his application for amnesty.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, who serves as officer-in-charge while Duterte is on a trip to Israel and Jordan, on Tuesday asked the Makati Regional Trial Court to issue an alias warrant and hold departure order against Trillanes. But Guevarra earlier said Trillanes can be arrested anytime with the nullification of his amnesty.
The court has yet to decide on the Justice Department's petition, and scheduled a hearing on September 13.
Trillanes is staying at the Senate building in Quezon City as advised by his lawyers and fellow senators to avoid any possible arrest. The DND said it is coordinating with the Senate regarding Trillanes' custody, while the national police said it will not arrest the senator without a court order.
CNN Philippines' Gerg Cahiles contributed to this report.
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
North Augusta, SC (29841)
Today
Overcast. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 49F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph..
Tonight
Overcast. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 49F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
Hemophilia Center of Western New York awards $890,000 grant to UB to address shortage of specialists in non-malignant blood disorders
Grant establishes The Robert Long Career Development Award at UB to train and retain physicians so patients can receive care in WNY
We are very grateful for this generous award from the Hemophilia Center of Western New York. It is a strategic investment that directly impacts the quality of health care in our community by working to close a gap in specialty care.
The inaugural recipient of The Robert Long Career Development Award is Beverly Schaefer, MD, clinical assistant professor of pediatrics in the Jacobs School and attending pediatric hematologist oncologist at the Roswell Park Oishei Childrens Cancer and Blood Disorders Program.
BUFFALO, N.Y. The Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo has received an $890,000 grant from the Hemophilia Center of Western New York to support a career development award aimed at addressing a shortage of physicians in the region who specialize in treating non-malignant blood disorders.
The grant, which establishes The Robert Long Career Development Award, is an important first step in ensuring that local patients who are affected by hemophilia and other bleeding and clotting disorders will receive the highest level of care without having to travel outside of Western New York. Robert Long was a founder of the Hemophilia Center of Western New York.
The award invests in a junior physician-scientist who is dedicated to conducting advanced research, facilitating training for medical professionals and providing expert care to local patients and families with these disorders.
We are very grateful for this generous award from the Hemophilia Center of Western New York, said Michael E. Cain, MD, vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School. It is a strategic investment that directly impacts the quality of health care in our community by working to close a gap in specialty care. Not only will it help attract and retain top-level physician-scientists who specialize in non-malignant blood disorders, but it will help ensure that generations of specialists in this field are trained in Buffalo.
Western New York is not alone in its need for more specialists dedicated to the treatment and understanding of non-malignant blood disorders. The nationwide shortage of physician-scientists with experience and training in treating bleeding and clotting conditions, especially in adult populations, is well documented and is being acutely felt in many communities where there is limited access to experts.
Multiple factors contribute to this shortage, including a scarcity of training programs, salary disparities and limited availability of experienced mentors, explained Laurie Reger, executive director of the Hemophilia Center of Western New York.
Yet, in the Greater Buffalo area, we are fortunate, she said. With full-service bleeding and clotting disorders care available through the Hemophilia Center of Western New York and an academic health center anchored by the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, our organizations are uniquely positioned to form a philanthropic partnership that can work together to build and retain a local workforce of highly trained physicians focused on providing the highest quality care to individuals with hemophilia and non-malignant hematologic disorders.
The inaugural recipient of The Robert Long Career Development Award is pediatric hematologist-oncologist Beverly Schaefer, MD, clinical assistant professor of pediatrics in the Jacobs School and attending pediatric hematologist/oncologist at the Roswell Park Oishei Childrens Cancer and Blood Disorders Program. She is also a physician with UBMD Pediatrics.
Through the award, 50 percent of Schaefers time will be protected for intensive research, evenly divided between investigations conducted at the Jacobs School and the Hemophilia Center of Western New York.
A native of Buffalo, Schaefer, who also serves on the faculty of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, is board-certified in pediatrics and pediatric hematology/oncology. She specializes in the care of patients with disorders of hemostasis and thrombosis (bleeding disorders and blood clots).
I am honored to be the recipient of the career development award, which will support my work in clinical and translational investigation. I am committed to bringing novel research opportunities to the patients in our community affected by bleeding and clotting disorders, Schaefer said. I am passionate about medical education and am optimistic that this award will help to attract and retain physicians in our community who are skilled in the management of patients with bleeding and clotting disorders.
In an environment of shrinking federal research funding, the Hemophilia Center of Western New Yorks philanthropic gift to the University at Buffalo will help to ensure that a new generation of academic hematologists has the opportunity to test and study novel ideas that may impact the future of care. The Robert Long Career Development Award will also establish a foundation for a comprehensive clinical service as well as a research team dedicated to managing and improving outcomes for individuals affected by bleeding and clotting disorders.
Roseburg, OR (97470)
Today
Rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers overnight. Low near 55F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch..
Tonight
Rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers overnight. Low near 55F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.
Managing Editor
Having lived and worked in Indy on and off since 1977, and currently living in Carmel, I've seen the city change a great deal. I love covering the arts in all its forms, and the places where the arts and broader cultural issues intersect.
Viewed of
Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading.
Prosecutors in the Bill Cosby sexual assault case asked a Pennsylvania judge on Tuesday to admit live testimony in the sentencing phase from women who say he molested them, but whose accusations did not lead to criminal charges.
The Montgomery County district attorney, Kevin R. Steele, filed a motion in the Court of Common Pleas requesting the admission as evidence of uncharged criminal acts committed by the defendant and saying he intends to present numerous witnesses at the sentencing hearing, which is set for Sept. 24 and 25.
Mr. Cosby was found guilty in April of three charges of aggravated indecent assault based on the accusations of one woman, Andrea Constand, who said he had drugged and sexually abused her at his home near Philadelphia in 2004.
Mr. Cosby, 81, faces up to 10 years in prison on each of the three convictions. Judge Steven T. ONeill, who presided over the trial, will determine his sentence.
With its intramural outrage and social media sniping, the episode mirrored broader debates that have roiled liberals since Mr. Trumps stunning rise. At college campuses, speakers like the conservative author Charles Murray have been shouted down by audience members. De-platforming, the practice of stymieing public appearances by ideological opponents, has been endorsed by some on the left as a more effective tactic than debate.
And political journalists have faced questions about the wisdom of giving a venue to divisive figures like Mr. Bannon, even as incendiary, Breitbart-style views have been embraced by a significant portion of Americans.
Im not going to congratulate the New Yorker for rescinding an invitation that should have never been offered or for believing there was valuable intellectual insight to be gained from a polite conversation w/ a fascist, the author Roxane Gay, who is a contributing opinion writer to The New York Times, wrote on Twitter.
The uproar over the festival was a reminder of The New Yorkers unique place in the media ecosystem. Mr. Bannon appeared at a Financial Times forum in March, and he is scheduled to speak at an event sponsored by The Economist this month; both attracted relatively little comment.
The Economist, which had already publicized Mr. Bannons appearance, issued a statement on Tuesday saying its invitation would stand. The future of open societies will not be secured by like-minded people speaking to each other in an echo chamber, but by subjecting ideas and individuals from all sides to rigorous questioning and debate, the magazines editor, Zanny Minton Beddoes, wrote. She noted that Mr. Bannon had become an influential figure on the European right.
Readers of The New Yorker, though, and particularly the die-hards who attend the annual event, feel an attachment to the magazine and its cosmopolitan values. Mr. Remnick, in a note to his staff, wrote that the festivals unique atmosphere was a factor in why he had changed his mind.
There is a better way to do this, he wrote. Our writers have interviewed Steve Bannon for The New Yorker before, and if the opportunity presents itself Ill interview him in a more traditionally journalistic setting as we first discussed, and not on stage.
The disagreement between the reporter Ronan Farrow and NBC News goes back to 2017, when he was reporting on the alleged sexual misconduct of the film mogul Harvey Weinstein. Mr. Farrow later took his reporting to The New Yorker and won a Pulitzer Prize for his work.
The dispute grew heated last week, when Rich McHugh, a producer who worked with Mr. Farrow at NBC, gave an interview to The New York Times in which he accused the network of impeding the reporting of the Weinstein story in what he described as a massive breach of journalistic integrity. NBC News has denied the accusation.
With both camps offering very different explanations of what happened last year, lets take a step back and examine how they ended up at an impasse.
Why did Mr. Farrow leave NBC?
This is one of many points of contention between the reporter and the network.
According to the president of NBC News, Noah Oppenheim, the idea to leave started with Mr. Farrow, who asked to pursue the Weinstein story for another news outlet on Aug. 17, 2017. In an interview with The Times, Mr. Oppenheim said that Ronan reached out to us and said: I want to get this out now. I have a magazine thats willing to do it. Will you be O.K. if I take the reporting to this magazine? And we granted him permission to do so.
On Monday, Nike debuted a new advertisement featuring Colin Kaepernick, the former N.F.L. player whose public protest against police violence during the national anthem prompted leaguewide demonstrations from players that continue today. The ad, which was first released via tweet by Kaepernick days before the start of the N.F.L. season, brought strong reactions on social media, with supporters sharing the #JustDoIt hashtag and those opposed to it using the hashtag #NikeBoycott and sharing videos and photos of them removing the Nike logo from their clothing.
[Read the details of Nikes new advertisement, launched for the 30th anniversary of its Just Do It campaign.]
Service members, veterans and civilians on both sides of the debate shared their responses, reigniting arguments about whether kneeling during the anthem disrespects the military and the American flag. We want to hear what people inside the military and in veterans communities think of the new campaign and how these groups have been invoked in reactions to N.F.L. player kneeling. Share your perspectives with us for a coming story.
Kenny Shopsin, the colorful proprietor of a fabled Manhattan restaurant where the menu is vast and the customer has never been king, died on Sunday at his home in the West Village. He was 76.
His son-in-law Andrew Lampert said he had fallen last year and had had a series of health problems since.
Mr. Shopsin and his wife, Eve, started their restaurant, Shopsins General Store, in 1983 in a grocery they had been running on Bedford Street in the West Village. It has moved several times since and is now on the Lower East Side. But wherever it has been it has reflected the curmudgeonly, curse-word-employing personality of Mr. Shopsin, a man who was rarely written about without having the word eccentric appended to his name.
Not that he was written about that often. Mr. Shopsin didnt like publicity or being listed in diners guides because, he said, such attention had the annoying effect of attracting customers. His was a classic neighborhood restaurant, and he didnt want it to become a tourist attraction. He was not averse to throwing someone out who didnt seem to get the chatty, casual-clutter look and feel of the place.
SYDNEY, Australia A states capacity to spy on its citizens has grown exponentially in recent years as new technology has meant more aspects of our lives can be observed, recorded and analyzed than ever before. At the same time, much to the frustration of intelligence agencies around the world, so has the ability to keep digital information secret, thanks to encryption.
Thats why the main intelligence agencies of the Anglophone world are now hoping that Australia will lead the charge in developing ways to get decrypt information at will, and to tap into data that was previously kept secret. A proposed law, the draft of which was released last month by the cybersecurity minister, is an aggressive step in that direction.
We should all be worried, because its not just criminals or terrorists who use encryption, but every one of us. We use encryption to buy things online, manage our finances, and communicate personally and professionally. Hospitals, transportation systems and government agencies use encrypted data. Creating tools to weaken encrypted systems for one purpose weakens it for all purposes. If Australia succeeds in doing so, it could be your bank account or your medical records that are compromised in the end.
This particular bill has been more than a year in the making. At the June 2017 meeting in Ottawa of the Five Eyes the intelligence alliance made up of the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand Australia made a point of the need for states to find ways to overcome encryption. A joint communique that came out of the meeting noted that encryption can severely undermine public safety efforts and committed Five Eyes members to working with technology companies to explore shared solutions.
The danger from wildfires is real, but cutting down more trees is not the solution. By far the most effective way to prevent damage is to focus on basic fire-safety measures for at-risk houses. These include installing fire-resistant roofing, ember-proof exterior vents and guards to prevent wind-borne embers from igniting dry leaves and pine needles in rain gutters and creating defensible space by reducing combustible grasses, shrubs and small trees within 100 feet of homes. Research shows these steps can have a major impact on whether houses survive wildfires.
Unfortunately, most counties in the United States dont incorporate these protections in their building codes or help homeowners maintain defensible space. This must change, but it will not happen if politicians instead pursue misinformed measures like the ones that could end up in the farm bill.
Opinion Conversation The climate, and the world, are changing. What challenges will the future bring, and how should we respond to them? What should our leaders be doing?
Al Gore, the 45th vice president of the United States, finds reasons for optimism in the Biden presidency.
Al Gore, the 45th vice president of the United States, finds reasons for optimism in the Biden presidency. What are the worst climate risks in your country?
Select a country, and we'll break down the climate hazards it faces.
Select a country, and we'll break down the climate hazards it faces. Where are Americans suffering most?
Our maps, developed with experts, show where extreme heat is causing the most deaths in the U.S.
Our maps, developed with experts, show where extreme heat is causing the most deaths in the U.S. What does climate devastation look like?
In Sept. 2020, Michael Benson studied detailed satellite imagery. Here's the earth that he saw and the one he wants to see.
Most of the homes that were destroyed by wildfires over the past year, as in the Tubbs fire and Thomas fire last fall in California , were not primarily in forested areas, but in grasslands, shrub lands and oak savannas. Furthermore, recent research by one of us, Dr. Hanson, and colleagues shows that reducing environmental protections and increasing logging does nothing to curb fires. On the contrary, increased logging can make fires burn more intensely. Logging, including many projects deceptively promoted as forest thinning, removes fire-resistant trees, reduces the cooling shade of the forest canopy and leaves behind highly combustible twigs and branches.
While forest density and the concentration of dead trees generally appear to have a minimal impact on the intensity of wildfires, data show that climate-change-driven drought and abnormal weather is increasingly influencing fire behavior and the length of the fire season. The provisions that pro-logging politicians seek to include in the farm bill run directly counter to what we should be doing to slow global warming.
And what is Trumps team doing in Israel? First it moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem giving the right-wing Israeli government of Bibi Netanyahu a long-coveted prize and asked for nothing in return.
Trump could have told Bibi that he would move the embassy but only in return for Israel halting all settlement-building beyond the West Bank blocks in the densely populated Arab areas that would likely be put under Palestinian control in any peace deal. That might have actually advanced the peace process. Instead, the U.S. gave up one of its most valuable diplomatic assets free. How foolish was that?
Now Trumps team is punishing the Palestinians for not negotiating with Netanyahu who has not put any deal on the table by cutting off aid to the Palestinian Authority aid that went to projects like water and sewage treatment and contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, a major employer in the West Bank and Gaza and the primary source of secular i.e. non-Islamist education for Palestinians.
Trump thinks he can just keep bludgeoning the Palestinians and never ask Israel to do anything hard and prevent things from getting any worse. Well, yes, they can get worse. The Palestinian Authority can collapse and as feckless and corrupt as it may be, if it goes, it will be hard to rebuild; Israel would have to provide all the governance in the West Bank at a huge cost.
And then theres Saudi Arabia. I have little doubt that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was the only one in his family who would have initiated the vital social, religious and economic reforms that hes dared to do all at once and that he is also the only one in that family whod have undertaken the bullying foreign policy initiatives, domestic power plays and excessive personal buying sprees hes dared to do all at once. These are two halves of the same M.B.S. package, and, as Ive argued, our job is to help curb his bad impulses and nurture his good ones. But Trump who still doesnt even have an ambassador in Saudi Arabia is AWOL.
To repeat: Democracy is not on the agenda in Saudi Arabia, but social, economic and religious reform is. M.B.S.s government for the first time just appointed women to several key municipality leadership jobs. Considering the hugely damaging role that Saudi Arabia played in the Arab Muslim world, when, post-1979, it began to aggressively spread its puritanical form of Islam which helped to seed 9/11 the idea that the kingdom has a leader today who might begin to shift Sunni Islam onto a more open and moderate path, one that would isolate radical Islamists and strengthen moderates everywhere, is a huge U.S. interest to nurture.
Lately, though, M.B.S. has undertaken a series of ill-considered steps that are hurting him, Saudi Arabia and us. M.B.S. has a few very extreme advisers who keep telling him to follow the China model China asserted itself in the South China Sea, the world complained, China responded to get lost, and eventually the world backed down. So when Canada mildly criticized a Saudi Arabian human rights abuse, M.B.S. went nuclear on Canada and virtually broke off relations. It was an absurd overreaction. Saudi Arabia is not China. It needs friends. It needs to be more Dubai than Shanghai more soft power, less bullying.
That is not the case with Richard Burr of North Carolina, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat.
Unlike what has been served up so far by their counterparts in the House Id like a dopey Devin Nunes platter, with a side order of inaccurate Trump tweets, please their focus on the nefarious Russian influence on the American election has been laudable. And sources from all sides say that the pair have agreed to try to keep the focus on the important issues.
This matters, because America needs a clear explanation of what its social media giants expect to become, before legislation forces all manner of regulations on them. Some of these will be decent, like forcing better privacy rules, but others could hinder innovation and growth in what is arguably the United States greatest industry.
To begin, lets just note that there is value in the idea that some of the leaders of the most powerful technology companies in the world have been compelled to appear before a dozen elected officials to explain themselves and the damage they have caused, and to give an extensive update on the solutions they have to offer.
Its how democracies are done, having to justify yourself and your actions in public, an employee of one of these companies who asked to remain anonymous told me. And admitting you got things wrong.
Truth. But it will be the drilling down and not just the sound bites that will be key. That includes requiring Ms. Sandberg and Mr. Dorsey to provide deep specifics on how well the platforms have cleaned up fake accounts; how transparent they have made the buying and selling of online political ads (and maybe all ads); and how much progress they have made in demoting and deleting fake news.
Also critical is explaining how and why they let their platforms be so easily manipulated to begin with. This will perhaps require admitting that bad actors used them in exactly the way they were built to be used.
FRONT PAGE
An article on Sunday about the funeral for Senator John McCain misstated the surname of the friend and classmate next to whom Mr. McCain was to be buried. He was Adm. Charles R. Larson, not Lawson. The article also misquoted a line from Robert Louis Stevensons poem Requiem. It is Home is the sailor, home from the sea, not Here is the sailor, home from the sea. A picture caption with the article also referred incorrectly to Mr. McCains daughter, Meghan McCain. She is the eldest of his children with his widow, Cindy McCain, not his eldest daughter. (Sidney McCain, Mr. McCains daughter from an earlier marriage, is older.)
An article last Wednesday about Chinas successful modernization of its navy misstated the number of submarines in Chinas naval fleet in 1995. There were 83, not three, according to Pentagon figures cited in a report from Congressional Research Service, though it noted that the figure included obsolete models.
INTERNATIONAL
An article on Sunday about concerns surrounding the Vaticans oversight of bishops accused of sexual abuse misstated the age of Pope Benedict. He is 91, not 90.
NATIONAL
A photo essay on Saturday about photographers visual interpretations of poems by women rendered incorrectly a poems title and its authors name. The poem was For My Grandmothers Perfume, Norell, by Nickole Brown.
SAN FRANCISCO When news broke this week that Liu Qiangdong, the billionaire founder of the online retailer JD.com, had been arrested in a criminal sexual misconduct case while on a business trip in Minnesota, the local police were vague about the details.
On Tuesday, the Minneapolis Police Department released its report on the case and said Mr. Liu was arrested Friday on a rape allegation.
Mr. Liu, who goes by Richard Liu in the English-speaking world, was freed on Saturday without bail and has returned to China. At the time, the police did not offer specifics beyond using the term criminal sexual conduct, which covers a range of nonconsensual sexual contact.
The police report was written the night of Mr. Lius arrest, said John Elder, a spokesman for the Police Department, and was released because it is a public record.
A panel of federal judges that deemed North Carolinas congressional maps to be unconstitutionally gerrymandered ruled on Tuesday that those same maps should be used for the November election, citing insufficient time to create new ones.
Liberals cheered the judges ruling last week that the maps were unconstitutional; the panel determined that Republicans, who control the State Legislature, had drawn districts to give themselves an unfair partisan advantage. But the decision also sent stabs of anxiety through the states political class because it left open the possibility that candidates might have to compete in new primaries or run in freshly drawn districts with just two months before the midterms.
There was also some worry that government officials, had they been ordered to redraw the maps for this election cycle, would not be able to print ballots in time to meet a Sept. 22 deadline for mailing absentee ballots to service members and voters overseas.
The court had given the parties in the lawsuit challenging the maps until Friday to file briefs on whether the state should be allowed to use the old maps in the Nov. 6 election. The judges on Tuesday wrote that there was not enough time to approve a new districting plan and for the State to conduct an election using that plan prior to the seating of the new Congress in January 2019.
When Charisse Stinson reported her 2-year-old son missing in the Tampa Bay area of Florida on Sunday, she told the police that a man who had offered her a ride had beaten her unconscious and taken her child.
But Ms. Stinson, 21, later admitted to leaving the child in a nearby wooded area after she hit him in frustration and his health declined, the police said in an arrest affidavit. The boy, Jordan Belliveau, died, and Ms. Stinson was arrested Tuesday and charged with aggravated child abuse and first-degree murder.
In the affidavit, the police said that Ms. Stinson admitted growing frustrated with her son after he hurt his leg and hitting him in the face with the back of her hand early Sunday morning. The boys head hit the wall, and he started having seizures.
Eventually, Ms. Stinson decided to leave him in the wooded area in Largo, near Lake Avenue and McMullen Road, according to the affidavit, where his body was found. The police said the boys injuries were consistent with Ms. Stinsons admission, and called off an Amber Alert for the child on Tuesday after his body was found.
Ms. Pressley, who in 2009 became the first black woman elected to the Boston City Council, overcame a powerful lineup of the Massachusetts political establishment. Mr. Capuano, 66, who has held the seat for 20 years, was endorsed by almost every major political figure, including Mayor Martin J. Walsh of Boston, who deployed his extensive political machine on Tuesday on Mr. Capuanos behalf.
This is a big wake-up call to any incumbent on the ballot in November, said Mary Anne Marsh, a Boston-based Democratic strategist. Weve been in a change election cycle for years. But Trump may have opened the door for all these young candidates, women, people of color, because voters want the antithesis of him.
Ms. Pressleys win, the margin of victory, and the historic nature of her candidacy are sure to reverberate throughout Boston, a city whose fraught racial history is baked into its national reputation. Ms. Pressley said Democrats throughout the state discouraged her from running against Mr. Capuano, and John Lewis, the civil rights legend and longtime Georgia congressman, held a campaign event for him in May. Yet Ms. Pressley rode a strong turnout among Bostons minority communities toward history.
Her slogan, change cant wait, was a nod to those who said her candidacy was disrupting the traditional order of Boston politics, she said. It was also a rallying cry for the states only minority-majority district that it should have a representative who mirrors the communitys diversity.
Political observers said the win was the biggest sign yet that a new Boston was emerging in the shadow of the citys historically white, union-driven political establishment. This new electorate is powered by minorities, immigrants and young college students who have flocked to the citys start-ups and tech-friendly industries.
It felt like a good time to give someone whos not a white male a shot, said Linus Falck-Ytter, 26, a software developer, after voting in Cambridge. And I liked that shes more outspoken about helping underrepresented communities.
WASHINGTON The Trump administration and its closest intelligence partners have quietly warned technology firms that they will demand lawful access to all encrypted emails, text messages and voice communications, threatening to compel compliance if the private companies refuse to voluntarily provide the information to the governments.
The threat was issued last week by the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the so-called Five Eyes nations that broadly share intelligence. Collectively, they have been frustrated by the spread of encrypted apps on cellphones and the ability to send encrypted messages through social media and, most prominently, on Apples iPhones.
The issue flared repeatedly during the Obama administration, with the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, warning that law enforcement officials were going dark as nefarious actors relied on encrypted channels to discuss or plan criminal activity or terrorist plots. But the Trump administration has said little about the subject, even after the meeting in Australia where the demand was issued in a joint statement by the five nations.
Should governments continue to encounter impediments to lawful access to information necessary to aid the protection of the citizens of our countries, the joint statement said, we may pursue technological, enforcement, legislative or other measures to achieve lawful access solutions.
The post Mr. Trump wrote on Monday took his criticism of the Justice Department to the next step, suggesting that defending the Republican majority in the House should determine whether two members are prosecuted.
Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department, he wrote. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff.
He was presumably referring to indictments of Representatives Duncan Hunter of California, who was charged with using more than $250,000 in campaign funds for personal expenses, and Chris Collins of New York, who was charged with insider trading. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Mr. Trumps suggestion would have been a major scandal under any other president, veterans of past administrations said. His interference in an ongoing criminal investigation may be the single most shocking thing hes done as president, said Walter E. Dellinger, a former acting solicitor general under President Bill Clinton.
Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, a Republican who has been among the presidents most outspoken critics in his own party, had the same reaction. Those who study this kind of thing say its a lot more evidence for abuse of power or obstruction, he said. I just know its not healthy for the institutions of government to have the president want to use the Department of Justice that way.
Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, likewise criticized the presidents comments. Im looking at them just as you are looking at them, she told reporters. I thought that yesterdays comments were not appropriate and they upset me.
Asked if Mr. Trump was only feeding Democrats interest in impeachment, she said: I have no idea what he is doing. I have no idea what he is thinking.
The day after, a gleeful Mr. Trump called Mr. Dowd. I slept like a rock, the president said. I love that letter.
By March, little progress had been made with Mr. Mueller. On March 5, Mr. Dowd met with the special counsel and one of his deputies and explained why he was trying to keep Mr. Trump away from them.
Im not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot, he said.
Later that month, Mr. Dowd told Mr. Trump why he should avoid an interview: Its either that or an orange jumpsuit.
Mr. Mueller engaged in lively conversations for months with Mr. Trumps lawyers.
The book offers the first extensive look at dialogue between Mr. Mueller and those involved in the Russia investigation. Mr. Woodward recounted Mr. Dowds zigzagging relationship with the special counsels office, and the lengths he went to to build a rapport with Mr. Mueller in the heat of negotiations over an interview with Mr. Trump. Mr. Dowd fluctuated between credulity and outrage, at one point telling Mr. Trump after an especially trying meeting with Mr. Mueller that the president may have been right about the special counsel all along.
Mr. Woodward wrote that Mr. Dowd would tell Mr. Mueller that the president did not have time for the inquiry while he was juggling the responsibilities of his new job.
Im very sensitive to that, Mr. Mueller reportedly responded. Im doing the best I can.
Still, Mr. Mueller at one point told Mr. Dowd that he could acquire a grand jury subpoena, which Mr. Dowd interpreted as a threat.
Im not trying to threaten you, Mr. Mueller reportedly told Mr. Dowd. Im just thinking of the possibilities here.
MEXICO CITY President Jimmy Morales of Guatemala said Tuesday that the head of a United Nations-backed anticorruption commission would not be allowed back into the country, a move that pushes the countrys fragile institutions closer to a full-blown constitutional crisis.
The order, just the latest attempt by the president to halt graft investigations that threaten his presidency, came four days after Mr. Morales announced that he would not renew the panels mandate when it expires in 12 months.
While that decision was within his authority as president, the order to block the entry of the Colombian prosecutor, Ivan Velasquez, puts Mr. Morales in direct conflict with Guatemalas highest court.
Mr. Velasquez, who has led the anticorruption panel since 2013, left Guatemala on Monday for meetings in Washington and New York. The governments refusal to permit his return raises the stakes in a standoff between the prosecutor and the president over allegations that Mr. Morales broke campaign finance laws.
LONDON Saudi Arabias public prosecutor is seeking the death penalty for a prominent Muslim cleric who has criticized the way the monarchy is governed, the Saudi news media and the clerics son said Tuesday.
The trial of the cleric, Salman al-Awda, comes after a yearlong crackdown by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdoms day-to-day ruler, that has seen dozens of clerics, activists, princes and businessmen arrested and detained on often vague charges.
Human rights groups have said that many of the arrests, like that of Mr. Awda, had more to do with politics than with any activities commonly regarded as crimes elsewhere in the world.
If you look at the charges, it is clearly politically motivated, Adam Coogle, who researches Saudi Arabia for Human Rights Watch, said of the case against Mr. Awda.
Its hard to find a place where there is conflict and Iran isnt in the middle of it, Ms. Haley said at a news conference. We think theyve been ignored and given a pass for too long, and we think its time for Iran to stand up and explain themselves.
At the Security Council, Mr. Trump could face stiff resistance not only from opponents of the United States, but also from allies like Britain and France, who were strongly opposed to the administrations abrupt withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement they helped negotiate with the Obama administration.
Though many are highly critical of Irans involvement in wars in Yemen and Syria, few consider the country to be the global menace the United States portrays it to be.
I understand that there are some members who find that uncomfortable to talk about, Ms. Haley said. I personally think that when we talk about things that are uncomfortable at the Security Council, good things happen.
Mr. Trump will also have to contend with the arcane system of rules and protocols that govern conduct within the typically staid Security Council chamber. Sessions are normally tightly scripted affairs, with ambassadors rarely straying from prepared remarks.
Ms. Waterbury, who studied from 2013 to 2016 at the academy affiliated with the company, the School of American Ballet, blames the company in her suit for condoning a fraternity-like atmosphere that permeates the Ballet and its dancers and emboldens them to disregard the law and violate the basic rights of women. As an example, the lawsuit says that the company was aware that Mr. Finlay had caused extensive damage to his hotel room in Washington after hosting a party there earlier this year.
Charles W. Scharf, the chairman of the board at City Ballet, said in a statement that the company had not condoned any of the behavior mentioned and that it has no liability for the actions specified in the complaint and has taken the appropriate disciplinary actions for the dancers involved.
Ms. Waterburys lawsuit says that she was not alone in being victimized and that nude photos of other female dancers were also shared on the text-chain, often accompanied by lewd and misogynistic language.
The suit says a donor wrote to Mr. Finlay about his desire to violate dancers at another company, and added, I bet we could tie some of them up and abuse them like farm animals. It said Mr. Finlay replied or like the sluts they are.
Mary Boone, a veteran gallerist who has been a fixture in the New York art world for decades, pleaded guilty Wednesday to filing false federal income tax returns, law enforcement officials said.
The Mary Boone Gallerys 2012 tax forms reported a false business loss for the previous year of about $52,000 although the gallery actually made a profit in 2011 of about $3.7 million, according to documents filed by the United States attorneys office.
Ms. Boone used business funds to pay for more than $1.6 million in personal expenses, including remodeling a Manhattan apartment, and then falsely claimed those personal expenses as business deductions, prosecutors said. They added that she failed to report on her personal tax forms her profit from the gallery, instead using the bogus losses to offset what she had declared as her personal income.
In a statement, Geoffrey S. Berman the United States attorney in Manhattan, described Ms. Boone as playing a shell game with bank accounts to hide her true assets, adding: As Boone has learned, tax laws are not abstract.
CHARLESTON, S.C. A sign at a cafe in the Charleston Gaillard Center read Welcome Aziz Ansari. Treat Yo Self, a reference to Mr. Ansaris character from the former NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation. Mr. Ansari, who was born in Columbia, S.C., and grew up in Bennettsville, was about to have a homecoming of sorts.
He took the stage on Tuesday night at the center, and the sold-out crowd let him know he was home, too, giving him a partial standing ovation. Mr. Ansari, in jeans and a red plaid shirt, responded by saying Charleston was really one of my favorite places, before beginning a comedy set testing out new material.
The show was among a handful of performances that Mr. Ansari, 35, has given since January, when Babe.net published accusations from an anonymous woman saying he had behaved inappropriately with her on a date. The woman said that when they returned to his apartment, he tried to pressure her into having sex despite her repeated refusals. Eventually, Mr. Ansari called the woman a car. The next day, she sent a lengthy text message to Mr. Ansari explaining how uneasy his behavior had made her. Mr. Ansari wrote back, the article reported, saying, Clearly, I misread things in the moment and Im truly sorry. In a statement after the article was published, Mr. Ansari said, I took her words to heart and responded privately after taking the time to process what she had said.
He added: I continue to support the movement that is happening in our culture. It is necessary and long overdue.
Season 1, Episode 9: Henry Deaver
The town of Castle Rock makes its first prominent appearance in The Dead Zone, the 1979 Stephen King novel in which a local schoolteacher named Johnny Smith uses his psychic abilities to help Sheriff George Bannerman track a serial killer. Smiths powers are triggered by touch: He brushes against someones hand and sees their future unspooling in his mind, like a movie. But his predictions arent fixed. If he takes action, he can alter the timeline.
Sound familiar?
This weeks episode, Henry Deaver, doesnt directly reference The Dead Zone at least not the way it did earlier this season, when Molly Strand mentioned that her house used to belong to the Castle Rock Killer. But it appears to be riffing on some of the concepts King introduced in that book and not only because Molly gets vivid psychic flashes whenever she touches someones hand.
A few weeks back, Henry Deaver learned that his adoptive father, Rev. Matthew Deaver, spent the final years of his life in the woods, trying to understand something called schisma a sort of voice of God that reveals all of our possible pasts and all of our possible presents simultaneously and tries to reconcile them. By way of illustrating this concept, this weeks episode presents an altered version of Castle Rock: with a different past, a different present and a different Henry.
The hour is essentially one long what if: What if the man weve known up until now as the Kid were, in fact, the real Henry Deaver, the biological son of Ruth and Matthew? What if he came home to sort out some issues with his dead fathers estate and discovered that the young boy we have thus far known as Henry (or at least the Henry of 27 years ago) had been living in a cage in Rev. Deavers basement? And then what if, by way of some strange Twin Peaks-style portal in the woods, these two Henrys switched lives?
ANCIENT INVISIBLE CITIES 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). When archaeologists finally opened a previously undiscovered black granite sarcophagus in Alexandria, Egypt, this summer, reports of what they found inside were, by most measures, unremarkable: three skeletons and a mass of reddish sewage water. Egypts Ministry of Antiquities informed the public of the lackluster findings. But some parts of the internet, driven by the images of the exhumed sarcophagus, were spellbound. A petition to let people drink the red liquid from the dark sarcophagus has thousands of signatures on Change.org, and much social media discussion revolved around the possibility that the coffin might be cursed. No curse has been revealed (so far, at least), but the event points to the unending intrigue surrounding Egyptian artifacts. Ancient Invisible Cities uses 3-D scanning to explore historic cities; Wednesdays episode focuses on Cairo, where the technology will examine landmarks like the Great Pyramid of Giza nearby.
TATTOO AGE 10:30 p.m. on Viceland. Tattoos reflect the sensibilities and passions of their wearers, but this series shows how much tattoos also reflect the minds of the artists who lay down the ink. The final episode of Season 2 profiles the celebrated West Coast artist Ed Hardy.
When photos began circulating of migrant children separated from their parents and placed in what looked like giant cages in detention centers, the young adult novelists Melissa de la Cruz and Margaret Stohl had an immediate response. After texting nine author friends asking what they could collectively do, Ms. de la Cruz and Ms. Stohl drafted a statement of protest called Kidlit Says No Kids in Cages, denouncing practices that should be restricted to the pages of dystopian novels.
Within minutes, they had 94 signatures from our fellow kidlit authors and supporters, Ms. de la Cruz said. A day later the statement was posted on Twitter with over 4,000 signatures. The group has now raised nearly $240,000 for legal services for the migrant families.
They also expanded fund-raising to include online raffles and auctions for such services as manuscript evaluations by best-selling childrens authors and character naming, with the winning donors name to appear in an as-yet-to-be-written novel. Another group of kidlit authors, agents and publishers made an online clearinghouse of original posters designed by prominent childrens book illustrators to protest family separation, all available for free download.
Childrens book creators similarly coordinated a response after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shootings in Parkland, Fla., in January. The graphic novelist Raina Telgemeier and the YA novelist Jenny Han set up a group called Kidlit Marches for Kids, rallying colleagues to join the March 24 gun control protest spearheaded by the Parkland students, and designing a protest sign for marchers.
1. The root of the problem is the presidents amorality.
From Opinion: In an anonymous Op-Ed essay, a senior Trump administration official says that like-minded colleagues and I are working to thwart President Trumps misguided impulses, believing he continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.
President Trump wasted no time in denouncing the essay, calling it a gutless editorial.
We have somebody in what I call the failing New York Times talking about hes part of the resistance within the Trump administration, the president said. This is what we have to deal with.
The anonymous account affirms the picture painted by the veteran journalist Bob Woodwards new book, Fear, of a White House in disarray with officials actively blocking President Trumps worst impulses. The administration hit back at the book, saying it was nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the president look bad.
Get the DealBook newsletter to make sense of major business and policy headlines and the power-brokers who shape them.
__________
Over three decades, John Studzinski has been a consummate deal maker first at Morgan Stanley, then at HSBC and most recently at the Blackstone Group acting as a consigliere to chief executives around the world.
Now, he will do so at a new firm: Pimco, the investment management giant.
The firm announced on Wednesday that it was hiring Mr. Studzinski, who recently said he would step down as vice chairman of Blackstone. Over the years, the financier known among friends as Studs has advised Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo, William A. Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management and even the Vatican.
At Pimco, he will be a managing director and vice chairman and will advise clients like pension funds, governments and sovereign wealth funds. He will report directly to the firms chief executive, Emmanuel Roman. Mr. Studzinski will be based in New York and will shuttle between London, where he also has a home, and Newport Beach, Calif., where Pimco has its headquarters.
Gwyneth Paltrows lifestyle brand, Goop, has agreed to pay $145,000 in civil penalties in a settlement in California after an investigation found its claims about some of the products it sells were not backed by scientific evidence, the Orange County district attorneys office said.
The settlement involved three products that Goop had promised would deliver medical benefits. Two items were eggs for vaginal wellness one made of jade and another made of quartz that the company said would balance hormones, increase bladder control and regulate menstrual cycles. Goop said the third item, Inner Judge Flower Essence Blend, could help prevent depression, according to the district attorneys office.
The settlement came after an investigation by the California Food, Drug, and Medical Device Task Force, which is made up of prosecutors from 10 counties.
The claims have the potential to affect womens health, Tony Rackauckas, the Orange County district attorney, said in a statement. Its important to hold companies accountable for unsubstantiated claims.
But its not always easy for a school to go green. Heres a look at some recent developments.
Solar power
In many ways, schools are a natural fit for solar power: They tend to require electricity only during the day, when the sun is shining, and they often have ample space on their roofs and grounds for solar panels.
More than 5,500 schools across the country have installed solar power arrays to help power their buildings, the Solar Energy Industries Association said in a report last year. Thats about 5 percent of K-12 schools in the United States, and their solar capacity has almost doubled over the past three years, the report says.
The cost of solar power has come way down, and thats been the No. 1 driver of solar in schools, said Ed Gilliland of The Solar Foundation, a Washington-based nonprofit that helped produce the report. Whereas before, there tended to be a lot of small solar power arrays put up for educational purposes, schools are now embracing them as money-saving investments.
California has led the way, with almost 2,000 schools installing solar panels. But solar power is reaching schools across the country.
FORT WORTH More than 1,000 miles from the caustic Supreme Court confirmation hearing of Brett M. Kavanaugh, a federal judge in Texas on Wednesday listened to arguments about whether to find part or all of the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, in a case that may end up before a newly right-leaning set of justices.
The case has become not simply a threat to the landmark legislation. Democrats have sought to make it both a flash point in the battle over whether to confirm Judge Kavanaugh and a crucial prong in their strategy to retake control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections.
It has already made some Republicans jumpy, especially those in tight re-election contests, because the Trump administration explicitly said in a legal filing in June that it agreed with the argument of Texas and 19 other Republican-controlled states that the laws protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions are not constitutional. The administration is refusing to defend those guarantees. In that sense, although the case threatens one of the Democrats proudest achievements, it is also proving to be something of an election-year gift to their party.
They have hammered away at the issue in millions of dollars of ads, at round tables with their constituents, and at this weeks confirmation hearings, where Judge Kavanaugh declined to answer a question from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, about whether he would uphold those guarantees.
Theranos is going out with barely a whisper. Once heralded as a revolutionary new way to conduct a blood test to detect myriad diseases, all with a single finger prick, the company is making preparations to close its operations, according to a letter sent to shareholders.
We are now out of time, David Taylor, the companys chief executive and general counsel, informed investors in an email first reported on Tuesday by The Wall Street Journal, whose in-depth investigation unraveled the companys claims. Mr. Taylor declined to comment further, saying the letter spoke for itself.
Theranoss efforts are now focused on avoiding bankruptcy.
Its in default under a credit agreement reached last year with Fortress Investment Group, Mr. Taylor told shareholders. The company is negotiating a settlement with Fortress, which would then own the companys intellectual property and allow Theranos to distribute its remaining cash some $5 million to unsecured creditors.
Because the companys cash is not nearly sufficient to pay all of the creditors in full, there will be no distribution to shareholders under the plan, Mr. Taylor said in the letter.
Times Insider delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how news, features and opinion come together at The New York Times.
Capt . Harith al-Sudani, Iraqs most successful spy, died behind enemy lines and his body was never recovered. His grieving family needed proof of his death in order to get the benefits owed to a fallen serviceman. For a year their requests were stymied by Iraqs slow-moving bureaucracy.
Margaret Coker, The Timess Baghdad bureau chief, spent five months reporting Captain Sudanis story. Twelve hours after her article was published, an assistant to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called the Sudanis home in Baghdad, offering to intervene on their behalf. A few days later, the family was told a formal death certificate would be issued.
Two other recent articles from our international desk also were followed by swift action: one by Hannah Beech, our Southeast Asia bureau chief, on the uproar over a case of a child bride in Malaysia; and one by Norimitsu Onishi, our Johannesburg bureau chief, and Selam Gebrekidan, a foreign correspondent based in London , on the lack of school sanitation in South Africa .
Please raise your right hand. These are the Supreme Court confirmation hearings This is day two. youre probably all familiar with. Bigly. You just said bigly. Bigly. Big partisan productions A charade and a mockery. Anything else you want to say, Judge Bork? that dominate the headlines and the airwaves. This is how they used to be. [crickets] Yeah, there actually werent any. So how did we get from here [crickets] to here? Well start in 1937 with former Senator Hugo Black, whos being congratulated. Thats because hes just been confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice. Hes also been outed as a former member of the Ku Klux Klan. So to explain himself, he gets on the radio. I did join the Klan. I later resigned. I never rejoined. People are not happy. Theyre basically asking: How could the Senate Judiciary Committee let this guy through? Answer: Since the first hearing back in 1873, for this guy, there were no standard ways of holding hearings for Supreme Court nominees. They didnt have to go and testify, and the hearings didnt need to be made public. The senators reviewed the nominees among themselves. But then came a couple of amendments to the Constitution. The upshot is they gave more voting power to the people. So the senators needed to start paying more attention to public opinion. And theyre paying attention when Blacks controversial confirmation drives Americans to ask: Why are these hearings private? Its a big reason why the next nominee to come along gets a public hearing. And its not just a public hearing, its the first that includes no-holds-barred questioning by the committee. Things are beginning to change. Then World War II comes, and goes. America is suddenly a superpower. Business booms, suburbs grow. The protest took the form of a boycott. And we see the beginning of the modern civil-rights era. In 1954, the court rules to end racial segregation in schools. And this marks a point where we really start to see the court using its power to shape parts of American society. That means Americans take a greater interest in who is on the court. That means even more pressure on senators to vet these candidates. Starting with the first nominee after the Brown decision, almost every nominee will have a public hearing. Now change is in full swing. I Have a Dream, the march from Selma, The Feminine Mystique. The court keeps making controversial rulings on race discrimination, gender discrimination, personal privacy. That means more public interest, more pressure on senators, more issues to parse in the hearings. So the hearings get longer. But just wait. 1981 game changer. Good evening. Sandra OConnor First woman nominated to the Supreme Court, first nomination hearing to be televised. The longer senators talk, the more TV time they get. The more TV time they get, the more they can posture for voters watching at home. [senators talking] So the more they talk. With the cameras rolling, well see 10 out of the 12 longest hearings ever. One of those is for Robert Bork With a negative recommendation of 9 to 5. who famously doesnt make the cut. Now onto the aughts. Theres an 11-year gap between nominees. Meanwhile, America has become more politically divided, so has the Senate. Over and over again Wait just a second How many times do we do this before Heres Chief Justice Roberts to explain what happened next. I mean, you look at two of my colleagues, Justice Scalia and Justice Ginsburg, for example. Maybe there were two or three dissenting votes between the two of them. Yep, three votes against Ginsburg in 1993. No votes against Scalia in 1986. Now you look at my more recent colleagues and the votes were, I think, strictly on party lines. Thats pretty much right. And that doesnt make any sense. And thats how we got here. Im not looking to take us back to quill pens. Very long Nah, I just asked you where you were at on Christmas. [laughter] Always very political So your failure to answer questions is confounding me. very public Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Also, something else to notice: Sometimes these nominees give pretty similar answers. The right to privacy is protected under the Constitution in various ways. And it protects the right to privacy in a number of ways. In various places in the Constitution. In a variety of places in the Constitution. Its protected by the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment certainly speaks to the right of privacy. Its founded in the Fourth Amendment. The first and most obvious place is the Fourth Amendment.
PERPIGNAN, FRANCE Bobby Sands was 27 when he starved himself to death in a British prison in Northern Ireland after a 66-day hunger strike in 1981. His goal was to gain official recognition of Irish Republican Army inmates as political prisoners instead of common criminals. Jailed for possession of firearms, Mr. Sands led the strike during which 9 other IRA members died, bringing international attention to the Republican movement dedicated to reuniting all of Ireland.
The French photojournalist Yan Morvan was covering Northern Ireland during the hunger strike, photographing protests, skirmishes with British soldiers and the police, funerals, and the daily life of Catholics. Though Mr. Morvan, who was also 27 that year, never met Mr. Sands, the battle between a few hunger strikers and the government of Margaret Thatcher dominated Northern Ireland.
It was like the biblical story of David and Goliath, he said.
That the two would appeal to different groups is perhaps unsurprising. One is a wealthy actress who entered politics through public school advocacy, and would be the states first female or openly gay governor; the other is a son of Caribbean immigrants known for his efforts to end unfair policing, and whose opponent has attacked him for his debts and his previously stated private opposition to same-sex marriage.
In a possible nod to their divergent backgrounds, they have not always jumped to yoke their campaigns together. Although both won the Working Families Partys nomination in May, they did not endorse each other until July. Though each has now referred to the other as a running mate, their teams emphasized at first that they were running separate campaigns, and that Mr. Williams had declared his candidacy first.
Cynthia and Jumaane come from different worlds, but they sat down together, learned from one another and built a shared vision for the New York we need, Bill Lipton, the state director of the Working Families Party, said.
What remains to be seen is how the convergence of those backgrounds plays out.
It could make them a potent force that collectively sweeps up a wide swath of diverse voters, said Tamika Mallory, a leader of the national Womens March and a supporter of Mr. Williams.
I think that he will help her to gain attention that she wouldnt necessarily have had without him, Ms. Mallory said. While her message may be progressive, at the same time, there is no real track record in this arena that people can identify with in the same way that they can with Jumaane.
But the partnership could also be deployed as a wedge. At a joint appearance by Ms. Nixon and Mr. Williams in Crown Heights, a handful of protesters toted signs calling Ms. Nixon hypocritical for supporting Mr. Williams, because of his past comments opposing abortion. Ms. Hochuls campaign has said the same. (Mr. Williams has told voters that he supports abortion rights and pro-L.G.B.T. policies.)
The Nixon and Williams campaigns have dismissed the criticism, adding that Ms. Hochul could likewise be a vulnerability for Mr. Cuomo given her previous A rating from the National Rifle Association. A spokesman for Ms. Hochuls campaign said that the governor and Ms. Hochul had discussed her support for gun safety before she joined his ticket in 2014.
About half an hour before Emirates Airline Flight 203 landed in New York on Wednesday, a crew member told passengers they would not immediately disembark because of ill people on board.
But a passenger from New York, Erin Sykes, said the problems began even before the plane was airborne.
It was clear people were sick before they even got on the plane, so much so that I asked the stewardess for a mask, she said. People were coughing the whole flight, like phlegmy, really gross coughs.
The authorities, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are working to determine what made about 100 passengers feel sick on the flight that landed at Kennedy International Airport from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, at about 9:20 a.m.
The Rev. Al Sharpton sat at a table at the Loews Regency hotel on Park Avenue one morning last week, his shoulders hunched as he prayed with an unlikely dining companion: Michael D. Cohen.
Mr. Cohen, President Trumps former lawyer, had asked Mr. Sharpton to meet him for breakfast not long after he pleaded guilty in a federal court in Manhattan to an array of charges. Those included a campaign finance violation related to payments that Mr. Cohen made to women who said they had affairs with Mr. Trump.
He seemed to be resolved that he was facing some time, Mr. Sharpton said of his second meeting with Mr. Cohen in recent months. He even asked me to pray with him, and we did at the table.
And so there they were, a Jewish ex-fixer to the Republican president seeking redemption from a Baptist preacher and Democrat at a see-and-be-seen breakfast spot on the East Side of Manhattan.
School districts across the country have added new layers of security to their buildings, and the federal government has signaled a willingness to arm teachers in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., massacre. But on the first day of school, New York tacked in a different direction.
Starting this week, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday, the city would begin a pilot program at a group of Bronx schools to turn school safety agents into the equivalent of beat cops. The city was asking 63 of the agents who work in 30 high schools to walk the hallways in search of wandering students, meet with principals to discuss brewing conflicts between children, and wish every child a good morning before first period.
That will be a new job for many of the agents who currently spend their entire days at a schools front desk, sometimes curtly asking for identification from visitors. And it will require parents, and especially students, to look at their safety agents in a new light. To highlight their new role, the agents, who work for the Police Department and are not armed, will be known as school coordination agents.
Rachel Harris, who has 35 years of experience in Bronx schools and now works at Intermediate School 219, has already spent years as an unofficial school beat cop. I always tell the kids I love them even if theyre miserable and cursing me out, Ms. Harris said, adding, Sometimes that breaks the ice with them, sometimes it doesnt and I need to think of a new strategy.
Gloria Jean, a former child singing sensation remembered for her popular 1940s Universal Studios films and her leading part in W. C. Fieldss antic comedy Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, died on Friday at a care facility near her home in Mountain View, Hawaii. She was 92.
The cause was heart failure and pneumonia, said Scott and Jan MacGillivray, Ms. Jeans biographers.
Ms. Jean started singing for an audience when she was quite young, first appearing on local radio in her native Scranton, Pa. She was trained as a coloratura soprano and brought a ringing, nimble voice and a crowd-pleasing wholesomeness to the many musicals in which she appeared at a time in Hollywood when child stars like Shirley Temple and Micky Rooney were box-office gold.
Joe Pasternak, the producer who discovered the child star Deanna Durbin, signed Ms. Jean to a contract with Universal in 1938 after she had auditioned for a musical called The Under-Pup. Universal billed Ms. Jean as an 11-year-old phenomenon, even though she was actually 13, and built a press campaign around the film that included her triumphant return to Scranton, complete with a parade and a coronation of sorts.
A staff of skilled propagandists was dispatched in advance to engineer the connivance of the city fathers, wake to ecstasy the slumbering Chamber of Commerce and lash the local peons to a frenzy of adulation, The New York Times reported in 1939.
Professor Onuf, who has written often about Jefferson, recalled in a telephone interview that the question of Jeffersons relationship with Hemings had been pretty much settled by the DNA testing after nearly 200 years of speculation. The Virginia conference was an opportunity to use the news to look anew at Jefferson and his world, he said.
And what Jan brought was a wonderful sense of family dynamics and gender through which to think seriously about him, he said.
In her essay, The White Jeffersons, a draft of which she delivered at the conference, Professor Lewis analyzed how he viewed his two families one white and privileged, the other mixed-raced and enslaved on his land.
Let us imagine a man, Professor Lewis wrote. Let us call him Thomas Jefferson. Let us imagine that he evades the truth, or tells a lie, perhaps to save face, perhaps to spare the ones he loves. It is probably both, for the two are in some measure inextricable. He needs his family to love him, and they cannot, he fears, if he appears to them as less than the devoted father he has claimed to be.
Image Professor Lewiss 1983 book used the Jeffersons as a prism through which to trace the changing world of Virginias early American gentry.
She continued: And in the moment that he evades the truth or tells the lie, if not before, he has made a decision about whose love matters most, about who will receive his tenderest love.
Professor Lewis was born on July 10, 1949, in St. Louis. Her father, Edward, was a salesman, and her mother, Suzanne (Greensfelder) Lewis, was a paralegal. With her family, she moved to White Plains, then graduated from Bryn Mawr College with a bachelors degree in history. She later earned masters degrees in American culture and history and a Ph.D. in early American history from the University of Michigan.
Since 1851, obituaries in The New York Times have been dominated by white men. With Overlooked, were adding the stories of remarkable people whose deaths went unreported in The Times.
Melitta Bentz would start out her mornings in Dresden in a manner as mundane as the person in the apartment next door, and the one next door to that: with a cup of freshly brewed coffee.
But rather than feel refreshed and focused, Bentz found herself growing more annoyed with each sip.
My mother, who had an excellent taste in coffee, was often irritated by the coffee grounds in her cup, Horst Bentz, one of her sons, recalled decades later in an interview in a 1949 issue of Der Aufstieg, a German publication.
And then there was the chore of cleaning the copper pot and getting rid of the grounds that stuck to the sides.
Every morning, from her kitchen in Dresden, Germany, she fantasized about better ways to brew.
She tried and failed multiple times, until one day she ripped a piece of blotting paper from her sons school notebook and stuck it into an old tin pot in which she had punched some holes. What she did next will sound familiar to many: She added ground coffee and poured hot water over it. The beverage dripped through the paper, straight into the cup.
There are many reasons Americans pay more for health care than citizens of any other country. But one of the most powerful forces driving cost increases is buried in a little-known set of regulations concerning emergency room care.
These regulations have granted hospitals what is essentially a monopoly over emergency room patients, allowing them to charge basically whatever they want.
Readily available emergency treatment is among the most fundamental services of our health care system. To ensure it, most states require health care plans to tell their members to go to the nearest hospital in an emergency and that insurance will cover the visit even if their plan does not have a contract with that hospital and the emergency care they receive will be out of network. This provision is meant to assure timely access to needed care and, although some patients have to wait hours to be seen by a doctor, and some still get hit with additional charges, it generally works pretty well.
The problem is that the rules give hospitals tremendous pricing power when theyre negotiating with health insurance companies. Increasingly, hospitals have learned that if they demand higher prices from health plans and do not get them, the hospitals can just cancel their contract. They will still get paid for treating emergency patients under those plans and in fact will be paid more, because those patients will be out of network. (While this applies only to emergency room patients, about half of all hospital admissions come through emergency rooms.)
At about the time Mr. Trump was being inaugurated, I wrote a work of speculative fiction in which I imagined his government stripping one million American Latinos of their citizenship. The real-life 45th president of the United States has shown himself to be an increasingly arbitrary and mercurial leader who, when under attack, lashes out against immigrants. Its clear his movement to radically shift our nations immigration laws is just getting started.
Already, the administration is moving to reduce the number of legal immigrants who can become naturalized citizens, according to an NBC News report. And the president has demanded the end of chain migration and the truly evil people it brings into our country even though his in-laws obtained citizenship thanks to an immigrant daughter who became a citizen because she married an American.
And one more conservative vote on the Supreme Court might bring the pro-Trumpian nativists closer to their long-held dream, expressed this year by one of his former aides: eliminating birthright citizenship, which was guaranteed by the 14th Amendment and affirmed in the 1898 Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Wong Kim Ark.
Time and again, Mr. Trump himself has laid bare the true motive for these nativist goals: racial engineering. He is the same man, after all, who launched his campaign by insulting the character of Mexican immigrants and who referred to African countries as cesspools once he was in the White House. He has made it obvious he wants a whiter America.
In response, Im tempted to write a stirring defense of my immigrant people and their contributions to the American story. But I wont do that. For starters, its clear we immigrants and children of immigrants could win the Medal of Honor, become an astronaut or win a Nobel Prize (actually, weve done all those things), and there would still be people who blame us for the countrys ills.
One of the great things about being an American is you can define the pursuit of happiness however you like. You have the right to be a loser. Or a flaneur. A libertarian or a vegetarian. A socialist or a survivalist.
Being American also gives us the right to use the Constitution, and the Enlightenment principles on which it is based, to defend our rights. Being an American gives me the right to say this: The United States is headed for perdition if we allow our government to strip hundreds of Texans of their citizenship.
Hector Tobar (@TobarWriter), an associate professor at the University of California, Irvine, is the author of Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free and a contributing opinion writer.
Senator de Leon fought to keep the issues separate, and he won. The legislature declined to act on the governors requests, though it is expected to revisit the issue next year, after he leaves office.
So it is understandable that the governor is perturbed. I thought he had a good argument about expanding the grid, but some environmental groups feared that bill would open the door to mischief, allowing the fossil-fuel puppets in the Trump administration to force California to take more dirty coal power. This is not a crazy fear, since the federal government has some jurisdiction over interstate power sales.
The sausage-making played out as it did, and now we have what the governor likely sees as an uncooked sausage sitting on his desk. Yet to veto the legislation that passed would be a black mark on his remarkable record of climate leadership.
The bill is clever. It commits California to procuring more renewable energy from wind and solar farms, which will have to supply 60 percent of the states power by 2030. But the bill recognizes that other sources of clean energy will likely be needed to drive emissions to zero.
So for the remaining 40 percent, the bill allows any low-emissions source to compete. California will, I hope, set up a robust market in which new types of power plants can win a share, so long as they offer a reasonable price. The potential options include advanced nuclear reactors, geothermal plants tapping the earths interior heat, floating offshore wind turbines, and gas-burning power plants that capture and bury their emissions.
In other words, California could well be the place where the electric grid of the future gets invented. Building these new-age power plants will ultimately be a huge global business, and the bill will likely help California win more than its share of the jobs and economic growth.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former Republican governor who signed one of Californias most important climate bills, made this point the other day on Twitter.
To the Editor:
Re Woodwards Sprawling Expose Depicts White House in Chaos (front page, Sept. 5):
Next week a new book about Donald Trump by the iconic journalist Bob Woodward will be out, and it promises to be a bombshell. Excerpts that have been released seem to prove once again that truth is stranger than fiction. Either Mr. Woodward has wildly exaggerated and fabricated many findings, or the Trump White House and, more critically, the president himself is highly dysfunctional.
There are stories of close aides, even cabinet members, who have gone to great lengths to constrain a man whose childlike impulses and lack of intelligence they openly scorn.
The White House has started to push back, saying Mr. Woodwards book is a con on the public by a liberal and biased journalist. The problem for the White House is that Bob Woodward is one of our nations most respected reporters whose books are known for their exhaustive research and documentation.
The bottom line is that our president may be uniquely and historically unfit to wield the awesome powers of his office. Many of us already believed this, but the evidence is becoming more incontrovertible over time.
Before Mr. Obama, it was common for black activists and civil rights organizations to appeal to presidents when they were trying to win concessions from the federal government. But this strategy didnt work with a black president. African-Americans had more access to the White House than ever before, yet they couldnt use that access to wrangle specific policy reforms from the first black president without tarnishing the historical achievement of his election.
Remember when Representative Maxine Waters of California critiqued Mr. Obamas remarks to the Congressional Black Caucus in 2011 because he told the audience to stop complaining about their problems? That was not as welcome as when she told Trump officials this summer she was reclaiming her time.
During the Obama presidency, traditional civil rights organizations like the N.A.A.C.P. and the National Urban League worked closely with the administration. This created a power vacuum in the black left. Which activists would drive black politics outside of the national spotlight? Young black activists filled the void, many of whom were already trained as local organizers.
At the end of Mr. Obamas second term, black youth had become a significant and unified political voice. Since then, their power has only grown. The constellation of Black Lives Matter groups initially focused on police and vigilante violence but expanded its platform to address political and economic challenges facing the black community. From the outset, these groups have made clear that all black lives matter women, queer and transgender people were always at the center of their political agenda.
The political focus of the Black Lives Matter movement is much farther to the left than traditional black civil rights organizations. The movement supports reparations in the form of fully funded education, an end to money bail and the demilitarization of the police. Since turning to electoral politics, its constituent groups have said that the candidates they endorse must also represent similar progressive views.
To be sure, there has always been a black progressive community whose politics skewed farther left than the Democratic Partys or civil rights organizations. Black progressives have long critiqued problematic policies of black elected officials and any solutions that left vulnerable members of the black community further marginalized.
In the places where this movement has been most effective, young leaders are crucial. But there is an intergenerational nature to the work and the composition of activists. These young people have allowed for a more inclusive black politics.
Amid the Resistance-y funeral rites of John McCain, the presidents latest Twitter rants against his attorney general and the wild White House stories being circulated by Bob Woodwards latest book, its a good time to revisit a familiar and crucial subject. To what extent is Donald Trump an extraordinarily dangerous president whose authoritarian style is constantly enabled by his advisers and his party? Or, alternatively, to what extent is he an extraordinarily weak president, constrained by his appointees and his notional allies at almost every turn?
Ive made the case for the second narrative before, arguing that Trump isnt really in charge of his own presidency, and that the Republican Congress or at least the Republican Senate has constrained his behavior more than many Resisters acknowledge.
A year into his administration, I ran down the list of destabilizing or immoral moves that Trump promised during his campaign and pointed out almost none had actually happened no return to waterboarding, no exit from NATO or Nafta, a hackishly implemented travel ban that only gestured at the promised Muslim-immigration shutdown, no change to the libels laws to shutter hostile newspapers, no staffing of the cabinet or the judiciary with unqualified cronies, no practical concessions to Vladimir Putin in Russias near abroad, and more. In general the Trump of early 2018 looked like a Twitter authoritarian but a practical weakling, hounded by a special counsel and unable to even replace his own attorney general because Senate Republicans said he couldnt.
But the last six months have tested that argument. Trump has asserted more control over his presidencys staffing decisions, ejected obvious establishment plants like H.R. McMaster and Gary Cohn in favor of faces he likes from cable TV. Hes pursued a version of the trade wars that he touted on the hustings; hes disrupted summit meetings with allies and fallen prostrate before Putin; hes conducted diplomacy with North Korea in a reality-television style; hes attacked the Mueller investigation constantly and hired surrogates to take the attacks all the way to 11; hes pursued a family-separation policy at the border thats exactly the kind of cruelty that his campaign promised and that many Republicans promised to restrain.
Last years General Assembly was hardly a pleasant affair between the United States and Iran. The two presidents used the annual gathering to vilify each other, with Mr. Trump describing Iran as a rogue regime and calling the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran an embarrassment and Mr. Rouhani responding by calling the American president a rogue newcomer to international politics.
Since then, relations between Iran and the United States have deteriorated further. In May, Mr. Trump announced Washingtons withdrawal from the nuclear deal. The White House has reimposed sanctions on Iran in the hopes, it claims, of getting a better deal as well as a significant change in the behavior of the Iranian government. An even tougher round of sanctions will probably go into effect in November.
But the nuclear deal is far from the only issue in the Iranian-American relationship. The two countries also have interests in Afghanistan and in the war against the Islamic State; in Syria, both Iran and the United States should be concerned about reconstruction as the seven-year-long civil war there winds down. And both Iran and the United States are involved and invested in the disastrous war in Yemen, which has become a humanitarian catastrophe.
These are all the topics that could and should be on the table at a summit between Mr. Trump and Mr. Rouhani.
Brett Kavanaugh, President Trumps nominee to replace Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court, has testified to the Senate that a good judge must be an umpire a neutral and impartial arbiter. He and his supporters want us to believe that he would be such an umpire on the Supreme Court. But does his record support him? The refusal of the Senate Judiciary Committee majority to share thousands of highly pertinent documents naturally raises skepticism. But there is plenty already in the public record about which Judge Kavanaugh has yet to be held accountable.
Anticipating the imminent publication of Kenneth Starrs memoir of the Clinton impeachment, I looked into Judge Kavanaughs files in the Office of Independent Counsel records, housed in the National Archives. What I discovered sheds light on how Mr. Kavanaugh made his way in his early career, and how he flagrantly breached his role as a neutral public servant and followed the imperatives of a political operative.
Mr. Kavanaugh served under Mr. Starr as associate independent counsel between 1994 and 1997, and then again in 1998. Although not yet a judge, he was charged with investigating impartially what Attorney General Janet Reno deemed substantial accusations of misconduct arising from a failed real estate investment known as Whitewater.
Judge Starrs predecessor as independent counsel, Robert Fiske, had looked into unfounded claims that the White House counsel Vincent Foster, who committed suicide in Fort Marcy Park in 1993, had in fact been murdered as part of an alleged White House cover-up related to Whitewater. After a thorough investigation, Mr. Fiske concluded in 1994 that there was nothing to the conspiracy theories and that Mr. Foster, who suffered from depression, had indeed killed himself. Official accounts by the National Park Service in 1993 and by a Republican congressman, William Clinger, the ranking member of the House Government Affairs Committee in 1994, came to an identical conclusion, as did a bipartisan report of the Senate Banking Committee early in 1995.
Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. | $1.995 Million
A 1957 International Style house with four bedrooms and three bathrooms
Designed by Roy O. Allen, a partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, as his own residence, this steel-and-glass pavilion-style building is in the municipality of Ossining, N.Y., less than a mile from the Scarborough Metro-North station and less than an hours drive from New York City.
Size: 3,450 square feet
Price per square foot: $578
Indoors: The homes striking features include radiant-heated terrazzo floors; steel-framed, energy-efficient windows; a marble accent wall in the dining room that once was part of a Rockefeller residence; and built-in walnut cabinets throughout. The current owners, the magazine creative director Fred Woodward and his wife, Janice, hired Brad Dunning, a Los Angeles designer, to restore and enhance the property. The house was published in Architectural Digest in 2015.
It is constructed as two parts, connected by a glass breezeway. The main pavilion, which is glass and steel, contains a great room with a central chimney and gas fireplace, a kitchen designed by Mr. Dunning with a breakfast bar and Miele appliances, a master bedroom with an en suite marble-accented bathroom and two additional bedrooms and a bathroom.
The secondary, white-brick structure has a bedroom, a bathroom, a media room with a wood-burning fireplace, a laundry room and direct access to the two-car garage.
Why does Google not reveal the algorithm?
Google says that revealing its formula would make it easier for people who try to game search results. There is already a cottage industry of people who specialize in search engine optimization, or S.E.O., and help companies gain greater visibility for their pages. With greater insight, the thinking goes, spam sites and advertisers could displace the most relevant pages from the top of search results.
But of course, Google has another reason for keeping its search engine formula secret: Its proprietary. For the most part, Google has established its dominance in search because it did a better job of revealing the best answers to a given query. Google wants to keep its search algorithm from competitors, just as Coca-Cola doesnt reveal its recipe.
President Trump accused Google search of being biased against right-leaning media. Is that true?
Google said political ideology was not a factor in any aspect of its search results. Google said that whether a user is conservative or liberal is not part of the information collected by the company, and that it didnt categorize web pages by political leanings.
However, the scrutiny over misinformation after the 2016 presidential election pushed Google to make a change to its search algorithm. At the time, Google found that 0.25 percent of its daily traffic linked to intentionally misleading, false or offensive information. It wanted to surface what it called more authoritative content in search results. The change drew complaints that it prompted a steep drop-off in traffic. But the organization that complained and all the sites whose traffic it cited leaned to the left.
How does Google determine the authoritativeness of search results?
It relies on an army of human raters to inform the quality of search results. Google has 10,000 raters spread around the world. They rate the quality of search results to determine whether the pages ranked first deliver expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness.
While the raters cannot directly change how Googles search algorithm functions, their opinions can flag issues with specific web pages or blind spots in the search formula. Google publishes the guidelines used by the raters to determine search quality.
So Google search is completely neutral?
Not quite. When Google search was created, the search results were bare-bones a list of 10 blue links. The main objective at the time was to deliver relevant results to get people out of Google as quickly as possible. That has changed significantly over the years. Instead of simply providing links, Google is packing more information onto its web pages deepening the tension between publishers and other services, like the review site Yelp, that rely on Google to direct traffic to their sites. Google has argued that users go to Google for more than just links they go for information.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the richest man in the world, has recently faced the ire of elected officials across the political spectrum, President Trump on the right and Senator Bernie Sanders on the left.
Now, two months before the midterm elections, Mr. Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, are making by far their biggest known campaign contribution to a political group that plays right down the middle.
The couple are donating $10 million to the With Honor Fund, a so-called super PAC that supports military veterans running for Congress who vow to take a cross-party approach to governing. The group has endorsed 33 candidates running this year 14 Republicans and 19 Democrats.
In 2012, the Bezoses gave $2.5 million to support a successful referendum proposal that legalized same-sex marriage in Washington State. Mr. Bezos other federal campaign donations have largely been to political action committees tied to Amazon and Blue Origin, his space exploration company, and a few small donations to a mix of Democratic and Republican federal lawmakers.
WASHINGTON Republicans accused Twitter of being biased against conservatives on Wednesday, drawing rebukes from Democrats in a congressional hearing that illustrated how partisan lines are increasingly being drawn on social media.
The sparring focused on the testimony of Jack Dorsey, Twitters chief executive, who repeatedly denied the accusations during a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Republicans grilled Mr. Dorsey, suggesting that Twitters algorithms suppress conservative viewpoints and discriminate against Republican voices.
Representative Mike Doyle, a Democrat of Pennsylvania, accused Republicans of sounding the alarm of bias for political gain. The idea that social media services exhibit a partisan slant, Mr. Doyle said, was a load of crap.
Yet the notion that social media companies might be intentionally choosing what political content to display was also pushed by the Trump Administration. Before the afternoon hearing, the Justice Department said Attorney General Jeff Sessions planned to hold a meeting with state attorneys general this month to examine how social media companies may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms.
Those are facts, too, Mr. White said. So within those facts, you tell the story.
Mr. White began The True a few years after his breakthrough in 2011 with another drama featuring a fierce, if fragile, heroine: The Other Place, which earned a Tony nomination for Laurie Metcalf.
Since then he had a second, less successful Broadway production (The Snow Geese) and, lately, has been a writer and producer on Showtimes The Affair.
As in that series, The True doesnt shy away from complicated relationships. But the plays frame is even more obscure than the characters themselves: The True is set during the back-room drama surrounding the 1977 Democratic primary for the Albany mayorship. For those of you who dont remember this contest again, you are not alone that showdown involved Corning, his political power seemingly on the wane, against Howard C. Nolan Jr., a little-known state Senator from the Hudson Valley.
All of this is factual, though the central dramatic conflict in the play is fiction: a falling-out between Noonan and Corning, instigated by another Democratic Brahmin, who finds Noonans demeanor off-putting and overly aggressive.
Enter Ms. Falco, whose turns in The Sopranos and Nurse Jackie solidified her reputation as a leading interpreter of intelligent, no-nonsense women.
Ms. Falco, herself a political junkie, said she had never heard of Corning and Noonan before reading the script, but the character of Polly grabbed her immediately. She reminds me a lot of the smart, driven women I grew up knowing, Ms. Falco said.
Tropical Storm Gordon sputtered Wednesday after sweeping ashore overnight, saturating the Gulf Coast but sparing the region a new round of widespread destruction.
The storm made landfall just west of the Alabama-Mississippi border at about 10:15 p.m. Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center said, with maximum sustained winds of 70 miles per hour. Thats 4 miles an hour below whats needed for a tropical cyclone to be classified as a Category One hurricane.
Although the authorities said the storm caused minimal property damage, they reported the death of a child who was killed when a tree fell on a mobile home in Escambia County, Fla., on Tuesday night. Tens of thousands of customers spent part of Wednesday without electricity.
The hurricane center warned that the storm, which was downgraded to a tropical depression just before sunrise on Wednesday, could bring substantial rain and flooding as it passes over Mississippi and Arkansas. The storm is then expected to turn toward Missouri and wind through the Midwest.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 5) Senator Antonio Trillanes IV will fight President Rodrigo Duterte within Senate premises.
Trillanes said his lawyers and the Senate leadership advised him to stay at the Senate building in Quezon City amid his possible arrest after the 2011 amnesty granted to him by the previous administration was invalidated by Duterte.
"Yung instinct ko nga kahapon, sige magwawalk in na ko. But if we're going to turn ourselves in voluntarily, hindi mo na makukuwestiyon yung validity, legality ng warrantless arrest. Bakit niyo ko huhulihin nga in the first place?" Trillanes told Senate reporters in a chance interview.
[Translation: "My instinct yesterday was to walk in. But if we're going to turn ourselves in voluntarily, we can no longer question the validity and legality of this warrantless arrest. Why would you arrest me in the first place?"]
Arresting officers were deployed outside the Senate building Tuesday while the Justice Department asked the Makati Regional Trial Court to issue an alias warrant and hold departure order against the senator. The court has set a hearing on September 13. Trillanes said he will comment on the petition within the five-day period set by the court.
Long night at Senate
Trillanes said he and his legal counsel spent the night discussing what legal action to take, and have decided to file a temporary restraining order (TRO) on Wednesday against Duterte's order to void his amnesty.
"It's quite uncomfortable dito (here) It was a long night kagabi dahil marami kaming diniscuss (last night because we discussed a lot of things," Trillanes said.
Trillanes said his camp will take the fight to the Supreme Court and question the validity of Duterte's Proclamation Order No. 572. The order, signed August 31 and published in newspapers Tuesday, said the amnesty granted to Trillanes was void from the start because he did not comply with the minimum requirements to qualify under the Amnesty Program. It said Trillanes never admitted guilt for the coup attempts, failed to take an oath and formally apply for amnesty.
"Yung presidential declaration na yun should alarm the justices of the Supreme Court," Trillanes said, expressing hopes that the High Court would be fair in its decision.
The Supreme Court now is headed by Chief Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro, who was recently appointed by President Duterte after the historic ouster of his "enemy," Maria Lourdes Sereno.
Did Trillanes file for amnesty?
Trillanes on Wednesday insisted he filed for amnesty and publicly admitted his guilt, as shown in a video he presented during his privilege speech on Tuesday. He also presented documents supposedly showing that the cases filed against him for rebellion over his involvement in coup attempts have been dismissed in 2011.
LOOK: Trillanes presents video of amnesty application to debunk Palace claims
He called Duterte and his officials "incompetent" for wanting him arrested despite the absence of cases.
"I am alarmed by the level of katangahan nitong mga taong ito. Ito ang namamahala ng ating bansa. Mang-iipit na lang kayo palpak pa," he said.
[Translation: "I am alarmed by the level of stupidity of these people. They are leading our country. You fail even at harassing people."]
During the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Trillanes, a former naval officer, was involved in three mutiny attempts: Oakwood mutiny in July 2003, the Marines stand-off in February 2006, and the Manila Peninsula incident in 2007. Trillanes and the other Magdalo soldiers involved were jailed but freed under an amnesty granted in 2011 by President Benigno Aquino III.
Malacanang said the Aquino administration erred in giving Trillanes amnesty, a claim that Aquino denied in an interview with CNN Philippines Tuesday. Aquino said Trillanes filed and met the requirements for amnesty.
Lawmakers and legal experts said an amnesty cannot be revoked by the President unilaterally, noting it needs to go through proper judicial processes.
No one was hurt, the police said.
The driver, who was identified as Michael Chadwick Fry, 34, was taken to a hospital for a medical evaluation and was later booked into the Dallas County Jail on a felony criminal mischief charge, the police said. No bond had been set as of Wednesday afternoon.
Image The police said that Michael Chadwick Fry drove a truck into the local Fox stations building in downtown Dallas because he wanted to bring attention to a 2012 fatal police shooting in Denton County. Credit... Dallas County Jail
Major Max Geron of the Dallas Police Department said the man had mental issues and was trying to bring attention to the fatal shooting, which occurred in Denton County, north of Dallas. In that October 2012 episode, a Denton County sheriffs deputy opened fire on a car Mr. Fry was riding in after the authorities said the driver, Roberto Hernandez, tried to ram into the deputys cruiser.
Mr. Hernandez was struck and killed, while Mr. Fry, who had jumped into the back seat, was not injured. Mr. Fry, who has a lengthy criminal record in Denton County, was charged with probation violation.
A video from the station on Wednesday showed the man removing paper from a duffel bag and from boxes in the back of the truck. He also stacked a pile of documents outside a door to the building. One of the documents was a copy of a news article about the Denton County shooting with mug shots of Mr. Hernandez and himself.
Notes had been written around the article. They tryed to kill me. and they missed. and hit him, the notes read. They have been trying to killing me for years now.
Mr. Jones asked if the senator would have him arrested.
Youre not going to get arrested, Mr. Rubio continued. Ill take care of you myself.
Oh, hell beat me up. He doesnt know who I am, but he is so mad, Mr. Jones said with excitement. You are not going to silence me. You are not going to silence America. You are literally like a little gangster thug. Rubio just threatened to silence me.
The senator walked away and the show went on.
For Mr. Jones, the appearance of top Facebook and Twitter executives was personal enough to bring his trolling out of the dark corners of the internet and into the halls of the House and Senate.
In early August, Facebook and YouTube banned Mr. Jones and Infowars from their platforms, drastically reducing his reach. Since then, he has led an on-air crusade against the companies, pointedly accusing them of an unfounded campaign to suppress conservative speech.
I am here to face my accusers one way or another, he declared to a bank of cameras just outside a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee, where Sheryl Sandberg, Facebooks chief operating officer, and Jack Dorsey, the chief executive of Twitter, faced questions from senators about how to combat foreign influence campaigns on their platforms. He urged lawmakers either to block the companies from banning users or to simply break the companies up.
The real election meddling is by Facebook and Google and others that are shadow banning people, Mr. Jones bellowed. They are outright banning people and they are blocking conservatives involved in their own First Amendment political speech.
Neither Mr. Jones nor Infowars actually earned a mention inside the Senates hearing room, as lawmakers debated how to combat the ability of foreign powers like Russia to influence the American political process. But later in the day, as House Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee pressed Mr. Dorsey on what they called Twitters censorship of conservative political figures and viewpoints, Mr. Joness arguments appeared to have more resonance.
WASHINGTON The United States governments decade-long attempt to prosecute four Blackwater contractors in the shooting of dozens of unarmed Iraqis in 2007, a case that became a symbol of American power run amok during the Iraq war, was dealt a blow on Wednesday when the retrial of one security guard ended in a hung jury.
The retrial of the former Blackwater contractor, Nicholas A. Slatten, was declared a mistrial by Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia after jurors deliberated for 16 days without reaching a verdict.
The deadlocked jury was the latest twist in the governments saga to hold people to account for the shooting in Baghdads Nisour Square, in which at least 31 people were killed or wounded when contractors in armored trucks began firing machine guns and launching grenades into a busy traffic circle.
The firefight was one of the darkest moments of the Iraq war, along with the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal and the civilian massacre in Haditha. It caused strife between Washington and Baghdad, with the Bush White House fighting to keep the contractors from being prosecuted in Iraq and asking Iraqis to trust the American court system.
Theres a lot of talk that the new Supreme Court, one with two Trump justices on it, might overturn Roe v. Wade. So the court cant just wake up one morning and say, were overruling Roe v. Wade. I think supporters of abortion rights are right to be nervous, but theyre maybe not exactly right about how to be nervous, what to be nervous about. Its a shorthand, sure, to say Roe v. Wade can be overruled, but thats not the only, or even the most likely, outcome. Let me take you through the possible scenarios. Lets call the first category the nuclear options. These are the most extreme and, therefore, least likely scenarios. The first one would flip Roe on its head. Roe says theres a constitutional right to abortion. The court could say the Constitution prohibits abortion in the interest of protecting fetal life. That would suggest that fetal life is like any other life, so that taking it away would be murder. So if the court were to go in that very unlikely direction, abortion would be outlawed across the nation, and women could not get abortions in the United States legally. A second nuclear option would be for the court to do away with the right to privacy established in a case called Griswold in 1965. The individual is entitled to some private sector. That right to privacy is the foundation for Roe v. Wade. If the right to privacy goes, it would do away with the basis for Roe v. Wade and, therefore, Roe v. Wade itself and flip the issue back to the states and allow states to regulate abortion as they wish. The right to privacy has been, and could be, the foundation of many rights, so I dont think its likely the court will go after the right to privacy. A second possibility, and the one everyones talking about, is the court could overrule Roe v. Wade. Protesters: Ho, ho, Roe v. Wade has got to go. Hey, hey, ho, ho. So in a post-Roe world, you still have a right to privacy. But that right to privacy does not include a constitutional right to abortion. States would be free to do what they wanted. And some advocacy groups say perhaps 22 states could make abortion illegal entirely. Thats probably not going to happen anytime soon. Protesters: Hey, hey, Roe v. Wade is here to stay. Chief Justice John Roberts is an incrementalist. He takes things step by step, and I dont think his first impulse is going to be, lets overrule Roe v. Wade when there are other ways to get from here to most of the way there. The last scenario, and the most likely one, is for the court to chip away at Roe v. Wade. The court has already upheld some restrictions on abortion. The 5 to 4 majority upheld a ban on performing abortions in public facilities. The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld the nationwide ban on partial-birth abortion. Medication abortion is now effectively blocked in Arkansas. Much more severe restrictions on abortion rights are a perfectly imaginable scenario when we have a new Supreme Court. Heres how that could happen. States cannot impose an undue burden on womens right to abortion. Thats a fairly malleable standard, and it wouldnt be hard for the Supreme Court to keep it in place, but interpret it slightly differently and say states can impose such restrictions. A couple of years ago, the court heard a case from Texas. And had the court sustained the Texas law, the number of clinics in Texas would have dropped from about 40 to about 10. And that could rapidly diminish the ability of women to get abortions because the nearest abortion clinic, at a minimum, could be hundreds of miles away. Its a little hard to answer exactly what life will look like in a given state because well have a patchwork of laws. But whats for sure is that women in red states, and particularly poor women in red states, will have a much harder time getting abortions as each successive abortion restriction is sustained by a court that now has a solidly conservative majority.
WILMINGTON, Del. Senator Tom Carper is 13 for 13 in statewide races here, a record of success that dates to his election as state treasurer in 1976. And Mr. Carpers formula for victory has largely remained constant: stay true to a centrist brand of politics that appeals to Delawares mix of rural voters and suburbanites while retaining a ubiquitous presence at churches, firehouse fund-raisers and birthday parties to which he may or may not have been invited.
After sweating his way through a steamy Labor Day parade in downtown Wilmington on Monday, Mr. Carper took even longer to walk back to his Town & Country minivan because he was so eager to discuss his efforts to clean up the citys waterfront when he was governor of this lightly populated state of neighbors. And because he stopped to greet every passer-by, even startling one young couple with an offer to carry their groceries into their apartment.
But as Mr. Carper seeks the Democratic nomination on Thursday for what would be his fourth Senate term, his well-honed strategy is being tested by Kerri Evelyn Harris, a political newcomer whose candidacy reflects the same urgent demands of other progressives in the Trump era. As with many of the generational, racial and ideological challenges rippling through her party, Ms. Harriss bid is premised on the idea that a platform of pork-barrel projects, congeniality and constituent services is no longer sufficient to the moment.
A warm smile, a firm handshake and a witty comment isnt doing it, said Ms. Harris, who is biracial. Nice isnt getting the job done.
In a radio interview on Wednesday, Mr. Trudeau described such a mechanism as a red line for his country.
That ensures the rules are actually followed, Mr. Trudeau told a radio station in Alberta, Canada. We know we have a president that doesnt always follow the rules as theyre laid out.
Last week, the United States International Trade Commission overturned the Trump administrations decision to impose tariffs on Canadian newsprint. The commission rejected the Commerce Departments argument that imports of Canadian newsprint were harming American manufacturers and ordered that the tariffs be lifted.
Mr. Trudeaus barb followed a barrage of criticism in the last week from Mr. Trump, who has accused Canada of unfair trade practices and threatened to cripple its automobile industry with tariffs. The president also repeated his threat to leave Canada from a revised Nafta and move ahead with just Mexico.
There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal, Mr. Trump said on Twitter on Saturday. If we dont make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out.
Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Trudeau also made clear on Wednesday that Canada was willing to walk.
Were not going to accept that we have to sign a bad deal just because thats what the president wants, he said. Well walk away and not sign a deal rather than sign a bad deal for Canadians.
Discussions between Canada and the United States ended last week without a deal, prompting Mr. Trump to inform Congress that he would move ahead with a trade pact with Mexico and give Canada the chance to remain in a revised Nafta if it is willing. Canada now has until the end of September to reach its own agreement with the United States, allowing the three-country pact to stay intact.
Former President Barack Obama is poised to plunge into the fray of the midterm campaign, returning to electoral politics with a frontal attack on Republican power in two states that are prime Democratic targets this fall: California and Ohio.
Having largely avoided campaign activities since leaving office, Mr. Obamas first public event of the midterm election will take place in Orange County, a traditionally conservative-leaning part of California where Republicans are at risk of losing several House seats. And Mr. Obama is expected to be joined by Democratic candidates from all seven of Californias Republican-held districts that Hillary Clinton carried in 2016.
Mr. Obama intends to campaign next Thursday in Cleveland for Richard Cordray, a former bank regulator in his administration who is the Democratic nominee for Ohio governor. Republicans have held total control of the state government since the 2010 election, and Mr. Obama helped encourage Mr. Cordray, also a former state attorney general, to seek the governorship.
The former presidents return to public politicking comes at a momentous point in the 2018 election season, furnishing Democrats again with one of their most formidable and popular campaigners in the closing months. While Mr. Obama has addressed several fund-raising events and issued a list of endorsements, he has otherwise confined his public appearances this year to loftier venues than the campaign trail.
IMMOKALEE, Fla. Not long after Beau Braden moved to southwest Florida to open a medical clinic, injured strangers started showing up at his house. A boy who had split open his head at the pool. People with gashes and broken bones. There was nowhere else to go after hours, they told him, so Dr. Braden stitched them up on his dining room table.
They were 40 miles inland from the coral-white condos and beach villas of Naples, but Dr. Braden said that this rural stretch of Collier County, with tomato farms and fast-growing exurbs, had fewer hospital beds per person than Afghanistan.
So when he proposed starting a 25-bed rural hospital to serve the 50,000 people who live in the farming town of Immokalee and the nearby planned community of Ave Maria, people rallied to the idea. They envisioned a place where mothers could give birth and sick children could get 24-hour help their own novel solution to an exodus of hospital care from rural America.
But then this summer, a larger hospital in Naples derailed those plans by asking the state to deny the proposal, saying that the small, rural hospital would siphon away patients and revenue. The move has upended peoples hopes around Immokalee and delayed any plans to start building the hospital for months. Maybe for good.
NEW DELHI It is one of the worlds oldest laws criminalizing consensual gay sex, and after weeks of deliberation, Indias top court is set to decide whether it should go the way of colonial rule.
The five Supreme Court judges who heard the case have been asked to strike down the law; a ruling is expected on Thursday.
India has been much slower than some other countries to allow gay people to live full and open lives, and in arguments before the court in July, lawyers for the petitioners challenging the law tried to make clear the broader issue.
My lords, this is love that must be constitutionally recognized, and not just sexual acts, one lawyer, Menaka Guruswamy, told the judges.
| BY Ricki Green |
Creative communications agency, History Will Be Kind (HWBK), and Nestle have partnered to launch KitKat Gold, sparking a new kind of gold rush across the nation with a high impact integrated communications strategy including key activations in Sydney and Melbourne.
Attracting major buzz with media and chocolate lovers nationwide, KitKat Gold is a world-first limited edition creation featuring crisp wafer fingers covered in a creamy golden white choc for a deliciously caramelised break.
To celebrate its arrival, Nestle and HWBK launched Australias first-ever Edible KitKat Gold Chocolate Wall last week. Built by activation partner, Banter, the giant KitKat Gold wall popped up in Martin Place, Sydney on 30 August, with thousands of fans flocking down to grab one of 8,000 bars straight from the wall. And those in Melbourne got to enjoy a delicious break when the installation arrived at Southern Cross Station on 3 September, before heading to New Zealand next.
Says Anna Stewart, head of marketing confectionery, Nestle: Were thrilled to introduce KitKat Gold, and excited to be able to delight Aussies with this campaign. The response weve had from consumers and their engagement with our incredible KitKat Gold wall has been overwhelmingly positive, and we could not have asked for better partners to work with on this.
HWBK founder, Emma-Jane (EJ) Granleese, said the agency was excited to sink their teeth into the KitKat Gold campaign, and help drive massive demand while bringing the flavour release to life in an exciting new way.
Says Granleese: Working as the PR agencyhere has been a fantastic opportunity for us to demonstrate our ability to harness the power of storytelling across multiple touchpoints, driving conversation and creating cultural currency. A real moment in history for KitKat.
LAHORE, Pakistan Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in Pakistan on Wednesday for a meeting with the new prime minister, Imran Khan, saying he wanted to reset a badly strained relationship but repeating American demands that the country do more to fight militants at home and in Afghanistan.
Even before Mr. Pompeos plane landed, Pakistani officials were calling on Mr. Khan to cancel the meeting, enraged about the cancellation of $300 million in American aid announced just days ago. The meeting will be Mr. Khans first with a high-level American official since he was sworn in last month.
We have worked closely with the Pakistanis in my role as C.I.A. director; our teams have been working together for a long time, Mr. Pompeo said on his flight to Islamabad, the capital. There are lots of challenges between our two nations, for sure, but were hopeful that with new leadership that we can find common ground and begin to work on some of our shared problems together.
He added that the Trump administration had real expectations of Pakistan.
But Pakistani officials and army officers are deeply mistrustful of the United States. They say they are being made a scapegoat for the American militarys failure in Afghanistan, where after 17 years of war the Taliban control large portions of the country.
HONG KONG Vice President Mike Pence expressed support on Tuesday for two Reuters journalists in Myanmar who were convicted there a day earlier, adding to a growing chorus of outrage over a case that is widely seen as a bellwether of Myanmars crackdown on the news media.
The journalists, U Wa Lone and U Kyaw Soe Oo, were sentenced on Monday to seven years in prison after being convicted of violating Myanmars colonial-era Official Secrets Act, prompting outrage from journalists, foreign diplomats and human rights groups around the world.
In consecutive Twitter posts on Tuesday, Mr. Pence said that he was deeply troubled by the ruling and that the Myanmar government should reverse it. He said the two men had merely been doing their job reporting on the atrocities being committed on the Rohingya people, a reference to mass killings and ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya ethnic minority near Myanmars border with Bangladesh.
SEOUL, South Korea North Koreas leader, Kim Jong-un, said he wanted to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons when he met with a special envoy from South Korea, the Norths official media reported on Thursday, and the two sides set Sept. 18-20 as the dates for a summit meeting between leaders of the two countries.
The envoy, Chung Eui-yong, South Koreas national security adviser, met with Mr. Kim in Pyongyang on Wednesday in hopes of breaking the deadlock in the talks between the North and the United States over dismantling the Norths nuclear weapons program.
On Thursday, the Norths official Korean Central News Agency said that Mr. Kim reaffirmed his commitment to denuclearize North Korea. But it fell short of clarifying whether Mr. Kim was ready to take major steps toward denuclearizing his country, such as submitting a full inventory of nuclear weapons and fissile materials, that the Trump administration has insisted on.
Noting that it is our fixed stance and his will to completely remove the danger of armed conflict and horror of war from the Korean Peninsula and turn it into the cradle of peace without nuclear weapons and free from nuclear threat, he said that the North and the South should further their efforts to realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the North Korean news agency said, referring to Mr. Kim.
A typhoon that tore through Japan leaving 11 people dead and hundreds injured has damaged the countrys third-largest airport so badly that it may be closed for at least a week, officials said on Wednesday.
With the storm now heading offshore as a low-pressure system, a major concern is the longer-term effects on business and tourism.
Referring to the damaged airport, Akira Yoshimura, a manager in the economic research division at MUFG Bank, said, If Kansai Airport doesnt open for a long time, it may impact not only the economy in the Osaka area but on the whole nation, to some extent, according to remarks reported by the Japanese broadcaster NHK.
LONDON Doctors have long been chided for their seemingly unintelligible handwriting. Now, they are being urged to drop the Latin.
In an effort to improve written communication with patients, an initiative unveiled this week by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges which represents 250,000 doctors in Britain is encouraging doctors to ditch confusing medical jargon and instead write to their patients directly in plain, simple English.
The project says with more than five million outpatient visits a month in England, outpatient clinic letters are the most written letters in Britains National Health Service.
Currently, the letters are sent to the patients general practitioner instead of the patient, meaning that doctors have to write about their patients instead of writing to them, which can cause barriers in communication.
MARSEILLE, France The nearly 20-year-old images have entered French folklore: peasants, farmers and ex-hippies dismantling a rural McDonalds, panel by panel, in what became a symbol of Frances resistance to American fast food.
Today that aging newsreel is being played in sharp reverse. A group of workers and their union leaders in Marseille are fighting tooth-and-nail to save a McDonalds from closing in a working-class, largely immigrant neighborhood. A so-called Festival of Dignity protest was recently organized by the McDonalds employees in an effort to save their roughly 70 jobs.
Even though McDonalds was once seen as a cultural menace to a glorious French tradition, the workers say this particular McDonalds, in its quarter-century of existence, has played a vital role as a social integrator in one of Frances most troubled districts providing employment and shielding local youth from pervasive drug-dealing, getting them out of jail and helping them stay out.
LONDON The two assassins sent to southwest England in March to poison a Russian former spy were active officers in Russias military intelligence, Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain said on Wednesday, after prosecutors accused the men of attempted murder, the first criminal charges in a case that has driven a deep wedge between Russia and the West.
Investigators released a cache of evidence in the case, including security camera images that captured the progress of two husky men from an Aeroflot flight to the scene of the crime, near the victims home, and from there back to Moscow.
They also released photographs of the delicate perfume bottle that was used to carry a weapons-grade nerve agent, known as Novichok, to the quiet English cathedral city of Salisbury.
British counterterrorism police said at a news conference that they had pored through thousands of hours of security-camera footage, cross-referenced the results with passport data, and on May 2, identified a shabby hotel in East London where the men had stayed. Finally, in a needle-in-a-haystack moment, two swabs taken from the suspects hotel were found to contain traces of the nerve agent.
An apparently healthy British couple who suddenly fell ill and died at a Red Sea resort in Egypt last month may have been exposed to high levels of E. coli and staphylococcus bacteria in the food supply at their hotel, according to test results released on Wednesday by the tour operator they used to book their vacation.
But the tour company, Thomas Cook, said it did not believe that the tests, conducted by an independent hygiene specialist and air quality specialist, shed any light on the still unexplained cause of death of its customers, John Cooper, 69, and his wife Susan Cooper, 64, on Aug. 21.
The sudden deaths shook Egypts ailing tourism industry and prompted Thomas Cook, one of the best-known package tour companies in Britain, to evacuate hundreds of its customers from the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in Hurghada. The company said autopsies by the Egyptian government might determine their cause of death.
It is clear from these results that something went wrong in August at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in Hurghada and that standards fell below what we expect from our hotel partners, the company said in a statement. It is likely that the presence of E. coli and staphylococcus would explain the raised level of illness reported among guests at the hotel during this time, supporting Thomas Cooks decision to remove our 300 customers.
Ben Frisch opened his Feb. 14 pre-calculus class at Friends Seminary the same way that he opened all his classes over the course of his 34 years at the private Quaker school in Manhattan: with an invitation to his students to share anything that was on their minds, followed by the gentle ringing of a chime and a long moment of silence. He then introduced the days lesson, involving the calculating of angles of depression and elevation. Frisch straightened out his right arm to demonstrate. He lowered it down and then raised it up. Glancing at his arm, now fully extended and pointing slightly upward, Frisch realized something: He was inadvertently pantomiming the Nazi salute. Frisch is a practicing Quaker, but his father was Jewish, and two of his great-grandmothers were killed at Auschwitz. Mortified, he searched for some way to defuse the awkwardness of the moment. And then he said it: Heil Hitler!
A few students gasped; others exchanged surprised looks or laughed nervously. Instantly aware that his stab at Mel Brooks-style parody hadnt landed, Frisch lowered his arm and tried to explain himself, telling his students that it used to be common to make fun of Nazis. Only recently, he said, had such jokes become taboo. He resumed the lesson, and the weird moment seemed to be over.
News of the incident spread quickly. A student mentioned it to Friends director of diversity and inclusion, Jason Craige Harris, who in turn told the dean of co-curricular programs, Leitzel Schoen. The following day, Schoen called the schools principal, Bo Lauder, catching him on a plane to visit a sick relative in Alabama. Lauder decided that Frisch should stay home until the school figured out what to do.
Over the following days, Lauder heard from dozens of parents. Many expressed support for a teacher they considered a pillar of the Friends community. Others said they thought the Heil Hitler gesture inexcusable, a few going so far as to say that if Lauder did not take action, they would withdraw their children from the school. At a meeting with administrators about the incident in late February, members of the high schools Parents Association said that keeping Frisch would send the message that the school didnt take anti-Semitism seriously. Another parent told Lauder that this was not the first time Frisch had said or done something inappropriate.
Twelve days after the Heil Hitler, Lauder and several members of the schools board called Frisch in for a meeting at the school. To resolve the situation, they said, Frisch had to go. They gave him a choice: He could either resign or be terminated. It was Lauders hope that Frisch would decide to resign and accept a settlement that would include a severance package and a nondisclosure agreement. After nine days of failed negotiations, Frisch chose instead to be fired. With the backing of the Friends Seminary Teachers Association Friends is one of only a handful of private schools in New York City whose faculty is unionized he opened a grievance process against the school, arguing that he had been wrongfully terminated. He would have the chance to argue his case for reinstatement at an arbitration hearing scheduled to take place near the end of summer.
A button worn by students in support of Ben Frisch. Sarah Anne Ward for The New York Times
Lauder sent a letter to teachers, parents and alumni on March 9, hours after the school emptied out for spring break, informing them of the news. He described the Heil Hitler salute and alluded to other equally inappropriate and troubling actions that had surfaced since the incident, without providing any details about them. When I made the decision, I knew it could cause the ceiling to come crashing down, Lauder told me. But I had to act on what I thought would be best for the school and the students.
The concepts of safe spaces and trigger warnings, hotly debated on college campuses for years, are now reaching high schools too. Its easy enough to say that college students are supposed to have their assumptions challenged daily, even if that sometimes means experiencing discomfort. But the question of what high school students should be exposed to, and protected from, feels murkier in 2018. Todays high school students are more precocious, more politically engaged, more tuned in to their gender identities and nascent sexuality. They are already flooded with uncensored, unedited information, 24 hours a day: What would a safe space even look like for a 16-year-old with an iPhone? At exclusive private schools like Friends, the question is further complicated by the involvement of wealthy parents. As these schools have grown more expensive Friends costs nearly $50,000 a year administrators have found themselves trying to balance their own institutional values with the demands of parents who are in a sense high-paying customers. Teachers are increasingly caught between the two.
Pedagogy at the high school level is inherently personal. But when the lines of appropriate discourse are continually being redrawn, it is also inherently risky. The job of high school teachers is to impart knowledge and deliver measurable results, which requires finding a way to reach, and ideally even inspire, their students. How would you keep the attention of 15 teenagers and bond with them? one Friends teacher texted me, insisting on anonymity because of a school policy that discourages teachers from speaking to the media without permission. You MUST joke and be yourself and connect with them on their terms. Its the only way to be good at this.
Frischs former students describe him as eccentric, nerdy, prone to lengthy classroom digressions about his stamp collection, dinosaurs or childhood snow days spent sledding. Any teacher who spends three decades in the classroom, speaking extemporaneously for hours on end to a roomful of teenagers, is going to have awkward moments. Frisch might have had more of them, and they may have been a bit more awkward. But that was how he connected, and it was perhaps a way of connecting that is no longer possible. Everybody knew this guy was off weird behavior, quirky, said one parent who, fearing retribution against her child, insisted on anonymity. Maybe in the 70s that would have been O.K., but not when youre paying $45,000 a year in tuition.
What can teachers say or do now? Who gets to decide when theyve gone too far and how severe the punishment should be? As the spring semester went on, the history of Friends Seminary made these questions especially charged. Located on East 16th Street, on a quiet, elm-shaded block that dead-ends at Stuyvesant Square Park, the school was opened in 1786, at a time when Americas Quakers, having fled religious persecution in England, were helping to shape a more tolerant set of founding principles for a new nation: The Bill of Rights was modeled after the original Pennsylvania charter, which was drafted by a Quaker, William Penn.
Friends original intent was to provide a guarded education to Quaker children. There were to be no frivolous pursuits: only reading, writing, basic arithmetic and Bible study. Like other Quaker schools, Friends eventually opened its doors to the general population and broadened its educational mission, while aspiring to remain true to Quaker values like equality, simplicity and community, and to the overarching Quaker duty to build a better society. As it evolved, the schools proximity to Greenwich Village made it a popular choice for artists, writers and liberal activists. The pacifist and perennial Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas sent his daughter to Friends; Eleanor Roosevelt and John Lennon spoke to students in its 19th-century red-brick Quaker meetinghouse, which still serves as the primary gathering space for assemblies, musical performances and the schools weekly Quaker meetings for worship. Every night, a common area off the schools lobby is transformed into a 14-cot homeless shelter run by members of the nearby Quaker congregation with the help of faculty and parent volunteers; on Fridays, the schools second graders make baked goods for its residents.
In recent years, the demographics of the school have shifted with those of the city. As the rich have grown richer, couples who would once have left for bigger houses and better schools in the suburbs when they had children are now simply buying bigger apartments and sending their children to private schools. There arent enough seats in the historically more desirable uptown institutions Spence, Dalton, Trinity to meet demand; and for families who live in neighborhoods like the Village, TriBeCa or Battery Park, Friends is a much more convenient option. Friends now sees itself as a competitor to these schools, and in some respects, it has become indistinguishable from them.
For much of the schools history, its finances were precarious, in part because Quakers frown on hoarding wealth. Lauder has tapped into the new money flowing into the school, courting wealthy families at private dinners and fund-raising events. Tuition has more than doubled since Lauders arrival. In 16 years, he has increased the schools endowment to $30 million from $4 million, and raised $47 million for a $72 million renovation that is halfway to completion: The school is gutting three townhouses, connecting them to its main building and adding new floors and a rooftop greenhouse. This year, its annual auction, which once took place in a nearby church and featured homemade quilts, was held in the ballroom of a luxury hotel and included an Ellsworth Kelly painting and a screening party at Soho House with the actor Kyle MacLachlan.
Most Quaker schools incorporated independently years ago. But until recently, Friends and the organization that oversees Manhattans Quaker community, the New York Quarterly Meeting, were essentially a single entity. Last year, they finally separated, the culmination of a protracted, often contentious legal process. Under the final agreement, Friends became a long-term tenant of the Quakers and now pays the Quarterly Meeting roughly $1 million a year in rent, or about a third of market rate. Friends also committed to following a detailed set of principles in order to remain a Quaker school, a status that is central to its brand appeal.
Even before Frischs termination, there was a feeling among some in the Friends community parents, teachers and especially alumni that in its race to keep pace with a changing city, the school was losing touch with the Quaker ethos that had long distinguished it. Perhaps inevitably, the fight over Frischs termination became a proxy battle in this larger war: Frisch was the only Quaker teacher in the high school. What is more, the manner in which the school fired him bore little resemblance to the Quaker decision-making process, which calls for the participation of the entire community in open dialogue. What has made Friends a special school is the Quaker values, and thats what has been broken in this process, says Jacques Lilly, a longtime Friends parent. What do you have if you dont have those? Youve got a nice, second-tier, expensive New York City private school. Why dont you send your kids to Brearley instead?
Days after the Heil Hitler incident, the administration gathered Friends 279 high schoolers in the meetinghouse to inform them that Frisch had been suspended. It was the first time that some students had heard about the incident, and a number were vocal about their view that it didnt merit disciplinary action. It got ugly pretty quickly, recalls Abraham Levin, who was a senior at the time. One student pointed out that Lauder had uttered insensitive things, too: Just a few months earlier, while talking about the schools fund-raising efforts, he said that all-girls schools typically have an easier time building their endowments, because men die younger and leave their money to their wives. (Lauder says that he was describing a phenomenon that was well known within the private-school community but that he should have been more careful in explaining it.) A few days later, Levin and a couple of his classmates taped a petition to Lauders door signed by 187 students, urging the school not to terminate Frisch. We are petitioning because we are afraid the controversy surrounding Bens mistake will result in his firing, and we believe this would be an immense loss for our community that would only increase the upset within the student body and faculty, it read. We understand that there are likely others with more influence who are pushing you in the opposite direction, but we hope this petition will encourage you to consider our perspective.
Word of the firing spread quickly over spring break, and when classes resumed in late March the school erupted in protest. Students were angry that they had no voice in the process and that the school had not shared with them any details of the other equally troubling incidents that informed its decision. They staged a sit-in that spilled out of Lauders office and into the hallway outside and walked out of meetings for worship carrying protest signs: Free Ben Frisch, Make Friends Quaker Again, Bo Chi Minh. Students wore Bring Back Ben buttons around campus and reflected on the case in classroom essays, applying the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi to Frischs situation and comparing the fight on his behalf to the Dakota Pipeline protest at Standing Rock. In a commencement address, the senior Benjamin Levine offered a thinly veiled critique of the administration: Its so much easier and simpler to decide someone is racist or ignorant or naive or anti-Semitic than to engage in the messy work of trying to communicate and understand when conflicts arise.
Alumni took to an unofficial Friends alumni Facebook page to express their anger and disappointment, producing long threads about the dangers of speech codes, about the history of Jewish humor as a means for dealing with tragedy, about the transformation of Friends from a haven of progressivism, compassion and common sense into a corporate, liberal and truly luxe institution. Twenty-six former teachers and administrators, including Lauders predecessor as principal, signed a public letter calling for Frischs immediate reinstatement. Philip Schwartz, a popular English and Latin teacher who retired in 2014 after 48 years at Friends, wrote a letter to the school, asking that his name be removed from its list of emeritus faculty members. He accused Friends of capsizing into the swamp of political correctness and observed that a dialogue of reconciliation and tolerance no longer seems to be our Quaker core value.
And yet as the protests gathered momentum, they started to present their own challenge to the spirit of dialogue and tolerance. The overwhelming majority of students, teachers and alumni disapproved of Frischs firing, while those who did believe that the Heil Hitler was unforgivably offensive or were inclined to respect the administrations decision to withhold details of a sensitive employment decision kept their opinions to themselves. For some, the fight for free expression had become repressive in its own right.
In April, the co-editors of the school newspaper, Camilo Durr and Maeve Woollen, showed Lauder a draft of a special issue about the Frisch controversy. Lauder passed it on to Will Hopkins, the interim head of the upper school, and Erica Jones, the dean of students. The administrators expressed disappointment that none of the articles were sympathetic to the school. Hopkins encouraged Durr and Woollen to include a wider range of opinions, suggesting that they go beyond the newspaper staff and solicit articles from the broader community. After a couple of weeks, the editors started to think the administration was just stalling. They said later that they supported us, but it was clear from the atmosphere that they didnt want the issue to come out, Durr told me. After attending an emotional, communitywide Quaker meeting about Frisch at the meetinghouse, he and Woollen emailed PDFs of the paper to the student body, faculty and administration. Both editors were removed from their jobs: digital misconduct was the charge. I felt like they walked away from the community process, Hopkins told me.
Benjamin Levine, Abraham Levin, Camilo Durr and Maeve Woollen, all recent graduates of Friends Seminary, at Stuyvesant Square Park. Elizabeth Bick for The New York Times
New Yorks Quaker community, which numbers about 500, was furious about the schools treatment of a longtime member. They came together at their various meetinghouses around the city to draft minutes of concern about the firing, asking the school to explain how its handling of Frischs case was consistent with Quaker values and calling instead for restorative justice, a process whereby perpetrators, victims and community members meet to collectively decide how to repair the harm caused by an offense. I have never seen such unity among Quakers, Charles Brainard, an 85-year-old lawyer and worshiper at the Friends meetinghouse, told me. Bo is just a very ambitious guy, and he was out to build this primo school, and I dont think that truth sank into many Quakers until Ben Frisch was fired.
Bo Lauder came to Friends in 2002 from another Quaker school, Sidwell Friends, in Washington, D.C. attended by the children of presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to Barack Obama where he had run the upper school. Lauder, who is 57, wears bow ties and round-framed, tortoiseshell glasses. He grew up in a small town outside Montgomery, Ala., and studied musicology at the University of North Carolina before going into secondary-school administration. Sitting in his office at Friends on a recent afternoon, he told me that he believed he was the first openly gay head of a private school in New York City, and that he was still grateful to the predominantly Quaker search committee for hiring him.
Lauder is unapologetic about his aspirations for Friends. He said that he undertook the current renovation specifically to bolster the schools appeal to the citys best private-school students, even though it required him to spend much more time than he would have liked talking to bankers about the schools asset-to-debt ratio and in lawyers offices negotiating the separation from the Quakers. But he also told me that he believes he has strengthened the schools commitment to its Quaker heritage: During his tenure, Friends created its own Center for Peace, Equity and Justice, which hosts an annual Peace Week, with guest speakers like Chelsea Clinton and the Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs.
At the end of what had been a very tumultuous school year, the board half of which is appointed by Quakers and otherwise includes an assortment of parents and alumni sent out a letter to the community expressing its confidence in Lauder. But his support among much of the faculty seems shaky at best: The teachers union recently sent the trustees a letter signed by 72 of its 96 members (18 abstained) describing morale as perilously low and saying that they felt silenced or scolded by Lauder and were losing faith in his leadership.
Lauder said his job has changed immeasurably since he arrived at Friends. Starting now in my 17th year, I feel like I was Mr. Rogers in Year 1, he told me. He is now trying to juggle the demands of running a competitive and pricey Manhattan private school with an institutional culture that empowers community members to not only raise their voices but to expect to be heard. The schools Quaker identity calls for it to be faithful to its progressive tradition, but in the new age of identity politics, it is not always easy to know what the right stance on a particular issue should be. Just a few months before the Frisch incident, some 20 parents had raised questions about the scheduled speaking engagement of a visiting scholar, Dave Zirin, a sportswriter for the Nation magazine and a Friends alumnus who had been critical of Israel in his writings. In 2012, there were heated objections to a musical performance in the meetinghouse by Gilad Atzmon, an Israel-born saxophonist and self-described proud, self-hating Jew who has written that Palestinians were brutally ethnically cleansed and suggested that if Israel starts a nuclear war with Iran, some may be bold enough to argue that Hitler might have been right after all. The Harvard Law School professor emeritus and noted gadfly Alan Dershowitz publicly criticized Friends and Lauder personally for refusing to cancel the appearance.
Lauder did not consider the Heil Hitler episode a close call. Personally, I was appalled, he told me. I couldnt imagine, even as a joke and I grew up watching Hogans Heroes that in a class that had nothing to do with history or World War II or Nazism or teaching German language that an incident like that could happen. I asked Lauder why he felt he needed to go so far as to fire Frisch. One of our pledges is to make all of our students feel safe, he replied. And that is something that I take very, very seriously.
That no one has accused Frisch of being an anti-Semite was beside the point: His invocation of the Nazi salute in a classroom full of high school students, regardless of his intentions, was enough to end his career. On todays campus, words and symbols can be seen as a form of violence; to many people, engaging in a public debate about the nuances of their power is to tolerate their use. I asked one of our lawyers, How can I do this in a more Quakerly way? Lauder told me. And he just looked at me and stated the obvious: There is no way to make a firing a Quakerly event.
On Aug. 14, Frisch, Lauder and a small procession of lawyers, administrators, faculty members and recent alumni filed into a large conference room in an office building in Midtown Manhattan for the arbitration hearing.
For months, rumors circulated about what Frischs equally troubling incidents might be. Now the school presented two witnesses, both former Friends students, to describe them. One remembered Frisch sarcastically telling a classmate of hers who had gotten a math problem wrong that he should go outside and kill himself. The other testified that Frisch had stroked her upper arm with his finger in the classroom in a way that made her feel uncomfortable and that he had moved his chair so close to hers during a tutoring session in the math-department office that their bodies were touching. (Frischs lawyer asked her if she was aware that he wore hearing aids.) The witness had dismissed the incidents at the time but was reminded of them when she was contacted by the schools diversity director, Harris, who led the Frisch investigation. Frisch, who first learned about the claims after his termination, denied ever having told a student to kill himself and said that he had no memory of the inappropriate touching that had been described.
Frischs lawyer called a member of the February pre-calculus class who has since graduated, Josie Girand, to testify about the Heil Hitler incident. She recounted Frischs actions and described her reaction to them, acknowledging that it was an awkward moment, but adding that she hadnt thought it was a big deal at the time. When Frischs lawyer asked Girand if anyone she knew had been offended by the gesture, the schools lawyer objected.
The hearing, which was closed to the public I had to rely on secondhand accounts lasted a little more than five hours. The arbitrator will decide in the coming weeks to uphold the termination or to order the school to reinstate Frisch.
A few days after the hearing, Frisch opened the door of his home in Brooklyn in a short-sleeved shirt, khaki shorts and bare feet. He told me about his family background. Frisch is a direct descendant, he said, on his mothers side, of John Bowne, a Quaker legend who in the 17th century helped lead the fight for religious liberty in America. His father was a scientist at Bell Labs and a professor at the State University of New York. Frisch grew up Quaker on the edge of a farm in upstate New York and attended a Quaker college, Haverford. He told me that he never intended to become a teacher. When he came to Friends in 1984, he was planning to stay only a year before returning to Caltech to complete his Ph.D. in geochemistry. He eventually became a Friends parent, too; he and his wife sent both of their children, who are now out of college, to the school.
Frisch enjoyed an exalted status at Friends that flowed from his years of service to the school and, above all, his Quaker faith. Every year, he helped lead a three-day retreat for graduating seniors at Powell House, a Quaker conference center in upstate New York, where he would tell outgoing students that even though they were leaving the school, the doors of the meetinghouse would always be open to them. Even as the controversy over his firing was unfolding, a brief tribute to Frisch was on display in the schools lobby alongside one to the civil rights leader Bayard Rustin and another to William Penn written by a Friends first grader, part of a class project honoring important Quaker activists.
Frisch would not discuss the two other claims, but we spoke at length about the Heil Hitler. Frisch said he was embarrassed, both by the fact that he had made the gesture in the first place and by his subsequent failure to recognize the seriousness of such a lapse in judgment. But he was also surprised by the schools reaction to it. I trusted while I was at Friends that because of my long-term commitment to the school, that as I need to change to meet the changing dynamics of the classroom, the school would help me learn and provide the support I needed to make those changes, he told me.
The dynamics of the classroom are changing. These changes are partly specific to the hothouse environment of the campus in 2018. But they also connect to something much bigger. High schools have become genuinely unsafe: The Heil Hitler salute happened on the very same day as the Parkland massacre. And beyond the confines of the campus, a crude, violent bigotry that had long seemed part of the distant past has suddenly resurfaced, with neo-Nazis literally marching in the streets. The question now is what do we want our response to this new world to be. During the 12 days that he spent in limbo between his suspension and termination, Frisch, in the spirit of the Quaker commitment to reconciliation, drafted a letter of apology to his students that he was never allowed to send. Among other things, he planned to say that he was worried about the rise of anti-Semitism and that he was still learning lessons from his mistake. You think about things like Charlottesville, he told me. Now, we dont make jokes like this.
Tuesday, September 4, 2018 at 10:12PM
No browser has endured longer and evolved as much as Google Chrome. Considered the dominant web browser on desktops and on mobile and which has also been spun off as a cloud operating system, Google celebrated the first 10 years of Chrome by redesigning the browser's look and feel across the line.
On the PC and Mac, we're seeing rounded tabs, a pill-shaped search area and refined elements
Chrome Browser will have a new design across all operating systems. Highlights include Microsoft Windows 10 notification-center integration, touchpad gesture navigation on Windows, and autofill updates.
If you want to get the redesign try entering the Chrome flag URLs below into the address bar and selecting the appropriate option from the dropdown menu. To get the latest features be sure to enable them in Chrome Beta 69.
Mac, Windows, Linux:
chrome://flags/#top-chrome-md
Android
chrome://flags/#enable-chrome-modern-design
Source: 9to5Google
Wednesday, September 5, 2018 at 9:24AM
University of Waterloo mechatronics engineering graduates Craig Loewen and Lior Lustgarten developed WatVision, a system that helps the visually impaired navigate our now touchscreen-reliant existence. And this has garnered the top prize of Canadian leg of the annual James Dyson Award. WatVision makes use of three things: a smartphone app, industry standard detection markers placed on each corner of a touchscreen, and a ring worn by the user. The smartphones camera will identify the position of the touch screen by locating the four detection markers. Itll then take a photo of the screen and download it onto the phone. Once the user pints to a button on the screen, with the ring-wearing finger, the app will find the ring and use the downloaded image to read the text out loud.
The international design award gives the team $3,000 in funding to help develop the project. WatVision is joined by two national runner-ups from the University of Toronto. One is for a project called Printem, which is a smart film that lets users go from design to physical circuit in just three minutesall using a specially developed film that can be used on a home-office printer. The other is called Revertome, which is a surgical instrument that can treat severe burns by delivering cells in a bioink using a compact handheld bioprinter. The three teams will move onto the next stage of JDA, where Dyson engineers will select the top 20 international projects. The international winner will receive $50,000 for the students and $8,500 for the students university department. Two international runners-up will get $8,500 each.
Wednesday, September 5, 2018 at 9:01AM
We dont know when its coming, how much its going to cost, or what its going to be like but we know its coming. Razer just confirmed in a note in its most recent earning report that the second-generation Razer Phone is in the works. The company hasnt released the sales numbers of the original Razer Phone but has reportedly said its very pleased with the success of its first generation Razer Phone. The report also noted that the first phone was launched as a limited run device. Now, we just have to see what the company will try to aim for with the second iteration of this gaming smartphone.
Source: The Verge
Austria often gets mistaken for Australia, and tourist shops even have souvenir t-shirts that say no kangaroos in Austria, but now that one has been spotted hopping around in the European country, they may need a better line than that.
Police in the small town of Kirchschlag, northern Austria, confirmed multiple sightings of what looked to be a kangaroo hopping through the meadows and forests around the town, over the weekend, and are now actively searching for it. They have also contacted zoos and breeders in the area, but so far no one has claimed responsibility for the mysterious animal.
Photo: Rileypie/Wikimedia Commons
It sounds unbelievable, but its true, a police officer told Agence France Press. We have called all the zoos and kangaroo breeders around us, but no-one is missing a kangaroo. We hope the owner will come forward.
Police could not specify what breed the kangaroo is, but have assured locals that they have nothing to worry about, as kangaroos are shy animals and this particular one is unlikely to cause any damage. Regarding its chances of survival in the Austrian wild, they are apparently perfect.
A post shared by @fkaineder on Sep 1, 2018 at 11:10am PDT
And if youre thinking that people simply mistook a giant rabbit for a kangaroo, this video posted on Instagram should clear any doubts. It was shot by one Thomas Kaufmann in nearby Kirchschlag bei Linz, Upper Austria, over the weekend. Im not an animal expert, but that definitely looks like a kangaroo.
Interestingly, this isnt the first time a kangaroo was spotted in Upper Austria. In 2015, another one appeared near a field of corn in St. Oswald bei Haslach, after finding its way there from Germany.
Eric Starkman
It started with a tweet last Wednesday by Gabe Schneider, a freelance reporter and Columbia Journalism Review contributor, hinting hed uncovered something nefarious: In-N-Out added a new item to their secret menu, Schneider tweeted along with a photo showing that the burger chain contributed $25,000 to the California Republican Party.
The tweet found its way to Eric Bauman, chairman of the California Democratic Committee, who nine hours later tweeted: Et tu In-N-Out? Tens of thousands of dollars donated to the California Republican Party its time to #BoycottInNOut let Trump and his cronies support these creeps perhaps animal style!
Schneider and Bauman were perhaps too lazy to look up or chose to ignore, that In-N-Out this election cycle also gave $80,000 to Californians for Jobs and a Strong Economy, a committee focused on electing business-friendly Democrats to the state Legislature. The media, increasingly unable to resist letting the facts get in the way of a good story, began a frenzy to cover a boycott that never remotely gained traction or support.
Fortune was among the first out of the box, with this click bait headline: Left-Leaning Fast Food Fans Lose Appetite After In-N-Out Burger Donates To California Republicans. The story didnt quote or identify any left-leaning fans supporting a boycott, but that didnt stop the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and a slew of other publications from piling on. None of them identified or quoted customers supporting a boycott. The best two reporters from the L.A. Times could come up with was a Democrat customer who called the boycott silly.
Baumans message had a hidden undertone the media readily understood. Trumps base includes Evangelical Christians, who oppose same-sex marriage and other bible prohibited practices. Chick-fil-A, a Christian run company, is constantly attacked by liberals for its opposition to same-sex marriages, and El Coyote, a Mexican chain, was subject to protests after it was revealed that a Los Angeles manager had donated $100 to support a California law banning same-sex marriage. Same-sex marriage is understandably an issue of considerable importance to Bauman; the award-winning robo caller lives in North Hollywood with his husband and his late mothers partner Trisha.
In-N-Out is a privately-owned company run by a conservative Christian family that prints bible verses on its packaging. The media was judicious about its references to the familys religious values but found creative ways to make the point. The New York Times, for example, when referring to Lynsi Snyder, the chains president, linked to this inspirational video she made for the GodTube channel.
The media ignored another side of In-N-Out. Glassdoor ranks the company No. 4 on its 2018 list of Best Places to Work. The company pays crew members considerably higher wages than McDonalds and Burger King and they often get promoted up through the ranks to positions paying more than six figures. In-N-Out promoted fresh ingredients long before the trend took hold. It earned its cult-like following because its burgers are consistently pretty darn good and popular even with entitled celebrities.
The California Democratic party was quick to distance itself from Baumans call for a boycott, saying it was just his personal opinion. And Monday night, Bauman dropped his call for a boycott, suggesting he wasnt really all that serious in the first place. In fact, he plans to take his entire staff for a meal at In-N-Out.
I put one tweet out a 10:30 at night and it turned into a whole thing, he said. Weve raised so much money in small donations as a result of that one tweet, and so many people have engaged with that tweet, almost a million people, so its amazing how it became this big boycott.
At the end of the day, the media was responsible for a significant Democratic fund-raising effort promoting a nonexistent boycott of an exemplary company whose progressive HR practices are unparalleled in the fast food industry. The entire ordeal is an example of why many Americans distrust the media and swallow President Trumps claims that reporters are an enemy of the people.
***
Eric Starkman, a former financial journalist with major newspapers in the U.S. and Canada, managed an eponymous PR and crisis communications firm for more than 20 years.
Ogilvys New York office is handling a US PR effort to promote the Qatar Foundation, the nonprofit involved in education, science/research and community development.
Co-founded by Qatars leader Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani and Princess Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser, the Foundations mission is to position the Arab state as a nation that can be a vanguard for productive change in the region and a role model for the broader international community, according to Ogilvys federal filing.
Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Egypt erected an economic blockade of Qatar more than a year ago for its alleged support of terrorism and close ties with Iran.
Qatar-based Memac Ogilvy and Mather engaged the NY outpost for the Foundation's communications effort.
Jennifer Risi, chief communications officer and worldwide managing director-media influence, heads Ogilvys New York team with assistance from Corey Chambliss and Kathleen Treganowan.
Ogilvys Qatari affiliate signed a three-year contract (with an option for a fourth year) with the Foundation in 2017 for a "PR strategy focused on media relations, placement in external conferences and events, and strategic brand alliances."
In June, Ogilvy Government Relations (Washington) signed a subcontractor agreement with Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough to provide DC outreach to policymakers for the Government of Qatar.
Ogilvy is to receive a monthly $10K retainer through May 31, 2019, for that effort.
Tesco Ireland has announced the 453 local projects that will participate in the new cycle of the Tesco Community Fund commencing on September 3.
For the next eight weeks, customers are being encouraged to use their blue tokens in Tescos 151 stores to vote for their preferred local cause enabling them to make a big difference in communities right across Ireland.
In Offaly alone, the Tesco Community Fund has supported 218 local projects to date donating over 77,904.99. For the next eight weeks Tescos stores across Offaly will be using their blue token to support a wide range of local projects:
Shoppers in Tesco Birr will be able to support Bumblance Children's Ambulance, Le Cheile Autism Unit and Riverview Resources.
Tesco Edenderry will be supporting Edenderry Daycare Centre, Edenderry Red Cross and Kildare Carers Carbury Branch.
Tesco Tullamore will be supporting Clara Community and Resource Centre, Mojo Programme and St Philomena's National School.
Christine Heffernan, corporate affairs director Tesco Ireland, commented: At Tesco we are delighted to be able to support such amazing local initiatives through our Community Fund. The Tesco Community Fund is open to a wide variety of good causes or groups so if you think you know a local organisation that could benefit from some extra funding, please nominate them in store today. And dont forget to vote for your preferred cause each time you shop using your blue token, because it really does make a difference.
The Community Fund helps a wide variety of local projects, supporting communities throughout Ireland by helping causes to reach their potential. Since 2014, Tesco through the Community Fund has helped over 11,000 local causes and projects by donating over 3 million in total.
Tesco customers can simply fill out a nomination form in store and every 8 weeks, three local causes will be selected for the Tesco Community Fund. And at the end of each phase, blue token votes are counted and up to 1,000 is shared proportionally between the three local causes. Further information and criteria for entry is available on www.tesco.ie/communityfund.
It has been revealed that on Sunday, September 8, 2019 at 6pm, the famous Cannonball supercar run will come to Edenderry in Offaly for the first time.
Edenderry has been chosen to host the spectacular finish line of the supercar event after a detailed submission was sent by the newly formed Edenderry Chamber of Commerce who are planning a weekend festival around the event.
Spectators will get up close and personal with 190 of the finest cars on the planet, from Ferraris to Lamborghinis, and enjoy the unique festival atmosphere that Cannonball is renowned for.
Offaly has always given Cannonball a huge welcome. Over 10,000 people flocked to the Barack Obama Plaza to see the supercar spectacle in 2017 while Tullamore has also hosted the finish line of the event.
Now in its tenth year, Cannonball has raised almost 960,000 for Irish Charities and this year, proceeds will go to ISPCC Childline.
Top mark cars including McLaren, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Porsche, Masseratti, Rolls Royce and Bentley worth an estimated 32million will drive through almost 1,000 kilometres of Irish open roads, before all converging on Edenderry on September 9 next year.
Spectators will enjoy an electric atmosphere featuring Las Vegas Show Girls, live music, DJs, Audionetworks Transformers and Robots, family fun, the Grid Girls, The Monster Energy JAM Truck, local entertainers and dignitaries, Cannonball official merchandise and, of course, the unmistakable roar of 190 supercars.
Cannonball is the brainchild of Kildare Businessman and AB Signs proprietor, Alan Bannon and the benefit to the Irish economy of this event is estimated at 2,567,000 per year.
With 3 National Awards and 4 nominations this year, this Supercar event shows no signs of slowing down and is now gearing up for the US in October and Europe next summer.
Bannon is also planning a Retro Cannonball next year which will feature classic cars for the first time.
Gambo Delivers Fall Chapel Theme Interpretation Message Sept. 5 September 5, 2018
Dr. David Gambo, assistant professor of Christian ministry and Reverend A. E. and Dora Hughes Chair of Christian Ministry, delivered the fall chapel theme interpretation message Wednesday, Sept. 5. The service took place in Raley Chapels Potter Auditorium on the campus of Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee.
Gambo introduced the chapel theme for the academic year titled, Fully Devoted to Christ: What Could God do with One Completely Yielded Soul? He focused his teaching on John the Baptist and his life-long devotion to The Lord. Just as John the Baptist was fully devoted to Christ, OBU students will focus on this theme in their own lives during chapel services this year.
Gambo challenged students by discussing John the Baptists life and his lack of a formal education.
John was not a scholar, he had no learning, no Ph.D., Gambo said. John gained his authority because he was fully devoted to the cause of Jesus Christ.
He stressed to students that Johns dedication to Christ is the reason he was used by God. He wanted the students to understand that there is a difference between a partial and total surrender. Not everyone liked John or appreciated him, and Gambo cautioned students that if they were also fully surrendered, not everyone would like them, either. He encouraged students to recognize that this practice would allow them to continually share the gospel.
What does it mean to be devoted to Christ? Gambo said. It means to have your entire life revolving around Christ.
Gambo earned a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry from the University of Jos in Nigeria. He later earned both a Master of Divinity in preaching and biblical languages as well as a Doctor of Philosophy in preaching and pastoral ministry from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
He spent several years serving in Nigeria as both an instructor and minister. Before coming to Bison Hill, he served as associate pastor at the First African Baptist Church of Fort Worth, Texas; as the church planting resident at Omni Fellowship in Cedar Hill, Texas; and as an adjunct professor of homiletics at Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary. He has written two books, both focusing on Christian discipleship.
To view this or other chapel messages at OBU, visit www.okbu.edu/student-life/spiritual-life/chapel-messages.
UAE to give long-term visas for up to 10 years to investors, professionals
About 100 passengers fall ill on Emirates flight from Dubai to New York
India
oi-Deepika
By Deepika
New Delhi, Sep 5: An Emirates Airbus flight from Dubai has been quarantined at New York's John F Kennedy International Airport after numerous passengers reportedly fell sick during the flight.
Emirates flight 203, a double-deck Airbus A388 carrying about 500 passengers, landed shortly after 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT), according to the reports.
About 100 people complained of feeling sick on Emirates Flight 203, which landed with at least 521 passengers shortly after 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT) at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement. Their symptoms included cough and fever.
Earlier, Emirates later issued a statement putting the number at 10.
"Emirates can confirm that about 10 passengers on board flight EK203 from Dubai to New York were taken ill," the spokeswoman said. "On arrival at JFK, as a precaution, they were immediately checked by local health authorities and those needing medical attention will be attended to." She said all other passengers would be allowed to leave the plane shortly.
According to Eric Phillips, the spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio claimed that the plane made a stop in Mecca. This could have left the passengers exposed to a flu epidemic that is underway in the Saudi Arabian city.
The aircraft was taken to a location away from the terminal so that emergency officials could evaluate the situation, officials from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in a statement.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said they were monitoring the situation and President Donald Trump was being updated as new information became available.
Ansarul Khilafa-KL: The Kerala module of the ISIS
India
oi-Vicky Nanjappa
New Delhi, Sep 5: The National Investigation Agency has framed charges against 7 persons who were planning on furthering the activities of the Islamic State in Kerala and other southern states.
The NIA says that the youth had got together and formed an ISIS module in Kerala called the Ansarul Khilafa-KL. The group was active on social media platforms. Further the NIA said that the arrested members had held a conspiracy meeting at Kanakamala in Kannur district of Kerala.
Ahead of defence day, Pakistan nets 3 ISIS terrorists
The NIA said that it had also arrested another persons called Subhahani Haha Moideen, who had travelled to Iraq in 2015 and fought alongside the Islamic State. After his return to India, Haja had continued with his activities in furthering the cause of the ISIS in Kerala.
The agency had filed the chargesheet against accused persons Manseed Muhmood, Swalih Mohammed, Rashid Ali, Ramshad NK, Safvan, Jasim NK and Shajeer Mangalassery for criminal conspiracy and various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Officials tell OneIndia that the motive of these persons was to further the activities of the ISIS in Kerala. The group had become dangerous and was also looking to raise funds, recruit across Kerala and other parts of south India. The module was being overseen by Omar al-Hindi, who is suspected to be based out of Syria.
Citing ISIS, Rahul Gandhi says exclusion of people leads to insurgency
They would exchange material over online platforms and also speak about how to build a strong module in South India and carry out strikes. They had also planned on carrying out lone wolf strikes in south, officials also said.
Kerala has had several run-ins with the ISIS. Over 20 persons from Kerala had gone missing last year. Investigations revealed that these persons had joined the ISIS in Afghanistan. The motive was to train in Afghanistan and then return to India and launch strikes, investigations have also shown.
For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications
Story first published: Wednesday, September 5, 2018, 6:43 [IST]
BJP leader says protest against SC/ST Act accusing party will help shedding anti-Dalit image
India
oi-Vinod
By Vinod
New Delhi, Sep 5: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre and its leadership is rather looking at the agitation against Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act as opportunity to seize the moment as to get rid of the image of being anti Dalit. The BJP feels that it was being accused of being anti-Dalit which the BJP is not and every issue should not be looked the way Sensex works.
A senior BJP leader told OneIndia that at least with this row the BJP would not be accused of being anti-Dalits which it has never been. On being asked if the agitation in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh might harm the BJP, the BJP leader said that every event must not be looked upon as Sensex works where things move up and down very sharply. Wait for some more time things will be normal.
Political analysts say that the BJP is not bothered for the moment as there are more ST and OBC in Madhya Pradesh and they have good hold over them. SO they might get through and upper caste are not in the decisive except a few constituencies. But the party leaders feel that it is the BJP that is the best possible option for any community across the country.
Sources in the BJP said that party was looking this opportunity as not only to reach out to Dalits but break the image that it has been facing for long. Unrest in the upper cast is gaining momentum especially in the areas bordering Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
Senior BJP leaders feel that the protest launched by the upper caste will peter out very soon and Dalit community will be given the message that propaganda against the BJP that was unleashed by different section was wrong. There have been lots of attack on Dalits in the past four-and-half-year regime of the BJP. So the people spreading rumor against the BJP for being the party of upper caste stand exposed.
The BJP want to turn the tide in its favour by spreading this different narrative, despite unrest in several parts of the country. The BJP seems to be seized of the matter. It feels it has control over it.
For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications
Story first published: Wednesday, September 5, 2018, 23:07 [IST]
Prashant Kishor in viral video: With or without Modi, BJP will be centre of Indian polity for decades
BJP-ruled states slashes petrol, diesel rates further: New price to come into effect from today
BJP leader Tarun Vijay sacks person handling his twitter account
India
oi-Chennabasaveshwar
By Chennabasaveshwar
New Delhi, Sep 5: BJP leader Tarun Vijay said he has "sacked the person handling his tweets" after a set of posts appearing to criticise PM Narendra Modi appeared on his account.
Tarun Vijay said, "I am on morning walk and I am Ok. Sacked person who was handling my tweets."
I am on morning walk and I am Ok. Sacked person who was handling my tweets. Tarun Vijay (@Tarunvijay) September 4, 2018
The posts apparently were supportive of Congress president Rahul Gandhi's Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.
'A man goes to Kailash when it calls him', Rahul Gandhi shares pics of Kailash Mansarovar
In another tweet, tarun Vijay said, "Thank you friends for showing faith in us and not believing the wrong tweets. It happened when we were shifting home. Password misused and I am filing a police complaint. Changed password. Thanks to the huge number of friends who stood by me Thank you."
Thank you friends for showing faith in us and not believing the wrong tweets. It happened when we were shifting home. Password misused and I am filing a police complaint. Changed password. Thanks to the huge number of friends who stood by me Thank you Tarun Vijay (@Tarunvijay) September 5, 2018
The Congress leader also accused the BJP of trying to create "hurdles" in the yatra.
Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Sambit Patra sought to know from the Congress as to which politicians and officials Gandhi will meet during his visit to China, "his favourite country".
Why is BJP perturbed by Rahul Gandhi's trip to Kailash Mansarovar, asks Congress
Also, the BJP questioned details of his pilgrimage, including some reports that he wanted the Chinese Ambassador to India to give him a ceremonial send off, the Congress hit back saying that anyone who creates a hurdle in the holy visit "commits a sin and gets a curse."
For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications
Story first published: Wednesday, September 5, 2018, 12:30 [IST]
Farmer killed in Lakhimpur violence cremated after second autopsy as demanded by his family
Members of farmers' body detained in Lucknow for trying to burn effigies of PM Modi, Shah
Farmers to organise rally from Haridwar to Parliament from Sep 23 to Oct 2
India
oi-Vinod
By Vinod
New Delhi, Sep 5: Woes of the government is far from getting over as after Left Front protest, the Upper castes are bundling up against the government and now Bharatiya Kisan Union too is planning Kisan Kranti Yatra from Haridwar to Parliament in New Delhi. The Yatra will start from Haridwar on September 23 and reach Delhi on October 2.
Farmer leaders are of the view that both the Centre and the state government failed to fulfill promises made by them to the farmers. They are demanding a joint session of Parliament to solve their problem.
Leader of the Bharatiya Kisan Union Rakesh Tikait said that Kisan Kranti Yatra will start from Haridwar with its nine demands including loan waiver and go up to Parliament House.
Tikait said that farmers are still protesting even as the government completed its four-and-half year in the office that shows the government apathy towards farmers and their seriousness about problems of farmers.
Tikait is saying that debt on farmers is increasing as they are not getting the right price for their produce which is causing suicide of farmers.
In the past 20 years over 3 lakh farmers committed suicide and he demanded that their rehabilitation should be made and their dependents will be given jobs.
He also demanded from the government that it must ensure minimum income for farmers. Small and marginal farmers must be given Rs 5000 pension after 60 years. Ban of 10-year old diesel vehicle in Delhi-NCR must be lifted besides that tractors of farmers, pumping set and diesel engine used for agricultural works must be kept out of it.
He demanded that the government must also stop import such things which are produced in abundance in India. Several countries are exporting such things under Asean free trade agreement which they even don't produce.
Another leader of the Bharatiya Kisan Union Yudhdhveer Singh said that Pradhanmantri Fasal Bima Yojna is not in the interest of farmers but in the interest of insurance companies.
He demanded that every farmer should be considered as a unit and it should be implemented voluntarily. Rs 19,000 crore is still pending to be paid to sugarcane farmers, despite the fact that season is over. The BJP promise to pay dues to sugarcane farmers in 14 days proved to be hollow.
Dr Swaminathan Commission for farmers is biting dust from past 15 years, forget about implementing it was not even discussed in Parliament.
For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications
Story first published: Wednesday, September 5, 2018, 23:45 [IST]
Arch rivals Uddhav Thackeray, Narayan rane share stage together, take potshots at each other
We have case where complainant has gone missing: Uddhav's dig at Param Bir Singh
Fight, don't fast: Thackeray tells Hardik Patel
India
oi-Deepika
By Deepika
Mumbai, Sep 5: Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday spoke with Patidar community leader Hardik Patel requesting him to stop his indefinite hunger strike for reservations for the community.
Addressing a press conference Thackeray said he had called Gujarat's Patidar leader Hardik Patel and expressed his solidarity with him over his ongoing hunger strike.
"I have extended my support to him and told him we need fighters like you. I also requested him to withdraw his hunger strike," Thackeray said.
Patel has been on an indefinite fast in Ahmedabad since August 25 with demands including farm loan waiver and reservation for the Patidar community under OBC category in government jobs and education sector.
"We keep hearing that we should talk to terrorists, to talk to Pakistan, why cant we have talks with these youths in our own country," questioned Uddhav.
Meanwhile Uddhav slammed the BJP for the statement of its MLA Ram Kadam who had said that he would 'abduct' girls and hand them over to boys if they rejected their proposal for marriage.
"Not only should strict action be taken against him, he should not be given a ticket by any party to contest future elections. He is a person of a low character and mentality," Thackeray said.
"I am not aware whether the BJP has launched a 'Beti Bhagao' programme. But if anybody speaks like this about our sisters and daughters, we will not tolerate it," he warned.
Puneeth Rajkumars last rites to take place tomorrow: Many yet to pay last respects says CM Bommai
Gone too soon: From Puneeth Rajkumar to Sidharth Shukla, untimely deaths leave family and fans stunned
How Rajini movies helped this boy cope with his heart transplant
India
oi-Madhuri
Bengaluru, Sep 5: A 13-year-old boy from Bengaluru who was suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy got a new lease of life when the heart was harvested from a 20-year-old boy who met with a road accident and was declared brain dead in Visakhapatnam. In order to cope with the pain, the boy identified as Kushal watched Rajinikanth's movies throught his stay in the Fortis hospital.
The heart was airlifted on Aug 6 and transplanted into Kushal on the same day at Fortis Hospital. A team of specialists from Fortis went to retrieve the heart and a green corridor helped the heart travel in just over an hour.
According to Dr Vivike Jawali, who is the chairman, department of cardiovascular sciences at Fortis said that the heart was that the heart was transplanted into the pateint in four hourse and one minute. He also thanked the efforts of interstate transplant coordinators and police who helped in creating a green corridor.
Meanwhile, Dr Murali Chakravathy said that the boy recovered well watching his idol Rajnikanth's movies to get over the post surgery pain throught his stay at the hospital.
The heart transplant was performed by Dr K.R. Balakrishnan, Chief Cardiothoracic and Transplant Surgeon at Fortis Malar Hospital, Chennai, and Dr Vivek Jawali, Chief Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgeon, Fortis Hospitals, Bengaluru.
Indian community in Bulgaria is a "true reflection" of India's diversity: President Kovind
India
pti-PTI
Sofia, Sep 4: Indian community in Bulgaria constitutes a "living bridge" between the two countries, said President Ram Nath Kovind after he arrived in Bulgaria on Tuesday (Sep 4), on the second leg of his three-nation visit to Europe.
He addressed the Indian community in Bulgaria and asserted that it was a "true reflection" of India's diversity, culture and traditions and constitutes a "living bridge" between the two countries. "India-Bulgaria friendship is very special. Our links are old and ancient. There are surprising similarities in our cultures, and deep and abiding connections too. You meet a Bulgarian and he or she will tell you the music closest to traditional Bulgarian music is Indian!" President's Secretariat said in a tweet.
"The great Bulgarian painter Boris Georgiev was deeply influenced by Mahatma Gandhi. Our great poet Rabindranath Tagore visited Bulgaria in 1926 and added yet another chapter to our cultural ties," it said.
President Kovind is on the second leg of his three-nation visit to Europe to continue India's high-level engagements with European countries. He praised Indology department of Sofia University for doing "stellar work" for 35 years in spreading awareness about Indian culture. "Delighted to learn its scholars have translated eight principal Upanishads from Sanskrit to Bulgarian," he said.
Earlier, Kovind met his Bulgarian counterpart Rumen Radev who received him at the hotel where the Indian delegation is staying. "President Radev spoke to President Kovind of his admiration for Indian culture, specifically mentioning Buddhism and yoga, the Gita and the Mahabharata. In light-hearted banter the two dignitaries also discussed the Bulgarian President's favourite Hindi film - Haathi Mere Saathi," it said.
President Kovind and the and the First Lady were received by Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister Ivo Hristov at the airport. Kovind is the fifth Indian President to visit Bulgaria and the first in 15 years. From Bulgaria, he will fly to Czech Republic on the final leg of his three-nation trip on September 6. During the visit, Kovind will have a meeting with President Radev, who will host a Banquet in his honour. Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borissov will call on President Kovind. Kovind will address the business representatives of India and Bulgaria at a Business Forum. He will deliver a lecture at the Sofia University and will also address the members of Indian diaspora during the visit. This is his first overseas state visit in the second year of his presidency.
PTI
J&K: National Conference to boycott Panchayat Elections over Article 35A
India
oi-Vikas
By Vikas
Srinagar, Sep 5: Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday said that the National Conference (NC) will not participate in the panchayat elections scheduled to be held in the state from October 1 onwards. He said that the NC has taken such a decision in the wake of ongoing hearing in the Supreme Court over Article 35 A which provides special rights and privileges to the natives of Jammu and Kashmir.
"Jammu and Kashmir National Conference will not participate in these elections (panchayat), unless and until, the Government of India and the state government clears its position in this regard (35 A) and takes effective steps for the protection of Article 35 A in and inside the court," Abdullah told the media today (September 5).
Farooq Abdullah's son Omar Abdullah, who is also the former Cm of the state, said the Centre must clarity its stand on Article 35 A.
Farooq Abdullah criticises ASG's stand on Article 35A in Supreme Court
"It is now for the central government to clarify where it stands with regard to Art 35-A. It's not enough to use Panchayat & Municipal elections simply to delay proceedings in court," Omar tweeted.
Farooq Abdullah had on Sunday denounced Additional Solicitor General of India (ASG) for saying in the Supreme Court that "there is an aspect of gender discrimination" in Article 35A of the Constitution.
He asked the government of J&K to take immediate steps to ensure that the state does not facilitate the striking down of Article 35-A by its subtle support and admissions made before the Supreme Court.
Separatists call for boycott of J&K panchayat polls
Last Friday, the Supreme Court deferred till January next year the crucial hearing on pleas challenging the constitutional validity of Article 35 A, which provides special rights and privileges to the natives of Jammu and Kashmir, after the Centre and the state said that polls to local bodies polls there would go on till December.
Earlier, the separatists of Kashmir had called for a boycott of the panchayat and municipal elections scheduled in the state of J&K from October 1 onwards. The Joint Resistance Leadership said that the government of India wanted to thrust the elections on the people by deploying additional forces.
For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications
Story first published: Wednesday, September 5, 2018, 15:17 [IST]
Kamal Nath promises Gaushala in every panchayat in Madhya Pradesh
India
oi-Vinod
By Vinod
New Delhi, Sep 5: It is not only the Central leadership of the Congress that is shifting towards the soft Hindutva policy to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party but there seems to be a policy change in the Congress as the new love for the party is cow protection.
Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath is promising building a Gaushala at every panchayat in the state. The ruling BJP that was being ridiculed for its cow-centric politics is being followed by the principal opposition in terms of policies.
The Madhya Pradesh government has already constituted Cow Protection Board (Gau Samvardhan Board) and Swami Akhileshwaranand Giri is its in-charge who recently demanded formation of a separate ministry for cow welfare. Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh sometimes ago observed Narmada Parikrama Yatra.
Also Read | Shiv Sena likens cows to national anthem, says both are in pitiable condition
So political analyst feel that the Congress is going for such soft Hindutva strategy as the experiment was successful in the last Gujarat Assembly elections so it might help the party in Madhya Pradesh as well. The Congress may take many more such moves till elections are announced.
Madhu Kishwar tweeted referring cow protection slogan by Kamal Nath: "Congress has gone full swing following the "Hindutva agenda"? Rahul's visits to temples, wearing janeu, Kailash Mansarovar Yatra were baby steps. But this is a giant leap forward into???? Hope these cows are not meant for stealthy sale to the beef mafia."
Sources in the Congress said that building Gaushala in every panchayat might figure in the Congress manifesto of the Madhya Pradesh too.
For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications
Story first published: Wednesday, September 5, 2018, 10:42 [IST]
Kerala floods: No changes should be made to eco-sensitive zones
India
oi-Madhuri
New Delhi, Sep 5: Noting that the ecology of the Western Ghats was under serious stress, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) restrained six states falling in the region from giving environmental clearance to activities which may adversely affect the eco-sensitive areas.
The green panel allowed the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to republish the draft notification of the Western Ghats that lapsed on August 26 and asked it to finalise the matter within six months without alterations to the eco-sensitive zone in terms of notification dated February 27, 2017.
AR Rahman donates Rs 1 Crore to Kerala relief fund
A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel slammed the states for the delay in filing objections with regard to the notification and said "delay on account of objections of states may not be conducive to the protection of the eco-sensitive areas".
The tribunal said the Western Ghats region is one of the richest biodiversity areas which needs to be conserved.
"In view of the fact that any alteration in the draft notification dated February 27, 2017 may seriously affect the environment and especially in view of recent incidents in Kerala, we direct that no changes be made to reduce the area of eco-sensitive zone in terms of notification, without the same being considered by this tribunal.
"As already directed vide order dated September 25, 2014, no environmental clearance be granted and no activity adversely impacting eco-sensitive areas be permitted in the area covered by draft notification dated till the matter is finalised," the bench said.
The order came after the MoEF in its affidavit told the bench that the earlier notification was republished on February 27, 2017 and was communicated to the states of the Western Ghats region for their views.
It said Karnataka raised objections seeking review of the prohibitory and regulatory regime recommended for eco-sensitive areas in Western Ghats while Goa and Gujarat had not sent their views.
Kerala was warned of severe weather, says Centre on charges of flood forecast lapses
The ministry said the matter was delayed due to lack of response from some states and republication of the draft notification dated had become necessary.
The draft notification issued by the MoEF had identified area of 56,825 square kilometres spread across six states - Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu - as the Ecologically Sensitive Area.
Following protests by various groups and political parties against its recommendations, the government constituted the K Kasturirangan committee to examine the WGEEP report.
Instead of the total area of Western Ghats, only 37% (i.e. 60,000 sq km) of the total area be brought under ESA under Kasturirangan report stated.
For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications
Story first published: Wednesday, September 5, 2018, 6:34 [IST]
It is because of Congress that PM Modi is more powerful: Mamata Banerjee
Majerhat bridge collapse: Mamata Banerjee visits site; Second body pulled out of rubble
India
oi-Deepika
By Deepika
Kolkata, Sep 5: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday arrived at the site where the Majherhat Bridge collapsed on Tuesday, leaving two persons dead.
The Chief Minister informed that one more body has been recovered today while the investigation into the incident continues.
The second person whose body was found on Wednesday has been identified as 21-year-old Metro construction worker, Pranab Dey, who hailed from Murshidabad district. The other deceased person has been identified as 27-year-old Soumendu Bag.
"We are probing this incident from all the angles, no angle is less or more important for us. We are holding emergency meeting tomorrow to chart the future course," Mamata said.
"Money and job can't compensate lives but still compensation of Rs 5 lakh has been announced for the person who died. Two people are critical. There are many more such bridges in Bengal so the government is trying to get those records and take necessary steps," she added.
The overnight search and rescue operations at the Majerhat bridge collapse site in the south Kolkata continued Wednesday morning to find those possibly trapped in the debris, officials said.
The area near the site had been dug up for a metro railway project and construction material are strewn all over the place. Labourers working on the metro project claimed that two of their co-workers, who were probably inside a temporary shelter underneath the bridge, were missing.
The Kolkata Disaster Management Department, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the state fire department conducted the search operations throughout the night, the officials said.
The police had said Tuesday evening that 27-year-old Soumendu Bag had died in the collapse while 21 others, including three women, were injured. The injured are receiving treatment at the hospitals in the city.
A mini bus, four cars and a few motorcycles that were damaged in the bridge collapse were removed using cranes, the official said.
Most important component of the naxal movement lies in the urban areas; Former R&AW chief
India
oi-Vicky Nanjappa
New Delhi, Sep 5: Have the maoists not admitted themselves that when activities are carried out in the jungles, there is also a need to create urban centres because that is where public opinion is made.
There has been plenty of talking about the concept called urban naxals, with the Pune police carrying out a series of arrests in recent days. There appears to be a pattern to their functioning and the police say that the idea of these persons was to destabilise and create chaos.
Former chief of the Research and Analysis Wing, C D Sahay in this conversation with OneIndia says that while Mao had said power flows through the barrels of the guns, it is also important to note that their political movement is not drive by the barrel of the gun alone.
Intellectual component:
Sahay says that there has been an intellectual component to the naxal movement and it does not happen in the jungles. It happens in the urban areas. This involves the mental, intellectual and psychological conditioning in favour of the movement and this takes place in the urban areas.
Also Read | Is the uproar around urban naxals linked to squeeze on Church funding to India?
The people in the cities are brainwashed in social circles, urban clubs, think-tanks, media and these days WhatsApp debates. This in fact is the most important component of the naxal movement, Sahay adds.
There are Intelligence Bureau reports to the government, interrogation reports of the people arrested in connection with such cases in which they have admitted being part of this exercise, Sahay says.
The issue here is that these persons are running a socio-political movement in support of a banned organisation. Is this legal? Is it anyone's case that Left Wing Extremism is a great movement, which is beneficial to the country? Taking guns in their hands and blasting installations- are these not acts of terror.
Also Read | Urban naxals-1: Propagating against soldiers, how they planned infiltrating the Army
Can any responsible political party support such acts. You can't score political points on such subjects. Society seems to be sliding backwards when such discourses take place and this would have far reaching consequences. If this continues then we will have a society that is ungovernable. The intolerance that we speak of here is actually political intolerance, Sahay adds.
The naxal movement is under immense pressure. It is shrinking and the area of the claimed dominance has gone down. This is one of the primary reasons why the debates around the issue are so fierce.
Also Read | Urban Naxals-2: How an anti Hindu force was being built
Sahay says that even if the movement is on the decline, there should be no complacency. In the past too the movement has gone down, but due to complacency they have bounced back.
For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications
Story first published: Wednesday, September 5, 2018, 17:08 [IST]
NBSA asks Republic TV for apology over misreporting during Jignesh Mevani's rally
India
oi-Madhuri
New Delhi, Sep 5: The News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) on Wednesday ordered Republic TV to render a full screen apology to viewers following comments made by 'Jignesh Flop Show' in January earlier this year.
In its order dated August 30, NBSA stated that Republic TV had "violated the code of ethics and broadcasting standards of NBA...and should therefore air an apology". It also said that the complainant did not use "any objectionable words" or show "any gesture which can be described as 'lewd' or 'threatening'".
The complaint was filed by A Singh and his partner Pratishtha Singh after the channel ran a video alleging that the complainant was one of the people who harassed their reporter, Shivani Gupta, while reporting at Vadgam MLA Jignesh Mevani's 'flop show' rally.
The authority asked the channel to run the apology before Goswami's 9 pm flagship show on September 7.
Also Read | Received death threat from fugitive gangster: Jignesh Mevani
The channel had even removed the video from its website and YouTube after the complainant sent them several emails, The Wire reported.
For Urgent attention of Media :
Here is the copy of National Broadcasting Authority of India's order asking Republic TV to tender fullscreen apology for using defamatory stuff against me & our team in its coverage of 'Yuva Hunkar Rally' back in Jan. Shame on Banana Republic. pic.twitter.com/9QrnYWAife Jignesh Mevani (@jigneshmevani80) September 4, 2018
NBSA is an independent body set up by the News Broadcasters Association.
For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications
Story first published: Wednesday, September 5, 2018, 10:50 [IST]
Palanpur drug planting: Why is dismissed IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt being probed
India
oi-Vicky Nanjappa
Ahmedabad, Sep 5: The Gujarat police have detained dismissed IPS officer, Sanjiv Bhatt in connection with the Palanpur drug planting case. The probe by the Gujarat CID got underway following an order the High Court. Bhatt and seven others are currently being questioned by officers of the CID.
The action comes in the wake of the Gujarat High Court directing the CID-Crime to probe the FIR lodged at Palanpur in Banaskantha in 1996 in which a lawyer from Rajasthan was booked for allegedly carrying 1.5 kg of narcotics. The case also involves a former judge of the Gujarat High Court, Ramanlal Rajmal Jain, and then Superintendent of Police Sanjiv Bhatt.
The court was hearing petitions seeking a probe into the case. The High court ordered that the probe into the case should be conducted by the CID-Crime. Further the court ordered that the probe be completed in three months. The order was passed in June 2018.
In 1996, 1.5 kg of narcotics was recovered from a room of Lajwanti City Hotel in Palanpur and police arrested a lawyer, Sumer Singh Rajpurohit, claiming that he was in the possession of narcotics.
Later the police found that Rajpurohit had been abducted from his home in Pali, Rajasthan and the drugs were allegedly planted by the Palanpur police. The police allegedly did so for vacating the property occupied by Rajpurohit, which belonged to a relative of Jain, who was then a judge in the Gujarat High Court.
Rajpurohit was allegedly forced to vacate the property, while he was in police custody at Palanpur. It was also alleged that Bhatt had played a key role in the case.
The High Court in its order said,""It was shockingly mentioned that if the said advocate vacates the property, the Palanpur police would release him from jail in the said narcotics case. In fact, within only three days of Sumer Singh Rajpurohit remaining in police custody, the property was vacated by his brother, and on vacating the property, the Palanpur police filed a report under Section 169 CrPC saying that the person occupying the room at Lajwanti City Hotel where 1.5 kg narcotics was found was not Rajpurohit and that he may be released."
Rajasthan Police said that Rajpurohit was abducted from his home and was booked in a fake narcotics case by Gujarat Police. However, the Palanpur police never probed the narcotics case.
For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications
Story first published: Wednesday, September 5, 2018, 12:41 [IST]
SC to hear new plea on alleged Rafale corruption after 2 weeks
Rahul Gandhi slams PM Modi with his witty take on Rafale deal probe
Rafale a beautiful aircraft, will benefit India says IAF
India
oi-Madhuri
New Delhi, Sep 5: The Rafale is a beautiful aircraft, which will give India unprecedented combat capabilities, the India Airforce said amid escalating controversy over the Rs 58,000 crore deal.
Vice Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal SB Deo also said those criticising the Rafale deal must understand the laid down norms and procurement procedure.
"It is a beautiful aircraft..It is a very capable aircraft and we are waiting to fly it," he said on the sidelines of an event when asked about the controversy surrounding the Rafale deal.
Also Read | Stay on Rafale deal: SC to hear plea next week
The Air Marshal said Rafale jets will give India unprecedented advantage over its adversaries in the region.
India had inked an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore. The delivery of the jets is scheduled to begin from September 2019.
Also Read | Amid procurement controversy IAF pilots train on Rafale jets
The Congress has raised several questions about the deal, including rates of the aircraft, while the government has rejected the charges.
For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications
Story first published: Wednesday, September 5, 2018, 15:07 [IST]
Lawyer without brief is like Tendulkar without his bat on cricket ground: SC
SC quotes Spiderman, while sentencing 9 Maharashtra cops to 7 years in jail
India
oi-Vicky Nanjappa
New Delhi, Sep 5: With great power comes great responsibility, the famous Spiderman line was quoted by the Supreme Court of India while sentencing 9 Maharashtra policemen in connection with a case of custodial death.
The cops were sentenced to 7 years in jail in a 1993, custodial death case. A Bench headed by Justice N V Ramana quoted the Benjamin Parker line in the Spiderman series and enhanced the sentence from 3 to 7 years which is the maximum sentence under the charge of voluntary hurt order in order to extract confessional statements.
Declare setting up Sharia courts as illegal says Muslim woman in SC
In 2007, the High Court had sentenced the policemen to 3 years in jail, but the SC noted that the punishment meted out was grossly insufficient.
As the police in this case are violators of law, who had the primary responsibility to protect and uphold law, thereby mandating the punishment for such violation to be proportionately stringent so as to have effective deterrent effect and instil confidence in the society," the Bench observed.
Such incidents usually tend to deplete the confidence in our criminal justice system much more than those incidents involving private individuals.Those, who are called upon to administer the criminal law, must bear in mind that they have a duty not merely to the individual accused before them, but also to the State and to the community at large, the court also said.
SC comes down hard on IT dept, says apex court is not a "picnic place"
The case on hand dates back to June 1993, when a police team comprising an assistant police inspector, sub-inspector and constables had picked up one Joinus in connection with a robbery case. According to the prosecution, he was picked up from Deolapar's town in Nagpur and was tortured so as to extract confession.
For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications
Story first published: Wednesday, September 5, 2018, 5:39 [IST]
Lawyer without brief is like Tendulkar without his bat on cricket ground: SC
SC refuses to ban Malayalam novel Meesha, says books cant be read in fragmented manner
India
oi-Vicky Nanjappa
New Delhi, Sep 5: The Supreme Court has rejected a petition that sought a ban on the book Meesha. The court said that books cannot be read in a fragmented manner.
A petition had been filed seeking a ban on the book on the ground that it depicted priests and young girls in a controversial manner. The Bench headed by Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra observed that imagination of a writer must enjoy freedom.
Arrest of activists sympathetic to naxals: SC to resume hearing tomorrow
The Bench also said that the imagination of a writer cannot be ordered to be fashioned in a particular manner. Further Bench said that craftsmanship of a writer needs to be respective. A person's subjective perception of a novel or work of fiction cannot enter the legal arena to seek its ban.
SC quotes Spiderman, while sentencing 9 Maharashtra cops to 7 years in jail
The petitioner had sought a ban on certain excerpts in the Malayalam novel Meesha. 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 casteist or racial slur. To this, Justice Chadrachud said such kind of stuff should not be given undue importance in this age of the Internet.
For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications
Story first published: Wednesday, September 5, 2018, 10:59 [IST]
As cries for same sex marriages grow, government likely to put its foot down
Why was Section left to the wisdom of the court asks SC judge
2018: The year of the judiciary, from landmark verdicts to an unprecedented presser
Section 377 verdict by SC today: All you need to know
India
oi-Deepika
By Deepika
New Delhi, Sep 6: The Supreme Court is expected to pronounce on Thursday its much-awaited verdict on a batch of petitions seeking decriminalisation of 158-year-old colonial law under Section 377 of the IPC which criminalises consensual gay sex.
A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra had reserved its verdict on July 17 after hearing various stakeholders, including LGBTQIA+ rights activists and religious outfits, for four days.
Here is All you need to know about Sec 377 Verdict
What is Section 377?
Section 377 of the IPC refers to 'unnatural offences' and says whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the or der of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punis ed with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 10 year s, and shall also be liable to pay a fine.
Also Read Is Section 377 IPC constitutional: SC to decide today
When was the issue first raised?
The issue of Section 377 was first raised by an NGO, Naz Foundation, which approached the Delhi High Court in 2001. The HC decriminalised sex between consenting adults of the same gender by holding the penal provision as "illegal".
December 2012: Supreme Court sets aside order
The Supreme Court overturned this 2009 judgement of the Delhi High Court, thereby restoring the criminality of the sexual relationship between persons of the same sex. The apex court also dismissed the pending review plea against which the curative petitions were filed.
Modi govt's stance on Section 377
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government was sworn in in 2014, it said it would take a decision regarding Section 377 only after the SC judgment.
Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, P Chidambaram, Shashi Tharoor, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O' Brien, CPI (M) leader Brinda Karat, the Aam Aadmi Party among others had come out in support of the LGBT community and had said that homosexuality should be decriminalised.
August 2017: SC upholds Right to Privacy
The Supreme Court, in a landmark judgment in August 2017, held Right to Privacy as a fundamental right. It also observed that "sexual orientation is an essential attribute of privacy". It said that the "right to privacy and the protection of sexual orientation lie at the core of the fundamental rights guaranteed by Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution".
Case reopened in 2018
The country's top court began hearing petitions against the ban on July 10, beginning an emotional debate in the world's largest democracy over the right to freedom and privacy. The bench made it clear that it was not going into the curative petitions and would adjudicate on the fresh writ petitions in the matter. Between July 10 and July 17, the bench heard detailed arguments for four days. On July 17, it reserved its verdict.
Centre's stand
On July 11, the Centre told the Supreme Court that it would leave it to the wisdom of its judges to decide on the constitutional validity of Section 377.
What SC said during July'18 hearing
The SC observed that an environment has been created in Indian society over the years that has led to deep-rooted discrimination against the community which has also adversely impacted their mental health. Referring to the provision of the Mental Health Care Act, the bench said "it also recognises the fact that such persons cannot be discriminated against on the ground of sexual orientation".
Homosexuality a taboo
Homosexuality is considered a taboo in a largely conservative Indian society which appears to be divided on the controversial issue. Freedom loving people (not necessarily belonging to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender or LGBT community) want homosexuality de-criminalised but many still consider it a "deviant behaviour" and not merely a question of one's sexual orientation or preference.
For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications
Story first published: Thursday, September 6, 2018, 1:53 [IST]
Teachers Day 2018: Remembering Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
India
oi-Vikas
By Vikas
New Delhi, Sep 5: Teacher's Day is celebrated in India is celebrated on September 5 which is also the birthday of former President Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. The first Teachers' Day celebration in India dates back to 1962 when Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan started serving as the President of India.
Apart from being the President, Radhakrishnan was a well-known diplomat, scholar and above all, a teacher.
When some of his students and friends approached him and requested him to allow them to celebrate his birthday, he said, "Instead of celebrating my birthday separately, it would be my proud privilege, if 5th September is observed as Teachers' day". From then onwards, the 5th of September is being observed as Teachers Day, in India.
Dr. Radhakrishnan was awarded several high awards during his life, including a knighthood in 1931, the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in India, in 1954, and honorary membership of the British Royal Order of Merit in 1963. Not only this, he was nominated eleven times for the Nobel Peace Prize throughout his lifetime.
"He has served his country in many capacities. But above all, he is a great teacher from whom all of us have learnt much and will continue to learn. It is India's peculiar privilege to have a great philosopher, a great educationist and a great humanist as her President. That in itself shows the kind of men we honour and respect," India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had said about Dr. Radhakrishnan.
Dr Radhakrishnan was a teacher par excellence Born in 1882 into a Telugu family in a town called Tirutani in Andhra Pradesh, Dr. Radhakrishnan's father wanted him to take on the role of a priest. But destiny had other plans. His hard work got him to join schools in Tirupati and Vellore and he eventually went on to join Christian College, Madras to study philosophy. Teachers' Day: A tribute to Dr. Radhakrishnan Dr.Radhakrishnan did his Masters in Philosophy from University of Madras, after which he went on to teach in University of Mysore and University of Calcutta. File photo of President Kovind paying homage to Dr. Radhakrishnan He was an evocative teacher, exceedingly popular among his students right from his early days as a professor at Presidency College, Madras. He was offered the professorship in Calcutta University when he was less than 30 years old. He served as Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University from 1931 to 1936. In 1939, he was appointed the Vice Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University. In 2015, PM Modi released Rs 125 coin to commemorate Dr. Radhakrishnan On Teacher's Day, students across the nation honour the teachers and gurus in their lives. Often, special programmes are held in schools and colleges honouring the educators. Many others offer their teachers greeting cards and hand-made presents.
Teachers' Day: Who are National Award winning teachers in 2018?
India
oi-Chennabasaveshwar
By Chennabasaveshwar
New Delhi, Sep 5: Ahead of Teachers' Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with National Teachers' Awards awardees on Tuesday. Pm Modi met with each National Teachers' Award winners and clicked photo with them.
Teachers Day 2018: Remembering Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Prime Minister congratulated the awardees for their efforts towards improving the quality of education in the country. He commended their dedication towards education and for making it their life mantra. He said that a teacher remains a teacher throughout life.
Interacting with the Prime Minister, the awardees narrated their inspirational stories in transforming their schools into centres of learning and excellence. They also thanked the Prime Minister for the new online nomination process and for schemes like Digital India, which is bringing a big qualitative change in school education throughout the country.
Teachers Day 2018: Quotes and wishes to make the day special for teachers
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu will confer National Awards for 2017 on September 5 in New Delhi.
Shri Vikram Sonba Adsul, Shri Vidhu K.P., Dr. Usha Khare and Ms. Sutapa Sur Innovation and technology can enhance one's learning experience. Delighted to meet Shri Vikram Sonba Adsul from Ahmednagar who adapted innovative teaching practices using outdoor activities. His work led to higher enrolment and lower dropout rates.
Shri Vidhu K.P. from Kerala has taken initiatives to make his school a Smart School. He is leveraging technology to manage the school's functioning and for better teaching and learning. India is proud of him.
The Principal of a school in Jahangirabad, Madhya Pradesh, Dr. Usha Khare established an e-library in her school and also ensured an increase in enrolment and retention of girls. Community-oriented work is her strength. Glad that she has been conferred the award for teachers.
Ms. Sutapa Sur from Tripura is an inspiration for everyone. Her approach to the overall development of students of her school has shown demonstrable success in the results of the students. She has focused on education through co-curricular as well as cultural activities. Ms. Sushila Rupji Pasaria, Shri Sunil Kumar from Kangra, Dr. Suman Jakhar and Ms. Shesha Prasad Ms. Sushila Rupji Pasaria of Central Primary School, Dadra and Nagar Haveli is an inspirational teacher. From mobilising local communities and parents to increase enrolment to encouraging a range of extra-curricular activities, Ms. Sushila's work is admirable. Congrats to her.
Met Shri Sunil Kumar from Kangra district in HP. Great to know about his efforts to enhance learning experience of students. His innovations and promotion of health and hygiene are truly appreciable. Congratulations for the National Award for Teachers.
Dr. Suman Jakhar is the Principal of a school in Churu, Rajasthan. It is heartening to know that, in her leadership, enrolment of girls increased substantially. It is such teachers who add great strength to the 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' movement.
Known for developing unique tools for the teaching of English, Ms. Shesha Prasad from Kendriya Vidyalaya in Begumpet, Hyderabad has endeared herself to both students and fellow teachers. I wish her all the best in her continued endeavour of educating our new generation. Ms. Shaila R.N, Shri Sashanka Hazarika, Shri Sarvest Kumar and Shri Santosh Gaonkar Ms. Shaila R.N worked very hard to improve the overall infrastructure of a school that she is heading in Bengaluru North. Her work has made a positive difference in the lives of several students, particularly those belonging to poor families. Proud of teachers like her!
Shri Sashanka Hazarika, from Darrang, Assam, has encouraged computerization and development of software for classrooms. He has taken education to more and more children through his work in increasing enrolment. I wish him success in his noble endeavours.
Shri Sarvest Kumar Ji's efforts have led to a huge increase in his school's enrolment count in Basti district of Uttar Pradesh. Great to meet him! He even shared how introduction of ICT in his school is enhancing the teaching-learning process and benefitting the students.
Shri Santosh Gaonkar is the Principal of Poira High School in Goa. Under his leadership, the school saw a significant improvement in Class X results. He also worked to make the sciences popular among pupils, with his students even taking part in the Children's Science Congress. GH Rasool, Dr. Rameshappa , Ms. R Sathy and Ms. Pragya Nopany Shri GH Rasool Mir Ji's efforts to mobilise parents and local community in Srinagar for increasing student enrolment and reduce absenteeism from school are laudable. His active participation to set up a school library and upgrade labs are praiseworthy. Glad to have met him!
When students are fit, India is fit! As the Physical Education teacher of a school in rural Bengaluru, Dr. Rameshappa popularises Yoga and sports among students. His work towards gender sensitivity and welfare of Divyang students is noteworthy. Congrats and best wishes to him.
As the Headmistress of a school in Coimbatore, Ms. R Sathy adopted several community mobilisation activities to increase enrolment. Her innovative strategies helped her local village in becoming ODF. She is also passionate about co-curricular activities. Congratulations to her.
Ms. Pragya Nopany of Birla Vidya Niketan, Delhi has taught Physics to thousands of students. She has also participated actively in developing national level curriculum and in developing teacher training programmes. We are proud of her contribution. Rakeshkumar Chandrakant Patel, Shri Omprakash Mishra, Shri Narra Rama Rao, Shri Narendra Kumar Tiwari Shri Rakeshkumar Chandrakant Patel is a teacher well-known in Nadisar for increasing enrolment through his community linkages and effective use of social media. Also a blogger on education techniques, he is an asset to his students and our nation.
Met Shri Omprakash Mishra Ji from Jeypore in Koraput district of Odisha. I salute him for his sheer determination to educate students in one of the remotest areas of our country. His effective use of school labs and technology in teaching of science and mathematics is noteworthy.
Shri Narra Rama Rao, Headmaster of a school in Nizamabad, Telangana, played the lead role in significantly enhancing the enrolment of children in his school. He has also popularized science among students. I appreciate Shri Rao for his commitment and wish him all the best.
It was good meeting Shri Narendra Kumar Tiwari from Chhattisgarh. His school has high levels of student participation and good performance of students in the examinations. He mobilised substantial support for his school from the community. Congratulations for the Teachers Award. Shri Murugan , Shri Motilal Koirala, Meka Susatya Rekha, and Ms. Manu Gulati Shri Murugan is a mathematics and science teacher in Nagaland. Through his innovative approach, he has helped students develop keen interest in these subjects. His efforts to organise the District Science Congress and teacher training workshops are highly appreciable. Glad to have met Shri Motilal Koirala of Sikkim. His efforts towards enhancing academic level through the use of IT are commendable. As the Principal of his school, his extensive outreach to parents and guardians are appreciable and augurs well for the students. Congrats to him. Ms. Meka Susatya Rekha, a teacher of Mathematics and Science in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh, has successfully ensured that students find classroom interactions absorbing. She has worked on the creation and dissemination of e-content. I wish her well in all her future endeavours. Teaching is about educating students, and mentoring other teachers too. Ms. Manu Gulati is a shining beacon in this. She has also developed innovative methods of teaching through technology, music and dance. Delighted that she wins the National Award for Teachers. Manju Balasubramanyam, Mamta Awasthy, Shri Shivakumar and Shri Lutni Perme Ms. Manju Balasubramanyam heads the DPS in Bengaluru. Her work towards increasing diversity and focussing in opportunity as well as inclusion for Divyang children are commendable. Congratulated her on being conferred the prestigious award for teachers.
Starting from basics...Ms. Mamta Awasthy from Sikkim developed innovative teaching practices at the primary school level. She also compiled her best practices, which are being disseminated and helping several other youngsters study.
Pleasure meeting Shri Shivakumar Ji from Karnataka's Chikkaballapura district. It was great to know that using technology, he has simplified Mathematical queries for his students. Many of his classroom videos are available on the internet and are widely appreciated.
As the Headmaster of a school in Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh, Shri Lutni Perme has not only helped the school improve its academic performance but has also laid emphasis on holistic education through gardening, sports and other activities. The nation is proud of him. Shri Kirandeep Singh, Khangembam Indrakumar Singh, and Jayanthi Sheshadri Shri Kirandeep Singh, who teaches in Ludhiana, has done excellent work in popularising Mathematics among youngsters. He has set up a Maths hub, maths park, created interesting modules...all so that students enjoy the subject and excel in it. Glad that he got the teachers award.
Shri Khangembam Indrakumar Singh from Manipur, worked hard to spread the message of the importance of primary education. He has also worked on special residential programmes to help students pick up key concepts. He is an inspiration to students and other teachers.
Heading a school in North Sikkim, Ms. Karma Chomu Bhutia devoted attention to every aspect of education ranging from enrolment, proper mid day meals, using technology and new learning methods. Delighted that she is receiving a prestigious award for educators.
Met Ms. Jayanthi Sheshadri, who has shown tremendous passion towards improving rural education. She has created innovative modules and conducted workshops to spread the joys of learning. Congratulations to her. Shri Ishwari Kumar Sinha,Mohammad Imran Khan, Shri Hydros CK and Harinder Singh Grewal Meet Shri Ishwari Kumar Sinha from Chhattisgarh. He has made science teaching more meaningful and effective through use of experiments and and through field activities. He has also been devoting out of school hours for supporting children with learning difficulties.
Met Shri Mohammad Imran Khan Mewati from Alwar. I appreciate him for developing educational e-content including videos, website and even Mobile Apps. His Apps cover a range of subjects at primary and secondary level as well as for competitive examinations. Congrats to him.
Generations of students will thank Shri Hydros CK based in Wayanad, Kerala for his determined focus on learning outcomes. He gave students innovative projects on areas such as robotics, which contributed to the building of a scientific temper among young minds. Proud of him.
Shri Harinder Singh Grewal is an example of how teachers can master technology and benefit students. His innovative use of technology for teaching and experiments on learning aids are laudable. I wish him all the best for the future. Shri GS Zaithantluanga, Dr. Gopal Jee, Ms. Geeta Gangwani and B S Ravi Meet my friend Shri GS Zaithantluanga from Mizoram. Along with developing a scientific temper among students, he is helping students excel in cultural competitions. He has initiated the adoption of vocational education and skill training in the school too. Proud of him.
Interacted with Dr. Gopal Jee, the Principal of a school in Bihar's Sitamarhi. His work on environmental conservation is outstanding. He has also worked hard to improve literacy rates in his district and always inspires students to study harder so that they can fight poverty.
Even though she heads a school in Delhi's Rohini, Ms. Geeta Gangwani continues to teach Chemistry and has developed innovative methods to make the subject more popular. As an administrator, her emphasis on IT has benefitted the school greatly. Congratulations to her!
Encouraging group discussions in classrooms, ensuring regular use of science and computer labs in teaching, and improving school infrastructure are some of the laudable things Shri B S Ravi has done in his school in Gadwal, Telangana. We are proud of his work. Basruddin Khan, Bandari Ramesh, Pari Baldevpari Javerpari and Arvind Raj Jajware Shri Basruddin Khan from Haryana, is a Headmaster who has played a key role in promoting the education of girls. He has also made a significant contribution towards identification and enrolment of out-of-school children. Congratulations to him for the National Award for Teachers.
Shri Bandari Ramesh, from Warangal, Telangana, has worked on innovative teaching methods for mathematics. As a prolific developer of teaching-learning material, he has helped ensure excellent results in his school. I wish him all the best for continuing his good work.
Shri Pari Baldevpari Javerpari, from Junagadh, Gujarat, makes learning mathematics enjoyable for students. He has developed several Mobile Apps that help students learn the subject. His classroom videos are also widely watched. May his kind increase.
Students really like Shri Arvind Raj Jajware's joyful teaching methods. He has made a significant contribution in enhancing enrolment and attendance in his school in Jharkhand. He also shares best practices of teaching with others. More power to him! Shri Amitava Misra Great meeting Shri Amitava Misra from West Bengal's Purulia district. The transformation he has brought about in his school by mobilising people is remarkable. Glad to know that he even teaches students from marginalized communities during out of school hours and holidays.
Cleopatra RecordsAda Vox is kicking her post-American Idol career into gear with a brand-new song.
The song, titled Because of You, is a dance track that showcases Adas soaring vocals and an uplifting message about overcoming odds, thanks to people who believe in you. The track was produced by Bimbo Jones, who's worked with Rihanna and Lady Gaga.
Ada, the drag queen alter ego of 24-year-old Adam Sanders, made it to the American Idol top eight last season. Shes playing tour dates across the country through the fall; her next show is in Cincinnati, Ohio on September 7.
Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
(CNN) Almost 90 elephant carcasses have been found during a survey in northern Botswana, revealing "unprecedented" levels of poaching in the country, the conservation group carrying out the study has said.
Just nine carcasses were discovered in total during the last audit of the region in 2014, and Elephants Without Borders is expecting this year's number to rise further because the organization is only halfway through the study, which began on July 5 and is largely funded by Botswana's Department of Wildlife and National Parks.
"While we had elephant poaching in the country before this year, it certainly wasn't of the magnitude that we're seeing now. It's completely unprecedented," Mike Chase, director and founder of Elephants Without Borders, told CNN.
"We were always warned that the poaching that has happened in East Africa and parts of northern Mozambique may spread south. What I'm astounded by is the scale and the speed at which it has happened."
Thato Raphaka, Botswana permanent secretary of land management, water and sanitation services, said that 90 elephants were never killed in one incident, and that a recent survey conducted by Elephants Without Borders found 53 carcasses that had already been reported to the government.
Raphaka, in a statement, said the majority of the 53 elephants died of natural causes "and retaliatory killings as a result of human and wildlife conflicts."
Elephants Without Borders said it never claimed the killings were the result of one incident.
Botswana is home to the largest population of elephants in Africa -- an estimated 130,000 -- and has long been seen as a haven for the animals, which have been heavily poached in nearby Angola and Zambia.
That is now changing, according to Chase. While cases of ivory poaching were previously reported only along the country's international borders, this latest survey shows that poaching has moved into the Okavango Delta, a prime tourist destination deep inside northern Botswana, suggesting that Botswana citizens are becoming more involved in poaching activities.
Poachers 'have followed' elephants to Botswana
Chase attributes the changes to two factors: heavy poaching in Angola and Zambia that has left local populations on the verge of extinction, and the disarming of Botswana's anti-poaching unit (APU) in May.
Before European colonization, scientists believe that Africa may have held as many as 20 million elephants; by 1979 only 1.3 million remained. The first Great Elephant Census, a pan-African survey of the continent's savanna elephants in 2016, revealed that the situation had gotten far worse.
Between 2007 and 2014, numbers plummeted by at least 30%, or 144,000 elephants, the census found.
In Botswana, elephants were long thought to be safe. Members of an armed anti-poaching unit patrolled the elephants' habitats, while Botswana's military was mobilized throughout the border region, tasked with preventing poaching.
In May this year, the anti-poaching unit was disarmed as part of a broader action in which military weapons and equipment were withdrawn from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP), according to a government statement.
Unarmed patrolmen cannot be expected "to patrol and possibly have contact with armed poachers," Chase said, adding that he had not seen any members of the APU in the bush during the first two months of the survey.
Asked by CNN on Tuesday about the disarming of the APU and the rise in elephant poaching in Botswana, Otisitswe Tiroyamodimo, director of the DWNP, declined to comment.
But Raphaka said the withdrawal of weapons has not created a "vacuum in anti-poaching operations, as the anti-poaching unit in DWNP continues to play a pivotal role in combating wildlife crime through other strategic interventions."
When asked to respond to the governments response on the matter, Chase said; "100% I stand by what I said, the evidence is irrefutable."
A Department of Wildlife and National Parks representative is present during the current census count.
Heavy poaching in Angola is also contributing to the current problems in Botswana, according to EWB.
"Those elephants that weren't killed are moving back to the safety of Botswana, and the poachers have followed them," Chase said.
Demand for ivory despite bans
In January this year, China enacted a ban on the sale of ivory products. It followed a near-total embargo by the United States in 2016, and the UK is currently considering introducing "one of the world's toughest" bans on ivory sales in a bid to protect elephants. The European Union has yet to enact an ivory ban.
But demand remains for the luxury product and Chase warned against complacency.
The initial results of EWB's survey suggest poachers are primarily targeting the largest, oldest bulls in the population, known as great tuskers.
The ivory is hacked away by a sharp axe and the carcasses covered with bushes in an attempt to conceal the kill, according to Chase. Numbers of great tuskers across Africa have dwindled to about 50, according to various estimates by conservationists.
It is also clear that poachers are moving into increasingly remote areas areas to hunt elephants. Six carcasses were discovered Monday during an aerial patrol in one of the region's least accessible areas, Chase said.
Threat to tourism
Botswana's wildlife attracts large numbers of visitors, and tourism is the country's second-largest earner.
The surge in poaching potentially threatens not only a major source of Botswana's income, but also its reputation as a conservation leader on the continent.
The rising elephant deaths and the poaching of six rhinos in Botswana this year suggests that the killings may be the work of organized syndicates.
This story was first published on CNN.com, "Dozens of elephant carcasses found in Botswana, revealing 'unprecedented' levels of poaching."
Telangana: Just 13 out of the 119 are not crorepatis in the new house
Telangana assembly likely to be dissolved on September 6 at 6.45 am
India
oi-Vicky Nanjappa
Hyderabad, Sep 5: At the mega rally held earlier this week, Telangana Chief Minster, K Chandrasekhar Rao dropped sufficient hints that there could be early polls in the state. Rao had said that he was authorised by his party, the Cabinet, MLAs and MPs of the TRS to take a decision on early elections.
Following the mega rally that was held on Sunday, there have been ample discussions on whether to dissolve the assembly early and go in for early polls. Reports now suggest that the assembly could be dissolved as early as September 6 (tomorrow) at 6.45 am. Incidentally KCR considers 6 as his lucky number.
Why did KCR keep up the suspense on early polls in Telangana
The original term of the Telangana assembly ends in May 19 and polls are held along with the Lok Sabha elections. KCR has been toying with the idea of early elections and sources say that he had brought up the topic during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his recent Delhi visit. Modi had however said that any such decision would be at his own risk.
Now it appears certain that KCR is likely to dissolve the assembly soon. A meeting is scheduled on September 7 and arrangements for the same are being made by KCR's nephew Harish Rao.
2007 Hyderabad twin bomb blasts case: 2 convicted, two others acquitted
Observers say that KCR appears to have taken a calculated risk. He feels that the mood in the state is currently in favour of his party. He would make his intentions clear at the September 7 meeting.
Telangana government: Why does KCR want an early election?
India
oi-Vicky Nanjappa
Hyderabad, Sep 5: The Chief Minister of Telangana, K Chandrasekhar Rao has dropped sufficient hints that he wants to dissolve the assembly and go in for early elections. The assembly in India's newest state may be dissolved as early as tomorrow, by 6.45 am, sources have suggested.
Telangana in normal course holds simultaneous elections with the Lok Sabha in April-May. The big question is why does KCR want to dissolve the assembly when the next elections are a good 7 to 8 months away?
In 2014, despite spearheading the movement for a separate state, KCR's TRS managed to win only 63 out of the 119 seats. The Congress came second with 21 seats, while the TDP and YSR Congress party bagged 15 and 3 respectively. The Asaduddin Owaisi led AIMM and the BJP won seven and five seats respectively.
Also Read | Telangana assembly likely to be dissolved on September 6 at 6.45 am
Sources close to Rao tell OneIndia that he has no doubt about retaining power. He has two things in mind-one is to win by a bigger margin this year and then solely focus on the Lok Sabha elections in 2019. This indicates that KCR would hope that the elections are held in 2018 itself.
Rao has shown keen interest in national politics over the past couple of months. He did try stitching up an alternate front, but the plan did not materialise. KCR has made it clear that he would not be part of any front that involves the Congress, which is his primary opponent in Telangana.
In recent times KCR has also shown a great deal of proximity to the BJP. He has held two back to back meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Further his party backed the BJP both in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha during the no trust vote and the elections to the post of deputy chairman.
Also Read | Why did KCR keep up the suspense on early polls in Telangana
Rao is aware that he would be a key player, especially at a time when the BJP is not leaving any stone unturned to better its tally in South. KCR would not be part of the NDA, but is likely to back in the post election scenario.
His son, K T Rama Rao says that if at all the polls are held early, it would help the party. The TRS would win both the state and Lok Sabha polls convincingly, he said. The TRS also feels that early elections would also give it sufficient time to rope in partners in 2019. Basically KCR wants the two elections to be separate affairs so that he could dedicate ample time to both.
Ramdas Athawale condemns violence at US Capitol, says he will talk to Trump over phone
One by one they will resign: Athawale on Maharashtra ministers
Union minister to move Supreme Court to challenge ban on word 'Dalit'
India
oi-PTI
New Delh, Sep 6: The Republican Party of India, an ally of the BJP, will move the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court directive against the use of the word 'Dalit' by the media, according to RPI leader and Union Minister Ramdas Athawale.
Athawale told reporters on Wednesday that the word Dalit symbolises the struggle undertaken to give these communities their rights."It isn't an insult," he said.
I&B ministry advises TV channels not to use term 'Dalit', say 'Scheduled Caste' instead
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had earlier suggested that the media use the word "Scheduled Castes (SC)", in order to comply with the Bombay High Court's directions.
"Republican Party of India will go to the Supreme Court against Bombay High Court (Nagpur bench) directive to the government to remove 'Dalit' word in media usage," the party leader said.
Athawale, who is minister of state for social justice, said that while he does not object to the use of 'Scheduled Caste' in government affairs, the term 'Dalit' shouldn't be a "worrisome word" in common usage.
"I have no objection to the use of 'Scheduled Caste' in government works, but it isn't fair to ban media, authors and other such persons from using the word 'Dalit'. It should be left to them whether they wish to say 'Scheduled Caste' or 'Dalit'," he said.
The RPI leader is the second Dalit leader after BJP lawmaker Udit Raj, who has protested against the court order and the I&B Ministry advisory.
"The word Dalit is a symbol of our unity. This word has given us the motivation because of which one day our community will enter into the mainstream of the country. This word should not make anyone feel inferior and not name but their welfare should be important to us," Raj had tweeted.
The order from the I&B Ministry said that the term 'Scheduled Caste' should be used for "all official transaction, matters, dealings, certificates, etc. for denoting the persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes notified in the Presidential Orders issued under Article 341 of the Constitution of India".
PTI
For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications
Story first published: Thursday, September 6, 2018, 2:06 [IST]
UP B.Ed JEE Exam to be held on July 30
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to reach Lucknow on July 16; Key meetings scheduled in Delhi before visit
Members of farmers' body detained in Lucknow for trying to burn effigies of PM Modi, Shah
UP: Flood like situation in Kanpur after Ganga river swells again
India
oi-Madhuri
Lucknow, Sep 5: Massive floods have been wreaking across 16 districts of Uttar Pradesh, claiming over 16 lives in last 48 hours.
Rescue operations are underway, with Air Force choppers rescuing 14 people stranded in Lalitpur and Jhansi districts.
More than 32,000 people of 17 different villages were affected by the rising water levels of the Ganga in Unnao and were taken to a safer place.
Eleven teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed in nine districts to deal with any emergency caused by the heavy rain and floods in ten rivers that are now above the danger level.
Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department has issued warnings for heavy rain across almost the entire state for the next two days.
US Secretary of State Pompeo, Def Secy Mattis arrive for 2+2 talks
India
oi-PTI
New Delhi, Sep 5: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis arrived here Wednesday to hold the inaugural two-plus-two talks with their Indian counterparts, focus of which will be to deepen strategic ties and resolve differences over India's defence engagement with Russia and crude oil import from Iran.
Reflecting the importance of the talks to be held on Thursday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj received Pompeo, while Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman welcomed her US counterpart Jim Mattis at the Palam airport.
Swaraj and Sitharaman will hold the twice-postponed dialogue with Pompeo and Mattis. Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford is also part of the US delegation.
"In a special gesture symbolising our warm and friendly relationship, EAM @SushmaSwaraj received United States Secretary of State @SecPompeo at the airport on his first visit to India," MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet.
The External Affairs Minister will have a separate bilateral meeting with Pompeo while Sitharaman will have a one-on-one meeting with Mattis on Thursday morning before the delegation-level two-plus-two talks.
Twelve officials from each side are expected to attend the talks which will be followed by a working lunch. In the afternoon, Swaraj, Sitharaman, Pompeo and Mattis will call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
As Secretary Pompeo arrived here from Islamabad, India will also try to get his view about his engagement with the new government in Pakistan headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, official sources said.
In the talks, the sources said, India will also try to "sensitise" the US that any cut in import of Iranian oil in compliance with the US sanctions may impact the country's overall economy as the crude oil from that country is much cheaper.
India is also expected to apprise the US about the importance of the Rs 40,000 crore deal it is about to finalise with Russia to procure a batch of S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems. The US has been indicating that it does not want India to go ahead with the deal.
The sources said both sides will also discuss the long-pending Communications, Compatibility, Security Agreement (COMCASA). The COMCASA will help India obtain critical and encrypted defence technologies for Indian defence platforms from the US. The sources said text of the agreement is almost ready.
They said both sides will also explore ways to enhance engagement between their navies in the Indo-Pacific region and try to resolve tariff-related issues.
On import of Iranian oil, the sources said India may also convey to the US that some of its refineries are dependent on certain kind of crude oil and making technical adjustments in them may require huge investments as well as time.
After withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, the US has imposed sanctions on Iran. It has told India and other countries to cut oil imports from the Gulf nation to "zero" by November 4 or face sanctions.
PTI
For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications
Story first published: Wednesday, September 5, 2018, 21:46 [IST]
ISI link, India and beyond: NIA exposes dangers of urban naxals, their friends in the jungles
Naxal movement in urban areas were being expanded through International seminars
How the urban eco-system of 'liberals' helped naxals become a Rs 2,500 crore network
Varavara Rao, others were part of banned CPI (Maoists), could have caused chaos
India
oi-Vicky Nanjappa
New Delhi, Sep 5: The arrest of the five activists, alleged to be close to naxalites was not based on a dissenting view or difference in their political views and ideologies, the Maharashtra government said in its response to the Supreme Court.
Romila Thapar and Devki Jain, Prabhat Patnaik, Satish Deshpande and Maya Daruwala had challenged the arrest of the activists by Pune Police after raids across five states on August 28.
Sudha Bhardwaj, P Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha, and lawyers and activists Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves were arrested and charged with criminal conspiracy.
Also Read | Arrest of activists sympathetic to naxals: SC to resume hearing tomorrow
The government said that the cogent evidence has so far shown that these persons are part of banned terrorist organisation Communist Party of India (Maoist). There has been serious criminal offences made out against them and incriminating material has also emerged, the Maharashtra government said.
The activists were not just involved in planing and preparing for violence, but were in the process of creating large scale violence, destruction of property, the reply further said.
Also Read | Urban Naxals threat to the unity of the country; involve in illegal mining and extortion
The Supreme Court had earlier ordered the house arrest of all these persons. Hearing on the matter would continue on September 6.
For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications
Story first published: Wednesday, September 5, 2018, 15:43 [IST]
What to expect from MK Alagiri's show of strength rally today
India
oi-Vikas
By Vikas
Chennai, Sep 4: Despite his expressed willingness to work under the DMK chief MK Stalin, M Karunanidhi's elder son MK Alagiri will hold a rally in Chennai today. This rally is being seen as an attempt by Alagiri to show Stalin how much of a political threat he really is to DMK.
Those observing Tamil Nadu politics would be keen to see what Alagiri says at this rally in Chennai and most importantly how many people gather for it. In a way, Alagiri would also be testing the waters and would be eager to find out how much support he has got. If Alagiri feels after the rally that a significant number of DMK supporters would back him then the split in the party may also be on the cards.
Alagiri is elder brother of MK Stalin, who was recently DMK president. After Karunanidhi's death on August 7 in Kauvery Hospital, Alagiri had made a controversial claim that his father's true loyalists were by his side. Recently, he had threatened with "consequences" should Stalin ignore his endeavours to be accepted back into the party.
Also Read | 'I am Karunanidhi's son, will do what I say': MK Alagiri on Sep 5 rally
Karunanidhi had held the position of DMK President for 50 years, taking forward a party through trying times against leaders like MG Ramachandran, and his protege J Jayalalithaa.
Alagiri was expelled in 2014, after he put up a display of his anger at the Gopalapuram residence of his father, and has not been readmitted to the party. Karunanidhi had expelled MK Alagiri and his supporters from the party in 2014 at the height of his fight with Stalin over establishing supremacy in the party.
After the death of Karunanidhi, Alagiri was back in the political limelight, claiming the support of the Kalaignar's true loyalists.
Also Read | DMK war: Alagiri makes a U turn, says ready to accept MK Stalin as his leader
Alagiri on Thursday said he was ready to accept the leadership of his younger brother, Stalin, if he was readmitted into the party fold.
The political battle between the brothers got more intense after Alagiri, on August 13, claimed, "All the supporters in Tamil Nadu are on my side and are encouraging me only. Only time will give the answers; that is all I am willing to say now."
Alagiri claimed if he was not re-admitted into the DMK, the party leaders would again face similar defeat in coming Lok Sabha elections like in the last Parliament and assembly polls. "The same situation will continue."
For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications
Story first published: Wednesday, September 5, 2018, 9:26 [IST]
2+2 dialogue: S-400 deal, India importing oil from Iran not primary focus of talks, says Pompeo
International
oi-Vikas
By Vikas
Washington, Sep 5: With the '2+2' dialogue between India and the United States set to be held tomorrow, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that CAATSA waiver and India's oil imports from Iran would not be the primary focus of talks.
"They will certainly come up, but I don't think they will be the primary focus of what it is we are trying to accomplish here," said Pompeo to travelling US media when asked S-400 missile deal and India importing crude from Iran.
"Those decisions (Russian missile defence systems and Iran oil export to India) are important to relationship but do not see us resolving those or having even-have intention to resolve those during this set of meetings of Strategic Dialogue," he added.
Also Read | S-400 missile deal: Will India be granted waiver from CAATSA?
Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis are headed to India for the talks tomorrow with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. This is the inaugural 2+2 dialogue between the two countries.
India is likely to push the US for a waiver from CAATSA (Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act), which may come into affect if India goes ahead with the purchase of S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems from Russia. India is likely to go ahead with its purchase from Russia despite possibility of sanctions looming large.
Also Read | US imposes 'ban' on oil import from Iran: Can India afford to follow the diktat?
On one hand India wants these missiles to strenghthen defence capabilities, but at the same time does not want to sour relations with the US. India is said to be hopful that the Trump administration would grant exemption to India under CAATSA.
He regretted that the dialogue had to be postponed twice in the past.
"I regret it was my fault the second time. I had to travel to Pyongyang. But secretary Mattis and I are both looking forward to this," he said.
The twice-delayed dialogue was earlier scheduled for July 6 in Washington, but was postponed by the US on June 27, citing "unavoidable reasons".
Also Read | India defies US sanctions pressure; allows state refiners to use Iran tankers
US had asked all countries, including India, to stop all oil imports from Iran by November. America has ruled out any exemption to India and Indian companies from its re-imposed Iranian sanctions regime.
India is the second largest buyer of petroleum from Iran after China, and Iran is the third largest supplier to India after Saudi Arabia and Iraq. New Delhi was not happy with the Trump administration's decision pull out of the Iran nuclear deal last month and its announcement that sanctions will be back in force in two tranches by November 4.
Sushma Swaraj, External affairs minister, had said that "India follows only UN sanctions and not unilateral sanctions by any country" days after President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran deal.
For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications
Story first published: Wednesday, September 5, 2018, 8:51 [IST]
Amazon Great Indian Festival 2021: Use 'diamonds' to get cashback offer on your orders, here is how
Amazon joins the $1,000,000,000,000 elite group
International
pti-PTI
Washington, Sep 4: America's online shopping giant Amazon, which has a sizeable presence in India, on Tuesday became the second US company to hit USD 1 trillion in stock market value. Silicon Valley-based Apple was the first US company to do so less than a month ago.
Amazon shares traded at USD 2,050.27 Tuesday afternoon, which pushed the company's market valuation over USD 1 trillion.
The Seattle-based company which started as selling books online is owned by Jeff Bezos, who among other things also owns The Washington Post, a top American daily.
Amazon, in recent years, has emerged as a disruptive force in shopping, attracting millions of customers across the globe - the US and India in particular - to shop online.
Over the past few years, Amazon has emerged as a major FDI investor in India.
This year alone, Amazon stocks have jumped 75 per cent adding USD 435 billion to its market capitalization. This is combined market capitalization of America's top three retail stores - Walmart, Costco and Target.
The Wall Street Journal said investors rewarded Amazon because of it demonstrating better financial discipline in recent quarters.
PTI
Former US senator Jon Kyl appointed as the temporary successor to late John McCain
International
pti-PTI
Washington, Sep 4: Arizona's governor named former US senator Jon Kyl as the temporary successor to late senator John McCain. "There is no one in Arizona with the stature of senator Jon Kyl. He is a man without comparable peer," Governor Doug Ducey told reporters in Phoenix, with Kyl at his side.
Kyl, 76, was to fly to Washington to be sworn in possibly just days before a high-stakes Senate vote on the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's pick to be the next US Supreme Court justice. Ducey insisted his appointment was not political, despite Kyl working closely with the White House in recent months on getting Kavanaugh confirmed in the Senate, where Republicans hold a razor-thin one-vote majority.
"Now, senator Kyl can cast a vote for Kavanaugh's confirmation." Kyl, 76, served for 18 years alongside McCain in the Senate, until 2013, and said he would be "honored" to return to the chamber. But he only committed to serve until January 2019, raising the prospect of requiring Ducey to again appoint a replacement until the seat is up for re-election in November 2020. "I'm hoping that the senator will consider serving longer" than this year, Ducey said.
Widow Cindy McCain said it was a "great tribute" to her late husband that their close friend Kyl will return to public service by assuming McCain's seat. McCain died late last month at age 81 following a yearlong battle with brain cancer. His funeral service Saturday at Washington National Cathedral was in many ways a stern rebuke of Trump, with presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama eulogizing McCain as an iconic statesman who embodied passionate but civil debate, bipartisan compromise and a commitment to American values.
PTI
Mike Pompeo arrives in Pakistan, defends US decision to cut aid
International
pti-PTI
Islamabad, Sep 5: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday to hold talks with the country's new leadership in a bid to reset the strained bilateral ties, days after the Trump administration cancelled USD 300 million in military aid to Islamabad.
This is the US' first high-level dialogue with Pakistan since the new government of Prime Minister Imran Khan assumed office after the July 25 elections. Pompeo, accompanied by General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. He is also expected to meet Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
Pompeo is expected to press Pakistan to target all terror groups on its soil and play a positive role in war-torn Afghanistan when he meets the country's new leadership in a bid to reset the strained bilateral ties. The Trump administration has cancelled USD 300 million in military aid to Pakistan as it was not doing enough against terrorist groups inside its borders, the latest controversy to hit Islamabad's troubled relationship with Washington. Pompeo landed at the Nur Khan Airbase in Islamabad and headed for the US embassy.
Diplomatic sources said that Pompeo will meet Foreign Minister Qureshi, followed by the delegation-level talks between the two sides. Sources said that the situation in Afghanistan, talks with the Taliban, action against the Haqqani terror network and other militant groups, issue of suspension of US aid and other bilateral and regional issues will be discussed. The relation between the two "allies" are passing through a difficult period as the US is upset over what it calls lack of cooperation from Islamabad in eliminating militancy in Afghanistan.
The two sides publicly differed over what was discussed between Pompeo and Khan during a telephonic conversation. Later, the US topped it by cancelling USD 300 million aid which Pakistan said was the money it already spent in the war on terror and Washington was bound to reimburse it as part of understanding between the two sides.
Talking to reporters travelling with him hours before landing in Pakistan, the Secretary of State said: "The rationale for them (Pakistan) not getting the money is very clear. It's that we haven't seen the progress that we need to see from them". He defended the Trump administration's decision to cut USD 300 million aid to Pakistan, saying Islamabad did not make satisfactory progress in combatting terrorism.
"The very reason for this trip is to try and articulate what it is our expectation is, the things that they can do, the things that they expect us to do, and see if we can't find a path forward together," Pompeo said.
However, Pompeo said that this was not news for Pakistan.
"Look, this wasn't news to the Pakistanis. It made a lot of headlines over the last few days because of the formality... but they were told this past summer that they weren't likely to get that money. There are real expectations. We need Pakistan to seriously engage to help us get to the reconciliation we need in Afghanistan... They have important interests, security interests in Afghanistan to make sure they get the issues at their border right, and we need their help," he said.
Pompeo said he wanted to get there at the beginning of Khan's tenure in an effort to "reset the relationship" between the two countries. "We have worked closely with the Pakistanis in my role as the CIA director. Our teams have been working together for a long time. There are lots of challenges between our two nations for sure, but we're hopeful that with the new leadership that we can find common ground and begin to work on some of our shared problems together. They have expressed good-faith intention to do so," the Secretary of State said.
Qureshi, in one of his media talks, said that what the US was showing was just one side of the picture.
"We will show (them) the other side," he said. Local media reports said a tough interaction is expected between the two sides as US want decisive action against militants, while Prime Minister Khan promised in his victory speech in July that he was against one-sided relationship with the US.
The Express Tribune reported the "visit is expected to be tense" because "at the heart of the controversy is the longstanding US demand, seeking decisive action against the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network from Pakistan". Dawn reported that "a senior Pakistani diplomat conceded that it would be a mistake to think that Mr Pompeo is coming on a goodwill visit".
PTI
Blockchain Day is Coming Up and All Around the World Can Attend!
Published September 5, 2018 by Lee R
Blockchain Day is coming up fast next month, with bookend events that will bring the global blockchain that much closer.
Blockchain Day Netherlands is coming up on September 29th.
Conference Significance
The unique conference is important because the Netherlands has emerged as one of the leading proponents and implementing jurisdictions of blockchain.
Conference Content
The conference will feature current cases and technologies as well as presentations of the most innovative and relevant blockchain products and services that the Netherlands has to offer.
Conference Topics
The one day intensive features knowledge-sharing on how the personal connection of the blockchain influence, studying decentralized energy solutions; the interaction between artificial intelligence and blockchain; the future of adaptation; implementation and application of blockchain for the financial sector; sources of investment and investors; international cooperation for global blockchain projects, and much much more.
Conference Goal
This conference aims to empower all attendees to form organic professional communities where all members can access the manpower, service support, and target segments necessary to effectively market their products or services on the blockchain.
Conference Speakers
Expert speakers for Blockchain Day Netherlands include leading real-time practitioners offering all manner of innovative blockchain solutions. Among them are:
--finance and digital currency expert and former JP Morgan-Chase and VP and trader Tone Vays, who subsequently created and currently serves as external adviser to LibertyLifeTrai projects on Youtube;
--blockchain startup scout in Brightlands and President JCI Zuid-Limburg Yanick Dols, who is also the founder of bridge company Head-Starters Talent Management, a company which brings together talents, new technologies, and investments; and
--Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Douglas Azar, who specialises in alternative investments such as hedge funds, venture capital, private equity and real estate investment.
Keynote Address
A key address will be delivered by GlobalBoost project creator Bruce Porter, who developed Yescrypt as a cryptocurrency hashing algorithm that monetized Android and PC mining.
The access to speakers will be abundant with Q and A sessions following all addresses.
Outlook
Blockchain Day Netherlands is at this point the worlds largest blockchain networking platform, with more than 30 speakers, panel discussions, innovative environments, and is vital cant-miss attendance for all blockchainers.
Pragmatic Play Strikes Deal to Enter Spanish Market
Published September 5, 2018 by Ivan P
The partnership will see the full portfolio of Pragmatic Play games, containing over 80 titles, go live for the first time at Casino777.
Pragmatic Play, a company with an extensive portfolio of slots and casino games, will be entering the regulated Spanish market following their deal with Digital Distribution Management Iberica. The deal will ensure the full range of Pragmatic Play titles will become available at Casino777.es.
Acquiring New Customers
For Pragmatic Play, this first excursion into the regulated Spanish market represents a very important step. According to Melissa Summerfield, the company's Chief Commercial Officer, Pragmatic Play will be looking to make most out of this new opportunity and a fresh customer base.
Some of the most popular titles that are set to go live at Casino777.es as a result of the partnership include slots like Madame Destiny, Leprechaun Song, and Jade Butterfly. Of course, this is just a small fraction of full Pragmatic Play's portfolio.
The company has been on an expansion path lately, having recently announced another partnership with Kindred Group in Italy. Pragmatic has also ventured into the world of live dealer games through the acquisition of Extreme Live Gaming.
Enhanced Offer for Spanish Players
Speaking on behalf of Casino777, Rosario Zapata expressed the company's pleasure about having Pragmatic Play as one of their partners. Zapata is convinced the range of games, which was already tested and well-received by players in other markets, will be welcomed by their players as well, significantly improving the overall quality of their offering.
In total, Pragmatic Play has developed more than 80 video slots, all of which support 26 global languages and all major currencies. Hence, Spanish players do have a lot to look forward to thanks to this recent development.
Interestingly enough, although the online gambling in Spain was regulated in 2012, online slots remained illegal until June 2015, when the new legislation finally allowed casinos to start including slots as a part of their gaming offering.
Organization is key for annual holiday event Plans are under way for the 2021 Christmas Basket project. Since 1982 churches have come together to create this community...
Delphi Chamber membership to vote on dissolving the non-profit The membership of the Greater Delphi Chamber of Commerce (GDCC) is set to vote Monday, Nov. 8, on a resolution...
APC proposes mixed use zoning ordinance The Carroll County Area Plan Commission (APC) gave the go-ahead to publish a recently received draft of an amendment to...
Mayor, Clerk-Treasurer criticized for participating in land auction City Council member Gayle Conner did not mince words in her criticism of participation by two city officials in last...
Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia:
Belgium's financial watchdog, the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) said it continues to receive multiple complaints from investors about fraudulent offerings related to investing in cryptocurrencies.
Hence the investor watchdog has updated its warning against the unauthorized activities of multiple cryptocurrency platforms that are offering investments in the country without complying with Belgian financial legislation.?
FSMA has added 28 new sites to its crypto-related fraud blacklist, as it reiterates its warnings to consumers. FSMA started publishing its "black list" of cryptocurrency platforms in February this year. The list, which is updated regularly, now shows 78 websites for the cryptocurrency category.
"Cryptocurrencies are the hype of the year. Fraudsters are well aware of that, and try to attract customers online through fake cryptocurrencies and huge profits. The only thing they actually do, however, is take the customers' money and disappear. It is as simple as that," stated a press release from FSMA. According to the agency, the latest list is not a comprehensive one, and has been largely as a result of victims' report.
The number of victims of cryptocurrency fraud clearly continues to increase, it said.
FSMA has been trying really hard to come down on these types crypto-related frauds for quite some time. It also puts a disclaimer that the list can't be considered as exhaus......................
To view our full article Click here
Kidney Cancer Drugs Market will Register a CAGR of about 6.6% between 2014 and 2020
Transparency Market Research
https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/kidney-cancer-drugs-market.html
https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=537
https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=537
https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com
With only a handful of large vendors accounting collectively for a large share, the vendor landscape of the global market for kidney cancer drugs can be viewed as largely consolidated and tough to crack for new vendors, observes Transparency Market Research in a recent report. The level of competition among leading players is also quite stiff.Among the leading players, Pfizer, Inc. accounted for the maximum share in the overall market in 2013, thanks to its blockbuster drugs Axitinib and Sunitinib. Other leading companies in the market, such as GSK and Novartis have moved their gaze to emerging economies in search for new, untapped growth opportunities as developed markets increasingly witness consumer inclination towards generics.Report Overview @According to the report, the global kidney cancer drugs market will expand at a CAGR of 6.6% over the period between 2014 and 2020.North America Continues to Remain Lucrative Regional MarketGeographically, the market for kidney cancer drugs in North America is presently the most lucrative owing to the easy commercial availability of the most prominent and advanced varieties of kidney cancer treatment drugs in the region. Moreover, the large patient-base and the well-established healthcare sector also fare well for the North America kidney cancer drugs market. The region accounted for nearly 45% of the overall market in 2013.Request A Sample Copy @Of the key varieties of drugs in the global market, the global kidney cancer drugs market acquired the maximum share in its overall valuation from the sales of Sutent, which is a drug by Pfizer. This can be attributed to the fact that the drug is often prescribed as the first-line of treatment for patients suffering from kidney cancer. Moreover, as the drug is capable of targeting a variety of RTKs (receptor tyrosine kinases), it is one of the most studied medicine in its class for several indications.Rapidly Rising Global Geriatric Population to Drive Demand for Kidney Cancer DrugsSome of the key factors expected to work in favor of the global kidney cancer in the next few years are the massive rise in the world population of geriatrics and the rising incidence rate of kidney cancer. The American Cancer Society states that kidney cancer is mostly seen in higher age groups. The average age of people diagnosed with the condition is 64 and is very uncommon among people under the age of 45. Owing to this, the rapidly rising global population of geriatrics is likely to create to a vast rise in demand for kidney cancer drugs in the near future.Request Brochure @The steady approval of new drug varieties and rise in the number of companies ploughing in increased funds into R&D activities surrounding the development of new drug molecules is also expected to aid the growth of the market in the near future. On the flip side, the rising sales of generic medicines owing to the high costs of branded drugs is a key challenge ahead of the global kidney cancer drugs market.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 Us90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Meeting Software 2018 Global Market Key Players GoToMeeting, Cvent, TeamViewer, ReadyTalk, BlueJeans, Glisser, EventBank Analysis and Forecast to 2025
Meeting Software Market
https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3382705-global-meeting-software-market-size-status-and-forecast-2018-2025
https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/3382705-global-meeting-software-market-size-status-and-forecast-2018-2025
www.wiseguyreports.com
WiseGuyRerports.com Presents Global Meeting Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 2018-2025 New Document to its Studies DatabaseThis report focuses on the global Meeting Software status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. The study objectives are to present the Meeting Software development in United States, Europe and China.In 2017, the global Meeting Software 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.The key players covered in this studyGoToMeetingCventTeamViewerReadyTalkBlueJeansGlisserEventBankRingCentralClickMeetingZoho MeetingeVoiceMicrosoft Skype for Businessjoin.meAdobe ConnectAmazon ChimeGoToMeetingCisco WebEx Meeting CenterRequest For Sample Report @Market segment by Type, the product can be split intoCloud, SaaS, WebMobile - Android NativeMobile - iOS NativeMarket segment by Application, split intoSmall BusinessMedium-sized BusinessLarge BusinessMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaCentral & South AmericaComplete Report Details @Table Of Contents:1 Report Overview1.1 Study Scope1.2 Key Market Segments1.3 Players Covered1.4 Market Analysis by Type1.4.1 Global Meeting Software Market Size Growth Rate by Type (2013-2025)1.4.2 Cloud, SaaS, Web1.4.3 Mobile - Android Native1.4.4 Mobile - iOS Native1.5 Market by Application1.5.1 Global Meeting Software Market Share by Application (2013-2025)1.5.2 Small Business1.5.3 Medium-sized Business1.5.4 Large Business1.6 Study Objectives1.7 Years Considered2 Global Growth Trends2.1 Meeting Software Market Size2.2 Meeting Software Growth Trends by Regions2.2.1 Meeting Software Market Size by Regions (2013-2025)2.2.2 Meeting Software Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)2.3 Industry Trends2.3.1 Market Top Trends2.3.2 Market Drivers2.3.3 Market Opportunities.12 International Players Profiles12.1 GoToMeeting12.1.1 GoToMeeting Company Details12.1.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.1.3 Meeting Software Introduction12.1.4 GoToMeeting Revenue in Meeting Software Business (2013-2018)12.1.5 GoToMeeting Recent Development12.2 Cvent12.2.1 Cvent Company Details12.2.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.2.3 Meeting Software Introduction12.2.4 Cvent Revenue in Meeting Software Business (2013-2018)12.2.5 Cvent Recent Development12.3 TeamViewer12.3.1 TeamViewer Company Details12.3.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.3.3 Meeting Software Introduction12.3.4 TeamViewer Revenue in Meeting Software Business (2013-2018)12.3.5 TeamViewer Recent Development12.4 ReadyTalk12.4.1 ReadyTalk Company Details12.4.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.4.3 Meeting Software Introduction12.4.4 ReadyTalk Revenue in Meeting Software Business (2013-2018)12.4.5 ReadyTalk Recent Development12.5 BlueJeans12.5.1 BlueJeans Company Details12.5.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.5.3 Meeting Software Introduction12.5.4 BlueJeans Revenue in Meeting Software Business (2013-2018)12.5.5 BlueJeans Recent DevelopmentContinued.CONTACT US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@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 LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Global Oil Accumulator Market 2017-2025| Nippon Accumulator, Eaton Corporation, Parker-Hannifin Corporation, Bosch Rexroth AG and Tobul Accumulator
https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1581220
https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=1581220
https://www.researchmoz.us/oil-accumulator-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2025-report.html
https://marketinfo247.wordpress.com/
Albany, NY, 5th September : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Oil Accumulator Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" globally.Demand for energy is rapidly growing in recent years. Accumulation of oil is an important aspect to eliminate hazards during oil extraction processes. Oil accumulators are considered to be hydro pneumatic devices that store non compressible fluid through an external source such as a fluid, gas, spring, and piston under high pressure.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @Oil accumulators have gained importance all over the world due to initiatives in reducing harmful environmental pollution during oil & gas drilling activities. Oil accumulators are employed for various purposes such as noise reduction, leakage compensation, and pulsation dampening.The oil accumulator market can be segmented based on its types, applications, and region. Based on its types, oil accumulators can be bifurcated as hydraulic or piston, bladder, and diaphragm accumulators. Hydraulic accumulators are generally considered to be piston type accumulators. A free moving piston separates the compressible gas cushion from the hydraulic fluid. The bladder type accumulator consists of an elastic barrier between the oil and gas. The diaphragm type accumulator is designed into two sections that are bolted or screwed together. A synthetic rubber diaphragm is installed for bifurcation of oil & gas. Accumulators are used in drilling rigs in offshore and onshore regions. It is utilized in blowout preventers to restrict the sudden influx of oil & gas during drilling operations. It is used in mud pumps in oil & gas exploration activities and also by drilling tools and equipment manufacturers for developing instruments. Oil accumulators are also used by environmental research institutes and government organizations.Opportunities in the oil accumulator market arise from rising demand for oil & gas exploration and production activities. The attempts to minimize environmental hazards due to exploration have positively impacted the growth of the oil accumulator market. Restraints of the market include high cost of production. However, efforts are being made to reduce costs and develop advance technology oil accumulators. Thus, oil accumulator are an important component when environmental factors are taken into consideration.In terms of geography, North America leads the oil accumulator market in terms of demand. This can be ascribed to the increase in oil & gas activities in offshore regions of the U.S. New discovery of shale oil in the North Dakota region in North America has increased the demand for oil accumulators. The oil accumulator market has been expanding in countries in Asia Pacific such as India, China, and Japan due to the rise in maritime security activities, growth in offshore oil & gas production activities, and improvement in underwater communications. The oil accumulator market in European countries such as the U.K., Germany, France, and Norway is likely to expand due to increased oil & gas drilling activities in the North Sea and improvement in maritime security. Countries in Latin America such as Brazil and Mexico are anticipated to witness an increase in demand for marine instrumentation activities due to rapid urbanization and rise in offshore oil & gas activities in the Gulf of Mexico. Demand for marine instrumentation in countries in Middle East & Africa is also likely to rise due to the increase in number of offshore oil & gas exploration and production activities.Make An Enquiry About TOC with tables & Figures @Key global market players operating in the oil accumulator market include companies such as Nippon Accumulator Co. Ltd., Eaton Corporation, Parker-Hannifin Corporation, Bosch Rexroth AG, and Tobul Accumulator Inc.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.The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.Browse Report @Highlights of the report:A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent marketImportant changes in market dynamicsMarket segmentation up to the second or third levelHistorical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volumeReporting and evaluation of recent industry developmentsMarket shares and strategies of key playersEmerging niche segments and regional marketsAn objective assessment of the trajectory of the marketRecommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the marketResearchMoz 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.Mr. Nachiket Ghumare,ResearchMoz,90 State Street, Albany NY, United States,Tel: +1-518-621-2074,USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948,Email: sales@researchmoz.us,Follow me on :
Pistachio Market Headed for Growth and Global Expansion by 2025 | Major Players Germack Pistachio Company, Santa Barbara Pistachio Company, The Wonderful Company LLC, Hellas Farms LLC,
https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-pdf/1242
https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-customization/1242
Pistachio are seeds of the plant Pistachia vera. They are rich in various nutrients such as proteins, dietary fibers, vitamin K, vitamin B-6, thiamin, copper, phosphorus, manganese, iron, magnesium -tocopherol, phytosterols, xanthophyll carotenoids, and others. The benefits of pistachio consumption includes weight management, reduced risk of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, improved immune system, nervous, and digestion system.Download PDF Brochure @Increasing health awareness and preference for healthy food are the key factors driving the growth of pistachio market. The growing demand for pistachio oil in food and cosmetic industry, as a gourmet ingredient is fuelling the growth of pistachio market. Also, the use of pistachio paste as flavoring agent in sauces and others is further propelling the growth of pistachio market. Increasing popularity of pistachio as flavoring agent in desserts such as ice-cream, cakes, cookies, and others has augmented the growth of pistachio market.However, high cost of pistachios as compared to other nuts and contamination of pistachios by carcinogenic substance such as aflatoxins is restraining the growth of pistachio market. Various regulatory bodies has set stringent regulations such as Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1881/2006 by Europe Union on aflatoxins content in food and animal feed.In-shelled pistachio market accounted for the highest market share, owing to their use as snacks. Increasing demand for in-shelled pistachios blended with flavors and seasonings accounted for largest segment among the distribution channel, supermarkets, and hypermarkets.Pistachio -Market Outlook:Asia Pacific is the largest and fastest growing region in the pistachio market, owing to increasing demand for nutritious food due to growing health awareness and increasing demand in bakery confectionary and food services. According to the India Food Service Report 2013 by the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), the Indian food serves industry is estimated to reach US$ 68.16 billion by 2018. The growth in food services sector is expected to drive the pistachio market in India.North America region is the second largest market for pistachios due to the increasing snacks market and growing demand for healthy snacks. For instance, according to the report published in September 2016 by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, snack products are estimated to grow at CAGR of 2.3% from 2016 to 2020 while nuts snacks segment is estimated to reach US$ 5.3 billion by 2020 by CAGR of 2.1% from 2016 to 2020. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), approximately 98% of pistachios are produced in California making the U.S second largest producer and exporter of pistachios.Request For Customization @Pistachios market in Europe is significantly growing, owing to demand for pistachio as flavoring agent in bakery and confectionary products. Also, increasing demand for healthy snacking is further driving the growth of the market. According to Global Agricultural Trade System (GATS), the total sale of pistachios in Europe was US$ 426 million in 2015.Latin America, Middle East, and Africa has lucrative demand for pistachios from food processing and snacks industry. Also, increasing consumer awareness on health benefits of pistachio is further driving the growth of pistachio market in this region. Iran is the largest producer and exporter of pistachio and accounts for more than 50% of the global pistachio production.Key players operating in the pistachio market include Germack Pistachio Company, Santa Barbara Pistachio Company, The Wonderful Company LLC, Hellas Farms LLC, Keenan Farms, Farm Fresh Nuts, Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella, Inc., Pistachio Provenance, and Ready Roast Nut Company.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.Contact UsMr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.com
Biologic Therapeutics Market - Advancement in biotechnology research 2025 | Pfizer Inc., Novartis Global
https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=3104
https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=3104
https://www.tmrresearch.com/biologic-therapeutics-market
Global Biologic Therapeutics Market: SnapshotThe branch of science that deals with manufacturing medicines and pharmaceutical products based on biological origins is called biological therapeutics. Any pharmaceutical drug product manufactured from semi-synthesized and biological sources is included under this field. Owing to rapid advances experienced by this sector, a distinct biologic therapeutics market has formed. This market is mainly being driven by a rising demand for better healthcare treatments occurring all over the world.The global biological therapeutics market mainly comprises of derivatives extracted from whole blood and other blood components, organs and tissue transplants, stem cell therapy, human breast milk, fecal microbiota, human reproductive cells, and antibodies. Several biological materials could are also extracted from other animals.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The global biological therapeutics market not only deals with extracted biologic materials from the market, but also involves providing treatments based on the use of these materials. Most biologic therapeutic substance include individual components such as thrombolytic agents, interferons, monoclonal antibodies, additional products, interleukin-based products, haematopoietic growth factors, hormones, and therapeutic enzymes. Materials used for producing biopharmaceuticals might also be derived from recombinant E. coli or yeast cultures, mammalian cell cultures, plant cell cultures, and mosses.The global biologic therapeutics market is boosted through the presence of cancer, diabetes, and another coronary heart diseases. A growing geriatric population also has been responsible for making the market gain extensive revenue in the form of quality treatment processes. However, the market might be restrained due to high cost of extraction of the biologic materials. Nevertheless, extensive research and development carried out by many businesses in this market might offset the restraints substantially.Request TOC of the Report @Global Biologic Therapeutics Market: OverviewThe global biologic therapeutics market is predicted to benefit from the rising applications of biological products. Biological products could be made of sugars, nucleic acids, proteins, or complex combinations of these substances, or may be living components such as cells and tissues. Biological products are used to prevent diseases, diagnose diseases, or treat or cure medical conditions.Global Biologic Therapeutics Market: Key Trends and OpportunitiesFirst and foremost, increasing reimbursement for biologics is predicted to positively influence the biologic therapeutics market in the upcoming years. Medical insurance companies and state-run insurance schemes are increasingly accepting claims against biologic therapeutics. Biologic therapeutics are gaining popularity due the efficacy of biologic therapeutic drugs and fewer side effects than chemical-based drugs. This is because biologic drugs are obtained from natural sources such as plants, or even living components such as cells and tissues of animals, microorganisms, or humans. These fragments are further treated to make therapeutic products such as blood components, vaccines, and recombinant therapeutic proteins.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Increasing prevalence of chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and coronary artery diseases and a growing geriatric population are some other factors contributing to the biologic therapeutics market. In addition, mounting clinical trials and innovative research and development practices to develop novel drugs is boosting the growth of biologic therapeutics market.On the flip side, manufacturing difficulties due to complexities of drug molecules is challenging the growth of biologic therapeutics market. Nevertheless, increasing research and development in the pharmaceutical sector and rising applications of biologics is anticipated to provide new opportunities to this market.Global Biologic Therapeutics Market: Market PotentialThe Genetic Technology module for TechVision Opportunity Engine provides the most recent R&D advancements and developments while looking into opportunities for profit in the exploding genetic technology field via joint ventures, acquisitions, and technology transfer. The entire range of genetic technology applications covered in the module includes latest developments in omics technologies, which include genetic, cellular, and alternative therapies; genetically modified plants and animals, and sequencing technologies.The health and wellness cluster of genetic technology techvision opportunity engine looks into developments across several areas, which include genetic engineering, drug discovery and development, regenerative medicine, cosmetic procedures, nanomedicine, drug delivery, smart healthcare, pain and disease management, and personalized medicine.Global Biologic Therapeutics Market: Geographical OutlookAs per the reports analysis, the worldwide biologic therapeutics market could see a classification into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. North America, among them, could secure a leading position due to a robust research infrastructure and presence of expert researchers and scientists for biotechnology research. Europe is a key market for biologic therapeutics due to high level of biotechnology research and pioneering research in the field of biotechnology. Asia Pacific is likely to emerge as a significant market for biologic therapeutics with increasing advancement in biotechnology research.Global Biologic Therapeutics Market: Competitive LandscapeThe worldwide biologic therapeutics market is predicted to witness the prominence of several key players, namely Pfizer Inc., Novartis Global, Smith Medical, Concord Biotech, H. Lundbeck A/S, AstraZeneca, Merck & Co. Inc., GlaxoSmithKline plc, Aurobindo Pharma Ltd., and Retractable Technologies Inc. Market players could resort to common business strategies, viz. product innovation, cutting-edge developments, and acquisitions to push up growth in the market.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
Agricultural Enzymes Market: Growth Rate Projection for America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and rest of the world for the Period 2018-2023
https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/5172
https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/agricultural-enzymes-market-5172
Market Definition:Agricultural enzymes help in improving fertility, crop protection, and plant growth regulation. Increasing population and growing demand for food have led to high agricultural productivity which is driving the growth of the agricultural enzymes market. Moreover, rising demand for natural and organic food followed by increasing awareness towards hazardous properties of pesticides and other chemicals used in agricultural have raised the demand for agricultural enzymes over past few years.Receive a Sample Report@Market Scenario:Agricultural enzymes are the necessary bioactive proteins in preserving soil health and its environment. When agricultural enzymes are applied to the soil, billions of chemical reactions begin to take place immediately. In the process they detoxify soils that have been poisoned by excessive applications of chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides, neutralize both acid and alkaline soils, loosen heavy clay soils, and even penetrate hardpan. Most commonly used agricultural enzymes include phosphatases, proteases, sulfatases and others.Growing acceptance of modern farming is adding fuel to the growth of agricultural enzymes market. Owing to improving the efficiency of agricultural enzymes, major players are investing in research and development which is further boosting the growth of global agricultural enzymes market. Cost efficiency is another driver driving the growth of the market. However, the uncertain regulatory environment may hamper the growth of the market. Nevertheless, all these factors are projected to contribute to the estimated CAGR of 7.2% of agricultural enzymes market during the forecast period 2017-2023.Top Key Players:Some of the key players profiled in the global agricultural enzymes market are Bayer Cropscience AG (Germany), Monsanto Company (U.S.), DuPont (U.S.), Syngenta AG (Switzerland), BASF (Germany), Novozymes A/S (Denmark), Koninklijke DSM N.V. (The Netherlands), Bioworks, Inc. (U.S.), AB Enzymes (Germany).Industry Segments:Agricultural enzymes market is segmented on the basis of types such as phosphatases, proteases, sulfatases and others. Among all, the phosphatases are anticipated to be the fasting growing segment over the forecasted period. Phosphatases are capable of catalyzing the hydrolysis of esters and anhydrides of phosphoric acid and play a vital role in soil systems.Regional Analysis:The global agricultural enzymes market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and rest of the world (RoW). North America is accounted to hold the highest share of agricultural enzymes. Europe is estimated to have a moderate expansion in the market share of agricultural enzymes over the estimated period.Access Report Details @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
Bot Services Market 2023 | Industry Analysis by Astute, Inc, Creative Virtual Ltd, Facebook Inc., Google LLC, International Business Machines Corporation, Inbenta Technologies Inc.
https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4688
https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/bot-services-market-4688
Market HighlightsThe global bot services market comprises of some of the key players and other vendors such as [24]7.ai, Inc (U.S.), Amazon Web Services, Inc (U.S.), Aspect Software, Inc (U.S.), Astute, Inc (U.S.), Creative Virtual Ltd (U.K.), Facebook, Inc.(U.S.) among others. The market of the global bot services is expected to grow at a significant CAGR of 25 %. Increased internet penetration, advancements in the cloud technologies, and advancements in the artificial intelligence drive the growth of the market.The bot service market is segmented on the basis of service, type, deployment, and end user. Increasing user engagement on social media channels is driving the growth of the bot services market. The bot service market attracts many end users such as banking and financial services, online retail, healthcare, media & entertainment, telecom, travel, and government services. The bots rely on the concept of the artificial intelligence to answer our questions and help us resolve our query in a fast and efficient way. Bots are available majorly in many websites dealing with the customer support and services. They are present in social media, for instance, Facebook Messenger, Skype, and sometime even through a short messaging service. With the huge presence of companies in North America delivering the IT services, growth for the Bot Services Market is increasing significantly with the increased growth of cloud and artificial intelligence technology and the adoption of bot services by small, medium, and large enterprises.Key PlayersThe global bot services market comprises of some of the key players and other vendors: [24]7.ai, Inc (U.S.), Amazon Web Services, Inc (U.S.), Aspect Software, Inc (U.S.), Astute, Inc (U.S.), Creative Virtual Ltd (U.K.), Facebook, Inc.(U.S.), Google LLC (U.S.), International Business Machines Corporation (U.S.), Inbenta Technologies Inc. (U.S.), Microsoft Corporation (U.S.), Nuance Communications, Inc. (U.S.)Request Sample Report @SegmentationThe market segmented on the basis of service, type, deployment, and end user. On the basis of the service segment, it is further segmented into framework and platform. The bot framework is a service that helps to build and connect the bots used in different channels like social media, Skype, SMS, and E-mails. Microsoft is the leading developer of the bot framework across the globe. It hosts the requirements of different bots over different platforms allowing them to connect with each other. On the other hand, the bot platforms are online ecosystems where bots can be deployed, interact with users, and perform actions on their behalf, including interacting with other platforms. Both of them have their significance and benefits. However, the platform segment is leading the market owing to increased usage of online services provided by small and medium enterprises using bots over similar platforms.On the basis of type, the segments are divided into text, audio, and video. At present, most of the Bot Services are indulging in the text service type as it becomes an interactive way to interact with the customers. However, the image and video services are increasing making it easy to resolve the customer query.On the basis of end users, the segments are divided into banking and financial services, retail, healthcare, media & entertainment, telecom, travel, and government services. The Bot Services are majorly used in the retail market due to increased applications of the online retail and increased consumer demand. However, the retail end user is majorly using the text and image as the type of bot service; there is a significant growth of image and videos services in media & entertainment, travel and healthcare in providing the services like flight ticket booking, movie tickets etc. The other segments like banking, telecom, and government show steady growth.Regional AnalysisThe global bot services market is also segmented on the basis of region by North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and rest of the world. North America is dominating in the global market and is expected to continue over the review period. North America is the most advanced region when it comes to the technology due to huge presence of IT companies in the U.S. The adoption of the bot services has increased in the U.S. and Canada by the leading companies to engage with their customers to better the customer retention. Also, due to early adoption and advancements in the technology in the U.S and Canada, the market is projected to continue to dominate in this region.On the other hand, Asia pacific is expected to show the highest growth rate due to emerging economies like China, Japan, and India adopting the bot services by several end-user verticals in the region. This trend is expected to increase at a rapid pace during the forecast period. Also, the APAC region has a huge presence of social media users in China, India. The Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI), travel, healthcare, retail, and government verticals are the end-user verticals driving the bot services market growth in APAC. Additionally, the growing number of mobile users across social media in APAC is expected to drive the growth of the APAC bot services market. However, Europe being the more mature market is expected to show a steady growth during the forecasted period of 2017-2023.Access Report Description @Intended Audience Storage providers Network providers Chat bot service providers Research firms Software investors Software Developers Online retailers Medical institutions Software Testers IT enablers Database solutions Cloud providers Telecommunication companies Government service providersLIST OF TABLESTABLE 1 BOT SERVICES MARKET, BY SERVICETABLE 2 BOT SERVICES MARKET, BY TYPETABLE 3 BOT SERVICES MARKET, BY DEPLOYMENTTABLE 4 BOT SERVICES MARKET, BY END USERTABLE 5 BOT SERVICES MARKET, BY REGIONContinued..LIST OF FIGURESFIGURE 1 RESEARCH BOT SERVICEFIGURE 2 BOT SERVICES MARKET, BY SERVICE (%)FIGURE 3 BOT SERVICES MARKET, BY TYPE (%)FIGURE 4 BOT SERVICES MARKET, BY DEPLOYMENT (%)FIGURE 5 BOT SERVICES MARKET, BY END USER (%)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.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics 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 membersContact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Self-Levelling Concrete Market to Reach $6,726.3 Million by 2023 by P&S Intelligence
www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/self-levelling-concrete-market
www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/self-levelling-concrete-market/report-sample
www.psmarketresearch.com
Self-levelling concrete market is projected to reach $6,726.3 million by 2023. The market growth is mainly driven by the growing use of self-levelling concrete in the commercial and residential construction sectors. The increasing demand for renovation and repairment of schools, hospitals, offices, and malls is primarily contributing to the increase in the demand of self-levelling products in the commercial sector.To Browse Full Report Visit Here :the self-levelling concrete market is categorized into underlayment and toppings. Underlayment is estimated to be a larger category in the market, with more than 75.0% in 2017. The larger share of underlayment is attributable to its wide use in the levelling of concrete subfloors for interior applications, in both residential and commercial buildings.the self-levelling concrete market is categorized into commercial and residential sectors. The commercial end user is estimated to account for a larger share in the market, with more than 70.0% contribution in 2017. The large share of commercial end user can be ascribed to the increasing demand of renovation of many commercial buildings, and increased funding by government for civil engineering projects.Europe is estimated to account for the largest share in the self-levelling concrete market, with more than 30.0% contribution in 2017. The market in Europe is primarily driven by the growing local real estate construction industry. In Europe, the local real estate experts have witnessed an increase in focus on supply chain integration in the construction market in 2016. This has increased the commercial construction activity in the region, which in turn has propelled the market growth.Request For Sample Pages:North America is the second largest revenue generating region in the self-levelling concrete market. The market in North America is primarily driven by high infrastructure investment by government and private sectors. As per Brooking Institution data, in 2016, the U.S. president announced to invest $1 trillion in the next 10 years towards the development of Americas infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, and ports. High construction spending by top cities of the region also fuels the self-levelling concrete market growth.Some of the key players operating in the global self-levelling concrete market are Arkema Group, Saint-Gobain S.A., Duraamen Engineered Products Inc., Durex Covering Inc., ARDEX Group, LafargeHolcim Ltd., ACG Materials, Durabond Products Ltd, The QUIKRETE Companies Inc., and CTS Cement Manufacturing Corporation.About P&S IntelligenceP&S Intelligence, a brand of P&S Market Research, is a provider of market research and consulting services catering to the market information needs of burgeoning industries across the world. Providing the plinth of market intelligence, P&S as an enterprising research and consulting company, believes in providing thorough landscape analyses on the ever-changing market scenario, to empower companies to make informed decisions and base their business strategies with astuteness.Contact:P&S IntelligenceToll-free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada)International: +1-347-960-6455Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Healthcare Business Process Outsourcing Market : Strategic Overview, Excessive Growth, study of key players such as Accenture plc, Accretive Health,
https://www.researchnreports.com/request_sample.php?id=90722
https://www.researchnreports.com/ask_for_discount.php?id=90722
https://www.researchnreports.com/enquiry_before_buying.php?id=90722
In a healthcare industry, the main aim of businesses is to look at ways to reduce expenses and for many healthcare businesses outsourcing plays an integral role in achieving this goal. Healthcare companies can save a significant amount of money by outsourcing tasks which otherwise would have to be carried out by hired additional in-house employeesA new report titled as Global Healthcare Business Process Outsourcing Market provides a 360-degree overview of the global market. Calculations about the market values over the forecast period are based on extensive research that are collected through both primary and secondary bases. The correct methods followed by several aspects of the market make the data more reliable. This report develops sophisticated assessments of key drivers and limitations, trends, noticeable opportunities, rapid business use cases and recent technological advances.Get Sample Copy@Global Healthcare Business Process Outsourcing Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of +9% during the forecast period 2018-2023Key players:Accenture plc, Accretive Health, Inc., Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., Genpact Ltd., Infosys BPO Ltd., Lonza Group AG, Quintiles, Inc., Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Xerox CorpIncreasing number of healthcare organization, to avoid the critical mistakes in medical billing, and increasing need for cost saving drives the growth of the market. Moreover, increasing number of recovery audits, increasing patient inflow, and increasing prevalence of diseases have provided fuel to the market growth. The company can now freely concentrate mainly on the issue of patient care. It has been observed that now-a-days, it is a common picture that most of the healthcare companies are outsourcing their operations on a variety of levels.The Porters five theory and SWOT analysis have also been used for examining the market data. The main plans accepted by the renowned players for a better penetration in the Global Healthcare Business Process Outsourcing Market also form a vital section of this study. The market dynamics such as drivers, restraints and opportunities have been offered together with their consistent impact examination.Avail 20% Discount and Customization on This Premium Report@Table of Contents:Global Healthcare Business Process Outsourcing Market Research Report 2018-2023Chapter 1: Healthcare Business Process Outsourcing 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: Healthcare Business Process Outsourcing 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 Healthcare Business Process Outsourcing Market ForecastFor more enquiry @About Research N Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Contact us:Mr. Sunny DenisContact No. +1-888-631-6977sales@researchnreports.comResearch N Reports
Email Application Market Size, Share, Opportunities, Growth, Trend, Regions, SWOT Analysis & Key Strategy of Top Players: Microsoft, IBM, Google, Micro Focus, NEC Corporation | Forecast 2018-2025
Email Application Market 2018
https://www.orianresearch.com/request-sample/622071
https://www.orianresearch.com/enquiry-before-buying/622071
https://www.orianresearch.com/checkout/622071
www.orianresearch.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/13281002/
Email Application Market report focuses on the global Industry status, Size, Share, Robust Expansion, key players and Forecast 2025. The study objectives are to present the Email Application development in North America, China, Europe, and South East Asia, Japan as well as in the Globe.Get Sample Copy of this Report The Global Email Application market 2018 research provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Global Email Application market analysis is provided for the international markets including development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status. Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures are also analyzed. This report also states import/export consumption, supply and demand Figures, cost, price, revenue and gross margins.Global Email Application Industry 2018 Market Research Report is spread across 98 pages and provides exclusive vital statistics, data, information, trends and competitive landscape details in this niche sector.Inquire more or share questions if any before the purchase on this report @Global Email Application Market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the TOP PLAYERS including: Microsoft IBM Google Micro Focus NEC Corporation Amazon. Hitachi J2 Global FujitsuThe report also focuses on global major leading industry players of Global Email Application market providing information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also carried out. The Global Email Application Market development trends and marketing channels are analyzed. Finally the feasibility of new investment projects are assessed and overall research conclusions offered.With tables and figures helping analyze worldwide Global Email Application market, this research provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Order a copy of Global Email Application Market Report 2018 @On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, and market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Public Cloud On-PremiseOn 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, including SMBs Large EnterprisesReport on (2018-2025 Email Application Market Report) mainly covers 15 sections acutely display the global Email Application market:Global Email Application Market Professional Survey Report 2018Chapter 1: Industry Overview of Email ApplicationChapter 2: Global Email Application Competition Analysis by PlayersChapter 3: Company (Top Players) ProfilesChapter 4: Global Email Application Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)Chapter 5: United States Email Application Development Status and OutlookChapter 6: EU Email Application Development Status and OutlookChapter 7: Japan Email Application Development Status and OutlookChapter 8: China Email Application Development Status and OutlookChapter 9: India Email Application Development Status and OutlookChapter 10: Southeast Asia Email Application Development Status and OutlookChapter 11: Market Forecast by Regions, Type and Application (2017-2022)Chapter 12: Email Application Market DynamicsChapter 13: Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 14: Research Finding/ ConclusionChapter 15: AppendixMethodologyAnalyst IntroductionData SourceAbout Us:Orian 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 Us:Ruwin MendezVice President Global Sales & Partner RelationsOrian Research ConsultantsUS +1 (415) 830-3727UK +44 020 8144-71-27Email: info@orianresearch.comWebsite:Follow Us on LinkedIn:
Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) Market Insights on Trends, Drivers and Opportunities by 2023 & key players - Koch Membrane Systems, Inc. , GE Water & Process Technologies, Wehrle Umwelt GmbH and Degremont SA
Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) Market
https://www.researchcosmos.com/reports/membrane-bioreactor-mbr-market-research-report-global-industry-analysis-and-forecast-2018-to-202/2087471585
https://www.researchcosmos.com/request/membrane-bioreactor-mbr-market-research-report-global-in/2087471585
www.researchcosmos.com
https://acutemarketinsights.com
https://marketreportsweb.com/
Membrane Bioreactor Market Overview:Combination of membrane procedures like ultrafiltration, microfiltration using a biological wastewater treatment process is called Membrane Bioreactor. At present, this process is widely utilized for industrial and municipal wastewater treatment. The need for water treatment is eventually growing all over the world. Growing population and concern about better ways for water treatment for both industrial and municipal purposes have been major factors contributing to the global market. Statistics of few previous years are projecting scope for new industries to emerge in the market.Browse More information and TOC @Drivers and Restraints:Global Membrane Bioreactor Market is estimated to grow in forecasted period owing to supporting factors such as growing adoption of water management techniques which are environment-friendly in municipal and industrial areas. Growing amount of industrial waste due to increasing oil & gas, pharmaceutical, construction, textile, pulp & paper, and food & beverages sector is estimated to propel the market growth over the forecasted years.Geographic SegmentationBased on geography the Global Membrane Bioreactor Market primarily segmented into Europe, North America, Latin America, Middle East & Africa and North America. Municipal water treatment segment is contributed major part to the global market in previous years. North America is leading the market for the membrane bio reactor industry. North America region is accounted for approximately 30% of the global share. The Asia Pacific region is estimated to be growing at higher pace to claim significant share of the market owing to rapidly ongoing industrialization, and increasing utilization for municipal purposes.Get Sample of the report @Key Players in Global Membrane Bioreactor Market:Koch Membrane Systems, Inc. (U.S.), GE Water & Process Technologies (U.S.), Wehrle Umwelt GmbH (Germany), Degremont SA (France), Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies (France), and United Envirotech Ltd. (Singapore) are the major manufacturers in the Global Membrane Bioreactor Market.Scope of the report:The report offers a comprehensive analysis of the industry by providing the estimations of market potential and forecasts with utmost granularity. Along this, the factors influential in effecting the market dynamics and trends are discussed in detail at the product level. Further, the performance of the market at the regional and country-level is assessed and the prospects with high growth potential are identified and debated.The key players in the industry are profiled providing insights on their financial performance, market position and growth strategies. Comparative analysis on prime strategical activities of the market players delineating the key developments like mergers & acquisitions, collaborations and an evaluation of the competitive environment within the industry are provided.The report also offers a broad outlook of the market along with recommendations from industry experts on the opportunities for investment activity.What else? Apart from the syndicated report, our in-house team has an expertise and experience in designing custom reports to meet your specific research needs and assist you in making well-informed decisions.Research Cosmos is a provider of standard and customized market research, business intelligence and consulting services across more than 100 domains in different industries of the world. We host the trending market reports of the worlds top-notch publishing companies, offering services to a wide range of customers from students to fortune 500 companies and discloses the hidden opportunities in every leading industry of the world.Kevin StewartGlobal Sales ManagerResearch CosmosBlog:Blog:kevin@researchcosmos.com+1 888 709 8757
Industrial Lubricants Market Global Demand and Insights by Forecast to 2022 | Industry Top Key Players: ExxonMobil Corporation , Royal Dutch Shell Plc., Chevron Corporation, BP p.l.c.
https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2695
https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/industrial-lubricants-market-2695
Industrial Lubricants Market Highlights:-According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, The global market of Industrial Lubricants is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period. The Global Industrial Lubricants market is forecasted to demonstrate an exponential growth by 2023, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a whooping, double digit CAGR of 2.4% during the estimated period (2017 2023).Get Sample Copy of Report @Industrial News:In May, 2017, Petronas expand its lubricant-blending plant in Shandong, China to meet the markets growing demand for the product. The annual output of the plant within the Weifang Economic Development Zone was expected to increase from 45,000 to 150,000 tonnes, which included automotive and industrial lubricant.December, 2017 - Maximus international is set to aquire pacific lubricantsNovember, 2017 - Fuchs Petrolub SE, acquired Ultrachem, Inc., producer of specialty synthetic lubricants used in compressor and industrial maintenance.Dominant Players: Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Valvoline International Chevron Corporation Total S.A. ExxonMobil Corporation LUKOIL BP p.l.c. Petrochina Company Limited Fuchs Petrolub AGGlobal Industrial Lubricants Market Segmentation:-On the basis of type, market is segmented into Hydraulic lubricants, Compressor lubricants, Gear lubricants, Metal working fluids and others. Hydraulic lubricants dominates the type segment of the market. Growing demand from construction and mining industry and lower cost as compare to other lubricants increase the demand of the hydraulic lubricants. The metal working fluid segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The growth of this segment is attributed to the rising metal consumption in the automotive industry.On the basis of End User, market is segmented into Automotive, Manufacturing, Heavy industries, Power Generation and others. Automotive industry dominates the end user segment of the market. Power Generation segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period mainly due to rising demand for energy across the globe.Access Complete Report @Regional Analysis:North America accounts for the second largest share of the market owing to developed economy led by the U.S. Europe follows with Germany, France and the U.K. Leading the bandwagon. However the developed regions market is stagnant and there is a definite shift of the market towards the Asia-Pacific and Middle East and Africa regions. Africa remains the last frontier for the industrial lubricants industry.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.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+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Global Cannabis Packaging Market SWOT Analysis by Key Players : Kush Bottles, J.L.Clark, KAYA CANNABIS, Lexaria Bioscience
https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1859384&type=S
https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-cannabis-packaging-market-size-status-and-forecast-2025.htm
http://www.qyresearchreports.com
Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Cannabis Packaging Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025 to its huge collection of research reports.The cannabis industry inNorth Americais like other legal consumer goods industries, such as food, tobacco or alcohol. Some cannabis-infused products already look strikingly similar to existing consumer products. In addition to flower which is the smokable leaf that most people usually associate with cannabis, there are many cannabis-infused products that range from edibles such as snacks and meals, to concentrates such as pills and oils, and beverages.One of the major drivers for this market is the growing cannabis sales market. The North American cannabis market posted a revenue of $6700 million in 2016, marking about 30% increase from the 2015 figures. Cannabis sales are expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.40% during the forecast period when the North American market is expected to reach $8900 million in 2021. In the case of the cannabis boom, legalization is bringing new users to the market. In Colorado, Washington, and Oregon, recreational use was legal before 2016, with the consumer spending on cannabis about 62% during 2015-2016. Seven US states legalized cannabis in some form on the Election Day. The sudden popularity of alternative ingestion techniques, such as weed-laced topical sprays and edibles fueled the growth of the growing cannabis market in North America, thereby subsequently boosting the cannabis packaging market in North America.Download Free exclusive Sample of this report:This market study estimates that in terms of geographic regions, Canada will be the major revenue contributor to thecannabis packagingmarket in North America throughout the forecast period. The legalization of cannabis and relaxed regulatory norms for mass manufacturing of cannabis will drive the growth of this market in Canada.In 2017, the global Cannabis Packaging market size was xx million US$ and it is expected to reach xx million US$ by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of xx% during 2018-2025.This report focuses on the global top players, coveredKush BottlesMaple Leaf Green WorldJ.L.ClarkKAYA CANNABISLexaria BioscienceMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoRigid PackagingFlexible PackagingMarket segment by Application, split intoMedical UseRecreational UseOthersThe study objectives of this report are:To study and forecast the market size of Cannabis Packaging 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.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Key StakeholdersCannabis Packaging ManufacturersCannabis Packaging Distributors/Traders/WholesalersCannabis Packaging Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsQYResearchReports.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.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Global Prepaid Card Market Trends, Share and Forecast to 2025: Visa, MasterCard, UnionPay, American Express, JCB, Discover, Walmart, Bank of America, Apple Inc
https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1890976
https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1890976/global-prepaid-card-insights-forecast-market-research-reports/toc
https://www.researchmoz.com/checkout?rep_id=1890976&licType=S
The report analyzes and presents an overview on "Global Prepaid Card Market Insights, Forecast to 2025" worldwide.This report presents the worldwide Prepaid Card market size (value, production and consumption), splits the breakdown (data status 2013-2018 and forecast to 2025), by manufacturers, region, type and application.This study also analyzes the market status, market share, growth rate, future trends, market drivers, opportunities and challenges, risks and entry barriers, sales channels, distributors and Porter's Five Forces Analysis.The Prepaid Card market was valued at Million US$ in 2017 and is projected to reach Million US$ by 2025, at a CAGR of during the forecast period. In this study, 2017 has been considered as the base year and 2018 to 2025 as the forecast period to estimate the market size for Prepaid Card.Get The Sample Copy Of This Report @The following manufacturers are covered in this report:VisaMasterCardUnionPayAmerican ExpressJCBDiscoverWalmartBank of AmericaApple IncWells FargoPaypalWest UnionKaikuAccountNowNetSpendAT&TT-MobileVerizonPrepaid Card Breakdown Data by TypeOpen-loop Prepaid CardClosed-loop Prepaid CardReloadable Prepaid CardPayroll CardGovernment Benefit CardPrepaid Card Breakdown Data by ApplicationPersonalEnterpriseGovernmentOthersPrepaid Card Production by RegionUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSouth KoreaOther RegionsOther RegionsPrepaid Card Consumption by RegionNorth AmericaUnited StatesCanadaMexicoAsia-PacificChinaIndiaJapanSouth KoreaAustraliaIndonesiaMalaysiaPhilippinesThailandVietnamEuropeGermanyFranceUKItalyRussiaRest of EuropeCentral & South AmericaBrazilRest of South AmericaMiddle East & AfricaGCC CountriesTurkeyEgyptSouth AfricaRest of Middle East & AfricaBrowse Full Report TOC @The study objectives are:To analyze and research the global Prepaid Card status and future forecastinvolving, production, revenue, consumption, historical and forecast.To present the key Prepaid Card manufacturers, production, revenue, market share, and recent development.To split the breakdown data by regions, type, manufacturers and applications.To analyze the global and key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends, drivers, influence factors in global and regions.To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the market.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Prepaid Card :History Year: 2013 - 2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year: 2018 - 2025This report includes the estimation of market size for value (million USD) and volume (K Units). Both top-down and bottom-up approaches have been used to estimate and validate the market size of Prepaid Card market, to estimate the size of various other dependent submarkets in the overall market. Key players in the market have been identified through secondary research, and their market shares have been determined through primary and secondary research. All percentage shares, splits, and breakdowns have been determined using secondary sources and verified primary sources.Buy This Report From Here @For 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.MRRbiz supports your business intelligence needs with over 700,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market data sheets in its repository. Our document database is updated by the hour, which means that you always have access to fresh data spanning over 300 industries and their sub-segments.State Tower 90 State Street, Suite 700 Albany, NY 12207 United StatesState Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Gas Sensors Market Analysis & Technological Innovation by Leading Key Players - ABB Ltd, Aeroqual Ltd, Alphasense Ltd, Amphenol Corporation, AMS AG, City Technology Ltd, Denso corporation, Dragerwerk AG & Co. KGaA & more
Gas Sensors
https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/467609/
https://www.marketstudyreport.com/check-for-discount/467609/
https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/gas-sensors-market
https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/global-laser-gas-sensors-market-research-report-2018/?utm_source=RR-PSR
https://www.marketstudyreport.com
https://www.marketstudyreport.com/blog
The strict regulations imposed by governments across the globe to ensure worker safety on the factory floors, employee safety with regards to hazardous gas emissions, and pedestrian safety in and around public spaces has majorly driven the gas sensors market in recent years. Moreover, the rising awareness around the issue of environmental protection has also given the gas sensors market in automobile sector a sizable boost. Regional governments are now enforcing stringent environmental protection laws to regulate emission levels of automobiles as conventional combustion engines would continue to govern a large chunk of the automotive market despite promising developments in the domain of electric vehicles. This has in consequence, led to a slew of rigorous research and development efforts from companies looking to capitalize gas sensors market.MarketStudyReport.com Adds New Gas Sensors Market 2017 2024 research report providing information and data By Technology, By Product, By Application, Industry Analysis, Regional Outlook, Growth Potential, Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast spreading across 220 Pages with table and figures in it.The gas sensors market is expected to gain momentum over the forecast timespan, owing to the increasing penetration across applications such as handheld and smart devices. Increasing adoption custom-designed sensors from oil & gas industry to ensure safe working environments is expected to fuel the demand. Manufacturers are innovating continuously to introduce application-specific components for critical applications such as explosion-proof transducers and meet standards such as ATEX and CSA. Gas Sensors Market is set to exceed USD 2.8 billion by 2024; according to a new research report.Request a sample of this premium report at:NOx sensors market is expected to gain significant share over the forecast timeframe, owing to the increasing adoption in automobile applications. These components are used in vehicles to make petrol engines more environmental friendly by monitoring the exhaust. They are also being used by the governments across the globe to keep a check on nitrogen oxide content in the emissions and exhaust gases to reduce pollution.Growth in operational issues is anticipated to hamper the gas sensors market growth. The continuous evolution of the industry is resulting in over-crowding of components such as CO and CO2 sensors. Low product differentiation and lack of innovations are among the key industry challenges. However, key players in the gas sensors market are increasingly investing in R&D to develop diverse product portfolio that matches unique requirements of each application.The MINIGAS project, funded by the European community, developed gas sensing components that enabled use of these components in small instruments for high sensitivity and speed. Under this project, innovative photo-acoustic components were developed that enabled the development portable and highly sensitive measuring equipment for the measurement of very small concentrations.The U.S. gas sensors market is expected to continue the significant demand owing to the rising stringent regulations pertaining to exhaust from vehicles. A rebound in the production of light motor vehicles and increasing use of exhaust oxygen gas sensors to improve fuel efficiency & performance is expected to drive demand in the region.Request a discount on standard prices of this premium report at:The Environment Protection Agency, under the Clean Air Act, has set limits on certain air pollutants, with setting limits on how much pollutant can be released into the air. The act also gives the EPA the power to limit harmful emissions of air pollutants from sources like utilities, chemical plants, and steel mills. This mandatory law will create huge impact on these industries as they will be enforced to install sensors in the plant to minimize air pollution by controlling harmful emissions.The Latin America gas sensors market will be driven by the increasing adoption of these components in building automation and domestic appliances. The consumer electronics industry in countries including Brazil and Mexico have also contributed to the demand owing to increase in spending capacity of customers.The companies in the gas sensors market are developing equipment based on these products to gain competitive advantage. For instance, FIS, Inc. has developed chromatograph, a lightweight, compact, and low-cost device used to measure ultra-low concentrations of gases.Table of Content:Chapter 1. Methodology & ScopeChapter 2. Executive SummaryChapter 3. Gas Sensors Industry InsightsChapter 4. Gas Sensors Market, By ProductChapter 5. Gas Sensors Market, By TechnologyChapter 6. Gas Sensors Market, By ApplicationChapter 7. Gas Sensors Market, By RegionChapter 8. Company ProfilesMore details on this Report At:Outer Scope of this Report:Global leader in safety, flame and gas detection has developed a flagship gas detection controller called the MX 32 which can monitor up to eight gas detection sensors simultaneously. The robustness, flexibility and the number of features offered by the device has quickly catapulted its popularity in the gas sensors industry. Though primarily deployed in the manufacturing and automotive sectors, the gas detection sensors have found plenty of applications in a plethora of other domains such as the medical and petrochemical sectors as well as smart homes and IoT (Internet of Things). With the rapidly expanding application arena of gas detection sensors, it is rather overt that the overall gas sensors market is expected to shape itself into one of the most lucrative investment hubs in the years ahead.Related Report:Global Laser Gas Sensors Market Research Report 2018This report studies the global Laser Gas Sensors market status and forecast, categorizes the global Laser Gas Sensors 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).About 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.Contact Us:Market Study Report4 North Main Street,Selbyville, Delaware 19975USAPhone: 1-302-273-0910US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:Blog:
Unified Communications Market Key Players- Cisco Systems Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Avaya Inc., IBM Corporation, Verizon Communications, Inc., Polycom, Inc., BT Group, Alcatel-Lucent, NEC Corporation
Polaris Market Research & Consulting
https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/unified-communications-market/request-for-free-sample
https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/unified-communications-market/
https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/unified-communications-market/request-for-customization
https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/unified-communications-market/inquire-before-buying
According to a new research published by Polaris Market Research, the Unified Communications market is anticipated to reach over USD 186 billion by 2026. In 2017, the IT & telecom segment dominated the global market, in terms of revenue. North America is expected to be the leading contributor to the global market revenue during the forecast period.Request For Sample Of This Research Report @The growing need to improve workforce productivity, streamline enterprise communication, and provide a collaborative working environment has boosted the adoption of unified communication. The penetration of mobile devices, and increasing trend of BYOD further support the growth of this market. Additionally, the increasing demand of unified communication from small and medium enterprises has supported market growth over the years. Increasing investments by vendors in technological advancements coupled with growing demand for cloud-based unified communication services would accelerate the adoption of unified communication. However, growing concerns regarding data security, and lack of interoperability is expected to hinder market growth. Growing demand from emerging economies is expected to provide numerous growth opportunities in the coming years.The use of digital assistants and bots in unified communications is expected to increase in the coming years. Computer programs in the form of bots simulate conversation with users through chat windows and voice calls. They have the ability to perform a number of different automated tasks such as scheduling meetings, managing finances, and others. They also assist in successful use of unified communication tools. These bots could be used as an automated attendant monitoring the interactions on unified communication systems and offering instructions to users.Browse Full Research Report with Table of Content @North America generated the highest revenue in the market in 2017, and is expected to lead the global market throughout the forecast period. The presence of established telecom and cloud infrastructure in this region, and growing trend of BYOD drive the market growth in the region. The growing demand of mobile devices, and technological advancements further support market growth in the region. Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period owing to growing demand of effective enterprise communication technologies in the developing countries of the region.The end-users in unified communications market include BFSI, IT & Telecom, healthcare, retail, education, travel and hospitality, and others. In 2017, the IT & Telecom segment accounted for the highest market share owing to increasing need to improve enterprise communication, and improve productivity. The demand for unified communication has increased from startups operating in this sector to improve workforce collaboration, and reduce costs. The increasing adoption of cloud-based unified communication in this sector is expected to support market growth in the coming years.Request For customization @The well-known companies profiled in the report include Cisco Systems Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Avaya Inc., IBM Corporation, Verizon Communications, Inc., Polycom, Inc., BT Group, Alcatel-Lucent, NEC Corporation, Unify GmbH & Co. KG, Plantronics Inc., and ShoreTel Inc. among others. These companies launch new products and collaborate with other market leaders to innovate and launch new products to meet the increasing needs and requirements of consumers.Make an Inquiry for purchasing this report @About us Polaris Market ResearchPolaris Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. We provide unmatched quality of offerings to our clients present globally. The company specializes in providing exceptional market intelligence and in-depth business research services for our clientele spread across different enterprises. We at Polaris are obliged to serve our diverse customer base present across the industries of healthcare, technology, semi-conductors and chemicals among various other industries present around the world. We strive to provide our customers with updated information on innovative technologies, high growth markets, emerging business environments and latest business-centric applications, thereby helping them always to make informed decisions and leverage new opportunities.We mainly focus on aiding our customers with substantial competitive intelligence, helping them to secure a competitive advantage in the market and accomplish sustainable growth in different market domains. Adept with a highly competent, experienced and extremely qualified team of experts comprising SMEs, analysts and consultants, we at Polaris endeavor to deliver value-added business solutions to our customers. Through dedicated qualitative and quantitative primary and secondary market research and consulting assignments, we adeptly formulate competitive strategies to address business challenges for our clients through analyzing market trends and emerging technologies.Contact us-Mr. NeelPolaris Market Research30 Wall Street8th FloorNew York City, NY 10005United StatesEmail- sales@polarismarketresearch.comFollow us- LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook
Utility Communication Market Trends Dynamics & Outlook 2025 | Fujitsu, Ericsson, Texas Instruments Inc.
https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2186
https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2186
https://www.tmrresearch.com/utility-communication-market
Global Utility Communication Market: OverviewUtility communication refers to a set of technologies and devices intended to coordinate various parts of a multifaceted utilities distribution system. Utility communication allows smooth and well-regulated transfer of utilities such as power or gas. Due to the emphasis being laid upon the development of automated distribution networks for utilities distribution, the market for utility communication systems is expected to exhibit a steady rise across the world in the coming years.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Utility Communication Market: Key TrendsThe rising demand for smart grid systems for the distribution of utilities is the key driver for the global utility communication market and is expected to ensure steady growth of the market in the coming years. The installation of smart grids armed with sophisticated utility communication technology offers benefits to customers as well as providers, which is likely to lead to steady demand for utility communication systems in the coming years.The distribution of utilities can be monitored much more closely in smart grids and can also be automated. The use of advanced sensors in each node of the smart grid system means minor changes in individual receiving units can be accurately represented in individual bills. Such advances in billing mechanisms have been widely popular and are likely to fuel increased installation of smart grid technology in utilities distribution in the coming years, leading to steady demand from the utility communication market.Request TOC of the Report @Governments around the world have also embraced the increasing demand for smart grid systems, since large-scale installation of smart grid systems can help ensure efficient use of national resources and thus indirectly decrease the need for government expenditure. The rising demand for smart city infrastructure is also likely to have a positive impact on the global utility communication market in the coming years, as the presence of a technologically advanced urban connectivity will make installing utility communication systems easier.Global Utility Communication Market: Market PotentialThe conventional structure of the utilities market has been disrupted by the steady adoption of digital solutions that maximize the utilities distributors profit margin. The rising use of onsite power generation mechanisms such as solar and wind power has also altered the dynamics of the utilities industry, with customers now starting to not only fulfill their own energy needs, but also to supply excess power into the main grid. This has necessitated the use of advanced machine to machine communication technology to cope with the flexible distribution process. This has seen utilities providers evolve into the role of platform provider using multiple third-party services. This configuration is likely to boost the utility communication markets growth prospects in the coming years.Global Utility Communication Market: Geographical DynamicsThe report looks into the performance and growth prospects of the utility communication market in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World in order to provide readers with a comprehensive view of the market. Asia Pacific is expected to remain the leading contributor to the global utility communication market in the coming years thanks to the rising demand for smart city and smart grid infrastructure in emerging countries such as India, South Korea, Japan, and China.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Utility Communication Market: Competitive LandscapeThe report profiles the leading players operating in the global utility communication market, thus shedding light on the competitive dynamics of the market. Key companies in the global utility communication market include General Electric, Schneider Electric, Comnet, Motorola Solutions Inc., Valiant Communications, Cisco Systems Inc., ZTE Corporation, Fujitsu, Ericsson, Texas Instruments Inc., and Open Systems International.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
An Extensive Report On Clary Sage Oil Market 2018 Global Analysis By Key Players Avoca Inc, Aphios Corporation, Wuhan Dahua
Clary Sage Oil
https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/requested_sample/5744
https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/enquiry_before_buying/5744
https://www.upmarketresearch.com/buy/clary-sage-oil-market
www.upmarketresearch.com
Clary Sage Oil Industry research report delivers a close watch on leading competitors with strategic analysis, micro and macro market trend and scenarios, pricing analysis and a holistic overview of the market situations in the forecast period.Get FREE Sample Report Before Buying @UpMarketResearch offers a latest published report on Global Clary Sage Oil Market Analysis and Forecast 2018-2023 delivering key insights and providing a competitive advantage to clients through a detailed report. The report contains 149 pages which highly exhibit on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability.Clary Sage Oil Industry research report delivers a close watch on leading competitors with strategic analysis, micro and macro market trend and scenarios, pricing analysis and a holistic overview of the market situations in the forecast period. It is a professional and a detailed report focusing on primary and secondary drivers, market share, leading segments and geographical analysis. Further, key players, major collaborations, merger & acquisitions along with trending innovation and business policies are reviewed in the report. The report contains basic, secondary and advanced information pertaining to the Clary Sage Oil Industry global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 2018 2023.The scope of the report extends from market scenarios to comparative pricing between major players, cost and profit of the specified market regions. The numerical data is backed up by statistical tools such as SWOT analysis, BCG matrix, SCOT analysis, PESTLE analysis and so on. The statistics are represented in graphical format for a clear understanding on facts and figures.The generated report is firmly based on primary research, interviews with top executives, news sources and information insiders. Secondary research techniques are implemented for better understanding and clarity for data analysis.The report for Clary Sage Oil market analysis & forecast 2018-2023 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.Region-wise Analysis Global Clary Sage Oil Market covers: North America Europe China Japan India Southeast Asia Other regions (Central & South America, Middle East & Africa)The Major players reported in the market include: Avoca Inc Aphios Corporation Wuhan Dahua Haotian App Chem-Bio Greenlife Shanxi Jinjin CapotFor More Information, Please VisitGlobal Clary Sage Oil Market: Product Segment Analysis: Cosmetic Grade Food GradeGlobal Clary Sage Oil Market: Application Segment Analysis: Comestics Tobacco BeverageThe Report covers in-depth analysis as follows: Chapter 1 Overview of Clary Sage Oil Chapter 2 Global Market Status and Forecast by Regions Chapter 3 Global Market Status and Forecast by Types Chapter 4 Global Market Status and Forecast by Downstream Industry Chapter 5 North America Market Status by Countries, Type, Manufacturers and Downstream Industry Chapter 6 Europe Market Status by Countries, Type, Manufacturers and Downstream Industry Chapter 7 Asia Pacific Market Status by Countries, Type, Manufacturers and Downstream Industry Chapter 8 Latin America Market Status by Countries, Type, Manufacturers and Downstream Industry Chapter 9 Middle East and Africa Market Status by Countries, Type, Manufacturers and Downstream Industry Chapter 10 Market Driving Factor Analysis of Clary Sage Oil Chapter 11 Clary Sage Oil Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers Chapter 12 Clary Sage Oil Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data Chapter 13 Upstream and Downstream Market Analysis of Clary Sage Oil Chapter 14 Cost and Gross Margin Analysis of Clary Sage Oil Chapter 15 Report Conclusion Chapter 16 Research Methodology and ReferenceBuy Clary Sage Oil Market analysis & forecast 2018-2023 Report along with complete TOC @Clary Sage Oil Market Analysis and Forecast 2018-2023 report helps the clients to take business decisions and to understand strategies of major players in the industry. The report also calls for market-driven results deriving feasibility studies for client needs. UpMarketResearch ensures qualified and verifiable aspects of market data operating in the real-time scenario. The analytical studies are conducted ensuring client needs with a thorough understanding of market capacities in the real-time scenario.Key Reasons to Purchase: To gain insightful analyses of the market and have a comprehensive understanding of the Global Clary Sage Oil Industry Analysis and Forecast 2018-2023 and its commercial landscape. Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by your competitors and leading organizations. To understand the future outlook and prospects for Clary Sage Oil market analysis and forecast 2018-2023.Customization of the Report:UpMarketResearch provides free customization of reports as per your need. This report can be personalized to meet your requirements. Get in touch with our sales team, who will guarantee you to get a report that suits your necessities.You can also ask for region wise market research report, as below: Clary Sage Oil-Global Market Status & Trend Report 2013-2023 Top 20 Countries Data Clary Sage Oil-North America Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Clary Sage Oil-South America Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Clary Sage Oil-Europe Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Clary Sage Oil-EMEA Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Clary Sage Oil-Asia Pacific Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Clary Sage Oil-China Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Clary Sage Oil-India Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Clary Sage Oil-United States Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023About UpMarketResearch:The UpMarketResearch () is a leading distributor of market research report with more than 800+ global clients. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well-defined we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Contact Info:Name: Alex MathewsEmail: Alex@upmarketresearch.comOrganization: UpMarketResearchAddress: 500, East E Street, Ontario, CA 91764, United States.
Thalidomide Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2018-2026
https://www.worldwidemarketreports.com/sample/157663
https://www.worldwidemarketreports.com/discount/157663
https://www.worldwidemarketreports.com/toc/157663
https://www.worldwidemarketreports.com
https://www.industrychronicle.com
Worldwide Market Reports added Latest Research Report titled "Thalidomide Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2018-2026" to its Large Report database.Thalidomide is an immunomodulatory drug and a prototype of the thalidomide class of drugs. It is mainly used in the treatment of certain cancers (multiple myeloma) and of a complication of leprosy. It is sold under the brand name Immunoprin. It has many applications in the field of medicine. The bacterium that causes tuberculosis is related to leprosy and thalidomide may be helpful in some cases where standard TB drugs and corticosteroids are not able to resolve severe inflammation in the brain. The combination of thalidomide and dexamethasone for the treatment of multiple myeloma was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2006.Request for Sample Copy of Research Report:Increasing drug and alcohol consumption, enforcement of stringent laws mandating drug and alcohol testing, presence of government funding in major markets, regulatory approvals, and product launches and services are some of the major factors driving growth of thalidomide market.The adverse effects such as birth defects, blood clots, several cardiovascular adverse effects, liver damage, and prevention of menstruation are some of the major factors that are expected to restrain growth of thalidomide market.Request for Discount @Key Developments in Thalidomide MarketKey players in the market are adopting strategies such as mergers, acquisitions, and new product launches to retain its position in the thalidomide market. On April 19, 2018, Pfizers collaboration with Asembia was expanded. Moreover, on April 3, 2018, Pfizer partnered with Allogene Therapeutics to expand the immuno oncology portfolios of Pfizer through continued development of Allogenes CAR T therapies. On March 20, 2018, Casi Pharmaceuticals announced US$ 50 Mn private placement to prepare the company for commercialization in China.Acceleron hosted Educational Webinar with leading clinicians to provide an overview of pulmonary arterial hypertension and the Sotatercept Phase 2 trial in March 2018. Moreover, bluebird bio and Celgene Corporation signed an agreement to co-develop and co-promote anti-BCMA CAR T cell therapy bb2121 in the U.S. On April 13, 2018, Allergan announced the launch of TrueTear Intranasal Neurostimulation Device.Some of the key players in the thalidomide market include Pfizer, Allergan, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Five Prime Therapeutics, Angstrom Pharmaceuticals, Acceleron Pharma, Biocon, Enzon Pharmaceuticals, Casi Pharmaceuticals, and Celgene Corporation.Request for Table of Content :** If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.About WMRWorldwide Market Reports is your one-stop repository of detailed and in-depth market research reports compiled by an extensive list of publishers from across the globe. We offer reports across virtually all domains and an exhaustive list of sub-domains under the sun. The in-depth market analysis by some of the most vastly experienced analysts provide our diverse range of clients from across all industries with vital decision making insights to plan and align their market strategies in line with current market trends. Worldwide Market Researchs well-researched inputs that encompass domains ranging from IT to healthcare enable our prized clients to capitalize upon key growth opportunities and shield against credible threats prevalent in the market in the current scenario and those expected in the near future.Contact Us:Mr. ShahWorldwide Market Reports1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154,U.STel: +1 415 871 0703Email:sales@worldwidemarketreports.comVisit our website for more details:Visit our new website for latest News:
Soups Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook 20182026 | Key Players are Associated British Foods, Baxters Food Group, B&G Foods, Inc., Campbell Soup Co., Greencore Group Plc., General Mills
https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-pdf/848
https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-customization/848
https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/soups-market-848
Soup is a type of liquid food that is prepared using vegetables, meat, fish, water, and other additives. Consumption of soup has many benefits. It is a source of nutrients, which are essential for proper functioning of the body. American Heart Association recommends that an adult should consume eight or more servings of vegetables and fruits per day. Soups can help to achieve this amount easily. The growing demand for convenience foods, increasing health awareness, introduction of new flavors in the market, and attractive advertisements by the soup manufactures are the key drivers of soups market. Moreover, urbanization, growing disposable incomes, increase in working women population, and hectic lifestyle are further fueling the growth of soups market. The rising awareness about health risks associated with the consumption of preservatives in ready-to-cook soups is a major restraint for soups market. However, many manufacturers are introducing products with low preservative content.Download PDF Brochure :Europe holds a major share in the global soups market. This is, as a result of the growing demand for high-quality meals that can be prepared in short time. The U.K., France, Russia, Spain, and Germany are the major contributors to the growth of soups market in this region.Asia Pacific is projected to be the fastest growing market over the forecast period, owing to the availability of a wide variety of products in the market and changing consumer preference toward healthier products. Furthermore, abundance of raw materials, especially in India and China, is further fueling the growth of soups market. The market in Asia Pacific is highly cost competitive, owing to which, many brands such as Knorr by Unilever Plc. are launching inexpensive variants in local authentic flavors to attract consumer attention.North America soups market is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has imposed stringent regulations on safety of food products such as soups, which plays a pivotal role in market growth.In Latin America, Middle East, and Africa, increasing per capita income, health awareness, industrialization, literacy, and changing consumer preferences are projected to be the market driversThe companies are adopting various inorganic and organic growth strategies such as new product launch, mergers, and acquisitions to retain their market position. For instance, Campbell Soup acquired Pacific foods in June 2017 for US$ 700 million. An example of new product launch is the Well Yes! Line of soups by Campbell, which contains ingredients such as kale, farro, sweet potatoes, and quinoa in January 2017.To Get Customization of This Report :Why this is useful Report for youThis report provides pin-point analysis for changing competitive dynamicsIt provides a forward looking perspective on different factors driving or restraining market growthIt provides a six-year forecast assessed on the basis of how the market is predicted to growIt helps in understanding the key product segments and their futureIt provides pin point analysis of changing competition dynamics and keeps you ahead of competitorsIt helps in making informed business decisions by having complete insights of market and by making in-depth analysis of market segmentsFor More Information: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.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.com
Old Testament Revelation, Modern Day Revelation And Trump's Power Struggles - Nothing New Under The Sun Says Award-Winning Author Joseph Ganci
Author Joseph Ganci
http://www.gideonsglory.com
For award-winning author Joseph Ganci, author of 'Gideon, The Sound and the Glory,' the political upheavals and power struggles we read in our headlines nearly every day are nothing new. There is nothing new under the sun. King Solomon. These only appear to be something new, as today all the conflicting and sordid political details are easily available to public opinion. In many ways, however, these modern-day political dramas play out familiar storylines that harken back to Biblical times. "We have learned by sad experience," Ganci stated, "that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise forceful domination and embrace the illusion of control over the affairs of men."Ganci has a finely tuned flair for the dramatic. He uses this to turn the little-known account of Gideon into a Bible-based novel that reads like a modern-day major motion picture. He shows us that Biblical stories can be more than just dusty history - they can be keenly entertaining. He brings the Bible to life and rekindles the fires of ancient passions. He offers practical application of revelatory insights of faith, visions, and spiritual determination for modern-day living. He does it all in ways that will entertain, motivate and enlighten."So he took him (general Abner) aside from his own followers, as if he would speak with him in private, and brought him into a void (secluded) place of the gate, having himself nobody with him but his brother Abishai; then he drew his sword, and smote him in the groin; upon which Abner died by this treachery of general Joab, which, as he said himself, was in the way of punishment for his brother Asahel, whom Abner smote and slew as he was pursuing after him in the battle of Hebron, but as the truth was, out of his fear of losing his command of the army to Abner, and also his dignity with the king, and lest he should be deprived of those advantages, and out of the dread that Abner would replace him and obtain the first rank in David's court."By these examples anyone may learn how many and how great instances of wickedness men will venture upon for the sake of getting money and authority, and that they may not fail of either of them; for as when they are desirous of obtaining the same, they acquire them by ten thousand evil practices; so when they are afraid of losing them, they get them confirmed to them by practices much worse than the former, as if no other calamity so terrible could befall them as the failure of acquiring so exalted an authority; and when they have acquired it, and by long custom found the sweetness of it, the losing it again: and since this last would be the heaviest of all afflictions they all of them contrive and venture upon the most difficult actions, out of the fear of losing the same. But let it suffice that I have made these short reflections upon that subject." - Titus Flavius Josephus, first-century Romano-Jewish scholar, historian, and hagiographer.Ganci takes a ground-breaking and revelatory path in his quest to bring the awe-inspiring story of Gideon to life and ultimately to film. He believes that connecting facts are far more enchanting than loosely fitting fantasies. He works within a framework of an engaging and dramatized fiction that, while exceedingly rich in detail, remains faithful to uphold spiritual principles. He bases his work on three primary pillars:* The rock-solid cornerstone is historical biblical geography.* The creative arch is revelatory in its timing and issues.* The research is concrete, firmly rooted in customs, languages, and traditions.Gideon coverGanci fills in the blanks with rock-solid research and prophetic revelations. It is a style that has allowed him to create breakthrough approaches that are exciting and breathtaking while remaining within the limits of believable biblical teachings.Mysteries long hidden in ancient shadows now leap to life blazing unto the pages of revelation. Details that link passages, peoples, and places are the most exciting part of the storytelling process. Details give possibilities a firm foundation as bones give form and strength to living flesh. Details long since lost or misunderstood, now ring true, giving texture, and breath, to long-forgotten gems of perception resurrected from ruins, dust, and ashes.Ganci believes that Old Testament revelations are the Word of God. At the same time, that many needful details remained buried until the information age of discovery made them obvious and visible to the naked eye. These insights create a middle ground of understanding. As a dedicated and highly motivated researcher, he proposes there are many undiscovered nuggets of spiritual gold in the original manuscripts. He shines a new light on ancient texts and removes the black or white argument of the all-or-nothing question of modern-day revelations. He is adept at untangling the philosophical and theological human-made knots. And he gives us an opportunity to take a fresh look at what some consider to be foregone conclusions.Readers of 'Gideon The Sound and the Glory' will learn about the Jewish Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, the mysterious Golden Ephod, how, and why, David found himself at his battle with Goliath, and much, much more. This work illuminates the dark corners of scripture while engaging readers in a gripping narrative.Joseph Ganci was recently chosen as one of '50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading' in the 2017 Book Awards. 'Gideon: The Sound and the Glory' has received rave reviews from readers and reviewers alike. A recent reviewer stated, "Joseph Gancis prose is arresting, peppered with fantastic imagery and succinct descriptions of plot, characters, and setting. The themes are masterfully created, and they are woven into the story in a way that allows the reader to enjoy both the inspiration the story offers and the accompanying action. The book explores powerful spiritual and political themes, capturing the conflicts and the dynamics of life within the community of God's chosen people. Gideon: The Sound and the Glory will appeal to fans of political thrillers, adventure, and conflict-driven stories laced with intense action." Other reviewers have used phrases such as "riveting," "amazing" "deftly crafted" and "highly recommended."Ganci has also announced he will make his book available as a fundraising tool for like-minded associations and charities. Donors can receive an eBook version of 'Gideon' in exchange for a donation to a worthy cause. For more details, contact Joseph via email.Joseph Ganci is available for media interviews and can be reached using the information below or by email at joseph@gideonsglory.com. 'Gideon: The Sound and the Glory' is available in both print, eBook, and a superb, ethnically correct audio narration, all from online retailers.More information regarding speaking engagements, including sample video interviews, is available at Ganci's website.Joseph Ganci is a Levite and a high priest and remains a passionate Italian. He is a Vietnam combat veteran and is the father of five daughters and five grandchildren. He resides in Texas.PO Box 1613Shallotte, NC 28459
Anti-Viral Drugs 2018 Global Market Key Players GlaxoSmithKline, Roche, Abbott, Gilead, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co -Analysis And Forecast To 2023
Anti-Viral Drugs Market 2018
https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3330661-global-anti-viral-drugs-industry-market-research-report
https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/3330661-global-anti-viral-drugs-industry-market-research-report
Anti-Viral Drugs Market 2018Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Anti-Viral Drugs Global Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Manufacturers, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2023 To Its Research Database.Description:The Anti-Viral Drugs market revenue was xx.xx Million USD in 2013, grew to xx.xx Million USD in 2017, and will reach xx.xx Million USD in 2023, with a CAGR of x.x% during 2018-2023. Based on the Anti-Viral Drugs industrial chain, this report mainly elaborate the definition, types, applications and major players of Anti-Viral Drugs market in details. Deep analysis about market status (2013-2018), enterprise competition pattern, advantages and disadvantages of enterprise Products, industry development trends (2018-2023), 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 Anti-Viral Drugs market.The Anti-Viral Drugs market can be split based on product types, major applications, and important regions.Major Players in Anti-Viral Drugs market are:GlaxoSmithKlineRocheAbbottGileadJohnson & JohnsonMerck & CoSchering-PloughCiplaBristol-Myers-SquibbAstraZenecaRequest for Sample Report @Major Regions play vital role in Anti-Viral Drugs market are:North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanMiddle East & AfricaIndiaSouth AmericaOthersMost important types of Anti-Viral Drugs products covered in this report are:Hepatitis-C AntiviralsHIV AntiviralsHerpes AntiviralsHepatitis-B AntiviralsInfluenza AntiviralsOthers (Pneumonia, Flu, etc.)Most widely used downstream fields of Anti-Viral Drugs market covered in this report are:HospitalsClinicsAmbulatory Surgical CentersEnquiry before Buying @If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of Content:Global Anti-Viral Drugs Industry Market Research Report1 Anti-Viral Drugs Introduction and Market Overview1.1 Objectives of the Study1.2 Definition of Anti-Viral Drugs1.3 Anti-Viral Drugs Market Scope and Market Size Estimation1.3.1 Market Concentration Ratio and Market Maturity Analysis1.3.2 Global Anti-Viral Drugs Value ($) and Growth Rate from 2013-20231.4 Market Segmentation1.4.1 Types of Anti-Viral Drugs1.4.2 Applications of Anti-Viral Drugs1.4.3 Research Regions1.4.3.1 North America Anti-Viral Drugs Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)1.4.3.2 Europe Anti-Viral Drugs Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)1.4.3.3 China Anti-Viral Drugs Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)1.4.3.4 Japan Anti-Viral Drugs Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)1.4.3.5 Middle East & Africa Anti-Viral Drugs Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)1.4.3.6 India Anti-Viral Drugs Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)1.4.3.7 South America Anti-Viral Drugs Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Drivers1.5.1.1 Emerging Countries of Anti-Viral Drugs1.5.1.2 Growing Market of Anti-Viral Drugs1.5.2 Limitations1.5.3 Opportunities1.6 Industry News and Policies by Regions1.6.1 Industry News1.6.2 Industry Policies.8 Competitive Landscape8.1 Competitive Profile8.2 GlaxoSmithKline8.2.1 Company Profiles8.2.2 Anti-Viral Drugs Product Introduction8.2.3 GlaxoSmithKline Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.2.4 GlaxoSmithKline Market Share of Anti-Viral Drugs Segmented by Region in 20178.3 Roche8.3.1 Company Profiles8.3.2 Anti-Viral Drugs Product Introduction8.3.3 Roche Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.3.4 Roche Market Share of Anti-Viral Drugs Segmented by Region in 20178.4 Abbott8.4.1 Company Profiles8.4.2 Anti-Viral Drugs Product Introduction8.4.3 Abbott Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.4.4 Abbott Market Share of Anti-Viral Drugs Segmented by Region in 20178.5 Gilead8.5.1 Company Profiles8.5.2 Anti-Viral Drugs Product Introduction8.5.3 Gilead Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.5.4 Gilead Market Share of Anti-Viral Drugs Segmented by Region in 20178.6 Johnson & Johnson8.6.1 Company Profiles8.6.2 Anti-Viral Drugs Product Introduction8.6.3 Johnson & Johnson Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.6.4 Johnson & Johnson Market Share of Anti-Viral Drugs Segmented by Region in 20178.7 Merck & Co8.7.1 Company Profiles8.7.2 Anti-Viral Drugs Product Introduction8.7.3 Merck & Co Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.7.4 Merck & Co Market Share of Anti-Viral Drugs Segmented by Region in 20178.8 Schering-Plough8.8.1 Company Profiles8.8.2 Anti-Viral Drugs Product Introduction8.8.3 Schering-Plough Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.8.4 Schering-Plough Market Share of Anti-Viral Drugs Segmented by Region in 20178.9 Cipla8.9.1 Company Profiles8.9.2 Anti-Viral Drugs Product Introduction8.9.3 Cipla Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.9.4 Cipla Market Share of Anti-Viral Drugs Segmented by Region in 20178.10 Bristol-Myers-Squibb8.10.1 Company Profiles8.10.2 Anti-Viral Drugs Product Introduction8.10.3 Bristol-Myers-Squibb Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.10.4 Bristol-Myers-Squibb Market Share of Anti-Viral Drugs Segmented by Region in 20178.11 AstraZeneca8.11.1 Company Profiles8.11.2 Anti-Viral Drugs Product Introduction8.11.3 AstraZeneca Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.11.4 AstraZeneca Market Share of Anti-Viral Drugs Segmented by Region in 2017Continued..Contact US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@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 Underwater Roboticsnning 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,: Ph: +91 841 198 5042
Chemical Pharmaceutical Market 2018: Global Industry Top Key Players Valero GSK, AstraZeneca, Roche, Abbott, Eli Lilly and Company and Orchid Pharma
Research For Markets
https://www.researchformarkets.com/sample/global-chemical-pharmaceutical-market-171766
https://www.researchformarkets.com/reports/global-chemical-pharmaceutical-market-171766
https://www.researchformarkets.com/buy-now/global-chemical-pharmaceutical-market-171766/one
Latest global market research on the Chemical Pharmaceutical Market report that offers an exhaustive coverage of the industry with brief analysis, data charts, product type, application, figures, statistics that help take business decisions, company profiles and more.It is very important to know all market definition, classifications, segments, applications, engagements and market trends to know how the chemical pharmaceutical industry is going to perform in the Forecast years 2018-2025.The report also consists of the all the market drivers and restrains which are derived from SWOT analysis while also giving all the CAGR projections for the historic year 2016 base year 2017 and forecast period of 2018-2025.SOME OF THE KEY PLAYERS IN GLOBAL CHEMICAL PHARMACEUTICAL MARKET ARE Orchid Chemicals & Pharamaceuticals J.B.Chemicals And Pharmaceuticals North China Pharmaceutical GlaxoSmithKline AstraZeneca Northeast Pharmaceutical Zhejiang Medicine Hoffmann-La Roche Abbott Laboratories Eli LillyRequest Free Sample Copy of the Report @The market of chemical pharmaceuticals is majorly driven by increasing demand of active pharmaceutical chemicals by pharmaceutical companies. In addition, many companies provide large number of pharmaceutical products which will drive the market growth.The market of chemical pharmaceuticals is majorly driven by increasing demand of active pharmaceutical chemicals by pharmaceutical companies. In addition, many companies provide large number of pharmaceutical products which will drive the market growth.An overview of the global chemical pharmaceutical market is offered on the basis of product overview and detailed segmentation of the industry. The research provides market segmentation based on types, applications, and geography. Each type of chemical pharmaceutical is analyzed with insights on production and production market share for 2018 along with key manufacturers for each type enlisted using a tabular representation.Furthermore, consumption market share for each application is offered in the research for 2018 in a tabular format. Regional analysis is discussed in terms of current market status and growth prospects for the period, 20182025. Geographies analyzed in the study are North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India. Statistics on revenue and growth rate for each region are mentioned with the help of figures for the historic period and the forecast period.Request for Report Brochure for Latest Industry Insights @Comprehensive information on competitive situation and trends are provided based on market share of top three & top six manufacturers, market concentration rate, and strategies such as mergers & acquisition, expansion, partnerships, and others adopted by them for business growth.This report researches the worldwide Chemical Pharmaceutical market size (value, capacity, production and consumption) in key regions like North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (China, Japan) and other regions.Market segment by Type, the product can be split into Oral Pharmaceuticals Injectable Pharmaceuticals Topical Pharmaceuticals OthersMarket segment by Application, split into Pharmaceutical Industries Research Organizations OthersFor 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.Place a Purchase Order for Chemical Pharmaceutical Market@Note: Any special requirements about this report, please let us know and we can provide custom report.About Research for Markets:Research for Markets indulges 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.Contact:Mr. A NaiduResearch for MarketsTel: +44 8000-4182-37 (UK)Email: alan.naidu@researchformarkets.com
North America Microgrid Market Global Analysis By AC Microgrid, DC Microgrid, Hybrid | Caterpillar Inc, Tesla, Virdity Energy Solutions, EnSync Inc, Toshiba
North America Microgrid Market, North America Microgrid Market Study, North America Microgrid Market Size, North America Microgrid
https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/1230587/
https://www.marketstudyreport.com/check-for-discount/1230587/
https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/north-america-microgrid-market
https://www.marketstudyreport.com
https://www.marketstudyreport.com/blog/
MarketStudyReport.com Adds New North America Microgrid Market 2018 2024 research report providing information By Connectivity (Grid Connected, Off-Grid), By Grid Type (AC Microgrid, DC Microgrid, Hybrid), By Source (Diesel Generators, Natural Gas, Solar PV, CHP), By Storage (Lithium-Ion, Lead Acid, Flow Batteries, Flywheel), By Application (Healthcare, Educational Institutes, Military, Utility, Industrial/Commercial, Remote)North America Microgrid Market is predicted to reach over USD 7 billion by 2024. Aging grid infrastructure coupled with stringent government policies toward adoption of sustainable power technologies will stimulate North America microgrid market. Economic competitiveness, low power cost & transmission losses and reliability are key the parameters that will encourage the product penetration. In addition, ongoing funding toward the development of distributed generation technology will enhance the industry landscape.Flow batteries accounted for over 5% of North America microgrid market in 2017. Ongoing investment pertaining to the integration of sustainable grid coupled with innovations toward the development of cost-effective and efficient storage technologies will propel the industry growth. key features including long life cycle and higher efficiency will further encourage the product adoption over available substitutes.Request a Sample of this premium Research Report@Canada microgrid market is predicted to reach deployment of over 400 MW capacity by 2024. Growing electricity demand across remote and off grid areas along with upsurge in investments toward the adoption of clean energy technology will complement the business growth. Furthermore, ongoing development of distributed energy sources to minimize the dependency on conventional grid will enhance the industry outlook. In 2016 Canada government made an investment of USD 2.4 billion for developing wind and solar energy sources.Ongoing adoption of captive power plants across the manufacturing and industrial sector for ensuring regulated power production will foster North America microgrid market. Increasing investment toward the expansion of decentralized grid coupled with rising investments for the expansion of infrastructure and power sector will accelerate the business growth. For instance, in 2016, the government of Canada, announced an investment of about USD 900 million were financed toward installation of numerous energy sources and R & D across the country.Natural gas microgrid market will grow on account of stringent government measures pertaining to the adoption of lower emission fuel as a replacement for conventional fuel sources. Ongoing investment toward exploration of unconventional fuel reserves owing to escalating gas demand will enhance the industry outlook. Amren Corporation in 2017, developed an advanced microgrid which utilizes, solar, natural gas and wind energy as a source along with an integrated battery storage and automation system.Top Manufacturers in global market are given bellow: ABB, Schneider Electric, Alstom, Siemens, Honeywell, Caterpillar Inc, Tesla, Virdity Energy Solutions, EnSync Inc, Toshiba, Hitachi, Advanced Microgrid Solutions, Lockheed Martin, Exelon and Power Analytics Corporation.Request a Discount on standard prices of this premium Market Research Report@Increasing high-end power consumption across the industries on account of development of new HVAC systems and heavy load machineries will foster the microgrid market. Growing electricity demands across hospitals, retail outlets, automotive, manufacturing operations, offices and industries will encourage product penetration across commercial and industrial application. For instance, as per EIA, the commercial and industrial sector in 2017 accounted about 4.5% and 22.4 % of the primary energy consumption respectively.The above information is provided on a regional and country basis for the following:U.S., Canada, MexicoBy Connectivity Grid Connected Off-GridBy Grid Type AC Microgrid DC Microgrid HybridBy Source Diesel Generators Natural Gas Solar PV CHPBy Storage Lithium-Ion Lead Acid Flow Batteries FlywheelBy Application Healthcare Educational Institutes Military Utility Industrial/Commercial RemoteTable of Content@Chapter 1. Methodology & ScopeChapter 2. Executive SummaryChapter 3. Commercial Drone Industry InsightsChapter 4. Competitive LandscapeContinued@........................Data TablesTABAL 1. North America Microgrid industry 360 degree synopsis, 2013 - 2024TABAL 2. Global North America Microgrid market, 2013 - 2024 (USD Million)TABAL 3. Global North America Microgrid market, by joint type, 2013 - 2024 (USD Million)TABAL 4. Global North America Microgrid market, by joint type, 2013 - 2024 (Units)TABAL 5. Industry impact forcesTABAL 6. Knee Replacement market by region, 2013 - 2024 (USD Million)TABAL 7. Knee Replacement market by region, 2013 - 2024 (Units)TABAL 8. Primary Knee Systems market, by region, 2013 - 2024, (USD Million)TABAL 9. Revision Knee Systems market, by region, 2013 - 2024, (USD Million)TABAL 10. Partial Knee Systems market, by region, 2013 - 2024, (USD Million)To View Full Report@About 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:
Health Intelligent Virtual Assistant Market Analysis by Top Companies - Next IT Corporation, Google, Inc., Nuance Communications, Microsoft Corporation
Health Intelligent Virtual Assistant Market
https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/1823
https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/1823
The Health Intelligent Virtual Assistant Market size is set to exceed USD 1.5 billion by 2024; according to a new research study published by Global Market Insights, Inc.Rising smartphone users worldwide coupled with increasing use of health apps and growing popularity of internet of things is set to drive health intelligent virtual assistant market growth. Mobile healthcare technology has gained immense popularity among populations all over the globe. The increased adoption of heath apps demonstrates the shift in trend in patient care; wherein service over mobile devices is being preferred over visiting the physicians.Request for a sample of this research report @Growing popularity of internet of things is likely to further stimulate health intelligent virtual assistant business growth. The use of internet of things in healthcare has increased both the size as well as accuracy of medical data through variety of data collection, and expanded the reach of healthcare professionals beyond their limited facilities.Increasing lifestyle related disorders coupled with rising health consciousness should also drive the health intelligent virtual assistant market. Lifestyle diseases remain the leading cause of death worldwide. Intelligent virtual assistants respond to the voice or text queries through mobile devices or health apps, thus increasing patient engagement and improving self-management skills for chronic disease. Thus, rising global chronic disease burden across the globe in healthcare industry should further augment health intelligent virtual assistant market growth in coming years.Browse key industry insights spread across 105 pages with 52 market data tables & 8 figures & charts from the report, Health Intelligent Virtual Assistant Market Size By Technology (Speech Recognition, Text to-Speech, Voice Recognition) By End-User (Payers, Providers, Others), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, China, India, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa), Application Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017 2024 in detail along with the table of contents.Growing need to reduce healthcare costs and improve quality of care will fuel health intelligent virtual assistant market growth. Promising improvements in healthcare infrastructure, patient experience will restructure the healthcare delivery over the coming years. To reduce the medical errors and improve the quality of healthcare has been the first preference of Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @Lack of awareness regarding accuracy and personalization in intelligent virtual assistants in certain regions and, lack of skilled people should hinder health intelligent virtual assistant market growth over forecast years.Speech recognition will witness significant growth over the forecast years due to tremendous rise in demand for documentation with increasing adoption of electronic medical records. The use of speech recognition helps to improve and enhance clinical documentation in various ways by complementing the work of medical transcriptionists, attributing to its growth over the coming years.Payers should will manifest a robust growth to surpass USD 600 million by 2024. Payers are modernizing the infrastructure, protecting and securing the patients data and improving the interoperability. Payers strive to deliver quality, efficiency, and patient satisfaction in service by using intelligent virtual assistant.U.S. health intelligent virtual assistant market accounted for the largest regional industry share in 2016. Wide spread adoption of healthcare IT, technologies for effective healthcare system and increasing smartphone users in the U.S. will stimulate industry growth.UK held considerable regional health intelligent virtual assistant market share in 2016 owing to adoption of advanced healthcare technologies. Rising penetration of the internet of things coupled with increasing regulation act related to communication and data should drive business growth in coming years.Japan health intelligent virtual assistant market attributed for over 30% of Asia-Pacific share in 2016, witnessing healthy growth over the forecast years. Increasing investment by market players for technological development and improved economic indicators should stimulate business growth. Growing aging population and rising uptake of intelligent virtual assistant solutions associated with healthcare should fuel the industry growth.Brazil held highest regional market share in 2016 witnessing lucrative growth over the forecast years. Rapidly growing economy and need for better healthcare should promote the adoption of health intelligent virtual assistant across different healthcare organizations.Some of the prominent industry players offering unique and advanced products include Next IT Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Nuance Communications and eGain Communication. Other notable industry participants are True Image Interactive, CodeBaby, Kognito, Medrespond, Welltok and CSS Corporation.Agreement and acquisition are some of the major strategies adopted by industry participants. The players are introducing innovative health technology solutions with enhanced features as a part of their commercialization strategy. For instance, Microsoft Corporation and University of Pittsburg Medical Centre together launched the health solution called Healthcare NeXT aiming at transforming healthcare.Data TablesTABLE 1. Health intelligent virtual assistant industry 3600 synopsis, 2013 - 2024TABLE 2. Global health intelligent virtual assistant market, 2013 2024 (USD Million)TABLE 3. Global health intelligent virtual assistant market by technology, 2013 2024 (USD Million)TABLE 4. Global health intelligent virtual assistant market by end-user, 2013 2024 (USD Million)TABLE 6. Global health intelligent virtual assistant market by region, 2013 2024 (USD Million)TABLE 7. Industry impact forcesTABLE 8. Speech recognition market by region, 2013 2024 (USD Million)TABLE 9. Text-to-Speech market, by region, 2013 - 2024 (USD Million)TABLE 10. Voice recognition market, by region, 2013 - 2024, (USD Million)TABLE 11. Payers health intelligent virtual assistant market, by region, 2013 - 2024, (USD Million)TABLE 12. Providers health intelligent virtual assistant market, by region 2013 - 2024, (USD Million)TABLE 13. Others health intelligent virtual assistant market, by region 2013 - 2024, (USD Million)TABLE 14. North America health intelligent virtual assistant estimates and forecast, 2013 - 2024 (USD Million)TABLE 15. North America health intelligent virtual assistant market, by technology, 2013 - 2024 (USD Million)TABLE 16. North America health intelligent virtual assistant market, by end-user, 2013 - 2024 (USD Million)TABLE 17. U.S. health intelligent virtual assistant market, by technology, 2013 - 2024 (USD Million)TABLE 18. U.S. health intelligent virtual assistant market, by end-user, 2013 - 2024 (USD Million)TABLE 19. Canada health intelligent virtual assistant market, by technology, 2013 - 2024 (USD Million)TABLE 20. Canada health intelligent virtual assistant market, by end-user, 2013 - 2024 (USD Million)TABLE 21. Europe health intelligent virtual assistant market, by technology, 2013 - 2024 (USD Million)TABLE 22. Europe health intelligent virtual assistant market, by end-user, 2013 - 2024 (USD Million)TABLE 23. Germany health intelligent virtual assistant market, by technology, 2013 - 2024 (USD Million)Global Market Insights Inc. is a global market research and management consulting company catering to leading corporations, non-profit organizations, universities and government institutions. Our main goal is to assist and partner organizations to make lasting strategic improvements and realize growth targets. Our industry research reports are designed to provide granular quantitative information, combined with key industry insights, aimed at assisting sustainable organizational development.Global Market Insights, Inc.4 North Main StreetSelbyville, Delaware 19975 USAPhone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email:sales@gminsights.com
Forensic Technology Market Expected to Reach $22,905 Million by 2023 with Agilent Technologies Inc., Belkasoft, Eurofins Medigenomix Forensik GmbH, GE Healthcare, LGC Limited, MorphoTrust USA
forensic technology
https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/forensic-technology-market
https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/2369
https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/2369
https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com
Forensic Technology Market by Product and Service: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2014-2022," the global forensic technology market was valued at $9,458 million in 2015, and is projected to reach $22,905 million by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 13.4% from 2017 to 2023. Biometric devices segment held more than one-third share of the total market in 2016.Access Full Summary at:Forensic technology involves the use of data/sample collected from the crime scene.The market has witnessed significant growth in the recent past due to development of new types of technologies to solve crimes.Advent of new technologies such as alternative light photography, ballistic photography and DNA sequencer and rise in incidence of crime are the key factors that drive the market growth. In addition, rise in government initiatives to support forensic research such as funding availability are anticipated to fuel the demand for forensic technologies globally. However, lack of results obtained from these technologies restrict the market growth.Get PDF Sample for Details market study:The drug analysis service segment generated the maximum revenue, accounting for more than one-fourth of the global forensic technology market in 2016. However, DNA profiling segment is estimated to exhibit the highest growth rate of 17.1% during the forecast period.Key Findings of the Forensic Technology Market: The services segment is expected to grow at a significant CAGR of 15.4%, during the forecast period. The chemical analysis segment accounted for more than one-fourth share of the global forensic technologies by services market in 2016. Biometric devices accounted for nearly two-fifths share of the global forensic technologies market by product in 2016. France and Germany collectively contributed for nearly one-third share of the European forensic technology market in 2016. Japan is the major shareholder in the Asia-Pacific forensic technology market, accounting for more than one-fourth share in 2016.Asia-Pacific is projected to grow at the highest CAGR of 14.8% during the forecast period, owing to surge in crimes such as homicide, sexual harassment, and thefts. In addition, technological advancements to develop cost-effective technologies such as automated fingerprint identification, alternative light photography, and link analysis software present lucrative opportunities for market players in the near future.The major companies profiled in the report are 3M Company Agilent Technologies Inc. Belkasoft Eurofins Medigenomix Forensik GmbH GE Healthcare LGC Limited MorphoTrust USA NMS Labs Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. Ultra Electronics Holdings plcSignificant Note: Customize Report As per your Requirements:About UsAllied 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:
Fraud Detection and Prevention Market Worth $40,610 Million by 2023
Fraud Detection and Prevention Market - Allied Market Research
https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/2142
https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/2142
https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/connect-to-analyst/2142
https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com
The global fraud detection & prevention market was valued at $13,644 million in 2016, and is expected to reach $40,610 million by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 17% from 2017 to 2023. The banking, financial services & insurance (BFSI) and manufacturing sectors are expected to dominate the global market. North America was the leading contributor to the global revenue, whereas, Asia-Pacific is projected to be dominant region by 2023.Request Sample Report@Emergence of big data analytics across various industries, such as BFSI, retail, manufacturing, healthcare, real estate, and others, high demand for cloud services, and proliferation of mobile devices for payment are expected to drive the market growth. Mobile phones enable easy access to personally identifiable information such as email address, home address, and banking & stored payment information. However, high installation cost of deploying varied prevention solutions, including predictive analytics, big data analytics, customer analytics, and others, hinders this growth.In 2016, BFSI accounted for maximum revenue share, owing to frequent incident of fraudulent activities, specifically in mobile transactions. For instance, in January 2018, HID Global collaborated with ThreatMark, a threat and fraud detection technology provider to develop new features to improve the ability of financial organizations to identify cyber threats such as malware, identity theft, and account takeover.Rise in demand for advanced authentication provides numerous growth opportunities for market expansion in the government sector. In addition, the retail segment is projected to grow at a highest CAGR of 18.7%, owing to rise in incident of card-related frauds, transactions, and revenue loses. The authentication segment generated the highest revenue in 2015, as organizations largely invest on technologies that can protect data from security risks and malware attacks. The fraud analytics solution is expected to grow at the highest CAGR, as these solutions analyze various forms of data and then covert them to actionable insights. In addition, rise in adoption of advanced analytics techniques and competitive intelligence that involves tactful data collection & collation, analysis, and formation of meaningful insights that enables in making strategic business decisions supplements the fraud detection & prevention market growth.Purchase Inquiry@In 2016, North America accounted for a major share in the global fraud detection & prevention market. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to dominate by 2023, owing to increase in rate of Internet penetration in India, China, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore as organizations need to protect corporate and personal information from fraud attacks. Furthermore, the need to support secure enterprise mobility practices within organizations is expected to boost the demand for fraud detection & prevention solutions.Key Findings of the Fraud Detection & Prevention Market:In 2016, authentication dominated the overall fraud detection & prevention solutions segment, in terms of revenue, and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 16.4% during the forecast period.Managed services are estimated to grow at the highest CAGR of 17.4 % during the forecast periodAn on-premises deployment type is anticipated to generate the highest revenue by 2023.Small & medium enterprises (SMEs) is projected to grow at the highest CAGR of 17.8% during the forecast period.The retail segment is expected to witness the highest growth rate of 18.7% during the forecast period.In 2016, North America generated the highest revenue in the global market, while Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at a significant CAGR of 18.2%.Prominent players, such as IBM Corporation, BAE Systems, SAP SE, Oracle Corporation, ACI Worldwide, and others, focus on the product launch, acquisition, and partnership for expansion in the market.For instance, in 2016, IBM Corporation acquired IRIS Analytics, a privately held company specializing in real-time analytics to help combat fraud.Connect to Analyst@Dominating Market Players Profiled in this Report:IBM CorporationOracle CorporationSAS Institute Inc.Fair Isaac CorporationSAP SEBAE SystemsACI WorldwideNCR LimitedLavastormThreatMetrixAbout 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: +1-855-550-5975help@alliedmarketresearch.comWeb:
Cancer Screening Market Report 2025 | Industry Outlook, Trends and Forecast
Cancer Screening
http://supplydemandmarketresearch.com/home/toc_publisher/32997?code=SDMRSE32997#1
http://supplydemandmarketresearch.com/home/contact/32997?ref=Sample-and-Brouchure&toccode=SDMRSE32997
http://supplydemandmarketresearch.com/home/contact/32997?ref=Discount&toccode=SDMRSE32997
The Cancer Screening Market report for 2018 2025 has the complete and accurate forecast projections of the Cancer Screening Industry across all segmentations such as type, applications, region, and key players, among others. The Global Cancer Screening Market report provides the customer key insights into the Cancer Screening Industry with detailed statistics such as the growth rate, the market value and volume, and the various segmentations and its detailed analysisClick Here For More Details @This report focuses on the global Cancer Screening status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. The study objectives are to present the Cancer Screening development in United States, Europe and China.In 2017, the global Cancer Screening 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.Market segment by Type, the product can be split into Blood Tests Urine Tests Medical Imaging OtherMarket segment by Application, split into Women MenThe Major players reported in the market include: Abbott Roche Fujirebio Diagnostics, Inc. BioMerieux Beckman Coulter Clarient Siemens DiaSorin and More.Request for Sample Copy of this Report @Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report covers United States Europe China Japan Southeast Asia India Central & South AmericaObjectives of this Report are: To analyze global Cancer Screening status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. To present the Cancer Screening development in United States, Europe and China. To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their development plan and strategies. To define, describe and forecast the market by product type, market and key regionsClick here to get Discount @Table of Contents:1 Report Overview1.1 Study Scope1.2 Key Market Segments1.3 Players Covered1.4 Market Analysis by Type1.4.1 Global Cancer Screening Market Size Growth Rate by Type (2013-2025)1.4.2 Blood Tests1.4.3 Urine Tests1.4.4 Medical Imaging1.4.5 Other1.5 Market by Application1.5.1 Global Cancer Screening Market Share by Application (2013-2025)1.5.2 Women1.5.3 Men1.6 Study Objectives1.7 Years Considered2 Global Growth Trends2.1 Cancer Screening Market Size2.2 Cancer Screening Growth Trends by Regions2.2.1 Cancer Screening Market Size by Regions (2013-2025)2.2.2 Cancer Screening Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)2.3 Industry Trends2.3.1 Market Top Trends2.3.2 Market Drivers2.3.3 Market Opportunities3 Market Share by Key Players3.1 Cancer Screening Market Size by Manufacturers3.1.1 Global Cancer Screening Revenue by Manufacturers (2013-2018)3.1.2 Global Cancer Screening Revenue Market Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)3.1.3 Global Cancer Screening Market Concentration Ratio (CR5 and HHI)3.2 Cancer Screening Key Players Head office and Area Served3.3 Key Players Cancer Screening Product/Solution/Service3.4 Date of Enter into Cancer Screening Market3.5 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion Plans4 Breakdown Data by Type and Application4.1 Global Cancer Screening Market Size by Type (2013-2018)4.2 Global Cancer Screening Market Size by Application (2013-2018)TOC Continued....!Tables and Figures: Table Cancer Screening Key Market Segments Table Key Players Cancer Screening Covered Table Global Cancer Screening Market Size Growth Rate by Type 2013-2025 (Million US$) Figure Global Cancer Screening Market Size Market Share by Type 2013-2025 Figure Blood Tests Figures Table Key Players of Blood Tests Figure Urine Tests Figures Table Key Players of Urine Tests Figure Medical Imaging Figures Table Key Players of Medical Imaging and MoreAbout Us:We have a strong network of high powered and experienced global consultants who have about 10+ years of experience in the specific industry to deliver quality research and analysis. Having such an experienced network, our services not only cater to the client who wants the basic reference of market numbers and related high growth areas in the demand side, but also we provide detailed and granular information using which the client can definitely plan the strategies with Cancer Screening to both supply and demand side.Contact US:Canada Office302-20 Misssisauga Valley, Missisauga, L5A 3S1, Toronto
(CNN) One of Japan's largest airports was swamped and a tanker crashed into a bridge as the strongest typhoon to make landfall in mainland Japan in 25 years hit the country's southern prefectures Tuesday, causing storm surges and lashing buildings with heavy wind and rain.
At least six people have died and 160 people have been injured since the typhoon made landfall, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK on Tuesday.
Police in Shiga told CNN that at least one man has died in Higashiomi City after the warehouse he was working in collapsed.
Typhoon Jebi landed with "very strong" force in Tokushima prefecture in the early afternoon, the strongest typhoon to hit the country's mainland since 1993, said Akihiro Kikuchi, from Japan's Meteorological Agency.
Coast Guard spokesman Keita Sakai said an 89-meter-long tanker, the Houunmaru, had been pushed by the strong typhoon winds from its anchorage at sea into the bridge connecting Kansai Airport with the mainland.
Images from state broadcaster NHK showed the bridge of the ship embedded in the structure.
Eleven crew members were on board, but no one was injured in the incident, Sakai said.
The typhoon's center made landfall again near the coastal city of Kobe at around 2 p.m. (1 a.m. ET).
Hundreds of domestic flights were canceled, along with international flights from Kansai Airport in Osaka.
Both runways were closed and later swamped with storm surges that caused record tides in Osaka Bay. Water was also rising near Kobe, the Meteorological Agency said.
Flight cancellations also affected Itami Airport in Osaka and Chubu Centrair International Airport in Nagoya.
Social media users posted videos that showed the force of the storm.
As the typhoon continued to batter Japan's main island of Honshu, nine cities and towns issued compulsory evacuation orders. A further 53 issued non-compulsory evacuation orders.
Towns and cities in the prefectures of Gifu, Aichi, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Nara and Wakayama on Honshu, along with Tokushima, Kagawa and Kochi on the island of Shikoku have been affected.
Almost 14,000 residents have been moved to around 5,000 refuge zones, mostly town halls and school gyms, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
Before it made landfall, the storm had sustained winds of 140 kilometers per hour (87 mph) and gusts of 165 kmh (102 mph), the equivalent of a Category 1 Atlantic hurricane.
There is a significant threat of widespread flooding. Jebi has dumped more than 500 millimeters (nearly 20 inches) of rain in some areas and is likely to produce between 150 and 300 millimeters of rain in many locations.
Jebi comes just weeks after Typhoon Cimaron moved over the same region.
This story was first published on CNN.com "Typhoon Jebi hits Japan with heavy winds, pounding rain"
BY GORDON R. FRIEDMAN AND MIKE ROGOWAY
Shipbuilding giant Vigor Industrial is choosing between Portland and Seattle for a significant expansion that could create up to 300 jobs building landing craft under a $1 billion contract with the U.S. Army.
Portland-based Vigor will build a prototype of its new Army landing craft in Seattle. But it is still weighing its options for where the company will put its full production line.
Vigor told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Wednesday it plans to decide within the next 60 days and start production within three years. The winning city is expected to get 200 to 300 good-paying jobs that are slated to last a decade.
"Both locations have good workforce-related incentives. The differentiating factor for us will likely be the economic incentives each city and state has to offer," Vigor said in a written statement.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler wrote in a
to Frank Foti, the company's chief executive, that the city would provide valuable perks if Vigor carries out the expansion in Portland.
Up for grabs, according to the letter: Design and funding of a custom training program for aluminum welders, help with regulations and permits, and a partnership with the city and state economic development agencies to "provide meaningful incentives" that "offset your cost of expansion."
"It is my intent that you feel fully confident that choosing Portland is the correct decision for Vigor, its employees and our city," Wheeler wrote in the letter, obtained by a public records request.
Gov. Kate Brown also
congratulating his company on the Army contract and declaring that she has directed officials to "ensure seamless coordination between the state, county, city and others when it comes to permits, land use, transportation or anything else."
Vigor is known for building and retrofitting ships of many sizes. The privately held company has 2,300 employees scattered across several locations, including its headquarters and 60-acre shipyard on Swan Island and additional facilities stretching from Clackamas up to Ketchikan, Alaska.
Earlier this summer, Vigor put thousands to work overhauling a 963-foot Carnival Legend cruise ship on a floating drydock in the Willamette River.
Vigor won its Army contract last fall to build a new landing craft with a "tribow monohull," which the Army claims improves maneuverability and stability in high seas. The 10-year deal, worth up to $979 million, is the largest contract in Vigor's history. It calls for as many as 36 of the new vessels, in addition to the prototype.
Portland and Oregon offer a range of tax breaks, working training programs and other incentives to encourage economic development. In 2013, for example, the city and state awarded $20 million in subsidies and other incentives to secure a new headquarters for Daimler Trucks North America on Swan Island.
The most valuable incentives for Daimler were grants from the city's urban renewal programs and property tax exemptions under Oregon's "enterprise zone" program.
Vigor won't qualify for similar grants because its operations are outside the urban renewal boundary, according to Troels Adrian, manager of the business and industry group at Portland's economic development agency.
Vigor's operations are within an enterprise zone, though, and Adrian said those property tax breaks are the most valuable incentives under discussion. The size of the savings will depend on the scale of the project.
While Portland is taking the lead on Vigor's recruitment, Business Oregon, the state's economic development agency, is offering additional incentives.
The agency said those includes Oregon's "Business Expansion Program," which provides grants based on additional income taxes generated by qualifying projects. Companies must hire at least 50 new employees and pay 150 percent of average state or local wages.
Like most large American cities, Seattle has its own menu of incentives to offer. Adrian said he does not know what specific incentives Portland's rival has proposed.
Peter McGraw, a public affairs manager at the Port of Seattle, did not respond to an inquiry about the nature of Seattle's incentives. In an email, though, he wrote, "Vigor provides essential maritime services to the Puget Sound region and beyond. We would be thrilled if Vigor chose Seattle for their expansion plans."
Oregon is enjoying historically low unemployment, triggering worker shortages in welding and other job categories Vigor says it requires for its new facility. The situation may be no better in Seattle, where Amazon's expansion has triggered a long building boom and similarly low joblessness.
While the Portland area has a long heritage in shipbuilding and an unusually large manufacturing sector, Adrian said it doesn't have a ready pool of skilled aluminum welders that Vigor will need for its project. He said the city is working with Portland Community College on a proposal to train welders to have them ready if Vigor chooses Oregon.
"For us an expansion like this would be a natural fit," Adrian said. "This is really the heart of what Portland is, is a shipbuilding town. It's one of the things that built the economy here."
-- Gordon R. Friedman
GFriedman@Oregonian.com
-- Mike Rogoway
MRogoway@Oregonian.com
By Juan Carlos Ordonez
In 2015, Google came knocking in Salem. One of its divisions, Google Fiber, was going around the country peddling its new gigabit broadband service. Google sent its lobbyists to work, and in Oregon they earned their keep: Lawmakers approved a new property tax break tailored for Google Fiber.
But things didn't play out as planned. Google Fiber fizzled. And the tax break created with Google in mind turned out to be loosely drafted and exploitable by others. Comcast alone stood to reap a windfall worth $15 million a year, with schools and local services bearing the cost. Earlier this year, the Oregon House voted to repeal the tax break, but the bill -- worked on by Comcast's lobbyists -- died in the Oregon Senate.
Next time that the Legislature meets in 2019, it may be much harder to repeal the ill-considered Google gigabit tax break. That's because Measure 104 on the November ballot threatens to create a constitutional obstacle to getting rid of wasteful tax breaks.
Right now, it takes a simple majority of lawmakers to reform or repeal a tax break. It takes 31 out of a total of 60 house members and 16 out of a total of 30 senators to make it happen. That's the same number of legislators it takes to create a tax break.
Measure 104, however, would raise the bar higher. The measure would change Oregon's Constitution to require a supermajority -- three-fifths -- of lawmakers in each chamber to reform or repeal a tax break. As few as 13 senators beholden to special interests could derail an effort to end a wasteful tax break.
Oregon's tax code already contains more than 350 tax loopholes and subsidies. There are tax breaks written with specific companies in mind, like Google. There are tax breaks that benefit big dairy farmers, the film industry and owners of mobile parks. There is a tax break that subsidizes the purchase of vacation homes and a tax break where most of the benefits go to business owners making over half-a-million dollars a year. The list goes on.
That's not to say that all tax breaks are bad. Some are efficient ways to fulfill an important public policy goal. The Earned Income Tax Credit, for example, is a proven way to help low-income working families make ends meet.
But many tax breaks amount to nothing more than giveaways to powerful interests. Indeed, as CityLab's Richard Florida explains, there is a "wide body of research on the wastefulness of business incentives," whose main effect "is simply to deplete a community's tax base."
The Google gigabit episode is only a recent example of a poorly crafted tax break. There are others, including the infamous Business Energy Tax Credit, which saw its price tag balloon and give rise to a corruption scandal.
In short, making it harder to reexamine tax subsidies and discard them if necessary - as Measure 104 would do - is a terrible idea. It would allow a minority of lawmakers to ignore the will of the people, while transferring even more political power to corporations and special interest groups.
This November, voters can protect Oregon's Constitution and reject the special interest power grab by saying "no" to Measure 104.
Juan Carlos Ordonez is communications director for the Oregon Center for Public Policy.
Walter Ludtke's Sept. 2 letter, "As a president, Donald Trump is doing well," said, "It is time to look past popularity and assess the president on his performance as measured against his campaign promises." I say it's time to look at the results of the few campaign promises he's managed to keep and judge him on those results.
His trade war has proven to be a disaster, and according to the Commerce Department, the U.S. trade deficit widened in June for the first time in four months as exports fell and imports grew. Our neighbors to the north in Washington stand to lose $480 million in agricultural exports to China and 2,500 cherry growers in Washington will lose some $86 million this season alone, all because of retaliatory tariffs by China.
While unemployment numbers are low, the majority of jobs created are in the service industry and are mostly low income jobs and "blue collar" jobs or jobs with less potential for responsibility and income, are now considered "new collar" jobs.
His tax plan gave massive tax breaks to the wealthy and big corporations and has turned a modest budget shortfall into an enormous budget shortfall. Now Republicans are threatening to make drastic cuts in Medicare and Social Security to make up for the deficit.
And finally, the arrests of refugee immigrants and the forced separation of children from their parents entering this country legally is simply cruel and inhumane.
Not only have his campaign promises proven to be disastrous, his legal woes and personal behavior as president and private citizen are just too much to stomach.
Terry K. Cunningham, Northwest Portland
There has been much back and forth in recent days in the U.S. about the concept of sanctuary states. The simplest way to describe the concept of a sanctuary state is a state that's chosen not to use law enforcement resources on those who have not committed a state crime, but may be in violation of federal immigration law.
Oregon is the oldest sanctuary state, enacting this status back in 1987. This November, Oregon's status as a sanctuary state will be challenged by Measure 105.
Regardless of what one thinks about immigration law, this measure would have some deep implications for our communities. One could be stopped, detained or questioned just because they are thought to possibly be undocumented. This makes a political issue a social work issue at its heart, and it's why I am speaking out against it as a professional social worker.
But readers may ask, "Why should we care what a social worker thinks?"
Social work is a profession with roots deeply embedded in the community. We have a pulse on the needs of the most vulnerable persons in our society. Doing this work, we bring a particular perspective back to our communities and the decisions we face. We are called upon to assist with the societal wreckage left by misguided laws and policies. As an Oregonian and a social worker, I speak out against Measure 105.
-- Mandy Gawf, McMinnville
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.
Mayor Ted Wheeler claims the Portland homelessness crisis isn't as bad as other West Coast cities like San Francisco and Seattle. In doing so, he seems to accept an inevitable slide into a new normal of urban decay, content that Portland's decline is not as severe as other cities. He touts statistics on how his "compassionate" approach is working, while those of us who live near the urban core see more tents, garbage and crime every day.
I refuse to accept that this decline in Portland's livability and desirability is inescapable. I refuse to accept the notion that all West Coast cities are doomed to a similar fate. For any skeptical Portlander, I encourage taking a drive nine miles north of downtown to Vancouver, Wash. Once you cross the I-5 bridge -- no tents and no garbage. Although certainly not a perfect urban utopia, downtown Vancouver is thriving and pleasant. On a recent stroll, there were no needles, harassing vagrants or feces on the street.
The lesson is simple. Once a city like Portland becomes a sanctuary for lawlessness, where illegal camping, drug use and crime are tolerated, the floodgates will continue to open for more and more undesirables flocking to Portland.
We need leaders who promote a balanced approach to homelessness: compassion and resources for those unfortunates who desire it, but also law enforcement against those destroying our city. Portland should look north to Vancouver for ideas on how to accomplish this.
-- Todd Borus, Southwest Portland
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.
After an Alaska toddler died last year, police reopened an investigation into the death of her sister and arrested their mother on charges of murder in both cases.
Stephany E. LaFountain was indicted on charges of first- and second- degree murder in the deaths of her two daughters, who died in September 2015 and November 2017, respectively, the Fairbanks Police Department announced last week.
The 23-year-old mother conducted online searches for "ways to suffocate" and "ways to kill human with no proof" about an hour before she notified authorities her baby had ceased breathing, police said.
At a news conference, Fairbanks Police Chief Eric Jewkes called the cases an "unimaginable tragedy," but did not discuss a possible motive.
LaFountain has family ties to Oregon, said Yumi McCulloch, a police spokeswoman. She said police could not disclose more details about LaFountain's connection to Oregon or how long she lived in Fairbanks, because their investigation is ongoing.
Police referred to LaFountain's daughters only by their initials. An online fundraiser for the 13-month-old's paternal family identified the girl as Jasmine LaFountain. An obituary identified her half sister as Chyanne Peryea.
LaFountain last year was married to a soldier and living on Fort Wainwright Army Post. She called emergency dispatchers Nov. 20, saying that the couple's daughter, Jasmine, was not breathing. The girl's father, who had been deployed, returned on emergency leave, police said. She was hospitalized and pronounced dead Nov. 24.
Military police transferred the investigation of her death to the Fairbanks Police Department because LaFountain and her daughter were civilians, police said.
Investigators found similarities to the death of LaFountain's infant daughter Chyanne in 2015. LaFountain, then named Stephany Bilecki, and living in a Fairbanks apartment, called police just after 5 p.m. on Sept. 15, 2015, and said her 4-month-old child was not breathing. Chyanne died at a Fairbanks hospital, police said.
Her death was not investigated as a homicide at the time.
Detectives learned that about an hour before calling 911 about Jasmine, LaFountain conducted multiple "suspicious searches" online. Those included "ways to suffocate;" "Ways to kill human with no proof;" "16 steps to kill someone and not get caught."
LaFountain also searched whether drowning could show up in an autopsy report, "suffocating and smothering" and how to commit the perfect murder, police said.
Both girls had been "entirely healthy," autopsy results and medical records showed, according to police. Chyanne's cause of death was "officially undetermined, but the symptoms were consistent with a suffocation death," police said. Jasmine was shown to have died from complications of anoxia, which is a lack of oxygen to the brain.
Jasmine's family planned to bury her in her father's home state of Michigan, according to the GoFundMe page set up in her name. Court records show her parents divorced in February.
The charges against LaFountain are also listed under her maiden name, Bilecki. An online work profile for a Stephany Bilecki says she once worked in the deli at the Fred Meyer in Tillamook.
LaFountain is scheduled to appear in court today.
She does not have other children, police said.
-- Staff and wire reports
BOISE, Idaho Cities can't prosecute people for sleeping on the streets if they have nowhere else to go because it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, a federal appeals court said Tuesday.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with six homeless Boise, Idaho, residents who sued the city in 2009 over a local ordinance that banned sleeping in public spaces. The ruling could affect several other cities across the U.S. West that have similar laws.
It comes as many places across the West Coast are struggling with homelessness brought on by rising housing costs and income inequality.
When the Boise lawsuit was filed, attorneys for the homeless residents said as many as 4,500 people didn't have a place to sleep in Idaho's capital city and only about 700 available beds or mats were in homeless shelters. The case bounced back and forth in the courts for years, and Boise modified its rules in 2014 to say homeless residents couldn't be prosecuted for sleeping outside on nights when the local shelters were full.
But that didn't solve the problem, the attorneys said, because Boise's shelters limit the number of days that homeless residents can stay. Two of the city's three shelters require some form of religious participation for some programs, making those shelters unsuitable for people with different beliefs, the homeless residents said.
The three-judge panel for the 9th Circuit found that the shelter rules meant homeless people would still be at risk of prosecution even on days when beds were left open. The judges also said the religious programming woven into some shelter programs was a problem.
"A city cannot, via the threat of prosecution, coerce an individual to attend religion-based treatment programs consistently with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment," Judge Marsha Berzon wrote.
The biggest issue was that the city's rule violated the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment, the court found.
Berzon wrote that in essence, the Eighth Amendment does three things: It limits the type of punishment the government can impose, it prohibits punishments that are grossly disproportionate to the severity of the crime, and it limits what the government can criminalize.
That third limitation is pertinent in the Boise case, Berzon wrote.
"As a result, just as the state may not criminalize the state of being 'homeless in public places,' the state may not 'criminalize conduct that is an unavoidable consequence of being homeless namely sitting, lying, or sleeping on the streets,'" Berzon wrote.
In other words, as long as there isn't an option for sleeping indoors, the government can't criminalize homeless people for sleeping outside, the court found.
Neither attorneys for the homeless residents nor for the city immediately returned calls seeking comment.
Other cities have faced similar lawsuits, with varying results.
In 2007, the 9th Circuit ruled in favor of homeless residents of Los Angeles, finding that as long as there are more homeless residents than there are shelter beds, a law outlawing sleeping outside was unconstitutional. Both sides later reached an agreement and the entire case was eventually thrown out.
In 2009, a federal judge said a Portland policy designed to prevent people from sitting or lying on public sidewalks was unconstitutional. Portland officials now must also give campers at least 24 hours' notice before cleaning up or moving unsanctioned camps.
A state judge rejected a similar anti-camping law in Everett, Washington.
--The Associated Press
Police have launched a homicide investigation after firefighters found a body while battling a car fire early Wednesday in North Portland.
Portland police said firefighters responded to a reported car fire in the 6200 block of North Marine Drive about 1 a.m. and found the body while fighting the blaze. Police referred to the death as suspicious and said homicide investigators have responded.
Police released few details in a news release early Wednesday. KOIN-TV reports authorities found the body in the car's trunk.
Police said they expected to release more information later Wednesday. They ask anyone who has information to call 503-823-3333.
Jim Ryan
The Portland City Council on Wednesday approved a new two-year contract for about 30 police lieutenants that includes a 7.6 percent pay increase, plus a $310 increase in their clothing allowance.
Commissioner Amanda Fritz was the lone commissioner to object, asking why someone earning six figures needs such a hefty clothing allowance, now $700 a year.
"Increasing a clothing allowance for people making over $100,000 just doesn't seem reasonable to me,'' Fritz said.
Lt. Craig Morgan, president of the Portland Police Commanding Officers Association, said the figure was considered a "reasonable cost'' by the city and union "because there's an expectation that any lieutenant is able to dress up in business attire, whether it's for court, a community meeting or testifying at City Council.''
The prior $390 clothing allowance had been in place for more than a decade, Morgan said. He argued that salaries are a separate issue from the money for business clothes.
The salary steps for lieutenants changed under the new contract and are retroactive to July 1.
Upon promotion, a new lieutenant will be paid $121,950, up from $116, 688. After one year, the salary increases to $126,838, up from $121,950. The top step salary, after two years, is $131,912, up from $126,838.
The 7.6 percent pay increase includes a 3.6 percent cost-of-living adjustment for 2018 that other city employees received earlier this year, plus a 4 percent salary hike.
In Seattle, under a contract ratified last fall, a senior lieutenant's salary jumped from $136,308 to $150,828.
Fritz also was the lone council member to object to the wage increase, saying market comparisons didn't support it.
Not including the cost of living increases, the new contract will cost the city $65,000 more the first year, and $68,000 more its second year, with an ongoing cost to the city estimated at $127,000,
.
Mayor Ted Wheeler, who serves as police commissioner, praised what he called "collaborative, good back-and-forth" negotiations between the city and union.
"It's a cost-effective contract in that it shifts the wage scale, as opposed to giving across-the-board increases," he said. "In the long term, that will serve us well."
The new contract eliminates a 1 percent premium pay for physical fitness. The incentive has been absent for some time in the contract for rank-and-file officers as well, replaced by preventive health care incentives and lower premiums for officers who have regular doctor visits.
It maintains a $30,000-a-year professional development fund for the union to help cover the costs of special training for members or attendance at policing conferences, but eliminates the rollover of unused money from year to year. Unused money will return to the Police Bureau's budget, said Marquis Fudge, senior labor relations analyst.
The contract also memorializes a current practice of requiring annual performance evaluations for lieutenants, already effective under a memorandum of understanding reached with the city more than a year ago.
The commanding officers' association ratified the contract on June 29. The union only represents lieutenants, and is separate from the Portland Police Association, which represents officer, sergeants and detectives.
"We were pleased to get this resolved without a long arduous bargaining process," Morgan said.
Commissioner Chloe Eudaly wasn't present for the vote. Commissioner Dan Saltzman and Nick Fish joined with Wheeler in approving the contract, without making any comments.
-- Maxine Bernstein
mbernstein@oregonian.com
503-221-8212
@maxoregonian
Updated 6:35 p.m.
There's a new beef at Burgerville. And it's all about buttons.
A budding dispute over political paraphernalia in the workplace has become a sticking point between the regional fast-food chain and members of an employee-led union seeking a boost in pay and other perks.
Ten Burgerville workers at the Northeast Glisan Street and 82nd Avenue location were sent home for the day late last month after they refused to remove buttons on their uniforms proclaiming "Abolish ICE" and "No One Is Illegal," a decision the company said violated a newly minted policy.
Yet one day later, Burgerville decided to place the rule on hold. The employees received back pay and returned to work, where they've continued to promote causes that have left the company -- and, it says, some customers -- uneasy.
The friction comes as Burgerville attempts to negotiate a contract with workers at two of the chain's 42 locations, who made history this spring when they voted to form a federally recognized union.
Suddenly, a type of restaurant flair famously satirized in the comedy "Office Space" is a chip on the bargaining table that also includes $5-an-hour raises, paid holidays and health care for all workers.
"We see the workplace as a central realm for combating white supremacy and anti-immigrant sentiment," said Emmet Schlenz, a spokesman for the Burgerville Workers Union, which launched in 2016 with help from members of the Industrial Workers of the World better known as the Wobblies.
Few, if any, retail or service industry chains allow T-shirts, pins or other items that promote politics in the workplace. And Burgerville has "had a long-standing non-written policy" against outside buttons of any kind, the company said in a statement.
Nevertheless, employees active in the Burgeverville Workers Union had worn an array of political buttons with little fuss from management over the last several months, including those with messages opposed to fascism, police brutality and the Trump administration's immigration policies, Schlenz said.
But the permitted use of buttons by workers became a flashpoint this summer when employees from the Southeast Powell and 92nd Avenue and Gladstone stores, which had recently held successful union drives, included it among their list of proposals to the company.
Representatives for Burgerville balked at the button proposal, fearful that some political messages could be "too controversial," the union said.
The company said it made no mention of buttons being controversial, but did express concern that they could confuse customers about whose opinion they represented.
Workers at the Glisan and 82nd Avenue store, which is active in the Burgerville Workers Union but does not have a seat at the bargaining table, decided to respond by wearing the "Abolish ICE" and "No One Is Illegal" buttons.
"Many of the workers here are immigrants," employee Drew Edmonds told The Oregonian/OregonLive. "It's been important for us stand up against deportation and xenophobia."
Some customers were apparently not pleased by the decision.
"Guests provided feedback that they didn't want to see personal and political messages while they ate," Liz Graham, director of human resources, told The Oregonian/OregonLive in an email.
"Additionally, some employees expressed that the content of the buttons was drawing unwanted attention that made them uncomfortable."
The situation came to a head Aug. 22 when the company announced that it had formalized its unwritten policy prohibiting buttons, including those not overtly political.
Edmonds and nine of his co-workers, however, refused to remove their political flair and were sent home. Managers at the Burgerville location had to shut down the drive-thru for the rest of the day because they didn't have enough employees, the company said.
That evening, the company said it decided to put its button policy on hold as it came up with a better way to roll it out.
That was nearly two weeks ago.
"We're still here. We're still standing," Edmonds said. "We're still wearing our buttons."
-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh
skavanaugh@oregonian.com
503-294-7632 || @shanedkavanaugh
A Portland man was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in federal prison for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possessing a gun in furtherance of drug-trafficking.
Deputies from Multnomah County sheriff's Special Investigation Unit arrested Christopher James Fleet, 24, in late August 2017.
While on surveillance in a drug investigation, they watched a green 1997 BMW parked at a home near Northeast 145th Avenue and Brazee Court, and suspected the car was connected to Fleet, a drug dealer who had an outstanding arrest warrant. A deputy watched Fleet leave the home carrying a backpack and get into the driver's side of the BMW on Aug. 23, 2017.
Christopher J. Fleet
After he drove off, deputies blocked the BMW. Fleet, according to prosecutors, refused to comply with deputies' commands to raise his hands and could be seen reaching around inside the car before he surrendered.
During his arrest, deputies found a Kel Tec 9mm firearm that had fallen to the ground. During a subsequent search of Fleet, they also found a bag "tied around defendant's private parts,'' which continued heroin and methamphetamine, assistant U.S. attorney Leah Bolstad wrote in a sentencing memo.
In a locked backpack found on the car's passenger seat, the deputies found a loaded .40-caliber Sig Sauer pistol, drug records and a digital scale after obtaining a warrant to search it, according to court records.
U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown issued the sentence after it was jointly recommended by both Bolstad and Fleet's defense lawyer, Michelle Sweet.
-- Maxine Bernstein
mbernstein@oregonian.com
503-221-8212
@maxoregonian
Next time you go through airport security, it might be worth washing your hands afterward.
According to the results of a new study published by Finnish and British researchers, half of plastic airport security bins may carry viruses that cause respiratory infections.
The study, published last week in the BioMed Central Infectious Diseases journal, tested swabs from surface samples of the plastic bins at Helsinki Airport that were taken at three different times during the peak of the 2015-2016 flu season.
Four of the eight samples contained the rhinovirus or adenovirus, which both cause cold-like symptoms.
The lead authors of the article, who hailed from Finland's National Institute for Health and Welfare and the University of Nottingham, concluded that the screening trays "appear commonly contaminated," and that they are one of the surfaces at an airport where passengers are most likely to pick up harmful viruses.
"We found the highest frequency of respiratory viruses on plastic trays used in security check areas for depositing hand-carried luggage and personal items," the scientists wrote in their journal article. "These boxes typically cycle with high frequency to subsequent passengers, and are typically seized with a wide palm surface area and strong grip."
The results, they said, demonstrated that airports can serve as a potential risk-zone for an "emerging pandemic threat" - a prospect that has already become a major concern in the aftermath of the 2002 SARS outbreak, and the 2014 Ebola epidemic.
And the preponderance of viruses on airport screening bins may be even more cause for concern among Americans, who are increasingly encountering TSA screeners instructing them to empty their food and snack items straight into the plastic bins.
At the conclusion of the study centered on Helsinki Airport, the researchers concluded that airports should offer hand sanitizer to travelers before and after each security checkpoint, and that the baggage trays should be cleaned and disinfected more frequently.
"This knowledge helps in the recognition of hot spots for contact transmission risk, which could be important during an emerging pandemic threat or severe epidemic," the scientists wrote in the article.
But plastic bins aren't the only place in airports where researchers found frequent presence of cold-causing viruses. On the buttons of the Helsinki Airport pharmacy's payment terminal, 50 percent of samples tested positive for the rhinovirus or the human coronavirus.
Of the samples taken at the desks and glass dividers at the airport's passport control checkpoint, one in three contained the rhinovirus.
And when the scientists repeatedly swabbed a plastic toy dog in the airport's children's playground, they found that the toy played host to cold-causing viruses a whopping 67 percent of the time.
In these cases, the scientists concluded, the best approach might be the simplest one: a good old-fashioned wipedown.
"Many cleaning agents, household (antibacterial) wipes and anti-viral tissues are able to rapidly render influenza virus nonviable, offering multiple simple possibilities and opportunities for reducing the risk of indirect contact transmission," the scientists said.
Frequent cleaning, they pointed out, is exactly the reason why an unlikely surface topped the list of the most virus-free spots in the airport: the toilet. Of the 42 samples taken on toilet lids, on the flush buttons, and on the door locks, there were zero samples where scientists detected the presence of a cold virus.
"No respiratory viruses were detected in a considerable number of samples from the surfaces of toilets most commonly touched, which is not unexpected, as passengers may pay particular attention to limiting touch and to hand hygiene, in a washroom environment," the scientists said.
-- Martine Powers
WASHINGTON -- An incendiary tell-all book by a reporter who helped bring down President Richard Nixon is roiling the White House, as current and former aides of President Donald Trump are quoted calling him an "idiot" and claiming they took papers off his desk to prevent him from withdrawing from a pair of trade agreements.
The book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward is the latest to throw the Trump administration into damage-control mode with explosive anecdotes and concerns about the commander in chief. The Post on Tuesday published details from "Fear: Trump in the White House," the Watergate reporter's forthcoming examination of Trump's first 18 months in office.
Trump pushed back in an interview with The Daily Caller, saying: "It's just another bad book. He's had a lot of credibility problems."
"Fear: Trump in the White House," by Bob Woodward, available Sept. 11.
The president denied accounts in the book that senior aides snatched sensitive documents off his desk to keep him from making impulsive decisions. He said: "There was nobody taking anything from me."
The publication of Woodward's book has been anticipated for weeks, and current and former White House officials estimate that nearly all their colleagues cooperated with the famed Watergate journalist. The White House, in a statement from press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, on Tuesday dismissed the book as "nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad."
Woodward did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The book quotes chief of staff John Kelly as having doubts about Trump's mental faculties, declaring during one meeting, "We're in Crazytown." It also says he called Trump an "idiot," an account that Kelly denied Tuesday.
The book says Trump's former lawyer in the Russia probe, John Dowd, doubted the president's ability to avoid perjuring himself should he be interviewed in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference and potential coordination with Trump's campaign. Dowd, who stepped down in January, resigned after the mock interview, the book said.
"Don't testify. It's either that or an orange jumpsuit," Dowd is quoted telling the president.
Dowd, in a statement Tuesday, said "no so-called 'practice session' or 're-enactment'" took place and denied saying Trump was likely to end up in an orange jumpsuit.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is quoted explaining to Trump why the U.S. maintains troops on the Korean Peninsula to monitor North Korea's missile activities. "We're doing this in order to prevent World War III," Mattis said, according to the book.
The book recounts that Mattis told "close associates that the president acted like -- and had the understanding of -- 'a fifth- or sixth-grader.'"
Woodward reported that after Syria's Bashar Assad launched a chemical weapons attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted the Syrian leader taken out, saying, "Kill him! Let's go in." Mattis assured Trump he would get right on it but then told a senior aide they'd do nothing of the kind, Woodward wrote. National security advisers instead developed options for the airstrike that Trump ultimately ordered.
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley denied Tuesday that Trump had ever planned to assassinate Assad. She told reporters at the United Nations headquarters that she had been privy to conversations about the Syrian chemical weapons attacks, "and I have not once ever heard the president talk about assassinating Assad."
She said people should take what is written in books about the president with "a grain of salt."
Woodward also claims that Gary Cohn, the former director of the National Economic Council, boasted of removing papers from the president's desk to prevent Trump from signing them into law, including efforts to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The book quotes Trump as mocking his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who has been a target of the president's wrath since recusing himself from the Russia investigation.
"This guy is mentally retarded," Trump said of Sessions, according to the book. "He couldn't even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama."
Trump did not speak to Woodward until after the book's manuscript was completed. The Post released audio of Trump expressing surprise about the book in an August conversation with Woodward and dismay that he did not have an opportunity to contribute. Woodward tells Trump he had contacted multiple officials to attempt to interview Trump and was rebuffed.
"I never spoke to him," Trump told The Daily Caller. "Maybe I wasn't given messages that he called. I probably would have spoken to him if he'd called, if he'd gotten through."
The book follows the January release of author Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury," which led to a rift between Trump and Steve Bannon, his former chief strategist, who spoke with Wolff in terms that were highly critical of the president and his family. Wolff's book attracted attention with its vivid anecdotes but suffered from numerous factual inaccuracies.
Woodward's work also comes weeks after former White House aide and "Apprentice" contestant Omarosa Manigault Newman published an expose on her time in the West Wing, including audio recordings of her firing by Kelly and a follow-up conversation with the president in which he claimed to have been unaware of Kelly's decision.
While White House aides have become increasingly numb to fresh scandals, the book still increased tensions in the West Wing, especially given the intimate details shared and the number of people Woodward appeared to have interviewed. Some White House officials expressed surprise at the number of erstwhile Trump loyalists willing to offer embarrassing stories of the president and his inner circle.
No clear response strategy emerged immediately after the Post report, but insiders speculated the fallout could be worse than that from "Fire and Fury," given Woodward's storied reputation.
Scheduled for a Sept. 11 release, "Fear" was ranked the top-selling book on Amazon on Tuesday.
Trump has been increasingly critical of anonymous sources used by reporters covering his administration. Woodward's account relies on deep background conversations with sources, meaning their identities are not disclosed.
Former George W. Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer defended Woodward's methodology. "I've been on the receiving end of a Bob Woodward book," he tweeted Tuesday. "There were quotes in it I didn't like. But never once - never - did I think Woodward made it up."
He adds: "Anonymous sources have looser lips and may take liberties. But Woodward always plays is straight. Someone told it to him."
-- Zeke Miller, Catherine Lucey and Eric Tucker
Goose Creek, SC (29445)
Today
Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 48F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph..
Tonight
Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 48F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.
The Little Forks Conservancy has nearly completed its second year with its series of workshops focused on land and water stewardship. For the final workshop, Little Forks invites individuals who are interested in learning more about forest management to its Lane Preserve in Gladwin County.
"Last year's Stewardship Series was successful in providing opportunities for anyone who is interested in volunteering at Little Forks' nature preserves, but who have limited or no experience working with our natural resources." said Elan Lipschitz, Little Forks' Director of Land Conservation. This year we are expecting another great turnout for the Forest Management workshop."
To the editor:
With the guilty verdict rendered on eight of the 18 charges brought against President Donald Trump's former campaign manager (the other 10 resulted in a deadlocked jury leaving the door open to retrial), and the guilty plea to campaign finance violations from the president's longtime lawyer and fixer happening on the same day, I am hopeful Rep. John Moolenaar will finally fulfill his duty to act as a check on the executive branch.
If Moolenaar honestly believes the president surrounds himself with the best individuals, as seems to be the default view of the GOP, he must be dismayed that the one-time chair of the last presidential campaign has been convicted of tax and bank fraud actions that occurred before he was chairman. Surely a good Christian family man who values personal responsibility and fair play must have something to say about a candidate for federal office directing his lawyer to pay hush money to a woman the candidate had an extramarital affair with, intending to influence the 2016 election. Especially since this is in violation of campaign finance laws, and Moolenaar is one who, in principle, supports the rule of law.
However, I imagine I will be disappointed. If our representative has anything to say it will likely be a parroting of the GOP talking points released on Aug. 22. It is true that because a plea was entered in the Michael Cohen case, Mr. Cohen was never found guilty in a trial. That's what no "adjudication of any campaign finance claim" means. The guilty plea means Cohen admitted guilt without the need for a trial. Using the "no adjudication" defense is tantamount to implying a felon who pleaded guilty is not really guilty because there was no trial.
Moolenaar's tacit and explicit support of the president shows our elected official to be little more than a hypocrite interested in leaving Congress with more wealth than he entered. This is not conservative governance. This is radically corrupt authoritarianism, and not at all what we should stand for. The gerrymandered districts in the state of Michigan make it very difficult for us to elect new representation, but it isn't impossible.
MATTHEW VANNETTE
Midland
For the first time ever, T-Mobile is America's Fastest Mobile Network. Our 2021 drive tests took us to 30 cities and traveled 10,000 miles, and we found that T-Mobile's mid-band 5G network is the only 5G that makes a difference right now. If you haven't gotten on the T-Mobile 5G train, it is definitely time to jump on board.
The carrier's new mid-band 5G network now covers more than 185 million people, according to T-Mobile, and it's targeting 200 million by the end of the year. You'll need a new 5G phone to take advantage of the network, though, and that's where this list comes in. If you're shopping on your own, make sure that your phone supports LTE frequency bands 12 and 71, and 5G band n41, for the best T-Mobile coverage.
The Pixel 6 Pro has an amazing camera ((Photo: Steven Winkelman))
The Best 5G Phones for T-Mobile
T-Mobile uses the whole menu of 5G frequencieslow, middle, and highbut mid-band is where the sweet spot is. T-Mobile's low-band 5G network has great coverage but not much effect on performance; its high-band network hasn't expanded much beyond its seven initial cities. On the other hand, mid-band is available in most major and midsize cities, and it has considerably better performance than 4G. In early 2021 T-Mobile also introduced Magenta Max, the first nationwide unlimited data plan with no deprioritization for heavy users.
See How We Test Phones
Focusing on mid-band right now is key. All 5G phones currently sold by T-Mobile have mid-band, so you can just choose a phone you like and not worry too much. To that end, we're only featuring 5G-capable smartphones in this T-Mobile roundup now. There are enough of them, and it's worth investing at this point.
For more, see our list of the best 5G phones.
The Best Voice Phones for T-Mobile
The new Sonim XP3plus on T-Mobile is a rugged, reliable, and high-quality flip phone that we highly recommend. But it's expensive; if you're looking to spend under $100, the unlocked, dual-SIM Nokia 6300 4G is a good deal.
T-Mobile isn't the only option out there, of course. Take a look at our lists for the best phones on AT&T and Verizon Wireless, and see our Readers' Choice awards for the top mobile carriers.
It wasn't just the deplorable conditions, including the dog doo-doo all over, that has a father in western Pennsylvania facing criminal charges.
Police say it was also the drugs and paraphernalia they found in the Somerset, Pa., apartment, along with two children, ages 4 and 5.
As WJAC-TV in Johnstown reports, that was enough for police to arrest the children's father, identified as 31-year-old Devene Matthews.
Matthews now faces multiple charges, including endangering the welfare of children, use and possession of drug paraphernalia and manufacture, deliver or possession with intent to manufacture or deliver. At last report, he was jailed on $150,000 bail.
This, after Somerset County Children and Youth Services reported the conditions in the apartment to police.
According to the criminal complaint against Matthews, who shares custody of the children with their mother, the apartment was extremely dirty and filled with dog feces.
Officers say they also found methamphetamine and hypodermic needles, a bong and a scale with white powder and baggies inside the apartment.
It's easy to miss Everest Spice.
The restaurant sits in a nondescript shopping center on Derry Street across from the grind of trains at the Norfolk Southern rail yard.
The BYOB Nepalese restaurant at 7434 Derry St. joins a growing corridor of eating and drinking establishments - Boneshire Brew Works, Marino's Pizza Ristorante and Nomad BBQ as well as the nearby Wharf Bar & Grill - in the Swatara Township neighborhood.
Diners who step into Everest Spice, which opened in August, discover flavorful Nepalese and Himalayan foods. The cuisine is defined by fluffy rice, thick lentil soup, curries and momos, a type of dumpling.
Owner Suman Tamang emphasized Everest Spice fuses food with culture. He decorated the 50-seat dining room with traditional Nepali musical instruments, hats, dolls and wooden decorations.
A section of booths is designed to resemble traditional Nepali homes with straw roofs. Attached to the roof, is a dhako, a basket designed to carry firewood.
"We can eat very Nepali dishes. At the same time, you can see very typical Nepali things," Tamang said. "Once you see this you feel like you are in Nepal."
Tamang, who grew up in Bhutan, arrived in New York around 2008 and worked several jobs before moving with his family to Harrisburg. His brother is a co-owner at Nirvana Kitchen in Susquehanna Township.
"This is a beautiful place," he said, adding the cost of living here is reasonable.
The restaurant's menu sticks to authentic Nepali dishes representing the country's various subcultures. There are Bhutanese items such as ema datshi, the national curry of Bhutan.
Vegetarian dishes such as samosa chats, aloo chup (mashed potatoes filled with spices and deep fried) and chatpatte, a puffed rice with onions, boiled potatoes, green chili and spices make up a lengthy snack menu.
Pick from steamed or fried pork, beef, chicken or vegetable momos. Diners who want to try a variety of foods can order the thali, a combination platter with rice, lentil soup, main entree (goat, chicken, pork, fish or vegetable) and vegetables.
Prices range from $3.99 for snacks to $14.99 for weekend curry specials.
Hours: 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 4:30-10:30 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Closed Monday. Phone is 717-710-2997.
The men having sex inside the Volkswagen Beetle were so involved that a Miami-Dade police officer said he had to tap on the window to let them know that he could, in fact, see them - along with everyone else passing by on South Beach.
But the very public nature of what they are accused of is not what has outraged people on two continents. It's their occupation.
The Rev. Diego Berrio, 39, and the Rev. Edwin Giraldo Cortes, 30, are both charged with lewd and lascivious behavior after being arrested on Labor Day, according to Miami ABC affiliate WPLG. The arrests have led to swift action by the church and have drawn attention to its issues with priests' sexuality.
Berrio is a pastor of Mision San Juan Diego in Arlington Heights, Illinois. One of his duties was bringing visiting priests to the diocese, although he also led a youth group whose mission was to "evangelize young Hispanics in the United States," according to the Chicago Catholic.
Cortes, a priest from Soacha, Colombia, was serving in the St. Aloysius Parish in Chicago. He told a judge that he was supposed to return to Colombia on Wednesday. Instead, he faces an indecent exposure charge.
Both men have been relieved of their church duties in Chicago.
The archbishop of Chicago "has removed Fr. Berrio from ministry and withdrawn his faculties to minister in the Archdiocese of Chicago, effective immediately," according to a statement from the Archbishop of Chicago, Blase Cupich. Officials there have also been in contact with Cortes' home diocese and announced that he "will no longer serve as a priest in the archdiocese of Chicago."
"It is our responsibility to ensure those who serve our people are fit for ministry," Cupich said. "We take this matter very seriously and will provide updates as they become available."
Others reactions weren't as civil.
Catholics and church critics railed against the men on social media. "Four sacrilege. Everyday," one person tweeted. And video from the scene showed the priests covering their faces from cameras as they left jail. At one point, one of the men sprinted away. Neither of the men could immediately be reached for comment.
Miami Beach police officers said the rented Volkswagen was parked on Ocean Drive, in front of a park and a hotel, according to Miami ABC affiliate WPLG.
"The major concern that I had was the fact that it was in public," Judge Jeffrey Rosinek said at the men's first court hearing. "When a police officer can come and just watch, that's a problem."
The case has become the latest entry in the debate about homosexuality and the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church deems homosexual acts "intrinsically disordered," according to the Catechism.
"They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved," the Catechism says.
It adds that homosexual inclination is "a trial" and that gays and lesbians "must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity" while trying to use prayer and "sacramental grace" to stop.
As The Washington Post reported, Pope Francis has made no concrete changes to church doctrine on homosexuality, but has used more inclusive language about gays and lesbians.
Last month, a reporter on the papal plane asked the pope what a parent should say to a child who comes out as gay.
"Don't condemn," he replied. "Dialogue, understand."
"I'll never say that silence is a remedy," Francis said. "To ignore a son or daughter with homosexual tendencies is a lack of paternity and maternity. You are my son, you are my daughter as you are! I'm your father, mother. Let's talk!"
(c) 2018, The Washington Post * Cleve R. Wootson Jr
EXETER TOWNSHIP -- Al Boscov's office, deep in the bowels of the department store that bears his family name, is now a freshly redecorated conference room.
But the shadow of this iconoclast, who earned the loyalty of governors and bargain-hunters alike, still looms large.
"One of the things I learned was not to try to compete with Albert," said his nephew Jim, who now leads this billion-dollar department store chain. "When he was on, I was the straight man, and when I was alone I was freer to goof around."
At 69, Jim bears more than a passing resemblance to his late uncle, whose 2017 memorial service was attended by the likes of Ed Rendell and Tom Corbett.
Like his uncle, he revels in the art of the sly, self-effacing joke. "I'm the tallest member of my family," he quips, waits a beat and delivers the punch line: "I was five-six-and-a-half but, like anyone my age, I'm probably a little less." The CEO slumps in his chair to accentuate the point.
In a time when department stores and the malls around them languished, Boscov's has persevered. Its closest analogue, The Bon-Ton, has closed its stores as Boscov's continues to expand its brick-and-mortar footprint. In October, the chain, based in Exeter, a suburb of Reading, will open its 47th store in Connecticut. In recent years, the chain opened stores in Erie, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Ohio.
"They are a positive story in retailing," said Fred Hurvitz, a professor at Penn State's Smeal College of Business who specializes in retail. "Part of it is that they really understand who their customer is and they are doing a good job catering to them."
Walking through a Boscov's can be a bit like stepping back in time.
The Berks County flagship store--that is to say, the one that houses a tiny cluster of corporate offices--still has a beauty salon and a cafeteria, amenities that largely disappeared with Woolworths and Wanamakers. The stores also feature a fully stocked candy counter, something you'd be hard-pressed to find at Macy's or JCPenney.
Even the decor is something of a throwback--to the baroque 1980s--replete with polished metal, mirrored ceilings and glass chandeliers. Jim Boscov blanched at the comparison to President Donald Trump's real estate empire.
Al was known as a major contributor to Democratic Party causes, although he had friends on both sides of the aisle. His nephew is far more circumspect. Whenever the conversation veers into uncomfortable waters, he steers it back to the less fraught values of community and customer service that Al instilled in him.
"I don't think he was such a hard partisan," Jim demurred. "He was about ideas, not party."
Of course, Boscov's story hasn't been a purely blessed one.
The company declared bankruptcy in August 2008, following an aggressive expansion strategy that left it overleveraged just as the country's economy tanked and retail spending plummeted. Al Boscov, retired at that point, reentered the fray in order to rescue his family's namesake. Jim, who had long since left to start his own companies, returned in August 2009 after the family bought back the business.
Al worked 16-hour days in order to bring the company out of Chapter 11. He secured private financing and government-backed loans in order to keep the doors open. He attended the company's final bankruptcy hearing, something few businessmen would do personally.
"I wanted to," he told The Philadelphia Inquirer, through tears, in 2009. "You know why? Because we're alive."
Jim doesn't believe anyone else could've done what Al did.
"He had a personal connection with the vendors because of the personality he had and the relationships he built," he said.
At 69, Jim bears more than a passing resemblance to his late uncle, whose 2017 memorial service was attended by the likes of Ed Rendell and Tom Corbett.
And the same applies to the government support, which the company is on track to pay back. That, Jim said, was a result of Al's relationship with then-Gov. Ed Rendell.
"He probably did as much for the city of Reading as anyone in the city's history," Rendell said last year, at a memorial service for Al that drew some 2,000 mourners to the city's Santander Arena.
Tax breaks and government-backed subsidies get a bad rap but, in this case, Jim believes they were a return on the investments Boscov's had always made in its communities and local charities.
"If it serves the community, it's a good investment," he said. "If it serves someone's ego, it's not."
Since 2009, Jim has worked to return Boscov's to a stable footing and expand its online retail business. For a number of years, he worked alongside his uncle. They shared adjacent offices, although the culture of Boscov's is such that they didn't spend much time behind their desks.
Al's health in those final years was always a concern, he said.
"When I came back, I said, 'I'm concerned about you. You shouldn't have to work this hard. Let me help you'," Jim said. "It didn't matter. He still worked every bit as hard as he was ever going to work. He didn't make a big fuss about taking care of himself or getting enough sleep."
The initial plan was for Jim to come back for a year but he ended up staying. After that first conversation, the pair never talked about it again.
"It just worked," Jim said. "He and I worked well together."
Since the bankruptcy, Boscov's continued to expand, albeit at a much slower pace than its pre-recession years. The company averaged a new store every year and has returned to its pre-2008 revenues.
The pace of expansion, Jim said, is a natural one. There are no plans, for example, to swoop in and fill the void left by The Bon-Ton's 267 store closings. If a location makes sense, he said, Boscov's will expand there.
Jim made clear that The Bon-Ton's downfall is nothing to gloat about.
"The more reasons a customer has to come to a shopping center," he said, "the better it is for us all."
But there are some advantages to being a scrappy, family-owned chain.
One example: When a large department store--"maybe it starts with an M," Jim said, in a not-so-subtle nod to Macy's--cancels an order, the vendor often calls Boscov's to unload the surplus product.
"They say, 'Look we've got something for you. I need to sell it'," he said. "And they offer it at a crazy price."
The Boscov's store in Exeter Township features many of the amenities of old department stores, including a beauty parlor, cafeteria and candy counter.
For each new store Boscov's opens, the company sends a team of loyal employees to work alongside new recruits for several weeks and start the new location off on the right foot.
"You don't teach the culture of the company by giving them a handbook," Jim said. "You teach it by having people from our stores going to visit. They go weeks before the store opening and weeks after."
Hurvitz, the retail expert, said Boscov's has done a great job catering to their core demographics and fostering what he called a regional flavor.
The open question, he said, is whether that formula will work in the long-term.
"My fear [is] those who are loyal are a mature clientele," he said. "They are going to have to capture the millennial base in the future to do as well."
It is possible for brick-and-mortar retail to thrive with younger consumers. As Hurvitz noted, "even millennials do like to be able to touch things," but they also have different priorities and tastes than older consumers.
Those realities are not lost on Jim Boscov.
When he returned to the company, one of his first priorities was to create an online retail component. Instead of opening separate warehouses and distribution hubs, he set up a system where Boscov's stores fill online orders.
The algorithm, Jim said, determines which store has all of the items that were ordered and can fill the order with the least impact on local inventory.
"We have a team that picks, packs, makes it look pretty and gets it out that day," he said.
Boscov's is also embarking on an overhaul of its toy section. Jim's coy about the specifics but the goal is to make the department more attractive to young families. That's one way to create loyal, lifelong customers.
"Would you want to go to a toy store where you can't play with the toys?" Jim asked. His vision seems to be an FAO Schwarz environment where play is encouraged. He even referenced "that Tom Hanks movie" (citing a memorable scene from 1988's Big.)
But Jim's overriding principles are the same as his uncle's and his grandfather's: "People need good quality products at good prices."
He never wants to see a Boscov's where a customer can't find a sales clerk to ring them up. And he wants to offer a variety of goods for every type of person, from petite to big-and-tall.
And, like his uncle, Jim doesn't envision an early retirement.
Al Boscov joined the company in 1954 and stayed involved nearly to the day he died, at age 87. Jim Boscov remembers working at the first Boscov's store at 9th and Pike when he was six years old, bagging Hershey's kisses for Easter. "I was eating a couple and bagging a couple--I was helping," he said, with a wink.
Now, the youngest generation of Boscov children is ascending. One of Al's grandchildren recently completed a stint as assistant store manager and now works as a buyer.
That gives Jim hope that Al's values will live on for years to come. For the foreseeable future, he will be part of that, too.
"Albert loved what he did and he worked right up until he died," Jim said. "As long as I'm healthy, happy and doing a good job, I want to be here."
Staff writer Ivey DeJesus contributed to this report.
Wallace McKelvey may be reached at wmckelvey@pennlive.com. Follow him on Twitter @wjmckelvey. Find PennLive on Facebook.
Read the 'TAPPED OUT' special investigation and share your comments on Facebook.
Corrupt politicians don't have to repay the state government for money they steal from the public, but people who embezzle from nonprofit groups do have to make full restitution for their thefts, a state appeals court panel has ruled.
The Superior Court judges made that distinction in denying an appeal from 64-year-old Beverly Steffey, a Kittanning woman who stole nearly $220,000 from three nonprofit groups in Armstrong County.
Steffey tried to invoke the so-called Veon decision to escape an order to pay restitution to the Allegheny Valley Land Trust, the Armstrong County Conservancy and the Progressive Workshop, where she had served as financial officer.
The Veon decision was issued by the state Supreme Court in November 2016 in the case of former state Rep. Michael Veon, who was convicted of misusing a state-funded nonprofit for political gain. The high court ruled that Veon did not have to pay $135,000 in restitution to the state in that case because the state cannot be considered a crime victim under the law because it isn't human.
The Veon ruling has since spared several convicted former legislators and aides, including former House Speakers John Perzel and Bill DeWeese, from having to repay restitution totaling well over $1 million to the state for pilfering the public purse.
Steffey argued to the Superior Court that the free pass extended by the Veon ruling should apply to her case as well. Like the state, nonprofits are "non-natural persons" to whom no restitution is legally due, she contended.
Wrong, Judge Jack A. Panella concluded in the Superior Court's decision.
Steffey might appear to have a good argument "at first blush," Panella found, but it sinks under further scrutiny. "We conclude the Supreme Court did not intend such a sweeping modification of the law of restitution," he wrote.
Panella found that state law "explicitly includes corporations and other limited liability organizations in the definition of 'person'."
So, he concluded, Steffey has to pay up.
Steffey received a 15-month to 3-year prison sentence in addition to her restitution order. Investigators said she spent years forging checks to siphon money from the accounts of the three nonprofits.
A Pennsylvania man caught with $5,900 in counterfeit $100 bills during a traffic stop won't be spending any more time behind bars.
On Wednesday, U.S. Middle District Chief Judge Christopher C. Conner concluded the 14-month prison stint Jean Pier Jean-Baptiste served while awaiting sentencing is enough.
Jean-Baptiste, 25, of Philadelphia, was caught with a plastic bag full of fake cash when the car he was riding in was pulled over by Montoursville police for a tail light violation in February 2017.
All of the bogus Benjamins bore the same serial number. Jean-Baptiste admitted the imitation currency was his, investigators said. He pleaded guilty to a federal counterfeiting charge this past January.
Assistant U.S. Attorney James T. Clancy didn't oppose a time-served sentence for Jean-Baptiste. Conner agreed with defense attorney Edward J. Rymsza that Jean-Baptiste is an "excellent candidate for rehabilitation." In any case, the defense attorney observed, the sentencing guidelines called for a prison term of no more than a year to 18 months.
Rymsza said Jean-Baptiste has been working as a truck driver since his release from Lycoming County Prison in April. Jean-Baptiste has strong family support, Rymsza added as his client's relatives, including his 2-year-old daughter, watched from the gallery.
"This (crime) does seem to be an aberration for Mr. Jean-Baptiste," Conner said.
He ordered Jean-Baptiste to serve 2 years on probation and to pay $100 in restitution to the sole victim in the case, a state liquor store.
WILLIAMSPORT -- A "frequent seller of drugs" is going to federal prison for 12 years -- almost four years less than the government offered in a plea agreement he rejected.
Dominque D. Lassiter, 28, of Williamsport, chose to plead guilty without benefit of a plea agreement to three counts of possession and distribution of drugs, rejecting an offer from the government to recommend a prison sentence of 15 years, 8 months.
Wednesday, U.S. Middle District Judge Matthew W. Brann sentenced Lassiter to 12 years in prison followed by six years of supervised release. He also imposed a $500 fine.
Brann granted a defense motion for a downward departure from the sentencing guidelines despite calling the Philadelphia native a "frequent seller of drugs" and confirming his designation as a career offender.
READ MORE: 'Career offender' pleads guilty, faces more than 15 years on drugs, weapons counts
Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey MacArthur accused Lassiter of not having any respect for the law, noting his drug dealing started with cocaine, then crack cocaine and, when he moved to Williamsport, heroin.
Lassiter was arrested Oct. 3, 2016, after the second of two controlled buys totaling 21 bags of heroin.
During a search of Lassiter's apartment police said they found 83 bags of heroin, 1.79 grams of unpackaged heroin, cocaine, drug paraphernalia, $2,340 in cash, a rifle, shotgun and pistol.
The 9mm pistol found under the pillow on Lassiter's bed had been reported stolen in Towanda. Convictions in Philadelphia prevented him from being allowed to possess a firearm.
Lancaster police are investigating the death of an inmate who as found unresponsive in Lancaster County Prison cell early Wednesday.
Prison staff found Kurt J. Strenck at 7 a.m. and began CPR and notified EMS. Lifesaving efforts were unsuccessful, according to a news release from the prison, and Strenck was declared dead.
The prison said it would have no further comment while the death is under investigation by city police.
Strenck was committed to the prison on Aug. 18, after being extradited to Pennsylvania from South Carolina. He had been arrested in South Carolina, where he lived, on charges that he raped three Lancaster-area girls between 1998 and 2014.
This post was updated at 8:37 p.m. Sept. 04 with additional information on Beta Theta Pi's substance-free housing policy.
The parents of a Penn State student who died in a hazing-related accident last year announced Tuesday they have reached a "pre-litigation settlement" with the national Beta Theta Pi fraternity.
That settlement - which includes an undisclosed payment to the family of Timothy Piazza - also includes a reform agreement that, among other requirements, would have all 135 Beta houses be alcohol and drug-free within two years.
The Piazzas' attorney, Thomas R. Kline of Philadelphia, noted the settlement is with the fraternity specifically and solely.
The family may still pursue civil claims against all other parties involved in the case, including Penn State, up until a two-year statute of limitations runs out in February 2019.
But this was an important day in the interim, Kline said.
The Piazzas have been crusading nationally against excesses in Greek life since the bid acceptance night party that left their son dead, and Kline said the legally-enforcable reforms agreed to with Beta were a key step forward for them.
They hope, Kline said, it will "help to establish a baseline for the new norm of fraternity pledging and fraternity life at universities and colleges in the United States."
Among other aspects of the 17-point agreement with the Piazzas, Beta has agreed to:
* Offer its support for legislative changes that include stepped-up criminal penalties for hazing-related activities that result in death or serious injury.
* Give the Piazzas a voice in any decision-making involving the future use of the closed Beta chapter house at Penn State, as long as it is owned by the local house corporation.
* Close local chapters across the country in any cases where to administrators of a college or university have moved to withdraw university recognition because of conduct-related violations.
* Make immediate notification of conduct violations that result in serious bodily injury or death to university police or public safety a standing policy of all Beta chapters.
Beta's national leaders, in statements accompanying the settlement's release, expressed their continued sorrow and anger over the Piazza case.
READ MORE: Fraternity group votes to ban hard alcohol at houses, events
But the fraternity's Executive Director, Jeff Rundle, said with the new reforms "we have never been more focused on re-evaluating local chapter cultures and implementing programs and accountability measures that raise the standard of fraternity life wherever Beta Theta Pi exists."
Timothy Piazza, a 19-year-old engineering student from Lebanon, N.J., died Feb. 4, 2017, from complications from unattended brain and other internal injuries received in a series of drunken falls after he accepted a bid to the Beta House at Penn State on Feb. 2.
Those falls - Piazza had just endured a drinking ritual known as "the gauntlet," and continued to drink heavily during an ensuing party - triggered an evening of amateur accident first aid and / or neglect.
It may not have been clear to many of the fraternity members how severe Piazza's internal injuries were.
That's been a major point of contention in three separate preliminary hearings at which state prosecutors have - so far, unsuccessfully - tried to bring involuntary manslaughter charges against former Beta members at Penn State.
But the lack of professional medical attention at any point during the night - tapes show no one at the fraternity summoned help for Piazza for nearly 12 hours - is believed to have contributed to Piazza's death at Hershey Medical Center on Feb. 4, 2017.
The substance-free housing rule is actually something Beta national board voted to impose last winter.
It is not a prohibition against alcohol use at fraternity events - a chapter could still serve alcohol at a rented, third-party venue, for example, or even at an off-campus apartment rented by members.
It is also important to note the Beta's Penn State house was, on paper, a "dry" house when Piazza's death occurred.
But Beta leaders have said they wanted to double down on the policy given internal data showing that 88 percent of chapter closures since 2005 and 95 percent of insurance payouts from 2013 through 2017 occurred at "wet" chapters, and the reality that most fraternity house live-ins are under 21.
Beta is one of five fraternities in the 62-member North American Interfraternity Conference to make all chapter houses substance-free, joining Farmhouse, Phi Delta Theta, Sigma Phi Epsilon and Delta Upsilon.
"While this housing policy is not a silver bullet, Beta's own data is clear that removing alcohol from Beta homes makes our chapters, members and guests safer," the fraternity stated in a document explaining its policy.
PHILADELPHIA -- Prosecutors in the sexual assault case against Bill Cosby asked a judge Tuesday to allow testimony at his sentencing hearing about uncharged criminal conduct.
A Montgomery County prosecutor asked permission to present multiple witnesses who he expects will testify that Cosby drugged and or sexually assaulted them. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 24, when the judge is also expected to hear arguments on whether to accept a recommendation to classify Cosby as a sexually violent predator.
It was unclear who or how many witnesses District Attorney Kevin Steele planned to call, but the filing said Cosby has not been charged with crimes related to their claims.
"The maxim that uncharged conduct may be considered to assess a defendant's dangerousness to the community, character, background and rehabilitative needs has been repeatedly applied over the past 35 years," Steele wrote in his filing.
Judge Steven O'Neill allowed testimony from five other women during Cosby's April trial on allegations of sexual assault made by Andrea Constand relating to an incident at his mansion in 2004. The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, as Constand has done.
READ MORE: Board recommends Bill Cosby be found a sexually violent predator
The defense is largely expected to base part of its appeal of Cosby's conviction on three counts of aggravated indecent assault on the testimony of those women because Cosby was not charged with crimes based on their claims.
"The District Attorney's latest Motion is another publicity stunt, not supported by ANY existing Pennsylvania law," Andrew Wyatt, a spokesman for the 81-year-old comedian, wrote in an emailed statement. "We expect to respond to this Motion and present our arguments in Court."
Cosby's attorneys have also claimed in court filings that the state's recently revised sex offender registry law is unconstitutional and should not be applied retroactively.
A Pennsylvania board recommended Cosby be classified as a sexually violent predator, which would require the former TV star to attend at least monthly sex offender counseling -- in prison and out -- and police to post warning flyers throughout his neighborhood whenever he is freed.
Cosby's attorneys are challenging the legality of the process used by the board to determine whether someone is considered a sexually violent predator.
--
Claudia Lauer of the Associated Press wrote this story.
This post was updated at 12:04 p.m. Wednesday with some additional information on the new anti-drug procedures at the state prisons.
Corrections Secretary John Wetzel announced a far-reaching series of steps Wednesday designed to combat the uptick in drug infiltration in Pennsylvania's state prisons that led last week to a statewide lockdown.
The moves add a new layer of rules to an environment already governed by them, with the goal, Wetzel said, of total elimination of drug smuggling and, by extension, drug trafficking in the prisons.
"This plan is not to reduce the amount of drugs," Wetzel said in a press conference held after a tour of State Correctional Institution Greene, outside Waynesburg, with Gov. Tom Wolf.
"This plan is to eliminate drugs within our prisons. ... If these steps are insufficient," he added, "we're going to take more steps until we get there."
The big changes include:
An end to all direct mail service to state prisons.
Inmates can still receive mail. But going forward, Wetzel said, all incoming mail will be sent to a centralized collection point in Florida where it will be opened, scanned and emailed back to the prisons.
DOC staffers will then generate prison-generated copies for delivery to the inmates.
The new address is available on the Department of Corrections' website, and all mail that has come in during the lockdown will be returned to sender, Wetzel said.
Even legal mail will be copied, on camera in view of the inmate, with only the copies being delivered to the cell.
Purchases of books and magazines, similarly, will be completed solely through the Department of Corrections, with no more direct deliveries from outside vendors.
One of the big problems this summer, state officials have said, is the saturation of paper and printed pages with liquified forms of drugs that are then torn into individual "hits" and marketed through the prison.
"The key here is that nothing comes directly from the street into our prisons," Wetzel said.
As mail channels are cut off, Wetzel said, he expects in-person drug transfers could rise.
To combat that, Corrections will install full-body scanners at all prisons within 90 days, to be used on all inmates receiving visitors and/or leaving the prison for court appearances.
The scanners, which can detect foreign substances both on and inside a person, have dramatically cut down person-to-person drug smuggling in a pilot at SCI Coal Township, Wetzel said.
Tougher penalties for persons caught with drugs at the prisons.
Any inmates found with drugs or even a hot urine test, Wetzel said, will face a six-month suspension of visiting privileges for a first offense, a one-year suspension for a second offense; and an indefinite suspension for a third offense.
And visitors caught bringing drugs into a facility, he added, will be banned from visiting any state prison again.
To shut down another potential smuggling avenue, the department is preparing to install a new drone detection system to cover all 25 prisons to prohibit overhead "drops" of drugs into prison spaces.
Officials said this software - already in place at several prisons - provides the capability to track drone activity within prison limits .
Lastly, Wetzel said DOC is in the process of developing a new protocol for the in-processing of all new inmates, and he announced the establishment of a new hotline, 717-728-4743, to handle tips pertaining to drug smuggling or activity within the prisons.
Painting a broader picture of the drug challenge faced by the system housing 47,000 inmates, DOC officials noted Wednesday they have counted 2,034 drug incidents in the first six months of 2018, involving 1,802 inmates.
Of those, 309, of about 15 percent, are known to have involved mail and/or visitors, DOC said.
Wolf said Wetzel has his full support in implementing the changes.
"Pennsylvania's corrections officers put themselves in harm's way to make our commonwealth safer, and it is up to us to provide them with protection from harm," Wolf said.
The state's 25 prisons were placed on a lockdown last Wednesday, after a rash of incidents this summer that left 58 corrections officers and other prison staffers feeling sickened after apparent exposure to smuggled drugs.
The numbers started spiking on Aug. 3, with 23 incidents reported at eight prisons through the month, prompting the lockdown to help find short- and long-term solutions to the problem.
Drugs tests showed positive results in six of nine cases for which results are available: In four of those cases the substances involved were synthetic cannabinoids. The others involved fentanyl and amphetamines.
In many cases, the staffers were able to return to duty after being checked out. But in at least five instances, reactions were severe enough that the anti-overdose medication naloxone was administered as a precaution.
Some of the most onerous lockdown restrictions - including round-the-clock confinement of all inmates to their cells - have begun to be relaxed starting Saturday.
Wetzel said this morning that if the gradual step-down continues smoothly, he hopes to be able to resume inmate visits and mail service - albeit according to the new procedures - next week.
"As long as everyone does the right thing, we want to return to normal as soon as possible for everyone involved," Wetzel said.
WILLIAMSPORT -- The death of a Williamsport woman whose throat was slashed may have been a case or "murder for hire," said the Lycoming County district attorney.
Sonja Rowe Heck, 49, was found dead in the bedroom of her Linn Street home on Aug. 17, and her husband, Edward Heck, was charged with homicide that same day.
But Williamsport police announced Wednesday that a second man, Kenneth Wayne Smith, 33, of Nanty Glo, has been charged in her killing.
Kenneth Wayne Smith
When he was interviewed Aug. 29, police say Edward Heck said he'd hired Smith to kill his wife. Smith also is accused of killing Edward Heck's two dogs.
Smith was arrested in Muskegon, Mich., and returned to Williamsport where he was jailed Tuesday night without bail on charges of homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide and killing domestic animals.
Authorities have not said how the men know each other, but said they are not related.
If police prove that Smith was hired to kill Sonja Heck, that could be an aggravating factor that would permit prosecutors to seek the death penalty for both men, said District Attorney Kenneth Osokow.
Heck, who also is being held without bail, is charged with homicide, aggravated assault and cruelty to animals. Another charge of conspiracy to commit murder will likely be filed against him, Osokow said.
Smith is accused of hitting Sonja Heck on the head with a hammer and then cutting her throat. Coroner Charles E. Kiessling Jr. said he has not received a details autopy report, and therefore doesn't yet know if she died from the blow to the head or from her throat being cut.
The dogs, found on the cellar floor, died from blunt force injuries, police said.
After Sonja Heck's death, police say Heck and Smith traveled to Lebanon, Ind., where Heck was arrested at a motel. Smith initially was questioned and released, police said.
The arrest affidavit in Heck's case said a note had been found on the kitchen table.
Documents in the Smith case reveal it apparently was signed by Edward Heck, contained an apology for past discretions and also said: "Forgive me for what I have done. This is goodbye to everyone."
Police have not disclosed how Heck was tracked to Indiana. While police were interviewing Sonja Heck's daughter, Emily Rowe, she received a text message from Edward Heck telling her not to go to the house.
She told investigators she also received a text message the day before that stated something to the effect: "I'm sorry, I didn't do it."
Rowe told police she had caught Heck cheating on her mother and her mother had demanded he take his two dogs to the SPCA because she did not want them in the house any longer.
Heck and his wife had moved to Williamsport from Exeter within the past several months, police say.
Saying it cannot cross the constitutional church-state divide, a federal appeals court Wednesday declined to weigh in on a fired Pennsylvania pastor's $2.6 million lawsuit against his former church.
The Rev. Dr. William David Lee took his case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rdCircuit after a U.S. Western District judge dismissed his breach of contract suit against the Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church of Pittsburgh.
Lee contended the church owed him the money for terminating his 20-year pastoral contract in January 2015, only two years into his Steel City ministry.
Church leaders argued that they justifiably canned Lee after giving to and attendance at the church plummeted during his tenure, Judge Patty Shwartz noted in the 3rdCircuit panel's opinion on the case. The Mount Zion deacons cited a 39 percent decline in tithes and offerings, a 32 percent drop in Sunday morning attendance and a 61 percent decline in registered membership. At the same time, church expenditures doubled, they claimed.
Shwartz agreed with the district judge's finding that the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution stands in the way of her court, or any American court, deciding who is in the right in this particular case. The Establishment Clause bars the government from becoming involved in religious affairs.
"Assessing Lee's role, if any, in causing decreased giving and reduced membership in the church requires a determination of what constitutes adequate spiritual leadership and how that translated into donations and attendance - questions that would impermissibly entangle the court in religious governance and doctrine," she concluded.
Last week, Americans mourned the passing of U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., even as they celebrated his life and legacy.
Marc A. Scaringi
There can be no denying the extraordinary bravery and courage of McCain the naval aviator, whose plane was shot down over North Vietnam during his 23rd bombing run in 1967. He endured unimaginable pain and horror as a prisoner of war in the notorious Hanoi Hilton.
McCain's uncommon valor as a war prisoner stands as a lesson and model not just for all American soldiers but for all Americans.
Nothing can or should be taken away from him for his five-year long act of supreme self-sacrifice.
But I do wonder how a man, who risked and endured so much, fighting a pointless war thousands of miles away from home, could fail to learn from his personal experience when it came time to fashion his own foreign policy as a political leader.
McCain the politician would become a vociferous advocate of an interventionist foreign policy that would have America fighting against "brutal dictators" and in support of "democracy" around the world even where the U.S. had no national security interest.
And he advocated this even though he suffered so severely as a result of that failed policy in a Vietnamese prison camp.
In the same way that McCain the naval aviator would plunge into Vietnam to contain the threat of "communism" that posed no threat to the U.S., McCain the senator would plunge American soldiers into Iraq to contain the threat of a "brutal dictator" who posed no threat to the U.S.
Since the 1990s, McCain has called for military intervention in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Kosovo, Nigeria, North Korea, Iran, Georgia, and Sudan. [1] He even parodied himself during the 2008 presidential campaign when he sang "Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran" to the tune of the Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann."
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., lamented that McCain had been wrong on just about every major foreign policy question over the past four decades.
But he wasn't always that way.
Early in his political career McCain opposed President Reagan's decision to put U.S. Marines in harm's way as "peacekeepers" in war-torn Lebanon.
His opposition turned out to be prescient after 220 of them were killed by a terrorist attack on their compound on October 23, 1983.
In explaining his opposition, McCain seemed to be channeling his experience in Vietnam when he said, "The longer we stay in Lebanon the harder it will be for us to leave. We will be trapped by the case we make for having our troops there in the first place."
That's what he said in 1983. Yet today U.S. troops are back in Lebanon trying once again to keep the peace; this time with McCain's full support.
Over the years, McCain evolved into a reliable interventionist.
In late 1992, he backed President George H.W. Bush's deployment of U.S. Marines into Somalia on a humanitarian mission "to save thousands of innocents."
The Battle of Mogadishu that followed ended in humiliation for the U.S. military. Today, U.S. military forces, of course, are back in Somalia, again with McCain's full support. In 1995, McCain joined President Clinton's call for the deployment of 20,000 U.S. ground troops to keep the peace in Bosnia.
The U.S. military is back in Kosovo today working on trying to keep the peace; again, with McCain's support.
When speaking of the U.S. intervention in Bosnia, McCain offered a strong dosage of that "straight talk" for which he would become so well-known. He admitted that America's security interests were not threatened there, but that American "values" compelled us to intervene.
That statement says it all.
Values over interests. That might be good for the Red Cross, but it's not good for America. America is not a charity; it's a sovereign nation whose soldiers do bleed and whose treasury can run dry.
Recall in 1983, the younger McCain admonishing Reagan to get out of Lebanon lest we "...be trapped by the case we make for having our troops there in the first place." Compare that to the elder McCain, when running for president in 2008, vowing to keep US troops in Iraq for 100 years if that's how long it would take.
There are anywhere from 4,000 to 6,000 US troops still in Iraq today - 15-years after the U.S. intervention - still trying to make Iraq safe for democracy.
McCain's foreign policy failed because he never learned the lesson that should have been so apparent to him as he sat in a Vietnamese prison camp - the world will never be made safe for democracy no matter how many thousands of U.S. lives are sacrificed or trillions of U.S. taxpayer dollars are spent. Tyranny will never be eliminated from this world.
That's why the only true American foreign policy was the one practiced by our Founding Fathers and best articulated by former President and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams: "[America] goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own."
PennLive Opinion contributor Marc A. Scaringi, of Camp Hill, is an attorney and radio host. His work appears biweekly.
By John W. Sigle
President Donald Trump recently claimed that Google is biased against him because when he Googles his name he mostly gets negative news stories about himself. Like so many other things, he just doesn't have the foggiest idea of how Google actually works.
John W. Sigle (PennLive file)
No one at Google is deciding which webpages to return in a search, or in what order. It is done purely by an algorithm (a mechanical procedure encoded as a computer program). By now Google's search algorithm is fairly complicated with many layers.
Google search is based on a giant database, called an index, which contains information on hundreds of billions of webpages. Like the index in the back of a book, there's an entry for every significant word seen on every one of these webpages. When a web page is indexed, that webpage is added to the entries for each of the words it contains.
When you enter a search query it is first broken into words. Those are analyzed for possible misspellings, and some minimal analysis is made to try to establish context/category and breadth of query.
Webpages that match this query information are determined and must be ranked for "relevance". Webpages then appear in the search results list in decreasing order according to that relevance value.
In the early years of search engines, each page was ranked for relevance by the number of other pages that linked to that page. However, this alone is far too simple.
There is a whole industry out there known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), whose goal is to get their client's webpage to appear as early as possible in a search results list. So they created large numbers of new dummy pages that link to their client's page.
In order to counter this, Google's PageRank algorithm looks not only at the number of links pointing to the page being ranked, but also at the relevance of the webpages which supply those links.
This means that those links that come from less relevant sources contribute less to the PageRank.
From there it gets more complicated and is mostly hidden as proprietary information. It is a bit of a cat and mouse game between Google and the SEO's.
Google's (much modified) PageRank algorithm has no actual "understanding" of the content of any page.
Its decisions are made on the basis of some sophisticated, but very mechanical rules.
Some pages are excluded based on specific published Google's webmaster guidelines, having to do with bad or malicious webpage practices.
The algorithm does now seem to make some use of the user's location, search history and Internet browsing history.
This means that it may be the case that Trump may be getting a lot of negative reporting about himself from CNN because he has been viewing a lot of negative reporting about himself from CNN.
Personally I would go with the simplest explanation - Google returns a lot of negative news about Trump because there is a lot of negative news about Trump, much of it attributable to the president himself.
Anyway, there are no humans making choices about which sites to return in a search or in what order.
Despite their ever increasing sophistication, search algorithms have no understanding of what a page's content means, let alone whether it is biased. And as a retired computer scientist, I have never met an algorithm which had a political ideology, much less a biased one.
John W. Sigle, of Carlisle, is a former visiting professor of computer science at Dickinson College. His work appears occasionally on PennLive Opinion.
Mold. Heat advisory days. Threats. Snow. Anymore there's a multitude of reasons why school officials can unexpectedly cancel classes, which can deal a serious blow to the school calendar.
That's why state Rep. Kristin Phillips-Hill, R-York County, is looking to give schools an option that allows them to give students school work to do at home for up to five days in a school year and still have those days count toward the minimum 180 instructional day requirement that state law requires.
"You really don't know what's going to come at you as a school district," Phillips-Hill said.
School buses can break down. A measles outbreak could occur. Law enforcement emergencies can happen where the police order schools to be closed. Power could be out for an extended period of time. Damage could occur to a school building making it unsafe for children to occupy.
"Things can happen and they do," said the former Dallastown Area School Board member.
The idea of these so-called flexible instructional days was piloted in some school districts over the past three years. Not all of the dozen districts that applied to participate in the pilot made use of it. But Phillips-Hill said district officials in ones that did who she has spoken with gave it high praise.
Among them was Central York School District Superintendent Michael Snell, who used a flexible instructional day one day last winter when the amount of snow in the forecast would have otherwise caused him to cancel school.
For children in kindergarten through third grade, teachers had them take home books to read and gave them math work they could do at home. For students in the upper grades, the teachers loaded assignments into computers that students who didn't have internet service at home could download before they went home the day before.
"There is a bit of a notice you have to have and everything has got to be prepared," Snell said.
The only requirement the department put on districts that used a flexible instructional day was that the work students were assigned had to be a continuation of the education going on in the classroom.
"Really what we did last year, we ran at it, we tried it, we tested it out, we liked it," he said. "By and large, with teachers, parents, our learners, it met with rave reviews. ... The ability to use up to five flexible instructional days is a tool I think would benefit all public school districts and I completely support the effort."
The state Department of Education has not yet taken a position on whether it supports the idea, said department spokesman Rick Levis.
Pennsylvania School Boards Association CEO Nathan Mains, however, finds the concept to be an intriguing one for a couple reasons.
"Is that a great sign [lawmakers] are talking about looking at education as being able to be something other than 180 days of students in desks sitting there?" he said. "It's a positive start to a conversation around how the General Assembly can look to more creatively allow children to learn in the environment we're in today."
After all, he said many businesses allow their employees to work remotely and be productive
"If we're preparing kids to work in the business world, I draw a linkage to this," Mains said.
Phillips-Hill said she recognized some areas of the state lack adequate internet coverage and that is a separate challenge that she is working on with other lawmakers. But as Central York has shown, there are ways to get around that.
Her proposed legislation would not mandate schools use these alternative type of instructional days but instead would put it on the table as an option.
"I see it as just another tool that school districts can use to help educate their children," she said.
Petoskey Marching Band brings home three grand champion awards
A one year hiatus in competing didn't stop the Petoskey Marching Band from scoring first place and grand champion awards in this year's competitions.
977 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard
Republican Sen. Ben Sasse cleaned Sean Hannitys clock on Thursday, telling the Trump puppet and Fox News host that some of us still believe in the Constitution.
Sorry, Sean you changed, not me. Some of us still believe in the Constitution. No President should play with censoring news they dislike. https://t.co/ZBEMNSF7nz Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) October 12, 2017
The flame-throwing on the part of Sasse came after Hannity tweeted this harsh response to the GOP senators criticisms of Trump.
In his tweet, Hannity called Sasse just useless.
One of the biggest mistakes in my career was supporting @BenSasse Just useless. https://t.co/bYReWFdfKO Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) October 12, 2017
Hannitys whiney Twitter post follows a statement released by Sasse on Wednesday, in which the Republican senator took Trump to task for threatening to challenge NBC News license, which would be a stunning assault on the U.S. Constitution.
Mr. President:
Are you recanting of the Oath you took on Jan. 20 to preserve, protect, and defend the 1st Amendment? pic.twitter.com/XLB7QXM3bQ Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) October 12, 2017
The harsh criticism from Sasse came after Trump posted this troubling tweet earlier in the week:
With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2017
The spat between Hannity and Sasse is representative of the two wings of the GOP that exist right now one that will stay loyal to Trump no matter what he says and does, and another that hopes to see the party maintain some level of dignity and love of country.
If the GOP wants to be on the right side of history, they will distance themselves from Trump immediately and starting putting country ahead of party.
If the party wants to fall off the abyss and be unable to tell future generations of Americans that they did the right thing when it mattered, then theyll put on a blindfold and step off a cliff with Sean Hannity.
By David Schwartz
PHOENIX, Ariz. (Reuters) Former U.S. Republican Senator Jon Kyl is Arizona Governor Doug Duceys pick to fill the U.S. Senate seat from Arizona vacated by John McCain, who died last month, the governor said on Tuesday.
The appointment brings a more conservative bent to the Senate given Kyles voting record and how it veers from that of McCain, a maverick who sometimes collaborated with Democrats on major legislation.
Once he is formally installed in the Senate, Kyls first major vote is likely to be on the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Kyl, now a lobbyist at the law firm Covington & Burling, already has been working behind the scenes to boost Kavanaughs prospects. He would provide more of a cushion to a Republican victory in the deeply divided Senate given that McCain had been too sick all year to cast votes in Washington.
Kyl tended to be more conservative than McCain throughout his tenure in the Senate, Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston, said in a telephone interview.
Kyl, 76, served with McCain in the Senate and rose to become Republican whip, the second-highest leadership post in his partys Senate leadership, before retiring in 2013.
In a statement announcing Kyles appointment, Ducey said his fellow Republican understands how the Senate functions and will make an immediate and positive impact benefiting all Arizonans.
Once Kyl is sworn in, Republicans will return to the 51 seats they held in the 100-member Senate before McCains death. Democrats control 49 seats, including two independents who align with them.
While no date has been announced for Kyl to take the oath of office, a swearing-in typically occurs promptly after the governors appointment.
Republican President Donald Trump had long feuded with McCain and did not attend the senators memorials in Arizona and Washington over the past week, at McCains request.
At a news conference, Kyl said he has only met Trump once, several months ago. I dont really have a relationship with President Trump.
McCain, who died of brain cancer at age 81 on Aug. 25, would have been up for re-election to his seventh term in November 2022.
Kyls new stint in the Senate is not likely to last long.
A special election will be called in 2020 to fill the remainder of McCains term, which would have ended in January 2023. Kyl said he would not be a candidate in 2020. And if Kyl were to leave before November 2020, Ducey would have to name another caretaker for the seat.
Kyl served four two-year terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before he was first elected to a six-year stint in the Senate in 1994.
He retired at the end of his third term in January 2013.
McCains fellow Arizonan, retiring U.S. Senator Jeff Flake, who has been one of Trumps most prominent Republican critics, praised the pick on Twitter, calling it an excellent choice!
Kyl won also won praise from an opposition Democrat, responding to a reporters question about the choice.
Representative Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, said given that the Arizona governor was not going to appoint somebody who is going to vote with us, its a pretty good appointment.
(Reporting by David Schwartz in Phoenix and Richard Cowan in Washington; writing by Jon Herskovitz; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
1.7k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard
Mueller is calling Trumps bluff on an interview and offering to let him answer some questions in writing, which could be a trap that Trump never sees coming.
The New York Times reported:
The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, will accept written answers from President Trump on questions about whether his campaign conspired with Russias election interference, Mr. Muellers office told Mr. Trumps lawyers in a letter, two people briefed on it said on Tuesday.
But on another significant aspect of the investigation whether the president tried to obstruct the inquiry itself Mr. Mueller and his investigators understood that issues of executive privilege could complicate their pursuit of a presidential interview and did not ask for written responses on that matter, according to the letter, which was sent on Friday.
Mueller is calling Trumps bluff
Trump publicly claims that he wants to do a Mueller interview, but privately according to Bob Woodwards new book, Trump doesnt want to do the interview. Mueller is calling Trump out by offering to let him answer some questions on matters other than obstruction of justice in writing.
If Trumps legal team does respond with a lie to the written questions, the outcome is the same. The President will have committed perjury. Mueller is pinning Trump down. The President can answer some questions in writing, but those questions are going to be very pointed and specific. A lie by Trump to a written question is the same as a spoken lie in a room with Robert Mueller.
The Special Counsel isnt playing around. Trumps dodge and bluster routine arent working anymore. If Trump turns down Muellers offer, then it will be clear that he is afraid to cooperate with the Special Counsel. If he answers and lies, he has even bigger problems.
The legal walls are closing in on Donald Trump.
For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.
Follow Jason Easley on Facebook.
2.2k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard
Rachel Maddow discussed the concern surrounding the possibility that Trump could end up in prison and showed why the orange jumpsuit concern is very real.
Video:
Rachel Maddow discussed the concern surrounding the possibility that Trump could end up in prison and showed why the orange jumpsuit concern is very real. https://t.co/nPGYCYCnNI pic.twitter.com/qeNrtMEUb1 Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) September 5, 2018
Maddow said:
The Orange jump suit concern is real. The presidents own legal jeopardy is barreling toward a finale that will almost assuredly rocket through the federal courts and there by almost assuredly get to the Supreme Court. This president is an unindicted co-conspirator in a federal case that has been brought against his personal lawyer and has already resulted in eight guilty felony pleas. That same longtime personal lawyer swore in open court under oath that it was the president himself who ordered him to commit multiple felonies during course of the presidential campaign.
The presidents first national security adviser, his deputy campaign chair, a campaign foreign policy adviser, have all pled guilty already to federal felony charges in conjunction with this investigation. Were waiting a sentencing at the end of this week for the campaign adviser who has pled guilty. The injure selection process started today for a second federal jury that will hear additional felony charges against presidents campaign chair who was already just found guilty on eight felony counts and who is about to go on trial for another seven felony counts.
The presidents White House counsel has reportedly given over 30 hours of interviews and hes just announced he is leaving the administration. The CFO of the presidents business, an executive who has been with the president for decades and who worked for the presidents father before him. The executive who has apparently authorized every payment ever went through presidents business or charitable foundation, the executive who reportedly filled out at least some of the presidents tax returns, he has been granted immunity in exchange for his testimony. As has the head of the National Enquirer which they said participated in the presidents illegal hush money schemes which have now been charged as federal campaign finance felonies. Also granted immunity, this convicted pedophile who most recently was the business partner of a major Trump donor and a high ranking Republican party official who is now reportedly under the investigation for influence peddling.
A federal grand jury in Washington this week is continuing to hear testimony that appears to be connected to the presidents longtime political consultant, Roger Stone, who is now pleading publicly for help paying his legal bills. He says hes quite sure that he is the next one to be indicted and soon. Yes, so its not like the president has anything to worry about. No chance anything related to this president will end up in the courts any time soon, right?
Rachel Maddow shows that Trump can end up in supermax or the Oval Office
It is simple. The Kavanaugh confirmation is the difference between Trump finishing his term in office or doing a stretch in federal prison. At some point, Trump will be out of office. Brett Kavanaugh can make sure that nothing happens to Trump he either leaves or is removed from the presidency. The Trump scandals on a collision course with the court system.
Trump will be subpoenaed or indicted at some point in the near future.
The orange jumpsuit possibility is very real, and the only thing that might save Trump from prison is Republicans violating every rule and norm to get Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court.
For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.
Follow Jason Easley on Facebook.
1.1k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard
Carl Bernstein on Tuesday said that White House chief of staff John Kelly should resign from his position and be ready to testify under oath before Congress about what he has witnessed first hand as a member of President Trumps inner circle.
Bernsteins call for Kelly to resign came after the publication of excerpts of a bombshell new book about the Trump administration written by Bernsteins partner from Watergate, Bob Woodward. Fear: Trump in the White House, the new book by Woodward, paints a very disturbing portrait of Donald Trump and his presidency, based on many in-depth interviews of people close to the White House.
It would seem to me that Gen. Kelly, in the interest of the country, needs to resign and with a statement that says, The presidency can no longer be entrusted to this man,' Bernstein said on CNN after reviewing the contents of the book, where he also advised Kelly on what he should write in a resignation statement.
We now have a picture of what weve all been dealing with here,' Bernstein said the chief of staff should write in a resignation. I will be happy to appear before committees of Congress and tell them what I have seen about this president of the United States and whether or not he is competent and able to lead the United States.'
Brian Stelter, host of CNNs Reliable Sources, posted the following tweet about his interview:
Carl Bernstein says Bob Woodwards book is chilling: The people closest to the president of the US, in his W.H. and in his admin, are saying that they see their job as protecting the US FROM the president of the US. That he is a danger to the republic
Carl Bernstein says Bob Woodward's book is chilling: "The people closest to the president of the US, in his W.H. and in his admin, are saying that they see their job as protecting the US FROM the president of the US. That he is a danger to the republic" https://t.co/H4bOAAw4ZK Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) September 5, 2018
According to excerpts from the book published by The Washington Post, Kelly told White House aides that Trump is unhinged and an idiot,adding it is pointless to advise the president.
Bernstein on CNN said given what he is quoted as saying by Bob Woodward in this book, it would be an act of great patriotism for Kelly to resign.
Bernstein said Woodward is able to prove the accounts in his book.
There are so many tape recordings from his sources that the account, the narrative accounts, are based on, Bernstein said. We finally are inside the Trump White House and it is a horror show.
Hes an idiot, Kelly is quoted as saying in the excerpts published by the Post. Its pointless to try to convince him of anything. Hes gone off the rails. Were in Crazytown. I dont even know why any of us are here.
This is the worst job Ive ever had, Kelly added, according to Woodward.
Kelly has gone on record denying that he called the president an idiot.
The idea I ever called the president an idiot is not true, Kelly said in a statement on Tuesday. This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administrations many successes.
Kelly is expected to depart from the White House soon, but it is unclear when he will leave or who Trump might choose as his new chief of staff.
1.3k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard
Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska is a guy who talks a lot but never does anything. He loves to issue vague statements saying that he might be unhappy with something that the criminal President of the United States has done. But his words never go anywhere.
Yesterday, he was outspoken once again on a variety of topics that had to do with the nomination hearings for Brett Kavanaugh. But he may have just opened his mouth one too many times when he said something that probably offended 51% of the electorate. In fact, Sasse may have made himself a target of women who are political activists, and he is up for reelection in just two years.
Heres what Sasse said in response to the number of women protesting against Kavanaugh:
So the fact that the hysteria has nothing to do with you means that we should ask, whats the hysteria coming from? The hysteria around Supreme Court confirmation hearings is coming from the fact that we have a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of the Supreme Court in American life now.
Many people immediately jumped on social media to criticize Sasses comments about female hysteria.
The Senate Democrats posted on Twitter:
Republicans say theres nothing really new when it comes to womens Constitutional rights and any concerns are hysteria.
Whats new? President Trump promised to appoint a Supreme Court Justice to OVERTURN womens Constitutional rights. Then he nominated Judge Kavanaugh.
Republicans say theres nothing really new when it comes to womens Constitutional rights and any concerns are hysteria. Whats new? President Trump promised to appoint a Supreme Court Justice to OVERTURN womens Constitutional rights. Then he nominated Judge Kavanaugh. pic.twitter.com/Gint7bG7Ne Senate Democrats (@SenateDems) September 4, 2018
Political writer Perry Bacon said:
The Sasse statement was a long attack on the idea that people should talk about the policy views of justices who have a huge impact on U.S. policy. And it described people who care about what the court does as unhinged and hysterical. His level of sanctimony is something.
The Sasse statement was a long attack on the idea that people should talk about the policy views of justices who have a huge impact on U.S. policy. And it described people who care about what the court does as unhinged and hysterical. His level of sanctimony is something. https://t.co/rw2jKi72tk Perry Bacon Jr. (@perrybaconjr) September 4, 2018
Senator Kamala Harris of California responded to Sasse calling the protests around Kavanaughs hysteria.
I think its a mistake to refer to women who are using their voice to protest a flawed process, to refer to them as hysterical.
"I think it's a mistake to refer to women who are using their voice to protest a flawed process, to refer to them as hysterical." Sen. Kamala Harris responds to Sen. Bem Sasse calling the protests around Kavanaugh's "hysteria." https://t.co/f1K2BSeyXx MSNBC (@MSNBC) September 5, 2018
Hysteria is usually one of those dog whistle terms that sexist men use to demean and devalue women and their contributions. According to a Daily Kos article:
We all know who gets hysterical, huh? Those ridiculous, screaming women. Like Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, maybe? The pro-choice women of the Republican conference who say they want to hear Kavanaugh tell them Roe is settled law?
Clearly Ben Sasse is a man who doesnt get it. He is a white man who doesnt understand the point of view of women or minorities, and so he puts them down. However Ben Sasse may also be a man who will have to face reality in the not-too-distant future. That reality will be when he is rejected by voters in his next reelection bid for being a man who is out of touch with their needs and also just doesnt care about them.
Former Speaker of the House (and current Democratic House Leader) Nancy Pelosi of California is increasingly confident that there will be a Blue Wave election in November.
Pelosi made comments on Tuesday expressing her confidence after a new Washington Post-ABC News poll showed voters by a margin of 14 percentage points favor Democrats over Republicans in the generic congressional ballot. The poll also said that 60 percent of voters wanted Democrats to take over Congress and hold President Donald Trump accountable for his actions. This large majority said they were not in favor of Republicans staying in power where they would further the presidents agenda.
On Tuesday Pelosi sent a letter to her House Democratic colleagues that they must Be Ready for the prospect that we will be in the Majority in January. So she is feeling good and trying to fire up her team with just two months until the midterm elections that will decide whether or not she will become the Speaker of the House again.
Pelosi indicated in her communication that the Democratic chairs of all House committees will be drafting bills that reflect the partys For the People campaign agenda, which is their slogan for this election cycle. She said the new legislation will emphasize controlling and reducing healthcare costs, increasing workers wages, and cleaning up the corrupt Washington D.C. environment.
Pelosi sent out her letter on the same day that she did an NPR interview where she did not hold back on her expectations for November. She said that she has every confidence that Democrats will reclaim the House majority that will put them in back in control.
This did not mean she was over confident, however, saying that her positive expectations are not because Im taking anything for granted, but because were not yielding one grain of sand.
The #2 Democrat in the House, Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, also said that he is pretty confident that Democrats will return to power in the House after the midterms.
All the signs that I have seen are very, very positive, Hoyer said. He made clear that the signs hes referring to are the very high quality of Democratic candidates, unusually strong fundraising totals for congressional candidates, and increasingly positive national polling for Democrats in a wide variety of polls.
With two months until election day it is unusual for Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer to express such confidence that they will win. They are supported by the evidence to date, but we are also concerned that Democratic candidates keep working hard in every swing district to make sure that Pelosis confidence is well-founded.
Right now the majority of American voters have a dream a dream of Republicans being thrown out of power, and of Donald Trump being held accountable for his crimes. And it is very important that all Democrats not lose sight of the amount of hard work that must take place between now and November 6th to make this dream a reality.
1.1k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard
Trump wouldnt understand why the US couldnt abandon important ally South Korea a year into his presidency.
The story about Trump not understanding why the US needs to have a close presence to monitor N. Korea activities has been reported before, but The Washington Post added this detail:
What The Posts story Tuesday didnt detail, though, is that this exchange didnt happen early in Trumps presidency; it came on Jan. 19, 2018 almost exactly one full year into it. It came months after North Korea had threatened an attack on Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean. It also came a couple months after North Korea said it had developed a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that could reach the continental United States.
What got Mattiss goat, according to the book, was that he felt like theyd had this exact conversation many times before, and Trump refused to either remember or process it. As Mattis explained the reasons for a U.S.-South Korean alliance, Trump repeatedly returned to the idea that the United States is running a trade deficit with South Korea suggesting the alliance was hurting the American economy.
Trumps ignorance is intentional and self-imposed
Trump is willing to throw US allies overboard while jeopardizing national and global security because he is that devoid of basic knowledge. This is some master strategy, or Trump Doctrine. It is simply willful ignorance. Trump thinks he knows everything, so he believes that he needs to learn nothing. Hell just trust his gut as he likes to say.
The problem is that Trumps instincts are consistently terrible. He makes the wrong choices at every turn. If Donald Trump werent born rich, he would have been a failure in life.
The South Korea story debunks the excuses that Republicans make for Trump. He wasnt new to the job, inexperienced, or not a politician. A year into his presidency, Trump didnt understand why the US needs to maintain their alliance with South Korea.
Trumps ignorance is a threat to the world, which is why he is blowing a gasket over Bob Woodwards book.
The myth of Donald Trump is being debunked and exposed.
For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.
Follow Jason Easley on Facebook.
Get the SC business stories that matter.
Our newsletter catches you up with all the business stories that are shaping Charleston and South Carolina every Monday and Thursday at noon. Get ahead with us - it's free.
Charleston, SC (29403)
Today
Mostly cloudy. Low around 50F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph..
Tonight
Mostly cloudy. Low around 50F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph.
Andrew Knapp is editor of the Quick Response Team, which covers crime, courts and breaking news. He previously worked as a reporter and copy editor at Florida Today, Newsday and Bangor (Maine) Daily News. He enjoys golf, weather and fatherhood.
Forecasters will have a better idea Thursday of what powerful Hurricane Florence is going to do. But it might be Sunday before South Carolina has a real sense of how much danger its coast might be in.
The catastrophic storm reached Category 4 on Wednesday afternoon, blowing potentially devastating 130 mph winds. It was more than 1,000 miles to the southeast of Charleston and Bermuda, and expected to approach the East Coast by Tuesday.
Computer model runs at midday Wednesday, though, began to suggest Florence won't make landfall in South Carolina, as a few had predicted earlier. The National Hurricane Center moved its forecast "uncertainty" cone to leave only the northern coast of the state at its far edge.
But the runs still varied widely, and a number of them indicated landfall along the East Coast. Forecasters said it was still a speculative call with the air currents shifting that steer hurricanes.
"It's far too soon to speculate what, if any, impacts Florence may have on the U.S. East Coast next week," said National Hurricane Center specialists Robbie Berg and Jamie Rhome.
The model runs "are being very shifty right now with the overall general steering once Florence nears Bermuda," said meteorologist Shea Gibson, with the private company WeatherFlow.
The timing on a high pressure air current coming off the Northeast could be the deciding factor, he said.
"It's too dicey to make any calls right now," Gibson said.
Behind Florence, at least two more storms are beginning to spin off Africa in the tropical Atlantic. What happens with Florence could decide whether they track toward the outer Caribbean Island and potentially the Southeast, forecasters said.
"We may have as many as three named tropical systems in the Atlantic at the same time next week," said hurricane meteorologist Dan Kottlowski of AccuWeather, a private company.
On Wednesday, despite running into winds that shear hurricane strength, Florence muscled up from a dangerous hurricane with 105 mph winds to a monster with winds as strong as Hurricane Hugo had when it slammed into Charleston in 1989.
Florence had hit a patch of hotter water that fuels the storms.
Hurricane Center forecasters expected the hurricane to weaken somewhat overnight.
If a shift in air currents fail to turn the storm, "Florence is likely to come dangerously close to the U.S. East Coast by the middle of next week," said meteorologist Jeff Masters, with the private company Weather Underground. "The steering currents so far in advance are difficult to accurately predict, but should grow more clear by Thursday."
"Next week could get sporty," said Mark Malsick, the severe weather liaison for the S.C. Climate Office.
Charleston police on Tuesday night arrested a man who they said attacked a transgender woman in the city's bar and restaurant district, a crime that authorities classified as bias-motivated.
And on the same evening, members of the LGBTQ community told police that they too have feared for their safety and have been accosted on the city's streets.
The Alliance For Full Acceptance, an advocacy group, partnered with the Charleston Police Department to host a town hall discussion to encourage people to voice their concerns after the Aug. 19 attack on Ann Street.
A 34-year-old Goose Creek woman was leaving King Street bars around 2 a.m. when a man kicked her sister in the stomach near an elevator of the Charleston Visitor Center parking garage, police said. When the woman came to her sister's aid, the attacker then punched her in the head, knocking her out. The man used slurs about the woman's gender identity before punching her, investigators said.
The victim was hospitalized, but she is recovering.
Officers have arrested 30-year-old Christopher Lamar Price in connection with the attack. He faces a charge of second-degree assault and battery, according to jail records.
Police initially denied that the attack was a potential hate crime but later corrected the statement while social media posts circulated.
On Tuesday, a diverse crowd filled a room at the Arthur W. Christopher Community Center and addressed a panel that included Police Chief Luther Reynolds, Deputy Chief Naomi Broughton, two officers and several LGBTQ advocates.
Reynolds brought up the "offensive" wording of a statement that his department initially issued about the Ann Street assault, which had said the victim "wasnt assaulted because she's a transgender." The chief encouraged members of the crowd to speak their minds and said that "a level of humility" is necessary for the department to improve.
"In my mind, there should be no space between us. Zero," he said. "We should be in this together. I know thats not where were at today, but thats where we need to be."
The agency plans to train patrol officers and investigators on how to treat LGBTQ victims, suspects and fellow employees. Part of that conversation will center around pronoun use and how to respond to transgender individuals.
One man in the crowd told the panel that Charleston officers have assumed he is a woman and called him the name he was assigned at birth, even after he had corrected them.
"I hate hearing that my co-workers and fellow officers dont call you by the right pronoun or the right name after you've repeatedly told them, or they're condescending," said Officer Jessica Hans, a member of the LGBTQ community who along with another officer spoke of the need for better education. "We are trying to change that, but we cant do it without yall."
Vanity Reid Deterville, a 24-year-old College of Charleston student, pushed back against the Police Department for initially making a definitive statement that the Ann Street assault wasn't bias-motivated as opposed to saying that aspect of the crime remained under investigation.
"It was like a slap in the face to me because I knew as a transgender woman that that was the exact reason she was attacked," she said after the forum.
Reid Deterville said she has endured catcalls and hostility on campus and downtown. She said she's suffered two assaults, one of which she didn't report to police out of fear of not being taken seriously by authorities.
But on Tuesday, Reid Deterville said she walked away feeling heard by police after a conversation that she said "scratched a little deeper than surface level."
"We still have a long way to go when it comes to eradicating this issue," she said.
As a transgender woman of color, a 34-year-old Goose Creek resident who was knocked unconscious during a confrontation last month in downtown Charleston says she's no stranger to persecution from biased individuals.
The victim's statement, read aloud by an advocate, came Wednesday during a bond hearing for the man who authorities said punched her in the head outside a nightclub after making derogatory comments about her gender identity.
Christopher Lamar Price, 30, received $75,000 bail on a charge of second-degree assault and battery, a misdemeanor that carries a punishment of up to three years behind bars.
A dog breeder who lives on Lucille Drive in North Charleston, Price was ordered not to go within a one-block proximity of Deco Nightclub or the Charleston Visitor Center parking garage, where the assault happened around 2 a.m. Aug. 19.
The victim was walking with her boyfriend and her sister to their car after a night out at King Street bars when they encountered a man near Deco on Ann Street.
Surveillance video appeared to show the victim's sister in a verbal confrontation with the suspect and another man. Police said the men taunted the transgender woman and her boyfriend about their sexual orientation. Then the two groups parted ways.
A short time later, Price walked toward the group as they stood in an elevator at the Visitor Center parking garage. Police have said he kicked the victim's sister in the stomach.
The victim then stepped in and confronted Price. The video showed her fall backward to the ground when the suspect punched her in the head before running away. Her injuries required eight stitches to her cheek and two staples to her scalp, according to an affidavit.
Price appeared on a video screen from Charleston County jail for the bond hearing. He stood in silence with his hands crossed as the victim's advocate read a statement that alleged the altercation was fueled by his "hatred" for members of the LGBTQ community.
Authorities said they're classifying the crime as bias-motivated. The Charleston Police Department initially denied the assault was a potential hate crime but later corrected that statement when social media posts circulated.
South Carolina doesn't have a hate crime law, but information about such offenses is collected by the State Law Enforcement Division and tracked by the FBI.
Syndicated and guest columns represent the personal views of the writers, not necessarily those of the editorial staff. The editorial department operates entirely independently of the news department and is not involved in newsroom operations.
By now, many parents know kids are vaping sweet-smelling tobacco often using devices that look deceptively like pens or flash drives. And most parents are hip to the prevalence of underage marijuana use.
Now comes a combo of the two: vaping pot. Experts and educators say young people are once again one step ahead of the adults in their lives, experimenting with this new and more heady way to consume weed.
"Its only a matter of time" before adolescents are vaping nicotine and pot in equal measure, said Mila Vascones-Gatski, a substance abuse counselor at Arlington Public Schools in Virginia. "Anything in liquid form can go into a vape, and thats scary."
Surveys provide a snapshot of the problem.
Among California high school students who have used an electronic smoking device, 27 percent said they used it with some form of cannabis, according to a report by the state Department of Public Health, based on 2016 data, the latest available.
Nationally, among high school seniors who reported using a vaping device in the past year, 11 percent said they had vaped cannabis, according to a 2017 survey by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the University of Michigan. More than half said they vaped "just flavoring" and about 33 percent said nicotine.
Effect on health?
The California Department of Public Health says researchers do not fully understand how using cannabis oils and waxes with vapes affects health. What they do know is that vaporized cannabis can contain a lot more THC, the cannabis ingredient responsible for psychoactive effects such as anxiety and paranoia.
"When you make it into an oil or wax, the (THC) concentration can be very high," Vascones-Gatski said. "This is when psychotic symptoms are intensified."
Recreational marijuana use is illegal among children in all states. In California, such use was legalized for adults 21 and older beginning this year. Critics argue the change could make pot more accessible to young people, although researchers say it is too early to tell.
Meanwhile, as vaping becomes more popular and socially acceptable, more young people are bound to try pot in this form, said Stanton Glantz, professor of medicine and director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at University of California-San Francisco.
"You are starting to see the much more aggressive push for flavors" in the cannabis liquids, he said.
Some popular cannabis oil flavors include mint, jasmine, banana smoothie, pumpkin spice, and gummy fish, according to industry sites.
It still smells like weed
Even if the cannabis industry says its target is not youth, there is no denying that fruity smells attract kids, Glantz said.
Zoei, a 14-year-old student at Lodi High School, about 40 minutes south of Sacramento, has seen and smelled that firsthand. Students who vape pot in school follow up by spraying perfume or cologne to conceal the smell because while fruity "it still smells like weed," said Zoei, who spoke on condition that her last name not be used.
Some of her schoolmates vape both marijuana and nicotine in restrooms, the cafeteria, even in classrooms, despite signs around campus warning kids not to vape, she said.
She tried vaping nicotine juice once after being attracted by a sweet strawberry smell. She hasnt vaped pot yet, but confessed shes curious. If it were offered to her, shed probably try it, but not at school where most kids get caught, she said.
"I just want to see what happens," she said.
Some experts say the dangers of pot vaping among kids are receiving less attention than they should, and that the vaping industry needs more regulation.
"Schools tell us that tobacco prevention is important, but we really need something on marijuana," said Ryan Crowdis, with the Tobacco-Use Prevention Education program at the Orange County Department of Education. "The problem is our hands are tied because our funding comes from the tobacco tax revenue, so thats what we have to focus on."
Education and awareness
The state Department of Education said it expects to receive funding from Proposition 64, the ballot measure that legalized recreational pot, in the 2019-20 budget to help fund education and awareness around youth use of marijuana.
Industry representatives deny trying to appeal to youths. "In no way, shape or form do I see brands trying to ingratiate children or underage users. Theres plenty of business in the adult market," said Farley Cahen, the founder and CEO of Elevated Agency, which does marketing for cannabis companies.
Cahen said the California law legalizing recreational pot for adults came with strict packaging regulations that prohibit language or wrapping that could be attractive to children.
Some of the fruity smells in some cannabis oils come from the manipulation of terpenes, the compound responsible for the plants aroma, he explained. But he said that flavorings are in no way promoted like candy-like nicotine juices.
Nicotine liquids, also referred to as e-juices, come in thousands of flavors often with playful names such as fried cream cakes, booger sugar, candy cane and sundae drizzle.
Cannabis oils can come in preloaded cartridges also called pods that are inserted into vaping devices. One popular marijuana pen-and-pod device is the Pax Era, which is often referred to as the "iPhone of vapes" because of its high-tech features, said Stephan Lambert, a prevention coordinator at the Orange County Department of Education.
The Pax Era is manufactured by the parent company of the Juul, a vape pen for tobacco use that burst onto the teen scene within the past two years and has become a nightmare for schools because of its resemblance to a flash drive. The Pax Era looks similar to the Juul.
But teens are tech-savvy and arent necessarily buying devices made just for marijuana. For instance, Lambert said, theyre learning how to refill their Juul pods, the cartridges that contain e-juice, with different blends, including marijuana oils, with the help of video tutorials on YouTube.
"These oils are becoming very mainstream and very easy to access," he said.
Mama may have, Papa may have but God bless the child thats got his own. The famous Billie Holiday lyrics ring true when it comes to the current state of homeownership.
While millennials made up 36 percent of homebuyers in 2017, they have yet to catch up with other generations as far as home ownership is concerned. A recent study found they have lower homeownership rates than the nations two previous generations, and millennials of color have rates nearly 15 percentage points lower than their white counterparts.
"Student loan debt has hindered many, especially within this millennial population," said Maurice Hampton, treasurer of the Chicago Association of Realtors and managing broker at Centered RCG in Chicago. "The other aspect is that, due to the stripping of the wealth, the wealth rebuilding among blacks and Latinos is extremely lagging behind other communities since the recovery of the recession."
The study from Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank, and Better Mortgage, a New York-based digital mortgage company, found that between 2005 and 2015, the homeownership rate among white young adults was 38.5 percent, compared to 28.8 percent for Hispanics and 14.5 percent for African-Americans. In that time frame, the black millennial homeownership rate fell almost 10 percentage points and was the only group to not experience an increase during the housing boom.
"We had the credit crisis, and millions of Americans lost their homes and we still dont have basic financial literacy for Americans. We dont have it for the most vulnerable members of our society," said Vishal Garg, CEO of Better Mortgage. "If your parents didnt come from wealth or arent in the business of managing their own money, you fundamentally are left on your own. You dont learn how to compound interest or figure out how to shop for the best loans, and fundamentally every aspect of American life today to move up in the socioeconomic ladder requires engaging in some sort of borrowing," he said.
Denise Soler Cox, a Denver resident, was incensed by the reports findings. Cox, 47, one of the filmmakers behind "Being Enye" and a co-creator of Project Enye, a website aimed at empowering Latinas, agrees that part of the problem is lack of generational wealth for many first-generation Latinos. She says there are also cultural norms at play, such as reconciling collective vs. self-reliant mindsets.
"Family is everything in our culture if its between me saving for a down payment on a house, or the family needing money, many are probably going to choose to help their family," Cox said.
"I dont remember many times sitting down and talking to my mother about money. All I was ever told was dont get into debt, that its terrible. But she never talked to me about good debt, that there is such a thing as good debt. Theres a number of contributors to this, but at the end of the day brown people are the most affected," she said.
Cox aims to shift some cultural norms in the Latino community, in hopes that more people of color can start forging their own financial legacy.
The report confirms some of Coxs and Gargs beliefs. It attributes low millennial homeownership rates in part to student debt, tightened credit standards and limited availability of affordable housing in cities, but points out that minorities face an additional burden a lack of intergenerational wealth (wealth passing from one generation to the next).
Young adults are more likely to be homeowners if their parents are homeowners and have the means to help their kids with a down payment, according to the study, which found that white parents have an 83.7 percent rate of homeownership, compared to 64.4 percent for Latinos and 47.7 percent for African-Americans. And buying a house can be difficult when, according to a 2018 investigation by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, nearly two-thirds of mortgage lenders deny home loans for people of color at higher rates than for white people.
But millennials shifting attitudes toward homeownership have also contributed to the decline, according to the study. Those who endured the Great Recession at a certain age are unlikely to take wealth building via homeownership as a given millennials choose to become buyers when it meets their needs but arent sold on the idea that making sacrifices today to save for a down payment is the best strategy.
"I think we have people who are very debt-averse because they watched their parents go through a foreclosure or struggle with mortgage payments or lose their homes I think thats a contributor," said Erica Dumas, spokesperson for Better.
To turn millennial homeownership numbers around, the study suggests enhancing financial education at the high school and college levels and improving homeowner awareness through online educational campaigns. It says streamlining the mortgage process and changing zoning regulations to allow for more construction in areas with limited housing supply would also help.
"We have to have these hard conversations, and we have to see how we can influence the younger generation into understanding that its kind of on us, no one is coming to save us. We have to save ourselves," Cox said.
Garg is hoping the study, will be a rallying cry for those seeking change in the homeownership landscape, both publicly and privately.
"You have to decide to pick a place on the battlefield and keep saying Im going to push and make this process more accessible and affordable," he said. "We will continue to work with public officials and institutions to discuss policy recommendations, and call on private institutions to join us in educating the public and confronting issues, like financial discrimination, head on."
The death of a University of Guam employee has been ruled accidental by Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Aurelio Espinola. An autopsy performed Tuesday revealed that Angel Crisostomo Petros had died of a broken neck.
Guam Police Department spokesman Sgt. Paul Tapao said the department continues to conduct an injured person investigation.
Petros was found dead in a parking lot between the RFK Memorial Library and the computer center around 8 a.m. on Sunday by G4S security personnel.
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request.
Petros was a multimedia technician and had worked at the university for 23 years.
Tapao said detectives still seek the community's assistance in this case, and anyone with information is asked to call investigators at 472-8911.
Photo: The Spinner
Looking to exert more influence over some of the people in your life.
A new web service is offering consumers the ability to tailor the types of articles a selected person can see in order to, in essence get them to do what you want.
According to the website, "The Spinner is a service that enables you to control articles presented to a specific person, on the websites he or she usually visits, in order to influence them on a subconscious level."
The site works by targeting a specific person, who is exposed to hundreds of items strategically placed as editorial content, repeating the same message over and over.
The website offers different packages targeted towards different outcomes:
Message: Propose marriage! Target: Boyfriend
Message: Quit smoking! Target: Loved ones.
But it's this one that has attracted the attention from the likes of Rolling Stone Magazine:
Message: Initiate sex! Target: Wife.
The British company says that for about $30, their basic package offers a set of 10 different articles presented to the target 180 times around a three month period.
Here's where it gets sketchy, the service incorporates a popular marketing technique that displays specified native ads to targeted users. You share an innocent looking link with your wife or girlfriend and when she clicks on it a cookie attaches to her device, which bombards her with articles designed to arouse her.
The articles are selected from womens magazines like Cosmopolitan.
Topics include Why women should initiate intimacy more often and 3 reasons why you should take the lead and make advances on your husband.
Once she clicks on the link, the content leads her to existing articles, but here's the crux of the matter - the headlines and descriptions have been changed by The Spinner team.
The Spinner team consists of psychologists from an unnamed university, and the content has been specifically crafted to encourage women to have more sex.
The service does not appear illegal but is on the line when it comes to ethics.
Web giants like Google and Facebook already make billions from their respective ad-targeting services that serve users advertisements based on the sites they visit.
But The Spinner takes things one step further by promising to psychologically manipulate your significant other.
The Spinner has been operational since January of 2018 and it also the "help around the house" package, a service aimed at women who want to target their husbands.
The Spinner's website says, "according to its terms of use, if the initiator of Spinner service (i.e the party that ordered and/or paid for the service) sends the 'targeting link' to any user via any digital media, its the initiators responsibility to refer the sent party to The Spinner's terms of use and privacy policy."
LOWER PROVIDENCE Police are investigating a shooting that occurred Sunday night in the 100 block of Hollywood Avenue in the Trooper section of the township.
According to a release issued by the Lower Providence Police Department, officers responded to the scene at 10:50 p.m. Sept. 2, and were advised that one person had been shot inside of a home.
Upon arrival officers observed several people outside of the home and heard yelling from inside. Officers controlled the chaotic scene and detained five individuals before entering the home and locating the shooting victim.
Officers provided first aid to the victim, a 30-year-old man from Bridgeport who had been shot once. Care was turned over to medics from the Lower Providence Community Ambulance. The victim was then flown to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia where he underwent emergency surgery. He remains in the hospital in stable condition.
The events that led to the shooting are actively being investigated by the Lower Providence Township Police Department detective unit. Once completed, the case will be reviewed by the Montgomery County District Attorneys Office for any charging recommendations.
No charges were announced in the release.
Chief Stan Turtle said, With certainty this is an isolated event in a normally peaceful neighborhood in our township. Our officers identified and located all persons involved in the incident immediately and they were interviewed by detectives that evening.
Lower Providence Police were assisted by West Norriton and East Norriton Township Police, Lower Providence Community Ambulance, Lower Providence Fire Department and PennStar-1.
WEST NORRITON One week after her husband pleaded guilty to his role in the fatal stabbing of a Delaware County man during a botched drug deal in Plymouth, his wife also admitted to participating in the murder.
Lana Lare, 21, of the 2500 block of Chestnut Avenue, West Norriton, was sentenced on Wednesday to 30 to 60 years in a state correctional facility after she accepted a plea agreement in connection with the Nov. 20, 2017, stabbing death of 31-year-old Chad Konata, of Collingdale, Delaware County. Specifically, Lare pleaded guilty to charges of third-degree murder with a deadly weapon, robbery with a deadly weapon and conspiring with her husband, Austin Parkinson, to commit the robbery and murder.
The sentence was imposed by Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy, who held the hearing in her courtroom at the county Youth Center in West Norriton.
Third-degree murder is a killing committed with malice.
If I could take it back in a heartbeat, I would, Lare, wearing a maroon jailhouse jumpsuit, addressed Konatas grieving parents and his girlfriend who were in the courtroom. I keep you and Chad in my prayers every night.
Last week, Parkinson, also 21, was sentenced to 40 to 80 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to identical charges. While prosecutors alleged Parkinson was more culpable in the murder, they said Lare also actively participated in the robbery plan and stabbing.
It was very clear from the evidence in this case that both not only agreed to commit this robbery and to commit this stabbing, they both actually participated in the actual act, said Assistant District Attorney Robert Kolansky.
With the charges, prosecutors alleged the couple met Konata in the parking lot of West Ridge Center in the 400 block of Ridge Pike for a purported heroin deal, but wound up stabbing him multiple times before making off with eight bundles of the drug, which is less than 100 doses, with a street value of $800.
They had a plan and a scheme and it was orchestrated to rob him with deadly weapons and they were going to do whatever it took to get that heroin from him, said Assistant District Attorney Tonya Lupinacci. This case has had quite an impact on Chad Konatas parents. Chad was their only son and they are suffering great loss each and every day.
Konatas parents and his girlfriend provided the judge with victim impact letters expressing their unbearable pain.
Ive watched Chads parents struggle with the death of their son. The toll its taken on them is unbearable. His life was taken too soon, Konatas girlfriend told the judge.
Defense lawyer Nicholas Reifsnyder said Lare was remorseful and wanted to accept responsibility for her part in the murder.
She has been extremely remorseful from the jump, Reifsnyder said. She got in over her head. She was addicted to drugs. It was a drug-fueled murder. They were looking for heroin. They didnt have money and the plan was to rob him and to take the drugs. A struggle ensued and they ended up killing him in the struggle and she was certainly a participant in that.
Its a horrible, horrible situation. Theres nothing good that came out of this. Obviously, Lana is very remorseful but remorse doesnt bring back Chad, unfortunately, Reifsnyder added.
The investigation began shortly before 6 p.m. Nov. 20 when Plymouth police officers responded to a report of a vehicle crash and found Konata dead inside a 2012 Buick sedan that was still in drive and had collided with a parked vehicle in the parking lot of West Ridge Center, according to the criminal complaint filed by county Detective William Mitchell and Plymouth Detective Anthony Costello.
An autopsy determined Konata died as a result of multiple sharp force injuries and the manner of death was ruled homicide.
Detectives obtained surveillance video from numerous locations surrounding the crime scene and that video footage allegedly showed two people entering and then running from the victims car moments before it drifted through the lot and struck the second vehicle, according to the criminal complaint.
One of the figures on the surveillance video appeared to be limping while running away, detectives said.
Detectives followed a trail of blood leading from where Konatas car was parked at the presumed time of the stabbing to a parking space on the east side of the Outback Steakhouse next to the strip mall, court documents indicate.
County detectives recovered two cellphones from inside the Buick and two knives under Konatas body. Several bags of suspected heroin also were recovered from the area around the vehicle, according to court documents.
The phones, which belonged to Konata, contained several text messages from a number belonging to Parkinson, indicating they would meet around 5 p.m., according to the criminal complaint.
Detectives also interviewed a witness who reportedly saw a dark-colored sedan, possibly an Audi, fleeing from the scene. Additionally, a concerned citizen contacted investigators with information regarding a man who reportedly drove Parkinson and Lare to the strip mall in an Audi and later drove the couple to Einstein Medical Center Montgomery where Lare was treated for an injury to her hand.
According to the criminal complaint, detectives obtained security video of Parkinson and Lare arriving at the hospital in a black Audi sedan at 5:32 p.m.
In separate interviews on Nov. 21, Parkinson and Lare reportedly admitted to being driven by a friend to meet up with Konata.
Lare reportedly told detectives the couple had recently married and she had not yet taken Parkinsons name. Lare allegedly said they went to the meeting location with the intention of scaring and robbing Konata and the couple was armed with knives, according to the arrest affidavit.
Lare allegedly told detectives that once inside the car Parkinson began screaming at Konata and started to stab him. Lare surmised that she received a cut to her right hand when she reached across the victim from the back seat during the stabbing, according to the criminal complaint.
Parkinson subsequently admitted to stabbing Konata with a big knife in the commission of a heroin robbery and said he was unsure how many times he had stabbed Konata because he was in such a rage.
John has already noted the controversy of the choice that the makers of the new film First Man to omit the scene of Neil Armstrong planting the American flag on the moon, with (Canadian) star Ryan Gosling making the preposterous claim that the late Armstronga former military test pilot and Korean War veteranwas some kind of general cosmopolite representative for all of humanity. They might have gone with a safe route and just said that the film, like all films these days, is aimed for a global market and as such is better marketed without specifically American patriotic scenes, though thats still pretty weak.
Now the second man on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, has weighed in, saying Goslings claim is an offensive travesty. I wouldnt want to mess with Aldrin, even if he is 88. A few years back, he smacked a person hassling him that the moon landing was faked. The police, sensibly, didnt not charge Aldrin with anything.
But it is important to understand that the disdain liberal Hollywood has for America and American symbols is hardly new. The first moon landing 49 years ago was the occasion for liberals to complain about it. From chapter 7 of my first Age of Reagan:
The reaction to the moon landing in 1969 is a good example of national exhaustion and liberal guilt at work. The moon landing had been set out as a lofty goal by the liberals hero, John F. Kennedy, and the moon landing was an occasion of national pride and celebration for most Americans. Here, amidst the rubble and gloom of the 1960s, was something that had gone splendidly right. Many leading liberals, however, could only sniff that while the moon landing was undeniably impressive, the money for the moon landing would have been better spent on social problems on Earth. The popular cliche of the time went: Any nation that can land a man on the moon can [fill in the blank]. (The total cost of the decade-long moon landing project was less than three months worth of federal spending for social programs in 1969.) A 25 person delegation from the Poor Peoples Campaign, led by Rev. Ralph Abernathy (Martin Luther Kings successor), came to the Apollo 11 launch at Cape Canaveral to protest Americas inability to choose human priorities, while Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield said that The needs of the people on earth, and especially in this country, should have priority. When we solve these problems, we can consider space efforts. Even the brother of the man who issued the call to go to the moon, Sen. Ted Kennedy, expressed weariness with the space program: I think after [the moon landing] the space program ought to fit into our other national priorities.
Ill just add that my favorite variation of the liberal cliche that Any country that can land a man on the moon came from my old mentor M. Stanton Evans: Any country that can land a man on the moon can abolish the income tax.
Stunning news out of the Massachusetts primary this evening, where 10-term incumbent House member Michael Capuano has been defeated for re-election by Boston City Council member Ayanna Pressley. CBS News notes the obvious comparison to Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez:
Boston City Council member Ayanna Pressley has unseated 10-term incumbent Rep. Michael Capuano, in a surprise upset in the Massachusetts Democratic primary Tuesday. Pressley, the first African-American woman elected to the Boston City Council in 2009 was considered by many to be an outsider candidate, drawing comparisons to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the young democratic socialist who shocked the Democratic establishment by defeating New York Rep. Joe Crowley in his primary in June. Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Tuesday night, Congratulations to my sister in service, @AyannaPressley, on continuing her historic path into Congress tonight. Lets push together to make Medicare for All, tuition free college, & living wages a reality in America all without corporate PAC money.
CBS notes that Capuano has been a longtime supporter of progressive policies such as Medicare for All, but I guess that wasnt enough for the increasingly progressive grassroots of the Democratic Party. Indeed, CBS notes that both Pressley and Capuano admit theres likely no difference between them in terms of the way theyll vote in Congress.
So in other words, the key difference is ethnicity. Capuano is a white dude. With an Italian name at that. No good for todays Democrats.
We noted here back in June that this race was dividing Democrats over the question of race, with Robert Kuttner of American Prospect declaring his support for Capuano. I suspect the House Democratic leadership is not too happy tonight, because:
Capuano was endorsed by prominent Massachusetts figures, including former Gov. Deval Patrick, the states first black governor. He also had the support of the Congressional Black Caucus. He raised twice as much money as Pressley.
More popcorn please.
Over the weekend I noted the Wall Street Journal editorial decrying the wrong done to Cleta Mitchell in connection with the Russia investigation(s). Cleta is the prominent Foley & Lardner partner and campaign finance expert. The Journal editorial is Anatomy of a Fusion smear (truncated but accessible here on Outline). It appears that the Fusion smear was planted in his accustomed style by Glenn Simpson with a few of his friends at McClatchy.
Simpsons friends at McClatchy are reporters Peter Stone and Greg Gordon. In their March 15 article Lawyer who worked for NRA said to have had concerns about groups Russia ties, they disseminated a fraudulent story about Cleta in Simpsons continuing campaign to undermine the 2016 election.
In an invaluable Wall Street Journal column published earlier this year Ill return to it in my next post on this matter Kim Strassel briefly related Cletas response to the McClatchy story: Ms. Mitchell tells me she told McClatchy before publication that this was false, that she has spoken to no one about the NRAs actions in 2016, and that she believes the entire NRA-Russia story line is preposterous. She asked the reporters to explain to whom she supposedly said this, when and in what context. They couldnt, but ran the story anyway. She also quoted Cletas denunciation of the McClatchy story as the quintessential definition of fake news.
Following this weekends Wall Street Journal editorial, I reached out to Cleta to ask if she had anything to add. Indeed, she did. I posted her message to me here. I posted her letter to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence related to the Fusion smear in Cleta Mitchell: Glenn Simpson is a liar.
Cleta also forwarded eight PDFs conveying her email correspondence with Stone and Gordon before and after the publication of their March 15 story. The emails run from March 14 to March 18. Cleta forwarded them to me with this message:
Here are the emails between me and the idiot reporters at McClatchy. Peter Stone and Greg Gordon they were the mouthpiece for the leaks from the FBI about the NRA and the Glenn Simpson lies about me, the NRA, etc. plus, they were the shills for the Adam Schiff lies from the House Democrats on Intelligence committee. It is a sordid situation the FBI takes lies from Glenn Simpson, and instead of prosecuting him, they do his bidding and the whole cabal leaks to McClatchy it is despicable.
I copied and pasted the eight PDFs into one document and uploaded the document to Scribd (embedded below). After pasting them into a separate document I edited the messages to remove stray symbols, email addresses and telephone numbers. I separated the messages by date. I silently corrected a spelling or two but did not otherwise intentionally make any other changes to the messages. Please note that the March 14 emails run in reverse chronological order.
I think that the emails in total make for a remarkable document. Together with the McClatchy story what we have here is a case study in what may rightly be called fake news. It is a case study that both replays and illuminates the Russia hoax in small.
Cleta Mitchell-McClatchy Email Correspondence Google Docs by Scott Johnson on Scribd
I was working today and couldnt watch the Brett Kavanaugh hearing, but Paul provided the best blow-by-blow summary I have seen. He saved me a lot of pain!
It strikes me that the Democratic Party crossed a Rubicon of sorts today. They abandoned all norms not just of civilitysomething they purported to yearn for just a few days ago!but of sanity. They deliberately turned a Senate confirmation hearing into a farce. There was no distinction between the howling left-wing mob that infiltrated the hearing room and the Senate Democrats.
Not long ago, some Democrats resisted the crazier fringes of their party. No longer. There is no daylight among the violent fascist group Antifa, the crazed Democratic activists bleating about impeachment, and the establishment Democratic Party. They are now one and the same. So, disgusting as todays hearing was, it at least achieved some clarity. There is no longer any wing of the Democratic Party that can be described as sane.
Here is a parting image from todays hearing: courtesy of the New York Post, a group of women who dressed up as characters in the dystopian Handmaids Tale to crash the Kavanaugh hearing.
Needless to say, I havent read the book, seen the movie, or whatever. But Wikipedia says that The Handmaids Tale describes a future in which women are forbidden to read, homosexuals are hanged, women are forcibly assigned to produce children for the ruling class, and much more. So the Democrats apparently want us to believe that judges like Brett Kavanaugh are just itching to ban reading by women, among many other things.
Which is to say, they are insane.
Someday, historians will try to explain what caused the Democratic Party to go nuts. At the moment, I dont have a theory. In the meantime, if you want to counter the Democrats hallucinations with a dose of sanity, Ann Althouse has Kavanaughs opening statementa little too conciliatory for my tasteand her own comments thereon.
Politico reports that 13 left-wing Democratic Party groups delivered a letter this morning to Chuck Schumer, criticizing his handling of the Kavanaugh nomination as not sufficiently fanatical:
Progressive groups have a blunt assessment of Sen. Chuck Schumers work to defeat Brett Kavanaughs nomination: You are failing us. Thirteen liberal groups have signed on to a letter, delivered Wednesday morning, that pans the minority leaders strategy of stopping President Donald Trumps nominee for the Supreme Court. They say that the Democratic Partys progressive base expects nothing less than all-out resistance to Trumps dangerous agenda, and question whether Schumer is delivering it.
The letter is here. The signers say Schumer isnt trying hard enough to get all 49 Senate Democrats to commit to voting against Kavanaugh:
Holding 49 Democrats is the only way we can succeed in pressuring flippable Republicans like Sens. Collins and Murkowski to listen to the Mainers and Alaskans who are demanding that they vote no on a judge who will deprive women control over their own bodies. If you hold your caucus together, you force them to have to make a real choice, with very real consequences for their constituents. If you fail, you let them off the hook. Your strategy to sacrifice the Supreme Court in order to hold Democratic Senate seats is not only strategically and morally wrong, it will fail. It is wrong to assume that a no vote on Kavanaugh puts red-state Democrats in electoral peril or somehow protects them from Republican attacks.
I suppose Schumer is playing a waiting game. If he thinks a Republican senator may vote no, he will go all-out to whip his 49 Democrats. On the other hand, if it becomes clear there are no Republican No votes, he mostly likely will release a few red-state Democrats who are up for re-election this year to vote Yes. Such a pragmatic strategy is not enough for the signers of the letter, who I suspect represent a majority of the Democratic Partys base:
CREDO
Democracy for America
Indivisible
UltraViolet
350.org
Color Of Change
DailyKos
Demand Progress
Friends of the Earth
Justice Democrats
Social Security Works
#VOTEPROCHOICE
Womens March
Photo: Kelowna RCMP Police are looking for a suspect in a bicycle theft.
Police are looking to identify a suspect in the theft of a mountain bike in late August.
On Aug. 24, a break and enter at an underground parking lot on the 700 block of Leon Avenue was reported to police, and a man was caught on surveillance footage.
Once inside, it is alleged that the person of interest, observed in the attached images and video, stole a black and green Norco Storm 7 mens 18-speed mountain bike, said Cpl. Jesse ODonaghey of the Kelowna RCMP.
The suspect is described as a Caucasian man with a slim build and short, brown hair. He was wearing a black, long-sleeved sweater, grey shorts, a dark-coloured backpack and dark-coloured shoes.
Police have asked anyone with information on the person's identity or the theft to call them at 250-762-3300.
Brazil Industrial Control Systems Market
PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-05 06:39:15
Press Information
Goldstein Research
99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527
Steve blade
Global Sales Manager
6465687747
email
https://www.goldsteinresearch.com/
# 446 Words
99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527Global Sales Manager6465687747
According to Goldstein Research, Brazil industrial control systems market is expected to reach USD 1.9billion by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of 8.93% over the forecast period, 2017-2025. The growing demand of industry processes security and efficiency is the major driving factor in the growth of Brazil industrial control system. Brazil industrial control systems market segmentation has been done on the basis of types of control systems, applications, and end-users. Based on end-user, manufacturing industry accounted for a largest market share of 25.68% in 2017 of Brazil industrial control systems market. The manufacturing industry has multiple processes that require automation and monitoring of the processes, which is facilitated by ICS. Brazil Industrial control systems market is witnessing huge investments for the development of transportation networks, agricultural produce industries, and chemical industries among others, which have opened up huge opportunities for the installation of industrial control systems.Browse Similar Report:Market SegmentationOn the basis of our in-depth analysis, BrazilIndustrial Control Systems Market can be segmented as follows:By Types of Control System Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) Distributed Control Systems (DCS) Supervisory control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)By Applications Industrial Security Process Controlling Others (Supervision, etc.)By End-Users Energy and Mining Sector Transportation and Logistics Sector Manufacturing Industry Electric and Electronic Industry Aviation Industry OthersBrazil Industrial Control Systems Market Outlook 2025 contains a detailed overview of the Brazil industrial control systems market. On the basis of our in-depth analysis, market can be segmented in terms of market segmentation by types of control systems, applications, and end-users.Download Exclusive Sample Report:The Brazil Industrial Control Systems Market Report encompasses the competitive outlook of major players that summarises the business strategies, revenue distribution, product portfolio, financial analysis, R&D activities and investments. The comprehensive analysis of industrial control systems market report helps the clients to assess their business strategies as per the competitive environment in the market space.Major players of the Brazil industrial control systems market discussed in the report are: ABB, Honeywell, Siemens, General Electric, Cisco, Symantec, Fortinet, Kaspersky, IBM, Booz Allen Hamilton, Citrix Systems, Brocade Communication Systems, Computer Science, EMC, F-Secure, L-3, Trend Micro, etc.Further, Brazil Industrial Control Systems Market Report encompasses the major trends & growth opportunities, market dynamics, and other growth factors. The Industrial Control Systems Market outlook also comprises of key challenges for the market players, risk analysis, SWOT Analysis, BPS analysis and Market Attractiveness. Report also includes the expert analysis which provides a complete overview of the market post analysis of the economic, political, environmental & social factors of each region and country.Browse Similar Report:
According to Goldstein Research, Brazil seeds market is expected to reach USD 10billion by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of 11.9% over the forecast period, 2017-2025. The expansion of crop area along with the use of advanced technologies and the supply of quality seed varieties are largely propelling the growth of the market.
Brazil Seeds Market
PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-05 06:52:03
Press Information
Goldstein Research
99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527
Steve blade
Global Sales Manager
6465687747
email
https://www.goldsteinresearch.com/
# 406 Words
99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527Global Sales Manager6465687747
According to Goldstein Research, Brazil seeds market is expected to reach USD 10billion by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of 11.9% over the forecast period, 2017-2025. The expansion of crop area along with the use of advanced technologies and the supply of quality seed varieties are largely propelling the growth of the market. Brazil seeds market segmentation has been done on the basis of types of seed type, seed variety, process equipment and distribution channel. Based on oil seed type, soybean seeds accounted for the largest market share of 58.6% in 2017 on the back of a maximum share of soybean in the total agricultural production. Over the forecast period, soybean production in Brazil is expected to surpass the U.S. soybean production. Brazil Seeds market is witnessing agricultural produce of high quality that it gives competition to U.S. agricultural industry. Over the forecast period, Brazil is expected to have the largest food surplus in the world.Browse Full Report:Market SegmentationOn the basis of our in-depth analysis, Brazil Seeds Market can be segmented as follows:By Seed Type Fruit Seed Vegetable Seed Grain Seed Oil Seed Others (Forage, etc.)By Seed Variety Hybrid Genetically Modified (GM)By Distribution Channel Online OfflineBrazil Seeds Market Outlook 2025 contains a detailed overview of the Brazil seeds market. On the basis of our in-depth analysis, market can be segmented in terms of market segmentation by seed type, seed variety, and distribution channel.The Brazil Seeds Market Report encompasses the competitive outlook of major players that summarises the business strategies, revenue distribution, product portfolio, financial analysis, R&D activities and investments. The comprehensive analysis of the seeds market report helps the clients to assess their business strategies as per the competitive environment in the market space.Download Exclusive Sample Report:Major players of the Brazil seeds market discussed in the report are Dow, DuPont, Bejo, Syngenta, Rijk Zwaan, Monsanto, Advanta, etc.Further, Brazil Seeds Market Report encompasses the major trends & growth opportunities, market dynamics, and other growth factors. The Seeds Market outlook also comprises of key challenges for the market players, risk analysis, SWOT Analysis, BPS analysis and Market Attractiveness. Report also includes the expert analysis which provides a complete overview of the market post analysis of the economic, political, environmental & social factors of each region and country.Browse Similar Report:
According to Goldstein Research, Cambodia rice production is estimated at 10.0 million metric tons in 2017, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.3% over the forecast period, 2017-2025. Government support in rice production, favorable monsoons, rising number of rice processing companies, increasing exports are majorly impacting the growth of Cambodia rice industry
Cambodia rice market
PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-05 07:11:00
Press Information
Goldstein Research
99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527
Steve blade
Global Sales Manager
6465687747
email
https://www.goldsteinresearch.com/
# 449 Words
99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527Global Sales Manager6465687747
According to Goldstein Research, Cambodia rice production is estimated at 10.0 million metric tons in 2017, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.3% over the forecast period, 2017-2025. Government support in rice production, favorable monsoons, rising number of rice processing companies, increasing exports are majorly impacting the growth of Cambodia rice industry. Cambodia rice market segmentation has been done on the basis of rice variety, rice type, grain size type, application and distribution channel. Based on rice type, milled rice accounted for the largest market share in 2017 with 76.3% of total rice production. Over the forecast period, milled rice is expected to continue their dominance in the rice production. Cambodia Rice market is witnessing rice exports growth by 17.33% from 542,144 metric ton in 2016. Also In 2017, the government granted a budget of USD 50 million for loans to be granted in times of emergency and USD 30 million for development of warehouses and silos.Browse Full Report:Market SegmentationOn the basis of our in-depth analysis, Cambodia Rice Market can be segmented as follows:By Rice Variety Japonica Indica Glutinous AromaticBy Rice Type Milled Rice Brown Rice Rough Rice Parboiled Rice Others (Wild rice, etc.)By Grain Size Type Long Grain Rice Medium Grain Rice Short Grain RiceBy Application Food Consumption Beer Processing Pet FoodBy Distribution Channel Online OfflineCambodia Rice Market Outlook 2025 contains a detailed overview of the Cambodia rice market. On the basis of our in-depth analysis, market can be segmented in terms of market segmentation by rice variety, rice type, grain size type, application and distribution channel.Download Exclusive Sample Report:The CambodiaRice Market Report encompasses the competitive outlook of major players that summarises the business strategies, revenue distribution, product portfolio, financial analysis, R&D activities and investments. The comprehensive analysis of rice market report helps the clients to assess their business strategies as per the competitive environment in the market space.Major players of the Cambodia rice market discussed in the report are Amru Rice, Vong Bun Heng Import Export, New Asia Industry Development Holding (CAMBODIA) CO., LTD., A.R.K Global Corporation, Khmer Native Rice Co., Ltd, Bayon Jasmine Rice, Mekong Crown Co,Ltd, Mayflower Fine Goods, etc.Further, Cambodia Rice Market Report encompasses the major trends & growth opportunities, market dynamics, and other growth factors. The Rice Market outlook also comprises of key challenges for the market players, risk analysis, SWOT Analysis, BPS analysis and Market Attractiveness. Report also includes the expert analysis which provides a complete overview of the market post analysis of the economic, political, environmental & social factors of each region and country.Browse Similar Report:
According to Goldstein Research, China automotive aftermarket industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.3% over the forecast period, 2017-2025 from the estimated market size of USD 91.0 billion in 2017.
China Automotive Aftermarket Industry
PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-05 08:03:25
Press Information
Goldstein Research
99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527
Steve blade
Global Sales Manager
6465687747
email
https://www.goldsteinresearch.com/
# 442 Words
99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527Global Sales Manager6465687747
According to Goldstein Research, China automotive aftermarket industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.3% over the forecast period, 2017-2025 from the estimated market size of USD 91.0 billion in 2017. The volatile progression in Chinas automotive market has apprehended the attention and focus of the worlds leading automobile manufacturers over the last decade. The wear-and-tear parts segment accounted for the highest revenue share of +54% in the total automotive aftermarket industry. On the other hand, the services segment is the fastest growing segment which is likely to expand at a CAGR of +9% over the forecast period. China Automotive aftermarket industry is witnessing many automotive companies and component suppliers establishing its online shop on leading Chinese e-commerce site TMall with the objective of retailing directly to end users and businesses.Browse Full Report:Market SegmentationOn the basis of our in-depth analysis, ChinaAutomotive Aftermarket Industry can be segmented as follows:By After Market Products and Services Type Wear-and-Tear Parts Crash-Relevant Parts Accessories and Appearance Products Diagnostics Products Services (Fleet Management etc.)By End Users Type Service Providers (Telematics, Fleet Management etc.) Independent Workshops Automotive OEM WorkshopBy Distribution Channel Online OfflineChina Automotive Aftermarket Industry Outlook 2025 contains a detailed overview of the China automotive aftermarket industry. On the basis of our in-depth analysis, the market can be segmented in terms of market segmentation by aftermarket products and services type, end-user and distribution channel.Download Exclusive Sample Report:The China Automotive Aftermarket Industry Report encompasses the competitive outlook of major players that summarises the business strategies, revenue distribution, product portfolio, financial analysis, R&D activities and investments. The comprehensive analysis of the automotive aftermarket industry report helps the clients to assess their business strategies as per the competitive environment in the market space.Major players of the China automotive aftermarket industry discussed in the report are: Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (Group), Wanxiang Group, Weichai Holding Group Co. Ltd., Guangzhou Automobile Industry Group Co. Ltd., 3M, Continental AG, Delphi Automotive PLC, Denso Corporation, Federal-Mogul Corporation, Magneti Marelli S.p.A., Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, ZF Friedrichshafen AG, Cooper Tire & Rubber Company, Robert Bosch GmbH,etc.Further, China Automotive Aftermarket Industry Report encompasses the major trends & growth opportunities, market dynamics and other growth factors. The Automotive Aftermarket Industry outlook also comprises of key challenges for the market players, risk analysis, SWOT Analysis, BPS analysis and Market Attractiveness. Report also includes the expert analysis which provides complete overview of the market post analysis of the economic, political, environmental & social factors of each region and country.Browse Similar Report:
According to Goldstein Research, China consumer durables industry is expected to reach USD 270.3 billion by 2024, growing at a CAGR of 13.1% over the forecast period, 2017-2025. Over the past years on account of government subsidy programs, for instance, the Energy Saving and old for new policy for household appliances has propelled the growth of China consumer durables industry.
China Consumer Durables Industry
PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-05 08:13:49
Press Information
Goldstein Research
99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527
Steve blade
Global Sales Manager
6465687747
email
https://www.goldsteinresearch.com/
# 450 Words
99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527Global Sales Manager6465687747
According to Goldstein Research, China consumer durables industry is expected to reach USD 270.3 billion by 2024, growing at a CAGR of 13.1% over the forecast period, 2017-2025. Over the past years on account of government subsidy programs, for instance, the Energy Saving and old for new policy for household appliances has propelled the growth of China consumer durables industry. Brown goods accounted for a largest market share of 52.91% in 2017, with television and audio and video systems acquiring major share. White goods segment is pacing it growth, at a CAGR of 13.84% over the forecast period. China Consumer durables industry is witnessing that China has growing technology adoption rate and e-commerce sector, therefore, the supply of consumer durables are expected to double over the forecast period.Browse Full Report:Market SegmentationOn the basis of our in-depth analysis, ChinaConsumer Durables Industry can is segmented as follows:By Product Type White Goods Air Conditioner Refrigerator Washing Machines Dish Washers Microwave Ovens Other Domestic Appliances Brown Goods Televisions Audio and video systems Laptops Digital Cameras Other Consumer ElectronicsBy Pricing Model Low Cost Products Medium Cost Products High End Products (Customized or luxury Brands)By Distribution Channel Online Distribution Channel Offline Distribution ChannelBy Business Model Business to Business (B2B) Business to Consumer (B2C)China Consumer Durables IndustryOutlook 2025 highlights a comprehensive overview of the China consumer durables industry. On the basis of our in-depth analysis, the market can be segmented in terms of market segmentation by product type, pricing model, distribution channel and business model.Download Exclusive sample Report:The China Consumer Durables Industry Report encompasses the competitive outlook of major players that summarises the business strategies, revenue distribution, product portfolio, financial analysis, R&D activities andinvestments. The comprehensive analysis of consumer durables industry report helps the clients to assess their business strategies as per the competitive environment in the market space.Major players of the China consumer durables industry discussed in the report are: Legend Holdings, Hangzhou Robam Appliances, Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd., Sony, Samsung, LG Durables, Suofeiya Home Collection, Panasonic, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Logitech International, Onida Durables, Toshiba, Haier Consumer Durables Group, Videocon, Hitachi, Ltd., Hisense, TCL, Blue Star, Daikin,etc.Further, China Consumer Durables Industry Report encompasses the major trends & growth opportunities, market dynamics and other growth factors. The Consumer Durables Industry outlook also comprises of key challenges for the market players, risk analysis, SWOT Analysis, BPS analysis and Market Attractiveness. Report also includes the expert analysis which provides complete overview of the market post analysis of the economic, political, environmental & social factors of each region and country.Browse Similar Report:
According to Goldstein Research, China plug-in hybrid cars market is expected to reach USD 51.6 billion by 2024, growing at a CAGR of 18.4% over the forecast period, 2017-2025. Policies by the Chinese government will continue to deliver strong financial and non-financial incentives to electric vehicle adoption in coming years and this is driving the expansion of China plug-in hybrid cars market.
China Plug-In Hybrid Cars Market
PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-05 08:38:10
Press Information
Goldstein Research
99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527
Steve blade
Global Sales Manager
6465687747
email
https://www.goldsteinresearch.com/
# 478 Words
99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527Global Sales Manager6465687747
According to Goldstein Research, China plug-in hybrid cars market is expected to reach USD 51.6 billion by 2024, growing at a CAGR of 18.4% over the forecast period, 2017-2025. Policies by the Chinese government will continue to deliver strong financial and non-financial incentives to electric vehicle adoption in coming years and this is driving the expansion of China plug-in hybrid cars market. China plug-in hybrid cars market segmentation has been done on the basis of major components and plug-in hybrid car types. Based on the major components, batteries accounted for the largest revenue share as battery still costs up to 25% of overall plug-in hybrid car price. China plug-in hybrid cars market is witnessing that China has emerged as the country with the largest electric vehicles stock, with about a one-third of the global total, surpassing the U.S. stock. China accounted for the 336 thousand new electric cars registered with about 24% of the plug-in hybrid electric cars sales.Browse Full Report:Market SegmentationOn the basis of our in-depth analysis, ChinaPlug-In Hybrid Cars Market can be segmented as follows:By Major Components Internal Combustion Engine Electric Motor BatteriesBy Plug-in Hybrid Cars Type Series PHEVs Parallel or Blended PHEVs.Based On Geography Tier-1 Cities Plug-In Hybrid Cars Market {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion)} Tier-2 Cities Plug-In Hybrid Cars Market {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion)} Tier-3 Cities Plug-In Hybrid Cars Market {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion)}China Plug-In Hybrid Cars Market Outlook 2025 contains a detailed overview of the China plug-in hybrid cars market. On the basis of our in-depth analysis, the market can be segmented in terms of market segmentation by major components and plug-in hybrid car types.The China Plug-In Hybrid Cars Market Report encompasses the competitive outlook of major players that summarises the business strategies, revenue distribution, product portfolio, financial analysis, R&D activities and investments. The comprehensive analysis of plug-in hybrid cars market report helps the clients to assess their business strategies as per the competitive environment in the market space.Download Exclusive Sample Report:Major players of the China plug-in hybrid cars market discussed in the report are: BYD, SAIC Motor Corporation Limited, DongfengVenucia Motor Company, Daimler AG, General Motors Corporation, Toyota Motor Corporation, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, BYD Auto Co. Ltd., Volkswagen AG, BMW AG, Honda Motor Co. Ltd., Hyundai Motor Company,etc.Further, China Plug-In Hybrid Cars Market Report encompasses the major trends & growth opportunities, market dynamics, and other growth factors. The Plug-In Hybrid Cars Market outlook also comprises of key challenges for the market players, risk analysis, SWOT Analysis, BPS analysis and Market Attractiveness. The report also includes the expert analysis which provides a complete overview of the market post analysis of the economic, political, environmental & social factors of each region and country.Browse similar Report:
According to Goldstein Research, China rice production is estimated at 210 million metric tons in 2017, expected to grow at a CAGR of 2.1% over the forecast period, 2017-2025. Government support in rice production, favorable climatic conditions, rising number of rice processing companies, increasing exports are majorly impacting the growth of China rice industry.
China Rice Industry:
PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-05 08:47:35
Press Information
Goldstein Research
99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527
Steve blade
Global Sales Manager
6465687747
email
https://www.goldsteinresearch.com/
# 432 Words
99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527Global Sales Manager6465687747
According to Goldstein Research, China rice production is estimated at 210 million metric tons in 2017, expected to grow at a CAGR of 2.1% over the forecast period, 2017-2025. Government support in rice production, favorable climatic conditions, rising number of rice processing companies, increasing exports are majorly impacting the growth of China rice industry. China rice industry segmentation has been done on the basis of rice variety, rice type, grain size type, application and distribution channel. On the basis of rice variety, milled rice accounted for largest market share in 2017 with 85.1% of total rice production. Over the forecast period milled rice is expected to continue their dominance in the rice production. China Rice industry is dominated by South West China and Central China. Japonica and Indica are major grown rice varieties with 60.7% of japonica rice, 28.1% Indica rice and rest other indigenous varieties.Browse Full Report:Market SegmentationOn the basis of our in-depth analysis, China Rice Industry can be segmented as follows:By Rice Variety Japonica Indica Glutinous AromaticBy Rice Type Milled Rice Basmati Rice Brown Rice Rough Rice Parboiled Rice Others (Wild rice, etc.)By Grain Size Type Long Grain Rice Medium Grain Rice Short Grain RiceBy Application Food Consumption Beer Processing Pet FoodBy Distribution Channel Online OfflineChina Rice Market Outlook 2025 contains detailed overview of the Cambodia rice market. On the basis of our in-depth analysis, market can be segmented in terms of market segmentation by rice variety, rice type, grain size type, application and distribution channel.The China Rice Market Report encompasses the competitive outlook of major players that summarises the business strategies, revenue distribution, product portfolio, financial analysis, R&D activities and investments. The comprehensive analysis of rice market report helps the clients to assess their business strategies as per the competitive environment in the market space.Download Exclusive Sample Report:Major players of the Cambodia rice market discussed in the report are: Guangzhou Yotoo Import & Export Co., Ltd., Linghang Group (shanghai) Co., Ltd, Sansan China Industrial Limited, Anhui Jietai Intelligent Technology Co., LTD, SureWave Intl Trade (GZ) Co., Ltd.,etc Further, China Rice Market Report encompasses the major trends & growth opportunities, market dynamics and other growth factors. The Rice Market outlook also comprises of key challenges for the market players, risk analysis, SWOT Analysis, BPS analysis and Market Attractiveness. Report also includes the expert analysis which provides complete overview of the market post analysis of the economic, political, environmental & social factors of each region and country.Browse Similar Report:
Fact.MR
PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-05 12:33:41
Press Information
Fact.MR
Suite 9884
27 Upper Pembroke Street,
Dublin 2, Ireland
Abhishek Budholiya
Marketing Manager
+353-1-6111-593
email
https://www.factmr.com/
# 754 Words
Suite 988427 Upper Pembroke Street,Dublin 2, IrelandMarketing Manager+353-1-6111-593
A stellar growth trajectory of the cocoa market is anticipated owing to the rising demand from the flourishing chocolate industry across the global regions. Levels of chocolate production and consumption are the prime fillip helming the cocoa market, where rising discretionary income have dramatically bolstered the purchase of chocolates. Historically known for its limited consumption as a luxury item, popularity of chocolate is driven by growing palate for cocoa flavor worldwide. Apart from its extensive application in the food and beverage industry, cocoa is exploited by pharmaceutical, cosmetics, confectionery and functional food industries among others, representing future lucrative opportunities for the cocoa market. Fact.MR report on the cocoa market envisages an impressive CAGR of 11.23% during the forecast period of 2018 2028. As the most preferable flavor ingredient, cocoa-based products are highly exploited by the multiple industry verticals. Cocoa is also explored by pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries for their health benefits. With the incremental demand for cocoa products among multiple manufacturing industries, the business-to-business distribution is poised to report over 5,500,000 tons of sales by 2028 end in the cocoa market. Evident demand in the food and beverage sector is ensued with the sales of 4,500,000 tones by the end of 2028 in the cocoa market.Request For Sample Report- https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=44 Intensifying demand for cocoa liquor in the food and beverage industry against the backdrop of growing appetite for cocoa flavor has led the cocoa liquor form type to outnumber cocoa powder and cocoa butter with the sales of over 2,200,000 tons of cocoa by end of 2028 in the cocoa market.Between the two primary processes of cocoa powder production in the cocoa market, Dutch process cocoa powder segment is expected to dominate the cocoa market despite a sizable share of natural cocoa powder. As most bakery and confectionery products include leaveners in recipe, demand for Dutch process cocoa is preferred by major end-users. As per Fact.MR valuations, Dutch processed cocoa powder segment is estimated to surpass sales of 3,500,000 tons, contributing over half of the total sales in process types in the cocoa market.As the chocolate industry is well-established in Europe, Europe cocoa market is observed as matured market. In addition, the Europe cocoa market is strictly regulated by regulatory authorities such as European Cocoa Association, Association of German Confectionery Industry, and Organic Cocoa Farmers Association among others. With the food and beverage industry at the core of regions economy, the cocoa market is flourishing in the industry. Countries in European Union such as Germany, Belgium, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom among others are expected to contribute to the thriving market for cocoa in Europe in the coming decade. Given that Europe is expected to lead the global space with over 30% of the cocoa market share.To Get more Information on Cocoa Market, Visit - https://www.factmr.com/report/44/cocoa-market As the tropical agricultural products face critical challenges of sustainable production, cocoa is the most affected crop. Although at a steady pace, effective measures are underway to address sustainability challenges of cocoa market. Extensive research to improve cocoa market sustainability, cocoa development strategies such as diversification of crops, identifying role of small stakeholders and large plantations, strengthening network of SMEs and agro processing industry are underway. These are likely to assist government as well as non-government partners to enhance cocoa production by supporting farmers and ensure future sustainability in the cocoa market.Growing awareness regarding challenges of sustainable cocoa production against the background of campaigns that focus on child labor and rising interest of media to spread public awareness are factors inviting the trend of certification and higher standards in cocoa market. Multiple standard bodies including UTZ Certified, Rainforest Alliance/SAN (RA), and Fairtrade International (FT) set standards to maintain better quality and quality check processes. According to World Cocoa Foundation, currently only 22% of the traded cocoa is certified, which does not meet the regulatory standards. This explains challenges to fulfill the global cocoa demand as well as restraints to realize sustainable cocoa production in the cocoa market and to bring about effective increase on cocoa farmers income.To Buy Cocoa Market Report, Visit- https://www.factmr.com/checkout/44/S About Fact.MR Fact.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.
PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-05 14:01:01
AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Constellium N.V. (NYSE: CSTM) announced today that it has signed a multi-year agreement with The Boeing Company to support its leading commercial airplane programs. With this agreement, Constellium further strengthens its longstanding partnership with Boeing and confirms its leadership position for aerospace aluminium products and solutions.
Under the new agreement, Constellium will supply Boeing with a broad range of advanced aluminium rolled products coming mostly from its plant in Ravenswood, West Virginia.
This new contract reflects the strong relationship established over the years with Boeing, said Ingrid Joerg, President of Constelliums Aerospace and Transportation business unit. We look forward to continuing to support Boeing in its commercial airplane programs.
A global leader for aerospace aluminium plate production, Constellium is a major partner of aircraft manufacturers all over the world. As the leading provider of pre-machining and custom-designed aerospace materials, and the producer of many advanced proprietary alloys and technologies such as Airware, its aluminium-lithium alloy solutions, Constellium offers sustainable growth solutions to its customers.
About Constellium
Constellium (NYSE: CSTM) is a global sector leader that develops innovative, value added aluminium products for a broad scope of markets and applications, including automotive, aerospace and packaging. Constellium generated 5.2 billion of revenue in 2017.
www.constellium.com
Forward Looking Statement
Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This press release may contain forward-looking statements with respect to our business, results of operations and financial condition, and our expectations or beliefs concerning future events and conditions. You can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as, but not limited to, believes, expects, may, should, approximately, anticipates, estimates, intends, plans, targets, likely, will, would, could and similar expressions (or the negative of these terminologies or expressions). All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Many risks and uncertainties are inherent in our industry and markets. Others are more specific to our business and operations. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, economic downturn, the loss of key customers, suppliers or other business relationships; disruption to business operations; the inability to meet customer quality requirements; delayed readiness for the North American Auto Body Sheet market, the capacity and effectiveness of our hedging policy activities, failure to retain key employees, and other risk factors set forth under the heading Risk Factors in our Annual Report on Form 20-F, and as described from time to time in subsequent reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The occurrence of the events described and the achievement of the expected results depend on many events, some or all of which are not predictable or within our control. Consequently, actual results may differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
Delphine Dahan-Kocher Communications, NA
Phone: +1 (212) 858 9963
delphine.dahan-kocher@constellium.com
Ryan Wentling Investor Relations
Phone: +1 (212) 675 5450
Investor-relations@constellium.com
Noemie Fierens Communications, Europe
Phone: +33 (0)1 73 01 46 73
noemie.fierens@constellium.com
Josee Robert Communications,
Aerospace and Transportation
Phone: +33 1 73 01 46 85
josee.robert@constellium.com
MRRSE
PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-05 14:38:04
Press Information
MRRSE
State Tower
90, State Street
Suite 700
Albany, NY - 12207
United States
Abhishek Budholiya
Marketing Manager
+1-518-730-0559
email
https://www.mrrse.com/
# 687 Words
State Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United StatesMarketing Manager+1-518-730-0559
Battery energy storage systems are utilized for the storage of electricity generated by power plants, particularly renewable power plants. Such electricity is then utilized to ensure smooth supply to consumers when fluctuation of electricity from renewable power plants persist owing to weather conditions. Various economies are starting novel development programs, entering into public-private partnerships or raising funds partnerships to promote the use of renewable energy via developments of battery energy storage system. Government of China released a 15-year energy technology innovation action plan for further research in improved energy storage. To evaluate the impact of recent developments and trends influencing growth of global battery energy storage systems market, Market Research Report Search Engine (MRRSE) has included a report titled Battery Energy Storage Systems Market Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2018-2026 to its repository.For More Information Request Free Sample on Battery Energy Storage Systems Market Research Report @ https://www.mrrse.com/sample/16630 Deployment of energy storage systems in the US is anticipated to increase in foreseeable future. Establishment of standalone storage is anticipated to increase economic scenario for the battery energy storage systems market. However, threats from novel entrants will remain low over the forecast period. The battery energy storage systems is driven by economies of scale and proprietary systems. Battery energy storage system operations are capital-intensive and they require substantial investment in the construction of storage facilities.Battery Energy Storage System Market: Scope of the ReportAn all-inclusive study on future performance of global battery energy storage system market has been included in this report. Inclusion of opinions and inputs provided by professionals, experts and leading players operating in different verticals of the market has made the report most creditable go-to forecast. Information related to market taxonomy has been propounded in the commencing section of the report.Growth prospects and future performance of the market on the basis of various segments have been neatly included in this section. This is likely to be helpful to the readers as well as leading players to plan their future growth strategies to improve their consumer base. Other section of the report provides information related to deep viewpoints on the market including micro- and macroeconomic factors such as urbanization trends, population statistics, GDP forecasts as well as industry value analysis. Insightful information and analysis of different drivers, trends and opportunities in the market influencing growth has been inked in this section of the report. Macroeconomic facets impacting on the growth of the global market have been provided in a tabular form, which is likely to help readers and clients to understand dynamics of the market.Browse Complete Detail on Battery Energy Storage Systems Market Research Report with TOC @ https://www.mrrse.com/battery-energy-storage-system-market Battery Energy Storage System Market: Competitive LandscapeFinal section of the report includes competitive landscape of the global battery energy storage system market. Scenario and strategies of each player operating in the global market on the basis of various segments have been propounded in this section. Forecasts on factors of competitiveness such as key developments, product portfolio, SWOT analysis as well as innovations, mergers & acquisition have been propounded in this section.Readers of the report can leverage this unbiased information to understand requirements of consumers and can increase their consumer base by reaching all those needs. Leading players operating in the global market have been profiled in the report. Innovations, developments and mergers & acquisition of these players have been inked in the final section of the report.Enquire about this Report @ https://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/16630 About (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords. MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.
Photo: Contributed
Police have arrested a man accused of stealing a vehicle and assaulting the owner in Penticton, who was found camping out in a rural area.
The incident took place on Aug. 26, where the accused reportedly forced his way into a vehicle before assaulting the male owner.
After stealing the vehicle, Penticton RCMP spotted it later in the day on Highway 97, driving north towards Summerland. Officers tried to pull over the vehicle but the male driver sped off, and police discontinued a chase after him, due to safety risks for other drivers.
A week later, on Sunday, Summerland RCMP were tipped that a man was camping in the woods in west Summerland. Police believed the man camping was the suspect, and he was found and arrested after a search of the area. The stolen vehicle was also recovered.
David Anthony Case has been charged with robbery, dangerous operations of a motor vehicle and flight from a peace officer.
Case remains in custody and is scheduled to appear in Penticton court on Thursday.
NSAV subsidiary signs major deal with Eli Lilly to access Cardio Vascular Disease (CVD) among newly diagnosed diabetes patients at increased risk of CVD in China.
NSAV Logo
PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-05 20:37:51
Press Information
Net Savings Link, Inc.
2374 ROUTE 390, P.O. Box 609, Mountainhome, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
James Tilton
President
+1 917-770-8588
email
http://nsavholdinginc.com
# 512 Words
2374 ROUTE 390, P.O. Box 609, Mountainhome, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.President+1 917-770-8588
Net Savings Link, Inc. (OTC: NSAV), a medical technology and software company, announced today that its subsidiary, Shanghai based Vital Strategic Research Institute (VSRI), has signed an agreement with Eli Lilly and Company. Under the terms of the agreement, VSRI will provide Eli Lilly with an assessment of Cardio Vascular Disease (CVD) among newly diagnosed diabetes patients at increased risk of CVD in China. China is facing the largest diabetes epidemic in the world with around 11 percent of its population suffering from the metabolic illness, while nearly 36 percent are pre-diabetic. CVD in China has also reached epidemic proportions, with over 200 million Chinese suffering from the worlds leading cause of death.About Eli Lilly and CompanyEli Lilly and Company, a leading innovation-driven company, is developing a growing portfolio of pharmaceutical products by applying the latest research from its own worldwide laboratories and from collaborations with eminent scientific organizations. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind., Lilly provides answers -- through medicines and information -- for some of the world's most urgent medical needs. Information about Lilly is available at www.lilly.com NSAV subsidiary, VSRI is a medical research firm with a long history of expertise in design, clinical trials and global research. VSRI has collaborated with pharmaceutical giants such as Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb.James Tilton, president of NSAV stated, I am thrilled that we have been able to close our first major deal since acquiring VSRI. It is extremely rewarding to be the CEO of a company that is not only succeeding from a business standpoint, but saving lives. NSAV's vision is the establishment of a fully integrated technology and software company that provides turnkey technological and software solutions to the medical industry. Over time, the Company plans to provide a wide range of services such as software solutions, e-commerce, advisory services, financial services, patents and trademarks and information technology.For further information, please contact NSAV at 1 (917) 770-8588The NSAV corporate email address is info@ nsavholdinginc.com The NSAV corporate website can be accessed at http://nsavholdinginc.com The NSAV Twitter account can be accessed at https://twitter.com/NSAV_MJTechCo The NSAV Facebook account can be accessed at https://www.facebook.com/NSAVHolding This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which are intended to be covered by the safe harbors created thereby. Investors are cautioned that, all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, the ability of Net Savings Link, Inc. to accomplish its stated plan of business. Net Savings Link, Inc. believes that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements contained herein are reasonable, any of the assumptions could be inaccurate, and therefore, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements included in this press release will prove to be accurate. In light of the significant uncertainties inherent in the forward- looking statements included herein, the inclusion of such information should not be regarded as a representation by Net Savings Link, Inc. or any other person.
PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-05 17:42:04
Press Information
Published by
ACCESSWIRE News Network
888.952.4446
e-mail
http://www.accesswire.com
# 380 Words
ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446
FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Perisson Petroleum Corporation--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Calgary, Alberta (FSCWire) - Perisson Petroleum Corporation (TSX Venture:POG). has issued a press release with the following headline:Perisson Engages EdgeMark Capital and Advisory Services and Zelos CapitalTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Perisson Petroleum Corporation, or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Perisson Petroleum CorporationSource: Perisson Petroleum Corporation (TSX Venture: POG)Date: September 04, 2018Time: 9:00 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Perisson Petroleum Corporation and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-05 17:43:05
Press Information
Published by
ACCESSWIRE News Network
888.952.4446
e-mail
http://www.accesswire.com
# 392 Words
ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446
FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Tartisan Nickel Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Toronto, Ontario (FSCWire) - Tartisan Nickel Corp. (CSE:TN). has issued a press release with the following headline:Tartisan Initiates Work Program at the Kenbridge Deposit, Kenora, Ontario and Prepares Update to NI 43-101.To view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Tartisan Nickel Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Tartisan Nickel Corp.Source: Tartisan Nickel Corp. (CSE: TN, FWB: A2DPCM, WKN: A2DPCM, ISIN: CA87649A1012)Date: September 04, 2018Time: 9:37 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Tartisan Nickel Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-05 20:01:06
Press Information
Published by
ACCESSWIRE News Network
888.952.4446
e-mail
http://www.accesswire.com
# 383 Words
ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446
FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for TIMIA Capital Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - TIMIA Capital Corp. (TSX Venture:TCA). has issued a press release with the following headline:TIMIA Capital Increases Investment into HR Performance Management Company, 7Geese Inc.To view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on TIMIA Capital Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/TIMIA Capital Corp.Source: TIMIA Capital Corp. (TSX Venture: TCA)Date: September 05, 2018Time: 8:00 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of TIMIA Capital Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
Experts said the request by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that the MTN Group should refund $8.1 billion illegally repatriated from Nigeria would jeopardise the listing of its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
The financial experts said this in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Lagos.
NAN reports that the CBN had ordered MTN and four banks to refund $8.1 billion illegal capital repatriation from its Nigerian operations to offshore investors. Allegations which MTN Group swiftly denied.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it had not received any application from the MTN Group regarding its proposed initial public offering (IPO).
NAN also reports that MTN has the largest share of the Nigerian market with 36.39 per cent, while Airtel has 26.10 per cent as at February. Globacom and 9mobile have 26.03 per cent and 11.49 per cent respectively.
Boniface Okezie, the President, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria (PSAN), advised CBN and MTN Group to dialogue and resolve the issue of repatriation of $8.1 billion.
He said he expected a resolution on the matter to avoid a systemic banking crisis given that the repayment of $8.1 billion, which is about half of MTNs market capitalisation, could threaten its Nigerian bankers.
Talking about the CBN allegation that MTN repatriated $8.1 billion out of the country.
It is an issue that can be resolved by the two parties because there is no way such huge amount of money could have been transferred by the commercial banks without the knowledge and approval of CBN in the first place.
Let MTN and the affected banks engage with the relevant authorities and face CBN to vigorously defend their position on this matter, Mr Okezie said.
Mr Okezie blamed the delay in the listing of MTN shares and those of other foreign companies on NSE on lack of a regulating law in the Nigerian financial market.
He said the growth of the Nigerian capital market was tied to the effectiveness of its regulatory framework.
Normally, if there is a functional law in place, after operating for a minimum of three years, the foreign company if not yet listed is supposed to be compelled to do so.
But MTN has been in operation in Nigeria since 2001, yet it is not listed on NSE. So, it is obvious that MTN Group does not want Nigerians to benefit from its shares.
Market Share for Mobile Operators
All the Group is interested is how to do business, make profit and repatriate the proceeds to their home country to the detriment of the Nigerian economy.
Therefore, it behooves on SEC to formulate and implement the appropriate regulatory framework to guide the operations of the NSE, Mr Okezie said.
Sunny Nwosu, National Coordinator, Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN), urged the MTN Group to be more proactive with its proposed listing plans.
Mr Nwosu said the more MTN delays the offer, the more the market players and the public believe there was crisis.
According to him, postponing the offer is not the best option because it damages investors confidence and jeopardises the telecom companys proposed public offer in Africas largest economy.
The denial of an IPO application by MTN to SEC signifies doubt over the extent of preparation on the part of MTN to be listed on the NSE this year.
MTN has been foot-dragging on the move for listing. But the earlier it steps forward with the listing offer, the better for the Telecom industry and the Nigerian economy, Mr Nwosu said.
There were reports earlier in the year that the MTN Group was perfecting plans to raise about $500 million from the sale of shares in its Nigerian business in the first half of 2018.
Standard Bank Group Ltd. and Citigroup Inc. have been advising the company on the disposal of as much as 30 per cent of the Lagos-based unit on the NSE. (NAN)
French oil major, Total and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) along with some other partners will, later this month, launch Egina crude in Singapore.
The launch will take place at the Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference (APPEC), scheduled to hold from September 24 to 26, in Singapore.
Singapores APPEC is one of Asias biggest annual petroleum industry gatherings, during which producers, refiners and merchants sign and renew supply deals and exchange information.
A copy of an invitation to the conference, reported by Reuters, shows that the launch will take place at a reception billed to be hosted by stakeholders at the conference.
The Egina field in Nigeria is expected to start production in December. Its FPSO unit sailed away last month from the SHI-MCI Yard, LADOL Island, Lagos, Nigeria to the Egina oilfield in Oil Mining Lease 130, which is located about 150km offshore the Niger Delta.
The FPSO was built by Samsung Heavy Industries of Korea for Egina oilfield being developed at a cost of $16bn by the global oil giant, Total.
It sailed away from the quayside at Samsung Yard in Geoje, South Korea in October 2017 and arrived at the SHI-MCI FZE quayside in LADOL free zone in Lagos in January, where it was integrated locally by Samsung Heavy Industries Nigeria Limited.
The Egina field will add 200,000 barrels per day of crude oil to Nigerias daily output when it comes on stream.
The FPSO is 330 metres in length, 61 metres in breadth, and 34 metres in height, with capacity to produce 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day and storage capacity of 2.3 million barrels and topsides weighing 60,000 tonnes.
Also at the conference in Singapore, Saudi Arabias state-owned oil giant Aramco will team up with South Korean refiner S-Oil Corp for a joint reception, according to two industry sources.
Aramco became the single largest shareholder of S-Oil in January 2015, as part of its drive to expand its footprint in the downstream petroleum sector and establish commercial offices in global oil trading hubs like Singapore.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is set to reset its tariffs to provide needed revenue for better performance of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and the Distribution Companies (DisCos).
The regulatory body disclosed this in its quarterly report published on its website, Wednesday.
Details in the report also indicated that during the first quarter of 2018, the total electricity generated was 8,511,481 Megawatts hour (MWh). This was two per cent less than the electricity generated in the previous quarter despite an increase in available generation units.
Also, the quarterly industrys daily generation peak of 5,047MW recorded on the February 14 was less than that of the preceding quarter.
Factors, it said are responsible for the stranded capacity that led to the decline in generation include gas constraint majorly, limited distribution network, water management and transmission line limitation.
According to the report, with the decrease in generation, the average utilisation rate of the total available generation capacity declined by 1.1 per cent from 54.4 per cent recorded in the last quarter of 2017.
The commission reiterated its commitment to resolving the aforementioned constraints adding it has started executing actionable items identified in its 2017-2020 Strategic Plan towards addressing constraints in transmission and distribution networks.
Such plans include thorough technical assessment of DisCos utilisation of capital expenditure allowances, tariff increment and implementation of gas payment assurance facility for power generation.
The Commission has initiated a process for thorough technical assessment of DisCos utilisation of capital expenditure allowances for relevance and cost efficiency.
The Commission is also planning a tariff reset that adequately provides for revenue requirement necessary for TCN and DisCos optimal performance.
Similarly, to resolve the issue related to a gas supply shortage, the government has started the implementation of gas payment assurance facility for power generation to enable GenCos to fulfil their payment obligations to gas suppliers, the report showed.
Another challenge faced in the industry is the total system collapse, as it worsened in the first quarter of the year.
Although no partial system collapse was recorded for the quarter under review, total system collapse worsened, increasing from one in the last quarter of 2017 to six in the second quarter of the year.
Five of the system collapse incidents occurred in January while one occurred in February. The system collapse was attributed to lack of generation by Egbin, Olorunsogo and Omotosho power plants, among others, due to gas constraints which resulted from the breakdown in the Escravos gas pipeline.
Financial liquidity, the report indicated, remains the most significant challenge affecting the industrys sustainability.
This serious liquidity challenge is partly attributed to non-cost-reflective tariffs, and high technical and commercial losses aggravated by consumers apathy to payment arising from estimated billing and poor quality of supply in most load centres. Out of the 171.1 billion billed to customers in the first quarter of the year, only 106.6 billion was recovered, representing 62.3 per cent collection efficiency.
Therefore, out of every 10 worth of electricity sold during the quarter under review, 3.8 is uncollected. The liquidity challenge in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) was further reflected in the DisCos remittances relative to Nigerian Bulk Electricity Traders (NBET) and Market Operators (MO) invoices.
In the first quarter of 2018, whereas DisCos were issued a total invoice of 163.1 billion for energy received from NBET and for the service charge by MOs, only 51.2 billion (31.4 per cent) was settled by DisCos, creating a huge shortfall of 112.0billion, the report revealed.
The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, has identified data falsification, low accountability, poor coordination and weak service delivery as part of the challenges affecting effective routine immunisation (RI) in Nigeria.
The minister, speaking at the 68th meeting of the World Health Organisation Regional Committee for Africa in Dakar, Senegal, assured the meeting of Nigerias commitment to immunisation as a way of saving lives and improving health outcomes.
In a press statement signed by the director, media and public relations, Boade Akinola on Tuesday, the minister joined other members of the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunisation (GAVI) to share the challenges and successes achieved in routine immunisation programmes on the continent.
This is with the aim to reviews strategies for improvement of RI in the continent, the release noted.
Mr Adewole, a professor of obstetrics, said the recently conducted Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), in Nigeria, gave a clear picture of the immunisation status as against the administrative data available in the country.
He said this has made the government declare a Public Health Emergency on immunisation to enable the country to close all identified gaps.
According to Mr Adewole, the government came up with several initiatives to address some of the challenges; such as the establishment of National Emergency Routine Immunization Centre (NERIC), which primarily aims to revamp the countrys RI programme.
The minister, while identifying the major challenges as poor coordination, accountability, weak service delivery and inaccurate data among others said in addressing the issues, the country has now developed zero tolerance for data falsification.
NERIC has developed strong coordination and accountability structure with rewards and sanction for actors at the federal, state and local governments levels.
They also conduct daily progress monitoring meeting so as to identify gaps and deal with them appropriately, he added.
Mr Adewole also noted that GAVIs decision to extend the nations transition period to 10 years as against the earlier five years deadline has helped the country in mapping out funding plans to ensure sustainability after the withdrawal of GAVIs support for immunisation in Nigeria.
Government of Nigeria has an annual funding plan of ten per cent increase in immunisation budget which will enable the country take full responsibility for immunisation of its citizens by the end of the transition programme in 2028, he said.
According to him, the country has a target of 80 per cent immunisation coverage. He also assured that the government would keep faith to GAVI and all other development partners.
Other African countries also shared ideas and challenges similar to Nigeria.
The meeting agreed on the need to adopt measures of doing things differently to achieve better outcomes, increase the political commitment of state actors especially in the area of strong leadership and transparency.
They also agreed to ensure community and group participation which targets women and youth, have a strong data integrity regime and commitment to right recruitments.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Wednesday approved a N6.01 trillion National Strategic Health Development Plan II.
The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, disclosed this when he briefed journalists at the end of the councils meeting chaired by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the presidential villa, Abuja.
According to him, the new plan which covers 2018 to 2022, involves the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The Council today considered a memo from the Federal Ministry of Health on the National Strategic Health Development Plan II, covering the period 2018 2022.
We had the previous Plan I which covered the period 2010 2015. The Plan I had 52 targets but regrettably we were only able to achieve less than two from the 52 targets.
So, we spent a long time trying to put in place the Second Plan, so it took us about two years to get this second plan done.
It involves all states of the federation, it includes the Federal Capital Territory and our development partners participated in the presentation and the approval of the Plan, he said.
The minister revealed that the plan was approved at the National Council of Healths meeting that took place in Kano on June 21.
He explained that the plan had five strategic pillars and 15 priority areas, saying the five pillars included enabling environment for attainment of health sector goals and increased utilisation of essential package of health services.
Others are strengthening the health system and protection from health emergencies as well as health financing.
In total, this new plan has 15 thematic areas, 48 strategic objectives and 282 interventions that will help us to really improve the healthcare delivery that will offer our people.
What is important is the stakeholder and strong health sector wide participation of states in the presentation. We went through a five-stage process.
The states went to develop their plans. The federal developed ours. We came together, harmonised all the plans and we brought everybody together to validate and adopt the plan and then moved on to Kano for implementation.
The entire projects meant for over five years will cost us over N6.071 trillion and we believe that if this funding is done, if the plans are implemented faithfully, we will achieve a 31 per cent reduction in maternal mortality.
We will achieve 33 percent reduction in horizontal mortality and we will achieve fewer than five percent mortality reduction of 29 per cent.
Mr Adewole announced that the plan would be presented to the National Economic Council (NEC) and Governors Forum to secure the buy-in of the governors so that the plan could be faithfully implemented.
He, therefore, expressed optimism that the plan would usher Nigeria into a new era.
On the reported outbreak of cholera in some parts of the Northern states, the minister said his ministry was collaborating with the affected states in addressing the epidemic.
He further stated that Nigeria in partnership with some African countries is working toward the eradication of cholera in the continent.
The Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing, Mustapha Shehuri, also told journalists that the council approved N5 billion for the construction of Abak-Eket road in Akwa-Ibom.
According to him, other approvals include N1.097 billion for augmentation of the N28 billion Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja road Section 1; N78 million for design, finance and operate of 750 kilowatts power generation facility.
He disclosed that N73 million was also approved for the augmentation of the construction of N1.2 billion bridge in Sumaila Local government in Kano State.
(NAN)
A former governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau, has refuted a claim by his spokesman, Sule Yau, that he has defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressive Congress (APC).
In an audio clip repeatedly aired on some radio stations in Kano on Tuesday, Mr Shekarau, a presidential aspirant, said he is still making consultations with his political associates on the next line of action.
He said his followers know he has a tradition of consulting political associates before taking any critical decision, and will make his position known to the public, himself, at an appropriate time.
He therefore appealed to his followers to remain calm, and wait further direction.
People are aware with the current trend in PDP Kano State. The national leadership has announced dissolution of Kano state executives of PDP. We have challenged this decision in court, because it contradicts the constitution of the PDP. We are still making consultation with PDP leaders in Kano for next line of action.
You are aware in my political history, before I take any decision, I consult my political associates. I am still making such consultation. I am appealing to my supporters to exercise patient. I will make my position known to public myself at an appropriate time, Mr Shekarau said.
When PREMIUM TIMES correspondent visited the residence of Mr Shekarau, he was told that the politician will meet with his loyalists on Tuesday night, and will make his position known on Wednesday.
On Monday, Mr Yau told BBC Hausa that his boss has dumped the PDP due to the dissolution of Kano PDP state executives and formation of a caretaker committee under Rabiu Bichi, former Secretary to Kano State Government and a close political associate of Rabiu Kwankwaso, another presidential candidate and ex-governor of the state.
Following the dissolution of the Masud Doguwa-led executive, the members obtained an interim court judgement setting aside its dissolution.
Earlier on Tuesday, the public relations officer of the dissolved state executive, Musa Danbirni, told PREMIUM TIMES that they are still the authentic leaders of PDP in Kano
We are against the decision of National leadership of PDP for dissolving Kano state executives. Let me tell you, yesterday (Monday) the PDP leaders in Kano, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau and Ambassador Aminu Wali have sent their representatives to pay a solidarity visit to state secretariat in support of our leadership, Mr Danbirni said
Meanwhile, perhaps as a move to placate some of the parties, the PDP has resolved to expand the caretaker committee to accommodate all interests in line with its adherence to the principles of all-inclusiveness.
The party made this known in a statement on Tuesday signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan.
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has resolved to expand the Kano State Caretaker Committee to accommodate all interests in line with its adherence to the principles of all-inclusiveness.
The party in its statement said it is open to opinions and suggestions from party members in ensuring reconciliation and accommodation for all interests within its fold in the state.
The NWC assured no stone will be left unturned in the overall quest to bring good governance to Kano State.
The party leadership further assured it is prepared to engage with all in Kano provided all matters in court against the party are withdrawn, as all members work together to build a united PDP that can confront and send out incompetent and insensitive people in governance in Kano State and Nigeria at large.
Photo: Kelowna RCMP
An early morning theft from a parked vehicle was caught on a surveillance camera over the weekend.
Kelowna RCMP are seeking the public's help in finding a woman who broke into a parked Ford on Toovey Road just before 5 a.m. Saturday.
The surveillance cameras captured the unknown female as she crept into the carport structure the Ford Explorer pickup truck was parked inside of, and opened the seemingly unlocked drivers side door, said Cpl. Jesse O'Donaghey.
The woman was seen rummaging through the vehicle before making off with loose change.
Police have described the woman as slender, Caucasian, with light brown or strawberry blonde hair. She was wearing a black jacket, blue jeans, a set of knee pads and bright pink shoes.
Anyone with information is asked to call Kelowna RCMP at 250-762-3300.
A businessman, Khareem Oluwaseyi, was on Wednesday arraigned by the EFCC for allegedly impersonating the U.S. Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, to defraud people online.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Oluwaseyi has, however, pleaded not guilty to a five-count charge of possession of fraudulent document before a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja.
The prosecuting counsel for the EFCC, A.M. Ocholi, told the court that Mr Oluwaseyi committed the offences on June 29 in Lagos.
The defendant goes by the alias Jeff Sessions and using the moniker, he had created an e-mail address jeffsessions54@gmail.com.
He had in his possession an e-mail correspondence containing false pretence titled: Grant Money, which he sent from that e-mail address to compbellellaine390@gmail.com, the e-mail address of an unsuspecting victim.
Oluwaseyi had in his possession another e-mail correspondence titled: Grant which he sent from his Jeff Sessions e-mail address to tomzglamorously@gmail.com which he knew contained false pretence.
He also had sent an e-mail: titled no subject which he sent to daphebarney3@gmail.com, knowing same to be false, Mr Ocholi said.
The prosecutor said that in addition to the e-mail correspondences, Mr Oluwaseyi was also allegedly nabbed with a fraudulent document titled: National Endowment for Humanities.
Mr Ocholi said that the offences contravened Sections 1(3) and 68(b) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.
However, following the plea of the defendant, the judge, Oyindamola Ogala, ordered that Mr Oluwaseyi be remanded in prison.
The judge adjourned the case until September 10 for hearing of the bail application of the defendant. (NAN)
An EU agro-forestry programme known as Fuel Wood Balance has commenced distribution of 760,000 additional free tree seedlings in seven local governments in Katsina State.
The project manager, Chris Udokang, said the gesture was to promote afforestation and environmental conservation.
Mr Udokang made the disclosure during the National Annual Review Seminar on Improving Fuel Wood Balance in the seven participating local governments in Katsina on Wednesday.
He said the seedlings were produced during the agencys 2018 nursery activity through the Farmer Manage Tree Regeneration Programme.
According to him, 7.09 million trees have been planted and maintained by farmers across the seven local government areas in the last three years under the FUWOBA.
He said that the trees planted represented 129.92 per cent of the target value trees set under the programme.
The project manager explained that 5 million trees representing 143.0 per cent of the target were also generated through farmer managed regeneration approach and 2 million seedlings through nursery approach.
He said the survival count conducted in December last year indicated that 4.5 million trees planted and maintained had achieved 69.48 per cent survival rate.
Mr Udokang said 55, 638 farmers representing 101.16 per cent of the target households covering 147,355.92 hectare of land had been achieved since inception of the project four years ago.
He said the trees planted include, eucalyptus, mahogany of different varieties, moringa, zizipus and other relevant economic trees that would boost economic fortunes of farmers and conserve the environment.
According to him, the project has also produced and distributed 35,000 mud efficient clean cook stoves within the benefiting communities, 2,800 hoes, 6,800 watering cans.
Also distributed were 7,000 50kg of fertilizers, 7,000 liters of agri-chemical insecticides, 1,200 pressure sprayer machines and 700 animal plough.
Responding, Aminu Masari, governor of Katsina State, represented by the permanent secretary, ministry of environment, Sani Masari commended the sponsors of the project for considering the state to benefit from the project.
He said the state government would procure and distribute 34,000 clean cook stoves for distribution free of charge to farmers in the 34 local governments.
According to the governor, each of the local governments will receive 10,000 clean stoves.
He said the state government would continue to support such excellent initiatives aimed at conserving the environment and empowering people of the state.
In a remark, Abubakar Kusada, speaker of the state house of assembly, said lawmakers would collaborate with relevant agencies to enact relevant laws to protect the environment.
Kate Kanebi, an EU official commended the stakeholders on the level of implementation of the project, and said the project would be extended to other local government areas.
She said the sponsors of the project would not hesitate to dedicate more funds for sponsoring the project.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that FUWOBA project was introduced in September 2014 by EU facilitated by Oxfam, Iceed and National Planning Commission.
The project is aimed at conserving the environment and economic empowerment.
The participating local governments in the lot 2 programme of the project are Baure, Maiadua, Mashi, Daura, Dutsi, Sandamu and Zango.
(NAN)
The council chairman, Ringim Local Government Area of Jigawa State, Abdulrashid Ibrahim, said at least seven persons were killed while over 2000 houses and farmlands were destroyed by flood in the state.
The council boss highlighted the incident to journalists on Tuesday in his office at Ringim, after he paid a sympathy visit to the affected communities ravaged by the flood.
He explained that the damage is alarming because the flood is the first of its kind in the area, since 2003.
More than one hundred hectares of farmlands were submerged as the flood damaged farm produces and rendered over forty five thousand farmers and families homeless.
Mr Ibrahim said the flood destroyed farm produces worth millions of naira, which include- guinea-corn, rice, groundnut, millet and other cash crops.
He said the people that lost their lives in the incident were using a canoe to move from the flood troubled area to a safer destination. Unfortunately, the canoe capsized, killing seven people on board.
He identified the affected communities in the council as: Dabi, Auramo, Yakasawa, Algama, Laura, Kayi hawa, Dingare, Siyanku, Nsukum, zangon kanya, Malamawan Yandutse, Kyarama, Sintilmawa , Yan-dutse and Chai-chai Sabuwa.
He explained that the local government has intensified effort to reduce the effect of the flood, including purchasing six thousand empty bags and fifty troop of sand for embankment around the affected areas.
He urged the state and National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to intervene and assist the affected victims of the flood.
A victim from Algama village, Malam Musa, explained that he lost his house and farm produce in the disaster.
Most of the victims interviewed by PREMIUM TIMES called on the government and individuals to come to their rescue as they are in dire need of assistance.
Sani Yusuf, the executive secretary of State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) in Jigawa, said the flood was as a result of the release of Tiga Dam in Kano State.
Whenever the dam is released, it passes through nine Local Government Area in Jigawa which includes: Ringim, Taura, Jahun, Miga, Auyo, Kaugama, Malammadori, Hadejia, Guri up to Chad those communities in the riverine area.
He said NIMET normally alerted them every year when the dam will be released so that they can be proactive and ready, but unfortunately, this year they didnt receive any reports concerning the releasing of the dam.
The executive secretary said the state agency has provided 100 bags of Maize and numbers of empty bags/ sacks for emergency needs to the victims, at state level.
Its unfortunate that we have being requesting for assistance from the National Emergency Agency (NEMA) but they have never gotten any and as a result, they are discouraged to request for their assistance.
We also wrote a request to the presidential committee on flood but were yet to receive a response. This is (an) emergency. We cant do it alone at the state level, we need help, the victims are in need of assistance, Mr Yusuf said.
The Gombe State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) on Wednesday said it arrested a suspect for peddling fake dollars in Gombe.
Buhari Saad, Public Relations Officer of the command, said at a press briefing in Gombe, the arrest was based on credible information from the members of the public.
Mr Saad said the suspect, Augustine Samuel, was arrested with 30 pieces of fake 100 dollar notes.
He said the incessant racketeering and issuance of fake dollars was of great concern, and that the command had re-strategised to stop the disturbing trend.
Today, 46-year-old suspect who specialises in defrauding members of the public of their hard earned money by issuing them fake dollar notes in exchange for genuine naira bills has been arrested.
The suspect was arrested based on credible information from the members of the public. The incessant racketeering and issuance of fake currency has been of great concern to the command.
This criminal act is worrisome because of its consequences and untold hardship rendered on victims in the state. However, our strategy to end this crime is yielding expected results, he said.
Mr Saad said investigation was on-going, and that the suspect would soon be charged to the court. He appealed to the public to continue to cooperate with security personnel, while warning criminals in the state to have a re-think
(NAN)
President Muhammadu Buhari has asked for support from China for the Mambilla hydro-power project in Taraba State.
According to a statement by Garba Shehu, his media aide, Mr Buhari made the request Wednesday during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Below is the statement by Mr Shehu:
PRESIDENT BUHARI SEEKS SUPPORT FOR MAMBILLA PROJECT AS NIGERIA, CHINA SEAL $328 DEAL ON NICTIB II
President Muhammadu Buhari Wednesday in Beijing won the crucial support of the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, for the countrys aspiration to build the 3050 Megawatts Mambila hydroelectric power project, just as the two countries signed the agreement of $328m for the Information and Communication Technology Infrastructure Backbone Phase II (NICTIB II) project.
The concessional loan agreement between Galaxy Backbone Limited and Huawei Technologies Limited (HUAWEI) was signed by Nigerias Minister of Finance Kemi Adesoun and Wang Xiaotoa, Director-General, International Development Agency, in the presence of President Muhammadu Buhari and President Xi Jinping of China.
Nigeria and China also signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the One Belt One Road Initiative (OBOR).
Nigerias Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama and He Lifeng, Director, Chinas National Development and Reform Commission signed the OBOR- an initiative of President Xi which focuses on improving connectivity and cooperation among multiple countries spread across the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe.
Earlier during his meeting with President Xi, the Nigerian leader, while commending the Chinese government for successfully hosting the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) solicited support for the Mambilla hydropower project.
Noting that Mambilla project remains a key priority to Nigeria, the President also sought additional Chinese funding for four airport terminal projects as well as the Abuja light rail project.
President Buhari told his Chinese counterpart that since his last visit to China in 2016, the brotherly relationship between both countries had continued to flourish.
According to the President, in the past 24 months, the Chinese Government has provided humanitarian aid to our conflict-affected areas, scholarship to Nigerian youth, military training and security support to our personnel and agricultural modernization training.
President Buhari noted that in the period under review, China had provided concessionary loans to fund critical infrastructure projects in Nigeria, adding that these interventions have positively impacted millions of Nigerians and will continue to do so for generations to come.
Mr President, as we celebrate these successes, I would like to once again solicit your support for the Mambilla Hydropower Project which remains a key priority for my government. Our hope is to fund the project with concessionary loans from China as any alternative funding arrangement will adversely impact the projects viability.
We have been informed that our submission on this project is undergoing assessment by the relevant Chinese agencies. We hope with your kind intervention, this assessment will be expedited. Your Excellency, Mambilla is Nigerias equivalent of the three gorges dam. My wish is that you join me for the groundbreaking ceremony of this project in the not too distant future, President Buhari said.
On Lake Chad Basin, the President thanked China for accepting to support the international efforts to recharge the Lake.
The inclusion of this project in the FOCAC Action Plan 2019 to 2021 will go a long way in supporting our efforts to rehabilitate and resettle the conflict-impacted North East region, he said.
On people-to-people relations, President Buhari told his host that in the course of his visit, he interacted with Nigerian students and entrepreneurs living in different parts of China.
I was very pleased to hear about the positive experiences these hard working and law abiding citizens are having in their host communities. I also had the pleasure of meeting young Chinese students learning three Nigerian languages.
We must continue to support such exchange programmes to enhance our people-to-people contacts, he said.
Similarly, President Buhari noted that easy movement of citizens of both countries would complement the currency swap agreements recently signed by the central banks of both countries.
Since our last meeting two years ago, Nigeria has relaxed its visa requirements to Chinese citizens. Today, I am pleased to inform Your Excellency that Chinese citizens receive Nigerian visas in less than 48 hours.
Another measure that will improve our trade volumes will be to introduce import duty waivers on Nigerias commodity exports to China. Today, our commodities such as sesame seeds, hibiscus and cassava amongst others attract import duty in China, he said.
The Nigerian leader also lauded Chinas support for two permanent seats for Africa at the United Nations, noting that the reform of the Security Council would ensure equitable representation for the continent.
In his remarks, President Xi who commended Nigerias fight against terrorism and the progress that has been made so far, promised Chinas support in capacity building and intelligence sharing.
He also pledged 50 million Chinese Yuan support to Nigerias military, noting that Buhari is as decisive in dealing with terrorism as China.
President Xi said China would import more agricultural products from Nigeria and expressed gratitude to President Buhari on Nigerias interest to participate in the forthcoming Chinese Import Fair.
The relationship between Nigeria and China is as best as ever, especially given the deepening mutual trust. China will continue to stand with Nigeria, he said.
On Mambilla, the Chinese leader told President Buhari: We understand how critical the project is to your country and we will take a serious look at it and ensure that it succeeds because of its social and economic benefits.
Meanwhile, at a separate meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, President Buhari reaffirmed Nigerias commitment to expanding mutually beneficial cooperation with China.
Garba Shehu
Senior Special Assistant to the President
(Media & Publicity)
September 5, 2018
Edwin Clark has received an apology from the police after an unauthorised raid on his home by officers.
Police spokesperson Jimoh Moshood said Inspector-General Ibrahim Idris has sent a delegation of senior police officers to apologise to the elder statesman over the development.
The four officers who carried out the controversial raid are also said to be undergoing disciplinary measures; while an informant who was involved would be paraded on Wednesday, police said.
The statement comes hours after Mr Idris distanced himself from the raid, saying no proper approval was granted prior to it amidst nationwide uproar.
The raid was conducted on the home of Mr Clark in Asokoro, an exquisite neighbourhood of the elite east of Abuja city centre.
The officers were reportedly said to be on a hunt for guns and other ammunition following a tip-off that the nonagenarian was stockpiling them. The search reportedly yielded no discovery of unauthorised arms or other illicit items.
Mr Clark, 91, who held different public office positions before retiring into activities relating to Niger-Delta advocacy, condemned the raid and said he would not be deterred from further expressing his misgivings about President Muhammadu Buhari, who he had never supported.
Other rights groups have also spoken out in support of Mr Clark, including senior lawyer and rights activist, Mike Ozekhome, who warned against a descent into fascism.
Following the unauthorised, illegal and unprofessional, invasion, Mr Idris sent Joshak Habila, the deputy inspector-general in charge of operations, with some commissioners to apologise to Mr Clark at home, Mr Moshood said in the statement shortly before 1.00 a.m. Wednesday.
The officials apologised on behalf of the Nigeria Police Force and the IGP for the misconducts of the said police personnel and the attendant embarrassment the search has caused on the elder statesman and his family, police said.
Mr Moshood said Mr Clark had accepted the apology, indicating that the chiefs earlier demand for an open apology from the police had been met.
Mr Idris also directed that while the four officers are being held in custody where they are facing disciplinary procedures, the informant would be paraded on September 5 before the press and the public before his prompt arraignment and prosecution in court, the police said.
The police said on Wednesday that they were misled by an informant that there were illicit items at the home of former minister, Edwin Clark, before they stormed the premises on Tuesday.
Police spokesperson Jimoh Moshood said the officers who carried out the unauthorised search are likely to be punished for their action, while the informant would be arraigned in court shortly.
Three police inspectors are currently facing orderly room trial, while an assistant superintendent has been queried, the police said.
The police released the names of the officers who allegedly carried out the illegal raid.
The officers are David Dominic (an assistant superintendent of police who presumably led the team); Godwin Musa, Sada Abubakar and Yabo Paul (all inspectors). The name of their police division was not immediately disclosed.
Ismail Yakubu, identified as the informant, is said to be a resident of Waru Village, Apo District, Abuja. He would be arraigned this today, police said.
The action comes a day after Mr Clarks Abuja residence was searched by officers in Asokoro neighbourhood.
The officers were reportedly acting on a tip-off that the 91-year-old was stockpiling arms, although it was later reported that no illicit weapons or other incriminating items relating to gunrunning were found at the end of the operation.
The development met nationwide outrage and condemnation, with many seeing it as another repressive move by the Buhari administration to stifle critics.
Mr Clark, a former minister and front line advocate for the Niger-Delta, said he was shocked by the raid and demanded a public apology from the police.
Inspector-General Ibrahim Idris responded quickly to the outrage, first distancing himself from the raid Tuesday night before sending a team of senior police officers to convey their apology hours later.
Mr Moshood, an assistant police commissioner, said in the statement that the police have powers to search any home in the country, but said such actions have guidelines.
Where any officer fails to comply with the procedure in the course of executing a warrant, such an officer must be made to face the consequences of violating the rule of law, the spokesperson said.
Nigerias Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun says she has no information on a controversial request for the payment of $17 million to two lawyers regarding the repatriated $321 Abacha loot.
The request for the payment was made by the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami.
Mr Malami requested the payment to two lawyers, Oladipo Okpeseyi and Temitope Adebayo, for a fresh contract to pursue the return of the Abacha loot.
The proposed payment triggered widespread controversy following reports by The Cable that the roles for which the lawyers were employed to perform had already been concluded by a Swiss lawyer, Enrico Monfrinis law firm since 2014.
According to the newspaper, Mr Monfrini, who was employed by the federal government in 1999 to facilitate the return of the money, completed the Luxembourg part of the job in 2014 and the recovered loot was domiciled with the Office of the Attorney-General of Switzerland pending a Memorandum of Understanding that the money would not be misused by the Nigerian government.
Corroborating the points made in previous publications regarding the matter, the Swiss Ambassador to Nigeria, Eric Mayoraz, said during an interview with PREMIUM TIMES that the Attorney-General of Geneva took a final decision on the repatriation in 2014.
The Attorney-General of Geneva did the final decision, I think in 2014. There was a ruling by the AG in Geneva that the money is ready to be delivered to Nigeria, with the condition that the money will not be diverted, Mr Mayoraz said.
He added that the precondition formed the basis for the MoU which was eventually signed before the final repatriation in 2017.
Subsequently, Cable Newspaper Journalism Foundation (CNJF), a partner organisation with TheCable, made a Freedom of Information request to the minister asking for the details of the said request.
In a reply to the FOI, Mrs Adeosuns office was quoted by the newspaper as saying that the ministry had no information about the said request.
The Federal Ministry of Finance does not have any information regarding any payment made to the Solicitors. You may therefore wish to direct your request to the Federal Ministry of Justice, the paper quoted a reply from the finance ministry as saying in a letter dated August 30.
Mr Malami had confirmed making the request in an interview with Telegraph newspaper, where he cited exorbitant fees from the Swiss lawyer as reason for beginning a fresh contracts with the lawyers.
But Mr Mamais claim were swiftly refuted by Mr Monfrini who explained that he had long been paid, before Mr Malami assumed office.
The National Assembly is currently investigating the proposed payment to the controversial lawyers.
The Presidency has reacted to a comment by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who described President Muhammadu Buhari as being uncompromising and power-drunk.
Mr Abubakar said he was concerned about whether the 2019 elections will be free and fair with Mr Buhari in power.
In an interview with the AFP, Mr Abubakar, who is contesting the presidential election, said unlike former President Goodluck Jonathan, who peacefully relinquished power in 2015, the country is now dealing with a retired general, very uncompromising, also power-drunk; who will not be ready to leave power without a fight.
The characters that are involved this time, as far as the leadership of this country is concerned, are different from 2015, he was quoted by the AFP as saying.
In its response Wednesday, the Presidency said it agreed Mr Buhari was uncompromising in dealing with corruption, but denied he was power-drunk.
Read the statement released by presidential spokesperson Femi Adesina:
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, was quoted by a foreign news medium as accusing President Muhammadu Buhari of being very uncompromising, also power drunk; (and) who will not be ready to leave power without a fight.
Rather than use the name of President Buhari to buoy his bid to get the presidential ticket of a party, whose flag has been flying at half-mast since it got roundly trounced at the polls in 2015, the former Vice President needs be told that the President is truly uncompromising, but only when it comes to looting the common patrimony of Nigerians, and squandering their riches.
President Buhari is uncompromising in the quest to restore probity and accountability to public office. He is uncompromising in cleaning the rot Nigeria was consigned into pre-2015, thus the war against corruption is being fought without fear or favour. The President is equally resolute in the determination to ensure that Nigeria is no longer a mono-economy, depending only on oil.
Yes, President Buhari is single-minded in effecting change in every area of Nigerian life. So, Alhaji Abubakar is right, if that was what he meant by the President being uncompromising.
But power drunk? No! And being a man who will not be ready to leave power without a fight? Never! Not President Buhari, who has demonstrated in many ways that he is a committed democrat, though also a retired military general. He has no apologies about that. Through a sterling military career, he served Nigeria with his heart and might, before venturing into partisan politics.
In many ways, President Buhari has wielded power with decency, and as a means of serving the people, rather than for personal ends. If theres one person not intoxicated by power, it is President Buhari, and scores of millions of Nigerians know this. That is why they will invest him with power again next year, knowing that he wont misuse or misapply what has been entrusted to him.
Former VP Abubakar may want to borrow a leaf from the decorous language employed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, in answering his recent press statement on the restructuring debate. That is the hallmark of statesmen, and not crying wolf where none exists, which is what the allegation of being uncompromising and power drunk truly is.
President Buhari is actuated by service to country, and nothing else. So, there couldnt be anything like not ready to leave power without a fight.
Indeed, the insinuation of a fight is the mindset of a man who is either undemocratic, or has seen defeat staring him, and his party, in the face.
Let the former Vice President rest assured that there will be no fight over power in Nigeria. Not under President Buharis watch. The people dont want a fight. It is some political leaders we must beseech to eschew pugnacity, and mind their language.
Femi Adesina
Special Adviser to the President
(Media and Publicity)
September 5, 2018
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said on Wednesday that it had concluded plans to repatriate 56,000 Borno Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), from Difa, Niger Republic.
The Northeast Zonal Coordinator of NEMA, Bashir Garga, disclosed this during a humanitarian and development coordination forum organized by the agency in Maiduguri.
Mr Garga said that the IDPs were those who escaped Boko Haram onslaught in the last seven years in Mobbar and Abadam Local Government Areas of Borno.
He said that all arrangements had been made with the government of Niger to ensure that they were brought back to Nigeria.
There were serious concerns on insecurity in some of the liberated local government areas.
NEMA is working with the security agencies toward ensuring that the liberated LGAs are safe and habitable to the returnees.
But much still needs to be done. So we are urging the humanitarian organisations to give attention to developing the liberated communities.
This is because some of the IDPs, after going back home, return to where they were because their homes are not habitable.
We need to encourage them and reassure them of their safety all the time, he said.
In his remarks, Ahmed Bello, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Borno Command, who gave update on the security situation, said proactive measures had been adopted to protect the IDPs.
Mr Bello said that the force had deployed no fewer than 50 mobile police units in communities liberated from Boko Haram to enhance law and order.
He said that the force also trained some personnel on conflict resolution techniques to curb issues of land grabbing, cattle rustling and other menace arising in the liberated communities.
He explained that the command was working with traditional leaders, civilian JTF and other partners in the state to check crime. (NAN)
Photo: TransLink
The federal and B.C. governments have reiterated their commitment to funding two major rapid transit projects in Metro Vancouver.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and B.C. Premier John Horgan stood together today to show their support for the Broadway subway project in Vancouver and a new light rail transit line in Surrey.
Ottawa and B.C. are spending more than $3 billion on the projects, which will see 5.7 kilometres of track and six stations added to the SkyTrain line along Broadway, helping to ease congestion on the busy corridor connecting East Vancouver and the city's West End.
The federal government will contribute $1.37 billion. TransLink, Vancouver and Surrey will put in $1.23 billion.
Eleven new stations will be built along 10.5 kilometres of street-level track in Surrey, creating the first light-rail system in B.C.
The Surrey-Newton-Guildford LRT project is intended to make it easier to travel across the Lower Mainland.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson says the Broadway subway extension is one of the largest infrastructure projects in B.C. history.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Yobe and Plateau states have adopted indirect elections for the partys primaries to select candidates for the 2019 general elections.
The development in Yobe was contained in a letter made available to journalists on Wednesday in Damaturu, signed by the partys state chairman, Adamu Chilariye and the secretary, Abubakar Bakabe respectively.
The party said it adopted the indirect option following the partys State Executive Committee (SEC) meeting on Tuesday in Damaturu, which deliberated extensively on the needs and peculiarities of the state.
The SEC also consulted widely with critical stakeholders of the party to adopt a unified position among options provided by the constitution of our great party, it said.
The party attributed lack of updated membership register, owing to security challenges in the state, as an impediment to the adoption of direct elections for the partys primaries.
The party also claimed that it lacked resources and time to conduct direct elections to meet the dateline provided by the national secretariat of the party.
Therefore, in view of the aforementioned factors, the SEC and the stakeholders have unanimously resolved to adopt the indirect election option for the primary.
The SEC and stakeholders, therefore, resolved to forward these resolutions to the National Working Committee for approval, the letter said.
Like Yobe, the Plateau chapter of the APC has also adopted the indirect method of primaries in choosing its candidates for elective positions in the 2019 elections.
The party unanimously adopted the position at an expanded stakeholders meeting on Wednesday in Jos.
Johnclerk Dabwan, former Speaker of the Plateau House of Assembly, moved the motion for the adoption of the indirect primaries and was seconded by Azi Pate, the party chairman in Jos East Local Government.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the National Executive Council (NEC) of the party had given the state chapters the privilege of deciding how to arrive at its candidates.
Among the options are direct and indirect primaries, as well as consensual agreement.
Mr Dabwan, while arguing for indirect primaries, cited security challenge in the state as his major reason.
Having gone through the provisions of our partys constitution and the resolution of its National Executive Council where it suggested direct, indirect or consensus method in conducting our primaries, I want to move that Plateau should adopt indirect primaries.
The security challenges currently bedeviling us will make direct primaries very difficult and cumbersome, he said.
NAN reports that stakeholders at the meeting, through a voice vote, adopted the motion after Mr Latep Dabang, the state party chairman, put the question to vote.
Among senior party members at the meeting were Sonni Tyoden, he deputy governor; his immediate predecessor, Ignatius Longjan; as well as former and serving lawmakers in the state.
Unlike Yobe and Plateau, however, the APC in Kebbi says it has unanimously adopted consensus selection of candidates for the 2019 elections.
The Deputy Senate Leader, Bala NaAllah, on Wednesday made this known after an emergency stakeholders meeting of the party in Birnin Kebbi.
Sequel to the directive by the national secretariat of the APC that we should go back to our state and hold a state Executive Committee meeting to decide on the fate of our party primaries on either consensus or primaries, we have decided to do consensus.
Where the consensus fails, we will do indirect primary election.
But the seat of the president and state governor, we unanimously endorse President Muhammadu Buhari and Gov. Atiku Bagudu; that is our decision, he said.
Also speaking, state Chairman of APC, Bala Kangiwa, described APC members in the state as one big family living in peace and unity.
We are committed to safeguarding the peace and unity in our family, he said.
Spokesman of the party, Sani Dododo, said rice farmers nationwide have resolved to purchase APC nomination form for Mr Buhari while the people of Kebbi will procure nomination form for governor Bagudu.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that those in attendance at the meeting were Governor Atiku Bagudu, a senator, Adamu Aliero, former state governor , Saidu Dakingari, and deputy governor Samaila Yombe.
Also in attendance were former deputy governors Ibrahim Aliyu and Sulaiman Argungu, two senators, Mr NaAllah and Yahaya Abdullahi, as well as members of the House of Representatives and State Assembly, among others.
Nigerias main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it has concluded discussions with six governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and 27 of its members in the National Assembly to defect to the PDP.
PDP spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the planned defectors have secured the mandates of their constituents to make the move ahead of the 2019 general elections.
If the claims by the PDP turns out to be true, it will be another major setback for the ruling APC after it lost three governors to the PDP between July and August.
They are Samuel Ortom of Benue, Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto and Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara states.
Members of the APC in the National Assembly who joined the PDP from the APC included Senate President Bukola Saraki.
In a statement on Wednesday, Mr Ologbondiyan said discussions with the planned defectors on control of party structures in the affected states and senatorial zones had also reached advanced stage and would be completed in a couple of weeks after which the governors and lawmakers will announce their defection to the PDP.
In line with decisions reached at the discussions, the members of the National Assembly decamping to the PDP will cross-carpet at the reconvening of session in the two chambers, which will increase the PDP majority in both chambers.
All grey areas of the agreement, including issues of waivers and accommodation for participation in primaries, are being smoothened out by the former Governor Liyel Imoke-led PDP Contact and Integration Committee, which has been galvanizing our alliances among stakeholders across other parties, including those from the APC.
Mr. Ologbondiyan said the party is ready to take back control of power at the centre, as well as states it describes as its traditional states.
The states, he said, are Plateau, Niger, Adamawa, Kano, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Kebbi, Kaduna, Katsina, Kogi, Jigawa, Zamfara, Imo, Edo as well as southwest states of Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Lagos.
He charged members and supporters of the party to remain steadfast and wary of what he termed as gimmicks of the deflated APC, which he said had resorted to sponsoring spurious publications filled with deceptions, fabrications and lies against our party.
The PDP also commends Nigerians across board for their overwhelming support and solidarity with the repositioned PDP as expressed in the unprecedented interest in our tickets for various elective positions, particularly the presidency, governorship and National Assembly positions, in addition to spirited public discourse at all levels of political engagements across our country.
These interests and movements from the APC to the PDP are indicators of the consensus by Nigerians to rally on the platform of the PDP to end the economic hardship, bloodletting, violence and infrastructural decay that have become the hallmark of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration, and return our nation to the path of unity, national cohesion and economic prosperity, which the PDP is known for.
Some stakeholders and aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa State have endorsed direct primaries as the mode of electing partys candidates for the 2019 general elections.
In a letter addressed to the APC national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, the stakeholders including former secretary to the government of the federatiom, Babachir Lawal, hailed the decision of the party to conduct direct primaries.
Other signatories to the letter include the senator representing Adamawa North, Abubakar MoAllayidi, Abubakar Girei and Bello Tukur. Others are APC gubernatorial aspirants including Marcus Gundiri, Nuhu Ribadu and Mahmoud Halilu.
The seven signatories said they consider the decision of the party to go the way of direct primaries as not only progressive but also inclusive and revolutionary.
The state chapter of the party had in a meeting convoked on Monday announced the adoption of indirect primaries as the mode of election.
But the stakeholders lampooned opposition to the direct primary option, arguing that is is only opposed by those who are afraid of the people.
As democrats, we found the decision cheering and encouraging and we are therefore shocked that anybody who lays claim to democracy or desire to lead the people would find the decision to let the people decide as a threat or discomforting.
The letter enumerated five reasons why direct primaries is the best way to select party candidates.
Direct Primary is an inclusive way of deciding who flies the party flag with all bona fide members of the party having a chance to make their choice. It gives meaning to membership of the party as followers are included in taking vital decision like who represent their party in the general elections.
Apart from inclusiveness, the stakeholders also argued that direct primaries is more democratic.
Making contests open and transparent, with everybody having a say, as in direct primaries, is a true expression of democratic values which the APC strives to uphold, they wrote.
The staleholders also argue that with direct primaries there are minimal cases of rancour and tendency for corruption, positing that indirect primaries is being subjected to abuse.
In a separate letter addressed to the national chairman on Tuesday, a parallel leadership of the APC in the state also expressed support for direct primaries.
The letter signed by the factions chairman, Dumas Ezra, and Usman Ibrahim, its publicity secretary, criticised the party faction loyal to Governor Mohammed Jibrilla for using insecurity as an excuse to make case for indirect primaries.
According to the factional leadership, Adamawa is peaceful for both primaries and the general election.
See full text of the stakeholders letter below:
RE: MODE OF PRIMARIES: EXPRESSION OF SUPPORT FOR THE PARTYS DECISION ON DIRECT PRIMARIES
On behalf of our teeming supporters and, indeed, all progressive members of our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa State, we write to express vote of confidence on the national leadership of the party and convey our resounding commendation for the decision of the party in respect of the conduct of primaries at all levels.
As stakeholders/aspirants, we found the decision of the party to go the way of direct primaries as not only progressive but also inclusive and revolutionary. The decision is also in tandem with the principles and ideals of our dear leader His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, to always carry the people along and make all Nigerians, nay party members relevant and be given a voice in decision-making process.
As individuals who want to pursue our respective ambitions under this great party, we feel elated by this wise decision. As democrats, we found the decision cheering and encouraging and we are therefore shocked that anybody who lays claim to democracy or desire to lead the people would find the decision to let the people decide as a threat or discomforting.
The merits of direct primaries are too many to recount here but as progressive members of the APC, we vote to support direct primaries for these reasons, among others:
INCLUSIVENESS: Direct Primary is an inclusive way of deciding who flies the party flag with all bona fide members of the party having a chance to make their choice. It gives meaning to membership of the party as followers are included in taking vital decision like who represent their party in the general elections. DEMOCRACTIC: Democracy differs from feudalism. It is by popular definition a means of governance by the people and for the people. Making contests open and transparent, with everybody having a say, as in direct primaries, is a true expression of democratic values which the APC strives to uphold. RANCOUR-FREE: Because direct primaries happen at different places at the same time, it enables peace and tranquillity, as well as orderly conduct by all involved in the process. MINIMAL/NO CORRUPTION: The indirect primaries (delegate system) is long discredited for wanton use of money and sheer correction. CHOSEN BY MR PRESIDENT: To cap it all, in his wisdom and culture of ethics and uprightness, President Muhammadu Buhari chose to have the presidential primaries in direct form, and wonder why anyone else, with even smaller constituency, would oppose the popular choice of the people and that of our dear president.
We the undersigned stakeholders/aspirants from Adamawa therefore reiterate our unwavering support for direct primaries and want the party to ensure that it is conducted to the latter, as a mark of assurance for open and fair contest and in order to elect popular candidates who can stand the test of general elections.
As you are aware, Your Excellency, fielding weak or unpopular candidates through manipulative primaries is a sure way of losing elections, a misfortune we dont pray for.
We once again assure you of our total support and loyalty to the leadership of the party and pray that God almighty strengthen you to deliver on your mandate in fairness and justice to all.
Accept our sincere assurances, please.
SIGNED
Senator Abubakar Muhammed MoAllayidi
Engineer Babachir D. Lawal..
Engineer Marcus Gundiri..
Dr Mahmoud Halilu.
Senator Abubakar Girei
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.
Senator Bello Tukur
Residents and corporate bodies in Bauchi State are owing the State Water and Sewage Corporation (BSWSC) over one billion Naira of unsettled water bills.
Aminu Gital, the Managing Director of the BSWSC, disclosed this at a meeting between the management of the corporation and some civil society organisations (CSOs) in Bauchi on Wednesday.
He told the CSOs that the corporation registered over 22,000 water consumers in the state, but only 1,020 of them settled their monthly bills regularly.
Water rate in the state is one of the lowest in the country because we charge N500 for high density areas, N750 for housing estates and N1000 for residents of the GRA, but despite this gesture, water consumers remain reluctant to settle this meagre bills, he lamented.
He said that the huge debt was hindering the corporation from fulfilling its mandate of providing potable drinking water to the 20 Local Government Areas of the state.
Mr Gital outlined other challenges facing the corporation to include huge maintenance cost associated with payment of NEPA bills, fueling of generating plants and purchase of chemicals.
He expressed willingness to collaborate with the CSOs in sensitising customers on the need to settle water bills.
We are ready to partner the CSOs in our efforts to sensitise the public on the need to settle their bills in view of the fact that supply of potable drinking water has the potential to reduce the cost of treatment of water borne diseases, Mr Gital said.
Earlier, Coordinator of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Project (USAID supported project), Soni Elisha, had listed areas of support from the CSOs to include water source monitoring, water treatment monitoring and water quality measurement from source to end point, among others.
News Agency of Nigeria reports that at the end of the meeting, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the management of BSWSC and Network of Society for Water and Sanitaion (NEWSAN), an umbrella body of CSOs working on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Bauchi.
(NAN)
Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State on Wednesday, says his administration has concluded plan to establish more technical colleges across the 21 local government areas of the state.
Mr Bello disclosed this at the 1st matriculation of the 2017/2018 Regular Students and Graduation of 2nd Batch of Short Term Courses of Nigeria-Korea Friendship Institute of Vocational and Advanced Technology (NKFI) in Lokoja, the state capital.
The governor, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Edward Onoja, said the state presently had four technical colleges.
According him, the aim is to bring technical and vocational skills acquisition closer to grassroots.
Since inception of this government, we have been given maximum support to education, including NKFI, to ensure that it realises its purpose of establishment.
Today, we are here graduating students and also matriculating new set of students, the first of its kind since the inception of the institution.
We are encouraging more of our youths to take skills acquisition in technical and vocational areas, the major need of society today, to be self-reliant and be employers of labour.
Once you can have skills that provide solutions to the needs of the society, you are inadvertently creating wealth in such society, Bello said.
The governor advised the grandaunts to synergise, partner and network to start small and provide effective services while urging the matriculating students to focus on their purpose of coming to the institution.
Rosemary Osikoya, the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, commended the Nigerian and Korean Governments for the partnership in making establishment of the institution and possible.
According Mrs Osikoya, education equips people with skills and give them the opportunity to meet their needs as well as enable them to make great impacts in the society.
The commissioner said emphasis on sustainable diversification of the economy should be on improvement in vocational and technical skills training.
Gov. Yayaya Bello administration has been given support to the NKFI through the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, which is the result of what you are seeing here today.
In spite the lean resources, we are engaging in collaborations with approval of the state executive council, hopefully we will have one government technical college in each LGA as from 2018/2019 academic session, Mrs Osikoya said.
The Principal of NKFI, Okewu Gabriel, 58 grandaunts, comprising 56 males and 2 females, had successfully been trained on short term courses for three and six months, depending on the choice of courses.
Mr Okewu said 75 students were matriculated into various two-year courses and programmes in the institute, the first since the full commencement of academic activities in 2015.
He said all courses offered by the institute had been accredited by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).
He also said the focus of the institute was basically on skills acquisition through technical and vocational training.
According to him, the accredited courses are: Electrical/Electronic Technology, Welding/Fabrication, Networking and System Security, Computer Software Engineering, and Automotive Mechatronics.
Paulin Ajibili, Kogi State Coordinator of NABTEB, told journalists that the institute was collaborating with the board to certify the trained people in various skills acquisition.
She said that the certificate issued by the institute can be use anywhere in the world.
One of the graduates, Ndime Christopher, who did ICT, told journalists that the experience was wholesome, adding that it would help me to be self-reliant.
The training was concrete, not abstract; I believed we have tried our best in the training because the materials were on ground for us.
I want to appreciate Kogi and Korean governments for the partnership.
(NAN)
The senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, and some other All Progressives Congress (APC) aspirants from the state have said they are in support of direct primaries.
In a letter addressed to the national chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole, the aspirants demanded that the direct primary mechanism which the party earlier settled for should apply in Kaduna State.
Addressing journalists after submitting the letter, the senator who earlier took to his Twitter handle to say indirect primaries is direct corruption urged party leaders to stand by their decision.
The group said indirect primaries stand as direct antithesis to the commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari to fight corruption at all levels.
The party having touted the change mantra must shine the light into those dark places in the electoral system where the corruptive influence of ill-gotten wealth is used to subvert the will of the electorate and perpetrate the vicious circle of corruption, bad governance and weak and dysfunctional institutions and processes.
We the aspirants and stakeholders of the Kaduna STATE Chapter of our great party the All Progressives Congress (APC) present our best compliments to you and wish by this letter to inform Your Excellency of our collective decision to adopt DIRECT PRIMARIES as the preferred mode of nominating candidates at primary elections into all elective positions in the state.
We the undersigned are particularly in opposition to indirect primaries because of the weakening effects of its corruptive tendencies. The entire process begins and ends with vote buying. And, as it is always the case where the will of the general electorates are subverted, the best candidates for the tasks at hand never get recruited.
Our decision to adopt direct primaries in Kaduna State is the panacea to the deep fault lines and obstacles to building a strong virile, people-rooted APC. Direct primaries is the most assured means at throwing up the most popular candidates that will deliver Kaduna State for the APC come 2019, the group said.
The group said the state will not be helped by indirect parties as only the few in power will control the outcome.
Speaking on the current state of the party in Kaduna State, the group said the current party executives are under the control of the governor frustrating others who are not on the side of the governor.
Over the past three years, there had been a significant amount of disquiet In the camp of the APC resulting to a disturbing level as apathy end anomie now pervades the party as a result of the profound sense of marginalisation and, in some cases, outright exclusion which is experienced by many critical stakeholders as well as members of the party.
The delegate system, otherwise called indirect primaries will rely on the whims and caprices of the few that now control the party after emerging from ward, local government and state congresses that have been widely rejected by party members as a sham.
Hundreds of party members who bought forms with a view to vying for various wards, local governments and state party executive positions were deliberately excluded from the process and in some Instances even intentionally blocked from submitting their forms. Nor were they even consulted ahead of the so-called processes of affirmation of officials of the party.
A great many of members of the party executives have been appointed to serve as campaign coordinators of Governors preferred candidates at various levels while those deemed to be sympathetic to the cause of the people other than the Governor have been shown the way out preferred candidates at various levels while those deemed to be sympathetic to the cause of the people other than the Governor have been shown the way out, the group explained.
The letter said many members are in court seeking judgements that would, from all indications, set aside these sham congresses.
Noting that insecurity might be named as a reason for indirect primaries, the aspirants said this reason would not favour Governor Nasir El-rufai as it contradicts his (governor) claims that Kaduna State has been secured.
This argument flies in the face of logic because if security challenges are sufficient grounds not to adopt and conduct direct primaries, then it follows that the 2019 general election ought not to hold at all.
If anything therefore we use this opportunity to forewarn of the possibility that violence may be formented by the governor and his hatchet men to undermine the conduct of free, fair credible direct primaries in the state.
The National Executive Committee of the APC had resolved last week to adopt the direct primary option for all elective positions.
The adopted mode shall now be applied to all categories of the Partys Primary Elections i.e. State Assembly, Senate, House of Representatives and for the Governorship Elections, it said.
The party, however, said it could allow indirect primaries based on the peculiarity and need of a given state.
In each case, the State Executive Committee (SEC) shall in consultation with candidates and other critical stakeholders of the Party in a given State identify and forward for the consideration and approval by the National Working Committee (NWC) for the mode of election to be adopted, the party said.
Prior the meeting, there had been several controversies on which mode of primaries should be adopted.
This controversy deepened after the NEC meeting as some party members and state chairmen, who are against direct primaries met on Sunday. However, they did not release a statement on what the meeting was about.
Direct primaries involves the participation of all party members in the selection of party candidates while indirect primaries involves use of delegates which many believe are largely influenced by state governors.
The Kaduna aspirants letter was signed by the following:
Shehu Sani- senator Kaduna central senatorial district
Mohammed Sani- senatorial aspirant Kaduna central senatorial district
Aliyu Silver- senatorial aspirant Kaduna North senatorial district
Shamsuddeen Shehu- senatorial aspirant Kaduna central
Rufai chanchangu- member representing Kaduna South federal constituency
Mohammed Musa-member representing Soba federal constituency
Halal falal- gubernatorial aspirant
Usman Ibrahim- senatorial aspirant Kaduna central district
Hassan Samdi- aspirant Kaduna North federal constituency
Umar Isa- aspirant Kaduna South federal constituency
Aminu Saad aspirant Kaduna South federal constituency
Yusuf Ali- aspirant Kaduna South federal constituency
Sani Nagari -aspirant Chikun/Kajuru federal constituency
Rufai Surajo- aspirant Kaduna North federal constituency
Sani Abdul -Doka/ Gabasawa constituency.
The Kano State Government has confirmed the death of nine people and injury to five others from a recent flood disaster in nine local government areas of the state.
The Executive Secretary of the State Emergency Relief and Rehabilitation Agency (SERERA), Alhaji Ali Bashir, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano on Wednesday.
Mr Bashir said the disaster also affected more than 4,475 persons in the nine local government areas of the state.
He explained that five persons lost their lives in Rimin Gado, three at Gabasawa and one in Getso town, Gwarzo Local Government Area.
So all in all nine persons lost their lives and five others sustained injuries in the disaster. A total of 4,475 people were affected by the flood, the scribe said.
According to him, the agencys personnel are still compiling reports from five other local government areas hit by the disaster.
We have a total of 15 local government areas that were hit by flood and so far we have completed assessment of the situation in nine of the 14 LGAs, Mr Bashir said.
He assured that a comprehensive report would be produced for the consideration of the state government as soon as the team completed the assessment of the affected areas.
(NAN)
A former Borno senator and 2019 governorship aspirant, Muhammed Abba-Aji, has said he should be counted out of the Borno states All Progressives Congress (APC) choice of indirect primaries.
Mr. Abba-Aji, who was first to declare his 2019 ambition, said he was absent at the meeting by choice because he was not on the same page with those that plotted to force the choice of indirect primaries on the party.
According to him, the decision of the Borno APC State executive committee to go for indirect primaries was more of self-serving than in the overall interest of the party.
The ruling APC had on Tuesday at a meeting rejected the direct primaries format of selecting candidates for the party as proposed by the national headquarters of the party.
During the meeting, top members of the party in Borno state said it was the shared view of members, including Mr. Abba-Aji. They said although Mr Abba-Aji was absent, he had sent his endorsement by proxy.
Although the chairman of the party, Bukar Dalori, had mentioned during the meeting that all key members of the party had endorsed their decision, the roll call of those did not reflect his claims.
Majority of those considered to be loyalists of the former governor of Borno state, Modu Sheriff, who is currently on war path with Governor Kashim Shettima, were conspicuously absent at the meeting.
Many names of top APC stalwarts were mentioned in proxy by various persons who claimed they were instructed to register their endorsement of every decision taken at the meeting.
Reacting to journalists questions on his position concerning the coming primaries, Mr. Abba-Aji said he was never in support of indirect primaries.
According to him, direct primaries would have guaranteed persons like him the chance to test their popularity.
I am 100% in support of direct primaries, he said in a message electronically sent to journalists. This is because I dont want to be regarded as being afraid of the card-carrying members of my party.
I have nothing against the delegates who as card-carrying members are also bona fide participants in direct primaries.
Since the presidential primaries will be conducted using direct primaries, I find all reasons advanced by the state in support of indirect primaries unconvincing.
I also believe that direct primaries will deepen democracy in Nigeria as it will guarantee level playing field for the aspirants, and free and fair choices for our party members, said the former senator who was also a one-time presidential adviser on National Assembly matters to President Goodluck Jonathan.
He said while he did not deny that he had a friendly telephone chat with my brother Sen. Habu Kyari, regarding the pros and cons of the direct and indirect systems, he said he did not request him or anybody else to tender any apologies on his behalf.
Indeed, I had ample opportunities to attend the meeting; I simply didnt because I am not in support of the indirect primaries which is the position that they have gone to Maiduguri to advance, he said.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara State has zoned the governorship position of the party to the central zone.
Lawal M-Liman, chairman of the party in the state revealed this after the stakeholders meeting held at Government House in Gusau, the state capital on Wednesday.
The Zamfara central zone comprises four local government areas of Gusau, Bungudu, Tsafe and Maru. The zone has never produced the governor of the state since its creation.
Mr Liman said the meeting was called by the party leadership to discuss mode of primaries, zoning of governorship position and setting up of the committee of reconciliation or consensus among the aspirants for various elective positions.
We have resolved to adopt indirect primaries to produce candidates for various positions of the party. We resolved to set up a reconciliation committee or consensus were necessary, and also resolved that the governorship candidate of the party should be produced from the central zone of the state, he said.
He thanked the stakeholders for attending the meeting. He also thanked them for their cooperation towards the development of the party,
He urged APC members in the state to remain united so that the party could retain power in the coming 2019 general elections.
Four of the aspirants, considered to be close associate of former governor and a serving senator, Ahmad Sani-Yarima had earlier met and resolved to support any one among them who emerges as the partys governorship candidate for the 2019 election in the state.
This is coming on the heels of recent development in the state that the serving commissioner of finance in the state, Mukhtar Idris who is also from Zamfara central is being supported by Governor Abdulaziz Yari for the governorship candidature under the party.
Meanwhile among the four aspirants that met earlier, the current deputy governor, Ibrahim Wakkala and the speaker of the State House of Assembly, Sanusi Rikiji are from the central zone.
The Commissioner of Education, Muttaka Rini is from Zamfara west zone and House of Representatives member, representing Kaura-Namoda/Birnin-Magaji federal constituency, Aminu Sani-Jaji is from the northern zone.
(NAN)
Ahead of the September 22 governorship election, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday kicked off its campaign in Ile Ife, the home of Iyiola Omisore, a major contender under the platform of Social Democratic Party (SDP).
The outgoing governor, Rauf Aregbesola, led the campaign team to the palace of Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Ogunwusi, to receive royal blessings for the partys candidate, Gboyega Oyetola.
The monarch, while blessing Mr Oyetola prayed for success of his quest and assured Mr Aregbesolas legacy could help his electoral victory.
Speaking at the palace, Mr Oyetola said serving with Mr Aregbesola is more than enough training for him on how to govern the state.
I know where we started. I know where we are. I am not a candidate who needs any tutorial to lead Osun. As an apprentice, eight years are more than enough training period for anyone. I am the most suitable person to continue from where we are, the APC candidate said.
Addressing the crowd after leaving the palace, Mr Aregbesola said their coming to Ife was for two reasons to seek Oonis blessings and seek the votes of Ife people.
Ooni has blessed us. He pointed out that today, Tuesday signifies victory, meaning Oyetola will record victory. God is with us. He has given us the wisdom and strength to take Osun to the promised land.
After our initial foundation that must be laid by a maverick like me, now that we have laid a solid foundation, there is need for somebody with gentle disposition like Oyetola to continue with the construction of the super structure.
He pleaded with the residents to vote for the progress of the state by way of continuity.
He also said party members who have defected may still consider returning and that their spaces are still open.
Party leaders who addressed the crowd include: APC Chairman in Osun State, Gboyega Famoodun and the states Deputy Governor, Titilayo Laoye-Tomori, amongst others.
APC Flags Off Campaign In Omisores Home, Gets Oonis Blessing APC Flags Off Campaign In Omisores Home, Gets Oonis Blessing APC Flags Off Campaign In Omisores Home, Gets Oonis Blessing
Voters were urged to shun violence with opposition parties and encouraged to vote for APC on September 22.
Photo: Google Street View An alleged car thief was found sleeping behind the wheel on the 3400 block of Old Okanagan Highway.
Stealing cars can be exhausting.
An alleged car thief was arrested by police Monday after falling asleep behind the wheel less than an hour after the car he was in had been reported stolen.
At 12:20 p.m., an RCMP officer came upon a man slumped over inside a silver Honda Civic on West Kelowna's Old Okanagan Highway.
While checking on the individual's well being, the officer quickly learned that the vehicle had been reported, less than an hour earlier, to the Kelowna RCMP as stolen, said Cpl. Jesse O'Donaghey.
The car had been taken sometime during the previous night from a home on Sutherland Avenue.
Our officer managed to arrest the male without incident, ODonaghey said. After positively identifying the individual, she also discovered that he was wanted on outstanding warrants for his arrest and in breach of his probation order.
The 38-year-old man appeared in Kelowna court Tuesday.
The police in Lagos have arrested five men for allegedly hijacking a truck loaded with gallons of vegetable oil worth N13.2 million along the Epe expressway.
In a statement Wednesday, the police said the alleged robbery took place on September 2.
The suspects include Moses Johnson, a dismissed soldier; Akintola Abiodun, a dismissed air force personnel; and Chidi Osegbu, who was in possession of a fake army identity card, the police said.
The others are Monday Ayele and Esowanne Emeka.
Rabiu Kazeem, the driver of the Sterling truck with registration number LSR-266-XW , said he was moving from Ajah when he was intercepted by the alleged robbers.
When we got to Epe, a Hilux vehicle approached us and military men came out of the vehicle telling myself and my motor boy to get off the truck. My motor boy already ran into the bush, Mr Kazeem, 47, said.
They forcefully brought me down the truck and drove off but I positioned myself under the vehicle and I followed them to Ikorodu road.
A bike man was following the truck and he told me to get away from the truck and that he would help me, not knowing that he was one of them.
When I noticed that the bike man was moving slowly as he was one of them, I alerted the people around and we called the police who helped us arrest the robbers.
The two who were arrested Messrs Ayele and Emeka upon interrogation named the other members of their gang which led to the arrest of the military personnel.
Messrs Johnson and Abiodun, who said they were dismissed during former president Goodluck Jonathans administration in 2015, said they were asked by a man identified as Oloja to help him check a truck at Ajah.
I was approached by Oloja, he told me to assist him with surveillance, but during the process, Oloja left me with his bike and ran away which was when I knew what was happening, Mr Emeka said.
Mr Ayele, who was driving the stolen truck, said he was asked by some soldiers to help them drive a truck to their bosss house.
They said they will pay me and bring me back to the park where they carried me. They took me to the arrest place and told me to drive, I dont know the way, so I parked and stood by the truck when I was arrested.
The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, Imohimi Edgal, said the case is under investigation and all suspects would be charged to court.
The police in Lagos have arrested 10 persons, including two native doctors, for the mob violence led to the death of an officer last week.
In a statement on Wednesday, the police said its preliminary investigation revealed that the suspects are cultists.
An angry mob on August 30 lynched a police sergeant, Collins Esiabor, in the Ogba area of the state over the death of a youth in the area.
The suspects arrested by the police include Adewunmi Suleiman, Olorunda Michael, Omoba Idowu, Olarewaju Hammed, Ransom Adewuye, Ayo Adeyanju, Anu Akinola and Paul Akanbi.
Investigation into the case revealed that the suspects are cultists as attested to by one of them, Ayo Adeyanju, who conveyed the corpse of their late member to the burial site, the police said in the statement issued by Imohimi Edgal, the police commissioner.
On their way, they decided to avenge the death of the deceased on the police patrol team even though it is clear that the police had no physical contact whatsoever with the deceased.
According to the suspects, the deceased sighted policemen within his vicinity and attempted to scale a fence believing they (police) were after him. Unfortunately, he put the wrong foot forward and fatally injured himself, which in turn led to his death.
The police also said that two native doctors, Babatunde Rufai, 82, and Ariyo Elegbede, 52, had been arrested after they were named as accomplices.
The police said it recovered one dane gun and assorted charms from the suspects.
Investigation into the case is ongoing with a view to arresting other fleeing suspects and those so far arrested will be charged to court accordingly, Mr Edgal said.
In a related development, police officers at the Ejigbo Divisional Headquarters of the Lagos State Police Command, have arrested two teenagers for alleged burgling of shops.
The police said in a statement on Wednesday that the two suspects, aged 13 and 14, were arrested on September 2 when they broke into a shop at Block 397, Jakande Estate, Ejigbo and made away with valuable items.
Some of the stolen items include a generator valued N15,000, one HP Laptop valued N90,000, one Amplifier valued N40,000, and one CD Mixer valued at N150,000.
The police said they also arrested one Adejagun Babatunde, one of the receivers of the stolen items, who had paid N2,000 for the HP laptop.
I didnt know it was stolen, the boys told me the system belongs to their elder brother who was doing DJ with it, they said they were hungry thats why they want to sell, Mr Babatunde said.
They told me they want to sell the laptop for N8,000, I told them I would pay them N3,000 for the laptop because the laptop is damaged.
Another suspect, Lawal Wasiu, said he met the teenagers at Ejigbo complex where he went to repair his phone.
The boys told me they want to buy laptop battery and I sent them away telling them that I dont know anything about laptop battery. They later said they want to sell a laptop and I introduced them to my neighbour, Adejagun Babatunde.
Mr Edgal said the adult suspects will have their day in court while the child (juvenile) offenders would be handed over to the Gender Section for appropriate action.
The Lagos State Government on Wednesday responded to concerns in the media over the removal of the footbridge built by Dowen College on the right of way of the Bisola Durosinmi-Etti Road, Lekki Phase 1.
The Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Kehinde Bamigbetan, in a statement emphasised that the completion of the 2.1kilometres Trunk C dual carriageway, which the footbridge encroached on, was to decongest Admiralty Way and provide quicker access to the Ikoyi Link Bridge.
Thanking residents of the scheme for supporting the initiative, the commissioner said it was important to explain to the general public issues relating to the removal of all encroachment on the right of way of the road.
Mr Bamigbetan said the Lekki Peninsula Scheme 1 was conceived in the early 80s covering 1,046 hectares, stretching from the Lagos Lagoon to the Atlantic Ocean end of the Lekki-Epe Expressway cutting across the scheme.
Due to the nature of the terrain and to reduce the incidence of flooding within the scheme; provision was made for the construction of primary drainage channel within the scheme. One of the primary drainage channel is along the Bisola Durosinmi-Etti Road which cuts across the scheme from the main entrance, Lekki Epe Expressway through the northern portion of the scheme to the Freedom Way.
That Bisola Durosinmi Etti road is a dual-carriage way but one lane of the broad was constructed in the late 90s while the other lane was not done due to paucity of funds then; however overtime, various forms of illegal development activities were identified within the unconstructed other lane as well as the setback abutting the primary drainage channel. These include erection of wire mesh fences, construction of car parks, shanties within the setbacks, development of outdoor bars and construction of footbridges over the open drainage channel, he said.
Addressing the history of encroachment, the commissioner said an agency of the government, the New Towns Development Authority (NTDA) noticed the illegal construction of a footbridge by Dowen College in 2013 and promptly issued a contravention notice to the school on January 13, 2013 to stop it but the management defied the directive.
Similar notices by other government agencies under the Ministry of Physical Planning & Urban Development were blatantly ignored with arrogant defiance. Rather than comply, Dowen College wrote letters of appeals seeking a concession to be allowed to sustain its illegality by authorising its encroachment of the governments master plan. This was not acceptable and at no time did government permit the illegal construction, Mr Bamigbetan said.
He said the government asked Dowen College to remove the offending structure to facilitate the completion of the dual carriageway and was compelled to spend public funds to do so when the school refused.
Mr Bamigbetan assured the general public that the administration of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode would always be guided by the interest of the citizenry in the formulation and implementation of policies and projects and would not succumb to the blackmail of private interests seeking to obstruct the provision of the dividends of democracy to the people.
A member of a four-man gang which specialises in robbing unsuspecting passengers of their valuables in a commercial bus leapt into the Lagos lagoon following a hot pursuit by armed police officers.
The police said in a statement on Wednesday that three of the robbers were, however, caught by the operatives of the Rapid Response Squad.
The robbers, John Akinyemi, 27; Paul Oliseh, 37; and Amos Williams, 12; were arrested on Monday afternoon on the Third Mainland bridge after a chase by the Rapid Response Squad patrol team monitoring Iyana-Oworo.
The policemen after being informed that the one-chance robbers were operating around the area, chased the bus, a Volkwagen Transporter with the registration number, AKD 562 XP to the bridge.
The police said when the RRS officers patrol van pulled up before the robbers on the Third Mainland Bridge, they abandoned their vehicle and were fleeing on foot when they were arrested.
One of the robbers, who was later identified as Junior, 19, jumped into the lagoon with the gangs loot.
According to Mr Akinyemi, the leader of the gang, there were four of us. I was in charge of calling the team to work. It was our first trip for the day. We took four passengers in Estate Bus Stop in Alapere.
Mr Akinyemi said they dispossessed the passengers, who were going to Oshodi, of their valuables before dropping them off near Iyana-Oworo.
We took their phones and money. We have been doing this for more than three months. We sell the mobile phones and jewelry, and we share the money.
One of the victims, Semiu Oluwaseun, who alerted the RRS officers immediately he was thrown out of the moving bus, said the robbers collected his phone and 500,000.
Another victim, Jamiu Ojuroye, who was robbed on Sunday night, identified Mr Akinyemi as the driver of the bus he was robbed in. He said he was robbed of 150,000, after pouring a peppery substance on his face for struggling with them, before throwing him out of the moving bus.
The alleged robbers were paraded on Wednesday by Imohimi Edgal, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, at the Command Headquarters.
Madison Erhardt
As school gets into full swing, so too do extra-curricular activities.
A new poll conducted by Ipsos Reid finds a majority of Canadian parents (55 per cent) would agree that the cost of their kids activities puts a strain on family finances.
That strain appears worse this year when compared to a similar poll last year.
As many as one in three (32 per cent) of Canadians are now using debt to fund the extra-curricular activities of their children, up five points compared to a year ago.
The poll reveals that, on average, parents spent about $1,160 on those activities during the 2017-18 school year, up slightly from $1,120 the year before, representing an increase of about 3.5 per cent.
Despite forking over serious dough to keep their kids active, the vast majority think the expense is worth it, as nine in 10 agree that it is important to give children diverse experiences, and that the options available for children today are better than ever before.
Swimming continues to be the most popular activity, as over two in five plan on signing their kids up for swimming lessons. On average, parents expect to spend about $205 on that sport, making it the least expensive of all extra-curricular activities for the second year in a row.
For the full poll results, click here.
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.
"With over a decade of experience at Manulife and an extensive knowledge of financial reporting, Adrienne is very well positioned to lead our Investor Relations program," said Phil Witherington, Chief Financial Officer. "I look forward to her leadership in continuing to build our global shareholder base."
Ms. O'Neill will succeed Robert Veloso who has been appointed to Global Head of Financial Planning and Analysis for Manulife. In this role, Mr. Veloso will lead the global financial planning process and provide objective reporting and forward-looking insights to Manulife's executive leadership team. Since joining Manulife in 2010, he has held progressively senior roles in Investor Relations. Mr. Veloso holds a Masters of Business Administration from Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, and is a CFA charterholder.
In 2007, Ms. O'Neill joined Manulife and has held progressively senior roles in the Company's wealth and insurance businesses. Most recently, she served as Head of Private Markets Business Office at Manulife Asset Management. Prior to joining Manulife, she worked in the advisory practice of a leading professional services firm.
Ms. O'Neill holds CPA, CA and CFA designations and is a graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University where she obtained an Honours BBA.
About Manulife
Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services group that helps people make their decisions easier and lives better. We operate primarily as John Hancock in the United States and Manulife elsewhere. We provide financial advice, insurance, as well as wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups and institutions. At the end of 2017, we had about 35,000 employees, 73,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving more than 26 million customers. As of June 30, 2018, we had over $1.1 trillion (US$849 billion) in assets under management and administration, and in the previous 12 months we made $27.6 billion in payments to our customers. Our principal operations are in Asia, Canada and the United States where we have served customers for more than 100 years. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we trade as 'MFC' on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges and under '945' in Hong Kong.
SOURCE Manulife Financial Corporation
Related Links
http://www.manulife.com
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- This past spring, Highlands College announced a tuition increase for the 2018-2019 school year, their first such increase in three years. But thanks to the generosity of donors and the growing endowment of the Eternal Impact Campaign, tuition did not change for current Highlands College students.
School is back in session at Highlands College in Birmingham, Alabama.
"We are blessed to have donors who are just as passionate as our students about making an eternal impact," said Kay Hargrave, executive vice president of external affairs. "And although our campaign is less than a year old and the first we've attempted at Highlands College, we are already ahead of our projections."
Tuition increases are a reality at most higher education institutions in America. Highlands College is no exception, with a student body that has doubled in the past four years requiring additional staff and facilities. "We know the vision God has for Highlands College is bigger than our current capacity. We need to grow and to do that, we have to find more funding, develop our facilities and provide opportunity to more future leaders," said Chris Hodges, chancellor at Highlands College and also senior pastor at Church of the Highlands, which is where the college began.
Highlands College is a biblical higher education institution that exists to supply the church with leaders of character to fulfill the Great Commission. Founded in 2011, located in Birmingham, Alabama, it is a two-year college offering numerous ministry certificates to its student body of over 1,000. Highlands College holds applicant status with the ABHE Commission on Accreditation.
Keith Hamrick, VP Marketing & Communications
Phone: 334.663.4793
Email: [email protected]
Related Images
students-return-for-fall-semester.jpg
Students Return for Fall Semester
School is back in session at Highlands College in Birmingham, Alabama.
move-in-day-for-students.jpeg
Move-In Day for Students
Highlands College Students receiving help with move in.
back-to-school-chapel.jpeg
Back-to-School Chapel
Over 1,000 Highlands College Students worshipped together at our back-to-school chapel service.
highlands-college-torch.jpg
Highlands College Torch
We are Highlands College.
Related Links
Highlands College Website
Eternal Impact Campaign
Related Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsUbO5Dz50c
SOURCE Highlands College
Related Links
http://www.highlandscollege.com
Photo: Contributed
Summer is over and fall is fast approaching and that can mean only one thing: back-to-school parties.
It's that time of year when students head back to class, and Vernon RCMP are warning parents and students about unsanctioned pre-grad parties occurring prior to the start of the school year.
As students gear up for their last year of high school, grad parties traditionally kick off the celebrations, however, the Vernon North Okanagan RCMP are urging parents to talk to their teens about the dangers associated to these events, said Const. Kelly Brett.
Each year, RCMP partners with School District 22 in an effort to minimize the damages done by these parties, which often occur in more rural and environmentally sensitive areas.
School District 22 does not condone unsanctioned activities, including grad parties. We encourage parents to have what may be difficult conversations with their children, explaining the potential dangers at bush parties, said School District Supt. Joe Rogers. Even those students who plan to attend and not drink, things can quickly escalate into a bad situation. For students that attend the party, and attend school the next day in an altered state, it is important to note, there will be consequences for their actions.
Added Brett, We encourage the kids to acknowledge their final year of high school, be leaders and examples for those who follow and celebrate responsibly. Starting off your school year with regret, potential loss of friends or criminal charges is not the way you want to start your final year.
Police will be patrolling rural areas known for grad parties and have received information from concerned parents regarding the location, date and times of these events.
CHICAGO, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pass It Down, a company with an award-winning story-telling platform, is partnering with Engine On and the Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society to revolutionize how museums archive and share local and national history.
After centuries of museums choosing which stories to tell, it is time for people to add their own history. On October 7th, 2018, the Pass It Down platform will play an integral role in a new, interactive museum. This technology will provide Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society with the necessary tools to take an innovative step in the process of recording their community's collective history.
"The idea that your audience can contribute value to the narrative is critical to the future of museums," says Carol Summerfield, Co-Founder of Engine On. "It adds breadth, it adds depth, it adds new voices; voices that might have been missing in previous iterations of museum content."
Through videos, audio, written content, and photographs, participants are able to share their own unique story. Each narrative is added by members and visitors directly into the platform and becomes part of the museum's archives. This opens the door, and the archive, to more diverse life stories that can be shared with the public. The Pass It Down platform is the Lake Forest and Lake Bluff community's virtual storybook.
"We're not just saving pieces of paper, we're saving people's lives; what they did, that they existed," explains Janice Hack, Executive Director at Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society. Hack experienced the value of this project on a personal level while at their recent open house demonstrating the interactive exhibit. At the event, Hack explained an elderly woman approached her and confessed, "I just want to be remembered."
In addition to archiving vignettes from people's lives, this platform empowers museums to stay relevant in an era driven by technology. "There has been an awakening in the museum world around the idea that an encyclopedic approach to the subject a museum covers is not engaging an audience, especially now with Google at their fingertips," Summerfield states. "Inspiring the next generation to keep their history alive is critical to museums."
With trends in genealogy capturing public interest in our country today, this project uniquely combines people's fascination in their heritage with innovative technology. "We want to bring people together using technology, where technology generally pushes people apart," says Chris Cummings, Founder and CEO of Pass It Down. "The history of our place helps define what the culture is, and what makes those places special."
About Engine On
Engine On brings authentic, meaningful engagement to the public on behalf of their clients, who work to make the world a better place; supporting cause-based organizations in improving their audience connection, membership growth, and sustainable engagement. www.engineon.org
About Pass It Down
Pass It Down is a storytelling company revolutionizing how organizations collect, preserve, and share their stories with our award-winning storytelling platform. Pass It Down was just selected as one of the 100 most innovative startups in the world, and is a semi-finalist for Global Startup of the Year contest by the Consumer Technology Association. www.passitdown.com
About Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society
The Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society connects people and inspires curiosity by exhibiting, collecting, sharing, and celebrating history. We have been home to the stories of our community for more than 45 years. www.lflbhistory.org/home
SOURCE Engine On
Related Links
http://www.engineon.org
Mizian has over 25 years of experience in leading engineering teams in the planning, design, and construction of complex water and wastewater projects for major capital improvement programs in the U.S. and United Arab Emirates. In addition, he has specialized expertise in both national and international environmental policies and water industry regulations. He most recently served as Vice President and Client Account Manager with Louis Berger, where he managed large teams to complete major projects and programs for various water utility clients primarily in Maryland, Washington DC, and New Jersey.
In his new role as Managing Director at Greeley and Hansen, Mizian will lead the firm's efforts to expand business operations in the Mid-Atlantic region with a focus on building solid partnerships with utility clients and developing sustainable solutions to address their long-term needs. He will also direct the overall business operations for multiple Greeley and Hansen office locations in the Mid-Atlantic.
"Eyad is a results-oriented leader with vast management experience and technical knowledge in delivering successful water infrastructure improvement programs," said John C. Robak, President. "His client-focused approach and proven leadership ability will be vital in helping to position our firm for continued strategic growth in this key Mid-Atlantic market."
A registered Professional Engineer and Attorney at Law, Eyad holds a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Rhode Island, an MS in Civil Engineering from Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, and a Juris Doctor in Law and Government from Widener University, Harrisburg, PA. He is a member of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Metro Washington DC, serving on the Water Infrastructure Committee.
About Greeley and Hansen
Greeley and Hansen is a leader in developing innovative engineering, architecture, and management solutions for a wide array of complex water, wastewater, and related infrastructure challenges. The firm has built upon over 100 years of proven civil and environmental engineering experience in all phases of project development and implementation to become a premier global provider of comprehensive services in the water sector. Greeley and Hansen is dedicated to designing better urban environments worldwide. http://www.greeley-hansen.com/new.htm
For more information, contact:
Nancy Stankus
312-558-9000
[email protected]
SOURCE Greeley and Hansen
Related Links
http://www.greeley-hansen.com
GAC Motor has been providing supplies and support to the SNNR since the Program was launched in 2017. In July, the first team of ambassadors delivered 20 GS8 SUVs to aid SNNR's daily operations. On this latest visit, the ambassadors donated supplies to the Sonam Dargye protection station in Hoh Xil. This is the fifth trip to SNNR since this program was launched.
On the morning of August 30th, volunteers came to the Qinghai Hoh Xil National Nature Reserve Administration for study and exchange. Later, they visited the Qinghai Salt Lake Museum to gain an in-depth understanding of the ecological status of the Hoh Xil Reserve and the characteristics of the reserve. Various forms of ecological protection actions such as on-the-spot exploration, delivery of materials, observation of Tibetan antelope, and water intake at the source have been launched according to the characters of nature reserve. On August 31, the GAC Motor's Wetland Ambassadors arrived at the Sonam Dargye protection station and donated mountain patrol equipment including tents, patrol uniforms, winches and other patrol equipment to help them better work and improve work efficiency.
As the general manager of GAC Motor Yu Jun said, as a Chinese automobile brand with a high sense of national pride and mission, GAC Motor actively responded and supported the construction of Sanjiangyuan National Park to make a great effort to build a national ecological security barrier. By organizing this event, GAC Motor led volunteers to go to Hoh Xil, where they realized the local fragile ecological environment and precious natural resources, which inspired the volunteers to have a stronger sense of mission and responsibility.
GAC Motor's green strategy is also reflected in every aspect of the company's day-to-day operation. GAC Motor applies green and sustainable technologies in all links of production. GAC Motor has built a world-class ecological factory and vehicle manufacturing system featuring green, energy-saving and environmental protection, and successfully built a typical model of all-around and balanced development of Chinese brands. By adopting environmentally-friendly materials, GAC Motor eliminates harmful substances and dust in factory emissions to reduce atmospheric pollutions. In order to reduce the impact of noise on the environment and human body, the company uses the fully closed noise reduction and dust prevention production line, becoming the first Chinese brand to win the C-ECAP China eco-car evaluation gold medal.
Being a socially responsible automaker, GAC Motor is committed to undertake social responsibilities and participate in social welfare projects to create an enjoyable life of mobility for customers.
About GAC Motor
Founded in 2008, Guangzhou Automobile Group Motor CO., LTD (GAC Motor) is a subsidiary of GAC Group which ranks 238th among Fortune Global 500 companies. The company develops and manufactures premium quality vehicles, engines, components and auto accessories. GAC Motor has now ranked first among all Chinese brands for five consecutive years in J.D. Power Asia Pacific's China Initial Quality Study SM (IQS), demonstrating the company's quality-centric strategy from innovative research and development (R&D), manufacturing to supply chain and sales & services.
For more information, please visit:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GACMotor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gac_motor
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/gac_motor
Media Contact:
Sukie Wong
+86-186-8058-2829
[email protected]
SOURCE GAC Motor
The Avalanche RT is a studdable winter tire that features Snow Grip Technology, a collection of advanced integrated features that equip the tire with improved cold-weather capabilities. These features include: a dynamic cold weather compound for maneuverability and responsive handling, a multi-pitched directional tread pattern with 60-percent more sipes, saw-tooth grooves that hold snow in the tread to provide critical snow-on-snow traction and small ribs in the buttress that bite into deep snow and slush for confident winter driving.
"When we initially previewed the Avalanche RT at our product evaluation event earlier this year at the ICAR tire test facility in Mirabel Canada, it received rave reviews from our dealers in attendance," said Steven Liu, senior director proprietary brands. "Even our own internal testing showed the Avalanche RT stopped 10 feet shorter in snow and 7 feet shorter on ice compared to its predecessor so we're extremely confident in its performance."
The Avalanche RT has earned the three peak mountain snowflake marking and will be available in 41 sizes, 14-18 inch, covering most of the popular passenger and CUV fitments. Backed by the Hercules Performance Promise the Avalanche RT comes with Road Hazard Protection, a 30 day "Trust our Ride" satisfaction trial and Workmanship and Materials coverage. For more information visit, www.herculestires.com.
About Hercules Tires
Hercules Tires is widely recognized as the industry's premier value brand with a comprehensive selection of passenger, UHP, light truck, medium truck and specialty tires. Since 1952, independent tire dealers and distributors have trusted Hercules to deliver outstanding quality, exceptional support, and unsurpassed value
Hercules is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Tire Distributors, Inc. American Tire Distributors is one of the largest independent suppliers of tires in the North American replacement tire market. The company offers an unsurpassed breadth and depth of inventory, frequent delivery and value-added services to approximately 80,000 customers across the U.S. and Canada.
Media Contact:
Nakia Medlin
704-348-6903
[email protected]
SOURCE Hercules Tires
Related Links
http://www.herculestires.com
The Bank has experienced strong growth since its establishment in Geneva in May 2009, growing its assets under management (AuM) at an average yearly growth rate of 35% to CHF 5.3 billion (US$5.4bn) as of June 2018. The Bank provides independent investment advice and customised investment solutions to over 400 high-net-worth individuals, family offices and institutional clients mainly from Switzerland and Europe. The Bank was recognised in 2017 as the best domestic Swiss Private Bank (WealthBriefing Swiss Awards) and also as the institutional clients Private Bank of the Year in Switzerland (The European Global Banking and Finance Awards). These awards reflected the Bank's strong performance in 2017 across its businesses in Geneva and Luxembourg, ahead of plans to further expand the Bank's geographical reach.
The Bank will be renamed "Banque Paris Bertrand SA" (PB), and will remain operationally independent. With Investcorp taking on the role as a strategic partner together with minority private investors, there will be no changes to the overarching governance structure of the Bank; nor to day-to-day interactions with clients.
The investment from Investcorp will provide PB with additional support to advance its growth strategy, enabling the Bank to further broaden and enhance its commercial offering to clients. Equally, the investment is in line with Investcorp's strategy to selectively partner with companies that complement and grow both its existing client offering and international footprint. It brings the additional capability of offering Investcorp's clients access to PB and its independent investment advice.
This investment is the latest milestone in Investcorp's ambitious growth strategy to reach $50 billion of AuM over the medium term, and follows Investcorp's acquisition last year of a $12bn AuM credit management business, now known as Investcorp Credit Management.
Investcorp's investment in PB has been approved by FINMA and CSSF, the Swiss and Luxembourg financial regulators.
Commenting on the investment, Mohammed Alardhi, Executive Chairman of Investcorp, said: "We are delighted to be working with Banque Paris Bertrand and its associates, who represent excellence in the field of private banking through their high-quality service offering and their high-performance investment solutions. Banque Paris Bertrand Sturdza's evolution since 2009 is remarkable - most noticeably for its alignment with its clients' interests.
Investcorp, which benefits from 35 years of direct investments in Europe and the US, has developed a specialist expertise in private equity, real estate and alternative investments, which perfectly complements the offering of PB. Investcorp brings unique access to one of the most attractive investor bases for private and institutional investors. The synergies between the two institutions will therefore be significant, and should be mutually beneficial for both parties."
Pierre Paris & Olivier Bertrand, Co-Founding Partners of PB, said: "Investment from new private shareholders and Investcorp showcases both the attractiveness and the unique positioning of Banque Paris Bertrand in the private banking and fund management space - particularly regarding our wealthiest and most demanding clients.
We are excited to welcome our new partners, who, without doubt, will contribute to the Bank's development across multiple markets, strengthening our global reputation. We would like to thank Eric Sturdza for his support and trust since the Bank's launch in 2009."
About Investcorp
Investcorp is a leading global provider and manager of alternative investments, offering such investments to its high-net-worth private and institutional clients on a global basis. Led by a new vision, Investcorp has embarked on an ambitious, albeit prudent, growth strategy. The Firm continues to focus on generating investor and shareholder value through a disciplined investment approach in four lines of business: private equity, real estate, absolute return investments and credit management.
As at June 30, 2018, the Investcorp Group had US$22.6 billion in total AUM, including assets managed by third party managers and assets subject to a non-discretionary advisory mandate where Investcorp receives fees calculated on the basis of AUM.
Since its inception in 1982, Investcorp has made over 175 corporate investments in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East and North Africa region, including Turkey, across a range of sectors including retail and consumer products, technology, business services and industrials, and more than 600 commercial and residential real estate investments in the US and Europe, for in excess of US$57 billion in transaction value.
Investcorp employs approximately 390 people across its offices in Bahrain, New York, London, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Doha, and Singapore. For further information, including our most recent periodic financial statements, which details our assets under management, please visit: www.investcorp.com.
www.twitter.com/Investcorp @investcorp
www.linkedin.com/company/Investcorp
www.investcorp.com
About Banque Paris Bertrand SA
Banque Paris Bertrand SA (PB) is an independent Swiss regulated private bank based in Geneva and Luxembourg. Founded in early 2009, PB offers institutional and private investors advice on global portfolios and investments.
The Bank is controlled by its founding partners who have a wealth of financial services and banking experience (UBS, CitiBank, Lombard Odier, Morgan Stanley). Georges Gagnebin, former CEO of UBS Wealth Management, is the Chairman of the Board.
The Bank's clients include well-known entrepreneurs, family offices, large NGO's, as well as recognised institutions in the field of pensions.
The growth of Assets under Management (AuM) has been steady, reaching CHF 5 billion to this day (+35% per annum), demonstrating the quality of our client services as well as the success of its investment strategies.
The Bank and its 50 associates advise investors on global portfolios and offer access to the best financial institutions. This allows PB to offer independent investment advice with careful risk management. PB guarantees complete independence and total objectivity in its investment choices, whether it may be for private or institutional clients. There is total alignment of interests between the Bank and its clients, in the aim of finding the best investment solutions.
Media Contacts:
Investcorp
Firas El Amine
+973 3998 7838
[email protected] Prosek Partners
Catherine Wooters
347 486 6335
[email protected]
SOURCE Investcorp
Related Links
http://www.investcorp.com
- Environment-friendly, Utilizing Biomass as Raw Material and Fuel, and Yet Can Withstand Heat of 1,000 degrees Celsius -
OSAKA, Japan, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- JAPAN INSULATION CO., LTD. has released "DAIPALITE-EA", a thermal insulation material developed on the basis of the results of ODA-based cooperation research with Malaysia. By using rice husk ash as an alternative material for silica stone, it enables effective use of rice husk which cause environmental pollution by river dumping. Moreover, by utilizing the heat (biomass energy) generated when burning rice husk in the reaction and drying processes, carbon dioxide emissions can be greatly reduced.
(Photo1: https://www.jic-bestork.co.jp/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=465)
(Image1: https://www.jic-bestork.co.jp/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=466)
JAPAN INSULATION manufactures "DAIPALITE-EA" in An Giang Province, Vietnam. The "DAIPALITE" project was certified by the An Giang provincial government as an environment-friendly project for its carbon dioxide emission control effect which contributes to global environmental conservation.
The company's technology is registered with the Environmental Technology Database of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Investment and Technology Promotion Office, Tokyo (ITPO Tokyo).
Environmental Technology Database: http://www.unido.or.jp/en/activities/technology_transfer/technology_db/
(Image2: https://www.jic-bestork.co.jp/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=469)
Since "DAIPALITE-EA" is based on Xonotlite, with heat resistance to 1,000 degrees Celsius, it is used at places such as power plants and petrochemical plants for insulating equipment and pipes with high internal temperatures, thereby contributing to industrialization in developing countries. The product standards comply with ASTM. In addition, JAPAN INSULATION also manufactures "DAIPALITE-E", equivalent to JIS type products, in Vietnam.
(Photo2: https://www.jic-bestork.co.jp/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=467)
(Image3: https://www.jic-bestork.co.jp/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=468)
About JAPAN INSULATION CO., LTD.
The company manufactures and sells calcium silicate-type fireproof, non-combustible building materials and thermal insulation materials as well as designing them, and undertakes fireproof construction, design and construction of thermal insulation for industrial plants. The company was founded on April 8, 1914, and it has a history of more than 100 years. JIC VIETNAM ONE MEMBER CO., LTD., which manufactures "DAIPALITE-EA", is its wholly owned subsidiary.
Official website: https://www.jic-bestork.co.jp/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=447
SOURCE JAPAN INSULATION CO., LTD.
Related Links
https://www.jic-bestork.co.jp/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=447
LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Klein Tools, Inc. and Tenacious Holdings, Inc. (the parent company of Ergodyne, "Ergodyne") have announced today that Klein Tools has acquired Ergodyne. Ergodyne will be operated as a separate business unit in St. Paul, Minnesota, at its current headquarters. Tom Votel will remain president and continue to lead the Ergodyne team.
Klein Tools, a sixth-generation, family-owned company that was founded in 1857, is an iconic American brand and business. For over 161 years Klein Tools has remained dedicated to manufacturing professional grade tools and related equipment for tradespeople worldwide.
Ergodyne, founded in 1983, has spent the last three decades pioneering the development of products that Make the Workplace A Betterplace. What started with one product has grown into a line of top-flight, battle-tested Tenacious Work Gear. Today, Ergodyne has established itself as the leading innovator in the safety products space.
"Ergodyne and Klein Tools have much in common, including our commitment to innovation, safety, our customers and our reputations for producing high-quality products," says Tom Klein Jr., co-president, Klein Tools. "We believe that our combined resources and expertise will enable us to grow more quickly together than we could have separately. We're excited to welcome Ergodyne to the Klein Tools team."
Together, Klein and Ergodyne plan to expand their venerable brands and leverage their combined expertise, years of experience and industry know-how to accelerate innovation in the safety products space.
"We couldn't be more excited to join the Klein brand and family," says Tom Votel, president, Ergodyne. "Our company has seen tremendous success over the last three decades within the safety space, and we can't wait to propel that forward with this historic partnership."
For more information, visit www.kleintools.com and www.ergodyne.com.
About Klein Tools
Since 1857, Klein Tools, a family-owned and operated company, has been designing, developing and manufacturing premium-quality, professional-grade hand tools. The majority of Klein tools are manufactured in plants throughout the United States and are the No. 1 choice among professional electricians and other tradespeople. For more information, visit www.kleintools.com. Klein is a registered trademark of Klein Tools, Inc.
About Ergodyne
Since 1983, Ergodyne has pioneered the development of products that Make The Workplace A Betterplace. What started with just one product has grown into a line of top flight, battle-tested, Tenacious Work Gear; all precision crafted to provide protection, promote prevention and manage the elements for workers on jobsites the world over. The current lineup is extensive and constantly growing: ProFlex Hand Protection, ProFlex Knee Pads, ProFlex Supports, Skullerz Head Protection, Skullerz Eye Protection, Trex Footwear Accessories, Chill-Its Cooling Products, N-Ferno Warming Products, GloWear Hi-Vis Apparel, Squids Lanyards, Arsenal Gear and Tool Storage and SHAX Portable Work Shelters.
SOURCE Klein Tools
Related Links
http://www.kleintools.com
IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) today reported total August U.S. sales of 25,816 vehicles, representing a decrease of 0.1 percent versus August of last year. Year-to-date (YTD) sales through August are up 9.9 percent versus last year, with 213,865 vehicles sold. With 27 selling days in August 2018, versus 27 the year prior, the company posted a decrease of 0.1 percent on a Daily Selling Rate (DSR) basis.
Key August sales notes:
Mazda MX-5 had a very strong month, finishing up August with an increase of 29.7 percent month-over-month, with 1,169 vehicles sold.
Sales of Mazda CX-9, Mazda's 3-row crossover SUV finished August with a 26.4 percent increase month-over-month with 2,276 vehicles sold and is up 18.3 percent Year-To-Date.
Mazda CX-5, Mazda's midsized crossover SUV continues with strong sales with 12,970 vehicles sold during the month of August, an increase of 11.5 percent month-over-month. Sales of the Mazda CX-5 are up 36.1 percent YTD.
Sales of Mazda's CX-line remain strong, with CX-3, CX-5 and CX-9 posting increased sales month-over-month in August. Collectively reaching 16,727 vehicles sold in the month of August. This number represents a increase of 12 percent month-over-month, and an increase of 29 percent YTD.
Mazda reported Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) sales of 5,201 vehicles in August, marking an increase of 37.7 percent month-over-month. CPO sales are up 20.2 percent YTD.
Mazda Motor de Mexico (MMdM) reported August sales of 5,041 vehicles, up 10 percent versus August of last year.
Mazda North American Operations is headquartered in Irvine, California, and oversees the sales, marketing, parts and customer service support of Mazda vehicles in the United States and Mexico through nearly 700 dealers. Operations in Mexico are managed by Mazda Motor de Mexico in Mexico City. For more information on Mazda vehicles, including photography and B-roll, please visit the online Mazda media center at InsideMazda.MazdaUSA.com/Newsroom.
SOURCE Mazda North American Operations
Related Links
http://www.mazdausa.com
Utilizing Afinis' platform for standardized API product discovery, application testing, and developer collaboration, API products are developed for use by financial institutions, fintechs and solution providers, businesses and governments. Afinis employs a transparent governance process to provide confidence for standards use and development of products and solutions.
"The financial services industry is using APIs to broaden and enhance services, increase automation, and strengthen security," said NACHA President and CEO Janet O. Estep. "API standardization is critical for the financial services industry to reap its full potential beyond the confines of proprietary systems.
"Afinis is a membership-based organization that collaborates openly with groups from around the world to share learning, reduce duplicative efforts, and create and adopt standards that lessen friction and improve the ability to bring innovations more quickly to market," Estep continued.
In spring 2017, ASIG was established to support advancement and use of standardized APIs within the U.S. financial services industry. In 15 months, ASIG developed 16 initial API use cases, launched an online community, published "API Standardization Shaping the Financial Services Industry," and released the API standard for Account Validation and API standard for Get Bank Contact Information. In April 2018, NACHA and IFX joined forces to combine IFX's standards and API message development technical proficiency with NACHA's governance expertise and rich history of bringing diverse stakeholders together. In July 2018, IFX published the paper, "RESTful Implementation of IFX." Afinis builds off of ASIG and IFX's collective bodies of work. Established within a governance structure, Afinis supports long-term standards development and adoption.
Current Afinis work include the following API use cases:
Get Transaction Status: An Originator or Originating Depository Financial Institution (ODFI) wants to check the status of a transaction to verify that funds were deposited or withdrawn from the receiving account. This API use case allows an Originator of an ACH transaction to check the status of a submitted payment instruction.
B2B Payments Interoperability: B2B payment service providers want better interoperability so businesses (particularly small businesses) can receive and make B2B payments without multiple enrollments or learning multiple formats and systems. This API use case allows a company to obtain correct payment information and remittance requirements to pay another company via ACH.
Originate ACH Payment: Standardized APIs allow businesses to submit ACH payment instructions without having to access multiple systems and track scheduling. Businesses gain consistency and continuity across multiple bank ACH relationships, improved reporting, and access to faster payments.
Afinis provides a collaborative venue for stakeholders to:
Broaden use of standardized APIs in the U.S. and globally
Develop a technical environment with the infrastructure needed to support discovery, testing and adoption of standards
Provide governance to support decision-making on technologies, standard life cycles, and user terms
Leverage NACHA's core competencies in developing and maintaining rules and standards, and as an impartial convener, educator and certification/accreditation authority
Engage with other standards bodies, countries, and market infrastructures to achieve interoperability, and develop, update and review relevant security, data and technical guidelines
Support the IFX standards user community to foster better awareness and adoption, and to support existing IFX-based standards for web banking, mobile banking, and ATM verticals
Afinis members learn from one another for ideation and innovation, and are comprised of thought leaders and leading technologists from financial institutions, fintechs and solution providers, businesses, governments, and nonprofit organizations. Afinis members have a direct influence on the governance life cycle of standardized API products and members' work is done collaboratively using common open source solutions such as SwaggerHub, Apigee Edge, Confluence and Jira. Afinis leverages agile sprint planning development methodologies, and Afinis members are among the first to review Afinis standardized code for testing, feedback and early adoption. Afinis follows these agile development methodologies to ensure rapid response to industry needs and to save time for members.
Access to the Afinis online community, developer sandbox, and the Afinis Interoperability Standards are freely available for everyone. New members are welcome to join and should contact [email protected].
About Afinis
Afinis is a membership-based standards governance organization under the NACHA umbrella that brings together diverse collaborators through innovative and agile processes to develop implementable, interoperable, and portable financial services standards across operating environments and platforms. Afinis brings together thought leaders and leading technologists from financial institutions, fintechs and solution providers, businesses, governments, and nonprofit organizations to rapidly develop API products through use of Afinis' platform for standardized API product discovery, application testing, and developer collaboration. For more information and to learn how to join, visit Afinis.
NACHA
NACHA is a nonprofit organization that convenes hundreds of diverse organizations to enhance and enable electronic payments and financial data exchange within the U.S. and across geographies. Through development of rules, standards, governance, education, advocacy, and in support of innovation, NACHA's efforts benefit the providers and users of those systems. NACHA leads groups focused on API standardization, authors the Quest Operating Rules for EBT, and is the steward of the ACH Network, a payment system that universally connects all U.S. bank accounts and facilitates the movement of money and information. In 2017, there was a total of nearly 26 billion ACH transactions. Of these, 21.5 billion ACH payments valued at $47 trillion moved across the ACH Network, and more than 4 billion were on-us transactions within financial institutions. Visit nacha.org for more information, and connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
Contact: Kendra Beasley
NACHA
703-561-3923
[email protected]
SOURCE NACHA - The Electronic Payments Association
Related Links
http://www.nacha.org
Silencio highlights a mysterious area in Mexico known as the Zone of Silence that has true events of the eerie. Located on the same parallel line of the Bermuda Triangle and the Pyramids of Giza, it has several events of the unexplainable including rocket crashes, mutations in plants and animals, meteorite strikes and much more.
Silencio shares the story of Ana, (Melina Matthews) who struggles to save her son's life. She must find a powerful stone her grandfather (John Noble) originally discovered with his apprentice (Rupert Graves) in the Zone of Silence in 1970. Throughout her desperate search, Ana stumbles upon long lost family secrets and discovers enemies who believe the stone's power is worth killing for.
Written, directed and produced by Lorena Villarreal, Denisse Chapa (producer) and filmed in Zone of Silence and northern Mexico locations, the film brings to life the local tales of strange occurrences that have been happening for decades.
"In addition to the wonderful writing and tale of Silencio, I was also excited to work with Lorena as the director. We are simply lacking women directors in our industry," said John Noble who also became a fan of the Zone of Silence. "So many of the people involved were locals, so we had a great sense of the people and why the area has become such a mystery."
About Tulip Pictures
An International distribution company with offices in both the United States and Mexico founded by Lorena Villarreal. Silencio is the company`s first theatrical release in the United States. Tulip focuses on releasing top quality titles that have cross over potential in those markets. Silencio is Villarreal's second feature. Las Lloronas (The Weeping Women) was her directorial debut in 2004 where she was also the writer and producer.
About Barraca Producciones
Barraca Producciones is a Mexican company that specializes in television and film production, distribution, financing and marketing. Barraca Producciones is 100 percent women-owned company.
SOURCE Tulip Pictures
As students head back to class for another school year, parents at one elementary school can rest easy knowing steps have been taken to ensure their child's safety.
Beairsto Elementary School sits next to 27th Street, one of the busiest in Vernon and that was causing concerns for many parents whose children walked to school.
So, the parents approached the school board and successfully asked for a crossing guard.
Christie Tujik, Beairsto Parent Advisory Council representative, said the crossing guard will start this school year and will be at the school for one hour on the morning and one hour in the afternoon.
Because the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure classify 27th Street as a highway, a school zone is not an option.
Because it's considered a highway they won't go lower than 50 km/h on it, said Tujik. People don't slow down, so it's become a really big safety issue.
Also a concern is the district has implemented fees for what are classified as courtesy riders. Parents must now pay $300 per student to ride the bus if they are outside of a catchment area or students attending a school of choice, like Beairto which offers French immersion.
Tujik is concerned the fee will generate even more traffic as parents drop their children off instead of paying for them to ride the bus.
The good news is over the summer a new student drop off area was added onto the existing parking lot.
They took out part of the field and put in a two-lane drop off and pick up area, said Tujik.
The grant from the Florida Department of Education establishes the Youth Mental Health Awareness and Training (YMHAT) Administration Project. It's part of a larger legislative initiative developed from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act , which was passed in the wake of the tragic school shooting in south Florida earlier this year.
USF St. Petersburg will work in conjunction with the Florida Department of Education to facilitate the statewide training program to help school personnel identify and understand the signs of emotional distress, mental health difficulties and substance abuse disorders. The program, which launches during the 2018-19 school year, will also provide teachers and other school staff the skills necessary to help students who are experiencing a crisis or mental health difficulties and connect them with resources.
"For decades, the issue of mental health in schools has been on a back burner," said Jordan Knab, Principal Investigator for USF St. Petersburg's College of Education. "People aren't always willing to talk about mental health issues."
The College of Education was selected to receive the grant in large part due to the university's experience with developing a network for student mental health services, Knab said. The new initiative is based on the Multiagency Service Network for Students with Severe Emotional Disturbance Administration Project (SEDNET), which is housed at USF St. Petersburg.
"We have a record of successful collaborative partnerships and educational projects with the Department of Education," Knab added.
Nickie Zenn, who has been serving as the Statewide Program Director for SEDNET will also be overseeing the new YMHAT training program, which she called a "CPR course for mental health."
Zenn said her hope is that the training will reduce the stigma associated with mental health and emotional difficulties and open up a broader conversation about the subject. It will also help connect mental health organizations with schools, offering more support and resources to assists students, schools and school-based mental health professionals.
Contact:
Matthew Cimitile
727-873-4840
[email protected]
SOURCE University of South Florida St. Petersburg
BERLIN, Vt., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Vermont Chamber of Commerce has secured more than 10 of the largest aerospace and defense companies to participate in the annual Manufactured in Vermont Supply Chain Trade Show on Thursday, September 27. These companies will land in Vermont searching for companies to expand their supply chains, creating more opportunities for their companies and economic growth for Vermont businesses.
Manufactured in Vermont Supply Chain Trade Show for Advanced Manufacturing attendees networking with industry peers. Meet peers and network at the Manufactured in Vermont Supply Chain Trade Show for Advanced Manufacturing.
Bell Flight, Boeing, Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Sikorsky, A Lockheed Martin Company and Oshkosh Defense top the list of out-of-state original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) looking to engage Vermont and New England's proven base of pre-qualified suppliers to optimize their supply chains with new innovations, products and services for competitive advantage.
Adding to the depth of suppliers, the Vermont Chamber is also bringing 30 Canadian companies to Manufactured in Vermont in support of the continuing work to build a U.S. - Canadian aerospace corridor, linking Vermont's $2 billion aerospace and aviation cluster with a $28 billion Canadian aerospace industry for cross-border commerce. The Trade Corridor is now being extended to the Connecticut aerospace cluster. This is part of the ongoing work between the Vermont Chamber and Aero Montreal stemming from an agreement in 2013.
Manufactured in Vermont attracts exhibitors and attendees from the entire Northeast region and lower Quebec. Attendees will network with industry peers, meet buyers, suppliers and partners on the trade show floor, connect with employers, attend industry workshops, see new product innovations and experience dynamic exhibits.
About the Vermont Chamber
The largest statewide, private, not-for-profit business organization, the Vermont Chamber of Commerce represents nearly every industry sector with a mission to create an economic climate conducive to business growth and the preservation of the Vermont quality of life.
Contact: Chris Carrigan
[email protected]
Direct: 802-223-0904
Cell: 802-488-4099 (use day of show)
SOURCE Vermont Chamber of Commerce
Related Links
http://www.vtchamber.com
TURKU, Finland, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
Forendo Commences Phase Ia Study for FOR-6219 for Endometriosis
Forendo Pharma, a clinical stage drug development company focusing on novel treatments in women's health, today announces that it has raised an additional 4 million of funding from Vesalius Biocapital III Partners (Vesalius III). This is in addition to the 12 million Series A financing in 2014 and 5,7 million R&D loans granted by Business Finland since 2014. Vesalius III joins the existing international investor syndicate comprising Novo Seeds, Karolinska Development, Novartis Venture Fund, M Ventures and Innovestor. Stephane Verdood, Managing Partner from Vesalius III, joins Forendo Pharma's Board of Directors.
The financing will enable Forendo Pharma to accelerate the development of its innovative women's health portfolio. The Company also announced today that its lead program FOR-6219, a HSD17B1 inhibitor for the treatment of endometriosis, has commenced a Phase Ia study focusing on safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics. The first women participating in the study have been dosed. FOR-6219 is a novel, oral, tissue-specific treatment for endometriosis, which is expected to have no impact on systemic hormone levels. Forendo Pharma's second program, a dual HSD inhibitor for the treatment of broader gynecological conditions is currently in preclinical discovery.
Endometriosis is a chronic condition that affects up to 10% of women in reproductive age and causes repeated pain symptoms, infertility and impaired quality of life. Currently available treatments for endometriosis have limitations in efficacy or cause harmful side effects, due to estrogen depletion.
Risto Lammintausta, CEO of Forendo Pharma, said: "We are very pleased to welcome Vesalius III as a new shareholder and Stephane to our Board of Directors. The investment from Vesalius III, which has a successful track record in backing women's health companies, is strong endorsement of our growing women's health portfolio and the compelling clinical treatment and business opportunities Forendo Pharma has to offer."
Stephane Verdood, Managing Partner from Vesalius III, added: "Forendo Pharma is developing truly novel therapies that have the potential to transform the treatment of endometriosis, a disease that affects tens of millions of women across the globe. We look forward to joining the experienced management team and investor syndicate to help Forendo Pharma accelerate development of its women's health pipeline."
About Forendo Pharma
Forendo Pharma is a privately held drug development company, with core competences in modulating tissue specific hormone mechanisms. The company was founded in 2013 by leading academic endocrinology experts and Finnish drug development pioneers. Forendo is supported by strong international investors: Novo Seeds, Karolinska Development, Novartis Venture Fund, M Ventures, Innovestor and now Vesalius Biocapital III Partners. The company's pipeline includes HSD17B1 inhibitor (phase I) for the treatment of endometriosis; dual HSD inhibitors (discovery) for the treatment of broader gynecological conditions; and Fispemifene (phase 2), a novel SERM for the treatment of male urological conditions. Further information is available at www.forendo.com.
About Vesalius Biocapital Partners
Vesalius Biocapital Partners (Vesalius), the specialist life sciences venture capital investor, has supported companies active in human health through venture capital funds since 2007. In the ten years since inception, Vesalius has raised over 150 million in its first two funds, Vesalius Biocapital I and II, and contributed in the development of over 20 companies.
The investment portfolio is well balanced between drug development and non-drug development investments and committed to providing capital to science-backed innovation and ambitious entrepreneurs, with a strong focus on exit within five years.
The specialist team of Vesalius Biocapital III Partners consists of seasoned life science professionals with healthcare industry, corporate finance and strategy consulting experience, supporting companies through their growth cycle. The team is based in Europe and the USA to explore investment opportunities and valuation potential for the portfolio. For more information: fund3.vesaliusbiocapital.com
SOURCE Forendo Pharma
DALLAS, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness month, on September 22, 2018, Wipe Out Kids' Cancer (WOKC) is partnering together with The Town of Addison to host our 33rd Annual 2018 Oktoberfest 5K & Family Fun Run, benefiting pediatric cancer support services and research. The event will be held in The Town of Addison, the Saturday morning prior to the Oktoberfest annual activities. Run participants will receive complimentary Oktoberfest entry that day as part of Run registration. We welcome all to join and register at www.oktoberfest5K.com or click here.
We are honored to announce Luke Laufenberg as Honorary Race Chair, and thank Tom Thumb, Albertson's and AutoNation for their presenting sponsorship of the event. Laufenberg stated of his role, "As a childhood cancer survivor, I am thrilled to join WOKC as Honorary Chair for the Run and as a founding member of the WOKC Youth Advisory Council. I feel a great personal responsibility to give back after going through my own battle and journey. I look forward to supporting this critical mission and am grateful for the help WOKC gave me in my time of need." During the August 2018 activities surrounding the announcement of his new role as Honorary Chair of the Run, Laufenberg has been spending time supporting the WOKC organization in preparation for the event, as well as supporting families and patients we serve.
In addition, the event focuses on the power of collaboration with intent to build a larger footprint for impact in the pediatric cancer sector here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. We are proud to announce the event will benefit, not only one, but two locally based childhood cancer nonprofits: Wipe Out Kids' Cancer and CALEB. This tremendous show of partnership serves as a great reminder joining forces removes barriers of competition and promotes collaboration to generate additional funds, resources and awareness.
"In order to make further impact and meet the critical need for more research and support, we must come together and use not only our shared voice but also our actions to better steward donor dollars and raise awareness," said Chandini Portteus, President and CEO of WOKC. "We are humbled by the steadfast support of our presenting sponsors, the Town of Addison and all our partners and participants supporting the event. We also sincerely thank Luke Laufenberg as he joins us to bravely share his story to bring awareness and engage others to fight this devastating disease."
Cancer still remains the number one disease killer in children in America today. Each year in the U.S. approximately 12,000 children, about 1 in 285, are diagnosed with cancer. That equates to 46 children a day. Yet, only 4% of government funding is focused exclusively on pediatric cancer. More resources and funding are desperately needed, which is why we provide that critical funding to key research initiatives across the country, in efforts to find more cures and treatments for children with cancer, while also supporting families and the children during their treatment.
About Wipe Out Kids' Cancer
Wipe Out Kids' Cancer (WOKC) is a Dallas-based non-profit organization founded in 1980 by Cindy Brinker Simmons. The organization is dedicated to raising awareness and funding for pediatric cancer research on a national basis. We have raised millions in the crusade against pediatric cancer and spent over 38 years developing programs to not only fight childhood cancer, but to also provide hope and support to kids and families dealing with cancer. Our mission is to work relentlessly for the day when ALL children are living cancer free.
SOURCE Wipe Out Kids' Cancer
Related Links
http://wokc.org
HONOLULU, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Fall favorite pumpkin shortbread cookies and a creamily delicious white chocolate-dipped version in Honolulu Cookie Company's signature pineapple shape have returned!
And just in time for the world-renowned Aloha Festivals in Hawai'i, Honolulu Cookie Company is unveiling its beautifully redesigned Flower Window Boxes, bursting with island-inspired flavors as the Aloha State's fanciful flora play a huge role in statewide festivities. Aloha Festival traditions are celebrated anywhere aloha lives and Honolulu Cookie Company is a sponsor this year.
Delicious, premium pumpkin shortbread cookies in the signature pineapple shape are back, thanks to Honolulu Cookie Company. Pumpkin and its creamy, dreamy white chocolate-dipped counterpart are available in the Fall Window Box (center). The whole Flower Window Box collection has been redesigned and launched to coincide with the statewide Aloha Festivals that run through September. Each offers a unique variety of premium shortbread cookies in island-inspired flavors baked fresh daily in Hawaii.
Emblazoned with yellow 'ilima, the official flower of the island of 'Oahu, the Fall Window Box is packed with 12 cookies in four flavors including Pumpkin and White Chocolate Pumpkin, highly popular limited-time, seasonal flavors.
The Fall Mini Bag can be packed with five individually wrapped cookies from the many options at 17 Honolulu Cookie Company retail locations. For online customers the bag comes pre-packed with five cookies in flavors including Pumpkin.
The Flower Window Box Hibiscus includes 12 cookies in Dark Triple Chocolate Macadamia, Dark Chocolate Kona Coffee and Dark Chocolate Coconut flavors; a dark chocolate lover's dream!
The Flower Window Box Bird of Paradise offers Butter Macadamia, Chocolate Dipped Macadamia and White Chocolate Dipped Macadamia cookies. For anyone, it is a perfect introduction to Honolulu Cookie Company's luxurious lineup.
White chocolate lovers will swoon over the Flower Window Box Plumeria offering the White Chocolate Collection. Flavors include classic White Chocolate Dipped Macadamia, indulgent White Triple Chocolate Macadamia and oh-so-tropical White Chocolate Coconut cookies.
A high-res floral collection image, courtesy Honolulu Cookie Company, is available here: http://bit.ly/HCCFlower2018
About Honolulu Cookie Company
Marking its 20th anniversary in 2018, Honolulu Cookie company has baked its premium shortbread cookies fresh daily in Hawai'i since 1998. The cookies inspired by Hawai'i are handcrafted using only the freshest and finest ingredients. Available for shipping, each cookie is individually wrapped. Honolulu Cookie Company has 13 locations in Hawai'i; two in Las Vegas and two on Guam. Honolulu Cookie Company cookies are also available at select retailers: The DFS Group; Aulani a Disney Resort & Spa; Disney's Polynesian Village Resort; Bloomingdale's; Neiman Marcus and Tommy Bahama. Visit www.honolulucookie.com, Facebook at www.facebook.com/honolulucookie, or call toll-free at (866) 333-5800.
Contact:
Erika Engle
Food Gurus Hawai'i
[email protected]
(808) 946-4525
Brandon Suyeoka
Honolulu Cookie Company
[email protected]
SOURCE Honolulu Cookie Company
Related Links
http://www.honolulucookie.com
SEATTLE, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Donuts Inc., the global leader in high-quality, new top-level Internet domains, today announced that it has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Abry Partners, a leading private equity firm. Terms and timing of the agreement were not disclosed.
Donuts holds the world's largest portfolio of new top-level domains (TLDs), which includes a wide variety of names such as .LTD, .COMPANY, .CAREERS, .SUPPORT, .PHOTOGRAPHY, .CAFE, .HEALTHCARE, .SOCIAL, .WORLD, .LIVE, .TRAVEL, .FAN and .CHARITY.
"Individuals and businesses manage their digital identities in an increasingly complex world of proliferating devices, platforms and access points," said Erik Brooks, Managing Partner, Abry Partners. "Donuts is ideally positioned with the world's largest portfolio of new TLDs, a proven team with deep experience in scaling successful technology companies, and a track record of innovation in their industry. We are excited to partner with Donuts and support their next phase of growth and success."
This announcement marks another important milestone in a period of exceptional growth and innovation for Donuts. In the last 18 months, Donuts has acquired Rightside, a complementary registry with a high-quality portfolio of 40 new TLDs and a wholly-owned registrar subsidiary, Name.com; it has launched BL.INK, a premier enterprise short link management platform used by leading brands such as Coca Cola, TEN (The Enthusiast Network) and many others, and added features for registrars' and resellers' SMB customers; it was named one of the Red Herring 100; it has launched Relevant Name Search (RNS), a powerful new domain search tool for channel partners; it was the first Internet registry to surpass the $500,000 mark in sales of individual new TLD domain names; and it was named Number One in the Deloitte Fast 500.
"We are delighted to partner with Abry," said Bruce Jaffe, Donuts president and chief executive officer. "Over the last thirty years, the firm has built a stellar track record as one of the premier media, communications, business and information services-focused private equity investment firms in North America. We believe their confidence in Donuts underscores the power and magnitude of our opportunity. Moreover, their insights and expertise in our sector will be of enormous benefit to Donuts as we move forward."
About Donuts Inc.
Donuts simplifies and connects a fragmented online world with domain names and related technologies that allow people and businesses to build, market and own their digital identities. Donuts holds the world's largest portfolio of new top-level domains, and offers a wide variety of clear and meaningful names for use as business identifiers (such as .ltd, .company), navigation (such as .careers, .support), in vertical markets (such as .photography, .cafe, or .builders) or in broad-based generics (such as .social, .world or .live). Donuts provides its registrar / reseller customers with innovative services for the discovery, registration, usage and monetization of high-quality domain names. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Donuts, the registrar Name.com is one of the most admired brands in the industry.
About Abry Partners
Founded in 1989 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, ABRY Partners is an experienced and successful private equity investment firm focused on media, communications, insurance, business and information services. Since its founding, ABRY has completed more than $77 billion of transactions, representing investments in more than 650 properties.
Contacts:
Judith McGarry, Donuts Inc.
415-971-2900
[email protected]
SOURCE Donuts Inc.
Related Links
http://donuts.domains
NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AJC saluted unanimous U.S Senate adoption of the Protecting Religiously Affiliated Institutions Act of 2018. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly adopted a similar measure in December.
"The increasing attacks and threats against churches, synagogues, and mosques disgrace our nation's most fundamental values," said Jason Isaacson, AJC Associate Executive Director for Policy. "This important legislation, which we ask President Trump to sign into law promptly, provides for new and strengthened measures to deter, as well as punish, perpetrators of attacks on religious institutions."
AJC thanked Senator Orrin Hatch, former chair of the Judiciary Committee, and Ranking Member Senator Diane Feinstein for their leadership in shepherding the legislation to adoption.
According to the latest FBI report, issued in 2017, hate crimes increased by 4.6 percent in 2016 compared to 2015. Anti-Jewish incidents continue to account for the majority of religious-based hate crimes, while incidents targeting Muslims rose nearly 20 percent over 2015.
The Protecting Religiously Affiliated Institutions Act of 2018 builds on the Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996, expanding it to include religiously affiliated institutions such as schools and community centers, in addition to houses of worship. It clarifies that threats against, as well as acts that result in damage or destruction of, religious institutions' property are covered.
"Freedom to exercise religion, to practice one's faith unhindered and without fear, is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. This important legislation will provide a much-needed sense of comfort and security," Isaacson said.
SOURCE American Jewish Committee
NCSAM was co-founded and is co-led by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Over the last several years, it has grown in reach and influence. In today's always-connected world, the month's primary goal is to provide all internet users with the information and tools they need to be safer and more secure online and to educate everyone about protecting personal information.
As a springboard into October, the 2018 NCSA Awards were announced yesterday. Created to recognize excellence in digital safety, NCSA seeks to honor organizations going beyond the norm to help everyone stay safer and more secure online. For more information visit https://staysafeonline.org/ncsam/ncsaawards/. Nominations will be accepted through Tuesday, Oct. 2 just as NCSAM begins.
Other organizations as well as individuals can take part in officially supporting NCSAM by signing on as Champions. Champions dramatically strengthen the greater effort by spreading the word about online safety at home, at work and in the community and by hosting events. To date, 500 organizational Champions and more than 250 individuals are paving the way to make NCSAM 2018 the most impactful yet. Champions receive weekly emails during October with user-friendly materials such as infographics, memes and sample social media posts to stay involved with the month's activities. Organizations that become Champions also have the opportunity to co-brand an activity they may be planning as a NCSAM Partner Event.
"Over the last several years, NCSAM's cultural adoption and far-reaching awareness has been striking. Active involvement has grown exponentially as everyone is beginning to understand we all contribute online safety. At the core of its success is steadfast collaboration among industry, government, academia and nonprofit organizations nationwide," said Russ Schrader, NCSA's executive director. "NCSA and DHS strongly urge all organizations and consumers to protect themselves by taking simple, actionable steps this October and year round. In addition, we are committed to strengthening the nation's cybersecurity workforce and to ongoing education so that the message of shared responsibility resonates widely."
In order to reach a variety of audiences with Our Shared Responsibility and education/cybersecurity career messaging, each week in October is devoted to a unique support theme. The NCSAM 2018 themes are:
Week 1: Oct. 1-5 Make Your Home a Haven for Online Safety
Make Your Home a Haven for Online Safety Week 2: Oct. 8-12 Millions of Rewarding Jobs: Educating for a Career in Cybersecurity
Millions of Rewarding Jobs: Educating for a Career in Cybersecurity Week 3: Oct. 15-19 It's Everyone's Job to Ensure Online Safety at Work
It's Everyone's Job to Ensure Online Safety at Work Week 4: Oct. 22-26 Safeguarding the Nation's Critical Infrastructure
To learn more about the themes and how to bolster efforts for NCSAM 2018, check out NCSA's Get Involved infographic. On a weekly basis, NCSA and partners will distribute materials to make it easy to share valuable NCSAM 2018 information that supports that week's topics. Connect with us on social media and learn the latest NCSAM news by following and using the hashtag #CyberAware. Get involved in the conversation by participating in our weekly #ChatSTC Twitter chats, which take place every Thursday in October at 3 p.m. EDT/noon PDT (you can learn more about the October #ChatSTC chats and other NCSAM events and submit your own event here. NCSA has also created sample social media posts and graphics that you can download and share leading up to and throughout the month. Additional information about NCSAM, along with resources like infographics, posters and social media content, can be found at staysafeonline.org/ncsam.
Join #ChatSTC Twitter Chat: Get Ready for #CyberAware Month 2018
Thursday, Sept. 13, 2018, 3 p.m. EDT/noon PDT
Everyone has a role to play in promoting a safer, more secure and more trusted internet. The 15th annual NCSAM will highlight user awareness among consumers, students/academia and business. This #ChatSTC Twitter chat will discuss what NCSAM is all about, what's coming up this October and how you can learn more and join the greater effort. Use #ChatSTC and #CyberAware to join!
About National Cyber Security Awareness Month
National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) was created as a collaborative effort between government and industry to ensure every American has the resources they need to stay safer and more secure online. Now in its 15th year, NCSAM was co-founded and is co-led by the Department of Homeland Security and the National Cyber Security Alliance, the nation's leading nonprofit public-private partnership promoting the safe and secure use of the internet and digital privacy. Recognized annually in October, NCSAM involves the participation of a multitude of industry leaders mobilizing individuals, small and medium-sized businesses, nonprofits, academia, multinational corporations and governments. Encouraging digital citizens around the globe to STOP. THINK. CONNECT., NCSAM is harnessing the collective impact of its programs and resources to increase awareness about today's ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape. Visit the NCSAM media room: staysafeonline.org/about-us/news/media-room/.
About the National Cyber Security Alliance
NCSA is the nation's leading nonprofit, public-private partnership promoting cybersecurity and privacy education and awareness. NCSA works with a broad array of stakeholders in government, industry and civil society. NCSA's primary partners are DHS and NCSA's Board of Directors, which includes representatives from ADP; AT&T Services Inc.; Bank of America; CDK Global, LLC; CertNexus; Cisco; Cofense; Comcast Corporation; ESET North America; Facebook; Google; Intel Corporation; Marriott International; Mastercard; Microsoft Corporation; Mimecast; NXP Semiconductors; Raytheon; Salesforce; Symantec Corporation; Visa and Wells Fargo. NCSA's core efforts include National Cyber Security Awareness Month (October); Data Privacy Day (Jan. 28); STOP. THINK. CONNECT., the global online safety awareness and education campaign co-founded by NCSA and the Anti-Phishing Working Group with federal government leadership from DHS; and CyberSecure My Business, which offers webinars, web resources and workshops to help businesses be resistant to and resilient from cyberattacks. For more information on NCSA, please visit staysafeonline.org/about-us/overview/.
About STOP. THINK. CONNECT.
STOP. THINK. CONNECT. is the global cybersecurity education and awareness campaign. The campaign was created by an unprecedented coalition of private companies, nonprofits and government organizations with leadership provided by the National Cyber Security Alliance and the Anti-Phishing Working Group. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security leads the federal engagement in the campaign. Learn how to get involved at stopthinkconnect.org.
SOURCE National Cyber Security Alliance
Related Links
http://www.staysafeonline.org
NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- American Realty Capital New York City REIT, Inc. ("NYCR"), a public non-listed REIT which owns a $754 million portfolio of office and retail condominium buildings in New York City, announced today that it has entered into five new leases totaling approximately 33,427 square feet at 9 Times Square (200 West 41st Street) in Manhattan.
Five New Leases
A 10-year, 8,780 square foot, office lease with Veredus Corporation, a Hays company, for one full floor of the property. In connection with arranging this office lease, NYCR was represented by Newmark Knight Frank and Veredus was represented by Savills Studley.
A 10-year, 6,951 square foot, office lease with Adelman Katz Mond, LLP ("AKM"), for a partial floor of the property. In connection with arranging this lease, NYCR was represented by Newmark Knight Frank and AKM was represented by MHP Real Estate Services.
A 7-year 5,650 square foot, office lease with LW Hospitality Advisors LLC ("LWHA") for a partial floor of the property. In connection with arranging this lease, NYCR was represented by Newmark Knight Frank and LWHA was represented by Savills Studley.
A 10-year 3,266 square foot, office lease with Greater New York Dental Meeting for a partial floor of the property.
A 9-year, 8,780 square foot, office lease with Knotel for an additional floor at the property bringing their total square footage at the property to 35,120. "We are excited to be able to expand our partnership with AR Global at 200 West 41st Street," said Eugene Lee, Global Head of Real Estate and Business Development at Knotel. "This transaction is a key example of our growth in Midtown and the continued interest in flexible office space from the city's premier owner/managers." In connection with arranging this office lease, NYCR was represented by Newmark Knight Frank and Knotel was represented by Savills Studley.
David Falk of Newmark Knight Frank commented, "We are thrilled with all of the leasing success at 200 West 41st. We all felt that if the building was renovated in a stylish, forward thinking way that the Midtown tenant that wanted a 'Midtown South' aesthetic would be attracted to the building."
Senior Vice President Zachary Pomerantz commented, "We are excited to execute these new long-term leases at 9 Times Square with a number of high-quality, established companies. These actions demonstrate our continuing commitment to achieving our objective of fully repositioning 9 Times Square, while adding dynamic companies to the tenant roster."
If these five new leases had commenced in Q2 2018, they would have increased occupancy at 9 Times Square as of June 30, 2018 from 74.4% to 89.1%.[1] These five new leases have a weighted average lease duration of 9.3 years.[2] 9 Times Square (200 West 41st Street) is a 167,390-square-foot office building with more than 4,000 square feet of divisible retail space at its base. The building offers retailers 7,500 square feet of LED signage and 2,400 square feet of static signage.
About NYCR
American Realty Capital New York City REIT, Inc. seeks to provide its investors with a combination of current income and capital appreciation through strategic investments in high-quality commercial real estate located within the five boroughs of New York City, particularly Manhattan. NYCR elected and qualified as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes beginning with the taxable year ended December 31, 2014. Additional information about NYCR can be found on its website at www.newyorkcityreit.com.
About Hays
Hays is the leading global specialist recruitment firm and has set its sights on the US. Originally entering the market in 2009, in December 2014 we acquired a 17-year staffing firm specializing in information technology recruitment for both contract and permanent roles. Now together operating as Hays, powered by Veredus, we are quickly being recognized as one of the leaders in specialist staffing, with 12 offices nationally across the US to date and growing. For more information, please visit www.hays.com.
About Adelman Katz & Mond
Adelman Katz & Mond is a business and financial management company and accounting firm. We work with professional partnerships, closely held companies in a wide range of businesses and a select group of high net worth individuals. We keep our clients informed about issues that could impact their affairs, guide them through making smart business and financial decisions and help them execute their decisions in a way that's right for them. Some of our clients even depend on us to manage all their business affairs. For more information, please visit www.akmcpa.com.
About LW Hospitality Advisors
LW Hospitality Advisors (LWHA) provides a myriad of services focused exclusively on hospitality and gaming real estate worldwide. Representative property types include hotels, resorts, gaming properties, and conference centers. LWHA works globally with corporate, institutional, and individual clients, as well as with municipalities and governmental agencies on all facets of hospitality real estate. For more information, please visit www.lwhospitalityadvisors.com.
About Greater New York Dental Meeting
The Greater New York Dental Meeting is one of the largest healthcare conventions in the United States. In its 94th year in New York City, this annual convention is held at the Jacob K. Javits Center beginning on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The convention utilizes over 40 hotels in Manhattan to house the significant amount of attendees who visit the City. In 2017 the event attracted over 52,000 attendees from all 50 states and 151 countries. For more information, please visit www.gnydm.com.
About Knotel
With more than 1.5 million square feet across 70 locations in New York, San Francisco, London and Berlin, Knotel is transforming the way we work with its Agile HQ Platform. Making long-term leases a thing of the past, Knotel designs, builds, and operates custom spaces for enterprises, so they can focus on building the future. Founded in 2016, Knotel has raised $100 million in funding, and was named a Business Insider Top 50 Startup and New York's Hottest New Workspace Model. Knotel's member network includes companies like Starbucks, Cheddar, and King. Visit knotel.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
The statements in this press release that are not historical facts may be forward-looking statements. These forward looking statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause the outcome to be materially different. In addition, words such as "may," "will," "seeks," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "plans," "intends," "would," or similar expressions indicate a forward-looking statement, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements, including those set forth in the "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections of NYCR's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and NYCR's most recent Form 10-Q, as such Risk Factors may be updated from time to time in subsequent reports. Further, forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and NYCR undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes to future operating results over time, except as required by law.
[1] If these five new leases had commenced in Q2 2018, they would have increased occupancy at 9 Times Square as of June 30, 2018 from 74.4% to 89.1%. LW Hospitality and Greater NY Dental Meeting were both existing tenants as of June 30, 2018, the occupancy shown here is calculated net of their existing occupied space as of June 30, 2018.
[2] Based on annualized straight-line rent calculated using the lease terms of the five new leases.
SOURCE American Realty Capital New York City REIT, Inc.
Related Links
http://www.newyorkcityreit.com
Photo: CTV
Police staking out Vancouver school zones on Tuesday nabbed one speeder doing 82 km/h.
The speed limit in a school zone is 30 km/h.
And the driver had the nerve to ask for a warning instead of a ticket on the first day of school for kids across the province. The request was denied.
The driver was zooming down King Edward Avenue, a short distance from three schools.
In less than an hour this morning, officers handed out 15 tickets on King Edward.
The safety of children is our priority, and our officers will be strict when they are enforcing the rules, Insp. Loris Zuccato said.
with files from CTV Vancouver
WASHINGTON, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In yet another rebuke of President Trump's anti-democratic, anti-worker executive orders, last week the Department of Veterans Affairs rescinded the order denying employees their representational rights at work.
The VA, which had indicated to some locals that they would not abide by the courts decision, now has officially begun to comply.
Previously, the order had severely limited union officials' access to office space, equipment, and official time to represent workers but it was struck down on August 24 by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Judge Kentaji Jackson Brown ruled that the Trump administration's May 25 executive order on official time violated the U.S. Constitution and the separation of powers as established in law and were invalid. And on Wednesday, August 29, the Office of Personnel Management directing agencies to rescind the provisions of the orders that were enjoined.
The VA, which had indicated to some locals that they would not abide by the court's decision, now has officially begun to comply.
"While we knew the president and his administration overstepped when they issued their union-busting executive orders in May, it's a welcome relief seeing agencies comply with existing collective bargaining agreements and court orders," said American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox Sr. "The men and women who care for our nation's veterans at the VA had taken hit after hit since President Trump took office. But in the last month they've had their rights at work restored and anti-labor laws struck down, showing that we are in the right and have the law on our side."
The decision by the VA to fall in line with Judge Jackson's decision comes less than a week after an independent arbitrator ruled the VA was found to be in violation of the existing Master Agreement between the agency and AFGE by improperly implementing the VA Accountability Act. That decision, when finalized, will allow workers who had been improperly disciplined to be rehired, receive backpay, and will prevent further misuse of the so-called Accountability Act.
"Our fight against this anti-worker administration is far from over, but we are turning the tide," said Cox. "The courts are on our side. Arbitrator rulings show we're in the right. And we're seeing more and more concerned citizens stepping up to fight back. With each passing day we know that the administration sees the American people support our public servants and rights at work for all working people."
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 700,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.
For the latest AFGE news and information, visit the AFGE Media Center. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
SOURCE American Federation of Government Employees
Related Links
http://www.afge.org
WALTHAM, Mass., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AP Intego Insurance Group, a national technology-enabled small business insurance agency today announced that Rich Femia, a student at Bryant University and a summer intern at AP Intego, has been selected as a recipient of a $5,000 academic scholarship for the 2018-19 academic year, from The Council Foundation.
"We couldn't be prouder of Rich and everything he has contributed to AP Intego. His 'can do' attitude and willingness to jump right into any project embodies the spirit of a successful internship program," said Steve Hauck, Managing Director of AP Intego. "We are a fast growing business with multiple priorities and Rich was always raising his hand to help and add value to our enterprise. We're thankful that the Council recognizes emerging talent in our industry. The Council Foundation is clearly an advocate in supporting the educational goals of our members and providing career opportunities for our future leaders."
The Council Foundation's mission is to bring fresh, diverse talent into the brokerage sector by way of internships with member firms of The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers. In awarding the scholarships, an independent selection committee looks for candidates who have the potential to excel as leaders and contributors in the commercial insurance brokerage business sector.
Femia is one of 75 college students across the country who received a Council Foundation scholarship this year. He is majoring in accounting with a minor in communication.
"Commercial insurance brokerage is a career choice that is flush with job opportunities for young college graduates," said Ken A. Crerar, president/CEO of The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers. "It is estimated that the broader insurance industry will need to fill 400,000 positions by 2020 due to impending retirements. When student interns knock on our door, it is important to promote our industry as one that is looking for versatile skill sets and creativity, while providing good-paying jobs that support the community and opportunities for excellent work-life balance."
The Council Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable educational organization instituted by the Washington, D.C.-based Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers. Part of the Foundation's core mission is to secure the future of the commercial insurance brokerage business by attracting and developing tomorrow's talent, like Rich Femia.
About AP Intego
AP Intego Insurance Group specializes in providing its partner network a technology-enabled insurance agency offering, combined with flexible and streamlined billing. AP Intego provides its network of nearly 300 partners with a turnkey property and casualty insurance offering to more than 41,000 small business customers. AP Intego is a full service, nationally licensed insurance agency providing all lines of property and casualty insurance to small businesses in all 50 states. For more information, please visit www.apintego.com.
Press Contact:
Laura Desmarais
LTD Communications
+1 207-590-7193
[email protected]
SOURCE AP Intego
Related Links
http://www.apintego.com
WASHINGTON, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Astroturfing Institute (http://www.astroturfinginstitute.org) recently announced the formation of the La ClaQue Club to offer paid audiences for events within the capital and surrounding area. Professional applause services are also available for a wide variety of political venues and gatherings. The La ClaQue Club is especially well-suited to meet the needs of organizations, gatherings or messages that are unpopular, new or relatively obscure.
AstroTurf Mitchell P. Davis
The La ClaQue Club formed to serve the interests of artists, political leaders or ideological adherents who desire to bolster the ranks of their audience whenever performing a play, delivering a speech or holding a rally. Linked to an ancient French tradition within theaters and opera houses, hired bands of people who applauded dramatic performances were quite common and called claques. The individuals within such claques were referred to as claqueurs.
The La ClaQue Club is comprised of a group of trained professionals who are highly mobile, versatile and customizable according to individual and group needs. Claques can be purchased ahead of time for specific fees or rush services are available, with prices determined on a case-by-case basis.
To serve as a baseline, claque fees are broken up into specific requested services:
Applause given upon entrance of an actor and/or speaker: $45 per clapper.
per clapper. Insistent and continuous applause at specific points: $15 per clapper/ per instance.
per clapper/ per instance. Dramatic interruptions during a speech or event (rare "Bravo!" moments or one-time applause during highlights): $50 per clapper.
per clapper. Wild enthusiasm during or at the end of an event: Variable and negotiated upon request.
Astroturfing is the process by which sponsorship of a message or organization (e.g. political, advertising, religious or public relations) is made to appear as though it originates from and is supported by grassroots participants. It is a practice intended to give statements or organizations credibility by withholding information about the source's true financial connections. The services of claques are routinely employed in the astroturfing process.
About the Astroturfing Institute
The Astroturfing Institute, sponsored by the International Platform Association of 1831, was formed by author Mitchell P. Davis to serve certain philosophical and organizational needs related to the growing awareness of the ubiquity of astroturfing. The Astroturfing Institute calls upon political aspirants and imbedded political leaders on all sides to demand and reveal the truth behind their dark-money streams. Learn more at: http://www.astroturfinginstitute.org
Follow the La ClaQue Club on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/LaClaqueClub
Contact:
Mitchell P. Davis, Editor
www.ExpertClick.com -- Expert Referral system
The Yearbook of Experts -- in print since 1984 -- ExpertbookPDF.com
www.NewsReleaseWire.com -- push technology to Google News & Lexis
www.InternationalPlatform.org Speakers Bureau -- founded 1831.
Broadcast Interview Source, Inc.
2500 Wisconsin Ave, NW
Washington, D.C. 20007
USA Main phone: (202) 333-5000
USA Direct phone: (202) 333-4904
SOURCE Astroturfing Institute
AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Atlas Sand Company, LLC ("Atlas," "Atlas Sand" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an operational update regarding its Kermit, TX facility. On August 28, 2018, approximately 4 weeks after Atlas fulfilled its first scheduled deliveries of frac sand, the Kermit facility registered full capacity production of over 11,000 tons per day of output; approximately 4 million tons annualized. As a result, the Kermit facility is operating at full capacity approximately 2 weeks ahead of its previously anticipated schedule. The facility has been regularly servicing well over 400 trucks per day and is scheduled for over 500 trucks per day for the month of September.
Atlas Sand's Founder & Chairman, Ben M. "Bud" Brigham said, "We're absolutely thrilled to be ahead of schedule on our production ramp-up. There is so much positive going on out in West Texas right now, and we're very happy to be doing our part to add to the fantastic economic growth taking place in the Permian Basin."
Hunter Wallace, the Company's COO added, "From our earliest conversations with customers, we have stressed that as former operators, we know just how important it is for service providers to deliver on what they tell their customers they will do. Atlas' Kermit facility and Monahans facility, which is expected to begin processing sand in October and commence sales in November, were each designed and built differently than any other plant in the industry. Our plants - and furthermore our Company - is built to reliably deliver on what we say we will do, when we say we will do it, day in and day out. Atlas achieving this ramp to full capacity out of its first plant ahead of schedule and at a truly remarkable pace for our industry is a testament to what we are building here at Atlas."
In addition to the production update, Atlas has released initial tests on the turbidity of its processed sand. Mr. Wallace stated, "There has been some commentary in the market reflecting concern that in-basin sand may have potential turbidity issues, and we have been very pleased that our cleaner / higher quality dune deposit and unique plant design have produced sand with an average turbidity of 24 NTUs; well below the American Petroleum Institute's limit of 250 NTUs."
About Atlas Sand
Atlas Sand was founded organically by long-time E&P operators with significant experience in the Permian Basin alongside the best talent in the sand mining industry. The Company was formed to provide the oil & gas industry access to the largest, highest quality frac sand reserves located in the heart of the most prolific resource plays of West Texas, including our high crush strength 40/70 and 100 mesh products. Please visit www.atlassand.com for further details regarding our history, management's background, product offerings and specifications, sales information and employment opportunities.
Contact
Brian Leveille
Atlats Sand Company, LLC
512-220-1200
[email protected]
SOURCE Atlas Sand Company, LLC
Related Links
http://www.atlassand.com
RIVERSIDE, Calif., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Attorney Zulu Ali of the Law Offices of Zulu Ali in Riverside, California has been named Top 10 Criminal Defense Lawyer and Immigration Lawyer in the state of California by Attorney and Practice Magazine. Specializing in providing attorneys and legal practitioners with insight and advice from other legal professionals, as well as opinions and updates on the latest legal news in a wide variety of practice areas, Attorney and Practice Magazine awards list was created to recognize the achievements of the top 1% of trial lawyers. The organization awards the top attorneys in several legal practice areas including Immigration and Criminal Defense.
Attorney Zulu Ali
Attorney Zulu Ali, a native of Shelbyville, Tennessee, is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served with the Marine Security Forces. After graduating from the Tennessee Law Enforcement Training Academy, Attorney Ali served as a sworn police officer with the City of Shelbyville, City of Lewisburg, and Vanderbilt Police Departments, respectively.
Attorney Ali earned a Juris Doctorate (law degree) from Trinity International University Law School and a liberal arts degree with an emphasis in African Studies from Regents College through a consortium with Tennessee State University.
Attorney Ali has been admitted to the California State Bar; United States District Courts for the districts of Central California, Southern California, Northern California, and Colorado; United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits; United States Supreme Court; and the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands.
In 2007, inspired by civil rights attorneys Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, and Avon Williams, Jr., who used the law and courts as a vehicle to make change and protect all people against injustice, Attorney Zulu Ali opened the Law Offices of Zulu Ali with a focus on representing persons accused of crimes and seeking criminal justice, immigrants, victims of discrimination, persons seeking civil justice, and defendants and victims at the international criminal court at The Hague, Netherlands. Attorney Ali and his law firm take on extremely difficult cases and matters that provide an opportunity to make changes in the law, through the courts, when the law is unjust.
Attorney Ali hosts the weekly radio show Justice Watch with Attorney Zulu on NBC radio affiliate KCAA radio in Redlands, California; and is the subject of the documentary film Purpose and Freedom: Keep Your Hand on the Plow.
Attorney Ali serves as Director of the American Committee for United Nations Oversight, an advocacy group lobbying the United Nations for police reform; Director of the Stop and Frisk Academy, which trains at risk youth and others to deal with police encounters; Director of the Southern California Veterans Legal Clinic, a legal clinic offering no cost and low cost legal services to military veterans; and a member of the National Conference of Black Lawyers.
In 2017, Attorney Ali was recognized as one of the most influential African American Leaders in Los Angeles by the National Action Network founded by Reverend Al Sharpton.
Attorney Ali has been Honored Top 100 Lawyers by the National Black Lawyers-Top 100; Top 100 Lawyers by the National Trial Lawyers-Top 100; Premier 100 Trial Lawyers by the American Academy of Trial Attorney; Top 10 Lawyers in Criminal Defense, Immigration Law, and Personal Injury by the American Institute of Legal Counsel; Top 10 Attorney in Criminal Defense, Immigration, and Personal Injury by the American Jurist Institute; and Rue Ratings Best Lawyer in America.
Attorney Ali has been married to his spouse, Charito, for over 33 years; and resides in Southern California with their four daughters and three grandchildren.
Press Contact:
Rosa Nunez, Producer
Justice Watch Radio & TV
951-782-8722
[email protected]
SOURCE Law Offices of Zulu Ali
Related Links
http://zulualilaw.com
The new apartments are some of the most modern and updated available for rent in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. Units feature vintage building details such as bay windows and arched doorways and have been upgraded with granite countertops, glass-tiled back splash, new windows, hardwood floors and stainless steel appliances. Each rental comes with an in-unit washer and dryer, and the entire building has had its mechanical systems updated, including the building's plumbing, electric and air conditioning systems.
Pet lovers will enjoy that 550 W. Arlington Place is a pet-friendly building.
The renovated apartment building features 91 units on eight floors, with 45 studio spaces and 46 one-bedroom rentals. For studios, the monthly rent starts at $1,395, and one-bedroom apartments start at $1,695.
Located on a prime block in the heart of Lincoln Park, the building's residents have easy access to the lakefront trail and the city's beaches. Some of the east-facing units feature scenic views of Lincoln Park and Lake Michigan. Renters of all ages love the short walk to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and Lincoln Park Zoo, as well as a plethora of shops, restaurants and cafes. Students find the close proximity to DePaul's campus a distinct advantage.
For more information contact Barb Willis, Beal Properties Manager of Operations at (773) 862-5200.
About Beal Properties
For over 30 years, Beal Properties has been one of Chicago's leading owners of multi-family apartment buildings. The company offers beautiful and well-maintained apartments in the vibrant Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Wrigleyville, Ravenswood, Lincoln Square, Logan Square and Gold Coast neighborhoods, and in the North Shore neighborhoods of Northfield, Evanston, Highland Park, Glencoe and Winnetka.
Beal Properties is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act, which makes it illegal to advertise any preference, limitations, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin, or intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination. All persons are hereby informed that all Beal Properties rental units are available on an equal opportunity basis.
SOURCE Beal Properties
Related Links
http://www.bealproperties.com
BEEVILLE, Texas, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Bee County elections are undergoing a transformation. With the County's purchase of new Verity Voting system technology this month, voters there will see a secure, easy-to-use new system. The move to Verity also signals a shift toward the convenient countywide vote center model, which will allow Bee County voters to cast their ballots at the polling place of their choice. A strong comfort level with longtime voting system provider Hart InterCivic played a large part in the County's Verity selection.
Bee County is modernizing elections with the secure new Verity Voting system, staying with trusted solution provider Hart InterCivic.
"You couldn't ask for a better partner than Hart," said Elections Administrator Laura Warnix. "Being fairly new to my role, it makes a huge difference to be able to pick up the phone any time I have a question. It's nice to always have that calm reassurance at the other end of the phone line."
Warnix also finds reassurance looking to the successful Verity roll-out in neighboring San Patricio County. She said, "I have heard nothing but good about Verity. It's a top-notch product much more secure than other systems out there. With all you hear about cybersecurity, it's good to have a system with more security measures in place. Plus, it's going to help with our workload."
"We value our partnership with Bee County, and we applaud them for taking this important step forward," said Phillip Braithwaite, President and CEO of Hart InterCivic, an Austin-based company with more than 100 years of experience providing election solutions. "We look forward to many years of successful elections in the County and know Verity will serve them well."
Verity equipment will arrive in Bee County after the November election. "It's going to better the County," said Warnix. "We're planning a series of mock elections to let our voters get their hands on Verity. We think they're going to love it!"
Braithwaite expects more announcements throughout 2018 as jurisdictions refresh their election technology across Texas and nationally.
Learn more about Verity in Texas: https://www.hartintercivic.com/texas/
About Hart InterCivic, Inc.
Austin-based Hart InterCivic is a full-service election solutions innovator, partnering with state and local governments to deliver secure, accurate and reliable elections. Working side-by-side with election professionals for more than 100 years, Hart is committed to helping advance democracy one election at a time. Hart's mission fuels its passionate customer focus and a continuous drive for technological innovation. The company's new Verity Voting system makes voting more straightforward, equitable and accessibleand makes managing elections more transparent, more efficient and easier. Only Hart offers a completely new, secure voting system with electronic, paper and hybrid options.
SOURCE Hart InterCivic, Inc.
Related Links
http://www.hartintercivic.com
BERGEN, Norway, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BerGenBio ASA (OSE:BGBIO) announces that the company and its collaborators will present interim clinical data from its Phase II clinical development programme with bemcentinib (BGB324), a first-in-class highly selective oral AXL inhibitor, in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) at the 19th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) in Toronto (23 26 September 2018).
Full abstracts are available online at https://wclc2018.iaslc.org from 5 PM (Eastern Time) on 5 September 2018 and details of the presentations are below. The posters presented at WCLC will be made available at www.bergenbio.com in the Investors / Presentations section following the sessions.
Poster presentations at WCLC:
Tuesday 25 September, 4:45 - 6:00 PM (Eastern Time)
Ph II Study of Oral Selective AXL Inhibitor Bemcentinib (BGB324) in Combination with Pembrolizumab in Patients with Advanced NSCLC (BerGenBio study reference: BGBC008)
James Lorens , PhD et al
, PhD Session: P2.04 - Immunooncology
Abstract code: P2.04-27
Ph I/II Study of Oral Selective AXL Inhibitor Bemcentinib (BGB324) in Combination with Erlotinib in pts with EGFRm NSCLC (BerGenBio study reference: BGBC004)
Lauren Averett Byers , MD et al
, MD Session: P2.13 Targeted Therapy
Abstract code: P2.13-10
A Ph I/II Study of Oral Selective AXL Inhibitor Bemcentinib (BGB324) with Docetaxel in pts with Previously Treated NSCLC (BerGenBio study reference: BGBIL005)
David Gerber , MD et al
, MD Session: P2.01 - Advanced NSCLC
Abstract code: P2.01-37
A Phase II Study of Oral Selective AXL Inhibitor Bemcentinib (BGB324) in Combination with Pembrolizumab in pts with Malignant Mesothelioma (trial not active yet)
Dean Fennell , PhD et al
, PhD Session: P2.06 - Mesothelioma
Abstract code: P2.06-09 MiST3
About WCLC
19th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC 2018) is the leading meeting on Thoracic Oncology. It is organised by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer and will gather more than 7,000 international delegates. WCLC 2018 will take place in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Ontario Canada, 23 26 September 2018.
About the BGBC008 trial
The BGBC008 trial is a Phase II multi-centre open-label study of bemcentinib in combination with KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) in previously treated, immunotherapy naive, patients with advanced adenocarcinoma of the lung, the most common form of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The objective of the trial is to determine the anti-tumour activity of this novel drug combination and responses will be correlated with biomarker status (including AXL kinase and PD-L1 expression).
As of September 2018, the first stage of the trial has been fully recruited, and the first efficacy endpoint was met. Responders to the combination treatment included patients negative for PD-L1 for whom KEYTRUDA monotherapy is not effective.
For more information please access trial NCT03184571 at www.clinicaltrials.gov.
About the BGBC004 trial
The BGBC004 trial is a phase I/II multi-centre open-label study of bemcentinib in combination with TARCEVA (erlotinib) in patients with EGFR mutation driven (EGFRm) Stage IIIb or Stage IV NSCLC. The trial is designed to evaluate reversal of resistance to EGFR targeted therapy in later line patients who are negative for the T790M resistance mutation (arm B) as well as prevention of resistance to TARCEVA in patients receiving the EGFR inhibitor first line (arm C).
The first efficacy endpoint was met in Arm B and encouraging preliminary data has been presented for Arm C. The dose-finding part of the trial, arm A, is completed and was presented at WCLC 2017.
For more information please access trial NCT02424617 at www.clinicaltrials.gov.
About the BGBIL005 trial
The BGBIL005 trial is an investigator-led phase I/II study of bemcentinib in combination with docetaxel chemotherapy in previously treated, relapsed / resistant NSCLC patients. Patient recruitment into the study is progressing and encouraging clinical responses have been reported following the combination treatment.
For more information please access trial NCT02922777 at www.clinicaltrials.gov.
About the MiST3 trial
The MiST3 trial is an investigator-led phase II study of bemcentinib in combination with KEYTRUDA in patients with relapsed mesothelioma. The trial, which is not active as of September 2018, is sponsored by the University of Leicester (Leicester, UK), and funded by the British Lung Foundation with support from Merck Sharp and Dohme Limited and BerGenBio. Up to 25 patients are planned to be enrolled at 3 clinical research sites in the UK.
For more information please access trial NCT03654833 at www.clinicaltrials.gov
About BerGenBio ASA
BerGenBio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing transformative drugs targeting AXL as a potential cornerstone of therapy for advanced and aggressive cancers.
The company's proprietary lead candidate, bemcentinib, is a potentially first-in-class selective AXL inhibitor in a broad phase II clinical development programme. Ongoing clinical trials are investigating bemcentinib in multiple solid and haematological tumours, in combination with current and emerging therapies (including immunotherapies, targeted therapies and chemotherapy), and as a single agent.
In parallel, BerGenBio is developing a companion diagnostics test to identify patient populations most likely to benefit from bemcentinib; this is expected to facilitate more efficient registration trials and support a precision medicine-based commercialisation strategy.
BerGenBio is based in Bergen, Norway with a subsidiary in Oxford, UK. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (ticker: BGBIO). www.bergenbio.com
About AXL
AXL kinase is a cell membrane receptor and an essential mediator of the biological mechanisms that drive aggressive and life-threatening diseases. In cancer, AXL drives tumour survival, treatment resistance and spread, as well as suppressing the body's immune response to tumours. AXL expression has been established as a negative prognostic factor in many cancers. AXL inhibitors, therefore, have potential value at the centre of cancer combination therapy, addressing significant unmet medical needs and multiple high-value market opportunities.
Contacts
Richard Godfrey
CEO, BerGenBio ASA
+47-917-86-304
Rune Skeie
CFO, BerGenBio ASA
[email protected]
+47-917-86-513
International Media Relations
David Dible, Mark Swallow, Marine Perrier, Citigate Dewe Rogerson
[email protected]
+44-207-638-9571
Media Relations in Norway
Jan Petter Stiff
Crux Advisers
[email protected]
+47-995-13-891
Forward looking statements
This announcement may contain forward-looking statements, which as such are not historical facts, but are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions. These assumptions are inherently subject to significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors. Such risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other important factors could cause actual events to differ materially from the expectations expressed or implied in this announcement by such forward-looking statements.
This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com
http://news.cision.com/bergenbio-asa/r/bergenbio-to-present-interim-phase-2-clinical-data-with-selective-axl-inhibitor-bemcentinib-in-non-s,c2608763
SOURCE BerGenBio ASA
Related Links
http://www.bergenbio.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Big Lots, Inc. (NYSE: BIG) announced today it is participating in the Goldman Sachs 25th Annual Global Retailing Conference being held in New York City, New York.
Timothy Johnson, Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Financial Officer, and Andrew Regrut, Vice President, Investor Relations, are scheduled to participate in a fireside chat on Thursday, September 6, 2018 which will be broadcast live beginning at approximately 11:15 a.m. Eastern Time. This live audio webcast will be available through the Investor Relations section of our website at https://www.biglots.com/corporate/investors/.
If you are unable to join the live webcast, an archive will be available through the Investor Relations section of our website at https://www.biglots.com/corporate/investors/ after 2:00 pm Eastern Time and will remain available through midnight September 13, 2018.
About Big Lots, Inc.
Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Big Lots, Inc. (NYSE: BIG) is a community retailer operating 1,415 BIG LOTS stores in 47 states, dedicated to friendly service, trustworthy value, and affordable solutions in every season and category furniture, food, decor, and more. We exist to serve everyone like family, providing a better shopping experience for our customers, valuing and developing our associates, and creating growth for our shareholders. Big Lots supports the communities it serves through the Big Lots Foundation, a charitable organization focused on four areas of need: hunger, housing, healthcare, and education. For more information about the Company, visit www.biglots.com.
Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and such statements are intended to qualify for the protection of the safe harbor provided by the Act. The words "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "objective," "goal," "project," "intend," "plan," "believe," "will," "should," "may," "target," "forecast," "guidance," "outlook" and similar expressions generally identify forward-looking statements. Similarly, descriptions of our objectives, strategies, plans, goals or targets are also forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements relate to the expectations of management as to future occurrences and trends, including statements expressing optimism or pessimism about future operating results or events and projected sales, earnings, capital expenditures and business strategy. Forward-looking statements are based upon a number of assumptions concerning future conditions that may ultimately prove to be inaccurate. Forward-looking statements are and will be based upon management's then-current views and assumptions regarding future events and operating performance, and are applicable only as of the dates of such statements. Although we believe the expectations expressed in forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions within the bounds of our knowledge, forward-looking statements, by their nature, involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, any one or a combination of which could materially affect our business, financial condition, results of operations or liquidity.
Forward-looking statements that we make herein and in other reports and releases are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those discussed in such forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, current economic and credit conditions, the cost of goods, our inability to successfully execute strategic initiatives, competitive pressures, economic pressures on our customers and us, the availability of brand name closeout merchandise, trade restrictions, freight costs, the risks discussed in the Risk Factors section of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, and other factors discussed from time to time in our other filings with the SEC, including Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. This release should be read in conjunction with such filings, and you should consider all of these risks, uncertainties and other factors carefully in evaluating forward-looking statements.
You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date thereof. We undertake no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. You are advised, however, to consult any further disclosures we make on related subjects in our public announcements and SEC filings.
SOURCE Big Lots, Inc.
Related Links
http://www.biglots.com
NEW HAVEN, Conn. and NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd. (NYSE: BHVN) announced today that it entered into an exclusive, worldwide license agreement, through its subsidiary Biohaven Therapeutics Ltd., with AstraZeneca AB for the development and commercialization rights to AZD3241, an oral myeloperoxidase (MPO) inhibitor that AstraZeneca progressed through Phase 2 clinical trials. Biohaven plans to conduct a Phase 3 clinical trial of this product candidate for the treatment of multiple system atrophy (MSA) a rare, rapidly progressive and fatal neurogenerative disease with no cure or effective treatments. AZD3241 will now be referred to as BHV3241.
MPO is a key driver of oxidative and inflammatory processes and is significantly increased in a range of brain disorders. It is thought that inhibiting MPO activity may be a promising therapeutic strategy for neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative conditions, including MSA. Studies have also linked increased MPO levels with multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease.
Vlad Coric, M.D., CEO of Biohaven stated, "We are excited about the potential of BHV3241 to become a first-in-class MPO inhibitor and novel treatment for MSA. Patients affected by this severe neurological disorder are in desperate need of treatment options. We believe the early signal observed at the 12-week timepoint in AstraZeneca's Phase 2a study provides a strong rationale to initiate a longer-term, definitive trial to establish its efficacy and safety in patients with MSA." Dr. Coric added, "The in-licensing of this late-stage asset is not only a good strategic fit to our existing portfolio, but also underscores Biohaven's commitment to providing improved therapies for patients suffering from some of the most disabling neurological disorders."
BHV3241 is a clinical stage MPO inhibitor that has completed Phase 1 studies at doses up to 900mg twice a day. Preliminary results from a Phase 2a trial completed by AstraZeneca in patients with MSA showed numerical improvements on the primary outcome measure of efficacy, change from baseline as measured by the Unified MSA Rating Scale. After 12 weeks of treatment, placebo-treated patients worsened by 4.6 points (SE=1.1, n=17), while BHV3241- treated patients showed declines of 3.7 points (SE= 1.2, n=17) at the 300mg twice-daily dose and 2.6 points (SE=1.4, n=18) at the 600mg twice-daily dose. Corresponding benefits were also observed in other outcome measures, such as the Composite Autonomic Symptom Score and MSA-Quality of Life scale. These clinical findings were consistent with neuroprotective effects of BHV3241 observed in animal models. In the Phase 2a trial, BHV3241 significantly decreased MPO activity in human blood, a biomarker of the drug engaging its target. BHV3241 has been generally safe and well tolerated in approximately 250 patients.
Prof. Werner Poewe, Chairman of the Department of Neurology at the Medical University Innsbruck, Austria, and a leading MSA expert commented, "We are very encouraged by the preliminary clinical efficacy signal observed across the Unified MSA Rating Scale and other outcome measures in the Phase 2a study. These data, coupled with a favorable safety profile and evidence that BHV3241 reduced intracellular aggregates of alpha-synuclein, suppressed microglial activation and rescued neurodegeneration in MSA animal models, support our belief that BHV3241 has potential as a disease-modifying treatment in Multiple System Atrophy."
The in-licensing of BHV3241 expands Biohaven's portfolio of innovative, late-stage product candidates for the treatment of neurologic and psychiatric disease indications. Under the terms of the agreement, AstraZeneca will receive upfront cash payment and shares in Biohaven, and AstraZeneca is eligible for further development and commercial milestone payments, and up to double-digit sales based royalties. Biohaven may pursue all therapeutic indications of BHV3241 with the exception of cardiovascular disease, and is obligated to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop and, if approved, commercialize BHV3241. AstraZeneca has agreed not to pursue additional MPO inhibitors it has in early stage cardiovascular development for neurologic diseases for a period of five years.
Kumar Srinivasan, VP Scientific Partnering and Alliances, IMED Biotech Unit at AstraZeneca stated, "Biohaven has assembled a highly experienced team, which we are confident will give BHV3241 the best chance of being assessed in patients suffering from debilitating neuropsychiatric disorders whilst also creating potential future value for AstraZeneca."
Biohaven's pipeline now includes investigational agents across three novel mechanisms of action to target central nervous system disorders: 1) calcitonin-gene related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonists for migraine and pain; 2) glutamate modulating agents for the treatment of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders; and 3) myeloperoxidase inhibition for neurodegenerative disorders.
About MSA
Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a combination of symptoms that affect both the autonomic nervous system (the part of the nervous system that controls involuntary action such as blood pressure or digestion) and movement. The symptoms reflect the progressive loss of function and death of different types of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.
MSA is a rare disease, affecting potentially 15,000 to 50,000 Americans. Symptoms tend to appear in a person's 50s and advance rapidly over the course of 5 to 10 years, with progressive loss of motor function and eventual confinement to bed. People with MSA often develop pneumonia in the later stages of the disease and may suddenly die from cardiac or respiratory issues.
While some of the symptoms of MSA can be treated with medications, currently there are no treatments that are able to slow disease progression and there is no cure.
About Biohaven
Biohaven is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a portfolio of innovative, late-stage product candidates targeting neurological diseases, including rare disorders. Biohaven combined internal development and research with intellectual property licensed from companies and institutions including Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, AstraZeneca AB, Yale University, Catalent, ALS Biopharma LLC and Massachusetts General Hospital. Currently, Biohaven's lead development programs include multiple compounds across its CGRP receptor antagonist and glutamate modulating platforms. Biohaven's common shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange and traded under the ticker symbol BHVN. More information about Biohaven is available at www.biohavenpharma.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties, including statements that are based on the current expectations and assumptions of the Company's management. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this press release, including the Company's plans for the clinical development and potential regulatory approval and commercialization of BHV3241 and other product candidates for various neurological conditions, the potential for BHV3241 to be an effective treatment for neurodegenerative disorders including multiple system atrophy and the potential for BHV3241 to be a first-in-class treatment for multiple systems atrophy, are forward-looking statements. The use of certain words, including "potential", "believe", "could", "expect", "may" and "will" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. The Company may not actually achieve the plans and objectives disclosed in the forward-looking statements and you should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements. Various important factors could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those that may be expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements, including uncertainties relating to the future clinical success of BHV3241, and whether the results observed in AstraZeneca's prior studies and clinical trials of BHV3241 will be observed in Biohaven's future clinical trials of BHV3241 in various neurodegenerative disorders, including those beyond multiple system atrophy. Additional important factors to be considered in connection with forward-looking statements are described in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 14, 2018. The forward-looking statements are made as of this date and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
For further information, contact Dr. Vlad Coric, the Chief Executive Officer, at [email protected].
SOURCE Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd.
Related Links
http://www.biohavenpharma.com
Photo: Contributed Kandace spent months at Ronald McDonald House in Vancouver caring for her son.
CapriCMW Insurance Services Ltd. wants to help build a home away from home for families of out-of-town patients at Kelowna General Hospital.
CapriCMW has pledged $25,000 to support the construction of JoeAnnas House, an $8-million facility that would house family members.
The desire to help hits close to home for the 43-year-old local business after a CapriCMW employee needed to stay at Ronald McDonald House.
In 2016, Kandace spent months at Ronald MacDonald House in Vancouver after her son was born extremely premature.
Without Ronald MacDonald House, Kandace and her family would have been under significant financial and emotional strain on top of dealing with her sons early start in life.
I have been following the fundraising for JoeAnnas House and am thrilled that we will have such a support in our community for families in need. Being able to be close to our son and focus all of our attention on him was invaluable and had a major impact of Dominics recovery, said Kandace.
At the time, CapriCMW supported Kandace and her familys desire to give back by hosting a staff fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House so it made sense for CapriCMW to support JoeAnnas House and help provide these much-needed facilities close to home.
One of the values at the core of who we are as a company is a commitment to community. We are dedicated to the places we call home and the people who share where we live and work. Our employees live and breathe this core value every day through the work they do in service to our local communities, said Tim Miller, co-president of CapriCMW.
The project is scheduled to break ground this fall and open its doors in late 2019.
"We're absolutely thrilled at this partnership with ZIP.ch to continue to expand our small business services in Europe," says Boostability SEO Gavan Thorpe. "The partnership with ZIP.ch will make it easy for small businesses to realize benefits of search engine optimization, where they previously haven't been able to afford these types of services. And we're so excited to be able to help these small businesses in Switzerland."
Through mySEO.ch, specialists from both companies will provide affordable and proven ways for local businesses to improve their online visibility and search engine rankings.
Headquartered in Lehi, Utah, Boostability is passionate about the small business. In this digital world, it's not enough to just have a website. Boostability helps small businesses get found online, and gets these websites to the first page of Google's search results. They've helped hundreds of thousands of small businesses around the world succeed online by optimizing their web page to get it in front of more potential customers.
ZIP.ch aims to offer users a simple and effective search tool covering all businesses and individuals listed in the Swiss YellowPages and WhitePages, and encourages business owners to claim and enhance their listing for free in order to reach more customers.
About Boostability
Established in 2009, Boostability was founded on a simple business model: to create affordable and effective SEO for the small business marketplace. Boostability primarily works with partners that offer their white-labeled SEO, social media, and website build services to their SMB clients. The company serves more than 26,000 active clients and has over 400 employees based in two offices around the Silicon Slopes of Utah and a satellite locations in Berlin. It has been ranked in the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America for four straight years. For more information, visit www.boostability.com.
About ZIP.ch SA
ZIP.ch is the first and only official Swiss telephone directory that, unlike other Swiss directories, offers a wide range of free content. Through the ZIP.ch platform SMEs or private persons can add themselves free of charge and supplement their entry with a lot of additional information such as e.g. website, social networks, photos and video and much more. ZIP.ch supports Swiss small and medium-sized enterprises in their digital transformation by offering them a complete range of simple and effective solutions to strengthen their online presence.
Contact: Kelly Shelton
1-800-261-1537
[email protected]
SOURCE Boostability
Related Links
http://www.boostability.com
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Bunge Limited (NYSE:BG) today announced that Bunge Limited Finance Corp., its wholly owned finance subsidiary, has priced a public offering of $600 million aggregate principal amount of 4.350% senior notes due 2024. The senior notes will be guaranteed by Bunge Limited. The offering was made pursuant to a registration statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The transaction is expected to close on September 10, 2018.
Bunge intends to use the net proceeds from the offering of the senior notes, together with available cash, to fund the purchase of any and all of Bunge Limited Finance Corp.'s $600 million 8.50% Senior Notes due 2019 that are validly tendered in a tender offer commenced on September 4, 2018, including, at Bunge's sole discretion, any subsequent redemption of any existing notes that remain outstanding following the completion of the tender offer, and to pay any related premium, fees and expenses. If Bunge terminates the tender offer before purchasing any of the existing notes or, if following the consummation of the tender offer, Bunge elects not to redeem the existing notes that remain outstanding, Bunge will use any remaining net proceeds from the offering of the senior notes for general corporate purposes.
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, SMBC Nikko Securities America, Inc., ABN AMRO Securities (USA) LLC, ING Financial Markets LLC, Natixis Securities Americas LLC and Rabo Securities USA, Inc. are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering of senior notes. BMO Capital Markets Corp., BNP Paribas Securities Corp., Commerz Markets LLC, Credit Agricole Securities (USA) Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Mizuho Securities USA LLC, SG Americas Securities, LLC and U.S. Bancorp Investments, Inc. are acting as senior co-managers for the offering of senior notes. ANZ Securities, Inc., Barclays Capital Inc., BB Securities Limited, BBVA Securities Inc., DZ Financial Markets LLC, ICBC Standard Bank Plc, Loop Capital Markets LLC, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, PNC Capital Markets LLC, Scotia Capital (USA) Inc., Standard Chartered Bank, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc., UniCredit Capital Markets LLC and Wells Fargo Securities, LLC are acting as co-managers for the for the offering of senior notes.
This offering of senior notes may be made only by means of the prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus related to the offering. Copies of the prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to the offering can be obtained by calling J.P. Morgan Securities LLC collect at 1-212-834-4533, HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. at 1-866-811-8049, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC at 1 (866) 718-1649 or SMBC Nikko Securities America, Inc. toll-free at 1-888-868-6856.
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of, these senior notes in any jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.
Website Information
We routinely post important information for investors on our website, www.bunge.com, in the "Investors" section. We may use this website as a means of disclosing material, non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Accordingly, investors should monitor the Investors section of our website, in addition to following our press releases, SEC filings, public conference calls, presentations and webcasts. The information contained on, or that may be accessed through, our website is not incorporated by reference into, and is not a part of, this document.
About Bunge Limited
Bunge Limited (www.bunge.com,NYSE: BG) is a leading global agribusiness and food company operating in over 40 countries with approximately 32,000 employees. Bunge buys, sells, stores and transports oilseeds and grains to serve customers worldwide; processes oilseeds to make protein meal for animal feed and edible oil products for commercial customers and consumers; produces sugar and ethanol from sugarcane; mills wheat, corn and rice to make ingredients used by food companies; and sells fertilizer in South America. Founded in 1818, the company is headquartered in White Plains, New York.
Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains both historical and forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward looking statements are not based on historical facts, but rather reflect our current expectations and projections about our future results, performance, prospects and opportunities, including statements with respect to the completion, timing and anticipated use of proceeds of the offering. We have tried to identify these forward looking statements by using words including "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "intend," "estimate," "continue" and similar expressions. These forward looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause our actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward looking statements, including those risk factors described in or incorporated by reference in the prospectus supplement for the offering. The following important factors, among others, could affect our business and financial performance: industry conditions, including fluctuations in supply, demand and prices for agricultural commodities and other raw materials and products used in our business; fluctuations in energy and freight costs and competitive developments in our industries; the effects of weather conditions and the outbreak of crop and animal disease on our business; global and regional agricultural, economic, financial and commodities market, political, social and health conditions; the outcome of pending regulatory and legal proceedings; our ability to complete, integrate and benefit from acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures and strategic alliances; our ability to achieve the efficiencies, savings and other benefits anticipated from our cost reduction, margin improvement and other business optimization initiatives; changes in government policies, laws and regulations affecting our business, including agricultural and trade policies, tax regulations and biofuels legislation; operational risks, including industrial accidents and natural disasters; and other factors affecting our business generally. The forward-looking statements included in this release are made only as of the date of this release, and except as otherwise required by federal securities law, we do not have any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.
SOURCE Bunge Limited
Related Links
http://www.bunge.com
BOSTON, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Burns & Levinson announced today that Lisa Cukier and Christine Fletcher, partners in the firm's Private Client Group, have been selected as 2018 Women Worth Watching by Profiles in Diversity Journal. The PDJ "Women Worth Watching" awards celebrate the achievements and personalities of leading women across a multitude of industries who represent diversity within their spheres of influence.
Lisa Cukier is a partner and member of the firm's Executive Committee. She splits her practice between high conflict divorces and high profile trusts and estate litigation, and is well-known for her ability to handle the toughest of cases. Cukier's practice also includes handling complex child custody, parentage issues, blended family issues, adoption, and guardianship and conservatorship. She was named a "Divorce, Trusts & Estates Trailblazer" by the National Law Journal in 2017 and is listed in Best Lawyers in America and Massachusetts Super Lawyers. She received her J.D. from Suffolk University Law School and her B.A. from Northeastern University.
Christine Fletcher has over 20 years of experience in advising clients on estate planning, trust and estate administration, probate litigation, and family business matters. As a partner in the firm's Private Client Group, Fletcher helps families plan for life's transitions whether it is moving assets to the next generation, minimizing estate taxes or ensuring assets pass to intended recipients. She was named an Accredited Estate Planner designee in 2017 by the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils. She also is a regular columnist for Forbes.com, where she advises on successfully managing trusts and estates. She received her J.D. from Syracuse University College of Law and her B.A., cum laude, from Boston University.
"We're delighted to celebrate Lisa and Christine's impressive achievements in receiving this award. The work they do for our clients is invaluable and we are very fortunate to have them on our team," said David Rosenblatt, managing partner at Burns & Levinson.
About Burns & Levinson LLP
At Burns & Levinson, we provide high-level, client-centric and results-oriented legal services to our regional, national and international clients. We are a full-service law firm with over 125 lawyers in Boston, Providence and other regional offices. Our areas of expertise include: business/finance, business litigation, divorce/family law, venture capital/emerging companies, employment, estate planning, government investigations, intellectual property, M&A/private equity, probate/trust litigation, and real estate. We partner with our clients to solve their business and personal legal issues in a collaborative, creative, and cost-effective way. For more information, visit Burns & Levinson at www.burnslev.com.
Contact:
Kristen Weller Amy Blumenthal Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer Blumenthal & Associates 617.345.3555 617.879.1511 [email protected] [email protected]
SOURCE Burns & Levinson
Related Links
http://www.burnslev.com
MENLO PARK, Calif., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ken Thomas has joined global consulting firm Protiviti as a managing director in the Finance and Performance Management group of its Business Performance Improvement practice. Based in the firm's Tampa, Florida office, he works primarily with financial services and multinational clients seeking finance transformation through process optimization and automation.
Thomas brings more than 20 years of experience in financial reporting, compliance, planning and transformation and has worked within Fortune 50 and FTSE 100 companies to achieve significant efficiencies through innovative and industry-leading business improvement practices. Prior to joining Protiviti, he served as senior vice president and head of enterprise reporting for MetLife, Inc., where he was responsible for its financial plan, projections and analysis. Prior to that role, he served as its global controller responsible for the controllership of MetLife's accounting in over 45 countries. Before that, Thomas was CFO at Informa PLC's Americas finance operations. Ken started his career in public accounting and serviced Arthur Andersen clients in several industries.
"In today's highly competitive financial services environment, businesses are looking for transformative ways to automate and streamline their processes," said Chris Wright, global leader of Protiviti's Business Performance Improvement practice. "Ken's experience offers tailored solutions to our clients operating in complex global environments and is invaluable in assisting them to control costs while minimizing associated risk."
Thomas is a Certified Public Accountant and a Chartered Global Management Accountant. He holds a dual bachelor's degree in accounting and economics from the City University of New York. Thomas is a member of the Southwest Florida board of directors of the American Cancer Society.
About Protiviti
Protiviti (www.protiviti.com) is a global consulting firm that delivers deep expertise, objective insights, a tailored approach and unparalleled collaboration to help leaders confidently face the future. Through its network of more than 75 offices in over 20 countries, Protiviti and its independently owned Member Firms provide clients with consulting solutions in finance, technology, operations, data, analytics, governance, risk and internal audit.
Named to the 2018 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list, Protiviti has served more than 60 percent of Fortune 1000 and 35 percent of Fortune Global 500 companies. The firm also works with smaller, growing companies, including those looking to go public, as well as with government agencies. Protiviti is a wholly owned subsidiary of Robert Half (NYSE: RHI). Founded in 1948, Robert Half is a member of the S&P 500 index.
Protiviti is not licensed or registered as a public accounting firm and does not issue opinions on financial statements or offer attestation services.
Editor's note: Photos available upon request.
SOURCE Protiviti
Related Links
http://www.protiviti.com
TEL AVIV, Israel, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a recent article in the International Journal of Spine Surgery, advanced decompression innovator Carevature's Dreal device yields significantly better results in incidental dural tears, with 87% improvement compared to high-speed drills and Kerrison Rongeurs (0.4% vs. 2.91%; p<0.01); and 80% improvement compared to ultrasonic bone cutters (0.4% vs. 1.95%; p<0.01).
This data demonstrates the Dreal's marked advantages in reducing natural risk of neural element injury. The results are attributed to the device's unique curved and shielded tip design, which requires only a very limited number of passes to remove the target pathology.[1]
"This confirms what my colleagues and I have been experiencing in our surgical practice," says Dr. Ely Ashkenazi, MD, neurosurgeon and senior spine surgeon at Tel Aviv's Israel Spine Center, where he and his team have used the Dreal in over 200 cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine procedures.
"I've been deeply impressed with the design and function of these devices," adds Scott C. Kutz, MD, neurosurgeon at the Texas Back Institute (Plano, TX). "I don't believe any other device on the market can provide these results. Furthermore, it increases the efficiency and safety with which I can perform multiple, dissimilar spinal procedures. In particular, these devices are extremely helpful in minimally invasive spine surgery a market segment that's expanding relative to standard spine surgery. I expect that use of the Dreal system will grow exponentially over the next few years, in step with the demand for minimally invasive spinal techniques."
Says Charlie Harrison, President of Carevature Medical, Inc. (Marietta, GA): "We've all been waiting for the new line of bayoneted designs, which truly raises the bar for decompression systems. Feedback from surgeons has been superb, and we're confident that this overwhelmingly positive response will be a major step towards the Dreal's rapid expansion in US markets and beyond."
ABOUT CAREVATURE
Carevature Medical Ltd., a privately-held medical device company headquartered in Rehovot, Israel, is dedicated to developing advanced orthopedic surgery solutions. Carevature is currently marketing its flagship line of products for spinal indications, Dreal: the first and only curved device powerful enough to efficiently cut bone, and small enough for use in all sections of the spine. Over 800 patients worldwide have been treated with the Dreal, with outstanding safety and recovery results.
www.carevature.com
[1] Suitability of Administrative Databases for Durotomy Incidence Assessment: Comparison to the Incidence Associated With Bone-Removal Devices, Calculated Using a Systemic Literature Review and Clinical Data. Robert Pflugmacher, Angelo Franzini, Shaked Horovitz, Richard Guyer, Ely Ashkenazi. International Journal of Spine Surgery Aug 2018, 12 (4) 498-509; DOI: 10.14444/5061
Media contact:
Robert W. Cook, VP Marketing & Sales Carevature Medical, Inc. M: +1-260-417-1643 E: [email protected]
SOURCE Carevature Medical Ltd.
Related Links
http://www.carevature.com
Experience the world of the Cabbage Patch Kids including a wide range of toys from Wicked Cool Toys (WCT). The line includes the popular "Cuties," "Adoptimals," "14" Kids" and "Little Sprouts Collectibles"! Wicked Cool Toys' newest crop of sweet deliveries is at retail nationwide. The toy Cabbage Patch Kids are proud of their history and want you to celebrate this huge milestone with them!
Historical Background
Soft dolls have been around for centuries and thanks to the success of the toy Cabbage Patch Kids, they continue to be an important part of our culture today. In 1977, Xavier Roberts, a young art student, combined his talent for clay sculpture and his study of a technique called "needle molding" to create his own original version of soft sculptured babies. His efforts were aided by his experience in quilting, learned from his mother at an early age.
Xavier's creations were called Little People and he offered them for "adoption" at regional craft fairs. Prospective parents were told the babies were found in a Cabbage Patch and they had to take an oath to be a good parent. By 1978, he opened Original Appalachian Artworks, Inc. (OAA). Xavier and a few friends offered his versions of kids and babies through gift stores throughout the country. For added realism the Little People were dressed in used clothing. Each one came with a birth certificate and adoption papers.
In 1982, Original Appalachian Artworks granted a licensing agreement to Coleco Industries. With this licensing agreement came the first use of the trademark "Cabbage Patch Kids". In 1983, Coleco's toy version was introduced to the public and became the best-selling baby doll of all time.
In 2018, OAA continues offering hand stitched one-of-a-kind soft sculpture kids and babies from Cleveland, Georgia. These individual works of art are available exclusively through BabyLand General Hospital and their website.
Experience the World of Cabbage Patch Kids and BabyLand General!
When: Saturday, September 8, 2018
Where: BabyLand General - 300 N.O.K. Dr., Cleveland, GA 30528
Time: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Lots of Free Activities
About Cabbage Patch Kids:
Original Appalachian Artworks, Inc (OAA) is the owner of the Cabbage Patch Kids brand, was founded in 1978 by Xavier Roberts. It is a privately held corporation located in Cleveland, Georgia d/b/a BabyLand General Hospital. Open year round BabyLand General welcomes visitors to the North Georgia mountains at 300 N.O.K. Drive and to its website.
Original Appalachian Artworks Social Media
Website: www.cabbagepatchkids.com.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cabbagepatchkidsfan
Instagram: @cpkusa
Twitter: @cpkusa
About Wicked Cool Toys:
Founded in 2012, Wicked Cool Toys (Wicked Cool Toys LLC/WCT) a leader in innovative play, creates, designs, manufactures and markets a dynamic, fun portfolio of licensed and owned-IP toys for all ages. WCT's portfolio includes global master toy partnerships with Pokemon (ex-Asia), Cabbage Patch Kids, Teddy Ruxpin as well as key licensing deals with Crayola, Nickelodeon, CozyPhones, MasterChef Junior, WWE, Wild Kratts, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and owned-IP Egg Babies, Xtreme Cycle, Cat Paw and My Girl's Dollhouse.
Wicked Cool Toys Social Media
Website: www.wickedcooltoys.com
Facebook: @WickedCoolToys
Instagram: @WickedCoolToys
Twitter: @WickedCoolToys
Media Contacts:
Janis Van Tine, Vice President
GennComm for Wicked Cool Toys
(310) 839-0117 [email protected]
Margaret Hata McLean
BabyLand General Hospital
706-865-2171, Ext. 241 margaret.m[email protected]
SOURCE Wicked Cool Toys
TORONTO, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
CellCube Energy Storage Systems Inc. ("CellCube" or the "Company") (CSE: CUBE) (CSE: CUBE.CN) (OTCQB: CECBF) (Frankfurt: 01X) is pleased to announce that Mr. Bruno Arnold has agreed to join CellCube's board of directors.
Mr. Arnold is an international financier and real estate developer with over 50 years of business experience. He was a founder and is currently Chairman of Euromart Group, one of the largest privately held real estate and investment advisory services companies in Canada. Mr. Arnold is originally from Switzerland and received a degree in Architecture from the Lucerne University of Applied Science. His fluency in German has been a factor in developing a large European client base as an asset manager. He is also a spokesperson and keynote speaker for several real estate industry associations and investment organizations.
"Bruno brings a wealth of international financing experience to CellCube's board of directors," stated Mike Neylan, CEO of Cellcube. "CellCube is a global company and having Bruno's extensive international business experience, especially in Europe, is a huge benefit to our company. We welcome Bruno onboard."
About CellCube:
CellCube Energy Storage Systems Inc. (CellCube) is a Canadian public company listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE: CUBE), (CSE: CUBE.CN), the OTCBB (OTCBB: CECBF), and the Frankfurt Exchange (Frankfurt: 01X) focused on the fast-growing energy storage industry which is driven by the large increase in demand for renewable energy.
CellCube supplies vertically integrated energy storage systems to the power industry and recently acquired the assets of Gildemeister Energy Storage GmbH, now Enerox GmbH, the developer and manufacturer of CellCube energy storage systems. It has also acquired EnerCube Switchgear Systems (formerly Jet Power and Controls Ltd.) and Power Haz Energy Mobile Solutions Inc. (formerly HillCroft Consulting Ltd.) and has invested in an online renewable energy financing platform, Braggawatt Energy Inc.
CellCube develops, manufactures, and markets energy storage systems on the basis of vanadium redox flow technology and has over 130 project installations and a 10 year operational track record. Its highly integrated energy storage system solutions feature 99% residual energy capacity after 11,000 cycles with the focus on larger scale containerized modules. Basic building blocks consist of a 250kW unit family with 4, 6 and 8 hours variation in energy capacity.
This news release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts which address events, results, outcomes or developments that the Company expects to occur; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "aims", "potential", "goal", "objective", "prospective", and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "can", "could" or "should" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Certain material assumptions regarding such forward-looking statements are discussed in this news release and the Company's annual and quarterly management's discussion and analysis filed at http://www.sedar.com . Except as required by the securities disclosure laws and regulations applicable to the Company, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.
Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
For further information, please contact:
Glenda Kelly
CellCube Energy Storage Systems Inc.
Telephone: +1800-882-3213
Email: [email protected]
http://www.cellcubeenergystorage.com
SOURCE CellCube Energy Storage Systems Inc.
"Amy's work revealed a critical gap in our criminal justice system, and she developed an ingenious method for filling it," Charles Bronfman said. "She epitomizes the concern for social justice and entrepreneurial spirit that the Prize recognizes. I am delighted the judges selected Amy."
The Charles Bronfman Prize is an annual award of $100,000 presented to a humanitarian under 50 whose innovative work informed by Jewish values has significantly improved the world. The Prize was founded in 2004 by Ellen Bronfman Hauptman and Stephen Bronfman, with their spouses, Andrew Hauptman and Claudine Blondin Bronfman, to honor their father, Charles Bronfman, on his 70th birthday.
"The Prize is privileged to recognize Amy's groundbreaking work to address injustices experienced in the criminal justice system," said Ellen Bronfman Hauptman on behalf of the founders. "She will make an outstanding addition to an already exceptional group of Prize laureates."
"I am honored to be recognized by the Charles Bronfman Prize, which will go a long way toward bringing to light the importance of open data and criminal justice data collection at the county level," Bach said. "So many lives are impacted by the criminal justice system every day. We need make visible what is otherwise hidden. I am thrilled to see this work in the spotlight."
The U.S. leads the industrialized world in incarceration, with only five percent of the world's population but nearly a quarter of the prison population. Yet, its justice system lacks the fundamental data to determine whether spending is reducing crime, improving fairness or lessening repeat offenders. MFJ's solution is to supply legislators, practitioners, change makers, everyone with the facts.
"The way you treat the vulnerable in society is how that society will be judged," noted Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella of the Supreme Court of Canada on behalf of the Prize's international panel of judges. "Prison impacts some of the most disadvantaged. Amy's initiatives go toward taking care of people who can't take care of themselves, addressing universal issues of poverty, race, indigenous populations, the undereducated."
Bach founded Measures for Justice, based in Rochester, NY, in 2011 as a follow-up to her acclaimed book, Ordinary Injustice: How America Holds Court, which demonstrated how well-intentioned prosecutors, judges, and defense attorneys can become so accustomed to patterns of injustice, they no longer see them. She and her team developed a set of measures from arrest to post-conviction, and MFJ began collecting data to answer some basic questions -- who's in jail, for how long, for what crimes and compared the results across counties.
"Amy's perseverance to create a transparency in criminal justice is really the story of what it takes to challenge human rights abuses everywhere," former US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power declared in a letter supporting her nomination.
Last May MFJ released six states' worth of data online -- available to anyone -- that can be broken down by race and ethnicity, sex, indigent status and age. MFJ is on its way to measuring all 50 states.
"Armed with data, MFJ is combining 21st century technology with age-old Jewish values," said Georgia Levenson Keohane, former executive director of Pershing Square Foundation, which nominated Amy for the Prize and was an early key supporter of MFJ.
Media Contact ; Martin Irom, [email protected], 212-362-5260, 516-567-4348 (c)
SOURCE The Charles Bronfman Prize
Related Links
http://www.thecharlesbronfmanprize.com
Shortly after the discovery of X-rays by Rontgen in 1885 it became obvious that X-rays, a subset of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths in the 0.01 to 10.0 nanometers range, were a very important class of matter with the inherent ability to be a Key Diagnostic Tool for Medical Science. The importance of this class of matter was recognized by the scientific community at large as exemplified by the subsequent host of Nobel Prizes in Physics awarded to researchers in this field including Rontgen for its discovery, the Curies for their early pioneering work in the field, Einstein for his breakthrough Photo Electric Effect, Compton for his contribution on Photon Scattering, and the Braggs for their basic research on X-ray Crystallography.
It also became obvious after the discovery of X-rays that exposure, both short term and long term, to this class of matter could be very detrimental to human health. It is noteworthy that this negative aspect was experienced first-hand by Madame Marie Curie who passed away in her mid-sixties due to Cancer of the Blood brought about by overexposure to X-rays. The dilemma on hand then was to find a way to take advantage of the Diagnostic and Therapeutic Benefits of X-rays while at the same time having in place safeguards to control and restrict overexposure. Hence lead, due to its low cost, Malleable nature, high atomic number, high specific gravity, and ready supply, was selected early on as the material of choice, in essence lead became the standard bearer for attenuation of X-rays and still is, to a large extent, today.
History and Toxicology of lead.
Lead (Pb) is ubiquitous and one of the earliest metals discovered (6000 BC) by the human race. Unique properties include, softness, high malleability, ductility, low melting point, and resistance to corrosion, have resulted in widespread use in different industries like automobiles, paint, ceramics, plastics, attenuation of electromagnetic radiation, ballast, ammunition etc. This in turn has led to manifold rise in the occurrence of free lead in biological systems and the environment.
Lead is regarded as a potent occupational toxin and its toxicological manifestations are well known. The non-biodegradable nature of lead is the prime reason for its prolonged persistence in the environment.
There is no level of lead that appears to be 'safe' and lead toxicity is a particularly insidious hazard with the potential of causing irreversible health effects. It is known to interfere with a number of body functions primarily affecting the central nervous system and It is estimated that in underdeveloped countries that "lead poisoning" was responsible for more than 800,000 deaths in 2013.
"When the negatives outweigh the benefits, it is time to replace and move On." - Anonymous
Be sure to read the next article in this series, Prevention of lead induced toxicity.
Artemis Shielding is a VOB owned and operated radiation shielding manufacturer based in Fort Payne, Alabama. To learn more about Artemis Shielding and their complete range of non-toxic high efficiency shielding products and custom shielding solutions visit www.ArtemisShielding.com.
Contact: Cooper Magli
(256) 979-1136
[email protected]
SOURCE Artemis Shielding
Related Links
http://www.ArtemisShielding.com
TOKYO, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Oita Sumitomo Corporate analysts have suggested that China is considering the option of combining the nation's two wireless carriers.
This is because of the urge to develop 5G Internet and takeover the US to dominate mobile technology. A proposal review is ongoing to look at the possibilities of combining these companies but an agreement is yet to be reached on the matter.
However, the importance of 5G technology cannot be overemphasized, as it has the power to effect a positive revolution on how we use everything ranging from household appliances to cars.
"The most important task to China right now is the achievement of success in 5G and merger is the perfect strategy" said Matthew Andrews, Head of Corporate Trading at Oita Sumitomo Corporate.
As several speculations were being made by the Chinese media, on the possibilities of combining these companies, executives at Unicom and China Telecom have debunked this at their recent earnings briefing last month.
The two companies made it clear that they were not aware of the merger. Even the state owned asset supervision and administration commission together with the ministry of industry and information technology has refused to make a statement on this.
There have been several reasons that have made China government to consider a merger between the two carriers for years. One of which is the escalating tension between China and the US.
"A major effect of this on China, is that the Chinese government would have to sacrifice the advantages of local competition over the speed of 5G adoption by reducing its phone operators to two whereas most markets in the world have three to four." Added Callum Price, Senior Vice President at Oita Sumitomo Corporate.
The Qualcomm Broadcomm deal, which the US opposed would have left a big opportunity for the Chinese government to expand its 5G standard setting process. According to several reports Oita Sumitomo Corporate research analysts commented saying that China holds a narrow lead over the US and South Korea in its readiness in 5G revolution.
This is as a result of President XI Jinping's "Made In China" 2025 agenda to make the country a leader in a range of high tech industries, which has led proactive government policies and industry momentum.
SOURCE Oita Sumitomo Corporate
Photo: File photo
Vancouver Island officials said wolves attacked an killed a family dog on a popular Tofino beach Saturday morning.
The District of Tofino said all indications are that the dog was attacked by wolves.
As signs warning the public of wolf activity in the area go up, dog owners are being asked to keep their animals on leashes at all times and to bring them in at night.
Local conservation group WildSafe BC says wolf attacks on dogs are common, but the predators usually leave humans alone.
Anyone who encounters a wolf should pick up small kids, don't run or crouch, make eye contact and wave your arms and shout at the animal, according to Parks Canada.
If a wolf approaches, people are advised to throw objects like sticks or rocks at it, and if it attacks, hit it in the eyes and nose.
SACRAMENTO, Calif., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The California Hotel & Lodging Association issued the following statement about the Long Beach City Council's decision to draft an ordinance detailing safety precautions for hotel employees.
"The City Council's proposed ordinance makes clear what the hotel industry in Long Beach has been doing and will continue to do: provide panic buttons for our employees, ensuring their overall safety," said Lynn S. Mohrfeld, President and CEO, California Hotel & Lodging Association. "The Council's well-thought-out decision will address all the safety concerns in Measure WW, be implemented more quickly and will apply to all hotels, without the burdensome and expensive work rules."
About the California Hotel & Lodging Association (CH&LA)
The California Hotel & Lodging Association (CH&LA) is the largest state lodging industry association in the nation and a Partner State Association of the American Hotel & Lodging Association. Its members include all segments of the lodging industry including the California Association of Boutique & Breakfast Inns (CABBI) California's largest association of professional innkeepers and certified bed and breakfast inns. CH&LA is the leading resource for communicating and protecting the rights and interests of the California lodging industry. CH&LA was established in 1893. CH&LA is on the web at www.calodging.com.
Contact: Taylor Collison
916.554.2677
SOURCE California Hotel & Lodging Association
Related Links
http://www.calodging.com
Research into legal cannabis use and public awareness come at a pivotal time
SAINT JOHN, NB and FREDERICTON, NB, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by Civilized and the University of New Brunswick (UNB) will guide their shared interests in cannabis research and public awareness.
Civilized, a premium media and lifestyle brand, will facilitate research and networking opportunities between UNB's groundbreaking Health Research Chair in Cannabis, only the second position of its kind in the world, and the global cannabis community.
"Because of our unique relationships with industry, we're a trusted connector for many stakeholders," says Derek Riedle, Publisher of Civilized. "We're happy to invite our audience to share their experiences and perceptions with the academic community and contribute to a growing body of research."
Civilized will help UNB by encouraging its network of global researchers, industry leaders and its digital audience to support research initiatives. The media company will also assist by promoting research results once available in an easily understood, relatable way for the public. Civilized has a North American audience of more than 3 million monthly visitors.
The media brand is undertaking this partnership with UNB as part of its commitment to social responsibility. As legalization of adult-use cannabis becomes a reality in more places around the world, raising public awareness about responsible cannabis consumption is a priority for Civilized. The 2018 Cannabis Culture Poll (produced in partnership by Civilized and PBS Research) indicates more public awareness is required around cannabis use and impaired driving, for instance, especially given the changing legalization landscape across North America.
"We're excited to be partnering with Civilized as we explore research opportunities into the health impacts of cannabis," says Dr. David MaGee, Vice President of Research at UNB. "Our new collaboration will facilitate communication and networking within this fast-growing sector."
The objective of the MOU is to establish a relationship between Civilized and UNB to develop networking and funding opportunities to support research. It may also include exchanging non-confidential materials, publications and academic information, the promotion of joint research and joint organization of meetings and workshops.
About Civilized Worldwide Inc.:
Founded in 2015, with offices in New Brunswick and California, Civilized is a premium media and lifestyle brand that embraces and highlights modern cannabis culture, reflecting the millions of adults who choose to enjoy cannabis as part of a balanced lifestyle, but don't define themselves by it. Reaching more than 3 million visitors per month, North America-wide, Civilized produces engaging content for and about people who enjoy cannabis responsibly. Other verticals include Civilized Studios, a video network available to 100+ million viewers that fills the void of broadcast quality video and original series in the cannabis space, and Civilized Events, exclusive branded experiences for both the cannabis industry and consumers from intimate dinner parties to large-scale events like the World Cannabis Congress. For more information, visit: civilized.life.
About the University of New Brunswick:
The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is Canada's oldest English-language university. Founded in 1785, the multi-campus institution has a rich history and a dynamic focus on innovation, experiential learning and entrepreneurship. UNB has more than 10,500 students from nearly 100 countries while several thousand more take UNB courses online and at partner institutions around the world. For more information, visit: unb.ca.
SOURCE Civilized Worldwide Inc. (Civilized)
Related Links
https://www.civilized.life/
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Cloud Foundry Foundation, home of a family of open source projects including Cloud Foundry Application Runtime, Cloud Foundry Container Runtime and Cloud Foundry BOSH, announced today additional keynote stage participants at the annual European Summit at the Congress Center in Basel, Switzerland, October 10-11, 2018. Standard registration for the event ends this Friday, September 7, before price increases by 176 euros.
The lineup now includes:
Enes Yildirim , Boeing
, Boeing Brian Roche , Cognizant
, Cognizant Daniela Rabiser, Dynatrace
Nima Kaviani and Swetha Repakula , IBM
and , IBM Shanfan Huang, Dieu Cao and Chisa Nwabara , Pivotal
and , Pivotal Tim Gerlach , SAP
, SAP Egon Steinkasserer, Swisscom
Christian Bach , Swiss Re
, Swiss Re Miki Mokrysz, Government Digital Service, UK Civil Service
More than 1,000 enterprise developers, architects, engineers and executives from around the world are expected to attend the Basel Summit. Attendees will learn about Cloud Foundry from those who build and use it every day. They will join other developers, end users and CIOs to gain first-hand access to Cloud Foundry roadmaps, training and tutorials, and to see how others are using Cloud Foundry to support continuous innovation and application portability.
"These new additions to the keynote stage broaden the lineup to include end users talking about their journey, partner discussions, and live demos. We've also added new track topics and offer the only available in-person Cloud Foundry developer certification," said Abby Kearns, Executive Director, Cloud Foundry Foundation. "Platinum sponsors Dynatrace, Pivotal, SAP, and Swisscom are helping ensure we bring the very best to our Cloud Foundry community in Europe."
Newly added sessions in tracks:
Ecosystems
Operations & Security
Experiments & Extensions
Wild Card
Cloud Foundry Foundation will carry on the tradition of hosting a diversity event at Basel Summit. There is one sponsorship remaining for the Diversity Luncheon. The sponsorship will directly support The Chasing Grace Project, with the total amount going towards production of the series. Google and IBM have sponsored Diversity Luncheon itself, which will include a screening of an episode from the docuseries The Chasing Grace Project, written and directed by Jennifer Cloer, co-founder of Wicked Flicks Productions.
There will also be a free Hackathon for developers with prizes awarded to the top three teams and first place winners announced on-stage during Thursday morning keynotes. The 2018 Boston Summit winning Hackathon team will be featured in the Experiments track.
Cloud Foundry is an open source technology backed by the largest technology companies in the world, including Dell EMC, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Pivotal, SAP and SUSE, and is being used in production by leaders in manufacturing, telecommunications and financial services. Only Cloud Foundry delivers the velocity needed to continuously deliver apps at the speed of business. Cloud Foundry's container-based architecture runs apps in any language on your choice of cloud Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure, OpenStack, VMware vSphere, and more. With a robust services ecosystem and simple integration with existing technologies, Cloud Foundry is the modern standard for mission critical apps for global organizations.
About Cloud Foundry Foundation
The Cloud Foundry Foundation is an independent non-profit open source organization formed to sustain the development, promotion and adoption of Cloud Foundry as the industry standard for delivering the best developer experiences to companies of all sizes. The Foundation projects include Cloud Foundry Application Runtime, Cloud Foundry Container Runtime, BOSH, Open Service Broker API, Abacus, CF-Local, CredHub, ServiceFabrik, Stratos and more. Cloud Foundry makes it faster and easier to build, test, deploy and scale applications, and is used by more than half the Fortune 500, representing nearly $15 trillion in combined revenue. Cloud Foundry is hosted by The Linux Foundation and is an Apache 2.0 licensed project available on Github: https://github.com/cloudfoundry. To learn more, visit: http://www.cloudfoundry.org.
Contact:
Caitlyn O'Connell
Cloud Foundry Foundation
[email protected]
SOURCE Cloud Foundry Foundation
Related Links
http://www.cloudfoundry.org
CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Congresswoman Grace Napolitano (CA-32) presented a Certificate of Congressional Recognition to Gordon Brush President and CEO, Ken Rakusin at a ceremony at the Company's 183,000 square foot manufacturing complex on Thursday, August 30, 2018.
"I am honored and humbled to accept this award from Congresswoman Napolitano," said Rakusin. "We truly appreciate that the Congresswoman shares our commitment to manufacturing in the United States and our commitment to remain in the greater Los Angeles area. Gordon Brush is Proud To Be An American Manufacturer and has been steadfast in its commitment to manufacturing in the United States even under competitive threats.
"All of this could not have been possible without my valued, long-tenured, skilled employees. I have over 150 employees, plus their families, for who I am responsible," adds Rakusin.
"Congratulations to Gordon Brush for receiving Congressional Recognition for his leadership at Gordon Brush, a proud American business," Napolitano said. "We salute his ongoing commitment to manufacturing products in the San Gabriel Valley, which supports local jobs and benefits other businesses in our region and beyond. This well-deserved honor recognizes his extraordinary efforts to promote American-made goods and preserve the economic health of our nation."
Mr. Rakusin presented the Congresswoman with a book, "MADE in USA," an elegant tribute to 12 companies that are proud to build and buy AMERICAN. "The Congresswoman and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer are forever immortalized in the history of the Company with a picture in the Gordon Brush chapter," Rakusin told the Congresswoman.
Gordon Brush Mfg. Co., Inc., is an ISO 9001:2015 certified American manufacturer of brooms and brushes. Established in 1951, Gordon Brush includes two brands whose origin dates back to 1855 and 1897. The Company manufactures the FootMate System and over 17,000 standard and custom brushes, selling to a multitude of industries including: janitorial, medical, electronics, manufacturing, military, aerospace, and pharmaceutical in its state-of-the-art, 183,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility in the City of Industry, Calif.
Gordon Brush has made brushes for the United States Army to clean the main gun on the Abrams tanks, saving the Department of Defense over $1.5 billion. The Company also has made brushes that were used on the space shuttle, the lunar module, and brushes to clean the guidance system and guns on the Apache helicopter.
Learn more about the Company at: https://www.gordonbrush.com/.
Media Contact:
Alan Schechter
323-450-2748
[email protected]
*PHOTO link for media: Send2Press.com/300dpi/18-0905s2p-gbrush-award-300dpi.jpg
*Photo Caption: (Left to Right) Congresswoman Grace Napolitano (CA-32); Ken Rakusin, President & CEO, Gordon Brush Mfg. Co., Inc. during presentation ceremony in the factory lunchroom.
This release was issued through Send2Press, a unit of Neotrope. For more information, visit Send2Press Newswire at https://www.Send2Press.com.
SOURCE Gordon Brush Mfg. Co., Inc.
Related Links
https://www.gordonbrush.com
WASHINGTON, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- As data breach incidents proliferate, a new AARP survey finds that an alarming number of people have failed to take the basic precautions against identity fraud. In response, the AARP Fraud Watch Network today launched a campaign to raise awareness of identity theft risks and educate consumers on how to enhance the safety of their personal information.
Reports of data breaches have become commonplace -- from Equifax one year ago, to Target, to Uber, to Home Depot. According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse there have been more than 2,000 data breaches since 2015, impacting over 7 billion records. And an eye-opening cover story in the September edition of the AARP Bulletin explains how some of this hacked personal information can end up for sale on the Dark Web.
While some security experts say almost all consumers have likely been affected in some manner by a data breach, AARP's survey shows that many put themselves in even higher jeopardy due to their risky online behavior:
Password Re-use - Nearly half (48 percent) of adults have used the same password for more than one online account.
- Nearly half (48 percent) of adults have used the same password for more than one online account. Bank Account Access - Only four in 10 (43 percent) respondents reported having online access to all of their bank accounts.
- Only four in 10 (43 percent) respondents reported having online access to all of their bank accounts. Credit Report - About half of adults (47 percent) reported that they have experienced fraudulent charges on their credit or debit card, yet very few (14 percent) have ordered a security freeze on their credit report.
- About half of adults (47 percent) reported that they have experienced fraudulent charges on their credit or debit card, yet very few (14 percent) have ordered a security freeze on their credit report. Digital ID Know-How - Seven of 10 adults (73 percent) failed a quiz testing their "digital identity IQ".
"Our survey results indicate that a lot of people may feel overwhelmed, and have just given up," said AARP's lead fraud researcher, Douglas Shadel, Ph.D. "Two-thirds of those surveyed said that given the number of data breaches that have occurred, they think it is inevitable that criminals will be able to exploit their credit at some point. But we are emphasizing that there are powerful things you can do to make sure that stolen data can't be used against you."
The AARP Fraud Watch Network campaign recommends people take these three steps to protect their digital identity:
Order a Freeze - Put a security freeze in place with the three credit reporting bureaus so that no one can access your credit file or open a new credit account with your information. For a guide to the process, visit www.aarp.org/CreditFreeze. Traditionally there has been a fee for placing a freeze on your credit report, but beginning later this month the process is free thanks to legislation passed by Congress in May.
- Put a security freeze in place with the three credit reporting bureaus so that no one can access your credit file or open a new credit account with your information. For a guide to the process, visit www.aarp.org/CreditFreeze. Traditionally there has been a fee for placing a freeze on your credit report, but beginning later this month the process is free thanks to legislation passed by Congress in May. Set up Digital Access - Set up online access to all of your financial accounts bank accounts, credit cards, 401(k)s, etc. -- and regularly monitor the accounts so you can stay up-to-date on all transactions and recognize any fraudulent activity that may occur.
- Set up online access to all of your financial accounts bank accounts, credit cards, 401(k)s, etc. -- and regularly monitor the accounts so you can stay up-to-date on all transactions and recognize any fraudulent activity that may occur. Use Separate Passwords - Make sure you use unique passwords for each of your online accounts. That way, if one account is hacked, it does not put your other accounts at risk. A good way to manage all of those unique passwords is to use a digital password manager. These services keep all your passwords secure and help you create different, strong passwords for each of your online accounts.
AARP's digital identity theft education and awareness campaign consists of online advertising, social media content, online video, recommended tips for protecting yourself, and other assets that consumers can access at www.aarp.org/FraudWatchNetwork.
AARP's Digital Identity IQ Quiz, consisting of eight true-or-false questions, is also available online. Among the quiz results from AARP's recent polling:
Only one-third of respondents (29 percent) were aware that a fraud alert will not prevent their credit file from being shared with potential creditors. A fraud alert does not block potential new credit, but places a comment on your history so that creditors will contact you prior to opening a new account.
Just half of respondents (49 percent) know that purchasing ID theft monitoring services does not prevent identity thieves from stealing your identity. Most ID theft monitoring services will notify individuals if someone is attempting to open new credit in their name, however it won't prevent it from happening.
Only about half (48 percent) of respondents know that when it comes to protecting yourself from fraud, a debit card is not as safe as a credit card. Consumers are responsible for no more than $50 of fraudulent charges on a credit card; however, if money is stolen from a bank account through a debit card, there are no protections on that money.
The AARP Fraud Watch Network launched in 2013 as a free resource for people of all ages. Consumers may sign up for "Watchdog Alert" emails that deliver information about scams, or call a free helpline at 877-908-3360 to speak with volunteers trained in fraud counseling. The Fraud Watch Network website provides information about fraud and scams, prevention tips from experts, an interactive scam-tracking map, fun educational quizzes, and video presentations featuring Fraud Watch Network Ambassador Frank Abagnale.
Abagnale, the renowned fraud expert whose personal story was depicted in the hit movie "Catch Me If You Can," is also host of an AARP weekly podcast series, "The Perfect Scam," that launched earlier this year.
Survey Methodology
In July 2018, AARP engaged the GfK Group to conduct a quantitative research study among U.S. residents ages 18 and older. GfK sampled households from its KnowledgePanel, a probability-based web panel designed to be representative of the United States. From the 3,592 panel members sampled for the national study, 2,076 completed the survey and 2,024 were eligible for the study, yielding a maximum statistical error of 2.3 percentage points at the 95% level of confidence. The survey was administered, in English and Spanish, from July 6, 2018 through July 23, 2018. The average length of the survey was 13.5 minutes. For more detail on the methodology, see the survey report, "Up for Grabs: Taking Charge of Your Digital Identity."
About AARP
AARP is the nation's largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering people 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. With a nationwide presence and nearly 38 million members, AARP strengthens communities and advocates for what matters most to families: health security, financial stability and personal fulfillment. AARP also produces the nation's largest circulation publications: AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin. To learn more, visit www.aarp.org or follow @AARP and @AARPadvocates on social media.
SOURCE AARP
Related Links
http://www.aarp.org
STAMFORD, Conn., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Deloitte Foundation is proud to sponsor the American Accounting Association (AAA)/J. Michael and Mary Anne Cook/Deloitte Foundation Prize, AAA/Deloitte Foundation Wildman Medal, and American Taxation Association (ATA) Teaching Innovation Award in support of excellence in teaching and research. These awards were presented at the AAA Annual Meeting held Aug. 4-8 in Washington, D.C.
"Talent is the lifeblood of the audit and accounting profession. It is imperative for educators to have the applicable tools to incorporate into their curricula that mirror today's rapidly evolving accounting and auditing landscape, as advanced technologies transform our profession," remarked Joe Ucuzoglu, chairman and CEO of Deloitte & Touche LLP and panelist for the session, "Improving the Relevance of Accounting Research." "Our participation, and support of teaching and academic research excellence at this year's AAA Annual Meeting reflects the importance of developing aspiring future leaders and those charged with teaching those students."
Professors Robert D. Allen (The University of Utah), Marsha M. Huber (Youngstown State University), and Carolyn B. Hughes (Asheville Buncombe Technical Community College) received the 2018 AAA/J. Michael and Mary Anne Cook/Deloitte Foundation Prize. Named for former Deloitte Chairman and CEO and former Deloitte Foundation Chairman, J. Michael Cook and his wife, the award recognizes three individuals (one each in the categories of graduate, undergraduate and two-year degree programs) who consistently demonstrate the attributes of a superior teacher in the discipline of accounting. Each prize consists of a $25,000 cash award, a silver medallion, and an award certificate.
Professor Susan Scholz (University of Kansas) received the 2018 AAA/Deloitte Foundation Wildman Medal in recognition for her research paper, "Financial Restatement Trends in the United States: 2003-2012," which was published by the Center for Audit Quality in July 2014. The Wildman Medal is awarded to an author (or co-authors) whose work is judged likely to make a highly significant contribution to the practice of public accounting. The recipient(s) receive a medal and a $5,000 cash award to help recognize and support exceptional research that advances both the theory and practice of accounting.
Professors Susan Convery, Severin Grabski and Edmund Outslay (Michigan State University) received this year's ATA Teaching Innovation Award for their submission, "Visualizing the Forest for the Trees: Arbor Corporation's Country-by-Country Reporting." The plaque and a $5,000 cash award are designed to encourage tax professors to develop new teaching methods that stimulate students' critical thinking skills and enhance the overall learning experience.
About the Deloitte Foundation
The Deloitte Foundation, founded in 1928, is a not-for-profit organization that supports education in the U.S. through a variety of initiatives that help develop the talent of the future and their influencers and promote excellence in teaching, research and curriculum innovation. The Foundation sponsors an array of national programs relevant to a variety of professional services, benefiting middle/high school students, undergraduates, graduate students and educators. Learn more about the Deloitte Foundation.
About the American Accounting Association
The American Accounting Association is the largest community of accountants in academia. Founded in 1916, the organization has a rich and reputable history built on leading-edge research and publications. The diversity of the organization's membership creates a fertile environment for collaboration and innovation. Collectively, the organization shapes the future of accounting through teaching, research, and a powerful network, ensuring its position as thought leaders in accounting. For more information about the AAA, please visit http://aaahq.org.
About Deloitte
Deloitte provides industry-leading audit, consulting, tax and advisory services to many of the world's most admired brands, including more than 85 percent of the Fortune 500 and more than 6,000 private and middle market companies. Our people work across more than 20 industry sectors to make an impact that matters delivering measurable and lasting results that help reinforce public trust in our capital markets, inspire clients to see challenges as opportunities to transform and thrive, and help lead the way toward a stronger economy and a healthy society. Deloitte is proud to be part of the largest global professional services network serving our clients in the markets that are most important to them.
Contact
Wendy Berk
Public Relations
Deloitte Services LP
+1 617 922 1148
[email protected]
Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the "Deloitte" name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.
SOURCE Deloitte Foundation
Related Links
https://www.deloitte.com/about
NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Dialyze Direct, LLC, a leading provider of staff-assisted home hemodialysis services in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) with an innovative model of care focused on geriatric dialysis patients, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Affiliated Dialysis Centers, LLC, an established dialysis provider in the Midwest.
Affiliated Dialysis Centers is an independent, pioneering, regional provider of dialysis services, established in 2002. Based in Illinois, Affiliated provides outpatient clinic dialysis, home dialysis and SNF dialysis services through its associated entities and currently services more than 400 patients.
This acquisition will elevate Affiliated's established and well-regarded SNF dialysis business to Dialyze Direct's unique outcome-driven model, which provides a comprehensive turn-key solution for SNF customers, addressing the needs of all stakeholders involved in the care for the geriatric dialysis population, including patients, SNFs, hospitals and payors.
This strategic combination is being effected during the changing tides in the U.S. healthcare industry, which is moving toward value-based care in an effort to reduce costs and hospitalizations while improving outcomes. The SNF industry is undergoing a similar metamorphosis as it prepares for CMS's recently announced Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM), which ties SNF reimbursements to patient mix with higher reimbursement rates for improved outcomes in medically complex patients. Dialyze Direct's unique model of care, which improves the patient's quality of care while reducing costs and hospitalizations, is perfectly aligned with these new value-based care priorities and places Dialyze Direct and its SNF customers in an ideal position to take advantage of the incentives provided by the new payment models.
The acquisition, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close by December 31, 2018.
"Dialyze Direct has succeeded in developing a model that provides the highest caliber of care to the most challenging and costly patient demographic. I believe that our sensitivity to ensuring patient dignity and our distinct model of innovative and compassionate care have been redefining both expectations and standards for on-site dialysis services and will become the standard for geriatric dialysis to SNF patients across the nation," said Henry Kauftheil, Chairman of Dialyze Direct.
"We are very pleased that Affiliated contacted us with this strategic opportunity and we believe that their enviable reputation and market leadership, as well as their ongoing commitment to ensuring a consistently superior patient experience make them an ideal partner as we continue to expand the Dialyze Direct footprint in the Midwest," said Mr. Kauftheil. "Our shared commitment to providing unprecedented procedural quality and positive outcomes will be bolstered by the core management and key positions at Affiliated, which are filled by healthcare & operations professionals with extensive experience in the dialysis arena."
"Affiliated is a patient-focused provider that has operated in the Illinois SNF dialysis market for many years, and we believe Dialyze Direct is the right company to take our patient care model to the next level in order to meet the needs of today's market" added Steve Bucher, Chairman of Affiliated Dialysis Centers. "We are excited to bring the innovative Dialyze Direct model to our patients and SNF customers and are confident that they will be provided with the highest caliber of care and service going forward. For us and for the ever-expanding number of patients in need of our services, nothing is more important."
About Dialyze Direct
Dialyze Direct LLC provides innovative and compassionate staff-assisted home hemodialysis services to the geriatric patients residing in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). Dialyze Direct's core mission is to improve the dignity and quality of life of geriatric patients with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), while significantly reducing the overall costs of these patients to the healthcare system. Dialyze Direct delivers dialysis care with a gentler form of treatment built around more frequent dialysis sessions (pursuant to a physician's order) using the NxStage System One with modified treatment protocols. Dialyze Direct created a unique model of care combining direct oversight with enhanced and proprietary protocols and procedures specifically designed for geriatric ESRD patients in SNFs, through which Dialyze Direct has been able to achieve significantly improved outcomes in this population segment while reducing overall payor costs by eliminating transportation, minimizing re-hospitalizations, and improving the overall health of patients. Dialyze Direct currently provides services in Florida, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
About Affiliated Dialysis Centers
Affiliated Dialysis Centers is an Illinois-based dialysis provider, who was an early endorser of dialysis care in the SNF venue and has been a pioneer in the initial development of this care model. Thousands of ESRD patients' lives have been improved by being able to receive this life-sustaining care on-site in the SNF setting. ADC has provided care in Illinois and Ohio and looks forward to Dialyze Direct taking their approach to the next level and bringing it to a National scope.
For Inquiries, contact: [email protected]
SOURCE Dialyze Direct
NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Columbus Citizens Foundation today announced Margaret I. Cuomo, M.D., President of the Italian Language Foundation; Matilda Raffa Cuomo, Chairperson of NYS Mentoring Program; and Donna Rapaccioli, Ph.D., Dean of the Gabelli School of Business, Fordham University, as honorees of the 2018 Columbus Celebration. They will join First Data President, Guy Chiarello, who was previously announced as 2018 Grand Marshal.
Marian Pardo, President of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, said of the announcement: "In 2018, we made the decision to have the Parade focus on the importance of education to Italian Americans. Our three Honorees collectively have moved mountains in the area of education with achievements that include the support and growth of AP Italian, the creation of mentoring opportunities across New York State, and the development of the business leaders of tomorrow. We are so proud to honor these incredible leaders in education."
Margaret I. Cuomo, M.D. serves as the President of the Italian Language Foundation. Dr. Cuomo is a key advocate for the creation and growth of the AP Italian Language and Culture exam on a national level. She is being honored alongside her mother, Matilda Raffa Cuomo, New York State's beloved former First Lady. Mrs. Matilda Cuomo is currently active in the state as the Chairperson for the NYS Mentoring Program.
"It is a special honor for us to be recognized by the prestigious Columbus Citizens Foundation for the work we have both done to enrich the lives of young people," noted Dr. Cuomo. "We are so thankful to the Columbus Citizens Foundation for this award, and we look forward to celebrating 2018's theme of education as we join the Grand Marshal in this year's parade."
Donna Rapaccioli, Ph.D., dean of the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University, leads a school where students learn that all business leaders are responsible for contributing more to the world than just profit. The Gabelli School challenges them to think about how they can use business approaches to add to the greater good, perhaps even helping to solve large-scale social problems.
On being named a 2018 Honoree, Dr. Rapaccioli had this to say: "As an Italian American, I learned from my parents and grandparents that education is the key to lasting progress. I hope to instill that belief in students of all backgrounds, along with an understanding of the value of service. These are ideals that I am proud to hold in common with the Columbus Citizens Foundation."
The annual Columbus Day Parade, organized by the Columbus Citizens Foundation, is the world's largest celebration of Italian-American heritage and culture in the United States.
The Columbus Day Parade was first started in 1929 when New York City businessman and Italian immigrant Generoso Pope led a parade from East Harlem to Columbus Circle and has since become an ongoing celebration of the contributions of Italians and Italian-Americans to the United States. The theme of this year's parade is "Education: Cornerstone of the Italian-American Experience," and will celebrate students, teachers and institutions of learning in a parade filled with a variety of cultural and musical groups.
In addition to planning the Columbus Day Parade, the Columbus Citizens Foundation currently provides over 700 scholarships at elementary, high school and college levels to Italian-American students who have academic ability but lack financial means.
The Columbus Day Parade begins at 11:30 a.m. EST on Monday, October 8 and will air live locally on WABC-7 from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST. For more information on the Parade, please visit columbuscitizens.org.
MORE ABOUT THE COLUMBUS CITIZENS FOUNDATION
The Columbus Citizens Foundation is a non-profit organization in New York City committed to fostering an appreciation of Italian-American heritage and achievement. The Foundation, through a broad range of philanthropic and cultural activities, provides opportunities for advancement to deserving Italian-American students through various scholarship and grant programs. The Foundation organizes New York City's annual Columbus Celebration and Columbus Day Parade, which has celebrated Italian-American heritage on New York's Fifth Avenue since 1929. For more information, contact [email protected].
MORE ABOUT MARGARET I. CUOMO, M.D.
In addition to her work as President of the Italian Language Foundation, Dr. Cuomo is the author of A World Without Cancer : The Making of a New Cure and the Real Promise of Prevention , published by Rodale in 2012. She speaks nationally on disease prevention and advocates for cancer prevention through her interactions with policymakers and legislators. Dr. Cuomo is married to Howard Maier, and is the proud mother of Marianna Cuomo Maier, Christina Cuomo Diver, Esq., married to Paul Diver, Ph.D., and the grandmother of Mario Cuomo Diver.
MORE ABOUT MATILDA RAFFA CUOMO
Matilda Raffa Cuomo is the Chair of the NYS Mentoring Program, and at 87, remains a teacher dedicated to public service, as evidenced by her longstanding role as a respected and distinguished advocate on behalf of women, children, and families. As First Lady of New York State (1983-1995), she diligently worked with state and elected officials and community leaders to establish programs to prevent child abuse, strengthen families, promote adoption for foster care children, and improve school absenteeism and retention. Mrs. Cuomo is the proud mother of five children, 14 grandchildren, including one grandson named Mario Nicholas Cuomo, and one great-grandson named Mario Cuomo Diver.
MORE ABOUT DONNA RAPACCIOLI, Ph.D.
Dr. Donna Rapaccioli is Dean of the Gabelli School of Business and holds the rank of University Professor. Dr. Rapaccioli serves on the Board of Trustees of Emmanuel College in Boston and the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) Board, and is a Director on the State Street Global Advisors Mutual Fund Board. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Fordham University's London Centre, the Steering Committee for Fordham's Consortium for Social Justice, and the Board of Advisors of the Fordham Corporate Law Center.
CONTACT:
Jefferson Wilson
Director of Marketing & Communications
Columbus Citizens Foundation
Phone: (212) 249-9923 x242
Fax: (212) 737-4413
[email protected]
www.columbuscitizens.org
SOURCE Columbus Citizens Foundation
Related Links
http://www.columbuscitizensfd.org
DALLAS, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The EnLink Midstream companies (EnLink), EnLink Midstream, LLC (NYSE: ENLC), the General Partner, and EnLink Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE: ENLK), the Master Limited Partnership, announced today that representatives of EnLink will attend and meet with investors at the following conferences:
Stifel Permian Supply Chain Bus Tour in Midland on Tuesday, September 11
Chickasaw Capital MLP 2018 Investor Conference in Houston on Wednesday, September 12
A copy of EnLink's latest operations report is available on the Investors' page of www.EnLink.com.
About the EnLink Midstream Companies
EnLink provides integrated midstream services across natural gas, crude oil, condensate, and NGL commodities. EnLink operates in several top U.S. basins and is strategically focused on the core growth areas of the Permian's Midland and Delaware basins, Oklahoma's Midcontinent, and Louisiana's Gulf Coast. Headquartered in Dallas, EnLink is publicly traded through EnLink Midstream, LLC (NYSE: ENLC), the General Partner, and EnLink Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE: ENLK), the Master Limited Partnership. Visit www.EnLink.com for more information on how EnLink connects energy to life.
Investor Relations: Kate Walsh, Vice President of Investor Relations, 214-721-9696, [email protected]
Media Relations: Jill McMillan, Vice President of Public & Industry Affairs, 214-721-9271, [email protected]
SOURCE EnLink Midstream
Related Links
http://www.enlink.com
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The ExCapsa Group has hired innovative visionary Rob Greer as president of its Newport Beach, California-based financial services company. Mr. Greer is a well-known and respected financial executive, formerly of Capstone Partners Financial and Insurance Services, LLC. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the position.
The ExCapsa Group financing practice leverages an insider's view of capital markets and corporate finance to build a superior capital structure for entrepreneurs and existing business owners alike. With a combination of approaches, the firm utilizes both merchant banking and investment models to manage clients' private equity and raise capital for promising ventures.
A Proven Track Record
Mr. Greer has a proven track record, with 15 years of successful projects in his portfolio. His expertise in personal and corporate consulting has gained him recognition as a respected advisor and industry thought-leader. Rob's talents and strengths are now part of ExCapsa Group's arsenal. Mr. Greer's tenacity and drive are now focused on ensuring that ExCapsa relationships learn how to maximize their investment strategy while minimizing unnecessary risks.
Mr. Greer's 15 years as an advisor to executives and privately held entities make him uniquely qualified for the position. "We're bringing the resources we've developed at the Innovative Direct Resource Group (IRDG) into the ExCapsa framework to expand the capabilities our clients have been asking for," Greer said. "The synergy of subject matter experts within the IDRG and the track record of ExCapsa creates a business model that dramatically improves the path to success for clients in almost any industry." Greer's talent for knowing which ventures will be successful and how to support them via business development channels, combined with the research and capital resources available at ExCapsa Group will benefit their VC and growth-oriented clients.
Carrying Forward a Legacy of Excellence
To date, the ExCapsa Group of companies has established business models that optimize the way capital is raised for new projects, and these models work across a myriad of industries. Best of all, entrepreneurial thinkers can now get funding not just for new companies but also for great ideas that can move existing companies to the next level of growth.
The Complexity Continuum
ExCapsa is modeled on the idea of a "Complexity Continuum" that integrates technology, regulation, compliance, recruitment, operational efficiency, and cost control under common themes that lead to seamless best practices. In fact, ExCapsa can be translated as "out of the box thinking", an idea that coincides with Mr. Greer's capabilities and experience.
"We're excited to lead this new venture for ExCapsa Group," Rob said. "We are bringing cutting edge ideas and fresh perspectives that ExCapsa Group is known for, to the industry I have called home my entire career."
This is exactly the agile and creative approach needed to take ExCapsa to the next level to become an early-to-market powerhouse, differentiated from competitors by a consistent focus and vision.
Greer's fifteen years in personal and corporate consulting offer many perks to his new family of clients, who will benefit from his wealth of knowledge, experience and proprietary resources. Clients can count on his expertise and dedication to navigate the obstacles hindering their profitability.
What ExCapsa Can Do for Your Firm or Venture
The combination of the successful raising of capital and establishment of key business concepts sourced by ExCapsa and its Managing Partner, Wade Diebner, plus the unique abilities Mr. Greer provides in helping executives, business owners, and key decision makers, have already proven beneficial.
No matter how obscure or significant the challenges corporate clients face, ExCapsa Financial has the comprehensive business model that enables operators, owners, investors, and advisors to realize positive results.
About ExCapsa
ExCapsa Financial is a new division of ExCapsa Group. Founder Wade Diebner, a highly accomplished executive with significant experience in the capital markets and financial services area, enjoys working with entrepreneurs to help steer them toward successful start-ups and healthy growth by providing capital and advisory.
By launching a hybrid merchant bank, and conducting the necessary online research, Wade's team built a comprehensive brand to help commerce and private investors find capital with:
Boutique investment banks
Angel investors
Dedicated brokers
Trust your new venture idea for a startup or existing firm to ExCapsa and Rob Greer's excellence and experience.
SOURCE ExCapsa Group
Related Links
excapsagroup.com
Photo: CTV
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be in Edmonton today, where he'll face questions about his government's plans for the beleaguered Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
The prime minister's office says Trudeau will meet with Premier Rachel Notley this afternoon. A spokeswoman for Notley says the meeting will be about the pipeline, and that the premier hopes to discuss possible paths forward for the controversial project.
The Federal Court of Appeal last week reversed a cabinet decision to allow construction to go ahead, ruling there was not enough consultation with Indigenous people and that the National Energy Board didn't properly consider the impact of an increase in oil tanker traffic.
After last week's court decision, Notley announced she was pulling Alberta out of the federal climate plan until Ottawa gets the expansion back on track. She also demanded that Trudeau appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada and hold an emergency session of Parliament on the issue.
Trudeau has said Ottawa remains committed to getting the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion built.
The project would triple the bitumen-carrying capacity of the existing pipeline from the Edmonton area and Metro Vancouver.
Minutes after the court ruling was released on Friday, Kinder Morgan shareholders approved the sale of the existing pipeline and other assets to the federal government for $4.5 billion. The purchase closed on Friday, making the federal government wholly responsible for what happens next.
During his visit to the Alberta capital, Trudeau will also tour several facilities and a cultural society with Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi, who is an Edmonton MP. The prime minister will give a speech at a Liberal fundraising event in the evening.
LONDON, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
Adding over 550 manufacturing and engineering customers and broadening technical capability in this sector
Excitech, the UK leader in technology and services for the construction sector, today announced it has acquired Autodesk reseller and mechanical design specialists Micro Concepts.
The acquisition, which increases Excitech's customer base by over 550 customers, strengthens its position in the manufacturing and engineering industries, increasing its technical resources and broadening its offering for these customers.
Micro Concepts Ltd was formed in 1989 by a team of experienced engineering consultants to provide the latest computer-aided solutions to the mechanical design industries.
Peter Hurst, Managing Director explained "As the Autodesk reseller market has become increasingly competitive, with smaller resellers like ourselves coming under continued margin pressures, we became concerned that longer term we wouldn't be able to continue to deliver the specialised resources and solutions that our customers across the UK need. We felt the best option to ensure our customers continued to enjoy high levels of service was to join forces with a larger reseller. We began discussions with Excitech as they have a long history servicing the manufacturing, engineering and construction industries, they are an Autodesk platinum partner, and both organisations place a premium on building long lasting partnerships with their customers. This, combined with their unrivalled expertise and knowledge in the CAD market, made them the obvious choice."
Founded in 1985, Excitech employs over 130 people, generating revenues in excess of 31m. Based in Enfield (North London), with additional training facilities in London and Leeds, they were one of the first partners of Autodesk in the UK and are an Autodesk Authorised Training Centre (ATC).
Excitech has extensive knowledge and expertise around the Autodesk portfolio, supporting architects, engineers, contractors, manufacturers and facilities managers. It offers a comprehensive range of training and support solutions, and has a large team of experienced project consultants.
This combined with specialist expertise in providing support, advice and solutions in the areas of IT, Document Management and Facilities Management, means it can deliver a complete service for an effective and productive CAD and modelling environment.
Adrian Atkinson, Founder and Chairman of Excitech said "We have a long history of servicing the manufacturing and engineering industries, so we're excited to have the specialists from Micro Concepts join us. Our expertise with tools such as Inventor, AutoCAD, and Vault complements their deep mechanical design industry experience, and together we hope to develop more offerings in these areas. We're delighted to have the opportunity to work with the Micro Concepts team and their customers, and look forward to introducing them to some of the new technologies and skillsets we can offer."
Micro Concepts, and its team of 11 people, will be transitioning to the Excitech systems over the coming months. They will remain based out of their Cambridge office, and service their customers under the Excitech brand.
About Excitech
Excitech provides technology solutions and services for the construction sector, supporting the complete project life cycle from the manufacture of building products through to design and construction, building handover and maintenance. Their services include the provision of software, consultancy, training and support, and they offer a comprehensive range of IT, Document Management and Facilities Management solutions.
Established in 1985, Excitech are the largest Autodesk Platinum Partner in the UK specialising in the construction sector, and have accreditations with leading technology vendors such as Microsoft, Dell, and HP. For further information, visit us at www.excitech.co.uk
Related Links:
www.excitech.co.uk
SOURCE Excitech
HOPLAND, Calif., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Fetzer Vineyards, the sustainability pioneer celebrating its 50th anniversary of Earth-friendly winegrowing, has been recognized as a "Changemaker" among certified B Corporations. The Changemakers List, published today, highlights global B Corporations that made the most positive improvement on their overall impact based on an independent, comprehensive assessment administered by the nonprofit B Lab. This award recognizes Fetzer Vineyards' measurable, verified progress towards enhancing its leadership in sustainability in the wine industry and beyond.
The largest winery in the world certified as a B Corporation, Fetzer Vineyards is among the first recipients of the Changemaker honor. The distinction comes at an exciting time for the vintner, which in 2017 was the only wine company among 19 global recipients of a "Momentum for Change" Climate Solutions Award for climate action at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany (COP23).
Using Business As a Force for Good: The B Corp Approach
B Corps are for-profit companies that meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. The B Impact Assessment, which all B Corps undergo as part of the certification process, focuses on four key areas: Governance, Workers, Environment and Community. The Best for the World: Changemakers list honors the improvement made by B Corporations from one certification to the next, with recertification occurring every three years.
"We are humbled by this recognition, which highlights our company-wide efforts to continue to evolve and improve our sustainability initiatives," said Cindy DeVries, chief operating officer of Fetzer Vineyards. "We have a strong foundation of environmental focus dating to the last century, and today we are expanding on that to increase our overall positive impact as a company." Last year, Fetzer Vineyards detailed its 2020 sustainability goals and initiatives in a report titled "Road to Regeneration." Fetzer Vineyards' latest B Corp Impact Assessment is also available online.
B Lab recently introduced the Changemaker category as part of its annual ranking of B Corps it categorizes as "Best for the World," recognizing performance among organizations that explicitly strive to deliver social and environmental benefits along with profits for investors. Jay Coen Gilbert, co-founder of B Lab, noted that "People are hungry for companies like Fetzer Vineyards, who are changing the system by building businesses that seek to create the greatest positive impact."
Strategizing Sustainability Toward 2020 Goals
Since obtaining B Corp status in 2015, Fetzer Vineyards improved its score by nearly 15 points, from 80.5 to 95.1, marking significant progress towards its goal of a 100-point score by 2020 (Certified B Corps must obtain a minimum of 80 out of 200 possible points on the assessment scale). Looking to the future, the B Corp framework will continue to guide Fetzer Vineyards' sustainability strategy. "At Fetzer Vineyards, we strive for continuous improvement, and being a part of the B Corp community has pushed us to make tangible positive improvements in every area of our business, from our employees to communities to supply chain, " said Elizabeth Drake, regenerative development manager at Fetzer Vineyards.
In keeping with its plans for continuous improvement, Fetzer Vineyards has set a goal to be Net Positive by 2030. This includes plans to replace all negative impacts with positive impacts that enhance and regenerate ecosystems and communities while producing sustainable growth for its business and shareholders.
About Fetzer Vineyards
Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2018, Fetzer Vineyards was founded in 1968 by Barney Fetzer in Mendocino County, California. An award-winning purveyor of wines and spirits spanning multiple origins and available in more than 50 countries worldwide, Fetzer Vineyards is a leader in sustainable business practices, organic winegrowing, and craftsmanship in the cellar.
In addition to robust offerings under the winery's flagship Fetzer label, the winery also crafts the leading wine from organic grapes, Bonterra Organic Vineyards, named American Winery of the Year by Wine Enthusiast magazine in 2016. Other California offerings include Adorada, Anthony's Hill, Jekel Vineyards, Sanctuary Wines and 1000 Stories, the original Bourbon barrel-aged wine. Part of global winery Vina Concha y Toro, Fetzer Vineyards imports iconic South American wines such as Chile's most-acclaimed wine, Don Melchor, as well as the Cono Sur, Vina Maipo, Marques de Casa Concha, Casillero del Diablo and Frontera labels from Chile, in addition to Argentina's Trivento Reserve. Recently, Fetzer Vineyards entered the ultra-luxury wine and spirits category by forging a partnership with Kentucky Peerless Distilling Co. to sell its historic craft rye whiskey.
About B Corporations
Certified B Corporations are leaders of a global movement of people using business as a force for good. They meet the highest standards of overall social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability and aspire to use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. There are more than 2,500 Certified B Corporations in more than 150 industries and 60 countries with one unifying goal to redefine success in business.
SOURCE Fetzer Vineyards
Related Links
http://www.fetzer.com
SAN FRANCISCO and TEL AVIV, Israel, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- GuardiCore, a leader in internal data center and cloud security, today announced that Ola Sergatchov, a seasoned cybersecurity executive, has joined GuardiCore as Vice President of Corporate Strategy. An accomplished leader in business strategy, product management, enterprise architecture, and sales and partner development, Sergatchov will lead GuardiCore's corporate strategy and go-to-market initiatives to drive growth on a global scale.
"Ola brings a unique mix of strategic experience, technical depth and entrepreneurial spirit from more than 18 years in the industry with enterprise leaders like IBM, Oracle, and Standard&Poors. She is well positioned to contribute to all aspects of our business, including product development and customer relationships," said Pavel Gurvich, Co-founder and CEO, GuardiCore. "In addition to working with our product, marketing and customer teams to identify and capitalize on market trends and opportunities, we expect Ola to be instrumental in building out and refining our branding, product management and business development processes on a global level."
Continued Gurvich, "As a progressive technology company, we welcome Ola to the GuardiCore family as our first female executive leader. She joins a talented and diverse mix of professionals and serves as a role model, particularly to women in technology, to pursue technical and leadership positions with creativity, integrity and determination."
Sergatchov joins GuardiCore from IBM, where she served as Global Portfolio Strategy Director, Identity and Access Management, and successfully led the brand and go to market strategies for Threat-Aware Identity and Access Management offering. This included driving pivotal acquisitions and cross-brand integration solutions to retain IBM's leadership in the IAM market and to significantly increase its market share. Prior to IBM, Sergatchov was Senior Director at Oracle, where she successfully built sales development teams, developed strategic partnerships with the leading system integrators, directly impacting the business results. Ola has proven track record of executing business and product strategy for large enterprises as well as emerging technology start-ups.
"The rapidly accelerating pace of digital transformation is fueling an increased demand for new security technologies that can keep up with the pace of change. GuardiCore's innovative technology and rising customer demand for micro-segmentation has put the company in a unique position to lead the market," said Sergatchov. "It's an exciting time for GuardiCore, ripe with opportunity to grow our customer and partner relationships and improve how organizations are protecting their digital business."
About GuardiCore
GuardiCore is an innovator in data center and cloud security focused on delivering more accurate and effective ways to protect critical applications from compromise through unmatched visibility, micro-segmentation and real-time breach detection and response. Developed by cyber security experts in their field, GuardiCore is changing the way organizations are fighting cyber attacks. For more information, visit www.guardicore.com.
Media Contact:
Cinthia Portugal
Guyer Group
[email protected]
206.619.8183
SOURCE GuardiCore
Related Links
http://www.guardicore.com
HOUSTON, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- FLNG Liquefaction 4, LLC (FLIQ4) and Sumitomo Corporation of Americas (SCOA) jointly announced today that they have entered into a binding Heads of Agreement (HOA) for 2.2 million tons per annum (mtpa) of LNG. Under the HOA, SCOA, a subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation, has agreed to negotiate for a 20-year liquefaction tolling agreement (LTA). The LTA is expected to start in 2023 upon the commencement of commercial operations of the fourth train (Train 4) of Freeport LNG's natural gas liquefaction and export facility located on Quintana Island near Freeport, Texas.
The 2.2 mtpa of capacity to be contracted under the LTA will enable SCOA to significantly expand its U.S. natural gas-related business across the value chain, from upstream development to LNG export.
"We are pleased to announce the start of a long-term relationship with Sumitomo as our first Train 4 foundation customer," said Michael Smith, Chairman and CEO of Freeport LNG. "Sumitomo's significant U.S. gas trading and LNG operations makes it an especially great addition to our outstanding group of existing customers. Sumitomo's 2.2 mtpa of capacity under this HOA is a major step toward Freeport LNG contracting the approximately 3.5 mtpa needed for financing and commencing construction of Train 4."
"This valuable partnership with Freeport LNG is an excellent step for SCOA as we continue to expand our business within this sector," said Shingo Ueno, President and CEO of Sumitomo Corporation of Americas. "We believe our ability to learn and grow through this long-term project will allow us to provide real value to the energy industry globally, connecting the growing natural gas supply in the U.S. and the increasing appetite for LNG worldwide."
About Freeport LNG
FLNG Liquefaction 4, LLC is developing Train 4, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Freeport LNG Development, L.P., which owns and operates an LNG terminal on Quintana Island, near Freeport, Texas. The terminal started LNG import operations in June 2008 and is scheduled to begin LNG export operations in 2019 with the commercial operation of the first of three liquefaction trains currently under construction. These three trains are expected to produce in excess of 15 mtpa. Of this capacity, 13.9 mtpa has been contracted to Osaka Gas Trading & Export, LLC, JERA Energy America, LLC, BP Energy Company, Toshiba America LNG Corporation, SK E&S LNG, LLC., and Freeport LNG Marketing, LLC, which concluded the recently announced agreement with Trafigura PTE LTD. Freeport LNG's limited partnership interests are ultimately held by Michael Smith, Global Infrastructure Partners, and Osaka Gas Co., Ltd.
About Sumitomo Corporation of Americas
Established in 1952 and headquartered in New York City, Sumitomo Corporation of Americas (SCOA) has 8 offices in major U.S. cities. SCOA is the largest subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation, one of the world's leading traders of goods and services. As an integrated business enterprise, the firm has emerged as a major organizer of multinational projects, an expediter of ideas, an important international investor and financier, and a powerful force for distribution of products and global communications through a network of offices worldwide. Its core business units include Tubular Products, Environment and Infrastructure, Steel and Non Ferrous Metals, Transportation and Construction Systems, Chemicals and Electronics, Media and IOT Applications, Real Estate, Mineral Resources and Energy, and Food.
SCOA is deeply committed to the energy space and its U.S. energy business includes oil, gas and power assets through its subsidiaries Summit Discovery Resources, Perennial Power and Pacific Summit Energy (PSE). PSE's business activities include the trading and marketing of natural gas, power, and oil, as well as overseeing its LNG supply position at the Cove Point LNG.
For further information, please visit our website at www.sumitomocorp.com or contact:
Ms. Jewelle Yamada
Phone: 212-207-0574
Mobile: 646-584-9556
Email: [email protected]
Ms. Amy Babcock
Phone: 212-207-0567
Email: [email protected]
For further information, please visit our website at www.freeportlng.com or contact:
Heather Browne
1 713-980-2888
[email protected]
SOURCE Freeport LNG
Related Links
http://www.freeportlng.com
DUBLIN, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
The "Automotive Exterior Lighting System Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2018-2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.
The global automotive exterior lighting system market is estimated to reach revenues of more than $43 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of approximately 6% during 2017-2023.
The market research report offers market size analysis in terms of unit shipment values during the forecast period.
The extensive price-wars among APAC manufacturers are encouraging them to expand their business in the North American and European market to attract new consumers. The growing adoption of automotive sensors and the use of energy efficient lightings such as LED and OLED will boost sales in the global market.
The global automotive exterior lighting system market is driven by the increasing implementation of powertrain, infotainment, connected vehicles, safety systems, and electronics. The increasing investments in engine downsizing that reduce the weight of the vehicles will augment the growth of the global market. The market research report provides in-depth market analysis and segmental analysis of the global automotive exterior lighting system market by product type, vehicle type, end-users, and geography.
Automotive Exterior Lighting System Market - Dynamics
The benefits associated with, and declining prices of LED lights is boosting the demand in the global automotive exterior lighting market. The increasing investment in R&D activities to make LED technology accessible for all car segments at affordable prices will fuel the sales of these lights in the global market. ADAS solutions are designed to prevent accidents by either assisting or taking control of the vehicle in cases of potential collisions.
The leading OEMs are shifting from incandescent bulbs to newer forms of lighting such as LED, OLED, and laser to attract new consumer groups and gain a larger market share. The laser lights have double power and have a maximum range from 984.25 feet to 1968.5 feet without sacrificing the electrical efficiency. The laser lights are smaller in size offering vendors flexibility add additional technologies. The power efficiency of these lights will attribute to the growing demand of these lights in the global automotive exterior lighting market.
Automotive Exterior Lighting System Market - Segmentation
This market research report includes a detailed segmentation of the market by product type, vehicle type, end-users, and geography. Headlamps segment dominated almost 3/4th of the market share in 2017, growing at a CAGR of around 6% during the forecast period. The increasing adoption of LED and laser headlights is augmenting the growth of this segment in the global market. The use of LED lights that allows the manufacturing of lightweight and thin rear lamps will boost the sales in the automotive exterior lighting system market.
Mid-priced car segment dominated a section of the market share in 2017, growing at a CAGR of more than 8% during the forecast period. The installation of electronic stability control (ESC), tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS), driver seat belt indicators, and gear shift indicators are driving the growth of this segment in the global market. OEMs segment dominated the majority market share in 2017, growing at a CAGR of over 6% during the forecast period. The increasing profits from regions such as the US, China, Europe, Japan, and South Korea will propel the growth of this segment in the global market.
Automotive Exterior Lighting System Market - Geography
The geographical segment in the global automotive exterior lighting system market is divided into APAC, Europe, North America, Latin America, and MEA. APAC occupied the largest market share in 2017, growing at a CAGR of around 6% during the forecast period.
The increasing demand for electric vehicles is one of the primary factors driving the growth of the European region in the global market. The massive growth of the automotive industry across the Central and Eastern Europe will create new avenues in the automotive exterior lighting system market. Countries such as Germany, Spain, and the UK are the largest revenue generator in the European market.
Key Vendor Analysis
The global automotive exterior lighting system market is very diverse across geographies and has its own competitive dynamics and intensity of competition. The presence of several players that compete for prices in APAC will intensify the competition level in the global market. The economic recovery in Brazil and Argentina will encourage the manufacturer to expand their businesses in the Latin American region in the global market. The increasing focus on product differentiation and competitive prices will help vendors to sustain the competition in the global automotive exterior lighting system market during the forecast period.
Market Dynamics
Market Growth Enablers
Increasing sales of luxury cars fueling demand for new-generation automotive lighting
Growing adoption of LED lights
Advancements in ADAS promoting new generation of smart lights
Rising demand for EVs to boost LED adoption
Market Growth Restraints
Increasing labor costs in APAC
Stringent regulations to phase out old lighting technologies
Increasing cost pressure on manufacturers
Market Opportunities & Trends
Rapid advancements in automotive LED lighting technology
Increasing adoption of OLED lighting technology
Introduction of laser light technology
The major vendors in the global market are:
KOITO MANUFACTURING
Magneti Marelli
Valeo
Hella
OSRAM
Key Topics Covered:
1 Research Methodology
2 Research Objectives
3 Research Process
4 Report Coverage
5 Report Assumptions & Caveats
6 Market at a Glance
7 Introduction
8 Market Dynamics
9 Value Chain Analysis
10 Market Landscape
11 Global Automotive Exterior Lighting System Market by Product
12 Global Automotive Exterior Lighting System Market by End-User
13 Global Automotive Exterior Lighting System Market by Vehicle
14 Global Automotive Exterior Lighting System Market by Geographic Segmentation
15 APAC: Automotive Exterior Lighting System Market
16 Europe: Automotive Exterior Lighting System Market
17 North America: Automotive Exterior Lighting System Market
18 Latin America: Automotive Exterior Lighting System Market
19 MEA: Automotive Exterior Lighting System Market
20 Competitive Landscape
21 Key Company profiles
Koito Manufacturing
Magneti Marelli
Valeo
Hella
OSRAM
22 Other Prominent Vendors
Stanley Electric
Magna International
Federal-Mogul
Johnson Electric Holdings
Robert Bosch
Infineon Technologies
Panasonic
Samvardhana Motherson Group
Flex-N-Gate
Grupo Antolin
Flextronics International
Gentex Corporation
Phoenix Lamps Division
For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/m4k462/global_automotive?w=5
Media Contact:
Research and Markets
Laura Wood, Senior Manager
[email protected]
For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470
For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630
For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900
U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907
Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716
SOURCE Research and Markets
Related Links
http://www.researchandmarkets.com
DUBLIN, Sept 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
The "Global eSIM Market 2018-2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.
The global eSIM market to register a CAGR of 37.5% during the period 2018-2022.
The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global eSIM market for 2018-2022. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the sales of eSIMs for applications in automotive, consumer electronic products and other (laptops, smart thermostats and smart meters) sectors. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.
According to the report, one of the major drivers for this market is the growing demand for increased network bandwidth. The increased popularity of smartphones and the deployment of next generation wireless networks such as 3G, 4G and 5G have resulted in high network traffic. The form factor and the ability to provide fast and flexible connections of eSIMs is driving mobile device vendors to incorporate eSIMs into their products. This will fulfill the ever-growing need of network bandwidth and fuel the growth of the eSIM market.
Major car companies such as Tesla, Audi, Mercedes Benz, Ford and BMW are investing heavily on research and development of autonomous driving technologies. With the integration of eSIMs these autonomous cars will also be connected cars. Autonomous vehicles will provide eSIM manufacturers with several business opportunities thereby boosting the growth of the global eSIM market.
Further, the report states that one of the major factors hindering the growth of this market is the increase in competition from soft SIMs. Soft SIMs are embedded software SIM that can be removed and reprogrammed by the device. Soft SIMs can replace traditional SIMs an eSIMs, as one can easily switch networks while porting to a different network provider by selecting and entering details in the software itself.
Market trends
Autonomous driving
Growing awareness of wearable devices
Increase in mobile computing devices
Key vendors
Gemalto
Infineon Technologies
Deutsche Telekom
STMicroelectronics
NXP Semiconductors
Key Topics Covered:
Part 01: Executive Summary
Part 02: Scope Of The Report
Part 03: Research Methodology
Part 04: Market Landscape
Part 05: Market Sizing
Part 06: Five Forces Analysis
Part 07: Market Segmentation By Application
Part 08: Customer Landscape
Part 09: Regional Landscape
Part 10: Decision Framework
Part 11: Drivers And Challenges
Part 12: Market Trends
Part 13: Vendor Landscape
Part 14: Vendor Analysis
Part 15: Appendix
For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/gmpsvt/global_esim?w=5
Media Contact:
Research and Markets
Laura Wood, Senior Manager
[email protected]
For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470
For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630
For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900
U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907
Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716
SOURCE Research and Markets
Related Links
http://www.researchandmarkets.com
HOUSTON, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Group 1 Automotive, Inc. (NYSE: GPI), ("Group 1" or the "Company"), an international, Fortune 500 automotive retailer, announced the appointment of Anne Taylor, a former top executive and Vice Chairman at Deloitte, to its board of directors, effective immediately.
Additionally, the Company expanded the board to a total of 10 directors to accommodate a transition period in preparation for several director retirements over the next two to three years, based on the Company's retirement age policy for its board. Ms. Taylor's appointment brings the total number of independent directors to eight, in addition to the company's two non-independent directors.
Ms. Taylor held numerous top executive positions at Deloitte over her 30-year career, including Managing Partner of the Houston office, serving as Deloitte's first Chief Strategy Officer, and responsibility for Deloitte's global e-business. While at Deloitte, she was a member of the board, where she served on the U.S. and Global Nominating Committees, the CEO Evaluation Committee, and chaired the Strategic Investment Committee. She also served on the board of Deloitte Consulting LLP.
Group 1's chairman Steve Quinn commented, "Anne brings a wealth of management, corporate governance, and strategic planning experience to our board that will help us navigate the rapid pace of change in the automotive industry, as well as business overall." Group 1's president and chief executive officer Earl Hesterberg added, "Anne has a great deal of high-level experience dealing with important, relevant issues, such as digital innovation, technology transformation and business disruptors, which will be a great benefit to the Group 1 team."
Ms. Taylor received a Bachelors of Science and Masters of Science in Engineering from the University of Utah. Ms. Taylor also attended Princeton University for doctorate studies in civil engineering, where she focused on transportation and mobility. She and her husband reside in Houston where she is very active in the community. Ms. Taylor currently serves as chairman of the board of Central Houston, Inc. and has previously served as an executive board member of the Greater Houston Partnership and United Way of Greater Houston.
About Group 1 Automotive, Inc.
Group 1 owns and operates 182 automotive dealerships, 238 franchises, and 48 collision centers in the United States, the United Kingdom and Brazil that offer 32 brands of automobiles. Through its dealerships, the Company sells new and used cars and light trucks; arranges related vehicle financing; sells service contracts; provides automotive maintenance and repair services; and sells vehicle parts.
Investors please visit www.group1corp.com, www.group1auto.com, www.group1collision.com, www.facebook.com/group1auto, and www.twitter.com/group1auto, where Group 1 discloses additional information about the Company, its business, and its results of operations.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which are statements related to future, not past, events and are based on our current expectations and assumptions regarding our business, the economy and other future conditions. In this context, the forward-looking statements often include statements regarding our strategic investments, goals, plans, projections and guidance regarding our financial position, results of operations, business strategy, and often contain words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "should," "foresee," "may" or "will" and similar expressions. While management believes that these forward-looking statements are reasonable as and when made, there can be no assurance that future developments affecting us will be those that we anticipate. Any such forward-looking statements are not assurances of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, (a) general economic and business conditions, (b) the level of manufacturer incentives, (c) the future regulatory environment, (d) our ability to obtain an inventory of desirable new and used vehicles, (e) our relationship with our automobile manufacturers and the willingness of manufacturers to approve future acquisitions, (f) our cost of financing and the availability of credit for consumers, (g) our ability to complete acquisitions and dispositions and the risks associated therewith, (h) foreign exchange controls and currency fluctuations, and (i) our ability to retain key personnel. For additional information regarding known material factors that could cause our actual results to differ from our projected results, please see our filings with the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements after the date they are made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Investor contacts:
Sheila Roth
Manager, Investor Relations
Group 1 Automotive, Inc.
713-647-5741 | [email protected]
Media contacts:
Pete DeLongchamps
Senior V.P. Manufacturer Relations, Financial Services and Public Affairs
Group 1 Automotive, Inc.
713-647-5770 | [email protected]
or
Clint Woods
Pierpont Communications, Inc.
713-627-2223 | [email protected]
SOURCE Group 1 Automotive, Inc.
Related Links
http://www.group1auto.com
AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hanger, Inc. (OTC PINK: HNGR), a leading provider of orthotic and prosthetic patient care services and solutions, today announced that the Company has received approval to relist its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol "HNGR" at the beginning of trading on Wednesday, September 12, 2018. The Company's common stock will continue to trade on the OTC until the market close on September 11, 2018.
About Hanger, Inc. Built on the legacy of James Edward Hanger, the first amputee of the American Civil War, Hanger, Inc. (OTC PINK: HNGR) delivers orthotic and prosthetic (O&P) patient care, and distributes O&P products and rehabilitative solutions to the broader market. Hanger's Patient Care segment is the largest owner and operator of O&P patient care clinics with approximately 800 patient care locations nationwide. Through its Products & Services segment, Hanger distributes branded and private label O&P devices, products and components, and provides rehabilitative solutions. With over 150 years of clinical excellence and innovation, Hanger's vision is to lead the orthotic & prosthetic markets by providing superior patient care, outcomes, services and value. For more information on Hanger, visit www.hanger.com.
This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" relating to the Company. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included herein, are "forwardlooking statements." These forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "preliminary," "intends," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "views" or similar expressions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve assumptions, risks, and uncertainties, and these expectations may prove to be incorrect. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. These uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risk that additional information may arise during the course of the Company's ongoing financial statement preparation and closing processes that would require the Company to make additional adjustments or revisions to its estimates or financial statements and other financial data, to identify additional material weaknesses, or to take any other necessary action relating to the Company's accounting practices; the time required to complete the Company's financial statements and other financial data and accounting review; the time required to prepare its periodic reports for filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission; the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on the Company's financial statements; any regulatory review of, or litigation relating to, the Company's accounting practices, financial statements and other financial data, periodic reports or other corporate actions; changes in the demand for the Company's O&P products and services; uncertainties relating to the results of operations or recently acquired O&P patient care clinics; the Company's ability to enter into and derive benefits from managed-care contracts; the Company's ability to successfully attract and retain qualified O&P clinicians; federal laws governing the health care industry; uncertainties inherent in investigations and legal proceedings; governmental policies affecting O&P operations; and other risks and uncertainties generally affecting the health care industry. For additional information and risk factors that could affect the Company, see its Form 10K for the year ended December 31, 2017 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The information contained in this press release is made only as of the date hereof, even if subsequently made available by the Company on its website or otherwise.
Investor Relations Contacts:
Thomas Kiraly, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Hanger, Inc.
Seth Frank, Vice President, Treasury and Investor Relations, Hanger, Inc.
512-777-3690, [email protected]
SOURCE Hanger, Inc.
Related Links
http://www.hanger.com
MIAMI, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Silvia Vanni, Co-Founder of the Mystic Force Foundation announces the Grand Opening of the Heroes Hangout, a first of its kind in the country, Childhood Cancer Haven. A special place for our kids battling cancer to 'Hang Out', play video games, enjoy crafts, 'Shop' for toys (at no cost!), and attend Special Events.
Miami-Dade County Police join forces to support our Littlest Heroes battling Childhood Cancer. Heroes Hangout, a Childhood cancer Haven strictly for our Heroes battling Childhood Cancer.
We are also holding our Childhood Cancer Awareness Police Car Initiative showcasing Police Vehicles from all over Miami Dade County wrapped and decorated in support of our littlest Heroes during September National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. This will be the first time in our nation's history that police departments join forces to show their support of our littlest Heroes battling this devastating disease.
Our Special guest DJ 'JC' is a 7-year old Retinoblastoma Cancer warrior.
This sweet Hero lost his eyesight due to cancer but music is his love & mixing is his passion.
Don't miss his amazing talent!
Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho will join us to offer the school system's support to our Heroes during National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
For more information you may contact Silvia Vanni at [email protected] / 305.726.1155 or Esther Reynolds at [email protected] / 786.897.1997
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 8TH 11:00AM 2:00PM
Announcements & Ribbon Cutting will be made @ 12:00pm.
1943 NE 164th Street North Miami Beach Florida 33162
Kids battling Cancer spend weeks to months at a time in-patient, when not in-patient they are constantly immunocompromised, thus, they cannot be out in public places, which means no toy stores, no parks, no fun activities outside of home. The Heroes Hangout is a haven that will be their special place to go. Since it will not be open to the public it will remain as germ-free as possible. The location itself has been Sponsored by the Dante Law Firm, so we pay no rent, and everything within the Hangout has been donated by loyal and caring individuals and companies in our communities. We will be accepting toy donations of new, unwrapped toys.
The Mystic Force Foundation (www.MysticForceFoundation.com) was founded in 2008 after 4-year-old Salvatore Vanni was diagnosed with Stage IV Childhood Cancer. This year is the Foundation's 10-year Anniversary of raising awareness, and desperately needed funds for Childhood Cancer Research as well as advocacy in Washington, DC, granting 'Wishes', delivering toys, holding hospital parties, and bringing Hope, Joy, Happiness and Smiles to our littlest Heroes battling Childhood Cancer.
SOURCE Mystic Force Foundation
CARROLLTON, Texas, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hospice Source, the National Leader in Hospice DME, announced today that it has purchased Oklahoma City, OK-based Redrock Medical. This acquisition expands Hospice Source's geographical footprint into the Oklahoma market with the addition of four service locations. This is the seventh acquisition that Hospice Source has completed.
Jeff West, Hospice Source CEO states, "Redrock Medical has a like 'Culture of Compassion' to that of our company. The owners and personnel of Redrock have well served their patients for the last seven years, and we are honored to further assist that effort by bringing our technology and capital to assist them going forward. We welcome our new Hospice Partners, and our new team members from Redrock Medical."
About Hospice Source
Based in Carrollton, TX, Hospice Source is the largest full service, national provider of medical equipment ("DME") and respiratory therapy focused exclusively on the hospice market. Hospice Source currently provides service to patients and hospice providers in 10 states from 65 locations.
To learn more: www.hospicesource.net
About TCP
Transition Capital Partners ("TCP") is a Dallas, TX-based, family office funded, private investment firm. Founded in 1993, TCP has successfully invested in over 40 lower middle market companies spanning a diverse array of industries. TCP is affiliated with the Patterson Thomas Family Office.
TCP partners with management teams to build sustainable value in businesses over the long-term, without the artificial constraints fundraising cycles create for traditional private equity funds. With more than 20 years of proven success, we have a long track record of collaborating with our partners to accelerate the growth of lower middle market companies.
To learn more: www.tcplp.com
SOURCE Hospice Source, LLC
Related Links
http://www.hospicesource.net
Photo: Contributed
Canadian country music superstar Paul Brandt is coming to the Okanagan.
Brandt and multi-CCMA Group or Duo of the Year winners High Valley are on "The Journey Tour 2019." The tour brings together an epic lineup that includes special guest Jess Moskaluke and features the Hunter Brothers. All four acts will come together on stage at this years Canadian Country Music Awards for a special live performance.
The tour will come to Penticton, January 26, at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
Brandt has also announced that his newest collection of songs, The Journey BNA: Vol. 2 will be released on Friday, November 9, 2018. The release of the EP is proceeded by the single Bittersweet co-written by High Valleys Brad Rempel and featuring guitarist Lindsay Ell. Fans can pre-order The Journey BNA: Vol. 2 beginning today.
Brandt says this tour is brimming with potential, The artists I have the honour of performing with on this tour are incredibly talented, successful and also some of the best friends Ive made in the music business. There is a palpable energy and chemistry when we are in the room together, and I cant wait to bring that to stages across Canada. The Journey Tour will combine talent and artistic vision in a way that Canada has not yet experienced; all of the artists involved are committed to making this tour one that country music fans will never forget.
Every artist on The Journey Tour attributes career success to the support of Canadian country music fans, says Brad Rempel of High Valley. Wed be nowhere without them.
Says Curtis Rempel, We cant wait to celebrate with our Canadian fans. There will be more than a few front-row high fives.
I am doing what I love, and loving every minute of it, says newlywed Jess Moskaluke. This has been the biggest year of my life, and Im so excited to be joining The Journey Tour with Paul, High Valley, and fellow Saskies, those Hunter Brothers.
For ticketing information, please visit www.livenation.com.
THE WOODLANDS, Texas, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Huntsman Corporation (NYSE: HUN) management will be meeting with investors at the UBS Global Chemicals Conference and RBC Capital Markets Industrials Conference over the coming days. In light of recent press commentary specifically related to component polymeric MDI pricing, Huntsman confirms its outlook for the third quarter 2018 as provided on its second quarter earnings call. The recent price declines in component polymeric MDI in Europe and Asia are not unexpected and are in-line with Huntsman's previously shared outlook for the Polyurethanes segment. Huntsman continues to focus on growing its downstream differentiated businesses and delivering on its 2020 plan presented at its May 2018 Investor Day.
About Huntsman:
Huntsman Corporation is a publicly traded global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated and specialty chemicals with 2017 revenues more than $8 billion. Our chemical products number in the thousands and are sold worldwide to manufacturers serving a broad and diverse range of consumer and industrial end markets. We operate more than 75 manufacturing, R&D and operations facilities in approximately 30 countries and employ approximately 10,000 associates within our four distinct business divisions. For more information about Huntsman, please visit the company's website at www.huntsman.com.
Social Media:
Twitter: www.twitter.com/Huntsman_Corp
Facebook: www.facebook.com/huntsmancorp
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/huntsman
Forward-Looking Statements:
Certain information in this release constitutes 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 statements are based on management's current beliefs and expectations. The forward-looking statements in this release are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances and involve risks and uncertainties that may affect the company's operations, markets, products, services, prices and other factors as discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Huntsman companies' filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Significant risks and uncertainties may relate to, but are not limited to, volatile global economic conditions, cyclical and volatile product markets, disruptions in production at manufacturing facilities, reorganization or restructuring of Huntsman's operations, including any delay of, or other negative developments affecting the ability to implement cost reductions and manufacturing optimization improvements in Huntsman businesses and realize anticipated cost savings, and other financial, economic, competitive, environmental, political, legal, regulatory and technological factors. The company assumes no obligation to provide revisions to any forward-looking statements should circumstances change, except as otherwise required by applicable laws.
SOURCE Huntsman Corporation
Related Links
http://www.huntsman.com
NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In the newest rounds of grants marking its 20th anniversary, Hyundai Hope On Wheels 501(c)(3), celebrates National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month awarding Dr. Darrell Yamashiro of Columbia University Irving Medical Center with a $2.5 million Hyundai Quantum grant. This institution is one of 4 recipients of this year's award, which is the largest grant category given to support research on pediatric cancers with low survival rates. The Hyundai Quantum grant will be officially presented at Columbia University Irving Medical Center on Wednesday, September 5th, at 2:00 p.m. The award will be accepted by Dr. Yamashiro, Principal Investigator on the grant, Co-Principal Investigator, Dr. Julia Glade Bender (of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center), Dr. Andrea Califano (of Columbia University Irving Medical Center), and Dr. Jovana Pavisic, a fellow at Columbia University Irving Medical Center who will participate in the grant.
Childhood cancer researchers depend largely on private funding for groundbreaking therapies to get off the ground and to advance treatment approaches to the next phase of testing, ultimately, bringing better therapies and cures to kids with cancer. With this latest award, Columbia University Irving Medical Center has received nearly $2.6 million in grants from Hope On Wheels, which has contributed a total of $145 million toward cancer research at academic medical centers throughout the U.S.
"Throughout the country, talented doctors are working tirelessly to help kids fight cancer by conducting research or providing bedside care," said Scott Fink, chairman, Hyundai Hope On Wheels Board of Directors. "Our goal at Hope On Wheels is to provide these doctors with the grant funds they need to perform their lifesaving work."
Osteosarcoma is the most commonly diagnosed bone tumor in children and adolescents, yet no new treatment approaches have successfully been introduced in nearly 40 years. The Hyundai Quantum Collaboration Grant will enable Dr. Darrell Yamashiro and Dr. Julia Glade Bender to lead a bi-coastal team of researchers who aim to identify treatments that can neutralize the cancer's growth and metastasis. Patients with osteosarcoma have not benefited from recent breakthroughs like immunotherapy or DNA sequencing and require a shift in the understanding and approach to therapy. To do this, the team will leverage novel cancer systems biology approaches that model the cellular logic of cancer cells, using supercomputers to identify optimal treatment options for each patient.
The Hyundai Quantum Collaboration Research Award is a milestone for Hyundai Hope on Wheels and for children with cancer. This research is a collaboration between four of the premier Pediatric Oncology centers in the country, led by Columbia University Irving Medical Center, along with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and University of California, San Francisco. At Columbia, the team will target osteosarcoma, the most commonly diagnosed bone tumor in children and adolescents. We will use novel computational approaches to model the biology of cancer cells, in order to identify optimal treatment options for each patient," says Dr. Darell Yamashiro, Director of the Division of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology, and Stem Cell Transplantation at Columbia.
During the event, children being treated at Columbia University Irving Medical Center who are battling cancer will participate in the program's signature Handprint Ceremony, in which they'll dip their hands in paint and place their handprints on the Hope Vehicle, a white Sante Fe. As "Every Handprint Tells a Story," the colorful handprints of brave pediatric cancer fighters represent their individual and collective hopes, dreams and journeys. From now through the end of September, the Hope Vehicle will travel nationwide to honor kids battling cancer, raise awareness of the disease, and to inspire hope toward a cure.
Supporters are encouraged to visit the HHOW website (www.HyundaiHopeOnWheels.org) to view this year's grant winners along with stories of brave cancer survivors and passionate doctor-researchers. Once there, supporters may add their handprint to a wall of hope to show their support for the cause. They will also find information on additional ways to support HHOW through social media efforts and events throughout the month. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram at facebook.com/HyundaiHopeOnWheels, twitter.com/HopeOnWheels or instagram.com/HyundaiHopeOnWheels.
HYUNDAI HOPE ON WHEELS
Hyundai Hope On Wheels is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that is committed to finding a cure for childhood cancer. Launched in 1998, Hyundai Hope On Wheels provides grants to eligible institutions nationwide that are pursuing life-saving research and innovative treatments for the disease. HHOW is one of the largest non-profit funders of pediatric cancer research in the country, and primary funding for Hyundai Hope On Wheels comes from Hyundai Motor America and its more than 835 U.S. dealers. Since its inception, Hyundai Hope On Wheels has awarded more than $145 million towards childhood cancer research in pursuit of a cure.
HYUNDAI MOTOR AMERICA
Hyundai Motor America, headquartered in Fountain Valley, Calif., is a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Company of Korea. Hyundai vehicles are distributed throughout the United States by Hyundai Motor America and are sold and serviced through 835 dealerships nationwide. All new Hyundai vehicles sold in the U.S. are covered by the Hyundai Assurance program, which includes a 5-year/60,000-mile fully-transferable new vehicle limited warranty, Hyundai's 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain limited warranty and five years of complimentary Roadside Assistance.
For more details on Hyundai Assurance, please visit www.HyundaiAssurance.com
Please visit our media website at www.hyundainews.com
Hyundai Motor America on Twitter | YouTube | Facebook
SOURCE Hyundai Hope On Wheels
Related Links
https://hyundaihopeonwheels.org
NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- JLM Couture, Inc. (OTC:JLMC) announced today that it has signed a licensing agreement between wedding dress designer, Hayley Paige, and jewelry diamond brand, Hearts On Fire (HOF). HOF is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chow Tai Fook, a Hong Kong main board listed company (SEHK stock code:1929) with $7.5 bill(USD) in annual sales. A joint collaboration, Hayley will collaborate on a collection for the jewelry brand, and serve as brand ambassador - driving awareness in print, digital and social media marketing campaigns.
"This collection is a logical extension of the Hayley Paige brand and related fashion products, which is a core part of our strategy with Hayley Paige. We're enthusiastic to partner with Hearts On Fire, a well-funded and known player in the wedding and engagement ring category of the jewelry industry," said Joseph Murphy, CEO of JLM Couture.
The Hayley Paige for Hearts On Fire collection, inspired by the feminine designs of Paige's bridal gowns, includes ten diamond bands and three style diamond engagement rings, scheduled to launch in Spring 2019. Not just for brides on their wedding day, the collection can be worn to accent other existing jewelry.
"Collaborating with Hearts On Fire is not only an empowering and progressive brand and profit opportunity, it also enables us to deliver to a new millennial and, soon, genZ audience, that demands a sense of inventiveness and conflict-free craftsmanship. This sparkling landscape is a visionary daydream-come-true for me," said designer Hayley Paige.
"Hayley Paige has an incredibly engaged digital following of brides-to-be as well as women who are inspired to one day wear her designs. What really drew us to Hayley is not only her fantastic eye for design and authority in the bridal space, but also her unique way of authentically connecting with millennial females. This partnership truly celebrates the emotional significance of selecting the ring and the dress key moments in the life of all brides," said Stephanie Evans Greene, VP Marketing, Hearts On Fire.
The Hayley Paige for Hearts On Fire collection will be available to purchase through authorized retailers and online at heartsonfire.com. For any media inquiries, please email [email protected].
Hayley Paige is the head designer of Hayley Paige and Blush by Hayley Paige bridal collections, as well as Hayley Paige Occasions (bridesmaids), La Petite Hayley Paige (flower girls) and Hayley Paige Red Carpet all under JLM Couture, Inc. Since launching her namesake collection in fall 2011, the brand has rapidly grown into one of the most sought after names in bridal fashion and on the red carpet. Hayley has also expanded into wedding-themed athleisure sold exclusively on Nordstrom.com.
JLM Couture, Inc. is a multi-label bridal house engaged in the design, manufacture, and distribution of bridal gowns and bridesmaids dresses. The company's bridal gown collections are Allison Webb, Hayley Paige, Blush by Hayley Paige, Lazaro, Tara Keely by Lazaro, Ti Adora by Allison Webb, and Hayley Paige Occasions, as well as La Petite Hayley Paige. JLM is traded over the counter.
Hearts On Fire, is a leading global diamond jewelry brand and subsidiary of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group (OTC:CJEWF). Founded in 1996 Hearts On Fire introduced the first-ever branded diamond and changed the jewelry industry forever. Hearts On Fire is sold through a retail partner network of more than 750 locations in 32 countries, including 150 points of sale in Hong Kong and Greater China, 17 HOF-branded stores around the world, heartsonfire.com.
SOURCE JLM Couture, Inc.
Related Links
http://www.jlmcouture.com
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- As a result of the imminent future brought on by the digital revolution, businesses around the globe are beginning to feel the dominance of accelerated change and the impact of disruptive technologies, mega trends and new business models on their respective industries. Frost & Sullivan's premiere event, Growth, Innovation and Leadership (GIL): North America, will provide the insight to fuel sustainable top-line revenue growth, create customer value and develop long-term competitive advantage. The annual summit will be hosted on October 1 to 4, 2018 at Paradise Point Resort & Spa in San Diego, Calif.
For further information on the agenda and to register for GIL 2018: North America, please click here: http://frost.ly/gil18
"The pace of change is accelerating quicker by the moment. Digital technologies are impacting every industry we track. It is critical for each company to commit to their digital strategy, and then be continuously engaged with the market to improve it this event is a great opportunity to accomplish both of these missions," said Joe Fristensky, Senior Partner and President of Americas at Frost & Sullivan.
Progressive business leaders from an expansive range of industries, including automotive, healthcare, manufacturing, financial services and energy will congregate to find and discuss aspirational ideas to drive growth and innovation within their organizations. The summit's themeLeading and Winning in an Era of Unprecedented Changewill give participants the chance to discover exclusive content on accelerating delivery of business solutions for the digital economy, the future of consumer hardware and devices, and the path toward real spatial computing. Frost & Sullivan visionaries and thought leaders will present, including:
Alexander Khanin , Founder & Chief Executive Officer, VisionLabs
, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, VisionLabs Alex Goryachev , Managing Director, Corporate Strategy and Innovation Group, Cisco Systems
, Managing Director, Corporate Strategy and Innovation Group, Cisco Systems Arjan Singh , Lecturer, Strategy, University of California Irvine
, Lecturer, Strategy, Andrew Bruce , Chief Executive Officer, Data Gumbo
, Chief Executive Officer, Data Gumbo Crystal Collier , Head of Strategy, Programs and Insights, Electronic Arts (EA)
, Head of Strategy, Programs and Insights, Electronic Arts (EA) Daniel Carter , Investment Director, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures
, Investment Director, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures Dave Bowen , Vice President, Products Measure, the Drone as a Service Company
Vice President, Products Measure, the Drone as a Service Company David Bradley , Founder, Qpilot.cloud
, Founder, Qpilot.cloud Evren Eryurek , Technical Director, Chief Technology Officer, Google Cloud Platform, Google
, Technical Director, Chief Technology Officer, Google Cloud Platform, Google Galina Antova , Co-Founder & Chief Business Development Officer, Claroty
, Co-Founder & Chief Business Development Officer, Claroty Ganesh Bell , President, Uptake, Formerly Chief Digital Officer, GE Power
, President, Uptake, Formerly Chief Digital Officer, GE Power Henry Chang , Vice President, 3M Connect, 3M Company
, Vice President, Connect, Company Joseph Bradley , Vice President of IoT & Digital Services, Cisco
, Vice President of IoT & Digital Services, Cisco Kara Bortone , Ph.D., Head JLABS San Diego, Johnson & Johnson
, Ph.D., Head JLABS San Diego, Johnson & Johnson Ken Stewart , General Manager, AiRXOS a GE Venture Company
, General Manager, AiRXOS a GE Venture Company Lori Heino-Royer , Director, Business Development, Daimler Trucks North America
, Director, Business Development, Daimler Trucks North America Matt Coblentz , Data Scientist, Dell EMC Corporation
, Data Scientist, Dell EMC Corporation Nagraj Kashyap , Corporate Vice President, Microsoft
, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Scott Borg , Director and Chief Economist, U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit
, Director and Chief Economist, U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit Sharon Baer , Program Director, Advanced Innovation, Philips
, Program Director, Advanced Innovation, Philips Timoni West,Director, XR Research, Unity Technologies
During this two-day conference, attendees will also have the opportunity to participate in 16 exploratory Think Tanks. These interactive sessions will capture the power of the collective wisdom in the room, as well as offer engaging exercises to spark strategic ideas on the following key topics:
Connected Intelligent Autonomy: Drones and Cars of the Future
Fintech Innovation : Best Practices and Best in Breed
: Creating Value and Driving Better Outcomes from the Intersection of Healthcare and Technology
The Transformation of the Industrial Sector
AI: Leveraging the Automated Exploitation of Data in the Mobility Industry
Translating Digital Technology into Competitive Advantage
Join us and be a part of what makes GIL a powerhouse of ideas and meaningful connections: Its participants!
If you would like to discuss attending, participating or sponsoring the event, please email: [email protected] and join the conversation #FrostGIL.
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:
Jaylon Brinkley
Corporate Communications
E: [email protected]
P: 210-247-2481
https://ww2.frost.com/
SOURCE Frost & Sullivan
Related Links
http://www.frost.com
ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lark Doley, of Jonestown, Texas, is the new International President of Toastmasters International, the world's leading organization devoted to communication and leadership skills development. Doley assumed the one-year term at the organization's 87th annual International Convention, held Aug. 2225 in Chicago, Ill.
Lark Doley, Toastmasters 2018-19 International President
Doley is a training team leader for MAXIMUS, where she has worked since 2007. She manages the professional development strategy for the MAXIMUS Texas Project, which includes leadership development, curriculum design, webinars, computer-based training and instructor-led workshops. For 12 years, Doley served as chief executive officer of Second Wave Inc., a company she founded in 1987. Second Wave manufactured hardware peripheral devices for Apple Macintosh products.
Owner of a lighthouse-style home, Doley served as secretary of the Lighthouse Estates Homeowners Association. She also served as president of the Metropolitan Breakfast Club, a business group in Austin, Texas, that meets weekly and features business and government speakers presenting topical issues of importance to the city and state.
Doley graduated with honors from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and German. She continued her education studying business management at St. Edward's University in Austin, and mathematics at the University of HoustonClear Lake in Houston, Texas.
A Toastmaster for 27 years, Doley is a member of two clubs, including her home club in Pflugerville, Texas: the Arthur Storer Club, which was chartered in honor of her father-in-law after his death in 1997. Doley has held a number of high-profile leadership positions within Toastmasters and has attained the Distinguished Toastmaster designationthe highest level of educational achievement in the organization.
Doley says, "I have used my improved communication and leadership skills to found and lead a successful company. I now have the privilege to work for a company where I use my Toastmasters skills daily to teach others."
As International President, Doley is the highest ranked officer on the Toastmasters Board of Directors. She joins the following newly elected officers on the Toastmasters International 20182019 Executive Committee:
Deepak Menon of New Delhi, India International President-Elect
of International President-Elect Richard Peck of Seymour, Conn. First Vice President
of First Vice President Margaret Page of British Columbia, Canada Second Vice President
For more information about Toastmasters, visit http://mediacenter.toastmasters.org.
About Toastmasters International
Toastmasters International is a worldwide nonprofit educational organization that empowers individuals to become more effective communicators and leaders. Headquartered in Englewood, Colo., the organization's membership exceeds 357,000 in more than 16,600 clubs in 143 countries. Since 1924, Toastmasters International has helped people from diverse backgrounds become more confident speakers, communicators and leaders. For information about local Toastmasters clubs, please visit www.toastmasters.org. Follow @Toastmasters on Twitter.
SOURCE Toastmasters International
Related Links
http://www.toastmasters.org
RENO, Nev., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- KPS3 Marketing, a full-service marketing and digital communications firm, has hired Ayse Caglar as vice president of client strategy.
Caglar brings over 10 years of successful integrated marketing and communications experience to the agency. She will collaborate and engage with KPS3 clients across the county to lead client services and strategy for traditional, digital, social and technological solutions. She will also work internally to help the KPS3 team expand their skills in strategic and creative thinking.
KPS3
"Strategy is at the root of everything we do at KPS3. With Ayse in this new role, we will further strengthen that position," said Rob Gaedtke, KPS3 CEO. "She brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and passion as a marketer that not only complements the current team but adds another level of strategic communications to our team."
Caglar joins KPS3 from Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), an international leader in aerospace and defense, where she most recently served as the chief of staff to the president. She led all executive communications on behalf of the president and worked behind the scenes to ensure executive priorities were completed effectively and efficiently.
Prior to her role as chief of staff, Caglar served as SNC's deputy director of communications managing the corporation's international media relations and strategic communications efforts for international projects related to SNC and its subsidiaries. She was also responsible for the organization's internal communications strategy enterprise-wide with a focus to expand employee communications efforts among its nearly 4,000 employees.
Before joining SNC, Caglar served in a number of different marketing and communications roles at Renown Health, eventually leading the hospital's internal and external communications teams as their manager of communications. During her time at Renown, Caglar launched, managed and grew BestMEDICINE, Renown Health's content marketing strategy. She was responsible for the organization's annual image study, managed successful launches for various services and earned a PRSA Silver Spike award for the team's creative content marketing strategies on behalf of Renown Health.
Caglar earned her BA in journalism with a minor in marketing from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2005, and earned her MBA from the same university in 2007.
About KPS3:
We are a digital-first agency with roots in the written word, delivering purposeful marketing, branding and public relations focused on moving companies toward universal growth. KPS3 knows that opportunity can be found through data. We help companies act on that data to connect brand-centric creative with quantifiable insights, driving bottom-line results. KPS3 brings insights to life. To keep up on all things KPS3, visit kps3.com or like us on Facebook.
Media Contact: Jancy Ulch
775-686-7432, [email protected]
SOURCE KPS3
Related Links
http://kps3.com
NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Launchmetrics, the leading marketing platform and analytics solution for the Fashion, Luxury and Cosmetic (FLC) industries, today announced that it has closed $50 million in financing led by Bpifrance, followed by Seventure, Cipio Partners and Famille C (Famille Courtin-Clarins). With the support of this funding the company's projected to grow from $25m to $100m in revenue over the next 4 years, leveraging an organic growth and a strategic M&A program.
The leading marketing platform and analytics solution
"I am excited to share the news of our latest fundraising, it really highlights the contribution we have been able to bring to our customers and the industry to date," said Michael Jais, CEO of Launchmetrics. "As the leading marketing platform and analytics solution for the Fashion, Luxury and Cosmetics industries, I am confident this additional capital will help us accelerate our business across Asia, the Middle East and Europe as well as further invest in the development of cutting-edge data technologies that will transform the way marketing works for these industries in the future."
More than 1,000 brands and over 50,000 influencers in the Fashion, Luxury and Cosmetics (FLC) space rely on Launchmetrics' tools every day to help them identify the most influential voices in the industry, activate those voices and measure the results of their marketing and communication campaigns. The funding will help the business further support their existing clients and focus on growing each one of those relationships.
The company is set for rapid team expansion with over 150 new hires slated in the next two years in marketing, sales, software development and data. Additionally, there will be focus on product development and innovation, with specific attention to internal research being conducted in their Data Lab which is developing visual recognition algorithms to automatically tag brands, products and people from images created or shared by influencers, allowing brands to analyze the media impact value created directly from this user created visual content across web and social media. The capital will also be used to scale existing territories including the US, UK and Europe with a strong focus on growing markets such as Germany, Asia and the Middle East with heavy investment in data and social monitoring in Asia.
"Over the years we have helped build many successful companies and pride ourselves on our ability to identify those with a lot of potential. We have been very impressed with Launchmetrics' innovative technology, category authority and growth dynamics," said Nicolas Herschtel, Deputy Managing Director, Large Venture at Bpifrance. "They have a strong vision for the future of Fashion & Luxury Technology and we look forward to being part of their journey as they become the worldwide leader in marketing solutions."
According to recent Luxury Insight and Bain reports, the marketing spend for FLC companies is estimated at $248bn annually and millennials already represent over 40% of luxury customers. With the rise of the millennial consumer and the return to authenticity in marketing strategies worldwide, brands are seeing a shift from traditional advertising to influencer (digital) marketing, creating a demand in the marketplace for companies who can facilitate those relationships between brands and influencers as well as benchmark & measure results within the industry through technology.
Today, Launchmetrics' team of over 40 data scientists and analysts work with the company's technology teams to develop proprietary algorithms that leverage AI technology and real machine learning to bring cutting-edge changes to FLC industries. They monitor over 20,000 brands daily as well as 50k media outlets and 100k influencers for:
REAL-TIME BIG DATA
Crawling, processing and augmenting in real time terabytes of data everyday coming from millions of website, blogs, professional social accounts and print data.
CUTTING-EDGE MACHINE LEARNING
Creating robust algorithms (deep learning) for text and image analysis in order to monitor trends linked to brands/events/people/product types across Print, Online and Social to produce industry benchmarking and trend insights as well as predict future campaign performance across these channels and voices.
GRAPH THEORY
Innovative graph analysis algorithms to compute community-based distance between brands and map them into custom spaces where one can visualize their positioning in a market vs competitors or potential partners.
The company was founded in 2016 out of a merger by Augure (Paris), a global powerhouse in Influencer Marketing Software and Fashion GPS (New York), the premier technology provider of the Fashion Industry. Since then, the company has grown 100% adding top-tier clients such as Givenchy, Swarovski, Swatch Group, Adidas, among others. This Fall, Launchmetrics will roll out its newest influencer relationship management tool across Europe with a global analytics platform launching in January 2019. The new tool will allow brands to understand how various marketing and communications activities impact their Brand Equity across different voices, channels, media types, time periods, products, regions and equates a monetary value to these projects to help them better arbitrate their budgets in the future as well as optimize campaign performance.
To learn more about Launchmetrics, please visit launchmetrics.com.
Press Contact:
Launchmetrics
Alison Bringe
[email protected]
+447850432928
Bpifrance
Nathalie Police
[email protected]
+33141799526
Jefferies acted as sole financial advisor to Launchmetrics.
About Launchmetrics
Launchmetrics is a Marketing Platform and Analytics Solution to help Fashion, Luxury and Cosmetics professionals discover, activate and measure the voices that matter for their brands. It is the most essential and trusted platform in the industry, yielding an unrivalled market penetration to the top seventy fashion and luxury brands worldwide including Dior, Fendi, NET-A-PORTER, Topshop and more.
Founded in NYC with operating headquarters in Paris, and offices in London, Milan, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Madrid, and Girona (Spain) and support in five languages; the company works with over 1,000 brands as well as partners like IMG, the Council of Fashion Designers of America, the British Fashion Council, Pitti Immagine, and Google, to accelerate their business and build lasting exposure. The company's industry communities GPS Radar & Style Coalition bring together over 50,000 influencers, editors, buyers and more to share content, events, news, images and more.
Related Images
launchmetrics-management-team.jpg
Launchmetrics Management Team
launchmetrics-ceo-michael-jais.jpg
Launchmetrics CEO, Michael Jais
launchmetrics-at-ny-fashion-week.jpg
Launchmetrics at NY Fashion Week
The leading marketing platform and analytics solution
launchmetrics-at-ny-fashion-week.jpg
Launchmetrics at NY Fashion Week
Related Links
Launchmetrics.com
Related Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWbFyDUVr3I
SOURCE Launchmetrics
Related Links
http://www.Launchmetrics.com
VALLEY COTTAGE, New York, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
Global Lining Market: Overview
Product advancements addressing key consumer issues to remain important forward market strategy among lining manufacturers
Global lining market prospects are likely to be significantly influenced by the increasing investments in oil and gas exploration activities and augmenting production capacities of refineries. Moreover, surging demand for trade through marine ports coupled with growing shipbuilding industry and frequent repair and maintenance of linings in shipping are some key factors favoring the growth of global lining market. The global lining market is estimated to be valued at US$ 3,958.7 Mn by 2018 end. Expanding at a modest CAGR of 3.9%, the global lining market is anticipated to reach a valuation of US$ 5,820.8 Mn, over the forecast period of 2018-2028, as per a recent study by Future Market Insights.
(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/677274/Future_Market_Insights_Logo.jpg )
Marine Trade and Shipbuilding Activities Offering Potential Opportunities for Lining Adoption
Marine routes are major conveyance option for goods in the form of containers, dry and liquid bulk and roll on-roll off (Ro-Ro) type of cargos. Cost effective transfer of heavy and bulk materials in a single go fueling marine trade. Shipbuilding, too is contributing to the growth of global lining market. Availability of all necessary resources in Asia Pacific is found to be a key factor responsible for the growth of the shipbuilding industry in the region. Moreover, low labor cost and indulgent legislations are accelerating the shipbuilding industry, further pushing the demand for marine linings over the forecast period.
Request a Sample Report with Table of Contents and Figures: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-7246
Polymer Lining to Remain Most Preferred Across Industries Through 2028; Demand for Eco-Friendly Products to Induce Novelties in Lining Market
Segmented into polymer lining, rubber lining, ceramic and carbon brick lining, and tile lining, the global lining market will witness significant revenue contribution from the polymer lining variant. The polymer lining segment is projected to hold a dominant share in terms of both market value and CAGR index. Growing demand for linings across the globe as well as environmental regulations in developed regions are the major factors driving the lining market. Moreover, increasing demand from marine, oil and gas, automotive, and chemicals industries is likely to drive the adoption of polymer lining in the global lining market. Epoxy resins are likely to dominant the global polymer lining market, owing to its excellent resistance to numerous chemicals couple with other technological advancements.
Although solvent borne linings are likely to hold a significant share of the global lining market, considering increasing adoption of ecofriendly lining products in developed countries would propel the adoption of waterborne and powder linings. Stringent Government regulations and adoption of lining products with low-VOC content are key factors pushing the demand for waterborne and powder linings. Manufacturers in the global linings market are constantly investing in R&D activities to introduce new products and technologies for product differentiation, further driving the lining market.
Preview Analysis Global Lining Market Segmentation: By Product Type - Polymer: Epoxy, Polyurethane, Acrylic, Alkyd, Fluoropolymer, Vinyl Ester & Flake-Filled Ester; Rubber, Ceramic & Carbon Brick Line, Tile Lining; By Chemistry - Solvent borne, Waterborne, Powder : https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/lining-market
However, volatile prices of raw materials including epoxy and polyurethane and stringent government directives regarding VOC emissions across various regions are key restrainers impacting the overall growth of global lining market.
China followed by Western Europe and North America, are likely to showcase increased adoption of linings. Fast-paced industrial growth in China is significantly contributing to sales of lining products in the region, which is expected to hold nearly 35% of the market, by 2028.
Major global suppliers of linings are channelizing efforts towards developing partnerships with end users in order to better address the demand for specific requirements. Product customization is likely to remain a key differentiation strategy among key manufacturers in the global lining market. Top players in the global linings market are The Sherwin Williams Company, PPG Industries, Inc, Akzo Nobel N.V., Hempel A/S, The Jotun Group, Solvay SA, Teknos Group, and STEULER-KCH GmBH.
Our advisory services are aimed at helping you with specific, customised insights that are relevant to your specific challenges. Let us know about your challenges and our trusted advisors will connect with you: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-7246
More from FMI's Chemical & Materials Market Intelligence:
Polysilicon Market segmentation By Grade Type- Solar Grade, Electronics Grade; Polysilicon Market: Rapid Growth in Solar PV Installations Across the Globe to Drive Revenue Growth: Global Industry Analysis 2013 - 2017 and Opportunity Assessment 2018 - 2028 : https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/polysilicon-market
segmentation By Grade Type- Solar Grade, Electronics Grade; Polysilicon Market: Rapid Growth in Solar PV Installations Across the Globe to Drive Revenue Growth: Global Industry Analysis 2013 - 2017 and Opportunity Assessment 2018 - 2028 : https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/polysilicon-market Zinc Chloride Market Segmentation: By Grade Type - High Purity Grade, Battery Grade, Technical Grade, Commercial Grade; Application Type - Dry Cell Batteries, Water Treatment, Catalyst, Others; End Use - Electronics, Chemical, Agriculture, Pharmaceutical, Others : https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/zinc-chloride-market
Segmentation: By Grade Type - High Purity Grade, Battery Grade, Technical Grade, Commercial Grade; Application Type - Dry Cell Batteries, Water Treatment, Catalyst, Others; End Use - Electronics, Chemical, Agriculture, Pharmaceutical, Others : https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/zinc-chloride-market Zeolite for Detergents Market Segmentation by Product Type - Zeolite A, Zeolite P, Zeolite X and AX : https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/zeolite-for-detergents-market
About Us
Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights and an aerial view of the competitive framework and future market trends.
Browse More Chemical & Materials Market Insights
Contact Us
616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,
Valley Cottage, NY 10989,
United States
T: +1-347-918-3531
F: +1-845-579-5705
T (UK): +44(0)20-7692-8790
Sales: [email protected]
Press Office: [email protected]
FMI Blog: http://www.fmiblog.com/
Website: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com
SOURCE Future Market Insights
DURHAM, N.C., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Infinia ML, an advanced machine learning company that delivers automation solutions and predictive analytics to enterprise businesses, today announced a partnership with Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering to integrate machine learning into the school's entrepreneurial instruction.
Starting in the 2018-2019 school year, engineering students will attend lectures on machine learning from Infinia ML leaders including CEO Robbie Allen and executive chairman Mike Salvino. In addition, Infinia ML will work with Duke startups to implement machine learning in their businesses. Infinia ML's endeavors will support the work of Steve McClelland, Duke Engineering's entrepreneur in residence leading undergraduate entrepreneurship efforts.
"Machine learning is an evolving and important tool that's changing how businesses approach and solve problems," says McClelland. "Understanding its strengths, limitations and opportunities helps entrepreneurs deliver unique solutions, value and services to customers. Duke students will benefit from access to Infinia ML's experience in applying these tools to solve real-world problems."
With this partnership, supported by a $25,000 contribution from Infinia ML, the company builds on its significant Duke University connections. The company is a spin-out from the machine learning lab of Lawrence Carin, PhD, professor of electrical and computer engineering and vice provost for research at Duke. Other Blue Devils on the Infinia ML team include Assistant Professor Ricardo Henao, visiting Faculty Member Hongteng Xu, PhD graduate Ya Xue, and Postdoctoral Associate Ikenna Odinaka.
"Machine learning is driving business value across a wide variety of industries and use cases, but we believe the most exciting applications are yet to come," said Infinia CEO Robbie Allen. "We're excited to help the next generation of Duke entrepreneurs build the next generation of machine learning solutions, products, and businesses."
"The opportunities this partnership will provide dovetail perfectly with our strategy to increase student interactions with industry practitioners so that they are well exposed to real-world situations and problems while at Duke Engineering," said Ravi Bellamkonda, the Vinik Dean of the Pratt School of Engineering.
About Infinia ML
Infinia ML is a team of advanced machine learning experts focused on making business impact. The company helps enterprise clients reduce costs, increase efficiency, and achieve breakthroughs with data science. Infinia ML serves industries from manufacturing and healthcare to marketing and human resources. The company's capabilities include natural language processing, recommendation engines, object detection, 3D image modeling, and anomaly detection.
The Durham, North Carolina company is led by CEO Robbie Allen, an experienced AI entrepreneur, Chief Scientist Lawrence Carin, one of the world's most published machine learning experts and Duke University's vice provost for research, and Executive Chairman and Carrick Capital Partners Managing Director Mike Salvino. Together, the Infinia ML team holds seven PhDs and has produced 31 patents, 11 books, and more than 575 published papers.
InfiniaML.com
About Duke's Pratt School of Engineering
The Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University is a vibrant teaching and research institution dedicated to training the next generation of leaders and exploring the frontiers of engineering to develop solutions to the world's greatest challenges. Ranked among the top 20 engineering schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, the school seeks to prepare engineers with the intellectual agility and motivation to make a positive impact on society while leading productive, ethical, and rewarding lives. With more than $70 million in annual research expenditures, Duke Engineering is home to faculty ranked among the top in the nation in research productivity. More than 40 companies based on Duke faculty technology have been launched to date, including five in the past year.
Media Contact:
James Kotecki
984-227-8480
[email protected]
SOURCE Infinia ML
Related Links
http://InfiniaML.com
VAUGHAN, Ontario, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MadeGood, the leading allergy-friendly and nutrient-rich granola snack creators, launches not one but two NEW product lines, Soft Baked Mini Cookies and Crispy Light Granola. These delicious snacks and cereals are tasty additions to the MadeGood line of school-safe products that include granola bars, granola minis and crispy squares. Easy and convenient but also safe for nut-free classrooms, gluten-free, certified vegan, organic, Non-GMO, kosher parve and contain a full serving of vegetables. And so yummy kids won't bring them back.
A group of MadeGood products including Crispy Squares, Crispy Light Granola, Granola Bars, Soft Baked Cookies and Granola Minis.
"MadeGood is thrilled to once again expand the availability of innovative snacks that serve society's desire for healthy and allergy-friendly products that everyone can enjoy," says Nima Fotovat, president of MadeGood Foods INC. "We're excited and proud to be entering new product categories, offering consumers healthier alternatives to traditional cookies and granola that are not only nutritious, but delicious!"
The NEW MadeGood Soft Baked Mini Cookies are the ideal addition to the line of nutritious MadeGood snacks that are perfect for snack time and school safe lunches. These deliciously soft and chewy cookies available in Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Banana, Apple Cinnamon and Double Chocolate flavors, will leave you satisfied without the guilt. With the simple goodness of granola and the light, crisp texture of cereal, MadeGood Crispy Light Granola can be enjoyed with milk at breakfast or snack time. Simple, minimally processed organic ingredients is combined with the nutrients of vegetables for a delicious, allergy-friendly and school-safe cereal alternative with four flavors to choose from; Chocolate Banana, Apple Cinnamon, Strawberry and Cocoa Crunch.
Nima adds, "MadeGood's delicious offerings continue to grow beyond the specialty and snack aisles, but with every new product line our quality remains the same with an allergy-friendly and nutritious focus that does not compromise taste."
All MadeGood products are produced in a dedicated facility free from the common allergens: peanut, tree nuts, wheat, dairy, egg, soy, sesame, fish and shellfish. They are available at major grocery outlets and natural foods stores across the country including Whole Foods Market, Krogers, Wegmans, Meijers, CVS, Amazon and many more. MadeGood's Crispy Light Granola and Soft Baked Mini Cookies are hitting store shelves this month, just in time for summer snacking and back to school.
For more information about MadeGood products, visit www.madegoodfoods.com
Media Contact: Emerald-Jane Hunter Office: 312-874-7204 Mobile: 312-735-0196 [email protected]
ABOUT MADEGOOD:
Canadian based MadeGood is dedicated to providing healthy snacks that are rich in nutrients, allergen friendly and minimally processed. All MadeGood products contain wholesome organic ingredients that are ethically sourced. Also, proud to be a certified B Corporation and part of a group of for-profit companies, certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. MadeGood is made in a Zero Waste certified facility. MadeGood is a good choice for your health, your family's health and the planet's health. Trust in something good. For more details, visit http://www.madegoodfoods.com or @madegoodfoods
Related Images
madegood-products.jpg
MadeGood products
A group of MadeGood products including Crispy Squares, Crispy Light Granola, Granola Bars, Soft Baked Cookies and Granola Minis.
madegood-soft-baked-cookies-in.jpg
MadeGood Soft Baked Cookies in packed lunch
An image of a package of MadeGood Soft Baked Cookies ready to accompany a health lunch for school.
madegood-light-crispy-granola.jpg
MadeGood Light Crispy Granola
New Light Crispy Granola that stays crunchy in milk for a nourishing breakfast or snack.
madegood-crispy-squares.jpg
MadeGood Crispy Squares
The perfect lunch box treat. Just like the classic favorite but nut free, vegan and gluten free with only 7 grams of sugar.
Related Links
MadeGood Foods website
Related Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQEZas1JC7o
SOURCE MadeGood Foods INC
Related Links
http://madegoodfoods.com
Photo: The Canadian Press A condo building is seen under construction surrounded by houses in Vancouver, B.C., on March 30, 2018.
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says prices for detached homes, townhouses and condos have fallen for two consecutive months in Metro Vancouver.
The board says the benchmark price for all types of properties is currently $1,083,400 up 4.1 per cent compared to August 2017, but down 1.9 per cent since May 2018.
Detached home prices fell 2.8 per cent since May to $1,561,000, which is also down 3.1 per cent compared to the previous August.
Attached home prices fell 0.8 per cent to $846,100 since May, but rose 7.9 per cent compared to August 2017.
Condominium prices also dropped since May by 1.6 per cent to $695,500 up 10.3 per cent from the same time last year.
REBGV president Phil Moore says in a statement that current buyers have more listings to choose from and face less competition in the area than in recent years.
He says they've also been less active in recent months with 1,929 home sales in the region last month compared to 3,043 in August 2017 and prices are beginning to edge down as a result.
HOUSTON, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Main Street Capital Corporation (NYSE: MAIN) ("Main Street") is pleased to announce that it recently led a new portfolio investment to facilitate the majority recapitalization of Tedder Industries, LLC ("Tedder" or the "Company"), a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of firearm holsters and accessories primarily under the brand name Alien Gear. Main Street, along with a co-investor, partnered with the Company's founder and Chief Executive Officer and senior management team to facilitate the transaction, with Main Street funding $23.9 million in a combination of first-lien, senior secured term debt and a direct equity investment.
Founded in 2010, and headquartered in Post Falls, Idaho, Tedder creates personal and comfortable solutions primarily for the open and concealed carry consumer market. The Company offers high-quality, competitively priced firearm holsters and accessories for a wide variety of carrying methods. The Company sells the majority of its products directly to consumers in the United States through its own ecommerce website and has recently launched its brick and mortar presence through over 500 retailers nationwide.
ABOUT MAIN STREET CAPITAL CORPORATION
Main Street (www.mainstcapital.com) is a principal investment firm that primarily provides long-term debt and equity capital to lower middle market companies and debt capital to middle market companies. Main Street's portfolio investments are typically made to support management buyouts, recapitalizations, growth financings, refinancings and acquisitions of companies that operate in diverse industry sectors. Main Street seeks to partner with entrepreneurs, business owners and management teams and generally provides "one stop" financing alternatives within its lower middle market portfolio. Main Street's lower middle market companies generally have annual revenues between $10 million and $150 million. Main Street's middle market debt investments are made in businesses that are generally larger in size than its lower middle market portfolio companies.
Contacts:
Main Street Capital Corporation
Dwayne L. Hyzak, President & COO, [email protected]
Brent D. Smith, CFO, [email protected]
713-350-6000
Dennard Lascar Investor Relations
Ken Dennard | [email protected]
Mark Roberson | [email protected]
713-529-6600
SOURCE Main Street Capital Corporation
Related Links
http://www.mainstcapital.com
Ms. Calvet is recognized as a leading authority in the application of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and other anti-bribery statutes in Latin America. She advises clients on enforcement matters; transactions with governmental entities and financial institutions; risks associated with consortia and other partnerships; and M&A due diligence, including diligence in high-risk markets. At Ropes & Gray, Ms. Calvet, who is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, will focus on conducting internal investigations, counseling companies on disclosures to and negotiations with regulators, and helping clients build, improve, and implement effective compliance programs.
"Roughly half of all FCPA investigations in 2017 had a Latin America component, so effectively navigating the risks posed by this region is increasingly critical to our clients in the U.S. and abroad," said Alex Rene, co-chair of the anti-corruption and international risk practice and managing partner of the Washington, D.C. office of Ropes & Gray. "Maria's experience uniquely positions her to help clients do business ethically in Latin America, and beyond."
Throughout her career, Ms. Calvet has acquired significant experience in anti-corruption and other investigative matters in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe, and in every significant business sector. Prior to joining Ropes & Gray, Ms. Calvet was Executive Counsel for Global Investigations at General Electric, where she helped protect and defend the company in Latin America. Before joining General Electric, Ms. Calvet spent four years at the U.S. Department of Justice as a trial attorney in the Fraud Section's FCPA Unit, leading some of the Department's most important international white collar criminal investigations in Latin America, with a particular focus on corruption in the region. She also focused on other complex white collar crimes, such as money laundering and bank, mail, wire and health care fraud, in districts around the U.S., with a focus on conduct arising out of Latin America.
"I am delighted to join Ropes & Gray, a prestigious global law firm with an international client base and a renowned anti-corruption and international risk practice," said Ms. Calvet. "I know that my years in government service, combined with my in-house and private practice experience, will be assets to Ropes & Gray's clients, and I look forward to working with them as they manage their risks in Latin America and around the world."
Ms. Calvet earned a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania, where she received numerous accolades, including an undergraduate Mellon Foundation Fellowship and the Alice B. Paul Award, which recognizes extraordinary women students. She then received an M.A. in English from the Pennsylvania State University, followed by a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Upon graduation from law school, she clerked for Judge Legrome D. Davis of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
The arrival of Ms. Calvet follows two notable additions to Ropes & Gray's anti-corruption and international risk practice in the past year. Partner and co-head of the firm's London international risk practice Judith Seddon joined Ropes & Gray's London office in January, and is recognized as one of the leading financial crime lawyers in the U.K. Additionally, partner Ama Adams joined the Washington, D.C. office in November 2017, bringing with her a strong focus on international transactions and the U.S. government's regulation of trade and global investment.
Ropes & Gray's award winning anti-corruption and international risk practice consists of former federal prosecutors and SEC enforcement attorneys who have extensive experience handling regulatory and enforcement initiatives in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas. Co-chaired by Jim Dowden, Amanda Raad, and Alex Rene, our attorneys possess an in-depth understanding of our clients' businesses and industries, as well as the cultural environments in which they operate.
About Ropes & Gray
Ropes & Gray is a preeminent global law firm with approximately 1,300 lawyers and legal professionals serving clients in major centers of business, finance, technology and government. The firm has offices in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul, and has consistently been recognized for its leading practices in many areas, including private equity, M&A, finance, investment management, hedge funds, real estate, tax, antitrust, life sciences, health care, intellectual property, litigation & enforcement, privacy & cybersecurity, and business restructuring. www.ropesgray.com
CONTACT:
Alexandra Meredith
Public Relations Specialist
Ropes & Gray
[email protected]
+1 617 235 4318
SOURCE Ropes & Gray
Related Links
http://www.ropesgray.com
IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mavenlink, the leading provider of cloud-based software for the modern services organization and G2 Crowd Leader, today announced it has expanded its management team with the addition of Piero Broccardo as Chief Financial Officer and Pam DeMond as Senior Vice President of Human Resources. Broccardo will lead financial operations and planning for the business through its next stage of growth, while DeMond will help the company scale and enhance the global employee experience.
"We are delighted to add Piero and Pam to our talented and innovative team," said Ray Grainger, Mavenlink CEO and co-founder. "Both will serve as integral leaders at Mavenlink as we embark on our next stage of growth. Specifically, we will tap into Piero's vast expertise and proven experience in driving financial performance through growth stages north of $100 million in revenue, while Pam's extensive knowledge of contemporary human resources practices will help us to crystalize and scale our talent strategy, structure and processes."
Piero Broccardo, Chief Financial Officer
Prior to Mavenlink, Broccardo spent six years as CFO at Accurate Background, providing the capital strategy and financing approach that led to rapid growth, streamlined operations, and expanded margins for the business. Prior to Accurate Background, Broccardo was CFO at Alchemy, where he led the acquisition, finance and strategic planning functions, helping the company to grow through sound capitalization strategies and become the largest independent film distributor in the country. Broccardo has also held key senior leadership roles encompassing pricing, strategic planning, and SEC reporting at Hines Nurseries, Lantronix and Ziba. He holds an MBA in International Business and Finance from Pepperdine Graziadio Business School, and a bachelor degree in Economics from California State University, Fullerton.
"Mavenlink attracted me with its innovative and differentiated product, exceptional growth trajectory and national recognition as a great place to work," said Broccardo. "I'm looking forward to digging in and developing the processes, procedures and systems to enable continued rapid growth."
Pam DeMond, Senior Vice President of Human Resources
Prior to joining Mavenlink, DeMond was VP of Human Resources at mophie, a global leader and manufacturer of mobile intelligent devices. At mophie, she placed a heavy focus on organizational scaling and transformational HR initiatives to drive and enable high growth for the company. Prior to mophie, DeMond led Corporate Human Resources for the global consumer brand Oakley, where she and her team built the infrastructure to support all corporate business functions for more than 2,500 employees. DeMond has held multiple key leadership roles at other notable global firms, including 13 years leading corporate and field HR teams at Pepsico/Taco Bell, and eight years at Macy's, where she held several roles in operations and human resources. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
"My passion for software and Mavenlink's innovative culture drew me in. I could relate to the challenges the Mavenlink team is solving for the modern, distributed workforce," said DeMond. "I am particularly looking forward to working within a fun, ambitious, and hard-working culture that I can help foster and scale."
The addition of these hires builds on Mavenlink's market momentum and recent recognition as one of the fastest growing companies based in North America by Deloitte, and as a Leader in G2 Crowd's Best Project Management Software grid, as well as its Best Professional Services Automation Software (PSA) grid for Spring 2018. Mavenlink is the only solution to be ranked as a Leader in the two prominent software categories. The company this year has also released two significant enhancements to its industry-leading platform: Project Pulse, a live, comprehensive summary view of a project's status, health, and projections accessible from almost anywhere in Mavenlink; and Mavenlink M-Bridge, a domain-specific integration platform that enables professional and marketing services organizations to more easily and thoughtfully connect key apps with their operational system of record.
For more information about Piero, Pam and the Mavenlink executive team, visit https://www.mavenlink.com/team.
About Mavenlink
Mavenlink is a modern software platform for professional and marketing services organizations. It is the only solution that helps services firms establish an operational system of record that facilitates their business lifecycle, including key capabilities like resource management, project management, collaboration, project accounting, and BI. Services organizations in more than 100 countries are improving operational execution, increasing agility, and driving improved financial performance with Mavenlink. Mavenlink was recently named one of the fastest growing companies in North America by Deloitte, is the only solution to be listed as a Leader in both G2 Crowd's Best Professional Services Automation and Best Project Management Software grids, and was recently named A Cool Vendor by Gartner, the world's leading technology research and advisory firm. Learn more at www.mavenlink.com.
SOURCE Mavenlink
Related Links
http://www.mavenlink.com
MELBOURNE, Australia, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Melbourne has cemented its position as Australia's top tech city and now it is launching a big push to drive more collaboration and better connections with the Bay Area.
This vibrant multicultural city of five million, which is regularly named among the world's most liveable cities, produces the most tech graduates and is home to the majority of leading Australian public tech companies.
Michael Kapel, Commissioner to the Americas for the Government of Victoria, Australia, says that Melbourne's strong culture of innovation and deep talent pool of highly skilled tech workers was already attracting investment from some of the biggest U.S. tech names.
Companies including Square, Zendesk, Google, Salesforce, Slack, Stripe, EA, Yelp, Splunk, Expensify, Go Pro, Etsy, Eventbrite, Apple, Amazon, Cognizant, Culture Amp and more are among leading U.S. tech companies that have all recently established operations in Melbourne.
"Melbourne is a leading tech hub in the Asia Pacific region and has deep connections with the strongest regional players, making it the perfect location for U.S. companies seeking to break into fast growing Asian markets," Mr. Kapel said.
"Melbourne is Australia's fastest growing city with a booming economy, a highly skilled tech workforce, a vibrant tech ecosystem and an actively engaged and supportive government that works with the tech sector."
And now the Government of Victoria, Australia is launching a major marketing campaign called Melbourne: Tech City Australia which is designed to encourage more investment, more collaboration and stronger connections with the U.S. tech sector.
The marketing campaign will feature prominent outdoor advertising, including being featured on San Francisco's public transit system, digital campaigns and publications.
Reinforcing Melbourne's push to strengthen ties with the U.S. is the announcement that Australia's national carrier Qantas has launched direct flights between Melbourne and San Francisco.
Mr. Kapel said the new service would take the number of flights between Melbourne, Australia and North America to 31 per week, boosting tourism and trade.
For more details about investing in Melbourne, Australia and how the Victorian State Government can assist you, visit techcity.melbourne
SOURCE State Government of Victoria, Australia
Related Links
http://techcity.melbourne
PERM, Russia, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Metafrax PJSC reported the results for the first half of 2018. The company revenue under the RSA made up $183.6 million, of which net profit $73.9 million. These results are by 28.7% and 37.3% respectively higher than for the previous year. According to Metafrax beneficiary owner Seyfeddin Roustamov, the key growth drivers are the favorable market conditions and optimized business processes.
Roustamov Seyfeddin:
- We have learned to respond more quickly to fluctuations in both the domestic and foreign markets, and have achieved some success in optimizing our logistics that helped minimize unforeseen costs and make the export parity more predictable. In addition, the current market condition enabled us to increase our turnover due to the significant surge in output in the first half of the year.
With growing financial indicators, the company plans to expand its largest investment project - the construction of Ammonia-Carbamide-Melamine Plant at the production site in Gubakha (Perm Territory, Russia). The construction of this large-scale facility is currently underway. The company's management plans to complete the construction in 2021, and is sure that it will strengthen Metafrax position in the European market of synthetic resins. At the same time, the company considers the possibility of expanding plant facilities, namely, to build another melamine plant. At the end of July, Metafrax signed a contract with Casale (Switzerland) for the development of a plant baseline design. Mr Roustamov notes that once the plant is built, Metafrax will be among the five largest producers of melamine in Europe. The project is estimated at $ 230 million.
Roustamov Seyfeddin:
- Under our development strategy, we strive to become one of the largest melamine producers in Europe. With the expanded investment project, Metafrax will be able to produce up to 80,000 tons of melamine per year.
For your reference:
Metafrax Group is one of the largest producers of methanol and its derivatives, having its production sites in Russia and Austria. Its sales geography covers more than 20 countries, including Great Britain, Finland, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, USA and others. Its beneficiary owner is Seyfeddin Roustamov.
Media contact:
Oleg Smirnov
Metafrax
+7 (342) 484-08-98
http://metafrax.ru/en
SOURCE Metafrax
Related Links
http://metafrax.ru/en
"Wellness travel is not a one-size fit all concept. There is an increased appetite for providing travelers with opportunities to better themselves, and Miami Beach is a growing hub for wellness-conscious visitors," says Steve Adkins, Chairman of the Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority (MBVCA). "Travelers will find experiences, rituals, and mantras during their time with us and will have the ability to go home with a new sense of renewal and inner peace leading up to one of the most stressful times of the year."
Travelers looking to diversify their idea of wellbeing in Miami Beach, a destination like no other place in the world, will find a number of special activities, attractions, amenities and restaurants worth traveling for that cater to the growing demand for destination travel, including:
The Confidante Miami Beach has teamed up with luxury-spiritual lifestyle brand, Glacce, already famous for its crystal water bottles, to debut a customized crystal massage journey. The multi-sensory, 50-minute experience harnesses the power of crystal energy to rejuvenate, relax, or release based on guest preferences and needs. Guests can select their healing crystal - clear, rose quartz or amethyst - at the start of the journey, which is followed by a custom massage that draws from the energetic healing properties of the chosen crystal. The experience culminates with a hydrating crystal elixir ceremony, awakening the full spiritual potential of visitors and leaving them with a natural high.
Visitors looking to stay on track with healthy eating habits can enjoy a variety of dishes created to bring vegan to a new and delicious level on Miami Beach. Serving completely animal-free menu items sourced from local farms and small distribution companies, diners can feel good about diving into a sampling of creations like Jackfruit Empanaditas, Homemade Cashew Ricotta, and Spinach Ravioli al Pomodoro, Chimichurri Tempeh over Rainbow Quinoa and Raw Avocado Key Lime Ice Cream with Berry Sauce.
To help vacationers make the most of September, the Carillon Miami Wellness Resort has created the perfect spa day. Guests can enjoy a 50-minute treatment, access to 8 a.m. yoga and the adults-only rooftop pool, a beach chair and pass, two mimosas or glasses of prosecco, pre-and-post treatment relaxation in thermal areas, complete with Igloo Suite, Vitality Pool, Hydro Circuit and Crystal Steam room, complimentary valet and 20 percent off The Strand & Grill and The Corner Store.
Beach-goers can take fitness to a new level at Anatomy on Miami Beach, a destination fusing all aspects of fitness together and offering services including age management, chiropractic care, IV nutritional therapy and beauty, group fitness, personal training and both hot and cold recovery areas. This intimate and integrated health and wellness community allow visitors to connect, sweat and recover, all under one roof.
Wellness-seeking travelers can look to Miami Beach all year long and stay up-to-date by downloading the Miami Beach Information App at www.miamibeachapi.com/app/.
ABOUT MIAMI BEACH
Awarded first place in the 2018, 2017 and 2016 edition of the Travvy Awards, presented by travAlliancemedia in the categories of "Best LGBTQ Destination" and "Best Wedding Destination, U.S. & Canada," recently named 2017 and 2016 World's Leading City Tourist Board in and North America's Leading Tourist Board by the World Travel Awards, and a winner in the 2014, 2015 and 2016 Magellan Awards by Travel Weekly in the categories of "Destinations | Mobile App", "Overall Spa Destinations| U.S and Canada" and "Overall Beaches Destinations| U.S and Canada" respectively, Miami Beach is a favorite destination among travelers worldwide. Renowned for its unparalleled culinary offerings, extravagant nightlife, rich culture, luxe shopping and plush hotels, Miami Beach is home to unique museums, the New World Symphony, Miami City Ballet, Miami Beach Convention Center, international festivals and art exhibitions, boat and auto shows, over 187 boutique and resort hotels and 12 public parks; it is no wonder the beautifully diverse city is one of the world's most popular vacation destinations. Boasting seven miles of breathtaking beaches, Miami Beach is easily accessible from the Port of Miami and Miami International Airport. The City of Miami Beach has been named one of the top cities worldwide for 'walkability' and is equally easy to navigate by bike or boat. Known for its year-round sunny skies, the vibrant destination has been ranked by TripAdvisor as a Top Winter Sun Vacation Rental Getaway Destinations, Top Romantic Destinations, Top 25 Beaches in the World and Top 25 Destinations in the U.S. Miami Beach is like no other place in the world!
SOURCE Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority
Related Links
http://www.miamibeachapi.com
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The dynamic national Minority Women Professionals Conference series, hosted by Inspire Health Solutions, will be making its next stop at Harvard Medical School (HMS) on September 22, 2018!
Our awesome speakers including Amy Chua, Celine Gounder, and A. Slater! A look at the fun and empowering sessions attendees will get to engage in!
In partnership with the Harvard Medical School's Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Community Partnerships, headed by Dean (Dr). Joan Reede, MD, MBA, MS, the Association of Minority Women Professionals will be convening 100-200 women across the East Coast to celebrate women of diverse backgrounds and experiences. This conference will feature a series of guest speakers, workshops, networking and mentorship opportunities aimed to inspire and empower Minority Women Professionals (MWPs), while also equipping them with essential tools and skills to "survive and thrive" in their professions.
The Harvard Conference will be headlined by Amy Chua, Yale Law Professor and the author of the New York Times bestselling books Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, World on Fire, Triple Threat and the new book Political Tribes. Additional keynotes will be given by Dr. Celine Gounder, one of People's Top 25 Women Changing the World and Empress AK, internationally renowned designer, speech pathologist, motivational speaker and social media influencer. The meeting will be opened by Tania Del Rio, Executive Director of the Office of Women's Advancement for the City of Boston, representing the Mayor's Office, and Dr. Joan Y. Reede, Dean of the HMS Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Community Partnerships, who is also the first African-American woman Dean at HMS.
With knowledge of intersectional discrimination that exists, the conference creator, Dr. J. Nwando Olayiwola, published the book Minority Women Professionals (MWPs) are MVPs! In 2016, highlighting "Ten secret ingredients in the secret sauce of MWPs". Each ingredient offers professional insight on the actions necessary for thriving as an MWP and form the foundation of topics at the conferences. This movement was shared as a strategy to dismantle institutional discrimination in the Lancet earlier this year, and the cities of San Francisco and Oakland, CA both declared January 28 as Minority Women Professionals Day in 2017.
"The time is now," said Dr. Olayiwola. "Minority women professionals are so essential to communities across the nation, especially along the East Coast, where diversity continues to be an asset. We are thrilled to bring this movement to Harvard."
The conference will not only discuss strategies and tools for succeeding in the workplace but will also celebrate the achievements of career-oriented women of diverse backgrounds, including women of color, of non-dominant faiths, with disabilities, of diverse sexual orientation, gender identities and ages, and of various national origins.
"This is an important time to unify and elevate women of diverse backgrounds at Harvard Medical School and beyond, harnessing our strengths and commonalities," said Dr. Joan Reede.
For registration information and to learn more about the MWPs conference series, please visit the Inspire Health Solutions website.
Media Contact:
Gabriella Doster
(415) 658-5775
[email protected]
Conference Contact
[email protected]
SOURCE Inspire Health Solutions, LLC
Related Links
https://inspire-health-solutions-llc.myshopify.com/pages/conference-information
VANCOUVER, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Namaste Technologies Inc. ("Namaste" or the "Company") (TSXV: N) (FRANKFURT: M5BQ) (OTCMKTS: NXTTF) is pleased to announce that the Company has achieved a 300% month-on-month growth rate in its Canadian marketplace, in comparison with August of 2017, and 50% growth globally. In the month of August of 2018, the Company generated $1.65M in revenue which represents a 50% increase in revenue in comparison with August of 2017 after consideration of the loss of revenue due to Namaste divesting its US assets that were incorporated into its 2017 sales. The Company has also achieved over 300% growth on its Canadian websites, which now includes over 17,000 customers.
The Company has been focused on developing its Canadian market by enhancing its e-commerce platform and focusing on organic growth through content production, search-engine optimization ("SEO") and in implementation of its proprietary AI technology through the Company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Findify AB ("Findify" or "Findify.io"). With increased competition in the Canadian market, Namaste is pleased to have achieved such significant growth in a key market for the Company.
In anticipation of receiving Canada's first medical cannabis "sales-only" license, under the guidelines of Health Canada's Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations ("ACMPR"), expansion of its Canadian platform including hardware sales as well as registered users in both NamasteMD ("NamasteMD.com") and My Uppy Cannabis ("My Uppy") Journal represent significant advances for the Company as it looks forward to launching cannabis sales into its Canadian e-commerce marketplace.
Further to its growth in the Company's hardware business, Namaste, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries and revolutionary mobile apps, NamasteMD and My Uppy have seen significant growth through summer months. NamasteMD is Canada's first fully-integrated online patient portal which provides convenient access to medical consultations for the purposes of patient acquisition for the Company. NamasteMD since its launch has acquired over 17,000 registered users, which will drive patient traffic and cannabis sales for the through the Company's ACMPR Licensed Producer partners and through Cannmart.com.
The Company anticipates further acceleration of NamasteMD's platform as it has now launched strategic marketing initiatives including its recent announcement and partnership with Breton CannaPharms which is focused on supporting various initiatives surrounding veteran communities and on providing free access to medical consultations through NamasteMD and in servicing veteran patients through a curated selection of cannabis products for veterans on Cannmart.com. Namaste also announced its partnership with the Indigenous Canadian Medical Dispensaries Group ("ICMD") whereby the Company is focused on providing healthcare access to urban and remote Indigenous community members across the country.
Namaste is also pleased with the growth of AI-driven cannabis journaling app, My Uppy. In less than 2 months since its launch, My Uppy has been downloaded over 15,000 times by users around the globe. Leveraging Namaste's international presence and database of over 1.5 Million customers, My Uppy is focused on collecting user feedback as it relates to the use and effects of various strains of cannabis, which provides data to feed Findify's AI algorithms that together will revolutionize strain recommendations by selecting specific strains for patients based on their conditions and previous use which is being integrated with Cannmart.com
Namaste's technological innovations, its added value services and extensive expertise with online sales will bring significant value and drive revenue growth for Namaste as looks forward to adding cannabis sales into its platform. The Company's impressive revenue, which ranks as eighth highest of all Canadian publicly-traded cannabis companies (based on Namaste's recently Q3 filing of $4.1M) has not yet factored the sale of a single gram of cannabis. By incorporating cannabis sales into its online platform, the Company will set itself apart as Canada's leading cannabis e-commerce retailer.
Management Commentary
Sean Dollinger, President and CEO of Namaste comments: "We're very pleased to see such significant growth in our Canadian marketplace that will ultimately drive new revenue in cannabis sales as we await Cannmart's ACMPR sales license. By focusing our efforts on the Canadian market over the past year we have increased our exposure and user base that forms the top of our sales funnel in converting online traffic into medical patients.
We're the first company in Canada to focus exclusively in online patient acquisition and have developed an amazing piece of software with NamasteMD that gives the Company a competitive advantage in and industry that we believe will trend towards massive growth in the online market. As a leader in global e-commerce sales, we will use all of our experience, technology and hard work to provide an amazing user experience and in offering our patients access to all things cannabis.
We plan on replicating this business model in emerging international markets where the Company maintains strong market share."
About Namaste Technologies Inc.
Namaste Technologies is Your Everything Cannabis Store. Namaste operates the largest global cannabis e-commerce platform with over 30 websites in 20+ countries under various brands. Namaste's product offering through its subsidiaries includes vaporizers, glassware, accessories, CBD products, and the company will soon be selling medical cannabis in the Canadian market, subject to approval by Health Canada.
Namaste has developed and acquired innovative technology platforms including NamasteMD.com, Canada's first Health Canada compliant telemedicine application, and in May 2018 the Company acquired a leading e-commerce AI and Machine Learning Company, Findify AB. Findify uses artificial intelligence algorithms to optimize and personalize a consumer's on-site buying experience. Namaste is focused on leveraging its cutting-edge technology to enhance the user experience throughout its platforms. Namaste will continue to develop and acquire innovative technologies which will provide value to the Company and to its shareholders as well as to the broader cannabis market.
On behalf of the Board of Directors
"Sean Dollinger"
Chief Executive Officer
Direct: +1 604-355-6100
Email: [email protected]
Further information on the Company and its products can be accessed through the links below:
NamasteTechnologies.com
NamasteMD.com
NamasteVapes.ca
Everyonedoesit.ca
FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION This press release contains forward-looking information based on current expectations. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. Although such statements are based on management's reasonable assumptions, Namaste assumes no responsibility to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances unless required by law. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. These statements speak only as of the date of this press release. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks including various risk factors discussed in the Company's disclosure documents which can be found under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com. This press 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. The TSXV has neither reviewed nor approved the contents of this press release.
SOURCE Namaste Technologies Inc.
BERLIN, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
- Cross reference: Picture is available at AP Images (http://www.apimages.com) -
The trustees of the American Academy in Berlin appointed Terry McCarthy as the institution's next president on September 1, 2018. McCarthy, a prize-winning journalist, previously served as president and CEO of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council. He arrives in Berlin tomorrow, September 6, 2018, and succeeds Professor Michael P. Steinberg, who has returned to Brown University.
Terry McCarthy stated: "I look forward to leading the American Academy in Berlin at this pivotal moment in the transatlantic relationship. America is a country founded on ideas. Germany is a country of great thinkers who produce great ideas. The American Academy exists to link the two, by bringing the best of American thought and culture to Germany. As both a foreign correspondent and a student of philosophy, I have always been driven to ask the fundamental questions of why people do what they do, and what role politics, economics, and culture play in their decisions. The American Academy, now celebrating the twentieth anniversary of its fellowship program, is the ideal place to bring people of varying disciplines together to discuss and provide answers to these issues. Through this personal dialogue and questioning-a tradition that stretches back to the very first Academy of Plato-we can expand our perspectives and continue to foster greater understanding between Germany and the United States."
Prior to his appointment at the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, in 2012, McCarthy spent 27 years as a journalist covering politics, business, military conflicts, and social and environmental issues across the US, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America for television and print media. He worked for ABC News and CBS News and served as foreign correspondent for The Independent and Time-from 2000 to 2005 as that magazine's Los Angeles bureau chief. His journalism has been recognized with an Edward R. Murrow Award, four Emmys, and the Asian Human Rights Press Award.
Born in London and raised in Ireland, McCarthy received a BA with honors from University College Dublin, where he studied philosophy, German, and Greek. His ties to Germany go back decades. In 1975, McCarthy spent a semester at a Benedictine boarding school in Munsterschwarzach, and, in 1978, attended the Riemenschneider Gymnasium in Wurzburg. In 1981, he was awarded a DAAD scholarship that took him to the University of Tubingen. In addition to English and German, McCarthy speaks French, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese.
To download a bio and high-resolution photo, please visit:
http://www.americanacademy.de/press/
For more information, please contact:
Helga Beck, Senior Manager, Press and Communications
Phone: +49-(0)30-80483-404
Email: [email protected]
SOURCE American Academy in Berlin
CLEVELAND, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The board of trustees of the Ohio Aerospace Institute (OAI) today announced the appointment of Dr. John M. Sankovic as president and CEO effective September 24. He will succeed Mr. Jeffrey Rolf, former president and CEO.
As OAI's new leader, Dr. Sankovic will prioritize developing multi-university partnerships, driving research from university laboratories to Ohio's industrial aerospace manufacturers and fostering novel collaborations between governments, industries and private organizations.
"As a native Ohioan, I'm excited to build on Ohio's rich history as the birthplace of aviation and the home of so many astronauts," said Sankovic. "I truly believe that by building partnerships across the deep resources within the state, Ohio can lead the effort of ensuring U.S. economic competitiveness of the aerospace sector."
Dr. Sankovic comes to OAI following a distinguished 31-year career at NASA, where he most recently served as center chief technologist and director of the Office of Technology Incubation and Innovation. There, he received numerous awards, including the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, six Agency Honor Group Achievement Awards and an R&D100 technology innovation award.
An industrious academic, Dr. Sankovic earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from The University of Akron, his MBA degree from Cleveland State University and his master's and doctorate degrees in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University. He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Ohio with distinction by the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers for highest achievement on both licensure examinations. He holds three U.S. patents.
Inclined to share his knowledge and passion with future generations of innovators, Dr. Sankovic has taught numerous university courses over the past 15 years and authored or co-authored more than 70 technical publications on topics ranging from space propulsion and power to fluid mechanics and biomedical sciences.
Board Chairman Dennis Irwin expressed confidence in Dr. Sankovic's transition to president and CEO. "Jeff made great strides in astutely building relationships with our historical constituent basehe was truly transformational," said Irwin. "John is Ohio's shining star in aerospace. With his special combination of intellect, leadership and management skills, he is uniquely qualified to continue and realize the transformation in OAI that Jeff Rolf so ably began."
About OAI
OAI enhances its partners' aerospace competitiveness through research and technology development, workforce preparedness, and engagement with global networks for innovation and advocacy. Please visit www.oai.org.
SOURCE Ohio Aerospace Institute
Related Links
http://www.oai.org
Photo: Contributed
The City of Vernon will not be imposing a shopping cart ban.
City council voted in favour (5-1) of a staff recommendation to scrap the ban.
City staff recommended against the ban based on the possibility of such a bylaw being unconstitutional on the basis that it "unjustifiably infringes the rights of homeless people."
The ban was one of several recommendations that stemmed from a city-commissioned task force looking into the effects of the street-entrenched population on the business community.
Council revised the original task force recommendations on July 23, and, at 5-1, voted in favour of having staff look into drafting bylaws that would create a city-wide ban on shopping carts in public spaces; require businesses to use anti-theft protection on carts as well as require businesses to dispose of expired shopping carts at their own expense and recover abandoned carts when identified.
The City of Vernon received backlash for supporting such a ban.
In the wake of the decision to have staff look at drafting shopping cart bylaws, the City of Vernon received letters from the Pivot Legal Society and BC Civil Liberties Association.
The letters urged the city to abandon the proposal.
"We believe that the proposed bylaw is blatantly discriminatory and would not survive a constitutional challenge," stated the BCCLA in its letter to the city. "The ban will impair the rights of a specific class of people in Vernon - the homeless population and undermine their rights to liberty and security of the person as enshrined in section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms."
Councillor Scott Anderson, who sat on the task force, voted against the staff recommendation to abandon the ban.
In his argument for imposing such bylaws, he stated it wasn't about shopping carts, but more about accountability.
Anderson said the task force recommendations around shopping carts were designed in a way that accountability is shared between the city, the business community and the street-entrenched population.
"This is a difficult conversation," Anderson said. "Unfortunately, the way it's been framed is between compassion and no compassion and that is the wrong framing of the question. It is not between somebody with no compassion and all sorts of compassion, it is a standard of behaviour we should all be expected to follow."
Anderson stood steadfast in his belief that "special interest groups" should not dictate how a council should govern its municipality.
"From a political standpoint, I really have a problem with two letters from two special interest groups threatening legal action and us assuming the end is a constitutional challenge, and running away from it."
While staff recommended council vote to abandon the ban, it did suggest that the city move forward on the other aspects of the proposed bylaws through conversations with stakeholders.
Those conversations were taking place through the Social Planning Council of the North Okanagan and Partners in Action before the recommendations by the task force were brought before the council, however, were temporarily shelved.
"That is a very effective group of people who work in a very proactive manner to try and find solutions that can help both sides," said councillor. Juilette Cunnigham. "That is the only way were are going to resolve these issues that we have. We can't have them against us, we have to work together."
Apart from Anderson in his support of a shopping cart ban, and Cunningham in her opposition of the shopping cart ban, every member of the council has changed their position on the issue.
Councillor. Brian Quiring, who also sat on the Activate Safety Task Force, pushed for the task force to recommend a shopping cart ban in the downtown core. When council debated the recommendations on July 23, it was Mayor Akbal Mund who suggested a citywide ban. Both councillors Catherine Lord and Dalvir Nahal voted in favour of the proposed ban at the meeting.
"Yes, we all agreed there is a shopping cart problem," said Quiring at Tuesday's council meeting. "There is a shopping cart problem, but banning them is not the right solution. It is going to come with a whole host of unintended consequences."
During the conversation at council Tuesday night, Lord said while she voted in favour of the ban, after she cast her vote July 23, she felt embarrassed.
"It is very sad," she said. "It's heartbreaking to see that and then take away what little they have. We don't think it is important, it is important to them."
Nahal, while still agreeing that it is an issue of theft, admitted it would be tough to prove a shopping cart was stolen.
"I agree with Scott, there is a double standard when it comes to who can do what in this community. I think it can't be a free for all," she told council. "That being said, I think we did react quickly and should have consulted with the social service agencies."
The shopping cart ban was one of 42 recommendations made by the Activate Safety Task Force.
NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Stratistics MRC, is pleased to announce this latest publication "Oil and Gas Exploration & Production - Global Market Outlook (2017-2026)". Factors such as demand for energy worldwide have put an ever-increasing pressure on oil & gas production and exploration activities. However, due to imbalance in energy demand and supply is hampering the market growth.
Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p03994449
The Oil & Gas Exploration & Production industry is engaged in the exploration and extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas. It also consists of the recovery of butane, ethane and natural liquefied petroleum gases (LPG) recovered from oil and gas fields. The Oil & Gas Exploration and Production industry excludes exploration services on a contract basis, classified in Oil Related Services & Equipment; and exploration and production with substantial refining operations, classified in Integrated Oil & Gas.
Depending on the application, deep water segment is estimated to be the fastest growing segment gradual shift in E&P activities toward ultra-deepwater and deepwater exploration.
By geography, North America is expected to be the fastest growing market due to liberalization of Mexican oil & gas industry in this region.
Some of the key players in oil and gas exploration & production market include Transocean Ltd., Qatar General Petroleum Corporation (QGPC) , Seadrill Limited, National Iranian Oil Company, Chevron Corporation, SOCAR - State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, Pars Oil & Gas Company (POGC), Royal Dutch Shell , TechnipFMC, ADNOC - Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, Noble Corporation, ConocoPhillips Corporation, Gulf Interstate Engineering, The Bahrain National Oil Company (BANOCO), Petrobras, BP Plc, Mott MacDonald, Saipem Oil and Gas, Ensco PLC and EGAS - Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company.
Products Covered:
Crude Oil
Natural
Methods and Technologies Covered:
Drilling Methods and Technologies
Exploration Methods and Technologies
Production Methods and Technologies
Applications Covered:
Offshore Wells
Onshore Wells
Regions Covered:
North America
US
Canada
Mexico
Europe
Germany
France
Italy
UK
Spain
Rest of Europe
Asia Pacific
Japan
China
India
Australia
New Zealand
Rest of Asia Pacific
South America
Argentina
Brazil
Chile
Rest of South America
Middle East & Africa
Saudi Arabia
UAE
Qatar
South Africa
Rest of Middle East & Africa
What our report offers:
- Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments
- Market share analysis of the top industry players
- Strategic recommendations for the new entrants
- Market forecasts for a minimum of 9 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets
- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)
- Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations
- Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends
- Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments
- Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancements.
Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p03994449
About Reportlinker
ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.
__________________________
Contact Clare: [email protected]
US: (339)-368-6001
Intl: +1 339-368-6001
SOURCE Reportlinker
Related Links
http://www.reportlinker.com
HACKENSACK, N.J., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- American Family Children's Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, became the 19th clinic to be named a Certified Duchenne Care Center by Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD), a nonprofit organization leading the fight to end Duchenne muscular dystrophy (Duchenne), the most common fatal genetic disorder diagnosed in childhood, affecting approximately one in 5,000 live male births.
PPMD's Certified Duchenne Care Center Program, which supports standardized, comprehensive care and services for all people living with Duchenne, began certifying qualifying centers in 2014. Certification means centers maintain the highest standards in clinical and sub-specialty services, rapidly apply new evidence-based knowledge, minimize heterogeneity in clinical research outcomes, and comply with standards in clinical care that were established by the CDC Care Considerations. As part of its ongoing mission to end Duchenne, PPMD continues to insist that all people with Duchenne receive comprehensive care.
Led by clinic director Dr. Meredith Schultz, the Pediatric Neuromuscular Disorders Program at American Family Children's Hospital specializes in the diagnosis, treatment, and research of many neuromuscular diseases. Dr. Schultz is a neurologist with medical and teaching interests including neurogenetic disorders and pediatric neuromuscular disorders. She specializes in diagnostic evaluations of neurogenetic disorders and developmental delay, and helps manage children with complex congenital neurologic and neurodevelopmental disorders.
When asked about the certification, Dr. Schultz said: "Becoming a Certified Duchenne Care Center reflects the University of Wisconsin's commitment to providing exceptional services to all our patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and is recognition of the quality of our comprehensive, multidisciplinary patient care. We are proud to have met this high standard and to be recognized for our efforts to improve the lives of all individuals living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy."
Kathi Kinnett, MSN, CNP, PPMD's Senior Vice President of Clinical Care and director of PPMD's Certified Duchenne Care Center (CDCC) Program, is pleased that University of Wisconsin and the American Family Children's Hospital is joining the list of certified centers. Kinnett says, "The team at American Family Children's Hospital is a committed, compassionate group of dedicated providers. Dr. Schultz and her team strive to provide excellent care to Duchenne families in Wisconsin. We could not be happier to include this wonderful team in our growing network of Certified Duchenne Care Centers."
Kinnett says that since launching the program in 2014, PPMD receives weekly inquiries from centers interested in applying for certification. "Families in our community turn to PPMD to help identify the centers in the country providing the best in comprehensive Duchenne care and services. Clinics and clinicians are realizing the value of the Certified Duchenne Care Center Program and therefore strive to be the best facility they can be for Duchenne patients and families. Industry, also, is recognizing the value of including patients in their studies, receiving standardized Duchenne care and, thus, strengthening the outcome measures in their clinical trials. As the importance of a set of standards and guidelines in clinical care are recognized globally, PPMD looks forward to expanding this program internationally in the New Year by partnering with other patient advocacy groups. We also look forward to more certifications in the U.S. in 2018."
To learn more about PPMD's Certified Duchenne Care Center Program, visit PPMD's website. Click here to learn more about the history of PPMD's Certified Duchenne Care Center Program and to access PPMD's first published article on the program.
About Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy
Duchenne is a fatal genetic disorder that slowly robs people of their muscle strength. Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD) is the largest most comprehensive nonprofit organization in the United States focused on finding a cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophyour mission is to end Duchenne.
We invest deeply in treatments for this generation of people affected by Duchenne and in research that will benefit future generations. We advocate in Washington, DC, and have secured hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. We demand optimal care, and we strengthen, unite and educate the global Duchenne community.
Everything we doand everything we have done since our founding in 1994helps people with Duchenne live longer, stronger lives. We will not rest until every person has a treatment to end Duchenne. Go to www.ParentProjectMD.org for more information or to learn how you can support our efforts and help families affected by Duchenne. Follow PPMD on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
About American Family Children's Hospital
American Family Children's Hospital is a 111-bed facility with 80 specialty clinics and nearly 300 physicians and surgeons. The hospital includes a 26-bed, Level IV neonatal intensive care unit, a 21-bed pediatric intensive care unit, a dedicated pediatric imaging suite that provides ultra-low dose imaging, a state-of-the-art hybrid catheterization/angiography suite and a neonatal and pediatric critical care transport program. A new Epilepsy Monitoring Unit opened in 2017 with enhanced medical and surgical treatment of epilepsy patients. Growing programs include the care of patients with complex spine concerns and children with sports-related injuries.
SOURCE Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy
Related Links
http://www.parentprojectmd.org
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan is pleased to announce that the theme of the 14th Annual Customer Contact West: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXChange will be In Pursuit of an Engaging and Effortless Experience. The event will take place October 2124, 2018, at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, Ariz.
To register and download the event agenda for the 14th Annual Customer Contact West: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange, please access: www.customercontactwest.com
The keynote speakers at this acclaimed annual event will be:
Nicola Millard , Head of Customer Insight and Futures, BT Global Services Innovation Team. Millard will deliver the opening keynote presentation, Chat, Tap, Talk: Trends Shaping the Future of Customer Experience. She will examine the key trends driving consumer behavior today and explore how innovation can help customers "chat, tap and talk." Millard will look at why customers want an easy life, what happens when their smartphone is their window on the world, and why data needs to be leveraged as the new currency in a "me"-conomy.
Millard will deliver the opening keynote presentation, She will examine the key trends driving consumer behavior today and explore how innovation can help customers "chat, tap and talk." Millard will look at why customers want an easy life, what happens when their smartphone is their window on the world, and why data needs to be leveraged as the new currency in a "me"-conomy. Christina Kosmowski , Head of Global Customer Success and Services, Slack . Kosmowski will share lessons learned and best practices acquired at Slack, where she is currently responsible for ensuring that customers realize the kind of quality service that drives lifetime loyalty. She will also share insights from her 15-year tenure at Salesforce, where she helped the company grow from 200 employees and $30 million in revenue to over 25,000 employees and $8 billion in revenue.
. Kosmowski will share lessons learned and best practices acquired at Slack, where she is currently responsible for ensuring that customers realize the kind of quality service that drives lifetime loyalty. She will also share insights from her 15-year tenure at Salesforce, where she helped the company grow from 200 employees and in revenue to over 25,000 employees and in revenue. Doug Zarkin , Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President, Pearle Vision. Zarkin's keynote presentation, Engaging the Enterprise: The Customer Experience Vision and Brand Promise , will explain why Pearle Vision's brand position and its customer experience "North Star" is both an art and a science. Zarkin will show how Pearle Vision centers successfully connect with ground-level customers while also maintaining a large brand presence in North America , effectively offering insights on aligning the customer experience both locally and nationally.
This flagship customer contact event differentiates itself from so many others with a unique, highly interactive and hands-on learning approach focused on providing best practices and immediately implementable take-aways to leverage in the marketplace.
For additional information, please email [email protected].
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:
Francesca Valente
Corporate Communications Americas
P: +54 11 4777 5300
F: +54 11 4777 5300
E: [email protected]
http://www.frost.com
SOURCE Frost & Sullivan
Related Links
http://www.frost.com
LAS VEGAS, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Jeff Bailey, a local print and marketing leader with more than 18 years of experience in marketing communications has recently launched a new AlphaGraphics venture in Las Vegas. Through this initiative, Bailey will provide high-quality printing and signage resources to the Mojave Desert regional market's booming manufacturing, banking, healthcare, and hospitality and leisure industries.
"We look forward to solving the biggest marketing communications challenges of Las Vegas area enterprises by delivering state-of-the-art products and services tailored for the specific needs of our customers," said AlphaGraphics Las Vegas owner Jeff Bailey. "Throughout the years, AlphaGraphics has taken the approach of learning how our customers' businesses work to diagnose their needs and help them increase their brand's visibility and grow sales. We're excited to contribute to the brand's long legacy of operational excellence!"
Bailey's new AlphaGraphics venture will operate as an independent service provider with a dedicated team of local print and signage professionals experienced in helping the diverse industries in the area gain visibility and increase sales through direct mail, banners, posters and signs produced using best-in-breed digital printing technologies.
Through a consultative approach to delivering marketing communications services powered by strategic partnerships with area leaders and local vendors, Bailey's team has positioned itself as a trusted community partner. AlphaGraphics Las Vegas has also helped non-profit organizations focusing on child development, animal conservation as well as the arts in spreading their mission to gain the support of local partners, volunteers and donors. The company continues to invest in cutting-edge technology, from a multi-touch campaign suite of tools, tradeshow materials, logo creation, outdoor signs and online ordering.
AlphaGraphics Las Vegas, located at 3550 East Post Road, #300, is open Monday - Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. To learn more about the company's services, visit our website http://us361.alphagraphics.com, connect with us on Facebook @AlphagraphicsLasVegasConventionCenter or Twitter @AGLasVegasCC, or call (702) 798-7557.
ABOUT ALPHAGRAPHICS
AlphaGraphics, Inc. offers, through locally owned and operated business centers, a complete range of print, visual communications, and marketing products and solutions including: fullservice digital, offset, and large format printing; design services; mailing; onetoone marketing solutions; promotional products; web to print solutions. AlphaGraphics is a subsidiary of an international holding company which operates one of the world's largest networks of service centers offering shipping, logistics, printing, marketing and business support services to business and private customers through almost 2,600 locations in 44 countries. For more information about AlphaGraphics services and/or franchise opportunities, please visit www.alphagraphics.com and for more information about the Group's companies, please visit www.mbeglobal.com.
SOURCE AlphaGraphics Las Vegas
Related Links
http://www.alphagraphics.com
NORTH CHICAGO, Ill., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AbbVie, a research-based global biopharmaceutical company, today announced its annual call for the public to vote for students living with cystic fibrosis (CF), an inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system, as part of its 2018 Thriving Student Scholarship. Scholarships totaling $25,000 each the Thriving Undergraduate Scholarship and the Thriving Graduate Scholarship will be awarded to two deserving students.
From today through September 19 at 11:00 AM EDT, the public is encouraged to visit the AbbVie CF Scholarship website (www.AbbVieCFScholarship.com) to learn more about this year's AbbVie CF Scholars and review their online profiles to cast a vote to help determine the 2018 Thriving Undergraduate and Thriving Graduate Students. The public can vote online or via text message by texting the student's personalized ID code to "31901" during the two-week voting period.
"I have always dreamt of becoming a child psychologist, and thanks to the AbbVie CF Thriving Graduate Scholarship, I have been able to focus more on my studies and less on the stresses that come with paying for my education," said Taylor MacLean, 2017 AbbVie CF Scholar and Thriving Graduate Student. "I want to let other students living with CF know that despite the challenges, achieving your goals is possible, and I'm grateful that the AbbVie CF Scholarship, along with my family and care team, has allowed me to do so. Being acknowledged for my work and determination has helped me realize my full potential."
Earlier this year, AbbVie selected 40 undergraduate and graduate students living with CF to each receive a $3,000 AbbVie CF Scholarship for use during the 2018-2019 academic year based on their academic excellence, creativity and community involvement/extracurricular activities. These AbbVie CF Scholars now have the opportunity to earn the title of 2018 Thriving Undergraduate or Graduate Student along with an additional $22,000 in scholarship funding for use toward their dreams of higher education. The Thriving Undergraduate and Graduate Students will be determined based on a combination of their academic achievements, community involvement/extracurricular activities, essay and creative presentation scores, as well as the number of public votes cast.
"Students living with CF inspire us every day. They are true fighters who don't let their diagnosis hold them back from making a difference - whether it's in the classroom or in their community," said John Duffey, vice president, U.S. Specialty, AbbVie. "AbbVie has been proud to show our commitment to students with CF and their families by carrying on the AbbVie CF Scholarship tradition for more than 25 years."
During the voting period, the public can show their support for the AbbVie CF Scholars by tweeting the link below. AbbVie will announce the 2018 Thriving Undergraduate and Graduate Students in October.
Click to Tweet: Students living with #cysticfibrosis need your help! Cast your vote to help award two $25K scholarships and determine the 2018 AbbVie CF Scholarship Thriving Undergraduate and Graduate Students https://bit.ly/TnPPq1
About Cystic Fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of those living with this condition.1 In patients with CF, a thick, sticky mucus is produced in certain organs throughout the body, most commonly the lungs and digestive system. The mucus build-up in the lungs can cause difficulty breathing and may lead to life-threatening lung infections. In the digestive system, the thick mucus may prevent proper food digestion, potentially leading to malabsorption and malnutrition.
About the AbbVie CF Scholarship
The AbbVie CF Scholarship was established 26 years ago in recognition of the financial burdens many families touched by CF face and to acknowledge the achievements of students with CF. Since its inception, the scholarship program has awarded over $3.2 million in scholarships to over 1,000 students. The AbbVie CF Scholarship is part of AbbVie's ongoing commitment to the CF community, which is comprised of more than 30,000 people in the United States. As of 2016, more than half of the CF population are 18 years or older.1
It is not necessary for scholarship applicants to have taken, currently take, or intend to take in the future, any medicine or product marketed by AbbVie, and this is not a consideration in the selection criteria. More information about the AbbVie CF Scholarship criteria and application can be found at www.AbbVieCFScholarship.com .
About AbbVie
AbbVie is a global, research and development-based biopharmaceutical company committed to developing innovative advanced therapies for some of the world's most complex and critical conditions. The company's mission is to use its expertise, dedicated people and unique approach to innovation to markedly improve treatments across four primary therapeutic areas: immunology, oncology, virology and neuroscience. In more than 75 countries, AbbVie employees are working every day to advance health solutions for people around the world. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.
References
1. Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. About Cystic Fibrosis. Diagnosis and Genetics. Available at: https://www.cff.org/What-is-CF/About-Cystic-Fibrosis/. Accessed September 2018.
SOURCE AbbVie
Related Links
abbvie.com
The 170-year-old New England Confectionary Company and their portfolio of over six iconic confectionary brands held the title of longest operating confectionery manufacturer in the United States. To give you an idea of how long NECCO wafers have been a part of American lives, they were created in 1847, predating the Civil War. Almost 100 years later, NECCO wafers played a role during World War II, with the US government commissioning NECCO to produce wafers to include in ration sent to soldiers overseas.
The road to this sale has been a long one but now buyers have the rare chance to own both iconic brands and the machinery to produce them.
"Rabin's history with Necco goes back 25 years," says Rabin CEO and President, Richard Reese. "We, along with our partner Union Confectionery Machinery, conducted auctions at both of their Boston facilities. This is not only the end of an era for Necco candies, but for us as well. We are honored to be a part of this process and we have great respect for the Revere community and Necco history."
SOURCE Rabin Worldwide
Related Links
http://www.rabin.com
CLARKSVILLE, Texas, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- With new voting equipment delivered last week, Red River County officials are looking forward to an efficient and easy-to-use voting system. Earlier this summer, Commissioners approved the purchase of the Verity Voting system, the most up-to-date election technology available in the United States. County Clerk Shawn Weemes recommended the replacement for older technology, and she is confident that the system from longtime election partner Hart InterCivic is the right choice.
Red River County joins a growing number of Texas counties refreshing their election technology with Hart InterCivics Verity Voting system.
"Red River County has been part of the Hart family since 2005, and we are happy they have chosen Verity for this step forward," said Phillip Braithwaite, President and CEO of Hart InterCivic, an Austin-based company with more than 100 years of experience providing election solutions. "Verity's technology is versatile and trustworthy; it meets the County's needs today and will meet tomorrow's needs, too."
Designed and built in Texas, Verity is certified at the federal and state levels. More than half of the voters in the State cast their ballots on Hart's voting systems, and Verity is a natural next step for those ready to modernize.
Starting with the November General Election, Red River County voters will hand-mark paper ballots or mark them using the Verity accessible ballot marking device. Ballots are cast by scanning them using the system's voter-friendly digital precinct scanner. "Our voters like the security of seeing that printed ballot," Weemes said. "I think they will also appreciate the easy-to-use tablet device."
Verity's flexible design will allow options if the County chooses to change to all-electronic voting or Vote Centers in the future. "If our voters want to go to all electronic voting down the road, we already have the technology platform in place with Verity," Weemes said.
Hart's excellent customer service also supported Weemes' decision. "Hart has been good to me. When I was new in this position (2014), they sent a trainer to teach us what we needed. On the next Election Day, they sent hands-on help. They want us to be successful. Plus, they are always just one phone call away."
Weemes believes poll workers will appreciate Verity's compact, easy-to-transport design, which will streamline precinct setup on Election Day. "Programming and opening polls will be easier, too. Much less time consuming," she said.
Red River County in Northeast Texas joins a growing number of Texas jurisdictions moving to Verity. Since the Texas Secretary of State certified the latest release of the system in late 2016, Hart has shipped more than 8,000 Verity devices across the State. Federally certified in 2015, the secure and efficient system is also in use in numerous counties throughout the U.S.
Braithwaite expects more announcements throughout 2018 as jurisdictions refresh their election technology before November's elections.
Learn more about Verity in Texas: https://www.hartintercivic.com/texas/
About Hart InterCivic, Inc.
Austin-based Hart InterCivic is a full-service election solutions innovator, partnering with state and local governments to deliver secure, accurate and reliable elections. Working side-by-side with election professionals for more than 100 years, Hart is committed to helping advance democracy one election at a time. Hart's mission fuels its passionate customer focus and a continuous drive for technological innovation. The company's new Verity Voting system makes voting more straightforward, equitable and accessibleand makes managing elections more transparent, more efficient and easier. Only Hart offers a completely new, secure voting system with electronic, paper and hybrid options.
SOURCE Hart InterCivic, Inc.
Related Links
http://www.hartintercivic.com
SHANGHAI, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ReneSola Ltd ("ReneSola" or the "Company") (www.renesolapower.com) (NYSE: SOL), a leading solar project developer and operator, today announced the results of its 2018 annual general meeting of shareholders. Specifically, the Company's annual general meeting of shareholders approved the following:
1. the consolidated financial statements of the Company for the year ended December 31,
2017, together with the reports of the auditors thereon.
2. the re-election of Mr. Martin Bloom as a director of the Company, who is retiring by rotation and offering himself for re-election in accordance with the Company's articles of association.
On the other hand, the Company's annual general meeting of shareholders denied the proposed resolution below:
3. the re-appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers Zhong Tian LLP as auditors of the Company until the conclusion of the next general meeting of the shareholders of the Company.
About ReneSola
Founded in 2005, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2008, ReneSola (NYSE: SOL) is an international leading brand of solar project developer and operator. Leveraging its global presence and solid experience in the industry, ReneSola is well positioned to develop green energy projects with attractive return around the world. For more information, please visit www.renesolapower.com.
For investor and media inquiries, please contact:
In China:
ReneSola Ltd
Mr. Johnny Pan
+86 (21) 6280-9180 x131
[email protected]
The Blueshirt Group Asia
Mr. Gary Dvorchak, CFA
+86 (138) 1079-1480
[email protected]
In the United States:
The Blueshirt Group
Mr. Ralph Fong
+1 (415) 489-2195
[email protected]
SOURCE ReneSola Ltd.
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Workers' Compensation partners G. Ronald Feenberg and Robert Vines and Personal Injury Partner Dennis Sherwin were selected by their peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2019. Ronald Feenberg was noted for additional distinction by being selected as the Lawyer of the Year in Workers' Compensation Law Claimants in California.
The Best Lawyers in America recognizes less than 5% of attorneys across the United States. Rankings are based on peer-reviews in which attorneys rank the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical and legal practice area. First published in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. For the 2019 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, 7.8 million votes were analyzed, which resulted in more than 60,000 leading lawyers being included in the new edition.
The "Lawyer of the Year" Award is allocated annually to the lawyer who has the highest overall peer-review feedback in a certain practice area for a particular geographic region.
Feenberg and Vines, who have been selected to this list every year since 1995, received the designation of 'Best Lawyers' in Workers' Compensation for representing injured workers. 2019 marks the ninth consecutive year for Sherwin to make The Best Lawyers in America list for Personal Injury Litigation Plaintiff.
ABOUT ROSE, KLEIN & MARIAS LLP INJURY LAWYERS
For more than 80 years, our law firm has been committed to two things:
First, we are committed to getting maximum compensation for each of our clients in personal injury and workers' compensation cases.
Second, we are committed to furthering the laws that apply to these cases and the way that these cases are handled. We strive to create an environment in which people who are hurt at work or injured due to an act of negligence do not have to struggle to get by. The history of Rose, Klein & Marias began in 1936, when attorney Victor C. Rose began practicing law in Los Angeles. Four years later, he was joined by Alfred M. Klein. In 1946, Eugene Marias joined the team.
In the decades since, the firm has expanded to include dozens of experienced lawyers. We now have ten law offices to conveniently serve all of Southern California. Although we have grown, our dedication to helping our clients hasn't changed. This dedication is what has allowed us to thrive. We are driven to succeed.
Dedicated to Personal Injury and Workers' Compensation
Our law firm is focused on two areas of practice: workers' compensation and personal injury. These are the matters we have devoted our careers to. These are the cases we care about. Our focus means that we have the depth of knowledge to help our clients get results.
We take pride in the fact that attorneys from our firm have spearheaded many of the types of cases we handle. In 1975, we were the first law office in California to bring a lawsuit against asbestos manufacturers for damage done by their product. Throughout the years, we have broken new ground in numerous types of personal injury and workers' comp cases.
Media Contact: David Galperson, [email protected]
SOURCE Rose, Klein & Marias, LLP
Related Links
http://rkmlaw.net
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Scout RFP, the new enterprise standard for strategic sourcing, today announced two new members of their executive leadership team. First, Jerry Brooner, former Vice President of Enterprise Sales at Dropbox, is stepping in as Scout's Chief Revenue Officer. At the same time, Sarvesh Mathur is taking the role of CTO and Vice President of Engineering to help scale Scout's rapidly growing engineering organization. As Scout accelerates their growth, serving hundreds of global customers, they will help the company drive innovation, expansion, and rapid adoption.
"At Scout, our goal is to make enterprise commerce faster, less risky, and more transparent," said Alex Yakubovich, CEO and Co-founder of Scout RFP. "I'm thrilled that Jerry Brooner and Sarvesh Mathur have joined the team. They're going to not only accelerate our ability to serve the world's biggest brands, but they'll help us scale innovation at the pace our customers require. With Jerry's depth of experience in SaaS and ERP sales and Sarvesh's proven technical leadership, Scout is in a great position to make a big impact on this market - and our customer's experience."
As Chief Revenue Officer, Jerry Brooner will lead Scout's sales strategy. Prior to joining Scout, Jerry built Dropbox's strategic enterprise business in North America, growing that team from 2 to 50 employees and driving $75M in annual revenue. Prior to Dropbox, Jerry spent 10 years at SAP as a Global Vice President for Strategic Accounts. With a background in investment banking and enterprise experience from bellwethers Siebel Systems and Genesys, he brings decades of experience with sales management, scale, talent development, and leadership.
"Throughout my career, I've always aspired to join teams who aspire to build both innovative products and deep respectful relationships with their customers," said Brooner. "At Scout, I'm excited for the challenge ahead and the opportunity to build on my experiences scaling a world-class sales organization at both Dropbox and SAP. Scout bridges the best of both those organizations, and I'm already impressed with the talent across the team here."
Sarvesh Mathur, who joined Scout earlier in the summer, has a similar passion for enterprise-scale problems, having built world-class engineering teams at Navis, Infor, Teradata, and Oracle. Most recently, he was focused on tackling some of the toughest optimization challenges in the modern supply chain, leading Navis' investment in container terminal operations, self-driving vehicle management, and inventory logistics. Sarvesh's charter as Scout's CTO is to scale their engineering investments in design, optimization, integration, and innovative sourcing methods.
"Technology's most important role in the enterprise is to enable teams to work more effectively and to accelerate our ability to make good decisions," said Mathur. "I'm inspired by the potential that Scout has already built into the platform, and I look forward to injecting even more innovation into our core engine."
These two new executive hires reflect and reinforce Scout's continued growth and momentum. Now managing over $18 billion in project spend through its strategic sourcing platform, Scout serves over 150 enterprise customers and over 70,000 active users across 117 countries. In 2017, the company closed its Series B funding, with investments from Menlo Ventures and NEA, and was recognized as a Gartner Cool Vendor.
About Scout:
Scout, also known as Scout RFP, provides a new breed of cloud-based strategic sourcing solutions that help organizations source faster and achieve better business outcomes. Leading brands like Adobe, Biogen, Splunk, easyJet, ServiceNow, Owens Corning, and PayPal trust Scout's automated sourcing and auction platform to deliver greater value through collaborative business engagement. With over 18 billion dollars of spend managed through its innovative Sourcing platform, over 70,000 active users across 117 countries have chosen Scout's simple, effective interface to make commerce faster, less risky, and more transparent. Scout is headquartered in San Francisco, and funded by Menlo Ventures, NEA, and Google Ventures. To learn more, please visit scoutrfp.com and follow Scout on Twitter @scoutrfp or LinkedIn.
SOURCE Scout RFP
Related Links
http://www.scoutrfp.com
Photo: RCMP Amelie Christelle Sakkalis
Police are seeking public help in solving the murder of a 28-year-old woman from Belgium.
On Aug. 22 at approximately 7:45 p.m., RCMP received a report of a suspicious occurrence north of Boston Bar near Highway 1.
Police arrived to find the body of 28-year-old Amelie Christelle Sakkalis and determined that she was the victim of homicide.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team was called in to take conduct of the investigation.
A man was arrested at the scene in connection to the homicide and later released from police custody.
IHIT continues to actively investigate the murder of Sakkalis in partnership with Hope RCMP, Chilliwack RCMP Serious Crime Unit, the Integrated Forensic Identification Services and the B.C. Coroners Service.
Sakkalis was a Belgian national travelling in Canada at the time of her death and investigators believe she was hitchhiking from the Penticton area on Aug. 22 and heading to Vancouver.
IHIT would like to speak with anyone that provided Miss Sakkalis a ride between Penticton and Boston Bar on Aug. 22, 2018, said Cpl. Frank Jang of IHIT. Amelies family has been notified of her murder and we urge anyone with information to come forward immediately to help provide answers.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the IHIT Information Line at 1-877-551-IHIT (4448) or by email at [email protected]
To remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers by phone at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
LONDON, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
Scott Kleppe of SENSIT Technologies has gained global recognition in the Business Worldwide Magazine (BWM) 2018 CEO Awards.
The awards seek to identify and honour the most respected C level executives from around the world, from a variety of sectors. Unlike other business awards, the focus is on the personalities at the helm of organisations; the people that make corporations tick and drive success. The intention is to give worthy individuals the recognition they deserve, using their examples to inspire others to achieve similar successes. Scott Kleppe was the outright winner in his category, being named 'Most Innovative CEO | Natural Gas Industry'.
Based in Valparaiso, Indiana, SENSIT Technologies designs, manufactures and services a complete line of gas leak detection instruments, combustible gas indicators and confined space monitors. The aim of all the company's products is to protect life, property and the environment through safe and fast detection of gas leaks.
Kleppe's successful career with SENSIT was not necessarily the one he had mapped out. His parents, John and Nancy Kleppe, formed the company (originally called J and N Enterprises) in 1980, fulfilling a lifelong ambition to run a successful company. At the time their son had just completed his college studies and was embarking on his own career, but his father persuaded him to join the family business in 1984. Following the ill health and subsequent death of his father Kleppe proudly took the helm, and since 1999 has overseen the company's rapid growth.
Today the company employs over 100 people and supplies a global market of over 40 countries with the very latest in hazardous gas detection technologies. Like his parents before him, Kleppe's approach is an innovative one, and the company is constantly developing new and exciting technologies. SENSIT offers customers a new generation of leak detectors and continues to introduce new products to a range of clients from the HVAC market to the natural gas industry (from wellhead to burner tip).
Kleppe puts the company's success down to a number of factors. First, there is a clear commitment to delivering outstanding customer service, with all staff working towards one clear goal - to keep people and buildings safe. The dedicated team are all rewarded for their hard work - Kleppe believes in developing and supporting his employees and invests heavily in education and training opportunities. SENSIT's product range is another key to their success and is tailored to meet the specific needs of a huge range of customers all the way up to billion-dollar multi-nationals. Finally, it's about the company's 'go to market' strategy; "We have a network of sales staff, product management, representatives and distributors. Basically, the right people with the right skill set," he told BWM.
SENSIT has impressive plans for the future which continue to meet the demands of a complex and challenging industry. An aging infrastructure, workforce development, environmental concerns and regulatory demands are all challenges the company is finding new ways to solve, and Kleppe is actively pursuing like minded companies to work with on new projects.
More information about SENSIT Technologies can be found on the company website, http://www.gasleaksensors.com/
An article about the company can be found on the BWM website: https://www.bwmonline.com/2018/08/20/protecting-life-property-and-the-environment-the-sensit-way/
Information about the BWM Awards is available at https://www.bwmonline.com/awards.
About Business Worldwide Magazine
Business Worldwide Magazine is the leading source of business and dealmaker intelligence throughout the world. Our quarterly magazine and online news portal enables an established audience of corporate dealmakers to track the latest news, stories and developments affecting the international markets, corporate finance, business strategy and changes in legislation. This readership includes of CEO/CFO - Banks, Corporate Lawyers and Venture Capital/Private Equity Companies to name a few.
http://www.bwmonline.com
Contact
David Jones
Awards Department
E: [email protected]
W: http://www.bwmonline.com
SOURCE Business Worldwide Magazine
FREMONT, California, September 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
According to a new market intelligence report by BIS Research, titled "Strategic Evaluation of Precision Medicine", the global precision medicine market accounted for $48.9 billion, which is expected to reach ~$70 billion by 2020. The global precision medicine market is expected to grow at a double-digit compound annual growth rate from 2018 to 2026.
(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/495163/BIS_Research_Logo.jpg )
Browse 21 Figures spread through 51 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Strategic Evaluation of Precision Medicine"
BIS Research Report: https://bisresearch.com/industry-report/strategic-evaluation-precision-medicine.html
The growth of the precision medicine market over the last few years has been monumental. The R&D investments in precision medicine, which have approximately doubled during the past five years, are expected to increase by 30% during the next three years. Approximately 69% of drug development during the ensuing five years is predicted to be driven by precision medicine approach. However, the pharmaceutical and diagnostics companies are facing increasing demand for cost reduction and better efficiency. Therefore, to sustain in the highly competitive market, determining a suitable and effective strategy is gradually becoming immensely important for pharmaceutical, diagnostics, and healthcare IT companies in the precision medicine market. On the other hand, the emergence of novel technologies is rapidly expanding the arsenal of tools accessible to facilitate the development and adoption of precision medicine approach over traditional "one-size-fits-all" approach. Through precision medicine, a paradigm shift has been promised, which would eliminate the uncertainty of trial and error method of medications.
According to Pushplata, Analyst at BIS Research, "The global precision medicine market is dominated by the North America region with a value of $25.6 billion in 2017. However, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region has been witnessing tremendous growth in precision medicine technology and is anticipated to witness the highest CAGR of 15.09% in next ten years."
Research Highlights:
Precision medicine holds immense potential to restructure the healthcare industry. It is an emerging approach which enables the investigation of various diseases by evaluating the genetic makeup of an individual subject, thereby providing a tailored therapeutic treatment to each patient.
Currently, North America precision medicine market is dominated by the U.S. with 40.3% of the global market share.
precision medicine market is dominated by the U.S. with 40.3% of the global market share. In 2017, Microsoft has invested $50 million to accelerate precision medicine research toward developing a cure for Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Also, several eminent universities, such as the Harvard University , Johns Hopkins University , University of California , and the University of Pittsburgh , are trying to find solutions for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and traumatic brain injury with the help of precision medicine tools and technologies.
to accelerate precision medicine research toward developing a cure for Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Also, several eminent universities, such as the , , , and the , are trying to find solutions for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and traumatic brain injury with the help of precision medicine tools and technologies. Europe holds 24% of the global market share while significantly growing at a CAGR of 11.75% in the next ten years.
holds 24% of the global market share while significantly growing at a CAGR of 11.75% in the next ten years. Projects such as GenomeAsia 100K are helping the scientists in utilizing genetic information to improvise precision medicine research in the Asia-Pacific region and generate a medical grade Asian reference genome.
Request for Sample Report: https://bisresearch.com/requestsample?id=556&type=download
This strategic report provides a multidimensional view of the strategic evolution in the field of precision medicine. The purpose of the study is to gain a holistic view of the strategic outline of precision medicine market in terms of various factors influencing it such as recent trends, technological advancements, reimbursement scenario, and national level initiatives across the globe. The scope of this report is centered upon conducting a detailed study of the region-specific market penetration strategies, best R&D practices across the globe, the potential impact of precision medicine, and understanding the focus of eminent stakeholders contributing in augmenting the growth of precision medicine market.
Key questions answered in the report:
How does the emergence of precision medicine approach is remodelling the "One-Size-Fits-All" theory to individually-tailored therapy?
What are the key regional strategies which have been followed in North America , Europe , and Asia-Pacific for penetration and implementation of precision medicine?
, , and for penetration and implementation of precision medicine? What are the best practices in the field of precision medicine across the world?
What is the role of key stakeholders in aligning the fortune of precision medicine?
What are the major market drivers, challenges, and opportunities in the global precision medicine market?
What are the persuasive market entry strategies for diagnostics, pharma & biotech, and healthcare IT companies to capitalize on precision medicine?
What is the plausible market penetration strategy for the precision medicine market?
What are the current value assessment frameworks followed in the field of precision medicine?
What are the potential societal value for precision medicine?
What is the propitious go-to-market strategy to succeed in the field of precision medicine?
Related Reports:
Global Precision Medicine Market - Analysis and Forecast (2017-2026)
Global Metastatic Cancer Treatment Market - Analysis And Forecast (2018-2025)
Global CRISPR Technology Market - Analysis And Forecast (2018-2027)
Global Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Market - Analysis and Forecast (2017-2024)
Global Liquid Biopsy Market, Analysis And Forecast, 2017-2025
Global In-Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) Market: Analysis And Forecast 2017-2023
Background of BIS Research in Precision Medicine:
BIS Healthcare has been actively tracking and researching precision medicine ecosystem for more than 4 years. The analyst team leverages both primary sources (in-house experts, industry leaders, and market players) and secondary sources (a host of paid and unpaid databases) along with its proprietary engine to build the forecast and predictive models.
BIS Healthcare continuously scans four key areas of Precision Medicine (PM) that forms the building block of PM ecosystem - Basic Sciences, Diagnostics, Healthcare IT Infrastructure and Therapeutics, and publishes more than half a dozen market intelligence and strategic reports annually.
Join us for a Seminar on Precision Medicine in Tokyo on October 2nd, 2018
Join the BIS Healthcare team on October 2nd in Tokyo as we conduct a seminar on Precision Medicine in collaboration with our esteemed partner Global Information Inc. (GII). For more information and to register for this complimentary seminar, please visit https://www.gii.co.jp/seminar/bis-seminar2018/
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: [email protected]
BIS Research
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 [email protected] https://twitter.com/BISResearch
SOURCE BIS Research
ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- TwentyEighty Strategy Execution, Inc., the global authority in corporate education and project leadership training, today announced that the company has been awarded a one-year contract with the U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms. The award also includes a one-year renewal option.
The contract allows any legislative branch agency within the United States Government, including the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, Library of Congress, Capitol Police, or Architect of the Capitol access to Strategy Execution course content. The contract is for Associate's and Master's certification content. In addition to project management training, courses in business analysis/skills, agile practices, vendor and contract management are also available via this contract.
"The Senate Sergeant at Arms has a long-standing focus on providing project management training to its employees," said Jeanne Fuchs, Director of Government Sales. "This contract re-affirms the commitment toward ensuring that its employees have access to training that can support the Senate mission."
"The Senate Sergeant at Arms selected a structured certification program," continued Fuchs, "where employees can earn a recognized credential and utilize the learned skills and techniques to support their mission critical initiatives. Strategy Execution is proud to support these important goals."
As additional resources, Strategy Execution offers course content in adaptive strategic execution, lean and agile, contract management, vendor management, business/leadership skills, and government-based content specifically designed for federal employees. Strategy Execution courses are offered on-site, online via an asynchronous e-training platform, virtually via a synchronous virtual instructor-led platform, and via public classroom courses.
More information about Strategy Execution's federal government solutions can be found here.
About Sergeant at Arms
The Sergeant at Arms is the largest in size of staff and budget in the Senate. It is responsible for all Senate computers and technology support services, recording and photographic services, printing and graphics services, and telecommunications services. The Sergeant at Arms also provides assistance to all Senate offices with their staffing, mailing, purchasing and financial needs. The Sergeant at Arms offices responsible for providing these and other services include Capitol Facilities, the Operations Division, Customer Relations, Financial Operations, Human Resources, and Information Security. The Sergeant at Arms also shares responsibility for the U.S. Capitol Police, the Capitol Guide Service, the Senate Page Program, the Senate Office of Education and Training and the Capitol Switchboard.
About Strategy Execution
Strategy Execution, the global authority in project leadership training, equips your people with the complete package of technical and leadership skills the mindset, adaptability, and expertise to lead and execute projects in any context. With curricula in adaptive strategic execution, project management, business analysis, contract management, and more, Strategy Execution partners with your organization to build skill sets and change mindsets. It's time to declare a new standard of performance. For more information, visit strategyex.com.
All references to "Strategy Execution" are to TwentyEighty Strategy Execution, Inc., a Virginia corporation.
SOURCE TwentyEighty Strategy Execution
Related Links
https://www.strategyex.com
SYSPRO's string of recognition is a result of its latest innovative software release and its continuous acceleration as an ERP industry leader. SYSPRO's enhanced software has also received praise from analysts, customers, and partners on a global scale, attracting many new prospects and Channel Partners to SYSPRO ERP.
This recent innovation award was determined based on scoring from an independent panel of judges hailing from a wide spectrum of top-tier publications and media outlets from 12 countries. The pool of judges is exclusively comprised editors, writers, and contributors to business, consumer, financial, trade, and technology publications, as well as broadcast outlets and analyst firms.
SYSPRO's award-winning product offering includes a web-based, cloud-first ERP solution designed to add significant value, flexibility, control, and operations visibility to manufacturers and distributors. With the integration of a number of powerful new features, including social media as a collaboration tool and a host of the hottest new IoT capabilities, the benefits of SYSPRO to manufacturers and distributors are now virtually infinite.
"SYSPRO is driven by the success of its customers, partners, and by industry recognition," said Benadretti. "We thank the judges for this honor, as it inspires us in our mission to advance and deliver state-of-the-art ERP software to manufacturers and distributors worldwide, while maintaining an outstanding company culture."
About Best in Biz
Now in its 6th year, Best in Biz Awards International has retained its unique status of being the only global business awards program judged solely by members of the press and industry analysts. Best in Biz Awards 2018 International is open to any company from any industry operating in any country in the world. Entrants need not be conducting business globally or be foreign or global companies; in fact, many past winners operate locally, nationally, or regionally. Best in Biz Awards 2018 International is offered in more than 70 company, department / team, executive, product and CSR, media, PR and other award categories. Companies may submit any number of entries to any of the categories in any of the Best in Biz Awards programs throughout the year.
About SYSPRO
SYSPRO is a global, independent provider of industry-built ERP software designed to simplify business complexity for manufacturers and distributors. Focused on delivering optimized performance and complete business visibility, the SYSPRO solution is highly scalable, and can be deployed on-premise, in the cloud, or accessed via a mobile device. SYSPRO's strengths lie in a simplified approach to technology, expertise in a range of industries, and a commitment to future-proofing customer and partner success.
SYSPRO has more than 15,000 licensed companies in over 60 countries across six continents.
Press Contacts:
Stanley Goodrich
Public Relations Manager
SYSPRO United States
+1(714) 437-1000
[email protected]
Erin Schlee
Marketing Communications Manager
SYSPRO United States
+1(714) 437-1000
[email protected]
SOURCE SYSPRO
Related Links
http://www.syspro.com
CHICAGO, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- New smart manufacturing solutions from some of Taiwan's top machine tool brands will be showcased at "Taiwan: Make Tomorrow Come True," a virtual reality press conference to be held at the 2018 International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) running Sept. 10-15 at Chicago's McCormick Place. In addition, 128 Taiwanese companies will be exhibiting their latest innovations in smart machine tools, fully automated production lines, 5-axis machining centers, multifunction tuning/milling centers and more on the show floor, reflecting the country's status as the world's fourth largest exporter of machine tools and accessories.
The press conference will begin at 1:15 pm on Wednesday, Sept. 12 in the South Building-Level 4, Conference Room S402. It will feature a 360 VR video tour of key products incorporating advanced information technology, with VR goggles for every registered attendee. Registration is available at [email protected].
Companies to be featured at the press conference include:
Feeler (Booth S-338129 ), highlighting the gantry-style FEELER U-800 5-axis machining center that won the 2018 Taiwan Excellence Gold Award. Designed for versatile high-precision machining of larger parts for the aerospace, automotive, energy and precision molds industries, the U-800 features a U-shaped structure that significantly increases structural rigidity and machine accuracy, a 32-tool magazine that can be expanded up to 120 tools, and a servo-controlled change system that can save additional changeover time.
), highlighting the gantry-style FEELER U-800 5-axis machining center that won the 2018 Taiwan Excellence Gold Award. Designed for versatile high-precision machining of larger parts for the aerospace, automotive, energy and precision molds industries, the U-800 features a U-shaped structure that significantly increases structural rigidity and machine accuracy, a 32-tool magazine that can be expanded up to 120 tools, and a servo-controlled change system that can save additional changeover time. NexCOBOT (Booth E-121836), offering a total industrial Internet of Things (IoT) solution with AI robot control and a cloud-based automation control system compatible with SCADA and Microsoft Azure. The company will also be exhibiting a facial recognition solution for access control to restricted areas such as factory floors at its booth.
offering a total industrial Internet of Things (IoT) solution with AI robot control and a cloud-based automation control system compatible with SCADA and Microsoft Azure. The company will also be exhibiting a facial recognition solution for access control to restricted areas such as factory floors at its booth. Palmary (Booth N-237071), spotlighting IoT capabilities that have been added across the company's portfolio of CNC internal, cylindrical, centerless, vertical, surface and engine value seat grinders.
spotlighting IoT capabilities that have been added across the company's portfolio of CNC internal, cylindrical, centerless, vertical, surface and engine value seat grinders. Quaser Machine Tools (Booth S-339451), delivering wireless network, database establishment, cloud and self-developed smart software for its five-axis machines, vertical and horizontal machining centers, and flexible manufacturing systems.
delivering wireless network, database establishment, cloud and self-developed smart software for its five-axis machines, vertical and horizontal machining centers, and flexible manufacturing systems. Taiwan Takisawa Technology Co. (Booth S-338640), introducing the TiMES Smart Manufacturing Execution System with sophisticated product management, dispatch, scheduling and just-in-time delivery systems. Known for its CNC lathes and printed circuit board (PCB) drilling machines, the company also offers an IoT-based IoM machine networking automation processing program enabling machines to be connected for whole plant automation.
introducing the TiMES Smart Manufacturing Execution System with sophisticated product management, dispatch, scheduling and just-in-time delivery systems. Known for its CNC lathes and printed circuit board (PCB) drilling machines, the company also offers an IoT-based IoM machine networking automation processing program enabling machines to be connected for whole plant automation. Techman Robot (Booth N-237084), creators of the first collaborative robot that combines smart built-in vision with hand-guiding functions for automated visual pick and place. The company will be unveiling the new high-load robot TM12 Series designed for the semiconductor industry, featuring load capacities higher than any other robot with the same arm length, a payload of up to 12 kg, a working range of 1300 mm, and M models matching high-performance mobile automated guided vehicles (AGVs).
creators of the first collaborative robot that combines smart built-in vision with hand-guiding functions for automated visual pick and place. The company will be unveiling the new high-load robot TM12 Series designed for the semiconductor industry, featuring load capacities higher than any other robot with the same arm length, a payload of up to 12 kg, a working range of 1300 mm, and M models matching high-performance mobile automated guided vehicles (AGVs). Tongtai Group (Booth S-338536), focusing on its newest machine models, equipment for additive and hybrid additive-subtractive manufacturing, and the TIMS (Tongtai Intelligence Manufacturing System) and TLM (Tongtai Line Management) solutions enabling operators to easily control production status and improve machining efficiency.
focusing on its newest machine models, equipment for additive and hybrid additive-subtractive manufacturing, and the TIMS (Tongtai Intelligence Manufacturing System) and TLM (Tongtai Line Management) solutions enabling operators to easily control production status and improve machining efficiency. YCM Industries Co. (Booth S-338450), offering an I-Direct IoT platform for intelligent production management. Platform components span shop floor reporting, equipment management, statistical process control, work in process, and equipment preventive maintenance systems, including the ability to access program, part and tool numbers as well as operating time for each machine via computer or mobile phone.
These and other Taiwanese companies exhibiting at IMTS 2018 are on the leading edge of a government-sponsored initiative to dramatically expand the country's smart manufacturing capabilities and thereby double its machine tool revenues from NTD $1 trillion (US$25.6 billion) to $2 trillion (US$64.9 billion) over the next decade.
Taiwan's IMTS 2018 events are organized by the Bureau of Foreign Trade and implemented by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (http://www.taiwantrade.com).
SOURCE Taiwan Machine Tools
Related Links
http://www.taiwantrade.com
TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare has become one of 19 hospitals in the state of Florida, and the first in the Big Bend region, to be designated a Baby-Friendly Hospital as part of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, which is a global program sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Baby-Friendly Hospitals are recognized for offering optimal care for mother/baby bonding and infant feeding.
"In 2014, TMH began the Baby-Friendly process, which is more than just earning a designation," said Connie Styons, Administrator, Women's & Children's Services, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare. "Over the past four years, we have worked to change processes and procedures for our entire organization, and provided a tremendous amount of education to medical professionals and the general public. It has been a beneficial shift for our organization and, most importantly, the babies born here at TMH."
When families come to the Tallahassee Memorial Alexander D. Brickler, MD Women's Pavilion, they can expect to experience skin-to-skin contact after their baby is born. During this process, the baby is placed directly on a parent's chest and covered with a warm blanket. Babies who experience skin-to-skin have less stress, reduced crying, enhanced bonding and improved brain development. Each baby also experiences a delayed bath, typically delayed up to 24 hours after birth, to help reduce stress and to serve as a teachable moment so the whole family can be involved in the bathing process. In the Women's Pavilion, a mom and her baby also share a room. This rooming in model allows for better bonding and increased breastfeeding rates while also helping moms to feel more relaxed with their babies close by. The ultimate goal with each of these evidence-based maternity care practices is to provide moms and babies with the best start.
"As the healthcare leader in our region, TMH has the responsibility of bringing new evidence-based practices, exceptional medical experts and the latest treatment options to our community," said Mark O'Bryant, President & CEO, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare. "The Baby-Friendly Hospital designation is the gold standard of care for new mothers and their babies. At TMH, we are proud to earn this prestigious designation and offer these best practices to our patients."
Since launching in 1991, the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative has grown to include more than 500 designated facilities across the country and 20,000 worldwide. In 2018, about 25 percent of births in the US took place in Baby-Friendly designated facilities.
Founded in 1948, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH) is a private, not-for-profit community healthcare system committed to transforming care, advancing health, and improving lives with an ultimate vision of leading the community to be the healthiest in the nation. Serving a 17-county region in North Florida and South Georgia, TMH is comprised of a 772-bed acute care hospital, a psychiatric hospital, multiple specialty care centers, three residency programs, 35 affiliated physician practices and partnerships with Doctors' Memorial Hospital, Florida State University College of Medicine, UF Health, Weems Memorial Hospital and Wolfson Children's Hospital. For more information, visit TMH.ORG.
SOURCE Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare
WALNUT CREEK, Calif., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Thomas Wirig Doll, a financial services firm specializing in providing dentists and physicians with wealth, tax, accounting, retirement and pension advice, today announced a name change to Thomas Doll. As part of this transition, it is taking the opportunity to reinforce its mission of providing financial guidance to dental and medical professionals by offering a holistic approach to developing healthy financial habits, including wealth management, retirement plan solutions, income tax planning and payroll expertise, among others.
Thomas Doll was founded in 1963 with a fiduciary responsibility to provide niche expertise and truly holistic service offerings. Known as a firm built by CPA's and wealth managers with an intimate knowledge of what is important to the dental and medical communities, Thomas Doll prides itself on developing a differentiated and sustainable business.
"The goal with our approach is to improve our client's lives by helping them reduce taxes, increase savings, pay off debt and grow wealth," said Thomas Doll Partner Steven E. Leininger. "As Thomas Doll evolves as a business and strives to continue to meet the specific needs of our clients, our commitment to the dental and medical communities remains core to our brand."
The new Thomas Doll brand is one step in the firm's broader long-term strategic business vision which includes developing the next generation of ownership. Concurrently with the name change, the firm's partners are also pleased to welcome Carson Henderson to the partnership. With more than eight years of experience at Thomas Doll, Carson brings a fresh leadership perspective to the firm as it meets a growing demand from younger dental and medical professionals to secure their financial futures.
"Carson is the epitome of the type of advisor that has the leadership and technical capabilities required to excel as a partner here at Thomas Doll," said Leininger. "Since inception, we have developed extensive expertise in things that matter most to dentists and physicians, and we rely on partners like Carson to drive our culture and our business forward."
As part of the Thomas Doll evolution, the firm will continue to invest in the future of the business to deliver a personal, professional and meaningful difference to the dentists and physicians it serves. These strategic business initiatives include enhancing the client experience, improving technology, expanding consulting capabilities, and ensuring the long-term strength of the firm by investing in top talent.
The firm has evolved to offer full-service financial planning, as well as pioneered the field of comprehensive financial accounting to help clients achieve their financial goals. For more information, please visit thomasdoll.com.
About Thomas Doll:
Thomas Doll provides dentists and physicians with full-circle financial care including wealth management, retirement planning, tax and consulting services, including payroll expertise, practice creation, succession consulting and personal consulting. Through integrated financial planning, Thomas Doll helps dental and medical professionals enjoy long-term success in business and in life. The Walnut Creek, California based firm, was founded in 1963 has more than $1.2B in assets under management (as of July 31, 2018). For more information about Thomas Doll, please visit www.thomasdoll.com.
SOURCE Thomas Wirig Doll
Related Links
https://thomasdoll.com
SHENZHEN, China, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The 20th China International Optoelectronic Exposition (CIOE 2018) kicks off its grand opening at Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center on September 5-8, 2018 with 1,700 exhibitors showcasing their cutting-edge optoelectronic products to the industry. As the industry annual gathering, the event featuring with 7 sub-expos provides one-stop application solutions to the entire optoelectronic ecosystem. CIOE welcomes all the industry professionals to join this great optoelectronic event.
With the rapid development of optoelectronic technology, its applications have expanded to various industry fields such as communications, consumer electronics, automotive electronics, intelligent manufacturing, data center, medical, defense and security. The rise of emerging applications and emerging markets create exponential increase in demands for these optoelectronic products such as optical communication for 5G transmission, ultra-fast laser cutting for full screen, LiDAR for autonomous driving, and optical lens connecting with abundant applications. Optoelectronic industry is gaining unprecedented attention and vigorous development more than ever.
CIOE 2018 covers the entire optoelectronic industry chain with 7 main sub-expos including Optical Communications Expo, Laser Technology and Intelligent Manufacturing Expo, Precision Optics, Lens and Camera Module Expo, Infrared Applications Expo, Data Center Expo, Optoelectronic Sensor Expo and Photonics Innovation Pavilion. More than 1,700 industry players from 30+ countries and regions gather together to present an optoelectronic feast over 110,000m2 exhibition area.
Six international pavilions display cutting-edge optoelectronic technologies and products. Germany, Denmark, Canada, Korea, USA, Japan total 6 country pavilions will display their featured products and technologies in optoelectronic industry. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry (AUMA) open the German Pavilion at CIOE in 2018 for the ninth time. 17 companies present their high quality products and services to key players and decision makers from all over Asia and the world.
In addition, more than 30 concurrent conferences are held during CIOE. The International Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) will co-organized Global Optoelectronics Conference (OGC 2018) with CIOE. The conference has 8 sessions covering hottest topics in optics, optical communication, laser, infrared, optical fiber sensing and others. More than 500 optoelectronic professionals from around the world gather at CIOE to discuss innovative applications of optoelectronic technology.
At the same time, the Optical Communication Technology and Development Forum 2018 gathers China's 3 main telecom operators, five equipment suppliers and industry experts to discuss hot topics about 5G, Optical Networks applications, SPN technologies, cloud data center, optical interconnections, optical transport network and photonics integrations. More than 30 forums and workshops will be held to help players steer their business and explore new business opportunities.
Encouraged by five consecutive years of successful forums, which attracts more than 100 participants on average, CIOE works with Yole Developpement again to organize 4 international forums on laser Manufacturing, Infrared Imaging, LiDAR and 3D Sensing to explore photonics market and technologies.
We look forward to all the global optoelectronic professionals' presence. Let's discover the future of optoelectronics together!
About China International Optoelectronic Expo (CIOE) (www.cioe.cn/en/)
Established in 1999, CIOE is the largest show of its kind in the world featuring over 3,200 optoelectronic brands and their latest products in the area of 110,000 sqm at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center. There are 7 concurrent specialized expositions focusing on Optical Communications and Sensors, Lasers, Infrared Applications, Precision Optics, Optoelectronic Sensor, Data Center and photonics innovation.
Media Contact
Shirly Yi
Tel+86 755 88242569
Email[email protected]
SOURCE China International Optoelectronic Expo (CIOE)
Related Links
http://www.cioe.cn
NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- According to Stratistics MRC, the Global Food Traceability Market is accounted for $11.25 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach $20.95 billion by 2026 growing at a CAGR of 7.15% during the forecast period. Growing consumer concern for food safety, high demand in emerging economies, stringent export regulations and the increasing penetration of modern retail, such as supermarkets and hypermarkets are some of the key factors driving the market growth. However, factors such as associated cost, additional cost on traceability systems, varying needs for different products, lack of stringent laws in developing nations and privacy issues for data sharing are hindering the market growth.
Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p04147882
Food traceability comprises the capacity to identify and authenticate a variety of stages of food chain from production to distribution. It involves recognizing the origin of food and its destination, from where it will be distributed to end users. This system is necessary for food investigations and is crucial in global food trade as multi ingredient food includes materials from variety of food chain and countries. Food traceability system maintains the record of the flow of products which are actually meant for human consumption throughout the production process. Since food production and the distribution is a complex process the companies consider food traceability system as the best tool to solve all the food-related challenges.
By technology, Radio-frequency identification (RFID) segment is predicted to have considerable market share during the forecast period owing to real time tracking of food items irrespective of weather conditions. By geography, Europe is one of the most concerned regions for food safety. The policies related to food safety are most severe in Europe, as compared to any other region. Food and feed traceability has been necessary in Europe, since 2002 for all types of food businesses in the region. Food Trace is one of the programs in the region that is considered to improve traceability procedures between businesses. It demands the establishment of a defined identification system and a network of databases, in order to consolidate and share the information.
Some of the key players profiled in the Food Traceability Market include Honeywell International, Inc., E. I. DU PONT DE Nemours and Company, International Business Machines Corporation, United Electronics Co., LTD, Mass Group Inc., Merit-Trax Technologies Inc., C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc, Bar Code Integrators, Inc., Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Carlisle Technology Inc., Cognex Corporation, Picarro Inc, SGS SA, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Zebra technologies, Datalogic S.p.A, Foodlogiq, INFOR, Mar-Kov Computer Systems, STid Electronics identification and Impinj.
Technologies Covered:
Infrared
Biometrics
Global Positioning System (GPS)
Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID)
Barcodes
Near Field Communication (NFC)
Equipments Covered:
2D & 1D scanners
Sensors
Tags and labels
Thermal printers
Other Equipments
End Users Covered:
Warehouse
Government Departments
Manufacturer
Retailer
Farmers
Defense & Security Departments
Other End Users
Applications Covered:
Seafood Products
Fresh Food & Seeds
Beverage Products
Meat & Poultry
Dairy Products
Canned or Bottled Food
Other Applications
Regions Covered:
North America
US
Canada
Mexico
Europe
Germany
UK
Italy
France
Spain
Rest of Europe
Asia Pacific
Japan
China
India
Australia
New Zealand
South Korea
Rest of Asia Pacific
South America
Argentina
Brazil
Chile
Rest of South America
Middle East & Africa
Saudi Arabia
UAE
Qatar
South Africa
Rest of Middle East & Africa
What our report offers:
- Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments
- Market share analysis of the top industry players
- Strategic recommendations for the new entrants
- Market forecasts for a minimum of 9 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets
- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)
- Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations
- Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends
- Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments
- Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancements
Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p04147882
About Reportlinker
ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.
__________________________
Contact Clare: [email protected]
US: (339)-368-6001
Intl: +1 339-368-6001
SOURCE Reportlinker
Related Links
http://www.reportlinker.com
Ms. Iyahen brings a unique profile to the IDF, having held senior positions at two pioneering regional catastrophe risk pools, the African Risk Capacity (ARC) and the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF).
As the IDF's first Secretary General, Ms. Iyahen will be a visible and central point of contact for the IDF, establishing and building out the IDF Secretariat in London hosted by the International Insurance Society. She will also support the design, development and implementation of the IDF's operational activities.
The IDF Secretary General will support and manage the IDF's implementation efforts, driven by an Operating Committee and led by a high-level Steering Committee of 29 public and private sector leaders, including the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank Group.
"The appointment of Ms. Iyahen as Secretary General comes at an important moment in the IDF's development, complementing its current thought-leadership, partnerships and industry-shaping activities with a more operational focus," said Stephen Catlin, Chair of the IDF Steering Committee.
"We are very pleased to have been able to attract a person of the caliber and wealth of experience of Ms. Iyahen," added Denis Duverne, incoming Chair of the IDF Steering Committee.
"The IDF has already established itself as a unique and influential body in the insurance and development arenas and I greatly look forward to supporting its development in its next important, operational phase," said Ms. Iyahen.
The Secretary General appointment comes ahead of the IDF Steering Committee meeting in Monte Carlo on 11 September, which will be attended by more than 20 insurance industry and public-sector leaders.
Established in 2016, the IDF has played an important role in fostering public-private dialogue on the insurance-international development nexus and has helped shape policies and encourage innovation with industry insurance products and investment practices.
The IDF has mobilized more than 500 people from industry, NGOs, regulators, academia and international institutions to prepare pilots, develop and advocate best practices and transparency principles and support the design and development of critical funding facilities, set up by the UK, Germany and the World Bank.
"The IDF Working Groups have made early progress and now the appointment of a Secretary General and the creation of the Secretariat will enable the IDF to evolve to the next phase of operational impact. I have known Ekhosuehi since 2014 and witnessed her extensive capabilities and achievements. We are delighted that she has decided to apply that experience to support the IDF," said Rowan Douglas, Chair of the IDF Operating Committee and Head of Capital, Science and Policy Practice at Willis Towers Watson.
About the IDF
Objective: The Insurance Development Forum (IDF) is an industry-led public-private partnership supporting the growth and development of insurance-related resources and capabilities to help achieve the objectives of the Sustainable Development goals and related UN agreements of Sendai (Disaster Risk Reduction Framework), Addis Ababa (Finance for Development), Paris (Climate Change), Istanbul (Humanitarian System), collectively known as the UN Global 2030 Agenda.
Governance Structure: The IDF is led by a Steering Committee which is chaired by a senior insurance industry representative and co-chaired by the CFO of the World Bank Group and the Administrator General of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The Steering Committee comprises of another 26 private and public-sector leaders including AIG, Aon, Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers, Aviva, AXA, Axis Capital, Bank of England, Co-operators Group, French education mutual, Geneva Association, International Insurance Society, the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation, Lloyd's, Marsh & McLennan, Munich Re, Scor, Swiss Re, Tokio Marine, UN OCHA, UNISDR and Willis Towers Watson. Under guidance of the high-level Steering Committee, the IDF's implementation efforts are led by an Operating Committee which is supported by the IDF Secretariat led by the IDF Secretary General. The IDF is hosted by the International Insurance Society.
About Ekhosuehi Iyahen
Ekhosuehi Iyahen worked from 2008 to 2013 for the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility in various capacities. She joined the African Risk Capacity in 2014 as Lead Client Service Manager for Risk Transfer and was promoted in 2016 to Director, Policy and Technical Advisory Services. She holds a BA from the University of West Indies, an MSc from the London School of Economics and an Executive certificate from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. In 2018 she was selected as Rockefeller Foundation Resident Practitioner Fellow at the Bellagio Centre.
Contacts
[email protected]
www.theidf.org.
SOURCE Insurance Development Forum
The opening of the Family Practice Learning Centre in Kamloops will not only give residents better access to health care, but also help UBC med students.
"This is another step in how we are improving access to primary health care in the Thompson Okanagan region immediately, and over the longer term," said Adrian Dix, Minister of Health. "The Family Practice Learning Centre (FPLC) is a first-of-its kind initiative that pairs people without a primary care provider with University of British Columbia (UBC) family medicine residents to receive ongoing team-based care and treatment.
"By being co-located with the Urgent Primary Care Centre, it will help deliver primary care services people currently need. Furthermore, it increases the number of opportunities for medical residents to be trained and supported in team-based care in Kamloops. This provides the foundation for these new physicians to continue serving patients in this region going forward.
Interior Health has collaborated with the UBC Faculty of Medicine's Department of Family Practice and the Thompson Region Division of Family Practice to develop the FPLC, located within B.C.'s first Urgent Primary Care Centre, which has seen nearly 1,000 patients since opening in June 2018.
The FPLC program enables residents to gain more hands-on experience under the guidance of eight fully licensed family physicians.
Patients seeing a physician at the FPLC will also have access to the team-based practice in the Urgent Primary Care Centre, which includes registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, physiotherapists and social workers.
"Training in a community is a powerful incentive for young physicians to stay and build their practice in that community," said Doug Cochrane, Interior Health board chairperson. "This learning centre will improve services for patients currently without doctors in Kamloops by attaching them to a clinic where there is co-ordinated, comprehensive and quality care provided through team-based care."
TORONTO, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Thomson Reuters (TSX /NYSE: TRI) today announced that it has exercised its right to redeem approximately US$1.7 billion of its outstanding debt securities, conditional upon the closing of the company's previously announced sale of a 55% interest in its Financial & Risk business to private equity funds managed by Blackstone for approximately US$17 billion. An affiliate of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and an affiliate of GIC will invest alongside Blackstone.
The notes to be redeemed are the following:
C$750,000,000 principal amount of 4.35% notes due September 30, 2020 (CUSIP No. 884903 BJ3);
principal amount of 4.35% notes due (CUSIP No. 884903 BJ3); C$500,000,000 principal amount of 3.369% notes due May 23, 2019 (CUSIP No. 884903 BR5); and
principal amount of 3.369% notes due (CUSIP No. 884903 BR5); and US$500,000,000 principal amount of 4.70% notes due October 15, 2019 (CUSIP No. 884903 BG9).
On August 28, 2018, Thomson Reuters announced that it and Blackstone had agreed to close the Financial & Risk transaction on October 1, 2018, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of customary closing conditions. Thomson Reuters plans to fund these redemptions (and the future redemption of other outstanding debt securities) using approximately US$4 billion of the proceeds from the transaction.
The redemption prices will include applicable early repayment premiums, as well as accrued and unpaid interest through the redemption date, which is currently expected to be October 5, 2018 for each series of notes.
Based on a conditional redemption date of October 5, 2018, the Canadian dollar denominated notes are expected to be redeemed at the following redemption prices per C$1,000 principal amount, which have been determined based on the Canada Yield Price, as defined in the applicable documentation governing each series of notes:
Notes C$750,000,000 principal amount of 4.35% notes due September 30, 2020 (CUSIP No. 884903 BJ3) C$500,000,000 principal amount of 3.369% notes due May 23, 2019 (CUSIP No. 884903 BR5) Canada Yield Price C$1,037.24 C$1,007.39 Accrued and unpaid interest C$0.60 C$12.46 Total redemption price C$1,037.84 C$1,019.85
The total redemption price for the U.S. dollar denominated notes to be redeemed will be determined at a later date, in accordance with the applicable documentation governing those notes. When available, Thomson Reuters will provide the total redemption price for those notes in the "Investors" section of its website, www.thomsonreuters.com. Thomson Reuters currently anticipates that this information will be posted on or about October 2, 2018. In addition, if the redemption date will be after October 5, 2018, Thomson Reuters plans to post updated redemption price information on its website for the Canadian dollar denominated notes.
Non-registered holders (banks, brokerage firms or other financial institutions) of Canadian dollar denominated notes that maintain their interests through CDS Clearing and Depository Services Inc. (CDS) should contact their CDS customer service representative with any questions about the redemption. Alternatively, beneficial holders with any questions about the redemptions should contact their respective brokerage firm or financial institution which holds interests in the notes on their behalf.
This news release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a notice of redemption, nor an offer to tender for, or purchase, any notes or any other securities of Thomson Reuters. There can be no assurances that the Financial & Risk transaction will close or that any redemption will occur.
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of news and information for professional markets. Our customers rely on us to deliver the intelligence, technology and expertise they need to find trusted answers. The business has operated in more than 100 countries for more than 100 years. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges (symbol: TRI). For more information, visit www.thomsonreuters.com.
SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Certain statements in this news release are forward-looking, including the company's current expectations regarding the timing for closing of the Financial & Risk transaction (which remains subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions), the expected use of proceeds of the Financial & Risk transaction and the timing and total redemption prices for the planned redemptions. These forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and reflect our company's current expectations. As a result, forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations, including other factors discussed in materials that Thomson Reuters from time to time files with, or furnishes to, the Canadian securities regulatory authorities and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. There is no assurance that the redemptions or a transaction involving all or part of the Financial & Risk business will be completed or that other events described in any forward-looking statement will materialize. Except as may be required by applicable law, Thomson Reuters disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.
CONTACTS MEDIA David Crundwell
Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs +1 416 649 9904 [email protected] INVESTORS Frank J. Golden
Senior Vice President, Investor Relations
+1 646 223 5288
[email protected]
SOURCE Thomson Reuters
Related Links
http://www.thomson.com
WASHINGTON, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- B2B research, ratings, and reviews company Clutch named the top-performing companies in the marketing, development, design, and IT industries in California. The companies were ranked based on quantitative and qualitative criteria that assess their work experience, market presence, and client satisfaction.
Top B2B Companies in California
Top B2B Companies in California in 2018
#10 LLC 180Fusion 212 Degrees Fahrenheit 3Q Digital 415Agency 4Hilton Inc. 4Thought Marketing 500 Designs 6D Global Technologies 8th Light Abel HR Act Bold Media Group Ad Victorem Adwizar Agency73 Agile Search Marketing Alaniz Album Agency Alliant
Employee
Benefits Alvin Amasta Media AMGADIZATION AMP Agency ANDESIGN Answer California Apex Digital Media Apexia Agency App Makers LA Appency Appmakery Appstem Appster Archetype Architect ArcTouch Arrow Root Media Art+Logic Artsy Geek asap developers AshWebStudio ATAK Interactive, Inc Awsmd barrettSF Bartlett Brands BASIC Basis 365 Accounting Bateman Group BayCreative Be Structured Technology Group, Inc. Be Unicorn Beacons Point, Inc. Beverly Boy Productions BEXBRANDS Beyond Beyond the Arc Big Presence BIGPIE | Digital Creative Agency BillingParadise BitCot --Mobile and Web App Development Black Antelope BlairSammons.com Blanc & Otus Blaze PR blend Blink UX Blu Impact Blue Rocket BlueHubs Marketing Group Bluewolf BLVR Bob Gold & Associates Bold Marc Bop Design Brandastic.com Branding Los Angeles Brenton Way Breviti Brian's Web Design Brickman Marketing Brighter Naming Bruce Clay, Inc. BSTRO Built Bulldog Drummond BusinessOnline BVG Software Group Calabria Technology Callbox Camp Creative Capital Collections Catchword CCG / Marketing Agency CIENCE Technologies CIRCA Citizen Group Citizen Relations CitrusBits Clap Creative Clay ClearSummit Clickflame Coalition Technologies CodementorX Colibri Digital Marketing Column Five Cooper CPC Strategy CreateApe Creative Circle Creative27 Creativedash Crowd Crystal Pyramid Productions CSTMR Digital Marketing Custom Creatives Cutwater D.Workz Interactive Dangerous Cat Productions DASH TWO Datalink SEO DataSelf Daxima Dayspring Technologies Dazeworks Inc DDW Deal Design, Inc. Definery Demand Solutions Group Demonstrate PR Design Proficient Design Spinners Devise Interactive Digital Brand Group Digital Deployment DIGITALMARKETING.com Digitawise Directive Consulting Distillery Do IT Programming Solutions Doctor Multimedia Dog and Rooster, Inc. Dreambox Creations Duncan Channon Ebbex eBoost Consulting EIGHT25MEDIA EIGHT25MOBILE Elevate Creative Agency Elite SEM eMarketing Concepts eMaximize Emotive Brand Empirical Encircl LLC Endertech Epsilon Espresso B2B Marketing Everett Andrew Marketing Evo Strategies Evoice Evviva Brands Exadel Excela Creative Expedition Co. Extractable Exygy FastRock Ferrari Productions Fifty & Fifty FINE Firecracker PR Fishermen Labs Flair Designs Flat 6 Concepts Flight Fluid Flux.la Fog Coast Productions ForceBrain Formulytic Franchise Beacon, LLC Freshdesign Friendemic FS Studio FullStack Labs Funworks Furtive Collective FYC Labs General Networks Gershoni Creative Agency GH Branding Global Brand Works Go Nimbly Gold Front Good Stuff Partners Gravity Infosolutions Inc. Gray Square Media Solutions Greater Than One Grey Sky Media Grio GrowPlastic Growth Drivers Gunderson Direct Hathway HawkSEM HelpGood Herman-Scheer Hero Digital HUB International Hub Strategy and Communication Human Marketing Hundredfold Studios Hunter & Bard Huntington Pacific Media Hvantage Technologies Inc HypeLife Brands HyperArts HyperTrends Global Inc. IdeaWork Studios Ignite Visibility Ignyte Impekable Incitrio InfoDataPlace Instaboost Media Insurance Support World Intellectsoft Intelligent Clout Intensify Internet Solutions For Less Intivix IQ BackOffice Ironbit Isadora Agency ISBX ItsTheROI Jacob Tyler Jivaldi JLB Media Productions JMaverick Studios Jones Social & PR JStokes Agency JUMBOshrimp Just Digital Inc Kalamuna Kareo King Tide Kiosk Klicker KO Websites, Inc. Kobe Digital KPI Partners Kristan Ruona Marketing KWALL Kwok Design Kyro Digital L.A. Social Karma La Creativo La Visual LAD Solutions Landis Communications Inc. (LCI) LatentView Analytics Left Productions Lemonlight LESS+MORE Lien Design Lift LikeSocialBiz LINK Creative LION Interactive Lobeline Communications LocalEyes Video Production Los Angeles Web Design Luminoustudios Inc. Made By Wing Manhattan Mobile Marc Posch Design Group Marcher Internet Marketing Margasoft Corp. Marker Seven Marketing and Advertising Design Group (M.A.D. Group) Marketing Maven Matellio McLean MediaSmack MEDL Mobile Menlo Technologies Mentus Mercer Metric Theory Milo Digital MiresBall Mistress Mobihunter Mokriya Momentum Design Lab MOONBEAM STUDIOS, INC. Moonstone Interactive Most Likely To Motava Movetic Mumble Mutations Limited MW2 Consulting Naked Development Namango Web Development Navigation North Network Remedy New Evolution Video New Leaders NextLeft Nextware Technologies Nika Digital Agency Noble Intent Studio Noble Studios Noise 13 NOVVUM OCDLab Olibro Design Organik SEO Oshyn Oui Will Pace Social Media Palmer Ad Agency Parade PatrickOrtman, Inc. PCN - Professional Communications Network Phase2 Philosophie Group PINT, Inc. Pivot Design Pixel Jar Planeteria Plank PortalFront Post Modern Marketing PrideStaff Proleadsoft Prolific Interactive PromoAffiliates Propane Studio QASource QualityLogic QuarkWorks Quest Global Technologies Limited QuickSoft Inc R&V Studios R2integrated R6S Racepoint Global Rail Digital Raincross Raizlabs, a Rightpoint company Ramotion Ranksharks Razorfrog Web Design Realize Internet Marketing Red Cup Agency Reinvently Reputation X Revolution Creatives RGB Projects Rip Media Group Ripe Media RiskIQ RiskVision RNO1 Robert Half Rootstrap RSO Consulting Sachs Marketing Group SADA Systems Salesify Salt Branding Saritasa Scheer Social Scorpion Scripted 95Visuals (Formally SCV HomeTown Web) Seamgen SearcherMagnet Searchlight Solutions SEMbyotic Sensis Seo Gorillas SEO Inc. SEOP SevenAtoms Inc Shanahan Strategy Inc. Shane Barker Consulting Sidebench Sileria SILK Software Six Degrees LA Six Figure Design Skalable Technologies Skipfour LLC Skyhound Internet Smashdeck Marketing SocialPulsar Inc Softfile SP Marketplace Sparkhouse Specto Design Spectrum Group Online SPINX Digital Spokes Digital Spot On Media, Inc. Springbox SPRITZ LLC Square63 Stanfy Stanton & Company Star Staffing Stark Marketing State Creative Storm Brain Stratalux Streamline Results STRV Studio 22 Studio Umbrella Inc. SunCity Advising Sunlight Media LLC Sur-Ryl Marketing Sure Exposure Swenson He SwingDev Tack Media Talespin Tandem Taylor and Co. TDMA Top Digital Marketing Agency TechMD Technigami Technology Management Concepts TeleContact Tepia Co The Ad Firm The Bureau Of Small Projects The Content Bureau The Development Factory The Engine is Red The Human Expansion Co. The Marcom Group The Miller Group The Naming Group The Segal Group The X Concept Themis Web Technologies, Inc. Theory SF Think Strategy Think Tank Designs Third & Grove ThirdEye Data Thirsty Agency thoughtbot Thunderbolt Studios Thunk Timelapse Tiny Frog Technologies Tivix TLK Fusion To The Moon Toi Topflight Apps Toptal Tower33 Digital, Inc. TPX Communications (Formerly DCSI) Traction Tragic Media Traina Design TRIXMEDIA Inc TruAdvantage Twelve12 Ueno UNIT partners LLC Uniwebb Software Upcall Urban Insight USWired Inc. VentureDevs VeracityColab Victorious VOKENT creative digital agency VORM Vrrb Interactive WadyBug LLC WANDR WC Call Center Web Reputation Builders Webbege, Inc Weberous Web Design WEBITMD Websauce Studio WebSight Design Websites Depot inc Websoft Depot WebWorks Agency WePay Westside Tax Wildebeest Window To Recovery Wingman Media Wire Media Wizeline Wonsupona Wpromote Wve Labs Y Media Labs Yeti LLC Zazmic Inc. Zbra Studios Zinzin ZipBoss Zubi Advertising
"California is known as a hub of technological innovation," Clutch Business Analyst Katie Wonders said. "From Silicon Valley to Los Angeles, from Sacramento to Orange County, these businesses provide the services necessary for California businesses to innovate and fuel the economy."
Although it's free to get listed on Clutch, only the top companies in each industry are recognized as leaders. Clutch's research is ongoing with new companies and reviews added daily. For an opportunity to be featured as one of Clutch's 2019 Leaders, apply now. It's a simple, two-step process that takes less than 20 minutes.
These results are a snapshot of Clutch's Leaders Matrices on August 28, 2018. Rankings may change daily and currently may not be what is reflected on Clutch's website.
See the full research on Clutch: https://clutch.co.
About Clutch
A B2B research, ratings, and reviews firm in the heart of Washington, D.C., Clutch connects small and medium businesses with the best-fit agencies, software, or consultants they need to tackle business challenges together and with confidence. Clutch's methodology compares business service providers and software in a specific market based on verified client reviews, services offered, work quality, and market presences.
Contact
Jeremy Fishman
202-417-2113
[email protected]
SOURCE Clutch
Related Links
https://clutch.co
STAMFORD, Conn., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tronox Limited (NYSE: TROX) ("Tronox" or the "Company"), a global mining and inorganic chemicals company, today commented on the decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granting the U. S. Federal Trade Commission's ("FTC") request for a preliminary injunction regarding Tronox's proposed acquisition of Cristal. The Company intends to promptly file a notice of appeal and request an expedited hearing of its appeal to reverse the Court's decision so Tronox may proceed with the merger. Simultaneous to its pursuit of an appeal, Tronox will be considering whether to proceed with the remedial divestiture of Cristal's Ashtabula, Ohio, two-plant titanium dioxide ("TiO 2 ") production complex. As announced on July 16, 2018, Tronox and Venator Materials PLC (NYSE: VNTR) ("Venator") entered into a binding Memorandum of Understanding providing for the negotiation of a definitive agreement to sell the Ashtabula complex to Venator should a divestiture of Ashtabula be required to consummate the Cristal acquisition. Today's judicial decision was released under seal to provide counsel for Tronox, Cristal and the FTC an opportunity to review the text of the decision to ensure it contained no confidential information. The full decision is expected to be issued early next week.
"Tronox is disappointed by the U.S. District Court's decision to further delay this output-enhancing combination designed to increase the supply of TiO 2 for North American customers and position Tronox to succeed in a fiercely competitive global market," said Jeffry N. Quinn, president and chief executive officer of Tronox. "As we pursue an appeal, Tronox has valuable alternatives to consider, including a possible remedial transaction to divest the Ashtabula facility for $1.1 billion to Venator or waiting for a decision by the FTC's Administrative Law Judge in the Part 3 Procedure. During the Part 3 Procedure, I believe we convincingly demonstrated that the FTC's objections to the Cristal transaction are entirely misplaced and this highly synergistic transaction will significantly increase production of TiO 2 to the benefit of customers in North America and around the world. We intend to be as transparent and open as possible and will be forthcoming with our chosen course of action at the appropriate time."
About Tronox
Tronox Limited is a vertically integrated mining and inorganic chemical business. The company mines and processes titanium ore, zircon and other minerals, and manufactures titanium dioxide pigments that add brightness and durability to paints, plastics, paper and other everyday products. For more information, visit tronox.com.
About Cristal
Cristal (also known as The National Titanium Dioxide Company Limited) operates eight manufacturing plants in seven countries on five continents and employs approximately 4,100 people worldwide. Cristal is owned 79 percent by Tasnee (a listed Saudi joint-stock company) and 20 percent by Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC), a company equally owned by the six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), headquartered in Kuwait. One percent of the company is owned by Dr. Talal A. Al-Shair, who also serves as vice chairman, Tasnee and chairman of Cristal.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this release that are not historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements, which are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions about us, may include projections of our future financial performance based on our growth strategies and anticipated trends in our business. These statements are only predictions based on our current expectations and projections about future events. There are important factors that could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results, level of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These and other risk factors are discussed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including those under the heading entitled "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017.
Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for our management to predict all risks and uncertainties, nor can management assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Although we believe the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, level of activity, performance or achievements. Neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any of these forward-looking statements. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Unless otherwise required by applicable laws, we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information or future developments.
Media Contact: Melissa Zona
+1 636.751.4057
Investor Contact: Brennen Arndt
+1 203.705.3730
SOURCE Tronox Limited
Related Links
http://www.tronox.com
LINCOLN, Neb., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Unite Private Networks (UPN), a leading provider of high-capacity, fiber-based communication networks is pleased to announce a recent partnership with Nebraska based, Five Points Bank.
Unite Private Networks is providing Five Point Banks a multi-point-to-multi-point (ELAN) solution connecting their headquarters to 12 satellite bank locations, as well as dedicated high-speed Internet.
"There is a wave of technological advancements that are actively transforming the financial services sector," said Cliff McDow, Regional Sales Director at Unite Private Networks. "UPN's 100 percent fiber-optic infrastructure offers robust network protection with enhanced core and diversity, that assures data transmissions are distributed accurately, safely and securely across an increasingly complex ecosystem of financial services applications. We provide a suite of products including Ethernet services that are scalable from 10 Mbps to 100 Gbps, wavelength services, Internet access, as well as dark fiber, and we continue to help businesses meet their bandwidth needs in the region."
"In the banking industry, when the network is down it has a profound impact on how our employees do their job," said Jason Amick, VP Information Technology at Five Points Bank. "UPN has helped us reduce the cost of our circuits while increasing the performance and bandwidth throughout our network. Their support team is very responsive and highly available to resolve any issue or just to answer questions."
About Unite Private Networks: UPN provides high-bandwidth, fiber-based communications networks and services to schools, governments, carriers, data centers, hospitals, and enterprise business customers across a 20 state service area. Service offerings include dark and lit fiber, private line, metro-optical Ethernet, Internet access, data center services, and other customized solutions. Headquartered in Kansas City, MO, UPN has been providing customer focused communications solutions since 1998. For more information on UPN, please visit www.uniteprivatenetworks.com , or connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Five Points Bank: Five Points Bank was founded in Grand Island and opened its doors in September 1971. Five Points Bank has been continually recognized as a banking leader by numerous banking publications such Bankrate.com and Bauer Financial for its overall exceptional safe and sound operation. Five Points Bank looks forward to taking care of its customers, contributing to its local communities, and overall, being "Nebraska's Better Bank" for banking services and banking technology.
Media Contact:
Brandi Tubb
816-903-9400
[email protected]
SOURCE Unite Private Networks
Related Links
www.uniteprivatenetworks.com
PONTIAC, Mich., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Two leaders at United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) Marlene Light, Vice President of Lending Support, and Adam Wolfe, Vice President, Deputy General Counsel were selected by HousingWire as 2018 Insider Award winners.
The award, now in its third year, recognizes the housing industry's unsung heroes who are propelling their respective companies to success. According to HousingWire, the Insider Award winners are professionals their companies turn to with their most important or challenging projects because their contributions and hard work lead to superior results.
A 14-year veteran of the mortgage industry, Light oversees 11 different teams and more than 280 team members at UWM a number that is four times the size it was just over two years ago. Under Light's leadership, UWM's Lending Support team has set high marks for daily loan submissions, and has played a crucial role in helping UWM become the No. 1 wholesale lender in the country and expand its market share in the industry.
Wolfe, a former loan officer, oversees all litigation and contracts for UWM, managing all of the company's relationships and agreements with outside vendors. He executed the agreement which allowed UWM to become the first mortgage lender in the nation to offer a completely virtual e-closing experience. Wolfe has played a big role in bringing new technology and advancements to both UWM and the mortgage broker community.
About United Wholesale Mortgage
Headquartered in Troy, Michigan, United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) is the #1 wholesale lender in the nation, providing state-of-the-art technology and unrivaled client service, from the industry's leading account executives. Operating under parent company United Shore, UWM is known for its highly efficient, accurate and expeditious lending support, UWM underwrites and provides closing documentation for residential mortgage loans originated by independent mortgage brokers, correspondents, small banks and local credit unions. UWM's exceptional teamwork and laser-like focus on delivering innovative mortgage solutions are driving the company's ongoing growth and its leadership position as the foremost advocate for mortgage brokers. For more information, visit www.uwm.com or call 800-981-8898. NMLS #3038.
MEDIA CONTACT:
BRAD PETTIFORD, Senior Communication Strategist
[email protected] p (855) 888-8737, ext. 3160 585 S. Blvd E. Pontiac, MI 48341
UWM.com
SOURCE United Wholesale Mortgage
Related Links
http://www.uwm.com
"Mr. Childs' commitment to economic development in minority communities is an unrivaled asset to the Department of Commerce," said Secretary Ross. "In his new role, I fully expect him to continue to vigorously pursue opportunities and growth for minorities as well as the country as a whole."
In addition to his appointment as the National Director of MBDA, Mr. Childs serves as the Policy Advisor to the White House's Office of Public Liaison where he leads the Administration's outreach to the African American community. He also works closely with the Office of American Innovation on economic development issues for urban areas and urban revitalization.
"I am honored to be selected by Secretary Ross to lead the Minority Business Development Agency", said Mr. Childs. "I look forward to working with the dedicated team at MBDA as we blaze the agency's path into the future."
Prior to his appointment as the National Director of MBDA, Mr. Childs served as the Economic Development Administration (EDA) Senior Advisor and Director of Strategic Initiatives for the U.S. Department of Commerce. As Senior Advisor and Director of Strategic Initiatives, he provided counsel on economic development and fostered partnerships with other federal agencies as well as national and international organizations. Mr. Childs also oversees the Department of Commerce's $1 billion in supplemental Congressional funds for disaster recovery and readiness grants after the natural disasters of 2017.
About the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA)
MBDA, www.mbda.gov, is the only Federal agency dedicated to the growth and global competitiveness of U.S. minority-owned businesses through the mobilization and advancement of public and private sector programs, policy, and research. Our services better equip minority-owned firms to create jobs, build scale and capacity, increase revenues and expand regionally, nationally and internationally. For nearly 50 years, MBDA has been a dedicated strategic partner to all U.S. minority-owned businesses, committed to providing greater access to capital, contracts, and markets. Follow us on Twitter @usmbda.
Contact: Velicia D. Woods
Phone: (202) 482-0491
Email: [email protected]
Fax: (202) 482-5117
Website: www.mbda.gov
SOURCE Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA)
Related Links
http://www.mbda.gov
When Sean joined the Army in 1992, he almost felt he was answering a call to serve.
"I'd seen, for the first time in my life, that I can excel, and I had leadership qualities. From there, I became proud of not just being in the Army but being an American."
During his second tour in Iraq, Sean and his team did daily patrols and experienced daily dangers. Because of this, Sean has lived with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He found help with WWP.
"I really got into Wounded Warrior Project when they did the first Soldier Ride," Sean said, referring to his first opportunity to join dozens of other veterans on a multi-day bicycle ride.
"It taught me I knew it, but it brought it back to me that you can do anything you put your mind to. It gives me the opportunity to meet other veterans."
Soldier Ride is a multi-day group bicycle ride that brings veterans together to bond and support one another. WWP connects veterans with each other to ride as one, while providing other physical health and wellness opportunities during each event. Riders find support from fellow veterans while completing daily tasks together.
This year, WWP is marking 15 years of Soldier Ride with a special cross-country ride throughout September. Soldier Ride Across America starts in New York City this weekend.
For Sean, Soldier Ride provides motivation and a chance to lead.
"You've just got to have resiliency. And that's with any challenge that you do. I mean you might fall, but you've got to be able to get back up.
Read Sean's full story at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/wounded-warrior-project-empowers-lead-way-wounded-warrior-project/?published=t.
About Wounded Warrior Project
Since 2003, Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) has been meeting the growing needs of warriors, their families, and caregivers helping them achieve their highest ambition. Learn more: http://newsroom.woundedwarriorproject.org/about-us.
SOURCE Wounded Warrior Project
Related Links
https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On Tuesday, Bo Caudill and Dave Bland, attorneys with Weaver Bennett & Bland, P.A., won an important victory in an ongoing lawsuit brought against the North Carolina legislature, ensuring state Supreme Court candidate Chris Anglin will appear on the ballot as a Republican in November.
Over the summer, the Republican legislature called a special session and hastily passed a new law that would have prevented Anglin from being able to have his party affiliation listed on the ballot. The law was specifically aimed at affecting Anglin's ability to appear on the upcoming ballot. Caudill and Bland, along with co-counsel John Burns, challenged the law, arguing that it was unconstitutional because it retroactively stripped Anglin of his constitutional rights to freedom of association and due process, among others.
After prevailing before both the trial court and the North Carolina Court of Appeals, the legislative defendants ultimately withdrew their appeal, abandoning their arguments. Due to the arguments prepared by Burns, Caudill, and Bland, Anglin is assured a spot on the November ballot. Caudill and Bland practice in the areas of civil litigation and constitutional law, among others.
About Weaver, Bennett & Bland
Weaver, Bennett & Bland, P.A. is a full-service law firm based in downtown Matthews, North Carolina. We have been serving the Matthews and greater Charlotte area since 1982, covering the following practice areas: family law, civil litigation, estate planning and estate administration, business law, elder law and special needs planning. We provide the best possible legal representation and advocacy, upholding their client focused cornerstones: helping, planning & protecting. Our goal is to be your Attorneys for life.
Media Contact: Tessa Williams, 704-844-1400, [email protected]
SOURCE Weaver, Bennett & Bland, P.A.
Related Links
https://www.wbblawyers.com/
NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Weber Shandwick, one of the world's leading global communications and marketing services firms, announced today the creation of four new roles that help drive the agency's growth in key areas, including data & analytics, digital content & strategy, integrated media and e-commerce.
Tanvir Hannan , formerly the head of conversations at Horizon Media, joins as executive vice president and global head of analytics operations;
, formerly the head of conversations at Horizon Media, joins as executive vice president and global head of analytics operations; Award-winning business journalist and author Spencer Ante, joins as executive vice president of digital content and editorial strategy, serving as content lead for The X Practice across North America ;
; Katie Krum , formerly of Under Armour, joins as senior vice president of integrated media strategy and digital lead for Weber Shandwick's South region ( Washington, D.C. , Baltimore and Dallas );
, formerly of Under Armour, joins as senior vice president of integrated media strategy and digital lead for Weber Shandwick's South region ( , and ); Vince Koh , formerly of Iconix Brand Group, joins as senior vice president of commerce and conversion.
These senior hires will all be a part of The X Practice Weber Shandwick's new agency model combining its innovation and technology-focused capabilities.
"Weber Shandwick is confronting the technological forces that are changing the way our clients operate. Having the industry's top digital-focused and analytical talent is critical to helping clients navigate these sometimes unconventional factors and changes," said Chris Perry, chief digital officer of Weber Shandwick. "Spencer, Tanvir, Katie and Vince bring diverse and complementary expertise that deepens our prowess in data and analytics, digital and creative technology. Their specialties combined with our established competencies and leadership in these spaces will help us in our continued mission to conceive of new solutions to unprecedented change for our clients."
In his previous roles at Horizon Media and Publicis North America, Hannan introduced new research approaches with teams of market researchers, social analytics experts and data science practitioners to produce rich, data-driven consumer insights for brands. In his global role at Weber Shandwick, Hannan will work closely with senior leaders across the Analytics group to deepen and accelerate the use of advanced analytics throughout the agency's network.
Ante brings deep editorial and digital knowledge to his new role, having led reporting teams at The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and covered technology, business and finance for both TheStreet.com and Wired across a 20-year career. Most recently, he served as a senior vice president and editorial director at Edelman, providing strategic media counsel for a variety of clients. At Weber Shandwick, Ante will serve as the senior content lead for The X Practice, overseeing content strategy, creation and delivery of major cross-channel brand publishing efforts.
Across her 15-year career, Krum has driven digital marketing experiences for some of the world's biggest brands, developing digital strategies, creating online communities and executing innovative, results-driven campaigns. Krum most recently served as the senior director of content and engagement at Under Armour where she managed content and engagement across the UA Connected Fitness ecosystem, including MyFitnessPal and MapMyRun. Previously, she held similar roles at Marriott International and Nickelodeon. At Weber Shandwick, Krum will drive integrated client programs across paid, owned and earned media. She will also oversee Digital for Weber Shandwick's South region.
Koh brings diverse experience in direct-to-consumer retail, e-commerce and subscriptions services to Weber Shandwick. He most recently served as vice president of e-commerce at brand management company Iconix Brand Group, where he led digital-first strategies transforming traditional brands into modern, direct-to-consumer operations. Koh also previously led strategy, merchandising and operations for digital commerce startups Fab.com and Keaton Row. Earlier in his career, he held buying and merchandising positions for Barneys New York and Longchamp. Koh's primary area of focus at Weber Shandwick will be expanding the firm's capabilities in content-to-commerce programs, with a particular emphasis on the digital commerce space.
About Weber Shandwick
Weber Shandwick is a leading global communications and marketing services firm in 78 cities with a network extending to 128 cities around the world. The firm's diverse team of strategists, analysts, producers, designers, developers and campaign activators has won the most prestigious awards in the world for innovative, creative approaches and impactful work. Weber Shandwick was the only public relations agency included on the Advertising Age Agency A-list in 2014 and 2015 and the only PR firm designated an A-List Agency Standout in 2017 and 2018. Weber Shandwick was honored as PRWeek's Global Agency of the Year in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, The Holmes Report's Global Agency of the Year in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2017, and The Holmes Report's Global Digital Agency of the Year in 2016. The firm deploys deep expertise across sectors and specialty areas, including consumer marketing, corporate reputation, healthcare, technology, public affairs, financial services, employee engagement, social impact, financial communications and crisis management, using proprietary social, digital and analytics methodologies. Weber Shandwick is part of the Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG). For more information, visit http://www.webershandwick.com.
Contact: Kimberly Dixon
Company: Weber Shandwick
Phone: 212-546-7876
Email: [email protected]
SOURCE Weber Shandwick
Related Links
http://webershandwick.com
HOUSTON, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Grace After Fire, a Houston-based organization solely focused on helping women veterans, is now better able to serve its clients thanks to fellow veteran Jason Rorie and his IT services company, Elevated Technologies. Rorie (a U.S. Navy veteran) and Elevated Technologies provide free help to veteran-affiliated organizations through the company's Pay IT Forward program. Grace After Fire, a small nonprofit organization, has assisted more than 3,000 women veterans and their family members over the past three and half years, helping them to navigate the challenges of re-entering communities and adjusting to civilian life. The organization provides confidential peer-to-peer outreach, peer-bonding activities, and direct access to appropriate health and other support services.
Navy veteran and Elevated Technologies founder Jason Rorie (center) provides pro bono IT assistance to Grace After Fire and fellow Navy veterans Mea Williams, president and CEO of Grace After Fire (left of Rorie) and the organizations Houston outreach coordinator, Tana Plescher (right of Rorie).
"We're a small organization on a tight budget, and we needed an IT expert to diagnose our situation and help us find solutions to be more efficient and maximize our time assisting veterans," said Mea Williams, president and CEO of Grace After Fire and veteran of the U.S. Navy. "Fortunately, Jason Rorie was looking for veteran-related organizations to help through his Pay IT Forward philanthropy program, and we found each other. He listened, recommended solutions, and implemented them. Veterans have a special bond and can-do attitude, and together we U.S. Navy veterans got the job done."
In addition to needing an IT solution to gain back-office efficiencies, Grace After Fire also sought a way to optimize how it was training facilitators of its Table Talk Color Me Camo peer support program. Helping women veterans address common problems associated with adjustments to civilian life after service, Table Talk is a nationwide network of trained facilitators who use structured interaction and educational materials to address challenges women veterans face on the path to positive change.
"Jason has a huge heart and a need to continue serving. Now, we're operating more efficiently, and we've positioned our Table Talk Color Me Camo peer-to-peer support program to take a quantum leap," said Tana Plescher, Houston outreach coordinator for Grace After Fire and a veteran of the U.S. Navy. "By using a new video-conferencing solution, we can now perform one training session for up to 25 peer group facilitators, each of whom will form a peer group of 12 women veterans, which ultimately can help as many as 300 women veterans. Before, we had to train facilitators in person, sometimes only one or two at a time. This is huge for us and the women veterans we serve."
Williams says the Table Talk Color Me Camo peer-to-peer support system is a highly important and effective program which enables them to reach veterans all across the country. All that's needed is a professionally trained facilitator. The peer-group setting offers a comfortable, safe environment for women veterans to talk about personal issues they will only discuss among other veterans.
"All veterans are faced with the adjustment back to civilian life, but women veterans have challenges unique to their gender. They prefer to talk about their problems with someone who has shared similar or like experiences," said Williams. "Leaving the military which gave you structure and dictated everything you did during the day and transitioning to civilian life can be a little complex in the end and cause unnecessary stress. Now, it can feel like you're completely on your own, searching for a job to leverage your skills, and having to be a wife and, for many, manage families. Additionally, some of our clients are also dealing with other serious challenges, such as homelessness or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Our goal is to help women veterans help themselves. All of our programs and services are designed to surface three main pillars for women veterans: hope, connection and purpose."
"We are very thankful to Grace After Fire for the help they provide women veterans here in Houston and across the country, and we are especially proud to provide meaningful help," said Rorie. "As a veteran myself, I'm especially sensitive to the challenges veterans face when leaving the military, having to assimilate to civilian life and finding a new career path. I faced the same challenges, and they were tough. We all experienced it."
Grace After Fire is a benefactor of Elevated Technologies' Pay IT Forward program, which provides pro bono knowledge, resources and time to help veteran-affiliated companies and organizations. More information about the program can be found on the firm's website, www.elevated-tech.com.
About Elevated Technologies
Elevated Technologies, founded in 2006, is an established and trusted provider of comprehensive managed IT services, cloud solutions, data protection and network security solutions to clients in the Houston metro area. Specializing in serving small and medium-sized businesses, the company provides tailored solutions and support to meet each client's unique IT needs. Elevated Technologies is committed to helping businesses make informed decisions and leverage robust, powerful IT solutions to increase productivity, achieve cost savings and maintain safeguards. As a veteran-owned and operated business, Elevated Technologies dedicates a portion of earnings towards helping veterans, including its Pay IT Forward Initiative by which the company selects and provides 12 months of critical IT support to an upstart veteran-owned business or a veteran-related organization for each new "regular" client acquired by the company. For more information about Elevated Technologies, please visit www.elevated-tech.com.
About Grace After Fire
Grace After Fire, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is dedicated to helping women Veterans help themselves by providing the means to gain knowledge, insight and self-renewal. Grace After Fire guides women veterans as they re-enter their communities and the workforce and refines their roles for a successful future. Grace After Fire's services are designed specifically for women veterans of all branches and eras of service, regardless of discharge status, delivered at no cost. For more information or for women veterans seeking assistance, please visit www.graceafterfire.org or call 1-888-737-3112.
MEDIA CONTACT
Scott Tims
[email protected]
Office: 214/378-7970 x278
SOURCE Elevated Technologies
Related Links
http://www.elevated-tech.com
Photo: Contributed
The RCMP Emergency Response Team was called to the Shuswap following a report of an armed home invasion.
Sgt. Scott Lachapelle said on Sept. 4, Salmon Arm RCMP responded to a complaint of a home invasion in Tappen, where a male suspect allegedly was carrying a weapon.
The report came in that a male broke into the home with a weapon and stole the homeowner's vehicle, a white 2017 Hyundai Sante Fe. Upon arrival, police located a stolen Chevrolet Silverado which was left there by the suspect, said Lachapelle.
Later that night, police received a report the stolen Hyundai was parked in the 3600 block area of Highway 1. RCMP found two weapons inside the vehicle, one of which was allegedly used in the home invasion.
Given the nature of the call, and the belief that the suspect, who was considered armed and dangerous and was still in the immediate area, a police service dog and the RCMP Emergency Response Team were called out to assist. After a search of the area, the male suspect was located in the woods a short distance from the stolen vehicle, said Lachapelle.
A 30-year-old man was taken into custody without further incident. The unidentified suspect remains in police custody and is facing several charges.
ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- WOW air, Iceland's low-cost transatlantic airline, continues to extend its North American growth by announcing a new route from Orlando International Airport (MCO) to Keflavik International Airport (KEF). The inaugural flight will take-off before the end of the year on December 18, 2018.
Orlando is the airline's 14 U.S. destination and service from MCO will be offered seasonally from December through the end of April, three days a week.
To celebrate the launch of the new route, WOW air is offering $99 one-way fares from Orlando to Iceland (KEF) and $149 one-way fares from Orlando to London (LGW), Frankfurt (FRA), Edinburgh (EDI), Dublin (DUB), Paris (CDG), Copenhagen (CPH), Stockholm (ARN), Brussels (BRU), Berlin (SFX) and Amsterdam (AMS). Travelers looking to travel beyond Europe can purchase $399 one-way flights to New Delhi (DEL) from Orlando. The special fares will be available for travel between January and March 2019 when booking a round-trip ticket.
"We are thrilled to launch our service to and from Orlando this December giving Floridians the chance to experience magical winters and beautiful springs in Europe for an affordable price," said Skuli Mogensen, CEO and Founder of WOW air. "Passengers will also have the opportunity to take advantage of the WOW Stopover and make the most of their layover time by staying in Iceland for as long as they wish. It gives travelers the flexibility to break up a long-haul journey while taking in everything Iceland has to offer on their way to Europe, all on the same trip."
"Milan, Berlin, Edinburgh and New Delhi, these are just some of the exciting new destinations that are just one-stop away from Orlando with the arrival of Wow Airlines, says Phil Brown, Chief Executive Officer of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority. "Wow's ability as an international low-cost carrier helps open doors for more business and leisure travel between Orlando and the world."
WOW air looks forward to partnering with Orlando International Airport to bring the residents of Central Florida the best flights to Europe.
Bookings are now available at www.wowair.us.
WOW air Photography and b-roll are available for download here.
* Orlando (MCO) to Iceland (KEF), London (LGW), Copenhagen (CPH), Edinburgh (EDI), Frankfurt (FRA), Dublin (DUB), Paris (CDG), Stockholm (ARN), Brussels (BRU), Berlin (SFX), Delhi (DEL) and Amsterdam (AMS) via Iceland. Basic fare booked on www.wowair.us. Includes all taxes, fees and carrier charges. Available for travel January March, 2019. The offer applies for 1260 seats on selected flights, only when booked on a return trip.
About WOW air
WOW air offers the lowest fares, a modern fleet with the lowest emissions and the biggest smile; this is the WOW air promise to its valuable customers. As of spring 2018, the airline services 39 destinations across Europe and North America including Dublin, London, Paris, Berlin, and Copenhagen.
Established in November 2011 by Icelandic entrepreneur Skuli Mogensen, the purple airline flies with Airbus A320, Airbus A321 and Airbus A330 models. WOW air boasts one of the world's youngest fleet, with an average aircraft age of just 2 years.
WOW air was ranked as the 7th best low-cost airline in Europe at the 2013, 2014 and 2015 Skytrax World Airline Awards and was the youngest airline in the top ten.
For additional information and bookings please visit https://wowair.us/.
Contact:
Anna Romano
[email protected]
WOW air corporate
Svana Fridriksdottir
VP, Communications
[email protected]
SOURCE WOW air
Related Links
http://www.wowair.us
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Zips Car Wash (www.zipscarwash.com) grows on the East Coast with the acquisition of four Wash Wizard Car Wash locations in Charleston, South Carolina. Before today's acquisition, the growing company operated just eight stores in South Carolina. Zips will now operate 12 stores across the state and 28 locations up the Eastern Seaboard.
"We love the Charleston area and are excited to have a stronger presence in the state," said Sam Neely, Chief Financial Officer, Zips Car Wash. "We've gained a great company, with phenomenal teams through this expansion and we look forward to spreading the Zips Way culture to these sites," he added.
Zips' acquired the following sites from Wash Wizard Car Wash:
5506 Rivers Avenue, North Charleston , SC 29406
, SC 29406 2727 N Highway 17, Mt. Pleasant , SC 29466
, SC 29466 3955 Ashley Phosphate Road, North Charleston , SC 29418
, SC 29418 501 North Highway 52, Moncks Corner , SC 29418
"Zips Car Wash is the fastest growing express chain of car washes in the country," said Neely. "And we look forward to the positive influence we can bring to the communities we serve as a result of our growth. For us, its not just about adding new locations; our goal is to create leaders within our company and give them the ability to shine," he added.
With this acquisition, Zips Car Wash now operates 136 locations in 14 states. The car wash chain has 28 locations up the Eastern Seaboard from South Florida to North Carolina.
About Zips Car Wash Zips Car Wash (www.zipscarwash.com), headquartered in Little Rock, AR, operates 136 locations in 14 states, including Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee. Zips Car Wash offers four levels of car wash packages in the convenient form of a ride-thru car wash experience. Zips Car Wash also offers free self-serve vacuums and Unlimited Wash Club Memberships at most locations.
SOURCE Zips Car Wash
Related Links
http://www.zipscarwash.com
Washington, Sep 5 : The White House said on Tuesday that US President Donald Trump earlier on the same day spoke with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in, when they agreed to meet later at the UN General Assembly.
According to a statement issued by the White House press secretary, Trump and Moon "discussed the latest developments on the Korean Peninsula, including our ongoing efforts to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea," which refers to North Korea, Xinhua reported.
"President Moon briefed the President that he was sending a Special Envoy to Pyongyang tomorrow (September 5) to meet with Chairman Kim, and promised a readout of that meeting," the White House said, adding that the two presidents "agreed to meet later this month on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York."
Last month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he would travel to Pyongyang "to make further diplomatic progress towards our objective."
However, Trump tweeted a day later that he asked Pompeo to cancel the trip, citing the lack of progress on the peninsula's denuclearization.
Besides the pace and scale of denuclearization, Washington and Pyongyang have disagreed on whether to issue a war-ending declaration.
North Korea has argued that such a document is the first step towards peace on the peninsula, whereas Washington has said it is too early to discuss the topic.
At the conclusion of the historic summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un in June, the two sides issued a joint statement, in which they agreed to improve bilateral relations and work together to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the peninsula.
United Nations, Sep 5 : Taking over as the Security Council President, United States Permanent Representative Nikki Haley in an unprecedented move has ripped open the veil of secrecy around the Security Council bringing the underlying rifts to the open but stalled the adoption of the agenda for the month.
Haley brushed aside the genteel diplomatic backroom practices on Tuesday and held in the open the Council's first meeting of the month - conducted so far behind closed doors a" to frame its programme of work for the month by consensus.
She proposed a briefing on Nicaragua that was opposed by at least six members of the Council, including permanent members Russia and China, and perhaps for the first time in recent memory the body could not agree by consensus on the agenda for the month.
Reflecting the US President Donald Trump's combative, unilateral approach to the world, Haley declared that the Council would work without a consensus agenda and said that as president she would hold the briefing on Nicaragua on Wednesday.
Having the agenda-setting meeting out in the open left no room for the negotiations and compromises that usually take place behind closed doors to reach consensuses.
The uncompromising stance may score points with Trump's - and Haley's - base but would make it difficult for moving forward issues that come up this month before the Council where words and even punctuation are finessed through give and take.
Nicaragua has been wracked by protests against the government of President Daniel Ortega since April and at least 100 people have died in confrontations between the protesters and the government.
Haley, who has brought it to the fore, said the situation there was dire and it risked becoming another Syria or Venezuela - two other nations in Washington's cross-hairs.
She asked, "How many people have to die before the situation becomes a matter of peace and security?"
Bolivia which led the opposition to US move said the Nicaraguan situation was not a threat to international peace and questioned the Council getting involved in the issue because the body was "not democratic" and does not represent all the members of the UN.
Russia, China and some others also asserted that the Nicaraguan situation was not a threat to international peace and would be an interference in the internal of that coutry.
Kuwait's Permanent Representative Mansour Al Otaibi said that holding all Council meetings in the open was "unprecedented" and "unheard of," especially because it was an initiative of a permanent member.
Later at a news conference, Haley said that since the time she became a legislator in her native South Carolina state she had advocated open meetings and would continue to do so at the UN.
Washington, which had withdrawn from a multinational agreement with Iran on stopping its nuclear programme, put international focus on failure to keep its part of the deal and fuel instability across the world, she said.
Haley said that Trump would preside over a Council session on Iran on September 26 and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who would be in New York for the annual high-level General Assembly session, could attend it if he wanted to.
Trump would also chair a high-level event at the Council on the global drug threat with a call call for global action on the problem on September 24, the eve of the high-level General session, she said.
Trump has made battling the crisis of opioid addiction that has gripped the US a priority and even suggested that the nation should consider death penalty for drug dealers.
According to the US government more than 72,000 people died from dug overdose last year, nearly 50,000 from using opioids, including misuse of pharmaceuticals.
One of the signature programmes during her presidency would be a session on "Corruption and Conflicta next Monday, Haley said.
Corruption was a fundamental cause of conflict in many instances and has been overlooked, she added.
(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)
Yangon, Sep 5 : Two robbers were shot dead while trying to rob a ship in the Twantay Canal in Myanmar, police said on Wednesday.
Three robbers in a motorised boat were surprised by the police team as they approached the ship early on Tuesday. The officers were on a stake out after a tip off that vessels anchored in the canal were being robbed regularly, Global New Light of Myanmar reported.
Asked surrender two robbers attacked the police with machetes, while another jumped into the canal and managed to escape. Both died in counter firing, Xinhua news agency said.
A police officer was also seriously injured on his face in the machete attack.
Tokyo, Sep 5 : At least nine persons have been killed by Typhoon Jebi, the worst storm to hit Japan in 25 years. It has left a trail of destruction across the west coast, hitting cities like Kyoto and Osaka.
As of Wednesday, evacuation advisories had been issued for more than 1.2 million people after the storm made landfall on Tuesday afternoon, the BBC reported.
As many as 3,000 people stranded at the Osaka's Kansai International Airport were being ferried by boat to another airport on Wednesday, an official said.
The travellers were stranded at the airport, which is built on an artificial island, after a tanker crashed into the bridge connecting it with the mainland.
The airport had seen its runways and basements flooded and will remain closed all Wednesday.
Flights, trains and ferries were cancelled. The winds are slowing down and moving north, but people are being urged to stay alert for landslides and floods, the BBC report said.
More than 30,000 people were given stronger but still not mandatory evacuation orders, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.
Footage on social media showed the 100-metre tall ferris wheel in Osaka spinning rapidly in the storm despite being switched off.
More than two million households experienced blackouts during the storm and schools and companies in the affected area remained shut.
Nearly 800 flights were cancelled, including international flights at Nagoya and Osaka.
San Francisco, Sep 5 : Google that came into existence 20 years back with its first product Search engine from a garage today has seven products that are used by more than a billion people every month.
The exact date of the company's founding is up for debate -- even for those who are in the business of providing answers.
"Google Inc. was incorporated on September 4, but for more than a decade we've celebrated our birthday on September 27, with an annual Doodle, of course," the company said in a blog post on Tuesday.
Instead of a handful of employees in a Menlo Park garage, Google today has tens of thousands of employees and offices in nearly 60 countries.
"Google is now part of Alphabet, our parent company created in 2015," said the blog post.
As the company marks its 20th birthday this month, it will spend some time looking back on what it has accomplished in the past two decades, starting with the 10th birthday of Chrome.
Under the leadership of Sundar Pichai and riding on Search engine and YouTube growth, Google's revenue jumped 26 per cent to $23.3 billion in the second quarter in 2018.
Traffic acquisition costs, a key metric in Google's ad business, went up to 23 per cent of ad revenue in the second quarter.
Google's parent company Alphabet reported $26.24 billion in revenue for the quarter that ended on June 30 -- making a profit of $3.2 billion while beating Wall Street expectations.
"We're still pushing the boundaries of available technologies, particularly Artificial Intelligence. And we're still dedicated first and foremost to the user, to building products for everyone," said Google.
Manila, Sep 5 : The mayor of Ronda, a city in central Philippines, was shot dead on Wednesday morning when several men broke into his office, marking the 16th elected local official to be assassinated under the current administration.
Ronda mayor Mariano Blanco III was pronounced dead at 2.25 a.m local time (18.25 GMT on Tuesday) upon arriving at a nearby hospital in Barili town, police senior inspector JR Palcon said, Efe reported.
According to Palcon, several men who are yet to be identified arrived at the Town Hall in a van at around 1.30 a.m and opened fire inside the municipal office of Ronda in Cebu province where Blanco was said to be sleeping.
Blanco was on the blacklist of public officials allegedly involved in the illegal drugs trade that was ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte as part of his war on drugs campaign. Blanco was stripped of his authority over police in 2017, although he denied involvement in illegal drugs.
In February, lawyer Jonah John Ungab, Blanco's nephew and deputy mayor of Ronda, was also shot dead after attending a court hearing with his client Kerwin Espinosa.
In July, the League of Municipalities of the Philippines - which comprises 68 mayors from the main cities in the country - requested a meeting with the President to address the assassinations of local officials and their involvement with the government's so-called "narco list."
Started by Duterte in 2016, the war on drugs has unleashed violence in the country, with more than 4,500 suspects killed in police raids and more than 23,500 unsolved murder cases.
Chennai, Sep 5 : The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday raided 30 places in Tamil Nadu, including the residences of Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar and Director General Police T.K. Rajendran in connection with a gutka scam, a CBI official told IANS.
Kolkata, Sep 5 : The Eastern Railway has asked the state-run RITES Ltd to probe the collapse of the Majherhat bridge here and examine the safety of railway operations in it wake, an official said on Wednesday.
"Our chief bridge engineer along with RITES team will be visiting the spot and it is a fact-finding team. The collapsed bridge was not under the Eastern Railway, but it was a railway over-bridge. That is why concerns are there," an Eastern Railway spokesperson said over the phone.
RITES Ltd, under the aegis of Indian Railways, is a multi-disciplinary consultancy organisation in the fields of transport, infrastructure and related technologies.
"They will investigate the possible reasons that caused the collapse and also examine the safety of railway operations under the bridge," the official said.
A portion of a 40-year-old bridge collapsed in South Kolkata on Tuesday afternoon, crushing a man to death and leaving 19 injured and several vehicles damaged.
President Ram Nath Kovind said Tuesday that the Indian community in Bulgaria constitutes a "living bridge" between the two countries after he arrived here on the second leg of his three-nation visit to Europe.
President Kovind arrived in the capital Sohia from Cyprus where he met his Cypriot counterpart Nicos Anastasiades and held wide-ranging talks.
He addressed the Indian community in Bulgaria and asserted that it was a "true reflection" of India's diversity, culture and traditions and constitutes a "living bridge" between the two countries.
"India-Bulgaria friendship is very special. Our links are old and ancient. There are surprising similarities in our cultures, and deep and abiding connections too. You meet a Bulgarian and he or she will tell you the music closest to traditional Bulgarian music is Indian!" President's Secretariat said in a tweet.
"The great Bulgarian painter Boris Georgiev was deeply influenced by Mahatma Gandhi. Our great poet Rabindranath Tagore visited Bulgaria in 1926 and added yet another chapter to our cultural ties," it said.
President Kovind is on the second leg of his three-nation visit to Europe to continue India's high-level engagements with European countries.
He praised Indology department of Sofia University for doing "stellar work" for 35 years in spreading awareness about Indian culture.
"Delighted to learn its scholars have translated eight principal Upanishads from Sanskrit to Bulgarian," he said.
Earlier, Kovind met his Bulgarian counterpart Rumen Radev who received him at the hotel where the Indian delegation is staying.
"President Radev spoke to President Kovind of his admiration for Indian culture, specifically mentioning Buddhism and yoga, the Gita and the Mahabharata. In light-hearted banter the two dignitaries also discussed the Bulgarian President's favourite Hindi film Haathi Mere Saathi," it said.
President Kovind and the and the First Lady were received by Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister Ivo Hristov at the airport.
Kovind is the fifth Indian President to visit Bulgaria and the first in 15 years.
From Bulgaria, he will fly to Czech Republic on the final leg of his three-nation trip on September 6.
During the visit, Kovind will have a meeting with President Radev, who will host a Banquet in his honour. Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borissov will call on President Kovind.
Kovind will address the business representatives of India and Bulgaria at a Business Forum. He will deliver a lecture at the Sofia University and will also address the members of Indian diaspora during the visit.
This is his first overseas state visit in the second year of his presidency.
-PTI
Mumbai, Sep 5 : A political furore erupted in Maharashtra on Wednesday after a ruling Bharatiya Janata Party legislator threatened to "abduct" girls and bring them to their spurned suitors.
The threat came on a public platform from BJP MLA Ram Kadam during a post-Gokulashtami celebration event in his Ghatkopar constituency when he addressed a large number of youth.
"You need anything, just come to me.. If you have proposed to a girl and she has rejected you, I will help you.. 100 per cent. Come to me with your parents and say that they approve of her. Then, I will catch her and bring her to you," Kadam told the gathering, and publicly gave his phone number.
A video of the incident which went viral on Tuesday evening, sparked off a major row, but Kadam claimed he had been quoted out of context and the full video-clip was not shown.
"I had no intentions to hurt anybody's sentiments, but if I have done so, I regret it. Certain opponents are behind this misunderstanding," Kadam said in a late-night tweet on Tuesday.
Maharashtra State Women's Commission Chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar took strong umbrage at the lawmaker's statement and said he must exercise caution before making such irresponsible comments on women.
"Kadam has claimed that his statement was manipulated. Even if that is true, such utterances on womenfolk are unbecoming. He and all other public representatives must be extremely vigilant before speaking out such things," Rahatkar said sternly.
In a sharp reaction, State Congress President Ashok Chavan said on one hand the BJP speaks of 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' and on the other its legislators speak of abducting women.
"Has the BJP made him a legislator to kidnap women...?" Chavan asked.
Nationalist Congress Party spokesperson Nawab Malik said with this, "the BJP's 'Ravana' face has emerged.
"He is talking about kidnapping women, so henceforth he should be called 'Ravana Kadam'."
Ruling ally Shiv Sena's senior leader and spokesperson Neelam Gorhe said though Kadam is named after Ram he harbours evil thoughts like the Demon King Ravana and talks about abducting women.
State Samajwadi Party President Abu Asim Azmi hit out at the legislator by saying that "the BJP supports Kathua, Unnao rape accused," and now its MLA's speech was a clear indicator that its 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign is an eyewash.
"This is only a jumla. Now, the time has come for 'BJP Bhagao, Beti Bachao'," Azmi said on Wednesday.
The NCP Women's Wing chief Chitra Wagh said this was unbecoming of a legislator and demanded an unconditional apology from Kadam, besides action against him by the BJP.
Education Minister Vinod Tawde said that he would convey sentiments to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, while a BJP leader said that the party was satisfied by Kadam's explanation in the matter.
New Delhi, Sep 5 : Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday paid glowing tributes to Kailash Mansarovar, saying there was no hatred at the holy place.
Now on the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, Gandhi tweeted: "The waters of lake Mansarovar are so gentle, tranquil and calm. They give everything and lose nothing. Anyone can drink from them. There is no hatred here. This is why we worship these waters in India."
He attached pictures of the Mansarovar lake and Kailash mountain.
"A man goes to Kailash when it calls him. I am so happy to have this opportunity and to be able to share what I see on this beautiful journey with all of you," Gandhi said.
Gandhi left on the pilgrimage on August 31.
Islamabad, Sep 5 : US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on Wednesday said he was hopeful of finding a common ground for working with the new government in Pakistan and improving bilateral relations.
Pompeo, who reaches Islamabad later today, told the media that he was visiting Pakistan to reset the bilateral relations. He said that the Imran Khan-led new Pakistani government has expressed good-faith intention to improve relations with the US.
"First stop Pakistan; a new leader there. I wanted to get out there at the beginning of his (Imran Khan's) time, in an effort to reset the relationship between the two countries," Dawn reported Pompeo as saying.
"There are lots of challenges between our two nations for sure, but we're hopeful that with the new leadership we can find common ground and begin to work on some of our shared problems together," he added.
Pompeo said the very reason for this trip was to try and articulate what the US expectation was, what Pakistan could do and the things that they expect the US to do.
His trip comes right after the announcement that the US was cutting $300 million in military aid to Pakistan.
Panaji, Sep 5 : Superstar Salman Khan has been hosting "Bigg Boss" since its fourth season and says he often gets calls from people who are interested in participating in the controversial reality show, but he doesn't take a call on casting the contestants.
The show has had actors like Tanishaa Mukerji, Armaan Kohli and Shamita Shetty.
"I get a lot of calls but I tell them that I am not part of the casting bit," Salman told reporters at the Villa Marina in Goa on Tuesday.
The upcoming season of "Bigg Boss" will have "striking jodis" as participants who will battle it out to survive 100 days under the constant glare of multiple cameras.
"There will be interesting jodis and the more interesting people are the people in the creative team who will make sure that the jodis break up. So no matter how much they (contestants) plan or whisper, they have a microphone all the time. Everything can be heard. The cameras are there 24/7 and there are three batches of people who watch everyone," said Salman.
When IANS asked if he will have a co-host, he said: "No."
Though he shared what his friend and frequent co-star Katrina Kaif thought about hosting the show with him.
"She asked 'There are jodis this time?' I said 'Yes.' She said 'I should do it. You do your impromptu thing, I will follow the script'. I asked about the prize. She said 'We will keep it equal'," said Salman, who will be again seen with his "Tiger Zinda Hai" co-star in another film titled "Bharat" for which he will sport a grey beard.
"Bigg Boss 12", now in its 12th season, will premiere on Colors channel on September 16.
Asked about his favourite contestants over the years, he said: "There are so many of them. People who have gone over the top, they don't have any work. The ones who conquered their weaknesses and developed their strengths, are doing well."
He praised the winner of "Bigg Boss 8" - Gautam Gulati - though.
"Gautam Gulati lost the plot in the first two weeks and after that, he turned everything around to win 'Bigg Boss' which is a commendable thing," said Salman.
(The writer's trip was on an invitation by the channel. Natalia Ningthoujam can be contacted at Natalia.n@ians.in)
Kanpur, Sep 5 : An Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, Surendra Das, posted as a Superintendent of Police in Kanpur city, consumed poison on Wednesday, police said. His condition is said to be "very critical".
Doctors at a city hospital told IANS that Das had been put on ventilator for respiratory support and that the next 48 hours would prove to be very critical for the officer's recovery.
A 2014 batch officer, Das attempted suicide at his official residence and was rushed to the hospital by his staff.
His parents live in Lucknow and have since rushed to Kanpur to be with Das.
The officer hails from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh and his wife is a doctor.
Informed sources say the officer may have taken the extreme step due to marital discord. Das, a B.Tech, is known as a good officer in police circles.
Kabul, Sep 5 : More than 200,000 Afghans have been internally displaced by conflict in the first seven months of 2018, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Afghanistan said on Wednesday.
"From 1 January to 10 August, 2018, 209,000 people fled their homes due to conflict in Afghanistan, with 31 of 34 provinces recording forced displacement," Xinhua news agency quoted OCHA as saying in a statement.
Afghan officials and humanitarian agencies have expressed concern over the increasing numbers of displaced families in the country.
"Displaced families often find themselves in precarious living conditions with their well-being and dignity jeopardized by inadequate shelter, lack of food and water, insufficient access to sanitation and health facilities as well as lack of protection," the statement read.
More than 1 million Afghans have been displaced since 2001 due to conflicts, worsening security situation and ongoing insurgency in the country.
Mumbai, Sep 5 : Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday demanded stringent action against Mumbai Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Ram Kadam for his reported objectionable remarks on women.
"Not only should strict action be taken against him, he should not be given a ticket by any party to contest future elections. He is a person of a low character and mentality," Thackeray told the media here.
The Sena chief summoned a hurried press conference after the BJP legislator's remarks on Monday sparked off an uproar in Maharashtra, drawing all-round condemnation from social and political circles.
"I am not aware whether the BJP has launched a 'Beti Bhagao' programme. But if anybody speaks like this about our sisters and daughters, we will not tolerate it," Thackeray warned, coming down heavily on Kadam.
Kicking off a huge controversy, Kadam, a BJP legislator from Ghatkopar in north-east Mumbai, declared publicly that he would abduct girls and bring them to their spurned suitors, and even provided his phone number.
"You need anything, just come to me. If you have proposed to a girl and she has rejected you, I will help you 100 percent. Come to me with your parents and say that they approve of her. Then, I will catch her and bring her to you," Kadam told the gathering.
A video of the incident which went viral on Tuesday evening. But Kadam claimed he had been quoted out of context and the full video clip was not shown, and later, even blamed the media for blowing it out of proportion.
"I had no intentions to hurt anybody's sentiments. But if I have done so, I regret it. Certain opponents are behind this misunderstanding," Kadam said in a late night tweet.
As the issue snowballed, a group of women activists on Wednesday 'gheraoed' Education Minister Vinod Tawde while the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party organised noisy protests in the city, demanding action against the legislator.
In another development, a young Pune girl, Minakshi G. Patil, threw an open challenge to Kadam, daring him to "touch" her if he had the guts.
"I am throwing the gauntlet, accept it. Let's settle this in person. I will come to Mumbai... Lay a finger on me and leave the rest to me. This is shameful and cheap, such statements have no place in Chhatrapati Shivaji's Maharashtra where women are treated like Goddesses," she said.
State Congress President Ashok Chavan asked: "Has the BJP made him a legislator to kidnap women?"
NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said "the BJP's 'Ravana' face has emerged. He is talking about kidnapping women. So henceforth he should be called 'Ravana Kadam'."
Senior Shiv Sena leader and spokesperson Neelam Gorhe said though he (Kadam) was named after Ram, he harboured evil thoughts like Ravana.
Samajwadi President Abu Asim Azmi said the BJP MLA's speech was a clear indicator that the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign was a sham.
The NCP Women's Wing demanded an unconditional apology from Kadam besides action against him by the BJP.
New Delhi, Sep 5 : The creative industry is seeing an unprecedented growth worldwide, Sanjoy K. Roy, producer of the popular Jaipur Literature Festival, highlighted at a lecture here, but lamented that its potential is still untapped in India.
He noted that the creative industry is the second largest contributor to the United Kingdom's economy after banking, contributing about 18 per cent of the country's GDP. Similarly in France, he pointed out, it is again at number two after its defence industry.
"We have no idea what it is in India because we have no basis of understanding or finding what the details are," said Roy, an entrepreneur in the arts sector and the Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, which produces over 25 highly acclaimed festivals across 40 cities.
"The importance of the arts is somewhat restricted in today's world, people don't look at it as important. In India, the submission is that about 400 million people in India today either get their primary or secondary income from the creative industries.
"Everything from the ragi in the gurdwara to the pandal maker to the guy who makes the Ganesh statues or the Durga statues to the weavers to the rural and semi-urban population who, between the agricultural seasons, are involved in some kind of additional creative activity which they use to be able to earn and create some kind of economy which is local to their place. And this is important for us to understand because 70-71 years after independence, there is not one ministry in the government of India which has any basic facts whatsoever which will tell you how many people are involved in this industry," he lamented.
Roy was delivering a lecture on "Creative Industries - Smart Power - The World Ahead", organised by India Habitat Centre and Society for Policy Studies (SPS), as a part of their "Changing Asia Series" on Tuesday evening.
The recipient of the National Award for Excellence and Best Director for the film "Shahjahanabad: The Twilight Years" expressed hope that the Ministry of Culture has put into place a committee which is now looking at "culturally mapping the entire country".
"... hopefully some of the information will be used for productive purposes and we will have access to this information so that we are able to understand what the contribution thereof is," he quipped.
He highlighted that the creative industry can boost the country's economy but was soon to point out that the "infrastructure" it requires is still lacking in India.
"Today when we are talking about creating jobs, generating local economies and so on and so forth, where is it happening? It is happening through the creative industries.
"We have to remember that as the third industrial revolution dies behind us, and especially in countries like India will never be able to compete as a manufacturing base like China, what is our future? The future is the knowledge enterprise. That is where we can excel, we can create jobs, can drive local economies, can contribute to local GDP, and yet we seem to be blissfully unaware of the fact that this is even a possibility," he noted.
Roy said that Indian entrepreneurs in the culture domain should focus on telling "your own stories which is not derivative of a different culture but is reflective of your own culture". That, he maintained, is the first step to creating an incredible knowledge base.
He further observed that the arts in education sector has been looked down upon for far too long and called for a fresh look at the domain. He said that India's cultural heritage is its "unique selling point" and recounted from his personal experience of hosting several festivals abroad that there is a great thirst among international audiences to know more about India and its diverse cultures.
Roy is also the founder trustee of Salaam Baalak Trust (SBT).
Mumbai, Sep 5 : Actor Harshvardhan Rane, who is gearing up for the release of "Paltan", says shooting the film was a great learning and will remain a memorable experience.
"I think there's a lot that I have taken back from the movie. Shooting 'Paltan' will always be a great learning and memorable experience. I had never thought of being part of such a massive project that talks about a glorious chapter of Indian history," Harshvardhan said in a statement.
While extensively shooting for his forthcoming war drama "Paltan" in Ladakh, the actor, who plays a Sikh soldier, suffered multiple cuts and bruises.
A source said: "While shooting for the fight sequences, Harshvardhan got several cuts and bruises since he had to use heavy weapons made of iron and steel. When JP Dutta Sir noticed these cuts, he got a little worried and told Harshvardhan to get tetanus injections.
"Since it was quite cold out there, the actor avoided taking off his shirt but after JP Sir recited one of the movie's popular dialogues humorously 'Zyada herogiri na dikhaiye', he obliged."
Dutta's "Paltan" will release on Friday. It also features Sonu Sood, Siddhanth Kapoor, Arjun Rampal and Luv Sinha.
Beijing, Sep 5 : Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus may launch a successor to its highly popular OnePlus 6 smartphone with an in-display fingerprint sensor.
"At the bottom of the drawing (on the box) there's a small fingerprint icon with the text 'Unlock The Speed' which suggests that the OnePlus 6T may include a fingerprint sensor embedded into its display," CNET reported late on Tuesday.
Pictures of the upcoming OnePlus smartphone appeared on Chinese social media website Weibo that also suggest the device could feature a tiny notch.
The pictures posted on the site showed a white coloured box with OnePlus 6T written over it and inside the box, there was a blueprint image of the phone.
Previous iterations from the smartphone maker required a physical fingerprint scanner to unlock the device.
"But by embedding the sensor into the display, unlocking your phone is as simple as tapping the screen. Using an embedded sensor also frees up valuable phone real estate and can give the phone a more streamlined feel," the report added.
In-display fingerprint sensors are rare in smartphones currently, a handful of devices from Vivo -- such as Vivo X20 Plus UD, Vivo X21 and Vivo Nex and OPPO R17 come with an in-display fingerprint scanner.
US Vice President Mike Pence called on Myanmar to immediately release two journalists who were sentenced to seven years' imprisonment on charges of possessing state secrets in connection with their reporting on massacres against Rohingya Muslims.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo from the Reuters news agency were sentenced Monday in proceedings that were widely decried as unfair. They had reported about the army's brutal counterinsurgency campaign that drove 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh. The subject is sensitive in Myanmar because of worldwide condemnation of the military's human rights abuses, which it denies.
Pence on Tuesday tweeted the two should be "commended not imprisoned for their work exposing human rights violations & mass killings."
"Freedom of religion & freedom of the press are essential to a strong democracy," he wrote in back-to-back tweets.
"We call on the Gov't of Burma to reverse this ruling & release them immediately." UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also urged Myanmar authorities to review their decision, noting with concern the conviction and sentencing of the two.
"The right to freedom of expression and information is a cornerstone of any democracy. It is unacceptable that these journalists were prosecuted for reporting on major human rights violations against the Rohingya in Rakhine state," Guterres' spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement.
The case drew worldwide attention as an example of how democratic reforms in long-isolated Myanmar have stalled under Nobel Peace laurate Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government, which took power in 2016.
Although the military, which ruled Myanmar for a half-century, maintains control of several key ministries, Suu Kyi's rise to government leader had raised hopes for an accelerated transition to full democracy, and her stance on the Rohingya crisis has disappointed many former admirers.
Wa Lone's wife, Pan Ei Mon, told reporters that she was saddened and hurt that Suu Kyi had taken a legalistic position in a June interview with Japanese broadcaster NHK by saying that the two reporters were arrested for breaking the Official Secret Act, not because they exposed the army's abuses.
"I am very sad about what she answered because she was the one whom we always admired and respected," Pan Ei Mon said Tuesday.
"We loved and respected her so much," she said. "We feel very sad as our respected person has the wrong opinion about us."
She said that she never expected such a harsh punishment "because everyone knows that they didn't do anything wrong." The two men testified that they had been framed by the police.
Pan Ei Mon gave birth to the couple's first child in Yangon on August 10, but her husband has not seen their daughter.
"After I gave birth, I continued to keep strong with the hope that my daughter and her father will meet soon. But I felt like my hope was broken after the verdict yesterday. I am hopeless now," she said.
Kyaw Soe Oo's wife, Chit Su, also said she had expected her husband would be coming home. They have a 3-year-old daughter.
"I believed he would be free, he felt the same," she said. "But it didn't happen, I felt like I am a crazy person." She said she still hopes for mercy from the state. At the same time, she remains proud that her husband did his duty as a journalist.
The lawyers for the journalists told the news conference that they would do whatever they could to get their clients freed. They can file an appeal or ask for a pardon, or hope the reporters could be freed under a general amnesty for prisoners.
-PTI
New Delhi, Sep 5 : Software major Adobe on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to launch an "Adobe Digital Disha" programme across vocational institutes in India.
The programme is focused on helping vocational institutes leverage the power of a free online and mobile graphic design app "Adobe Spark" to integrate creativity and digital literacy into classrooms and curriculum.
"The rapid evolution of technology and innovation are changing the fundamentals of skills needed to thrive in today's digital era. It is commendable to see major IT companies like Adobe join us in this mission drive creative skills and digital proficiency among the masses of India," said Union Petroleum and Skill Development Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Along with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Directorate General of Training (DGT), "Adobe Digital Disha" expects to touch the lives of over one million students and teachers across India by the year 2020.
"Adobe Spark" -- a storytelling Creative Cloud application that runs in any web or mobile browser -- is now available free of charge for education and skill development.
This will enable students quickly express themselves via graphics, web stories and video to creatively approach their assignments as well as develop digital portfolios.
Teachers can easily create digital lesson plans and tutorials using Spark applications, Adobe said.
"With the 'Adobe Digital Disha' programme, 'Adobe Spark' will go a long way in enhancing digital literacy, a core pillar of learning, thereby opening up a range of new possibilities for students and educators in India," said Mala Sharma, Vice President and GM, Creative Cloud Product Marketing and Engagement, Adobe.
According to Kulmeet Bawa, Managing Director, Adobe South Asia, "we are excited to launch 'Adobe Digital Disha' with Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship as part of our commitment to enabling India's digital and creative acumen by skilling the youth of our nation".
New Delhi, Sep 5 : Key trade and defence issues, including Indias proposed purchase of S-400 defence system from Russia and oil imports from Iran against the backdrop of sanctions on these countries, are expected to be at the centre of strategic talks between India and the US on Thursday.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis will also discuss cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region and a pact on encrypted defence technologies with their Indian counterparts Sushma Swaraj and Nirmala Sitharaman when the four meet for the inaugural 2+2 dialogue - first scheduled in April and then in June and postponed on both occasions.
Informed sources told IANS here that among the issues to figure prominently in the talks would be India's plan to buy five Russian-made S-400 Triumf advanced air defence systems despite US sanctions against Moscow. The Rs 40,000 crore deal is almost ready.
Since the US has banned import of Iranian oil, the sources said, New Delhi will seek a waiver from Washington and let it continue buy the crude from India's third largest oil supplier after Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The sanctions on import of Iranian petroleum products will be effective from November 4.
Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region and counter-terrorism efforts will also figure among a host of issues in New Delhi's biggest diplomatic engagement with Washington this year.
The US desperately wants India to take a lead role in the strategic Indo-Pacific region to keep China in check as Beijing has expanded its military presence after securing a Sri Lankan port on a long-term lease.
The 2+2 dialogue mechanism was announced after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US in June last year. This replaces the earlier strategic and commercial dialogue and is set to become an annual affair.
Despite defence ties touted as a key pillar of bilateral relations after the US designated India as a Major Defence Partner in 2016, the two countries have signed only one of three foundational agreements needed for interoperability with the US.
The only inked agreement is the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement in 2016. But the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) and the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement are pending.
According to the sources, COMCASA, providing for obtaining critical and encrypted defence technologies by the Indian military from the US, will be discussed but a final agreement is unlikely at this juncture.
"Defence innovation is important for us," a source said.
The Trump administration's Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) coming into effect in January 2018 has dogged the ties between the two countries as India's defence deals with other countries have come under the US scanner.
CAATSA also targets countries doing business with Russian, Iranian and North Korean defence companies. With India being a major defence partner of Russia, it has become a matter of concern.
Secretary Pompeo said in Washington that such issues would be "part of the conversation" between the two sides "but I do not think they will be the primary focus of what we are trying to accomplish here".
Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 5 : Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday said that he respects superstar Mohanlal for his acting and he will comment at an appropriate time about the speculation that the actor will contest the Lok Sabha election as a BJP candidate.
Tharoor said this while responding to a question when taking part in a programme titled "India for Kerala" organised by the Times Network here.
The speculation flared up after media reports said that Mohanlal had called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday.
"I respect Mohanlal as an actor. I like what he is doing... and he is doing it quite well. His lives in my constituency and I have gone there also. With regards to politics and election, I will react at the appropriate time," said Tharoor, the Congress Lok Sabha member from Thiruvananthapuram.
State BJP President P.S. Sreedharan Pillai said he will be extremely glad if Mohanlal agrees to become the party candidate.
However, a source close to the actor told IANS that Mohanlal "has practically very little idea about politics and it was only very recently he was able to differentiate between the two Communist parties -- CPI-M and the CPI -- here".
"So the question of his contesting the election cannot be even considered as a remote possibility," the source said.
Mohanlal is currently shooting for his latest film "Lucifer" in the state capital.
Jaipur, Sep 5 : The Rajasthan High Court on Wednesday directed the BJP to keep its ongoing Gaurav Yatra free from government programmes.
Justice G.R. Moolchandani issued the order while hearing a PIL that alleged misuse of government machinery for the yatra being taken out under the leadership of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.
The high court also said that various programmes which were being organised in the name of the state government during the yatra should be stopped.
The court observed that if during the yatra -- a political event -- the Chief Minister inaugurates a public function, the impression would be glorification of a political party. "Keeping in view the principles laid down in two decisions of the Supreme Court, we declare that no state function should be organised during the Gaurav Yatra," said the court.
On August 10, Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court Pradeep Nandrajog had issued notice to the Bharatiya Janata Party to submit the expense details of the yatra.
The party has submitted the report placing the expenses at Rs 1.8 crore.
On August 27, Justice Nandrajog had reserved his judgement after the final arguments concluded.
The PIL was filed by advocate Vibhuti Bhushan Sharma.
New Delhi, Sep 5 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said the BJP will face the heat from the poor for "deliberately cancelling ration cards in Delhi" and warned of strict action against officers who followed the Centre's orders.
Kejriwal's reaction came after Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Gulab Singh tweeted a video which showed a woman from Matiala constituency pleading with Lt. Governor Anil Baijal urging him to provide her a ration card - which was cancelled - so that she could feed her two children.
Sharing the tweet, Kejriwal said: "The BJP will face the heat from the poor for pressurizing the officers to deliberately cancel ration cards. Strict action should be taken against the officers who illegally followed BJP's orders."
On Sunday, the Delhi government ordered the restoration of 2.53 lakh ration cards in the national capital and warned officers that they would be personally responsible for starvation deaths of eligible beneficiaries.
Between July and August, the Delhi government claimed that over 2.50 lakh ration cards were cancelled allegedly by Delhi's Food Commissioner despite strong objections by Food and Civil Supplies Minister Imran Hussain.
London, Sep 5 : Two Russian nationals have been named on Wednesday as suspects in the poisoning of a former spy and his daughter, police said.
Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that they had sufficient evidence to charge Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov over the nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the southwestern English city of Salisbury, located some 137 kilometers (85 miles) to the west of London, Efe reported.
"We now have sufficient evidence to bring charges in relation to the attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal and domestic and European arrest warrants have been issued for the two suspects," said Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu of the UK's counter-terror police in a media briefing.
"I'm therefore appealing for anyone who has information about the suspects named by the CPS to contact police; both are approximately 40 years old and are Russian nationals traveling on Russian passports," Basu added.
The Skripals, aged 66 and 33, respectively, had been poisoned with Novichok - a Russian-made nerve agent - in March, leading UK authorities to blame the Kremlin for the attempted murders.
New Delhi, Sep 5 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Inspector General of Police of Meerut zone in Uttar Pradesh to directly supervise the probe into the lynching of a Muslim man by a mob in Hapur.
The officer will also act in accordance with the apex court's earlier order pertaining to mob lynching, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said.
The court was hearing a plea for a court-monitored Special Investigation Team probe into the lynching of Qasim, a cattle trader, in Bajhera village in Hapur district on June 18.
"... investigation will be carried under the direct supervision of the Inspector General of Police of Meerut zone," said the bench while posting the matter for hearing after two weeks.
The Uttar Pradesh Police earlier told the bench that 10 of the 11 accused were arrested and that a new Station House Officer was probing the case under the supervision of the Superintendent of Police, who is the nodal officer.
As the counsel for petitioner Samayuddin, who was also beaten up by the mob of cow vigilantes, insisted on the case's transfer out of the state, the bench asked police how long it will take to complete the investigation.
The police said it will be completed in 60 days.
The petitioner had pleaded for the cancellation of bail to the accused, contending that the police had ignored the top court's direction to curb lynching.
On July 17, the Supreme Court had issued 22 guidelines to the central and state governments to put an end to the "horrendous acts" of vigilantism, lynching and mobocracy and directed them to work in tandem to take "preventive, remedial and punitive measures".
The top court had said that it was the duty of the State to "ensure that the machinery of law and order functions efficiently and effectively in maintaining peace so as to preserve our quintessentially secular ethos and pluralistic social fabric in a democratic set-up governed by the rule of law".
Of the 22 guidelines, 12 dealt with preventive steps, nine with remedial measures and one punitive action against police officers found wanting at any stage -- prevention, investigation and expeditious trial.
The departmental action "shall be taken to its logical conclusion preferably within six months", the court had said.
The court had also suggested that Parliament enact a law categorising lynching and other forms of vigilantism as a distinct offence and providing for adequate punishment.
Moscow, Sep 5 : Four Russian jets have bombed positions of Nusra Front in Syria's Idlib province, Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, four planes of the Russian aviation unit deployed at the Hmeymim airbase carried out strikes on the militants' storages where they kept drones, Sputnik quoted Defence Ministry spokesman as saying.
The two Su-34 jets also destroyed a workshop where terrorists assembled drones and a warehouse of explosives, he added.
Russia, alongside Iran and Turkey, is a guarantor of the ceasefire regime in Syria.
Moscow has been assisting Damascus both through supporting the struggle against terrorist groups and providing humanitarian aid to the residents of the crisis-torn country.
Chandigarh, Sep 5 : A labourer in Punjab who borrowed money to buy a Rs 200-lottery ticket has hit a Rs 15 million (Rs 1.5 crore) jackpot.
Manoj Kumar of Mandvi village in Sangrur district could not believe his luck when he found that his lottery ticket number matched with the winning number announced by the Punjab State lotteries on August 29 for the Punjab State Rakhi Bumper 2018.
The draw of the bumper was announced in Ludhiana. The first two prizes, Rs 1.5 crore each, have gone to two ticket holders including Manoj.
Manoj met the Director Lotteries of Punjab, T.P.S. Phoolka, here on Wednesday and submitted his claim for the prize money.
The director assured him that the payment would be made at the earliest.
"I had borrowed money to purchase the ticket. I had never imagined winning such a big amount in the wildest of dreams," a visibly elated Manoj said.
He said he would now be able to tide over the financial problems his family was facing.
New Delhi, Sep 5 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday chose 10 of the 15 suggested identity proof documents for inclusion of left-out persons in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and sought the responses of the Centre and other stakeholders.
A bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman picked up the 10 documents suggested by the Assam State Coordinator of NRC, Prateek Hajela, to deal with the claims of about 40 lakh people left out of the draft NRC.
Justice Nariman said that the 10 chosen documents will be authentic and the other five can be created.
The draft NRC published in Assam on July 30 included the names of 2,89,83,677 persons while the names of 40,07,707 others were missing. A total of 3,29,91,384 persons had applied for inclusion of their names.
The also bench refused to give Attorney General K.K. Venugopal a copy of a report submitted by Hajela in court in a sealed cover.
As the Attorney General repeatedly urged for supply to the government of a report copy that had 15 suggested documents, Justice Gogoi said: "The Attorney General has sought the report of the State Coordinator of NRC... at this stage, we are of the view that what we have indicated in our order is sufficient."
"The government may be interested. We want to balance the interest of all stakeholders," the court told Venugopal as he insisted that the "government is extremely interested" in knowing the report.
Seeking the response of the Centre and other stakeholders on the suggested 10 documents, the court fixed September 19 for the next hearing.
The court also extended the duration for filing of claims and objections.
As per the schedule, the filing of claims and objections was to commence on August 30 but the same was extended on August 28 to a "later date from the proposed one, namely August 30".
The 10 identity proof documents include land documents, permanent residence certificate, life insurance policy of LIC, any licence/certificate issued by any government authority, documents showing service/employment under government or PSU, bank/post office account, birth certificate issued by competent authority, educational certificate issued by board/university and record/processes of judicial or revenue court.
All the documents have to be in existence up to midnight of March 24, 1971.
Besides the Centre, the court has also sought the response of other stakeholders including Assam Public Works, Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha, National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Progressive), Indigenous Tribal Peoples Federation, All Assam Bhojpuri Parishad, Joint Action Committee for Bangali Refugees, All Assam Minorities Students' Union (AAMSU) and Jamait Ulama-i-Hind.
In its August 16 order, the court had asked the eight stakeholders to submit their views on the standard operating procedures prepared by the Centre setting out modalities for the claims and objections to the final draft of the NRC.
Hajela's report is in pursuance to the August 28 court directive to apprise it of the ramification of the Centre's position that the people left out of the NRC draft be given another chance to establish their claim for inclusion in the list.
The move by the Centre also included changing the legacy and tinkering with the family tree.
The court had asked Hajela to submit a "comprehensive report indicating the feasibility, including the time taken and advantages/disadvantages that may accrue if the aforesaid modification/change of legacy is permitted".
Islamabad, Sep 5 : US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday reached Islamabad to meet with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to discuss the bilateral relations.
This is the first high-level visit from Washington since the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government assumed office, Geo TV reported.
The report said that the talks will revolve around US-Pakistan ties and peace process in Afghanistan.
Pompeo, who is accompanied by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford and a four-member delegation, was received by Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi upon reaching the Foreign Office from Nur Khan Airbase.
Safeguarding Pakistan's national interests will remain the supreme priority, the Foreign Office said in a statement.
Pompeo said he hopes to reset the relations between the US and Pakistan. "We hope that both countries could leave the past behind and begin to make progress," he was quoted as saying.
He also said the Trump administration could release aid to Pakistan that was halted earlier in 2018.
Pompeo is due to visit India on the next stop of his South Asia tour.
New Delhi, Sep 5 : Poonam Khetrapal Singh on Wednesday was elected as Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia for a second five-year term, World Health Organisation said.
Singh's candidature was unopposed, as the 11 member countries of WHO South-East Asia Region met at the ongoing Regional Committee session held here to elect the next Regional Director, the global health body said in a statement.
Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda who chaired the Regional Committee meeting said: "She will surely lead the region to greater heights. Her commitment to the public health agenda in the member states was reflected in all flagship priorities of the region."
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that she had brought a delivering results in countries -- a key theme of WHO's new General Programme of Work and of WHO's transformation project.
Thanking the member states for electing her, Singh said:"My vision is to consolidate, accelerate and innovate to further strengthen progress in the priority areas and translate vision into action."
Singh will commence her next five-year term on February 1, 2019.
She served in the health sector in various senior positions during her stint in the Indian Administrative Services and in the World Bank.
She also worked in WHO Director-General's cabinet in Geneva, as the Executive Director of Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments in WHO headquarters and was Deputy Regional Director WHO South-East Asia Region from 2000-2013.
As per WHO procedures, the WHO Executive Board, which next meets in Geneva in January 2019 is expected to confirm Khetrapal Singh's nomination and appoint her as the Regional Director.
NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant delivers the 33rd lecture of the "Lecture Series", organised by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on the topic "Transformation of ... Image Source: IANS
New Delhi, Sep 5 : India will emerge as the biggest passenger car market by 2030, with every second car being sold will be here in the country, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Wednesday.
Addressing an event here ahead of the two-day Global Mobility Summit beginning Friday, he said that India's vehicular transportation scenario was set to "undergo a sea change" by the next decade with e-mobility emerging as the preferred mode of transport.
Kant said that two-wheelers account for 76 per cent of all vehicles sold in India at present, which consumed 64 per cent of fuel and accounted for 30 per cent of pollution as compared with 5 per cent of pollution by three-wheelers.
"In addition, 70 per cent of goods transportation is done on lorries which too are major contributors to vehicular pollution," he said.
The NITI Aayog CEO said that the challenge for the country was to battery-charge all modes of road transport, and therefore, it was imperative to substitute fossil fuels with cleaner alternative fuels for both inter- and intra-city movement of vehicles.
He said that businesses should seize opportunities set to emerge from e-mobility and sharing of vehicles space.
Mumbai, Sep 5 : PC Chandra Jewellers has signed actress Kriti Kharbanda as brand ambassador.
The "Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana" actress, who will next be seen in Sajid Nadiadwala's "Housefull 4", will endorse the brand across India.
Kriti said in a statement: "P C Chandra Jewellers is one of the most sought after jewellery brands in the country. I feel really honoured and happy to be part of their team. It's my first jewellery endorsement and because I have also studied jewellery design, it's something very close to my heart and I feel very happy being associated with the brand."
Earlier, the actress' representatives had wrongly issued a statement mentioning PC Jewellers.
New Delhi, Sep 5 : Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland will visit Delhi's Mohalla Clinics on Friday, the Delhi government said on Wednesday.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's media advisor Nagendar Sharma said the delegation which will visit the Delhi government clinics will comprise members from The Elders, an independent group of global leaders working together for peace and human rights.
Kejriwal and Health Minister Satyendar Jain will accompany the delegates.
"The delegates have been in touch with Jain for a long time. Previously, they have also written to Kejriwal appreciating the infrastructure and services provided by Mohalla Clinics in the city," Sharma told IANS.
The Mohalla Clinics are a flagship project of Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) where medicines, diagnostic tests and consultation are provided free of cost.
The Delhi government says 187 Mohalla Clinics are now operational in the national capital and sites have been identified to set up another 426. The AAP says it wants to open a total of 1,000 Mohalla Clinics soon.
New York, Sep 5 : Ever wondered why people stick to their false beliefs, even after having overwhelming evidence to the contrary? It is because feedback rather than hard evidence makes them more confident that they are right, finds a study.
The findings from researchers at the University of California-Berkeley, suggest that feedback, rather than hard evidence, boosts people's sense of certainty when learning new things or trying to tell right from wrong.
People's beliefs are more likely to be reinforced by the positive or negative reactions they receive in response to an opinion, task or interaction, than by logic, reasoning and scientific data, the researchers found.
"If you think you know a lot about something, even though you don't, you're less likely to be curious enough to explore the topic further, and will fail to learn how little you know," said lead author Louis Marti, a doctoral student at the varsity.
"If you use a crazy theory to make a correct prediction a couple of times, you can get stuck in that belief and may not be as interested in gathering more information," added Celeste Kidd, Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley.
For the study, published in the journal Open Mind, more than 500 adults looked at different combinations of coloured shapes on their computer screens. They were asked to identify which coloured shapes qualified as a "Daxxy" -- a make-believe object invented by the researchers for the purpose of the experiment.
The study found that people's confidence was based on their most recent performance rather than long-term cumulative results.
An ideal learner's certainty would be based on the observations amassed over time as well as the feedback, Marti said.
"If your goal is to arrive at the truth, the strategy of using your most recent feedback, rather than all of the data you've accumulated, is not a great tactic," he said.
Imphal, Sep 5 : Insurgents ambushed a column of Assam Rifles in Manipur's Chandel district on Wednesday but there were no casualties, police said.
The attack took place in Ajijang village near Sajik Tampak. The police said that no insurgent group had claimed responsibility for the ambush.
It was not clear if the insurgents suffered any casualty.
New Delhi, Sep 5 : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked a senior officer of Haj Committee to appear before it and respond on a plea seeking quashing of the guidelines issued for Haj from the year 2018 to 2022, as it debars persons with disabilities from applying for the Haj pilgrimage.
A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V. Kameswar Rao said no one from the Haj Committee appeared before it despite the fact that a notice was issued.
The bench directed the Chief Executive Officer to be present before it on November 1, the next hearing. It warned of action if he failed to appear before the bench.
The court was hearing a plea filed by lawyer Gaurav Kumar Bansal, who alleged discrimination in the new guidelines, issued on November 27 last year, as they violate the the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPWDA) 2016, which has equality and non-discrimination as its guiding principle.
The Ministry of Minority Affairs has opposed the plea saying that such persons were likely to suffer the most in case of an accident or stampede.
New Delhi, Sep 5 : A Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday here deliberated on the need for tightening the law to prevent incidents of lynching and taking action against social media platforms which have been blamed for the recent spurt in such incidents.
In the hour-long meeting, the GoM discussed the report of the Committee of Secretaries submitted last week and the possible changes in the Code of Criminal Procedure to punish those involved in mob lynching incidents.
A recommendation for action against the India heads of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, which are used to spread fake news and other "sinister" campaigns on social media, also came up for discussion.
The GoM's view is that all possible steps should be initiated to ensure that social media platforms do not become a means for spreading rumours and messages that lead to social disharmony, said sources.
The meeting was attended among others by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba.
The Committee of Secretaries, whose report has not been made public, was formed by the government after a Supreme Court verdict a couple of months ago to examine ways to initiate a crackdown on the rising incidents of lynchings and mob violence across the country. The apex court had said it is the "responsibility of the government to protect the citizens".
The GoM, which also includes Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot, will submit its final recommendation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Centre's step to deal with rising incidents of mob lynching followed an apex court suggestion to examine and enact a separate law to crack down on such offences so that it can instil a sense of fear in the perpetrators. The government may also be worried about the political repercussions of these incidents in the run up to the general elections next year.
The committee of secretaries, which held consultations with a cross-section of stakeholders before submitting its report to GoM, feels that social media companies and ubiquitous instant messengers such as WhatsApp need to take responsibility for not tracing, and thereafter blocking, malicious content that has the potential to lead to rumour mongering and incidents of lynching and rioting.
Last month, in separate discussions with the Home Ministry, the Law Ministry had examined the matter and felt that treating the offence under a separate section in the IPC, which would define mob lynching, could be an immediate step to begin with.
The Law Minister has already made it clear that there could be charges of "abetment" against WhatsApp if the company continues to say no to tracing the people who are behind the viral and fake messaging.
Over 35 deaths due to lynching have been reported from nine states in the last one year. The most recent case was reported from Alwar district of Rajasthan, where a man named Akbar Khan was beaten up, leading to his death, allegedly by a group of villagers over suspicion that he was a cow smuggler.
In July, the Home Ministry issued advisories to states and Union territories following the Supreme Court's directive to check incidents of lynching. The Centre asked the states to appoint an officer in each district at the level of Superintendent of Police, set up a special task force to gather intelligence, and closely monitor social media contents to prevent mob attacks on suspicion of being child-lifters or cattle smugglers.
New Delhi, Sep 5 : A group of 20 students from Jammu and Kahsmir's Kishtwar district on Wednesday told Army chief General Bipin Rawat that they lacked Internet connection and had bad roads despite 70 years of independence.
"The country is living in the 21st century, but we are still struggling for basic needs like proper Internet connection. Making calls is also very difficult at times," complained a 19-year-old, Omash Kumar Koul from Navapachi.
The students also said that it took 12 hours for them to travel from the tehsil to Kishtwar town due to bad conditions of the roads.
"Travelling is a pain in our area. The road conditions are bad and a lot of time is wasted in travelling," said another student, Moshin Hassan.
Kishtwar district is a hilly region located in Jammu region.
The undergraduate students were here under the Indian Army's Capacity Building Tour (CBT), which will end in Chennai. The 6,000 km tour that began on Tuesday will conclude on September 12.
The tour was organised by the Army to provide an exposure to select students to the Passing Out Parade at the Officers Training Academy in Chennai on September 8.
Most students are travelling outside of Jammu and Kashmir for the first time. And they were visibly happy.
"We have never seen Delhi. From here we will go to Chennai by train. We will get to see the whole country in between. Most of us will board a train for the first time," Hassan said.
Akil Jaffer, 17, said he saw another side of the Indian Army during the tour.
"People have different perceptions about the Army back in Kashmir. We will go back and share our experiences about how caring the Army is," Jaffer said.
The Army chief urged the students to explore different fields in terms of employment.
"All fields are important, be it medicine or teaching. I will encourage you all to join the Army but I will say that all other fields are also important," he said.
New Delhi, Sep 5 : Two shooters of the dreaded Tillu gang were arrested early Wednesday after a brief shootout here, during which one of them suffered a gunshot wound, police said. Their accomplice was held earlier on.
Accused Mahesh, 25, is a resident of Haryana while Manjeet, 23, and Nitesh, 20, are residents of west Delhi's Narela.
"Members of the Sunil Tillu gang, they had killed one Arman, a member of the rival gang of Jitender Gogi, in Narela on August 20," Deputy Commissioner of Police Sanjeev Kumar Yadav said.
A Special Cell team put up a roadblock on the GT Karnal Road here when they saw Mahesh and Nitesh riding a two-wheeler around 5 a.m. When signalled to stop, they sped away but were intercepted.
"Nitesh fired at police, which fired two rounds in self-defence. Nitesh was shot in the leg, following which both were arrested," the officer added.
Police had earlier arrested Manjeet on Tuesday night from west Delhi.
The DCP said that there was long-standing rivalry between the Gogi and Tillu gangs, leading to the murder of several of their members.
Kathmandu, Sep 5 : Former Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda, Co-Chair of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), is embarking on a three-day official visit to India from Thursday.
He will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj among others.
"My visit to India and China are focussed on improving bilateral ties for gaining development and prosperity," he said.
After returning from India, Prachanda will visit China from September 15.
"We need strong support and cooperation of our neighbours for our development endeavours. To make a conducive environment for this, I am visiting India and China," he said.
After the merger of the CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist), Prachanda is sharing the post of party Chairmanship with another co-chair and Prime Minister K.P. Oli. He aims to become the Prime Minister after Oli completes the tenure.
Kolkata, Sep 5 : The Opposition parties in West Bengal on Wednesday accused the Trinamool Congress government of a lackadaisical attitude towards maintenance of bridges in the state, a day after a portion of a South Kolkata bridge collapsed here.
The opposition accused the government of "neglecting" repair work and maintenance of bridges across the metropolis.
"She (Mamata Banerjee) is dreaming of becoming the Prime Minister but at the moment she should focus on taking care of the state. Her younger brothers (TMC leaders and ministers) are looting the state in the name of syndicate business," BJP state President Dilip Ghosh told reporters.
The Trinamool Congress, however, rubbished the allegations as baseless.
Part of the Majherhat Bridge between Taratala and Mominpur collapsed around 4.30 p.m. on Tuesday crushing one man and injuring at least 19 others while several vehicles were damaged.
Mukul Roy, formerly close to Chief Minister Mamata Banejee and now a BJP leader added, "The state government and PWD department are responsible for the bridge collapse. The PWD Minister Arup Biswas should take the responsibility."
State Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim retorted that the state government has taken enough steps to repair old bridges which were in a dilapidated state during the Left Front rule.
"Undertaking beautification work in the city is not wrong and it doesn't mean repair of bridges has been neglected. A portion of the bridge has collapsed and it is an unfortunate incident," he said.
On Tuesday, State Congress President Adhir Chowdhury also accused the Mamata Banerjee regime of negligence and claimed that the tragic incident could have been averted had the state government been more careful in maintaining the 40-year-old bridge.
"It is an unfortunate incident. This is not the first bridge collapse in West Bengal. There have been a number of such instances in Posta and Ultadanga in the last few years. I think this incident would not have happened had the state government been more careful," Chowdhury had said.
The under-construction Vivekananda flyover in central Kolkata's Posta area collapsed on March 31, 2016, killing 26 people while a portion of another flyover in Bidhannagar fell off in 2013.
New Delhi, Sep 5 : The Indian Air Force (IAF) has successfully carried out mid air refuelling of the indigenously built fighter aircraft Tejas MK-1 with an IL-78 MKI tanker for the first time, the IAF said on Wednesday.
"The success of these trials is a major leap for the indigenous fighter, thus enhancing its mission capability by increasing its range and payload. The ability to carry out air-to-air refuelling is one of the critical requirements for the Light Combat Aircraft to achieve final operational clearance," the IAF said in a release.
The tanker was launched from its base in Agra while the fighter was launched from Gwalior. The specially modified Tejas aircraft carried out a series of test profiles including a 'Dry Contact' with the tanker.
A second Tejas aircraft flying in formation was used to observe the exercise closely.
"All flight parameters of Tejas aircraft were transmitted live to a ground control unit set-up at the Gwalior airbase, wherein Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) scientists constantly monitored the technical parameters of the mission.
"Prior to the test flight, extensive ground trials were conducted in all possible conditions under the supervision of ADA scientists," the IAF said.
Moscow, Sep 5 : India-based Space Era Materials and Processes and Russias KRET, a part of Russian state corporation Rostec, have signed an agreement to set up a service centre for military aviation in Hyderabad.
A Rostec release said on Wednesday that the agreement was signed during the 'Army-2018' forum in Moscow last month, adding that the service facility is already under construction.
"The Radio-Electronic Technologies Concern (KRET) and Space Era Materials and Processes have concluded an agreement on the participation of the Russian firm in establishing the service centre in India," the release said.
Under the agreement, KRET and the Hyderabad-based company will develop a joint work plan for the next five years and build necessary logistics and exchange of specialists and information to create the necessary material base for the project.
According to KRET's Deputy General Director Vladimir Zverev, the service centre will enable maintenance and repair of on-board electronics and radar equipment on Russia-made aircraft.
He said that the Indian firm is building a facility spread over about 30,000 square metres that will also have helipads.
The release said that the agreement will allow the Russian firm to participate in competitions held by India to provide after-sales service of military hardware supplied by Russia, apart from creating a service centre for Russia-made aircraft and helicopters.
Rostec's Director for International Cooperation and Regional Policy Viktor Kladov said that India is one of its main partners in the region and the company is ready to provide advanced technology.
Space Era develops and renovates military equipment, including electronic warfare systems and equipment used in aircraft, radar installations and other electromechanical components.
Rostec is a Russian corporation which facilitates development, production and export of high-tech products for civilian and military applications. KRET is the largest Russian holding in the radio-electronic industry and develops systems and avionics for use in civil and military aircraft, airborne radar stations and friend-or-foe identification equipment.
Mumbai, Sep 5 : On this Teacher's Day, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, while addressing the issues of depression, suicide, communal disharmony and alienation, subject of his upcoming film "The Dark Side Of Life: Mumbai City", said we need to understand that we are human first.
Mahesh Bhatt is an inspiration and a teacher to millions of aspiring filmmakers and actors. And now he is making his acting debut in "The Dark Side of Life: Mumbai City", which addresses many sensitive issues which exist in our society.
While interacting with the media here, he said: "The film handles the issues of loneliness, communal harmony and mental health in a positive manner. A Muslim man starts to live with a Hindu boy out of loneliness and depression."
"The director has handled the plot and social dynamics with sensitivity and firmness. I would like to convey this message today to everyone and specially to the youth that we need to understand, we're human first, I think that could be a solution for many problems our nation is facing.
"Suicide is a reality which the society refuses to deal with. I think we are in danger from ourselves, and we need to make people aware of it," Bhatt said.
In the wake of mob-lynching, communal disharmony and alienation, Bhatt, who has given films like 'Zakhm' in the past, said that the Hindus and the Muslims must live in harmony for our nation to progress.
"If Hindus and Muslims in India don't start living like two sides of a coin, they will soon perish. India has lots of colours, and one such colour is green, which represents Muslims, and it is part of our country. Muslims are getting alienated, which is dangerous for the destiny of a nation," said Bhatt.
"The Dark Side of Life: Mumbai City", starring Mahesh Bhatt, K.K. Menon, Nikhil Ratnaparkhi, Neha Khan and Allisha Khan, is produced by Rajesh pardasani and directed by Tariq Khan.
The film is slated to release in October.
Bengaluru, Sep 5 : Marking the first death anniversary of slain journalist Gauri Lankesh, hundreds of people in the city paid moving tributes to her, recalling her chequered life and dogged fight against injustice and inequality.
Gauri, 55, editor of Kannada weekly tabloid 'Lankesh Patrike', was shot dead in front of her house on September 5 night a year ago.
Thought a year-long probe into Gauri's killing by the Karnataka's Special Investigation Team led to the arrest of a dozen suspects, including Parushuram Wagmare, 26, who is alleged to have shot her, and his accomplices, the police are yet to confirm who was or were behind her assassination.
Scores of activists, Kannada writers, journalists, artistes, lawyers and student leaders joined Gauri's family, including elder sister Kavitha Lankesh, in fondly remembering her and paying homage to her soul.
Among those who participated in the day-long activities were social activist Swami Agnivesh, Gujarat legislator Jignesh Mewani, former JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, senior journalists Siddarth Varadarajan and Teesta Setalvad and multi-lingual actor Prakash Raj.
Family members of slain rationalists Govind Pansare and M.M. Kalaburgi also participated at some of the events in the city, organised by the Gauri Memorial Trust and other organisations.
The Gauri Media Trust released the first issue of her tabloid (Lankesh Patrike) in Kannada at the "Freedom of Expression Meet" in Central College, a year after its publication was suspended due to her sudden and untimely death.
A protest march was held from Gandhi statue in Cubbon Park to Raj Bhavan in the city centre, seeking justice to Gauri. Banners and posters carrying her picture and slogans "I Am Gauri" "Long Live Gauri" were carried.
Alleging that the forces that killed Mahatma Gandhi also killed Gauri, Agnivesh said her tragic death had led to the birth of thousands of Gauris across the country.
"We suspect that Hindutva forces are behind her killing as they were in the case of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar, Pansare and Kalburgi," asserted Agnivesh.
Dabholkar was killed on August 20, 2013 at Pune, Pansare on February 20, 2015 in Mumbai and Kalburgi on August 30, 2015.
Said Kavitha: "We are living in dangerous times as the people who are opposed to fascism and authoritarianism are being arrested and jailed."
Recalling that Gauri's killing had changed his world view, actor Raj said narratives were being changed by the powers that be to silence the voices of dissent and fairness.
"We take our democracy for granted; often ignoring the price that people pay. Make no mistake, our democracy is alive because of the courage of people like Gauri. They chose to face death so that our democracy could live. We resolve to take your struggle forward," tweeted former JNU student leader Kanhaiya.
Sharing a picture of him with Gauri, Mevani tweeted that the shirt he wore for the occasion was gifted by Gauri.
Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan of Swaraj Abhiyan said of the killers: "They (suspects) belong to several Hindutva (organisations) who were also making bombs to blow up Ganpati Mandaps and churches and Eid gatherings. (People) who celebrated her killing are still in power."
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara said even a year after her death, Gauri continued to live on among thousands of voices she has inspired.
"You can silence people but not ideas. My heartfelt remembrance to this brave soul," tweeted Parameshwara, who also holds the Home portfolio.
New Delhi, Sep 5 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday vacated its order of August 31 by which it had stayed construction activities in Uttarakhand.
A bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur, Justice S. Abdul Nazeer and Justice Deepak Gupta also allowed the request of Uttarakhand government that Rs 3 lakh cost imposed on it by the court should go for the relief and rescue operations going on in the state.
On August 31, the top court had imposed a cost of Rs 3 lakh on the state government for not framing a policy under the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016.
During the hearing, the Uttarakhand government told the apex court that they have framed the policy as per the 2016 rule and would be placed before the cabinet for approval.
The bench also observed that the states have rushed to the court as the "builders may have gone after them".
It also allowed Maharashtra government's plea seeking clarification that there was no stay on construction activity in the state.
The Uttarakhand government has approached the apex court on Tuesday pleading that the state is facing a "crisis situation" due to formation of an artificial lake in Tehri Garhwal, adding that the stay on construction activities be vacated so that relief measures could be undertaken to save human lives.
Construction activities have been stopped at a time when the state is facing a crisis due to rains and landslides, the counsel said.
Hearing the pleas, the court also questioned Maharashtra government about utilisation of cess collected under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996.
It asked whether the money was being used on workers' welfare and directed it to give details about it with regard to construction workers in Mumbai.
"You have collected crore of rupees under this (cess) and you are not giving it to these persons (construction workers)," the bench said.
On August 31, the top court had slammed some states and union territories, including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Chandigarh for not framing their respective policies on solid-waste management even after two years, and had stayed further constructions there till they come up with it.
It had imposed a cost of Rs 3 lakh each on Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Chandigarh.
The top court is hearing a matter related to the implementation of the Solid Waste Management Rules.
It had earlier directed the Central government to submit a chart, indicating whether states and union territories have constituted state-level advisory boards in accordance with the provisions of the said rules.
New Delhi, Sep 5 : Engineering conglomerate Larsen and Toubro's (L&T) sale of its electrical and automation (E&A) division to the French multinational Schneider Electric will spur growth in domestic manufacturing, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Wednesday.
A Commerce Ministry release said that during a meeting here with Schneider Electric Chairman Jean Pascal Tricoire, Prabhu said this project, by combining with the French company's digital know-how, will result in greater domestic production, increased exports, reduced imports and offer a wide range of products at competitive prices.
In May, L&T signed a deal with Schneider Electric to sell its E&A business to the latter for Rs 14,000 crore ($2.1 billion). According to L&T, the transaction would be an all-cash deal, without recourse to loans.
"Prabhu further stated that the project will be one of the largest ever investments in manufacturing sector by a French company in the country and will contribute to both the 'Invest in India' and 'Make in India' initiatives," the Ministry statement said.
"With the project, India will become the third largest country of operation for Schneider Electric at par with France."
According to L&T, its E&A business includes low and medium voltage switchgear, electrical systems, marine switchgear, industrial and building automation solutions, energy management systems and metering solutions.
However, the transaction does not include marine switchgear and Servowatch Systems.
The company's E&A business reported a net revenue of Rs 5,038 crore during the financial year 2016-17.
Ahmedabad, Sep 5 : The CID Crime Branch of Gujarat Police on Wednesday arrested dismissed IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a 1996 case relating to falsely framing a lawyer in a narcotics peddling case.
The CID picked up Bhatt and seven others, including two former police officers, following directives from the Gujarat High Court.
"Sanjiv Bhatt was initially detained for questioning and shortly after that he was arrested by CID while others are still under detention," Director General of Police (CID) Ashish Bhatia said.
Going by the details of the case, lawyer Sumersingh Rajpurhoit was arrested by Bhatt in 1996 with a kg of drugs and booked in a case under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Bhatt was then serving as the District Superintendent of Police in Banaskantha district.
Police claimed that the drugs were found from the room of a hotel that was occupied by Rajpurohit. However, an investigation by Rajasthan Police later revealed that the lawyer was falsely implicated in the case.
This, Rajasthan Police claimed, was done to compel the lawyer to let go a disputed property at Pali district in Rajasthan.
The Rajasthan Police also claimed that Rajpurohit was abducted by Banaskantha Police from his residence at Pali.
Following this investigation, former Banaskantha Police Inspector I.B. Vyas moved the Gujarat High Court in 1999 demanding a detailed probe in to the incident.
The court in June handed over the probe to the CID and asked it to complete the investigation within three months.
Bhatt, who has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media platforms, has had several spats with the ruling establishment in the state since the 2002 communal riots.
In 2011, Bhatt even filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court, accusing Modi of being complicit in the 2002 riots.
Bhatt was dismissed from the Indian Police Service in 2015 for "unauthorized absence" from service. Bhatt even met fasting Patel quota stir leader Hardik Patel last week and extend his support for Hardik's cause.
"I have been fighting for justice for over two decades now and those responsible for my suffering have been arrested today," lawyer Rajpurohit told reporters.
The Hague, Sep 5 : India on Wednesday told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that historical facts and legal aspects confirm that sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago has been and continues to be with Mauritius.
A release by the Indian Embassy in the Netherlands said India's position was conveyed in oral proceedings before the ICJ on a request for an advisory opinion by the UN General Assembly in the matter concerning "The Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965."
India's Ambassador Venu Rajamony said the historical survey of facts concerning colonisation and the process of decolonisation indicates that the Chagos Archipelago throughout the pre- and post-colonial era had been part of the Mauritian territory.
"These islands came under the colonial administration of the UK as part of Mauritian territory. The understanding reached in November 1965 between Mauritius and the UK for the retention of Chagos by the UK for defence purposes and return to Mauritius when no longer needed for defence purposes is also in itself evidence that Mauritius has been and continues to be the sovereign nation for the Chagos Archipelago," the release said.
New Delhi, Sep 5 : Salt-to-software conglomerate Tata is India's most "consumer-focussed" brand, said a TRA Research report released on Wednesday.
FMCG major Patanjali, promoted by yoga guru Ramdev, ranked 24th in the list of 500 brands, it said.
The study measures consumers' keenness to buy a brand's products. The survey was conducted among 6,000 consumer influencers across 16 cities, TRA Research said.
'Closely following (Tata), at second rank is Bajaj, with just a 12 per cent gap from the leader. At third rank in the list is Nike," the report said.
Dell was ranked fourth and Apple fifth in the list of "India's Most Consumer-Focussed Brands 2018".
New Delhi, Sep 5 : The Congress on Wednesday demanded that the Narendra Modi-led government clear its "doublespeak" on its defence deals and asked why it did not apply the same principle in the Rafale deal with France as it did with the AK-103 assault rifles deal with Russia.
It said the government had turned down the Russian proposal to make a private Indian entity its partner for the joint manufacture.
The party said the "trigger of Modi government's AK-47 deal with Russia has backfired for the Rafale 'scam' and made it more murkier".
"A fallacious argument of the Modi government on the Rafale scam has been nipped in the bud, by its own recent negotiations in another defence deal, which is the AK-rifle deal with Russia," said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
"That the Rafale deal was a government-to-government agreement and the Modi government had absolutely no role in facilitating the Rs 30,000 crore offset contract," he added.
Citing media reports, Singhvi said it has been revealed that Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has reportedly turned down a Russian request to make another private Indian entity (Adani Group) its partner for the joint manufacture of Rs 3,000 crore worth of AK-103 assault rifles for the Indian Army.
"Modi government has reportedly advised Russia that its firm Kalashnikov Concern should tie up with the state-run Ordnance Factory Board if it wants its proposal to manufacture the AK-103 assault rifles in India to be considered by the Defence Ministry," said Singhvi.
"Why did it not apply the same principle in the Rafale deal? Why did the government not advise Dassault Aviation to negotiate further with government-run HAL?" asked Singhvi.
He added: "It has also been revealed that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) reportedly shot down Kalashnikov Concern's proposal for a joint venture with the private Indian entity - which has recently entered the defence sector, to produce the 7.62x39 mm calibre AK-103 gun, which are a derivative of the iconic AK-47 rifle."
The party said the MoD last month said that if the Russians wanted to partner with a private Indian entity, they must come through the 'tender route'.
"Since the government has virtually given up 'Make in India' in defence, by only getting an investment of Rs 1 crore till now, it is imperative for them to clear the air on the same. The nation is waiting for a clear answer on this doublespeak," Singhvi said.
New Delhi, Sep 5 : Claiming that the crackdown on rights activists was a result of the "fascist Modi governments desperation", activists on Wednesday demanded the immediate release of all political prisoners and the repeal of the "draconian" laws like the UAPA and the AFSPA.
Speaking at the "Campaign Against State Repression on Right Activists" event here, they called the Modi government fascist and demanded that 10 activists arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence on January 1 as also wheelchair-bound Delhi University Professor G.N. Saibaba, among others, be released.
Speaking on the occasion, Delhi University Professor S.A.R. Geelani said there was a "pattern" behind the arrests and it was done with an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
"There is a pattern to what is happening, it's not haphazard. First, they arrested Saibaba on fake charges, then came the arrests of five activists including lawyer Surendra Gadling and activist Rona Wilson who were endeavouring to get Saibaba released," said Geelani, associated with the Committee for Release of Political Prisoners.
"After the second round of arrests of five activists in June, they have gone for more arrests. Arun Ferreira and Vernon Fernandes and others were ensuring legal help to Gadling and others," he said.
Geelani, convicted in the Parliament attack case by the lower courts but acquitted by the Supreme Court, said the crackdown on rights activists was aimed at polarising society and stifle dissent before the 2019 polls.
Kavita Srivastava of the People's Union for Civil Liberties alleged that an emergency under a fascist regime was in force wherein every dissenting voice is being thrown into jail.
She claimed that the arrests were meant to discredit the growing Dalit uprising in the country as well as divert the country's attention from the failures of the Modi government.
"As much as to put down dissent, this is also being done to cover the Modi government's gross incompetence, its failure to fulfil poll promises and divert public attention from burning issues like economic mismanagement, growing unemployment and increasing agrarian crisis," said Srivastava.
Expressing alarm over the abuse of law to stifle dissent, the activists demanded immediate repealing of what they said were draconian laws.
They also dismissed the "urban naxals" term used for political dissenters, saying that the government was desperately trying to use such labels for those opposed to it.
New Delhi, Sep 5 : The Delhi Waqf Board on Wednesday suspended its section officer K. Alam Farooqi over the 2016 alleged sale of a portion of Chirag Delhi dargah to a private dealer in connivance with Board officials.
The decision comes a day after Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Amanatullah Khan was, for the second time, elected as the Chairman of the Delhi Waqf Board after resigning in 2016 over allegations of corruption.
The Chirag Delhi dargah case first came to light in March 2016 when the caretaker of the dargah allegedly sold a piece of land to a private player. The locals interfered and stopped the construction of the two rooms that the caretakers said were part of 'musafirkhana' (guest rooms) outside the main enclosure of the dargah.
In January this year, a Delhi assembly committee report alleged corruption by the section officer and accused Farooqi of illegally selling a portion of the land to private players.
Talking to IANS, AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said: "K. Alam Farooqi sold a portion of the 14th-century dargah to a private player by the name of Sri Ram Builders in connivance with Waqf Board officials. When Amanatullah Khan, who was the chairman of the Board in 2016, got to know about this deal, he tried to file an FIR but soon he resigned."
This, he said, gave Farooqi an opportunity to misplace the deal papers and the documents which stated that the Chirag Delhi dargah property belongs to the Waqf Board.
"Mr Farooq instead presented a misleading report which stated that the dargah property never even belonged to the Board in the first place," said Bharadwaj, who had first raised the issue in the House in 2016.
He further said that the section officer was then confronted with the locals and the then CEO of the Waqf Board who clearly said that Farooqi misplaced the files of the dargah.
Washington, Sep 5 : Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg on Wednesday appeared before the US Congress, admitting to the lawmakers that they were "too slow to act" and "ill-prepared" to tackle foreign interference on their platforms.
According to The Washington Post, Sandberg told the US Senate Intelligence Committee that they were too slow to spot this and too slow to act. That's on us."
"This interference was completely unacceptable. It violated the values of our company and of the country we love," she was quoted as saying.
This was the second time a top Facebook executive was grilled by the US lawmakers this year. In April, CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before the lawmakers over the massive Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
Dorsey said Twitter found itself "unprepared and ill-equipped for the immensity of the problems".
"Abuse, harassment, troll armies, propaganda through bots and human coordination, disinformation campaigns and divisive filter bubbles -- that's not a healthy public square," the Twitter CEO was quoted as saying.
"Required changes won't be fast or easy," he added.
Dorsey was later set to appear before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce in a hearing on online censorship of conservative opinions and misinformation activities ahead of the 2018 mid-term elections.
In a prepared written testimony posted on Tuesday by the House Committee, Dorsey said Twitter will remain an "impartial" "global town square", and it does "not shadowban anyone based on political ideology".
"To serve the public conversation, Twitter is incentivized to keep all voices on the platform," he said.
The Twitter CEO's testimony came a few days after US President Donald Trump accused US tech companies of trying to "silence" conservative voices.
Twitter has constantly denied the claims by Republicans that conservative accounts were shadow-banned or their opinions were censored on the platform.
Chandigarh, Sep 5 : The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Vigilance Bureau (VB) Ludhiana on Wednesday arrested an Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 from a Ludhiana city resident.
The arrested law officer, Jatinder Singh Chahal, demanded a bribe of Rs 20,000 from one Gurpreet Singh, a resident of Miller Ganj, Ludhiana, in lieu of not pressing with arguments over a plea in the court, said VB senior superintendent of police Jaswinder Singh.
"The Additional Public Prosecutor was demanding this money in lieu of not pressing with arguments over a plea which had been filed by Gurpreet Singh to discharge him from a case which was registered by the police and is being tried in the local court. The case was due for hearing on September 7," the SSP said.
The deal was settled at Rs 10,000 and this amount was to be paid to Chahal on Wednesday.
"Gurpreet brought this matter to the notice of Economic Offences Wing of VB, after which a trap was laid and Chahal was caught red-handed outside the District Courts Complex here," he said.
Chahal has been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
New Delhi, Sep 5 : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday assured Kerala that the Centre would provide further relief to the flood-hit state after a proper estimate is done.
According to the minister, the Rs 600 crore which has been sanctioned till now by the Central government is only for interim relief purposes "when the crisis is maximum".
"We are now moving towards a stage of rehabilitation. What the Prime Minister has given is Rs 500 crore and the Home Minister has given Rs 100 crore... the Rs 600 crore is interim," Jaitley said at a media briefing after the meeting of the Union Cabinet.
"There is a mechanism that operates. For relief, you give immediate assistance, then the state makes a representation, the central team goes, along with the officers of the state, they will say how many houses destroyed, how many people lost there lives and on the basis of that they assess the damages."
The minister told reporters that one of the representations came from the state and a Central team has already gone for assessment.
"We have a track record of going by the settled norms, irrespective of whether it is a NDA state or non-state, there are fixed norms, calculations are made and the money is released. There is a process," Jaitley said.
In addition, the minister said that banks and insurance companies have been advised to settle all insurance claims forthwith.
Islamabad, Sep 5 : US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Pakistan on Thursday to take decisive measures against terrorists threatening regional peace.
In his meetings in Islamabad with Pakistani leaders, he "conveyed the need for Pakistan to take sustained and decisive measures against terrorists and militants threatening regional peace and stability," his spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement.
Pompeo, who is on his way to New Delhi for the 2+2 Strategic Dialogue, stopped over in Islamabad to meet the recently-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Bajwa.
He was accompanied by US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford.
While congratulating Khan on the formation of his government and "the further strengthening of civilian institutions," Pompeo in his meeting with Bajwa "welcomed the smooth transition of power to a new civilian government, stressing the importance of strong democratic institutions," Nauert said.
With "Qureshi, Secretary Pompeo discussed the potential for the United States and Pakistan to work together to advance joint priorities, including regional peace and stability," she added.
The statement did not mention anything about two crucial issues clouding US-Pakistan relations: the withholding of US, and Washington's refusal so far, to back Islamabad's request for an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout for the cash-strapped country.
Giving the Pakistani version of the the meetings, Qureshi said both sides agreed to "reset" their bilateral relations, GeoTV reported.
In a meeting en route to Pakistan with reporters accompanying him, Pompeo had said on Wednesday, "I wanted to get out there at the beginning of his (Khan's) time in an effort to reset the relationship between the two countries."
GeoTV reported that Qureshi told a news conference, "We presented realistic stance to the US authorities."
"We have given a clear message to the US that we all are on one page and we won't get anything from the blame game," he added.
Qureshi acknowledged that there had been friction in US-Pakistan relations during the past year and that no one tried to bridge the differences, according to GeoTV.
Pompeo and US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis are to meet External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday for the 2+2 Strategic Dialogue.
New Delhi, Sep 5 : Facing relentless allegations of corruption and nepotism in the Rafale fighter jet deal, the Modi government is bracing to counter the opposition onslaught more effectively. On Wednesday, the Union Council of Ministers was briefed about the deal by the National Security Advisor(NSA) besides a top defence official.
A presentation was made to the Council of Ministers giving details of the deal signed by the Modi government with French company Dassault Aviation to procure 36 Rafale fighter jets in fly-away condition, explaining how the deal was better than the one finalised by the UPA government in 2007, sources said.
The Council of Ministers was told during the two-and-a-half-hour meeting that the allegations levelled by the Opposition about favouring a private entity in giving the offset contract at the cost of state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) were "baseless".
The presentation made by NSA Ajit Doval and Secretary, Defence Production, Ajay Kumar, focused on how the deal signed by the Modi government was "at least 20 per cent" cheaper than the one signed by UPA as it entailed transfer of technology and weaponry.
"The 36 fighter jets will be delivered in a fly-away condition. Not a single equipment is being manufactured in India. So how come this private company has been favoured?" said Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in response to a question at the formal Cabinet briefing, though he refused to divulge the details of what transpired in the Council of Ministers' meet.
"I am not supposed to disclose the details of the Council of Ministers' meeting," said Jaitley, who resumed office last month after a kidney transplant.
The purpose of the briefing is understood to equip the ministers with relevant information about the Rafale deal to enable them to counter the opposition's allegations in a more informed and pointed way.
Besides, the Ministers were also asked to give details of some of the flagship schemes of the government being run by their respective ministries/departments and their impact on the ground.
The Council of Ministers, which includes the Ministers of State besides the Cabinet Ministers, was asked to take the flagship programmes like Jan Dhan Yojana (zero balance bank accounts for the poor), Ujjwala Yojana (subsidised LPG connections to rural households) and Ayushman Bharat scheme (health coverage for poor) to the public.
While the Lok Sabha elections are scheduled early next year, elections to the states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh (BJP is ruling in all three states) apart from Mizoram are due in December this year.
The focus of the Council of Ministers' meet was on how to effectively convey the government's achievements in the last four years to the public and vociferously counter the opposition's charges on issues of alleged corruption, price rise, the falling rupee and rising oil prices.
New Delhi, Sep 5 : Hitting back at Congress President Rahul Gandhi over his allegations concerning the Rafale deal, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday rejected the charge that the Narendra Modi government had used its influence to benefit a private player.
Calling Gandhi "an ill-informed gentleman", he said it was unfortunate that the entire party was following him in ignorance.
Jaitley, who was responding to questions after a meeting of the Union Cabinet, said that the deal done by the Narendra Modi government with France was nine per cent cheaper than that negotiated by the UPA in terms of the basic cost of the fighter jet and 20 per cent cheaper for its weaponised version.
Apparently rebutting Gandhi's charge that the Prime Minister had benefited "a friend" in the deal to purchase fighter jets, Jaitley said the government has no role to play in the choice by the private manufacturer of an offsets partner.
"There is no scope of role of any private party in the entire transaction. All the 36 aircraft will reach India in flying condition and nothing will be added here. There is no scope for a private party but you keep alleging."
Attacking Gandhi, who has spearheaded the Congress attack on the Rafale deal, Jaitley said he was making baseless allegations.
"The Congress has proved that in dynastic politics, ignorance is contagious. If a person is ill-informed and does not have sufficient information, then the entire party lacks information. Let the problem remain within the Congress," he said.
"To satisfy the ego of an ill-informed gentleman, there are no options," he added.
He accused the Congress of doing little to boost indigenous production of advanced weaponary and said that the NDA government had helped the process by liberalising FDI norms in defence first to 26 per cent and then raising it to 49 per cent.
Jaitley said there can be more than 49 per cent FDI in special cases.
He said the Congress was willing to purchase fighter jets from foreign private players but was not willing to encourage Indian private players in defence manufacturing.
"This is backward thinking and we disagree with them on this," he said.
Ahmedabad, Sep 5 : NDA ally Shiv Sena on Wednesday extended support to fasting Patidar leader Hardik Patel, with party chief Uddhav Thackeray advising him "not to risk your life on insensitive governments".
Patel has been on an indefinite fast since August 25 to demand loan waiver for farmers and reservation for Patels in government jobs and educational institutions. He is also demanding the release of close associate Alpesh Kathiriya jailed on sedition charge.
Thackerey, in his message, extended support to Patel and advised him to give up his fast, at least for now. There was no point in "risking your precious life fighting against insensitive governments at the Centre and the state", the Sena leader said.
Thackeray also advised Hardik to prepare for a long-drawn battle for the farmers' cause.
Hardik's supporters have announced to intensify their agitation as the state government had not begun direct talks with the fasting leader, who was visited by disgruntled BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha and former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha on Tuesday.
"Hardik will again stop consuming water if the state government does approach him by tomorrow (Thursday) over our demands," Manoj Panara, Convenor of the Patidar Ananmat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), told reporters.
"From Thursday, the state's farmers will call up all 182 legislators, 26 Lok Sabha members and Rajya Sabha members from Gujarat and seek their views on farm debt waiver," Panara said.
He added that the phone calls would be followed by visits to the residences and offices of these elected representatives on Friday to seek their views in writing.
"The ball is in the government's court. The state government will be responsible if anything goes wrong. However, we appeal to farmers and Patel youths to maintain peace and not go for confrontation with police," Panara added.
Meanwhile, Visnagar town in north Gujarat, from where the Patel agitation started in 2015, observed a bandh in support of the fasting leader. Some of his supporters got their head tonsured in protest against the state government's alleged apathy.
Women too came out in the streets in several rural areas of the state and beat vessels with rolling pins to protest.
Guwahati, Sep 5 : At least three persons, including two college-going girls, were killed and several others were missing after a boat capsized in the Brahmaputra in Assam on Wednesday.
The Kamrup Metro district administration confirmed that three bodies have been recovered and said that many people who were on board the machine boat were missing.
"The Boat was on its way to Fancy Bazar Ghat in Guwahati to Madhyam Khanda in North Guwahati with around 40 passengers and 10 motorcycles on it.
However, near Aswaklanta island, the boat's engine failed. It later collided with some concrete poles underwater, which are part of a water supply project, and capsized," said a local, adding while some passengers from the boat to swam to the shore, some others could not.
"We have rescued 15 people till now. Three bodies have been recovered. Our search is on to find out more survivors," said a spokesman of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).
The Brahmaputra is in spate due to monsoon rains in the upper reaches of Arunachal Pradesh.
Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal ordered an inquiry into the incident. The Additional Chief Secretary has been told to submit a report "at the earliest."
Mumbai, Sep 5 : Bollywood actor Shahid Kapoor and his wife Mira Rajput on Wednesday became parents again as they welcomed a son at a hospital here.
They had daughter Misha in 2016. The boy was born on Wednesday evening at the Hinduja Hospital here, a source told IANS.
Mira was admitted to the hospital in the evening and her mother Bela Rajput and other family members like Shahid's mother Neelima Azim, Shahid's step-brother and actor Ishan Khatter visited Mira before the baby's delivery.
Shahid and Mira got married on July 6, 2015. Theirs was an arranged match, and they have grown to be one of the most talked about couples of Bollywood.
Earlier this year, Shahid disclosed the news of Mira's second pregnancy via social media on Instagram.
Despite his busy schedule of promoting his upcoming film "Batti Gul Meter Chalu", Shahid has been managing to spend some quality time w ith Mira in the past few days.
New Delhi, Sep 6 : An office which has carefully chosen interiors and placement of furniture enhances the productivity of the employees significantly. Interiors should be discreetly chosen keeping in mind the weather of the city, the kind of work performed by the employees and also to the extent the age group of the workers, say experts.
Nakul Mathur, Managing Director at Avanta Business Center and Pradeep Aggarwal, Co-founder and Chairman, Signature Global, tell how:
Hygienic flooring: The flooring of the office has to be hygienic and safe. Flooring is usually divided into hard floors and soft floors. It must be ensured that that the choice of flooring is thermal resistant, anti-static and inflammable. The flooring must also assist the acoustic dynamic of the office so as to reduce noise levels. In addition to these, the chosen flooring should also be easy to clean. Keeping in mind the environment protection, the flooring should also have low carbon footprint.
Light balance: Lighting play a very important part in supporting the moods of the employees and extreme care should be given to this aspect. The lighting system and design is utilized to create a productive and welcoming environment but minimizing energy use at the same time. It is also important to balance the heat and light coming into the building from outside. All efforts should be made to reduce visual glare discomfort. This will help protect the employees from eye fatigue, especially in IT and ITeS companies.
Perfect colour blending: Colours bear a direct and significant impact on human mood, behaviour and productivity. Hues of blue and of green are considered the most soothing.
* Comfort furniture: A lot of focus needs to be given to physical, cognitive, and social needs of modern workforce. Ergonomic (designed for efficiency and comfort in the working environment) furniture is greatly recommended. The size of work tables is also important and adds to the comfort level of the employees. A size of 4
Washington, Sep 6 : The White House has said US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May have discussed national security issues.
In a statement on Wednesday, the White House said the discussion between the two leaders took place on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported.
White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said that Trump and May spoke about "a range of National Security issues and they both look forward to seeing one another at the UN General Assembly meeting later this month".
GUEST OBSERVATION
Furniture stores are often filled with designs that look similar to others. But is copying furniture legal, and should we feel bad about buying replicas?
Recently, interior designers accused the supermarket Aldi of copying an Australian designers stool in the launch of a new range of luxe furniture. Some, including the Design Institute of Australia, noted the stools similarities to designer Mark Tuckeys eggcup stool, which retails for more than $550. Aldi withdrew its stool (priced at $69) on the day of the sale, citing quarantine issues and said it was scheduled to return to stores in late August. (There is no suggestion that Aldi has broken the law here).
In general, copying furniture designs that have not been registered in Australia is likely to be legal. This means that, in most circumstances when designers have not registered their work, businesses are able to sell, and Australian consumers are able to purchase, replica furniture without breaking the law.
How designs are protected
A designer of furniture, fashion or any other product will normally start out by creating a 2D drawing of their product. The drawing might be made by hand or using a computer or machine. This initial design is automatically protected under copyright law as an artistic work. For most types of artistic works, copyright lasts for the lifetime of the creator plus an additional 70 years.
Copyright law prevents a person from copying someone elses work if they do not have permission or a legal excuse. Making a 3D reproduction of a 2D artistic work counts as copying under law. So a person who makes, for example, a physical 3D chair using a designers 2D design of that chair may be infringing copyright of that 2D artistic work.
However, there is an interesting feature of copyright law that applies only to designers. A designer will lose copyright protection in their 2D artistic work if it is industrially applied.
Industrial application is generally understood to mean that 50 or more copies of the 3D product deriving from the design are made and offered for sale. Any mass commercial production will therefore take the product outside of the scope of copyright law.
However, mass-designed products can be protected by Australias designs system. This system protects the visual appearance of a product. Unlike with copyright, designers must register their designs to be protected under law.
For a design to be registered, it must meet certain minimum requirements. Importantly, it must be new and visually distinctive. The novelty of a design is critical to protection. These requirements ensure that ordinary and unremarkable designs are not constrained by intellectual property law, but are free for people to make and sell.
How is this determined? An application for design registration is filed with and assessed by IP Australia, located in Canberra. It usually takes between three and 12 months to process an application, and costs around $300 to apply. Once registered, design protection lasts for five years, with the opportunity to renew registration for a further five years - so 10 years in total.
The designs register is searchable online. Our search did not reveal any designs registered to Mark Tuckey.
Incomplete protection is deliberate
There are important policy reasons why designers are not given complete protection under intellectual property law. For one, it is often difficult to determine what is an original design when aesthetics meets functionality - there are a limited number of ways to design a seat that people will actually want to sit on! Designs protection is limited so that consumers can affordably access practical products.
Designs law tries to balance a designers right to protect their product with the publics right to access. Getting the balance right is tricky, and is likely to be under increasing pressure with the advent of 3D printing for the home.
It is now possible to print replica furniture, and this practice may become more popular as 3D printing technology becomes simultaneously more sophisticated and more widely available. This is likely to raise ongoing questions about the scope of designs protection under copyright and designs law, and whether the law is appropriately tailored to protect designers.
For Australian designers, the answer may not be stronger legal protection. First, we should ensure that the designs registration system is working effectively. Anecdotal reports suggest that the designs system is underused. We need to make sure that registration is affordable and accessible. Only then will we be in a position to know whether the protection offered by designs registration is enough.
For consumers, the good news is that replica furniture is likely to continue to be available in retail stores. There is certainly nothing illegal about buying replica furniture. Those with the budget to do so, however, may want to consider supporting local Australian designers of furniture and home crafts.
Kylie Pappalardo, Lecturer, School of Law, Queensland University of Technology
Karnika Bansal, Research Assistant, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
The acquisition is targeted at accelerating the expansion of Australian agency platform Cushman & Wakefield.
Knight Franks Sydney valuations business comprises 24 valuation professionals who will join Cushman & Wakefields Australian valuations platform.
They will be a part of the companys global valuations network that has executed valuations for assets in excess of US$3.7 trillion last year.
With the combination of our 2,000+ global valuations professionals and this acquisition, Cushman & Wakefield is well placed to provide comprehensive solutions for clients in any market across the globe, said Matthew Bouw, Chief Executive Officer, Asia Pacific at Cushman & Wakefield.
Effective today, David Castles and Matthew Russel will lead Cushman & Wakefields national valuations practice across Australia.
This team which sits on all four major Australian bank panels, executed valuations for assets totaling more than US$65 billion in the last financial year.
James Patterson, Cushman & Wakefields Chief Executive, Australia and New Zealand said this acquisition provides us with opportunities to accelerate the growth of the companys broader commercial real estate business, which will in turn positively impact our clients and people.
Mr Patterson added that, "it also complements our occupier business, which is one of the strongest in the country.
Newly appointed David Castles, Joint Head of National Valuations, Cushman & Wakefield, Australia said, we saw an opportunity to leverage Cushman & Wakefields global brand, alongside a truly national platform to create additional value for our clients and career opportunities for our people.
This acquisition, pending Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) approval, follows the recent acquisition of Capital Markets firm, Inc RE, in July 2018, by Cushman & Wakefields.
Major project completions in Queenslands mining sector have helped stimulate economic progression, with growth in state final demand for the 12-month period rebounding above long-term averages, according to Savills Australia.
The companys latest industrial report for Brisbane reveals that ongoing mining projects in Queensland are likely to see continued positive effects on the states economy, which coupled with the forecasted $46 billion in infrastructure projects that are in the pipeline, will drive further demand for industrial space in Brisbane.
Associate Director for Capital Strategy & Research, Shrabastee Mallik, noted that a positive spill-over effect into Brisbanes industrial markets was imminent and would aid ongoing leasing demand and generate an increasingly positive business sentiment for the industrial sector.
While the e-commerce sector in Australia is still in its infancy stages, there is growing evidence that Australians appetite for online retailing is rapidly increasing, she said.
Although Amazons entrance into the Australian market was underwhelming, the company has been increasing its footprint across the nation, as it sees the growth potential in the online retail space.
Callum Stenson, State Director for Industrial & Business Services in Queensland said that he had observed an increase in investor enquiries about industrial warehouses for transport and logistics in response to growing recognition of Australias online retail market.
While sales activity in the current financial year was notably less than the records set in FY-16 and FY-17, we are going to see a comeback over the remainder of 2018, particularly from domestic investors who see the diversification benefits in investing across grades and precincts, he said.
There was a notable drop in offshore investors purchasing industrial assets as a lack of large prime-quality offerings were available for sale.
Mr Stenson noted that when looking at leasing activity, the 12 months to June 2018 saw tenants from the Transport & Logistics sector dominate overall leasing activity and account for more than half of the total space leased in Brisbanes industrial market.
There is a growing demand for industrial facilities to become more integrated business facilities supporting multiple types of transportation, especially as Australias international trade continues to increase at a rapid rate.
Growth projections made by HSBC Trade Connections forecasts Australias trade to grow nearly 130% by 2025, almost double the global rate.
Fringe areas which extend as far as the Gold Coast have also recorded notable increases and confidence.
Logistics giant Toll Group has signed a pre-commitment for a purpose built facility on the Gold Coast site formally known as home to multinational Colgate-Palmolive.
Renamed Gold Coast Logistics Hub, the 22ha Arundel site was purchased last year by the Asia Pacific logistics property specialist, LOGOS Property and Global Fund Manager Partners Group for more than $20 million.
Toll has committed to an initial 12-year lease across a 10,250sq m logistics facility, with Savills recording it as one of the largest industrial deals done on the Coast in recent times.
Artist Impression of Gold Coast Logistics Hub.
Mr Stenson said that the commitment enabled Toll to consolidate several existing facilities and bring their operations together in under one roof.
The masterplanned layout for the Hub provides flexible design and construct solutions from 3,000sq m to 30,000sq m.
The Hub will provide local occupiers with quality opportunities, representing the last scalable infill site in the central Gold Coast region, Mr Stenson said.
Brisbanes Southside and Trade Coast precincts recorded the largest falls in market yields in the year to June 2018.
Looking forward, Ms Mallik said that infrastructure projects were providing the impetus for developers and institutional land owners to bring speculative development back to the forefront, recognising the recent lift in leasing demand, particularly in well-located locations close to major arterial roads.
While both leasing and sales activity were down in the most recent financial year compared to the previous year, it is expected that 2018 will continue the trend of strengthening tenant and buyer demand, as indicated by industrial job advertisement growth in Queensland, which is now the third highest nationally, she said.
Savills is a leading global real estate service provider offering the full spectrum of services from strategic advice to managing assets and projects and transacting deals. Callum Stenson is Savills QLD State Director for Industrial & Business Services. Shrabastee Mallik is Savills Associate Director for Capital Strategy & Research. To learn more about Savills, visit savills.com.au.
A waterfront Gold Coast home in Carrara has sold prior to auction to a Chinese investor.
The property at 44 Fitzwilliam Street property fetched $1.47 million.
Sam Guo of Ray White said the property was targeted at both the Australian and Chinese market.
It was advertised through Chinese social media and newspapers.
The home was listed with another agent previously but didnt sell as it was overpriced, Guo said.
"Both parties were very happy with the outcome.
He suggested the Gold Coast market is very stable, and any good, well priced property in a great area will sell.
Crowdfunding is disrupting property investment by fractionalising the asset to make it easier for people to invest a bit or a lot in one or more properties of their choice, giving investors opportunities in any type of property anywhere in Australia.
Australias leading property crowdfunder, DomaCom, allows investors to contribute towards the purchase of a property asset of their choice. This includes residential, commercial, retail, and industrial and thematic sectors such as agriculture, energy, affordable housing, student accommodation, land banking and social infrastructure, among others.
Sometimes called fractional investing, crowdfunding is a modern form of syndication that DomaCom have taken to another level.
The DomaCom model is an online platform in two parts; the first facilitates the investment application and a strict due diligence process to ensure that every property is fairly valued, legally entitled and of sound structure.
The second part is a legal structure that fractionalises the ownership via a unitised structure.
This structure is called a managed investment scheme (MIS). Each property acquired is held in a segregated sub-fund of the MIS in which investors receive units in proportion to the amount they invest.
Crowdfunding requires cash on deposit before a property can be selected as this determines how much is available. DomaCom have a number of residential strategy or thematic campaigns running at any one time that investors can choose from.
So who chooses property to crowdfund?
DomaCom is a platform for investors to use but the company does not choose specific properties. We select residential strategies from analysed research then ask property advisers to select assets based on that research. Thematic projects are usually partially completed with due diligence enabling them to be posted to the platform for investors to participate. Thematic projects usually have a longer sale process and therefore time to raise the necessary capital. Residential properties on the other hand come to market for 4 or 5 weeks so it is necessary to have cash on hand to act quickly when the properties are identified.
Investing is the easy part, but how do investors exit?
An exit strategy is just as important as the investment. The DomaCom Fund generally has a 5 year term for residential properties thereby guaranteeing an exit for investors if they wish. Those who wish to retain the property can do so by buying out those who wish to exit. If they dont the property is sold and the proceeds are distributed to investors.
Just as the sharemarket enables online trading in company shares, DomaCom has created an online unit trading facility within the platform, complete with buy/sell and market depth screens to enable investors to trade their units at any time provided there is a buyer, just like the sharemarket. A third facility exists where unit holders can vote to wind up a sub-fund and sell the property at any time, provided 75% of unit holders vote to do so.
DomaCom have recently been active seeking to raise $4.3 million working with Utilas Group to develop a BioHub project in Casino.
Landbanking has been popular venture too with funds being sought for near Sydney's second planned airport, with KSI Investments acquiring over 11 acres near Badgerys Creek.
To learn more about crowdfunding, visit DomaCom here.
EXPERT OBSERVER
The announcement by NSW Planning Minister, Anthony Roberts, that the Liverpool city centre has been rezoned for mixed-use is a good model for all centres across Sydney.
American urbanist, Jane Jacobs, championed the need for mixed-use urban centres and the NSW Government is now supporting a similar approach for Liverpool.
The 25 hectare city centre in Liverpool is now planning to house 10,000 new homes and 22,000 new jobs as a result of the change from commercial only zoning to mixed-use zoning.
The Urban Taskforce has been critical of the zoning of strategic centres as outlined in the Greater Sydney Commissions District Plans that did not support mixed-use zoning but preferred separate zones for housing and for jobs.
Most cities in the world are moving away from restrictive single use zoning towards a mixed-use approach that gives incentives to ensure a viable mixture of uses related to market needs.
The Liverpool model is following this approach.
A similar approach to mixed zoning should be considered for city centres like North Sydney, St Leonards, Chatswood, and Parramatta.
Each of these city centres needs the vitalisation that comes from people living, working and shopping in an urban centre.
Restaurants will have evening activity from the nearby apartments as well as lunch time activity from office workers.
The Urban Taskforce encourages the Greater Sydney Commission and the NSW Department of Planning & Environment to develop planning policies that ensure viable mixed use precincts can flourish across Sydneys urban centres.
Chris Johnson is the Urban Taskforce CEO
The Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe has urged households to shop around for a better home loan deal.
It was during a speech where Australias top central banker played down recent increases in mortgage rates by domestic lenders but highlighted global risks.
"A much less remarked upon fact is that the average mortgage rate paid in Australia has fallen since August last year, as lenders have increased their discounts," the governor said.
"I encourage anyone with a mortgage to shop around: there are some very good offerings out there.
"We can all play a role in promoting strong competition in our financial sector by shopping around and taking advantage of the good deals that are out there."
Lowe said the board was closely monitoring housing markets across the country and trends in housing finance.
"Housing credit growth has slowed, which, from a medium-term perspective, is a positive development.
"Our assessment is that this slowing largely reflects reduced demand for credit by investors, although there has been some tightening in the supply of credit as well. With housing prices falling in a number of cities, largely due to a shift in the underlying fundamentals, investors no longer find it as attractive to invest in residential property as they once did.
"This is a normal part of the cycle.
"While credit standards have been tightened, mortgage credit remains readily available."
Guest Bob Robbins and Host Kerry McCoy Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy features a weekly guest every Friday at 2 pm that is an Arkansas business person or notable Arkansan.
Join Kerry McCoy this Friday on Up in Your Business to hear legendary Arkansas DJ Bob Robbins discuss his long history on the airwaves. Robbins has been a fixture of Arkansas radio since 1967, when he began working for KAAY in Little Rock and in 1979 moved to KSSN 96 FM. He stayed with KSSN until the end of 2013 when he left to go to sister station The Wolf 105.1. During that time, he was named Broadcast Personality of the Year by the Country Music Association, the people behind the CMT Awards.
His actual name is Robert Spears and was born in Florida. He lost his father to cancer when he was just one month old and his mother when he was ten. He and his siblings were split up and Robbins was adopted by an air force officer and family and grew up on air bases around the south and eventually in Morocco where he landed his first radio job. He was only fourteen when he began in radio before a tour in the U.S. Navy. After his discharge he spent time working at other jobs including making windows for mobile homes.
In 1967, he received a call from a friend at the Top 40 radio station KAAY in Little Rock. One of the stations employees who had worked under the name Rob Robbins had passed away. This was when he took on the on-air name of Bob Robbins for the first time.
In 1982, Robbins was the victim of a brutal attack orchestrated by a man who was angry with Robbins for leaving his side DJ job at Troutts Kountry Klub owned by Bob Troutt to form BJs Star-Studded Honky Tonk with business partners Bill McArthur and James Nelson. Trout had hired men to attack Robbins to either kill or make it so he could not speak again. The men were arrested and convicted.
Robbins has also been featured on local television with his show Bob Robbins Outdoors, a half-hour hunting and fishing show that began airing in 2004. He has also appeared in dozens of commercials.
Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy features a weekly guest every Friday at 2 pm that is an Arkansas business person or notable Arkansan. Robbins is a bit of both.
Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy airs on KABF 88.3 FM in Little Rock live on Friday afternoons from 2-3 pm and listeners can hear the show again the following week at FlagandBanner.com, where there is a podcast, bio on guests, behind the scenes video, plus links to resources and tips discussed on the show. The podcast can also be found on Apple iTunes, Sound Cloud, and Stitcher.
Business owners and experts who want to be featured on Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy are encouraged to e-mail questions@upyourbusiness.org.
[888VoIP's] need for this additional space comes as a response to continual business growth, the addition of new manufacturers, and development of West Coast markets.
888VoIP, a top distributor of VoIP hardware and software solutions, has announced today the recent investment and expansion in a second distribution facility in Reno, Nevada. The need for this additional space comes as a response to continual business growth, the addition of new manufacturers, and development of West Coast markets. The operational expansion will benefit both 888VoIP and partners alike.
With the new Reno facility, companywide warehouse and provisioning space will have tripled over the past three years. The new warehouse includes state-of-the-art provisioning equipment and will house products from top manufacturer partners such as Yealink. Additionally, the expansion will incorporate connecting office space, acting as the base for West Coast sales and logistics team members. The Reno office will work in conjunction with the home office in Elma, New York to provide customers nationwide with impeccable service.
We listened to our partners when they expressed the need for a West Coast facility and this is our response, said John Molino, CEO of 888VoIP, The Reno expansion is a true testament to our commitment towards helping our partners grow and succeed.
Both current and prospective 888VoIP partners will be able to utilize this new warehouse to increase business opportunities. Reflective of growing customer demand, West Coast partners will have access to speedier shipping, full provisioning services, and efficient logistical processes. This new facility will now allow 888VoIP to reach 85% of the West Coast in one day. With this conveniently located space, 888VoIP partners will be able to increase sales and revenue by acquiring new West Coast customers and fulfilling these customers needs in a timely fashion.
The benefits will be immense, including our new ability to fulfill shipping, provisioning, and support needs of West Coast markets, said Dan Shurmatz, President of 888VoIP, This is just another step in expanding the reach and capabilities of 888VoIP.
Whether on the East or West Coast, all 888VoIP partners have access to the same extensive manufacturer and product portfolio. To complement the vast product offerings, partners are also able to utilize the Channel Advantage program. This program transforms service provider operations, as 888VoIP team members assist partners with provisioning, fulfillment, advanced API, technical support, marketing, and more.
To learn more about the new West Coast warehouse and how it can benefit your VoIP business, call 888VoIP at 888-864-7786.
About 888VoIP
Since 2006, 888VoIP has been a leading distributor of VoIP hardware and software solutions. 888VoIP is committed to driving customer success and does so by identifying and understanding customers specific requirements and unique needs. By providing customers with the most innovative products, full cycle logistics, wholesale discounts, dedicated staff, and access to the Channel Advantage program, 888VoIP can assure the success of partners projects. Learn more about 888VoIP by visiting us on the web or following 888VoIP on Twitter.
Alger has experienced steady interest in our investment strategies and products from UK and European investors, making it a top priority for our team to strengthen our international footprint.
Alger Management, Ltd. is pleased to announce that Robert Gourlay has joined as Senior Vice President and Director of International Sales. Fred Alger Management, Inc. (together with its affiliates, Alger), is a leading growth equity asset management firm headquartered in New York City with more than $26 billion in assets under management.
Mr. Gourlay, who will be based in London, will be responsible for strengthening and developing Algers relationships with private bank, multimanager, and institutional investors outside of the U.S. He joins Alger with more than 20 years of experience in institutional sales, previously serving four years at Advent Capital as a Managing Director and Head of Business Development EMEA, where he focused on a European client base. He also dedicated 10 years in sales to RWC Partners, building a network of clients and raising assets for vehicles in the UK, U.S., Europe, and Asia. Gourlay is a graduate of Radley College and completed Officer Training for the British Armed Forces at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, commissioned into The Queens Own Hussars.
Alger has experienced steady interest in our investment strategies and products from UK and European investors, making it a top priority for our team to strengthen our international footprint, said Jim Tambone, Executive Vice President and Chief Distribution Officer at Alger. We are confident that with Roberts demonstrated history of business development, coupled with La Francaises deep understanding of international clientele, we will be in a position to best serve our global market of institutional and retail investor clients.
Alger has been a provider of asset management capabilities in Europe for over two decades and opened its London-based office in 2014. Non-U.S. investors can access Alger investment offerings through Alger SICAV, which includes The Alger American Asset Growth Fund, Alger Small Cap Focus Fund, Alger Emerging Markets Fund, and Alger Dynamic Opportunities Fund, a long/short hedged equity fund. In addition, clients can access Algers strategies through sub-advised and separate account mandates. Since 2015, Alger and La Francaise have partnered to distribute Alger SICAV sub-funds throughout Europe.
Alger SICAV, a Luxembourg UCITS vehicle, makes the funds available to non-U.S. investors in both U.S. dollar-denominated and hedged euro-denominated classes.
About Alger
Founded in 1964, Alger is widely recognized as a pioneer of growth-style investment management. Headquartered in New York City with affiliate offices in Boston and London, Alger provides U.S. and non-U.S. institutional investors and financial advisors access to a suite of growth equity separate accounts, mutual funds, and privately offered investment vehicles. The firms investment philosophy, discovering companies undergoing Positive Dynamic Change, has been in place for over 50 years. Weatherbie Capital, LLC, a Boston-based investment adviser specializing in small and mid-cap growth equity investing, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alger. For more information, please visit http://www.alger.com.
This document is for informational purpose only and does not constitute an offer to buy or sell, a solicitation, or investment advice.
Products, services, and information may not be available in all jurisdictions and are offered outside the U.S. by other Fred Alger Management, Inc. (Fred Alger) affiliates and/or their distributors as local laws and regulation permits. Please consult your own professional adviser for further information on availability of products and services in your jurisdiction.
Issued in the U.S. by Fred Alger Management, Inc., 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010, USA, (212) 806-8800, alger.com. Fred Alger Management, Inc. is the principal distributor of Algers U.S. registered products and Alger SICAV, a Luxembourg investment company with variable capital, which are available only in jurisdictions where an offer or solicitation of such products is permitted under applicable laws and regulation. Fred Alger Management, Inc. provides investment advisory services to institutional and individual investors through traditional and alternative strategies in a variety of products, including separate accounts, mutual funds and privately offered investment vehicles.
Important information for UK investors: The content of this commentary has been approved for the purposes of Section 21(2)(b) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA) by Alger Management, Ltd., which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, for distribution in the UK to persons who qualify as professional clients or eligible counterparties only. The rules made under the FSMA for the protection of retail clients do not apply to the services provided by Alger Associates, Inc., Fred Alger Management, Inc. and Fred Alger & Company, Incorporated and compensation under the United Kingdom Financial Services Compensation Scheme will not be available.
Representative and paying agent in Switzerland is BNP Paribas Securities Services, Paris, succursale de Zurich, Selnaustrasse 16, 8002 Zurich. The prospectus, the Key Investor Information Document, the Articles of Association and the annual and semi-annual report of Alger SICAV are free and available on simple request at the registered office of the representative of Alger SICAV in Switzerland. Effective January 12, 2016, the Swiss Representative is ACOLIN Fund Services AG, Stadelhoferstrasse 18, CH-8001 Zurich, http://www.acolin.ch and the Swiss Paying Agent is Neue Helvetische Bank AGSeefeldstrasse 215 CH-8008 Zurich.
Alger Management, Ltd. (company house number 8634056, domiciled at 78 Brook Street, London W1K 5EF, UK) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, for the distribution of regulated financial products and services. La Francaise AM International has a signed agreement with Alger Management Ltd, whereby La Francaise AM International is authorized to distribute Fred Alger Management Inc. products in Europe.
Risk Disclosures: Investing in the stock market involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Growth stocks tend to be more volatile than other stocks as the prices of growth stocks tend to be higher in relation to their companies earnings and may be more sensitive to market, political, and economic developments.
U.S. Top 10 Most Intimate Apparel Brands 2018 Despite an industry with iconic brands, apparel brands falls below the average when it comes to Brand Intimacy, stated Mario Natarelli, managing partner at MBLM. As our clothes buying patterns shift, we believe apparel companies have to deliver new ways to build stronger bonds with customers.
The apparel industry ranked seventh out of 15 studied in MBLMs Brand Intimacy 2018 Report, which is the largest study of brands based on emotions. The top three in the industry, whose ranking remained unchanged since 2017, were Nike, Levis and Under Armour. The remaining brands in the Top 10 for the apparel industry were: lululemon, Adidas, The North Face, Gap, Ralph Lauren, Victorias Secret and Puma.
Brand Intimacy is defined as a new paradigm that leverages and strengthens the emotional bonds between a person and a brand. MBLMs study again revealed that top intimate brands in the U.S. surpassed the top brands in the Fortune 500 and S&P indices in revenue and profit over the past 10 years.
Despite an industry with iconic brands, apparel brands falls below the average when it comes to Brand Intimacy, stated Mario Natarelli, managing partner at MBLM. As our clothes buying patterns shift, we believe apparel companies have to deliver new ways to build stronger bonds with customers.
Other noteworthy apparel findings in MBLMs Brand Intimacy 2018 Report include:
The apparel industry had an average Brand Intimacy Quotient of 26.6, which was below the cross-industry average of 27.1
Indulgence, which is related to moments of pampering and gratification, was the most prominent archetype in the category, and Victorias Secret was the top-performing brand for indulgence
Nike was the top brand in the category overall and ranked #1 for both men and women, as well as for millennials, whereas users aged 5564 preferred Levis
Nike also had the highest percentage of customers in fusing, the most advanced stage of Brand Intimacy
The North Face and Gap considerably improved their intimacy scores since last year, whereas lululemon and Levis declined in this years rankings
.
To view the apparel industry findings, please click here. The full Brand Intimacy 2018 Report and the Ranking Tool can be found here.
This years report contains the most comprehensive rankings of brands based on emotion, analyzing the responses of 6,000 consumers and 54,000 brand evaluations across 15 industries in the U.S., Mexico and UAE. MBLMs reports and interactive Brand Ranking Tool showcase the performance of almost 400 brands, revealing the characteristics and intensity of the consumer bonds.
Methodology
During 2017, MBLM conducted an online quantitative survey among 6,000 consumers in the United States (3,000), Mexico (2,000), and the United Arab Emirates (1,000). Participants were respondents who were screened for age (i.e. 18 to 64 years of age) and annual household income ($35,000 or more) in the U.S. and socioeconomic levels in Mexico and the UAE (A, B, and C socioeconomic levels). Quotas were established to ensure that the sample mirrored census data for age, gender, income/socioeconomic level, and region. The survey was designed primarily to understand the extent to which consumers have relationships with brands and the strength of those relationships, from fairly detached to highly intimate. It is important to note that this study provides more than a mere ranking of brand performance and was specifically designed to provide prescriptive guidance to marketers. We modeled data from a total of 54,000 brand evaluations to quantify the mechanisms that drive intimacy. Through factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and other sophisticated analytic techniques, the research allows marketers to better understand which levers need to be pulled to build intimacy between brands and consumers.
About MBLM: MBLM has invented a new marketing paradigm, Brand Intimacy, delivering expertise and offerings across three areas of focus: Agency, Lab and Platform. With offices in seven countries, our multidisciplinary teams help clients build stronger bonds and deliver optimized marketing outcomes and returns for the long term. To learn more about how we can help you create and sustain ultimate brand relationships, visit mblm.com.
Arlivia E. Siggers, a devout wife, mother, and grandmother who serves as co-pastor with her husband, Bishop Elect, John W. Siggers Jr., of a growing local empowering ministry in Cleveland, Ohio, Freedom Empowerment Ministry Center, has completed her book Can You Trust Me in the Darkness: When Running and Hiding is No Longer an Option: a collection of inspirational thoughts offering insight into how the power of her faith has helped her through dark and lonely times in her own life.
Siggers shares, What happens when youve reached rock bottom, and darkness and despair begin to ravage and impale you, holding you captive in its icy grip. And you have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide and no way to get free? Who do you turn to? Who can you trust? Who will understand the cry that comes from your hurting heart? A heart that is desperately yearning to be released from its prison of hopelessness and gloom?
Travel with us on this riveting adventure in discovering what happens when the vulnerability of the human spirit, and its extraordinary ability to survive insurmountable odds, meets the reservoir of hope that springs forth, and becomes the greatest opportunity to have courage and to believe.
Published by New York City-based Page Publishing, Arlivia E. Siggerss book offers a spiritually reinforcing message of hope and strength.
Readers who wish to experience this faith-based work can purchase Can You Trust Me in the Darkness: When Running and Hiding is No Longer an Option 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 overwhelmed with logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, 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.
Artificial Blood Substitutes Market Report by Ahead Intelligence (AheadIntel) All Ahead Intelligence reports come with interactive IP intelligence dashboards that give you access to the data for deeper insights into the technology space
Artificial Blood Substitutes Market Patent landscape report, by source (human blood, animal blood, microorganism based recombinant Hb, synthetic polymers, stem cells) product type (PFCs, HBOCs), by application (Cardiovascular diseases, Malignant neoplasms, Injuries, Neonatal Conditions, Organ transplants, Maternal condition) by Patent Activities (patent categories and classification, active players, patent landscape analysis) Global Forecast, 2022. The Artificial Blood Substitutes Market is estimated to reach $5,204 million by 2022 and is expected to grow by a CAGR of 27.8 percent to assume a value of $17,775 million by 2027.
In this report the global Artificial Blood Substitutes market categorized into segments, first based on sources from which blood substitutes are derived, second product features, third application segments. This report delves deep into market and patent analysis for each segment along with their market growth, active players and the market drivers expected to promote production and consumption of Artificial Blood Substitute in artificial blood products market.
Get your analysis on 45 market data tables and 29 figures in 138 page up to date report and detailed TOC on Artificial Blood Substitutes Market Patent landscape report.
Report link - http://bit.ly/2ooIU1t
Limited time offer for early buyers, save 20% by applying coupon code SEPTSALE20
Request a Free sample here!
Injuries segment will be the biggest contributor at $1,993 million to artificial blood substitutes market in 2022.
With continued research to incorporate enzymes in modified Hb to avoid reperfusion damage, artificial blood products may be less likely to cause reperfusion injuries than the use of red blood cells. Blood substitutes can play a useful role in the initial management of emergency cases. However, malignant neoplasm application segment of artificial blood substitute market is expected to occupy 38 percent of market share in 2027 which will be the highest among all application segments owing to the availability of substitutes with advanced healing features by 2027.
Several companies have claimed that, there are six potential applications markets that have been identified based on the possibility of replacing donor blood in critical medical treatments.
Approximately 36,000 units of RBCs are needed every day in the U.S. North American artificial blood substitutes market
Approximately 43,000 units of blood are transfused each year in the US. Nearly 4.5 million Americans obtain blood transfusions each year for various conditions such as cardiovascular diseases and surgeries, chemotherapy treatments for cancer, trauma cases from accidents and war zones, burn and natural disaster trauma victims; newborn babies; mothers suffering postpartum hemorrhage; and organ transplant patients. On an average, 13.6 million whole blood and RBCs are collected in the U.S. in a year. North America is expected to lead in 2022 with the potential market expected to be $1,304 million. The European artificial blood market is touted to reach a value of $3,212 million by 2027.
Top Leading players and geographic regions in the artificial blood substitutes market
Companies like Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp., Baxter Healthcare Corp., Nuvox Pharmaceuticals, Sanguine Inc., and Therapure Biopharma are some of the first movers in the artificial blood products market.
R&D interest in artificial blood products technologies has maintained at a constant pace with approximately 67 patents filed every year over the period from 1997 to 2016. Several companies like Active Molecules Park Competence Alliance (PAM), Kalocyte, Hemarina, Sanguine Corporation, and Tenax Therapeutics are actively developing substitutes to meet the growing need for artificial blood.
Blood pharming techniques are also being actively pursued by scientists worldwide for developing human RBCs from donor blood stem cells. Terumo Corporation holds the largest patent portfolio in technology required for artificial blood development.
Several biotech firms are investing resources to utilize the longevity of laboratory-grown cells. Recent focus has shifted to creating immortal stem cell lines for developing whole synthetic RBCs with 73 patents filed in this domain.
One of the critical emerging geographies from technology innovation perspective is Korea which is showing trends of active patent fillings for the period 2011 to 2016.
In this report, the geographic regions considered for market analysis exclusively include:
North America: United States, Mexico, Canada
Europe: U.K., Germany, Russia, Spain, France, Italy
Asia Pacific: China, India, Japan, Australia
Rest of the world: South Africa, Brazil
In the future, severe blood shortfalls are imminent, mass civilian casualties, such as common calamities, terrorist assaults, and wars, which require a massive and instant blood supply. Such reasons are contributing to a budding market for artificial blood substitutes.
Get the most relevant, personalized intelligence for Artificial Blood Substitutes market to make your company grow and succeed.
About Ahead Intelligence (AheadIntel)
Ahead Intelligence (AheadIntel) is a technology and patent research company providing premium, comprehensive technology research on different topics. We combine IP intelligence with business and market insights to give you the complete picture around a technology space. All our reports come with interactive dashboards that give you access to the patent data and allow you to dig deeper insights into the technology space.
Our unique balance of Intellectual Property specific traditional research and intelligent dashboards provides actionable insights on emerging technologies and high-growth market opportunities. AheadIntel brings together a highly skilled team of IP and business analysts, technology experts, researchers and consultants with more than 100 man years of experience.
At AheadIntel we aim to redefine the future of Technology Intelligence reporting.
Dickinson Wright PLLC is pleased to announce that Attorney Matthew J. Wiles has joined the firms Columbus office as a Member.
Mr. Wiles focuses his practice on litigation and employment law. He represents clients in federal and state courts and before administrative tribunals in a range of commercial matters. He also provides pre-litigation dispute representation and preventative counseling in situations where a client desires creative or negotiated solutions to avoid a lawsuit.
His experience includes serving as outside litigation counsel for one of the nations largest freight brokers, regularly handling disputes involving double broker scams, cargo loss, covenants not to compete and employment matters. He also represents owners, general contractors and subcontractors in construction disputes, including defect, delay, mechanics lien and oil and gas claims. He has also litigated software development and trademark infringement matters.
Mr. Wiles is a member of the Ohio Bar Association and the California Bar Association. He is recognized as a leader in his field by Ohio Super Lawyers Rising Stars. He received his B.S. from Bowling Green State University and his J.D. from the University of Dayton Law School.
About Dickinson Wright PLLC
Dickinson Wright PLLC is a general practice business law firm with more than 475 attorneys among more than 40 practice areas and 16 industry groups. Headquartered in Detroit and founded in 1878, the firm has 19 offices, including six in Michigan (Detroit, Troy, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Grand Rapids, and Saginaw) and 12 other domestic offices in Austin and El Paso, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Lexington, Ky.; Nashville and Music Row, Tenn.; Las Vegas and Reno, Nev.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Silicon Valley, Calif.; and Washington, D.C. The firms Canadian office is located in Toronto.
Dickinson Wright offers our clients a distinctive combination of superb client service, exceptional quality, value for fees, industry expertise and business acumen. As one of the few law firms with ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification, Dickinson Wright has built state-of-the-art, independently-verified risk management controls and security processes for our commercial transactions. Dickinson Wright lawyers are known for delivering commercially-oriented advice on sophisticated transactions and have a remarkable record of wins in high-stakes litigation. Dickinson Wright lawyers are regularly cited for their expertise and experience by Chambers, Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, and other leading independent law firm evaluating organizations.
Best Friends Strut Your Mutt Best Friends Strut Your Mutt launched in 1996 in Salt Lake City and now Strut Your Mutt is a movement-wide benefit and a primary fundraising platform for hundreds of local rescue groups and shelters around the country.
For the past 22 years, Best Friends Animal Society, a national animal welfare organization dedicated to making the United States No-Kill by 2025, has been helping local animal rescue groups and shelters raise funds for their lifesaving work.
Best Friends Strut Your Mutt returns to 14 communities nationwide bringing together passionate people to raise money to save the lives of homeless pets. On the day of the event, everyones fundraising efforts are celebrated with the group dog walk, followed by a fun-filled festival where four- and two-legged participants of all ages can take part in activities like doggy yoga, pet portraits, music, contests and more. The events start Saturday, Sept. 8, 2018 and end Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018.
Julie Castle, CEO of Best Friends Animal Society said: Best Friends Strut Your Mutt launched in 1996 in Salt Lake City and that first year everything that could go wrong did, but we did not give up. Now Strut Your Mutt is a movement-wide benefit and a primary fundraising platform for hundreds of local rescue groups and shelters around the country some groups even raise their entire operating budget off this one fundraiser. Best Friends produces the events and invites local organizations to use it as a turnkey fundraiser.
Every day in Americas shelters, more than 4,100 dogs and cats are killed, simply because they dont have safe places to call home.
But if we work together, we can reduce that number to zero. Best Friends Strut Your Mutt is an important community event to help save animals lives, Castle added.
Nationally the fundraising goal is $2.4 million. Each year, hundreds of partnering organizations participate in Strut Your Mutt to raise money needed to save lives in their own communities. Together in 2017, 300 Best Friends Network partners raised nearly $2 million.
Strut Your Mutt Day is nationwide
For people interested in saving the lives of homeless pets that dont live in a city that hosts a live event, there is Strut Your Mutt Day, on October 27, a virtual fundraiser that allows people to raise funds online for Best Friends Animal Society or a participating local animal welfare group in their area. Last year, more than 200 people raised more than $100,000 for lifesaving programs, such as spay and neuter services, adoption events and more.
To get involved, start your own fundraising page or donate to an existing team please visit StrutYourMutt.org.
Special thanks to national sponsors Chem-Dry, BOBS from Skechers, Instinct by Natures Variety, and Modern Dog Magazine.
All Best Friends Strut Your Mutt participating cities and dates:
September 8 Atlanta
September 15 Austin, Texas and Kanab, Utah/ Best Friends Animal Sanctuary
September 22 Portland, Oregon and St. Louis
September 29 Jacksonville, Florida; Minneapolis/St. Paul and San Francisco
October 6 D.C. Metro and New York City
October 13 Houston and Salt Lake City
October 20 Los Angeles and Phoenix
October 27 National Strut Your Mutt Day
About Best Friends Animal Society
Best Friends Animal Society is a leading national animal welfare organization dedicated to ending the killing of dogs and cats in America's shelters. In addition to running lifesaving programs in partnership with more than 2,200 animal welfare groups across the country, Best Friends has regional centers in New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Salt Lake City, and operates the nation's largest no-kill sanctuary for companion animals. Founded in 1984, Best Friends is a pioneer in the no-kill movement and has helped reduce the number of animals killed in shelters nationwide from 17 million per year to about 1.5 million. That means there are still more than 4,100 dogs and cats killed every day in shelters, just because they dont have safe places to call home. We are determined to get that number to zero by the year 2025. Working collaboratively with shelters, rescue groups, other organizations and you, we will end the killing and Save Them All. For more information, visit bestfriends.org.
To become a fan of Best Friends on Facebook, go to Facebook.com/bestfriendsanimalsociety. Follow Best Friends on Twitter (@BestFriends) and Instagram (@BestFriendsAnimalSociety)
Bob Buderi, Chairman of Boston Biotech Conferences Im really excited to be working with this series of exclusive peer-to-peer CEO meetings. We will be striving to bring the most relevant topics to the forefrontgiving biotech leaders the opportunity to share insights and contribute to meaningful conversations with their peers. - Bob Buderi
Boston Biotech Conferences, producer of exclusive C-suite meetings for the biotech community, announces the appointment of Bob Buderi as its new Chairman.
As Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Xconomy and a past Editor of MITs Technology Review magazine, Buderi brings decades of experience with biotech and biopharma that will help connect attendees to an extensive network of industry experts. He will lead the charge in helping the business better position its offering to shape the future of biotech.
Im really excited to be working with this series of exclusive peer-to-peer CEO meetings. We will be striving to bring the most relevant topics to the forefrontgiving biotech leaders the opportunity to share insights and contribute to meaningful conversations with their peers. - Bob Buderi, Chairman of Boston Biotech Conferences.
The format of these meetings will be heavily influenced by the community, for the community. Under Buderis chairmanship, a select group of Ambassadors will advise on overall strategy, contribute insights, and help pinpoint important trends. The committee will include industry leaders Mike Gilman Ph.D., Chairman and CEO of Arrakis Therapeutics; Rachel Haurwitz Ph.D., President and CEO of Caribou Biosciences; and Jeremy M. Levin D.Phil. MB BChir, Chairman and CEO of Ovid Therapeutics. Further information about the committee, including a formal introduction to all the Ambassadors, will be shared in October.
More exciting changes are on the horizon for Boston Biotech Conferences. Look for those announcements in the coming months.
About Boston Biotech Conferences:
Boston Biotech Conferences are exclusive, thought-leader forums for senior biopharma executives. Each conference is highly interactive and co-hosted by healthcare industry leaders to foster discussions and facilitate information-sharing, networking and corporate development within the biopharma community. These meetings convene the most relevant players in biotech to network, collaborate and leverage the experiences of their peers in an off-the-record setting. For more information, please visit: http://www.bostonbiotechconferences.com.
Contact:
Boston Biotech Conferences
Suzanne Carroll
suzanne (at) bbbiotechconference (dot) com
+1 857-504-6707
Fully Integrated Online Fundraising & Exceed Beyond Donor Relationship Management Platform Arreva really understands the needs and requirements of Clubs and is as dedicated to their success as we are..."
Today Arreva, the globally trusted advisor and industry leader in cloud-based Donor Relationship Management and Online Fundraising software to nonprofit organizations worldwide, announces it has been chosen by Boys & Girls Clubs of America. The unique collaboration, underscored by Arrevas commitment to customer success, offers local Boys & Girls Clubs nationwide a robust software choice, partner pricing, and an exclusive, first-of-its-kind resource center to help Clubs grow and learn.
Arreva has a long and successful history of partnering with national nonprofit organizations to deliver great benefit to their local chapters. Were very excited to be launching this collaboration with Boys & Girls Clubs of America to meet the needs of their clubs of all sizes, says David Blyer, Arreva CEO and President. Were proud to have been selected after an extensive vetting process and are pleased by the terrific response from Clubs across the nationwide to the program weve introduced. Most importantly, were thrilled to be able to provide the Clubs with an online fundraising and donor relationship management ecosystem choice and the resources to achieve their missions. Its a huge success for all involved.
Boys & Girls Clubs of America chose Arreva for this collaboration with their Resource Development Club Services team based on several factors providing significant differentiation, including robust software capabilities; customer support and commitment to customer success; and pricing and chapter development resources to help clubs build awareness, cultivate and engage donors, transform fundraising, and achieve board giving.
Arreva really understands the needs and requirements of Clubs and is as dedicated to their success as we are. While their all-in-one software platform can meet the needs of Clubs, both large and small, it is their remarkable commitment to customer support and success of local Boys & Girls Clubs that makes them stand out from the crowd, says Alyssa Rodriguez, Director, RD Operations & Learning for Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
Jenny Garlach, Executive Director and CEO for Boys & Girls Clubs of the Mississippi Valley adds, For the first time, we can plan and implement personalized campaigns using specific data weve captured. We strongly recommend Arreva to any organization that needs a big boost on their online fundraising and event efforts.
About Arreva
Arreva, the trusted advisor and industry leader in cloud-based Donor Relationship Management and Online Fundraising software has offices in Fort Lauderdale, FL and Palo Alto, CA with a team that has served the nonprofit industry for over three decades. Arrevas fully integrated Online Fundraising and Exceed Beyond Donor Relationship Management Software provide a nonprofit ecosystem that helps thousands of nonprofit organizations focus on their mission while they build awareness, cultivate and engage donors, and transform fundraising. Learn more at https://www.arreva.com
About Boys & Girls Clubs of America
For more than 150 years, Boys & Girls Clubs of America (bgca.org) has enabled young people most in need to achieve great futures as productive, caring, responsible citizens. Today, 4,400 Clubs serve four million young people annually through Club membership and community outreach. Clubs are located in cities, towns, public housing and on Native lands throughout the country, and serve military families in Boys & Girls Clubs of America-affiliated Youth Centers on U.S. military installations worldwide. They provide a safe place, caring adult mentors, fun, friendship, and high-impact youth development programs on a daily basis during critical non-school hours. Priority programs emphasize academic success, good character and citizenship, and healthy lifestyles. In a Harris Survey of alumni, 54 percent said the Club saved their lives. National headquarters are located in Atlanta. Learn more at http://www.bgca.org
Media Contact:
David Jost
Chief Marketing Officer
800.676.5831 x 317
David.Jost(at)arreva.com
Smiles for Everyone Team
Bright Now! Dental has partnered with the Smiles for Everyone Foundation to open its Chandler, AZ office to provide free dental services for underinsured, low-income individuals on October 7 from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Dental services provided include x-rays and exams, fillings, extractions, cleanings, fluoride treatments, and sealants. A limited number of appointments are available. Please visit the Bright Now! Dental website for more information.
About Bright Now! Dental
Bright Now! Dental provides general dentistry, childrens dentistry and, in select locations, specialty care services such as orthodontics, oral surgery, periodontics and endodontics at over 150 offices across Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and Washington. Bright Now! Dentals Chandler office is operated by Modern Dental Professionals - Arizona, Inc.. (the Group). The Group is affiliated with Smile Brands Inc., one of the largest providers of business support services to dental groups in the United States. Smile Brands Inc. provides comprehensive business support services through exclusive long-term service 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 is a portfolio company of Gryphon Investors (Gryphon), a leading middle-market private equity firm based in San Francisco, CA. For more information, visit http://www.smilebrands.com.
.
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 17,500 smiles and $13.5 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.
Contacts:
Bright Now! Dental
Jody Martin
PR(at)smilebrands.com
714.427.1299
Smiles for Everyone Foundation
Crystal Strait
crystal.strait(at)smilesforeveryone.org
714.824.5037
ACG Solutions, a leading provider of state-of-the-art information technology (IT), security and telecommunications solutions, today announced that Bulldog Kia, widely recognized as the preeminent Kia dealership in the region, has successfully adopted components of the companys connect and protect solutions. The on-time, on-budget installation of automating technology is in response to overwhelming business growth, along with a move toward improved risk management. As a result, the Bulldog Kia has sped up sales and service processes, while increasing its customer satisfaction index and physical asset security.
After a thorough search of potential suppliers, we realized that ACG Solutions could offer a customized solution and the latest technology to fit our business needs, said David Kernall, owner and general manager, Bulldog Kia. Theyve been a terrific partner, helping us to complete an efficient installation and employee training while avoiding disruption to ongoing operations.
By replacing one receptionist and paper messages to manage increased call volume with a unified communications and business phone system, Bulldog Kia now offers customers expedited returned calls, including an option to leave messages on cell phones, along with an automated appointment system. Meanwhile, with a customized indoor/outdoor camera surveillance infrastructure in place, Bulldog Kia management has the assurance of a 24/7 deterrent to workplace and inventory theft and damage.
This was an important step in our strategy to keep the human touch while adapting technology for growth, added James Hammond, owner and operations manager, Bulldog Kia. In our line of business, you can do everything right, but if you communicate ineffectively, youve delivered a poor customer experience. Our new phone system streamlines call efficiency and makes the experience personal and easier, especially in the service department, when setting appointments and exchanging continual updates and details really matter.
We are pleased to meet all of Bulldog Kias business goals, said Rob Drake, account executive, ACG Solutions. All our technology deliveries are influenced heavily by a personal, consultative approach to advise clients of new approaches and evolving products to create additional value. In just a few short months, were excited by the results in reducing Bulldog Kias dependence on paper-based manual communications processes and creating a more protected work and inventory environment.
About Bulldog Kia
Bulldog Kia is located at 4305 Atlanta Highway in Athens, GA. We have served customers from Bogart, Buford, Duluth, and Gainesville, GA for longer than many people may have owned their current cars. We put our invaluable expertise to your advantage in terms of new Kia models, used cars, trucks, and SUVs, automotive service and repairs, and Kia financing. Each of our team members were picked for their vast knowledge, high level of competency, eagerness to learn, ability to relate to drivers from all walks of life, and commitment to keeping Bulldog Kia a pressure-free environment. For more information, please visit http://www.bulldogkia.com.
About ACG Solutions
ACG Solutions serves all industries with a complete portfolio of information technology, security and telecommunications solutions for powering the intelligent building.
For more information, please visit http://www.acg-solutions.com.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheACGTeam/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/acgsolutions/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheACGTeam
There can be many challenges faced by business owners that are new to filing W2 Correction forms. For convenience and peace of mind,Halfpricesoft.com offers customers utilizing the newly released ezW2Correction software a no fee customer support guarantee. Customers needing assistance with the software during the trial period or after purchase can rest easy knowing that if questions arise about the software, a support team is available to assist at no additional charge.
Latest ezW2Correction tax reporting comes with no fee customer support for our valued patrons. said Halfpricesoft.com Founder, Dr. Ge
ezW2Correction software can print Forms W2C and W3C for Year 2007 to current. The latest version includes several enhancements to the graphic interface to eliminate an extended learning curve for first time customers. Even better news is that the application is approved by SSA to print all W2C and W3C forms on plain white paper.
As with all software from Halfpricesoft.com, ezW2Correction has a user-friendly design that allows customers to get started immediately after installation from http://www.halfpricesoft.com/w2c_software.asp even if they have no accounting background or little computer experience. The softwares point-and-click simplicity makes it ideal for small business owners who have better things to do than learn complicated software.
Priced from only $49, the new W-2 Form correcting software combines versatility in features with affordability.
The main features include:
Clients save valuable time by eliminating an extensive learning curve - ezW2Correction is designed to be simple and intuitive, allowing users to get started right away.
ezW2Correction software can print W-2C (copy 1, 2, A, B, C and D) AND w-3C on white paper. SSA-approved.
ezW2Correction can fill data on pre-printed forms too.
ezW2Correction can print recipient copies into digital PDF file.
ezW2Correction can support unlimited companies, recipients and forms with one flat rate
Eliminate W2C and W3C form filing headaches. To start the test drive of 2017 ezW2Correction software, visit
http://www.halfpricesoft.com/w2c_software.asp.
About halfpricesoft.com
Founded in 2003, Halfpricesoft.com has established itself as a leader in meeting the software needs of small businesses around the world with its payroll software, employee attendance tracking software, check printing software, W2 software, 1099 software and ezACH Deposit software. It continues to grow with its philosophy that small business owners need affordable, user friendly, super simple, and totally risk-free software.
"Its my hope that cannabinoid nutrition from hemp will soon be accessible to all beings, that the negative stigma around cannabis will disappear, and that Canna-Pet will continue to demonstrate the vast potential of the American hemp industry," says Dan Goldfarb, CEO of Canna-Pet.
Canna-Pet, the global leader in cannabinoid nutritional pet products, celebrates five years of improving animal health by providing superior hemp-rich capsules, biscuits, and liquid products to animals throughout the US and the world. Vet-recommended and backed by almost 30 years of research, Canna-Pet pioneered a product line that is both substantive and varied. The company will donate over $1 million to study hemp as an aid for pets with cancer, pain, and anxiety. Canna-Pet remains a strong advocate for the hemp industry. It lobbied for and helped draft the 2018 Farm Bill. Passage of the Bill will ensure a bright future for hemp farmers nationwide.
Canna-Pet was founded in 2013 to make the world a better place for animals. In conjunction with its non-profit affiliate, Pet Conscious, Canna-Pet helps rescue, rehabilitate, and save animals from dangerous and unhealthy environments throughout the world. In 2017, Canna-Pets CEO, Dan Goldfarb, purchased the landmark John Sowden House as a focal point for hemp and cannabis education, philanthropy, and social activism. The house serves as a home for Canna-Pet to host charitable events for non-profit organizations, including Kindred Spirits Care Farm and The Little Red Dog. Upcoming events will benefit Wildlife SOS and Food Forward.
Canna-Pet is the bellwether brand of the global cannabis lifestyle and food movement, says Goldfarb. We are not only pioneering a multi-billion dollar industry in the USA and supporting American farmers and businesses, but also promoting ethical and social responsibility to the food, beverage, and nutraceutical industries that will collaborate within this space.
Our support of medical pet research has not only improved the quality of life and nutritional health of all animals, but also given pet owners the ability to seek non-pharmaceutical options for lifelong pet health. Its my hope that cannabinoid nutrition from hemp will soon be accessible to all beings, that the negative stigma around cannabis will disappear, and that Canna-Pet will continue to demonstrate the vast potential of the American hemp industry.
Canna-Pet has made a positive impact on thousands of rescue animals, providing relief from pain and stress-induced anxiety to dogs, cats, horses, and even rabbits, macaws, and tigers. Through monthly rescue promotions, event donations, and sponsorship, Canna-Pet and Pet Conscious have become important and appreciated members of the rescue community. This is due to their direct financial support, and Canna-Pets products, which were designed to improve the quality of life for all animals.
I spend a lot of time in shelters working with foster and recently-adopted dogs, says Heather Gutshall, founder of Handsome Dan's Rescue for Pit Bull Type Dogs, one of Canna-Pets rescue partners. When I enter a shelter, I have Canna-Pet with me as one of the items in my toolbox to use when I come across an animal suffering from kennel stress.
Canna-Pet is committed to advancing cannabis science and nutrition through clinical trials and research. Furthering its mission to deliver innovative medical solutions to all animals and to create health-conscious products, Pet Conscious committed to donate over $1 million to the Auburn University School of Veterinary Medicine. The funds will be used for pharmacological studies of hemp products for animal cancer, pain, and epilepsy. Clinical studies begin this Fall.
We are very excited to have partnered with Canna-Pet and Pet Conscious in order to use this health-related Quality of Life assessment to explore the potential of cannabinoid-based products to improve the health and well being of dogs suffering from anxiety, chronic lameness, cancer, and epilepsy, says Dawn Boothe, Director of Clinical Pharmacology at Auburn Universitys School of Veterinary Medicine.
In celebration of Canna-Pets fifth anniversary, the company is offering $55 off of online orders over $150 from September 5-7, 2018. For more information about Canna-Pet, please canna-pet.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
ABOUT CANNA-PET
Founded in 2013, Canna-Pet is the global innovator of hemp nutritional pet products. Canna-Pet products provide cannabidiol and other cannabinoids from enriched oil extracts of the industrial hemp form of cannabis. Since 2013, Canna-Pet has produced millions of veterinarian-recommended, hemp-rich capsules, biscuits, and liquid products for dogs, cats, horses, and other animals. All Canna-Pet nutritional products are available online at canna-pet.com as well as from pet retailers and veterinary clinics nationwide. All Canna-Pet products include a money-back satisfaction guarantee. To learn more about Canna-Pet, visit canna-pet.com.
TirboLOX-L Titanium Lumbar Cage (TLIF/PLIF) Our development team was able to incorporate our proprietary Pivotec Pivoting TLIF Cage into TirboLOX-L. Pivotec Technology has been used in thousands of surgeries.
Captiva Spine is a medical device organization located in Jupiter, Florida, dedicated to delivering smart, elegant and intuitive spinal fusion solutions. Today, Captiva Spine is announcing it has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market its TirboLOX-L 3D Printed Titanium Lumbar Cages.
TirboLOX-L Titanium Lumbar Cages are created using advanced 3D printing technologies to form titanium alloy interbody fusion devices with a dual layer organic lattice structure. This lattice structure features a micro-rough surface topography, interconnected dual porosity, and open architecture. Titanium alloy implants with micro-rough surface topographies and dual porosity have been shown to promote direct bony on growth, in growth and vascularization. TirboLOX-Ls open architecture is designed to reduce radiographic presence for clear imaging. TirboLOX-Ls high coefficient of friction creates immediate bidirectional fixation.
Dennis Ty, Director of R&D of Captiva Spine declared, With the advanced capabilities of 3D Additive Manufacturing we were able to create a unique lattice structure similar to trabecular bone incorporating a micro-rough surface for clot retention and early osteogenic cell migration, including a dual layer of porosity with pore sizes specifically designed to promote bone in-growth and vascularization. Through substantial surgeon design input we are able to deliver TirboLOX-Ls unique dual layer organic lattice structure with numerous geometries and sizes that appeal to a wide range of surgeon preferences.
Dale Mitchell, President and Founder of Captiva Spine said, I am pleased our development team was able to incorporate our proprietary Pivotec Pivoting TLIF Cage into TirboLOX-L. Pivotec Technology has been used in thousands of surgeries to address the challenges of controlling cage insertion and angle manipulation during surgery and is now available in a wide range of porous Titanium 3D printed, sterile packaged implants. This is especially important during minimally invasive (MIS) applications where time and safety is always of the essence.
Captivas TirboLOX-L Titanium Lumbar Cages are one of five new product launches that will be featured at Booth 1649 during the North American Spine Society (NASS) meeting held in Los Angeles, September 26-28, 2018. Inquiries from tenured distribution professionals looking to partner with a company to build a relationship for the long run are always welcome. Captiva Spine can be contacted directly by phone at 561-277-9480 or via their website http://www.captivaspine.com/contact-us.
About Captiva Spine, Inc.
Captiva Spine is a privately owned medical device organization founded in 2007. Captiva Spine supports spine surgeons, tenured spine distributors, and healthcare facilities in providing patients with progressive spinal care and an obsessive focus on quality. They strive to create and maintain sincere, honest, collaborative relationships. By valuing their relationships above all else, it fosters the mutual trust and openness needed for Captiva Spine to be a conduit of high quality, smart, elegant, and intuitive patient solutions. Captiva Spine operates as a family of industry professionals that take pride in delivering these solutions responsibly and ethically while never losing sight of what they refer to as the Human Factor: Finding the joy in their daily lives and serving the needs of their customers with sincere, professional enthusiasm.
AAID celebrates Dental Implant Awareness Month each year to educate consumers about dental implants and the value of turning to an AAID member for their surgery.
Hundreds of American Academy of Implant Dentistry (AAID) dentists and their patients around the country will celebrate 2018 Dental Implant Awareness Month in September. This years theme, Live a Life Full of Smiles, highlights the benefits that more than 3 million people in the United States who have implants have realized from their investment in their dental health.
Compared to dentures and bridges, patients who turn to dental implants to restore their smile discover that they feel, look, fit and function like healthy, natural teeth. They can brush and floss just like they did with their natural teeth. In addition, dental implants that are properly cared for last many decades. Dental implants also protect facial bone and healthy teeth. Dental implants are the only tooth replacement option that actually helps stimulate bone growth and prevent bone loss. Getting dental implants as soon as possible after losing a tooth helps prevent bone loss at the site.
Jan Plessner turned to an AAID credentialed dentist for her new smile. She said, I'm a happy person and my new smile matches who I am inside. On a scale of 1-10, I give it a 10-plus. I have not stopped smiling since I got my all new smile. Your smile is your first impression. I feel much more confident now."
Retired school superintendent Richard Varriale says he would recommend dental implants to others, with one caveat: IF you find the right dentist to do it. You want to be sure that you're getting a competent dentist who is trained in the procedure. You want to make sure you're confident in the doctor you use.
There is a significant difference between dentists who do implants and dental implant experts. Dental implants are not one size fits all they are complex, sophisticated devices requiring specialized training and expertise to fit and place properly.
AAID celebrates Dental Implant Awareness Month each year to educate consumers about dental implants and the value of turning to an AAID member for their surgery, said AAID President David G. Hochberg, DDS, FAAID, DABOI/ID. When patients choose an AAID-credentialed dental implant dentist, they can be confident they are working with an expert who has the extensive education, training and experience required to putting them on the path to living a life full of smiles.
For more information, visit https://www.aaid-implant.org.
About the American Academy of Implant Dentistry (AAID)
Founded in 1951, the AAID was the first organization in the United States dedicated to developing and improving dental implants. Today, after 66 years, the AAID continues to be the leading organization of dentists devoted to providing dental implant treatment solutions. The AAID implant dentistry credentialing program is the only one in the U.S. that has been found to be bona fide by the state and federal courts.
Note to Media: AAID member dentists and their patients around the country are available for interviews during 2018 Dental Implant Awareness Month. Contact Lisa Wolfe, lwolfe@lwolfe.com, 312-953-8085.
We selected the Dialogic Class 4 solution from among multiple incumbent vendors as they best met our long list of requirements, including advanced reporting and monitoring tools.
Dialogic, a cloud-optimized applications and infrastructure solutions provider for service providers, enterprises, and developers, announced today that Cellcom Israel, the largest Israeli cellular provider, has chosen the Dialogic ControlSwitch solution and Dialogic I-Gate 4000 Media Gateway for use in its international voice services.
We selected the Dialogic Class 4 solution from among multiple incumbent vendors as they best met our long list of requirements, including advanced reporting and monitoring tools, said Ronen Halali, Director of Network Engineering Department at Cellcom Israel. Additionally, all supplied products integrate seamlessly in our voice network. The superior support we received during the decision-making process also contributed greatly to our choice of Dialogic.
We are pleased that Cellcom Israel chose Dialogic Softswitch and gateway products, said Bill Crank, President & CEO of Dialogic. Cellcom Israel provides a wide range of communications services to the wireline and wireless markets in Israel and needed infrastructure products that could match their requirements. These Dialogic products checked all the necessary boxes, and we are delighted to be working with Cellcom Israel as its business expands.
Dialogics excellent support and responsive development team were one of the key reasons why Dialogic solutions were chosen by Cellcom Israel, noted Eyal Arviv, Vice President of Regional Sales, South Europe and Israel at Dialogic. Our responsiveness, combined with the advanced analytics and enhanced solution functionality, definitely gave Dialogic an edge over existing solutions.
To learn more about Dialogics virtualized infrastructure products from our experts, see us at Mobile World Congress Americas 2018 in Los Angeles, California from September 12-14 in West Hall, Level 2, Room 515-F. For more on the event, or to book a meeting, visit: https://web.dialogic.com/mwc-americas-2018. Also visit the Dialogic website for more information on the ControlSwitch System and I-Gate 4000 Media Gateways.
About Dialogic
Dialogic is a leading cloud-optimized solutions provider for real-time communications media, applications, and infrastructure to service providers and developers around the globe. Based in Parsippany, NJ with offices worldwide, Dialogic helps 48 of the worlds top 50 mobile operators, and nearly 3,000 application developers build and deploy on agile networks. Learn more about how Dialogic is enabling agility by following us on Twitter @Dialogic, and visiting http://www.dialogic.com and the Dialogic Blog for the latest industry news, trends and advice.
Dialogic, ControlSwitch, and I-Gate are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Dialogic Corporation or a subsidiary thereof (Dialogic). Other trademarks mentioned and/or marked herein belong to their respective owners.
About Cellcom Israel
Cellcom Israel Ltd., established in 1994, is the largest Israeli cellular provider; Cellcom Israel provides its approximately 2.822 million cellular subscribers (as at March 31, 2018) with a broad range of value added services including cellular telephony, roaming services for tourists in Israel and for its subscribers abroad and additional services in the areas of music, video, mobile office etc., based on Cellcom Israel's technologically advanced infrastructure. The Company operates an LTE 4 generation network and an HSPA 3.5 Generation network enabling advanced high speed broadband multimedia services, in addition to GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks. Cellcom Israel offers Israel's broadest and largest customer service infrastructure including telephone customer service centers, retail stores, and service and sale centers, distributed nationwide. Through its broad customer service network Cellcom Israel offers technical support, account information, direct to the door parcel delivery services, internet and fax services, dedicated centers for hearing impaired, etc. Cellcom Israel further provides OTT TV services, internet infrastructure and connectivity services and international calling services, as well as landline telephone communications services in Israel, in addition to data communications services. Cellcom Israel's shares are traded both on the New York Stock Exchange and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. For additional information please visit the Company's website http://investors.cellcom.co.il.
Christina DesJardins, a writer who has spent much of her adult life in the Bahamas and on the beautiful Gulf Coast of Mississippi and has recently returned to her native Las Vegas, has completed her book Castillia: an engrossing medieval romance with a spellbinding twist.
Christina shares, Castillia, once a beautiful medieval vacation world of Mother Earth. Until for some unknown reason all of the computers went down. And all contact with Mother Earth ceased. Chaos and war broke out across the planet. The strong preyed on the weak and evil reined. Now after four generations of war a tenuous peace is attained and the kingdom of Castillia is formed. Into this medieval world are born Jarod and Samantha. Friends since childhood they must now struggle with their growing feelings for each other. Facing many obstacles and misunderstandings as their love matures. And now a greater threat against them and the kingdom looms. Before it is too late can they beat this dangerous advisory and accept their love for each other. A love that was written in the stars.
Published by New York City-based Page Publishing, Christina DesJardinss captivating debut novel is a must-read for fans of period romantic fiction.
Readers who wish to experience this riveting work can purchase Castillia 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 overwhelmed with logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, 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.
Clark Hill and its attorneys will experience many benefits including ease of time entry, reduced rejections and a user experience that is built for the way that attorneys work
Bellefield Systems, the providers of the fastest path to revenue through its time entry solutions, announced that Clark Hill, a global law firm, has implemented iTimeKeep by Bellefield as its firm-wide time entry solution. Clark Hill is among the largest law firms in the United States with more than 600 attorneys in 25 U.S. offices, Dublin and Mexico City.
Timekeeping results in direct communication to our clients about the work that we do for them; therefore, submitting accurate and compliant time entries are a priority for our firm, said Joan Holman, CIO. Were thrilled to implement iTimeKeep, as it enables our firm to practice contemporaneous time entry and maintain compliance at the point of time entry.
With a global attorney base, Clark Hill understands that delivering the highest level of service to its clients includes compliant and accurate time entries. With iTimeKeep, Clark Hill and its attorneys will experience many benefits including ease of time entry, reduced rejections and a user experience that is built for the way that attorneys work, said Gabriela Isturiz, President & Co-Founder of Bellefield Systems.
Bellefield continues its commitment to delivering tomorrows technology solutions today and redefining the legal market by providing solutions that attorneys and firm administrators need to be efficient, strategic and productive.
About Bellefield Systems & iTimeKeep
Bellefield provides the fastest path to revenue by removing barriers to time entry for attorneys and law firms. Through the iTimeKeep platform, Bellefield brings better timekeeping to any law firm or professional services firm by increasing attorney engagement, providing real-time compliance with outside counsel guidelines and enabling firms to manage their time entry policies. In an area that was long disregarded and accepted as a cost of doing business, Bellefields innovations are bringing about efficiencies that allow firms to achieve the best timecard inventory, leading to less rejections, increased compliance and maximum client satisfaction.
Bellefield was founded with one simple (yet powerful) purpose: create better timekeepers. iTimeKeep ranks #1 as the most adopted Mobile (and anywhere) Time Entry solution for attorneys for five consecutive years. Bellefields founding members include the former founders of eBillingHub (now Thomson Reuters), Gabriela Isturiz and Daniel Garcia and software veteran, John Kuntz. Bellefield Systems is an independent, privately held company headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. To learn more, visit http://www.bellefield.com.
About Clark Hill
Clark Hill is an international law firm with multidisciplinary practices that draw on our attorneys industry and policy knowledge, our deeply held shared values, and a global network of premier firms and advisors to provide innovative legal solutions and client service excellence worldwide.
As one of the largest law firms in the United States with more than 600 attorneys in 25 offices across the nation, in Dublin and Mexico City, Clark Hill is everywhere its clients require high quality legal representation. Please visit our website at http://www.clarkhill.com or follow us on Twitter @ClarkHillUpdate and @CHPublicAffairs.
Mrs. Brianna Ghormley, Owner of Club Z! Tutoring East Plano and North Dallas As a teacher, I understand the diverse needs of the students we serve, and am committed to ensuring their success. Our programs not only help students improve their grades and test scores, but also their self-confidence."
ClubZ! Tutoring of East Plano and North Dallas, proudly serving families in East Plano and North Dallas, is celebrating its official grand opening with special offers, including FREE SAT or ACT test preparation programs. Local families are encouraged to like and follow the Club Z! Tutoring of East Plano Facebook page to participate in all of its grand opening special offers and promotions or call (214) 396-3808 to register.
Club Z! Tutoring of East Plano and North Dallas offers in-home and online tutoring for all subjects, including SAT and ACT test preparation and study skills development. In addition, Club Z! Tutoring of East Plano and North Dallas has services and programs to support students of all ages, from Kindergarten readiness through college admissions counseling. Club Z! services are also available year-round, with everything from test prep classes to summer reading camps available through the end of August.
Club Z! is the nations largest in-home and online tutoring and test prep organization, with more than 450 offices in North America. Club Z! Tutoring of East Plano and North Dallas is owned and operated by a highly qualified Texas educator, Brianna Ghormley. Prior to opening Club Z! Tutoring of East Plano and North Dallas, Mrs. Ghormley gained a tremendous amount of experience working with students and families as a middle school math teacher. Mrs.Ghormleys extensive knowledge of local school district curriculum and Texas state standards, combined with her desire to provide a valuable resource to local families seeking help outside of the classroom, has perfectly prepared her for opening a Club Z! office in East Plano. As Mrs. Ghormley explains:
As a teacher, I understand the diverse needs of the students we serve, and am committed to ensuring their success. Our programs not only help students improve their grades and test scores, but also their self-confidence. There is nothing more gratifying than seeing a student who once struggled with school, gain the confidence necessary to reach his or her full potential. We consider it a privilege to help our local students achieve their academic goals, and we will work very hard to help make that happen."
Club Z! Tutoring of East Plano and North Dallas tutors are all highly qualified, professional educators who are passionate about education. In addition, all Club Z! tutors are thoroughly screened and background checked prior to hire, and students are carefully matched to a Club Z! tutor using the companys proven Z! Tutor Match process. The Z! Tutor Match is based on academic qualifications, personality traits, and other factors that help foster student success. Club Z! even offers a 100% satisfaction Z! Guarantee backing their tutor match. And each student receives a customized learning plan, based on his/her academic goals, time frame, and level of current achievement, which is implemented using the students classroom curriculum or one of Club Z!s proprietary curriculum options. This was also a major factor in deciding to open a Club Z! in East Plano, according to Mrs. Ghormley:
When parents call Club Z! of East Plano and North Dallas, they can feel completely confident that they are getting an individualized educational experience for their child. Club Z! tutors will work with the students school curriculum or use one of our many proprietary programs to help clients anywhere from Kindergarten to SAT and ACT prep. We also offer a proven study skills program for middle and high school students, and even summer reading camps. Our customized tutoring programs are a big reason why Club Z! students see such fast results. In fact, the average Club Z! student improves 2 letter grades in just 60 days!
To celebrate its official grand opening, Club Z! Tutoring of East Plano and North Dallas is offering local families free SAT and ACT test prep services, including diagnostic testing and 30 days of access to their extremely popular Z Prep! Score Booster study program, now through September 30, 2018. The Score Booster study program offers in-depth diagnostic results, detailing a students specific strengths and weaknesses on the SAT or ACT exam, as well as answer explanation videos from top test prep tutors demonstrating the correct way to solve each and every test question. It has proven to be a real game-changer for college-bound students aiming to improve their test scores, and local families can see for themselves what the buzz is all about now through the end of the promotional period.
Families are encouraged to like and follow Club Z! of East Plano and North Dallas on Facebook @ClubZPlanoTexas or call (214)396-3808 to take advantage of the free test prep, as well as all of the other exciting grand opening promotions.
Richard J. Polimeni, Chair College Savings Foundation 529 college saving plans have come of age. We are excited to see that parents are embracing proven strategies for funding their childrens higher education by saving early, often and with the advantages of 529s. -- College Savings Foundation Chair Richard J. Polimeni
Todays parents are savvy college savers who are strategically planning for their childrens higher education and leveraging the benefits of 529 college savings plans to achieve their goals, reports the College Savings Foundation (CSF) in its 12th Annual State of College Savings survey. Released in recognition of College Savings Month, the survey of parents across the country and income brackets found that the vast majority (79%) are saving for their childrens higher education, with 45% of them amassing more than $25,000 per child and three quarters more than $5,000 per child.
A full 50% of all families have a 529 college savings plan in place for their children either with the parent (33%) or in the name of the child (17%).
529 college saving plans have come of age. We are excited to see that parents are embracing proven strategies for funding their childrens higher education by saving early, often and with the advantages of 529s, said CSF Chair Richard J. Polimeni. 529 college savings plans enable American families to accumulate funds Federal and state tax free for qualified education expenses.
At the same time, parents and their children appear to be increasingly discerning about their higher education options. In responding to questions that are new to the CSF survey, 83% of parents said they would like to see colleges and universities promote skills training, rather than majors, to help with future employment. 78% would prefer their child to go to a school taking this approach.
These findings align with results of CSFs 2018 How Youth Plan to Fund College survey of 500 high school students, showing that 81% of students would like to see colleges promote this, and 70% would like to attend a school taking that approach.
Parents also continued to broaden their definition of higher education beyond the traditional four-year college. 64% said they think about vocational schools and community college in the same way as they do about public and private education the highest level in the five years since that question has been asked.
Further, 40% of parents said their children had considered not going to college at all, up from 28% last year. A third of those parents said that their child didnt want them to be paying that much money; 28% of parents said their child felt that their career choice could be achieved without college; 18% said their child was indifferent to college, and 17% said the child didnt want student debt.
Ultimately, the vast majority (85%) of parents whose children doubted theyd go to college said the children had decided to go after all. This is a significant uptick from last years survey which showed that only 48% of the doubting students would go on to higher ed.
Saving systematically despite student debt
Perhaps a motivator for many parents to save for their childrens higher education is the burden of their own debt, since 45% of parents are still paying off their own loans. The number is even higher (49%) among those who are saving primarily by using 529 college savings plans.
Parents are also using key strategies such as systematic savings. 78% of all parents are saving regularly, with 51% saving on a monthly, 19% saving on a quarterly, and 8% saving on an annual basis.
In another positive uptick, 42% of parents are saving more than they were a year ago, up from 38%.
Some other high-level findings of the survey:
72% of parents expect their children to contribute to their higher ed costs, through a job (46%) and through their own savings (24%).
Having their child living at home was the most popular cost-cutting strategy for 28% of parents, followed by attending community college and transferring to a 4-year college (26%) and getting as many AP and IB courses as possible (14%).
48% of respondents work with a financial advisor, but 74% said they would work with one if that would help with college savings.
More than half (57%) of parents plan to borrow to pay for their childrens college, with 62% of them borrowing primarily through education loans, and 18% through credit cards or a credit line cash advance.
The 2018 State of College Savings survey reached nearly 800 parents across the country and income brackets. via Survey Monkey. The College Savings Foundation (CSF) is a Washington, D.C.- based not-for-profit organization helping American families achieve their education savings goals. For an infographic on these findings, please see http://www.collegesavingsfoundation.org
Psychology Professor, Actor, and Filmmaker Dr. Luciana Lagana I congratulate Dr. Lagana on receiving the Phoenix Body of Work award for her important anti-bias films that explore the many societal challenges of our day, ranging from mental illness to aging to homelessness. (Dr. Dianne Harrison, President of California State University, Northridge) Past News Releases RSS Homelessness Film by CSUN Professor...
CSUN Psychology Professor and...
Homelessness Film by CSUN...
CSUN Psychology Professor and NIH-funded researcher Luciana Lagana, aka Dr. Luciana, received the Phoenix Body of Work award at the 2018 Action on Film International Film Festival in Las Vegas.
Dr. Luciana has an impressive body of work, which includes hosting, writing, directing and producing award-winning screenplays, films, and series, such as the unproduced dramatic feature screenplay Old River Road; the short film Color of Honor based on a true story about a 9/11 hero, shot in collaboration with the heros family; the feature documentaries Understanding Pain in older Age, LGBT UNITED, and Off the Streets for Good; Intimate Temp Agency, the fictional satirical series on finding jobs for individuals with mental health challenges; and the Dr. Luciana Show Aging and Falling.
Prof. Maria Elena Zavala is the Director of the CSUN NIH MARC Program, which has funded several research assistants in Prof. Lagana's lab. She commented, Congratulations to Dr. Lagana for obtaining an award for her creative body of work, including her anti-bias research films. I look forward to reading more articles once they become available on the results of the randomized controlled experiments conducted using her research films. One of the students funded by the NIH MARC program at CSUN, Melissa Martinez, has conducted experiments using some of them in anti-bias research. She is now a graduate student in Dr. Lagana's lab.
I dedicate this Body of Work Film Award to all the individuals who work at CSUN. My academic colleagues have been very supportive of my efforts in the film industry. The CSUN President made me very happy when, at an event celebrating CSUNs research grant recipients, she mentioned my research on older age and other anti-bias topics that I conduct using my films as being one of her favorite CSUN research projects. This 2018 Body of Work Award is similar in scope to the CSUN Exceptional Creative Accomplishments Faculty Award that I received in 2017. It is a great honor to receive this type of award both from my University and from an international film festival. I will continue working hard on filmmaking and on conducting randomized controlled trials using these films to reduce discrimination against under-represented minorities, she shared.
As a psychology professor, Dr. Luciana Lagana brings a profound and unique perspective to her films, commented Dr. Dianne Harrison, President of California State University, Northridge. I congratulate Dr. Lagana on receiving the Phoenix Body of Work award for her important anti-bias films that explore the many societal challenges of our day, ranging from mental illness to aging to homelessness.
Written by Stefanie Friesen
Dr. Luciana Lagana is a caring clinical and experimental psychologist. She is also an established professor of psychology, gerontology, sexuality, and womens health at CSUN, where she teaches classes and mentors many undergraduate and graduate students from several departments. Additionally, she conducts government-funded research on ethnically diverse, mainly low-income older womens physical, psychological, social, and sexual health. Concerning her artistic pursuits, since 2006 she has been studying acting and hosting in Los Angeles (in her teens, she was part of a touring theatrical company in Italy). Moreover, after studying film production under the mentorship of Prof. Nate Thomas, Director of the Film Production option in the CSUN Department of Cinema and Television Arts, she has been producing several social impact films and series. She is an actor/host/screenwriter/director/producer with over 30 film festivals' wins listed on IMDb and more than 50 IMDb film, TV, and web series credits. For instance, she created, hosted, and directed the award-winning educational project Dr. Luciana Show Aging and Falling. At CSUN, Prof. Lagana won the 2017 CSUN Exceptional Creative Accomplishments Faculty Award for her anti-bias feature films and shows, as well as the 2011 Preeminent Scholarly Publications Faculty Award and the 2008 Visionary Community Service Learning Faculty Award.
Dedicated Senior Medical Center Logo Weve seen burgeoning local demand for the affordable VIP care that Dedicated physicians and care teams consistently provide.
ChenMed, a leading primary care provider, this morning confirmed a five-year, $200 million investment in Tampa Bay, where 10 Dedicated Senior Medical Centers are planned. The announcement -- timed with today's grand opening celebration for Dedicated's newest center in Largo (soon to be followed by grand opening of a Dedicated center in North Tampa) -- builds on the foundation of thriving Dedicated centers in Clearwater, Tampa and St. Petersburg. Those rapidly-growing centers started serving Medicare-eligible seniors in August of 2017.
Weve seen burgeoning local demand for the affordable VIP care that Dedicated physicians and care teams consistently provide, notes Gordon Chen, M.D., ChenMed Chief Medical Officer. Remarkable organic growth, prompted by happy patients referring in family members and friends, is why our first three Tampa Bay centers attracted over 1,300 members in just six months, and then about doubled membership during our second six months of operation.
ChenMed operates about 50 Chen, Dedicated and JenCare Senior Medical Centers serving diverse elderly populations in seven states. To help seniors enjoy more healthy days, while significantly reducing both emergency room visits and in-patient hospital admissions, ChenMed emphasizes prevention and high-touch services, including on-site specialists and medication dispensing, door-to-doctor transportation, and substantively more face-to-face time with primary care physicians. The new Dedicated centers bring affordable health care to more Tampa seniors at little to no cost to patients.
For more than 30 years, ChenMed physicians have been practicing medicine differently, says Gaurov Dayal, M.D., ChenMed President New Markets and Chief Growth Officer. Our PCPs share their cell phone numbers with patients, encouraging immediate calls and/or walk-in appointments whenever they might not be feeling well. Our doctors are passionate about honoring seniors with affordable VIP care that delivers better health.
Dr. Chen added that todays grand opening celebration in Largo -- soon to be followed by an October grand opening celebration for the new North Tampa center are great opportunities to meet the Dedicated doctors. Come see how we effectively detect and manage high-risk diseases; deliver VIP service; and reduce hospital sick days. Come learn how we personalize care to help folks keep doing what they most enjoy with the family and friends they most love.
Hundreds of Tampa seniors and their caregivers are expected to attend the following grand opening celebrations, where VIP tours, food, fun and community service are the agenda between 10 AM and 2 PM daily:
Dedicated Largo (7050 Ulmerton Road, Largo, FL 33771) September 5-6
Dedicated North Tampa (1901 Fletcher Avenue, Tampa, FL 33612) October 17-18
Every Florida resident attending the Dedicated grand opening celebration will have a special opportunity to qualify for/receive a free enhanced-audio phone 100% funded by the State of Florida. Representatives from the Largo-based Family Center on Deafness nonprofit will be present to help people having some level of hearing impairment stay better connected with family members, friends and their doctors with an enhanced-audio phone provided by Florida Telecommunications Relay, Inc. (FTRI).
Dedicated expects to create about 70 new jobs at the two centers opening in 2018, and hundreds of jobs over the next five years, including physicians, clinical support staff, administrators, and community engagement specialists. The new centers also are being supported by Turner Impact Capital, one of the nations largest social impact investment firms, through the Turner Healthcare Facilities Fund.
Turner Impact Capital is delighted to be helping ChenMed accelerate the openings of high-quality medical facilities for underserved patient populations, explains Bobby Turner, CEO, Turner Impact Capital. The Turner Healthcare Facilities Fund is well-positioned to invest up to $500 million in community-serving healthcare facilities to measurably improve patient health, increase patient satisfaction, and reduce disparities in healthcare outcomes in disadvantaged communities.
A provider of high-quality health care to underserved seniors since 2010, Dedicated Senior Medical Center and its new Tampa locations are committed to delivering exceptional outcomes that help patients avoid unnecessary trips to the hospital and emergency room. Dedicated physicians throughout Florida (Bradenton, Clearwater, Jacksonville, Lakeland, Largo, Tampa, St. Petersburg) and in Philadelphia build strong relationships with their patients and offer same-day appointment options for seniors seeking immediate care.
ChenMeds model of high-touch care has proven to drive successful patient outcomes. A report showed that its doctors spend 189 minutes of face-to-face with each patient annuallymore than nine times the national average. As a result, ChenMed rates of ER visits are 33.6 percent lower than the national average among Medicare beneficiaries. ChenMed patients also average 28 percent fewer hospital admissions and 25 percent fewer in-patient days than the average Medicare beneficiary.
About Dedicated & ChenMed
For seniors most in need of care, high-quality health care too often is beyond reach. Dedicated brings concierge-style medicineand better health outcomesto the neediest populations. The value-based care provider primarily serves seniors with low-to-moderate incomes, most of whom are managing multiple chronic conditions.
Dedicateds (ChenMeds) mission is to honor seniors with affordable VIP care that delivers better health. To do that, Dedicated relies on innovative technology and a talented, resourceful, and compassionate team of providers. Founded by Dr. James Chen, a Taiwanese immigrant and cancer survivor, ChenMed operates more than 40 medical centers in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Virginia. Well-known ChenMed brands include Chen Senior Medical Center, Dedicated Senior Medical Center, and JenCare Senior Medical Center.
About Turner Impact Capital
Dedicated to generating profits with a purpose, Turner Impact Capital is an acknowledged leader and innovator in the growing field of social impact investing an investment approach that takes into account two goals: generating positive, risk-adjusted financial returns and creating purposeful, measurable, and positive social and environmental impact through those investments. Founded in 2014, the firm is on course to surpass $3 billion in investment potential to address some of the most pervasive social issues challenging urban neighborhoods, such as healthcare, workforce housing and education, while delivering superior risk-adjusted returns for its investors.
For more information about Turner Impact Capital and the Turner Healthcare Facilities Fund, visit http://www.turnerimpact.com or @turnerimpact on Twitter.
About Family Center on Deafness
The Family Center on Deafness empowers Pinellas County families with deaf or hard of hearing members by providing programs and services to promote communication and independence. FCD programs include enhanced-audio phone distributions as a nonprofit distribution partner for Florida Telecommunications Relay, Inc. (FTRI); tutoring; after school and summer programs; literacy and sign language instruction; information and referral; social opportunities for deaf children and parents.
Founder and CEO Brian Dersch, P.E. LEED AP was recognized by the San Diego Business Journal as one of San Diegos NEXT Top Business Leaders Under 40 in the Build Environment category. Its indeed an honor to be a NEXT Top Business Leader. San Diego is a vibrant community. The talent, drive and ambition of this years honorees was outstanding, said Brian Dersch. Past News Releases RSS Dersch Design & Engineering...
Nick Lovgren P.E. Electrical...
Dersch Design & Engineering...
Dersch Design & Engineering (DDE), an award-winning electrical engineering firm, celebrated its fifth anniversary on August 3. In conjunction with this milestone, founder and CEO Brian Dersch, P.E. LEED AP was recognized by the San Diego Business Journal as one of San Diegos NEXT Top Business Leaders Under 40 in the Build Environment category. According to the San Diego Business Journal, the publication received more than 300 nominations for its inaugural program.
Dersch and his family, along with firm representatives, attended the event on August 14, 2018 at the Westin San Diego Gaslamp Quarter. With more than 500 in attendance, including 150 finalists, San Diego Business Journal President and Publisher, Barbara Chodos and Editor-in-Chief, Nels Jensen announced the 40 honorees. Each was recognized during the program with a brief slide show and presented with a certificate and painted glass award. The recipients were also profiled in the August 27 San Diego Business Journal.
Making the top 40 is, indeed, an honor, said Publisher Chodos. The recipients represent a cross section of our local economy, from life science companies, defense, digital marketing, e-commerce, professional services and tourism and hospitality,
I believe Brian is indeed an exemplary CEO and corporate citizena deserving under 40 local industry leader, said nominator VISTAGE Chair Rick Itzkowich. In five short years, hes impacted the financial success of Dersch Design & Engineering--demonstrating vision, enthusiasm and determination for its growth and success, as well as finding time to contribute to the local community. Im proud to have Brian as a valued member of my VISTAGE peer advisory group.
Honorees were selected based on their personal accomplishments, community involvement and career achievements. Dersch launched DDE in 2013, the firm reported 2192% growth since its founding, with 185% increase realized year-over-year for 2017. DDE was ranked #46 on the 2017 San Diego Business Journal list of top engineering firms and #39 on the 2018 list based on the number of full-time licensed engineers as of January 1, 2018. Dersch was also recognized as one of San Diegos 2017 40 Under 40 brightest young leaders by SD METRO magazine.
Its indeed an honor to be a NEXT Top Business Leader Under 40. San Diego is a vibrant community. The talent, drive and ambition of this years honorees was outstanding, said Dersch. The judges had to select from start-up business owners to top level sales achievers. It was with the help and dedication of our Dersch Design team that I met the criteria of this impressive award.
To learn more about Dersch Design & Engineering, visit https://www.derschdesign.com/.
About Dersch Design & Engineering
Founded in 2013 by electrical engineer Brian Dersch, P.E., LEED AP, Dersch Design & Engineering, Inc. is a professional, proactive and approachable Small Business S-Corporation, certified Small Local Business Enterprise (SLBE) in San Diego, California. The engineering firm teams up with engineers, contractors and architects to solve complex engineering design challenges for commercial, medical / research laboratories, education, government, renewable energy, microgrid, and off-grid projects. As licensed professional engineers, DDE has a broad range of experience in many engineering disciplines, with specialization in electrical engineering, building construction / renovation, lighting, renewable energy and microgrids. DDE is licensed to perform engineering services in the following states: Arizona, California, Colorado, District of Columbia and Hawaii. For more information, visit https://www.derschdesign.com.
Couche-Tard can aggregate all of the organizations knowledge, content, and resources into one place, and then filter through and deliver a highly personalized experience for every employee or stakeholder, based on their role, geography, and language, said Cano, Alimentation Couche-Tard
The Drupal community has just announced a major upgrade to Drupal 8. This upgrade delivers a better user experience, turning the customer into a hero at work. From easier installation and more stable upgrades for the technical teams, to improved user experience for the marketing and content editor teamsDrupal 8.6.0 provides significant improvements over all past versions of Drupal.
A new demo is provided to inspire site builders with the art of whats possible. Plus, marketing teams can publish complex content with ease using new content editor features, including: improved video embed support, a new media library, a workspaces feature for enhanced workflow moderation, and significant layout improvements. As with any major feature update, users will also see quite a few overall fixes and testing improvements.
Megan Sanicki, Executive Director of the Drupal Association, said, Drupal 8.6 is a significant upgrade because of its emphasis on ease of use. This version levels up the customer experience, making it easier and less expensive to migrate from older versions, easier to install, as well as easier for marketing teams to deliver impact, faster. With a highly engaged community focused on delivering features that make customers shine, Im excited about this release and what is on the horizon for Drupal.
So what's new in Drupal 8.6.0?
A great feature in Drupal 8.6.0 is that migration support is greatly improved and makes it easier to migrate from Drupal 6 and 7 to Drupal 8. This release sees both Migrate Drupal (migrations from previous major Drupal versions) as well as Migrate Drupal UI (upgrade user interface) modules provide a solution to update older sites. This means that if you have a monolingual Drupal 6 or 7 site, you can now use a supported and built-in user interface to migrate your site to Drupal 8. Multilingual migrations are still experimental and now wrapped in the Migrate Drupal Multilingual module.
Also new in this version is built-in stable support for embedding remote media, shipped preconfigured to support YouTube and Vimeo videos. Also, in a new experimental module, you can now browse existing media and add new media using an integrated widget. The media library can be customized depending on customer needs.
The layout capabilities in Drupal 8.6.0 are much improved. The experimental Layout Builder module is an exciting advancement for site builders as it supports per-display customizations (e.g. full mode vs. search result). Rather than being limited by fields stacked on top of each other, users can create layouts with dynamic sectionscreating more opportunities for custom layouts. It is also possible now to add content unique to a specific layout. This is useful for things like a promotion that is only visible within a single landing page.
Drupal 8.6.0 also offers a new demo profile and theme within the installer. This is particularly interesting for CMS evaluators and development agencies as it provides an easier way to see whats possible with Drupal 8. The cooking magazine demo, Umami, is a beautiful, modern demonstration of Drupal's capabilities using an imaginary food site to showcase Drupal's data modeling, listing, page composition and content moderation capabilities. Sample author and magazine editor users are created to experience different aspects of using Drupal's content management interface.
Digital agency Palantir.net's CEO Tiffany Farriss states, Drupal has powerful capabilities. For too long these have been hidden behind the scenes where only existing or technical users could experience them. We are thrilled to now have Umami, to show the strength and capabilities of Drupal to both technical and marketing users, right out of the box.
Drupal 8.6.0 is also offering a new experimental workspaces module that is crucial when reviewing large amounts of content. The existing content moderation functionality is great when you need to move individual pieces of content through an editing and approval workflow. The new experimental Workspaces module will allow packages of content to be reviewed all at once, with the ability to define multiple workspaces, make changes and deploy between them with an intuitive user interface.
Recognizing the need for lightning-fast communications within its organization, Alimentation Couche-Tard consolidated several legacy systems to create one, global intranet to connect its workforce. Called Inner Circle, the new intranet provides a powerful platform to share messaging and operational information across the company while creating organization-wide synergies and efficiencies for more than 100,000 employees. It takes advantage of Drupal 8s content authoring, workflow, and multilingual capabilities to create a forum thats both super-local and super-global.
Couche-Tard can aggregate all of the organizations knowledge, content, and resources into one place, and then filter through and deliver a highly personalized experience for every employee or stakeholder, based on their role, geography, and language, said Marie-Noelle Cano, Alimentation Couche-Tard senior director of global communications. Couche-Tard improved the scope, speed, and substance of its internal communication with Drupal 8 while reducing costs.
The Drupal community has worked hard to make it significantly easier to start a quick evaluator or development environment; the numerous technical improvements allow quick setup that opens a browser ready to use. The installer now also recognizes existing configuration and provides an option to easily rebuild a site from that existing configurationpulling content from the cloud rather than requiring the content to be stored locally.
This update is full of new and exciting features which show that Drupal is the go-to platform for ambitious digital experiences. On behalf of the Drupal Association and the Drupal community, I want to thank everyone who contributed to Drupal 8.6.0, said Sanicki.
About Drupal
Drupal is content management software. It is used to make many of the websites and applications you use every day. Drupal has great standard features, easy content authoring, reliable performance and excellent security. What sets it apart is its flexibility; modularity is one of its core principles. Its tools help you build the versatile, structured content that ambitious web experiences need.
About the Drupal Association
The Drupal Association is dedicated to fostering and supporting the Drupal project, the community and its growth. The Drupal Association helps the Drupal community with funding, infrastructure, education, promotion, distribution and online collaboration at Drupal.org.
More information about Drupal 8.6.0
Tim Lehnen, Director of Engineering, Drupal Association: tim(at)association.drupal(dot)org
Les Sources de Caudalie a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World To coincide with the release of the new cookbook, SLH has identified some of the biggest culinary insights to note for this year.
At a time when food tourism is becoming more popular, Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) is launching a collection of handpicked recipes from the brands portfolio of over 520 hotels in more than 80 countries. The Small Luxury Cookbook features 142 tantalising main dishes created by chefs, from local tastemakers to globally renowned masters of their craft, who champion regional produce and unique gourmet experiences designed to tempt the taste buds of discerning travellers around the world.
The Small Luxury Cookbook features many recipes that have been passed down through generations or are inspired by world-class fine dining curated by internationally recognised chefs; More than 110 SLH hotels have restaurants that carry Michelin stars or awards of similar global acclaim. From Maldivian tuna with tropical fruit salsa and slow cooked Greek octopus with aubergine miso to Swiss chard ravioli with scallops and Valencian paella with crayfish and mussels, the array of cuisine and technique of these special recipes offer at-home chefs a taste of luxury.
To coincide with the release of the new cookbook, SLH identified some of the biggest culinary insights to note for this year. Below is a sampling, showcasing the diversity of SLHs global cuisine. To access the full report please click here:
Butterfly Pea Flower Tea (blue tea) has been around for centuries but is only now getting global attention thanks to its high antioxidant content and incredible health properties including enhancing memory and decreasing stress. The Racha, an eco-luxury beach resort in Phuket, Thailand, welcomes guests with a cup of Butterfly Pea Flower Tea that is grown locally on the island and infused with organic Thai lime.
Unique dining experiences show that guests are increasingly seeking out-of-this-world dining options and ambience. At Milaidhoo Island Maldives, the resort offers five different curated mood dining menus paired with wellness treatments including special baths, meditation and spa treatments to transport guests into a state of Zen. In Cyprus, Columbia Beach Resort hosts a series of full moon dinners on the beach every summer for their discerning guests.
Unusual food pairings such as green tea with French cuisine can be found at the ABBA Resorts Izu in Japan whilst The Lalit London offers naan and wine pairings at its restaurant, Baluchi.
Wellness-led food options are inspired by guests wanting to focus on self-care and restoring balance on holiday. HGU New York serves up a liquid lunch menu made entirely of freshly blended juices whilst the Ovolo Woolloomooloo in Sydney includes a plant-based restaurant featuring dishes such as kimchi dumplings, zucchini lasagna with pistachio pesto or hibiscus strawberry cheesecake.
Appetite for hyper-local cuisine has been driven by travellers wanting to taste food straight from the source and rediscover ancient and forgotten ingredients. Casa Angelina Lifestyle Hotel on the Amalfi Coast, Italy, has recently introduced two new floral-based cocktails to its bar repertoire, designed to showcase oranges and lemons from the region. El Lodge Ski & Bar in the mountains of Sierra Nevada, Granada, serves Riofrio organic caviar (indigenous to the Andalusian province) at the El Grill restaurant, accompanied by blinis and sour cream. Les Sources de Caudalie in Bordeaux offers a vegetal lunch with dishes including nettle soup and wild daisy or strawberry gazpacho with immortelle flower ice cream.
Asian Hotpot is becoming increasingly popular all over the world, due in part to the rising interest in convivial dining and bold, spicy flavours. Chef Nguyen Than Hieu and his team at Naman Retreat in central Vietnam have created their own Naman Special Hotpot featuring ingredients such as lemongrass, tofu, seafood and noodles.
Daniel Luddington, SLH Vice President of Development says: The beauty of the Small Luxury Cookbook can be likened to our hotels, as it offers something for every independently minded traveller and self-professed foodie. Whether you may be an occasional, aspiring or proficient chef, these SLH recipes have been created with passion in mind and we are excited to give the world a taste of our hotels.
All recipes in the book are accompanied by step by step instructions, as well as alternative suggestions for any hard to source ingredients allowing for a chance to recreate not only the dishes, but holiday memories at home.
The Small Luxury Cookbook is available for purchase at http://www.slh.com/food and participating SLH hotels with an MSRP of $52.
ENDS
About Small Luxury Hotels of the World: Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) matches independently minded guests with independently spirited hotels. The diverse collection of over 520 hotels in more than 80 countries around the world includes everything from cutting edge design hotels and city centre sanctuaries to historic country mansions and remote private islands all SLH hotels are consistently different, however, they are all united by the fact that they offer the best locations, highest quality, personalised service and a truly authentic way to discover a destination. Guests can join SLHs loyalty programme, INVITED, to receive Small Luxuries from their very first visit. Reservations for any SLH hotel can be made online at http://www.slh.com or via the iPhone app, by contacting a travel agent or calling a Small Luxury Hotels of the World reservations office; click here to view a listing by country.
eTargetMedia Email is such a powerful marketing tool and the industry continues to evolve quickly. Thats why it is so important that brand marketers keep current on todays email marketing best practices.
eTargetMedia, a leading provider of Email Lists, Postal Lists, Data Append and Creative Solutions announced the release of its Email Marketing Best Practices: Tips to Improve Your Email Campaigns guide which features the best email marketing practices eTargetMedia has developed for successful campaigns. The best practices guide can help email and brand marketers stay at top of their email game and help marketers generate significant improvements in their email campaign results.
In a world where social media and texting seem to dominate, email use continues to grow at a steady pace among both business professionals and consumers year after year. Over 275 billion emails are expected to be sent daily by the end of the year and the majority of email users report that they check their email at least once a day. Email is the primary driver of customer acquisition and retention, and email marketing produces the highest ROI of all marketing channels. Email marketing outperforms every other digital marketing practice including SEO, content marketing, paid search and affiliate marketing.
Email is such a powerful marketing tool and the industry continues to evolve quickly, stated Harris Kreichman, Managing Partner of eTargetMedia. Thats why it is so important that brand marketers keep current on todays email marketing best practices. We developed the best practices guide to help brand marketers utilize the strategies that have proven successful on our email campaigns.
eTargetMedias Email Marketing Best Practices Guide includes best practices for:
Knowing the email audience
Making the email design shine
Using strong calls to action
Tracking email engagement
Positioning email campaigns for success
Personalizing and segmenting email messages
Designing mobile responsive emails
Timing the email right
Testing email campaigns
eTargetMedia has 20 years of experience in the industry and has managed successful email and direct mail campaigns for some of the worlds top brands including Mercedes Benz, Alcon, MetLife, Marriott, AARP, P&G, TGI Fridays, Anthem, Sony and more. eTargetMedias smart and dedicated campaign managers, high-quality database comprised of responsive prospects, and leading-edge technology can help companies improve their campaigns, generate revenue, increase brand loyalty and build strong relationships with customers.
Visit eTargetMedias website at http://www.etargetmedia.com to download the Email Marketing Best Practices Guide.
eTargetMedia, based in South Florida, provides Email Lists, Postal Lists, Data Append and Creative Solutions to a wide variety of direct marketing customers. eTargetMedia is a member of the Data and Marketing Association. Visit eTargetMedia online at http://www.eTargetMedia.com
HubSpot is truly an all-in-one solution that combines marketing, sales, and support tools into a single platform and were excited to become an official partner, says Shane Stiles, President of Gate 39 Media.
Gate 39 Media announces that it is an official HubSpot Certified Agency Partner, expanding its capabilities for helping financial and agricultural businesses improve their marketing and sales processes. HubSpot is a leading CRM, marketing, sales, and customer service platform offering solutions for businesses of all sizes.
Of the announcement, HubSpot Channel Account Manager Ashley Cox said, We are thrilled to welcome Gate 39 Media to HubSpots Partner Program. Their savvy, sophisticated, and innovative approach to inbound specifically for the financial services, FinTech and agricultural segments allows them to combine their knowledge and experience in these verticals with the powerful capabilities of HubSpot.
Over the past year, Gate 39 Media has grown its business and those of its clients by incorporating inbound strategies to attract, engage, and delight customers. Gate 39 Media is a full-featured marketing and technology agency dedicated to serving the financial industry. The firm has built a solid reputation for creating effective websites, design, marketing campaigns and strategies, and technology over the past 15 years.
HubSpot is truly an all-in-one solution that combines marketing, sales, and support tools into a single platform and were excited to become an official partner, says Shane Stiles, President of Gate 39 Media. We love that clients can start with the starter Marketing Hub and free CRM package, and move to more expansive packages as they grow. This allows us to create marketing solutions that generate results for financial services business of all sizes.
In the first few months of becoming a HubSpot partner, Gate 39 Media has already attained Gold Partner status by onboarding new HubSpot users and executing their initial campaigns, and by helping with existing subscribers get more from their HubSpot set-up.
More than just an implementer the strong technology team can integrate HubSpots powerful API into custom applications, or Gate 39 Medias solutions such as FCM1a complete portal solution featuring online account application, statement and positions processing and operations portal.
For more information or to request a custom HubSpot demo from Gate 39 Media, visit https://www.gate39media.com/solutions/hubspot/.
About Gate 39 Media
Gate 39 Media is a financial services marketing and technology agency providing complete solutions for the financial industry since 2004. Located in downtown Chicago, Gate 39 Media serves firms ranging from some of the worlds largest exchanges, brokerage firms, and fund managersto start-ups in FinTech, and emerging managers and advisors. To learn more about Gate 39 Media, visit http://www.gate39media.com or contact Shane Stiles, President, at 312-715-1475 or shane (at) gate39media (dot) com.
About HubSpot HubSpot (NYSE: HUBS) is a leading CRM, marketing, sales, and customer experience platform. Since 2006, HubSpot has been on a mission to make the world more inbound. Today, over 37,000 customers in more than 90 countries use HubSpots award-winning software, services, and support to transform the way they attract, engage, and delight customers. The HubSpot Growth Stack, built on a powerful, free CRM and comprised of the Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and soon to be released Customer Hub, gives companies all the tools they need to manage the entire customer experience from awareness to advocacy.
HubSpot has been named a top place to work by Glassdoor, Fortune, The Boston Globe, and The Boston Business Journal. The company is headquartered in Cambridge, MA with offices in Dublin, Ireland (EMEA HQ); Singapore; Sydney, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; Berlin, Germany; and Portsmouth, NH.
Learn more at http://www.hubspot.com.
Matthew Crum, President, Frank Winston Crum Insurance Instecs technology and insurance industry experience checked all the boxes, our due diligence gave us the confidence that they have what it takes to deliver on substantial commitments.
Instec, the market leader in insurance software for commercial program and specialty writers, announced today that Frank Winston Crum Insurance (FWCI), through its MGA FrankCrum General Agency, has selected Instecs cloud-based Instec Underwriting, Instec Policy, and Instec Billing systems.
Frank Winston Crum Insurance, based in Clearwater, FL, provides workers compensation and general liability insurance to small- and medium-sized businesses in 37 states.
We have ambitious growth plans, said Matt Crum, FWCIs president, and we want greater control over all our supporting functions. In conjunction with the deployment of our own systems, were building a solid operations and compliance team.
FWCIs digital distribution model is a key element of its market differentiation. The company operates under a direct-to-agent model with virtually all policies sold and administered through their proprietary agent portal. Instec satisfied the need for a robust API catalog to integrate with the portal and third-party data providers.
Instecs technology and insurance industry experience checked all the boxes, said Crum. Our due diligence gave us the confidence that they have what it takes to deliver on substantial commitments.
FWCI has assembled an in-house team to partner with Instec on system implementation. The company will run a parallel project to update its agent portal and integrate it with back office functions through Instecs APIs. FWCIs producers will be able to continue to quote, bind, and manage their policies, while Instec Underwriting introduces features that will improve the user experience. These features include configurable workflows and live chat to streamline risk acceptance, producer collaboration, and policyholder servicing.
Frank Winston Crum Insurance views this technology decision as part of its continued commitment to be the insurance carrier that combines smart people and leading technologies to create the easiest experience for producers.
About Frank Winston Crum Insurance Company
Frank Winston Crum Insurance is an AM Best rated commercial insurance carrier specializing in workers compensation and general liability coverage. FWCI was established in 2003 to provide a stable workers compensation insurance market for its affiliated professional employer organization (PEO), FrankCrum. FWCI is now licensed in 37 states for workers compensation insurance and writes general liability for artisan contractors in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Texas.
About Instec
Instecs unique approach to systems for the insurance industry enables P&C carriers, MGAs and MGUs to launch programs and specialty offerings from start to first quote in as little as four weeks. With built-in bureau content and reusable business rules, Instec systems provide a platform for innovation with reduced risk. In addition, cloud-based deployment and subscription-based pricing enable insurers to test new programs at a low cost of entry and scale up affordably as the business grows. To learn more, visit instec-corp.com.
As schools relax their vigilance and allow children with head lice into the classroom, the nonprofit National Pediculosis Association (NPA) is urging parents to proactively use a quality lice and nit removal comb for early detection, so an infestation doesnt catch them by surprise.
This fall, there is one more important reason for children to leave for school every day with their hair carefully combed.
As schools relax their vigilance and allow children with head lice into the classroom, the nonprofit National Pediculosis Association (NPA) is urging parents to proactively use a quality lice and nit removal comb for early detection, so an infestation doesnt catch them by surprise.
The CombFirst! message is central to a year-long educational campaign sponsored by the NPA, which kicks off each September as National Head Lice Prevention Month. The NPA is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to setting the highest possible public health standards, with a specific focus on protecting children and their families from lice and associated risky chemical treatments.
According to Mumcuoglu et al., Diagnosis of louse infestation using a louse comb is four times more efficient than direct visual examination and twice as fast. The direct visual examination technique underestimates active infestation and detects past, nonactive infestations.
Regardless of their schools position, the NPA encourages parents to work together to do whats safe, practical and best for everyones children. Lice combing (for instance, as part of the regular bath time routine) can empower an entire community to screen, detect early, diagnose accurately, safely remove infestations, assure that parents and students arent infested, and eliminate exposures to chemicals that have been associated with neurological disease, leukemia and other serious illnesses. Pregnant or nursing women should also avoid pesticide treatment.
The debate over when students should be admitted to the classroom masks a larger issuethe medical risks posed by pesticide-based treatments and shampoos. The potential health consequences of re-treating recurrent infestations can be worse than the lice, said Deborah Altschuler, President of the NPA.
To empower parents, the NPA developed the LiceMeister comb which is an FDA-cleared medical device. For more information on managing head lice or to obtain a LiceMeister comb, parents and educators can go to headlice.org, the NPA's Canadian distributor, CanCoast Holdings Ltd., or Amazon.com.
Media who would like to speak with Deborah Altschuler should contact Dawn Ringel, Ringel PR, at 781-449-8456 or dawn@ringelpr.com.
About the National Pediculosis Association
The National Pediculosis Association (NPA) is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the mission of setting the highest possible public health standards for children as they relate to the communicability and treatment of head lice. The NPA is comprised of volunteers including its Scientific Advisory Board. As part of its mission, the NPA developed the LiceMeister comb and makes it available on its website, headlice.org, the NPA's Canadian distributor, CanCoast Holdings, Ltd., and Amazon.com. All proceeds from the comb allow the NPA to maintain independence from product manufacturers and stay loyal to its mission to protect children from the misuse and abuse of pesticides for lice.
GRID Off-Road Wheels GD Series After lining up our strengths and thinking about what we really love doing designing innovative wheels and manufacturing them to the highest quality we came to the realization that we needed to find a partner that could help us reach our growth potential and tackle the supply chain challenges."
GRID Off-Road, a leading designer and manufacturer of custom wheels for Trucks, Jeeps and SUVs announced this week that they have entered an exclusive distribution agreement for U.S. and Canada with Keystone Automotive Operations. Keystone will be assuming the responsibility for developing and servicing the North American aftermarket for all GRID-branded products.
To compete and grow in todays dynamic retail environment, businesses like ours need to find better ways to deliver products to market quickly and efficiently, states Lawrence Lee, owner of GRID Off-Road. After lining up our strengths and thinking about what we really love doing designing innovative wheels and manufacturing them to the highest quality we came to the realization that we needed to find a partner that could help us reach our growth potential and tackle the supply chain challenges.
After an exhaustive review of their options, Lee and his team decided a full-service distributor was the answer. With Keystones network of warehouses, fleet of trucks, commitment to inventory and complete toolkit of marketing solutions they became the obvious choice, he adds. We market, design and manufacture to the highest trendsetting standards in the aftermarket today. We believe their unique ability to serve the aftermarket coupled with their approach is a perfect fit."
Keystone operates seven distribution centers in North America with a combined available warehouse footprint of over 2.5 million square feet. GRID Off-Road products currently 10 GRID Cast designs with 3 additional designs slated for 2019 will be stocked in all locations to provide broader next-day delivery service with improved fill rates. GRID's state-of-the-art manufacturing facility is near Keystones new 450,000 square-foot warehouse in Eastvale, CA. That proximity will result in quick response times for replenishment as well as the delivery of custom and special order wheels.
We are extremely pleased to have this opportunity to work with GRID and serve both their existing customers, our very broad customer base and the future customers we develop together, commented Bill Rogers, President of Keystone Automotive Operations. GRIDs focus on providing quality products and a positive customer experience is in alignment with ours. Our ability to reach the market through our sales team, the BIG Show and our marketing programs will provide GRID an excellent platform for growth. We appreciate their confidence in us and will work hard to insure the potential of their products and brand is realized, says Rogers.
According to Andy Morgan, Category Director at Keystone, Opportunities like this dont come around every day and we really want share our excitement about GRID with all our customers. In the coming weeks, our customers should be on the lookout for special offers, contest announcements and prize giveaways. He adds, Its going to be a lot of fun and an exciting way to showcase their products and celebrate our partnership.
Customer care is a primary concern during transitions like this, states Lee. To make finding and buying GRID products easy, the complete line including images, descriptions, specifications and on-hand inventory can now be found online at ekeystone.com Keystones B2B e-commerce portal. To insure a seamless transition for our current GRID customers, we will be working closely with the team at Keystone to make sure that there is no interruption of service, he adds. A dedicated Keystone New Accounts Representative will be contacting GRID customers and assisting them in setting up their new account with Keystone as well as helping with any open order or other transition concerns.
About GRID Off-Road
GRID Off-Road is the designer and manufacturer of specialty off-road wheels and accessories, which include grilles and other accessories. Launched two years ago as a passion project by parent company Savini Wheels LLC, the brand has since become a global force recognized for their unique offering of custom finishes, styles and fitments for the off-road market.
Headquartered in Anaheim, CA, with divisions in South Korea, China and Japan, GRID Off-road performs everything in-house including the design, engineering, manufacturing, sales and marketing of the brand.
About Keystone Automotive Operations
Keystone is the leading distributor and marketer of aftermarket automotive products and services, uniquely positioned to offer customers and suppliers substantial scale, the most comprehensive inventory selection in the industry, high levels of customer service, and innovative marketing support. Keystone is committed to expanding its offerings to meet the ever-growing needs of its customer base, providing them what they need, when they need it.
Just months after General Atlantics investment in the digital business of ProSiebenSat.1 (called NuCom), the groups own price comparison site, Verivox, has acquired Getsafes broker business unit.
Launched in 2015 and backed by prominent investors like Partech, Acton and btov, Getsafe is one of the worlds first digital insurance wallets leading a growing trend of digital insurance brokers, like Knip, Clark, or Wefox, popping up in Europe.
With the integration of Getsafes technology, over 8 Million Verivox customers will be able to manage all of their insurance policies on the web or mobile app. Verivox price comparison algorithms will then help customers optimize their insurance portfolio by finding better deals for car or renters insurance within seconds.
For Getsafes CEO and founder, Christian Wiens, selling the profitable business unit was not an easy step to take, but a great opportunity to better focus on the companys mission. Wiens declared, We felt it became very hard and limited to further improve the customer experience by just re-selling traditional policies from established insurance carriers as a broker. To dramatically improve the insurance experience as a whole, from buying a policy to filing a claim, we need to build the insurance product ourself.
The transaction comes just months after Getsafe launched its very own insurance platform earlier this year. Similar to companies like Lemonade, Next Insurance, or Metromile the startup is now focused on developing its own insurance proposition and has therefore partnered with re-insurance carrier Munich Re. As pointed out by Wiens, the company has already sold 30,000 of its policies via its mobile app in 2018. Getsafe plans to use part of the profits from the deal to develop further products and expand to new international markets.
About Getsafe
Getsafe is one of the trailblazers of the European insurtech scene. The startup from Heidelberg brings the concept of comprehensive insurance (as provided by e.g. Axa or Allianz) into the digital age. Customers can buy, change or cancel an insurance policy paper-free and in real time in the Getsafe app. Even making a claim can be done using the app. Getsafe is backed by notable partners such as Munich Re one of the largest reinsurers in the world and leading venture capital investors including Partech Ventures and Commerzbank.
IDS Named Entrepreneur Magazine's Top 3 Franchise Marketing Agency Considering how many marketing companies work in the franchise space, this survey is a complete vote of confidence in IDS and the service that our team provides to our clients.
Integrated Digital Strategies (IDS), a leading digital marketing agency serving established to emerging franchise brands, was named as one of the top three marketing companies that primarily serve franchising by Entrepreneur Magazine. This is the first year the magazine has ranked the best franchise suppliers. Entrepreneur identified the top 15 marketing companies after conducting surveys with hundreds of franchisors. The rankings were based on a combination of the number of clients each company serves and the positive responses each supplier received.
Steve Galligan, CEO of IDS, expressed how pleased he was that the digital marketing company was at the top of the rankings.
Considering how many marketing companies work in the franchise space, this survey is a complete vote of confidence in IDS and the service that our team provides to our clients, Galligan said.
IDS employs a balanced approach to digital marketing which has proven to reduce the cost per sale for franchises, while building their digital presence where their franchise buyers live online. In addition, IDS provides a turnkey approach to franchise brand digital marketing that scales across their franchise footprint.
Our number one goal is to provide a solid return on the investments clients make in their marketing with us, Joe Mohay, CRO at IDS, added. We are highly focused on client retention, transparency, and earning the coveted trusted advisor status with our portfolio of franchise clients.
IDS employs a full-service team of content marketers, web developers, SEO and paid search analysts, social media specialists, video producers, and digital marketers. This team works in collaboration with their clients franchise sales and marketing teams.
Ken Petersen, founder and CEO of Apricot Lane, a womens retail franchisor and IDS client, praises the work IDS does for his company.
We could not be more pleased with how IDS has wrapped their arms around us through each process to satisfy our needs, Petersen said. Their communication is beyond expectation. IDS is a true partner investing in our success, which makes for a sustained long-term relationship.
Petersens comments are similar to many other testimonials given by IDS clients.
IDS was founded by Galligan and Mohay in 2012. The company quickly has established itself as a leader in digital marketing for franchisors. They specialize in franchise development and scalable franchisee digital marketing services. IDS works with over 30 franchise brands across vast industries including marquee brands such as United Franchise Group, Global Franchise Group, U.S. Lawns, American Family Care, Apricot Lane and many more. Headquartered in Newburyport, Massachusetts, IDS also has offices in Orlando, Salt Lake City, and the Philippines.
To learn more about Integrated Digital Strategies, go to http://www.idigitalstrategies.com
Contact:
Lauren Donahoo
Director of Franchise Sales
978-393-2728
lauren@idigitalstrategies.com
Were thrilled to be working on something that directly benefits Austin All of Austin, not just the usual tourist spots.
Today, lookthinkmake is pleased to announce the launch of ATXLoves.com, a new tourism campaign funded by a grant developed by the Austin City Council to market and promote homegrown Austin businesses to tourists. Through ATXLoves.com, visitors will encounter an online experience guide and interactive map that reframes the way most online review sites categorize local businesses through a uniquely Austin lens, and places a greater emphasis on small businesses and locally-owned attractions across the entire city. Businesses featured on the site are pulled from local publications Best Of lists, and through curated lists hand-selected by more than 50 Austin influencers. ATXLoves.com is scheduled to go live on September 1 and will run through the end of November.
While Austin has a healthy tourism industry, small and locally-owned businesses dont always receive the same influx of tourists during the festivals, sporting events, and other major-draw events that make Austin a worldwide destination. As part of its continuing efforts to encourage out-of-town patronage of local favorites, the Austin City Council set aside a portion of revenue from its Hotel Occupancy Tax to fund a grant that was awarded to Austin-based advertising and public relations agency lookthinkmake, who envisioned and created the ATXLoves campaign a no-profits guide to the city created and curated by those that know it best.
Through ATXLoves reframing of the typical tourist attraction catalog, visitors can search for a type of experience rather than just a category of businesses. Beyond being able to browse a list of Tex Mex restaurants, for example, visitors will also be able to see a cross-cultural list of family-owned and run businesses; or when searching for kayak rentals on Lake Austin, they might see an unfamiliar recreation category that pulls in paddle boarding, indoor skydiving and axe throwing. By pulling from local publications Best Of lists, courtesy of the Austin Chronicle, Austin Monthly, Tribeza Magazine and the Austin Independent Business Associations Armadillo Awards, and tasking a range of organizations and influencers like Mayor Steve Adler, South by Southwest, the Austin Young Chamber and Do512 to populate the site, ATXLoves.com connects visitors to the food, drink and experiences that locals love, and to locals favorite spots off the beaten path. Its a channel for visitors to experience Austin on a deeper level while rewarding and championing the small businesses that give Austin its identity and reputation.
Were thrilled to be working on something that directly benefits Austin All of Austin, not just the usual tourist spots, said lookthinkmake partners Patricia Buchholtz and Sean Thompson. lookthinkmake has spent the last decade carving out our niche as an agency for places, and weve been lucky enough to have a hand in working with a lot of the places that make Austin what it is. Its wonderful to finally be doing work for Austin as a whole and getting to share what we love about this city with others.
Starting at launch, the guide will also feature curated lists of spots from Austinites-of-note like Jane Ko, Shinyribs and more, which will be included in its experiential categorization and included as standalone lists. Visitors who want to experience Darden Smiths Austin (and maybe run into him at one of his favorite spots) can use a list as a trip itinerary or pick and choose blogger-approved selfie spots, an Austin musicians favorite stages, or a chefs picks for the best brisket in town. Over time, the ATXLoves team will continue to release Austinite lists, growing the guides database of attractions to build a dynamic list that is inclusive of Austins diverse and wide-ranging population.
Be on the lookout for ATXLoves all over Austin lookthinkmakes campaign is running ads online, in magazines and on the streets of Austin. Beginning in September, Austinites and tourists can find ATXLoves at the airport, on the side of buses, on lampposts downtown and at all of Austins major festivals throughout the fall.
The International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) is pleased to announce the release of the Japanese translation of Best Practices: Recommendations for Repositories, Fourth Edition.
The Fourth Edition publication, originally released in January 2018, is a practice-changing publication aimed at advancing the science of biobanking to meet the needs of a growing industry. The English publication has been downloaded over 1000 times, and this translation will help meet the needs of more members worldwide and facilitate further growth in this field.
The ISBER Best Practices 4th Edition aims to sustain and support biobankers everywhere, said David Lewandowski, President of ISBER. Translating these Best Practices into multiple languages aligns with ISBERs position as the leading resource in repository management and the Japanese translation of Best Practices is but one more step in our goal.
Good translations are needed to make the Best Practices accessible to a wider audience, said Dr. Koh Furuta, Head Director of the Council of Industrial Use of Biological and Environmental Repositories (CIBER) in Japan. This Japanese translation was prepared so that the wording is harmonized with the translations of ISO documents, including ISO 20387 and ISO 15189. By sharing these good practices, we look forward to further advancing the science of biobanking in Japan.
ISBER would like to thank the many Japanese colleagues for their involvement in the translation of this publication, as well as CIBER and the ISBER Director at Large for the Indo-Pacific area, Dr. Daniel Catchpoole, for their critical support in this effort.
For a full list of languages in which the Best Practices: Recommendations for Repositories, Fourth Edition is available or to access the original English edition, please see http://www.isber.org/bestpractices.
To learn more about ISBER, please visit: http://www.isber.org
For further information, please contact:
Ana Torres, BA (Hon), MPub
ISBER Executive Director
750 West Pender Street, Suite 301
Vancouver, BC, Canada V6C 2T7
T: 1-604-484-5693
E: info@isber.org
About ISBER:
ISBER is the only global forum that addresses harmonization of scientific, technical, legal, and ethical issues relevant to repositories of biological and environmental specimens. The mission of ISBER as a global organization is to create opportunities for sharing ideas and innovations in biobanking and harmonizes approaches to evolving challenges for biological and environmental repositories. ISBER fosters collaboration, creates education and training opportunities, provides an international showcase for state-of-the-art policies, processes, and research findings, and innovative technologies, products, and services. Together, these activities promote best practices that cut across the broad range of repositories that ISBER s
The work LDM Global has been doing for over two decades to ensure clients have the best solutions for their investigations and eDiscovery projects is a solid base that I am seeking to build upon.
LDM Global, a global consultancy providing Digital Forensics, eDiscovery and Cybersecurity services, announced today the appointment of Conor Looney as Chief Executive Officer. The companys founder and former CEO, Chris OReilly, will step away from day-to-day general management into an advisory role, while Looney takes on the leadership of the company.
Looney is an internationally recognized business leader, with more than 20 years experience in the technology and fast-moving consumer goods industries. He has played a leading role in successful companies in Europe and the Caribbean, delivering consistent commercial success across diverse industries.
Over the past six years, Looney has held leading positions at Digicel, the largest communications company in the Caribbean, which delivers cellular, enterprise and residential services to more than 14 million customers. Prior to joining LDM Global he was Regional Chief Executive Officer of Digicel across 18 countries and a member of the Caribbean senior leadership team, which oversaw over 6,000 staff members across 24 countries.
Previously, Looney served as CEO of Digicel Barbados; CEO of Digicel British Virgin Islands; as well as Operations Director and Marketing Director of Digicel Jamaica. Before joining Digicel, Conor served in Europe in several senior roles at Mars, the manufacturer of confectionery, food and pet care products. He also founded two digital businesses, which he successfully exited.
We have ambitious plans to expand our global reach to support more clients and are excited for the experience and leadership Conor brings to our team, LDM Global Founder OReilly said. His experience in integrating multiple businesses and people across markets to ensure focus and efficiency, while passionately focusing on the customer first is going to be a boon to both our staff and our clients.
Looney said, The work LDM Global has been doing for over two decades to ensure clients have the best solutions for their investigations and eDiscovery projects is a solid base that I am seeking to build upon, while new initiatives including cybersecurity ensure we are able to advise clients on all aspects of data investigation and security. He added, We have experienced professionals and data centers strategically positioned globally, and a network of global partners, ensuring we can provide hands-on service to our clients anywhere in the world.
Looney is based in Florida in the U.S., from where he travels frequently to meet LDM Globals clients, as well as staff, across the globe.
About LDM Global
LDM Global was founded in 1996 and is an information management, litigation support and professional services consultancy to the legal industry. LDM Global specializes in Digital Forensics and Data Recovery, Electronic Discovery/Disclosure and Cybersecurity, as well as several other important services to clients, including ISO 27001 certification and security consulting, GDPR compliance consulting and IT managed services. LDM Global has four global data centers, in the U.K., Australia, Cayman and the United States.
Musings of Honor: an inspiring manual of godly principles for life. Musings of Honor is the creation of published author, Paul Peterlin, a lieutenant colonel who has seen combat in Iraq, 200304; he is a father and husband now living in Monterey Bay.
Lt. Col. Peterlin writes on the value of surrender, How much a man succeeds in living an honorable life depends on his degree of surrender. Total surrender equals total honor. If a man places his entire life in Gods hands and surrenders everything, he is setting the stage and the foundation for a sense of duty. If your duty is to serve God and your fellowmen, total surrender to honoring this duty dictates you will do your duty and become an honorable man who consistently displays courage while fulfilling promises and worshipping God faithfully. Without surrendering to God, you will never allow God to truly lead your life. You dedicate your life to God and, in so doing, to doing good.
Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Paul Peterlins new book is a profound guide originally meant for the authors children, full of gold nuggets of hard-won wisdom born from a life of devastating loss and life-shattering experience on the battlefield.
Unlike many self-help manuals, Lt. Col. Peterlin points to reliance on God for strength and a virtuous, peace-filled life instead of depending on ones own abilities in the journey to becoming a man of honor.
View a synopsis of Musings of Honor on YouTube.
Consumers can purchase Musings of Honor at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.
For additional information or inquiries about Musings of Honor, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
M-Files Corporation, the intelligent information management company, today announced its upcoming 2018 Intelligent Information Management Summit (IIMS), a conference and exhibition focusing on the latest news, industry developments and innovations in the ECM industry by world-renowned thought leaders, business leaders and experts. The event will be held at the Clarion Hotel on Sept. 20, 2018, in Helsinki, Finland.
Since its inception eight years ago, the Intelligent Information Management Summit has become one of Europes largest ECM conferences, bringing together 700 decision-makers and industry experts from around the world. The event offers numerous opportunities to share ideas with global peers, stay up-to-date with the latest information management trends and best practices, as well as grow existing networks via face-to-face meetings with top international ECM professionals all in one convenient location.
Key speakers at this years summit include:
Hanns Kohler-Kruner, Managing VP, Gartner: Transforming to a Digital Business with Content Services
Jukka Kumpulainen, CIO, Wartsila: Digital Transformation and Information Management
Clarisse Berggardh, CEO, Pohjoisranta Burson-Marsteller Oy: Crisis Communication and Information Management
Chris Holly, Head of IS, IGas Energy Plc: Driving Digital Transformation with M-Files"
Alexander Stubb, VP, European Investment Bank: The digital revolution is here are you ready?
Antti Nivala, CTO, and Miika Makitalo, CEO, M-Files
Over the last eight years, weve seen the Information Management Summit grow to become Europes premier enterprise content management event, featuring insights from top business leaders, analysts and industry experts that you cant obtain anywhere else, said Miika Makitalo. As a visionary, M-Files is proud to lead the charge on thought leadership and strategic thinking in the information management space. This years IIMS event promises even more ways that attendees can stay on top of the latest content and information management trends that are shaping the ever-changing intelligent information management industry.
M-Files is a provider of a next-generation intelligent information management platform aimed at improving business performance by helping people find and use information more effectively. Leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in its metadata layer, the company offers a unique approach that eliminates information silos by providing quick and easy access to the right data and content from any business system and device.
For more information or to register for the event, please visit: http://www.m-files.com/IIMS2018.
About M-Files Corporation
M-Files provides a next-generation intelligent information management platform that improves business performance by helping people find and use information more effectively. Unlike traditional enterprise content management (ECM) systems or content services platforms, M-Files unifies systems, data and content across the organization without disturbing existing systems and processes or requiring data migration. Using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in its unique Intelligent Metadata Layer, M-Files breaks down silos by delivering an in-context experience for accessing and leveraging information that resides in any system and repository, including network folders, SharePoint, file sharing services, ECM systems, CRM, ERP and other business systems and repositories. Thousands of organizations in more than 100 countries use M-Files for managing their business information and processes, including NBC Universal, OMV, Rovio, SAS Institute and thyssenkrupp. For more information, visit http://www.m-files.com.
M-Files is a registered trademark of M-Files Corporation. All other registered trademarks belong to their respective owners.
Dr. Jonathan Fisher, one of the best known plastic surgeons in Miami, celebrates 5,000 successful surgeries as of August 2018.
If you are hoping to get Fisherfied, a term used by Fishers pleased patients to describe getting the perfect body, get in line to wait 3 months or more for the chance to get your cosmetic surgery performed. Dr. Fisher's outstanding skills and experience have made him one of the most desirable plastic surgeons working today, and this August he is being recognized for his 5,000 performed surgeries.
Fisher specializes in all general areas of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and has delivered remarkable results for many patients in the United States and around the world. His well-known friendly personality and caring approach to patients have been key factors in his growing popularity throughout his career with Jolie Plastic Surgery. In his words: I feel deeply honored to be recognized for this accomplishment and thankful for the thousands of patients that have trusted me to achieve their aesthetic goals during my 14 year career."
His patients are even more appreciative of his work, and it shows in the reviews:
He is an amazing artist and will deliver more than he promises...
He's super professional but also sweet and funny. He keeps you relaxed and he delivers results...
Like hanging out with an old friend who wants to make you beautiful, and then DOES...
These are just some of the latest patient reviews Dr. Fisher has received on his Realself profile, the most popular website for Plastic Surgery information on the internet. According to this website, Dr. Fisher has been recognized as a Top Doctor for the last 6 years in a row and has over 1,300 reviews - a record number among Miami Plastic Surgeons on Realself.
5,000 surgeries is definitely a milestone in my career, but Im not done yet. Im ready to Fisherfy 5,000 more patients, Dr. Fisher added with a smile on his face.
Private Dining Areas at Courier Restaurant Courier for holiday parties provides flexible space that can be customized to become just what the guest is looking for.
Just in time for holiday party planning the new downtown Denver restaurant, Courier Market Bar Kitchen offers two private dining rooms, one with space for a pre-function reception. Courier can tailor a menu to specific tastes and needs or can allow guests to make their own selection off of an extensive list of classic dishes reinvented. Options include the out-of-the- ordinary Duck Pot Pie, Stroganoff with Mushroom Ravioli or Gnocchi Mac and Cheese. Parties can also include a selection of original cocktails such as the Tabloid, an innovative concoction of pomegranate, iced tea and prosecco or Local Edition made with bourbon, absinthe and Peychauds bitters, along with the favorites, many of which are regionally sourced. They can be complemented with a array of appetizers.
Under a canopy that recalls the newspaper presses of yesteryear, Courier is designed to capture a time when newsrooms steamed with excitement, creating the ideal atmosphere.
Courier for holiday parties provides flexible space that can be customized to become just what the guest is looking for, commented Mike Vasey, Director of Outlets at Grand Hyatt Denver. Although the dining areas are private, the atmosphere capitalizes on the activity of a thriving restaurant.
Couriers private dining space can accommodate up to 40 people for a sit-down dinner and 50 for a reception. To plan an event at Courier, contact the Events Department at (303) 603-4050.
About Courier. market | bar | kitchen
Located off of 17th and Welton Streets in Denvers business district and inspired by its historic location at the site of one of Denvers first newspapers, the thriving news industry of the past is echoed in Courier market | bar | kitchen. Focused on local flavors, the menu redefines traditional dishes as we know them. The decor is reminiscent of a bustling newsroom where file cabinets hint at the stories contained within, leather seating and desk task lamps inspire purpose. Guests can watch chefs craft flat breads made fresh to-order in an artisanal stone oven. Happy Hour gatherings at the bar include inventive and unique drinks.
Courier is complemented with a quick and convenient grab-and-go gourmet market as well.
Happy Hour is from 3:00 p.m. -- 6:00 p.m. daily. Restaurant hours are Sunday through Thursday 6:00 a.m. 11:00 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 6:00 a.m. 12:00 a.m. (The market closes daily at 10:00 p.m.) Reservations may be made online at CourierRestaurant.com or by calling (303) 603-4171. Located in Grand Hyatt Denver, Courier patrons receive discounted valet parking in the evening.
For more information, online reservations and menus, visit CourierRestaurant.com.
Max & Miles Developing a specialized brand to grow H-E-Bs floral offerings is just one of the many ways Green Circle Growers has dedicated itself to being a valuable partner to its retailers.
At its annual Floral Show, Texas-based grocery retailer H-E-B awarded the Vendor of the Year Award for 2018 to Ohio greenhouse Green Circle Growers after working closely together on multiple sales and marketing projects in the past fiscal year. This is the second Vendor of the Year Award for Green Circle Growers, having won in 2013 as well.
The H-E-B Vendor of the Year is awarded based on the following criteria: Innovation, dedication to quality, customer service, productivity, quick to action, and cost of goods.
To Green Circle Growers, many of these criteria sound familiar. All team members at Green Circle Growers are familiar with the companys five core values: Diligence, respect, integrity, innovation, and customer focus. And their commitment to these values resulted in the greenhouse being awarded this coveted honor.
Green Circle Growers has developed a close relationship with the Texas grocery chain including research and knowledge into H-E-Bs regional position and audience.
This years Floral Show showcased the debut of H-E-Bs new brand Max & Miles, a plant lifestyle brand developed in conjunction with the Sales and Marketing teams at Green Circle Growers. The inspiration behind the Max & Miles brand is based on the idea that plants have personalities. If youre a Max, youre more bold, vibrant, and love to make a statement. A Miles is more subdued, flexible, and thoughtful. The Max collection includes tropical plants like Phalaenopsis Orchids, Bromeliads, Money Trees, Bonsais, and Anthuriums, and the Miles collection features a variety of foliage and succulents.
Developing a specialized brand to grow H-E-Bs floral offerings is just one of the many ways Green Circle Growers has dedicated itself to being a valuable partner to its retailers. Green Circle Growers works with retailers of all sizes, from small local businesses to national store brands across the United States and Canada. Green Circle Growers Sales and Marketing teams offer retailers a robust portfolio of goods and resources to provide a positive experience and empower the consumer to make confident purchases.
For inquiries or to schedule a greenhouse tour at Green Circle Growers, please contact PR Coordinator Hayden Grover at hgrover@greencirclegrowers.com or call 440-776-1711.
Original Grain introduces first women's watch collection. Weve found success in creating exceptional timepieces made with expert craftsmanship and one-of-a-kind sustainably sourced materials that mix reclaimed wood and stainless steel, said Ryan Beltran, co-Founder of Original Grain.
Original Grain, the San Diego-based lifestyle brand specializing in unique story-telling timepieces, unveiled today its first ever womens line, The Avalon Collection. The new collection features the worlds first wine-stained watch, Vino, which is made with reclaimed wine-soaked oak barrels from Napa Valley.
Inspired by the simplicity of mid-century modern design and handcrafted with unique reclaimed wood, the Avalon collection offers twelve minimalist styles and a range of colorful hues perfect for the Fall season. Each watch incorporates various sustainably sourced woods including Hawaiian KOA wood, zebrawood, ebony, white ash, and burlwood, ensuring that every timepiece is authentically original.
Weve found success in creating exceptional timepieces made with expert craftsmanship and one-of-a-kind sustainably sourced materials that mix reclaimed wood and stainless steel, said Ryan Beltran, co-Founder of Original Grain. Historically our brand has focused on mens watches, accessories and exclusive partnerships with iconic brands such as the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Jim Beam. With women making more than half of the purchases at Original Grain, were excited to expand our innovative product offering to now include this strong customer base and offer them a meaningful way to tell their original story.
To accompany the new womens collection, Original Grain will also introduce a line of macrame and crown stackable bracelets to pair with each watch.
The Avalon Collection watches retail for $169 and the bracelets retail for $20 - $50. The collection is currently available on OriginalGrain.com and will also be carried at select retailers including Belk.
Since inception, Original Grain has been committed to giving back. For every watch or bracelet sold, the company plants a tree in partnership with Trees for the Future in Senegal. To date, the company has planted over 500,000 trees, which have directly impacted the lives of over 1,600 families and more than 12,000 people through this partnership.
To learn more about Original Grain, visit: http://www.originalgrain.com.
ABOUT ORIGINAL GRAIN
Original Grain was started in 2013 when brothers Ryan and Andrew Beltran were inspired to create a watch that simply didnt exist. Influenced by their roots growing up in the Pacific Northwest, their mission was to create unique timepieces that seamlessly integrated natural wood and stainless steel. With an unwavering commitment to authenticity, innovation, and next-level craftsmanship, Original Grain has emerged as a world-class creator of watches and accessories, advancing the limits of what wood and steel can achieve. The company has become a true lifestyle brand known not only for the craftsmanship that goes into each design, but for the stories that can be told about the materials used. Every product has a unique story and no two pieces are the same. Follow Original Grain on Instagram/Facebook at @OriginalGrain and @OriginalGrainWomen.
We feel honored to support the incredible men and women that put themselves on the front lines to contain the Ferguson Fire.
The Party Staff Inc., a leader in hospitality staffing services, partnered with a specialty emergency catering service to provide staff members at the Ferguson Fire. The fire spanned more than 96,000 acres, causing the closure of Yosemite National Park and numerous highway shutdowns. Party Staff had 15 employees on-site serving food to the nearly 2,000 firefighters and personnel working to suppress the fire.
These wildfires were devastating the area, taking the lives and livelihoods of thousands of citizens, said Phoenix Office Director Tom Lata. We feel honored to support the incredible men and women that put themselves on the front lines to contain the Ferguson Fire.
The emergency catering services consisted of three self-contained mobile kitchens that were kept in a controlled environment approximately 3 to 4 miles from the fire. All of the units were prepared to be mobilized within hours if the fire was to change course. Party Staff employees were onsite for the duration of their work, camping in nearby tents.
Everyone involved made extraordinary sacrifices for the safety and security of others, said Party Staff Regional Sales Manager Bill Horttor. Our staff did excellent work assisting the emergency team and ensuring the wellbeing of the firefighters. We could not be more proud of their dedication.
Now that the Ferguson Fire is officially contained, the emergency catering crew, including the Party Staff employees, is en route to the Horns Mountain Fire in Northport, Washington, which has burned more than 4,000 acres to date.
About The Party Staff Inc.
Founded in 1989, The Party Staff Inc. has provided hundreds of thousands of hospitality professionals for a plethora of social functions and special events. From corporate, catered events to residential home parties, the Party Staff team has a strong commitment to excellence that is unmatched in the hospitality staffing industry. For additional information, visit https://partystaff.com/.
Peco InspX, the worlds leading authority on high performance X-Ray inspection equipment for the food and beverage industries is pleased to announce the most recent results from the Net Promoter Score for its US service team. The company regularly collects a significant amount of data on service operations to ensure a best in class field service experience part of this analysis includes a regular 3rd party Net Promoter Score (NPS) Survey.
Our goal in collecting regular Net Promotor Score data on our service business is that we desire a 3rd party validation from the customers perspective on how well our service organization is operating. We are an immensely customer-focused company and we put tremendous significance on ensuring that every customer interaction with our field service and parts team is world class, remarked Carol Zielinksi, Customer Relationship Manager for Peco InspX. Furthermore, our detailed NPS analysis process ensures that we get statistically significant insights that are actionable."
The achievement of our US service organization in achieving a Net Promoter Score of 50 in its most recent survey represents an outstanding accomplishment that reflects the extreme dedication, training and tenure of our US service team. This team clearly represents one of the strongest service groups in the inspection equipment space, remarked Rich Cisek, Peco InspX CEO.
Our obligation to our customers is to provide a robust and highly effective inspection solution that is superbly supported and on those occasions when it does need service, we fix things quickly so that our equipment delivers world-class availability in the field. Furthermore we continue to invest heavily in improving our remote diagnostics support platform to provide even greater capability to help proactively detect and resolve problems," added Cisek.
To learn more about Peco InspX, please visit the companys website: http://www.peco-inspx.com.
About Peco InspX
Peco InspX Corporation is a leading provider of advanced technology inspection solutions for the food and beverage industries. With headquarters in Silicon Valley (San Carlos), CA and European headquarters in Nuneaton, UK, the company serves customers around the world and inspects over 120 million food and beverage containers daily. The company specializes in accurate high speed package inspection in machines that are easy to use with a low cost of ownership.
Reproductive Biology Associates In addition to helping women and couples at our center, I am eager to advance the industry overall, along with my colleagues in Prelude Fertilitys nationwide network of top-tier fertility centers.
Prelude Fertility (Prelude) and Reproductive Biology Associates (RBA) announced today that Dr. Jessica R. Rubin, MSCI has joined RBAs team of award-winning reproductive endocrinologists. A Georgia native, Dr. Rubin returns to Atlanta for this position, after recently completing a fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine under the direction of distinguished professor, and Director of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Dr. William Gibbons.
It is an honor to join the renowned team at Reproductive Biology Associates and know that my work with patients will help build on their impressive clinical outcomes, said Dr. Rubin. In addition to helping women and couples at our center, I am eager to advance the industry overall, along with my colleagues in Prelude Fertilitys nationwide network of top-tier fertility centers.
Dr. Rubin received two BS degrees from Vassar College: one in science, technology, and society, and one in Hispanic studies. She earned her medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia, followed by a four-year residency at Emory University resulting in board certification in obstetrics and gynecology.
During this residency, Dr. Rubin trained in ovulation induction, in vitro fertilization (IVF), fibroid management, endometriosis treatment, and endoscopic surgeries (laparoscopy and hysteroscopy). She performed high-quality translational research investigating the role of IVF protocols on embryo growth and reproductive success. She also earned her Master of Science in Clinical Investigation (MSCI).
Through her years of training, Dr. Rubin developed a passion for assisting couples dealing with pregnancy struggles, which reinforced her drive to help women achieve optimal gynecological and reproductive health. Dr. Rubin is also active in the local Jewish community, and looks forward to serving the needs of women in the greater Atlanta area.
Dr. Rubins primary clinical interests include fertility preservation, IVF, polycystic ovarian syndrome, third-party reproduction, and diminished ovarian reserve. Dr. Rubin also focuses on fertility preservation for women before and after cancer therapy (oncofertility).
Founded in 1983 and based in Atlanta, RBA is the oldest continuously operating full-service private fertility treatment center in the United States and is led by reproductive endocrinologists Daniel B. Shapiro, MD; Andrew A. Toledo, MD; and Zsolt Peter Nagy, PhD, who specializes in embryology. Since its establishment, the centers mission has focused on the development, improvement, and application of clinical and applied sciences to improve fertility care, with its RBA team being responsible for several notable firsts in reproductive medicine.
Dr. Rubin is a terrific addition to our team at RBA, and her work will complement our existing efforts with patients through her own expertise and extensive training, said RBA Medical Director Dr. Daniel Shapiro. She brings a fresh perspective to our team, having recently earned her board certification, and her impressive training and research signals a bright future for the many couples we know she will assist in welcoming a healthy baby to their families.
In 2016, RBA joined forces with Lee Equity Partners, serial entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky, and MyEggBank North America to establish Prelude, a comprehensive fertility company that is now the fastest growing network of fertility centers in the United States (Prelude Network). Prelude helps patients achieve their best possible pregnancy outcomes through access to top-tier centers, including RBA, and more than 30 internationally recognized reproductive endocrinologists, placing emphasis on the best clinical protocols and scientific advancements and sharing these best practices across its network.
Dr. Rubin received numerous awards for her scholastic achievements, research endeavors, and dedication to teaching. During her residency, she earned the Golden Apple Teaching Award each year of her training. Throughout her residency and fellowship, she published papers in peer-reviewed medical journals and presented both oral and poster presentations at several national meetings. Her research during that time focused on vitamin supplementation during fertility treatment, the impact of embryo culture environment on reproductive success, and the genetic testing of embryos. In addition, Dr. Rubin coauthored book chapters on fertility preservation techniques for cancer patients.
Dr. Rubin is an active member of several medical organizations, including the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Georgia Obstetrics and Gynecology Society. She resides in Atlanta with her significant other, colorectal surgeon, Dr. Evan Feldman.
For more information about Prelude, visit http://www.preludefertility.com.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/preludefertility
Twitter: @Prelude
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prelude
About Prelude Fertility
Prelude is a comprehensive fertility company focused on providing people with the best options for meeting their family-building goals. Using a proactive approach to fertility care, Prelude works to improve peoples chances of having healthy babies when they are ready. Founded in 2016 by serial entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky, Lee Equity Partners, Reproductive Biology Associates, and MyEggBank, the company was established to give men and women more reproductive choices and greater control over their biological clocks. By coupling earlier decision-making with the latest reproductive science and technology, Prelude can increase the probability of having a healthy baby and decrease the chances of requiring infertility therapy later in life. http://www.PreludeFertility.com
MEDIA CONTACT:
Steve Schonberg
Krupp Kommunications
SSchonberg(at)kruppnyc.com
212-886-6710
R. Arlan Young has completed his book The Mu Conspiracy: The Calm: the first in a series of engrossing and complex science fiction adventure.
When the Neutral Zone separating Unavaaris from the Tark Empire was upgraded with state-of-the-art Axolan mines, it was promised that Tark technology would not be able to surpass that of the mines for hundreds of years. This ushered in an era of peace and security that had never before been seen in the jaalm. Because of this, the people were prompted to demand that the government dissolve the military, ban all lethal weapons, and severely restrict intelligence-gathering by the government through stiff right-to-privacy laws.
However, not long after the new laws were passed, a rogue group within the police force took it upon themselves to maintain the old-world intelligence-gathering protocols against the probability that hostilities would eventually resume. Now 200 years later, an unsanctioned covert operation within the Tark Empire has uncovered a startlingly concerning situation that has so far gone undetected: the Tark people are no longer in control of their own jaalm.
Sometime over recent months, a vicious race of beings has come out of the void of intergalactic space and has descended upon the Tark Empire, seizing control of the government and subjugating the Tark people with an iron hand. They are looking for something.
And someone in the government of Unavaaris knows what that something is.
It is feared, from the new intelligence out of the Tark Empire, that the aliens might move their operation out of Tark space and into Unavaaris, only now the technology of the Axolan mines will not be able to hold back the onrushing tide.
Unavaaris is going to need a military to meet this new threat, and it is going to need it now.
Enter secret agent Marc Keslin, who is just coming off probation when he stumbles onto evidence of such treachery within the government that he is compelled to conduct his own investigation, putting him on a dangerous course, navigating the mysterious waters of the Mu conspiracy!
Published by New York City-based Page Publishing, R. Arlan Youngs book is a must-read thriller for science fiction fans.
Readers who wish to experience this futuristic work can purchase The Mu Conspiracy: The Calm 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 overwhelmed with logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, 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.
Fricks Quality Meats is looking for spectacular bloggers not professional chefs to compete in their inaugural Fricks Blogger Recipe Challenge. The challenge date has been set, the pans will be banging and the stakes will never be higher to see who becomes the Grand Prize Winner of the Fricks Blogger Recipe Challenge.
Take the challenge and share your creativity using one of Fricks Quality Meats delicious products including Bone-in Half Ham, Sliced Applewood Quarter Ham, Gourmet Sliced Ham, Shingled (sliced) Ham and Turkey Drums which deliver a full range of delicious flavors that can transform any recipe into an extravagant dish.
The Fricks Blogger Recipe Challenge will only be open to the first 30 eligible bloggers who sign-up. There are three categories for the challenge; Appetizers, Center of the Plate and On the Grill. Bloggers are encouraged to participate in all three categories. One winner will be selected from each category and be awarded $500.00. The winning recipes from each category will then compete to see who becomes the $1,000.00 grand prize winner of the Fricks Blogger Recipe Challenge. The contest starts on September 1, 2018 and ends October 31, 2018. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.
Fricks Quality Meats is looking for recipes that are easy to recreate, mouthwateringly delicious, and of course, original and inventive.
For more information and to enter into the Fricks Blogger Recipe Challenge go to http://www.fricksmeats.com/blogger-challenge.
To qualify for the Fricks Blogger Recipe Challenge the following rules apply:
Must be 21 years old or older at time of entry
A legal U.S. resident - Void where prohibited
Food blog must be updated frequently (at least once per week) and has been in existence for at least 6 months
RECIPE MUST BE ORIGINAL
Applicants cannot be professional chefs
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY
Fricks hams, sausages and other meats come to you fresh, never frozen, to ensure the richest possible flavor. Its not the fastest or the cheapest way to do things, but its always been the right way. And from your first bite, we think youll agree its worth the wait. Fricks Quality Meats can be found in many of the finest supermarkets across the United States.
About Fricks Quality Meats
The Frick name might not sound familiar, but our history dates clear back to 1896 when Edward Frick opened up a butcher shop in Washington, Missouri. The worlds a mighty different place today, but Fricks is still a family business, still headquartered in Washington, still making all of our products in Americas heartland with American Pride. And if theres one thing weve learned over 120 years in the meat business, its that flavor takes time. For more information about Fricks Quality Meats email us at hello@fricksmeats.com.
The 12th-annual Global Wellness Summit will be held at Technogym Village, Cesena, Italy from October 6-8, 2018. They are a perfect example of reverse mentoring, where wisdom and experience are taught from the top down and technology and insight into new trends are taught from the bottom up.
The Global Wellness Summit (GWS), the foremost gathering of international leaders in the $3.7 trillion global wellness economy, today announced that international hotelier Sir Rocco Forte and his daughter, Irene Forte, will share insights into how intergenerational collaboration has helped the award-winning hospitality company embrace generations of guests, including the coveted millennials. The Fortes highly anticipated keynote will take place at the 12th-annual Summit at Technogym Village, Cesena, Italy, October 6-8.
Rocco Forte Hotels, led by Sir Rocco Forte, his sister Olga Polizzi and his children Lydia, Irene and Charles, are a leading example of the power of legacy in the wellness industryand how the next generation can have a significant impact on a long-standing family business.
The success of Rocco Forte Hotels demonstrates how forward-thinking, intergenerational management is shaping the business of wellness for millennials and generation Z, said GWS Chairman and CEO Susie Ellis. They are a perfect example of reverse mentoring, where wisdom and experience are taught from the top down and technology and insight into new trends are taught from the bottom up.
Deloittes 2017 NextGen Survey* underscores the importance of next generation leaders, who are more aware of the meaning and effect of disruption than the previous generation. According to the survey, family-owned businesses also have an advantage in times of disruption because they are agile, compared to other organizations.
All of my children play key roles in developing the roadmap for Rocco Forte Hotels, said Sir Rocco Forte. Irenes love of wellness and travel combined with her deep insight into millennials preferences has helped us really stand apart from other luxury hotel brands when it comes to developing our wellness portfolio.
For millennials, wellness is a daily, active pursuit, and this generation will soon surpass baby boomers in overall travel spending, said Group Project & Spa Director Irene Forte. When developing our wellness concept, we thought about what millennials look for when choosing a hotel. With this in mind, we want our guests to find wellness at every touch point when staying with uswhether it is in the spa, restaurant or even in the room.
Other family-owned companies will share secrets of their intergenerational business successes during the 2018 GWS, including Technogyms Founder and CEO Nerio Alessandri and his two children, Erica, a non-exec member of the board, and Edoardo who, while completing his studies in Business Administration at the Hult International Business School, has spent his summer working in the companys digital marketing team.
According to a 2017 report** from the Credit Suisse Research Institute (CSRI), family-owned businesses outperform their peers in every region and sector. The report also notes that these businesses focus on long-term growth and the financial performance of family-owned companies is superior to that of non-family-owned businesses.
Sir Rocco Forte is a British hotelier, philanthropist and chairman of Rocco Forte hotels. Founded in 1996, the company operates 11 luxury hotels in key European destinations, including one in Saudi Arabia. Sir Rocco was knighted in December 1994 for services to the UK tourism industry and received the highest Italian accolade, the Gran Croce dellOrdine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana in 2005.
Irene Forte is the group project director at Rocco Forte Hotels. She oversees wellness offerings across the group and has launched her own skin-care line: Irene Forte Skincare. In addition, she leads learning and development projects. In 2015, Forte was awarded government funding to create the Map My Future app to attract and retain a younger more technologically savvy workforce. The app has been available in the hotels since 2016.
The Global Wellness Summit, the worlds leading conference on the business of wellness, is always a sold-out event. To apply to attend, click here.
About the Global Wellness Summit: The Global Wellness Summit is an invitation-only international gathering that brings together leaders and visionaries to positively shape the future of the $3.7 trillion global wellness economy. Held in a different location each year, Summits have taken place in the U.S., Switzerland, Turkey, Bali, India, Morocco, Mexico and Austria. The 12th-annual Summit will be held at Technogym Village, Cesena, Italy from October 6-8, 2018.
*https://www2.deloitte.com/lu/en/pages/strategy/articles/sucessors-family-owned-businesses-prepare-new-entrants.html
**https://www.credit-suisse.com/corporate/en/articles/media-releases/family-owned-businesses--comfortably-outperforming-their-peers-i-201709.html
A team of researchers developed a biocompatible scaffold seeded with molecule-releasing stem cells that, when implanted in mice with a rare but deadly bone disease called autosomal recessive osteopetrosis (ARO), showed potential to help these animals. The findings, recently published in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine (SCTM), might someday yield a treatment for humans afflicted by the same devastating condition.
One of every 250,000 babies born has ARO. ARO is caused by mutations in several genes involved in the formation, development and function of specialized cells called osteoclasts. Osteoclasts break down bone tissue during bone remodeling, a normal process in which old or damaged bone is removed and new bone is produced to replace it. In ARO the osteoclasts fail to resorb bone, leading to restriction of bone marrow cavity and cranial nerve spaces.
People with ARO have a high risk of bone fracture from minor bumps and falls or for no apparent reason. Abnormally dense skull bones pinch nerves in the patients head and face, often causing vision and hearing loss, facial paralysis or seizures. Anemia, slow growth, short stature and dental abnormalities are just some of the other symptoms. The condition leads to a high mortality rate in the childs first years of life mainly due to bone marrow failure and infection. A bone marrow transplant is the only treatment that has a favorable outcome for ARO patients unless the ARO is due to lack of Receptor Activator of Nuclear Factor k B Ligand (RANKL), a molecule that is essential to the formation of osteoclasts and, thus, bone formation.
In the SCTM study, a research team led by Anna Villa, M.D., and Cristina Sobacchi, Ph.D., at the Italian National Research Council (CNR), Milan, evaluated how biomimetic scaffolds seeded with mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) that have been transduced with a viral vector producing soluble RANKL might help ARO patients lacking this molecule. (MSCs are isolated from bone marrow, adipose and other adult tissue sources, and have the capacity to differentiate into various cell types.)
Defining a cure for RANKL-ARO is currently an unmet medical need whose solution is unfairly complicated, owing to the extreme rarity of these patients, Dr. Sobacchi said. In collaboration with Prof. Anna Tampieri, at ISTEC-CNR, the team turned to biomimetic scaffolds because, she explained, They are extremely versatile in terms of chemical composition and physical properties, which can be defined to accomplish specific applications. One property that can be added is the production/release of bioactive soluble factors, either directly from the biomaterial or from cells embedded within the biomaterial. We reasoned that pursuing this strategy would be appropriate to set up a cell-based therapy for RANKL-deficient ARO.
The team tested their strategy on RANKL-/- mice, subcutaneously implanting them with the scaffolds. One group received MSC-seeded scaffolds transduced with human-soluble RANKL; one group received mock-transduced MSC-seeded scaffolds (which did not release RANKL); and the last group received WT MSC-seeded scaffold, as controls.
We followed the groups for two months, and saw no major side effects, indicating that this treatment was safe, said Ciro Menale, Ph.D., a CNR colleague and lead author of the work. Mice implanted with RANKL-releasing cell constructs showed restoration of the presence of the cell type completely absent in bone in untreated RANKL-/- mice.
On the other hand, Dr. Menale continued, the biological effect attained in the mice was limited and no amelioration of the osteopetrotic phenotype was observed. These results prompted us to conceive a strategy that could possibly enhance the benefit gained on the skeletal tissue by increasing the amount of cytokine delivered in vivo.
To reach their goal, the team increased the number of cells seeded on each scaffold and the number of cell constructs implanted in each mouse. These changes to the protocol led to an increase in cell formation in the bones of the mice receiving RANKL-producing cell constructs, although again there was no major improvement in skeletal defect.
Still, the cell constructs in the human-soluble RANKL group were well tolerated, colonized by host cells and intensely vascularized. In particular, the chemical and physical properties of this scaffold enhanced MSC proliferation and human-soluble RANKL production, Dr. Sobacchi reported.
Our strategy proved to have the potential to elicit an effect on the bone. Further work is required to maximize these benefits and achieve improvements of the skeletal pathology in the treated RANKL-/- mice, Dr. Menale added. As a perspective, we might pursue further implementation of this system using patients-derived cells for a future possible autologous cell and gene therapy approach.
This research has progressed to provide proof of principle that MSC-seeded biomimetic scaffolds might provide a beneficial effect in restoring osteoclastogensis in bone, leading to possible future translational application toward the treatment of this rare skeletal genetic disease, said Anthony Atala, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
###
The full article, MSC-seeded biomimetic scaffolds as a factory of soluble RANKL in Rankl-deficient osteopetrosis, can be accessed at https://stemcellsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sctm.18-0085.
About STEM CELLS Translational Medicine: STEM CELLS Translational Medicine (SCTM), published by AlphaMed Press, is a monthly peer-reviewed publication dedicated to significantly advancing the clinical utilization of stem cell molecular and cellular biology. By bridging stem cell research and clinical trials, SCTM will help move applications of these critical investigations closer to accepted best practices. SCTM is the official journal partner of Regenerative Medicine Foundation.
About AlphaMed Press: Established in 1983, AlphaMed Press with offices in Durham, NC, San Francisco, CA, and Belfast, Northern Ireland, publishes two other internationally renowned peer-reviewed journals: STEM CELLS (http://www.StemCells.com), celebrating its 36th year, is the world's first journal devoted to this fast paced field of research. The Oncologist (http://www.TheOncologist.com), also a monthly peer-reviewed publication, entering its 23rd year, is devoted to community and hospital-based oncologists and physicians entrusted with cancer patient care. All three journals are premier periodicals with globally recognized editorial boards dedicated to advancing knowledge and education in their focused disciplines.
About Wiley: Wiley, a global company, helps people and organizations develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. Our online scientific, technical, medical and scholarly journals, combined with our digital learning, assessment and certification solutions, help universities, learned societies, businesses, governments and individuals increase the academic and professional impact of their work. For more than 200 years, we have delivered consistent performance to our stakeholders. The company's website can be accessed at http://www.wiley.com.
About Regenerative Medicine Foundation (RMF): The non-profit Regenerative Medicine Foundation fosters strategic collaborations to accelerate the development of regenerative medicine to improve health and deliver cures. RMF pursues its mission by producing its flagship World Stem Cell Summit, honouring leaders through the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Action Awards, and promoting educational initiatives.
Top management at Stertil-Koni's newest distributor GES: Owner Leon Fiacco (left) and Sales Manager Chris Holmes We are delighted to welcome Garage Equipment Solutions into the Stertil-Koni family.
Heavy duty vehicle lift leader Stertil-Koni today announced that it has expanded its network of exclusive distributors with the addition of Garage Equipment Solutions (GES), headquartered in Rensselaer, NY.
The fit is particularly strong for both companies -- as well as customers requiring heavy duty vehicle lifting systems in their maintenance facilities particularly in light of GESs capabilities and familiarity with the Stertil-Koni product line.
Heres why: location and experience.
Garage Equipment Solutions specializes in vehicle equipment and service to customers in eastern New York State, Vermont, western Massachusetts and western Connecticut.
In addition to having intimate knowledge of the territory, GES is recognized for delivering superior customer service, further aligning itself with Stertil-Konis business philosophy which it calls Koni Kare. GES has focused on wheel service, vehicle lifts, waste oil, air, lube, and storage systems, plus service for vehicle repair shops. Now, GES is poised to expand its presence in the demanding sector of heavy duty vehicle lifting systems.
Thats where a previous link with Stertil-Koni comes into play: A relationship between Stertil-Koni and GES took form when founder Peter Corsi had met Ed Carr, owner of D.L. Carr, a Stertil-Koni distributor, also based in New York State. GES and D.L. Carr developed a strong association by working together on several heavy duty vehicle lift installation projects.
While new to Stertil-Koni, The GES Team has vast experience in the vehicle lift industry. GES President, Leon Fiacco, has a long and successful history in finance and business management, noted Dr. Jean DellAmore, president of Stertil-Koni USA. We are delighted to welcome Garage Equipment Solutions into the Stertil-Koni family.
Joining Fiacco in top management at GES is its sales manager, Chris Holmes, a Marketing and Business Management major at Long Island University, C.W. Post. Holmes brings 35 years of Automotive Industry knowledge, coupled with 12 years in vehicle lift sales.
Added Fiacco, We are excited to represent Stertil-Koni and contribute to its well-earned reputation at the top of the heavy-duty vehicle lift sector. With our headquarters located near the capital of New York State, Albany, and the opportunity to increase heavy duty vehicle lifts sales and service across the New England area, GES is fully equipped to deliver Stertil-Konis award-winning range of lifting systems to a broader range of customers in the Northeast region.
About Stertil-Koni
Stertil-Koni is the market leader in heavy duty vehicle lifts, notably bus lifts and truck lifts, and proudly serves municipalities, state agencies, school bus fleets, major corporations, the U.S. Military and more. Stertil-Koni's breadth of products meets all ranges of lifting needs and includes portable lifts such as mobile column lifts, 2-post, 4-post, inground piston lifts, platform lifts, and its axle-engaging, inground, scissor lift configuration, ECOLIFT. The companys innovative, inground telescopic piston DIAMONDLIFT is now available with an optional Continuous Recess system, ideal for low clearance vehicles. Stertil-Koni USA is headquartered in Stevensville, Maryland with production facilities in Europe, The Netherlands, and in Streator, IL.
"Mr. Mihara advocates for those who often dont have enough advocates. Mr. Mihara knows what its like for a society and government to turn its back on a group of people.
Come hear Sam Miharas incredible tale of survival from Heart Mountain Detention Camp in Wyoming in the 1940s. He will share his powerful story of heartbreak and resilience on Wednesday, Sept. 5 at the Palmetto Theater from 11 am to 12:15 pm and then from 7 pm to 8:30 pm.
Mr. Mihara has a strong passion for speaking out against dehumanization and mass imprisonment, especially of children.
In the last five years, Mr. Mihara has spoken to over 50,000 students and teachers throughout the United States. In his Memories of Heart Mountain presentation, he discusses the experiences of the Japanese Americans who were imprisoned and how the lessons learned from this bleak period in our countrys history apply to help solve todays immigration issues.
On April 20, the National Council for History Education (NCHE) delivered to Mr. Mihara its 2018 Paul A. Gagnon Prize at a national conference of history teachers in San Antonio where he also gave the keynote speech. The annual award is given to an individual or group who has made a significant contribution to history education. Sam received the award for his ongoing work lecturing about his imprisonment as a child at Heart Mountain camp during World War II. Mr. Mihara is the first Japanese American to receive the award.
Neil Lewis, one of the co-coordinators of NVC's Peace & Conflict Studies program, said we are excited to bring Mr. Mihara here to NVC not only because his incredible connection to history, but because Mr. Mihara advocates for those who often dont have enough advocates. Mr. Mihara knows what its like for a society and government to turn its back on a group of people and can make connections between his own experiences and those experiences of those who have been recently been separated from their families by the US government, or those who are seeking asylum and been dehumanized by politicians and the media because of their religion.
The event is sponsored by the NVC Peace & Conflict Studies program with funding from the NVC Student Activity Fee.
Albertus Magnus College Steven Gstalder, Vice President of IT Services at Albertus Magnus said, Students have actually reached out to tell us how much they like the new Wi-Fi. Even the admissions counselors promote it during student tours. Thats pretty gratifying."
Albertus Magnus College is a private liberal arts college with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The new president of the college, Marc M. Camille, Ed.D., wanted to increase the enrollment of students living on campus, which required meeting student expectations for a great Wi-Fi experience. He also wanted to see greater flexibility in the delivery of courses, so that education could be more accessible to the community.
TBNG, based in Milford, Connecticut, was selected to design and deploy the new infrastructure. We recommended Ruckus because theyre known for their high-performance networks, says TBNGs lead consultant, Jeff Grande.
Of equal importance was modern technology that co-existed with buildings from another era. Ruckus has proprietary technologies like BeamFlex that mitigate interference significantly better than other APs, says Grande. We know the residence hallsor wallsof these beautiful mansions wont be a problem for the signal strength of Ruckus APs.
CHALLENGES:
Many campus buildings, including student residence halls, are historic mansions that posed significant interference problems for existing Wi-Fi equipment.
The small ITS team spent an inordinate amount of time troubleshooting Wi-Fi problems and on-boarding new student devices.
The school wanted to implement more flexible course delivery for adult education, which required a faster, higher capacity wired network.
SOLUTION:
120 high-performance Ruckus indoor and outdoor APs.
30 Ruckus ICX switches with multi-gigabit connections to APs and computers over 10 GbE fiber backbone across the campus.
Unified management of campus-wide APs with SmartZone WLAN Controllers.
BENEFITS:
Students in residence calls are now enjoying reliable, fast Internet access with campus-wide Wi-Fi coverage, so students and faculty can roam without losing a Wi-Fi signal.
The ITS team spends less time troubleshooting problems and onboarding new devices.
The high-speed Ruckus switches can easily handle streaming and recorded lectures to support more flexible and accessible course delivery.
Steven Gstalder, Vice President of IT Services at Albertus Magnus said, Students have actually reached out to tell us how much they like the new Wi-Fi. Even the admissions counselors promote it during student tours. Thats pretty gratifying.
The Hiller Companies is excited to announce the purchase of Systems Management Group, LLC (SMG), based in Denver, Colorado on September 1, 2018. Headquartered in Mobile, Alabama, Hiller offers fire protection and security products and services that are preserving lives and property all around the world.
The acquisition of SMG grants Hiller access to the Colorado market and provides the tools to more effectively service existing customers in the western United States. Hiller plans to maintain all of SMGs management, staff and technicians, which will ensure a seamless transition for current SMG customers.
We are always looking for opportunities to serve our customers more effectively, said Hiller President and CEO Patrick Lynch. We have found that one of the best ways to achieve this is by strengthening our first-class team. This is certainly the case with the Systems Management Group acquisition. Not only will it give us an opportunity to expand our service area, but we are gaining an experienced team of customer-focused employees.
Adding a new dimension to the Hiller offerings, SMG specializes in consultation, design, installation, service and integration of low voltage systems, including fire alarms, intrusion alarms, access control, camera systems, audio/video systems, BDA systems, area of refuge systems, telecommunications, data systems and more. SMGs strong brand presence in Colorado has solidified the company as a market leader in the low voltage fire alarm and security space.
SMG Founder and newly appointed General Manager Terrence Kane shares, The acquisition by Hiller gives our existing customers and potential new customers the best of both worlds. We are able to provide them with the attention and support of a local company thats also backed by the strength and resources of a strong U.S. brand. We couldnt be more thrilled with this opportunity.
For more information about Hiller, please visit our website at http://www.hillerfire.com.
The Hiller Companies offer fire protection products and services that are preserving lives and property all around the world. Headquartered in Mobile, Alabama, Hiller extends its reach globally as well as locally with offices in Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Virginia. We are proud to safeguard everything from small businesses to nuclear power facilities, yachts to aircraft carriers, and gas stations to offshore platforms.
If you would like more information about this topic, please contact
John Mackey at 251-661-1275 or email at jmackey(at)hillercompanies(dot)com.
Queens mission to provide transformative educational experiences is reflected in a nexus of a firm foundation in the liberal arts with a strong culture of student engagement," said Society Executive Director Dr. Mary Todd.
The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi will install its 349th chapter at Queens University of Charlotte today, September 5. Founded in 1897 at the University of Maine, Phi Kappa Phi is the nations oldest and most selective all-discipline collegiate honor society.
The installation of the Queens University chapter comes after a thorough petitioning process and approval from the Societys board of directors. To be eligible, an institution must be a regionally accredited four-year college or university with an established reputation of excellence and an expressed commitment to upholding the values of the Society.
The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi is pleased to welcome Queens University of Charlotte to its community of scholars, said Society Executive Director Dr. Mary Todd. Queens mission to provide transformative educational experiences is reflected in a nexus of a firm foundation in the liberal arts with a strong culture of student engagement.
Officers elected by the chartering group to serve the newly installed chapter include President Dr. John Sisko, President-elect Dr. Nancy Johnson, Secretary Dr. Mark Kelso, Treasurer Dr. Greg Pillar, Public Relations Co-officers Dr. Tama Morris and Dr. Siu Challons-Lipton, and Grants & Awards Co-officers Dr. Janie Best and Dr. Scott Weir.
Phi Kappa Phi was founded in 1897 when Marcus L. Urann, a student, brought to his professor the idea of creating a different kind of honor societyone that recognized excellence in all academic disciplines. Today, the Society has chapters on more than 300 select campuses in the United States and the Philippines and inducts approximately 30,000 new members each year. Membership is by invitation only to the top 7.5 percent of juniors and the top 10 percent of seniors and graduate students, along with faculty, professional staff and alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction.
About Phi Kappa Phi
Founded in 1897 at the University of Maine, Phi Kappa Phi is the nation's oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines. The Societys mission is "To recognize and promote academic excellence in all fields of higher education and to engage the community of scholars in service to others." Since its founding, more than 1.5 million members have been initiated. Some of the organization's more notable members include former President Jimmy Carter, NASA astronaut Wendy Lawrence, novelist John Grisham and YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley. Each year, Phi Kappa Phi awards nearly $1 million to qualifying students and members through graduate and dissertation fellowships, undergraduate study abroad grants, member and chapter awards, and grants for local and national literacy initiatives. For more information about Phi Kappa Phi, visit http://www.PhiKappaPhi.org.
"We (eCampus.com) are pleased to partner with The King's University to align with their goals of providing students an innovative virtual bookstore experience." - Matt Montgomery, President and CEO, eCampus.com
Beginning in fall 2018, TKU will have expanded access to affordable course materials in every format, including new, used, rental, eBook, and a peer-to-peer marketplace. Focused on an improved student experience, orders can be placed at any time through a state-of-the-art online bookstore customized for the institution. eCampus.coms industry expertise will afford TKU a best-in-class bookstore experience that provides significant savings on course materials with maximum purchasing flexibility, including the ability to leverage student financial aid. By offering a robust online experience, TKU will meet the needs of all campuses in both Texas and California.
Promoting TKUs commitment to a superior and equally affordable education, eCampus.com Virtual Bookstores will offer an expansive textbook rental selection in addition to new and used, reflecting the highest percentage of rental availability in the industry. With a vast selection of discounted course materials, TKU students can anticipate savings up to 70% off of publisher list prices. This equates to improved access to course materials through reduced costs, ultimately driving academic outcomes. Further complementing the solution for students is an exceptional customer service team who will provide superior year-round support. Faculty also benefit from a powerful online adoption tool that streamlines the entire adoption process.
The Kings University is committed to providing quality education and practical ministry training to future pastors and leaders in the most cost-effective way possible, said Ashley Green, Vice President of Business Administration and CFO for TKU. We are also constantly looking for ways to improve the student experience. Through opportunities to expand our online store platform to include University-branded merchandise, to implement a textbook voucher system that works with students financial aid, and to offer a new scholarship for textbooks, we look forward to partnering with eCampus.com in accomplishing those goals.
eCampus.coms Virtual Bookstore program is committed to improved textbook affordability, said Matt Montgomery, President and CEO of eCampus.com. We are pleased to partner with The Kings University to align with their goals of providing students an innovative virtual bookstore experience. Together, we help combat the rising costs of higher education by delivering the right course materials at competitive prices.
More information on eCampus.com Virtual Bookstores can be found at http://ecampuscms.com.
About eCampus.com
eCampus.com is a premier online retailer of textbooks and digital course materials. Consistently exceeding industry standards, eCampus.coms mission is to provide the easiest, fastest, and most affordable way for K-12 and higher education students to buy, rent, or sell textbooks and digital content. The company launched on July 2, 1999, the birthday of original investor Dave Thomas of Wendys. From the beginning, their driving force has been meeting the needs of the customers they serve. Remaining an innovative leader in the course materials industry, eCampus.com serves over 250 colleges and universities through an innovative course material solutions suite, including full-service Virtual Bookstores and the eCampus.com ALL Access program. eCampus.com's mission enables institutions to increase course material affordability, serving millions of students to date. Through products that simplify the adoption, management and procurement of course materials, eCampus.com propels student success by delivering the right course materials, at the right time, at the right price. Learn more at ecampus.com.
About The Kings University
The Kings University is a small private college, with its main campus located in Southlake, TX. Providing a flexible learning environment with both on-ground and online options, TKU is an accredited evangelical institution dedicated to the preparation of men and women for effective leadership and Christ-like servanthood in the global community. Currently offering 16 vocational ministry degree plans including undergraduate and graduate degrees, TKU has branch campuses and teaching sites in multiple U.S. cities. With more than 700 students University-wide, and more than 400 students at the Southlake campus in Dallas/Fort Worth, TKUs dynamic learning environment and Spirit-empowered community enable its students to learn, develop skills and talents, and grow in relationships. More information on TKU can be found at tku.edu.
The NHP Foundation (NHPF) is pleased to announce that it has named Barbara W. Wolf Vice-President, Philanthropy where she will lead fundraising efforts for The NHP Foundation and its affiliate, Operation Pathways.
Ms. Wolf brings over 25 years of distinguished fundraising, program management and advocacy experience to the new NHPF role.
Barbaras impressive track record in identifying, cultivating and winning funding, convinced us she is the right professional to take on and be successful in this new role at NHPF, said NHPF President & CEO Richard F. Burns. We are confident she will bring a robust combination of established and innovative approaches to help us reach our goals.
Ms. Wolf served as Vice-President, Development for the National Apartment Association Education Institute where she led a capital campaign to raise funds for new talent acquisition and education programs benefiting the multifamily industry. She also counts in her experience developing and executing multi-platform fundraising strategies on behalf of the MedicAlert Foundation where she served as Vice President of Advancement. Ms. Wolf also served as Senior Vice President for United Way National Capital Area leading corporate and workplace campaigns. Over eight years as Senior Vice President of Jobs for Americas Graduates, a national dropout prevention program, Ms. Wolf convincingly advocated on behalf of at-risk young people, cultivated and implemented the organizations first program in the nations capital, and secured funding from top U.S. corporations and foundations.
Ms. Wolf is a graduate of Virginia Tech. She also volunteers for the Salvation Army Grate Patrol, and has volunteered extensively and served on the boards of non-profits in the Washington Metro Area.
Contact: Marijane Funess/NHP Foundation
mfuness@nhpfoundation.org 646.336.4927
About The NHP Foundation
Headquartered in New York City with offices in Washington, DC, and Chicago, IL, The NHP Foundation was launched on January 30, 1989, as a publicly supported 501(c)(3) not-for-profit real estate corporation. NHPF is dedicated to preserving and creating sustainable, service-enriched multifamily housing that is both affordable to low and moderate income families and seniors, and beneficial to their communities. NHPF also provides a robust resident services program to more than 28,000 community residents. Through partnerships with major financial institutions, the public sector, faith-based initiatives, and other not-for-profit organizations, NHPF has preserved 81 properties, totaling 14,259 units in 18 states and the District of Columbia. Today, NHPFs portfolio includes 42 properties, totaling over 7,000 apartment units, in 15 states and the District of Columbia. For more information on The NHP Foundation, please visit http://www.nhpfoundation.org.
The Quinism Foundation has sent correspondence to Patrick M. Shanahan, Deputy Secretary of Defense, calling on the Department of Defense (DoD) to enact policy declaring the antimalarial drug tafenoquine a, drug of last resort for the prevention of malaria. Tafenoquine was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for this indication, to be marketed by 60 Degrees Pharmaceuticals as Arakoda.
The foundation is asking that a comparable policy be implemented for use of tafenoquine as previously implemented for use of the related drug mefloquine, which both the U.S. military and 60 Degrees Pharmaceuticals note is neurotoxic [1], said Remington Nevin, MD, MPH, DrPH, executive director of The Quinism Foundation. In 2013, when this policy was first implemented, FDA required that the U.S. drug label for mefloquine carry a black box warning, advising of the need to discontinue mefloquine at the onset of psychiatric symptoms, and cautioning that neuropsychiatric adverse effects, presumably from the drugs neurotoxicity, could be permanent.
Scientists with the U.S. military have shown tafenoquine to be even more neurotoxic than mefloquine [2], said Dr. Nevin. "It is the position of The Quinism Foundation that, as with mefloquine, any psychiatric symptoms that develop with use of tafenoquine for the prevention of malaria, including symptoms as seemingly mild as insomnia or nightmares, should be considered prodromal to more serious adverse effects [3].
In recognition of tafenoquines neuropsychiatric liability, the FDA has required comparable language in the approved U.S. drug label for Arakoda, warning that those taking the drug should be promptly evaluated by a medical professional if psychiatric symptoms occur during use, such as changes in mood, anxiety, insomnia, and nightmares if they are moderate and last more than three days or are severe.
The Quinism Foundation is concerned that FDAs guidance for the use of Arakoda will be prove exceptionally difficult, if not prohibitive, to implement in military settings, said Dr. Nevin. Particularly during deployments for combat missions, humanitarian emergencies, and disaster response, side effects from tafenoquine are likely to be underreported by service members and misattributed by medical professionals to other causes.
As with mefloquine, we ask that tafenoquine not be prescribed to service members with a history of psychiatric symptoms or disorders, or to service members with a history of symptomatic traumatic brain injury, said Dr. Nevin. Among these service members, use of medication to treat such conditions may mask tafenoquine side effects, and any prevalent symptoms from such conditions may confound recognition of side effects.
"In those rare cases where tafenoquine is prescribed as a drug of last resort, we ask that military prescribers be limited to prescribing an initial six tablet (three day) loading dose prior to deployment, said Dr. Nevin. We also ask that service members be warned that the most common side effects of tafenoquine include insomnia, depression, abnormal dreams and anxiety, and that they be reassessed 3 days after completion of the loading dose for the development of these and other side effects. Only after such side effects have been ruled out, should the remaining tablets for deployment be prescribed.
We ask that this be done in recognition that contacting a medical professional will be more difficult after deployment begins, and that correctly attributing side effects will be similarly more difficult during deployment," said Dr. Nevin. "For example, during deployment, the common use of hypnotics and other sleep-aids is likely to mask recognition of insomnia as a side effect of tafenoquine, and will limit the likelihood that service members will seek prompt evaluation should this symptom develop. Similarly, service members are known to underreport the development of psychiatric symptoms during deployment, limiting the likelihood that anxiety, changes in mood, nightmares, and other psychiatric symptoms will prompt their seeking evaluation should these develop as side effects of the drug."
"It is now understood that well over 10% of those prescribed mefloquine for the prevention of malaria will experience insomnia, nightmares, anxiety, or changes in mood, which require the drug's immediate discontinuation [4]," said Dr. Nevin. "Yet for nearly a quarter century, the U.S. military reported nowhere near this rate of suspected side effects with use of mefloquine during military deployments. This adds urgency to findings that tafenoquine appears to share a similar adverse effect profile to mefloquine. For example, a randomized blinded trial of tafenoquine in comparison to mefloquine for prevention of malaria found that deployed military users of tafenoquine reported a comparable rate of neuropsychiatric symptoms as users of mefloquine [5], but that these were signficantly underreported in comparison to rates reported by military users in non-deployed settings [6]."
"Even if these side effects are reported during deployment, insomnia could be misattributed by medical professionals to the sleep-disrupting effects of travel across time zones, or to other common causes of insomnia in military se
ttings. Similarly, anxiety, changes in mood, and nightmares, could be misattributed to the effects of trauma and other stressors commonly encountered during deployments," said Dr. Nevin. "This misattribution could further limit the reporting of these side effects to FDA, and as occurred with mefloquine, contribute to a vicious cycle where stigma or command pressure is created against the reporting of side effects, based on an erroneous belief that side effects are rare."
About The Quinism Foundation
The Quinism Foundation, founded in January 2018, in White River Junction, Vermont, promotes and supports education and research on quinism, the family of medical disorders caused by poisoning by quinoline drugs, including mefloquine and tafenoquine.
Executive director Dr. Nevin is a board-certified occupational medicine and preventive medicine physician and former U.S. Army medical officer and epidemiologist. He is author of more than 30 scientific publications on malaria and the quinoline antimalarials.
1. 60 Degrees Pharmaceuticals and U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity, Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, August 2014. Available at: https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/2014-60pusammda-tafenoquine-crada-46917.
2. Agboruche RL. 529.3 In-Vitro Toxicity Assessment of Antimalarial Drug Toxicity on Cultured Embryonic Rat Neurons, Macrophage (RAW 264.7), and Kidney Cells (VERO-CCl-81). FASEB Journal. 2009;23(1 Meeting Abstract Supplement):529.3.
3. Nevin RL. A serious nightmare: psychiatric and neurologic adverse reactions to
mefloquine are serious adverse reactions. Pharmacology Research and Perspectives. 2017;5(4):e00328.
4. Tickell-Painter M, Maayan N, Saunders R, et al. Mefloquine for preventing malaria during travel to endemic areas. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2017;10(10):CD006491
5. Nasveld PE et al. Randomized, double-blind study of the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of tafenoquine versus mefloquine for malaria prophylaxis in nonimmune subjects. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. 2010; 54(2), 792798.
6. Boudreau E et al. Tolerability of prophylactic Lariam regimens. Tropical Medicine and Parasitology. 1993;44(3):257-265.
These outstanding, early-career scientists are highly innovative and inspirational. We are proud of their contributions to science and excited to observe how their current and future discoveries will make the world a better place.
The Blavatnik Family Foundation and the New York Academy of Sciences today announced the three winners and six finalists of the 2018 Blavatnik Regional Awards for Young Scientists. Supporting outstanding postdoctoral scientists from academic research institutions across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut since 2007, the Blavatnik Regional Awards pay tribute to researchers in three scientific disciplinary categories: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Chemistry. A distinguished jury of senior scientists and engineers selects a winner who is awarded a $30,000 unrestricted prize, and two finalists who each collect $10,000, from each category.
In 2018, the Blavatnik Regional Awards received 125 outstanding nominations from 22 academic institutions in the New York metropolitan (Tri-State) area. This year marks the first time when the jury selected three female Winners, all of whom are leading young scientists in their respective fields of research. The 2018 Blavatnik Regional Awards Winners are:
Life Sciences: Shruti Naik, PhD, nominated by The Rockefeller University (now at NYU School of Medicine) is recognized for demonstrating that skin stem cells retain a memory of previous inflammatory experiences, allowing for a more robust and rapid response to subsequent injury.
Physical Sciences & Engineering: Lingyan Shi, PhD, Columbia University, is recognized for pioneering work that applies novel optical techniques for neuroscience and cancer research, including recent discovery of the Golden Optical Window for deep brain imaging, and a breakthrough platform for imaging metabolic activities in situ.
Chemistry: Lu Wei, PhD, nominated by Columbia University (now at the Caltech), is recognized for developing novel bio-imaging techniques coupled with chemical innovations that allow simultaneous visualization of four times the number of distinctive biological species in live cells and tissues that conventional methods are capable of.
At the time of nomination, both Drs. Shi and Wei were trainees of 2012 Blavatnik Regional Awards Faculty Finalist Prof. Wei Min of Columbia University.
In recognition of the outstanding achievements of the 2018 Blavatnik Regional Awards honorees, Len Blavatnik, Founder and Chairman of Access Industries and the Blavatnik Family Foundation, and member of the Presidents Council of the New York Academy of Sciences stated, These outstanding, early-career scientists are highly innovative and inspirational. We are proud of their contributions to science and excited to observe how their current and future discoveries will make the world a better place.
Ellis Rubinstein, President and CEO of the Academy and Chair of the Awards Scientific Advisory Council commented on this years pool of honorees The New York Metropolitan areas scientific eco-system is a melting pot of scientific ideas and research disciplines. This years winners and finalists have taken risks, stepped outside of the box of their traditional fields, and drawn from methods and applications beyond their strict disciplines, forging new ideas in the process. Their research and dedication is promising for the future of our world. On this years clean sweep of the winning honors by women, Rubinstein stated We are proud to provide a platform for supporting diversity in STEM, showcasing the talent of these incredible young women and in turn encouraging other young women to pursue careers in science. Science is better when diverse voices can shape and drive innovation.
2018 Blavatnik Regional Awards Finalists
The following postdoctoral researchers have been named Finalists in their respective categories:
Life Sciences
Samuel Bakhoum, MD, PhD, nominated by Weill Cornell Medicine (now at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center). A radiation oncologist and a cancer biologist, Dr. Bakhoum is recognized for discovering the mechanistic link between chromosomal instability in cancer cells, a hallmark of solid tumors, and inflammation-mediated metastasis, or spread, of cancer.
Zhe Zhang, PhD, The Rockefeller University. Dr. Zhang, a structural biologist, is recognized for determining the atomic structure of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) anion channel using cryo-electron microscopy. Mutations in CFTR cause cystic fibrosis, a common and lethal genetic disorder that affects mostly the lungs and digestive system.
Physical Sciences & Engineering
Lucia Gualtieri, PhD, Princeton University. Dr. Gualtieri is a seismologist recognized for contributions to the field of geophysics and seismology that have revolutionized our understanding of what globally detectable seismic background signals can tell scientists about environmental processes, such as hurricanes and landslides.
Peter Schauss, PhD, nominated by Princeton University (now at the University of Virginia). Dr. Schauss is an experimental physicist recognized for fundamental experiments using quantum gas microscopy where atoms are cooled to temperatures only a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero so their behavior becomes dominated by quantum mechanics.
Chemistry
Niankai Fu, PhD, Cornell University. Dr. Fu, an organic chemist, is recognized for transformative work on the development of electroorganic synthesis as a viable synthetic chemistry tool.
Priyanka Sharma, PhD, Stony Brook University. Dr. Sharma is a polymer chemist recognized for her pioneering work on the low-cost conversion of untreated biomass to carboxycellulose nanofibers, which have applications in biomedicine and water purification.
About the 2018 Blavatnik Regional Awards Winners
Shruti Naik, PhD
2018 Life Sciences Award Winner
The Rockefeller University
Dr. Naiks groundbreaking work uncovered a new property of skin stem cells that explains how our largest and most vulnerable organthe skinresponds to and remembers injuries and inflammatory stimuli such as injury or exposure to skin irritants. The skin is the bodys primary barrier to the outside world and it is critical to our survival that it remains intact. Skin tissue is sustained by pools of long-living epithelial stem cells, and Dr. Naik discovered that exposure of these stem cells to noxious stimuli induces an inflammatory memory that alters stem cells genetic landscape and makes them respond more quickly and robustly to a subsequent insulta property previously thought to be restricted to cells of the immune system. Further, Dr. Naik unveiled the underlying molecular mechanism, finding that exposure to inflammation increases the accessibility of the cells DNA in regions that are associated with stress responses. In turn, these poised stem cells more quickly trigger inflammatory gene expression after a second injury. This response can be beneficial, as pre-inflamed skin heals faster after wounding, but when gone awry also may explain the development and reoccurrence of inflammatory skin diseases such as psoriasis or predispositions to skin cancers. Dr. Naiks discovery that skin stem cells can be sensitized to inflammation may aid the development of better treatment strategies for a variety of skin conditions.
Lingyan Shi, PhD
2018 Physical Sciences & Engineering Award Winner
Columbia University
Dr. Lingyan Shis pioneering work in developing and applying novel optical techniques has led to a number of significant breakthroughs in biophotonics, with major implications for the fields of neuroscience and cancer research, and is allowing us to visualize the mechanisms underlying everyday processes and disease. One of Dr. Shis most significant discoveries has been the development of a new experimental technique that combines heavy water labeling and a relatively new imaging method, stimulated Raman scattering microscopy, to probe the metabolic activities of living tissues at subcellular resolution in situ. This discovery facilitates the visualization of tumor boundaries, embryonic development, and even aging in biological tissue. Another significant scientific contribution is her discovery of the Golden Optical Window a unique band of infrared wavelengths that can penetrate deeper into biological tissues than other wavelengths of light during imaging, thereby dramatically increasing the imaging depth possible in brain tissue by as much as 50%. In addition, Dr. Shi has developed an early-detection spectral technique that could provide doctors with a tool for the early-stage detection of Alzheimers disease.
Lu Wei, PhD
2018 Chemistry Award Winner
Columbia University
Dr. Wei is a physical chemist working at the interface of physics, chemistry, and chemical biology and who has developed transformative optical microscopy technologies, which have widespread impact in biophysics and biophotonics. Traditional fluorescence-based microscopy techniques, while being quite powerful, have fundamental limitations. One major limitation when applying fluorescence microscopy to the study of complex biological systems is the ability to only resolve 2-5 molecular targets at a time. This means that researchers can only obtain a limited picture of the molecular species that are involved in a biological process. To address this limitation, Dr. Wei has developed a novel multiplex imaging technique using nonlinear Raman scattering microscopy coupled with the novel chemical design of new Raman probes. Her method allows for simultaneous imaging of a large number of molecular species (more than 20 targets) and, as a result, represents a major breakthrough in the field of optical imaging. In addition to bio-imaging, Dr. Wei has further demonstrated the high impact of her work by collaborating with material scientists at Columbia University that innovatively used the nonlinear Raman imaging technique to probe the dynamics of electrolyte concentrations in lithium ion batteries.
Honoring the Blavatnik Regional Award Winners and Finalists
The 2018 Blavatnik Regional Awards winners and finalists will be honored at the New York Academy of Sciences 15th Annual Gala at the Conrad Hotel in New York on November 5, 2018.
About the Blavatnik Family Foundation
The Blavatnik Family Foundation is an active supporter of many leading educational, scientific, cultural, and charitable institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, and throughout the world. Recipients of Foundation support include the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, Harvard University, Yale University, Tel Aviv University, Stanford University, New York University, the University of Pennsylvania, the New York Academy of Sciences, Tate, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Carnegie Hall, the Royal Opera House, the Hermitage Museum, The Israel Museum, Lincoln Center, numerous Jewish charitable organizations, and countless other philanthropic institutions. The Foundation is headed by Len Blavatnik, a global industrialist and philanthropist. Mr. Blavatnik is the Founder and Chairman of Access Industries, a privately-held industrial group headquartered in New York City with global strategic interests in natural resources and chemicals, media and telecommunications, venture capital, and real estate. For more detailed information, please visit: http://www.accessindustries.com.
About the New York Academy of Sciences
The New York Academy of Sciences is an independent, not-for-profit organization that since 1817 has been driving innovative solutions to societys challenges by advancing scientific research, education, and policy. Throughout its history, the Academy's Membership has featured thinkers and innovators from all walks of life, including U.S. Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe, Thomas Edison, Lord Kelvin, Charles Darwin, Margaret Mead, Louis Pasteur, and over 130 Nobel Laureates. Today, the Academy numbers over 20,000 Members in 100+ countries, with a President's Council that includes 36 Nobel Laureates and a distinguished Board of Governors comprised of leaders from business, academia, and philanthropy. It is also young and dynamic with nearly 10,000 post-doctoral, post-graduate, undergraduate, and gifted high school student Members. Through collective action, the Academy is partnering with the United Nations to address their Sustainable Development Goals, advising national leaders and organizing public-private partnerships to address the grand challenges of the planet.
Please visit us online at http://www.nyas.org and follow us on Twitter at @NYASciences.
To follow the progress of the Blavatnik Awards, please visit http://www.blavatnikawards.org or follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@BlavatnikAwards).
For media requests, please contact Dennis Tartaglia (dtartaglia@tartagliacommunications.com; 732-545-1848) or Kamala Murthy (Kmurthy@nyas.org; 212-298-3740).
We are delighted to have Tom Quale join First Home to lead our Sarasota team. Tom is well known in the Sarasota community for providing exemplary customer service and for working closely with his clients to provide well-crafted business and consumer banking solutions, CEO Anthony N. Leo said. Past News Releases RSS
First Home Bank is pleased to announce that Tom Quale has joined the bank as president for the Sarasota market. Quale has more than 30 years of community banking and commercial lending experience in the Sarasota area. In addition to Quales professional experience, he has dedicated personal time and resources to community improvement through his commitment to numerous organizations. He has served as a board member for the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Corporation, as well as having served as an advisor on various community, media, and business organizations. Quale is also active in the Boy Scouts of America as a Scoutmaster.
We are delighted to have Tom Quale join First Home to lead our Sarasota team. Tom is well known in the Sarasota community for providing exemplary customer service and for working closely with his clients to provide well-crafted business and consumer banking solutions. Toms approach to serving clients is a perfect fit with First Home a Tampa Bay community bank at heart enhanced with nationwide SBA and mortgage lending platforms, Chief Executive Officer Anthony N. Leo said.
The Tampa Bay area customers have long enjoyed personalized service coupled with advanced technology that the bank readily provides. This will resonate well with our customers in Sarasota, said Quale. First Home expects to open its Sarasota-community banking center in a prime downtown location later this year under Quales leadership. Joining Quales team is Frank Maggio as vice president, commercial loan officer. Not only does Maggio contribute 20 years of commercial lending experience, but he is also actively involved in the Sarasota community. Both Quale and Maggio are graduates of the Florida School of Banking.
First Home is comprised of three divisions: Community Banking Division, Residential Mortgage Division, and SBA Lending Division. The Community Banking division provides a full suite of business and consumer banking products and services through four full-service banking centers. The Residential Lending Division provides mortgage loans to homeowners in all 50 states. The banks SBA Lending Division ranks as a top 10 SBA Preferred Lender offering SBA loans ranging from $25,000 to $5,000,00 that feature flexible parameters to meet the financial needs of small businesses throughout the nation. First Home consistently earns a 5-star rating from bankrate.com and BauerFinancial for its safety, soundness, strength, reliability, and trust.
About First Home Bank: First Home Bank was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida. With total assets of approximately $320 million, First Home currently operates four full-service banking centers in St. Petersburg, Seminole, Pinellas Park, and Clearwater, Florida. In addition to its banking centers, First Home operates a national SBA lending platform and a full service national residential mortgage platform. As of the end of the SBA fiscal year on September 30, 2017, First Home Bank was ranked as the 10th largest SBA Lender nationally in SBA loans originated. Additionally, First Home Bank consistently ranks among the top performing banks in Florida measured by return on average assets and return on average equity.
Tri-Lakes Monument Fire Protection District joins the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System Posting the bid for an entire regional community of vendors to see will help us reach more variety of qualified local suppliers.
Today, Tri-Lakes Monument FPD has officially joined the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System to help simplify their bid and RFP distribution process. The Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System is one of BidNets 30 regional purchasing groups throughout the country which offers participating local government agencies an e-procurement solution. Tri-Lakes Monument FPD invites all vendors to register online with the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System to access its upcoming solicitations by visiting http://www.bidnetdirect.com/colorado.
With the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System, vendors register to access one centralized location with opportunities from over 200 participating agencies throughout Colorado and Wyoming. By posting upcoming solicitations to the regional purchasing group, in addition to their website, Tri-Lakes Monument FPD hopes to make it easier for more vendors to access their documents. They also hope to expand the reach of their solicitations to a more diverse vendor pool. Unlike the prior process of only publishing bids to a webpage, the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System provides a method to track all bid activity, including the details of vendors who have received or downloaded a bid.
Sometimes distributing a bid on our site just isnt enough, says Christopher Truty, Fire Chief of Tri-Lakes Monument FPD. Posting the bid for an entire regional community of vendors to see will help us reach more variety of qualified local suppliers. We like that with the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System we can quantifiably track the level of diversity.
Tri-Lakes Monument FPD invites all local vendors to visit http://www.bidnetdirect.com/colorado and register to receive access to its upcoming solicitations as well as the upcoming bids and RFPs from 216 other public agencies participating on the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System. Registered vendors also gain access to a team of experienced customer service support representatives and can upgrade their service to receive customized bid alerts, advanced notice of term contract expiration, and notification of a recently posted addendum.
About Tri-Lakes Monument FPD:
The Tri-Lakes Monument FPD covers over 50 square miles of primary response area in northern El Paso County and provides all ranges of fire, EMS, rescue and community services.
About the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System:
The Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System is a part of BidNets regional purchasing groups available at no cost to local government agencies throughout the country. With years of input from procurement professionals, BidNet specifically developed the bid system to fill the need for a robust bid and supplier management solution for local government agencies. BidNet runs 30 regional purchasing groups used by over 1,300 local governments. To learn more and have your government agency gain better transparency and efficiency in purchasing, please visit http://www.bidnetdirect.com/buyers
When I started Tristar, my goal was to produce innovative products that improve the quality of life of busy families. Products that make life easier, better, and less stressful at a price that doesnt break the bank.
As Seen on TV marketing company Tristar Products, Inc., announces the newest extension of its Copper Chef brand, the Wonder Cooker. The Wonder Cooker, a multi-purpose roasting pan set, has launched on TV, online, and in various retail stores across the country. Copper Chef joined the cookware category as a major player after the original 9.5 deep square pan was launched in 2015. Copper Chef quickly became Tristars best-selling kitchen cookware brand, offering an expanding range of innovative units.
When I started Tristar, my goal was to produce innovative products that improve the quality of life of busy families. Products that make life easier, better, and less stressful at a price that doesnt break the bank. Copper Chefs Wonder Cooker is a perfect example of that. You get a heavy-duty, non-stick, multi-use roasting pan that cooks so many other ways. In fact, it replaces $1,300 in kitchen pans and appliances. No more pots and pans taking over your kitchen space, said Keith Mirchandani, President and CEO of Tristar Products, Inc. Plus, this deluxe pan set has all the same great features like Cerami-Tech coating and dual stainless steel induction plates that made our Copper Chef cookware collection the #1 Selling Cookware Brand in America.*
The Wonder Cooker is a roasting and baking pan set designed to replace 14 different pots and pans: a deep roaster, Dutch oven, stock pan, shallow roaster, dual roaster, casserole pan, deep fryer, slow cooker, steamer, electric grill pan, skillet, chafing dish, baking pan and grill pan. Its constructed of five-layer thick cast aluminum with Copper Chefs Cerami-Tech Non-Stick Coating. The pan set can be used in five different configurations: double cooker, shallow roaster, grill pan, roaster, and Dutch oven. Its designed for use on indoor stove tops, the oven, and the outdoor grill. Dual, stainless steel induction plates are built into both the deep and shallow roasting pans.
Were all really excited about the Wonder Cooker here at Tristar. When we launched the 11 XL Casserole Pan, there was a huge response from our Copper Chef customers. We got many five-star reviews because it streamlined the cooking process food tastes better, you dont need to add extra oil, and, of course, it cooks faster and is much easier to clean. But they also wanted a bigger pan, too one that can accommodate large parties or roast a turkey at the holidays, said Norah Alberto, Director of Global Communications at Tristar. So, of course, we delivered and we really outdid ourselves. You can use the Wonder Cooker every day as a lasagna pan, grill pan, cake pan, baking pan, and more, and its large enough to replace a full-size 13.5 x 10-inch roasting pan. You can even use it to make your gravy! With 14 different cooking functions, you really cant go wrong.
Tristar is offering the Wonder Cooker in two sizes: a 9-Qt. set and a family-size 12-Qt. set. Both sizes come with an accessory set that includes a Cook & Look Glass Lid, two Deep Fryer Baskets, a Copper Crisper Tray/Rack, and a hardcover Eric Theiss recipe book. The Cook & Look Glass Lid allows customers to watch their meals while they cook. Deep fry baskets turn the large roasting pan into a deep frying pan. The Crisping Tray can be used as a roasting rack to hold food in the oven while fat drains away or for turning your oven into an air fryer. The recipe book features Copper Chef TV host Eric Theiss and includes over 100 recipes with full-page color photos and an easy-to-follow format.
Source: The NPD Group/Retail Tracking Service, 3 Months Ending December 17, dollar sales among national brands.
Tristar Products, Inc. started over 25 years ago. Located just outside Manhattan, Tristar markets and distributes products sold on television, throughout national and international retail distribution, online, and via social media. The companys highest-rated best sellers include Copper Chef, Power AirFryer Oven, Power Smokeless Grill, Power AirFryer, Power Quick Pot, Power Pressure Cooker XL, Flex-Able Hose, Perfecter Fusion Styler, Genie Bra, Banjo Minnow, and the Ab Coaster. Celebrities endorsing Tristar products include Eric Theiss, Sarah Ferguson, the late Joan Rivers, Carol Alt, Denise Austin, and the late Jack LaLanne.
About Tristar Products
http://www.tristarproductsinc.com
Tristar Products, Inc. is industry recognized as the premier direct response market leader worldwide. Tristar has exceeded over one billion dollars in retail sales. Tristar Products, Inc. is an Inc. 5000 company.
About Copper Chef Wonder Cooker
http://www.getwondercooker.com/
http://www.copperchef.com
LBA Technology PLP StrikeMaster lightning mast deployed with military field ops. We specialize in lightning protection solutions for critical, high value assets and were honored to be providing our PLP masts to the Marine Corps for such an important mission.
The U.S. Marine Corps has purchased PLP Lightning Mast systems designed and manufactured by LBA Technology, Inc. (LBA). These portable systems, that are part of the companys StrikeMaster line of lightning mast protection systems, are being used to safeguard the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet fleet at Air Station Iwakuni, Japan. LBA Technology, Inc. is a business unit of LBA Group, Inc.
Based upon extensive research from the F-35 Joint Strike Force Program Office, this is the only lightning mast that meets the established program requirements, the Marine Corps said of the proprietary LBA solution.
The Marine Corps required portability and quick deployment capability to provide 24/7 lightning protection in support of combat operations or training exercises. The PLP mast provides for highly effective lightning protection and is designed to withstand a wide range of harsh environmental elements.
It can be broken down for compact storage and transportation. The PLP includes streamer discharge dissipation technology to reduce the probability of lightning strikes and is fully compliant to NFPA70 requirements for lightning masts.
We specialize in lightning protection solutions for critical, high value military and civilian assets and were honored to be providing our PLP masts to the Marine Corps for such an important mission, LBA COO Mike Britner said.
Learn more about LBAs StrikeMaster PLP lightning protection systems and other lightning
protection solutions here. Contact Lightning Products Manager Mike Senn directly at: 252-757-0279 or michael.senn@lbagroup.com.
About LBA
LBA Group, Inc. has 55 years of experience in providing RF asset solutions and risk management for industrial and telecommunications infrastructure assets. The company is comprised of the technology consultancy Lawrence Behr Associates, Inc.; LBA Technology, Inc., a leading manufacturer and integrator of radio frequency systems, lightning protection, safety, and EMC equipment for broadcast, industrial, and government users worldwide; and LBA University, Inc., providing international online professional safety training. The companies are based in Greenville, N.C., USA. Keep up on LBA news and information by following LBA Group on Facebook and LinkedIn.
We are pleased to be able to offer a valuable subscription to DiversityComms U.S. Veterans Magazine to our membership without any cost to them
The Veterans and Military Business Owners Association (VAMBOA) is proud to announce that it has once again joined forces with DiversityComm to offer beneficial resources to the readers of U.S. Veterans Magazine and secure free subscriptions for VAMBOA members.
VAMBOA is a non-profit 501(c)6 trade association with more than 7,200 members nationwide. Known as the go-to association for Veteran and Military Business Owners, VAMBOA assists Veteran Business Owners, Service Disabled Veteran Owned Businesses (SDVOB) and Military Business Owners with development, growth and prosperity. VAMBOA is supported through corporate sponsorships. There are no dues or membership fees for Veteran and Military Business members.
VAMBOAs 7,200 members are in all business sectors from sole proprietors to large corporations. VAMBOA helps to spread the word about the excellent diversity programs of its sponsors, and from time to time, profiles key members with press releases, articles, blog posts, and on their social media network approaching a quarter of a million combined fans and followers.
Additionally, VAMBOA assists corporations in connecting sourcing professionals with qualified Veteran and Military Enterprises (VMEs) through face-to-face meetings and distributing their RFI/RFPs, thus increasing diversity spend. VAMBOA also provides the opportunity to network with corporate members and share their best practices in Supplier Diversity.
By renewing our Memorandum of Understanding, we are pleased to be able to offer a valuable subscription to DiversityComms U.S. Veterans Magazine to our membership without any cost to them, said VAMBOA CEO Debbie Gregory. At the same time, we will be supplying editorial content to the magazine that will be of interest to the magazines readership. At VAMBOA, we value working with the DiversityComm team.
DiversityComm has more than 25 years of professional expertise in all aspects of business and employment that ensures equal opportunity and diversity and inclusion advertising. In addition to U.S. Veterans Magazine, DiversityComm publishes Black EOE Journal, HISPANIC Network Magazine, Professional WOMANs Magazine, Diversity in STEAM Magazine and Diverseability Magazine.
About VAMBOA
VAMBOA, the Veterans and Military Business Owners Association, is a 501(c)6 non-profit trade association. VAMBOA has a national reach with over 7,200 members and is the go to association for Veteran and Military Entrepreneurs. VAMBOA focuses on connecting Service Disabled Veteran Business Owners (SDVBO), Veteran Business Owners, Military Business Owners and Military Spouse Business Owners with corporations that value a diverse supplier network. There are not any fees to members and VAMBOA is supported 100% by corporate sponsorships. VAMBOA is there to drive their success and provide them valuable resources. VAMBOA is approaching a quarter of a million combined fans and followers on social media. Register for membership at https://vamboa.org/member-registration/ or learn more by going to http://www.vamboa.org.
About DiversityComm
DiversityComm, Inc. (DCI) is the proud publisher of six nationally recognized diversity-focused magazines: Black EOE Journal, HISPANIC Network Magazine, Professional WOMANs Magazine, U.S. Veterans Magazine, Diversity in STEAM Magazine, and DIVERSEability Magazine. Each magazine has its own engaging website, distribution, and digital edition. In addition, the company publishes a bi-monthly award-winning e-newsletter that reaches all their readers, subscribers and clients.
Vibe HCM, a leading provider of human capital management and employee engagement solutions, will attend the HR Technology Conference on September 11-14 at the Venetian in Las Vegas.
Vibe HCM will unveil the industry's first unified HCM Engagement Platform enabling organizations to deliver on both the daily demands of compliant, efficient HR transactions and the power of employee engagement - on any device and in one easy to deploy, easy to manage platform. Modern HR is moving beyond transactions to achieving the promise of engagement.
As the world's leading event on HR technology for more than 20 years, the HR Technology Conference is the ideal place to demonstrate the future of engagement. "We are excited to participate in the HR Technology Conference," said Cary Schuler, Senior Vice President Marketing at Vibe HCM. "It is a great opportunity for us to showcase our HCM Engagement Platform. A proven platform that delivers end-to-end HCM capabilities and a fresh new approach to executing employee engagement strategies. Organizations no longer need multiple different systems to manage the business of HR and their strategic engagement initiatives."
Vibe HCM will be exhibiting in booth #2347 and will provide an in-depth demonstration on September 13th from 12:30-1:30 PM in demo room #1. The demo, entitled Beyond Transactions, Beyond Apps, will present a day in the life of an engaged organization leveraging technology to better connect, engage, and inspire their workforce.
Highlights include:
Demonstration of Vibe's end-to-end HCM and engagement capabilities. The Vibe HCM Engagement Platform spans the entire employment lifecycle from the candidate experience, recruiting through onboarding, ongoing management, communication and collaboration, agile performance, pulse surveys, succession planning, analytics and more.
Presentation of Vibe HCM's employee adoption strategy. Optimized adoption is a precursor to impacting engagement and business outcomes. Vibe HCM to discuss how cutting-edge Progressive Web App (PWA) mobile capabilities are revolutionizing accessibility of its platform and ultimately adoption and subsequent ROI.
Examples showing how innovative, talent-driven organizations are using Vibe HCM's solutions to support their human capital challenges in an agile, networked world of work.
For more information or to register for Vibe's HR Technology news and alerts visit http://vibehcm.com/hrtech-2018/
ABOUT VIBE HCM
Vibe HCM is redefining human capital management software expectations. We make it easy for companies to not only automate HR transactions but also connect, communicate and engage with all their employees. We partner with talent-driven businesses to elevate how they Work. Share. Applaud. Inspire. This relentless pursuit has led us to collaborate with some of the most innovative, recognized brands on the planet as work together to set a new standard in the marketplace for HCM systems.
Relied on by over 1 million employees worldwide, the Vibe HCM platform delivers HR, Talent, Recruiting, Onboarding, Engagement, Analytics and Payroll. We have been doing this for over 20 years.
Vibe HCM - The HCM Engagement Platform, visit us on Twitter, Our Blog or http://www.vibehcm.com
With cash as the payment method of choice at dispensaries, [dispensaries] have quickly become a target for thieves creating an unsafe work environment. Our cannabis payment solution is building upon our first-generation point-of-sale system. Virtual Crypto is a validated and proven technology.
Virtual Crypto Technologies, Inc. (the Company or Virtual Crypto) (OTCQB: VRCP), a developer of innovative software and hardware for the purchase and sale of cryptocurrency via point-of-sales systems, ATMs, tablets, PCs and mobile devices, announced today the development of a proprietary crypto payment solution specifically developed for cannabis dispensaries. The innovative technology, projected to be released in Q4, will provide dispensary owners, in the United States, with a solution that will enable them to allow users to purchase cannabis products with cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin.
Within the United States, the legalized production and consumption of cannabis is growing. Currently, there are nine states that have legalized recreational marijuana, while thirty states (plus the District of Columbia) have legalized medical marijuana. Even with legalization, financial institutions are raising their eyebrows in regard to this market and are creating difficulties for new enterprises entering the cannabis industry. In fact, legally established dispensaries are unable to collect payment with credit cards. As a result, many dispensaries open bank accounts under an alternative identity, while others operate almost exclusively in cash or use other workarounds.
The Virtual Crypto solution will facilitate transactions with local dispensary shops where marijuana dispensaries are legal and recognized by the U.S. government. The company provides a financial solution which allows for a more efficient and effective way to collect payments. Virtual Crypto has is designing a customized payment method specifically for the marijuana industry, which can also be used by the farming industry in this sector as well as medical and recreational dispensaries.
Cannabis dispensaries and the related farming industry face significant financial challenges. Few banks are willing to provide loans or credit to marijuana-based enterprises due to their conservative nature and their perception of the market and the inherent legal issues that arise when states rights come into play. Marijuana businesses have been forced to use cash due to the position financial institutions have taken with this sector. The Virtual Crypto solution solves existing payment problems and also alleviates some of the safety hazards that exist within a business that currently deals mostly in cash by enabling crypto payment solutions.
"Our cannabis payment solution is building upon the foundation we established with our first-generation point-of-sale system. Virtual Crypto has been validated in the market and is a proven technology," stated Virtual Crypto Technologies CEO Alon Dayan. Not only does our solution make it easier to accept payments, it also provides a record of transactions, which ensures alignment with government oversight, eliminating fraud and abuse.
Virtual Crypto has created a simple process that brings cryptocurrency one step closer to being a legitimate payment method for cannabis purchases. For one to purchase cannabis via the Virtual Crypto solution, a user will simply scan a QR code that appears on the dispensarys point-of-sale screens interface, which represents a series of unique variables regarding that specific transaction. Within seconds, the store owner will receive confirmation in accordance with the number of goods sold. The software, like other Virtual Crypto solutions, provides real-time transactions and ensures the best exchange rate at the lowest commission offered on the market. Virtual Crypto's proprietary algorithms scan multiple exchanges to provide customers with the best value at the time of the transaction.
As Virtual Cryptos current solutions for point-of-sale systems where Virtual Crypto's NetoBit software is installed, a verification algorithm instantaneously predicts with a very high degree of precision whether the cryptocurrency transaction will be authorized by the Blockchain. This process happens immediately following the submission of the transaction and before confirmation when the block is signed. As a result, the software can verify transactions within seconds to minutes, instead of the standard ten minutes to 24 hours, following the current process of six authorizations.
"Today with cash as the payment method of choice at dispensaries, they have quickly become a target for thieves. With tens of thousands of dollars in transactions per day, employees are faced with an unsafe work environment. Additionally, cash makes it difficult to account for the appropriate payments of taxes to the government," continued Alon Dayan.
Virtual Cryptos cannabis solution can facilitate the reduction of cash payments and the amount of cash moving through the industry as a whole. Adoption of cryptocurrency wont eliminate cash completely from the cannabis industry but will help the industry shift to a more standard cash usage rate of approximately 30%.
Dayan continued, "our goal is to be an alternative payment option, not to eliminate cash. We believe our technology can ultimately reduce the amount of cash moving through the cannabis ecosystem, which will help foster a safer work environment and ensure industry participants pay their taxes using an alternate payment method. The Virtual Crypto solution is a win-win-win for dispensary owners (and farmers), consumers, and individual states- resulting in accountability, ease of use, and increased tax revenue to the state.
For more information about the Company, please email info@virtual-crypto.com.
About Virtual Crypto Technologies, Inc.
Virtual Crypto Technologies, Inc. (OTCQB: VRCP) (Virtual Crypto) is a technology company dedicated to making cryptocurrency accessible to the public on a global basis. Virtual Crypto specifically develops payment solutions for businesses and consumers, which combine Application Programming Interfaces and Mobile Applications for implementation via ATMs, PCs, tablets and other mobile devices.
The companys proprietary algorithmic technology trading platform and NetoBit product line, instantaneously confirms the purchase or sale of cryptocurrency, as opposed to industry transaction processing norms, which can take 10 minutes up to 24 hours. All trades and exchanges are insured up to $3,000 per trade.
Virtual Cryptos NetoBit ATM and retail point-of-sale, NetoBit Pay, incorporate advanced technologies tailored to the needs of primary market players, users, investors, and business owners. Virtual Cryptos platform bridges the three main functions of the cryptocurrency sector exchanges, wallets, and payments to the world of fiat exchanges, granting access to immediate cash exchanges between consumers and businesses worldwide.
For more information, please email info@virtual-crypto.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release are forward-looking statements, which may often, but not always, be identified by the use of such words as may, might, will, will likely result, should, estimate, plan, project, forecast, intend, expect, anticipate, believe, seek, continue, target or the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements, including, but not limited to, those described in the Companys 2018 Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) on April 17, 2018, and the other risks and factors set forth in the Companys filings and submissions with the SEC. In addition, the Company operates in a relatively new industry sector where securities values are highly volatile and may be influenced by economic and other factors beyond its control. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any obligations to update these statements, except as may be required by law.
Contact:
Alon Dayan, CEO Virtual Crypto Technologies, Inc.
Tel: +972 54-487-7959
contact@virtual-crypto.com
VirtualPBX Expands Included Features List to Include Call Recording and Conferencing Were in the business of making communications simple, professional, and technologically advanced for all of our customers no matter how large or small they may be. By providing Conferencing and Call Recording at no added expense, this promise becomes even more robust.
VirtualPBX announced today that Conferencing and Call Recording features, formerly plan add-ons, are now included at no extra charge for all current and future Dash customers.
Said Lon Baker, COO of VirtualPBX, of the news, Were in the business of making communications simple, professional, and technologically advanced for all of our customers no matter how large or small they may be. By providing Conferencing and Call Recording at no added expense, this promise becomes even more robust. Additionally, many new customers come to us with multiple bills and service providers this solution streamlines their communications strategy so that they need only pay for and manage one service.
Both Conferencing and Call Recording can be personalized in minutes in the easy to use Dash online portal alongside all features available on VirtualPBX Dash Business Phone Plans. Existing customers will notice these new features in their system today and new customers will find them upon first login.
Conferencing with VirtualPBX is extremely straightforward. Administrators may allow all users or select individuals the ability to create their own conference, set a room number, and provide a PIN to ensure only invitees may enter. To join, attendees just call the number and enter the room and PIN set by the host.
Call Recording on the other hand, has many more facets that can be adjusted. For starters, an organization may choose to allow only inbound or outbound calls to be recorded. They may also elect to have only certain departments record calls. This is handy for organizations that use sales calls for training, or manage quality and customer satisfaction for support calls. Plus, it doesnt end there. The Call Recording Manager lets you listen to and manage your call recordings from one place with an included storage allotment of 1GB. Additional storage through the Call Recording Manager is $4.99/GB/month, but users may also integrate an outside data storage service should they choose.
About VirtualPBX
VirtualPBX was founded in San Francisco in 1997 and brought some of the first commercially available hosted PBX service to market for small business owners. Born from the advent of the hosted telecom industry and driven by the innovative vision of its founders, VirtualPBX continues to deliver leading edge telephony products for business. Backed by award-winning, local, in-house support teams, VirtualPBX offers an array of services including disaster recovery, network monitoring and optimization, and professional system management.
VirtualPBX Contact
Rachel Anderson
Vice President of Design & Marketing
888.825.0800 Ext. 339
Rachel.Anderson(at)VirtualPBX.com
Wayback Burgers, Americas Favorite Hometown Burger Joint and one of the nations fastest-growing burger franchises, is asking raving fans nationwide to Say Cheeeesy as they take advantage of the brand new National Cheeseburger Day BOGO deal on Tuesday, September 18th.
All Wayback Burgers fans who download the new Wayback App (download it for your Apple or Android device here) by Monday, September 17th will be rewarded with a fantastic National Cheeseburger Day BOGO deal a Buy One, Get One Cheeeesy Burger. All guests who take advantage of the BOGO will be able to share selfies and delicious food photos with their friends on social media using the hashtag #SayCheeeesy. Additionally, any restaurant guests who download the New Wayback App will be rewarded with a Free Classic Burger after their first in-app purchase.
Wayback Burgers believes National Cheeseburger Day is a time to celebrate as very few things say America more than a well put together cheeseburger. This is especially true of the Cheeeesy Burger four slices of melted American cheese and two beef patties cooked-to-order, sandwiched between an inverted, grilled and buttered bun for a classic grilled cheese taste. Seriously, whats more American than a grilled cheese crossed with a cheeseburger!?!?
With one visit to Wayback Burgers on September 18th, guests will leave with two Cheeeesy burgers in hand. Buy One, Get One is limited to one free burger per guest, per day, at participating restaurants. You can pair the burgers with Waybacks fresh fries and a hand-dipped-to-order milkshake, share it with a friend, or stack the two burgers and create a single monster burger. The possibilities are endless.
Wayback Burgers President, John Eucalitto, is confident all guests will enjoy the Cheeeesy BOGO deal.
Were in the burger business, but we enjoy creating special moments for our guests, says Eucalitto. Whether youre enjoying a cheeseburger at a cookout, ballpark or at Wayback Burgers, theres something unforgettable about hearing the sizzle created when a delicious meat patty connects with a hot grill. Its the quintessential American meal, and were looking to properly celebrate National Cheeseburger Day with our guests. What better way to do so than to order one Cheeeesy Burger and get a second one on the house?
Patrick Conlin, Wayback Burgers Senior Vice President, says the new Wayback App is a game changer and theyre excited to reward guests who take the initiative to download.
Cheeseburger Day is the perfect opportunity to join in the fun that comes with downloading the new Wayback App, says Conlin. Downloading the app prior to Tuesday, September 18 is the only way you can take advantage of the BOGO offer. What youll find once you download it are several year-round incentives that make your efforts worthwhile, including a generous rewards program and mobile ordering. The perks that come with downloading are yet another example of how we are striving to put the needs and desires of our guests first.
The new Wayback App is up and running. It can be downloaded at the App Store or Google Play, here.
For more information on Wayback Burgers and the new Wayback App, please visit http://www.WaybackBurgers.com, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
For more information about the Wayback Burgers franchise opportunity visit, https://franchise.waybackburgers.com/.
About Wayback Burgers
Founded in 1991 in Newark, Delaware, Wayback Burgers is a Connecticut-based fast-casual franchise with a reputation for fresh, never frozen, cooked to order burgers and thick, hand-dipped milkshakes, served in an environment that hearkens back to a simpler place and time when customer service meant something, and everyone felt the warmth of the community.
Wayback Burgers currently operates in 30 states with over 161 restaurants nationally and internationally in Kuwait, Malaysia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Pakistan. Through its executed master franchise agreements, Wayback Burgers plans to open in 37 provinces/countries in the Middle East, South Africa, Argentina, Bangladesh, Ireland, Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada, and the Netherlands.
For more information about Wayback Burgers, please visit https://waybackburgers.com/.
For franchising information about Wayback Burgers, please visit https://franchise.waybackburgers.com/.
Hassans entrepreneurial drive and deep personal commitment to our mission will ensure that Year Up Greater Philadelphia continues to grow through new corporate and college partnerships, said Garrett Moran, Year Up President.
Continuing to expand its proven workforce development program, Year Up has appointed Hassan Charles as Executive Director of Year Up Greater Philadelphia (YUGP), effective August 20, 2018. With decades of experience in the corporate, education and public service sectors, Mr. Charles most recently served as Executive Director of Partnerships, Communications and Community Engagement at Baltimore City Public Schools. He welcomed YUGPs new class of students at Orientation Week in Philadelphia and Wilmington, including a cohort of 40 students at Wilmington Universitys New Castle campus on August 23, 2018.
Hassans entrepreneurial drive and deep personal commitment to our mission will ensure that Year Up Greater Philadelphia continues to grow through new corporate and college partnerships, said Garrett Moran, Year Up President. With strong roots in both Wilmington and in Philadelphia, as well as a rich history of working with top companies, Hassan will help us scale Year Ups impact across the region to reach even more young adults in need of an opportunityand more organizations in need of their talent.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Charles served in a variety of management roles at MBNA and Wachovia, and then went on to cofound Urban Insights, which became the regions top multicultural marketing agency serving leading brands like HBO, BET, Comcast and Coca Cola.
YUGP provides free job training to talented and motivated youth, ages 18-24, at sites in Peirce College and a new location at Wilmington Universitys New Castle campus launching this August. Students gain in-demand technical and professional skills in the first semester, then participate in a semester-long internship at a top local company. This June, the federally-sponsored Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education (PACE) evaluation of Year Up showed a 53% increase in initial earnings for young adults randomly assigned to Year Up compared with similar young adults in a control groupthe largest impacts on earnings reported to date for a workforce program tested in a randomized controlled trial.
Participants at both the Peirce College and new Wilmington University locations will earn weekly stipends as well as credits toward their college degrees during their training and internships. YUGPs site at Wilmington University (known as Year Up Wilmington) will connect Wilmington University students who qualify for the program with in-demand job skills and internships at companies like JPMorgan Chase, BNY Mellon, CSC, Exelon, Viola and Blackrock.
Since 2013, YUGP has provided more 375 young adults with marketable skills, creating a pipeline of diverse, motivated talent for more than 15 of the regions leading businesses in areas such as IT, JAVA Programming, Client Services, Financial Operations and Project Management Support. YUGP now serves more than 120 young adults in Philadelphia and Wilmington each year, with 88 percent of graduates employed or attending college full-time within four months of completing the program, earning average starting salaries of $36,000/year. Learn more about Year Up Greater Philadelphia by following us on Facebook and on Twitter @YearUpGP.
About Year Up
Year Up is an award-winning, national 501(c)3 organization that provides talented and motivated young adults ages 18-24 with the skills, experience, and support that will empower them to reach their potential through professional careers and higher education. Through a one-year, intensive training program, Year Up utilizes a high-support, high-expectations model that combines marketable job skills, stipends, coursework eligible for college credit, and corporate internships at more than 250 top companies. Its holistic approach focuses on students' professional and personal development to enable young adults with a viable path to economic self-sufficiency and meaningful careers. Year Up has served more than 19,500 young adults since its founding in 2000, and will serve more than 4,000 young adults in 2018 across 21 U.S. cities in Arizona, Baltimore, Bay Area, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Greater Atlanta, Greater Boston, Greater Philadelphia, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, National Capital Region, New York City, Providence, Puget Sound, South Florida, and Wilmington. Year Up has been voted one of the Best Non-Profits to Work For by The NonProfit Times for eight consecutive years, and rated a 4-star charity by Charity Navigator for twelve consecutive years, placing them in the top 1% of tracked organizations.
To learn more, visit http://www.yearup.org, and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter: @YearUp
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.
Last February, Turkish journalist and novelist Ahmet Altan and five co-defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment for their alleged involvement in a 2016 coup attempt. Although Turkeys supreme court had ruled that no one could be arrested based on such evidence, prosecutors insisted that the defendants had sent subliminal messages urging the overthrow of the government via television appearance and newspaper columns, and a panel of three judges agreed. An international outcry greeted this blatant violation of human rights and freedom of the press, including protests from PEN and Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk.
Publisher Sandro Ferri, cofounder of Edizioni E/O in Italy and the English-language Europa Editions (based in New York and London) signed a deal with the jailed author to publish in Italian and English (translated from their original Turkish) Altans series of historical novels known as the Ottoman Quartet. (Ferri will also sell translation rights in other languages.) The first volume, Like a Sword Wound, will be released by Europa in October; Love in the Days of Rebellion will follow in fall 2019. The third novel, Dying is Easier than Loving, is not yet scheduled, and Altan is working on the untitled final volume in Silivri Prison outside Istanbul. The writer responded from there to my questions with a wide-ranging commentary on his work, his life, and his future.
I have never met Sandro Ferri, but he has shown me great friendship for this entire period, Altan says. He has always been supportive, and not only by publishing my novels. (Endgame, Altans English-language debut, was released by Europa in 2017.) While my defense statements have been translated into several languages, they were published as a book only in Italy.
Although he is better known in the West as a crusading journalist, in his native land Altan has been a bestselling novelist and essayist since the 1980s. Endgame, published in Turkish in 2013, marked his return to fiction after a reluctant five-year hiatus. When you live in a country like Turkey, you occasionally find yourself having to choose between writing novels and joining those who seek a solution that will end the suffering of the people, he explains. It is not very easy to turn your back to peoples suffering; thats why you are obliged to do journalism sometimes. I am the happiest when I am writing novels. If it were possible, I would write novels non-stop.
The Ottoman Quartet, launched in 1998 with the publication of Like a Sword Wound, was always intended to be a longterm project. I planned this as a tetralogy to show the cultural diversification and inner conflicts within a family as the years passed, while at the same time telling the story of the step-by-step collapse of an empire. Such novels take time to write, because one needs to do serious historical research.
Like a Sword Wound follows an intricately connected group of people through decades to the Young Turk Revolution of 1908. The period details are abundant and accurate; several characters are based on members of Altans family, and turn-of-the-century Istanbul, both beautiful and corrupt, comes vividly to life. Yet the novel is not entirely different from the more overtly experimental Endgame. Readers follow the events in Like a Sword Wound via Osman, a recluse in contemporary Istanbul whose dead ancestors visit to tell the stories of their lives.
I think we can call this type of narrative neo-classical, Altan muses. Here the classical narrative, with people and their emotions at its center, is enriched by the more flexible and playful narrative techniques of modernism. It basically means telling the story of a person and his destiny by using all the devices that are available to literature.
I dont care about what is fashionable in literature, he continues. For me, the main subject matter of literature is people and their lives. The biggest challenge for a writer is to be able to describe in a profound way a man or a woman and his or her conflicted emotions: their strength, their despair, their struggles within that despair. The classics greatly succeeded in that. The majority of the modernists and post-modernists quailed under this challenge; they chose a literary path that is more astute, more playful, yet shallower. They chose to act as if everything about human beings have already been told and there was nothing else to write about. This literary approach doesnt interest me. I like writing about peoples emotions, it gives me pleasure to do that. I dont want to find an untaken path, I want to write better than anyone else on a path that everyone knows.
Although Like a Sword Wound closes with the triumph of the Young Turks in 1908, ominous signs of trouble to come are evident in the revolutionaries refusal to acknowledge any common bond with ethnic minorities also fighting for freedom within the Ottoman Empire; these military men regard them as traitors. Power is poisonous everywhere, Altan comments. But in countries like Turkey, society is unable to produce an antidote to the poison of power. Here what happened a century ago repeats itself. Everyone who comes to power with the promise of fighting tyranny and repression turns into a tyrant in time. This countrys politicians desire to become the sultan never ceases.
The writer refuses to be intimidated by would-be sultans. His website unabashedly states that the final volume of the Ottoman Quartet is set in 1915 and tells the tales of the Battle of Gallipoli and the Armenian Genocide. Altan is already well-known for his public statements about the genocide, a subject so taboo in Turkey that anyone who mentions it risks jail for insulting Turkishness. I wonder why he felt the need to address it in fiction. I think the best narration of the dark and bloody face of history is found in literature, he replies. Literature doesnt only give us the historical truth, it also enables us to form emotional linkage to what happened in history, it enables us to carry inside the marks of the events of the past. The mental tremor one feels while reading the feelings of a woman watching her child being killed is more profound than ones reaction to the factual statement that one million people were killed. The former helps you much better appreciate the truth of it all.
He has shared his feelings about being in jail in a collection of essays, I Will Never See the World Again, that will be published across Europe in fall 2018; Granta will release the English-language edition in March 2019. Does the collections bleak title reflect his assessment of his prospects? You cannot foresee what might happen in a place where the law doesnt exist, he answers. I may be released from prison, but I may also die here. Where a person spends his time is important, but how he spends it is also important. I spend my time in a prison, but I spend it dreaming, thinking, and writing. I am working, and I can make my voice heard around the world. Because of this, the question when I might be released from the prison becomes less urgent.
The Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association and the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association announced Tuesday that long-time HarperCollins rep Kate McCune will receive this years Voice of the Heartland Award.
Voice of the Heartland used to be a GLIBA award, but since 2014, the honor has been doled out by the two organizations; it recognizes outstanding individuals who uphold the value of independent bookselling and who have made a significant contribution to bookselling in the Midwest. Past recipients include Studs Terkel, Jim Harrison, Kate DiCamillo and legendary commission rep Ted Heinecken.
There are few sales reps that more fully embody this, and have garnered more respect, in this industry than Kate McCune," GLIBA said. "Her advocacy on behalf of the books published by HarperCollins is legendary.
McCune, who began her career as a part-time bookseller at Elliott Bay Books in Seattle, worked for several indies in Massachusetts and Michigan before being hired in 2002 by HarperCollins as a sales rep for adult trade titles in a territory that came to extend from northern Michigan through Mississippi. In 2006 HarperCollins named her its in-house sales rep of the year and, in 2007, PW named her its publishers rep of the year.
McCune, who lives in Ann Arbor, Mich., currently serves on the board of the Book Industry Charitable Foundation.
This years awards ceremony will take place at a dinner kicking off Heartland Fall Forum in Minneapolis on October 3.
This story contains updates regarding the history of the Voice of the Heartland Award.
The report conducted by WHO researchers for their study in The Lancet Global health estimated that more than a quarter of the people worldwide risk a raft of health problems due to inactive exercise.
The report ranked Uganda as the most energetic with just 5.5% people not sufficiently active while it described Kuwait as the worlds most inactive.
According to the WHO, in Kuwait, Saudi Arabi, Iraq and American Samoa, more than half of the population doesnt get enough exercise.
Among developed nations, it ranked the US 143rd on the list, the U.K. 123rd while Australia came in at 97th, with the higher numbers indicating a more inactive population.
While Sub-Saharan Africa recorded the lowest level of physical activity in men (<20%) in 2016.
The health problems associated with inactive exercise, according to the report include heart disease, type-2 diabetes and some cancers.
Here are the most inactive nations
Where prevalence was higher than 50%
- Kuwait 67%
- Saudi Arabia 53%
- Iraq 52%
Here are countries with least inactivity
Where prevalence was lower than 10% in seven countries Uganda
- Lesotho
- Tanzania
- Niue
- Vanuatu
- Togo
- Mozambique
- Uganda
The study based its assessment on self-reported activity levels from 358 population-based surveys in 168 countries, consisting of around 1.9 million people.
The US Defence Department is considering closing military outposts in Kenya and three other African countries while also halving the number of its special operation forces on the continent, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
While the paper did not specify which facilities in Kenya could be affected by the proposed move, which must be approved by Defence Secretary Jim Mattis before it takes effect, US is known to have been operating a military camp at Manda Bay, Lamu County, sometimes referred to as Camp Simba, for several years now.
US troops have also been reported to operate from an installation in Isiolo.
US forces inside Kenya are believed to contribute to anti-insurgency missions in neighbouring Somalia, once a haven for terrorists but now slowly rising from the ashes of more than three decades of war and civil unrest.
The sizeable US military contingent in Somalia totaling about 500 personnel would remain however intact under the plans being mulled by Defence Department officials, the Times said.
There is also no suggestion of a significant downsizing of the US base in Djibouti.
The potential reductions of US troops in Africa reflect a planned shift in strategy, with the Defence Department focusing its resources more on perceived threats from China and Russia.
The plan to close facilities in Africa and to remove half of the 1,200 US special forces now on the continent, also results from a political outcry following the killing of four US soldiers by Islamist militants in Niger last year.
A fifth US service member was killed in Somalia earlier this year.
With more than 100,000 homes listed on Airbnb in Africa in 2017, all-time global guest arrivals using Airbnb increased by 2 million helping spread tourism benefits beyond hotels and tourist hotspots to the places local residents call home.
"Airbnb is very committed to Africa and we are focusing on African markets that show good growth potential and an increase in tourism visitors," Airbnb South Africa country manager, Velma Corcoran, tells me. Because of the compactness of the Africa team, Airbnb has had to focus on very strategic markets, in this case South Africa. And this reflects in the ratio of Airbnb users in South Africa compared to the rest of Africa.
According to a report released in September 2017, there have been two million Airbnb guests arrivals in Africa in the last 10 years. Half of that number arrived between 2016 and 2017. Thats a 100% growth rate within a year.
Out of the 2 million total, 830,000 of them have been in South Africa, 340,000 in Morocco, and 50,000 in Kenya, making them the top Airbnb destinations in Africa.
The presence of Airbnb on the continent has slowly changed the way people think about tourism. Where it was once associated to certain landmarks, hotels, cultures, and festivals, tourism is now more inclusive of the idea of people and their homes. Where tourists used to lodge in motels and hotels, they now have access to peoples homes, giving them a more personable, more intimate experience.
For the Airbnb hosts, the platform is a good way of making a side income. Velma tells me that in South Africa, for example, the typical host income per annum is $2,000. Converted to local currency, thats over 30,000 rand. In Morocco, the average is $1,000, that is over 9,400 Moroccan dirham. In Kenya, hosts earn under $1,000 on the average. This could range from 80,000 to 90,000 shilling per annum.
Airbnb is present in 65,000 cities in 191 countries around the world. Each of those cities and countries, Velma says, has different regulations and the company has to navigate them somehow. However, because most tourism regulations predate Airbnb, they very rarely affect how the company and the users on its platform do business.
Rules and regulations that apply to a hotel chain that hosts 20,000 people cannot possibly be applied on homeowners who choose to host 2 or 3 people through Airbnb. If there were to be specific regulations for Airbnb, Velma tells me that shed prefer them to be simple and straightforward.
Velma says that the next step now, for Airbnb, is to spread across Africa while driving sustainable growth in tourism. It plans to do this in a couple of ways.
One of them is through its first ever African Travel Summit coming up from the 11th to 13th of September, 2018. This is a key step that we hope will be a catalyst for a conversation about how we can use technology to boost sustainable tourism growth in Africa, Velma says. A portion of the summit will be dedicated to discussing ways platforms like Airbnb can help unlock tourism potential in places where people normally wouldnt look on the continent.
Another way Airbnb is scaling in Africa is through the Airbnb Africa Academy, which has piloted in South Africa. The initiative is aimed at empowering hosts in townships and rural communities with tools they can use to build Airbnb in their locality. Velma tells me that the goal is to scale this programme from South Africa to Kenya, then to two more African countries by the end of 2019.
When I ask Velma what the biggest hurdles Airbnb has faced in Africa are, she tells me that perception (of Africa by foreigners) is one of them. It is important for us to help people understand that Africa is a continent and not a country, and for them to grasp the breadth and depth of what the continent has to offer.
Osinbajo, the head of President Muhammadu Buhari's economic team stated this at the northern regional finals of Student Innovation Challenge (SIC) held at Bayero University, Kano, on Tuesday.
The Student Innovation Challenge is part of the Nigerian government's initiative in collaboration with the private sector.
Tjhe challenge offers a platform for identifying and supporting innovative technology-driven business ideas and ventures across Nigerian universities.
Osinbajo said the initiative is the first time students from all over the country will be able to pitch their business ventures and ideas to a panel of expert judges.
... in the past, Nigerias billionaires were traders and oil and gas moguls but in the next few years, billionaires from Nigeria will be techies
Listening to the great ideas you have pitched today, I am even more convinced and have absolutely no doubt that a good number of tomorrows billionaires are seated here today, Osinbajo told innovators.
In June 2018, the vice president toured tech hubs in Africa's largest city where he met with innovators and startups.
A month after, he also visited the Silicon Valley where he showcased the country's technology, innovation and creative space.
Earlier this week, the Gringo hit maker criticised the Sarkcess boss, describing him as disrespectful for refusing to help him shoot a video for one of his songs.
In an interview with Hitz FM, Shatta Wale referred to Sarkodie as his guy but said the reason their previous collaboration (Megye Wo Girl) didnt get any televised hype was because the rapper wasnt serious enough about shooting the video.
He said whiles Sarkodie was willing to fly all the way to Nigeria to shoot a video for other artistes, he was reluctant to do same for him (Shatta Wale).
Many Sarkodie fans have subsequently not been enthused by Shatta Wales comments and have taken to social media to air their displeasure.
Whiles some hold that the comments were unnecessary, others also believe this is just a publicity stunt from the self-acclaimed dancehall king.
However, responding on his own Twitter page, Shatta Wale urged Sarkodie to tell his fans to shut up.
According to him, Sarkodie must warn his fans or they will end up killing his career.
ISAMAO was launched in 2014 to professionalise local government management and administration with a focus on the municipal managers offices in municipalities.
In todays meeting, Minister Mkhize raised concern about the high employee turnover in municipalities which affects preservation of institutional memory and contributes to management instability.
He also noted that the position of a municipal manager attracts professionals from diverse professional backgrounds and qualifications which creates a need to standardise the norms and standards for the position.
The ISAMAO has agreed to strengthen its relationship with CoGTA to support Ministers efforts to promote good governance, improve service delivery, financial management and community relations by ensuring that there are skilled and well-prepared people to undertake the work of municipalities on the ground.
In order to achieve this, the meeting agreed to explore:
Introducing an induction programme for new municipal managers. Creating a knowledge-sharing programme for municipal managers. Developing management self-diagnosis tools to support service delivery improvement. Processing and sharing emerging local government data to support CoGTAs tailored Back to Basic programme interventions.
In the effort to improve professionalism in local government, CoGTA developed regulations to set standard procedures and competence criteria for the appointment of senior municipal officials.
Minister Mkhize is currently meeting various stakeholders to garner their support for the CoGTA intervention programme to support dysfunctional municipalities.
Reports suggest that the said boyfriend is known in the vicinity for extravagant lifestyle of which the two ladies were beneficiaries without the knowledge of the other.
It is unclear how they came to the realisation that they were actually rivals, but as the reality dawned on them, they engaged in exchange of words before proceeding a step further to exchange fisticuffs.
In the video, one of the ladies almost stripped the other naked, but it did not deter her from fighting for what she thought belonged to her.
The fight was so intense that it took the intervention of a man suspected to be the one over whom the fight broke to separate the hostile ladies.
Watch the video below:
The President was speaking at the round-table meeting of Presidents and Heads of State at the 3rd Summit of the Forum on China Africa Co-operation (FOCAC), in Beijing, China on Tuesday.
READ ALSO: Fear of dismissal causes 2 CBG staff to steal GHS200K
He added that he was inspired by Chinas model and was trying to replicate same, through, inter alia, our industrialization policy of 1-District-1-Factory, and an increase in agricultural productivity through the programme for Planting for Food and Jobs.
He said that China and Africa must work tirelessly to develop their countries for the citizens as they also enhance trade ties.
He added that the Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by Chinas President Xi Jinping, will further intensify Chinese commitment to Africas development.
Last nights message from President Xi, in his opening statement at this Summit, involving the allocation of a comprehensive package of support for Africas development, including a $60 billion fund, is a powerful reinforcement of that commitment, the President recalled.
In a data compiled by the China-Africa Research Initiative at Washingtons Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, it showed that China lent around $125bn to Africa between 2000 and 2016.
The country invested heavily into roads, railways, ports and other major infrastructure projects.
This, he disclosed, in a meeting with the pilgrims, Hajj board members, agents, security officials and other stakeholders in a meeting in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
There shall be a total of twelve in-bound flights, 2 per day in Tamale, airlifting a total of 2,622 pilgrims over a period of six days from the King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah. Each of the two flights shall airlift 437 pilgrims", he said.
I.C Quaye said, "The Accra flights shall airlift a total of 3,132 pilgrims, over ten days from Jeddah to Accra. The first scheduled flight commences on Monday, 10 September 2018 with two daily airlifts for ten days until 19 September 2018".
He said that it took a lot of negotiation and tact to get the Airline Flynas, to accept to roll backwards the original flight schedule of August 14 2018. The financial and physical ramifications for such a delay would have brought untold hardship to our pilgrims.
The change was, therefore, welcoming relief to all and sundry. It has reduced the waiting period for eight good days.
The man, who was only identified as Bismark, was on the verge of dying at the court.He gasped for breath and failed to respond to a relative, who tried to assist him to gain consciousness.
READ ALSO: Obengfo CEO struggling to meet bail conditions
Obengfo is accused of practising medicine without lawful authority and operating an unlicensed health facility.
The man was sitting behind Mr Obeng-Andoh, who was also in court with his lawyers to move an application for the release of his passport which he deposited as part of his bail conditions.
Reports said that Bismark was on medication and gasped for breath suddenly.
The woman immediately called for water and a relation of Mr Obeng-Andoh offered her bottled water.Mr Obeng-Andoh quickly offered assistance to help the man to regain consciousness.
Dr Obeng-Andoh, on June 8, 2018, pleaded not guilty to two charges and granted bail.
Following the demolition, he has dragged the Municipal Assembly to court for demolishing his property at Haatso in Accra.
He is demanding, among other things, over GH1.2 million in damages.
He is seeking "A perpetual injunction restraining the defendants, their agents, their assigns, servants and, or any such persons claiming through defendants, from interfering with plaintiffs interest and, or possessions of any part thereof, of land situated at Kwabenya, counting an approximate area of 2.08 acre more or less, on the South-West by lessors land measuring 378.35 feet more or less to North-West by the lessors land measuring 242.29 feet more or less.
"Special damages to the tune of One Million Two Hundred and Thirty-Nine Thousand Five Hundred Ghana Cedis (GHS1,239,500) at the prevailing banking rate till the date of final payment.
"Interest on the amount of One Million Two Hundred and Thirty-Nine Thousand Ghana Cedis at the prevailing banking rate till the date of final payment."
Demolition
In July 2018, the MCE Janet Tulasi Mensah, Ayariga claimed, without obtaining a valid court order to demolish private property, led military and police personnel to demolish certain private properties of innocent Ghanaians in the municipality, including one belonging to him.
The APC founder said the security agencies in helping the diabolic plots of the MCE and her sponsors resorted to gross abuse of power, adding that they have used excessive force against workers; the landlords and ladies on the site without provocation.
The situation, he said was unbecoming in a democratic state like Ghana and that the president must act immediately since the forces he commands are being used as land guards to chase the very civilians they are to protect.
On September 1, 2018, the suspect is reported to have eloped with a blue-black Nissan Patrol vehicle with registration number GV 623 -14, which had been parked by at Koforidua-Effiduasi.
Assistant state attorney, Cyril Boateng Keteku, told the court that an accountant at the Ghana Highway Authority, Samuel Oyetey Tetteh, was driving from Suhum to Koforidua but decided to park in order to buy a few items at a nearby shop.
The state attorney said Samuel Oyetey Tetteh had left the vehicles engine still running with the key in the ignition.
Realising this, Osarfo Richard took advantage of the situation and escaped with the vehicle.
However, he was later picked up by the Police after he got involved in an accident on the Commercial Bank street near the Total 2 fuel filling station in Koforidua.
READ ALSO:
The suspect was subsequently charged with stealing contrary to Section 124(1) of the criminal offences Act 1960(Act 29).
Accra-based Starr FM reports that the Police trooped to Agbogbloshie after gathering intelligence that a suspected robber was hiding over there.
The suspect, Nuhu Sule, is reported to have stolen some items during a robbery operation the previous night and hidden them in a ghetto.
However, when officers from the Accra Regional Police Headquarters stormed the place to retrieve the stolen items, they were attacked by the suspect and his colleagues.
A statement signed by Director General Public Affairs of the Police, ACP David Eklu, said the officers were attacked when they retrieved the items believed to have been stolen by Nuhu Sule and had to call for reinforcement.
READ ALSO:
The Police, however, managed to arrest 15 suspects believed to have masterminded the attack and placed them in custody.
This was after the Ministry of Trade and Industry, on behalf of the Government of Ghana, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Sinotruk International, on Wednesday, 5th September, 2018, at the Ghana-Shangdong Business Conference, for the establishment of the plant.
READ MORE: NPP man reveals why Nana Addo reshuffled Cecilia Dapaah to the Sanitation Ministry
Speaking to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, after the signing ceremony, Zhang Yuzong, the General Representative of Sinotruk International, indicated that the company has a proud history of being manufacturers of a wide range of heavy duty trucks, buses, special trucks, engines and their sets, parts and special chassis.
The assembly plant in Ghana, when established, Mr. Zhang Yuzong said, will, initially, have the capacity to assemble some 1,500 trucks per year for sale in Ghana and West Africa.
Having produced some three hundred thousand (300,000) trucks in 2017, and possessing an employee strength of forty thousand (40,000) people, the Sinotruk Representative was confident that the establishment of the plant in Ghana will create jobs for Ghanaians, as well as rake in significant amounts of revenue for the country.
On his part, President Akufo-Addo expressed his delight about Sinotruk Internationals decision to establish the assembly plant in Ghana.
READ MORE: Hassan Ayariga drags Ga East Assembly to court
We are very appreciative of your interest in our country and its development, and whatever we need to do to grow your business in Ghana, we are prepared to do it, the President said.
He assured Sinotruk International that "Ghana is a peaceful and stable country, and we are strong believers in the rule of law", adding that the agreements that have been reached between the Government of Ghana and Sinotruk will be respected.
The reshuffle is largely nine movements from one ministry to the other with the high profile ones being Cecilia Abena Dapaah, former Minister for Aviation, who is now Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources.
Her move to the new ministry raises concerns about the government's fight against sanitation in the country.
An aide to the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Andy Owusu has revealed why Nana Addo reassigned Cecilia Abena Dapaah to the Sanitation Ministry.
READ MORE: Akufo Addo considers reshuffling ministers as part of reform bid
He said the vision of the president is to rebrand the sector.
He stated that "Even though, the sanitation Ministry was underperforming, the President has clearly shown leadership by replacing Joseph Kofi Adda with Cecelia Abena Dapaah" to rebrand the Ministry.
He said Cecelia Dapaah went to the Aviation Ministry at a time that things were quite bleak for the industry but she turned things around though it was difficult.
In November 2017, Nana Addo launched the National Sanitation Campaign with a call on all Ghanaians to treat every day as sanitation day.
Since 2014, the first Saturday of every month has been earmarked as National Sanitation Day, where Ghanaians are expected to clean their communities.
But Ghanaians' commitment to the sanitation day has been questioned in the past, with piles of rubbish spotted on days where communities were expected to be mobilizing.
He said the scourge of monetization which has engulfed our body politic was still manifested at the NDC primaries.
According to him, some winners used money and other material inducements, to win votes.
In a statement, Rawlings urged supporters of the NDC to be on the lookout for those "self-centred personalities" who managed to slip through to win positions and "not allow such people to dilute, contaminate and weaken the progress that has been made."
He also congratulated the winners and called on members of the party not to rest on their oars after the successful conclusion of the regional elections but work towards confronting the bigger challenges facing the party.
Below is the full statement:
Following the conclusion of Regional elections of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at various centres across the country, I wish to congratulate all members of the party for a generally incident-free conduct of the process.
My congratulations also go to all who deservingly won their positions through the pursuit of the partys ideals of truth and integrity.
I must commend delegates who defied the shameful and vulgar inducements by some candidates and their sponsors, and defiantly chose to elect those whose commitment and dedication to the party is unquestionable.
While the results of the elections are a good indication of the sense of purpose of delegates and the membership of the party at large, we cannot rest on our oars.
The scourge of monetisation which has engulfed our body politic was still manifest in many of the last Regional elections. Some victors won through monetary and material inducements instead of a commitment to the ideals of the party.
We have to be on the lookout for self-centred personalities who managed to slip through the net due to revolting levels of monetary influence. Let us not allow such people to dilute, contaminate and weaken the progress that has been made.
As a party that seeks to rebuild and strengthen itself, it is imperative that we see the results of the last elections as a small step towards confronting the bigger challenges facing the party.
As we work towards the selection of national executives, we should be guided by the enormity of the obstacles well-resourced individuals with parochial agendas will place in our way. We have to confront these stumbling blocks and ensure that the image and strength of the party comes first.
President Akufo-Addo said Ghana was inspired by the Chinese model and was trying to replicate same through its industrialisation policy of One district One factory, and an increase in agricultural productivity through the Planting for Food and Jobs pragramme.
We believe that the Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by President Xi Jinping, will further intensify Chinese commitment to Africas development. Last nights message from President Xi, in his opening statement at this years summit, involving the allocation of a comprehensive package of support for Africas development, including a $60 billion fund, is a powerful reinforcement of that commitment.
He congratulated President Xi Jinping for holding the summit and noted that both China and Africa recognised that a win-win situation for their respective peoples would be the desired outcome.
Apart from attending the China-Africa Forum for Cooperation (FOCAC) 2018 summit held in Beljing from September 3rd 4th and attended by more than 1,000 African representatives, the Ghanaian President didnt stop there and went a step further.
At the sidelines of the China-Africa summit, President Addo was captured courting one of the worlds richest men and founder of the worlds largest retail commerce company, Alibaba Group.
Yesterday, I held a meeting with the co-founder and Exec. Chairman of Alibaba Group, Mr. Jack Ma. I urged him to consider establishing the headquarters of Alibabas Africa operations in Ghana as Alibaba Group looks to partner countries in Africa and help nurture tech talents, he tweeted on his official handle.
The 2018 FOCAC meeting seeks to promote economic and trade cooperation between China and African economies by synergizing the China's Belt and Road Initiative and the African Union's Agenda 2063, among other development programmes as well as development strategies of individual African countries.
The China-Africa summit is also a fertile ground for cutting business deals with Chinese investors who have an eye for Africa something President Addo seems to be fully aware of and keen to exploit.
Jack Ma has hinted in the past about his interest to set up businesses in Africa, dubbed the worlds last frontier market.
While speaking at the University of Nairobi in 2017 during his first visit to Africa, Ma urged African countries to chart their own course and not ape Europe or even China in their quest to break from the shackles of poverty and under-development.
Africa does not need to copy China or Europe to be successful it has to find what it is good at and then sell that to the world, it has to find a problem and solve it. Jack said.
He later announced that Alipay, offered by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, will be launched in Kenya as an indigenous company with the aim of creating a payment platform for companies operating in the East African region's largest economy.
A few days later, while in Kigali, Rwanda during the Youth Connekt Africa Summit Jack Ma also announced the creation of a US$10 million African Young Entrepreneurs kitty to support African Online businesses.
I want that fund supporting African online businesses, said Mr. Ma, who is a Special Adviser to UNCTAD for Youth Entrepreneurship and Small Business.
The money is set. This is my money, so I dont have to get anybodys approval, he added.
For its part, Ghana would make the ideal location for the Alibabas Africa operations headquarters.
Ghana is one of West Africas economic powerhouses and has proved to be one of the most stable African countries, a key quality super-wealthy investors like Jack Ma normally consider before pumping their money into ventures.
In 2017, Ghana was ranked the eighteenth most attractive economy for investments flowing into the African continent by Quantum Global Research Lab.
In 2016, the country attracted a net foreign direct investment of US$3.5 billion.
The China-Africa summit brings together all African nations and China and aims to boost the continents development.
The goal of the 2018 FOCAC meeting is the promotion of economic and trade cooperation between China and African economies as it seeks to synergize China's Belt and Road Initiative, the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the African Union's Agenda 2063, and the development strategies of individual African countries.
During the summit, the Heads of State will discuss and ratify two major documents, the Beijing Action Plan 2019-2021 and the Beijing Declaration, which will act as guides for China-Africa relations.
More than 1,000 African representatives from over 600 enterprises, business groups, and research institutions are expected to grace a High-Level Dialogue between Chinese and African Leaders and Business Representatives, running from Monday to Tuesday as part of a series of conferences under the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.
While in Beijing, President Kenyatta who in a past week has transverse three continents and met three world leaders, will witness the signing of an Economic and Investment Cooperation Agreement between China and Kenya.
President Kenyatta is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping with the talks focusing on trade, infrastructure, investments, education and technology.
Advanced discussions on financing for Phase 2B of the Standard Gauge Railway from Naivasha to Kisumu is on top of President Kenyattas agenda.
Financing for the Western Bypass in Nairobi is also expected to feature prominently in their talks.
President Kenyattas discussions are also expected to advance Kenyas shift away from pure debt financing with new emphasis being placed on Private Public Partnerships and the need to explore innovative off-balance sheet financing for the countrys infrastructure needs.
China is one of Kenyas strongest trading allies and has been instrumental in financing and construction of the countrys largest infrastructure project since independence, the Standard Gauge Railway,
Here is how Chinas $60 billion pie will be shared among the African countries.
The money will be channelled to projects aligned to the Chinese governments Belt and Road Initiative covering telecommunications, construction of roads, bridges and sea ports, energy, and human capacity development.
These countries particularly include Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Egypt.
The funding is broken down into several parts with $15 billion being categorised as government grants, $15 billion as interest free loans and $ 20 billion of credit lines and $ 5 billion for financing imports from Africa.
According to a statement from the office of President Nana Akufo-Addo, the country has signed eight cooperation agreements with China during the 2018 China-Africa summit.
One of the deals includes a $2 billion infrastructure agreement for Ghana to improve its roads and develop railways in exchange for bauxite.
During the summit, President Xi said that China had invested a sum of $170 billion in Africa in the last 3 years.
China and Africa can forge a stronger comprehensive and strategic partnership. China promises to engage with Africa on a principle of sincerity and real results, said President Xi Jinping.
Chinas 1.3 billion people and Africas 1.2 billion want a shared future, said the Chinese leader as he promised that no obstacle will be allowed to hold back the joint march.
The Chinese leader added that the Road and Belt Initiative-the framework within which his country seeks to grow its trade and investments in Africa, China looks at building mutually beneficial relationships with African nations driven by a desire to achieve shared prosperity for the future good and wellbeing of mankind.
In a letter seen by Reuters, the European States accused the United Nations of failing to press home the urgency of a disaster which had put children at risk of starvation in the region.
The letter addressed to directors of emergency programs at U.N. and other aid agencies, the EU, Britain, France and Germany, raised concern about urgent and unmet humanitarian needs in the north-east.
The European countries urged the U.N. Mission in Nigeria to push the government to allow "the rapid, unimpeded and unfettered humanitarian access to people in need of life-saving help."
Details of the letter:
- 823,000 people were in areas inaccessible to aid in Nigeria's Borno state.
- Children in the areas are facing critical levels of malnutrition.
- It rebuked the world body for failing to secure access to provide humanitarian support to the people.
- The letter also called on the government of Nigeria to uphold its responsibility and protect its citizens.
Nigeria's Borno state is the worst affected area by the decade-long insurgency by the Boko Haram Islamist group and its offshoot, Islamic State in West Africa.
In May 2018, Amnesty International also accused Nigerian security forces of raping thousands of starved women and girls who survived the brutal rule of the Boko Haram.
In its report, "They betrayed us", the International organisation revealed how the Nigerian military and Civilian Joint Task Force (Civilian JTF) have separated women from their husbands and confined them in remote satellite camps where raped them, sometimes in exchange for food.
The government and the Nigerian military denied the report.
Punch reports that the Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion shared his thoughts on same-sex couples in a recent interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.
Speaking with the news agency, the religious leader blamed the internet and satellite broadcasting for helping spread the western culture in particular homosexuality into the country. He added that this unlawful act is "veritably poisoning" the Nigerian society.
In his words, "Homosexuality hinders the progress of a nation and such ungodly images should never be shown in Nigeria. It is pertinent to note that the advent of satellite broadcasting has continued to pose a serious challenge to our traditional cultures, religious values and our identity as a people.
"Our youths are now being deceived by the international media with values that are at variance with our culture and the teachings of our religion."
ALSO READ: Anglican Pastor begs Christians to get close to homosexuals
Noting that homosexuality is aided by the "disintegration of social values and cultures,'' Rev Okoh encouraged Nigerians to hold on to their traditional culture.
"What is happening in the Nigerian society is a result of international influence and urbanization. As people move from villages to the cities, they are detached from their ancestral authority, parents, chiefs, and others," the Anglican primate said.
He added, "Anti-social behaviors that used to be tackled are no longer tackled all because of modernization; essentially, people are destroying themselves."
Meanwhile, the Anglican church in A new resolution was passed earlier this year that recognizes "the Church's teaching on the nature of marriage [which] is to affirm marriage as between a man and a woman"; but allows priests to offer "a non-formulary service."
Homosexuality in Nigeria
Rev Okoh's statements come after a 2017 survey by NOI Polls discovered a growing acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the nation compared to a 2015 poll.
According to the research, there has been a seven percent increase in acceptance and nine percent rise in people who believe that the LGBT group should have equal access to health care, education, and housing.
In spite of this study, homosexuality remains a taboo since it was banned during the former President Goodluck Jonathan's time through the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act (SSMPA) of 2014. This law says that the penalty of gay marriage, same-sex "amorous relationships" and membership of gay rights groups is at least 14 years in prison.
His death was reported to the Reedsburg police station by his father, 49-year-old Kehinde Omosebi, 49, according to Daily Gossip.
Making his case, he revealed that he is a cleric of Cornerstone Reformation Ministries. He added that the fast started on July 19, 2018.
Upon his report, he was followed home by police officers. There, they found the dead boy, his severely emaciated 11-year-old brother and mother, 48-year-old Titilayo Omosebi.
Police Chief Timothy Becker told Wisconsin State Journal that the house was padlocked from the inside. He also said, "The residence had no phone, no power, no food. There was a gym bag in the garage with some clothes in it. That was it, with the exception of a tambourine that was found."
According to the Assistant District Attorney Linda Hoffman, Kehinde explained to the police that his house was bare because he had sold their belongings, adding that they were planning to move to Atlanta. She added that he insists that he has done nothing wrong, despite the death of his teenage boy.
His son and wife were taken to the hospital where Titilayo refused treatment for religious reasons. Later, she was taken to the Sauk County Jail while the 11-year-old has been put in protective custody at Children's Hospital in Madison.
The couple has been charged with two felonies - child neglect causing death and child neglect causing great bodily harm. These two charges carry a combined maximum sentence of 37 years in prison.
ALSO READ: Daddy Freeze says its okay for married couples to have sex while fasting
Dying while fasting
Sadly, this young boy is not the first person to lose his life while fasting.
In 2015, a Zimbabwe man embarked on a 40 day and night fast in an attempt to imitate Jesus Christ.
He made to the 30th day which was when he slumped and died. That same year, a 73-yr-old prophet identified as Reinfirst Manyuka died after dry fasting in the mountains for 30 days.
The 2019 edition of the exam might be different from the previous ones as the exam body Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede said JAMB will not repeat the mistakes it made during the 2018 UTME.
He said, I can assure you that we are fine-tuning and learning from our mistakes last year. We are perfecting the processes and procedures, ensuring that no one is allowed to have undue advantage over the others.''
Having said that, it seems JAMB might introduce another set of rules to further standardise the conduct of the 2019 UTME.
However, from the statements of the exam body's Registrar, here are some of the things admission seeking candidates need to know.
1. JAMB registration fee
Despite the call from some quarters on JAMB to reduce the registration fee, the Board Registrar has maintained that the fee would not be reduced
Why are they not asking WAEC (to reduce fee)? Why are they not asking NECO? Why are they not asking NABTEB? Why JAMB? We charge the least and you are saying reduce''. Oloyede questioned why people are calling for the reduction of the fee.
2. Students in SS1 might be disqualified from participating in the exam
The numbers of candidates for the 2019 UTME might not be as much as that of the 2018 edition as JAMB plans to reduce the numbers.
When asked about how many candidates are expected to participate in the upcoming exam, Oloyede said, ''it is difficult to say the exact number of applicants we are expecting this time. We expect to crash the number because many of those who are taking the forms are not even prepared or qualified for the exam.
Some are SS1 students, who are just trying; contributing N5,000 unduly to our purse. We are putting in place some checks to make people who want to apply to be minimally qualified.
3. 2019 UTME form sales will start by October
JAMB Registrar also said that the 2019 UTME form sales will start in the next few days.
ALSO READ: How to prepare for UTME
The governor, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Mr Edward Onoja, said the state presently had four technical colleges.
According him, the aim is to bring technical and vocational skills acquisition closer to grassroots.
Since inception of this government, we have been given maximum support to education, including NKFI, to ensure that it realises its purpose of establishment.
Today, we are here graduating students and also matriculating new set of students, the first of its kind since the inception of the institution.
We are encouraging more of our youths to take skills acquisition in technical and vocational areas, the major need of society today, to be self-reliant and be employers of labour.
Once you can have skills that provide solutions to the needs of the society, you are inadvertently creating wealth in such society, Bello said.
The governor advised the grandaunts to synergise, partner and network to start small and provide effective services while urging the matriculating students to focus on their purpose of coming to the institution.
Mrs Rosemary Osikoya, the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, commended the Nigerian and Korean Governments for the partnership in making establishment of the institution and possible.
According Osikoya, education equips people with skills and give them the opportunity to meet their needs as well as enable them to make great impacts in the society.
The commissioner said emphasis on sustainable diversification of the economy should be on improvement in vocational and technical skills training.
Gov. Yayaya Bello administration has been given support to the NKFI through the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, which is the result of what you are seeing here today.
In spite the lean resources, we are engaging in collaborations with approval of the state executive council, hopefully we will have one government technical college in each LGA as from 2018/2019 academic session, Osikoya said.
The Principal of NKFI, Mr Okewu Gabriel, 58 grandaunts, comprising 56 males and 2 females, had successfully been trained on short term courses for three and six months, depending on the choice of courses.
Okewu said that 75 students were matriculated into various two-year courses and programmes in the institute, the first since the full commencement of academic activities in 2015.
He said that all courses offered by the institute had been accredited by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).
He also said that the focus of the institute was basically on skills acquisition through technical and vocational training.
According to him, the accredited courses are: Electrical/Electronic Technology, Welding/Fabrication, Networking and System Security, Computer Software Engineering, and Automotive Mechatronics .
Mrs Paulin Ajibili, Kogi State Coordinator of NABTEB, told newsmen that the institute was collaborating with the board to certify the trained people in various skills acquisition.
She said that the certificate issued by the institute can be use anywhere in the world.
One of the grandaunts, Ndime Christopher, who did ICT, told newsmen that the experience was wholesome, adding that it would help me to be self-reliant.
The training was concrete, not abstract; I believed we have tried our best in the training because the materials were on ground for us.
A seemingly excited Davido spilled a lot in his chat with the OAPs and revealed a lot of things Nigerians back home weren't aware of.
1. Growing up in the United States and Nigeria
Davido got to talk about how he was born in Atlanta, United States and moved back home to Nigeria at a very young age. According to Davido, he gained admission into Oakwood College in Alabama which he only stayed for about a year. Being a shy child growing up, he couldn't share with his dad, his love for music. According to him, he became very close to his dad after losing his mum at a young age.
2. How he got into music
According to Davido, when he was still in the United States he use to pick up celebrities at the airport, arrange women for them at the strip clubs and get them cool stuff. Then he got to meet some Jamaicans who really inspired him. He went on to talk about how he sold fake jewelry back home. As a producer, he produced for other artists until he jumped on one of the songs and it became big.
3. His father initial disapproval of his music
We finally got to hear the part where his father initially didn't want to hear anything about his music career. According to him, father at some point sent over 50 police officers to arrest his road manager, then girlfriend just before one of his show started. After the fights, he came to a compromise with his dad to go back to school in Nigeria and his father helped set up his studio and sponsor two music videos.
4. Chioma
Finally, we got to hear first hand how he met Chioma. He also told the OAPs that she was in his last video (We all know that already). According to Davido, Chioma is a friend from college. He also talked about his two daughters Imade and Hailey who are both based in the United States except for Imade who shuttles between Nigeria and the States.
5. The tour
While chatting with DJ Envy and Charlamagnethagod, Davido revealed to the OAPs that he would be having a concert in New York and also talked about a sold out concert in Boston a couple of nights. So you all know, he is about to have a sold-out concert at the O2 Arena in London.
According to the Hyderabad Excise and Enforcement team, the Nigerian, who identified simply as Eve alias Hamza, is behind a drug cartel that operates in Indian cities that include Bengluru and Hyderabad.
In a report by local media, the Nigerian's identity was revealed after the enforcement team nabbed a member of the drug cartel which operates from Bengaluru.
ALSO READ: Nigerian man nabbed by Indian police for trafficking Cocaine
30-year-old Vtindn Guessan Yves, the arrested member of the drug gang was disposed off 15 grams of cocaine found in his possession.
How the ex-president of Nigerian association in India operates
According to the report, Hamza operates from Bangalore and runs the trade by sending poor African students to Indian cities as peddlers to sell cocaine, and other drugs.
Hamza was reported to have always recruited students from Africa with financial problems and lure them into peddling drugs in the streets of different cities in India.
This allegation was further corroborated by assistant superintendent of excise enforcement, Anji Reddy.
"He has been trapping students and using them to sell drugs in Goa, Hyderabad and other cities. The operation and network was unearthed based on the confession of a BBA student arrested by our officials in Hyderabad," the official said in a tstaemet.
According to Citizen TV, the man, who is a citizen of Kenya, has been identified as David Mungai.
The alleged abusive husband reportedly fled the couple's home after inflicting the injury on his wife, who was identified as Anne Waireri, on August 29, 2018.
However, Mungai ran out of luck when his neighbours discovered his hiding place and forced him to report himself at the police station.
ALSO READ: Man bites baby he was trying to rape when mum caught him
It was also reported that Mungai and his wife have three children together as a couple.
Mungai, was officially arrested by the police in Bamburi are of Mombasa, the capital of Kenya.
Man on the run after burning pregnant girlfriend's face
Gruesome photos of a pregnant young lady with burns have went round on social media, causing shock and wonder in anyone that sees it.
In the photos, the young lady suffered burns to her face and hands, all reportedly caused by her boyfriend.
READ MORE:
Instablog9ja reports that the suspect who is South African, and whose identity has been withheld, is currently on the run.
According to the reports, the suspect burnt his pregnant girlfriend with a bar heater for reasons that are yet to be ascertained.
According to the 40-year-old in a report by Punch News, the body parts belong to persons who sleep with her in a tunnel. It is located in Aiyetoro, Cele-Nizer around the Lagos-Badagry Expressway.
The woman was apprehended on Monday, August 27, 2018. The residents of the community who thought she was mad reportedly caught her making a phone call.
This invited a mob attack quickly curtailed by the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps and policemen from the Ijanikin division. Punch confirms this in a report.
I was married to an Egun man who abandoned me. My only surviving child, Abiodun Jeriat, is with my husband. I had five other children, but they all died.
"I have been living in the place for about two months after I could not find my house at Mosafejo Ilogbo, Ogun State.
On the day I was caught, I was sitting when a man came to offer me a gin. The second person came and asked if I had a mobile phone and I said no. Not long after, I saw some people with canes and they started beating me up.
"They also removed all the things I used to cover myself whenever it rained. They asked me if I took gin and I said once in a while.
They asked where I used to get money to buy it and I told them that some men had been having sex with me and they gave me money N200 or N300," the mentally deranged woman told Punch.
ALSO READ: Suspected female ritualist reportedly found with decomposing human body
Two confusing plea makes one
That you, Folake Falade, and others at large, on August 27, 2018, around 7am, at Aiyetoro, Cele-nizer, on the Lagos- Badagry Expressway, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did conspire among yourselves to commit felony, to wit: unlawful possession of human parts.
That you, Folake Falade, and others at large, on the same date, time and place, in the aforementioned magisterial district, did unlawfully have in your possession severed human parts, charms and a picture of a boy, a supposed victim," reads the charges addressed to Folake Falade.
She has been arraigned at the Ebute-Metta Chief Magistrates Court. At first she pleaded guilty to the charges but later changed it.
According to Punch News, she claims that the material found with her are not human parts. They are just 'ponmo' (cow hide).
Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!
The media is filled with stories of domestic violence and child sexual abuse. Nigeria is characterized by sad stories and Pulse has reported these stories. Thus, it is no surprise that somebody has decided to take up this cause and aid the one who lack privilege.
Bookie, who grew up in a male dominated, Christian home says her interest was piqued after she went for her Masters degree in Environmental Management at Coventry University, United Kingdom, where she witnessed the freedom and greater willingness with which children communicate with elders even the most sensitive issues.
She felt Nigerian children are not afforded the opportunity to communicate their problems, and that the avenue and encouragement are simply inexistent she is right.
In her words, In Nigeria, children are seen and taken as children while in the UK, children are taken as children growing up into adulthood. This means that children-adult relationship is very cordial.
She continues, Theres an element of disconnect between adults and children in Africa, unlike the UK where children share views freely with adults. In UK, they prepare them ahead of adolescent life while in Africa, we overlook and allow them to grow into it.
Parents act shocked when they learn of abuse their children face because they focus more on material parenting that emotional painting and education to communicate outrageous, even when they are being threatened. Children will not communicate issues if they are not encouraged to speak up or dont feel safe enough.
Asides that, culture clogs the judgement of Nigerian parents that they unknowingly engage in victim shaming and tacit permission to abusers, asides not even providing the platform which these children will comfort required to discuss sensitive and even random issues.
Bookie says, When we say it is not what the children wear that attracts abusers, theres a school of thought that oppose the assertion, saying what they wear has nothing to do with abusers mind, but that they are already prone to do it. Another case is the incestuous behavior of a father sleeping with a daughter. When we approached the family, the wife of the man was not in agreement with us, protecting the husband.
ALSO READ: Father sleeps with daughter for 8 years, impregnates her
What is victim shaming?
It is quite simply an intentional or unintentional blame of a victim for their supposed parts in their own abuse, neglecting that abusers will abuse, regardless of encouragement. This inevitably lead to tacit permission which is basically, endorsement of the weakness exploited by an abuser to occasion his act.
An example of tacit permission is when a parent or even ordinary people blame children for their freedom or style of dressing around their abusers and it is very unbecoming. What an abuser needs is sanctuary, not judgement. Three year old children are raped it has nothing to do with how they dress. Abusers are disturbed individuals.
While sometimes, victims play a role by not recognizing patterns, their actions are within the confines of convenience and familiarity. It is the abusers who take advantage of these situations.
The role of churches, culture and parents
The churches sometimes engage in victim shaming, tacit permission to abusers, insufficient emotional parenting and sometimes, a questionable lack of rationality in their actions.
A child will be abused by their parents, some parents will call it a family issue or, issues of abuse being treated by spirituality. On this, she says, Another case is the incestuous behavior of a father sleeping with a daughter. When we approached the family, the wife of the man was not in agreement with us, protecting the husband. She said it is a family matter and she doesnt want the public to hear about it that is cultural. The beauty of Religion and its alluring wonder in the face of reason, rationality and logic, but sometimes, these children need other issues attached. Churches also offer just solace and stability sometimes, when these victims need greater attention.
The idea worries Bookie, We noticed that churches are living in denial. For things they are supposed to take action, they resort to praying. Everything is not about prayer and fasting.
She continues, Often times, most of the domestic challenges are temperamental. In resolving such matters what triggers each others temperament should be watched and be put in control. Prayer is good when the couples understand themselves very well.
ALSO READ: Why we might need victim relocation program for victims of domestic violence and violent crimesSafety Republic
Before Safety Republic, she worked for Black Diamond Support Foundations, Amazing Amazon Initiative (Women Empowerment Foundation). Niyola Care Foundation and Helpmate Foundation.
On what they do, Bookie says, It is a huge project and cost effective. Although most of the counseling is done free but we render special services when consulted which is paid for. In choosing where we conduct counseling, we are very resolute about it. We do a random search online and select areas that we feel desire attention, mail them and carry out our services. A greater percentage of the areas we counseled call us back and thats the positive result of what we are doing. She continues.
That means, there is an element of genuine appreciation to them, if people hold them in such esteem and obey their dictates willingly.
ALSO READ: Has religion become a problem or a blessing in Nigeria
The concept of solving a non-existent problem
Nonetheless, certain people do not realize the fault in certain acts till they get told. While that means creating problem where none was existent by ingraining the dictates of a new reality, it has been the idea behind progressive ideas across humanity.
Someone thought slavery, colonialism and gender inequality were wrong before people saw the wrong in them. Without such clamour, inequality would remain a worrying reality.
ALSO READ: Meet the Yoruba king who wants to be addressed as Emir
Who is an Emir?
Emirs are religious leaders in Muslim settings of Caliphate. They have also assumed the role of the traditional rulers of communities, to administer customary laws and maintain order.
The equivalent of an Emir in the south is the Oba or Obi, depending on where you check from. Yoruba for example assume the Oba is the Ifas lieutenant, who administers Eledumare's wishes and dictates.
In the traditional parlance, that should lend some theories on reverence, perception and range of power as well as influence Emirs wield.
Like their Yoruba counterparts, they have certain rights and are viewed as demi-gods in native parlance. That is why their wives respect them in ways they do.
Emirs wives
Emirs wives are called Gambiya, and while their husbands sit on the throne, they kneel down, and sit on their heels and calves. It is a practice that was meant to underline the power and influence of kings.
While in modern context, it means derogation upon women, it is a cultural practice that women are accustomed to.
Should the act be eradicated?
As noted earlier, culture doesnt always make sense, and sometimes, mentioning certain wrongs with culture equates creating a problem where none was existent.
Emirs wives are not complaining. They are also incredibly respected within the community as a First Lady would. They are like deities that embody the rudiments of class and beauty of power.
A lot of the modern Queens are also modern women who have accepted the reality they marry into and conform to them.
Nonetheless, it doesnt make such things right. Even though such objection might create a larger conversation that no one wants, we must have these conversations that lend ideas to our thought process and progressiveness, especially when women are concerned.
It seems a very misogynistic idea that women dont even sit, but still kneel while their husbands seat on their thrones in the throne room.
It might send wrong messages of exceptions from fair treatment and equity, regardless of gender to the younger generation when fair treatment should be limitless and without exception except where choice is involved, despite being privy to other options.
ALSO READ: Fake Emir of Kano spends 36 months in jail
Should such practices then be eradicated?
On Tuesday, September 4, 2018, Northern Blog, an internet pop culture blog, with an Instagram accountcertainly thinks the practice should be eradicated. It thinks it is derogatory and should not stand.
The commentators on the post however disagreed, repeatedly stating their vehement support for this supposedly derogatory culture.
The summation of their replies, written in Hausa seems to state that these Gambiyas only do this, when their husbands are in the Palace, fully dressed in kingly regalia.
Such exceptions also seem reasonable, as the women are also not complaining.
Nonetheless, if we let every derogatory culture towards women stand, women would be stuck in the dark ages of intense patriarchy.
Ordinarily, any culture that doesnt cater to equity and fair opportunity should be eradicated and this should be, but it is a sensitive topic and we should thread carefully.
That said, I think we can show the regal nature of kings without such extreme measures. We can thus get these women seats, albeit lower to their husbands.
Kneeling through Emirs sessions in the Palace is certainly very conservative by modern standards, but culture is culture.
Toke strutted through her hotel in Abuja, security in tow, wearing a white slogan t-shirt that read 'Best Dressed Circle' and the high-waisted palazzo pants in purple sequin material. The unique pants were definitely the highlight of the outfit and hung off Toke's frame in a stylishly over-sized manner.
She finished off the look with a pair of colourful, tribal-style Manolo Blahnik mules.
According to their website, Style Temple describe their brand aesthetics as, 'a combination of classic yet modern fashion and a play on balance between the feminine and edgy. StyleTemple diffusion ready-to-wear line is a mixture of structured wearable pieces with a couture edge, clean geometric cuts and shapes with a standout detail. Easy fitted garments that flatter the womans body is our signature style.'
An Assistant Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Bello, said three of the 22 Boko Haram insurgents arrested two months ago were members of ISIS.
At a briefing on the security situation in the state, Bello said the ISIS station their stooges at the IDP camps to perpetrate chaos.
We had launched radio programmes aimed at sensitising the larger society on the need to be sensitive of their environment, he said.
It will interest you to note that some of the affected victims in camps were not IDPs. We have our ways of rating them to the classes of A.B.C.
So if you find any suspicious person, do not just send him away, but arrest him because the terrorists have their sympathisers; they are the people that are giving them information.
Ogidi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday that the PIB was dear to the Niger Deltans.
Ogidi said that the bill had been on for many years and that the National Assembly had done all that was necessary to make it see the light of the day.
He also expressed worry over the presidents refusal to sign the Electoral Law Amendment Bill.
The chieftain said that the reasons put forward by the presidency for declining assent to the bills were not `acceptable.
The presidential aide on National Assembly Matters, Sen. Ita Enang had said that President Muhammadu Buhari withheld assent to PIGB for constitutional and legal reasons.
He also said that the president declined assent to the draft law initiated to update the outdated Petroleum Act to replace its provisions with a more comprehensive and current legal framework that aligned with global standards.
Ogidi said that the Electoral Law Amendment Bill was necessary to ensure a credible election in 2019 as it sought to give legal backing to the use of card readers.
He noted that Buhari promised credible elections come 2019, while receiving his counterparts from Germany and Britain but alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Police had been compromised.
He called on all the heads of security agencies to learn from the misfortunes of the recently sacked Director General of the Department of State Security Service (DSS) and live up to expectations.
The PDP stalwart said nobody is indispensable adding that there were capable Nigerians waiting for the opportunity to serve.
He said that security issues must be taken very seriously adding that there was urgent need for government to put an end to killings across the country.
Nigerians must engage the government and keep talking to be taken seriously, we are not comedians and we must prevent a repeat of what happened in the Ekiti Elections.
I urge elder statesmen to keep speaking out and attract the attention of the international community; Nigeria being the giant of Africa cannot afford to be brought low, he said.
According to Ogidi, Nigerians, have gone out in their numbers to get registered ahead of 2019 general elections in a bid to sustain democracy
He described reports alleging that some Nigerians were made to part with money to collect their Permanent Voter Card (PVCs) as `unfortunate.
The chieftain expressed confidence that the PDP would win the presidential election come 2019.
Speaking on the defection of the former Governor of Delta, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan from the PDP to the All Progressive Congress (APC), Ogidi said that it was of no consequence to the PDP.
He described the move as a quest for relevance saying that before Uduaghan left office as governor, members of the PDP had already deserted him for lack of performance.
Following the collapse of St. Paul Catholic Church in Adagbrasa-Ugolo community, Okpe Local Government Area of Delta State, Ogidi urged church leaders to always engage professionals.
He advised that, rather than engaging church members in building projects, it was safer and better to engage experienced professionals.
Four officers had carried out a raid on Clark's house on Tuesday, September 4, 2018, allegedly based on a tipoff that he was stockpiling weapons. The search yielded no discovery to prove the allegation and attracted widespread condemnation from Nigerians.
While the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, denied any knowledge of the invasion, he ordered the detention and investigation of the four police officers who carried out the raid as well as the immediate presentation of the informant to the media before his prosecution.
In a media briefing on Wednesday, September 5, Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, said Yakubu, from Waru Village, Apo District, Abuja, will be arraigned in court for giving false information and telling falsehood to mislead police action.
How I got information - Informant
When questioned, Yakubu disclosed that he obtained the information he passed along to the Police from a taxi driver who said weapons were being stockpiled in Clark's house.
He said, "The whole street was blocked; no way in, no way out. So, I asked questions and it was the taxi driver that told me that this is the area Niger Delta people live. He then pointed to a truck entering the compound at the time.
"I checked the compound and discovered it is House 43. It was a white Hilux and it was sealed. The driver told me that the Hilux was full of ammunition, and I said 'what!'
"As an indigene of FCT, we are peace-loving people. I couldn't take that and that is what I said. I asked him if he was sure of the information."
Force disowns officers' action
The Police spokesperson said even though officers have the obligation to act on information from the public, the offending officers failed to follow laid down precedures.
He said, "Notwithstanding, the facts that on daily basis the Nigeria Police Force across the Country receives information from members of the public which were promptly used to prevent and detect crimes and Criminalities, the Force will not condone misconducts by any of its personnel that can run contrary to the rule of law.
"The Police therefore, has the statutory rights to execute a duly obtained search warrant in any premises where it has actionable intelligence or information that incriminating items or exhibits used to commit crime or about to be used for criminality with the aims of recovering them to prevent the commission of such crime or to detect the crime that have been committed.
"Any officer who is to carry out the execution of search warrant must follow the laid down procedures within the law. Where such is not followed, such an officer must be made to face the consequences of violating the rule of law."
The four officers were identified as ASP David Dominic, Inspector Godwin Musa, Inspector Sada Abubakar, and Inspector Yabo Paul.
DSP Moshood disclosed that the officer who led the team has been queried and the three Inspectors are undergoing orderly trial for the appropriate punishment to be meted out on them.
IGP apologises to elder statesman over raid of residence in Abuja
Clark accepts IGP's apology
DSP Moshood also disclosed that Chief Edwin Clark has accepted the apology of the Force over the incidence after he was visited by a high-level delegation on Wednesday.
The IGP sent a delegation that comprised of the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (Operations), Joshiak Habila, and some Commissioners of Police to apologise for the raid.
Four officers had carried out a raid on Clark's house on Tuesday, September 4, 2018, allegedly based on a tipoff that he was stockpiling weapons. The search yielded no discovery to prove the allegation and attracted widespread condemnation from Nigerians.
In a statement signed by Saraki's Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, on Wednesday, September 5, he said the raid was "a gross abuse of state institution" as it wasn't properly conducted.
He warned that such an action cannot escape scrutiny as being politically-motivated ahead of the upcoming 2019 general elections, especially since Clark is a vocal critic of the government.
The statement read, "The unwarranted harassment of Chief Edwin Clark, who is known for being very vocal in expressing his views on national issues, at a time when the nation is preparing for elections does not reflect well on the country. Such actions constitute a threat to democracy.
"Chief Clark, who is also a Second Republic Senator and former minister under the General Gowon administration is not above the law. If there is a genuine reason for his home to be searched by law enforcement agencies, nobody will object to it.
"However, as it appears now, for the Police to conduct a raid on the home of a man of that age on the pretence that they were looking for arms and eventually - the claim turned out to be a hoax - means that something is amiss. These actions represent a gross abuse of state institutions.
"Now that the Inspector General of Police has denied that the raid was never authorized, the next move should be a thorough, transparent investigation into the Senator Edwin Clark incident to prevent future reoccurrences.
"These kinds of ugly developments must stop. This country experienced a peaceful change in 2015 because the government in power allowed democracy to work. If the government had allowed the flagrant abuse and misuse of state institutions to be the norm, we would not have had the change that occurred.
"Democracy is not only about elections. Circumstances that will create tension in any part of the country or make people feel that their fundamental human rights are being trampled upon should be avoided.
"If a man of the caliber and status of Senator Edwin Clark can suffer such an unwarranted raid on his home, then what will happen to ordinary Nigerians as we move towards the 2019 polls and beyond?"
IGP apologises to Clark over raid
The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has sent a high-level delegation to Clark to apologise for the raid which he claims was unauthorised.
In a statement earlier signed by Force spokesperson, Jimoh Moshood, on Wednesday, he disclosed that the delegation comprised of the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (Operations), Joshiak Habila, and some Commissioners of Police.
Frank made the call following the raid on prominent South-South leader, Edwin Clarks home in Abuja by the police.
Policemen stormed Clarks home on Tuesday, September 5, 2018, saying they were looking for arms.
Wrong information
Apparently, an informant,Ismail Yakubu gave the police a wrong information.
Yakubu was paraded before newsmen on Wednesday, September 5, 2018.
When asked how he got the information which he shared with the police, he said that it was a taxi driver that told him weapons were being off-loaded in the South-South leaders house.
His words: "The whole street was blocked; no way in, no way out. So, I asked questions and it was the taxi driver that told me that this is the area Niger Delta people live. He then pointed to a truck entering the compound at the time.
"I checked the compound and discovered it is House 43. It was a white Hilux and it was sealed. The driver told me that the Hilux was full of ammunition, and I said 'what!'
"As an indigene of FCT, we are peace-loving people. I couldn't take that and that is what I said. I asked him if he was sure of the information."
Idris is not in charge
Frank, in a statement issued to newsmen, said that Tuesdays incident has shown that Idris is not in charge of the police force.
The Police IG had denied knowledge of the raid on Clarks house and ordered that the men who carried out the raid be arrested.
The former APC spokesman also said This latest siege on the premises of Pa Clark must be thoroughly investigated and culprits made to face the law, or we will be at liberty to conclude that a plot to finally eliminate Chief Clark is at a full-blown stage as anything short of the IGs sack will be seen as a nod by his paymasters to carry on with his nefarious acts.
The activities of the Nigeria Police in recent times has left everyone wondering if indeed this is the same police saddled with the responsibility to Serving and Protect all Nigerian citizens.
The modus operandi of this administration in clamping down and arm-twisting perceived opposition figures in the country has become one too many as Nigerians are now feeling perpetually under siege.
To buttress this assertion, the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, only recently ordered a review the activities of the FSARS an arm of the police that had become a living nightmare for law abiding citizens.
Furthermore, this unwarranted police assault on Chief Clark is an attack on the Ijaw Nation, aimed at stereotyping, embarrassing and nationally shaming the Ijaw People.
The disdain and bad blood exhibited by this administration towards other minority tribes in the country is the worst since independence, and all well-meaning Nigerians must rise to condemn and resist it.
His piece is reproduced below, unedited.
______
Former INEC chief, Prof Attahiru Jega recently made a case for competent leadership over strong man leadership. The latter was one of the major pivots on which Buhari achieved victory in 2015, bearing in mind the alleged 2 million controversial votes awarded to the APC and Buhari in Kano State.
Many felt strong man leadership was needed due to indiscipline and widespread corruption endemic in Nigeria. Jega noted that a strong man would destroy institutions whereas competence of leadership is a very important variable in bringing about stable political transition, good governance and deepening of democracy.
There is a consensus that President Buharis administration has failed but what bothers the minds of millions of dissatisfied Nigerian citizens remain which politician can displace Buhari given his political base (though this is depreciating due to defections of key members of his party), backed by a populist movement and a cult of personality cemented by the power of incumbency?
Inadvertently, failure to improve the fortunes of the country has left many in distress stemming from failure of leadership which has beleaguered Africas sleeping giant. In an editorial by The Guardian on the visit of PM Theresa May to Nigeria, the foremost UK daily noted, Many Nigerians are disillusioned by a lack of progress made by Buharis administration. Promises to fight corruption and restore security have not been fully met. In fact, Guardian was quite conservative in expressing the sangfroid of disaffected citizens most of whom voted for him with high hopes.
There is no gainsaying that Buhari is incompetent. It is pertinent to note that at the celebrated meeting of Buhari with President Trump of the United States, he was reportedly dismissed as lifeless by Trump, a reference which is a bitter truth which summarizes the entire leadership of his administration. If the president of the United States, the leader of the free world and most powerful man in the world adjudged the president of Nigeria as lifeless, it calls for deep introspection and sober reflection.
Herein lies the conundrum, the chasm between what Nigeria lacks and what it requires at this epoch in its development. The crux of the matter is the dearth of political leadership needed to situate Nigeria as a dominant emerging power in the world, and improve the lot of the over 87 million Nigerians that live in abject poverty. Theresa May reminded Nigeria that it has become the poverty capital of the world while speaking in South Africa on her African tour. Nigeria as a country needs redemption.
Consequently, the two major political parties that would most likely produce the next president of Nigeria - the anchor point for political leadership - are Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressive Congress (APC). The APC being the party of Mr Buhari is set to give him the 2019 presidential ticket unopposed. However, as things stand, the APC has failed to deliver on its campaign promises consequent on the leadership failure of Buhari. In effect, except the APC rescinds it decision and prevails on Mr Buhari to jettison his ambition, the party stands a big chance of losing out to the PDP which remains Africas largest party and the last hope of the common man to rise from growing poverty.
In recent times the PDP has had its political fortunes enhanced by the defection of prominent members of APC who moved from the PDP prior to the 2015 elections. Comparatively, it has a pool of candidates who posses the leadership acumen to unseat Mr Buhari and has gone into a coalition known as the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) to wrestle power from the APC. It is no gainsaying to unambiguously propose that PDP has a better chance of winning the presidential election in 2019 than APC but its choice of presidential candidate is a crucial variable in this political permutation.
Up until Dr Bukola Saraki, the Senate president hinted to Bloomberg News that he is considering running for president, former VP Atiku Abubukar had been the touted choice for the PDP ticket. Mr Atiku is very vocal and audacious on national issues and has successfully deployed social media especially on twitter to criticise the present government.
But the emergence of Dr Saraki in permutations has taken political watchers by surprise as many expected him to seek reprieve from the constant attacks on his person and office of the Senate President by the APC who saw him as its main adversary because of his growing political profile.
His political dexterity awes the politically savvy as they long to have a man of his pedigree and sagacity take a shot at the presidency. He officially declared and threw the hat into the ring to contest the 2019 presidential primary of the PDP when he addressed the #NotTooYoungToRun advocacy group in a political parley with youth aspirants of the PDP.
Without doubt in the PDP, the battle is between Saraki and Atiku; and for the PDP and APC, it is Saraki or Atiku versus Buhari. However, the Senate president embodies a fresh perspective to leadership, which is imperative at this juncture in the journey to development of Nigeria and set it on the path of progress. He has tagged his campaign #GrowNigeria. And I intend to advance the premise on which I believe Saraki appears most likely to be at the helm of affairs of Nigeria in 2019 with a victory in the presidential elections provided the PDP gives him the ticket.
At the level of state government politics, as a politician with conscience, who was reluctant to join politics, he opposed his fathers decision for his sister Rukiyat to succeed him as governor. That singular act endeared him to the people of his state who rewarded him with their votes as he was elected a senator after serving two terms as governor.
Dr Saraki is accorded recognition as the father of modern governance in Kwara State given his type of politics which is devoid of rancour and acrimony; focused on the good, development and advancement of the people of his state and Nigeria. His political prowess is visible in how he has galvanized Kwara politically; as governor of Kwara State for eight years, HE Saraki started a revolution to tackle the problem of food security and pragmatically implemented diversification of the economy, which has remained lip service at national level because of over-dependence on crude oil as major revenue earner.
Based on a PPP model with 13 Zimbabwean farmers, the Shonga Farms project was initiated and today is a major supplier of cassava to Nigerian Starch Mills Limited and fresh milk to WAMCO to produce Peak, Three Crowns milk, Nutricima and many other companies. It is also a major supplier of chicken to most restaurants in the country, including Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). Replicating the Shonga Farms model and empowering farmers across Nigeria requires a person who has led such ground breaking transformation in the agricultural sector.
On education, HE Saraki established Kwara State University (KWASU) a state owned university which did not exist despite Kwara being one of the oldest states in Nigeria. Sarakis leadership envisioned an egalitarian Kwara state where citizens are educated to the highest level. In furtherance of that grand goal, the Ilorin Aviation School is one of the laudable projects initiated and completed by his administration which afforded indigenes of the state to acquire high tech knowledge in aviation.
To be vindicated in his area of education as a medical doctor, he established Kwara Advanced Ultramodern Diagnosis Centre. On the nagging issue of electricity, the Ganmo Power Generation Plant, hundreds of ordinary power substations and some injection Substations were built. These are just a few of the accomplishments of HE Saraki as a state governor. Massive road and infrastructural projects were initiated and completed. In terms of state government administration, Saraki stands out. He was the chairman of the Nigerian Governors forum and his good leadership as governor was felt nationally.
On the national scene, the victory of the APC in the National Assembly and presidency brought yet another era of insight to the political enigma and colossus Saraki is. The election of the opposition to the presidency instead of unifying the opposition threw up a leadership tussle, which required a great deal of wisdom and maturity to handle. The first point of consternation was the election of the principal officers of the NASS. The leadership of the APC had its preferred candidates leaving out the nPDP headed by Saraki which was strategic in delivering the partnership which gave APC victory in the polls. The APC till date embodies lack of internal democracy, which negates equity and fairness.
The writer being a keen curator of the polity desired that the APC leave the NASS leadership open to internal democracy post -victory in 2015, which was imperative for deepening democracy in the larger polity. But the APC, which mistook its victory as isolated from the nPDP that joined their fold schemed to shortchange some consequential members of the party.
Saraki delivered a political masterstroke which remains an important epoch in the annals of political history of Nigeria, a subject for political scientists and students to study. He brought coalition politics into the senate where he made concession to the opposition party PDP, garnered their block votes, with some loyal APC senators, he was elected the Senate president. Nigerians were relieved. The PDP which was wallowing in bitter election defeat heaved a sigh of relief while the South East which was almost schemed out in this dispensation got a top position in Senator Ike Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate (PDP) and it helped quell dissenting voices. It is no gainsaying to call HE Saraki the unifier, a bridge builder and a man who radiates the true meaning of one Nigeria.
The 8th Senate under HE Saraki has been the most successful of the fourth republic with groundbreaking bills and amendments passed while working harmoniously with all and sundry to ensure that our democracy is protected. The Senate under Saraki has passed over 200 bills in all facets of Nigeria as a country such as the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) and Electoral Amendment Bill.
Specifically, as at its 3rd anniversary, on June 9, 2015, it passed 213 bills, cleared 138 petitions from members of the public. It is noteworthy that factions opposed to Saraki within his former party the APC have continuously sort to scuttle his good works through scheming of impeachment and outright siege on the national assembly but in all the travails, he has been the peacemaker making entreaties severally to the APC hierarchy which remains adamant in their bid to wrestle power from him.
Restraint has been his disposition always seeking to quench any fire raging to consume the country. In all the consternations, which have simmered in recent times, he has emerged as the face of democracy recognised by world powers most recently, UK and European Union during the recent siege by Nigerias Secret Service on the National Assembly. After the recent siege on the Senate, he addressed a world press conference to assure the rest of the world that Nigeria is still committed to democracy and rule of law despite cynical forces that are bent on torpedoing progress.
Dr Saraki is the link between the old foes and the new generation. He best captures the aspirations of millennials and is an embodiment of modern governance. Nigerians are disillusioned with the current administration but what is missing is the linkage who will harness and galvanise the dreams of many most Nigerians to actualise a progressive country. He was instrumental in ensuring the #NotTooYoungToRun bill which lowers the age for several elective positions was passed into law. He is Youth eccentric, one of his major trademarks. The other two leading candidates, Atiku, PDP (71) and Buhari, APC (75) are septuagenarians and the desire for a paradigm shift for fresh leadership has never been more than today.
Saraki will be 56 in 2019 and fits into the picture Nigerians desire. A man so accomplished, being a governor for 8 years, Senator for 8 years, Senate president for 3.5 years and counting has the requisite experience to lead Nigeria on the path of progress and prosperity.
One argument President Buharis supporters advance is Buharis experience but that experience is tainted by involvement in military juntas one of which he headed in the 80s which affected his views of democracy. He clearly identified as a converted democrat and recent events have cast him in bad light. He shocked the country by placing national security and national interest over Rule of Law. Dr Saraki is his direct opposite who has continued to uphold the Rule of Law and advocates deepening democracy. Dr Sarakis sterling leadership at the NASS gives credence.
Dr Sarakis acceptability across the length and breath of Nigeria, across geopolitical zones and ethnic groups is seen in his consultations with prominent personalities and visits to several states where the masses have trooped out to welcome him. Despite the barrage of attacks on his personality, ordinary Nigerians are aware of his contribution to advancing democracy and progress of the country.
If the election is conducted today, he is sure of clinching the South South, South East, and North central. He will get half of the votes of South West. But would need to make inroads into North East and North West to usurp Buhari. The likes of Sen Kwankwaso and State governor of Sokoto, Gov Tambuwal have the clout to bring the PDP and Saraki victory in the North West. And a few states (Taraba, Gombe and Adamawa) in the North East controlled by PDP makes chances of getting 25% vote in 2/3 of the country to win the presidential election. Consequently, Dr Bukola Saraki, the Senate president is the best choice for the PDP and the right choice, the odds are on his side, in his party and the country to mount the saddle of leadership and bring succor to the long suffering people of Nigeria.
-----
CUPP spokesman, Ikenga Ugochinyere, said this while reacting to President Buharis rejection of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
President Buhari had withheld assent to the electoral bill due to some drafting issues.
But, CUPP alleged that President Buhari and the APC were afraid of losing the election and were against the bill.
The CUPP views the deliberate last-minute rejection of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill by the President Buhari-led APC government as a clear indication that Buhari and the APC want to destroy the chances of free and fair election in Nigeria simply because they are afraid of losing the 2019 general election, he said.
Buhari and APC are scared of the compulsory use of card readers for accreditation and transmission of election results which the new electoral law provides for.
The CUPP urges National Assembly to use a joint sitting whenever they return from recess to handle the INEC budget issue and Electoral Act observations and send the clean copy back to President Buhari so that he will have no excuse to ruin our desire for credible elections, he added.
The former Kano State governor said this while visiting Abia State governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, at the Government House on Tuesday, September 4, 2018.
Among other challenges such as insecurity and unemployment, Kwankwaso said the current government of the All Progressives' Congress (APC) has proven to be worse than that of the People's Democratic Party (PDP).
He said, "We were thinking that Peoples Democratic Party is bad but now, we realise it is better than the All Progressive Congress.
"This is because the opportunity given to them to govern is not being handled well, we worked assiduously in 2014-2015 for APC but now, we are seeing the difference.
"The leaders lack the capacity to do certain things, that is why the country is facing insecurity and unemployment.
"Poverty is the biggest challenge in the country so we must ensure the leadership checks the leakages."
Atiku said unlike then-president, Goodluck Jonathan, who peacefully conceded defeat to Buhari after the 2015 presidential election, he's very concerned about Buhari doing the same.
He said, "We are dealing now with a retired general (Buhari), very uncompromising, also power-drunk who will not be ready to leave power without a fight - or at least those are some of my fears for the current elections."
In a statement signed by President Buhari's Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, on Wednesday, September 5, 2018, he said the president is a committed democrat who is not intoxicated by power.
He said the president has only ever wielded power as a means of serving the people which is why they'll vote for him at next year's polls because they can be confident that he won't misuse his position.
Read the statement below:
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, was quoted by a foreign news medium as accusing President Muhammadu Buhari of being "very uncompromising, also power drunk; (and) who will not be ready to leave power without a fight."
Rather than use the name of President Buhari to buoy his bid to get the presidential ticket of a party, whose flag has been flying at half-mast since it got roundly trounced at the polls in 2015, the former Vice President needs be told that the President is truly uncompromising, but only when it comes to looting the common patrimony of Nigerians, and squandering their riches.
President Buhari is uncompromising in the quest to restore probity and accountability to public office. He is uncompromising in cleaning the rot Nigeria was consigned into pre-2015, thus the war against corruption is being fought without fear or favour. The President is equally resolute in the determination to ensure that Nigeria is no longer a mono-economy, depending only on oil.
Yes, President Buhari is single-minded in effecting change in every area of Nigerian life. So, Alhaji Abubakar is right, if that was what he meant by the President being "uncompromising."
But power drunk? No! And being a man "who will not be ready to leave power without a fight?" Never! Not President Buhari, who has demonstrated in many ways that he is a committed democrat, though also a retired military general. He has no apologies about that. Through a sterling military career, he served Nigeria with his heart and might, before venturing into partisan politics.
In many ways, President Buhari has wielded power with decency, and as a means of serving the people, rather than for personal ends. If there's one person not intoxicated by power, it is President Buhari, and scores of millions of Nigerians know this. That is why they will invest him with power again next year, knowing that he won't misuse or misapply what has been entrusted to him.
Former VP Abubakar may want to borrow a leaf from the decorous language employed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, in answering his recent press statement on the restructuring debate. That is the hallmark of statesmen, and not crying wolf where none exists, which is what the allegation of being uncompromising and power drunk truly is.
President Buhari is actuated by service to country, and nothing else. So, there couldn't be anything like "not ready to leave power without a fight."
Indeed, the insinuation of a fight is the mindset of a man who is either undemocratic, or has seen defeat staring him, and his party, in the face.
Sharon Otieno
An aide to Migori Governor Okoth Obado, Nicholas Oyamo, has since been arrested in connection to the abduction and murder.
Obado, on his part, disowned Oyamo, saying he was not party to what his PA may have been engaged in.
Apart from Otienos case, here are other young Kenyan girls who have died after being involved with wealthy men.
Carol Ngumbu
The 21-year old was killed after she was abducted alongside slain IEBC ICT manager Chris Msando.
The two had been on a night out when unknown assailants kidnapped them, before torturing Msando and killing them both.
Ngumbu had just completed her studies at the Karen campus of Kenya Medical Training College.
Veronica Muthoni
The 22-year old was among five people who perished in the Lake Nakuru helicopter crash that occurred on October 21 2017.
Muthoni was reported to have accompanied pilot, Captain Apollo Malowa , and four other Jubilee bloggers on a tour of Lake Nakuru after the group picked her at a club where they had been partying the night before the morning of the accident.
At the time of her death, she had recently graduated from the Rift Valley Institute of Science and Technology.
Mercy Keino
The 25-year old University of Nairobi student died in 2011, shortly after attending a party hosted by then Juja MP William Kabogo.
She had been pursuing a masters degree in Communications at the time of her death.
In a court inquiry to determine the nature of her death, Magistrate Peter Ndwiga ruled that Keino was not a victim of criminal homicide.
Activist Okiya Omtatah had on Monday filed an urgent case seeking to suspend the implementation of new fuel prices, arguing that it is a threat to the socio-economic rights of Kenyans.
Omtatah argued that the case was extremely urgent because the implementation of the tax has sharply forced upwards the prices of those products, resulting in widespread public discontent.
The imposition of VAT on petroleum products at 16 per cent of transaction value and not of the taxable value is tantamount to double taxation and therefore null and void, he said in a sworn statement.
Incomplete legislative process
However, the High Court Judge Chacha Mwita Judge Chacha Mwita ruled that the legislative process was incomplete until President Uhuru Kenyatta assents or rejects the Bill.
He further ordered the activist to serve Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich with the suit papers.
The case is set to continue next Monday.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Warming temperatures and changes to Indianas precipitation patterns will challenge some of the plants and animals that depend on the states water for their survival, according to a new report from the Indiana Climate Change Impacts Assessment team assembled and managed by Purdue University.
The report, Aquatic Ecosystems in a Shifting Indiana Climate, will be released during a community briefing at 11 a.m. CDT, Sept. 12 in the Conservation Room at Bass Pro Shops, 6425 Daniel Burnham Drive, Portage, Indiana. The event is open to the public.
The temperature of Indianas waters - from inland ponds, lakes and rivers to the southern portion of Lake Michigan - is expected to rise with air temperatures over the coming decades. Impacts will include changes in the growth patterns, movement and reproduction of fish, which could have consequences for both commercial and sport fishing.
More rainfall in the spring and less in the summer would change stream flows, potentially damaging habitats for aquatic organisms such as Indianas several endangered mussel species.
For many animals, climate change is a little like a game of Jenga. Climate change is pulling more and more blocks out of the tower. We dont know exactly which block will be the last for a particular species of fish or amphibians, said Jeff Dukes, director of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center. Weve already reduced their habitats, and climate change is another challenge. How much change can they take?
Ecologists and biologists from Purdue, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Ball State University and the University of Notre Dame contributed to the report. Tomas Hook, Purdue professor of fisheries and aquatic sciences and director of Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, is lead author.
The Indiana Climate Change Impacts Assessment (IN CCIA) has compiled the latest scientific research into a series of easily understandable reports about climate change impacts in ten topic areas: climate, health, forest ecosystems, aquatic ecosystems, urban green infrastructure, tourism and recreation, agriculture, water resources, energy, and infrastructure.
The reports that have been previously released are available on the IN CCIA website at http://IndianaClimate.org. For more information about the IN CCIA, go to the website or follow on social media at @PurdueCCRC, #ClimateChange, #INCCIA.
Writer: Brian Wallheimer, 765-532-0233, bwallhei@purdue.edu
Source: Jeff Dukes, 765-496-3662, jsdukes@purdue.edu
Agricultural Communications: (765) 494-8415;
Maureen Manier, Department Head, mmanier@purdue.edu
Agriculture News Page
Inspired by the news coverage of global politics and the rising paradigm of fake news and misinformation Al-Reem Al Zaman, one of the Qatari students joining NU-Q said, Ive always thought of media and journalism to be fair, unbiased, and true, but the blockade [on Qatar] showed me how people can easily be manipulated and how the truth can get lost in reporting. It has made me curious to learn more about the world of the media, and to be a part of the industry in the long run.
Meanwhile, Noor Haddad, a Yemeni who was raised in Oman, found NU-Q to be the perfect university for her to pursue her passion for both acting and communication. Northwestern appealed to me as a university because the work of its faculty and alumni really speaks volumes about their dedication to media and journalism, and the industry as a whole, she said.
Moving more than 7,000 miles across the globe was an easy decision for New Yorker Cade Aguda, who said, My preview visit to Qatar as an admitted student helped me make the decision to study here. I really liked Education City, and I was so impressed with NU-Qs facilities and equipment. Plus, I like the idea of being surrounded by people from so many different cultures and backgrounds, which is not something very common in the U.S.
2018 TURKMEN DESERT RACE : NEWSLETTER #4
The convoy is on its way
A race with high expectations
Follow the race LIVE
Version francaise , cliquez ici
WWW.TURKMEN DESERT RACE.COM
The convoy is on its way
The adventure has already begun for the participants of the TURKMEN DESERT RACE, first edition.
The first vehicles were loaded in Pau (West of France), then in Manosque (South of France) and finally in Saint Etienne (Middle East of France) where Sunday, were held pre-checks before the departure of vehicles.
It was then in Nuremberg (Germany) and then Warsaw (Poland) that the caravan went to load other competitors.
In total no less than 13 trucks dedicated to the organization are responsible for the transport of racing vehicles, continuing their journey through Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to reach the beautiful country of Turkmenistan.
A race with high expectations
For the first edition of TURKMEN DESERT RACE, no less than 83 crews will start from Amul on September 11th.
This colorful race consisting of a caravan of 220 vehicles and 520 persons, will cross Turkmenistan from East to West through the legendary Karakum desert.
During this race, the amateurs will have the pleasure to stay on the bivouac with big names of Cross Country Rally world.
On this race with high expectations, teams such as X-Raid Mini, PH Sport, SRT Racing, Mobilex Racing Team, RT Off Road Racing or Off Road Kazakhstan, Tech Tech Off Road, Kamaz Master, Maz Auto Sport, Gaz Raid Sport etc
It is therefore an exceptional race that awaits the competitors from 11 to 15 September.
Follow the race live
Facebook : Click here Twitter : Click here Instagram : Click here Youtube Channel : Click here
The Government says 1080 is the safest poison for eradicating pests from vulnerable habitats in New Zealand.
The contentious pest control was the centre of a debate on RadioLIVEs Morning Talk, where spokespeople from both sides weighed in on the issue.
Activists against 1080 say not enough research has been undertaken over its safety, alleging it contaminates the countrys water supply, makes New Zealanders sick, and kills animals like deer and native birds.
The consequences of spreading poison over New Zealands environment and into our water supplies is certainly contributing to ill health and death, environmental lawyer Sue Grey told RadioLIVE.
We have a predator crisis thats why were using 1080.
But Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage is not buying it, and wants to put a stop to the debate once and for all.
There have been over 2000 samples taken from waterways and none have shown that 1080 has levels that breach drinking water standards, she said.
Ms Sage emphasised that 1080 is essential for protecting New Zealands indigenous wildlife by knocking down pests like possums, rats and stoats.
They are major killers of our wildlife. We have a predator crisis thats why were using 1080.
ASIA: An agreement to delay construction of the planned 350 km Kuala Lumpur Singapore high speed rail line by up to five years was signed by representatives of the governments of Malaysia and Singapore on September 5.
Fleischer had been heading up Disney's merchandise strategy for parks, experiences and consumer products, but will now oversee retail and licensee partnerships at the streaming giant, along with publishing, interactive games, merchandising and experiential events. The move marks a notable foray into the ancillary products/merchandising space for Netflix (think Stranger Things lunchboxes and the like).Prior to her head of merchandise role at Disney, she was the SVP of retail and merchandise for the Parks & Resorts division at the House of Mouse. Fleischer also has experience in merchandise management for Warnaco, American Pacific Enterprises and The Disney Store.Christie brings a wealth of experience and creativity from the consumer products world. She has helped to build some of the worlds most beloved brands and were thrilled that she will join us to give our fans more opportunities to interact with Netflix in new and exciting ways, said Kelly Bennett, CMO at *** Netflix. *** . We want to create the highest-quality experience for our fans in everything we do.Fleischer added, Im excited to begin this next chapter with Netflix. With the amazing series and films being developed on a global scale, we have the opportunity to truly revolutionise the way people engage with the characters and shows they love. With the creative freedom offered here and the global audience, theres a huge opportunity to deliver a best-in-class experience for people wherever they are.She holds an MBA from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and a BS from West Chester University.
Papua New Guineas Digicel is set to grow its digital TV service by 48 channels, after ordering compression headend technology from MediaKind, formerly known as Ericsson Media Solutions.
The extension brings Digicels coverage to 92 channels broadcast over satellite direct-to-home (DTH) and DVB-T2 networks.MediaKind will deploy two of its AVP 4000 encoder systems and modulation to feed two new satellite transponders. The first expansion for the DVB-T2 VHF terrestrial transmitters is at Burns Peak site in Port Moresby, and will be integrated by Techtel. MediaKind will provide a three-year headend support as part of the deal, managed from Sydney in Australia.We are always looking for ways to enhance the services we offer to our customers in Papua New Guinea. This extension is helping us to deliver a wider range of high-quality content to our viewers. We have been working alongside MediaKind for many years and trust its ability to deliver the highest quality content with leading technologies and support, said Alan Constant, CTO, Digicel Media Ventures.The AVP 4000 system encoders handle MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC and HEVC, with a smooth upgrade path to 4K UHDTV.Ken Yap (pictured), SVP North East Asia sales, MediaKind said: We are delighted to extend our partnership with Digicel and support them to drive digital TVs growth in Papua New Guinea. Consumers are constantly seeking access to new, immersive content. For Digicel this expansion opens up the potential for new monetisation opportunities and additional high-quality services for viewers across the region. The extended deal is testament to the reliability of our industry-leading compression technology and solutions, which are continually evolving to meet new broadcast challenges.
MultiChoice has selected Newzroom Africa to produce a new 24-hour South African news channel for its sub Saharan direct-to-home (DTH) TV platform DStv.
Founded by entrepreneurs Thokozani Nkosi of Eclipse TV and Thabile Ngwato of Rapid Innovation, Newzroom Africas broadcast operation will be headed by TV executive, Zanele Mthembu. The newsroom will be led by veteran journalist Malebo Phage, with an editorial ethics oversight board spearheaded by the Joe Thloloe and journalist and academic Dinesh Balliah.Today marks the birth of an exciting new and independent media voice in South Africa. We set out to find a quality new, black-owned, independent news channel to expand the diversity of SA news and enrich our democracy were excited by the outcome, said MultiChoice SA CEO Calvo Mawela.The Eclipse TV and Rapid Innovation teams have a track record of entrepreneurial success. They will be supported by an editorial team that will deliver independent views of events unfolding in South Africa and around the world, while the owners concentrate on running the business successfully.MultiChoice said Newzroom Africas bid featured a diversified approach to news reporting, with an integrated digital strategy, sound audience analysis and appealing on-screen execution.The channel is distinctly different from other news offerings, and will help drive sustainable transformation in the television industry as well as adding to the diversity of views in South Africa and the wider continent, added Mawela.Newzroom Africas co-founder Thokozani Nkosi said: This is a great opportunity for us to bring a fresh perspective to South African news media by building a news channel from scratch. Were excited and raring to go.The channels launch date on DStv is yet to be announced.
Iran may resort to various ways of reducing the impact of the U.S. sanctions on its oil exports, and those tactics include secret oil shipments without trackers on tankers, bartered trades, discounts, and extended credit periods on oil sales, analysts tell Bloomberg.
During the previous round of sanctions, Iran disabled tracking on its tankers, resulting in millions of barrels of oil exports that were unaccounted for, according to Bloomberg and analysts.
During this next round of sanctions, nearly 200,000 bpd of Iran's oil exports could be undisclosed, Robin Mills, CEO at consultancy Qamar Energy in Dubai, told Bloomberg. While this volume will not have a significant impact on the global oil market, it could be helpful to Iran in offsetting some of the sting from the U.S. sanctions that kick in in early November, according to the expert.
Iran will keep selling oil in spite of an expected resumption of U.S. sanctions on the country's crude shipments, President Hassan Rouhani said.
The Islamic Republic is facing an economic and psychological war, and oil, gas and petrochemicals are in the front line, Rouhani said in a speech on Tuesday. We will make every effort to continue to produce and export oil, though there may be some ups and downs.
Iran's crude output declined 6.4 percent to 3.5 million barrels a day last month, the biggest drop among its peers in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Even though sanctions on its oil exports don't officially take effect until Nov. 4, some customers are already turning away as the U.S. imposes penalties on buyers after President Donald Trump quit a 2015 nuclear accord with the Persian Gulf country.
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
,
We're sorry, this article is not currently available
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 09/04/2018
ADVERTISEMENT
FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS!
Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source!
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.
star Kourtney Kardashian and her ex-boyfriend, Younes Bendjima, are reportedly back on!One month after reports circulated the 39-year-old mother of three broke up with Younes, a source revealed they are giving their relationship another go."There was some miscommunication" but "they worked it out and are giving it another shot," the source told Us Weekly, adding that the 26-year-old model "is a really sweet guy."People reported in early August that Kourtney was the one who initially decided to plug the plug on their two-year romance, and an insider said at the time things " didn't end well ."The breakup came shortly after photos surfaced of Younes getting cozy with former Las Vegas waitress Jordan Ozuna in Mexico.Younes, however, reportedly denied any wrongdoing on his part, writing in an Instagram story, "They really want me to be the bad guy. F-ck your Hollywood bullsh-t, can't have fun with your friends no more."But Kourtney and Younes' relationship was already rocky by that point.In July, the pair took a romantic three-week European vacation together but Younes appeared to criticize Kourtney on social media when she shared a sexy photo of herself in a floral thong."That's what you need to show to get likes?" Younes asked in the comments section of Kourtney's Instagram photo, although the post was subsequently deleted."He never liked that she posted sexy pictures of herself on social media. He doesn't want his girlfriend to do that," said the People source."He gets that it's her job, but wants her to post more covered-up pictures. He has always had a problem with this. This is the stuff they argue about and what made them split in the past."Kourtney and Younes reportedly met in Paris in October 2016. Younes, who is Algerian and speaks fluent French, acted as a translator for the reality TV star's family after Kim Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint.The couple went public with their romance in May 2017, and things got more serious in subsequent months as they traveled to the south of France, Egypt and Paris.By December, an insider told People things were "definitely" serious between Kourtney and Younes.Prior to getting involved, Younes reportedly dated model Jourdan Dunn , and Kourtney was wrapped up in an on-again, off-again relationship with the father of her kids, Scott Disick , for nearly a decade.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 11/03/2021
ADVERTISEMENT
FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS!
Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source!
Which couples are still together and which MAFS couples have split up and divorced? And where are they now?
has featured 44 different couples getting married at first sight during it's first twelve seasons -- so which couples are still together, who has split up and divorced, and where are they all now?Each season of -- which premiered in the United States seven years ago and is based on a Danish series -- features couples (previously three couples, but four couples on Seasons 8 and 9, and five couples beginning with Season 10) being matched together by relationship experts and agree to marry when they first meet.Complete strangers become husband and wife in a matter of minutes, and the couples' lives are then documented by TV cameras over the course of the next four to eight weeks (eight weeks, in the case of 's most recent seasons).The couples typically enjoy their first night together in a hotel after exchanging vows -- with some couples deciding to consummate their marriage immediately -- and then embark on a honeymoon, move in together, and simply attempt to deal with the struggles of daily life as man and wife.At the end of the extreme marriage experiment, each couple must decide whether they'd like to stay married or get a divorce on "Decision Day."has experienced very mixed results over the years. While a significant number of couples decide to stay together and continue their new marriage at the end of their season, the real world seems to hit them hard after the cameras leave, resulting in the couple splitting up only months later.Do cast members see a different side of their spouses once cameras are gone, or do the romances naturally fizzle over time?Some couples are still together to this day and are extremely happy. Jamie Otis and Doug Hehner from Season 1, for example, have had two children.Several other couples have also had children -- including Ashley Petta and Anthony D'Amico Shawniece Jackson and Jephte Pierre Danielle Bergman and Bobby Dodd , and Deonna McNeill and Greg Okotie However, there are also relationships that ended badly. Jessica Castro from Season 2, for instance, accused Ryan De Nino of alleged death threats, and she went on to file a restraining order and lawsuit against him.Some couples have also never even made it to "Decision Day" and ended their marriage prematurely, including Season 4 couple Heather Seidel and Derek Schwartz as well as Season 6 couple Molly Duff and Jonathan Francetic Are the remaining couples now lovers, friends or enemies?! What about early season couples like Cortney Hendrix and Jason Carrion, Jaclyn Methuen and Ryan Ranellone, Vanessa Nelson and Tres Russell, Sonia Granados and Nick Pendergrast, and Lillian Vilchez and Tom Wilson?And how about more recent season couples like Danielle DeGroot and Cody Knapek Sheila Downs and Nate Duhon Jaclyn Schwartzberg and Ryan Buckley Dave Flaherty and Amber Martorana , and Tristan Thompson and Mia Bally Keith Dewar and Kristine Killingsworth , and AJ Vollmoeller and Stephanie Sersen Click thelink below to see photos of each couple and find out!
BEGIN GALLERY >>
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.
In the midst of modern "outrage culture," we must recognize the limits of other people's beliefs and help expand them when possible.
R. Scott Freeman, the former Athens-Clarke County Chief of Police, speaks at a NAACP event about community relations and the rise of hate groups at the East Friendship Baptist Church, in Athens, Georgia, on Thursday, September 7, 2017. (Photo/Jane Snyder, www.janemarysnyder.com)
No matter what institution they are employed by, all university personnel must watch what they say online or to media outlets. Their words impact more people than they may think.
Art takes on many shapes and forms, and it reflects the motivations and personalities of its artist.
SHARON The Sharon Historical Society & Museum is hosting a solo exhibition of recent ceramics, papier-mache and photographs by local artist Alison Palmer, Creatures Great and Small opening Sept. 8 with a public reception from 4-7 p.m. The show runs through Oct. 19.
A portion of all purchases support the Sharon Historical Society & Museums mission. The opening will be held in conjunction with the second Sharon Art Walk, during which the art exhibitions at Hotchkiss Library of Sharon, Sharon Town Hall, Standard Space and Ice House Project Space will also be open to the public, along with the studios of several local artists.
Palmer was born and raised in New York. After graduating high school she attended Kansas City Art Institute as well as the California College of Arts and Crafts where she received her BFA in ceramics. She then returned to New York where she implemented a treatment through crafts program at Four Winds Psychiatric Hospital in Katonah.
While teaching at Four Winds, Palmer began her own studio at a converted old schoolhouse in Croton Falls, New York, then met and married musician Steve Katz. Together they created a company called Ashes to Ashes which produced funerary urns for animals. The urns were to be designed and handmade by Palmer, while Katz did the sales and marketing.
The pressures of dealing with grieving clients, however, were too much for the couple and so they concentrated solely on Palmers handcrafted ideas. By 1986, she was exhibiting her work at a few of the finer craft galleries in New York City and elsewhere.
Gallery SHS is located at the Sharon Historical Society & Museum, 18 Main Street, Route 41, Sharon, CT. The gallery and museum are open Saturday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and Wednesday through Friday from 12-4 p.m., and by appointment.
For more information and directions to Gallery SHS, call 860-364-5688. For additional information about the Sharon Historical Society & Museum, visit www.sharonhist.org.
CONDENSED VERSION
As part of the Sharon Art Walk, Gallery SHS of the Sharon Historical Society & Museum presents a solo exhibition and sale of ceramics, papier-mache and photographs by local artist Alison Palmer titled Creatures Great and Small. An opening wine and hors doeuvres reception to which the public is invited free of charge will be held on Saturday, September 8 from 4:00 to 7:00PM. The show will run through October 19 at the Sharon Historical Society & Museum, 18 Main Street, Sharon, CT, Wednesdays-Fridays 12pm-4pm and Saturdays 10am-2pm. For additional information, visit www.sharonhist.org.
TORRINGTON Steph Burr, a professional artist and graphic designer, was among three winners of a statewide art contest sponsored by Two Roads Brewing Co., and was the artist selected to receive a contract to create more murals for the brewery.
Two Roads, the largest craft brewery in the state, is located in Stratford.
Burr grew up in Thomaston. She graduated from Thomaston High School in 2006 and earned her bachelor of arts degree in Studio Art and Filmmaking from Fairfield University. She is a manager at the NWCT Arts Council and the founder of Sidewinder Studio, a creative services agency based in Torrington.
For Burr, winning the contest is a step forward in her art career. She began painting as a teenager, finding comfort in painting after her mothers death from cancer when she was 13.
I did it for self-therapy, she said. Ive always experimented with painting on walls, but I really started as an acrylic painter.
While attending Fairfield University, Burr met the famous graffiti artist John Matos, known professionally as Crash who had a show on campus. Matos, a Bronx, N.Y. native, was discovered in the 1980s as a public artist and now has a successful career, partnering with companies including Absolut Vodka, Fender Guitars, SoBella Handbags and most recently Tumi Luggage and Morphik, according to his website. He continues to work and show locally and internationally.
Eventually, the artist hired Burr to help paint a mural in New York City. Since then, he has been her mentor. Learn more about Crash at https://www.crashone.com.
Crash really helped me understand how to do (mural) work, Burr said. I worked with him in New York and Miami, and his gallery, Wallworks N.Y. in the Bronx, represents me.
But finding her place in her home state of Connecticut has been a challenge. When she learned about the statewide call for artists from Two Roads, she entered.
The Two Roads mural contest began with a call to artists from all over Connecticut to submit a portfolio of work for the chance to paint a mural at Christys Irish Pub in New Haven. Burr was chosen as one of the five finalists, who were all asked to paint a wood pallet as a sample submission.
At an event at Christys on May 12, the pallets were displayed and three finalists were chosen to paint murals on the walls of the patio. Burr was among them, along with Marisa Copley of Willimantic and Eric Mikita of New Haven. The artists completed the murals, which were each about 30 wide, and the work was unveiled at an event on June 16.
After the event, Two Roads offered Burr a contract to do a series of murals at the Space Ballroom, a music venue in Hamden. Burr was also contracted to create two live murals at Ok2berfest, an annual festival at the brewery taking place the weekend of Sept. 15-16, which typically draws more than 5000 visitors, according to Two Roads.
People are invited to attend the mural unveiling event at The Space Ballroom in Hamden, which will take place Sept. 13. The event will feature a Tap Takeover from Two Roads and an artist meet-and-greet, and will take place in conjunction with a performance by Perpetual Groove.
Burr is encouraged by the opportunities provided by the contest.
It will definitely open new doors for me, she said. Ive never had anything like this kind of exposure before in my career. Ive had success in New York and Florida, but Ive been struggling to get a foothold in Connecticut. So its a really big deal for me to have local support like this.
Burr is an advocate of public art, wherever it may appear. Torringtons efforts to bring more artists and creative businesses into the city makes her very happy, she said.
I really love Torrington, and I love Connecticut, she said. Public art is absolutely wonderful. Its been proven over and over again that public art can make cities more productive, more vibrant.
In Torrington, I think theyre taking a wise approach by encouraging artists, she said. There are so many amazing artists in the community.
Locally, her work with the Northwest Connecticut Arts Council has included painting a dog statue for the Tails of Northwest Connecticut public art project; hers can be seen at the Chamber of Commerce office on Kennedy Drive.
Im a huge advocate of public art, she said. Its wonderful to see it everywhere.
Learn more about Burrs work at https://www.stephburr.com. For information on Two Roads, visit https://tworoadsbrewing.com
Officials from China's foreign ministry sat in on an editorial meeting of Hong Kong's English-language newspaper, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) last week, a Paris-based press freedom group said on Wednesday.
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the three officials attended the editorial meeting on Aug. 30 as "observing guests," amid concerns that the paper has increasingly leaned towards the ruling Chinese Communist Party line since being taken over by New York-listed conglomerate Alibaba.
"Against the backdrop of growing interference from Beijing, which poses a threat to press freedom in Hong Kong, it was natural that the journalists would perceive the officials presence as a form of intimidation, RSF East Asia director Cedric Alviani said in a statement on the RSF website.
Alviani called on the SCMP "to be vigilant about anything that might call into question the editorial independence of journalists."
It described the officials' presence as an "unpleasant surprise," adding that Hong Kong's once-freewheeling media is under increasing pressure to conform to Beijing's line.
The officials' visit was part of a farewell tour for foreign ministry spokesman Sun Zhen, it said.
According to RSF, SCMP, which was founded under British colonial rule as an English-language paper of record in 1903, has been subject to growing influence from Beijing since its acquisition by Alibaba in 2016.
"Early this year, SCMP took part in a parody of [an] interview, staged by Beijing, with Swedish journalist [and publisher] Gui Minhai who has been arbitrarily detained in China for three years," the group said.
It said editorial meetings are "sensitive," because news stories and angles are discussed.
Calls to the foreign ministry's representative in Hong Kong rang unanswered during office hours on Wednesday.
Editorial interference
Bruce Lui, senior journalism lecturer at Hong Kong's Baptist University, said external visitors to Hong Kong's news organizations aren't uncommon, but are often limited to non-essential editorial meetings.
"We may not have gotten to the point of direct interference [from Beijing], but all that has to happen is for news organizations not to speak out, and that is already a form of interference, even though there was no specific action you could put your finger on," Lui said.
"This really doesn't show respect for news organizations' editorial independence," he said.
Meanwhile, current affairs commentator Poon Siu-to agreed, saying the visit was inappropriate.
"Editorial meetings are crucial to the exercise of editorial freedom and independence," Poon said. "If the door is opened a crack [to such practices] now, then it will be easier for external forces to intervene in a more important meeting or news-related decision in the future."
Growing restrictions
The move comes after the Hong Kong Journalists' Association (HKJA) hit out at the Hong Kong government for holding a secretive ceremony ceding part of the city's territory to Chinese control, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, "without giving prior notification to the public nor inviting the media to cover the event."
A recent report by the HKJA also found a marked fall in measures of press freedom in the city.
Originally placed 18th in RSF's World Press Freedom Index in 2002, five years after the handover to China, Hong Kong now ranks 70th out of 180, RSF said.
Under the terms of the 1997 handover to China, Hong Kong was promised a "high degree of autonomy" and the maintenance of existing freedoms of speech, publication and association, as well as a separate legal jurisdiction, for at least 50 years.
But recent interventions by Beijing in the political and cultural life of the city, including edicts from the National People's Congress that resulted in the disqualification of democratically elected lawmakers and potential election candidates, have led many to conclude that those freedoms are likely a thing of the past.
Reported by Wen Yuqing for RFA's Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Christian worshipers pray during a Christmas service at a village church in Yanling county, Xuchang city, central China's Henan province, in a file photo.
Authorities in the central Chinese province of Henan carried out raids on four Protestant churches in the early hours of Wednesday, sources told RFA.Dozens of uniformed police officers and local officials raided the Glory Church in Henan's Nanyang city, church members said via social media.
They pulled up in a fleet of vehicles that included an ambulance outside the church at around 6 a.m., throwing a police cordon around the area, they said.
Then, they began tearing down crosses on two of the walls of the church.
Church members who approached the police to ask what was happening were grabbed and pinned to the ground, church members said.
Police then searched the premises and confiscated the church's public address system, musical instruments and Bibles, damaging other religious items as they did so, they said.
Similar raids were carried out in at least three other locations in Henan: the Jinlou Church in Tanghe county; the Hui Xiaoying Church in Tongzhaipu township, and Qiupo Church in Dongwangji township, RFA has learned.
Some church members who tried to prevent the raids were detained in the process, church members said.
An official who answered the phone at the Bureau of Religious and Ethnic Minority Affairs under the Nanyang municipal government referred inquiries to the police and local governments.
"If someone has cause losses or damage to property, then they can report it to the police who will investigate it as usual," the official said. "We don't micromanage individual places of worship or religious organizations; we oversee the entire city."
"They all have their own specific counties, cities, and districts to deal with the matter," the official said.
The U.S.-based Christian rights group ChinaAid said the raids come as the authorities systematically target churches displaying crosses in Zhengzhou, Nanyang, and Yuzhou.
It cited other groups as saying that the authorities plan to close or merge churches to ensure there are no more than two in any given county.
Exams and surveillance
Meanwhile, pastors and ministers are being forced to take exams testing their knowledge of the ruling Chinese Communist Party's rules on religious affairs, "core socialist values," and the sinicization of religion in China.
According to local believers in Henan, over a hundred churches and crosses have been demolished or shut down during the last month, with dozens of churches in Xinyang city raided, inspected, or having property confiscated in the last three weeks alone.
A Protestant church member from Zhengzhou city said churches are also being required to install surveillance cameras or face a criminal penalty.
"There is a county that is administered by Zhengzhou called Fuyang county, which had more than 50 Protestant places of worship," the church member said.
"Between 10 and 20 of them were told to close, and a lot of their crosses were destroyed too," the person said.
A church in Yulong township that had been designated an approved place of worship by the local religious affairs bureau was raided by the government, and officials confiscated its contents, the church member said.
"Even the approved Protestant churches are under constant surveillance by the police, because they have installed cameras everywhere; not getting them installed is considered breaking the law," the person said.
The Catholic news site AsiaNews said authorities are burning crosses in Henan and elsewhere in China in a bid to "create a Christianity with 'Chinese characteristics.'"
"Slogans praising the [Chinese Communist] Party and the values of socialism are exposed on religious buildings, erasing sacred images that are considered too Western," it said.
Adapting to socialist society
In April, the administration of President Xi Jinping asserted its control over all religious practices among its citizens.
"Religions in China must be Chinese in orientation and provide active guidance to religions so that they can adapt themselves to the socialist society," according to a white paper on religious affairs published at the time.
Religious believers must "be subordinate to and serve the overall interests of the nation and the Chinese people ... and support the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party," the white paper said, which includes "integrat[ing] religious teachings and rules with Chinese culture."
Last month, authorities in Henan flew the red flag of the People's Republic of China over the Shaolin Temple for the first time in the temple's 1,500-year history.
Overseen by officials of the Chinese Communist Party's United Front Work Department, which is campaigning for religious groups to show their "patriotism," monks at the temple raised the red flag with its five gold stars at a "grand" ceremony.
Reported by Yang Fan for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Representatives of ethnic armies based along the China-Myanmar border met briefly with Myanmar government peace negotiators on Wednesday in a get-together described as positive but yielding little in the way of specific proposals, a spokesman for one of the militias told RFAs Myanmar Service.
The meeting, held in Kunming in southern Chinas Yunnan province, marked the first time that members of the governments Union Peace Commission met with representatives of the Arakan Army (AA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), and the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA).
The three armies, which along with the Kachin Independence Organization/Army (KIO/A) make up the Northern Alliance military coalition, have not yet signed the governments 2015 nationwide cease-fire agreement (NCA) because of ongoing hostilities with the national army.
Representatives of the KIO/A and the United Wa State Army (UWSA), another armed group, were also present as observers, Myanmar news outlet The Irrawaddy said in a Sept. 5 report.
Representing the Myanmar government were Peace Commission vice chairman U Thein Zaw and secretary Khin Zaw Oo, The Irrawaddy said.
Speaking to RFAs Myanmar Service, TNLA spokesman Brigadier General Ta Phone Kyaw said that Wednesdays two-hour meeting, the first for government representatives and the armed groups attending, had left little time for detailed discussions, but was positive, and a good step forward.
Talks focused on why political discussions held earlier had ended, and how they could be started again, Ta Phone Kyaw said.
Although we didnt arrive at actual agreements during the meeting, we did say we would meet again in October. Both sides are now going to inform their higher-level leaders about what we discussed, he said.
Representatives from Myanmars national army, which has refused to meet with nonsignatories to the NCA, were not present at Wednesdays meeting, Ta Phone Kyaw said, adding We must overcome these prohibitions by the government army against face-to-face talks.
If these groups are ignored in the peace process, we wont have peace, he said.
And we wont be able to change the countrys politics.
Reported by Tin Aung Khine for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Authorities in northwest Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have arrested the Uyghur deputy editor-in-chief and three Uyghur directors of the Xinjiang Daily accused of being two-faced officials, according to sources from the state-run newspaper.
Ilham Weli, the Xinjiang Dailys deputy editor-in-chief and director of the Uyghur Editorial Office, was arrested in late July, while directors Memtimin Obul and Juret Haji, and Mirkamil Ablimit, the head of the subsidiary Xinjiang Farmers Daily, were denounced during a public meeting at the newspapers offices and taken away by police in early August, the sources told RFAs Uyghur Service.
While the exact reason for their arrest was not made clear, authorities accused them of publishing two-faced articles in the Uyghur language section of the newspapera term applied by the government to Uyghur cadres who pay lip service to Communist Party rule in the XUAR, but secretly chafe against state policies repressing members of their ethnic group.
Xinjiang Daily Human Resources director Liu Jianrong confirmed that the four men had been taken into custody.
It is true that four Uyghur cadres have been arrested, he told RFA.
I know they made some mistakes. You can ask the Party Discipline Committee of our paper to find out what specific mistakes they made and where they are being held now.
Xinjiang Daily Party Discipline Committee director Shui Baoying told RFA that the Autonomous Regional Party Discipline Commission had dispatched a working group to investigate the paper in early July and, during the course of their probe, found evidence implicating deputy editor-in-chief Ilham Weli as two-faced.
The working group then specifically investigated his case and we faithfully cooperated, Shui said.
After law enforcement thoroughly interrogated Ilham Weli, it was found he had accomplices. They were detained on Aug. 6, a week after Ilham Weli was taken into custody. I know that three of them were arrested during a public meeting at our daily after being accused of being two-faced officials.
Shui said that the working groups investigation had found no problems with articles published in the Chinese, Kazakh, or Mongolian language sections of the Xinjiang Dailyonly with those in the Uyghur language section.
There was no issue of being two-faced in other sections, and the problems were mainly found in the published articles, but Im not sure which specific articles or news reports, Shui said.
I am not sure which prison they were taken to, he said, adding that further inquiries should be directed to the Autonomous Regional Party Discipline Commission.
An official who answered at the Autonomous Regional Party Discipline Commission said he could not accept phone interviews, and requested that the reporter travel to the commissions office in the XUAR capital Urumqi.
Ilham Weli in an undated photo. Credit: Weli's WhatsApp account 'Deeply devoted'
Beginning in April 2017, Uyghurs accused of harboring strong religious views and politically incorrect ideas have been jailed or detained in political 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.
While authorities have generally avoided harassing the families of Uyghur security personnel and public servants during past crackdowns in the XUAR, reports suggest that even those who serve the state risk arrest amid a string of harsh policies attacking the rights and freedoms of Uyghurs enacted since Communist Party secretary Chen Quanguo was appointed to run the region in August 2016.
Jurat Nizamidin, a former reporter with the Xinjiang Daily who currently resides in the U.S., told RFA that he had worked with the four men for between three and 15 years before relocating, and called them all deeply devoted to their profession.
I dont see how they could possibly have said or written something critical of Beijing, although it is likely that some articles they were responsible for contained something thatwhile not anti-governmentthe authorities didnt like, he said.
Nizamidin said it is hard to avoid such mistakes for anyone working in the fast-paced media industry.
I guess they were targeted because of their ethnicity, and possibly due to their lack of enthusiasm in supporting government policies as expected by the authorities, he added.
A screenshot of the front page of the Xinjiang Daily's website, taken on Sept. 5, 2018. Camp network
China's central government authorities have rarely acknowledged the existence of political 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 described sending significant numbers of Uyghurs to the camps and even described overcrowding in some facilities.
Adrian Zenz, a lecturer in social research methods at the Germany-based European School of Culture and Theology, has said some 1.1 million people are or have been detained in the re-education camps, which equates to 10-11 percent of the adult Muslim population of the region.
Last month, a delegate from China present for the countrys review at the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) admitted the existence of "resettlement or re-education programs," but said the suggestion that some 1 million Uyghurs were held in the camps was completely untrue. He refused to provide information about how many are detained in the facilities.
The U.S. State Department is deeply troubled by the Chinese governments worsening crackdown on the Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang, a department official recently told RFA, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Credible reports indicate that individuals sent by Chinese authorities to detention centers since April 2017 numbers at least in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly millions, the official said.
The official warned that indiscriminate and disproportionate controls on ethnic minorities expressions of their cultural and religious identities have the potential to incite radicalization and recruitment to violence.
A group of U.S. lawmakers, in a recent letter, asked President Donald Trumps administration to swiftly act to sanction Chinese government officials and entities complicit in or directing the ongoing human rights crisis in Xinjiang.
The detention of as many as a million or more Uyghurs and other predominately Muslim ethnic minorities in political re-education centers or camps requires a tough, targeted, and global response, lawmakers Marco Rubio and Chris Smith, who lead the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said in a joint statement.
Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFAs Uyghur Service. Translated by Alim Seytoff. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
An ancient Persian artifact has been handed back to Iran after a U.S. court ordered its return.
The New York Supreme Court ordered the Achaemenid-era relief, dating approximately to 500 B.C., to be returned to Iran in a July 23 ruling.
Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Gholam-Ali Khoshrou, said on September 5 that the limestone sculpture had been delivered to him.
"I'm very pleased that today a very important cultural item that was smuggled from Iran was delivered to me by the district attorney of New York County," Khoshrou told Iran's Press TV.
He said the 20-centimeter artifact, which depicts a Persian imperial guard holding a spear, would be transferred to Iran "soon," according to the state news agency IRNA.
The artifact was seized in October 2017 by investigators for the Manhattan district attorney's office from the Park Avenue Armory, where it was being offered for sale at an art fair.
The two London-based owners of the item agreed to surrender the artifact, valued at $1.2 million.
U.S. investigators said the artifact was stolen from the ancient city of Persepolis in 1936, and then was stolen a second time, in 2011, from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Canada, to which it had been donated decades earlier.
Many Iranians are fascinated by and proud of their ancient pre-Islamic past, but the country's clerical establishment has been putting more emphasis on the country's Islamic heritage.
Based on reporting by Press TV, IRNA, and The New York Times
Twin bombings at a wrestling training center in a predominately Shiite neighborhood of Afghanistan's capital have killed at least 20 people and wounded 70 others, the Interior Ministry says.
Officials said a suicide bomber on September 5 blew himself up inside the sports hall, which is located in Dasht-e Barchi in western Kabul.
A car bomb went off nearby less than an hour after, as journalists and security forces gathered at the scene.
A reporter and a cameraman from Afghanistan's largest broadcaster, Tolo News, were among those killed and four other local television crew members were wounded, according to NAI, a group supporting open media in the country.
"An attack on civilians and media workers of the country is an attack on freedom of speech and crime against humanity," President Ashraf Ghani said in a statement.
At least seven police officers were also among those wounded, according to Kabul's police chief, General Daud Amin.
The extremist group Islamic State (IS), which often targets Afghanistan's Shi'a community, claimed responsibility for the twin bombings on its affiliated Amaq news agency.
On August 15, a suicide bombing at an education center in Dasht-e Barchi killed dozens of students.
IS militants claimed responsibility for that attack.
Journalists have paid a heavy price covering the 17-year-old war in Afghanistan.
At least 11 were killed in the first six months of the year, according to the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee.
A suicide bombing killed nine journalists in Kabul on April 30, in what became the deadliest single day for reporters in the country since the 2001 U.S. invasion.
With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters
Police in the Bosnian capital have clashed with several hundred veterans of the country's 1992-95 war who are protesting for more rights and a unified register of all demobilized fighters.
The protesters on September 5 gathered in front of the parliament of Bosnias Muslim-Croat Federation, one of Bosnia-Herzegovina's two entities, before blocking the main street in Sarajevo.
Police with shields and helmets used tear gas to disperse the demobilized fighters from the former Bosnian Army and Croatian Defense Council, some of whom were carrying batons.
A number of people were reportedly hurt in the scuffle.
The Federal Ministry of Interior told RFE/RL that two protesters were detained.
Bosniak and Bosnian Croat war veterans have held protests for months, demanding the payment of 326 Bosnian marks ($194) a month in benefits for unemployed veterans and for every former soldier to get up to three Bosnian marks ($1.8) for each month they served during wartime.
The protesters also want the government to cut funding for about 1,600 veterans associations, which they say are not handing out benefits in an equitable fashion.
They say they want the government to make payments directly to individual veterans.
In addition, they are seeking the establishment of a unified register of all veterans to weed out people who have falsely declared that they served in the war.
There are no accurate records of how many former soldiers are eligible for benefits, after many people falsely declared themselves to be veterans, and protesters want the unified register to purge all fake names.
Since the end of the war, Bosnia has consisted of two separate entities -- the Muslim-Croat Federation and the ethnic Serb-dominated Republika Srpska. Each has its own government and the two are linked by weak central institutions.
With reporting by AP and Balkan Insight
VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia -- The sentencing of two soldiers convicted of beating officers at a Russian base in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia has sparked protests by relatives and supporters.
On September 4, the regional military court sentenced Zelim Albegov to 3 1/2 years in prison and Arsen Slanov to 18 months in a colony settlement -- a penitentiary in which convicts live close to a factory or farm where they work -- after finding them guilty of beating two Russian officers at the base in May 2017.
Relatives and friends of the defendants began shouting, crying, and cursing the court after the verdicts and sentences were pronounced. Some 100 people rallied in front of courthouse, protesting the court's ruling.
Albegov's father, who was among the protesters, stated that he was "ready to blow myself up so that Russia will pay attention to us -- not only my child, but all the youth of Ossetia!"
The protesters then started collecting signatures under a petition addressed to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, asking him to take the case under his personal control.
Albegov and Slanov, who were serving in the Russian Army on a contractual basis, maintained their innocence, claiming that they did not beat the two officers. They contended that on the contrary, the officers beat them.
Prosecutors at the trial had asked the court to hand them suspended sentences that would keep them out of prison.
Both North Ossetia, which is in Russia, and South Ossetia, which is in Georgia, are home to ethnic Ossetians. South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian region, shed the control of the central government in Tbilisi in wars in the early 1990s.
Russia stepped up its military presence in South Ossetia and Abkhazia after recognizing them as independent states following a five-day war with Georgia in August 2008.
But the vast majority of the international community rejects the regions' independence claims and shares Tbilisis view that they are Russian-occupied territory firmly within Georgias borders.
Russian authorities have evacuated children from part of Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, after a chemical leak. People in the area first reported breathing difficulties on August 23, but the evacuation only began on September 4 -- with the authorities still insisting there's no public health risk.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned that an attack on Syria's Idlib Province could cause a "massacre," as government forces prepare for a major offensive against the last rebel-held region.
"A serious massacre could take place if there is a rain of missiles there," Erdogan told journalists on September 5 while flying back from an official visit to Kyrgyzstan.
Erdogan spoke about what he described as a "very merciless process" unfolding in Idlib, warning of the risk that heavy fighting would trigger an influx of refugees to Turkey.
Erdogan's comments come as Syrian troops mass near the northwestern province bordering Turkey for a major offensive to retake the last region still held by rebels fighting against the government.
Russia, a key ally of President Bashar al-Assad, resumed air strikes on Idlib on September 4 after a 22-day pause, killing at least 12 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Russia has not confirmed that it has resumed air strikes, but a senior Russian diplomat sought to ease concerns about the offensive.
"We, as we have said many times before, act precisely, selectively [in military operations in Syria], trying to minimize possible risks to the peaceful population," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on September 5.
Idlib is home to an estimated 3 million civilians and the United Nations has warned that some 800,000 people could be forced from their homes by any major government offensives. The war already has killed more than 400,000 people and displaced millions.
Turkey is backing opposition groups but has sponsored with Russia and Iran, Assad's other key ally, a series of negotiations on the conflict.
Erdogan is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rohani in Tehran on September 7 to discuss the situation in Syria.
Ryabkov said that the military situation in Syria "will become clearer" after the meeting. He did not elaborate.
Russia has given the Syrian government crucial support throughout the war, which began with a government crackdown on protesters in March 2011.
Russia began a campaign of air strikes against Assad's foes in September 2015 and stepped up military operations on the ground, helping turn the tide of the conflict in his favor and avert his potential ouster.
With reporting by AFP, Hurriyet Daily News, Reuters, and RIA Novosti
An Estonian Army officer and his father have been arrested on suspicion of treason and spying for Russia, authorities say.
Estonias State Prosecutor's Office and the Internal Security Service said in a joint statement on September 5 that Deniss Metsavas and Pjotr Volin were arrested two days earlier.
Metsavas, 38, and his 65-year-old father are suspected of passing Estonian state secrets and other classified information to the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU, since 2013.
Metsavas has served with the armed forces since 1998 in various positions including a mission with NATO troops in Afghanistan.
He became an army major in 2015.
Volin served in the KGB Border Troops during the Soviet-era.
According local media, the two men received Estonian citizenship in the 1990s. "It is clear that it was Metsavas who had access to classified information in the first place but the forwarding of classified information and bringing it to the GRU was committed by both individuals," prosecutor Inna Ombler told reporters.
The commander of the Estonian armed forces, General Riho Terras, said Metsavas was a traitor" who caused significant damage to the small Baltic nation and its NATO allies.
"Damage has been done, a wound has been inflicted on the defense capability of Estonia," he said.
Occupied by the Soviet Union during World War II, Estonia gained independence in the Soviet collapse and is now a member of NATO and the European Union.
The former Soviet republic has witnessed several high-profile spy cases involving Russia since its independence in 1991.
In February, the two neighbors swapped two convicted spies after both men received presidential pardons, Estonian authorities said.
With reporting by AP, Delfi, and Baltija.eu
With four more Iranian human rights defenders arrested in Tehran since August 31, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the countrys authorities have "ramped up" their crackdown against activists.
"The most reputable rights defenders, who have stepped up to be the messenger for millions of Iranians' discontent, are now in jail," Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW, said in a statement on September 5.
The New York-based watchdog called on the authorities to immediately release the jailed human rights defenders, saying they appear to have been arrested "solely for peaceful dissent."
On August 31, human rights lawyer Mohammad Najafi posted on Facebook that two other lawyers, Farokh Forouzan and Payam Derafshan, were arrested after attending a gathering at the house of another imprisoned lawyer.
Derafshan represented prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who has been detained since June. Her husband, Reza Khandan, was arrested on September 4 after he refused to appear for an interrogation.
In a statement last month, HRW said Sotoudeh's arrest and the new charges against her revealed the "grave degree the Iranian judiciary is criminalizing human rights activism."
Derafshan also represented two other jailed lawyers and the family of Kavous Sayed Emami, a prominent environmentalist who died in detention in February.
Earlier this month, authorities also arrested Hoda Amid and Najmeh Vahedi, two womens rights activists who are instructors for a workshop on equal rights in marriage.
Amid growing public discontentment in Iran over rising prices and economic hardship, authorities are "only fueling instability with their silencing of peaceful dissent," Whitson said.
"At a time when everyday life is increasingly difficult for millions of Iranians, rights advocates should be an essential part of solving collective problems, instead of a primary target of the governments crackdown," she also said.
Israel's defense chief has warned that his country will seek to "destroy any Iranian military presence" in Syria, where Tehran has intervened to prop up its ally President Bashar al-Assad in a war that has lasted more than seven-years.
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman spoke in interviews with RFE/RL's Radio Farda and Current Time TV on September 4 in Tel Aviv.
Israel has alleged that Iran plans to establish a permanent, broad military foothold in Syria, including advanced missile factories as well as air and naval bases. Tehran rejects the claim.
Israeli has carried out dozens of air strikes in Syria targeting suspected arms and troop movements by Iran and its proxy forces, including the Lebanese Shi'ite militant group Hizballah.
"We don't want to see Iran turning Syria into its outpost against Israel," Lieberman told Current Time, a Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.
"We will try to destroy any Iranian military presence on Syrian territory, be it an air base, a naval base, a missile production factory, or the Shi'ite militias that they are bringing there from Pakistan, Iraq, and all of the Middle East," he said.
Like Russia, Iran has backed Assad in the Syrian conflict and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has played a crucial role on the ground.
The IRGC has recruited tens of thousands of Shi'ite fighters from the region to fight in Syria. More than 1,000 Iranians, including senior members of the elite IRGC, have been killed in Syria since 2012, according to Reuters.
Miltiary Cooperation Agreement
Iranian officials say their military presence in Syria is at the invitation of the Damascus government and they have no immediate plans to withdraw.
Last week, Iran's defense minister travelled to Damascus and signed an agreement on military cooperation between the two countries.
Lieberman told Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on August 31 that Iran was reducing the scale of its military activities in Syria, attributing this to Israeli military intervention and an economic crisis gripping Tehran as U.S. sanctions are reinstated.
In the interview with Radio Farda, Lieberman said Tehran had adopted a "different approach" in Syria, although he did not reveal any specifics.
"They have adopted some other patterns of behavior in Syria because they understand that we are monitoring, we are watching, and we have all the political will and determination to prevent their desire to turn Syria into their forward base against Israel [from being fulfilled]," he said.
"They are careful and they understand that they have too many challenges," he added.
Israeli military strikes against Iranian targets in Syria have been mostly ignored by Russia, Damascus's backer, and Israel has attempted to persuade Moscow to pressure Tehran to withdraw its forces from Syria.
Lieberman said Israel was in constant dialogue with Moscow.
"It's [in the] Russian interest to keep stability in Syria," he said, adding that Iran's activities were jeopardizing Moscow's efforts.
'Series Of Steps'
The United States has also urged Moscow to help end Iran's military presence in the war-ravaged country.
Washington supports rebels fighting against Assad's government.
After meeting with Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russian President Vladimir Putin's Security Council, White House national security adviser John Bolton said in Geneva on August 23 that the two had discussed a "series of steps" that would lead to the removal of Iran's military presence in Syria.
Before the meeting, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the U.S. insistence on the withdrawal of Iranian forces is a "reflection of the dominating aspiration in Washington to dictate to everyone else their own beliefs about what is good and what is bad."
Calls by Israel and the United States for Iran to pull out its forces in Syria have come as the conflict has turned heavily in Assad's favor, with rebel forces being routed in many parts of the country.
Syrian pro-government forces are preparing to launch an assault on the northwestern province of Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold.
The war in Syria has killed hundreds of thousands of people and uprooted millions since it began with a government crackdown on protesters in March 2011.
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has declared that Israel "will try to destroy any Iranian military presence on the territory of Syria." He has also said he hopes that "reasonable people will take the power in Iran." Lieberman spoke on September 4 in Tel Aviv to RFE/RL's Radio Farda and Current Time -- a Russian-language digital network produced by RFE/RL in cooperation with Voice of America.
British prosecutors have accused two Russian men of poisoning former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter with a deadly nerve agent in March on behalf of the Russian state. In a statement to Britain's Parliament after the charges were announced on September 5, Prime Minister Theresa May accused Russia of "obfuscation and lies" in trying to deflect blame for the attack.
Russia and Iran criticized a U.S. announcement that President Donald Trump will chair a UN Security Council meeting on Iran this month as part of efforts to step up pressure on Tehran for what Washington called its "violations of international law."
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on September 5 said Washington was "mistaken" if it believes it can use the forum to win other council members over to its way of thinking after it pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reimposed sanctions against the country.
While saying the September 26 session would be a good opportunity to discuss the situation, Ryabkov added that "the Americans won't have an easy walk at this meeting."
"They are mistaken if they think that they can use the UN rostrum as a forum for starting again to rally and, so to speak, organize everyone under their banners," he was quoted by Interfax as saying.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that Trump was "violating" UN resolutions and "bullying others to do the same."
He charged that the U.S. president plans to "abuse" the Security Council presidency "to blame Iran for horrors US & clients have unleashed across" the Middle East.
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley late on September 4 announced that Trump would chair the UN meeting as the United States assumed the rotating presidency of the Security Council.
Haley and Trump have repeatedly attacked Iran, accusing it of meddling in the wars in Syria and Yemen and violating the spirit of its 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers, which Trump abandoned in May.
Russia, China, and U.S. allies Britain, France, and Germany have vowed to remain part of the 2015 deal that provided Tehran with relief from some sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear program.
Haley told reporters at the UN that Trump decided to chair the council meeting during the annual gathering of world leaders in New York so he could "address Iran's violations of international law and the general instability Iran sows throughout the entire Middle East region."
"President Trump is very adamant that we have to start making sure that Iran is falling in line with international order," said Haley, who accused Iran of "supporting terrorism" around the world.
"If you continue to look at the ballistic-missile testing that they are doing, if you continue to look at the sales of weapons we see with the Huthis in Yemen -- these are all violations of Security Council resolutions," she said. "These are all threats to the region, and these are all things that the international community needs to talk about."
Iran is subject to a UN arms embargo and other restrictions imposed by the council, and Washington has repeatedly alleged that it is violating the embargo by providing arms to its allies in Yemen.
Iran has denied supporting terrorism or supplying weapons to Yemen's Huthi rebels, and it has adamantly rejected U.S. demands that it stop making and testing ballistic missiles, which Tehran maintains are needed for its defense.
Rohani is expected to address the assembly one day ahead of the meeting, on September 25. Haley said the United States would not object to Rohani speaking at the meeting.
Haley denied the United States, by seeking to galvanize international pressure on Iran, was seeking "regime change." She claimed the U.S. effort was aimed at supporting the desires of the "Iranian people."
"We are going to stand with the Iranian people. They have every right to be heard in their government and they have every right to change it," she said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in an appearance on Russia's Channel One TV early on September 5 lambasted the U.S. stance on Iran, calling it "unrealistic" in light of Iran's long history and large population, state-run news agency TASS reported.
"The U.S. has a defiant attitude to Iran, accusing it of all deadly sins and demanding that Iran leave any country, except for Iran itself, and stop even exerting political influence on its neighbors and other regional states. I think this is an unprofessional and unrealistic approach. It cannot prevail. How can a state with its traditions that go back centuries and 75 million people be locked in its borders?" Lavrov was reported as saying.
In February, Russia vetoed a U.S.-led effort in the council to reprimand Iran for failing to prevent its weapons from falling into the hands of Yemen's Huthi rebels, a charge which Tehran denies.
Meanwhile, Interfax reported on September 5 that Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks on September 7 with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and President Hassan Rohani on Tehrans nuclear program, the situation in Syria, and other issues.
With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters
The United States, the European Union, and international media watchdogs have expressed concern over a Ukrainian court ruling that gives the authorities access to the cell-phone data of an RFE/RL investigative reporter spanning a period of 17 months.
The court decision could have "a chilling effect on press freedom and anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine," the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine said in a tweet on September 5, after a Kyiv court approved the prosecutor-generals request to allow investigators to obtain information from mobile service providers about calls to and from Natalia Sedletska.
Last month's court ruling stems from a criminal investigation into the alleged disclosure of state secrets to journalists in 2017 by Artem Sytnyk, director of the National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine.
Sedletska is the host of Schemes, the award-winning anticorruption TV program by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service and Ukrainian Public Television.
'Very Serious Questions'
The program reported on several investigations involving senior Ukrainian officials, including Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko.
Maja Kocijancic, the spokeswoman for EU foreign-policy chief Federica Mogherini, said that the court ruling "raises very serious questions."
"No decision should violate basic freedoms of the media nor international journalistic standards such as the protection of sources of journalists," Kocijancic said, adding that investigative journalism "contributes significantly to the fight against corruption in Ukraine."
In Vienna, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) media-freedom representative, Harlem Desir, said that investigative journalism "plays the essential role of a watchdog in societies and journalists must be able to protect their sources."
Earlier, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called the court's ruling "an affront to the principle of press freedom that the Ukrainian government purports to uphold."
Meanwhile, Ukrainian journalist Kristina Berdynskykh said on September 5 that a court had also granted Ukraines authorities access to nearly a year and a half of her phone data.
"Escalating the situation further, a Ukraine court granted the prosecutor-general's office access to phone records of another journalist Kristina Berdynskykh. This must stop," CPJ tweeted.
The media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked Ukraine 101st out of the 180 countries in its Press Freedom index.
Britain has announced charges against two Russian men it believes poisoned former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a deadly nerve agent, alleging they were military intelligence officers acting with approval from "a senior level of the Russian state."
In a statement on September 5, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that it was "clearly in the public interest to charge" the Russians, Aleksandr Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, with crimes including attempted murder and the use of a chemical weapon .
Police issued photographs of the suspects, while Russia continued to deny involvement.
Prosecutors "have considered the evidence and have concluded there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction," it said.
Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament that based on the intelligence gathered so far, "the government has concluded that the two individuals named by the police and the CPS are officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU."
"This was also not a rogue operation. "It was almost certainly approved outside the GRU, at a senior level of the Russian state," May said.
The poisoning of Skripal, a former GRU officer, may have been meant "to give a message to those Russians who were living elsewhere who had been involved in matters relating to the Russian state," May said. "But it is up to the Russians to explain what happened in Salisbury."
Britain requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council in light of the charges, with British Ambassador Karen Pierce saying it would likely take place on September 6.
Meanwhile, Russian news media reported that Britains ambassador to Russia, Laurie Bristow, met with Russian Foreign Ministry official Igor Neverov in Moscow to discuss the matter, without providing details.
A senior British police official, Neil Basu, called the charges "the most significant moment so far in what has been one of the most complex and intensive investigations we have undertaken in counterterrorism policing."
The CPS said that a European arrest warrant had been issued for the two Russians but that Britain would not seek their extradition, suggesting it would be fruitless to do so.
"We will not be applying to Russia for the extradition of these men as the Russian Constitution does not permit extradition of its own nationals," said Sue Hemming, director of legal services at the CPS.
Britain's Metropolitan Police said the men, both about 40, flew from Moscow to London on Russian passports two days before the Skripals were poisoned on March 4.
"It is likely that they were traveling under aliases and that these are not their real names," the police said, asking anyone who knows the suspects or saw them in Britain to contact the authorities.
Sergei Skripal, a former double agent who was sent west in a 2010 spy swap, and his daughter, Yulia, were found unconscious on a bench in the English city of Salisbury that afternoon.
They were both in critical condition and spent several weeks in the hospital, but were later released and "thankfully are now making a good recovery," Basu said.
British officials say they were poisoned with Novichok, a military-grade chemical weapon that was developed in the Soviet Union, and blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin's government for the attack.
Russia denies involvement, and a diplomatic dispute over the case has led to sanctions and the expulsion of more than 150 Russian diplomats from two dozen Western countries.
The poisoning has further damaged already severely strained relations between Russia and the West, and has been a cause for solidarity at a time when Western officials say Moscow is seeking to cause rifts in relations between Western countries.
Speaking ahead of the British announcement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov again denied any Russian role in the poisoning, saying that Russia has no new information about it because Britain has refused to share case files.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on September 5 that the names and photographs released by British authorities "say nothing" to Moscow.
Russia's envoy to the world's chemical weapons watchdog, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said that Moscow believes the British announcement was a "provocation."
"We said right away that Russia had nothing to do with the Salisbury incident," Aleksandr Shulgin told Russian state media.
British police detailed the movements of the two suspects and provided multiple CCTV images showing them at airports, train stations, and the streets of London and Salisbury.
According to police, the men arrived in London on an Aeroflot flight from Moscow on March 2. The following day, they took a train from London to Salisbury, where they spent less than two hours walking the streets before returning to London. Police said that trip to Salisbury was a reconnaissance of the city. On March 4, they left their London hotel in the morning and made another trip to Salisbury.
CCTV footage showed they were near Skripal's house and the police said they believe the two suspects contaminated the front door with Novichok. The suspects left Salisbury in the afternoon, returned to London, and flew back to Moscow on an Aeroflot flight shortly before the midnight on the same day.
In addition to conspiracy to murder Sergei Skripal, the Russians are charged with the attempted murder of Sergei and Yulia Skripal and Nick Bailey, a police officer who fell ill after going to Skripal's home after the attack; the use and possession of Novichok in violation of a British law on chemical weapons and toxic substances; and causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Yulia Skripal and to Bailey.
Sergei Skripal, 67, a former colonel in the GRU who also served in the Foreign Ministry, was convicted of treason in 2006 by a Russian court that found him guilty of spying for Britain. He was released from prison in 2010 and sent to the West in a high-profile Cold War-style spy exchange, and he lived in Salisbury at the time of the poisoning. His daughter Yulia, 34, was visiting from Russia.
On June 30, two people collapsed in a house in Amesbury, near Salisbury where the Skripals were poisoned with Novichok. Dawn Sturgess died in the hospital in July, while her partner, Charlie Rowley, later recovered. Police said they were exposed after handling what they believed to be perfume.
On September 4, the OPCW said laboratory tests showed that Sturgess's death was caused by the same substance that poisoned Skripal and his daughter.
However, it was not possible to conclude whether the nerve agent used in the May and June incidents was from the same batch, the OPCW said.
British police "have now linked the attack on the Skripals and the events in Amesbury which affected Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley. It now forms one investigation," the September 5 police statement said. "We do not believe Dawn and Charlie were deliberately targeted, but became victims as a result of the recklessness in which such a toxic nerve agent was disposed of."
With reporting by AP, Reuters, AFP, Sky News, and dpa
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said late on September 4 that he had appointed former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad to be his special adviser on Afghanistan.
"Ambassador Khalilzad is going to join the State Department team to assist us in the reconciliation effort, so he will come on and be the State Department's lead person for that purpose," Pompeo told reporters traveling with him on a visit to Pakistan and India.
Khalilzad's appointment signals that the administration is putting a renewed focus on the Afghan peace process. He has experience working for four U.S. presidential administrations and has knowledge of Afghanistan's main languages, culture, and politics. He is from Afghanistan's ethnic Pashtun majority.
As an aide to President George W. Bush, Khalilzad helped plan the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 that led to the ouster of the Taliban's government and set off a 17-year war for control of the country.
Pompeo said that during his visit to Islamabad, he will emphasize that the United States wants Pakistan to help more in ending Afghanistan's 17-year war.
U.S. and Afghan officials claim that Afghan militants fighting against the government have found safe havens in Pakistan where they can plot deadly attacks and regroup after their yearly offensives across the border. Pakistan denies that it harbors terrorists.
"We need Pakistan to seriously engage to help us get to the reconciliation we need in Afghanistan," Pompeo said.
In a policy shift in June, Washington said it would "support, facilitate, and participate" in any Kabul government-led peace talks with the Taliban.
The Taliban has spurned the Afghan government's offers for talks, however, and instead has staged a surge in violence around the country this year.
Based on reporting by AP and Reuters
Indigenous Mayans receive official documents in their own language
Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Q.R. More than 3,000 birth certificates have been delivered to Mayan residents in the southern region of the state as part of a campaign to end inequality.
The General Directorate of the Civil Registry has caravans delivering birth certificates and updating documents in the Mayan language for the benefit of low income people in rural communities.
Guadalupe Chan Flores, head of the program, says the new birth certificates for the indigenous people were requested by Governor Carlos Joaquin. She said that in just over three months, 3,050 birth certificates were reissued from Spanish to Maya, the mother tongue of the state.
She says two caravans per month will continue to deliver translated documents for the indigenous population around the region which include updated certificates, correct spelling of names and proof of registrations.
The updates are part of the national program Soy Mexico, tu acta en tu lengua that not only provides documents in their language, but also recognizes the language inequality since many Maya do not speak Spanish.
In the Yucatan region, variations of Mayan Yucatecan and YucatecLacandon Yucatec are widely spoken. The most common indigenous language spoken in Mexico is Maya, who represent almost 13 percent of Mexicos indigenous-speaking population.
The majority of Maya speakers live in Yucatan and Quintana Roo.
State invests 85 million in irrigation and drain systems for southern farmers
Chetumal, Q.R. The government of Quintana Roo has invested more than 85 million peso in agricultural irrigation and drainage systems for the south of the state.
Governor Carlos Joaquin says 58 irrigation systems, including wells, have either been modified or newly installed to help farmers. The new systems cover more than 2,000 hectares, which he says, will help improve agriculture and harvest and generate more income for families.
The agricultural areas included corn and citrus producers from the communities of Jesus Gonzalez Ortega, Ramonal, Palmar, Lazaro Cardenas II, Juan Sarabia and Sacxan de Othon P. Blanco.
Fruit, vegetable growers and cattle ranchers in of Puerto Arturo, Solferino, Candelaria de Lazaro Cardenas will also benefit from the updates as well as producers of pineapple and vegetables from Rio Verde, Blanca Flor, Valentin Gomez Farias, Buenavista, El Cafetal and El Gallito, in Bacalar, Kancabchen and Cafetalito de Jose Maria Morelos.
He says that in addition to irrigation, 10 kilometers of agricultural drains were modified that will help 437 producers over 810 hectares. He explained that the drainage systems are important in times of heavy rains, such as what the region experienced earlier in the year, to allow flooded fields to drain.
The investment also included the hiring of 41 extension workers who trained, advised and accompanied local producers on harvest increase.
With good agricultural practices and a vision of the future, together we advance in the development of the field, said Governor Carlos Joaquin. He said that support for the countryside and producers in the south is a priority.
Together we move forward in increasing the productivity of the farmers, and although there are already results, these are insufficient so we are going for more. We recognize that there is still a long way to go, he said.
Rogelio Aguiniga Cabrera, a producer from the town of Emiliano Zapata, said that with the new systems, it is easier to increase production.
Thats good for us producers because profits improve and we can invest more in the land, he said.
Le president malien Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (IBK) a prete serment hier mardi devant plus de 3.000 personnes rassemblees au Palais de la culture Amadou Hampate Ba, pronant lunite et la loyaute pour faire avancer la mise en place de lAccord de paix, malgre les contestations persistantes de lopposition.
Dans un discours a la nation, le president reelu IBK a promis detre le president de tous les Maliens. Il a rendu un hommage aux victimes, etrangeres et nationales du terrorisme.
La question securitaire, avec des conflits communautaires dans le centre du pays qui ont fait des dizaines de victimes civiles ces derniers mois, la criminalite organisee et la menace terroriste, constitue en effet le grand chantier sur lequel est attendu le president malien pour son second mandat de cinq ans.
Ibrahim Boubacar Keita semble en avoir pleinement conscience comme le suggere la liste quil a dressee de ses priorites, a savoir le renforcement de la cohesion nationale, la poursuite de la mise en uvre de lAccord de paix conclu en 2015 avec lex-rebellion a dominante touareg, mais qui na pas empeche les violences de se propager du nord vers le centre du Mali et vers le Burkina Faso et le Niger voisins, mieux equiper et former les soldats maliens, et enfin lutter contre le terrorisme et la criminalite.
Mais le pays est encore loin de lunite que recherche le president reelu avec 67,16% des suffrages. Soumaila Cisse, le leader de lopposition et candidat malheureux au second tour de lelection presidentielle du 12 aout dernier avec 32,84% des voix, continue de rejeter avec lappui de ses partisans les resultats de la presidentielle et linvestiture dIbrahim Boubacar Keita.
Ils ont depose plainte mardi aupres de la Cour supreme, de la Cour dAppel et dun tribunal de commune de la capitale pour nullite de la proclamation des resultats par la Cour Constitutionnelle en raison de la violation de la loi par sa Presidente et de forfaiture des autres membres de la Cour. Cette plainte devrait, selon leur avocat, entrainer un sursis de linvestiture dIbrahim Boubacar Keita par la Cour supreme.
[VIENNA] Outbreaks of African swine fever in widely different parts of China, over the past month, have prompted experts, including from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), to warn that the virus could spill into adjacent South-east Asia, with devastating consequence for hog industries.
By Wednesday (5 September), eight outbreaks had been reported in locations as far apart as 1,000 kilometres within China, which has the worlds largest swine industry. The impact can be catastrophic as there is no treatment and currently no vaccine that can be used to protect swine farms, Juan Lubroth, FAOs chief veterinarian, tells SciDev.Net.
The current strain that entered China is highly virulent, causing fever and death from multiple organ and system failures and internal bleeding Juan Lubroth, Food and Agriculture Organization
While this is not the first time that swine fever has been detected outside of Africa outbreaks in Europe and the Americas date back to the 1960s the FAO does not know how the virus reached China. We suspect that it was an extension of an outbreak from a neighbouring country through the movement of pigs or pork products, says Lubroth. Infected wild boars are a possibility, but not likely.
Lubroth says the links with parts of Africa, where swine fever is endemic, could be a possibility that FAO is looking into. This traceback approach, he says, is important to reduce further spread from the same source. He emphasises that the need is to focus attention and resources on protecting the areas that are not infected.
The clinical signs in pigs vary considerably depending on the virulence of the African swine fever strain, says Lubroth. The current strain that entered China is highly virulent, causing fever and death from multiple organ and system failures and internal bleeding. Often, once it has been diagnosed, entire herds are preventively culled.
Wider spread of the virus carries huge implications, especially for the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, which have large pig industries. Francois Louis Roger, animal epidemiologist at the Agricultural Research Centre for International Development , Montpellier, France, tells SciDev.Net that he had warned in a paper in Veterinary Record last year that the spread of the virus to China could have devastating socioeconomic consequences for both the Chinese and the global pig industry.Vietnam is probably at greatest risk, considering its common border with China and the significant trade between the two countries, Roger says. Thailand may be less vulnerable if it takes rigorous biosecurity measures, while insularity could protect the Philippines. Other countries like Cambodia and Laos are also at risk but less prepared due to weak veterinary services, he says.In order to prevent the spread of swine fever to South-east Asia, Roger recommends that local veterinary services maintain efficient surveillance systems, have strong emergency preparedness plans and also try to figure out where and when the virus might make an entry.This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets Asia & Pacific desk.
Water is strange in many ways. Some of its chemical quirks are familiar, such as expanding when it freezes to ice. A lesser-known curiosity, which it shares with just a few other liquids, is the "fragile-to-strong" transition. Explaining this behavior, which relates to how cold water flows, has long been a source of debate. Now, a convincing explanation has been put forward by researchers in Tokyo.
When liquids cool, their dynamics slow down and they become viscous. For most liquids, the rate of slowing is constant as a function of temperatureand these are known as strong liquids. For "fragile" liquids, however, the rate continually increases as the temperature drops. Water is unusual in this regard -- it is fragile at room temperature, but strong at low temperatures, where its rate of increasing viscosity hits a peak.
This fragile-to-strong transition is rather elusive, occurring only in the supercooled regime, below water's usual freezing point. Early models tried to link it to glassy dynamics, as supercooled water is known to be a glass-former. However, a team led by The University of Tokyo's Institute of Industrial Science (IIS) proposes a two-state theory, in effect modeling water as a mix of two co-existing liquids.
Mathematically, the strong/fragile distinction rests on the Arrhenius law for dynamical processes -- strong liquids obey this law, but for fragile ones, the rapid increase of viscosity is "super-Arrhenius." As reported in the journal PNAS, the IIS team amended this view by considering water to consist of two states, termed "fast" and "slow," which are structurally different, but both obey Arrhenius dynamics.
"We simulated water by molecular dynamics and looked for structural patterns," explains study co-author Rui Shi. "H 2 O molecules always assemble into tetrahedra, but we saw that some of these local structures were highly ordered, others less so." The disordered states correspond to fast water, and dominate at high temperature, while the well-ordered slow state takes over as the sample cools.
Crucially, the equations derived from the two-state model successfully predict the fragile-to-strong crossover. This happens well above the glass transition point -- glassy behavior seems to be a red herring as far as this issue is concerned. The fact that fast water has Arrhenius, rather than power-law, dynamics also resolves faulty predictions based on earlier attempts to link water's fragility to certain aspects of its phase diagram.
"Fragile water may be an illusion. The apparent transition is an artefact of the temperature-dependent balance of two strong liquid states," says lead author Hajime Tanaka. "The presence of two states reflects water's tendency to form local structures, which is easier at low temperature. In fact, other liquids with a fragile-to-strong transition, like silica, also show local ordering. We propose that this, rather than any glassy behavior, is what distinguishes them from true fragile liquids."
A mechanism for how the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, evolves has been discovered at Umea University, Sweden. The discovery concerns how proteins with a defect structure spread the deformation to other proteins, according to results in a new thesis. The discovery can open up for novel pharmaceutical developments in the future.
"We've been able to identify two different types of protein aggregates with different structures and propagation abilities. One type gave rise to a more aggressive disease progression, which shows that these aggregates are the driving force in the development of ALS," says Johan Bergh, doctoral student at the Department of Medical Biosciences at Umea University, Sweden.
Together with the ALS group at Umea University, Johan Bergh has developed a method of investigating protein aggregates formed in ALS. With this new method, it has then been possible to identify the particular protein aggregates that are driving in the emergence of ALS.
The protein that has been targeted is superoxid dismutas-1, SOD1. It has long been known that mutations in that protein can cause ALS. The goal of the research team was to investigate the way in which the protein contributes to the disease.
In several diseases afflicting the nervous system, such as in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease, new studies show that some proteins assume an abberant structure. Misfolded proteins aggregate and provoke other proteins of the same kind to assume the same structure. In this way, the disease spreads step by step into the nervous system.
"Using the new method, we have shown and confirmed through animal models that the development of ALS follows the same principle as for other severe nervous disorders. Protein aggregates function as a template that healthy proteins stick to and cause the disease to spread," says Johan Bergh.
In animal models, agregates of the SOD1 protein from animals, as well as humans, have been shown to induce ALS disease. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease which afflicts approximately 250 people annually in Sweden. Although the disease has been known for over 100 years, there is still only one medicine with a disease delaying effect available in Sweden.
"Through our new method, I hope that in the future, drugs will be developed specifically aimed at attacking these protein aggregates. Hopefully, research teams focusing on similar diseases will adopt the method. However, we are in an early phase, and developing drugs is a long-term process," says Johan Bergh.
Johan Bergh has a degree in biomedicine and is a medical doctor at Umea University. He is now completing his doctoral studies at the Department of Medical Biosciences, started in 2010.
A large genomic analysis has linked certain DNA mutations to a high risk of relapse in estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, while other mutations were associated with better outcomes, according to researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the Baylor College of Medicine and the University of British Columbia.
The knowledge could help predict which patients are most likely to have their cancer return and spread, and could help guide treatment decisions. It also opens the door to developing more aggressive treatments for patients with the newly identified high-risk mutations.
The study appears Sept. 4 in the journal Nature Communications.
The researchers analyzed tumor samples from more than 2,500 patients with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, one of the most common forms of the disease. These cancer cells have receptors that bind to the hormone estrogen in the nucleus of the cell and drive tumor growth.
More than 266,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with invasive breast cancer each year, according to the American Cancer Society, and about 70 percent of cases are estrogen receptor positive.
ER positive breast cancer patients have a number of treatment options that block the estrogen receptor to stop tumor growth. Such hormonal therapies are effective and less toxic than traditional chemotherapy and radiation. But some tumors develop resistance to these treatments, mutating in ways that fuel growth independent of the presence of estrogen. These types of mutations are of great interest because they are responsible for the majority of deaths due to breast cancer.
advertisement
"We would like to help doctors identify patients who are likely to do well versus those who are likely to have a recurrence," said first author Obi L. Griffith, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine and an assistant director of The McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine. "Those with mutations that are associated with a good prognosis may need less intensive therapy than they might otherwise receive. But if a patient's tumor has mutations linked to high risk of relapse, it's useful to know that early so they can be treated with more aggressive therapies or even potential investigational therapies that could be targeted to their specific mutations."
The new study confirmed past work showing that relatively common mutations in genes called MAP3K1 and TP53 had opposite effects on tumor aggressiveness. Patients with MAP3K1 mutations did well, while those with TP53 mutations were likely to have a recurrence. The study also identified three genes -- DDR1, PIK3R1 and NF1 -- with relatively uncommon mutations that were associated with cancer recurrence and spreading.
"Although mutations in DDR1 and NF1 are considered rare, they are associated with early relapse, which makes them much more common in patients who unfortunately die from the disease and, thus, could be critical therapeutic targets," said Matthew J. Ellis, MB, BChir, PhD, of the Baylor College of Medicine. "Their identification also gives us very important molecular clues into the nature of aggressive tumor behavior."
"It is likely that these genes will now be included in gene panel tests, particularly when clinical trials are developed that target these mutations," Ellis added.
One unique element of this study was the age of the samples. Many were over 20 years old, allowing the researchers to know the full history of how the patients fared. But unlike more recent cancer sequencing studies, neither healthy tissue nor blood samples from those patients were collected or stored alongside the tumor. That means the old tumor samples couldn't be compared with normal DNA from the same patients. Comparing the DNA of healthy tissue versus tumor tissue in the same patient can help identify mutations driving the cancer.
According to co-first author Nicholas C. Spies, a graduate student in Griffith's lab, scientists now have enough healthy genomes sequenced to be able to compare, on a broad population level, normal genomes to cancer genomes and use big data bioinformatics methods to pull out the mutations likely to be driving cancer, even in old samples that can't be directly compared with healthy DNA from the same patient.
The researchers also pointed out the importance of continuing to sequence cancer genomes.
"With all the breast cancer sequencing that's been done, it's tempting to think we've found everything of importance," Griffith said. "But this study tells us there is still more to discover."
This work was supported by a Susan G. Komen Promise grant, number PG12220321; a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Recruitment of Established Investigators award, grant number RR140033; the McNair Medical Institute; Susan G. Komen; the Department of Defense (DOD) Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP) award, number W81XWH-16-0538; a Komen CCR award, number CCR16380599; the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute to the NCIC Clinical Trials Group, grant numbers 021039 and 015469; and by the National Cancer Institute, grant numbers NIH NCI K22CA188163 and NIH NCI U01CA209936.
Heavily traumatized people such as refugees fleeing war, torture and natural catastrophes may not necessarily develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a new study reveals.
Researchers worked with a group of refugees -- half suffering from PTSD, the others not -- and asked them to suppress neutral memories. Results showed that participants who struggled to control these thoughts were more likely to show symptoms of PTSD.
The research raises the question of whether the ability to control memories protects against developing PTSD or if the condition causes an impairment in an individual's ability to control their memories?
Experts at the University of Birmingham, Ruhr-Universitat Bochum, the University of Konstanz and Berlin's Max Planck Institute for Human Development worked with 24 refugees from a range of European, African and Asian countries to complete the study, which is published in Scientific Reports.
They found that the more severe the PTSD symptoms, the more difficult refugees found suppressing neutral memories. Their study also indicated that efforts to forget the memories caused problems in remembering non-traumatic experiences.
The research indicates that PTSD patient's problems in suppressing traumatic memories relates to dysfunctional gamma frequency activity in the brain -- a discovery that could help to shape more effective treatments.
Dr Simon Hanslmayr, Reader in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Birmingham, commented: "Difficulties experienced by people with severe PTSD symptoms when attempting to suppress bad memories is linked to the ability to regulate gamma frequency brain activity.
"This novel biomarker could help identify risks posed to PTSD patients by memory suppression techniques and assist in adapting and developing psychotherapeutic methods. Our study certainly raises concerns about unwary use of memory suppression in treating PTSD sufferers."
The researchers note that more research is needed into the effects of traumatic stress in refugees. This would help to develop effective medical strategies to deal with the immediate health and socioeconomic challenges posed by high numbers of refugees.
Dr Gerd Waldhauser, from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at Ruhr University Bochum, commented: "Refugees and asylum seekers are often excluded from medical treatment or do not seek help. They are often unable or unwilling to take part in deamanding cognitive neuroscience studies, making data such as ours precious in understanding a rarely-studied population with abundant mental health problems."
PTSD is a disorder characterised by the recurrent and uncontrollable intrusion of traumatic memories. Patients tend to try to suppress these intrusions which can aggravate the condition's symptoms and cause further emotional distress.
Researchers worked with a group of 24 refugees, who took part in a series of tests whilst being observed with magnetoencephalography (MEG) brain imaging technology which registered the different frequencies of brain activity they exhibited.
A model developed using artificial intelligence (AI) is better at predicting risk of death in patients with heart disease than models designed by medical experts, a new study from the Francis Crick Institute shows.
The study, published in PLOS One, adds to the growing evidence that AI could revolutionise healthcare in the UK and beyond. So far, the emphasis has been on the potential of AI to help diagnose and treat various diseases, but these new findings suggest it could also help predict the likelihood of patients dying too.
"It won't be long before doctors are routinely using these sorts of tools in the clinic to make better diagnoses and prognoses, which can help them decide the best ways to care for their patients," says Crick scientist Andrew Steele, first author of the paper.
"Doctors already use computer-based tools to work out whether a patient is at risk of heart disease, and machine-learning will allow more accurate models to be developed for a wider range of conditions."
Data-driven model
The model was designed using the electronic health data of over 80,000 patients, collected as part of routine care, and available for researchers on the CALIBER platform.
advertisement
Scientists at the Crick, working collaboratively with colleagues at the Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, wanted to see if they could create a model for coronary artery disease -- the leading cause of death in the UK -- that outperforms experts using self-taught machine learning techniques.
Coronary artery disease develops when the major blood vessels that supply the heart with blood, oxygen and nutrients become damaged, or narrowed by fatty deposits. Eventually restricted blood flow to the heart can lead to chest pain and shortness of breath, while a complete blockage can cause a heart attack.
An expert-constructed prognostic model for coronary artery disease which this work was compared against made predictions based on 27 variables chosen by medical experts, such as age, gender and chest pains. By contrast, the Crick team got their AI algorithms to train themselves, searching for patterns and picking the most relevant variables from a set of 600.
Outperforming experts
Not only did the new data-driven model beat expert-designed models at predicting patient mortality, but it also identified new variables that doctors hadn't thought of.
"Along with factors like age and whether or not a patient smoked, our models pulled out a home visit from their GP as a good predictor of patient mortality," says Andrew. "Home visits are not something a cardiologist might say is important in the biology of heart disease, but perhaps a good indication that the patient is too unwell to make it to the doctor themselves, and a useful variable to help the model make accurate predictions."
This study was a proof-of-principle to compare expert-designed models to machine learning approaches, but a similar model could be implemented in the clinic in the not too distant future.
"Machine learning is hugely powerful tool in medicine and has the ability to revolutionise how we deliver care to patients over the next few years," says Andrew.
Without special instrumentation, the Sun looks calm and inert. But beneath that placid facade are countless miniature explosions called nanoflares.
These small but intense eruptions are born when magnetic field lines in the Sun's atmosphere tangle up and stretch until they break like a rubber band. The energy they release accelerates particles to near lightspeed and according to some scientists, heats the solar atmosphere to its searing million-degree Fahrenheit temperature.
All of this happens in colors of light so extreme that the human eye can't see them. Nanoflares aren't visible -- at least not to the naked eye.
Finding the traces of nanoflares requires X-ray vision, and scientists have been hard at work developing the best tools for the job. The latest advance in this project is represented by NASA's Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager, or FOXSI mission, soon to take its third flight from the White Sands Missile Range in White Sands, New Mexico, no earlier than Sept. 7.
FOXSI is a sounding rocket mission. Derived from the nautical term "to sound," meaning to measure, sounding rockets make brief 15-minute journeys above Earth's atmosphere for a peek at space before falling back to the ground. Smaller, cheaper and faster to develop than large-scale satellite missions, sounding rockets offer a way for scientists to test their latest ideas and instruments -- and achieve rapid results.
FOXSI will travel 190 miles up, above the shield of Earth's atmosphere, to stare directly at the Sun and search for nanoflares using its X-ray vision.
advertisement
"FOXSI is the first instrument built specially to image high-energy X-rays from the Sun by directly focusing them," said Lindsay Glesener, space physicist at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and principal investigator for the mission. "Other instruments have done this for other astronomical objects, but FOXSI is so far the only instrument to optimize especially for the Sun."
The Sun tells its story in layers of light, each of which reveals what's happening at different temperatures. For example, the sunlight that our eyes can see is primarily from the Sun's photosphere, which is approximately 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. But there's much more going on outside the bounds of human vision. X-ray light, in particular, reveals processes that heat plasma to millions of degrees Fahrenheit, like the most violent explosions at the cores of nanoflares.
But high-quality views of X-rays from the Sun don't come easy. Unlike visible light, X-rays are hard to focus; they are largely unaffected by the lenses and mirrors used in conventional telescopes. Previous X-ray missions had to make do without focused light.
"In the past we generally used cleverly selected masks to block out some part of the incoming X-rays," said Sam Krucker, space physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, and principal investigator for FOXSI's two previous flights. "This does not result in very high-quality images, but it nevertheless gave us crucial information on the most energetic part of solar flares."
To focus the X-rays, the FOXSI team used extremely hard, smooth surfaces tilted to a small angle (less than half a degree) that would gently corral incoming X-ray light to a point of focus.
advertisement
"Thanks to these telescopes we can now make focused X-ray images of our Sun" said Krucker. "These images have a much-improved image quality at a much higher sensitivity."
This will be FOXSI's third flight -- its first was in 2012, during which it successfully viewed a small solar flare in progress, and its second in 2014, when it detected the best evidence at the time of X-ray emission from nanoflares. The third mission follows up on this discovery, but this time it includes a new telescope designed for imaging lower-energy, so-called soft X-rays as well.
"Including the soft X-ray telescope gives us more precise temperatures," said Glesener, allowing the team to spot nanoflare signatures that would be missed with the hard X-ray telescopes alone. In addition, several other performance improvements have been made to produce more accurate, higher-resolution images.
FOXSI's third flight will also be the first led by Glesener, who was a graduate student, and then the project manager, for the previous two flights led by Krucker.
"This kind of training and project inheritance is common in sounding rocket programs," said Glesener. "They are designed to grow and mature scientific leaders as well as hardware!"
FOXSI is a collaboration between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and has co-investigators from the University of Minnesota; University of California at Berkeley; NASA's Goddard and Marshall space flight centers in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Huntsville, Alabama, respectively; the University of Tokyo; Nagoya University; the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan; and Tokyo University of Science. FOXSI is supported through NASA's Sounding Rocket Program at the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. NASA's Heliophysics Division manages the sounding rocket program.
Mothers diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) have an elevated risk of developing postpartum depression symptoms, according to a new Finnish study.
Gestational diabetes mellitus refers to impaired glucose metabolism during pregnancy. Often, mothers with GDM have too high blood glucose levels, and this increases the risk of various adverse effects on the fetus. Moreover, GDM increases the mother's risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.
Postpartum depression symptoms are experienced by 10-15 per cent of mothers after childbirth. The newly published study used the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale to assess depression symptoms during the third trimester of pregnancy and eight weeks after delivery.
Postpartum depression symptoms were observed in 16 per cent of mothers diagnosed with GDM, and in approximately nine per cent of mothers without GDM. The researchers used statistical methods to adjust the results for other factors contributing to the risk of GDM and postpartum depression symptoms, such as maternal age at delivery, body mass index and depression symptoms experienced during pregnancy. The findings were reported in Journal of Affective Disorders.
Conducted by the University of Eastern Finland, the University of Helsinki, Kuopio University Hospital and the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare, the study pooled data from Kuopio Birth Cohort, which is an ongoing follow-up of women from the beginning of their pregnancy. Altogether, 1,066 mothers with no previous mental health issues were selected for the study.
"Psychological mechanisms may partially explain the observed association between GDM and postpartum depression symptoms," says Doctoral Student Aleksi Ruohomaki, the first author of the study. "Being diagnosed during pregnancy with a disease that might harm the fetus can be a stressful experience, which may predispose to depression symptoms."
"Furthermore, physiological mechanisms may also contribute to this association," adds Dr Soili Lehto, Group Leader of Kuopio Birth Cohort's mental well-being section. "Impaired glucose metabolism may increase cytokine mediated low-grade inflammation, which has also been associated with depression. Previous studies have also shown that type 2 diabetes predisposes to depression, and depression to type 2 diabetes."
Research evidence is scarce regarding the possible effects of GDM on postpartum depression symptoms, and the new Finnish study is an important contribution to this emerging area of research.
Turtles served as more than tasty treats for many Native American tribes throughout North America.
In fact, turtle shells were used as rattles and other musical instruments, said FSU Associate Professor of Anthropology Tanya Peres.
"Music is an important part of many cultures in ways we may not realize," Peres said. "Musical instruments have a deep ancient history in human society and are encoded with meanings beyond their sound making capabilities."
Peres and lead author Andrew Gillreath-Brown, a doctoral candidate from Washington State University, published their research in the academic journal PLOS One.
The researchers examined the use of turtle shells as percussion instruments in the southeastern United States. They identified and analyzed several partial Eastern box turtle shells from middle Tennessee archaeological sites that they believe were used as rattles.
In the past, turtle shells found at archaeological sites were often dismissed as food remains.
advertisement
"It is important to explore and understand what other ways -- besides food -- prehistoric animal remains may have been used in the past," Gillreath-Brown said. "Turtle shell rattles provide deep insights into human-environment and -animal relationships."
Turtles play an important role in many indigenous populations but have not been explored in great detail by researchers. Many indigenous groups believe that the world was formed upon a turtle's back.
"This symbology and belief is imbued into the turtle shell rattles, which are meant to keep rhythm and thereby interjects powerful symbology and spiritual energy into dances and ceremonies," he said.
This research opens the door to re-examine some curated turtle remains from archaeological digs that may have been dismissed as food scraps.
The researchers noted that turtle shell rattles have been found throughout North America, ranging from Florida to the Northeast and into Canada. The meaning and importance of these rattles likely differs depending on the region, they said. But, their presence in all these areas demonstrates that turtle shells were important to keeping rhythm in ceremonies across prehistoric North America.
For Peres, the research shows there are still many questions for researchers to investigate regarding the role of turtles in indigenous populations.
"We need to continue to bring together multiple lines of evidence and viewpoints so we can attempt a more nuanced understanding of past human-animal relationships," she said.
A census of annual pup production by Australian fur seal populations revealed the first reduction since species-wide protection was implemented in 1975, according to a study published September 5 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Rebecca McIntosh of the Phillip Island Nature Parks in Victoria, Australia, and colleagues. The study also shows that the long-term monitoring program for the Australian fur seal has effectively tracked population trends over time.
In the marine environment, monitoring the abundance and population trends of a top predator can provide measures of ecosystem health and management success. Fur seals, Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus, are important upper trophic level predators that, in Australia, are a protected marine species facing specific challenges related to fisheries and aquaculture management, ecotourism, potential impacts on seabirds, and response planning for oil spills and other emergencies. For these reasons, it is important to obtain accurate information about their abundance and population changes. An ad-hoc monitoring program coordinated across multiple stakeholders conducted a range-wide census of live pups in the Austral summers of 2002, 2007 and 2013. In the new study, McIntosh and colleagues set out to assess whether the monitoring program for the Australian fur seal is achieving its goals of determining pup abundance and estimating population trends.
The findings reveal that monitoring of the Australian fur seal between the 1970s and 2013 has effectively recorded population changes. The census successfully tracked signs of population recovery up to 2007. In addition, the 2013 census identified the first pup population decline, estimated to be 4.2% per year since 2007, since species-wide protection was implemented. According to the authors, the study highlights the importance of regularly assessing long-term monitoring programs and provides valuable information on how to effectively design and improve these programs.
Roland Pick, of Phillip Island Nature Parks, notes: "As wildlife managers it is important for us to regularly review our monitoring programs to examine the reliability of the information we have collected, and also to identify enhancements which may assist in a greater understanding of any population changes detected. We are currently using drone technology and Citizen Science programs at Phillip Island Nature Parks to enhance our monitoring of Seal Rocks as the largest breeding colony for the species."
Paul Chinn / The Chronicle
The mayors of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose have banded together to urge the California Public Utilities Commission to reject a proposal they fear could substantially raise the fees that people pay when switching their electricity provider from Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to a city-run program like CleanPowerSF.
On Tuesday, the mayors London Breed in San Francisco, Libby Schaaf in Oakland and Sam Liccardo in San Jose sent a letter to the PUC to express substantial concerns with a proposal the commission is scheduled to vote on Sept. 13 that could raise the fees for leaving PG&E by as much as 25 percent.
In her dual role as district supervisor and a candidate for a state board, San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Malia Cohen has taken conflicting positions on a November ballot measure that would repeal a statewide rent-control law.
Cohen voted against a resolution at Tuesdays Board of Supervisors meeting to support Proposition 10, which would overturn the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, a 1995 law that limits cities ability to impose rent control. But during her campaign for the State Board of Equalization, Cohen said at least twice that she supported the repeal.
After a 49-minute discussion, the resolution did not pass the board, with Supervisors Cohen, Ahsha Safai, Catherine Stefani and Katy Tang in the dissent. Cohen, who represents District 10, said she did not support the resolution because she was unclear how the repeal would impact her district, and that the board did not have an opportunity to have a rigorous debate on the issue.
District 10 has the second-largest home ownership in San Francisco, so for me its a matter of clarity, Cohen said at the meeting. Im just trying to understand how this impacts homeowners.
But as a candidate for the state Board of Equalization, Cohen said in two questionnaires one by the National Union of Healthcare Workers in June and another for the San Francisco Latino Democratic Club in March that she would support the repeal of Costa-Hawkins. Both groups endorsed Cohen.
Labor unions and political clubs often present candidates with questions ranging from their educational background to their policy stances, to give voters a sense of who they are. The questions also help the groups decide who they want to endorse.
When contacted by a reporter Wednesday to ask about her conflicting positions, Cohen said its not a discrepancy and said she would send a statement.
In the statement, Cohen said her answers to the questionnaires represent her personal political views. But as the supervisor of District 10 which includes Bayview-Hunters Point, Potrero Hill, Dogpatch and Visitacion Valley she must consider the concerns of her constituents and engage with all stakeholders, weigh the specific issues, and consider the specific policy, not an abstract political concept. She said the resolution should have been discussed in a committee, rather than at Tuesdays full board meeting.
Committee allows us to separate the policy from the politics, and forces us to tease out our personal beliefs which the questionnaire represents from how we can best serve our city constituents, she wrote.
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.
Sal Rosselli, president of the National Union of Healthcare Workers, said he was disappointed by Cohens flip on the issue but he said hes not surprised.
Unfortunately, its not uncommon for a candidate to make a statement about (an issue) to gain an endorsement. It is the sad state of politics, he said. It certainty puts into question our trust in her, and that will have to be earned and regained in the future by her actions.
Trisha Thadani
Email: cityinsider@sfchronicle.com, tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfcityinsider, @TrishaThadani
Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg promised to round up specifics later. Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey vowed improvement.
And Google had an empty chair.
Such was the spectacle as the three social media giants two, really, since Google declined to send someone sufficiently high-ranking faced a Senate committee hearing Wednesday in Washington about foreign influence on social networks ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
Dorsey, of Twitter, received hours of additional solo grilling in a House committee over accusations that Twitter suppresses conservative opinions.
And the show will go on. Justice Department spokesman Devin OMalley said in a statement Wednesday that officials were following closely, and the Attorney General has convened a meeting with a number of state attorneys general this month to discuss a growing concern that these companies may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, recently accused Twitter of censoring conservative views.
In the House hearing, Dorsey conceded that Twitter had failed at impartiality, when its algorithms filtered out 600,000 accounts, some of which belonged to members of Congress, from some of the searchs auto-complete results. The company fixed the algorithm, Dorsey said.
Our technology was using a decision making criteria that considers the behavior of people following these accounts, he said in a statement he read to the committee, and also tweeted. We decided that wasnt fair, and corrected. Well always improve our technology and algorithms to drive healthier usage, and measure the impartiality of outcomes.
Its important for us to be able to ... experiment freely with these signals, Dorsey said, in response to one representatives question.
Several Democrats on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce dismissed the notion of censorship of conservatives, with Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., saying the accusations and hearing were a way for Republicans to distract from other issues and Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., calling accusations of conservative censorship a load of crap.
Looking at the data, we analyzed tweets sent by all members of the House and Senate, and found no statistically significant difference between the number of times a tweet by a Democrat is viewed versus a Republican, even after our ranking and filtering of tweets has been applied, Dorsey said in his statement.
Sandberg, testifying five months after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave apologetic testimony on Capitol Hill over the Menlo Park companys failure to more tightly control data and foreign influence in the 2016 elections, was able to skip the House Energy and Commerce fireworks.
But she told the Senate Intelligence Committee that Facebook had learned from the 2016 presidential election and taken steps to combat the spread of misinformation; improvements include third-party fact-checking of content and warnings to users before they post something determined to be false.
Everyone here today knows that this is an arms race, and that means we need to be ever more vigilant, Sandberg said.
Dorsey conceded multiple times that Twitter hadnt done enough to fight misinformation on the site.
Twitter hasnt done a good job of this in the past, he said, adding that many journalists are quick to point out false information on Twitter, and they need to be helped.
When pressed by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, about whether Twitter alerts users that an account originated in Russia after the impostor account is suspended, Dorsey said the company does not do enough.
We do believe transparency is where we need the most work and improvement, Dorsey said.
Noticeably absent from the days events was an executive from Google. The Mountain View company had offered to have Kent Walker, its chief legal officer, testify. The committee which had wanted CEO Sundar Pichai or co-founder Larry Page declined that offer, and a seat next to Sandberg was left marked with a Google placard.
Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes
Multiple committee members including Sens. Mark Warner of Virginia, Marco Rubio of Florida, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Collins criticized the company for not attending. Warner, a Democrat, tweeted a photo of the empty seat.
Google pointed out steps the company had taken to fight misinformation and manipulation, including identifying and removing users who misrepresent themselves and creating a verification process for federal election ads.
We believe that we have a responsibility to prevent the misuse of our platforms and we take that very seriously, Google said in a statement. Our efforts in this area started many years before the 2016 election. We work to detect and minimize opportunities for manipulation and abuse, constantly tackling new threats and bad actors that arise.
But the senators tone, and the Department of Justices statement, seem ominous for the company and the tech giants at large, which face broad privacy and antitrust questions.
Last week, President Trump tweeted that Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good. They are controlling what we can & cannot see. This is a very serious situation-will be addressed!
Evidence of the tension and high stakes emerged outside the Senate hearing room Wednesday. Alex Jones, the right-wing conspiracy theorist whose accounts were temporarily suspended by Facebook and Twitter, clashed with Rubio as the Florida Republican answered reporters questions in a hallway. Jones started talking about his show, Infowars, and heckled Rubio, calling the onetime presidential hopeful a frat boy and little punk and sounding incredulous that Rubio didnt know who he was.
Rubio asked Jones not to touch him. I just patted you nicely, Jones said.
Jones also appeared to try to confront Dorsey and Sandberg. He followed at least one of them outside the Senate office building, but the SUV he approached was already pulling away.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Sophia Kunthara is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sophia.kunthara@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SophiaKunthara
Cameron Hewitt / Rick Steves' Europe
@sweden says Skol!
After almost seven years of confusion, controversy and comedy, @sweden, the first national Twitter account to be handed to a different citizen each week, will tweet its last at the end of the month, the Guardian reported. Begun in 2011 to boost interest in Sweden (Stockholm's bikeable Riddarholmen district is shown at right), the project won awards and attracted nearly 150,000 followers. While some curators stirred up controversy (Sara Persson on what three things make Sweden unique: We dont believe in God. We trust state more than family. We eat sweet jam together with meat.), others drew kudos. When Donald Trump told a rally last year that Sweden was having problems like they never thought possible after taking in so many refugees, 22-year-old Max Karlsson tweeted: Hey Don, this is @Sweden speaking! Its nice of you to care, really, but dont fall for the hype. Facts: Were ok!
How 20 major blazes have ignited since 1991 As another deadly fire season grips the state, we look back at what ignited some of the most devastating disasters of the past 30 years
How 20 major blazes have ignited since 1991 As another deadly fire season grips the state, we look back at what ignited some of the most devastating disasters of the past 30 years
Riding a lawn mower over dry grass. Target shooting on a hot day. Cutting a metal pipe. Faulty wiring in a hot tub.
These are among the countless ways that wildfires have started in California, and theyre among a dizzying spectrum of causes that make it that much harder for California to wrest control of this years unrelenting fire season.
Yes, the likelihood of destructive blazes has risen with global warming, with forest policies that have left too much hazardous vegetation and with more homes being built in fire-prone places. But every fire requires a spark, and most of those sparks are coming from people making mistakes that often are difficult to prevent.
A study by the University of Colorado finds that 84 percent of the wildfires in the U.S. are human-ignited. The percentage is even higher in coastal areas, where lightning is scarce.
Last year, downed power lines and damaged electrical equipment owned by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. caused many of the devastating wildfires that ravaged Northern California. Swift October winds, sometimes in excess of 70 mph, brought trees into contact with the equipment.
This year, many of the fires that have made for one of the worst seasons to date still remain under investigation, though some of the causes are beginning to emerge.
The Carr Fire, which killed seven people when it pushed into the city of Redding in July, was started by sparks that fanned out when a tire blew to the wheels rim, state investigators concluded. The County Fire, which burned 90,000 acres in Napa and Yolo counties in June, was ignited by a faulty electric livestock fence, investigators say.
Among the 20 largest fires in state history, electrical problems rank alongside runaway campfires as the most common human sources of ignition.
The following is a look at the causes of some of California's most notable blazes during the past three decades.
Mendocino Complex Fire (2018)
Area burned: 459,102 acres to date, mostly in Lake and Mendocino counties.
Damage: One person killed; 280 structures destroyed.
Cause/Follow-up: Cause remains under investigation.
Carr Fire (2018)
Area burned: 229,651 acres to date, in Trinity and Shasta counties, including the city of Redding.
Damage: Seven people killed, including three firefighters; 1,604 structures burned.
Cause/Follow-up: A flat tire on a vehicle wore to the rim, producing sparks that ignited the blaze.
Ferguson Fire (2018)
Area burned: 96,901 acres in the Sierra National Forest and Yosemite National Park.
Damage: Two firefighter deaths; 10 structures burned.
Cause/Follow-up: Cause remains under investigation.
Thomas Fire (2017)
Areas burned: 281,893 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
Damage: Two people killed; 1,063 structures destroyed.
Cause/Follow-up: State investigators have not identified a cause. But several people are suing utility Southern California Edison, alleging the blaze began at a company project site, either because of construction activities or faulty electrical equipment.
Tubbs Fire (2017)
Area burned: 36,807 acres in Napa and Sonoma counties, including Santa Rosa.
Damage: 24 people killed; 5,636 structures destroyed.
Cause/Follow-up: The fire remains under investigation. It is one of the few blazes in the Wine Country fires in which a cause has not been identified.
Nuns Fire (2017)
Area burned: 54,382 acres in Sonoma County.
Damage: Two people killed; 1,355 structures destroyed.
Cause/Follow-up: A broken treetop came into contact with a PG&E power line, causing the fire. County district attorneys are considering charges against the utility, and PG&E faces several civil suits. Cal Fire did not find that PG&E violated any maintenance regulations.
Atlas Fire (2017)
Area burned: 51,624 acres in Napa and Solano counties.
Damage: Six people killed; 783 structures burned.
Cause/Follow-up: A tree and tree limb fell on a PG&E power line at separate spots. Cal Fire investigators say PG&E broke state laws, though they haven't specified which ones.
Soberanes Fire (2016)
Area burned: 132,127 acres on Big Sur coast.
Damage: One firefighter killed, 68 structures destroyed.
Cause/Follow-up: An abandoned, illegal campfire started the fire. No arrests were made.
Valley Fire (2015)
Area burned: 76,067 acres, mostly in southern Lake County.
Damage: Four people killed; 1,955 structures destroyed.
Cause/Follow-up: Faulty electrical wiring for a hot tub at a home in the mountain community of Cobb sparked the blaze, according to Cal Fire. The county district attorney's office did not find grounds to file charges against the homeowners.
Rim Fire (2013)
Area burned: 257,314 acres in and around Yosemite National Park.
Damage: 112 structures destroyed.
Cause/Follow-up: An illegal campfire in the Stanislaus National Forest allegedly burned out of control. Bow hunter Keith Matthew Emerald was accused of two felonies and two misdemeanors, but federal prosecutors dropped charges, citing the deaths of two key witnesses.
Morgan Fire (2013)
Area burned: 3,111 acres on Mount Diablo.
Damage: No structures burned.
Cause/Follow-up: A target shooter on private land caused sparks when he fired his rifle. The ignition was deemed accidental and the shooter was not charged.
Station Fire (2009)
Area burned: 160,557 acres north of Los Angeles.
Damage: Two firefighters killed; 209 structures destroyed.
Cause/Follow-up: Lit by arsonist. No arrests.
Lockheed Fire (2009)
Area burned: 7,817 acres near Bonny Doon (Santa Cruz County).
Damage: 13 structures destroyed.
Cause/Follow-up: Campfire burned out of control. No arrests.
Klamath Theater Complex (2008)
Area burned: 192,038 acres in Siskiyou County.
Damage: Two deaths; no structures burned.
Cause/Follow-up: Lightning.
Zaca Fire (2007)
Area burned: 240,207 acres in Santa Barbara County.
Damage: One structure destroyed.
Cause/Follow-up: Grinding equipment being used to repair a metal pipe caused sparks. The corporate owners of La Laguna Ranch, without admitting guilt, agreed to a $17 million settlement to help offset firefighting costs.
Witch Creek Fire (2007)
Area burned: 197,990 acres in northern San Diego County.
Damage: Two deaths; 1,650 structures destroyed.
Cause/Follow-up: Sparks from San Diego Gas & Electric power line.
Day Fire (2006)
Area burned: 162,702 acres in the Los Padres National Forest in Ventura County.
Damage: 11 structures destroyed.
Cause/Follow-up: Debris burn at campsite got out of control. Transient Steven Butcher was sentenced to 45 months in prison.
Bear Fire (2004)
Area burned: 10,484 acres near Redding (Shasta County).
Damage: 110 structures destroyed.
Cause/Follow-up: Lawn mower sparked dry grass. William Matthew Rupp was accused of ignoring warnings not to mow in hot weather and was sentenced to four years in prison.
Cedar Fire (2003)
Area burned: 273,246 acres east of San Diego.
Damage: 15 deaths; 2,820 structures destroyed.
Cause/Follow-up: Fire lit by lost deer hunter. Sergio Martinez pleaded guilty and served six months in a halfway house.
Tunnel Fire (1991)
Area burned: 1,600 acres in the Oakland-Berkeley hills.
Damage: 25 deaths; 2,900 structures destroyed.
Cause/Follow-up: Embers from a partially extinguished grass fire reignited. No arrests.
Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander
Its a thrill when you find a hidden gem deep in the archive not a thrill like zooming through the Demon roller-coasters double corkscrew at 50 mph, but a thrill nonetheless.
A recent trip to The Chronicles basement archive turned up articles and negatives from the first years of what was then Marriotts Great America. The 1976 articles and 1978 photos show the Santa Clara theme park 40 years ago, and though some of the rides are the same as what visitors see today, much of the sprawling 556-acre site is unrecognizable.
Dig deep into Chronicle Vault Like what you're reading? Subscribe to the Chronicle Vault newsletter, and get classic archive stories in your inbox twice a week. Read hundreds of historical stories, see thousands of archive photos, and sort through 153 years of classic Chronicle front pages at SFChronicle.com/vault. See More Collapse
Years before the first coasters started rolling, Marriott Corp. President J.W. Marriott Jr. held a news conference on Oct. 24, 1973, to announce plans for the park. We dont object to the Disneyland comparison, he said. Itll be red, white and blue, a bit of nostalgia, a remembrance of things past.
Not surprisingly, Marriott Corp. had plans to build a 300-room hotel next to the park. The company also bought the rights to several Warner Bros. cartoon characters, such as Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam and, of course, Bugs Bunny. These characters would go on to perform in shows and roam the park, entertaining guests like their Disney counterparts in Anaheim.
In January 1976, the park began hiring employees, and nearly 30,000 young job seekers tied up Highway 101 on their way to apply for the 2,300 open positions. How much could one expect to paid for one of these coveted jobs? How about $2.20 an hour?
More than 20,000 people flocked to Santa Clara for the opening of the park, which featured such rides as Willards Whizzer, the Turn of the Century later rebranded as the Demon and the double-deck Columbia Carousel, billed as the largest merry-go-round in the world. Adult tickets cost $7.95, while children from 4 to 12 years old got in for $6.95. Kids 3 and younger were allowed in for free.
By 1978, the year these photos were taken, the Pictorium was the hot new attraction. The building was built seven stories high to accommodate what was, at the time, the worlds largest movie screen at 65 feet tall, 89 feet wide.
Forty years later, ticket prices have risen a bit, and roller-coasters and thrill rides such as the Grizzly, Flight Deck and Drop Tower are eliciting smiles and screams. For a few generations of Bay Area residents, however, Great America still provides a bit of nostalgia, a remembrance of things past.
Terry Schmitt / The Chronicle 1978
More from Chronicle Vault
A salute to a classic: Marine World/Africa U.S.A. may be gone, but the legend grows for a generation of Bay Area residents who spent time at the park as kids and teenagers. Pop culture critic Peter Hartlaub offers a brief history.
More from the Archive The Vault Home of the San Francisco Chronicle's archive and more than 150 years of journalism covering the Bay Area and beyond.
Pah-te time: San Francisco likes to party, of course. But for a time in the 1940s, the city had visions of hosting its own annual Mardi Gras.
Getting bombed: The year was 1980, and Lake Tahoe was a gamblers paradise. Then a huge bomb was rolled into Harveys Hotel & Casino.
Looking down on you: A Chronicle archive dig turns up amazing Goodyear Blimp aerial shots of the Bay Area from 1975. Check them out.
From the Archive is a weekly column by Bill Van Niekerken, the library director of The Chronicle, exploring the depths of the newspapers archive. Its part of Chronicle Vault, a twice-weekly newsletter highlighting more than 150 years of San Francisco stories. It is edited by Tim ORourke, The Chronicles assistant managing editor and executive producer of SFChronicle.com. Sign up for the newsletter here, and follow Chronicle Vault on Instagram. Contact Bill at bvanniekerken@sfchronicle.com and Tim at torourke@sfchronicle.com.
Friday morning, Aug. 31, when many Americans were focused on death rituals for John McCain and Aretha Franklin, President Trump was tweeting his support for Sen. Ted Cruz. He announced that he will appear at a major rally for Cruz in October. Im picking the biggest stadium in Texas we can find. As you know, Ted has my complete and total Endorsement. (Note that its a capital-E Endorsement, which is even stronger than a puny lowercase endorsement.)
Some of the ways Trump has previously during the presidential primary campaigns described his admiration for Cruz, as collected in Time magazine:
How can Ted Cruz be an Evangelical Christian when he lies so much and is so dishonest? Nasty guy, he said. Now I know why he doesnt have one endorsement from any of his colleagues. His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswalds being, you know, shot. ... What was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald? ... Its horrible.
Cruz, of course, was equally warm in expressing his feelings about the man whose endorsement he is accepting now. Donald, youre a sniveling coward, he said, addressing his rival after Trump had attacked Cruzs wife. Donald Trumps consistently disgraceful behavior is beneath the office we are seeking.
Furthermore, This man is a pathological liar. He doesnt know the difference between truth and lies. He lies practically every word that comes out of his mouth, and in a pattern that I think is straight out of a psychology textbook, his response is to accuse everybody else of lying. ... The man is utterly amoral.
How does one even meet people without an app anymore? is the premise of an Alex Baker-Whitcomb story forwarded to me by Jamie Jobb in Wired magazine. (Whitcomb did the bold thing, disrupting the online search for romance by removing all dating apps and sallying forth: to speed dating, to a gym, to concerts and social events. She liked it.)
At his gym in the Castro, Mark Abramson was watching three TV channels at once, so as to see rites for John McCain and Aretha Franklin, when he overheard the remark: The U.S. flag on the White House went up and down that flagpole so many times that Trump had to pay it $130,000.
The largest gift ever to the University of Montana Library, $2 million, is a legacy from San Franciscan Richard Lee Merritt, an alumnus of the university and for 34 years a librarian at the Hearst-owned San Francisco Examiner. Merritt died in December 2017. Matthew Bajko writes in the Noe Valley Voice that Merritt lived on 23rd Street in San Francisco. He graduated from Montana in 1948, and over the course of his life had given a total of around $3 million to the library.
In 1997, Merritt wrote to the university of his intention to leave his estate to its library; he also wrote to ask that henceforth, he be acknowledged as a major donor. To be anonymous would be most truly, elegant, but alas, I am weak, he wrote. My twilight years would be brightened were I an acknowledged major donor ... especially since I will never have a tombstone, but just ... be chopped asunder at UC Medical Center and my ashes scattered to the unfeeling wind.
Stories about the strength and effectiveness of sisters in the United States and around the world dominate the autumn issue of the Earth Island Journal, which focuses on women and the environment. And in a loud call to arms, EIJ Managing Editor Zoe Loftus-Farrens essay focuses on the glass ceiling in the environmental movement.
Noting that the leaders of the Sierra Club, Environmental Defense Fund and World Wildlife Fund are all men, Loftus-Farren went through websites of 25 major environmental nonprofits. She knew men were over-represented, she writes, but, Seeing the picture of one white man after another crop up on my computer screen made the disparity more tangible. This is particularly egregious because the staffs of those organizations are around 60 percent (the around because varying surveys come up with slightly different numbers) female.
In the generally progressive field of environmental preservation which is tackling issues that disproportionately impact women should we be breaking through the glass ceiling? asks Loftus-Farren.
PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING
Im sorry you bumped your head, sweetheart. Here, use Mommys lemon sorbet to ice it.
Mother to small boy, overheard in Palo Alto grocery store by Lisa Saunders
Leah Garchik is open for business in San Francisco, 415-777-8426. Email: lgarchik@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @leahgarchik
Aficionados of political jousting will find little of interest in the array of statewide offices to be filled on Nov. 6.
The most interesting statewide contest this year is for an office thats little known to the public but affects arguably the most important state responsibility, K-12 education.
The state superintendent of public instruction oversees, along with a state Board of Education appointed by the governor, a system that spends about $90 billion in local, state and federal funds each year to educate 6 million children and adolescents.
Tom Torlakson, a former teacher and legislator, is departing after eight years in the office, having barely defeated charter school and education reform advocate Marshall Tuck in his re-election four years ago. Tucks back on the ballot this year, facing Assemblyman Tony Thurmond. They virtually tied in Junes primary election.
Its a battle between two Democrats but one that encapsulates the political war over California education that has been raging for years between the education establishment, particularly the California Teachers Association, and an Equity Coalition of civil rights groups and Tucks fellow reform advocates.
Their No. 1 issue is how to deal with the stubborn gap between low-achieving poor and English learner students about 60 percent of the states 6 million K-12 students and their more affluent, higher-achieving classmates.
Whites and Asians dominate the upper portion of the achievement gap while Latino and black kids are concentrated in the lower.
The establishment, which generally backs Thurmond, argues that the gap is best attacked with more money, pointing out that California is below average in per-pupil spending vis-a-vis other states.
During a quasi-debate with Tuck last month, Thurmond said that, if elected, he wants California to move into the top 10 in the first four years and No. 1 in eight years.
Tuck, reflecting the reformer position, also calls for more money, but laments that the sharp increase in school financing during the last half-decade, about 50 percent in per-pupil spending, isnt being used effectively. The system is not working, he said. Weve neglected our kids for decades.
The broader conflict they represent revolves largely around the Gov. Jerry Brown-sponsored Local Control Funding Formula, which provides extra money to districts with large numbers of low-achieving, at-risk students.
Brown and the establishment have largely left decisions on how to spend the extra money to local school districts, but reformers contend that its often been squandered on spending that doesnt directly benefit the targeted students.
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.
Torlakson, countermanding his own departments advice, gave districts permission to use local control funding formula funds for overall salary increases, for instance, and Tuck declares that if elected, On Day One, were going to change that.
There are many other points of conflict, from teacher tenure to paying experienced teachers more to work in schools with low achievement levels.
While the governor and the Legislature set overall education policy, and provide the systems money, the superintendent does have considerable authority. Thats particularly true, as Tucks comment on salaries implies, in overseeing how schools are spending those many billions of dollars, and thats why the Thurmond-Tuck duel is a proxy war for the larger conflict.
Dan Walters is a columnist for CALmatters, a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how Californias state Capitol works and why it matters.
Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh dodged Sen. Dianne Feinsteins efforts Wednesday to pin him down on abortion rights and the obligation of a president to cooperate with a criminal investigation, saying only that there were judicial precedents in both areas that could not be ignored.
Respect for precedent is important. ... Precedent is rooted right in the Constitution itself, Kavanaugh said on the second day of his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, trying to reassure critics who see him as a conservative partisan. If you walk into my courtroom and have the better legal arguments, you will win.
As the members of the committee took turns questioning Kavanaugh, protesters again interrupted the proceedings at regular intervals, shouting their opposition to President Trumps nominee before police hustled them out of the hearing room.
The outnumbered Democrats on the committee already have said they will vote against confirming Kavanaugh, an appeals court judge in the D.C. Circuit who they believe is too conservative and too closely linked to Republican policies. Many of them used their question time Wednesday trying to get him to spell out his positions on such issues as abortion, gun control, racial discrimination and judicial independence from presidential pressure, generally without success.
Feinstein, D-Calif., quizzed him on abortion rights, saying she didnt want to go back to those death tolls when women died every year from illegal abortions.
Kavanaugh ducked Feinsteins attempts to get him to state whether he believed the 1973 Roe vs. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide was decided correctly. All he would say was that the decision and later cases that reaffirmed it in particular, a 1992 ruling co-authored by retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, whom Kavanaugh would replace on the court were important precedents.
I dont live in a bubble, I live in the real world, Kavanaugh said. I understand the significance of the issue.
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., pressed Kavanaugh on his views on race and social justice, and brought up last years march by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va.
Harris, a former prosecutor and state attorney general before she was elected senator in 2016, asked Kavanaugh if he agreed with Trumps statement the day after the march that there was blame on both sides. This comment was made despite the actions of one march sympathizer who drove into a crowd of protesters and killed one woman. Other marchers were captured on camera beating a black man.
Kavanaugh responded by stating that it is important for judges to stay out of commenting on current events.
Are you saying you cannot answer that pretty simple question? Harris responded.
Im not here to assess comments made in the political arena, Kavanaugh said.
Earlier, the former White House staffer under President George W. Bush avoided direct answers to a Feinstein line of questioning designed to draw him out on whether he would be an automatic vote for Trump in any criminal proceedings.
He cited the Supreme Courts 1974 ruling forcing President Richard Nixon to respond to a criminal subpoena for Oval Office tapes in the Watergate case as one of the courts greatest rulings. However, Kavanaugh refused to answer Feinsteins question about whether that meant a president should have to respond to a criminal subpoena, an issue Trump could conceivably face in Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into the 2016 campaign.
Kavanaugh called the question hypothetical and said the high courts eight sitting justices declined to specify how they would rule in such instances in their confirmation hearings.
Feinstein later tweeted that if Brett Kavanaugh truly believes the president isnt above the law, he should have said the president must comply with a subpoena. Theres no reason Brett Kavanaugh couldnt have given a straight answer.
Kavanaugh also refused to say whether he would recuse himself from any criminal or civil case against Trump.
The man who appointed you is an unindicted co-conspirator, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., although no prosecutor has said that about Trump.
Kavanaugh refused to give Blumenthal the yes or no answer he wanted, saying, One key facet (of judicial independence) is not to make commitments on particular cases.
Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont asked Kavanaugh whether Trump has a right to pardon himself, as the president has claimed.
Kavanaugh said he cant begin to answer in this context as a sitting judge and as a nominee to the Supreme Court.
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.
He gave a similar answer when Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., asked whether Kavanaugh could assure him that he would vote to uphold a law requiring health insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions and when Blumenthal asked him to commit to never overturning Roe vs. Wade.
His refusal follows the path taken in recent years by nominees of Republican and Democratic presidents alike. It even has a name the Ginsburg Standard, after the strategy adopted by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg during her 1993 confirmation hearing.
Kavanaugh, who teaches at Harvard Law School in addition to serving as an appeals court judge, did offer his take on earlier Supreme Court cases. He pointed to what he called the courts four greatest decisions: Marbury vs. Madison, the 1803 case that established the principle of judicial review; Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. vs. Sawyer in 1952, which found that President Harry Trumans seizure of striking steel mills during the Korean War was unconstitutional; the 1954 school desegregation case Brown vs. Board of Education; and United States vs. Nixon, the Watergate-era ruling that led to the undoing of Nixons presidency.
The Youngstown and Nixon decisions were cited by Kavanaugh as examples of judicial independence, with judges taking tough positions against the presidents who had appointed them.
Republicans, who control the committee and likely have the votes in the full Senate to confirm Kavanaugh, spent much of their time talking up his resume. There is no dispute youre one of the most qualified Supreme Court nominees, said Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, the committees chair. Some people say the most qualified, and I wouldnt dispute that.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., noted that he had voted to confirm justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, both appointees of former President Barack Obama.
I would expect President Obama to go to someone like Kagan because her philosophy of judging was like his, Graham said. I expect that to happen. To my colleagues on the other side, what do you really expect?
The hearing continues Thursday with senators getting additional time to question Kavanaugh. On Friday, witnesses both for and against the nominee are scheduled to appear.
San Francisco Chronicle staff writer John King contributed to this report.
John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth
Republican senators rush to help President Trump shape the Supreme Court, the nations ultimate arbiter of law, has been ironically steeped in disregard for the rule of law and regular order.
Brett Kavanaugh would be the second Supreme Court justice chosen by a president who continues to show brazen contempt for the courts, the laws and their impartial administration. The Senate majority is hastening to confirm the conservative appellate judge before congressional elections at the expense of credibly exercising its constitutional duty to review the nomination.
The day before the Judiciary Committee kicked off the Kavanaugh hearing, the man who nominated him chastised Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Twitter over the indictment of two very popular Republican Congressmen ... just ahead of the Mid-Terms, saying they represented Two easy wins now in doubt. Trump was referring to Reps. Duncan Hunter of San Diego County and Chris Collins of New York, the first two members of Congress to endorse him. That they have been charged with serious crimes didnt appear to figure in his analysis.
From threatening to lock up his election opponent to disparaging judges who dont rule his way, this was only the latest of Trumps attacks on impartial enforcement and interpretation of the law. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said during Tuesdays hearing that he shares concerns that the administration doesnt seem to understand and appreciate separation of powers and the rule of law.
But Senate Republicans are likewise abandoning normal procedure in a grab for power, pressing ahead with the hearing even though National Archives officials say they need more time to vet Kavanaughs voluminous paper trail for release. Even an expedited review by GOP lawyers, who are no substitute for a neutral broker, cant keep up with the committees cram session: They released more than 42,000 pages related to Kavanaughs service in George W. Bushs White House the night before the hearing began. Meanwhile, Bushs lawyers and the Trump administration are withholding nearly 250,000 pages.
A thorough look at Kavanaughs record could illuminate his views on pertinent matters such as the limits of executive power. Given the likelihood of a high-stakes legal standoff between Trump and Special Counsel Robert Mueller, its no wonder Republicans are in a hurry to remake the court.
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.
Photos by Ye Aung Thu / AFP / Getty Images
Nearly 300 journalists are behind bars across the globe, the victims of autocrats muzzling the news. Now add two more: a pair of Reuters reporters who painstakingly documented the role of Myanmar security forces killing Rohingya villagers in a bid to rid the country of the Muslim minority group.
The sentences total seven years each for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, jailed since last December. Their alleged crime was possession of confidential government documents, a holdover offense from the colonial era. We didnt do anything wrong, said Kyaw. After months of interrogation and isolation, Were not exactly shocked by the verdict, he said.
Brett Kavanaugh has been nominated by President Trump to fill the vacancy created by the premature retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy. Civil rights activists, abortion rights advocates, the disability rights community, and those concerned with limiting the authority of the executive branch are alarmed by this nomination. As an African American civil rights attorney who has been practicing law since 1975, I am certain that if Kavanaugh is confirmed, the hands of the judicial clock will be turned back to the 50s and by that I mean the 1850s.
Next year marks the 400th anniversary of when kidnapped black Africans were first brought to these shores as slaves. From the moment we arrived, we knew that the monstrous actions of slave owners and their enablers were unjust. Steven Spielbergs movie Amistad depicted the story of captured Africans who gained their freedom as a result of litigation. We also know the sad stories of failed attempts in the federal courts: Dred Scott and Plessy vs. Ferguson, rulings that reflected calloused judges whom history has shown to be racist and wrong.
My personal hero is Charles Hamilton Houston, the architect of the legal strategy that led to Brown vs. Board of Education, the decision that desegregated public schools. I was born in Texas when separate-but-equal was the law of the land. My dad was an Air Force officer, so my brothers and I went to fully desegregated schools in England, France and Illinois. The education I received enabled me to enter Northwestern University in 1967, skipping freshman English on the strength of my test score a testament to the Brown decision.
White supremacists, however, did not like Brown vs. Board of Education. They put up billboards demanding to impeach Earl Warren, the Supreme Court chief justice. More sophisticated opponents of racial equality took a strategic approach. In 1971, future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell wrote a manifesto on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, complaining that the courts were too harsh on corporations and proposed a comprehensive plan to correct that. He was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by Richard Nixon, a disgraced president who nonetheless got to put his minions on the high court. Powell kept the memo secret during the confirmation hearings so we, the people, had no idea of his extremist ideology. Sound familiar?
In 1980, the Reagan Justice Department under Attorney General Edwin Meese issued a series of papers outlining ways to stop the federal courts from advancing the rights of people of color. These papers, called The Constitution in the Year 2000, talked about making sure the federal courts reverse rulings that helped people of color.
Now we are faced with Trumps handpicked nominee, Kavanaugh. Here are some of the dangers posed by seating him on the high court:
He has expressed a view that sitting presidents are above the law; thus he is likely to give Trump a pass on all his misdeeds and is likely to undermine the authority of special counsel Robert Mueller.
He is hiding more than 1 million documents, primarily generated when he worked for President George W. Bush, from the Senate Judiciary Committee and the public.
According to a report from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Kavanaugh will:
Make it harder to remedy racial discrimination
Make it harder to dismantle the new Jim Crow of mass incarceration
Limit access to justice for low-income people and people of color
Prioritize private profits over communities of color hurt by environmental injustice and climate change
Undermine justice for immigrants and foreign nationals while deferring to our white supremacist administration
Roll back advances in the area of reproductive rights, disability justice, and LGBTQ equality.
Kavanaugh reportedly told Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, not to be concerned about Roe vs. Wade, which guarantees abortion rights, because it is settled law. That is absurd, because the Supreme Court decides what constitutes settled law. The conservative legal movement is hell bent on overturning settled law and Kavanaugh is the perfect agent to accomplish that goal.
Please call Californias Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris and urge them to vote no. If you live outside California, we really need calls to Sens. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., Doug Jones, D-Ala., Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Collins. The democracy you save may be your own.
Eva Paterson is the president of the Equal Justice Society, an Oakland nonprofit that works to transform the nations consciousness on race through law, social science and the arts.
Barack Obama will make his first post-presidency midterm campaign appearance Saturday in Orange County, a sign of how important the one-time Republican stronghold is to Democrats hoping to take back the House.
Obama is expected to speak for roughly 25 minutes at a ticketed event on stage with seven candidates running in GOP-held districts in California. All the districts backed Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Democrats say winning those districts is key to their goal of flipping 23 Republican-held seats nationwide so they can recapture the House.
The Orange County-rooted Democrats scheduled to appear with Obama include Gil Cisneros, who is facing Republican former Assemblywoman Young Kim in a district held by the retiring GOP Rep. Ed Royce of Fullerton; Katie Porter, who is challenging Rep. Mimi Walters, R-Irvine; Harley Rouda, who is taking on GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa; and Mike Levin, who is facing Diane Harkey, a Republican, in a district held by the retiring GOP Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista (San Diego County).
Also appearing on stage with Obama will be Central Valley Democrats Josh Harder, who is taking on Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Turlock, and T.J. Cox, who is challenging Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford. Joining them will be Democrat Katie Hill, who is running against Rep. Steve Knight, R-Lancaster, for a Los Angeles County seat.
Obama has endorsed all the Democrats scheduled to attend the rally except Cisneros, who has publicly distanced himself from House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco. The only California Democrat endorsed by Obama who is not on Saturdays lineup is Ammar Campa-Najjar. He is taking on Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine (San Diego County), who is under federal indictment for allegedly misusing campaign funds.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which chose the lineup, declined to comment on why Campa-Najjar wasnt invited. While the other candidates appearing with Obama are running in districts that backed Clinton, Hunters district overwhelmingly supported Trump. Even Pelosi has downplayed Democrats chances of winning the seat.
Democrats hope Obamas appearance will energize the partys voters and possibly some independents. His post-presidential approval rating is 63 percent, according to Gallup, lower than only former Presidents John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush among the past 10 chief executives.
This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for this campaign, and were proud to have this level of support as we begin the final stretch, Harders campaign manager, Chelsea Brossard, said Wednesday.
A spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Campaign, Jack Pandol, said Obamas effectiveness could be undercut by the Democratic bases leftward movement over the past two years.
Even the most progressive president in history couldnt win a Democratic primary today, Pandol said. Standing side by side with candidates who have embraced socialism will only illustrate how far Democrats have lurched to the left since (Obamas) departure.
By socialism, Pandol said he was referring to Medicare-for-all health care plans that some Democrats have backed.
Tickets to the event will be distributed by the congressional candidates campaigns and allied organizations. Organizers are still working to confirm a venue and time Saturday for the event.
Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli
Chuck Berry, Billie Holiday, Marvin Gaye. B.B. King, Tina Turner, James Brown.
Its Friday night at Club Waziema, and in a dimly lit room where these legends performed at all-night parties a mere half-century ago, a group of 20-something dudes is playing pool to the sounds of Incubus from a jukebox.
Lets back up.
Waziema is a dive bar with hearty Ethiopian food, well-loved red velvet wallpaper, year-round Christmas lights, homey couches and newspaper-covered end tables. Located behind an unassuming storefront on Divisadero at Hayes, its the perfect go-to spot before or after a show at the Independent. And while the neighborhood around it has transformed over the past decade (more on that in a bit), Waziema remains dark, simple, cheap and familiar.
Ive always liked it, but a couple weeks ago, I fell even more in love with Waziema when I learned about the bars history.
From 1959 to 1978, before the infamous urban renewal of the Fillmore district displaced a significant portion of the black community, Waziema was Club Morocco, a storied jazz and soul club. It was a bigger club then, with a horseshoe shape and two entrances; it wrapped around the space thats now Popeyes Chicken next door.
Then just one of several black-owned businesses in the neighborhood, Club Morocco belonged to a couple called the Robinsons, who decorated it in North African motifs in homage to the time Mr. Robinson spent stationed in Tunisia during World War II. They saw regulars like Herb Caen and Willie Mays, as well as a laundry list of musical superstars and, according to one legend, a stage show that incorporated live cobras.
But now, on a Friday in 2018, surrounded by bros clinking Bud Lights, with the weight of the bars history hanging romantically overhead, it was hard not to feel a little petulant, a little short-shifted by history in that way one often does in San Francisco: Everything used to be so cool, is the gist. And I missed it.
Then I started talking to Nebiat.
Paul Kuroda / Special to The Chronicle
If youve been to Waziema, youve seen her. The watering holes co-owner and matriarch, Nebiat Tesfazgi is a petite and impeccably made-up woman in her 50s, usually found behind the bar. She pours beers with a smile, greets regulars with hugs and makes food recommendations to couples on dates, all with the ease of, well, a lady whos run a bar for two decades.
Born in Adwa, a town in northern Ethiopia, Tesfazgi fled home at age 20, during the regions civil war. Leaving everything behind, she joined a group of other young adults that included her now-husband, Giday Beshue. Theyd known each other since kindergarten; Beshue was the best friend of Tesfazgis older brother. The group followed a guide who led them, on foot, to the coastal country of Djibouti.. Tesfazgi lived there until getting sponsored by a family in Peoria, Ill. A year later, she moved to San Francisco, where she had cousins. Beshue, meanwhile, immigrated to Canada after receiving a university scholarship.
How the couple reconnected, says Tesfazgi with a smile, is a long story. But by the time they got married at San Francisco City Hall in June 1989, both were also registered nurses. Tesfazgi, who received a degree from San Francisco State, worked in the psych ward at the San Francisco VA Medical Center, and Beshue worked at San Francisco General. The young couple rented an apartment near Alamo Square.
The neighborhood was very different from what you see now, Tesfazgi says on a recent Tuesday, as she pours me a Lagunitas IPA. And there were no bars on Divisadero this whole stretch, there were none. Her husband decided that should change, she says, and began spending Sundays walking up and down the street, looking for an eligible spot.
This was the early 90s, and the legendary Club Morocco had been boarded up since 1979. After learning the Robinsons still owned the building and lived in the neighborhood, the younger couple paid them a visit. Beshue made me go first to knock on the door, recalls Tesfazgi with a laugh. He said, A woman stranger is better than a man stranger.
The Robinsons welcomed them in to chat but were firm in not selling the bar. They owned other real estate and had been using that space for storage and private social functions. If they had been looking to make money off the place, they explained, they would have sold it a long time ago.
The younger couple thanked the Robinsons for their time and left. But Beshue proceeded to call once a week for more than two years just to see if theyd changed their minds.
Then Mr. Robinson died. Tesfazgi told her persistent husband to leave poor Mrs. Robinson alone. But a month later, Mrs. Robinson called them. She told the couple to meet her at Popeyes. And there, over chicken, the widow told them that before he died, her husband had said, If youre going to sell the bar, sell it to them.
Mrs. Robinson became a mother figure after that, helping the couple sift through relics for months as they prepared to reopen the space. The biggest hurdle: red tape around the liquor license. A city commissioner showed Tesfazgi a map with their whole stretch of Divisadero outlined in yellow, meaning it was a high-risk zone, essentially too crime-ridden to be eligible for new bars.
But by this point Tesfazgi and Beshue were fixtures in the community. They had small children; they knew the neighbors. Those neighbors went to work, collecting more than 700 signatures on a petition to allow the couple to open the bar. It took two hearings to get approval. Their friends all crowded into the legislative chamber at City Hall, including one woman with her 3-month-old infant.
Club Waziema finally opened its doors in December 1999, with conditions: limited hours and a beer-and-wine-only liquor license, a far cry from the anything-goes place it had once been. But the Morocco was not forgotten. Photos of the jazz greats of yesteryear lined the walls.
Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.
Paul Kuroda / Special to The Chronicle
Twenty years later, the corridor once deemed too dangerous for a bar is the citys fastest-growing foodie hot spot: tapas, omakase, gluten-free baked goods and pour-over coffee have replaced many of Divisaderos liquor stores and gas stations to say nothing of the black-owned boutiques and beauty salons that preceded them. Che Fico, the sleek new Cal-Italian restaurant topping critics best-of-the-city lists, sits two blocks (but a world away) from Waziemas humble interior. On weekends, 20-somethings flock to Emporium, the vast arcade bar that opened across the street last year, while spots like Madrone, Fly Bar and Horsefeather mean a discerning cocktail enthusiast has plenty of options.
More Information To order: Vegetarian combo ($11.50), Ethiopian beers ( $5 ), Nibit honey wine ($6) Where: Club Waziema, 543 Divisadero St., San Francisco. 415-346-6641 When: 6 p.m. to midnight Monday through Wednesday, and until 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday; closed Sunday. See More Collapse
Some of those bars customers certainly wander over to Waziema for last call on weekends, but theres also something in the place itself that seems to repel affectation. Anyone in a smart suit should be prepared to blend deftly in with the jeans and T-shirts. Besides, Tesfazgi and her husband arent concerned with the competition. The new neighbors have been good for business. Plus, she says, its much safer.
Perhaps most importantly, theres not another establishment on Divisadero whose offerings overlap with Waziemas. No other bar has the wallpaper, the history, the homemade Ethiopian food: the spongy injera made daily, served with spiced lamb or chicken stew, or the all-veggie platters with split lentils and collard greens, ideally paired with traditional Ethiopian honey wine.
Then there are the people. Tesfazgi and Beshue have worked to keep the bar a spot for locals. The San Francisco Tenants Union has hosted housing-rights boot camps there; the North of the Panhandle Neighborhood Association sometimes holds meetings in the back room on the raised area by the pool table, under the skylight, where Chuck Berry once duck-walked.
Paul Kuroda / Special to The Chronicle
As for the bars future: Though shes pushing 60 and still works six days a week, Tesfazgi doesnt foresee her workload changing anytime soon. For the bars first 10 years in business, she worked a daily shift as a nurse, then tended bar in the evenings; with young kids, she got used to sleeping three hours a night. But for the past decade the bar has been her baby, while Beshue continued to work for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Their three adult children, all in computer science or software engineering, have careers and ambitions of their own. They help out on occasion but have no desire to take over a bar.
Then again, Tesfazgi sees no reason why anyone else should need to. Mrs. Robinson who passed away last year, leaving the building to her son gave the couple a very reasonable price on their initial lease, which doesnt expire until 2028. When people ask Tesfazgi if shed ever sell, she thinks about a few things: her customers, whom she considers family, and her friends all packed into the city hearing that day 20 years ago for support.
And then she thinks of the bars former matriarch, Mrs. Robinson, and the spirit in which she passed the bar to them in the first place.
It would take a lot of money, says Tesfazgi with a laugh. But mostly, one gets the feeling, it would have to be the right people. And they might have to ask every week for years.
Emma Silvers is a San Francisco freelance writer. Twitter: @emmaruthlessEmail: food@sfchronicle.com
Five months after launching an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against its founder, a popular Buddhist meditation center in San Francisco has announced it will close its doors at the end of September, along with two additional chapters in Southern California.
Noah Levine, a fixture in the American mindfulness scene and the author of multiple books about his journey from drug-addicted punk to Buddhist practitioner, founded the nonprofit Against the Stream in Southern California ten years ago. In 2014, he opened a center in the San Francisco's Mission District, which hosts multiple donation-based classes, weekend retreats and well-attended nightly meditations. Levine also founded a for-profit addiction treatment program and center called Refuge Recovery.
In March, as powerful men began toppling with the onset of the #MeToo movement, a woman accused Levine of sexual assault, according to emails leadership sent to Against the Stream members obtained by SFGATE. In one such correspondence, the Against the Stream board of directors said it had suspended Levine's teaching activities and board membership. The board also said it had hired a private investigator to probe the initial claim of assault, as well as multiple allegations of sexual misconduct that followed thereafter. Levine continued teaching at Refuge Recovery centers during his Against the Stream suspension.
Levine called the allegations "false" in an email sent to those on the Against the Stream list serv. He said all his interactions with the accuser were "mutual with clear and open communication."
"I am doing my best to meet all of this with forgiveness and compassion, bringing mindfulness to all of the unpleasant thoughts, feelings, and sensations that are arising and passing through my heart, mind, and body," he wrote.
Last week, following months of keeping members in the dark about the ongoing investigation, Against the Stream leadership, in an email obtained by SFGATE, announced Roberta Yang, an attorney and investigator of workplace harassment, had completed her investigation into the allegations against Levine.
"Ms. Yang concluded that with multiple women, Mr. Levine violated the Third Precept of the Teacher's Code of Ethics, namely, 'to avoid creating harm through sexuality,'" the board said in an email to members. The organization's code of ethics explicitly prohibits teachers from various forms of misconduct, including stealing, free speech and sexual impropriety.
The board stressed Yang's findings are not a "finding of guilt or liability by a court," though a Los Angeles police officer told Jezebel in July that his department was investigating Levine's alleged behavior.
The email also said Levine had been removed from the board and barred from teaching at Against the Stream centers. The pending September 30th closure of the three California centers in San Francisco, Melrose and Santa Monica is directly related to the months-long controversy surrounding Levine, organization officials wrote.
"While ATS has previously experienced precarious financial moments," the email said, "this period has eroded core capacities of the organization. Fiscal impacts were immediate ... Four Board members resigned, a co-guiding teacher departed, two affiliate centers Boston and Nashville are dissociating from ATS, and our Executive Director is planning to depart at the end of his contract period."
After the announcement last week, members of the San Francisco "sangha" a Buddhist term for community took to Facebook to express their sadness, calling the closure "devastating" and "a huge loss."
One member of a 2,000-person Facebook group said it felt "like leadership threw the community under a bus."
"It strikes me as a real tragedy that all of the good is being thrown out along with the problematic charismatic founder," another said.
According to the email from Against the Stream leadership, teachers at both the Southern California and San Francisco centers were in the process of creating new offerings and classes "to ensure that former ATS communities across the country are supported going forward."
On Monday, members of the San Francisco sangha announced on Facebook the creation of the SF Dharma Collective, a "community-led sangha transitioning from our previous organization, Against the Stream." A newly minted website for the group said it would begin meeting every Friday and Saturday of September at the Against the Stream space (2701 Folsom St.) to "discuss our continuation as a sangha."
Read Michelle Robertson's latest stories and send her news tips at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com.
Start receiving breaking news emails on wildfires, civil emergencies, riots, national breaking news, Amber Alerts, weather emergencies, and other critical events with the SFGATE breaking news email. Click here to make sure you get the news.
Courtesy photo/Berkeley Police Department
Berkeley police are seeking the publics help as they search for a man they believe stabbed an elderly woman early Tuesday morning.
The suspect is Mark Edward Jekabson, 42, who is 5 feet 11 inches tall with brown hair and blue eyes. He is said to be around 160 pounds and is clean-shaven.
A couple of tourists were arrested Sunday after allegedly carjacking an Uber driver in Sausalito, police said.
The duo identified by the Marin Independent Journal as 53-year-old Tyson Rocco Pelanconi, of Burbank, and 44-year-old Brenda Carlier, of Van Nuys were reportedly drinking in Sausalito when they ordered a ride back to their San Francisco hotel room.
This year will go down in the aviation history books as the year of the emergence of the ultra-long haul flight. A slew of them have already launched and the world's longest flight, Singapore Airlines' New York City-Singapore 19-hour non-stop, will return to the skies in October.
San Francisco International Airport is the starting and ending point to several of these super long-distance flights. The longest flight out of SFO is the non-stop to Singapore, an 8,446 mile journey flown by both Singapore and United Airlines. In the winter, the SFO>SIN flight can take nearly 17 hours and 30 minutes.
Don't miss: 6 longest air routes from SFO
With airplane journeys clocking in at 17+ hours becoming the norm because of cheaper jet fuel prices and lighter, longer-range jets, airlines are closely looking at the health effects of all that time in the air.
Both Singapore Air and Australia's Qantas Airways are going all-out to investigate and tinker with inflight service patterns, meals and pre-flight rituals to help passengers manage the sedentary effects of being in a cramped, dehydrating airplane cabin for the better part of a day.
Regrettably, there's not much being done in terms of providing what we all really want: more space in economy class. Instead, the carriers have forged partnerships with nutrition and wellness experts to help them find some answers. Qantas has partnered with Sydney University's Charles Perkins Centre; Singapore is working with Arizona-based wellness firm and spa operator Canyon Ranch.
"The overarching thing here is we are always looking for ways to elevate the customer travel experience on our flights, and we have noticed a new trend in well-being," said Sek Eng Lee, Singapore's regional vice president of the Americas.
On the carrier's longest flights, including its non-stop between San Francisco International Airport to Singapore, the cabin environment is being revamped to promote better sleep and fight jet-lag.
"We are adjusting the cabin lighting to how the sunrises and sunsets in accordance to the body clock," Lee explained. Passengers might see warm hues of red, orange and yellow lighting to simulate a sunset when it's bedtime aboard the carrier's Airbus A350 jets. A deep dark blue color can mimic the night sky during periods of rest and lighter colors can help passengers wake up when it's almost time to land.
Meals too are undergoing a healthy revamp to take into consideration that passengers could be confined to a seat 17+ hours. That means in-flight food with fewer carbs, lighter courses, and more ingredients that are rich in water content to fight the effects of dehydration in a dry airplane cabin- and as usual, the meals getting the most attention are only offered in business class.
Thankfully, one of the best features of newer jets like Boeing's Dreamliner and the Airbus A350 is better cabin pressure and humidity levels than older aircraft such as the ubiquitous Boeing 777, the Airbus A380 and the slowly disappearing 747.
On November 2, Singapore will launch non-stop Airbus A350 flights between Los Angeles and Singapore . Non-stop SFO-Singapore flights will increase from the current daily service to 10 flights a week starting November 28.
On Qantas' longest flight, a 9,000 mile, 17-hour and 20 minute non-stop between Perth, Australia and London, the airline is testing a "jetlag reducing menu" available to all passengers (including economy class) that includes probiotic infused juice shots, crudite, seasonal fruit platters, and a hot chocolate drink with warm milk and sleep-inducing Tryptophan in it.
Qantas began operating a 7,855 mile 15 hour, 30 minute non-stop between San Francisco and Melbourne on September 1 on its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, the same plane used to fly the Perth-London flight.
"Because of where Australia is situated on the globe, we've always had to push the boundaries of long-haul flying..." a Qantas spokesperson said. "We want our customers to enjoy their experience onboard, particularly on the long-haul services which have been part of our network for many years, and we're sure those flying Qantas from San Francisco to Melbourne won't be disappointed."
Qantas said its work with the University of Sydney has helped with lighting on its ultra-long haul flights to incorporate different color patterns to reflect time zones and passengers' circadian rhythms to promote sleep. The lighting sequences are used on Qantas' SFO-Melbourne flight. On its website, Qantas recommends six in-seat exercises and other health tips for long haul flights. In its newest 787's Qantas now has special storage units for water bottles to help passengers stay hydrated.
The research has also found the sweet spot to set cabin temperatures for long journeys: too hot and passengers can wake-up drenched in sweat, too cold and fliers will be shivering instead of sleeping. [We asked Qantas for the exact temperature but a spokesperson said it was "proprietary."] I generally find that US carriers keep cabins at a cooler temperature, which I prefer, than their Asian and European counterparts-- what do you think?
United Airlines tells TravelSkills it also employs a similar strategy to light aircraft cabins on long flights to simulate sunsets and sunrises. Along with the SFO-Singapore non-stop, United flies SFO-Tel Aviv (15+ hours returning to San Francisco), SFO-Sydney, Australia (15 hours to SYD), and SFO-Hong Kong (14+ hours to HKG).
"As with most of our longer flights, we also utilize the LED lighting scenes on our 777-300's and 787 Dreamliners to create optimal lighting atmospheres conducive to the time of day," said Maddie King, a spokesperson for United.
Extra snacks are catered onto longer flights to appease the mid-flight hunger pangs of passengers in both business class and economy on-request, King explained. United also provides cooler gel-pillows for business class passengers that many now swear by.
Airlines explain bookings are strong for these super long flights, strengthening the business case for them. Singapore is currently looking at new destinations to potentially serve in North America non-stop from its Changi Airport home, according to Lee, although there was nothing specific he was able to announce.
"The response has been overwhelming," Lee said of its SFO flights. "We find that to continue to meet the demand on our flights, we've got to add additional frequencies."
How do you feel about ultra-long haul flights? Would you rather be on a plane for 17+ hours, or make a stopover? How do you cope? Please leave your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.
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.
Labor Day weekend saw 1,086 DUI arrests and 22 people killed in crashes, in the state, the California Highway Patrol reported Monday morning.
In the Bay Area alone, 175 people were arrested for driving under the influence. Two died in traffic crashes.
Leading up to the weekend, CHP warned drivers on social media that they would be out for maximum enforcement of traffic laws.
Having a designated driver, finding a ride home via rideshare or taxi, or imbibing non-alcoholic drinks are all alternatives to driving under the influence, according to past CHP press releases.
The CHP always recommends people plan ahead before consuming alcohol or any other kind of impairing substance, said Janelle Dunham, a CHP spokeswoman.
These numbers are consistent with Labor Day weekend statistics from the last two years. In 2016 and 2017, 1,083 and 1,071 people respectively were arrested for driving under the influence.
However, the numbers are evidence of a notable drop in DUI arrests from 2015, when 1,226 people were taken into custody. Dunham declined to speculate on reasons behind the decline.
Labor Day is one of CHPs busiest enforcement times, in addition to New Years, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
Gwendolyn Wu is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @gwendolynawu
Editor's note: SFGATE has launched a new series, SF Spaces, about unconventional living quarters in the San Francisco-Bay Area. Do you live in an unusual space? Tell us about it by emailing SFGATE producer Michelle Robertson at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com.
In his garage, Aidan Nathanson saw an opportunity.
This is not some Steve Jobs-ian tech fairy tale. Nathanson, an IT project manager, does not work in his Sunset District garage, toiling with computer parts by night and inventing microchips by day. He lives in it for $350 a month.
In San Francisco, where the average monthly rent for a studio is around $2,400, Nathanson's room is considered a steal. To put it in perspective, Nathanson's three roommates live in regular rooms, and pay about $1,000 in rent each month. Their bedrooms are considerably smaller than the garage. Each pay under $100 for monthly utilities.
The converted garage did not always look so pleasant, with its twinkle lights, vinyl collection and multiple living rooms. When his roommates first showed him the space, Nathanson said it was a "disaster."
"This was where everyone kept stuff that they didn't want," he said. Mail covered the floor and spiderwebs clung to every corner.
For $500, Nathanson hired a cleaning service to scrub the room down. It took him another $500 to furnish and make it livable. This included hanging white sheets over "scary stuff," like exposed plumbing and creaky rafters. A sign beneath fluffy yellow insulation reads: "Don't eat the cotton candy."
Upon completion, the ultimate test was unveiling the refurbished room to his mom, an architect who cried after she saw a video of the initial, trash-littered room.
She had no complaints.
Of course, living in a garage, even a swanky one, comes with certain circumstances foreseen and otherwise.
Though garages can be considered legal residences under the in-law unit ordinance passed in 2016, an inspector with the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection must certify the space as such. If the unit is found to be illegal, the landlord can either take the necessary steps to bring it up to code, or evict the tenant and pay for his or her relocation.
Nathanson said he is unsure if his unit is legal, but the landlord knows how the space is being used. To confirm that your room is legally permitted, contact the San Francisco Department of Building Inspections.
The unconventional space lacks some of the traditional comforts of a bedroom. When the fog curdles over the Sunset District at night, the garage gets chilly. Nathanson circumvents this by sleeping under multiple blankets, and snuggling with his dog, Kora.
Minor discontents aside, Nathanson is reluctant to speak badly about the space, especially having previously occupied a tiny, $1,600 room in the Haight Ashbury.
"I love it so much," he said of the garage. "I don't want to talk s about it."
Read Michelle Robertson's latest stories and send her news tips at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com.
Start receiving breaking news emails on wildfires, civil emergencies, riots, national breaking news, Amber Alerts, weather emergencies, and other critical events with the SFGATE breaking news email. Click here to make sure you get the news.
Sometimes the best dining option isnt about how trendy a restaurant is, but rather, how clean it is.
SFGATE reviewed San Franciscos health inspections from May to August and found all the restaurants that scored a perfect 100.
Notably, 22 of the 51 businesses mentioned on the list were also recognized with the symbol of excellence from the health department and included Ichi Sushi, Acquerello and Bix, among others.
This coveted title is only given to rock star businesses that received three consecutive scores of 90 percent or higher in their inspection. Additionally, these businesses did not have major violations during their inspections.
According to San Franciscos Food Safety Program, food violations can fall under three categories that range from low to high risk.
ALSO: The cleanest restaurants in Oakland and Alameda County, according to inspections
Low-risk violations are those that have no immediate risk to public health and safety. High-risk violations deal with the transmission of foodborne illnesses, the adulteration of food products and the contamination of food-contact surfaces.
If you need to make a complaint to the Department of Public Health, diners can call 311.
Did your favorite spot make the list? Click on the slideshow above to find out.
Editor's note: The list focuses on restaurants and businesses that sell desserts, but does not include coffee shops, food stands or catering businesses.
Follow Susana Guerrero on Twitter and email her at sguerrero@sfchronicle.com
Start receiving breaking news emails on wildfires, civil emergencies, riots, national breaking news, Amber Alerts, weather emergencies, and other critical events with the SFGATE breaking news email. Click here to make sure you get the news.
Double-doubles are back on the menu for California Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman.
After calling for a boycott of In-N-Out burger last week, Bauman is now saying that there is no boycott, and that he plans to continue eating at the popular burger chain.
"There is no boycott," Bauman told the Fresno Bee. "I put one tweet out at 10:30 at night and it turned into a whole thing. We've raised so much money in small donations as a result of that one tweet and so many people have engaged with that tweet, almost a million people, so it's amazing how it became this big boycott."
After it was revealed last Wednesday that In-N-Out donated $25,000 to the California GOP, Bauman took to Twitter to call for a boycott.
RELATED: Lawmaker invites In-N-Out to Alabama amid boycott from California Democrats
"Et tu In-N-Out?" he tweeted. "Tens of thousands of dollars donated to the California Republican Party . . . it's time to #BoycottInNOut - let Trump and his cronies support these creeps . . . perhaps animal style!"
The hashtag "#BoycottInNOut" was trending all day Thursday, but Bauman now says that his tweet wasn't meant to be serious.
"Are you kidding me?" Bauman said. "I'm gonna buy my staff In-N-Out burgers to celebrate our victory."
MORE: In-N-Out Burger set to open near Portland
A representative for the state Democratic party said last week that Bauman's tweet "doesn't reflect party policy."
"It was his personal tweet and doesn't reflect party policy," spokesman John Vigna said. "That said, he is giving force to a sentiment many people feel right now. Which is that, in this era, with the stakes so high, engaging in things like personal boycotts is a way for people to effect change."
WASHINGTON Three-quarters of Americans want to preserve key protections in the Affordable Care Act that bar health insurers from turning away sick customers, according to a new poll that highlights the political pitfalls of current Republican efforts to roll back the safeguards.
The consumer protections are most popular with Democrats and independents, but even 58 percent of Republican respondents said a provision in the health care law prohibiting insurers from denying coverage because of a persons medical history is very important.
Similarly large majorities said a second provision in the law that prohibits insurers from charging sick people more money is also very important, the nationwide survey by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation found.
The 2010 health care law, often called Obamacare, is a top issue in this falls congressional elections, as Democrats have sought to highlight its landmark protections for Americans with preexisting medical conditions and GOP efforts to repeal them.
Before the law, people with such conditions including cancer, diabetes, acne and even pregnancy were routinely denied coverage or charged more by health insurers.
Congressional Republicans and the Trump administration tried unsuccessfully last year to roll back those protections, often arguing that they made health plans too costly.
Now a group of 20 Republican attorneys general and governors is suing in federal court, seeking to wipe out the whole law.
The Trump administration has joined the lawsuit, arguing that because Congress last year eliminated the tax penalty on people who do not have health coverage, some of the consumer protections should also be eliminated.
On Wednesday, a federal judge in Texas did not immediately rule on this latest GOP push to end the Affordable Care Act.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is leading an effort to scrap the law in the wake of Congress repealing the tax penalty. Its the most high-profile lawsuit against the federal health care law since President Trump took office.
The lawsuit has helped fuel charges by Democrats that Republicans are intent on rolling back the most popular parts of the health care law, which is credited with extending health coverage to approximately 20 million previously uninsured Americans.
Health care now is the single most important issue for Democratic voters and the second most important issue for independent voters, according to the Kaiser poll.
Noam N. Levey is a Los Angeles Times writer.
WASHINGTON Just two months before the midterm elections, bipartisan legislation to try to prevent foreign hacking into U.S. election systems is stalled in Congress as the White House and some Republicans worry it could exert too much federal control over the states.
Supporters of the bill say the delay could embolden Russia, which targeted election infrastructure in at least 21 states in 2016.
A committee vote on the bipartisan bill was abruptly canceled two weeks ago after objections from some Republican senators and the states they represent. And Republicans and Democrats who are supporting the bill say they dont know when or if it will be taken up again in the few remaining weeks Congress is in session before the midterms.
The delay has some concerned that Congress could punt on the only piece of legislation that is designed to fix what went wrong in 2016 and to prevent Russia or other countries from trying again. There is no evidence that the Russian targeting of state election systems was successful or changed any votes, but lawmakers, intelligence officials and elections experts say that they believe Russia will return in 2018 and beyond with more sophisticated tools.
It also demonstrates Congress struggle to develop a cohesive response to the Russian interference especially as President Trump has at times questioned whether it even happened.
The White House issued a lukewarm statement on the election security bill, neither endorsing nor opposing it but saying that if Congress should choose to continue to pursue the legislation they want to ensure that it does not duplicate ongoing federal efforts to help states or violate the principles of federalism.
We cannot support legislation with inappropriate mandates or that moves power or funding from the states to Washington for the planning and operation of elections, said White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters.
The bill was negotiated over the last year by Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma and Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Lankford says the White House did not block the bill, but that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had concerns after hearing from states and other interests that suddenly realized the bill was moving forward. Klobuchar similarly said concerns came from leadership on the Republican side.
Mary Clare Jalonick is an Associated Press writer.
WASHINGTON Special counsel Robert Mueller is willing to accept written responses from President Trump to questions about any potential coordination between his campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election, a person familiar with the ongoing negotiations said Tuesday.
The offer was made in a letter Muellers office sent Friday to Trumps legal team, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to publicly discuss the negotiations. Trumps team has not yet responded to the offer.
It was not immediately clear what those conditions mean for other avenues Mueller is exploring, including whether the president sought to obstruct the Russia investigation through actions such as the firing last year of former FBI Director James Comey. Muellers office had previously indicated that it had many questions for the president on the obstruction issue.
The person familiar with the letter said Muellers office indicated it would later assess what additional information it needs from the president, leaving open the possibility that Muellers team might still seek answers on obstruction-related questions in an in-person interview.
The New York Times first reported Muellers offer.
The move by Mueller comes after he has issued two lengthy indictments detailing Russian efforts to interfere in the presidential campaign. Mueller has also scrutinized a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer he believed to have derogatory information on Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump Jr. took the meeting, emails show, after it was described as part of a Russian government effort to help his fathers campaign. Trump has said he knew nothing about the meeting before it happened.
The two sides have negotiated for months over whether and under what conditions Trump would sit for an interview. Though the president has publicly said he was eager to face questions from Mueller, his lawyers have been far more reluctant to make him available for an interview and have questioned whether Mueller even has the right to ask him about actions that he is authorized under the Constitution to take as president.
Eric Tucker is an Associated Press writer.
WASHINGTON In the five years since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down key parts of the Voting Rights Act, nearly a thousand polling places have been shuttered across the country, many of them in southern black communities.
The trend continues: This year alone, 10 counties with large black populations in Georgia closed polling spots after a white elections consultant recommended they do so to save money. When the consultant suggested a similar move in Randolph County, pushback was enough to keep its nine polling places open.
But the closures come amid a tightening of voter ID laws in many states that critics view as an effort to make it harder for blacks and other minorities to vote and, in Georgia specifically, the high-profile gubernatorial bid by a black woman.
The ballot in November features Stacey Abrams, a Democrat trying to become the first black woman elected governor in the United States, versus Brian Kemp, the Republican secretary of state who has led efforts in Georgia to purge voter rolls, slash early voting and close polling places.
Local officials across the country shuttered 868 polling places in the three years after the Supreme Courts 2013 ruling, according to a 2016 report from the Leadership Conference Education Fund, the research arm of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of 200 civil rights groups.
Arizona, Louisiana and Texas, the report said, have all made alarming reductions in polling places.
We are now seeing the fallout of that ruling, said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
Polling places have often been used as political tools to shape the outcome of elections. Officials can reduce the voter participation of certain groups by eliminating polling places, and increase participation in other groups by placing precincts in key neighborhoods.
But its not just the number of polling places that affect voter outcomes. Moving voters to different voting environments also may affect how they vote.
Changing the location of a polling place, according to a 2011 study in the American Political Science Review, can lower voter turnout.
Matt Vasilogambros is a Tribune News Service writer.
IMMOKALEE, Fla. Not long after Beau Braden moved to southwest Florida to open a medical clinic, injured strangers started showing up at his house. A boy who had split open his head at the pool. People with gashes and broken bones. There was nowhere else to go after hours, they told him, so Braden stitched them up on his dining room table.
They were 40 miles inland from the coral-white condos and beach villas of Naples, but Braden said that this rural stretch of Collier County, with tomato farms and fast-growing exurbs, had fewer hospital beds per person than Afghanistan.
So when he proposed starting a 25-bed rural hospital to serve the 50,000 people who live in the farming town of Immokalee and the nearby planned community of Ave Maria, people rallied to the idea. They envisioned a place where mothers could give birth and sick children could get 24-hour help their own novel solution to an exodus of hospital care from rural America.
But then this summer, a larger hospital in Naples derailed those plans by asking the state to deny the proposal, saying that the small, rural hospital would siphon away patients and revenue. The move has upended peoples hopes around Immokalee and delayed any plans to start building the hospital for months. Maybe for good.
Its just horribly mean, Braden said.
Rural communities across the country are suffering the effects of hospital closures because of shrinking populations, financial strains and corporate consolidations. Since 2010, 87 rural hospitals have closed.
But as Braden learned, even when a town wants to open a new hospital to make up for the loss in care, the challenges can be enormous. Just to open the doors, rural hospital projects need to raise millions of dollars for construction, equipment and salaries for doctors and nurses. They need to woo highly trained staff to out-of-the way towns. They must thread a maze of regulations without an army of experts and high-priced consultants, which are available to larger hospitals.
Florida is one of 35 states with laws aimed at preventing too many hospitals from being built in the same area, or having too many hospital beds and redundant services. Supporters have to convince the state they are building something necessary. Without a certificate of need, the project cannot get off the ground.
Jack Healy and Eve Edelheit are New York Times writers.
The Lee University Board of Directors awarded seven faculty members promotions in rank from assistant professor to associate professor: Jonathan Cornett, Sarah Schlosser, Laura Singletary, David Smartt, Kirstee Williams, William Woolfitt, and Alan Wyatt.
Dr. Cornett, a Lee alumnus, joined Lees full-time faculty in 2012. He earned his doctorate in genetics and molecular biology from Emory University and completed his postdoctoral studies in the genetics department at the Yale University School of Medicine. He has published articles in peer-reviewed journals, such as Nature Genetics, The Journal of Biological Chemistry, and PLoS One.
As a student at Lee, Dr. Cornett was a Centennial Scholar, a Ledford Scholar, winner of the E.K. Hamilton Scholarship in Math and Sciences and the recipient of the departmental biochemistry award. He holds professional memberships in the American Society of Human Genetics and the New York Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Schlosser joined Lees faculty in 2012. She earned her doctorate and masters from Purdue University and her bachelors from Lee University.
Dr. Schlosser serves the nursing majors with their introductory chemistry course and teaches non-science majors in physical science and earth and space science. She advises and teaches science education majors in their methods of teaching course. Her work on a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant allows her to interact with science and math majors through the iMASS program.
Dr. Singletary, a Lee alumna, returned to join her alma maters faculty in 2012 as an assistant professor of mathematics. While a student at Lee, where she received her masters and bachelors degrees, Dr. Singletary was a Centennial Scholar and the recipient of the departmental mathematics award.
Her research has appeared in publications like Mathematical Thinking and Learning, Educational Studies in Mathematics, Mathematics Teacher Educator, and School Science and Mathematics. She has also co-directed grant projects from the Mathematical Association of America and the Tennessee Department of Education.
Dr. Singletary earned her doctorate from the University of Georgia, where she was awarded the Presidential Graduate Fellowship.
Dr. Smartt joined Lees School of Business in 2012, where he teaches Principles of Management, Organizational Behavior, and Business Ethics, as well as Organizational Theory for the graduate program. Prior to joining Lees faculty, Dr. Smartt served 29 years on active duty as a U.S. Army Chaplain, where he achieved the rank of Colonel.
Dr. Smarrt is a graduate of Lee and of the Pentecostal Theological Seminary. He is also an ordained bishop in the Church of God. He received his doctorate in management from Northcentral University and his masters in business from Syracuse University.
Dr. Williams joined Lees faculty in 2012. She serves as both a professor of psychology and the program and clinical director of Lees Marriage and Family Therapy graduate program. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist, a clinical fellow of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), and an AAMFT-approved supervisor. She also just completed her five-year term on the editorial board for the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, the fields premier journal.
Dr. Williams received her doctorate and masters degree from Loma Linda University in Southern California.
Dr. Woolfitt joined Lees English Department in 2012, where he teaches multiple writing classes. He received his Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Fine Arts from Pennsylvania State University, along with a Master of Arts from Hollins University.
Dr .Woolfitt is the author of two books of poetry, Beauty Strip and Charles of the Desert, along with a chapbook of fiction, The Boy with Fire in His Mouth.
His short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in African American Review, AGNI, The Threepenny Review, and Tin House, among others. He also received the Howard Nemerov Scholarship from the Sewanee Writers Conference.
Mr. Wyatt joined Lees faculty in 1990 and has served in the School of Music since.
Mr. Wyatt teaches applied saxophone, commercial music theory and history, and jazz improvisation. He also acts as director of the Lee University Jazz Ensemble and is the area coordinator for music business. Earlier this year, he served as the director of the 2018 Tennessee Music Educators Association All-State Jazz Band.
In addition to teaching, Mr. Wyatt has performed and toured with groups such as Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, Frank Sinatra Jr., and The Temptations, among others. He currently leads the Alan Wyatt Jazz Quartet that plays monthly at the Barking Legs Theater in Chattanooga.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) Cities can't prosecute people for sleeping on the streets if they have nowhere else to go because it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, which is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court said Tuesday.
SF HOMELESS PROJECT 2018: FULL COVERAGE
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with six homeless people from Boise, Idaho, who sued the city in 2009 over a local ordinance that banned sleeping in public spaces. The ruling could affect several other cities across the U.S. West that have similar laws.
It comes as many places across the West Coast are struggling with homelessness brought on by rising housing costs and income inequality.
When the Boise lawsuit was filed, attorneys for the homeless residents said as many as 4,500 people didn't have a place to sleep in Idaho's capital city and homeless shelters only had about 700 available beds or mats. The case bounced back and forth in the courts for years, and Boise modified its rules in 2014 to say homeless people couldn't be prosecuted for sleeping outside when shelters were full.
But that didn't solve the problem, the attorneys said, because Boise's shelters limit the number of days that homeless residents can stay. Two of the city's three shelters also require some form of religious participation for some programs, making those shelters unsuitable for people with different beliefs, the homeless residents said.
The three-judge panel for the 9th Circuit found that the shelter rules meant homeless people would still be at risk of prosecution even on days when beds were open. The judges also said the religious programming woven into some shelter programs was a problem.
"A city cannot, via the threat of prosecution, coerce an individual to attend religion-based treatment programs consistently with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment," Judge Marsha Berzon wrote.
The biggest issue was that the city's rule violated the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment, the court found. The amendment limits what the government can criminalize, it said.
"As a result, just as the state may not criminalize the state of being 'homeless in public places,' the state may not 'criminalize conduct that is an unavoidable consequence of being homeless namely sitting, lying, or sleeping on the streets,'" Berzon wrote.
The ruling shows it's time for Boise officials to start proposing "real solutions," said Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, whose attorneys were among those representing the homeless residents.
"Criminally punishing homeless people for sleeping on the street when they have nowhere else to go is inhumane, and we applaud the court for holding that it is also unconstitutional," Foscarinis said in a statement.
Boise spokesman Mike Journee said city attorneys were considering their next steps, which could include asking the full 9th Circuit to reconsider the ruling or appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court.
But city officials also believe the ruling validates the approach Boise officers have taken since 2014 not ticketing homeless people when shelters are full, he said.
"If there are, as a result of the ruling, adjustments that need to be made, we'll consider those when the time comes," Journee said.
Other cities have faced similar lawsuits, with varying results.
In 2007, the 9th Circuit ruled in favor of homeless residents of Los Angeles, finding that as long as there are more homeless residents than there are shelter beds, a law outlawing sleeping outside was unconstitutional. Both sides later reached an agreement and the entire case was eventually thrown out.
In 2009, a federal judge said a Portland, Oregon, policy designed to prevent people from sitting or lying on public sidewalks was unconstitutional. Portland officials now must also give campers at least 24 hours' notice before cleaning up or moving unsanctioned camps.
A state judge rejected a similar anti-camping law in Everett, Washington.
Sara Rankin, a professor at the Seattle University School of Law and director of its Homeless Rights Advocacy Project, said the ruling will serve as a wake-up call to local governments, forcing them to invest in adequate supportive housing for the chronically homeless.
"I think it's finally common sense," Rankin said of the ruling. "There are certain life-sustaining activities that people can't survive without doing. It's a really important recognition that people have to be able to legally exist and survive somewhere."
___
Associated Press reporter Phuong Le contributed to this story from Seattle.
___
Senator Lamar Alexander on Wednesday said that the presidents zero tariff goal would help auto workers in Tennessee, where automotive jobs have nearly doubled since 1994 when the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect.
He said, President Trumps stated trade goal last month of zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies is exactly the right goal for Tennessee autoworkers and a welcome movement away from piling tariffs on top of tariffs that threaten to destroy jobs and lower family incomes. Today, we have a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum. Tariffs on imported steel raise the price of U.S. produced steel, and the price of steel is up 40 percent since January. According to Nissan, steel accounts for 70 percent of the vehicle weight of the cars and trucks built at their plants in Tennessee and Mississippi so when the price of steel goes up 40% costs go up thousands of dollars.
Senator Alexander chaired a hearing today in the Senate labor committee to discuss the impact of President Trumps zero tariffs goal on U.S. autoworkers. Alexander also discussed how zero tariff policies, like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), have benefitted autoworkers.
At the G7 Summit on June 9, President Trump said, no tariffs, no barriers. Thats the way it should be. When President Trump met with the President of the European Commission, Jean Claude Junker, on July 25, he announced We agreed today, first of all, to work together toward zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers.
Tennessees automotive industry is so important to me because in 1978, when I was running for governor, Tennessee did not have hardly any auto jobs. Now, 136,000 Tennesseans one third of our states manufacturing jobs work in the automotive industry at plants and suppliers in 88 of our 95 counties. One of the reasons Tennessee has been able to have so much success building cars and SUVs is because the North American Free Trade Agreement is fundamentally a zero tariff trade agreement.
For example, several years ago, Nissan had an internal competition between its automotive manufacturing plants in Japan, South Korea and Smyrna, Tennessee, to decide which one of the plants would build the new Nissan Rogue. The Smyrna plant won the competition, and NAFTAs zero tariff policies were a big reason Nissan chose to build the Rogue in Tennessee. NAFTA allows Nissan to move parts between the U.S., Canada and Mexico tariff-free, which makes it cheaper to build the Rogue in Tennessee than it would be in South Korea or Japan. NAFTA has had the effect of getting more companies to make here what they sell here and Tennessees auto jobs have nearly doubled since NAFTA went into effect.
Click here for a transcript of the senators remarks as soon as it becomes available.
BOSTON In a political stunner, incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano lost Tuesdays primary to Ayanna Pressley, a Boston city councilwoman who is virtually assured of becoming the first black woman to serve Massachusetts in Congress.
Republican Gov. Charlie Baker won his partys nomination for a second term, defeating Scott Lively, a conservative minister and staunch supporter of President Trump who frequently called Baker a frequent critic of the president a RINO, or Republican in Name Only. Baker will face Democrat Jay Gonzalez.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren sailed through the primary unopposed. Shell face Geoff Diehl, a state representative who served as co-chair of Trumps 2016 campaign in the state and defeated two other Republicans for his partys nomination.
The race between Capuano and Pressley was perhaps the most closely watched contest in Massachusetts. The challenge from Pressley, the first black woman to serve on the council, had drawn some comparisons to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who defeated 10-term New York Rep. Joe Crowley in a stunning upset in a Democratic primary in June. Both races highlight rifts within the Democratic Party, with many younger voters embracing new and more diverse political leadership.
The congressional district is the only one in the state where minorities comprise a majority of the population.
This is a fight for the soul of our party and the future of our democracy, Pressley said Tuesday while campaigning in the district. And a reliable vote is not good enough.
Capuano is considered one of the most liberal members of the Massachusetts delegation, and Pressley had acknowledged she had few major policy quarrels with him.
There is no Republican on the November ballot in the district, meaning Pressley is virtually assured of entering Congress in January.
Another veteran congressman, Democratic Rep. Richard Neal, fought off a spirited primary challenge from Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, a black attorney from Springfield. Neal, the dean of the states House delegation, first was elected in 1989.
Two other Democratic House incumbents, William Keating and Joe Kennedy, fended off primary challenges on Tuesday. Kennedy, the grandson of the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, delivered the Democratic response to Trumps State of the Union address this year.
Another Democrat, U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, is retiring at the end of this term, and the open seat touched off a political scramble with 10 candidates on the Democratic primary ballot.
Baker, a moderate who has been popular with voters in what is perceived as one of the nations bluest states, will face Gonzalez, who served as secretary of administration and finance under Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick.
Bob Salsberg and Steve LeBlanc are Associated Press writers.
Launched in 2013, Farmers Fridge has grown to about 185 machines in Chicago and Milwaukee, with another 225 coming coming on line by the end of this year, said founder and CEO Luke Saunders. This latest round of financing will help the company beef up its Chicago workforce, while adding 400 to 500 more fridges in other Midwestern cities such as Detroit, Indianapolis, Cincinnati and St. Louis by the end of next year, Saunders said.
The companys software development team will remain downtown, Rhodes said. Its current 800 employees take up three floors in the building formerly called the John Hancock Center, and it recently hired a new chief human resources officer to help manage growth. The employees at the Naperville office will be focused mainly on working with the subcontractors and companies that use SMS Assists technology.
An Albany man was sentenced today to 24 months in prison and ordered to pay full restitution to his victims after defrauding European concert promoters out of $450,000 by misrepresenting his ability to book Red Hot Chili Peppers concerts in Eastern Europe, according to prosecutors.
During a series of communications in 2011 and 2012, Quincy Krashna, 50, convinced the victims to put the money into a fake escrow account as a deposit to secure his services in arranging potential concerts to be performed in Croatia, Romania and Bucharest.
In an effort to deceive his victims, prosecutors said Krashna created a fraudulent escrow agreement that made use of a Chase Bank logo. Ultimately, however, they transferred the money into a personal bank account that was under Krashna's control and he moved the money to other accounts.
Krashna was indicted in January 2017, and charged with seven counts of wire fraud. He pleaded guilty to one of those counts and the others were dismissed.
Krashna is scheduled to begin serving his jail sentence Nov. 6. After his release, Krashna has been ordered to serve three years of 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.
A man and woman from Southern California were arrested Tuesday morning on suspicion of assaulting an Uber driver and stealing her car in an unincorporated area near Sausalito, according to the Marin County Sheriff's Office.
The couple, identified as Tyson Rocco Pelanconi, 53, of Burbank, and Brenda Carlier, 44, of Van Nuys, had been drinking at the No Name Bar in downtown Sausalito around 2 a.m. when they called for an Uber ride to get them to a hotel in San Francisco, sheriff's officials said.
While in the car, the female passenger allegedly began to assault the driver by pulling her hair and ears. The frightened driver pulled over in an unincorporated area and got out of the car with her purse.
The male passenger allegedly jumped into the driver's seat, and the couple drove away. San Francisco police helped sheriff's deputies locate the suspects at a hotel in San Francisco, where they were arrested at 6:11 a.m. Tuesday and were booked at the Marin County Jail on suspicion of carjacking. Bail for each was set at $150,000.
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.
Goop Inc., a women's lifestyle brand founded by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, has agreed to a $145,000 settlement in a lawsuit filed by the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office over false advertising.
Prosecutors from Santa Clara and eight other counties including Napa, Alameda, Marin, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Solano and Sonoma, alleged that three of Goop's female sexual health products were misleading and medically unsupported.
Goop advertised the Jade and Rose Quartz eggs as cure-alls for several female health and hormonal issues, according to prosecutors. The egg-shaped stones are meant to be inserted into the vagina and left in place for varying amounts of time.
The company said its stones and the Inner Judge Flower Essence Blend, taken orally or added to bathwater, could balance hormones, regulate menstrual cycles, prevent depression, prevent uterine prolapse and a combination of other illnesses, according to prosecutors.
Though the products are still available on Goop's website, the company has said it will fully refund customers who purchased the products between Jan. 12 and Aug. 31, 2017, according to prosecutors.
Heather Wilson, a spokeswoman for Goop, today stressed the settlement addresses advertising claims, and not the three products themselves. The company has not received any complaints regarding these product claims, she added.
In a formal statement, Goop said, "While Goop believes there is an honest disagreement about these claims, the company wanted to settle this matter quickly and amicably."
Prosecutors said Goop will also be prohibited from making claims about its products without having reliable scientific evidence, or selling medical devices that are unapproved or falsely advertised.
"The health and money of Santa Clara County residents should never be put at risk by misleading advertising," District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. "We will vigilantly protect consumers against companies that promise health benefits without the support of good science...or any science."
Prosecutors said Goop cooperated with all legal proceedings.
253-4211
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.
A 55-year-old probationer who pleaded no contest to killing two women in a pair of cold cases dating back roughly 30 years was sentenced to life in prison without parole plus an additional 25 years in Contra Costa County Superior Court.
Prosecutors said that William Wild Bill Huff murdered Deanna Lynn Butterfield Dec. 5, 1987 in or near Tilden Park. He also murdered Muey Lin Saechao June 11, 1993. She was found strangled with her own sock in the backyard of a San Pablo house.
Huff allegedly raped both women, but rape charges were dropped according to Prosecutor Aron DeFerrari. A third victim came forward at a preliminary hearing and testified that Huff had raped her, as well, but there were no known prior sex crime convictions on the defendants record.
Huff had a series of prior felony convictions for drug offenses and auto theft. Hes been and out of jail since the 90s according to the charging document in the case that went before the judge today.
Huff is currently housed at the Martinez Detention Center, having been arrested on suspicion of violating the terms of his probation by stealing a car, according to DeFerrari. He is now slated to be transferred into the custody of the California Department of Corrections.
Today marks the end of an emotionally difficult saga for the family members that were left behind when defendant huff took two innocent lives, DeFerrari said. I credit the perseverance of the San Pablo Police Department and the East Bay Regional Parks District Police Department for ensuring justice was served today.
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 (BCN)
A man suffered life-threatening injuries when another man hit him with a pipe during an altercation in San Francisco's Mission District on Tuesday morning, police said.
The attack was reported at about 9:15 a.m. in the area of 15th and Caledonia streets.
A suspect, believed to be in his 30s, struck the 47-year-old victim with a metal pipe and then fled, according to police.
The victim was taken to a hospital and an update on his condition was not immediately available.
The suspect remains at large. Anyone with information about the case is encouraged to call the Police Department's anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444.
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 (BCN)
The mayors of San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland called on the California Public Utilities Commission today to reject a proposal that they claim would increase the exit fees for customers who opt to buy electricity from local governments instead of investor-owned utilities.
Mayors London Breed, Sam Liccardo and Libby Schaaf argued in a comment letter to the commission that the proposal by Commissioner Carla Peterman would cost consumers more and hinder efforts to promote clean energy.
"This proposal makes it more expensive for San Franciscans to choose clean energy over dirty fossil fuels," Breed said in a statement announcing the letter.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said, "This proposal would raise energy prices for all Oaklanders, but it would cost our most vulnerable customers the most."
Peterman's proposal and an earlier proposal by an administrative law judge that the mayors prefer are on the agenda of the commission's Sept. 13 meeting in San Francisco and could be voted on by the agency's five commissioners at the date.
The vote could be postponed, however; the commission announces agenda postponements the day before a meeting.
Local-government electricity providers are known as Community Choice Aggregators. They are established by cities or counties and were authorized by a 2002 state law. The local entities buy or generate electricity for participating customers, usually with the aim of providing cleaner energy or lower costs or both.
San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland are among about 19 California cities and counties that are either operating or soon to operate such programs.
Under the law, a utility can charge departing customers for their fair share of the costs of energy generation the utility bought for customers through means such as long-term contracts or acquisition of power plants. Such a fee is called a Power Charge Indifference Adjustment.
The issue before the CPUC is how to revise a previous formula to provide a fairer way of allocating those costs among the departing customers, remaining customers and the utilities themselves.
Peterman's Aug. 14 proposal is an alternative to an Aug. 1 proposal prepared by Administrative Law Judge Stephen Roscow.
The mayors' letter urges the commission to adopt Roscow's proposal and turn down Peterman's.
They wrote, "We believe (Roscow's) proposed decision is balanced for all parties, encouraging the investor-owned utilities to prudently manage their existing resources and plan future procurement for the benefit of all ratepayers, while allowing the Community Choice Aggregators to continue to grow and develop innovative local energy programs."
A San Francisco-based consumer group, The Utility Reform Network, took a different position, telling the commission in an Aug. 21 filing that it considered Peterman's proposal to be fairer to remaining utility customers.
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.
SANTA CRUZ (BCN)
Santa Cruz police are searching for a man who allegedly tried to lure a 14-year-old girl into his car on Friday.
Police said the man approached the girl in the area of Bay and King streets while she was walking home from school.
He allegedly told her to get inside her car and motioned her to go into the vehicle. Police said the girl walked away from the suspect, but he then circled the block and told her once again to go inside the car.
The suspect then followed her to the 100 block of Kenneth Street, according to police.
Police have released a sketch of the suspect, who is described as a Hispanic man between the ages of 18 and 25 who had a slightly thicker build and was wearing a white T-shirt, police said.
He may also have had a tattoo on his lower left arm and police said he spoke in "clear, unaccented" English.
The suspect was driving a silver or champagne-colored four-door Nissan Altima, and police also have released a surveillance image of the vehicle.
Anyone who sees the man is asked to call 911 and police said parents should encourage children to be aware of their surroundings.
420-5844
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)
Berkeley police are asking for the public's help in locating a suspect who allegedly stabbed a woman in her 70s in Berkeley early Tuesday morning.
Police said officers responded at 2:47 a.m. to a call of a woman screaming for help near a home in the 1500 block of Edith Street. Officers found the woman with at least one stab wound. Police didn't provide information on her condition.
The suspect was identified as Mark Edward Jekabson, 42, who is listed as 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs around 160 pounds. He has brown hair and blue eyes. Police provided a photo of the suspect in which he has a goatee, but said he is believed to be clean-shaven now.
Police said Jekabson is known to visit Live Oak Park and the Solano Avenue corridor between Berkeley and Albany. Anyone who sees him is asked to call 911.
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.
Sonoma State University is opening an art exhibit on campus featuring photography, paintings and video that explore the aftermath of the North Bay firestorms of 2017 that killed 24 people and destroyed roughly 5,300 homes in Sonoma County.
The art was created by community members, including first responders, who were directly affected by the catastrophe, according to University Library Art Committee member Loretta Esparza.
Committee chair Mary Wegmann said their work reflects a variety of purposes.
"Some want to convey inner feelings, report and document for the community, reflect on the sadness of loss and the immense power of nature, and acknowledge the community outreach that occurred," Wegmann said. "Others wish to use creativity as a way to process the immensity of the fire, show gratitude to first responders, help others understand the experience, and memorialize the landscape."
Their artistic mediums included watercolor, acrylic paint, ink on canvas as well as handmade papers. One piece includes panels from a graphic novel documenting one family's experience of the fires. Others feature mixed media, including objects found in the wreckage of burned homes.
A collection of artist and exhibit statements and resources about wildfires is available via the university at http://libguides.sonoma.edu/wildfire/. The library is located on the campus of Sonoma State University at 1801 E. Cotati Ave. in Rohnert Park.
"Reflections: After the fires" will be on display though Dec. 14. There's also a gallery reception scheduled for 4 p.m. on Oct. 17, the one-year anniversary of the day Sonoma State University reopened after the firestorm caused a nine-day campus closure.
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)
Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin, Berkeley police Chief Andrew Greenwood and other officials will talk about the legal cannabis market at a town hall meeting in Berkeley tonight.
The meeting, called "Clearing the Haze: A Community Conversation about Cannabis," will be held at the South Berkeley Senior Center at 2939 Ellis St. from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. tonight.
One of the subjects to be discussed at the meeting is state policy and regulations.
Speakers will focus on California's new regulatory landscape and how it impacts cities such as Berkeley and will address how Berkeley can protect its core values while also creating a thriving cannabis industry.
Panelists will discuss the current status of state regulations and discuss how Berkeley can continue to serve as a leading voice for the rapidly evolving legal market.
A second topic is enforcement and public safety. Law enforcement and policy experts will talk about local law enforcement's perspective on California's cannabis industry past and present, including impact that the legalization of cannabis has had on public safety and youth access.
The discussion will center on the prevalence of an illicit cannabis market and underground sales and the impact it can have on the community.
A third subject is how Berkeley, which served as a national model for how to lead a city into the new era that began on Jan. 1, is doing under legalization.
Speakers will address what Berkeley's priorities are as the recreational market matures and how the new rules and regulations are impacting the community at large.
Sean Luse, the chief operating officer of Berkeley Patients Group, the longest operating cannabis dispensary in the U.S., said in a statement, "Since day one, Berkeley has pioneered cannabis regulations and has consistently protected the rights of patients and their providers."
But Luse said that since the launch of adult use cannabis sales on Jan. 1, "We've seen an array of changes, and now working within a state and regulatory structure that is as comprehensive as it is complicated. Now, Berkeley has to evolve to meet the challenges of the new legal framework."
Luse said, "It's critical to bring together community leaders, officials, and stakeholders to hear directly from the regulators, enforcers, and experts on how this new system will work."
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.
A Pleasanton woman killed Monday after getting out of an ambulance and running into traffic on a busy freeway ramp has been identified as Jasmine Johnson, according to the Alameda County coroner's bureau.
Johnson, 38, was being transported to a psychiatric hospital in San Leandro after being stopped by Pleasanton police for hitting a pedestrian and reckless driving at about 2 a.m. Monday.
She resisted officers, struggled and even tried to get an officer's gun before she was subdued with a stun gun, according to Pleasanton police.
She was initially taken to ValleyCare Medical Center in Pleasanton for routine medical clearance and at about 7 a.m., An ambulance picked her up to take her to John George Psychiatric Pavilion in San Leandro.
The ambulance was on a connector ramp from southbound Interstate Highway 680 to westbound Interstate Highway 580 in Dublin when it stopped due to a problem with Johnson. She then got out, ran into traffic and was hit and killed by a car.
A person was fatally shot Tuesday night in East Oakland, according to police.
The shooting was reported at 10:18 p.m. in the 4500 block of East 12th Street.
The victim was male, but police have not released his name or any other information about the case.
A 47-year-old San Jose man has been arrested on suspicion of a fatal stabbing in the city in 2014, according to San Jose police.
Antonio Sandoval was taken into custody last Thursday after police investigators determined him to be the primary suspect in the murder of Jose Hurtado, San Jose police Officer Gina Tepoorten said.
Hurtado, a San Jose resident, was found unresponsive in the 500 block of Piercy Road at 1:21 a.m. on June 5, 2014, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene from at least one stab wound, according to police.
Sandoval has been booked into Santa Clara County Jail on a no-bail hold. His next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 14.
The California Highway Patrol is remembering an officer who was fatally shot six years ago during a traffic stop on Interstate Highway 680 near Alamo.
Officer Kenyon Youngstrom, 37, died at 6:05 p.m. on Sept. 5, 2012, a day after he was shot near the Livorna Road exit.
The shooting happened after Youngstrom's beat partner, Officer Tyler Carlton, had requested assistance with pulling over a Jeep Wrangler with an obstructed license.
Youngstrom flagged the Jeep to the right shoulder, and when he approached and made contact, the driver opened fire, critically wounding him.
Carlton, who had pulled up behind the Jeep, fatally shot the driver, 36-year-old Christopher Lacy.
Youngstrom is survived by his wife Karen and four children.
Authorities are investigating reports of three attempted sexual assaults over the past month at a popular Alameda beach, East Bay Regional Park District police said today.
The latest attack was reported on Tuesday at Robert W. Crown Memorial State Beach in the western area of the park. Two previous incidents occurred in the same area on Saturday and on Aug. 6, according to police.
All three of the attacks targeted women who were alone, and happened before noon, according to police.
Berkeley police are asking for the public's help in locating a suspect who allegedly stabbed a woman in her 70s in Berkeley early Tuesday morning.
Police said officers responded at 2:47 a.m. to a call of a woman screaming for help near a home in the 1500 block of Edith Street. Officers found the woman with at least one stab wound. Police didn't provide information on her condition.
The suspect was identified as Mark Edward Jekabson, 42, who is listed as 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs around 160 pounds. He has brown hair and blue eyes. Police provided a photo of the suspect in which he has a goatee, but said he is believed to be clean-shaven now.
Police said Jekabson is known to visit Live Oak Park and the Solano Avenue corridor between Berkeley and Albany. Anyone who sees him is asked to call 911.
A man suffered life-threatening injuries when another man hit him with a pipe during an altercation in San Francisco's Mission District on Tuesday morning, police said.
The attack was reported at about 9:15 a.m. in the area of 15th and Caledonia streets.
A suspect, believed to be in his 30s, struck the 47-year-old victim with a metal pipe and then fled, according to police.
The victim was taken to a hospital and an update on his condition was not immediately available.
The suspect remains at large.
A man and woman from Southern California were arrested Tuesday morning on suspicion of assaulting an Uber driver and stealing her car in an unincorporated area near Sausalito, according to the Marin County Sheriff's Office.
The couple, identified as Tyson Rocco Pelanconi, 53, of Burbank, and Brenda Carlier, 44, of Van Nuys, had been drinking at the No Name Bar in downtown Sausalito around 2 a.m. when they called for an Uber ride to get them to a hotel in San Francisco, sheriff's officials said.
While in the car, the female passenger allegedly began to assault the driver by pulling her hair and ears. The frightened driver pulled over in an unincorporated area and got out of the car with her purse.
The male passenger allegedly jumped into the driver's seat, and the couple drove away. San Francisco police helped sheriff's deputies locate the suspects at a hotel in San Francisco, where they were arrested at 6:11 a.m. Tuesday and were booked at the Marin County Jail on suspicion of carjacking.
Santa Rosa police are investigating what they believe to be a gang-related shooting from Tuesday evening that might be connected to an earlier stabbing.
Officers responded to reports of a shooting Tuesday at about 6:30 p.m. in the 500 block of West Ninth Street, according to Santa Rosa police.
The officers were unable to find any suspects or victims, but they did discover bullets imbedded into the wall of a nearby business, police said.
Police believe the shooting is related to the stabbing of a man in Jacobs Park that happened at about 4:20 p.m. Tuesday.
In that case, police were called to the park where they discovered the victim, a man in his mid 20s, suffering from at least one serious stab wound, police said.
He was taken to a hospital where he was listed in stable condition.
Officers weren't able to find any suspects and investigators from the Gang Crimes and Violent Crimes teams were called in to take over the investigation, police said.
A vehicle struck and injured a 51-year-old man southeast of Santa Rosa on Tuesday night, according to the California Highway Patrol.
CHP officers responded at 9:15 p.m. to a report of a collision involving a pedestrian on Santa Rosa Avenue just north of East Robles Avenue.
The pedestrian had walked into the southbound lanes of Santa Rosa Avenue to try to cross the street. A 24-year-old Sacramento man driving a 2007 Honda Accord at about 30 mph was not able to stop in time and struck the man, causing major injuries, CHP officials said.
The driver was not injured but his car had significant damage and had to be towed, according to the CHP. He cooperated with investigators and was not believed to be impaired by drugs or alcohol.
Two masked suspects attempted to pull a woman into their vehicle early this morning near the Lafayette BART station, according to the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office.
Officers with the Lafayette Police Department were dispatched to the 3500 block of Mt. Diablo Boulevard around 4:25 a.m. today on report of a "battery incident."
They determined that the victim was walking toward the BART station when the attack occurred. She was able to break free and yell for help, however, and the suspects fled the scene.
A few hours later, just before 6:45 a.m., sheriff's officials announced via Twitter that the suspect vehicle had been located and the people inside had been detained. More information will be available later today.
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.
One man was killed and two women suffered serious injuries when a single-engine airplane crashed offshore from Palo Alto Airport, according to the Palo Alto Fire Department.
The plane, a Mooney M20, went into a wetlands area, called the Baylands Nature Preserve, near the airport at about 11:10 a.m. Tuesday, Palo Alto Deputy Fire Chief Geo Blackshire said. The plane settled in a few feet of water, the wings above the water.
Early indications are that the pilot was coming in from Redding and was executing a "go-around" at the Palo Alto Airport, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said. That is an indication that an attempted landing was aborted and that the pilot was circling to try again to land.
Blackshire described one woman as "walking wounded." The other had to be pulled from the aircraft, he said. Both women were taken to Stanford Hospital for treatment, fire officials said.
Both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash, Gregor said.
Two Oakland police officers were injured by a domestic violence suspect whom other officers stunned with a Taser a few minutes later, police said.
The two officers responded at about 9:50 a.m. Tuesday to a home in the 1100 block of 89th Avenue, after a woman who lives there called police to say her ex-boyfriend had a gun in his hand and was pounding on the front door. The two have a young child together, Oakland police spokeswoman Officer Johnna Watson said.
The two officers confronted the suspect, an adult male. When they ordered him to put his hands behind his back to be handcuffed, the man instead "aggressively assaulted both officers," Watson said.
More officers arrived on scene a few minutes later and used a Taser to subdue the suspect, who was still combative and aggressive, Watson said. The suspect, whose name wasn't released, was also taken to the hospital, standard practice when a Taser is used, and subsequently released.
According to Watson, one of the officers suffered "substantial injuries," but Watson didn't detail what they were. Both officers were taken to a hospital for treatment and later released.
A woman was found dead Monday morning in Salinas after she was shot in the third homicide in the city in less than 48 hours, police said Tuesday.
Officers were dispatched at 7:11 a.m. to the 900 block of Acosta Plaza after someone told police that a person was lying on the ground and possibly dead.
Officers arrived and found a 29-year-old woman on the ground suffering from at least one gunshot wound.
Earlier in the morning, a 37-year-old man was shot and died in what police believe was a gang-related shooting.
On Sunday, police responded at 12:02 a.m. to a shooting in the first block of West Street where they found 24-year-old Obed Orsonio suffering from at least one bullet wound.
A 55-year-old probationer who pleaded no contest to killing two women in a pair of cold cases dating back roughly 30 years was sentenced to life in prison without parole plus an additional 25 years in Contra Costa County Superior Court.
The sentenced was handed down Tuesday.
Prosecutors said that William "Wild Bill" Huff murdered Deanna Lynn Butterfield Dec. 5, 1987 in or near Tilden Park. He also murdered Muey Lin Saechao June 11, 1993. She was found strangled with her own sock in the backyard of a San Pablo house.
Huff allegedly raped both women, but rape charges were dropped according to Prosecutor Aron DeFerrari. A third victim came forward at a preliminary hearing and testified that Huff had raped her, as well, but there were no known prior sex crime convictions on the defendant's record.
A 20-year-old man was arrested for allegedly stealing a Tesla automobile from a Los Altos home, Santa Clara County sheriff's officials reported.
The alleged theft occurred Tuesday.
Deputies responded to a residential burglary in unincorporated Los Altos at 5:10 a.m. and learned that several items had been stolen, one of them being a silver 2017 Tesla Model X.
The vehicle was located on southbound Interstate Highway 280 and deputies began pursuing the suspect, Eric Vargas-Bonilla.
Deputies said the chase ended with a crash at Delmas Avenue and West Santa Clara Street when Vargas-Bonilla lost control of the car, which stuck a pole.
The suspect then fled from the vehicle, but was located at 6:11 a.m. after officers set up a perimeter and used police canines.
Victoria Hassid of San Francisco has been appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown to be chief deputy director for the California Department of Industrial Relations, where she has served as deputy director of legislation and policy since 2015.
Hassid, 35, also had been that department's special counsel from 2012 to 2015, and as a deputy appointments secretary in Brown's office from 2011 into 2012.
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.
Members dont need to go through any verification process before signing up, but many do seek a verification badge by submitting proof of identification, address and phone number. This, combined with public reviews, helps surfers and hosts build trust with each other. Surfers can gain verification by paying a fee, or by hosting. A member of the Couchsurfing site is rewarded with three months of free verification for hosting another member. Couchsurfers can stay with hosts for as long as hosts allow.
One dish you can expect at Dinosaur in Chicago next winter is his beef brisket sandwich. The brisket was smoked to a texture that slithered in its sliced state, unctuous and smoke kissed, with the requisite crisp and flavor dense bark. As always, it's the unassuming accoutrements that twists this sandwich 90 degrees, in this case, chopped raw onions, jalapenos, and a perfectly balanced tomato-mustard-vinegar sauce that evened out the savory, sweet and tang. It tasted, strangely enough, like a sandwich you might find at Katz's Delicatessen on Manhattan's Lower East Side, only with barbecue sauce. So that's in our future.
Albarino. Rias Baixas, in coastal northwestern Spain, and its signature grape, albarino, is one of oysters best companions when a platter of raw oysters is presented in front of you. Look for both the grape name and the place on the label. These dry, medium-bodied wines are fresh and abundantly fragrant, offering floral notes and lemony citrus, plus everything from apple and pear to tropical fruit, salinity, nuts and sometimes even a touch of bitterness. This is wine that is made for oysters, and when you look at a map and see the region reaching out into the sea, you will know why.
One reason sourdough may intimidate people is because the starter is a living thing that requires food and occasional attention. But keeping a starter is easy, and you're likely to develop affectionate feelings for it. Your starter will probably include instructions on its care, but they are essentially all the same: Once a week, at minimum, remove (and use, discard or share with a friend) half of the starter. Stir into the remainder a cup of all-purpose flour and a cup of water. Let it stand, lightly covered, at room temperature until it's bubbly and smells deliciously yeasty, then refrigerate if you're not planning to use it right away.
After graduating, Vesely enrolled at University of Iowa, took some film classes there and realized, This is what I like to do. I need to give it a try or Ill be denying myself my truth. So he moved to Chicago, enrolled at Columbia Colleges film school and after he and Alvarado began working on some music videos with local artists he eventually connected with Kids These Days, an upstart band that included the rapper Vic Mensa and musician Nico Segal. He joined them on a Canadian tour, and instantly I felt like I was really part of something, Vesely recalls. In late 2012, Vesely, with Alvarado's assistance (I was always building rigs and making DIY lights and just weird stuff, Alvarado recalls with a laugh) directed the video for the Mensa and Segal song Clear Eyes," the final scene of which was shot at Alvarado's house. It was there the fledgling director met Chance, convinced the raw-but-talented rapper to let him direct his video for the 10 Day track F--- You Tahm Bout, and their creative partnership was born. (Chance was unavailable for comment).
I ask Bannon if hes on board with his former boss characterization of the media as the enemy of the people. I think I think when you see the media doing an all-out onslaught against this guy, day in and day out, from his perspective its justified to say theyre the enemy of the people. You have to put yourself in his position. Its unprecedented in American history. Its coming from the media and its backed by the establishment. We saw this, we just went through this, during the High Holy Days of John McCain last week. That was just an outright whether you hate Trump or not whether you detest him, and you think hes bad and everything. you cant not invite the president of the United States.
The Cadillac Palace Theatre is soon busy with the pre-Broadway tryout for Tootsie, the new Broadway musical based on the 1982 comedy film about an out-of-work actor who decides to expand his repertoire. Well have more to tell you about that show in the coming days, but heres your early warning to snag tickets if you like to see shows before anyone else and then debate their prospects for Broadway. Tootsie is the third tryout in quick succession here. Pretty Woman did not get good reviews for its New York opening in August, but it is breaking box-office records each week at the Nederlander Theatre, which is not a surprise to me. The Cher Show is doing some major surgery and planning to open later this fall in New York. At this juncture, there are no more major Broadway tryouts announced for Chicago, although the Paramount Theatre in Aurora will stage August Rush in 2019.
"This false and fraudulent portrayal and mocking of Judge Moore as a sex offender, on national and international television, which was widely broadcast in this district on national television and worldwide, has severely harmed Judge Moore's reputation and caused him, Mrs. Moore, and his entire family severe emotional distress, as well as caused and will cause Plaintiffs financial damage," the lawsuit states.
Around 1 p.m. Wednesday, the New York Times published an anonymous op-ed penned by a "senior official" in the Trump Administration. Minutes later, the world attempted to determine who the unnamed writer could be.
The anonymous individual claimed "many of the senior officials" in the administration are "working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations." The "root of the problem," the writer said, "is the president's amorality."
FULL STORY: Anonymous official cites Trump 'amorality' in NY Times op-ed
"Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making," the writer continued.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders called the author a "coward" who should "do the right thing and resign."
Sanders said the writer had chosen to "deceive, rather than support, the duly elected President of the United States."
Read the full White House statement here.
It is incredibly rare for the Times, or any reputable newspaper, to publish anonymous op-eds.
Social media users rose to the challenge of determining the identity of the so-called "senior official," with many questioning what such a title entails in the first place (cabinet member? adviser?)
Some think the clues are in the text itself.
Use of the uncommon word "lodestar" points to Vice President Mike Pence, or one of his speechwriters, one man surmised. References to economic policies indicates Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin, guessed another.
"I think Jarvanka (Jared and Ivanka Trump) are trying to speed this nightmare to it's eventual conclusion," wrote Diana Isabella. "They have an exit plan in place."
ALSO READ: Five takeaways from the Brett Kavanaugh hearings so far
Even former Trump advisor Omarosa Manigault weighed in on the story, claiming she "gave clues" to the identity of the writer on page 330 of her recently published book about the administration, "Unhinged." She included the hashtag #SilentArmy in the tweet.
"Sooner or later we are gonna find out who the anonymous NYT op-ed writer is," tweeted Karen Attiah. "He/she will [be] hailed as a hero. Will get a book deal. Cable TV gigs. Harvard fellowships."
"The predictable rewards for having your Trump cake and eating it too."
See some of Twitter users' guesses of the anonymous writer's identity in the above gallery. Have a guess of your own? Let us know in the comments.
Read Michelle Robertson's latest stories and send her news tips at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com.
Start receiving breaking news emails on wildfires, civil emergencies, riots, national breaking news, Amber Alerts, weather emergencies, and other critical events with the SFGATE breaking news email. Click here to make sure you get the news.
Peter Berkowitz could afford to pay more in rent. He's a successful illustrator who has been busy with freelance work ever since one of his cartoons made it into the New Yorker.
The thing is that the 25-year-old doesn't want to pour all of his money into high-priced San Francisco rentand so he's living in a plywood box parked in his friend's living room for $400 a month.
This is an unbelievable bargain in a city where the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is currently $3,590, according to Zumper.
Berkowitz moved into his box about three weeks ago. He built the structure with friends and the highest quality plywood he could find at Home Depot. The result is a simple box that's eight-feet long, four-and-a-half-feet tall and wide enough to accommodate a twin mattress. The box has a door, windows and a skylight. A desk folds down from the wall and over his lap when he wants to work on his illustrations in bed. Behind the headboard of his bed, there's space for his clothes, which are few. He says he owns only five pairs of pants and three pairs of shoes.
So far, he's finding the accommodations comfortable and says the only thing he'd do differently if he were to rebuild is make the box taller.
"It fits all my needs where I have a private, sound-proof place where I can keep my belongings," Berkowitz said. "I'm saving thousands of dollars a year. It's a solution that works for me. I don't want to spend so much money on rent."
RELATED: Engineer lived in moving truck in Google parking lot
Berkowitz was originally looking for a two-bedroom apartment with a friend. "It only took us a quick visit at Craigslist to realize that it was too expensive," he said.
He got the idea to build a structure that could be moved into an apartment with extra space and started emailing people on Craigslist, but nobody jumped on the opportunity. And then Berkowitz mentioned his plan to a friend living in a three-bedroom apartment with four other roommates and a spacious living room. "He was excited," Berkowitz said. And the other roommates like the idea because they are all now paying less rent."
Berkowitz doesn't think his situation is extreme. "I'm very happy living in this," he said. "I feel like what I'm doing is presented as this extreme action. I'm trying to do something less extreme. The people who are in really extreme situations are living on couches or in partitions."
He added, "I've made something beautiful that's a pleasant and serene space to live in. It hasn't changed my life that much. It's very much a comfortable bedroom. In my pod I don't have any roommates. When I had a regular bedroom, I'd spend most of my time on my bed anyway. I have a full apartment I have access to. If I'm going to be reading or doing illustrations, I might come into here to focus."
Paul Holes, the investigator who worked on the infamous Golden State Killer case, knows a thing or two about forensic criminology.
Now, after signing a deal with television network Oxygen, he'll bring his expertise to the small screen.
In 2017, Oxygen rebranded itself to focus on true crime programming, and on Wednesday network execs announced that Holes would be working with them to present such content.
"(Holes') story is of the highest stakes, a career journey with brilliant investigation work that resulted in justice for dozens of victims and their families," said Rod Aissa, Oxygen's executive vice president of original programming and development, in a statement. "He's deservedly become a true crime icon among fans of the genre and we're excited to develop future projects with him."
Aissa added that Holes "embodies what Oxygen is all about."
RELATED: New murder charge for Golden State Killer suspect tied to Visalia Ransacker
Holes was employed as a cold case investigator with the Contra Costa district attorney's office. Even after retiring, he continued to work on the Golden State Killer case until police arrested 72-year-old ex-police officer Joseph James DeAngelo in Sacramento last April.
DeAngelo was charged with 13 counts of murder with special circumstances, and 13 charges of kidnapping to commit robbery, with sentencing enhancements for using knives and firearms during those crimes.
RELATED: Investigator reveals eerie detail from search of Golden State Killer suspect's home
In the same statement, Holes said that since he's now retired, he is "looking forward to this next chapter of my career where I can help shine a light on cases that deserve national exposure."
Oxygen previously aired a two-hour special about the Golden State Killer which featured Holes. It aired on the network last month.
Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.
Love concerts, movies and the Bay's nightlife scene? Stay up to date with Datebook's newsletter covering entertainment news and events in the Bay Area, coming soon. To sign up, head here, enter your email at the top, and check the box marked "Datebook."
Biographer and historian Ron Chernow will receive the Tribunes Literary Award for lifetime achievement. Chernow, whose in-depth biographies are known for humanizing men who played instrumental roles in the development of the United States, is the author of six best-selling books, including his latest, Grant. One of them, Alexander Hamilton, was adapted into Lin-Manuel Mirandas Tony Award-winning Broadway production, Hamilton. Chernow will appear at 11 a.m., Oct. 27, at Symphony Center, in conversation with Tribune Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Bruce Dold.
LONDON Britain deepened its diplomatic feud with Moscow on Wednesday, charging two men it says are Russian military intelligence officers with the nerve-agent poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a double agent who betrayed the service by spying for the West.
But British authorities acknowledged there was little chance Russia would hand over the suspects, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, to face justice in Britain.
Prime Minister Theresa May said the use of a chemical weapon in the city of Salisbury, which left a British woman dead and four people, including Skripal and his daughter, seriously ill, was carried out by officers of the GRU intelligence service and almost certainly approved at a senior level of the Russian state.
This was not a rogue operation, she told lawmakers after police released photos of the suspects as they traveled through London and Salisbury before flying back to Moscow from Heathrow Airport on the evening of March 4, hours after the Skripals were poisoned.
Moscow strongly denies involvement in the attack, and Russian officials said they did not recognize the suspects.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the names and images of Petrov and Boshirov say nothing to us.
British prosecutors said the two were being charged in absentia with conspiracy to murder, attempted murder and use of the nerve agent Novichok.
Sue Hemming of the Crown Prosecution Service said Britain wouldnt ask Moscow to hand the men over because Russian law forbids extradition of its citizens. Britain has obtained domestic and European arrest warrants for the suspects, meaning they can be detained if they leave Russia for another European country.
Neil Basu, Britains top police counterterrorism officer, conceded it was very, very unlikely police would be in a position to arrest them any time soon.
But, he said, we will never give up.
Sergei Skripal, 67, is a former colonel in the GRU who was convicted in 2006 of spying for Britain and imprisoned. He was freed in a 2010 spy swap and settled in the United Kingdom.
Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury, 90 miles southwest of London, on March 4. They spent weeks hospitalized in critical condition and are now recovering in a secret location for their own protection.
Jill Lawless is an Associated Press writer.
WASHINGTON Two months ago, the long-awaited release of the Trump administrations ambitious plan for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, what the president has called the ultimate deal, seemed imminent.
President Trumps two top envoys to the peace process Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and adviser, and Jason Greenblatt, a former senior Trump Organization lawyer had prepared and begun to circulate a 40-page draft.
But the proposal hit a wall when Gulf Arab states, who have courted and been courted by Trump, flatly rejected terms they saw as radical, pro-Israel and out of line with traditional U.S. policy and international law, according to officials familiar with the peace-seeking process.
Jordan and Egypt, who had similarly promising beginnings with Trump, also scotched the terms.
Failing to gain the support they expected, Kushner and Greenblatt who both have backed right-wing Israeli causes such as the expansion of Jewish settlements in land claimed by the Palestinians have moved to punish the Palestinians.
The Palestinian leadership has refused to talk to the U.S. team since Trump decided in December to formally recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital, upending decades of U.S. policy because the holy city is also claimed by the Palestinians.
Since then, the Trump administration has imposed new hardships on the Palestinians in an effort so far unsuccessful to bring them back to the negotiating table.
In the most recent example, the State Department announced Friday that the United States will no longer contribute to the U.N. relief agency for Palestinian refugees, calling the agency an irredeemably flawed operation. It criticized other countries for not doing more to help the Palestinians.
Until the Palestinians stop bashing the United States and agree to return to negotiations, they can expect to lose U.S. aid, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said last week at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a conservative think tank in Washington.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration slashed its contribution to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which provides schools, medical care and other assistance to 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Jordan.
Kushner, 37, has said he was uninterested in the history or background of the generations-old and seemingly intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But diplomats, experts and even the Israeli military caution that siding so heavily with Israel, and taking from Palestinians any hope for eventual independence, could lead to more violence in the region.
Tracy Wilkinson is a Los Angeles Times writer.
NAURU Pacific leaders meeting in Nauru signed a security agreement Wednesday that addresses climate change and crimes such as drug smuggling and illegal fishing that cross borders.
Leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum said they considered climate change their nations biggest security threat, since low-lying Pacific islands would cease to exist as sea levels rise.
The signing of the security declaration, which also addresses cyber-crime and health concerns such as communicable diseases and pandemics, is the centerpiece of the three-day meeting.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern arrived Wednesday to attend an all-day leaders retreat and the signing ceremony. Ardern, 38, in June became just the second elected world leader in modern times to give birth while holding office, after Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto gave birth to daughter Bakhtawar in 1990.
Earlier Wednesday, Pacific fishing and community groups signed an agreement with the European Union to improve sustainable fishing and ocean governance in the region. Under the Pacific-European Union Marine Partnership, the EU will provide $41 million and Sweden will provide $12 million over five years.
Tensions over China and refugees have been running high at the forum after Nauru on Tuesday accused a Chinese official of bullying and temporarily detained a New Zealand journalist.
Nauru President Baron Waqa said a Chinese official had demanded to be heard when other leaders were due to speak, and had been very insolent about it.
Maybe because he was from a big country he wanted to bully us, Waqa said.
Nauru recognizes Taiwan and doesnt have diplomatic relations with China.
Nauru police detained New Zealand journalist Barbara Dreaver for about three hours after she was spotted interviewing a refugee outside a restaurant. Nauru has been eager to limit discussion during the forum of the more than 600 refugees who live on the tiny island under a controversial agreement with Australia.
Nick Perry is an Associated Press writer.
ABC, what are you doing? The network recently announced Colton Underwood is the next "Bachelor" in 2019, and fans are genuinely confused. The 26-year-old was featured on Becca Kufrin's season of "The Bachelorette" and also appeared on the spin-off "Bachelor in Paradise." After Kufrin's season came to an end, fans deliberated on Twitter about who should snag "The Bachelor" spot, and it wasn't Underwood. Did ABC make a mistake?
PERSPECTIVES
Many fans wanted Justin Tartick or Blake Horstmann from season 14 of "The Bachelorette" to have a chance at finding love. They argue the men are incredibly charming and good contenders for the show, but the network has other plans. Fans of the franchise took to Twitter to let ABC know how they really feel.
Youre telling me we could have had-
1. Wills: the swaggiest/best dressed Bachelor
2. Jason: the most well-rounded, emotionally intelligent Bachelor
3. Blake: the sweetest/most open Bachelor
... but somehow we settled on the boring guy that dumped Tia twice? #TheBachelor pic.twitter.com/rdRbQ5moDv Katie Drennen (@thekatiedrennen) September 4, 2018
ABC: who do you want to be the next bachelor?
us: JASON! BLAKE! JOE!
ABC: guess whos back! Colton!
us:#TheBachelor pic.twitter.com/kAqwzfmeDc Aly Barnaba (@alybarnaba) September 4, 2018
Underwood stopped by "Good Morning America," to discuss the news. He told host Michael Strahan that he hopes to find love. He also hopes there is an engagement in the end.
PLEASE TELL ME WHY everyone is upset that Colton is the new bachelor? He respects women, has a charity that helps kids, and loves dogs. What more could you want?? #TheBachelor A (@ambergallo) September 4, 2018
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.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- New York City public schools started on Wednesday, with tens of thousands of Staten Island students heading back to class for the 2018-2019 school year -- bringing more traffic to an already hectic commute that involves navigating a new express bus plan for some.
"It's going to be chaotic," said Carmen Batista of Graniteville. "I'm tracking [the bus] online, and there's a lot of congestion."
While some hotspots like Hylan Boulevard and New Dorp Lane experienced surprisingly small amounts of traffic, other areas like Forest and Richmond avenues saw some serious delays.
Express bus riders were also inconvenienced by scarce parking available around various bus stops and the borough's major transit hubs.
Packed Park-and-Rides
Many of Staten Island Park-and-Ride locations, such as the Eltingville Transit Center and Staten Island Mall lot, have seen increased usage since the MTA implemented the new express bus network.
The issue was exacerbated by additional commuters this morning, requiring the NYCT Buses Twitter account to announce that the two lots were at or near capacity by 7:23 a.m.
The Eltingville and Staten Island Mall park and rides are at or near capacity. Consider traveling to the Father Capodanno Park and Ride, where non-stop SIM5x and SIM6x express bus service to Manhattan is available. NYCT Buses (@NYCTBus) September 5, 2018
The capacity issues at the Eltingville Transit Center continue to persist, despite the New York State Department of Transportation reconfiguring the lot over the weekend to include an additional 36 parking spots.
Issues at the Staten Island Mall Park-and-Ride were made worse by the return to classes, with numerous parents and teachers from the nearby schools seen using the lot.
Forest Avenue - Richmond Avenue
Traffic near P.S. 22 in Graniteville was a mess this morning, with both express and local buses using the stop near Forest and Richmond avenues.
When asked if back-to-school traffic would affect her commute, Lorraine Griffin of Elm Park said: "Yes, because even before the changes with the buses, it was like that. Once the kids go back to school, traffic gets congested. There's more people, and more traffic. We'll see how today goes."
Express buses coming down Forest Avenue next to the school that were trying to make the right turn onto Richmond Avenue were stuck for about three light changes at a time before being able to turn.
One express bus was seen waiting for 10 minutes behind a line of school buses and parents waiting to make a right turn toward PS 22. The bus eventually elected to pass in the left lane without stopping to pick up passengers.
"It's a little bit of a bummer, so I'll come here tomorrow morning earlier. You have to expect it. Definitely today, it's going to longer [of a commute], and I already contacted my boss," said John Smith of Graniteville.
Other congested areas
Commuters also noted increased levels of traffic in other areas across the borough, such as Manor Road, Castleton Avenue and Huguenot Avenue.
"Manor Road near Wagner is a mess with traffic," commented Kris Wonica on Facebook.
"Rockland to Manor (Susan Wagner) was a complete parking lot all the way to Richmondtown and Tysens," added Elene Pachkov.
"The traffic by I.S.61 was insane. I had to get out of the car and walk," commented Sharna Bailey-Walker.
"Traffic was crazy bad heading towards Tottenville High School on Huguenot. Took 20 minutes to go eight blocks," commented Sharyn Bass.
Hylan Boulevard - New Dorp Lane
Surprisingly, traffic along Hylan Boulevard, near New Dorp Lane, was less than expected this morning, with cars and buses flowing freely along the often congested corridor.
Despite the low traffic on Wednesday, commuters said that they still prefer to avoid Hylan Boulevard whenever possible, especially with school back in session.
"I can take the SIM1 or the SIM5, but I prefer the SIM5 because it turns off Hylan and takes Father Capodanno. The traffic on Hylan can get bumper-to-bumper, especially with school starting again," said Meg Caccavale of New Dorp.
PS 30
Conditions were also surprisingly calm at PS 30 in Westerleigh, where an ongoing sewer project was expected to exacerbate drop-off and dismissal traffic along the narrow, nearby streets.
Gina DeSantis, mother of second-grader Sienna Orlando, said that while commuting on the first day of school is usually a headache, the recent construction in the area wasn't much of a factor.
"Traffic wasn't much worse than it usually is. We didn't have a problem getting here today," DeSantis said.
Hylan Boulevard - Tysens Lane
While not causing extensive delays, problems have persisted at the new Hylan Boulevard and Tysens Lane express bus stop.
The placement of the bus stop, just a few feet after the traffic light, has resulted in a congested right lane and a regularly-blocked intersection.
During Wednesday morning's commute, five express buses arrived at the same time -- around 7:25 a.m.
Two buses fit at the new stop. One bus blocked the intersection. And the other two were stuck behind the green light due to the backup.
With no overhead shelter at the new Tysens Lane stop, and a recently constructed double shelter at the no-longer-used Cannon Boulevard stop, some commuters have questioned the MTA's decision to choose Tysens Lane for the stop.
Issues in the area could get even worse in coming days, with the nearby St. Charles School beginning classes on Thursday.
Send us your stories
It appears that the severity of back-to-school traffic differed based on when and where you were traveling, so we want to hear from you.
Did you get stuck behind a school bus on your way to work? Were driving lanes blocked by double-parked parents? Did you see longer lines at your express bus stop? Did traffic reach a standstill on the major highways?
Whatever your back to school traffic story entails, leave it in the comments section below or email it to Staten Island Advance transportation reporter Erik Bascome at tbascome@siadvance.com.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Statistically speaking, crime is down 7 percent on Staten Island.
What the numbers don't show is the bravery and grit of NYPD officers who clock in day and night, not knowing the dangers that await them.
More than a dozen NYPD and New York State court officers were recognized Wednesday at the "Cop of the Month" awards ceremony, hosted quarterly by the Staten Island Advance and the NYPD's Patrol Borough Staten Island.
STARTLING GUN ENCOUNTER
When officers responded in April to a report of shots fired at the Stapleton Houses, they crossed paths with an armed man who matched the description.
After spotting a handgun within reach of the suspect, they ordered him to raise his arms. He refused at first, staring blankly ahead. Then, as he began to comply, officer William Dawson kicked the gun as the man was placed in custody.
Officers Dawson, Michael Gheller, Melinda Andrade and Anthony Catania were recognized for their police work.
"It's reaction, it's experience, and it's also (their) respect for life and their training as police officers," said Deputy Inspector Isa Abbassi, commanding officer of the 120th Precinct.
Body camera footage of the incident was released by the NYPD in the days that followed. The video shows officers with guns drawn, as Gheller yells to kick the gun. In addition to their training, Dawson said he shares a bond with the officers that dates back to their time in the academy.
"There was no real need to discharge our weapons," said Dawson. "As soon as he put his hands up, we were all on the same page."
Police charged 29-year-old Marcus Washington with multiple felony gun-related charges. He's due back in state Supreme Court on Sept. 24, according to court records.
'ONE-WOMAN CRIME WAVE'
Sometimes it takes one suspect to wreak havoc on a community, said NYPD Assistant Chief Kenneth Corey, moments before delivering awards to officers with the 122nd Precinct.
In May, officers Corinne Mueller and Red Leber received a report of a woman allegedly trying to break in to multiple cars in the Eltingville area. When they arrived, they spoke with witnesses who reported a woman hiding in bushes on Macon Avenue.
As the investigation progressed, the woman was charged with multiple thefts in the area based in part on surveillance images, police said.
"This is the type of arrest that's responsible for the big decreases in crime that we've seen," said Corey, who was appointed borough commander of Staten Island in January. "This woman was a one-person crime wave."
PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE
A career burglar on Staten Island now faces a new set of charges, following the patience and stealth of officers with the 122nd Precinct's anti-crime unit.
After reviewing surveillance footage of past incidents, officers Christopher McKenna and Aldo Yubini spotted the driver of a red Hyundai Elantra who matched the description of a known burglar in the area.
Robert Lopresti, of Dongan Hills, was charged with multiple counts of burglary and attempted burglary in connection with alleged break-ins at Staten Island businesses.
In the early morning hours of June 1, officers tailed Lopresti in an unmarked car to the Burger King on Hylan Boulevard in Dongan Hills. McKenna said he hid behind bushes and waited for about 30 minutes, wondering if the suspect was having second thoughts.
Then, they heard the suspect's car door closed, as he approached the rear entrance of the fast-food restaurant.
"I was watching him trying to break in from about 25-feet-away," said McKenna.
Lopresti, 52, pleaded not guilty to the charges and is due back in court Sept. 10, according to court records.
CHAOS AT THE COURTHOUSE
When a fist fight turned deadly two months ago in St. George, court officers stepped out of their jurisdiction and into the chaos.
What officials believe started as a gang-related altercation between two crews quickly escalated as a group of men allegedly carjacked a van and plowed in to a 26-year-old man. The victim reportedly had fired a shot toward the van.
In addition to the NYPD "Cop of the Month" winners from April, May and June, the Police Department also recognized the New York State court officers who chased after the van on foot and made multiple arrests in that incident.
"You didn't know what you were up against when you went after them but you went after them anyway," said Corey.
Honored Wednesday were Major Paul Arcati, Sergeants Leonard Donohue, Christopher Melfi and Kevin Sullivan, along with officers Michael Bisceglie, Mauro Maratea, Daniel Cecero, Daniel Bossert, Raymond Thaisz and Peter Desanti.
Police charged Prince Edmonds, 19, of New Brighton as the alleged driver. He faces charges that include second-degree murder and manslaughter, and is due back in court Sept. 26.
Flint was left to largely fend for itself after GM closed shop, Clark notes. There was no bailout of the kind politicians gave the auto industry and Wall Street banks during the Great Recession. Instead, Flint got a state-appointed emergency manager whose mission was to cut costs in a majority black city that had rapidly deteriorated as its white suburbs grew larger and wealthier. In 2014, leaders announced they could squeeze savings by switching Flints source of drinking water from Detroit to a new authority that would draw directly from Lake Huron. Though nearly 80 percent of people working in Flint earn less than $40,000 a year, Clark notes, they pay some of the nations highest rates for water while living in the only state completely surrounded by the Great Lakes, the worlds largest source of fresh surface water. Expensive water was a direct result of Flints shrinking population after GM shuttered many of its local auto plants, which also depleted the citys tax base and its ability to make desperately needed repairs to its crumbling infrastructure. The city was broke. But (r)ather than borrowing to invest in schools or public safety, Clark writes, Flint ended up paying for a pipeline that literally paralleled the one that already existed.
CITY HALL -- The city is willing to dish out more money on the Island's controversial deer vasectomy program to get the results it wants, despite the program running more than $800,000 over budget, Mayor de Blasio said Tuesday.
"We'll stick with it," the mayor said. "I can't put an exact dollar figure to it because we have to see what happens. But at this point, we have no plans to change the approach and if it costs more than originally projected, I'm sorry about that, but sometimes that does happen in life. The bottom line is, as a strategy, it is working."
The city contractor performing vasectomies on the Island's herd, White Buffalo, began its third, and what is supposed to be the final year of the program, at the end of July.
White Buffalo was not supposed to exceed the $3.3 million contract it was awarded by the city over the three-year research study.
But the contractor blew through the $3.3 million contract after the second year of the program, mostly because it realized there were more deer on Staten Island than originally anticipated.
Program costs have soared to more than $4.1 million in just three years, racking up over $800,000 in additional costs.
COSTS COULD GO HIGHER
The city's Parks Department said additional maintenance on the Island's herd will be needed after the three-year research study is over, which means the city will likely be on the hook for more funds after the program wraps up next year.
However, it's unclear how much the city is willing to spend on additional costs, and the mayor did not elaborate on how much more he would want to spend.
For now, the Parks Department told the Advance last week it has not yet requested any additional funding beyond year three, and it is still considering its options, with cost a "critical part" of the consideration.
"We believe it's working, the deer population is going down, we believe there will be a greater decrease soon as a result of this approach," the mayor said. "If it continues to play out the way we hope, you're going to see a greatly reduced deer population ... that's worth a substantial investment."
Year three of the vasectomy program restarted at the end of July. Since that time, Parks said White Buffalo has performed at least 140 vasectomies on the Island's bucks, bringing the total number of vasectomies it has performed to 1,294.
Last year, White Buffalo estimated Staten Island's deer population between 1,918 and 2,188, about four times the city's last count and a 9,000 percent increase in the herd since 2008.
The most recent survey conducted by White Buffalo and verified by the city's Parks Department estimated the borough's deer population in 2017 at 2,053 with a decrease to 1,884 in 2018.
The Parks Department has said the goal of the third year of the program is to sterilize 98 percent of male deer on Staten Island, a target they say they are on track to meet by the end of the third year of the program.
FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- After being given 120 days to get the New York Wheel project back on track, the developers of the 630-foot tourist attraction are asking for an extension.
The NY Wheel was given a Sept. 5 deadline in Delaware Bankruptcy Court to take steps -- such as hiring a new contractor -- toward recommencing construction of the project.
The agreement hashed out in the spring between the Holland-based Mammoet-Starneth -- the Wheel's former contractor -- and the NY Wheel in Delaware Bankruptcy Court allowed both parties to enter a 120-day standstill period.
The agreement is a culmination of more than a year of court battles between the two parties.
In court papers filed on Tuesday, the NY Wheel said it wants to extend the Sept. 5 deadline pursuant to an agreement currently being prepared.
The NY Wheel issued the following statement to the Advance:
"The New York Wheel is in the process of negotiating an amendment to the settlement agreement, including extending the standstill period. In connection with the amendment negotiations, all parties have agreed to extend the Sept. 5, 2018 deadline in the settlement agreement until, at least, Sept. 11, 2018, so that the amendment can be negotiated."
The amendment would extend the standstill period and make some other changes -- which are not specified -- to some previously agreed to terms, according to court papers.
If the NY wheel doesn't file the motion on Friday, then the standstill will expire on Sept. 11, according to court documents.
The NY Wheel wouldn't provide further details of the amendment at this time.
COURT BATTLE
Problems with the NY Wheel began when Mammoet-Starneth walked off the job on May 26, 2017, and filed for bankruptcy in December.
The NY Wheel has been ordered by Delaware Bankruptcy Court to pay nearly $2 million in storage costs, according to court documents.
The payment of the storage costs was ordered by the court after Mammoet-Starneth wanted to auction off the parts of the Wheel as part of its liquidation of assets, according to court records.
Mammoet-Starneth LLC as been given an extension until Nov. 27 to accept the terms of its bankruptcy agreement, which includes severing ties with the Wheel, according public records.
"As part of the settlement, the debtor's [Mammoet-Starneth] exclusive period to file a plan was to be extended through this November 27th date. However, if [the] New York Wheel were to determine to terminate the settlement agreement, it retains the right to seek early termination of the exclusive period," said the NY Wheel in a statement.
FINANCING NEEDED
While the NY Wheel told the Advance $400 million of the $580 million allotted for the project through private investors was already spent when the project was indefinitely delayed in spring 2017, it's unclear how much financing is needed for the project to continue.
Since this is a privately-funded project, the NY Wheel has no obligation to disclose how much financing is needed for the tourist attraction to come to fruition.
In 2015, former NY Wheel CEO Rich Marin told the Advance the project was fueled by $195 million in senior debt from the Highbridge Strategies hedge fund unit of JPMorgan Chase, $111 million in equity, and $174 million from CanAm Enterprises as part of a federal green card program known as EB-5.
CITY TRYING TO HELP?
Although the project is entirely funded by private investors, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a recent town hall meeting that City Hall would get involved to help see a resolution for the embattled New York Wheel.
However, he recently told an Advance reporter that it's the city Economic Development Corporation (EDC) that could help move the project along.
Said EDC: "We are having ongoing conversations with the Wheel developer in the hopes of moving the project forward."
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO THE PROPERTY?
The property on which the Wheel is to be constructed is under the jurisdiction of the EDC.
When asked what would happen to the property if the Wheel is not built, the agency released the following statement:
"We remain hopeful that the developer will find a way to deliver this project for the people of Staten Island and New York City. Should the developer not be able to deliver the project, we would engage local stakeholders and community members to gather their thoughts and vision for the future of the site."
MORE RECENT STORIES ABOUT THE NY WHEEL:
New York Wheel deadline is Wednesday. What happens next?
One NY Wheel investor's reason for pulling money out of the project
50 days into NY Wheel agreement, no word on getting project back on track
Exclusive: NY Wheel gets green light to hire new contractor
New York Wheel stalled for 10 months: How did we get here?
Exclusive: Former NY Wheel CEO Rich Marin now involved with Eye of Texas Wheel
Former contractor pushing to auction $9M NY Wheel legs, other parts
FOLLOW TRACEY PORPORA ON FACEBOOK and TWITTER
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Summer vacation is officially over, as New York City's public school students head back to the classroom on Wednesday.
Catholic school students begin their academic year on Thursday.
To help mark the new school year, we are asking you to send us your back-to-school photos by using the hashtag #SILive with your pictures on Instagram and Twitter. Feel free to post photos in the comments section below, too.
We want to hear from Staten Islanders on the first day of the new academic year!
We'll be covering the first day of school for Staten Island students, so be sure to check SILive.com for stories and photos throughout the day!
To view the public school calendar for the 2018-2019 school year, click here.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
"In the U.S. alone, we have more than 1.2 million people living with blood cancer, and that number is growing. Since our inception, LLS has invested over $1 billion into research," he said. Survivors in the audience were asked to stand and be recognized, and there was a moment of silence to honor those lost, both at sea and to cancer.
Capilano, the nation's largest honey producer, has changed its tune on a testing method that has shown some of its products were impure, and now wants to fund a lab to carry out the tests in Australia.
Fairfax Media and the ABC on Monday revealed that Capilano Honey's Allowrie-branded Mixed Blossom Honey - which is a mix of Australian and Chinese honey - had been deemed "adulterated" in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) tests conducted in a German lab, along with IGA and Aldi's Bramwell's private label honey.
There are claims that honey is being adulterated Credit:Jason South
Adulterated honey is typically bulked up with sweet substances such as rice or corn syrup and is produced mostly in China.
Producers are reportedly finding ways to get past the C4 sugar test Australian regulators use to weed out impure products, prompting the federal Department of Agriculture to consider adopting the NMR test.
If you see someone who looks like they're shoplifting from a Woolworths in Sydney's eastern suburbs anytime soon, think twice before raising the alarm.
The country's largest supermarket chain will start an Australia-first trial of "shop and go" technology at its store in Double Bay on Thursday, allowing customers to scan groceries with their smart phones as they shop and then leave the store without going through a checkout.
Jumping on an emerging trend which some industry watchers say is the future of bricks-and-mortar retailing, Woolworths will invite a few thousand loyalty scheme members who shop in the well-heeled suburb to download its Scan&Go app.
They will be able to use the app to scan barcodes on each item they put in their basket, trolley, or shopping bag, while specially-designed produce scales have been built to scan fresh fruit and vegetables.
Millennials have found another reason to resent cashed-up baby boomers: they're subsidising their health care.
Fed up with paying for insurance that mostly benefits older patients, young Australians are quitting private health cover in droves. For many of them, it's a no-brainer: premiums have soared as much as 70 per cent in the past eight years. The amount of insured people in their mid-to-late twenties alone has dropped 14 per cent in the past three years.
Fed up with paying for insurance that mostly benefits older patients, young Australians are quitting private health cover in droves.
Millennials are switching to public health care -- known as Medicare -- as the system prepares for an onslaught of retirees: around a fifth of Australians will be aged over 65 by 2040. With health costs continuing to rise amid stagnant wages growth, that leaves not only insurers exposed to funding pressures, but the economy as well. As health's burden on the budget grows, the government is hoping that its forecast return to surplus in 2020 won't be a one-off.
"If you've got an increasing proportion of the population reliant on Medicare, in particular younger people, then that obviously puts pressure on the funding," said Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP Capital in Sydney. "That puts pressure on the budget deficit."
Coasts of Dream: A Biography of E.J. Brady
Sarah Mirams
Coasts of Dreams. By Sarah Mirams.
Australian Scholarly Publishing, $39.95
If you're not familiar with the work of Australian poet Edwin Brady, you're not alone. He had some reputation as a composer of sea ballads in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, but confining consideration of him to his literary output would be unfair. He was above all restless, full of wild schemes. He worked as a shipping clerk, a publicist and journalist; he married a number of times, travelled the continent, and published accounts of his wanderings. He was a socialist and bohemian who knew Henry Lawson and many other well-known writers. He settled, more or less, at Mallacoota, where he tried to establish a community farm during the Depression. It failed. Sarah Mirams' biography originated in a doctoral history thesis; it's quite readable and gives the flavour of an Australia nearly unrecognisable, though not long gone.
Across the country, the #MeToo movement, womens marches and the defeat of Hillary Clinton in the presidential election inspired women to run for office in record numbers, while also paving the way for more minority women to step up and seek not only legislative roles, but also executive ones, said Debbie Walsh, director of Rutgers Universitys Center for American Women in Politics.
Freedom in White and Black
Emma Christopher
Freedom in White and Black. By Emma Christopher.
University of Wisconsin Press, $53.95
Two of the central European characters in this "lost story" about the resilience of the victims of illegal African slave trading have Australian connections. Slavers Robert Bostock and his assistant John McQueen were arrested in 1813 by a Royal Navy anti-slavery patrol that raided the compound where slaves awaiting passage were kept. They were tried and convicted in Sierra Leone and transported to New South Wales. The case against them depended largely on the captives found in the compound. Remarkably for the time two Africans, Yarra and Tom Ball, gave statements for the prosecution, and African captives were called upon again when Bostock returned to Britain to appeal his conviction. Emma Christopher's meticulous account of the incident and its far-reaching ripples, based on court documents, is enlivened by her intelligent reading between the lines, into the historical silence.
Hearts Beat Loud
Rated PG, 97 minutes
Cinemas nationally Every American director knows the small independent, high-quality film is dead everyone except Brett Haley. Somehow, he keeps making them. Nick Offerman and Kiersley Clemons in Hearts Beat Loud. A few others labour heroically against the odds, waiting for the day Variety announces the end of the superhero trend and the second coming of the indie sector. They huddle together in caves in the Rockies, watching a flickering fire, telling each other "It could happen" In the 1980s and the decades either side, it seemed these kinds of films would always be there. It wasn't just studio greed that killed them. That was bad enough but hardly new. It wasn't just the rise of video games or the internet, or the demise of DVDs, or the rebirth of quality American television.
It was all of them together, like a set of monster waves crashing on the indie shore, as the kids took over the sandpit and the adults retreated to the classics channel. Into the wreckage comes Haley, raised in Florida, who didn't even go to college until 2001. He began making shorts in 2005, and did his first feature in 2010 (The New Year). I'll See You in My Dreams (2015) had Blythe Danner and Sam Elliott trying for a second chance. Elliott then starred in The Hero (2017), about a washed-up western actor trying to rebuild his life. Nick Offerman co-starred. In Haley's fourth film, Offerman is a man of 50 trying to rediscover his mojo through music. There are at least two patterns emerging there re-use of actors and the theme of second chances. The new film is as languid as life itself. Haley embraces lack of pace. Frank Fisher (Offerman) decides to close down his vinyl record shop in Brooklyn after 17 years. His daughter Sam (Kiersey Clemons) is about to go west to study medicine. He'd prefer she developed the musical talent bestowed on her by her late mother. Toni Collette and Ted Danson provide quality support as Frank's friends. Sasha Lane is the girl Sam falls in love with, at the wrong time.
HEARTS BEAT LOUD
(PG) 97 minutes
General release
Every American director knows the small independent, high-quality film is dead every director except Brett Haley. Somehow, he keeps making them. A few others labour heroically against the odds, waiting for the day when Variety announces the end of the superhero trend and the second coming of the indie sector. They huddle together in caves in the Rockies, watching a flickering fire, telling each other "It could happen".
In the 1980s and the decades either side, it seemed these kinds of films would always be there. It wasnt just studio greed that killed them. That was bad enough but hardly new. It wasnt just the rise of video games or the internet, or the demise of DVDs, or the rebirth of quality American television. It was all of them together, like a set of monster waves crashing on the indie shore, as the kids took over the sandpit and the adults retreated to the classics channel.
Into the wreckage comes Haley, raised in Florida, who didnt even go to college until 2001. He began making shorts in 2005, and did his first feature in 2010 (The New Year). Ill See You in My Dreams (2015) had Blythe Danner and Sam Elliott trying for a second chance. Elliott then starred in The Hero (2017), about a washed-up western actor trying to rebuild his life. Nick Offerman co-starred. In Haleys fourth film, Offerman is a man of 50 trying to rediscover his mojo through music. There are at least two patterns emerging reuse of actors and the theme of second chances.
The new film is as languid as life itself. Haley embraces lack of pace. Frank Fisher (Offerman) decides to close down his vinyl record shop in Brooklyn after 17 years. His daughter Sam (Kiersey Clemons) is about to go west to study medicine. Hed prefer she developed the musical talent bestowed on her by her late mother. Toni Collette and Ted Danson provide quality support as Franks friends. Sasha Lane is the girl Sam falls in love with, at the wrong time.
Clickbait has been around since before the internet knew about cats, and celebrities are always an easy way to draw people in.
Jennifer Anistons never-ending never-appearing pregnancy, Taylor Swifts utterly unremarkable romantic adventures, Kim Kardashians anything: they all send our clicks slithering through to websites selling hatewear for women.
Everything this says about the double-handed grip of capitalism and the patriarchy dictating envy and self-hatred to women has been said many times before, most recently by Jameela Jamil.
But, just when you think it cant possibly get any worse, you discover one more thing you cant unsee.
In a number of letters seen by The Canberra Times, he wrote to heads of ACT Health and ministers about concerns within the urology unit and more broadly between 2014 - when Katy Gallagher was health minister - to as recently as last year when he wrote to Chief Minister Andrew Barr. He said he was threatened with fraud allegations and executives tried to "manage him out" before his contract was ultimately not extended. The urology department lost its teaching accreditation in 2015 due to concerns including bullying and failures in training. I still have doctors and nurses from that hospital telling me they are being bullied or harassed. Dr Mulcahy He said he warned hospital bosses at a number of meetings and through formal letters the department was not training registrars properly and would lose its teaching accreditation.
Dr Mulcahy alleges that junior doctors at Canberra Hospital will often be unfairly blamed for mistakes and were not given adequate training or teaching hours. He said young female doctors were especially targeted by administration and a lack of supervision of registrars led to bad outcomes for patients and difficulties in recruitment. "People are being driven out of the system," he said. He said there was no effort made to try to change the culture within the urology department after it was stripped of its teaching accreditation in 2015 by board of urology. Dr Mulcahy said there was also pressure on young doctors to place surgery waiting list patients down as category two when they should actually be category one patients.
"If a nurse complains about something they observe her for two or three weeks then take notes and say she did the wrong thing and create false evidence," he said. "Unfortunately the nurses begin to question their own procedures and feel inadequate and are managed out in that way." Loading At the time Dr Mulcahy's contract ended he said there were long public waiting lists to see a urologist and he saw a large chunk of the ACT's urology patients. He was given five days notice his contract would not be renewed after 24 years continued service.
It's difficult to understand why ACT Health would want to remove a competent urologist with this sort of workload when he is working hard giving a considerable amount of time to the public system," he said. It is unfortunate that after almost 25 years of continuous [visiting medical officer] urological services to the public of Canberra, they chose not to renew my contract primarily because they wish to bully and harass me out of the system so that I will not be attempting to improve the outcome for patients. "I still have doctors and nurses from that hospital telling me they are being bullied or harassed." Data previously obtained by The Canberra Times showed that patients in the ACT can wait up to five years just to see a urologist, before they are even placed on a waiting list. Dr Mulcahy believes administration did not like that he would see a lot of out-patients, which would reduce the waiting list to see a specialist but add to the surgery waiting list times.
He believes the only way people will feel free to speak out is if it is protected under a royal commission-like inquiry, which he had previously called for via letters to administrators and politicians. Now free to complain as he works privately he said he wanted to speak out for the employees of ACT Health currently suffering and to improve patient outcomes. ACT Health did not answer why Dr Mulcahy's contract was not extended in a time of shortages, simply stating it was not extended. The spokeswoman said Dr Mulcahy's letters and complaints were investigated. "ACT Health has a zero tolerance for inappropriate behaviour in the workplace, and there are well established processes in place for staff to raise concerns," she said.
A former Canberra sex worker who saw David Eastman in the hours after Colin Winchester was allegedly murdered told a jury on Wednesday that he had appeared quite normal during their appointment.
The woman said she had heard about the police chief's death on the radio in a taxi, while returning to a Touch of Class from a client in Queanbeyan about 11pm on January 10, 1989.
David Eastman arrives at Albert Hall for the jury empanelment earlier this year. Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong
When she returned to the Fyshwick establishment, she said she saw Mr Eastman, between 11pm and 2.30am.
Prosecutors allege Mr Eastman had shot Mr Winchester twice in the head after he pulled into a neighbour's driveway in Deakin about 9pm on that night.
Cover of Spider Woman April 1978 Credit:Marvel
Marie Severin, a multifaceted comic book artist whose confident hand drew most of the greatest heroes in the Marvel Comics pantheon at a time when women were rare in that field, died on Wednesday at a care facility in Amityville, New York aged 89.
She had had a stroke, said Scott Edelman, a friend and former Marvel colleague who confirmed the death.
Severin was a consummate comic book artist, engaged in most parts of illustrating a comic book, which involves penciling outlines of the characters and scenes, finalising the images in ink and then colouring them in.
She started in the industry in 1949 as a colourist for EC Comics, working with her brother, John Severin, an artist known for his realistic war and western comics. She was one of a handful of female artists who gained prominence during comics so-called Silver Age, from the mid-1950s until the early 70s.
A woman has been rushed to hospital in a critical condition following a collision with a police car in Sydney's south.
Just before midday, the woman's Mercedes and the police car collided at the intersection of Kingsway and Connels Road at Cronulla.
Police car involved in serious crash at Cronulla. Credit:John Veage
The woman, 68, was treated by paramedics at the scene and taken to St George Hospital in a critical condition.
A hospital spokeswoman confirmed a two-year-old boy, who was a passenger in the woman's car, is in a stable condition. An earlier police statement said the child was uninjured.
VTAC has written to all Victorian IB schools advising them of the outcomes of this analysis. Schools publishing any conflated tables have been asked to remove them from their websites. Ms Connelly said VTAC believed the data was published in good faith, and there was no deliberate attempt to misrepresent it. The IB Heads Association of Victoria and Tasmania said it adopted a policy in 2015 that saw scores of 6 or 7 in Standard and Higher level IB subjects ranked as equivalent to a VCE score of 40 or more. "In recent days, member schools have alerted the association that VTAC is uncomfortable with this approach," the association's chairman David Fitzgerald said. "As such, the association will, as a priority, write to member schools advising them that the matter is being reviewed."
Carey reported on its website that when VCE and IB results were combined, 25.8 per cent of study scores were 40 or above. When IB results are excluded, official data from the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority shows that 10.5 per cent of Carey students achieved a study score of 40 or above in the VCE in 2017. The school achieved an average IB score of 36.2, which equates to an ATAR of 94.85. Meanwhile, Wesley stated on its website that 29 per cent of its Year 12 class achieved study scores of 40 or above in 2017 when its IB and VCE results were combined. When IB results are excluded, Wesley achieved 12.1 per cent of study scores of 40 or more at its Melbourne campus and 7.9 per cent at its Glen Waverley campus.
Its IB students achieved a median ATAR of 93.45. Both schools have a large proportion of students who graduate with the IB. Carey principal Philip Grutzner said his school combined its VCE and IB scores to provide the community with information that was unavailable in league tables published in the media. The IB program and its assessment are not widely understood and combining results gives a better indication of how IB study scores fit into our overall Year 12 results, he said. He said the school had published the data in good faith and had removed it following VTAC's request.
Wesley College principal Helen Drennen said her school had published the data to celebrate the achievements of all Year 12 students. "This data is aggregated in good faith to provide a clear and accurate representation of the cohort as a whole," she said. She said the school had removed the information from its website, but had proposed changes to its wording to VTAC. A teacher raised concerns about the conflated data with Carey and Wesley earlier this year before contacting VTAC, the VCAA and Education Minister James Merlino. The man, who did not want to be named, said the schools had presented false information that inflated their results. Parents should have access to accurate information," he said.
Seventeen Victorian schools offer the senior IB qualification. Of these, 15 are non-government schools and two are government. While there is no definitive mapping from individual IB studies to VCE studies, VTAC creates notional ATARs for IB students. Deakin University education lecturer Dr Emma Rowe said schools wanted to communicate with parents in a language they understood. VCE is the dominant language, she said. If you want to put that big heading on your website or the boards in front of your school, you want to put it in the most dominant market speech. She said in a competitive market, schools had to convince parents that it was worth spending money at their school.
Public service union officials have raised concerns about the health and management of immigration employees after the deaths of two workers in recent months.
Reports a WA Australian Border Force worker at Perth Airport had taken his own life earlier this year and the death of a Department of Home Affairs worker who died after a suspected heart attack come as a source described the current immigration workforce as a "pressure cooker".
The woman suffered the heart attack at immigration department accommodation in Poon Saan. Credit:James Brickwood
The source, who did not wish to be named, told Fairfax Media questions needed to be raised about the working culture, and said "immigration officers in WA are dying".
"Staff morale is very low ... they are not allowed to speak out, and after retirement there is no support for mental traumas," the source said.
And the Rahmulans, hoping to hold on to power with Rahm going away, may entice former White House adviser Valerie Jarrett or former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan into the mix. Lead Rahmulan media merlin David Axelrod could tell them what to say. Former President Barack Obama could blow hot breath upon them and make them real.
A woman was dragged to safety by a neighbour after a fire broke out at a house in Perth's southern suburbs on Tuesday evening.
A woman was rushed to hospital with serious burns. Credit:Tex Reeks
The blaze started just after 7pm at a property on Bitton Street in Hamilton Hill and sparked a damage bill of $250,000, 6PR's Chelsie Stone reports.
The woman is being treated for serious burns to her upper body and was rushed to Fiona Stanley Hospital.
The cause of the fire is still unknown but it is not being treated as suspicious.
Former foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop has weighed into the debate about bullying in federal Parliament, saying she has witnessed behaviour in Canberra that would not be "tolerated in any other workplace across Australia".
Ms Bishop's replacement as Liberal deputy leader, Josh Frydenberg, agreed with her remarks.
Ms Bishop described the "embarrassing circus" in federal politics to an Australian Women's Weekly magazine event in Sydney on Wednesday night, saying that, when politicians showed contempt for each other, they were "applauded".
"Politics is robust, the very nature of it, it's not for the faint-hearted," Ms Bishop said.
The Morrison government's decision to back down on raising the pension age to 70 will cost $5 billion over the medium term, as the Coalition scrambles to rid itself of unpopular policies and win over older voters ahead of the next federal election.
The surprise pre-cabinet announcement on morning television comes as Prime Minister Scott Morrison looks to get ahead of a wave of policy leaks that threaten to destabilise his political initiative.
Economists have panned the switch, describing it as a populist decision that is not in Australia's long-term national interest. They have warned it will become exponentially more expensive for a future government as the population ages.
Mr Morrison defended his record on the policy, which includes voting seven times to increase the pension age from 67 to 70 since the move was first announced in Joe Hockey's final budget.
We should not forget all the systemic issues about our political system which were raised during the Liberal leadership scramble. Yet that is the temptation. Short-term thinking takes over from longer-term thinking once business as usual resumes despite the exasperation with the system revealed during that hectic week.
Little systemic change has followed the decade of leadership turmoil with the tightening up of Labors rules surrounding a leadership spill being perhaps the only example. Australian political leaders remain particularly vulnerable compared to comparable Westminster systems, including the UK and Canada. More could be done, including the possibility of a role for ordinary party members in Liberal leadership selection, such as through leadership conventions as happens in Canada.
Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Dutton, Julie Bishop, Scott Morrison and Mathias Cormann. Credit:Fairfax Media
The other bigger issues include the following: Has the time come when liberals and conservatives within the Liberal Party should split to form two parties? Are there endemic dysfunctional cultural issues within both the Liberal and Labor parties? Does the media play a healthy role in its coverage of federal politics? Should something be done to fix s.44 of the Constitution? Does Canberras location itself contribute to leadership instability? Should secret ballots be preserved in leadership contests? Should former PMs stay in Parliament or immediately exit? Should the formal coalition arrangement between the Liberals and Nationals be made public?
Liberals and conservatives will continue to co-exist in the one party. There are some existing alternatives for conservative Liberals on the right, including the Australian Conservatives, but they continue to struggle to grow. But there is no alternative to the immediate left of the Liberals and there is room for a centre party in Australian politics like the former Australian Democrats. That is the space that Nick Xenophons Centre Alliance is seeking to fill.
Bangkok: The Thai police cadet academy's decision to admit only male candidates from next year is "backward", said women's rights advocates, warning that it could discourage reporting of sexual assaults.
The Royal Police Cadet Academy announced this week that it would not admit female candidates from the next academic year. No reason was given in its statement posted online, and a spokesman for the police department declined comment.
Men only: The Thai police academy will stop admitting women. Credit:Kate Geraghty
"This is a very backward move for women's rights and women's safety in Thailand," said Jadet Chaowilai, director of the rights group Women and Men Progressive Movement.
"Fewer cases of domestic violence, harassment and sexual assault may be reported if there are no women police officers, as victims may be embarrassed or reluctant to speak to male officers," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Washington: Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones became a sideshow outside two congressional hearings on Wednesday, insulting Florida Senator Marco Rubio as a "little punk" and heckling a reporter, all while posting the spectacle on Facebook and Twitter.
The Infowars host stormed around Capitol Hill for hours, streaming appearances of himself on Twitter and Facebook outside the hearings where social media executives were testifying.
Jones' bread and butter is shouting over-the-top grievances and conspiracy theories in videos that he shares on social media, radio and his own websites.
Jones, who is angry at the tech companies because they both suspended him temporarily last month, said he was there to "face my accusers".
Washington: US President Donald Trump says he did not discuss assassinating Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, disputing an account in a forthcoming book by journalist Bob Woodward.
Trump, speaking to reporters during a visit with Kuwaiti ruler Sheikh Sabah al- Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, said a possible assassination was "never even discussed".
"That was never even contemplated, nor would it be contemplated," Trump said, calling Woodward's book "fiction".
Trump wanted to have Assad assassinated last year but Defence Secretary James Mattis ignored the request, according to the book Fear: Trump in the White House.
PHILIPSBURG:---The Unified St. Maarten Connection Students Manual: Survival Guide to living in the Netherlands was presented to the Philipsburg Jubilee Librarys Interim Director, Irmin Hughes and Public Relations Officer, Mariland Powell.
The Survival Guide to living in the Netherlands was established in 2016 by the Unified St. Maarten Connection with the primary goals of preparing secondary school students for their tertiary education in the Netherlands, provides information, and knowledge to young professionals recently graduated and ready to enter into the job market in the Netherlands and/ or interested in returning to the islands after completing their journey in the Netherlands.
Unified St. Maarten Connection (USC) is a non-profit foundation founded in the Netherlands in 2012 with the goal of building unity among aspiring students and young professionals from St. Maarten, St. Eustatius, and Saba residing in the Netherlands and on St. Maarten.
The USC manual has been written by a dedicated group of talented, motivated young professionals with experience with living in the Netherlands. The dedicated group found their own unique ways and approaches for a happier student life and successful academic experience in the Netherlands and felt that with this manual that they can further assist potential aspiring students towards a successful experience. Sound advice is provided on critical social issues that better prepares students for their journey to the Netherlands.
In 2018 USC published their fourth version of its Student manual, a guide to moving and living in the Netherlands. This year, the guide included information regarding the process of students returning students to the islands.
The guide is an effective means to assist in the transition from living on St. Maarten to living and settling within the Netherlands, as most students from the Dutch Caribbean face nostalgia and culture differences as they integrate into a new environment.
The sole copy that was given to the Philipsburg Jubilee library will be placed in the archives with viewing possibilities on the premises. Also, Secondary students are encouraged to download the student manual from the USC website: https//bit.ly/USCStudentmanual2018 or visit the Facebook handling app: https://www.facebook.com/UnifiedSXM/
As the library stays abreast of current events on and around our island, promoting literacy, knowledge and reaching students on all educational levels, the USC student manual was gratefully received and is now available to be viewed by the general public at the Philipsburg Jubilee Library.
First Cobalt Acquires 100% Ownership of Iron Creek Project
Posted by Publisher Internet
First Cobalt Corp. (TSX-V: FCC; ASX: FCC; OTCQX: FTSSF) (the ?Company? http://www.commodity-tv.net/c/search_adv/?v=298244) is pleased to announce the acquisition of 100% ownership and elimination of the outstanding royalty on the Iron Creek property in Idaho, USA.
Trent Mell, President & Chief Executive Officer, commented:
?Our outlook for the Iron Creek Project was instrumental in the decision to eliminate the outstanding royalty and acquire 100% ownership of the project at this time. Drilling has identified two broad zones of cobalt-copper mineralization that extend well beyond the historic resource area. The Company is fully funded to complete our work programs in the USA and Canada this year and into 2019. We anticipate releasing preliminary metallurgical work and the maiden resource estimate for Iron Creek in the next few weeks.?
The Iron Creek Project was previously under lease to First Cobalt. Under the terms of the lease, First Cobalt was required to make monthly payments and the leaseholder retained a 4% royalty over future production, both of which could be eliminated through a one-time payment. First Cobalt and the leaseholder agreed to a 47% reduction of this payment to US$1.07 million, which has now been paid in full. As of June 30, 2018, First Cobalt reported a cash balance of $20 million and an additional $2 million in current assets. The Company is fully financed to complete all current work programs including over 30,000m of diamond drilling to further test the cobalt-copper mineralized zones.
Full ownership of the Iron Creek property and elimination of any future royalty payments streamlines future permitting and development activities and accelerates the mine planning process. The Company has begun a consultation process and collecting baseline data for future permitting requirements.
First Cobalt?s Iron Creek property consists of mining patents and exploration claims with significant infrastructure including 600 metres of drifting from three adits and an all-weather road connecting the project to a state highway. Several inferred resource calculations were made in the 1980s and 1990s considering only the No Name Zone, where historic drilling was most dense.
One historic estimate (non-compliant with NI 43-101) by Noranda Inc. reported 1.3 million tons grading 0.59% cobalt and 0.3% copper, using a cutoff grade of 1% copper equivalent. A new NI 43-101-compliant mineral resource estimate calculation is imminent. The Company expects the new resource estimate to realize wider true thickness of mineralization encountered by First Cobalt drilling than previously recognized by the historic calculation. The new resource estimate is expected to include additional lower grade material than the higher grade single zone of mineralization historically recognized. The initial resource estimate will include two zones of mineralization drilled in 2017 and early 2018: the No Name Zone and the Waite Zone (Figure 1).
In June, First Cobalt announced a $9M program intended to accelerate work programs at Iron Creek. Preliminary metallurgical work and the maiden resource estimate are nearing completion and are anticipated in the next few weeks. Throughout July and August, the Company operated three surface drills at Iron Creek (see July 12, 2018 press release) in order to extend the known mineralization along strike and bring a portion of the initial Inferred Mineral Resource estimate into a Measured and Indicated Resource category. This second resource estimate is expected in early 2019 (see June 11, 2018 press release).
The No Name and Waite Zones are roughly parallel and dip roughly 75? to the north, remaining open along strike to the east and west, as well as down dip. To date, the Company has drilled over 520m of mineralization strike length and 250m of dip extension. The No Name Zone and the Waite Zone have true widths between 10m and 30m. Mineralization also occurs between the two zones as 1 to 5m pods. Additional mineralization has been encountered in the hangingwall and footwall of the zones and some holes in the 2018 program are intended to confirm the potential for additional mineralized zones.
Unlike much of the Idaho Cobalt Belt, the Iron Creek Project cobalt mineralization is associated with pyrite rather than minerals containing arsenic. Cobalt-copper mineralization occurs as semi-massive and disseminated pyrite and chalcopyrite along stratabound bands within finely layered meta-sedimentary rocks consisting of interbedded argillite and quartzite. Thin veins of chalcopyrite also cut the bands and meta-sedimentary rocks. Quartzite units make up the hangingwall and footwall to the mineralized meta-sedimentary horizon. This stratigraphic sequence has been mapped at surface and by drilling to extend along strike for at least two kilometres.
Qualified and Competent Person Statement
Dr. Frank Santaguida, P.Geo., is the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 who has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release. Dr. Santaguida is also a Competent Person (as defined in the JORC Code, 2012 edition) who is a practicing member of the Association of Professional Geologists of Ontario (being a ?Recognised Professional Organisation? for the purposes of the ASX Listing Rules). Dr. Santaguida is employed on a full-time basis as Vice President, Exploration for First Cobalt. He has sufficient experience that is relevant to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the JORC Code.
About First Cobalt
As a vertically integrated North American cobalt company, First Cobalt?s strategy is to explore, develop and refine material in North America for sale back into the American battery market. First Cobalt has three significant North American assets: the Iron Creek Project in Idaho, which has a historic mineral resource estimate (non-compliant with NI 43-101); the Canadian Cobalt Camp, with more than 50 past producing mines; and the only permitted cobalt refinery in North America capable of producing battery materials.
On behalf of First Cobalt Corp.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This news release may contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (together, ?forward-looking statements?) within the meaning of applicable securities laws and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements. Generally, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of terminology such as ?plans?, ?expects\-\-, ?estimates?, ?intends?, ?anticipates?, ?believes? or variations of such words, or statements that certain actions, events or results ?may?, ?could?, ?would?, ?might?, ?occur? or ?be achieved?. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results, performance and opportunities to differ materially from those implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements are set forth in the management discussion and analysis and other disclosures of risk factors for First Cobalt, filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although First Cobalt believes that the information and assumptions used in preparing the forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements, which only apply as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed times frames or at all. Except where required by applicable law, First Cobalt disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Historic Estimates
First Cobalt considers the cobalt and copper tonnage and grade estimates above as historical estimates. The historical estimates do not use categories that conform to current CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves as outlined in National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (?NI 43-101?) and have not been redefined to conform to current CIM Definition Standards. They were prepared in the 1980s prior to the adoption and implementation of NI 43-101. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current mineral resources and First Cobalt is not treating the historical estimates as current mineral resources. More work, including, but not limited to, drilling, will be required to conform the estimates to current CIM Definition Standards. Investors are cautioned that the historical estimates do not mean or imply that economic deposits exist on the Iron Creek property. First Cobalt has not undertaken any independent investigation of the historical estimates nor has it independently analyzed the results of the previous exploration work in order to verify the accuracy of the information. First Cobalt believes that the historical estimates are relevant to guide exploration on the Iron Creek property.
Aiphones IX Series IP video intercom system helps Roselle Catholic High School upgrade security
Roselle Catholic High School is a co-ed private high school founded 61 years ago in Roselle, New Jersey. Home to more than 400 students, Roselle Catholic is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark. In its community, Roselle Catholic is known for its core values promoting academic excellence, service, and tolerance. Like many high schools across the country, Roselle Catholic High School relied on outdated technology to communicate between the front office and classrooms. Outdated intercom system While the front office could connect with the classroom through its dated oneway intercom system, teachers could not communicate with the front office from the classroom. In the event of a classroom emergency, such as a student suddenly falling ill or a classroom disruption, teachers had to rely on a student to run down to the front office to request assistance. Our school is in an older building and the original communication system layout doesnt have the talkback option to the main office, said Principal Tom Berrios. That left teachers in a bad spot if they ever had to reach an administrator for an emergency. Lack of visitor management system School administrators sought a new system that could provide communications between teachers and staff The school also lacked a visitor management system allowing the front office to visually confirm and speak with anyone before permitting them to physically enter the building. In addition, with new health and safety concerns from the COVID19 pandemic, the school wanted to implement new measures to help screen visitors before they enter the building. As part of its efforts to improve security facility-wide, school administrators sought a new system that could provide internal communications between teachers and staffwhile sending audio alerts in the event of an emergency. They also needed a visitor management system enabling them to visually confirm and communicate with visitors before they enter the building. IP video intercom system To assist with these challenges, the school installed the IX Series PeertoPeer IP Video Intercom System from Aiphone. Installing the system was Maffeys Security Group, a systems integration company from Elizabeth, New Jersey, with close ties to the high school. Roselle Catholic High School is my alma mater and we try to help them keep uptodate with the latest technology and security, said Ed Maffey, president of Maffeys Security Group, a family-owned and operated business for 110 years. By leveraging a program through the state of New Jersey, the high school was able to apply and receive a grant designed to support security improvements at both public and private schools. The grant was used to help pay for the new Aiphone IX Series PeertoPeer IP Video Intercom System, which included two master stations, two IP video door stations, and 43 IP audio substations for classrooms. The IX Series delivers flexibility The benefit of the IP video intercom system is its ability to integrate with a recently installed thermal imaging camera The IP system is a scalable, enterpriselevel solution that uses Power over Ethernet (PoE), eliminates the need for a power source for each intercom and substation. The system can easily integrate with access control, video, and other security devices to provide a fully unified solution. One main benefit of the IP video intercom system is its ability to integrate with a recently installed thermal imaging camera system, which is being used to screen students, staff, and visitors before the entrance. A thermal imaging camera located at the front entrance will screen people for a mask and elevated temperature, and only allow access if that visitor is cleared. Video-based monitoring system With the new Aiphone IX Series system, front office staff can respond when a visitor rings a bell asking for entrance. Staff can speak to the visitor and also make visual contact before pushing the door release button to allow that person to enter. The school is equipped with two touchscreen master stations, with one located in the front office and the second located in the principals office. The live video also helps to prevent people from following an approved guest through the doors. Trained front desk staff can monitor a visitor as they enter the building to ensure additional people arent following behind. Added benefits with emergency notifications In addition to enabling communication directly from teachers to the front office, they also can put the entire school on a lockdown notice in the event of an emergency. The Aiphone IX Series can send a prerecorded notification buildingwide, alerting students or staff of a problem and providing directions about what steps to take next. With one push of a button, a message will play continuously and that message can be used for a variety of scenarios The system makes the teachers feel more secure with whats going on in the building and they have an easier way to communicate, said Berrios. Maffey called this feature a hot button capability. With one push of a button, a message will play continuously and that prerecorded message can be used for a variety of scenarios, including fire drills, emergency evacuations, and lockdown situations. Entry door security The school is also using the Aiphone IX Series on an entry door located in the back of the building, which is frequently used by students heading outside for athletics or gym class. After school, the intercom system has become an added security feature because we can now visually see the students who need to enter the building and the locker room, said Berrios. Before we had to keep the door propped open or students could not gain access from the back of the building. Leveraging IP connectivity Maffey said the installation was relatively easy because he was able to leverage the schools existing IP network to run the new IPbased video intercom system. Additional switches helped to fill in areas where network connectivity wasnt available. When we install an Aiphone system we can walk away confident that it is going to work, said Maffey. Aiphone has been our goto intercom system for over 20 years.